Category: Montgomery Line

B Is for…Bronchitis

Posted on by spuddled

Rather than examining one relative or incident in great detail, today’s blog post is going to take a look across the entire family tree for those individuals who share one specific characteristic — namely, bronchitis as a cause of death.

First, the medical details:

“Bronchitis is an inflammation of the bronchial tubes, the airways that carry air to your lungs. Symptoms include a persistent cough, mucus production, chest discomfort, and fatigue. Acute cases are usually viral and clear up on their own, while chronic bronchitis is a long-term, recurring condition often caused by smoking.”1

And now, the victims:

My 4G-grandmother, Caroline Caryl (the same one whose headstone I stumbled across with miraculous ease), was born in 1807, probably on 13 August, and either in New York state2 or in Chester, Vermont.3 I have yet to identify her parents. She married Loring Taylor, and they had six children, including my 3G-grandmother Lucy Bridges Taylor, who married Charles Wilson. All the children were born in New York State, and Loring died there (in Russell, St. Lawrence County) in 1865.4 By 1870 Caroline was living with her son Orric and his family in Buchanan County, Iowa.5 On 4 December 1887, Caroline died in West Union, Fayette County, Iowa. While the primary cause of death was a paralytic stroke, the immediate cause was “capillary bronchitis of 10 days duration.”6

Ada Davis, born 18 August 1855 in Champaign County, Ohio, was my first cousin five times removed. Her parents were Ananiah and Phebe (Sutton) Davis.7 On 28 October 1875 she married Jesse Irvin Maxson, and they had five children: Ernest Hayward, Walter Wilbur, Harry Howard, Willie Irvin, and Joseph Orva.8 Ada died of chronic bronchitis, with congestion of the lungs as a contributing factor, on 1 October 1910 in Clark County, Ohio. She was 55.9

Next we have Ada’s third cousin once removed (and my fourth cousin four times removed), Cloyd Clifton Davis. Not sure where his parents came up with the name Cloyd (though his is not the only instance in the family tree). They were Richard Washington and Minerva Sarah (Smith) Davis. Cloyd was born 2 February 1883 in Jackson Center, Ohio.10 In 1906 he married Marge M. (surname unknown). He died 23 March 1941 in Sturgis, Michigan, of lobar pneumonia, from which he had suffered for 20 hours, with long-term bronchitis as a contributing factor.11

Clarence Buford Kanatzar, born 5 November 1899 in Sturgeon, Missouri, to George Miller and Mary Jane “Mollie” (Riley) Kanatzar, was my fifth cousin twice removed. On 21 April 1920, in Independence, Missouri (famous as the jumping-off place for the Oregon and other trails), he married another Molly, this one Molly Lou Spene.12 On 7 April 1936 in Sturgeon, Clarence died of what the old newspapers often called “a complication of diseases.” In this case, general tuberculosis, bronchitis, auricular fibrillation, and edema of the lungs.13 He was only 36.

I was going to highlight all our relatives who shared this cause of death, but…there are too many. So here is a brief listing of the remainder:

Next time I’ll choose something less common.

  1. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/3993-bronchitis ↩︎
  2. FamilyHistory Search and/or www.ancestry.com, 1880 Census. ↩︎
  3. State Historical Society of Iowa, “Iowa, U.S., Death Records, 1880-1972/1880-1968,” death records, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61442/ : accessed 8 November 2025), 815. ↩︎
  4. Portrait and Biographical Album of Fayette County, Iowa: Containing Full Page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County (n.p: Lake City Publishing Company, 1891). ↩︎
  5. 1870 Census. ↩︎
  6. State Historical Society of Iowa, “Iowa, U.S., Death Records, 1880-1972/1880-1968,” death records, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61442/ : accessed 8 November 2025), 815. ↩︎
  7. Ohio, Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953, , Ada Maxson, 1 October 1910; online images, FamilySearch.org (www.familysearch.org : online 11 April 2018). ↩︎
  8. www.findagrave.com, www.findagrave.com. ↩︎
  9. Ohio, Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953, , Ada Maxson, 1 October 1910; online images, FamilySearch.org (www.familysearch.org : online 11 April 2018). ↩︎
  10. www.findagrave.com, www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 152838958. ↩︎
  11. Ibid. ↩︎
  12. Missouri State Archives, “Missouri, Marriage Records, 1805-2002,” marriage record images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 October 2019), Clarence B. Kanatzar. ↩︎
  13. Missouri, Web: Missouri, Death Certificates, 1910-1969, 14082, Clarence Buford Kanatzar, 7 April 1936; online scanned images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : online 30 October 2019). ↩︎

Church Record Sunday: Cornelius Davis and Matilda Furrow

Posted on by spuddled

I’ve chosen to define “church record” loosely for today’s post. The marriage record in question comes to us in actuality from a county courthouse in Ohio, but the officiant at the wedding was a clergyman. So that’s good enough for me.

Today we are looking at the marriage of my 4G-grandparents, Cornelius Davis and Matilda Furrow. From their marriage record we learn that they were united in marriage on 7 September 1837 in Clark County, Ohio, by Lewis A. Davis, “a Minister of the Gospel.” I suspect Lewis was some relation, but I have yet to determine exactly which one. They had obtained their marriage license the day before the wedding, and the marriage record further states that both parties were of age.1

Cornelius was, in fact, 29 years old, having been born 23 April 1808 to Joseph S. and Hannah (Sutton) Davis in what would later become West Virginia. He was married first to Rachel Loofboro in 1829, and they had two children, Louisa Jane and Stephen. Stephen died in infancy, and Rachel died sometime between Stephen’s birth and Cornelius’s second marriage, though I don’t know exactly when.2

Matilda Furrow was born between 1817 and 1818 in Miami County, Ohio. Her parents were John and Mary (Simpkins) Furrow, who were originally from Montgomery County, Virginia. She and Cornelius would have eight children: Lewis H., born November 1838; John H. (my 3G-grandfather), born 4 April 1840 (exactly 102 years before Dad and exactly 134 years before me); Lucinda, born 5 May 1842; Hannah Ann, born 23 March 1844; Charles C., born 23 June 1846; Rebecca, born 25 August 1848; Francis Marion, born 28 October 1850; and Ananiah, born 7 March 1852. Ananiah only lived to the age of five, but the remaining 7 children survived at least to adulthood.

Cornelius was enumerated in Jackson, Shelby County, Ohio, in 1850, and in Washington, Harrison County, Missouri, from 1860-1880, but Matilda appears in only the first of these census records. From The Sabbath Recorder (the newsletter of the Seventh Day Baptist Church) of 29 March 1855, we learn that Matilda had died on 19 February of that year in West Union, Iowa. Her cause of death was consumption.3

In another instance of “genealogy is a never-ending pursuit,” I should add here that until about five minutes ago, I was prepared to wrap up Matilda’s life by saying she died sometime between 1850 and 1856 since in the latter year Cornelius appears in the Iowa State Census, listed as a widower. I didn’t know exactly when Matilda died, and I assumed it was somewhere in Ohio. And instead I stumbled across the Sabbath Recorder file which provided the real story. The final detail regarding Matilda’s place of death is made even more interesting in that I’ve actually been to West Union, Iowa, on a genealogical field trip. Of course, I was not looking for Matilda there, since I had no idea that’s where she died. Instead I was looking for her…let’s see…her great-grandson’s great-grandmother, Caroline (Caryl) Taylor. And I managed to just stroll right up to Caroline’s headstone without any searching. As I said in another post about this visit, it was definitely genealogical serendipity.

