Bertha Beatrice Beerbower Bare (1876-1950) was quite the world traveler. During the 1920s-late 1930s, she traveled on her own to places around the globe, working as a teacher. We told a bit about Bertha and her family in a previous post, Those Places Thursday: Bertha Beatrice Beerbower and Her World Travels. We have recently received the book, House of Bierbauer. Two Hundred Years of Family History through inter-library loan (ILL) and it contained this delightful description of Bertha’s life, so had to share. Bertha must have had wonderful stories to tell!
[The editors had not really planned to take a summer hiatus, but it appears that is what has happened. There were quite a number of posts queued for publication, but we recently found additional information about the Peters family and wanted to incorporate it, but have not had time yet. Hopefully those posts will be published in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for your patience, and for reading Heritage Ramblings! We hope your summer is going well.]
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) House of Bierbauer. Two Hundred Years of Family History, 1742-1942 compiled by James Culver Bierbower and Charles William Beerbower. Published under the direction of the Beerbower History Committee, 1942.
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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.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.
Treasure Chest Thursday: The Charlotte Peters-Alonzo W. Baker Family
Charlotte A. Peters was born 10 Jan 1830 in Ohio, likely Marion, Marion County, to Nathan Peters and Alice Wilson Peters. She was their third child.
Charlotte’s mother died in childbirth when Charlotte was just 8 years old, in 1838. In Jan of 1842, her father married Mary Cady Russell (1820-1850) who added three more daughters to the family. Her stepmother died in 1850, the same year that Charlotte married Alonzo Baker on 12 Mar 1850. She was living in Marion, Ohio then, but Charlotte and Alonzo moved to Van Wert, Ohio by the 1860 US Federal Census.
Alonzo was a Major of the 136th Ohio National Guard during the Civil War for four months. He became the Collector of Internal Revenue (the Civil War generated the first income tax) until Congress abolished the position, and was the owner of a foundry in 1870, when they owned $10,000 in real estate, and had $5,000 in personal estate. The 1870 census also lists their five children:
Florence Winona Baker, 1857-1875, died at age 18. She married Dr. George W. McGavren on 16 June 1875. Tragically, Florence died just 6 weeks later, on 30 July 1875, in Van Wert.
Myrtle Jennie Baker (or Jennie Myrtle Baker), 1859-1918; married Fletcher L. Webster.
The four children of Myrtle and Fletcher were Walter Barton Webster b. 1892, Lucia Webster b. 1893, Marshall Webster b. 1895, and Margaret Webster b. 1898. They lived in Van Wert, Ohio where he was in the dry goods business.
Jessie Amanda Baker, 1862-1925:
Jessie married Charles William Clark in their hometown of Van Wert, Ohio, in 1888. They had five children: Helen Clark (1889-1889); Charles Russell Clark (1891-1891); Ronald Baker Clark (1892-), who taught singing in Paris, France; Virginia Clark (1895-1961) who married __Lawrence; and Louise (1902-1964) who married __ Gardenier and was believed to be in Brazil in 1925.
Charles was an internationally known baritone concert singer, the first American to be famous in Europe; he is considered to be one of the greatest baritones ever. He and his wife were in a Chicago theater on the night of 3 Aug 1925 when he died of heart disease. They carried his body out, and Jessie remained very composed. They proceeded to the family’s apartment in Chicago. The neighbors heard a cry, entered, and found that Jessie had suffered a stroke “of paralysis.” His obituary in the 04 Aug 1925 New York Times read, “She had been the companion of his successful career and when it closed tonight she collapsed.” She never regained consciousness.
Tacey Viella Baker, 1864- :
Tacey Viella married John O. Clark on 22 Apr 1885 and they lived in Van Wert with their four children: Ethel Clark b. 1886, Marcia Clark b. 1891, Laurence Baker Clark b. 1895, and Robert Sydney Clark b. 1900.
