Back to School with Lola McClure Lower

With school starting, it's a good time to remember the life of my husband's great aunt, Lola A. McClure Lower (1877-1948). Lola graduated from Wabash High School in Indiana in 1894, aged 17, and became a teacher. In 1903 she married Edward A. Lower (1873-1920). The couple had a daughter and two sons together, making their home in Wabash, Indiana.

Edward had already built a solid career as a civil engineer. His employers included a lumber company, a coal company, and several municipalities. In 1900 he was enumerated in the Census along with other civil engineers, a locomotive engineer, and surveyors' assistants who were living and working in the Woodville District of the Chickasaw Nation, part of the territory that became the 46th U.S. state of Oklahoma in 1907. 

Sadly, by 1918, Edward was bedridden and unable to sign his WWI draft registration card on his own. He made an X that was witnessed and signed. By that time, Lola had already gone back to work. With her education and her teaching background, Lola was named as the Wabash truant officer in 1916 (Indianapolis News, Aug 29 1916, p. 20). Edward died in 1920, just 47 years old. 

Lola continued to serve as a truant officer (later known as an attendance officer) for many years. During the Great Depression, she experienced pay problems as Wabash (both city and county) grappled with financial woes. In 1932, the county reduced her salary to $4.24 per day for the 180 days of her contract (The News-Sentinel, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, Sept 12, 1932). 

Worse was yet to come. In 1933, she worked without pay from January through March (possibly beyond) as the county insisted it had not appropriated the funds for her salary and therefore had effectively abolished the position as of the start of that year. Lola went to court, arguing that she worked for the Wabash city board of education and should be paid by the city--and she won her back pay (Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette, Oct 12, 1935).

From the late 1930s into the early 1940s, Lola worked as an investigator for a local town's trustee and for the state unemployment commission. She was also a long-time volunteer valued for her leadership abilities. She passed away in 1948 at the age of 70. 

In 1985, when her son Edward recorded an oral history about his mother in Wabash, Indiana, he recalled that: "She was a tall, dignified-looking woman. She was musical. She played organs, even pipe organs, always played piano." He added that she was a good cook "but she was always in public life. She was secretary of the Red Cross for 25 years, and she handled the job well. She read law. She knew everything. She was on the board of Associated Charities in Wabash."

I'm remembering Lola McClure Lower as students go back to school across the United States, including her home state of Indiana. 

Turning the FAN Club into the FANI or FANIL or KFAN Club

Over the 25 years of my genealogy journey, I've learned to investigate friends, associates, and neighbors (FAN Club) of ancestors to try to understand any relationships, familial and otherwise. More than once, I discovered that a "family friend" or neighbor was actually a relative.

What about rechristening the FAN Club as the FANI Club, to explicitly include in-laws? OR call it FANIL Club (for in-law, maybe FANI is not the best acronym). OR KFAN (for Kinfolk)!

Many of my hubby's Larimer ancestors settled in Indiana in the 1800s. A good number intermarried with men and women from the McKibbin family, the Short family, and the Work family. Investigating the in-law situation helped me untangle the cousin connection and recognize naming and marriage patterns in multiple generations.

As a result, I've come to suspect that these families were related in some way across the pond, well before they left for America. Some of the obits hint at that, and some of the old newspaper coverage of family reunions a century ago make that claim. No proof yet, but intriguing to investigate by scrutinizing in-laws.

Currently I'm looking at a family genealogy book (digitized and available for browsing or download via FamilySearch) called: "A family history of Murrays, McKibbins, Smiths, Planks, Neffs, and related families of Elkhart and LaGrange Counties in Indiana." As shown in the excerpted index, these families intermarried with Larimer folks, including some of my hubby's Larimers. 

The detailed index is a huge help, so I can focus on one Larimer at a time. I've already found a couple of fresh leads to follow and confirm through additional research. 

My takeaways: (1) do look at in-laws in the family tree, because some may actually be cousins or descendants of confirmed cousins; and (2) do check for digitized genealogy books in the Family Search collection.

Don't Be in a Hurry! Check the Actual Vital Record

Over time, I've been researching vital records for my husband's Work, Short, McClure, McKibbin, and related ancestors who spent time in Indiana. 