  1. Ancestry.com. Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. ↩︎
  2. www.ancestry.com, Family Data Collection. ↩︎
  3. https://sabbathrecorderscan.s3.amazonaws.com/SR+Vol+11+(1854-55)/Sabbath+Recorder_1855_11_42.pdf ↩︎

Sympathy Sunday: Dolores (Guymon) Montgomery

Posted on by spuddled

Today’s story takes a few twists and turns and is one I uncovered recently while working on the never-ending “Census Project.” At the center is my fifth cousin twice removed, Dolores R. Guymon. Usually I would include a link pointing back to Dolores in the database portion of this website, but since I only just identified Dolores while working my way through census and other records, she’s not in my online database yet. So instead I’ll link to her mother, Elizabeth “Lizzie” (Slatten) Guymon. Eventually a branch will be added there for Dolores. Anyway…

Dolores was born 10 September 1906 in Missouri. She was one of four children, one being the Bedonna I wrote about in an earlier post. In 1910 “Delores” and her family were enumerated in Sherman, Missouri1, and in 1920 “Deloris” and family were in Bethany, Missouri.2 On 28 July 1926, at her parents’ home “on South Twelfth Street,” Dolores, then 19, married George William Montgomery, 27.3 To my knowledge, George is not related to “our” Montgomery line, but you never know, especially since my Montgomery branch is something of a brick wall.

I love the detail you can sometimes find in old newspaper articles. Before we jump ahead to the sympathy part(s) of this story, a few tidbits about Dolores’s life in 1926, courtesy of contemporary Missouri newspapers. We learn, first of all, that she was a student at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, had been in the college’s glee club, and in January 1926 was made a member of the college sextette, a mark of vocal distinction.4 Interestingly, Google tells me that Stephens College, founded in 1833, is the second-oldest institution that continues to function as a women’s college. Umm, it is also billed as the pet-friendliest campus “on the planet”!!5 In March of that year, Dolores played the part of widow Sadie Jordon in the Stephens College production of “Icebound.”6 Dolores’s hometown paper, the Bethany Clipper, noted in April that she had spent the Easter holidays in Bethany with her family before returning to college in Columbia. The article further noted her involvement in Stephens College athletics, both as an assistant instructor in tennis and as part of a basketball tournament.7 In May, Dolores was an attendee at a formal banquet held by the Kappa Delta Phi sorority at the Daniel Boone Tavern.8

More details concerning Dolores’s athletic prowess appeared in the Bethany Clipper in June. An article titled “Local Girls Honored At Stephens College” notes that “two of Bethany’s champion tennis players” had been separated for a year but reunited to win another championship at Stephens College as part of the commencement week activities. One of the two was Dolores; the other was yet another Bedonna; after noting in an earlier post that the name sounded so unusual, there seem to be Bedonnas everywhere suddenly. This one was Bedonna Lingle; the two girls won the girls’ doubles championship at Stephens. The article goes on to describe how Dolores was one of only 10 girls (of 600) awarded a Stephens sweater. She was also voted “the most perfect girl in health of body in the entire college.”9 She graduated during that commencement week, even though she was only 19. Did she start really young? Graduate in only one year? I don’t know.

Later in the summer Dolores won a prize for having the highest score at a bridge party10, then participated in a scavenger hunt (hosted by our friend Bedonna Lingle). Prizes were awarded to the winning scavengers: a sunburst pin for the winning lady, and “cigarets” with a leather holder for the winning man. After the hunt, the group dined on “nut sandwiches, bean salad, pickles and grape juice” before going swimming until 2 a.m.! One of the other attendees was none other than Dolores’s future husband, George Montgomery.11

Two weeks later the Clipper told of the announcement of Dolores and George’s engagement. The festivities began as a bridge party hosted by Dolores’s parents, but later when ice cream and cake were served, nasturtiums were passed to each guest which contained hidden hearts with the wedding date noted on them.12 An article then appeared on 4 August which described the wedding that had taken place. Only the immediate families were present as Dolores and George exchanged vows beneath an arch surrounded by red roses beneath a white wedding bell. George’s sister Opal was maid of honor, Dolores’s brother Victor was best man, and Dolores’s sister Bedonna played the wedding march. After a wedding “dinner” (the 1:00 p.m. kind), George and Dolores left for their six-week honeymoon to California. Dolores wore a suit and hat of “reindeer brown.”13

After an eventful 1926, Dolores and George apparently settled down to married life. In 1930 they were enumerated in Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri. George is listed as 30 years old and a farmer; “Delores” is 23 and not employed outside the home. They do not have any children. The census also tells us (one of the more random questions asked on any of the censuses) that the couple had a radio set in their home.14 Perhaps Dolores liked to sing along.

Four years later George’s sister Opal (the aforementioned maid of honor at their wedding) married Wesley F. Gillman. She was 26 and her husband was 33.15 A week prior to her wedding, Opal was the guest of honor at an entertainment during which “guests showered Miss Montgomery with beautiful and useful kitchen utensils.” Thankfully the newspaper article about this event clarifies that the gifts were in fact not thrown at Opal but were delivered to the bride in a toy wagon pulled by children dressed as tiny brides. From the article we also learn that Opal was an English teacher at the local high school.16

But now for the sympathy. A little less than two years after her wedding, on Leap Day 1936, Opal gave birth to a daughter, Margaret Louise, in Saint Joseph, Missouri. On the following day, 1 March, Opal died. Her death certificate provides additional details: baby Margaret was in a breech position, complicating delivery. Fifteen hours after Margaret’s birth, Opal died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism.17 Wesley Gillman, Opal’s widow, would live until 1977, but perhaps he felt he couldn’t adequately care for a baby girl. Whatever the reason, the Bethany Republican-Clipper tells us what happened next, some 10 days after Opal’s death18:

In 1940 the family was enumerated in Cypress Township; oddly, Margaret is still listed with the Gillman surname and is described as George’s niece rather than his adopted daughter. Also in the household is a son, George T. Montgomery, a year younger than his adopted sister.19 By 1950 Margaret is still listed as George’s niece, but she is now named as Margaret L. Montgomery.20 More sympathy is in order for the family, as three years later George and Dolores’s son, George Thomas “Thomas” Montgomery, would be killed in a car accident on Highway 69, succumbing to head and chest injuries.21 An article about the accident describes how Tommy crashed head-on into a loaded tractor-trailer at 1:30 a.m. on 23 July 1953, one mile from his home. He had been out with friends that evening, and one of his friends encouraged him to stay overnight due to the late hour, but Tommy did not want to disturb his father by calling home to relay the change of plans. Those on the scene of the accident were positive he had fallen asleep behind the wheel of the 1953 Ford he had received for his 16th birthday. The article notes that he was survived, among others, by “a sister Miss Margaret Montgomery.”22

George, Sr., would survive his son by 10 years, dying in Bethany, Missouri, in December 1963. He was 64.23 Dolores died on Valentine’s Day 1977 at the age of 70. Both are buried in Bethany’s Miriam Cemetery.24 As for Margaret, her own wedding took place just a few weeks after Tommy’s death. She married Glenn A. Mason on 16 August 1953; both were 17. They would have three children: Tom, Peggy, and Michael, and would be married for over 65 years. Margaret died 19 March 2020, and Glenn on 28 September 2021.25

