CFH First Draft: Clara A Walker Welch

  This post is part of an ongoing series, sharing the first draft of my Revised Callin Family History. 

Clara A. Walker is the 86th person in a descendant report beginning with the earliest known ancestor of our Callin family, (1.) James Callin. This descendant report uses the Register Style of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. 

Please use the Contact Form (at right) to send questions or corrections.

A Week With the Walkers

Hello, cousins!

So, for those of you in the future, looking back at this time, the United States has been slowly adjusting to the global pandemic of a virus called COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. I am sitting at home this week, waiting to find out whether I should plan on going back to work next week, and wondering how the rest of my final semester of school will be affected.

While I had semi-suspended posting in this blog, in favor of focusing my efforts on finishing my Bachelor's degree in music, I have found myself in the position of having time on my hands which is better spent doing family history research than worrying about the possible cancellation of my recital or other things I don't have control over. Hopefully, one day, we'll look back on this time with relief that things did not turn out too badly, considering the disruption to our lives.

That said, doing research and writing is something that I enjoy and it relaxes me, so I'm moving forward with the Montgomery family posts. Hopefully, you will enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Last time, we documented the tragic, early end of every member of Elvina Montgomery Huffman's family. Elvina was the eldest of three daughters of Jonathan and Sarah (Callin) Montgomery. This week, we'll start with the middle daughter, Huldah Montgomery Walker.


II. Huldah Montgomery (1829–1918)

Born on 7 March 1829 and raised in Olivesburg, Huldah was barely a year old when her mother, Sarah, died. She grew up with her sisters in the home of her father and step-mother, probably attending the school established on a property that her grandfather, Benjamin Montgomery, deeded to the village.

Huldah married Isaiah Walker (1821–1906) on 5 June 1849 in Richland County, and at first they lived in Jefferson Township. Isaiah was a young lawyer, born on 7 January 1821 to James Walker (1771–1844) and Lucinda Barrell (1784–1871) in Montville, Waldo County, Maine. The Walker family moved from Maine to Massachusetts, finally settling in Richland County in 1834.

Isaiah and Huldah had their first daughter in 1851, and in May of 1859, Isaiah moved his young family to Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana, where he established himself as a lawyer. He and Huldah raised both of their daughters in Rochester. Eventually, Isaiah retired and, in 1905, they moved to California, where both of their daughters' families lived.

Isaiah died from pneumonia on 5 November 1906 at the home of his youngest daughter, Polly, in Glendora, Los Angeles County, California. Huldah died on 30 December 1918 in Long Beach, Los Angeles County. She was 90 years old.

Isaiah and Huldah are buried in the Rochester I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Rochester, Indiana.

     A. Clara A Walker (1851–1932) was born in September 1851 in Mansfield, Ohio. Her family moved to Rochester, Indiana, when she was about eight years old, and she grew up there. She married Cornelius Welch (1847–1934) on 12 November 1872 in Fulton County.

Cornelius, or "Con," was born to James and Sarah Welch on 5 September 1847 in Ontario, Canada. According to his obituary in the Rochester Sentinal, his parents died before he was nine, and he went to live with Andrew Oliver, then residing six miles south of Rochester. At 18, he enlisted in Company G of the 155th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers on 17 March 1865. The war ended less than a month later, but Con did well in the army; he was promoted to Corporal on 6 May 1865 and mustered out near Dover, Delaware, on 4 August 1865. He re-enlisted with the 23rd U. S. Regulars on 12 June 1867 and was stationed at Fort Boise, Boise, Idaho. At the end of this enlistment, he returned to Rochester, where he married Clara a few years later.

In 1880, Con ran a livery stable in Rochester, but sometime after that, he moved the family to a farm in Newcastle, which is where they were in 1900. Soon after that, the Walkers relocated to Glendora, Los Angeles County, California, leaving their sons Edwin and Oliver to run the family farm.

Con and Clara lived in Long Beach for many years. Clara died there on 24 June 1932, having been ill since the previous Christmas. Con died on 10 August 1934 at the age of 86, also in Long Beach.

     1. Marguerite Beatrice "Maggie" Welch (1875–1962) was born on 17 October 1875 in Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana. She spent some time working as a bookkeeper in Chicago, where she appeared on the 1900 Census; she was in that city when her brother, Mont, died.

Maggie seems to have gone west when her parents did in 1905, and while it isn't clear where she was in 1910, by 1917, she was married to Frank McKeever Burnside (1877–1936) and lived with him in Seattle. Frank's origins aren't confirmed by the documents I've found, but I believe he was the son of Irish immigrants George Burnside (1848–1889) and Sarah Clark (1846–1912), was born on 1 May 1877 and raised in Pittsburg, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

Maggie lost her mother in 1932, her father in 1934, and Frank on 28 December 1936 in Alameda, Alameda County, California. Maggie remained in their home on Santa Clara Avenue, again working as a bookkeeper. She died in Alameda on 29 March 1962.

     2. James Montgomery "Mont" Welch (1878–1904) was born in Rochester on 5 December 1878. He was well thought of in his community, and after working for a time at the City Book Store in Rochester, he went first to Chicago, then to Pierceton, Indiana, and engaged in business for himself. Failing health forced him to abandon his business, and he returned to his parents’ home where he "died of lung trouble" - most likely succumbing to tuberculosis, as so many of his cousins had done.

     3. Edwin Walker Welch (1882–1932) was born on 14 July 1882 in Rochester and grew up on the family farm. He was living in Chicago in 1904, when his brother Mont died, but came back to run the farm when his parents moved to California.

