100 Years ago – The Howells of North Carolina.

James Dallas Howell – c.1905
Source: The Howler

James Dallas Howell (1789-1964) & Mary Lillian Hobbs (1885-1964)

In 1915, James Dallas Howell and his wife, Mary Lillian (nee Hobbs) were living in Clarkton, Bladen County, North Carolina. The household consisted of the couple and their two oldest sons, three year-old James Dallas Howell, Jr. and one year-old Ashley Long Howell. James was 36 years-old and Lillian, was 30.

Rev. Howell was a minister at Pastor at Clarkton Baptist Church. 


Internationally, the “Great War” was in full swing in Europe but the United States was still natural. Germany began “unrestricted” submarine war and German mines sunk two US ships, the SS Carib on February 23rd, resulting in 3 lives lost, and the SS Evelyn sunk on February 19th with 1 life lost.[1]

Local sports highlighted the local newspapers of the day. An upset of the Freshman basketball team over the Sophomore basketball in a 12 to 10 contest was the top story in the Daily Tar Hill newspaper Feb 25, 1915. It is so hard for me to comprehend a basketball game with a final score of 12 to 10. How times have changed. Also on the front page of the paper, Virginia beat Carolina 43-26 the previous Thursday. [2]  An ad for Velvet Tobacco, touted the tobacco as being satisfaction in either corn cobb or meerschaum pipes, giving testimony that Velvet made everyone equal regardless of economic class.[3]

Clipping of an Advertisement for Velvet pipe tobacco.
Advertisement: Velvet Tobacco
Source: The Daily Tar Heel
Feb 25, 1915 · Page 2
Via Newspapers.Com   

James’ father, Peter Fletcher Howell,  was alive, living about 175 miles away in Weldon, Halifax County, NC. His mother had passed in 1910.

Likewise, Mary Lillian’s father, James Ashley Hobbs, was alive, living about 185 miles away in Williamston, Martin County, NC, but her mother had passed away also (in 1913).

I have a lot of research to do regarding both James’ and Mary’s siblings. I know that one James’ sisters, Anna Lee Boseman and one of his brothers, David Bushrod Howell were alive. I don’t know if his other two brothers, John D, and G. C., were alive. Nor do I know if his other two sisters, Augusta E, and Martha F. were alive.

Of Lillian’s eight siblings, three, Annie Elizabeth (Hobbs) Armstrong, Rolland Rivers Hobbs, and James Floyd Hobbs were living. Four are known to have died before 1915, George Samuel, Mattie D. Mary Emolyn, and Fannie Hobbs. I don’t know the status of her eighth known sibling, Charles Leon Hobbs .

Mary Lillian Hobbs
Source: Flikr: Debby Ziegler

Further Research:

Determine Vital information for James Dallas Howell’s siblings:

John D Howell
G. C. Howell
Augusta E. Howell
Martha F. Howell

Determine Vital information for Mary Lillian Hobbs’ [Howell] oldest sibling:

Charles Leon Hobbs

Footnotes:

[3] The
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) – Feb 25, 1915 · Page 2, – Newspapers.Com

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Donna in Hamilton, OH, at the Palace Theater – March 22-25, 1925

Photo of the Palace Theatre with a wagon in front advertising "Down on the Farm" - about 1920.
Wagon Advertisement for the Palace Theatre
In front of the Palace Theatre, 1920 *
Photo via Photobucket 

I haven’t figured out exactly where Donna was before she played at the Palace Theater in Hamilton, Ohio, on March 22nd to March 25th, 1925. We know that in February she played in Kokomo, Indiana, however, I have a lot more research to do to fill in the gaps.