  1. 1910 Census (n.p: 1910, n.d), Sherman, Harrison, Missouri; Sup 3, Enum 109, Sheet 4A. ↩︎
  2. 1920 Census, Bethany, Harrison, Missouri; Sup 3, Enum 98, Sheet 15A. ↩︎
  3. Ancestry.com, “Miss Dolores Guymon to Be Married at 12 O’clock Today,” wedding, , 28 July 1926, Bethany [Missouri] Clipper; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : online 30 May 2026). ↩︎
  4. “Makes College Sextette,” Bethany [Missouri] Clipper, 20 January 1926, pg. 7 ↩︎
  5. https://stephens.edu/ ↩︎
  6. “‘Icebound’ to be Given by Stephens College,” Columbia [Missouri] Missourian, 17 March 1926, pg. 4 ↩︎
  7. “The Clipper Listener,” Bethany [Missouri] Clipper, 7 April 1926, pg. 7 ↩︎
  8. “Stephens Sorority Has Formal Banquet,” Columbia [Missouri] Missourian, 10 May 1926, pg. 3 ↩︎
  9. “Local Girls Honored At Stephens College,” Bethany [Missouri] Clipper, 2 June 1926, pg. 6 ↩︎
  10. Bethany [Missouri] Clipper, 23 June 1926, pg. 7 ↩︎
  11. “Seventeen Find New Thrill For Youths,” Bethany [Missouri] Clipper, 7 July 1926, pg. 4 ↩︎
  12. “Dolores Guymon Honored at Announcement Party,” Bethany [Missouri] Clipper, 21 July 1926, pg. 6 ↩︎
  13. “A Quiet Home Wedding,” Bethany [Missouri] Republican-Clipper, 4 August 1926, pg. 5 ↩︎
  14. 1930 Census, Cypress, Harrson, Missouri; Enum 41-10, Sup 2, Sheet 5A. ↩︎
  15. www.findagrave.com, www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 21139813. ↩︎
  16. “Shower for Bride,” Tri-County News [King City, Missouri], 18 May 1934, pg. 6 ↩︎
  17. Missouri Office of the Secretary of State; Jefferson City, MO, USA; Missouri Death Certificates, 1910-1969 ↩︎
  18. Bethany [Missouri] Republican-Clipper, 11 March 1936, pg. 1 ↩︎
  19. Ancestry.com, 1940 Census, Cypress, Harrison, Missouri; SD 3, ED 41-11, Sheet 6A. ↩︎
  20. 1950 U.S. Census, , Cypress, Harrison, Missouri, enumeration district (ED) 41-15, 3, dwell. 26, George W. Montgomery; digital images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/ : accessed 30 May 2026). ↩︎
  21. Missouri Office of the Secretary of State; Jefferson City, MO, USA; Missouri Death Certificates, 1910-1969 ↩︎
  22. “Tragic, Sad Death of Tommy Montgomery,” Harrison County [Missouri] Times, 30 July 1953, pg. 1 ↩︎
  23. Missouri, Missouri Death Certificates, 1910-1971, 63-047778, George Montgomery, 31 December 1963; online images, State of Missouri, Missouri Digital Heritage (https://s1.sos.mo.gov : online 31 May 2026). ↩︎
  24. Missouri Office of the Secretary of State, “Missouri, U.S., Death Records, 1968-2015,” death records, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62145/ : accessed 31 May 2026), Dolores R. Montgomery. ↩︎
  25. www.findagrave.com, www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 21139813. ↩︎

Ahnentafel Number: Agnette Evensdatter (Lien) Roberg, #23

Posted on by spuddled

This is the 23rd Sunday of the year, so today’s Ahnentafel Number entry will take a closer look at the life of my great-great-grandmother, Agnette Evensdatter (Lien) Roberg, who is #23 in my ahnentafel chart. Information about Agnette has appeared in a few posts over the years, so some of this may be a refresher, but I’ll see if I can bring out any new tidbits of information.

“Agnette” is the Norwegian variation of “Agnes,” which explains where Grandma Montgomery acquired her middle name. Agnette was born 30 November 1844 in Biri, Oppland, Norway to Even Olsen and Karen Larsdatter (Onsrud) Lien. She was baptized 26 December. Of note is that her name in her baptismal record is spelled “Agnethe.”1 Biri is located in southeastern Norway, about 100 miles north of Oslo.

In the 1865 Norwegian census, the household residing on the Lien farm in Biri consisted of:

  • Even Ols[en], 68
  • Karen Larsd[atter], 57
  • Kari Evensd[atter], 25
  • Stener Evens[en], 13
  • Anthon Christian Arents[en], 2

Anthon, listed as “her son” rather than “their son,” appears to have been the son of Kari so would have been Agnette’s nephew. Agnette herself was no longer residing at home but was in the municipality of Østre Toten. Living in the household of Gustav and Petronelle Raabe, she was listed as a tjenestepige, or servant. While the family members are all listed as having been born in Østre Toten, 2 of the three servants were listed as being born in Biri. The second of these was Oline Evensdatter, Agnette’s older sister, who had been born in 1837. In addition to Oline, Kari, Agnette, and Stener, Even and Karen appear to have had two more daughters: Lene, born in 1847; and Siri, born in 1850.2

The next record where I’ve located Agnette is from May 1871. This is the baptismal record of her son, listed as Emil Marthinus. He was born 12 January of that year and baptized 7 May. Emil’s father is listed as Marthinus Juliussen Gihle, and Agnette is listed as residing at Brændengen. Marthinus and Agnette were not married.3

Agnette and Emil have proven to be elusive in the 1875 census, but in 1878 the two of them sailed from Norway to America. They sailed on 31 May 1878 from Oslo on the S.S. Angelo, traveling to Winona, Minnesota after their arrival.4 It’s uncertain how they met, but on 3 December 1878 in Rushford, Minnesota, Agnette married Anders Svendsen Roberg, 11 years her junior.5 As David Johnson relates in his article about Anders and Agnette, it is not altogether surprising that the two would decide to marry and start a life together.

The following year Anders, Agnette, and Emil traveled to Nebraska by covered wagon, living in a 12 x 12 dugout with a hay roof and two small windows.6 In 1880 the family was enumerated in Shell Creek, Boone County, Nebraska. The household then consisted (badly spelled by the census-taker) of:

  • Svenson, Andrue, 25
  • Svenson, Aginous, 30
  • Amel Anderson, 10
  • Svenson, Serrene, 4/12

This last household member was Anders and Agnette’s son Severin, born 17 February 1880. The following year, on 5 November 1881, my great-grandmother, Sophie Christine, was born, and on 2 June 1884, daughter Sena followed. By 1900 the family was in Midland, Boone County, Nebraska; the enumerator, though only required to provide the month and year of birth of each household member, went above and beyond, providing the complete birthdate for each individual, though in Agnette’s case, two years were lopped off her age (still less than the 4-5 years lopped off in 1880). We can also see that the family appears to have settled into the use of the Roberg “farm name” rather than the patronymic “Svenson” as their surname. Here Sena is also listed under the nickname Sadie.7 In 1900 Sophie was living with the Knudson family and was no longer at home.

  • Roberg, Andrew, b. 10 October 1855
  • Roberg, Agnethe, b. 30 November 1846
  • Roberg, Severin, b. 17 February 1880
  • Roberg, Sadie, b. 2 June 1884
  • Martin, Emil, b. 12 January 1871

After another 10 years, we find the family still in Midland, and Agnette’s age has slowed down again. Here she is listed (as “Agnes”) as 60 years old to “Andrew’s” 55 years. Both Sophie and Severin are now out of the house. Living with her parents was Sena, now a widow under tragic circumstances, and her two daughters Esther, 4; and Clara, 1.8

Nine years later Agnette would die, passing away on 18 February 1919 in Boone County at the age of 74. Her death certificate does provide the correct birthdate information; it also notes her cause of death as carcinoma of the liver, from which she had suffered for two years. She was buried 20 February 1919 in the beautiful South Branch Cemetery outside Newman Grove, Nebraska.9

Sophie, Anders, Severin, Email, Agnette, and Sena
  1. The National Archives (Hamar); SAH-PREST-096: Biri priest’s office; AV/SAH-PREST-096/H/Ha/Haa/L0005; Church register for Biri; 1843–1854 ↩︎
  2. Norwegian Statistical Centre, Norwegian Archives, Historisk befolkningsregister (https://histreg.no/index.php/omhbr : accessed 14 June 2025), Karen Larsdatter. ↩︎
  3. The National Archives of Norway-Arkivverket; Norway; Church Books 1815-1960; Reference Number: SAH/PREST-104
    ↩︎
  4. Digitalarkivet Sources. ↩︎
  5. State of Minnesota, Marriage License of Anders Roberg and Agnette Lien (n.p: dec 3 1878, n.d). ↩︎
  6. H. Halderson, Attorney, History of the Pioneers (n.p: bet 1897-1943, n.d). ↩︎
  7. 1900 Census. ↩︎
  8. 1910 Census (n.p: 1910, n.d). ↩︎
  9. Nebraska State Department of Health, Death Certificate of Agnette Roberg (n.p: n.p, February 19, 1919). ↩︎

Census Sunday: Or, What in the Heck Does Megan Do All Day?

