Tombstone Tuesday - CCR

Cleveland Crosby Roscoe was born April 30, 1885 in Saline County, Nebraska.  He was the oldest son of William and Lena Roscoe. 

From what I've been told about Cleve, his wife was Josephine and they didn't have any children.  I'm finding some other things that are interesting - in the 1930 census record Cleve's age at his first marriage was 22, but in 1920 he was single (he was 35).  At familysearch.org I found a marriage record for a "C C Roscoe", son of William, married to Anna Cardst or Cordot on November 23, 1909 in Council Bluffs, Iowa (he was 24).  I haven't been able to find him in the 1910 census.  But I have found a marriage record in Jackson County, Missouri for Cleve Roscoe and Josephine Cox on June 3, 1921. 

During WWI he served in France.  In 1920 he was stationed at Camp Stanley in Bexar, Texas.  He worked for the Kansas City Police Department and was a special agent for the Wabash Railroad.  He lived in Kansas City for about 20 years, then moved back to Nebraska.

Cleve was involved in a traffic accident on June 16, 1961 at the intersection of Highways 77 and 33 south of Lincoln.  On June 28 he died from his injuries.  He was preceded in death by his wife and 5 brothers, survived by 2 sisters and "a number of nieces and nephews".   He was 76 years old and is buried in the Lincoln Memorial Park in Lincoln, Nebraska.

William & Nancy Mann - Immigrants to America

This is William Mann, but I'm not sure which of his two wives this is.  He was first married to Nancy Clemie on September 14, 1861.  She died in 1894 and on March 6, 1896 he married Mary Armstrong.  This may be their "wedding" photo.  Where he married either woman is still an ancient Chinese secret to me. 

William was born somewhere in England on February 12, 1830.  The huge old trunk in the cyber attic lists him as an early settler in Princeville Township in Peoria County, Illinois, arriving in 1854.  He is also given credit for being a founding member of the White's Grove Baptist Church and having dug the well for the White's Grove School in 1880.  He immigrated in 1852 and if I have learned correctly, in the 1900 census under the "Naturalized" column there is a "Pa", which meant that he had filed his first papers for declaration of intent to become a US Citizen.  

Searches for "William Mann" come up with an astounding number of hits that would take hours to look through.  Because I don't have hours to look, I haven't been very successful finding this particular Mann, which is disappointing.  It makes me act a lot like little Susan Walker in "Miracle on 34th Street", even though there were packages under the tree for me, disappointed that I didn't see the package that I wanted.  I need to remember her mantra - "I believe.  I believe.  It's silly, but I believe."  Positive thinking will help me get through those hundreds of hits and find where in England this William Mann is from.

Nancy had been married before she married William.  Her first husband was John O'Brien and they had a daughter named Nancy Jane who was barely a year old when her father died.  A descendant of Nancy Jane's told me that she didn't know about her real father until just before she was married. 

Thomas Clemie from Scotland, and Mary Jane Hull from Ireland were Nancy's parents. She was born in Upper Canada, which was a British Colony in 1838.  Thomas died when Nancy was about 2, so both she and her daughter lost their fathers at a very young age.  Mary Jane remarried to Edward Jones and had 4 girls - Mary, Jane, Margaret and Jenette. Nancy originally was a nickname for Mary.  I don't know at what point in history it became a name on its own.  Why do I get the idea that Mary Jane Hull's mother's name may have been Mary - or Jane - or both?  The Jones family, with Clemie children Andrew, Robert and Nancy, lived in Van Buren County, Iowa in 1850.  Mary Jane died there May 29, 1854, she was only 37 years old. 

William and Nancy had 11 children together: 

• Ada Belle married (1) Alex Johnson and (2) Sherman Armstrong 
• Corrine 
• Lafayette
• William B married Eliza Carre
• Stephen A 
• Horace M married Lulu Wadley
• Oscar Marvin married Ida Belle Berkey
• Carrie
• Effa married William Camp
• Clarence married Cora Gaisford - my Great Grandparents
• Elsie

Nancy died at age 55 on February 11, 1894, that was the day before William's birthday. Her obituary mistakenly says she was survived by one son, not the four it should have said. William was 75 when he died on August 29, 1905.  

   

A Mann family trait that looks like it comes from William with his white beard in that photo, is snow white colored hair.  It's pretty really, but no one wants theirs to turn white at too young an age.

My original goal when I started doing this research, was to find out what country each line of my family immigrated from.  In this line I have succeeded.  These people were from England, Canada, Ireland and Scotland.  International research is something I've been putting off until I have the time to focus on it - like when I retire.  More and more records are becoming available online, I should go ahead and give it a try.  I believe.  I believe.

Sibling Saturday - Henry Menke Jr

Several of my direct ancestors' siblings never married or some did but didn't have children.  They have no direct descendants.  I want to give them their 15 minutes here once in a while on Sibling Saturdays.  

First Henry Menke Jr. Actually he was a half brother to my Great Grandfather Charles Albert Menke.  Henry's mother died near Portsmouth, Ohio when he was about 4.  I knew that Henry became a preacher, but I didn't know where he had gone after 1880 when he was 18 and still living in Clatonia.  

I thank Ancestry for having the Portsmouth Daily Times included in their newspaper database.  I also curse Ancestry for not having that database accessible through the Library Edition.  I’m not a subscriber, just a registered user at Ancestry.  Searching that database at home for the name MENKE gave me a few hits, but all I could see was a few lines of text and the date.  The date!  

The Portsmouth Public library, for a reasonable fee, was kind enough to send me the articles I was able to request because I had the date.  That’s how I found out what happened to Henry Menke, Jr.  (His brother, John Frederick, also had his name in the paper often and I also got a few articles about him!)

Learning that he died in Cassopolis, Michigan, I contacted the Cass District Library.  They sent me his obituary and 2 clippings from 3 different newspapers.  They also sent me a copy of the death register listing and small copy of a photo of the Presbyterian Church in Cassopolis.  Kudos to the people at the Cass District Library in Cassopolis! 

From the Cassopolis Vigilant, Sept. 5, 1912:  "He had been pastor of the Presbyterian church here for more than a year past, and was highly esteemed, not only by the members of his congregation but by the public generally for his scholarly attainments and earnest Christian character."

Census records show him in Carter County, Missouri in 1900 and Cherokee County, Iowa in 1910.  Has anyone else noticed that the celebrities on "Who Do You Think You Are?" all seem to follow the same script?  I mean every one of them says "I've learned that my X Great...", and "I'm curious to know..." and "I want to find out..." and "I'm hoping to...".  Of course the details change.  Well, here I go.  I'm curious to know where Henry went to school or seminary.  I want to find out where all he preached.  I'm hoping to score a photo of him! 

Henry never married.  He died unexpectedly September 2, 1912 at age 50 in his room in the Hotel Goodwin.  Official cause of death was peritonitis from gall bladder infection. Some time before that he had had surgery in the Presbyterian hospital in Chicago for appendicitis.  He had lived in Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa and Michigan.  A preacher, not real estate novelist, who never had time for a wife --- (freely stolen from Billy Joel's Piano Man if it sounds familiar.)