The first advertising I found for her show was in the March 17th Hamilton Daily News. Under the Movies heading, it read:


BATHING GIRLS BE AT PALACE

According to announcement just made known, the Palace management has succeeded in obtaining a most unusual and decidedly high-class bit of entertainment to be offered to its patrons starting Sunday next. It is known as The Hollywood Bathing Girls Revue, and presents an exceptionally interesting half hour of pleasure. Miss Donna Darling, a winner of numerous beauty prizes is the star of this spectacular Revue. She played the principal role in the late musical comedy success Chin Chin, and is a talented singer and dancer as well as possessor of pulchritudinous charms. Before Miss Darling left the California studios, she selected several accomplished motion picture bathing girls to accompany here on her brief tour of the Eastern states. Each of them will do a specialty number, singing, dancing and comedy. And there will be a fashion display of different styles of bathing suits from Grandmother’s day on down to the present. Betty Bryant, who was selected as “Miss America,” in a recent Atlantic City contest has an important part in the presentation of this Bathing Girls Revue; and others included in the cast are Alyce Louyse, Mildred O’Brian, tiny Anita Walker, Todd Watson, Clarice Allyn, Al Ross and Gerry Gene, all of whom have won recognition in the “movies.”[i]
The following day, the exact same “article” appeared in The Hamilton Evening Journal. There was also a small ad indicating the show was coming “Next Sunday.” [ii]

It is interesting to note that Betty Bryant isn’t in the list of Miss Americas. The first Miss America was Margaret Gorman who won in 1921. Her title was “The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America.” It wasn’t until the following year, when she defended her title, that the title “Miss America” was used. So, Betty Bryant must have been a contestant either before 1921 or in another pageant.

March 21st was a big day for the show. There were ads on both page 2 and on page 27. Additionally, there were two articles about the show on Page 27[iii]. That longer of the two articles reads:

Bathing Girls at The Palace

The Journal News (Hamilton, OH)
March 21, 1925 – Page 27

Bathing Girls from the Western motion picture studios will make a personal appearance at the Palace theatre starting tomorrow. The star of this spectacular Hollywood Revue is Miss Donna Darling, a winner of numerous beauty prizes, and portrayer of the principal role in the late musical comedy success “Chin Chin.” Miss Darling is not only beautiful, but can sing and dance with unusual ability. Her presentations are so charming that she has been justly called “The Girl with the million dollar personality.”

Miss Darling selected several accomplished motion picture bathers to accompany her on her brief tour of the Eastern states. Tiny Anita Walker sings as well as she wears a stunning black and white satin bathing suit. Todd Watson and Clarice Allyn, as gypsy dancers, entertain with a difficult and spectacular number, which is followed by an aerobatic novelty by the talented movie star, Gerry Gene. Al Ross, one of the life-guards, is an eccentric dancer who also appears with Alyce Louyse in the comedy number, “1000 Bathers.” Alice Lenyse is at her best in the Hawaiian dance. Mildred O’Bryan as a beach flirt does a nifty song and dance.

This revue displays the different styles of bathing suits from mother’s day, in which Miss Darling appears in an elaborate silver and orchid gown—a comedy number of 1900—on to the present day bather, when Betty Bryant, late of the Ziegfeld Follies, appears in a scarlet bathing suit as “Miss America of today.” Miss Darling as the “Globe-trotter” presents bathers of various beaches of other nations as well as the fashionable bathing centers of our own country. These include the Chinese, Spanish, Egyptian, Hawaiian, and Palm Beach bathers.

The gowns of this revue are elaborate, special interest centers about the rhinestone bathing suit, which Miss Darling wears in the finale. Much time and effort has been spent in selecting the stage setting and the elaborate lighting effects of this revue. The management of the Place theatre is to be congratulated for succeeding in procuring such clean and enjoyable entertainment as is “The Bathing Girls Revue.”

In addition to this unusual attraction a picture of rare merit—“Forty Winks” – Featuring Viola Dana, Raymond Griffith and Theodore Roberts, will be offered as the feature film. And the regular run of short subjects will also be offered.

Owing to the enormous cost of this big double bill, the Palace Management finds it necessary to slightly increase the price of admission, but it is said that this presentation will well be worth the increase in price.

The Bathing Girls revue will be presented four times tomorrow—at about 2:30, 4:30, 1:10 and 9:15 p. m. During the remaining three days of its run at the Palace theatre it will be presented three times. [iv]

One additional thing about the Newspaper ad of March 21st.  It had a disclaimer which read:

To the Public:– 

   All rumours and reports in the contrary notwithstanding, we hereby guarantee this Bathing Girl Revue to be absolutely CLEAN, free from all vulgarity or suggestiveness and suited to the tastes of the whole family. It conforms in every respect to the Palace Theatre standard of presentation, and once again bears out why the Palice is known as

HAMILTON’S FOREMOST THEATRE

Newspapers articles and advertising also ran on the 24th and 25th in all three papers, Hamilton Evening Journal, the Hamilton Daily News, and the Journal News

They performed 13 shows in 4 days and headed on to their next stop, Rushville, Indiana, performing the next day.

