The Carper Children, part 1

A quick admin note: I've set up a few more ways to interact with me and each other, and I've set out a "hat" if you'd like to drop some coins in. Details are at the end of the post and along the right-hand side of the page. Now - a quick recap:

The Callin Family History sketched out a few facts about Elizabeth Ferguson McNabb Reed, and thanks to her obituary, we now know a lot more about her and her family than we did before. In last week's post, we looked at her first marriage to James McNabb and met their daughter, Ella McNabb Carper.

Alda Carper: her place
in the Callin Family History

We will look at the descendants of Ella's four children over the next couple of posts, starting today with the girl the CFH mistakenly called "Alta McCorse."


     A. Alda Florence Carper (1879–1970) was born on 12 April 1879 in Auburn, De Kalb County, Indiana. She married James George McCosh (1871–1961) on 21 December 1895. Clearly, that name seems very similar to the "Alta McCorse" mentioned in the Callin Family History - and as the CFH says, they had four children.

James was the son of Silas J McCosh (1841–1906) and Christina "Christie" Long (1847–1910) and was born on 27 November 1871 in Auburn. He had three sisters (Emma, Laura Belle, and Ida) and a brother, Charles.

Aldy and James had one daughter and three sons, the youngest of whom died in infancy:

     1. Flossie Pearl McCosh (1896–1937)
     2. Silas Jacob McCosh (1898–1962)
     3. Paul Leroy McCosh (1900–1977)
     4. George F McCosh (1902–1902)

In case you missed it, they named their first two sons after two of the earliest Christian evangelicals: Silas and Paul, who traveled together on Paul's second missionary journey. Aldy and James raised their kids on their farm in Keyser Township, and after Flossie's death in 1937, they also raised two of their grandchildren. After he retired from farming, James and Aldy moved to 1113 Pearl Street in Auburn, where they were living when James died on 30 August 1961, at the age of 89. Alda died on 15 June 1970, at the age of 91. They are buried together in Woodlawn Cemetery in Auburn.

     1. Flossie Pearl McCosh (1896–1937) was born on 30 October 1896 in De Kalb County and married her first husband, John Franklin Hess (1887–1958), on 28 September 1912. He was the son of Jacob G. Hess (1851–1927) and Rose Moody (1849–1901) and he was born in Garrett on 27 October 1887.

Flossie was just one month short of her 16th birthday when she married Frank, who was 24. They soon had two children: Floreen and George. The marriage did not last, however, and Frank sued for divorce in September of 1917, alleging adultery (as can be seen in the newspaper clipping at right).

In 1920, Flossie was listed as a single lodger in the home of the Laymen family in Milford, LaGrange County, Indiana. The children lived in Keyser with their grandparents, Aldy and James McCosh.

According to Floreen's granddaughter, "Both Frank and Flossie would tell Uncle George and Nanny (Floreen) that they would come to get them, and they would sit waiting for them.  Many times, never showing up.  They would occasionally be brought to their houses where their 'new' families lived.  But [they were] never allowed to stay more than a few hours. ... Nanny told me of many times, watching her parents leave and her and Uncle George sitting on the porch crying.  But those visits were very few.  Nanny was close, later in life, with her half-siblings.  I remember going to her sister’s house.  I know that her parents loved them very much.  I think they just couldn’t figure out how to make it work, so Grandma and Grandpa McCosh just took care of it."

Flossie married her second husband, Alva Emerick (1895–1954), in LaGrange County, Indiana, on 15 July 1920. Alva was the step-son of Oliver Laymen, and he and his one-year-old son, Sebra, were living in the Laymens' Milford home where Flossie was lodging.

Frank Hess also remarried on 27 October 1920 in Allen County, Indiana, to Edith Mae Roberson (1900–1979). Frank and Edith had two daughters, whom they raised in Fort Wayne, and he died there on 8 July 1958.

Flossie and Alva had four children together; two daughters and two sons, whom they raised in Milford. It isn't clear who the mother of Alva's son, Sebra, might have been; where his official documents list a mother's name, they list Flossie, but he was definitely born two years before Alva married Flossie. It seems possible that Alva and Flossie had Sebra while she was separated from Frank - but there is no solid evidence of that.


That said, we do know that Sebra Wanzo Emerick (1918–1976)  was born on 29 August 1918, in Stroh, Lagrange County, Indiana. PFC Sebra Emerick served in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He was married twice, but he does not seem to have left any children behind.

He seems to have led a somewhat troubled life, as he appears in the newspapers several times for drunk driving, public drunkenness, and at least once after a "family brawl" involving his brother, Ernest, and brother-in-law, Orval Lung. Sebra died in a fire that swept through his house trailer on 24 April 1976, in Auburn. He was 57 years old and was buried in Hudson, Indiana.


Flossie died on 12 April 1937 in Giant, De Kalb County, Indiana, at the age of 40. About 1950, Alva moved to Steuben County, where he was killed in a hit-and-run accident near his home the night of 1 July 1954. He was buried in Wright Cemetery, Hudson, Steuben County, Indiana.

     a. Floreen I. Hess (1913–2004) was born on 21 May 1913 in Auburn, De Kalb County, Indiana. When her parents divorced, she and her little brother, George, went to stay with her grandparents, Aldy and James McCosh.

Floreen married Kenneth Harry Palmer (1910–1991) on 7 December 1929 in De Kalb County. Kenneth was born on 31 January 1910 in Auburn to Harry Oscar Palmer (1885–1977) and Blanche Elma Wise (1888–1948). He was the second of five children.

Kenneth and Floreen both worked for the Auburn Printing Company. Floreen retired in 1975 after 40 years of service. Again, according to her granddaughter, Ken and Floreen were the first people to have a cottage on Golden Lake in Angola, Indiana. "Actually the very first cottage on Fanning Road. He was at one time, the president of the lake association...  I remember him going to the board meetings.  And actually, have a cassette tape of him practicing his speech about how they needed to clean out the creek.  The Fanning’s were related to Kenneth’s side of the family."

When Kenneth died on 11 April 1991, and Floreen on 5 May 2004, they left behind one daughter and one son, both of whom are still living, six grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

     b. George DeLoss Hess (1915–2002) grew up in the home of his grandparents, Aldy and James G. McCosh. He was 21 years old when his mother died, and the following year, he married Alta Mae Martin (1920–2009) on 18 June 1938. They raised a son, Jerry Dee, together.

Alta was an accountant with the Dana Corporation in Auburn for many years, and the couple spent a lot of time in Avon Park, Florida, until George's death on 14 July 2002. Alta died on 12 July 2009 at Parkview Noble Hospital in Kendallville. They left behind two granddaughters and six great-grandchildren.

     i. Jerry Dee Hess (1939–1999) was born on 14 July 1939, in Auburn, Indiana, and he died on 8 March 1999, at the age of 59. He was an alum of DePauw University and was survived by two daughters, still living.

     c. Virginia Lucille Emerick (1920–2015) was born on 7 September 1920 in Stroh, Lagrange County, Indiana. She married her first husband Orval Willis Lung (1920–1992) on 8 September 1938, about a year and a half after her mother died. Virginia and Orval had five children together, three of whom are still living.

Orval was born on 10 June 1920 to Merritt C Lung (1886–1970) and Esther S Roy (1891–1969) in Wolcottville, Lagrange County, Indiana. He served in the U.S. Army from 5 December 1944 to 30 August 1946. After the war, he worked as a testman for Indiana Bell Telephone Company and after he retired in 1975, he was employed for 15 years by the St. Joseph County Public Library as a bookmobile driver. He married his second wife, Louise Anna Heinrich (1916–1998), in 1974.

Virginia married her second husband, Raymond Neighbors (1909–1985), sometime between 1956 and 1960. They lived in South Bend, Indiana, where Ray died in 1985. When Virginia died in 2015 she was survived by a daughter, two sons, ten grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and eighteen great-great-grandchildren.

     ii. Linda Lee Lung (1942–2015) was the second daughter born to Virginia and Orval on 6 December 1942 in Sturgis, Michigan. She moved with her family to South Bend, St Joseph County, Indiana, in 1950. On 16 January 1960, she married Niles Albert Stickler in South Bend.  Niles was born 26 November 1936 in Mishawaka, St Joseph County, Indiana, to Elmer Elwood Stickler (1895–1970) and Dora Ann Otto (1897–1981).

