Two more mysteries solved

For years I have been trying to find out two things about my grandfather, Eddie Murphy.  One is where he went to high school and the other was how he met my grandmother. Both facts have been quite elusive.  My mother had told me that Grandpa had gone to Manual High School.  However, no records of him attending have ever been found.  So then I thought maybe he had gone to the Catholic high school.  Again, no records found. Dead end.

A few days ago my sister and I met with two first cousins who we haven't seen for quite some time.  Both live out of town from us. 

As we discussed various things, one cousin began to tell us the story that he has always heard about how our grandparents met!  And the story began with Grandpa attending high school...for one day!  He got into a fight and was kicked out of school.  So he didn't tell his parents, and just left home each day as if he were headed to school.  After a few days, he noticed a sign at the local newspaper looking for a copy boy.  He went in and got the job, but was told that he needed to dress up each day in shirt and tie.  He headed to Szolds (a local department store) and a lovely young girl sold him a suit, shirt and tie.  And she was to become my grandmother!

And just like that, my questions were answered!  Incidentally, Grandpa retired from that newspaper after forty-eight years working there.  By the time he retired, he was the political editor for the paper.  Pretty good for a kid with an eighth grade education!

#52Ancestors-Week 48-Next to Last: Nancy Thompson

My third great-aunt, Nancy Thompson, was the next to last child (that I have recorded) born to Moses and Rachel Foard Thompson.

Nancy was born in about 1819 in Tennessee, probably in Bedford County.  Between 1846 to 1840, her family came to Illinois.  It appears that Nancy married John Omsby in about 1838 (marriage records have not been found) in either Tennessee or Illinois.

Nancy and John had ten known children.  The first was a son born about 1839.  I don't know any more about him. Three more sons followed, all born in Illinois. They had a daughter in 1848, then three more sons, then two more daughters.  The last child (Susan) was born in 1858.  Sadly, the two youngest daughters died in infancy.  One son died in 1857 at the age of seven.  I have not been able to find any records for another son, so he may have died early also.

John Omsby, Nancy's husband, died in November of 1858.   Nancy soon followed him, dying in February of 1859.  When they died, they left five living children, ages five to seventeen.

Nancy was buried in Wesley Cemetery in Wendelin, Clay County, Illinois.

#52Ancestors-Week 47-Thankful

I have a million reasons to be thankful for my grandmother, who I called "Nanya".  One of the reasons I am thankful for her is that she instilled in me an interest in family history, on both her side of the family and my grandfather's side of his family.  One of the best things that she told me was when I asked if we were related to the O'Meara family.  The O'Meara's were often included in our family gatherings and I knew that Jo O'Meara was my great-grandmother's best friend.  So when I asked that of Nanya, she casually said "Oh, they're shirt-tale relatives from way back in Ireland.".  That was probably when I was around twelve years old.  About thirty-five years later, I began doing genealogy and remembered that comment.  It took a lot of research, but eventually I found the connections between the families!  And it did go back to Ireland in the early 1800's.  It's so amazing to think that the families are still connected....as it turned out a friend I know from church is related to the O'Meara family! Just that one question and comment so many years ago, lead to so much family history!

#52Ancestors-Week 46-Random Fact

Okay, this is a weird one and really caught me off guard!  I requested WWII Service records for one of my great-uncles.  When they arrived, I read this random fact: Right testicle surgically removed when he had hernia surgery.  Not really a fact I needed to know about him, but there it was.  You never know what you might learn about an ancestor!

#52Ancestors-Week 45-Bearded

This week's prompt is Bearded.  I believe that the closest ancestor I have who wore a beard was my great grandfather, Moses Thompson Adamson.  Below here Moses is pictured with his wife Lydia.  Moses was born in 1838 and every picture I have seen of him, he is bearded.

#52Ancestors-Week 44: Frightening

Here is what I find frightening....all of the information that is somewhere out there that I may never find or learn!

This past month, I heard from a fourth cousin once removed, who is descended from a sister of my great-great-great grandfather, Patrick Smyth (born in 1809 in Ireland).  This cousin has a great deal more information on the Smyth family than I.  Including Patrick Smyth's parents names!!!  Incredible!

I am so thankful that there are people willing to reach out and share information!

#52Ancestors-Week 43-Cause of Death: Edward E. Adamson

from The Houston Herald, Texas County, MO, July 11, 2002, page 8:

from Mildred Melton's Scrapbook for the year 1879:

"August 8, 1879 Prosecuting Attorney Geiger, Dr. BF Morgan, Jackson Davis, CM Hill and Beauregard Ross went to the Hamilton neighborhood up the river to disinter the body of a young man named Adamson who committed suicide on account of troubles with his wife.  Foul play is now suspected." 

I have tried to find out information about this cause of death for years.  The young man was Edward E. Adamson.  He had been born in about 1857 in Missouri.  He married Martha "Mattie" E. Eldridge in 1875 in Texas County, Missouri. I have found no solid evidence of Mattie since his death.  She may have married George Morse in 1880, but again, I do not have solid proof that this is the same woman, since she is listed as "Mattie Eldridge" for the marriage to George, instead of "Mattie Adamson". I have found neither her nor George in the 1880 Census listings. I tried to get coroner records for the death of Edward Adamson, but was told that the records don't exist. Nor have I come across any other newspaper articles about his death.  So was it a suicide or was it foul play?

#52Ancestors-Week 40-Ten: William Adamson's 10 Children

The theme for this week is Ten.  I thought about who might have had ten children and came up with the following:

William Adamson was my great-great-great grandfather.  He was born around 1789 in North Carolina.  It is believed that he married Mary "Polly" Wilson in 1806 in Lebanon County, Tennessee. William and Mary had ten known children:

Aaron W.      born around 1808  (my great-great grandfather)
Allen            born around 1809
William A.   born in 1812
Robert          born in 1818
Mary            born around 1819
Michael       born around 1823
female         born between 1825 to 1830
Nancy         born around 1829
James          born around 1830
John W.       born in 1832

As you can see, I only know exact years of birth for three of the ten children. That is frustrating, but I can only work with the records that I can find! The child listed as "female" has only been found in the 1840 Census records.  So she had either died or was married by the 1850 Census. The first eight children were born in Tennessee, and the last two were born in Kentucky. All of the children married (exception with the "female" who I don't know about her status). From these ten children were thirty-nine known grandchildren.

#52Ancestors-Week 42-Conflict: Sam Gray

Sam Gray died in 1953.  He left only one of his sons surviving him, along with his second wife. But his will had been written in 1935 and stated the following:

“I give, bequeath and devise to my wife, Etta Gray and to my children, Lotta N. Adamson, Fred W. Gray and Bertha M. McQueen, all my property of any kind or nature whatsoever. Share and share alike.”

Lotta and Bertha died before their father Sam did, so when the estate was being settled Lotta's children and Bertha's daughter, along with Sam's son Fred were left as his heirs.  As was his second wife, Etta.  And that's where the conflict began.  Between Sam's children and grandchildren and the second wife.  It got ugly.  "Share and share alike" did not happen!

#52Ancestors-Week 41-Sports: Arthur Logan Adamson

This week the topic is Sports.  Nothing really jumped out to me to write about, except that my paternal grandfather was the quarterback for his college.  The special thing about this is that he attended Westfield College and graduated in 1906 "after three years of hard work and summer school".  How many people have grandfathers who attended college in the very early 1900's.  Seems pretty unusual to me! (although my grandmother also graduated from Westfield College-it may be even more unusual that a woman graduated from college back then).

#52Ancestors-Week 39-On the Farm: Per Nilsson

I found the subject On the Farm to be quite difficult.  Oddly, my families on either side were not farmers in the 1900's.  But I did remember my great-grandmother, Ingrid Olausson, had an uncle who was a farmer.

