My Old Ohio Home - postal covers

Joel Salley of Embden, Maine

2026-09-09T00:00:00-04:00

Introduction

Sometime after April 23, 1868, and before his death in 1874, Joel Salley of Embden, Maine, received a letter from Slatersville, Rhode Island. The envelope simply read:

Mr Joel Salley
North Anson
Maine

Who was Joel, and who might have sent him the letter?

Joel Salley

Joel Salley was born about August 1847 in Maine, most likely in Embden, since that is where his parents were living in 1840 and 1850. He is on the 1850 through 1870 censuses with his parents and family and is listed as a farmer in 1870. He died at home November 21, 1871, and is buried with his parents in Sunset Cemetery, North Anson. There is a lot of information about the Salley family in Maine but, unfortunately, that is all I could find on Joel.

Who Sent the Letter?

Joel's cousin Mahala Salley, who was born about 1837, married Moses Esten of Slatersville on June 26, 1854. They and three children were living in Smithfield, RI, in 1860. With them was Mahala's brother Uriah Salley. Note that North Smithfield did not split off from Smithfield until 1870, so there is every reason to believe they were in Slatersville, in what is now North Smithfield.

Uriah Salley, who was born about 1830, enlisted in the Union Army on August 31, 1864, and served with Company B, 3rd Regiment RI Heavy Artillery. He was discharged September 4, 1864. He married Hannah Jackson of Blackstone, Massachusetts, on February 2, 1870 by E.N. Maynard, a minister of Slatersville. They were living in Ward 1 of Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1870, and were in the 1872 Worcester City Directory. By 1877 Uriah was living on Second Avenue, Woonsocket.

By 1865 Mahala's parents, Elias Salley and his wife Mary Dunlap, and the rest of their family had joined Mahala and Uriah in Rhode Island. They were living on Buxton Road, which is in Slatersville. Included was Elias' other son, Edwin. Embden Town of Yore said that Elias moved to Slatersville prior to the Civil War.

Edwin Salley was born about 1843 in Maine. He also enlisted in the Union Army on August 31, 1864, and served with Company B, 3rd Regiment RI Heavy Artillery. He was discharged October 5, 1864. He married Eunice Jane Holt in Smithfield on May 13, 1869. They were both living in Woonsocket in 1870, and was still there in 1877.

So who wrote the letter? I thought maybe I could narrow it down by the handwriting, but it could be a male's or female's, and it could have been that of a 65 year old man. I also thought for a while that the stamp would help, since Google AI said it was only in use for a couple years until it was replaced as the main 3¢ postage stamp. But it turns out that AI was probably wrong, again, since the 1870 series of stamps was very unpopular with people and was only in use for a year.

If the letter was written after 1870, then we could eliminate Edwin, since he was in Woonsocket by then. And if it was written between 1870 and 1871 we could eliminate Uriah, since he was in Worcester. But unfortunately the cancellation only includes a month and day. The earliest known use of that stamp was April 23, 1868, according to the Mystic Stamp Company, and Joel died in 1874. Which doesn't help much either.

So the bottom line is that I don't really know which of the Salleys wrote the letter, Elias, Mahala, Uriah, or Edwin. Assuming that it was a relative who wrote it.

Mrs Elsie Hoffman, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2026-08-10T00:00:00-04:00

Introduction

In April 1949, Mrs Carl Hoffman of Philadelphia received a letter from the Pitcairn Islands. What can we learn about her, and why might she be receiving a letter from there?

Elsie (Press) Hoffman

Mrs Elsie (Press) Hoffman was born 14 July 1907, in Philadelphia, the daughter of Henry F Press and Catherine Simons. [This is a transcribed record and that is how Elsie's father's name was transcribed.] Elsie is with her parents and her younger brother Harvey at 3535 K Street, Philadelphia, on the 1910 Census. The street name on the census looks like an "H" but her father is listed at 3535 K Street in the 1910 Philadelphia City Directory. They are still at that address in 1920, joined by children Raymond and Ruth. Elsie's father Harvey died October 6, 1943 in Philadelphia. Catherine (Simons) Press died June 26, 1967, at Rolling Hill Hospital, Chiltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. They are both buried in the East Cedar Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia.

Carl Robert Hoffman

Carl Robert Hoffman was born February 24, 1905 in Philadelphia, son of Robert Hoffman and Teresa Fehrenbach. He is with his parents and older sister Freda at 2647 Hutchinson Street in 1910. In 1920, he and Freda are with their mother at 2849 Franklin Street. His father may be the Robert C Hoffman in the State Homeopathic Hospital in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Robert died on April 27, 1929, at Wernersville State Hospital, South Heidelberg, Berks County, Pennsylvania. Carl's mother Theresa (Fehrenbach) Hoffman died in Germantown November 19, 1933, while living at the address on Franklin Street. They are buried together at Mount Peace Cemetery, Philadelphia.

Carl and Elsie Hoffman

Elsie Press and Carl Robert Hoffman wer married on 16 April 1927 in Philadelphia by Horace H Hunt, the pastor of the North Frankford Baptist Church.

In 1930 Carl was living with his mother at 2849 Franklin Street, while Elsie was boarding down the block at 102 Cambria Street. In 1940, they are listed on the census together renting at 4767 Fifth Street. But in October of that year, when Carl registered for the draft, he was at 1341 Tyson Avenue while Elsie was at 448 West Roosevelt Blvd. In 1950 they are together at 1341 Tyson Avenue, the address on the envelope.

Carl Hoffman was living still at that address when he died on March 8, 1969 at JFK Hospital. He buried in Mt Peace Cemetery, Philadelphia, with his parents, his sister Freda, and her husband. Elsie's name is not on the headstone and she does not show up in a search at findagrave.

Elsie (Press) Hoffman died in Audubon Borough, Camden County, NJ on January 21, 2000. Her last place of residence on her Social Security information was Philadelphia. I don't know where she is buried.

The Hoffmans had no children.

Why the letter from the Pitcairn Islands?

I had no idea why Elsie Hoffman would get a letter from the Pitcairn Islands so I asked Google's AI agent. Its answer seemed reasonable and was backed up by a few cited websites. The most likely reason was that she collected either curios or postage stamps from the island. One website said "in 1914, the opening of the Panama Canal placed Pitcairn on the direct run to New Zealand. Many of the new visitors were liners carrying hundreds of passengers anxious to have mementoes of the island." But soon many islanders left and "the public economy of Pitcairn languished and it was not until postage stamps were issued in 1940 that the island was able to afford some of the public amenities taken for granted in other parts of the world."

I was going to leave it at that, but I tried Googling "letters from ivan christian pitcairn island" and found an article called "Business: Bounty Barter" dated March 20, 1950, in the Time magazine archives. It said that in the fall of 1940, Fayette R Plumb, Inc., a tool making company in Philadelphia, received a letter from Ivan E Christian of Pitcairn Island ordering two small axes. Mr Christian included three dollars and some hand-painted souvenir leaves. He said to bill him if they cost more. Ivan ordered more tools and paid the bill "by sending handmade baskets which Plumb’s Cashier Elsie Hoffman obligingly sold to friends." He then asked for sheets and pillowcases which Elsie provided in exchange for more baskets. The orders and correspondence continued until at least the date of the magazine article.

