I Read it on the Internet! It Must be True!

Don’t you love to hear that expression? “I know it’s true, I read it on the internet.”  Thank goodness for Snopes.com! We can check all of those rumors that circulate today. Back on September 10, 1914 there was no place to check when you read the newspaper. Did you take it for granted that what you read was true and pass on the information? or did you verify any of it at all?

Last night I found a newspaper article about my grandparents upcoming wedding in an online newspaper.  The Harrisburg Patriot published the following three sentences on the society page of the September 10, 1914 issue -

Invitations have been received in this city for the marriage of Miss Nellie Niess and Robert Sherman, both of Washington, D.C., which will take place on September 16, in the Congregational church in Washington. Miss Niess is a graddaughter of Jeremiah Carvell, a former pastor of the Fourth street Church of God, also a granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. B.F, Niess, 117 Dock street, and has frequently visited her relativges (sic) here. Mr. Sherman is a grandson of the late General Sherman.

Just three sentences and each one of them has a major error in it!

• Sentence Number 1: The grooms name. Every piece of paper I have ever seen (including that Wedding Invitation, of which I have one!) states that the groom was William F. Sherman, not Robert. My very own father was William F. Sherman, Jr.!
• Sentence Number 2: Grandparents. The bride’s grandparents were Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim H. Niess, not Mr. and Mrs. B.F. Niess. Her uncle was B.F. Niess! B.F. for Benjamin Franklin
• And Sentence Number 3: As anyone who has studied Civil War history, and that of General William Tecumseh Sherman can tell you, he had no grandchildren with the Sherman surname! I know of one son who died young, one son who was a Catholic Priest (and if he was our relative, we certainly wouldn’t be carrying the Sherman name, now would we?) and supposedly another son who died a bachelor in another part of the country.

In actuality, after more than 25 years of researching, I am no closer to discovering who my great-grandparents were on my grandfather’s side than I was when I started. My grandfather was less than honest about his background (or much else, it appears) and I would be surprised if Sherman was actually the name he received at birth. My father went to his grave confused about his father’s background and my brother’s DNA does not match anyone, or even come close to anyone carrying the Sherman surname!

I keep hoping I’ll find the answer . . . where else, but ON THE INTERNET!

 

Moving Up in Washington DC, 1890 – 1948

When my father died in 1990 I inherited a ragtag collection of photographs, letters and Bibles. They were all from his Grandfather, my Great-Grandfather, Edwin Alfonso Niess. Among this collection are a few  pictures of homes the family lived in during the Washington D.C. stage of their lives.

In November of 1889, Edwin moved from Harrisburg, the city of his birth, to Washington D.C. He had just completed 4 years of schooling at what is now Millersville State University and passed the Clerk’s examination for the Federal Government in August. In November he was hired to work in the War Department at a grand salary of $1,000 a year. Edwin went back to Harrisburg the following September to marry my Great-Grandmother, Carrie Virginia Carvell. They left Harrisburg right after the wedding, taking the train back to the District to set up housekeeping at 822 I Street N.E.  By 1897 they had moved from the I Street home to 1113 C Street N.E. The picture below was taken that year. They didn’t remain in that house long since the 1900 census shows the family living at 239 10th St.Edwin worked, belonged to all the right organizations and went to Law School at Columbian Universtity(now George Washington University) earning a LL.B in 1895 and a LL.M in 1896. Working for the War Department he kept getting promotions and in 1900 transferred to the Post Office Department as a Postal Inspector. By 1905 he was a Law Clerk and 2 years later the Niess family found the house to raise their family in. A proper house for an up and coming attorney in Washington D.C. society.This picture was one of the pictures that was torn from a photo album at one point. It is glued on the page with a picture of my great-great-grandparents glued to the other side of the page! The date at the top of the picture seems to indicate August 2, 1907. Keep that date in mind.Another picture, in not so primo condition, shows the front stairs and elements of the Rhode Island Avenue home. The older boy would have been my grandmother’s brother, Edwin M., who had joined the Army and my father standing next to him. I show this picture so you can compare the elements with the picture taken on Christmas Day, 2011. Black handrails, porch, and detail around the front door.It’s a beautiful home today, isn’t it? It should be since Zillow.com estimates it’s value at $747,200!!! It also states that it was built in 1909, a date we now know is not accurate.The only structural change I noticed is the deletion of the rail on the balcony and the addition of a gate and iron bars around the windows and front door. This home, however, was not the last home the Niess’ would purchase.

