8 Escape Injuries When Auto, Ambulance Collide (June 30, 1923)

"8 Escape Injuries When Auto, Ambulance Collide"
The Findlay Morning Republican, June 30,1923, page 2
(found at Newspaperarchive.com)
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Transcription:

8 Escape Injuries When Auto, Ambulance Collide

Touring Car Driven by S. M. Hartman, 318 First Street, Crashes into Rear of Carey, O., Ambulance Driven by Charles Sutter, Funeral Director of That Place, Who Suffers Minor Injuries

      Eight persons narrowly escaped injury when a touring car crashed into and toppled an ambulance from Carey, O., on its side at First and S. Main Streets yesterday afternoon.

     

     Charles Sutter, funeral director, of Carey, who was driving the ambulance, was slightly injured about the head and neck. He was the only occupant of the machine, having taken a patient, Miss Clara Shull, of near Vanlue, to the Home and Hospital, a short time before.

               Seven in Touring Car

     The touring car was driven by S. M. Hartman, 318 First Street. Other occupants of the machine were his wife, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild, all ranging in ages from 3 to 18 years. All were shaken by the impact but unhurt.

     The children were:

     Berenice and Helen Duffield, daughters of Jay. W. Duffield, of near Van Buren.

     Mabel and Dale Erwin, children of Mrs. Fannie Erwin, 225 Park Ave.

     Josephine Hart, a grandchild, of the same address.

     The collision occurred shortly after 3 o’clock. The ambulance was northbound from the hospital on the return trip to Carey, and the Hartman machine was running south on Main Street.

               View Is Obstructed

     A third machine, driver unknown, passed the Hartman car obstructing the view of Mr. Hartman as he turned his car to go east on First Street. Before the machine could be halted, it crashed into the rear of the ambulance, turning it around and pushing it over on its side in front of the Campfield apartments.

     Mr. Sutter, his straw hat bent by the mixup, crawled out of the window while residents nearby, hearing the crash, held their breath for signs of life around the ill-fated car.

     The touring car with its seven occupants lost a wheel in the jam. The ambulance was badly damaged. A wheel was broken, the body battered and glass in the windows and windshield shattered. It was removed to Runnell’s garage.

     Renshler’s ambulance was summoned to the scene.

(Findlay Morning Republican, June 30, 1923, page 2 (found at NewspaperArchive.com))

This was likely the accident I talked about a year and a half ago, in the profile of my second great grandfather, Samuel Myers Hartman. I had not found this article when I wrote it, but I did find legal notices in the papers that due to a car accident in the spring of 1923, Samuel M. Hartman had been sued for $4500 in damages by the driver of the other vehicle, and that Samuel M. Hartman had filed a cross-claim against the other driver for $1200. In that prior profile I noted, for perspective, that in 1923, the average car cost $393, the average house cost $8,142, and the average yearly wage was $1,066. I stated then that it had to have been one heck of an accident, even though both drivers obviously came out of it alive. Now that I know that Mr. Sutter’s ambulance was destroyed, I can speculate that it likely cost more than a regular car to replace, and that its loss likely had a significant adverse impact on his ability to carry out his normal business because, in most of the 1800’s and early 1900’s, the town‘s ambulance service was run by a funeral home in the town (I've learned by reading accident and death notices). So Sutter could have sued for the replacement value of the ambulance and for the damage to his business.  I don’t know enough to speculate as to what damages the amount of Samuel M. Hartman’s cross-claim represented. On the eve of trial, the parties came to an undisclosed settlement. 

From this article, I could learn:

• that S. M. Hartman, my second great-grandfather, lived at 318 1st St., Findlay, OH on June 30, 1923; 
• that he was well-off enough to own a touring car in 1923; 
• that he was married, and his wife was living at that time;
• that he had at least four grandchildren, all granddaughters; 
• that one of his daughters had married a Jay W. Duffield of near Van Buren Ohio and they had two daughters, named Berenice and Helen; 
• that his daughter Fannie (my great-grandmother) had married a man surnamed Erwin (my great-grandfather) and was either widowed or divorced from him since she was allowed the use of her own first name in the newspaper account (traditions of the early 1900’s requiring that married women were always identified by Mrs. "their husband’s name.");
• that Fannie and Mr. Erwin had (at least) two daughters, Mabel and Dale; 
• that Mr. Hartman had a great grandchild by the name of Josephine Hart who was also Fannie Erwin’s grandchild (which indicates that Fannie probably also had at least one older child);
• that Fannie, Mabel, Dale, and Josephine lived at 225 Park Ave., Findlay, Ohio, on June 30, 1923; 
• and that the named children ranged in age from three years old until 18 years old. It was likely, but not certain, that Josephine was the three-year-old child. 

I also learned the names of a few businesses in Findlay, Ohio.

