52 Ancestors: Ancestor # 3 Samuel Hartman 1809-1864

I almost blew the challenge in just the third week. I've been spending the weekend doing research on another branch of the family but I'm not ready to write about any of that yet. I couldn't intially get my head yanked out of that area to figure out what, or who, to do my #3 Ancestor post on. And I left it to the last minute. (It's 7:10 PM Tuesday night; let's see if I can get this posted by the 8:00 PM deadline!)

I noticed in reading other's 52 Ancestors blogs that a number of people are writing about their end line ancestors in hopes of finding someone to help them break through their brick wall. That sounded like a good idea. So I'm going with that.

Samuel Hartman is my 3rd great grandfather on my Mom's maternal side. I have a prior blog post about his son, my 2nd great grandfather, Samuel Myers Hartman here, where I talked  a little about the Samuel I will talk about here, too, so there will be some overlap. Our ancestors' propensity to be more flexible in the spelling of their names made finding Samuel, for sure, a little challenging. I ended up tracking him more by his wife and kids' names than by his middle initial, which, since I've seen it as F., S., T, and U., I left out of the title of this post! (Mostly, I think it's more an issue with the census taker's handwriting.)

Samuel Hartman was born somewhere in Pennsylvania in approximately 1809. I haven't yet found where or who his parents were for certain. (Let's hold off on that thought until the end of the sketch.) He first shows up in the 1830 Census in Wayne County, Ohio. It was one of those numbers in a category census and indicated in his household 1 male 20-29 (him) and one female 15-20, who I take to be his wife, Maria Eve Whonsetler, who was also born in Pennsylvania  around 1813 (per later censuses ...censi?).

Over the course of their marriage the couple had 11 children. The first, Alexander Stephen Hartman, was born the year after that first census, in 1831. Tragically, he pre-deceased his parents in 1853. Their first daughter, Laraneice, born in 1833, also died before her parents in 1850. Their second son, Hiram Whomsetler, born 1836, died in 1862 but, as far as I can tell so far, his death was not related to the Civil War. The rest of the children are as follows: Elmira Suse (1837-1892), Ephraim D (1839-1930), Samuel Myers (1844-1928), Jasper Newton (1847-1906), Francis Marion (1851-1934), Franklin Pierce (1853-1926), Pandie Elmer (1855-1856 [sad]) and Lorena 1856-1886.  (Francis and Franklin show that the American trend of naming your kids after celebrities is not solely a current phenomena!)

Samuel owned property worth $1001 in 1850 in the Canaan Township of Wayne County OH. At that point he and Marie Eve had 8 children, ranging from 19 to just born. (1850 Census) By 1860, Samuel had become a very successful farmer, owning $18,200 worth of real property and $1573 of personal property in Chester Township. (1860 Census.)  [For perspective, a 4 room apartment rented for $4.45 cents a month in 1860; land sold for $3-$5 an acre; a laborer’s wage without board was 90 cents a day; eggs were 20 cents a dozen. (http://www.choosingvoluntarysimplicity.com/what-did-things-cost-in-1860/)]

Samuel died in 1864. His wife outlived him by over 20 years. The 1880 Census shows her living in her son Franklin's home, which was next door to Francis' home.

At one point, I did have Samuel's mother, or who I think is his mother (based mainly on other Ancestry tree and shaking leaf hints). But I was having problems figuring out who his father was, or rather which Peter was his father. I discovered via a note on one person’s well-documented tree that the problem I was having with Peter Hartman is partially because there are four Peter Hartman(s) in Wayne county in Ohio at that time; I’d run across all four, plus one Peter Hartmann, and  in another state a Johann Peter Hartmann that various people were tying into what looks like our line and having them all married to Catherine Zollnar or Caterina ZÖllner, which just isn’t possible – one Peter Hartman even had a different birth date that had him marrying her at age 11, while she was 23, which I think is unlikely. It looks like Catherine Zollnar is in our line but I couldn't establish that for certain yet so I took her off the tree.

So if there's anybody out there who has these Hartman's in your tree or knows more, Cousin, I'd love to hear from you! If there is anybody with research suggestions, I'd love to get them too. I've only been doing this about a year; I have a lot to learn. Any insight on where or how to research Wayne County OH would be appreciated as I seem to have a boatload of ancestors that came through there. Some Amish! But that will be another post...

