The William Wesly White Story
6 May 1864 - 21 Nov 1948
28 March 2007Dear Children,
Tonight I want to tell you about Grandpa Stevens' Grandpa White.
William Wesley White grew up in beautiful Jo Daviess County, Illinois. He was the third in a family of nine children. The Whites were a well established, industrious farm family and instilled in their children a love of learning and an ardent religious leaning. Wes, as he was called, was fortunate to be able to attend college. He attended Illinois Normal, acquiring the credentials necessary to teach school and he taught in Platteville, Wisconsin. Wes had four brothers and sisters that taught school as well. Platteville is where he met his wife Anna Adelaide Nicklas. She was one of his students and was six years younger than he. Addie's story says her parents sent her to school in Platteville and she became so homesick she had to go back home. It would be very interesting to know exactly how that romance developed. We know it did develop because Wes and Addie married 16 Mar 1899 in Platteville.
The 1900 census shows Wes and Addie living in Rush Twsp, Jo Daviess County in the same house with Addie's parents and sister. The census says Wes is a farmer and he owns the home, not his father-in-law Peter. Helen always said the 4 children were all born on the farm where Wes grew up at Apple River, but it appears at least Wilbur was not. Perhaps they moved there after Peter Nicklas died in 1904. Anyway, the family lived at or near the farm at Apple River until 1908. All four children were born there or near there; Dorothy Ellen on Christmas Day in 1902. (Some people have a penchant for holidays. Dorothy Ellen died on New Years Day, 87 years later.) Philip in August of 1904, and Helen on 22 February 1906.
Two things happened in 1908 that affected the family's future. Addie developed a condition in her face called neuritis and was advised to move to a warmer climate. Wes's father, William L. White, was close to 70. He was tired. He did not want to farm anymore. So William L. sold the family farm and moved to town with his wife and daughter Annie, and Wes and Addie and their four kids moved to Midlothian, Virginia in Chesterfield County, near Richmond. I wonder why they chose Virginia. Wesley was an excellent farmer. Before long he owned two farms. One good cash crop they produced was strawberries. For extra money, the family cut down and sold pulp wood. The family appears on the 1910 and the 1920 censuses in Chesterfield County, township of Midlothian, Virginia.
Wesley did many things a little differently from his neighbors. Out of an old waogn wheel he made his kids a merry-go-round, which they loved to play on. They had one of the very early victrolas on which they played records by Sousa and Galley Kirchey. Wes was an amateur photographer. He enjoyed taking pictures and developing them, a progressive hobby for his day. And we have copies of many of the photos he took, including one of the four children playing on the wagon wheel merry-go-round.
Wes was an avid reader. The Reader's Digest was one of the few sources of reading material available. Like his brothers and sisters, Wes firmly believed in the value of education. Helen had warm memories of the whole family sitting around the kitchen table in the evening with everyone reading or doing schoolwork. He counselled his children to do their best in life and not to worry so much about competing with others. And he told them, "If you ever have troubles, come home with them. That's where help is."
When Helen was 17, she, her mother, Phillip, and Wilbur went to New Mexico because Wilbur had TB and the wet Virginia climate was bad for him. TB is short for Tuberculosis, a very serious bacterial disease of the lungs. Another name for it in olden days was Consumption. It was very common and very deadly in the days before antibiotics. Many people felt a warm dry climate was the best environment for an individual with TB.
But it was too late for Wilbur. He died there of TB a few months later. Mrs. White refused to come back to Virginia, so the family was forced to sell their nice farm and move to New Mexico where it was extremely hard for Wesley to make a living. In retrospect Helen realized it was a blessing the family moved to the southwest because both she and Phillip had developed TB, though no one knew at the time. Wes built his family a lovely home of stone. It was covered with ivy which was irrigated.
The 1930 census shows the White family in Dona Ana County, New Mexico. Wes is working as a general farmer, he owns his own home valued at $350. Philip is working as a farm laborer, Helen as a public school teacher, and Dorothy has been unemployed for 3 months, but lists Furniture store Stenographer as her occupation.
In 1935, when he was 70 years old, Wes, Addie, and daughter Dorothy moved to South Fork, Howell County, Missouri. There they bought a cheaper farm. Unfortunately, the soil was very poor and it was hard to make a living. On top of that it was the Depression and everyone was poor. South Fork is near West Plains in south central Missouri, near the border with Arkansas.
Paul remembers visiting his grandparents there. He says their farm was quite primitive. They had a pot bellied wood stove in the living room that provided heat for the house, and a shelf of National Geographics. In the yard was a shed where Dorothy milked the one cow. Paul wonders how they managed to eke out a living. It must have been a difficult life indeed.
One other thing we know aobut Wes is that he developed epilepsy late in life. It was successfully controlled.Here's a little about Wes and Addie's children:
Wes and Addie's eldest child Wilbur died in 1923 soon after they moved to New Mexico. He was a beautiful talented young man just like his father. When his sister, Helen, was in her eighties, she said to me one day, "Wouldn't it have been wonderful if Wilbur had lived?" This comment tells us as much about the atmosphere in Wes and Addie's home as it does about Wilbur. Even after 70 years Helen loved him and missed him.
Wes and Addie's 2nd child Dorothy, as a young girl was very bright and talented in music and art. But she had a difficult life as an adult. Helen paid for her to go to Business School, but she couldn't keep a job. She went to Nursing School but couldn't get along with the patients. She tried raising chickens, but that didn't go well either. She lived with her parents and cared for them until they died. After that she worked in a Laundromat for a while and then retired in Rifle, Colorado. Helen visited her there several times and reported her little house was filled with boxes and piles of stuff to the point that only aisles remained. She seemed to suffer from a personality disorder that didn't show up until she was grown. We have a painting Dorothy did of the Yuccas in New Mexico. When Dawne was little, Dorothy sewed many cute clothes for her including a hand-smocked dress that was saved and worn again by Dawne's daughters. In the 1970's Dorothy wrote a number of letters to our family telling about their lives in Virginia. A copy of those letters appears in this collection of stories.
Wes and Addie's third child Philip had to quit high school and help his parents. He married a Texas woman, Ezra Edna Grimes. You can read about Ezra in her own story, which also is included here. Ezra brought an adopted daughter, Dorothy Nell, to the marriage. Philip and Ezra adopted a second child, Bruce Elmer. Philip tried farming in Missouri but that didn't go too well. Paul spent one summer with him and his family on their farm in Jasper, Missouri. Then for 25 years Philip and Ezra operated a coin laundromat in Lawrence, Kansas, an endeavor which proved more productive for them. After they retired they bought a trailer and toured the western states, making many friends and thoroughly enjoying life. They'd spend winter in Texas and go north in the spring to Idaho where they enjoyed picking wild huckleberries, and canning apricots, apples, strawberries and rhubarb. Philip was a very friendly, good humored man. His wife was six years older than he and lived to be 96. During her later years she suffered from several debilitating conditions and required much care. Philip cared for her until she died, at which time he himself was 90 years old. He was never heard to complain. Philip lived another 5 years, dying in Brownwood, Texas in 1999. Philip Love White was a good and happy man. Their daughter, Dorothy Nell, married several times, moved to California, and had six children. Their son Bruce married a girl of Mexican descent, had two children, and retired in Mexico.Wes and Addie's fourth child Helen Frances, the youngest, is Grandpa's mother and has her own story.
Wes was born during the Civil War and lived through World War II and everything in between. As a young boy he had every advantage that an industrious, thrifty farm family that loved learning could give him. He began his adult life with a rather promising future. His family valued education and he attended college at a time when few did. He worked as a teacher and as a farmer. Teaching brought him his wife, and farming brought him some years of prosperity as a Virginia farmer. But then the health of his children forced him to leave his productive farm and spend his last 25 years ekeing out a living first in barren New Mexico and then in the poverty of southern Missouri. He was a man of education, of wisdom, energy,and ingenuity. Though he ended his life in poverty, the lessons he instilled in his children have been passed on down the line through his children and grandchildren to you dear ones.
Here's how you are related to William Wesley White. Wes married Anna Adelaide Nicklas and had Helen Frances White. Helen married Harold Balis Stevens and had Paul Robert Stevens. Paul married Dianne Irene Zimmerman and had Dawne Irene Stevens. Dawne married Jason Andrew Pamplin and had you wonderful children. William Wesley White was your great great grandfather.
Hooray for William Wesley White!
Love,
Granny
Per Wes's death certificate:
Immediate cause of death Bronchopneumonia which he had suffered with for three days.
Illness was due to chronic laryngitis, chronic __yoconditis, and arteriosclerosis.The informant was his wife, Adie.
The Anna Adelaide Nicklas Story
(20 Nov 1871 - 22 May 1951)
March 12, 2007Dear Children,
Anna Adelaide Nicklas, called Addie for short, was the third child of Peter and Dorothy Nicklas, a German-American farm family in Georgetown, Grant County, Wisconsin. Addie was born 20 November 1871 in Georgetown. One memory of Addie's girlhood that her daughter Helen shared with us was that as a young girl she sometimes earned money making strawberry baskets which she sold for a penny each. Another memory was that once a year a singing teacher would come to town and all the neighbors would gather and sing in parts.
Addie's parents sent her to college at UW-Platteville, where she lived with her brother George and his family. Yes, that's the same school that Nana and your Uncle Danny went to. But like her sister Eva, Addie became so homesick that she had to give it up and return home. At home she became a dressmaker and seamstress along with her mother and Eva. In those days a family would have the dressmaker come every spring and every fall and make all the clothes for the whole family. Nothing was bought ready-made. But somewhere along the line of her school career, I'm not sure whether it was in high school or her brief stay in college, her teacher was the handsome young Wesley White. He was seven years older than she. They married 16 Mar 1899 in Platteville.
After the wedding they moved back to Jo Daviess County. Their four children were born there on the farm where Wes had grown up, Wilbur in 1900, Dorothy in 1902, Philip in 1906, and Helen, our Nana, in 1906. Notice how the babies are two years apart. That was the normal spacing of children until quite recently. Addie breastfed her babies as all women did, there was no reasonable alternative. The breastfeeding protected them from having another baby before the first one was well into toddlerhood. Nana described her mother as a very gentle woman who never spanked her children.
When Nana was two the family moved to Midlothian, Virginia, where Wes bought a farm with good fertile soil and the family prospered. They had a spring on that farm. Do you know what a spring is? It is a place where beautiful clear water bubbles out of the ground. There was no pipe to bring water to the kitchen so having a way to get clean water was very important. The spring was nestled down in a fern bed with its own little house built around it. The spring house served as a refrigerator to keep the milk cool on warm days. Soon they had a well with a pump to make getting clean water even easier.
We have many pictures that Wes took of the Virginia days. In addition, Addie's daughter Dorothy wrote to us about their life there. Here are a few exerpts from her letters to give you a bit of the flavor of the White's life in Virginia:
"Goats are something we had on that first Virginia place. We were glad to tell the other children at school that we had kids at home. Those goats climbed up onto the chickenhouse roof. They were quite a nuisance. . . .
"When we went to Virginia, we turned yellow, because we got malaria, there was so much woods and dampness, making a fine home for mosquitos. . . .
