John Stoughtenburgh Prince Update

The other day I wrote about Mayor John S. Prince and speculated that his namesake was John Stoutenburgh, the son of Isaac Stoutenburgh and Elizabeth Will. I just had to know if my hunch was correct.

Isaac Stoutenburgh was a very prominent figure in New York City where John Prince's mother was born. Her mother was Bridget Turner who would have been a contemporary of Isaac's son, John Stoutenburgh. Charlotte's grandfather, John Turner, would have been a contemporary of Isaac Stoutenburgh. So I decided to look at the 1790 Census and some directories and records of New York City between American Revolution and 1800.

Isaac Stoutenburgh and his son John were merchants as was John Turner. Isaac Stoutenburgh and John Turner had business locations near one another. I did not find anything that would imply that the Stoutenburgh family and the John Turner family had a close relationship. Hence I was becoming less certain that John Stoughtenburgh Prince was named after John Stoutenburg.

Isaac Stoutenburgh was a colonel during the American Revolution. He represented New York City in the newly formed state's government. He was an alderman in New York City for many years. Isaac was the Commission of Forfeiture for the Southern District along with Pierre Van Cortlandt.

Although I cannot rule out that John Prince's namesake was John Stoutenburgh, I have a stronger sense that his mother chose his given name to honor her grandfather John Turner. Then she chose for a middlename Stoughtenburgh in honor of the more well-known person of her childhood, Isaac Stoutenburgh.

John Stoughtenburgh Prince

A few years ago as I was researching my ancestry, I came across John Stoughtenburgh Prince. I found several books and websites that either mention this man or include a small biography of him. None of the articles or books gave me much information about his ancestors.

I had made the assumption that he might be a descendant of Pieter Stoutenburg based on his middle name through his mother. However, I did not rule out that he might be a Stoutenburg descendant from his father's family. At that time, I was not able to find anything that would connect him to Pieter Stoutenburg.

John Stoughtenburgh Prince settled at St. Paul, Minnesota about 1854. He was a banker and also held the office of mayor for several terms. From what I read, he was a very influential person in St. Paul during his life. He was the son of Joseph Prince and Charlotte Osborne and was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1821.

The only other Stoutenburg descendant who had lived in St. Paul before the late 20th Century was Frank Stoutenburg. I already knew that Frank Stoutenburg was born in Iowa but spent his childhood in the State of New York before heading west to Minnesota. Frank arrived in Minnesota around the time that John Stoughtenburgh Prince died. As far as I could tell there was no connection between these men.

I had hit a brick wall and decided to move on to another area of my research. But the other day that name popped up while I was searching for information on someone else. This time I came across a book published in 2009 that was authored by descendants of John Prince's sister, Amelia Prince, entitled John Broome and Rebecca Lloyd Their Descendants and Related Families 18th to 21st Centuries Volume 1.

Pages 149 - 151 of the book provided me with enough clues to resume my search to find a connection. Charlotte Osborne was born in New York City in 1797. Joseph Prince was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1788. He and Charlotte Osborne married in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1818. The book gave no indication as to how these two met, nor why they were in Cincinnati in 1818. Joseph Prince's father was the mayor of Cincinnati in 1803 so it would appear that Joseph and his parents were in Ohio before 1803.

After the Revolutionary War, the US government paid soldiers of that war in land warrants. The warrants were mostly for land in what is now the State of Ohio in what was then the Northwest Territory (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota). In March 1803, Ohio became a state and what was left of the Northwest Territory became the Indiana Territory. As parts of the original Northwest Territory became states what remained subsequently became the Illinois Territory, Michigan Territory, Wisconsin Territory and finally the Minnesota Territory.

It seemed to me very unlikely that Joseph Prince and his father had much contact with the Stoutenburgs of New York. When I learned from the book that Charlotte Osborne was born in New York City in 1797, I decided to look for the connection there. Her father, Bilious Ward Osborne was from New Haven, Connecticut but married in New York City Bridget Turner, the daughter of John Turner of New York City.

