Ollie McKelvy of Canal Winchester visiting her Marion, Ohio Beerbower cousins. Marion Daily Star [Marion, Ohio], 04 September 1880, page 8. With permission via Ancestry.com.Beerbower Family(Click for Family Tree)
The McElvey family has been elusive- possibly because there are so very many ways to spell the name: MacElvey, MacElvy, McKelvey, McKelvy, Mac Elvey, and a host of others I have seen online but my fingers just can’t type those letter combinations.
Another reason for being elusive is that it is a maiden name in our line: Matilda Louise McElvey married Eleazer John Beerbower. Add to that a time period before vital records- Matilda was born in 1823 and married in 1839, plus a family that lived in a number of places, and one can understand how challenging it is to find information on an ancestor’s ancestors.
A previous post, Tombstone Tuesday: Matilda (Mac Elvey) Beerbower gives more information about Matilda and her family. Matilda McKelvey and Eleazer John Beerbower married in Winchester, Ohio on 7 March 1839.
Wednesdays are not the only days we have wished for more information on this family, especially the names of the parents of Matilda. So it was exciting when researching the Beerbower family to find the above newspaper article. This was the first document found about the McElvey family, other than those about Matilda as a married woman.
So this article is a good clue- Ollie McKelvey was from Canal Winchester in 1880, called just Winchester in its earliest times and again later, after the canal was not as important. Ollie would have been the child of Matilda McKelvey Beerbower’s brother, since she was visiting the family of her cousin, Samuel T. Beerbower. (She couldn’t be a child of a sister of Matilda, since she has the family name and a sister would have taken her husband’s name.)
Of course, the truth of this assumption would depend on whether or not the word ‘cousin’ is used in the article as we do today- in earlier times ‘Cousin’ (as well as ‘Aunt’ and ‘Uncle’) were used more loosely, sometimes even for someone not related. Ollie was most probably related though since she had the family name and came from the same town as where Matilda and Eleazer were married- marriages often took place in the bride’s hometown.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Newspaper citation as above.
2) McKelvey-Beerbower marriage information in 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 Beerbower History Committee, 1942. A note to the county recorder is probably a good next step to see if the marriage record exists, and if so, does it contain the names of Matilda’s parents.
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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.
Edward A. McMurray and his mother, Edith Roberts Luck surveying the corn field on their family farm, circa 1980.
Here are just a few of our farming and gardening ancestors that I was thinking of as I worked with the soil and plants on the land we own, and that we can pass on to our descendants, just like our ancestors did:
Frederick Asbury McMurray, circa 1890?
Frederick Asbury “F.A.” McMurray (1850-1929) worked on the family farm as a child, with his occupation listed as “works on farm” on the 1870 US Federal Census when he was 19; he was living in the household of his parents, Henderson McMurray and Mary Ann Horn McMurray. Of their 11 children, the boys apparently stayed in school until 14 or 15, though they probably took time off – or school was closed- for planting and harvest. The four oldest boys worked on the farm full-time, and the family boarded a 20 yr old woman who also helped with the housework- a lot of hungry mouths to feed after that hard farm labor, and a lot of dirty laundry.
F. A. married and in 1880 was listed as a farmer in the census. He became an auctioneer about 1880; he cried over 128 sales in 1902 (‘cried’ is a term for what an auctioneer does as he offers lots for sale), with the very large average of $2,100 per sale making him an auctioneer in demand- he was very good at getting the prices up for his sellers. (Since he probably took a percentage of the sales, there was good incentive to describe the goods in an enticing way, then encourage more bidders to make a higher offer.) By the 1885 Iowa State Census F. A. was listed as having a Second Hand Store- a good spin-off for an auctioneer, and a lot less physical work than being a farmer. (McMurray Family Ancestor– click for family tree)
Gerard William Helbling in his garden, August 1934. Family photo album.
Gerard William Helbling loved roses, and had a flower garden he loved. (He never seemed the sort…) He grew some veggies, such as tomatoes, too. (Helbling Family Ancestor– click for family tree.)
The garden and family dog of Gerard William Helbling, August 1934. Family photo album.
William “Bill” Aiken supposedly had a pecan farm in Tylertown, Walthall County, Mississippi in the 1930s. (Lee Family Ancestor– click for family tree.)
Samuel T. Beerbower showed livestock at the county fair, so likely grew some of his own hay for grazing. (Helbling/Beerbower Family Ancestor– click for family tree.)
Samuel T. Beerbower- County Fair Winner. 03 Oct 1879, The Marion Daily Star, Vol. II, No. 305, (Whle No. 615), Page 4. Posted with permission.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Frederick A. McMurray, auctioneer article from the Daily Herald, Newton, Iowa, 01 Jan 1903, page 9.
2) Samuel T. Beerbower article as cited above.