"I'll mention music this month. When we children were little we had a gramophone in place of what we call a record player today. It had a horn that was shaped like a morning glory flower. The records were...cylinders that fitted on to a solid cylinder. Records I remember are, ' Just a Little Attic but it's Home Sweet Home', "Ring the Bells of Heaven', 'Tell Mother I'll be There', Poke Miller's 'The Old Time Religion', and instrumentals, some by violin, flute, and harp, one 'Love and Devotion.'
We had a book of favorite songs. Many of them were by Stephen Foster. . . .
"One odd thing that I remember is that there were beautiful wild violets growing in the graveyard at the colored church. The church was next door to our one-room schoolhouse. I picked violets and worried that night because I had stepped on some graves. . . Snobbish colored people from Richmond would come to visit the folk at our local colored church and sometimes there would be shootings. As I understand it, the city people felt much superior to the country folk and expressed their feelings. . . .
"Quite a few people in Virginia were proud of having Indian blood. One family lived on the first place we had in Virginia after we moved up on the hill. One brother asked father to pull a tooth for a poor Indian. Father did. . . .
"Our mother had four children for whom she sewed, washed with a washboard, churned and canned. We helped with the canning, because our family sold canned goods. We helped with the planting of tomato plants, potatoes, beans, etc. . . .
"Mothers often got lonely in those days when the fathers were at work and the children away at school. Few had telephones. There were no radios or television sets to keep one in touch with the world."Besides all the sewing and cooking we know that Addie always made time for flowers. Whenever Nana looked at my flowers she always told me how beautiful her mothers flowers were. I don't know if that was in Virginia, New Mexico (can you grow flowers in New Mexico?) or Missouri. We know she grew roses in Missouri because we have a picture of Addie in her roses.
After they lived in Virginia for two years, Wes built a better home "up on the hill." Now he owned two farms and rented one out. He was a prosperous Virginia farmer. And so we can understand his mixed feelings in 1923 when Addie insisted on the family moving to New Mexico.
Wilbur had been sick for several years and was getting sicker. His disease was called Consumption. Now it's called Tuberculosis. Addie was told that the Virginia climate was very bad for Wilbur and he should be in a warm dry place. Nothing was so important to Addie as her children. There was no question in her mind. She had to take Wilbur away. Addie had a cousin, William Henry Nicklas, who was a rancher in Dona Ana County, New Mexico. That is very likely the reason she picked that particular area of the warm dry southwest. Off she went with Wilbur, Philip, and Helen. Wilbur did not get better. He died in New Mexico in June of 1923. Addie told Wes she would not come back to Virginia, so he sold his nice farms and followed her. But even though it was very hard on the family financially, the move may have saved Philip and Helen who later learned they had had early TB at that time.
Addie and Wes and Dorothy, who continued to live with them, held out in New Mexico until 1935. By that time Wes was 71 years old and Addie 64. There was no Social Security in those days. People either saved enough to live on in their old age, or they moved in with their children, or they worked until they died. Wes and Addie sold their place in New Mexico and bought a new farm in South Fork, Missouri and kept working. Aunt Dorothy went too. The new place had poor rocky soil and life was no doubt quite a struggle. Wes died there in 1948 and Addie in 1951, just shy of 80 years. This is what her death certificate says about her cause of death. Cause of death was Chronic Myocarditis (inflamation of the heart muscle) which she had suffered with for five years. It was a result of 10 years of arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Another significant condition she suffered from was chronic cholecystitis (gall stones). She had had that condition for ten years.
You can read about Wes and Addie's children, Philip and Dorothy, in Wes's story. Helen (Nana) is our ancestor. She has her own story.
So this is our ancestor Anna Adelaide Nicklas. She came from a family of strong resourceful German women. She fell in love and married her schoolteacher. She had four children she adored. She gave up a fairly comfortable life as a Virginia farmer's wife in the effort to save her son, Wilbur. Though that effort failed, she may have inadvertently saved her other children. She and Wes lived a long struggling life as senior citizens, but she always had roses. Anna Adelaide Nicklas was a good faithful loving wife and mother. We are proud to have her as our ancestor.
Here's how you are related to Anna Adelaide Nicklas. Addie and Wes birthed Helen White. Helen and Harold Stevens birthed Paul. Paul and Dianne birthed Dawne. Dawne and Jason Pamplin birthed . . . Sarah, Hannah, Timmy, and Becky!
So Hooray for Anna Adelaide Nicklas!
Love,
Granny
Death certificate gives date of birth as 20 Nov 1872
The informant of the death was her daughter, Dorothy White.
Wilbur died in 1923 soon after they moved to New Mexico. He was a beautiful talented young man just like his father. When his sister, Helen, was in her eighties, she said to me one day, "Wouldn't it have been wonderful if Wilbur had lived?" This comment tells us as much about the atmosphere in Wes and Adie's home as it does about Wilbur. Even after 70 years Helen loved him and missed him.
Dorothy, as a young girl was very bright and talented in music and art. But she had a difficult life as an adult. Helen paid for her to go to Business School, but she couldn't keep a job. She went to Nursing School but couldn't get along with the patients. She tried raising chickens, but that didn't go well either. She lived with her parents until they died. After that she worked in a Laundromat for a while and then retired in Rifle, Colorado. Helen visited her there several times and reported her little house was filled with boxes and piles of stuff to the point that only aisles remained. She seemed to suffer from a personality disorder that didn't show up until she was grown. We have a painting Dorothy did of the Yuccas in New Mexico. When Dawne was little, Dorothy sewed many cute clothes for her including a hand-smocked dress that was saved and worn again by Dawne's daughters.
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When I was 14 I had this romantic fantasy that I was going to grow up and marry a farmer and have this idyllic life in the country. In 1955 my dad married my step-mother and she took us down to meet her family on the farm in Missouri, back in the hills south of Columbia. There was no picturesque red barn, only a collection of ramshackle out buildings. They didn't even own the place. They rented it. There was no indoor plumbing, just a two-seater, and a well with a pump for water. When our step-grandma wanted a chicken for supper she went out in the yard, caught a hen, swung it around her head to break its neck, brought it inside and plucked it and cooked it. I still have several of her home-made pillows she stuffed with her own chicken feathers. My brother and I were totally enchanted. You would have thought it was heaven the way we carried on about going to Missouri. The first time we went I asked if I was going to get to ride a horse. You do that on farms, right? Grandma Kleasner said that I could ride Farmer Palmer's old mare down in the pasture. I must have had help finding the pasture and getting up on the horse, because there was no saddle or stirrups or anything like that. I must of had help, but all I remember is I was all alone in that pasture up on top of a very tall horse. No, I had never been on a horse before. The horse and I did fine for a few moments. Then she saw her colt appear on the other side of the pasture. She took off in a flash. I not only fell off, the old horse stepped on my ankle on her way past. Another time we went down when their school was still in session and I walked with the neighbor kids to the one-room school down the lane. It was interesting to me to see what it was like. I was an 8th grader at the time. After lunch we played baseball. The kids were amazed I knew how to hit and catch. Then one kid spoke up and said, "Well she IS Wayne Kleasner's niece!" So of course, I should know how to play ball. To this day when I think of farm life I picture that place in Missouri and I see the cows on the hillside across the road moseying home in the evening light.
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Guardianship Sept. 1994 to Dec. 1998
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Madison, Wisconsin
October 31, 2005Dear Children,
Tonight I want to tell you everything I know about:
William L. White
(1839 - 1918)William L. was the oldest son of Irish immigrants, Andrew and Matilda White. They lived in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, in an area near Galena called Irish Hollow. Most of Illinois is very flat, but Jo Daviess County is a part of the Driftless Area that escaped the ice age glaciers. The counryside is made up of very picturesque hills and valleys with the Apple River flowing through it. I loved this part of Illinois long before I had ever heard of Whites or Stevens. When Nana first told me she was born in Apple River, Illinois I knew it was fate that had brought me to join this family.
I have found no record of what the L. in his name stood for. I believe it was Leslie, because one of his sons was Wilbur Leslie, and another was William Wesley. But that's only a guess.
When William was not yet 20 he married a girl down the lane, Rachel Black, whose family was also from Ireland. William's father had to sign for him as he was underage to marry. We don't know what happened to Rachel. Perhaps she died in childbirth as did many women at that time. What we do know is that by September of 1860 William appears on the census living back with his birth family. On April 26 of 1862 he married Ellen Barrett (nee Faragher) a widow with a four year old son, Enoch.
The next we hear about William is when he is acting as executor of his father's estate. His father, Andrew, died on August 23, 1863. His mother had already died, we don't know when. As the eldest son, it was William's responsibility to see that all his father's property and possessions were disposed of properly, a task he fullfilled. He was only 23.
William and Ellen moved to a farm in Apple River township right near Mt. Sumner, a funny mound that juts way up above the surrounding countryside. Together they had eleven children. You can read about their life together and about their children in the story about his wife, Ellen Faragher. They lived there until they sold their farm in 1908 and moved into the village of Apple River. William died there on the 24th of October, 1918, and is buried in the nearby West Ella Cemetery.
In trying to learn about this family I have searched through records from Jo Daviess County and Census records. It has been a little bit difficult because White is a common name. It's amazing how many William Whites there were in the county at the same time. For an example, I found there were four White families farming in sections 34 and 35 of Apple River Township in the year 1878. They were J.C. White, William L. White, William White, Sr., and William White, Jr. Fortunately our William almost always used his middle initial.
The only other thing I know about William is that he was an excellent craftsman with wood. We have a beautiful little drop-leaf table that he made for Ellen. His granddaughter, Helen, told that he made many pieces of furniture for her.
Here's how you are related to William L. White. William and Ellen had William Wesley White. William Wesley White had Helen Frances White. Helen Frances White had Paul Robert Stevens. Paul Robert Stevens had Dawne Irene Stevens. Dawne Irene Stevens had Sarah Elizabeth, Hannah Irene, Timothy Paul, and Rebecca Anne Pamplin. Hooray for William L. White!
Love, Granny
The Ellen Faragher Story
14 October 2005
Dear Children,Tonight I am writing to you about Ellen Faragher. Ellen was a pioneer woman who was strong and brave. She endured a lot of hardship in her life and met it head on, leaving her descendants a legacy of courage in the face of life's disasters, as well as a more material legacy.
Ellen was born on the Isle of Man, an island in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland. She was christened at Patrick, a small village near Peel, on December 26, 1836. Ellen was the 10th child and 8th daughter of a prosperous farm family, William and Ann Kelly Faragher. I say prosperous because they lived in a large beautiful home that even had a name, Ballacooil. We have a picture of it. Though Ellen was the 8th daughter, she didn't have seven sisters to greet her birth. One sister, Ellinor, born in May of 1836, only lived for seven months. You may think it strange that a family would name a baby so closely to another who had died, but this practice was quite common in earlier times. In fact Ellen may have been named Ellinor. In her father's will, he refers to Ellen as "Ellinor."
We don't know very much about Ellen's life in Isle of Man before she came to America. Her granddaughter, Helen Romppainen, was fond of telling that the folk of this island were rugged and independent people. One story Helen remembered of her grandmother was that as a young girl Ellen helped the women with the wash and spread the clothes on the rocks to dry. I always imagined this to be right on the shore of the ocean. In the photo we have of Ellen's childhood home, over on the left edge, we can see something very blue that looks like the ocean.
