Connections – At the Library – Safleys

Next week's theme for 52 Ancestors is At the Library. Yesterday, 25 January 2019, I was working at the local (Cottage Grove Oregon) genealogical society library on my regular Friday shift. During the time when no patrons were there to help, I decided to work on my project for our society's displays coming up this summer and fall.

We are choosing various members of our community to research and create a display about. I had chosen the J. I. Jones family because my husband and I at one time owned the house called the J. I. Jones house and I had already done some research on that family. One of the items I had collected was a manuscript written in 1976 about the Jones family done by Lillian Lewis Coffman, a niece of J. I. Jones. On page 20 Mrs. Coffman stated that the only descendants of C. H. Jones (J. I. Jones' father) who were then living in Cottage Grove were her sister, Lela Ward, Lela's daughter Mildred (Mrs. Cecil Safley) and a grandson.

The Safley name drew my attention. When I first started to work at the local museum, my supervisor was Isabelle (Safley) Gates Woolcott. Do you suppose she was connected to the Jones family? But I also knew that one of my second cousins, Kathleen Albertson, had married a Safley from Cottage Grove and they were said not to be related to Isabelle. So did I have a connection to the Jones family through that cousin​?

Thankfully our society has drawers and drawers of file folders of clippings about our local families filed by surname. So I checked the Safley file folder. After reading a number of obituaries and other clippings I discovered that Kathleen's father-in-law, Rodney Safley, was a brother to Cecil Safley who was married to a Jones' descendant. So one of my relatives on my father's side of the family does have a connection to the Jones' family as her children have cousins who are descendants of C. H. Jones.

But as I continued reading I saw another name I recognized. Rodney and Cecil's father, Joseph Safley, died in March of 1944. The newspaper included names of out-of-town relatives who had come to his funeral. Among this listing was Joseph's sister, Mrs. Margaret Meadows and her three sons and their families, who lived in Florence, Oregon. One of these sons was Williams Meadows. His wife was Beverly Isom, my second cousin once removed on my mother's side of the family, so her children would be my third cousins. But these children also have cousins who are descendants of C. H. Jones, because their father, Wm Meadows would have been a first cousin to Cecil who was married to Mildred, a Jones' descendant.

Thus, although I am not actually related to the Jones family, I have some cousins on both sides of my family who are and I can claim a connection.

52 Ancestors 2019 – 4 – I'd Like to Meet – George Washington Bond

This week's theme is “I'd like to meet.” I looked at the birthday calendar and chose “Uncle George.” His birthday probably was not during this week, but I am unsure which day in January it was, so decided he would be my subject.

George Washington Bond was my 2^nd gt-grandfather, Solomon Bond's older brother. They were less than 2 years apart in age, so I expect they spent time together.

George was born on the frontier, in northern Kentucky, just 201 years ago in 1818, the son of John and Sarah (Chastain) Bond. While he was still quite young, in about 1822, the family moved to Indiana and then in less than 10 years, about 1829, they moved again to Illinois. It was there on 1 March 1838 that he married his 1^st cousin, Elizabeth Stillwell. I wonder if they were warned that there might be a problem with marriage to such a close relative.

By 1840 George and Elizabeth and many of their relatives were living in Iowa Territory. As there were 2 males aged between 20 and 29 in the household, I expect that George's older brother William was living with them there in Jefferson County. After the Baptist Church of Knoxville in Marion County was organized in 1845, Elder G. W. Bond was one of the first ministers there. Uncle George and his family were living in Iowa when it became a state in 1846. In 1847 his younger brother, James, traveled with his wife and family as a missionary to the Oregon country where he was accidentally killed in 1849.

When they took the census in 1850 in Marion County Iowa, Uncle George listed his occupation as Missionary Baptist preacher. I would have liked to hear one of his sermons. George and Elizabeth had 5 living children at that census. Two of these children, Ben Frank and Sarah, were marked as deaf & dumb. It was probably in the next year that George's grandfather, Solomon Bond, died as his will was recorded in 1851 in neighboring Mahaska County.

But one of my favorite things about Uncle George happened in 1853. He and Elizabeth and their 5 children, as well as George's parents and many, many other relatives, including my 2^nd gt-grandparents, traveled over the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley of the Oregon Territory. I am especially thankful that Uncle George kept a journal of that trip, writing one line per day, He used many geographical references, so I was able to follow their journey on a map.

