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Sorting Saturday: Harley Rupert Wiley

Harley Rupert Wiley, or Harlen R. Wiley, in the 1914 "The Graduate" yearbook of the University of California Medical Center, page 12. HathiTrust, public domain.
Harley Rupert Wiley, or Harlen R. Wiley, in the 1914 “The Graduate” yearbook of the University of California Medical Center, page 12. HathiTrust, public domain.

Sorting your research is a daunting project but necessary to tell the stories. I have been deep into sorting and compiling- all to culminate in an exciting event, which is why the blog has been so quiet lately. But I digress… and will share soon.

A good review and sort will help one to see patterns, aid in putting two and two together now that you know more, and help you to find where there is conflicting information. One tip that I find really helpful is to title my files in a standard way. (See my previous posts Tuesday’s Tip- Let your computer create a timeline! and Tuesday’s Tip-Organizing Computer Files.)

Looking through my files lately has helped me realized that some dates were inconsistent, or just couldn’t be correct- very easy to see when they are side by side. It also made me realize as I sorted through that some things that needed to be together weren’t, and others that should have been were not, so I corrected that. More lightbulbs went on as I saw these new files ‘automagically’ sorted together.

While working on my exciting project and trying to identify people in a wedding party picture, I realized that I had never seen a picture of Harley R. Wiley, though I had a hunch he might be in the photo. Harley was a professor of pharmaceutical (sometimes called ‘pharmacal’ in those days) jurisprudence at the University of California. He lectured at both the Berkeley and San Francisco campuses, and had an office in San Francisco while residing in Berkeley.

Harley R. Wiley listed as Faculty in "The Graduate" yearbook of the University of California Medical Center, page 93. Hathi Trust, public domain.
Harley R. Wiley listed as Faculty in “The Graduate” yearbook of the University of California Medical Center, page 93. Hathi Trust, public domain.

He wrote a book called, “A Treatise on Pharmacal Jurisprudence with a thesis on the law in general,” The Hicks-Judd Company, San Francisco, 1904. The book was self-published, as he was a pioneer in the field and there were, at that time, no textbooks on pharmacy and the law.

Harley also wrote numerous poems, many published in the literary magazines of the day, or as fillers in other publications. He wrote with the idea of nature as spirit. Some of his poems include, “The Soul of a City,” “Star of Bethlehem,” “The Desert,” and “Dust and Flame.” Harley’s California Biographical Index card lists Appleton’s Booklovers Magazine, The Overland Monthly and Out West magazine, and The Raven-Western Field as periodicals for which he had written.

Harley spoke to many groups, with the historian James Redpath commenting, after an address by Wiley, that he had “eloquence and good sense in rare combination.”

In early California, land speculation was popular. At one time, Harley owned 2,000 acres.

Although one would think that being a published poet, lecturer, professor, land speculator, and lawyer would be enough, Harley had another claim to fame- he was the brother of Ninetta (Wiley) Eames Payne (Springer), who raised Charmian Kittredge; Charmian would later marry Jack London, the author. Ninetta worked with Jack London closely, managing many of his business affairs. Ninetta, like Harley, traveled in California literary circles as she too was a writer and host of many summer camps for (adult) intellectuals. Edward B. Payne, a writer, minister, lecturer, and philosopher, was Ninetta’s second husband, and he was very close to his in-laws Harley and Villa. Harley participated in many of these same gatherings, whether they were just family or for the intellectuals of the Bay Area or Sonoma County; many of the events included Jack London.

Learning more about Harley corroborated a story that Ninetta told of the family’s 1865 migration to Utah and then California, in which their wagon train was attacked. The party was split and the other  group was massacred by the Indians, with the Wiley family barely escaping. Ninetta was sometimes ‘flowery’ in her descriptions, so some researchers had wondered how much of the story was true. Reading about it in Harley’s biography- collateral kin research- makes us realize that the horrors of the story were real, not imagined nor exaggerated.

