Category: Ancestors of Gerard William “G.W.” HELBLING and Anna May BEERBOWER

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Mappy Monday- The Springsteens in Brooklyn, NY, 1848-9

Jefferson Springsteen in 1848 Brooklyn City Directory
Jefferson Springsteen in 1848 Brooklyn City Directory and Annual Advertiser for the Years 1848-9, page 213, comp. by Thomas P. Teale, pub. by E.B. Spooner, Brooklyn, NY, 1848, via InternetAchive.org. (Click to enlarge.)

Springsteen Family (Click for Family Tree)

Jefferson Springsteen (1820-1909) and his wife, Anna Connor (1824-1887), are hard to trace in their early lives. Both have fairly common surnames-especially Anna, with a common first name too. Anna was born in Ireland thus was an immigrant; the names of her parents are unknown, increasing the difficulty. Both Jefferson and his family apparently moved about in the northeast (New York, New Jersey) until they settled in Indianapolis in the early 1850s.

Brooklyn city directories are now available online for many years, and I finally found an entry for Jeff, with his last name listed as “Springstan” which was a new variation to me.

This city directory states that Jefferson lived at “116 Hudson av” in Brooklyn, NY in 1848. The first thing I do when I know an address is look it up on Google Maps, to get an idea of the area.

[Above, embedded GoogleMap from https://www.google.com/maps/place/116+Hudson+Ave,+Brooklyn,+NY+11201/@40.7045616,-74.0165205,12777m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c25bcd6e88e27d:0xfb6d025aa4780125?hl=en-US]

If there is a house there, I check Zillow.com (or local property tax records) to see when the house was built. (In some instances, it is the same house that our ancestor lived in!) A search showed 116 Hudson (which runs basically N-S) to be between the blocks of Marshall and John St., south of the East River and west of the Navy Yard. Looking at the Street View, it shows an industrial area- definitely the house is long gone. The house would have been a long block from the river to the north, and the same to the Navy Yard. It probably was not a very glamorous area, being so close to the river, even back in 1848 when the Springsteens lived there.

The next thing to do is look for a map printed close to the date of interest- in this case, 1848. Unfortunately, some of those maps that are online just are not readable when enlarged, so they did not help much. I did find a map drawn in 1865. A lot changed in Brooklyn between 1848 and 1865- the population boomed- but the map is still better than a current day map to give us a feel for the number of roads and where they went.

1866 Johnson Map of New York City and Brooklyn, NY
Section of 1866 Johnson Map of New York City and Brooklyn, NY, via Wikipedia; see below for source. Public domain. (Click to enlarge.)

Hudson Avenue is in the pink section to the left of the Navy Yard. Hudson Avenue continues to the river, where the Hudson Ferry docked and transported customers across. New York ferries were the first real mass transit in the US. Brooklyn and New Jersey had become ‘suburbs’ of New York, with over 60,000 of those who had been born in NYC moving there, and they needed a way to get to work. The East River ferries carried even more passengers per day than those that crossed the Hudson (to New Jersey). Every 5-10 minutes one of six ferries would begin an East River crossing, with a total of 1,250 crossings per day. The fare was a penny, and they no longer accepted wampum as the earliest ferries had done. The ferries were probably steamboats, which Robert Fulton, an owner of a ferryboat, had invented in 1807. He used a center paddlewheel boat so it would not require a large space in which to turn around; this made getting on to the next trip faster as well.

I wonder how many time Jeff and Anna Springsteen travelled on the Hudson Ferry?

By the mid-1850s, slightly after Jeff and his family left Brooklyn, it had become large enough to be the third most populous city in America. So they lived there during quite  a boom time.

There is a wonderful website full of (copyrighted) images called “Whitman’s Brooklyn- A virtual visit circa 1850.” It has wonderful 3D maps and images from the years when Walt Whitman, America’s poet, lived in Brooklyn. Taking a look at the images will give insight into what life might have been like for Jefferson and Anna and their five children who were born in Brooklyn between 1844 and 1852. (Four more were born after the move to Indianapolis, Indiana.)

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Brooklyn City Map: Google Maps at https://www.google.com/maps/place/116+Hudson+Ave,+Brooklyn,+NY+11201/@40.7032041,-73.980758,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c25bcd6e88e27d:0xfb6d025aa4780125

2) “The Twin Cities of Brooklyn and New York in 1866” by Alvin Jewett Johnson – Johnson, A. J., Johnson’s New Illustrated Family Atlas. (1866 Johnson Edition) This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, a specialist dealer in rare maps and other cartography of the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, as part of a cooperation project.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn#/media/File:1866_Johnson_Map_of_New_York_City_and_Brooklyn_-_Geographicus_-_NewYorkCity2-johnson-1866.jpg

3) NY Harbor History: A Glance Back in Time: http://www.baycrossings.com/dispnews.php?id=1006

4) Whitman’s Brooklyn- A Virtual Visit Circa 1850: http://whitmans-brooklyn.org/

 

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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.
 