Niles served honorably in the Army from 12 March 1956 to 11 March 1959. He worked for Preston Trucking Co. as a heavy duty truck mechanic, retiring in 1998. Linda retired from South Bend Water Works, where she worked as an Administrative Secretary for several years. Niles loved working with wood and making furniture, toys, hope chests for his daughters, and toy boxes for his grandchildren.

Niles died on 15 April 2007 at Our Lady of Peace Hospital in South Bend. Linda died on 11 February 2015 at Memorial Hospital in South Bend after a lengthy illness. They are survived by two daughters, a son, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren

     v. Ginger Lynn Lung (1952–1952) would have been the youngest child of Virginia and Orval. She died in infancy.

     d. Margie Alda Emerick (1922–1995) was the second daughter of Flossie and Alva, born on 1 September 1922 in Elmira, Lagrange County, Indiana. A little over a year after her mother's death, Margie married Edward James Beck (1920–1974) on 30 September 1938. Edward was born on 8 May 1920 in Union, De Kalb County, Indiana, the son of Phillip Henry Beck (1888–1937) and Mary Catherine Beck (1893–1984).

(No, Phillip and Mary were not related to each other, though both of their families lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. If there is a connection between them other than marriage, it is no closer than second- or third-cousins.)

Edward and Margie had two children, both of whom are still living. However, when Edward enlisted in the Marine Corps, where he served from 17 May 1944 to 13 February 1946, Margie decided to ask for a divorce. Newspaper accounts made things seem quite ugly, and custody of their children was awarded to Edward's mother until Edward could return from the war. He remarried Gladys L. DeLong Surface (1915-1990), and he died in Sturgis, St. Joseph, Michigan, on 29 April 1974.

Margie married Frank Edward Smith (1923–1961) on 23 August 1947. He was the son of Frank Smith (1895–1955) and Daisy Hindenlang (1901–1958), born in Decatur, Adams County, Indiana, on 22 February 1923. Frank and Margie had one daughter, still living, who they raised in Garret. Frank died unexpectedly of a heart attack as he left his job at the Midwestern Foundry the afternoon of 30 November 1961. Margie died of congestive heart failure in the DeKalb Memorial Hospital on 6 November 1995, at the age of 73, and she was buried in the Wright Cemetery in Hudson, Steuben County, Indiana.

     e. Ernest Russel Emerick (1924–1989) was born on 20 May 1924, in Stroh, Lagrange County, Indiana. He married Dolores Irene Shultz (1927–2009) on 30 January 1945, after serving in the U.S. Army from 19 February 1943 to 26 October 1944. The couple raised six children, all but one of whom are still living.

Ernest worked at the Midwestern Foundry, where he seems to have been an exemplary employee. He and Dolores lived in Waterloo in the 1960s, and were both members of the Auburn Radio club, as well, known by their handle, KHC8674.

Ernest died on 20 July 1989 in Fort Wayne, Allen County; Dolores survived him by thirty years. She died at age 82 on 26 May 2009, at Parkview Hospital, Fort Wayne. They are buried in Corunna Cemetery in De Kalb County, Indiana. They left behind three sons, two daughters, 20 grandchildren, 45 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-granddaughter.

     ii. Victor Allen Emerick (1947–2005) was the second child of Ernest and Dolores, born 28 April 1947 in Kendallville, Noble County, Indiana. Victor and his first wife, who is still living, had four children. He married his second wife, Pamela Dee Ferguson, on 17 April 1976 in Sturgis, St. Joseph County, Michigan, and they had one more child together.

(Note: Pamela does not appear to be even remotely related to the Fergusons who appear elsewhere in the Callin Family History.)

Victor worked as a machinist at Flowserve in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and worked at Sutton Tool for over 20 years. Pamela preceded Victor in death on 30 January 1997. He died at age 57 on 24 January 2005 in Three Rivers, Michigan. He was survived by his first wife, three sons, two daughters, and eleven grandchildren.

One of Victor's sons, Lawrence J. Emerick (1971–2017), died on 7 July 2017 in Mount Dora, Florida, where he lived with his wife and two sons.

     f. Neal Arthur Emerick (1925–2010) was born on 19 October 1925, in Stroh, Lagrange, Indiana. He served in the U.S. Army from 11 January 1944 to 25 February 1946, spending part of that time in the Philippines. Near the beginning of his time in the Army, he married his first wife, Viva Lucille Christlieb (1926–1997), on 8 August 1944 in Fort Wayne. They had two daughters, still living, but Neal sued for divorce in 1957.

Neal married his second wife, Sezar Renia Branson (1922–1992), in Auburn on 15 February 1964. After Renia died on Valentine's Day 1992, Neal and Viva re-married on 5 September of that year and were together when she died on 27 November 1997.

Neal died at age 84 on 22 July 2010 at his home in Auburn. He was survived by his two daughters and a son-in-law, seven grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.

     2. Silas Jacob McCosh (1898–1962) was the second child of Aldy and James McCosh, born on 14 September 1898 in Auburn, De Kalb County, Indiana, and grew up in Keyser. Apart from a stint in the U.S. Army from 17 April through 26 May 1919, he remained on his parents' farm through 1920.

Silas married Marceile B Housel (1909–1984) on 29 September 1927 and in 1930, they were living in Garrett, with Silas working at the foundry. She was the youngest of three children of Arthur Wakefield Housel (1882–1960) and Alta Florence "Aldy" Miller (1881–1965), born on 11 October 1909 in Garrett.

Silas was a machinist at Warner Automotive Parts until his health forced him to retire in 1959. He died after a heart attack at his home on 3 March 1962, after suffering for three years from a heart condition. He was buried in the Cedar Creek Cemetery in Cedar, De Kalb County. Marceile died on 7 August 1984 and was buried with her husband.

     a. Gerald Arthur McCosh (1928–1928) was born on 5 April 1928 and died on 1 May from whooping cough and pneumonia.

     b. Betty Florence McCosh (1930–2000) was born 11 January 1930 and grew up in Garrett and Butler. She attended Auburn High School.

Betty married Richard Stanley Surfus (1930–2005) on 8 August 1953, in Garrett. Richard was the son of Wayne Harold Surfus (1902–1984) and Edith Houser (1907–1991), born on 9 February 1930.

Richard was serving as a sergeant in the U.S. Army when he and Betty married. He enlisted on 18 January 1952 and was deployed in Korea. After the hostilities ended, he was a forklift operator at Warner Gear in Auburn, retiring in 1988. He also enjoyed farming.

Betty died on 22 May 2000 and was buried in the Cedar Creek Cemetery. Richard died at age 75 on 7 May 2005, at Miller's Merry Manor in Garrett, and he was buried with Betty. They were survived by three sons and two daughters-in-law, and six grandchildren.

     c. Dorothy Mae McCosh (1931–2018) was born in Garrett on 4 December 1931. She married Donald Eugene Gall (1927–1999) in Butler on 9 November 1951. He was the son of Otis Eugene Gall (1883–1969) and Mamie I White (1894–1980) and was born on 12 April 1927 in Butler.

Don died on 21 September 1999. Dorothy died Thursday, 22 February 2018 at DeKalb Health in Auburn at the age of 86. They are survived by three sons, five grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandson.

     d. Paul Wayne McCosh (1934–2014) was born 19 October 1934 in Garrett, Indiana, and died on 11 July 2014 at DeKalb Health. He was married several times and is survived by three sons, a daughter, 2 step-sons, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

     e. James Arthur McCosh (1944–2017) was born on 11 February 1944 in Garrett, Indiana, and attended Garrett High School. He was married in 1966, and he and his wife had three sons (one of whom is still living) before they divorced. Jim died on 17 November 2017 in Angola, Steuben County, Indiana.

     i. David James McCosh (1966) was born at DeKalb Memorial Hospital on 12 July 1966 but succumbed to respiratory failure at three days of age.

     ii. James A McCosh (1967–2000) was born 30 June 1967in Auburn. He was married on 15 June 2000 but died in a car accident on 29 December of that year. He was 33 years old.

     3. Paul Leroy McCosh (1900–1977) was the third child of James and Aldy (Carper) McCosh, born on 27 April 1900 in Auburn. Like his brother, Silas, he grew up on the farm in Keyser and served during World War I, enlisting from 18 April 1917 through 26 May 1919.

Paul married Gladys Mary McJury (1903–1984) on 25 July 1927 in Levering, Michigan. She was born on 14 January 1903, the daughter of Leslie J McJury (1868–1944) and Lillian B Gleason (1868–1945).