A bit of the Harlen Rupert Wiley vitals-

– He was born 5 Apr 1855 in on a farm 14 miles outside Oshkosh, Wisconsin to Jacob Scott Wiley and Catherine Growall, the youngest of seven children.

– Harley lived in Santa Barbara, Monticello, Redding, Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco, California. There are censuses and city directories that seem to have conflicting information for a certain date, but that is because he had offices in other cites at times.

– Graduating from Christian College at Santa Rosa, California, in 1877 with an A.B. degree after just three years of study, he had also taught bookkeeping, arithmetic, and algebra while himself a student.

– Harley also graduated from the University of California, Class of 1897, L.L.B. Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco.

– Becoming a Christian while at Christian College, Harley was ordained a minister around 1877 when he graduated.

– Harley married first Sarah Prudence Seawall about 1878. They had two children together: Lucille, one year old in the 2 Jun 1880 census (although 1900 census states she was born Sep 1878), and a son born in Dec 1879, who was 6/12 months per same census, but name not recorded. In 1900 Sarah was listed as Prudy Wiley in the census, listed as a widow and living with her daughter. Her son was still alive, and their daughter Lucille was a bookkeeper, a skill that Harley probably taught her. Harley remarried and is found in the 1900 census, so apparently the couple had actually divorced.

– His second marriage was to Villa Chappell 26 Dec 1885 in Redding, California. They had two children- Villa Elizabeth Wiley, born Nov 1888, and Esmond F. Wiley (or Don Esmond Wiley), born 1890.

– An excellent description of Harley’s early life may be found in the  “Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California,” pages 535-6, 1891- see below for links.

– Harley died 17 Sep 1921 in Alta Bates Sanitorium in Berkeley after a protracted illness, at the age of 65. We have been unable to find where he was buried. (Many of those in this social group were cremated, so that may be the case with Harley as well.)

Harley R. Wiley obituary, Oakland Tribune, 17 Sep 1921.
Harley R. Wiley obituary, Oakland Tribune, 17 Sep 1921.

The ‘Wiley House’ and cottages that were owned by Harley and Villa Wiley at 2545 Benvenue Avenue until 1921 are listed as Historic Landmark #199 in Berkeley, California.

 

PS- I really can’t tell if it is Harley Wiley in the wedding photo that started all this. But it was great to learn more about him and have an opportunity to tell his story.

 

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) “A Treatise on Pharmacal Jurisprudence with a thesis on the law in general”  may be read online at   https://archive.org/details/treatiseonpharma00wile. Accessed 05/31/2014.

2) Harley R. Wiley biography in “Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California,” page 535-6,  Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1891. See http://books.google.com/books/about/A_Memorial_and_Biographical_History_of_N.html?id=m8FQAQAAIAAJ. Accessed 05/31/2014.

3) 7) California Biographical Index Card for Harley R. Wiley, 1906, through California State Library, now on Ancestry.com. Accessed 5/31/14.

4) “The Graduate” yearbook of the University of California Medical Center, 1914: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31378008244504;view=1up;seq=1. Accessed 05/30/2014.

5) Berkeley Landmarks by Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny, Berkeley [California] Architectural Heritage Association, 2001. Accessed on 5/31/14: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/2002citycouncil/packet/121002/2002-12-10%20Item%2025%20Staff%20Report%20Backup%2010.pdf

 

 

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Tombstone Tuesday: Edson Benjamin and Martha Jennie Slade

1901_BENJAMIN_Edson_Martha Jennie Slade-headstone_odd Fellows cem_The Dalles_OR_FAG_permission
Headstone of Martha “Jennie” Slade (1865-1927) and Edson Benjamin (1863-1901). Click to enlarge.

Edson Benjamin was the son of Jonathan Felix Benjamin(1838-1913) and Hannah E. Marple (1842-1900). He was a first cousin to our Hannah Melissa Benjamin (1854-1932), who married Frederick Asbury “F. A.” McMurray.

