Minor Genea-Origins: May 2020

Saturday, May 23, 2020

In Memory of PFC Emery J Whisler - World War I - DOW

Updated - 18 Oct 2020 - See section below with updates for this post.

Recently, I have been doing descendancy research on the family of my great-great-great grandparents, Peter and Sybilla (Garber) Ringenberg(er). This involves documenting the details of each of their children and their descendants. It was doing this research on their children's families that I came upon the tragic story of their grandson, PFC Emery Whisler of Mackinaw and Rock Island, Illinois.

Peter and Sybilla (Garber) Ringenberg(er) lived in Elm Grove Township, Tazewell County, Illinois. He was an immigrant to the US from Germany on 12 Sep 1838. (1) Ten years later he married Sybilla Garber in Tazewell County, IL on 7 Feb 1848. (2) They raised a family of six children on a small farm in Elm Grove Township, Tazewell County which included my great great grandmother, Catherine.

Their fifth child was Amelia who was born in Tazewell County on 29 Nov 1857. (3) On 12 Jan 1890, she married John R Whisler in Minier, IL, also in Tazewell County. (4) John seems to have been a Union solider in the US Civil War. (5) They made their home in Tazewell County and started a family of five children. (3) John seems to have children from a previous marriage that were also part of his second family.

Their third child and first son together was Emery Joseph and was born in April 1898 in Illinois. (6) He is enumerated on the 1900 and 1910 census records with his parents but then was not found in 1920, either with them or anyplace else in Illinois that I could find. At first I did not think much of this scenario. He was an adult now and I figured that he was someplace else living his own life. That idea turned out to be very wrong.

According to Find A Grave, John Whisler dies in Danville, IL in 1915. (7) Not long after that, Amelia moved to Rock Island, Illinois where she had a daughter living. Emery evidently moved with his mother.

But what did Emery do after this move? I could not find him anywhere after this time period. I looked for him on Find A Grave but did not find him there. Then I did a search for his name in various newspaper sites for Rock Island and Tazewell County. It was here that I found him again.

“Son Of Local Woman, Severely Wounded, Oct. 11,” Quad City Times (8)
See below for enlarged versions of the picture and article.

Oh my goodness. Severely wounded. This did not sound good at all. The words of the article were bad enough to read and digest. But the picture is what really got me. Far to young to be involved in a war in Europe between countries and families who could not settle their differences peaceably. Then I realized he was my family. My first cousin 3x removed. He was my great grandmother's (Katie (Saltonstall) Miars) first cousin. I started to think about how I would feel if this were one of my first cousins instead of three generations removed from me and the tears started to flow. This newspaper article was from 19 Jan 1919 saying he had been wounded in October 1918 (just a few weeks before the silly war was over!!). His family must have been beside themselves with worry not hearing from him for several months. Now they were told he was wounded without details about how he was or where he was. Unimaginable to me.

I frantically started searching for the rest of the story. What was Emery's fate? Unfortunately, it was not what I wanted to find.

“Mackinaw,” obituary, The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois) (9)

I can only imagine his family was stunned and devastated at this news. The suffering they all went through from mid January to early February 1919 is unimaginable to me. I kept looking at his picture from the newspaper and about the life he would never get to live. I was also concerned then about his memory. He had no children or family of his own to keep him alive. Nobody who dies in service to his county should be forgotten. It is important, I believe, to keep the memory alive of these young men who made the greatest sacrifice of all so that we might live mostly in peace and prosperity 100 years later.

I made one more attempt to find his place of burial and thankfully I then found a memorial page for him on Find A Grave. (10) His last name was misspelled which prevented me from finding him there before. He's buried in his hometown of Mackinaw, Illinois where he spent his childhood growing up with his parents and siblings.

When I am researching a person from my family tree I usually will google their name to see what might be found about them there. I did this for Emery and to my surprise I found HUNDREDs of entries that included his name! They seemed to be obituaries of other people and upon reading a few I realized something wonderful. Mackinaw, IL named their American Legion Post after him. It is the "Mackinaw American Legion Emery Whisler Post #607"!!No need to be concerned anymore about his memory. His hometown of Mackinaw, IL is keeping his name and memory alive.

Thank you Emery for your service and great sacrifice from you first cousin, 3x removed.

PFC Emery Whisler - Rest in Peace.

You can click this link and be taken to his memorial on Find A Grave and leave a flower for a brave young man who never made it home.