Paul worked at Eddy Paper Corp. for several years, and later owned and operated Paul's Diner in Three Rivers and the Pleasant Beach Resort at Carp Lake, Michigan. He died on 10 December 1977 in Three Rivers, Sturgis County, Michigan. Gladys followed a few years later on 16 August 1984 in Petoskey, Emmet County, Michigan. They were both buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Mackinaw City, Emmet County, Michigan.

     i. Jane Ann McCosh Durand (1935–1982) was the only child of Paul and Gladys, born on 15 May 1935 in Three Rivers, Michigan. She attended Three Rivers High School and then Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. She married after finishing school and became a nurse in Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan.

Mrs. Jane Durand died just two years before her mother on 3 September 1982, also in Petoskey, Emmet County. She left behind her husband and two children, a son and daughter, both still living.

 - -- --- -- -

And that is that for the descendants of the girl misidentified as "Alta McCorse" in the Callin Family History.

Special thanks to Floreen Hess Palmer's granddaughter, Sam Worley, for sharing her grandmother's story with us. As a researcher who doesn't know most of the people I write about on a firsthand basis, it's always a little scary to weigh in on what might be sensitive family matters. I always appreciate the compassion and honesty I find in my growing circle of cousins.

It's still a little amazing to me how quickly the family can expand. I was surprised to see how many people there were to document in this branch of the family. The post kept getting longer, and I kept breaking it into smaller chapters - and this is only "part 1" for Ella McNabb Carper's children! We'll continue with Alda's siblings 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 now have more ways to reach out:

a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MightierAcorns/
a Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/MightierAcorns
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!

The First Life of Mrs. Reed

If you hearken back almost three years to a post titled The Mysterious McNabbs, we left a mystery unsolved about Elizabeth Ferguson McNabb (1835-1898). Here's what I said about her back then:

     Mystery #2: Mary Ferguson's sister, Elizabeth (1835-1898) also married a McNabb. The Indiana Marriage Index helpfully tells us that a James McNabb and Elizabeth B. Ferguson were married in DeKalb county on 8 February 1858. The CFH tells us that they had six children:

•     Ella McNabb 1859–
•     Margret McNabb
•     Mary McNabb
•     Charles McNabb
•     Eliza McNabb
•     Emma McNabb

But... after finding what I believe to be the only appearance of this family in the 1860 Census (with James, Elizabeth, and 1-year-old Ella), they seem to fall between all of the cracks in the databases. I have not been able to find them in 1870 or 1880, even with very broad searches.

Looking at the data again, there are some details in the original Callin Family History that were hard for me to interpret. This was one of several records in the CFH that could be read in more than one way, and without source citations, it's hard to check the information great-uncle George drew from or figure out what he meant to communicate to us. Here's what his record actually said:

Record of Elizabeth Ferguson who was the 2nd daughter of Eliza Callin Ferguson who was the 3rd daughter of John Callin who was the 2nd son of James 1st.

Born about 1836, died about 1898.

Married to James McNabb.

To this union seven children were born:

Ella, married, has five children living.
G.W. Reid (by 2nd marriage), married, two children living.
Emma, married.
Eliza, married, five children living.
Charles, unmarried.
Margret, married, two children living, three dead.
Mary, died at one year old.

It's pretty clear now that I should have interpreted this as telling me after Ella, the other children listed were from Elizabeth's second marriage. It's an understandable mistake, and since I didn't know to look for people named "Reed" instead of "McNabb," I missed a lot of clues.

The CFH also gave us some of the vague information Great-Uncle George had about Ella:

Record of Ella McNabb, eldest daughter of Elizabeth Ferguson McNabb, who was the 2nd daughter of Eliza Callin Ferguson, who was the 3rd daughter of John Callin, who was the 2nd son of James 1st.

Born ----.

Married ----.

To this union were born five children.

Record of Alta McCorse, eldest daughter of Ella McNabb, eldest daughter of Elizabeth Callin Ferguson, 3rd daughter of John Callin, 2nd son of James 1st.

Born ----.

Married ----.

To this union were born four children.

For years, I misread this as saying that Ella married someone named "McCorse," when it turns out that "McCorse" is similar to her daughter Alta's married name...but we'll get to that next week.

In 2016, I didn't have access to Newspapers.com, so I didn't find Elizabeth's obituary until recently. It still wasn't easy to track down (I had to open my search parameters and dig through a lot of results), but as you can see, this find fits with what we already know from the CFH and the 1860 Census.


Elizabeth McNabb, wife of James McNabb, obituary Thu, Jun 18, 1896 – Page 8 · The Waterloo Press (Waterloo, DeKalb, Indiana) · Newspapers.com
Here's the first part of the obituary:

"Elizabeth B. Reed was born in Ashland Co., Ohio, Jan. 1, 1835, and departed this life June 8th, 1896, aged 61 yrs., 5 mos., 7 das.
"She was married to James McNabb, July 8th, 1857. To this union was born one child, Ella Carper, who survives them. This union was severed by death, Dec. 27, 1860. She was married the second time to George W. Reed, Mar. 27, 1861. To this union were born six children, two sons and four daughters, five of whom survive them. In 1850 she came with her parents to DeKalb county, where she has since lived. They moved on their farm in 1867, where they enjoyed life together until death removed her husband. She has lived in the present home for 28 years."

Elizabeth's place in the tree

That confirms enough of the details we already know and gives us some insights we didn't know so we can start tracing Elizabeth's children.

As with previous breakthroughs, this one document allowed me to find a large number of previously unknown descendants of our common ancestor, James Callin. For the next few weeks, we'll look at the members of this branch of the family.

We'll visit Elizabeth's second husband, Mr. Reed, and their children in future posts, but today we'll look at Ella, the daughter born from her tragic first marriage. There are a lot of folks to cover, and I'm researching as I go, so I'm going to break these down into smaller posts so I can better stick to a weekly schedule.


James McNabb (1834–1860)

James was the first husband of Elizabeth Ferguson. Despite learning his date of death, I haven't been able to dig up anymore about his origins. As the first mystery in the original post on The Mysterious McNabbs concluded, this James McNabb is not obviously related to the other McNabbs who married people in our Callin/Ferguson tree. All we really know about him are these three vital facts:

• Born about 1834 in Pennsylvania (according to the 1860 Census)
• Married Elizabeth Ferguson on 8 February 1858 (according to two records in the Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001 and the Indiana, Marriage Collection, 1800-1941, respectively)
• Died in Allen County, Indiana (according to the above obituary - I didn't even find an official death record!)

There is a discrepancy between the marriage date in the Indiana marriage records (8 February 1857) and the obituary (8 July 1858), but that's close enough to be either a clerical error or the time between registering for the license and the actual wedding. Either way, before he died, he left behind one child:

I. Ella Florence McNabb (1859–1929)

Like a few other people in our family tree, Ella seems to have shifted from using her first name to going by her middle name as she got older. She first appears as "Ella McNabb" in 1860 and as "Ella F Reed" in 1870. After she married Jacob Carper she appeared on the Census in 1900 as "Ellen Carper" and in 1910 as "Ella Carper;" but on the various marriage and death records of her children, and on the 1880 Census, her name is recorded as either "Florence Carper" or "Florence E. Carper." I surmise that her parents named her "Ella Florence McNabb," but she started using "Florence" later in life. Her eldest daughter and some of her grandchildren were apparently given that name in her honor.

Ella grew up in the home of her mother and step-father in De Kalb County, Indiana, and in 1875 she married the son of Adam Carper (1795–1877) and Ann Elizabeth Cobler (1812–1886). Jacob Carper was born in Indiana in June 1853, the youngest of ten siblings.

Between 1879 and 1891 Jacob and Ella (or Florence, as she got older) had four children in Jackson Township, De Kalb County:

     A. Alda Florence Carper (1879–1970)
     B. Howard Leroy Carper (1882–1948)
     C. John D Carper (1886–1964)
     D. Callie Bell Carper (1891–1980)

Jacob underwent some minor surgery in late July 1927 which resulted in his health quickly deteriorating; he died on 6 August 1927. Florence died just two years later in 1929, and they are buried together in Roselawn Cemetery in Auburn, Indiana.

- -- --- -- -

We'll end there for now, but continue next week with the descendants of Jacob and Ella. There's a lot of them, so be prepared to take thorough notes!

You may notice a few changes around here at Mightier Acorns - we have:

•  a Twitter feed - @MightierAcorns 
•  a Facebook page - facebook.com/MightierAcorns/ (for everyone, not just proven relatives!)
•  and if you like the work I'm doing, you can "buy me a coffee" using the Ko-fi button:

I also set up an email address - mightieracorns@gmail.com - so if you have a question or comment, you can send it there.

