Earl

Another mystery solved!

One of the early surprises in my genealogy quest was finding out that Earl Butler was born three years before his parents, William Butler and Ida Rene [Bryant], were married in 1895. At the same time, I learned that Ida Rene's last name was "Williams" when she married William Butler; she was widowed by age 27 from a first marriage (her children never knew this).  

I concluded that Earl must not have been Ida's son. My question then was, "Who was Earl's mother?"

I contacted someone on Ancestry -  M. Butler.  She had downloaded a photo that I had posted of the three Butler boys, so I figured she was researching that family too. Come to find out, M's husband Scott is Earl's grandson. I jokingly (sort of) said that he should get a DNA test done. Almost a year later, M. writes that they did the DNA test and I am indeed a genetic match with Scott.  

So Earl is Ida's son after all.  

Ok, so... I'm still digesting this new information...

Facts:1) Earl was three years old when Ida and William Butler married. 2) Ida Rene was widowed, age 27 when she married William Butler (her last name was Williams on the marriage certificate).

Why would Ida wait for three years to marry William after having his child out of wedlock? Is it possible that Earl was Ida's son from her first marriage to Williams? Maybe William Butler adopted him?

One question only leads to another and another...

Here is Earl's family tree, showing how my new-found cousin Scott fits in:

 1) William Brown Butler m. (1895) Ida Rene [Bryant] Williams
     2) Earl Charles, b. 1892
         m. Ellen (1911)
            3) Edna 
            3) Helen
         m. Agnes (abt 1925)
            3) William Earl
                   4) William Bryant 
                   4) Robert Scott 
                   4) Charles Earl
            3) Mary Ann
     2) William Bryant, b. 1895
     2) Rawley Martin, b. 1897

Earl Charles Butler, 1892-1962, son of Ida Rene Bryant

Ida Rene Bryant > Jacqueline Abbott > John Beverly Zaun > Teresa Zaun

 

Augustus - updated April 2019 with new findings!

I think I may have solved the mysterious disappearance of my great grandfather, Augustus Allen. Here is a clipping from The Wichita Daily Eagle, 24 April 1917:

Transcribed:

To Commit Mr. Allen

A hearing in the sanity case of A. D. Allen of this city in probate court yesterday brought a verdict of insanity from the examining board called by Judge Jones.  Mr. Allen will be taken to one of the state institutions for the insane sometime the latter part of the week.

I am not 100% sure this is the right A. D. Allen, but, sadly, this fits perfectly with the rest of the documentation that I have found.  A while back, I found a cemetery record for A.D. Allen at Osawatomie in Miami County, Kansas on Findagrave.com giving the year of his death as 1917.  The entry on Findagrave mysteriously disappeared (can't explain it), but fortunately I had recorded the information. An online search revealed that one of the few state mental hospitals - the closest one to Wichita - was at Osawatomie.  The only niggling doubt I have comes from the fact that there were other A. D. Allens in Wichita.

On a more positive note, I also found a delightful newspaper story (included at the end of this post) and a cartoon caricature of Augustus on his prize-winning horse, Rex Denmark. Augustus was the president of the Horse Show Association in Wichita.

The Wichita Daily Beacon, 1909

Below: one of the only two photographs my grandmother had of her father. 

Note the hairline, even to the curl above his broad forehead! The nose, chin, 

mustache, ears... he is a little older and heavier in the caricature, his eyebrows a 

little bushier, and he is wearing glasses, but his identity is unmistakable.

This photo was taken about 1900.

The amazing discovery of this newspaper caricature has answered a few questions and provided direct or indirect proof of some significant conclusions:

1) A.D. Allen did NOT die in 1904 after all, though his 1st wife Eva (my great grandmother) was listed as a widow in the 1904 City Directory and in the 1910 U.S. Census. 

2) The "A. D. Allen" who was the horse-loving subject of at least two published biographical sketches is the same man as the one in my grandmother's photo of her father, though neither of the accounts mentions the existence of his first wife and child.

3) My great grandfather had a second wife named Emma, whom he married in 1905 while his 1st wife was still alive. 

4) My grandmother lived in Iowa until she was seven years old, according to facts given in A. D. Allen's biography.  (Keokuk, Iowa was right across the river from Hancock County, Illinois, where Augustus was born).

Every new finding creates new questions!

• To what state hospital was A. D. Allen committed in 1917? Osawatomie?

4/23/2019 - I called the state hospital in Osawatomie and spoke with a woman named "Rose" in medical records. She said that there were few records from that far back, and those records were on cards with minimal information. She searched and found a card for A. D. Allen from Wichita! He was admitted to Osawatomie State Hospital on April 29, 1917 (in sync with the court date of April 24), and discharged on May 17, 1917 (which I surmise is the date of his death). Rose suggested that I call the legal dept. attorney, Kahlea Porter in Topeka, to find out if I can obtain a copy of his record and the location of his grave. I also called the Osawatomie Historical Society - they searched but were unable to find any information on A. D. Allen. They recommended contacting the Kansas Dept for Aging and Disabilities. No one could explain why the findagrave entry appeared and then disappeared.

