Sibling Saturday - William B. Mann

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. 

William B. Mann was the brother of my Great Grandfather Clarence Mann.  

William B. and his wife Eliza are buried in the Evergreen Home Cemetery in Beatrice. This is their plot, but they have no markers.  They had no children.  On April 7, 1892, they were married in Gage County.  He died at age 58 in Goodland, Kansas April 27, 1927.   She lived to be 80 and died in Beloit, Kansas January 8, 1946.  

Beatrice Daily Sun, January 28, 1946

Beatrice Daily Sun, April 30, 1927

  

EDIT 10/30/14 - I'm glad to say I'm wrong about their not having any markers in the cemetery.  Photos of them have been posted on their findagrave memorials.  I must have been in the wrong section or grass has grown over them, but they are there.

Tombstone Tuesday - Mann Family Plot

These need to be fixed.  They are the gravestones of my Great Great Grandparents William and Nancy Mann and their son Lafayette.  At least they fell name-side-up.  I wonder what might be on the other side.  They are all in the Kilpatrick Cemetery, also known as the Friendship Cemetery, just south of Plymouth, Nebraska.  I took this photo in 2005.  The first step is to get an estimate.  

UPDATE: June 4, 2018 - I'm late in updating this, but these grave stones have been uprighted!  I told my Dad, who told his cousins, some of whom happen to have a concrete construction business and in early 2017 they were fixed. Now the graves are being taken care of by family.  

John McGrath - Luck of the Irish

John McGrath died the day the Titanic hit the iceberg, April 14, 1912.  He wasn't on it. It's just interesting to note things like that.  He had been in the US for at least 55 years. Before he married Rachel Simmons in 1858, I have no record of John, but he may have been somewhere in New York.  Where they got married is a mystery.  Just like in a movie, I think they must have been married by a circuit preacher or wagon train master. 

His birth year varies on records from 1821 to 1841, but the family notes I found in the old trunk in the attic had his birth date as June 24, 1831, born in Ireland.  In the 1860, 1870 and 1880 censuses his birth year figures to be about 1830 and his birth place is always Ireland.  But by 1900 those stats start to change a little.  On the 1897 marriage affidavit he gives his age as 56, born in Ireland.  He was marrying a 51 year old woman, I can understand him not admitting to the age of 67.  In the 1900 census his age is 64 not 69, born in New York.  His death certificate has his age "85 yrs or there about" (81 by my math) and birth place Ireland, his son-in-law Levi Patterson provided the information. The grave stone has his birth year as 1821 which would make him 91 at his death. Incorrect information, plus the look of the grave stone, just makes me think that it was placed several years later. 

Not being able to get a marriage record, I thought I would try for some birth records of their children.  His son, Art, was born in Henry, Illinois in October of 1876.  Birth certificates were not filed in Marshall County that early.  So hoping to find a birth announcement (with no luck), I searched the Henry Republican newspaper and just happened to find this newsy paragraph from May 18, 1876. That last sentence makes me think John was a little annoyed. But this little clipping tells me that he owned land in Illinois, I'd like to find out more about that.

On a beautiful sunny September Friday in 2005, I took a rare family history vacation day and drove from Grand Island to Broken Bow on Scenic Highway 2.  It's a beautiful drive up into the Sandhills, I love it up there.  I went in to the County Clerk's office and asked to look at land records to find out if John McGrath was a homesteader.  The Clerk showed me to the dusty old books and helped me get started and soon I found the McGrath name. The Clerk gave me this plat mat and marked where the land is.   He also tried to tell me how to get there coming in from the north, but I just wasn't sure how I would really know it if I saw it.  I grew up on country roads in a very flat part of Nebraska where the roads are all laid out on a square grid.  The roads in the Sandhills don't have intersections every mile.  I sat in my car debating whether or not to take the drive.  Time wasn't a problem, and it was such a gorgeous day it would be a nice drive anyway.  Then I noticed the line that ran through the part he marked (I marked the line I'm talking about with two red marks).

 A horizontal line with like a T every so often.  It went all the way over to the road south of Oconto.  The idea came to me that maybe that line meant a railroad, so I went back into the Clerk's office and asked him. He said, "No...(major disappointment) but I think it's an overhead power line."  With a huge smile, I thanked him and set out on my road trip!  I decided to go south of Oconto and then west, the dark blue line I have marked.  Following the curves in the road to the point of his mark, and with the power lines overhead there, I was sure I had found John McGrath's homesteaded land - at least a part of it.  I stopped my car on the road and took pictures.  Normally, I would have liked not to have those power lines in the photo, but I was glad to see them that day.  Climbing over the fence and walking around did occur to me, but I was by myself and didn't know what to do with my car.  There was no where to hide it.

So I sent to the Bureau of Land Management for his Homestead claim documents.  The claim was filed in North Platte on October 12, 1888 for the East half of the Southwest quarter and lots numbered 3 and 4 of Section 18 in Township 13 North of Range 23 West of the Sixth principal meridian in Nebraska containing 151 acres and eighty-three hundredths of an acre.  He built a 20 x 22 sod house, sod stable, grainery, chicken coop, well, windmill and pump, cellar and corral.  My Mom has a photo of the Homestead taken by Solomon D Butcher, which can also be found through the LIbrary of Congress, American Memory project here.  

In this "Testimony of Claimant" form, John states he was born in New York, not Ireland as in the early census records.  He established actual residence on that property in March, 1888 with "myself, wife & boy", that would be Rachel and Art.  Question #9 is "What is the character of the land?  Is it timber, mountainous, prairie, grazing or ordinary agricultural land?  State its kind and quality, and for what purpose it is most valuable"  The written answer is "Rolling farming & grazing land & very poor at that". Now I can tell from John's signature at the bottom of the page, that someone else wrote these answers.  For some reason, I can just hear a grumpy old man telling whoever was writing it to "make sure you put that in there!"  This is his signature.