Edwin married Carrie M Daniel (1884–1985) on 19 October 1906 in Knox, Starke County, Indiana. Carrie was the daughter of William Smith Daniel (1860–1939) and Anna M Chapman (1862–1936), born 20 June 1884 in Paint Township, Highland County, Ohio. By 1910, Edwin and Carrie had settled in Smith, near Churubusco, Whitley County, Indiana, where Edwin worked as a jeweler. They had a little daughter there, named Margarite, possibly after Edwin's sister.

It isn't clear when they divorced, but in 1917, Edwin was living with his parents in Long Beach and working as a jeweler and watchmaker in that city. On 16 August 1922, he married his second wife, Harriet Ann Hodgin (1886–1950) in  Los Angeles County, California. They lived on Lime Avenue until Edwin's death on 29 February 1932 in Long Beach.

Carrie married her second husband, Frederick William Berg (b. 1891), on 18 June 1919 in Chicago. Fred was one of a family of German immigrants, born on 27 September 1891 in Germany to Ludwig F Berg (1862–1935) and Augusta W Haacker (1860–1943). He married Carrie just a couple of months after returning from fighting in France as part of Company D, 415th Railroad Telegraph Battalion, Signal Corps.

Carrie and Fred kept house in Davis, Starke County, Indiana, where Fred worked as a telegraph operator for the railroad. I don't know when Fred died; the last record I have for him places the family in Lansing, Cook County, Illinois, where he was working for the Grand Trunk Railroad in 1942. Carrie Berg died in August 1985.

     a. Margeret Ann "Margot" Welch (1908-1949) was born on 11 November 1908 in Churubusco, Whitley County, Indiana. Her parents, Edwin and Carrie, divorced when she was young, and she grew up in the home of her mother and step-father, Fred Berg. In 1933, she and Robert Henry Batzka (1906–1978) applied for a marriage license in Valparaiso, and their son, Norman, was born the following year.

Margeret and Robert were divorced around 1937, and Margeret (appearing in the marriage record as "Margot Batzka") remarried Andrew P Foley (1910–1994) on 23 December 1938 in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan. Robert and Norman went to live with Robert's parents in Starke County, Indiana, and Robert married Sarah Mildred Gusman (1918–1990) on 29 April 1941 in San Pierre, Starke County.

Margeret and Andrew lived in Petoskey, Emmett County, Michigan for many years. She died on 5 November 1949 at Ford Hospital in Detroit and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Petoskey. Andrew remarried and he eventually died on 10 April 1994 in Grosse Pointe, Wayne County, Michigan.

Robert Batzka retired from farming, and he and Sarah, by then a retired teacher, took a European trip in the summer of 1978. He died unexpectedly from a stroke on 8 July 1978 at the University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland. Sarah later remarried, and she died on 23 June 1990 in Markle, Wells County, Indiana.

     i. Norman Robert Batzka (1934–2011) was born on 27 May 1934 in Indiana. His parents divorced when he was small, and by 1940, he and his father were living with his grandparents in rural Starke County, Indiana. He graduated from Mackenzie High School in Detroit, Michigan, in 1953.

Norman served in the U.S. Air Force as a staff sergeant in Korea. He married Mariann Coleman (1939–2006) about 1959. She was the daughter of Elmer W Coleman (1909–1995) and Gail M Coombe (1915–1997) born on 3 October 1939 in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan.

Mariann died on 15 May 2006 in Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan. Norman died in Lenawee County, Michigan, on 14 December 2011, and they are both buried in the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Oakland County.

They were survived by their three children and nine grandchildren.

     4. Oliver Raymond Welch (1886–1907) was born on 20 March 1886 in Talma, an unincorporated town in Fulton County, Indiana. He lived with his parents on the family farm until they moved to California around 1905, and then he ran the place himself.

Oliver married Anna Pearl Kenley (1888–1966) on 16 August 1904 in Tiosa, Fulton County. They had a baby daughter together, and Anna was pregnant with their son when Oliver began suffering from stomach problems which resulted in a fatal case of appendicitis. He died on 19 February 1907 at Woodlawn Hospital in Rochester. He is buried in the Rochester Oddfellows Cemetery.

Anna, the daughter of John Kenley (1856–1899) and Armilda "Millie" Ross (1860–1895), was born on 24 December 1888 in Plymouth, Marshall County, Indiana, which means she was 15 when she married Oliver and 16 when Audra was born. After Oliver died, she remarried a few years later on 1 July 1911 in Fulton County. Her second husband was Clarence Clement Ailer (1878–1928). They had a son together, named Clarence Herbert Ailer (1913–1968).

Clarence died on 28 February 1928 in South Bend, St Joseph County, Indiana, and Anna seems to have married a third time. She died on 29 July 1966 in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana, under the name Anna P. Beatty, and an "Anna Beatty" lived in Fort Wayne during the 1950s with Wilbert T. Beatty. She is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Mishawaka, St. Joseph County, Indiana.

     a. Audra G Welch (1905–1997) was born on 11 January 1905 in Indiana (most likely in Fulton County), and she was barely two years old when her father died. She grew up in the home of her mother and step-father in Fulton County and according to other researchers (I have yet to locate any documents), she married Joseph Elmer Troyer (1906–1978) on 3 September 1926 in La Porte County, Indiana.

Audra and Joe had a son, Richard (1927-1994), and in 1930 they lived in Mishawaka, Indiana. However, they soon divorced. Joseph remarried in 1931, and Audra took Richard to Cleveland. There, she worked as a secretary and stenographer. Joe served in the military during World War II and divorced his second wife after the end of the war. He died on 12 March 1978 in Garden City, Wayne, Michigan.

Audra died in Cleveland on 5 Aug 1997 and was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Mishawaka, St. Joseph County, Indiana.

     i. John Richard Troyer (1927–1994) was born on 6 June 1927 in Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana, and grew up in Cleveland with his mother. He was married in Orange County, California, in 1967. He died on 8 August 1994, in Orange County at the age of 67.