• Where was Emma at the end of Augustus' life? (She is listed as a widow in 1920). 
• Why did A. D. Allen have to be legally declared insane by a judge at a court hearing? 
• Why did Augustus claim to have been orphaned at a very young age and all alone in the world while his mother and a number of brothers and sisters were all still alive in Illinois? (His mother died in 1896).

Here is the newspaper bio of Augustus:

I love the reporter's sense of humor: "He looks some like ex-Chief of Police George T. Cubbin, only a little more so."

Here is another biography from Genealogy Trails:

ALLEN, AUGUSTUS D.
Augustus D. Allen, who for some years has been actively engaged in the real estate business in Wichita, has two fads. One is that of owning and driving good horses, and the other is that of selling Kansas farms. This latter, however, is a business, and selling Kansas farms nowadays puts a man in the class of the diamond broker or corn king. Mr. Allen is a native of Illinois, he having been born in Hancock county, that state, on March 21, 1865. The lad's parents died when he was small, and he had to make his own way in the world. His education was acquired in the public schools of Carthage, Ill., and in the Gem City Business College, of Quincy, Ill. After leaving school Mr. Allen obtained a position as clerk in a store at Tioga, Ill., and he remained there for seven years, leaving to engage in the mercantile business at Keokuk, Ia., where he remained seven years. He then engaged in the wholesale egg business, in which he remained three years, and then entered the real estate field, selling land in Bureau county, Illinois, until 1900, when he came to Wichita, where for a time he was connected with the Kansas Bureau of Immigration and later with the B. D. Allen Realty Company. About three years ago Mr. Allen started in the real estate business for himself and has since conducted a large business. Mr. Allen is methodical in his affairs and keeps book records of all his business. In nine years of business he brought into Kansas from other states 3,700 people, over 50 per cent of whom remained permanently. Since he was fifteen years old, Mr. Allen has owned every minute of that time some sort of a horse. One of his horses, Midnight Denmark, has been shown in the model class nine times and brought home seven blue ribbons and two reds. Mr. Allen was married in 1905 to Miss Emma Shindler, of Wichita.

(History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas: past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county; Chicago: C.F. Cooper & Co., 1910, Pages 705 & 706)

Note: the birth date in this bio is correct, but the year is wrong.  Augustus was actually born on March 21, 1859. In the 1910 Census and in this account, his birth year was given as 1865. To seem younger for his much younger wife, Emma?

Rose Spitler, 1st cousin of my grandmother Teresa Allen

I have written several posts now about Rose and her mother Mardisha.  What I forgot to include is a picture.  When I discovered this photo yesterday, I got goosebumps! Rose could be my grandmother's twin. It absolutely confirms for me that I am on the right track with my Allen family research.

Here is a photo of Rose [Nash] Spitler Scofield:

This photo comes from www.floraandwill.com - Rose was mentioned in the diaries of Will & Flora Geiger.  These diaries are being transcribed and will eventually be published.

Compare to this photo of my grandmother, Teresa Allen:

Could they not be more alike!? They are first cousins. Same brow, same eyes, same mouth, same jaw....so sad that they never knew each other. They even shared a similar experience of being orphaned at a young age. These two photos were taken around the same time. Wouldn't they have loved each other if they had known...  

And...there is also a remarkable resemblance to my cousin Cindy:

No doubt about it - my grandmother is definitely the daughter of Augustus D. Allen from Hancock, Ill. 

Mardisha

Made some actual progress on the family tree yesterday!  I decided to focus on the story of Mardicia Allen (Mordicia, Mardecia, Mardisha, Murdista - just a few of the ways I've found her name spelled).  I wrote about her daughter Rose in a previous post this week.

Mardisha (which is the way she actually signed her name) was my 2nd great aunt, sister of Augustus D. Allen.  She was born in Kentucky in 1835, the second oldest of nine children of Robert Scott Allen and his wife Elizabeth.  The family moved to Illinois in the early 1850's, where she met and married John Nash.  Her two youngest brothers, Harrison and Augustus, were born in Illinois.

A while ago, I found a History of Hancock County that told of a Miss Rose Spitler whose birth parents were John and Mardisha Nash.  It said that Rose was orphaned at a young age; her findagrave.com bio states that John and Mardisha both died in 1858.

Yesterday, I found the probate record for John Nash.  He did indeed die in 1858, leaving Mardisha to be his executrix.  Though her name was spelled Mordecia in the document, her signature was "Mardisha." The record mentions that they had three children. With the information from this record, I was able to search and find Mardisha (spelled Murdista) in the 1860 U. S. Census for Hancock County, Ill., also listing her three children, thus proving that she did not die in 1858 as her daughter Rose's findagrave account states.