Palace Theatre — 215 South Third Street, Hamilton, OH

The Palace Theatre was built in 1919 with the exclusive intent of showing movies. It was an opulently appointed silent movie theater. A newspaper of the time said that the $100,000 facility was “a replica of the famous Rivoli Theater in New York City.” The theater was designed by the managing director of the theater, Fred S. Meyer, and a renowned Hamilton architect, Frederick G. Mueller.

The theater’s ornate columns and windows were covered over in the in the 1960s, when the theater was “modernized.” In 2003, Greater
Hamilton Civic Theatre (CHCT) purchased the building and restored the original, rather striking, 1919 facade. Today, the Palace Theatre is used for GHCT theatrical support need.

Further Research
Research the other cast members of the show:

Anita May Walker 
Todd Watson 
Clarice Allyn 
Gerry Gene
Al Ross
Alyce Louyse 
Mildred O’Brien
Betty Bryant

Endnotes

*  Source info for the 1920 photo of the Palace Theater indicates that the photo is from 1928, however, the billboard movie “Down on the Farm” was released in 1920 and is unlikely playing at the Palace in 1928.

[i] Hamilton
Daily News (Hamilton, OH) 17 March 1925, Page 2 – “Bathing Girls Be At Palace.”
Source: Heritage Microfilm, Inc. and Newspaperarchive.com.
[ii] Hamilton
Evening Journal (Hamilton, OH) 18 March 1925, Page 11 – “Hollywood Bathing
Girls Will Appear in Person at the Palace.” Source: Heritage Microfilm, Inc.
and Newspaperarchive.com.
[iii]
The Journal News (Hamilton, Ohio) · Sat, Mar 21,
1925 · Page 27 – Source: Newspapers.com.[iv]
The Journal News (Hamilton, Ohio) · Sat, Mar 21,
1925 · Page 27 – “Bathing Girls At the Palace.” Source: Newspapers.com.

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My genetic genealogy activities – Feb 2015

Photo of "The maze, Longleat safari park near to Horningsham, Wiltshire, Great Britain"  © Copyright Brian Robert Marshall and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons License 3.0.
Maze, near to Horningsham, Wiltshire, Great Britain
Photo by Brian Robert Marshall
via Geograph – Creative Commons License 2.0.

At times, I feel like I’m lost in a maze of DNA
possibilities. I start down what looks like it will be a great path only to
find it ends.  As I mentioned before my
Y-DNA tests have resulted in many frustrations. 
Tantalizing close but dead ends everywhere.   I think the biggest issue with the Y-DNA
tests is it seems like no one is doing them any more. Ancestry.Com quit their
Y-DNA testing. I don’t think 23 & Me ever did Y-DNA, which only leaves
Family Tree DNA.  In my case I’ve only
seen one new match with them in the past year and that person was very distant
– 80% likely to have a common ancestor in 8 generations.

I turned to autosomal DNA testing to see if that would
help.  It seems like that is the test
that everyone is doing.  I used FamilyTree DNA for my atDNA testing. What is really cool about their system is if you
can have a parent tested as well as yourself, you can then search “FamilyFinder” for matches that match both of you and for matches that match the child
and not the one parent.  In my case, this
allows for a search for potential matches to the “baby daddy.” 
Because my Y-DNA testing suggested that I am most likely
descended from a “Roberts” I’ve been looking at possible Roberts connections in
atDNA test results.  Again, a lot of
tantalizing paths, but dead-ends again. 
Then, I found a really cool new match in my atDNA results. Looking
at only my paternal side, the two closest matches to me were matching each
other on the same chromosome in the same segments as me. Wow!
Family Finder result showing same segments on same chromosome of LV, CMA, and myself.