Along with his parents, 2 brothers and 4 sisters, the family took advantage of the Oregon Donation Land Claim act and received land in Oregon. George settled in Lane County in the Eugene-Springfield area, about 20 miles from my present location. The Baptist Annals of Oregon (pg 19) tells about George:

“In 1856, one of the missionaries, Rev. G. W. Bond, was aided to buy a horse, as he had previously been compelled to travel on foot, often, in the winter, wading long distances in water from three or four inches to a foot in depth on the sloppy prairies to his appointments. He would pull off his shoes and socks, wade through, redress his feet, and march on, singing his favorite songs; and this on a salary of from $50 to $100 a year!”

He continued preaching for the Baptist church and was the pastor in Eugene from 1858 to 1868. It was a little over 10 years later, that he died from heart trouble 9 January 1880 and was buried at the Pioneer Cemetery in Eugene. His obituary from the Eugene City Guard 17 January 1880 included this: “Elder Bond was a man of spotless character, and unquestioned integrity. By his virtues he commanded the respect of all.” There was another obituary published in the State Journal in Eugene on the same date and it gave tribute to him also: “As a christian he was honored and beloved by his brethren and respected by the entire community. His religion was something more than a profession of his life; it was a fact in his whole life.”

Uncle George Bond truly was someone that I would have liked to meet.

There is a page about Uncle George on my personal genealogy website:

https://www.joanneskelton.com/p30.htm#i743

It also includes a link to my transcription of the journal entries of the trip to Oregon.

https://www.joanneskelton.com/e158.htm

52 Ancestors 2019 – 3 – Unusual Name – Marsh Chase

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks has assigned the theme for this week as “Unusual Name.” I have chosen to write about my 2^nd gt-grandmother Lucy Jane (Chase) Shipman's brother, Marsh Chase. His name may not be especially unusual, but seemed to be the most unusual of those ancestor's siblings who were born during this week.

Although Marsh's first name is not all that unusual, those who were indexing the census records for him on Ancestry.com were able to achieve some unusual spellings for his name. It 1870 it became Mash. Then in 1900 it was Massh. They called him March in 1910 and also in 1930. But the most unusual one was in 1920 when his name became Moras Charo. But even with these various spellings, I was able to research him through the years.

Marsh was born 170 years ago, 15 January 1849, in Litchfield County, Connecticut. It was most likely that it was in Goshen township, since he was enumerated on the 1850 census there with his parents, Timothy and Lucy Irene (Howe) Chase, and 5 of his 7 older brothers and sisters. Marsh was the baby of the family, being listed as a 1 year old on that census. By 1860 the family was in Lake County, Ohio, and in 1870 they had moved to Mercer County, Illinois.

By 1874 they had moved again, this time to Saline County, Nebraska where Marsh married Mary Tyacke on 28 November. It must have been near that same time when Marsh filed a homestead application for the north ½ of the southwest ¼ of section 8, in township 6 north, range 1 east, because he was awarded his patent for those 80 acres on 30 June 1879. Apparently his father applied at about that time for the south ½ of that same quarter section. But before the required time to receive his patent, Timothy died 5 July 1877 and the patent was issued to his wife, Lucy Chase, on the same date as Marsh. The 1880 census shows Lucy living with Marsh and his family before her death on 10 March, 1882.

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The land ownership map for Saline County in 1900 shows Marsh as the owner of 160 acres which included his and his parents' homesteads. It does have his name spelled correctly. According to the census, Marsh and his family continued to live in Saline County through 1900, then in 1910 and 1920 and 1930 they were in Furnas County, Nebraska. Mary died there 16 September 1919 and Marsh lived with married daughters until his death 16 August 1935.

Marsh was buried in the Edison Cemetery in Furnas County. An obituary was published in The Edison Echo 22 August 1935. It stated that he and Mary had 4 children, but one died as an infant, so he was survived by a son, John Marsh Chase who was living in Juneau Alaska at that time, and 2 daughters: Mrs. Irene Blauvelt and Mrs. Louisa C. Pearson, both of Edison. There were 15 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. The obituary gave this tribute: He was a kind and loving husband and father and was always thinking of others. His cheerful disposition will be remembered by all who knew him.

52 Ancestors 2019 – 2 – Challenge – Letha Ann (O'Neal) Lanning

This weeks theme is “challenge” for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Since I have chosen to write about siblings of my ancestors, this week I have chosen Letha Ann (O'Neal) Lanning, an older sister of my 2^nd gt-grandfather, Commodore Perry O'Neal.

Letha or Leatha was born on 13 January 1827 in Franklin County, Indiana, the daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Lollar) O'Neal. I believe she fits the theme for challenge since Letha was the mother of 17 children in a period of a little over 27 years. Twelve of her children survived until adulthood and are shown with their parents in the above photo.

