What Condition Did Harry Have?

Once upon a time, Mary Jane Millikan (1833-1910) married William E. Baker (1833-1866) in 1854 Iowa.

They had eight children. Harry, the youngest, was born after his dad died in May of 1866.

I haven't yet found Harry's birth date. But the 1870 Federal Census indicates he is three years old. 

That same census ALSO shows Harry with a disability. See where "Disability Condition" is indicated below with a "Y" to indicate "yes."



This is a wide view of that census page. Harry is on Line No. 28, in yellow:



He and his mother ("M.J. Baker") are living with her parents, John and Elizabeth Millikan. The recently-widowed Mary Jane works in their household. 



Also with Harry are his older siblings, Frances Elizabeth and John K. Baker, on Lines No. 25 and 26. Luckily I know their names/ages from other records. If this was the only record I had on them, I'd go mad trying to guess their names. Crazy handwriting!


I am instead left with a one-word challenge. In the column asking what physical disability a citizen might have, is listed Harry's condition:


Help!  Have you any idea what it might be? 


BTW, Mary Jane Millikan Baker is my paternal 3x GGrandmother. 

UPDATE:  Two cousins found the answer. Poor little Harry was "idiotic." A term no longer used today to describe mentally challenged people. But it is a term often used in the 19th century--and specifically, the 1870 census. I've not found Harry in the next federal census of 1880.

But dear Harry, you are remembered here in the blogosphere. And thank you to Leah and Jaime for their keen grasp of cursive writing. 

He Was Only 50

My Great-Grandfather Amiel Wiser died in Devers, Texas on a Saturday night, October 26, 1895. He was 50 years old. What illness he suffered is no longer remembered. 

His pregnant widow Sylvina was left to raise eight children--the eldest at 15. The youngest was born seven months later. 

I've found no obituary or death certificate. But I have this brief death notice from The Galveston Daily News on Wednesday, October 30, 1895 for "Mr. Weiser." 


"One of the oldest settlers here" in Liberty County, Texas. A generous remark. But I think there were many alive then who had lived long in Devers. His daughter Nora recalls him saying he had moved from Germany when he was but six years old. (about 1851).

However, Amiel's older brother Louis told a 1867 voting registrar that he had lived in Texas for 13 years. (Arriving about 1854). The tax record indicates he was naturalized in 1859. 

A certificate from April 1853 filed in Galveston County shows their mother Hannah's marriage to Sam Leeper, an early Liberty, Texas resident. It is my earliest record of Amiel's mother. 

Both Amiel (known as "Lemuel"), age 15, and Louis, age 16, appear in the 1860 Federal Census with their mother Hannah Leeper, 36, living near Wallisville in Chambers County, Texas. 

I hope to find more records of my German immigrant ancestor.




Alberty Cemetery in Mayes County

My paternal ancestors moved from Pennsylvania to Indian Territory in the 1870s and lived--by permission from the Cherokee Nation, in rural Mayes County. A few are buried near where they once lived. The town called Bethel is no more. But its cemetery remains.

When I first searched for the grave of my father's great-grandfather, burial records were scant online. Findagrave had a mere four million memorials. I was new to genealogy. Where to begin?

My Great-Aunt Lois Childers told me her husband Sam's grandpa was buried in the Alberty Cemetery between Pryor and Chouteau. But warned me his tombstone had not been there when they last visited in 1989. The cemetery was knee-high with weeds that hot day they climbed the hill. Sam's first cousin, Adolphus "Bob" Ackley and wife Annie, had asked to see Bob's grandfather's grave.

Bob Ackley filmed their hike into the brush. The Alberty graveyard search begins one minute 55 seconds into this video:




I first visited the Alberty Cemetery in February 2005 after locating a copy of an article from The Daily Times newspaper in Pryor Creek. Writer Kathy Parker detailed the extensive cleanup performed that Spring by Florene Gass, her son Charles Gass, his wife Barbara Gass, and Florene's sister Della Mae Deason. 

Just in time for Memorial Day. Stilwell family's search for the past finds forgotten cemetery -- Kathy Parker, May 23, 2004.

It had been years since Florene Gass and Della Mae Deason visited their grandmother's grave. 

"I only remember being here one time (as a child)," Florene said. 

So finding their way back to what had become a forgotten place proved to be a challenge.