Although the Hoosier State began requiring registration of births in 1882, not every county or municipality complied. Luckily, nearly all of the births after 1920 were registered with the state health department. This informative page on the Family Search wiki explains the details.

Recently, I heard from a descendant of my husband's McKibbin line, who was kind enough to mention new clues that jumpstarted my research.

When I got to hubby's 4c1r, it would have been easy to quickly read the transcribed info and add to my tree without looking at the digitized image of the record.

BUT if I'd hurried on, I would have missed the extra details that Indiana so thoughtfully requested on its birth certs at that time, and which I didn't know about till I looked at the record itself.

Multiple birth?

Note the questions in the hot pink oval: 

• Is this birth a twin or triplet or other?
• Number of order of birth of this child
• Is this child legitimate?

Although this child was not part of a multiple birth, I would have liked answers to such questions on other vital records for twins elsewhere in the family tree.

Researching decades after a twin or triplet has died, it's often difficult or impossible to learn who was born first and who was born next. Because I'm an older twin, and but my mother was a younger twin, I have a special interest in birth order among multiple births!

Learning about legitimacy is also of interest to my research, a nudge to look for marriage documents (or not). 

How many children in all?

I'm familiar with New York City/state birth certs because that's where many in my family tree were from. As shown above, there's a question on the NY cert asking how many previous children were born to this mother and how many are now living, in all. This child was the second for this mother, and both were living in 1908, the year of this cert.

Similarly, in Indiana, as shown at top, the blue oval highlights those questions:

• Number of children born to this mother, including present birth?
• Number of children still living, including present birth?

For the McKibbin ancestor born in Indiana in 1921, this cert revealed he was one of 8 but only 7 living at that point.

Now I had a narrower window for researching the other siblings, including the one who sadly was born and died before 1921. This is especially important for children who were lived their entire lives between Census years.

By taking a few moments to look at the actual vital record, and read the fine print, I saved a lot of research time in the end. Slow and steady wins!

Check Those County History Books!

My husband's Larimer ancestors intermarried with members of the Work, Short, and McKibbin families after they all came to America in the 1700s.

At first, the immigrants settled in Pennsylvania, and later they and their descendants moved westward in search of fresh farmland in Ohio, Indiana, and beyond.

I've been checking county history books for biographies of ancestors (or their relatives), and as historical and social context for life and times. Some books are digitized and available through Family Search, some through subscription-based genealogy sites, some through Internet Archive, some through Google Books, etc.

Above, the cover of "pictorial and biographical memoirs" covering two counties in Indiana. At right, the subtitle of this 1890s publication. 

Note that it focuses on "prominent men . . . both living and dead." Including my husband's Larimer and Work ancestors! Wives and children were frequently included in the bios.

I found this digitized copy on Ancestry and Google Books, but it may be available on other sites as well. It described Abel Work and as far back as his grandfather Samuel's background. Samuel Work's place of birth was listed as County Antrim, Ireland, and the book says he wed his wife in Ireland before all came to America, where their six children were born. Names, occupations, and more details!

Interestingly, the name of Sam's wife in the county history is different from the name of Sam's wife shown in the Work family history written by a descendant (digitally available on Family Search). 

More research is needed to follow up on this clue, but it's certainly possible this ancestor had two wives or that one of the histories had an error. I wouldn't have even known to investigate this possibility if I didn't research in the county history books as well as the published family history.

If you're researching US ancestors, be sure to check the lengthy list of digitized, freely available county histories for all 50 states, compiled (as a labor of love) by genealogy blogger extraordinaire Linda Stufflebean.

Adding Context for 3D View of Ancestors, Part 2

In part 1 of my series, I looked at how analyzing an ancestor's family situation can provide valuable context for seeing that individual in three dimensions.

In part 2, I look at how analyzing an ancestor's community can add depth and context to that individual's life from our perspective in the 21st century.

Community context: County history books

Those wonderful late 19th century and early 20th century county history books really come in handy for community context. You can find some of these as links from the FamilySearch.org state/local pages, in the Ancestry catalog, in the MyHeritage catalog, by searching Hathitrust, and by searching with the place name (as I did with: "History of Fayette County, Indiana"). 

