Beerbower Family-

The sad news of the death of dear Ollie Beerbower at the young age of 23 must have been devastating to the family.

It is understandable that the family would have wanted to take her back to Marion, Ohio to be buried with her ancestors, and so the family could congregate and share their grief as well as their happy memories. No parent should have to watch their child die, and they would need the loving embrace of family to help them get through the early days of their loss.

Ollie’s father Samuel Beerbower took ill suddenly after her death, so the family decided not to travel to Marion, Ohio for Ollie’s funeral. Nancy Jane Huggins Beerbower, Ollie’s mother, must have had a very difficult time with the loss of her child and her husband so ill. We do not know if any of the Marion or Indianapolis family attended the Winterset funeral, as the newspapers for Winterset are not yet online, but we have found no mention in the Marion papers of the family traveling to Iowa.

Ollie had been ill for just a brief time, with the cause of death listed as “a low-type of fever” and “nervous prostration.” One definition of ‘nervous prostration’ is “An emotional disorder that leaves you exhausted and unable to work.” With having a fever as well, there would have been issues other than just emotional- one type of typhoid causes a ‘derangement of the nervous system’ as well as fever, and there are many types of fevers that can be lethal, especially in the days before antibiotics.

Ollie’s obituary was carried in the Marion, Ohio newspapers due to all the family she had there, and the friends she would have made growing up in Marion.

It is always nice to know a bit about the personality of a relative, and Ollie’s final tribute informs us of her kindness and her “gentle and true nature.” The family did lose a family treasure.

The sympathy of the community was not limited to Winterset, Iowa- those in Marion also expressed their sorrow and support to Samuel T. Beerbower’s family. (Ollie’s grandparents had already passed on.) Olive passed away on 04 March 1879, and, in addition to the food and cards that probably were provided very soon after that date, about 3 weeks later the community “surrounded” the family, and gave them an opportunity to enjoy themselves and begin to move on after the untimely death of a loved one.

 

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) There is a wonderful article on the emotional toll of the loss of a loved one post-Civil War in JSTOR Daily, called “Forgetting Abraham Lincoln.” Martha Hodes is the author, and it was published 25 March 2015. It may be read here:

http://daily.jstor.org/mourning-abraham-lincoln/?utm_source=internalhouse&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jstordaily_04022015&cid=eml_j_jstordaily_dailylist_04022015

2) Definition from Wordnet per “Archaic Medical Terms” website: http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/English/EnglishN.htm

3) Marion Daily Star article citations in captions.

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

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.

Beerbower Family- 

Olive Beerbower and her cousin Mary Emma Beerbower would have wished for August 31, 1864 to come quickly- it was the day their loved ones were to come home from the Civil War. Samuel Beerbower, who was Ollie’s father and Emma’s uncle, and his brother, Stephen Russell Beerbower, uncle to both girls, had spent 100 days in the Union Army. Their unit, Company B., 136th Ohio, had been on garrison duty south of the Potomoc as part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. Although 22 members of the 136th died during their 90-day tour, no one in Co. B perished, and the men arrived home safely as hoped.

The family reunion was short-lived, however. Ollie and Mary Emma no longer lived next door to each other and two years later, in 1866, Eleazer J. moved to Indianpolis, Indiana for his job. The family stayed in Marion while he established himself in Indianapolis. Emma and the rest of the family joined him a year later, around 1866. How difficult that must have been- wishing they could be with their father, but not wanting to leave family and friends. In 1870, they were the only Beerbowers listed in Indianapolis. The following year, son Stephen Russell married and was listed as a carpenter in the Indianapolis City Directory, and son Edgar P. Beerbower was a clerk, ‘boarding’ at his parent’s address.

Meanwhile, Ollie’s family was still living in Marion, Ohio. In 1872, however, they decided to move to Winterset, Madison, Iowa. Ollie’s uncle George Albert Beerbower had already relocated there about 1852, so at least they did have some family, and lots of cousins in the county- he had 6 living children!

Two years later, Emma married Ashford Ligenfelter (b. 1847) on 13 May 1874 in Marion County, Indiana, possibly in Indianapolis. It would be interesting to learn if the Marion, Ohio and Winterest, Iowa families came to celebrate with the happy couple!

We do know that some family members traveled back to Marion, Ohio, to visit:

This must have been a jolly Christmas visit!

The reunions were sometimes as much as three weeks long, such as this visit from 10 August to 04 September 1880:

We don’t know which children, if any, also traveled to visit family, but we do know that Ollie Beerbower was not a part of the 1880 visit… More on that in our next post.

 

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) 136th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company B Roster, from 136th Ohio Infantry Soldier Roster – Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866, Volume 8, by Ohio Roster Commission (Joseph B. Foraker, Governor, James S. Robinson, Sec’y of State and H. A. Axline, Adjutant-General), 1886. p. 637-9:     http://www.civilwarindex.com/armyoh/rosters/136th_oh_infantry_roster.pdf

2) Official roster of the soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 -1865, Vols. 1-12.

3) A note on the RootsWeb message boards from Betty (commanchestar) from 05 Mar 2005 states her relationship to Casper, Ollie, and Bertha Beerbower. I have tried contacting her in hopes she is still interested in sharing family information. I do hope she finds our posts about the Beerbowers. http://boards.ancestry.com/thread.aspx?o=30&m=1.3.6.29.1&p=surnames.beerbower

 

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

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.

