Naming children for public figures

Among my ancestors are those who not only honored earlier generations by naming children after them, but also mined the names of public figures for inspiration.  A few samples:
     Benjamin Franklin Singer, 1840-1924
     Francis Marion Singer, 1841-1903
These were the half-siblings to my ancestor, Allen Ives.  Named for two American patriots of an earlier generation, the famous statesman and inventor, and "The Swamp Fox" of military fame during the Revolution.
     Thomas Jefferson Eckerson, born about 1827
     Andrew Jackson Eckerson, born about 1828
     William Henry Harrison Eckerson, born 8 Dec. 1841
These were brothers to my ancestor, Lambert Eckerson (probably named for his grandfather, Lambert Smith).  They were named for three U.S. Presidents, one a founding father, one a former military hero, and the last who died after only a month in office.  This occurred the same year his namesake was born. 
     Millard Ives, 1869-1874.  Son of my ancestor Allen Ives.
     Millard Fillmore Ives, born 1 February 1873.  Cousin to Millard Ives, above.  His father was Oren Ives.    U.S. President Millard Fillmore served between 1850-1853, and he didn't die until March of 1874.  I have no idea what fueled such admiration in this family.  
       


    
     

Eckersons in Civil War

Several of the men in my family have served the U.S. during military conflicts, stretching all the way back to the wars of early Colonial times.  Two examples are the Eckerson brothers:  William Henry Harrison and Charles W., who came to Lafayette County, Wisconsin with their parents, Levi & Hannah Smith Eckerson.  William Henry Harrison Eckerson, born 8 Dec. 1841 in Wyoming Co., NY, enlisted in Company I, 16th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, on 12 May 1861.  Charles was born 16 Sept. 1837 in Angelica, Allegany Co., NY., and enlisted on Christmas Eve, 24 Dec. 1861 in the same company and regiment, following his younger brother into the Union Army.


The application Charles W. Eckerson submitted for a pension of 1890 contains the following notarized statement:


"...in the service and in the line of duty at Corinth in the State of Mississippi...June, 1863 he received a kick from a mule in the abdominal region.  Also that while on detached service and in line of duty at Savage's Landing, near Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, about April, 1864, he was poisoned by having arsenic or other poison placed in his drink or food by a Confederate sympathizer which has ever since affected his stomach.  Not treated at any hospital."

On a 2010 visit to Vicksburg National Military Park, my husband and I located the monument for Wisconsin.  It's one of the few states which named all participants, not just the casualties.  William and Charles are both shown on the monument. 

Asa O. Ives...not always popular

     For many years, I've been working to connect the dots between my Ives ancestors, working eastward from Washington state to Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Ohio, toward Vermont and the well-documented New England Ives family.  I have several pieces of documentation which suggest a connection to one of the individuals named Asa Oren Ives.  I'm always gathering anything that would expand my knowledge of the family.
     One piece that stands out is this item, which was published in The Rutland Herald, of Rutland, Vermont, on 20 February 1808:

     We are left without any doubt about how David Palmer of Castleton, VT feels about this particular Asa O. Ives of Wallingford.  Love how he "hints it to the public" by taking out an ad in the local paper.  Could you do that today?   

     This quote comes to mind, whether this turns out to be "my" Asa or not:  “You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family, an' they're still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge 'em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don't.” 

― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird 

Joseph Francis-Lucetta Luhr (Clark)

THEY DIDN’T POSE FOR NORMAN ROCKWELL

Turning Family Drama Into a Bridge Across the Atlantic

     For many years, I’ve known that my ancestor, Joseph Francis, was divorced from his wife, Lucetta Luhr (Clark) Francis, in 1869.  She filed for and was granted a divorce in Adams County, Illinois, where she’d taken the children to live with her mother.  This must have been especially difficult, being unusual for the era.  But, I felt fortunate that the divorce papers clearly stated their children’s names, birth places, and birth dates. 

