Friday, March 30, 2012

Friday Finds: Uriah Wheaton's Mare 1807


From the Scioto Gazette (Ohio) July 30, 1807

Article from the Scioto Gazette  30 Jul 1807
TAKEN up by Uriah Wheaton, an iron gray mare, about fourteen and a half hands high, three years old, trots, has a small star in her forehead, the near hind foot white, a number of gray hairs in the end of her tail. 
Appraised to twenty dollars.
     ARCH. GUTHERY,
     GEO. GUTHERY. Appraisers.
July 15th, 1807.
Ross county, Pe Pee township. I do certify the above to be a true copy from my estray book.
      JOHN GUTHERY, J. P.
July 25th, 1807.


Uriah Wheaton of Pee Pee Township, Ross Co., Ohio was my paternal fourth great grandfather. His will can be seen at this link:

Amanuensis Monday: The Will of Uriah Wheaton 1811

Article found in the wee hours of the morning, after upgrading my free library edition of Genealogy Bank to the full edition. I do love finding these little tidbits of my family history. I also learned something new: an "estray book" is a book where they kept a record of stray animals found in the county. Finder's Keepers!
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Wedding Wednesday: Roy and Viola (Runyan) Keller


Married November 28, 1945

Lula Viola Runyan  1922 - 2005
Roy Alvin Keller  1917 - 2004
Viola was the daughter of Jesse Claude and Lena (Hudelson) Runyan. She was my mother's first cousin.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

COG 116 - Women's History Month: Levina Newby


The Carnival of Genealogy (COG) traditionally honors women in March each year in conjunction with National Women's History Month. The submissions for this month's COG are to start with a photograph of a woman in our family tree and we are to tell either the story of the photo and/or a biography of the woman pictured. I have chosen to tell the story of the photo of my maternal 3rd great grandmother, Levina (Leonard) Newby along with a very short biography. My thanks to Jasia of CREATIVEGENE for hosting this Carnival!

Levina has been one of my brick walls for many, many years. I'd spent hundreds of hours chasing what I thought was the most likely lineage and I thought I had it. I really thought her father was Nathaniel Leonard. Then I got her death certificate and on the back the clerk had typed that her father was "David" and her mother "unknown". Baahh!

Levina (Leonard) Newby 1823-1889
Early in January this year I found a query about this same Leonard family on RootsWeb.com from 2002. I immediately wrote, hoping the woman still had the same e-mail address. I received a reply within 24 hours. My new found cousin Kathy was a descendant of Jacob and Levina through their youngest child Carrie. I was a descendant through their oldest child, John. To my delight, Kathy told me another cousin had given her photographs, not only of Kathy's ancestor Carrie, and her family, but another photo of Carrie's and John's mother Levina! Kathy would send it via e-mail. I was afraid to believe it; I felt like I was holding my breath! Then the e-mail arrived and there was my lovely 3rd great grandmother Levina, looking back at me! The photo was in amazing condition. I couldn't take my eyes off Levina's face, such an interesting, sweet face! Levina and Jacob were Quakers and I thought her dress style reflected that. I was in a euphoria over this photo for quite some time and I will be forever grateful to Kathy for passing it along.

It turned out that the work Kathy had done on Levina's lineage was exactly like mine. Kathy too had concluded that Levina was the daughter of Nathaniel Leonard. I am hoping to get to the courthouse in Newcastle, Indiana to view the original death certificate myself before I make any decisions about starting over completely. It wouldn't be the first time a clerk had made a mistake. However, if the clerk's entry is correct, it's back to a fairly bleak looking drawing board!

Jacob and Levina were married in 1841 in Hancock Co., Indiana and lived the rest of their lives in the neighboring county of Henry. They were the parents of 7 children: John Alby., Elizabeth A., Strother E., Loren Yancy, Leonidas Perry, Frank, and Carrie Elmonta. They are both buried in the old section of Glen Cove Cemetery in Knightstown, Indiana. Her name is spelled LEVINA on the stone, but other records spell it Lavina, Lavinia, etc. In an earlier blog post I wrote about the "miracle" of finding their tombstones when I visited that cemetery back in 1998: Sentimental Sunday: Beyond Serendipity. This unexpected gift of Levina's photograph adds a new dimension to that story!


Written for the 116th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.



