The State of Missouri some time ago posted searchable images of death certificates from 1910 into the 1960s. A branch of an ancestor settled in Missouri well before the Civil War. I searched for the surname Ringo and was rewarded with many hits.
The female hits were either of unmarried women who were Ringos or women who married a Ringo. As I matched up the death certificates with names in my family tree, I found that I was missing death certificates for Ringo daughters who married. One such woman was Leona Ringo.
She was 3 years old when her family was enumerated in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1880. The 1890 Census was mostly destroyed in a fire. The next intact federal census was in 1900. She was not enumerated with her parents and some of her siblings in the 1900 US census. At the age of about 23, she was likely to have married.
Her father was a prominent lawyer in St. Joseph, Missouri and much of the family seemed to have remained in St. Joseph, I took a chance and searched the State of Missouri death certificates for a Leona in Buchanan County. Fortunately she married a man whose surname began with the letter B.
After looking at a half a dozen death certificates, I found her. She was Leona Bruce and died in St. Joseph, MO in 1961. Her son, John, was the informant and he provided the name of her husband. I then found the couple in the 1900 census. She was born in August 1878 and he was born in November 1878. They had been married a year.
Next I found an entry in a register of their application for a marriage license and the record of their marriage. Their marriage license was issued in Buchanan County, Missouri on December 31, 1898. They were married by Rev. C. M. Chilton on January 2, 1899 in St. Joseph, MO.
In 1910, Leona and her husband were living in Lamar, Barton County, Missouri where he was in the lumber business. They had a son, John, who was 6 years old and born in Missouri. In 1961, John was living in Norman, Oklahoma at the time of his mother's death.
In 1920, I found Leona and her son living with two of her sisters in St. Joseph, MO. She was identified as a widow. She was a widow at the time of her death in 1961 so I assumed that Edwin died before 1920. But to my surprise, I found the death certificate for Edwin Beldon Bruce who died in 1951 in St. Joseph, MO and was born November 25, 1878 in Princeton, Missouri. Leona was the informant for his death Certificate and was living in the same rural route number as was Edwin at the time of his death.
So confused...
I then found a World War I draft registration card for Edwin Beldon Bruce in Missouri who was born November 25, 1878. He was living in Jackson County, Missouri at the time and his wife was Edyna. Edwin and Edyna were enumeration in Jackson, Co. in 1920. I then found the register of their marriage in 1917.
It would appear that Leona and Edwin were divorced by 1917. However, in 1930, Edyna Ringo was divorced. She apparently did not remarry as she died in 1981 and the Social Security Death Index includes Edyna Bruce who was born on December 14, 1888 and died in September 1981. He last residence was Springfield, Greene County, Missouri.
At this time I have not found either Leona or Edwin in the 1930 or 1940 census, but at some time the couple reunited before his death in 1951
Monday, March 10, 2014
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Where are the oil wells of Southern California?
A sight that had never seen in Minnesota when I was growing up was an oil well. I recall seeing pictures of oil wells in Texas and Oklahoma that looked a lot like the windmills over water wells.
When my parents moved us to California, we settled in Orange County in Southern California. The first oil wells I saw were the oil wells off the coast south of Santa Barbara near Summerland as my father drove us north to visit his sisters and parents.
I mostly noticed them when we were driving south at night after a visit with my dad's sisters and parents. It looked like a city on the ocean, all lit up. As it turned out, the city that I thought was on an island was a series of oil platforms that were not connected to each other.
The oil wells on the "island" looked like the pictures of oil derricks that I saw as a kid.
A few years later I got my driver's license and had a former classmate who was living near Long Beach, California. On one trip to visit her, I had a chance to see the oil wells on Signal Hill. The oil in these wells was being extracted by a pump that resembled a grasshopper, like the image I found below.
When my parents moved us to California, we settled in Orange County in Southern California. The first oil wells I saw were the oil wells off the coast south of Santa Barbara near Summerland as my father drove us north to visit his sisters and parents.
I mostly noticed them when we were driving south at night after a visit with my dad's sisters and parents. It looked like a city on the ocean, all lit up. As it turned out, the city that I thought was on an island was a series of oil platforms that were not connected to each other.
