A Sly, Young Girl

Last week, we looked at the descendants of William James Sly, the eldest son of William and Harriet (Callin) Sly. This week, we will look at the family of their eldest daughter, Alice. Between William James and Alice, there was second son: Elmer A. Sly (1862-1890). We don't know a great deal about Elmer, other than the fact that he died at age 28.

Alice E Sly (1864-1896) also died young - but I'm getting ahead of myself. Here is her record from the Callin Family History:

Record of Alice Sly Young, who was the eldest daughter of Harriet Callin Sly, who was the only daughter of William Callin, who was the 3rd son of John Callin, who was the 2nd son of James 1st.
Born in 1864, died in 1896
Married to Cyrus Young in 1883.
To this union six children were born:
Alva, born Apr. 17, 1884.
Mertie, born May 22, 1886, married in 1905 to Frank Sloan.
Bertie, born May 22, 1886.
Cloyd, born Mar. 18, 1889.
Clara, born Aug. 10, 1891.
Emery, born Apr. 1, 1893, 2nd marriage to Julia Banks, 1889.

Cyrus M. Young (1859–1940) was the son of Michael Young (1801-1869) and Katherine Berlean (1820-1900). Katherine (or Catherine) may have been the younger sister of Elizabeth Berlin - Harriet Callin's mother. (We talked a bit about the trouble I've had proving that Elizabeth was part of this Berlin/Barlean/Berlean family in the post Great Great Great Grandpa William Callin.) If Elizabeth and Katherine were sisters, that would make Katherine both Alice's mother-in-law and her great aunt.

After they were married, Alice and Cyrus had six children in the next ten years. I do not know what caused Alice's early death at the age of 32; but when she died, the oldest of her children was 12-year-old Alva. Cyrus married Julia Banks (1858-1949) in 1899 (not 1889, as the CFH says), and she was the only mother the younger children really knew. The couple lived in Bowling Green for many years, and Cyrus operated a dairy until 4 years before his death at the age of 80.

     I. Alva Arthur Young (1884–1978) married twice, but did not leave any biological children behind, as far as I can tell. His first wife was Edith E Beam (1884–1957), and they married in 1910. They lived with the Beam family at first, in Woodville, Sandusky county, Ohio; later on, by 1920, they had moved to Toledo. They were no longer together by 1930, and some time in the early 1930s, Alva married Theresa D Meiring (1893–1963). He adopted her son, George, and when Alva died in 1978, he died at George's home in Toledo.

     A. George L Young (1919–1996) was adopted some time between 1930 and 1934. His biological father was Bernard Andrew Kemm (1885–1927), the son of German immigrants who had worked as a brass finisher in Detroit, Michigan, until his death from tuberculosis. George became a locomotive driver, and died in Toledo at the age of 77.

     II. Burton "Bertie" Bryan Young (1886–1935) was one of a set of fraternal twins. He lived at home with his father and step-mother, and hired out as a farm laborer. He never married, and died at only 49 years of age.

     III. Myrtle M "Mertie" Young (1886–1969) was the other twin. There is some evidence in the Census that she married Frank Sloan (b. 1883), as the CFH says, and they lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1910. There is a gap in the records, though, and I don't know what happened to Frank. Mertie married Benjamin Albert Worden (1872–1948) on 23 December 1923 in Sebastian county, Arkansas. They lived in Fort Smith at least until B.A's death in 1948, and after that, it would appear that Mertie moved back to Bowling Green. She died in 1969, and was buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery.

     IV. Clyde L Young (1889–1976) was a veteran of the First World War, serving in the U.S. Army from September 1917 through April 1919. He was promoted to sergeant in October 1918, and he saw action in the Ypres-Lys and Meuse-Argonne offensives.

After the war, Clyde worked as a carpenter, or hired out as a laborer; he lived at home until he was in his 40s. In 1941 he married Susie A Gonyer (1900–1964), the widow of Myron Chamberlain (1892–1925). They lived in Bowling Green, where Clyde farmed, until her death in 1964. He survived another 12 years.

     V. Clara A Young (1891–1969) married Alfred Louis Joseph (1883–1981) on 8 December 1909. Alfred was a farmer, and they raised ten children on their farm in Center township, Wood county, Ohio. Clara died 27 July 1969; Alfred died on Christmas day, 1981, at 98 years of age. Of their children, one daughter is still living.