As I understand it, with segments this large matching, they
have to have received the segment from a common ancestor.  I too have to have received the same segment
from the same common ancestor.  That
means if we can figure out exactly who is their common ancestor, that ancestor
has to be common to me. (Please – someone tell me if I have it wrong.)
Anyway, one of the lines is pretty complete. [LV] has the
vast majority of ancestors identified going back 5 or 6 generations.  Sadly, the other individual is new to
genealogy and only six of his 16 2nd great grandparents
identified.  Family Tree DNA suggests
that this individual, I’ll call CMA, is a 2nd to 4th
cousin.  First cousins share
grandparents, and 2nd cousins share great grandparents.  I decided to create a new working tree and
called it atDNA tree.  I added CMA to
that notional tree and added his known ancestors. He has six of his eight great
grandparents identified, so I decided to determine that ancestor for him.
It took a while but I discovered his grandmother was the
child of a second marriage of his great grandmother.  I found her first name, Mary, and the surname
of her first husband quickly, but his first name and, more importantly, her
maiden name eluded me. 
I found the complete family in a census record that provided
names and birth years for the children of that first marriage.  I then traced those children and discovered
one of them died in 1937 and a copy of his death certificate was available on
line.  That death certificate identified
both his father’s first name and his mother’s surname.  Voilà – I now have the names for seven of CMA’s
eight great grandparent’s.  I checked LV’s
tree, nope, not a surname match.
RAF Tilstock Inside the Maze 2 by Broomhalla - Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.
RAF Tilstock – Inside the Maze 2 by Broomhalla
Courtesy: Deviant Art
For the eighth one, CMA has a first name, just not a
surname. So, that will be my next task. 
If I can identify the eighth person, his great grandmother Catherine, is
not related to LV, then I’ll know that none of us are second cousins and I continue
with second great grandparents to determine if we are third cousins.  
My “brick wall” of learning the identity of my biological
father now has a new entrance into it.  It may be the entrance into a new maze, but it
is an entrance.  Entering the maze is
part of the fun of genealogy.   Wish me
luck and hope I don’t get lost. 


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Mary Elizabeth (Manning) Brown (1878-1983)

Ancestor Sketch – Brown Line
By – Don Taylor

We know that often as a person ages their birth date changes. Women often get younger during their adult years and then get older in their later years.  Mary Elizabeth (Manning) Brown was just such a woman. Various records indicate that Mary was born everywhere from 1876 to 1880, but I’ve settled on 1878 as the correct year of her birth.

Birth
Year
Year
Source
1878
1880
Census
1878
1900
Census
1877
1910
Census
1880
1920
Census
1877
1930
Census
1877
1940
Census
1878
1965
Social Security Death Index
1876
1983
MN
Death Index
1876
1983
Marker
1876
c.
1984
Notes
of Mary’s daughter, Victoria Quelland
1878
2001
Notes
from Mary’s minister, Les Crider
1876
2005
Letter
from Mary’s daughter, Delores Pribbenow
The 1880 Census is probably the most accurate; it is the only document I have found where the data was provided by someone who was at her birth (presumably one of her parents). Her Social Security application corroborates this date.  None of the records before 1966 indicate her birth year as 1876, the year in which she celebrated her 90th birthday.
Going through all of the birthdates for an individual is essential. When there is a discrepancy in dates, it is important to analyze all of the dates and determine which is likely the most accurate.

Ancestor Sketch – Mary Elizabeth (Manning) Brown (1878-1983)

Childhood

Mary Elizabeth Manning was born on April 17, 1878, the
oldest child of John William and Elisa Jane (Fannin) Manning in rural Kentucky. One source indicates she was born in Kernsville, Carter County, however, I haven’t been able to find a Kernsville in Kentucky.
The 1880 Census shows Mary living with her parents near Pine Grove, Rowan County, Kentucky. Her sister, Phoebe, was born in January 1881.
Again, I’m not certain where, but probably either Carter County or Rowan County. Mary’s father, John, did have another child, Robert Manning, with another (name unknown) woman. Robert was 9 years older than Mary was.
I need to do much more research in this area. In December 1882, Mary’s mother, Eliza, died. Oral history indicates that she died in childbirth.
There is a lot of confusion about what happened to Robert, Mary, and Phoebe after their mother died. One storyline is that Mary & Phoebe lived with their aunt & uncle, Thomas & Mary Jones.  Another storyline is that they lived for a time with their aunt & uncle, Joe & Sarah Bryant. I know for sure that they also lived with their grandparents, Enoch and Minerva Manning in Holding, Stearns County, Minnesota in 1885[1].  We know that the three children’s father also died when they were young. Family history says he was poisoned so someone could steal money from him. One researcher indicated that John William died in 1888.  If he died so much later, then it wouldn’t make as much sense as to why the three children were living with their grandparents in June 1885.
In 1888, Enoch moved to Cass County, Minnesota. It is unclear if that is when the children went to live with the Joneses, the Bryants or stayed with Enoch.

