Table of Contents -Volume III


CHAPTER 18


ENOCH EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   William-James


Preface to:


       I am at this point in time faced with a most formidable task, one that leaves me quaking at the thought of it.

       My problem is not "How can I gather in more material to make a story about these people?" (as I've had to cope with in past chapters) but - "What can I leave out?"

       This is my family. I could write a book about them.

       A.E. EWING did!

       While from 1899 to about 1920, Alvin Enoch EWING, my Grandfather, tried to gather all of James Ewing's descendants into one record, in years after that he concentrated on his grandparents and parents, their respective ancestors and the people they all brought into being.

       Thus was "Enoch and Susannah" born. That was the name A.E. gave to the typescript he finished in 1933 in which he set down everything he knew about the Ewings forwards and backwards and about Susannah (RADABAUGH) EWING's forbears.

       His book was never published, but it received wide distribution. He made up about 10 copies, typed in his inimitable style, using carbon after carbon (and most of us believe we ended up with the last carbon). He bound his "book" in manila folders with brass fasteners and gave a copy to a representative in each of the family lines.

       My, how that book did get around! It has been retyped and Xeroxed so many times, in the Enoch Ewing family and out of it.

       I could cope with that. I could condense "Enoch and Susannah" - no problem.

       But add to it what seems like tons of letters, newspaper clippings, photos, memorabilia. (Tons that I cared enough about to ship 2,555 miles across the United States - Michigan to California)

       From "Enoch and Susannah" I know everything it is possible to know about one's great-great-grandparents - and all their children and grandchildren. I know how they thought and talked and worked and worshipped, how they lived and how they died.

       I feel so sorry for people I meet who don't even know their grandfather's name.

       In the aforementioned tons of addenda are many letters Enoch and Susannah received and wrote in the 1850s and 1860s, plus all the letters that passed between Henry and Nancy during the war years, and others that came to them before, during and after.

Do you see my problem. Where do I leave off? All of it is history - U.S. and Ewing.

       Well I'm going to give it a big try. Here goes.

       On 31 July 1799, the United States of America was in its 23rd year of independence, and Virginia in its 23rd year of being the Old Dominion State. George Washington lived at Mt. Vernon, an ex-president, a retired general, but a living hero in the hearts of his countrymen. John Adams was president and the capitol was at Philadelphia.

       That is the way it was on the day Enoch Ewing put in his appearance to join the family of William and Mary Ewing on their farm near Swago Creek at Buckeye in, what was at the time, Bath County, Virginia.

       The family then consisted of Elizabeth, Thomas, Jonathan, William, James, John and 2 year old Sarah, who had to give up her cradle to make way for the newcomer. Elizabeth was 12 and was kind of a second mother to all the younger ones. Thomas was 11, and old enough to hunt with his father and dig ginseng and keep up with chores around the farm. The younger boys had assigned tasks.

       When it came time to name the newcomer, William and Mary took stock. Of the five boys, three had Ewing names and two had McNeill names. So it followed that the sixth would get the name of another McNeill. Only Absolem, Enoch and Gabriel were left to choose from, and the middle of those was drawn.

       Now here's something A.E. did not know. Enoch had a middle name! There has been no hint or suggestion of such a thing in any of A.E.'s writings, or in any signature of Enoch's that I have seen before. But in the 1819 Gallia County tax list his name is down with the middle initial W, and it is quite plain. A.E. wrote: "When Enoch was old enough to study the world from the outside of the cabin, he found the front door opening toward the noon sun. In front ran a ravine, from the banks of which, not 10 rods away, bubbled a beautiful spring of water. He saw a well-beaten path leading to and from this spring of water, and he was accustomed to seeing his mother and older brothers and sisters carry water to the house. There was a milk house close by. Surrounding the cabin was a large clearing and fields were well cultivated, for the father had lived there some 25 years before Enoch's arrival.

       "Enoch could see the mountains on nearly all sides and it became an early fixed ambition to see the top of them. There was only one direction the family could go without climbing a mountain and that was the way to the mill. The ravine in front of the cabin led to the valley of Swago, a little creek emptying into the Greenbrier half a mile away. On the banks of the Swago, near Greenbrier, as the mill of Enoch's Uncle Jonathan McNeill, who was also a weaver and maker of powder."

       Uncle Jonathan was not the only relative nearby as Enoch was growing up. He was surrounded by them - McNeills, Hugheses, and Ewings, of those and other names. Most of the farms within a five-mile radius belonged to kin of some degree, and Enoch had dozens of cousins as playmates in his early years.

       He also had, as a baby, his Grandfather Ewing, although he did not know it, for James Ewing died when Enoch was 2 years old. His Grandmother Ewing was probably gone by then too. His McNeill Grandfather had been dead five years when Enoch was born, but Mary Hughes McNeill, his grandmother, lived with the Ewings and Enoch must have known her well.

       As for Enoch's schooling, in later years A.E. wrote: "Both grandfather and grandmother could read and write well. Their spelling and pronunciation may not have been strictly according to dictionary rules, but they had no trouble whatever in clearly expressing themselves either in written or spoken language. I do not know when or where they learned to read and write. I have heard Grandfather say that he attended only two terms of school in his life and that was back in old Virginia when he was a boy attending a private subscription school where the parent had to pay the teacher so much per pupil per term. I suspect Grandmother went to school some in Ohio, but it is likely that both of them learned much from their older brothers and sisters and accommodating friends. In old pioneer days before schools were established, it was common for ministers to assist in teaching the young to read and write. I do not know about Grandmother's parents, but Grandfather's father could write well, and he may have done some family teaching himself."

       A.E. also wrote: "As a boy Enoch learned to handle the rifle, and even did some hunting with his father and older brothers. But above all, he learned the lesson of industry. He knew the utility of the hoe in maturing a crop of corn, and he never, to his dying day, forgot it. It was hoe, hoe, hoe. I have seen him at 80 years old laboriously attack a bunch of weeds in a corn patch after the corn was matured and ready for the stock. It was not so much that he loved the corn but that he hated the weeds on general principles. I have worked many a day with him simply because I was ashamed not to. I could not bear the looks of my own laziness sitting in the shade while Grandfather worked so hard in the hot sun. But he was as enduring on a cold day as on a hot one, and we boys used to husk corn with him late in the fall when our fingers were literally numb with cold rather than see him do the work alone, for no argument was strong enough to induce him to quit as long as there was anything to be done."

       Enoch's Uncle John Ewing and most of his family had gone to Ohio in 1801. Now Enoch's father began talking about Ohio too. William had looked across the Ohio River at Point Pleasant and beheld for the first time in his life, a mountainless country, when he was guarding Cornstalk in the stockade, back in 1777. The Greenbrier Valley had been good enough for him, but in 1810 the question became: Is it good enough for my children? Is this mountain country big enough for this family of mine?

       A.E. wrote: "In 1810 Enoch's father looked out against the mountains and the world seemed to small. He looked at the fields where he had dug for 35 years and they seemed to limited.

He looked at the soil which had supported his ever-increasing family land it seemed to thin. He looked into the open vault of heaven and asked for a new lease on life and a new country. He would go to Ohio."

       Thus Enoch became a Buckeye - an upheaval for an 11 year old, but one no doubt that Enoch took in stride.

       So his formative years, his teens, were spent in helping to establish a new home on the bend of the Raccoon Creek in Huntington Township's Section 11. Here too he was surrounded by family, but closer kin than back on the Swago Creek - brothers and sisters here, nine brothers, many of whom had families of their own by the time Enoch approached adulthood.

       Like his older brothers, Enoch put in his time at Keystone Furnace in neighboring Jackson County, chopping wood to be made into charcoal for the smelting process.

       At one point Enoch also had a job working for Major CANTRELL. That would be Major John (some say William) Cantrell, who was grandson of Charles CLENDENNIN, for whom West Virginia's capital, Charleston, is named. Charles being the brother of Archibald CLENDENNIN who married Enoch's Aunt Jeanet EWING way back when. Major Cantrell lived on the Point Pleasant side of the Kanawha River, across the Ohio River and into Virginia. He had a large farm (you could really call this one a plantation) and plenty of slaves to help him run it, but he had Enoch working for him too.

       Enoch passed this story down from those days with Major Cantrell. One day Cantrell sent Enoch and a young slave across the Kanawha to do some work, and they had to cross the river in a canoe. When they reached mid-stream, the negro threw down his oar and refused to paddle any further. That was not according to Enoch's standard of fair play. He swung his own paddle upon the black man and knocked him over-board. After being rescued, the negro plied his paddle industriously, but swore he would tell Major Cantrell about it. Enoch was afraid he might lose his job. When they returned the first man they met was Major Cantrell. The slave complained and then Enoch started to explain. "No explanation necessary," said Cantrell. "I saw the whole performance and you did just the right thing. I would have done the same."

       Enoch appears on the 1819 and 1820 tax lists, being taxed for chattel goods. In 1819 that was one horse for which he was required to pay 30 cents, and in 1820 it was for two horses, the amount of tax paid not noted.

       One of Enoch's greatest friends both there in Ohio and back on Swago Creek, where they grew up together was his cousin William MCNEILL. William (Billy he was called) was born in March of 1799 and Enoch four months later, so they were really contemporaries, and enjoyed each other's company. William was the son of Enoch's Uncle Gabriel MCNEILL. Uncle Gabriel's family, including William, had gone north with the Ewings in 1810, and the two youths were steadfast company.

       Enoch also had a real liking to his enterprising Uncle Gabe, who had been described as a genius. Gabriel was a doctor, a minister of the gospel, a surveyor (Jackson County's first county surveyor) and a little bit of everything else. The McNeills (that family went by McNeel and McNeal) lived over in Madison Township in Jackson County, but it was not too far from Ewington, and Enoch found himself spending a lot of time at the McNeill home.

       Neighbors of the McNeels were the Radabaugh family, Henry and Catherine and their 10 children, who included Susannah, about Enoch's age. Enoch had been acquainted with Susannah since he was 13, but it was not until he was 21 years old that he realized that this was "it" - and it took a barking dog to do it.

       One day in 1820 or 1821, Enoch was riding to the McNeel home in Madison Township. He was on the main road from Gallipolis to the Salt Licks (Jackson Town) and was very near the Madison Furnace, when he had an accident, an accident that in later years, when A.E. wrote about it for the Jackson-Standard Journal, it prompted the headline, "A Barking Dog Shapes a Man's Destiny."

       As Enoch was riding along on that road, a dog came into his path, yipping and yapping as dogs do. Enoch's horse shied and he was thrown.

       He was not seriously injured but enough so that he was carried to the nearest house where he was put to bed and nursed for two or three days.

       It happened to be the home of the Widow Catherine RADABAUGH, and Enoch's nurse was the young Susannah.

       Enoch began to hope he would never get well.


* * *

 

       Mention the name of Radabaugh opens up a whole new section for descendants of Enoch and Susannah. It brings us to that moment in our history when our German ancestors enter the picture.

       The year is 1738. In decades before and after, people from Germany were pried loose from their farms and vineyards, lured to America by transportation companies and land speculators, who dangled the carrot of cheap, productive lands before them.

       Our German ancestors, the Radabaughs, Buzzards, and Alts, came from what is known as the Palatinate, an area lying on the west side of the Rhine with its southern border resting on the part of France called Alsace-Lorrain. Many modern family historians believe our Radabaughs, Buzzards and Alts originated as Huguenots of France.

       In 1738 many people of the Palatinate were leaving the homeland, traveling down the Rhine River some 300 miles to Rotterdam in Holland and embarking at that seaport on ships that would take them to the Promise Land of America.

       One such ship was the Glasgow, which departed Rotterdam and landed in Philadelphia on 9 September 1738. There were 349 passengers on board.

       One passenger was Heinrich RADABAUGH. Heinrich (Henry) Radabaugh may or many not have been the father of Adam RADABAUGH who is our first known Radabaugh ancestor on these shores. The fact that Adam names his first son Henry would lead one to believe that he was. If so, then Adam, whom we figure to have been born about 1737, was born in Germany and came to America when he was about 1 year old.

       On arrival in America the Radabaughs, and apparently the Buzzards and possibly the Alts as well, settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia.

       Berks County appears to be where Adam grew up and married and began to establish himself. At least, he had land in Berks County, land that in 1786, when he was in Hampshire County, Virginia, he and his wife, Barbara, wished to sell.

       I conclude Adam and Barbara were married about 1757 in Berks County. Some time in the next decade there was a movement abroad among the German colonists in Berks to move even further west. Adam and presumably his friend Henry BUZZARD and their families were among those who decided to head for the vicinity of Lord Fairfax' South Branch Manor in Hamsphire County, Virginia

       Henry Buzzard's property was over on North Mill Creek. His grant for 69 acres near Jacob PETERSON there is dated 1769, and another grand for 52 acres, same place, is dated 1771.

       Adam settled two mountain ridges and one creek east of Buzzard. His land was on the South Fork of the South Branch, 8 to 10 miles south of Moorefield and 7 or 8 miles ease of Petersburg. Radabaugh Run in that vicinity was named for him.

       (As was mentioned in the chapter on the McNeills, Virginia's Hampshire County was divided in 1786, the southern half, where the Radabaughs and Buzzards were, becoming the county of Hardy. The McNeill chapter discusses the South Branch Manor>)

       Through the years, about 1758 to 1772, Adam and Barbara had eight known children. They were mentioned in Adam's will as a daughter who married a CARSHNER and a daughter Barbara; Mary who married a MAWYERS/MOYERS; a daughter who married HIGHER/HYER who had children Mary, Peter and Christian HYER, and sons Henry, Peter, Martin, George and Adam.

       It was Henry who is our ancestor. Peter inherited the Radabaugh land on the South Fork on Adam's death in 1806. No knowledge of Martin was located. George was an early settler in the Clay District of Harrison County, West Virginia and was the father of Adam, James, George. (James and George were in the War of 1812) and Nancy who married Samuel SUTHERN.

       At that time all of the family resided, and possibly still live in, Harrison County, West Virginia. Adam, born in 1772, married a SILVER. Adam died in Chillicothe, Ohio and his wife returned to the South Branch to raise their 10 children. A great-grandson was Benton C. RADABAUGH, who in 1929 lived in Hall, West Virginia and was in the West Virginia House of Delegates at Charleston.

       Of the daughters, the two with no first names were deceased at the time of the making of Adam's will in 1802. I am told the Hyer family went from Hardy County to Braxton County. There are no Moyers or Carshners on the 1782 Hampshire County census list.

       We conclude that our Henry was the eldest of Adam and Barbara's sons and that he was born about 1760, probably in Berks County.

       Though there were those mountain ridges between them, they must not have been big ones, because Henry and a daughter of the Buzzards over on North Mill Creek managed to get together.

Catherine BUZZARD was born, so her tombstone tells us, in 1761, probably in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

       Henry Buzzard's wife and Catherine's mother was Elizabeth ALT. Some Alts were very prominent in Hardy County, but those Alts did not arrive on the South Branch until long after the Buzzards and Radabaughs - about 20 years in fact. Henry ALT was granted 45 acres in Hardy County in 1789 and Michael ALT was granted 100 acres in 1791 and 50 acres in 1793. Those lands were near the Fairfax County line "just south of the Northern Neck line" (Henry's) and "adjoining the Manor County line" (Michael's) and on the North Branch of MIll Creek (both) where Henry Buzzard and Henry Radabaugh were.

       Henry and Michael Alt were the progenitors of all the Alts now living in Grant and Pendleton Counties, but what relation they might have been to our Elizabeth can not be proved. Possibly much younger brothers or nephews.

       From the date of birth of their first child, Henry Jr. in 1781, the Buzzard-Radabaugh wedding is estimated to have taken place in 1780, when Catherine was 19 and Henry about 20.

       They appear to have set their fortunes not with Henry's father, as one might expect, but with Catherine's, and settled near him over on North Mill Creek. That is where they were located in the 1782 census.

       Henry was of the age to have had a part in the Revolution, but no record of any service has come down. He was later, about 1794, known to have been exempted from military service "for reason of physical infirmity." Maybe that disability was also upon him during the Revolutionary years.

       He and Adam did make the West Virginia history books, however, for their part in an episode which took place in Hampshire County during the Revolution.

       The incident is completely spelled out in "CALENDAR OF VIRGINIA STATE PAPERS." What a chuckle I got as I was reading through the papers to come to the end of the ones about the incident to find that my own ancestors were two of the "culprits!"

       The incident began on 11 April 1781 when Col. Garret VAN METER commander of the Hampshire County Militia, wrote to Virginia Governor Thomas JEFFERSON that he had received his Excellency's letters requiring 242 of the county militia to march at once to Williamsburg, but that he saw difficulty in executing this order, "I am sorry to inform your Excellency that a dangerous insurrection has lately arisen in this county."

       It seems that many of Van Meter's constituents took exception to two new acts of the state assembly requiring each county to provide a certain quota of troops for the Continental Army and to supply the Army with clothes, provisions and wagons. Men in certain areas of this county, especially Stump's, Wilson's and Ruddell's districts, refused on both counts - and Van Meter had a rebellion on his hands.

       It appears the leader was one John CLAYPOLE of Stephen RUDDELL's district over on the Cacapon. On one occasion he said if all the men were "of his mind they would not make up any clothes, beef or men and all that would join him should turn out. Upon which he and five or six others got liquor and drank to King George's health and damnation to Congress."

       On April 20, Van Meter wrote, "I have received authentic information that a very considerable number have assembled in another part of the county, determined to stand in opposition to every measure of government, and endeavoring to persuade everyone in their neighborhood to join them in their treasonable and destructive measures. For this purpose (as I am told) they swear fidelity to each other. Their principal object is to be clear of taxes and the draft."

       Well, to make a long (but very interesting) story short, on 16 June, Van Meter wrote that he had ordered out a company of mounted infantry and three companies of foot. These troops had no trouble whatsoever in making the rebels see the error of their ways. Most dispersed and a few even surrendered.

       The rebels were to have been brought to trial but most of the culprits petitioned the governor (by then, Thomas NELSON) for clemency and apparently this was granted as there is no more reference to the episode in the papers. The petition signed by Adam and Henry "Rodebaugh" and 25 others was the same as the one of John Claypole, the ringleader, and four other, "inhabitants of Cacapon in the County of Hampshire." The petition is priceless and I'll include some of it here.

       "Humbly sheweth: That your petitioners living in an obscure and remote corner of the state, are precluded from every intelligence of the state of affairs, either by public papers or from information of men of credit and veracity, and at the same time infested by the wicked emissaries or pretended emissaries of the British who travel through all parts of the frontier, and by misrepresentations and false news poisoned the minds of the ignorant and credulous settlers; that your petitioners, from narrow and confined notions and attached too strongly to their interest, conceived the act for laying the enormous tax of 82 pounds paper money on every hundred pounds of their property rated in specie and a bounty for the recruits of the Continental Army, and the law subjecting them, at the same time, to be drafted for the said service, and the further act for clothing the Army as unjust and oppressive after paying such a high tax on their assessed property, and those wicked and designing men by their artful insinuations and false intelligences industriously propagated to delude and seduce your petitioners, too readily prevailed on them to oppose the execution of the said acts, and take up arms in defence of what those wretches called their liberty and property."

       Whew! Do you realize that's all one sentence? It goes on for many more paragraphs, but that's enough. You get the idea. Anyway, they appear to have been granted the clemency they sought when they ended their petition, "Wherefore, in deep contrition for their past misconduct and sincere promise of conducting themselves as good citizens for the time to come, they humbly pray for pardon and that the honorable board will save their innocent wives and children from ruin and misery, which they must necessarily be involved in, for the crimes of the deluded husbands and parents."

       That second petition, echoing John Claypole's words, was signed by Adam and Henry Radabaugh, plus 25 of their neighbors on the North Fork and on North Mill Creek. All but three of those 27 names appear on the 1782 Hampshire County census.

       The census of 1782 was actually only a head count. The government wanted to know how many people it had a responsibility to and it set up an elaborate (for those days) network to count noses - white and black

       In the rugged mountains and broad valleys of Hampshire County, Virginia where the South Branch of the Potomac and its tributaries raced north to join the Potomac at Cumberland, Maryland, then called Wills Creek, it was no easy task, but one that Michael STUMP and John WILSON and the county's other enumerators were equal to. Wilson, over on North Mill Creek, came up with 519 whites with 13 blacks in their households. Stump, canvassing North Fork, counted 544 whites and 21 blacks.

       Adam Rodebaugh was the only one of our family on Stump's list. He was head of a family of nine. I figure those nine to be himself and wife, Barbara, and their five youngest, Catherine, 18; Peter, 17; Martin, 14; George, 12 and Adam Jr., 10, plus daughter Mary, about 20 and her Moyer husband.

       There was a John Rorebaugh with a family of 11 on Stump's list, but I gather this is the John Rohrbaugh on whom a genealogy has been written in which a near relationship between the Radabaughs and the Rorhbaughs has been disproved. John Rohrbaugh appeared with the list of rebel petitioners of 1781 as John Rodebaugh.

       Over in John Wilson's district that enumerator found Adam's son Henry Radabaugh, head of a family of seven others. They would be Catherine and son Henry Jr., born in 1781, plus perhaps the five in the family of Henry's married sister, Barbara, her Hyer husband and their three, Mary, Peter and Christian.

       Listed next to Henry was Leonard HIER SR., with a family of seven, most assuredly some relation to Barbara's husband. Other Hiers in that district were Leonard Jr. and John.

       Also in that Wilson list and not far from Henry was his father-in-law Henry Buzzard, head of a family of 11.

       The two Henrys, Radabaugh and Buzzard, moved on, but Adam spent the rest of his life there on the North Fork. In 1786, he and Barbara made a deed to John RAGER for a tract of land, and in 1789, they gave power of attorney to one Martin FISHER of Berks County to sell lands in Berks County devised to them by George Ulrich Tucker.

       Barbara died pre-1802, as she is not mentioned in Adam's will drawn that year. On 6 August 1802, Adam wrote that he was "very old and infirm and being weak in body but of sound memory... " At that time Adam was only about 65, but maybe back then 65 was "very old."

       The will was probated 10 September 1806, the estate appraised 25 September 1806, and the appraisal recorded 15 October 1806.

       In that will Henry Radabaugh, who was then about 150 miles distant, received 10 pounds in cash.

       At War's end, Henry and others had begun giving thought to the future. It seemed like this might be a good time to move on. After all, there were all those greener pastures just over the next mountain ridge or down the far valley, in fact, an entire America, west to the Pacific, crying for the Henry Radabaughs and the Henry Buzzards and the James EWINGS and thousands of others along the seaboard and the piedmonts and the West Virginia mountains, crying "Take me, I'm yours."

       As has been mentioned, Henry and Catherine appear to have cast their lot with Catherine's parents, Henry and Elizabeth Buzzard, and when the Buzzard family chose to move on, so did Henry and Catherine.

       South of Hardy County today is Pendleton County and south of that (southwest, really, as the mountains go and the rivers flow) is Highland County in Virginia. In 1785, when the move was made, Pendleton was a part of Rockingham County, but in 1787 it was set off as a separate county, the seat of which was Franklin. At that time Pendleton included the northern half of what is now Highland County, which did not become a county by itself until 1846.

       Into that area of Rockingham soon to be Pendleton and then to be Highland went the two Henrys and their families. Their chosen area is known as Crabbottom. In 1785, Henry Buzzard signed a deed from the government (a grant) which made 82 acres of both sided of West Dry Run at Crabbottom his. I do not know if Henry Radabaugh owned land there or if he and Catherine and their ever-increasing family lived with the Buzzards.

       In 1794 Radabaugh was on the muster roll of Captain William JAMES' company. That was the year he was exempted from military service because of a disability. He was then about 34.

       In the meantime Buzzard had died. His estate was appraised on 30 June 1791. His wife Elizabeth and eldest son Michael were named as executors. Among his many possessions were these few interesting items: two small English pamphlets, two pair spectacles, a Dutch (German Deutsch) book with hymnal, a prayer book and catechism and several , a Dutch book called Handled Seal (?), an old Bible and several Dutch books, a Dutch psalter and two prayer books, a Dutch hymn book and another Dutch hymn book."

       Also among his assets was money due him, including "12 shillings, the amount against Henry RODEBACK for warrants" and "6 shillings, the amount against Henry Rodeback for Casper."

       On the 3rd of August 1795, Michael and Elizabeth sold Henry's 82 acres to one Isaac HENKLE, Esq., who also acquired that same day 82 acres which Michael owned himself. That probably marks the date that the Buzzards and Radabaughs moved on. Some of the Buzzards just moved a couple of mountain ranges west into what is today Pocahontas County, West Virginia, but the Radabaughs went further south, into what is now Greenbrier County, and I think I am right in saying that Catherine's widowed mother, Elizabeth, and her youngest sons went with them.

       Henry and Catherine were on Anthony's Creek in Greenbrier County by the Fall of 1800. At that time their family consisted of Elizabeth, Mary Barbara, George, Samuel, Jesse, and they were expecting their eighth child. That baby arrived at the cabin on Anthony's Creek on the 22nd of October 1800 and she was an important young lady to us - her name was Susannah.

       A brother John followed in 1803, and a sister Margaret in 1805, to make the Radabaughs' family complete. The last two were born either there on Anthony's Creek or after they had moved a bit west in Greenbrier County to Sinking Creek, or perhaps after they had moved even further west to where the Greenbrier joins the New River which flows into the Great Kanawha. That junction is now in Summers County, West Virginia, but at that time the New River was the dividing line between Greenbrier and Kanawha counties, and the Radabaughs appear to have been on the Kanawha side of the river. When the family was on Sinking Creek, they met up with two families who were to play an important part in their lives and in the lives of the Ewings later. On the next creek over from theirs, Culbertson Creek, lived the Hortons, the family of Revolutionary War soldier Joseph HORTON and his wife, Susannah. Also on Culbertson Creek was the family of Azariah JENKINS. All three of these families went to Jackson County about the same time, and it appears evident that they all traveled together to get there. Joseph bought and sold his land as they wended their nomadic way north, and I suppose Henry did the same, though I do not have any land papers to show it.

       In 1808 Henry and Catherine's daughter, Mary Barbara "Polly" Radabaugh, and Joseph's son, John HORTON, were married by Reverend John LEE, and the fact is recorded at Charleston, Kanawha County seat. The month and day of the wedding was not noted by the Reverend Lee.

       Three years after that wedding the Radabaughs made what was to be Henry's last move. The call to the infant state of Ohio and all three families answered it. After crossing the Ohio River they pushed inland some 25 miles to what in five years would become Jackson County. Henry, John Horton and the Jenkinses selected land in a later-day Madison Township, but JOseph Horton was a few miles further west in the future Jefferson Township.

       In 1811, Henry took possession of 84 acres - the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 3 in Madison Township. The record does not show how he acquired the land, but more than likely, he bought it from the government. The prominent Jackson County historian and turn-of the century editor of the Jackson Standard Journal, Daniel Webster WILLIAMS, surmised that he chose that particular spot because it was on the main road from Gallipolis to the Salt Licks.

       Henry's land shows up in the 1875 JACKSON COUNTY ATLAS as belonging half and half to John DAVIS and Z.T. WILLIAMS. The Horton settlement in that atlas covers most of Sections 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9, all contiguous, in Jefferson, Madison's western neighbor. 

       In 1816 the state caused the new county of Jackson to be born. The first election in Madison Township was held 1 April 1816, at the house of Jacob MOLER, which stood near Madison Furnace. One of the clerks was Henry's son-in-law, John HORTON.

       Twenty-one electors participated and Samuel RADABUGH was the first to vote. Others included George and Jesse RADABAUGH, and men or fathers of men who were to become Radabaugh sons-in-law.

       But here's something curious. There was only one Henry RADABAUGH to vote in that 1816 election. There should have been two. A.E. estimated Henry Sr.'s death as 1818. Does this mean he died earlier than we thought and it was Henry Jr. who was doing the voting?

       In any event Henry Sr. was definitely gone by 1820. He did not leave a will, and there is no stone to mark his burial place and to tell us the date of his death. Historian Williams wrote in 1932 in his "Rambles in the Realm of Memory" column in his newspaper, "He lies buried in an unmarked grave on the land of Clarence DAVIS in Madison." Clarence, no doubt, being a descendant of the John Davis who owned half the Radabaugh farm in 1875.

       In the 1820 census Catherine was the head of the Madison Township household. He two youngest daughters, Susannah, then 19, and Margaret, almost 15, are accounted for with her, and so are the two youngest sons, Jesse, 24, and John, 17. But here is another curious thing - no Henry Jr. He was 39 years old then and still single, so he should have been listed at home, but he wasn't. But there was a male with Catherine in the 16 to 26 age column, yet Catherine did not have any males that age who are not accounted for elsewhere.  

       Listed next to Catherine were John and Mary Barbara Horton with their five sons and two daughters. Nearby were Samuel and George Radabaugh with their respective families. Also nearby was Reuben ROACH, whom daughter Elizabeth had married, as well as others with names that would eventually figure into the Radabaugh picture. And listed very near Catherine was Gabriel McNeill himself, who was soon to be a relative of Susannah, although she did not know it just then.


* * *


       That is the way it was when Enoch Ewing unexpectedly appeared on the Radabaugh doorstep that day in 1820 or 1821. His lovely nurse Susannah soon won his heart and Enoch found many excuses to return to the Radabaugh home in the months ahead. Finally he and Susannah set the date.

       They asked Uncle Gabriel to perform the ceremony and the gentleman obliged. Now Gabriel had many virtues but attention to detail doesn't seem to have been one of them. After the wedding he dutifully recorded the data on a little slip of paper, but when he went to the courthouse to record it, instead of actually making the entry in the marriage book, he merely slipped the little piece of paper into the book, to be recorded later, he thought.

       Well, it never was. The little piece of paper fell out of the book and dropped to the floor to be trod, trampled and spit upon in the ensuing years, until one day in June of 1900 - and here again it was editor-historian Williams to the rescue. On that day, Williams was prowling around the garrets and cellars of the courthouse, as he was wont to do in search of material for his column in his paper, when he stumbled on the paper. He turned the valuable little document over to the Clerk of Courts but later mentioned his find to Dr. G.A. EWING of Jackson, A.E.'s cousin, who asked the clerk for permission to send it to A.E. for safekeeping.

       Thus it was that while Enoch and Susannah's marriage never made the Jackson County records, we have proof positive of it. That little piece of paper now yellow with age is written in Gabriel's hand in brown ink, and says, "I do hereby certify that on the 20th day of December, 1821, I joined together in Holy Marriage Enoch Ewing and Susannah Radabugh. Given under my hand this 2nd day of January, 1822, Gabriel McNeel, M.G."

       The 163-year-old document is now one of my most treasured possessions.  

       His marriage meant a change in Enoch's life. No longer was he to be a part of that closed-knit clan in Section 11, Huntington Township - Ewingville as it was coming to be called because of all the Ewings living there.

       Instead he and Susannah would be making their home in Jackson County, near the Radabaughs, the same as Susannah's parents had lived near the Buzzards instead of Henry's parents. Enoch did not buy his land until 1827. I do not know where the newlyweds were in the intervening six years, probably with Catherine.

       When Enoch began giving thought to getting a place of his own, he remembered his inheritance from his father, 160 acres back in old Virginia, in Pocahontas County, and he decided to go there, look it over and see if he could sell it. He saddled up and was off, retracing the trail the Ewings had taken when they were going up to Ohio 15 years before.

       Enoch was made welcome in the home of his McNeill cousins at Buckeye, who knew of the Ewing land up on the mountain and were happy to take him to it. William McNeill especially was eager to show him the land, which he later described as a mile up and three back. The 160 acres lay against the side of a mountain above Swago Mountain which was William Ewing's old boundary line. The land was on Williams River at a place called Beaver Dam Flats.

       In the 1981 POCAHONTAS COUNTY HISTORY, Jane Price SHARP guessed that Williams River was so called because William Ewing owned land on it, but I rather imagine it was named for the Williams family whom I discovered to have lived further upstream, nearer the mouth of the river, over in Randolph County. Still it is nice to think our William had a river named for him.

       I do not know how Swago Bill came by that 160 acres. It might have been part of the 1,000 acres his father had a grant for before his death. The 1,000 acres were in Randolph County then, but went with Pocahontas County when that county was formed in 1821. The picture in my mind, though, is that those 1,000 acres were further north, but I could be wrong.

       At any rate, William McNeill (son of Jonathan, the miller, dyer and powder maker of Swago Creek) listened with interest when Enoch spoke of selling his land, and a deal was made. The price was $1 per acre, with a gun at $15 as part of the payment. They shook on it and McNeill began paying taxes on the property that year, 1826, although he did not receive a transfer ticket from Joseph MOORE, Commissioner of Revenue, until 1827.

       The year 1826 also saw Enoch and Susannah, as well as all her sister, brothers and their spouses, selling their rights to their father's land in Madison Township to their oldest brother, Henry Jr. On 26 November 1826, Enoch and Susannah, John and Polly Horton, Jesse and Elizabeth Radabaugh, Samuel and Rhoda Radabaugh, and George and Polly Radabaugh sold their interest in the land.

       A month later Benjamin and Catherine Arthur did the same and two months after that, John and Polly Radabaugh, Reuben and Elizabeth Roach and James and Margaret Jenkins did likewise.

       Thus Henry Jr. secured the homestead for $230.03, as a home for his bride, Lydia HENSON, whom he married the previous year       The years 1826 and 1827 were important in the lives of the Radabaugh family. At that time most of them were buying new land and establishing new homes over in Jefferson Township, where the Hortons were in 1823, Catherine's youngest, Margaret, had married James JENKINS, and they too were moving over to Jefferson Township with Catherine going with them.

       In March of 1827, Samuel Radabaugh bought some government land in Jefferson Township's Section 2, and a month later, on the 16 of April, he and his wife Rhoda, sold 80 acres of it to Enoch and Susannah for $1 an acre.

       Thus did the Ewings come into possession of the farm that was to be their home for the next 26 years.

       The first order of business was to build a house. Enoch built his, for some reason, smack dab up to the township line, so that he was almost in Franklin Township. Historian-Editor Williams wrote in his newspaper in 1904, "I have often wondered why Ewing built his house on a hill so far from water, some eighth of a mile, while all the others built near springs. Him home stood on the knoll almost south of Vaughn's Station. One of the large stone chimneys built by him is still standing. It was built of stone dressed by Ben White at his quarry.

       The editor should know. He was born on that land, for his father B.G. WILLIAMS, bought the place when the Ewings moved to Michigan. But that comes later.

       This by A.E.: "On March 10, 1836, according to the records, Enoch bought another 40 acres, this from the government, and paid cash for it. This 40 acres was at the north end of the first 80 acres, thus was over the township line into Franklin Township. When the house was enlarged to accommodate the increasing family, the three children born after that never knew in which of the townships they were born.

       "Grandfather Enoch told a story that had to do with still another 40-acre purchase. This land lay on the north side of the 40 he had bought the year before, in 1836. He needed this land and decided to buy it as soon as he could. But in the meantime he learned that a neighbor was aiming to buy it. It was government land and the land office was at Chillicothe, 30 or 40 miles away. The only way Grandfather could make sure of it was to get to the land office first. Those of us who knew Grandfather in later years would hardly think him capable of playing a trick, but this was a case where he was forced to do something or lose the land. He held his tongue - an easy thing for Grandfather to do. To hide his intentions and to avert suspicion, he started out one morning on foot, as if he were just going for a walk - but he walked all the way to Chillicothe!

       "He reached Chillicothe only to find an unexpected obstacle. Because of some law or technicality, he couldn't purchase the coveted 40 acres in his name. But that didn't bother him - he just bought it in the name of his eldest son. That was Isaac - who was then about a month short of being 11 years old!"

       Thus it was that Isaac Ewing became the owner of 40.33 acres of land in Franklin Township on 9 March 1836, the consideration being $50.41 - at the age of 10.

       (On 20 September 1852, just before his marriage, Isaac deeded the land back to his father, to give Enoch clear title for selling out. Enoch gave his son $50 for doing so but that probably was as much a wedding present as anything else.)

       So now Enoch had himself a 160 acre farm a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. It took him a little longer to cover his 160 acres than it did most farmers, but if that's the only way you can increase you land, that's the way you increase your land.

       The children came to Enoch and Susannah thick and fast. In the period 1822 to 1844 they had 10. The last, Emily Jane, died in 1848 at the age of 4 years. The others were Charlotte, Isaac, Janetta, John Wilson, William Jordan, Andre Adam, James Leander, Elizabeth Parilla and Henry McKendree.

       As they grew up, the Ewing children were surrounded by kin - Radabaugh kin, that is. The Hortons were prolific and are numerous in Jackson County to this day. Any Horton by that name there today is a Radabaugh cousin, for John was the only son of Joseph HORTON, the progenitor, to produce more Hortons. George Radabaugh remained in Madison Township and so did Samuel, but Jesse lived in Jefferson Township as did Catherine who married Benjamin ARTHUR. Those two, Jesse and Catherine, left large families in Jackson County, Ohio.

       There are Radabaughs by that name in Jackson County today, but not a one to be found in the 1875 atlas.

       Enoch and Susannah were very pious people, and they taught their children to be. The Methodist-Episcopal Church was very important in their lives. One of the first things Enoch did as his children grew up was to see to it that there was a Sunday School class established to give all the young people in the neighborhood religious training. He was secretary of the church, and as such kept a little record book of the Sunday School which has come down through the ages. The book covers the period 1833 to 1849, and it is remarkable as it names the children, gives their ages, their parent, and in some cases how far they lived from the church. Most every name in it - including MC NEEL, RADABAUGH, JENKINS, ARTHUR, EWING, YEAGER and CHERRINGTON - is in some way connected with the Ewing family. The little book went with Enoch to Michigan and then it fell to Henry, who used the back pages for an account book. In later years he realized its value and turned it over to his son, A.E., for safekeeping.

       Now, 153 years after that little book first saw the light of day, I have it in the family archives. It's a treasure.

       I am sure Enoch and Susannah's children must have had contact with their Ewing cousins, who were not too far away, just over into Gallia County, but if there were a closeness, it has not been mentioned in Henry's or A.E.'s writings.

       Henry, the youngest son, born in 1841, was 12 years old when his Grandmother Ewing (Mary Mc Neill) left Wilkesville, Ohio to go to Iowa with her youngest son Andrew but in all his writings and in those of his son, no mention is found that he knew her or recalled her in any way.

       The years flew by. Enoch and Susannah were still having family of their own when their eldest daughter Charlotte, and Josiah JENKINS, grandson of Azariah from back on Culbertson Creek, Virginia, announced their intentions to wed. They set 1 November 1840, Charlotte's 18th birthday, as the date. That was just 17 days before Josiah's 28th birthday.

       Charlotte and Josiah's first child, Martha Jane was born

2 October 1841, less than five months after Susannah gave birth to Henry McKendree, her ninth. Charlotte and Josiah had Mary Elizabeth in 1843 - and she was older by a year, one month and 10 days than her Aunt Emily Jane. Emily - "Little Emily" as she was called in later years - died four years later and from that point on Henry McKendree was the baby of the family.

       So Enoch and Susannah were becoming parents and grandparents at the same time.

       In the meantime Henry and Samuel Radabaugh had started movement of kin to Northern Ohio. On 26 August 1834, Catherine Radabaugh gave up her dower right to Henry's land in Madison Township, to give Henry clear title so he could sell the old homestead, which he did that same year - to Thomas WILLIAMS for $300 (the Z.T. WILLIAMS who owned half the land in 1875). On 15 March 1837 Henry bought from the U.S. government 84 acres in the northwest quarter and 40 acres in the southwest quarter of Section 6, Springfield Township, Williams County, Ohio and another 40 acres, location was not given. Williams County is right up to the Michigan State line.

       That same date Samuel bought 49.94 acres from the government, also in Section 6. Five months later he bought 40 more acres, same location.

       Henry must have sold his land in Springfield Township or else boundaries changed, because by the time of the 1850 census he was located in Brady Township, the next township north.

       Henry and Samuel started it, and later others followed suit. It was about 1848 when James and Margaret Jenkins and her mother, Catherine, made the move to Williams County. Catherine was then about 87 years old, but she rode horseback every inch of the way. Her grandson, John W. EWING, accompanied them on that trip. John was later fond of telling of the episode and was proud to report, "She rode her own horse and handled him well, she being in good health and unusually spry for one of her age".

       The Jenkins settled in Brady Township. They were listed there in the 1850 census, Catherine with them. She was then 89 years old.

       Catherine died 20 July 1851, age 90 years. She is buried in what was called the French Cemetery on the George GENTIT farm near West Unity, Brady Township, Williams County, Ohio.

       Sadly the cemetery was neglected and fell into ruin. The stones were broken and stacked to one side when a granddaughter visited it about 1937. She ached to pick up Catherine's stone and take it with her, but did not think it would be right. She did write down the inscription and send it to A.E. for safekeeping. It said: "Catherine Radabaugh, died 20 July 1851, age 90".

       A.E. wrote the following:

       "The parallel in the lives of our two great grandmothers, Mary MC NEILL EWING and Catherine BUZZARD RADABAUGH, is noticeable. They were born within 10 years of each other and died within seven years of each other. Both lived in the valley of the Greenbrier in Virginia, not more than 20 miles apart, moved with their entire families to Southern Ohio within a year of each other, and settled on Ohio farms a dozen miles apart. Mary had 12 children and Catherine 10. They were widowed within four years of each other, their husbands dying comparatively young. Catherine died in 1851 at the ripe old age of 90 and Mary died in 1858 at the ripe old age of 87. Mary travelled across four states in a covered wagon at the age of 82, and Catherine rode horseback across the state of Ohio at the age of 87. Mary was of Scotch blood and Catherine was of German blood. The ancestors of both had left Europe to escape religious oppression and the lives of both girls were shaped in the Alleghanies of Virginia. It is not likely that they ever saw each other, but every descendant of Enoch and Susannah are joint descendants of these two remarkable great-grandmothers. Who can help but be reverently proud of them?"

       That was not all of the 1848 migration. It was a big wagon train that left Jackson County for Williams County, and it included many of our family. Isaac EWING, for instance, Enoch and Susannah's eldest son. On 26 July 1854, Issac bought 159.94 acres in Mill Creek Township in Williams County for $479.82. Mill Creek Township is right on the Michigan state line.

       It also included Enoch's favorite cousin, William "Billy"

MC NEILL, who bought 175 acres in Brady Township on 26 August 1850. And it was at this time, too, that Charlotte and Josiah Jenkins went north from Jackson County, her brother and grandmother and his uncle, James JENKINS, being part of the group.

       And of course there was John EWING, Enoch and Susannah's son. John went back to Jackson County, but he ended up being the first Ewing to buy land in Michigan. That was on 8 November 1852, when he became owner of the south half of the southwest quarter of Section 20, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan - which section was later to be "Ewington North".

       The land was supposed to have been a home for his bride, Jane Berry HANK, whom he married in Jackson County, Ohio on 4 July 1850. But Jane died the month after he bought the land, in Jackson County, soon after giving birth to their daughter, Mary Jane.

       Before then, in 1845, John's sister Janetta, had married the stoneman who quarried Enoch's chimney stone, Benjamin WHITE. They lived on Hewitt's Fork in Jefferson Township, but in 1852 they were talking about going north too.

       It must have been about then that Enoch began taking stock, as his father had done back in Virginia 42 years before. He looked at his 160 acres and thought, "This is big enough for me, but is it big enough for my sons?"

       He knew it wasn't, and he knew what he had to do.

       He and his family would go to Michigan.

       On 25 March 1853, a deal was consulated with Evan MORGAN. The long, narrow farm in two townships, the 160 acres that had been home for 26 years, was sold for $2,250.

       The following year Morgan sold it to B.G. WILLIAMS, Daniel Webster's father, and that is where the historian-editor was born in 1865.

       Eventually Enoch's log house was torn down and a frame one built a little south of the old one, but the old chimney remained for many years. At some time in the next 22 years Williams sold the south 60 acres of his land to a J. JENKINS, keeping the 20 acres, the home site, for himself, plus the 80 over in Franklin Township. That is the way the Enoch Ewing place shows up in the 1875 atlas.

       In the Spring of 1865, Henry EWING, then 24, had the occasion to be in Jackson County, Ohio and of course a visit to the place of his boyhood was a must. He was by then married to Nancy Ann HANKS. On Saturday, May 6, he wrote to his parents back in Hillsdale:

       "Nan and I went to Franklin last Saturday and came back to her father's in Lick Township on Wednesday. I used to think I would like to be there about three or four weeks, but three or four days is plenty long to satisfy me. We was at Clint's two nights, (Nancy's cousin, Clinton CHERRINGTON), Aunt Caty's one night (Catherine RADABAUGH ARTHUR) and Whitcomb CHERRINGTON's one night (another cousin of Nancy's). I was at Franklin to a meeting Sunday and I saw most all the old church members. The people all look very natural, only the young folks has changed a good deal.

       "I went over to the old place. The old orchard and hills all look like they did when I was little. The house and front yard is not natural. The old crib and stables are all tore down. The barn is still there. I recollect a good many little Sarvis trees and other shade trees that we left that are cut down. The black walnut in the old garden is down and most all the cherry and apple and peach trees in the old garden are gone."

       As the wagon train headed north out of Jackson County on 7 September 1853, John Ewing was at its head, he being an old vet when it came to covering the distance between the far reaches of Ohio. He looked back and saw the wagon carrying his 54 year old father and 53 year old mother and no doubt their youngest daughter, Elizabeth Parilla, 15.

       The sons - Andrew, William, James and Henry probably drove the cattle behind as they rode horseback.

       Janetta and Benjamin White and their two youngsters occupied another wagon. No doubt it was Janetta who was taking care of John's motherless daughter, 10 month old Mary Jane.

       There may have been other assorted friends, neighbors and relatives in the caravan, but those are the ones who count to us.

       They were a week out of Jackson and at London, west of Columbus, 70 miles into their trip, when little Mary Jane got sick and died. The date was 14 September 1853, and the baby is buried there at London.

       I figure the route from London was through Urbana, Bellefontaine (where Enoch had cousins from Indian John's family - no doubt they stopped to visit), Lima, Defiance and then the last leg to Bryan, Williams County seat. If they made 10 miles a day and covered the 200 miles in 20 days, then they arrived in Williams County, Ohio on 27 September 1853. Of course Williams County was not their ultimate destination, but Woodbridge Township is only 3 miles north of the state line, so when they did continue on, they did not have far to go.

       Enoch's land in Woodbridge joined his son John's on the east. He had 240 acres all told - the entire southeast quarter of Section 20 and 80 acres lying south across Camden Road in Section 21, which had the St. Joseph River coursing through it on its way to Lake Michigan. How Enoch loved his little river, and how much he enjoyed fishing in it in the next 30 years.

       On 19 December 1853, Josiah Jenkins took title to the north half of Section 20 - 320 acres, but he eventually sold or gave away many of those and ended up in the 1872 HILLSDALE COUNTY ATLAS, or his widow that is, with 199 acres.

       Eventually Enoch split his 240 acres giving half to Henry and half to James and Andrew. They bought several acres in the northeast quarter of the section from Josiah and Charlotte. So all of Section 20 was Ewing land. Across Cambria Road from Enoch and Susannah was daughter Elizabeth and her husband, DeWitt Clinton CHERRINGTON. Benjamin and Jenetta White had their sawmill on 240 acres in the south half of Section 30, 2 miles or so by road from Enoch, and William and his wife, Isabelle HANK, lived across Austin-Harmon Road from the Whites, into Amboy Township.

       That put all of his family close around Enoch, except Isaac, who was only 15 or so miles south into Ohio. How proud Enoch must have been to know that his family was such a close-knit group, a little community of its own, with other assorted relatives and good friends and neighbors thrown in for good measure.

       It stayed pretty much like that for some 30 years.

       Once the family reached their new land, before anything else could be done, there was the matter of clearing all that land and getting homes built for all the family. What back-breaking work that must have been, even with eight brothers and brothers-in-law pitching in to help each other.

       Enoch's first house was of logs and it was set well back from the road, where the big barn later stood. The frame house was built on the same spot in 1867 or 1868. That one had two fireplaces, a winding staircase and a wide veranda across the front, with two porches on each side, the farmyard porch on the west and the summer porch on the east. When the house was moved to its present location about 1876, it was remodeled and, in the process, both fireplaces and the winding staircase were eliminated. Just after the turn of the century, the veranda, beginning to sag, was removed and replaced by a smaller porch.

       The moving of the house in about 1876 was to make way for the large barn that was raised on the spot, and finally completed in 1882.

       By 1855 all of Enoch and Susannah's children had married and moved into places of their own except James and Henry. On James' marriage in 1858 to Elizabeth SMITH, sister of Emily who had married Andre, Enoch gave him the west half of the farm, and a house went up on Camden Road between Enoch and John, who had married again in 1855. After Henry's marriage in 1862 to Nancy Ann HANK, he brought his bride to live with Enoch and Susannah, and on Enoch's retirement, the place became theirs.

       One of the first things Enoch and Susannah did on arrival in Woodbridge was take the initiative in establishing the first school in the district - District 5, Union School. They donated 10 acres of their land at the north end of their property, on Cambria Road for the school in 1855.

       They also had not been in Woodbridge long when they saw the need for a religious class, and they took the lead in organizing one. The class became the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Woodbridge, but that was only its official name. Unofficially it was the Ewing Church, because its membership was almost entirely Enoch and Susannah's large family. Services were held for many years in the little log schoolhouse on Cambria Road, but in 1879, after Henry took over the Enoch farm, the church got a place of its own. Henry gave room on a corner of his property for the church and he was secretary of the building committee. The church, which stood at the corner of Cambria and Camden Roads, was moved when Henry sold the property on his retirement in either 1908 or 1910 to a location in Amboy Township where it stands today.

       The church served Methodist-Episcopal of both Woodbridge and its neighboring township, Cambria.

       More and more the area around Enoch and Susannah become Ewingville, as the next generation came into being, and then the next. All the grandchildren of Enoch and Susannah were born and grew up on Section 20 or close by. Enoch lived to see all 45 of them, born in the years 1841 to 1869. And he lived to see 42 of his eventual 119 great-grandchildren, who were born in the years 1862 to 1925. The last was Charles EWING Jr., born after great-great-grandchildren and even great-great-great-grandchildren had started putting in appearances.