I have written about Per Nilsson before on this blog at: http://suesresearch.blogspot.com/2016/03/per-nilsson-leap-year.html

Per Nilsson was a brother to Ingrid's mother.  He was born in Sweden in 1856 to Nils Trulsson and Anna Martensdotter.  He was the 7th of 10 children, with 5 brothers and 4 sisters.  In 1883, Pers married Kersti Martensson (related to his mother's family, perhaps?) in Sweden.  He farmed in Sweden. Per and Kersti had 2 sons before they immigrated to the United States in 1888.  In 1891, another son was born to them in Iroquois County, Illinois.

By 1893, Per, Kersti and their 3 sons had settled in Rankin, Illinois on a farm, and a daughter was born.   They were there until 1899, which is where and when Ingrid was visiting them and she went to a Swedish dance hall and met my great-grandfather.

Per and his family moved shortly after, because they were listed in the 1900 Hamilton County, Nebraska Census taken in June of 1900.  Per was listed as a farmer.  Shortly after June, another son was born, but he died the following year.  By 1910, Per's wife, Kersti had died.  He was listed still in Hamilton County, as a farmer with 3 of his children.

I have not found Per in the 1920 Census, but I have found that all of his sons became farmers.  Per died in Marquette, Hamilton County, Nebraska in 1929.  I have found an estate listing from a 1929 newspaper where 260 acres of Peter Nelson's was being sold.  So I am guessing that the family farm was being let go of then.

52Ancestors-Week 38-Unusual Source

The most surprising (unusual to me) sources that I have found have been individual county censuses.  Early on when I began researching, I found that Peoria, Illinois had an 1888 Census.  It helped me tremendously with my research.  Later, I found that Texas County, Missouri had an 1876 Census.  Again, that helped me fill in some pieces.  I need to continue to search for more of these kind of censuses.  If anyone can add to these two, please let me know!  They really help give a more accurate picture of what was occurring with the families in-between the regular federal censuses.  And the above mentioned censuses showed more than the name of the head of household...they had all the family members names listed.   State Censuses are useful tools, but they only have head of households on them.

So here are the two that I know of:

1876 Texas County, Missouri Census
1888 Peoria, Illinois Census

Please add to this list!

#52Ancestors-Week 37-Closest to Your Birthday: Olaus Hansson

I wrote a blog post about my great-great grandfather Olaus Hansson that can be seen here: http://suesresearch.blogspot.com/2015/02/plowing-through-olaus-hansson-52.html

Olaus was the closest ancestor that I found whose birthday came nearest to mine.  He was born on the 27th of December in 1849, 100 years before me.  (Obviously, his gravestone has the incorrect date of birth.)

I have to admit to not having very good feelings about Olaus, based on reports from his daughter, Ingrid, my great-grandmother.  Olaus left the family in Sweden in 1888, never to return, despite leaving a wife and six children to fend for themselves.  Olaus arrived in the United States with a destination of St. Paul, Minnesota. Upon arrival he went on to North Dakota where he lived until his death in 1925.

Ingrid only saw him once after he left, when he came to Peoria, Illinois to visit in 1911.  By that time, five of his children had emigrated to the United States and four of them lived in Peoria.  One of his daughters had died by then.

from Olaus' obituary in the Crystal Call newspaper (from Crystal, North Dakota):

"About two weeks ago he packed his trunk and shipped it back to the old home at Peora (sp), and had intended to go back there for the remaining months of the winter but sickness overtook him before he could get away.The body was shipped to Peora (sp) for burial on Tuesday."

Interesting that those in North Dakota were under the opinion that Peoria was Olaus' "old home".  He never lived there and only visited there one time.  But apparently he wanted to be buried there.

My great-grandmother, Ingrid, refused to pay anything for his funeral, stating that had been "on the outs" for a long time.  She apparently she still had hard feelings toward him.  And while I tend to judge him rather harshly for leaving his family and never either bringing them to the United States or returning back to them, I have to remind myself that one never completely knows another persons circumstances.  Ingrid once told her granddaughter that "She (Ingrid's mother) was the meanest woman I have ever known."  So maybe Olaus had his reasons for leaving and never returning?  I hope that he at least sent money home for the family, but I don't know.

#52Ancestors-Week 36-Work: Mabelle Linnea Seeber Murphy

For the prompt Work this week, I am writing about my grandmother, Mabelle Linnea Seeber Murphy.  I think she is a timely subject right now, when more and more women are entering politics.

My grandmother was the daughter of immigrants, a poor family who struggled for everything.  She didn't complete high school, but began working until she married in 1927. She had two children and didn't begin working outside the home until about 1948.  She was forty-three years old and took a part time job, with the intention of working for six months to pay off some medical bills.  The job was a part-time job in the Peoria County Treasurer's office. After six months had passed Mabelle was just ready to quit when one of the deputies-the bookkeeper-left and she was asked to take on that job.  She had not completed high school, but had taken a class in bookkeeping, so the job was hers.

When the County Treasurer left, Mabelle was made the Chief Deputy of the Treasurer's Office.

By 1958, Mabelle was urged to run for the Peoria County Treasurer's Office.  She filed to run and "The first thing I knew I won the nomination, and from then on I was in the race.".

Mabelle won the race and became the first woman elected to a county office in twenty years.  The picture above is of her sitting on the lion outside of the old Peoria County Courthouse.

An interesting quote in the Peoria Journal Star after her election was the following:

"Mrs. Murphy believes political campaigning is harder for a woman than a man because many people are prejudiced against women in public office.  She said during the primary, a number of people told her they had never voted in their life for a woman , and many indicated they weren't about to change that habit."

I have always felt so proud of my grandmother and what she accomplished.  She was a true role model for women.

#52Ancestors-Week 35-Back to School: 1895 Olney, Illinois

Below is a school picture taken in around 1895 in Olney, Richland County, Illinois. My grandfather, Arthur Logan Adamson, is the first boy on the right in the front row. The teacher's name was Kate Nicholson, pictured in the middle of the center row.  I can't read the name of the school.  Interestingly (to me, at least), I have the original picture with the names of a number of the students on the back!

#52Ancestors-Week 4-Non-Population: Edward E. Adamson

I'm again taking this week's prompt, Non-Population, in a different direction.  In 1876, Missouri did a state census of twenty-eight counties.  Texas County, Missouri was included in that census.  That had been quite exciting news for me since the Adamson family I was researching was from there.

What I found was that the census for Texas County only included six townships.  That was good news for finding Elijah Adamson, but I also needed to find his youngest brother, Edward.  And Edward was not in the six townships that were in the census.  Edward had married the year before the census.  He died in 1879, so that 1876 census would have been the only census taken while he was married.

I don't know how many townships there were in Texas County in 1876, but there are now seventeen townships. Just my luck that they didn't include the one where Edward was living. So I am counting Edward E. Adamson as a victim of a non-population census!

#52Ancestors-Week 33-Family Legend: fishing photo

I have worked on last week's prompt of Family Legend.  I was trying to prove/disprove a story and was unable to do either.  I finally decided to do it simple.  Below is a picture of the Seeber brothers/brother-in-laws.   There is no doubt that they would have told others that they were the greatest fishing group there ever was.

 

#52Ancestors-Week 32-Youngest: Edward E. Adamson 1857-1879

The topic challenge for Week 32 was "Youngest".  Following the week before when the topic was "Oldest", I am writing about Edward E. Adamson, the youngest child of Allen and Elizabeth Saunders Adamson.

Edward E. Adamson was born in about 1857 in Texas County, Missouri to Allen and Elizabeth Saunders Adamson.  He was the youngest of their twelve children.  Edward's mother, Elizabeth, died in about 1858 when Edward was about one year old.  On the 10th of December in 1858, Peter Saunders, Elizabeth's brother, was named guardian for  the seven children who were under the age of fourteen, including Edward.

Texas County Court Records (Volume 2):
"Friday Dec. 10, 1858:
Guardian
It is ordered by the Court that Peter Sanders be appointed Guardian of the person of Josiah, Isaac, Elijah, John Wesley, Catherine, Mary Ann and Edward E. Adamson, miner (?) heirs of Allen and Elizabeth Adamson, Deceased."
 

