Category: Sympathy Saturday

S Is for…Sympathy

S Is for…Sympathy

Posted on by spuddled

On 27 October 1949, the Albion (Nebraska) News published a “Card of Thanks” from Mrs. Sophie Wilson and family and Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Roberg and family, expressing their gratitude for the sympathy extended to them at the death of their “beloved brother and uncle.” These Cards of Thanks were not uncommon; I’ve come across them fairly often in my research. One article I found suggests the tradition began in the late nineteenth century1 (and it continues into the present as well).

The “brother and uncle” in the Albion News article was Emil Martin, my half-great-granduncle. He was born 12 January 1871 in Biri, Oppland, Norway, and was baptized on 7 May of that year in Ostre Toten, Oppland, Norway2. His mother was my great-great-grandmother Agnette Lien, and his father was Marthinus Juliussen. Marthinus is something of a mystery I need to investigate further. Were he and Agnette actually married? What happened to him? I’m not sure yet. What we do know is that in 1878 Agnette and Emil left Norway for America.

On 3 December 1878 Agnette married Anders Roberg, 11 years her junior, in Rushford, Minnesota3. By the 1880 census enumeration the family was living in Shell Creek, Boone County, Nebraska, and Anders’s and Agnette’s first child, their son Severin Andrew Roberg (the “S. A. Roberg” mentioned in the Card of Thanks article) was two months old. In 1900 Emil was still living with his mother and stepfather in Boone County. Emil was listed as a farm laborer.

Sophie, Anders, and Severin Roberg; Emil Martin; Agnette and Sena Roberg

By 1910 Emil had moved out on his own. He was living in Manchester (still Boone County), Nebraska, and was a lodger and hired man in the household of Max and Hattie Wolf.4 Ten years later Emil was still in Manchester but now lived on his own in a home he owned. The census notes that he had started the naturalization process.5 In 1930 Emil was still living alone in Manchester, but was now listed as a naturalized U.S. citizen.6 By 1940 Emil had moved into Albion, Boone’s county seat. He was 69 years old and a roomer in a boarding house managed by the Farley family. Shortly thereafter Emil must have moved from this boarding house to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Nichols in Albion, as his 1949 obituary noted that he had lived with this couple for the past nine years.

Emil died on 17 October 1949 in Boone County.7 Oddly enough, Hugh Nichols died in the same house only six hours later. An article regarding this coincidence noted that Emil died of a heart attack, and Mr. Nichols of “natural causes incident to old age.” He was 81. Emil had never married and is listed as being survived by a half brother and a sister [sic]; Mr. Nichols was survived by his wife, four sons, and four daughters.8 Emil is now buried in the South Branch Cemetery in Newman Grove, Nebraska.

Emily Martin Headstone
Photo by the Author
  1. https://blog.genealogybank.com/genealogy-tip-look-for-card-of-thanks-in-old-newspapers.html ↩︎
  2. FamilySearch, “Norway, Select Baptisms, 1634-1927,” online database, AmericanAncestors.org (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60092/ : online 29 August 2020), Emil Marthinus Martinusen. ↩︎
  3. State of Minnesota, Marriage License of Anders Roberg and Agnette Lien (n.p: dec 3 1878, n.d). ↩︎
  4. Year: 1910; Census Place: Manchester, Boone, Nebraska; Roll: T624_838; Page: 22b; Enumeration District: 0019; FHL microfilm: 1374851 ↩︎
  5. Year: 1920; Census Place: Manchester, Boone, Nebraska; Roll: T625_980; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 20 ↩︎
  6. Year: 1930; Census Place: Manchester, Boone, Nebraska; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0011; FHL microfilm: 2341001 ↩︎
  7. Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services; Lincoln, Nebraska; Nebraska Death Index, 1956-1968 ↩︎
  8. Albion (Nebraska) News, 20 October 1949. “Two Die In Same House in Six Hours.” ↩︎

Sympathy Saturday – Mrs. Samuel Slagel

Posted on by agnette

My great-great-grandmother, Mary (Demler) Slagel, has appeared in a number of posts here, but I had not yet posted her obituary:

MRS. SAMUEL SLAGEL.

Mrs. Samuel Slagel passed away at her home in this city [Fairbury, Illinois] last Friday morning [3 February, 1928] at 11:30 o’clock at the age of 73 years and 16 days.

Mary Demler was born in Baden, Germany, January 17, 1855. When nine years of age she came to this country, locating at Washington [Illinois]. In 1868 the family moved from Washington to Fairbury, and here on November 24, 1875, she was united in marriage to Samuel Slagel, who together with two children, Daniel and Mrs. Paul Hoffman, of near Fairbury, survive. There also survives one brother, August Demler, who lives in the state of Kansas.

The deceased was an excellent wife and mother and will be missed not only in the home but by many friends.