Ancestor Highlight: Samuel Myers Hartman, November 10, 1844 – June 19, 1928, my 2nd great grandfather

I’ve been highlighting ancestors that made highlighting easy because somebody wrote about them in a book or there was some quirk in their history that brought up questions.  But we have more relatives that just quietly lived their lives, with the daily struggles to make a living, and the sorrows and joys we all share in the making of a life, but which aren’t recorded in government forms or written about in the newspaper.  Samuel Myers Hartman was one of those men …at least until he turned 79.

As Samuel Myers Hartman’s father was named Samuel, and he named one of his sons Samuel Thomas, I will refer to Samuel Myers Hartman as Samuel M.

Samuel M. was born a farmer’s son, and he became a farmer as well. His father, Samuel, owned property worth $1001 in 1850 in the Canaan Township of Wayne County OH. At that point they had 8 children, ranging from 19 to just born, and young Samuel M. was 6 years old. (1850 Census) By the time Samuel M. was 16, his father had become a very successful farmer, owning $18,200 worth of real property and $1573 of personal property. (1860 Census.)  [For perspective, a 4 room apartment rented for $4.45 cents a month in 1860; land sold for $3-$5 an acre; a laborer’s wage without board was 90 cents a day; eggs were 20 cents a dozen. (http://www.choosingvoluntarysimplicity.com/what-did-things-cost-in-1860/)]

When he was 23, Samuel Myers Hartman married Julia Ann Zimmerman, daughter of the previously discussed Mennonite soldier. (1900 census) Over the course of their marriage they had 6 sons and 5 daughters (Charlie, Ettie, Dellie, Fanny, Zoe, Jesse, Samuel Thomas, Wellie, Odo, Henry, and Cleo). In 1875, when he was 31, he moved his family from Wayne County, Ohio and moved to Allen township in Hancock County, Ohio [or, for those of us not used to thinking in counties, from somewhere near Wooster OH to somewhere near Findlay OH], and again took up farming. By the time Samuel M. was head of his own household, the census forms had stopped asking for a valuation of property owned so I can’t give a comparison to his father, but we do know that he supported eleven kids, and had enough money later in life to be able to retire and move into a home in Findlay and to own an automobile. His wife Julia Ann died in 1913 at the age of 68, leaving him a widower.  Samuel M. married again four years later, in 1917, to Hattie Tarr Breasler. He was 73. [Obituary, The Findlay Morning Republican, Wednesday, June 20, 1928, p. 12. 1880, 1900, 1910 & 1920 Census]

In the spring of 1923, when he was 79, Samuel M. got in an automobile accident in Findlay at the corner of First and Main streets. The driver of the other car sued him for $4500 in damages, and Samuel M. cross-claimed for $1200. It must have been one a heckuva accident! [Again, for perspective, the average car cost $393; the average house cost $8,142; the average wage was $1066; 2.5 lbs of coffee was $1.] On the eve of trial the parties came to an undisclosed settlement on January 18 , 1924. [Note to self: Remember to write the court for a copy of pleadings and settlement agreement.](http://thecostofliving.com/index.php?id=147 ; The Findlay Morning Republican: Monday, November 5, 1923, p.14;  Thursday, January 17, 1924, p. 14; Friday, January 18, 1924, p. 3; and Wednesday, June 20, 1928, p. 12.)

Samuel M. Hartman, died at one o’clock on June 19, 1928 at his home, at 318 First street, Findlay, Ohio, of cerebral hemorrhages, following a serious illness of two weeks. He was 83 years old.The funeral was held at two o’clock June 21, 1928 from the residence on First Street, with Rev. W. I. Alexander, former pastor of the Pine Avenue Presbyterian Church, where Samuel M. had been a member for the past eleven years, officiating. He was buried in the Van Buren cemetery. He was survived by nine of his children: are Charles Hartman, LaGrange, IL; Mrs. Etta Archer, Bartlesville, OK.; Mrs. Zoe Rader, Alvada, OH; Mrs. Fanny Erwin and H.B. Hartman, both of Findlay, OH; J.E. Hartman, Bluffton, OH; W.J. Hartman, O. L. Hartman, and Mrs. Cleo Duffield, all of Van Buren, OH. [Obituary, The Findlay Morning Republican, Wednesday, June 20, 1928, p. 12.]