Guest Post: William Zardie Sly AKA John St. Clair

Welcome back!

School is out for the summer, and we're celebrating with a guest post from cousin Leanna that should help clear up the mystery of what happened to William Zardius Sly (1882–1954).

Spellchecking the John Berlin Mystery

When you sit down to solve a jigsaw puzzle, you already have a few advantages. Usually, you know that you have all of the pieces in your box. And usually, you have a picture on the box to show you what your solved puzzle should look like. Most importantly, though, you know that only the pieces that should fit together will fit together.

Solving a family history puzzle is the opposite of all of those things. You probably know you don't have all the pieces, and you probably never will. The picture on the box may not have been labeled properly, and when you do find clues, they may add up to give you three or four different answers - sometimes, even the right one!

If we're lucky, we can find enough evidence that matches the pieces we have to tell us where to look for the next several pieces. And that's the game. You will find a lot of information, and some of it is obviously wrong. But some of it is right — and how do you know what to hold onto, and what to let go?

Today, I'm taking a fresh look at the family of Elizabeth Berlin, rebuilding the case I made in a post from 2016.

The Pieces

The Callin Family History

According to the Callin Family History, Elizabeth Berlin is my 3rd-great-grandmother. Here's what we have to work with from the CFH:

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.

The William Callin-Elizabeth Berlin marriage record

One guiding star in any kind of historical research is the rule that tells us to always look to original and primary sources. The CFH is not a primary source, but a marriage record would be. We can see the image of the original record here:

Detail from Ohio, County Marriage Records, 1774-1993

Despite the florid handwriting and odd line break, it is easy enough to see that "Mr. Wm. Cal-lin and Mifs Elizabeth Berlin" were married on the 29th day of Sept. in Richland County, Ohio, in 1836. (I had to crop the part of the image that showed the year, but if anyone needs to see that to believe it, I can send the whole page.)

Notice the way things add up, yet are different. The CFH says William married Elizabeth Barlene in 1837, and the marriage record says he married Elizabeth Berlin on 29 September 1836. It's easy enough to accept this record as proof that corroborates the CFH, but even though they aren't exactly the same. The year is definitely close enough, and the spelling of the surname suggests that a combination of pioneer illiteracy and varied pronunciation could complicate things for us.

Rosemary's Memoir

If you are a long-time reader of this blog, you may remember an early post, Silk or Satin, in which Elizabeth's granddaughter, Rosemary (the youngest daughter of George Callin, the writer of the Callin Family History) recorded her memories of Elizabeth after her death in 1903. Even Rosemary wasn't sure how to spell Elizabeth's maiden name, and she titled her memoir, "Things I Have Been Told About My Grandmother, Elizabeth Berlien (Barline) Callin."

That confusion in what, exactly, Elizabeth's maiden name was makes it difficult to find Elizabeth's family in the Census because there are many households with similar surnames in the 1830 and 1840 Census records for Ohio. Without more information, it would be impossible to track them down.

The Wood County history

Pages 923 and 924 of the Commemorative Historical and Biographical Record of Wood County, Ohio have a biographical sketch of my great-great-grandfather, John H. Callin, son of William and Elizabeth. In its description of William, it says: "In 1835, he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Barlin, of Ashland..."

The Wood County book is definitely not a primary source, but that statement may help us find one. At least we have two more crucial clues: a father's name, John, and a location to hunt in: Ashland. (Also, with that source, we are now up to five alternate spellings of the surname.)

Detail from the 1840 U.S. Census for
Mifflin, Richland County, Ohio

I assume that the location referred to as "of Ashland" is Ashland County, Ohio, where William's father and uncle settled when they arrived in Ohio from Pennsylvania. However, we have to note the fact that Ashland County, Ohio, did not exist in 1835, when the Wood County book says they were married. That book was published in 1895 or 1897 (depending on which edition you find), and it seems that it was referring to the counties as they existed in the 1890s. Ashland County was formed in 1846 from parts of Huron, Lorain, Richland and Wayne Counties. When the Wood County book says "Ashland," it could mean any one of those other counties.

The U.S. Federal Census

In the 1840 Census, we find a John Barlean listed as the head of a household in Mifflin, Richland County. Mifflin is near enough to Milton that the Barlean and Callin families likely knew each other. The 1840 Barlean household is enumerated as having one male between the ages of 50 and 59 (presumably John, putting his birthdate between 1781 and 1790), one female between 50 and 59, and one female between 15 and 19. This could be a younger sister of Elizabeth's, with a birthdate between 1821 and 1825.

Further searches failed to turn up records for 1850 or 1860, but in 1870 we can see an 83-year-old John Barlean listed with his wife, Mary A (age 79), living in the Young household in Vermillion, Ashland County, Ohio. The head of that household is listed as Catherine Young, 50 years old, and born in Pennsylvania. Not only do the estimated birthdates of John (1787, in Pennsylvania) and Mary A (1791, also in Pennsylvania) fit with their 1840 record, but Catherine Young (estimated birthdate of 1820) could be the younger female in that 1840 record, too.

Detail from the 1870 U.S. Census for
Vermillion, Ashland County, Ohio

The Ashland County History

Catherine's eldest son, Samuel, is featured in a biographical sketch in A. J. Baughman's History of Ashland County, Ohio, which says (emphasis is mine):

He is a son of Michael and Katharine (Berlean) Young, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania as were the paternal grandparents, Mathias and Mary 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. ...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 [the same Catherine we see in the 1870 Census] was born, was situated in Pennsylvania on the Maryland state line.
...Michael Young ...accompanied his parents on their removal to Mifflin township about 1829 and Katherine Berlean arrived about a year later. They were married here and became residents of Mifflin township, taking up their abode on a farm within its borders immediately after their marriage and remaining there until called to their final rest.

A War of 1812 Pension record

So, we now have another clue that tells us where to hunt for primary sources on John Berlean: his military service in the war of 1812. But this is also where I think I made a mistake; look at what I said in 2016, in the post "Great-great-great-grandpa William Callin," specifically this part:

"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."

When I wrote that previous post, I ignored some problems with that record that probably indicate it does not identify our John Berlin/Berlean. First, that pension record says nothing about Ashland County, or any of the neighboring counties that became Ashland later on. Second, the name of the widow given in the pension record was Catherine Landis; this means that even if we assume some scenario where the John Berlin in this record lived in Mifflin in 1840 and in Vermillion in 1870, the name of his wife in the 1870 Census does not match the name of his widow on the pension record.

I suppose it is possible that John and Mary Ann lived in Ashland in the 1840s, moved to Van Wert County during the 1850s, then back to Ashland in time for the 1870 Census, moving finally to Stark County by 1871. But there are problems with that theory. I find it unlikely that "Catherine" would use the name "Mary Ann" only when living in Ashland County. (Mary Ann is not Anna Coy, either, because Anna Coy died before 1830.)

The Ashland County History also specifically states that John and Mary Ann Berlean "died in Ashland county." Unfortunately, I have been unable to confirm this with records of any kind. They do not appear on the 1880 Census, and I can find no death records in Ashland county during the 1870s. I do see a Find-A-Grave memorial for John Berlin and Catherine, both of whom died and are buried in Stark County. It is possible that the writer of the Ashland history confused the location of their deaths, but that seems unlikely, as the two counties are about 60 miles apart.

When all is said and done, I don't think the John Berlin in this pension record is the same as the John Berlin who lived and died in Ashland County.

The Westmoreland County history

George Dallas Albert's History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania holds two more clues to the origin of our John Barlean (again, emphases mine):

pg. 611 -

"THE BERLIN FAMILY

"In 1794 one of the soldiers who came from Eastern Pennsylvania in the army to put down the "Whiskey Insurrection" was Jacob Berlin. He got a furlough in Pittsburgh to come out to that part of Franklin township now included in Penn, to visit his uncle, Jacob Berlin, who had settled there some twenty years before. He so liked the country that in the spring of 1795 he returned with his wife, formerly Miss Eve Carbaugh.
"He finally settled between the Fink and Lauffer farms. His children were four daughters and six sons, viz.: ...John, Frederick, Joseph, Samuel, Powell, and Elias, of whom Powell removed to Forest County, Frederick to Clarion, and John to State of Ohio. Col. Elias Berlin, the youngest son, was born in 1803...His brother John served in the war of 1812."