So, Elsie Hoffman was not just collecting items for herself but was also selling them to people she knew. Which perfectly explains why she received the letter.

The sender of the letter

The return address on the back says:
From
Mr Ivan E Christian
Pitcairn Island

Ivan E. Christian was born in May 1919 and is a descendant of Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny on the HMS Bounty in 1789. Besides sellling curios, Ivan was later the magistrate of Pitcairn Island from 1975 to 1984. He died in 1991. He is easily "googleable" if you want more information.

Sources

The sources for Carl and Elsie Hoffman and families are the usual birth, marriage, and death records, along with findagrave and the Philadelphia City Directory.

The Information about Pitcairn Island came from:
History of Pitcairn Island, at Pacific Union College, Pitcairn Islands Study Center.
The Time magazine article "Business: Bounty Barter", Time, March 20, 1950.

Russell Blackwell and Bess Young of Harrison County, Ohio

2026-07-21T00:00:00-04:00

Introduction

In September 1918, Miss Bess Young of Harrison County, Ohio, received a letter from Private R.E. Blackwell
with the United States Army in Europe. The envelope read:
Private R.E. Blackwell
Co. D. 308 Motor Supply Train
American Ex Forces
A.P.O. 762
postmarked Rec'd From Army, Bordeaux
10 AM Sep 4 1918
marked: Soldiers Mail O.A.S.

to
Miss Bess Young
R.R. #4 Cadiz [scratched out]
Uhrichsville
Harrison Co. Ohio US

Censored by
E Vanderpoel
1st Lieut 2. M.C. U.S.A.

Stamped: Passed As Censored [something] A.E.F.

Can we learn a little more about this couple?

Russell Errett Blackwell

Russell Errett Blackwell was born February 13, 1888, at Station 15, Monroe Township, Harrison County, Ohio, the son of Martin Luther Blackwell and Sarah Frances Miller. In 1900 he was with his parents and siblings in Bowerston Village, Monroe Township. Station 15 was located on the railroad line, just south of where Ohio Route 151 meets U.S Route 250. Bowerston Village is about 5.3 miles north of that. The family was still in Monroe Township in 1910, presumably at the same place. The 1910 census doesn't give any details as to location.

World War I

Russell registered for the draft on June 5, 1917, in Cadiz, Ohio, and enlisted in the United States Army on September 19, 1917. He was assigned to the 332nd Infantry at first, but on May 12, 1918, he was transferred to the 308th Supply Train. Both units were attached to the 83rd Infantry Division, which trained at Camp Sherman, just outside of Chillicothe, Ohio. The Division staged for departure to Europe at Camp Merritt, New Jersey, and Camp Mills, Long Island NY, in late May 1918, before leaving for Europe via various ports. Russell's unit left from Boston on June 12, 1918, and arrived in Le Havre, France, on the 28th. The 83rd was designated as a depot division and assigned to the area of Le Mans.

Depot divisions were located at the French ports. They received newly arriving soldiers and provided six weeks of basic training before they went to the front. And, yes, Le Mans is a port. The river Sarthe is navigable out to the English Channel.

Russell Blackwell returned home to the United States in 1919, leaving Brest, France, on July 1 and arriving in Boston on July 12. [note: his information says June 12, but I am assuming that is a mistake.] He was discharged July 19, 1919.

While at Camp Sherman, Russell survived a serious outbreak of the Spanish Influenza:

"In Chillicothe and at Camp Sherman, the disease spread just as quickly as it did everywhere else. Thousands of residents and soldiers were infected in a very short time. Approximately 5,686 cases of influenza were documented among Camp Sherman soldiers in 1918. 1,777 of them were unable to ward off the disease and died."

Russell's letter to Bess Young was postmarked Bordeaux. That was where the mail from the American troops was gathered and sent to the United States. It was censored by 1st Lt Edwin T Vanderpoel of Metuchen, New Jersey, the commanding officer of the 308th Motor Supply Train.

Bess Dale Young

Bess Dale Young was born March 24, 1889, in Stock Township, Harrison, Ohio, the daughter of John Young and Annie E. Baker. In 1900 she is with her parents and siblings in Stock Township. In 1910 the census page says they were living on the Moravian Road, which runs west from Cadiz to Deersville. Based on the birth dates of his children,

Bess' great grandfather, also named John Young, was born in Ireland about 1789 and arrived in Harrison County between 1829 and 1834. The tree at familysearch has exact dates for his birth and death and that of his wife, but provides no source for the information. John's wife's name is Martha on the censuses but the tree says it was Matilda. They had a daughter named Matilda but not one named Martha, so maybe Matilda is correct. Her daughter Elizabeth (Young) McIlroy's death record says her name was Matilda Goorley. The tree says it was Martha Matilda McDougal. Again, no source at familysearch for her surname.

Russell and Bess (Young) Blackwell

Russell Blackwell was discharged from the Army on July 19, 1919, and on September 3 he and Bess were married in Harrison County by Charles Gilmore, a Presbyterian minister. They lived in a number of places over the years: Uhrichsville in 1920, Monroe Township in Harrison County in 1930, and at 736 Second Street NW in New Philadelphia in 1940 and 1950. They were still at that address on April 9, 1974 when Russell died. They had been married almost 55 years. They had no children.

Russell worked as an oil well pumper until September 1938 at which point he was unable to work, according to his WWII Draft Registration form. He evidently had some kind of pension, since his 1950 census information said he had received $650 in income other than wages and salaries.

Bess Blackwell, still residing in New Philadelphia, died on May 18, 1982. Both died at Union Hospital, Dover, Ohio, and both are buried in Evergreen Burial Park, New Philadelphia.

Obituary of Russell Blackwell

Russell E. Blackwell, 86, of 736 2nd st. NW, New Philadelphia, died following complications Tuesday morning in the extended care unit at Union Hospital. He had been a patient five weeks. Born at Station Fifteen, near Dennison, his parents were the Martin Luther and Sarah Frances Miller Blackwell. He was a retired oil well worker and an Army veteran of World War I. He also was a member of First Presbyterian Church of New Philadelphia, a 32nd Degree Mason of Valley of Columbus and the Blue Lodge of Leesville. Surviving are his widow, Bess Young Blackwell; five sisters, Edna Blackwell and Carolyn Blackwell, both of Columbus, Mrs. Ray (Dorothy) Copeland of Tiro, O., Mrs. Oscar (Ethel) O'Donnell of Dennison and Mrs. Lyda Reaveley of Salinas, Calif. Two brothers and a sister are deceased. Services will be Thursday at 3:30 in Linn-Hert-Geib Funeral Home with Rev. Stuart Barr officiating. Interment will be in Evergreen Burial Park. Friends may call Wednesday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 at the funeral home.

