It was July 2, 1776 in hot Philadelphia, and a group of delegates to the Second Continental Congress had just committed a treasonous act- they had declared their thirteen American colonies as sovereign states, independent of Great Britain. That treasonous act included a unanimous vote for independence, using a document that had been drafted by a group of five, including Thomas Jefferson, the primary author.

Most of the delegates to the Continental Congress signed the document that same day, but it was not until July 4th that the remaining delegates approved the document that we now know as the Declaration of Independence. (Some historians believe it was not signed by all until August 2, 1776.)

The Declaration was read to the public on July 8th, 1776, accompanied by a parade of the battalions participating in the Revolutionary War, which had already been going on for over a year. Gun salutes were punctuated by cheers from the crowds who believed in the revolution. (I assume Loyalists were not in attendance… at least, not for long.)

John Adams, one of the instigators of revolution, wanted us to celebrate our independence on July 2nd. In a letter to his wife Abigail Adams, on July 3, 1776, he wrote:

“The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

A large celebration did not occur until the first anniversary of the signing. In Philadelphia on July 4, 1777, fireworks, bonfires, 13-gun salutes from harbor ships, patriotic music, candles in the windows of houses, and church bells sang of our new country,  and its promise that:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.“

There are many Revolutionary War heroes in our family, and probably many more than we know. Wartime is particularly difficult when it takes place in ALL the areas that people live, as it did during the Revolution- few areas were spared from battles or troop movements. It was a brother vs. brother war as well, because so many of the colonists, including many of our ancestors, were native to England. Following are brief bits of info about three of our Revolutionary War heroes. More details about their lives will be found in upcoming posts.

Daniel-Hemphill (George A. Roberts) Family:

Capt. Audley Paul (1728-1802)- Born in Ireland, he served from 1754 in the French-Indian War through the close of the American Revolution. He was an Ensign in the Virginia Colonial Militia in 1758.

McMurray-Benjamin-Horn Family:

Jonathan Benjamin (1738-1841)- Private, received pension for his service from Licking County, Ohio.

Heinrich Horn (1758-1845)- Born in Germany, Heinrich has a very interesting story that will take a bit to tell in a future post. He did receive a Revolutionary War pension.

I do not know of any portraits of our own Revolutionary War ancestors- any who survived into the 1840s may have had their picture taken.

Time Magazine has a wonderful webpage, Faces of the American Revolution,  that includes some portraits of Revolutionary War soldiers. Additionally, Maureen Taylor, “The Photo Detective,” has written two books that include similar portraits and the stories of these heroes: “The Last Muster: Images of the Revolutionary War Generation” (Vol. 1) and “The Last Muster. Vol. 2  Faces of the American Revolution.” Her article “Ghosts of the Revolution”  about these 80+ year old soldiers was published in the DAR’s American Spirit magazine. She also had a Kickstarter campaign that raised money to make these books into a film, “Revolutionary Voices”: A Last Muster Film.

It is really amazing to see the faces of those who fought and endured so that the United States of America could be a free and democratic country. Two hundred and thirty-eight years later, today is a good day to celebrate, and remember that freedom is never free.

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Declaration_of_Independence. Accessed 7/4/14.

2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(United_States). Accessed 7/4/14.

3) See details of the painting “Pulling Down the Statue of King George” at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johannes_Adam_Simon_Oertel_Pulling_Down_the_Statue_of_King_George_III,_N.Y.C._ca._1859.jpg. There is a fair amount of ‘artistic license’ in this painting. Accessed 7/4/14.

4) Time Magazine: Faces of the American Revolution at https://lightbox.time.com/2013/07/03/faces-of-the-american-revolution/#1. Accessed 7/4/14.

5) Maureen Taylor’s website: https://www.maureentaylor.com. Her books are available in bookstores as well.

6) “Ghosts of the Revolution”: https://www.maureentaylor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ghosts_of_the_revolution.pdf

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

There is a sadness in my heart today because on Father’s Day,  I have no dad here to visit or call, none to cook dinner for, to hug, to tell him I love him. There is no father-in-law, nor grandfathers, or great-grandfathers left in my family either. I am thinking of them so much today though, so it is a Sentimental Sunday, and I appreciate all that they gave to me of themselves over the years to make me who I am today. I feel that one truly and fully understands the sacrifice of a father for his descendants once one has their own family. Even after being a parent for so many years, I still think of the events, wisdom, love, genetics, even quirks imparted by these paternal ancestors, and the light bulb goes on and I say, “Wow. They cared so much that they would even ___.”