Miriam Mendenhall Baker, 1867-., was the last child of Charlotte Peters and Alonzo W. Baker. Miriam married Willard E. Gleason, a West Point graduate who served in the Battle of San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War. He also served his country in the ‘Philippine Insurrection’ from 1899-1902. Their only child was Charlotte Gleason, b. 1895.
Two children died young, early in the marriage of Charlotte and Alonzo: Mary Alice Baker (1851-1852) and their only son, Charles Herbert Baker (1853-1855).
Alonzo passed away at age 49, on 9 Sep 1878 in Van Wert. Charlotte survived him by 17 years, with her death on 12 April 1895, also in Van Wert, where they both are buried.
3) Use the search box on the right side of the page to find specific persons, or click on “Family Trees” and then “The Helbling-Beerbower-Springsteen Family.” This will take you to pedigree charts (sorry, don’t have a Peters family tree yet- still working on that) and then all the associated posts for the family.
4) A Genealogy of Eber and Lydia Smith Baker of Marion Ohio and Their Descendants. 1909, self-published, arranged by Elwood T. Baker.
Charles W. Clark was an only child per this book, so the two sisters, Jessie Amanda and Tacey Viella both had ‘Clark’ as their last names but had not married brothers.
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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.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.
OK, so is this a family history blog or is it boring history class???
Well, to fully understand our family’s history, we need to know the history of the time and place in which they lived. It is the only way to get a feel for the pressures they faced in their daily lives- did they live in the city and have to worry about armed gangs roaming the streets, or out on the frontier where Indians were fighting to preserve their own lands from encroachment? Did they live on a farm and experience the seasonal calendar of crops and livestock? Or were they seafarers who worried about storms and the quality of wood used for the hull of their ship? How did our ancestors meet their daily needs for food, water, and shelter? How did they travel to new homesteads, new places to meet and marry? What wars did they fight in, whether soldier or civilian? Where are they buried, and why there? Answering even some of these questions begins a story about those who came before, and those who have made us who we are. They take the ‘boring’ out of genealogy- who begat who and when is just not that interesting! But if you tell a story of how two parents met, their challenges as they raised their children, and the legacy of grandchildren left behind, THAT makes interesting genealogy, and interesting lessons to apply to our own lives.
Today, 13 July, is the 228th anniversary of the Northwest Ordinance, officially known as “An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio.” The Second Continental Congress passed this act in 1787, creating the first official territory of the new country. The territory comprised those lands west of the Appalachian Mountains with the upper Mississippi River becoming the westernmost boundary; the northern boundary was British Canada and the Great Lakes, down to the Ohio River as the southernmost boundary. Our Benjamin and Ford ancestors lived in this territory, so knowing a bit about it will enhance what we understand of their lives. Others of our families moved into these territories or early states, and may have been there even before: Aiken, Russell, Springsteen, Beerbower, McMurray, Roberts, Daniel, and Murrell.
What makes the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 so important is that it explained how the Federal Government would expand via public domain land, and create new states, rather than the previous method of the states just expanding ever westward with their competing claims for land. Note in the first image how Virginia and Georgia claimed property far to the west- in Georgia’s case, even through much of what is now Alabama and Mississippi. When searching for very old records, one would need to look in records for those original states claiming property, even though the hometown might now be in Indiana!
The Congress approved a bill of rights for the citizens in the Northwest Territory, and guaranteed that the new states would be equal to the original thirteen colonies in all respects. Slavery was outlawed in the new territory, and thus would be outlawed as the areas became states. (The NW Ordinance was therefore a contributing factor to the Civil War.)
Earlier ordinances (1784, 1785) for this territory, provided for self-governing districts and representation to Congress. In 1787,the ordinance required surveying and land grant units to be determined on a township basis, which was six miles square. A settler had to buy at least one square mile (640 acres) and pay at least one dollar per acre. (Land prices in the Midwest now range from about $5,000-10,000 per acre, or even more.) Each township had one section set aside for a school, and the 1787 Ordinance mandated that education would be provided in the territory.