       The sad thing about this, though, is that of those 119 great-grandchildren, there are only 18 males with the Ewing name. Of those 18, all but four either died in infancy, died childless, or had only daughters, leaving only Fred, Burke, Walkley and Charles Jr. to carry on the Ewing name. Now that is a family really daughtered out!

       In 1861 things were going nicely in "Ewingville". Farms were beginning to be productive, homes were getting all the comforts necessary to one's well-being, the grandchildren kept coming and the older ones were getting married, and life was falling into a serene routine.

       And there had to go and be a war to spoil it.

       Granted it was a popular war, a cause that all the occupants of Ewingville were in accord with. But - well, let A.E. tell it from his book, "ENOCH AND SUSANNAH".

       "Bear in mind that for a considerable time after the war commenced, the ranks were filled by volunteers. When volunteering lagged, drafts were instituted. Each township knew its quota. The Ewing crowd, while in full sympathy with the Union cause, was not, apparently, keen about rushing into the fray. They all had families of children and were very much needed at home on their new farms. The years 1861, 1862 and 1863 went by and the war was still raging. Although the Union cause was sure to win in the end, new recruits were needed at once to bring it to a finish. There was one draft after another. At the beginning of 1864 there were a number of young men in Woodbridge and Amboy subject to the draft. The fact that they were subject to draft was incentive to volunteering. Recruiting stations were open all the time and ambitious young captains were sent home from the front to raise companies of their own, and strong appeals were made to the patriotism of the young men who had not yet enlisted. Most of these young men were married and their young wives were, naturally enough, not keen on being left alone on new farms with their small children. It was a serious situation at home to say nothing of the danger that the men might never return."

       The young men in "Ewingville" who were most affected by all this were Andrew and Henry EWING, DeWitt CHERRINGTON and Alvin HANK, brother of Henry's wife, Nancy, who lived down the road a piece in Amboy Township, all near in age and very good buddies. They made a pact that if one was drafted, they would all enlist. This happened, and they did - the date of their enlistment being 29 March 1864.

       Thus it was that Enoch and Susannah sent off to war two sons, a son-in-law and a brother of their daughter-in-law, as well as Susannah's nephew, Thomas RADABAUGH, who joined the quartet at enlistment though he was 43 years old. They all enlisted in Company D of the 2nd Michigan Infantry and before you could say Johnny Reb, they were in the thick of it around Richmond, Virginia in the waning days of the war.

       Their stories are all told under their individual sections.

       The folks at home were greatly grieved over "this wicked rebellion," but knew that it had to be fought, and bore the worry and inconvenience of it with patience. Enoch was a staunch Republican, and while he might tolerate a difference of opinion in religion, there was but one right side in politics. The lowest of all created beings in his estimation was a Copperhead, a Northern Democrat who sympathized with the Southern Secessionists.

       His contempt for them is evidenced in a letter he wrote on

7 November 1864, to his son-in-law, DeWitt Cherrington: "Well, DeWitt, I do not know what to write to you to encourage you. I see by your letter that you are almost out of heart at this war coming to a close. If it were not for the Copperheads in the North it would have been over before now. From the threats they are making, if put in force, it is just begun. If Abraham is elected they are going to kill off the Republicans here at home so you see, we are not much safer than you are in the front. I believe Honest Old Abe will be our next president. Tomorrow will tell the tale."

       There's also this tale that has come down: At Enoch's birthday party in 1879, the day he turned 80 years old, there was a large party for him and old-timers present were asked to say a few words. A newspaper account of the occasion reported: "H.M. POWERS, an old friend and neighbor, being called, came forward and said that he was glad to say something about Grandpa Ewing. 'The first time I ever saw him was at the second election of Lincoln. (The above election) I was a stranger in town, only moved in the spring before. There were a lot of Copperheads at the polls and they undertook to bulldoze a soldier home on furlough (Henry SMITH), saying he was not of age. Our old friend had got wind of what they calculated to do, and examined the family record. He came to election early, to see fair play. Well, there was some very loud talk. When I saw this old man, then 66 years old, come forward with fire in his eyes, determination in every look, saying to certain ones, "You are a Copperhead and you don't know anything about this matter". Those were my sentiments and I was ready to help back it up if necessary, but there was no call for me. The firmness and the power of those words seemed to convey that justice and right must and shall prevail. The soldier voted. When I had a talk with the old gentleman, he said to me, 'I 'lowed to hit them a lick if they had given me any Copperhead sauce.' That was the first of my acquaintance with him, and I have always found him on the side of right."

        Enoch, Susannah and the others at home did all they could to make being a soldier a little easier. There was a constant flow of not just letters from Woodbridge to the front but boxes and boxes of foodstuff - butter, currants and sweet cake among them - for their quartet-plus-one to devour, and money, one or two dollars at a time, to supplement the meager pay.

        The Ewings had not only their boys to write to but Nancy as well. When Henry left for the war, Nancy, who was expecting a child in November (he was A.E. and he arrived two days after the re-election of "Honest Old Abe"), went back to Jackson County to be with her father and stepmother. All her in-laws in Woodbridge kept in touch by letter, and she in turn wrote them.

       All the letters that flowed between Michigan, Ohio and Virginia during that period, April 1864 to June 1865, have been preserved, and are in the keeping of A.E.'s daughter, Doris EWING of Grand Haven, Michigan. In the 1930s, A.E. put all of them into typewritten form. They make up the book I call "THE NANCY LETTERS." There are also some letters in another book from pre-war time, dating back to 1858. There are certain letters missing from the war-time collection. In October, 1864, when Henry, DeWitt and Andy's regiment was preparing for a major move, the boys burned the letters they had been so carefully preserving in their knapsacks all those months, because there wasn't much room in the knapsacks for anything else, and to lighten the load a bit. What a pity.

       The letters in chronological order are treasures, and make fascinating reading.

       Many Woodbridge Township men were killed during that war, and others came home minus limbs and/or health. Enoch and Susannah's "boys" were on the luckier side. Henry lost an eye at Petersburg and Andy was shot in the hand, the bone shattered, but there were no serious after-effects. Alvin was taken prisoner, but was later released none the worse for wear. Thomas' only trouble was that his age had been against him. And DeWitt? DeWitt was the only one of the five who was with the regiment from the beginning to the end and was made a Sergeant.

       By the summer of 1865, the Ewing family was intact again, and they took up life where they had left off a year and a half before.

       There was a grand occasion to celebrate on 20 December 1871 - a Golden Wedding Anniversary.

       At some point about then Enoch gave thought to retiring from active management of the farm. When he finally did retire he deeded the entire 110 acres over to Henry, but he and Susannah continued to live there, for awhile anyway. The farm is in Henry's name in the 1875 atlas.

       It was the Enoch and Susannah of those retirement years, the 70s and 80s, that A.E. remembered best, and he set down everything he could possibly recall about them in his book. To give you a little of what they were like, here is a part of A.E.'s remembrances:

       "Though I was born in 1864 and grew up in their home, my more vivid recollection dates from about 1870, when I was 6 and Grandfather was 71. He therefore was always an old man to me. I understand that his hair was sandy and his beard was red, before they turned gray, and he had blue eyes. His complexion was naturally ruddy. I do not know his exact height, but I think it was about 5 feet, 9 inches, and his weight was between 165 to 170 pounds. Had his whiskers been removed, one would have seen a short chin and a square jaw. His nose was large but perfectly regular and his eyes were blue and kindly. He was easily the best looking man in his neighborhood and was distinguished in any audience.

       "At heart, grandfather was extremely kind and considerate, good-natured and jovial, sociable and hospitable, and neither bore ill will nor nursed revenge. His children and grandchildren loved him, and his neighbors universally respected him. He was often called Uncle Enoch by gray-headed acquaintances. He was literally the patriarch of his community.

       "Grandmother carried her share of the honors in the love of her people and the respect of her neighbors. She was however possessed of a strong will, and unlike Grandfather, she would argue. She would contend forcefully with anyone who would lock horns with her, and she generally won her point. She and Enoch made a splendid team. Both were earnest and industrious and worked to the same end.

       "Grandmother was a sturdy woman of native intellect and conscience. In stature she was short and rather rotund. Her back was short and as straight as an arrow. She was full-chested and two-fisted and literally kept the wheels spinning. She was more irritable than was grandfather, but that was her constitutional trait. Her hair did not turn as white as did Grandfather's. She was generous with what she had to give. She entertained guests sociably and hospitably, was full of vim and good cheer, enjoyed a good laugh, and enjoyed telling tales of her childhood.

       "They called each other Pap and Muz.

       "The hardest thing either of them had to contend with in life was not to be working at something. Not within my memory did Grandfather work with horses or oxen, but he never gave up his comradeship with the hoe, shovel, axe, scythe or other light farm implement. The pleading of his sons "to quit working and take it easy" were about as effectual as attempting to beat down a brick wall with a popgun. In corn-cutting time he was the first to the field with his corn cutter, and at husking time he was there with his handmade husking peg. When there was nothing else to do he loaded his rifle and took to the woods for a squirrel hunt, and woe to the squirrel that showed an ear.

       "Sunday was always observed as a day of rest. In my day they attended church occasionally, but not regularly. Their active church days had passed. Grandmother, however, believed that cleanliness was next to Godliness, and therefore was a fitting Sunday observance.

       Sunday was the day Muz took Pap in hand for a good neck and ear-scrubbing, a face-washing with soap, a beard-trimming and a hair-combing, after which she pulled a clean shirt over his head. She enjoyed putting Pap in order, and he bore the ordeal with Christian patience. It was a rare Sunday when we did not have company and she took much pride in having Pap look his best.

       "When they had time to themselves, they would sit together and read the Bible. Grandfather usually did the reading while Grandmother sat by and smoked her clay pipe. As Grandfather used navy plug or homemade "killdad" he could read aloud and enjoy his "tobaccy" at the same time, provided a pan of ashes was handy as a depository for any excess fluid.

       "As I vision the scene now, they presented a picture of profound comfort. They were truly one in act and thought when they were by themselves.

       "Grandmother was industrious and did her full part in the homemaking from the day of her marriage to near the day of her death. She aimed at the substantial and not at the luxurious. She could prepare anything in the food line from corn pone and hominy to cookies and apple pie. She could convert a pig into sausage and a cabbage into sauerkraut.

       "And in the clothing department, she could clip the wool from a sheep's back, scour it, card it into rolls, spin the rolls into yarn, weave the yarn into cloth, and fashion the cloth into coats and skirts. The Ewing boys and girls wore clothes their mother had raised from flax seed. In her prime she was up and at it from early to late and expected everyone about her to do likewise. Woe unto him who showed a streak of laziness."

       On Thursday, 31 July 1879, Enoch had an 80th birthday, and the celebration of that occasion rated 34 1/2 inches in the Hillsdale paper. Fifty kin and 160 friends - 210 heads by actual count - came to the grove on the Enoch farm to honor the patriarch, and the newspaper's account gives us some actual quotes by our great-great-grandfather.

       Many of his old friends and neighbors came forward to add their few words to the accolades he was receiving that day, and many of the younger Ewings gave a sentimental touch with musical offerings such as "My Dear Old Home," "He Has Set Me on a Rock," and "Boys Stay on the Farm."

       "When dinner was announced Father and Mother Ewing led a procession of 210 relatives and friends who were seated at a table about 100 feet in length and we do not hesitate to say it was one of the nicest arranged and loaded with the most good things we ever saw on a table. We are proud to say it was all raised on the farms of the industrious children of Mr. and Mrs. E., and cooked and manufactured by their wives and daughters, who know how to take care of the kitchen to the best interest of a farmer."

       H.M. Powers did the honors when it came time for presents to be offered. "First was a spring rocking chair, a very nice suit of clothes, from hat to boots, by his children and grandchildren; a bread plate by Mrs. BASSETT and some presents by Mr. HOWALD and wife."

       And then at the end, Enoch was called forth to say a few words. His speech is etched in black and white type. "I have lived a long time. I have seen a great many hard times, but could always see my way through, better than I can now, if I should try to make a speech. But my heart is full of rejoicing, and I welcome you all to this beautiful grove today.

       "When I started out in life I was full of ambition. I stuck my stakes with a resolution that someone should be benefitted by my life after I was gone. I have done a great deal to advance education and to support Sunday Schools and help carry forward the churches. I feel as though my work is almost done here, and I am waiting patiently the call of my Master.

       "I thank you all, and wish you a safe return home."

       The newspaper account ends: "The meeting closed by singing 'When Shall We Meet Again?' Thus ended one of the most pleasant gatherings ever assembled in Woodbridge."

       Enoch and Susannah remained on at the farm with Henry and Nancy until 1880. Then for a year or so they made their home with daughter Janetta and her husband, Benjamin White. By the time of their 62nd wedding anniversary, 20 December 1883, they had moved to the Section 20 home of their daughter Charlotte, whose husband, Josiah Jenkins, had died in 1871. Here they had rooms to themselves and did their own housekeeping as long as Susannah was able to get around.

       Susannah was ill only a short time when she died 17 May 1884, at the age of 83 years, 7 months and 1 day.

       A.E. wrote later: "She exhibited great patience and sweetness during her last illness, and remained conscious to near the last. She knew the end was near and met it unafraid, and with joyous anticipation. It was said at the time that her last words were, 'Is this the end?'"

       The funeral service was held in their little church on the corner, conducted by the Reverend William DENMAN.

       "A.E. wrote that Enoch declined rather rapidly after Susannah's death. "In spite of the universal and genuine love he commanded from all his living children and grandchildren and greats, the real joy of living departed with Susannah. He often said he was just waiting for his summons."

       About a year later, Enoch returned to Henry and Nancy's home to live, and there he died. Even before he left Charlotte's he had a good deal of trouble with his breathing, especially at night. He seemed unable to draw his breath lying down, and even while sitting up he had to keep awake to breathe. Often his children or grandchildren would sit up with him to help him pass the time. When awake he talked much and loved to recount incidents of the long ago. If conversation lagged he would doze off, only to awaken with a start to catch his breath. He laughingly called it "perpetual motion". He was not given to complaining, but took things very patiently, so A.E. tells us.

       A.E. records: "I do not recall just how long he had been at my father's before he took to his bed for the last time, nor do I recall how long he was in bed before he passed away, but it seems to me now that he carried on conversation to the very day of his death."

       Death came 10 December 1885, when he was 86 years, 4 months and 10 days old.

       Another funeral service in the Ewing church on the corner, this one conducted by the Reverend E. TENCH, and another burial as Enoch was laid to rest beside his mate of 62-plus years in the Ewing Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Michigan.

       A.E.'s eulogy to his beloved Grandfather follows:

       "No one who knew him will dispute me when I say that Enoch Ewing was one of God's noblemen. He was a hard-working farmer, but just as clean-thinking as he was hard-working. He had a mind of his own, plenty of it, but he never imposed an unasked for opinion upon anyone. He was strong in his views but tolerant with those differing with him. He would let them alone if they would let him alone. If anyone tried to convince him against his convictions, he was apt to find out just how Scotch Grandfather was. Grandmother allowed that Pap was a bit contrary. Nevertheless, Grandfather's opinions were not only respected by his friends, but heeded by his opponents. He aimed to do the right thing and wished everyone well. He came as near practicing the Golden Rule as is humanly possible."

       ISSUE:

18-1                     1.    Charlotte EWING, b. 1 Nov 1822

18-2                     2.    Isaac EWING, b. 1 Apr 1825

18-3                     3.    Jenetta EWING, b. 8 June 1827

18-4                     4.    John Wilson EWING, b. 22 July 1828

18-5                     5.    William Jordan EWING, b. 14 Sept 1831

18-6                     6.    Andrew Adam EWING, b. 13 Nov 1833

18-7                     7.    James Leander EWING, b. 28 Dec 1835

18-8                     8.    Elizabeth Parilla EWING, b. 28 May 1838

18-9                     9.    Henry Mc Kendree EWING, b. 15 May 1841


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18-1              CHARLOTTE EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Enoch-William-James


       Enoch and Susannah had been married 10 months and 11 days when the first of their eventual 10 children arrived on 1 November 1822. For her name the parents must have gone to a friend or favorite person, for Charlotte was definitely not a family name - Ewing or Radabaugh.

       But Charlotte she was, and apparently there was no middle name. By the time she was 5 years old, she was Big Sister to two, and as the family continued to increase, Charlotte was promoted from Big Sister to Assistant Mother. At 17 she had seven younger siblings to help look after. When she was married on her 18th birthday, her mother was expecting Henry and there would be even another born in the Ewing family after Charlotte was a mother herself.

       That marriage on 1 November 1840 was to the grandson of the Radabaughs' long-time friend from back in Virginia, Azariah JENKINS. He was Josiah, son of Amos and Hester (HUDDLESTON) JENKINS, born 18 November 1812, soon after the Jenkins arrived in Jackson County, Ohio.

       When into his teens, Josiah went out on his own and for eight years he was a boatman on the Ohio River, in the employ of the salt works at Scioto, usually in charge of one of their boats. He returned to Jackson County about 1839 and was 28 to Charlotte's 18 when they were married.

       The newlyweds settled on 80 acres of hilly land on the bank of the Black Fork of the Little Scioto River there in Jefferson Township, near his parents and hers, and set out to improve the land and make it into a fine farm.

       In the next eight or so years they became convinced that there were better prospects for them elsewhere and they sold out, heading for first Williams County, Ohio and then Hillsdale County, Michigan. They were with that big wagon train that left Jackson County, Ohio for Williams County in 1848, joining James and Margaret JENKINS (James was Josiah's uncle), the Radabaughs, Charlotte's grandmother, John Ewing, the William Mc Neill's and others.

        They were found in the 1850 Ohio census in Brady Township, Williams County, Ohio, Josiah head of the household, a farmer, and with them their five children, Martha, Mary, Isabel, Nancy and Issac.

       Josiah's deed to 320 acres, the north half of Section 20 Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan is dated the 19th of December 1853. Three hundred twenty acres - half a section - was a good bit of land. Through the years he added to and sold off, but even after paring down to the 199 acres in his widow's name in the 1872 atlas, Josiah still had the second largest farm in Woodbridge. Andrew EWING ended up with 148 acres of the original 320 and Immanuel BROWN, 32, the other.

       In 1860, Josiah gave an acre or more at the north end of his property on Burt Road for a cemetery. Officially the cemetery is called West Woodbridge, but for many years it was known as the Ewing Cemetery for all the Ewings buried there.

       Of additional land he picked up along the way he gave 10 acres for a school - an old log schoolhouse on Carpenter Road.

       It was written: "At the time of their arrival the woodman's ax had not been heard in that section except for the cutting down of a coon or bee tree," which means that all that land had to be cleaned of its forests before it could become a farm.

       But Josiah was a very industrious man and with Charlotte ably taking charge in the house and barnyard, the two before long had a beautiful farm going, one they could be proud of and pass on to their sons.

       By the time Josiah became owner of that land, Charlotte's parents and siblings had arrived on the scene, so they had lots of company in their blood-sweat-and-tears endeavor to get the place going. They also had the pleasure of being near her sisters and brothers, most of whom Charlotte had rocked in their cradles, and to be a part of a little community that could have been called Ewingville.

       The war years were upon them when they had their last child, their 11th. He arrived 17 April 1864, less than a month after a certain Union lieutenant general was named commander of all the Federal forces (10 March 1864) and they named him for that general - Ulysses Simpson Grant JENKINS.

       Josiah did not get to know that son very well. Ulysses was only 7 years old when Josiah died 17 April 1871, age 60 years, 10 months and 13 days.

       And Charlotte was only 48 years old. She had five children under 21, but, as A.E. wrote: "Not for a moment did her courage weaken." She took full charge of that big farm and with the assistance of older sons, kept the place going for 33 more years. If not engaged in farm work, she could be seen at her loom. She wove cloth for family use and carpets for the neighbors. "Work was her hobby," A.E. said of her.

       "Physically speaking," he wrote, "Charlotte was not a large woman but she was broad-shouldered and powerful. She had a mind of her own and knew how to express herself. There was no mincing matters with her. Her decisions were direct and positive. Yet she was a most kindly soul who always had a good word and cheery greeting for everyone. She was devoted to her aged mother and father, her children worshipped her, her brothers and sisters loved her, her nieces and nephews revered her, and her wide range of neighbors and acquaintances respected her. If ever there was a genuine 100 percent heroine in Hillsdale County, Michigan, that woman was Charlotte Ewing JENKINS."

       Charlotte was 81 years, 11 months and 4 days when she died

5 October 1904. She and Josiah share a tombstone at the cemetery they made possible.

       ISSUE:

18-1-1          1.    Martha Jane JENKINS, b. 2 Oct 1841, Jackson County, Ohio

18-1-2          2.    Mary Elizabeth JENKINS, b. 15 July 1843, Jackson County, Ohio

18-1-3          3.    Isabel L. JENKINS, b. 13 Feb 1845, Jackson County, Ohio

18-1-4          4.    Nancy JENKINS b, 31 Mar 1847, Jackson County, Ohio

18-1-5          5.    Isaac JENKINS, b. 6 Dec 1848, Jackson or Williams County, Ohio

18-1-6          6.    Enoch McKendree JENKINS, b. 12 Aug 1851, Williams County, Ohio or Hillsdale County, Mich.

18-1-7          7.    Josephus JENKINS, b. 16 June 1854, Woodbridge Twp., Hillsdale Co., Michigan

18-1-8          8.    Susan Ann JENKINS, b. 18 Sept 1856, Woodbridge Twp., Hillsdale Co., Michigan

18-1-9          9.    Cassius M. Freeman JENKINS, b. 13 Sept 1858, Woodbridge Twp., Hillsdale Co., Michigan

18-1-10         10.  William Edward JENKINS, b. 12 June 1862, Woodbridge Twp., Hillsdale Co., Michigan

18-1-11         11.  Ulysses Simpson Grant JENKINS, b. 17 Apr 1864, Woodbridge Twp., Hillsdale Co., Michigan


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18-1-1   MARTHA JANE JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Martha was born 2 October 1841 in Jefferson Township, Jackson County, Ohio and was only five months younger than the boy she had to call "Uncle" - Henry Ewing.

       She was about 7 years old when the family moved to Northern Ohio and a little older than that when they took up residence in "Ewingville," Section 20 in Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, where Martha reached maturity.

       The township abutting Woodbridge to the west is Camden, and in that township, on a 160 acre farm, was a family headed by Thomas and Martha (DURHAM) FITZSIMMONS, who were early settlers in Hillsdale County from their native Elmira, New York. In that family were two who figure prominently in Ewing history - Mary Ann who married Martha's uncle John EWING (18-4), and James D. who became Martha's husband.

       James was born in Hillsdale on 18 February 1840. His middle name has been given as both Duncan and Dover. The last name is currently spelled two ways. Some descendants stick with the old Irish way of spelling it - FitzSimmons - but most use today's lower case 's'. The latter spelling will be used for consistency.

       The war was just looming on the horizon when Martha and James were married 28 March 1861. James tried to enlist with his brothers early on, but was not accepted. He was, however, drafted in March of 1865, and sent to the barracks in Detroit to serve till war's end.

       James and Martha made their home on a farm in Camden Township, near Reading, which they rented from James' father. But 10 years went by and they began to yearn for a place of their own, and a bigger farm than they could obtain in Michigan.

       The government had acquired what now covers 13 states with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. There was all that land out there and no one on it. In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, permitting settlers to stake a claim, homestead for five years and then pay $1 per acre for their land to make it theirs.

       In Kansas, however, and other states too, most likely, the government had to purchase the land from the Indians before permitting white settlers to stake claims. In Kansas that was accomplished in 1867. And soon after that, word filtered back to places like Reading, Michigan that Kansas was the place to be.

       Before long, James and Martha knew that is where they were going. The arduous overland journey in 1871 took six weeks, but they finally arrived in Morris County, (Council Grove on the old Santa Fe Trail) where James pre-empted 80 acres of land as one of the first pioneers in Morris County. They built a 16 X 24 foot house and that was their home for the next seven years. However, in the fall of 1878 they sold out and with two teams and wagons and 30 head of cattle they moved southwest about 50 miles to Pratt County, their final destination.

       James pre-empted 160 acres on a little river in the northwest quarter of Section 34 in an eastern township in Pratt County, on which he built a 14 X 28 foot sod house, later adding a 12 foot square lean-to. Here they had shelter and comfort for the next eight years.

       James' land was very near the Kingman County line. The Fitzsimmons were nearer Cunningham in Kingman County, Kansas than they were to Cairo in Pratt County, Kansas, hence their post office was always Cunningham.

       James' grant to those 160 acres was signed by President GARFIELD on 17 September 1881 and filed in Pratt County, Kansas on 29 January 1883 at 9 a.m., William DAILEY, Registrar of Deeds.

       James and Martha's grandson, Vernon FITZSIMMONS, has that grant in his possession, as well as the 80 original acres. The 80 acres with the home on them, were purchased by James' youngest daughter Edna, and her husband Horace NICHOL, who willed them to nephew, Lee FITZSIMMONS, during his lifetime and then to Vernon, who farms the 80 - and many more, to this day.

       Lee wrote: "James and Martha established a home without a tree in sight, no wells, no roads, not much fuel and very little food. Until the railroad arrived in the 1880s, Hutchinson, 55 miles away, was the source of supplies. These people had hard times. A flood brought water into their sod house. They soon moved to the present location of the buildings. The cottonwood tree was to be of great help. James sawed 150,000 feet of lumber in the next 30 years. The frame of the present barn is cottonwood lumber. I helped Leslie (his uncle) and others build it around 1905. The old Jenkins barn also had hewed logs for the frame."

       In 1886 the primitive sod house gave way to a substantial frame structure 16 by 28 feet and one-and-a-half stories high. About 1900 it was enlarged to almost twice its original size, to be one of the most attractive residences in the area. Large barns and granaries were erected over the years and James added a fruit orchard and a fine grove of cottonwood and mulberry trees. He kept about 60 head of cattle.

       During those first eight years in the sod house, their home doubled as the post office for the village of Tully, as James was appointed postmaster by the U.S. Postmaster General in 1879. James was very civic minded, and served as a commissioner of Pratt County, an office to which he was elected in 1888, and he was also a justice of the peace. A sketch on him in the "BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF CENTRAL KANSAS" published in 1902, says, "In an early day he gave his support to the Whig party and after the organization of the Republican party he became a supporter of its principles, but afterward he became identified with the people's movement. In recent years, however, he was connected himself with the Socialist party. He was reared in the faith of the Methodist church and although not a member of any religious denomination, he is a firm believer in the Bible and is a true Christian gentleman."

       James died 28 May 1915, age 75 and Martha followed on the 19 Dec 1916/1917. They are buried at Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas. They left one of the largest families of all Charlotte's, and even Enoch's children.

       ISSUE:

18-1-1-1              1.    Alma Esther FITZSIMMONS, b. 4 Feb 1862, Camden Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-1-1-2              2.    Edwin Leonidas FITZSIMMONS, b. 6/7 Aug 1863, Camden Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-1-1-3              3.    James Ashley FITZSIMMONS, b. 28 Sept 1966, Camden Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                     4.    S. Adelbert FITZSIMMONS, b. 4 Mar 1868, Camden Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 27 Oct 1886, age 16, Pratt County, Kansas.

18-1-1-5              5.    Alice Marian FITZSIMMONS, b. 27 Oct 1869, Camden Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                     6.    Clarence FITZSIMMONS - TWIN, b. 20 May 1876, Morris County, Kansas, d. 2 July 1876, Morris County, Kansas.

                     7.    Newton Trowbridge FITZSIMMONS - TWIN, b. 20 May 1876, Morris County, Kansas, d. August 1938, Cunningham, Kansas. Married: 19 Nov 1907, Eva WILLIAMSON, b. 21 Jan 1883.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Son FITZSIMMONS, b&d 27 Mar 1909.

                     8.    Leslie Lee FITZSIMMONS, b. 29 Oct 1879, Pratt County, Kansas. Married: 15 June 1920, Mabel Dale MEGAFFIN. 1968: Cunningham, Kansas. He was called "Judd".

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Maryetta FITZSIMMONS, b. 19 Jan 1925

                                    2.    John Leslie FITZSIMMONS, b&d 2 Nov 1928

18-1-1-9              9.    Avonel FITZSIMMONS, b. 29 Aug 1883, Pratt County, Kansas.

                     10.  Edna Jane FITZSIMMONS, b. 9 Mar 1884, Pratt County, Kansas, d. 1959. Married: 28 Mar 1907, Horace M. NICHOL, b. 21 Sept 1879. They lived in the Cunningham, Kansas area and bought her father's land after the estate was settled, willing it to nephew Lee in his lifetime and then to nephew Vernon. No issue.


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18-1-1-1              ALMA ESTHER FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Alma, born 4 February 1862 at Reading, Camden Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, was 9 years old when Martha and James left Hillsdale County for Kansas, and probably remembered, more than the brothers and sisters who came after her, Grandmother Charlotte who they left back in Michigan. Alma kept in touch with Grandmother Charlotte over the years and thank heaven for that or we might not have anything at all to say about her and her family, who otherwise have gotten away from us.

       In A.E.'s collection was a letter Alma wrote 20 February 1894 to Grandmother Charlotte - long after she was married and a mother. The letter was written 23 years after Alma had left the old place and does give a very good picture, though a sad one, of the times in Kansas then.

        Alma was married in Kansas on 7 October 1884 to George Franklin FOSTER. George was born 19 August 1860. In the letter following, Alma tells her grandmother about many of the Fitzsimmons and Jenkins families who were then in Kansas.

       (Written from Cunningham, Kansas to Hillsdale, Michigan)

                                                         Feb. 20, 1894

       Dear Grandma and all

       I thought I would write you a letter to let you know that we are still in the land among the living and are well with the exception of colds and have not been down home but I guess they are well. Lon's children have the whooping cough (Lon was her brother Edwin Leonidas) We are having winter now. I am afraid we will not have a good crop here next year. People here think some of the wheat is dead now and don't know what we poor people will do if crops fail us next season. Last year we did not raise any vegetables at all, not even potatoes. One has to buy everything they use the same as if you lived in towns, except for flour and meat. One can't sell anything for the money at all scarcely. We have 14 horses and mules, all good, except three or four, but we can't sell one for anything like what it is worth. We are going to move to what was known as the Cherokee Strip, but now it is called Oklahoma about the first of April if the weather gets warm enough so we can. We will have to live on the land five years, than pay $1.50 per acre for it. We will be about 65 or 70 miles from home then, but I can drive it in a day with the ponies and buggy. Surge says he is going to prove up on that place down there, then he says he is going to move to California. One can't tell what five years will bring forth. We wanted Lon and Ashley (her brother, James Ashley) to go down there and get them some more land, but they would not go. We will all be glad if Gavetts don't come to Kansas. (Alma's Aunt Nancy Jenkins and her second husband Willis Gavett, back in Hillsdale),

         This is Friday. Pone (Alma's Uncle Enoch McKendree Jenkins) and Manie (her sister, Alice Marian Goyen) were up to see us yesterday. Manie said Freem's folks had a little girl at their house (Freem was Freeman Jenkins, Alma's uncle, and the little girl was Jessie Jenkins born 12 February 1894) Raymond (Alm's son, then 6) is getting over the sick headache. George (her husband) is mending his harness these cold days when he cannot work out of doors, and Inez (her daughter, age 2) is looking at some pictures in a book. I hulled some corn today. It is hard to find a change of food when one doesn't raise any vegetables, but I suppose we will live some way. There are lots of people that don't have as much as we do, I suppose. I can't think of much more to write so I will have to close and will send you our pictures. Raymond says to tell you he knows all of his letters and can spell. He is a great boy for books and he never tears one. I hope he will always take an interest in books. George is going to town tomorrow and I want to write a letter to his mother so I will close. Love to all. Write as soon as you feel able. I think if you would come to Kansas your health would be better. Now don't work so hard.

                                                                Ever your grandchildren

                                                                 Alma and George Foster

 

       It seems that the Fosters did go to Oklahoma at some later point. They were found in Estancia, New Mexico in 1933, nothing after that, and very little about their children.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Raymond Fitzsimmons FOSTER, b. 9 June 1888, Cunningham, Kansas, d. pre-1968. Married: 2 October 1912, Irene Fern BROOKS. 1933: resided Victorville, California.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    George Raymond FOSTER, b. 18 Feb 1923.

                                    2.    Chester Dale FOSTER, b. 13 Aug 1927.

                     2.    Inez Avon FOSTER, b. 24 March 1892, Cunningham, Kansas, d. Pre-1968. Married: 7 Oct 1910, William Abel HALL. 1933: Estancia, New Mexico.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Foster Neil HALL, b. 12 Dec 1911. Resided: Colton, California.

                                    2.    Athol Raymond HALL, b. 30 Aug 1916.

                                    3.    Avon Alma HALL, b. 12 May 1920


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18-1-1-2              EDWIN LEONIDAS FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Edwin was Lon to family and friends through all his 66 years. He was born at Reading, Camden Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, 6/7 August 1863 and was 8 years old when the family moved to Kansas.

       On his father's 320 acre farm, Edwin learned the life of a Kansas farmer, and it was the only life he ever knew. On his marriage 21 November 1888, he and his bride, Minnie Maria GREEN, settled on 80 acres his father gave them, half a mile east of the Fitzsimmons farm in Pratt County, Kansas and they did not stir very far from there all the rest of their days.

       Minnie was born in 1867 in Fayette County, Illinois to Joshua and Clara GREEN, who homesteaded at an early date in Reno County, Kansas which corners Pratt County.

       Previous to his marriage, Edwin had pre-empted 160 acres of pasture land. The land grant title for that land was signed by President HARRISON in 1891 - a document in the possession of his son, Vernon.

       Later Edwin purchased the Rhoades farm across the road to the east. There were two buffalo wallows on the farm, each about 3 feet deep and 10 yards across. A buffalo horn served as a match holder for many years in the Fitzsimmons home.

       To begin with, their farm, like all the others, had no trees, but no farmyard was complete until the Kansas stand-by, the quick-growing easy-going, steadfast and loyal cottonwood went into place. Edwin's farm abounded with them.

       In 1910 Edwin built a big barn. This one had a hay bay, something he had wanted ever since leaving Michigan.

       Edwin did all his farming with horses and mules, even in a time when mechanized farming was on the upswing. A short time before his death, he ordered a tractor. The delivery date turned out to be the day of his death. Cars came into general use before the tractor and Edwin enjoyed one for many years.

       Farming consisted of those endeavors that provided for stock cattle, milk cows, hogs, chickens and horses. Wheat soon became the main cash crop, but cream and eggs paid for most of the groceries.

       Edwin and Minnie, courageous through many hard times, raised eight children on their farm in Pratt County. They experienced many lean years, as drought periods are frequent in Kansas. They spent nearly 43 years together, devoted to their children and fervent in their goal of making a more comfortable home.

       Oil was big in the minds of the farmers in Kansas in 1928 and Edwin caught the fever when there was a strike 3 miles away from his farm. Oil came in on the Fitzsimmons farm - 10 years after his death.

       Death came for Edwin on 7 March 1930. Minnie died

1 January 1944. Both are buried in the cemetery at Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas.

       ISSUE:

18-1-1-2-1    1.    Olive Leora FITZSIMMONS, b. 22 Jan 1890, Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas.

18-1-1-2-2    2.    Lee Joshua FITZSIMMONS, b. 9 Dec 1891, Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas.

18-1-1-2-3    3.    Alan Edwin FITZSIMMONS, b. 20 Feb 1894, Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas.

18-1-1-2-4    4.    James Robert FITZSIMMONS, b. 28 May 1896, Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas.

18-1-1-2-5    5.    Maude Beatrice FITZSIMMONS, b. 4 July 1900, Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas.

18-1-1-2-6    6.    Florence Elizabeth FITZSIMMONS, b. 26 Jan 1905, Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas.

18-1-1-2-7    7.    Evelyn Ruth FITZSIMMONS, b. 18 July 1907, Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas.

18-1-1-2-8    8.    Vernon Leonidas FITZSIMMONS, b. 28 Oct 1012, Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas.


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18-1-1-2-1    OLIVE LEORA FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Olive's eldest daughter, Margaret, is credited with supplying most of the information that follows. In 1968 Margaret wrote, at the request of her uncle, Lee J. FITZSIMMONS, an eight page sketch on the BERGNER FAMILY. That sketch is incorporated into what follows.

       Olive was born 22 January 1890 on her parents' farm near Cairo, Pratt County, Kansas. Medical reports on ones so young are not always available, but thanks to her Aunt Alma's letter to Michigan of 20 February 1894, we know that Olive, then 4, and her brother Lee on that date had whooping cough. Now there's a bit of history for you!

       Though she grew up as a farm girl, Olive soon began to have different leanings. She wanted a career in the business world, such as it was then opened to women. She enrolled at business college in nearby Hutchison when she was only 15 years old, and graduated second in her class with a very high grade average. At that time Kansas required that teachers must have attended high school but the board decided that the business college work could be substituted for high school work. Olive took the examinations and acquired a first grade certificate with very high grades after attending only summer normal courses. She taught school for four years. She also worked as a secretary and bookkeeper before her marriage.

       Marriage came to Olive on the 12th of November 1912, when she was 22 years old. Her husband was Carl William Ezra BERGNER. He was always Bill to everyone, but his given name will be used here.

       Carl was born 17 December 1884 in Illinois. His family lived in South Dakota before moving to Pratt County, Kansas. He is believed to have been the brother of Minnie BERGNER who married Olive's cousin, Corliss (18-1-1-5-1).

        Margaret wrote: "Dad's opportunity to acquire a formal education was limited, but his interest in learning lasted his lifetime. Mother's quest for knowledge is still amazingly strong. At 78 years of age, she has been reading books on the local pioneer history. One of my childhood memories is that of her reading aloud to the family as we ate. I really don't know when she ate her meals for she usually had a newspaper or magazine in front of her and read some article that she thought would interest at least one member of the family. It might concern business, politics, farming, new scientific discoveries and inventions, or some other part of the nation or world. It might even be on a subject that one of us was studying in school. Everyone listened and as a result absorbed information on a wide range of subjects and we became avid readers ourselves. Mother even read as we rode down the highway on business trips with Father, or on the few vacation trips we took. When we traveled, Mother had read up on the area we would be in and then she told us about the industry and history. Dad took time out to show us all of the points of interest along the way and to visit the industries such as mines, saw-mills, packing plants and the like. He took the family along on all of the business trips possible."

       At first Carl and Olive lived near Isabel, which is actually in Barber County, Kansas, but right on the Pratt County line, and that is where their three children were born.

       It is unknown what prompted the move to Oklahoma, which had opened up 27 years before (16 September 1893) with the running of the Cherokee Strip, but in March 1920, Olive and Carl moved their family there - to Texhoma in the Panhandle, Texas County - and that is where they lived from then on.

       Margaret recalls the move this way: "Dad had gone ahead with the furniture and equipment in trucks, while Mother took the three of us by train. Grandmother had packed a lunch of fried chicken, cake, etc. in a shoe box. Johnny was 2, Minnie was 4 and I was 6. I remember how tired we got and that Johnny fell down in the aisle and cried when the train lurched. We got drinks from the glass jug in a stand at the end of the coach.

       "Dad was at the station in our Model T when the train arrived in Texhoma. The wind was blowing a gale and picked up the gravel, stinging our faces and getting dust in our eyes. We were wrapped in quilts and bundled into the touring car with the side curtains on. The trucks had trouble so were late in arriving. The furniture had been piled in the two front rooms. I have a vivid recollection of our being put on the mattresses piled in the center of the floor and mother stooping over the stove to prepare some supper for us. It was a kerosene stove and the legs had not been replaced so Mother had to kneel as she cooked. We had arrived in the Oklahoma Panhandle in a blizzard, or northerner, and snow followed the duster.

       "As I look back on it now and tell my daughters of how things were when I was a child it seems unbelievable. However I wasn't the only little girl who rode 4 1/2 miles on a pony to a little two-room county school on the banks of a creek. It really wasn't a hardship. We were among the first in the area to get carbide gas lights, indoor plumbing and later, telephones and electricity. We didn't have a lot of money, but our parents managed to provide the important things like books and transportation with quite a few extras thrown in when times were good. When times were bad we all tightened our belts and pitched in to help. When other girls who lived in town got new clothes at the store, Mother sat down at the sewing machine and made new clothing in good times and in lean times remodeled something. Of course nothing was discarded until worn our or out-grown. I used to look at the beautiful things our teacher aunts sent from Kansas and wish I was small enough to get them. Minnie used to wish she could have something made from new material even though it might not be quite so nice. We always had a special dress to wear to Sunday School, and we went to Sunday School and church regularly.

       "Dad was interested in progress and the welfare of the farmer. He felt that the cooperative movement would be the salvation of the farmers. For 22 years he was a member of the board or president of the Texas Wheat Growers Association which later became the Producers Grain Corporation. He served on national boards and conferences. He felt that education was of utmost importance and was a member of a group that went to Washington, D.C., on behalf of the little college at Goodwell, Oklahoma about 17 miles from our farm. He served on other co-op boards and the school board, and was superintendent of the rural Sunday School. His philosophy was to help take care of the children and old folks and that those in between could take care of themselves if they had the opportunity.

       "Two neighbor boys, Howard DARDEN and Jake WATSON, began living with us while they were in elementary school. Their mothers were widows and needed help in feeding and raising their sons. Mostly young boys worked on our farm. Mother always had from two to 35 men to feed besides her family. She often said that Father did not save anything by hiring boys at the going lower rates of pay because they ate so much more! Even though they had hired help when we were young, we also helped. John drove the grease and water wagon when he was almost too little to see over the dash board. Minnie and I helped with the housework, cooking and chores. Mother operated on the principle that it was her duty to teach us how to do everything. As adults we seldom found ourselves in situations we were unable to cope with in one way or another.

       "It never occurred to any of us, Howard and Jake included, that we would not complete high school and we knew that Dad and Mother would do their best to help us attend college if we so desired.

        Jake and Howard both entered the Armed Forces before they completed college, and both lost their lives during World War II.

       "One year all of us were in college at the same time and each was working to help pay expenses. Johnny, Minnie and I earned college degrees before we married.

       "I remember that the year I graduated from high school, about 1931, Dad harvested about 100,000 bushels of wheat. The price was so low that he decided to hold it until the price came up. So instead of going away to Oklahoma College for Women, I went to the little Panhandle A & M College at Goodwell. The price didn't go up so I returned to PAMC the next year. Dad finally sold that wheat for less than it coast him to produce it. Minnie also started her college work at PAMC. It was probably a good thing that years before Dad had gone to Washington to plead for its continuance or we might not today be in the field of education. When it was time for John to start college it seemed that it could not possibly be financed. A business friend learned of the fact and called the president of Texas Tech and found him a job that made college possible for him that year also. I had interrupted my college to teach a year, so we were all in college at the same time for one year. Jake and Howard were at PAMC, Minnie was at Texas Women's University, I was at West Texas State College and John was at Texas Tech.

       "Dad continued farming in the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles. During the early 40s, after Johnny had finished college and was helping, they raised about 300,000 bushels of wheat. Part of it was produced on land Dad owned and the rest on leased land. John was exempt from serving in the Armed Services because the government felt that he was needed to produce food. Vernon, Minnie's husband, left his job as school principal to help Mother and Dad farm.

       "About this time Dad and John added to their operations by buying a 5,000 acre cattle ranch. After World War II, Vernon managed the Texhoma farm and John the land near Stinnett. Since his death, John's son, Bill, is continuing the business started by his father and grandfather. The wheat acreage is smaller but the yields per acre are higher because of deep well irrigation. The ranch is smaller because about half the ranch was taken when Lake Meredith was built.

       "Mother was the bookkeeper and managed to keep things going when Dad was away from home. She didn't let her training and skills go to waste by being "just a housewife" and mother. She was a partner in business, raising a family, helping to develop character and inspiring us to become good Christian citizen."

       All of this was written in 1968, 20 years after Carl died on 27 August 1948. In 1969, Olive was still going strong, but in 1977 it was said that Olive died "years ago." What a marvelous family she and "Bill" established. Isn't she a Ewing to be proud of?

       ISSUE:

18-1-1-2-1-1 1.    Margaret Olive BERGNER, b. 7 Aug 1913, Isabel, Kansas.

18-1-1-2-1-2 2.    Minnie Maria BERGNER, b. 11 Nov 1915, Isabel, Kansas.

18-1-1-2-1-3 3.    John Carl BERGNER, b. 26 Feb 1918, Isabel, Kansas.


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18-1-1-2-1-1               MARGARET OLIVE BERGNER

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Olive-Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Margaret was born 7 August 1913 at Isabel, Kansas and was 6 years old when they moved to Texhoma, Oklahoma.

       She writes of her education thusly: "I have attended several colleges and universities, and have received two degrees from West Texas State University at Canyon. The first degree, a BS, was in Primary Education in 1936, and the second was a Masters in Counseling in 1963. I had three years at Panhandle A & M College in Goodwell, Oklahoma, before teaching a spell and then transferring to WTSU. I did a summer term at the University of New Mexico and another at Columbia University in New York City before World War II.

       "After I returned to the classroom I took courses and workshops to keep up on materials and techniques before starting again on a Masters. I have taken courses by correspondence, TV and extension, commuting 85 miles in summer terms. In the summer of 1964 I did some work at North Texas State University in an NDEA Institute in Guidance and Counseling. One winter I did some work at the Children's Psychiatric Center in Amarillo under a Hogg Foundation grant. I taught about 18 years before becoming a school counselor. Now (1968) I am the counselor at Cal Farley's Boys Ranch near Amarillo, Texas.

       "I have taught Sunday School classes, served on the PTA, am a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, and I belong to many local state and national professional organizations.

       "While teaching in Hobbs, New Mexico, I became engaged to a salesman at a local business, Darrell C. PAGE, who was born 9 June 1906 in Bourbon, Missouri. When the war began Darrell enlisted in the Navy and became an Aviation First Class. We were marrried in San Diego on 26 May 1942. While living in California I worked at Consolidated Aircraft and for Ryan Aeronautical before Sarah was born. Darrell served over four years, stationed in San Diego and the Hawaiian Islands. Sarah was born while he was overseas. He has been in business for himself and a salesman most of his adult life. He has been active in church and civic affairs. He served for years on the Official Board of the Methodist Church, and had 15 consecutive years of perfect attendance at Kiwanis, of which he was president at one time. He was given a lifetime membership in the PTA, and served several terms on the Amarillo City Commission.

       "We were lonesome when our girls left home and felt very fortunate that the opportunity to work at Boys Ranch came our way. One of the girls said that Daddy had always wanted a boy and now he had 348 of them. Boys Ranch is a home for boys who have problems that they or their parents have been unable to cope with satisfactorily. Some of the boys have either been declared delinquent or appeared to be headed in that direction. Others are from homes broken by divorce, death or poor health. A few are orphans."


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18-1-1-2-1-1-1    SARAH MARGARET PAGE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Margaret-Olive-Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Sarah was born 25 January 1945 in San Diego, California while her father was stationed in the Hawaiian Islands. She was 8 months old when he returned. "She had always been a good student" writes her mother. She was a member of the National Honor Society and completed high school in three years. She played in the band, making the All-Region Band in Interscholastic competition and took part in several other activities. She was a Betty Crocker Homemaking Award winner, was second in her class, and won several small scholarships for college. She attended Texas Women's University at Denton, Texas for two years. While there she was a member of the student governing board, president of her dorm, and on other committees and boards. She was elected to two honor societies and was on the Dean's Honor list. After she transferred to WTSU she was elected to other honor societies, served as the first woman on the student government court and was again on the Dean's Honor list. She was named to the Who's Who of American University Students and president of her professional business education fraternity. Sarah received her BBA Degree in Business Education.

       "While attending West Texas State Sarah married one of the university instructors, William LeRoy CORNELIUS, born 12 August 1939 in Phoenix, Arizona. Bill is a gymnast and has many medals and cups attesting to his excellence in state and national competition. He received his Bachelor's from Arizona State University and his Master's from the University of Wyoming. He taught two years at WTSU before going to NTSU. At Denton he was awarded the highest honor given by the Red Cross for saving the life of one of his students who collapsed during a class.

       "Sarah has worked as a secretary and has taught school one year. Next year (1968-69) they plan to tour the Far East and Africa. Bill will be an instructor on the Chapman College Campus Afloat and Sarah will do secretarial work."


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18-1-1-2-1-2               MINNIE MARIA BERGNER

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Olive-Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James 


       Minnie was born 11 November 1915 in Isabel, Kansas and was 4 years old when the family moved to Texhoma, Oklahoma where she has lived since, except for her years in college during the 1930s, and when she was teaching in Headley, Texas. She attended Panhandle A & M at Goodwell two years and Texas Women's university one year, and then received her Bachelor's with a major in Home Economics from WTSU.

       It was while teaching in her chosen field at Headley that she married a fellow teacher, Vernon E. BULLARD, an instructor in the Agricultural Department. Vernon was born 24 February 1916 and was a graduate of WTSU also.

       Vernon and Minnie left teaching to help the Bergners on the farm during World War II. As of 1968, Vernon was still managing the home place at Texhoma. He was ASC(?) Manager at Stratford, Texas for several years. By 1968 Vernon was devoting all of his time to farming. Minnie returned to the classroom one year when Texhoma was short of teachers and in 1968 was still teaching in the elementary grades. Vernon was a member of the Masonic Lodge and both were members of the Order of the Eastern Star.


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18-1-1-2-1-3               JOHN CARL BERGNER

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Olive-Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       John was born in Isabel, Kansas on 26 February 1918. He was only a toddler when he had his first train ride - that long trip to Texhoma, Oklahoma, which was to be the Bergner home for so many years. After high school John attended Texas Tech and received the first combination Agricultural/Engineering degree offered there. He was a member of the student council and took part in many student activities. He received his Bachelor's degree in 1940, and on 4 January 1941, he and Lucille THOMASON were married. Lucille was born 8 February 1919.

       John began farming with his father when he finished college and at Carl's death in 1948, took over the farm. Farming was his main occupation although he was involved in numerous business enterprises.

       Both John and Lucille were very active in church and community affairs. John served as chairman of the church board, taught Sunday School classes, served on the school board and was a president of the Kiwanis Club. He was elected to the City Commission and became Mayor of Stinett. Lucille also taught Sunday School classes and served on the official church board and on the school board. She was a member of the choir and did much to promote music in the Stinett community.