That’s a lot of genealogical information to pull out of one newspaper article. Besides allowing you to show some slice of life color for your ancestors, newspaper articles are often a genealogical goldmine!

Lester Dene Hart (1894-1981), no stranger to sorrow

Birth Record of Lester Dene Hart (21 April 1894),
Portage Twp, Hancock County, Ohio.
Click to Make Bigger (closeup below).

In the beginning, he went by Dene, and that is the name by which my mother knew of him. He was her Uncle Dene, although I am not certain that she ever met him. Hi Mom, I'm back on your side of the family!

Lester Dene Hart was my grandmother’s oldest brother and my grand uncle. In actuality, he was my grandmother’s half-brother. He had a different father than my grandmother did. Lester Dene Hart was born, on April 21, 1894, to Orley Calvin Hart and Fannie Susan Hartman (my great-grandmother) in Portage Township, in Hancock County, Ohio, five months after his parents’ wedding. His mother was from Hancock County, Ohio.

Closeup of Lester Dene Hart Birth Record.
This is what above red arrow points to.
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He was their oldest child. Fannie and Orley had four children after Lester Dene: Gladys (1896-1902), Reed Charles (1898-1954), Verne Allen (1900-1954), Julia Ann (1903-1978).

By 1900, the family had moved to Clay County, Illinois, where Orley’s family lived. Orley took up farming and shared farming duties with his family across several farms. On August 7, 1902, Dene’s younger sister, Gladys, died at age 5; Dene was only 8 years old. The family records state that she died of diabetes, but I have not been able to find anything confirm that. Just two years later, on January 28, 1905, at age 30, Dene’s father died, purportedly for the same reason (I don't have a death certificate) , leaving his mother to care for and raise the children alone, far from her family. I expect that Orley’s family continued to help farm the land. Dene was eleven years old when his father died.

In 1909, Dene’s mother married my great-grandfather, Vernon Erwin, in Louisville, Illinois, Dene and his siblings continued to live with their mother after she married Vernon. The 1910 census shows Vernon (spelled Verna), Fannie (listed as Frances), and Fannie’s four children in the household. Vernon was not working then, but the census indicates Dene was working as farm labor on the home farm. The 1940 census indicated that Dene’s highest level of schooling was the 8^th grade, so he likely dropped out of school right about 1910, age 15, because his labor on the farm helped support the family. In the next two years, Vern and Fannie gave Dene two more little sisters: my grandmother, Mabel LeRe (1910-1990) and her sister, Dale Hart (1912-?).

In 1915, at age 21, Dene married Leta Frances Elkin (20), daughter of Larkin C Elkin and Clara Hayes Elkin. On June 5, 1917, at age 23, Dene registered for the draft for WWI. On his registration, he indicated that he was a farmer and self-employed in Louisville Township. His only dependent was his wife. He did not try to claim exemption from the draft. On the back of the card, he was described as being of medium height and medium build with blue eyes and dark hair. He was not disabled.

WWI Draft Registration of Lester Dene Hart.
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In “Clay County and the Great War: a Narrative History of the Contributive and Sacrificial Involvement of Clay County, Illinois in World War I” the author, Ryan Herdes, stated that a total of 1350 men registered for the draft in Clay County on June 5, 1917. Of the 1350 men who registered on June 5, the names of 214 men were drawn to represent the county in the national draft. Ultimately, only 107 were actually drafted from Clay County. The article indicated that a complete listing of those individuals called in the county draft appeared in the final July edition of the Southern Illinois Record. I went looking for a copy of that paper (I googled it, after checking my normal sources for online historical newspapers to no avail) and found that it had been digitized in a collection maintained by the Eastern Illinois University. The listing was found on the first page of the July 26, 1917 Southern Illinois Record. Lester is not on that list. I’ve found no evidence that he served in World War I.

On May 18, 1920, Leta gave birth to their daughter, Josephine Vivian Hart. According to the 1920 federal census, Dene worked as a Teamster hauling coal at that time and earned a wage (he was not self-employed). Both he and Leta indicated that they were able to read and write. Unfortunately, on June 30, 1922, Leta died. I have, so far, been unable to find out why. She was buried in the Orchard Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Illinois. 

This left Dene a single father of a two-year-old girl. At some point after Leta’s death, Dene and his daughter moved to Findlay, Ohio, in Hancock County. He probably moved there because his mother, my great-grandmother, had moved back to Ohio with her two youngest daughters, after my great-grandfather left her; she and her youngest daughters were in Hancock County Ohio by the 1920 Census. (Family notes say Vernon left in 1915, the year Dene married Leta.)  I don’t know what Dene was doing to support himself and his daughter, who was caring for her, or where he was living when he first moved back to Ohio. 