Letha was 16 years old when she married John Lanning on the 18^th of August 1843. It was a little less than a year later when their first child, Reuben, was born 31 May 1844. Apparently Reuben was named for his grandfather, John's father. Before the 1850 census was scheduled to be taken, four more children were born: Sarah, Mary, James and Hester. Sadly Mary died a few months after her first birthday and Hester died a little over a month after her first birthday. Then when the census was taken, Reuben wasn't at home, but in his grandfather Lanning's household. The census taker listed Sarah, James and Hester, even though Hester had already died because she had been alive for the official census date.

Children continued to arrive in their family: George, William, Joseph, Aaron, Keturah and David were all born before the 1860 census. Aaron died when he was 2 ½ years old in 1858, so there were eight children enumerated in that Lanning household, aged 16 to 1/12^th. Five children were born during the 1860's: Amanda (who died less than a year old), Nancy, Henrietta, Rosanna and John. The 1870 census shows that the three older surviving children had left home and there were still nine children from age 19 to 2 who were living in their household.

In 1871 Letha's last child, Hiram, was born, but he lived only 2 days. When they took the 1880 census the six younger children were still living at home, four girls and 2 boys. Hopefully that were able to provide help for their parents. It was in this census that Letha stated that her father was born in Ireland and her mother in South Carolina. She repeated that fact in the 1900 census where she was widowed and living with her daughter Keturah. Letha was listed as a 73 year old farmer, who could read, but not write. Her husband John of 56 years had died in November of 1899. At age 83, Letha was shown on the 1910 census with an occupation of manager of a farm. Again Keturah was living there with her. In all her census listings from 1850 through 1910 they were living in Butler Township in Franklin County, Indiana. Letha died there 8 March 1914 and was buried in Wolf Creek Cemetery.

From her obituary which was published in the Brookville Democrat 18 March 1914, we learn that Letha faced physical challenges in her later years:

Aunt Leatha or Grandma Lanning, as she was commonly called, passed through many hardships helping to raise such a large family and accumulating a nice home. Her last years were spent mostly in afflictions, and being so crippled in body she hadn't the pleasure of going about much.

When she died, Letha had 11 children still living and over 150 descendants. Her obituary gives this tribute to her:

Surely many sons and daughters can arise and call her blessed. The last few years of her life the loved ones would gather in and sing and pray with her. She always seemed so glad and happy, often expressing a desire to depart and be with Jesus.

I would say that Letha faced her challenges well.

52 Ancestors 2019 – 1 – First – Isaac S. Smalley

First

Again in 2019 I am attempting to write about family using the themes from 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks by Amy Johnson Crow. In 2018 I did write, using a little over a third of the suggested topics. This year I am planning to write about an ancestor's sibling whose birthday was during the week and who I could connect to the theme for the week.

The first theme in 2019 is “First.” I have chosen Isaac S. Smalley, a younger brother of my great-grandfather, Lafayette Pierce Smalley.

Isaac was born on the first day of the first month (January) in 1866, in Adams County, Ohio, the son of John Wilson and Rachel Ann (Hemphill) Smalley. Isaac was not their first son, but he was the first child born after John W. was discharged from the Union Army at Chattanooga, Tennessee, 28 Oct 1864.

It was while Isaac was still a baby the family moved north into Clinton County, Ohio. They were still living there in 1870 when the census was taken. But somehow Isaac was mixed up with his brother James so Isaac was shown as 8 years old. It was about 1872 when the family headed west and settled in Illinois. Then in 1879 they moved farther west to Saline County, Nebraska and sadly, it was there on 15 September 1879 when Isaac died of typhoid fever, the first child of John and Rachel to die. He was buried in Atlanta Cemetery in Saline County. In about 1886 the rest of his family moved again to Sherman County, Kansas.

You can see a photo of his gravestone on the Find a Grave website:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57452459/isaac-s-smalley

Postcard From the Past – Christmas

Again I wish to share a postcard from the collection of my father, Lester Albertson. This was sent to him by one of his aunts back in Kansas after his family had moved to a farm near Halsey, Oregon. It was probably received over 100 years ago.

My Christmas greetings to Family and Friends!

Over 175 Years Old

A great big thank you to my 2^nd cousin from Wisconsin. (I recently was able to connect with him since we were DNA matches.) He shared this photo and gave me permission to put it on my blog.

The family story tells us that the clock was given as a wedding gift to my gt-grandfather, Ludwig Falk, and his first wife, Marianne Kuss, in 1839 in Prussia. Ludwig married my gt-grandmother, Anna Louise Boehm, in 1850, after Marianne had died. Ludwig and Anna and family immigrated to the United States in 1858 and settled in Wisconsin. So, the clock must have traveled with them on the ship.

The clock has been in the possession of my cousin for over 30 years and he states that it is still keeping time.