The oil wells on the "island" looked like the pictures of oil derricks that I saw as a kid.
A few years later I got my driver's license and had a former classmate who was living near Long Beach, California. On one trip to visit her, I had a chance to see the oil wells on Signal Hill. The oil in these wells was being extracted by a pump that resembled a grasshopper, like the image I found below.
Occasionally I saw one with eyes painted on the head. After my in-laws moved to Carmel, Charley and I would drive up California 101 to visit and along the route, I saw many of the grasshopper oil wells especially near Paso Robles.
There was even an oil well on the campus of Beverly Hills High School. I drove by it often and could see it from my doctor's office in Century City, California. Unlike the other oil wells I saw in Southern California, this was camouflaged.
I don't know when it happened but the oil wells that dotted the landscape along Highway 1, Highway 101 and Interstate 405 began to disappear from view.
The oil fields are ugly but I sort of miss the grasshopper pumps with eyes. These pumps have a name, pumpjack.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Jumping to Conclusions
I came across some photos of gravestones in the Swanburg Cemetery in Timothy Township, Minnesota on the Find A Grave website. One photo in particular caught my attention because it was the gravestone of my great aunt and great uncle.
On the opposite side of the marker are the names of others supposedly buried at the site.
SandiMH created the entry at Find A Grave. He/she assumed that the people on the other side of the monument were the children of Edward and Eleanor Houston Stoutenburg because of the text on their side of the monument. It reads STOUTENBURG; Mother Eleanor D and Father Edward B II.
Only two of their children are named on the opposite side of the marker. Leola J. is their daughter. She predeceased each of her husbands. Edward B. III is obviously their son but June A. is their daughter-in-law.
Lace K. is their nephew. He is Lace Kendall Stoutenburg. Carole J. is his wife.
SandiMH made the mistake of assuming. It is important not to assume something on face value without looking at all of the evidence.
There is a companion marker at a cemetery in San Luis Obispo, California with my father and his sister's names. At the same site are the markers for their parents and another sister. This sister shares a companion marker with her husband. At first glance one might assume that my father and his other sister did not marry.
Wrong!
My father and my aunt both did marry. Neither are buried at the site. My father's cremains are in a columbarium at the National Cemetery in Riverside and my aunt's ashes were scattered in her garden in Coloma, California. The marker is called a cenotaph marker.
At the time that we decided to create the cenotaph marker, my cousin wanted some place that would mark her mother's existence. We didn't know if our sister would give up our dad's ashes for burial with those of our mother, so we decided to create a cenotaph marker with his sister at the site of their parents' gravesite.
A lawsuit later, we were able to place our dad's ashes along with those of our mother's in a vault at the national cemetery in Riverside.
On the opposite side of the marker are the names of others supposedly buried at the site.
SandiMH created the entry at Find A Grave. He/she assumed that the people on the other side of the monument were the children of Edward and Eleanor Houston Stoutenburg because of the text on their side of the monument. It reads STOUTENBURG; Mother Eleanor D and Father Edward B II.
Only two of their children are named on the opposite side of the marker. Leola J. is their daughter. She predeceased each of her husbands. Edward B. III is obviously their son but June A. is their daughter-in-law.
Lace K. is their nephew. He is Lace Kendall Stoutenburg. Carole J. is his wife.
SandiMH made the mistake of assuming. It is important not to assume something on face value without looking at all of the evidence.
There is a companion marker at a cemetery in San Luis Obispo, California with my father and his sister's names. At the same site are the markers for their parents and another sister. This sister shares a companion marker with her husband. At first glance one might assume that my father and his other sister did not marry.
Wrong!
My father and my aunt both did marry. Neither are buried at the site. My father's cremains are in a columbarium at the National Cemetery in Riverside and my aunt's ashes were scattered in her garden in Coloma, California. The marker is called a cenotaph marker.
At the time that we decided to create the cenotaph marker, my cousin wanted some place that would mark her mother's existence. We didn't know if our sister would give up our dad's ashes for burial with those of our mother, so we decided to create a cenotaph marker with his sister at the site of their parents' gravesite.