On November 22, 1925, Dean (31) married Edith Matilda Becker (20), daughter of Casper and Anna Becker, who became stepmother to five-year-old Josephine. According to the 1927 Findlay City Directory, they lived at 1203 Lima St. and Dene was a “tire builder.” Findlay, Ohio has had a history of tire companies as significant employers in the town; the longest lasting one being Cooper Tire and Rubber Company. I’m not certain which one he worked for yet.

According to the 1930 census, Dene, now 35, and Edith, now 26, (and Josephine, age 10) rented their home and paid $15 a month rent. They lived on Santee Avenue. Dene worked as a truck driver for the state highways.

In or about July of 1930, Dene’s wife, Edith, contracted tuberculosis, a dangerous respiratory illness that frequently caused death. Approximately 110,000 Americans died each year from tuberculosis in the early 1900’s. Typically, patients were separated from their families so that their families would not catch it; in the 1930s the most popular treatment was rest and fresh air in sanatoriums. I don’t know whether Edith was sent to a sanatorium. She was sick for eight months and then died at the home of her parents on February 12, 1931. She was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Findlay, Ohio. 

Edith Matilda Becker Hart, Obituary,
Findlay (OH) Morning Republican, 13 Feb 1931 p.2.
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Edith's death was less than ten years after the death of Dene's first wife. 

Later that year, on August 18, 1931, the Findlay Morning Republican, reported that Dene and his daughter, Josephine, his mother, and my grandparents, were among 44 family members (all named in the article) who attended the fourth annual reunion of the S. M. Hartman family, held at the old homestead, 1 mile east of Van Buren. Perhaps being with family was a comfort.

Dene apparently liked being married, and he did still have a young daughter who needed to be cared for. On December 23, 1932, at age 38, he married Helen Marie Black, age 29, daughter of O. L. (Lawrence) Black and Carrie Plumber or Plumer. While the marriage license indicated that Helen had been married before, I know nothing about that marriage and I don’t know whether she had any children from that prior marriage but I don’t think so as she didn’t bring with her into this marriage. While the certificate indicates that her prior husband was not living, I cannot confirm that (there are some indications the contrary, but, if that bears out, we should remember that it was not unusual for divorced women to list themselves as widowed as that was less embarrassing).

Marriage Record for Lester Dene Hart and Helen Black (1932).
Click to Make Bigger.

In 1935 and 1937, city directories indicate that the couple were living outside of Findlay in the village of Jenera. Dene worked as a foreman for the state highway department. In May 1937, the couple experienced tragedy when their daughter, Alice Virginia, was born, but only lived one day.  

Approximately one year later, on June 11, 1938, Dene’s daughter, Josephine, age 18, married Merrill Bushong (son of Mr. and Mrs J. M. Bushong), in New Stark, Ohio.

At the start of May 1939, Dene and Helen left Ohio for Texas to work on a Rural Electrification project, with the Bigley construction company. He ended up working first on a REA project in Arkansas. The federal Rural Electrification Act was passed in 1936. It was one of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs to improve the economic condition of farmers hit hard by the depression and drought. It provided 25-year loans at 3% interest for constructing power lines in rural areas. Local cooperative companies were formed to provide electricity. The Bigley Construction Company, of Findlay, Ohio, won the contract to install the substations, poles and wires with the low bid on the project. The bid for the North Central Texas electrification project was $86,787.06. I don’t know what the bid was for Arkansas. The first Arkansas project provided electricity to 600 farmhouses over 307 miles of wire in Mississippi County, Arkansas and used 3500 poles, 600 miles of aluminum wire, and 36,000 man hours of employment. Farmers along the lines purchased electric pumps, ranges, and some had modern plumbing installed in their homes for the first time. After total installation in Arkansas, the minimum bill of $2.50 for 35 kW gave sufficient current to light a four-room house, and to run an electric iron, a radio, and a fan for a month. Later the North Central Texas project made service available to 1400 families.

While the men worked on the REA project in Arkansas, the wives and families lived in an encampment near Lockesburg, Arkansas. On August 15, 1939, the Findlay Republican Courier reported that “Mrs. Dene Hart, the former Helen Black of New Stark, and daughter of Mrs. Carrie Buchanan of Findlay, was honored guest at a recent shower given at Lockesburg, Arkansas, by the women of the Bigley Electric Construction camp. She received many gifts from guests. Dene and Helen’s second daughter, [Edit: name removed as I just found indications that she may be alive] was born 1939 in Arkansas. Helen’s mother went out to visit with the family and see her new granddaughter, for three months, returning in late November 1939.

1940 U.S. Federal Census - Hart, Lester Dene and family.
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By 1940, the family was back in Findlay, Ohio and Dene was once again working for the state highway department, although he was looking for work at the time the census was taken. He reported that, in 1939 he worked 48 weeks and earned $1400. He evidently found new work because the City Directory for 1941 indicated that Dene worked for G.E. Edgington & Sons as a distributor operator. They lived at 134 ½ North Main St., Apt. 10., Findlay.