The two women now live in Stilwell and were surprised to find old familiar landmarks such as Cry Baby Bridge were gone. 

"We only knew how to get here across the bridge (Cry Baby Bridge)," Florene's sister Della Mae said. 

But eventually they found Alberty Cemetery, a place once called Bethel. When they got there, they could hardly find the grave. 

The cemetery had gone back to woods.There were big trees, small trees, briars, brambles, weeds and varmints.Trees had grown up through some graves. A once well-tended graveyard was impassable. 

Buck Franklin who leases the land from the Corps of Engineers provided access for the sisters through a gate he had built off Highway 412A near the Chouteau power plant. 

"I just thought somebody ought to see what they (Florene and Della Mae) have done in there," Franklin said. 

What they've "done in there" is no small feat since there were only three and sometimes four to do the cleaning, all women save one. Making several trips from Stilwell, they brought their own equipment and bought the gas to run it. 

Florene said it's what they had to do once they found the place. 

"Mom thought a grave ought to look like a grave," she said, "so we pulled all the grass off." 

The grave was Florene's grandmother Sarah Jane Shephard, whose headstone bears the years 1866 to 1934. They also have another ancestor buried in the cemetery, Katherine (Bond) Clinton.

Franklin and his father, who leased the land before him, put up the gate because the cemetery was being so badly defaced. Franklin's father also put a fence around the cemetery, which had people buried in it as recently as the 1970s. 

Since that time the woods have reclaimed the burial plots. In fact, about 10 years ago several of the gravestones were removed and thrown off Cry Baby Bridge. GRDA came in with their equipment to salvage the stones.  

Deason and Gass started with their grandmother's grave but the whole cemetery was such a mess, cleaning one grave was "like spitting in the ocean." So, along with Florene's son Charles and his wife Barbara, they have been cleaning and clearing the cemetery.

A map at Pryor's library calls the place Bethel Cemetery.  Bethel Church once stood nearby along with a community including New Canaan School according to Franklin. The map suggests the area was at one time known as the McNair School District before World War II.

The road is now cleared to the cemetery, and I called the MidAmerica Industrial Plant to set up a time for someone to let me through the locked gate. Once through, it was about a mile into the woods.

The cemetery is T-shaped, divided into an older part running north and south and a newer part running east and west.  

Buried in the older part are 19 people who were born before 1850. Over half the people buried in the old section died before 1890. It seems there are more children and infants than adults in the cemetery. One plot holds an entire family which died within a week of each other in 1932."

Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA)'s right-of-way crew, Bruce Willis, Jerry Harris, Nathan Willis and Todd Hayes, mowed the approach to the cemetery and Steve Stough of the excavating crew graded the road.

____________

If you had family who once lived near Bethel in Mayes County, you may be interested in what occurred there during World War II. 

In 1941 DuPont Company began building a munitions plant near the Alberty Cemetery in Bethel. TNT and Tetryl (a detonator) were produced at this powder plant. It created thousands of jobs for workers during this Depression era. Much-needed jobs. Read this from the Oklahoma Historical Society. The numbers are amazing:
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OK069 

German prisoners of war also lived and worked nearby. Imagine that!
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=PR016 

Today that area is the property of MidAmerica Industrial Park. Those interested in visiting the Alberty Cemetery should first contact MidAmerica to request permission.   https://maip.com/ 


Welk Wilhelm In The Times-Picayune, 1882

Found yet another mention of my ancestor Welcome Wilhelm. He and his victim, Willie Berry, are in the fourth paragraph:


I couldn't crop just the paragraph about my mother's great-grandfather. Had to share the whole article.

It is so verrrry Texas, amirite?

My mother had a faint memory of hearing her elders discussing this event.

She thought her grandfather Edgar might have witnessed the shooting.

Or that Welk's family may have seen the killing. She wasn't certain. 

I hope not! Edgar would have been 13 years old, and the eldest of Welk and Mary's seven children. No child should witness that.

Do you know more about that sad day in November 1882?


--  New Orleans' Times-Picayune, published November 13, 1882, on page 2. 


The Husbands of Anna Lee

          Born Matilda Anna Lee in Carroll County, Missouri on December 7, 1864 to Josiah Lee (1820-1890) and Eveline Brizendine (1841-1884), Anna first married at age 19.