This care and love extends to their participation in the military, too. Most were not fathers when they enlisted, but they already had that ‘take-care-of-the-future” thought strongly in their minds- enough to risk their very lives for it. Thankfully, none of my paternal ancestors gave their life in a battle to protect our freedoms, although some were wounded, either physically or mentally. All were changed by the horrors of war, but still went on to become fathers, hoping that future generations would be able to live more peacefully.

How can “Thank you, I love you.” ever be enough to say on this day, or ANY day???

A father is… PROUD.

A father is… a TEACHER.

A father is… LOVING.

A father is… FUN.

A father is… a HELPING HAND.

A father is… PROTECTIVE.

A father is… a PROVIDER.

A father is… A BUDDY.

A father is… SURPRISING.

A father is… LOVE.

Thank you, Dads.

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Family photos in possession of author.

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images, or to post images on other websites.

Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the official flag of the United States of America. That date has been commemorated throughout the years with parades and picnics, a rite of summer across the land. Although the oldest continuous Flag Day parade may have been in 1909, Flag Day was not officially proclaimed a holiday until 1916, when Woodrow Wilson established June 14 as Flag Day.

The people of America didn’t need an official proclamation, however, to celebrate their pride in our flag and all it represents. Our Helbling family documented their Flag Day celebrations through the years, and preserved them in family photo albums.

The above image shows the children of Gerard William Helbling (AKA G. W. Helbling) and Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling in front of their home at 5136 Page Ave. in St. Louis, Missouri. Edgar Helbling was about 9, May Helbling 6, and Vi Helbling just 4 years old.

Other photo albums hold earlier years of Flag Day celebrations. This picture shows G.W. Helbling in front of their home with their three oldest children. (Three more were to be born to them in subsequent years.) Edgar looks so stoic, the little soldier, the big brother, flag on his shoulder, ready to march off into history to show his pride. (…in his little short pants ;D) Little May Helbling is upset- is she scared of all the flags? Not wanting to pose for a picture? Maybe it is that giant bow on her head??? G.W. seems like such a loving father, trying to comfort her and get her to participate.  (His youngest daughter, however, remembered him as very stern.) Cute little Vi Helbing, just one year old, is taking it all in- she always was so even-tempered when I knew her as an adult, and being a middle child, may have been that way too when young.

Note the sign on the house- “G. W. Helbling, Undertaker.” The 1914 St. Louis, Missouri, City Directory lists Gerard W. Helbling as being “with Ellis Undertaking Co, 727 King’s Highway boul.” His daughter Mary remembers that 10-15 years later, when she was young, he had his undertaker’s equipment down in the basement of the house. Visitation for the deceased’s family was on the first floor living area, and the children would stay upstairs on the second floor and have to be quiet. Wonder why the funeral home address was given in the City Directory, when he had the sign in front of the house? Maybe he had left the employ of Ellis Undertaking by this date and had his own business.

People were much closer to death, back in those days. Mary remembered that it didn’t seem strange or creepy at the time to have a dead body in the house- mostly, it was just hard to be stuck upstairs and be very, very quiet as a young child.

The family was living at 4927 St. Louis Ave., St. Louis, per the 1914 St. Louis City Directory. This address is between N. Kingshighway and N. Euclid Avenue, and has sadly declined very significantly. (Although valued at $40,000-50,000, the building sold in 2013 for just over $7,000.) Today’s websites, like GoogleMaps, Trulia, or Zillow indicate that the home was built in 1906 and currently has 2,482 square feet; it has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. It is currently a multifamily home, and probably also was when the Helblings lived there. Husband and wife, Grandma (Anna May’s mother) and three children, all in 2 bedrooms and 1 bath- people lived a lot ‘closer’ back then.

Of course, back then you didn’t just display the flag in front of the house- you participated in a parade!

It didn’t always go well, however. Getting everyone dressed, primped, hats attached so they didn’t blow off in the wind (long hatpins to the rescue), finding umbrellas to shade delicate young (and older!) skin from the brutal St. Louis summer sun, and into the car was probably a challenge, especially with three little ones.

Oh, oh- trouble! A slight delay…

Looks like G. W. was a master of all trades- artistic and creative, but he could also build a garage or repair an automobile. The caption on the scrapbook page was written by Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling, we believe. G.W. had wonderful handwriting too, so it may have been his note.

