Today is my Uncle Christopher’s Birthday… and I miss him! He was always great with his nieces and nephews.
Family Almanac
Archived Posts from this Category
May 5, 2012
Miss you, Uncle!
Posted by JessLibrarian under Family Almanac, Photographs | Tags: Trotter |Leave a Comment
May 1, 2012
Happy Birthday, Harrison Trotter!
Posted by JessLibrarian under Character Studies, Family Almanac | Tags: Johnson, Trotter |Leave a Comment
So, in the process of trying to track down a set of pictures this past Sunday I went through a lot of papers. Blessedly, I got rid of a lot in the process but then again I don’t really feel like I made a dent. However, I did come across material I hope to share on the blog as time permits and first up is this timely find.
I have no idea about the whereabouts of the original of this picture. This is a scan of a scan—almost certainly printed on my old inkjet printer and thus losing even more definition. But regardless, this is my Great Grandfather Harrison Trotter who was born in Johnsville, Bradley County, Arkansas, 122 years ago today. To the best of my knowledge he was the youngest child of Sam and Josie (Johnson) Trotter but was raised largely in the household of his Uncle and Aunt, Levi and Janie (Johnson) Hampton. He had at least 5 full siblings: Henry, Susan, Pearlie, Matt, and Belle plus 3 more half siblings: Sarah and Richard (Mother, Maggie Goodlock) and Cora (Mother, Etta Stanfield). He married Rhoda Rogers in 1911 and they had 15 children included my Grandpa (Levie) Trotter. He was a farmer and lived out his life in Bradley County. He died April 9, 1975 at Pine Lodge Nursing Home, in Warren, Arkansas.
Note to any Trotters and Allied family out there: If any of you have seen the original of this picture could you let me know? I think it may be cropped from a larger shot. And, while I’m throwing questions out there, does anyone know why he was called “Papa Monk”?
Happy hunting,
Jess
April 28, 2012
Moses Wheeler in the Census
Posted by JessLibrarian under Character Studies, Family Almanac | Tags: Avery, Bradley County Arkansas, Newton, Thompson, Wheeler, York |Leave a Comment
102 years ago today the Census takers were passing through Palestine Township, Bradley County, Arkansas. This is the entry for the family of Moses Wheeler, my 2nd Great Grandfather. His wife Josie Avery was his 2nd wife.
Moses was a farmer all of his life. He was born in 1862, the son of Isaac and Sicie Wheeler. In the 1870 Census he was listed with his parents and four siblings. In 1880 he is still at home with his parents but in 1882 he married Candes Thompson. By 1900 he is on his second marriage and the first six of at least 12 children were born. With Candes he had at least four children: Sallie, Louis, Joseph, and Amzi. The eldest child, Sallie, is my great grandmother who became the third wife of Philip Henry York in 1913. Candes died sometime between 1892 and 1894. Moses married Josie in December of 1894. They had at least six children including: Isaiah, Moses, Lizzie, William, Mary, and Simon. He also had two children out of wedlock: Wilson “Buddy” Wheeler and my uncle, John W. Newton (with Miss Becky Newton).
Moses and Josie both died in February of 1948. Josie had “worked herself ill” caring for Moses (who possibly had Alzheimer’s or some kind of dementia) and he died 4 days later. They had a double funeral service and were buried at Palestine Cemetery. It’s something that my Grandmother remembered clearly. She wasn’t able to attend the service because she’d just had her first child.
I was also able to locate the couple in the 1940 Census living with a son–I’m guessing Isaiah? It looks like “Iz” to me.
Happy Hunting,
Jess
April 25, 2012
Not Quite Wordless Wednesday
Posted by JessLibrarian under Character Studies, Family Almanac, Photographs | Tags: Packer, Rainham Kent England, Vaughan |Leave a Comment
Today is the 165th Anniversary of my 3rd Great Grandparents wedding. On 25 April 1847 Joseph Packer married Harriet Vaughan at St. Margaret’s Church in Rainham, Kent, England witnessed by Joseph’s brother, Charles and sister, Mercy. The couple lived to celebrate 59 years of marriage. They were the parents of at least seven children: William James, Thomas William Horton, Joseph Malcolm Ross, Sara Maria, Charles, Cornelius, and Albert A. The family lived in Kent; Ontario, Canada; and finally in the United States. The couple completed their lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Happy Hunting,
Jess
April 11, 2012
Not Quite Wordless Wednesday
Posted by JessLibrarian under Character Studies, Family Almanac, Photographs | Tags: Packer, Vaughan |[2] Comments
Another miss in my sequin haze… Saturday marked the 185 Anniversary of my 3rd Great Grandfather Joseph Packer’s birth. I introduced a bit of his story on the occasion of his wife, Harriett Vaughan’s birthday back in January. To give you a little more on Joseph, he was born on April 7, 1827 in Rainham, Kent, England. He was the son of Thomas Swissenton Packer and Hannah Ross. He and Harriett married 1847. In the 1851 Census he was listed as a brickmaker in the Village of Gillingham at Kent. The family lived at Malcomb Place in Sittingbourne during the 1861 Census. By 1871 they were settled in Ontario, Canada. Around 1891 the family came to Michigan. Joseph died February 19, 1911 in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the United States.
