Tombstone Tuesday - On Thursday - October 29, 2009

Tuesday got away from me so we have Tuesday’s Tombstone …on Thursday this week.

I found some more Metal tombstones last week. They were found at a Transfiguration Catholic Cemetery in Lake County, Illinois. This is the grave of Daniel Whalen. He died November 21, 1855 at the age of 52 years old. I was hoping to find more information about this couple but I do not find anything. I will continue to investigate. The original stone indicated that he was born in Wexford, Ireland in 1803. Many of the people buried in the cemetery are from Ireland. These metal tombstones were not manufactured until the 1870’s so I can assume that his wife, Mary had this monument placed after his death or at the time of her death. She was Mary Wadding who died at age 60 on March 10, 1881. These are such beautiful monuments.

Daniel Whalen orginal tombstone from 1855
 

Daniel Whalen metal monument placed some time later - on the right

The back side of monument has Mary Wadding listed as Daniel's wife.

Where, oh where has Susannah gone?

I have looked for her everywhere. Susannah was born the seventh child and the third daughter of Martin and Polly (Welch) Overly in around 1811. I say that because in Census records I would find a different birth year for each record. So I decided to settle on the year that the Overly / Oberlin researchers show for her birth year. Thankfully, there was extensive Overly / Oberlin research done prior to my family history project. Some time I will do a blog on the Overly Oberlin family and the brothers who arrived here from Germany.

It is believed that Susannah was born in Ohio. She married James Smith in Darke County, Ohio on December 9, 1830. They would remain in Darke County until about 1847. They would leave Ohio heading northwest to Fort Wayne Indiana with several other young adventurous families from Ohio. It is likely that they we in search of land new opportunities. A previous Blog “Branching out from here…” cover the move to Fort Wayne with the other Ohio Families.

James Smith and several of the Smith children are buried in the Cemetery at Nine Mile Indiana. Susannah’s name is listed on the tombstone but there is no record of her death or burial with the cemetery. I just can not find her. She is listed in the 1870 census and she is living with several of her children with others living near by. By the 1880 census, she is no where to be found.

So I decided to search for her daughters and there families in hopes of finding her living with them. Up to this point I had not found many of the daughters because Susannah had mislead me to believe that the daughters’ were still living at home in 1860. The first daughter I found was Mary Ann. She had married Jonathan Kimble on October 20, 1853 according to the marriage records for Allen County Indiana. Mary Ann and her family would settle near Camp Charlotte, in Pickaway County Ohio by the 1860 census. She has had four children by 1860. Listed in the Federal Census are the following children; Jacob (1854), Susannah (1855), James (1858) and Mary Ann born in 1859. Also listed with them is Amos Kimble (age 20) and Margaret Waters (age 16). By the 1870 Census, Jonathan Kimble and his new wife Sarah Jane (Maples) Kimble are living next to the newly widowed Susannah Smith with one son, James Kimble. By 1880, Susannah is gone and so is Jonathan Kimble. I do find Smith children who are in the area. I would assume that if Susannah were still alive she would be living with one of them.

Mary Ann, the first wife of Jonathan, is one of the Smith children buried at Nine Mile, Indiana with her dad. She died in 1863 five years before James. Mary Ann and her daughter, Susannah are buried together. Mary Ann’s daughter is named after her Grandmother. Jacob and Mary Ann Kimble, children of Jonathan and Mary Ann seemed to have died prior to the death of their mother but so far I am unable to find them also. I keep looking for them in Ohio.

And I keep looking for Susannah. I looked to see if she remarried. I looked for her with her children. I looked for her in Indiana and in Ohio. I looked for her with Overlys', with Kimbles’ and with Smiths’. I keep the search going because I know that she is patiently waiting for me to find her. I am certain that she is giving me clues that I have just not found yet. She remains a "needle in my haystack".

A family historian’s gold mine……..

As I left the restroom of the Nine Mile United Methodist church it took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I could see the light from the stairway, leading to the exit I would use, but in the shadow to the right of the exit way I could see something else. Something hanging on the wall it seemed. As I got closer, I could see that a beautiful blend of fabrics were used to create a wonderful hand made quilt. I was simply astonished to find it here of all places. I just had to find the light so I could get a closer look.

