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.
Charlotte Peters Baker, courtesy Marion County [Ohio] Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)Beerbower Family(Click for Family Tree)
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 Walter Baker, courtesy Marion County [Ohio] Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)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.
Florence Winona Baker, b. 1857, and her sister Myrtle Jennie Baker, b. 1859, courtesy Marion County [Ohio] Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)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 Amanda Baker, b. 1862, courtesy Marion County [Ohio] Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)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 W. Clark in 1900, via Wikipedia, public domain.
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- :
Ella Baker, most likely Tacey Viella Baker, b. 1864. Courtesy Marion County [Ohio] Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)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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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.
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.
Northwest Territory of USA- 1787 via Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. (Click to enlarge.)
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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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.
Sometimes, as genealogists, we are so busy checking off our list of what we need for a person, such as census, birth, marriage, and death records, military, etc., that we don’t slow down and peruse what is going on around the person’s name in the record. That is what happened in this research session- due to such a variety of spellings of Emelie’s first name, and not being positive about her last name (see previous posts linked below), when I did find her I was excited. It verified her last name, so then I went to look for more.
But wait- Emelie was “at school” in 1880. (I had no idea when she was born when I started researching her.) There was an Annie Heidemann listed right after her, listed as “at school” as well- neither listed as ‘daughter.’ Hmmm, no parents listed there. Moving up the census page, there were no other Heidemanns to be found- all persons were “at school” and had different last names, plus four women over the age of 52 were listed as “boarding”; there was also a younger “servant” listed. Time to check the previous page in the census. Jackpot- it had 20 listed as “teacher,” 1 “Infirmarier” (nurse?), 3 seamstresses, and 23 as ‘lay sister.’ There were also 3 more “at school” to add to the 28 on the page with Emelie and Annie.
So it looks as if the Heidemann sisters (or cousins?) were in a boarding school, probably Catholic as:
1) They were a German family;
2) ‘Lay sisters’ were enumerated;
3) Many teachers were enumerated, and their first names sound a lot like Catholic sister’s names; they did have a last name listed however, and no title such as “Sr” (for “Sister”).
4) The only male in the grouping was the servant, age 24.
I did not see Emelie & Annie’s names listed on the enumeration for Herman Heidemann for 1880, so initially thought that it verified them attending a boarding school. Possibly, though, the “Matilda” and “Ida” listed with Hermann were Emelie and Annie respectively, with the school using their formal names, family using their middle names as Germans often did. If Emelie and Annie were additional children, however, there would have been a child born each year in the family- not impossible, but somewhat unusual, and the births were off by a year. The question remains about why they might have been enumerated both at school and at home.
To confuse the matter further, the City of St. Louis actually did TWO enumerations for the 1880 US Federal Census- one in June, which is the one with Emelie and Annie listed in the school grouping but not listed as such with Herman, and then another in November, when those names were also not listed with Herman’s family. There is another twist too- Herman’s wife is listed as Louisa in one but Lizzie in the other. Ancestry.comas a Missouri marriage record forHermann Heidemann to Elisabeth Kastrups, and some Ancestry trees have her listed as ‘Elizabeth Louisa Kastrups’ so that could explain the two different names for her. That marriage date of 17 Oct 1863 could fit, though the oldest child I could find was Edward, born in 1869; that would be an unusual amount of time to go with no children, though they may have lost some children early in their marriage.
And then dear Herman Heidemann- the 1895 St. Louis City Directory lists 4 men with the same name: one a carpenter, one a cooper, one a teamster, and one with no occupation listed, and they all lived in different homes.
Ancestry.com family trees only added to the confusion- many persons apparently have mixed up the Hermans. The 1870 census on Ancestry did not help much, although there was a Herman in Chicago but that family did not have the older children.
Obviously, we could use some help in sorting this tangle of Heidemanns, but probably need someone more closely related with better knowledge of the family. I do feel confident about Emelie marrying Fred Spahn- I have heard the Spahn name before in Helbling family discussions. Please contact us if you have any more information about the Heidemann family and Emelie Heidemann Spahn.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) 1880 US Federal Census entries for Emelie and Ann Heidemann- Year: 1880; Census Place: Saint Louis, St Louis (Independent City), Missouri; Roll: 722; Family History Film: 1254722; Page: 655D; Enumeration District: 100; Image: 0738; via Ancestry.com.