WWII Draft Registration Card for Lester Dene Hart, front page.
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Draft Registration Card for Lester Dene Hart, top portion of back page.
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Dene registered for the draft for World War II on April 25, 1942. He was 48. The draft registration indicates that he is white, 5 foot 7 ½ inches tall, 155 pounds and had blue eyes, black hair, and a ruddy complexion. He also indicated that he had a bad thumb on his left hand and that he worked for an ordinance company in Marion Ohio. This is likely this Scioto Ordinance Company, an ammunition and bomb-making facility operating from 1942 to 1945. It produced fuses, 20 mm bullets, 50 caliber bullets, artillery shells (50, 65, and 75 mm), incendiary bombs, and napalm bombs. I don’t know if he stayed there after the war working for the postwar company on the same site, Atomic Energy Commission Laboratory, which was operated by Monsanto. Radioactive materials were used and stored on-site and a nuclear reactor was built but never operated. If he did, I would be concerned for his health in his later years as at the end of the 20^th century it was noted that there was a higher than expected number of leukemia cases and respiratory illnesses in the area, and a government investigation was launched, as well as a few lawsuits.

I lost Dene for a few years, but by 1952 and 1953, pursuant to Dallas (TX) City Directories, Dene was now going by his first name “Lester;” he was a carpenter and a cabinetmaker; and he and Helen lived at 512 Liberty.  Dene’s mother died on July 13, 1954. I don’t know whether he made it to the funeral, as the July, 1954, Findlay papers are missing from online records. His wife, Helen’s father died on May 15, 1958 and they did return to Ohio for the funeral. This indication of family feeling might mean that they returned for Fannie's funeral as well.

I then lost them again until I found his death certificate, which indicated that Lester died on April 21, 1981 at 10:15 AM, at the age of 87.  He and Helen were living in the Dallas Texas neighborhood of Cockrell Hill. Lester died of emphysema and renal failure. The death certificate indicated that he was a self-employed carpenter. He was buried at Calvary Hill Cemetery in Dallas. His wife outlived him by nearly 5 years, dying on January 14, 1986, in Fort Worth, Texas.

Texas Death Certificate for Lester Dene Hart (1981).
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I would like to know more of what happened in Dene’s childhood, how he met Leta and courted her, how he met and wooed Edith, and how he met Helen. I’d like to fill in the blanks about when he and his daughter Josephine moved back to Ohio, and to fill in the huge gaps in his life from 1942 to his death in 1981. I’d also like to find out what happened to his children.

(More complete citations available on request)

Marriage record for Orley Hart and Frances Hartman, Hancock County, 1893; Ohio Birth Record, Hancock County, 1894; U,S, Federal Census for 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940; Draft registration for WW1; Birthdate of daughter Josephine Vivian Hart from email from MSD & confirmed in part by 1930 & 1940  U.S. Federal Census; death of Leta Elkins Hart, Illinois Death and Stillbirth Index, 1916-1947 & Find-a-Grave.com; Findlay, OH City Directories for 1927, 1931, 1935, 1937 and 1941; Dallas TX City Directory for 1952 and 1953; Marriage record for Helen Marie Black and Lester Dene Hart, Marion County OH, 1932), Birth record for Alice Virginia Hart, Ohio Birth record; Alice Virginia Hart U.S. Find-a-grave.com; Draft Registration for WW2; Ohio Obituary Index; Findagrave.com; Texas Death Certificate for Lester Dene Hartman; Texas Death Index for Helen Marie Black Hart.

“Clay County Soldiery” Flora (IL) Southern Illinois Record, July 26, 1918, p. 1 (found at http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/ref/collection/fpl01/id/2483);  “Mrs. L. D. Hart is Dead”, Findlay (OH) Morning Republican, 2 February 1931, p. 2; “Hold Reunion”  Findlay Morning Republican, August 18, 1931, p. 8; “New Stark” (Hart-Bushong wedding) Findlay Republican Courier , June 11, 1938, p.15; “New Stark”, Findlay Republican Courier, May 13, 1939, p. 2;”Hardin Men Leave For Jobs in West”, Findlay Republican Courier, May 13, 1939, p. 14;  “Findlay Bid Low on Light Project” New Philadelphia (OH) Daily Times, June 15, 1939, p.2; “Shower Given For Mrs. Dene Hart, Findlay Republican Courier, August 15, 1939, p. 6; “Return From A Visit” Findlay Republican Courier, December 1, 1939, p. 8; “Current To Be On By Sept. 15 First Line of REA Lines to be Energized Soon”, Blytheville (AR) Courier News, August 3, 1939, p.1; “To Energize County’s First REA Line of 145 Miles Tuesday” Blytheville Courier News, 4 December 1939, p. 1; “Lawrence Black Called By Death” Findlay Republican Courier, May 15, 1958, p. 16; “Officials Want Probe of Marion Laboratory”, by Randall Edwards, Environmental Reporter,  The Columbus (OH) Dispatch, October 9, 1999 (found at http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news/nn10253.htm); “Leukemia Fears, Man’s Scary Take Trigger Marion Radiation Probe”, by T.C. Brown, Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer, October 9, 1999 (found at http://www.ohiocitizen.org/campaigns/marion/o09mark.html); Scioto Ordnance Plant, Wikipedia; “Rural Electrification”, The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture (found at http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2162);  “Clay County and the Great War: A Narrative History of the Contributive and Sacrificial Involvement of Clay County, Illinois in World War I” by Ryan Herdes, Historia (A publication of the Epsilon Mu Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta and the Eastern Illinois University History Department), Special Edition, Volume 1 (2013), p. 111 (http://www.eiu.edu/historia/2013SEissue.php).