(I have not been able to find obituaries or documents that might tell us about Richard's family, or whether he left children and grandchildren behind.)

     b. Oliver Kenley Welch (1907–1978) was born in Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana, on 24 August 1907 - six months after the death of his father. He grew up in Newcastle and ended up in Pontiac, Michigan, where he was working as a draftsman in 1940. He was in his late 30s or early 40s he married Effie May Chalmers (1912–2008), and they had a daughter who survives.

Effie was the daughter of William Lionel Chalmers (1875–1938) Stella May Shoemaker (1880–1970), born on 11 April 1912 in Huntington, Huntington County, Indiana. She graduated from Huntington High School in 1930 and became a nurse, working in Toledo in 1940.

Oliver died at age 71 on 16 November 1978 in Norwood Nursing Home at Huntington. Effie died much later on 27 February 2008 in North Manchester, Wabash, Indiana. They are survived by one daughter and two grandsons.

     5. Marion Percival Welch (1889–1982) was born on 27 December 1889 and grew up in Newcastle, Fulton County, Indiana. He married Jessie C West (1890–1976) on 23 November 1910 in Glendora, Los Angeles, California. Jessie was the daughter of John Charles West (1856–1935) and Emma Frasia Cornel Hinman (1857–1943), born on 4 June 1890 in California.

Marion worked as a superintendent for the lumber yard in Blinn, California, and he and Jessie raised their son in Lomita, Los Angeles County, California. (Jessie's obituary from 1976 lists a daughter, as well, but I have yet to find any other evidence of a daughter in the available records.)

Jessie died on 31 March 1976 in Los Angeles County, and Marion died almost precisely six years later on 30 March 1982. They are buried next to each other in Green Hills Memorial Park, Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles County, California. According to Jessie's obituary, they were survived by three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

     a. Wallace Marion Welch (1911-1977) was born on 11 October 1911 in Glendora, Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Lomita. He was working for his father's lumberyard when he was in his twenties.

Wallace married Laural Faye Hill (1918–1991) on 30 November 1936 in Yuma County, Arizona, and they had a son a few months later in February 1937. Faye was born on 10 December 1917 in Lebanon, Laclede County, Missouri, the daughter of Carlas Eldon Hill (1879–1980) and Laura E Gilmore (1885–1966). She grew up in Laclede County, and her family moved to California when she was in her teens.

The couple was not together for very long, however, as both Wallace and Faye were remarried to other people by 1940. Wallace married his second wife, Beth May Merryman (1916–1991), on 4 May 1939 in California. She was the daughter of William Ausian Merryman (1881–1964) and Dora Bell (b. 1887), born in Fort Dodge, Webster County, Iowa, on 10 May 1916. They also had a child (a daughter, still living), and were divorced before 1946. Beth lived in Lomita for 43 years and was a bookkeeper for the San Pedro (California) Postal Credit Union for 35 years. She died on 27 December 1991, survived by her daughter, step-daughter, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Wallace married his third wife on 9 October 1952 in Ventura County, California. She was Catherine Hanes Cleland, born 15 March 1914 in Crawford, Madison, Iowa, the youngest of 14 children born to Charles David Cleland (1864–1944) and Frances R Siedel (1864–1919). She grew up in Iowa and worked in Des Moines as a waitress in 1940, before eventually moving to California.

Catherine died in Los Angeles County on 1 November 1976, a resident of Sepulveda. Wallace died the following year on 15 December 1977 in Los Angeles. He was survived by his son and daughter.

     i. Wallace Max Johnson (1937–2007) was born on 12 February 1937 in Thayer, Oregon County, Missouri, the son of Wallace Marion Welch and Laural Faye Hill. His parents were divorced when he was an infant, and Max was adopted by his step-father, Eugene Field Johnson (1909–1959), appearing under the name Johnson in his public records.

Max was married on 2 August 1961 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, to Annie Margaret Spivey (1938–2016). Annie was the daughter of the late Thelma and Burl Spivey of Charlotte, North Carolina, born on 12 February 1938. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, she lived in Rock Hill and Spartanburg, South Carolina prior to moving to Greer, Greenville, South Carolina.

In 1983, Max & Ann opened Travel Planners at Eastgate Village, which they operated for many years. Max died on 24 July 2007 in Greer. Ann died at her home on 9 June 2016. They were survived by their son, daughter, and four grandchildren.

     6. Hulda A Welch (1892–1905) was born in Indiana in July 1892 and moved to California when she was small. She died at the home of her parents in Glendora, Los Angeles County, on 13 November 1905, when she was only 13 years of age. She is buried in Oakdale Memorial Park in Glendora.

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I hope this post found you and your family well, and if events proceed as expected, I should be able to tell you about the Walkers' other daughter, Mary Elvina, next week.

As always, if you've found one or more of your relatives mentioned in this blog, please get in touch. You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.

We have many ways to get in touch:

a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MightierAcorns/
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a Ko-Fi cup - https://ko-fi.com/mightieracorns


...and if you prefer a private group, we still have the Callin Family History group on Facebook for "cousins only" (there will be a question about how you're related to the family before you can join).

Until next time... Happy Hunting!

Myers Family A - Stubborn Henry

Last time, we began looking at the first of two Myers families. Sarah Ferguson, the daughter of Eliza (Callin) Ferguson, married Daniel Myers, and they had four sons. We looked at the descendants of their eldest son, Samuel Ralston Myers, and now we will kick off with his brother:

     II. Henry Tilman Myers (1868–1918) grew up on his father's farm in Perry township, Allen county, Indiana, and he married Frances "Fannie" Thompson (1879–1908) on 12 May 1898. They moved to Union township in neighboring De Kalb county, where Henry worked as a teamster.

