52 Ancestors #4 – Minerva Ann Tolliver Mannin (1821-1902)
Map Courtesy of Wikipedia
Minerva Ann Tolliver was born in Kentucky on 5 Feb 1821. Various records during her life record her name in many different ways, Minerva, Manerva, Minora, and Minna. She was probably born in Bath County, near Greenup County, in the portion of Bath that became Morgan County in 1822 and Rowan County in 1856. I also suspect near what was to become Carter County in 1838. It is also likely that the county changes account for many of the different county designations of where she lived over the years.
There is a wonderful interactive map at Kentucky Historical Counties which allows you to select a date and see what counties existed then. If can then easily see the changes in the Bath/Morgan/Rowan counties over time.
There is considerable speculation regarding her early life. One thread indicates that Minerva was Native American (Cherokee). I don’t believe this to be the case. First, in none of the Census reports was Minerva ever reported as being anything but white. Second, as my 3rd great-grandmother, I would expect to have about 3% of her genome. Although I do have 2% unknown or trace, there is no evidence that I have any Native American in my ancestry. Likewise, my mother, who should have approximately 6% of Minerva’s genome shows no proportion of Native American. 23 & Me indicates she has 99.4% European ancestry as do I. Because of the “stickiness” of DNA, although unlikely, it is still possible for Minerva to be Native American. I would be very interested in the mtDNA results of any direct female descendants of Minerva – that should answer the question definitively.
Another theory is that Minerva was raised by Elijah Toliver and used his last name although she was born with the surname Mannin. This theory suggests that her father died when she was very young and her mother remarried. Her mother, Martha Patsy (Mannin), married Elijah Tolliver in 1825. Minerva was 3 years old then, so she probably wasn’t a child of Elijah. This thought is supported by Phoebe Mannin, Minerva’s granddaughter, who listed Minerva’s last name as “Mannin” when she created a family tree in 1973.
A third theory exists that Martha Patsy Mannin had Minerva out of wedlock. Thus, Minerva had the surname Mannin until Martha married. This scenario makes the most sense to me and explains many of the conflicting facts. (I think this is a case where Occam’s Razor applies and this is the simplest answer.)
The records are unclear where her parents were born. Some say Kentucky, some say Virginia. Kentucky became a state in 1792 so it is possible that her parents were born in what was Virginia but is now Kentucky. It is also possible that Elijah was used on some occasions as her father and the unknown Mannin used at other times.
She and Enoch were married on 15 Oct 1843, in Grayson, Morgan County, Kentucky, when she was 22 years old. She had nine children, five girls and four boys. Four of her children preceded her in death.
John William Mannin (1846-1888)
Isaac Wilson Mannin (1848-1931)
Nancy Ann Mannin Barnett (1849-1913)
Meredith Mannin (1851-
Sarah Jane Mannin Bryant (1855-1942)
Mary Ermaline Mannin Jones Gates (1856-1899)
Gresella Mannin (1857-1897)
Prudence Mannin Bare McDonald (1860-1898)
Robert J Mannin (1869-Following her and Enoch while they were in Kentucky is very confusing. They appear to have moved between Bath, Carter, and Morgan counties between 1843 and 1883. (All are in northeast Kentucky.) However, as mentioned before they are all within a short distance from each other depending upon the year being considered. This could be an excellent area for further research and study.
Her husband, Enoch, served the North during the Civil War (War of Rebellion or War of Northern Aggression depending upon your point of view)
In 1880, she and Enoch were still in Carter County, Kentucky.
She and Enoch moved to Minnesota in April 1883 to Holding township in Stearns County; their post office was Saint Anna.
Their eldest son, John William Manning, had two daughters, Mary & Phebe. John’s wife died in 1882 and the girls were living with their grandparents, Enoch and Minerva, in 1885. We aren’t sure how long they stayed with them.
Enoch moved the family to Cass County in April, 1888. They settled on 160 acres in May Township, Cass County, Minnesota; Enoch received a homestead patent in 1894 for the land. Minerva’s life was that of a farmer’s wife; she kept house on the land that her husband owned and raised 9 children.
NE 1/4 of Section 22, Township 134 (May Township) today
A Google map view of the property (Northeast quarter of section 22, township 134 (May Township), Range 31, today indicates a swampy bit of land along a creek without any evidence of current farming or of the original homestead. She continued to live on the farm in May township until her death in 1902.
Marker of Minerva A (Tolliver) Wife of Enoch Mannin Feb 5, 1821- Oct 25, 1902 Photo by Don Taylor
Minerva’s marker and death certificate are inconsistent. One says she died on October 24th the other October 25. One says died at 81 years, 8 mos, 20 days (making her birth Feb 5, 1821) the other says she died at 82 years, 8 mos, 21 days (making her birth Feb 3, 1920). The 1821 date is probably correct as she was x9 years old during most of the earlier census reports. She is buried in Bridgeman Cemetery in Cass County.
