Sentimental Sunday: Four Generations of Springsteens

Four Generations of Springsteens: Jefferson Springsteen, seated, with his great-grandson William Helbling. Standing on left is Jefferson's daughter Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower, and her daughter, Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling, mother of little William.
Four Generations of Springsteens: Jefferson Springsteen, seated, with his great-grandson William Francis Helbling. Standing on left is Jefferson’s daughter Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower, and her daughter, Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling, mother of little William. Taken November, 1906.

Helbling Family, Springsteen Family (Click for Family Tree)

Jefferson Springsteen (1820-1909), married Anna Connor (1824-1887).

Anna Missouri Springsteen (1854-1939) married Edgar Peter Beerbower (1849-1916).

Anna May Beerbower (1881-1954) married William Gerard Helbling (1882-1971).

William Francis Helbling (1906-1907) died at age 15 and one-half months.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Family treasure chest of photos, provided by a dear cousin- thank you!

 

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Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
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Tuesday’s Tip: Exploring a Family Story- The Springsteens and Abraham Lincoln

Baby Mary T. Helbling with her beloved grandmother, Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower in 1925. Family photo.
Baby Mary T. Helbling with her beloved grandmother, Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower in 1925. Family photo.

Helbling Family, Springsteen Family (Click for Family Tree)

Tuesday’s Tip:

Explore your family stories.

They may hold a bit of truth- or even more.

℘℘℘℘℘

While researching and writing the stories of Abram F. Springsteen for recent posts, a memory of Mary T. (Helbling) McMurray’s story that Abram and his family saw President Abraham Lincoln sparked an interest in checking out that old family story. Mary’s grandmother, Abram’s sister Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower, had moved in with her daughter and son-in-law, Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling and G.W. Helbling, during her later years. Mary and her grandmother were very close and spent quite a bit of time together. They did talk about family a lot, and Mary always knew more about that line of the family than of her father’s.

Many genealogists and historians will say that a good number of family stories are just that- stories. But I have found that our older generations were actually pretty accurate in their storytelling. So off to research and see if there was at least a grain of truth in the oft-told lore.

If memory serves (which it doesn’t always, lately), the reason Abram ran off to the Army was due to him seeing President Lincoln, per Mary, his great-niece. So finding out if Lincoln was anywhere near Indianapolis during 1861 was what was needed to verify this story, since that year was when Abram first enlisted.

It was harder than thought to find a detailed timeline of Lincoln’s activities. After a Google search that did not show me what I needed, I decided to look through Doris Kearns Goodwin’s most excellent book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Cover image is Daniel Day-Lewis in the 2012 film, "Lincoln."
Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, first published in 2006. Cover image is Daniel Day-Lewis in the 2012 film, “Lincoln.”

Some tidbits but not exactly what I was looking for, though of course it was hard to stop reading through the book. It did give great context for the times, including the tug between sides to prevent or ‘render asunder’ our precious Union that had existed for 85 years.

The Indiana state capital, Indianapolis, was a major railroad and transportation hub. It also was the home of Gov. Oliver Hazard Perry Morton, who was one of Lincoln’s major supporters. Indianapolis was therefore a major base of Union support, so it was highly likely that Lincoln would have paid the city a visit.

The best clue came from waymarking.com, of all places. (They provide ways to log your visit to a particular spot using a GPS.) The site showed an Indianapolis monument commemorating a visit by Lincoln- on 11 February 1861. Bingo. A quick trip to Wikipedia.org led to more and then much more, and the number of open windows on my laptop increased rapidly with all the information I had been seeking, and more.

 

Tomorrow: the real story

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. History of Indianapolis, Indiana, Wikipedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indianapolis
  2. Lincoln’s Inaugaration Journey – Indianapolis:  http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM11MR
  3. Lincoln- assassination attempts just after election (Baltimore Plot):
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Plot
  4. “Mr. Lincoln Goes to Washington” by Paul Fatout in the Indiana Magazine of History, Volume 47, Issue 4, pp 321-332. http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/8077/9867
  5.  A maul is a large, heavy, hammer with a wedge-shaped head that is used to split rails, which Lincoln had done quite a lot of as a young man on the Illinois prairie. Rails are the horizontal supports on a fence.

