52 Ancestors Year 2 #25: William Frederick Lane, Iron Monger, a Story of Heirlooms

     Sometime in the 1970's my father gave me two family heirlooms: two Bible pages, one showing the families of Sarah Lane with here first and second husbands, dating from 1839 to 1859, the other showing the birth of her mother, Hannah Caldwell and her family.  When I joined Ancestry.com in 2009 I scanned these and put them online on my tree.  I then heard from Ava who was tracing her adoptive mother's tree. She was a descendant of Sarah Lane's oldest daughter from her second marriage.  I also heard from Joanne who was descended from John Lane, Sarah's brother.  The three of us e-mailed back and forth working on the family tree.  Joanne had obtained the will of Sarah Lane's grandfather, William Lane, which she shared.  Ava had a cousin with many family documents and heirlooms who she put me in contact with.

    Ava's cousin, Jim Brown, was living in a family house full of heirloom furniture, artifacts and documents.  I used to call him and ask him questions and he would run off and come back with a family letter or Bible or something.  He sent me many of these either photocopies or in a few cases the originals.  Unfortunately he died about two years ago, his niece lives in the house now and I really should go back and visit!

     The one thing that none of us have been able to find so far is the origin of William Frederick Lane.  The earliest we have found of William is his marriage to Sarah Blunt in Manchester Cathedral on 29 Sep 1792.  It lists his occupation as Whitesmith, this is someone who works in tin.  Later he is listed in several Manchester city directories as an Ironmonger.  He had a shop and a house and also owned two houses in Salford (now part of Manchester, then a nearby town) which he rented out.  He and Sarah had three children, William born 1795, Sarah born 1797 and Joseph born 1800.  Sarah died at age three in 1800, Joseph lived to get married but died before having any children in 1825.  William, however, married and had four children, three of whom married and had several children who now have descendants in the USA, Canada and Australia.

     At least two heirlooms from William exist currently.  One is an oil portrait of William and Sarah, painted in the 1820's.  This hangs in another cousin's home in Clovis, California.  The other is a tipstave owned by the same cousin.  The tipstave was a symbol of William's position as Tipstaff in Manchester sometime between 1820 and 1830.  The only other thing known about him is that he died on 6 Aug 1830 in Manchester and was buried 12 Aug 1830 at St. Mary's.  The records say that he was 65.  This would mean that he was born between 6 Aug 1764 and 5 Aug 1765. But we don't know where and so far although there are several records of William Lane's born between those dates none can be definitely said to be him. This requires further research, meanwhile we can enjoy the heirlooms he left us!

52 Ancestors Year 2 #24: Julia Maria Kneeland Almquist

     Julia Maria Kneeland was born on 5 Aug 1864 in Bolton, Quebec, Canada, the daughter of Nelson Castle Kneeland and Azelia Marie Phelps.  The family moved to Whitewater, Winona, Minnesota in about 1868.  Julia married Ander Wilhelm Ludwick Almquist on 30 May 1880 probably in Cokato, Wright, Minnesota. She was 16, he was 28.  Their wedding photo shows a handsome young couple.

     Ander was born in Sweden, arriving with his brother to join their father, in about 1865. By the time of his marriage, Ander had a Hardware Store in Cokato.  Julia and Ander's first child, Alice Charlotte, was born 13 Mar 1881 but died 14 months later on 18 May 1882. She was soon followed by a brother, Walter A. L. Almquist, born 12 Oct 1882.  Next another son, Chester William, born 4 Sep 1886 who only lived until 29 Nov 1886.  Then came Christian Raymond C. born 9 Jan 1888 and Amy A. L. born 16 Jun 1889. By 1890 after 10 years of marriage they had tragically lost two childen but still had three living children.

     However, more tragedy struck.  Sometime after 1890, Ander's hardware store went bankrupt. This combined with the lost of the children a few years earlier apparently sent him over the edge, because in 1900 we find him as a patient in Fergus Falls State Hospital in Fergus Falls, Otter Tail, Minnesota.  Julia and the three children are living in Steele, Minnesota.  The oldest son, Walter, is apparently supporting the family as a teamster at the age of 17.  Ander died in 1918 in the county of Anoka, I don't know if he had been released or simply was in another institution, but I did find a photo of the hospital called "Anoka Asylum". In the 1910 Census we find Julia in Aberdeen, Brown, South Dakota with her daughter Amy, who is working as a clerk in a printing office and four borders.  Her sons are living nearby in South Dakota with their wives.