My father had encouraged me to learn to sew when I was a child. He had 6 kids and it was not easy to keep us in clothes especially the 4 girls! So he promised us that he would provide us with fabric if we learned how to sew. And we did, all of us. The sewing machine was rarely quiet.  And he kept his promise and kept us in fabric until the day he died.  In recent years I had started to quilt so to find this quilt made me really get excited.

I felt my way around the room until I found a switch and I flipped it on. Turning to look at the quilt, I was truly amazing. Chills ran up and down my spine and the hair stood on the back of my neck as I moved closer to the quilt so I could get a better look at it. It was just a few years shy of 100 years old and in very good condition considering its age. It is a Crazy Quilt pattern made by the Ladies Aid society in 1906.

Suddenly I realized that this might be the most important clue that I could have found today. The most amazing thing is that each piece of fabric had a church member’s name embroidered on it. “Could this tell me if I had family members here?” I thought. I could barely contain myself. I really need to get back on the road toward Chicago but some how I had to capture these names, just in case there was a Smith on it! I grabbed my camera and started to snap pictures.

I very carefully zoomed in and photographed each block starting at the top row and worked my way from left to right. Twenty blocks later I reluctantly had to leave but I knew that I would be back, I just knew it!

I was so excited on my drive home. I thought I would never get there all I could think about was the names on the quilt. How many were there? How are they related to me if at all? As I drive and sorted this out in my head I decided, even if there was not a single relative on the quilt it was still a huge find for the Nine Mile Area. Just think of how many people this actually places in the area in 1906. Even though I had only been doing my family history for a short year or two, I knew that this was a huge find.

When I got home, I raced into the house and powered up my PC. I would work until the wee hours of the morning uploading pictures and looking at all the names. It would take me most of the week to transcribe them. Some of the names were difficult to read but that is OK because it just means that I will need to return for a visit again in the future. There are 295 names on the quilt. I have in the years since this discovery spent many winter nights investigating the people whose names appear on this quilt. It will be a few more years before I will have gathered all the information that I need to put the story on paper. While I am not related to most of them, because of my investigation I feel like I know them. These people have continued to build the church which my family and 8 other families started in 1853.

Tombstone Tuesday - October 20, 2009

While these people have no connection to my family I thought I would add it anyway as an interesting side note.  Yesterday was one of our few Indian summer days of this fall so I stopped on my way home from my PMP Study Group session at two interesting cemeteries along Illinois Route 176 and took some pictures of some interesting tombstones.  I have not added them to findagrave.com yet but I will.  The first cemetery was Ivanhoe which dates back to 1852.

As you can see there are many old stones and this is a very well mantained cemetery.  It is beautiful on a fall day.  I found some interesting tombstone style which I have never seen before. 

These are metal tombstone monuments for the wives of John Ragan.  Hannah Ragan died at the age of 32 in 1847 and Hepsibah died in 1884 at the age of 80. These monuments are beautiful  and so well preserved.  Granite stones which date back to 1870's may not be legible.

 In all of my years of investigating cemeteries, I had never seen a metal monument.  So I got on the internet and did a bit of reserach.  These metal stones are cast from zinc.  Zinc forms a coating of zinc carbonate which when exposed to the weather, is rust resistent but turns to this light blue hue.  Two men were creditied with the perfecting of casting these types of monuments in 1873, they were M.A. Richardson and C.J. Willard.  They did not have the capital to start a factory so they contracted with W.W. Evans.   Evans eventually gave up on the idea and sold the rights off to Wilson, Parsons & Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. 

These monuments were available from 1874-1914. The government took over the factory during WW1 for the manufacturing of munitions.  After the war the demand for the metal monuments was never revived. The company was dissolved in 1939.  Several subsidiaries operated the midwest, one opened in Detriot in 1881, called Detroit Bronze which operated for 4 years before closing.  In 1886 in Chicago, American Bronze opened. It operated for 23 years before closing in 1908. In Des Moines, Western White Bronze Company operated for twenty two years, closing in 1908.  Thanks to Mark Culver for his article on "Metal Monuments of Greenwood Cemetery"  which helped me to learn about the origins of these beautiful monuments.

This is also a metal monument from the same Ragan family plot. The next Photo is of rounded top stones which I thought were unique too.  I do not recall seeing stones that were this thick with rounded tops before.