 

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Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
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Military Monday: Abram F. Springsteen and the Grand Army of the Republic

"The Hoosier Drummer Boy," Abram F. Springsteen, 15 Oct 1861
“The Hoosier Drummer Boy,” Abram F. Springsteen, 15 Oct 1861. Family photo.

Helbling Family, Springsteen Family (Click for Family Tree)

Abram F. Springsteen (1850-1930) was considered by many to be the youngest regularly enlisted Civil War soldier, and his picture as a drummer boy was in a museum stating this fact. Mary T. (Helbling) McMurray remembered seeing it when she went to Indianapolis, Indiana, as a young girl, for the funeral of her maternal grandmother, Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower. Anna was Abram’s older sister, but he had predeceased her, so Mary never got to meet her Great-Uncle Abram at the 1939 funeral, but she always wished she had known him.

Not only did Abram serve admirably and also survive the war, but he worked for the War Department in Washington D.C. and advocated for veterans the rest of his life. He was  very active in the G.A.R.- the Grand Army of the Republic. The GAR was a fraternal organization, born out of the need for Union veterans of our most terrible war to share their experiences, both during the war and after. So many were wounded or had health problems stemming from their service, and the camaraderie was good for them. It started out with secret handshakes and rituals, but the GAR also worked politically, supporting the effort to make a national holiday on Memorial Day, fighting within Congress and the government for veteran’s pensions, working toward voting rights for black veterans, and even campaigning for Republican candidates. (The GAR had incredible political clout, and 3 presidents were GAR members.) The GAR promoted patriotic education and commemorative monuments, as well as organized veteran marches in parades on holidays.

The USS Kearsage on display on the Indiana statehouse grounds at the 1893 GAR National Convention. Abrams F. Springsteen attended this encampment. Public domain via Wikipedia.
The USS Kearsage on display on the Indiana statehouse grounds at the 1893 GAR National Convention. Abram F. Springsteen attended this encampment. Public domain via Wikipedia.

Local posts were formed beginning in 1866, and at its peak in 1890, the GAR had 490,000 members. Membership was only available to “veterans of the late unpleasantness,” although they did have an auxiliary for their wives. (There were also 2 women who served in the Civil War who were members.) When the GAR’s last member died in 1956, the group ceased to exist. Its work has been continued by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (S.U.V.C.W.).

The 27 September 1915  Elkhart Daily Review (Elkhart, Indiana) headline read: “Youngest Drummer Boy to Meet Hoosier G.A.R.” Abram F. Springsteen was working in Washington, D.C., and planned to meet his former comrades-in-arms of the Indiana delegation at the train depot “with his old war drum to escort the Hoosiers from the depot to the Raleigh Hotel.”

Grand Army of the Republic ribbon authorized by Congress to be worn on uniforms by Union Army veterans. Public domain, via Wikipedia.
Grand Army of the Republic ribbon authorized by Congress to be worn on uniforms by Union Army veterans. Public domain, via Wikipedia.

Abram also regularly marched with his drum on patriotic days, at GAR encampments, or even to help recruit soldiers for World War I. It was evident that he was proud of his service, and that of his comrades. He surely wanted younger folks to have that same sort of commitment to our country, and he worked tirelessly through his life to achieve that.

Reverse of Grand Army of the Republic ribbon authorized by Congress to be worn on uniforms by Union Army veterans. Public domain, via Wikipedia.
Reverse of Grand Army of the Republic ribbon authorized by Congress to be worn on uniforms by Union Army veterans. Public domain, via Wikipedia.

Since Abram worked in the War Dept. in DC, he had some pretty good connections. His request for government workers to be granted extra days of paid leave so they could attend the 1915 encampment in Washington, DC went all the way to President Woodrow Wilson and was approved. Abram set up the Pension Department, where he worked, so that veterans could tour it and also review their pension file. They could discuss with staff any changes needed, and   the decisions made concerning their pension or rejection of their claim. He also set up special rooms in many of the hotels for the Indiana Regiment in which he served. Abram was in charge of many facets of the 1915 Encampment, including the RSVPs of about three thousand Indiana veterans and their spouses.

