Category: Occupations

J Is for…Justice of the Peace

Posted on by spuddled

Today we are examining one of the more familiar occupational titles, that of Justice of the Peace. I tend to think of this title in terms of 19th century weddings (surely you remember that episode of Little House on the Prairie where Nellie Oleson was married and un-married all in the same night), but as we shall see, Justices of the Peace have a much longer history than that.

I was able to locate a number of relatives in our family tree who held this position. We’ll take a look at four of them. Andrew J. Slatten, my third cousin four times removed, was born sometime between 1831-1833 in Illinois. He was the son of John and Nancy (Adams) Slatten and a descendant of our Sweeney line. In 1850 he was 17 years old and living with his parents and six younger siblings (Rebecca, Statirah, Margaret, Xantippe, Zarilda, and Benjamin) in Clinton, Illinois. Andrew was then a college student, and his father was a merchant. On 4 November 1858 Andrew married Clarinda S. Bassett in Warren County, Iowa. By 1860 Andrew and Clarinda had moved to Des Moines. He was then 38 years old, and Clarinda was 16. The census lists Andrew’s occupation as Attorney at Law. Clarinda and Andrew had two children: Douglas A., born between 1860-1861; and Shastebutte, born between 1862-1863. On 4 May 1861 Andrew enlisted in the 2nd Iowa Regiment. Less than a year later he was wounded in the right leg and left temple at Fort Donelson, and he died of his wounds on 18 April 1862 in St. Louis. Centennial History of Polk County, Iowa, by J. M. Dixon, has an account of his military service and death, and it is here that we learn that Andrew was “at one time Justice of the Peace in Lee Township.”1 We also learn that he was an “eccentric young lawyer,” for what that’s worth.

Amos Bee, my first cousin 5 times removed, was older than Andrew Slatten but outlived him by more than 40 years. Born 28 February 1828 in Harrison County in what would become West Virginia, he was part of our Seventh Day Baptist contingent of relatives, and his mother was one of the long line of SDB Davises. In 1850 he was still living at home with his parents Ephraim and Catharine and numerous siblings. He was then working as a tanner. On 20 March 1856 in West Union, (West) Virginia, Amos married Melissa Welch. Between 1860 and 1880 Amos and Melissa were enumerated in West Union along with their growing family. Amos was listed in 1860 and 1870 as a farmer, and in 1880 as a tanner once again. Their children were Genevra, Amos Alonzo, Anna B., James A., Clara Virginia, Ephraim E., Kate, and Mary. In 1900, still in West Union but now living with just his wife and daughters Clara and Mary, Amos’s occupation was listed as Justice of the Peace. Amos would die four years later and is buried in West Union’s Blockhouse Cemetery. He shares a headstone with his wife and sons James and Ephraim that I photographed there in 2010.

Robert C. Childers, second cousin five times removed, was also a Sweeney descendant. He was born 21 November 1815 in Grant County, Kentucky and was the son of Thomas Goolsberry and Mary Elizabeth (Thomas) Childers. By 1836 he had moved to Falls County, Texas, and in 1840 in Milam County, Texas, he married Sarah Adeline Moore. In 1850 Robert and “Adaline” were enumerated in Milam County, and Robert is listed as a hotel keeper, but according to Moses Sweeney Descendants, by J. Harvey Sweeney, Jr., in August 1850 Robert was Justice of the Peace in Bell County.2 From 1860 to 1880, the family is in Bell County, Texas, and Robert is engaged in farming. According to the obituary of Robert and Adeline’s son Joe, Robert’s farm was the first to operate in Bell County.3 Robert died on 20 June 1895 in Temple, Texas, and is buried in Temple’s Hillcrest Cemetery. The Childers family has one of the more amazing gravestones I’ve seen (though I’ve only seen this one virtually).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16024935/robert-childers: accessed August 23, 2025), memorial page for Robert “Bob” Childers (21 Nov 1815–20 Jun 1895), Find a Grave Memorial ID 16024935, citing Hillcrest Cemetery, Temple, Bell County, Texas, USA; Maintained by Imagraver (contributor 47349450).

For our final Justice of the Peace, we have to jump back in time by a couple of centuries. Joseph Clarke, my 11th-great-grandfather, was born 9 December 1618 in Westhorpe, Suffolk, England, which Mom and I visited in 2014. By 21 February 1639, he had immigrated to America, as on that date he was admitted as an inhabitant of Portsmouth, Rhode Island.4 He became a member of the First Baptist Church in Newport in 1644, married a woman named Margaret,5 and then on 22 March 1661 was one of the group of individuals who purchased Westerly, Rhode Island.6 In 1667 he is listed as being a Justice of the Peace.7 From 1668-1672 he was a deputy in Westerly, and then in February 1680 he moved to Newport. He died there on 1 June 1694.8

I still think my favorite Justice of the Peace story, however, is one told by Grandma Hoffmann. She relayed to me the story of a Justice of the Peace in Peoria, Illinois. Every time she would cross the bridge into Peoria, she would see the sign for his office: “Herman J. Bridegroom, Justice of the Peace.” For years Grandma had seen his sign and thought how neat it would be to be married by someone named Bridegroom. As Grandma said next, “And I was!” She believed many people must have felt the same way she did, as next to his office was a neat little parlor, fixed up with carpet and soft lighting. Herman J. Bridegroom’s fitting name even landed him in a humorous cartoon, as well as articles about his own wedding in 1947. Though apparently he wasn’t sold on the idea of a wedding by a Justice of the Peace himself. Was he thinking ahead about Little House on the Prairie?