Remember, that is a job that was changing drastically during Henry's lifetime. When he started out, he was probably still working with teams of horses pulling wagon loads of timber; by the mid 1910s, it was more likely that he was working with trucks or tractors.

Found on Newspapers.com

As you can tell from the obituary linked here, Henry met his end in 1918, after what appears to have been a frustrating day at work. He was only 50 years old, though at this point he would have been driving loads of timber for twenty years; and after making a delivery of heavy timber to the work site, he probably just wanted to stand out of the way and rest. I know that I don't respond well when I'm tired, and people keep yelling at me, so while the newspaper makes it clear that Henry was stubbornly ignoring warnings to get out of the danger zone, I can't help thinking that he was just confused and annoyed.

This article was important to my research, because finding records to tell the story of Henry's life had been difficult, and until I saw this article, I had no idea whether he and Fannie had any children. Even this obituary isn't as helpful as it could be, since it says he was "survived by the widow, five children" but appears to list six children and not name his widow. Which means that after Fannie's death in 1908, Henry re-married, but crucial details like his second wife's name are lacking. Piecing this puzzle together meant working backwards from limited information, complicated by the fact that there was more than one Henry Myers in Indiana at the time.

To the best of my abilities, here is what I think I figured out:

     A. Ruth Mabel Myers (1899–1958) was surprisingly difficult to research, and there are some gaps in the records that raise questions about where she was for long periods of time. In most records, she is referred to as Mabel, though she seems to have preferred to be called Ruth after the 1930s. When her mother died in 1908, Mabel would have been just 9 years old, and three of her younger siblings (Hubert, Ford, and Oleva) were listed in the household of grandparents Daniel and Sarah Myers in 1910, Mabel and her other sister, Marie, were not. Henry moved in with his younger brother, Edward.

Mabel married Harry Paul Clement (1892–1933) on 11 March 1916; their marriage certificate is the only record I found that listed her birth date as 29 March 1897. Most records say 29 March 1899, and the earlier date would be unlikely, since her parents weren't married until May 1898. That means she and Harry wanted to get married when she was only 16, and the couple probably didn't want to have to seek her father's consent.

They had one child, a daughter, when they were together, but they soon divorced, and Mabel remarried to Arnold R. Wolf (b. 1898) in December 1921. They also divorced, some time after 1925, and Mabel (now preferring the name Ruth) was married to Walter James Baker (1894–1971) by 1940. He was a widower with several grown children, and he and Ruth were still together when Ruth died of rectal cancer in 1958.

     1. Kathryn Maxine Clement (1917–1995) seems to have preferred a quieter life than her mother's. She lived for some time with her aunt, Oleva, appearing in the Zimmerman household in 1930. She married Carl E Beam (1909–1990) around 1935, and they stayed together in the Fort Wayne area for the next 55 years. Carl worked as a bottler for the Falstaff brewery for 32 years, retiring in 1967. He died of respiratory failure after suffering from chronic lung disease which developed into pneumonia. Kathryn died of mesothelioma in 1995, leaving behind a son, a daughter, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

     B. Hubert J Myers (1900–1974) was something of an outlaw. After the 1910 Census, when he appears in his grandparents home, there isn't much in the way of recorded evidence that he was around, except for a few mentions in the Fort Wayne newspapers. In 1922, he was fined $5 for public intoxication, along with several friends. Ten years later, he was sentenced to 180 days "at the state farm" for selling a stolen car. By 1940, he seems to have married and settled down to work as a bartender. His wife's name was Flossie, but other than a 1907 birth date, I don't know much about her. They were together through at least 1945; his death certificate says he was widowed. He died of intestinal cancer in 1974.

Ford R and Edith Myers headstone
Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne, IN

     C. Ford Ruford Myers (1902–1960) is someone about whom I still know very little for all the records I was able to locate. His father's obituary seems to be the only place his name is recorded as "Rutherford," and he usually appears as "Ford R."

The U.S. City Directories database records for Fort Wayne show a Ford R Myers working as a "wire drawer" or "tinsel operator" for many years. He married Helen Ethel Willson (b. 1901) in October 1925, and they were together through at least 1930, though I have been unable to locate a Census record (which would tell us whether they had any children). He seems to have been married to a Florence (Souder) Bullerman (1906-1989) in 1939, but she appeared in the 1940 Census living in her parents' home (under the name Myers), and Ford's directory listings in the early 1940s show him living with Edith (1906-1968), who is buried next to him in Lindenwood Cemetery in Fort Wayne.

As with his brother, I can't tell whether Ford left behind any progeny.

     D. Minerva Marie Myers (1905–1998) married Edward Lawrence Welch (1903–1944) on 14 August 1922, when she was still 16. Edward and Marie raised two sons together, and Edward worked for the Fort Wayne Drug Co. until his death from a coronary embolism at the age of 41. She remarried to a Mr. Dunn who preceded her in death, as did both of her sons. Marie died of a sudden stroke at the age of 92.

     1. Edward Lawrence Welch Jr (1923–1976) served in the U.S. Army's new Air Corps from 27 November 1942 to 13 January 1946. After the war, I am unable to locate any information about where he went or what he did, though I presume he remained in the Fort Wayne area for the following 30 years, as the U.S. military and Social Security files indicate that's where he died.

     2. Arnold Leroy Welch (1925–1987) enlisted a year after his brother did, serving in the U.S. Army from 17 November 1943 to 20 January 1946. He married on 2 December 1952, and he and his wife raised a daughter in the Fort Wayne area. Arnold died of colon cancer in 1987; his wife survived him and is still living.

     a. Joanna Lee Welch (1953–1990) died very young, leaving behind a new husband and a career as a hotel manager. Her death certificate indicated the cause of death being due to intravenous drug use, but without more details, I wouldn't want to speculate or moralize about that. She was married briefly when she was eighteen, and had just remarried a couple of years before her death, not long after her father died.