Despite the boosterism, such books provide fascinating background on not just local history, but topography, natural resources, industry, civic life, culture, and much more. Many include "reminiscences" of early settlers and veterans, a bonus for getting a sense of what the community was like, first hand.

Case study: Ira Caldwell

Ira Caldwell (1839-1926), my husband's 1c3r, served in Company I of the 84th Indiana Infantry during the Civil War. He was mustered in during 1862 and mustered out during 1865, marrying two years after leaving the Union Army. What could I learn about his life from looking at his communities?

Here is just some of what my "community" research uncovered to help me better understand his life:

• Where born - Ira and his siblings were all born in Indiana not very long after it became a state. Reading History of Fayette County, Indiana (from 1885) I learned that his Caldwell family was among the founders of very rural Posey township in Fayette County, arriving even before statehood. 
• Growing up - Ira witnessed the first roads, first schools, and so on as the local population doubled from 1830 to 1840 and beyond. Maps in the county history book helped me envision where he grew up on the family farm. The county history makes it clear that this was both an exciting time and a challenging period for pioneer farmers. 
• Transportation and technology - During Ira's youth, Indiana became part of new canal systems and new railroad networks, transforming the way people and goods were moved. Ira's farming community would have known about newly-invented threshers and grain elevators, among other key inventions. By the time he died in 1926, electricity, telephones and radios were commonplace technological changes that had a profound effect on everyday life. 
• Moving on - Tracking Ira in the US Census as he married and had children, I found him in 1880 as a farmer in Harrison County, Missouri. I located a digitized History of Harrison County, MO from 1921 and discovered that Ira left Indiana in the 1870s, spent four years farming in Illinois, and then settled in this Missouri county. See excerpt in illustration--this county history book was a gold mine of information! I would never have known Ira Caldwell won a solid silver cup for exhibiting the "best fat cow" at the Indiana State Fair in 1857 but for reading this book.

Louisa's Cause of Death Was . . . It's Complicated

Indiana Death Certificate #17600 for Louisa Jane Austin McClure

Union Army veteran Theodore Wilson McClure (1834-1927) was my husband's great-great-uncle. He married Louisa Jane Austin (1837-1924) in Wabash County, Indiana, in 1858.

In researching great-great-aunt Louisa's death at age 87, I had two small surprises.

Surprise #1: Louisa Jane Austin McClure had two death certificates, both signed by the same doctor, both listing the same undertaker and same burial date/place. This is undoubtedly the correct person--husband's name is same on both, parents' names are same, same birth date, same occupation ("housewife" and "housekeeper").

Surprise #2: Louisa Jane Austin McClure had two different causes of death, both listed by the same doctor.

Apoplexy and Bright's Disease

On the lower-numbered cert, shown at top, the doctor listed the cause of death as apoplexy (cerebral) with Bright's disease as contributory. Her age is listed as 87 years, 1 month, and 28 days. She had been under Dr. Stewart's care from December 1, 1923 to her death on May 11, 1924.

General Debility with Weak Heart

On the higher-numbered cert, shown below, the doctor cared for her from November 24, 1923 to her death on May 11, 1924. The cause of death on this cert was general debility with weak heart. The apoplexy listed on the first cert would suggest a stroke, which could definitely lead to debility. The Bright's disease listed on the first cert is a kidney problem often accompanied by heart disease.

Louisa Died on a Sunday

My guess is that Louisa's death on a Sunday meant that the paperwork didn't flow as smoothly as it would ordinarily. The time of death is missing from the second cert, whereas on the first cert, it appears to be 11-something p.m.

Do these small discrepancies matter? For genealogical purposes, not really. But in 22 years of family history research, this is the first time I've seen two death certificates for one person. I sure hope it will be the last time.

Indiana Death Certificate #17869 for Louisa Jane Austin McClure

"Small" is the #52Ancestors prompt for week 32.

Larimer Ancestors: Patriots and Pioneers with Ohio Fever

Western migration of pioneer ancestor John Larimer (1794-1843)

Yet another ancestor of my husband's caught "Ohio fever." He was Isaac M. Larimer. His son, John Larimer, continued the Western migration and pioneered in Elkhart county, Indiana, as shown above on the map.