The Orangeville [Illinois] Courier, 8 August 1941, p. 8
Journal Gazette and Times-Courier [Mattoon, Illinois], 14 June 1947, p. 4
  1. Ancestry.com. Centennial history of Polk County, Iowa [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.Original data: Dixon, J. M.. Centennial history of Polk County, Iowa. Des Moines: State Register, print., 1876. ↩︎
  2. J. Harvey Sweeney, Jr. Moses Sweeney Descendants. n.p: 2006, n.d. ↩︎
  3. The Waco [Texas] News-Tribune, 8 October 1940, pg. 1 ↩︎
  4. Cyrus Clarke Van Deventer, Henry Clarke–Catherine Pendleton: Ancestry & Descendants (n.p: 1902, n.d). ↩︎
  5. Earl P. Crandall, Crandall Web Pages. ↩︎
  6. Cyrus Clarke Van Deventer, Henry Clarke–Catherine Pendleton: Ancestry & Descendants (n.p: 1902, n.d). ↩︎
  7. Ibid. ↩︎
  8. Ibid. ↩︎

G Is for…Glass Factory

Posted on by spuddled

Today’s post is a bit of a departure from the usual doom and gloom. Sorry to disappoint. But I wanted to highlight an occupation followed by a number of our relatives, especially our West Virginia cousins who were part of or descended from the Seventh Day Baptists.

In particular, the town of Clarksburg, West Virginia, became well-known for its glass factories. According to an article in The Exponent Telegram, the glass industry started in Clarksburg in 1899 when Belgian glassworkers were convinced to move to the area from Pittsburgh. The first window glass plant built was the Lafayette Cooperative Glass plant, followed by the founding of companies such as the Salem Cooperative Window Glass Company, the Peerless Window Glass Company, Rolland Glass Company, and others.1

In addition to window glass, the industry in the area extended to the production of glassware. The Hazel Atlas company operated the world’s largest factory for producing glass tumblers in Clarksburg. Hazel Atlas produced a large quantity of “Depression Glass.”2

Depression Glass bowl, a gift from Aunt Rosie (who was not related to the Seventh Day Baptists but loved dishes)

I was able to find 78 individuals in our family tree who had some connection to the glassmaking industry. I will not be detailing all of them. Cazzie B. Barnes, fourth cousin 3 times removed, whose mother was one of our Davis relatives, was born between 1869-1870 in West Virginia. In 1920 he was enumerated with his wife and 8 children in Clarksburg. The occupation for “Cass” is listed as “Laborer, Glass Factory.”

Ten years later Cazzie’s nephew, Richard Clark Barnes, son of Cazzie’s brother Erna Riffey Barnes, was listed as “laborer, glass company.” He was eighteen years old and still living at home, though this was in the “Coal District” of Harrison County, West Virginia rather than in Clarksburg proper.

Did I say there was to be no doom and gloom in today’s post? Oops. Edgar Francis Bonnell, my fourth cousin twice removed, was 32 years old when he was struck by a train and killed. This was in Salem, West Virginia. His death certificate lists his occupation as Glass Worker.

https://archive.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view.aspx?Id=35957&Type=Death

Then we have a whole slew of Davises involved in the glass industry: Artie Davis, fourth cousin twice removed, was a glass plant laborer in 1930 when he was 19 and living in Clarksburg; Artie’s father Lennis was also a glass company laborer in both 1910 and 1920, though by 1930 he was working as a watch repairman. Cleo Jefferson Davis, fourth cousin three times removed, was a press operator at a glass factory in 1940. Cleo lived in Doddridge County.

As with Edgar Bonnell, we are able to learn the cause of death for Cleo’s father, Corles Davis (third cousin four times removed), from his death certificate. In 1946 he was a glass worker for the McBride Glass Company when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Two McBride Glass Companies are among the list of 50 “West Virginia Glasshouses” appearing in the 1930 census according to the National Depression Glass Association website.

Both Corles’s twin brother Harland, and Graden F. Davis, sixth cousin once removed, worked as glass blowers, though 30 years apart: Harland in 1910 and Graden in 1940. At the time of his enumeration, Graden was 25 years old and living in his grandmother’s boarding house in Salem.

Others had equally specific job titles listed in various censuses: paper cutter, glass factory (Haymond Rankin Davis, sixth cousin once removed); packer and grinder, glass factory (Hazel Aretta Davis, fifth cousin twice removed, and Lagretta A. Davis, fourth cousin three times removed, two of the few females on the list); mould polisher, glass factory (John Jefferson Davis, fourth cousin three times removed); and snapper, glass factory (Noah Lewis Davis, fourth cousin three times removed).