       John was only 50 when he died 17 June 1968 at Stinett. On his death his eldest son, John, who had been in Delta, Colorado, returned to Stinett to help Lucille run the family business and farm and ranch.


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18-1-1-2-2    LEE JOSHUA FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Lee was 77 years old and very interested in his family tree when we were in touch back in 1968. He was so pleased to hear about this project of mine and wanted to help the cause all he could. He gathered in material from many sources and compiled it into a neat package. His granddaughter Sharon typed it all up and Lee sent it on to me as a very good look at all the Edwin L. FITZSIMMONS family (with the exception of Olive whom she and her daughter took care of).

       Bless his heart, he was so eager and enthusiastic. I wish I could have gotten to know him better - and I wish he could have seen the finished product, but sadly, Lee died 22 April 1977, age 85.

       Thank him, however, for passing his family's particulars down to posterity.

       Lee was born 9 December 1891 on his parent's farm near the Pratt-Kingman county line. Although he grew up a farmer's son, farm life was not for him. He owned the old James FITZSIMMONS homestead through all his later years, but did not farm it. He left farming behind him when he entered Pratt High School and then went on to college - Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas. He graduated in 1916 with a BA degree.

       Soon after graduation - on May 29, 1917, in McPherson, McPherson County, Kansas - he and Blanche BAILEY were married. Blanche, born 16 September 1892 near Pratt, was the daughter of Samuel J. and Ida E. (COLE) BAILEY, and was also a graduate of Platt High School. She was a teacher in Pratt County at the time of their marriage. Lee was a teacher also and later went into school administration.

       In 1925 they chucked it all and changed horses in the middle of the stream. A new career loomed in Wichita and they went into the restaurant business. They moved into Wichita and that was it for the rest of their lives. Their home was at 310 S. Martinson. They retired in 1956.

       In 1959, Lee acquired the old homestead of his grandparents, James and Martha, through the will of his Aunt Edna, and it was used for a summer home. Gardening and a pond stocked with fish made it very enjoyable to Lee and family, kin and friends. The large rooms made it an ideal place for family reunions.

       Traveling became a hobby for Lee and Blanche. They used the fact that their son was in Buffalo, New York, as an excuse to make many trips throughout U.S. and Canada - by plane, train and auto - always ending up in Buffalo, of course, until the son's death in 1958.

       In June of 1966 the two attended Lee's 50th class reunion at Kansas University and Lee became a member of the Gold Medal Club.

       On May 29, 1967, Blanche and Lee celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

       After Lee's death in 1977 of a stroke, Blanche remained on at their home in Martinson. She was still there in 1978.

       Incidentally, it is through her family's genealogy that many of the following facts are available. The DAVOL-DEE GENEALOGY was published in the 1960s and as her mother was a DEE, the Fitzsimmons were included.

       As a matter of family interest, Lee sent me a check, the real thing, written by his father on 17 August 1927, drawn on the First National Bank in Bratt for $4.50 payable to the Southern Kansas Telephone Company. Lee thought I would be interested in the signature, which shows that Edwin used the old spelling of FitzSimmons. Lee thought that was silly and when he was in college he went to Fitzsimmons.

       ISSUE:

                     1     (Only). Leland J. FITZSIMMONS, b. 26 June 1921, Eureka, Greenwood County, Kansas, d. 30 Nov 1958, Buffalo, New York, age 37. Married: 25 Dec 1943, Wichita, Kansas, Lorraine A. DEHMER, daughter of Carl and Emma (Kracht) DEHMER, b. 8 Jan 1923, St. Louis, MO. Lorraine was like a daughter to Lee and Blanche and when she remarried on 3 Oct 1959, Dean Earl ZONGKER, the Fitzsimmons sort of adopted the whole family, including the Zongker son, James Dean, born 24 March 1961; Dean adopted Lorraines' two Fitzsimmons daughters; in the 1978 Wichita City Directory, he was listed as an engineer with Great Lakes Aircraft, residence, 1360 S. Maize Road.


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18-1-1-2-3    ALAN EDWIN FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Alan was born 20 February 1894 near Cairo, Kansas and was a "dough-boy" during World War I. On 19 September 1917, before leaving for the service, he and Elsie Alice MEGAFFIN were married in Pratt, Kansas.

       Elsie was born 26 November 1897 and taught school while Alan served with Headquarters Troop, 89th Division, until 1919.

       At war's end they went into farming near Pratt, where their first two sons were born. They then moved to Redfield in Eastern Kansas to become commercial turkey producers, a business they continued until Alan's death the 21 August 1950. Elsie later moved from the farm to Fort Scott, Kansas, where she was living in 1968. The report in 1977 was that she was alive but in a helpless condition, and was to have an operation in August of that year.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Alan Dean FITZSIMMONS, b. 13 Apr 1920, Pratt, Kansas. Married: 1947, Esther WILLIAMS, b. 16 Jan 1924. Reared on the family farm, graduated from Pratt High School. Entered service in 1941, served as a flight engineer in the U.S. Air Force. 1968: farmer and dairyman, Redfield, Kansas.

                     2.    Kenneth Wayne FITZSIMMONS, b. 8 Apr 1924, Pratt, Kansas. Married: 22 Mar 1944, Louise OWENS, b. Greensburg, PA. Entered U.S. Air Force in 1942, as cadet, became a navigator, served in the European Theater. Graduated University of Florida in Engineering and Business Administration; employed 1968 by Dover Corp., Grand Rapids, Michigan.. Lived for many years in Greensburg, PA. 1981: resided Alto, Michigan.

                     3.    Richard Donald FITZSIMMONS, b. 20 Sept 1929, Humbolt, Kansas. Married: 16 Aug 1950, Norma Jean WILSON, b. 8 July 1932, Fort Scott, Kansas. Richard graduated Fort Scott High School, Served in National Guard, became administrative technician for his unit and was still that in 1968; saw active duty in 1952. 1968: resided Fort Scott, Kansas.

                     4.    Norman Howard FITZSIMMONS, b. 21 Feb 1933, Humbolt, Kansas. Married: 1952, Shirley Sue RUNKLE, b. 1935, Redfield, Kansas. Graduated Fort Scott High School, attended college at Manhattan, Kansas, was in the Air Force ROTC, graduated as second lieutenant; entered service as a career officer, became major in 1965 at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma as a pilot instructor of C-141s; the family has lived in Texas, Japan and Delaware.

                     5.    Marjorie Lee FITZSIMMON, b. 21 Sept 1937, Humbolt, Kansas. Married: 1961, Max Dan CUNNINGHAM, b. 1937, Houston, Missouri. Graduated from Fort Scott High School, attended college at Pittsburg; took a medical technician's course at Research Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri. Worked at Mercy Hospital, Fort Scott and Lemon Clinic, Springfield, Missouri until marriage; Max attended Southwestern University. 1968: resided Springfield, Missouri and Employed at Lily Tulip Manufacturing Company in Springfield.


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18-1-1-2-5    MAUDE BEATRICE FITZSIMMONS

18-1-1-2-6    EVELYN RUTH FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       The stories of these two sisters really belong together, and because of the uniqueness of the situation, they will be run together. The main story comes with the younger sister, but in the order of things, the elder sister's story would come first, which might spoil it, so let's do it this way.

       The two sisters, who were to be so important in each other's lives, were born almost seven years to the day apart - Maude on 24 July 1900, and Evelyn on 18 July 1907. In between the girls was Florence, but not much is known about her.

       Both girls attended Tully School, the grade school in Cairo, Kansas and Pratt High School. Maude graduated in 1921 and Evelyn in 1926. After graduation Maude taught two years at Fairview School in Pratt, Kansas.

       Then, while Evelyn was still doing her Latin and Geometry homework, Maude was attending Kansas State Teachers College at Emporia from 1923 to 1925. Maude later attended summer sessions at the University of Kansas and the University of Colorado. In 1925 Maude became teacher of the fifth grade in the Hutchinson grade school, and remained such for 11 years.

       In the meantime, Evelyn, upon graduation from Pratt High School in 1926, went to work for the registrar of deeds in Pratt County and then went to State Teachers College in 1927 and 1928, and on to Colorado in 1928 and 1929.

       In Evelyn's class at Pratt High School and at Colorado University was one Emery STOOPS. Emery was born in Pratt 13 December 1902, but it was definitely not in his stars that he should become a Kansas farmer. He was destined for very great things.

       Emery was the son of Eli and Mary (BRUBAKER) STOOPS, and prior to admittance to Pratt High School he attended Peachey School, Sawyer School and Phillips University Academy. He was valedictorian in the Pratt Class of 1926. He went on to Colorado University where he received his Bachelor's in English and Psychology in 1930, having been a teaching fellow there in 1929 and 1930.

       At Colorado, his and Evelyn's acquaintance of high school days blossomed into romance and they were married back in Kansas on 6 September 1929.

       Emery was superintendent of schools in Richfield, Kansas in 1932 and 1933. In 1933 he and Evelyn and their daughter Emelyn went to California and he entered the University of Southern California to receive his Master's from there in 1934.

       He went with Whittier United High School as a teacher in 1934, and then to Beverly Hills High School in 1935.

       In February of 1936, Emelyn had herself a little brother, Emerson. Ten months after Emersons arrival in Los Angeles, Eileen came along on 24 December 1936.

       Four days later on the 28th of December, Evelyn was gone at the age of 29 years.

       Seven years of marriage and three children, 3, 1 and a brand new infant. It is not known if Maude had left Kansas by then to go to her sister during this last pregnancy or if she sped out on receiving word of Evelyn's death. At any rate, she was there to look after the three motherless children and to ease the suffering of the grieving father.

       Evelyn was laid to rest and Maude of the indomitable spirit took over. She and Emery were married in Beverly Hills on

4 September 1937.

       Lee told me that Maude adopted her two nieces and nephew about 1938 to make them really hers.

       The Stoops family made their home at 10736 Le Conte Avenue in Los Angeles. In the years ahead Maude devoted herself to her new family. She made a fine home for them all. She excelled at all the homemaking arts - cooking, sewing, gardening and interior decorating. She took much pride in her family and in their accomplishments and when grandchildren came along, she relished their development as well.

       Emery, who was at Beverly Hills High School when Evelyn died and when he and Maude were married, remained there until 1938, when he became affiliated with the Los Angeles School System as teacher and administrator. In 1941 he received his PhD in Education from USC. From 1942 to 1944 he was principal of the University Evening High School. He was vice-principal of Los Angeles City Schools 1944 to 1945, in which year he was named coordinator and administrative assistant to the Superintendent of LA City Schools, a position he held until 1953 when he went on the faculty of University of Southern California. In 1967 he was head of the Doctoral Program in USC's School of Education, holding the rank of professor.

       In 1967 the Stoops family was doing well. Emery was not only educating but writing and was noted as an investor. The three Stoops children were doing well also. Maude decided to pay a visit to the eldest, Emelyn JACKSON who was living in Westwood, New Jersey. It was on that visit that Maude died on 7 May 1967 at the age of 67 years.

       Maude had willed her body to the School of Medicine at USC. On her death the family requested that remembrances be set aside for cardiac research.

       At the time Emery was 65. The following year on 3 July 1968, Emery married 45 year old Dr. Joyce KING, who was also a professor at USC. Joyce was born 25 January 1923 in Bolton, England and was one year old when her family came to America to make their home in Berea, Ohio.

       Joyce attended Northern Illinois University where she received her BS in 1954, and California State at Long Beach, where she received her Master's in Education in 1957. She received her Educational Doctorate in 1967, the year she became Professor of Education at USC.

       Through the years, Emery lectured summers at the University of Denver, the University of California, the University of Washington, New York University and the University of Hawaii.

       Emery was a member of the NEA, Kiwanis, Delta Epsilon and Phi Delta Kappa (national first vice-president, 1951-1953) He was a specialist in school supervision, curriculum, guidance and administration. Emery was the author of numerous books, bulletins and magazine articles and traveled extensively. He is listed in "Who's Who in American Education" and "Leaders in American Education."

       In 1982 there was a phone listed in the name of Emery Stoops in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, California.

       ISSUE:

18-1-1-2-7-1 1.    Emelyn Ruth STOOPS, b. 27 Mar 1933, Liberal, Kansas.

18-1-1-2-7-2 2.    Emerson Fitzsimmons STOOPS, b. 4 Feb 1936, Los Angeles, California.

18-1-1-2-7-3 3.    Eileen Carol STOOPS, b. 24 Dec 1936, Los Angeles, California.


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18-1-1-2-7-1               EMELYN RUTH STOOPS


Ewing Family Lineage:   Evelyn-Edwin-MArtha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       For their first-born, Emery and Evelyn chose a combination of their two names and it came out Emelyn. Born in Liberal, Kansas, 27 March 1933, she was in her mother's arms when the move to California was made. Emelyn attended Westwood School, Emerson Junior High School and University High School. She received her Bachelor's in Bacteriology from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1955.

       Two years before that on 5 September 1953, she and James Hill JACKSON were married. James was born 15 November 1929 in New York City and attended schools there and in San Francisco before attending Emerson Junior High School and University High School. He received his degree in Transportation the same year and from the same place as Emelyn received hers.

       After their marriage James did graduate work at the University of Chicago and Golden Gate University, San Francisco. During the Korean conflict he was in service from August 1950 to February 1952. James received a battlefield commission as second lieutenant.

       He came home to a position as manager of cargo services for American Airlines in San Francisco. In 1964, he was transferred to American's New York offices as an official in research and development.

       James moved his family to the East Coast, and they were living in Wetwood, New Jersey in 1967 when Maude died while on a visit to their home.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Carol Eileen JACKSON, b. 22 May 1957, Santa Monica, California.

                     2.    Jonathan Hill JACKSON, b. 21 Jan 1960, San Mateo, California.


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18-1-1-2-7-2               EMERSON FITZSIMMONS STOOPS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Evelyn-Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-Willam-James


       Emerson was born in Los Angeles on 4 February 1936 and like his sister attended Westwood, Emerson and University High School. He was married on 6 June 1958 to Ludmilla PERSELENKO and they had a daughter Ellen, born the same year Emerson earned his Engineering degree at UCLA - 1959. He went on for a Master's in Engineering.

       From 1959 to 1963 Emerson served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. In 1963, he and Ludmilla were divorced. That same year he went to work at Space Technology Laboratories in Los Angeles as an engineer, where he remained two years. In July 29, 1964, Emerson and Ingeborg Else POERTNER were married in Los Angeles. Ingeborg, was born 27 September 1941 in Wiesbaden, Germany and arrived in the United States on the 18th of August in 1963. Emerson and Ingeborg had a son, Eric.

       From 1965 to 1968 Emerson was a full-time doctoral student at UCLA. Emerson was expecting to receive his PhD in Space Science in the fall of 1968.

       ISSUE by Ludmilla:

                     1.    Ellen STOOPS, b. 23 July 1959, Dayton, Ohio.

                            ISSUE by Ingeborg:

                     2.    Eric James STOOPS, b. 30 Oct 1965, Los Angeles, CA.


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18-1-1-2-7-3               EILEEN CAROL STOOPS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Evelyn-Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James



       Eileen, born 24 December 1936 in Los Angeles, California, was only four days old when her mother died, but she knew a mother's love with her "adopted" mother, her Aunt Maude.

       Eileen attended the same early schools as her siblings and went on to USC for a Bachelor's in Education in 1959. She taught in Los Angeles and Norfolk, Virginia until 1962, and then went abroad to be a teacher at the U.S. Air Force Dependent Schools in Spangdalem, Germany. It was while she was there that she met and married Ronald George HILLIBUSH. They were married on 4 February 1964. Ronald was born 11 February 1938 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania and was a staff sergeant in the Air Force when the two met.

       They returned to the States in 1965 and Eileen started teaching at Rialto, California while Ronald was a student at San Bernardino Valley College and California Polytechnic College in Teacher Training.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Steven Ronald HILLIBUSH, b. 16 July 1966, San Bernardino, California.

                     2.    Kimberley Carole HILLIBUSH, b. 24 June 1968, San Bernardino, California.


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18-1-1-2-6    FLORENCE ELIZABETH FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Florence was born at Cairo, Kansas 26 January 1905 and during her school years at Cairo and Pratt, she knew that she wanted to become a teacher. Florence received her Bachelor's in 1927 from the State Teachers College as her sisters did. Florence remained in the teaching profession for at least 50 years, as of 1968. She taught 26 years in the junior high school at Greenburg, Kansas. Two years at Hutchinson and 22 years as of 1968 at Arkansas City, Kansas. Her subject was Health and Physical Education.

       There was her marriage on 11 June 1930 to Jeremiah P. GATES and the birth of their daughter, Jane Elizabeth, in 1936, and the subsequent appearance of three grandchildren.

       "Jerry" was born 25 January 1901 at Hopewell, Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of Webster School of Pharmacy at Wichita, Kansas. He was a registered pharmacist in Kansas for 37 years, until his death 25 March 1960 at Arkansas City, Kansas.

       After Florence's retirement in 1968 she went to live in Texas.


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18-1-1-2-8    VERNON LEONIDAS FITZSIMMONS

 

EWING FAMLIY LINEAGE:     Edwin-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Vernon was the baby of Edwin and Minnie's family of eight. He was born 28 October 1912, on the farm where he was to spend the rest of his life.

       Vernon graduated from Pratt High School in 1930, the year his father died. After his father's death, he and his mother took over management of the farm. Although Vernon was young, not yet 18, he was capable as a mechanic as well as a farmer. This early experience gave him a vision that mechanized farming was the best way for every farmer to go.

       On 25 April 1934 Vernon married Carrie L. POLAND. Carrie, a native of Lawndale, Kansas was born 26 July 1911. Carrie was the daughter of Carl and Lillian (MOSSMAN) POLAND. She graduated from Cunningham High School in 1930 and attended Southwestern College at Winfield, Kansas from 1930 -1931.

       After Minnie's death early in 1944, Vernon purchased the home farm and began to put into action his vision for a larger mechanized farm. In 1945 the Adams farm of 120 acres was added; in 1963 he purchased 160 acres when the Frank and Alice GOYEN estate was settled. In order to utilize his land more efficiently Vernon leased a neighboring farm of more than 600 acres which was mostly pasture. For many years he had an excellent head of stock cattle. One hundred head of well-bred, white-faced cattle is an inspiring sight.

       In addition to handling all this land, Vernon also farmed the land of his brother, Lee, which became his upon his brother's death in 1977. Those, as you recall, were the remaining 80 acres of the original homestead of James and Martha FITZSIMMONS. Vernon also owns the old Kansas homestead that was the property of his uncle Josephus "Chub" JENKINS.

       Vernon is a life-long member of the Cairo Methodist Church, which the family attends regularly.

       In 1977 Vernon and Carrie were still living on the old Fitzsimmons homestead.


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18-1-1-3              JAMES ASHLEY FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       James was the third child of James and Martha Fitzsimmons and was born the 28 September 1866, when the family was still back in Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan. He was just a youngster when the family moved to Kansas, and he grew up on the farm in Pratt County.

       James was married in Cunningham, Kansas on 21 December 1892 to Lena May SITTON, and they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on 21 December 1942.

       James died 17 September 1946, and Lena, who was born 7 March 1874, died on the 25 October 1945.

       ISSUE:

18-1-1-3-1    1.    Harry Ormond FITZSIMMONS, b. 3 Dec 1893.

                     2.    Cecil Page FITZSIMMONS, b. 17 Apr 1897, d. 1950. Married: 8 Nov 1917, Hattie WILCOX, b. 25 Dec 1896.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Elsie Rosalie FITZSIMMONS, b. 17 July 1920.

                                    2.    Cecil Eugene FITZSIMMONS, b. 4 Oct 1925.

                                    3.    Iris Rosalie FITZSIMMONS, b. 21 Jan 1908, d. 10 Jan 1969 - auto accident. Married: Shelby JOHNSON. Iris was a graduate of Kansas University in Journalism. 1968: resided Lincoln, Medicine Lodge, Kansas.

                                           Issue:

                                           1.    only, Sharon JOHNSON, who married and had two daughters Lisa and Marcia.

                                    4.    Paul Sitton FITZSIMMONS, b. 21 Apr 1911. 1968: he wrote that he and son Gary farmed together, "own four quarter (a section) and at least eight more".


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18-1-1-3-1    HARRY ORMOND FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   James-Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Harry was born 3 December 1893 and was married 1 January 1925 to May HILLIARD. May was born on the 7 December 1902. In 1968 Harry and May were living at 416 S. High Street, Pratt, Kansas 67124.

       ISSUE:

                      1.    Harry Dean FITZSIMMONS, b. 11 July 1927. Married: 6 June 1948, Marilyn TREGALLAS, b. 20 Jan 1929.

                     2.    Lois Irene FITZSIMMONS, b. 1 Mar 1930. Married: 20 Jan 1950, Paul Francis HAYSE, b. 22 Dec 1929; divorced.

                     3.    Dorothy May FITZSIMMONS, b. 8 Oct 1932. Married: 15 Mar 1951, Junior Earl MC ARTHUR, b. 19 Feb 1930.


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18-1-1-5              ALICE MARION FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Alice was always called Manie. She was born 27 October 1869 and was an infant in arms when the family left Hillsdale County, Michigan in favor of Kansas. She did most of her growing up on the Fitzsimmons farm in Pratt County and did not stir far from there in all her 63 years.

       Alice and her husband, Frank GOYEN, had their farm very near her parents, and when their estate was settled after their deaths (Frank - 13 April 1929, Alice - 25 March 1933) her nephew, Vernon FITZSIMMONS, bought their place and farmed it as late as 1977.

       Frank was born 16 July 1861 and they were married on the

9th of September 1896.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Corliss Dell GOYEN, b. 23 Feb 1899, Pratt Co. Kansas. Married: 22 Oct 1919, Minnie BERGNER. 1968: Route, 2, Cunningham, Kansas.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Corliss Dell GOYEN JR., b. 25 July 1922.

                                    2.    Lester Dean GOYEN, b. 9 Sept 1926.

                                    3.    Loren Francis GOYEN, b. 31 Oct 1929.

                     2.    Ormond Victor GOYEN, b. 23 Nov 1899. Married: 20 Aug 1925, Gladys Marie LUNT, b. 4 July 1902. 1933: 9022 Harris Street, Los Angeles, California.

                     3.    Lionel GOYEN, b. 8 Feb 1902, d. 10 June 1902.

                     4.    Mabel Frances GOYEN, b. 9 Mar 1904. Married: 8 July 1925, Jack Cooper KELLEY, b. 21 Jan 1903. 1933: resided Lynwood, California.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Marion Joyce KELLEY, b. 20 June 1927.

                                    2.    Donald Phillip KELLEY, b. 17 Jan 1929.

                     5.    Mildred Martha GOYEN, b. 21 Jan 1906. 1933: 902 W. Third Street, Pratt, Kansas.

                     6.    Helen Marie GOYEN, b. 20 October 1909. Married: 24 Nov 1932, Frank SMITH b. 21 Mar 1906. 1933: Pratt, Kansas.

                     7.    Lawrence L. GOYEN, b. 30 Nov 1914. 1933: resided Pratt, Kansas


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18-1-1-9              AVONEL FITZSIMMONS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Martha-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Avonel made it nine of 10 children for James and Martha. She arrived 29 August 1883, when the Fitzsimmons were farming in Pratt County, Kansas. Avonel was married 14 June 1910 to George Russell WEIR. George was born 5 December 1884.

       Avonel and George made their home at Isabel, Kansas, which is on the Barber-Pratt County line. George died there 18 March 1968 and Avonel died 4 July 1974.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    James Merle WEIR, b. 14 Aug 1911, d. 29 May 1964. Married: 22 July 1934, Ruth Lucille MILLER, b. 19 Feb 1915.

                     2.    Georgia May WEIR, b. 13 July 1917. Married: 5 Dec 1947, Robert Hugh GIBSON b. 5 Aug 1919.

                     3.    Leslie Pauline WEIR, b. 4 Mar 1919. Married: 23 May 1942, William D. HARRISON b. 19 Feb 1918.

                     4.    Martha Josephine WEIR, b. 23 Feb 1922. Married: 22 July 1941, Herman J. ROTTERING b. 18 Nov 1917.

                     5.    Shirley Ruth WEIR, b. 28 Aug 1924. Married: 22 Dec 1946, Robert Edgar ALLEN b. 16 May 1917. 1978: resided Lyons, Kansas.

                     * Shirley supplied names and dates for the WEIR family.


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18-1-2   MARY ELIZABETH JENKINS


Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James 


       Where we have almost a whole book in itself of material on Josephus and Charlotte's first, we have almost nothing on their second child. Mary and her family seem to have gotten away from us. She moved far away from Hillsdale and lost touch over the years.

       Mary was always called Mattie, but it was spelled "Mate."

       She was born 15 July 1843 when the Jenkins were still living in Jackson County, Ohio. She grew up on the farm in Section 20 of Hillsdale County's Woodbridge Township, and was 18 when the Civil War commenced.

       Information on how the Michigan farm girl and the Lieutenant from Indiana met has not been found, but in one of the war-time "Nancy Letters, Henry wrote to his wife on

23 October 1864 stating that Robert CAREY had gone to Hillsdale on a furlough, and he and Mary were married the third day after he got there. The date was 9 October 1864. Robert was in Co. B of the 142nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry.

       Robert seems to have been a very educated young man. A letter he wrote to Henry is in the collection. It was in response to a letter Henry had written him on hearing the news of his marriage to Henry's niece and offering congratulations. It is written in a very formal style, so different than the other letters in the collection, most of which are like the writers were talking to each other - instead of writing.


                                    Hd Qrs Co. B, 142nd Ind. Vol. Infty

                                    Nashville, Ten., Dec. 19, 1864


Dear Uncle,

       Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 5th Ult. It found me enjoying the blessings of a soldier's life in the ditches.

       I suppose you are aware of General HOOD's advance into Tennessee. He (apparently) drove everything before him, although our fellows disputed every foot of ground. Came up here. We fortified and so did Hood. He tried to siege us out. We let him lay around about two weeks, till we got ready to move. On the 15th Inst., General STEDMAN made an advance on our left and commenced the attack. Hood massed his forces there, and some of our fellows and 30,000 cavalry charged his left. At the same time we went for the center, with the 4th and 23rd Corps and 4th Division of the 20th Corps. He stood us two days, but in that time we drove him 8 miles and out of his works. All he had left was what they built after night, but they weren't much trouble for veterans to charge. The third day, yesterday, we made a complete rout, captured 8,000 prisoners and 50 cannons. Our cavalry is after him yet.

       I got a letter from home yesterday. Molly (his wife, Mary) has been very sick, is much better.

       Allow me to congratulate you on the increase of your family. I suppose you thought you would not lose any time. Good idea. When you write home, present my regards to your better half.

       I presume you are not the only person surprised at my marriage. I intended to surprise folks and I did it, too.

       As everything is in a bustle and hurry, as is always the case before and after battle, I will close. Hoping to hear from you soon,

       I have the honor to be

                            Very respectfully

                            Your Obt servt

                                    R.H. Carey

1st Lt., Co. B, 142 I.V.I.

       Nashville, Tenn.

Write soon


       At war's end Robert returned to his wife in Hillsdale County, Michigan and they made their home there.

       Robert's death may have been war-related. It came on the 8th of October 1873 and he was buried with soldiers honors at West Woodbridge Cemetery, Michigan. There is a GAR marker at his grave.

       Mary was left with three children ages 7, 4 and 10 months.

       On 5 July 1876 she married Hiram CULLER and soon after the wedding the family moved to Kansas. They were in Iola, however, not at all near Mary's Jenkins and Fitzsimmons relatives. Iola is in Allen County, many miles east of Wichita and Pratt Counties. They are known to have been there in 1887 but at some point after moved to Boise, Idaho.

       Mary died prior to 1937, presumably in Boise, but it is not known for sure as contact with this family was lost at the turn of the century and there is nothing further in the family record.

ISSUE:

                     1.    Calvin CAREY, b. 9 Oct 1866, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Married: 10 Apr 1887, Kansas, Etta HOWARLD of Amboy Twp. Lived in Boise, Idaho.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Herbert CAREY, b. 17 Feb 1888

                                    2.    Grace CAREY, b. 1 Nov 1889

                                    3.    Howard CAREY, b. 2 Aug 1891

                                    4.    Connell CAREY, b. 13 Aug 1893

                                    5.    Douglas CAREY, b. 1896

                     2.    Bell CAREY, b. 1 Aug 1869. Married: 25 Dec 1886, Iola, Ransom KELLOGG. Lived in Boise, Idaho. Died in California.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Loren KELLOGG, b. 8 Nov 1886 d. Nov 1891 - 5 years.

                                    2.    Ida KELLOGG, b. 18 Mar 1892 d. 12 Aug 1893, 1 year, 4 months, 26 days.

                     3.    May CAREY, b. 20 Dec 1871, d. 1 May 1893 21 years.

                     4.    Ada CULLER, b. 27 Aug 1880. Married: HAYES.

                     5.    Millie CULLER, b. 3 July 1883


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18-1-3   ISABELLA L. JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       No record was found as to what the L. in Isabella's name was for.

       Once she got to Woodbridge Township she never left it, and after marriage she lived on the same farm for 43 years. She was a highly respected matron and farmer's wife for all those 43 years.

       Isabella was born 13 February 1845 in Jackson County, a place she left when she was 3 or 4 years old and the home place in Section 20, Woodbridge, Michigan, was the first home she really knew.

       Up Cambria Road some 2 1/2 miles in Section 9 lived the family of Asa and Landy (PIXLEY) HEWITT. They were from Ontario County, New York where their youngest of 10 children, Philander, was born 12 August 1833. They had been in Woodbridge since 1851, to be among the first settlers in the area.

       Philander and Isabella were married 18 October 1852. A.E. EWING had it that Philander was a Union soldier, but his name is not mentioned as such in the "Nancy Letters," nor has any other evidence come to light, in fact he was very much at home and a civilian on 20 November 1864 when he wrote a letter to Henry.

       Philander and Isabella's land shows up in the 1872 Hillsdale County, Michigan atlas as 80 acres in Woodbridge Township's Section 17, their residence facing on Cambria Road. They were about half a mile south of Philander's father's farm on Cambria Road in Section 9, and from his brother Peter's place across the road from their father.

       A.E. told this one about Philander in a sketch he wrote on the Ewing neighbors for his "Enoch and Susannah" papers. "Phi Hewitt used to laugh over some of the sayings of 'old Sam Beard'.

Sam once took some eggs to market but the storekeeper would not buy them because they were spoiled. 'Well', said Sam, starting home with them, 'they ain't so rotten but what me and Lancer can eat 'em, yas'. When pie was passed to Phi, he would say, 'Well, as Sam Beard used to say, I don't care anything about the pie, but I would kinder like to know how it tastes, yas.'"

       Through the years Isabella devoted herself to her home, her husband, her son, Orson (another son died at the age of 4 years) and to a society that apparently was a Christian women's group of the Methodist-Episcopal Church - of which she and Philander were members all their years. The group was called the Busy Workers, and she was an active member, and served as president for two years.

       In her last years, Isabella went through a long illness.

It was not just the Busy Workers who rushed to offer help to ease her suffering and to help the grieving family but other friends and neighbors and relatives. Isabella died 30 September 1905 at the age of 60 years, 7 months and 17 days.

       For the casket the Busy Workers sent a pillow with the letters B.W. worked in flowers. The church publication printed her picture and a eulogy from the Busy Workers, signed by Della WOODRING, Abbie EWING and Ada JENKINS. It ended, "Sister Belle

Hewitt was held in high esteem by our society and we hold her yet, though absent from us, in our hearts' affection."

       Two years after her death, Philander gave up the farm and moved into the village of Reading. He died there 17 January 1912, age 78 years, 5 months and 5 days. The funeral was held at his home and the body was laid to rest beside that of Isabella in the Ewing Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

18-1-3-1              1.    Orson HEWITT, b. 26 April 1865, Woodbridge Township, Michigan.

                            2.    Burton A. HEWITT, b. 8 Nov 1867; d. 10 Oct 1871. Buried: West Woodbridge with parents.


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18-1-3-1              ORSON HEWITT

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Isabella-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Orson was born on the farm of his parents in Woodbridge Township, Michigan on the 26 April 1963, just as the war was coming to an end. He spent most of his life on that farm. He was married on the 26 April 1885 to Alwilda OSTERHART, daughter of Lyman and Nancy Jane OSTERHART, who was born in January of 1868 in Michigan. In 1872 the Osterharts had 40 acres in Woodbridge's Section 17, very near the Hewitts.

       Orson brought his bride home and they lived with his parents. They were listed with them in the 1900 census. Orson is thought to have taken over the farm after the death of his mother when his father retired to Reading.

       Orson died in March of 1938. Alwilda remained a widow, living with her son, Almon, still on the Philander and Isabella Hewitt farm for 25 years. Alwilda died in 1963 and is buried with the family at West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

                     1     (only) Almon HEWITT, b. 16 Mar 1893, Woodbridge, Michigan. Married: 24 Jan 1917, Leona M. BARNHART, b. 1896, d. 1962.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    (only). Harold Wayne HEWITT, b. 28 Feb 1918. Married: A. Geneva , b. 1915, d. 1968. Buried: in plot with his parents, his name on the stone. No date; 1972: phone listed at Reading, Michigan to H. Wayne Hewitt.


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18-1-4   NANCY JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       It was four daughters in succession for Josephus and Charlotte when Nancy put in her appearance in Jackson Count on 31 March 1847. She was just a toddler when the family left Southern Ohio in favor of Northern Ohio and then Michigan.

       Nancy's marriage on 3 July 1866, merged two Woodbridge township families - the EWINGS (JENKINS) and the HYLIARDS/HILLYARDS. (As there was some disagreement as to the spelling of the last name, let's use HYLIARD)

       The head of the Hyliard family was not found, but a son, Benjamin, won Nancy's heart. Benjamin, born 22 June 1838 was a soldier during the Civil War. It was written of him in a "Nancy Letter" on 12 June 1864: (Elizabeth EWING in Hillsdale, Michigan to Nancy) "It is said that Ben Hyliard wounded himself but he has not come home."

       Two other entries refer to Hyliard soldiers. On 18 May 1964, Henry listed Mark Hyliard as one of the boys with him at Spotsylvania, Virginia. On 26 May 1864, Henry wrote to Nancy, "Andrew HYLIARD was killed the day before yesterday. He was shot in the head by a Reb sharpshooter."

       In the 1872 atlas Benjamin's land shows up as 80 acres in Woodbridge's Section 9. Also in that section was M.H. HYLIARD with another 80 acres. Jesse HYLIARD had 100 acres in Section 16.

       Nancy and Benjamin were married after the war, on 3 July 1866. They had four children, but they did not have very long together, for Benjamin died 28 June 1880. He was only 42 years old and six days old. The GAR marker at his grave in West Woodbridge Cemetery says "1860-1865."

       Nancy married a second time. She and Willis GAVETT were married 26 September 1881. About Willis nothing was found, not even the date of his death. There is no mention of him in the Hillsdale County cemetery book index. He and Nancy had two children, the last one born when Nancy was 40 years old. This baby died before he was two years old.

       There was a third marriage in Nancy's life. That came when she was five days short of being 54 years old on 26 March 1901. He was Hiram POWERS. Hiram was born 20 June 1827.

       Hiram died 16 June 1909 and is buried at Wyllys-Sebring Cemetery in neighboring Cambria Township.

       Nancy was alone for almost 12 years. She died 8 April 1921 at the age of 74 years. She is buried at West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Loren B. HYLIARD, b&d 1 Apr 1867, Woodbridge Township, Michigan.

                     2.    Elvia HYLIARD, b. 3 Mar 1868, Woodbridge Township, Michigan. Married: 25 Dec 1891, Fred READER. 1933 they lived in Vestaburg, Michigan.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Lester Frank READER, b. 10 July 1892. Married: 30 Mar 1911, Mildred GUYMAN. 1933: Vestaburg, Michigan. 1979: no Readers in Vestaburg, Michigan.

                                           Issue:

                                                  1.    Alba Laverne READER, b. 20 Feb 1916.

                                                  2.    Darwin Guyman READER, b. 18 Apr 1918.

                                                  3.    Winona Jean READER, b. 23 Apr 1921.

                                    2.    Lowell D. READER, b. 14 Nov 1896, d. 27 Mar 1897, 5 months, 13 days.

                                    3.    Otis Melvin READER, b. 4 July 1906. Married: 27 Mar 1897, Detroit, Michigan, Helene SJOHOLM. 1933: resided Chicago, Illinois.

                                    4.    Gerald Horton READER, b. 17 Sept 1908. Married: 15 Feb 1930, Detroit, Michigan, Alpha LAMPORT. 1933: resided Detroit, Michigan.

                     3.    Richard Lucius HYLIARD, b. 23 Dec 1869, d. 1954. Buried: Cambria, Michigan. Married: 18 June 1902, Columbus, Edna Ellen WEST, b. 1877, d. 1960 - Buried: with Richard at Cambria Cemetery, Cambria, Michigan. 1933: Barber in Frontier, Cambria Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    (only). Chester B. HYLIARD, b&d 26 Dec 1912. Buried with parents, Cambria Cemetery, Cambria, Michigan.

                     4.    Edith HYLIARD, b. 12 Nov 1871, d. 15 Nov 1887, 16 years. Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, MI.

                     5.    Leona GAVETT, b. 17 Nov 1882. Married: Leon W. PLANKELL, b. 1878, d. 1942. Buried: Maplewood Cemetery, Reading Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Leona not buried with Leon.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Paul Blaine PLANKELL, b. 23 June 1905, d. 14 Feb 1906, 7 months, 21 days, buried with father, "Little son of Leon and Leona".

                                    2.    Theo Keith PLANKELL, b. 13 Mar 1907. Resided in Columbus (? Ohio).

                                    3.    Wilma Lucille PLANKELL, b. 8 Sept 1909. Resided in Detroit, Michigan.

                     6.    Earl J. GAVETT, b. 26 Dec 1887, d. 18 Nov 1889. Buried with mother Nancy at West Woodbridge Cemetery, "Little son of W.G. and N.G."


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18-1-5   ISAAC JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Isaac was the first of Josiah and Charlotte's six sons. Of the six, three went to Kansas and three made their homes on the Jenkins farm in Section 20. Isaac (or Ike as he was called - was named for Charlotte's brother) was one of the three stay-at-homes. In fact, he spent all but the first two or so of his 88 years on that farm, and ended up being the last of Enoch and Susannah's grandchildren to leave Section 20 - and that only by his death in 1937. A.E. EWING thought he probably held the title of Hillsdale County's champion "Stay-Putter" for those 86 years. By 1937 the Ewing name was long gone from the area and most of those of Ewing blood too. There were only a few Jenkins left in the area also.

       Isaac's birth came on the 6 December 1848, just months before the Jenkins left Jackson County, Ohio for Northern Ohio, and he was a mere toddler when they moved over the state line into Michigan, to Woodbridge Township and Section 20.

       Isaac was 22 when his father died and as the eldest son he put off marriage to devote himself to the farm and family. He was 31 years old when he and Cora L. MOSHER were married on the 23rd of November 1879.

       Cora was born in 1859 and was the daughter of Michael MOSHER of Woodbridge. She and Isaac had a daughter who died when less than a year old, and a son Herman.

       Isaac and his two youngest brother, William and Ulysses, shared the farm of their parents, dividing it into thirds after the death of their mother in 1904.

       Soon after her passing, Isaac had another death in the family. Cora died 19 January 1906, when only 42 years old. Isaac married again when he was 59 years old. Isaac and Mary MARTIN were married 24 September 1908.

       The death of William JENKINS in 1933 made A.E. give some thought to the fact that there were so few of "us" left in Hillsdale County, Michigan and especially Woodbridge Township and Section 20. A.E. wrote an article on the subject which was printed in the Camden Advance on April 28, 1937 under the title

"A Vanishing Name." In it he said, "Isaac Jenkins, a Ewing grandson, still resides on Section 20. December 6 next he will be 90 and he will have lived 86 years on Jenkins land in Section 20."

       But Isaac did not live to see that 89th birthday. Isaac died a month after the article appeared - on 28 May 1937. Both Isaac and Cora are buried at West Woodbridge Cemetery.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Rozette JENKINS, b. 3 Apr 1881, Woodbridge Township, d. 20 Jan 1882, 9 months, 27 days. Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                     2.    Herman JENKINS, b. 15 June 1883, Woodbridge Township, d. 1958, Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery. Married: 29 Apr 1905, Jossie SPITTLER, b. 1885, d. 1966, Buried with Herman, West Woodbridge Cemetery, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan. It is believed that Herman took over the family farm when Isaac died in 1937.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Leta B. JENKINS, b. 14 Jan 1908. Married: Roy PHILLIPS. 1968: resided Hillsdale, Michigan.

                                    2.    Blon Isaac JENKINS, b. 6 July 1915, d. 1973. Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Married: about 1939, Lottie J. b. 1919, buried West Woodbridge Cemetery name on stone, no date.

                                           Known issue:

                                           1.    James B. JENKINS b. 1940, d. 1978. Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery


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18-1-6   ENOCH MC KENDREE JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James 


       Enoch, born 12 April 1851 and named for his grandfather, was one of the brothers who went to Kansas. That came in 1878, after he and Mary SALMON had been married five years. (1 May 1873). The two of them, along with his brother, Josephus and his wife, Florence HOWALD, left Hillsdale County, Michigan in the fall of 1878 to join the FITZSIMMONS family in Pratt County, Kansas. They spent their first Kansas winter in Morris County, where their only son, Charles, was born and died in March of 1879.

       That spring the caravan moved on to Pratt County. Josephus pre-empted land near the Fitzsimmons at Cairo, but Enoch and Mary's farm was near Coats, in the southwest quarter of Pratt County.

       For 18 years Enoch and Mary, childless, devoted themselves to their farm, each other and life around them. Mary died 18 October 1892.

       Enoch - whose nickname was "Pone," and was called that by everyone around him, including nieces and nephews. Enoch married the widow Anna (BUCH) STELZER, 5 July 1897 when he was not quite 46 years old.

       Enoch's death date is not known, but it was after the

6th of February 1939, at which time he was 88 years old and had lived on his Kansas farm some 59 years.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    (only). Charles JENKINS, b&d 4 Mar 1879, Morris County, Kansas.


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18-1-7   JOSEPHUS JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Josephus and Martha were the two prolific ones of Charlotte and Josiah's family. It's interesting that though both went to Kansas, a far distant from the Ewing scene in Hillsdale County, Michigan, the families of the two have been the easiest to get information on, and their descendants have been the most interested in learning about their forbearers and adding to this family history.

       Josephus (he was "Sephie" to his mother and "Chub" to everyone else) was born 16 June 1854, the first of Josiah and Charlotte's family to be born in Woodbridge Township.

       On 4 November 1876, Josephus appeared before Reverend Linus S. PARMALEE at the Free Baptist Church in Hillsdale County with Florence Louise HOWALD at his side. The marriage was endorsed by Charlotte and by the bride's parents, Christian and Catherine (RAYMOND) HOWALD of Amboy Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Josiah, Josephus's father, died five years earlier.

       Like so many at the time, Josephus and Florence and Josephus' brother Enoch were thinking of all the available land waiting in Kansas.

       And so, as James Ewing had done, reaching for more and better land, and as William Ewing had done and Enoch, and Josiah and Charlotte, Josephus turned his eyes to the west and saw the sweeping plains of a middle continent where the destiny of America lay.

       A wagon train was readied and the two Jenkins brothers were heading west in the fall of 1878.

       Six weeks overland. They pulled up short of Pratt County, Kansas, their final destination, in Morris County, Kansas to spend the winter. They proceeded on to Pratt County in the spring of 1879.

       There was still land in Pratt to pre-empt in 1879 and Josephus got himself 160 acres very near Martha and James FITZSIMMONS east of Cairo and 2 miles west of the Kingman County line. He built a sod house 14x20 and that was their home for the next five years. His land was tucked down in the southeast corner of the township, in Sections 25, 26 and 35. In 1902 there were 280 acres.

       Another sod house replaced the first and then another and in 1891 Josephus built the frame house that still stands. It was 28x32 and in 1902 was in the process of being remodeled and enlarged.

       The big barn went up in 1890 and stood until about 1980. The property is owned today by Josephus' nephew, Vernon FITZSIMMONS, who farms it along with several hundred more acres.

       In the early days of their life in Pratt County there were several Indian raids and scares. The Apaches came in to drive off livestock, much to Florence's terror. The Comanches, she told her grandchildren, were farmers and traders. They did not raid the settlers.

       It was rough to get a farm going, and at times the family existed in near poverty. They could not have bought a postage stamp, is the way Grandmother Florence put it. At one time the family survived on corn bread and sow belly. To earn money Josephus cut cedar posts down in Comanche territory near the Kansas-Oklahoma line and freighted them back to Cunningham to sell - keeping some for his own fences. Josephus also freighted from Hutchinson to Cunningham, a distance of about 45 miles, whenever such a job came up.

       Josephus was "Granky" to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He call their grandmother "Granner." While she was tiny, 5 feet and about 80 pounds, he was enormous - 6 feet and 225 pounds. He said he was big because Granner made him eat all the leftovers instead of putting them in the "swill" pail.

       About 1902 Josephus decided to give up farming. He and Florence moved into Cunningham and Josephus worked some in a blacksmith shop. In Cunningham they spent the remainder of their lives - Florence was there for 35 years.

       On 4 November 1926, there was a big gathering of family near and far on the joyous occasion of their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

        Josephus turned 75 on 16 June 1929. He died five weeks later on 22 July 1929.

       On 13 November 1931, Florence lost her only son, Michael, a successful Pratt doctor, in a tragic car-train accident.

       At 80 years she may have had a frail appearance, because she was so tiny, but she was very much the opposite - hale, hearty and glorying in the fact that she had not been sick much in her life.

       On Thursday, 5 May 1936, Florence went over to Pratt on a little shopping trip. On her return home she complained of feeling badly and went to bed. A trained nurse was called in on Friday to care for her, but she gradually grew worse until losing consciousness on Saturday morning. Pneumonia claimed her and she died Sunday morning at 9:25 a.m., 10 May 1926. She was 80 years, 4 months and 6 days old. She and Josephus are buried in Rural (Maude) Cemetery near Cunningham, Pratt County, Kansas.

       ISSUE:

18-1-7-1              1.    Addie JENKINS, b. 17 Nov 1877, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                     2.    Nellie JENKINS, b. 1 Sept 1879, Pratt County, Kansas.

18-1-7-3              3.    Carrie JENKINS, b. 20 Feb 1884, Pratt County, Kansas.

18-1-7-4              4.    Michael JENKINS, 10 Oct 1886, Pratt County, Kansas


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18-1-7-1              ADDIE JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Josephus-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       The first for Josephus and Florence was a daughter, Addie. Born 17 November 1877 in Hillsdale County, Michigan, she was not yet a year old when the Jenkins started their long trek to Kansas in the fall of 1878.

       Growing up in Pratt County, Kansas, she became acquainted with the son of neighbors, Henry B. and Elizabeth (BRICKER) WETHERALL, who had preempted 160 acres in 1884 after a move to Pratt County, Kansas from Piatt County, Illinois.

       Charles Edward WETHERALL was born 8 March 1874.

       Addie and Charles were married 23 April 1899. They began married life in Pratt, but in 1901 moved to a farm a mile north of Cunningham in Rural Township, Kingman County, Kansas. Charles bought a general store in Cunningham, called Elder and Simonson General Merchandise Store. His brother, Mason WETHERALL, joined him in the business which they called Wetherall Brothers. Charles also maintained the farm and his large herd of livestock.

       The first large electric light plant in Cunningham was installed in the Wetherall store. Later, wires were extended to surrounding stores, and the Wetheralls had themselves the first electric light company in Cunningham. The first ice plant was also a Wetherall project.

       The plant was always turned off at midnight, but one night, on 20 October 1917, Addie's sister Carrie was giving birth, and by midnight the baby had not arrived. So Austin, Addie and Charles' eldest, then 16, stayed around to keep the plant going - until the following day when Charlotte TABER put in her appearance.

       Charles served on the Cunningham City Council and held other town offices. He was active in the IOOF Lodge and was Past Noble Grand of the Cunningham lodge. He and Addie were members of the Methodist Church.

       Charles remained active in Wetherall Brothers until 1936, when he retired to devote himself to the farm.

       His health began failing about 1941. In August of 1946, he became seriously ill and was taken to Kingman Hospital. he was there a month when he died 5 September 1946 at the age of 72 years.

       Eleven years later, on 17 November 1947, Addie celebrated her 80th birthday. She died 3 February 1958. She and Charles lie side by side at the Rural (Maude) Cemetery near Cunningham, Kansas.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Vesta WETHERAll, b. 4 Nov 1899, Pratt Co., Kansas, d. 5 Feb 1900, Pratt County, Kansas.

                     2.    Austin Ernest WETHERALL, b. 19 Feb 1901, Pratt Co., KN, d. 18 Nov 1920, Kingman County, Kansas Age: 19 years.

                     3.    Roy E. WETHERALL, b. 2 July 1904, Kingman Co., Kansas. Married: 14 Oct 1923, Marjorie BROWN, b. 26 Jan 1906. Roy was a mail carrier at Cunningham for many years.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Elizabeth Ann WETHERALL, b. 10 Mar 1923, Cunningham, Pratt County, Kansas. Married: 27 May 1945 in Cunningham, Dale SHELDON.

                                    2.    Frances Delores WETHERALL, b. 24 Sept 1925, Cunningham, Pratt County, Kansas. Married: Roy HOLDERSON.



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18-1-7-4              MICHAEL JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Jospehus-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       One always wonders what heights might have been achieved by a person had he or she not been cut down in the prime of life. Michael Jenkins was a highly successful doctor and civic leader in Pratt, Kansas when he was killed in a car-train accident at the age of 45 years.

       Michael, the youngest in a family of four, was born on Josephus and Florence's farm 10 October 1886. Farming was not for him. Michael wanted to continue his education after high school and he went on to graduate from Reno County Normal School in 1906.

       He set up medical practice in Pratt City and for the next 20 years his practice increased throughout the area.

       After 5 August 1911, he had Linnie Gracil BOOKS at his side for encouragement. Linnie was born 21 July 1887. There were four children added to the family, two boys and two girls. Michael was a member of the Pratt Rotary Club and had been on the Board of Education two years at the time of his death. He took a leading part in all community activities pertaining to the schools and to Pratt parks as well, being a member of the Pratt board. He was a leader in the playground movement for boys in the summer of 1931. He was also a member of the library board.