Update - On 18 Oct 2020, I received an email from Randall McClallen who found this blog post. PFC Emery Whisler is his great-uncle. He provided some additional details and corrections about my post that I want to share. Thank you so much, Randall for this information!

"My grandmother, Jessie Amelia Whisler, was a daughter of Amelia
Ringenberg Whisler. She would have been a 1st cousin to Katie Miars. I
want to give some clarifications to her brother, Emery Joseph Whisler.
Emery lived in Deer Creek, Il., at the time of his enlistment. He worked
as a Barber and was engaged to a woman by the name of Gladys Phillips. He
was injured during a battle but not too serious as he was able to write
letters to his mother while in the hospital. What killed him was infection
as it was before antibiotics were discovered. He is buried in the Mackinaw
Cemetery, when you drive into the cemetery it is immediately to your right
near the street. I don't believe that Emery lived in Rock Island and his
mother, Amelia lived with her daughter, Ida, on Taylor St. in Davenport,
IA. There was another son, Johnny, who did live with his mother off and on
in Davenport but he died of pneumonia around 1928 in Peoria."

Randall McClallen

Related Blog Posts -

Bibliography -
(1) "New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957", database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 Mar 2020), entry for “Peter Ringenberg,” arrived New York, 12 Sep 1838 aboard Atlantic; citing "Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897," microfilm publication M237, 1820-1897, roll 037, line 24, list number 555; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
(2) David C. Perkins, compiler, Tazewell County Illinois Marriage Records Index (Illinois, Pekin: Tazewell County Genealogical Society, 1982), p. 41, entry for “Ringenberg, Peter and C. B. Garber,” 23 Jan 1848, page 145 in Marriage Book A. Page 145 is missing from microfilm on FamilySearch of this marriage book so the author has been unable to review it directly.
(3) “Whisler,” obituary, The Davenport Democrat and Leader (Iowa), 29 Jun 1931, p. 13, col. 2; digital image, Publisher Extra collection, Newspapers (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed May 2020).
(4) FamilySearch, digital images (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/120944?availability=Family%20History%20Library : accessed 23 Apr 2020), digital film no. 761636, image 609 of 718, Tazewell County, Illinois, marriage register, Book 2, p. 3, license no. 3196, John Whisler and Amelia Ringenberg, 12 Jan 1890.
(5) "Illinois, Databases of Illinois Veterans Index, 1775-1995 (Web),” database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 Apr 2020), entry for John R Whisler, about 1846; citing “Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls Detail Report,” database, Illinois State Archives (https://www.ilsos.gov/isaveterans/civilMusterSearch.do).
(6) 1900 U.S. census, Tazewell County, Illinois, population schedule, Mackinaw, Enumeration District (ED) 0145, sheet 6-B (penned), p. 155-B (stamped), line 80, dwelling 158, family 158, Joseph E Whisler; digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Jun 2014), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 347, FHL microfilm 1240347.
(7) Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 24 April 2020), memorial page for Corp John Raymond Whisler (Mar 1846–29 Jul 1915), memorial no. 53335114, cemetery marker in Mackinaw Township Cemetery, Mackinaw, Tazewell County, Illinois, USA; maintained by “Amelia Crombie-Christy,” contributor no. 46861625. Authors note: John may have been living in a residential home for Civil War veterans in Danville at the time of his death.
(8) “Son Of Local Woman, Severely Wounded, Oct. 11,” newspaper article, Quad City Times (Davenport, Iowa), 19 Jan 1919, p. 8, col. 4.
(9) “Mackinaw,” obituary, The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois), 8 Feb 1919, p. 12, col. 3.
(10) Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 03 May 2020), memorial page for PFC Emery Joseph Whistler (unknown–11 Oct 1918), memorial no. 72998099, cemetery marker in Mackinaw Township Cemetery, Mackinaw, Tazewell County, Illinois, USA.

Friday, May 22, 2020

An Abundance of Marriage Records for Frank and Katie (Saltonstall) Miars

Sometimes in my family history research I struggle to find even one mention of a family member anywhere. I have the opposite situation with my great grandparents where I have multiple documents about the same event. As frustrating as not having anything is the excitement at having more than one document is just as intense.

More than a decade ago when I was starting my family history journey, I found the date and location of the marriage of my great grandparents, Frank and Katie (Saltonstall) Miars in multiple online index databases. At that time I really didn't know where or what to do with that information or how to go about getting the actual original records of this important event. So I just recorded the information in my software program where I keep my family tree and went on with research in other areas. (I did at least include in my family tree the source of that marriage information!)

