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! 

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. 

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! 

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

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

Former Nebraska Governor Albinus Nance

This is not a relative, but I periodically write articles for the NSGS publication Ancestree, so thought I would put it on my blog too.

Albinus Nance was born in Stark County, Illinois on March 30, 1848. His parents were Dr. Hiram Nance and Sarah Smith. His father was an eminent physician and surgeon, a descendant of French Huegenots who settled in North Carolina. His mother was of English heritage. He was educated in Kewanee, Illinois until age 16. At age of 16 he enlisted in the 9^th Illinois Cavalry to fight in the Civil War. He fought in several battles and was wounded in the Battle of Nashville. After the Civil War he entered Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. In 1870 he was admitted to the bar in the supreme court in Illinois.

He moved to Nebraska in 1871 to homestead and practice law. He settled in Polk county being granted a homestead in 1875. Most of his time he spent practicing law in Osceola and working his real estate business. In 1873 his friends submitted his name to the Republican convention of the thirteenth district of the state legislature. He won at the election by about 2000. While in Polk county, he met notable residents who became his friends: Charles H. Morrill and John H. Mickey. They were members of an Osceola banking firm and started the Stromsburg Bank in 1881.

In 1875 Albinus Nance married Sarah White, daughter of Egbert and Mary White of Farragut, Iowa. To this union, one daughter was born, Helen. Helen later married Walter L. Anderson. Walter and Helen did not have any children, so Albinus Nance doesn’t have any living descendants at this time.

He served in the Nebraska House of Representatives from 1875 to 1878, serving as the speaker in 1877-1878. He also served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876. In 1878 while he was serving as speaker, he was elected as governor of Nebraska. He was only 30 years old at the time, so he was nicknamed the “boy governor”. He and his administration were popular with the people. He won re-election in 1880 with “wild enthusiasm”. He is known for calling in the Nebraska state militia to subdue the strikers in the Camp Dump Strike; one striker was killed by the militia.

After serving as governor, he left Lincoln shortly after serving and made his home in Chicago. There he was engaged in handling railroad stocks and bonds.

Albinus Nance passed away at the Augustana hospital in Chicago on December 7, 1911 after having pneumonia. Funeral services were held at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Walter Anderson, in Chicago. The body was laid to rest in the family plot in Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska. Offices at the state house were closed for an hour for the funeral time as many of the state officers and prominent citizens attended his service. Governor Nance was a member of the Knights Templar and the Masons. Pallbearers included his friends Charles H. Morrill, A. S. Tibbets, C. O. Whedon, A. S. Raymond, A. W. Field, J. H. McClay, R. E. Moore, and Oliver E. Mickey (son of former governor John H. Mickey). Many other notable men served as honorary pallbearers including doctors, governors, a judge and a captain.

Nance County, Nebraska is named for former governor Albinus Nance and is located just northwest of Polk county where the governor resided for years.

For more about him and photos, go to his Findagrave page: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12839/albinus-nance