     I have not been able to find Julia or Amy in the 1920 or 1930 Censuses. Amy married Victor Tyson by 1936 and lived in North Dakota.  Julia is recorded in the Minnesota Death Record as dying on 3 Aug 1933 in Minneapolis.  She was two days shy of her 69th birthday.  She had six grandchildren at the time of her death.  Her story is sad but you have to admire her for carrying on and raising her children after her husband went insane.  She was only 36 in 1900. To me it shows that when you embark on a marriage you have no idea what is in store. You pretty much hope for the best and deal with whatever comes! I think she did that.

     My grandfather, who told me many stories of his family never mentioned his Uncle, Ander, and Julia.  I found the photos among his things. One of her grandsons, Ralph Almquist, son of Walter, is in his address so I know he stayed in touch with at least one member of the family.  Only when I researched them as part of the tree did I learn their story.

52 Ancestors Year 2 #23: Edna Evelyn Hudson

     Edna Evelyn Hudson was my father's aunt.  She was born 9 Feb 1890 in Fayetteville, Arkansas to Benjamin Melvin Hudson and Agnes Georgiana Cookson.  She had three younger sisters. Her mother had been a school teacher before marriage and she encouraged her daughters to succeed academically.  Edna was quite precocious.  I have a letter she wrote to her grandparents detailing a trip to the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.  It is full of detailed descriptions and illustrations. A later 1907 Fort Worth newspaper article mentions Edna and her sister, Mabel, as at the top of their respective classes.

     After graduating from High School in Fort Worth in 1908 Edna attended Texas Christian University and received a teaching certificate.  She later (about 1916 as she is listed on the California Voters List in Berkeley in that year)attended University of California at Berkeley and earned a Masters Degree (not sure in what but she taught English so likely that).  Returning to Fort Worth she fell in love but her sweetheart joined the  army in WW I and was killed.  She never married.  In her sister, Bessie's, wedding article the Best Man is named W.K. Swetzer.  I thought this might be her sweetheart but I haven't been able to find this man.

     She spent the rest of her life teaching in Fort Worth and living with her parents.  Her mother died in 1946.  Edna and her father spent a summer driving in the west, visiting her sister Bessie's family in Seattle and her Alma Mater at Berkeley.  In 1948, her sister Alma and her daughter, Evelyn (named for Edna) came to live with Ben and Edna after the death of Alma's husband.  So, she had her family as well as her career. She was active in the Hemphill Presbyterian Church and President of the Q.E.D. Club.

     Edna has a special place in my heart because of her interest in Family History.  In 1904 the family received a letter with a family tree purporting to go back to Anneke Jans Bogardus of New Amsterdam.  Although I don't think the family sent money (this was actually a fraudulent money making scheme), Edna did do some research on the family.  My father had this and a copy of the family data she wrote in her niece's baby book.  This is actually one of the things that got me interested in the family tree in the Eighth Grade!

     It was very unusual for a woman to obtain a Master's Degree before 1920 and she is the first woman in our family to do so. And here is the end of Edna's letter to her grandparents: "We had ice cream for supper this evening and as it is getting dark I must quit. Good By From your loving daughter. Edna. Remember your girls.  Edna-flower is Helitrope(sic) Mabel-...Migonette(sic)Alma...Hyacinth Bessie...Bergamot"

52 Ancestors Year 2 #22: James Casper Negley, Jr.

     James Casper Negley, Jr., was born 3 Dec 1917, the son of James Casper Negley, M.D. and Catherine Constance Collins.  He and his sister, Barbara, were raised sharing their father's love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors. Jim graduated from Glendale High School in 1935 and the University of Southern California in 1939.  The 1940 Census lists him as living at home, working as a salesman for a Wholesale Furniture Company at 40 hours a week.  That was in April 1940, by then WW II had started in Europe and in September 1940 we find Jim enlisting in the Army.