     Fast forward, to a research trip in the more recent past to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  What I learned had never occurred to me:  while Lucetta was suing Joseph Francis for divorce, he was counter-suing her across the Mississippi River, in Lee County, Iowa, where they had lived as a couple in Fort Madison.  It would have taken me half a day to photocopy the many pages of the complete Iowa case, all of which had been microfilmed.  (After I returned home, I ordered the film at my local LDS branch library and made copies.)  While Lucetta’s case against her husband described his low habits, Joseph supplied many depositions attacking his wife’s character.  And, buried among them, was one from his German-born mother-in-law (clearly supplied unwillingly).  The mission was obviously to establish a familial history of “loose women.”  I can imagine a TV attorney screaming “Objection!” to the questions!  However, for my purposes, they proved to be a gold mine. 

     Until now, I’d only had a brief sketch of Lucetta’s mother, based on a short county history, obituary, and census records.  She was born Doris Frantz, perhaps in Domitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and widowed about 1844 in Portsmouth, Ohio.  Joseph Francis’ divorce papers supplied so much more:  Doris’ approximate date of birth, HER mother’s name, when Doris’ parents had died, when she had been first married, when and where she’d first had children, about when she came to America, where she had first lived (Buffalo, New York, unknown to me), when and where she had married her second husband, Charley Clark (Canada:  again, news to me).  Using the marvelous resources of the library, I set to work.  I had a rare run of luck:  there was only one town in present-day Germany that looked close to what I wanted, it was in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the records were filmed, and they had a surname index.  (Trust me, it’s only happened once!)  It still required careful study of unfamiliar writing and language, and much trotting up to the help desk, so that the gracious, multi-lingual staff could translate what I was seeing.

     I now have more details than I would have thought possible to get for my 2^nd great grandmother, Dorothea Maria Augusta Franz.  So far, I have her birth date, christening date, confirmation date, marriage date, complete names of her parents, grandparents, occupations, and so on.  I have the same details for her husband, who I only knew as Frederick Luhr, but who was born Johann Joachim Friedrich Luhr.  He came from Lubtheen, a village close to that of his future wife.  I hope to find earlier generations in this family, but it will take careful reading.

     I’ll never know the whole story behind my ancestors’ divorce, but I do know I have been reminded of the same, basic lessons:  look for ALL the records in ALL the locations.  And, keep reading that old handwriting; you’ll be surprised at what’s hiding there.

Titanic: an unexpected experience

     My husband and I just returned from a Christmas trip to Las Vegas, where we discovered it isn't all about tinsel and neon.  A highlight was our visit to "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," which has been a fixture at the Luxor hotel for several years.  As the press release states, "viewed by more than 20 million people worldwide, the Exhibition is among the highest attended in history."

     Hundreds of authentic objects gathered from around the site of the ship's sinking are on display, including a massive chunk of the ship's hull, called "The Big Piece."  What makes the experience come alive, however, is the way in which the items are presented to tell a story.  Beginning with the Titanic's design and construction, to depictions of shipboard life, and the events leading to the ship's sinking, the viewer is taken back in time.  Various sections simulate a third-class cabin, the Grand Staircase, and a luxurious first-class suite.  We see dishware, beautiful jewelry, and gambling chips.  One very dark area represents the promenade deck on the moonless night of the disaster:  only starlight aided those on watch for icebergs.  The sound of the rushing ocean water alongside is somewhat ominous.  The next room has a large wall of "iceberg," which one is encouraged to touch.  We learn that the water temperature was actually colder than the ice, which I could only stand for a few seconds.  People didn't only die from drowning, but from the freezing water.

    The part that struck me the most, however, were the stories of personal experience.  When you enter the exhibit, you're issued a replica of a boarding pass with the name of an actual passenger, which includes age, destination, and what class traveling.  I had the pass of Esther Bloomfield Hart, traveling in second-class with her husband and small daughter.  Throughout the exhibit, I paid special attention to items relating to second-class.  There were several posters telling stories which represented a cross-section of the passengers and crew, along with their belongings.  From a handbag and the hand-addressed envelopes found inside, a set of tools someone was carrying to start a new life, to a simple pair of socks, it was a deeply moving experience.

