Straddling Two Countries

In 1824 when John Douglass moved from New York state to Halton County, Ontario, four sons remained in Jefferson County, New York. To my knowledge none of the family members who remained in NY later moved to Canada. But many of the Canadian Douglasses moved back to the States over time. It is a challenge to keep track of the families as they moved from Canada to the United States.

The Flewellings have been a hard family to trace but slowly I am making headway. Their Douglass ancestor was Betsy Douglass Flewelling. Betsy was the seventh of the nine siblings, next in age after Robert Douglass. She and Abel had eleven children listed with them in the census. Betsy is buried in Tilsonburg, Ontario in the Pioneer cemetery. We believe that Abel is buried in the Ingersoll cemetery.

Their oldest daughter, Caroline, married in Ontario, but after her husband died, she lived with her daughter, Minerva Taylor, in Kansas, where she died and is buried.

Margaretta married and moved with her husband to Michigan.

William married and moved to Wisconsin. They had no children.

Emeline married in Perth County, Ontario, and died at age 43. All of her children who lived to adulthood moved to Buffalo, NY, and then to California and Washington states.

Catherine and her brother, Robert, moved with their spouses to Michigan. Robert and his wife died in Minnesota where their daughter lived.

Jane and Lydia married the Stringer brothers. Jane’s first child was born in Michigan. Both these women died within a few years after their marriage.

John married in Michigan. His only daughter and her family lived in Idaho.

Martha – not sure about her. There were a couple of Marthas and I have not sorted them out.

Nancy married Alfred Courtney and stayed in Oxford County, Ontario, as did most of her children. Except for George. George lived in the Milton Junction area of Wisconsin and many of his descendants live in the area. I hope to find a few of his living descendants when I travel to Wisconsin the next time.

When I was in Canada in June I stopped by the Woodstock Library and discovered that the library had indexed all of the old Woodstock newspapers that they had on microfilm. By looking at a computer file, I could search for a specific name and it would tell me exactly which newspaper date to look up for the item of interest. This was great fun! In short order I found several marriage items for the Miners family.

Nancy and Alfred Courtney’s oldest daughter, Mary, married George Miners and they had seven children, four sons and three daughters, so there were lots of marriages to check out. Here’s a sample:

Woodstock Sentinel Review, January 16, 1919, pg.3:4

Miners – Fertney

A quiet wedding took place on Tuesday, Jan. 14th at the home of Cyrus Furtney, Brownsville, when his third daughter, Leona, became the wife of Chester Miners, youngest (sic) son of George Miners of Culloden.

The ceremony was performed by Rev. R.M. Cunningham, Mrs. Cunningham playing the wedding march while the young couple were taking their position under a white bell in the prettily decorated bay window.

The bride looked well in a dress of white crepe de chine, with pearl trimmings.

After a tasty lunch had been served by three of the bride’s friends, a pleasant time was spent at the piano by the young folks. A pleasing feature of the occasion was that it was the 35th anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Miners’ wedding day. After a short trip, Chester and his wife will be at home to their many friends on the homestead on the Town Line.

Chester, the oldest son, did not marry until he was 32. He remained on the home farm with his father. While his siblings did not move to the United States, many of them moved to the cities, including London, Ontario and Calgary, Alberta.

Check out the Flewelling family tree on the Genealogy page.

Family News and Notes in the Newspaper

In the past I have found several doctors in the older generations of the extended Douglass family but few ministers. Now it appears I have found one. A good friend, Sue, alerted me to the website, www.fultonhistory.com, and I spent many hours surfing through the old central New York newspapers that are online there. Thomas Tryniski, who put up this website, has done a distinct service to those of us who research in northern New York.