Posted on by spuddled

I’m just finishing up a week at the Outer Banks, which means I’m feeling lazy, so this week’s Census Sunday blog post will follow that old dictum, “Write what you know.” And what do I know? I know how to spend lots and lots of time “doing genealogy.” But what exactly does that mean? I wish it meant that I made a new and thrilling genealogical discovery (i.e., found a brand new ancestor) every day, or even broke through a brick wall every few weeks (or months). William Montgomery, I’m still looking at you. Instead, what it usually means in my case is working on my never-ending “Census Project.”

And what, pray tell, is the “Census Project”? In basic terms, it means selecting (somewhat arbitrarily) one branch of the family tree and tracing all the descendants of that line from 1850 to the present day, or some approximation thereof. I’m currently working my way through the Sweeney line, and have been for…well, I don’t even know how long. Why 1850, you might ask? The 1850 census was the first to list every individual by name, so it’s much easier to be sure you’re looking at the right family than if, say, you are faced with 38 men named William Montgomery in 1840, and the only identifying feature for each family other than location is how many individuals in the household fell into each age range.

So how is the Sweeney Census Project going after all this time? Well, if you want a hobby that will last the rest of your lifetime, this could be it. I’m working my way through the descendants of Moses and Elizabeth (Johnson) Sweeney, and so far I’m on their second child (of 14). Mary Sweeney was born in 1760 and married Tyre Slatten, and I’ve made my way to their 7th child of 8, James Anderson Slatten, and to his 5th child (of 14 – again with 14), another Tyre Slatten. This Tyre and his wife, Julia Anne Coy, moved from Kentucky to Missouri. They only had 7 children, and I’m to their second, a son named James Lyon Slatten. He and his wife Rosetta (or Rozettie) Bartlett also had 7 children. Their eldest, Elizabeth or Lizzie, married Alva Burton Guymon, and they had four children: Victor Floyd, Deloris, Roscoe, and Bedonna. Bedonna definitely goes on Megan’s List of Unusual Familial Names.

But then what does Megan do? Well, Megan goes onto Ancestry.com mostly, and looks up the family of interest. She finds them in the appropriate census record(s) and adds that location as a census “fact” in RootsMagic (Megan’s genealogy software of choice). Then, because she is a weirdo, Megan transcribes the details of the census entry into RootsMagic, then uses those details to add other facts (birthdates and locations, marriages, occupations, newly-discovered children, etc.) to the RootsMagic database, always citing her sources, because Megan has learned that lesson. Then Ancestry helpfully suggests other possibly-related records which are also examined and added as sources if they are really for the correct family. Often they are, but sometimes not even close.

Okay, I’m done talking in the third person now. I make an effort to find each individual in every 1850-1950 census during which they would have been enumerated. If I can’t find someone where they should be, I’ll just add a to-do task to their record, with the optimistic thought that someday I’ll come back and find all those missing documents. But since most of these are cousins of some stripe rather than more direct ancestors, I’m okay with moving on to the next victim, er, family. It’s the direct family members who can’t be found who are the most frustrating. Because where did they go?? Anyway…

Here’s one of the many census records I transcribed this week, the 1900 census record for Tyre and Julia Slatten’s family in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas. I do love those precise birth months/years in the 1900 census, rather than the ages in other censuses. Also the number of years married, and the number of surviving children out of how many children born detail. Tyre and Julia were in Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri, from 1860-1880, then Sulphur Springs from 1900-1910, though both Tyre and Julia were buried in Bethany upon their deaths in 1913 and 1919 respectively.1

So that’s what I’m usually working on, genealogically speaking. Though I will go on occasional side quests, like tracing all of one particular family’s memorials on the Find-a-Grave website, or randomly deciding to research someone else’s family tree on a whim. And sometimes there are side quests to the side quests, like reorganizing my library and updating my book-tracking software with purchase price and location, cover price, and reading dates for all 5679 books. And sometimes I spend time at the Outer Banks.

  1. Year: 1900; Census Place: Sulphur Springs, Benton, Arkansas; Roll: 51; Page: 8; Enumeration District: 0020 ↩︎

On This Day: Bicentennial Birthday of Joseph Simeon Schooling

Posted on by spuddled

On today’s “On This Day” post, I’m taking a look at the birth (and life) of Joseph Simeon Schooling, who was born 200 years ago today in Washington County, Kentucky.1 Or it might have been 200 years and 2 months ago in Madison County, Kentucky, but we’re going to ignore that possibility.2 Joseph was my 2nd cousin 5 times removed and was the son of James A. and Nancy (Sweeney) Schooling.

On 18 July 1847 in Riggs, Missouri, he married Elizabeth Jane Hall. He was 21, and she was 20.3 Elizabeth was also my 2nd cousin 5 times removed; she was the daughter of Willis Jourdan and Nancy (Sweeney) Hall. Joseph and Elizabeth second cousins; his mother Nancy and her mother Nancy were first cousins. By 1850, Joseph and Elizabeth were living in Prairie Township, Randolph County, Missouri, along with daughters Nancy Elizabeth, 2; and Lucy Margaret, 3 months. Joseph was a farmer with property worth $300.4 Ten years later, the family was still in Prairie Township, though Joseph’s property value had increased to $1250. The family size had increased as well; Nancy and “Margaret” had now been joined by Jeremiah William, 7, and Ida Callaway, 1.5

I have not yet located the family in the 1870 census, but by 1880 they had relocated to Bourbon Township in Boone County, Missouri. Here (because the 1880 census asks the question) we learn that Joseph is unable to write. The household now consists of Joseph, 53; Elizabeth, inexplicably only 50; Lucy, 28; Joseph, 19; Daniel Harvey, 14; and Henry Walker, 5. Oddly (though not unheard of in census records), Daniel is both working, presumably for his father, as a farm laborer while also going to school, but is also listed as being unable to write.6

In addition to the seven children who appear in the various census records, Joseph and Elizabeth had had three children who died young. Mary Ellen Schooling was born 5 July 1854 and died 8 August 1859. James Willis Schooling was born 6 March 1857 and died 21 February 1858. Martha Catherine Schooling was born 30 January 1864 and died 27 August 1866. All three are buried at Union Church Cemetery in Riggs.7 Joseph would die on 7 July 1897 in Sturgeon, Missouri and is also buried at Union Church Cemetery.

Though I do not have any photos of Joseph or his family, I was able to locate some official records, including land records where both Joseph and Elizabeth made their marks; apparently Elizabeth was also unable to write, although this wasn’t noted in the census record.8 In this particular deed (one of several I found), Joseph and Elizabeth sold three lots in the town of Centralia, Missouri, to J. M. Sholck for $125.

Joseph’s widow Elizabeth would outlive him by more than sixteen years, dying 27 February 1914 in Sturgeon. Missouri began to require the filing of death certificates in 1910, so we know that Elizabeth died of pneumonia and bronchitis and had been ill for three days.9

Of the seven children who survived long enough to appear in a census record, all would outlive both parents. The youngest of these, Henry, died first, at age 41 in 1915. Those same post-1910 death records tell us a sad story: Henry of a gunshot wound to the chest, which a coroner’s verdict determined to be a suicide. A newspaper article about Henry’s death provides more details, but I might save that one for or next “Morbid Curiosity” entry. Because it’s pretty weird. Lucy lived until 1919, dying at age 69. Joseph was 75 when he died in 1936, and Daniel died at age 76 in 1942. Eldest child Nancy died one hundred years ago this July at age 77, and Jeremiah lived until 1939, dying at 87. Child #6, Ida Callaway, was the last surviving Schooling family member. She died 7 February 1951 in Clio, Iowa, at age 91. Ida’s own daughter, Jessie, lived to be 95, dying in 1984.

  1. Moses Sweeney Descendants ↩︎
  2. Boone County, Missouri, Cemetery Index, 1800-1965, accessed; 24 October 2019; Simeon G. Schooling. ↩︎
  3. Find-a-Grave Website ↩︎
  4. 1850 Census ↩︎
  5. 1860 Census ↩︎
  6. 1880 Census ↩︎
  7. Moses Sweeney Descendants ↩︎
  8. “Columbia, Boone, Missouri, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C39L-G99G-K?view=explore : May 21, 2026), image 251 of 669; .
    Image Group Number: 008483753 ↩︎
  9. Missouri, Missouri Death Certificates, 1910-1971, , Elizabeth Jane Schooling, 27 February 1914; online images, State of Missouri, Missouri Digital Heritage (https://s1.sos.mo.gov : online 10 April 2018). ↩︎

Morbid Curiosity: The Murder of Lyman Stewart

Posted on by spuddled

I guess when you have a large number of individuals in your genealogy database, you’re bound to find your fair share of grim tales, including murder. Including this one. This is the story of the murder of Lyman Marion Stewart, my fifth cousin twice removed.

