Andrew A. Hall

I am continually amazed at the courage and perseverance of my ancestors, particularly those who were part of the pioneer movement in our country.  My great great grandfather, Andrew Hall, was quite a character and tougher than most.  The Hall family left their home in New York and moved to Michigan.  Andrew and Olivia had two daughters, Ada and Nina, and a son, Edward.  Another son is a mystery.

Andrew A. Hall > Ada Clemina Hall > Horace C. Crofford > Virginia M. Crofford > Teresa Zaun Austin

Andrew worked in the copper mine in Ontogogan on Lake Superior. According to Ada, he was present in the mine the day they broke into a chamber and found dead men and some "queer" tools. This may be a reference to the more than a hundred "ancient mines" or artificial caverns discovered in this area.  He was also there when they pulled out the largest piece of solid copper (527 tons) ever taken from the ground (see Minestota Mine). Ontonagon is part of the Keweenawan peninsula where large deposits, "geological freaks," of copper were found.

Miners at Minesota Mine

Ancient Mine Pits

Minesota Mine - productive years,1855-1862

By the time the Civil War started, copper mining was at a "low ebb."  In 1861, Andrew got caught up in the fervor of a patriotic meeting and signed up to join the Michigan Volunteer Infantry. According to Wikipedia, Colonel John C. Robinson recruited volunteers and led the Michigan Volunteer Infantry.  Robinson trained his men in Newport News, Virginia:

John Cleveland Robinson

Robinson was soon sent to Detroit as an army recruiting officer, and for a short time, assisted Governor William Dennison in raising troops in Columbus, Ohio.[2] In September 1861, he was appointed as colonel of the 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry, a regiment he helped recruit.[2][3] That autumn, he was also promoted to major of the 2nd U.S. Infantry in the regular army, concurrent with his assignment in the volunteer army.[1] Within a few months, he was commanding a brigade of volunteers at Newport News, Virginia in preparation for the Peninsula Campaign.

According to my great grandmother Ada, her father's departure left their family with little means of support and they nearly starved.  Their clothes fell apart when it rained. Andrew's $13 a month barely met their needs.  He began laundering men's shirts at 10 cents each to make extra money, and loaned money "at usurious interest" to other soldiers in order to send money home to his family.  When he became a surgical assistant, he was able to send decent money to his family.

Serving under General McClellan, Andrew took part in the Seven Days march to Richmond, carrying a very heavy case of surgical instruments.  However, he became ill and was hospitalized in New York for six months.  He came home weighing only 85 pounds and was an inch shorter than before he left.  He was too weak to work for a time.

In 1864, Andrew was repairing railroad cars in Marquette.  Ada's dates conflict with the 1870 census. According to the 1870 census, he was living in Delton, near Detroit in the southern part of Michigan, and was working as a watchman at the "furnace." By Ada's account, they lived at the Jackson Furnace in 1867 in the northern part of Michigan, and moved from there to Brainard in 1869, then to Fargo, ND.  Ada wrote that Andrew worked as a bridge builder.  He built the first frame house in Fargo as well as several other buildings in Brainard.

From Fargo: History: "Law and order followed with the arrival of new settlers on the first train of the Northern Pacific to cross the Red River on June of 1872."

Andrew became discouraged by the hard living in Michigan and was beaten by the plague of grasshoppers that destroyed their crops and their homes. In 1875, they heard that the government was going to build a fort near the Black Hills. Settlers were given permission to accompany the army to the Black Hills, so the Halls moved to Fort Lincoln for a time.  During this time, Ada taught school at Fort Lincoln and was present when Custer's men left for the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.  According to Ada, who was also a writer and historian, the settlers traveled by wagon train in a long, tightly guarded procession to the Black Hills. Families were cautioned to stay together to be assured of safety.  One couple did not follow this advice and were found dead, scalped by Indians.

They moved around, living in Central City, SD, then Bear Butte Creek.  He received his pension and an inheritance from his father around 1880, so he bought cattle and horses.  By 1886, they had settled on a ranch near Buffalo Gap by the Cheyenne River.  They lived on this ranch for many years.  Young men would come visit and see the girls on the Hall ranch.  "Old Man Hall" was the subject of a little ditty they would sing for him.  In 1890, there was the threat of an Indian uprising because of the "Messiah Craze"*, so men gathered at the Hall ranch for mutual protection.  Horace Crofford was among these men.  Horace and Ada were married the next year.