The 1787 NW Ordinance also outlined the steps that parts of the territory would need to take to become a state. Initially, Congress appointed a governor and judges; when a part of the territory reached 5,000 adult free males, it would become a territory and govern with its own legislature, although the governor still had veto power. Attainment of a population of 60,000 allowed a territory to petition to be admitted to the Union as one of at least 3 but no more than 5 states carved from the Northwest Territory. Ohio was the first of the new states, in 1803, followed by Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
We will ‘explore’ the Northwest Territories and our ancestors who walked those lands in upcoming posts.
Please note that these articles are submitted by various writers and many are op-ed type articles, some with an agenda and some not necessarily fact-checked. It is a great map, however, for the 1787 NW Ordinance, and we appreciate that they allow use of their graphics.
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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.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.
Sentimental Sunday: More Souvenirs from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.
Commemorating the Louisiana Purchase Centennial was the theme for many World’s Fair souvenirs. This letter opener has an image of the Cascade Gardens, but also a beautiful eagle, symbol of America. Native Americans are depicted on front and back, and a globe joins the handle and blade, reminding us that the Lewis & Clark Expedition traversed the huge expanse of the lands of the Louisiana Purchase.
[Again, I apologize for the quality of the images. These items are hard to photograph, especially at night.]
Souvenirs might have sentimental meaning in later years, an opportunity to recall pleasant times with family and friends (or perhaps, with NO family or friends around). Many souvenirs held a special place in the home, whether one kept them for oneself or gave them as a gift to the neighbor who fed the dog while one was off traveling, or to a family member who had to stay home. Anna May Beerbower Helbling was one of the latter. May collected silver spoons, and many people brought them to her from many places, since she could not travel in her later years. She had leg ulcers and was often bedridden- the family thinks she probably had diabetes, in the days before insulin. She may have benefitted from the introduction of insulin in 1921 when she was 40 years old, as family remembers her beloved husband G. W. Helbling giving her injections, but the damage of diabetes may have already been done. The lack of good antibiotics at the time also likely compromised her health.
Often silver plate so they were more affordable to the middle class, collectible spoons were common souvenirs around the country, and at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair as well. The spoons in these images were purchased, not a legacy of May Beerbower Helbling. Her collection as I know it did not include a World’s Fair spoon, though she did collect before that date so maybe that spoon ended up with another family member. (It seems strange for her to not have one, but she was a newlywed that year and money may have been very tight.)
Some World’s Fair spoons were a finer quality, and sterling silver, such as this one produced by Mermod-Jaccard, a fine jeweler in St. Louis.
Hatpins were another useful souvenir of the fair. Both hair and hats were very big at that time, and the hatpin would hold the hat on through fairly big winds, since it went through the hat, the big hair, then the hat again (sometimes). Having a souvenir hatpin showed folks back home that you were a well-travelled lady.
These hatpins are enameled, and some of the enamel has come off of the fleur-de-lis hatpin, a symbol of the French settlement of St. Louis and surrounding areas. The red, white, and blue of the pennant reflect the French flag that flew over St. Louis for so many years; the fleur-de-lis sported those colors originally too.
Hatpins became a favorite collectible of mine because of a story told about Anna May Beerbower, discussed above. May was born in 1881, and was probably in her later teens before she started dating. May had gone on a date to a movie, possibly circa 1897-1903, which would have been a silent movie with an organist providing appropriate music for the action. The lights went down and the couple settled in to enjoy the movie. May felt a hand wander to her knee, which was covered by her long dress of the time. She moved the hand gently, since she was a gentle woman who could never even kill a bug. The hand, as male hands are wont to do, returned soon after to her innocent knee. May calmly took the hatpin out of her hat and stabbed the errant hand with it. The movie was finished in silence by the two of them, with hands in their appropriate places. She did not go out with him again.
May and G.W. married in 1904, so I like to think of the two sweethearts strolling through the fair. Maybe G.W. bought her a hatpin such as one of these. They also took friends to the Fair, and there is, somewhere in my treasure chest (but not in my digital images), a letter from their friends, thanking them for the enjoyable visit and tour of the World’s Fair.