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Shopping Saturday: Springsteens Keeping the Lights On in 1845

1845 Candles Advertisement, page 20, Doggets New York City Directory via archive.org
1845 Candles Advertisement, page 20, Doggets New York City Directory via archive.org. (Click to enlarge.)

Springsteen Family (Click for Family Tree)

Twenty years ago, keeping the lights on was as simple as flipping a switch, and our shopping Saturday dilemma was whether to get soft white or bright white lightbulbs, and which wattage. Today it is more complicated, with rows of incandescent, halogen, LED, Edison, and other types of lightbulbs lining store shelves, with a myriad variety of bases. (More technology= simpler lifestyle??)

Keeping the lights on was complicated for our ancestors, too. Jefferson and Anna Connor Springsteen, living in Brooklyn, NY in 1845, did not have the luxury of flipping a switch, but had to deal with oil for lamps and candles, as well as wood for stoves/fireplaces which would also provide a little light. No wonder families tended to get up at dawn and go to bed when it got dark- you could save a lot of money by buying less oil and candles! For those on the frontier, where goods and stores were scarce, making their own or doing without was the only way they could survive.

Oil lamps have been used since ancient times, with a variety of oils used as fuel. Candles have been made from a variety of substances throughout the years as well. Beeswax candles are considered to be the very best, however they are also very expensive since bees make such a small amount of wax for each hive- they could never keep up with the booming American economy that was ten times as large in 1860 as it had been in 1800. In 1858, kerosene began to take the place of animal-based oils in lamps, and paraffin began to be used for candles. Paraffin was inexpensive, burned cleanly and without odor, but melted easily. Once stearin was discovered, it was added to candles and raised the melting point, so they would not soften in hot weather or warm buildings.

Whale oil lamp of the 18th/20th century. Photographed at Dithmarscher Landesmuseum Meldorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Iron with cotton wicker.via Wikipedia, CC License.
Whale oil lamp of the 18th/20th century. Photographed at Dithmarscher Landesmuseum Meldorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Iron with cotton wicker.via Wikipedia, CC License.

Sperm Oil and Candles

Living in the northeast in a port city and so close to the ocean, the Springsteens would have had easy access to oil from whales. Whaling provided a lot of products in the early 1800s, including oil, which was used for lamps, making candles, as a lubricant for machinery including the booming railroads’ rolling stock; locomotive headlights used whale oil too. Sperm whale oil was used for light, fast-moving machinery, such as that in the cotton mills. Heavier whale oil, derived from a number of species, would be used in the heavy machinery like locomotive engines.

Whalers would boil the blubber from a whale to create oil, put it in casks and it would be sold around the country for lubricants and illumination, as well as for use in the manufacture of soaps, varnish, and paints. Spermaceti, a waxy oil from the head of the whale (it was used for buoyancy and echolocation by the whale), was the most valuable of the whale oils. Over 500 gallons of spermaceti oil could be harvested from just one sperm whale. Because of its waxy properties, it made what was considered the finest candle, which had a very bright and clear flame, good for reading, and these candles did not emit a lot of smoke. Spermaceti oil also was used as a lubricant in precision machinery- thus some say that whaling is what drove the success of American industry in the 1800s.

Sperm oil would make brown candles if used naturally, but was often bleached to make a pure white candle- more elegant but of course more expensive. Around 1800, sperm candles cost three times the price of tallow candles. Tallow candles were made of the fat of sheep and cattle, and were made at home by many families. They burned unevenly, their light was not as bright as sperm candles, and in hot weather, tallow candles would collapse once they softened. Tallow candles also had a very unpleasant odor when burned. Tallow could be used as a lubricant, as well.

Lard Oil

In the 1800s, the American diet consisted of a very high proportion of meats. This meant that there was an abundant supply of lard from slaughterhouses. Lard, while used in pie crusts and other edible goods, was also made into lamp oil. It was inexpensive because it was an animal byproduct, but the quality was poor. It required a higher temperature for burning and didn’t flow well as the fats tended to congeal in a lamp, especially when ambient temperatures were low.

Early/mid 19th century height adjustable pendant oil lamp. Brass fixtures, painted glass shade. Chain and counterweight allow it to raised and lowered. Now used as paraffin lamp; originally probably intended to be fueled with whale oil.via Wikipedia, CC License.
Early/mid 19th century height adjustable pendant oil lamp. Brass fixtures, painted glass shade. Chain and counterweight allow it to raised and lowered. Now used as paraffin lamp; originally probably intended to be fueled with whale oil. Wikimedia Commons, CC License.