Findagrave says this was originally published in The Times-Reporter 10 Apr 1974.

Conclusion

It seems a shame to have all this information on these two people, descendants of some of the earliest families in Harrison County, and have no one to share it with. But, as mentioned, they had no children. It makes me wonder who kept the letter after Bess died and how long the family held on to it before someone sold it off. Hopefully a relative will find this article. You can find Bess Young's page in the familysearch tree here: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LKVP-ZL7. Clicking on Russell's name will take you to the Blackwells.

Russell wrote Bess another letter, postmarked September 7, 1918, at A.P.O. 762, Le Mans. As of this writing, the envelope is for sale here: https://www.postalhistory.com/results.asp?group=20&sort=2&cs=oh.

When writing the section on WWI, I relied mainly on the article in Thunderbolt. After I had finished I realized that the familysearch site had the original government document on line. You can find that in the last source listed under the WWI section. The Thunderbolt article agrees completely with the original source. Familysearch helpfully tells us that the information about the 83rd division is on images 365 to 372 of the government's document.

I might have gone overboard on sourcing this article. If you would like to understand why see the article Fact Checking a Specific AI Generated Wiki Site.

Sources

The sources for Russell Blackwell and Bess Dale Young and families are mostly the usual birth, marriage, and death records, along with findagrave, draft registrations, and the Philadelphia City Directory. Email me if you need the exact details. Other sources were:

Ohio Railroad Stations, Past and Present, Harrison County at https://www.west2k.com/ohstations/harrison.shtml
Ohio WWI Returning Soldier Index Cards at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7BNX-4ZT2?lang=en

Thunderbolt, Volume 71, Issue 1, Winter 2017, "Golden Lions–83rd Infantry Division during World War One" at https://www.83rdassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ThunderboltWinter_Final_pages_online.pdf

Harbour of Le Mans at https://www.lemans-tourisme.com/en/port-capitainerie-du-mans.html

Mail by Rail: The Story of the Postal Transportation Service, by Bryand Alden Long with William Jefferson Dennis, Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation, New York, 1951, at the website of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: https://libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/OCA/Books2010-10/mailbyrailstoryo00long/mailbyrailstoryo00long.pdf

Thank you to this article at Roads to the Great War for pointing to that book. https://roadstothegreatwar-ww1.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-railway-mail-service-goes-to-war.html

"The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 at Camp Sherman" at the website of the National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/articles/influenza-at-camp-sherman.htm

familysearch.org "American Expeditionary Forces, Infantry, 83rd Division" at https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/American_Expeditionary_Forces,_Infantry,_83rd_Division
Click on FamilySearch Digital Library, https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/244497, and it will take you to

Order of battle of the United States land forces in the World War : American expeditionary forces. Divisions, by Army War College (U.S.). Historical Section, US Government Printing Office, Washington:1931. images 365 to 372, at https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/244497-order-of-battle-of-the-united-states-land-forces-in-the-world-war-american-expeditionary-forces-divisions

Enlisted and Officer Muster Rolls and Rosters, 1916-1939, Muster Roll of Company "D" of the 308th Motor Supply Train at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:662H-K6KB?lang=en

U.S., Army Transport Service Arriving and Departing Passenger Lists, 1910-1939, at https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/61174/records/4176607

John Parent of Onondaga, New York

2023-10-14T00:00:00-04:00

They say that life is about the journey, not the destination. ¹ I hope so, because I spent a lot of time looking for the family of John Parent and when I got there I found someone else had already figured it out.

I started with George E Parent, husband of Mary Dial and father of Frank Parent of Abilene, Kansas. George is on the 1860 census of Rockford, Illinois, with his apparently widowed mother Sarah E., and on the 1850 census of Onondaga, New York, with his father John, his mother and his older brother Ephraim. So far, so good, but that is all I knew about George's father John. When did he die, and whose son was he?

Thanks to some hints on ancestry.com, I found the Baldwin Genealogy ² which says that Sally Eliza Baldwin was born January 29, 1810, and married John Parent of Syracuse on October 13, 1841. The book said that John died January 16, 1852, while John's headstone on findagrave.com says he died June 12, 1853.

As for his parents, there was really only one Parent couple in the area, namely Thomas and Elizabeth Parent, of Otisco. Were they John's mother and father? I still don't know for sure, since I never found a record that connected him to them.

Thomas' brother David Parent's probate information in 1862 was the key document that put the family together. His widow Polly provided a list of David's heirs and next of kin naming Thomas and four other brothers, along with four of Thomas' daughters and numerous grandchildren. But no mention of John. Was it because he had died 10 years earlier and his widow had gone west? ³

Conclusion

For the time being, I'll have to just assume that John Parent was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Parent of Otisco, New York. As for the end of the journey, you can find the complete family of Thomas and Elizabeth Parent, his brothers, parents, grandparents, and maybe more at Thomas Parent, on ancestry.com, though for some reason the tree's owner thinks that Thomas was married 3 times. I doubt it. You could probably piece the family together in the tree at familysearch.org as well.

Credits

^1. To be honest, it isn't just "they" who say it, it was Ralph Waldo Emerson, and that isn't exactly what he said. I found a neat site called Quote Investigator which provided the real quote: "To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom."

A footnote on that site points to Google Books which has the original: Essays: Second Series by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Second Edition, published in 1845 by James Munroe and Company, Boston. Essay: II Experience. The quote is on page 65.

It sounds a lot like 'today is the first day of the rest of your life' or however that hippie saying went, but then I've been spoiled by reading the Bible for a while where the Proverbs actually have something to say.

^2. The Baldwin Genealogy, from 1500 to 1881, by Charles Candee Baldwin, (The Leader Printing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, 1881). You don't need ancestry.com to read it. It is long out of copyright and is on the Internet Archive at The Baldwin genealogy from 1500 to 1881.

^3. You don't need ancestry.com to find David Parent's will either. It is transcribed at the NY Genweb site, (ah, remember Genweb?) at David Parent Will.

George Allabaugh of Crawford Township, Coshocton County, Ohio

2023-08-05T00:00:00-04:00

George Allabaugh and his son-in-law John Dial, arrived in Crawford Township, in time to be on the tax rolls in 1827 and are listed one after the other on the 1830 census. George's household held himself and his wife, both between age 60 and 70. John's included himself and his wife, age 20 to 30, and two sons under 5 years old.

For more on John Dial, see John Dial of Crawford Township, Coschocton County, Ohio.

The two man are listed next to each other on the 1840 census as well. This time George Allabaugh's home includes a 10 to 15 year old male, George age 60 to 70, and his wife age 70 to 80. John Dial's family is "short" one male compared to 1830. He has only one son age 10 to 15 where you would expect two, based on the 1830 enumeration. I know that both of John's older sons lived to be adults, so it would seem that George Allabaugh and his wife had taken in one of John's sons.