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, PARADE AT 1915 ENCAMPMENT. CEREMONY BY VETERANS OF G.A.R. IN WEST GALLERY OF CAPITOL; J R. WHITTLESAY OF MO. WITH FLAG, RELEASING WHITE DOVES OF PEACE; DR. JOHN M. ADAMS OF CINCINNATI, STANDING, RIGHT; FRANK KIRSCH GASSNER, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF SONS OF VETERANS. LOC, no restrictions on publication.
GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, PARADE AT 1915 ENCAMPMENT AT Washington, D.C. CEREMONY BY VETERANS OF G.A.R. IN WEST GALLERY OF CAPITOL; J R. WHITTLESAY OF MO. WITH FLAG, RELEASING WHITE DOVES OF PEACE; DR. JOHN M. ADAMS OF CINCINNATI, STANDING, RIGHT; FRANK KIRSCH GASSNER, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF SONS OF VETERANS. LOC, no restrictions on publication.

The 1915 Encampment was a very special event- it was the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Civil War, when troops marched in review down Pennsylvania Avenue in our Capitol. The veterans planned to recreate that march, though sadly, the Union numbers were quite smaller in 1915. The passage of time contributed heavily- a young man of 20 enlisting in 1861 had aged to 74 by 1915, and many men who served were older than 20 at their enlistment. This encampment was thus considered to be the last held by the GAR- “at least the last one to be held on anything like a pretentious scale.”

The military continued to be a part of the lives of all these veterans through the GAR. Even their death was honored by their comrades- the GAR provided help when a member was ill, and a color guard with full military honors at their funeral.

So Abram Furman Springsteen, beating his drum at the 1915 encampment, had much to reflect upon. He was 65 years old, but again calling to his comrades with the steady beat of his drum.

 

Addendum: The 83rd National G.A.R. Encampment in 1949 was in Indianapolis, but there were only 16 veterans still members. Just six were well enough to attend, with 100 years old being the youngest, and the oldest 108 years of age. Joseph Clovese, 105, attended for the first time in 1949. He had been born a slave on a sugar plantation in Louisiana. Sadly, Abram was not present, since he had passed away in 1930, and there were no Indiana veterans left. It was fitting that this last encampment was held in Indianapolis, as the first had been held there in 1866. The last of the GAR vets died in 1956 (Albert Woolson was 106, and had enlisted as a drummer boy in 1864, at about age 15; his unit never saw service in battle), and the GAR was officially disbanded.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. “pretentious scale” quote from “Hoosier Vets Asked for Address” in Evansville Courier, Evansville Indiana, page 6, column 2, via GenealogyBank.com. (Great newspaper website!)
  2. GAR and other Civil War reunions including date and place- http://www.civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu/reunions.html
  3. Elkhart Daily Review, 27 September 1915, page 4, column 1, via GenealogyBank.

 

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Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
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Sibling Saturday: Anna Missouri Springsteen and Her Brother John William Springsteen

Anna Missouri Springsteen as a young woman, possibly circa 1873? (age 18, when she married?)
Anna Missouri Springsteen as a young woman, possibly circa 1873 at age 18, when she married?)

Springsteen Family (Click for Family Tree)

The Jefferson Springsteen- Anna (Connor) Springsteen family provided quite a few siblings for their daughter Anna Missouri Springsteen, who was the sixth-born of ten children. She was also one of just two girls, so she and her older sister Mary Elizabeth Springsteen would have been busy taking care of all those brothers!

You can see the whole family- well, all but one- in the picture posted a few days ago in the post Treasure Chest Thursday: The Springsteen Family. Today we will tell a bit about Anna’s oldest sibling, and follow up later this week/month with information about the others. Of course, Anna will get her own post on another day too, since she was the beloved grandmother of Mary Theresa (Helbling) McMurray.