If you are a Malissa Benjamin-F. A. McMurray descendant, Edson is a distant cousin. How distant? Edson’s father, Jonathan Felix, was the brother of Hannah’s father, Sylvanus Rufus Benjamin (1821-1892). He was Dr. E. A. McMurray’s First Cousin Twice Removed, because E. A. was the direct descendant of a first cousin, but two generations distant.

To calculate your own relationship to Edson, count the number of generations you are from Dr. McMurray, add that to 2, and that will show how many times removed you are from a first cousin to Edson. For example, if you are a grandchild of Dr. McMurray, you are 2 generations from The Doctor, thus a first cousin 2+2= 4 times removed.

Why research distant relatives?  The ‘FAN Club’, or “Friends, Associates, Neighbors” can help us find information about our own relatives when they are mentioned in other obituaries, biographies, newspaper articles, etc. We all share some of the same DNA too, so learning more about distant rellies can tell us a bit more about ourselves, in addition to more about the family members who came before.

Edson and Jennie’s tombstone is in the Odd Fellow’s Cemetery in The Dalles, Wasco County, Oregon, USA.

More of Edson’s sad story in another post.

 

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Using a chart is an easy way to determine relationships. You will need to know your common ancestor, which in this case is Jonathan N. Benjamin (1799-1876), the father of Jonathan Felix and Sylvanus Rufus Benjamin. Just Google “Genealogy Relationship Charts” for dozens of examples, or use the About.com Genealogy Relationship Chart. If you have an Ancestry.com membership, under the person’s name will be “View relationship to me.” If you are the home person in the tree, clicking here will give you the relationship without having to use a chart.

2) “Rellies” is an affectionate term used by family historians to describe their relatives.

 

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Wedding Wednesday: Edward B. Payne and Nannie M. Burnell

The ‘Age of Computers’- that phrase probably dates me!- has made genealogy research so much easier than the days of SASE and queries in the back of a genealogy magazine. For years I have known that Edward B. Payne married Nanie M. Burnell on 05 May 1870. Some of our family records had this information, I believe, and now online there is an entry on Family Search as well as the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900. Usually it is just a simple tabbed line of the most basic information:

Kane Co IL Marriage Record for EB Payne and Nannie M Burnell.
Kane Co IL Marriage Record for EB Payne and Nannie M Burnell. (Click to enlarge and sharpen.)

Sometimes the county, in this case, Kane County, Illinois, is listed, and maybe even a marriage license number (00007122).

I have written requesting this record in years past and only received a clerk’s handwritten copy of the pertinent- to them- information, which was what I already knew. It was not possible to get a scan of the actual record, per the County Clerk’s office.

In a recent genealogy blog I learned that Kane Co., IL has now put marriage licenses online. I dropped everything the rest of the world deemed important and headed online for the website. There it was- the marriage record I had sought for so long. I plunked down (virtually) my $11 for a downloadable copy, and voila!- I could print it. Sadly, it had “For Genealogical Purposes Only” written diagonally all across the face of the license, in rows just an inch apart. I tried to read the minister’s name, and it looked familiar. Though I couldn’t be sure, it looked like “Payne.” 

Edward B. Payne’s father, Joseph Hitchcock Payne (or J. H. Payne, as he usually was known), was a Congregational minister.

 

I cried. OK, yes, I have been obsessed with E. B. Payne for most of my genealogical research life (is it stalking if one of the parties is long departed???), as he is quite an interesting and intriguing fellow. To learn that he was married to his college sweetheart by his father was so very touching, so sentimental, and it touched my heart so deeply that I was actually speechless.

Well, for a few moments, any way. I was mad that I could not read the name of the minister, and upset that the one actual signature and bit of writing of J. H. Payne that I had ever seen in all my research could not be easily read and savoured. (Spelled purposefully with a British “u” because the American-shortened ‘savored’ did not give enough time to enjoy or import of how wonderful it was to see this signature.)