Isaac Larimer, Son of Immigrants, Patriot and Ohio Pioneer

Isaac Larimer (1771-1823) was born in the south-central Pennsylvania county of Cumberland. He was the son of the original journey-takers in my husband's Larimer family, who left Northern Ireland and crossed the Atlantic to start a new life in what was then the American colonies.

Isaac married Elizabeth Wood (or Woods, 1773-1851), in Pennsylvania. Caught up in Ohio fever, they migrated West to Fairfield county, OH, where they brought up their 10 children.

Isaac fought in the 1812 War and lived to see tremendous growth in Ohio as settlers streamed in from the East decade after decade. Two of his sons, John and Robert, decided to move further West when they grew up, perhaps hankering for wide open spaces and additional farmland.

John Larimer, Patriot and Indiana Pioneer

John Larimer, my husband's 3d great-grandfather, was born in Pennsylvania (see #1 on map above). By the time he was a teenager, he was living in Fairfield county, Ohio (#2 on the map above). During the 1812 War, John fought as a 90-day enlistee alongside other Larimer relatives.

In 1818, he married Rachel Smith (1799-1838) in Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio. About 1835, John and Rachel left Ohio and moved their growing family to what was then the wilderness of Elkhart county, Indiana (#3 on map). At this point, Indiana had far fewer residents than Ohio, which was increasingly crowded.

Sadly, Rachel took ill and died during what locals called the "sickly season" of 1838. Left with youngsters to care for, John remarried in 1840 to Nancy Orr Smith (1799-1853).

Unfortunately, John Larimer died just three years later, reportedly from an infection in his throat caused by a deer bone splinter, and was buried in Elkhart. His second wife, Nancy, died ten years later, and was buried in Ohio, where her first husband was buried.

Saluting these patriots and pioneers in my husband's family tree!

52 Ancestors #6: Train Was the Name--But Why?

This week's #52Ancestors challenge (thank you, Amy Johnson Crow), is "favorite name." My pick is Train. Actually, I'm interested in TWO men named Train. The original Train who caught my eye is Train C. McClure (1843-1934), the third son of Benjamin McClure and Sarah Denning (hubby's 2d great-grandparents). Born in Wabash county, Indiana, Train was my husband's 2d great uncle. Why, I wondered for a long time, was his name "Train," and what did the middle initial stand for?

Train C. McClure served nearly three years in the Civil War. As a teen, he enlisted in Company A, Indiana 89th Infantry Regiment on August 3, 1862 and was mustered out at age 21 on July 19, 1865 at Mobile, Alabama, far from his Indiana home. Two years after his military service, he married Gulia Swain and started a family. They had four children together. After Gulia died, Train remarried to Rebecca Abbott. He outlived all of his siblings and died at the age of 90.

After puzzling over Train's first name and middle initial for a while, I went over the McClure family tree with a finer-tooth comb. Then I discovered that Train's father Benjamin had a younger sister named Jane McClure, who married Train Caldwell on April 5, 1831.

Doesn't it seem reasonable to think that Benjamin named his son Train Caldwell McClure after his brother-in-law, Train Caldwell? In fact, as the 1850 Census at top indicates, the McClure and Caldwell families had a close enough relationship that a Mary A. McClure was living in Posey township, Indiana, with Train, Jane (nee McClure), and their children. Presumably this is one of Jane's relatives. To avoid getting derailed from the Train kinfolk, I haven't yet focused on little Mary McClure, but I will.

In tracking Jane's Train Caldwell, I learned more about his background, as you can see from the excerpt here, part of volume 3 of a book titled History of Northwest Missouri, edited by Walter Williams (1915).

Unfortunately, I don't agree with the book's assertion that Jane McClure, Train's wife, was the daughter of Samuel McClure, who lived in Indiana but was originally from Adams County. I've run into Samuel and the McClure confusion often during my Indiana research, because the Benjamin McClure in hubby's family tree was also from Adams County and later pioneered in Indiana. No connection with Samuel that I can find (yet), and I've actually discussed the possibility with Wabash history experts in the past.

The two Train men have provided endless hours of research and interest. Interestingly, Train was not an uncommon name in Indiana at that time. More research is clearly in my future as I stay on track with my McClure and Caldwell investigations.