A lawsuit later, we were able to place our dad's ashes along with those of our mother's in a vault at the national cemetery in Riverside.
So the moral of the story is don't accept everything that you see on face value. Look beyond.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Mom
Some time ago, I posted a transcription of a journal that my great aunt wrote a few years before she died. After reading it, I learned things about my great aunt that I never expected. Today, I came across a newspaper article from 1941 that mentioned several of my relatives, including my mother and my great aunt.
Probably like most of us, it was hard to think of my parents as once having been children, let alone young adults. This newspaper article, like Aunt Eleanor's journal, revealed a glimpse of her and my mother when they both were young. My mom was only 18 and Aunt Eleanor was 36.
On July 17 and 18 in 1941 in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, my mother played the role of a riverboat sweetheart in a musical called "A Hillbilly Wedding." It's hard to think of your mother as a sweetheart, let alone a riverboat sweetheart. The names of some of the other characters were quite amusing as well as revealing that a sense of humor has been with us for a long, long, long ... time.
I was actually glad that my mother didn't perform the roles of Pucklewortz, Judge Itchiebritches, Ura Pumpkinhead, Ima Goosepimple, Lizzie Zilch, or Misery. Ima Goosepimple hit a bit too close to home.
When my husband and I were trying to agree on a boy's name and a girl's name after I learned that I was pregnant with out first child. We were so far apart in agreeing on the name for our daughter should we have one. I got crazy and suggested that we name our daughter, Ida, Inn, Dee or Rea. Since my married name is Kline, we both laughed and finally were able to agree on a more suitable name for our daughter.
The article would seem to imply that the musical was brief as there were "specialty acts" that followed. One such act was the Peterson quartet. My mother had cousins named Peterson, but in Minnesota, Peterson was like Smith.
Another act was square dancers. One of the couples was Clarence Peterson and Eleanor Stoutenburg. My great aunt had been a widow a bit over a year when this article was printed. Aunt Eleanor never remarried after her husband's death. Her journal gave no indication that she was a square dancer, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that she was still enjoying life.
Probably like most of us, it was hard to think of my parents as once having been children, let alone young adults. This newspaper article, like Aunt Eleanor's journal, revealed a glimpse of her and my mother when they both were young. My mom was only 18 and Aunt Eleanor was 36.
On July 17 and 18 in 1941 in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, my mother played the role of a riverboat sweetheart in a musical called "A Hillbilly Wedding." It's hard to think of your mother as a sweetheart, let alone a riverboat sweetheart. The names of some of the other characters were quite amusing as well as revealing that a sense of humor has been with us for a long, long, long ... time.
I was actually glad that my mother didn't perform the roles of Pucklewortz, Judge Itchiebritches, Ura Pumpkinhead, Ima Goosepimple, Lizzie Zilch, or Misery. Ima Goosepimple hit a bit too close to home.
When my husband and I were trying to agree on a boy's name and a girl's name after I learned that I was pregnant with out first child. We were so far apart in agreeing on the name for our daughter should we have one. I got crazy and suggested that we name our daughter, Ida, Inn, Dee or Rea. Since my married name is Kline, we both laughed and finally were able to agree on a more suitable name for our daughter.
The article would seem to imply that the musical was brief as there were "specialty acts" that followed. One such act was the Peterson quartet. My mother had cousins named Peterson, but in Minnesota, Peterson was like Smith.
Another act was square dancers. One of the couples was Clarence Peterson and Eleanor Stoutenburg. My great aunt had been a widow a bit over a year when this article was printed. Aunt Eleanor never remarried after her husband's death. Her journal gave no indication that she was a square dancer, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that she was still enjoying life.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
The Elusive Larry Stoutenburgh
Larry wasn't a name the I had seen in documents that I viewed over the years of researching my family history. I was surprised since most people who are called Larry have a formal name of Lawrence or Laurence.
I did, however, find the name Larry in the various US Censuses but it wasn't until 1870 that total number of Larry's enumerated in the census was in excess of one thousand. The number was over 4,000 in 1900 and in 1910. By 1930, the number of Larrys in the census was a little over 11,000. But it wasn't until 1940 that almost 70,000 Larrys were enumerated in that census.