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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Treasure Chest Thursday: Mom's Baby Booties 1924


A Sweet Heirloom!

Booties worn by my mother, Janet Runyan, when she was an infant

These booties still have a hint of blue. I wonder if my grandparents thought she was going to be a boy? No..apparently not! According to an article I found on children's clothing at Smithsonian.com, it wasn't until the 1940s that today's color dictate was established. Before that, pink was considered an appropriate color for boys and little girls wore blue! 

"The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl."

It's a great article! You can read it here: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?


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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Cousins - The Summer of '42


Standing L to R: Harold Vanbuskirk (husband of cousin Pearl),
cousin Paul, Morris Newby (uncle of cousin Janet), cousin Vera ,
and cousin Thelma. Kneeling L to R: cousin Pearl,
cousin Janet (my mother),  and cousin Viola. The six cousins are
 
grandchildren of Robert Noah and Mary Elizabeth (Darling) Runyan.
 Photo taken in 1942 at the home of my maternal grandparents, Lawrence and Fern (Newby) Runyan, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Tombstone Tuesday: Wilson and Melvina Mattingly


Joseph James Wilson Mattingly
son of James Edward and Cecelia Ann "Sally" (Cusick) Mattingly
JOSEPH W.
MATTINGLY
Born
Feb. 14, 1832
Died
Mar. 13, 1914
He was a kind
and loving father

*Note: Dates are incorrect on stone. Baptized Joseph James Wilson Mattingly, 8-17-1838, by Rev. Vitalis Giles at St. Charles Catholic Church. Age 9 months. Sponsor, Weekly Mattingly (aunt). Parents, James Mattingly & Sylby Cussik (Cusick). Death certificate gives birth as "January 1832" and a death date of "March 18, 1914". Most researchers agree that the correct date of birth is December 8, 1837.   

Susan Melvina (Tucker) Mattingly
daughter of William Raphael and Elizabeth Maria (Brady) Tucker

MELVINA
wife of
J. W. MATTINGLY
Born
Jul. 10, 1830
Died
Oct. 21, 1899
She was a tender mother
and an affectionate wife.

Wilson and Melvina are buried in Calvert City Cemetery in Calvert City, Marshall Co., Kentucky. They are the paternal great, great grandparents of my husband Mike.  

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Saturday, March 17, 2012

What Ever Happened to Jennie Bickett?



I don't know why Jennie Bickett haunts me so. Maybe it's because she is an unknown ghost in my husband's family. She wasn't forgotten by these living ones, they simply never knew about her. Poor Jennie!

Born Mary Genevieve Bickett on July 23, 1880 to William Barton and Julia Ann (Hardesty) Bickett, Jennie married my husband's great grandfather Charles Alexander Logsdon when she was 40 and Charles was 64. She was Charles' second wife and it was her first marriage*. Jennie and Charles had one child, a son named Thomas, born and died on February 22, 1922.

In 1930 Charles and Jennie lived on the Loretto and St. Mary's Pike, also known as Old St. Mary's Pike, in St. Mary, Marion Co., Kentucky. Charles' son, my husband's grandfather, Joseph Leslie Logsdon, had died suddenly at the age of 25 in 1919 leaving three children and a pregnant wife. I would have thought that all four of those children would have had the opportunity to know their paternal grandfather before he died in 1938. It also seems they should have known his wife Jennie, because she would have been the only paternal grandmother they would have known. Charles and Jennie were married 18 years. Charles' first wife, Josie Bean, had died in 1907, long before any of her grandchildren were born. 

Uncle Ern's barn, still standing - May 2011
Charles and Jennie lived on the same road as Thomas Ernest and Annetta Mae (Mattingly) Abell, otherwise known as "Uncle Ern and Aunt Nettie". Nettie was sister to Joseph Leslie's widow, Rose. Years later, in the late 1940s through the 1970s, my husband and his siblings all remember visiting the farm of their grandaunt and uncle many times as children. I often wonder: was Jennie still living nearby for part of that time?

Apparently none of my husband's siblings remember ever hearing their father, or his sisters, mention their grandfather Charles, or their step-grandmother, Jennie. My father-in-law would have been 22 when his grandfather died and Jennie lived another 17 years after that. By the time Jennie died in 1955, my husband and his siblings were 8, 11, and 12 years of age, but until I told them about her, none of them ever knew of great grandmother Jennie, even though she lived in a nearby county.