The funeral services were held at the Christian Apostolic church in this city Monday and interment was in Graceland Cemetery.

Mary Slagel Death Certificate

Other information about Mary’s death can be found on her death certificate. Signed by Dr. Henry C. Sauer, the certificate notes her cause of death as carcinoma of the stomach, from which she had suffered for two months. Myocarditis was a contributing factor as well.

Mary’s “home in this city,” according to her death certificate, was at 107 East Walnut Street. This 2075-square-foot home was built in 1895 and still stands.

Sympathy Saturday – Typhoid Fever

Posted on by agnette

Albert Swing, Sr. Death Certificate

If one’s ancestors have to die, they may as well succumb to interesting diseases. Typhoid fever is one of those causes of death that has an antiquated ring to it. My only prior association with it was from reading the Catherine Marshall novel Christy. But apparently my great-great-grandfather, Albert Carl Swing, was one of its victims. Or was he really Albert Charles Swing, as indicated on his death certificate?  Hmm.

Albert died 10 days shy of his 63rd birthday in Francesville, Indiana. He had been born 24 October 1859 in Akron, Ohio, the son of Carl/Karl Schwing and Saloma Bollinger. The family appears in both the 1860 and 1870 censuses in Akron. In 1877 they moved to Livingston County, Illinois, where they appear in the 1880 census in Chatsworth. On 17 February 1884 in Fairbury, Illinois, Albert married Catherine Marie Hoffmann. Together they had 13 children, including my great-grandfather, Albert Carl Swing, Jr. In 1900 they appear in Ash Grove, Illinois, then in 1905 moved near Wolcott, Indiana. In the 1910 census they were enumerated in Salem, Indiana, then in 1920 in Hanging Grove, Indiana. Two years later Albert died. Albert was buried three days after his death, in the Francesville (Roseland) cemetery.

Albert and Catherine Swing

Typhoid or enteric fever is a specific infectious fever characterized mainly by its insidious onset, by a peculiar course of the temperature, by marked abdominal symptoms occurring in connection with a specific lesion of the bowels, by an eruption upon the skin, by its uncertain duration, and by a liability to relapses. This fever has received various names, such as gastric fever, abdominal typhus, infantile remittent fever, slow fever, nervous fever, pythogenic fever, etc. The name of ” typhoid ” was given by Louis in 1829, as a derivative from typhus. Until a comparatively recent period typhoid was not distinguished from typhus. For, although it had been noticed that the course of the disease and its morbid anatomy were different from those of ordinary cases of typhus, it was believed that they merely represented a variety of that malady. The distinction between the two diseases appears to have been first accurately made in 1836. [Britannica1911].

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Sympathy Saturday – At the Heart of the Flu Epidemic

Posted on by agnette

The subject of today’s post is not a blood relation, but her loss must surely have been a great tragedy for her husband and son, my first cousin three times removed and second cousin twice removed. Ina Dame was the daughter of William Patrick and Emily Ellen (Bright) Dame.  She was born 19 November 1893.  In 1915 Ina graduated from Virgil High School in Virgil, Kansas. On 25 February 1918 in Emporia, Ina married Charles A. Demler, son of August Frederick and Caroline (Fankhouser) Demler.  August’s sister Mary was the mother of my great-grandmother, Emma Alice (Slagel) Hoffmann.

A Democratic Messenger clipping from March 1918 recounts the bride’s “sweet, kind, loving disposition” and notes that “their many friends join in wishing them a long, happy and successful life’s journey together.” This, however, was not to be. On 12 November 1918, Ina gave birth to a son, Charles, Jr., in Virgil. Sixteen days later Ina died. The Democratic Messenger again provides the pertinent details, noting that Ina’s death was from influenza. Ina was buried in the Virgil Cemetery. Ina’s death was only one of between 50-100 million in the influenza pandemic of 1918.  Interestingly, the epidemic was first observed in the U.S. in Haskell County, Kansas, some 280 miles from where Ina died.

In spite of this early tragedy, life did go on for both Charles Demlers.  Charles, Sr., would remarry in 1929, though he and his wife Mineola had no children of their own. Charles died 13 May 1966, and Mineola 7 April 1969.  Both are buried in the Virgil Cemetery.  Charles, Jr., appears to have been raised by Ina’s parents. He is enumerated with them in the 1925 Kansas State Census as well as the 1930 U. S. Federal Census.  I’m not sure yet where either Charles was in 1920. By 1940 Charles, Jr., had married Etha Marie Wilson, and they were living in Lane, Kansas, along with Etha’s 11-year-old sister Betty Jean.  Etha died in 1955; Charles outlived her by 43 years, dying in Oklahoma on 3 October 1998. Both are also buried in Virgil.