I was looking for more information about Emma Douglass. Emma was Mary Jane Hulsaver’s sister and when Mary Jane died, her children went to live with relatives. I knew, from an interview in the Watertown Daily Times, that John Hulsaver went to live with his mother’s youngest sister, Emma, and I knew she lived in Wayne County, NY. But it took me a long time to find who Emma married. When I learned she married Isaac Ridgeway, I suspected that he was a brother to Sylvester Ridgeway who married another sister, Appolonia, and moved to Michigan. And I was right. I found an 1860 census record in Wayne County for Daniel Ridgeway with a family that included sons, Sylvester and Isaac.

But back to Emma. Emma and Isaac had two children, Myrtle and Earl. Until I started reading the old newspapers on the website, I had not a clue what happened to them. But thanks to the practice of putting little news notes in the local papers, I was able to learn a little about Earl Ridgeway’s activities. Then I checked the census and vital records and learned a little more.

In 1900 census Earl and Carrie Ridgeway had been married one year and he was farming in Wolcott, NY. In the Lowville Journal Republican in 1909, under “North Martinsburg” there was a notice of an ice cream social to benefit Rev. E.D. Ridgeway. Also in 1909 a note in the Lowville paper that B. Fink had been visiting the Ridgeways and when he returned to North Wolcott, his grandaughter, Miss Hazel Ridgeway accompanied him. (So now I had a possible maiden name for Carrie.)

In the 1910 census, Rev. Earl Ridgeway and wife Carrie had two children, Hazel, 9, and Clarence, 3, and lived in Town of Greece, near Rochester, NY.

In 1919 the Cato Citizen and Tri-County Leader reported an 8 pound daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Getman of Illion, NY. Mrs. Getman was the former Miss Hazel Ridgeway, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. Earl Ridgeway. (Now I know who Hazel married.)

In the 1920 census, Earl D. Ridgeway, minister, and wife, Carrie, grocery storekeeper, and son, Clarence, 13, were living in Herkimer County. In 1925, the Cato paper, under “North Wolcott”, reported that Benjamin Fink had died; among his survivors was a daughter, Mrs. Earl Ridgeway. In the 1930 census, Earl Ridgeway, dairy farmer, owned his own home with wife, Carrie; they had one boarder and a hired man. They lived in Herkimer county in the same township as in 1920 census.

It was obvious from the newspaper notes that Earl and Carrie Ridgeway were well known in North Wolcott. Even though they lived away from Wolcott for 25 years, the Wolcott news still reported on their activities. In none of the items I accessed, however, did it ever say what church Rev. Ridgeway was affiliated with. It will take some more sleuthing to learn what churches he served.

Earl Ridgeway was first cousin twice removed, of Dr. John G. Douglass. He was a first cousin of Kate Hulsaver Adams and Susan Dunham Giles. He is not closely related to many of us living today, but he descends from the same John Douglass whom we call our common ancestor. You can see updates of the vital records for the Ridgeway family on the 3Alexander genealogy page of the website.

(Earl Ridgeway’s lineage: Earl-6, Emma Ridgeway-5, Leander-4, Alexander-3, John-2, Alexander Douglass-1)

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By now I am accustomed to “losing” someone’s trail and then discovering that they have “gone west”. This time, however, I was surprised. When I traveled to Canada this month for the annual Mayberry reunion, I spent a whole day at the Lambton County archives in Wyoming, Ontario. I was determined to learn some-thing about Angeline Sibbald Palmer’s family. (Angie was Matilda Sibbald Mayberry’s sister.) I had been there twice before and could find only the census that showed they had lived in Warwick township for 40 years. That’s a long time for there to be no records. They purchased a cemetery lot but there is no record anyone is buried there. A son, William, is buried with his second wife, in her parents’ plot. I could find no marriage records for the children, no death records or cemetery records for the parents. They must have moved, but where?