After Joseph Prince died in 1833, Charlotte was a widow with small children so it was only natural that she would remarry. According to the book, she married Gabriel Franchere in Detroit, Michigan and a Colonel Mack was a witness. Charlotte Osborne and Joseph Prince had a son named James Tallant Prince and a son named Andrew Mack Prince.

I could not find any direct relationship with the Stoutenburg family in New York City and wondered if their sons might be named after influential friends or business relations. Since Col. Mack was at witness at Charlotte Osborne's second marriage, I did some research on an Andrew Mack because one son was Andrew Mack Prince. I found that Col. Andrew Mack was in the Ohio Assembly and ran for mayor of Cincinnati in 1829, the same year in which Andrew Mack Prince was born. Col. Andrew Mack was the founder of the Detroit Free Press and was a mayor of Detroit.

Next I turned to James Tallant Prince. I wondered if there was a James Tallant living in Cincinnati about the time that James Tallant Prince was born. Well, there was! I found a court case in Louisiana in 1830 in which a James Tallant was involved. He was the owner of a steamship, Walter Scott, in Cincinnati.

Now I wondered if there was a John Stoutenburgh in Cincinnati, Ohio about the time the John Stoughtenburgh Prince was born. I haven't found any such person. Then I next wondered if there was a connection to Charlotte's family when she lived in New York City. I haven't found a clear link but Isaac Stoutenburgh was a very wealthy merchant and auctioneer in New York around that time. He had a son, John Stoutenburgh, who followed in his father's footsteps.

I don't absolute proof that John Stoughtenburgh Prince was named for Isaac and Elizabeth Will Stoutenburgh's son John. But it does seem very likely to me.

A Tale of Two Collingwoods

As a child, I was told that my great-great grandfather was born in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. Since I was born in the United States as was my mother, her father and her grandfather, Collingwood, Canada was just a name. I had no idea where Collingwood was except that it was in the Province of Ontario.

 

When I first started the research on my ancestors, I found some death records of descendants of some of my great-great grandfather's siblings in Collingwood, Simcoe County. I assumed that he was born in Collingwood, Simcoe County. Later I discovered via census images that his parents had settled in Collingwood Township. Grey County, Ontario.

 

It doesn't surprise me when I come across family trees that have him and some of his siblings born in the wrong Collingwood. However, last week I came across a record that did surprise me because the record was made about a cousin by herself.

 

In 1958, at age 65, Edith Victoria Schnack filled out a statement of birth form. She was living in Edmonton, Alberta at that time. I found voter registrations that place her in Edmonton by 1945. And I found information about a son, Keith Schnack, who born in Edmonton in 1929.

 

From the information that she wrote, it appears that she knew very little about her parents or of her own birth. I am a bit surprised that she didn't know more about her parents because she was 21 years old when her mother died and 20 when her father died.

 

She responded to many of the questions on the form with "no knowledge." I am not surprised that she didn't know how much she weighed at birth or how many weeks in duration her mother's pregnancy was before her mother gave birth to her. The thing that did surprise me was that she did not know how old her parents were when she was born.

 

Edith gave her birth name as Edith Victoria Weldric (sic), her father's name as George Weldric and her mother's name as Caroline Gardiner. I have no idea why she would record her mother’s name as Caroline because I found no records in which Ann Caroline Gardiner Weldrick is identified as Caroline. In the census records, she is found as Ann or Anna. The name on her gravestone and death register is Ann Caroline Gardiner.

 

Edith believes that she was born in Collingwood, Collingwood Twp., Simcoe County, Ontario at Collingwood Hospital. I think that she confused Collingwood Township with the town. The Collingwood in Simcoe County is in Nottawasaga Township. Collingwood Township is in Grey County. Collingwood the town and Collingwood the township are proximate to each other with Grey to the west of Simcoe. Grey County was established in 1852, taken from Simcoe County. Collingwood Township borders the Georgian Bay and the town of Collingwood sits on the bay.

 

Confusing?