By  1924 the couple, since that’s what they were again, had downsized and moved north, close to Rock Creek Park. 1422 Crittenden NW is a slightly smaller home with 1960 square feet and only 4 bedrooms. Once again, Zillow’s estimate of the property value would probably make the Niess couple faint! $556,000! I’m sure if this home were in their hometown of Harrisburg, you could lop off at least 400K from that figure! Several years ago we drove past this home and unlike the home on Rhode Island Avenue, this one has changed. The awnings, shrubbery and rock along the sidewalk; all different. This is the home that Edwin and Carrie lived until Carrie died in 1933. Almost two years later, Edwin remarried, and outlived his 2nd wife. Edwin died 18 April 1948 in his home on Crittenden.
Edwin’s final move was to Warrenton, Virginia where he is buried with his 2nd wife, the sister of Edwin M.’s wife, Lucy Kelly Niess. Father, Son and both wives are buried in the Kelly Family Plot. Carrie is buried in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania in the plot with her father, Rev. Jeremiah Mark Carvell, and her daughter, my grandmother, Nellie Viola Niess Sherman.

We visit both cemeteries as we get a chance.

 

Oh, Ursulla Oxer, You Sprightly Woman, You!

Why can’t all of my ancestors have marriage announcements in the newspapers? and why couldn’t Ursula Oxer been my ancestor? Yes, I do research Auxer, Axers and Oxers, however, she married into the clan and I’m trying to find out what happened to her previous husband!

Look at all of this information in six short lines:

• They got married the previous Sunday (30 June 1812),
• A German Reformed Pastor married them (Mr. Hoffmeyer, probably J.H. Hoffmeier)
• Groom’s name, Peter Holl (spelled Hohl in other records),
• This is not the bride’s first marriage since the “Mrs.” gives that away,
• Both bride and groom lived in Strasburg and they were each 70 years of age!
• . . . and don’t forget, she was sprightly!

Next task? Go through previous editions of this particular newspaper and look for her husband’s death! Think I’ll find it?

I’ll let you know!

 

The Awesome Power of Water

Water can be beautiful. I have fallen asleep listening to the sea through an open window, water-skied (in my youth!) on beautiful Lake Mead, and seen many awe inspiring waterfalls, including this one on Rt. 100 in mid-state Vermont.
That is until Hurricane Irene! She started up from the south creating havoc as she went. When she arrived in Pennsylvania we thought she had just about done all the damage she could possibly do. Basements up and down the Susquehanna River flooded and mud everywhere. Several towns still have not recovered from her visit. But it was nothing compared to what happened in Vermont!

Just recently there was an article about mid-state Vermont and the lack of tourism this season. People, it seemed, were staying away thinking it was not prepared for visitors and the economy was suffering. We decided to go, never in a million years expecting to see what we did. and what was that? Beauty ~ nature’s beauty and the inner beauty of strong Vermonters trying to get back on their feet, and at the same time helping their neighbors! We saw this from the time we woke up in the morning to dusk when we decided to call it quits for the day and we also saw this . . . and our heart would break! Somebody’s family was now starting all over. No sanctuary to return to each evening, no familiar surroundings to wake up to. Children uprooted from a familiar routine and a mother with no kitchen to provide a dinner for a family. We pictured a life that had been.This would be the scene on one side of the road, andand this would be the scene on the other side of the road! People still waiting for a bridge to be repaired so they could travel home! Tour buses were still on the road, but they were taking the leaf gawkers away from scenes of this nature and would be parked in rows in places like Vermont Country Store in Weston, Ben and Jerry’s in Waterbury and the outlets in Manchester. We saw those, too, but that’s not where we spent our money. We dropped our money in jars at service stations to help a town get dumpsters for the piles of garbage they had to get rid of, a tag sale in a large building, where I found a few books but gave $$ to help their town’s victims of Irene, or just patronizing a restaurant a cafe that was trying to get back on it’s feet. This “used to be” a farm. Irene deposited piles of rocks over fertile farmland that will never be farmed again. We were told even if the farmer could remove the rocks, Vermont will not let him farm again because of the contamination under the rock that would seep into the food. Neighbors pitched in and offered him a plot on their property and now he farms up and down the road on different neighbors land! The spirit of the people of Vermont is unbeatable! and this man retained a sense of humor . . .the green sign says “Free Plymouth Rocks ~ Help Youself!” After you cry, you laugh. The orange X’s on this mobile home indicate a condemned status ~ the sign in the window? “For Rent.” After you cry, you laugh.One of the first signs of a sense of humor we saw, though, remains one of our favorites, though. We had to turn around so I could photograph this one!. . . but the sign we saw the most of was the “Thank You’s” posted up and down Rt. 100. Vermonters, above all else, are a grateful people.

 

The Susquehanna Overflows it’s Banks ~ 2011 vs 1889

It’s a bad flood. Central Pennsylvania was hit hard. The rain didn’t stop and it wasn’t just rain, it was a torrential rain! Estimates are over 12″ of rain with river banks overflowing and basements flooded. Twenty seven feet above flood stage!  Some are comparing it with the 1889 flood, a record that may be broken by the current flood. Boy we have it bad!