Frustrated after long hours of finding no clues, I discovered there was an index of obituaries. Since they lived there such a long time, perhaps there was an obituary in the local paper. And that’s how I came away with the only clue to this family. In the Forest Free Press, there was a simple notice that said, “Death – Palmer – In Vancouver, B.C. on Monday, Oct. 26th 1918 (sic) Mrs. Jas. Palmer, aged 79 years.” Newspapers are not infallible. This newspaper was published on Nov. 5, 1914 but listed her death as 1918. But they sure can help with clues. I found a death registration for Ann Palmer in Vancouver, B.C., age 80, died 6 Oct. 1914. I will send for a copy to be sure, but I suspect the whole family, except William, moved west. They may have sold the family farm in Warwick to William. Now that I have a time frame, I will try to borrow the old local Vancouver paper on microfilm.

Does your local library have the old newspapers for your area on microfilm? Look up your birth announcement or some other event you know happened there. You will be surprised at how much you can learn from the old papers, and you will have fun seeing how reporting the news has changed.

Lineage for Angeline: Angeline Palmer-4, Lydia Sibbald-3, John-2, Alexander Douglass-1)

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Check out the Photo of Ruby Pollard in the Photo Gallery.

Goldie Mayberry married Lincoln Boyer, a blacksmith, and they had four children, but their extended family is small (as far as we know). Their daughter, Ruby, and Jack Pollard, had no children. One of Ruby’s brothers died in infancy. Her sister, Mary, never married. Her other brother, Charles, “disappeared in a bit of a cloud” as Glen Mayberry put it. Evidently he got in some kind of scrape and moved to the U.S. Sylvia Mayberry thought she had found him in Illinois, but when she sent for his death certificate, it showed that her discovery was not the right man. So we really do not know if there are Boyers living who are related to this family since we know nothing of Charles.

(That’s why documentation is so important – I had already added the wrong Charles Boyer’s family to my database and had to remove them.)

Look to the Progress Report for the latest news about the book. If you have missed any of the last Digests, you will find a link to those issues listed in the side bar on my Home page.

Memories of a Lifetime

Portland Press Herald (ME)
Date: January 3, 1995

JOAN PEABODY LOUDON

Joan Peabody Loudon, 75, who spent much of her life helping those in need, died Sunday.

She was born in New York City, a natural daughter of Edward C. Johnson and Alice Brandt and adopted daughter of Frederick and Gertrude Peabody.

She grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Conn., and from Bryn Mawr (Pa.) College.

After her marriage in 1942 to John Frost Eisenbrey, she settled in Phoenixville, Pa. After his death in 1952, she married Adam Loudon in 1955 and they moved to Scotland. They returned to the United States in 1956 and settled in Hollis, where she resided for the rest of her life.

Mrs. Loudon spent her life helping those in need. Family members remember her as a woman whose sense of compassion came across even when she fell on hard times herself.

‘She always felt she was trying to do God’s will, even if she wasn’t quite sure what it was. She felt that helping people with cash wasn’t as important as helping them with love,” said Nancy E. Ashley of Bath, one of five daughters.

”She lived rags and riches and did both with equal nobility. She had a rough life sometimes, but she always seemed to rise above it. No matter what life dealt her, she handled it,” her daughter said.

She was a longtime member of Trinity Episcopal Church, Saco, where she served on the Vestry and the Altar Guild. She delivered Meals on Wheels to the elderly.

She volunteered for the American Cancer Society and Literacy Volunteers and was a member of the Saco Valley Civic Association. She also served on the Hollis planning and zoning boards. She was a member of the board of directors of the Salmon Falls Education Center in Hollis, where she taught foreign languages.

Mrs. Loudon also fostered in her children a love of art, music and literature that they continue to cherish. ”That is probably the greatest treasure she could have given us,” her daughter said.

Another daughter, Alison L. Bemis of Hollis, said Mrs. Loudon’s favorite author was C.S. Lewis. She also loved classical music and was an avid listener of National Public Radio.

Her second husband died in 1971.

Also surviving are a son, Adam Loudon of Somersworth, N.H.; three other daughters, Louise E. Wakefield and Jean Loudon, both of Hollis, and Vida L. Fasulo of Limington; a brother, Peter A.B. Widener III of Sheridan, Wyo., and Palm Beach, Fla.; and 13 grandchildren.