Adamantine Candles

Stearic acid, derived from animal fats, was added to wax to make adamantine candles. The stearic acid hardened the candle, making them less apt to melt in hot weather.

Elephant Oil

Likely ‘sea elephants’ or elephant seal oil. These large animals found on the Pacific coast were also used for lamp oil in the 1800s. A large bull could yield 210 gallons of oil made from their blubber, and these animals were hunted to what was thought was extinction. Eight individuals were found in 1892 when the Smithsonian expedition killed seven of them for their collection; amazingly the population survived and due to legal protection, colonies now thrive.

"Breeding colony of Mirounga angustirostris"[elephant seals] by Brocken Inaglory - Own work. Licensed under GFDL via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breeding_colony_of_Mirounga_angustirostris.jpg#/media/File:Breeding_colony_of_Mirounga_angustirostris.jpg
“Breeding colony of Mirounga angustirostris”[elephant seals] by Brocken Inaglory – Own work. Licensed under GFDL via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breeding_colony_of_Mirounga_angustirostris.jpg#/media/File:Breeding_colony_of_Mirounga_angustirostris.jpg
Kid Oil

Possibly from young goats? No information found on this oil.

Oil Soap

A candle-maker was called a “chandler.” Chandlers used raw products such as whale oil and tallow to produce a variety of products, from candles and oils to soaps, sauces, paints, and varnishes.

 

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) A variety of websites were sources of information in this article:

http://history1800s.about.com/od/whaling/f/whaleproducts01.htm

In Pursuit of Leviathan: Technology, Institutions, Productivity, and Profits …

 By Lance E. Davis, Robert E. Gallman, Karin Gleite

https://books.google.com/books?id=xsk0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA250&lpg=PA250&dq=elephant+oil+lamp+history&source=bl&ots=drfty9OSkJ&sig=iqyy7oZeSZh1QrpHpO5wSP-JUXg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CF0Q6AEwEGoVChMIwcbB6uq6xwIVyVg-Ch1FTg1V#v=onepage&q=elephant%20oil%20lamp%20history&f=false, page 250

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_candle_making

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_lamp

https://historyweaver.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/lighting-the-way/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spermaceti

 

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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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Workday Wednesday: City Directories for Social History

King & Kellum, Architects, Ad, Brooklyn, NY. From Hearnes Brooklyn City Directory for 1850-1851 via InternetArchive.
King & Kellum, Architects, Ad, Brooklyn, NY. From Hearnes Brooklyn City Directory for 1850-1851 via InternetArchive.org.

Springsteen Family (Click for Family Tree)

Although the architects Gamaliel King & John Kellum are not related to us, I found this ad when going page by page through the city directory, looking for Jefferson and Anna Springsteen. I knew the Springsteens were in Brooklyn in the 1840s and 1850s, but wanted to pinpoint the years and learn more about that time. I also wanted to verify Jeff’s occupation, as I had found that he had a restaurant at the Brooklyn fish market.

The Springsteens were not listed in the 1850-1851 Brooklyn City Directory, but I loved the above ad- this may have been what the home of their dreams looked like! Similar homes would have been found in the neighborhoods they travelled through, or possibly their own neighborhood- or they may even have lived in a house like this.

Learning a bit about the place and time of your ancestors can often be done while browsing a resource, such as a city directory. Oftentimes, researchers will look for a name, find it or not, and move on to the next resource. Because when I found Jefferson in some of the directories his name was spelled much differently than I have seen previously (spelling creativity ruled back then!), I searched mostly page-by-page through the directories I used on InternetArchive.org. As I paged through, however, I saw delightful advertisements such as this architect’s ad, data on population and transportation, and city government information and office holders. The ads especially give a taste of what a typical workday may have been like for a resident- note the occupations which we no longer have. Some may even require a bit of research because the job is obscure to us in this high-tech century. One can also learn a bit about what a woman’s life was like- the vendors she may have used for food and household goods, what products were available to make her life easier, etc.

So plan time to peruse a city directory or other resource- you may be surprised at what you find. You may find familiar names and learn of neighbors who moved to the next town with them, find siblings, children, or parents nearby, learn what occupation was followed (which can help differentiate those with the same name), and possibly even learn the name of a wife, which may be listed after her husband’s death- and that will also give you a clue as to when the husband died. Do be careful though, and read the actual entry- sometimes persons are listed after they died as an oversight, and I have even seen a directory list that a person had moved to __, so were not actually living in that town.

At the very least, looking through a directory will give you a sense of the times your ancestor lived in, and the surrounding place. It will help you build a social history that contains your ancestor, and will make the stories you tell about an ancestor much more interesting.