Note that the steering wheel is on the right, and the windshield is split (on purpose). The lights that can be seen on the sides of the car would help in identification of the car type, and although I have looked, it is hard to determine which model they had. (Car model ID is definitely not my forte.) It may have not been the most current model, especially since there appears to have been some trouble. Hope they got to the parade or picnic on time!

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Flag Day Poster, 1917- United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3g06262. Public Domain.

2) Flag Day entry on Wikipedia, Accessed 06/08/14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_(United_States).

3) Gould’s St. Louis [Missouri] Directory for  1914. Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Accessed 06/07/14.

4) 4917 St. Louis Ave was sold in 2013 for just $7,237- sadly, the neighborhood has been in decline for a long time.

5) A great website of images of American autos through the years may be found at https://www.earlyamericanautomobiles.com/1900.htm. Pages 9-12 have some charming photographs of cars out on the streets of America, sometimes with famous people in them or nearby.

6) Helbling family photo albums owned by the author.

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Matilda Louise MacElvey (or Matilda L. McKelvey) was born possibly in Massachusetts or more probably in Missouri on 27 Jan 1823 to unknown parents. At age 16 she married Eleazer John Beerbower (or John Eleazer Beerbower- German folks used their two names interchangeably throughout their lives, and he also was known as E.J. Beerbower); he was 23. They married 07 Mar 1839, and one year later, at age 17, she became the mother of twins on 01 Apr 1840. Son Polaski only lived 10 days, but his twin Caspar, named after Eleazer’s father and grandfather, survived longer, though only to 9 months and 25 days. The twins were buried in Dovel Memorial Cemetery, Pickerington, Fairfield, Ohio, so probably were also born in the area.

In 1842 the family was still living in Ohio where son Samuel T. Beerbower was born on 10 Nov 1842. He may have been named in honor of his paternal uncle, Samuel Beerbower (1824-1890). In August of 1844, at age 21, Matilda gave birth to son George who only survived 3 days; he also is buried in Dovel Memorial Cemetery. How sad it must have been to lose three precious children so early in life!

Healthy children, thankfully, then followed every few years to join their sibling Samuel T. Beerbower: Stephen Russell Beerbower was born in 1845 in Ohio; James M. Beerbower on 02 Mar 1848 in Ohio; Edgar P. Beerbower was born 28 Jun 1849 in Pinkerington, Fairfield County, Ohio. (He is your ancestor if you are descended from Anna May Beerbower Helbling; he was sometimes called Edward P. Beerbower instead of Edgar.)

In 1849, the family moved to Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio; in 1850, they uprooted again and moved to Marion County, Ohio. Eleazer was a saddle and harness maker there, a trade he had learned as a young man.

A daughter was finally born into the family: Mary Emma Beerbower, born 10 Mar 1852 in Marion, Ohio, followed by another son, Eleazer John Beerbower, named after his father, on 10 May 1858, also in Marion County, Ohio.  Matilda had given birth to a child every 1-3 years previously, before this six year gap. Matilda was just 35 when their ninth child was born.

In 1866, John (Eleazer John Sr.) moved to Indianapolis for a new job, but Matilda and the family stayed in Marion for one year before joining him. We have been unable to find a record of the family in the 1870 US Federal Census in Indianapolis, but the indexing of the name has some pretty creative spelling; hopefully they will turn up one of these days. They were found again in the Indianapolis 1880 census, with John working in the upholstery business.

Matilda’s husband John died at age 67 in Indianapolis on 24 Oct 1882.

The biography of son Samuel T. Beerbower states his widowed mother was living in Indianapolis in 1883. The Indianapolis City Directory of 1885 lists Matilda as the widow of Eleazer J., living at 5 Vine St.

Matilda is found again in the 1900 US Federal Census taken 9 June 1900. She was the head of household and living at 605 East Pratt St. in Indianapolis with her divorced son, Edgar Peter Beerbower (our ancestor- they got back together though and remarried- a story for another day). The census also notes that Matilda was born in June 1828, had 9 children, 6 still living, and that her parents were born in Maryland.

Matilda (McKelvey) Beerbower died about 5 weeks after the census, on 18 Jul 1900, at the age of 77. She had suffered from heart trouble for a number of years. (Understandable with the loss of so many loved ones!) She was laid to rest in Crown Hill Cemetery, Section 32, Lot 202, on 21 Jul 1900. Two of her dear sons, Edgar Peter and Stephen Russell, were later buried in the same lot.