. . . or do we?

Several years ago, I had the pleasure of transcribing my great-great grandmother’s diary. It covered just a few years, and 1889 was one of them.

Ephraim and Catharine Auxer Niess lived at 117 Dock Street in Harrisburg. Ephraim could walk to work at Bailey Iron Works and the Susquehanna River was their neighbor. The area today is known as Shipoke, and a trendy neighborhood. It was a working class neighborhood at that time. Today there is no longer a Dock Street. Dock Street is now the Dock Street Bridge and their home was razed for that bridge. As you travel west on I 83, crossing the Susquehanna, you travel over the area where Catharine once had her garden and  Ephraim and Catharine raised their family.

You have the background, now I’ll give you Catharine’s view of the 1889 flood from her diary. Any of my comments will be in italics. Everything I write will be Catharine’s words and style.

Catharine Niess on the right in her "mourning clothes" c. 1912

May 31st – The weather is very unpleasant, has been pouring down rain all day last night and yesterday and still raining very fast this month all through was wet there is fear of a heavy flood. The grain is flattened on the ground, little do we know what is before us. . . Preserve, me, O God: For in thee do I put my trust.

June 1st – We have had a wonderful flood (wonderful does not have the same meaning that it does today!) a lake at Johnstown gave way and drowned over 13,000 people, bridges gave way, and went down with trains. Oh! it was wonderful, it rained powerful the streams swelled every place it reached our city. done great damages only a few lives lost. May 31st (Friday) the flood at Johnstown, on Saturday the waters began to rise very high here, the Paxton creek back of us rose higher than it ever had been, the Susquehanna river in the front came up so high until it swept many things away what was left was in a frightful condition. it left very heavy mud a great many are getting sick. it is feared that we may have a great deal of sickness, but the Lord knoweth best. On Saturday night the waters began to come over the door sils (sic) front and back. Then we were surrounded. We have taken almost everything to the second story, by eleven o’clock we all had to go up and were obliged to stay there until Monday. On Sunday noon the waters began to fall very slowly. Every body seemed glad they had several sand flats in the street. At night they had torches so they could see the boom logs coming, and guide them straight through so they would do no damage to the buildings. Poor men they wished for the day. It was frightful scene, but nothing to compare with Johnstown. Many other towns were swept away with that flood. Water is very powerful and will take it course. Gods ways are not our ways and his ways are past finding out.

June 12th – Am very tired today. We washed a very large wash. Mrs. Blessing helped. Since the flood we have a great deal to do and so much company. On Monday we had six for dinner. The floors are still bare. Orders were given not to lay carpets this week. It seems very unpleasant, but we must bear up with it all. It is all right.

July 9th – I will now make another attempt to write in my Journal. Since the flood my time was so taken up, and besides we had so much rain that were unable to do our out side cleaning and sellers. (sic)Edwin (my great grandfather) white washed the seller to day, the weather has become more settled is very warm, and the farmers are very glad. They can scarcely get hands enough to get the grain away so much rain has caused it to ripen very fast and much of it falls out. A great deal of hay had turned black and it is unfit for use. The heavy rains has caused another flood at Johnstown, not so bad as the first, it was dreadful. A great many came to our city that were saved there. A family of five, husband, wife and three children. It is awful to hear tell when the water came, it came up as fast that it very soon drove them to the roof of the house. Next the house began to move off, they broke a hole through the roof and got on the outside from there to another roof and that way they struggled for life for sixteen hours, and were almost frozen and starved. Some others were 24 hours in the water almost to the neck. Several woman (sic)are here that the rest of the family were lost they are almost insane. Mrs. Blessing was here to day. We washed and ironed. . . . We have not laid our parlor carpet but all the rest. It takes the walls so long to dry.

Ephraim and Catharine Auxer Niess in the backyard of their Dock St Home, Harrisburg, Penna

To compare our life today with what Catharine went through over 100 years ago keeps me grounded. Whenever I feel sorry for myself, I pick up Catharine’s story and I’m thankful for the blessings I have. I’m also thankful for Catharine and her diary. It’s not only an insight into life in the late 1800′s but an insight into Catharine. She was a strong woman with a strong faith.

Thank you, Catharine, for taking time to record your life. My life is easy compared to yours!

 

Really, Dad? 96 Years Old?

Yes, Dad would have been 96 years old today, if only . . .