Lyman was born 2 February 1900 in Kansas, at least according to his headstone and most other records.1 The Kansas Births and Christenings Index states he was born 2 February 1901 instead, in Osawatomie, Kansas.2 His parents were Martha Jane (Christison) and Newton Marion Smith. On his maternal side, he is descended from our Sweeney line. His mother would later remarry a man named John William Stewart, and Lyman appears to have taken his stepfather’s surname.3

Lyman was married several times; on 28 June 1922 in Santa Ana, California, he married Grace Lillian Maude Bates. They had a son, Lyman Marion Stewart, Jr., who was born 13 September 1926 in Kansas City, Missouri.4 By 1930 Lyman, Sr., and Grace are living separately (Lyman with his married sister in Phoenix).5 Then by 1940 Lyman has remarried and is enumerated with his wife, Mary L. (Handke) at 560 Main Avenue in Phoenix. In both 1930 and 1940 Lyman is listed as a carpenter.6 Between 1943-1945 Lyman served in the U.S. Navy,7 and by 1950 he had moved to Sausalito, California, where he was married to a third wife, a Nevada native named Annabelle.8

This marriage does not appear to have lasted either, as by 1964 Lyman was living in San Antonio and renting a room from his ex-wife Mary at 320 West Laurel Street. In the years since her marriage to Lyman she had remarried as well, to Edward Delbert Dettman; Mr. Dettman died in 1955 of stomach cancer at the age of 41.9 About noon on Saturday, 5 September 1964, Lyman’s ex-wife/landlady saw him drive away, but he didn’t tell her where he was going; this was not unusual.

About 10:45 the following morning, Dana Stamper, 38, and his son, went to Eisenhower Junior High School to play tennis. There they found Lyman’s body, about 122 feet west of the school building. He had been bludgeoned 16 times and strangled with a long piece of bedspread. Details from the earliest newspaper articles note that his time of death had been estimated to be between 8 and 10 p.m. Saturday night. Lyman’s wallet was found next to his body, still containing $10 (or about $105 in 2026 money), but his 1963 maroon Ford station wagon was missing.10

An article which appeared on the Tuesday following the murder confirmed that a pipe with a heavy steel ball at the end, believed to be the one that had inflicted the bludgeoning wounds, had been found near his body. The cause of death, however, was believed to be the strangling rather than the pipe. Also, new witnesses had come forward which shed more light on the time of death, as Lyman had been seen drinking at an ice house on Fredericksburg Road shortly before midnight on Saturday.11 I had to look this one up; an “ice house” in this context is apparently an open-air bar.12

Lyman’s death certificate was signed on 8 September following an autopsy. Noting his location of death as the 8300 block of Blanco Road and his usual residence as 320 West Laurel Street, it confirmed the cause of death as ligature strangulation taking place in a school yard about 9 p.m. on 5 September (in spite of the witnesses’ statements that he had been seen alive shortly before midnight). It also noted he would be buried on 9 September at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.13

Two weeks later, more details about the ice house visit were forthcoming. Witnesses were now reporting seeing Lyman drinking with an unknown man of about 40, and that the two had left the ice house together around 11 p.m. This newspaper article also describes Lyman’s station wagon as a 1953, not 1963, but gives a more detailed description: two-door, with a cream top and faded maroon bottom, license plate JR 7337.14

Less than a week later, the San Antonio Light had breaking news to report. Murder charges were anticipated against one Richard Handke, aged 36, of 320 West Laurel. Both his surname and address should be ringing bells; he was, in fact, the brother of Lyman’s ex-wife/landlady, and he also lived at the same address. He had been arrested in Corpus Christi, ostensibly for slashing at the face of an acquaintance, Ruby Warrick, who also lived at 320 West Laurel, and stealing $600 from her. This slashing had taken place back in March. When he was interrogated, Richard confessed to police that he and Lyman had argued over Ruby, and then he had attacked Lyman and killed him. Richard Handke had been brought to police attention by a witness who had seen them together at the ice house and knew of the mens’ connection to Ruby. After police brought Ruby in for questioning, she reported to them the story of the March attack.15 Handke would also tell police that his mother had been found beaten to death with a chain two years earlier; that slaying was never solved.16

Handke was officially charged with murder on 30 September, and detectives announced they had found a pipe in the bathroom of Handke’s apartment following a phone tip telling them to “look behind the bathtub.” The police lab also indicated blood was found on this pipe.17 So was the other pipe just a red herring? Are there lots of pipes just lying around in schoolyards? Anyway…

In January 1965 Lyman’s car was finally located, in a Corpus Christi garage. On 13 January Richard Handke was indicted for Lyman’s murder.18 It must have seemed to the public like everything was progressing toward a fairly straightforward conclusion. The front page of the 6 March Express and News, however, proves otherwise:

The article goes on to state that the trial, which was to have started the following Monday, would most likely be postponed because Handke’s confession had been thrown out as evidence. Handke had originally answered police questions after having been administered sodium penthothal, and even though this had been done at his own request, this still meant the testimony he had given was not admissible. Now, in March 1965, he claimed that detectives and pulled his hair and beaten him, and that this coercion was what led to his eventual confession.19

Two days later came even more startling news. The murder indictment against Handke had officially been dropped, though if further evidence came to light, a new indictment could still be filed.20 Not only was the confession no longer available as evidence, but an important witness in the case, now listed as Handke’s girlfriend “Ruth” Warrick, who had apparently been going to testify for the state, had now changed her story and was willing to provide an alibi for Handke.21

As one of my favorite podcasts always says, “So where are we now?” Unfortunately, it appears no one was ever brought to justice for Lyman Stewart’s murder. Richard Handke would live until March 1984, dying in San Antonio at the age of 55. He is buried in the San Fernando Cemetery in San Antonio alongside his parents and older sister Eleanor. His sister (and Lyman’s ex-wife) Mary Dettman died the following year; she and her husband Edward Dettman are buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, as is Lyman.22

One of many details I haven’t been able to answer to my own satisfaction is: what of that story about Richard Handke’s mother’s murder at the hands of a chain-wielding maniac? I mean, that seems too coincidental. So I eagerly looked up Mrs. Handke’s death certificate, and found it! And discovered that…she wasn’t even dead yet when Lyman Stewart was killed, and when she did die in 1967, it was not from a chain attack but from uremia, congestive heart failure, and arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. So I looked again…and it wasn’t Richard’s mother, but his sister, Eleanor, the one with whom he shares a headstone, who was killed in this way. And her death certificate does confirm the basic facts; her cause of death is listed as “contusion of the brain” as a result of her being “beaten on [the] head with [a] heavy iron chain.” This took place early on 28 December 1961 at the Cassin Farm on Highway 281 in Bexar County.23 Though there was a suspect named early on (and it wasn’t Eleanor’s brother but a mentally ill man who created a scene in a grocery store where he and Eleanor had both bought hams the evening of her death), it appears that, as Richard stated, her murder also went unsolved. So there you have it – certainly morbid, but definitely not providing answers that satisfy my curiosity.

