A Dog and Pony Show

     I came across this while searching for a very old newspaper article at Newspaper Archive (newspaperarchive.com).

     This ad appeared in The (Freeport, Illinois) Daily Journal of 2 July 1898.  I'm familiar with the metaphorical use of the phrase "dog and pony show,"  and here is the real thing.

     As it turns out, the Gentry brothers' show was one of the largest and most well-known of its time.  In the late 1800's, the show featured 40 ponies and 80 dogs in two units which travelled from its home base in Bloomington, Indiana, throughout the midwest.  At its peak in the early 1900's, the show became a true circus, with elephants and camels and traveled as far as Mexico. 

     During the 1930's the Gentrys added trained pigs and a high-diving monkey, but was forced out of business by financial setbacks in about 1934.

Sources:
Indiana Public Media, The Trustees of Indiana University, 2011
http://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/gentry-brothers-circus/
Circus News.com
http://circusnews.com/?p=1113

T: Tuesday and Travel

Last Saturday, Randy Seaver of geneamusings.com challenged his readers to list their 16 great-great-grandparents with their birth, death and marriage data as a way of reminding ourselves where they all came from.

Here's my list:

1. Unknown (Father's father's father's father)  
2. Unknown (Father's father's father's mother)
3. Unknown (Father's father's mother's father)
4. Unknown (Father's father's mother's mother)
5. Jacob Bertalot, b. 1823 in Dornholzhausen, Germany; d. before 1917 in Stephenson Co., IL. Married Elizabeth Koch (Cook) in about 1854.
6. Elizabeth Koch (Cook), b. 1830 in Germany; d. 1917 in Stephenson County, IL
7. Silas W. Ingalls, b. about 1822 in NY; d. Unknown.  Married Helen Ingalls date Unknown.
8. Helen Ingalls, b. about 1832 in PA; d. Unknown
9. Jacob Armagost, b. 1811 in PA; d. 1884 in Stephenson County, IL.    Married Roseanna Miller 1831.
10. Roseanna Miller, b. 1812 in PA; d. 1900 in Stephenson County, IL.
11. Samuel Stine, b. 1818 in MD; d. 1891 in Jo Daviess County, IL. Married Esther Ann Walter in 1847. 
12. Esther Ann Walter, b. 1807 in PA; d. 1888 in Stephenson County, IL.
13. Johann Heinrich Henke, b. 1796 in Prussia (Germany), d. Unknown.  Married Unknown
14. Unknown
15. Henry Hofmeister, b. about 1807 in Germany, d. Unknown (in IL).  Married Anna Hofmeister, date Unknown.
16. Anna Hofmeister (Maiden name unknown), b. about 1820 in Germany, d. Unknown (in IL).

Here's my husband's list:

1. Unknown
2. Unknown
3. Thomas Connor, b. about 1841 in Ireland, d. Unknown.  Married Margaret Burke, date unknown.
4. Margaret Burke, b. about 1847 in Ireland.
5. Unknown
6. Unknown
7. Unknown
8. Unknown
9. William Godfrey Schuchardt, b. 1836 in Muhlhausen, Germany, d. 1904 in St. Louis, MO.  Married Ann Mary Rufle (Ruffle) in 1859.
10. Ann Mary Rufle (Ruffle), b. 1836 in MO, d. 1913 in St. Louis, MO.
11. Joseph I. June, b. 1837 in Franklin County, IN, d. 1872 in St. Louis, MO.  Married Theresa Schnitzler date unknown.
12. Theresa Schnitzler, b. 1838 in Switzerland, d. 1911 in St. Louis, MO.
13. Gilbert M. Sproull, b. 1812 in Orange County, NY, d. 1876 in St. Louis, MO.  Married Jane Y. Young date unknown.
14. Jane Y. Young, b. about 1814 in PA, d. 1892 in St. Louis, MO.
15. John Gardner, b. Date Unknown in IL, d. Unknown.  Married Mary (maiden name unknown).
16. Mary (maiden name unknown), b. Date Unknown in IL, d. Unknown

All these ancestors from Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Indiana and Illinois, who moved on and may or may not have been able to maintain contact with "home".

And this puts into perspective the news that my youngest son will very soon be moving  from his home in St. Louis to Phoenix, Arizona for his first teaching job.  And reminding myself that, unlike those folks listed above, we have cell phones, Facebook, airplanes, etc. to stay in touch.  I keep reminding myself...