In both the 1860 and 1870 census' Edward was living with Charles Mitch and Nancy Saunders Hill.  Nancy Hill was the daughter of George Saunders, Elizabeth's brother.

On the 24th of October in 1875, Edward married Martha "Mattie" Eldridge in Texas County, Missouri.  Both were about eighteen years old. I have found no trace of Edward and his wife after their marriage until this newspaper article.

"August 8, 1879
Prosecuting Attorney Geiger, Dr. BF Morgan, Jackson Davis, CM Hill and Beauregard Ross went to the Hamilton neighborhood up the river to disinter the body of a young man named Adamson who committed suicide on account of troubles with his wife.  Foul play is now suspected." 

Apparently, Edward died.  He was about twenty-two years old.  Was he killed or did he commit suicide?  I have not found any listings for him in cemetery records and was told that there are no coroner records available for Texas County for this time period. I have had researchers check newspapers from that area and time period for more information, but none has been found.  I wonder if Edward and Mattie had any children? I have not found any information about his wife, Mattie.  I believe that she married George Morse in 1880, but have not been able to prove that beyond a doubt.

So both the oldest and the youngest of Allen and Elizabeth Saunders Adamson's children lived short lives.  So sad.

#52Ancestors-Week 31-Oldest: Thomas Adamson 1835-1864

Week 31 of #52Ancestor Challenge was "Oldest". Next weeks' challenge is "Youngest". I decided to write about the oldest and the youngest sons of Allen and Elizabeth Sanders Adamson.  So this post is about "Oldest"-the oldest son of Allen and Elizabeth.

Thomas Adamson was born in about 1836 in Illinois.  He was apparently named after Elizabeth's father, Thomas Saunders. 

The family moved from Illinois to Missouri around 1842.  By that time, Thomas had a sister Nancy, and a brother William.  In 1850, the family was living in Crawford County, Missouri. At that time, there were eight children listed in the family.

Around 1858. Thomas' mother, Elizabeth, died.  There were then twelve children in the family.  For an unknown reason, After Thomas' mother died, Thomas' father (Allen) left Missouri and went back to Kentucky to live with his father.  Allen's children were all sent to live with Elizabeth's relatives (mostly her siblings).  Thomas was listed in the 1860 census living with Robert and Margaret Reeves (Margaret was Elizabeth Saunders Adamson's sister). Thomas' sisters, Sarah and Polly, were also living with the Reeves family. Thomas was twenty-five years old in 1860.

When age twenty-seven, Thomas went and enlisted to serve in the War of the Rebellion.  He enlisted on the 1st of February in 1862.  He was originally in the 10th MO Infantry Company C-CSA. In November of 1862, Thomas  joined up with his uncle Peter Saunders' unit (4th MO Cavalry Company E-CSA).  He was listed as a Blacksmith. Thomas was captured on the 24th of September in 1863 in Perry County, Arkansas. In December of 1863, Thomas was listed on the Roll of Prisoners of War and political prisoners received at Gratiot Street Military Prison (in St. Louis, MO).  He was transferred to the Rock Island Illinois Prison on the 18th of January in 1864.

Thomas died while a Prisoner of War at Rock Island, Illinois on the 13th of February in 1864.  He died of Catarrh Fever.  He is buried in the Rock Island Cemetery, Grave #475.  He was about twenty-eight years old.

I have not found any other records regarding Thomas.  It is assumed that he never married.  His life seems very sad to me.  His mother died when he was twenty-two years old, his father left the family, he joined the Confederacy, was captured and died. I wonder if anyone has ever visited his grave. Maybe I should.

#52Ancestors-Week 30-Colorful:Mom

My mom, Pat Murphy Adamson, was certainly the most colorful person I have ever known.  She had a wicked sense of humor, an Irish temper, and, as I discovered as I got older, was one of the kindest persons in the world.  She has been gone for six years now, and I miss her every single day.

#52Ancestors-Week 29-Music: James Ryan

This week's prompt is Music.  Why is this such a difficult one? Oh, perhaps because there is little musical talent known in my family.  However, I always think about one little fact that I saw researching James Ryan.

James was born in about 1833 in Ireland.  It appears that he came to the United States with his brother, John C. Ryan. John married my great-great-great aunt, Johanna Murphy in 1852.  James married my great-great-great aunt, Mary Murphy (Johanna's sister) in Peoria, Illinois in 1854.  I have not found either John or James in the 1850 Census, so they may have arrived about 1851.

James and Mary had a daughter, Maggie, on the 1st of October in 1856, then had daughter, Alice, on the 17th of March in 1858.  On the 12th of September 1859 another daughter, Johanna, arrived.

The 1860 Kickapoo, Peoria, Illinois Census was taken on the 30th of June 1860. James, Mary and daughters, Maggie and Alice, are listed.  Sadly, their infant daughter, Johanna, had died.  The family were living with Mary's parents, James and Alice Murphy.

On the 22nd of August in 1862, James Ryan enlisted in the 108th IL Infantry Company C with his brother-in-law, William H. Murphy. James' rank was  listed as musician.  He was 5'6" tall, had light hair, grey eyes,and a fair complexion. The record also shows that James deserted on 1 October 1862.

James and Mary had a son, Edmund, born to them around 1863.

And that is the last that I know of James Ryan.  Mary remarried around 1865 to James Corrigan.  I suspect that James Ryan enlisted or joined another company and died in the Civil War, but I don't know that to be fact.

Of course, another mystery is: why was James Ryan listed as a musician? What instrument did he play?  I sure would like to learn more about him!

Enlisted

22 August 1862 • Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois

Enlisted in 108th IL Infantry Company C with his brother-in-law, William H. Murphy. James deserted on 1 October 1862. Was listed as a musician.James and Mary Ryan had a son, Edmund, born to them in around 1863.

#52Ancestors-Week 28-Travel-David Erskine Gray

Travel is the prompt for this week, so I decided to write about David Erskine Gray, my great-great-great-grandfather who came to the United States from Scotland.  I had originally thought that he had come over in 1832, as it was written that his son William had.  As I searched for any records of Erskine (as he was called) immigrating, I found the passenger list with him listed!  After all these years searching!

Erskine was born in 1789 in Scotland.  He married Elisabeth Wood in 1819 in Scotland.  Erskine and Elisabeth Gray had five children, with only two of them living until adulthood.  One of the children was my gg-grandfather, David Erskine Gray, and the other was his brother, William Gray.

According to a history, the family left Scotland, landed in New York and went to Chicago where they spent some time, then went on to Indiana.

When I found the Passenger Record, I learned that Erskine, age 42, Elizabeth, age 32, and David, age 11, left Liverpool and arrived in New York on the 23rd of February in 1837.  They traveled on the ship named Emanuel with two boxes.  I can't even imagine how the family could leave with only two boxes of belongings.  What I found interesting is that their son, William, is not listed as a passenger on this ship.  William would have been about sixteen years old in 1837.

I wonder what travel would have been like on a ship across the ocean during the winter.  It must have been brutal.

The family was in Vigo County, Indiana by 1840 where David was listed with his wife and two sons, so somehow son William ended up with them.  How did they even find each other back then?

So this search continues to leave me with questions, but I am thrilled with locating the Passenger List!

#52Ancestors-Week 27-Independence

This week's prompt is appropriately "Independence".  Yet here I sit feeling deflated because after over 20 years of researching my family, I have yet to find one of my ancestors from the Adamson family or the Ferrel family who fought in the Revolutionary War.  And I have no doubt that the men did fight, I just can't locate records.

John Adamson (married to Ann Skuse) was in New Jersey by 1718.  I am sure that, if not any sons, surely some grandsons, fought in the War.  James Ferrel (married to Hannah Kennison) was born about 1770.  I would guess that his father and/or uncles fought in the War.