     E. Oleva Gertrude Myers (1907–1996) was the most elusive of Henry and Fannie's five children to track down. It would seem that the obituary that named her was confused about her name, but after piecing together a number of records, I'm satisfied that I have the right person. Of course, nothing about this family was easy to figure out, so please bear with me. I think this is what happened:

Oleva married Sherman L Zimmerman (1904–1956) around 1924, and they had three children before 1930; a daughter, and two sons. Oleva and Sherman divorced at some point, and from what I can tell, the two younger children, Donna and Harold, were adopted by Ralph and Elsie Yarde. Sherman remarried and had seven more children (three sons, four daughters) with his second wife, Mary Imogene Likes (1923-1957). Sherman died from a cerebral abscess in 1956, and Mary was killed in a car accident a year later.

Oleva had remarried to Arthur F Everett (1910–1993) by 1940, and Henry Zimmerman lived with them for a time. She outlived her husband by three years, then died at age 90 of a heart attack, leaving behind 10 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and 5 great-great-grandchildren.

     a. Henry Clayton Zimmerman (1925–2002) married Marilyn E Glasgow (1926–1975), probably around 1968, and they had one daughter, who is still living. He did remarry in 1977, after Marilyn's death, and his second wife is also still alive today. Interestingly, that second wife was also married to Henry's brother, Harold.

     b. Donna Louise (Zimmerman) Yarde (1926–1998) married Edgar Dale Grabill (1923–2006) on 29 December 1946, and they raised three daughters and a son, all still living. Edgar and Donna raised their kids in the Goshen area, and moved to La Otto in Noble county later. Donna eventually succumbed to heart disease.

     c. Harold L (Zimmerman) Yarde (1928–1990) married Beverly G Nelson (1930–2010) on 4 June 1949, and they had four children over the following five years; a son and three daughters. In March 1955, Beverly filed for divorce, and in July, so did Harold. In September, the judge awarded custody of one of the children to Beverly, and required Harold to pay child support in the amount of $7 a week.

By December 1955, Harold was remarried; his second wife later married his brother, Henry, in 1977. I don't know how long they were together, but Harold married twice more in 1978 and 1979. His third wife was Gladys O (Smith) Durham (1921–2011), and their marriage did not last long, but Anna Jean "Oma Jean" Vanover (1933–2002) moved with Harold to Nashville, where they were together at his death.

     i. Sheryl Lynn Yarde (1954–2012) was the youngest of Harold's four children. She seems to have suffered from kidney disease, and left behind two grown sons and a grand-daughter.

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When one does this kind of research as a hobby, it's easy to think of every mystery solved as a masterpiece worthy of Sherlock and Batman, even though most of the time the most difficult challenge comes from figuring out how to fish facts out of a new database. This family, though, represented a crazy quilt of half-correct clues, missing records, and logical leaps that left me scratching my head (and not just from the shingles).

I'm not complaining. This is what I do for fun, after all. But each of Henry's children presented a new set of questions to untangle one piece of evidence at a time. Except for Hubert and Oleva, all of them used their middle names, and Oleva's name was rendered as everything from "Olive" to "Alevia" in her records. Their relationships took unexpected, and sometimes bitter, turns; and I had to keep digging for tiny clues that would unlock the next fact until I pieced it all together. For all that, I still have no idea who Henry's widow was!

But now that I've solved most of the mysteries here, I feel the usual hesitation about publicizing what might have represented some difficult childhood experiences for the surviving cousins who might read this. I always hope that for the families involved, nothing I've found in the public record is considered a secret, and that no one is hurt by what I've uncovered.

I know that my grandmother would have been uncomfortable talking about things like divorce and adoptions, and it could be that a distant cousin might be disturbed by something that was hidden or forgotten which they find out about through my blog. That is never my intent, but I have to take the approach that if I can find the evidence on the Internet, then the truth is already "out there" waiting to be discovered. In the case of this post, much of that evidence came from digitized archives of the Garrett Clipper on Newspapers.com - which you can see at this link.

Of course, if I simply got things wrong, I'm always happy to make corrections. If you have evidence that helps me correct my records, please contact me and let me know. You can comment below, email me (I'm "callintad" on Gmail), or join the Callin Family History Facebook group and say hello!

A Real Hoot

Nathan Hoot came from Pennsylvania and settled on a farm near Reedsburg, Ohio, probably during the 1830s. He later moved to Ashland with his brother and they ran a shoe business for several years before selling their interests. Nathan relocated to Galion, set up shop there, and worked at making shoes the remainder of his life.

John B. Hoot, his son, was born in Reedsburg in March 1839. After finishing his schooling he was apprenticed to William Ilger to learn harness and saddlery. Upon becoming a journeyman saddler, he entered the Union army, serving in the 196th Regiment, Ohio Infantry.

The Regiment was organized at Camp Chase, Ohio, and mustered in March 25, 1865. They left the state for Winchester, Virginia, on March 26, when they were assigned to 2nd Brigade, 2nd Provisional Division, Army of the Shenandoah. In July they were moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and  held garrison duty there and at Fort Delaware till September. They mustered out on September 11, 1865.

John and Frances (Campbell) Hoot

Frances A. Campbell married John B. Hoot (1839–1911) on 20 February 1862. She was the younger, surviving daughter of Henry and Ann (Callin) Campbell, and the sister of Cyrus and Harrison Campbell, the subjects of our last two posts. Harrison, you might recall, married John Hoot's sister, Catherine Hoot.