Watch fobs would have been very useful souvenirs, too, that also showed one’s sophistication in travel and looking forward to the future, as was the Fair’s theme.
The French fleur-de-lis is seen in the top panel, the Palace of Machinery is next, with the impressive Cascade Gardens below. A U.S. shield with 1904 to denote year of the Fair, and the round medal at the bottom promoted the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. “1803” is on the left, “1903” on the right. Uncle Sam is on the left with the US Capitol in the background, and France on the right with her Eiffel Tower in the background, handing over the signed Louisiana Purchase documents. (The Fair was planned for 1903 originally, but they waited until 1904 so that more states and foreign nations could participate.) Napoleon, who ruled France at the time of the Purchase, is depicted on the left side of the medal, and President Thomas Jefferson on the right. The words, “Historic Souvenir” make the medal a bit less imposing, I think, but at least no one could try to sell it as an original.
The reverse of the fob begins at the top with the fleur-de-lis, and then showcases St. Louis’ Union Station, which many of the Fair tourists would have passed through as most travelled by train. Union Station had opened in 1894, the largest passenger station in the country. It became the busiest as well, and those of us of a certain age will remember standing at the edge of the many tracks inside, with the acrid smell of the new diesel train engines and the loud hiss of the older but more beautiful steam engines. The station has now become a multi-use hotel-retail-restaurant-convention center, and is a great destination in St. Louis to visit today.
The next panel showcases the 1874 engineering marvel that connects St. Louis to Illinois, the Eads Bridge. It was the longest arched bridge of the time, and made wide use of the new material called steel for its arched trusses, which were considered daring and unproven to handle the weight necessary for such a bridge. The construction of the bridge was novel in that it was the first use of cantilevered support exclusively, and its very deep pneumatic caissons were some of the few used at that time in bridge construction. St. Louisans were very proud of their bridge, and featuring it on this watch fob was one way to tell the world that while St. Louis might be an older city, it was looking forward to the future with advanced engineering and city planning.
The bottom section states, “Louisiana Purchase Exposition St. Louis 1904.”
The metal piece to the upper right above may also have been used as a watch fob, or attached to a bar-pin and worn as a medal. (There may have been a top portion that is missing.)
Many of the US states had a pavilion, and small buttons such as the above would have been procured there. I don’t know if these would have been given out or purchased- more research needed. The pin on the bottom right has some water damage. These pins are likely celluloid on metal backings.
A last few of my 1904 souvenirs will be featured in an upcoming post.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Items in the collection of the author, but sadly, they are not OUR family heirlooms, but were those of someone whose descendants did not appreciate heirlooms.
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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.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.
If you are a Beerbower descendant, you may have never heard of Peter Ashenfelter. You likely know your relationship to Anna Mae Beerbower Helbling, the wife of G.W. Helbling, however. Peter was her 3rd great-grandfather; that is five generations. Now add how many generations you are from Anna Mae, and you will see how far back this line goes. Well, actually we know Peter’s father, too: Philip Jacob Eschenfelter (German spelling), born in 1716 in Germany, so that is six generations from Anna Mae to our immigrant ancestor.
Family history and stories only tend to last 2-3 generations, so we are pretty far removed. But the documents created when our ancestors were alive can help us make them more than just names and dates- they can help to tell their stories.
In July of 1798, the Federal Government of our new country was concerned about an impending war with France due to treaty negotiations gone awry and the famous “X,Y, Z Affair” in which France tried to extort money as a bribe from the Americans. Congress therefore passed a bill in which lands and dwelling houses would be assessed a value, and slaves enumerated; that act was followed by another to collect a direct tax on citizens to generate funds for war, based on the valuations.
The tax had to be fair- it needed to be an across-the-board tax; that requirement was foremost in the minds of Congress. They had enacted the distilled spirits tax back in 1791, but it affected mostly farmers and distillers. That group in Western Pennsylvania rebelled against the tax in 1794 and the Whiskey Rebellion had to be put down by US Marshals plus the threat of a militia with President George Washington at the head, prepared to put down the rebellion. (The rebels fled as the army approached.) We had Scots-Irish ancestors in Western PA at this time- wonder if they were involved in the Rebellion? Another HeritageRambling, another research project…
Back to Peter Ashenfelter.
