Ancestor Birthday - April 14th - Commodore Perry O'Neal 1835 - 1919

The O'Neal Family  

One of my 2nd great-grandfathers was named Commodore Perry O'Neal. As a child, I remember that my mother listed one of her great-grandfathers as Perry O'Neal. It was after I started researching in the 1980s that I realized his full name was Commodore Perry. It is my belief that he was named for the hero in the War of 1812. He did have brothers named George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It seemed to be a common practice to name children for famous people in the time period he was born, 1835. He generally used the name Perry or his initials, C.P. rather than his full name.

Perry was born 14 Apr 1835 in Franklin County, Indiana, the son of Thomas and Sarah (Lollar) O'Neal. Both of his parents had been married previously, so there were 4 half-siblings in his family as well as the 13 full siblings. Six of his siblings were younger than him. He was about 12 years old when his father died in 1847. Sometime before 1850 the family had moved a little farther west to Bartholomew County, Indiana, where they were enumerated in the census. His mother Sarah was the head of the household and by now there were 7 children still in the household. It was 4 years later when Sarah died in 1854, so now Perry was about 19 years old. By 1858 he was living in Davis County, Iowa, because it was 25 Feb 1858 when he married Margaret Jane England. His brother George had moved there earlier. Perry and Margaret's first child was born there, my great-grandmother, Mary Ann O'Neal. On the 1860 census, he was shown as Perry Oneal, with his wife Margaret, his daughter Mary A, and his 14 year old sister, Rebecca.

The family left Iowa in 1865, traveling with some of Margaret's family to California. Perry registered to vote in 1867, listing his residence as Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. He was listed on the 1870 census there as Perry Oneal with his wife Margt J, his daughter Mary A, a son John J. and a 20 year old Chinese servant, Chang.

That fall the family moved to Oregon and Perry purchased for $500 168.89 acres about 4 miles west of the present town of Creswell. Creswell was not established until after the railroad came through that area in 1872. Perry and Margaret had 2 more sons after they had come to Oregon: Edward Chancy born in 1871 and George Elva born in 1873. In 1876 their daughter Mary Ann married John Howard Bond and she moved out of their household. But sometime before 1880 Margaret's father, William L. England came to stay with them because he was listed on the 1880 census as father-in-law. Now Perry was listed as C.P. Oniel with Margaret and the 3 boys also in the household.

It was three years later, in 1883, that Perry filed for about 160 acres of homestead land adjoining his other property. In his final papers in1890 he noted that the land was hilly and good for grazing and farming. It was in May of 1897 that Perry's wife Margaret died. She was buried in the Creswell Pioneer Cemetery. C.P. lived as a widower for over 20 years with his 3 sons who were unmarried at that time. He deeded his land, now over 300 acres, to them a few months before his death 12 Jul 1919. He was buried in the Creswell Cemetery next to his wife.

You can read about him on my website: http://www.joanneskelton.com/p13.htm#i317

Tomorrow I will try to give some more information about Commodore Perry's land in Oregon.

Posted 14 Apr 2017

Eighth Grade -- Finishing Well

For the eighth grade, 1921-22, it was not a report card that my father, Lester Albertson, received, but a report book. It is rather small, but does have more than one page. It includes the song Oregon, written by Chas. B. Jones, copyright 1905. It also included a section with notes to the teacher and to the parents and another page with rules and regulations.

Of course, it was probably the middle section, Monthly Report of Grade Standings, which would have been most important to my father and also to his father. My grandfather, O. J. Albertson, signed this booklet seven times so it could be taken back to school, so his teacher, Lillian Clingman, knew that the booklet had been taken home. For this year the grades were recorded by letter grades and Lester received all As and Bs and even a couple of A+ grades for arithmetic. The teacher wrote in one subject, not on the printed form, Music. He also received all As for that. I do remember when I sang in the church choir along with my father. For his last year in grade school, Lester received all As for deportment. The teacher wrote that he had attended 252 days of school, but she made a mistake. If you add each month's days together it totals 152. Again it was 0 days absent and 0 days tardy.

Filed with the little book was a paper from the County School Superintendent which gave Lester's scores from the 8th grade examinations, and yes he did pass:

• Arithmetic 97
• Civil Gov. 94
• Geography 95
• Grammar 92
• History 90
• Physiology 90
• Reading 82
• Spelling 92
• Writing 85

I expect that both Lester and his parents were proud of receiving that "common school diploma" dated on 31 May 1922. Although the diploma entitled him to enter high school, he never had the opportunity. Looking at the rest of his life I would say his eight grades of school served him well.