I want to tell you a few of the things I've learned about this Isle of Man place where Ellen was born. In ancient times Isle of Man was home to people called the Celts. The name of the island is from the a Celtic word for Neptune, Mannanan. The Vikings wreacked havoc on the island in the early 800's. During the 900's they sent settlers and the Isle came under the rule of the Scandinavian kings of Dublin. At that time Man was ruled as part of the Sudreys which are all the little islands west of Scotland from the Hebrides south to Isle of Man. In 1275 Scotland won control of the isle. For the next century or so it went back and forth from Scottish control to English. But by 1406 it was in English hands and stayed there. Something very interesting happened that year. King Henry IV of England gave the island to Sir John Stanley and his heirs on the condition that they send two falcons to every king of England upon his coronation. Why is that interesting? That is the very same Sir John Stanley that is in our family tree on the Derrick line. He was one of our ancestors! Sir John did some good things for IOM. He ordered laws to be written down. He began the practise of trail by jury, rather than trial by battle. And he curbed the power of the church. We'll learn more about him on another day.
Through the years IOM had some good rulers and some bad. During a period when the peoples' rights to their land were not being respected many on the island turned to fishing and smuggling for their livelihoods, a leaning which lasted for a century or more. Today IOM has a vigorous tourist industry and is known as a tax haven. It's very famous for its motorcycle races which we have watched on our TV in Wisconsin. The native language of the Isle of Man in called Manx. The last native speaker of Manx died in the 1970's, but it is now being taught in some schools. Do you think our Ellen spoke Manx? Perhaps. All the farms have names with lots of l's and vowels. I'll bet they are from the Manx language. The Faragher's farm was named "Ballacooil."
The story of how Ellen came to America shows how tough and independent she was. Here is an account of this journey in a letter from her daughter, Lizzie, to Helen in 1962.
"Mother came from England when she was 18 yrs. old. It took 7 weeks to make the voyage from Peel, Isle of Mann, England, to Elizabeth, Illinois by train, stage, and boat. While on the sea she witnessed several deaths and burials of passengers. They would have a short service then lower the bodies by ropes into the deep waters. When she got to Galena (Illinois) she had no way to get to Elizabeth, so she walked those miles to her sister's home and stayed there until she was married to Enoch Barrett in April 1857."
Can you imagine the courage it took for a young girl of just 18 to come to America all by herself in the first place, and then to walk the last 15 miles all by herself through the forest, carrying all her gear with her? We have a beautiful piece of hand woven cloth which she brought with her on that journey from the Isle of Man.Why she came to America is also interesting. Aunt Dorothy in her letters to the Stevens family wrote,
"About Grandma White, I don't know her maiden name. I think it was something like Faricker. The Mormon church today sends out missionaries. In Grandma White's day they sent missionaries to the Isle of Man. A number of Grandma's sisters came to this country to join the Mormon colony."
I have found one sister, Ann, who did come to America and convert to the Mormon faith. Her descendant, Irene Clark, and I have been in contact and have collaborated on the Faragher genealogy. I believe the sister she came to join in Elizabeth was her sister Elizabeth who had married Robert Corris on the Isle of Man. I have combed the 1860 census for Elizabeth, Illinois, and the only person I found that could be Ellen's sister is Elizabeth "Carsis". 1860 Census (Ancestry p.625) lists Robert and Elizabeth "Carsis" born in England, Elizabeth is 36. Ellen's sister Elizabeth would have been 36 in 1860 and married Robert Corris. Robert "Carsis" is also the correct age to be Robert Corris - 35. Another bit of supporting evidence I have found is a Robert Corris listed on the 1855 property tax list for Elizabeth, Illinois. A third reason, Ellen, Elizabeth, Ann, and Jane are the 4 sisters to whom the father left only one pound in his will. Ann and Ellen were both in America when he died. If this is the correct Elizabeth, she also was living in America in 1865 when her father wrote his will. Perhaps we will find that Jane too, came to America. Why did he leave them only one pound each? Perhaps he felt they could be of no use to him in his old age. Because of these three bits of evidence I am 99% sure Elizabeth Corris is the sister Ellen came to be with in Elizabeth, Illinois in 1854.Lizzie says Ellen lived with her sister until she married Enoch Barrett, March 14, 1857. Enoch was born on July 15, 1834, in England, the son of Michael and Annie Barrett. On the marriage certificate Ellen's name is written "Hellen Fariher." Lizzie's letter describes what happened next.
" Enoch B. was killed in October as he stood leaning on a gun, watching a game of horse shoe, when a horse shoe hit the hammer of his gun and it went off and killed him. Mother was in the kitchen helping with dinner for a crowd of men and heard the report of the gun and saw Enoch fall. She ran out and took off her apron and wrapped his head with it. And there, alone left, she struggled on until Jan. 12, 1858 when her baby Enoch was born."We don't know where Ellen went after her husband died. Life must have been very hard for a single mother in those days. In the 1860 census Ellen and baby Enoch are living with the family of William and Eleanor Ludener. William's occupation is listed as miner. Ellen's description says, "Eleanor Barrett, age 23, seamstress, born in England." Perhaps she was trading her sewing skills for room and board for herself and little Enoch.
Ellen was on her own for five years. On April 26, 1862 she married William L. White. William had also been married before. He had married Rachel Black, a girl who had grown up very near to himself. We don't know when or how Rachel died. Adding to little Enoch, William L. and Ellen had eleven children together, including two sets of fraternal twins, and three more children that died in infancy and of whom we have no record. That made a family of 11.
William L. and Ellen had a farm in Section 35 of Apple River township, Jo Daviess County, Illinois. It was right near a huge hill called Mt. Sumner. We have a photo of the farm house. Nana never tired of painting it. It was the house where Nana (Helen) was born. Life was a hard lot for a farm woman in those days. Aunt Dorothy wrote about it in her letters.
"I don't know if many people nowadays have cisterns or not. There was one on our Illinois place. (This would be the Apple River farm.). . . My but life is much easier on womenfolk than it used to be. We don't have the big ironings they used to have to do. Grandmother White had to have every sock ironed. Everything had to be ironed. The water had to be hand pumped and carried in pails. It was necessary to boil the clothes. The bar of soap (one kind was called Octagon) had to be sliced up so as to be softened by the water. We didn't have chore girls, woven metal gadgets to get the sticky particles of food off the dishes. I've heard the practice of saving string made fun of nowadays. There were no tapes or rubber bands for quickly sealing packages. What alot of sewing and mending had to be done!"
Plus cooking everything from scratch for a family of 11 plus any hired help. Plus birthing and nursing and caring for 9+ kids. And she had time to worry if every sock was ironed?Helen White, Ellen's granddaughter, reported that every now and then, maybe once a year, Ellen would simply disappear for two or three days. No one knew where she went, but when she returned they would welcome her back with open arms and say nothing about it. I don't doubt that she needed a vacation!
Another detail of life that Helen remembered was that Ellen gave each of her sons a bearskin coat which she bought for them.
When William and Ellen retired, about 1908, they sold their farm and moved to a new home in the town of Apple River. William died there on 24 October 1918 and Ellen died 6 September 1927 at the age of 90.
Following is a list of the bequests ordered by Ellen's will. Remember that $92 in 1927 would equal $1000 today:
Annie E, White, daughter - $1000.00; the house in Apple River, with the understanding that John K. White may live there also, as long as he likes; all household goods. Annie was also named executor.John K. White, son - 1000.00
Enoch Barrett, son - 500.00Phillip L. White, grandson - 100.00 (Phillip, Dorothy, & Helen; children of Ellen's son William)
Dorothy White, granddaughter - 100.00
Helen White, granddaughter - 100.00
Edith M. Phillips, granddaughter - 100.00 (Edith & Ellen; children of Ellen's daughter Lizzie)
Ellen W. Phillips, granddaughter - 100.00
Howard F. White, grandson - 100.00 (Howard & Merritt; sons of Ellen's son Tibbals)
Merritt W. White, grandson - 100.00
James Barrett, grandson - 100.00 (James, son of Ellen's son Enoch Barrett, Jr.)
Methodist Episcopal Church of Apple River - $200.00 for foreign missions and $200.00 for homeland missions
Any remaining property was to be divided equally among her five living White children, William, John, Joseph, Annie White, and Elizabeth Phillips. After all the above payments were made, $5313.80 remained. $1062.76 went to each of the 5 White children. The $100.00 for grandson Howard was turned over to the county treasurer as no one knew the whereabouts of Howard.
Besides the cloth she brought with her from the Isle of Man, we also have several pieces of furniture that once belonged to Ellen. We have an end table that her husband William made for her. We also have two rockers. One is a platform rocker, one of the first pieces of furniture Ellen ever owned. It's currently upholstered in green velvet. The other is a traditional rocking chair with spindle rungs between the arm rest and the seat. It was at one time covered with white paint and was refinished by Dianne and Jon Stevens. It now has a red velvet upholstered seat.
You may be wondering what became of Ellen's children. Here's a run down.
Enoch Barrett, Jr. - He grew up to be a farmer. He married Margaret Barningham, a girl with no hair and no eyebrows or eyelashes either. It seems strange that Ellen willed the remainder of her estate to only her White children, leaving out Enoch, though he was left $500. Enoch and Margaret had one son, James, after both were in their 40's. James never married. He lived with Aunt Annie until Aunt Lizzie moved in. He did not like Aunt Lizzie. He once told Helen, "Aunt Annie is very religious, but she lives her religion. Aunt Lizzie just talks hers." When he died in the 1960's, he owned several large farms in Jo Daviess County. His estate came to over $200,000 and was left to his cousins.
Rachel never married. She died of a stroke in 1902 at the age of 40.
William Wesley White was our ancestor. He attended Illinois Normal and became a teacher. He lived and farmed in Illinois, Virginia, New Mexico, and Missouri. More about him later.
John K. also attended Illinois Normal. He was a very religious man. His first wife, Emma, died of puerperal fever when their baby, Emma was born in 1895. The baby died too. His second wife divorced him leaving some in the family to think she must not have been quite sane. John was a schoolteacher, however, the 1920 census shows him living with his brother Tibbals in Iowa and working as a chiropractor! On the 1930 census he reports his occupation as house painter.
After John came the twins, Joseph and Annie, born in 1873. Joseph lists "instructor" as his profession on the 1910 census, at which time he was living with Mom and Dad in the village of Apple River. In 1920 he has married a woman 14 years older than himself and they are both working as missionaries in Delaware, Ohio. I cannot find him on the 1930 census, but we know he was still living when his mother died in 1927.
Annie is the one in the family we know most about (next to William Wesley, of course!) In 2002 Paul and Dianne went to Apple River to try to locate the old farm house. At the place where we thought it should be we met two old men, the Williams brothers, in their eighties. They both remembered Annie White, the school teacher. They spoke glowingly of how sweet she was and how much they had loved her. As a young girl Annie was a beautiful blonde. Her brother, William Wesley, counselled her not to marry a certain wealthy gentleman because he was not religious enough. She turned him down and never did marry. Annie taught school for many years. When her parents retired, sold the farm, and moved to town, Wesley encouraged her to quit teaching and take care of them. Annie did so and was paid $2 per week to care for them and keep house. Out of this salary she saved enough to help her niece Helen with her college expenses. When William and Ellen died, they left their home to Annie with the understanding that she would make a home for any White who was down on his luck. Annie lived there with her brother John and the two were good, industrious people. Other Whites came to visit but they seldom stayed because Annie and John were so religious. So they took in other old people who needed their help. When Annie was way up in her seventies and eighties she was painting her two story house and caring for little old ladies. Dianne and Paul Stevens have a beautiful map of the United States which Annie drew and painted when she was 18. She exhibited it in the state fair in 1890 and won a first prize. I believe Annie also played the piano. In Lizzie's letter she mentions inheriting Annie's piano. Annie lived to be almost 85. It's nice to know she is still remembered with respect and affection.