The Child Bearing Years

Arthur and Mary (Manning) Brown

Family oral history says that Enoch was a harsh man, so it is easy to understand why young Mary wanted to get away from him. According to Les Crider’s records, Mary married Arthur Durwood Brown on 19 October 1892, when she was but 14 years old. Both the 1900 and 1910 Censuses confirm this marriage year. Most of the next thirty years of her life she spent pregnant or nursing.

First was Clyde Leroy who was born 1894 in Sylvan Township, Cass County, Minnesota.
Then the young couple moved to North Dakota. I recall Mary
telling me that they traveled to North Dakota by oxen and wagon.  I don’t know if it was this time or one of the other times they moved as they switched between North Dakota and Minnesota several times.
Victoria Cecelia was their first child born in North Dakota;
she was born in 1896.
They moved back to Minnesota where Clarence Arthur was born
in 1897.
The 1900 Census indicates that Mary had had four children,
three of whom were living.  That child was named Martin and was probably born in 1899 and died before 1 June 1900[2].  Other records indicate he died of measles.
Cora Elsie was born in Pequot Lakes, Crow Wing, Minnesota,
in 1901.
My grandfather, Clifford Durwood Brown, was born in Robinson,
Kidder County, ND, in 1903, three days before the famous flight of the Wright Brothers.
Dorothy was born between 1905 and 1907. She also died of measles, apparently before 1910.
Edward Lewis was born in North Dakota in July 1908.
Arthur Eugene was born in North Dakota in 1909.
Charles William was the last of the children born in North
Dakota in 1914.
The family moved back to Minnesota where Delores Sarah was
born in Sylvan Township in 1917 and Nettie Mae Viola born in Pillager in 1921.

The Middle Years

In 1928, Mary’s husband of 36 years died. Mary was 50 years
old when Arthur died.  Who would have guessed that Mary hadn’t lived half of her life at that point?
The 1930 Census shows Mary living with her three youngest
children in Fairview, Cass County, Minnesota. Nearby is her son Edward with his new wife Mary[3].
Cora, Nettie, Delores, Arthur, and Clarence were all married
in the ensuing ten years and began having many children, Grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were being born frequently. Her son, Clifford had a child out of wedlock. He illegally took custody of the child and brought her to Minnesota to be raised by his mother and himself. He was arrested and went to prison in Illinois for child-napping. When he got out of prison, he changed his name to Richard Earl Durand. Some years later Richard would return to Minnesota and change his name once again, this time to Richard (Dick) Earl Brown.
The 1940 Census shows Mary living as hired help in May
Township with Isaac Reynolds. Isaac was the local postmaster[4].

The Motley Years

Five Generation Photo
Mary Brown, Clyde Brown, Granddaughter Marie, great-granddaughter Yvonne (on far right), & GG Granddaughter Yvonne (on Mary’s lap) – Dec 1961

Shortly afterward (before 1943), Mary moved to Motley and
lived a very quiet life.  Apparently, also in the 1940s her son Dick came to live in the same house. In September 1961, she became a great-great-grandmother with the birth of Yvonne Marie [living].