And there is this about John's likely bride:

pg. 668 (within the biographical sketch of Jacob Baughman)

"After his marriage Adam Baughman settled on a farm in Armstrong County, about seventy miles up the Allegheny River, and here four children, viz.: Catharine, Michael, Polly, and Jacob, were born. Upon the death of his brother Henry...he sold his place in Armstrong County and returned to Westmoreland, and became the owner of and occupied the homestead until his death. Here the following children were born, viz.: Elizabeth, Margaret, Peter, Anna, Henry, Christian, and Lydia...Anna, wife of John Berlin, six sons and three daughters..."

While none of the places associated with Jacob Berlin are places that I would describe as "situated in Pennsylvania on the Maryland state line," I'm inclined to think that the other details fit with our John Berlin; I'm even willing to think that because the biography of Samuel Young (which names his wife as "Mary Ann") might be more accurate than the biography of Jacob and Adam Baughman (which calls her merely "Anna") because the Samuel Young biography was written by a descendant of the Baughmans! (How's that for history rhyming?)

Conclusions

While I would prefer to have solid, primary sources to prove the relationships here, I think it's reasonable to say that I have enough evidence to assert that we know the key facts about Elizabeth Berlin:

1. William Callin married Elizabeth Berlin on 29 September 1836 in what was then Richland County, Ohio.

• Ohio marriage record (primary source)
• Callin Family History (secondary source; last name given as "Barlene" and date as 1837)
• Wood County History (secondary; last name given as "Barlin" and date as 1835)

2. Elizabeth's father was John Berlin, "of Ashland County" (Ohio)

• Wood County History (secondary; last name given as "Barlin")

3. Elizabeth's sister was Catherine (or Katherine) Young

• Ashland County History (secondary; last name given as "Berlean" and Elizabeth not named)
• 1870 U.S. Census (primary; shows Catherine Young and John & Mary Ann Barlean living in same household)

4. John Berlin's origins were in Westmoreland County

• Ashland County History (secondary; gives name as "Berlean," identifies Pennsylvania, mentions 1812 service)
• Westmoreland County History (secondary; gives name as "Berlin," identifies wife as "Anna," places him in Ohio)

That should give us some solid ground to build on.

Turning Another Page

Sarah Ferrell, if you recall from The Montgomery Connection, was the daughter of Mary Montgomery, and granddaughter of Elizabeth Callin (1798-1834). Last time, in the post A Ferrell Child, we looked at the descendants of Sarah Ferrell's first-born child, Glenn Powell.

After the death of Glenn's father, Joe Powell, Sarah Ferrell Powell married a man named E. J. S. Page in the home of her father-in-law, Noah Powell. We know next to nothing about him, as the records I have found don't even agree on his initials, and do not mention his date or place of birth. Sarah and Mr. Page produced one child before whatever fate took him away from his young family.

II. Sarah Olive Page  (1868–1968) was born on 14 May 1868, in Junction City, Oregon. By 1870, she was living in the home of her step-father, James Addison Bushnell, her mother and half-brother, Glenn, and her new step-siblings, the four remaining Bushnell children.

She married Walter Byron Beebe (1867–1935) in 1889. He was born in March 1867 in Massachusetts to parents James M Beebe (1838–1897) and Louisa Worth Coffin (1842–1915). The Beebe family lived in Chillicothe, Livingston, Missouri, in 1870, before relocating to Oregon.

Sarah and Walter had one child. Walter worked in a dry goods store and was the proprietor of his own store in Ashland, Jackson, Oregon. He died there on 10 January 1935, at the age of 67.

Sarah remained in Ashland until the very end of her life. She died on 1 March 1968, in Bishop, Inyo, California, at the age of 99, and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Ashland, Oregon, with Walter.

     A. Henry Clare Beebe (1891–1988) was born on 12 May 1891 in Ashland, Jackson, Oregon. He matriculated at the University of California at Berkeley in 1912 and graduated from Stanford University as a geological engineer in 1916. On 25 August 1917, he married Elizabeth Marie Abbott (1893–1980), the daughter of Elija T Abbott (b. 1847) and Carrie E. Hart (1851–1923), in her hometown, Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota.

Henry's work finding oil for oil companies took him all over the world. He and Elizabeth both liked to travel, but they called Ashland, Oregon, home in the 1940s, after spending the early part of the 1930s in Tacoma, Washington, and Minneapolis. Eventually, Henry and Elizabeth moved to California.

Elizabeth died 29 Dec 1980 in Chula Vista, San Diego, California; Henry died a few years later on 8 April 1988 in Auburn, Placer, California. They were survived by one of their two sons and a daughter.

     i. James Lawrence Beebe (1922–2004) was born July 9, 1922, in New York. He enlisted on 16 September 1940 in the Coast Artillery Corps of the National Guard; his enlistment record says he was an actor.

I haven't found much that tells me about James's life from 1940 to 1992 when he appears in the Brookings city directory. According to his obituary, he died at age 82, on 4 September 2004, in Crescent City, California, of natural causes. He was a resident of Brookings, Oregon, for 17 years before his death. He was survived by his wife, his brother and sister, two daughters, a son, and one granddaughter.

 - -- - 

After wedding James Bushnell in 1870, he and Sarah had five children; however, only two of them survived to adulthood, and only one left behind a family of her own.

III. Henry Clay Bushnell (1871–1933) was born 3 November 1871, on a farm south of Junction City, Lane County, Oregon. He was a graduate of Monmouth Normal school. For many years he operated a large orchard along highway 99, and at one time he was head of the Valley Apple Growers' association.

In March 1896, Henry married Livva Skaggs (1876–1971) daughter of Abram D. Skaggs (1843–1929) and Frances Elizabeth "Fannie" Kirkpatrick (1851–1887). Livva was born in Missouri on 24 November 1876, and the Skaggs family lived in Illinois, then Kansas, during the 1880s, before settling in Lane County, Oregon, in about 1890.

Henry died at his home in the Riverview section near Junction City Monday evening of a heart attack.
He was survived by his wife, four sisters, and one brother, Glenn Powell of San Francisco.

Livva seems to have remained in their home through at least 1940; she died in Eugene on 15 August 1971.

IV. Walter Scott Bushnell (1874–1881) died at 8 years, 1 month, and 9 days old on 24 December 1881.

V. Albert Bushnell (1876–1876) was ten months old when he died on 1 October 1876.

VI. Mary Bushnell (1879–1881) died at 3yr 1mo 22 da of age on 31 December 1881 - just six days after her brother, Walter.

These three children are all buried in the Luper Cemetery in Lane County, Oregon.

VII. Gertrude E Bushnell (1883–1977) was born on 15 March 1883 in Junction City, Oregon, and remained at home with her family until she married Robert Martin Movius (1872–1932) on 15 September 1912, at the age of 29.

Gertrude was Robert's second wife. He was born in Minnesota on 15 August 1874 and in 1900 he lived in South Dakota, where he was married to Anna Murry Shull (1873–1957). Robert and Anna had four children, and they were living with Anna's mother in Bowbells, North Dakota, in 1910. And yet, two years later, Robert was in Oregon, marrying Gertrude.

Robert and Gertrude had two children before 1920, as well as a son, James Albert Movius, who was born 31 August 1921 and died 13 July 1922, at only 10 months of age. The family lived in Eugene until Robert's death on 6 April 1932. Gertrude supported herself and her two surviving children by working as a librarian in Eugene. Eventually, she remarried Albert Nellis Froom (1884–1973) on 28 Dec 1953 in Vancouver, Clark, Washington.

Albert died in Multnomah County, Oregon, on 14 August 1973. After that, Gertrude moved to Michigan, to live near her son. She died on 13 February 1977 in Drayton Plains, Oakland, Michigan.

     A. Gretchen B Movius (1914–1966) was born in Junction City, Oregon, on 28 December 1914. She was raised in Oregon and graduated from Utah State University. Gretchen became a school teacher, teaching in Oregon, California, and Utah. She married Edwin Robert Butze (1912–1999) on 3 Jul 1936 in Vancouver, Washington.

Edwin was born on 23 January 1912 in Baker County, Oregon, the son of Edwin Ira Butze (1880–1925) and Martie Josephine "Weetie" McKim (1883–1964). After they were married, they lived in Prineville, Oregon. Edwin enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1942, and after the war, they lived in Corvallis until 1950, when they relocated to Brigham City, Utah.

Gretchen died after a bout with cancer on 15 February 1966 in Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah, at only 52 years of age. Edwin died 20 December 1999 in  Clearfield, Davis, Utah.

