52 Ancestors #12: Eliza Jane Bailey Tate (1851-1926) – in which I come to a realization!

Eliza Jane Bailey was born on July 16, 1851 to John  (~1816 - 1958) and Maria(Williams) Bailey (~1816- after 1900). She is my 2nd-great grand-aunt, sister to my 2nd-great-grandfather Edward C. Bailey. In 1950 her parents lived in Mifflin County PA and her father was a blacksmith. She was the 5th child (the first after the 1950 census) of eight, and the third of four daughters. Her siblings were John W.  (abt 1843-1864), Anna Mary (abt 1845 - ?bef 1860?), Lydia Maria (abt 1847 - ?), EdwardCarleton (1849-1926), Richard Howard (abt 1853-1935), James A (1855-?), and Rebecca Ella (abt 1858 – 1926).

Jackson Township Huntingdon PA (approx 1870)

She first showed up on a federal census in 1860 in Jackson Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, with her mother, her sisters Lydia and Rebecca Ella, and her brother James; she was 10. In or about 1868 she married Mordecai M. Tate also of Huntingdon County, PA. She was about 17 and he was about 19 (which means he probably lied about his age to get into the Union Army, in February 1864. He was wounded at Cold Harbor VA on June 3, 1864 and mustered out a couple months later). In the 1870 census he said he was a carpenter; in later years, he identified himself as a salesman (1880) and as a wagon-maker (1900). Eliza kept house and did all the cooking and home-making chores.

The couple had five children:  Eleanor Tate (1868-1941), Cora (Tate) Stewart  (1871 – aft 1941), Howard J (1874 - aft 1941), Maud A (1875 - ?), and Alabama C (1877- aft 1941). She and Mordecai lived their entire married life in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. She was visited by family. Her sister Lydia was visiting when the 1870 census was taken, and her brother James was boarding with the family when the 1900 census, as was Maria Hober (85). This has led me to postulate that Maria Hober/Huber is her & James’ mother. Remember, James and Ella were living with Samuel and “Mariah” Huber in 1870. It makes more sense that their mother married Samuel Huber than it does that they were placed with two unrelated people at the ages of 14 and 12. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before.

Click to make bigger
Detail of 1900 Census, Modecai  & Eliza J. Tate household

In 1910, when Mordecai is 65 and Eliza is 62, Mordecai indicated on the census that he had his own income. He may be referring to the military pension he applied for in 1907; if so, as a corporal, he received $8.00 a month. Their daughter, Eleanor, is living with them, in the home at the time. In 1920, Eliza (70) and Mordecai (72), share their home with their daughters Eleanor, who was a nurse in a private home, and Alabama, an artist. Both women remain single.

Eliza died in 1926 at age 75. I don’t know the exact date she died. I did note that three of the original Bailey siblings died that year: Eliza, Ella, and Edward. Her husband, Mordecai, outlived her, as in the 1930 census, he is 80 and living with their daughters  Eleanor  (61), and Alabama (52) ,who is now a nurse. He died at age 88, in 1935. Both he and Eliza are buried in the McAlevys White Church Presbyterian Cemetery.

I'd like to find more detail about Eliza's life

I'd also like to find more details to explain why Eliza's mother was listed as a boarder in Eliza's home  in the 1900 census.

I'd also like to know when she died and why.

[Sources: Federal censuses 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920; http://www.pa-roots.com/pacw/infantry/45th/45thcoc.html; History of the 45th regiment Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer by Allen Diehl Albert. Grit Publishing Co., Williamsport PA 1912.; http://pacivilwar150.com/ThroughPeople/Soldiers/HistoricalOverview]

52 Ancestors: # 11 Richard Howard Bailey (1853-1935) - Can anyone help fill in the blanks?

Tinsmith Products - used with creative commons license via www.photopin.com; photo credit to Jessica at http://www.flickr.com/photos/clio1789/

Richard Howard Bailey is my 2nd great uncle. (Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of him.) I'm hoping that someone can help me with the gaping hole I have in the beginning of his life. It's been most frustrating! I finally decided to write about him anyway and maybe someone can help me find his early years.

I actually found Richard in a backwards fashion. Before I started looking for him, I knew from my 2nd-great-grandfather's, Edward C Bailey 's, obituary in 1926 that his only surviving sibling was Richard H. Bailey, of Vandergrift, PA. I also had a few lines on him in my great-grand mother, Pauline Bailey Hartman's notes:"[Papa] Also had a bro. Dick (Richard Carl). ...Brother Richard had a family of several girls. I remember some of their names - Dove, Mabel, and Pin (probably short for Penelope?). There were four but I've forgotten the other name." As usual ggm's notes give some good clues but ultimately do not turn out to be entirely correct.

