September Anniversaries in the Family Tree

 

When September finds the aster...

September

Bell family ancestors

24th - James Stanley Bell & Violet Jennivee McGrath married 1938

26th - Mary "Hiley" Ann (Decker) Spann born 1836 

McGrath family ancestors

15th - John Negley & Ruth Foster married 1836

19th - Violet Jennivee (McGrath) Bell born 1917 

28th - Sadie Ellen (Negley) McGrath died 1958, age 78 

Menke family ancestors

2nd - William Harlow Roscoe died 1947, age 88

4th - Caroline (Schukky) Knapp died 1895, age 81

16th - Charles Albert Menke died 1965, age 78 

17th - Caroline Magrethe (Peterson) Jorgenson died 1910, age 63 

20th - Henry Menke died 1915, age 82

20th - Charlotte Isabelle (Roscoe) Menke born 1887 

29th - Ole Jorgenson died 1908, age 71

Mann family ancestors

3rd - Henrietta Abigail (Smith) Gaisford born 1848 

14th - William Mann & Nancy Jane Climie married 1861 

18th - Doris Darle (Mann) Menke died 2017, age 97

Mattingly family ancestors

Boone family ancestors

 1st - Elizabeth (Nally) Ballard born 1785

28th - Mary Frances Charlotte "Lottie" Boone died 1962, age 84 

Tunk Spalding family ancestors

7th - Richard Augustine Spalding died 1850, age 73

15th - Martha Nancy (Mills) Abell born 1798 

22nd - Marcus Thomas Spalding born 1886 

Hutt Spalding family ancestors

Richard Augustine Spalding is the common ancestor of the "Tunk" and "Hutt" Spalding lines.

Josiah Foster Negley

Josiah was born December 7, 1846 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania.  He is my connection to the Foster family.   In one of my first few posts, The Book that got me Hooked, I explained that a book found in the old trunk in the attic got me started on all of this. Josiah's parents were John and Ruth Foster, Ruth's parents were the focus of "The History of the Foster Family", by D. I. Foster. 

John and Ruth were married September 15, 1836 in Bedford County.  Their children were: 

1. David (1837-1917)
2. George (1839- ? )  died before 1850
3. Susanna (1841-1922)
4. Amon (1842- ? )  died before 1850
5. Catherine  (1843-1870) 
6. Josiah Foster  (1846-1922)
7. John Calvin  (1850-1916)

David married Mary Goodman and Catherine married Charles Dorman in Pennsylvania before they all moved to Illinois.  Susannah married William Kelley in 1870 in Illinois. Josiah married Sarah Lee and John Calvin married Mary Fisher both in 1871 in Bureau County, Illinois.  Sometime between 1871 and 1880, all of the family moved to Decatur County, Iowa where the parents lived the rest of their lives.  John Foster died at age 76 in 1884 and Ruth died in 1895 at age 87.   By 1887 Josiah and Sarah moved on to Clay County, Nebraska where Sarah's brother George Lee had moved to in 1878.  

Eldorado was home to Josiah and Sarah from then on.  Three of their children lived with them into their adult years.  I've heard that the Negleys' front porch was lined with chairs. Here is a great photo of the "town" of Eldorado, about 1910-1915.  You can see the church on the left and the school on the right.  I don't know where the Negley & Miller Station would be from this view, a question to have answered someday.  The writing says "Watching a horse race", with a magnifying glass you can see them at the other end of the road.

Josiah must have suffered a stroke about 1914.  Strokes are very common in this line of the family.  A distant cousin, Clarence Neff, sent me photocopies of a letter that Josiah had sent to his father written on October 3, 1920.  On the top of the first page, written up-side-down is this note: 

"Excuse the bad writing and mistakes as my right side and arm have been partly paralyzed for over 6 years and I am over 74 years of age.  Best wishes to you all, very truly J. F. Negley." 

