Saturday, December 4, 2021

Holidays and Genealogy

 

The holidays are upon us. We could discuss family traditions, family history gifts or traditional holiday recipes. Here are some ideas:

1.     Gather questions for the Thanksgiving dinner table: Who was the oldest relative you met? What’s a favorite Thanksgiving memory you have?

2.     Write a Christmas/holiday letter and include a family history story or game. Does your family like word searches or crossword puzzles? Is there a great story to tell?

3.     Gather all the information for a family recognitions certificate. Nebraska has three to choose from, and yes, other states have them, too, but we won’t talk about that.

4.     Gather some favorite family recipes. Make a book, put them all on a blog, or have a party and make all the food. Make sure to include photos in the book or blog.

5.     Collect family photos and share them. Scan them and give to family on CD or thumb drive. Put them on a Facebook group or in a blog. Make them into a book or scrapbook. Create Christmas ornaments from the photos. Make a wreath from the photos.

6.     Watch a genealogy show together. My “top 5” include: Relative Race (byutv.org), Finding Your Roots, Roots Less Traveled (Formerly called A New Leaf), Who Do You Think You Are? (new season in UK, check YouTube) and The Genetic Detective.

7.     Discover a new-to-you website. Some options below:

NEW (OR LESSER KNOWN) GENEALOGY WEBSITES

A.     www.trackuback.com This is based out of Sweden but anyone can join. They have a free level and a paid level. You get 5 things with the free level: family tree, geography window, timeline, tools for editing, and managing your images. You get 10 additional things for the paid level. Subscription rate looks to be $90 a year.

B.     www.davidrumsey.com A historical map collection with over 90,000 maps.

C.     www.genteam.org Indexed records of the German-speaking area, with over 18 million entries. Some of the website is in German, so you may want to translate.




Sunday, August 8, 2021

100th Anniversary of Women's Right to Vote

 Okay so this is about a year late, as August 2020 was the anniversary. But I wrote this to be published in a printed publication, and now it has been, so I feel like I can put it online on my blog. 

The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this August 2020.


Women in Nebraska actually could vote in school district elections starting in 1869, then lost that 6 years later, and regained it 6 years after that IF they lived in the district and owned taxable property or had school-age children.

 


The Nebraska suffrage campaign started in Omaha on November 15, 1867 with the assistance of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Miss Susan B. Anthony and George Francis Train. Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton later came to Hebron, Nebraska in April 1879 and organized the first Woman’s Suffrage Association in Nebraska. The Thayer Association grew from fifteen to seventy-five members and eventually included many leading businessmen.

In January 1881, the suffragists formed a state association with Harriet S. Brooks as the first president.

Clara Bewick Colby was prominent in women’s suffrage while living in Beatrice, and also interestingly enough, was instrumental in forming the city’s first public library, which is where the NSGS’ collection is currently held.

She was born in England in 1846. She immigrated to the United States in 1865 with her grandparents, settling first in Wisconsin. She met Leonard Colby while a teacher in Wisconsin, and married him in 1872. They came to Beatrice, Nebraska shortly after. They adopted three children. She and her husband divorced in 1906 after a period of separation.

Clara helped form the state association in 1881, and wrote and produced the women’s suffragists newspaper from her home in Beatrice starting in 1883. She produced this newspaper for 25 years, but later did move production to Washington, DC. It was the first daily newspaper written and produced by a woman. She served as president of the state suffragist association from 1885 to 1889. She spoke regularly at conventions from 1886 to 1914. Susan B. Anthony called her “a suffragist lieutenant, one of the women who was not themselves a national officer, but influenced movement leaders and members.” She also said no one wrote, edited or spoke better than Clara.

She died at the home of her sister in Palo Alto, California in 1916, so unfortunately did not get to see the result of all her hard work.

 

The other woman instrumental in women’s suffrage in Nebraska was Rheta Childe Dorr. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska on 2 November 1866. Her father was a druggist (pharmacist).