This is the Traut Family Plot.  The first stone is for Catherine Ann Traut who died at the age of 90 years old on January 13, 1904.  The middle stone was for Michael Traut who died November 26, 1880.  The last stone is for John H. Traut, son of Catherine and Michael Traut who died in 1871 at the age of 25 years and 10 months.  These stones a very hard to read as compared to the metal ones which we looked at earlier.  I hope you enjoyed your fall tour of the Ivanhoe cemetery as much as I did.

Many of the Genealogy Blogs do a article on Tuesdays called Tombstone Tuesday so I thought I would join them since I am so interested in cemeteries.  Northern Illinois has some interesting old, unique cemeteries which I like to visit so I will take you along!

The Church that it has become…

Early in my family history search I came across a gold mine for a family historian. I was visiting the Nine Mile Church for the first time to try to verify that the James Smith buried in the cemetery was our “James Smith”. I had knocked on the door of the parsonage in hopes of being able to talk to the Minister of the church. I wasn’t even sure that this house was the parsonage but it looked like it was. It was a nice brick home much like the homes that my Grandparents had lived in while Grandpa Everett was a minister. The brick looked like the same as the bricks the church had been built with.

Eventually a middle aged woman answered the door. She was dressed in a nice pair of dress slacks with a very pretty blouse. I sensed that she was on her way out of the door for a very important meeting. I explained who I was and what had brought me to Nine Mile Indiana. The reaction on her face was a bit of surprise followed by a large warm smile. She offered her hand to me in a warm welcome. We chatted about the church a bit but she did not know much about its history. At this point in my search I could not be certain if this was my family or not. I had hoped the find out that the church had lots of old records and they would be able to answer all my questions! For a Family historian this is the equivalent of hitting the lottery! No such luck for me this day!

She was a very nice lady and as it turned out she was the minister. It bought a smile to my face. Oh much had changed since the days that Grandpa Everett was a minister. In their day, Grandma Lillian would have been answering the door. She would have had a dress on with her apron wrapped around her waist careful to wipe her hands before opening the door and inviting you in. The parsonage door was always open to visitors.

My sense that she was on her way out the door turned out to be true; she was headed to the hospital to visit with a church member. She asked if I wanted to see the church. “I’ll unlock it for you and when I return in an hour or so I’ll close it up then.” I told her that would be wonderful. We walked across the street chatting about the church and the quaint cemetery which surrounds it. She unlocked the door and opened it for me. Inviting me in, she said “enjoy your visit and I hope you find what you are looking for.” “I’ll be back in an hour or so to lock up”, she said. I went into the church and she walked back to the parsonage getting in her car and driving away. I thought to myself that it is a shame that we must lock our church doors these days. In Grandpa’s day, the church was always open. You never knew when someone would need to have a few minutes with God.

The church looked very much like the churches of my childhood. In the vestibule there were stairs leading up to the sanctuary or down to what I imagines were Sunday school rooms and a nursery. As I walked into the sanctuary, my thoughts turn to Grandpa Everett, wondering if he had ever been here. Could this have been his church? As I sat in the back of the church in the pew, I took in the beauty of this sanctuary. It is arrange much like a Theater, the pews fanned out with the focal point being the alter. It was not large but very warm and inviting.
 

It felt good to sit here. It felt as if I belonged. The windows allowed the warm sun shine to bath the room in a rainbow of brilliant color. It is a beautiful room. As I sat there I couldn’t help but wonder if family members who I had not met had sat in these seats. I just knew this was a place that I was supposed to have found. So many baptisms, marriages and funerals were conducted here. Families have begun, flourished and been returned to their maker within the comfort of the walls of this sanctuary.

I sat there in the peace and stillness of this beautiful church, with God, Grandpa Everett and other family members who I had not met yet but was certain that I would meet them soon.

I was disappointed to find out that there were no Church records to speak of. “Oh we have a dusty old box in the corner of the Office downstairs which might have a few things in it” the minister had stated, “but probably nothing that will help you much.”

I decided that a trip to the wash room downstairs would be necessary before I got back in the car and headed to Chicago. The basement was dark. They had a nice fellowship hall, a kitchen, a nursery and restrooms. When I came out of the rest room, I was thinking about the church as I walked toward the stair way to leave. To the left of the stairway hanging on the wall, was a quilt. I was at first startled but soon intrigued by it. It has become the most exciting find for me in my family history search so far. It was my winning lottery ticket!

