52 Ancestors in 2018 - Week 45: Bearded

It’s no-shave November, and the word of the week is ‘Bearded’! Though I have many living bearded relatives, after scouring my photo collection, I could only come up of ONE photo of an ancestor with a beard. Several had mustaches, but only one beard! Below is that picture.

I believe the man pictured is a great-greatgrandfather; Sylvanus H. DeBee. The portrait is actually a very old and somewhat fragile 16x10-inch painting/drawing. On the back of the picture there is handwriting that says ’S. L. DeBee Sr. It appears someone started to write ’Grandpa’ before writing ove it, though I can only make out the G-r-a for sure. However, a portrait found with is says ‘Grandma DeBee’ on the written on the back, which is important for context. Because other portraits in the stack name other DeBee ancestors, and are probably created at the same time, I believe that ‘Grandma’ is the wife of Sylvanus H. Debee, and that the man identified as Sylvanus L. Sr is actually Sylvanus H. DeBee.

To my knowledge there were only two men in the family named Sylvanus DeBee; Sylvanus H. DeBee (1841-1915) and his  grandson of Sylvanus L. DeBee (1897-1958). The handwriting on the back appears to be that of a granddaughter of Sylvanus L. Debee. It may be that she did not realize that his middle initial was ‘H’ and just assumed that the two Sylvanuses were father and son.

Sylvanus H. was a Civil War veteran. I feel like I’ve seen a photo of him in a Union uniform, sporting the long beard often seen in photos of Union soldiers, however, the photo has not turned up in either a search through my many boxes of photos or online. I may have imagined seeing the photo.

To learn more about my 52 Ancestors in 2018 project, read my introductory blog post.

52 Ancestors in 2018 - Week 44: Frightening

 The word of the week this week is ‘Frightening’. That’s appropriate with Halloween falling this week! It’s also timely, because just this past week I was going through boxes of heirloom photos and documents that I’ve had stored for a decade or more, and came across this invitation that I’d never seen before.

 

This invitation to a Ghost Party certainly looks spooky with the skull and cross bones, and I like the drama of the black background with silver engraving. But what exactly is a ghost party? I did a search of NewspaperArchive.com to get some context. A 1902 article, ten years after the party above, from the San Pete Free Press, Manti, UT tells of the new fad of ghost parties, in which the room is darkened, candles lit, and ghost stories told. You can find the story here.

Found on Newspaperarchive.com

A second article a few years later, 1905, gives more details about a ghost party, Not only is candlelight part of the atmosphere, but the room is draped in black and decorated with creeping things like spiders and skulls! There are some ‘horror house’ touches; the hostess greets guests with a handshake, during which her ‘hand’ become detached (a glove filled with sand)! And of course, the guests take turns telling ghost stories! This article appeared in the Fort Wayne (IN) Gazette, in the same state where Ella Herrold, hostess of the ghost party in the invitation pictured above. I have to wonder if these parties may have evolved into the seances hosted by mediums that were so popular a decade or two later. You can find the story here.

Found on Newspaperarchive.com

Ella Herrold, the hostess of the 1892 party, was born circa 1871 in Indiana, probaby in LaPorte County near Michigan City. She married Julian Frank Hixon 3 Sep 1893, just little over a year after the ghost party took place, so it’s very possible he was one of the ‘ghosts’ in attendance. They raised their three children in Michigan City. Here is a picture of Ella and Frank sometime after their marriage.

To learn more about my 52 Ancestors in 2018 project, read my introductory blog post.

52 Ancestors in 2018 - Week 37: Closest To Your Birthday

The prompt for week 37 was ‘closest to your birthday’. I found no one in my database born ON my birthday, though I did find one who DIED on my birthday — my ACTUAL birthday; same year! But because he is only distantly related and I have done very little research on him, I’m don’t feel like I have anything interesting to say about him.

Instead I decided to look at one of the people with a birthday that is relatively close to mine — within a few weeks of my birthday. I’ve chosen to write about a cousin who is a bit of a mystery to me. His name was Luther Edward Davis, or Robert Russell Wille.