The 1798 House Direct Tax had three lists:
dwelling houses above the value of $100 and all their out houses (outbuildings, not the little house with the crescent moon on the door)
land lots
slaves
Owners were to provide information- there were up to 10 forms per owner!- that was current as of 01 Oct 1798. If an owner was not at home, a message would be left to provide the list within 10 days; if the owner refused to provide information, they were fined $100 plus court costs, and the assessor was allowed to enter their premises to make his own list. The information would be compiled and posted publicly in at least four places per district; individuals had 15 days to appeal. Needless to say, the populace was not happy with this tax, nor the invasion of their privacy and recording of their assets.
This 1798 tax was also known as the “Window Tax” or “Glass Tax.” Because glass in a home was one of the most expensive building materials back in 1798, the number of windows were counted and the number of ‘lights’ or individual panes of glass were listed on the tax form. The material used to build the house and the size of the dwelling were also recorded, as they all affected the valuation of a house.
The tax rate for a dwelling house with out houses and land less than two acres was taxed at .02% for valuations between $100 and $499, and .03% for >$500 and <$1,000; for those with valuations greater than $30,000, the tax rate was 1%. The owners of slaves were taxed 50 cents for each slave.
Our ancestor, Peter Ashenfelter and his family of ten, had a home that was one story and made of stone. It was 36 x 24 feet- just 828 sq. ft. of living space, half the size of a small house today, with ten people in it vs. today’s average of 2.63 persons. The house did have 7 windows, though, and a total of 84 ‘lights’- that would make an average of 12 panes per window. Peter owned 2 acres of land, and thus the Assistant Assessor calculated a valuation of $434, which would incur 9 cents tax. The Principal Assessor, however, calculated $578, so the tax rate was increased and would be 17 cents. We are still looking for more documentation of what Peter actually paid.
The Glass Tax was repealed one year later, when relations with France had calmed down and there was no anticipated need to fund a war. It was also repealed because the German-Americans of Pennsylvania vigorously opposed the law because they did not view it as fair, and it probably wasn’t fair for most northerners- because Pennsylvania had few slaves, there was increased taxation on homes and lands, and thus small farmers paid more than they would have in states with large slave populations. The tax resisters marched, protested, refused to pay, participated in armed rallies, and even captured assessors. Federal warrants were issued, the militia called out, and 30 men were arrested and put on trial. Three of these men, including John Fries, an auctioneer who traveled the state and stirred up the rebellion, were accused of treason, convicted, and sentenced to hang. President John Adams pardoned them, stating that the true definition of treason was narrower, and that those who resisted the tax were, “as ignorant of our language as they were of our laws.” Adams felt the German-Americans were being used by the the opposition party who incited the rebellion, making his Federalist party unpopular, and indeed that was the end result of “Fries Rebellion”, AKA the House Tax Rebellion; it was called the “Heesses-Wasser Uffschtand” by the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Learning more about the politics of the time helps us to have a better understanding of how our German-American ancestors lived. Adams’ quote tells us that our German ancestors probably spoke mostly German in their communities, and likely were not very educated. Germans were looked down upon at the time, especially since the memories of the horrible Hessian troops were still fresh in the minds of many English-turned-American citizens. It would be interesting to know if Peter Eschenfelter/Ashenfelter participated in this rebellion, and what he actually paid in taxes. We may never know, but it is interesting to realize that our nation was divided and in chaos at times even at the beginning, but we have survived united, somehow.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) “The Massachusetts and Maine 1798 Direct Tax” by Michael J. Leclerc. New England Ancestors. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2000-2009. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.) (Volume 4.2, Spring 2003, pages 13-17.)
2) “Taxing Window Glass in 1798” by Stephen H. Smith, 10 Aug 2012, on York’s Past website-
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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.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.