Edwin Robert Butze, sophomore year

     1. Kim Butze Wheelwright (1946–2001) was born on 27 August 1946, in Corvallis, Oregon. She was captain of her high school swim team at Box Elder High School (Go, Bees!), and she frequently appeared in the local paper writing about school and local event under her own byline. She married in the 1970s.

Kim died on 13 May 2001, in Ogden, Weber, Utah, at the age of 54, and was buried in South Ogden, Utah. She was survived by her husband.

     2. Edwin Robert Butze (1951–1991) was born on February 27, 1951, in Pocatello, Idaho, and graduated from Box Elder High School, Class of 1969. He died on February 7, 1991, in Kern County, California, at the age of 39. According to his memorial on the Box Elder High School webpage, he was survived by two children.

      B. Oswald F Movius (1919–2010) was born on 1 April 1919, in Junction City, Oregon. He was married in 1957 in Kanawha, West Virginia. He and his wife had three sons, two of whom are still living.

Ozzy was a veteran of the Merchant Marines during World War II. He retired from Fleet Carrier in 1986 after 3,000,000 miles of interstate truck driving service. He was a member of Marimont Community Church who loved reading his Bible, bird watching and traveling.

He died on 14 April 2010 in Waterford, Michigan, at the age of 91.

     1. Stephen Douglas Salisbury (1952–2015)  was born on 26 December 1952 in Clearwater Pennsylvania. He was five years old when his mother married Ozzie Movius, moved to Michigan, and Ozzie adopted him as his own.

Stephen was employed with the State of Michigan as a Resident Care Aid for the State Hospitals and was a member of AFSCM-Union and the Waterford Hogs Harley Club. He died suddenly at his home in Millington on Wednesday, 14 October 2015. Stephen was 62. He is survived by his wife, four children, eight grandchildren, one great-granddaughter, and by his beloved dog Cleo. Stephen is also survived by his mother, two brothers, seven nieces, nephews, and other extended family and friends.

 - -- --- -- - 

I have one more week before school starts, and I expect my time to work on these posts will disappear. I apologize if my work seems hurried because of that; my hope is that any descendants of this family will forgive me when the book eventually comes out!

Speaking of which, I have ordered a DNA kit from Ancestry so I can confirm whether there is a genetic connection to Elizabeth Callin Montgomery's branch. If you have done a DNA test with Ancestry or FTDNA, let me know privately, and we can try to find out whether we match.

As always: you can email me at my Gmail address, callintad, or request entry to the private Callin Family History Facebook group. You can also comment below, and I usually forget to mention that I am user "Tad_Callin" on Ancestry, if you prefer to contact me there.

Whew.

A Ferrell Child

Standards of proof are very important.

When you do any kind of research, it's important to understand not only what you know, but how you know it, and how confident you are in your sources. Of course, sometimes you simply don't have sources - records are non-existent, or at least not online, and all you can do is document what you do have, and make a note of where you think you need to look for more information.

There is a very good essay about evaluating "proof" at DNA Explained which has some advice I suggest you keep in mind as you read this post because much of the information I'm putting together here today is definitely not proven.

If you read my previous posts, Echoes & Rhymes and The Montgomery Connection, you know that I'm already on shaky ground when I assert that Elizabeth Callen is the daughter of James Callin of Milton Township, Richland County, Ohio. I think I made a strong case that she is, but now I'm going to make a much weaker case that we know who Elizabeth's daughter is.

This is as much as I can prove:

Mary Montgomery

James Ferrell and Mary Montgomery were married in Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana, on 23 March 1843. We know this much from the marriage record in Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001.

That's not a lot to go on when you consider the standards of proof I just made such a big deal about!

We do know that Elizabeth had a daughter named Mary, because there is a mention of a Mary Montgomery in the biographical sketch of Caleb and Elizabeth (Callen) Montgomery's son, Theodore found in the Fulton County, Indiana Handbook (published by Tombaugh House, and available on the Fulton County Public Library's website): "To these parents were born five children--Mary, now deceased; Sarah, now the wife of Henry Davidson, living in Halsey, Oregon; Theodore, of whom this sketch is concerned..." I have not found records to prove the relationship of the Mary Montgomery in that Fulton County marriage record to Caleb and Elizabeth, but it seems like a reasonable "right place/right time" guess to make.

I have also found no birth records or death records that prove the relationship of James and Mary (Montgomery) Ferrell to the Sarah Ferrell who appears in the household of Sarah (Montgomery) Davidson on the U.S. Census records for 1850 and 1860, but it seems reasonable that if her parents died before 1850, the Davidson family might have taken in their orphaned niece.

Based on the scant evidence, my guess is that James and Mary were married (1843), had a daughter (1846), and at least Mary died before 1850 - probably all in Fulton County. There are records for men named James Ferrell (spellings can vary) in Indian and Ohio after 1846, but my hunch is that the one we are interested in might have died before the 1850 Census. I can't really rule out any number of other scenarios - including one in which the Davidson family simply adopted an orphan from another family. But for now, I'm going to assume that Sarah Elizabeth Ferrell (1846–1916) is the granddaughter of Caleb and Elizabeth, and the orphaned daughter of James and Mary.

Sarah Elizabeth Ferrell (1846–1916)

Whatever her true origins, "Sarah E. Faroll," age 4, was living in the home of her aunt, Sarah (Montgomery) Davidson, in Newcastle, Fulton County, Indiana, according to the 1850 U.S. Census. The Davidson family, along with many others, took the Oregon Trail west in 1852 and 1853, and in 1860 "Sarah Ferrell", now age 14, appeared listed in their household in Linn County, Oregon, near the Harrisburg post office.

By the time of the 1870 Census, Sarah was newly married to her third husband and living with him, his four children, and her son and daughter from her two previous marriages in Lancaster, Lane County, Oregon. That is a lot to deal with in ten short years.

Her first husband was Josiah S Powell (1839–1865), son of Noah Powell (1808–1875) and Mary E. "Polly" Smith (1812–1893), and he died at 26 years of age on 21 November 1865. Since Joe and Sarah's son, Glenn O. Farrell Powell (1865–1948), was born on 19 March 1865, I calculate that they were married in the spring or summer of 1864.

Sarah married her second husband, E. J. S. Page, on 4 August 1867, in the home of her father-in-law, Noah Powell, according to Marion County, Oregon, Marriage Records, 1849-1900. Their daughter was Sarah Olive Page (1868–1968). We know precious little about Mr. Page, not having any birth or death records to refer to. We don't even know his full name, or whether he died or simply moved on; I'm inclined to think that he probably died.

Sarah Ferrell's third husband was a widowed banker named James Addison Bushnell (1826–1912). They were married 2 April 1870 in Lynn County, Oregon, after the death of his first wife, Elizabeth Crowley Adkins (1831–1868) on 2 January 1868 in Lane County, Oregon. To everyone's relief, they survived their second year of marriage, and each lived until the 1910s.

James was the son of Daniel Bushnell and Ursula Griswold Pratt (1789–1883). He and his first wife, Elizabeth, had seven children before her 1868 death:

• Charles Alvah Bushnell (1851–1874)
• Lucy G Bushnell (1854–1937)
• Ursula Josephine Bushnell (1857–1859)
• Mary Elizabeth Bushnell (1859–1859)
• William Francis Bushnell (1860–1865)
• Helen V. Bushnell (1862–1935)
• George Addison Bushnell (1867–1882)

In addition to the seven children from his first marriage, James and Sarah had five children together:

• Henry Clay Bushnell (1871–1933)
• Walter Scott Bushnell (1874–1881)
• Albert Bushnell (1876–1876)
• Mary Bushnell (1879–1881)
• Gertrude E Bushnell (1883–1977)

James died on 8 April 1912 in Lane County, Oregon. He was 85 years old, and  Sarah was 70 years old when she died on 29 January 1916 in Lane County, Oregon. They are buried Luper Cemetery.

We'll get to Sarah Page and the others in a later post, but for now, let's look at:

I. Glenn O. Farrell Powell (1865–1948), was born on 19 March 1865 in Albany, Linn County, Oregon, to Joe and Sarah Powell. As discussed above, his father died when Glenn was barely two years old; and a step-father also came and went before he turned five. But Glenn grew up in the home of James Addison Bushnell.

Glenn married Arvilla Howard (1869–1918) in 1887. Arvilla was born 28 July 1869 in Lane County, Oregon. Her parents were Royal Varney Howard (1833–1916) and Eda Jane Smith (1841–1919). Glenn and Arvilla raised four children: a son (Noble) and three daughters (Ada, Claudia, and Pauline). Arvilla died at only 48 years of age on 17 February 1918 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, and was buried in Lincoln Memorial Park in Portland.