Andrew and Olivia Hall later moved to Newcastle, Wyoming.  In the days before his death, he deeded his land to Ada (copy of deed can be seen in Ancestry.com).  Andrew is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Newcastle.

*The U. S. government had seized Lakota lands.  Bison were hunted to near extinction.  Treaties with the Indians were not implemented.  An Indian prophet had a vision of Jesus returning as a Native American and restoring their lands.  The Indians began performing the Ghost Dance, in which they believed they would be protected from the white man's bullets, and that the ghosts of the ancestors would return to earth.  This was referred to by the white people as the "Messiah Craze."  The white men feared this Ghost Dance and believed an uprising was imminent.  An unfortunate series of events led to the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota in 1890.

Horses in the Black Hills

Passing Down a Love of Horses
Lame Johnny Creek was named after a scoundrel who was hanged from a tree near the creek.  The land along this creek was desirable grazing land for ranchers in the Black Hills area.  One ranch on this creek called Fleur de Lys was famed for its horses that were imported from France, including Percheron and Arabian breeds.  My grandfather's family owned horses too.  My grandfather, Horace Crofford, used to talk to me for hours about horses, and I hung on every word.  He described each breed and its characteristics, all of which I remember to this day.  From him, I learned about roans, paints, pacers, mules, Appaloosas, palominos, Percherons, Arabs, quarterhorses, and Tennessee Walkers.  I learned which horses were good for racing, plowing, carriage, or riding, and I could tell you which characteristics made them good for the job. He taught me about halters, bits, and bridles. When I went away to college and visited the riding stable there, I was drawn to a beautiful horse that I could immediately recognize as a Morgan because of Baba's description - barrel chest, strong legs and hindquarters, graceful arched neck, broad forehead, and cupped face.  My identification was confirmed by the owner.

Personal Experience
One story Baba told was about a horse on his father's ranch... during the night, the horse squeezed through the door into the stock room and gorged on oats.  The oats swelled up inside the horse and he couldn't get back out through the door.  The horse raised a ruckus, and the family came running.  They got him out of the storage room somehow, and family members had to take turns walking the horse around and around the paddock all night long so he wouldn't get a ruptured intestine and die.  A drink of water would have killed the horse quickly.

Postcards from my Grandfather
Whenever Baba went to Wyoming to visit his family, he sent postcards of horses and wrote about them on the back:

As you can see, I wore these postcards out studying them!

Croffords from then to now

1806 Calvin V. Crawford was born in New York.  His Scottish born father, Horace, was known as the "Genesee Valley Millwright."   Milling was a major industry along the Genesee River.  Today, "Crawford" is a recognized name in Rochester.

1815 Anna Dillingham was born in Ohio.  Her family moved to Porter County, Indiana in 1836.  She married Daniel Lyons in 1837 and taught school in her father John Dillingham's home.  The Dillingham name is still important in Liberty and many descendants still live near the old family graves.

                                           

1839 Calvin Crawford married Anna in Porter County, Indiana.  He joined the military (Army enlistment states his birthplace as Vermont).  At some point, the spelling of his name changed to Crofford.

1846 Horace Calvin Crofford, the fourth of Calvin and Anna's seven children, was born  (2 of their children died young).

1860 Calvin and Anna moved to Rochester, Missouri, with their children Angeline, Chester, Horace, and Charles, and then moved to Lancaster, Nebraska.

1863 Horace Calvin Crofford was drafted into the cavalry during the Civil War.  His discharge was signed by U. S. Grant.

1864 Calvin Crofford received a Homestead grant of about 154 acres in Lincoln, Nebraska.  His son, Horace Calvin, was one of the witnesses to his settlement in the area, along with Sidney S. Pratt.  They attested that "he has built a house thereon, about 16 + 30 feet with board floor, two doors, and one window. He has since said settlement ploughed and cultivated about 70 acres of said land, and has made the following improvements thereon to wit:  has built a stable for 7 or 8 horses, a grainery and corn crib, dug a well, planted about 500 forest trees, and set out about 80 roads of hedge."  NOTE: this is where the name was first changed from Crawford to Crofford. It was actually crossed off and re-written on the Homestead document. 