    The last room is a simple wall with the name of every passenger.  The smaller section of names were the survivors; a huge area lists the names of those lost.  I found that Esther Hart and her daughter were saved, but they never saw Mr. Hart again.

    Truly a memorable and recommended outing.

Marriage notice: the rest of the story

    Using the website http://www.deathindexes.com/ as a portal, I recently made my way to an index of digitized newspapers for Quincy, Adams County, Illinois.  That website is at:  http://www.quincylibrary.org/library_resources/NewspaperArchive.asp .  There, I discovered a treasure trove of news snippets about my ancestors and their connections.  Notices of  trips taken, new jobs, illnesses, and the like, were all used to fill small corners of the pages.  However, a wedding notice of Fred Francis to Florence Dempsey, from 1916, points up the dangers of recording these items as "proof" of anything, or even a starting point for further information.  Here is the article from the Quincy Daily Journal of Saturday, 12 February 1916: 

     From my research in other sources, I know that the story is accurate on many points.  The last sentence, however, needs major clarification.  "She is the daughter of a prominent business man in South Chicago," diverges from the truth on two major points.
     Florence Isabell Dempsey was born in Cleveland:  Ohio, the youngest child of James Dempsey and Louise Coleman.  James and Louise were natives of New York state, and met when both were living in Oswego, NY.  The couple moved to Cleveland around 1880, and were the parents of 7 known children.  Theirs was not a happy marriage, and by the early part of the 20th century, lived apart.  Research to date hasn't revealed whether they ever actually divorced.  Louise Coleman Dempsey moved with her two youngest children, James Gleason Dempsey and Florence Dempsey, to Chicago by 1913, where she worked as a "practical nurse," and may be the individual listed in a city directory of that year described as widowed.   James Dempsey, the father of her children, remained in Cleveland, where he died in 1916.  He's buried at Calvary Cemetery, Cleveland.   
     Based upon the addresses which appeared in varioius Cleveland city directories, as well as the job description of stationery engineer on his death certificate, it's possible that James Dempsey worked at the Walker Mfg. Co. of Cleveland.  This was a forerunner of Westinghouse.  The addresses for the likely James Dempsey and his known children all surround a massive property where the factory was located.  Using a plat map of the time, I was able to identify the name of the factory on the site.


     And so, using additional available sources, the prominent South Chicago businessman emerges more accurately as the factory heavy equipment operator in Cleveland.

Mining the family treasures for Christmas decor

     The family trips of my childhood were never undertaken without the "toilet kit," a small leather suitcase which served as a sort of portable medicine cabinet. Besides toothpaste, there was always a small jar of Pond's cold cream, Chapstick, with its original, waxy flavor and black metal cylinder, and a tube of something for poison oak, which, when spread over a rash, dried to a nasty pinkish brown patch.  We would set out on camping trips in our unlovely Rambler station wagon, the wooden poles of the tent crammed crosswise behind the back seat, providing a firm neck support.  Most of the time the destination was Washington state, so there'd be rain at some point.  As a result, the green canvas tent always held a strong whiff of mildew.  Arrival at the campsite for the night meant everyone blowing up his or her air mattress, which usually deflated at some point overnight.  I know all this now, but at the time, a trip only meant a wonderful adventure was in store.  We have dozens of beautiful pictures where we're all smiling, so we managed quite well.

     Several years ago, I asked my mother for the "toilet kit" as a reminder of those times.  I think she had to replace the mirror in the lid, but eventually gifted it to me.  Inside was a note which read, "I hope you cherish the enclosed items as they come from my heart."  And yes, there was a jar of Pond's cold cream, a couple of 1960's pink plastic hair rollers, and the like.

     I hadn't remembered that part when I took the suitcase down off the shelf today, and it gave me a real chuckle to experience it all over.

     It had struck me that the case would make the perfect place for items of holiday decor, displayed on my hutch.  I put some wadded newspaper on the bottom, and arranged some fun items like they were spilling out the top.  The felt winter doll is one my sister made several years back.  It's fun seeing the case out on display, and only I know why my decorations carry a faint aroma of a 1960's hair net when I walk past.