T: Thursday, Traveling and Tombstones; F: Friday, Fathers and Finding

On a late March day, which is spring in St. Louis, we traveled north (but still within the City limits) to Calvary Cemetery in search of Frederick (my husband's father's people) and Sproull (his mother's people) ancestors.

We had been to Calvary the preceding fall, on a cold and damp day just after a period of heavy rains.  Armed with a downloaded map and the section numbers of the Frederick and Sproull plots (see the helpful website of The Archdiocese of St. Louis Catholic Cemeteries at: http://archstl.org/cemeteries/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,87/), we thought we would just wander through the designated sections until we found great-grandparents and great-aunts and -uncles.

Above is a map of the 477-acre cemetery where at least 300,000 individuals are interred.  Below is a map of just one of the sections, number 26, where the Fredericks were to be found.  There are hundreds of plots in each section, and can be several graves within each plot.  

This is why we came back in the spring, on a warm and sunny day when the very helpful staff of the cemetery's office was available to give us detailed directions.

Not only could we get directions, we were able to have a copy of the record containing the name of the lot owner, date of purchase and a list of each grave site within the plot, with date and type of burial.

Above is a copy of the burial information we found for my husband's great-grandfather, Frank Frederick, who died on 23 January 1938 and was buried on January 27.  He rests near his wife, Mary Connor Frederick, who died on 29 November 1937, and was originally buried in another section of the cemetery, then moved into the family plot on 25 February 1938.  Also moved from his original resting place was their son Joseph E. Frederick (1896-1928).

The plot also contains the ashes of another son, Harry Edward Frederick (1899-1970) and the remains of a daughter, May C. Frederick McDonough (1901-1993) and her husband Thomas P. McDonough (1901-1988).

Unfortunately, none of these graves is marked.  There were, though, some tiny white wildflowers blooming there that day:

 
We were excited (if one can use that word in a cemetery) to find that the Sproull grave sites are marked:

Above is the marker of Mary A. Gardner Sproull (1867-1917), my husband's great grandmother, whose grave was also moved to this spot.  Near her are her son, Roy John Sproull (1900-1931), her son Leo G. Sproull (1904-1986) and a grandson John Edward Burke (1917-1989).

Many more Frederick and Sproull relatives are buried in Calvary and the equally huge Bellefontaine Cemetery next to it, all waiting for a visit on a future date. 

W: Wednesday, "Wow, I didn't expect a history lesson!", Welfare

I hated studying history in high school and college (with the exception of a college course in ancient Greek history, which was taught by an inspiring professor). So, I was surprised by the interest in history that I have developed while learning about my ancestors. I think the difference is that what I'm learning now is directly related to someone's day to day life. I haven't much cared what generals and senators were up to, but I care very much what everyday life was like for the people who came before me and lived in the places where I have lived.

The photo above is my grandmother Mae Cynthia Bertalot Smith Lloyd (1884-1952) and her six sons (one of whom is my father) and one daughter. Family tradition was that this photo was taken (probably in 1916) just after the death of her husband Fred H. Smith. Left with seven children ranging in age from 8 to infancy, she was faced with the real possibility that she would be unable to support them, and the alternative was to place them with other families or see them removed to an orphanage. So she had this photo taken.

Fortunately, around this same time, American society had begun to recognize its role in protecting and preserving families.

"In 1911 Illinois and Missouri became the first states to enact mother's pension laws. Advocates argued that children deprived of a male breadwinner should not also be deprived of a “normal home life.” Mothers' pensions offered cash payments so that children could remain in their own homes in the case of a father's death, desertion, or imprisonment... By 1921, 40 states had programs similar to Illinois', and by 1931 only Georgia and South Carolina had no mothers' pension programs. In 1935, state mothers' pensions were replaced by the Social Security Act's Aid to Dependent Children program (later, Aid to Families with Dependent Children). " Source: "Children and the Law", by Kriste Lindenmeyer, Encyclopedia of Chicago, http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/279.html

Yes, my grandmother was on "welfare".  In June of 1918 she applied to the Stephenson County (Illinois) court for a mother's pension -- that was the procedure in those days -- and began receiving payments of  $50.00 per month. 

In 1920, Mae remarried, and her second husband worked and supported his, her and their children (they added another boy and a girl to the blended family). They probably remained poor by today's standards, but they stayed together, and, according to another family legend, her children remembered her as a loving and caring mother who did what she could with what she had.





