Content for Bite-Sized Family History Projects

 

As Sis and I continue our bite-sized project about the first decade of our family life, we're putting "meat on the bones." Thanks for riding along with us as we work on this project.

What will help us tell the story of our first 10 years? 

• Photos! Lots of photos! But not every photo (more in a later blog post). I also included a snippet of a map to show where my fam vacationed when Sis and I were 3 years old. Younger relatives love to look at the pictures, so put in plenty.
• Names. We identified people in the photos by name and by relationship, saying that the boy who bounced the babies on his lap was our first cousin. Even folks who weren't in photos were name-checked, such as the paternal aunt who  bought us fancy dresses for birthdays and photo opps. 
• Birth announcements. Yes, we still have them and they are in the book, listing times, weights, etc. Plus I looked up the weather on the day Sis and I were born and mentioned that as well.
• Education. Oh those school days! We included class photos, a photo of our elementary school, memories. Sis and I walked nearly half a mile each way to school, and sometimes walked home for lunch (and back). In all we walked almost two miles per day and still had energy for playtime!
• Leisure time activities including music lessons, dancing lessons, day camp. We included vivid memories from two vacations, including one at a working farm where we kids petted the barn kitties and milked the cows. For city girls, this was a big deal.
• Copyright-free photos of a few places from our childhood (such as Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, where we saw new movies and the Rockettes).
• Stories from our own memories and from what relatives said. Our grandmother's family tree association kept written minutes and the family was told that Sis said "thank you" and I said "pretty" as our first words. This enriches the project, IMHO :) 
• Black and white is boring. Younger folks expect color so I added color borders to b/w photos and a few little color illustrations like the outline of blue wedding bells on a b/w invitation and a yellow sun drawing above a b/w photo of camp days. It's all about catching the eye of readers long enough to tell the stories.

Each bite-sized project is unique and reflects the subjects as well as the maker(s). Sis and I are enjoying the process of documenting our family's first decade. What works for us might not work for you, but I wanted to share our experience to provide some ideas.

I ended this project with a "cliff-hanger" sentence about the dramatic changes about to happen to our family, as our father experienced health and work problems during the second decade of family life. Sis asked, why the cliff-hanger? I want readers to be eager to read our next photo book! To be continued ... 

OTD: Brice and Floyda Married, 1903

On June 10, 1903, my husband's grandparents were married in a small family ceremony at a relative's home in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Brice Larimer McClure (1878-1970) was a master mechanic working on major railroads, and Floyda Mabel Steiner (1878-1948) was a plucky 25-year-old who had divorced her abusive first husband two years earlier.

Looking at Brice, I thought again about a conflict surrounding his date of birth. He himself gave two different dates for his birth. On his World War I draft registration, he told the draft board he was born on December 29, 1878. But for his World War II draft registration, he told the draft board he was born on December 25, 1878. Also, the Social Security death index shows his birth as December 29, 1878.

So I looked at the only original document available for his birth: A ledger from Little Traverse, Michigan, where his birth was recorded in late June of 1879. As shown above in the entry with the star, the date is clearly noted as Dec 25, 1878.

Since that documentation was closest in time to Brice's birth, I'm sticking with it and showing the birth date as Christmas Day, 1878. 

Also, using FamilySearch's full text search, I discovered that Brice L. McClure was the witness on several US naturalizations as well as at least one last will and testament. I already knew that Brice and Floyda were the joint executors of the will of Floyda's sister, Minne E. Steiner Halbedel. And when Floyda died in 1948, her devoted husband Brice, married for 45 years, was executor of her estate. 

Happy 123d anniversary to my husband's maternal grandparents, a couple who were close, happy, and devoted to their only daughter, my hubby's much-loved mother.

"Kindness is Never Misplaced"

I admit (and not for the first time) that I married my husband for his ancestors. 😂 Such interesting stories!

I've been looking at his Steiner family (relatives of his grandmother Floyda Steiner McClure). His grand-aunt Addie married Charles S. Deering and they had one child, Marie Pauline Deering (1889-1918). After Pauline's death in March of 1918, at the age of 28, more came out about about her final illness and the contents of her will. Pauline was the last in her line, although she did have first cousins and second cousins.

Inez the nurse 

Here's an item from the Mansfield News Journal of Mansfield, Ohio, published on April 12, 1918 (and also appearing in other Ohio newspapers):

"Inez F. Verby realizes that kindness is never misplaced. A short time ago, Miss Pauline Deering was taken ill and when it was realized that she could not live, Miss Verby, her nurse, took her home and kept her until death came. Miss Deering's will has been admitted to probate and under its terms Miss Verby is to receive $12,000 as payment for her kindness to her patient. Miss Deering, who lived in Oberlin, left an estate valued at $30,000."