Who's your Daddy?

Have you ever looked at an early Census record? Looks a bit like chicken scratching. The early Census records were used to count the population in the US and it was done every ten years as it is today. In the Early years, the free persons and slaves were not counted together. For the 1790 and 1800, the census listed the male head of household and a count for each of the male children from 0 to 10 years old in column one of the record. In column 2, a count was entered for the male children from 10 – 20 years old. A count is entered for each of the males for each ten year increment after that until age 100. The second half of the form was for listing all the females in the household and each column was 10 year increments too.

As the population grew, the government decided to break down the children into smaller groups so beginning in 1820 the male head of household was listed and the first column was for males under the age of five years old or 0-5years, then 5-10 years, 10-15years and then 15-20 years and from there it incremented every 10 years until the age of 100 years old. I have seen very few persons listed after the 70 to 80 year column in the early census records.

So in the early census it was difficult to determine a person’s parentage. It was a bit of a guessing game. I would write down the children’s names and year of birth and tally them up in 5 year increments. Then find the father’s names and look at each of the column and see if they matched. Some times it was accurate and sometimes it was a little off. Sometimes a child would die from one census to then next and there would be no real way to know that. Some times you wondered if they could count. Was it the parent’s lack of education or was it the person doing the recording.

Looks like chicken scratching to me….

Some Churches were very good about keeping baptism records in larger cities but not in the small farming communities which dotted the American landscape. As families migrated westward, early churches services were often conducted in person’s homes by lay leaders. A Circuit Minister would come around on a regular interval to conduct a Church service and that was when a child or several children would be baptized. Records were rarely kept until there was a formal Church building in which the families gathered.

Starting in 1850, the US Federal Census required that all of the names of the household members be listed on the Census. Hurray! Now we don’t have to guess who is in the family. As a result, the 1850 census helped me early in my family history research.

In the 1850 and the 1860 federal census all the Smith children were listed in the Allen County Census. The oldest Smith children are in their late teens in 1850 and by 1860 they are in their late 20’s. I really had expect they would have been married and raising their own families by then. So as I searched for marriage records I looked for them after 1860. For years I looked for them, when I did not find them I began to think that there must be a mistake. Eventually I decided that the 1860 Federal Census must have been inaccurate. I suspect that Susannah did not understand what the Census taker wanted. I suspect that she thought that the census recorder ask how many children do you have. Instead of how many children live in your household.

 I would find that Margaret married Benjamin C Davis in 1851 and Mary Ann married Jonathan Kimble in 1853. Eventually I would find that Sarah would marry Robert Hood in 1861. William had moved on to Madison County, Indiana by the 1860 Census and he was counted in both Allen County and Madison Counties. Branson would be found in Madison County a short time after William. I had spent years looking for these children and their marriages in the wrong decades.

James Smith died in 1868 and is buried in the Nine Mile Cemetery with two daughters, a grandchild and two sons who died before him. By the 1870 Census, Susannah, and some of the younger Smith children, John F, Susan and Martha, are found living with Joseph, his wife Mary Catharine and their twin sons, Ashley and Ashland.  Henry C is now listed as Charles H. and he is counted with James W Smith and his wife, Oella and their son William F who live next door to Susanna and the other family members.

So now you know a bit about Census records. They are as accurate as they can be considering that so many woman did not receive and education. They are a tool to be used with other records.

It's Time for a church - 1853

The families living near Nine Mile are prospering. They are settling on the land, growing crops and families. James and Susannah Smith have added two children to their family, John Francis in 1849 and Susanna M in 1852 while two of the oldest daughter would marry and leave home to begin their own families. In 1851, their daughter Margaret became the 2nd Wife of Benjamin Davis, a family friend who came to Fort Wayne from Darke County with the Smith’s, the Miller’s and the Overly’s. Their 2nd daughter Mary Ann married Jonathan Kimble in 1853. Several of the children of John and Hannah Miller’s children have married and began their families too. Charles married to Sarah Dilley and they have 2 children, George and Hannah Jane. Gabriel had married Anna in Ohio prior to leaving for Indiana and Catherine married John W. Maddux. Growing families need a church to assist them in raising their children.