After Joseph and Annie came another set of twins in 1876, Tibbals and Lizzie. Can you imagine? Twins not yet three and Ellen has another set of twins. I'm sure the 10, 12, and 13 year olds had a lot of work to do helping her out. There were no disposable diapers then. And Ellen irons everything - including socks! Do you think she ironed the diapers?
In Ellen's will she calls him George Tibbals, but everyone always called him Tibbals. We have no idea where that name came from. Tibbals was the post master for many years at Oskaloosa, Iowa. He married Ella Francomb and they had one son, Howard. After only 12 years of marriage Ella died and Tibbals married Della Sincox. They produced another son, Merritt. Then Tibbals and Della both died in the terrible flu epidemic of 1923. Tibbals and both wives, Ella and Della, are buried in the home cemetery at Apple River. Howard, just 17(According to the 1920 census, Howard was probably 19 when his parents died), went to live with Aunt Annie and Uncle John in Apple River. A short time later he left for Chicago and was never heard from again. Merritt was a small child of 3 in 1923. He went to live with his mother's Sincox relatives. When he grew up he lived in Virginia and had 6 kids. One daughter came to visit us in about 1973 when she was studying Portugese at the University of Wisconsin.
The 1900 census shows Lizzie working as a schoolteacher. Besides the one letter we have from Lizzie about Aunt Annie's death, everything we know is from her niece Helen. Lizzie married Hayes Phillips, a minister of The Church of the Nazarene. When she became ill with TB they moved to La Lande, New Mexico. There she recovered and took in Edith, a child whose mother was dying of TB. After that she had her own daughter, Ellen. They stayed in the ministry until Uncle John and Grandma White died. Then they came to live with Annie in the big old house in Apple River, Illinois. When Annie died, Lizzie inherited most of the furniture, except for several pieces which went to Helen. Lizzie writes (White, Lizzie - letter to Helen White 31 DEC 1962):
"I had left to me the old family Bible with the family record made out by John and can be depended on. In it he had all the grandchildren's names and ages down to Ellen."The youngest child of Ellen and William L. White, Wilbur, died at the age of 15 from meningitis.
The Williams brother who remembered Annie told us the Whites were all teachers and were all very bright. We know that Wesley and John attended college to become teachers. We know that Joseph, Annie, and Lizzie were teachers at some point in their lives. They may all have attended college, but we can't be sure. Requirements for teachers were different in those days. I have checked with Illinois Normal and they don't have records that far back. But we know the White children must have had a love of learning.
So that's the story of Ellen Faragher from the Isle of Man. She was a strong and independent woman who embarked on a long and difficult journey, becoming our immigrant ancestor. Her life was tough. She watched her young husband die accidentally and struggled through single motherhood. With her second husband she bore eleven more children, only 5 of whom outlived her. She seems to have instilled a sense of religous fervor and a love of learning in her children, sending at least two to college. With her and her husband's hard work and frugality, she was able to leave a tidy inheritance for them when she died.
Here's how we are related to Ellen Faragher. Ellen married William L. White and they had William Wesley White. William Wesley married Adie Nicklaus and they had Helen White whom we call Nana. Helen married Harold Stevens and had Paul Stevens. Paul married Dianne Zimmerman and they had Dawne Stevens. Dawne married Jason Pamplin and they had . . . Sarah, Hannah, Timmy, and Becky Pamplin! Hooray for Ellen Faragher!
Love,
Granny
birth is per twin brother, Joseph's date found on WWI draft reg. card, Ancestry.com.
The Peter Benjamin Nicklas Story
1834 - 1904June 4, 2001
Dear Sarah, Hannah, and Tim,
This is the story of Peter Nicklas, another one of your ancestors that was in the Civil War. Peter was your great-great-great-grandfather.
Peter was the son of John George Nicklas and Anna Catherine Betsch Nicklas. John and Anna were first cousins. They came to Pennsylvannia from Leonabach, Hessen, Dormstadt, Germany in 1832 and were married in 1833. Peter, the oldest of their nine children, was born in 1834 at Blue Ridge, Cumberland County, Pennsylvannia 5 July 1834. After Peter came his sister Elizabeth and then a baby that died, and then the family moved to Monroe County, Illinois where four more children were born. Then one day they put all their belongings in a boat and sailed up the Mississippi River to Wisconsin. They settled in the southwest corner of the state in Grant County near the tiny town of Georgetown and had two more children.
When Peter was 25 he married Dorothy Schlucke from the nearby town of Hazelgreen. Dorothy was born in Germany in 1841. She came here with her mother and her little red-headed sister. Dorothy was sweet and neat and a lovely seamstress. She may have had epilepsy.
.
Peter didn’t sign up for the army until he was 31 years old and the Civil War was almost over. In January of 1865 he enlisted into Company K of the 47th Wisconsin Infantry. Infantry means soldiers who fight standing on their feet instead of riding a horse. The 47th Infantry organized at Camp Randall in Madison, Wisconsin. Ask your mom about the little guard house from Camp Randall that still stands on the university campus.Peter left Wisconsin with his unit in February of 1865 and went to Louisville, KY and then to Tullahoma, Tenn., where his unit was employed in drill and guard duty for several months until the war was over. He never had to be in any battles. After the Civil War Peter came home to be with his family and care for his farm in Georgetown near his parents farm. His wife Dorothy helped to keep the family fed with her sewing skills which she had learned from her mother and taught to her daughters. In those days families would have a dressmaker come every spring and every fall and make all the clothes for the whole family. Nothing was brought ready made. There was always a market for women with good sewing skills
Here is how we are related to Peter. Peter and Dorothy Nicklas had Addie Nicklas. Addie grew up and married William Wesley White and had Helen White. Helen (that’s Nana) grew up and married Harold Stevens and they had Paul and Lois. Paul grew up and married Dianne Zimmerman (me!) and they had Dawne, Jon, Heather, and Uncle Danny. Dawne grew up and married Jason and had Sarah, Hannah, and Tim, you guys!
So that’s the story of your great-great-great-grandfather who joined the army to be in the Civil War but never had to fight. Hooray for Peter Nicklas!
Love, Granny
1900 shows Wes and Adie living in Rush Twsp, Jo Daviess County in the same house with Adie's parents and sister. The census says Wes is a farmer and he owns the home, not his father-in-law Peter, who is retired.
The Dorothy Schlucke Story
1841-1929March 30, 2007
Dear Children
Tonight I want to tell you the story of our ancestor Dorothy Schlucke.
Dorothy was born in the village of Salzhemmendorf, Hanover, Germany in 1841. She and her sister Carrie and their mother, Christiana Thies, had to work very hard to earn their daily bread. Dorothy's mother was a seamstress and Dorothy was a goose girl. In Germany at that time life was not arranged like it is on American farms of today. Most people lived in villages rather than on separate farms. In order for the animals to graze the herders would come around in the morning and pick them up from each household and return them in the evening and they were usually paid by the village treasury. So every morning little Dorothy had to go to each home and collect the geese and remember which goose belonged to which house and lead them out into a meadow to feed and she had to watch them all day to see that they didn't get lost or eaten by another creature. On wash day women would dry their sheets on the grass beside the river and Dorothy had to be very careful her geese did not walk on the drying sheets. In the evening she took each goose back to its proper home. It was a very important job. And it paid well.
In those days there were no child labor laws like we have today in America. Children could be made to go to work as soon as it was humanly possible and they often were. Dorothy was born in 1841 and her mother was married in Wisconsin in 1848 so Dorothy did this important job before she was even seven years old!
We don't know anything more about Dorothy until she turned 18 and married Peter Nicklas. It's probably a good thing Dorothy learned to work hard when she was very young because for most of her married life she helped Peter earn the living. On the 1860 census she and Peter are shown working for and living with two separate families less than a year after their marriage. Dorothy is working for a family in Cassville as a nursemaid, probably caring for the family's small children. Peter is working for a farmer nearby. He worked as a farmer most of his life in Georgetown where his parents were. Nana and Cousin Sophia Driskill both said that Peter didn't have a good head for business and wasn't the greatest farmer and that his wife, Dorothy, earned most of the family's living by sewing. They both said she was a wonderful seamstress.
Peter and Dorothy had three children in Georgetown, Grant County, Wisconsin; George Leonard born in 1862, Evelyn in 1866, and Anna Adelaide in 1871. The 1910 census says Dorothy has birthed 4 children so one baby must have died. It also says only 2 are still living but that is wrong as all three were alive and well in 1910. Sophia said they, Peter and his family, lived with his parents. Perhaps they did at one time. I didn't find that arrangement on the census record. They show up on their own place in Grant County in 1870 and 1880 and Peter is farming. In 1900 they are living in Rush Illinois with their daughter Addie and husband. Peter died in 1904 and on the 1910 and 1920 census Dorothy is living with her daughter Evelyn in Platteville. She died there in 1929 just short of 90 years of age.
Besides the historical record we find in things like censuses, marriage, and death records, we have information on Dorothy from three people who knew her personally. They are her granddaughters, Nana and Aunt Dorothy White, and her cousin, Sophia Driskill. They all told that Dorothy's parents were't married. That fact was quite important and shocking to that generation. Here are a few of the other things they said:
From Aunt Dorothy, Letter 3, "Grandma Nicklas' name was Henrietta Dorthea. Part of the relationship called her Henrietta and part Dorthea. This grandmother was a dear little lady. . . As I remember it, she had a red-headed ... sister." And from Letter 4, "Grandma Nicklas and Aunt Eva got their drinking water from their cistern in Platteville, Wisconsin. I remember that you could taste smoke in the water. Grandma said, ' You'd get used to it.' Evidentally it didn't hurt her, for she didn't die until her 90th year."
From Cousin Sophia, Letter A, "Sorry I could not get Uncle Peter's wife's maiden name. She was ... a very nice, small, nervous lady. She was a lovely seamstress and very neat. She and uncle spent a winter with us so I got to know them quite well. She was a goose herder in Germany. I saw an article in a Magazine about the German goose herders. It was considered a very good job. . . . Evelyn (Peter and Dorothy's daughter) spent the winter with us at the time. She was a wonderful seamstress also. They (Peter and Dorothy) lived with grandparents quite a while. They are buried in Jamestown without a marker. Father often said he would like to place a marker but no one seemed interested. Uncle (Peter) was a very poor businessman. She (Dorothy) made a living by sewing. " And from Letter M, "We always called his (Peter's) wife Harriet. One of her middle initials is H. Guess we went by Harriet."
Dorothy's name has been a puzzle. As you can see above, for her first name she went by Dorothy, Dorthea, Henrietta, or Harriet. In the historical record she is sometimes Doratha as well., and once Amelia! Her maiden name was Schlucke on her marriage record, Thies on her death record, and Tiece on her mother's marriage record. Her married name Nicklas appears also as Nicholes and Nicholas. All these spellings make research a bit challenging. It's a good thing I had first person accounts to lead me.
