The Flying Shuttle: March 2017

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Throwback Thursday - Bible Woodcut "Deluge"

Today, on Throwback Thursday, I share a woodcut from the John Robert McQueen Family Bible published in 1850.

This is titled "Deluge."

The picture is a bit sobering to say the least.

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened." Genesis 7:11

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Julia Cruse Whiteside, Part 2

This is a continuing series on the possible descendants of Jeremiah Cruse and Elizabeth Harland. Jeremiah was a son of David Crews & Annie Magee of Madison County, Kentucky. Most of today's research is my own, with a smattering of records coming to me courtesy of Marian Kay Abbott.

For Julia Cruse Whiteside, Part 1 go here.

On 9 October 1887 in Vigo County, Indiana, Julia Cruse married John Whiteside (3). For the record, I have seen the name written with an "s" at the end as well, but for consistency I have dropped it.

John Whiteside was born 9 January 1865 in Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois (1) to William Whiteside and Ann McAvoy (1, 13). When the 1870 census was enumerated, John Whiteside is found living with his parents in Reeve in Daviess County, Indiana. He was seven years old that year, so there is some discrepancy in the records in regards to his birthyear (14). Later census records do not do much to clear up the issue.

As always, children soon followed: Mary in July of 1888 (14, 15), Thomas in February 1891 (14, 15), Anna in March 1893 (14, 15), Charles in February 1894 (14, 15), and Margaret in May of 1897 (14, 15).

By the time the 1900 census was taken, John and Julia had moved to Barr in Daviess County, Indiana. The census does note that Julia had given birth to six children with only five living at the time. John was working in the coal mines there (14).

In 1904 they moved to Illinois (15). While in Illinois, five more children were born: Josephine in 1900 (15), James in 1902 (15), Mildred in 1904 (15), Herbert and Herman, twins, in 1907 (15).

Also in 1904, Julia and her sister, Amelia, applied for Civil War pension benefits based on the fact their father and mother died while they were minors under the age of 16. Depositions were given by both girls as well as their uncles Alexander Moore, William Cruse, and Samuel S. Moore, Jeremiah Hess, Dr. Thomas Drake, and others (4).

Julia stated in her deposition that at that time she lived in Danville, Illinois, with her husband and eight children. She did not know much about her family. She explained that the Vigo County marriage document for her father should have read "James N. Cruse" rather than "James H. Crews." She also stated that when her father died, Edward A. Roberts lived nearby and that he subsequently purchased the little place where they had lived (4).

By the time the 1910 census was taken, they were living in Danville Ward 5 in Vermillion County, Illinois, where John was a bartender in a saloon. At some point in the census year, John had been out of work for eight weeks. The nature of the absence from work is not stated. Nineteen year old Thomas was working as a porter in a saloon, while eighteen year old Charles was a helper at a glass works. The family was renting a house on Vermont Street. Julia had given birth to twelve children, but only ten were living (15).

courtesy of www.findagrave.com

Between 1910 and 1918, John and Julia moved from Vermillion County to Peoria in Peoria County, Illinois. She died there on 25 April 1918. She was buried in St Mary's Cemetery (1, 18). She was 48 years old and was working as a housekeeper in Danville, Illinois. Danville is 120 miles west of Peoria, so I cannot account for the discrepancy in where she worked with where she died, unless the death certificate was merely listing the last occupation she had (1).

Two years after Julia's death, when the 1920 census was taken, John and sixteen year old twin sons Herbert and Hermann are found in Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois, as "roomers" in the home of 54 year old Sarah Sutton and her daughter, Leona Babs, aged 6. John and Herbert were waiters in a restaurant, while Hermann's occupation is given as "meat delivery" for a restaurant (16).

The 1930 census finds John still living in Peoria, Illinois, this year renting his own house at 1700 N. Adams Street. That year he is the head of the household with two boarders living with him - 27 year old Leona Dermeyer and 25 year old Emma Dewey. According to the census, both women were married, so I cannot account for why they were boarding with John. He was working as a retail merchant in a grocery store. The women were both salesladies in department stores (17).

John outlived Julia by fourteen years, dying on 13 January 1932 in Peoria, Illinois. He was buried three days later on 16 January 1932 in St. Mary's Cemetery in Peoria (1, 18). At the time of his death he was working as a clerk and he was living at 1611 N. Adams St. (1). There is no picture of a headstone for John on the website Find a Grave, so it is unknown if he had one and it was not pictured, or if he did not.

SOURCES:

(1) Ancestry.com. Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

(2) U. S Federal Census, 1870 Vigo County, Indiana, Honey Creek Township, household of James Cruse.

(3) Vigo County, Indiana; Index to Marriage Record 1840-1920 Inclusive Volum, W. P. A. Original Record Located: County Clerk's O; Book: 10; Page: 495.

(4) Civil War Pension Records for Julia Whitesides and Amelia Dawson (James Cruse), courtesy of Marian Kay Abbott.

(5) U. S. Federal Census, 1880 Vigo County, Indiana, Honey Creek Township, household of Jeremiah Blocksom.
(6) Ancestry.com. Indiana Deaths, 1882-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

(7) U. S. Federal Census, 1860 Vigo County, Indiana, Honey Creek Township, household of Jeremiah Blocksom.

(8) U. S. Federal Census, 1850 Vigo County, Indiana, Honey Creek Township, household of Jeremiah Blocksom.