So the next step was to look for Lawrence Stoutenburgh. I already had in my tree a Lawrence N. Stoutenburg and his son, Lawrence N. Stoutenburg, Jr. There were some trees that I saw that linked a Lawrence Napoleon Stoutenburg to Edward H. Stoutenburg and his wife, Margaret Montfore. But nothing seemed to match.
After looking at newspaper articles, census images and city directories, I was able to figure out who Larry Stoutenburgh, the billiard player was. Larry is the son of Lawrence Michael Stoutenburgh and Winifred Hennigan. Larry was Lawrence Michael Stoutenburgh, Jr. His father, Lawrence Michael Stoutenburgh, was the son of Edward H. Stoutenburgh and Margaret Montfore.
On January 25, 1912, Larry married Jennie M. Brown in Hudson Falls, NY. The affidavit recorded with the license to marry, names his father, mother and the place in which he was born. I found the World War I draft registration card for Lawrence Micheal (sic) Stoutenburgh. He was married and living in Erie County, New York.
The marriage apparently did not endure as he was married Mae Alameda George by 1940 when they were enumerated in Manhattan. Jennie Brown still called herself Jennie Stoutenburgh in the 1920 census while he claims to be single when he is enumerated in White Plains, New York in 1920.
At this time, I have not found a 1930 Census record of Larry, Mae Alameda George, or Jennie Brown.
I did, however, find the name Larry in the various US Censuses but it wasn't until 1870 that total number of Larry's enumerated in the census was in excess of one thousand. The number was over 4,000 in 1900 and in 1910. By 1930, the number of Larrys in the census was a little over 11,000. But it wasn't until 1940 that almost 70,000 Larrys were enumerated in that census.
So the next step was to look for Lawrence Stoutenburgh. I already had in my tree a Lawrence N. Stoutenburg and his son, Lawrence N. Stoutenburg, Jr. There were some trees that I saw that linked a Lawrence Napoleon Stoutenburg to Edward H. Stoutenburg and his wife, Margaret Montfore. But nothing seemed to match.
After looking at newspaper articles, census images and city directories, I was able to figure out who Larry Stoutenburgh, the billiard player was. Larry is the son of Lawrence Michael Stoutenburgh and Winifred Hennigan. Larry was Lawrence Michael Stoutenburgh, Jr. His father, Lawrence Michael Stoutenburgh, was the son of Edward H. Stoutenburgh and Margaret Montfore.
On January 25, 1912, Larry married Jennie M. Brown in Hudson Falls, NY. The affidavit recorded with the license to marry, names his father, mother and the place in which he was born. I found the World War I draft registration card for Lawrence Micheal (sic) Stoutenburgh. He was married and living in Erie County, New York.
The marriage apparently did not endure as he was married Mae Alameda George by 1940 when they were enumerated in Manhattan. Jennie Brown still called herself Jennie Stoutenburgh in the 1920 census while he claims to be single when he is enumerated in White Plains, New York in 1920.
At this time, I have not found a 1930 Census record of Larry, Mae Alameda George, or Jennie Brown.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Larry Stoutenburgh the Pocket Billiard Pro
When I was surfing the Internet for Stoutenburg ancestors, I periodically came across newspaper articles about Larry Stoutenburgh, a billiard professional. Many of the articles were about his attempt to become the billiards champion and would refer to him as Larry Stoutenburgh of Buffalo, New York.
In 1917, there was a match between Larry, the challenger, and Frank Taberski of Schenectady, defending champion. Taberski was able to defend his title in this match, but only by a narrow margin.
I found a World War II old man's registration on April 27, 1942 of Larry M. Stoutenburgh living in Manhattan, proprietor of a billiard parlor on 225 West 57th Street. He was born December 11, 1888 in New York State. The registration card named the person who would always know is address as Mrs. Mae Stoutenburgh.