As part of trying to figure out what happened to Katie's father, Thompson J Saltonstall, I realized that maybe her marriage record from 1893 would offer some clues. By this time I was well acquainted with the process for obtaining vital records in Tazewell County, Illinois where Katie and her husband Frank were married. But also I had seen where the Tazewell County Genealogical and Historical Society had some original marriage records from this time period. So I sent them an email to see what they had. Very quickly I received the following Return of Marriage to County Clerk.

Return of Marriage for Frank Miars and Katie B Saltonstall (1)

Great! This is what I was looking for - the license application that would provide personal and family details for the bride and groom. I read through the information provided for the groom and found everything to be as I had expected. His parents names, residence, occupation, and age all were in line with what I had previously uncovered about him. I then moved to the details about the bride and found an unexpected entry for, Katie's father.

The information I had about my great grandmother's father was that his name was "Thompson J" - not "Peter" as the marriage license stated. "Peter"?!?!?! Who was that? Where did this first name come from? I knew (or thought I knew) that "Thompson J" was Katie's father's name. I have family papers from her daughter (Mary E (Miars) Best) stating this. I have the marriage record of Katie's parent's which lists her father's name as "Thompson". I have census records for him that list his name as "Thompson". I also assumed that the details on Katie's marriage record would have come from her or the groom. Both of which should know the name of Katie's father. Why is his name now listed as "Peter"? Are they the same person?

At first I was irritated about this new information. I have uncovered a couple of Revolutionary War patriots and Mayflower passengers in Thomspon's line. I need a quality source though to identify Katie as the daughter of Thompson. This marriage record was supposed to be that link and now it isn't. Because Thompson disappears after 1875 and Katie was born in 1872 (2) they are never enumerated together in any census. I have yet to find any obituary for him or his mother (Isabella Paine Saltonstall McCoy) who likely outlived him as the newspapers from that time or place are not extant. I needed this marriage license for Katie to say some different than it did. I will write more about the search for "Peter Saltonstall" in a subsequent post.

The second document I have for my great grandparents comes from FamilySearch which has a number of collections digitized from Tazewell County, IL (why can't Peoria County do this?!?!?). A search in those online records found Frank and Katie's marriage recorded in the County's Marriage Register Book 2. One entry in the register crosses both facing pages. In the image below their record is identified with an arrow. It should be the same exact information as on the marriage return above and it is. Katie's father is listed as "Peter".

Tazewell County, Illinois - Marriage Register for Frank Miars and Katie Saltonstall (3)

It is wonderful to have both of these images of records created by Tazewell County, IL upon the marriage of my great grandparents. But recently I was reviewing the papers left by Frank and Katie's daughter (my great aunt), Mary E (Miars) Best. I was trilled to find a booklet commemorating her parent's marriage.

Marriage Certificate booklet - Frank Miars and Katie Saltonstall 7 Mar 1893 (4)

It is absolutely beautiful and other than yellowed pages it is in good condition. The original string that ties the booklet together is still holding all the pages in good order. How about the handwriting! It is beautiful as well. The information included on the "This Certifies" page is consistent with the marriage return and register. I love it when this happens! My working hypothesis is that this was created by the entity that performed the ceremony. In this case the clergyman was "G. W. Ballenger".

Rev. Ballenger's full name is George Walter and I have seen his name many times as the officiant at other Miars/Hodgson/Dillon weddings in Tazewell County. He would have been well known to my great grandparents. Just a few years after he married this couple his wife died. He married for a second time to Frank's first cousin, Anna Robison (daughter of Frank and Mary Jane (Miars) Robison). I need to add G.W. Ballenger to my list of future blog posts because he has a rather tragic story about his upbringing that should be told.

I also need to add to my list of "to-dos" is to research the two witnesses. "Mr. John Whisler" is interesting to me as Katie's mother, Cathering (Ringenberger) Saltonstall Augsburg VanDyke has a sister who was married to a Whisler. I wonder if there is a family connection in the choice of this witness. Figuring out who the witnesses are and the relationship to the happy couple may also help identify the specific location of the marriage. That piece of information is really the only element of the story of this wedding that is not documented. More research is needed! No surprise there.