Here is a little about Dorothy and Peter's other children:
Dorothy and Peter Nicklas's first child was George Leonard Nicklas born in 1862. He married Carrie Jane Straw in 1891. George and Carrie had one child, Richard Straw Nicklas, in 1893. George became a physician practicing in Platteville until 1915. In his early 50's George suffered from early senility and had to give up his medical practice. His wife was unable to care for him, so he was sent to the county Asylum in Lascaster where he died in 1935. Their son Richard was a college woodworking teacher in Colorado.Dorothy and Peter Nicklas's second child was Evelyn Nicklas born in 1866. Evelyn grew up to be a bright and lovely young woman. Her parents tried to send her to college in Platteville but she became too homesick. She went home and became a seamstress and dressmaker with her mother. The dressmaker at the turn of the century was a very highly skilled craftsperson. A single bodice could have as many as 78 pieces. And the pattern pieces, all printed on top of one another on a single sheet, made a maze to make a spider weep. Evelyn never married. She cared for her parents when they were old. She was careful with her money and saved enough to be able to help her niece, Helen White (Nana), with college expenses at UW-Platteville.
Dorothy and Peter Nicklas's third child was Anna Adelaide Nicklas born in 1871. She's our ancestor, so, more about her later.
So this is the story of Dorothy Schlucke. She had the misfortune to be born out of wedlock and had to work very hard her whole life. Even as a child before the advent of child labor laws, she labored as a goose herder. As an adult she supported her family with her sewing skills which she passed on to her daughter. She was born in Hanover and died in Wisconsin. She was a good sweet loyal hardworking woman.
Here's how we are related to Dorothy Dorothea Doratha Henrietta Harriet Amelia Shlucke Tiece Thies Nicholes Nicholas Nicklas. Dorthy the seamstress had Anna Adelaide the farmer's wife. Anna Adelaide had Helen Frances the schoolteacher. Helen Frances had Paul Robert the computer scientist. Paul Robert had Dawne Irene the engineer and teacher. Dawne Irene had . . . Sarah, Hannah, Timmy, and Becky!
So Horray for Dorothy Dorothea Doratha Henrietta Harriet Amelia Shlucke Tiece Thies Nicholes Nicholas Nicklas!
Love,Granny
Eva never married. She was a seamstress.
Philip had to quit high school and help his parents. He married a Texas woman, Ezra Edna Grimes. You can read about Ezra in her own story. Ezra brought an adopted daughter, Dorothy Nell, to the marriage. Philip and Ezra adopted a second child, Bruce Elmer. Philip tried farming in Missouri but that didn't go too well. Paul spent one summer with him and his family on their farm in Jasper, Missouri. Then for 25 years Philip and Ezra operated a coin laundromat in Lawrence, Kansas, an endeavor which proved more productive for them. After they retired they bought a trailer and toured the western states, making many friends and thoroughly enjoying life. They'd spend winter in Texas and go north in the spring to Idaho where they enjoyed picking wild huckleberries, and canning apricots, apples, strawberries and rhubarb. Philip was a very friendly, good humored man. His wife was six years older than he and lived to be 96. During her later years she suffered from several debilitating conditions and required much care. Philip cared for her until she died, at which time he himself was 90 years old. He was never heard to complain. Philip lived another 5 years, dying in Brownwood, Texas in 1999. Philip Love White was a good and happy man. Their daughter, Dorothy Nell, married several times, moved to California, and had six children. Their son Bruce married a girl of Mexican descent, had two children, and retired in Mexico.
The following article is from the Llano Grande Lake Park weekly newsletter
VOL. 7, Issue 10 Jan 5, 1979
Personality Profile
We, here at Llano Grande Lake Park, are privileged to have EZRA WHITE a Texas pioneer, observing her birthday - 82nd - on Wednesday. She was born January 9, 1898 in Bell County, Texas, twelve miles from Temple, Texas.
Her family moved to West Texas when she was three. There were no fences and only one neighbor. Prairie dogs were everywhere, with a rattlesnake in every fourth hole.
Later at 4 she lived on a cattle ranch what was then called the bottom land of the Texas Colorado River. Her 9 year old brother walked four miles to Bronte to school, crossing the river. One morning a wolf chased him up a tree where he stayed 'til past noon.
When she was 5, her older brother (and Ezra) drove a horse and buggy to the same school. One cold morning the river was frozen hard almost to the center. They tried to cross the river - the horse broke through the ice, but they continued on over with the buggy as the horse scrambled to gain his footage on the ice. They laughed, thinking it was fun.
Her father bought a cattle ranch near Eden, Texas. There was no town there then. The nearest neighbor was ten miles away. Post office and place to buy supplies was San Angelo - 50 miles away. Twice a year this family of five drove this 50 miles in a covered wagon, camping along the way. There were no roads - just a sense of direction to follow! There were few fences and occasional ones, the father pulled the staples from the wire at 2 or 3 posts. The children stood on the wire as he drove over, then restapled the wire to the fence.
Ezra's mother taught the children at home. She was in the 6th grade when she entered public school. She graduated in 1914 with a degree and a teacher's certificate from Southwest Texas State University at San Marcos - and later taught at a whopping salary of $60.00 a month - room and board for $24.00.
She became a home demonstration agent in New Mexico. During World War I she worked in the Census Bureau in Washington D.C. and was called back to the ranch in San Saba, Texas because her father had lost his eyesight. Many people in West Texas lived in DUG-OUTS. Windows were above the ground. (Note from Ezra adds: This bit about the dug outs was not where my family lived but in a newly formed county in the pan handle of Texas where a big ranch was divided into 7 counties at the death of the owner. I was an extension agent there.)
While working and still single Ezra adopted a little girl one year old. She met Phil while he was president of the Farm Groups in NM, they married and lived on her father's ranch. Later they adopted another child, a boy. To date they have 8 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. More moves - farmed in Cherokee, near San Saba, then to Missouri for ten years. For 25 years they operated a coin laundermat in Lawrence, Kansas.
After they retired they bought a trailer and toured the western states. Spent 4 years in Harlingen, Texas in Fun-in-Sun and in the meantime purchased 2 lots in Llano Grand Lake Park. They have 5 trailers and presently have a 35' fifth wheeler, which is their "home away from home." Their 16' wide mobile is located on #16-17 Guadalajara, and their 5th wheeler is being rented for the winter - next door.
One of the highlights of Ezra's life was the jet boat trip on the Snake River two years ago out of Lewiston, Idaho - called Hell's Canyon of the Snake River. Four summers were spent at Vallecito Resort in Colorado - 25 miles from Durango. The last three years have been spent in the summer in Kamloops Park in northern Idaho picking wild huckleberries, canning fruit, apricots, apples, strawberries & rhubarb.
Her activities in the park have been fabric painting, playing bingo, and attending pot luck suppers. She has FROSTED many BIRTHDAY CAKES for the gringos.
She remembers well the early days! Everyone had a sense of honesty. You had no laws just a sense of pride. Y'all didn't dare brag about yourself - if you bragged about Texas that was ALL RIGHT - that was drilled into them from infancy on.
A REAL TEXAS PIONEER LADY - EZRA WHITE!
The Charles and Catherine Stevens Story
July 16, 2009Dear Children
Tonight I want to tell you about your Grandpa's great grandparents on your Stevens side. It starts in Canada and ends up right here in Wisconsin in the county next door to us.
Charles was born July 16, 1829 in Lake Mills, Nova Scotia. According to Gene Jane, a famous researcher in Colchester County, Nova Scotia, Lake Mills probably refers to several small lakes near mills in the northern part of the county. Charles parents, William and Hannah Higgins Stevens, were married about 1806 so his parents had been married over 20 years when Charles was born. He probably had numerous older brothers and sisters, but we only know about two of them, Mary and Robert.
Charles was a farmer and lived near Folly Lake, where his parents had lived, in a part of Colchester County called Upper Londonderry. We know this from the 1871 Canadian Census. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers of this part of Nova Scotia. There is still a road and a mountain in the area that are named after them, Stevens Road along the east side of Folly Lake, and Stevens Mountain to the NW.
Catherine was the 11th of 14 children of John Carpenter and Ann Mattatall Patriquin. She grew up and married a man named John Tattrie. They had a baby, Alice, in February of 1860. John died, so in November of 1864 Catherine married Charles Stevens. They had 6 children in Nova Scotia; Addison, Calvin, Jane, Ina, Edmund and Anna. We believe Jane died in Nova Scotia. The uncertainty is because the 1871 census lists children Addison, Calvin, and Jennie. There is a birth record for a baby Jane born in 1868 and we know Ina lived and was born in 1869. So the Jennie on the census must refer to Ina. Census says Catherine is the mother of 8 children, 7 of whom are still living. Catherine's ancestors include many French Canadians tracing back to Montbeliard and Doubs, France.
In the late 1870's Charles and Catherine moved with their family to Green County near Brodhead. The 1880 census shows them living in Orfordville, a small town near Brodhead. Catherine's brother, John Patriquin, was already living in Orfordville. And a cousin, John Mattatall, was living in nearby Spring Valley. After they came to the USA they had another child, Ella Maud. Charles worked as a farmer all his life. When he got too old to farm he and Catherine lived with Catherine's daughter Alice in Brodhead. We don't have too many other details about Charles life except that he was unable to read or write. In those days many people were illiterate. Catherine, however, was able to read and write. And they saw to it that their children all could. They also both became US citizens.
In the early 1970's your Grandpa's Aunt Kathryn wrote about her grandparents' funerals. Here is what she wrote:
“My grandparents, (Charles and Catherine Stevens) when I was a small girl, lived south of Brodhead east of the bridge across the road from the present school building. Later they came to Brodhead and lived with Aunt Alice Oliver until Grandpa died. Aunt Alice was their oldest child - not a Stevens. (Catherine's firstborn, Alice Tattrie). Harry and Alice Long (Alice Tattrie's daughter) still live in the house. The house is just west of the high school - then High School. After Aunt Alice died Grandma went to live with Aunt Ina Dedrick in the south part of town. She died there. Both grandparents died while I was teaching in Lodi. I came home for Grandpa's funeral but not Grandma's. The snow was deep and I did not drive a car so I had to come on the train to Janesville then out to Footville by car or through Hanover to one station then across to the other - about a mile walk.”
Here is the little bit we know about Charles and Catherine's children:
1) Alice Tattrie, Catherine's child with John Tattrie, was born in 1860. She was 11 years old and living with her mom's parents, John and Ann Patriquin, at the time of the 1871 Nova Scotia census. They were both in their 70's and Alice was helping them out. Alice had three husbands. First she married George West in Nova Scotia and had a son Edmond Elsworth West. She came to Wisconsin soon after her mother did in 1880. She married William Leng in 1892 and they had two sons, Harry and William. Third, she married a Mr. Oliver. Alice took care of Charles and Catherine when they were old.