Of course, Charles had 7 other children and many grandchildren before he died, not just those of his son Leslie. Perhaps some of the others loved and cared for their step grandmother. It's also possible that Leslie's wife, Rose Mattingly Logsdon, may have chosen not to continue a relationship with her dead husband's family. Widowed at age 33, Rose would remain single for the rest of her life, content to be surrounded by her children and grandchildren.

I don't yet know where Jennie was buried. I probably need her death certificate to find out. Her last name was still Logsdon on the death record, so we know she never remarried. Her mother and father are buried in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in Raywick, Marion Co., Kentucky and her husband Charles and his first wife Josephine are buried in St. Charles Cemetery in St. Mary of the same county.

Perhaps someday, another descendant of one of Charles' 8 children will be able to tell me what ever became of Jennie Bickett.


*Note: Some researchers have confused Jennie with another, younger Mary G. Bickett who married E. A. Nugent in Marion Co., Kentucky in 1904.


Map of St. Mary, including Uncle Ern's farm and St. Charles Church



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Thursday, March 15, 2012

William Polycarp Bean: St. Charles Catholic Church



William Polycarp Bean
William Polycarp Bean, the son of Edward Columbus "John" and Clotilda (Vincent) Bean, was born in Nelson Co., Kentucky in 1802. He married Anastasia Medley, daughter of Ignatius and Sarah (Boone) Medley, on April 17, 1827 in Washington Co., Kentucky. He was a master carpenter and was one of the foremost builders of the St. Charles Catholic Church in St. Mary, Marion Co., Kentucky.

William Bean was the paternal 3rd great grandfather of my husband, Mike.




St. Charles Catholic Church
Built in part by William P. Bean
St. Charles Church, small portion of the cemetery in the foreground

The church's old Boss well pump still standing

Tombstone of William Polycarp Bean
St. Charles Cemetery - St. Mary, Kentucky
Inscription:

William
BEAN
Born
Feb. 17 1802
Died
July 25, 1874


A faithful husband by my side
He filled our house with glee
But now our homes are distant wide
And so far distant be



The Bean lineage may be seen at this link:
Tombstone Tuesday: Clotilda Vincent Bean

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Sunday's Obituary: Allison Cook Trowbridge 1919




Knightstown Banner, August 8, 1919, pg. 1

Knightstown Banner Obituary
dated August 8, 1919
Al. Trowbridge, aged 51 years, died at the home of his sister, Mrs. Charles Newby, Wednesday morning at 5:30 o'clock, of tuberculosis. Mr. Trowbridge had been ailing for sometime but had been bedfast but two weeks. He was a widower. The funeral will be held from the Newby home Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock conducted by Rev. Addison. Burial at Glencove cemetery.


Allison Trowbridge was my maternal great granduncle, son of John Calvin and Phoebe (Cook) Trowbridge. He was married to Laura Coralinn Delashmit in Rush Co., Indiana on December 6, 1893. Allison and Laura were married almost exactly 11 years and 2 months when Laura died. There were no children from this union.


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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Tombstone Tuesday: William and Sarah Flowers



William Flowers b. 4 Apr 1822 Maryland - d. 8 Oct 1906 Illinois
m. June 1, 1842 Bond Co., Illinois - at least 8 children
Sarah Patterson b. 31 Aug 1822 Pennsylvania - d. 18 Feb 1901 Illinois

Old Liberty Cemetery, Fayette Co., Illinois
photo take by me on May 31, 2011
Sarah was the oldest daughter of my paternal third great grandparents, Robert and Mary (Root) Patterson.

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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Those Places Thursday: Inside The Bean Cabin



These photos were taken on May 27, 2011 inside the cabin once owned by Clotilda (Vincent) Bean, the paternal fourth great grandmother of my husband Mike. The cabin was built in 1798 by Clotilda's husband, John and is now located in the Historic Old Bardstown Village in Bardstown, Kentucky. I photographed the plaques on the wall which further explain the history of the Beans and the preservation of the cabin. Click on any photo to enlarge.














The outside of the Bean cabin can be seen at this link: Irish Ancestors: Clotilda, Daughter of Lord and Lady Vincent. Clotilda's tombstone, portrait, and the family lineage may be seen at the link in the first paragraph above.

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