     A. Deyo L Joseph (1909–1985) was born on the 4th of July 1909, and grew up to be a farmer, like his father. He married Mary Elizabeth Browne (1912–2000); they are buried together in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Bowling Green. Deyo was known as "Toot" among his family; Mary was a telephone operator at Bowling Green State University for many years.

     B. Donald H Joseph (1911–1996) married Esther M Greive (1916–2013) on 5 February 1941 in the Hope Lutheran Church. They lived in the Bowling Green area for many years; they are buried in the Fish Cemetery in Pemberville, Wood county. They left behind two sons and two granddaughters.

     C. Ada P Joseph (1914–2011) married her first husband, George Norman Place (1913–1950) in September 1934. He was a farmer, and they raised two daughters on their farm until George died in 1950. Ada married her second husband, Lester Vernon Wilt (1900–1998) on 28 November 1952. Ada worked as a secretary for Mahoning Express. She left behind six grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

     1. Beverly Jeane (Place) Bingham (1937–2004) lived on a farm until she was 13 years old, when her father died. She earned a bachelor's degree in nursing, but after she married and had two children, she stayed home to raise them. Beverly's husband, son, and daughter are all still living

     2. Patricia Ann (Place) Hillegas (1939–2015) was survived by her husband of 53 years, two daughters, two sons, 10 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

     D. George A Joseph (1916–1997) married Phyllis Maxine Kosch (1925–1979) on 26 August 1946 in Maumee, Lucas county, Ohio. According to the family, George and his brother, Deyo, had suffered from polio as children. George's right arm was affected, which kept him from serving in the War. It also kept him from farming, and motivated him to go to college. He graduated from Bowling Green State University, and worked as a chemist in the oil industry.

George and Phyllis had two sons and two daughters, all still living. Five years after Phyllis died in 1979, George married Ila Mae (Stearns) Foster (1917–2004) in 1984.

     E. Lloyd Wilson Joseph (1918–1993) was enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1944, and he married Grace Marian Ohr (1917–2005) on Valentine's Day 1945 in Bowling Green. He was known as "Red," for his red hair. Lloyd worked in construction until he suffered an accident on the job.

Grace graduated first in her class at Washington High School in 1935, and she attended business college in Toledo. She worked at the J.C. Penney store in Bowling Green for 24 years. Lloyd and Grace have three sons and a daughter, all living. There are also a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

     F. Victor Andrew Joseph (1921–2002) was a veteran of the U.S. Navy in World War II, serving from 1943 to 1945. He married his first wife, , about 1941. They had a son and a daughter who are still living. The couple divorced, though, and Victor married Donna M Webb (1930–2012) on 11 May 1950 in Bowling Green. They had three sons, two of whom are still living. Altogether, Victor left behind 13 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

     1. Kenneth L Joseph (1952–2009) was the eldest son of Victor and Donna. He graduated Bowling Green High School in 1970 and attended BGSU and Stautzenberger College where he earned his Associates' Degree. He worked for Great Scot Food Stores and the former Dutch Pantry. He was survived by his wife, son, two daughters, and two grandchildren.

     G. Betty R Joseph (1923–2014) married Clifford Milton Asmus (1920–2011) on 8 March 1947. Clifford was a US Air Force aviator in World War II. After graduating from flying school, he instructed other cadets for one year at advanced flight school, Spence Field, Moultrie, Georgia. He served in Panama and was assigned to the 32nd Fighter Squadron flying P-38's. He was decorated with the American Theater Service and Victory Medals. At the end of World War II, he was honorably discharged as a First Lieutenant. After the war, he was a full-time farmer, owning & farming land in Middleton and Perrysburg Townships.

Betty and Clifford left behind a son and two daughters, along with 5 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

     H. Donna F "Frankie" Joseph (1925–2011) married Howard K Nichelson (1920–1969) on 2 March 1946 at Hope Lutheran Church. Howard had enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942 as a mechanic; he had his own plumbing business after he came home from the war. They had two daughters, both still living, two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

     J. Ronald Delbert Joseph (1929–2004) was a life long farmer and a Korean War Army veteran. He was best known in the family as "Ike," and he he always had his smoking pipe in his pocket. He was survived by his wife, and one son. An infant son, Timothy Jay Joseph, died at birth on 5 May 1961.