The following is taken from the historical records from The Nine Mile United Methodist church which has a flourish congregation to this day.

James Smith was one of sixteen founding member of the United Brethren Evangelical Church in Nine Mile, Indiana in 1853. The church is presently known as Nine Mile United Methodist Church. Interesting details emerge about James Smith and other founding members in a historical overview written for the churches 100th anniversary which reads as follows: “THE HISTORY OF THE NINE MILE Evangelical U. B. CHURCH” This church was organized at the home of John Miller by Rev. Casey with 16 charter members. Daniel and Lucy Ann Buskirk, sold one acre of ground for $ 10.00 to the trustees of the United Brethren Church, who were Gabriel Miller, Benjamin C. Davis, James Smith, Thomas Overly and Charles Miller, on January 3, 1853. For a period of five years, the meetings were held at the home of the John and Hannah Miller and at the homes of other church members, but in 1859, they erected a log church on the present grounds in section 7, Pleasant Township.”

Rev. P. Landen was then the pastor and dedicated the church. The membership continued to increase but the little log church was still their place of worship until 1868. In that year a frame building was erected. The new place of worship was called "Liberty Chapel". For a few years the church had been served through the Ossian circuit, but in 1869 it was changed to the Zanesville circuit.

In 1879 the 27th annual session of the Auglaize Conference, of which this church was a member, was held at the Liberty Chapel Church. In 1891 Liberty was again placed in the Ossian Circuit which included Ossian, Bethel, Zanesville, Prairie Grove and Liberty Chapel It remained with Ossian until 1906 when it was changed back to the Zanesville circuit along with Bethel.

As it would turn out, our Smith family would play a large role in the beginning of this church.  All the families listed in the historical doument are related to our Smith's in one way or another.  My husband and I visited it in 2003 on the 150th Anniversary.  I am sure that the congregation must have thought I was nuts because I had tears rolling down my face for most of the service.  I was very moved to be able to sit in a church which had such a rich connection to my family history.  Later the congregation would learn that I was the Great, Great, Great Granddaughter of James Smith one of the 16 founding members of the Nine Mile United Methodist Church.  My Grandfather, Rev. Everett A. Smith, himself a Methodist Minister, would have been proud to have known that his family , our family, played such a large role in this church.

Branching out from here.....

It’s 1850 in Pleasant township, Allen County, Indiana  in a small town called Nine Nile.  It’s nine miles from Fort Wayne so what else would you call it? There a Smith Family who lives there and they have 10 children. They came from Darke County, Ohio a few years back along with other Ohio families.  They traveled with the Millers, John, Hannah (Smith) and their children, the Davis', Benjamin C, Letishia and their children and the Overly's, Thomas, Emeline and their children. It was a hard trip in wagons to cover the 80 distance miles to get here but James and Susannah Smith have been married for twenty years now.  They have known hardship before and knew that they would experience it again.  It is a part of living in this time and place. Susanna was the daughter of Martin and Polly Overly of Darke County Ohio when they married on December 9, 1830.  She is the sister to Thomas Overly.  James Smith and Hannah (Smith) Miller are siblings too.

Much has changed in those twenty years since the Smith's were married.  Many people were settling in Ohio and it was getting hard to find a place where you belonged.  Land was being gobbled up and there were not too many opportunities left.  So families were moving further west. Now they live on a plot of land that they are improving. It is in Pleasant Township, in Allen County in the state of Indiana. They must remove the trees and clear fields so they can grow crops on the land. In time the government will make it their land. It is hard work but there will be a reward in the end. Susanna’s brother Thomas and his wife and their family live with the Smiths as do James’s nephew Charles and his new wife Sarah (Dilley).  All the men and family members who are able, work hard to clear the land and get the first crop in with hopes of bright new beginnings.

James and Susanna would have their first child in 1831 in Ohio, her name is Margaret. Then Mary Ann came in 1833, Sarah Elizabeth in 1834 who was followed by William in 1835 and Branson in 1838. They finally had two sons! Branson would be followed by Charles in 1840 and by a daughter named Kisiah in 1842. The next child born would be James W. Smith in 1843. He would be the last of the children born in Darke County Ohio. Between 1843 and 1847 the Smith family left Ohio and settled in Nine Mile, Indiana. Joseph J Smith would be the first Smith child was born in 1847 in Indiana. The next child born in 1849 was John F. Smith.