Neither George Allabaugh nor John Dial are on the 1850 Census. Instead we find one household headed by John's second-oldest son Thomas, age 23, and including his sister Eliza, age 18, and his brother Evans, 16. Next door is Maria Dyal, 48, with two children Maria, age 9, and Harrison, 6. Maria has no occupation but holds real estate worth $2000; Thomas is a farmer with no real estate. It looks like Thomas was farming his mother's land--the farm that had been his father's.

Those three censuses confirm, in my mind at least, the "rumor" on familysearch and ancestry.com that John Dial's wife's name was Maria Allabaugh. What the rumor did not include was the identity of Maria's parents, who look to all accounts to be George Allabaugh and his wife. I haven't yet learned the name of George's wife.

And before that ...

... where was George Allabaugh?

European settlers in the United States generally moved from East to West, so the logical place to look for him was somewhere east of Ohio. Also, John Dial's oldest son, George, usually said on his censuses that he had been born in Pennsylvania. (This matters if we are correct in concluding that John Dial's wife was Maria Allabaugh, since they must have met before arriving in Ohio if the families were traveling together.) Looking in Pennsylvania, I found this household in Cross Creek Township, Washington County, in 1820:

George Allabaugh
1 male 45 and over
1 female 16 to 25
1 female 45 and over
1 person engaged in agriculture

If that isn't George and his wife, then I don't know who is, since I didn't find a match anywhere else. That also agrees with this bit of information from the History of Coshocton County, Ohio, 1740-1881 (Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & Co, 1881), page 487:

"Beginning about 1832, quite a number of settlers from Washington county, Pennsylvania, poured into this and the adjoining township in Tuscarawas county."

Farther East

Backing up and looking farther east, I found this family in Coventry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1800 and 1810:

1800
George Allibaugh
1 male under 10
1 male 26 to 44
1 female 26 to 44

1810
Geo Allabaugh
1 male 26 to 44
1 female 0 to 9
1 female 45 or older

If that is George, then he and his wife had at least two children before Maria. Either they died before 1810 or, more likely in the daughter's case than the son's, had married and moved out of the household.

Coventry Township puts George about 15 miles away from Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, home of the immigrant ancestor Christian Allebach, who died in 1746. A transcription of Christian Allebach's estate papers is online at Christian Allebach's estate papers. They name five sons: Christian, David, Peter, John, and Abraham. Various online sources have lists of the sons of those men, but none are named George.

Somebody's Son

Still, I think "our" George Allabaugh is a grandson of Christian Allebach. The lists might be incomplete--I didn't find the original sources. Or possibly George Allabaugh went by his baptismal name rather than his given name, or vice versa, and the lists include him under the other name. (German custom was for a child to be given a baptismal name in addition to his or her given name. A family could actually use the same baptismal name for a number of children, resulting in sons named John George, John William, etc.)

Note that there were Albaugh or Ahlbach families in Maryland about this time as well. I don't think George Allabaugh was part of that family. They seemed to have kept the spelling of the name closer to the original German, not including a vowel after the "l", and often preserving the "ch" at the end of the name. And I looked in Maryland for George Allabaugh and didn't find him there.

For further research

The following resources, which I did not have access to, might provide more information on George Allabaugh:

John Alleback, son of the first Christian, died November 6, 1790. His will is in the Charlestown, Chester County, PA, Estate Files at ancestry.com. George could be named in the will.
Updated August 5, 2023: John died intestate and the record in probate dated 18 March 1794 says he was survived by a widow Mary and seven children. It does not name the children.
The book Pennsylvania births, Chester County, 1682-1800, by John T Humphrey, is said to include baptisms at the Brownbacks German Reformed Church in Coventry Township. George Allabaugh's children could be named there, or possibly even George himself.

Sources

George Allibaugh, 1800 Census of Coventry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania

George Allabaugh, 1810 Census of Coventry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

George Allabaugh, 1820 Census of Cross Creek Township, Washington County, Ohio.

George Allabaugh and John Doyle, 1830 Census of Crawford Township, Coshocton County, Ohio.
George Allabaugh and John Dial, 1840 Census of Crawford Township, Coshocton County, Ohio.

Thomas Dial and Maria Dial, 1850 Census of Crawford Township, Coshocton County, Ohio.

Taxable property in Crawford Township, 1827, 1828

tagged: genealogy

Frank Parent of Abilene, Kansas

2023-08-04T00:00:00-04:00

1909 postcard from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Abilene, Kansas

In July 1909, Mr Frank Parent of Abilene, Kansas, received a postcard from his mother, who was on vacation in British Columbia. It read ...

Friday
Dearest son -
Here we are on board the boat between Victoria and Seattle. We are having a grand trip. Never saw such scenery in my life. Wish you were all along. How is my sweetheart. We are all feeling fine. Will reach Seattle tonight. Bushels of love to all. Mother

Can we learn anything about Mr Parent and his family?

Frank Dyal Parent

Yes, and apparently a lot of other people have as well. A place to start is this tree on ancestry or this one on familysearch.

As the trees point out, Frank Dyal Parent was born July 11, 1878, in Abilene, Kansas, the only known child of George Parent and Mary A Dyal. He and his wife Alice Stirl had two daughters: Mary Alice, born in 1908, and Nancy born in 1911. I assume George's mother was asking about Mary Alice when she said "How is my sweetheart?"

Frank was an attorney in Abilene when he received his mother's card, but soon left for Los Angeles and is on the 1910 census there. He became a municipal judge and worked in real estate. He died there at the age of 81--you can find his obituary on his findgrave page. A death notice for his mother can be found on her page at findagrave as well.

Skipping farther back

Rather than just copy information from ancestry or familysearch into this article, I skipped back a few generations and looked at Frank's mother's paternal grandfather, John Dial, and John's likely father-in-law, George Allabaugh. See John Dial of Crawford Township, Coschocton County, Ohio and George Alabaugh of Crawford Township, Coshocton County, Ohio, on this site. And on his father's side John Parent of Onondaga, New York.

Nellie Pyeatt Holmes of Lenora, Oklahoma

2022-08-02T00:00:00-04:00

1967 postcard from Garden Grove, California, to Haddon, Oklahoma

In August 1967, Mrs Nellie Holmes of Woodward, Oklahoma, received a postcard from her daughter in Garden Grove, California, which read:

Aug 5 1967
Dear Mother:
I hope this finds you ok and weather is more agreeable. It is hot here in Garden Grove, too. So dusty, also. We are at Hubert's just now. It is hard to get at writing when one is away from home. Ray is taking the usual shots and pills from a doctor here.
Love, Audrey
Next time I'll try to write you a letter.

Can we learn a little about these people?

Introduction

Nellie Pyeatt was born March 5, 1876, in Illinois, the daughter of Jacob Pyeatt and Margaret Jane Ellison. She married John Holmes on May 15, 1895, at her father's home in St Clair County, Missouri. They began their marriage in Lenora, Oklahoma and had two daughters: Lenora and Audrey.