She died at her home in Manhattan in 1947 at the age of 54 years. Her obituary in The New-York Times identified her as Mrs. Mae Alameda George Stoutenburgh, a former soprano with the Strauss Opera Company. It also indicated that she and Larry performed together in vaudeville; she as a singer and he as a trick shot billiard performer.
I was able to learn that Mae Alameda George was her stage name. She was born Mary Almeda George in Stouffville near Toronto, Ontario on June 4, 1887. Her family lived in the Toronto area until about 1906 when they were living in Winnipeg, Canada. By 1911, the family had settled in Vancouver where her parents remained.
Larry Stoutenburgh and his wife, Georgie, were living in Manhattan in 1940. According the the census, they were living at the same address on April 1, 1935. Georgie was born in English Canada and was 45 years old, implying that she was born about 1895. That makes her around 8 years younger than the date recorded in a York County birth register.
I found Mae George in the 1920 US Census single and living in Manhattan. She was 26 years old, 7 years younger than her actual age. I also found a 30-year-old Laurence Stoutenburgh who was single, a proprietor of a billiards parlor living in White Plains, New York. So it would seem that they did not marry until after January, 1920. The earliest newspaper article in which I found mention of the two of them performing together was in a Bridgeport, Connecticut newspaper of 1924.
In the January 23, 1919 issue of the Trenton Evening News is an article that states Larry Stoutenburgh had been living in Trenton, New Jersey for the past six months. In 1917 when he was attempting to become the billiards champion he was said to be of Buffalo. I found him in the Buffalo city directories of 1916 and 1917 as proprietor of a billiards room.
The earliest record I found of Larry Stoutenburgh was in an Orleans, New York newspaper of 1915. He was in the town to play in a billiards match. The paper did not mention where he was from.
It would seem that Larry M. Stoutenburgh moved around quite a bit between 1915 and 1920. He settled at Manhattan after the 1926 city directory was printed and before the 1931 residential directory was printed. I have not found a record of his death. He was living in Manhattan in 1948 but was not listed in the 1959 telephone directory.
The next step is to figure out who Larry Stoutenburgh's parents are. In the mean time, I came across a video of Larry performing. It was filmed about 1924 and is subtitled. The video can be viewed here. {As of March 11, 2015 when I tested the link, the video was removed. I hope that someone besides myself was able to see it before it disappeared.}
Sunday, September 8, 2013
A Detour on the Quest to find Larry Stoutenburgh
Over the last few years, I have come across newspaper articles about Larry Stoutenburgh, a trick billiard exhibitionist. I was never able to figure out how he was connected to the Pieter Stoutenburg descendants.
As the LDS Church and Ancestry.com keep adding images of records for online access, I periodically go back to see if there is anything new that would help me make a connection. It's taken some time, but I am happy to say that I have finally figured out how Larry is connected to Pieter Stoutenburg.
However, in the process, I came across one of those things not intended to be funny but is. I was looking at the 1908 City Directory for Newburgh, New York on which Stoutenburghs were listed. I saw this entry:
Stoddard, Rev Peter P, pastor Moulton Memorial Baptist Church, h 25 Lutheran.
I checked with Google maps and found that there is a home at 25 Lutheran Street in Greenburgh, NY. The Moulton Memorial Baptist Church also still exists. The church doesn't have a website but is on Facebook.
Although I suspect that the minister is not living on Lutheran Street at this date, I couldn't tell where the parsonage was.
As the LDS Church and Ancestry.com keep adding images of records for online access, I periodically go back to see if there is anything new that would help me make a connection. It's taken some time, but I am happy to say that I have finally figured out how Larry is connected to Pieter Stoutenburg.
However, in the process, I came across one of those things not intended to be funny but is. I was looking at the 1908 City Directory for Newburgh, New York on which Stoutenburghs were listed. I saw this entry:
Stoddard, Rev Peter P, pastor Moulton Memorial Baptist Church, h 25 Lutheran.
I checked with Google maps and found that there is a home at 25 Lutheran Street in Greenburgh, NY. The Moulton Memorial Baptist Church also still exists. The church doesn't have a website but is on Facebook.
Although I suspect that the minister is not living on Lutheran Street at this date, I couldn't tell where the parsonage was.
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