Inez Verby nursed my husband's cousin in her final illness, which was "tuberculosis of the spine" - also known as Pott's disease. Inez worked as a nurse for years, hired by private patients and by physicians. (I found payment receipts and estate documents reflecting her nursing duties for decades.) 

Inez the executrix

Pauline's will did indeed leave Inez $12,000 in payment for her services. It also named Inez as executrix, with a long list of duties such as making sure that the beneficiaries received their bequests. And what bequests! Money to Inez but also valuable and sentimental household items, as shown above, ranging from Pauline's father's US Civil War military artifacts going to a Deering relative to a hand-stitched sampler being bequeathed to a cousin.

I was taken aback by the listing of property shown in the will (see excerpt at top of this post). In addition to a house and lot in Plankinton, South Dakota, where Pauline was born, she also owned two apartment houses in Chicago. Maybe her father or mother arranged for these as an investment? In any event, all the property was to be liquidated by the executrix to provide cash for bills and bequests.

Inez was also directed to work with a family friend to arrange for a monument after Pauline was buried in Nevada Cemetery, Nevada, Ohio. I've requested a photo of Pauline's monument through Find a Grave. May she rest in peace. 

Marrying in Plankinton Before Dakota Became Two States

Researching my husband's Steiner ancestors, this social item on page 1 of the Crawford County News (Bucyrus, Ohio), August 28, 1884, caught my eye: 

Addie Steiner, formerly of Nevada [Ohio], was recently married at Plankinton, Dakota to C.S. Deering.

Adda "Addie" Forrest Steiner (1860-1915) was my husband's 1c2r. She grew up with her parents and siblings in small-town Nevada, Ohio, according to the US Census of 1870 and 1880.

Why Go from Ohio to Dakota?

Somehow, in 1884, Addie managed to travel to Plankinton, Dakota Territory and marry Charles Sawyer Deering (1839-1899), a widower who had served in the 13th Maine Infantry on the Union side of the US Civil War two decades earlier. He was born in Maine and farmed in Maine before embarking on a different work life.

From Addie's Ohio hometown to her new home in Plankinton is a distance of 950 miles. How she got to Dakota is a mystery. Remember that Dakota Territory wasn't split into the two states of North Dakota and South Dakota until very late in 1889. Plankinton is in the south of South Dakota, as shown on the map above. 

My guess is that Addie met Charles on one of his trips to or from Dakota and his family's home in Maine. Addie lived close to several busy railroad hubs. From my knowledge of Addie's family, they had no relatives in Maine and didn't travel there themselves. (If they had visited Maine, local newspapers would probably have mentioned their comings and goings in the social items that filled many columns.)

Charles Deering in Dakota

Charles's marriage to Addie in August of 1884 came a decade after the death of his first wife, Abbie Flood, in their home town in Maine. Abbie sadly died shortly after giving birth to a baby boy, and their son lived just a few weeks longer, sorry to say. 

Maybe these terrible losses prompted Charles to seek a fresh start in rapidly-growing Dakota. In 1879, a few years after his first wife's death, Charles went to Plankinton to work on a telegraph line for the United States Signal Service. He returned to Maine following that telegraph work, then went out west again to continue the telegraph line in 1880 (Portland Press Herald, Maine, April 17, 1880). 

Charles settled down in Plankinton, later running a furniture store and heading up a farm insurance firm. As a Union veteran, he was especially active in the Grand Army of the Republic, serving as an officer in local and regional groups. 

Charles and Addie had one child: Marie Pauline Deering, born in Plankinton in October of 1889, only a month before Dakota Territory became two states. 

What happened to Charles and Addie

Charles died in March of 1899 due to stomach cancer, at age 60. His brief obit appeared in many newspapers throughout the Dakotas, and even in a Minneapolis paper that covered the South Dakota region. His GAR activities were prominently mentioned in the obit. 

Addie was now widowed in Plankinton with young Pauline, only 9 years old. By 1900, the two had moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where they were boarders in the home of an insurance executive while Pauline attended school.

By 1910, mother and daughter had moved to Lima, Ohio, to continue Pauline's education. They boarded with the family of Edward V. Wells. Addie fell ill in 1915 and went to Cleveland for surgery, which didn't go well. She passed away and was buried in Nevada Cemetery in Ohio, near other Steiner relatives. Pauline was left an orphan, not yet finished with her college degree at Oberlin. 

More about Pauline in my next post!

Plankinton is a "place that matters" in my husband's family tree. "Place that matters" is this week's 52 Ancestors prompt from Amy Johnson Crow.