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Sympathy Saturday – Manhattan (the Kansas One)

Posted on by agnette

 

My mom and I attended the National Genealogical Society‘s annual conference last week.  I’d never been before – what a great experience! I’m now determined to bring some semblance of organization to not only my genealogy files and records, but also to my genealogical searches. So now my genealogy tasks are threefold:

  1. Continue the never-ending census project (tracing all families in the “easy” censuses, from 1850-1940)
  2. Share my various findings through this blog
  3. Select one mystery or problem, and focus on trying to solve that in a structured and organized way

First mystery? Trying to trace the elusive Montgomery family’s origins in this country (or at least back another generation from William Montgomery, my 3G-grandfather, born 1802).

With this aim in mind I’ve been focusing more on those Montgomery connections, so Joseph (William’s son and my 3G-uncle) seems a logical topic for today’s post. Joseph S. Montgomery was born in August 1847 in Ohio, son of William and Mary Ann (Extell) Montgomery. He was the eighth of thirteen children and on New Year’s Eve in 1874, he married Sarah Ann Achor.  Joseph, Sarah, and their first child, Viola, then five years old, appear in the 1880 census, enumerated in Clarke, Clinton County, Ohio.

By 1900 the family had moved to Liberty Township, Geary County, Kansas.  Viola is no longer in the household, but two new children are listed – J.W., a son born in February 1882 in Ohio; and Vellah, a daughter born in August 1886 in Kansas.  In 1910 and 1920, J.W. is not with the family, but Joseph, Sarah, and Vellah continue to live in the same household. Sarah died in 1923; by 1940 Vellah, unmarried, is listed as head of the household in Lawrence, with Joseph enumerated as her 92-year-old father.  He would live six more years, dying in 1946 at nearly 99 years of age.  Vellah lived to be 87, dying in April 1974.  Joseph, Sarah, and Vellah are all buried together in Sunset Cemetery in Manhattan, Kansas.

Sympathy Saturday – Childbed Fever…Or Not

Posted on by agnette

It’s interesting how setting out to write a simple blog post can result in confusion and/or changes to the information I already  have on file. I searched my family tree data for “childbirth” for today’s post; after all, what could be more suitable for Sympathy Saturday than a death in childbirth? However, after latching on to Emily Jane Sweeney Fogle, my second cousin 5 times removed, it appears that though sympathy is called for – it cannot be targeted at death in childbirth.

Emily was born in 1821 in Liberty, Casey County, Kentucky, the daughter of Joel and Obedience (Edwards) Sweeney and great-granddaughter of Moses Sweeney. The second of eight children, she married William McDowell Fogle on 17 February 1841 in Casey County. Emily died, still in Liberty, Kentucky, on 14 October 1852. This much does match the information I already had on file from the Descendants of Moses Sweeney CD compiled by Harvey J. Sweeney. From there, though, a few facts begin to differ.

The Sweeney compilation indicates that Emily Jane was born 4 January 1821 and probably died in childbirth, and lists a total of six children of the couple, including an unnamed daughter who was born and died in Liberty in October 1852. The 1896 Kentucky Biographical Dictionary, as well as the image of Emily’s grave in Liberty’s Napier Cemetery from the Find-a-Grave website, however, however, indicates a birthdate of 4 June 1821. The story of the infant who died also appears to have come originally from the Kentucky Biographical Dictionary, which indicates Emily “was the mother of six children: Marietta, Isabelle, Sarah Frances, Jesse Edwin, William McDowell, and a daughter who died in infancy, a few days preceding the death of its mother.”

However, Ancestry.com has now digitized Kentucky Death Records from 1852-1953 (which incidentally also provided the catalyst for my investigation into the murder of Emily’s second cousin three times removed). Here we find Emily’s death listed, but the cause of death appears not as “childbed fever” (unlike two others on the same page) but as asthma. I thought perhaps somehow this was still a complication from childbirth, but the Kentucky Death Records don’t indicate any other Fogle child who was born around October 1852 and died then or later. So it seems possible the Biographical Dictionary, written some forty years later, may have provided erroneous information. Two other interesting points are revealed by the Kentucky Death Records source – Emily’s occupation (after much scrutiny) appears to be listed as “Innstress,” and the Clerk of Casey County, whose name appears on the death notices, was none other than Emily’s own father, Joel Sweeney.

Sympathy Saturday – Death by Senility

Posted on by agnette

Charles Wilson, my 3G-grandfather, was born August 13, 1831 in Louisville, New York, the son of John Wilder Wilson and his (as yet unknown) first wife. By 1850, 18-year-old Charles was living in the household of Charles Willard, an innkeeper.

About 1857 Charles married Lucy Bridges Taylor, also from Louisville. They were enumerated in Louisville in the 1860 census, along with their 1-year-old son, Wellington David (“David W.”) Wilson, who had been born November 27, 1859.