 

Edith’s parents were living at Concession 9, Lot 11 in Collingwood Township, Grey County, Ontario in 1901. Between an 1880 map of Collingwood Township and a Google map of the Town of Blue Mountain (current name of Collingwood Twp.), I was able to find where the family lived in 1901. The farm was located between the village of Ravenna and the Red Wing post office. The town of Collingwood is a little more than 8 miles east of their farm.

 

Her parents were living in Collingwood Township in 1891, 1901 and 1911. According to the Death Register, George Weldrick died on May 4, 1915 at his home at Concession 9, Lot 11 in Collingwood Twp., Grey Co. Ann Caroline Gardiner Weldrick died in Ravenna. Both are buried in the Thornbury-Clarksburg Union Cemetery in Collingwood Twp. Since it appears that George and Ann lived their married life near Ravenna, I suspect that Edith has confused Collingwood Township with the town.

 

But I would normally assume that a person would know where he/she was born so I decided to see if I could find a birth record of her birth in Simcoe County. I simply did a search at Ancestry.com for a female born on October 9, 1893 in Simcoe County. I found 3 names but none matched with her. Because the 1901 census recorded the date of her birth as October 9, 1894, I looked for her on that date. Again a few females were born in Simcoe County on that date but none matched her. Repeating the search, I looked for a female born in October of 1893 and in October of 1894. The searches returned more names but no matches.

 

Since Edith wrote on her statement of birth that she was born in Simcoe County, I wondered if she had tried to get a record of her birth from the wrong place and assumed that no record of her birth existed. At that point, I decided to look for a record around those dates in Grey County. Again, nothing matched. The next tactic I took was to look at each image in the birth register for Grey County in 1893 and 1894. A curious result occurred. Many of the images of the birth records were either a delayed birth record or a statement of birth.

 

I wonder what happened at that time that so many births were either not recorded in Grey County? Perhaps, the records were lost.

Who is Country Music Historian Robert Ray Gardiner Junior?

Canada Gen Web has a Cemetery Project in which volunteers take photographs of gravestones at cemeteries throughout the provinces and territories. Luke Stoutenburg and his wife, Elizabeth Case, settled in Upper Canada in the early 1800s. Upper Canada, also later called Canada West, is today's Province of Ontario. Their son and my ancestor settled in Grey County, Ontario.

I had some idea that many of my family members were buried in the Thornbury-Clarksburg Union Cemetery. My assumption was clearly true because as I viewed the gravestone images at this website, I found photos of the gravestones of many members of the Peter Stoutenburg and Caroline Ashton family and their descendants.

One photo intrigued me. It is the photo of the gravestone of Robert Ray Gardiner, Jr. His father is Robert Ray Gardiner who was born in 1913. His mother is Wilda Olive Simmons who was born in 1914. The only date on the Robert Junior's gravestone is June 24, 1935. This could be construed as the date on which Robert Junior died.

Based on the dates when each of his parents were born, it would seem that Robert Junior died as an infant. However, the other text on the gravestone implies that date on the gravestone is not the date of his death. It appears to be the date of his birth.

The text on the gravestone reads:

GARDINER
Robert Ray
June 24, 1935
County Music Historian
Keep it country
Loving son of Ray & Wilda
Praise the Lord
I saw the light

It's unlikely that a son who died in infancy was a country music historian. I tried to find out more about this person on Google but did find any additional information.

Maybe I'll find something later.

Just another family mystery

I was looking at the Ringo branch of the family when I came across a distant cousin, Mary Elizabeth Duncan, who seems to have gone through husbands like water. I began to focus on her parents and grandparents to see if I could find a pattern.

Elizabeth J. Sawyer and John E. Dillon had two children, Ethel and William when the family was enumerated in St. Peter, Minnesota on June 5, 1900. William Edward was born January 10, 1898 in Le Sueur County Minnesota when his father was 25 years old and his mother, 21 years old. William enlisted in the army on February 7, 1918 and was discharged on January 25, 1919. He served as a private in the 871st Aero Repair Squadron of the Signal Corps. (This squadron appears to have been located in St. Paul, Minnesota.)