     VI. Emory William Young (1893–1974) married Florence L Goodman (1896–1929) around 1913. They had one baby girl who died in infancy, named Geneva M Young (1913–1914), and two others who survived to adulthood. I do not know how Florence died in 1929. The girls were 14 and 10 years old, and Emory raised them. He was a farm laborer in the Bowling Green area until after the Second World War, when he and his second wife, Vollie, settled in Fostoria.

     A. Alice Isabelle Young (1915–2006) married Clement Melvin Carnicom Sr. (1908–1952) in Decatur, Indiana, on 17 December 1932. They had a son they named Clement Melvin Carnicom Jr. in 1933 who died in infancy, but they had two other sons who survived, one of whom is still living. (I think the couple also adopted a third son, still living, but I may be misinterpreting the information I've found about him. Hopefully I'll hear from the family, and they can set me straight!)

Some time after Clement's death in 1952, Alice remarried to Allen Ramsey McKean (1916–2002), who had served in the U.S. Army from 1941 through 1945. They were buried together in Fort Custer National Cemetery in Augusta, Michigan.

     1. Franklin Wendell Carnicom (1934–2001) graduated from Bowling Green High School, and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving from 1954 to 1957.  With the marines his sole duty was to guard nuclear weapons locations. He worked for many years as a draftsman for Haughton Elevator in Toledo, Ohio. He retired in 1996 and was a driver for US Cargo and Department of Corrections. He left behind a wife, a son, a daughter, and two grand-daughters.

     B. Winifred Maxine Young (1918–1999) was married to a Mr. Wickard in about 1943, but I have not been able to learn more than that about him. She married Roy Wesley Sherman (1915–1999) around 1956, and they were together until they died in 1999, just a few months apart. Roy was a World War II veteran who served in the Coast Guard from 1943 to 1951.

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There you have it! It happens I was contacted on Ancestry by a great-granddaughter of Clara Joseph, so I do hope that the word will spread among interested cousins about this blog. (Note: I made a few minor additions based on comments from the family - hope you enjoyed!)

If you're new to the blog, please do take some time to explore. We are in the middle of a large project, and I will need your help spotting and fixing mistakes. I apologize for any errors, and I feel very bad about them. (I apologize for my terrible puns, too - but clearly I don't feel that bad about them!)

As always, you can reach me on Gmail (I am "callintad"), through the comments below, or through the Facebook group.

William James Sly

William James Sly (1859–1931) was the eldest son of William and Harriet (Callin) Sly of Bowling Green, Ohio. Here is his record from the Callin Family History:

Record of William Sly, who was the eldest son of Harriet Callin Sly, who was the eldest daugther of William Callin, who was the 3rd son of John Callin, who was the 2nd son of James 1st.
Born in 1859.
Married Jan. 13, 1881, to Ada Avery.
To this union six children were born:

• Wm. Zardie, born Sept. 20, 1882.

• Sanford, born Jan. 25, 1884.

• Fern, born Oct. 13, 1889.

• Homer, born Dec. 20, 1885.

• Helen, born Aug. 23, 1892.

• Fay, born Feb. 22, 1905.

William was born 15 October 1859, when his parents were living in Erie county, Ohio. They relocated to Plain township, Wood county, sometime in the following year or two, and William married Ada Avery (1860–1926) there on 13 January 1881. She was a daughter of Gilbert Zardius Avery (1816–1906) and Eliza Jane Meeker (1824–1906).

The couple started out well enough, having three sons in the first four years of their marriage. 1888 was a dark year, though - they lost their two smallest children, an infant named Blanch (4 months) in July, and Homer (age 3) in December. Without records to say for sure, I would guess that they were most likely lost to an outbreak, possibly of typhoid, which was common enough in those days.

I mentioned in last week's post that William's father singled him out in his will, leaving $50 to him while dividing the profits from the Sly family's oil royalties among William's siblings. This is wild speculation on my part, but I suspect that William and Ada may have had trouble recovering after the deaths of two of their children in quick succession. The will may have been the senior Sly's way of expressing disapproval; but he also added a codicil to his will, dated May 1894, which gave William a full share of the inheritance (while giving William youngest sister the $50).