I could go on…but I won’t. My fingers are getting tired, and I promised not to list all 78 individuals. But it’s easy to see the impact the glass industry had on our family many times over. Which also makes me think I have a good excuse to add to my glassware collection….

  1. https://www.wvnews.com/theet/opinion/op-ed_columns/a-little-history-of-area-s-early-glass-manufacturing/article_7b1dfd9f-d46d-5027-a5d2-78e1cb85d064.html ↩︎
  2. https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/entries/318 ↩︎
W Is for…WPA

W Is for…WPA

Posted on by spuddled

For today’s entry and the 23rd letter of the alphabet, I wanted to examine the impact the WPA had on those in our family tree. The WPA, which started out as the Works Progress Administration from 1935-1939 and later became known as the Works Projects Administration from 1939-1943, was part of the New Deal, employing 8.5 million people in a variety of activities. The majority of these were in construction, but the jobs created were in a wide variety of fields, as can be seen from the family examples below.1

William Richard “Willie” Clement, my third cousin 3 times removed, was born in 1897 in Nebraska. He married around 1918-1919, and in 1920 and 1930 was listed as a general carpenter. In 1940, he was living in Nebraska City, Nebraska, with his wife and three of their children, and he is still listed as a carpenter but now, more specifically, as a WPA supervisor.2

Wade Thompson, my fifth cousin twice removed, was born one year before Willie Clement in West Virginia. He married between 1921-1922, and in 1930 he was a coal miner. He died on Valentine’s Day 1940 at the age of 44 of a “ruptured esophageal varix with esophageal hemorrhage; contributory portal cirrhosis of the liver,” but his death record shows an occupation of “Laborer, WPA.”3

One of the more interesting WPA connections is that of sixth cousin three times removed, Sherma McFarland. She was born in 1919 in Utah so was only 21 when she was enumerated by the 1940 census taker and listed as “dance instructor, WPA recreational project.”4 In many ways, Sherma was not a typical WPA worker, and not only because of the unusual nature of her employment. Most WPA workers were men, as the goal of the agency was to provide one paid job per unemployed family.5 In Sherma’s case, her father had died in 1926 (of pneumonia and pleurisy after having all his teeth extracted)6, and her mother was unemployed in both 1930 and 1940. In 1930 Sherma’s older sister, Willa, was employed as a bookkeeper for a lumber company but by 1940 Willa was married, and Sherma had taken on the role of breadwinner for her mother and her two younger brothers still at home.

Another female WPA worker was fifth cousin twice removed Josephine Webb. She was born in 1885 in Dewitt County, Illinois, and in 1911 married Thomas Palmer. They had three children by 1930, but in 1937 Thomas, who was 15 years older than Josephine, died. In 1940 Josephine was enumerated in Clinton, Illinois, and listed as a “household, aid WPA.”7

Another interesting position was that held by Lester Robert Meredith, my fifth cousin twice removed. Born in 1898 in Jasper, Iowa, he married in 1928 in Albany, Oregon, and by 1930 was living in Oregon. In 1940 he was listed as a recreation supervisor for a WPA recreation project.8 Whether this was actually supervising recreation or supervising the construction of a recreation facility, I’m not sure, as both tasks seem to have fallen under the WPA umbrella. For example, another fifth cousin twice removed, Frank Oliver Berry, was listed in 1940 as the janitor for a WPA Recreation Hall. Frank’s father, Dentis Berry, was also employed through the WPA in that year; he was working as a truck driver on a WPA road project.9

There are myriad other relatives who were employed in the more common types of WPA work: Joseph Cleveland Miller, fifth cousin twice removed, was a “WPA lineman, road construction” in Illinois in 1940; at the age of 66, fourth cousin 3 times removed, Edward Cooper, was employed on a “WPA schoolhouse project” while also acting as caretaker for the 1st Methodist Episcopal Church; John Thomas Wilson, a fourth cousin 5 times removed living in Tridell, Utah, in 1940, was 64 years old and working as a “WPA labor foreman, road;” and Hursel Riley Williams (fourth cousin 3 times removed), Robert Arzie Fox (sixth cousin once removed), Forrest Erville Davis (fourth cousin 3 times removed), and Joseph Andrew Norton (fifth cousin 4 times removed) were all listed simply as “laborer, WPA.”10

This is only a partial list, and it doesn’t include those relatives who were not WPA workers themselves but were married to those who were. It also doesn’t include Grandma Hoffmann and her work for the Corn-Hog Association, part of the New Deal’s Agricultural Adjustment Act11. Grandma’s work was also the inspiration for the name of our not remotely professional band, in case you were wondering.

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration ↩︎
  2. Ancestry.com, 1940 Census. ↩︎
  3. West Virginia Division of Culture and History, West Virginia Vital Research Records. ↩︎
  4. Ancestry.com, 1940 Census. ↩︎
  5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration ↩︎
  6. Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com Tree. ↩︎
  7. Ancestry.com, 1940 Census. ↩︎
  8. ibid. ↩︎
  9. ibid. ↩︎
  10. ibid. ↩︎
  11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Adjustment_Act ↩︎