2) Charles and Catherine's eldest child was Addison Archibald Stevens. Addison was born in Nova Scotia in 1865 and came with his family to Wisconsin as a young teen. We know he always knew how to work because the 1880 census shows him living next door to his family as a hired boy. His nickname was “Archy.” When he and his brother Calvin grew up they took off to work in the gold and silver mines out west. By 1920 he was working in a coal mine in the state of Washington and on the 1930 census he was farming with his son, Wayne, in Ada Co., Idaho. In 1895 he married Zema Ann Graham and he and Zema had 10 children. We know he kept in touch with his Wisconsin family because a news article about his brother Edmund's funeral in 1926 says Addison was a guest. In 1926 it was not easy or usual to go half way across the country when somebody died. Recently I have been in touch with the family of one of his daughter Roxie's descendants.
3) Charles and Catherine's second child was Calvin L. Stevens. Calvin was born in Nova Scotia in 1867 and came with his family to Wisconsin as a young teen. Calvin, also, grew up knowing hard work. The 1880 census shows him living and working on the farm of his mother's cousin, John Patriquen. In those days, kids did not have the opportunity to be carefree teenagers. Many young people, including the three oldest already mentioned in this family, were sent out to work and earn money as soon as they were able. They were expected at the very least to support themselves and, hopefully, help out the family back home as well. When he and his brother Addison grew up they took of f to work in the gold and silver mines out west. The 1900 census shows Calvin living in Montana and lists his occupation as mine owner. By 1910 he is a miner but no longer the owner. The 1920 census shows him employed as a gold miner in Montana. He and his family lived in Helena, Montana. I could not find him nor any of his family in the 1930 census. Calvin married Margaret Spellman, a young woman from Galway, Ireland. He and Margaret had six sons and one daughter.Calvin's oldest son, Charley, was a very interesting character. There are dozens of stories about the exploits of Charles in the "Helena Independent" newspaper of Helena, Montana between 1928 and 1940. Here are summaries of some of his escapades:
About 1920 Charles robbed a bank, was tried and found guilty, was sentenced to 10 to 40 years but paroled after four. At the time of the robbery Charles was employed as a bank messenger. After he had collected $40,000 for the bank from the post office he was found tied up in the back of a cigar store. It was later determined he had hidden the money in an empty building and tied himself up so it could appear he had been robbed.
In 1931 Charley and family members purchased a place called the Parchen Mansion and bought a lot of insurance on it. Soon after it burned to the ground and the site showed evidence of arson. Charles, afraid of arrest, faked his own suicide and departed leaving seven tenderly written suicide letters behind. Several months later he wrote a letter to the sheriff with a postmark of Wellsburg, Iowa. But this too, was thought to be a fake as several years earlier he had claimed he was going to England to collect his share of a large estate. Friends received letters from cities along the route telling of the sights. They were very impressed until Charles was discovered at a farm not far away. He had sent the letters enclosed in envelopes addressed to the postmasters of the various towns, with instructions to remail them.In 1940 he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. He had entered the office of an acquaintance and tried to sell him 2 tombstones. When the man said he wasn't interested Charles said he'd lend the man the money to buy them. When that didn't work, Charles said he'd give the man the tombstones. When they were still refused Charles pulled a gun and forced the man to a back room. An accomplice brought in a large number of boxes and packages. When Charles tried to force the victim to the basement, the victim made a dash for freedom, jumping through a glass door. The packages were found to include a vial labeled, “cyanide of potassium,” another containing porcupine quills, which was labeled “poisonous darts, do not touch”. The packages also contained electric wiring, dynamite with caps with fuses attached, bottles of a liquid believed to be nitroglycerin, dyes similar to those used by notaries in legalizing papers, and a sawed-off shotgun. Also found were carelessly scribbled bizarre notes. One suggested someone scare “him” with snakes; another, scare “him” by saying “he” would be dropped down a deep shaft; another, another said, “put a bomb at the door and lock him in, where he can see the bomb all the time, and have the bomb wired to go off at any minute”; another,”put him in a sack and tie the top of the sack and throw him in the river.” The person meant by “him” was not known.
I've not yet been able to find out what became of Charley. Besides Charley, Calvin had William who died at 35, possibly from an accident; Edward, who was sometimes called Edmund like his father's brother; Lester O; Alice M.; Calvin H., who was in WWII in the Navy; and Robert.
4) Charles and Catherine's third child was Jane. She probably died as a baby.
5) Charles and Catherine's fourth child was Ina. Ina married Leonard Dedrick in 1898 and they lived around Brodhead all their lives. Your Grandpa, Paul Stevens, remembers visiting Aunt Ina and Uncle Lennie in Brodhead. They never had children. When we first moved to Reetz Road a very friendly Dedrick family from Brodhead, probably a nephew of Uncle Lennie's, lived several houses down the street. Unfortunately we never made the connection until after they had moved away. At the end of her life Catherine Patriquin Stevens lived with Ina.
6) Charles and Catherine's fifth child was Edmund. Edmund is our ancestor so he has his own story.
7) Charles and Catherine's sixth child was Anna, born in 1873. Anna was the last child of the family to be born in Nova Scotia. Anna married Eli Hutzel in 1892. They had four children in Wisconsin; Lulu, Glen, Robert, and Harriett. Then they moved to Iowa.
8) Charles and Catherine's seventh and last child was Ella Maud, born about 1880 in Wisconsin. Ella married Robert Balis in 1900. Robert was a brother of Flora Balis who married Edmund Stevens, our ancestor. Two Stevens siblings married two Balis siblings. Ella Maud became very ill and died quite suddenly in 1902.
So this is the story of your great-great-great grandfather and mother Charles and Catherine Stevens. Charles was always a farmer, Catherine a farmer's wife. They started their family in Nova Scotia, and pioneered to Wisconsin in their middle years, having their last child here. Charles could never read nor write. But his wife and all his children could. Together they left many interesting descendants, including . . . Us!
Here is how you're related to Charles and Catherine Stevens: Charles and Catherine had Edmund Stevens, Edmund had Harold Stevens, Harold had Paul Stevens, Paul had Dawne Stevens, and Dawne had you, my wonderful grandchildren!
So Hooray for Charles and Catherine Stevens!
Love,
Granny
Marriage Notes for Charles Stevens and Catherine PATRIQUIN-42
Per Gene Jane 11Apr 2009 - "Lake Road is referring to the road the runs between Tatamagouche and Mattatall Lake - look at the old Colchester Map on my site and locate MILLBURN in the top part of the map - Lake Road runs through it. This is the area that Charles wife Catherine was from ..."
I believe Jane died in Nova Scotia before the family immigrated. On the 1900 census her mother reports that she has given birth to 8 children but only 7 are still living. This is the only one unaccounted for.
John Charles Balis
1848 – 1887
Spring Grove, Wisconsin – Orleans, NebraskaJuly 24, 2001
Dear Sarah, Hannah, and Tim,This is the story of John Balis, another one of your ancestors that was in the Civil War. John was another of your great-great-great-grandfathers. See if You can figure out how many great-great-great grandfathers you had.
John C. Balis was born on July 18, 1848 at Brodhead, Wisconsin. He was the eldest son of Thomas Jefferson Balis and Mary Ewers Balis. In August of 1864 he enlisted into Company G of the thirteenth Wisconsin Veteran Infantry from Spring Valley, Wisconsin, along with uncles, Henry Balis, Abraham Balis, Luther Balis, and good friend Henry Frary. John was not very old. Can you figure out how old he was? Luther died 16 June 1864 at Claysville, Alabama, of disease.
The main work of the thirteenth infantry was to protect the lines of communication for the Union Army in Tennessee, Kentucky, and northern Alabama, like rail lines and telegraph lines. They didn’t fight in many battles but the work they did was very important. They were in a few battles though. These were at Huntsville, AL, Decatur, GA, and Paint Rock Bridge, AL. At the battle of Paint Rock Bridge John was taken prisoner. He was mustered out of the Thirteenth in May 1865, seven months before the unit was disbanded.
On April 20, 1872 John married Mary Derrick, a beautiful and brilliant young woman of 19 years. They lived in the town of Clarence in Spring Grove Township (near Brodhead). There they had 4 children, Frank, Robert, Flora (your great-great-great-grandmother), and Hettie.
In the spring of 1878 they decided to homestead in Nebraska. John’s parents also homesteaded in Nebraska, but I don’t know if that was before or after John and Mary went. So here they go to Nebraska. There were no roads or railroads going there, so they packed up their belongings and drove in a covered wagon. They stopped in Iowa at the home of John’s cousin, Mary Frary Reasoner, and there they washed, repacked, and replenished their supplies. Then they went on to Nebraska where they settled 10 miles north of Orleans, in Harlan County. At first they lived in a house they dug into the earth. Later John built a very nice house of sod. He made it with bricks of earth that he dug from the prairie. The dirt was held together by the huge strong roots of the prairie plants. There they built a very nice farm. They had 180 acres of land, cattle, hogs, and Plymouth Rock fowl. Here are some of the plants they grew in their garden. They had apple trees, strawberries, raspberries, dewberries, gooseberries, currants, Twinnings famous blackberries, pie plant (rhubarb), asparagus, horse radish, corn, potatoes, etc. Besides the farm John made some money buying and selling real estate. The children attended a little sod schoolhouse. They sat on benches with no backs with their slates and readers beside them.
Three more children were born to John and Mary in Nebraska. They were Mabel, Ernie Earl, and Ina Maude. Ina, born in 1884, only lived for four months. Two girl cousins of Ina’s died that same year.
Meanwhile, Mary was developing a terrific case of Tuberculosis, Consumption they called it in those days. Her husband, John, moved the family into the town of Orleans in June of 1886 so that Mary could have better medical care, but it was of no use. Mary died on July 4, 1886 at the age of 33.
John was not too well himself. His wife reported in a letter several weeks before she died that John coughed a good deal and had little strength. John was a Deputy Sheriff for Harlan County. In February of 1887, only seven months after his wife’s death, John was sent out to track some horse thieves who had escaped over the state line into Kansas. About 150 miles from home he came down with pneumonia. He managed to get back to a railroad where a friend came and brought him back to Orleans. He died 4 days later leaving 6 orphan children. What happened to them is a whole ‘nother story.
So here is the story of your great-great-great grandfather that went away to the Civil War as a teenager and became a prisoner of war. He married a local beauty, homesteaded in Nebraska, fathered seven children, was a deputy sheriff, developed consumption and died much too young leaving six orphans.
Here's how we're related to John C. Balis: John and Mary had Flora. Flora Balis grew up, married Edmund Stevens, and had Harold. Harold grew up, married Helen White (Nana), and had Paul. Paul grew up, married me, and had your mom. Your mom grew up, married your dad, and had guess who?
So Hooray for John Charles Balis!
I think that’s all the Civil War veterans I know about in our family.
Lots of Love
Granny
Mary Lorinda Derrick
1853 – 1886
Spring Grove, Wisconsin – Orleans, Nebraska
January 2004Dear Sarah, Hannah, Timmy, and Becky,
Today I am writing to you about a very special lady in your family tree. She was your great great great grandmother.
Mary was the third of seven children born to Franklin H. and Harriet Derrick, a highly respected Spring Grove farm family, on March 18, 1853, southwest of Brodhead. She attended the first log school in the area. Later, she went to high school in Brodhead. Her obituary described her in her school years thus, "Quick to learn, full of young life and ambition, she was not only an apt scholar, but the life and center of every group in which she mingled."