Whatever family drama may have been going on, William and Ada had another daughter just one year after their loss: Fern was born in 1889. Helen was born a few years later in 1892. William worked as a fireman on locomotives for the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad (C.H. & D.), which was succeeded by the famous B. & O. Railroad. His run was between Tontogany and North Baltimore for sometime and later he ran on the main line.

Sadly, Helen died in 1900 at age 8, and while they had one more daughter, Fay, in 1905, William soon left the family behind. In 1910, William was living in Indianapolis and working as a carpenter in a car shop. He married Sadie E (1873–1953) and moved back to Ohio, living out his days with his new wife in Dayton where he worked as a foremen in a tire shop, dying in 1931.

Ada lived with Sanford, who was then 25, and little Fay; she then took in lodgers and worked as a janitor in the telephone office to support herself. Over the years, she also took in and raised six other children, named in her obituary. She died in 1926 after suffering from heart trouble for two years.

     I. William Zardie Sly (1882–1954) took his middle name from his maternal grandfather, Gilbert Zardius Avery; most of the references I have found refer to him as "Zardy," or by his initials "W.Z." which probably served to distinguish him from the generations of William Slys related to each other and living in Wood county, Ohio.

Zardy married Jessie Stockstill (1882–1966) in 1903, according to the CFH (which called her "Jessie Stockwell"), but they soon divorced. By 1910, Jessie had taken custody of their daughter, and was living back with her grandfather in Henry, Wood county. She moved to Toledo, probably in 1914, where she raised her daughter and supported herself as a dress maker and as the manager of a rooming house.

Zardy, who only appeared in the 1900 Census and was mentioned (as "W.Z.") on his daughter's birth and marriage records, seems to vanish from the public records altogether after his divorce. When his mother died in 1926, her obituary implied that he was living in Bowling Green; when his father died in 1931, it placed Zardy in Chicago, Illinois. Newspaper items from 1906 and 1907 indicate that a brakeman for the railroad, a W.Z. Sly, lived in Garrett, De Kalb county, Indiana during those years, before moving on to Detroit and then Denver, to work as a conductor.

It may be that "W.Z. Sly" changed his name when he moved to Chicago, but further investigation is needed to say for sure.

     A. Lulu Venora Sly (1903–1981) would have been about nine years old when she and her mother moved to Toledo, Ohio, where Lulu grew up. She attended the Morrison Waite High School, graduating in 1921. She lived on Summit Avenue with her mother until she married Lacey Edward Houts (1901–1973) on 17 July 1924.

Venora and Lacey had a son, who is still living, but they divorced in the 1930s, and Lacey moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Venora worked in a beauty shop and presumably stayed in Toledo until she eventually retired to Florida. In 1961, she married Wyndham Robertson Mayo Jr (1904–1963). She survived him by nearly 20 years.

     II. Sanford Lloyd Sly 1884–1962) Lucy Alice Long (1888–1980) in 1913. In the early 1930s, Sanford and Lucy moved to Arizona, where they settled in the little desert town of Buckeye.

     A. Alice I Sweet (1910–1938) was Lucy's daughter from her first marriage; Sanford adopted Alice, and raised her along with her step-siblings. Alice was married to Cleveland Charles Bierman (1886–1951) when she died in Tucson, Arizona, at only 27 years of age.

     B. Helen Frances Sly (1914–1990) married James Osborne Lashuay (1909–1944), a truck driver for Wood county, who was killed in an accident in 1944. They had one daughter, who is still living.

In 1946 Helen married Jacob Paul Businger (1918–1994), who had just served in the Second World War from 10 March 1942 to 5 December 1945. Helen and Jacob were together for more than forty years, and were buried in the New Weston Cemetery, in Weston, Wood county, Ohio. They left behind two daughters and a son, still living, but tragically lost one son when he was 6 years old.

Found on Newspapers.com

     i. Robert Henry Businger (1956–1962) was riding double on a bicycle with his friend Charles, when they were struck head on by a car coming the opposite way down the road. Charles was 9, and died before they arrived at the hospital; Bobby was 6, and died two hours later.