 

His son Harlan Dillon of Kasota, Minnesota applied for a headstone from the US government on January 27, 1962. William died on January 1, 1962 and was buried in the Kasota Hill Cemetery Section C. His wife, Leona Cora (Puffpaf) Dillon, was born July 7, 1908 in South Dakota, died on October 14, 1958 and is buried near her husband.

William was living with his aunt and uncle, Francis H. and Helen Dillon, in St. Peter, Minnesota in 1910. The next record in which I found him was in 1940 when he and Leona were living in Kasota, MN with adopted son, Harlan, and daughters, Jacqueline and Hazel. They were living in rural Le Sueur County in 1935.

I did not find Ethel Dillon in the 1910 census but I did find her married to Joseph Duncan in the 1920 Census. They had two children at that time, Shryle and Mary Duncan. Shyrle Duncan died in 1926. I could not find her birth under various search fields. I did find a child Alden born in Hennepin County on the same date as Shyrle. So it would seem that Ethel had Shyrle before she married Joseph Duncan.

I have no idea if there is a connection, but in 1920 when “Hazel L.” and Fred A. Diekow were enumerated, there was a Ernest and Anna Alden on the same page.

The couple had a son, John Samuel Duncan, in 1921. In 1930, Joseph and John were living together in Louisville, KY, near where Joseph Duncan had family. Mary Elizabeth Duncan remained in Minnesota with her mother’s family.

I have been unable to locate information about John Dillon after 1900 and before 1920. In 1920, John is a farm laborer in Washington Township, Le Sueur County, Minnesota. His marital status is single. However, in 1930 he is living with his brother-in-law, Michael Smith, in St. Peter, MN. His marital status is divorced. Michael is widowed and was married to John Dillon’s sister, Mary. John Dillon died in 1931.

 

As far as Elizabeth Sawyer is concerned, I think that I have found her under a different name. Her daughter, Ethel Dillon was married to Joseph Duncan by 1920. She had a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Duncan born in 1919. Ethel died in 1926. I found Mary in the 1930 Census living with F and H Diekow in Minneapolis. She was recorded as a niece. Included in the same household is a Lucy Sawyer, mother-in-law of F Diekow. So it would seem that H. is the daughter of Lucy Sawyer and the aunt of Mary Duncan. Based on the 1920 Census, H is Hazel Diekow and is the wife of Fred Diekow.

Alexander and Lucy Sawyer had no daughter named Hazel. I looked at the 1880 Census and the 1900 Census and the Minnesota State Census in 1885 and 1895 and did not find a daughter named Hazel. The age of Hazel in the 1920 and 1930 Census fits with that of Elizabeth. So it would seem that Hazel is Elizabeth Sawyer and the grandmother of Mary Duncan.

It appears that John and Elizabeth were divorced after June 5, 1900 when the family was enumerated and before June 6, 1905 when the children were living with their maternal grandparents in Kasota, Minnesota.

Finding Grandma's House

My cousin posted on Facebook a picture with our great grandparents, our grandmother and her brother standing in front of a house. The photo was taken in 1908 of their home. She asked me if I knew if the house was still standing.

I actually didn't know but I do remember going to visit my great uncle who was living in the house at that time. Although I was still in grade school the last time I saw the house, I have  memories of several visits there.

As a part of building my family history, I had purchased a 1888 plat map book of the county in which the house stood and a book of burials in the same county. My father took me a few times to see the cemetery with his grandparents and great grandparents graves. At that time the cemetery surrounded the church. In the book of burials, I found the names of my father's family listed at that cemetery but not that of my great uncle. In perusing the book, I discovered that my great uncle was not buried in the cemetery with his parents and grandparents, but elsewhere.

Several years ago my sister and I went to a family reunion on my mother's side. When we moved, she was too little to remember anything about the house, so I thought that it would be fun to visit the cemetery where our father's grandparents and great grandparents are buried. Sadly, the church was demolished and a larger, modern church built near the graveyard.

Since we were in the area, I decided to visit the cemetery where my grandmother's brother was buried too. Little did I realize then that the house was very nearby. Nearly a decade later, I had more tools and information at hand to help me see if I could find the house.