  1. Ancestry, Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, 54754. ↩︎
  2. FamilySearch, “Kansas, Births and Christenings Index, 1885-1911,” extracted birth and christening records, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 February 2021), Smith. ↩︎
  3. Ancestry, Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, 54754. ↩︎
  4. Ancestry.com, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, SSN 091180798. ↩︎
  5. 1930 Census, Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona; Enum 7-17, SUp 2, Sheet 1A. ↩︎
  6. Ancestry.com, 1940 Census, Bexar, Texas; SD 20, ED 15-31, Sheet 13A. ↩︎
  7. www.ancestry.com, U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca. 1775-2019 (n.p: 2019, n.d). ↩︎
  8. National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Sausalito, Marin, California; Roll: 552; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 21-100 ↩︎
  9. Ancestry, Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, 32123. ↩︎
  10. San Antonio [Texas] Express-News, 7 September 1964, pg. 1 ↩︎
  11. San Antonio [Texas] Express-News, 8 September 1964, pg. 40 ↩︎
  12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_house_(building)#:~:text=In%20some%20parts%20of%20Texas,the%20sale%20of%20cold%20beer. ↩︎
  13. Ancestry, Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982, 54754. ↩︎
  14. San Antonio [Texas] Express-News, 23 September 1964, pg. 31 ↩︎
  15. San Antonio [Texas] Light, 29 September 1964, pg. 1 ↩︎
  16. San Antonio [Texas] Express-News, 29 September 1964, pg. 12 ↩︎
  17. San Antonio [Texas] Express-News, 1 October 1964, pg. 88 ↩︎
  18. San Antonio [Texas] Express-News, 14 January 1965, pg. 24 ↩︎
  19. San Antonio [Texas] Express-News, 6 March 1965, pg. 1 ↩︎
  20. San Antonio [Texas] Light, 8 March 1965, pg. 29 ↩︎
  21. The News [San Antonio, Texas], 8 March 1965, pg. 12 ↩︎
  22. Find a Grave, www.findagrave.com ↩︎
  23. Texas Department of State Health Services; Austin Texas, USA; Texas Death Certificates, 1903–1982 ↩︎

Black Sheep Sunday: The Marriage of Loren and Hazel Crews

Posted on by spuddled

In today’s Black Sheep Sunday entry, we’re going to take a look at my fourth cousin 3 times removed, Loren William Crews, and his marriage to Hazel R. Crews. Loren was born 1 July 1885 in Lynnville, Iowa; he was the son of James Benjamin and Sarah W. (Meredith) Crews. Sarah was the great-great-granddaughter of Moses Sweeney, subject of an earlier post here.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around all the details of this story, but here’s what I’ve been able to piece together. In the 1900 census, Loren appears in Richland, Jasper County, Iowa, with his parents, James and Sarah; sister Emma, 18; and a boarder named Harvey Downer. James and Sarah are listed as having been married for 19 years at the time.1

The next household to be enumerated by the census-taker was that of John and Lilly Crews, with their children Robert, 9; Iva May, 7; Glynn Leroy, 6; Benjamin, 3; and Doratha, 1. What is not clear from this is that John was the half-brother of James. John was the son of James Benjamin Crews and his first wife, Henrietta Stultz and was born 3 January 1868 in Indiana.2 In 1910, John and “Lillie” were enumerated in Dallas, Iowa; completing the household now were Robert, 19; Iva, 17; Glen, 15; Benjamin, 12; Dorthy, 11; and Hazel, 9.3

But back to Loren. On 15 April 1905 in Lynnville, he married Essie May Beason; he was 19, and she was 17.4 Together they had 5 children: Clifford Lyle, born in 1907; Audrey Leon, 1910; Beryl Louis, 1912; Gerald Gordon, 1915; and Lucille Ardean, 1917. Sometime after Lucille’s birth, Loren and Essie divorced. Essie would remarry in 1921. On 15 September 1919 at Lancaster, Missouri, a Loren Crews married Jessie McKeag; whether or not this is our Loren Crews, I am not sure.5 If so, that marriage does not appear to have lasted.

On 8 March 1921, Loren married again. But who was the happy bride this time? Hazel Crews, daughter of Loren’s brother John. So yes, Loren’s niece. They were married in Savanna, Illinois; Uncle Loren was 35 (though later reports listed him as 33), and Hazel was about 17(ish). After they were married, the newlyweds moved to Iowa. Hazel’s family, understandably, was not happy about these developments, and at some point legal actions were initiated.

On 8 April 1922, the Waterloo, Iowa Courier reported that a sheriff from Dallas County (Iowa) had arrested Loren after a lengthy search including investigations into Loren’s numerous aliases. Loren and Hazel were found living at 1005 1-2 Commercial Street along with their infant son. They had been in Waterloo for two months, and the newspaper describes Hazel and her son as being left “destitute…friendless and alone.”6

Two weeks later, according to the Iowa Consecutive Registers of Convicts, Loren was convicted of incest and sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison. He entered the penitentiary at Fort Madison on 22 April. The record lists him as 33 years old and a native of Iowa, “temperate” and with a poor education. For someone who could have served a quarter-century behind bars, Loren was lucky. The “Disposition” column on his record reads “4-18-24 Paroled.”7

Before that happened, though, sadly, Loren and Hazel’s small son died. Leonard Crews, 6 days shy of his first birthday, died at the Iowa City Hospital on 29 October 1922. His death certificate indicates his cause of death was “very likely tuberculosis.”8 Leonard’s brief obituary notes that “The parents are the only survivors,” without mentioning that one of the said parents was currently incarcerated.9

Had baby Leonard been the only thing linking Hazel to Loren, or did Hazel find she could not make it on her own? Whatever the reason, it appears that in spite of not including her parents as survivors of Leonard, after his death she returned home to them. In the 5 December 1923 Rock Island Argus, we learn that Hazel and Loren’s marriage was deemed illegal. The couple’s marriage was annulled and/or they were divorced; the article names both outcomes,10 though The Dispatch of Moline, Illinois, on 27 December 1923, lists them as having their divorce granted.11

What became of our ne’er-do-well cousin after his son’s death, his divorce from Hazel, and his parole? Apparently he married for a third time, though thankfully not to another niece. This wife was Lenore “Nora” Thomas; when the couple married on 1 June 1926 in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Loren was 40 and Nora was 28. It does not appear they had any children of their own; they moved to Mountain View, California, sometime around 1948, and he worked as a janitor for the Mackay Radio and Telegraph Company of Palo Alto for five years before his death in 1958. He was survived by four of the five children he had had with first wife Essie;12 sadly, their daughter Audrey had been killed in 1951 when a train struck the car in which she had been riding during a rainstorm.13

And Hazel? She would marry again also. On 28 January 1926 in Morrison, Illinois, she married Dewey Johnston. They engaged in farming in the “Perry, Dawson, and Redfield area.” Though they also do not appear to have had any children of their own, they raised a nephew, Tom Johnson (“Johnston”?). Dewey died in 1971. Hazel lived until 25 July 1984, dying at age 84.

  1. Year: 1900; Census Place: Richland, Jasper, Iowa; Roll: 439; Page: 3; Enumeration District: 0034 ↩︎
  2. Ibid. ↩︎
  3. Year: 1910; Census Place: Benton, Beaver, Oklahoma; Roll: T624_1242; Page: 8b; Enumeration District: 0017; FHL microfilm: 1375255 ↩︎
  4. Iowa Department of Public Health; Des Moines, Iowa; Iowa Marriage Records, 1880–1922; Record Type: Marriage ↩︎
  5. The Excelsior [Lancaster, Missouri], 18 September 1919, pg. 2 ↩︎
  6. The Courier [Waterloo, Iowa], 8 April 1922, pg. 8. ↩︎
  7. Ancestry.com. Iowa, U.S., Consecutive Registers of Convicts, 1867-1970 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. ↩︎
  8. State Historical Society of Iowa; Des Moines, IA, USA; Iowa Death Records, 1921-1940 ↩︎
  9. The Rock Island [Illinois] Argus, 31 October 1922, pg. 20. ↩︎
  10. The Rock Island [Illinois] Argus, 5 December 1923, pg. 10. ↩︎
  11. The Dispatch [Moline, Illinois], 27 December 1923, pg. 3. ↩︎
  12. The Peninsula Times Tribune [Palo Alto, California], 8 January 1958, pg. 4. ↩︎
  13. “Beryl Crews, 2840 Alta,” death, National City Star-News, 9 November 1951, notice of death of Beryl Crews’s sister Audrey; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : online 13 December 2021). ↩︎

Photo Highlights: The Pilchards of Richland County

Posted on by spuddled

You might recall my post from a couple of weeks ago, where I detailed the numerous times in which my great-grandfather, Charles William Montgomery, appeared in print in various newspapers. Two newspaper articles mentioned in that post refer to a visit to Charles and his wife Laura by Laura’s sister and her husband, “Mr. and Mrs. C. Pilchard.” That name stood out to me, partly because Pilchard is a great name, and partly because I have an original photo of the happy couple. That’s what we’ll take a look at today, along with a little of their history.