I don't know where ggm got Carl as a middle name as all the records I've found show Howard as his middle name (not even any of the wrong "Richard Bailey's" had "C" as a middle initial in Ancestry's hints -- and there are A LOT of "Richard Bailey's" in our country, and quite a few in our extended historical family).  Although I uncovered Richard from the end of his life and then the middle, I will tell you about him in the regular chronological order, more or less.

I found out from his grave marker  that Richard was born in September 1853, in Pennsylvania - per the various censuses. BUT, I can't find him as a child. Since he was born in 1853 (assuming the date is right), he missed the 1850 census -- the one in which my 2nd great grandfather was at home with his parents, a brother and two sisters. The 1860 Census I'd found previously (when researching James and Rebecca Ella) shows the siblings' Mother, Maria [Williams] Bailey, with Richard's younger brother James and three of his sisters (one younger, two older), but Richard is not present. He would have been 7 years old. At the time of the 1870 Census I've found James and Ella living with another family*; Eliza Jane was married and found on the Census living with her husband - her sister Lydia was visiting. Brother John had died in the Civil War. I haven't found Anna Mary or Edward C on the 1870 Census. Does anyone know where Richard Howard Bailey was in his childhood years? Please share it with me! You can contact me at the email address provided on the "Contact Me" page or leave a message in the comments.

In 1876, Richard married Jennie Houston (or Hanston) [both options per Find-a-Grave.com, memorial # 78189758].  He was 23; she was 19.  I don't know where they married or the specific date.The censuses show that from at least 1880 through 1900 they lived in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, in the township of Cherry Hill, where Richard worked as a tinsmith. (I found an interesting video that shows what a tinsmith did, it runs about 4 minutes:  )

In those years, Richard and Jenny produced a large family [I've not yet researched the kids, except as incidental to their parents]: Mabel E (abt 1876-1959); Harry H (abt 1878-?); Lina (abt 1880-?); Belle (abt 1883 -?); Dove L. (1884-?); John (1885-?); Roth James (1887-1984); Bessie (1890-?); and Richard (1893-?).  In 24 years of marriage Jennie had had 9 children, of whom 8 were living as of 1900. In 1899, Richard and Jennie's daughter Mabel married John Q. Adams, and started their own household. In 1900, Lina, Belle, John, Roth, Bessie, and Richard still still at home. Lina worked as a glass decorator, and the other four were in school.

Vandergrift PA 1896
Public Domain, obtained through wikipedia creative commons

By the time of the 1910 census, Richard had moved the family to Vandergift, PA, a town that had been built by a Steel Company to house its workers, but it was a vast improvement over the stereotypical company town, in that the President of the company hired Frederick Law Olmstead's firm to design an attractive town where residents would own their homes, not rent them (Geo. McMurtry, president of the steel mill, edited the plans to fit in more workers). The steel mill was built first, then McMurttry had the town built, and platted, and installed water, sewage, paving for streets and sidewalks, natural gas, electric lines and street lights before opening up lots for sale, for $750 each. Free lots and 1/2 the cost of construction were offered to churches. Somewhat later, Vandergrift Heights was built for the company's semi-skilled employees, with smaller lots and only water service; those lots cost $150. The President achieved his goal of an extremely loyal, very productive, non-unionized work force. Richard did not work for the steel mill; he was now an agent (salesperson) for a lightning rod company, and Jennie kept house (given eight kids, pre-automation, that was a hard job).

In 1910, at 32, Harry had returned to live in the family home; he worked as a wagon team driver. At 26 and 20, Dove and Bessie also lived with their parents; they worked as typesetters in a printing office. Roth was 22 and working as a pattern maker in a family business; and young Richard was a apprentice moulder at age 17. Both also lived with their parents in Vandergrift.

In 1911, Richard (58) and Jennie (54) moved 13 miles southeast to New Kensington PA. I don't know how many of the kids moved with them as my source (city directory) only lists head of household and spouse. They remained there through 1915, at least, and Richard continued to work as a salesman.

Lightning Rod used with creative commons license via www.photopin.com; photo credit to Bev Currie at http://www.flickr.com/photos/beakers_glass/

In 1920, Richard (67) and Jennie (63) were ling in Vandergrift again, with Roth, Harry (written as "Hale H"), and Richard, who worked in the mill as steel workers. Richard worked as a Janitor in a public school. Jennie kept house for all of them. Richard's last remaining sibling, my 2nd-great-grandfather, died in 1926.