       On the morning of Friday, 13 November 1931, Michael was called to the nearby town of Byers, to the Vance GREEN home, on a diphtheria case. A colleague in the profession and a fellow Rotarian, Dr. Paul K. GASTON, 58, accompanied him for consultation. They left Pratt about 10:45 a.m. for the drive in Michael's Chevrolet coupe. It was raining.

       By the time they left Byers to return to Pratt about noon, the rain had stopped but the roads were muddy and travel difficult. They approached the crossing of the Rock Island Railroad, 1 1/2 miles east of Cullison - and Michael was unable to stop the car. Coming at them was the eastbound Golden State Limited.

       The Chevrolet did not make it across the tracks. The car was reduced to rubble and its passengers hurled hundreds of feet into nearby wheat fields.

       "Drs. Gaston and Jenkins Meet Tragic End in Grade Crossing Accident Today," blazed the headline in the Pratt newspaper. "City Shocked When Tragic Accident Becomes Known."

       Michael was buried at nearby Manhattan, Kansas.

       His death left Linnie with four children, 16, 14, almost 13 and 10 years of age. She survived him by 50 years, dying on 10 January 1982 at the age of 94 years old. Her death came in Monte Vista, Colorado where she lived with her daughter Ellen, but she was buried back in Manhattan, Kansas next to Michael.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Ellen Louise JENKINS, b. 21 Aug 1915, Pratt, Kansas. Married: 23 July 1939, Walter H. SIMPSON, b. 23 Mar 1910, d. 28 Nov 1977, Monte Vista, Colorado. Ashes scattered over Colorado mountains. Apparently no issue.

                     2.    Calvin McVeigh JENKINS, b. 12 Sept 1917, Pratt, Kansas, d. 8 Sept 1962, Pamona, Calif. buried same. Married: 17 Mar 1944, San Antonio, Texas, Betty Chaffee BROWN, b. 27 Feb 1919, San Antonio, TX, d. 28 Sept 1981, Pamona, Calif. buried same.

                      3.    Neal Mike JENKINS, b. 30 Nov 1919, Pratt, Kansas. Married: 10 June 1948, Oak Grove, Missouri, Lillian DE FEHR, b. 6 Sept 1920, Corn, Oklahoma.

                     4.    Ruth Elizabeth JENKINS, b. 7 Aug 1921, Pratt, Kansas. Married 1st . 6 Aug 1941, Richard RUSSUM, div. 1945. Married 2nd 18 June 1949, Oran Eugene FERGUSON, b. 18 June 1922, Kincaid, Kansas.


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18-1-8          SUSAN AN JENKINS


Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       It is ironic that Susan An's husband should have died exactly the way her nephew, Michael, did - in a car-train accident.

       Susan was born 18 September 1856 in Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan. She grew up on the Section 20 farm.

       Susan met William W. JOHNSON who in 1907 was a wealthy lumberman in Petoskey, Michigan. Petoskey is located in the tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula on Little Traverse Bay. There could be found no history of how Susan and William met. But they were married 12 November 1875 when Susan was 19 years old.

       Childless themselves, they adopted two youngsters, a boy and girl, but sadly, both children died in their younger years. William and Susan lived in Petoskey beginning in 1882, where William "earned the reputation for being a most conservative business man and accumulated a goodly share of the world's goods, and was a member of the Johnson and Crowl Company, whose business is located in Harbor Springs," according to his obituary in the Petoskey paper.

       After 21 years of marriage Susan died when she was 40 years old in Detroit, Michigan on the 21 July 1897.

       William married again, but still remained childless.

       The occurrence of his tragic death on 3 July 1907, was reported thusly in the Petoskey paper under the heading "Was Racing in Automobile With Harbor Springs Train which Caught Him at 'Dead Man's Crossing' and Ground His Life Out":

       "From the reports of all who have been interviewed in connection with the case it seems that Mr. Johnson has of late become an enthusiastic driver of his machine, trying to reach a high rate of speed for the same. This morning he was starting on his daily trip to Harbor Springs, where his large milling and lumber interests are, when the train on the Harbor Springs branch left this city. It is evident that he started to race with the train and was making a fine run as far as Bay View, but there he was flagged by the crossing tender and must have tried to shut down the brakes and pulled to the north end of the crossing and either the jar threw him out or he jumped out, he would have been safe, for the auto passed clear of the engine, but he fell on the track in front of the train which passed over him, mangling his body in a frightful manner."

       NO ISSUE


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18-1-9          CASSIUS M. FREEMAN JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Cassius was always "Freem" to family and friends. A.E. EWING tried to find out what the M in his name stood for, but it remains a mystery. In fact the names Cassius and Freeman are unexplainable also - they are neither Ewing or Jenkins family names.

       Cassius was born 13 September 1858 and was six years older than A.E., but they were both a part of the Ewing settlement in Section 20 and so probably spent many of their early days together.

       Cassius and Agnes MOORE of Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan were married 2 April 1881. Soon after that wedding Cassius and Agnes went out to join his two brothers, "Chub" and "Pone" and sister Martha FITZSIMMONS in the Pratt-Kingman area of Kansas.

       They were mentioned in Alma Fitzsimmons FOSTER'S letter of February 1894. At that time daughter Jessie was a newborn, her birth noted in the letter. By then Cassius and Agnes had four children, with a fifth to follow in late 1895.

       Eventually the family moved on to Heron, Montana. The exact date of the move is not known, but it is believed that it was just after the turn of the century, with all their children traveling with them.

       Cassius died in Hernon, Montana, 5 May 1939 at the age of 80 years.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Everett JENKINS, b. 30 Sept 1883. Married: 18 May 1905, Minnie HAGERTY.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    John Freeman JENKINS, b. 7 Nov 1907.

                                    2.    Howard Leslie JENKINS, b. 16 Oct 1909.

                                    3.    Ellen Juanita JENKINS, b. 11 July 1911. Married: 16 Apr 1932, J. Leonard INNS, Dillon, Montana.

                                    4.    Dolly JENKINS, b. 17 Jan 1915, d. 10 Apr 1916.

                                    5.    Everett Arthur JENKINS, b. 10 Nov 1922.

                     2.    Lillie Bell JENKINS, b. 21 Jan 1885. Married: 3 July 1905, Marion COTTON, divorced.

                            Known issue:

                                    1.    Hazel Madge COTTON, b. 18 May 1913, d. 28 Apr 1917.

                     3.    Floyd Freeman JENKINS, b. 19 Nov 1887.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Son, died age 2

                                    2.    Mildred JENKINS, b. about 1920.

                                    3.    Dorothy JENKINS, b. about 1922.

                     4.    Finley Kay JENKINS, b. 18 Sept 1889. Married: 21 Oct 1910, Lucy ALLEN.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Robert Finley JENKINS, b. 5 Aug 1911. Married: 24 Sept 1932, Laura JAMISON.

                                    2.    Agnes Andrea JENKINS, b. 21 May 1914.

                                    3.    Clyde Freeman JENKINS - TWIN, b. 8 Dec 1915.

                                    4.    Claude Frederick JENKINS - TWIN, b. 8 Dec 1915.

                                    5.    Merle Gordon JENKINS, b. 21 Feb 1922.

                                    6.    Richard Kay JENKINS, b. 3 Aug 1927.

                                    5.    Jessie JENKINS, b. 12 Feb 1894, d. 19 Mar 1894.

                                    6.    Ledah Juanita JENKINS, b. 11 Nov 1895, d. 12 Jan 1932. Married: 24 Dec 1914, Augene GREEN, d. 6 June 1931.

                                           Issue:

                                                  1.    Infant Green, b&d 1916

                                                  2.    Lyle Francis GREEN, b. 18 Apr 1920.

                                                  3.    Sheldon GREEN, b. 16 Oct 1917, d. 1918.

                                                  4.    Brice Finley GREEN, b. 31 Aug 1925.

                                                  5.    Ralph Edsel GREEN, b. 21 Mar 1928.


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18-1-10         WILLIAM EDWARD JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       William and Ulysses, Charlotte's two youngest, stayed in Michigan along with their brother Isaac. The three brothers shared the large Jenkins farm in Section 20 on Charlotte's death in 1907, and thus it was that William died on the farm where he was born 12 June 1862.

       William was married on 12 June 1884 to Mary Elizabeth WALLACE. They were married 22 years. Mary was born 4 September 1863 in Madison, Williams County, Ohio to John and Mary Ann WALLACE.

       When Mary Elizabeth was young her family moved to Bridgewater, Michigan and later to Amboy Township, next to Woodbridge Township.

       She was 42 years, 10 months and 27 days old when she died 1 August 1906. She was buried at West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       William led a single life for 30 years with his son and daughter, four grandchildren and a great-grandchild. He died 30 March 1937 and is buried with Mary at the West Woodbridge Cemetery.

       Harley, William's son, continued on at the old homestead in Section 20 after William's death.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Flossie B. JENKINS, b. 1 Oct 1885, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale Co., Michigan, d. 18 May 1932, Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery. Married: 12 February 1905, Arthur HAYNES, b. 1883, d. 1937, buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery Arthur married a second time - 31 Dec 1933, Mrs. Mabel FISHER.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Archie DeWayne HAYNES, b&d 30 Aug 1908, just "Baby" on tombstone at West Woodbridge Cem.

                                    2.    Helen Elizabeth HAYNES, b. 13 Jan 1912. Married: 12 June 1933, Shreve WALDENMYER.

                     2.    Harley J. JENKINS, b. 28 July 1896, d. 25 Feb 1981, Coldwater Community Health Center, 84 years. Buried: West Woodbridge, Michigan. Married: 1. 14 June 1919, Goldie FINK, b. 1899, Ray, Indiana. d. 15 Mar 1968. Buried: West Woodbridge, Michigan.. Married 2nd 1970, Mary CARLISLE. Harley lived at 1145 Carpenter Road, West Woodbridge, Michigan all his life. It is believed that was the location of the old Josiah and Charlotte JENKINS home.

                            Issue by Goldie:

                                    1.    Richard Merle JENKINS, b. 17 Jan 1927, d. 1953. Buried: West Woodbridge, Michigan.

                                    2.    Maurice Lee "Pete" JENKINS, b. 18 Nov 1930, West Woodbridge, Michigan. 1981: Maurice, his wife and family lived with Harley on Carpenter Road.

                                    3.    Shirley Ann JENKINS, b. about 1935. Married: Maurice DUVALL. 1981: resided Silver Springs, Maryland.

* Note: In 1981, "Pete" and Shirley had seven children between them and it is believed that Shirley had one grandchild.


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18-1-11         ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       On 10 March 1864 Ulysses Simpson GRANT was named commander of all the United States' forces. He instantly became a hero in the eyes of his fellow Americans as the savior who would lead the Union to victory over the Confederates and bring peace to their war-torn land once again.

       Apparently Charlotte and Josiah were caught up in Grant fever too, and they named their 11th and last child, born five weeks after Grant became commander, for that great Civil War general.

       Ulysses Simpson Grant JENKINS put in his appearance 17 April 1864. His impressive name was reduced to "Lyss" in the years ahead - 86 of them. He was very close to A.E. EWING in age and as he remained right there in Section 20 all those 86 years, he is frequently mentioned in A.E.'s correspondence.

       Ulysses had 1/3 of the huge Jenkins farm, sharing with his brothers, William and Isaac. His wife, Ada MC CLELLAN, was born in 1868. They were married 22 November 1885 and celebrated a Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1935 - and 64 years of marriage in 1949.

       Ulysses died 26 May 1950 on the farm that had seen only one other set of owners in its 100-year history - his parents. When Ulysses died, he passed the old farm on to another generation - his son Arthur.

       Ada died 15 December 1951 at the age of 83 years. Both she and "Lyss" are buried at West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

18-1-11-1            1.    Arthur JENKINS, b. 17 May 1888, West Woodbridge, Michigan.

18-1-11-2            2.    Bertha Laeta JENKINS, b. 27 June 1895, West Woodbridge, Michigan.


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18-1-11-1            ARTHUR JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Ulysses-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Arthur was born 17 May 1888 on that part of his grandparents farm that belonged to his father, and was passed on to him when Ulysses died in 1950. Arthur sold his land in 1964, but until that time, his inherited land had been in the Jenkins family for 164 years.

       Arthur and his wife, Mary E. CARTRIGHT, lived on that farm all 53 years of their married life - except for a six-month period. Arthur and Mary were married 3 October 1907 and celebrated a Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1957.

       Mary was born in Woodbridge Township in 1890 and was the granddaughter of Elizabeth Howald GIBBONEY, of the early Woodbridge HOWALD family. She was the daughter of a farmer living about a mile from the Jenkins home.

       Both Arthur and Mary loved their farm. They were hard workers and their home was always neat and attractive. They were active in community affairs and in Grange work. They were charter members of the West Woodbridge Community Club, which they helped organize. They belonged to the Austin Grange and the Pomona Grange of Hillsdale County.

       Mary died 22 March 1960 and Arthur, then 71, left the farm to live with his son, Veryl, and family in the city of Hillsdale. Arthur died there on the 30th of November 1964. He is buried at the West Woodbridge Cemetery. If Mary is also buried there, her burial is not noted in the Hillsdale Cemetery book.

       ISSUE:

18-1-11-1-1  1.    Vern Laurell JENKINS, b. 28 Aug 1908, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale Co., Michigan.

18-1-11-1-2  2.    Veryl Zelotus JENKINS, b. 2 June 1912, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale Co., Michigan.


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18-1-11-1-1  VERN LAURELL JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Arthur-Ulysses-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Vern, born on the old Jenkins farm 28 August 1908 was not destined to be a farmer. He left the farm at an early date and went into the city of Hillsdale, the county seat. Vern's family and that of his brother, Veryl, are the last of Enoch and Susannah EWING's descendants still living in Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       The two brothers were born about four years apart and married sisters 3 1/2 years apart. Vern married Elora HAUER, a teacher, 29 June 1929, and Veryl married Carma HAUER, 23 December 1933. The two are the daughters of John and Clara (BOK) HAUER.

       Vern was Bulk Station Agent for Cities Service Oil Company in Hillsdale for many years. When he died 1 June 1957, at 48 years old, his son-in-law, Edward DIETERLE, took over the business.

       Vern is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Hillsdale City, Michigan. In 1968 his widow Elora was living at 88 S. Manning in Hillsdale.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Jean Ardell JENKINS, b. 24 Aug 1931, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Married: 28 July 1951, Edward F. DIETERLE. Edward took over Vern's business and was subsequently distributor for Citgo Oil Company. 1968: Family lived in Hillsdale, Mich.

                     2.    Barbara Lou JENKINS, b. 25 Feb 1939, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Married: 15 June 1957, Frank NOVACK. 1968: Frank was employed by Michigan Bell Telephone. Lived in Trenton Michigan.


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18-1-11-1-2         VERYL ZELOTUS JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Arthur-Ulysses-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Veryl was born 2 June 1912, and like his brother left the farm after graduation from high school, and like his brother married one of the Hauer girls, Carma, Elora's younger sister. Veryl and Carma were married on 23 December 1933.

       During the war Veryl worked for awhile in a factory and part of that time sold shoes on the road after work. In 1945 he and Carma opened up a shoe store in Hillsdale and it was known for many years after as Jenkins' Shoes.

       In 1968 Veryl and Carma were living at 193 Budlong in Hillsdale, but around 1978 they had given up their shoe store and retired to Florida. Veryl and Carma enjoyed golf and much of their free time was spent on the golf course.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Suzanne Rae JENKINS, b. 17 Feb 1937, d. 11 Aug 1937.

                     2.    Jerry Richard JENKINS, b. 25 Apr 1938. Married: 28 Dec 1956, Sarah DE LAMATER of North Adams, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Jerry graduated Jackson Business University, Jackson, Michigan. 1968: an accountant with Commonwealth Services in Jackson, Michigan.


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18-1-11-2            BERTHA LAETA JENKINS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Ulysses-Charlotte-Enoch-William-James


       Bertha and A.E. EWING managed to keep in touch through the years and across the miles. She left Hillsdale, where she was born, and moved to Amarillo, Texas, near other Jenkins - the ones who had left Hillsdale many years before her.

       Bertha was born 27 June 1895 and was married in Hillsdale County, Michigan to Allison Blaine CURTICE on 13 October 1917. Seven months later, 30 May 1918, Bertha, Allison and his parents, Hosea and Agnes (MC DOUGAL) CURTICE, moved to Canadian, Texas. Allison was a Woodbridge Township boy, born 18 December 1892. Bertha and Allison moved from Canadian to Amarillo, Texas in 1944.

       In her years in Amarillo, Bertha was a member of the American Society of Retired People, the Amarillo Senior Citizens, the Gavel Club and Order of the Eastern Star, of which she was a Worthy Matron at one time. Bertha was a member of the First Baptist Church and the Eunice Sunday School Class.

       Bertha died at the age of 85 years on 19 November 1980. Her daughter, Margaret and family were living with her at that time, at 1222 Milan in Amarillo.

       ISSUE:

         1.   Margaret Evelyn CURTICE, b. 31 July 1918, Canadian, Texas. Married: 24 Dec 1940, Sterling K. OATES, b. 7 Jan 1916. Margaret attended college at Denton, Texas. 1968, chief technician at a hospital in Amarillo for 15 years, Sterling also worked at the same hospital.

       2.    Mildred Clarabel CURTICE, b. 9 July 1920, Canadian, Texas. Married 1st 21 May 1937, WALKER, divorced. Married 2nd 2 July 1953, James L. WORD, b. 26 Jan 1920. 1968: resided Odessa, Texas. Mildred's daughters' name changed to Word by the court.


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18-2               ISAAC EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Enoch-William-James


       A.E. EWING had no childhood memories of his Uncle Isaac to give us a verbal picture of him. Isaac died when A.E. was not yet 4 years old and he could not remember the uncle as much as he recalled that he was beloved by all the Ewings and that his death caused a general sadness among them.

       Isaac married a MC NEILL cousin, a CHERRINGTON-MC NEILL, and his family is included in the Cherrington genealogy, "THE CHERRINGTON FAMILY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY," published in 1978 by Dean CHERRINGTON and Hanny CHERRINGTON EVANS of Gallipolis, Ohio. There are just names and dates in that book. This book will deal in more details.

        It was spring and Jackson County, Ohio, was not yet a decade old. Enoch and Susannah EWING and their daughter Charlotte, were still living with or near Catherine (BUZZARD) RADABAUGH, Susannah's widowed mother, in Madison Township, Jackson County, Ohio. That was the scene when Isaac arrived

1 April 1825.

       Isaac was about 2 years old when his parents moved onto the farm in Jefferson Township which was to be home to the family for so many years. It was there he grew up, and there he was living when he became owner of an extension of the farm - at the age of 10 years! (See Enoch's story for details)

       Isaac EWING attended school when it was available, and Sunday School too, as evidenced by the Sunday School record his father kept. His name first appears in the record under the date July 11, 1838 (the second entry - the first was in 1833), when he would have been 13, along with Charlotte, Phinetta, John and William J. Among the other families listed that day were children of Jesse RADABAUGH (Anna, John, Harvey, Willson and Martha), Benjamin ARTHUR (Andre, James, Harrison, Solomon, Nancy, Polly and Rebecca) - 22 children all kin or in some way connected to each other.

       By 1848 Isaac was 23 and ready to strike out on his own. There was talk of moving on among his various relatives - the EWINGS, RADABAUGHS and MC NEILLS - and the place they were talking about was where Samuel RADABAUGH and Henry RADABAUGH had gone about 1837 - William's County, Ohio.

       There were James and Margaret JENKINS, her mother Catherine (BUZZARD) RADABAUGH, John W. EWING, Isaac's sister, and William "Billy" MC NEILL on the wagontrain when it set out for the northwestern corner of Ohio in 1848.

       William MC NEILL, was the son of the noted Jackson County pioneer, Dr. Gabriel MC NEILL, Mary McNeill EWING'S brother. "Billy" had married Anna CHERRINGTON, daughter of William and Letitia (MC CLUNG) CHERRINGTON. A daughter, Anna Cherrington

MC NEILL was born in Jackson County, Ohio, 23 June 1833, six months before her mother died.

       Anna eventually became Isaac's wife, but not until five years had gone by - Anna was only 15 years old at the time of their travels north.

       Isaac set himself up in farming soon after arriving in Williams County, Ohio. He acquired and improved his land and built a cabin on it.

       Isaac did not become the owner of that land until 1854, many years after his marriage. The record shows that Isaac took title to 159.94 acres - a quarter section, in Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio on 26 July 1854 and paid $479.82 cash for it - $3 per acre. He farmed his land some eight years before he actually owned it.

       A granddaughter of Isaac's, Inez NEWCOMB, wrote A.E., "Grandfather lived alone for five years. We children like to tell about Grandfather clearing land, making himself a log cabin, splitting the shingles, making his own furniture, and shooting a hole in the door for his latch."

       William MC NEILL and his second wife, Drusilla (RADCLIFFE) COPLIN lived close by, and soon Isaac discovered that 15 year old Anna MC NEILL wasn't 15 any more but 20 and Isaac could not think of anyone he would rather have share his quarter section with him than his second cousin Anna.

       They were to have only 15 years together, but they were memorable years. It was a small but comfortable and warm home and through the years five children came into it. Isaac was considered a pillar of the Mill Creek community, and Anna a gracious and loving wife, mother and neighbor.

       The same year they were married, 1853, Isaac's parents and siblings came to join their circle - 18 miles north and into Michigan, true, but much nearer than they'd been in Gallia County and they visited back and forth often.

       Not long after the arrival of this new group from Southern Ohio, there was the sadness of saying goodbye to Anna's family. William Mc Neill and all of his second family plus Anna's older brother, Worthington MC NEILL, left Michigan before 1856 and were located in Guthrie County, Iowa, where William died in 1883.

       Sometime through the years the cabin on the quarter section was replaced by a fine frame house.

       On 7 July 1867, Isaac and Anna had their sixth and last child, Isaac Herbert EWING. One year and three months later, the father was gone. Isaac was only 43 years old at the time of his death 6 October 1868. He is buried at Franklin Cemetery in nearby West Unity, Ohio.

       Anna managed to keep the family together, but five years after Isaac's death, she too was gone - only 40 years old. She died 23 October 1873 and was buried beside Isaac.

       The five surviving children - 6 to 16 at the time of Anna's death - went into the homes of Ewing relatives in Michigan. The farm remained in the possession of the family and when the scattered children were old enough, all five of them moved back to the farm and kept it going for many years.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Rebecca EWING, b. 2 Dec 1854, Williams County, Ohio, d. 28 June 1859, 4 1/2 years.

18-2-2          2.    Enoch McKendree EWING, b. 18 June 1857, Williams County, Ohio.

18-2-3          3.    William Jordan EWING, b. 30 Dec 1859, Williams County, Ohio.

18-2-4          4.    Cordova Atlanta EWING, b. 16 May 1862, Williams County, Ohio.

18-2-5          5.    Anna Adell EWING, b. 3 Aug 1865, Williams County, Ohio.

18-2-6          6.    Isaac Herbert EWING, b. 7 July 1867, Williams County, Ohio


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18-2-2   ENOCH MC KENDREE EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Isaac-Enoch-William-James


       When Enoch was born 18 June 1857 in Williams County, Ohio. he received his first name from his grandfather and his middle name for his uncle, Henry McKendree, Isaac's youngest brother. Enoch out-sized all other descendants of Enoch and Susannah. He stood 6 feet or more in his stocking feet and was among the movingest - no stay-putter he - but not in the running in any way for the title of most prolific. He had only three daughters and only one grandchild and if that granddaughter has descendants, the fact has not been found.

       Enoch had two nicknames. He was "Mack" to close family and to his Michigan cousins he was "Cheeky."

       He was 11 years old when his father died and 16 when orphaned. He and his siblings went to the homes of members of the Ewing family in Michigan. Enoch and his next younger brother William, 14, had homes with the family, but worked out at different places.

       The farm in Mill Creek Township was rented out, but before long the five children left their foster homes and went back to the place of their childhood. The exact year of their return is not known, but it was as soon as they were old enough to keep house and do the farming. If it were in 1880 - Enoch would have been 23, William 21, Cordova 18, Anna 15 and Isaac 13.

       The children remained on the farm until one by one they married and established homes of their own. As late as 1968 the old place was still in good repair and lived in.

       For Enoch, marriage came 23 August 1883. His bride was Carolyn FOSTER, daughter of James and Esther FOSTER. Carolyn was born 5 June 1860 in Hudson, in Lenawee County, Hillsdale's eastern neighbor. Hudson is 25 or 30 miles from Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

        Enoch and Carolyn lived on the Ewing farm in Williams County for awhile. By 1886 they were in South Dakota where Enoch worked on ranches in Templeton and Wessington Springs, in Jerauld County. All three of their daughters were born in Wessington Springs between 1886 and 1895. One daughter died in Wessington Spring in 1893.

       Ranching also took Enoch and Carolyn to Grand Island, Nebraska where they were known to have been in 1906, and to Lusk, Wyoming where they were located by 1912.

       Carolyn died in Lusk, Wyoming, 4 April 1919 at the age of 58 years. At that time Enoch was 61 with two married daughters and a granddaughter, Alta's daughter, Dolores HANCOCK, born in 1915, to Alta and her husband, H.E. HANCOCK. They were divorced in 1921.

       Soon after Carolyn's death Enoch went to live in Pocatello, Idaho, with his daughter, Myrta, who had married Archie MC FARLANE, but was divorced the same year Carolyn died.

       Enoch and daughter, Myrta, were living in Pocatello, Idaho in 1926, but by 1928 they were living in Reno, Nevada. A niece thought that Enoch dabbled in real estate in his later years.

       Enoch and Myrta were living in Whittier, California in 1930, but by 1933 had moved to 127 N. Newlin Avenue in Los Angeles. That is where Enoch died early in the morning of Thursday, 5 January 1933. Services were held Saturday afternoon at 2 at the Stewart Funeral Chapel with Rev. Don FORD officiating. Interment was in Rose Hills Memorial Park.

       On A.E.'s 1935, 1936 and 1937 Christmas card lists, Myrta was at 206 S. Dillon Street, Los Angeles. Apparently in 1938 she went to live with Alta and her second husband, M.A. ROGERS, at 986 S. Vermont in Los Angeles.

       In 1934 Alta sent A.E. word of Dolores' graduation from Los Angeles' Belmont High School on 21 June 1934. By then she was going by Dolores ROGERS.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Myrta Esther EWING, b. 9 July 1886, Wessington Springs, South Dakota. Married: 12 March 1914, Archie A. MC FARLANE, divorced: 1919. No issue.

                     2.    Mabelle EWING, b. 24 Mar 1889, Wessington Springs, South Dakota, d. 23 Apr 1893, 4 years old, Wessington Springs, South Dakota.

                     3.    Alta B. EWING, b. 24 June 1895, Wessington Springs, South Dakota, d. July 1939, Los Angeles, California. Married: 1st 22 June 1914, H.E. HANCOCK, divorced. Married 2nd 19 Aug 1930, Los Angeles, Cal., M.A. ROGERS. 1938: 986 S. Vermont, L.A., California, sister, Myrta living with them.

                                    Issue:

                                           1.    Dolores Elaine HANCOCK-ROGERS, b.27 Aug 1915.


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18-2-3   WILLIAM JORDAN EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Isaac-Enoch-William-James 


       William, who was always "Will" to the family, was born 30 December 1859 on the farm in Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio, 1 mile north and 1 1/2 miles east of Kunkle. William was Isaac and Anna's third child and was named for Isaac's next younger brother.

       William was 8 years old when his father died, and not yet 14 when his mother died. He and Enoch were given a home with Ewing relatives in Woodbridge Township, Michigan, but like Enoch he worked out until they and their brother and two sisters were old enough to go back to their former home and take care of it.

       William's wife, Florence Louise GIBBONEY of near Camden, figures into the Howald family - her mother was Elizabeth HOWALD. Florence was obviously named for the Florence Louise HOWALD who married Josephus JENKINS and was probably a niece. Florence was born in 1860.

       William and Florence were married 6 January 1884. They lived on the old farm near Kunkle and it was there their two children were born.

       William's obituary tells us: "Suffering the partial loss of one hand he was compelled to turn his attention to trade and came to Kunkle in 1891, where he bought a general store. This business he followed until ill health interfered. During these years of his life he held many places of public trust, serving the vicinity of Kunkle as postmaster for 20 years.

       "In 1896, he and his wife decided to live nearer their Lord and Master and united with the Presbyterian Church, where he constantly enjoyed its privileges and duties, filling various places in Sunday School and the Church of which he was an elder until his death. The IOOF was benefitted by his membership from its first organization here (Kunkle) and this communion together was beneficial and enjoyable to all.

       "Last January they moved with the son and wife to the farm, where surrounded by his immediate family, including brother and sisters and three small grandchildren his spirit took flight July 12, 1914."

       William was only 54 at the time of his death. Florence lived almost 10 more years, dying 4 May 1924 at the age of 64 years at Wolcottville, Indiana, where she was living with her daughter Mabel ESHELMAN and family.

       Both Florence and William are buried at the Pioneer Cemetery in Williams County, Ohio.

       ISSUE:

18-2-3-1              1.    Arthur McKendree EWING, b. 21 Sept 1884, Kunkle, Williams County, Ohio.

18-2-3-2              2.    Mabel Anna EWING, b. 6 Oct 1886, Kunkle, Williams County, Ohio.


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18-2-3-1              ARTHUR MC KENDREE EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Isaac-Enoch-William-James


       Arthur was born 21 September 1884 near Kunkle, Williams County, Ohio. he lived most of his early years in the town itself. He was married about 1905 at Bryan, Williams County seat, to Leah TRAXLER, daughter of William and Mary TRAXLER. Arthur and Leah lived at Pioneer, and it is believed that Arthur farmed.

       Arthur died 4 November 1959 at Bryan and is buried at Pioneer, Williams County, Ohio.

       Leah was born in 1882 and died in 1980, at the age of 98, she was a resident in a nursing home in Bryan. She had a stroke on 9 August 1979.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    (only). Maxine EWING, b. 11 Nov 1909, Bryan, Williams County, Ohio, d. 23 Jan 1978, Bryan, Williams County, Ohio. Married: 5 Sept 1931, George ARMBRUSTER, b. 18 Aug 1906, Alvordton, Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio. 1980: George remarried and was living at 339 Arthur Street in Bryan, Williams County, Ohio.


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18-2-3-2              MABEL ANNA EWING

 

EWING FAMLY LINEAGE:       William-Isaac-Enoch-William-James


       Mabel was born 6 October 1886 near Kunkle, Williams County, Ohio and was married at Kunkle 20 November 1906 to Harley J. ESHELMAN. They lived at Wolcottville, which is in LaGrange County, Indiana. The counties of LaGrange and Steuben in Indiana; Hillsdale in Michigan; and Williams in Ohio, make up what is known as the Tri-State area.

       Mabel had cousins in Wolcottville, though she probably was not aware of the fact. They were descendants of Indian john, mentioned back in the chapter under John Smith EWING, the family of Edmonson EWING (3-13).

       After the death of Mabel's father, her mother Florence lived with the Eshelmans, and it was at their home in Wolcottville she died in 1924.

       Harley died 25 January 1940 and Mabel survived him by 26 years. She died 24 March 1966, age 79. They are both buried at Wolcottville, LaGrange County, Indiana.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Sherman Hugh ESHLEMAN, b. 2 Nov 1907, Wolcottville, LaGrange County, Indiana. Married: 9 Feb 1932, Rosalind PULSKAMP of Rome City, Indiana.

                            Issue:

                            1.    (only). Charlene ESHELMAN, b. 26 Nov 1932, d. 15 Sept 1957, Muskegon, Michigan. Married: William L. CURTIS. She had three or four children.

                     2.    Frank William ESHELMAN, b. 7 Jan 1910, Wolcottville, LaGrange County, Indiana, d. 3 Nov 1954, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Buried: Wolcottville, Indiana. Married: 3 Jan 1941, Leone BECK of Bronson, Michigan.


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18-2-4   CORDOVA ATLANTA EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Isaac-Enoch-William-James


       A.E. knew this particular cousin better than any of the other 44, not only because she was very near him in age, but because she lived with his family for about seven years. Born 16 May 1862 in Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio, she was 6 years old when her father, Isaac, died and 11 1/2 when her mother Florence died. Her Uncle Henry and Aunt Nancy EWING in Woodbridge Township were happy to take Cordova into their home, for they had no daughter, only the three sons, including A.E. Their little daughter Louella had died when only a few months old. Cordova's daughter, Myrtle, reported that the Ewings loved to show her off at church and school.

       "Dova" as everyone called her, lived with Henry and Nancy until about 1880 and then joined her siblings to return to the home they knew in their childhood in Mill Creek Township, to make it theirs.

       Cordova stayed with her sister and brothers until her marriage 23 May 1883 to Samuel Charles NEWCOMB. The date of the wedding was Samuel's 23rd birthday, he having been born in 1860, in Richland County, Ohio. Samuel's parents were Robert and Sarah (STACK) NEWCOMB, who moved to Williams County in 1868.

       At first the newlyweds lived on his father's farm in Mill Creek Township and then for awhile on the Ewing farm nearby. Later they purchased a farm northwest of Bryan, Indiana, where they were for several years, until moving into the town of Kunkle, where Samuel was in the mercantile business with his brother-in-law, William J. EWING. During that time he was appointed postmaster, in which capacity he served for four years. Later he was with the P. WEIDNER Company, buying hay and clover seed.

       It may have been a buying trip that took Samuel to Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1897. It was in Scranton that he met a tragic end, another victim of a car-train accident. 1:00 a.m. 20 September 1897, at the age of 37 years, 3 months and 26 days. Samuel was buried in the little cemetery south of Kunkle, Williams County, Ohio.

       His obituary said of him: "Charlie, as he was commonly known, was a regular attendant at church and Sabbath school, only having missed three Sundays in two years. The funeral services were held at the Presbyterian Church Wednesday afternoon, September 22. About 600 people reviewed the remains, including his Sabbath School class in a body."

       Their four children were 13, 11, 10 and 7 when he was killed (a fifth child died in 1893 at 5 months of age) Cordova managed to raised four fine children. She and her youngest daughter, Inez, were the greatest of pals and they lived together, even after Inez' marriage in 1937 to Ted ROBERTS. They lived at Alvordton and then Montpelier, and Cordova was near enough all her children to be able to see them regularly.

       Cordova was a widow for 45 years. She died at Montpelier, Ohio 25 February 1944 at the age of 86 years. Cordova was buried next to Samuel at the cemetery near Kunkle.

       ISSUE:

18-2-4-1              1. Arminta Grace NEWCOMB, b. 14 Mar 1884, Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio.

18-2-4-2              2.    Robert Worthington NEWCOMB, b. 12 Nov 1885, Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio.

18-2-4-3              3.    Myrtle Ewing NEWCOMB, b. 28 Dec 1887, Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio.

                     4.    Inez Lenore NEWCOMB, b. 28 Feb 1890, Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio, d. 7 Dec 1953, Montpelier, Ohio. Married: 26 Dec 1937 (when she was 47) Ted ROBERTS of Fremont, Indiana. Both were schoolteachers. Ted had six children by a previous marriage. No issue.

                     5.    Ruth B. NEWCOMB, b. 9 Sept 1892, d. 25 Feb 1893, Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio.


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18-2-4-1              ARMINTA GRACE NEWCOMB

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Cordova-Isaac-Enoch-William-James


       Arminta was born 14 March 1884 in the place that had been home to her other and Ewing grandparents for some 36 years, Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio. The names and dates of Arminta's family is known, but little else is found.

       She was married in Kunkle, it is believed on 2 Sept 1901 to William ENNIS, born 7 July 1877. John and Jane ENNIS were his parents. In 1933 Arminta and William were living at 3350 Glenwood Avenue in Toledo, Ohio.

       William died 22 May 1949 and Arminta on 21 February 1965 at the age of 80 years. She is buried at the Pioneer Cemetery in Williams County, Ohio and it is believed that William is also buried there.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Wayne Newcomb ENNIS. b. 8 June 1902, Kunkle, Williams County, Ohio, d. 24 May 1938, Findlay, Ohio. Buried: Toledo Memorial Park, Sylvania, Ohio. Married: 12 Mar 1924, Helen Otelia WEAVER. 1938: resided Toledo, Ohio.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Gloria May ENNIS, b. 4 July 1925. Married: 11 Feb 1944, Kenneth William DYSERT of Findlay, Ohio. 1968: resided Benton Ridge, Ohio.

                                    2.    Dale Wayne ENNIS, b. 21 Aug 1927. Married: 2 Apr 1950, Doris Ellen STAHL Mt. Blanchard, Ohio. 1968: East Ledge, Port Clinton, Ohio.

                                    3.    Duane Allen ENNIS, b. 20 nov 1930. Married: Shirley GRUBER at Findlay, Ohio. 1968: resided Findlay, Ohio.

                     2.    Paula Vere ENNIS, b. 15 Sept 1903, d. 6 Feb 1961, Tucson, Arizona. Married: 20 Sept 1923, Bertrand F. MOSER, d. 21 Oct 1959, Buried: Tucson, Arizona. 1933: Jamestown, New York.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Lawrence Verle MOSER, b. 11 Oct 1924, Toledo, Ohio. Married: 15 Apr 1950, Mary Ann KING of Paul's Valley, Ohio. 1968: resided Houston, Texas.

                                    2.    Polly Arden MOSER, b. 21 Sept 1928. Married: 17 Mar 1949, John Richard ELLIOTT. 1968: resided Phoenix, Arizona.

                     3.    Verle Emery ENNIS, b. 29 Nov 1905. Married: 4 June 1931, Florence PELTON. 1968: resided Sharp Road, Adrian, MI.

                     4.    Charles Ivan ENNIS, b. 11 Nov 1907, Alvordton, Indiana. Married: 11 April 1927, Cleveland, Ohio, Mildred NILES, divorced: 20 June 1955. Lived: Toledo, Ohio.

                            Issue:


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18-2-4-2              ROBERT WORTHINGTON NEWCOMB

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Cordova-Isaac-Enoch-William-James


       Robert had a long life - 92 plus years. From a photo of him as a young man of about 20, he was a handsome fellow.

       Robert was born 12 November 1885 in Mill Creek Township, Williams County, Ohio and records show that most of his life was spent in Toledo, Ohio. He and his wife, Myrtle Elizabeth WATERS, were living at 1827 Loxley Road in 1933 and he was at 1940 Eleanor Avenue in 1966 at the age of 80 years. Myrtle died 10 May 1966 at the age of 80 years. She was born in Fort Wayne, indiana on the 27 November 1885 to S.P. and Elizabeth WATERS.

       Robert spent his last years at the home of his daughter, Roberta, in Toledo. He died 8 February 1878, age 92 years, 2 months and 27 days. He and Myrtle are buried at Ottawa Hills Memorial Park in Toledo, Ohio.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Robert Richard NEWCOMB, b. 14 June 1915, Kunkle, Williams County, Ohio, d. 5 Dec 1976. Married: 1 Jan 1940, Doris Louise STUTTLE. 1977: Dorris living at 4424 Lancelot Road, Toledo, Ohio.

                     2.    Roberta Rivon NEWCOMB, b. 8 June 1918, Montpelier, Ohio. Married: 31 July 1943, Ralph Jacob NOPPER. 1968 & 1977: 3710 Harley Road, Toledo, Ohio.


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18-2-4-2              MYRTLE EWING NEWCOMB

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Cordova-Isaac-Enoch-William-James 


       Though of a different generation, hence first cousins once removed, Myrtle and A.E. kept in touch through the years, probably because of the closeness of A.E. and Myrtle's mother Cordova. And bless her heart, Myrtle was one of the few Michigan and Northern Ohio cousins who answered my letters.

       Myrtle, born 28 December 1887 in Mill Creek Township, went through life without children, her only son, Joshua having died as an infant. Her husband, Joshua Blaine SHAFFER, was a chiropractor in West Unity, Ohio and Myrtle was a clerk in the post office there for many years. Oddly enough...well let me quote from the letter I wrote Myrtle on July 26, 1968.

       "Two weeks ago my husband and I were in Battle Creek doing a story on the Michigan Education Association Confernce Center there (Paul photographs and I write for the Grand Rapids Press) and in talking to the Center's executive director, Ray RANDELLS, he mentioned he was from West Unity. I just happened to have Grandfather's record book with me and I brought it out to show him the pictures and letters etc. and he said, yes, he knew the Shaffers. As a matter of fact, it seems you were in the post office there when his father was postmaster! It's a small world, isn't it?!"

       Joshua, son of Irwin and Minnie SHAFFER, was born

12 September 1884. He died 15 March 1965, having spent all his life in West Unity.

       Myrtle remained on in West Unity at least until 1969 when she was last heard from and then went to Toledo, Ohio to live with her brother, Robert. Myrtle died in Toledo 10 Dec 1976, 18 days short of her 89th birthday.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    (only). Joshua R. Ned SHAFFER, b. 12 Mar 1911, d. 2 Oct 1911.


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18-2-5   ANNA ADELL EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Isaac-Enoch-William-James


       On being orphaned with the death of her father at the age of 3 years and her mother at the age of 8, Anna, who was born 3 August 1865 and her younger brother Isaac went to live with the childless William Jordan EWING and his wife, Isabelle HANK (Uncle Billy and Aunt Belle) who lived near the other Ewiings, although in Amboy Township rather than Woodbridge. Their niece Myrtle wrote: "The children were well taken care of as far as comfort, food, warmth and training, but their having no children it seems they were so very strict and not enough play. Of course it was with good intentions (they wanted them to be good)."

       If it was 1880 when the five siblings returned to their farm in Mill Creek Township, then Anna was 15. She and Cordova, being the only females in the household, had a lot of responsibility in seeing to the kitchen and the home. But they all wanted to make it work, so they all pitched in and it did work.

       Anna was married in Bryan, Ohio 8 December 1890, her husband being Edward HETTINGER, whose parents were Christian and Catherine HETTINGER. He was born in November 1865 in Fayette County, Ohio.

       Anna and Edward lived in Quincy, Michigan with their three children, one of who died in a veteran's hospital after serving in World War I.

       Anna died in Quincy, Michigan 20 April 1930 and Edward on 26 November 1933.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Alfred T. HETTINGER, b. 21 Mar 1892, Williams County, Ohio, d. 28 Jan 1899.

                     2.    Christian Ewing HETTINGER, b. 15 Jan 1893, Williams County, Ohio. Soldier in World War I, died Veterans Hospital, Dearborn, Michigan.

                     3.    Vincent Gerald HETTINGER, b. 1 Apr 1897, Williams County, Ohio. Married: Myrtle TEAL. Also soldier in World War I. 1968: Coldwater, Michigan.


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18-2-6   ISAAC HERBERT EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Isaac-Enoch-William-James


       The youngest of Isaac and Anna's six children, Isaac never knew his father, who died when he was only a year and 3 months old, and had a hard time remembering his mother for he was only 6 at the time of her death. Like Anna, he was brought up in the home of "Uncle Billy and Aunt Belle" Ewing in Amboy Township, and, like Anna, was happy when his brothers and sisters decided to return to the home in Mill Creek Township where they had lived before their parents' deaths. Isaac was only about 13 when they did, but he too gave his all to the attempt and he was only one who helped make it work.

       Isaac's life calling was the church, and he became the Rev. Isaac EWING in the Methodist Church. That was after his marriage at the age of 20 to Eliza C. MILLER, in Pioneer, Ohio on 15 October 1887. Eliza was the daughter of Ephraim and Sara MILLER and was born 8 March 1867 in Williams County, Ohio.

       A minister's family knows what it is like to move around, and Isaac's brood was no exception. It is known that they lived in Alvordton, Bryan, Bristol, Indiana and Whitehouse, Ridgeway and Ada, Ohio. Rev. Ewing died 5 August 1928 at the age of 61 years in Ada, Ohio.

       Eliza lived 30 more years, dying 8 December 1958 at Lakewood, Ohio. She is buried at Whitehouse, Ohio, which it is believed to be where Isaac is also buried.

       ISSUE:

                     1.     Ivan Carl EWING, b. 25 Aug 1890, Williams County, Ohio, d. 14 Feb 1902, Whitehouse, Ohio .

                     2.     Ethel Fern EWING, b. 21 Dec 1893, Alvordton, Williams County, Ohio. Single, schoolteacher, retired after 40 years of teaching. 1968: Lakewood, Ohio.

                     3.     Clayton Miller EWING, b. 3 May 1896, Bryan, Williams County, Ohio, d. 11 Dec 1964. Married: 26 Aug 1920 at Forest, Ohio, Helen RABBERMAN, daughter of Dr. William H. and Clara RABBERMAN. 1933: resided Forest, Ohio. Clayton; chief clerk for Big Four and Pennsylvania Railroad.

                            Known issue:

                                    1.    Jeanette Helen EWING, b. 16 May 1928, Forest, Ohio.

                     4.     Anna Lindale EWING, b. 27 Aug 1899, Bristol, Indiana. Married: 4 Sept 1926 at Ada, Ohio, Thomas Edward MORRISON, son of Thomas and Edwina MORRISON.

                            Known issue;

                                    1.    Thomas Ewing MORRISON, b. 22 June 1927, Cleveland, Ohio.

                     5.    Miriam Leona EWING, b. 25 June 1904, Whitehouse, Ohio. Married: 27 June 1926 at Ada, Ohio, Rev. Stephen Lee WHITEMAN, JR., son of Rev. S.L. and Edith WHITEMAN. 1938: Oberlin, Ohio.

                     6.     Lillo Ruth EWING, b. 6 Aug 1908, Ridgeway, Ohio. Married: 25 June 1939 at the First Methodist Church in Oberlin, Ohio, Dennis CASNER. Lillo was a schoolteacher. Dennis died: 23 Jan 1967.


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18-3              JENETTA EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Enoch-William-James



       Enoch and Susannah's third had many names, it seems. In the old Sunday School record, kept by her father, under the date of 1838, she was Phinetta. Her tombstone reads Jenetta. Her obituary and a sketch on her husband call her Jenettie. In the family Bible it is written Jenetta.

       In this sketch it will be Jenetta. A.E. wondered where the name came from. Enoch could have been honoring his aunt, Jeanet Ewing CLENDENNIN or maybe his cousin, which had a near name (Jeanet Ewing HOWELL) but it does not seem like he would have named a daughter for a cousin.

       To her nieces and nephews she was always "Aunt Net."

       Jenetta was born 8 June 1827 in the year her parents moved from Madison Township to Jefferson Township in Jackson County, Ohio. Exactly where she was born depends on when in 1827 that move was made. Jenetta grew up in Jefferson County - and that is where she met Benjamin WHITE.

       It was through her marriage to Benjamin that she had a little easier life than her sisters and sisters-in-law. Benjamin was a stonemason at first, but after their marriage and the move to Michigan, he opened a sawmill - and it was a very prosperous one, so that Jenetta had household help, and not much need for the industry, effort and elbow grease that was the only thing the women around her knew.

       John WHITE of Ireland and Mary SPENCES of Virginia were married in Virginia and to them on 18 August 1816 a son was born, Benjamin. One of nine children. The father, a farmer, took his family to Jackson County, Ohio in 1821. Mary born in 1774, died there in 1828 when Benjamin was 12. John, born in 1764, died in 1834 when Benjamin was 14 years old.

       Eleven years after the father's death, Benjamin and Jenetta were married. The date was 3 April 1845 when Benjamin was 29 and Jenetta was 17.

       The newlyweds lived on Hewitt's Fork in Jefferson Township to begin with but were caught up in the movement to Michigan with the Ewings in 1853.

       On 21 December 1853, Benjamin White became the owner by deed, from Henry WALDRON, of the west half of the southwest quarter (80 acres) in Section 30, Woodbridge Township. In due time he had added another 160 acres (a quarter section) to his holdings for a total of 240 acres. That land, unimproved and heavily timbered, was in the very southwesternmost corner of Woodbridge and abutted Cambria Township to the west and Amboy Township to the south. The Ohio and Michigan Railroad ran through it and from a siding on Benjamin's property went hundreds and hundreds of board feet of lumber each year.

       The White house was less than a mile through the fields from Enoch and Susannah's farm. Jenetta was 26 when she moved there and she was there for 63 years.

       A.E. wrote: "The Whites were not only enterprising as farmers but branched out in a business way by erecting a then modern sawmill and carrying on a thriving business for many years. It was a big day in our lives, as boys, to ride upon a huge sawlog chained to the bob-sleighs over to that mill. Enoch White was the engineer and fireman. Slab-wood and sawdust were fed to the huge fire-box to generate steam power. With what deafening noise the old engine vibrated and pounded as the big circular saw screeched its way through those hardwood logs! It was terrifying to youthful ears. The pounding of that engine could be heard the country over for miles around, and the people set their clocks and regulated the day with the morning, noon and night whistle of White's Mill.

       "Nor was a visit by any of the raft of young nephews complete without a trip across the intervening field to the house to see Aunt Net and Cousin Susan Jane. Good old Aunt Net never failed to extend a welcome. It seemed that she always kept a barrel of cookies on hand, and a cookie was always a part of the visit to Aunt Net's.

       "As compared to Aunt Charlotte's life, Aunt Net's was easy, and she was disposed to take things more or less that way. She was industrious in her way, and kept the household matters in good shape, but she did not have the management cares that fell to Aunt Charlotte. The Whites had farm help and household help and they were able to pay for it. Aunt Net was a good-sized woman, but I hardly think her personal work extended beyond her fine garden. I used to hear it said that she loved to sit up late at night and was just as slow about getting up in the morning. She was kind and sociable, and was devoted to her parents, brothers and sisters. One of my fixed pictures of her is a fireplace scene with her smoking her clay pipe and visiting away. She talked very much like her father with something of a nasal twang, and she was like him in expressing herself in the fewest words possible. She didn't do many things she did not want to do, and in that, too, she was like her father."

       At a later date A.E. further wrote: "While Uncle Ben saw to the farm and milling operations, Aunt Net did her full part in keeping household matters humming. In addition to the family, they always had hired men, and the large dining table was always set to the limit with hearty, hungry toilers. Aunt Net had the happy knack of taking things calmly, never appearing excited or in a hurry, and yet everything was done that needed doing. She did not burn herself out with worry."