3) Family treasure chest of photos.
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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.
Obituary of Samuel Taylor BEERBOWER, Marion Daily Star [Marion, OH], 12 July 1902, Vol. XXV, No. 194, Page 6. Posted with kind permission. (Click to enlarge and make more readable.)Beerbower Family(Click for Family Tree)
An ‘amanuensis’ is a person who has been employed to take dictation or copy manuscripts. As family historians, that is a huge part of our work. It is especially important for items handwritten in script, as today’s generation is hardly learning cursive in school; with the advent of computers, so little is written with a pen or pencil, and future generations may look at cursive writing like it is a foreign language. Handwriting is very hard to OCR (though they are working on it), so it is very important to get manuscripts transcribed; transcription will also help with Google searches to make more knowledge available to all.
While Samuel T. Beerbower’s obituary is not in cursive, the digitized newspaper is very hard to read. We have looked at a couple of sources for the image and they are all challenging to read. We are still hoping to find a better copy, but for now this will have to do, and posting the transcription on the blog will allow Google and other searches to pick it up for other Beerbower descendants.
Another thing transcribing helps one to do is to check facts, dates, places, etc. Dates especially can be hard to read- for instance, the marriage year above seems to be 1847, but by cross-checking what is already known with blowing up the image as much as possible, we know the date should be 1867. Of course, obituaries, like death certificates, often have errors, as they depend on accurate recall during a time of great stress by an informant who probably was not present for most of the events.
Samuel T. Beerbower’s death was 10 July 1902.
A PROMINENT CITIZEN DEAD
Samuel T. Beerbower Dies Early This
Morning
—————————
AFTER AN ILLNESS OF
ABOUT EIGHT MONTHS
—————————
Suffers an Injury to His Right Leg by
Jumping Out of a Wagon Compli-
cations Arise and He Never Recov-
ers- Leaves a Widow, One Son and
Many Friends
Mr. Samuel T. Beerbower of east
Center street died this morning at 7
o’clock after an illness extending over
a period of eight months.
Mr Beerbower jumped off a wagon
last October and severely injured his
right leg. He was confined to his bed
and, owing to his advanced age, a com-
plication of diseases set in. He would
rally at times, but just as often he suf-
fered relapses and gradually grew
weaker. His life has been despaired of
for some time and the news of his
death this morning did not come as a
shock to his many friends.
Mr. Beerbower was born in Frank-
lin county, November 10, 1842. He was
the oldest of nine children and moved
to Marion with his parents when he
was but a little over a year old. His
youth was spent in this city, and at
the breaking out of the war, at the age
of nineteen, he enlisted in company A,
Sixty-Fourth Ohio Volunteer infantry.
He served in the Army of the Cumb-
erland and was in the battles of Per-
ryville, Stone River, Chattanooga,
Chickamauga and Mission Ridge. In
the latter battle he was struck by a
ball in the right shoulder. This wound
confined him in hospitals in Chatta-
nooga and Nashville for over three
months, the wound causing paralysis
of the right arm and hand. He receiv-
ed an honorable discharge March 22,
1864.
In 1865, having recovered from his
wound, Mr. Beerbower accepted a po-
sition with the firm of Lucas & Sef-
ner. Later he was employed by Reed
& Yake, and in 1868 he was appointed
postmaster by President Grant. he
served thirteen years in that capacity.
He was united in marriage with Miss
Irene Peters, January 13, 1867, and two
children were born to the union, one of
whom, Cornell, survives.
Mr. Beerbower leaves, beside his wife
and son, a large number of friends to
mourn his death. He was an honored
and highly respected citizen and was
a member of the Elks, Odd Fellows,
Knights of Pythias and the G. A. R.
He had gone through the chairs of
most, if not all, of the various lodges
of which he was a member.
The funeral service will be held at
the late residence of the deceased Mon-
day afternoon at 4-o’clock. The re=
mains will be placed in the vault.
The remains may be viewed from 2
to 4 o’clock Sunday and 10 to 12 o’clock
Monday.
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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.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.
Obituary of Samuel Taylor BEERBOWER, Marion Daily Star [Marion, OH], 12 July 1902, Vol. XXV, No. 194, Page 6. Posted with kind permission. (Click to enlarge and sharpen text.)Beerbower Family(Click for Family Tree)
[We apologize for the quality of this image, but since the last 2 updates of WordPress, images are blurred like this when enlarged for the blog. If you click on it, however, it will be very readable. Sorry, no time to figure this out- have already spent a lot of time trying to no avail, and would prefer researching and writing to fussing with a stupid computer program.]
[Edited 27 Apr 2015 to add: see 27 Apr 2015 post for transcription.]
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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.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.