In 1930, Richard (77) and Jennie (74) lived in the home of their son Roth. Richard (77), no longer worked. Roth did odd jobs at that point.  Harry and young(er) Richard also lived there; Richard, the younger was not working, but Harry worked as a janitor at the school.

Jennie died in February 1932. Richard died 2 years and 7 months later in September 1935. I haven't yet found an obituary for either one of them.

So this time ggm's notes got that there were a lot of girls in Richard's family; but missed the fact that there were just as many boys. She got Mabel & Dove right. I'm wondering if the one she recalls as being named "Pin" might actually be "Lin" for "Lina"? Ggm didn't remember the other girl's name (singular). It was probably Bessie. I haven't run across Belle since the 1900 Census. She might be the one who died early; although Ive no confirmation on that speculation yet.

[*UPDATE: I've since found out that James and Ella were living with their mother and her new husband, Samuel Huber. See: Eliza Jane's story and Mariah/Maria Williams Bailey Huber's story.]

-------------

The primary things I need to find out are:

Where the heck was Richard birth through marriage?
Was he really a son of John & Maria Bailey? (I'm assuming yes because he was Edward's brother, but he could be an adoptive brother of some sort, or a half brother.)
What was his birth date and his marriage date?

--------------

(Sources: 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 Federal Censuses; New Kensington, PA City Directories; http://www.findagrave.com Find A Grave Memorial# 78189836 & # 78189758; http://vvmhs1.org/history.html; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandergrift,_Pennsylvania; http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-23C)



photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/beakers_glass/2287528330/">BevKnits</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>

52 Ancestors: #10 Granville Bailey (1876-1897)

Granville Bailey, age 21
posted with permission of Christina Inman
Click to make bigger

Amy Johnson Crow of the blog “ No Story Too Small” issued a 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge for this year. The challenge: have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor  (click on the badge in the right sidebar to be taken to her blog for details and weekly roundups of all the participating blogs).

This week I didn’t have a lot of time to do research as I had other things to do on the weekend (like taxes, among other things). I am working on several people in the Bailey branch of the family who will provide interesting stories, but they aren’t ready to write up yet.  

I’ve chosen this week to write up my great-grand uncle Granville Bailey who tragically died young. I don’t know very much about him. Writing these posts every week are very good for bringing to the fore front how much I don’t know about a person and for giving me ideas of where I should look next on the person I’m writing about.

Granville Bailey was born in approximately 1876 in Kansas to my great-grandparents Edward C. and Martha Emily (Wolfington) Bailey, two years after their marriage.  The year before they lived in Ottawa, Kansas in Franklin County, according to the 1875 Kansas State Census, and I know that four years after his birth they lived in Putnam, Kansas in Anderson County with Granville, his older brother Howard, his younger brother Lloyd  (one of the Lloyds), and his younger sister Myrtle who was just a baby at the time (1880 U.S. Census). His father was a fruit grower then.

I don’t have any record of where the family was in 1890 because the census for that year was largely destroyed in a fire in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C., in 1921. Before researching Granville, I knew that the family had moved to Findlay OH by 1900 since they were there for the 1900 U.S. Census, I had thought that perhaps the moved was precipitated by a desire to move away from bad memories after Granville died since Granville was not on the 1900 Census and the back of the picture indicated that he was 21 years old in the picture and that Granville had died in an accident in or near Chicago as a young man – I’ve found nothing to confirm or deny that yet.

In doing more research to write up this post I discovered that he died probably in either late October or early November  1897, and that the family had already moved to Findlay by that time. The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Ohio Obituary Index indicates that Granville’s obituary, or an article about his death, was written on page 1 of the “The Weekly Jeffersonian “ (Findlay Ohio),  on 3 November 1897. As it is a weekly paper I can’t say for certain that he died in November.  In any case, it appears that Granville died within a year of the picture that heads this post being taken, at age 21. It is sad that he didn't get to have a life.

Aggravatingly, unlike the other (later) Findlay papers, The Weekly Jeffersonian's archives have not been given to NewspaperArchive.com, Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank.com, or the Library of Congress' chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. Or anywhere else. Usually if a paper is online I can find the article, as you know. (Think Myrtle, lol!) There is a form I can fill out to order a copy of the article for only $3.00. I haven’t done that yet, but I will. Originally I’d thought I’d only order documents on direct line ancestors, but I’m curious and I want to know more about this young great-grand-uncle! I'm also trying to find newspaper articles in Illinois. It also occurs to me now that I ought to check the 1885 Kansas Census -- if I can't find them that might indicate that the family moved to Ohio to be closer to other family shortly after Edward filed for military invalid benefits (he was a blacksmith the rest of his life - I don't know what sort of injury he had yet as I haven't got that file yet).