I remember Minerva and celebrate her life today, the 193rd anniversary of her birth.
Sources
Tombstone/Marker Minerva A, Bridgeman Cemetery, Cass County, Minnesota (Personal visit)
1850 US Federal Census – Via Ancestry.Com
1860 US Federal Census – Via Ancestry.Com
1880 US Federal Census – Via Ancestry.Com
1885 Minnesota, Territorial and State Census – Via Ancestry.com
1895 Minnesota Territorial and State Censuses – Via Ancestry.com
1900 US Federal Census – Via Ancestry.Com
Department of the Interior – Bureau of Pensions – Questionnaire, Enoch Mannin – 20 Nov 1897.
Sometimes a person in your tree exemplifies what you don’t know about someone. The basics just aren’t enough to understand that person’s life. My sixth great-grandmother Jane Valentine is such a person for me. I know vitals but very little more about her or her life.
She was born on the 27th of January 1724, probably in Yonkers, Westchester County, New York, although she may have been born in Yorktown Heights, also in Westchester County. Her parents were Matthias and Anna (Ryche) Valentine.
In 1742 she married Reuben Fowler in Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York.
Various other people’s trees indicate all kinds of things, one person’s tree says she had 17 children, one after she died. Another says she had 21, but there are clearly duplicates of children with the same name and overlapping lives. So I really don’t know how many children she had. I am sure of two, Phoebe and Reuben. Reuben (Junior) was born to Jane in 1753 at Yorktown, Westchester County, New York, and is my fifth great-grandfather.
She died in 1763, apparently in Eastchester, Bronx, New York, which is today a neighborhood in northeast Bronx, not to be confused with Eastchester town in Westchester County. Although, I suspect she may have died Eastchester town and my source got the wrong place as everything else about her life was in Westchester County.
So, I have the vitals, born 1724, married 1742, Died 1763, but not much else. Her life is clearly one that I need to do much more research on.
I honor and remember Jane Valentine on this, the 289th anniversary of her birth.
Ad – Chin Chin at the Lincoln Square Theatre – Decatur Review 10/30/1919 – pg 5
When Donna joined the “Chin Chin” company, the company had been on the road since August, 1818, sixty-five weeks. The show had played from San Diego to San Francisco. It came to Decatur, Illinois, in October, 1919, and was the starting place to again cross the country, this time on a northern route to Seattle, Portland, and other cities in the Northwest.
After the Decatur performance many of chorus girls left the company to go home for a vacation. New girls joined the company there and rehearsed between shows and were to go on with the principals for the trip west once more. There was one new principle with them, the woman who sang the part of the “Goddess of the Lamp.” That new principal was Donna Montran.
The Decatur Review had an interesting note about the demands that the show put on its company. It said
NO SIX HOUR DAY HERE.
“Coal miners who think that six hours a day, five days a week, constitute a week’s work should travel with one of these transcontinental companies, which make long jumps to make one and two night stands.
“The company, which played here played at Hannibal, Mo. Wednesday, left that place Thursday morning at 5 o’clock, reached Decatur between 11 and 12 o’clock, played a matinee from 3 until 5:30 and another full performance that evening.”
According to the Decatur Review on October 31st, Chin Chin taxed the capacity of the Lincoln Square Theater. They also say:
PLEASE 2,600 PERSONS
“Donna Montran, who only recently joined the company as the leading soprano as the Goddess of the Lamp, lacked volume but the performance as a whole please the 2,600 people who saw it.
“The dancing was unusually good, the chorus well trained and the fifty-five people in the company were exceedingly well costumed.”
Lincoln Square Theater
In 1860, the Priest Hotel was built on the site, which some say was an ancient burial ground. The hotel’s name changed to the New Deming in 1880. It again changed name in 1892 to the “Decatur and Arcade Hotel.” The hotel burned in 1904. The hotel was rebuilt, but in 1915 it burned again. Two people were confirmed to have died in the second fire and several other people were missing, their bodies having never been found.
After the 1915 fire, the site was rebuilt, this time into the Lincoln Square Theater. It was built with a fireproof intent using steel, cement, and fireproof brick. The theater hosted many celebrities of the time including Houdini and Ethel Barrymore. Jack Dempsey appeared there in the September before Donna and the Chin Chin company was there in October.
Since the 1930s the theater has been considered haunted.
The theater had a difficult time during the heyday of motion pictures and closed after December 1980, except for an occasional music show. It closed completely in 1990.
However, also in 1990, Lincoln Square Theater, Inc., was established to determine the viability of saving the structure. Studies of the building found it to be sound and activities were undertaken to renovate and restore the facility. Several donations helped stabilize the building in the 1990s and in 2004, a $1.75M grant for restoration was received. Restoration began in 2005 and is currently ongoing.
Despite the renovation and restoration the Lincoln Square Theater is still considered to be one of the most haunted theaters in the country. Troy Taylor has a regular tour of haunted places in Decatur which includes the Lincoln Square Theater. See https://www.haunteddecatur.com/ for details of his tours.
