#52Ancestors-Education

I am reposting a blog that I wrote on June 3, 2015, to address the topic "Education"! Above is a picture of Arthur and Nye Gray Adamson. It still amazes me that both of my grandparents graduated from college!

This week’s challenge was the topic “Commencement”.  I chose to write about my paternal grandparents. Both of my grandparents graduated from college.  I find this amazing since they were both born in the late 1800s when going to college was not often considered an option! 

My grandfather, Arthur Logan Adamson, was born on the 29^th of April in 1885 in Olney, Richland County, Illinois.  He was the eleventh of thirteen children and, as far as I know, the only one to attend college.  He graduated from Olney High School in 1903.  The family story is that his parents sold their farm in order for Art to attend Westfield College in Westfield, Illinois.

My grandmother, Lotta Nye Gray, was born on the 5^th of July in 1888 in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana.  She was the second of five children. One of her brothers also graduated from college. 

Art graduated from Westfield College in 1906 after “three years of hard work and summer school”.  While at Westfield he played quarterback for the football team.  Nye graduated from Westfield in 1907 and was president of her class (which consisted of five students!).    Art and Nye had begun dating each other before they left Westfield.   

The above picture was taken from The Lanz 1907, the yearbook from Westfield College.  It refers to her interest in my grandfather in the line:

"Being a descendant of Adam she has taken a special interest in one of his sons..." 

Art and Nye married in 1910 and went on to have four children.  All of their four children graduated from college during the years of 1935 to 1948.

Obviously, education remained very important to Art and Nye. 

 

#52Ancestors: Favorite Photo

This was fairly easy to choose!  It is my grandmother and my mother in about 1928!

 

#52Ancestors-I'd Like to Meet

 I may only hit some 52 weeks this year, but this is a start! The topic is who I would like to meet.  That was a pretty easy choice for me.  I want to meet and talk to my great-great-great-grandmother Mary Alice "Allie" Reade.  Allie was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland in 1801. It was there that she married James H Murphy in 1831. 

I choose her because I would like to learn more about her Reade family history and her husband's history. And, at least in our family, it has always tended to be the women who know the secrets, and just knowledge of the families, so I am guessing that Allie could tell me a great deal that I have not been able to uncover!

Interesting Will-Low Masses

 I came across an interesting will written in 1937 while doing some family genealogy yesterday.  This woman, Lida, came from a wealthy family consisting of 13 children. She died in 1945. She had no children and was widowed.  The directions in her Will to her executor were the following Masses for the repose of the souls of:

-1000 Low Masses to be said for her father, her mother, and their children

-500 Low Masses for herself

-100 Low Masses for an aunt and uncle

-100 Low Masses for her deceased husband

-100 Low Masses for the souls in purgatory, 25 to be said at St. Mary's Cathedral, 25 to be said at Sacred Heart Church, 25 to be said at St. John's Church and 25 to be said at St. Joseph's Church

-50 Low Masses for the conversion of sinners, 15 to be said at St. Mary's Cathedral, 15 ar Sacred Heart Church, 10 to be said at St. John's Church and 10 to be said at St. Joseph's Church

That's a lot of Low Masses!

In addition to the Low Masses, the Will indicated the following:

-gave a sister all of her interest in the family trust

- gave $200 each to 2 nephews and 2 nieces (children of one of her sisters)

-gave $300 to the Sisters of St. Joseph who run the Academy of the Sacred Heart

-gave all the rest of her estate to her above-named sister

As it turned out, her sister (to whom she left all of her interest in a family trust and all of the rest of her estate) was deceased. Lida did have two sisters living, but they were never mentioned in her Will.

I also found the probate where the courts had to find Lida's living relatives.  Oddly, the two living sisters were not mentioned but a number of nieces and nephews were named. They were the children of two other sisters. I sure would like to know the story of this family dynamics! 

2021 in Review

 Well, another year has passed and I still haven't managed to reach the two goals that I continue to set for myself each year.  Thankfully, I don't let that stop the rest of my research and I had many helpful finds this past year.  As more records are available, more is learned.  Peoria County has been releasing old records, along with the Genealogical Society in Peoria and those have been quite helpful. The records I have been focused on lately are Undertaker Records, which have been indexed and available online. And I continue to keep up with my Ancestry Hints, which are often very helpful!

I think that my goal for 2022 will be to journal/blog here more often as I work through genealogy puzzles!

Finding Two 3rd Great-Grandmother's Families

 I have been meaning to post about finding one of my 3rd great-grandmother's family for a while now, and in the time of my procrastination, I found another 3rd great-grandmother's family! I have always wondered about female family members who moved away with their husbands after they married.  Did any of their origin family move with them or near them, or perhaps, moved near them later?