     C. Marie Ardinel Sly (1915–1998) married Clarence Eugene Baker (1910–1987) in 1934, and they lived in Bowling Green and Weston in Wood county, Ohio. They are survived by four sons and two daughters.

     D. William Harvey "Bill" Sly (1923–2005) was around 10 years old when his parents moved to Arizona. He married his high school sweetheart, Lettie Bertha Zellner (1925–2005) in 1946, and they lived in Phoenix. They had two sons, still living, but later divorced. Lettie remarried to the late Ted R. Pierce, and after his death, she moved back to Phoenix.

     III. Homer J. Sly (1885–1888)
     IV. Blanch Sly (1888) - as mentioned above, Homer and Blanch died a few months apart in 1888.

     V. Fern Sly (1889–1965) married Cassius Caleb "Cash" Elder (1888–1966) in Toledo, Ohio, in 1907. Cash ran a farm and a livestock business, and the couple was together for 10 years before they had their first child.

     A. Eldon Edison Elder (1917–2006) worked with his father in C.C. Elder and Son livestock hauling, driving trucks; he also farmed for many years. He was a member of the Wood County Genealogy Society and its First Families of Wood County, through his Avery and Meeker ancestors.

Eldon married Clarice M. Simon (1917-2003) on July 28, 1938 in Plain City, Ohio, and they raised their family in Ohio. In 1974, they were living in Mission, Hidalgo county, Texas; and they later settled in Mesa, Arizona. Clarice died on 6 June 2003 in Mesa. They left behind one daughter, a granddaughter, and five great-grandchildren.

On 1 May 2004 Eldon married Ellen Decker Tharp in Mesa; she died February 6, 2006. Eldon followed on the 23rd of July. He was buried with Clarice in Weaver Cemetery in Bairdstown, Wood County, Ohio.

     B. Margaret Marzelle Elder (1919) died in infancy of unknown causes.

     VI. Helen Sly (1892–1900) died at only 8 years of age.

     VII. Fay Sly (1905–1980) graduated Bowling Green High School in 1922. She married a man named Young after her mother's death in 1926, but they were divorced by 1930, and Fay was listed as "divorced" and living in the household of her sister, Fern Elder.

Fay married Coy Benard Baumgardner (1895–1985), also of Wood county, and they moved out to San Diego, California, where they were listed in the 1940 Census. Coy was a wholesale coal salesman, and at some point he retired, and the couple moved to Florida. Fay died there in 1980, and Coy in 1985, and they were buried together in the Weaver Cemetery.

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That about covers this clan of the Sly family. I'm sure there are lots of cousins out there who may know a bit more about some of these folks, and as always, I look forward to hearing from you with feedback!

You can feel free to comment below, email callintad at Gmail, or click through to the Facebook group.

On the Sly

William Sly came from England to the United States in the 1850s. He was naturalized in 1866 at Bowling Green, Wood county, Ohio. According to the Callin Family History, he married Harriet Callin (1838-1907) in 1859.

We don't know for sure who William's parents were or where in England he came from; there are a couple of candidates in the UK Census records. Other researchers have noted an 1841 England Census which documents a Sly family in a Wiltshire parish called Horningsham: father James (b. 1786), mother Susanna (b. 1796), son William (b. 1826) and his two brothers, James (b. 1829) and Thomas (b. 1832). All of them list Ireland as their place of birth, except for the father, James; William is listed as a shepherd, and James as a pensioner. There is a death record for James in April 1849, which may have prompted a 23-year-old William to seek his fortune in the New World.

William's birthplace in all of his more recent, American records is "England," and not "Ireland," but that isn't enough to rule out this Census record, in my opinion, since the family did live in England, and probably considered themselves as being distinct from the other Irish immigrants arriving in the United States during the 1840s and 1850s.

There was also a James Sly of about the right age to be William's brother from that UK Census record. This James lived in Wood county, dying in 1893. The men would have certainly been aware of each other, living in the same place for decades, but neither of them mentioned the other in their wills, we don't have any newspaper notices from the time, and nothing else solidly connects them to that 1841 record. It could be that they weren't related, or they might have had a falling out, or James might possibly be a more distant cousin. It's hard to rule out any possibilities or draw any definite conclusions in the absence of records linking them. And since even William reportedly wasn't sure of his own birth date when he died in Wood county, Ohio, in 1894, we don't even have that name/birthday combination to narrow down our searches.