More Findings about Donna
In my search for Donna and her activities in show business, I went ahead and subscribed to Newspapers.Com. They are one of the top newspaper subscription sites and well worth having a subscription.
A search on “Montran” found many new articles regarding Donna. For example, I learned that Donna had joined the company of “Chin Chin” earlier than I had previously thought. In an October 31th newspaper, Donna, “who only recently joined the company” was called out in an article about pleasing the audience of 2600 people at the Lincoln Square theater. They also mention she didn’t have enough volume but we’ll ignore that opinion.)
I was also able to find several other personal call-outs as well as several more showings of “Chin Chin” around the country, including a six-day showing in Winnipeg, Canada.
Other new findings that I still need to research and blog about include:
Jan 19-24, 1920 – Winnipeg, Canada – Walker Theatre
Feb 12, 1920 – Eau Claire, WI – The Nelson – Callout!
Feb 15, 1920 – Logansport, IN – Nelson Theater.
Feb 19, 1920 – Fort Wayne, Majestic Theater.
Feb 23, 1920 – Muskegon, MI – Regent
Feb 25, 1920 – Bay City, MI – Washington Theater
Feb 26, 1920 – Saginaw, MI – Auditorium
Feb 28, 1920 – Ann Arbor, MI – Whitney Theater
Mar 1, 1920 – Baltimore – Auditorium
(I can’t wait to write about the Walker Theater. It has been renovated and is currently a Performing Arts Theater of renown.)
There were also many other findings for other shows after her “Chin Chin” performances that I will also need to research further. Add to that a list of other engagements I received from Uncle Russ (Donna’s son) so, I have lots more research to do about each of these engagements. I should remain busy with the life of Madonna for a long time to come.
A very good friend of mine has been doing genealogy for a while ran into something of a brick wall. He found his family in the 1940 Census and even his great-grandparents in the 1930 Census, but he was not finding anything for them before that. We were pretty sure that they arrived at Ellis Island on 20 Jun 1892, so they should have shown up in the 1900, 1910, and 1920 censuses as well.
I did a quick look on Ancestry and on Family Search and wasn’t successful finding anything either. I know that if you asked several people how to spell Stelmaszewski you would receive several different spellings. Trying to figure out how the surname is spelled in a case like this can be daunting. So I took a surname unknown approach. I used Ancestry.Com because both my friend and I have subscriptions there.
Next, I took stock of a few things we did know. His grandmother’s name was Priscilla Helen Stelmaszewski and her parents were Frank (or Franz) and Katherine. We knew Priscilla was born in 1907 in Minnesota.
On Ancestry.Com I went immediately to the 1920 Census records via the Card Catalog (Search | Card Catalog | 1920 United States Federal Census).
First & Middle Names: Priscilla Helen
Last Name: (Left Blank)
Birth: 1907 Location: Minnesota
Then down to family members,
Father: Frank
Then I added another
Mother: Katherine
Search…
Bang. Second entry:
A review of the record confirmed that was them, right age for mother, father, and daughter. Right places of birth. And wow. Not only them but eight siblings for Priscilla.
Then I tried the same kind of search in the 1910 Census records. Boo-hoo no luck.
I tried several other combinations and didn’t hit on a combination that found them (remember, I’m not using a last name).
I tried using Frank/Franz with a child named Victoria (usually quite readable and spell able).
That gave me about 126 thousand responses and none on the first page that looked right. I knew from the 1930 census that Priscilla’s older siblings were also born in Minnesota so I figured that they might have been in Minnesota in 1920 as well. Also Frank had been born in Poland about 1864 so I went with that too.
Still too many records (I hate going down to a second or third page). They lived in Pine County in 1930, maybe they did in 1920 also. I added that as exact.
Again, there they were.
I used a similar technique to find them in the 1900 Census.
Because I know that Minnesota had an 1895 and a 1905 census I was able to search (leaving out the last name) and including either relationships to children or the location of Pine County to follow the family and see the spellings used for their surname.
1892 – Stelmaszewski (Ellis Island Passenger Record)
Stillmaziski (1895 Census) via Ancestry.Com
1895 – Stillmaziski (Minnesota Census)
1900 – Stetmaszewski (US Census)
1905 – Stelmazewki (Minnesota Census)
1910 – Stelinaszewski (US Census)
1920 – Stetenzki (US Census)
1930 – Stelmaszewski (US Census)
Stetenzki (1920 Census) – via Amazon.com
1940 – Scelmaszewski (US Census) (Living with daughter and son in law)
Although the name changed many times in the census schedules, we were able to fill in the entire census record of the family based upon relationships and locations without using last names at all.
The records are unclear where her parents were born. Some say Kentucky, some say Virginia. Kentucky became a state in 1792 so it is possible that her parents were born in what was Virginia but is now Kentucky. It is also possible that Elijah was used on some occasions as her father and the unknown Mannin used at other times.