Sketch of Veteran Samuel T. Beerbower in The Marion Daily Star [Marion OH], 26 Nov 1895, Vol. XIX, No. 3. Page 5. Posted with kind permission.Beerbower Family(Click for Family Tree)
Last week’s “Military Monday: Samuel Taylor Beerbower’s Civil War Service” told of the battle in which Sam was wounded, Mission Ridge near Chattanooga, Tennessee. (AKA Missionary Ridge.) Although honorably discharged due to the paralysis of his right hand and arm, Sam went on to live a long and full life in Marion, Ohio. The Civil War was always remembered, though, and special days, such as 25 November 1863, were always close in mind.
Sam and a fellow who also served at Mission Ridge got together yearly to celebrate their survival and how the Union forces took what should have been an impregnable Confederate line:
Samuel T. BEERBOWER- “Sam and Henry”- observation of the anniversary of Mission Ridge in The Marion Daily Star [Marion OH], 26 Nov 1895, Vol. XIX, No. 3, Page 5, Columns 3-4. Posted with kind permission.It was 32 years later, and the comradeship of the military had once again brought together the men who had endured. (The ‘Encampment’ would have been their G.A.R.- Grand Army of the Republic- post for those who fought in the Civil War.)
Men with military service were honored by their communities for many years, in many ways.
The following article uses the word, “caned” in a humorous way, but it was no laughing matter in 1856 when, on the floor of the US Senate, SC Representative Preston Brooks used his gold-headed cane as a weapon to almost kill MA Senator Charles Sumner who had given an anti-slavery speech two days before. It was premeditated and well-planned-Sumner was along in the Senate chamber, writing, when he was assaulted by Brooks whir accompanying Southern state representatives looked on and kept others from intervening. Thankfully the caning was stopped but only after the cane broke into many pieces due to the violence of the attack, and Sumner almost died. Ironically, Brooks hurt himself on one of his backswings to hit Sumner- a metaphor of what would happen with The Civil War, with the South starting it, but ending up being the loser economically, socially, etc. after the war. This horrific caning incident was yet another break in the chain of the Union, leading up to the Civil War.
Thankfully Sam’s regiment was quite a bit kinder.
Samuel T. BEERBOWER -“Comrades Caned Him” in The Marion Daily Star [Marion, OH], 10 Nov 1893, Vol. XVI, No. 303, page 5. Posted with kind permission. Prior military service brought together people for social reasons as well. Sam’s wife Irene Peters Beerbower was a very active member of the G.A.R. ladies’ section, and held various posts within the group, even elected as an alternative delegate to a larger convention.
S. T. and Irene PETERS BEERBOWER-GAR Social a “Complete Success” in The Marion Daily Star, [Marion, OH], 22 Jan 1895, Vol. XVIII, No. 52, Page 4. Reprinted with kind permission. Used to military life, many of the Veterans joined fraternal organizations that had a military sort of organization, uniforms, and even military-like rituals. Sam was a member of the Elks Lodge (and elected Exalted Ruler of Elks in 1873), the Kosciusko Lodge, No. 58 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF, another fraternal and service organization) where he served as Noble Grand (N.G.), or presiding officer, in 1883, and his wife participated with the female arm of the IOOF, the Rebekahs. Sam apparently participated with other groups as well:
Samuel T. BEERBOWER-“Preferred Charges” in The Marion Daily Star,” [Marion, OH] 02 Dec 1893, Vol. XVII, No. 10, Page 8. Posted with kind permission.Even in his last months, friendships developed through Sam’s military service and fraternal orders were important:
Samuel T. BEERBOWER. “The Elks call…” in The Marion Daily Star [Marion, OH].21 Mar 1902, Vol. XXV, No. 97, Page 5. Posted with kind permission.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) See citations for each article. The Marion Daily Star is available with a subsription to 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.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.
![Obituary of Samuel Taylor BEERBOWER, Marion Daily Star [Marion, OH], 12 July 1902, Vol. XXV, No. 194, Page 6. Posted with kind permission.](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1902_0712_BEERBOWER_ST_obit_MDS_vXXV_n194_p6_Ancestry.png?ssl=1)
![Sketch of Samuel T. Beerbower in "The Marion Daily Star" [Marion OH], 26 Nov 1895](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1898_0611_BEERBOWER_Samuel-T_portrait_The-Marion-Daily-Star-Marion-OH_vXXI_n172_p16_ancestry.png?resize=361%2C370&ssl=1)
![Samuel T. BEERBOWER- "Sam and Henry"- observation of the anniversary of Mission Ridge_The Marion Daily Star [Marion OH], 26 Nov 1895](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1895_1126_BEERBOWER_Samuel-T_anniversary-of-Mission-Ridge_The-Marion-Daily-Star-Marion-OH_vXIX_n3_p5_c3-4_ancestry.png?ssl=1)