One night at the age of 12 years old, she and her sister snuck out to hear Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony speak on women’s suffrage. She seemed to become committed to the cause even at this early age.

She studied for 2 years at the University of Nebraska before moving to New York City in 1890 where she worked as a journalist. She met John Dorr, a conservative businessman from Seattle. They were married in 1892 and moved to Seattle.

Rheta continued to work as a journalist even as a married woman. This caused some friction in their relationship, and they separated in 1898. She returned East then with a 2-year old son to raise and support as a single mother.

In 1902 she worked at the New York Evening Post where she wrote articles on women’s issues. She made special investigations to women’s workplaces to study and report on the labor conditions they endured. She notes that she was fortunate to work for the most distinguished newspaper in New York, but her wages were still half that of her male colleagues.

She left the Evening Post in 1906 and traveled in Europe for a while. There she became more interested in the international right for women’s suffrage. She returned to America and wrote investigative features on the grim situation working women faced.

In 1914 Dorr became the first editor of The Suffragist, the official paper for the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage.

 

Doris Stevens is also a Nebraska-born suffragist who achieved national prominence.

Another woman to lead women’s suffrage was Edna Barkley who left her unpaid position at the University of Lincoln as Dean of Women in 1909 to lead the suffrage movement.

 

Not all women were in favor of women’s suffrage. Many women thought that women should stay in the home, raising children and doing domestic duties. Some women also did not want to serve on a jury, and men thought that too violent crimes should not be heard by women on a jury.

 

Women received partial suffrage in 1917, being able to vote for presidential electors, city and village offices, county offices (but not county judges) and other offices not created by the state constitution.

Even when women could vote, sometimes they were not able due to several reasons: poll tax, literacy and fear or feelings of duplicating their husband’s vote or cancelling it out.

Nebraska was the fourteenth state to ratify the 19th Amendment on 2 August 1919 with a unanimous vote from the Nebraska Senate and the same by the House two days later. Governor McKelvie (boy governor) signed the bill in chambers while being filmed. He was called the “boy governor” as he was elected at 38 years old.

 

History Nebraska has had an exhibit called “Votes for Women” celebrating women’s suffrage in Nebraska. The museum in Lincoln is open again, and it’s worth a visit.

Some books on women’s suffrage in Nebraska are available:

“Votes for Women: The 19th Amendment in Nebraska” by David Bristow (on Amazon or from History Nebraska gift shops)

“A Dangerous Class: a History of Suffrage in Nebraska and the League of Women Voters in Nebraska” by Betty Stevens

“What Eight Million Women Want” by Rheta Childe Dorr

“Clara Colby: The International Suffragist” by John Holliday

 

YouTube videos:

The Legacy of Nebraska’s Suffrage Movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5mJE04IMo4

 

Brown Bag: Nebraska’s Suffragist Journalists Clara Bestwick Colby and Rheta Childe Dorr by Dr. Eileen Worth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxt5dqAsvZo

 


Thursday, December 31, 2020

Review of 2020

 2020 was a year to remember, wasn't it. Conferences went virtual; some people had more time at home to research. We are hoping 2021 is better and we can socialize in person more.


PERSONALLY
1. I did a bit more research on my expanded family, so not my direct lines, but cousins. 
2. This is my 6th blog, so I still should blog more. (Yes, I say this every year. I must put it in my calendar). To be fair I did do one blog on the NSGS site, so that would be 7. Still not the 12 I am aiming for. 
That's about it. I haven't done as much of my own genealogy this year. 

PROFESSIONALLY
1. Attended FGS and NGS online. Planned to attend FGS in person, and quite disappointed I could not meet some of my genealogy peeps in person. Watched some good webinars. 
2. Gave several presentations, most of them on Zoom. I gave two for FGS, and got paid. I presented five voluntarily (without pay). One presentation was in person; the rest were online. 
3. I digitized A LOT for FamilySearch. I learned A LOT about digtizing and about the records I am doing. 
4. Client work: I worked on finding a grandfather for a client using DNA, and helped another client climb further back in his tree. This is truly all I had time for. 