I will be posting more charming items from the Brooklyn City Directories of 1848-1851– and some that are downright frightening– in future posts.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) I did not find Jefferson and Anna in the 1850-1 city directory. They had probably moved on to Indiana by then.

2)  The OCR/search engine on InternetArchive.org did not pick up the name in multiple Brooklyn city directories even when spelled exactly like it was found it in the directory. It definitely does not have a fuzzy search. (I am, however, really happy that these directories are available online!)

3) City directories can have multiple sections, with each having its own numbering system. Brooklyn had an ‘east’ and ‘west’ section in the later directories, plus the city information had its own section and numbering sometimes, other times was listed as an appendix. So familiarize yourself with the layout of the directory and its sections- you might find some of them have more information that had not gotten picked up in a search.

4) King & Kellum, Architects, Ad, Brooklyn, NY. From Hearnes Brooklyn City Directory for 1850-1851 via InternetArchive.org.

 

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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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Sentimental Sunday: Samuel T. Beerbower to Irene L. Peters

Samuel T. Beerbower portrait, circa 1860s? Posted with kind permission of the Marion County Historical Society (MCHS), Ohio. (Click to enlarge.)
Samuel T. Beerbower portrait, circa 1860s? Posted with kind permission of the Marion County Historical Society (MCHS), Ohio. (Click to enlarge.)

Beerbower Family (Click for Family Tree)

We generally see our ancestors in two dimensions, if we are lucky enough to have an image of them. Sometimes, though, we get to see a third dimension, something deeper, sometimes down to their heart:

circa 1860s? Samuel T. Beerbower portrait. Posted with kind permission of the Marion County Historical Society (MCHS), Ohio.
Samuel T. Beerbower portrait-reverse, circa 1860s? Posted with kind permission of the Marion County Historical Society (MCHS), Ohio. (Click to enlarge.)

“Yours faithful until death

                    – Sam”

 

Such romantic words… What a gift to know that Sam could express himself in such a way, and that he loved Irene enough to put those words on the back of his portrait!

Perhaps this was a portrait Sam gave to Irene before he left for the war on 2 Oct 1861 at age 18?

Or was it given during their courtship? Sam was born in Fairfield County in 1842, but his family moved to Marion when he was just over a year old. Irene was born in Marion in 1846, so it was likely that they knew each other growing up. Were they ‘sweet’ on each other during their school years? Had they courted before he left for the war?  Or did they fall in love after Sam returned from the war, a man changed physically as well as mentally?

Or was this a gift from around the time of their wedding, on 13 Jan 1867?

We won’t know the occasion unless letters or a diary are found, but it is fun to imagine what their lives may have been like.

Identifying when N. Green, the photographer, had a studio on Main St. in Marion, Ohio may help us pinpoint the date. (No luck so far, though found another photo identified as the 1860s with N. Green the photographer. So we are in the right decade.)

.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Samuel T. Beerbower portrait, circa 1860s? Posted with kind permission of the Marion County Historical Society (MCHS), Ohio for non-profit use only. Found in the Samuel T. Beerbower bible held by MCHS.

 

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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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Wedding Wednesday: Samuel T. Beerbower and Irene L. Peters

Marriage Certificate of Sauel Beerbower and Irene Peters, 18 Jan 1867, Bucyrus, Ohio. Posted with kind permission of the Marion County Historical Society.
Marriage Certificate of Samuel Beerbower and Irene Peters, 18 Jan 1867, Bucyrus, Ohio. Posted with kind permission of the Marion County Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)


Beerbower Family (Click for Family Tree)

Samuel Taylor Beerbower (1842-1902) was the son of Eleazer John Beerbower and Matilda Louise McKelvey. His bride, Irene Lewella Peters (1846-1924) was the daughter of Nathan Peters and his second wife, Mary Cady Russell.

Marriage record for Samuel T. Beerbower and Irene L. Peters, married January 18th, 1867, in the Samuel T. Beerbower Family Bible. Posted with kind permission of the Marion County Historical Society (MCHS), Marion, Ohio. (Click to enlarge.)
Marriage record for Samuel T. Beerbower and Irene L. Peters, married January 18th, 1867, in the Samuel T. Beerbower Family Bible. Posted with kind permission of the Marion County Historical Society (MCHS), Marion, Ohio. (Click to enlarge.)

Both Samuel and Irene were Marion natives, so it is curious that they were married in Bucyrus, Ohio. Bucyrus is a bit less than 20 miles north of Marion, but is in another county (Crawford), and the county seat. We are not aware of any family living in Bucyrus. Maybe they could get a license there more quickly, or they eloped?

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Marriage certificate and Samuel T. Beerbower bible posted with the kind permission of the Marion County Historical Society (MCHS), Marion, Ohio.

 

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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.
 
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