2) 1880 US Federal Census entry for Hermann Heidemann family- Year: 1880; Census Place: Saint Louis, St Louis (Independent City), Missouri; Roll: 722; Family History Film: 1254722; Page: 66B; Enumeration District: 106; Image: 0136; via 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.
Last Monday our Mystery Monday: Emelia and Aunt Lizzie post included the above image in hope of someone seeing it and being able to help us solve the mystery of Emelie and Aunt Lizzie and how they fit into the family. We now think we have a solution, although we do not know for sure who each of the persons are in the photograph- yet.
Trolling through my Ancestry.com family tree to try and find an “Emelie” was fruitless, but “Lizzie” was a hit: Elizabeth “Lizzy” Barbara Helbling surfaced after I had entered some data from old notes, specifically some from cousin Mary Lou, who did so much great Helbling research back in the days before the internet, and was so generous in sharing it.
Lizzy was born 25 Feb 1839 in Lawrenceville, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, to Franz Xavier Helbling and Mary Theresa Knipshield. Lizzy was therefore the sister of Franz X. Helbling, Jr., thus the aunt of ‘our’ Gerard William “G.W.” Helbling, son of Franz. The photo album belonged to G.W. and his wife, Anna May Beerbower Helbling, so she would have been “Aunt Lizzy” to May who was putting the captions in the album.
I thought the image was probably taken in the 1930s, but Aunt Lizzy died 25 Dec 1928, so it would have to be sometime in the 20s. She is likely the very elderly woman on the right in the photo, since she was listed as age 81 in the 1920 US Federal Census, and died at age 89.
If this was taken in Peoria, she was a pretty spry lady- she was living in Pittsburgh, PA in 1920 so would have probably taken the train to Peoria in her 80s. Spry also with sitting on the ground for the picture and possibly a picnic- getting up might have been hard!
So who then is Emelie? Emelie is the daughter-in-law of Lizzy, as Emelie married, probably in 1892, Frederick A. J. Spahn, the son of Lizzy and John Spahn. Emelia/Amelia was listed as a Practical Nurse in the 1920 US Federal Census, so she may have traveled with her mother-in-law as Emelia and Frederick were living in Lizzy’s household in 1920 in Pittsburgh. (How convenient to have a nurse around for someone 80 years old!) Emelie L. Heidemann was the daughter of Hermann and Louise Heidemann, born about 1840 and 1843, respectively, in Germany.
Researching Emelie in the census was challenging at first, since her given name was spelled so many ways, and I did not have a maiden name. Thankfully an Ancestry.com tree did have a maiden name, so searching using that last name as a clue, I was able to find her family. Her death certificate confirmed her maiden name, as it listed Hermann Heideman as her father, and that she was the widow of Fred J. Spahn.
Emelie was born in 1870, so would have been 50 in 1920. She might be the woman on the right in the dark dress, or the upper left with glasses. Fred is not listed in the caption in the photo album, so he may not have come on the trip- or could have been the photographer! (He died in 1837.) We will need to find a photo of both of them, and one of Lizzie, to try to match up images and identify these folks. Hopefully someone else out there has this same photo with identification. Please let us know if you are a Spahn or Helbling relative!
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Emelie Heidemann in the 1880 US Federal Census- Year: 1880; Census Place: Saint Louis, St Louis (Independent City), Missouri; Roll: 722; Family History Film: 1254722; Page: 655D; Enumeration District: 100; Image: 0738; via Ancestry.com.
2) 1920 US Federal Census for Elizabeth “Lizzie” Barbara Helbling Spahn Bushman- Year: 1920; Census Place: Pittsburgh Ward 26, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1526; Page: 19B; Enumeration District: 739; Image: 1122; via Ancestry.com.
3) Family photo album.
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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.
![Charlotte Peters Baker, courtesy Marion County [Ohio] Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Charlotte-Baker.jpg)
![Alonzo Walter Baker, courtesy Marion County [Ohio] Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/alonzo-baker.jpg)
![Florence Winona Baker, b. 1857, and her sister Myrtle Jennie Baker, b. 1859, courtesy Marion County [Ohio] Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/florence-and-myrtle-baker.jpg)
![Jessie Amanda Baker, b. 1862, courtesy Marion County [Ohio] Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/jessie-amanda-bake-croppedr.jpg)
![Ella Baker, most likely Tacey Viella Baker, b. 1864. Courtesy Marion County [Ohio] Historical Society. (Click to enlarge.)](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ella-baker.jpg)