A service in celebration of her life will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Trinity Episcopal Church in Saco. Burial will be at St. Peter’s Church in Great Valley, Paoli, Pa., later this year. Arrangements are by Dennett-Craig and Pate Funeral Home, Saco. ###

This is an unusual obituary for its first lines. I do not remember ever seeing an obituary that spelled out the natural parents, both of them, and the adoptive parents in the opening sentences.

Gertrude Douglass divorced Frederick Peabody and married Peter Widener. Joan’s debutante ball in December 1936 was provided by the Wideners at the Bellevue Stratford in Philadelphia, complete with an orchestra of 75 musicians in Hungarian costume. 1500 people attended.

I had wondered what happened to Joan Peabody. She married Capt. John Frost Eisenbrey shortly after her graduation from Bryn Mawr. In 1952, she was a widow with two young children. The Probate records for John Eisenbrey (a grandnephew of Robert Frost, the poet), did not give the children’s names. I tracked down Betty Eisenbrey, a great-aunt by marriage, who remembered two children, Nancy and Louise. When John Eisenbrey’s mother, Agusta, needed help in her old age, it was Nancy who came to stay with her grandmother until arrangements could be made for her to be moved to a care facility. Betty did not know where Nancy lived.

Thanks to the internet and obituaries now available online, I found the above. Nancy says in the obituary that her mother lived rags and riches, and that she did. She was raised in high society, married, and ten years later was widowed with two young children and no resources except her home. Her mother was a great help to her during that time I am sure.

I am happy to know that Joan found not only a place for herself and her family, but a place where she could employ her considerable empathy and energy helping others. One could say she did her parents proud – all of them.

Joan’s adoptive lineage: (Joan-7, Gertrude Peabody Widener-6, Curtis-5, John P.-4, James-3, John-2, Alexander Douglass-1)

Eleanor Douglass, Artist, Potter, Violinist, Author

It is always exciting for me when an article that I have written engenders more feedback than usual. I have really caught my readers’ interest. They write to give me additional information, or to correct my errors or assumptions and I love the two-way communication.

Since I sent out the January 2006 issue of the Digest, I have received several communications related to Eleanor Douglass.

Jennie Trerise sent me the address of a website about Roycroft Pottery that mentioned Eleanor Douglass, so I shot off a query to the owner of that site. Janice McDuffie, in researching the early history of Roycroft pottery, learned that Carl Ahrens and Eleanor Douglass had used a potter’s wheel on the Roycroft campus in the year 1900. Eleanor evidently sold some the pottery that she made along with her paintings at a 1902 exhibition. By 1904, however, pottery was dropped at Roycroft. Ms. McDuffie has had a pottery workshop, the only working studio on the original Roycroft campus, since 1972.

That contact with Ms. McDuffie led me to Kim Bullock, who is writing a book about Carl Ahrens. I learned that Carl Ahrens was a second cousin to Eleanor, on her mother’s (Gaukel) side. We exchanged genealogy information. Emmanuel Gaukel who ran a trading post on the Saugeen Reservation near Southampton, Ontario, was not only Eleanor’s maternal grandfather; he was Carl’s great-uncle. Kim has done a wonderful job of researching her great grandfather Carl and has collected a gallery of his paintings that you can see on her site: http://www.carlahrens.com/ahrenssite_001.htm

Kim sent me a copy of a clipping from a Toronto newspaper of August 29, 1896. Under “Saturday Night”:

“The Ontario Government has recently purchased Mr. Carl Ahrens’ Ripe Corn Time to hang in the Parliament Buildings. That artist and his family are still camping at Southampton and do not expect to return to Toronto before October; they are enjoying their free life there immensely. Mr. Ahrens and Miss Eleanor Douglas, along with Mrs. Coxe of Cobourg, have been hard at work sketching, so we shall expect no end of good things in the future. One of them writes, “Morning, afternoon and sunset find us plodding away, and through all the heat we have lost no time; the subject matter here is very much better than in any place we have ever been.” They seem to be on the friendliest terms with the Chief there, have all received Indian names, and are learning all sorts of Indian industries from their friendly neighbors.”