52 Ancestors #17 Fannie Hartman Hart Erwin

This is my latest post for the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge initiated by Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small blog. For more information about the challenge and links to the other blogs participating in the challenge, please click on the badge in the right margin.

Fannie Hartman was my great-grandmother on my mom’s mom’s side, i.e. not the one who wrote out the family history notes.  From talking to the people who remember her, she was not a particularly pleasant person to be around. Mom and at least one aunt are each convinced she hated them. Other aunts remember visiting her and being afraid to touch anything in the apartment. I always wondered if she started out difficult or did life turn her that way? But then other people have gone through rough times and not turned brittle. Anyway, I’ll never know that; I can only tell you what I’ve found in my research.

Fannie Hartman was born the third daughter and fourth child of Samuel Myers Hartman and Julia Ann Zimmerman in December 1844 in Findlay, Ohio. She had ten brothers and sisters: Charles Oliver (1868-1943), Etta Genora Hartman  Archer (1869-1942), Della Sylvia Hartman Spitler (1871-1892), Zoe Amelia Hartman  Rader (1874-1954), Samuel Thomas (1876-1877), Jesse Ephraim (1877-1945), Wellie Z. (1879-1960), Henry Barnhill (1884-1968), and Cleo Zerelda Hartman Duffield (1869-1966).  The sister closest to her in age (Della) died at 21 [Fannie would have been 20] and one brother died in infancy.  Her father was a successful farmer in Hancock County Ohio, having moved there from Wayne County Ohio just before she was born.

Cleo, Fannie, Zoe & Etta - The Hartman Girls
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She married Orley Calvin Hart on December 10, 1893, in Hancock County, Ohio, when she was 21 years old. He was born in Hancock County too. By the time of the 1900 census, they had moved to Clay County, Illinois, living and farming with Orley's parents.  Family paperwork (compiled by my Mom's cousin) says that they lived in Van Buren, Ohio until they joined other Hart families in Clay County, Illinois in 1899 and that they bought  40 acres and together with the other families farmed a total of 280 acres.  Fannie and Orley had five children: Lester Dene (1894-1981, Gladys (1896-1902), Reed C (1898-1954), Verne Allen (1900-1954), and Julia Ann (1903-1978). According to the same family papers, her daughter, Gladys, died at age 5 of “sugar diabetes”. Unfortunately, Orley died just two years later on January 28, 1905, also of diabetes, and Fannie was left grieving and alone to raise her four children. I would hope and expect that his family helped, at least with the farm.

The family of my  great-grandfather, Vernon Erwin, had lived in Clay county, IL since before  it was formed in 1824, but I doubt that Fannie had met him until after Orley died as he was away from the county for several years (his profile will be #18, tune in next week to see where he was).  She married Vernon Erwin in 1909, in Louisville IL (the main city in Clay County). The 1910 census shows Vernon (spelled Verna), Fannie (listed as Frances), and her four children, living together; Vernon is not working, but 15 year old Dene is shown as “farm labor”. Vernon and Fannie had two children of their own:  my grandmother, Mabel LeRe Erwin Snyder (1910-1990) and her sister, Dale Hart Erwin Crawford Shapiro Spicer Ludwig [actually I’m not exactly sure where Ludwig goes on that list] (1912-????).

Dale & Mabel Erwin
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My great-grandfather left my great-grandmother before 1920; I have a note from my mom’s cousin that says he left in 1915.  I don’t know whether he paid child support; but even if he did, Fannie was again left with the major responsibility of raising and caring for their daughters, alone. If it’s true that he left in 1915, my grandmother was 5 when he left and her sister Dale was 3.  By 1920, the census shows that Fannie (46)  had returned to Hancock County Ohio, and that she and her two youngest daughters, Mabel (9) and Dale (8), lived in Pleasant, Ohio in the household of a father and son, Henry and George Borough, where Fannie was employed as their housekeeper. The census says George (47) was a farmer and Henry (79) did not work. From that point on Fannie always told the census taker that she was a widow, even though my great-grandfather still lived (and I have pictures showing that he later visited his grandkids – my mom & her sisters and brother). I guess that either being a widow was less embarrassing than admitting she had been left by her husband, or she was trying to erase all memory of that disastrous short marriage from her life (to the extent possible given two children of the union).  I also expect she still loved Orley since she gave Vernon’s younger daughter, Dale Hart Erwin, Orley’s last name as a middle name; and she was Orley’s widow so it wasn’t entirely a lie.