Happy hunting!
Jess
P.s. Denise, If you see this before I get my act together! I fully intend on writing back. But until then: Yes, I’m still happily tracking our Packers and Masseys!
April 9, 2012
Happy Birthday Squire Lapham!
Posted by JessLibrarian under Character Studies, Family Almanac | Tags: Gilbert, Lapham |Leave a Comment
My only excuse is that sequins are taking a toll on my blog. But I’ve largely finished my sewing project and I’m only a day late in celebrating the 208th birthday of my 5th Great Grandfather.
Smith Lapham was born in Rhode Island, April 8, 1804 the son of Job and Ada (Smith) Lapham. As I’ve mentioned before, Squire Lapham was one of the settlers of Rockford (originally called Laphamville) in Kent County, Michigan, in 1845. He built a mill on the Rogue River in 1844 and ran it for 20 years, served as Village Council President, Township Supervisor, Postmaster, and Justice of the Peace. His son Embree, noted that he met with the gathering “Under the Oaks” at which the Michigan Republican Party was formed in 1854, and he went on to serve Kent County as a State Representative (1855-56) and State Senator (1857-58). Smith lived to celebrate 58 years of marriage to Katherine Gilbert and the couple raised 9 children. He was an entrepreneur, a leader, and a poet.
This image is scanned from From Sawmill to City: The Long Years Passing – a Story of Rockford, Michigan by Homer L. Burch. I am not sure of the location of the original. It may be at the Rockford Branch. I am more aware of a copy on display at Rockford Historical Museum.
Happy belated birthday, Grandfather!
And happy hunting to you all!
Jess
March 28, 2012
Not Quite Wordless Wednesday
Posted by JessLibrarian under Family Almanac, Photographs | Tags: Packer, Shea, Wordless Wednesday |Leave a Comment
Today is the 12oth Anniversary of the birth of my Great Grandmother Cora Packer Shea.
Happy Hunting,
Jess
March 9, 2012
This is an example of why everyone should live life to the fullest and not take anything for granted. On occasion the world can be very strange and unfair.
March 9th marks the 50th Anniversary of a family tragedy. It is the day my Great-great-uncle Richard Shea died crossing Division in Wyoming, Michigan just two months shy of his 60th Birthday. Richard was the youngest of my Great Grandfathers brothers and a World War II veteran.
But to add to the chord to this untimely death, three years later his widow, Beatrice Clark Shea, was also killed in a car crash—likely while sitting at home and watching TV during the Christmas holidays—when a teenage driver sped directly into her home, never trying to stop.
This article was a strange, sad find.
Happy hunting,
Jess
March 4, 2012
Robert Eugene Johnson
Posted by JessLibrarian under Family Almanac | Tags: Johnson |Leave a Comment
Today would have been my Great-Grandfather’s 107th Birthday. I don’t know a lot about him personally. I don’t remember him, though I was seven when he died. For practical purposes my Great Grandfather was Grandma’s second husband, my Grandpa Bailey.
Robert was the son of William Amos Johnson and Lena Grove Baker, he had one sister, Betty Lou, who was much younger and died at the age of twelve. Like many members of the extended family, he worked a stint at the shoe factory in Rockford and is subsequently listed as working in manufacturing. He married my Great Grandmother Crystal in April of 1927 and they had four children. And sometime between 1933 and 1934 there was a nasty divorce. But regardless of the reasons for the subsequent estrangement, he was able to have a relationship with his family later in life.
This is a section of a photo postcard from the collection of the Rockford Historical Museum.
Happy Hunting,
Jess
March 3, 2012
This one’s for the Bailey’s: Smith Bailey
Posted by JessLibrarian under Family Almanac | Tags: Bailey, Cannon Michigan, King |[3] Comments
Today marks the 225th anniversary of the birth of the father of our first Bailey family to settle in Kent County, Smith Bailey.
Smith was a native of Vermont and married Eunice King in January of 1807. The couple began their family in Vermont, relocated for a time to Oswego, NY, and then moved on to Washtenaw Co., Michigan in time for the 1840 Census. The Bailey’s and their extended family had settled in Cannon Twp, Kent Co., Michigan sometime in the 1840s. But in 1846 they had established their farm and home and hosted the organizing meeting for the First Congregational Church at Steele’s Corner’s, now Bostwick Lake Congregational Church.
The couple had ten children: Helena V. (who married Henry Sherman), Jerusha King (who married J. W. Scott), Eunice King (who married Harrison Pitcher), Chloe (who married Simon Scott), Smith Jr. (who married Marian Waite), William King (who married Susan Howard), Luther (died unmarried), Sarah (who married Harvey Porter—Seth’s Brother) and Emeline who married John Kronk.
Smith Bailey died Jun 19, 1864 at the age of 77.
My Grandpa Bailey was the grandson of William King Bailey, through his son George.
Happy Hunting,
Jess
Genie Road Trip 