     Jim enlisted in the Army Air Corps at Fort MacArthur San Pedro as an Aviation Cadet on 9 Sep 1940.  He was 5"9" tall and weighed 137.  Unfortunately,  his debilitating headaches disqualified him as a pilot.  He went to Canada and joined the Canadian Air Force but ran into the same problem, for awhile he worked for an aircraft plant in Canada.  He returned to the US and joined the Coast Guard. He also met, fell in love with and married Eloise Knock, his father's office nurse. They were married 12 Sep 1942 in Los Angeles.  Three months later, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor precipitated the U.S. entrance into  WW II and Jim was off to the Pacific.  He was stationed on the Carrier LCP 169 where he drove a Higgins Boat which ferried the Marines onshore where they fought to take an island.  He was at the Battle of Tarawa among others. He also fought off of Alaska.  He would not talk about his war experiences with his sons later, other than very generally.  They were quite impacting for him.  His son Dennis actually researched his WW II experiences and has written a full account.  I also made him an Honor Wall posting on Fold 3 if anyone is interested in knowing more about this part of his life.

     After the war Jim and Eloise moved to Oregon where he attended Oregon State University.  Their first son, James Patrick Negley, was born in Corvallis in 1946.  He then worked as a Forestry Ranger and his son Dennis was born in McMinnville in 1948.  Around 1950 the family moved to Reno, Nevada, where he took on the job of Chief Law Enforcement Commissioner for the Nevada Fish and Game Commission. He was good at his job, too good because he arrested or fined some friends of big time gambling concerns in Las Vegas.  When the Commission was down-sized in May 1957 he was out of a job.  Meanwhile, a daughter, Kathleen ("Kasey") was born on 3 Jul 1954.  Jim went back to school to get his masters in Police Science at the University of Nevada.  Upon graduation in 1958 he moved to Modesto, California to teach at Modesto Junior College, founding the Police Science Department there.

     He was successful in this, teaching many who became policemen in the area.  Until one day he was on a fishing trip with a friend and was in an accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down.  He spent many months in the hospital but eventually was able to resume his teaching position in a wheelchair.  He even visited Australia with his wife in August 1968.  When he returned he lost his teaching position and the inability to pursue his love of hunting and fishing and being in the outdoors became too much.  He ended his life on 29 Jun 1971 at the age of 53.

     Jim had strong opinions and ideas of what was right.  I found a letter he wrote to a local paper which is well written and illustrates his degree of integrity in defending what he feels is right.  To quote just a bit of this letter.  It appeared in the Modesto Bee on 9 Nov 1967 and was title, "Outraged Reader".  He was responding to an attack on the governor.

      "One thing for sure about you flacks down there on the Peach County Free Press...you can never be accused of doing business without a license.  You sure use a lot of journalistic license.

     "I will not sign this as "disgusted" with my initials or an alias, I am
                                        James C. Negley
                                        Modesto.

"

52 Ancestors Year 2 #21 Johan August Almquist aka John A. Allen

     Johan August Almquist was the oldest son of Nils Johan Almquist and Anna Charlotta Johannesdatter.  He was born on 31 January 1851 in Brunn, Alvsborg, Sweden.  He had a younger brother and two sisters.  In 1864 his father, Nils, decided to go to America.  Johan's mother didn't want to go. One day in April 1864, Nils decided to leave anyway and took the children with him.  Anna Charlotta called the police and they found Nils as he was about to board the boat.  They let him leave but made him leave the children behind.  Just over a year later, on 21 June 1865, Johan and his brother, Anders, left Sweden for America. Johan was 14.

     Johan and Anders joined their in Swan Lake, Meeker, Minnesota.  Not long after Nils married his second wife, Anna Elizabeth Finstad.  The official marriage record is dated 12 Oct 1869 but their first son was born June 1869.  The Census records say she arrived in the U.S. in 1866. At least by 1868 Nils and Elizabeth were living together.  The boys did not get along with their new stepmother.  The family story is that they both rebelled from her and ran away.  As a result they were put in Reform School.  This was a recent development at that time, one starting in St. Paul in 1868. While there they were schooled and trained.  Anders went into the mercantile business when he left and Johan became a railroad worker.  Johan, by now John, had a major falling out with his father over this and changed his last name to Allen.  By the 1870 Census we find him under the name of Allen working in a saw mill in Stillwater, Minnesota.  By the 1880 Census he is married with children and living in Palo Pinto.

     He married Mary Moore and they had seven children.  He worked for the Railroad as a car carpenter, then the Foreman of the Car shop and finally as a Car Inspector.  His father died in 1893 and I don't know if they were ever reconciled.  However, he must have stayed in touch with his sister, Hulda Peterson, as my grandfather, her son Walter, knew his cousins and kept in touch with them all his life.  I found a number of them in his Address Book after he passed away in 1982.