Nellie's husband John died from an accident on their farm in Doby Springs in 1917 and Nellie and her daughters moved back to Lenora. Lenora and her husband stayed in Oklahoma; Audrey and her husband Jim moved to California between 1935 and 1940. Hence the postcard from Audrey in California to Nellie in care of her daughter, back in Oklahoma. Nellie died in October 1967, shortly after receiving the card.

Genealogy

Usually I include a few generations of family history for the families I find on postcards, but the Pyeatt and Holmes families have been well researched. You can find that here: Nellie Pyeatt, familysearch tree. And for the Pyeatts, look here also: Jacob and Margaret Jane Ellison Pyeatt, at angelfire.com.

Lenora, Oklahoma

There is some information about the city of Lenora on line as well. Ghost Towns of Oklahoma by John Wesley Morris, at Google Books, allowed me to preview the page on Lenora when I tried it, your mileage may vary. The book was written in 1977 and said a few people still lived there. Currently it is uninhabited, at least according to this video at youtube: Ghost Town of Lenora Oklahoma.

Curtis and Nancy Booth, of Turlock, California

2022-05-22T00:00:00-04:00

1916 postcard from Turlock, CA to Great Falls, MT

In December 1916, Mrs Curtis M (Nancy) Booth, of Turlock, California, sent a postcard to her son, Robert P Booth, at 526 2nd Ave South, Great Falls, Montana. It read ...

Dec 8 - 1916
To My Dearest Boy:
The mornings and evenings are pretty cold. heavy frost this a.m. Papa is plowing with riding plow [.] got a mule of a neighbor to work with Prince & Rex. Frisco is near a coal famine for lack of cars. The papers are full of scarcity of cars. Freeze not so bad as they thought at first. Every packing house nearing full capacity. We have planted lettuce, raddishes, turnips and onion sets.
love from Father and Mother B.

R4 Box 105
Turlock, Calif

Can we learn anything about these people and the times they lived in?

Robert Pearl Booth

Robert Pearl Booth was born December 12, 1889, in Corydon, Wayne County, Iowa, the first known child of Curtis and Nancy Booth. He was still living with his parents in Lindsay, Tulare County, California, on October 8, 1913, when he married Pearl Viola Hardesty. The couple must have soon moved to Montana where they were in December 1916 when Robert received the postcard. Their first child, Edith, was born in Bozeman, Montana, in 1918. By 1920 the family had returned to California and was living with Robert's maternal uncle Charles Thornburg in Orange County.

Robert and Pearl eventually settled in Kittitas County, Washington, where Robert worked as a postal worker. Their remaining three children were all born there. Robert died in Kittitas Co. on August 5, 1975, and is buried in the IOOF Cemetery in Ellensburg with his wife Pearl who died in 1994 and their son Robert who died as a child.

Curtis Monroe Booth

Robert's father, Curtis Monroe Booth, was born in March 1859 in Corydon, Iowa, the son of William and Hattie (Bishop) Booth. He married Nancy "Nannie" Isabell Thornburg on November 25, 1886, in Appanoose County, Iowa. She had been born July 2, 1863, in Red Oak, Montgomery County, Iowa, the daughter of Robert W Thornburg and Mary E Whitsell.

As mentioned, their son Robert was born in Iowa in 1889, but they soon moved to California, where their daughter Mary Garnet was born in December 1892. They had two other children: a child who died before 1900, and a son Oliver who died at the age of 6 in Long Beach, California.

Curtis was a farmer for his entire life in California, but did not seem to stay in one place for very long. Maybe "the grass was always greener" somewhere else. For a time line of his residences, click on the time line:

Curtis Booth Time Line

1886 25 Nov, Appanoose Co, IA married 1889: Corydon, Iowa, birth of son Robert
1892: California, birth of daughter Mary G
1896: Pasadena, voter reg
1899: California, birth of son Oliver
Jun 1900: Downey Township, LA Co, CA, census
1902: Fullerton, Orange Co, voter reg
1904/1905/6: not in Long Beach dir
Dec 1905 corner of Perris and State, Long Beach (Oliver's death notice)
1907: 1422 Elm, Long Beach
1908: west side of Oak Ave, Long Beach, 1st house n of Hill
1909 not listed in Long Beach
no dir for Lindsay or Tulare until 1957
1912: Lindsay, Tulare County, voter reg
1914: Lindsay, Tulare County, voter reg
Nov 1916: Turlock, voter reg
Dec 1916: RR 4, Box 105, Turlock - postcard
1917: RR 4, box 197, Turlock
1918: RR 1, box 382, Turlock
1919: RR 1, box 36, Turlock
Jan 1920: Whittier, wage worker, farmer
1924: Garden Valley, El Dorado Co
1926: Placerville, El Dorado Co
1928: Smith Flat, El Dorado Co
Apr 1930: Placerville, retired
May 1939: Anaheim, death

Curtis Monroe Booth died May 30, 1939, in Anaheim. His wife Nannie died September 23, 1944, in Orange County. They are both buried in Santa Ana Cemetery, Santa Ana. There is a picture of Curtis on his page on findagrave.com.

Supply Chain Problems—1916 Style

The part of the message on the card that got my attention were Nannie Booth's words "Frisco is near a coal famine for lack of cars. The papers are full of scarcity of cars. ... Every packing house nearing full capacity."

My first–and second and third–thought was 'I didn't think there were that many cars by 1916 for there to be a scarcity of them.' But after a few readings, I realized that Nannie was talking about railroad cars, not automobiles. So I started typing phrases into search engines and found out that, Yes, there was a shortage of railroad cars in 1916.

The Farmers and the Trains

To appreciate the California farmers' dependence on the railroad, take a look at this 1915 or 1916 picture from Hughson, California, near the Booths' farm in Turlock:

Shipping melons from Hughson, CA in 1915 or 1916

As the accompanying text, at the Calisphere, University of California site said:

In front of the Ward Lumber Company is a train locomotive with two freight cars visible ... [and] wagons full of watermelons that are powered by horses and mules. It appears that all are waiting until the watermelons can be loaded onto the freight cars. The railroads were the primary method farmers had to ship their crops long distances to large market areas, such as San Francisco, especially for perishable crops like watermelons.

Next realize that in February 1915 there was a surplus of 279,000 railroad cars, but by March 1, 1917, there was a shortage of almost 125,000 cars. The problem seems to have started in mid-August of 1916. (See Business Digest, January to March 1917, Vol 1, page 359, found at Google books.)

The number of cars didn't seem to be the only problem. Edwin E. Albertson, the marker reporter for the San Francisco Call, in an article dated November 22, 1916, quoting the Railway Age Gazette, says:

"If the railways now had enough cars to supply one for every one ordered, it is probable that when they got them all loaded their tracks would be so blocked that they would be unable to move much more traffic than they are at present handling. The term 'car shortage' is now, as always, merely a misnomer used to describe a condition resulting from the inablility of the roads to supply facilities enough of any kind to handle the business available."