Eunice Walker, sister of Laura and my great-grandaunt, was born 7 February 1860 in Noble, Richland County, Illinois. She was the second of eight children born to Marcus and Mary Ann (Conklin) Walker; Laura was third. Eunice made her first appearance in the census when she was 2 months old, living with her parents, eldest sister Ellen, and a 12-year-old boy named Albert Shields, in Denver Township, Richland County.1 In 1870 the family was still in Denver Township; daughters Laura, Minnie, and Clara had been added to the household. Marcus was a farmer with property worth $4000.2 Two more children (sons William and Clifton) had been added to the family by 1880. Eunice, though 20 years old, was still listed as having attended school in the past year.3

Two years later, on 17 May 1882, Eunice married Cyrus Royell Pilchard in Richland County.4 He had been born in Ohio in 18575 but by 1880 had relocated to Olney, in Richland County.6 By 1900, the first surviving census after the Pilchards’ marriage, the family had moved to Blue Ridge Township in Piatt County, Illinois. Cyrus and “Unis” were then the parents of three sons: Harvey P., born May 1883; Ervin C., born December 1885; and Walter C., born July 1886.7

By the time of the 1910 census the family had moved from Illinois to Webster City, Iowa. Harvey and Walter had since left home, but now joining the household was “Erwin’s” wife, Della. She was 18 years old, and she and Ervin/Erwin had been married less than a year.8

That was the last census in which Eunice would appear. About February 1918 she suffered a stroke which left her increasingly helpless, though with assistance she was able to sit up in her chair until three days before her death, which came on 19 August 1919. Eunice was 59.9 She is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Webster City.

In 1923 Cyrus remarried, to Jennie R. Barnett. He was 66, and she was 62.10 Cyrus died in Webster City in 1932; Jennie died in Manchester, Iowa, in 1949.11 Cyrus and Eunice’s son Phillip would have five children with his wife Ethel; Ervin and Della had one child, a son named Edgar; son Charles and his wife Georgia had two sons and a daughter.

As for that portrait itself, it offers a powerful reminder of the importance of labeling your photos. Penciled carefully on the back it reads “Cyrus and Eunice Pilchard.” Without that, they would have been just another mystery couple. Another important lesson? Organize your photos. Because I want to scan a higher-resolution version of the original, and at the moment I can’t find it. But I know it’s here somewhere…

  1. 1860 Census (n.p: www.ancestry.com, n.d). ↩︎
  2. 1870 Census. ↩︎
  3. FamilyHistory Search and/or www.ancestry.com, 1880 Census, Denver, Richland, Illinois; Page 1, Sup 7, Enum 171. ↩︎
  4. Various Illinois County collections, “Illinois, County Marriage Records, 1800-1940,” marriage indexes, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 November 2024), Eunice Walker/Cyrus R. Pilchard. ↩︎
  5. State Historical Society of Iowa, “Iowa, U.S., Death Records, 1880-1972/1880-1968,” death records, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61442/ : accessed 13 November 2024), Cyrus Royell Pilchard. ↩︎
  6. FamilyHistory Search and/or www.ancestry.com, 1880 Census. ↩︎
  7. 1900 Census. ↩︎
  8. 1910 Census (n.p: 1910, n.d). ↩︎
  9. “Eunice Walker,” Webster City Freeman, ; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed ). ↩︎
  10. Ancestry, Iowa, Marriage Records, 1880-1951, 28-005042. ↩︎
  11. www.findagrave.com, www.findagrave.com. ↩︎

Newspaper Tales: C. W. Montgomery in Print

Posted on by spuddled

For today’s Newspaper Tales blog post, I’ve decided to take a look at various times in which my great-grandfather, Charles William Montgomery, showed up in newspapers throughout his lifetime. I’ve found that old newspapers can capture not only the important milestones, but also the small moments that help round out our understanding of our ancestors’ lives.

Charles was born 17 January 1861 in Lynchburg, Ohio, but the first newspaper mention of him that I have been able to find is from 1896, after he had moved twice: first to Richland County, Illinois, and then to Holdrege, Nebraska. Events in Charles’s life that did not make it into the newspaper (or at least not the newspapers I have seen) were his marriage to Laura Maud Walker on 22 February 1883 in Richland County, Illinois, and the births of daughters Myrtle, Mamie, Bessie, and Elta in Mansfield, Illinois, between 1884 and 1888. The family moved to Nebraska sometime around 1889. Charles’s first mention in print appears in The Political Forum of Holdrege: an article notes that C. W. Montgomery was to be appointed night watchman for the town, effective 5 February.1

There seems to have been something of a muddle over this appointment. An article appearing two days later in the Holdrege Weekly Progress also references Charles being made night watchman but noted that the former watchman whom C. W. had replaced was still “on the night turf.”2

The Holdrege Citizen similarly detailed this redundancy of night watchmen.3

Exactly what transpired next is unclear, but on 28 February 1896, The Holdrege Citizen reported that Charles had resigned his post. Interestingly, this notice appears on the same page as an account of Charles swearing out warrants the previous Wednesday against a group of men for public intoxication. The men pled guilty and were fined, and according to the article, the issue “caused considerable comment and feeling.” I can’t help but wonder if this somehow led to the resignation.4

Shortly after Charles’s resignation from his night watch post, a brief mention in The Holdrege Citizen provides information on his next employment situation. This one is night watch-adjacent.5

In all these articles, Charles appears fairly consistently as “C. W. Montgomery.” So I’m going to assume the “Chas. Montgomery” who took a car load of the mayor’s cattle to Omaha in June 1896 was a different individual. Though our Charles is back (and cattle-adjacent) in September 1897.6

Two years later, we learn, Laura’s sister, Eunice (Walker) Pilchard and her husband came to stay for “a few weeks” with Charles and Laura,7 though a later article revealed the visit had in actuality been only for 10 days.8 This later article refers to our Charles as “Chas. W. Montgomery, ” so maybe I should rethink that mayoral cattle business.

A month after the Pilchards’ visit, The Holdrege Daily Citizen coyly noted the arrival of “a handsome boy” at the home of Charles and Laura. This handsome boy was John Ward, the second of three sons born to the couple. The first son, Walter, had been born in March 1898 (10 years after the birth of Elta). John Ward, who would go by his middle name, was born 9 October 1899.9

Another bit of confusion comes next. Was it our C. W. Montgomery who was selected as “Chief Forester” for the Holdrege Modern Woodmen of America?10 Similarly, who was the “Chas. Montgomery” who attended the Nebraska State Volunteer Fire Department Association convention?11 I don’t know.

What does appear to be the next confirmed incident to befall Charles was that his employer at the Palace meat market sold the business. The new proprietor, Thomas Sword, would be assisted by his son as well as “Chas. Montgomery, the popular meat cutter.”12

The following month “the infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. W. Montgomery” broke his collar bone by falling out of a swing. Was this John Ward, the “handsome boy”?13 Three months after that, Thomas Sword, the new proprietor of the Palace meat market, turned around and sold it to Chas. Hagstrom & Co. The article about the sale noted that our Charles would remain with the firm “for a month or two yet.”14

This “month or two” was an understatement. By April 1901 when the meat market changed ownership yet again, C. W. Montgomery was still working there, and would continue to do so.15 He seems to have been the one constant at that place.