 I remember visiting Grandpa Dick and “Ma Brown” many times in the late 1950s and 1960s. On one occasion, Grandpa Dick had just bought a new $50 clunker automobile.  Mary was upset with him spending money on the car and admonished the universe with a quote I will forever remember.  “Those crazy kids and their motor cars – cars, cars, cars, that all they think about.” She was calling my grandfather a “crazy kid.”  He was about 58 at the time and still a kid. It is all about perspective. He may have been in his late 50s but she was in her mid-80s at the time, and from her perspective, he was a kid.
Ma Brown was a fantastic cook. She had separate cast iron pans for fowl, beef, and venison. She made an amazing rhubarb sauce. We just called it “sauce” and everyone knew which sauce we meant.  I always think of her when I see strawberry rhubarb pie because none I’ve ever eaten since compare to her pies.  I have a pencil sharpener on my desk that looks like a hand water pump.  It reminds me every day about Ma Brown and her life in Motley.  In her kitchen was a hand pump, their only source of water until into the mid-1960s. They had an outhouse that was a cool visit in November and December. We never visited in January, so I can only imagine – an outhouse – January – Minnesota – Burrrr.  Alongside the Motley house Mary kept a huge garden – probably most of a house lot in size. She maintained it well into her late 80s, perhaps into her 90s.

Mary’s later years

Sadly, I think the last time I saw Mary was in 1965 or so.  As a teenager, I didn’t have the inclination to visit “up north.” I went into the service in 1969 and didn’t see Mary at all during the ensuing years, although I did visit Grandpa Dick a few times in the 1970s, but he was in Motley and Mary was at the Bethany Good Samaritan Center in Brainerd.  Not visiting her in Brainerd is something I regret not having done.
In 1976, Mary Elizabeth Brown celebrated her 100th birthday.  I believe it was a couple of years premature, but that is okay.  Her celebrations continued for another seven years. She died on 8 May 1983 at the
age of 105 at the Bethany Home in Brainerd, Minnesota.

Mary E. Brown
1876 Mother 1983

She is buried at Gull River Cemetery, Pillager, Minnesota,
near her husband Arthur who died fifty-five years earlier.

Conclusion

Mary had an amazing life. She was orphaned young; she was married young. She had 13 children and raised 10 of them to adulthood. She lived a life without conveniences, not getting indoor plumbing until the 1960s.
She was very active in her church. In her Motley years, she cooked and canned from her garden and prepared the game her son brought home.
There are many of Mary’s grandchildren still alive.  I would love it if they, their children, or anyone with first-hand memories of Mary, would use the comments below to add to the stories of their experiences with Mary Elizabeth (Manning) Brown.

List of Greats

1.    Mary Elizabeth Manning [Brown] (1878-1983)
2.   John William Manning (1846-c.1888)
3.   Enoch Mannin (1823-1907)
4.  Meridith  Mannin (1802-1885)
5.   John Bosel Mannin Sr. (b. 1776 in Virginia)
6.   Samuel Mannin  (b. abt 1756)
7.   Meredith Mannin (b. Abt. 1720)

 


ENDNOTES
[1] 1885 Minnesota, Territorial, and State Census, Ancestry.com1885 – Holding, Stearns County, Minn – Page 3 (Post Office: Saint Anna).

[2] 1900 Census, Ancestry.com, 1900; Census Place: Township 136, Crow Wing, Minnesota; Roll: 761; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0069; FHL microfilm: 1240761.

[3] The United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626,), Year: 1930; Census Place: Fairview, Cass, Minnesota.
[4] 1940 Census, Ancestry.com, Year: 1940; Census Place: May, Cass, Minnesota; Roll: T627_1912; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 11-33.
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William Isack Middleton (1872- )

William Isack Middleton (1872- )

Project Middleton/Smith

By – Don Taylor

Follow your Process

I find there is a right way to do things and a wrong way. The wrong way is usually a lot faster and a lot less work, but when you do it that way, inevitably you realize the error of your way and find the need to do the same work over. Such was the case of some research that I was doing for my (former) step-daughter.

I returned to her tree the other day and found a note I had made the last time I was researching her second great grandfather, William I. Middleton. It was questioning the validity of the couple I had established as his parents. I had been using Ancestry Web interface and allowed the sources and citations to be the easy attribution that Ancestry.Com provides. It is easy and nice but not as thorough as I like to document a person. When I ran into a problem suggesting different parents for William, I really couldn’t sort it out because the sources were all electronic and didn’t provide an easy way to see all of the data simultaneously. In other words, analysis was difficult, if not impossible.