The 1880 U. S. Census for Hancock County shows Mardisha (M. Z. Nash) at age 45 living with her mother (Elizabeth Allen), grandmother (Sarah House), and brother, John Watson Allen - no mention of her children, though they would have been adults by this time. The Census document indicates that both Mardisha and her brother John were "ill." Some family trees on Ancestry give her date of death as November 1, 1892, but I have not yet found supporting documentation of this.  These family trees give her middle name as "Zerush," also an unverified fact.

So now I am wondering what sad story caused Mardisha to give up her children (at least her baby Rose).  Rose was still living with her mother at age 3; the other sisters (Frances and Ro...[undeciferable]... were 7 and 8. Could she no longer support a young child on her own? When did she move in with her mother and brother? I sense a heartbreaking situation here.

The larger question for me is:  why did Augustus Allen move so far away (to Kansas), while his mother and brothers and sisters remained in Hancock County, Ill., all their lives? Did they remain in contact somehow?  His mother, Elizabeth, died in 1896 - did he return to Illinois around that time? There was a newspaper story telling of a business trip to Iowa in 1903, but this was to western Iowa, not close to Illinois.

Surnames

The only family surnames that we knew before I started our family tree included:  Zaun, Crofford/Crawford, Abbott, Bryant, Powell, Hall, and Wandell. The names that I already knew about go back three generations thanks to my great grandmother Ada, and to myself for interviewing my great grandmother Georgia before she died.

Through my research, I've added many new names to our tree:

On my paternal side:
Germany: Wellner
New England: Judd, MacDonald, Bradley, Bishop, Thorpe, Thompson, Merriman, Perkins, Bidwell, Welles, Hawkins, Wilcox, Tuttle, Dickerman, Abernathy, Whitfield, Godfrey, Sabin, Ashton, Greene.
Virginia: Owens, Chandler, Monroe, Joyner, Cobb, Edwards, Barnes
... and many more...

On my maternal side:
New England:  Dillingham, Hickox, Merrill, Tompkins, Foote, Warner, Doolittle, Cunnabel, Edwards, English, Wilson, Brown, Buckley, Waters, Haight, Stillwell, Pope, Gerretson, Fowler, Thurston, Stringer,
Virginia: Lewis, Scott, Neblett, Dozier, Gayle, Stokes, Sterling
...and many more....

The surnames that most commonly appear in my "Shared DNA cousins" trees offer confirmation that I am on the right track!  They are:
Wilson (this is the #1 recurrence), Owens, Dillingham, Hickox, Haight, Brown, Greene, Allen, Lewis, Hall, and Doolittle.

Hancock County

Many researchers are out there spreading all kinds of misinformation. Anyone can go on the genealogy website and start a tree.  People grab information from other people's trees, but don't do their own fact-checking.  As a result, false information spreads like an epidemic.

Even historical books and documents contain false information. Much of what is in history books comes from family lore.  My great grandmother, Ada, who was a teacher and avid historian, wrote stories about our family history and about her experiences as an early pioneer in the midwest. Some "facts" were obtained from family lore and are just plain not true.  However, her stories are close enough to reality that it is easy to see how they could have become distorted. For instance, she said that our ancestors were first settlers at Lands End... in truth, they were the first at Graves End (Gravesend).  Similar name, easy to get confused over time.

A History of Hancock County tells of a Miss Rose Spitler who was orphaned at a tender age.  She was the daughter of Mardicia Allen Nash, my 2nd great aunt, and John Nash (of the Nashville family).  Rose became a foster child of Dr. Adam and Mrs. Carrie Spitler and assumed their last name. Rose learned through investigation that Robert Scott Allen (my 2nd great grandfather) was Mardicia's father, and John Watson Allen was her grandfather. According to her family lore, John Watson Allen was a close childhood friend of his famous New England relative, Ethan Allen*. This make a nice story, but I have found no connection between the Virginia Allens and the New England Allens.

Yet.


*I did find a connection between the Allens of Kentucky and Jack Jouett of Revolutionary War fame.  Perhaps this was the origination of the story?

DNA results

Mom's DNA test results came in yesterday.  It was like Christmas!  I can't wait to dive into her DNA matches and Shared Ancestors.

At first look, there is perplexing information in her test results.  Her ethnicity estimate was much different from mine. Hers came in at 14% Italian or Greek... I had none of that ethnicity in my own results.  I had Iberian Peninsula (Spain) in my results, but she showed none at all.  She has ancestors in Eastern Europe; I have ancestors in Western Europe.  I have no Scandinavian ancestry in my DNA. Why is our ethnicity so different?  Our DNA results prove that we have a parent/child relationship.

I spent some time last night looking through her DNA matches to see what common ancestors popped up.  While examining the first 3 pages of 7 pages of matches, I found many Allen ancestors from Virginia, but there were also many Allen ancestors from New England (NY, CT, MA).  There were many Hickox matches (no surprise there). I will have to revise my findings after I review all 7 pages of DNA matches.

I may have to open my mind to going in a different direction with my research.  I thought I had it all neatly wrapped up with proper documentation, but I realize there may be some false assumptions.  Stay tuned.