VOLUNTARILY
1. Cemetery photos: I took photos and transcribed for BillionGraves; I took photos and added them and memorials to Findagrave. I also put my current stats here so I can refer to them each year. Currently at 17,550 images uploaded to BillionGraves with 16,977 transcriptions; and 11,186 memorials added to Findagrave with 27,683 photos added. That's an increase of about 7135 photos to BG and 3620 photos to Findagrave. It's a good social distancing activity, so a good year for walking cemeteries. 
2. NSGS: I am president, conference coordinator and more for our state genealogical society. I wrote some articles for our publication, lead meetings, updated the website and did a lot for our conference which was postponed. 
3. GenWeb: I updated the Polk County GenWeb site and added a few things. It helps that I am getting data from the courthouse. 
4. I also serve on the cemetery board and now also the library board, which is genealogy related. 
There could be more but that's what I come up with. 
Hoping and planning for a productive 2021! 



Thursday, December 17, 2020

Notorious Court Case

 I have moved on to digitizing court cases now. I started these around Thanksgiving. So far I have found some divorces, illegal sales of alcohol, a few forgeries, many foreclosures on mortgage, some bastardy cases, a couple rape cases and others. And then there is this one: the notorious case of murder and then a hanging. The only hanging done in Polk County, Nebraska. 

But before we get to that:

On July 14, 1884 Ruth M. Smith filed for divorce against Milton W. Smith. Now I don't know if the divorce went through; I didn't look at that case very closely. (It's case number 256 in the court records.) However it seems to have not gone through; maybe she dropped the case. Or at least they continued to live together, possibly for financial records. This is all speculation. 

Because then on November 27, 1884 Milton W. Smith shot his wife and attempted to shoot his children. On November 28, Ruth's body was found. Apparently after the deed was done, men heard him because they were searching for Smith. They found him hiding in some corn stalks. On the way to jail, there were shouts of "hang him! String him up!" A mob of 30 men wanted to hang him, but discovered he cut his throat with a knife. They figured he was near death, so they left. 

However he did not die (yet). An inquest was held on November 29 before the coroner. A jury was selected. After the inquest, Mrs. Smith was laid to rest. 

M. A. Mills was asked to defend Mr. Smith. Mr. Mills' friends advised not to take the case, but because he needed a lawyer and Mr. Smith had done odd jobs for him, he took the case. The trial began March 19, 1885 and lasted 4 days. On March 23 the jury pronounced him guilty of murder in the first degree and he was sentenced to hang on July 24. Mr. Smith made an appeal but was refused. He took his sentence coolly, as if to not care whether he lived or died. 


On Friday July 24, 1885 at the age of 58 Milton Smith was hung just south of the jail. His death was almost instantaneous. His body was cut down after 12 minutes and he was laid to rest in Potters Field. 

There is record of his burial in the Osceola Cemetery records, but no marker is found. This is not surprising given the circumstances. I made a Findagrave memorial for him, and stated a short version of this. Some of these details are rather graphic. The court case has quite a number of pages, including the above one, and a 4-page summary someone wrote up. There is also a brief synposis in the book "The Early Days of Polk County" which is digitized on the newspaper website (Advantage Preservation). 

This case (#276) along with other court records are digitized or in the process of and can be found on FamilySearch.org in the near future. 

Friday, October 23, 2020

Found in the Probates

 I am truly amazed by what I find in the probates as I am digitizing them. Now often I digitize rather like a robot, not looking at what I am doing. But occasionally something catches my eye. This is one of those. 


Third line: "Ernest Gottschall on or about the 9th day of September 1935 from wounds inflicted upon him by one Ivan J. Kinsman." What??!! This probate practically gives a cause of death. So is this murder, accidental, or self-defense?? There is more to this story. So we should check the newspapers and/or the court records. 