After her graduation from high school, her mother died. Mary became the housekeeper for her father and younger siblings until her marriage to John C. Balis on November 18, 1846. They lived in Spring Grove, in the little village of Clarence, until the spring of 1878 when they set off in a covered wagon with their 4 small children, Frank, Robert, Flora, and baby Hettie, to become homesteaders in Harlan County, Nebraska.
Their first home in Nebraska was a dugout. There weren't many trees in Nebraska so folks had to use what materials were available to build their homes. A dugout was a type of home dug into the bank of a river. Theirs had one room. Later on they built a larger dugout with two rooms and used the first one as a barn. Later still they built a good sod house. A sod house was made with big chunks of dirt and roots dug out of the Prairie. Prairie roots go so deep and thick that a square of soil with all those roots in it actually make a pretty good brick. And a few weeks before Mary died they moved to a frame house in the town or Orleans.
Mary's daughter Hettie wrote quite a bit about life in Nebraska. She says that through it all they had to contend with bedbugs and fleas, no matter how hard they worked at trying to get rid of them. Surely a dugout or even the sod house was hard on Mary's developing TB. And yet through it all she was a bright light in the community. I think her spirit is captured by daughter Hettie in tfollowing excerpt from her "Memories of my Life" P. 32 & 33B.
" In the fall of 1885 or the early spring of 1886 Father bought a frame house in Orleans and moved Mother to town where she could have more care and comforts. But she was moved on a bed in the back of a spring wagon. She was never up and around again. She died July 4, 1886. I have never gotten over missing her. She was a wonderful woman and had many accomplishments. (She did) considerable writing, both prose and poetry. (She did) lovely pen and ink drawings and sketches. Out on the homestead she got the early settlers to join a literary society. (They) would meet at the sod schoolhouse with benches to sit on and debate questions and topics of that day and have children recite and take part. How she done it with her family and home, I will never know."
Two children were born in Nebraska, Mabel in 1880, and Ernest in 1882. Then in 1884 baby Ina May was born and lived only four months. The infants death was very hard on Mary. Her daughter Hettie thinks she never did recover. Following are several poems she wrote about the death of Ina May.
God looking down from heaven
Saw our Ina, sweet and fair.
'She is too pure for earth,' He said,
'I'll take her to my care.'
And while we grieve that God should take
The treasure He had given
Her tiny hands still hold the charm
To draw our souls to heaven."
Within the space of a few months Mary and each of her two older brothers had lost a baby girl. Here is a
verse written by Mary Derrick Balis on the death of three little girl Derrick cousins between May and November1884."To the Memory of little Susie, May, and Ina - by One who Loved them all
Twas in a garden where bright flowers bloom
And noxious weeds forever were upspringing.
The air was heavy with sweet perfume
But poisonous breaths the weeds were ever bringing.Three lily buds upon their parent stems
Received the gardeners ever watchful care.
He cherished as misers do their gems
And sheltered them from each rude breath of air.And as he watched each petal, pure, unfold,
He loved them more with each discovered grace,
Until he thought, No other hand more bold
Must pluck my flowers from their growing place.I must at least have one. Which shall it be?
The one half open with its pearly leaves
Half hiding, half disclosing, promises to me
That makes its plucking sore to grieve?But should I leave it - that I cannot do.
I must have one. He broke it from its stem
Then turning, gazed upon the other two.
"I must have all!" he cried. "I must have them!""The one almost a lily bloom
The one a tiny bud, so fair and sweet."
He left the garden all in the deepest gloom
And took his treasure to the Master's feet."Master, behold these lovely buds I bring.
They were too pure and fair to bloom on earth.
Here in your garden all the year is spring
And here of loving care there is no dearth.On earth rude storms must sometimes near them come.
Perhaps the tempest finds them in its track.
I love my flowers. 'Tis why I bring them home.
I love them so, I would not take them back.Though I shall miss them and shall often weep
Still this will comfort me thru future years.
I know the Master safe my buds will keep
And in his own good time will dry my tears."Mary wrote many poems. Here is one she wrote when Grandma Balis, her husband's grandmother, died.
To the Memory of "Grandma Balis"
Died Dec. 19, 1881, aged 80 years.Straightened at last the crippled limbs,
Folded in rest the weary hands,
Another angel near God's throne,
Happiest of all the angel band.Weary, and faint, and sick, below,
Yet waiting with patience the Master's will;
Wondering why others were called to go,
While she, so willing, should linger still.Full of good works, her simple life,
Full of firm faith, her trusting heart;
Her gentle words disarmed all strife.
And took from the bitterest wound its smart.The Lord was her comfort, her strength, her trust,
Her "Rock of Refuge" in time of need,
Tho' the poor, weak body will crumble to dust,
She leaned, we know, on no broken reed.And we feel she has gone to her sure reward
In heaven, where "The ransomed and angels be,"
For "Blessed are they who die in the Lord,"
And we truly can say, Of such was she.M. L. Balis
Orleans Nebraska
Jan. 9th, 1882
Here is a poem she wrote for the Orleans paper. Bittersweet was her pen name.
Resting Hours
by Bittersweet
The hour has come, the evening hour,
The one of all I love the best,
When quiet reigns with subtle power,
And mind and hands, alike may rest.In restful sleep the children lay.
Each snugly nestled in his place,
And lines of care formed through the day,
This resting hour must new erase.Let every care be now forgot,
I'll simply rest, and dream, and think,
Life's toil and worry reach me not,
A cup unadorned, but sweet, I drink.I wander through green fields where none
Can see the wonders that I see,
Where bloom the flowers, and shines the sun
But only bloom and shine for me.No other hand may pluck the flowers,
No other eyes may see the light,
But in the evening, resting hours,
I see this scene so fair and bright.I sit beside soft flowing streams,
And weave sweet fancies, weird and rare,
I sing with ease, of unknown themes,
And laurel blossoms deck my hair.And when my resting hour is o'er,
I wake refreshed and full of hope,
I find life's burdens less a bore,
With daily care I'm strong to cope.So while I journey on life's way
And pluck alike both thorns and flowers,
I'll thank my God that every day,
He gives to me these resting hours.
The following letter was written by Mary to Belle Moore Derrick, wife of Mary's brother, Franklin Derrick, Brodhead. Belle and Frank were one of the three couples of Derrick siblings that lost a baby girl during 1884. Sue Derrick lived from November 1883 to May 1884. The Hettie mentioned is Mary's younger sister, mother of Pearl, who lives nearby in Nebraska."Orleans, Nebraska January 1st 1885
Dear Sister Belle!
It is New Year's night, and though I cannot myself say "A Happy New Year" just now, still I will wish that this tender New Year may prove less sorrowful than the cruel old one has been for us all. May our wounds be healed and no new ones come to us. What a year it has been. Why! Oh Why! is it Hettie lives in constant dread. She feels as though our girl babies all are to be called home. Three little white doves have flown from earth to heaven. Belle, I can almost see them there with Grandma and Ma. My little Ina girl just as she used to be here, all mused and rumpled, just as she used to talk to me, with her little baby twists and puckers. Sweet little daisy. She was so bright and good, but she has left us and while our hearts ache and our tears flow, still we would not call her back. I know our grief is selfish for it is all for ourselves. We know she is safe. Were we as much so. We grieve for our loss when we should rejoice in her gain.The holidays passed quietly. The little ones requested that they might go without presents and save theirs for fixing and fencing sister's grave, so Papa gave them the money instead. Hettie took dinner with Mrs. Hunter Christmas. They live near each other. I was over to Hettie's two weeks ago. They were well. Pearl walks and says quite a good many words.
Our children all go to school except Ernie. The teacher boards with us. Then we have such a nice old man John has hired for a year. He helps me ever so much, is a bachelor and knows how to do all kinds of work. He says if I can go home before spring work commences he can keep house. The teacher could board somewhere else, and I hire my washing and ironing done anyway. So if anything happens so we can spare the means I shall try and come. If I don't, I don't know when I ever can. My cough is quite bad again this winter, and I stay at home quite close. We are having real cold weather here now, for about two weeks back. Before that it was beautiful weather. Our first snow came this week.
Poor Tid and Ellen, how we pity them too. It seems as though it must be a fearful blow to them. Sweet little May. Her life's record was pure and brief. You truly say I did not lose all. We do find much to comfort us in our other little ones. We have good children, all of them grow so fast. Frankie is nearly as tall as I am. Robbie is a slow, honest chap, very different from Frank. Frank is very quiet, a great reader and says but little. Skippie (Flora) is such a fat strong little Dutch woman. She is good as gold. Mabel, quick of eye and temper, a little vixen. She is Aunt Hettie's pet. Hettie Belle is slow, good natured and lazy. Ernie is rather spoiled. He was sick so much and since baby went away he has clung close to me and I have babied too much for his own good.
Well, I must stop for this time. You will never know how dear your letter was to me. We know it was true sympathy that called a letter from you or Tid. Good old Tid. He wrote us such a good long letter. I wish I could see you all, but God only knows what the weeks may bring forth. I will write to Frank before long.
With love to all, Your sister, Mollie
Mary did go home to Wisconsin that spring, for a visit.
This following letter from Mary to her husband's sister, Hettie Balis TenEcyk, was written little more than a month before Mary died. It tells about their new home in the town of Orleans.
Orleans, Nebraska May 30th 1886
Dear Aunt Hat TenEcyk - Family -
Guess, no doubt, that I don't write, but oh Aunt Hat, I think the letters I write will be very few.
Perhaps these will be the last lines I shall ever trace to you. If so let them speak all the love and gratitude of a lifetime, for the many acts of kindness you have shown me and mine in the good old days. I am very, very poorly. I don't tell the rest so, but I feel that my days on earth are numbered, and the number few. Unless I should run into lingering consumption which I hope you will all pray may not be. Still, if it is God's will that I should suffer, I hope He will give me strength and grace to submit.John is down to his father's this week. We have such a nice place in town. Have possession tomorrow. The house is 26x14 upright and 20x 14 wing and two stories all of it. Just think Aunt Hat, it does seem a ____ hard when we were just so we could enjoy the fruits of privation and toil and such splendid schools. A large Free Methodist College and the best of graded schools, such a chance for our boys and girls, and I broke down. John is not a bit well, he coughs a good deal and has but little strength. Still, he keeps knocking around. He sells and trades real estate. We have a splendid little team and a two-seated buggy, 18 head of cattle and some fine hogs. Some nice Plymouth Rock fowls. We had about 8 qts. strawberries last year and a bushel of red raspberries. We will have a good many this year. I hate to leave the place. We have a good many trees growing in a circle, a few apple trees, Dew berries (Mary sent me) gooseberries, a few currants, some of Twinnings' famous blackberries, three kinds of raspberries, pie plant, asparagus,horseradish, etc, etc. So you see we leave a good deal. We have nine kinds of melons planted here, and the best kind of a garden. Lots of sweet corn and potatoes. We have 180 acres here and 160 acres (a grand garden) and our house and three lots in Orleans. If we sell this place it will clear every cent we owe and leave us 160 acres of land and our stock and our place in town free and clear and some cash to handle besides. Do you think that is bad? My, we wouldn't think of selling for less than $2,500. We have been offered $2,000 for it and the place in town is cheap at $1,500. Everybody says it's only a year since it was built. Now, I will say, excuse my paper I found and I had no other and was bound to write.