Frances was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, on 30 March 1842, and grew up on her father's farm. She married John when she was twenty, and over the following twenty-six years, they had eight children together; two sons and six daughters.

After the war, John moved with his family to Orange, where he rented a saddlery shop for many years, often employing as many as seven men. He was acknowledged throughout the county as being unsurpassed as a saddler and harness maker. His work was reportedly shipped to all parts of the United States. Upon leaving Orange, he removed to Mt. Vernon where he was foreman of a saddlery shop for ten years. In 1903 he retired and moved to Columbus, Ohio, where the family lived on Wisconsin Ave.

Frances died in 1905 at the age of 62, only two years after John retired, and he died in 1923. They were buried together in the Nankin cemetery, Ashland county, Ohio.

1. Agnes Cornelia Hoot (1863–1906)

The eldest daughter, she preferred to go by the name Cornelia, married John Byron Barrick (1858–1935) in 1880. John was a teamster in the Cleveland area for many years. They had a son and a daughter before Cornelia died unexpectedly in 1906 at the age of 43, while visiting in Athens, Georgia. After burying his wife, John moved in with his son, Adelbert, in Ashland, where he lived until his death in 1935.

     a. Adelbert Earl Barrick (1885–1964) worked as a machinist and skilled laborer most of his life. He married Minnie May Mcmurray (1878–1953) on 12 March 1904, and they had four sons. According to his World War I draft registration, Adelbert lost his left leg above the knee in March 1908. The couple remained in Ashland all their lives. Minnie died in 1953 at the age of 75, and Adelbert at 79 years, in 1964. They were buried in the Ashland cemetery.

     i. Charles A Barrick (1908–1969) was a core maker and foundry worker throughout his adult life. He married Velma A Mawhorr (1908–1976) around 1927. Their son, Charles Gaylord Barrick, (1928–2003) was retired pastor of the Sullivan Congregational Church and had taught eighth- and ninth-grade English in the Cloverleaf School District, Lodi, for 30 years.

     ii. Clyde Earl Barrick (1912–1966) was married to Charlotte, though they seem to have been estranged in the 1950s; they had one son and one daughter.

     iii. Ernest Benton Barrick (1920–1977) enlisted in the National Guard on 15 October 1940. He was still living with his parents at that point, but by 1945, he was married to Betty Marken (1918-2014) and living at 30 W Walnut, in Ashtabula. They had four children: three daughters who are still alive, and a son, David Joel Barrick (1951-2013).  David was a U.S. Army veteran and served in the Vietnam Conflict. He and his wife had four daughters.

     iv. Albert Ellis Barrick (1922–1979) was a World War II veteran who served from 26 October 1942 until 15 February 1946. He worked in assembly plants, and never married. He was 57 years old when he died in Ashland.

     b. Rea Barrick (b. May 1890) made one appearance in the 1900 Census, but sadly seems to have disappeared after that. It is possible that after her mother's death in 1906 that Rea might have gone to live with relatives, or gotten married before 1910.

2. Ida N. Hoot (1865–1947) 

Ida was the second daughter of John and Frances (Campbell) Hoot. She married Franklin Pierce Stine (1861–1931) in 1886. Frank was a farmer in Ashland county, and he and Ida had three sons and a daughter.

     a. Leonard Benton Stine (1889–1969), who preferred to be called "Leon," married Norah Wanda Ward (1891-1978). They were a farm family, and lived in Sullivan their entire lives. In 1930, their farm was next door to Leon's brother, Evan's farm. There are no records showing that they had any children of their own.

     b. Evan Francis Stine (1891–1944) married Mary Margaret Gill (1893–1973) around 1918, and began farming in Ashland county. The had seven children (i-vii); four daughters and three sons. Evan died at the age of 53, and Mary at 79.

     i. Mary Lucille Stine (1919–2004) married Paul Eichelberger (1911–1974), and they have four children who are still living: two sons and two daughters, and four grandchildren. Paul and Mary also had twins: a son and daughter born in 1950. The little girl, Carolyn, only lived a couple of weeks, but Carl Harold Eichelberger (1950-2014) was a machinist, like his father, who lived his whole life in Ashland county. Carl left a wife and three daughters.

     ii. Donald F Stine (1921) was born on 30 January and died 7 July 1921. He is buried in the Southview Cemetery in Sullivan township, Ohio.

     iii. Luella Irene Stine (1922–1999) married Donald E Heifner (1911–1960), a farmer from Montgomery township. Don died very young, at 49. Their only child was Kenneth Richard Heifner (1949–1969), a U.S. Marine killed in action in Viet Nam when he was only twenty.

     iv. Walter E Stine (1924–1997) married Mary Ellen Morr (1924–2008) on 13 June 1943, and they had two sons who are still living.

     v. Helen Pauline Stine (1928–1999) was married twice; first to Richard Dale Boales (1927–2009) and then in 1954 to Forrest Milton Fellenbaum (1918–1988).

     vi. Harold Evan Stine (1928–1986) married Martha Irene Johnson (1930–2015) on 25 March 1950. They lost their first two babies at birth (Larry Richard Stine b. 1950 and Stephen Eugene Stine b. 1951), but had a daughter and two more sons, and 36 years together before Harold died at 57. Martha only died last year at 84, having spent her time surrounded by grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

     vii. Phyllis A Stine (1935–1997) married Harold Max Lamb (1934–1992) in 1952, right after she graduated high school. They had a daughter, Mary May Lamb (1953-2003) who married Larry J "Jay" Matthews (1953–2010); the Matthews had three sons, who are still living.