The first family member I want to discuss is Mary "Polly" Wilson. She married William Adamson in 1806 in Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee. A "Michael Wilson" was named in their marriage bond, so I wondered if he was her brother.  I also suspected that Catherine "Cath" Wilson McCoy Stites was her sister.  I had no proof of either being related.  And honestly, I still do not have actual proof, but enough evidence to say with confidence that I have found Polly's family.

Polly and William's second son was named Allen, so that is where I began...finding an Allen Wilson, who was born in 1765 in Virginia, with his children born in Tennessee. I learned that his eldest son was  Michael Wilson. I started seriously considering that perhaps this Allen Wilson and his wife Polly Browder were Polly Wilson's parents.

This past summer I had seen a post about a Martha Wilson who married Alfred Quertermous in 1855 in Crittenden County, Kentucky (where William and Polly Wilson had settled). As I corresponded with the poster we agreed that we had a lot of family in common.  Then the poster mentioned that Martha Wilson had been married at the home of William Adamson.  She was the daughter of Allen Wilson, Jr.  Martha's father died about 1846, and her mother died in 1855.  In the 1840 Census, the Allen Wilson family was listed as living in Union County, right next door to Crittenden County.

So then I began researching more of Allen Wilson, Sr's children:

-Catherine Wilson was listed in 1830 in Livingston County (before Crittenden County was formed); she was in Lawrence County, IL in 1840, and Richland County IL in 1850, all places that relatives of my Adamson's were.

-James Wilson was married in 1822 in Livingston County, KY; he was living in Crittenden County in 1850, 1860, and 1865 censuses.

-Priscilla Wilson married in 1827 in Livingston County, KY, was listed there in 1830 and 1840 censuses, and in Crittenden County, KY in 1850.

I am quite sure (again, without actual proof) that I found Polly Wilson's family and that they had all lived very close by to her!!!

The next family that I recently found was that of my 3rd great-grandmother Elspet "Elizabeth" Wood.  She was born in 1801 in Scotland (her parents were Alexander and Catherine Douglas). Elspet married David Erskine Gray in 1819 in Scotland. She and David and their children came to the United States in 1837 and settled in Vigo County, Indiana.  Again, did Elspet ever see any of her family again? 

As I researched the family, I found that she had one brother and three sisters:

-James appeared to have remained in Scotland.

-Catherine "Cath" married Thomas Torrance and their four sons were born in Scotland. In 1841 the family was still living in Scotland. However, by 1860, Catherine was listed in Terre Haute, Vigo County, IN with three of her sons.

-Ellison married Peter Murry (Murray). In 1841 she was listed as living in Scotland with two daughters and one son.  The next record I have found for Ellison was that she died and was buried in Terre Haute, IN in 1860.

So, it seems that Elspet's sisters did come from Scotland to the United States and settled where she was at some point after 1841.

I need to do some more research on these sisters in the Indiana records. But for now, I have found it so comforting to know that these two women (my 3rd great-grandmothers) were surrounded by their brothers and/or sisters. Family is everything!

Prison Warden Killed During Inmates Escape

 James Delahunty was the warden for the Nebraska State Prison when he was shot and killed during an escape by three inmates.  It was James' 55th birthday.

James is not a direct ancestor to me.  My 1st cousin 4x removed was Mary Reade.  She married Thomas Delahunty.  James was the nephew of Thomas Delahunty. I found the story of James compelling enough to do some research on him.

James Delahunty was born March 14th, 1858 in Peoria, Illinois to Patrick and Ellen (Kennedy) Delahunty, both natives of Ireland.  James was the oldest of eight known children.  Around 1884, the family moved from Peoria to Clay Center, Nebraska, where James' father continued farming. His father died in 1889.

By 1906, a city directory for Lincoln, Nebraska, indicated that James Delahunty was a deputy warden at the Nebraska State Penitentiary.

The 1910 census for Clay County, Nebraska shows James, age 43, living on the farm with his mother and some siblings.  It shows that James was divorced, and working as a farmer (however, he was the warden of the prison).

On March 4th of 1912, there appeared to be concerns about "dope" being brought into the prison and some were calling for James to be replaced as warden, but the governor believed that James was doing a good job, so he remained.  Ten days later, 3 inmates used explosives to get free and shot 2 guards as they made their escape.  James came out of his office shooting at the escaped convicts.  He was shot in the right hip but continued to shoot at them.  He was then shot in the chest and died.

I learned from a newspaper article that his brother John also worked at the prison and that their mother was the prison matron. Neither of them had been injured or involved in the shooting.

There were services held for James Delahunty at the Cathedral in Lincoln, Nebraska, and then his body was shipped to Peoria, Illinois for burial.