Glenn farmed and supported his family as a carpenter. After Arvilla's death, he was remarried to Alice Jane Waud (1862–1942) on 18 December 1920 in Lane County, Oregon. He was the last of her five husbands. She died on 30 October 1942 in Renton, King, Washington, where she was living with one of her children from a previous marriage. Glenn died on 17 April 1948 in San Francisco, California, where he was living with his daughter, Pauline.

     A. Ada Gertrude Powell (1888–1975) was born in Oregon on 9 October 1888. She married Leon Leroy Myers (1886–1991) in 1910 in Multnomah County, Oregon.

Leroy was born 24 January 1886 in Morganville, Clay, Kansas. His parents were Conrad Myers (1855–1943) and Anna Augusta Roenigk (1860–1895). Augusta was born in Bremen, and Conrad was born in Iowa to John and Catherine Meyer/Myers, who were both born in Bavaria; so these Myers are probably not related to other Myers families in the Callin Family History.

Rev. Leon Myers photo Tue, Aug 4, 1936 – Page 4 · Macon Chronicle-Herald (Macon, Missouri) · Newspapers.com

The Reverend Leon Leroy Myers took his degree in May 1913 from the Eugene Bible College, and after a few years in Oregon, the family moved down to Redlands in San Bernardino. Leon became a prominent member of the Ku Klux Klan in Anaheim, and he was a crusader against liquor during the 1920s. In January 1925, after Rev. Myers was rebuked for making allegations against police and local officials that turned out not to be true, he was targeted by an anti-klan assassination plot. Later that spring, he was attacked and beaten by a citizen he had accused from the pulpit.

The Myers moved to Kansas in 1927, and to Cincinnati, Ohio, in the 1930s. Leon was frequently invited to speak at revivals.

Ada and Leroy had six children together, including twins, Leroy and Leon. But in 1954 she sued Leon for gross neglect and was awarded alimony. She did not sue for divorce, but it seems clear that they were no longer together after that.

When Ada died on 25 March 1975 in Half Moon Bay, San Mateo, California, she was survived by Paul, Eugene, Elizabeth, and James, as well as 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Leroy lived to be 105 years old, dying on 22 November 1991 in Calaveras County, California.

     i. Paul Addison Myers (1911–2002) was born on 19 July 1911 while his father was leading his first congregation at the Christian Church in Dallas, Polk County, Oregon. By 1920, the family was living in Redlands, San Bernardino, California. In 1930, the 19-year-old Paul was enlisted in the U.S. military and stationed in the Panama Canal Zone with his unit at Fort Clayton.

After his enlistment ended, Paul married and became an accountant in San Francisco. His wife was Esther O'Dell (1913–1954), daughter of the Reverend Charles Norman O'Dell (1883–1973) and Ione Grundy (1887–1968). The couple lived in San Francisco until after the war began, and Paul enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. On 7 December 1942, he entered boot camp as a private first class at Quantico, Virginia, and by October 1943 he had received his commission as a Second Lieutenant. He was wounded at Iwo Jima, and hospitalized at Guam in 1945.

After the war, Paul and Esther were living in San Pedro in 1949, but I get the impression from the records that the separation of the war took a toll on their marriage. I don't see any evidence that they had children, and Paul was living in Seattle with his second wife already when Esther died on 25 February 1954 in Stanislaus County, California.

Paul's second wife was Janet Kathrine Lynch (1927–2000); they probably met during their service, as she was a member of the Cadet Nursing Corps from 1945 to 1948. I wonder if they didn't meet at the hospital when he was wounded - but that's pure speculation on my part.

Janet died 9 April 2000 in Kirkland, King, Washington. Paul also died there on 11 August 2002.

     ii. Eugene Powell Myers (1913–1998) was born in Silverton, Marion, Oregon on 19 December 1913. When he was 8 years old, and his family was living in Redlands, he and his little sister created a stir in the local community when they tried to run away and "see the world"!

Myers children "see the world" Mon, Oct 3, 1921 – Page 12 · Santa Ana Register (Santa Ana, California) · Newspapers.com
In 1930, Eugene was 16 and residing at the State Juvenile Training School in Gatesville, Texas.

He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on 20 March 1942, and by the end of the war, he had achieved the rank of technical sergeant, having spent 20 months in the Pacific theater. He was discharged on 19 March 1946.

On 31 July 1951, he married Joyce Emily Hughes (1925–2009) in Alameda County, California. They had five children, four sons and a daughter; three of whom are still living.

Eugene died on 15 July 1998 in Grosse Pointe, Wayne, Michigan, survived by Joyce and four of their children. Joyce died there on 12 March 2009.

     a. Wayne Leon Myers (1953–1995) was born on 23 June 1953, in Berkeley, California, and died on December 27, 1995, in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the age of 42. Dr. Wayne L. Myers was listed in the City Directory of New Orleans in 1992.

     b. Dana O'Farrell Myers (1961–2011)  was born on August 9, 1961, in Detroit, Michigan, and he worked for the United States Postal Service in St. Petersburg, Florida, from 1986. His passions were sports, the beach, and camping. He never married, but he spent 24 years with his companion (she is still living) and their cat, Smokey. He died in Sunset Beach on 1 December 2011.

     iii. Elizabeth Jane Myers (1915–1989) was born in The Dalles, Wasco, Oregon on 30 December 1915. She grew up in Redlands, San Bernardino, California (surviving her adventure with her brother, Eugene, when she was six), and followed her family to Kansas in the 1930s. Her father was a pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio, when Elizabeth probably met and married Norman B Hallenback (b. 1904).

Norman was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 30 May 1904. His parents Bert Cornelius Hallenbeck (1875–1954) and Edith Testut (1878–1944), moved the family to New Jersey by 1920. He married Helen J Frank (1908–1985) on 14 Aug 1926 in Bridgewater, Somerset, New Jersey, and in 1930, Norman left her with three small children when he disappeared from the movie theater where he worked with $1600 and a pretty, young cashier. Helen officially divorced him in 1932.

Norman turned up in Cincinnati in 1938, where he was charged with forgery. This arrest led to the alerting of authorities in New Jersey to his whereabouts. Elizabeth probably met Norman in Cincinnati, as that's where her father was preaching. They were married and living in Caldwell, Essex, New Jersey, in 1940, with a daughter (still living) and a son.

Unfortunately, 1940 is the last we see of Norman. He left his second family and disappeared from view; and he is almost certainly deceased. (If he is still alive, he should appear on this list!) Elizabeth remarried in New Jersey in 1945, and divorced in 1951 in Florida. In 1962, she married
Raymond Edwin Hebeler (1914–2005), and they lived in Calaveras County, California, where she died on 12 March 1989. Elizabeth was buried in Mokelumne Hill Protestant Cemetery.

     a. Robert Norman Hallenbeck (1940–2001) was born on 3 September 1940, in Montclair, New Jersey. He was married in 1961, in Los Angeles, California, and again in 1974, in Clark County, Nevada. He died on 13 June 2001, at the age of 60, in California.

     iv. Leroy J Myers (b. 1921) and his twin brother Leon David were born on 21 February 1921, in San Bernardino, California; Leroy was not a healthy child, and while records have not been identified, he is said to have died while his family was living in Dodge City, Kansas, where he appeared on the 1930 Census.

     v. Leon David Myers (1921–1944) was quite an accomplished young man. He was a Master Councilor of the Cincinnati Chapter of DeMolay, and graduated from Withrow High School. He was employed by the American Surety Co. and attending evening college at the University of Cincinnati when he enlisted on 25 April 1942.

Leon received a commission and acheived the rank of Captain. He was flight leader of the 396th Fighter Squadron of the 368th Fighter Group (a Thunderbolt group), serving in the Ninth Air Force. He received the Air Medal, 12 Oak Leaf Clusters. Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart. He was killed in action over Saint-Lô, France, 26 July 1944, near the end of the invasion of Normandy, leaving behind a young widow.

In 1949, he was returned to the U.S. and buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Fransisco.

     vi. James Conrad Myers (1924–1986) was born on 10 Oct 1924 in Orange County, California, and was very small when his father moved the family to Kansas. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on 3 July 1943 in Cincinnati, and served with the Chinese Combat Command.

James married after the war, on 9 October 1949; his wife and son are still living. James died on 14 September 1986 in Pacifica, San Mateo, California.