After seeing all of the images of Carl’s paintings on Kim’s website, I thought how wonderful it would be if we had a gallery of Eleanor’s pictures, at least the ones that we know hang in our family homes. This could be a project for someone with a good digital camera and an appreciation for art. If anyone is interested in taking on this project, I would be most happy to put the gallery on my website.

Kim referred me to Jill, a Ph.D. student at Buffalo, who is writing her thesis about Roycroft women, and is doing a chapter on Eleanor, which she promises to share with me when she is finished. Jill has been in touch with Thornton and Mariann Douglass.

Mariann also wrote to tell me that Eleanor was not only an artist, canoeist and horsewoman, but a violinist, potter and author. She was obviously a many-talented woman.

When I was trying to make sense of the information I was learning about the Cramer women in Iowa, I suddenly realized that they were living only a short distance from Emmetsburg. Where had I heard that name before? William S. Douglass, “President of the Emporium” in Yakima, WA, had married Marjorie McCormick “of Emmetsburg, Iowa”.

I had looked for Marjorie McCormick’s parents some years ago but I was looking in the wrong place, assuming that William had met her in Washington or Oregon. In the 1920 census listing, it is reported that she was born in Oregon. The census in 1930, however, says she was born in Iowa.

It is always fun to try and figure out how couples meet and get together. I had no clue at all how William would have met Marjorie McCormick before this. But now I know that William had two cousins of the Cramer family living in Palo Alto County, just a few miles from Emmetsburg. Obviously he had gone to visit them. How long he was there is not known. He and Marjorie married in 1906, but I can not find them in the 1910 census -anywhere. But at least I now have a reason for him to be in that area.

As for Marjorie, the Palo Alto county history, including some of their local census listings of the early years, pieced out some background for her. She graduated from high school there in 1902. Her grandfather McCormick was one of the earliest settlers of Palo Alto County (1870). Her father was born in Ireland and emigrated when he was ten years old. He married an Iowa girl and lived many years in Emmetsburg. He was in real estate, which suggests one more thing about William.

It was evident from the information I got in Yakima that William Douglass was the more aggressive businessman of the two brothers who lived there. His brother, Charles, married Pansy Holmes in Chicago, and moved with her family to Yakima by 1910. Richard Holmes was a bookkeeper. Charles was in a partnership with Fred Raymond for a couple years though I do not know what their company did. Then about 1913, it appears that William Douglass and Fred Raymond and Fred Moore bought the Emporium Dept. Store in Yakima and brought in Holmes as Treasurer. When Moore left, Charles became Secretary. By 1918 William was President. The business grew and expanded into the adjacent storefront. In the meantime William, perhaps with schooling from Charles McCormick in real estate, changed houses about every year for a while, each year to a nicer one. In or about 1927 the Emporium was sold.

William moved on but Charles stayed in Yakima the rest of his years, working as an insurance agent. When Peg Peyton told me Marjorie’s family had a real estate business in California and that is where William was living when he died, age 59, then it all fit. William liked to deal in real estate.

This is a letter written by John G. Douglass in response to a request for his daughter’s hand in marriage.)

7719 Normal Ave.
Chicago July 22, (19)01

W.D.Robertson, Esq.
Joliet

Dear Sir

Your favor of the 18 inst duly received and contents noted and considered and in reply would say, that perhaps none of us are very much surprised at the question or request you make. At all event we think it would be almost useless to make any serious objections, or say you na. I have questioned Bessie regarding the matter and she seems willing to try the experiment for six months and if at the expiration of that time or any future period she makes complaint of your treatment of her, or you do not treat her as you should do, she returns to us with all her belongings. But of course in your case we do not fear any ill treatment, having known you so long and favorably. Though you may not be in possession of an abundance of this world’s goods, yet many a pair has set out in life with much less and I am much deceived and disappointed if both of (unreadable) other and better riches than this world can give.