Four months later another birth announcement for Charles’s family appeared in the newspaper. Though he wasn’t labeled as a “handsome boy” arriving at the house, it’s still exciting to see in print, as this was my grandfather, Lawrence Montgomery, born 26 August 1901.16

Before Grandpa was a year old, the family would move again, this time to Colorado. An article from May 1902 describes how Grandpa’s sister Mamie (then 16 years old) traveled to Sterling, Colorado, to prepare their new home for the family’s move.17

Even after his move, Charles continued to turn up in the Holdrege newspaper. Here he is connected with cattle again…18

Charles’s next appearance in print is a sad one that provides a lot of insight into the family’s history. His wife Laura was committed to an asylum in Pueblo, Colorado, and would spend the remaining thirty years of her life there. Even more poignant to me is the fact that her “youngest child” referenced here was my grandfather.19, 20

Six months later eldest daughter Myrtle, who had married in Colorado but then returned to Nebraska, came to visit “her parents.” I know from letters Mamie later wrote to her own daughter that Laura did write to her children from the asylum; perhaps Myrtle did in fact visit her there as well.21

Charles does not turn up as regularly in the Colorado newspapers as he did in Nebraska, at least at first. Interestingly, Fort Collins and Holdrege were roughly the same size (about 3000 people) in 1900, but by 1940, while Holdrege was holding steady at around 3400, Fort Collins had grown to over 12,000. Today Holdrege’s population is still only about 5500, while Fort Collins boasts about 170,000 residents.

Charles does show up in 1919 in an article concerning four acres of land he purchased. This article is tucked in between one asking citizens to buy War Savings Stamps and bread, and one advertising Bitro-Phosphate as a way to “increase one’s flesh.”22

Two years later Charles appears again, in an article noting he would be gone for several months to Cloverly, Wyoming.23 I wonder what was in Cloverly? It could not have been Buffalo Bill, even though Grandpa always said his father spent time “riding the range with Buffalo Bill,” because Buffalo Bill died in 1917.

Another less-mysterious trip was the one Charles took in December 1922 to Los Angeles, planning to stay for six months. At least it seems to be less mysterious: daughters Mamie, Bessie, and Elta would all eventually settle in California, though it’s not clear to me when each of them moved there with their families, and as we shall see, Elta, at least, was still in Colorado for a little while after 1922.24 This article also notes that Charles had lived for the past seven years at the New Antlers Hotel. This building still exists, and Mom, Dad, and I were able to see it in person in 2015.

In May 1923 a further article described Charles’s return from his trip. Though he enjoyed his time away, Colorado was still the winner in his book.25

Charles’s next appearance was in an article from September of that same year. This article tells us several important facts. Charles has returned to his prior occupation of being a night watchman, this time at the Great Western Sugar company. Also, daughter Elta was now living in Walsenburg, Colorado; Charles was taking a week’s vacation to visit her there.26

Charles was still employed at Great Western four years later, as an article describes how he was responsible for leading a class of eighth grade students from the Plummer School on a tour of the sugar company, describing the sugar-making process and answering the students’ questions.27

By 1933 both Elta and Bessie were living in Los Angeles, as in March of that year a newspaper article noted that Charles had wired both daughters but had not heard from him.28 It’s possible he was trying to reach them to relay information concerning their mother’s health; she would die in July of that year at age 70.

The following year Charles was the one with health concerns; a newspaper article from October 1934 notes he had been a surgical patient but was released back to his home at the Antlers Hotel.29

In May 1935 Elta sent Charles some freshly-picked California oranges. Charles shared his bounty with the staff of the newspaper which ran an article about this offering (the newspaper was then called The Fort Collins Express-Courier). Apparently this gift from Charles to the newspaper staff was not sufficient to prevent them from butchering Elta’s name; she is listed as “Alva” in the article.30

The following year Ward, the “handsome boy,” now 36 years old, visited Charles for a week. By this time Ward was married, had two children, and was living in Detroit.31

The following year it was Elta’s turn to visit Charles at 222 Linden Street (aka the Antlers Hotel).32

Then two years later in July 1939 Ward visited again. He was now a young widower, his wife having died in January of that year at age 31. The two young daughters, Jean and Ruth, were aged 10 and about 7.33

By this time Charles was nearing 80, but life would take at least one more surprising turn for him. In April 1941 an article in The Western Nebraska Observer noted that a marriage license had been been issued to Charles and a Lysle Cleave, both of Fort Collins.34 When they married on 27 March 1941 in Kimball, Nebraska, Charles was 80 and Lysle was 57.35 At some point I was sent a copy of a photograph of Charles and Lysle, which included notes written at the bottom of the page. It took some time to work out that “Mrs. Lyle” was in fact Lysle (Peterson) Cleave.

Part of what helped piece those details together was the final newspaper appearance we’ll look at today. As you might expect, that is Charles’s obituary, which appeared on 14 January 1942. Interestingly, the obituary states that Charles “would have been 75 Saturday,” when in fact he would have been 81.36 He died on 13 January 1942 in Fort Collins after a week’s illness. According to his death certificate, his cause of death was coronary occlusion and arteriosclerosis. So there you have it – Charles Montgomery’s life as described in newsprint. Now if only at least one article had mentioned Buffalo Bill…

  1. The Political Forum [Holdrege, Nebraska], 5 February 1896, pg. 3 ↩︎
  2. The Weekly Progress [Holdrege, Nebraska], 7 February 1896, pg. 1 ↩︎
  3. The Holdrege [Nebraska] Citizen, 7 February 1896, pg. 5 ↩︎
  4. The Holdrege [Nebraska] Citizen, 28 February 1896, pg. 5 ↩︎
  5. The Holdrege [Nebraska] Citizen, 17 April 1896, pg. 5 ↩︎
  6. The Holdrege [Nebraska] Citizen-Forum, 17 September 1897, pg. 8 ↩︎
  7. Holdrege [Nebraska] Daily Citizen, 8 September 1899, pg. 1 ↩︎
  8. The Weekly Progress [Holdrege, Nebraska], 15 September 1899, pg. 1 ↩︎
  9. Holdrege [Nebraska] Daily Citizen, 13 October 1899, pg. 1 ↩︎
  10. The Weekly Progress [Holdrege, Nebraska], 8 December 1899, pg. 1 ↩︎
  11. The Weekly Progress [Holdrege, Nebraska], 19 January 1900, pg. 1 ↩︎
  12. The Weekly Progress [Holdrege, Nebraska], 1 June 1900, pg. 1 ↩︎
  13. The Weekly Progress [Holdrege, Nebraska], 13 July 1900, pg. 8 ↩︎
  14. The Weekly Progress [Holdrege, Nebraska], 12 October 1900, pg. 1 ↩︎
  15. Holdrege [Nebraska] Daily Citizen, 19 April 1901, pg. 1 ↩︎
  16. The Weekly Progress [Holdrege, Nebraska], 30 August 1901, pg. 1 ↩︎
  17. Holdrege [Nebraska] Daily Citizen, 9 May 1902, pg. 1 ↩︎
  18. The Weekly Progress [Holdrege, Nebraska], 2 October 1903, pg. 1 ↩︎
  19. The Larimer County [Colorado] Independent, 28 December 1904, pg. 6 ↩︎
  20. The Fort Collins [Colorado] Express and The Fort Collins Review, 28 December 1904, pg. 4 ↩︎
  21. The Weekly Progress [Holdrege, Nebraska], 5 May 1905, pg. 1 ↩︎
  22. The Fort Collins [Colorado] Express, 21 March 1919, pg. 4 ↩︎
  23. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 27 January 1921, pg. 3 ↩︎
  24. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 16 December 1922, pg. 3 ↩︎
  25. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 16 May 1923, pg. 3 ↩︎
  26. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 21 September 1923, pg. 3 ↩︎
  27. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 20 January 1927, pg. 1 ↩︎
  28. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 14 March 1933, pg. 7 ↩︎
  29. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 9 October 1934, pg. 7 ↩︎
  30. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 28 May 1935, pg. 2 ↩︎
  31. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 6 August 1936, pg. 5 ↩︎
  32. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 25 July 1937, pg. 2 ↩︎
  33. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 30 July 1939, pg. 2 ↩︎
  34. The Western Nebraska Observer [Kimball, Nebraska], 3 April 1941, pg. 4 ↩︎
  35. Charles William Montgomery, Letter from Charles Montgomery (n.p: n.p, July 16, 1941). ↩︎
  36. Fort Collins [Colorado] Coloradoan, 14 January 1942, pg. 2 ↩︎