Two other men filed "Testimony of Witness" forms, Alonzo Patterson and Henry Brown. Both men answered "yes" to "Have claimant and family resided continuously on the homestead since first establishing residence thereon".  These are dated April 27, 1895. But when Rachel died in June 1896, they were residing on the "Brown & Hughes farm east of town".  Maybe they moved closer to Cozad when Rachel became ill to be closer to a doctor. The Brown of "Brown & Hughes" could be Henry Brown.  John sold the land in 1909.

I have never found an obituary for John, but I have his will.  Dated March 25, 1912, he left $1.00 to each of his 3 children and "the rest of his property of every kind and description" to his grand daughter Nellie Patterson.  Actually Nellie Patterson was a grand daughter-in-law, but I think there were 2 Nellie Patterson's and I'm not sure which one he meant.  He made no mention of his wife, Susan, she had not been living with him for seven years. But she did attempt to get her portion of his estate.  Art requested reimbursement for some medical expenses in the amount of $211.50, which seems to have been denied.  The funeral expenses totaled $69.00 for a casket, burial robe and use of a hearse.  The funeral expenses were paid, Susan got $200, the Executor's fees were $85 and Nellie Patterson received $318.25 and a promissory note for $50 payable to her.  Whether his children received their $1.00 it doesn't say. 

After finding out about his second marriage from the Will documents, I got this copy of the marriage record from Custer County.  It has John's parents as Arthur (his son's name) and "R McCarty".  Knowing his firstborn daughter's name was Mary Rebecca, I ventured a guess that the R stands for the name Rebecca.  I entered her name in my software as "R (Rebecca?)", and it's in my Rootsweb World Connect Tree that way. It's even noted that I am assuming that's her name.  I have seen a few trees in Ancestry that have her name as "R Rebecca".   

With the story about the wolves, the remark about the land being very poor and the fact that he gave his children $1 in his will, I get the impression that John McGrath could gripe about it all right along with the Walter Matthau & Jack Lemmon characters from "Grumpy Old Men".  Not as mean as the "warped, frustrated, old man" Henry F. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life!", but a guy with a pessimistic attitude.  That attitude may have made its genetic way down to me, my first reaction is most often negative.  But give me a minute to think and I might see things better.  John may not have had the best of luck in his life, but at least he didn't come over on the Titanic. 

The Wrong Man, directed by me, not Hitchcock

It was just like the Hitchcock thriller, a case of mistaken identity.  The wrong man was sent to prison (until I checked the records further).  

For a while, I thought I had found my Great-Great Grandfather John McGrath in the 1910 Census in Columbus, Platte County, Nebraska.  On the "Name of Institution" line, it says "City Jail 27 to 32 incl".  John McGrath is listed on line 27.  His age was 67, a little young. He was widowed which was not exactly correct but his second wife had left him, maybe he just answered the question that way.  Born in Pennsylvania, listed as a Hobo.  I would not be surprised if he was a hobo and it is definitely possible to jump on an eastbound train in Cozad and end up in Columbus.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Columbus Ward 2, Platte,Nebraska; Roll: T624_853; Page: 25A; Enumeration District: 0178; FHL microfilm: 1374866.

Through the Chronicling America website, I found a newspaper article from the Columbus Journal about a stabbing (just a wound) and another article which said McGrath pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year in the penitentiary.  At the Nebraska State Historical Society Library I was able to find the prison record which was difficult to read but looks like it says this guy had children Thomas and Joseph living in Sidney, Australia (looks like Austria).  Unless he lied about those children, this clears MY John McGrath as the criminal. 

This John McGrath was born in Pennsylvania, he was Catholic, age 67, widower, a miner, 5 ft 1/4 in, 109 lbs, with gray hair.  There's more to the physical description, but it's very hard to read.  I have copies for anyone who is related.  

Friday's Faces from the Past - 3 Generations

 Rachel, John & son Art McGrath, 1892

 Art McGrath, 1963

Orville & Virgil McGrath, sons of Art, 1962

Neither Orville nor Virg had children.  They end this McGrath line.

75 Years Ago...

On Saturday, September 24, 1938, Stan Bell and Violet McGrath, my Grandparents, were married in Central City, Nebraska.  They had 32 years together, 21 years departed by death, and it's been 22 years now that they've been together again.  

This is assumed to be their "wedding" photo.  I don't know how long of an engagement they had, but it's about a 45 minute drive from Giltner or Aurora, where they each lived, up to Central City - in the next county north.  Grandma had just turned 21 on the 19th, maybe that was when he asked her.

 

County Judge, R. E. McCutchen signed the license - on a Saturday.  Thomas A. Barton, Presbyterian Minister performed the ceremony the same day.  Witnesses were Grandma's sister Mrs. Gordon (Alice) Cruff and Mrs. Thomas A. Barton. 

Looking for an announcement of their marriage in the paper, I didn't find one, but I found this paragraph about a dinner at his parents.  This was in the Aurora newspaper on September 30, was it referring to Sunday the 25th?  Why is it Violet McGrath and not Bell? Or was this dinner the week before on September 18?   Was there an announcement made there that day?   Maybe the "news" reporter just got Violet Bell's name wrong.  You can't believe everything you read in the newspapers.

Wordless Wednesday - Homestead

2005 photo I took of the land I believe was once Homesteaded by John McGrath.