The Findlay city directories for the next decade occasionally listed “Verne A Erwin” as her spouse, and sometimes listed her as Verne’s widow, and sometimes didn’t mention him at all. By 1929, she had obtained an apartment in Findlay with her two youngest daughters, and the directory indicated that she was a seamstress.  The 1930 census shows that Fannie (it says age 55, but she’s 58) is a seamstress for a clothing store, Mabel  (20) is a bookkeeper for a garage, and Dale (18) is a saleslady at a clothing store. The 1931 city directory is a bit more detailed, showing Fannie as a seamstress for Kessel’s Fashion Shop, Mabel a bookkeeper for the Davison-Harrington Chevrolet Company, and Dale as a saleswoman for C.B. Dabney. All three live at 425 Hardin Street.

In the next few years both daughters would marry in quiet simple ceremonies and move away. In 1935 Fannie moved to Massillon in Stark County, Ohio and was still living there at the time of the 1940 census.  Fannie was 68 in 1940, and the census indicates that she had a lodger by the name of Alexander Holderbaum, who was 81. She may have been hired as his caretaker, as Mom's cousin's notes indicate that she at one point cared for" a lady in Gomer, Ohio”; Gomer is in Allen County, Ohio.  She may have had a series of housekeeper/caretaker jobs.

By 1943, she was back in Findlay, living in the downtown apartment my mother and aunts remember visiting her at (218 ½ S. Main street -- across from the Courthouse), with her daughter Julia, who works as a clerk at Dall’s Drapery Shop . They would live together at that apartment for the rest of Fannie’s life.  According to Mom's cousin Fannie suffered an incapacitating stroke in March 1954 and was bedridden thereafter.  The Findlay Republican Courier reported that she was admitted to Blanchard Valley Hospital on March 9, 1954, and was taken to the hospital again, from her home, on March 17, 1954. She died July 13, 1954. Her son Reed died a month later; I think I’m glad she did not know that.

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Mom's cousin’s notes say that Fannie “enjoyed crafts and needlework. After visits to [her daughter] Dale in Florida, she made many objects from shells. She did a lot of sewing and made most of the granddaughters’ clothes. She loved to read, put jigsaw puzzles together, and take walks in the fields and woods.” She and Julia pieced and sewed  the quilt top pictured HERE , in my 3^rd - ever post (my mom turned it into a hand-tied quilt, as the drapery fabrics used were too heavy to quilt in the usual manner).

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U.S Census: 1880, 1900; 1910; 1920; 1930, 1940; "Illinois, County Marriages, 1810-1934," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X2G1-WJ6 : accessed 14 Apr 2014), Verna Erwin and Francis Hart, 1909; citing Clay, Illinois, United States; FHL microfilm 1008796; Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011., Findlay Ohio City Directories for 1927, 1929, 1931, 1933, 1935, 1943, 1946, 1948, 1950, 1952; Findlay Republican Courier, January 18, 1935, p. 6; Findlay Republican Courier, March 9, 1954, p. 16; Findlay Republican Courier, March 17, 1954, p. 12.

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I need to look at the land records for Clay County to see when Fannie and Orley purchased land there.

I’d like to find marriage records (& not just indexes) and a death certificate and obituary for Fannie.

Treasure Chest Thursday - The Hartman Girls

Written on the back is "The Hartman Girls: Cleo Duffield, Fannie Hart-Erwin, Zoe Rader and Etta."


These are my Great-grand aunts and my Great-grand-mother Fannie (Hartman) (Hart) Erwin, on my mother's maternal line. My great-grandmother is behind two of her sisters, so we only see her head. I don't know why Etta's married name is not listed, but it is Archer.

Their parents were Samuel Myers Hartman (1844-1928) and Julia Zimmerman (1844-1913) who  grew up and married in Wayne Co Ohio, near Wooster, then moved to Findlay Ohio in Hancock County sometime before October 26, 1872 as my great-grandmother was the first child I know for certain was born in Findlay.  Samuel and Julia had 11 children: Charles O (1869-1930) s; Etta /Ettie (1870-????); Dellie (1871- ????); Fannie (1872-1954); Zoe (1874-1954); Jesse (1877-1945); Samuel T. (1877-1880); Wellie (1879-1960); 1880-1957); Henry (1884-1968); and Cleo (1899-1966.)