And I could go on about more family lines for whom I have been unable to find Revolutionary War records.  It's so frustrating.

The only ancestor that I do know of that fought in the Revolutionary War was Walter Dickerson.  I wrote about him and his War experience for this same blog in 2015 at:

http://suesresearch.blogspot.com/2015/07/independent-walter-dickerson-1763-1855.html

Of course, nothing about Walter has changed since then!

I do have to be proud of my ancestors/family who fought in all of our other wars, from the War of 1812 up to the Iraq war. All of them, along with all of those who have fought each day for our way of life, have given us our Independence.  And the fight goes on.  We need to make our ancestors proud as we continue to fight for our Constitution and all the freedoms that we have.  I am grateful to all of my family who have fought to keep us free and Independent!

#52Ancestor's-Week 26-Black Sheep: Dennis Haggerty

This week's prompt is "Black Sheep".  I struggled for a bit to come up with anything to write about.  Out of the blue, after a couple of weeks,  I thought of my husband's great-great grandfather, Dennis "Denny" Haggerty.

Dennis was born in 1833 in Ireland to unknown first name Haggerty and Mary Finucane.  His mother married John Fitzgibbons in 1845 in Limerick, Ireland and the family was next found in the 1850 Census for Fall River, Massachusetts. A half-sister to Denny was born in 1846 in Fall River, so they must have arrived there between October 1845 and June 1846.

The family was in Marshall County, Illinois by 1855.  Denny was listed in the 1860 Census as "Dennis Fitzgibbon", living with his step-father, mother and siblings. Dennis was Naturalized in October of 1860.  In about 1861, Dennis married Margaret O'Brien.  From 1864 to 1878, Dennis and Margaret had six known children.

In August of 1876 "A terrible tragedy was enacted at Lacon, about nine o'clock Tuesday night, the results of which will probably occasion the death of three men, who were fired upon by a mob of six men, through a window, all armed with guns or revolvers, all desperate characters, and who had gone there to do deadly work, regardless of consequences".

Backstory: there was a "...one room house, kept by a Mrs. Locke, a woman of easy virtue."   A man had attempted to enter the house, but the house was full of other visitors, so he was turned away.  He refused to leave, so Mrs. Locke shot at him. On the fatal night, an "attacking party" of Dennis Haggerty and five others came and demanded those in the house to come out (there were 7 people in the house), but before they could, firing began. It appeared that Dennis Haggerty was the leader of the "riot".  It was also later reported that it was not six men who went to the one-story house that night, but that there was a crowd of 30 or 40 men and boys.

It was also reported: "that Haggerty ordered them to leave the house in two minutes, and within a minute, two or three shots were fired in at the window, and were immediately followed by a volley from the remainder of the guns."
Some of the men "gave a tacit approval of the plan of 'cleaning them out' as it was expressed." Three men were arrested (including Dennis). "The parties arrested show no signs of remorse for this dastardly work, but boast that they meant to do it and were not ashamed of it."

Bail was set at $8000 for Dennis, $2000 for Thad Power, and $1500 for Charles O'Hare. "O'Hara was immediately bailed out as he is generally believed to be innocent of any criminal intent in joining the mob."  One man, Robert Iliff,  died within a month or so from the attack.

It ended up that Dennis and two other men were put on trial for murder and were found not guilty.  However, the newspaper articles (found in the below link), stated that some of the jury got out of town immediately following the verdict as they did not feel safe.  The article also stated "Had not the witness Reddan Ames (who turned states evidence), been so anxious to appear 'smart' upon the witness stand, his testimony would not have been utterly disregarded by the jury as it was.  Had he given his testimony in a straight forward manner, the jury, with ever so strong prejudices, could not have avoided finding a verdict of guilty against at least one of the defendants."

Link for the newspaper items: http://genealogytrails.com/ill/marshall/1876LaconShooting.htm

Dennis lived until December of 1889, when he died at the age of 56. I found this to be an interesting obituary for him:

from Marshall County Democrat, Lacon, IL, Friday Morning, Dec. 20, 1889:

"Denny Haggerty, well known in this community for the past fifteen years, died at his home on Wednesday night at about 11 o'clock. His disease seems to be a mystery to everybody but the doctors. He seems to have been taken with rheumatism or neuralgia and this seems to have settled about the brain. The doctors thought there might be something of a scum over the brain or some decay incident to some old contusion. Any way he has lain for some weeks a very sick man and death must have been a relief to both him and his family. Denny was esteemed a very rough man, but he had many good points A lack of education was his greatest drawback. He had the energy, the sense and the method to get on in the world. His will power was immense, and when he set himself to do or not to do, he brooked no opposition. This got him into a good deal of trouble and made him appear to disadvantage. Many men occupying 'front seats in the synagogue' are not as honest in purpose as Denny Haggerty. The funeral will take place at 10 o'clock this morning."

I think that Dennis qualified as a bit of a black sheep!

#52Ancestors-Week 25-Same Name: Matthew Henebery

This week's prompt was "Same Name". I decided to look into the name Matthew Henebery in my family tree.

The first Matthew Henebery that I know of in my family was born in 1834 in County Kilkenny, Ireland.  His father, Nicholas, brought the family to the United States in 1849 and they settled in Peoria, Illinois.  Matthew married Mary Daniels in 1857.  They had thirteen known children.  Oddly, I just learned of two of the children this past week. I've been working on this family for over twenty years.

One of the children that I just learned of was a son, Matthew Henebery.  He was born in 1872, and lived for just three months.  Following his death, two more daughters were born, then in 1877, another son arrived.  He was also named Matthew Henebery. But sadly, this Matthew died when he was almost three and a half years old.

Matthew Henebery's sister had a son in 1877 named Matthew Henebery Cunningham.

A daughter of Matthew and Mary, Josephine, married and had a son in 1891 named Matthew Henebery Cashin.

I find it sad for Matthew and Mary that they were unable to carry Matthew's name on, as they obviously wanted to do.  I wonder if there is a Matthew Henebery out there now from this family line that I don't know about?

#52Ancestors-Week 24-Father's Day: picture of my dad

Honoring my father, Richard Samuel Adamson, born in 1927, died in 2013.

#52Ancestors-Week 22-So Far Away: Benjta Nilsdotter

This week's prompt, So Far Away, made me think of my great-great-grandmother, Bengte Nilsdotter.  Bengte was born in 1847 in Katslosa, Malmohus, Sweden.  She married Olaus Hansson in about 1872 in Sweden.

Bengte and Olaus had six children, with the last one born in 1887.  The following year, her husband left Sweden for the United States and never returned to Sweden. Bengte died in 1902, at the age of fifty-four.  By that time three of her children had come to the United States, and one had died in 1897.  Bengte also had a brother and sister who came to America.  I wonder if she ever considered coming?



When Bengte died, her husband had been gone for fourteen years. There is no evidence that Bengte's husband or children ever returned to visit her before she died.  America must have seemed so very far away for her.

#52Ancestors-Week 23-Going to the Chapel: picture of my parents

The prompt for this week is Going to the Chapel.
I love this wedding picture of my parents who married in 1949. They look so happy and young!  They were married for 63 years!

#52Ancestors-Week 21-Military: Peter Bechel

This weeks' prompt is Military. My husband's great-great grandfather, Peter Bechel, was born in either 1805 or 1809 in Hanover, Germany.  It appears that he arrived without any family on the ship Shakespeare in New York in 1848. It is not known if he had been married before he arrived.

Peter married Anna (last name unknown) in about 1853 and by 1860, they had four children.  Anna died in around 1862.  I am guessing that Peter enlisted to serve in the Civil War after she died, although that is not known.  Their children were placed with other families after her death.  Peter seemed old to be enlisting.  He was fifty-two when he first enlisted to serve. It does not appear that Peter ever returned to live with any of his children after the war. He settled in El Paso, Illinois, which was about 45 miles from where his children were.