Annie Clark Collins' Birthday--She lived to be 99.

My first cousin twice removed, Annie Clark, was born on March 8, 1875, probably in Linn County, Oregon. Her mother, Lydia (Bond) Clark, was the oldest sister of my great-grandfather, John Howard Bond. Annie lived to be 99 years old, lacking about 9 months of reaching her 100th birthday, dying on July 17, 1974.
It is probable that Annie lived with her parents, Oren and Lydia Clark, until the time of her marriage to William D Collins November 10, 1897. She was listed with them on the 1880 census in Elk Precinct, Benton County, Oregon. She and William were married at Seal Rock, Lincoln County, Oregon. By the 1900 census the William Collins family, including their 1 year old son Wilbur, was living in the Alsea Precinct, Lincoln County. In 1910 they had moved to Newport, Lincoln County. Annie reported that 4 children had been born, but only 2 were living: Wilbur age 11 and Esther age 6 months. The family had moved into the Willamette Valley by the 1920 census and were living in East Gaston Precinct in Washington County. Their two children Wilbur now age 21 and daughter Velma age 7 were living with them. It appears that Esther had passed away during those ten years betwen 1910 and 1920. Annie had at least one more child, because Rachel Grace was born in 1922 and was living with her parents along with Velma in 1930 when they were living in the Silk Creek Precinct (near Cottage Grove) Lane County, Oregon. William and Annie moved back to the coast between 1935 and 1940 and were in the Glenada Precinct (near Florence) Lane County, Oregon on the 1940 Census.
The year 1942 would have been sad for Annie, since her husband William of over 40 years died in June and her son Wilbur died in September from a logging accident. At the time of William's death, they were living in North Bend, Coos County, Oregon. By the time Annie herself died in 1974, she was living in Blachly, Lane county, Oregon and was survived by her two daughters, Velma Redmer and Rachel Starr.

Theodore Falk's Birthday

Granduncle Theodore Falk was born on the 7th of May in 1876 in Pulaski Township, Iowa County, Wisconsin. See his person page on my website which includes a photo of him.
http://www.joanneskelton.com/p87.htm
I find him interesting since he was the nearest in age to my grandfather, Julius Falk.  By the 1900 census Theodore had moved from Wisconsin to Iowa and was living with his brother Conrad. When Conrad and family moved to Salem Oregon  in March 1905, Theodore came with him. A newspaper item in the Daily Capital Journal of Salem stated "they propose to become Oregonians."  It was in October of 1905 when Theodore and his younger brother Julius purchased 280 acres between Halsey and Harrisburg, Oregon. The next year in December Theodore married Jessie Brady.  Julius bought another property in October of 1908 and sold his half of the first property to Theodore in January 1909. I am wondering if Julius did this since Theodore was married and Julius was still single. Theodore and Jessie were on the 1910 census in Halsey Precinct and he was listed as a farmer. Later they moved to the Salem area where they lived until his death in 1930.

Seth Caldwell's Birthday

My second cousin, Seth Caldwell, was born on May 4, 1911. If he had lived until today he would have been 100 years old. However, he died almost 5 years ago, so only lived to be 95. I'm sorry that I never got to know him. I did some more research on him and found that he was still living with his parents on the 1930 census in Portland, Oregon. By 1938 the Eugene Oregon City Directory shows he was married to Dorothy C and they were living at 1660 E. 23rd Ave. Seth was employed as a wrapper at Williams Bakery. This was repeated in the 1939 directory. In 1940 they had moved to Central Blvd, Floral Hill, RD 2, Box 11. Seth's parents are also in the 1940 directory in Eugene. 1941 shows Seth and Dorothy at the same address and occupation. But in 1942 the address is Central Blvd, Floral Hill, RD 4, and Seth's occupation was listed as whsmn for McDonald Candy Co. Research in the "White Pages" showed that Seth lived at Florence, Oregon from 1996 to 2002. His death was at Florence 19 July 2006. I tried and tried to find an obituary on-line for him and was unsuccessful. So finally telephoned the funeral home in Florence and discovered that they had handled the cremation and there was no obituary.

One reason for wanting the obituary was to verify that his wife's maiden name was Clifford. She died in October of 2006 and also had no obituary. But sometimes the smallest type of item can give us the clue we need. While researching newspapers on-line, I found the following item in the Eugene Register-Guard for June 6, 1939 under City News Notes: "Visit at Albany. Mr. and Mrs. Seth Caldwell and children of Eugene have been visiting at the home of Mrs. Caldwell's parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Clifford, in Albany."