We also have an upcoming series of posts of our Springsteen Family Bible, and all these folks will be mentioned in there. In addition, Anna is the one who kept the Beerbower Family Bible, which has already been posted, starting with “Beerbower Family Bible- Dec. 31st, 1873.” The Beerbower Bible was presented to Anna Missouri at the end of 1873, the year she married Edgar Peter Beerbower on 12 February. She was carrying their first child, so the family bible was a very fitting gift.

John William Springsteen of Indianapolis, Indiana, c1863? Cropped from family portrait.
John William Springsteen of Indianapolis, Indiana, c1863? Cropped from family portrait.

John William Springsteen was the first-born of the children of Jefferson and Anna Springsteen. Their marriage date is unknown, but John was born on 26 November 1844. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, where they had been married.

John William was just nine when the family moved to Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, about 1853. His four younger siblings, who had been born in Brooklyn, made the trip as well. Their father was the town marshall in Indianapolis and involved in local politics. By the 1870 US Federal Census, John was 25 and still living with the family, as many did until they married. He was working as a painter, as were his two brothers (Thomas) Jefferson and Charles; their father was a painter and his brother Abram was a brick mason.

In December of 1870, John married Jennie Taylor in Indianapolis, the ceremony performed by Rev. Mr. Mendenhall. (The ’70’ in ‘1870’ is crossed out and ’69’ written above in the Springsteen Bible, but the 1870 census lists John as a single person living with his parents so, ??) Their son Harry Arthur Springsteen was born 5 April 1871 per his headstone, but he is listed as being 4/12 years old and born in January in the 1870 US Federal Census. Harry married Ina Johnson and lived in Texas; he died 1 June 1934.

Sadly Jennie died young, at age 36, on 4 June 1887.

She and John William are buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Jennie (Taylor) Springsteen- headstone in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN. Used with kind permission of the Find a Grave photographer.
Jennie (Taylor) Springsteen- headstone in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN. Used with kind permission of the Find a Grave photographer.

John William SPRINGSTEEN Headstone in Crown HIll Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN. Used with kind permission of the Find A Grave photographer.
John William SPRINGSTEEN Headstone in Crown HIll Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN. Used with kind permission of the Find A Grave photographer.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1.  “Treasure Chest Thursday: The Springsteen Family”- http://heritageramblings.net/2015/12/10/treasure-chest-thursday-the-springsteen-family/

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
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Matrilineal Monday: The Springsteen Family Origins

Springsteen Word Cloud

Springsteen Family, Beerbower Family (Click for Family Trees)

The Springsteen surname is one you may have heard all your life, but it has not really been used for least 3 generations in our line because it was a matrilineal name. Abram Springsteen, “the youngest drummer boy in the Civil War,” was famous in our family. (Actually, there were quite a few drummer boys just barely into the double digits of age, and you can read more about Abram in our many previous posts- just put “Springsteen” into the search box.) The name “Anna Missouri Springsteen” (1854-1939) was quite a favorite- she likely was named for her paternal aunt, Missouri E. (Springsteen) Scotten, and was the sister of our young drummer boy. Anna M. married Edgar Peter Beerbower (1849-1916) in 1873, ending the name in our line (though they did name their son “Edgar Springsteen Beerbower”). They finally moved to Missouri too- wonder if that had been a dream, thus they used the name ‘Missouri” for daughters? I am so lucky to have one of Anna M.’s rings to wear everyday, and honor her memory.

According to the Dictionary of American Family Names, the surname Springsteen comes from the Dutch or North German language. It is what is considered to be a ‘topographic’ name, which is a name based on a place or a landscape object, such as the surname, “Hill.”