My great uncle and great aunt had no children. When my grandmother's brother died in an auto accident, his wife inherited the house and property. The cemetery in which my great uncle is buried is situated on a portion of the farm. After her death, she left the property and cemetery to her church.

Using Google Maps, I located the cemetery. The satellite view wasn't very revealing. Luckily I found there was a street view of the cemetery and church. Since the cemetery was on the corner of two streets, I was able to navigate along both streets until I found a house that vaguely looked like my grandmother's family home.

The house was obscured by trees and the resolution of the photo was not sufficient enough to allow zooming without the image being blurred. So the next step was to use Google Earth. Again with trees in the way, it was difficult to make a positive identification. That is when I took out the 1888 plat book. Between the image from Google Earth and the plat map, I was pretty certain that I had found the house.

I remember my father turning from the highway onto a long dirt driveway. I could see such a lane in both Google Maps and Google Earth. From Google Maps, I obtained an approximate street address, and was able to pinpoint the address on a contemporary zoning map of the township in which the property was situate.

Zillow had an entry for that address. According to Zillow, the house was built in 1890 and included about 5 acres of land. My great grandparents built their house about that time on a 160-acre parcel. The houses around it, according to Zillow, were built much later. The roof line that I viewed in Google Earth was identical with the exception of what appeared to be an addition at the back of the house.

When I last visited the house, it did not have indoor plumbing. It had a pot bellied stove in the parlor and a wood burning stove in the kitchen. There was a pump in front of the house for water, and outhouse in the back near the barn. The house did have electricity and an old fashioned crank phone. My cousin asked me if the house had indoor plumbing now. Zillow says the house has one bathroom.

I guess the answer is yes! It is probably in the addition that I could see on Google Earth.

Four Generations of Women on the Phone

I had shown a picture of my mother at her business and a picture of my grandmother at her business to a friend. She told me that I must make a collage photo. That is because the photos show my grandmother at a switchboard about 1910 and my mother at a switchboard about 1969.

In the case of my grandmother, she was the operator at the phone company that was housed in the parlor of her father's house. The switchboard supported 24 lines. The picture of my mother was at her business.

My mother had been a rural school teacher before she married my father. She gave up teaching after she married my father. However, after I was born, I became her pupil. I remember before I started kindergarten sitting on our front steps and my mother teaching me to read.

I don't remember my mother working with my younger siblings as she did with me because she did other things to bring money into her household. She sold cosmetics at home parties and took in ironing. I remember the mangle iron that she had to iron sheets and tablecloths. Everytime I iron a sheet, I think of that mangle of so many years ago.

The mangle was so much better than my European ironing board and iron. The only thing that my European ironing board does better than the Walmart ironing board is that is so heavy that pulling the sheet across it doesn't tip it over.

But I digress ... At sometime while I was in grade school, my mother worked for an answering service in Minnesota. At that time. I had no idea that my grandmother had been a telephone operator. She was simply my grandmother who lived in California. She was old.

I can remember most of the various occupations that my mother while I was growing up. So when we moved to California, I wasn't surprised when my mother secured a job as an operator at an answering service. She shortly became the night supervisor and acting manager when the manager was away. My mother complained enough about the manager and her ineffectiveness to the point that my father told her to start her own service.

My mother took up my dad's challenge and did start her own business that she successfully ran until her death. I found a photo of her taken in the early days of her business. I was away at college at the time my mother was building her business. She worked seven days a week.

After my father and a sister died, I was lucky to find the photo of my grandmother at a switchboard. It was this photo and the one of my mother at her business that I showed to the woman who owns my gym. As I was making the collage of the two photos, I recalled seeing a photo of my sister as a toddler with a play phone and a photo I took of my daughter as a toddler on the phone.

I had an "aha" moment.  I had pictures of 4 generations of women all using the telephone over a period of 70 years. My grandma worked on a 24-line switchboard. My mom had three 100-line switchboards with rotary dial. My sister played with a toy rotary dial phone. My daughter played with a real touch-tone phone. Much has changed since these pictures.