Admittedly, it was a lot easier to do the work the second time because Ancestry did provide links to the Ancestry provided Census and other documents. I then took that information, generated my own hand-written census sheets and printed out for my records all of the other documents, such as a copy of William’s WW1 Draft Registration. Then I gleaned all of the information out of the various documents that I could to provide a much better picture of William and his life.

The bottom line is when you have a process that fully documents your facts and fully links those facts to the sources, don’t try to take shortcuts. Follow your process.

Bio – William Isack Middleton (1872- )

William Isack Middleton was born on 17 Nov 1872[1], in New York, probably Kings County, to John Alexander and Mary Elizabeth (Collyer) Middleton.
William had three siblings, a brother, Ferris J., who was 11 years older, a sister, Cora R., who was 9 years older, and another sibling whose age and relationship is unknown.  The 1900 Census indicates that his mother had had four children, three of whom were still living.  The family grew up in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.
The Evening World (New York, NY
December 14, 1893 – LAST EDITION, Page 3
Courtesy: Chronicling America
It appears that William moved to New Jersey before 1893 because he was he involved in prosecuting the owner of a disorderly house in December of 1893[2].  He married Lillian Neilson Bailey on 2 September 1895, at Trinity Episcopal Church, Arlington, NJ.
In February, 1900 Lillian gave birth to a son Stuart Rae Middleton[3].  William was working as a millwright at a machine shop. Family tradition says Lillian gave birth to twins and that the other child died as an infant. The 1900 Census corroborates this by indicating that Lillian had had two children, only one of whom was living.  The young couple was renting a home on Chestnut Street, Kearny, Hudson County, New Jersey next door to Lillian’s parents, William and Mary Bailey.
625 Chestnut Street, Kearny, NJ Today
Photo Courtesy: Google Maps

By 1910 the family had purchased a home at 625 Chestnut Street.

W hen he registered for the draft in 1918, the 45 year-old William was working as an “Erecting Engineer” for Permutit Company. Permutit was a pioneer in water and wastewater treatment technology and was acquired by United States Filter Corporation in 1993[4]. William must have been prematurely gray as his physical description was Medium Height, Stout Build, Blue Eyes, Grey Hair.

In 1919, his son Stuart married Lillian Wanding and the couple came to live with William, William’s wife (also named Lillian) and William’s mother-in-law, Mary (Russell) Bailey[5].

Sometime between 1920 and 1929 William and Lillian moved to Mountain View, Passaic, New Jersey. In 1929, William and Lillian had a car accident while in Trenton. They were hit by a truck at corner of Hamilton and Broad Streets. [6]

By 1930, the couple moved again, this time to a home on Spruce Ave. valued at $6500, in Lincoln Park, Morris County, New Jersey. In 1935 they were living someplace in a rural area of Morris County and in 1940 they had moved in with their son, Stuart, to a house on Grove Street in Boonton, Morris County, New Jersey.

When or where William died or was buried is unknown.

Further Actions:
·      Order copy of William and Lillian’s Marriage License.
·      Order copy of William’s birth record.
·      Order copy of Lillian’s Death Record. (It should show if William proceeded her.)
·      Find William’s death record.
List of Greats
1.     Stuart Rae Middleton
2.    William Isack Middleton
3.     John Alexander Middleton


————- DISCLAIMER ————-

[1] U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Ancestry.com, https://www.Ancestry.com, Registration: New Jersey; Hudson; Roll: 1712201; Draft Board: 5. William Isack Middleton.
[3] U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Ancestry.com, https://www.Ancestry.com, Database online. Registration Location: Hudson County, New Jersey; Roll: ; Draft Board:. Record for Stuart Rae Middleton.
[4] https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/united-states-filter-corporation-history/
[5] 1920 U.S. Census, Ancestry.com, https://www.Ancestry.com, 1920; Census Place: Kearny Ward 4, Hudson, New Jersey; Roll: T625_1048; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 279; Image: 1053. – Line 35. 625 Chestnut Street (Ward 4)
[6] Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, NJ) – March, 28, 1929, Page 2 via www.genealogybank.com.
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