There are two enlistment dates listed for Peter. Records show that he enlisted in Ottawa, Illinois on the 18th of March in 1862 in Company I, 24th Illinois Infantry.  He was listed as fifty-two years old, was five feet four inches tall, had a dark complexion, blue eyes and grey hair. He was discharged from the unit on the 2nd of March in 1863 as disabled. He then enlisted on the 21st of June in 1863 at Cincinnati in the 1st Ohio Light Artillery, Battery K and was honorably discharged on the 12th of July in 1865 by reason of ending of the war.

Peter was admitted to No. 14, General Hospital Nashville, Tennessee on May 5th, 1865 from Knoxville, Tennessee for treatment for Hernia, and was transferred and admitted to Cumberland General Hospital, in Nashville, Tenn. May 20th 1865 (confusing, I know).  He was mustered out and discharged on July 12th 1865 but was retained in the hospital until July 24th 1865. He was shown to have been living in El Paso, Illinois after his discharge, and was still living there according to the 1870 census.

From his disability papers: "Saw Peter Bechel while on duty during a night expedition near Warsau (Tenn) in August 1862, saw when trying to climb over a fence fell and hurt himself badly; he reported himself sick and was ordered to hospital.". "He was found to have an inguinal hernia of the right side and it was disabling him for any duty.".

Peter was admitted to to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Montgomery County, Ohio on the 3rd of April in 1874.  Records indicate that he "stayed there until his death.". However, he was reported that he was living in El Paso, Illinois in 1877, according to Pension Records.

Death Records from Montgomery County, Ohio state that Peter Bechel died on the 30th of May in 1886, was age 82, born in France, and was a laborer; he died of pneumonia;  the death announcement from the newspaper listed his time of death as 5:40 am; Peter Bechel was buried in the Dayton National Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio.

#52Ancestors-Week 20-Another Language: Charles and Ingrid Seeber

This week's prompt is Another Language.  Immediately I thought of my great-grandparents who both came here from Sweden.  Two very different stories, though.

My great-grandmother, Ingrid Olauson, came to the United States on a freight boat without any friends or family accompanying her.  She did not speak any English at all when she left Sweden.  Ingrid arrived at Ellis Island in March of 1894.  Somehow, she got on a train and went to Chicago where her cousin and the cousin's husband were living, and she stayed with them.  She found work as a housekeeper and cook there.  She said that her employer could not pronounce "Ingrid", so the employer changed her name to "Ida" (which is what she went by for the rest of her life).  She slowly started learning English as she worked and lived here.  She had a Swedish accent throughout her life, however.  I can't even imagine what it must have been like to come to a foreign country to live and not know any of the language.

Then there was my great-grandfather, Karl Oscar Seg.  He told the family that he had been born in Liverpool to Swedish parents and was sent to the United States when he was about nine years old and that he spoke no Swedish.  This was the story the family believed for almost 100 years, until I finally learned his true story.  Karl (whose name was changed to Charles) came to the United States in 1892 when he was nineteen years old.  He had been born and raised in Sweden and lived there all his life until he immigrated.  So clearly, he spoke Swedish, although no one ever knew that.  When he came over, he went to live with an aunt and uncle in Indiana and worked in the brickyards where most of the workers were Irish and he learned English with an Irish accent!

#52Ancestor's-Week 19-Mother's Day

Mother's Day is an easy prompt!  Here is a picture of four generations taken in 1950: my mother, my grandmother, me, and my great-grandmother! Clearly, my great-grandmother was excited to have her picture taken!

#52Ancestors-Week 18-Close Up: questions for William Adamson

For the topic Close Up, I decided that I would choose the one ancestor that I have the most questions for/about and would like to have a close up one-on-one with. And I chose my great-great-great grandfather, William Adamson, born about 1790 in North Carolina.

First questions: who was your father? There has been much speculation, but no one actually knows. When were you born?

Next: who were your brothers and sisters? Again, there is only speculation on this.

Next: who was your wife's parents? I have a fairly good guess on this, but not proven facts.

Next: exactly how many children did you have? I only know what census records have shown.  Were there other children?  Exactly when were all your children born? I don't even have the date of birth for your son Aaron, my great-great grandfather.

Next: exactly what became of each of your children? Again, I don't know when Aaron died.

Next: when did you die? Were you blind?

Next: What war did you serve in? War of 1812? Where and when?

I'm sure that I could think of more questions, but these are the basic ones I would love to have answered!

#52Ancestors-Week 17-Cemetery: Murphy family

This week's prompt was Cemetery. I began researching my family in around 1994, when we got our first computer.  I had been wanting to start it for several years, but also wanted to be able to use a genealogy program, so I waited.  I was thrilled to begin and started researching my Murphy family.  I found my great-great-great grandparents on the census records, then started looking at cemetery records and found that the Murphy family was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Peoria, Illinois.

I finally found them there and located the gravestone for Mary Alice "Allie" Reade Murphy, my ggg-grandmother, who died in 1880.  But her husband, James Murphy, was not there with her.  Her son, James Reade Murphy, had owned the grave plot and Allie was buried with two of her son James' daughters, who had died early.  This was a great mystery to me and I could not find when Allie's husband James Murphy had died or where he was buried.

It was maybe ten years later, that two distant cousins (Peg and Mary) came to Peoria to do some research on the family and I had suggested that we drive to Crescent City in Iroquois County, Illinois to do some research on James and Allie's daughter, Ellen Murphy O'Neill.  We drove up there and spent time with the genealogical society people, then decided to drive to St. Mary's Cemetery in Gilman, Illinois where Ellen and her family were buried. As we found the family there, I was walking around, looking at the various tombstones and trying to figure out connections, I came across a tombstone for James H. Murphy!  I excitedly called for Peg and Mary to come and see what I had found. We tried not to get too excited, but we were!  Following up with the genealogical society, they found the obituary for James and yes, it was my ggg-grandfather!  He had spent the last three years of his life living with his daughter Ellen.  Later follow-up led to another obituary in the Peoria paper that gave more information on James.

I still find it a mystery why he was not buried in Peoria with Allie. I'll never know the answer to that question.

When I first found Allie's gravestone, it was quite readable.  Sadly, now it is not at all.  It read:  "Alice Read Murphy" on one line and under that it read "Alice & Jennie". Thankfully, James's gravestone is in better shape.

#52Ancestors-Week 16-Storms: Robert Emmett Murphy

This week's prompt for the blog was "Storms".  I just couldn't come up with anything for storms.  No storm stories in the family, no one with the last name Storm, no one with the first name of Storm or Stormy.  So I have been thinking about writing about my second great-uncle, Robert Emmett Murphy, and this is my opportunity.

Robert Emmett Murphy was the sixth of eight children born to William H. and Elizabeth Smyth Murphy.  He was born on the 2nd of August in 1878 in Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois.  He was baptized at St. Patrick's Church in Peoria with his godparents being his uncle, James Murphy, and his aunt, Mary Smyth Fox.

Robert's mother died from childbirth in 1883, when Robert was five years old. His father remarried a year later, and it appeared that Robert and his siblings no longer lived with their father after the marriage. In 1888, Robert was listed in the Peoria Census as age nine, living with his brother, Patrick (who was nineteen) in the home of their uncle, Charles Smith. Robert's father died in 1891 when Robert was thirteen years old.

In 1894, Robert was living in his father's old home and was a clerk for S.C. Bartlett and Co., which was a grain and commission company.

The next record I have found of Robert is from the 1896 Peoria City Directory. It showed that Robert was living with his brother Patrick.  Their sister Alice married that year and, in 1898, Robert was listed as living with Alice, her family, and his younger brother Edward. He was still working for the S.C.Bartlett company. In 1899, both Robert and Edward were living with Alice and her family.  Robert was not listed as employed.