A ‘springsteen’ is a specific type of stone that is used as a stepping stone between houses or on unpaved roads. That seems somewhat foreign to us today- why were such things common? For a moment, time travel and put yourself into the context of older times: muddy, unpaved and rutted roads; no lawn services to provide a lush lawn; horses both with riders and pulling wagons, herded animals coming to market through town, dogs and cats running free through town and the farm, and all those critters leaving their mark on the road in piles that get run over and splashed- yucch. Let’s add in human critters spitting tobacco and etc. everywhere. (They were generally of the male species but there were some interesting female ones doing this as well.) Don’t forget that chamber pots were often just dumped outside, slop buckets of leftover food thrown out for the rummaging dogs and pigs, and wash stand water thrown out the window as well and into the street. Children and even adults may have had chronic vomiting or diarrhea due to parasites, infections, etc., with no antibiotics to make their life easier and reduce the filth being put outside the house. Now pretend you are a genteel lady with a long skirt that drags in the dirt- heavens, you would be a hussy if you showed your ankles, even with laced up shoes- and there is no such thing as an electric washing machine…

Yes, easy to see how they needed those ‘springsteens’ to keep out of the filthy muck.

Not sure that I like the idea of our family being compared to a rock, but maybe it was because the members of our family were useful and tough?

Our oldest Springsteen ancestor documented thus far is John Springsteen, the father of Jefferson and thus grandfather of our Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower; she was the mother of Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling who was born in 1881 and died in 1954. (Click on the family tree link at the beginning of this post for more details.) We believe John was born about 1782 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, but do not know his wife Mary’s maiden name nor the names of either of their parents. New York is a tough state to research, so it has been hard to trace John and Mary. The family did migrate to to the new frontier called Ohio, and then to the newer frontier, Indiana, where their son Jefferson and his brother Abraham were living by about 1839.

Springsteen families in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1896. R. L. Polk & Co., via Ancestry.com.
Springsteen families in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1896. R. L. Polk & Co. Indianapolis, Indiana City Directory, via Ancestry.com. Note that siblings spell the name differently: John W. has changed the last ‘e’ to an ‘i’ and thus his son Harry spells his name the same way.

There are stories that Jeff had returned to New York (which he did) but also visited in New Jersey where possibly his grandfather lived. There are quite a lot of Springsteens in New Jersey and New York, so more research will need to be done to sort them out and find the ancestors of our Springsteen line.

Looking at early immigration records, there are very many Springsteens who came to New Netherlands, which was Dutch New York. The first and middle names definitely look to be Dutch, such as “Joost Casparse Springsteen” or “Geertje Jans Springsteen.” Later arrivals who could possibly be John Springsteen’s parents immigrated to Long Island, New York, or possibly Orange or Albany. Jefferson did live in Brooklyn, New York, for a time, where he married his wife Anna Connor, so they may have had family there- have not found any information yet, but NYC is a good place to start researching again.

Ancestry.com has an interesting page on the website where one can research a family name. Using census data, they state 10-18 Springsteen families in 1840 lived in New York, and 4-9 in New Jersey, but this surely does not take into account all the spelling variations of the name. (Springsteen, Springsted, Springston, etc.)

By the 1880 US Federal Census, Ancestry.com shows 85-167 Springsteens in New York state, 29-84 in New Jersey and Michigan, 1-28 in various other states including Indiana. In 1920, Ancestry.com lists just 36-69 Springsteen families in New York, 13-35 in New Jersey and Michigan, and 1-12 in Indiana, Ohio, and 21 other states.

Ancestry.com also looked at the 1880 US Federal Census for Springsteen occupations, and compared the percentage to that of the general public. Slightly over one-third of Springsteens were farmers in 1880, similar to the general population. Springsteen’s also had a similar number of laborers (9%), 1% less farm laborers at 2%, 1% more working as blacksmiths, at 2% of Springsteens, and 5% working as painters when the general public was just 1%. (Both Jefferson, his brother Abraham, and his father John worked as painters at various times in their lives.)

Keeping house (6%) as an occupation was the same as in the general public, but this makes me wonder how these statistics were generated- they are probably only counting ‘head of household’ Springsteens, as theoretically there would be about the same number of wives named Springsteen as husbands.

Ancestry.com has 54 Civil War service records for Springsteens, and all fought on the Union side. (Not really a surprise since all lived in northern states.)

The inevitable question? Are we related to Bruce Springsteen? Possibly, since there is that New Jersey connection, but no link found as yet. We’ll keep you posted.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Ancestry.com

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
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