From the Polk County Democrat, 19 September 1935

E. E. Gottschall passed away Monday morning en route to a Columbus hospital. His death was a result of complications from an injury 2 weeks ago. 

From the Polk County Democrat, 10 October 1935

"Widow files suit for $10,000" 

As a sequel to death of E. E. Gottschall, whose death on September 9 followed injuries allegedly sustained in an altercation with Ivan J. Kinsman, his landlord, on August 24 in Columbus. Mrs. Gottschall filed a civil suit in district court against Mr. Kinsman for $10,235 ($10,000 for the death of her husband and $235 for doctor bills and funeral expenses). In today's money that would be over $187,000! 

Can't really find much more on this case at this time. Perhaps when I digitize the court records more information will be found. 

Stay tuned for Part 2! 

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Wordless (mostly) Wednesday: Charles Morrill will

Charles Morrill will
(If you don't know who he is, (a) you must not be from Nebraska and (b) Google him.

I have a hard time being "wordless" so maybe we should change Wednesdays to Will Wednesday. LOL


Monday, May 4, 2020

Ida M. Hanson

A friend told me of the gruesome death of a local lady, Miss Ida M. Hanson.

Ida was born August 4, 1877 to Peter and Brita Hanson in Galva, Henry County, Illinois. She came to Osceola, Polk County, Nebraska with her parents when she was an infant. She completed school, then attended Bryant College, also Peru Normal and Fremont Normal. She taught school for several years. She held the position of bookkeeper in several stores, and later owned and operated millinery establishments in Osceola and Stromsburg
Ida was a successful milliner (hat seller) in Columbus working as head of the department for the last 2-3 years. She possessed a considerable amount of money and securities.

Miss Hanson went missing on May 7, 1933 after leaving Columbus to meet a friend in Chicago. The last communications received from Ida were from Evanston, Illinois and dated July 1933. She kept an appointment May 7 in Omaha with a man she planned to marry. Miss Hanson introduced the man to a friend, C. W. Neal of Chicago. Mr. Neal had an appointment with Miss Hanson in Omaha on May 7 for a business arrangements involving selling her bonds. He purchased her bonds for $10,000 on May 24 in Chicago. At that time she and her husband were planning to travel to South America. On the way for Neal to get the securities deposited, he was robbed. Two days later he saw Miss Hanson with the guy she married, but was unable to catch her to speak to her.
No marriage license was ever found for Miss Hanson in Cook County, Illinois.

Miss Hanson's body was discovered by miners on June 4, 1933 near Florissant, Colorado. She was in a shallow grave, and her foot was sticking out. Her body was mutilated and partially burned. Her body was covered with leaves and gasoline was poured on them in attempt to burn the remains. The left side of her skull was crushed. Sheriff Ed Vinyard of Cripple Creek, Colorado was nearly certain it was her, but waiting on confirmation from the family. Half a paisley shawl, a homespun rug, a shoe, dental work and scars were used to confirm her identity. Her sister and her split the shawl in half after their mother passed away. The shoe was a size 7AAA, an unusual size and the size Miss Hanson wore.
In a September 1934 newspaper it is reported that Sheriff Vinyard knew who the killer was, what his occupation was and where to pick him up. Charles W. Neal, a former convict, went on trial for the murder of Miss Hanson in March 1935. After 41 hours of deliberation, the jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to life in Colorado state penitentiary.

While living in Osceola she was a member of the Methodist Church, Order of Eastern Star, Woman's Club and Business and Professional Woman's Club, which she had served as president.
She leaves a brother and six sisters to mourn her death. She was preceded by her parents and one sister (Mrs. W. O. Johnson). The funeral was held at the Methodist Church with burial in the Stromsburg Cemetery.

Link to my Findagrave memorial with her gravestone photo (taken by myself): https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31078354/ida-m_-hanson