The 1900 Peoria Census listed Robert still living with Alice.  By then he was a clerk for the Board of Trade.  The census showed that he had been unemployed for eight months in the past year. In 1904, the city directory showed that Robert was a clerk for the TA Grier and Co. in Peoria, which was also a grain and commission business.  The 1908 directory showed that Robert as unemployed and still living with Alice.  In 1909, living with Alice and her family, Robert had his own company listed as his employment, the RE Murphy and Co., at the Chamber of Commerce.

The 1910 Peoria Census listed Robert as age thirty-two, living with Alice and family. It showed his employment as a grain dealer at the Board of Trade.

I lost track of Robert for a number of years after 1910.  He wasn't listed in the Peoria Directory for 1912.  I have not been able to find him in the 1920 Census.  However, his brother Patrick died in 1920 and the obituary states that Patrick's brothers, William, James, and Robert lived in St. Louis. When his brother Charles died in 1924, his obituary also stated that Robert lived in St. Louis.  I have not located him in the 1930 Census.  His brother James died in 1931, but his brothers and sister were not mentioned in his obituaries.

Robert was found in the 1940 Census for St. Louis.  He was listed as a patient at the St. Vincent Sanitarium for the Insane.  In 1944, his sister Alice died and he was again listed as living in St. Louis.

Robert died on the 4th of January in 1949 at St. Vincent's. He was seventy years old. Robert was buried on the 8th of January in 1949 in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis in a charity lot of St. Vincent's.

The death certificate for Robert states that he died in Rural Wellston, St. Louis County, Missouri at St. Vincent's Sanitarium where he had been a resident for 15 years. It stated that he was divorced and that his occupation had been as an advertising manager for a publishing company. The informant was William H. Murphy (his brother) of Fort Worth, Texas. The cause of death was Terminal bronchopneumoniato. "Other significant conditions: Involutional Meloncholio-15 years".  That meant that he suffered from depression for the last fifteen years of his life.  I suspect that he suffered from mental illness all of his adult life.

Interestingly, the informant, his brother William, died just thirteen days later.  Since William had been in the hospital for seventy three days in Texas, he must have given information over the phone and was not able to make arrangements.  I have always been surprised that Robert was not buried in Peoria with the rest of his family.

Some of this information was confusing.  My great-aunt had stated that Robert had never married.  Information from a cousin obtained from a letter reported that Robert had spent years on and off the mental ward at St. Vincent's Hospital in St. Louis, and that his older brother William had spent years trying to take care of him.  She said that Robert had married.

When Alice Murphy Cody (Robert's sister he had lived with until moving to St. Louis) died, she passed on three silver spoons to her daughter Mary.  When Mary died in 1981, the spoons passed on to my mother.  When my mother gave them to me, we believed that they were spoons of a son that Alice had, who died very young.  The spoons have the name "Robert" engraved on them.

I polished the spoons a couple of weeks ago, and noticed that each of the spoons had a date on them. The first date was "December 25, 1893".  The next was "Dec 94", and the last was "1896".  At first I was kind of stunned as I thought about how these spoons probably hadn't been polished for maybe 100 years?  Then I realized that these spoons couldn't have been for Alice's baby, because she didn't even marry until 1896.  These spoons were Robert Emmett Murphy's spoons! So the first one was given to Robert when he was fifteen years old.  It seems like an odd gift to me to give a teenage boy, but maybe it was common back then.

I have always found the story of Robert very sad.  I remember when I was young that my grandmother mentioned him one time and I was fascinated with his name.  I was born the same year that Robert died.  When I asked my mother about him, she had no memory of him at all, not even of ever hearing of him.  She had been quite close to her grandparents so I was surprised by this.  I wonder if the family just never spoke of him.  Robert's younger brother, Edward, was my great-grandfather.  He was the only sibling to survive after Robert and William died.  Edward lived another ten years, dying in 1959.

This is yet another case of wishing that I had asked more questions when I was younger!

#52Ancestors-Week 15-Taxes: 1812 Warren County, Tennessee Tax List

For years, I have been fascinated by the 1812 Warren County, Tennessee Tax List.  I first encountered it while searching for my ggg-grandfather William A. Adamson.  I found an Aaron Adamson in the 1812 Warren County Tax List.

William's oldest son was named Aaron, but he was born around 1809, so it couldn't have been him.  Could it have been William?

Then I learned of Nancy Adamson who married Luke Tippitt.  Guess who is listed in the 1812 Warren County Tax list? Yep, Luke Tippet.  And his brother William Tippitt is listed right next to Aaron Adamson.  I can't make out if the list is divided by districts or precincts, but whichever it is, all three of these men are listed in the same one.

And, in the same precinct/district Stephen Herriman was listed.  Stephen's daughter Sarah married Michael Wilson, brother-in-law to William Adamson.

As I learned more about the Luke Tippitt family, I am quite sure (though not proven) that Nancy Adamson was William Adamson's sister.  Both families ended up in Edwards County, Illinois during the 1820's-1830's.

So taxes.  I wish tax lists could speak of those on the lists. There are so many questions that could be answered by more information!

Update on search for Estella Mabel Colwell

On the 3rd of July in 2017, I wrote about my search and lack of results in searching for more information on Estella Mabel Colwell, who had married George Moreland in 1919 when she was thirteen years old.  I know that "Mabel" and George divorced between 1921-1925, when George remarried, but I had never found any records of Mabel after the 1920 Census.

A couple of weeks ago, a hint on Mabel showed up on the Ancestry.com site. It wasn't her, but it led me to do a search again, and, lo and behold, a new marriage record for her showed up.  Then I found a couple of listings from Elmira, New York City Directories.  Mabel's mother and brother had moved to Elmira, so apparently after Mabel and George Moreland divorced, Mabel went out to Elmira.  In 1924 and 1925, she was listed in Elmira, New York as Estella M. Moreland working as a telephone operator. In the 1925 New York Census, she was listed as Stella Moreland, age 23,  a lodger and a machine operator.

I haven't found her in any 1930 Census yet.

Mabel married Elwin Dossow on the 14th of June in 1932 in Kalispell, Flathead County, Montana.  Mabel was twenty-six years old and Elwin was forty-three years old.  Both were divorced, but each listed that they had not been married before on the marriage certificate.  Mabel was listed as Stella M. Collwell.  I knew it was her when I saw that her parents were listed as Charles Collwell and Rosa Patterson!

Elwin Dossow enlisted in the Army in 1940 and stated that he was single. So more searching for Mabel...

I found Mabel again, in the 1940 Census, living in Spokane, Washington.  She was listed as Stella M. Dossow, age 34, had completed seventh grade and was working as a cook at a restaurant.  But here's the big surprise....she had an 11 year old son listed with her: Clare E. Dossow, age 11, in the fourth grade, and born in Pennsylvania.

Now the question is: was Clare actually the son of Elwin Dossow?  He and Mabel didn't marry until 1932, and Clare would have been born in 1929. Was Clare born before they married, or did Elwin adopt him?

Elwin Dossow died in 1976.  Neither Clare nor Mable are mentioned in his obituary. I have not been able to find any death record of Mabel at this time.   And I certainly wonder how she ended up in Montana!

As of this writing, I haven't found any more on either Mabel or Clare. But I was pleased to at least learn a little more about Mabel's life.