By January 1867 the family had begun its slow progress westward; in that month a second son, Oric Edward, was born in West Union, Iowa. Enumerated in the 1870 census in Madison Township in Buchanan County, (about 33 miles from West Union), the family added another son, Samuel Warner Wilson, on January 6, 1873.

Charles, Lucy, and their two younger sons were still in West Union in 1880, where Charles was working as a butcher; Wellington David, my 2G-grandfather, had married in 1879 and was enumerated in Eden Township (18 miles distant). He continued to migrate in tandem with his parents and brothers, though they never again lived in the same household. By 1885, Charles and family had moved to Knox County, Nebraska; in June of that year they were enumerated in Niobrara Precinct in the 1885 Nebraska State Census. In another 10 years the family had moved some 270 miles north, to Roberts County, South Dakota. There the family was enumerated in 1900 in Long Hollow Township. About a year later Lucy died.

In April 1910 Charles was enumerated in the home of his son Samuel, by now married and with a son of his own. Charles lived only another three months after the census enumeration, dying on July 18. On his death certificate his doctor indicated he had been attending Charles since June 1. Charles was just shy of his 79th birthday, but his cause of death is listed as “senility,” one of many age-related causes found on old death certificates.  At least it wasn’t “decrepitude” or “senile gangrene.”

Sympathy Saturday – Annette Meyer Hoffmann

Posted on by agnette

Annette Meyer, my great-great-great-grandmother, was born December 13, 1827 in Grostenquin, France. According to her death record, it appears that her mother was named Barbe and was unmarried at the time of Annette’s birth. Annette was Jacob Hoffmann’s first wife and the mother of ten children: Lisa, Anna, John, Catherine Marie (my great-great-grandmother), Magdalena, Sophie, Eugenie B., Caroline E., Marie, and Joseph. Jacob and Annette’s children were born between 1853 and 1872. Two years after the birth of her last child, Annette died on June 26, 1874 in Renaucourt, France at age 46.

Additional details regarding Annette’s life can be found in the “green pamphlet,” which for years represented the totality of my knowledge of our Hoffmann ancestry prior to their arrival in America. This pamphlet was written by Annette’s youngest son, Joseph, in 1952. Joseph describes how his father joined the Apostolic Christian Church in 1855 at age 19, then two years later married Annette. It wasn’t until acquiring copies of the original death records that I learned Annette’s name was officially Anna (thanks again go out to Cousin Daniel!). Joseph further explains that the family lived in Romacourt (apparently “Remicourt“) until 1869, while Jacob worked as a farm hand. The family then moved farther south to Renaucourt, where Jacob intended to lease a farm of his own. As Joseph states in his history of the family, “In June of 1874 father had a very hard blow for mother passed away, leaving him with a large family of children.”

After Anna’s death Jacob remarried, but his plans to stay and farm were unsuccessful after the harsh winter of 1879-1880. Between the weather conditions and an epidemic among his stock, Jacob could no longer afford to stay, and the family decided they would move to America. As has been detailed here in other posts, the majority of the family arrived in Philadelphia on May 16, 1883 and left that same night for Fairbury, Illinois, where Jacob would eventually die and be buried, thousands of miles from his first wife’s resting place.

Sympathy Saturday – Grandma Wilson

Posted on by agnette

Of my 8 great-grandparents, the only one I ever met was Grandma Wilson: Sophie Christine (Roberg) Wilson. Had she not lived to the age of 97, I might not have met her either. As it was, I only met her once, when I was three. I have dim memories of that meeting, of visiting the nursing home where she lived, and the fact that she gave me a dollar.

Sophie was born November 5, 1881 in Boone County, Nebraska, the daughter of Anders and Agnette (Lien) Roberg, who were both born in Norway. On March 13, 1907 Sophie married Carl Ozro Wilson in Boone County, and they had a total of 10 children: Anders Clarence, Blanche Agnes (my grandma), Ozro Willie, Pearl Jeanette, Clarence Salmer, Woodrow, Mildred Genevieve, Irene Sophie, Maude Lucille, and Lester Laverne.

About 1915 the family moved from Nebraska to South Dakota; in 1920 they were enumerated in Cody, Mellette County. By 1930 Sophie and Carl had separated; that year’s census finds Carl living as a boarder in a hotel in Wood, South Dakota, and Sophie and her children in Witten, South Dakota, where she is employed taking in washing. Carl died in 1939, and in 1940 Sophie and those children still left at home are again in Witten, though the information she provided indicates that five years earlier she had been living in rural Tripp County.

Beginning in 1964 Grandma Wilson resided at the Winner Nursing Home in Winner, South Dakota; she suffered from diabetes. She died at McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls on September 24, 1979, a little more than a month shy of her 98th birthday. She was buried September 27 in the Winner Cemetery, near her estranged husband as well as her infant son Woodrow, who had died more than 60 years earlier.

Carl and Sophie Wilson and Family

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