       The sketch on her husband in the HILLSDALE HISTORY said of her: "Mrs. White was well-drilled in all the household accomplishments considered indispensable in her younger days to the making of a good housewife. She was early taught to run the spinning wheel and loom and has now in her possession coverlets and satinets that she wove herself when a girl. She spun a great many kinds of cloth from flax and broke and scrutched flax to prepare it for use. A part of the time she attended school and received a fair education for the times."

       Jenetta and Benjamin had four children. The first was Enoch, born in 1846, and the last was Susan Jane, born when he was 17. In between were two sons whose deaths occurred within nine days of each other, a sad time for the Whites in June of 1862.

       The Whites were apparently not much in the letter-writing department. Only one letter appears from them in the Nancy collection. that was written 15 January 1865, with Benjamin doing the penning. It was 12 days prior to son Enoch's 19th birthday, and he wrote a letter also.

       When the children were grown and married, they stayed close to their parents. Enoch had an adjoining farm, and Susan Jane and her husband, James MARTIN, lived with Jenetta and Benjamin.

       Death took Jenetta's husband of 45 years when Benjamin died 8 July 1890 at the age of 73 years. Jenetta lived on for 26 years and when she died 22 October 1916 at the age of 89 years, four months and 14 days, she had attained a greater age than any one of her parents, sisters or brothers.

       Her obituary said in part: "Before her marriage she was converted and united with the Methodist Church near her old home. On moving to Michigan she brought a letter but never sought any other church home.

       "For 63 years she resided on the farm where her death occurred. Everything about the old homestead was peculiarly endeared to her heart, so that even the cutting of a tree gave her a heartache.

       "She often referred to her years over her three score and ten as 'borrowed time'. What a beautiful loan of life it was to her."

       The funeral services were held at the Austin Methodist Episcopal Church (the old Ewing church before it was moved) with burial at Woodbridge Cemetery next to her husband.

       ISSUE:

18-3-1          1.    Enoch Calvin WHITE, b. 27 Jan 1846, Jackson County, Ohio.

                     2.    Isaac E. WHITE, b. 13 June 1852, Jackson County, Ohio, d. 29 June 1862, 10 years old. Buried with parents, West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                     3.    Stephen J. WHITE, b. 1 Mar 1860, Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 20 June 1862, 2 years. Buried with parents, West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-3-4          4.    Susan Jane WHITE, b. 28 Sept 1863, Jackson County, Ohio.


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18-3-1          ENOCH CALVIN WHITE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Jenetta-Enoch-William-James


       Jenetta and Benjamin's first was born only five years after his grandmother gave birth to her youngest son, Henry McKendree EWING, so that uncle and nephew were near in age. They lived close by each other all their lives, and were good friends from start to finish.

       That first was Enoch Calvin White, born 27 January 1846, in Jefferson Township, Jackson County, Ohio.

       Enoch was going on 19 when his mother and father wrote their only letter to Jenetta's brother Henry during the time he was serving as a Union soldier. That was 18 January 1865, when Henry was in the hospital recovering from the loss of an eye. Enoch appended a letter of his own to theirs. It read:

       "Dear Uncle

       "Once more I take my pen in hand to let you know how I get along. I have been going to school some this winter. Our school is almost all small scholars and you see it is quite lonesome for me. The girls are all small, only Nancy JENKINS (his first cousin, daughter of Charlotte). She is the only large girl that goes.

       "Well, Mc, there is a family living in Al HANK's house but they have but one girl, and David RAMSEY married her a little spell ago. I will tell you their name. Their name is FROST. He is a blacksmith. He has two boys. One of them is here now. He is about 18 years old. He is a good boy.

       "There is a call for 30,000 more men and I heard yesterday that there was another call for 500,000, but I don't know how true it is.

       "You must excuse my poor writing for I am in a hurry to get done writing. I am going to meeting tonight to the Howard School House. Mr. ROLAND is going to preach. I think he will start a protracted meeting down there. I expect it will commence tonight.

       "Well, Mc, I haven't much to write so I will quit for this time. I saw Bill and Belle today. They were well. I will try to write more next time. Be a good boy. Write soon and tell me how you get along. Goodbye.

       ECW"


       After the war, on 20 January 1867, Enoch and Rosa HOWALD were married. Rosa, born 9 July 1847, in Switzerland, was a member of the Howald family often mentioned in this chapter. Her parents were Christian and Catherine (RAYMOND) HOWALD, and she was a sister of the Florence Louise who married Josephus JENKINS. The Howalds came to the United States in 1849, the same year they settled in Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       Enoch and Rosa's farm was right next to that of his parents. Enoch not only kept his own farm, but worked at his father's sawmill too, where he was engineer and fireman.

       Enoch died 3 Aug 1918 and Rosa in 1934. They are buried at the West Woodbridge Cemetery, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       NO ISSUE


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18-3-4          SUSAN JANE WHITE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Jenetta-Enoch-William-James


       Susan Jane - or Jane as she was known through life and as is engraved on her tombstone, was one of A.E.'s closest cousins. They were less than a year apart in age and near neighbors until A.E. departed the Woodbridge scene about 1890. Of all his 44 cousins, Susan Jane seems to have been the one to keep most in touch. She was "secretary" when a committee was formed in 1913 to raise funds for a monument to Mary McNeill EWING, even though it was actually A.E. who wrote the letter and took care of the mailing.

       Susan Jane spent all of her life within a mile of the place of her birth, which was of course the White home on the 240 acres at what came to be Whitetown, later Austin.

       On 30 July 1942, Susan Jane and James E. MARTIN looked back on 60 years of marriage. On that occasion the Hillsdale paper said, "Mr. Martin, the son of the Rev. and Mrs. John N. MARTIN (Rosa), was born in Fulton County, Ohio on 29 November 1863. The family moved to Woodbridge Township in 1865, settling near what is now known as the West Woodbridge Church. Rev. Martin organized the first United Brethren class at West Woodbridge. Mrs. Martin (Susan Jane) - was born on the farm across the road from her present home on 28 September 1863.

       "They were married (30 July 1882) at the home of the bride. The groom's father officiated. They have resided the entire 60 years in Woodbridge, Amboy and Camden Township farms. From 1905 to 1917, Mr. and Mrs. Martin and their son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Ben MARTIN conducted a general store at Whitetown, now known as Austin.

       "They are the parents of one son who lives on an adjoining farm. They have two grandsons, Leon and Donald, both of Camden. They are regular attendants of the Austin Community Church and are interested in all neighbor activities. Mrs. Martin enjoys good health. Mr. Martin is recovering from a major operation which he underwent in April.

       "The son and daughter-in-law are giving a reception in their honor at the Austin Grange Hall this evening. The public is invited."

       Three years after that big occasion, in 1945, both Susan Jane and James died. Both were 84 and both were buried at West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    (only). Benjamin John MARTIN, b. 19 Oct 1883, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale Co., Michigan, d. 1956, Buried: Camden Cemetery as "Bennie J." age 73 years. Married: 24 Dec 1904, Camden, Ohio, Jessie MC CORMICK, b. 15 Nov 1885, Jefferson Township, Hillsdale County, d. 1973, Buried: Camden Cemetery.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Leon J. MARTIN, b. 30/31 Dec 1906, d. 1943, Buried: Camden Cemetery with parents.

                                    2.    Donald B. MARTIN, b. 11 Nov 1913, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale Co., Michigan. Married: 9 Dec 1933, Dorothy SALSBURY, b. 1912, d. 1951, Buried: Camden Cemetery, Camden, Ohio.


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18-4              JOHN WILSON EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Enoch-William-James


       John was the second of six sons for Enoch and Susannah. When he put in his appearance on 22 July 1828, there was Charlotte, Isaac and Jenetta in the family, and six more children, including two more daughters, would follow in the next 15 years.

       About his name, A.E. wrote this: "For whom John Wilson Ewing was named is now more or less guess work. He had an Uncle John Ewing, a Great-Uncle John Ewing and a Cousin John Ewing. He had an Uncle John RADABAUGH, and a Cousin Wilson RADABAUGH. From records we learn that there was a district census-taker in the 1780s in Hampshire County, Virginia, by the name of John WILSON, and it was he who made the early listings of the Radabaughs and Buzzards. Most likely he was an old-time neighbor of Henry and Catherine RADABAUGH, and it may not be a wild guess to say that John Wilson Ewing was named by his Grandmother Radabaugh in honor of an old friend and neighbor."

       Well, that is purely speculation of course. Catherine Buzzard RADABAUGH had been gone from the Hampshire County area some 50 years by the time her young grandson came along, and it is doubtful she would have even remembered that census-taker friend. The only way that it would seem likely to me would be if said John Wilson had moved on with the Radabaughs and Buzzards, and had remained friends through the years.

       John was brought up the same as his siblings were, attending school, Sunday School and helping with the farm, but he had itchier feet than they did. He would have headed out on his own at 19 had not his family dissuaded him. He thought he would like to try Iowa, but Enoch and the others, knowing that a family group was heading for Northern Ohio where two uncles, Henry and Samuel RADABAUGH, already were, urged him to look that country over first.

       John agreed and thus it came about that when his 89 year old Grandmother Catherine Radabaugh rode the length of Ohio on horseback to a new home in Williams County, John was with her and was able to remember her, and pass on to posterity a little about her.

       Northern Ohio was fine, but Michigan was better, in John's mind, and he became the first Ewing to own land in Woodbridge Township. There is on record at Hillsdale a deed dated

8 November 1852, from Stephen CLARK and A. SUMNER to John W. EWING for the south half of the southwest quarter (80 acres) of Section 20, Woodbridge Township.

       Now the date of that deed was two years after John's marriage, which took place back in Jackson County, Ohio, so it is plain that John was dividing his time between Michigan and Southern Ohio, or at least he had a couple of trips between the two places under his belt by the time of the final move in 1853.

       With his marriage comes an introduction to a family that is very important to me, and was to one half of the six Ewing brothers. Three of the brothers married three daughters of Dr. Caleb HANK, my great-great-grand-father.

       We will meet the Hanks in more detail when we get to the section on Henry McKendree EWING, who married Nancy Ann HANK. The sister that John married was Jane Berry HANK, who was born

4 July 1833, in Monroe County, West Virginia, to Caleb and his third of four wives, Mary Ann MATTHEWS.

       John and Jane were married on her 17th birthday, 4 July 1850 in Jackson County, Ohio. A year and five months later on 8 December 1852, Jane gave birth to a daughter, whom they named Mary Jane. Seventeen days after that, the mother was gone. John's little 19 year old wife died on Christmas Day, 1852.

       Of course John was despondent, and again he wanted to head out, but his family would not hear of it. Besides they were, at that point, getting ready to leave Jackson County themselves, and nothing would do but John accompany them, and of course his daughter, too.

       Once more John mounted his horse to ride along with the wagon train full of Ewings that left Jackson County in September of 1853. He was to know more sadness before they had gotten very far. They were at New London, 25 or 30 miles west of Columbus, Ohio, when his daughter died on 14 September 1853, 9 months and 6 days old. She rests in a tiny grave at New London.

       John did not look back, but applied himself industriously to improving his land in Michigan, and before long he had a very fine farm, which became one of the best in Woodbridge Township.

       Nearby to John's farm was the family of Thomas and Martha (DURHAM) FITZSIMMONS, and John asked a daughter of the family, Mary Ann, to be his wife. They were married on 18 April 1855.

       Mary Ann wrote the following sketch telling about the Fitzsimmons' trip from New York and arrival in Hillsdale County:

       "I was born in Elmira, Chemung County, New York, 27 December 1835 and came with my father and mother to Michigan, starting the following May with horses and a covered wagon and a family of five children, the youngest, me, not 6 months old. We came the entire journey by private conveyance, not crossing but one railroad the whole route. Travel-worn and weary we arrived at Toledo, being already about three months on the road, as it proved to be a very wet spring and summer, and Father having to cut a road through dense forest for many miles at a time. At that early day there were comparatively no section-line roads and very few state roads.

       "We remained at Toledo for two weeks to rest and, while there, one of our horses died. We were detained at some other place on account of high water. Every stream on the route must be forded, as then there were no bridges.

       "While at Toledo we stopped at a house with just husband and wife, no children. They were middle-aged people and having no children, took very kindly to mother's baby, as it was uncommonly small, weighing only 3 pounds at birth and at 7 months weighing only 8 pounds. She wanted the child so badly that, trying in other ways to induce my mother to part with it and failing, she offered my mother $2,000 for it, but my mother, true to that God-given mother love, said, 'No, I can't part with my child'.

       "Leaving Toledo we arrived in Hillsdale County late in August. My father took government land (in Wheatland Township), built a log house and devoted all his time to clearing away the forest which was full of beasts of prey. Wolves were almost as numerous as the trees of the forest, while bears, panthers, wild cats, lynx were quite numerous. Indians were also plenty. For some years father knew every white family in Hillsdale County, there were so few. The nearest gristmill was 45 miles away. It was 10 years before there were enough children to form a school. Human tongue cannot enumerate the hardships and privations of pioneer life that comes in settling up a new country, where there is nothing to be had. Such is pioneer life."

       (Three pounds at birth, and still a bird in full adulthood, was Mary Ann. Her grandson, Perce DRINKER of Hillsdale said of her, "She was a little bit of a speck," and photos of her bear that out.)

       Thomas FITZSIMMONS and his family later moved from Wheatland to Woodbridge Township, where they were near neighbors of the Ewings.

       After marriage, John added 40 acres adjoining the northline of his 80 in Section 20, and then 10 acres across the road in Section 29, for a total of 130 acres. He had most of the southwest quarter of Section 20 and his father, Enoch, had the southeast quarter, plus 80 acres across the road in Section 29. Eventually that land was split between Enoch's two sons James and Henry, so that by the 1870s there were three Ewing brothers all lined up in a row in a mile of Camden Road.

       A.E. wrote of his Uncle: "He developed from an unbroken forest one of the best farms in Hillsdale County. He was enterprising as a farmer and public spirited as a citizen. He was an active member of the Grange, the Odd Fellows and the Good Templars. He was a member and an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church and Sunday School. He was an ardent temperance advocate. In politics he was a Republican until the birth of the Greenback Party and after that ceased to exist, he supported the Prohibition Party, which considerably jarred the staunch Republicanism of the rest of the Ewing fold. He took a lot of criticism from his brothers who regarded him as a 'turn-coat', politically speaking.

       "He was naturally jovial, enjoyed company, liked to go to town, took livestock exhibits to the county fair, backed neighborhood singing schools and was really quite an influential citizen and enjoyed the distinction.

       "Whenever there was a public gathering in Woodbridge, such as Fourth of July celebrations, Sunday School picnics, Decoration Day observances, etc., he was usually the mounted marshal of the day and was, without question, the best appearing horseback rider in that part of the country.

       "In personality, he was about the average - social, amiable and jolly. He was the dressiest Ewing of his father's family. When he drove to town, or to church, or to any public event, he went in his best rig (he had a buggy while we were yet riding in lumber wagons) and in his best clothes, not omitting starched shirt and collar. Since dressiness was not a dominant Ewing characteristic, it may be that his good wife, a former school teacher, was behind it.

       He was ahead of most of his kin and neighbors in large barns, granaries, tool house and farm equipment. He could show blooded livestock, including a blooded bull, herds of cattle, stables of sleek horses, and even a pair of gaudy peacocks whose shrill screeching could be heard a mile away and whose spread-tails could be seen almost as far. He could show fields drained by blind ditches 15 feet deep to reach back-lying ponds, eight-rail fences doubly locked, and piles and piles of stones that mutely told the story of backbreaking toil. He landscaped his lawn, laid it out with geometric precision, set out shrubbery and beds of flowers in gorgeous profusion and had grape arbors.

       "Uncle John had everything up-to-date on his farm except his farm dwelling. He left that for the last, meantime living in the old original log house long after log houses had become obsolete.

       He had not counted on growing older, and before he was ready for housebuilding, he lost his farm to his mortgagee and had to move off. His slower-going brothers said it might have been expected. Uncle took his punishment more or less bitterly. He died a disappointed man in his 76th years.

       "I always felt a deep pity for Uncle John in his failure to achieve the success he aimed at."

       It was about 1902 or 1903 when John and Mary Ann had to leave their beloved farm. John spent his last years in the town of Hillsdale. At the end he had a stroke and died of paralysis

on the 2nd of October 1905, at the age of 76 years, two months and 11 days. He was buried at West Woodbridge Cemetery, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       Mary Ann was 70 when he died, but she had a second marriage, even at that age. He was Henry MATHIAS, and they remained part of the Ewing family group, as a picture of them with the Ewing sisters and brothers testifies.

       Mary Ann lived to the age of 94 years, 10 months and 21 days, dying 3 March 1929 at the home of her grandson, Percival DRINKER, in Hillsdale. She is buried, as a Ewing, at West Woodbridge Cemetery next to John.

       ISSUE by Jane:

                     1.    Mary Jane EWING, b. 8 Dec 1852, Jackson County, Ohio, d. 14 Sept 1853, New London, Ohio, in route to the new Ewing home in Hillsdale Co., Michigan, age 9 months, 6 days. Buried: New London, Ohio.

       Issue by Mary Ann:

18-4-2          2.    Thomas E. EWING, b. 30 Jan 1856, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                     3.    Mary Alice EWING, b. 24 May 1859, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 21 Feb 1860, 9 months.

18-4-4          4.    Bertha EWING, b. 17 Mar 1861, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                     5.    Eddie Jay EWING, b. 6 Nov 1865, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 7 Mar 1867, age 1 1/2 years.

18-4-6          6.    George Elbert EWING, b. 6 Sept 1867, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.


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18-4-2                                                                THOMAS E. EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   John-Enoch-Wiliam-James


       Thomas' daughter, Lena Maud, was the last Ewing of the name in all Hillsdale County, and she was the one that other Ewings turned to for information. But the only information she shared was about the older ones, so not much is known about her father and mother.

       Thomas was born 30 January 1856 to John and Mary Ann, their first. In 1897 he and his wife, Cora STANLEY, were living on College Hill in Hillsdale, and had rooms to let to college students and to others, including Thomas' Aunt Isabel EWING, and they cooked meals for some 17 students at Hillsdale College.

       In 1906, Thomas and Cora were living in Montpelier over the state line into Williams County, Ohio. They must have moved back to Hillsdale, for that is where Thomas died 16 August 1920, at the age of 66 years. He is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery.

       Cora was the daughter of Isaac and Mary (SNYDER) STANLEY of Amboy, Ohio and was born 8 December 1860. She and Thomas had three children, but no grandchildren. In 1886 there was a scarlet fever epidemic raging in Hillsdale County, and two of their children were ill with it at the same time. Jay made a full recovery, but they lost a daughter when she was only 6.

       After Thomas' death, Cora made her home with her daughter Lena at 102 Union Street in Hillsdale.

       There is an interesting item concerning little Lottie May. In 1968, a book turned up at the Andy Adams Sale Barn in Jonesville, Hillsdale County. The book was presented to Lottie on her third birthday, and was an account of her third birthday party in 1882, listing all who were present and the gifts they gave her. The party was attended by all Lottie's grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides. They all sign their names and their places of birth. Among the signers - Enoch and Susannah Ewing!

       Cora died in 1952 when she was 92 years old and she was buried next to Thomas at Oak Grove Cemetery in Hillsdale, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Lottie May EWING, b. 6 Sept 1879, d. 18 Jan 1886, in scarlet fever epidemic, age 6 years, 4 months, 13 days.

                     2.    Jay Elroy EWING, b. 3 Feb 1883, d. 12 June 1953. Buried: Cambria. Married: 24 Aug 1905, Ethel Louise TURNER, daughter of Benjamin and Jennie TURNER, b. 20 Nov 1885, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. after 1968, a name on the stone, no date. Jay had scarlet fever along with sister Lottie in the epidemic of 1886. Jay was a farmer on Bacon Road, 2 miles west of Hillsdale. 1968: Ethel living on the farm.

                     3.    Lena Maud EWING, b. 12 Sept 1884, d. 1966, age 82, in Hillsdale rest home. Single. Lived: 102 Union Street, Hillsdale, Michigan.


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18-4-4          BERTHA EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   John-Enoch-William-James


       Like Thomas, the details on Bertha's life are missing. She was born 17 March 1861, at Woodbridge and on 4 November 1877, she married Elwood DRINKER, the 22 year old son of Richard W. and Margaret L. DRINKER, natives of Pennsylvania.

       In the 1872 atlas for Amboy Township, 920 acres show up as belonging to R.W. Drinker. They completely surrounded the town of Morganville, which grew up around the sawmill and gristmill the Drinkers established at the foot of a little lake, formed by a wide place in the St. Joseph River. In the 1880 census, I found Bertha and Elwood in Amboy Township, and he was working in his father's sawmill.

       Elwood subsequently died and Bertha married twice more after that - but dates were not found. Bertha second and third husbands were Willis DANIELS and Manson MORRIS of Reading, who died 12 March 1933. Bertha died in 1945 and is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Hillsdale, but none of her husbands are buried there.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Bess Wren DRINKER, b. 15 Mar 1889, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 1963/1965. Buried: Lakeview Cemetery, Hillsdale, Michigan. Married: June 1913, Charles SHAFFER, son of Levi and Rosa SHAFFER, b. 1883, d. 1948, Buried: Lakeview Cemetery, Hillsdale. Lived: 282 E. Bacon Street, Hillsdale, Michigan.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Kathleen Mae SHAFFER, b. 25 Apr 1923. Married: Wallace RUMSEY. Lived: California.

                                    2.    Leora Jane SHAFFER, b. 4 Apr 1919, d. 1968 "They found her dead" per "Uncle Percival". Buried: Lakeview Cemetery, Hillsdale, Michigan, with parents.

                     2.    Percival Robin DRINKER, b. 29 Sept 1891. Married: 1st 14 Oct 1915, Leora E. STEVENS, daughter of Joseph and Kate STEVENS of Quincy, Michigan, b. 1890, d. 23 Jan 1961, Buried: Oak Grove Cemetery, Hillsdale, Michigan. Married 2nd Pet VALENTINE. He bought home at 333 E. Bacon Street in Hillsdale from his mother in 1919, Bertha continued to live there as did her mother, Mary Ann, until her death.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Douglas Keith DRINKER, b. 9 Dec 1917, d. 14 Dec 1917.

                                    2.    Robert Harold DRINKER - adopted, b. 24 June 1917. Married: 5 Sept 1940, Janet REDMAN, daughter of the Jesse REDMANS of Osseo. Lived: Detroit, Michigan.


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18-4-6   GEORGE ELBERT EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   John-Enoch-William-James


       George was born on John and Mary Ann's farm on 6 September 1867. He and his wife, Laura Olive CUMMINGS, lived at Montgomery in 1905. They were married 7 November 1888. Laura was the daughter of E. Turner and Sarah Elizabeth (HANNA) CUMMINGS of Macomb, Ohio.

       Laura died 16 Aug 1938 and George in 1952. Both are buried at the Berg Cemetery, Camden, Ohio.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Franky EWING, b&d. 30 Jan 1890, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                     2.    Myrtle Marie EWING, b. 20 Oct 1895, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Married: 14 Nov 1918, Lt. Col. Erwin N. TOWNSEND, son of Nathan and Tryphena TOWNSEND. Erwin buried: Arlington National Cemetery. Lived: Clearwater, Florida.

                     3.    Lillian EWING - TWIN, b. 30 Dec 1905, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. about 1966, Virgin Islands. Married: 23 June 1923, LaVere SALSBURY, son of Lester and Carrie SALSBURY.

                                    Issue:

                                           1.    Rex Ewing SALSBURY, b. 28 June 1929.

                     4.    Vivian EWING - TWIN, b. 30 Dec 1905, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 3 Sept 1911, age 5 years. Buried: with parents, Berg Cemetery, Camden, Ohio.


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18-5              WILLIAM JORDAN EWING


Ewing Family Lineage:   Enoch-William-James


       William and his wife, Isabella Virginia HANK, (another of Dr. Caleb HANK'S daughters) were childless. A.E., always observant and remembering, was able to write as much on this uncle as he did the others.

       William, born 14 September 1831, probably drew his first name in honor of Enoch's father, plus brother too of course. The Jordan appears in the Radabaugh family. Although everyone else, kin and neighbor, called him "Uncle Will" or "Uncle Billy," his mother always called him Jordan - pronounced "Jurden."

       Just a week prior to his 21st birthday, in 1853, the Ewings started their move from Jackson County, Ohio. (Mary Jane, the infant daughter of his brother John, died the very day of that birthday, when the wagontrain was in New London, Ohio) William was needed and he went along, but his heart was back in Jackson County.

    A year had gone by before he saw that Enoch and the others had gained a foothold and were more or less comfortable. He then returned to Jackson County to claim his bride. He and 16 year old Isabella were married 12 October 1854 by Rev. James L. HOLLIDAY.

       Four years before that Isabella's sister Jane had married William's brother, John, and 7 1/2 years hence the women's sister Nancy would marry the men's brother, Henry.

       These three daughters of Dr. Caleb HANK were born in Monroe County, West Virginia, Isabella on 2 January 1838. Their mother was Mary Ann MATTHEWS, who died of milk fever soon after the family arrived in Gallia County, Ohio in 1846. At the time John and Jane were married, the Hanks were close neighbors of the Ewings over in Jackson County, Ohio.

       After their marriage, William took his bride back to Hillsdale County, Michigan. They settled in - and A.E. picks the story up from there....

       "It has been my understanding that William first settled on part of the north half of Section 20, but a little later bought land in the northwest corner of Amboy Township. This is where they lived when I first came into knowledge of their existence. The farm lay across the road from the Benjamin WHITE farm, and was about 3 miles from where William's father and mother settled.

       "William and Isabella were industrious toilers and made a success of farming. Their first home was a log house way back from the town line road between Amboy and Camden Townships, on the banks bordering a large tamarack swamp. Why they ever selected this spot for their house I do not know. I know there was a fine spring at the foot of the little hill back of their house, and there was enough water in the swamp to support a flock of geese. It must have been in the early 70s when they built a fine new frame house on the north side of their farm, on the town line road between Amboy and Woodbridge.

       "Not long after that William had an illness from which he never wholly recovered, and for the last 15 years or more of his life, he was unable to perform manual labor."

       William's obituary says, "For the past 18 years he has been in very poor health. Abscesses in his side have constantly during that time threatened his life. His suffering at times seemed unbearable, yet no one ever heard him complain of his misfortune. The most wonderful thing about it was his patience and good cheer."

       A.E. continues: "William and Isabella had no children. Shortly after the death of Anna EWING, the widow of Isaac, in 1873, her two youngest children, Anna Adell, about 8 and Isaac Herbert, about 6, made their home with William and Isabella for several years.

       "William was medium in size, weighing perhaps 165. He was distinctively jovial, always ready for a good joke and a big laugh. He was devoutly religious, but his health in later years interfered with regular church attendance. He and his wife were among the first of the Michigan Ewings to sport a single buggy. With this and old Deacon hitched, they did their local travelling. Deacon was a fat old horse who had done his share of hard work in the making of the farm, and he seemed to enjoy the buggy trips as much as did his master and mistress. He was a pacer and could raise a cloud of dust on the dirt roads in the summertime. He was lazy, too, but always quickened his pace when he realized he was approaching the stopping place where oats and water awaited him. Another member of the family was Sport, a short-haired, yellow dog they had raised from a puppy. He was a spoiled baby from the start but he was Uncle Billy's inseparable companion.

       "In politics, Uncle Billy was unwavering Republican. He read his newspaper with the same faith in which he read his Bible.

       "William was 10 years older than my father, Henry, and my father used to say that when he was a little fellow, his big brother Billy took particular care of him.

       "I once asked Grandfather Enoch which of his sons most resembled his father William. He replied that none of them looked just like him but that Billy was most like him in size, build and general appearance."

       At another time A.E. wrote: "If ever a person lived the quiet life it was Uncle Billy. He and Aunt Belle were suited to each other in that respect as neither wished for distinction other than in being let alone with their own plans and programs. They were successful farmers, and did not have children to spend money upon, hence had all they wished for themselves and a good deal left for their less fortunate relatives. They were frequent visitors at our old home. The two brothers having sister wives made them and us very close. We children thought the world of them and they acted that way toward us. We used to think it a great treat to visit them and sometimes we could stay all night. Uncle Billy could always entertain and get entertainment from children, and Aunt Belle always had a jar of cookies in reserve. They used to gather beechnuts and hickory nuts for a winter's night. I recall that they had their beechnuts pouched in a newspaper and hung by a string from the ceiling to keep them away from the mice. They had a little black and white overstuffed dog named Katy that made the woods ring with her sharp barking.

       "Uncle Billy and Aunt Belle were one in spirit and action and never ceased to be like cooing doves. I never heard either one give the other even a semi-cross word. Uncle Billy was an invalid the last years of his life, unable to perform manual labor except the lightest sort. Aunt Belle babied him to the last, doing all the house and barn chores with her own hand, and she was up and at it by 5 in the morning.

       "Uncle Billy was like his brothers in some respect, but unlike them in others. He was mild spoken, jocular, liked to tease the children about their beaux and sweethearts, was a consistent Christian with emotional tendencies, kept well informed on public questions, read the Bible, chewed tobacco and voted nothing but the Republican ticket.

       "Uncle Bill was in his 60s when he died. Aunt Belle survived him by 20 years and grieved over his death constantly."

       That death came on 5 April 1892 when William was 60 years, 6 months and 21 days old. An elaborate monument was raised at his grave at West Woodbridge Cemetery, inscribed with the words from Shakespeare, "Farewell to age, I shall forever bloom in youth. Fresh loveliness beyond the tomb, Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?"

       Isabella lived on at the farm for a time after William's death, but later moved into Hillsdale and took a room with her nephew and his wife, Thomas and Cora EWING. That was about 1897. When Henry and Nancy retired from the Section 20 farm in 1910 and moved to Pioneer, Isabella joined them and made her home with them until she died 31 July 1915, age 76 years, 6 months and 2 days. Funeral services were held from the Methodist-Episcopal Church at Austin (the old Ewing church). Her grave is marked by the same monument to William.

       NO ISSUE


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18-6              ANDREW ADAM EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Enoch-William-James


A.E. EWING:

       "Andrew was born on the night of the famous meteor shower, November 13, 1833. His mother called them 'falling stars', and she had a good opportunity to witness the wonderful spectacle. It seemed to her, she said, that the stars appeared to be falling to the earth, but they always faded out before striking it. The birth of her baby on the night of the falling stars furnished Grandmother the topic for many an interesting conversation. She used to say that when Andrew was born he was so tiny that a coffee cup could be slipped over his head. She always maintained that the size of a baby at birth had nothing to do with its size when grown up. Andrew proved it, for he became the largest of her six boys, both in height, girth and weight. I have heard my father say that Andrew, as a young man, had great physical strength and that he could drive an axe farther into a tree than could any other woodsman of the neighborhood.

       "The falling star baby was named Andrew Adam. Doubtless the Andrew was for his father's youngest brother, and Adam was certainly in honor of his mother's grandfather, Adam RADABAUGH.

       "It appears that Andrew may have gone up to Williams County prior to the final trip in 1853. William, his eldest son, stated that his father returned to Jackson County after his first visit north and chopped wood a couple of years before his final removal to Michigan.

       "It was with the money he thus earned that he acquired his Michigan land. Andrew took title to the south half of the northeast quarter of Section 20, adjoining his father's north line, in 1854, just about the time he came of age. (By the time of the 1872 atlas, Andrew owned 148 acres in the northeast corner of Section 20).

       Said A.E. "On May 27, 1855, Andrew married Emily SMITH of Woodbridge. She was a daughter of Isaac and Eliza (PETERSON) SMITH who had moved into Woodbridge a year or so after the Ewings arrived, having come from Crawford County, Ohio, where Emily was born March 7, 1838. Emily was an older sister of Eliza SMITH who became the wife of James Leander EWING in 1858. The Smiths were always close neighbors to the Ewings and were sometimes regarded as almost part of the family.

       "Andrew and Emily took great interest in the Methodist Episcopal Church and Sunday School in Woodbridge, of which they were among the first members. Uncle Andrew was a good mixer. He liked people and enjoyed getting out among them. No county fair, political mass meeting, soldiers reunion or neighborhood picnic escaped him. He never outlived this tendency. After he quit active farming, he was still always ready for an outing or trip. In 1907 he attended a Ewing reunion at Burnside, Illinois. He liked to go places better than any of his brothers and sisters and would have made a famous traveler had it been his privilege.

       "Uncle Andrew was a good farmer, too. He not only had a fine farm but knew exactly how to work it. I well remember the old log house in which they lived, also the fine new one they built in 1874.

       "Andrew was the largest of the Ewing boys and pushed around quite a bay window. He was popular with his nieces and nephews, always ready with a pleasant word and for a good laugh, whether there was a joke to laugh at or not. He was a booster of any and all neighborhood enterprises, especially if a chicken dinner was involved.

       "At one time he branched out as an organ salesman and later as a piano salesman and placed scores of them. He was good at recounting experiences of soldier life, and he got much more out of soldier life than my father did. He never wavered from his Republican politics, but never had any political ambition to hold office. Uncle Andy was staunch and dependable in every respect."

        Emily died 18 January 1898 at the age of 59 years. In 1899, when he was 66 years old, Andrew married Eliza TOWNE, a widow with six grown children, as well as grandchildren. In the 1900 census, Andrew and Eliza were in Woodbridge Township, one of her children, Lulu TOWNE, born June 1886 in Ohio, was living with them, as was a grandson, Charlie TOWNE, born in 1894.

       Of the war years, A.E. wrote: "On March 29, 1864, along with his brother Henry, brother-in-law Dewitt C. CHERRINGTON, cousin Thomas C. RADABAUGH and several other Woodbridge men, Andrew enlisted in Co. D of the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry, at Hillsdale. They were mustered in on April 8, 1864 and joined their regiment in Virginia on May 23, 1864. These men were together all the time except when separated by bullets or illness. On June 24, 1864, near Petersburg, Va., Andrew received a bullet wound that put him out of service until the following December.

       "When Henry was wounded on December 13, 1864, it fell to Andrew to break the news to Nancy. Andrew was eight years older than Henry but these two brothers lived on adjoining farms, enlisted in the Union Army together, fought shoulder to shoulder in battle and bunked together in camp. They were together when Henry was wounded and Andrew accompanied him to the field hospital and stayed with him there as long as he could. In later years, they found themselves the survivors of the six Ewing brothers and living close to each other at Pioneer, where they saw each other daily.

       "On October 24, 1912, Father and Mother returned to Pioneer from a visit to Jackson, the first visit Father had made there since the close of the Civil War. On the 25th he wrote me saying, 'Andy had another stroke of apoplexy last night at 11 and is in a very critical condition. The doctor says it is likely to be of short duration, but he may rally as he is not totally paralyzed, but this is his right side, the other stroke was in his left side. He met us at the car last evening, he said he had not been feeling very well for several days, but did not think anything serious of it. I told him I would see him today and tell of our visit, but we got word of his stroke about 8 this morning. I went over but could not visit with him. He knew me but could not talk.'

       "On November 12, 1912, my brother John, also a resident of Pioneer, wrote me the following: 'Uncle Andy was stricken during the night of the same day that Father and Mother got home from Jackson. He complained to me during the day of not feeling as well as usual, but was at the 5 o'clock car to meet the folks and seemed glad to see them back, and the little visit they had then was the last conversation he had with any of us for he was unable to talk only to say a few words that we could understand. He was almost helpless for about 10 days and seemed to suffer considerably part of the time. He had a man with him all the time and we all did what we could to help make him comfortable. I helped many times to lift him and turn him and he always showed his appreciation by a smile and a firm grip of his hand and an effort to talk, but what he was trying to say we could only imagine. Friday evening before his death, I was in to see him. Father was there and seemed to want to stay. When I left about 10 o'clock I looked upon a pathetic scene which I will never forget. Several friends were present, but Father was sitting silently by the bedside with Uncle's hand clasped in his own, seemingly wanting to assure him of his willingness to stay with him and help him if possible in the last battle. I went in again Saturday morning about 6. He was conscious and knew all. As he got quiet a little, Father and I went home for breakfast. We had only been gone a short time, however, when the end came.'

       "Thus it happened that these two brothers who, as young men, were comrades-at-arms in the fields of Petersburg, remained comrades at heart until the last. Almost 48 years had passed since Henry, stricken by a bullet, was accompanied to the field hospital by Andrew, when Andy handed over to Mack his last dollar because, as he thought, Mack would need it more than he would, and when Andy in the most careful and considerate terms he could command, broke the news to my mother by letter. Read that letter if you would get a glimpse of the brotherly kindness of Andrew. Neither my father nor my mother ever ceased to feel a debt of gratitude toward big brother Andy. It is also gratifying to know that my brother John, now departed, was in a position to lend a helping hand, and that he took pains, over 20 years ago, to give us a picture of these two aging men clasping hands as the death angel hovered near."

       A.E. has preserved several stories that his Uncle Andy told him of his war experiences. One of them had to do with a Woodbridge comrade at the front, Edwin C. HOLMES. On the morning of June 18, 1864, the 2nd Michigan under the command of Col. E.J. MARCH of Hillsdale, was being moved to Petersburg to start an assault on that city's defenses. (Petersburg was the last bastion before Richmond) That morning Holmes approached Andrew and handed him his watch, asking him to take it home with him and turn it over to his wife, Martha CURTIS HOLMES. Andrew asked Holmes why he did not give it to her himself, and the soldier replied, "Because I shall be killed today". Andrew demurred, but Holmes kept insisting that he would be killed. Finally Andrew said, "Oh well, if it will make you feel any better I'll take it, but I'll give it back to you tomorrow".

       Holmes' premonition proved correct. He was killed instantly that day with a minnie ball squarely between the eyes. Andrew kept his promise and Martha got Edwin's watch.

       At another time during a battle, Andrew came upon a boy Rebel who was wounded and lying by a fence. He was crying. This touched Andrew's heart, but there was nothing he could do for the boy. It was during the same fight that he came upon another wounded Rebel lying in the brush of a fallen tree. The Rebel was alive, but Andrew could not get a word out of him. Andrew took time to ask him if there was anything he could do for him. The "Johnny" was doubtless dying, Andrew believed.

       For Andrew the end came 2 November 1912 at the age of 79 years. Eliza died at Pioneer in 1936. Andrew and Emily are buried at West Woodbridge Cemetery. It is uncertain where Eliza lies.

       ISSUE:

                     1.     Rosetta Dorlesky EWING, b. 8 Sept 1857, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 4 Feb 1876, age 18 years. Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery. Rosetta is said to have had a marvelous voice as well as a fine taste for music, and became the leading music teacher of the vicinity, even at that early age; she had and played the first reed organ owned by any of the Ewings in Woodbridge.

                     2.    Aetna EWING, b. 10 Mar 1859, d. 1 May 1862. Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-6-3          3.    William Henry EWING, b. 22 Feb 1862, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-6-4          4.    Emma Jane EWING, b. 3 Feb 1865, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-6-5          5.    Finette Lynn EWING, b. 5 July 1868, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-6-6          6.    Adelbert Jasper EWING, 2 Apr 1872, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.


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18-6-3   WILLIAM HENRY EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Andrew-Enoch-William-James


       William was born on the Andrew Ewing farm in Section 20 on a historic day, February 22, in the year 1862. Twenty years later, on 19 November 1882, he and Lovina M. DAVIS were married. Lovina died of TB and William married Laura Ann LENT, who was born 4 October 1879 in Fenwick, Michigan. He was a merchant in Lansing most of his years, until retirement, at which time he and Laura went to North Angola, Indiana. In 1933 they were living at 405 Superior Street in North Angola. William was 72 years old when he died on 21 June 1934. After his death, Laura went back to Lansing. She and A.E. corresponded until his death in 1945.

       ISSUE by Lovina:

                     1.    (only). Verna J. EWING, b. 22 Apr 1885, d. about 1913 in childbirth. Married: 26 Sept 1912, Detroit, Michigan, Elmer J. STERLING. No issue.


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18-6-4   EMMA JANE EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Andrew-Enoch-William-James


       A.E. and Emma were exceedingly close cousins. For one thing they were very near in age, almost twins. A.E. was born 11 November 1864 and Emma less than three months later on 3 February 1865. For another they lived on adjoining farms in all their young years, and for another, they attended college together. A.E. sort of looked on Emma as the sister he never had.

       Emma attended Hillsdale College and was in the Class of 1890. Emma and her most favorite of the 44 cousins were separated soon after her graduation with her marriage on 7 September 1891, to Elisha Watson LAING. Elisha was minister at the Methodist-Episcopal Church in Woodbridge at the time of their marriage, but before long they were on the circuit that ministers' families find themselves most of the time. Even though distance separated them, Emma and A.E. kept in touch and her children kept in touch with A.E.'s children and grandchildren long after most of the other cousins forgot they had cousins.

       Rev. LAING was born 11 November 1861 in Ortonville, Michigan. There are records of Rev. Laing having charges in Union, Illinois, and Athens, Martin, Coopersville and Battle Creek, Michigan.

       Gertrude, their youngest, born in Battle Creek, Michigan

15 July 1905, was 11 weeks old when the Laings accepted a call to Kansas City, Kansas. They had only been in that faraway place a short time when death struck. Elisha died 1 May 1906 at the age of 44 years.

       Emma had more pluck than years. Only 41, with four children, a sixth had died at the age of 2 and Manley died soon after his father, in 1907. Emma was determined to keep her family together and raise the children properly. The first thing she did was buy a little house at 1931 N. 25th Street, for $900. Their next door neighbor was a Mr. BEGGS, who was "a rock" to them, daughter Marie says, "a port in the storm." A member of the local school board, he told Emma that if she took a refresher course during the summer to get her teaching certificate, he would see to it that she got a job.

       Emma did and he did - and Emma taught school in Kansas City for 30 years - music in the primary grades, and in the doing brought up four future teachers. When she retired in 1937 at the age of 72 there were no retirement funds to take care of her. The following year a retirement program in the school system was instituted!

       In the meantime the four children had grown and the two sons were married, although only Harlow had children. He was teaching at the University of Michigan. Harold and his wife taught in Cleveland Heights and lived in South Eclid, Ohio. The two daughters, Marie and Gertrude, taught in Kansas City, although Gertrude was soon to leave for Baltimore to begin a 17-year association with Koinonia Foundation.

       Emma and Marie decided to chuck it all in Kansas City and go back to the Great Lakes area to be nearer Harold and Harlow. Their destination was Cleveland.

       By 1939 Emma was living at 3001 Corydon Road, Cleveland Heights. She and Marie were there seven years when they sold the house and bought in Shaker Heights, outside Cleveland.

       In those last years Emma became a victim of a disorder which made her susceptible to strokes. One of those strokes, her last, caught her when she was visiting Harlow in Ypsilanti. That was on 22 October 1951, when she was 86 years old. Her children saw to it that she was returned to Kansas City to be buried beside her husband of so few years.

       A.E. never knew of his "twin sister's" death as he had died six years before.

       ISSUE:

18-6-4-1              1. Harold Raymond LAING, b. 1 Aug 1894, Union, Illinois.

18-6-4-2              2.    Harlow Emerson LAING, b. 3 Dec 1895, Athens, Michigan.

                            3.    Evert Gladstone LAING, b. 18 Jan 1898, Athens, Michigan, d. 1900, Martin, Michigan.

SEE 18-6-4-1 4. Marie Mamie LAING, b. 8 Apr 1900, Martin, Michigan.

                            5.    Manley LAING, b. 12 Jan 1903, Coopersville, Michigan, d. 21 Jan 1907, Kansas City, Kansas, age 4..

SEE 18-6-4-1      6.    Gertrude Genevieve LAING, b. 15 July 1905, Battle Creek, Michigan.


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18-6-4-1              HAROLD RAYMOND LAING

18-6-4-4              MARIE MAMIE LAING

18-6-4-6              GERTRUDE GENEVIEVE LAING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Emma-Andrew-Enoch-William-James


       This one time we are going to deviate from the usual format of this book and lump three siblings into one story. These three, Harold, Marie and Gertrude, were extremely close to one another, far more so than most siblings are, at least in their later years. In telling the story of one, it is telling the story of all three.

       They were born 11 years apart. Harold was born 1 August 1894 when Emma and Elisha Laing were in Union, Illinois; Marie on 8 April 1894 when they were in Martin, Michigan, and Gertrude on 15 July 1905 when they were in Battle Creek, Michigan.

       With their father dying when they were all so young, it was a tough row to hoe, but their hardy and enduring mother carried the three, and Harlow, to adulthood, and saw all four of them become teachers like herself.

       From their little home on 25th Street in Kansas City, Harlow went on to college and eventually got his PhD in Science from the University of Michigan, to become Dr. Harlow Emerson LAING. Harold got his Master's and taught general science, chemistry and music. For many years he taught junior high science in Cleveland Heights. He married Alfreda OSTRUM on 28 June 1930 and they lived in South Euclid outside Cleveland. Alfreda was also a teacher. She was born 5 December 1888 in Lockport, Illinois, near Chicago.

       Marie attended Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti when it was still State Normal School - and coincidentally enough she was there at the same time as A.E.'s daughter, Doris. That would have been about 1918.

       Marie was single for 45 years. After teaching in Kansas City for many years, she and her mother moved to Cleveland Heights after Emma's retirement in 1937, and Marie taught in the primary grades of her adopted city's school system. That is where she met Ashton Bryan JONES, an itinerant minister, born 17 July 1896 in Butler, Georgia. In 1985 Marie was in the process of writing Ashton's biography, but the details of his life were unavailable for this sketch. Marie and Ashton were married 20 June 1945.

       Gertrude was the baby of the three, and of the family. She received her Masters in Science and taught science and creative writing in high school and junior college for many years in the Kansas Cities of Missouri and Kansas.

       For 17 years Gertrude was connected with the Koinonia Foundation at the organization's headquarters in Baltimore. It is believed Koinonia is Quaker connected. It was where, as Marie later wrote, Gertrude worked "in dedication to the program to promulgate our mutual ideals for all mankind".

       With their mother's death in 1951 at the age of 86, and with themselves approaching retirement years, a real kindred spirit developed between the three siblings, and Marie's husband Ashton. Harold retired about 1960, and then was given complete charge of all school gardens until his health broke down trying to work and care for his wife, whose mind was such that he could not leave her alone. They had a beautiful home on Pepper Pike and he was editor of a magazine for the Men's Garden Clubs of American for eight years. Alfreda was put in a home, Castle Nursing Home at Millersburg, Ohio in 1967 and Gertrude made her home with him after that.

       In 1963 Harold and Gertrude were in Cleveland Heights, South Euclid, Marie and Ashton were in Vista, north of San Diego, California and Harlow had retired to Chula Vista, which is south of San Diego. In May that year, Gertrude and Harold went on a seven-week trip, to visit the Californians and to stop in Richards, Missouri for a reunion with their Uncle Adelbert EWING's family. They returned to Cleveland Heights at the end of June. On July 4, the two of them celebrated Independence Day with friends in Cleveland, returning home about 10:45 p.m. Harold was uncovering some plants that had been protected when he suffered a heart attack and was gone - just like that.

       Sometime in their 38 years of marriage Harold and Alfreda had settled on their final resting place - in the ROSTRUM family plot in Alfreda's native Lockport, Illinois. Alfreda, a "vegetable" in her last years, died 1974ish. She and Harold rest side by side.

       After Harold's death, Marie and Ashton went to Cleveland Heights to help Gertrude close things up and get the house ready for the market. Then Gertrude went to live in California, visiting Harlow first in Chula Vista, but to make her home with Marie and Ashton in Vista.

       In 1969, Gertrude returned to Baltimore for a visit to the Koinonia Foundation. While there she had a stroke - 20 November 1969, which left her unable to walk or talk. Marie went to Baltimore to bring her back to California. A Vista neighbor picked them up December 2 at the San Diego Airport. On the return to Vista, there was an accident, which strangely enough, rendered Gertrude sensible for a time, but meant terrible injuries to Marie's foot, and she was incapacitated for a long time.

       Gertrude died in Vista 20 January 1970 at 9:30 a.m. On 8 February 1970, the La Jolla Friends Meeting held a worship in her memory at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Vista. Gertrude had directed that her body be given to medical research, and this was carried out through the cooperation of the University of California at San Diego.

       With Harlow's death in 1974 in Chula Vista, Marie remained the only one of Emma's children to tell us about the past. Ashton died in Vista on 6 June 1979. 8 April 1985 Marie was living in Vista ( - about 10 miles from Del Mar where Nancy Hanks Ewing was living). She was 85 years and was vibrant and an up-and-going cousin.

       NO ISSUE


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18-6-4-2              HARLOW EMERSON LAING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Emma-Andrew-Enoch-William-James


       You have already read much about Harlow, who came next after Harold to Emma and Elisha. He was born 3 December 1895 in Athens, Michigan and was 9 years old when the family went to Kansas City. His father dying when he was 10 left him growing up under many handicaps, but the Laings under Emma survived all the troubles and Harlow was able to get a fine education. He advanced from Bachelor's to Master's and finally got his Doctorate in Plant Physiology. He was an agriculture teacher at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti - formerly State Normal School, the teacher training school. In later years he was Professor Emeritus at the university until his retirement and removal to Chula Vista in 1962.

       In the meantime, there were two marriages. On 23 August 1927, Harlow and Frances Martha GEE were married in Ypsilanti. Frances was born 1 February 1901 and she was also a teacher. She gave the Ewing family a daughter and then a son, Richard, on 19 April 1932. The day after Richard was born, Frances died.

       Leela Taylor LINDER was the only mother the two Laing youngsters ever knew. She and Harlow were married on 21 June 1933 at Ypsilanti, and it was Leela who became the mother who raised Dorothy and Richard.

       Leela was born on 5 March 1891 in Abington, Iowa and was also a teacher. When Harlow retired in 1962, the two moved to Fredrika Manor, 244 S. Mountain View Drive, Chula Vista. It was there that Harlow died 18 September 1974 at the age of 78 years. He was buried back at Ypsilanti, Highland Cemetery next to Frances.

       In 1979 when Leela was 87 years old, her step-daughter, Dorothy brought her close to where she was living in Commack, New York and as of January 1985, Leela was in a nursing home near Dorothy.