Hattie grew up on the Callin family farm in Richland county, which her father had purchased after her grandfather died in 1835. She was probably too little to remember most of the relatives who had lived there; her great-uncle Alex would have taken his family to Iowa when Hattie was still a baby. She would have been about six when her father, William, made his journey to Iowa to bring back her aunt Margret and cousins William and Warren. She might have known her great grandmother, Elizabeth (Simon) Callin, before Elizabeth moved to Auburn, Indiana, to live with the Ferguson branch of the family.

When she was about eleven, her father bought and cleared the new farm in Peru township, Huron county. They would have still been living there when she married William Sly; according to the 1860 Census, she and William lived in Oxford, Erie county, Ohio after they were married. By 1862, however, they had moved to Plain township, Wood county, where her father had purchased and cleared another 160 acre farm.

The petroleum industry in Ohio began in 1859, with an oil well drilled in Trumbull county; but major oil and gas reserves were also discovered in Wood county in the 1880s. According to my grandfather, the Callin farm in Wood county had been sold before William Callin's death in 1881, and it was family legend that "we could have been millionaires" had the oil not been discovered after that. But the Sly family evidently benefited from the oil boom of the 1880s and 1890s.

According to William Sly's will:

"I desire first that all my just debts be paid out of my property, and after the payment of my said debts, I give and bequeath to my beloved wife Harriet E. Sly, the rents and profits of all my real estate, exclusive of the income thereof derived from Royalty from petroleum oil or gas, to have and to enjoy the same for and during the remainder of her natural life time, or as long as she remains my widow, including in the above all the lands and tenements which I may own at my death, both farm and town property."

I don't like to project too much of my own ideas about what people thought and felt based on a few old papers, but the William Sly will has a few comments that hint at the relationships between his children. First, he named his son in law, Cyrus Young, as his executor, and while he divided the shares of his wealth between his three youngest surviving children equally, he only gave his oldest son, William, $50. Later, he added a codicil which essentially swapped William's share for his youngest sister's - leaving the $50 to Hattie May, and giving William a full third of the rest of the estate.

We may discover some clues to explain some of this in coming weeks. For now, it seems enough to say that William Sly's widow lived comfortably in her home in Bowling Green with her daughter until her death in 1907.

Until next week, I'll leave you with Hattie's record in the CFH:

Record of Harriet Callin Sly, only daughter of William Callin, who was the 3rd son of John Callin, who was the 2nd son of James 1st.

Born in 1838 in Ashland, O., died in 1907, in Bowling Green.
Married in 1859 to Wm. Sly who died in 1894.
To this union were born five children:
William in 1859.
Elmer in 1861, died in 1893.
Alice, born in 1864, died in 1896.
Eugene, born in 1866.
May, born in 1881.

Great Great Great Grandpa William Callin

At last, we have arrived at my 3rd great-grandfather:

William H. Callin (1813-1881)

His father was John Callin, whose story was told in The Brothers Callin of Ohio. His mother was Elizabeth Simon, about whom we asked Who Was Great Grandma Callin?

We talked about his older brother in Uncle George and the Underground Railroad; and since this time last year, we've looked at all of his older siblings and their descendants. We even talked about his youngest sister already in The Distance of Close Connections. You may remember even further back, when we talked about his eldest son and grandchildren in 20th Century Callin Clan.

Here is his record from the Callin Family History - as written by his fourth son, George Callin:

Record of William Callin, 3rd son of John Callin, who was 2nd son of James 1st.
Born May 10, 1813, died Nov. 9, 1881, at Bowling Green, O.
Married to Elizabeth Barlene 1837 who died Nov. 14, 1903, at Bowling Green, O., aged 86 years.
To this union were born seven children:

• Harriett, born 1838, died 1907.

• John, born 1840, lives in Fostoria, Ohio.

• James M., born Feb 26, 1844, died 1903 in Canada.

• George, born July 4, 1846, lives at Bowling Green, O.

• Hugh, born May 16, 1848, died 1880 at Portage, Ohio.