Fearless Females: Emma Jane McKibbin Shoup, Administratrix

Hubby's 3d cousin, 2x removed, was Emma Jane McKibbin Shoup, married to Russell B. Shoup. I'm researching the McKibbin line to trace the origins of Emma's grandfather, Alexander "Squire" McKibbin (1817-1888), who married Harriet Larimer (1819-1887), the first of several marriages I've seen between Larimer and McKibbin ancestors.

The wonderful folks at the Elkhart County Genealogical Society have been helping me, by sending me images of McKibbin documents from their records. Above, one page from the probate file for Emma's father, James Harvey McKibbin (1846-1914), hubby's 2d cousin, 3x removed (so says Ancestry). Below, James Harvey McKibbin's obituary. After reading it, I understood why James Harvey McKibbin and his son John McKibbin are living with James's daughter Emma and her husband Russell (and their baby), according to the 1900 Census.

Before Emma could serve as administratrix for her father's estate, she had to have her husband's permission, as shown above. [Reader, you can imagine how I felt seeing that!] She also had to post a $100 bond with the court, to be returned after probate was complete.

Emma and her brother, John Henry McKibbin, were the only heirs, and the father died without a will. Emma was supposed to liquidate her father's property and pay his debts before splitting the proceeds, 50-50, with her brother.

John, the father, owned lots #170 and 171 in "Wilden's Walnut Hill addition" in Goshen, Elkhart county, with an estimated value of $1,000. To liquidate the estate and share with her brother, Emma had to sell the lots.

Now here's something interesting: Emma filed paperwork with the probate court saying she tried to sell the property, but the only private buyer backed out, so she asked for a public auction. The court agreed and the result is that one bidder stepped forward and paid $1,040 for the real estate. The bidder? A gentleman named Russell B. Shoup, whose signature appears in the image above as his permission for his wife to be administratrix.

After paying court costs, funeral costs, legal costs, and so on, Emma and her brother split $826.95, mainly from the sale of the two lots to Emma's husband.

Tombstone Tuesday: Wm Madison McClure & Margaret Larimer McClure of Wabash, IN

The Wabash Carnegie Public Library is a good source of genealogical info for folks like me, who are tracing ancestors in Indiana via long-distance. They're so busy that sometimes it takes a few months to process a request, but yesterday I was delighted to receive the obits for William Madison McClure (1849-1887) and Margaret Jane Larimer McClure (1854-1913), my husband's maternal g-grandparents. There was a bit of a surprise in William's obit when we learned he was a victim of typhoid fever.

Here's where Margaret Jane Larimer McClure is buried, in Wabash's Falls Memorial Gardens cemetery (Indiana).

Her obit, in a nutshell, says she died at the home of her son, H. B. (Hugh Benjamin) McClure on West Main Street, on Thursday, 15 May 1913 and burial was 17 May 1913.

William Madison McClure's obit, dated 7 October 1887, says he died of typhoid fever "after an illness of six weeks." He was a member of the Presbyterian church (his father was an Elder) and he was of the "Masonic fraternity."

A search on Google for "typhoid fever wabash indiana 1887" turns up 16,000 hits, most not actually in that year. Still, it was quite a deadly problem.

I've added both newspaper obits to these ancestors' Find-A-Grave pages, hoping to help other McClure researchers.

Those Places Thursday: NOT Ireland--Check the original!

Where oh where did my husband's branch of the McClure family come from before they turned up in America?

I've been trying to track down the parents and living descendants of his g-g-grandpa Benjamin McClure, who died in Emmet County, Michigan in 1896 and was buried with many other members of his family in Wabash, Indiana.

One of Benjamin's children was John N. McClure, who married Rebecca Jane Coble and were the parents of Fanny (Fannie) Fay McClure. Thanks to FamilySearch.org, I found Fanny's birth record in a ledger book. Her b-day is October 4, 1882.

More important, I thought I had an interesting clue to the McClures' origins: The transcription of this birth record shows that John and Rebecca were both from Ireland.

Of course I didn't take their word for it. I clicked through and looked at the original document. An excerpt is below. Do you think they're from Ireland? Take a close look.

No. He's from Fayette County, Indiana, and she's from what looks like Greenbrier, Indiana.

So Indiana is my place of the day (sorry, Ireland, but you may get your turn in a later post).