Once more I can thank everybody, from my great grandparents to my mom, for keeping this beautiful family artifact safe so it could be digitized and preserved for generations to come. It is wonderful to have multiple pieces of evidence for my Frank and Katie's marriage.

Related Blog Posts -

A Letter from "Uncle Roy" to Mary E (Miars) Best
Bramble School and the Miars Family of Jubilee Township
A Teacher's Contract - Mary (Miars) Best - 1843-1944
Mary Best Miars (1906-1986) - Happy 113th Birthday!
A Teacher's Teacher - Lulu (Petty) Eicher
20 Years Ago - The Passing of Robert T Miars
Robert Miars and Bessie Purcell - Breaking Down Barriers to Justice
Clara (Miars) Barker - 123rd Birthday - October 12, 1896

Bibliography -

(1) Tazewell County, Illinois, return of marriage license no. 4098 (7 Mar 1893), Frank Miars and Katie Saltonstall; digital image, Tazewell County Genealogical and Historical Society sent to author on 13 Aug 2019.
(2) Peoria County, Illinois, death certificate no. 65008 (19 May 1955), Katie Saltonstall Miars, Peoria County Clerk. See also "Mrs. Miars of Brimfield Dead at 82," undated newspaper clipping, from unidentified newspaper; in the possession of the author.
(3) Tazewell County, Illinois, "Vital records, 1827-1922," database and images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 13 Aug 2019), FHL film no. 1314688, DGS no. 7616361, image 683 of 718, Frank Miars and Katie B. Saltonstall, 7 Mar 1893; Register of Marriages book 2, p. 73.

(4) Frank Miars and Katie Saltonstall, marriage booklet, 7 Mar 1893, personal papers of Mary E. (Miars) Best; privately held by Diane Minor, Plano, Texas, 2020.

Friday, May 1, 2020

A Letter From "Uncle Roy" to Mary E (Miars) Best

Recently I started (again) to organize and catalog the many wonderful artifacts that my family has collected over the decades. Specifically, I've been going through the items left by my maternal grandfather's sister, Mary E (Miars) Best. She and her husband, Robert J Best had no children so much of her personal items were given to my mother and her two sisters. Thankfully so many of the family history items she had survive.

Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob spent all of their married life living in Brimfield, IL where my parents and my siblings and I grew up. Among her papers I found a letter that caught my attention. It was still in the original envelope with a return address of "508 Hanssler Pl Peoria, Ill.". it was postmarked "17 May 1976". The address and handwriting were not familiar to me and I was curious about who would be writing to her from Peoria rather than calling her.

Return address on letter to "Mrs. Robt Best" (1)

Here is the letter I found in the envelope:

"Yours sincerely Uncle Roy". Uncle Roy? Who is this? The only "Roy" I know of in the Miars branch of my family tree would have been Aunt Mary's older brother, Roy Saltonstall Miars. But he passed away 11 June 1947. (2) Also, I doubt whether correspondence from her brother would have been signed as "Uncle". Uncle Bob had no siblings name Roy so I thought that it was unlikely that the sender was from the Best family.

I read the letter a few times and thought about it for awhile to try to get some context on what prompted the letter to be written in the first place and who the people where that are mentioned. The writer mentions talking to "Luella". Aunt Mary and my grandfather have an older sister named Luella (Miars) Maher which is likely who the writer was referring to. The writer goes on to say that he heard about "Bob's additional trouble." Hmm....what "trouble" did Uncle Bob have?

The writer goes on to talk about his own similar situation he had faced and how he got through it and expressed the belief that Aunt Mary will get through this time as well with the help of her family. It's not specific at all about the "additional trouble" or his relationship to my family. All I know is that the writer knows Aunt Mary and Aunt Luella and that he's heard that Uncle Bob has "additional trouble".

The postmark on the envelope was May 17, 1976. What was going on with Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob in the spring of 1976? Uncle Bob died on 6 March1980. (3) He died as a result of complications from a stroke he had experienced some years prior. Could that be what this letter was about? I thought about this letter for some time; thinking about when Uncle Bob had taken ill. I remembered that I had graduated from 8th grade in May 1976 and Uncle Bob was unable to attend. Some further digging in that led me to determine that he had his stroke in March 1976. I am pretty sure that this letter from "Uncle Roy" was about that event.

Now...who is "Uncle Roy"?!?!