(9) U. S. Federal Census, 1870 Vigo County, Indiana, Honey Creek Township, household of Jeremiah Blocksom.

(10) Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

(11) Will Records, 1818-1921; Author: Indiana. Circuit Court (Vigo County); Probate Place: Vigo, Indiana.

(12) Vigo County, Indiana; Index to Marriage Record 1840-1920 Inclubive Volum, W. P. A. Original Record Located: County Cleek's O; Book: 8; Page: 50. The 1850, 1860, and 1870 censuses given above for Jeremiah Blocksom, #s 7, 8, 9, show his wife as Elizabeth. On 14 April 1831, he married 1st Nancy Atkinson in Vigo County, Indiana. See Book: Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT; Page: 1392539 items 3-5.

(13) U. S. Federal Census, Reeve, Daviess County, Indiana, household of William Whiteside. Living with William and wife Ann was 60 year old Catherine McAvoy and subsequent records indicate this was Ann's mother.

(14) U. S. Federal Census, Barr, 1900 Daviess County, Indiana, household of John Whiteside. This census gives birth month and birth year, while the 1910 census only gives birth years.

(15) U. S. Federal Census, 1910 Danville Ward 5, Vermillion County, Illinois, household of John Whiteside.

(16) U. S. Federal Census, 1920 Peoria, Peoria Co., IL, household of Sarah Sutton.

(17) U. S. Federal Census, 1930 Peoria, Peoria Co., IL, household of John Whiteside.

(18) Find a Grave, www.findagrave.com.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Throwback Thursday: A Picture from the Hechler Family, c. 1940-41

On Throwback Thursday, I am sharing a photograph found among my grandmother Elenora Ressler Hechler's things.

I have no idea on the year, but my Dad, Leo Hechler, is the little boy in the bottom right of the picture, and he appears to be about three or four. That would date the picture about 1940 or 1941.

The man on the left is my grandfather, D. J. Hechler. He was fully German, his parents being Dominic and Elizabeth (Dietz) Hechler who immigrated from Russia about 1889. They always said he was a snappy dresser and liked his hats and shoes.

The other gentleman, I believe I was told, was his brother John. The two children beside him belong to him.

I am not certain who the other children are, but they are likely children of John or my uncles.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Julia Cruse Whiteside, Part 1

Julia Cruse was born in January 1870 in Vigo County, Indiana to James Cruse and Edith Moore (1, 2). Her death certificate (1) only gives a birth state of Indiana, but her father had property in Vigo County, and this fact, combined with other records, clearly indicates her birth to have been in Vigo County. Also, the death certificate (1) gives her birth month as February, but the 1870 census (2) as well as the 1900 census (14) enumerates her birth month as January. As this information was given closest to the actual event, and as it was given by her parents, she was likely born in January and not February. She was four months old later that year when the 1870 census was taken.

Two years later, in 1872, Julia's sister Amelia was born.

On 22 April 1874, James Cruse died. For more on that go here. Julia was four years old at the time, while sister Amelia was only two.

A year and a month later, on 31 May 1875, Julia's mother, Edith Moore Cruse, died.

While it appears the courts appointed William Carpenter as a guardian over the girls' financial affairs, he was not a guardian in the sense of giving the girls a home. It also appears as if the girls were split up and placed in different families at an early date. In fact, Amelia notes, in her application for a Confederate pension based on her father's service, that she was not aware she even had a sister until 1902. By that date she was nearing thirty years of age and already had a family of her own (4).

While there are records in the courts concerning the girls' financial affairs (see my blog: Orphans: Julia Cruse Whiteside and Amelia Cruse Dawson), the girls themselves are not found until 1880, and then we can only find Julia. That year she was living with 80 year old Jeremiah Blocksom and his 69 year old wife Gertrude. Gertrude was his third wife. He married her in 1879 (12).

Julia is enumerated in the 1880 census as being ten years old and a servant (5). It should be noted that living next door to the Blocksoms were Henry and Laeticia (Cruse) Loveall (5). Laeticia was the daughter of James Nelson and Susannah Cruse, and Susannah was a daughter of Jeremiah Cruse and Elizabeth Harland. Julia's grandfather, David Cruse (who married Jane Jewell) was Susannah's brother. Unless I have missed a familial connection to Blocksom, Julia was not living with her family. She was, however, living next door to her great-aunt.

Jeremiah Blocksom was well-to-do farmer. Born in Ohio, he immigrated to Indiana about the time that Julia's grandfather and great-greandfather, David Cruse (married Jane Jewell) and Jeremiah Cruse (married Elizabeth Harland) moved there. Blocksom is found in Vigo County in the Honey Creek Township in 1850 (8). In 1860, he was still living in Vigo County in Honey Creek Township. His real estate that year was valued at a little over $22,000 and his personal estate at $4000 (7) He apparently navigated the war years well, for in 1870 the census enumerates his real estate at $30,000 and his personal estate at $25,000 (9). No values are given in the 1880 census (5).

In the 1870 census, just two years before James Cruse's death, Blocksom and Cruse are enumerated as next door neighbors. Alexander Moore was found living on the other side of James that year.

How soon Julia went to live with Jeremiah after her father's death is not known, but she could only have lived with him for two years beyond the 1880 census, for on 25 May 1882, Jeremiah died (6). Julia was only twelve years old at the time. I do not know if she continued living with Gertrude, or if she went elsewhere to live. It should be noted that Gertrude did not die until 1891 (10, 11).

Next week, we will continue with Julia's marriage and later years.