1876 Little Big Horn.  Ada Clemina Hall, a school teacher at Fort Lincoln, wrote a paper in defense of Custer.  The Fort was abandoned in 1882.

Fort Lincoln, Dakota Territory

By 1880, Horace Calvin Crofford was working as a quartz miner in Custer County, Dakota Territory.  He married Ada Hall in 1891.  Horace became a respected sheep rancher and county commissioner in Custer.

 

Horace Calvin Crofford in the late 1800's

1894 Horace and Ada's first child, Horace's namesake, was born in Buffalo Gap, South Dakota.

1895, claiming self defense, Horace killed a young rancher in a dispute over grazing land near Lame Johnny Creek.  He turned himself in to the authorities, and was held by the sheriff at Custer. The family moved to nearby Newcastle, Wyoming, where Ada ran a boarding house to support the family.

Newcastle, Wyoming around 1905
http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/newcastle-wyoming

1907 Ada's father Andrew Hall signed over to Ada the title to farmland in Weston County (near Newcastle). Horace raised stock and the three boys worked on the farm.  During this period Ada worked on several patented inventions.

My grandfather told lots of stories about life in the west.  One time, a horse broke into the feed storage in the middle of the night and ate a belly full of oats.  The oats swelled and the horse had to be kept moving all night long, everyone taking turns walking him in order to aid digestion and save his life.  

An influential event in my grandfather's life gave birth to a lifelong interest in rocks and fossils.  Near their home in Newcastle, Barnum Brown, a famous paleontologist known as "Mr. Bones," discovered the first documented remains of Tyrannosaurus Rex in 1902.  Family lore is that dinosaur bones were found on the family homestead.       ~Teresa Austin

Barnum Brown and his Tyrannosaurus Rex

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/mar/the-bone-collector








1916 Horace died (in Missouri, according to Findagrave.com), leaving Ada dependent on her oldest son, Horace, who was a telegrapher for the railroad.

1917 at the age of 22, Horace enlisted in the army. He was in Normandy during WWI.  He was discharged in 1919.  He was an electronics student at the American Bureau of Engineering (AMBU) Institute in Chicago, which is across the intersection from Mercy Hospital, on Prairie Avenue.  It is possible that this is where he met a nurse, Teresa Marie Allen.

Horace, 3rd from the right, front row

Teresa Allen

Mercy Hospital, Chicago 1910

AMBU Institute in Chicago, across from Mercy Hospital 

Interesting fact:  Mercy Hospital was named for the Sisters of Mercy.  Teresa lived in a boarding school and was trained as a nurse in Paris, Texas by the Sisters of Mercy at St. Joseph Hospital.  From a history of St. Joseph:  "The origin of St. Joseph's Health System dates to 1896 when the Sisters of Mercy operated a 16-bed hospital in a boarding school near downtown Paris, Texas. But a lack of funds forced the Sisters to give up their mission in 1910."

The Sisters of Mercy also had a hospital in Oklahoma City, where Teresa was working in 1920. The question is, how did she end up moving to Mercy Hospital in Chicago?  Whatever the reason, she probably moved to Chicago, possibly with her friend and fellow nurse, Maud Marshall.  Stay tuned....

Sources:
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/813.html
http://www.christushealth.org/EarlyinCHRISTUSStJosephsHistorySistersStruggletoEstablishParisTexasHospital


In 1921, the Sisters of Mercy took over a World War I Veterans’ Dispensary to offer medical and surgical services to the poor. http://www.mercy-chicago.org/legacy/history

1926 Horace and Teresa married. They moved to West Washington Street, Waukegan, where their children, Horace Calvin "Sonny" and Virginia Maude, were born at St. Therese Hospital.  Sonny and Virginia attended Spaulding Elementary School.  Teresa worked as a nurse at the office of Dr. Jolly, an ear, nose, and throat doctor.  Horace tried his hand in politics but jobs were hard to find after the war.

Horace with Sonny and Virginia

                                                                     
1942  In search of employment, Horace and Teresa moved with their family to Virginia.  Upon their arrival, they lived with friend Ed Suitor in Portsmouth.  Then they moved into a house in Norfolk.  Sonny attended Norview High School.  Virginia graduated from Maury High School in 1950.

Sonny worked all his adult life for the telephone company.  He married Jean Strong; they had four children, Calvin, Ronney, Cindy, and Mark.