Phyllis and Harold divorced in the early 1960s, and while he remarried later, Phyllis lived out her days in Ashland.

     c. Mary Estella (Stella) Stine (b. 1896), the only daughter of Frank and Ida (Hoot) Stine, grew up on the farm, but in 1920 was living out on her own. She was a factory worker in Ashland, rooming in the home of Rebecca Wood. After 1920, there are no more clues to her whereabouts. I assume she got married and I simply haven't tracked down the record, yet.

     d. Alva Sylvester Stine (1900–1966) grew up farming like his father and brothers, but in 1923 he graduated Ashland University where he was Vice President of his senior class, and he went on to become a school superintendent and administrator. Known as "Alva" throughout his youth, he preferred to be called "Sylvester" later on.

By 1927, Sylvester had married Mary I. Ferrel (1899-1999), and was a principal at a school in Wayne county. Two years after his father died, Sylvester and Mary had their daughter, Miriam Elaine Stine (1933–2000). Miriam grew up in Canton, Ohio, where she married Mr. Cross in 1952. They all relocated to Cass county, Michigan, where Sylvester died in 1966. Miriam was an elementary school teacher there for many years, and she and her husband also had a daughter and two sons who are still with us.

3. Byron A Hoot (1867–1942) 

Byron was one of the leading barbers of Ashland, conducting "a large and elegantly appointed shop" there for many years.

At the age of thirteen years, Byron was apprenticed to a barber. Later he traveled for three years, working as a journeyman in various cities, finally returning to Ashland in 1885, where he opened a shop in the National Bank building. He remained there for eighteen years, becoming popular for his high-class work. After that he relocated to Main street, the third door below Orange street, where he employed three men.

In 1891 Mr. Hoot was united in marriage to Ida Mae Brubaker (1874–1944), daughter of John W. Brubaker and Eliza Barr. Byron and Mae had one daughter and one son.

     a. Glorene Frances Hoot (1895–1977) was the victim of many misspellings in the historical record - "Lorene," "Glarence," and (my least favorite) "Glovine" being just three. She married Harry Eugene Matthews (1895–1976) on 5 October 1916. (He was no relation to the Larry Jay Matthews who married Mary May Lamb as mentioned above.)

Harry was a salesman, worked for a time as a produce manager, and then as an insurance salesman. The couple raised two children:

     i. Rexford Eugene Matthews (1919–2002) enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1939, and served throughout the war, being discharged in 1946. He married his wife, Virginia Louise Page, in 1948. They had at least one daughter and a son who are still living. Rex worked as a salesman in a shoe store, until he landed a job with the State Highway department; Virginia worked in a pastry shop. They were together for 31 years, until they divorced in 1979, and Rex moved down to Sarasota, Florida. There he remained until his death in 2002.

     ii. Patricia Mae Matthews (1925–2012) was a professional Girl Scout and camp director, then a physical education teacher. Pat also had a beautiful soprano voice, and was a soloist in the Ashland College Choir, as well as a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in the days of Robert Shaw and George Szell. She performed with that group on the stage of Carnegie Hall.

In 1983 Pat received the "Individual Better Life Award" from the Ohio House of Representatives for being a "remarkable individual, combining humanitarian concern and commitment with selfless initiative to become a dynamic force in behalf of the aged." In 1985, she relocated to Sarasota, Florida - that may have been why her brother moved there, as well.  In Sarasota she volunteered in nursing homes and sang in the Key Chorale for 16 years.

     b. John Weldon Hoot (1902–1950) was a professor who married Evelyn Marie (1902-1969) in Ohio, and took his wife to Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, in the 1930s. After his death at 48 years of age, in Philadelphia, Dr. J. Weldon Hoot was buried back home in Ashland, but Evelyn and their teen aged daughter remained in Pennsylvania. Their daughter is still living in that state, as far as I know.

4. Clara Hoot (1869–1916) 

Clara married Philip Kirsh (also seen as "Kirsch") some time around 1888, and they had three children before Philip's death a decade later. Despite leaving few records behind, it is safe to guess that he died between 1895 and 1900.

     a. Helen G Kirsh (b. 1889) appeared on the 1900 Census in the Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio household of her widowed mother. There is a marriage record from Chicago in 1908 showing a Helen Kirsh marrying Harry Schmitz, but the details about her in their 1910 Census record (in Chicago) do not indicate that this Helen came from Ohio, so I can't say for certain that this is our Helen Kirsh.

     b. Arlina A Kirsh (1892–1963) married Ora James Bemiller (1888–1939) in 1910, and moved in with his family. Ora grew up a farmer, then worked for a time as a tobacconist, as a firefighter, and later as a metal worker in Shelby, Ohio. James took ill and died about a month after he and Arlina moved to the Galion area. They had one daughter.

     i. Eva Glorine Bemiller (1913-1956) was partly named after her mother's cousin, Glorene Hoot. She married Daughn D Clow (1913-1987) in Ohio county, West Virginia, in 1936. Some time after Eva's death in 1956, the rest of the family relocated to Florence, South Carolina, where Daughn died in 1987. Daughn and Eva had a son and a daughter, and many grandchildren.

     c. William Frederick Kirsh (1895–1958) married Goldie M Hall (1896–1982) on 30 April 1917. William was a restaurant manager most of his career. He died at home in 1958 at the age of 63. Goldie remained in Ashland the rest of her life.

     i. William Frederick Kirsh Jr (1918–1981) was a stock clerk in Cleveland married to Kathleen Corrine Vessels (1920–2002) when he enlisted in the Army in 1943. After the war, they raised eight children, two of whom have died: William Patrick Kirsh (1953-2000) and Frederick "Fritz" W. Kirsh (1946-2008). Still living are three sons and three daughters.

     ii. Philip Leroy Kirsh (1920–1982) took a engineering degree in metallurgy at Ohio State University in 1941, and a commission in the U.S. Navy, where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He was discharged in 1946, and married Elizabeth Axham Keene (1918–2003). They lived for years in Rochester, New York, and retired to Canandaigua in the late 1970s. Their daughter was the late Susan Jean Kirsh Anzalone (1951–2001).

     iii. Jack Loren Kirsh (1927–1973) graduated high school in the class of 1946 and went on to become an educator. He married in 1957 while teaching in Florida, where he was principal of the Greenville Elementary School in 1960. He eventually relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he died in 1973.