Of course, feedback to Kane Co. was the answer, so I wrote a polite note to the county clerk, praising them for the new service but letting her know how disappointed I was that the marriage license was not framable and only barely readable. I got a fast reply thanking me for feedback so they could improve the new service, and in subsequent emails she explained that if I sent another $11 for a certified copy, and sent it to her attention, she would make sure that the required “for genealogical purposes only” stamp would not be across the main face of the license. She was good to her word.

Marriage license of Edward B. Payne and Nannie M. Burnell, 05 May 1870, Kane Co., Illinois.
Marriage license of Edward B. Payne and Nannie M. Burnell, 05 May 1870, Kane Co., Illinois. (Click to enlarge.)

But wait- there’s more!

On the back of the record I received via snail mail were the following documents:

Marriage License File: Edward B. Payne and Nannie M. Burnell. (Click to enlarge.)
Marriage License File: Edward B. Payne and Nannie M. Burnell. (Click to enlarge.)

And then another incredible document, attesting that these two requesting a marriage license had met the legal age requirements:

K. A. Burnell's affidavit as to the age of Edward B. Payne and Nannie M. Burnell.
K. A. Burnell’s affidavit as to the age of Edward B. Payne and Nannie M. Burnell. (Click to enlarge and sharpen.)

K. A. Burnell was Nannie’s father, Kingsley Abner Burnell. It was his writing, his listing of his daughter’s name, and his signature.

Amazing. Totally amazing.

Thank you, Kane County, Illinois.

 

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) The first image is from the old Kane Co., IL website, which has been replaced by the new and much improved http://genealogy.kanecountyclerk.org. Posted with permission.

 

 

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Mystery Monday: Fred Foster Springer and Ninetta Wiley Eames Payne

Wedding announcement of Ninetta (Wiley) Eames Payne to Fred Foster Springer, 1937. Oakland Tribune.
Wedding announcement of Ninetta (Wiley) Eames Payne to Fred Foster Springer, 1937. Oakland Tribune.

 

Here’s a ‘cousin-bait’ post. Actually, more a ‘married-in to a married-in’ person post, but that’s close enough to be a cousin in my mind. We’re all related if one goes back far enough.

(Sadly, that philosophy  also lets me wander far afield and late into the night at times, but when one can make connections, it will help genealogists to come. And sometimes, that “FAN Club” finds me a tidbit or two about a direct line that I might not otherwise have found.)

I am searching for information on Fred Foster Springer. I am searching this far afield because Fred was married to Ninetta (Wiley) Eames Payne, who also married Edward B. Payne, a direct ancestor.

Fred F. Springer was born Mar 1865 in Maine, possibly Bradford, Penobscot, Maine, and lived there through 1870. By 1880 he and his parents, Samuel Foster Springer (b. 1832 in New Hampshire-d. 1902 in California) and Helen M. Fuller (b. 1838 in Maine-d. aft 1920 census in California?) had moved to San Francisco, California.

Fred graduated May 1883 from the Boys High School in San Francisco, and in 1886 was living in San Francisco at 1305-1/2 Polk with his father where he was listed as a “Collector” when he registered to vote at age 21. Two years later, in 1888, he was listed as a “Machine Hand” and living at 9 Liberty with his father.

By 1890 Fred was living in Berkeley, Alameda, CA and was an electrician/electrical engineer/engineer with the phone company. He lived at 1810 Louisa with his mother in 1906.

At about age 44 Fred married Margaret Smith c1909, and in the 1910 census they were living at 1815 Bonita with their first child, Inez/Ynez Springer, 8 months old. Other children were Richard F. Springer (1911-1964), Carobel A. Springer (1913-), and Margaret E. Springer (1915-). They also lived at 2207 Eunice, 1715 Jaynes, and 1430 Arch in Berkeley, California.