I knew my grandmother’s sister had a son, but that he was not ever talked about. We never saw Aunt Elizabeth often, as she lived ‘way out’ in South Dakota. I always thought of her as an old maid when I was a little girl, but it turns out she’d been married and had a son. That’s really all I knew for a long time. Then one day I found this piece of paper in my grandmother’s handwriting—

I did a little searching and found a few interesting things. First I found a 1940 census page for Fall River County, South Dakota showing 5-year-old Robert Wille living with his parents, Pearl and William. This isn’t much to go on, but the age is consistant for a child who was born in June 1934.

So I kept searching, and found the 1945 census cards for Robert Russell Wille, as well as Pearl Wille and William R Wille, all living in Hot Springs, Fall River County, with the same P.O. Box number. Robert is listed as age 11, which would have been the correct age for a child born in 1934. Now here is where it gets interesting! Robert was born in Bruce, which is in Brookings County, South Dakota, where my great-aunt lived. And more interesting, on the top of the census card for Robert it states ‘adopted son’!

I’ve found a listing in the SSDI for a Robert R Wille, born 8 Jun 1934, died 22 Oct 2011. I believe the card was issued in South Dakota, though I need to go back and read more about the SSDI to verify that.

I’ve also found a couple of marriages for a Robert Wille in Fall River County, South Dakota, with Robert’s birth year estimated to be 1934 or 1935, and a divorce; a California divorce for one of the marriages. I believe these all to refer to Elizabeth’s son, but I’ve not yet done enough research to be sure.

I’d like to find an obituary for Robert. I’d also like to know WHY he was given up for adoption. The little I remember of Elizabeth was that she was a single woman and while not poverty-stricken, probably didn’t have a lot of money. It’s possible she found herself unable to provide for her child when she was no longer a married woman. I wish I’d known enough of the story to ask questions while my Grandma was still alive, but I’m not sure I would have gotten that answers I was seeking anyway. This seemed to be topic not to be discussed!

I found a tree on Ancestry a few years ago, but I don’t have a paid subscription and did not see a way to contact the owner of the tree. I tried tracking her down on Facebook, but unfortunately while the response was very polite, the Facebook user apparently was not the person I was seeking .

To learn more about my 52 Ancestors in 2018 project, read my introductory blog post.

52 Ancestors in 2018 - Week 43: Cause of Death

The theme for Weed 43 is ‘Cause of Death’. We know that everyone is going to have one, and some will be pretty unusual. And others are pretty common, at least at a particular time and place. Today I want to tell you a story about one such death. I have no sources for this story, other than oral history as told by my grandmother.

Grandma had a little sister, Elizabeth Janco, perhaps pronounced Jansgo where she was born in the part of the Kingdom of Austria-Hungary later known as Yugoslavia. Grandma loved her baby sister, and Elizabeth followed big sister Susie everywhere. One day they were outside playing, when little Elizabeth stepped on a thorn; a thorn from a locust tree. Not a big deal, right? It’s a little painful, but…

Have you even seen a thorn from a locust tree? These can be quite long and sharp. Here is an illustration of a twig from a honey locust.

Mathews, F. Schuyler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

 As you can see, even the small thorns are a quarter inch or more! I’m not sure what variety of locust tree was growing in that part of Europe at the time, but any locust thorn was a hazard!
 

In addition to the immediate pain, there were other dangers—the danger of infection. This was the first decade of the 1900s. The tetanus vaccine had not been developed. That didn’t happen until the 1920s, and even then, it was not terribly effective. There was no neosporin to put on the wound, and no antibiotics to be given when the infection started. Penicillin was not discovered until 1928! I think we live in a world where vaccines and antibiotics are so readily available, we sometimes forget just how important they are!

But that was not the case for Elizabeth. Consequently, there was little to be done for her except to clean the wound and hope for the best. Unfortunately, little Elizabeth did develop an infection which Grandma referred to as ‘blood poisoning’. Sadly, Elizabeth sucumbed to the infection. Forever after, Grandma hated locust trees, cursing them whenever she saw one, and woe be it to the seedling that happened to sprout up in her yard!

While there was no happy ending for little Elizabeth, there was a bittersweet ending for Grandma. Shortly after the family came to America, her mother gave birth to another daughter—they named her Elizabeth! Grandma had another baby sister to love and protect.

To learn more about my 52 Ancestors in 2018 project, read my introductory blog post.

Sources:

• "Tetanus", (tetanus.pdf), page 1, Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, viewed 22 Oct 2018
• "Alexander Fleming's Discovery of Penicillin", ACS website, viewed 22 Oct 2018