       ISSUE by Frances:

                     1.    Dorothy Frances LAING, b. 21 July 1929. Married: 31 Aug 1952, Dr. Anthony J. TRAFICANTE b. 25 Jan 1928. 1985: resided Commack, New York.

                     2.    Richard Harlow LAING, b. 19 April 1932, Ypsilanti, Michigan. Married: 1st 20 June 1954, Doris POTTER, b. 20 May 1932, Marlette, Michigan, divorced. Married 2nd Penelope Lucille GAMBLE, b. 24 July 1944, Dallas, Texas. 1979: heads Art Department, Edinboro State University, Pennsylvania. Resided Venango, Edinboro, Pa.


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18-6-5   FINETTE LYNN EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Andrew-Enoch-William-James


       Compared to the others, there is not very much information in the record about Andrew and Emily's fifth. Although she was only five years younger that A.E., she and her cousin seemed to have lost touch with each other over the years.

       Finette's daughter Pearl sent the data on her family.

       Finette was born 5 July 1866 on the farm of her parents and grew up amid her many cousins in Section 20 and nearby. Her husband was George GARWOOD, very likely a brother of the Jennie GARWOOD who married Finette's cousin Henry McKendree EWING II and therefore a son of Martin and Elizabeth GARWOOD of Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       George was born 9 May 1869 and he and Finette were married

1 January 1890. It is uncertain where Finette and George lived or what they did for a living.

       Finette died 6 April 1927 at the age of 59 years and George on 21 December 1939 at the age of 70 years.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Harry Andrew GARWOOD, b. 9 July 1891, d. 16 Sept 1966, 75 years old, single.

                     2.    Blanche Ewing GARWOOD, b. 21 Sept 1895, d. 10 Aug 1940. Married: Jan 1915, Benjamin Francis JAMMES.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Frederick Francis JAMMES, b. 26 Jan 1916.

                                    2.    Louise Amelia JAMMES, b. 14 Feb 1917.

                                    3.    May Augusta JAMMES, b. June 1919.

                                    4.    Benjamin Franklin JAMMES, b. 13 Aug 1925.

                                    5.    Richard E. JAMMES, b. 23 Feb 1927.

                     3.    Roy A. GARWOOD, b. 11 May 1898, d. 26 June 1945, 47 years old, single.

                     4.    Pearl Leona GARWOOD, b. 27 Sept 1902. Married: 10 March 1920, Isaac Marion DYESS, b. 13 Aug 1897. 1973: resided Sanford, Florida.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Isaac Marion DYESS JR., b. 13 Dec 1920. Married: 8 Mar 1947, Bernice MUSE.

                                    2.    Douglas Dalton DYESS, b. 1 Nov 1922, d. 13 Dec 1944.

                                    3.    Dorothea Lea DYESS, b. 1 Apr 1925. Married: 25 Oct 1947, Von Allen CLARK.

                                           1982: resided Leesburg, Florida.

                                    4.    Donald Wade DYESS, b. 26 Feb 1928. Married: 20 Dec 1952, Hazel RAINES.

                                           1982: resided Sanford, Florida.

                                    5.    Robert Allen DYESS. Married: 19 Oct 1961, Linda LITTLE.


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18-6-6   ADELBERT JASPER EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Andrew-Enoch-William-James


       Adelbert brought up the rear of Andrew and Emily's six children. He was born on 2 April 1872 and like the others his playground was all of Section 20. He was married on 2 June 1892 to Ora Rowena BEATTIE, whom he met at "Singing School." They remained in Hillsdale County until after the birth of their sixth child and then they moved out to Missouri, where they spent the rest of their lives.

       Adelbert and Ora had nine children, the eldest of whom died when less than 3 months old. The other eight were still going strong as late as 1968, and in fact, were all able to get together in Richards, Missouri, where their parents had lived, for a grand family reunion. Richards is in Vernon County (Nevada is the county seat) south of Kansas City, Missouri and about five miles from the Kansas state line. It is not known for sure, but it is believed that Adelbert farmed, as his Ewing ancestors had before him. It is unknown if any of his children are still living in Richards. Ora died in 1955, but it is not known when Adelbert's death occurred.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Dean EWING, b. 30 Sept 1894, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 19 Nov 1894 2 months, 29 days. Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                     2.    Florence Bell EWING, b. 27 Oct 1895, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Married: 22 Jan 1916, Chillicothe, Missouri, Ira Bertis WILLIAMS. 3 children, all died in infancy.

                     3.    Fay Dell EWING (son) b. 11 Nov 1897, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Married: 28 Dec 1921, Chillicothe, Missouri, Blanche Marie STERLING.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    (only). Donald Forrest EWING, b. 6 Apr 1924, d. 10 Nov 1944 Belgium, World War II.

                     4.    Vern Irwin EWING, b. 26 Nov 1899, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Married: 15 Aug 1942, Nevada, Missouri, Hazel Fern MC DANIELS. No issue.

                     5.    Gertrude Eunice EWING, b. 25 Dec 1901, Frontier, Michigan. Married: 28 Jan 1926, Toledo, Ohio, William F. GALL. 1968: Phoenix, Arizona. 1982: Gertrude living in Phoenix.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Roberta Lucille GALL, b. 30 May 1930. Married: 26 May 1951, Holland, Ohio, Robert HEIDEN. 1968: trdifrf Monroe, Michigan.

                                  2.      Robert William GALL, b. 27 Aug 1934. Married: 16 Mar 1957, Toledo, Ohio, Marian VICKERS.

                     6.    Robert Dallas EWING, b. 29 June 1904, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Married: Apr 1924, Fort Scott, Kansas, Ola Winifred MARTIN, Deerfield, Missouri.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    (only). Shirley June EWING, b. 23 Dec 1927. Married: Kansas City, Missouri, Jack RADAR.

                     7.    Kenneth Andrew EWING, b. 8 Oct 1907, Kansas City, Kansas. Married: 1st 28 Jan 1935, Reba May HUGHES. Married 2nd Edith ALEXANDER.

                     8.    Mildred Elizabeth EWING, b. 18 Sept 1910, Kansas City, Kansas. Married: 23 June 1928, Ivan SUMNER of Independence, Missouri.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Freda Lee SUMNER, b. 4 Feb 1929. Married: Missouri, Herbert HUGILLAN.

                                    2.    Eugene Wilson SUMNER, b. 16 Jan 1932. Married: 19 Dec 1953, Sue .

                                    3.    Bertis Alvin SUMNER, b. 11 Oct 1933. Married: Kansas City, Missouri, Helen ADER.

                     9.    Dorothy Ruth EWING, b. 18 Jan 1915, Chillicothe, Missouri. Married: 12 Sept 1933, Linville BURCHETT of Wichita, Kansas.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    (only). Carol Jean BURCHETT, b. 12 Dec 1934. Married: 19 Apr 1956, Roy DICKERSON.


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18-7              JAMES LEANDER EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Enoch-William-James


       Into the Franklin Township, Jackson County, Ohio home of Enoch and Susannah on 28 December 1835, came James Leander Ewing, the seventh child and fifth son. James was the first of those five sons who would leave Ewings behind him to perpetuate the Ewing name.

       His name James came, of course, from both Enoch's brother and grandfather, our progenitor. No one knows whence the Leander, but the name served James well, for that, in varying forms, is what he was called through his life. He was Lea to most, Lean (two syllables) to his parents, and Uncle Lea to the nieces and nephews he had aplenty.

       He was the smallest in Enoch's family - thin as a rail, short and rarely, if ever, over 150 pounds. He often said he was the runt of the litter. But he was full size in every respect when it came to pulling his oar. He was 18 when the family made the move to Michigan, and he was counted on to help guide the wagontrain over those 300 miles it took to get there. And when it came to clearing Section 20 in Woodbridge Township of its forest to make farm land, James wielded every bit as fine an ax as his bigger brothers.

       For five years after the Ewings moved to Hillsdale County, James stayed at home to help get the farm going. But in the meantime, Isaac and Eliza SMITH and their large family had come into the area from Ohio (1854), and had taken up a farm 2 or 3 miles away. When James' brother Andrew took Emily SMITH as his wife in 1855, James began taking a second look at her younger sister Elizabeth and it was not long before he decided that he wanted a place of his own - and Elizabeth by his side.

       His father made the first wish possible by turning over to James the west 120 acres of his 240, and the Methodist parson made the second dream come true when he pronounced James and Elizabeth man and wife on 2 May 1858.

       Elizabeth was born on 11 January 1840 in Bucyrus, Ohio. A.E. wrote that during the Civil War, there was "no more loyal, outspoken home patriot in Woodbridge than Elizabeth, even with her father and three brothers in the service." Isaac and three sons, Columbus, Commodore and Henry, served in the Union Army. Only Commodore and Henry returned alive. "Elizabeth was always active in church and Sunday School work," A.E. wrote, "and was the nurse of the neighborhood."

       James built his home about 80 rods from that of his parents, where the youngest Ewing son, Henry, lived and raised his family. "The two brothers, James and Henry", A.E. tells us, "never ceased to plan and work together as long as they lived. With their homes so close, their children grew up as intimate playmates of one another, much as one big family under two roofs. Their brother John's place lay to the west of James' and Andrew's was to the north, and with their sister, Charlotte JENKINS taking up the northwest corner, Section 20 was indeed Ewingville. All of the 640 acres of the section was the playground for these young first cousins. A.E. wrote, "I remember when 13 Ewings and three Jenkins answered to roll call at the Maple Grove School. The teacher would start off with one Ewing and then continue the list by first names only: Allie Ewing (A.E. himself), Bertha, Charles, Dova, Elzie, Frank, George, Henry, John, Minnie, Stella, Thomas, Will. Andrew's children attended a different school or four more could have been added to the list."

       A.E. said, "James was a splendid farmer. No one in Woodbridge could run a straighter fence line, nor a more perfect corn row, nor keep a cleaner cornfield, nor dig a better ditch, nor build a neater stack of wheat than he could. His scythe was always sharp, and his mowing machine never squeaked for want of oil. He could cradle a swath of grain with the nicety of an artist. At corn husking time, he could show the largest ears and the tallest fodder. None of this was accidental. It was because his heart was in his work. He was his happiest when raising good fields of wheat and corn and a big litter of fat pigs. Hard work was his constant companion. His diversions from the strict line of farming were honey bees and maple syrup, and he had both down to a science. In his younger days he was a good hunter and he never ceased to be a good shot. Uncle Lea had a keen sense of humor and was always ready with a joke and for one.

       "I never knew Uncle Lea to belong to any organization other than his church and Sunday School (Methodist), to which he was faithful in support and attendance. In politics, he was a staunch Republican - never anything else. The political winds might blow, but they did not shake James Leander Ewing. He spurned political office and poked fun at office holders. It runs in my mind, however, that he was once a member of the district school board. He used to be 'pathmaster' but that was a job, not an office. He was highly respected by friends and acquaintances, and dearly loved by his kindred. No truer heart ever beat."

       James and Elizabeth gathered their five children , grandchildren and other relatives about them on 2 May 1908 in celebration of their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

       Toward the end of his life, James was in ill health for a long time. Apparently he knew it was the end, for he made arrangements for his funeral. He selected Psalms 17:15 for the text for the sermon, and chose the songs "Jesus Lover of my Soul," "Wonderful Peace," and "Nearer my God to Thee." James died 4 April 1910 at the age of 74 years, 3 months and 7 days.

       Elizabeth was 82 year old when she died on 27 April 1922. She too had a long, lingering illness. The lovers of 52 years were buried side by side at West Woodbridge Cemetery.

       Before proceeding with the stories of their children, an interesting point should be made: Up to this time, the Ewing name in Enoch's line was lost. The lines of the first four sons were "daughtered out." Of Enoch's six sons, only two had Ewings who perpetuated the name. One of them was James. The other was the youngest brother, Henry.

       ISSUE:

18-7-1          1.    Estella Jane EWING, b. 14 Aug 1859, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-7-2          2.    Isaac Ellsworth EWING, b. 5 Dec 1861, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-7-3          3.    Henry McKendree EWING II, b. 26 Mar 1864, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-7-4          4.    Charles Cassius EWING, b. 4 Sept 1867, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-7-5          5.    Minnie Adell EWING, b. 14 Dec 1869, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.


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18-7-1   ESTELLA JANE EWING


Ewing Family Lineage:   James-Enoch-William-James


       Estella, born 14 August 1859 on the newly established farm of James and Elizabeth (Lea and Lib), was the first of the Ewings five children. Estella was married on 20 April 1881 to Frank Hiram PANNEY. The two farmed in Woodbridge until 1888 when they moved to Ionia, about 80 miles north of Hillsdale. They were there 26 years, but after James' death and as Elizabeth became very ill, they moved back to Woodbridge to take care of Estella's mother - who, it was told - " Estella faithfully and patiently nursed and cared for through eight long years of helpless sickness."

       It was not long after Elizabeth's death in 1922, that Estella lost her husband. He died 17 April 1924, just three days before their 43rd wedding anniversary. Two years later Estella's daughter Lucy died. Estella lost two young sons many years before. All this while, Estella herself was ill with cancer. She died on 5 January 1928.

       Her obituary in the Hillsdale newspaper said, "She became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in girlhood and was always known for her kindly disposition, was an affectionate loyal wife, a loving sympathetic mother, and esteemed neighbor and a patriotic citizen." She was 68 years old when she died. Estella was buried, along with Frank, at the West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Charles Nelson PANNEY, b. 20 Apr 1882, Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 23 January 1891, Ionia, Michigan - age 8 years.

                     2.    Lucy Myrtle PANNEY, b. 10 May 1883, Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 23 Aug 1924, age 41 years. Buried: Camden. Married: 26 Jan 1910, at her parents home, 528 E. Main Street, Ionia, Michigan, Dr. William Raymond WILLIAMSON of Norwich, New York, where they lived after their marriage. No issue.

                     3.    Maurice J. PANNEY, b. 12 Mar 1885, Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 14 June or 18 July 1885 (3 or 4 months), Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                      4.    Lee William PANNEY, b. 6 July 1890, Ionia, Michigan, d. pre-1969, Ionia, Michigan. Buried: Ionia, Michigan. Married: 17 Mar 1913, Detroit, Michigan. Anna Margaret MC ALARY, b. 18 Aug 1894, Ionia. Lived at Frank and Estella's home at 528 E. Main Street in Ionia after the older Panney went back to Woodbridge. 1969: Anna still at address in Ionia, was 75 years liked to babysit and partake of Senior Citizen Club activities.

                                    Issue:

                                           1.    Esther Margaret PANNEY, b. 6 Nov 1915, Detroit, Michigan. Married: Eugene VAN VLECK.

                                           2.    Gordon Lee PANNEY, b. 28 Mar 1919, Ionia, Michigan.

                                           3.    Mary Louise PANNEY, b. 24 Dec 1924, Ionia, Michigan. Married: Donald FAILING.

                                           4.    Clara Elizabeth PANNEY, b. 15 Feb 1893, Ionia, Michigan, d. after 1969. Married: 2 Nov 1914, Ionia, Michigan, Ford E. WEAVER, b. 13 Apr 1891, Fremont, Michigan, d. 23 Feb 1959, Ionia, MI. Ford was a mechanic in Lyons, Michigan.

                                                  Issue:

                                                         1.    Ford WEAVER JR., b. 28 Aug 1921, Ionia, Michigan.

                                                         2.    Leland WEAVER, b. 10 Jan 1923, Ionia, Michigan, d. 19 Aug 1966, Arizona. Buried: Lyons, Michigan.


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18-7-2   ISAAC ELLSWORTH EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   James-Enoch-William-James


       Isaac was Elzie in his young days, and I. Ellsworth or sometimes I.E. as he grew older. He was born 5 December 1861 on the James Ewing farm in Section 20, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       Isaac was the eldest of six brothers and first cousins living on adjoining farms less than a quarter of a mile apart,

who were all born within a space of seven years. They were therefore very close as boyhood chums, and constantly played together when chores were done. They were Ellsworth, Henry and Charles in James Leander Ewing's family and Alvin, John and Frank in Henry McKendree Ewing's family.

       A.E. wrote, "Elzie was sort of a genius, a born mechanic and, being the older, was the natural leader of the gang. He could make carts, sleds, ball bats, balls and other playthings. A brook came across their farm, passing near their barn, and Elzie dammed it and made it run a little saw mill of his own contrivance. He made and sailed toy boats on the dam. This was all great sport."

       Isaac forsook the life of a farmer and took up a trade. He was a cabinet maker, an excellent one, and a superb woodcarver. One of his works is a walking stick on which is carved in scroll fashion, "1799 - Enoch Ewing - 1855" also three dates whose significance is really unknown, 1853, 1880 and 1931, and his own name, I.E. Ewing. The 1931 could have been the date of the work; 1853 was the year the Ewings first arrived in Michigan; nothing special in his life seems to commemorate in 1880.

       There is also a cane that was unfinished at the time of Isaac's death. On it are carved the names and birthdates of five generations of Ewings - Enoch, Henry, Alvin, Burke and Burke Jr. This is now in the possession of the last named. Both canes were presented to A.E. after Isaac's death to add to his cane collection. (which at the time of Nancy Hank Ewing's death was in her possession. blp.) Another interesting item of Isaac's making is a unique carving from a solid piece of wood. It is a movable ball that rolls around inside a wooden "cage." The ball is so perfect and round that it stuns the mind to think that Isaac was able to carve it inside the cage.

       Isaac married on 19 October 1887 to Olive M CROWL, at the Crowl home in Reading. Olive was born 7 February 1868 in Reading, Michigan. Isaac and Olive lived at first in Reading, where their two children were born, but later moved to Harbor Springs in Michigan's Traverse Bay area. Even at that great distance from the center of "Ewingdom," Isaac served as president of the Ewing reunion group in the early days. He belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church in Harbor Springs and was active in the church organization, serving as treasurer for many years. He had become a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows soon after his marriage, and was a member for 50 years, until his death.

       After almost 34 years of marriage, Olive died in Harbor Springs on 29 June 1921. Isaac was then 60, but he wanted the companionship of a wife, and on 20 September 1922, he and Effa W. KIZER were married. In 1927, Isaac retired and he and Effa went to South Bend, Indiana to live. There Isaac became a member of St. Paul's Memorial Methodist Church and again he was active in church work. He was a member of the church's board of stewards and chairman of a district in the church organization.

       Effa died in April 1937. Two years latter on 26 January 1939 when Isaac was 77 years old, he went to the store, apparently in good health. He returned home and was in the process of removing his wraps when he suddenly collapsed and died. There were two funeral services, one at St. Paul's in South Bend and another at his church in Harbor Springs, where he was buried next to Olive.

       ISSUE by Olive:

18-7-2-1              1.    Lynn Harrison EWING, b. 26 July 1888, Reading, Michigan.

18-7-2-2              2.    Grace Maude EWING, b. 6 May 1890, Reading, Michigan.


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18-7-2-1              LYNN HARRISON EWING

18-7-2-2              GRACE MAUDE EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Isaac-James-Enoch-William-James


       The stories of these two are closely related, so they will be combined in one sketch.

       Lynn was born in Reading, Michigan 26 July 1888. He was followed into the Ewing home on 6 May 1890 by Grace. When they were still youngsters, the family moved to Harbor Springs, Michigan, where they grew up and attended school.

        Grace, a school teacher, was married in Harbor Springs on 22 June 1911 to Willis Abbott GIBSON, who was born in Wakeman, Ohio on 23 June 1886. They lived in Harbor Springs, where their two sons were born, until about 1927 when they moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Grace and Willis lived at 41 Lagrave, S.E. Willis had a dry-cleaning shop, he also operated a popcorn stand on a corner lot near home. Grace kept a rooming house.

       In the meantime, Lynn had gone to Effingham, Illinois, to attend engraving school. There he met Verda E. ADAMS, a Registered Nurse who had trained in St. Louis. Verda was born 2 May 1889 in Hill, Illinois. The two were married in Effingham on 22 August 1918 and made their home in Rock Island, Illinois, one of the Quad Cities which also includes Moline, where Lynn had his Photo Art Engraving Company.

       Back in Grand Rapids, tragedy struck the home of Lynn's sister Grace. Only 44 years old, Grace died on 20 August 1934 and was buried at Harbor Springs next to her parents. Grace left two sons, ages 17 and 11. Arrangements were made for the youngest Gerald, to go live with his Uncle Lynn in Rock Island, and Gerald arrived there on his 12th birthday, 20 January 1935.

       Childless themselves, Lynn and Verda raised Gerald as their own. Lynn sold the photo engraving company about 1953, but kept on with another business he owned, the Blackhawk Company, makers of Mohawk expanding chucks. When he died on 29 November 1974, the company went to Gerald. Right up to the time of his death at the age of 86 years, Lynn was still going strong. He had been very active in the Methodist Church most of his life, and was Sunday School superintendent for 30 years. Verda preceded him in death, dying 19 June 1970.

       Willis and his other son Therman remained in Grand Rapids for a time, but eventually moved to Detroit, Michigan where Willis ran a dry-cleaning shop. His favorite pastime was fishing. He was 61 years old when he died 28 July 1947 in Detroit. Willis is buried in Grand Rapids.

       ISSUE by Grace:

18-7-2-2-1           1.    Therman Ewing GIBSON, b. 30 Jan 1917, Harbor Springs, Michigan.

18-7-2-2-2           2.    Gerald Keith GIBSON, b. 20 Jan 1923, Harbor Springs, Michigan.


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18-7-2-2-1    THERMAN EWING GIBSON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Grace-Isaac-James-Enoch-William-James


       Therman was born 30 January 1917 in Harbor Springs, Michigan and was about 11 years old when the family moved to Grand Rapids. He was 17 when his mother died. He and his father remained in Grand Rapids after her death.

       Therman was married in July of 1938, when he was 19, to Eloise MOORE. They lived in Grand Rapids for awhile after their marriage but later moved to Detroit, Therman's father going with them. Therman was a professional bowler and made the American Bowling Congress Hall of Fame. He was also an excellent golfer, always shooting in the 60s and 70s. He died 30 March 1969 when he was only 52 year old. Eloise remained in Detroit where, in 1977, she made her living in the real estate field.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Patricia GIBSON, Married: John NARDONE lived in Detroit, Michigan - Two sons.

                     2.    Barbara GIBSON, Married: Charles FOREMAN, lived in Detroit, Michigan - Two daughters and one son.


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18-7-2-2-2    GERALD KEITH GIBSON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Grace-Isaac-James-Enoch-William-James


       Gerald followed his brother by six years, minus 10 day. He was born 20 January 1923 in Harbor Springs, Michigan and was about 4 years old when the family moved to Grand Rapids. On the death of his mother when he was 11, he moved to Rock Island, Illinois to be the son his Uncle Lynn and Aunt Verda did not have.

       During World War II, Gerald spent 37 months in the Army. When he got out in 1946, he started as an apprentice in photography. After Uncle Lynn sold the photo engraving company, Photo Art, Gerald continued on with the firm as a commercial photographer. He left Photo Art about 1963 and worked for another graphic art studio until 1970 when he went to work for Uncle Lynn, although he still did free-lance photography. On his uncle's death in 1974, Gerald inherited the Blackhawk Company. In 1977 Gerald and his wife, Delores, were partners in the firm.

       Gerald and Delores Mae PURVIS were married 13 September 1947. They have three children, all college graduates. In 1977, the Gibsons were living at 3503 18th Avenue, Rock Island, Illinois, but were just getting ready to move into the new A-frame they were building in Milan, a neighbor of Rock Island and the other Quad Cities.



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18-7-3          HENRY MC KENDREE EWING II

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   James-Enoch-William-James


       When James and Elizabeth's third child came into the world, on 26 March 1864, there was a war raging in the United States, and James' much-loved brother was about to enlist as a soldier in that war. James named his son for that brother and thus the son went through life with the grand old name of Henry McKendree Ewing. Uncle and nephew lived on adjoining farms, and it must have been very confusing at times.

       A.E. does not say much about young Henry in his recollections of early life on the farm, only that Henry, 8 1/2 months older than A.E. himself, was very much a part of the group of brothers and cousins that devised ways and means to amuse themselves when chores were done.

       Farm work came easily to Henry and he had a liking for it, which his two brothers did not. So it was only natural that he take over his father's farm when James's health began to fail, and that he should come into it when James died in 1910. Henry lived on that farm all the rest of his 69 years.

       Henry was married on 20 January 1886 to Jennie GARWOOD, daughter of Woodbridge neighbors Martin and Elizabeth GARWOOD. Jennie was born 3 March 1868 and brought three children into the world, two of whom died in infancy.

       Henry died 27 August 1933. Jennie's surviving son Fred was at that time living in Schenectady, New York and there was no one to take over the farm. So it was sold and Jennie went to Schenectady to live with Fred and his family. Jennie was 78 year old at the time of her death in 1945. Jennie is buried back in the West Woodbridge Cemetery alongside her husband of

47 years.

       ISSUE:

18-7-3-1              1.    Fred C. EWING, b. 24 Feb 1887.

                     2.    Robert EWING, b. 15 Aug 1890, d. 3 Jan 1891, age: 4 months and 19 days of "la grippe".

                     3.    Ray EWING, b. 29 Dec 1893, d. 31 Dec 1893.


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18-7-3-1              FRED C. EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Henry-James-Enoch-William-James


       Fred was the first of three sons for Henry and Jennie, but the only one to survive infancy. His name really was Fred and not Frederick. He was born 24 February 1887.

       Like so many others of that era, Fred left the farm in favor of a career - and it was a long and illustrious one. He went to Hillsdale College to receive his Bachelor's as a Certified Public Accountant. At school he met a student from Camden, a village near Woodbridge. She was Gladys Joy HALLOCK, who always went by her happy middle name.

       Gladys was born 16 December 1891 at Camden, Michigan to Cyrus and Malissa (MARTIN) HALLOCK. Malissa was the daughter of Rev. John MARTIN, pastor of the United Brethren Church of Woodbridge, and his wife, Rosa. Malissa was the sister of James MARTIN who married Susan Jane WHITE (18-3-4), in the Jeannet EWING family.

       Fred and Gladys were married 16 July 1914 and Fred began a teaching career that lasted some 30 years. That was in Schenectady, New York, where he and Gladys made their home and raised their three children. On the death of his father, Henry, in 1933, his mother Jennie made her home with them until her death in 1945.

       Fred retired from teaching 1 March 1957 at the age of 70 years. In the meantime (1938) he had organized the Schenectady Teachers Federal Credit Union and was made its treasurer. He held that position until the 1970s when he and Gladys went into a retirement home in Saratoga Springs, New York.

       Gladys died there 3 March 1976. In 1977, Fred was in the Wesley Nursing Home in Saratoga Springs. He died there in January 1980, a few weeks short of his 97th birthday.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Ruth Geralding EWING, b. 30 May 1918, Schenectady, New York, d. 24 Oct 1970, Kalamazoo, Michigan, age 52 years. Married: 21 Dec 1945, Donald WILLIAMS, b. 6 Jan 1912, Providence, Rhode Island. Donald received his B.A. at University Rhode Island, was on the staff of the Kalamazoo Gazette. After Ruth's death, he remarried in 1971 - Madeline STANGER. 1977: retired, living Kalamazoo, Michigan. No issue.

18-7-3-1-2    2.    Marlin Berle EWING, b. Oct 1920, Schenectady, New York.

18-7-3-1-3    3.    Maurice Duane EWING, b. 30 June 1925, Schenectady, New York.


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18-7-3-1-2    MARLIN BERLE EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Fred-Henry-James-Enoch-William-James


       Marlin was born in October of 1920 in Schenectady. He attended the University of Texas and Albany Medical College in New York, and became a physician, practicing at Emery University in Atlanta, Georgia. He was married in 1943 in Norfolk, Virginia to Lorraine . They were divorced and he married a second time. (name is not available) Marlin contracted polio in 1969 and retired. In 1977, Marlin was living in Valparaiso, Florida.


 

18-7-3-1-3    MAURICE DUANE EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Fred-Henry-James-Enoch-William-James


       Maurice was born 30 June 1925 in Schenectady, New York. When it came time to select his school, he said "If Hillsdale was good enough for Dad, it's good enough for me," and that is where he enrolled, and that is where he met Jacqueline JENNICKES, who was born in Flint, Michigan on 13 July 1928. The two were married in Buffalo, New York where they both were attending the University of Buffalo - she for her Bachelor's and he to become a dentist.

       Dr. Maurice hung up his shingle in Saratoga Springs, New York and Jacqueline became a social worker. In 1986 his office was at 176 Lake Avenue, Ballston Spa, New York and they resided on Silver Beach Road.


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18-7-4          CHARLES CASSIUS EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   James-Enoch-William-James


       Charles was born 4 September 1897 on James's and Elizabeth's farm in Woodbridge Township. Little is known about Charles other than his vital statistics. But A.E. had this to say about him at an early age:

       "Our first horses were sticks, which we straddled and galloped about on. Any old stick was good enough for me, but some of the boys had an early fancy for good horses and selected nice straight sticks for their stables. Charlie had a fence corner full of fancy sticks of all sizes, neatly arranged in fancied stalls. He had studs, mares and colts and each had a name. Some of his horses were wild and it took much patience to break them to the saddle. Others were kickers and others were biters and dangerous to be around. I think Charlie was the horseman of the crowd.

       "He outgrew the stick horses and broke in a little white woolly poodle dog which he called "Poodle." He made a harness and hitched Poodle to a handmade cart of suitable size. Poodle seemed to be fond of the sport of being a horse, and would trot along cockily. Charlie made his cart into a meat wagon. Frogs killed with bow and arrow would be butchered and the meat offered for sale. Paper cut into bill sizes was passed as money in payment of frog steak and sand sugar."

       Charles spent his life farming in Woodbridge and elsewhere or so it was told. He and Abbie Irene HOYLE were married on 18 July 1886. Their only child, Bertie J. EWING was born in 1891, but died when he was 3 years old. Charles and Abbie were subsequently divorced. Abbie remained in Hillsdale County and was married to Harvey L. GREEN. She died 12 May 1966 and is buried in West Woodbridge Cemetery with Harvey and four Green children.

       Late in life, Charles married a second time, the date is not recorded. His second wife was Pearl Goodrich WEAVER, who was born 7 November 1882 in Branch County, Michigan. Their son Charles J. EWING was born when Charles C. was 56 years old. At that time, Charles and Pearl were living in Marine City, northeast of Detroit, Michigan.

       Charles died in Hillsdale in March of 1950 at the age of 83 years. He is buried in West Woodbridge Cemetery. Pearl, who died 5 June 1972 in Albion, Michigan in her 89th year is buried beside him.

       ISSUE by Abbie:

                     1.    Bertie J. EWING, b. 7 Dec 1891, d. 11 Nov 1895, 3 years, 11 months and 4 days. Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       ISSUE by Pearl:

18-7-4-2              2.    Charles J. EWING, b. 25 Mar 1924, Marine City, Michigan.


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18-7-4-2              CHARLES J. EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Charles-James-Enoch-William-James


       Enoch and Susannah's great-grandchildren started coming in 1862 and 46 years later that generation ended, or so it was thought, with the birth in 1908 of Frances EWING, last of the Ewings' 104 great-grandchildren, the folds said. But they reckoned without Charles Cassius Ewing, who surprised Ewingdom 16 years later by fathering Charles J. Ewing, who made it 105 on

25 March 1924. A century and a quarter had passed between the births of the great-grandfather and his last great-grandchild.

       This very special Ewing was born in Marine City, Michigan where, for an unknown reason his parents happened to be living.

However, Charles attended Hillsdale schools and graduated from Hillsdale High School, as did one Mary Elizabeth FIERSTINE. Mary, who was born 7 December 1923 in Memphis, Michigan became Charles's bride on 6 March 1943 in Jackson, Michigan.

       Jackson is where these Ewings have lived ever since. In 1977, Charles is owner-operator of Custom Meat Cutting and they lived at 109 Sagamore. Charles belonged to the Mason Lodge and was in the Navy during World War II. Mary was a member of the Foote Hospital Auxiliary.



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18-7-5   MINNIE ADELE EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   James-Enoch-William-James


       Where her nephew Charles J. Ewing was the last of Enoch and Susannah's great-grandchildren, Minnie Adele brought up the rear as far as the grandchildren were concerned, being number 81. She was born 14 December 1869 - 28 years after the first grandchild, Martha Jane JENKINS was born in 1841.

       Minnie also brought up the rear of James and Elizabeth's five children, and was somewhat of a tag-along upon occasion when it came to playtime with the sextet of Ewing brothers and first cousins. A.E. did not forget her in his memoirs. He wrote: "Cousin Minnie, the youngest of Uncle Lea's family, was the seventh in our crowd, since she had no one else to play with, she made a pretty good boy, as far as keeping pace was concerned."

       As the years went by, Minnie began thinking of other things, like Wallace Henry NIXON, who lived nearby with Minnie's older cousin, Enoch C. WHITE (18-3-1). Wallace's mother was Elizabeth HOWALD of the family that has been mentioned in this Enoch chapter a few times before. Elizabeth died in 1874 when Wallace was 4 years old. Wallace's father John W. NIXON died two years before that. Wallace and his sister Alice went to live with their aunt Rosa Howald WHITE, Enoch's wife, as they had no children of their own.

       Wallace was born 14 July 1870. He and Minnie married on

9 March 1889, when he was 18 and she 19. Presumably they lived on with Enoch and Rosa on the old farm of Enoch's father Benjamin WHITE, although they are known to have lived in Pioneer, Ohio and Camden, Michigan too.

       The Nixons had 42 years together. They celebrated their 42nd anniversary on 9 March 1931. Minnie died 11 days later on 20 March 1931 at the age of 61 years. Wallace followed her 10 months after that on 6 January 1932, when he too was 61 years old. They are both buried at West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

18-7-5-1              1.    Nellie I. NIXON, b. 8 June 1890, Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-7-5-2              2.    Burr NIXON, b. 9 June 189, Pioneer, Ohio.

                     3.    Bessie R. NIXON, b. 30 Nov 1893, d. pre-1969. Married: 4 Jan 1913, Hubert L. GRAY, b. 10 June 1890. Lived: Royal Oak, Michigan to Red Oak, Iowa, 1937.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Leonard GRAY, b. 15 Apr 1914.

                                    2.    Robert Nixon GRAY, b. 19 Sept 1923.

18-7-5-4              4.    Boyd Emory NIXON, b. 23 Dec 1898, Camden, Michigan.

18-7-5-4              5.    Jessie Marie NIXON, b. 12 Jan 1908.


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18-7-5-1              NELLIE I. NIXON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Minnie-James-Enoch-William-James


       Nellie was born in Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan 8 June 1890. She was married on 9 February 1908, in Woodbridge to George Arthur FELTON, born 23 November 1889 in Defiance, Ohio. George was a farmer. After his death 24 September 1947, she was manager of the Home for Aged Ladies in Lansing, Michigan. She retired pre-1969, at which time she was living in an apartment on Washington Avenue in Lansing. Her name is on the stone with George at West Woodbridge Cemetery, but there is no date listed.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Grace I. FELTON, b. 31 March 1909. Married: 22 Dec 1949, William C. PRICE, b. 22 May 1912. No issue.

                     2.    Elizabeth Maxine FELTON, b. 25 Oct 1911. Married: 23 Aug 1933, Theron Eldred SCHMACHTENBERGER, b. 1 Nov 1909. 1982: there was a T.E. Schmachtenberger on Lincoln in Lansing, Michigan.

                            Issue:

                      3.    Wilma Louise FELTON, b. 1 Dec 1913. Married 1st 18 Dec 1932, Otis L. WHEELER. Married 2nd 8 July 1939, Edward R. TANK, b. 10 Aug 1910.

                      4.    Harold J. FELTON, b. 27 Aug 1915. Married: 15 Aug 1945, Ruth AGAR, b. 13 May 1917. No issue.


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18-7-5-2              BURR NIXON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Minnie-James-Enoch-William-James


       This man with the intriguing first name was born 9 June 1891 in Pioneer, Ohio, but he apparently grew up in Woodbridge as he attended Camden High School. He went on to become manager of the J.C. Penny store in Logan, Ohio. A job from which he retired in 1969.

       Burr was married on 15 June 1916 at Pioneer, Ohio to Nellie Marie HALL, who was born 10 February 1889 in Pioneer.

       Burr died in 1979.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Victor Merle NIXON, b. 6 Sept 1918, Pioneer, Ohio. Married: 1942, Oklahoma, Elizabeth Ann MC GONAGLE, b. Jan 1919, Logan Ohio. 1969: he a retired lieutenant colonel, U. S. Army and a teacher of ROTC, she a secretary, also retired. Resided: 444 Edgemont Circle, Huntsville, Alabama.

                      2.    Phyllis Lucille NIXON, b. 3 Oct 1920, Royal Oak, Michigan. Married: 30 June 1944, Clinton, Oklahoma, Charles Lauris HODSON, b. 1 Jan 1943, Herington, Kansas. Phyllis attended Burdette Business College, Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Bliss College, Columbus, Ohio. 1984: 1927 Westwood Avenue, Columbus, Ohio. Phyllis, secretary with Ohio Society of Professional Engineer Charles, manager of Midwestern Management. Phyllis applying for DAR membership.


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18-7-5-4              BOYD EMORY NIXON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Minnie-James-Enoch-William-James


       Burr's brother also has an intriguing first name. He was born 23 December 1898 in Camden, Michigan. He attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and received his Masters from the University of Detroit. He was married on 25 August 1923 at Birmingham, Michigan to Hannah Grace MC CORDIE, who also received her Bachelors from Wayne State. Hannah was born

5 April 1897 in Forest, Ontario, Canada. In 1973 Boyd was retired principal, elementary school, and she was a retired math teacher. Their address was 712 Helene Avenue, Royal Oak, Michigan

       ISSUE:

18-7-5-4-1    1.    Kathryn Jeanette NIXON, b. 26 Oct 1924, Pleasant Ridge, Michigan.

18-7-5-4-2    2.    John Charles NIXON, b. 23 Nov 1929, Royal Oak, Michigan.


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18-7-5-4-1    KATHRYN JEANETTE NIXON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Boyd-Minnie-James-Enoch-William-James


       Kathryn born 26 October 1924 in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan was married on 22 June 1946 in Royal Oak, to Robert Stanley STORMS. Robert was born 15 January 1923 in Niles, Michigan and received his Bachelor's from Michigan State University as Kathryn did - hers in Journalism. Robert also attended Chicago Art Institute and in 1973 was a commercial artist and illustrator of children's books. Kathryn was a writer.       They were living 210 Vinewood Drive, Avon Lake, Ohio.


 

18-7-5-4-2    JOHN CHARLES NIXON


Ewing Family Lineage:   Boyd-Minnie-James-Enoch-William-James


       Meet Doctor Nixon. John was born 23 November 1929 in

Royal Oak, Michigan and got his Bachelor's from the University of Michigan, then went on to the University of Michigan's Medical School for his M.D. In 1973 he was in the hematology and chemotherapy department of the University Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

       John's wife is Joan Nadine CRAFTS, whom he married in Schweinfort, Germany on 9 August 1958. She was born 2 November 1933 in Dearborn, Michigan and is an RN, having attended Wayne State. In 1973 their address was 1155 Green Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan.


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18-7-5-5              JESSIE MARIE NIXON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Minnie-James-Enoch-William-James


       Jessie joined the other NIXONS on 12 January 1908. She was married on 20 September 1929, to Morton P. BATES, son of the beloved Camden doctor, J.A. BATES. Morton taught for several years at Central High School in Grand Rapids, and in 1937, went to Detroit to enter the Wayne State Medical Department. In 1968 they were living in East Lansing, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    John Morton BATES, 15 Aug 1932, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

                     2.    Margery BATES, b. 1935, Grand Rapids, Michigan, d. 1966, age 31 years. Buried: next to aunt and uncle Nellie and George FELTON at West Woodbridge Cemetery, West Woodbridge, Hillsdale County, Michigan.


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18-8              ELIZABETH PARILLA EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Enoch-William-James


       Enoch and Susannah's eighth child and third daughter, born on 28 May 1838 was given the name Elizabeth Parilla. The Elizabeth could have been for any one of four relatives, or all four - her father's Aunt Elizabeth EWING, his sister Elizabeth, her mother's grandmother Elizabeth ALT BUZZARD, or her mother's sister, Elizabeth RADABAUGH. No one seems to know whence came the middle name Parilla, although she had a Radabaugh cousin also named Elizabeth Parilla. Elizabeth Ewing was always called Bess or Aunt Bess.

       She was four months past 15 when the Ewings moved from Ohio to Michigan in September 1853. The man who was to be her life's mate appears to have followed soon afterward. He was DeWitt Clinton CHERRINGTON and he was the son of neighbors of the Ewings back there in Franklin Valley, Jackson County - Lorenzo and Deborah (MC CULLOCK) CHERRINGTON. As Lorenzo died in 1854, it is believed that DeWitt, who was 24 at the time, left home and found his way to Hillsdale County. He and Elizabeth were married in her parents' home on 16 March 1856, two days after DeWitt's 26th birthday.

       The Cherringtons were among Gallia County's first settlers. There are still members of this old and respected family living in the area. The Cherringtons enter into the Ewing story again on the pages ahead.

       DeWitt and Elizabeth settled on a farm as close to her parents as could - just across the road. They were on the southwest corner of Section 21, and the houses of the two families were only a quarter of a mile apart. Apparently the Cherringtons rented, for in the 1872 Hillsdale County atlas, the 80 acre farm on that corner is shown as belonging to L. CRAWFORD.

       A.E.'s first remembrances of his Aunt Bess stem from about 1867. "I used to toddle down to Aunt Bess's house with old dog, 'Tayloe' (Taylor) before I could talk plain. 'Tayloe' was my advance guard and Aunt Bess has since told me that when old Taylor showed himself at her door, she would look up to see where I was. She told me that I once said that my ma's 'toonies' (petunias) were prettier than her 'toonies'."

       He remembered his Aunt Bess as a very large woman, weighing, he guessed about 250 pounds. He wrote, "I remember she was regarded as a slack housekeeper. If the breakfast dishes were not washed, they could be used again for dinner at a saving of much labor. She dressed because it was indecent not to, but she cared little whether a garment was becoming or not. Pride was not her ruling passion. Nevertheless, she was a good soul. She was fond of flowers and had beds of them in her front yard. She was good hearted to the extreme, worshipped her parents, was fond of her brothers and sisters, and very good to her 45 or so nieces and nephews."

       Dewitt and Elizabeth had four children, all born on the farm in Section 21. They were Clayton, Ewing, Susan and Dewitt Clinton Jr., called in their young days Clay, Ewie, Suze and Clintie.

       The youngest of these was Dewitt Jr., was a year and a month old when Dewitt decided to enlist in the cause, in the hope of bringing the conflict, then raging, to a speedy halt. He and four other inter-related men of Woodbridge and Amboy Townships had made a pact that if one were called up, all would go. The others were brothers Andrew, and Henry Ewing, their cousin Thomas C. RADABAUGH, and Alvin Ewing HANKS, Henry's brother-in-law.

       On 29 March 1864, the five would-be soldiers enlisted in Company D of the 2nd Michigan Infantry, under Colonel MARCH. They were mustered in on 8 April and joined the regiment on

17 May. That was immediately following the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia, in which the Second had taken part with many casualties, some of them men from back home and known to Dewitt and the others.

       The battle was the beginning of the march to Petersburg, Virginia, south of Richmond, capital of the Confederate State, and the subsequent Siege of Petersburg, which brought about the fall of Richmond and the end of the struggle.

       Of the five comrades, Dewitt was the only one who came through without a scratch, and thus remained with the regiment throughout the entire siege. As a result, he received promotions that the others did not, and ended up a sergeant of his company. He was an eyewitness to the famous mine explosion at Petersburg on 30 July 1864. He took home with him a trophy in the form of a seven-pound rebel shell that he "captured" in the works before Petersburg. Elizabeth told A.E. that he lugged it home in an old sock.

       The story, as Dewitt told it to A.E. was, "The soldiers were in their trenches firing at the enemy and being fired at by them. They were careful not to expose themselves more than necessary. Shells designed to burst over the breastworks were coming their way. Whenever one exploded, the soldiers ducked for cover the best they could. Uncle Dewitt was peering over the breastworks when he saw this shell tumbling along on the ground right in his direction. He ducked and waited for the thing to explode, but it remained silent. He peered over again and saw it lying a few rods out in front. He took note of the spot and decided to go out after it as soon as it became dark enough to prevent his being made a target. When he thought it was safe to do so, he went out and - to use his own words - 'got the little feller'. On bringing it home with him, he presented it to his father-in-law, Enoch. As far back as I can remember, it lay around the old home and was a favorite plaything with us children." The shell eventually found its way to A.E.'s family "museum."

       "I use to hear an amusing war incident told at Uncle Dewitt's expense," A.E. wrote: "It appears that he and his comrade Sam HELSEL, of Woodbridge Township, had learned the trick of 'lifting' articles from the settler's tent without cash or credit.

        A bayonet, for instance, might be prodded quietly into and apple and the apple find its way into the pockets of a hungry soldier. One dark night, these foragers were up to their tricks, and in some mysterious manner Uncle Dewitt found himself in possession of a codfish. In his eagerness to avoid detection he made a hasty retreat toward his quarters. In the darkness, he ran plumb into an open cesspool and fell headlong into it, codfish and all. The laughable incident was sufficient to fasten upon Uncle Dewitt the nickname 'Codfish'. Many the time I have heard Aunt Bess call him 'Old Codfish'."

       At war's end, Dewitt was mustered out at Delaney House in Washington, D.C. on 28 July 1865. On returning home, he took up life as before, and continued to farm in Section 21. About 1871, however, the Cherringtons moved to a 40 acre farm in the southwest corner of Section 29 belonging to C. ELWOOD. That was only about a mile away from Bess's parents, but in 1875, they moved many miles away - about 80 miles west, to a farm at Breedsville in Columbia Township, Van Buren County, Michigan.

       By that time their youngest had died, and Susan died soon after, of consumption, a condition that also took the oldest child, Clayton, the year following Susan's death. That left Ewing as the only surviving child.

       Elizabeth and Dewitt celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on 16 March 1906. Two years later - 11 March 1908, Elizabeth died. She was buried at Breedsville Cemetery. Soon afterward, Dewitt, who was 78 years old at the time of her death, went to live with his son, Ewing, in Otsego, Allegan County, Michigan - the next county north. On Ewing's death in 1912, Dewitt went to live with his grandson, Emory CHERRINGTON in Plainwell, also in Allegan County.

       Dewitt was 94 years, 9 months and 13 days when he died at Emory's home 26 August 1924 of "acute indigestion." He was buried beside Elizabeth in the Breedsville Cemetery, Columbia Township, Van Buren County, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Clayton CHERRINGTON, b. 9 Dec 1855, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 17 Nov 1879, Van Buren County, Michigan, 22 days short of his 24th birthday, of consumption.

18-8-2          2.    Ewing CHERRINGTON, b. 13 Feb 1859, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

                     3.    Susan CHERRINGTON, b. 15 March 1861, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 22 Mar 1878, 17 years, 7 days of consumption. Buried with parents, Breedsville Cemetery, Columbia Township, Van Buren County, Michigan.

                     4.    Dewitt Clinton CHERRINGTON, JR., b. 27 Feb 1863, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 3 Oct 1872, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Age: 9 years, 7 months and 4 days.


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18-8-2          EWING CHERRINGTON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Elizabeth-Enoch-William-James


       It is obvious where Elizabeth and Dewitt got the name for their second child and second son. Ewing was born 13 February 1859, at the Cherrington farm home in Woodbridge Township. He was 16 when the family moved to Breedsville, Columbia Township, Van Buren County, Michigan. Ewing was married there on 23 August 1887, when he was 32 years old, to Alice Grace (or Grace Alice) BARLOW, daughter of Ezra and Margaret (DON) BARLOW, born in 1870, Allegan County, Michigan.

       The two set up housekeeping on a farm near Otsego, Allegan County. They had five children, one of whom, Hazel, died in 1911 of pulmonary haemorrhagia. A year, minus five days, later Ewing died of tuberculosis on his 53rd birthday, 13 February 1912.

       Ewing is buried at Mountain Home Cemetery, Otsego, Allegan County, Michigan. Alice was married again on 21 May 1913 in Allegan County. Her husband, Willis BAZZETT, 29 to her 43, was born in Howard City, Michigan and was an Otsego farmer. The Ewings lost track of her after that.

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Fern E. CHERRINGTON, b. 15 Jan 1888, Breedsville, Van Buren County, Michigan, d. Nov 1967. Married: 25 Dec 1905, Van Buren County, Harry L. WHITE of Otsego, b. 1880, Wisconsin, son of Walter and Adelia (TURNER) WHITE.

                            Issue:

                            1.    (only). Alice WHITE, b. Mar 1907, Bangor, Van Buren County, Michigan. Married: 1st Harry HENRY, d. 1962. Married 2nd BARTHOLOMEW. 1977: lived Cadillac, Michigan.

                                    Issue:

                                           1.    Jerry HENRY, 1977: lived Three Rivers, Michigan.

                                           2.    Eugene HENRY, adopted, 1977: lived Three Rivers, Michigan.

                     2.    Bernice B. CHERRINGTON, b. 25 Dec 1890, Breedsville, Van Buren County, Michigan. Married: 15 June 1907, Paw Paw, Van Buren Co., MI, Arthur BUCK, a machinist of Breedsville, b. England, son of Charles and Sarah (JARMAN) BUCK.

                            Known issue:

                                    1.    Alice BUCK, b. 27 July 1908, Breedsville, Van Buren County, Michigan.

                     3.    Hazel D. CHERRINGTON, b. 30 Aug 1892, Breedsville, Van Buren County, Michigan, d. 18 Feb 1911, Otsego, age 18 years, pulmonary haemorrhagia.

                     4.    Emory M. CHERRINGTON, b. 23 Aug 1894, Breedsville, Van Buren County, Michigan, d. 1961. Married: 26 Aug 1913, Van Buren County, Helen SHINVILLE, daughter of Frank and Eliza (GLENN) SHINVILLE. At the time of their marriage, he was 19 and she 18 and they worked at the paper mill.

                            Issue:

                                    1.    Emory CHERRINGTON, JR., b. between 1914 and 1922. Still living in 1978. Married: 1st Alice , divorced. Married 2nd Martha , divorced. Married 3rd Marge , divorced.