A few years ago, I decided to put together a collection of newspaper articles from the Brimfield News (Illinois) about each of my parents. This small town newspaper had the usual items about births, marriages and deaths in the community but it also contained "gossipy" items as well like who visited with whom and when and how people spent their leisure time. As part of that process I came across a small item that named my maternal grandparents and my mom. It was about a Christmas dinner they attended in 1946. I was pretty sure in thinking back that I had questioned my mom about it because I did not know all of the attendees that the article listed. Here is that article:

Article from The Brimfield News section "Everybody's Business," 10 Jan 1946 (4).

Bingo! I found Roy Gray listed with members of my family (including my mom). But this article still did not identify his relationship to me or my family. (5) The Christmas dinner, according to this article, was at the home of James P "Jay" Maher. He was the husband of my great Aunt Luella. How were the Gray's connected to Aunt Luella and Uncle Jay?

It seemed the right time to talk about "Uncle Roy" with somebody who might remember him and who attended this holiday dinner. Thankfully there are still two people living that are listed in this article. One of them is my Mom! I sent her this article clipping and after discussing it on the phone she remembered the Gray's as they attended several family gatherings when she was growing up. She thought that maybe he was related to Uncle Jay Maher but was not sure how.

I turned then to a source that has proven very useful in my research for family in Peoria County, IL - Find A Grave. I found the memorial page for Roy Ellis Gray with little trouble. (6) His memorial page was attached to his wife's page and when I clicked on it I found the answer to my question.

Roy Ellis Gray was married to Kathryn Helena (Maher) Gray. There were several siblings of hers attached to hers. Among them was a brother, Thomas Maher, I knew to be the father of James P "Jay" Maher.

The writer of the letter that started all of these questions was Roy Ellis Gray. He was married to the aunt (Kathryn Helena (Maher) Gray) of my great uncle, Jay Maher (husband of Luella Miars Maher). He has no biological relationship to me or my family but evidently had a long familial relationship with his wife's extended family. That would have included my maternal grandfather and his siblings, Mary (Miars) Best and Luella (Miars) Maher.

In May 1976, "Uncle Roy" Gray found out that Bob Best had had a stroke some weeks earlier and wrote a letter of support to Bob's wife, Mary. Thank goodness for extended families.

Lessons learned -
1. Talk about the questions that are identified when working on your family tree or history.
2. Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither is the uncovering of our family history. Contemplate and think about the issues and questions that we uncover and only then document a research plan to resolve and answer them.
3. Think about the time and place of the issue or question to get a context of what was going on and not sure the bare bone facts.
4. Finally.....start with the obvious explanations or sources first to try to resolve the issues or answer the question. There might be a quick solution available.

Related Blog Posts -

An Abundance of Marriage Records for Frank and Katie (Saltonstall) Miars
Bramble School and the Miars Family of Jubilee Township
A Teacher's Contract - Mary (Miars) Best - 1843-1944
Mary Best Miars (1906-1986) - Happy 113th Birthday!
A Teacher's Teacher - Lulu (Petty) Eicher
20 Years Ago - The Passing of Robert T Miars
Robert Miars and Bessie Purcell - Breaking Down Barriers to Justice
Clara (Miars) Barker - 123rd Birthday - October 12, 1896

Bibliography -
(1) Correspondence from "Uncle Roy" Gray to Mary (Miars) Best, postmarked 17 May 1976, Peoria, IL, personal papers of Mary E. (Miars) Best; privately held by Diane Minor, Plano, Texas, 2020. "Uncle Roy" is likely Roy Gray who was the uncle by marriage of James P "Jay" Maher who was Mary's brother-in-law. Also, for the location of this return address see Goggle Map link.
(2) Peoria County, Illinois, death certificate no. 26213, Roy S. Miars, Peoria County Clerk.
(3) Peoria County, Illinois, death certificate no. 127189, Robert J. Best, Peoria County Clerk.
(4) "Everybody's Business," newspaper article, The Brimfield News (Illinois), 10 Jan 1946, p. 4, col. 3; digital image, Historical Newspapers collection, Brimfield Public Library (http://brimfield.advantage-preservation.com : accessed 30 Apr 2020).
(5) I told you that this paper had gossipy items in it!!!!
(6) Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 30 April 2020), memorial page for Roy Ellis Gray (23 Oct 1894–2 Jun 1990), memorial no. 23427076, cemetery marker in Saint Patricks Cemetery, Kickapoo (Oak Hill), Peoria County, Illinois, USA; maintained by "Heather (Angel_Graver)," contributor no. 46809426.