Clara Hoot Kirsh remarried after 1900 to William M Litt (1872–1937), and they had three children in the next few years. Sadly, Clara died in 1916, and William remarried a widow named Edith. (Note: while William's name is clearly spelled "Litt" on his headstone, his sons spelled the name "Lett" - I will leave it to the family to sort that out!)

     d. Benton D Lett (1902–1967) was a fireman in Columbus, Ohio. He married a school teacher named Eva D Eyster (1905–1952) around 1928, and they had one child, Eugene Clay Lett (1929-1995).

     e. Milo F Lett (1905–1967) worked as a truck driver and laborer around Berlin, Knox county, where he grew up. in 1942, he enlisted in the Army and served throughout the war in the 1136 School Squadron. I know from notes in his records that he was divorced, but I have no information about any wife or children.

     f. Catherine Litt (b. 1906) is another mystery - after appearing on the 1910 Census with her family, she is not in the household in 1920. There is an Ohio birth index record, but beyond that, I don't know any more about her.

5. Hattie J. Hoot (1870–1924)

At nineteen, Hattie married Alpheus C. Hamman (1867–c. 1935), and they had one daughter. After Hattie's death at the age of 53, Alpheus seems to have been on his own. His grave marker remains undated.

     a. Emma D Hamman (1905-1985) married Leon Clarence Osborne (1892–1975) on 20 September 1915, and the following year, they went to China as independent missionaries. In 1919, they joined the Church of the Nazarene and served its church at Chao Cheng, Shantung, until 1942.
Leon was detained by the Nationalists in 1928 near the beginning of the Chinese Civil War.

 Found on Newspapers.com

Leon was released, and the couple continued their work in the country until 1942. He published a book about the work in China, Christ at the Bamboo Curtain, (Beacon Hill Press, 1956).

6. Abbey I Hoot (1875–1940)

Abbey stayed in the home of her parents until John's death in 1923, at the age of 83. After that, Abbey took in lodgers at the house on Wisconsin Avenue for a few years, with the help of her niece, Leota Roseberry (Zelpha's elder daughter). Sadly, by 1935, she was unable to continue taking care of herself, and spent the last few years of her life committed to the Columbus State Hospital for the Insane.

7. Zelpha L. Hoot (1877–1951)

Born in Nankin, Zelpha probably met William Crawford Welch (1875-1917) when her father retired and moved the family to Columbus in 1903. Zelpha and William were married about 1906, and had two young daughters when he died at 42. I could not find an explanation of how he died, but he was a railroad man, and he would not be the first person in this family to be killed on the railroad.

Zelpha supported herself by as a dressmaker, and evidence says she married a Mr. Kramer (or Kraner) at some point. While she or her daughters took possession of the house on Wisconsin Ave, Zelpha eventually relocated permanently to San Diego, California, where she died in 1951.

     a. Leota E Welch (1906–1998) married Walter William Roseberry (1904–1990) in 1928, but in 1930, she was still living in the home of her aunt Abbey (see above). It may be that the arrival of their son in 1932 meant that Leota was not able to care for Abbey, and that could be what led to sending Abbey to the state hospital in Columbus.

Walter and Leota did not stay together after their son grew up; Leota remarried Ernest Hamlin (1913-1990) in 1972, and they moved down to Manatee, Florida, where they lived out their retirement.

     i. Kenneth William Roseberry (1932–1991) was an electrician in Columbus, Ohio. He was married in the 1950s, but also divorced by the late 1960s. His wife remarried in 1972. Kenny died the year after his father, and they were buried in the Obetz Cemetery in Franklin county. I do not know whether he left any children behind.

     b. Frances Dana Welch (1909–1963) remained with her mother until she was in her early thirties, accompanying Zelpha as she moved between San Diego and Columbus. Eventually, she seems to have married, probably in the 1950s. She is buried in Union Cemetery under the name Frances Dana Gilmore.

8. Walton Wesley Hoot (1879–1951)

Walton was a barber, like his older brother, and around the time the rest of the Hoot family moved to Columbus, he married Effie Mae Snook (1879–1938) and resided with her family in Ashland. They raised one son, and lived out their days in Ashland.

     a. Forest Emery Hoot (1906–1999) married Helen Louise Pancoast (1906-1993) during the 1930s. Forest was working as a salesman. I have not found any information about this couple to indicate what their business was or whether they had children, but they did leave behind an endowment for a scholarship at Ashland University, so they must have been successful.

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And that, good friends, brings us to the end of a very long post about people surnamed Hoot. It also brings us to the end of the descendants of Ann Callin Campbell. I have to say, these last three posts were quite an exercise of my researching abilities, and I am not entirely sure I've done these people justice.

As always, if you are related to any of these families, and can help me identify and fix any mistakes I have made, please do reach out through the comments below, or through my email address, callintad at gmail dot com; there were at least two examples during the preparation of this post that I did "one last search" and found out something revelatory - like a couple I had thought had three children actually had eight children. Or I found an article that revealed a daughter I hadn't known about.

But I'm not complaining. I enjoy the thrill of the hunt, and I love knowing that I've tied together whatever I can for posterity. In fact, for all of the extra work that went into this post, it was, for me...

...a real hoot.