          Her bridegroom, William Albert Baker, was born about January 18, 1860 in Keokuk County, Iowa to William E. Baker born in North Carolina (abt. 1833-1866) and Mary Jane Millikan (1833-1910) born in Morgan County, Indiana. 

          Did your people stay in one place for generations? Did they grow up knowing their great-greats and 50 cousins? Not mine. On both sides, my ancestors seemed to always be moving west. Some of us later reversed the trend. (Ask me how much I miss the Pacific Ocean). 


          I have a guess as to how Albert and Anna met. The 1880 Federal Census for Grand River, Daviess County, Missouri shows 20 year old Albert working as a laborer on the Thomas Feurt family farm. The Feurts were neighbors to the Lee family in Grand River. Yes, Anna's family.

          So on January 17, 1884 "Mr. Albert Baker" married "Miss Annie Lee" in Daviess County. They had three children who survived infancy. Two boys: Harry Albert and Samuel Oscar. I descend from their daughter Ora. 

          One year later Albert's older brother John K. Baker married Anna's older sister Margaret Lee on January 25, 1885. They had one male child, and sadly, Margaret died five months later. John married Louisa Agnes Hoffman six years later. They had five children. Would love to hear from their descendants. 


HUSBAND NO. 2:

          After June of 1899, Anna lost Albert. In a letter she wrote in 1931, Anna said Albert died shortly before the birth of their youngest son, Sam. Adding that it was about six years after their marriage, she cited the cause as "ulcers of the liver."


          William H. Ward and Mrs. Matilda A. Baker applied for a license to marry in Daviess County, Missouri on November 19, 1890. William was 26. Mrs. Baker was 25. 

          The Rev. William L. Merritt signed the document indicating he married the couple on November 20th 1890. It was filed of record on what looks to be the 29th of "Nov.", 1890. 

          As much as I like to hope that the signature of the bridegroom on the Application for License to Marry is that of "W. H. Ward," I note that the handwriting throughout the page appears to be from one person. This is not an original document, but one transcribed later by a court clerk onto the Daviess County marriage book. 

          Anna had three children before William's untimely death nearly ten years into their marriage. Anna once said William died of double pneumonia when his youngest son was about 16 months old. I do not know when Baby Lawrence was born, so I've no exact date. Do you know?



HUSBAND NO. 3:     Oh, my. I hope you can read this horrible facsimile of their marriage application and license. 


          On November 29, 1900 in Daviess County, 35 year old Anna Ward married James Allen Price (age 37). She had six children to add to their new family. James was recently divorced and raising several of his own children. I believe his ex-wife had left for Texas. (You probably know the same country AND western songs as I do about 'them ex's" in Texas). 

          James and Anna later added four children of their own. Their one son, Elmer Glen, died in 1905--a year after his birth.  

                Zeala Violet, b. Nov 1902 in Gallatin, Missouri, 

                Gladys Naomi, b. 1904 in Cherryvale, Kansas, and

                Zelma Pearl,  b. Jan 1909 in Keystone, Oklahoma.

          Before March of 1905, James and Anna moved from Missouri to southern Kansas. The Kansas state census told me they were living in the town of Cherry in Montgomery County with seven children. Jobs were plentiful. Mining and smelter jobs. Hard work. 

          About 1908 the family again moved by covered wagon just over the border to the booming oil town of Bartlesville. Oklahoma had just become a state. 

          Their final home was in Sand Springs, Tulsa County, where James later died at age 57 in 1920. Mrs. Anna Price passed on June 9, 1933 at age 68. 


          BTW, Anna's father Josiah Lee had four known wives. Anna descends from his marriage to his third wife. 

"What Were Their Names That We May Remember Them"

          “In Louisiana, black women were put in cells with male prisoners and some became pregnant. In 1848, legislators passed a new law declaring that all children born in the penitentiary of African American parents serving life sentences would be property of the state. 

          The women would raise the kids until the age of ten, at which point the penitentiary would place an ad in the newspaper. Thirty days later, the children would be auctioned off on the courthouse steps 'cash on delivery.' 

          The proceeds were used to fund schools for white children. . . many of [the black children] were purchased by prison officials.”


___________________

From Shane Bauer's excellent book of 2018: American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment. Winner of the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. Winner of the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. Winner of the 2019 RFK Book and Journalism Award.