You wouldn't know the children they are all well and grow so, they are all ready to run for Mama. Little Ernie is just four years old last night, baby Ina would have been 2 the last of July. The children have had me making wreaths of rosebuds, and they have nearly a day (bouquet) to put on sister's grave tomorrow. I wish I could go. I had such a good girl, but her Pa sent for her to come down in Kansas to take land. The one I have now is more wind than work. She talks half the time. But she is much better than no girl and is very kind and loves children. But things don't look like when Ma was doing the work the children say.
Our expenses are over ten dollars a week besides clothes. I pay my girl $2.50 per week and the wash, it makes me nearly sick. John gets me everything in the market. I have California canned fruit all the time, fresh fish, nite again, and beef steak all the time. I have strawberries at 35 cents per box until I got tired of them, and then my doctor bills. But I must stop, my arm is ready to drop off. Only intended to write a few lines. I felt so bad but it is so long since I wrote I couldn't help telling you how we were doing.
John bought a 160 acres while I was home (back in Brodhead) last spring, held it about 8 months and sold it. Cleared $850.00 cash. You see it pays.
Well do write to me a long letter. They cheer me up.
Good-bye, Your loving niece, M.L. Balis
Mary lived barely more than a month after writing that letter, dying on July 4, 1886.
This is the obituary notice that appeared in the Brodhead paper:
"Mrs. Mary Lorinda Derrick Balis
Born: Mar. 18, 1853 Spring Grove Township, Green Co., WI, South of Brodhead
Died: July 4, 1886 Buried: Orleans, Nebraska“Mary Derrick, the daughter of our townsman, Mr. F. H. Derrick, was born in Spring Grove Township, Green Co., WI, March 18, 1853 and resided there until her marriage. She received her early education in the district school and later attended high school in Brodhead. Quick to learn, full of young life and ambition, she was not only an apt scholar, but the life and center of every group in which she mingled.
“In 1871 she met with the loss of her mother by death, and during the year following she remained in the old home keeping house for her father. In the fall of 1872 she was united in marriage to John C. Balis, and they made their home in Spring Grove township until 1879 when they moved to Harlan County, Nebraska and settled upon a farm about 10 miles north of Orleans. Here she resided until a few weeks previous to her death. Mr. Balis moved into the village of Orleans that his wife might have better care and medical attention. But all that could be done proved unavailing save as it eased her pathway to the tomb.
“In the spring of 1885 Mrs. Balis came here to her old home and spent six or seven weeks amid the scenes and with the friends of her early life. Her health then was not firm, but she looked forward to many years of a helpful happy life. But instead of improving she grew weaker, and for the last three months of her life she was most of the time confined to her bed.
“On Sunday July 4th the worn spirit passed to rest. Besides the bereaved husband, six children, three girls and three boys from four to thirteen years of age remain to mourn the loss of a faithful wife and a fond mother. Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Derrick (Franklin H. and Mary Ann Williams Northrup Derrick) reached their daughters bedside in time to be with her and soothe her by their presence and love in the last hours of her life.
“The funeral was on Tuesday, July 6th at the M.E. Church in Orleans. The services were conducted by Rev. N. F. Kletzing, and the remains were followed to their last resting place by a large concourse of sorrowing and sympathetic friends.
“Here where Mrs. Balis was well known, Where she grew from childhood to womanhood, she needs no eulogy from us. Rarely gifted by nature, she was not only the thrifty housewife and careful home-mother, she was a graceful writer, both of prose and verse. In the first number of Independent Register issued by us and bearing the date may 30, 1879 in a happy, hopeful letter from her, written from Sunday Camp Creek, about twelve miles beyond Sabula ----------. They were on their way to the new home in the new country and the rainbow of hope spanned their sky. Indeed, though some of her latter letters revealed a touch of homesickness, she never ceased to be enthusiastic about Nebraska, both its present and its future. Our last contribution from her pen was the lines in memory of Abbie Farmer Folsom, written when she felt that she too should soon cross the dark river. She was a frequent and welcome contributor to the Harlan County Press published in Orleans, Nebraska and we gladly clip the following tribute from its columns:
'In the death of Mrs. J. C. Balis the Press has lost one of its best friends and most fluent writers, 'Bittersweet', as everyone knew her. Her poetry was generally written for her home paper in Brodhead, Wisconsin, and then has been copied for the Press. Where we knew her best, however, was in the brilliant prose composition to the paper. All readers have missed her during her late sickness and none regret her early death more than the circle of choice friends who so admired her.' "
In addition to her writing, Mary Derrick Balis did some lovely drawings. Two bear special mention.
A pen and ink drawing of Napoleon on horseback was given to Florence Allison, first wife of Mary's son Frank, for her son, Thomas. Another pen and ink drawing of a flowery wreath with Mary's photograph in the middle has the words "For Father" written beneath it. This drawing is now in the possession of Shirley Nyman Harris.So, dear children, this is the story of one of your great great great grandmothers. She was beautiful and brilliant. She was a good wife and mother and tried with all her heart to live a good Christian life. She lived with great hope and happiness as well as tremendous grief. She was one of our country's pioneer woman. Though everyday she faced dirt and bugs and hard work she still brought to the life of her family and her community the light of learning and the gifted sensitivity of a poet and an artist. I hope you will always remember her.
Here's how we're related to May Lorinda Derrick: Mary was the mother of Flora Balis. Flora was the mother of Harold Stevens. Harold was the father of Paul Stevens. You know him. He's your Grandpa! Paul is the father of Dawne Stevens. Dawne is the mommy of...all four of you!
So Hooray for Mary Lorinda Derrick Balis!
Love,
Granny
William Stevens and Hannah Higgins
about 1785 – before Jul 1869 1787 – 1869
Folly Lake, Colchester County, Nova ScotiaDear Children,
Tonight I'm going to tell you everything I know about our ancestors William Stevens and Hannah Higgins. This is going to be a short story!
We think William was born about 1785 and married Hannah Higgins in about 1806. We know they are our ancestors because when their son Charles Stevens died in 1917 someone wrote on his death certificate that his parents were William Stevens and Anna Higgins, both born in Nova Scotia. The name Hannah was frequently called Anna.
I have a 1904 newspaper telling that William Stevens “settled and made his home on the east side of the Lake (Folly) in the early years of the century (1800's). The Stevens home was between the lake to the west and East Folly Mountain to the East, on a road still called Stevens Road. Stevens Mountain is to the northwest and Higgins Mountain to the northeast. They are all part of a range called the Cobequid Hills, a very scenic and largely uninhabited area where our ancestors lived. Today the area is being evaluated for the placement of wind turbines. But in the early 1800's it was William's farm.
We don't know for sure who William's parents were as life was hard and records were scarce. And his family may well have been illiterate. He was born in the 1780's probably to one of the very early English settlers who came from Massachusetts to Onslow, NS, in 1761. Hannah we have much more information about. She was the daughter of Philip Higgins and Mary Crowell, both of whose families came with that wave of immigrants. Hannah was born in 1787 in Onslow, one of 11 children. From the make-up of Hannah and William's family as shown in the 1838 census we can estimate that they were married about 1806. According to that census they had at least 9 children, but we only know about 3 of them. (I wrote that sentence before I had discovered the other 5.) Mary, born about 1813 never married and lived with her mother and then her brother, Charles. Robert was born in 1824. He lived at the Folly Lake home until his death in 1898. He and his wife, Agnes Nancy MacLean had eight children. They and at least three of their children are buried at West Folly Mountain Cemetery. I have corresponded with one of their descendants. William and Hannah's other child that we know of is our ancestor Charles.
So Hooray for William and Hannah! They worked hard to raise their family. They lived and died in the beautiful Colchester County, Nova Scotia. There is still a road and two mountains named after their families.
Here is how you're related to William and Hannah Higgins Stevens. William and Hannah had Charles Stevens who homesteaded in Wisconsin. Charles had Edmund Stevens who was a blacksmith. Edmund had Harold Stevens who was the paymaster at Abbott Laboratories. Harold had Paul Stevens who is a genius at most everything. Paul had Dawne Stevens who is a wonderful mother and teacher (and a mathematical genius.) And Dawne had . . . My Beautiful Grandbabies!
Love,
GrannyFollowing is some corespondence with researcher C Fisher, descendant of Wm. Stevens (b.1788) justifying why we believe her Wm Stevens and mine are one and the same:
Correspondence w Carol Fisher Stevens
re: William StevensI wrote:
Another tidbit on Hannah Crowell: Here is what researcher Neil Weatherby wrote to me several years ago (unfortunately he has died since then) "Then there's the other thing that you noticed about Hannah Crowell having the same surname as Hannah Higgins' mother. It may not be a coincidence because there's a possibility that they may have been the same person (i.e. Hannah Crowell Higgins). GeneJane records that Robert Crowell Higgins (Hannah's brother) had a daughter named Mary Crowell Higgins who had married a John Higgins. The Onslow Township Book records Mary's surname as just Crowell and not Higgins. Perhaps the same situation occurred with Hannah. And, afterall, I still have no confirmation of Hannah Crowell as a person or the wife of William Stevens." I compared your list of the children of Wm Stevens and Hannah Crowell plus my list of the children of Wm. and Hannah Higgins Stevens to the breakout in the 1838 census and here is what I got: 1838 CENSUS OUR 2 FAMILIES Females under 6 - 1 none males 6-14 - 2 Robert-1842; Charles-1828 females 6-14 - 1 none males over 14 - 2 Elisha-1815; Samuel-1819; Wm-1822 females over 14 - 3 Mary-1812 Sarah-1811 Rachel - 1819 There are too many boys over 14, all from your family. Could one of them be already married and gone? The missing females would be in the "lost" group with my Robert and Charles. WOW! I'm really starting to be convinced. Evidence yours and mine are the same family: 1) Crowell in Hannah Higgins mother's maiden name. Many of Hannah's siblings used family surnames as middle names. In another record a niece with midle name 'Crowell' appears to use 'Crowell' in place of surname. (See above, I probably didn't say that quite right) 2) Both William Stevens families supposedly lived at Folly Lake. 3) The make up of both families in 1838 census is exactly the same. By examining the register order of the census families, Jane Wile determined they were not listed in the order of their dwellings, and could well be the same family listed twice. 4) Both Wm Stevens were born in N.S. Yours Onslow 1788, mine date unknown but written on son Charles death certificate: place of birth of father- "Nova Scotia" 5) Both families have a Mary born about 1813 - your Mary born 25 Dec 1812, my Mary born about 1813 per 1871 census, and living with my Charles. Evidence not supporting this theory: 1) My Hannah died 22 Jul 1869 in Wentworth and the record said she was a widow.
As you pointed out 'M' and 'W' look similar when hand written and this could be an error.
2) your William died 13 Feb 1876 status - married.- 1871 census shows a Wm the right age liivng w. Rachel, 71. Perhaps he remarried after Hannah died. No other Wm Stevens the right age appears in that census. (We later determined this Wm and Rachel are a different Wm Stevens that has been well researched and known and is definitely not ours. DZS Jan 2012)
1838 Census, Londonderry Twsp, Colchester Co., Nova Scotia
# 110 Londonderry - Wm. and Hannah Stevens, farmergirls under 6 - 1
age 6 - 14 - 2 boys, 1 girl
over 14 - 2 boys, 3 girlsThere is a duplicate record for #195 Londonderry.
Mary appears on the 1871 census with the family of Charles. She is likely an older sister to Charles.