First pass of Mom’s Maternal line

In the past week I got as far as it appears I can on this first pass through of my Mom’s mother’s side of the family. Earlier, in the Catching You Up post, I explained how far I’d gotten up Mom’s maternal grandmother’s line in this first pass and posted a picture of the direct line pedigree chart starting from Fannie (Hartman) Hart Erwin (which involved the following surnames: Diehl, Hart, Hartman, Meyers, Speicher, Whonsetler, Wonsetler/Wonsettler, and Zimmerman). Since then, I’ve been researching Mom’s maternal grandfather’s family, and have gotten as far as I can go on this first not-so-very-in-depth pass. I’ve got some good hints as to where I’ll be going in the next step up in general, on several of the lines, but I just can’t find/make the next connection using the family papers I have, Ancestry.com, Google EBooks for county history books, Fold3.com, Google, and Newspapers.com, alone, right now.  [Yes, I know I originally said I’d stick to Ancestry.com for the first pass – I got enticed and distracted. ; ) ]

Mom’s maternal grandfather’s family tree, as I have it now, looks like this (click to embiggen):

It involves folks with the following surnames: Conley, Cosner, Craig, Erwin, Lewis, Miller, Wilson. 

I can tell that in the next pass I will be doing a lot more research into North Carolina, as I have indication in the documentation I have that nearly everyone I lost the trail of was born in or spent some time in North Carolina. It shows that Judge William Erwin & his wife Lydia Lewis were born in North Carolina, as were both Henry Conley, his father John, and his father John, and Henry’s wife Sarah Cosner. I have some indication that Judge William Erwin’s father, William, may have been born in Ireland. Adam Craig may have at one point been in Tennessee, since his daughter, Eliza Ann, was born in that state, but I really know very little about him. I know nothing about either John Conley's (1776-1853) wife or his mother.

Putting together the charts for my Mom's maternal line, the direct line chart of my maternal grandmother (Mom’s Mother, Mabel Erwin), as I have it now, looks like this (click to embiggen):

I’ve been reading up on lots of other possible types of searches for the second pass. That pass will take more time and more patience. I can see now too, that I will probably take some time off searching between the two passes to create and/or organize my physical files in a much better way as that will help me make a better and more successful search ultimately. I will probably also be sending out emails/letters to older relatives requesting memories/stories they have of their relatives/ancestors as those would both help my search and provide body & color to the bare bones of my document search to help me know my ancestors more as people. But first I must finish the first pass of the rest of the family.

This weekend I started the first pass of my mother’s paternal line of the family. I have some help with this side in the form of handwritten remembrances of her own family and family tree, and that of her husband, by my great grandmother, Pearl Pauline Bailey.  I started by entering her remembered connections and names as she wrote them into Ancestry.com and waited overnight for little wiggling leaves to show up to hopefully verify her memories. I’ve already discovered that her remembrances of family history aren’t entirely accurate. So, while it’s a start, it all must be verified. Fun!

I Feel Like Thomas Edison

This week I made fewer discoveries and spent more time running into roadblocks. But, as Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that do not work,” and I have been discovering sources of information that may well work for other people on the tree later on, bookmarking them, and/or joining them, as needed. I have also added a few bits and pieces of additional facts to people I’d already discovered (some real estate transactions by Great Aunt Julia Hart Siddall and her 2nd husband found on Archives.com and Newspapers.com; some family stories about Great Aunt Julia Hart Siddall told to me by one of my mother’s sisters after she saw the post about the quilt and my efforts to find the drapery shop; some Civil War related information for some of 2nd great grandfather John Erwin’s siblings, etc). And I’ve been doing some background research on the War of 1812 and Mennonites to try to understand and reconcile some facts I’d found regarding one of my third great grandfathers, Henry Y. Zimmerman, who will be my Ancestor Highlight for this week (I learned a lot but it didn’t help me reconcile the two opposing facts – the man is a puzzlement, on multiple levels). I will write that post tomorrow.

I also received and uploaded some family tree software to my computer so that I can work on it outside of Ancestry.com and so I can more easily keep track of information obtained from sources other than Ancestry. I am living proof that incessant advertising works. Over the past several months I’ve gotten a tone of ads from Ancestry.com for software called Family Tree Maker. I bought the latest version of it. I’ve since seen competing blog posts by other people as to whether they like it better or something called RootsMagic or Family Source better. Since I’m just beginning I rather think that whatever I get used to will work for me and this is set up a lot like Ancestry.com and will sync with Ancestry.com quite easily, which I like.

The Family Tree Maker software also helped me make the chart I put up with the catch up post earlier this week. Making the chart was easy and fun. Figuring out how to post it on BlogSpot was anything but; even though I found a how to video and a step by step instruction with pictures on the web. It didn’t turn out like I wanted it to turn out but it’s readable and adequate. It’s odd how I have infinite patience with historical research, even including brick walls; but am shortly reduced to cussing at the computer and pounding the desk (both actions utterly unhelpful) when I’m trying to do something technical and it isn’t working, lol!