     This story goes to show how important it is to record the family stories and not lose sight of them.  I had done so and had another Johan A. Almquist in Meeker County confused with him.  Then one day I found my earlier family records and saw that he had changed his name to Allen.  I found  a possible man on Ancestry and it was the names in my Grandfather's address that proved to me it was the right man.  I contacted his descendant who had posted the tree and explained it all to her.  Her family had not known his original name or the names of his parents.  So this straightened it out for two families!

52 Ancestors Year 2 #20: Elisabetta Maria Cattarina Wegher, beloved Mother

     Elisabetta Maria Catterina Wegher, known as Maria, was the youngest of nine children born to Luigi Paulino Wegher and Elisabetta Fachini. Maria was born on 14 Nov 1830 in Maso Milano in the parish of Sporminore.  Maso Milano is a small community based on a large rocky plateau at the place where the two rivers, Noce and Sporeggio, join.  It was founded by Alberto Pezzi, a blacksmith from the Odrio district of Milano, when he came to Sporminore and set up business as a blacksmith. He is noted in the Church records in 1577. His son took over from him and then it passed to other blacksmiths until in 1750 Michele Wegher came from Lauregno and took over.  Luigi was his great grandson. The Weghers lived in Maso Milano and the family is still there today.

     Maria married Giovanni Luigi Stefani on 20 Oct 1849 at the age of 18.  She brought a fair amount of property into the marriage as her family was prosperous.  Giovanni and Maria had bad luck with their children.  Out of seven children, when the youngest, Francesco, was born only two others were alive.  And one of these, his brother Giacomo died when Francesco was 4.  The only other surviving child, his sister, Adelaide, had an accident when young and spent 6 years convalescing resulting in her having a hunched back.  This must have been heart wrenching for Maria.

     She must have doted on her youngest son, Francesco, who was strong and healthy and devoted to her. Her husband, on the other hand, didn't take any of this well and became a ne'er do well drunkard.  Frank would hold back as much money as he could from what he and his father earned by peddling and give it to his mother.  When he was older he went to Germany and France and worked at various jobs (Railroad, mines, chemical plant) and sent money back to his mother. It wasn't until after she died on 23 Nov 1884, that he left for America.  In later years he told his children how terrible his father was but praised his mother.  "He dearly loved his mother" is how his son, Clement, put it.

     The family lived in house #54, which still stands in Sporminore today. I believe that she would have been very proud of her son and her daughter, their lives and their families and the many descendants both have living in America and Italy today.

52 Ancestors Year 2 #19: Margaret Hepler

     Margaret Hepler was the mother of my husband's grandfather.  The only info I had about her was her name and that she had married John Milton Negley.  I found them in the 1880 Census living in Elizabeth, Allegheny, Pennsylvania.  It gave her age as 33, suggesting she was born in 1847. It gave Pennsylvania as place of birth. Research showed a Tobias Hepler in Butler County, PA who had a daughter, Margaret, born about 1847. I determined that Butler was adjacent to Allegheny County and that John Milton Negley had two Uncles and their families living in Butler County. But how could I be sure that Tobias was Margaret's father? I sent messages to two people on Ancestry who had Tobias in their trees. One of them sent me a link to Tobias' will.  Here's what I found:

            " I give and bequeath my sons and daughters Elizabeth Burtner wife of John Burtner, Mary Titus wife of John Titus, John Hepler, Joseph Hepler, Margaret Negley wife of John Negley, William Hepler, Catharine Hepler after expenses are paid divided equally among the Seven above named..."  written in 1879.

     So I had found her parents.  I was able to find her in the 1950, 1860 and 1870 Censuses after this. This also led me into discovering in her ancestry a line of French Canadians that goes back to Quebec in 1652!

     I still don't know much about her, though.  She and John lived on a farm in 1880, they had three children.  She died in 1890. I don't know the exact date of her birth, marriage or death.  I think her death had a profound effect on the family as in 1900 John is living in Pittsburgh working as a Street Car Conductor while the three children are living on the farm in Elizabeth. I wish I knew more about her!

     What this does tell me is the importance of wills in family history research and the value of communicating with other researchers!