                                    2.    Milford Clinton CHERRINGTON, b. 16 Oct 1923. Married: 15 Nov 1950, Plainwell, Michigan, Mary Elaine HARMON, b. 4 Feb 1931, Plainwell, daughter of Wallis and Helen (KERSTEN) HARMON. 1950: he a carpenter, she in office work. 1952: he laborer, Ingersoll Company. 1955: self-employed painter. 1958: Upjohn's in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 1961: Checker Cab Co., Kalamazoo, Michigan. Lived 711 Glenview Dr. Plainwell, Michigan.

                                             Issue:

 

                     5.    Susan Fay CHERRINGTON, b. Nov 1895, Breedsville, Van Buren County, Michigan. Married: BILLINGHAM.


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18-9              HENRY MC KENDREE EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Enoch-William-James


       It has taken several years of hard work to get the Ewing book to this point where I can introduce readers to my very near family. This is my line. Henry Mc Kendree Ewing was my great-grandfather. I was named for his wife, my great-grandmother, Nancy Ann (HANK) EWING. And if this chapter is little longer than others, it is only because I am writing from personal knowledge, instead of having to rely on biographical material, often meager, sent by my well-meaning kin.

       That is not to say that I had the pleasure of knowing Henry and Nancy. They died five years before I was born. But thanks to their son, the blessed A.E., I have a wonderful acquaintance with them, and feel really as if I knew them very well.

       That is due, primarily, to A.E.'s preservation and perpetuation of "The Nancy Letters" - all the letters that passed between "Mac" (the only name he ever had, really) and Nancy and other kin during the Civil War. How can you not know two people when you read their very own words as they sit in the trenches before Petersburg, or try to keep body and soul together and bring babies into the world on the home front?

       Not long after Henry was born on 15 May 1841, his eldest sibling, Charlotte (EWING) JENKINS, gave birth to her first child, Martha, born 2 October 1841, so Henry had a niece who was the same age he was. Conversely, Martha had an uncle who was her own age. Did she call him Uncle Mac, do you think? By the time Susannah gave birth to her last child, Emily Jane, in 1844, she was the grandmother of two.

       That Emily Jane died when she was only four, and thus Henry was the "baby" of the family. He was given the name Henry for his grandfather Henry RADABAUGH. The name McKendree was in honor of a prominent Methodist bishop by that name whom Susannah much admired. Henry's brother, James Leander, named a son Henry McKendree for this "baby" of the Ewing family, and their brother Isaac named his first son Enoch McKendree. Henry's grandson was named Burke McKendree EWING. Now there is a Burke McKendree EWING Jr., and a Burke McKendree EWING III. Henry was commonly known as Mac EWING, and the same is true of his nephew, Enoch McKendree EWING, and his great-grandson, Burke EWING Jr.

       A.E. doesn't tell us much about his father's first dozen years; rather he begins his story when Henry was 12 and on his way from Franklin Valley (Franklin and Jefferson Township in Jackson County, Ohio) where he was born and grew to his 12th year, to Woodbridge Township in Hillsdale County, Michigan. A.E. wrote, "To him, the removal to Michigan was not so much of an enterprise as it was an adventure. Nevertheless, he was just old enough to be useful as the general chore boy of the family. He had begun his schooling at the district school in Ohio, and continued it at the district school in Michigan. For four or five years he attended the winter terms at the old log schoolhouse, called the Johnson School, on a corner of John W. EWING's land in Section 20.

       "I would judge from what I have heard him say that the teachers knew their business. Anyway, he became good in simple mathematics and could handle fractions with ease. (I think that at that time the schools did not teach decimals.) He could write the best hand of any of the Ewings and was a reasonably good speller. He had a general knowledge of American history, and was quite a Bible student from the layman's standpoint. I have heard him time and again express his regrets that he did not have a rounded-out education. He used to threaten to go to school after I was a schoolboy, and I believe that only his farm duties and responsibilities kept him from it. His idea of a practical education was to be able to keep a set of commercial books. In other words, he wanted to be a bookkeeper.

       "I have heard it said that when Father was a boy he was troubled with phthisic, a sort of asthma, so that if he over-exerted, he would be short of breath. His folks feared he might never be a strong man, but it was out of the question to send him to college. In this connection, however, I will say that I used to hear that Grandfather had contributed to the building of Albion College and possessed a certificate that would have admitted any student to that college free of tuition. In any event, Father's education was short of making him a living and he was doomed to live his life on the farm.

       "Along in the 1870s, I think it was, he suffered severely from his asthmatic condition and it looked at one time as if it would get him. I have known him to sleep in his chair for long periods because he could not breathe when lying down. He doctored for it and overcame the trouble.

       "After the war, many clerkships in the State House in Lansing were held by ex-soldiers and Father used to talk of trying for such a position but never tried hard enough to land it. He was not an expert at political string-pulling, although he was supervisor at Woodbridge Township for several years, and the education he had enabled him to make out his own assessment rolls. When I was quite a small boy, father was township treasurer. People used to come to our house to pay their taxes, and many the copper they would give to us children. I had a handful of those old-fashioned, big one-cent pieces. Occasionally we would get a three-cent piece, a tiny silver coin not now in circulation."

       Growing up under such religious parents as Enoch and Susannah, Henry and the rest of their children were naturally very devout too. The parents maintained morning Bible reading and prayer service every day of the year before breakfast, whether rain or shine, sick or well. Enoch would read a chapter from the family Bible, then the household knelt while he offered prayer. In addition, grace was always said before meals. A.E. says, "These practices were followed quite generally by all their children. Playing cards, dancing, theater-going and Sunday desecration were institutions of the devil to intrigue the unreligious to the gates of hell. And hell meant HELL, too."

       A.E. added, "Henry used to tell a story on himself that goes to show his parents attitude toward dancing. The Lewis' who lived across the road from the Ewing farm on the east road were fiddlers and dancers, and dances were held in the old log house in which the Lewis family lived.

       "Henry, when a young man of about 18, had a curiosity to know just what a dance was really like, and one night when a dance was on at the Lewis place, his absence from home was noticed by his parents. Enoch had a suspicion that Henry, yielding to a desire for worldly pleasures was at that dance. Enoch went out on a 'still hunt'. He reached the Lewis house when a quadrille was in full swing and the violin doing a good job of 'The Devil's Dream' or some other equally sinful tune. Enoch heard it all, the rhythmic scraping of cowhide boots and calf-skin shoes, and the stentorian caller with his 'first four lead up to the right', 'swing your partner', etc. and well knew that the children of sin were merrily dancing their way to hell. maybe he was right about it. Be that as it may, it was against his ideas of propriety for the son of a Methodist to be so frivolous. At the opportune time, he opened the door and stuck his head inside. There was son Henry on the floor 'hoeing it down' with the worldly. Enoch said not a word. He stood there just long enough to get the eye of son Henry, then closed the door and went away.

       "So far as son Henry was concerned, the dance was over. The look of horror and shame his father gave him went deeper than any words that could have been uttered. Henry left the dance and went home. His father never mentioned the matter to him. No explanations were asked for or given, and the incident passed, but Henry's dancing 'goose' was cooked. That was his first and last dance."

       The Hank family has been introduced before, when two of Henry's brothers, Will Jordan EWING and John Wilson EWING, married two sisters of Nancy Ann, Jane Berry HANK and Isabella Virginia HANK. At the time that Will and John met Jane and Isabella, the Hanks were living in Jackson County, Ohio, but they had come a long way to get there - from Turkey Creek, Monroe County, West Virginia by way of Gallia County, Ohio.

       Caleb HANK, the father of these three sisters, came from a family that traces its lineage back to William the Conqueror and before, and from a family that may have included Nancy HANKS, the mother of Abraham Lincoln.

       Caleb was the son of Williams and Susannah (BERRY) HANK. Williams was the son of John and Margaret (WILLIAM) HANK, and John was the son of John and Sarah (EVANS) HANK. It was this Sarah Evans, of pure Welsh blood, who gave us our line back to the crowned heads of Europe. According to the Hank Genealogy, written by Myra HANK RUDOLPH and distributed in 1933 in typescript form, "Sarah Evans was the daughter of Cadwallader and Ellen (MORRIS) EVANS and had come to America in 1698 with her parents, brother John, uncle Thomas and others, who, totalling 100, were the first settlers of Gwynedd, (at varying times in Philadelphia, Berks and Montgomery counties) Pennsylvania. Cadwallader and his brother Thomas were the company's leaders.

       "The Evans family was one of great antiquity: genealogical data relating to its members have been carefully kept through many centuries and form a book of much interest to descendants of the first settlers of Gwynedd. The book traces the descent of the Evans brothers back to Mervyn Vrych, King of Man, who was killed in battle with the King of Mercia in 843 A.D. Mervyn married Essylt, daughter and sole heiress of Conan Tyndaethwy, King of Wales, who died 818 or 820. Both Mervyn and Essylt traced their descent from Lludd, King of Britain."

       I decided to check this out for myself and turned to Burke's Peerage books. I found out that not only was this true, but that I could trace the line even farther, back to Cunedda Wledig, "who with his eight sons came from Manaw Gododin (on the Firth of Forth) to drive the Irish out of Gwynedd (in Wales) about 400."

       It is a known fact that once you have traced your ancestry back to one crowned head of Europe, you are pretty sure to trace to them all, and I had many pleasurable moments checking Burke's for ancestry of the distaff side along the line. I found out that, through one of the wives, the line goes back to Edward I, "Longshanks," who of course was the great-great-great-great-grandson of William the Conqueror and his wife Matilda of Flanders. (The line from Edward to William is through the first three King Henrys and King John of Robin Hood days) Through another wife the line goes to Hugh Capet, the Capetian King of France. I suppose you could trace other distaff side lines back to King Tut if you wanted to spend the time. Those of you reading this who are descended from Nancy Ann (HANK) EWING can rejoice in the knowledge that you are related to these U.S. presidents who also descend from Edward I: George WASHINGTON, John Quincy ADAMS - and Richard Milhouse NIXON!

     Now as to Abraham Lincoln's mother possibly being a member of this Hank family, no one knows for sure. The legend persisted in the family that she was, and it has been so written time and again. But the fact of the matter is that no one knows who Nancy (HANKS) LINCOLN's parents or grandparents were and until that is known there is no way we can link her Hanks to our Hanks. I have every early Lincoln biography written and to read the chapter on Lincoln's Hanks ancestry in each, successively, is to roar with laughter, for not one has it the same way as any other. A more recent biographer, Benjamin THOMAS (1952) dismissed the whole thing in one very short sentence: "Little is known about Lincoln's mother Nancy HANKS and the Hank genealogy becomes a confusing wilderness that most scholars despair of ever penetrating."

       I'll have to say amen to that. We can speculate all we want to, but until we know for certain who Nancy's Hanks father and grandfather were, there is no way we can make him kin.

       The HANK/HANKS story is a fascinating one and covers a wealth of U.S. history, form 1698 to today, starting with the Quaker John HANK of William Penn's Pennsylvania almost two centuries ago. All that needs to be said for this work, however, is that the father of the three Hanks sisters who married three Ewing brothers was Caleb Hank - Dr. Calab HANK - great-grandson of the above John Hank. By the time Caleb was born on 1 September 1789, in Rockingham County, Virginia, these Hanks had gotten away from their Quaker heritage and worshipped with the other Methodist Episcopal of the frontier.

       When Caleb was about 2, his father and mother, William and Susannah (BERRY) HANK went over the mountains to a part of Greenbrier County, Virginia that became Monroe County in 1799. They were in the company of Williams' sister Margaret and her husband, William CHERRINGTON. The two families settled not far from each other in Monroe County, and Cherrington descendants were important in the Hank and Ewing families for generations to come.

       Caleb grew up on the Hank "plantation" on Turkey Creek, at Dropping Lick Creek. Near neighbors on Turkey Creek - at Indian Creek were the James EWINGS who have been mentioned previously. Also nearby was John SMITH, who had a daughter Nancy. When Caleb was two months short of being 19 he married the 18 year old Nancy, born 27 February 1790. They had six children, five daughters and a son, named David for Caleb's maternal grandfather, David BERRY. The son was born 1 June 1823 and the mother died three months later on 26 September 1823. She was buried at Dropping Lick Cemetery. Apparently the son died also for there is no further record of him.

       The daughters were Mary, born in 1809; Susan, born in 1811; Margaret Williams, born in 1815 and given the maiden name of Caleb's paternal grandmother, whom Caleb had never known; Sarah, born in 1819 and Eliza born in 1821.

       Somewhere in the period between Nancy's death and 1832, Caleb married again, his second wife was Nancy RAYHILL, about whom nothing is known. They had two sons, both of whom died in infancy. The mother died within those nine years also.

       In the meantime, Caleb's eldest daughter Mary had married, on 29 April 1829 in Monroe County, West Virginia, Jefferson CHERRINGTON, son of William CHERRINGTON and his second wife, Letitia MC CLUNG. Margaret (HANK) CHERRINGTON having died about 1800. In 1831, another of Caleb's daughters, Susan, married Elisha WOOD, son of John WOOD, who was to play an important part in the later life of Caleb and all his family. Susan and Elisha moved to Missouri. Still at home were Margaret, Sarah and Eliza.

       In 1832, 43 year old Caleb took a third wife. She was 25 year old Mary Ann MATTHEWS, born 6 February 1807 in Monroe County, whom Caleb had first known when she was "still flopping around in shirt tails," according to their son Alvin. William and Susan Jane (BERRY) MATTHEWS, her parents, had been neighbors of the Hanks on Turkey Creek for as long as Caleb could remember.

       The Matthews and the Berry family were two of his ancestors that A.E. did search out. He asked his Aunt Isabella (HANK) EWING about the two Berrys in her background and she thought they were related "but did not know how much." Matthews was a very common name on the frontier then, so it is difficult to say anything positively, but I feel inclined to believe that William was somehow related to the Matthews abounding in Rockingham County, Virginia in those early days. It is believed that those same Matthews were connected to the Cherringtons. 

       In as much as there were also Berrys in Rockingham County, other than David's family, namely Benjamin and Malachiah, I can't help but think that Susan Jane BERRY was of one of those Rockingham County families. But in the absence of proof...

       Alvin HANK later told A.E. that his mother Mary Ann MATTHEWS "...resembled my sister Nan and Becky. Her hair was dark and wavy and I think her eyes were blue, she was inclined to be fleshy. She was very quiet. She was a hard-working woman, and healthy. Mother was a weaver, and we had plenty of clothes and bedding."

       Mary Ann Matthews had two brothers, William and Stuart, and a sister, Isabel, all of whom went to Missouri about 1830. Isabel married John EWING, grandson of the Turkey Creek pioneer James EWING. She was poisoned by one of their slaves soon after arrival in Lewis County, Missouri, and John died not long after she did, leaving their infant daughter Susan an orphan. Susan EWING's story is told further on.

       Mary Ann herself had almost married a brother of John EWING, Oliver. They were engaged, but he was killed by a falling tree.

       Right off, Caleb HANK started what is generally called his "second family." That began with daughter Jane Berry HANK, born in 1833. There followed in the next 11 years: Alvin Ewing, Isabella Virginia, Nancy Ann, Rebecca Ellen and John William. By the time Alvin came along in 1835, Caleb's older daughters had either married and gone to Ohio, or followed their sisters to Ohio and there were married. Margaret married in Jackson County, Ohio, her second cousin, Clinton CHERRINGTON, grandson of Margaret (HANK) CHERRINGTON and half nephew of the Jefferson CHERRINGTON who had married her sister Mary. Eliza was married in Gallia County to her second cousin, Moses KNAPP, son of Rachel (CHERRINGTON) KNAPP, Margaret (HANK) CHERRINGTON's daughter - complicated enough for you?

       Sarah was married in 1837 in Monroe County, West Virginia but she and her husband Christopher SHIERS went to Gallia County, Ohio, soon after their marriage. And what all of this is trying to say is that Alvin Ewing HANK, who was born

22 August 1835, did not know any of his half sisters until he too went to Ohio when he was 12 years old. And that applies to the sisters and brother who followed him.

       Through the years, Caleb acquired 454 acres, including some "wild land." His farm of 80 acres, land he inherited on his father's death, was just 7 miles southeast of Union, Monroe County, seat, and 4 miles south of Salt Sulphur in West Virginia. Alvin said, "The south side of father's 80 lay right along Little Mountain. It lay between Turkey Creek on the east and Dropping Lick Creek on the west. The orchard was up on the steep side of the mountain. The farm was rolling but could all be tilled. No land was cleared farther up on the mountain that father's and Uncle David's."

       Uncle David was David HANK, Caleb's elder brother. Another brother was Jehu HANK, a colorful figure who eventually came into the Hank homestead and built a fine house that he called Maple Lawn. I believe it is still there today.

        Alvin recalled, "Uncle Jehu was a typical southerner. He was tall and straight, dark complected, always dignified. He was a Methodist minister by profession and never did any hard work. When the Methodist Conference split at the time of the Civil War, he went with the South. He was a whig and Father was a Jackson Democrat. Then when the war came on, Father was a Republican and Jehu a Democrat. They used to get quite hot over politics."

       Jehu had slaves and married the daughter of a wealthy North Carolina family, Susan BERGMAN.

       Alvin tells more about his father: "Father farmed for a good many years, but then he went to doctoring for his own family. He got THOMPSON's books and studied for himself. There were no doctors in the countryside and there was so much scarlet fever that he did it for his own family. He had success in his own family and had calls from neighbors till he gave a good deal of his time to it. I have known him to be gone six weeks at a time. He would go way across into Giles County. He would be called from one place to another. He would stay right with the patient two or three days at a time. He would steam them and give them lobelia. He always went on horseback. Have heard him say he had slept many a mile on old Charley. Charley was a race horse and when he would come to a fence he would stop and that would wake Father up. He would lay down a fence, and the old horse would take him home all right. Sometimes deer would jump and snort and make the horse jump and that would wake Father up."

       Whatever Caleb's strong points may have been, apparently business acumen was not one of them. In 1845 or 1846, his friend and neighbor John WOOD prevailed upon him to sign a note ("go security") so that Wood might have capital to start an iron foundry somewhere in Virginia. Caleb signed, the foundry failed - and Caleb at 58 was a broken man. The Woods were the family that his daughter, Susan, had married into and there were very hard feelings.

       The family lost everything, except enough to get them to Ohio. Jefferson CHERRINGTON, Caleb's eldest son-in-law, who lived in Gallia County, Ohio, had said that he would help them. (I never have been able to figure out why Jehu did not help them.) Caleb turned over all his property to Jehu, who paid the debts. All Caleb had left was a team and a wagon to get him and his family over the mountains to Ohio.

       They left in June of 1846. In Galla County, they had a little cabin on a corner of Jefferson's farm in Section 32 of Addison Township, about 4 miles north of Gallipolis.

       As Alvin tells it: "My youngest brother Caleb was born in Gallia County, 30 January 1847 and was only 6 weeks old when Mother died. She was sick only about 15 minutes. I remember I was 20 rods from the house coming from a spelling school and sister Jane came and called to me to hurry as Mother was sick. I got there perhaps 5 minutes before she died. Father called it palpitations of the heart. She had what was called "milk leg." Father was present but could not help her. She was buried at the old Bethel Church Graveyard, across the road from the Jefferson's place. We were homesick then and wanted to go back to Virginia, but Father said "no, we had nothing to go back there for."

       The photograph of my great-great-grandfather Caleb HANK shows him to be rather grave, and I can't help but think "He really didn't have much to be happy about in his lifetime, did he?" Yet he has been described as "A kindly gentleman of the highest moral integrity and held in high esteem by all who knew him." He was married again in the early 1850s to Harmeon WICKS, a widow with two children and some property in Lick Township, Jackson County, Ohio (80 acres in Section 23, east of Jackson Township). He was 79 years, 5 months and 12 days old when he died there on 12 February 1869.

       Of his "second family," three daughters married three Ewing brothers. The eldest of them, Jane HANK, was first to find that the Ewing boys were likely mates. She and John Wilson EWING were married on 4 July 1850. There story has been told under the section on John. Then Isabella Virginia HANK discovered William Jordan EWING and their story, too, has been told.

       And that leaves Nancy Ann HANK.

     Nancy, who was born 10 June 1840 was 11 months older than Henry "Mac" EWING. The two had met as young playmates when the Hanks had lived near the Enoch Ewings in Franklin Valley after moving from Addison Township and before going to Lick Township, Jackson County, Ohio. Nancy was 13 and Henry 12 when the Ewings moved to Michigan in September of 1853. Their moving meant Nancy's sister Isabella went with them so Nancy had a sister there in "Ewingville" in Hillsdale County, and on a visit to see Isabella, she renewed her acquaintance with Henry. Her visits became longer and more frequent, and finally they both knew that when Nancy went home again, it would be as Mrs. Henry McKendree EWING. They were married at Isabella and William's house in Amboy Township on 23 April 1862 by the Reverend Ambrose ABBOTT of Steubenville, Ohio - father of Lydia ABBOTT, Nancy's closest friend, who was married to her brother Alvin. Alvin and Lydia was a witness to the wedding as was Sarah E. BOWMAN, a name unknown to me.

       Thus, Nancy became a part of the family group in Woodbridge Township, as she and Henry made their home with Enoch and Susannah. The family circle was further broadened when Alvin and Lydia took up a farm in Amboy Township not far from Isabella and William. Radabaugh cousins nearby also enlarged the circle.

       Nancy and Henry's first child was Loella Jane, born

26 January 1863. She was only 6 weeks old when she died on 11 March. She was buried at West Woodbridge Cemetery.

       There was, of course, a war on at this time. The Ewing brothers, while sympathetic to the cause, had not been in a hurry to enlist, because of young wives, babies and new farms. But in March of 1864, they knew they would be called up for the draft - but let Alvin tell it, as he did to A.E. on 28 August 1895.

       "Andy EWING, Dewitt CHERRINGTON, Mac and I were waiting for one another to enlist. Lee EWING also talked of going. We had been thinking about it all the winter preceding March of 1864. In the fall of 1863, John EWING, Andy, Lee, Cherrington, Mac and I all agreed to pay in $50 apiece to pay the draft (hire a substitute) if any one of us was drafted. I was drafted and they all came up with the cash as agreed. I went to Detroit with $300. When I was examined I was thrown out on account of one of my legs being a little short. We all decided then that if one of us went, all would go.

       "Cherrington enlisted first, under Captain RICABY of Hillsdale. I told Mac that whenever he went I would go with him. I was chopping in the fallow west of the house when Mac came over and said he had decided to enlist. I put my axe upon my shoulder and said I was with him and started to the house. Lydia said, 'Mac, I know what you are about; now if you want to go, go on and let Al alone.' I said that I had promised to go when he did and that I was going to enlist that night. We went that night to the Union School House and enlisted. Andy enlisted and so did Tom RADABAUGH and several other fellows from Woodbridge Township."

       That was 29 March 1964. Andrew and Henry EWING, Alvin HANK, Thomas RADABAUGH and Dewitt CHERRINGTON were in Company D, 2nd Michigan Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel E.J. MARCH of Hillsdale. The men had been told on enlistment that they would be assigned to guard wagon trains behind the lines, but the need at the time, when the Army of the Potomac was pushing into the heart of Virginia toward Richmond, capital of the Confederacy, was men to replace the wounded and dead at the Battle of the Wilderness. Thus, after only a week's training in Washington, D.C., the men were in the thick of the fighting, joining the regiment at Spotsylvania on May 17. Henry wrote the next day:

       "Well, Nan, we expect to have a fight in a few days with the Johnnies. They are in hearing of us about 1/2 mile from here. There were about 60,000 troops of our own boys came out here yesterday to meet the dads. We made a heavy breastwork last night. We expected them to pitch into us but they did not come.

       "This is the most God forsaken place that ever a human looked on. It is a perfect wilderness of scrubby pine and cedar. The old farms are all growing up with them. There is not a fence to be seen, not a house but what has been vacated. Oh Nan, you don't nor can't realize anything about it. I thought that I could think something near what was meant but I did not think anything about it. Nan, Elias FULLERTON and Sylvester OSBORN were both killed. They were killed in the Battle of the Wilderness. John SNYDER was wounded in the hand. Hank SMITH was wounded in the foot. They are at the hospital in Fredericksburg. George BEARD and Paul FIFIELD were badly wounded. Paul had both legs shot. I heard that he had to have one cut off. George Beard was shot in the back. Byron LEWIS, Byron BRYAN, Matt FIFIELD, Curt TODD, Jim TODD, Mark HYLLIARD and more than a dozen others that I am acquainted with are here. I like to be a soldier bully. I have not been homesick yet. I don't think that I will be but I tell you it is more pleasant at home with my folks than it is here."

       Alvin tells of their baptism under fire: "At Spotsylvania we got our first sight of war. They were cannonading and we could see the shells. A solid shot came within 6 feet of me and as close to Cherrington. He jumped 6 feet into a ravine and I sat down and laughed. That was our first danger. At North Anna River we fired our first guns. We were on picket and the Rebs fired into us. Gaines Church, Cold Harbor. I got my thumb wounded the 3rd day of June at Gaines Church. I was not with the regiment again until the fight on the Weldon Railroad. I was in the hospital two months."

       That Battle of Cold Harbor, 8 miles east of Richmond, was a frontal attack in the hopes of crushing the Confederate Army and entering the capital city. Grant failed in a battle that was marked by very heavy casualties. He then decided to maneuver around Lee's right flank, cross the Chickahominy, James and Appomattox Rivers and swing in behind Petersburg, south of Richmond. He began his withdrawal from in front of Lee at Cold Harbor the night of June 12. Two nights later, Union engineer troops completed a pontoon bridge more than 2,000 feet long over the James River. The army started that night and completed its crossing two days later on June 16.

       It was on June 17 that Henry went down. On Sunday, June 19, he wrote to Nancy: "Nan, I am now at the General hospital at the place called City Point. It is about 22 miles from Richmond and about 12 miles from Petersburg where the terrible conflict is now going on. I will tell you why I am here. I told you in my other letter (missing) that Tom and I were wounded, but my wound is nothing, it is not scarcely any sore, but I have caught cold and we had to double quick about a quarter of a mile the other day when we charged on the Rebs and you know that too much exercise does not agree with me. I have considerable cough and some pain in my breast. So I thought that I would rest and recruit up for a few days. No, Nan, I am not bad nor dangerous nor in any way for getting so. So you need not give yourself any trouble about me. I will go back to my regiment in a day of so."

       As it turned out, Henry did not go back with the regiment "in a few days." Henry stayed at City Point until July 22, when he was sent to Fairfax Seminary Hospital at Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac from Washington D.C. Although he was coughing less than at first, he still had considerable pain in his chest and resulting headaches. He was able to do hospital duty, however. He did not rejoin his regiment until Sunday, September 4.

       By that time, Company D was in camp at Weldon Railroad, which Union forces had seized in their efforts to lay siege to Petersburg, and to cut off all transportation into and out of the capital. On arrival he found that only Alvin and Dewitt of the five who had enlisted together were in camp, Andrew having been wounded on June 24. (Andrew did not return to the regiment until early December.) As it turned out, of them all, only Dewitt went unscathed during their year at the battlefront and, staying with the regiment as he did, he was considered a real "veteran soldier" and went up the military ladder to sergeant by the time the troops went home.

       When Grant decide to lay siege to Petersburg, he began action that eventually saw Union earthworks stretch for nearly 40 miles in a great arc around the city. The Confederates countered with fortifications of their own. Forts and artillery batteries of both sides dominated almost every hill or rise of ground of those parallel fortified lines. Fields of fire were cleared in front of the guns.

       At one point in extending the Union line ever farther west, Company D was ordered to pack knapsacks for a move from the Weldon Railroad to a new position. That was on September 27. All those months, Dewitt, Alvin and Henry had saved every bit of mail they had received from home, but they now realized, for the sake of room in their knapsacks that they were going to have to dispose of those letters and all of it went into the fire. That is why there are only letters from Henry, not to him, in the collection dated prior to then. Nancy's first letter in the collection is dated October 18. By that time she was at her father's home in Jackson awaiting the arrival of a second child.

       Alvin HANK was captured by the Confederates on 27 October 1864, He remembered it for A.E. 35 years later: "I had been asked by Lieutenant ANDERSON to act as corporal to help out as we tried to close up the line between the 50th Pennsylvania and the 2nd Michigan. We were looking for a plank road, about 15 miles from Petersburg. We came up to the edge of a slashing about 16 or 20 rods wide. It was like a horseshoe and I was inside. Mac was out as vidette. I was the length of a tree ahead of Mac and Cherrington. I saw two Rebs and wanted to shoot but Lieutenant Anderson said no, that they were our men. I looked off to the right and could see a Reb carrying a sack of meal on his back. Not a shot had been fired. Then I heard a shot and saw the meal fly; everything went out of sight. Then the Rebs all raised up to give us a volley; I heard the order to fire and immediately dropped on my face. They threw dirt into my face, mouth and eyes but never touched me. I could not get out. I jumped to one side about 6 or 7 feet and got behind a log about a foot thick, but the Rebs could see my knapsack over the log. Every time I would move they would shoot at me. I could feel the bullets hit the log. I was in danger from both sides. A brush near me was trimmed clear down by bullets and pieces fell on me. The boys thought I was killed.

       "Along about an hour before sundown the 60th Ohio relieved our regiment. The 60th Ohio fell back into the woods and at once the Johnnies advanced. I could hear the brush cracking. The first thing I knew a couple of Rebs rose up in front of me, pointed their guns at me and said, 'Surrender, you Yank.' They belonged to the 46th North Carolina. I jumped up with my gun in my hand and looked for our boys. The Rebs ordered, 'Come on, Yank.' I looked down their gun barrels not more than 6 feet from me, both cocked and I could see the gun caps on the tubes. I was not over 8 rods from their breastworks. I had laid there from 8 in the morning until half an hour before sundown without a drink or a bite. I could hear their command, 'Give 'em a volley right in yondah wheah that smoke came from.' They had squirrel rifles. I set the breech of my musket on my foot and kicked it into the brush. The 60th Ohio was firing at the Rebs. A ball went close to my knee as I went over the Rebs' breastworks. When I got over they ran up around me like a pack of wolves. They wanted my equipment. My picket shovel went to one and my cartridge box to the other of my captors. The Rebel Lieutenant ordered them to take none of my personal property. He took only government property. A Reb ordered me to pull off my overcoat. I told him I would not do it. He said he would take it off for me. I said, 'You'll have to be a better man than I am to do it.' He laughed and walked off. I was saucy because I didn't care. I would rather have been shot anyway.

       "They captured seven others of us. The Rebs begged my hardtack and I gave some of it away. The guards said I had better not give it away as I would need it for it would be three days before I got to Libby Prison and would get anything. I was at Libby Prison two nights and was then taken to Pemberton, just across the street. They kept me there 112 days. I was exchanged on 25 March 1865.

       "In prison they gave us two rations a day. Bread was about 2 1/2 inches square and with the bread in the morning we got about an ounce and a half of meat; it was bacon, sometimes salt beef. It was sometimes maggoty bacon. In the afternoon they gave us bread with half a pint of bean soup, or sometimes only rice covered with black bugs. We skimmed off the bugs. I have a wooden spoon now that I made then. I had no money with me, but I traded my blouse for a gold ring and sold the ring for $20 Reb money. Then I bought tobacco with the money. I would get two plugs for 50 cents and sell one for 50 cents. I put 20 cents into tobacco which I sold at a profit. I used only the profit and kept my capital invested in the business. I made about $300 while I was there. I stood in with one of the guards, who was at heart a Union man, and he helped me make the trades and would bring me tobacco to sell to the other boys. I was sick only one day during my prison life. I sold the doctor the ring for $20. Guards would give us $20 rebel money for $1.00 U.S. greenback and then they would get $30 rebel money at the bank for that same greenback. We would send out after stuff. I have seen a nigger bring $400 worth of stuff in one market basket and a sack of meal on his shoulder. Sometimes trade would get dull and I would have to eat up all I had. To keep going I would borrow $20 from Joe SLAGEL, make $20 profit, pay him back and have $20 left for myself."

       During his months in prison, Alvin wrote many letters home, and one to Company D, but they were not received until just before the war was over. Thus no one, the men at the front or family at home, knew Alvin's fate and there was much worrying over him.

       On November 8, Nancy started a letter to Henry that has gone down in history - this family history, anyway. Writing from "Jackson Court House" she said in part:

       "Well, I don't know as I can think of anything to write. I don't feel right well tonight, but I hope I won't have to start the folks out tonight for it has been raining all day and is very muddy and disagreeable tonight. Well, it is about bedtime and I will stop for tonight and finish some other time, so good night. How I wish I knew where and how you were this disagreeable night, but I go to bed hoping you are safe and well and comfortable as possible for a soldier. So goodnight, dear Mac, I am ever thinking of thee.

       "Nov. 10. Well Mac, I have written to you in a good many positions but I have never written to you in bed before. Well, last night I was sick all night but did not start the folks out till four o'clock this morning and at nine o'clock this morning I gave birth to a fine big boy. We have not weighed him yet but I think he will weigh 10 or 12 pounds. I feel first rate and awfully proud of our big boy. I want you to send a name sure. He doesn't cry any yet. He looks like you, I believe, so you know I thing he's pretty."

       I doubt that there are many genealogists today who have such a description of the birth of their grandfathers. That infant was A.E. He was given the name Alvin Enoch, for Nancy's Missing-in-Action brother and for Henry's father. He was called Allie in his younger days, and Al upon occasion later, but for most of his life he was known simply as A.E., even by his wife.

       Henry was not to see his son for more than six months. On December 15, Andrew wrote to Nancy:

       "Dear Sister Nancy,

       It has become my duty to inform you that Mac is slightly wounded. I feel thankful that it is no worse than it is. He is wounded in the face, I may call it. I will try to tell you as near as I can all about it. I will say he is not dangerously wounded, so the doctor says and I don't think so myself. Dewitt and I got up this morning to get breakfast. We got it ready and told Mac and Sam HELSEL, who is bunking with us, to get up to breakfast. Just as he got up, he was standing buttoning his pants, and there was a stray ball come through our tent and hit him just back of his right eye, near his temple. The ball lodged back of his eye, but did not burst his eye ball but I am afraid that he will lose his eye. The doctor thinks he will, but better that than his life. Oh, I feel so bad for him I don't know what to do. It did not knock him down. The lieutenant told me I might come with him to the division hospital and stay with him today. The doctor took out the ball and now Mac lies quite easy. I don't think you need to worry about him not getting well. If his head had been farther one way it would not have touched him and if it had been a little the other way it would have killed him in an instant. So I feel very thankful that it was not any worse. I hope he will get his discharge and not have to come in danger any more. I have been talking to him now. He says for me to tell you that he will get a furlough as soon as he can and come home and that he will write to you as soon as he can. The nurse says he will be able to get around in a few days. I gave him the last dollar I had and a plug of tobacco. I thought he would need it worse than I would. He came over here in an ambulance and will go from here on the cars. This hospital is a canvas cloth but there is a good fireplace in it so I don't think that he will be uncomfortable with cold."

       A.E. later wrote: "I was just 33 days old when my father was hit. No general battle was raging at the time, but the pickets were firing here and there. The soldiers were living in dug-outs covered with pup tents. When lying down, they were well below the surface, but when standing, their heads were above the surface. Father was standing beside his bunk when the rebel bullet came through on a slant from above and hit him. It had hit the limb of a tree out in front of the lines and ricocheted downward into Father's tent. The other men heard the impact and Andy exclaimed, 'Mac is hit!' I once asked Father if the bullet knocked him over. He replied, 'No, but I lay down mighty quickly.'"

       It was two Hillsdale doctors, James W. NIBLACK and Arvin F. WHELAN who removed the minnie ball from behind Henry's eye. A small shell, about the size of your little fingernail, it was brought home by Henry when he was finally discharged and it was an object of great curiosity in A.E.'s family "museum" for many years.

       Henry was sent to Jarvis Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland for recuperation. In about six weeks, doctors there pronounced the eye was well enough so that the bandage could be removed and this was done the first week in February of 1865. Shortly thereafter, on February 7, Henry was transferred to the Satterlee U.S. General Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was an ambulatory patient and perfectly well, as he saw it, but he still was not given a discharge. This seems to have been because the Army could not find his papers. It turns out that Henry had signed his name Henry Mc EWING and recruiting clerks had taken his last name to be MC EWING. Now he was trying to get a discharge under Ewing, and there were no papers to be found. Great-grandfather is listed in the official roster of Michigan soldiers under the M's, as "McEwing, Henry."

       Grant's strategy in laying siege to Petersburg, thereby cutting off supplies to Richmond, paid off and in late March, the capital fell. Lee took his troops westward but by the second week in April, he knew it was a lost cause and at 3:45 p.m. on 9 April 1865, he signed the papers of surrender at Appomattox Court House, and Grant was tendered the care of 28,356 men of the great Army of the Confederacy.

       The joy throughout the United States was unrestrained. Henry wrote about it to Nancy from Philadelphia:

       "Well, we got another supply of glorious news. Last night about 11 o'clock, the hospital was awakened by the ringing and buzz of fire bells in the city. The first question in every mind was, 'Is the city on fire'. Some got up to look for the light of the burning houses but, soon after, the big cannons began to boom in the Navy yards. Soon after this a messenger came to the hospital with the dispatch that General LEE had surrendered his army to General GRANT. Hurrah for Uncle Samuel's boys. The fighting is now over. The war is at its end. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! What a host of thankful and rejoicing hearts and again alas how many poor, broken, sad, disconsolate hearts of wives and orphans and parents. Oh yes, the broken Union can never be linked together as it once was, for coming generations."

       On April 10, Alvin, who had been exchanged as a prisoner on March 25, was on furlough with his wife, Lydia, and her family, the Abbotts in Steubenville, Ohio. He wrote to Henry:

       "Well, old Bob Lee has gone up. Hurrah for Grant. He had a nice visit in Michigan. I should like to have had you and Nan with us. Hurrah for Grant. I was waked up with the fire bells ringing. The folks are having a big time here. Hurrah for Grant. I have just been downtown and bought Gardner a flag and he is hurrahing for Grant with it. Henry, I think the war has about played out, don't you? I think we will soon get home again. I am going to start for Camp Chase (Columbus, Ohio) Saturday. They are talking of keeping us there this summer to guard the Rebs. That would suit me for I know how to guard them. Well, Henry, I must tell you how the folks jumped around here this morning when we heard the bells ringing. Mother (Lydia's mother, Alena ABBOTT) got up and forgot to put on her drawers, and we had to send out on the street for Father (Reverend Ambrose ABBOTT) to come in to his breakfast. He was out without any hat or coat. We are rejoicing over the downfall of the enemies of the old flag. Hurrah for Grant and Sheridan!"

       On April 15 the Stars and Stripes were raised over Fort Sumter in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina, where it had all begun four years before, and were lowered in the nation's capital, for Abraham Lincoln was dead. The North mourned and the South mourned and it was a time of victory and defeat and sorrow.

       Three days before that, on Wednesday, April 12, Henry began a 30-day furlough. He went to Michigan to see his parents and then "took the cars" to Jackson for a reunion with Nancy and to make the acquaintance of his son. He was back at Satterlee on May 10.

       The next weeks were very hard for him, with his deep longing to be free and at home with his loved ones and doing the labor he loved - working with the soil, and the frustration that went with not being able to get his discharge.

       His emotion came through in a letter he penned to Nancy on Friday, June 23, 1865. Part of it follow:

       "I think I will go out in the country next week and hire out to work, if I don't get my discharge Monday. I got a pass yesterday afternoon and took a walk out in the country and it looked so good to see men mowing and plowing corn. I went to one old farmer and asked him if he wanted to hire any hands. He said he wanted one to help make hay next week. I think I will get a pass for one afternoon and go out and work all week, that is if I don't get my discharge, which I have almost concluded I will not get till my three years are up."

       A.E. came on this letter in the collection and thought it strange that, although the envelope was addressed, there was no stamp on it, and no evidence that it had gone through the mail. Then it became clear. The writer was able to deliver it in person! Henry had been mustered out and, after a year and three months of being a soldier, was a civilian again.

       He went directly to Michigan, and Nancy joined him there, going on the train accompanied by her father to help with "Allie." What a heart-warming reunion it must have been!

       Before long, the five comrades-in-arms, were back on their respective farms and normal life was resumed. Of the five, only Henry, Andrew and Alvin had been injured, the last two only slightly. For loss of his right eye and injury to his left, Henry received a monthly pension of $12 at first, raised to $17 later. Andrew, for a gun shot wound to the second finger of his left hand, received $2.67 a month. The five were typical veterans of the day, proud of their service and their part in a war against "the enemies of the nation's flag." Henry belonged to James H. HAWLEY Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and the 2nd Michigan Infantry Association. In later years, A.E. belonged to Sons of Veterans U.S.A. (At one time I almost joined the Nancy HANKS Post, Daughters of Union Veterans, in San Diego.)

       Because of the loss of his eye, Henry never let himself be photographed from the right side again.

       The letters he sent from the front lines and various hospitals are priceless treasures. He described the life of a soldier in simple, everyday language, and never once did he grumble or complain, nor be bitter or angry. He stood fast by his faith in the Almighty who "would soon bring an end to this terrible war" and steadfastly maintained the hope that if he and Nan did not meet again in this world they would meet again in another.

       Some of his expressions have stuck with me all these years, since I first read the letters. One of them has become part of the family's lingo. He wrote, "I wish I had some of your johnny cake. It would go lamming." I use the expression "would go lamming" all the time. Another phrase I love is one of his reason's for ending the letter he was writing: "The ground I am sitting on is getting tired." Another time he said he would have to stop writing "...for I only have the stub of a pencil as long as a candle an inch long."

       How wonderful it is that all these letters have been preserved and that there are A.E.'s typewritten copies of the letters as well.

       Taking up the lives of farmers again, Henry and Nancy turned their attention to a family. They had two more sons after A.E. - John Caleb in 1867 and Frank Burton in 1869.

       As Henry saw it, one of the first things to be done after getting back into "business" was to get the Ewings a new house. The old log one had served them well for 14 years, but it was time for a frame house now. A fine home went up in 1867, and that was where they were living when A.E. first came to awareness. It had two fireplaces and a winding staircase to the second floor. In 1877, to make way for a huge new barn, the house was moved to its present location nearer the road and in the moving both fireplaces and the winding staircase were removed. That was about the time that Enoch and Susannah retired to Janetta's and turned the farm and house over to Henry and Nancy. At that time there was a wide veranda across the front of the house on the south. Around the turn of the century, the veranda was removed and a small entrance porch was put in its place. The house had two other porches, the kitchen porch to the west, and on the east, a summer porch, which always intrigued me. That was their air-conditioning back then on a hot summer day. "Just go cool off on the east porch."

       A.E. was about 14 (so this was about 1878) when Henry and Nancy seriously considered selling the Woodbridge farm and buying cheaper lands in Northern Michigan, to have more of it, for it was apparent that 110 acres would not make farms for all three of their boys. What they really wanted very much was for Allie, Frank and John to have an education. They used to discuss the pros and cons of that, and the ways and means. As A.E wrote, "It was the ways and means that baffled them."

       It made Henry shudder to think of going through the process of clearing up another farm from stump land, but he was game, and so was Nancy, for the sake of their sons. It went so far that Henry made a trip to Antrim County to look things over. He was not carried away with the prospects, so when he returned, the talk got back to giving the boys an education instead of farms. The parents did everything in their power to make it possible for the boys to go to school.

       A.E. later wrote to his daughter: "I accepted the opportunity and reached a point where I could help myself by teaching, and you know the rest. I am no better off financially than I might have been as a farmer, but the educational efforts led me into channels very different from what they would have been had we taken new farm lands in Northern Michigan. John drifted into the mercantile world and Frank became a good salesman on the road until road jobs were eliminated. Frank attended Hillsdale College for a short time and John was there two or three terms."

       A.E. was gone from home from the time he was 18 (1882) - away at school or teaching or working out for some other farmer. He has, however, set down page after page of his reminiscences of farm life in his boyhood. I will include some of it in his chapter. How I wish it were possible to include it all. It is fascinating.

       He wrapped up his treatise with this paragraph: "There was a remarkably good feeling existing between the Ewing families in Woodbridge during all the time I was among them. The brothers and sisters were considerate of one another, and they were all very tender toward their aged parents. The uncles and aunts treated their nieces and nephews kind and affectionately and the nieces and nephews reciprocated wholeheartedly. The cousins, with few exceptions, stood up for one another and their friendships were warm and genuine. That was the atmosphere I breathed when a boy, and I still feel the effects of it." (This was written in 1934, when A.E. was 70 years old.)

       The only problem in seeing their sons turn to endeavors other than farming, which is all their ancestors had known for generations, was that there was no one to take over the 55 year old Ewing farm when it came time for Henry and Nancy to retire. In 1908, when Henry was 67, it was decided to sell the place and move into a small home near Nancy's sister, Isabella (William had died by then) in Amboy Township, one or two miles away. The farm was sold and to sell the contents, broadsides went up announcing: "I will sell at Public Auction, at my residence near the Ewing Church, Woodbridge, on Friday, Jan. 24 (1908) commencing at 10 o'clock the following property to wit: One work horse, one 4-year-old cow, fresh middle of February, 12 brood ewes, 9 yearling ewe lambs, 3 late wether lambs, a Hampshire ram, 2 pigs about 4 months old." Plus the usual farm implements and household goods, including an Estey organ, also "50 Plymouth Rock hens. V.T. MOSHER, auctioneer, lunch at noon."

       On February 11, 1908, Henry wrote to A.E. who was in Grand Rapids, Michigan at that time: "Thought I would write a line tonight, probably the last letter written from the old familiar corner in the old home, as we are now expecting to take our leave tomorrow, but we keep so busy picking up things and packing in boxes, barrels and potato crates we hardly stop to think of its reality. We are keeping brave and don't want to get sick of our deliberations, as we are thinking it may be for our good and we hope to be satisfied when we get to another home. Henry took a load for us yesterday. Tomorrow Henry, George RICHARDSON and Pearly will each take a load. Think it will take most of the goods excepting some hay, some corn and some oats." And thus ended the Ewing occupation at the farm in Section 20 - 55 years.

       However, it was not long after getting into their house at Camden that another decision was made. The three of them, Henry, Nancy and Isabella, were to move to Pioneer, Ohio, just over the county line, where son John had a dry goods store (carpets, shoes, millinery) and a large comfortable home. In order to be near him, they bought a house next door that would accommodate all three, there being two extra rooms upstairs that would serve nicely as quarters for Isabella.

       On November 8, 1908, Henry wrote to A.E. from Pioneer: "Suppose you are anxious to hear how we are since our exit from the old familiar haunts of Michigan. Am glad to say we are standing the hard labor connected with the tearing down and piling up of all the necessary paraphernalia of housekeeping better than expected. However, your mother is getting quite tired and worn out but she will get through with it all right, I think. We came a week sooner than we expected to do, but when our man got out we thought there was no time to waste. He got out last Tuesday and we got in Thursday. Henry, George RICHARDSON and Jim MARTIN's hired man each brought a load. We got things piled up in the house a little after dark. Ma and I went over to J.C.'s (John). The same day the plaster man put a coat of plaster on our living room or sitting room. Friday morning J.C. came over and helped put the Naolium on the kitchen floor. By noon we had a new range cook stove ready for business. Mrs. BARTO came and helped your mother get things fixed up in our sleeping room and did a lot of cleaning up. Yesterday old Mary ANSLEY helped to wash woodwork and mop the floors. We have kept the little oil heater in the plaster room and the range going pretty steady. We will have the plastered room papered tomorrow and then we will have the carpet put down and then have a coal heater put in. Then we will stay in our own house.

       "Aunt Bell came yesterday with her outfit and has got her things piled up in her two rooms. We got her a cook stove up in her living room, so you see we will be at home again before very long. I don't see any reason why we should not like our location, but it will take some time to get everything in good shape.

       "I came over this morning and got the fires to going and your Ma and Bell came over and dressed a chicken and went back to J.C.'s to cook it so I must hurry or I may lose the gizzard. The clock says half past one and I must stop and go to dinner."

       When the Ewing land in Section 20 sold, it included the corner on which the Ewing Church sat, and so it became necessary to move the building. The hamlet of Austin White in Amboy Township had never had a church, and the decision was made to move it there, a matter of 2 miles. The cost of moving and putting the church in repair was nearly $1,100, all of which had been paid before the dedication, except $300, which was raised at the dedication services. The membership of the church consisted almost entirely of the Ewing family, and it was "these good people who have been most generous in their support of the gospel and for years have carried on the work nobly against great odds," as it said in a newspaper article dated January 21, 1910, telling about the church's move and its dedication services. "At 10 o'clock Sunday morning, the first church bell that ever rang in the little hamlet of White pealed forth a summons to worship," the article said. "Father Ewing is very near the river's brink which will soon carry him over to "The House Not Made with Hands," and one of the incidents of the Sunday service was the presentation of his hymnal to the church for pulpit use, as he no longer has need of it. He is a dear old man."

       And thus the church that Enoch and Henry and their wives had caused to be built in 1880 had a new home. As late as 1968 it was still in use. If it is still there today, it is 106 years old.

       The last years of Henry and Nancy were passed in quiet serenity. Their main pleasure was to gather their family about them, as they did on the occasion of their Golden Wedding Anniversary on 23 April 1912. At that time the only family was their children and nieces and nephews, for all of Henry's brothers and sisters had gone before him.

       "Father Ewing" was not as near the brink as the newspaper article had made him out to be, and in fact, he and Nancy enjoyed a 55th wedding anniversary together. Henry wrote of it on 24 April 1917 to A.E. and his family:

       "Your letter, received yesterday, found the old 'bride and groom' in usual health but not quite as active and spry as we were 55 years ago, but our love and heart's affections toward each other have never grown cold nor indifferent from that in our young lives. We have enjoyed life together perhaps as happy as any man and wife could enjoy life together. We have had our joys and our sorrows strewn all along the 55 years of our married life. We have enjoyed the great blessing of seeing our three boys born to us and grow to manhood and who with their families are the greatest cherished pleasures of all our earthly anticipations. We love them all.

       "Then we have had the sorrow of parting with our dear babe in infancy, or our fathers and mothers, or our brothers and sisters and many dear friends. We fully realize that we are nearing the end of our journey through life, but it is a great pleasure to anticipate the reunion of our loved ones where the sorrows of Earth never come.