According to his birth certificate, he was born at midnight on September 4, 1915 at Sibley Hospital in Washington D.C., a hospital still in existence today. William Francis Sherman, Jr. was the first child born to the marriage of William Francis and Nellie Viola Niess Sherman, and very importantly, the first grandchild of Edwin Alonza and Carrie Virginia Carvell Niess.Never was a child more photographed than this one! and I am the lucky caretaker of the collection! Although the above studio portrait of my father is not by any means the earliest picture I have of Dad, it is one of my favorites. I love a guy not afraid to wear pink! (as if he had a choice!)

By the time Dad was five he had two younger brothers and a mother unable to cope with three very young boys. The picture above shows Dad on the tricycle and his brother Ray on the little trike. The other child is a neighborhood friend. His brother Vincent was less than a year old at the time.

Nellie’s parents stepped in when it appeared their daughter could no longer manage these three active boys, and my father became the main object of their affection. They spoiled him, photographed him, had him photographed and at one point wanted to adopt him. Dad learned to embroider at his grandmother’s knee, helped her with her china painting and learned table manners at their formal dinner table. Although they loved his brothers, Raymond and Vincent, they loved and doted on their “Buddy.”They were the ones who had this Bachrach portrait taken in 1925, probably for his 10th birthday. This is not the only Bachrach portrait in the collection of Dad’s pictures, but certainly one of my favorites!
.As mentioned in a previous post, the family fell on hard times as the depression approached and like many others in that period, traveled from place to place (NYC to San Francisco!) as jobs became scarce. One of the last portraits taken in “childhood” would have been the one taken in his ROTC uniform.
I could probably fill pages with pictures of him, summering in Braddock Heights, Maryland, traveling to Shippensburg and/or Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and generally spending a spoiled childhood in the lap of luxury. Instead I decided to share just a few of my favorite portraits with you since today would have been his birthday. I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I have sharing them with you.
Although it appears he was a lucky kid, I think it was not he that was lucky, but I! After all, I had him for my father!!

Happy Birthday Dad ~ until we meet again!

 

By George, I found Mr. Auxer, but . . . .

About six months ago, I wrote a blog about how excited I was to find the final resting place of one George H. Auxer.  Two trips north to Stroudsburg, first one to find the cemetery, second one to find the headstone, remember the blog?  I found him because Ancestry.com posted a group of records titled “Pennsylvania Veterans Burial Cards, 1777-1999.”

Never being satisfied, I wanted more information. Perhaps there was some information somewhere that would help me find out exactly how he fits into my line of Auxers. I found the unit in the Bates book, only there was no George H. Auxer. There was a George S. Auner who enlisted in the unit on the same day George Auxer did, and he was discharged on the same day they said George Auxer did. A mistake must have been made in the transcription of my George’s name, right? Isn’t that what you would assume? Until you go on Ancestry.com again, and then you find a profile with the identical information for George S. Auner and a George Anner, but no George H. Auxer. Are you confused? Let me break this down for you:

1.  According to History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-65,  by Samuel P. Bates, this unit was originally known as the Pennsylvania Zouaves. Cool!  Co G enlisted in Philadelphia 20 Sept, 1861, and our man was George S. Auner. On 2 Nov 1864 he transferred to Co A. So I flip to Co. A, and there I find him, George S. Anner, and he mustered out with his company on 17 Jul 1865. Dates match our Pennsylvania Veterans Burial Card for George H. Auxer.

2.  Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania Veterans Burial Cards, 1777-1999, database on line:  George H. Auxer 

3.  Ancestry.com, U.S Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, database on line:   George S. Auner

4.  Ancestry.com, American Civil War Soldiers, database on line:  George Anner

Since transcription errors seemed logical to me (or I was hoping that’s what it was!) I got on Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness and found a volunteer who will go into the National Archives and copy files for you, for the cost of the printing and her transportation costs. Cheaper than me taking the train into the District, and then a taxi to the Archives, so I enlisted her help. Forty Five Dollars later, I got the file! I was so excited!

Guess who it was???  Not George H. Auxer, but George Sanders Auner, a machinist from Philadelphia and I now know more about Mr. Auner than I ever knew about George H. Auxer and I’m back to square one with a lot more questions!

Where did the State of Pennsylvania get the information for George H. Auxer’s grave? Was it given to them by the family? Was he ever in the service (I doubt it, and was surprised when I found information that said he was.) And why did George die in Stroudsburg when he had a business in Hightstown, New Jersey???

If you analyze the data I’ve found, items 3 and 4 agree with item #1, although after reading the pension file, I now know the name Anner WAS a transcription error! Item #2 stands by itself, and is still a mystery, and is really the only one I am interested in. Besides in May of 1867 when George H. Auxer died, George S. Auner and his wife were welcoming their 3rd child into their home and Auner didn’t die until 1912!

It’s back to the books, databases and that thin air I’d like to draw things out of!