• Zimri, born Dec. 10, 1850, died Aug., 1907, at Bowling Green, O.

• Milton, born 1852, died at 5 months old.

William Callin was 3 years old when his father moved from Penn. To Ashland, Ohio. He grew to manhood on the old farm. Married and lived there till 1849 when he moved to Huron Co., Ohio; bought and cleared up a new farm. In 1861 he bought and moved his family on to a farm in Wood Co., near Bowling Green.
He was a perfect specimen of physical manhood, six feet tall, weight 200 pounds; all bone and muscle. Few men equaled him in strength. He followed clearing timber land and was badly crippled with rheumatism in old age.

The J.H. Beers company published their Commemorative Historical and Biographical Record of Wood County, Ohio in 1897. These hagiographic histories were very popular in the late 19th century, and George may have even contributed some of the information in this biographical sketch of his brother, John, which included these paragraphs about William:

His father, William H. Callin, was born at Callinsburg, Clarion Co., Penn., September 10, 1813, and was the fourth son in a family of nine children. He was an industrious, hardy, persevering man, possessing great physical strength, but had only a limited knowledge of books. He had a mind of keen perception and sound judgment, and was well fitted for pioneer life. In 1831 he accompanied his parents to Ashland county, Ohio, where his father entered a tract of land from the government, becoming one of the first settlers of that locality. William Callin aided in clearing and improving this property, and finally, on the death of the father, in paying it out of the land office and receiving title (the land having been entered on what was termed the ninety-nine-year lease). In 1835, he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Barlin, of Ashland, and of their union were born eight children, the eldest and youngest dying in infancy. The surviving members of the family are Harriet, widow of William , of Bowling Green; John H.; James M., and George W., both of Bowling Green; Hugh H. and Zimri L., of Pioneer, Ohio.

In 1849 William Callin removed from Ashland county to Peru, Huron Co., Ohio, locating on a farm of eighty acres which he sold in 1860, preparatory to his removal to Wood county. Here he settled on 160 acres of land in Plain township, and, on his retirement from farming, took up his residence in Bowling Green. He was an exemplary man, of high Christian character, and a consistent and faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He supported the first Republican presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, and was ever afterward a stanch advocate of the party. His death occurred in Bowling Green, December 11, 1881. His widow still makes her home there, and is now in her seventy-ninth year.

While these old books of pioneer history have a reputation for being wrong or incomplete, the records I have been able to locate largely back up the later details of the Beers sketch; and the details between the Beers and CFH accounts mostly match, too. The only real doubt I have is about the claim that William was born in Callensburg, Pennsylvania.

Callensburg was not surveyed until 1826, and wasn't incorporated until 1851. William's father and uncle (The Brothers Callin) were both settled in Milton township, Richland county, Ohio, with John appearing in both the 1820 and 1830 Census records there; so William couldn't have been born in that town. That said, the founder of Callensburg, Hugh Callen, did purchase the 300 acres that would later become the town in 1812, so there is an outside chance that our Callin family was living there at the time William was born. That's hard to prove without records, though.

Another quibble with the Beers and the CFH is that Ashland wasn't formed until 1846, and both histories refer to people settling there before that date. I'm not a professional historian, but I'm pretty sure it's bad form to refer to a place by its current name, and not indicate that it used to be called something else.

Because of these bad habits, I'm more willing to think that wherever he was actually born (whether on the property that later became Callensburg, or somewhere near that), William's parents probably told him that's where he was from, and that is what got passed down into the written record.

William married Elizabeth Berlin (1817–1903) about 1836. I actually have a citation record from an ancient CD ROM, the Family Tree Maker's Family Archives: Marriage Index; Selected Counties of Ohio, 1789-1850 CD 400, which puts their wedding on 29 September 1836 in Richland county. When you take into account the Richland/Ashland confusion of the older historians, that fits with their versions of events. (Someday, I need to track down the original record.)

Elizabeth's family has been tough for me to hunt down. Let's start with the facts from the Beers sketch: Elizabeth, daughter of John Barlin, of Ashland.