#52Ancestors-Week 14-The Maiden Aunt

Elvira "Ella" Lucinda Adamson was born to Moses Thompson and Lydia Ann Bullard Adamson on the 21st of December in 1880 in Olney, Richland County, Illinois. She was the ninth child born to her parents. By the time Ella was born, her parents had lost two sons. So she was born into a family where she had five sisters and one brother. Ella completed seven years of school, probably until she was about age twelve. When Ella was fifteen years old (1895), there had been four more children born to the family, and six children who had died: her brothers John (age 2) and Homer (age 9) had died and her sisters Maggie (age 18), Lydia (age 2), Mary Ann (age 21) and Bertha (age 14) had all passed away. It is hard to imagine what life must have been like with all those siblings dying in a fifteen year span. So at the age of fifteen, Ella was left with her older sister Lulu, who had married the year before at age 26, Edwin Carl, her brother, who had also married the year before at age 22, and Arthur, my grandfather, who was ten years old. Ella and Arthur remained the only children at home until about 1898 when infant Edna was adopted into the family. By then, Ella was about eighteen years old and was probably quite active in the care of the new baby that had joined their household. In the 1900 Census for Richland County, Illinois, Ella was listed with her parents, brother Arthur, and Edna. Arthur was listed as a student; no one in the household worked. Ella was listed as age nineteen. In 1902, Arthur left for college, leaving Ella with her parents and Edna. By 1910, Ella was still living with her parents and Edna, but she was listed as a cashier at a department store. Her parents were then ages 72 and 65. Ella's brother Arthur married in 1910. Her father, Moses Thompson Adamson,died in 1917 at the age of 79. He had never worked a day since returning home from the Civil War and had to be constantly monitored, so I would guess that it may have been of some relief when he passed away. I'm sure that Ella was quite involved in his care. Ella was thirty-six years old when her father died. She remained living with her mother and Edna and was listed with them in the 1920 Census.At that time, Ella was listed as a bookkeeper. Her sister Edna married in 1921 and remained in Olney. Ella's brother, Carl, also remained in Olney,so she had two siblings living nearby. Arthur never returned to living in Olney. In the 1930 Census, Ella was listed living with her mother. She was listed as age thirty-one (an error-she was fifty-one) and her occupation was listed as a "book layer" in a department store. Ella and her mother were the only ones listed in the home. By this time, her mother was eighty-four years old. Ella's mother died in 1935, and from then on Ella lived alone in the home. She was listed as a clerk at a department store in the 1940 Census. I do remember meeting Aunt Ella once or twice. Aunt Ella remained in the family home until her death in 1962.She and Edna were very close to each other.Ella never married.She was a kind, gentle woman who cared for others throughout her life.

#52Ancestors-Week 13-The Old Homestead

This may not seem like an "Old Homestead" to some, but it does to me.  My grandparents built their dream home in 1956, which is more than sixty years

ago now.  I was around eight years old and remember the house being built.  They had purchased five acres along the Illinois River.  The house was about two acres from the main road, with a railway track running through it near the road.  Then there was about three acres for the backyard, which ran to the river.

The house was a two bedroom, one bath ranch, with two big great rooms dividing the kitchen from the bedrooms.  One of the great rooms faced the front yard and had a big picture window.  The other great room faced the backyard and the back wall was almost all glass, facing the river. It was a beautiful view. There was a fireplace in this room.   The two great rooms were divided by double pocket doors.

The garage was under the house with a stairway leading up to the kitchen.  The other 3/4 of the basement was unfinished and was where my grandmother did her laundry.  I remember her using a wringer washing machine there.

For me, the outside was the most wonderful part of their "homestead".  Grandpa had a small shed where he kept tools, lawn mower, etc.  Down the hill in the

backyard was the "Gazebo", as we called it.  It was about the size of a one stall garage, with a concrete floor and was screened in.  Inside was a table that took up all of the middle of the room.  Chairs were along the table and along the walls.  Lots of people could fit in the gazebo.  When the weather was nice, we ate most of our dinners out there, with everyone helping to carry the dishes and food out there.

The property was a dream-come-true for kids.  My brother and I had all kinds of room to run and play.  We put pennies on the railroad tracks to smash them and listened for trains by putting out ears to the tracks.  We stood and waved as the trains rolled by and often the engineers would blow the whistle and wave to us.  We could go down to the river and wade in it and play.  In the winter, we ice skated on it.  In the spring we made rafts to try to sail away on adventures!

My grandfather had a pontoon boat, that was like the original party boat to us!  The kids and adults spent many afternoons out on the river on the pontoon boat.

Being the oldest grandchild, I spent many weekends at the house with my grandparents.  Even when I was in college, when I came home, I would go stay with them sometimes.

When my grandfather retired, they decided to move to Arizona for his health.  They had fifteen years in their dream home.  That doesn't seem very long to me now, but they had a wonderful time there.  Their home on the river has always been talked about in the family as where some of our very best memories were made.

#52Ancestors-Misfortune-James O'Neill

While writing earlier about Ellen Murphy O'Neill, I realized that I didn't have much information on what had happened to her son James.  I contacted the library in Watseka, who then passed on my request to the Iroquois County Genealogical Society who initially could not locate an obituary, but within a week I heard back from them and they had found one.

I learned that James O'Neill, born in 1864 in Kickapoo, Peoria County, Illinois died on the second of December in 1885, at the age of 21. James was the second child born to Edmond and Ellen Murphy O'Neill. The family moved to Iroquois County, Illinois in around 1872 when James would have been eight years old.  He was listed with the family in the 1880 Census and was sixteen years old.

On the second day of December in 1885, James and three other boys went to work with their machine digging a ditch. James was managing the horses and "before he could get hold of the sweep it forced itself away from the strong arms of the man and struck James on the back of the head, killing him instantly". It was written that he was "a quiet industrious young man".

Such a sad story. A young man's future gone in an instant, leaving his family to grieve the loss of him.

#52Ancestors-Week 11-Lucky: Having a picture

This week's prompt is "Lucky".  That seemed rather difficult as I thought through it.  Then it occurred to me, as I was writing another post, how lucky I am to have a picture of Mary Murphy Ryan Corrigan.  This is the only picture that I have of any of the seven children of my great-great-great grandparents, James and Alice Read Murphy, who came over to the United States from Ireland.

Mary was my 3rd great aunt.  She was born in County Kilkenny in 1834 and came to the United States with her family in 1849.  Mary lived until 1922, with  only one other sibling surviving her.

I have searched and searched for pictures of the other six children, but so far, I have not been able to locate any, not even of my great-great grandfather, William H.Murphy.  So, right now, I consider myself lucky to have a picture of Mary! Mary is on the far right in the top row.  From this picture, I can begin to imagine what her siblings may have looked like.  That's a start!

#52Ancestors-Week 10-Strong Woman

The theme/prompt of Strong Woman brought to mind many of my ancestors, several of whom I have written about previously as strong women.  I decided to write about my third great-aunt, Ellen Murphy.

Ellen Murphy was born on the 5th of May in County Kilkenny, Ireland.  She came to the United States with her family in about 1849 when she was eight years old.  Ellen was the sixth of seven known children of James and Alice Reade Murphy. The family settled in Kickapoo, Peoria County, Illinois.  In 1861, at the age of twenty, Ellen married (who I believe to be) her first cousin, Edmund "Ned" O'Neill, who was twenty-nine years old. It appears that their mothers were sisters.

A daughter, Alice, had been born in 1868, but had died in infancy in a scalding accident. In the 1870 Kickapoo Census, Ned and Ellen were living with their children Michael, James and Catherine.  The following year, the family moved from Kickapoo to Crescent City in Iroquois County, Illinois, which was about 120 miles away, moving Ellen away from her family. By 1873, Ned's younger brother, Thomas, was also living in the Crescent City area, but I don't know who moved there first or why.

Over the next ten years, Ned and Ellen had six more children, including two sets of twins.  The children were: Mary Ellen and Alice Agnes (twins), Nellie and Johanna (twins), Thomas and William Aloysius.  Sadly, Nellie died when she was two years old. So, out of the ten children born to them, eight lived to adulthood.  The 1880 Census shows Ned working as a farmer. Ellen's mother, Alice Reade Murphy, died in July of 1880 in Peoria.  Ellen had given birth to her youngest child in March of that year, and, besides the newborn baby, had several young children in the household, so she may have not been able to attend the services for her mother.  Her son, James, died in 1885 at the age of 21 in a ditch-digging accident.  He was the third of Ellen's children to have died.