The effect on West Coast farmers was "most severe" according to an article in the Los Angeles Herald, October 20, 1916:

Information gathered by the interstate commerce commission confirmed reports that the Pacific coast states are suffering most severely from the shortage of cars. It was also learned that Nebraska's grain crop and Colorado's mining products are in great danger of damage and incurring storage losses through lack of carriers.

And the Chicago Packer of November 11, 1916, carried a story with the dateline "Seattle, Wash., Nov 10" and the headline "Car Shortage Affects Potato Shipments" which read in part:

Chicago Packer of November 11, 1916

All doubts as to the scarcity of cars and the inablility of the railways to cope with the situation was shown here last week when three carloads of spuds, loaded on gondolas covered with tarpaulins, were switched into the wholesale fruit yards of this city. This is the first time in the history of the North Coast that it has been necessary to transport perishable freight in this way.

The Coal Famine

The other problem that Nannie Booth mentioned was that "Frisco is near a coal famine for lack of cars." Other cities faced the same problem. Mr Albertson's article in the San Francisco Call said this:

... many Pennsylvania and West Virginia mines have been operating on half time, as they could not get cars to move their product.
The city of Columbus, O., confronted by a coal famine, has established a municipal coal and wood yard, in order to assure fuel to its inhabitants this winter, and Cleveland now threatens to do likewise.

The Report of the Department of Mines of Pennsylvania for 1916 said on page 5:

The operations of the year were of an unusual character. ... with sharp contrasts in prices and exasperating uncertainty, due to car shortage, labor troubles, and embargoes placed upon traffic.(footnote)"The Report of the Department of Mines" (Harrisburg, Penna, J.L.L. Kuhn, Printer to the Commonwealth, 1917), page 5.

Here are a few headlines about the coal famine from around the United States.

From Utah:

Salt Lake City, Utah, Republican, December 28, 1916, page 1

and Cleveland:

Akron Beacon Journal, October 27, 1916, page 1

Even Altoona, in coal country, felt the effects:

Altoona, Pennsylvania, Times, page 10

The October 27, 1916 edition of the Cedarville, Ohio, Herald, page 1, summed up the nationwide situation nicely:

Cedarville Herald, October 27, 1916, page 1

saying in part:

Coal Shortage Due to Railroad Facilities
Almost every section of the country is at present affected by a shortage of coal due largely to the railroad companies being unable to supply cars.

Causes

Why was there a rail car shortage? Why were farmers having a hard time getting their produce to markets? Simply put, there was a war going on. The Booths on their small farm in Turlock, California, were being affected by the war in Europe thousands of miles away.

Munitions and war supplies

The United States did not yet enter the war until 1917,

But soon after war broke out in August 1914, America began to supply food, materials and even munitions to Britain and other German enemies, such as Italy.(footnote)"Logistics and American Entry into the Great War" at the Defense Logistics Agency website.

Cleveland and Pittsburgh are dear to my heart, so here is what was going on in those two cities:

For Cleveland:

The years of U.S. neutrality were bonanza ones for Cleveland's industries, as its workers satisfied contracts for uniforms, weapons, automobiles and trucks, and chemicals for explosives. By the fall of 1918, it was estimated that the city had produced $750 million worth of munitions in the 4 years since the war had begun.(footnote)""World War I" at the Case-Western Reserve Encyclopedia of Cleveland History website.

and for Pittsburgh:

1914 had seen a slump in American steelmaking, with output well below capacity. By mid-1915, all mills in the Pittsburgh area were operating day and night, even though the United States had not yet entered the war. Production throughout 1915 was at about 85 percent of capacity, reaching 100 percent during the fourth quarter. From 1916 onward, US Steel alone delivered more steel each year than all the plants of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires combined. By the second half of 1917, some 75 percent of iron and steel output was supplying war demands.(footnote)"Facts About Pennsylvania in the First World War" at the World War I Centennial website.

The increased production of the factories meant they needed more coal. The coal had to be transported in. The manufactured goods and munitions had to be transported out. All of this required railroad cars.

An editorial on the same page of the San Francisco Call as Mr Albertson's article, November 22, 1916, summed up the country's situation this way:

San Francisco Call editorial, November 22, 1916

We have lent England hundreds of millions. We have turned our entire nation into an ammunition factory for her benefit.
Our citizens and business men are unable to get goods, the poor are unable to get coal, because those interested in saving England control our railroads—and England's service in the ammunition line is put ahead of everything else on our American roads.

Shipping rates

Another consequence of the war was an increase in shipping rates. The San Francisco Call article by E. E. Albertson said that the rates for shipping iron ore on the Great Lakes had risen to a point where it was more profitable for ore boats to return home empty than to carry back coal, as they had done previously. This left the burden of taking coal to places like Minnesota up to the railroads.

I looked for some original sources online to back this up but didn't find anything, but it makes sense to me. The munitions factories would require iron ore and could probably pay what it took to get it.

Pacific shipping rates had increased also, which affected California farmers directly. Mr. Albertson's article pointed out that the rates on shipping routes from the West Coast to Asia had risen since the beginning of the war. This motivated at least one shipping company, the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, to move their vessels from the west coast-east coast route elsewhere.

Tables 1 and 2 in "The War and Trans-Pacific Shipping," by Abraham Berglund bear this out. When the war broke out, Germany pulled its entire commercial fleet from the Pacific. Net tonnage carried under the British flag was cut in half from 1914 to 1916. Japan made up some of the difference but the overall net tonnage in July 1914, 237,004 tons, dropped to 147,744 tons in May 1916.(footnote)"The War and Trans-Pacific Shipping" in The American Economic Review, September 1917, Volume 7, Number 3, pages 553-568. Published by the American Economic Assocation.

Tables 3 and 4 show the change in freight rates from Asia to America and America to Asia. Increases were across the board, many more than 100%.

American-Hawaiian's decision might be referred to here:

"By the time the Canal reopened on 15 April 1916, American-Hawaiian had entirely suspended its intercoastal service, and its ships were operating only on war charters."(footnote)"The American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, 1899-1919" by Thomas C Cochran and Ray Ginger, in Business History Review, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Dec., 1954), pp. 343-365, published by The President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Conclusion

When elephants fight,
it is the grass that suffers.

With all this going on, the California farmers were in a bind. Were the Booths able to sell their "lettuce, raddishes, turnips and onion sets"? Did they lose their farm? Their rural route address changed from 1917 to 1918, but I can't tell whether they moved or the route system was re-organized. If they moved, did they buy another farm in Turlock? Again, I don't know. There are probably property records out there somewhere that would answer those questions. But I do know that by January 1920, Curtis had left off farming for himself and was a wage worker in a walnut grove in or near Whittier, California, more than 300 miles south. I don't think that is what he pictured for himself when he moved to California in the 1890s.

Credits

The genealogical information for the Booth family came from the usual suspects—ancestry.com and familysearch.org—with a few vital records from the Washington State Archives thrown in for good measure.

The image of the farmers in Hughson, California, is in the Stanislaus Region History and Culture Image Collection of California State University, Stanislaus, Calisphere, University of California.