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Polaski  Beerbower Memorial on Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=42557087

2) Caspar Beerbower Memorial on Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Beerbower&GSiman=1&GRid=42557101&

3) Samuel T. Beerbower on Find A Grave, which includes a bio of his parents. Have been unable to yet find the source of the FAG info. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=88047453

4) 1860 US Federal Census: Source Citation: Year: 1860; Census Place: Marion, Marion, Ohio; Roll: M653_1006; Page: 326; Image: 123; Family History Library Film: 805006.

5) 1880 US Federal census: Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana; Roll: 295; Family History Film: 1254295; Page: 227B; Enumeration District: 113; Image: 0156.

6) 1900 US Federal census: Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana; Roll: 387; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 0044; FHL microfilm: 1240387.

7) US City Directory for Indianapolis, Indiana: Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

8) Matilda L. MacElvey Beerbower Memorial on Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=BEE&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSst=17&GScntry=4&GSsr=2641&GRid=45869801&

9) “Found Dead in Bed, Mrs. Matilda Beerbower, an Old Resident of the City,” in The Indianapolis Journal, July 19, 1900, Vol 50, Number 200, Page 8, Column 1.  https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=IJ19000719.1.8&srpos=11&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN-+Beerbower—–#. Indiana newspapers may also be found on the Chronicling America website.

10) The History of Marion County, Ohio…Leggett, Conaway, & Co., Chicago, 1883, pages 531, 555-6: https://archive.org/stream/historyofmarionc00legg#page/n5/mode/2up 

11) See our Beerbower Family Tree Page by clicking this link.

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images.

Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Last week I wrote about creating file names so that your computer will automagically create a sort of timeline in your file folders- see Tuesday’s Tip- Let your computer create a timeline!

Images and documents with multiple persons can be challenging to file- which name should be used as the file name? I tend to use the oldest or most prominent or most important-to-me persons in the photo or document, and one can then create a note to go into other folders referencing where the document or image has been placed. I am hoping to convert to using Lightroom (LR) soon- just wish it could use .pdfs. With LR, you can leave your images in the file hierarchy you like and have the program just point to its location. It also allows you to tag multiple people, so it will help with this dilemma.

My file folders are arranged differently than those of many genealogists. My family moved around a lot, so  listing files by place just doesn’t work for me- I prefer to have everything about one person pretty much together. This is a problem though, with things like censuses, since you will find a census entry for a person as a child in their family, and then with a family of their own. I have decided to deal with this by keeping a person in their birth family until they were off on their own as an adult, which usually coincides with marriage and a family of their own. My folders thus have a name like McMURRAY_W-PAYNE_L, for Will McMurray and Lynette Payne, who were the parents of Dr. E. A. McMurray, and his documents and images would appear in their folder until he married. The next folder he would appear in chronologically would be the McMURRAY-ROBERTS folder, where documents about his life with his first wife and son would reside. McMURRAY-KENNER would be the last folder I would put his documents in, for his life with his wife of 61 years and their beautiful family. If you use this method, choose which name to put first and be consistent- either husband or wife first.

Since I am one of those uppity women and a feminist, and it is still Women’s History Month (ahhh, the irony of a Women’s “HIStory” Month…), I use the maiden names of women throughout their lives. That helps me tell “HERstory.” Plus, it helps to separate out Hannah Ford from Hanna Marple who married father and son so both became Hannah Benjamin. (And the confusion continues, since father and son are both Jonathans.)

If you decide to try any new system, start small, maybe with just one family, to see if the system works well for you. There will always be items that could be filed in various ways- just try to find what you can be consistent with and use it. Change it to how it will best work for your mind to work with it easily- after all, the idea is for your brain to be analyzing, not filing. Remember, too, that you don’t have to change everything at once- that would be a daunting task, and quite a problem if you decide you don’t like the system or it doesn’t work for you. So that it’s not overwhelming,  start with your new files as you create them, and change older ones out when you have a few minutes here or there, such as while waiting on hold for 30 minutes with the cable company. I still have a lot of cleanup to do on my files since I started on this system even though it has been many years that I have used it. Changing to another computer has also thrown my system off, but further work on this system will be an enjoyable project filled with rediscovered gems as I get my filing system well organized.

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Family photo archives.

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.