Fred and Margaret separated and were divorced sometime between the 1927 Oakland Directory listing and the 1930 census. Margaret is listed in a boarding house in the 1930 census, and the 3 daughters were living together in another household with Yzez noted as head of household. Fred was living in a boarding house in Berkeley owned by Ninetta (Wiley) Eames Payne. Sometime in 1930 (per voter’s registration) Fred had moved to 1715 Jaynes St. and living with dau Ynez; in 1932 his son Richard was also living with them. By 1934 Fred and his son Richard were rooming at Ninetta’s home again at 1282 Oxford. (I believe Fred and Margaret’s young family had rented a home from Ninetta in earlier years, and they were all old friends, as Ninetta owned the Arch St. home at one point.)

In Aug of 1937 Fred married Ninetta, possibly in Eureka, California, or Shasta, California. He was 72 and she 84. It was Ninetta’s third marriage- she had been married to Roscoe L. Eames (divorced in 1910), then Edward B. Payne, who died in 1923.

The last record I can find of Fred is 8 Nov 1938 when he appeared on the Alameda Voting Register, which is interesting since the California Death Index states his date of death as 15 Sep 1938. It may have been that the voting rolls were prepared before his death, and his name was just left on the roll for that election.

There is a story that Fred died while hiking Mt. Shasta with Ninetta, but I cannot find any confirmation of that.

I would like to find an obituary for Fred and learn if he and Ninetta divorced or how he passed away. Ninetta was listed as a widow in the 1940 census and had gone back to using Payne as her last name after Fred died.

Any information on Fred F. Springer or his family- even just clues- would be greatly appreciated.

 

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) “FAN Club” = Friends, Associates, Neighbors. These folks married each other, migrated together, witnessed each other’s legal documents, etc. Along with “Collateral Kin” (children, in-laws, etc. of siblings), one can sometimes find an obituary for a FAN Club member that mentions a direct ancestor, a photo with a group that includes the person of interest, or a story that includes a direct ancestor; it may not be something that is available for the direct line.

2) This is an expansion of a query I posted in 2012 on Ancestry’s San Francisco – Family History & Genealogy Message Board. See http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=5468&p=localities.northam.usa.states.california.counties.sanfrancisco Accessed on 04/17/14.  

3) California Death Index for Fred F. Springer: Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1905-1939 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: California Department of Health and Welfare. California Vital Records-Vitalsearch (www.vitalsearch-worldwide.com). The Vitalsearch Company Worldwide, Inc., Pleasanton, California.

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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #2 William McMurray

Brush Mountain looking toward Holidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania. CC License.
Brush Mountain looking toward Holidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania, in recent years. CC License. (Click to enlarge.)

A previous post detailed where I learned the names of the father and mother of Henderson McMurray, William McMurray and Mary Proctor. (See post here.) The letter indicates that James McMurray, William’s father, had immigrated from Ireland to the Americas around 1779. William was born in Ireland per the 1850 and 1860 US Federal Censuses, and with the ages listed in those census records, that would have been around 1790- eleven years after the date stated that his father arrived. So was he born in Ireland, and the date given for the immigration of his father later than 1779? Or did his father go back to visit Ireland after coming to America, and then finally bring over the family? Although we know that was done very commonly in the late 1800s and early 1900s, crossing “The Big Pond” was not so easy in the late 1700s (but some did it), so I suspect the date of immigration may be somewhat off.

One of the big problems in McMurray research is the sheer number of James and William McMurrays in Pennsylvania and other settlements in the US during this time period. How to know which one is our ancestor of interest? The Irish could have been helpful and used more than a handful of the same names, but they didn’t.

300px-Map_of_Blair_County_Pennsylvania_With_Municipal_and_Township_Labels
Blair County, Pennsylvania in 2012 with TownshipsWilliam McMurray lived in Blair County. (Click to enlarge.)