Next week I’m going back to the Erwin branch to get them as far as I can, and then I’m moving on to the Snyder side of Mom’s family. My goal is to get the first pass through Mom’s family done by the end of October. I don’t know yet if that is possible, but I’m going to try.

P.S. Hah! I just learned how to make paragraphs in html! (I had no paragraphs the first two times I previewed this. I needed to use html to put in links.) I can learn nearly anything from a good Google search! And now, to bed.

Catching You Up

     I've been trying to figure out a way to catch you up with the basic work I'd done prior to starting the blog, in a way you could see it [as opposed to yet another long-winded post.].  [Update: I figured out a better way to post it. (Click on the picture to embiggen.)]

      Prior to the start of the blog, I began working my way up the family tree, starting with my maternal grandmother, Mabel LeRe Erwin, and going up through her mother, Fannie S. Hartman Erwin. In order to have the picture stay on one page, I've begun the started tree below with Fannie. My Great-Grandfather, Vernon Erwin, was Fannie's second husband. I have some information on my grandmother's half-siblings, and on other siblings/children and every level, but for the purposes of the above tree, I limited the information displayed to the direct line ancestors to keep it from being too busy to look and and understand easily (these people have big families!). These are the people I've documented as being in our family tree through my first pass through of checking Ancestry.com's little wiggling leaves (that's how Ancestry indicates it has "hints" to be looked at relating to this person).

      Based on what I know so far, as I dig deeper into their lives and history, I'll be learning a lot more about the history of Wayne & Hancock counties in Ohio, and certain portions of Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Johan Gorg Whonsetler and his son Nicholas may have been born in Germany the country...or in Germany Township, Adams Co. Pennsylvania. I have something that says Germany, but since everything else in their lives says Pennsylvania, and I know there's a Germany Township in PA that was being created about then (the benefits of going to college in Pennsylvania...) I'm not sure but what they may have come from Germany township, rather than the country. This is one of the points I intend to nail down in later research into these people. [Catherine Meyers' and Frances Speicher's potential parents were among those I had to take off because I couldn't truly document the connection; that's were I lost another Germany connection. But, who knows, I may get them back in later research.] From now on I'll be reporting weekly on what I've done and/or discovered; foundation and catch up posts are done.

Yahoo! I found it!

I’ve long loved this quilt. Partially because it has the oddest patches of any scrap quilt I’ve ever seen, partially because it is SO warm, and partially because of the story.  My Mom* told me that the quilt top was pieced by my great-grandmother Fannie Erwin [1872-1954] and my grand-aunt Julia (Hart) Siddall [1903-1978], who was my grandmother’s[Mabel (Erwin) Snyder]  step-sister. My Mom told me Julia worked in a drapery shop and whenever the new stock came in she would take the samples for the material they no longer carried home. This quilt top was made of those samples. They never quilted it. My Mom inherited it and she put the backing to it and tied it because the fabric was too heavy to quilt. She gave it to me for Christmas some years ago. I use it every winter and love it every day. 

Yesterday, for fun, I set myself the task of trying to find documentary proof that my grand-aunt worked in a drapery shop. I didn't expect it to be simple. Before tonight all I had on my tree for Julia was an approximate birth date, and I could find nothing on Julia Hart. Mom couldn't remember her married name.

Tonight, I went back to my stash of papers I copied from Mom’s box of family history the last time I visited, and looked through it all. In a copy of a letter sent to Mom, on August 2, 2001, from Ann, a cousin (I think) talking about family history, found several mentions of Aunt Julia. The letter included a copy of genealogy profile page on my great-grandmother, Fannie Susan (Hartman) Hart Erwin, which mentioned Julia’s birth & death dates and the men she married, and that Fannie had lived with her towards the end and died there in 1954. So I guestimated that Julia was in Findlay Ohio then as that was listed as Fannie’s place of death.  I plugged all that information that into her Ancestry.com profile hoping for some little hint leaves to confirm what I put in and, among other things that didn't match, I did get confirmation of all of my entries but one of the husbands and her residence in 1954.  And no drapery shop. So I tried running her name, specifically - now that I knew what her married name was - through Ancestry’s search function. There was a lot that wasn’t her. But then, after about hour, eureka! I found her listed it the 1960 City Directory for Findlay Ohio, p.488, contained in the U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 database,  which showed her to be a Clerk at Dall's Drapery Shop! [Entry: "Siddall Julia A Mrs clk Dall's Drapery Shop r217 Woodley"].

Now I’d like to find a picture of the store, but this is enough for tonight.

*I’ve promised all my living relatives that they won’t be mentioned by name in my blog.