If anyone reading this knows more about Granville and what happened or about his family, please contact me through the comments or through the  e-mail address which is listed on  the “Contact Me” page of the blog. I would be delighted to hear from you.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Picture of my 2nd Great Grandfather Edward Carleton Bailey

Posted with permission of Christina Inman
Click to make bigger

This is another of the photos sent to me by my newly discovered cousin. Isn't it wonderful? Edward Carleton Bailey, of (at various times) Huntingdon County PA; Franklin and Anderson Counties, Kansas; and Findlay in Hancock County Ohio. I'm going to add it to the post I've already done on him (here), but wanted to make sure everyone saw it, and so this post. : )

52 Ancestors: #9 James A. Bailey (1855 - ?), Man of Mystery

Posted with permission of Christina Inman
Click to make larger

This post is my 9th in Amy Johnson Crow's challenge to write about 52 Ancestors in 52 weekls. For more details about the challenge and a weekly roundup of all those posts of those participating in the challenge, click on the badge over on the right margin.

James A Bailey was my maternal grandfather's mother's father's youngest brother, or, one of my maternal 2nd-great-grand-uncle's: brother of Edward C. Bailey  and Rebecca Ella Bailey. He has been a man of mystery for me. For the longest time my only proof that he existed has been my great-grandmother's notes, which say, in pertinent part, "Papa also had a brother James who bred "fine" Kentucky horses....Papa's brother Jim never married. He liked to make money and was very nice looking."  And in the batch of photographs sent to me by my newly discovered cousin was this
this photograph (which says on the back: "Uncle Jim, Papa's brother, Oil Well Man, also a breeder of fine Kentucky horses").

I'm glad that I spent last week tracking down his sisters as I doubt that I would have found as much as I have about him without knowing about their lives, in general. One thing I found answered a question I'd been unable to answer when I did Ella's story last week, but in answering that question, it opened up so many more!

James A. Bailey was the fourth and youngest son of John and Maria Bailey; his only younger sibling was Rebecca Ella (known as "Ella"). He was born in December 1855 and his younger sister was born in 1858. I first found him on the 1860 census with his mother and three of his sisters, Lydia, Eliza Jane, and Ella, living in Jackson Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. I don't know where his father* or any of his brothers are that year. Although I do know that at least two of his brothers will serve in the Civil War in the next few years, and the oldest will die in it.

When I wrote about Ella I told you that I'd lost her until she married her husband in 1881, but I found both James and Ella in the 1870 Census, mainly because they were together and the ages were appropriate.  James and Ella are living in the home of Samuel Huber, 55, a tailor, and his wife, Mariah, also 55, and their son, William, who is 16, still in Jackson Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. James, although only 14, and the son are listed as "laborer" and Ellie as "at home". Does this mean that both their parents are dead? I haven't been able to find out yet.**

James next appears in the 1880 Census at age 23, in Bradford City, McKean County, Pennsylvania.  He is a boarder in the home of S.R. (32) and Naomi Hershman (29). Both men drill oil wells for a living.

As we all know the 1890 Census doesn't exist, and I next found him in the 1900 Census, when he was 44 and still single. He was listed as a boarder in the home of  his sister Eliza Jane (48) and her husband Mordecai Tate (50) and their two daughters Maud, age 25, and Alabama [poor girl!], age 22, in Jackson Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Mordecai is a wagon-maker and James still identifies himself as an oil well driller.

And that is the last I've been able to find him so far. I've not found anything about breeding horses either. I sort of surmise that he has died by 1926 as Edward's obituary lists only one surviving sibling: Richard. But then, they could have lost track of him too. I am continuing to look but that's all I have as of this posting. If you know anything about James A. Bailey, or anyone in my blog, I would love to hear from you!

[*UPDATE: I have since found out that James' father died in 1858, per his mother's request for a pension based on his brother John's Union Army service, See Mariah/Maria William Bailey Huber's story.
**UPDATE: I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out: in 1870, James and Ella are living with their Mother and her new husband, Samuel Huber. See Mariah's story, above link, and Eliza Jane's story.]  

I plan:
to look in Kentucky
to trace the Huber family a bit to see if I can determine whether they are related to John or Maria (Williams) Bailey
to check whether there are archived newspapers for Huntingdon County during the relevant time periods.