 

Looking for census records helps, and I was just this week able to find the 1860 census for William McMurray listed as “Wm” way down on the list of search hits. (Don’t forget to search using abbreviations and nicknames.) I knew it was him because of the age, his birth in Ireland, the location being the same as the previous census, and his daughter Sarah, born in Pennsylvania, living in the household with him in 1860.

Here is a brief timeline of what I know about William McMurray:

William McMurray was born in Ireland about 1790.  (Some Ancestry trees state 20 Jan 1790 but am unsure where the info came from.) He immigrated, possibly as a child, to the US sometime before about 1815-1820.

William probably met Mary Proctor in the US, and they may have married around 1815-1818. (Mary had been born in England and came to the US with her father, ‘General Proctor.’) The first known (to me) child of William McMurray and Mary Proctor, Henderson McMurray, was born on 22 May 1819 in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.  Their next known child, a girl, may have been named Minnie (per her brother Henderson McMurray’s obit and the 1905 Iowa State Census), born about 1820, possibly in Pennsylvania, or this may not be an additional child, but the nickname of one. Daughter Jane J. McMurray is the next known child, born about 1827 in Pennsylvania- a seven year gap from her older brother, so there may have been more children between that did not survive to adulthood. Son James McMurray was born next- 1830 in Pennsylvania. Thankfully, they had a son, because he also worked as a farmer, probably with his father, when he was older. Daughter Sarah McMurray was born in Pennsylvania, possibly in 1830 per her 1860 census entry with her father. William and Mary (Proctor) McMurray’s last known child was Catherine C. McMurray, born about 1833 in Pennsylvania. She may actually be the “Mrs. C. C. Meyers” referred to in the letter from Aunt Ibe Raugh. If that is so, her husband may have died by that time since  women used their first names again, along with the husband’s last name, once their husband was deceased.

In 1850 William was living in Allegheny Twp. Blair Co., Pennsylvania with his wife Mary (Proctor). He was born in Pennsylvania per this record, but England per family letter. Also in the household were daughter Jane J. McMurray, age 23, son James McMurray, age 20 and working as a farmer, and daughter Catherine C. McMurray, age 17. Daughters Minnie and Sarah were not listed- they may have been staying with a relative, working in another home, or married. William McMurray was working as a farmer and owned real estate worth $2,000, considerably more than what others on that census page owned. Quite a lot of the other adults on the page had also been born in Ireland.

1860 US Federal census for William McMurray and his daughter Sarah McMurray, Allegheny Twp., Blair Co., Pennsylvania
1860 US Federal census for William McMurray and his daughter Sarah McMurray, Allegheny Twp., Blair Co., Pennsylvania. (Click to enlarge.)

The 1860 US Federal Census is shown above. William was 70 years old, and living with his daughter Sarah who was age 30 per the census. He still had $2,000 in real estate, plus $200 in personal property. No occupation is listed.

I have finally found a death date for William- he died on 30 Oct 1861. The Democratic Standard, a paper in Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania, reported his obituary, as posted by transcribers at US GenWeb. It states that on “the 30th ult., Mr. William McMurray” died at age 70 years and 7 months. William died in Allegheny Township, Blair County, Pennsylvania. We have not yet found his final resting place.

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) 2) US Federal Census for William McMurray, head of household, in Allegheny Twp., Blair County, Pennsylvania: Source Citation: Year: 1850; Census Place: Allegheny, Blair, Pennsylvania; Roll: M432_755; Page: 259B; Image: 523.

2) US Federal Census for William McMurray, head of household, in Allegheny Twp., Blair County, Pennsylvania: Source Citation: Year: 1860; Census Place: Allegheny, Blair, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1078; Page: 14; Image: 18; Family History Library Film: 805078.

3) US GenWeb Archives transcribed obituary for William McMurray: http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/obits/m1/mcmurray-william.txt

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, 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.