Business Digest, 1917, was at Google Books.

I found the Los Angeles and San Francisco articles at the University of California, Riverside, Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research's California Newspaper Project site.

The Chicago Packer article was in the University of Illinois' Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.

The clippings from the Salt Lake City Republican, the Akron Beacon-Journal, and the Altoona Times were found on newspapers.com.

The Cedarville Herald article can be found on Digital Commons.

The drawing of two elephants fighting was available at pinterest which said it was royalty free.

Augusta (Lucy) Stinson, Jamaica Plain, MA

2022-01-14T00:00:00-05:00

1913 postcard from Cleveland, Ohio, to Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

In July 1913 Mr William A Lucy of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, received a postcard that his daughter sent from Cleveland, Ohio. The message read:

Dear Pa
This is the boat we took from Buffalo to Cleveland. It is certainly a beautiful boat.
Love
Gussie

Can we find out a little bit more about Mr Lucy and his daughter?

The Lucys

William A Lucy was born July 27, 1847, in Bradford, Essex County, Massachusetts, the son of William and Adeline (Davis) Lucy. The town of Bradford does not exist any longer. The section of Bradford where William was born became Groveland in September 1850, and he is on the 1850 census of Groveland with his parents. Their page of the census is dated September 11, 1850, after the formation of Groveland. According to the family trees on ancestry.com and familysearch, both sides of William's family are of old New England stock. And to paraphrase Bullwinkle, 'if you can't trust online trees, who can you believe?'

William Lucy married Emelia C Hjort on February 11, 1879, at the Flint Street Methodist Church, Somerville, Massachusetts. The marriage record said that Emilia was born in Malmbeck, Sweden, and that her parents' names were Johanes and Magdalena C. The membership records of the Emanuel Lutheran Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, inform us that Emelia was born December 3, 1851, in Malmbeck and left for America from Gutenberg on May 3, 1872. Her destination was Boston. Emelia's first son, George William, was baptized at that church in 1880.

Chickering Factory, 1895

Besides George W, their family included Augusta, the daughter who sent the postcard. She was born March 27, 1883, in Boston. Their two other children were Annie Amelia (July 11, 1885, Boston) and Evangeline (May 20, 1889).

William Lucy worked as a cabinet maker for a piano factory most of his life. It was probably the Jonas Chickering Pianoforte Manufactory at 791 Tremont St, Roxbury, since William lived in that area before moving to Jamaica Plain. Addresses included Camden St, Greenwich St, and Columbus Ave. They settled in at 58 Dunster Road, Jamaica Plain, by 1912. William died January 30, 1922, and Emilia in 1943. They have no living descendants–Augusta's one son died childless, George W adopted his wife's three sons, Annie had no children, and Evangeline never married.

Augusta Wilhelmina Lucy

Augusta, as mentioned, was born March 27, 1883, at 73 Camden Street, in the South End. She married William Charles Stinson on December 2, 1907. From an article about her marriage we learn that she "studied for several years at the New England conservatory of music. She has a particularly fine voice, and has often appeared in concerts, being a member of the Handel and Hayden society." I tried to find out more about Augusta's singing career, but came up empty.

Boston Globe, December 21, 1907,
page 8

The article said the Stinsons' first home was on Brunswick St in Grove Hall, which is where they are listed in the 1908 Boston City Directory. They soon moved to 112 Talbot Avenue, then to 7 Blackwood Street in the South End by 1910, and finally to 58 Dunster Road in 1912 with Augusta's parents. The home was a duplex. Augusta was apparently still living on Dunster Road in 1954 when she died. She is in the 1954 Boston City Directory at that address.

Augusta (Lucy) and Will Stinson had one child, a son William Charles, born March 18, 1909, in Boston. He married Mary Elizabeth Powell and died in 1992 in Pinellas County, Florida.

William Charles Stinson

As you may have noticed from the newspaper clipping, Augusta's husband, Will Stinson, was a "bicycle rider." He was not a bicycle rider like you and I might be bicycle riders–he was a professional motor-paced (or slip-stream) cyclist around the turn of the 20th century. I had never heard of this sport but, after a lot of Googling, I think I can sum it up here:

A motor-paced cyclist raced behind a motorcycle ridden by one or two people. The cyclist would ride in the slipstream, or draft, of the motorcycle to minimize air resistance. Using this method, Will Stinson became the first man to bicycle forty miles in one hour, doing so at Brockton, Massachusetts, on October 25, 1900. According to the Courier Journal Almanac of 1901, found at Google Books, he also held at that time the American record for the 2, 30, 35, and 40 mile distances.

Will Stinson

To see the speed advantage of drafting behind a pacer when cycling, we can compare Will's times for 2, 30 and 40 miles with the record speed for unpaced cycling. The paced record for 2 miles was 2:51 2/5, unpaced was 4:25. For 30 miles, paced was 44:49, unpaced was 1:13:36. And for 40 miles Will's time was 59:43 versus the unpaced record of 1:59:56 3/5.

Motor-paced cyclists also raced against one another. The book Life in the Slipstream: The Legend of Bobby Walthour Sr., by Andrew M. Homan, (2011) states that the sport was dangerous. The author tells of the Memorial Day, May 30, 1903, 20 mile race at the Charles River track in Boston, in which prominent cyclist Harry Elkes was killed and Will Stinson was badly injured. After that, Will took a few years off from the racing circuit—the only other mention of him in the book is at a 1906 20 mile race in Revere.

Apparently Will Stinson discontinued racing by the time of his marriage to Augusta. Their marriage license lists him as a traveling salesman and his censuses from 1910 to 1940 all put him in sales, usually of books. Will Stinson died March 9, 1941, at his home in Jamaica Plain.

The "Sea and Bee"

Inquiring minds might be wondering what Augusta was talking about when she said on the card "This is the boat we took from Buffalo to Cleveland. It is certainly a beautiful boat."

The boat was the SS Seeandbee which made regular trips between Buffalo and Cleveland from 1913 to 1939. The postcard says it was the largest steamer on inland waters in the world at the time. Its parent company experienced financial losses in 1938 and the ship was sold to a company in Chicago. The Seeandbee sailed out of that city until 1941 when it was converted into a aircraft training vessel for use during World War II. It was scrapped after the war.

1913 postcard from Cleveland, Ohio, to Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, front

For those interested, there is more on the Seeandbee at the Seeandbee at the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History and at See the Seeandbee, at cleveland.com. There is also a video at SS Seeandbee ~ The C&B Line Flagship at youtube.

The Postmark

You never know what you will learn when you pick up a postcard and start researching. The postmark on Augusta's card tells us that it was mailed on the Cleveland Circuit Railway Post Office route. The postal service operated a street rail car on the streetcar lines on the east side of Cleveland. It made nine trips a day, carrying mail to and from various substations before returning to the main post office. The card Augusta (Lucy) Stinson sent was cancelled on trip six for July 11, 1913.