Beerbower Family-

Mary Emma Beerbower and Olive Beerbower were not siblings, but instead, children of two siblings, our direct ancestor Eleazer John “E. J.” Beerbower (1815-1882) and his brother, Samuel Beerbower (1824-1890); this made them cousins.

Olive Beerbower was the daughter of Samuel Beerbower (1824-1890) and  Nance “Jane” Huggins Beerbower (1834-1930- she was 96 when she died!). Born on 13 March 1855 in Prospect, Marion County, Ohio, Olive was the first of three children born to Samuel and his wife.

Olive probably helped out at home when her brother, Caspar Samuel Beerbower, pictured above, was born four years later, in 1859.

“Ollie” as she was affectionately known, grew up in Marion, Ohio with her brother.  They lived next to her uncle E. J. and his family, and she would have played with her cousins, particularly Mary Emma Beerbower, who was just 3 years older, but who only had brothers. Ollie’s father was a marble cutter, and they likely were fairly comfortable, as the 1860 census notes that he owned $1500 in real estate and had $850 in personal value. Her uncle E. J. was also a highly skilled craftsman, as he was a buggy upholsterer. Neither family was rich, but they probably had enough to get by.

Mary Emma Beerbower, or “Emma” as she was called (Germans often used their middle name on a daily basis, rather than their first Christian name), was the daughter of Eleazer John Beerbower and Matilda Louise McKelvey Beerbower. She was the eighth of nine children, born 10 March 1852 in Marion. Her brother John E. Beerbower, above, was the baby of the family.

The early 1860s were an unsettling time for both families, as it was for the whole nation as southern states seceded and war broke out to preserve the Union. Emma’s brother and Ollie’s cousin, Samuel T. Beerbower, decided to enlist for a term of 3 years in the Union Army beginning October 23, 1861; he was just 19, and 10 years older than Emma. The Underground Railroad operated through Ohio, and much of the state had northern sympathies. The family would have closely followed the news of battles and Samuel’s unit, hoping to not hear the bad news so dreaded by families who have members serving their country.

The terror of the War of the Rebellion really came home to Ohio in July of 1863, when Morgan’s Confederates entered southern Ohio as part of their 46-day, 1,000 mile raid through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Thankfully the Raiders did not get as far north as Marion, but they were close enough, and people were afraid they might get that far. Although captured in Ohio (but they escaped), the Confederate Raiders successfully diverted Union troops from southern campaigns, and definitely did strike fear into the population as part of the psychological warfare of the time. Ollie was just eight, Emma eleven- it must have been very frightening to children, especially with so many young men away fighting, and not there to protect their families.

Even more frightening was what happened next, just four months after the Raiders hit Ohio-  Samuel T., who had fought in many of the War’s battles, was wounded on November 25, 1863. He was charging up the mountain bravely at Mission Ridge, Georgia, when a ball went through him near his shoulder blade and spine, lacking an inch or so of paralyzing him from his chest down for life. He spent three months recuperating in military hospitals, until his arm was more usable, and then requested a discharge home to more fully recover. It was granted, and he mustered out March 23, 1864. It must have been quite a homecoming!

Emma’s brother Stephen Russell Beerbower, age 19, enlisted just six weeks after his brother Samuel T. came home. Emma was probably heartbroken, but grateful that her two little brothers were too young to enlist.

And then Ollie’s nine-year-old world really fell apart- her father, Samuel Beerbower, enlisted in the Union Army on the same day, in the same unit as Stephen: May 2, 1864, Co. B, 136th Ohio.

The mix of emotions must have been so difficult for the two girls- pride in their family serving the Union (and going to get those Rebs who hurt their Samuel!), fear for the safety of their loved ones, especially after seeing Samuel’s injury, and that hole in their heart as the 136th Ohio marched off to war.

Why would they enlist- especially Samuel, at age 39, and a husband and father?

As the war continued and more soldiers were needed, conscription was begun in 1863 for men between 20 and 45 years old. Samuel was thus eligible- maybe he enlisted, knowing that he might be drafted, or perhaps he felt he needed to help the Union finally win the war.  All the men in his unit were mustered in on that same date, with those in higher positions knowing the Union was preparing to launch a massive campaign on many fronts to try to finally end the war.

Samuel and Stephen had 100-day enlistments, and those units generally did guard duty at facilities and strategic places, such as Washington, D.C., freeing up the trained troops for actual fighting elsewhere. It wasn’t quite as dangerous as being in the field, though at times it could be a dangerous, possibly even lethal, situation.

 

It was probably a very long 100 days for the whole family, including Ollie and Emma.

 

To be continued…

 

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) 1860 US Federal Census for Samuel Beerbower: Year: 1860; Census Place: Marion, Marion, Ohio; Roll: M653_1006; Page: 326; Image: 123; Family History Library Film: 805006. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

2) Morgan’s Raid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan%27s_Raid

3) Civil War conscription: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_States#Civil_War

4) Wilson Peters, who would later become Samuel T. Beerbower’s brother-in-law, was in the 136th Ohio as well. There are other familiar last names on the roster as well, which shows that the company was tight-knit, and all from the same area.

5) See “Those Places Thursday: Bertha Beatrice Beerbower and her World Travels” to learn more about Ollie’s youngest sister Bertha. http://heritageramblings.net/2015/03/19/those-places-thursday-bertha-beatrice-beerbower-and-her-world-travels/

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

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.