There is a John Barlean listed in the 1840 Census as living in Richland county (Mifflin township), and in the 1870 Census in Ashland county (Vermillion). (Remember, parts of Richland became part of Ashland in the 1840s.) The 1870 lists 83-year-old John in a household with 79-year-old Mary A Barlean, and the family of 50-year-old Catherine Young. Some further digging turned up another biographical sketch that fits with the family described here; this one for Catherine's son, Samuel Young.

The maternal grandparents of our subject were John and Mary Ann Berlean, who were likewise born in the Keystone state and died in Ashland county. Mathias Young was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, while John Berlean served his country in the war of 1812 and was at Baltimore during the hostilities there. The Berlean homestead, upon which the mother of our subject was born, was situated in Pennsylvania on the Maryland state line.
The birth of Michael Young [Samuel's father] occurred in Union county, Pennsylvania, after which he removed to Center county and later to Huntingdon county in the same state. From that point he accompanied his parents on their removal to Mifflin township about 1829 and Katherine Berlean arrived about a year later.
(from History of Ashland County, Ohio, by A. J. Baughman, 1909)

There are a lot of clues there. The timing seems to add up for the Berlean family to arrive in Mifflin (though they weren't there in 1830); but other facts don't add up. And the 1840 record only counts three people - a male and female between 50 and 59 years of age (presumably John and his wife), and a female between 15 and 19 (presumably Katherine). No Elizabeth, though she would have already been married to William Callin by 1840.

John Berlin turns up in the War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index, 1812-1815 and from that record we learn that he served from 21 April 1813 to 22 November 1814, in both Captain William Craig's and Captain Jonathan May's companies in the Pennsylvania Militia. The record also shows that he married his second wife (the widow claiming his pension) in 1830 in Columbiana county, Ohio. (Happily, his first wife, Anna Coy, is also named.) It also lists residence dates for Van Wert county, Ohio (1851-1856) and Canton, Stark county (1871); he died in Stark county in 1874.

There is still no direct link to Elizabeth, but there are two men (one John Barlin, one John Barline) in Columbiana county, Ohio, in 1830. The former had four daughters under 20 and lived in Beaver township (which became part of Mahoning county in 1846); the latter had one son and one daughter, both under 5, and lived in Green township.

None of this adds up to concrete proof, but the facts do seem to fit together. I wouldn't be comfortable posting this next section without the preceding five paragraphs as a disclaimer, but I think this is what happened:

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John Berlin (1787-1874) was born in Pennsylvania, and served from 1813-1814 in the PA Militia during the War of 1812. He married Anna Coy in 1815 or 1816, and entered a tract of bounty land in Beaver township, Columbiana county, Ohio, probably just after 1820.

Elizabeth Berlin (1817–1903) would have been the eldest daughter; her sister, Catherine (mother of Samuel Young in the sketch above) was born about 1820. The couple had four daughters; the two youngest were under 5 when Anna died, likely around 1827. In 1830, John married Catharine Landis (1807-1882), and moved the family to Mifflin township, Richland county.

Elizabeth married William Callin in 1836, and they set up house on the Callin family farm in Milton township. William had purchased the deed after his father died in 1835, and many of the Callin family members who had grown up there had moved further west. In 1845, William took his wagon 500 miles west to Iowa to retrieve his recently widowed sister, Margret, and her two small sons, and return them to Ohio.

William moved to Peru township, Huron county, in 1849 and the family lived there for a decade before relocating in 1860 to Wood county, where he cleared a 160 acre farm in Plain township. When the Civil War broke out, William and Elizabeth sent their three oldest sons, and proudly received all three back. William retired from farming and he and Elizabeth moved into Bowling Green, where he died in 1881. She moved into the home of her son, George, where she made an impression on her granddaughter, Rosemary. Elizabeth survived William by more than twenty years, and she died 19 November 1903 in Bowling Green.

Rosemary recorded her memories of Elizabeth in the post Silk or Satin.

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As we head forward and start exploring the Sly family next week, I'm keenly aware that there are more cousins watching who are directly related to the individuals I'll be writing about. I will continue to try to tell the best/most complete/most accurate stories I can, but I need you all to keep me honest!

If you spot a mistake, or catch me taking a shortcut, call me on it!

And if you want to offer a guest post for your family, let me know before we get there, so I can schedule you in.

As always... comment below, email callintad at Gmail, or click through to the Facebook group.