I was a bit more interested in the Railway Post Office than in the SS Seaandbee. Vehicles are–to me anyway–just a way to get from one place to another. Stamps and postmarks are important 🙂. I found a very informative article about the Cleveland R.P.O. in this .pdf file at The Cleveland Circuit R.P.O., 1908-1919.

Sources

Other than the sources already mentioned, most of the information came from the US Censuses, Boston, Cambridge, and Providence (RI) City Directories, and the Massachusetts Vital Records. The only unusual sources were the records of the Emanuel Lutheran Church, Roxbury, and the Swedish Emigration and Swedish Passenger Lists at ancestry.com.

Credits

The picture of the Jonas Chickering Piano Manufactory can be found at Wikimedia Commons and is said to be in the public domain. The newspaper clippings were found, I think, for free at newspapers.com, and the postcard itself is mine.

Richard G Powell of Nenagh, County Tipperary, and Oakland, California

2018-10-08T00:00:00-04:00

In 1910, Richard G Powell of Oakland, California, received a letter from Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland. It was sent in care of Matthew Ryan, at 487 Moss Avenue. Can this envelope help us determine Richard's county of origin in Ireland, if any?(footnote)The image of the envelope was once at the Jim Forte Postal History site, but is no longer there.

Richard was lodging in Ward 4 of Oakland at the time of the 1910 Census, but not with Matthew Ryan. The census information said that Richard was 29, married, and born in Ireland. It said he arrived in this country in 1905.(footnote)1910 Census, Oakland Ward 4, Alameda, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 118, sheet 18A. No image at familysearch, incorrectly linked. He was in Oakland for the 1920 Census,(footnote)1920 Census, Oakland, Alameda, California, United States; citing ED 88, sheet 6A, line 11, family 149. as well as in a few city directories I checked: 1911, 1915, and 1927. He worked as a motorman or car operator for the street railway.(footnote) City Directories of Alameda County, San Francisco Public Library.

Richard actually arrived in the United States September 4, 1907, aboard the SS Carmania, which had left Liverpool August 27. He was 27, married, and headed to the home of his brother in law, William Workman, at 1220 Geary Street, San Francisco. His last residence had been Linacre, England, and his contact person there was his wife at 27 Mildmay Road, Linacre. Richard's passenger's manifest said that his birthplace was Gortmore, Ireland.(footnote)Ellis island passenger manifests. Start at One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse

At this point I thought I would take a shot at the Irish civil registrations for Richard's birth, since I had a pretty good idea of when he was born. I found a birth record that looked like him: March 14, 1881, in Gortmore, Nenagh Registration District, County Tipperary. His parents were Caleb Powell, a farmer and Jane Powell, formerly Kennedy.(footnote)Irish civil registrations.

Confirming that this was he, I next found his Declaration of Intention to be a US citizen in the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, on June 24, 1927: Richard Gamble Powell, 46, a motorman living at 1209 45th Street, Oakland, was born March 15, 1881, in Nenagh, Ireland, and had arrived in the United States 4 September 1907, on the SS Carmania. His wife Margaret, also born in Ireland, was living with him.(footnote)Richard Gamble Powell in California County Naturalizations, 1849-1985, at familysearch.org.

I didn't find Richard on the 1930 Census, and haven't looked for him in the City Directories for the late 1920's or 1930's. He died in California on February 6, 1936, and is buried in Artesia Cemetery, Cerritos, California.(footnote) Richard Gamble Powell, memorial 10218160, at findagrave.

Margaret Workman

If you remember, when Richard Powell arrived in the United States, he said he was headed to the home of his brother-in-law, William Workman. When William registered for the World War I Draft, he said he was born 27 May 1880 in Ireland, and that his contact person was his sister Catherine Workman in San Francisco.(footnote)William Boyd Workman, in United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, at familysearch.org. I was able to find birth records for William, Catherine, and Margaret Workman in Culduff Townland, Ballymoney, County Antrim, children of John and Anna (Campbell) Workman. William was born May 27, 1880, as he said; Catherine on March 22, 1873, and Margaret Jane on April 4, 1877. (footnote)Irish civil registrations. In 1920, William and Catherine were both living at 1014 Ellis St, San Francisco. I didn't find Margaret. As mentioned, her husband Richard was lodging on his own in Oakland.

Margaret entered the United States quite a few times. The first trip that I found was on April 3, 1922, aboard the SS Cameronia. She was 45, married, born in Ballymoney, Ireland, and heading to Brooklyn, New York, which had been her last permanent residence. Her occupation was midwife, overwritten with nurse. She had been in the United States before, in San Francisco from 1909 to 1922. I didn't find her arrival in 1909.

On February 2, 1923, Margaret, with a group of five other nurses, arrived on the SS Mauretania. Their last residence was Nenagh, Ireland, and their contact person in Ireland was 'a friend' Miss Powell, in Nenagh. They were headed to Manhattan.

And on November 24, 1924, Margaret arrived alone on the SS Cameronia, headed again to Manhattan. This time she identified her contact person in Ireland as her daughter Jean Powell, of Nenagh, County Tipperary. She gave her last permanent residence as New York.(footnote)Ellis island passenger manifests. Start at One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse

The last definite trace I found of Margaret was on the 1940 Census of Manhattan. There is a Margaret Powell, widow, with two years of college, born in Northern Ireland, living at 456 45th Street. She was evidently retired, since she had not worked the previous week or year.(footnote)1940 Census, Assembly District 5, Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 31-437, sheet 9B, line 57, family 217 I found a few Margaret Powells buried in the New York City area, but none of them matched Margaret (Workman) Powell.

Update

While moving this article to this site, I found Margaret (Workman) Powell's naturalization record. Her petition to be naturalized was filed on March 13, 1942, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. At the time she was living at 260 West 44th Street, New York City, and was still working as a nurse. She was 5'7" tall, weighing 175 pounds, with blue eyes and a ruddy complexion. She states that she and her husband Richard were married in Glasgow, Scotland, on June 4, 1904, and that he died in 1936 in Califorinia. The record also mentions her daughters Jane, born February 14, 1905, and Betty, born December 27, 1906, both in England. Margaret first arrived in the U.S. at New York on March 3, 1909, aboard the Carmania. She was granted citizenship on April 5, 1943.

A tree at ancestry.com says that Margaret died in 1958 in County Tipperary, but I didn't find a corresponding death record on the Civil Records of Ireland.

Their Children

Remember that when arriving in 1924 Margaret Powell mentioned a daughter Jean in Nenagh, Tipperary. In 1911, Jean and her sister Elizabeth were living with their father's mother in Gortmore. Jean was 7 and Elizabeth was 6, at least according to the census. They were both born in England.(footnote)1911 Census of Ireland, house 10 in Gortmore (Burgesbeg, Tipperary).

A note on Richard Powell's findagrave page calls the daughters Anna Powell Keays and Elizabeth Powell Keays. A tree at MyHeritage.com says that Anna Jane/Jean was born on February 14 1904 and married William John Keays on April 27, 1932, in Killaloe, County Clare.(footnote) https://www.myheritage.com/names/william_keays