Listed is the 1850 Federal Census for the state of Indiana, Allen County, Pleasant Township. The last Family listed on this page is James Smith and the remaining Smith children are on the next page.

James, Joseph and John Francis are listed on the top of the next page. The family listed in the Census following James and Susanna is James’s nephew Charles Miller and his new bride, Sarah. The next family is Thomas and Emeline Overly and their children. Thomas is Susannah Smith’s brother.


The time has come for us to give "Thanks".  To Unite as a family and show God how grateful we are for all the blessing that he has bestowed on us.

….and a visit with a local historian…

The road trip continues ….and a visit with a local historian…

From the cemetery at Nine mile, I would travel south three miles or so looking for the Hoverstock, Cemetery at Zanesville, Indiana. I noticed that there was a man smoking out in front of a small local market. Since I did not have a map and I was quickly running out of time, I decided I would ask for directions to the cemetery. I spoke to the butcher and he explained that Hoverstock was just down the road a half a mile or so. He said that the oldest graves would be on the east side of the road and the main cemetery is now on the west side. He told me that I should stop to see the local town historian who lived in the house at the end of the street. Her name was Melba. I thought to myself that would visit her after going to the cemetery IF I had time. I was able to locate Oella Smith’s parent’s graves, Walter and Mary Denney. I also located the graves of Cora Crites’ Grandparents, Jesse and Elizabeth (Meyer) Crites but not Cora parents, John and Emma (McGoogan) Crites. I found other McGoogan graves and wonder if they were related.

After leaving the cemetery, I decided that I would visit Melba Edwards but I would need to keep it short. So I located the house. She lived in an old home which I would later learn was originally her Grandfather home, it reminded me of my house in Fox River Grove which was built in 1902. It had an old fashion doorbell which I rang. As I waited I thought, “This is crazy you are just dropping in on the woman. You don’t know her from Adam.” She was a round faced woman with a colorful character. She greeted me warmly as if she had known me for ever and had expected me to visit her that day. As you walked into her home it was like walking back in time. It was a bit dark at first but once your eyes adjusted it became obvious that the home was full of the all the original furniture and much, much more. I would learn that her Grandfather had been the local doctor in the area between 1890 until around 1940. She was the local historian. I explained that the man down the street had insisted that I stop by and that I hoped I was not interrupting her. She said “Of course you are not, dear…” My time with Melba became the fastest two hours of my life.

This woman lived and breathed the history of Zanesville, Indiana and the neighboring communities. She has the medical ledgers of her Grandfather’s practice and other doctor’s records from in the area. She was able to provide me with a peek into the medical history of my GG Grandparents, John and Emma Crites as well as some of the Denney family members. Grandma Emma was very sick for several years in the late 1890’s while we could not know for sure what she was sick from she had accumulated some large bills and the Dr visited her everyday for several weeks with what appeared to have been rebounds of the same illness which happened several times over the course of many years. Grandpa John would end up with a bill of over 57.00 which was a lot when the cost of having a baby was 50 cents and an Office call or home visit was 5 cents. Grandpa John spent a long time paying off Emma’s medical bill by providing cords of wood to the DR, Melba’s Grandfather and some of his patients and family members. He also fixed a roof and did some general repairs for him on a house that he owned that a relative lived in when ever the Dr needed them. It is at this point in these two hours when a close loving bond formed for me with my GG Grandparents. I saw the hard working Americans that I came from and I was overwhelmed.

Melba had book cases full of old books and ledgers. She had the ledger for the local mercantile who showed that Grandpa John has a sweet tooth and Emma sewed frequently. She made the dusty old documents come to life reviling the sweet characters who were my GG Grandparents. I could have stayed in her house for days learning all I could about these people but I had a small tiny baby waiting to meet me too so I had to leave. Oh was I ever late, I had figured that I had about three or four hours that I could spend in the area before I needed to get on the road again… I had been there almost six hours. I called Sue, my sister to let her know that I was OK and on the road again but I would be late.

I got to meet several people that wonderful fall day. A brand new tiny baby, named Elizabeth and my elderly GG Grandparents who were long gone from this world but who had waited a long time for me to discover them….and a local historian who is passionate about one small town in Indiana.