But while we consent to your request we as parents at least feel that you are taking from us our best house and home help. One on whom we have depended for some years, consequently we shall miss her very much. The other girls are good and kind but they have been from home so much that our dependence as far as house and home are concerned has been placed more on Bessie. It is not our duty or our intentions, however, to stand in the way or object to her settlement in life, as we know we cannot expect to keep her or any of them (the girls) around us all our days, we wish to see them all well settled, ere we depart this life if God so wills it –you say you have seriously considered this step.

I trust you have and that you may never regret taking our daughter from us and that she may never have the least occasion to regret leaving loving parents, sisters and brothers.

Take her my boy and may God’s blessing and rest remain and abide with you both from this time henceforth and forever.

Sincerely yours, J.G. Douglass

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Beatrice “Bessie” Douglass and William Robertson were married October 2, 1901 in Chicago, IL. William was born in Scotland and was 27 when this correspondence took place. Would you not like to see the letter this Scotsman wrote to his future father-in-law? I would.

Jennifer Trerise, having done some research on this family, wrote that William was the son of Andrew and Grace (Deas) Robertson of Scotland. Part of the family moved to Australia and part to Canada. The parents moved to Australia. Thomas, William and a younger sister emigrated to Canada in 1889 and settled in Southhampton, which is undoubtedly where William and Bessie met. William followed Bessie to Chicago in 1900. He was head of the Prudential Insurance company headquarters there. Unfortunately, only eleven years later, the couple had to move to California for William’s health. They moved shortly before Christmas 1912. William died a year later. So did Dr. John. What a heartbreak it must have been for Dr. John to send his daughter’s family so far away knowing it was their only chance and yet knowing that William had TB.

Greetings from the Editor!

The various genealogical societies frequently put out a newsletter in which they reprint information from their files that they think will be of interest to their readers, like history of the area or books written in the 1800s or diaries. Those of us who get the newsletters faithfully read them, hoping that there will be some mention of one of our ancestors. Occasionally I have found a marriage record, like the one for Austin O. Lee and Mary Wardwell in Rodman, NY, by the Rev. James Spear, but that is an unusual find. Nevertheless, even one such record is very helpful.

But in August 2002, I received a plum in the Historical Assn. of South Jefferson newsletter. I was reading their reprint of an article from the December 18th, 1906 issue of the Jefferson County Journal. The article was entitled “The Little Old Schoolhouse” and written as a letter to the paper by Theron W. Haight, who had attended the school at “Haight’s Corners” on the edge of the Tn. of Lorraine, about two miles east of Pierrepont Manor, NY.

The part that caught my attention was this: “I am not certain whether it was the winter of 1852 or of 1853 when Orlando Douglass presided over the school. He died of consumption a few years later, but his administrations of our educational affairs was more effective in results than that of any other teacher whom I remember there. All the benches in the building were fully occupied, and a spirit of enthusiasm pervaded the room, and in playtime the grounds also. The proudest moment of my life was when I was the first to find the correct solution of an example in Adams’s arithmetic locally known as ‘the Christian era sum’. It involved the calculation of the number of seconds from the beginning of the era to Christmas of 1848 with allowance for leap years, including the change of the calendar from ‘old style’ to ‘new style’. My fame on account of that exploit extended clear into the next district where the future Col. Henry H. Lyman was then a school-boy, and learned the solution from me.”

You folks have read my interest in Orlando Douglass before. He was born in Jefferson County, 3rd son of Alexander Douglass, and lived in the Tn. of Redfield, Oswego Co, NY, near his sister, Candace Douglass Clemons. He is the man whose will Sue Vickerman found for me, in which he leaves his estate to his wife Charlotte (Joyner) and his unborn heir. Does the above paragraph not fill in so much more about this young man who died at the age of 28? He must have had an encouraging, positive nature to have instilled so much enthusiasm and interest in an arithmetic sum that I doubt any of our school students could compute today.