     B. Noble Glenn Powell (1890–1936) was born on 7 April 1890, in Oregon, the only son of Glenn and Arvilla Powell. He established himself as a professional driver in 1910, at a time when chauffuers were transitioning from horse-drawn carriages to motor vehicles. He appears in the Oregon Motor Vehicle Registrations database as early as 1912.

He married Bertha Ann Johns (1896–1980) around 1913; she was the daughter of Oliver Troy Johns (1862–1908) and Ella Francis Elliott (1872–1966). They had a son and daughter in Portland. Bertha also worked as a waitress.

Noble died on 14 February 1936, in Portland, at the age of 45, and was buried there. Bertha was remarried twice, but died on 9 September 1980 in Eugene, Lane, Oregon.

     i. Noble Glenn O Powell II (1914–2015) was born in Portland, Oregon to Bertha and Noble Powell. As a teen, he served in the Civilian Conservation Corps at Mt. Hood. He served in the U.S. Navy in WWII in the Pacific theater. He moved to Eugene in 1951.

On 25 July 1936, in Portland, Noble married Mary Trofimenko (1915–2008), and they enjoyed traveling the world together for 73 years. Mary was born 1 December 1915, in Killdeer, North Dakota, to Wasyl and Anna Procentko Trofimenko. She attended Girls Polytechnic School in Portland. She worked as a retail clerk for Eugene Toy and Hobby.

Mary died in Eugene on 7 October 2008. Noble spent his final years at Gateway Living in Eugene, and died on 26 January 2015, four months after his 100th birthday celebration. He was survived by his two children, 7 grandchildren, 8 great-grandchildren and, 3 great-great-grandchildren.

Two of his grandchildren are deceased:

• Noble Glenn O. "Bo" Powell IV (1966–2017) was born on May 28, 1966, in Eugene, Oregon. He graduated from Willamette High School in 1984 and joined the U.S. Navy, where he excelled as a boatswain's mate. He deployed for operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom, earning multiple Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals and Commendations along the way. After 26 years, Senior Chief "Bo" Powell retired from the Navy with honor in 2009.
  
  Bo was married in 1991, and he is survived by his wife and two sons, as well as his parents and a sister. He died on 13 September 2017, after a long battle with multiple myeloma cancer.

• Leslie Gayle Powell Daum (1970–1997) was born on 16 February 1970, in Eugene, Oregon. She was killed in a car accident on 24 August 1997, at the age of 27. She was survived by her ex-husband and two sons, as well as her parents, brother Bo, and her sister.

     ii. Arvilla Powell (b. 1920) born just before the 1920 Census, Arvilla did not appear in any other records with her family. Presumably, she died as an infant.


     C. Claudia Mae Powell (1891–1974) was born on 14 November 1891, in Oregon. She married Joe Mulholand on 19 October 1910, in Marion, Oregon; however, they seem to have been separated by 1916, when she appeared in the Portland city directory alone as "Claudia Mulholland."

Claudia lived in Portland and San Fransisco, where she operated a candy shop; she moved to Stayton, Marion, Oregon, in 1951. She died on 15 July 1974, in Stayton, at the age of 82. Private interment was in Rose City Cemetery, Portland.

     D. Pauline B Powell (1892–1970) was born on 31 December 1892, in Oregon. She married George O Greybrooke (1888–1961) around 1920, and they lived in San Fransisco for about 30 years. George was born in the Dakota Territory, and served in the U.S. Army from April 1918 to May 1919, at the end of World War I.

Pauline died Saturday, 14 November 1970 in a Salem nursing home at the age of 78 years. She was survived by her sisters, Claudia Powell, also of Salem, and Mrs. Ada J. Myers, of Half Moon Bay, California.

 - -- --- -- - 

 Family can be hard.

When you start digging into the history of any family, there are stories that can be hurtful or embarrassing to uncover. And when, like me, you are so distant a relative that you might as well be a random stranger, you don't know any of the people who might be hurt or embarrassed by the stories you uncover. That means being extra careful, not only to do thorough research and adequately document what you know, but also to reach out to the survivors of those stories in a way that represents them well.

There were several examples here of (potentially) messy divorces, family abandonment, and the impossible-to-ignore involvement with the Klan. Fortunately for me, I have found the other researchers I've met over the years to be pragmatic about confronting these stories. People who get into this hobby seem to become accustomed to the idea of accepting "black sheep" and scoundrels into their family tree along with the upstanding pillars of the community.

After all, it's not like we have much choice in the matter by the time we come along!

Of the living people mentioned in this post, it looks like I may have found at least one candidate to look for in the DNA database. Once I find a match, I'll be sure to post an update.

Until then, if you recognize yourself in this family, and want to fill in gaps or make corrections, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I'm on Gmail as "callintad," or you can comment below. You can also follow the link above, on the right, to the Callin Family History Facebook group, which is a private group for descendants of James Callin. (Be prepared to tell me how you're related to this family, so I know to let you in!)

I'll be working hard to get as much of this branch documented before I start school in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

The Montgomery Connection

As preparations to publish the Callin Family History revision continue, we have a new branch to consider. The evidence I outlined in Echoes & Rhymes that connects Elizabeth Callin to the James Callin named in the CFH appears to be at least as strong as the evidence that connects James and his brother John to James "1st" Callin; so in that spirit, I'm going to include her descendants in our family tree while I search for more concrete proof. My hope is to find a descendant of Elizabeth and Caleb Montgomery with DNA that matches mine.

To that end, I have begun researching their descendants.

Elizabeth Callin (1798-1834) was born in Pennsylvania, and if she was the daughter of James and Mary Callin, moved with her family from Westmoreland County, PA, to Richland County, Ohio, when she was twelve years old. On 13 August 1822, she married Caleb Montgomery (1799–1872) in Richland County.

According to the Fulton County, Indiana Handbook, published by Tombaugh House, Caleb was born 23 June 1799 in Virginia to Benjamin and Nancy Montgomery, the family who originally settled in Milton Township and established the town of Olivesburg, in Weller Township, which was named for Caleb's sister, Olive Montgomery. The History of Richland County says that Benjamin built the first grist-mill in the township on the Whetstone, at Olivesburg, in 1817. That book also describes the town in 1821:

"The village of Olivesburg was laid out by Benjamin Montgomery in the year 1816, and called Olivesburg in honor of his oldest daughter, Olive. In 1821, the village contained one tavern, kept by Benjamin Montgomery; one blacksmith-shop, by Abel Montgomery; one tailor-shop, by John Grum; one cabinet-shop, by Thomas Beach; one tannery, by Joseph Burget; one horse-mill and water-mill, by Jonathan Montgomery; one wheelwright-shop, by William Lee, or James Hall, and about the usual per cent of loafers."

Caleb and Elizabeth had five children in Olivesburg between their marriage and 1829. When Elizabeth died on 5 November 1834, she was buried in the Olivesburg Cemetery on land deeded to the town by the Montgomery family.

With five young children to care for, Caleb quickly remarried; he and his second wife,
Sarah Mercer (1812–1877), had ten children; the first, Levi, being born in 1835. In 1837, Caleb moved his family to Fulton County, Indiana, where Levi would grow up to become sheriff.

The five children of Caleb and Elizabeth are as follows:

     1. Mary Montgomery married a James Ferrell on 23 March 1843, according to Fulton County, Indiana, marriage records. I have not found any records to indicate when either of them died, but there is a Sarah Ferrell in the household of Mary's sister and brother-in-law in 1850 and 1860.

     2. Sarah Montgomery (1824–1918) was born 27 December 1824 in Olivesburg. She and Henry Davidson (1818–1894) were married on 22 April 1841 in Fulton County, Indiana. They had six children; three sons and three daughters. Henry and Sarah took their family west on the Oregon trail in 1852.

     3. Theodore Montgomery (1826–1904) was born 12 September 1826 in Richland County, Ohio. He enlisted and served a year in the Mexican American War. He later returned to Fulton County, Indiana, and married Margaret Wilson (1831–1916) on 11 March 1849. They had four sons and a daughter.

     4. Porter Montgomery (abt. 1828) died in Vicksburg, presumably during the Civil War, but records have not been found to support that.

     5. Callin "Cal" Montgomery (1829–1912) was born in October 1829 and headed for California to become a gold miner. He lived in El Dorado County for many years and died in Napa in 1912. As far as I can tell, he left no family behind.

In coming weeks, we'll look at the descendants of Mary, Sarah, and Theodore.

As always, if you're a descendant of any of these folks, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at callintad (@gmail.com), post a comment below, or ask to join the Callin Family History group on Facebook.