Sources:
 Freeport Journal-Standard, June 15, 1918, p. 7.
 The Institution Quarterly, State Board of Administration, State Charities Commission, State Psychopathic Institute (Illinois),  Vol. 4, No. 1 (March 31, 1913), p. 35.

T: Tuesday, "Things I Found While Looking for Something Else", and Tact

While looking for my ancestors in the U.S. Census for the year 1880 in Stephenson County, Illinois, I found out that there was in 1880 a "Schedule of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes" prepared in addition to the regular census schedule.

I made this discovery because one of my ancestors is on this list!

My second great-grandfather, Jacob Bertalot, who was born in Germany in 1823 and arrived in America some time between 1851 and 1854, is on the schedule of Deaf-Mutes with four of his neighbors in Winslow, Illinois. The following information about him was reported:

• He was self-supporting.
• The onset of his deafness occurred at age 50.
• He was not semi-mute, but he was semi-deaf.
• He was never institutionalized.

Also on this page were listed (in addition to the other four deaf persons) one insane person and one idiot (their term, not mine).

Martha Maurer (sp?) was insane, according the the census, as a result of "improper treatment at change of life". She was about 62 years old and had been suffering for 15 years.

Amelia Clemm was an idiot who "when she was one year old was sick" and was given "some medicine or something" and "never knew anything afterward". Her parents had just arrived from Germany about three years before the census, and apparently couldn't convey any clearer picture of the onset of her idiocy.

Wow...I had to know more about this whole process of finding out who the insane and idiots were of the community. The U.S. Census has a splendid website, http://www.census.gov/, but it didn't have any information specifically relating to this Schedule. The website does, however, have a copy of the original instructions given to the census enumerators, and although I didn't find the 1880 Instructions, I did find this from 1870:

"Deaf and dumb, Blind, Insane, or Idiotic.--Great care will be taken in performing this work of the enumeration, so as at once to secure completeness and avoid giving offense...The fact of idiocy will be better determined by the common consent of the neighborhood, than by attempting to apply any scientific measure to the weakness of the mind or will." (Emphasis added)

The enumeration form itself gives additional help to the census-taker and advises that the word "idiot" has a special meaning:

"An idiot is a person the development of whose mental faculties was arrested in infancy or childhood before coming to maturity. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the stupidity which results from idiocy and that which is due to the loss or deterioration of mental power in consequence of insanity. The latter is not true idiocy, but dementia or imbecility. The enumeration desired for the Census is of true idiots only. Demented persons should be classed with the insane." (Emphasis in the original)

That's a lot for a census taker to remember and process. And that may explain why, in Stephenson County, there are so few "insane" and "idiots" reported on the 1880 Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes Schedule.

M: Monday, Mistake and Mother

This Monday post is not only about someone's mother, but also about a mistake made and corrected by a helpful stranger.

Lydia Henke was my mother's aunt (my mother's mother's sister). She was born in Illinois on 20 June 1879 and died not far from her birth place on 28 March 1964.
Almost one year ago, I created a memorial to her on findagrave.com (one of my favorite sites to visit) and posted her photo.

This morning I checked my email and found a note from another findagrave contributor, who asked me the following:

"would you please add to Lydia's memorial: middle name Louise, born Illinois, Stephenson County, Lena; died Illinois, Jo Daviess County, Warren; bio - Lydia's parents were Fred & Amelia Henke"

Not much there that I didn't already have in my records, but when I linked to Lydia's husband's memorial, I learned that Lydia was the second wife of Edward Bolender. When Edward's first wife died, he was left with a young daughter, Evelyn. Lydia married Edward just a year after the first
Mrs. Bolender's death and when Evelyn was only two years old. Lydia and Edward went on to have seven children who survived infancy, and, according to my source, another three children who died as infants.

I should have seen the discrepancy between the date of Lydia and Edward's marriage and the date of birth of Evelyn. I'm grateful that this error was corrected. It probably doesn't mean anything to the Henkes and the Bolenders these days, but I'm glad that my family tree is just a little bit more accurate than it was yesterday.

Like many women in my family tree, Great Aunt Lydia took upon herself the raising of another woman's child. Just one more circumstance to be more aware of as I learn about my family, and a lesson to look at the family as a whole, not just a collection of individuals.