In 1887, Ellen's aged father, James Murphy, came to live with the family.  He had been widowed for ten years by this time and was in rather frail health.  He lived with them for three years until his death in 1890.  James was buried with the O'Neill family in the Gilman Catholic Cemetery.  In 1896, Ned and Ellen's son, Michael married, and in 1897, their daughter, Mary Ellen, married.

The 1900 Iroquois County, Illinois Census shows that Ned and Ellen were living with five of their adult children in the home.  Ned was still farming.  In 1902, William married, and in 1907, Thomas married.

In June of 1907, Ned died.  He was seventy-five years old.  In the 1910 Census, Ellen was listed with her three daughters, Katie, Alice and Josie.  Katie worked for the telephone company, and Josie was a school teacher.  None of the three girls ever married.

On the 19th of October in 1919, Ellen passed away.  She was seventy-seven years old.  She had outlived her parents and her husband and four of her six siblings.  She had buried three children.  She had moved quite a distance from her family as a young bride and settled on a farm, raising her young children. She had cared for her dying father. A strong woman indeed.

I wish that I had a picture of Ellen, but I don't.  That Murphy family didn't seem to be ones for having portraits done!

#52Ancestors-Week 8-Heirlooms

My great-grandmother, Grandma Murphy (Katherine Hanauer Murphy), had a set of Haviland china that was her "good" china.  I believe that her china was a wedding gift (she married in 1902). She managed to hang on to it, even through the Great Depression.  And when she was older, she determined that the Haviland was to go to her oldest great-granddaughter, who just happened to be me! So, when Grandma Murphy died in 1963, my grandmother kept it for me until I married in 1971, when it was officially passed on to me.  I treasured having it and used it on special occasions!

When my grandmother died, I also got her good china.  One can only have so many sets of "good china".  As my daughters became adults, I was ready to pass on the Haviland.  My oldest daughter already had "good" china and didn't want another set, but my other daughter was very interested in having it, so now it is in the possession of another generation.

**side note: the daughter who has the Haviland has "Murphy" for her middle name, so it made it even more fitting to pass it on to her!

#52Ancestors-Valentine; Week 7

For the prompt, Valentine, I decided not to go with the obvious choice and am writing about my great-great-great grandfather, Valentine Hanauer.

Valentine Hanauer was born on the 20th of February in 1834 in Alsace, France.  He was the oldest son of the six known children born to Jean George and Marie Barbe Marzolf Hanauer. He was named after his grandfather.  Valentine arrived in the United States with his parents and family around 1847 at the age of 13.  The family settled in Canton, Ohio, later moving on to Indiana.

In the 1850 Census, Valentine is listed with his parents, two sisters and his brother in Canton, Ohio. His father is listed as a farmer.  His oldest sister, Saloma, is not found with the family. She would have been 23 years old when the family came to the United States, so perhaps she was married and either stayed in Alsace, or she is near the family, but her married name is unknown.

Valentine Hanauer married Elizabeth Swain on the 3rd of March in 1859 in Huntington County, Indiana.  Their first child, my great-great grandfather, (Edward C. Hanauer) was born on the 21st of June in 1859.  [a side note: In a letter written many years later by Edward's sister-in-law she stated that it was said that "Ed" was adopted, but she didn't know if that was true.]

Valentine and Elizabeth, along with their son Edward, were listed as living with Valentine's parents, and brother George, in the 1860 census for Whitley County, Indiana. Valentine's father was listed as a farmer, but there was no occupation listed for either Valentine or his brother George.

According to the 1870 Huntington County, Indiana census, Valentine and Elizabeth had 8 children: Edward, William Henry, George Washington, Valentine, John, Nancy Jane, Saloma, and Elizabeth Ann. Valentine was listed as a farmer with real estate worth $800. A daughter, Magdalena, was born in 1873, but died that same year.

The 1880 census for Huntington County, shows that Valentine and Elizabeth had three more children: Emmaline, Ira and Nora J. Valentine was still listed as a

farmer, with his older sons listed as working on the farm.  Their son, Edward, had married in 1879 and he was living with his wife in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Six of Valentine's children married between 1880-1890. Three married before 1900 and one married in 1904, so presumably, Valentine lived to see all of them married.  Sadly, he also saw three of his children die between 1890-1900. The picture to the left is of the family of Valentine and Elizabeth Swain Hanauer, with Valentine and Elizabeth in the center.

The 1900 census for Huntington County, Indiana listed Valentine and Elizabeth living by themselves.  Valentine was listed as sixty-four years old (he was actually sixty-six) and a farmer.

Valentine died on the 28th of February in 1904.  He was seventy years old. Elizabeth lived six more years.  They are buried together in Funk Cemetery.

#52Ancestors-Where there's a Will: Week 9

I have written about various wills that I have uncovered over the years, so while my first thought for this week's topic was about wills, I gave it some more thought and decided to write about my great-great uncle, Will Hanauer. By all accounts, Will Hanauer was a quiet, unassuming man, who lived a quiet and uneventful life.  And that may be so, but though I did not know him, I never heard anything but wonderful things about him. He was my great-grandmother's brother and I often heard her, my grandmother and my mother talk about him very fondly. I wish that I would have known him.

William Henry Hanauer was born  on the 21st of August in 1886 in Abilene,
Kansas, the first son (third child) of Edward and Elisabetha Krondorfer Hanauer.  When William arrived, he was greeted by two older sisters, Ella and Kitty. A younger brother, Charles, came when Will was four years old.  By 1893, the family moved to Peoria, Illinois.  Will was six years old then.

When Will was thirteen years old, his father died (in 1899). Will was listed in the 1900 Peoria census living with his mother and three sisters.  Will was attending school. 

By 1908, Will married Margaret von Lingen.  Will was twenty-two years old and "Mag" was twenty-one years old. They started their family right away when Adalheid Mildred was born on the 17th of April in 1909.  She had been named for Aunt Mag's mother.

In 1910, Will and Margaret were listed in the Peoria census with their daughter Mildred.  Will worked as a fireman for the steam railroad.

When Will was twenty-nine years old, his son, William John, was born on the 15th of September in 1915.  Little William died on the 1st of September in 1916 right before his first birthday.

A year and a half later, a daughter was born to Will and Mag on the 15th of March in 1918.  She was named Dorothy "Dot" Elizabeth.  The 1920 census for Peoria shows Will, Mag and their two daughters. Will is listed as an engineer for the railroad.

A third daughter, Marjorie "Margie" Ann, arrived on the 18th of December in 1920.   Now Will's family was complete.

1925 brought the death of Will's sister, Ella.  Ella had lived in Peoria until after 1910 when she married.  In 1920, she lived in Oklahoma, and when she died, she was living in Arkansas.  She died at age forty-three, when Will was thirty-eight years old.

In 1928, both Will's mother and brother died.  Both were living in Peoria. His brother Charles was only thirty-seven years old when he died. 

The 1930 and 1940 Peoria census' show that Will and his family were living on Alice Avenue in Peoria.  Will was still listed as a railroad engineer. Will's daughter, Mildred, had married in 1933 and daughter, Dorothy, had married in 1937. However, Dorothy was living in Will's household in 1940 under her maiden name. Daughter Margie married after 1940.

(Picture to the right is from left to right: Margaret and Will Hanauer, Kitty and Edward Murphy)

Will was still listed in Peoria in 1952, age sixty-six and a railroad engineer. His beloved sister, Kitty, died in August of 1963. The only other record I have of Will after 1952 is of his death on the 18th of November in 1963 in Almeda, California.

I don't know when Will and Mag moved to California. I know that their daughter Mildred and her family lived in California right after WWII, so I am guessing that Will and Mag moved out there to be near her.

Aunt Mag remained in California following Will's death, and she died in 1986. She and Will had been married fifty-four years when he died.

An interesting side note to this family: my father's family lived on Alice Ave. in Peoria and Aunt Mag was friends with my paternal grandmother.  When my dad was stationed in San Francisco he would visit with Will and Mag's daughter Mildred.