Josiah was a farmer his entire life.  He served as Justice of the Peace in Eldorado from 1912 until his death in 1922, and then Sarah held that position until 1925, maybe completing his term.  In Eldorado that would not have been a full-time job.  He died on April 15 at age 75.

"Obituary - Josiah F. Negley

Josiah F. Negley, the son of John and Ruth Negley, was born in Bedford Co., Pa., December 7th, 1846 and died at his home in Eldorado, Nebr., April 15, 1922, aged 75 years 4 months and 8 days.

At the age of sixteen he moved with his parents to Bureau Co., IL, where on March 5, 1871 he was married to Sarah M. Lee.  To this union six children were born:  George, Newton, William, Calvin, Alice and Mrs. Sadie McGrath.  Newton died August 8, 1887.  The others with their mother survive him.

Mr. Negley was member of the Church of God of Eldorado and ever tried to walk in the paths of right.  He was a kind husband and father and a true neighbor.

The funeral was held from the Methodist Episcopal church in Eldorado, Monday, April 17.  Rev. B. N. Kunkel in charge.  Interment was made in the Harvard Cemetery."  

The Book that got me Hooked

June, 1991   Grandma Bell died the week of my wedding.

As Forrest Gump says, "That's all I have to say about that".

My mom and her sister were in charge of cleaning out Grandma's houses - she had 2, one at the farm in southern Hamilton County, Nebraska, one in Aurora.  The house in town was the end of the line of at least 3 generations of the family.  Grandma lived there with her brother Virg McGRATH until his death (1982).  Virg never married and had lived with his parents, Art & Sadie McGRATH until their deaths.  Sadie's parents were Josiah & Sarah NEGLEY, and she had 2 unmarried brothers, William and Cal and one unmarried sister, Alice.  Whatever possessions weren't disposed of at their deaths ended up at Grandma's house.  So there was a lot of stuff in "the old trunk in the attic" (to tell the truth, it was the basement), and with some things, it wasn't clear exactly who the original owner was.

One of the things they found was a book, "The History of the Foster Family", written by D. I. FOSTER in about 1902.  This book can be found online now transcribed in its entirety.  I took the book, made a photocopy, and went through it, made a simple Word document charting out the family members, including all the information he had on each person.  This project grew to include all the descendants of Ruth FOSTER, who is my 3rd great grandma, and then my entire family tree.  Ruth FOSTER married John NEGLEY, their son Josiah Foster NEGLEY and Sarah LEE are the parents of Sadie (NEGLEY) McGRATH.  This document was replaced by family tree software before long.

The book names Arthur FOSTER as father of Basil, but through other researchers, I learned it was Thomas FOSTER and Sarah CROSS who were Basil's parents.  I have him listed as "Arthur or Thomas" in my software, and it is that way in my Rootsweb World Connect Tree.  I see several trees with "Arthur Thomas" and I wonder where they got that.

Arthur or Thomas Foster & family moved from Myrickville, Massachusetts to Prince George's County, Maryland  about 1760.  In the spring of 1778, his son Basil FOSTER was among a group of settlers who moved north to the Woodcock Valley near where Saxton, Pennsylvania is now.  Indian raids sent some of the group back to Maryland for about 7 years, then in 1787, they returned to their fort at the mouth of Shoup's Run.

Basil FOSTER's son Richard Lewis FOSTER married Charity JOHNSTONE in 1793.  This book details the families of their 10 children:  Wealthy, Sarah, Ephriam, Eli, Richard, Lewis, Thomas, Ruth, Josiah and Septimus.

So I think I felt like George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life!".  I knew what I wanted to do.  I wanted to build my family tree.  I wanted to travel to the places my family came from.  I wanted to learn about their experiences.  I wish my daughter and nieces & nephew could have known my Grandparents.  I think maybe my Grandparents felt the same way about me and their Grandparents.

Tell me about the book you found in the old trunk in the attic that got you hooked.