1952 Virginia Crofford married John Beverly Zaun.  They had two daughters, Holly and Teresa.  Virginia taught piano, worked as secretary to a prominent and beloved congressman, was the administrative assistant to the Virginia Beach chief of detectives, and finally became Administrative Assistant to the director of city planning. Holly had three children:  Justin, Leah, and Reed Bernick.  Teresa had four sons: Adam, Joshua, Jonathan, and Andrew Austin.

Note: my grandfather Horace, who I called Baba, used to play mouth harp and harmonica, and sing songs like Yellow Rose of Texas, She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain, and Red River Valley.  I see now that those songs are directly out of his experience in the Old West. There is a Red River Valley in Fargo, ND, where his mother grew up, as well as in Paris, TX, where my grandmother Teresa grew up.

Ada C. Crofford

My great grandmother, Ada Clemina Hall, was born on July 18, 1856 in Chittenango, New York.

Ada C. Hall > Horace C. Crofford > Virginia M. Crofford > Teresa Zaun Austin

Ada's family (parents, Andrew and Olivia, Ada, and her siblings, Nina and Albert) traveled west and settled in the Dakota Territory sometime before 1876.  Their home was near Bear Butte Creek at the northern edge of the Black Hills (near what is now Sturgis).  Her father was a farmer and her mother kept house, perhaps with her daughter Nina's help.  A young man, Jesse, boarded with them and shared the work of farming.  Albert most certainly worked on the farm as well.  Ada became a teacher.

Ada taught school at Fort Lincoln in North Dakota, and was friends with General Custer's wife, Elizabeth, who was about ten years older than Ada.  Family legend has it that Ada was teaching school at Fort Lincoln on the day that Custer and his men left to fight the Battle of Little Big Horn in May 1876.  Ada later wrote a paper defending General Custer which is now housed in a museum in Newcastle, Wyoming.

"Mrs. Crofford was a school teacher at Ft. Abraham Lincoln and was a friend of General Custer's wife Elizabeth. She came to the Black Hills to teach in 1876." From the obituary of her daughter, Miriam Darrow printed in "Bits and Pieces" Newcastle, Weston, Wyoming, Vol. 4 No. 1, 1968

Ada married Horace C. Crofford in 1891 at age 34. They had three children born in South Dakota - Horace, age 5, Oliver, age 4, and "Abraham" (Abram), age 2.  The census indicates that she had another child that did not survive.  By 1900, they had moved across the line into Wyoming, just south of Newcastle. Daughter Miriam was born in 1902.

Ada holding Miriam, born in 1902.

In 1907, Ada's father Andrew Hall signed over to her the title to farmland in Weston County, in the Newcastle area.  Horace raised stock, and the three boys worked as laborers on the home farm.

Ada was an consummate inventor.  In 1905, she patented a design for an insect trap.  This design has been referenced by other inventors until as recently as 2012.  In 1906, she patented a signal attachment for a life preserver that would make a person in distress visible from a distance.  In 1918, she patented a method for sealing jars of preserves.   In 1923, she patented a mechanism to automatically release the thread tension in a sewing machine.

She was also a writer and historian.  Her story "Pioneer days in North Dakota" was published in the 1923 North Dakota Historical Quarterly.  I wonder if she was inspired by her friendship with "Libbie" Custer who supplemented her widow's pension by writing books about life on the plains.  http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/elizabeth-bacon-custer/12030

Places

I would love to plan a trip itinerary based on the principal locations that my ancestors lived.

New England

Providence, RI, and Newport
Hartford and New Haven, CT
Fort Lee, NJ
Barnstable, MA
Buffalo Gap, SD
Liberty, IN
Lancaster, NE
Fort Lincoln, ND
Newcastle, WY
Hancock, IL
Hampshire, UK
Cornwall, UK
Salisbury, UK
Isle of Wight,  UK

Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Illinois

Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Cornwall, Salisbury

Ok, so I threw in Salisbury.  Who knows, we probably have Druids in our ancestry somewhere....  [PS just found out (2/8/14) that my 8th great grandfather John Greene was born in Salisbury, and we have deep royal roots there.]

One more place:  Berkley Castle, Gloucester is the birthplace of my 12th great grandmother Muriel Berkley, 1516-1543