       "Well, to change the subject, the 23rd passed off quiet and without unusual incident. Instead of an elaborate wedding dinner we had tater soup seasoned with onion and other things mixed in. Today instead of an elaborate infare dinner, we had the proverbial dandelion greens and things mixed in. Very different from April 23 and 24, 1862.

       "I have to grin when I think of the funny way we passed off the 24th, 55 years ago at our infare at Father's house. It was a beautiful warm, sunshiny day. All my brothers and their wives and sisters and their husbands, Alvin E. Hank and Lydia and Father and Mother Abbott and some invited guests were there. Well, after dinner was over all the men resorted to the front yard between where the house now stands and where it stood then and all hands joined in old-time school-boy play, what we called 'Bull Pen'. It was to run and catch anyone who ventured off his base. There were four corners and each corner had an equal number of men on it. When a man was caught he was a prisoner and out. I have thought of it many a time. It would look silly to the boys nowadays."

       Actually, Nancy was the first of the old partners to go, and that was six months later on 10 October 1917. Funeral services were held at their home in Pioneer, and the story is that as the casket was being borne out the front door, Henry patted it gently and said, "It's all right, Nancy, I'll be with you shortly." Nancy's obituary in the pioneer newspaper noted that, "Mrs. Ewing leaves surviving her, her companion of over 55 years, who is in very feeble health and not likely long to survive." Tagged on to the end of that obituary was a short item headed, "Henry McK Ewing Gone." He died at an early hour on the morning of the paper's publication, 18 October 1917, eight days after Nancy. (His full obituary appeared the following week.) He was 76 years, 5 months and 3 days at the time of his death and Nancy was 77 years, 4 months and 1 day. The two were buried side by side at West Woodbridge Cemetery, Michigan.

       An interesting sidelight, adding a little humor to a touching moment: There was a war raging throughout the world at the time, and Henry and Nancy's grandson, Burke McKendree EWING, had enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He was in the recruiting office in Grand Rapids, Michigan when a message came through that his grandmother had died, and he should return home, which he did. He and his sister, Doris, attended the funeral in Pioneer with their father, A.E., and after a proper length of time, Burke went back to the recruiting office. He was just in the process of signing the papers, when again a message came for him. His grandfather had died. He was requested to return home. The recruiting officers wondered if this was a joke!

       Burke did go home, and was one of the active pall bearers at Henry's funeral, along with Doris, their cousin, Max Ewing, and Henry's three sons, Alvin, John and Frank. (There were 11 honorary pall bearers, old veterans of Pioneer.)





       On his father's birthday, 15 May 1928, A.E. wrote this fine tribute to a man he revered:

       "Here's to Henry McKendree Ewing, born May 15, 1841, and who, had he lived, would be 87 years of age today. Here's to a man true as steel, pure as gold, dependable as the sun's rising; a man of many friends and no enemies; a man who was generously and kindly disposed toward all; a man who attended strictly to his own business and let others do likewise; a man who never picked a quarrel nor engaged in one; a man who would suffer imposition rather than resent it; a man who sought to promote peace and good cheer; a man who lived right and encouraged others to live and do right; a man honest to the core and conscientious to the limit; a man sweet of soul and tender of heart, of faith broad and deep, of daily living, consistent and un-reproachable; a man of simplicity, plain and unpretending.

       "Here's to a brave man whose recreation was toil, who accepted hardship as an inheritance, who fought adversity with bare hands, who received the javelin of fate without a grumble, and who, when he passed on, left a record of manliness and uprightness worthy to be cherished and revered by posterity."

       ISSUE:

                     1.    Loella Jane EWING, b. 26 Jan 1863, Hillsdale County, Michigan, d. 11 March 1863. Buried: West Woodbridge Cemetery, Hillsdale County, Michigan.

18-9-2          2.    Alvin Enoch EWING, b. 10 Nov 1864, Jackson County, Ohio.

18-9-3          3. John Caleb EWING, b. 28 Jan 1867, Woodbridge, Hillsdale Co., Michigan.

18-9-4          4. Frank Burton EWING, b. 28 July 1869, Woodbridge, Hillsdale Co., Michigan.


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18-9-2   ALVIN ENOCH EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Henry-Enoch-William-James


       And now we get to A.E. himself, the man who started it all. Bless his heart, had it not been for him, his insatiable curiosity about his family, and his work over many years of gathering in the information, none of this work would ever have been.

       In 1939, A.E., then 74 years old, took time out from chronicling the lives of his relatives to jot down a brief resume of his own movements and activities through the years. He supplemented that with lengthy papers on his reminiscences of his young years on the farm, which have been quoted from previously.

       His resume (he called it a diary) began with his birth on 10 November 1864, at the farm home of his grandfather Caleb HANK in Lick Township, Jackson County, Ohio. That birth has already been described. He tells of going on the train as a babe in arms to Michigan, where his parents lived on the Enoch Ewing farm in Section 20, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, "12 miles southwest of Hillsdale City and 5 miles south of the village of Cambria."

       The only time he went into detail in his "diary" was in describing early school days at the Johnson and Maple Grove schoolhouses. He even listed his classmates (most of them cousins) and the teachers that he had through those first years, and wrote down the first piece that he spoke in public:


                        How doth the little busy bee

                        Improve each shining hour

                        And gather honey all the day

                        From every fragrant flower.


From that to becoming one of Western Michigan's great orators of his day!

       A.E. did not go to high school until September of 1881, when he was 16 years old. That began a period of schooling that was to last 10 1/2 years. In those days, there were three, three-month terms in the school year - fall, winter and spring - both high school and college, and apparently you could go to any or none of them as you saw fit - and in whatever school you chose. A.E. started at Hillsdale High School, but he had only two months there. Later he had a full year at Reading High School, September, 1882 to June, 1883. In March of 1885, he went back to Reading but had been there only two weeks when he was told by the superintendent that he ought to go to college. So he did - and that ended his high school days which had been a total of 15 months and two weeks!

       In the meantime, in the fall of 1883 when he was 19, A.E. had taken the examination to teach school - walked the railroad tracks all the way up to Hillsdale to do it - and passed, so that much of that interim time was taken up teaching in the vicinity. He was paid $20 to $30 a month and sometimes had to walk 3 miles to get to his school.

       Other times he was at home, helping out with the farm. He spent March to September, 1882, hewing timbers for the new Ewing barn built in the fall that year. He also hired out to other farmers to earn money for his schooling.

       This off-again-on-again education was also true in his college days. He enrolled at Hillsdale College along with his brother, John, in September, 1885, but his attendance was spasmodic. September of 1887 to June, 1888, was the only continuous full year he had there. At that time he became a charter member of B.K. Chapter, Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

       He had a total of about 2 1/2 years at Hillsdale College when he quit and decided to go into law. He spent the summer of 1890 reading law with a Grand Rapids firm and entered the University of Michigan's Law School (it was a department then) in September of 1890. He had a full year there that time. His mother and father moved to Ann Arbor to make a home for him, leaving the farm in the care of son Frank and his wife Clara CRABB. But in May of 1891, Clara died and Henry and Nancy returned to the farm.

       A.E. left the University of Michigan in June of 1891 and did not return until February of 1892, teaching and reading law in the meantime. When he went back, he lived at the Alpha Tau Omega house on Washington Street in Ann Arbor. And then this man, who had neither high school diploma nor college degree, did what he could not have done today. A.E. graduated from the University of Michigan's Law School having passed the bar and was qualified to practice law in the state of Michigan. A.E. graduated with the Class of 1892, the Columbian Class, and the date was 30 June 1892.

       A.E. returned to the farm in Woodbridge and immediately put his new law degree to good use. He put in his bid for the Republican nomination as representative from Hillsdale County to the Michigan State Legislature. He won the primary and he won the November election against his Democratic opponent. He was on his way to Lansing.

       During A.E.'s fall term in 1888, at Hillsdale, he had met a fellow student, Carlotta Parthenia WALKLEY. This was the young lady who was to become A.E.'s wife and my grandmother. A.E. called her the Goddess (for her middle name) and she called him Senator for his political aspirations.

       Carlotta went by the name BAILEY, not WALKLEY, and she had two fathers - her own, who was Dr. Wyllys Seaman WALKLEY, and her foster father, Freeborn F. BAILEY who, with his wife, Ellen, had raised her and whom she loved deeply. She called her foster parents Father and Mother and her real father, Papa. She always said of the Baileys, "They didn't adopt me, but I adopted them." After her marriage she became Carlotta BAILEY EWING or often, for business purposes, C.B. EWING.

       Not that she "divorced" her own father. He was always very close to her. It was just that the Baileys had given her the home and love she needed in her growing up years and were very near parents to her.

       The circumstances were these: Wyllys, who was born in Hillsdale County, Michigan (sheer coincidence) on 17 January 1846 had always expected he would be a farmer like all his forbearers for centuries before - and he probably would have, had it not been for the Civil War. When his parents, Oliver and Parthenia (SMITH) WALKLEY moved from Hillsdale to the, literally, wilds of Muskegon County, 100 or so miles north, to establish a new farm, he was alone and it was there that he married on 18 February 1864, 15 year old Ida SKINNER. He left his child bride two or three days after the wedding to do what he could for the noble cause then raging. What he could do was assist the Union medical personnel, and it was that introduction to medicine that determined his eventual life's career.

       After the war, he returned to Casnovia Township, Muskegon County, Michigan and resumed a farmer's life - but not for long. He and Ida had three daughters, Emile, Adeline and Carlotta. With the birth of a fourth child, Ida and the son died. The date was 28 January 1873. Ida is buried in the Seaman Cemetery in the town of BAILEY (again coincidental) in Casnovia Township.

       The two eldest daughters were taken care of by relatives and when Wyllys WALKLEY married again to Olive MC DONALD, they took Emile and Adeline back with them.

       But for the youngest, Carlotta, who was just over 2 when her mother died, Wyllys had another solution. He had heard of the Baileys as being wonderful foster parents for many children and that's where he took his Lottie. He carried her in his arms the 9 miles from Grand Rapids to the Bailey home in East Paris, Kent County, Michigan.

       The Walkley line in America goes back to Richard I, who was born in Gloucester, England, pre-1636 and died 6 August 1681 at Walkley Hill, Haddam, Connecticut. Walkley Hill is the name of the ancestral farm high on a hill with a commanding view of the Connecticut River flowing south a few miles to Long Island Sound.

       The line to Carlotta is Richard II, Ebenezer I, Solomon I, a Revolutionary soldier under Putnam, Solomon II, Oliver and Wyllys. By the time of Oliver's birth in 1809, land around Haddam was hard to come by and he had to head west to find proper land to farm. In company with friends, including the Walkley and the Seaman families, and the parents of his wife Parthenia SMITH, Joel and Lucy (BEERS) SMITH, he struck out, wending his way via Geauga and Williams County, Ohio, to Hillsdale County, Michigan, where he lived not far from where the Ewings eventually settled - though neither of them knew it, and finally Muskegon County, Michigan. Wyllys was about 6 at the time of the move from Hillsdale to Casnovia Township. He and Ida SKINNER were schoolmates and they fell in love when she was 7 and Wyllys was 9 (1855). The wonder is they waited so long to get married!

       Ida was born 21 October 1848, in Sherburne, New York. Her Skinner line goes back to three Mayflower passengers - Edward FULLER, the 21st signer of the Mayflower Compact, his wife Ann and their son Samuel. The line is also through their second son, who came to the Plymouth Colony after his parents died in 1621, Captain Matthew FULLER.

       Ida's father was Lafayette SKINNER, an officer during the Civil War, who died seven days prior to his 99th birthday in 1923 in San Marcos, California. which oddly enough is only 15 or so miles from where I live now. It is from him, no doubt, that his granddaughter Carlotta Ewing got her longevity. She lived past her 100th birthday.

       Lafayette was born 17 September 1824 in Sherburne and was married there on 4 January 1843 to Sarah Adeline POULTNEY/PUDNEY also a Sherburne native. Sarah died in Casnovia Township on

25 June 1872 and is buried in the same plot where her daughter Ida was buried six months later.

       A.E. and Carlotta were married 5 April 1893 at the home of her foster parents, who by then had moved into Grand Rapids. The write-up of the wedding in the Grand Rapids Press follows:

       One of the most pleasing affairs of the week was the Easter wedding at the residence of F.F. BAILEY, corner Wealthy Avenue and Charles Street. Miss Carlotta Walkley Bailey was married to the Hon. A.E. EWING, state representative from Hillsdale County. One hundred and eighty invitations were sent out and nearly 100 guests gathered in response thereto. The house was decorated with palms, hydrangeas and Easter lilies. The Rev. J.N. MAYNARD, assisted by the Rev. HERITAGE, performed the ceremony.

       The bride wore a beautiful cream crepe and brocaded satin dress trimmed with yards upon yards of flimsy lace and carried in her hands a spray of Easter lilies, all of which added to the beauty of her golden hair and deep blue eyes. The bridesmaid, Miss Katie KING of Cleveland, was lovely in a rose-colored silk, trimmed with white lace. The groomsman was Mr. E.O. GALLOWAY, son of Judge GALLOWAY of Hillsdale. He was a classmate of the groom's in the law department at the university.

       The most beautiful costume of the evening, aside from the bride's and bridesmaid's, was that of Miss Adah BROWN of Hillsdale. It was of pink silk and was a work of art, both in cut and trimming, and set off the blonde beauty of the wearer to the best advantage.

       Among other guests from out of town were Dr. WALKLEY and daughter of Grand Haven, Michigan; Frank EWING, brother of the groom, from Reading, Michigan; Lawyer SUTTON and W.L. DUTTEN, both of Detroit, Michigan.

       The presents were many, consisting of solid silverware, pictures, table linen, bric-a-brac and books. The old custom of having the latest wedded in the family make the cake for the new bride was followed on this occasion with the most happy results.

       After the serving of refreshments, Miss Katie KING, who is a fine vocalist, being at present in the conservatory at Cleveland, sang several old-time ballads with winning pathos and sweetness.

       The young couple, accompanied by Miss King, who was the roommate of the bride at Hillsdale College, left for Lansing on Thursday afternoon.

       On Monday following, A.E. took his accustomed seat in the State House and introduced his bride from the floor. A lengthy resolution congratulating the two was read into the legislative record and they were presented a magnificent silver tea set.

       The newlyweds delayed their honeymoon until May, when they attended the opening of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, Illinois. Hearing the speech on that opening day of President Grover CLEVELAND was a high spot in A.E.'s life.

       When the Ewings left Lansing at the end of the session in June, they never went back. A.E. had foreseen a future in politics for himself, but Carlotta did not like Lansing and was terribly homesick for her Father and Mother, so A.E. gave up a career that could very likely have taken him to the nation's capitol. He did try for the U.S. House of Representatives on the National Progressive ticket in 1914, but he lost and never sought office again. In later years, Carlotta was always remorseful that she had not encouraged A.E. to follow his stars.

       A.E. and Carlotta bought a house in Grand Rapids at 347 Charles, near the corner of Wealthy where the Baileys lived, and that was their home for some 45 years. Their children were Burke McKendree, my father, born in 1894; Doris Isabelle, born in 1898, and Walkley Bailey, born in 1901.

       From August 1893 until 1 January 1897, A.E. was in practice in Grand Rapids as WESSELIUS, CORBETT and EWING; EWING and BOLT, and CUTCHEON, SWARTHOUT and EWING. In 1897 he became Kent County Register of Probate and held the position for 10 years. In 1908 he went back into law practice, alone at first and then as EWING and DALTON, then JEWELL and EWING. In 1914, he opened his own law office which in 1920 was in the Michigan Trust Company Building in downtown Grand Rapids and that was it until his retirement in 1940.

       Carlotta had received her Bachelor's from Hillsdale (Class of '92) but she wanted a Master's, so she packed up the two youngest of the family and moved to Ann Arbor to get a degree from the University of Michigan. With a flair for the dramatic, she became a leading "elocutionist" of the place and time, and was much in demand for her readings, book reviews and recitations by women's clubs throughout Michigan and nearby states.

       By 1910, her Papa had become Doctor WALKLEY, a leading physician of Grand Haven on Lake Michigan, about 50 miles west of Grand Rapids. He had lost his second wife and in March of 1910, he took a third, Louise LILLIE. 14 March 1910, was the date of the family dinner celebrating the wedding and A.E., Carlotta and the children went over to Grand Haven for it. They had heard of some lakefront property, 2 miles south of Grand Haven and rented a horse and buggy to drive out to look at it. They bought it - and in so doing altered the course of their lives and greatly affected the lives of the Ewings who came after. Carlotta remembered in her later years, "A.E. wanted to get rid of us so he wouldn't have to go on picnics. Walkley always lost his hat on picnics."

       That was the first Wilderness and it was dear to the hearts of all five of the Ewings. Walkley even got married there. But it was the second Wilderness that was to mean so much to those and future Ewings. This was about 250 acres of woods and dunes - half a mile of lake frontage - 4 miles south of Grand Haven that A.E. and Carlotta bought about 1920. On a high ridge overlooking the south gorge and the lake, they built the cottage they called Paradise Enow and below it on a low dune back and up a short way from the beach, they built a smaller cottage that they called Berkshire in honor of their son Burke, into whose keeping it went. That was our summer home for all of my young years.

       A.E., Carlotta, Burke, Doris and Walkley loved their Wilderness as I'm sure no 250 acres have ever been loved before. Carlotta spent most of her time there and the others went out from Grand Rapids the moment they could. Carlotta oversaw all the management of the place.

       She subdivided the lakefront lots on the north half of the property and sold them one by one. But the south half and all the woods and hills and dunes behind the frontage lots back to the main road, Sheldon Road, and beyond remained in Ewing possession for years.

       Eventually A.E. and Carlotta sold the house at 347 Charles and retired to the Wilderness. They spent their springs, summers and falls at Paradise Enow and their winters in Grand Haven at a place we called the Mouse House, because it was brown and so tiny.

       A.E. began to be interested in his ancestry when he was not yet 20 years old - 1884. His grandparents Enoch and Susannah EWING were still alive then and he questioned them extensively about their parents and their earlier lives and put it all down on paper. In 1898, he was instrumental in starting Ewing reunion associations in Hillsdale, Michigan; Ewington, Ohio and Burnside, Illinois. It was A.E. who was responsible for the monument to his great-grandmother, Mary MC NEILL EWING, beside the grave of her husband William at Ewington. A.E. made pilgrimages to all the ancestral places - Jackson, Ewington, Point Pleasant, Swago Creek. He never did get to Maple Lawn, the Hank place in Monroe County, West Virginia - much to his sadness, but other relatives went for him and photographed and reported for him extensively.

       He was never really a genealogist, just a family historian, and a darn good one. He collected cousins like most people collect stamps. Gradually his interest expanded beyond just the Ewings, Hanks, Radabaughs and McNeills to include his wife's family, the Walkleys and Skinners. He had three typewriters in his suite of rooms upstairs at 347 Charles and he had a letter to a cousin, an article of historical interest for some magazine or newspaper, and a historical novel going all at once. One room of his domain was given over to his family museum - each item carefully labeled, catalogued and displayed in a glass case. How we loved that place as children ("but don't touch"). I have many of the items from it now.

       A.E. devoted most of his time when he wasn't lawyering to family history. When he closed the office and took down his shingle in 1940, and moved to the cottage, his "family" went with him - books, files and all. (The museum was dismantled and most of it packed away.) Then he could devote all of his time to family writing. The lower level of Paradise Enow was his private world. It was a self-contained apartment with its own entrance, where he could delve into family (and smoke his pipe) to his heart's content, without bothering the women folk, Carlotta, Doris and their constant parade of houseguests from around the world upstairs. In his last years, family history was his whole like.

       I had no idea to what extent it consumed him until after his death and the imminent closing of Paradise Enow because it had been sold, when I was asked by Grandmother Carlotta if I wanted his material. Did I? She had emptied his files and boxed the contents. It was a full trailer load and took up half my basement when I got it home. As I tried to get it all organized I had a whole new respect for the man, whom I deeply loved anyway, and for his energies, hoping I could some day equal them.

       A.E. had never been sick a day in his life that I could recall. What a blow it was to me then to learn early in 1945 that my dear, dear grandfather was so ill that even I could not see him. To this day I do not know what it was that took him. He died at the Mouse House in Grand Haven on the 18 January 1945, at the age of 80 years, 2 months and 8 days. The cruel thing of it was that the funeral home where he was taken was just behind where I was living then and every time I looked out my kitchen window, there he was.

       A.E. was buried with Masonic rites at Lake Forest Cemetery in Grand Haven. I was okay until the volley of rifle shots echoed throughout the hills and the buglers sounded Taps and the casket was lowered into the ground. Nothing before or since has affected me so deeply. The Senator was gone.

       Grandmother Carlotta lived on for 36 more years. She had sold Berkshires during the depression and she sold Paradise Enow in 1952 with the stipulation that she could spend each October - her favorite month at the Wilderness, there the rest of her life. Little did the WALLINS, who bought the cottage, realize she would live to be 100!

       The large part of the Wilderness remained under C.B. EWING's control for many years, but when she realized she could no longer tend to the important things like roads, tennis courts and clearing out underbrush, fallen trees and the like, the Wilderness Association of property owners was formed and the reins were turned over to them. Through most of its years, the Wilderness had been strictly a summer place, access in the winter being impossible because of the snow that filled the roads. But newer purchasers of land and the association made it possible for the Wilderness to become a year-round residential community, although still a very private and exclusive one, tucked back in the hills and woods of Lake Michigan's shoreline.

       Although she never gave up her wit, memory nor intelligence, Grandmother Carlotta began to give up on energy after A.E.'s death at which time she was 75. She went to live with her daughter Doris who was director of recreation at Biggs Air Force Base in El Paso, Texas. We call Aunt Doris - Saint Doris for the loving care she gave her mother for the next 20 years. Every October, rain or shine, Doris and Carlotta drove the thousand miles from El Paso to the Wilderness for their month at Paradise Enow. When Doris retired and moved back to Michigan, she still saw to it that Carlotta was at Paradise Enow during October. Even when Carlotta was 99 and could hardly walk, Doris took her to the cottage on the ridge overlooking the sand dunes, the cottage that she had built 50 years before.11 November 1970, was a big day in Ewing history. On that day Carlotta Parthenia Walkley Bailey Ewing celebrated her 100th birthday. Five generations of Ewings gathered around her at Doris' home on Sheldon Road in Grand Haven. The five generations were Carlotta, son Burke, granddaughter me, my son Richard KLECKA and my grandson Robert Mitchell KLECKA. The silver tea set of her days as a legislator's bride was brought out and the 1970 Michigan legislature reread into the record the resolution of 1893. Messages were received from President NIXON and from Gerald FORD who was Ottawa County's representative in Congress at the time.

       After that, Grandmother just gave up. She was tired. One night four months later, on 18 March 1971, she said to Doris, "Let me go," and died in Doris' arms. She is buried next to A.E. at Lake Forest Cemetery in Grand Haven, Michigan.

       ISSUE:

18-9-2-1              1.    Burke McKendree EWING, b. 30 July 1894, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

18-9-2-2              2.    Doris Isabel EWING, b. 28 April 1898, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

18-9-2-3              3.    Walkley Bailey EWING, b. 14 June 1901, Grand Rapids, Michigan.


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18-9-2-1              BURKE MC KENDREE EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Alvin-Henry-Enoch-William-James


       Enoch Ewing was born 30 July 1799. Ninety-five years later to the day, on 20 July 1894, his great-grandson Burke McKendree Ewing was born. Burke was my father. His first name came from one of A.E.'s classmates at the University of Michigan, Burke DRAPER of Albion, and his middle name came, of course, from his grandfather Henry McKendree EWING.

       Burke spent most of his childhood, youth and teen years at 347 Charles in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His first job when he was fresh out of high school - June 1914, was in time study and cost accounting for Leonard Refrigerator in Grand Rapids.

       World War I presented a slight interruption to his career. The story of his enlistment in the Navy was told in the section of his grandparents. He reported for duty about 24 October 1917, at Great Lakes Naval Training Station north of Chicago. On 1 February 1918, he was made a Landsman Electrician (Radio) and was transferred to U.S. Naval Radio School at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts for instruction.

       One evening in May of 1918, he went to a dance at a fashionable home in East Boston given for the sailors at Harvard. One of the young ladies from the vicinity who was invited to the dance was Marjorie Elizabeth KELLEY of nearby Winthrop. From the moment of their meeting Burke and Marjorie were a pair.

       I did not find this out until after Burke and Marjorie had died, so they never knew it, but they were cousins many times over - eight as I remember it. All of Marjorie's family and Burke's maternal side were in Connecticut from the Year One and of course back then all they had to marry was each other, so I have many common ancestors on both sides of my family tree, including LEFFINGWELLS, BUSHNELLS, SPENCERS, PRATTS, BRAINERDS and BLISSES. Marjorie was born on 19 March 1897 in New Haven, Connecticut. Connecticut and Massachusetts had been the center of her ancestors domain for some 267 years. The Kelley (her father was Halsey Wolcott KELLEY) was English-with-an-e. Her great-great-grandfather was Jeremiah KELLEY, a Revolutionary War soldier and son of a Baptist minister. One of her great-grandfathers was Captain George Edwin THOMPSON, who was captain of an oyster fleet out of Fair Haven, a sea-going part of New Haven. Her mother was a Johnson, Myra Agnew JOHNSON, and that line goes back through HYDES and KIRTLANDS and PERKINSES to the original 1621 settlers of Seabrook, Connecticut, all of whom later moved up the Thames River to found the town of Norwich, where the families remained through the next century and a half.

       At the time of Burke and Marjorie's meeting, the Kelleys had only recently moved to Winthrop from New Haven. Halsey was in the hardware business. Marjorie had two brothers, Halsey Jr., and Wallace Agnew KELLEY, who graduated from Yale in 1916.

       On 28 June, a few weeks after their meeting, Burke was promoted to Electrician 2nd Class (radio) and was transferred to Naval Wireless Telephone School in New London, Connecticut. A month later he was appointed an instructor at the school and in October he was promoted to Electrician 1st Class (radio operator).

       The lovely little Connecticut village of Windham, near Norwich, had been the center of activity for the Johnson family for dozens of years, and Marjorie went there in August on vacation with relatives. On 11 August, Burke came visiting, and he was back the following weekend.

       Marjorie noted in her diary under Sunday, 18 August 1918, "We went for a long walk. 'Twas then I said 'yes' to my Burke."

       They were married in Windham, in the tiny, picturesque, stone St. Paul's Church, at High Noon on Saturday, 14 June 1919.

        In the meantime, Burke had been discharged - 8 February 1919, and had returned to Michigan, and the Kelleys, Marjorie included, had moved to New York City, Halsey having been made manager of his firm's New York office. Myra and Marjorie returned to Winthrop the week before the wedding for a round of parties and luncheons.

       Burke went out from Michigan to Windham for the wedding. Of his family, only his mother Carlotta, was able to attend.

       The reception was held at the home of Marjorie's Aunt Lou HATCH in Windham. The newlyweds spent the night in Springfield, Massachusetts, then went, by train, to Albany, New York and then to Michigan where they honeymooned at the Wilderness.

       for the first time in centuries, a Johnson had left Connecticut. It must have appalled Marjorie's relatives to think of her so far west - there were still Indians in Michigan weren't there? But if the uprooting was traumatic to Marjorie, she never let it show in all her years.

       Bride and groom went into housekeeping in what had been the home of Burke's grandfather, Dr. Wyllys WALKLEY, in Grand Haven, but with parenthood approaching, they moved into the Ewing home at 347 Charles in Grand Rapids. Their daughter Ann Elizabeth (called Betty) was born at Blodgett Memorial Hospital in Grand Rapids on 11 March 1921.

       Ann was two months old when Burke got a job as superintendent of a plant in Oklahoma City - TIBB'S & DORSEY, manufacturers of bank and store fixtures, at 915 S. Walker Street. The family of three went to Oklahoma City and were living at 1731 W. 12th Street when a second child was born - a daughter to whom they gave the name of Burke's grandmother, Nancy HANKS. That was 9 July 1922 and the Nancy was me.

       The move to Oklahoma was only the beginning of constant moves these Ewings were to make in the ensuing 40 years. Moving around became a way of life. Never constant, always on the go. I never knew where I was going to be going to school from one year to the next.

       After Oklahoma City it was LaCrosse, Wisconsin, then Chicago, Illinois where Burke had a position in detailing at union Interior Finishing Company. He became Chief Draftsman in 1929 and we were riding high that year on the country's prosperity. Brother, Burke McKendree Ewing Jr. was born in Chicago in 1925.

       The depression did not hit Union Interior until early 1932, when both partners did away with themselves. The company closed down and Burke was without a job.

       But the Wilderness was there to give shelter in time of need and the family of five and a half, moved to Paradise Enow in February of 1932 - in the dead of Michigan's winter. The only way to get in and out over snow-filled roads was in the horse-drawn sleigh provided by a farmer in the neighborhood, BIERMAN. The three children - Ann, Nancy and Burke, went to the district school about 2 miles up Sheldon Road - a little one-room school called Rosy Mound, where one teacher taught all six grades. The Biermans picked the children up each morning and took them all the way to school and back again in the afternoon. (Although most often they'd jump off and run along beside the sleigh.)

       The Ewings spent that entire summer at the Wilderness. When it neared time for school to open in the fall (and for Marjorie to deliver a fourth child), the family moved in with A.E. and Carlotta at 347 Charles in Grand Rapids. On

11 September 1932, Marjorie gave birth to a son who was named Wallace Kelley for her dearly beloved brother.

       I have the bill from the hospital for that confinement. The total, including "gas" (ether) room for six days and transportation by ambulance home was $42.

       Well, now we were six. Burke had been doing some surveying for the state and buying old gold while he had feelers out for jobs. In May of 1933, he hit pay dirt. He got a job as chief draftsman of the newly organized Bar Fixture Division of Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co., (which later became Brunswick Corporation) at their Muskegon, Michigan plant - and for the Ewings posterity was indeed just around the corner.

       Burke was with Brunswick for the better part of the next 27 years, until his retirement in 1960, and even at times after that. His work had to do with design and development of Brunswick products, including their famed bowling equipment.

       Unfortunately, Brunswick had plants in not only Muskegon but Chicago and Kalamazoo, Michigan and in Marion, Virginia and the Ewings did not know where they were going to be headquartered from one month to the next. This suited all of them fine. Moving on meant new surroundings, new friends and a new outlook on life and all of us got so we relished each new adventure.

       In all those years, Burke's first love was the Wilderness. Marjorie was his wife, but the Wilderness was his sweetheart. He and his mother had been a team from the start and together they developed the place into a highly desirable vacation spot for a few select summer residents - most of them from Grand Rapids. Through the years, Burke had gone over every square inch of those 250 acres 100 times and knew them all like the back of his hand. When we were at the cottage, we never saw him, for he was always out hiking his beloved dunes and hills and woods, or setting out for a hike down the beach, binoculars tucked into his swim trunks.

       After Carlotta sold the cottage called Berkshires, Burke had to have a place at his Wilderness. There were building restrictions of course, but Burke prevailed upon his mother to let him build a simple weekend cottage in the South Gorge - the dunes area that was inaccessible by roads and therefore not as easily sold as the north wooded area. Carlotta agreed, provided she could not see the cottage from Paradise Enow perched up on the ridge.

       Burke chose a spot tucked behind a prominent dune. Material was lugged across that one-quarter mile of sand gorge to the spot and Burke spent hours single-handedly nailing every last board into place for our little cottage. It was only one room but it had been ingeniously devised (by him) to become several.

       He gave the cottage the only possible name it could have - Howma Dune.

       That was in the mid-1930s. Howma Dune was the family's vacation retreat for many years. Even after I was married and had children I loved to spend a weekend or a week there. However, when Wilderness development extended to the rim of the South Gorge, and as Burke and Marjorie found themselves spending less and less time there, Howma Dune was dismantled. It was a sad day in our Ewing history.

       Never one to be without a project, Burke next undertook a renovation. He and Marjorie bought the BIERMAN farm, which adjoined the Wilderness to the east. The farm was no longer a farm; the land had long since been taken over by local vegetation. But that wasn't important, for Burke only wanted the acreage. At first his idea was to restore the Bierman farmhouse, but he gave that up and instead built a little hideaway on the property that was to be his and Marjorie's summer retreat in their retirement years. It was affectionately called the Farm then - and still is.

       The idea was that this was where they would spend their summers when Burke retired. The rest of the year they would be trailering in the Southland, far removed from Michigan's icy winters. Recreational Vehicles were in their infancy when Burke and Marjorie took up the nomad life in 1960. They both loved it. I'm sure they were both part gypsy. They had a Southwind at first and then went into an Avalair. They always headed out early in October, so as not to hit snow in the mountains as they drove south. They'd do Florida, then head to Texas to see Carlotta and Doris and even on to California to see son Burke.

       Marjorie had been beset with heart problems since their days with Brunswick in Marion, Virginia. On her last trip out in 1963, they went to El Paso to see Carlotta and Doris and then headed east to Florida. They ended up in Pompano Beach, to be near Boca Raton, where Marjorie's brother Wallace and his wife Barbara had an ocean-front retirement condo.

       In the early morning hours of 1 February 1964 Marjorie had another heart attack and died where she probably really wanted to, in her beloved Avalair. She was 66 years, 10 months and 13 days old. She was cremated and her ashes were returned to Grand Haven for burial at Lake Forest Cemetery. There was a memorial service at the Episcopal Church in Grand Haven when Burke got back to Michigan that spring.

       Burke did not think very much of bachelorhood. In all his 70 years, he had always had a woman to look after him - his mother or his wife, and the best he could do for himself was open a can of tomato soup or pop a TV dinner into the oven. Soon he turned to a long-time friend of the family, Miss Beatrice BOWMAN of the Detroit area. Beatrice, born Christmas Day, 1901, in Chapin, Michigan to Arthur and Elizabeth (BROWN) BOWMAN, and was 63 years old at the time of her and Burke's marriage. The wedding took place on 7 October 1964 at Leland, Michigan.

       It was a perfect marriage. Beatrice quickly became a part of the Ewing establishment and fell an easy victim to the nomadic way of life that Burke had adopted. They were a familiar sight on southern highways from October to May as they toured the nation in their Avalair from coast to coast. Burke was instrumental in forming the Avalair Friendship Club and was its first president.

       During their springs and summers at Grand Haven, Burke had another project to see to - the building of Ewingwood. That is a residential neighborhood platted by Burke on land that had been part of the Wilderness at one time - forested with stately pines and oaks and of uneven terrain to make it a challenge to any architect. Ewingwood is there today as a testimonial to the foresight long ago of C.B. EWING, who made it possible.

       Burke reserved some of the land behind Ewingwood for his four children. We called it Ewing Woodn't.

       Burke's last trip out in the Avalair was in October of 1973. En route to Florida, he became ill in Alabama and was hospitalized for a time, but recovered enough to be able to continue on to Orlando, Florida. There his illness was diagnosed as cancer. He wanted to go home. He and Beatrice flew to Michigan, and I flew down to drive the car home, leaving the trailer there. Burke was in and out of hospitals in Grand Rapids and Grand Haven for several weeks.

       He breathed his last at the Grand Haven Hospital on 21 June 1974 six weeks prior to his 80th birthday. He was buried in the family plot at Lake Forest Cemetery in Grand Haven.

       Today, 13 years later, Beatrice lives in a retirement complex in Grand Haven. Doris lives nearby. Burke's youngest son, Wallace, took over the Farm, remodeled the house extensively and lives there today.

       The Wilderness is the first concern of all three of them. It is in good hands.

       ISSUE:

18-9-2-1-1    1     Ann Elizabeth EWING, b. 11 March 1921, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

18-9-2-1-2    2.     Nancy Hanks EWING, b. 9 July 1922, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

18-9-2-1-3    3.    Burke McKendree EWING Jr., b. 29 May 1925, Chicago, Illinois.

18-9-2-1-4    4.    Wallace Kelley EWING, b. 11 Sept 1932 , Grand Rapids, Michigan. (a written sketch on Wallace was not found) Married: 1st , Sept. 1953, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Shirley OLTMAN, divorced, 1954. Married 2nd 19 Feb 1955, Lansing, Michigan, Nancilee (KENDALL) ARMSTRONG, b. 9 Mar 1932.


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18-9--2-1-1   ANN ELIZABETH EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Burke-Alvin-Henry-Enoch-William-James


         With all their moving around, it just so happened that the first and last of Burke and Marjorie's children were born in the same place that Burke was - Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ann put in her appearance at Blodgett Memorial Hospital on 11 March 1921, a week before Marjorie's 24th birthday.

       In spite of all the changing schools that she did, Ann was always an excellent student. She skipped grades, was always tops in her class, headed things and, to give her super brain a real work out chose physics as her life's study, which shows that all of that hopscotching from school to school in the first eight grades really didn't matter scholastically.

       At least Ann had four years at the same high school. She was 12 when she entered Morgan Park High School (M.P. High or Empehi) at 110th and Walton on Chicago's far south side. The Ewings still moved a lot in those days, but always within walking distance of Empehi. Ann was always interested in writing and in her senior year, she was associate editor along with Bob STAUDINGER of the school's weekly, the Empehi News. She graduated in June of 1937, three months after she turned 16.

       In September she started four years at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin. She was a member of Alpha Gamma Theta sorority, and lived at the AGT House. She had four years on the staff of the college yearbook, the Crimson, and in her last year she became its editor. She graduated in June of 1941, just after turning 20.

       Ann had only a little over a year in which to try out her new-found knowledge (she worked in the lab at the University of Chicago Hospital) because she signed up to do her part in the war then raging. In December of 1942 she entered the Navy - just like her dad, as a WAVE seaman (seawoman today, no doubt) and was sent to Hunter College in Massachusetts for training, after which she was commissioned an ensign. She was stationed in Florida and functioned as a disbursement officer. She had attained the rank of lieutenant junior grade by the time she was discharged in July of 1946.

       Ann went back to the University of Chicago to do some graduate work, but before she had completed it, she had a job in the laboratory of one of the rubber companies in New York state - Firestone or Goodyear.

       However, by this time she had discovered that she was a physicist second. Writing came first. In 1947, she went on the staff of Science Service in Washington D.C. and she was with them for umpteen years. Her highly technical stuff was sent out from the service to newspapers all over the United States and appeared in the service's monthly Science Newsletter. Her assignments took her to many foreign countries, and all over this one, for scientific conferences and the like, and she had a White House press pass to cover presidential press conferences. She was a member of the D.C. Women's Press Club, which eventually merged with the D.C. Press Club, whose male members scorned female ones until the days of women's lib.

       In 1954 Ann bought a house at 3138 Military Road, NW, near Rock Creek Park, and she lives there still. She was (I suppose still is - we don't talk about it) an ardent Democrat in a family full of Republicans.

       Ann has been married - but only briefly. On 27 November 1958 she was married to Justin Gerald MC CARTHY, a journalist who was then editor of the Mine Workers Journal (1955 to 1972) and a close associate of the noted John L. LEWIS. Justin was born in Chicago, Illinois on 15 May 1915 and died of a heart disorder in Arlington, Virginia on 2 April 1978 at the age of 62. He and Ann were divorced in November of 1961. Ann went back to the Ewing surname.

       Ann left Science Service and went with The International Medical News Group, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. She retired on her 65th birthday, 11 March 1986 in hopes of doing some free-lance writing. Recent question: "How's the free-lancing coming?" Answer: "I've been too busy."

       For many, many years, Ann has not missed an October vacation at Grand Haven and the Wilderness. Come October 1 or there-about, she drops everything - cats, Beagles, everything else - and heads by car or plane for her favorite spot on earth. For awhile, she and brother Wallace were in possession of the Farm, but she turned over her half to Wallace when he went there to live in May of 1983.

       NO ISSUE


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18-9-2-1-2    NANCY HANKS EWING

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Burke-Alvin-Henry-Enoch-William-James



       Before Ann was 16 months old, she had a baby sister. That was me, born at 11:16 p.m. on Sunday, 9 July 1922 at St. Anthony's Hospital, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 7 pounds, 14 1/2 ounces, Dr. Richard LOWRY doing the honors.

       I was named for my great-grandmother Nancy Ann HANK, and I am proud that I also carry the name of Abraham Lincoln's mother. I was baptized on 17 June 1923 along with Ann, in the lovely little Episcopal Church in Windham, Connecticut, (where Burke and Marjorie were married) during our vacation there that summer.

       In December 1924, when I was 2 1/2, we left Oklahoma City. Burke, Marjorie and Ann never saw the place again, but I had the occasion to return there to live many years later.

       Mostly I grew up in Chicago, but there were those depression years in Michigan, too. We were back and forth so much and I attended so many different schools in my first years that it is hard to keep track of them - 10 it was in my first eight grades. I skipped a half grade (last half of the first) and never once completed the last month of a school year, because by that time we were always on our way to someplace else.

       Like Ann, I did have the good fortune to go the full four years at Morgan Park High - 4 1/2 years actually. I graduated in June of 1940. In those high school years I wrote like crazy (I had since I was 10 years old) but showed no signs of becoming a writer by profession or embarking on a journalistic career. I was on the Empehi News staff, but never thought of me as devoting my life to newspapering. Little did I know! My ambition was to be a movie star, to be very rich and very famous. Again, little did I know!

       In May of 1940, the family moved back to Michigan - North Muskegon this time. I renewed an acquaintance with someone I had known when we had lived there before, in 1934, when I was 12 and he was 13 - James William KLECKA.

       James had lived all of his 19 years in North Muskegon, where he was born on 14 August 1921. His father, Edward Frank KLECKA SR., who was born in Chicago, was North Muskegon's fire chief. His mother, Mary KLIKA, had come to America when she was 18 from her native Prague, Czechoslovakia. Through her mother, Anna HRUNEK, she was a first cousin of Rudy HRUNEK, the father of the noted television star Betsey PALMER. James was the youngest in a family of three girls and three boys.

       James and I were married on 30 May 1941 in Bryan, Ohio. At the time he was making $18 a week as an accountant for Fitzpatrick Electric Company in Muskegon, Michigan. (That was raised to $25 when the marriage became known!)

       In the next three years, we had two children, Richard and Barbara - so he was deferred when others were being called up for the war, but finally in May of 1944 he got his "greetings." He was in the Navy (it runs in the family) and served as a signalman on the John S. Roebling, which sailed between Sao Paulo, Brazil and southern U.S. ports. At war's end, he was sent to help other sailors make a quick return to civilian life and served at the Separation Center at Norman, Oklahoma, just outside Oklahoma City. I took Richard and Barbara and went down to join him. So there I was again at the place where it had all begun for me 23 years earlier.

       After James had separated his own self from the Navy, we went back to Muskegon and he returned to the accounts payable department of Continental Motors Corporation, Aircraft Division, which he had gone to just before entering the service. We bought a house and had one of the first G.I. loans in all Michigan - no down payment and $33 a month, including taxes and insurance! Ronald, our third and last, became part of the post-war baby boom in July of 1946.

       The early years were filled with what all parents go through - PTA, Cub Scouts, youthful birthday parties, the usual.

       For me, add to that politics. I got involved when a Young Republican Club was formed in Muskegon County and I quickly became an active and ardent participant. Before long, the Young Republicans took over the county organization and I found myself secretary of the Muskegon County GOP Committee. That led to the formation of a Republican Women's Club and I was the first president. That was during the national election of 1952, and our main objective was to get Ike into the White House. I think the biggest thrill of my life was to go to the Eisenhower-Nixon inauguration in Washington D.C. in January of 1953. The luncheons, the musicals, the parade and all the other concurrent events topped by the grand ball are still very much in my memory.

       Another big interest was the theatre. In Muskegon we had two amateur theatres, Port City Playhouse and Muskegon Civic Opera. My theatrical debut, which I had wanted since I was so high, was not in Hollywood, but on a small community stage as Mrs. Coffman in "Come Back, Little Sheba." I was in 25 shows in Muskegon theatre after than, and that led to some summer stock, to my own television show - "Here's Nancy" on our local station, and to a new, very "show biz" husband.

       I had been itching to break out of the housewife mold and get going on a career for ages. The opportunity presented itself when there was an opening on the staff of the Muskegon Chronicle, our city's daily. I applied - and on 22 February 1954 I began a career in journalism that continues to this day.

       I was with the Chronicle for 10 years. When I left, it was long after James and I were divorced and I had become Mrs. Paul William SCHULZE.

       Paul was Mr. Music Man in Muskegon. Whenever there was a production of any kind, Paul was called on to direct it.

       Paul was a music and drama major. (Iowa State College, Bachelor's, and Northwestern University, Chicago, Master's) He was director of all Muskegon Civic Opera productions and many Port City Playhouse presentations and of the several "Miss" pageants in Michigan - Miss Muskegon, Miss Holland, Miss Detroit, Miss Bay City - and the topper of them all, Miss Michigan, which is held in Muskegon each year.

       Paul and I were married on 7 December 1963 at Holton, a small town near Muskegon. Paul taught music and drama at Holton High School. (Coincidentally, the musical he was directing at the time we started dating was "The Music Man.")

       With our many mutual interests, Paul and I got along famously and had a beautiful nine years together. The fact that he was 13 years older than I, didn't matter a bit - or so we thought. Paul also had a background in public relations and I left the Chronicle so we could go into business together as Tempo Enterprises, a PR firm mainly interested in turning out publications for local businesses and institutions. But I also kept up with my newspapering by becoming a news and feature writer for the Sunday Grand Rapids Press and its Wonderland magazine section. Paul, a superb photographer with his own darkroom, provided the art for my features and we were a marvelous team.

       We had such a good time, Paul and I, in our few years together. He had been previously married and had two children and grandchildren and I had my children and grandchildren and we could enjoy life, just the two of us, without to much in the way of worry. We traveled a lot, like to the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City and to various state "Miss" pageants as judges.

       And then we took up rockhounding, and that led us into trailering. We ended up in a luxurious Airstream that took us north, south, east and west (even up to the wilds of Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territory) in our quest for thundereggs, petrified wood, copper, fossils, fossils, fossils, and everything else a geologist, paleontologist and gemologist treasures.

       We collected tons. We were stockpiling against the day when Paul would retire from teaching and we would go into the business of selling at gem and mineral shows throughout the United States.

       But that day never came. Paul went into the hospital on our ninth anniversary, 7 December 1972, with a ruptured aneurism and died 72 days later. People asked me what he died of and I told them, "72 days in the hospital."

       Paul was 63 years, 8 months and 23 days old. when he died at Blodgett Memorial Hospital in Grand Rapids on 17 February 1973. He was buried next to his first wife Mary at Mona View Cemetery in Muskegon Heights.

       For me, life was done. Kaput. Over. That was the end of Tempo Enterprises, rockhounding, the Airstream - everything I so dearly loved: For the next five years I just potted around Muskegon at loose ends. I kept writing for the Press but it was not the same without a built-in photographer. I made a feeble attempt to have a rock shop - The Rox Box, but it went nowhere. I got a temporary job as bailiff in Muskegon County Circuit Court, and even ran one year for Muskegon County commissioner. But it was all meaningless.

       In 1978, daughter Barbara, who was then unattached and "at liberty," came to live with me and put the idea in my mind to go to California. I had always wanted to - ever since my star-struck days - and had never made it. Paul and I had gotten to Nevada but never California. I had endured some 50 northern winters and found nothing to like about them at all.

       "Let's go to California," Barbara said - and we did. And here I am and here I've been for 8 1/2 years as Nancy Hanks Ewing again, and I love it! I love Del Mar and the ocean and the beach and my job on the staff of the Del Mar Surfcomber and my column Del Mar Potpourri and my lovely little pad with its 180 degree back-country view and the people (most of all the people) and my work in following through on what A.E. started over 100 years ago - getting all you Ewings together under one book cover.


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18-9-2-1-3    BURKE MC KENDREE EWING JR.

 

Ewing Family Lineage:   Burke-Alvin-Henry-Enoch-William-James


       He is Burke McKendree Ewing Jr. He goes by Burke now - has since college - but before that he was Mac and that's all I know him by. When I call his home and his wife Susan answers and I ask for Mac, she doesn't know who I am talking about. I'll call him Mac here to disconfuse him with his father.

       Mac was born 29 May 1925 at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. He and I were less than three years apart and we were great pals when we were kids. We both loved to explore and when we moved into a new neighborhood (every year - on his birthday!) the first thing the two of us did was set out to look it over, get the feel of the territory. We both also loved to play-act and when we were at the Wilderness we were Daniel Boone or pirates or soldiers or whatever the moment called for on our sandy, hilly, forested stage.

       Mac was the only one of the four of us who did not graduate from Empehi. He went three years there but in his senior year the folks moved to Muskegon and Mac attended Muskegon High. Before he had completed his last year, Burke and Marjorie moved to Barberton, Ohio. Mac wanted to graduate at MHS, so he stayed with me, by then married and a mother, until he did. That was in June of 1942.

       I did not see much of Mac after that for many years. Soon after graduation, he went into service (Navy, of course) and was stationed in the Aleutian Islands, so he did not get home much. After that he was off to college. He chose Arizona State College at Tempe and quickly became part of the Great West, moving on finally to the Greatest West, California. He made only two or three visits back to Michigan in all the years after that and it was not until I moved to California myself, within 6 miles of him, that I began to know Mac again.

       At Arizona State, Mac met Susan MILLER, a native of, oddly enough, New London, Connecticut. Susan was born 2 June 1924. They were married in Nogales, Arizona, soon after their gradation, on 7 April 1950. Susan had no family. She was an orphan and had been raised by her grandmother. Her degree from Arizona was in sociology. She went on to get her Master's in Psychology from there and then to do some graduate work at the University of California at San Diego, in preparation for the law degree she finally received from Cabrillo Pacific University College of Law in San Diego in 1970. Mac's degree was in business administration.

       Mac and Susan moved to La Jolla, a community within the confines of the City of San Diego and bought a house at 8566 Sugarman Drive. They paid something like $27,000 for it. That was in 1960. Today, 27 years later, similar houses in the neighborhood are going for $270.000. Can you believe it? That's California!

       Mac and Susan also lived in the Santa Ana and Tustin areas. Disneyland was second home when the kids were little. Mac was in insurance at first but now he and Susan are in real estate. They live a quiet life. Just the two of them.



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