Tag Archives: Clark

Elizabeth Stahler Kaser, Who’s Your Daddy?

Making  assumptions about Elizabeth Stahler Kaser did not work out so well.

BACKPEDALING

At the beginning of the year, I announced that I would turn my attention to my father’s line because I know far less about the ancestors on his side, than on my mother’s.

I still intend to keep the vow to concentrated on my father’s line, but I need to “bark up a new branch” because I jumped to a conclusion that has proved to be wrong.

As a visual aid, I recently printed out poster-style family trees of Harriette Anderson (Kaser) and Paul Kaser.  It vividly demonstrates why I should concentrate on my father’s side of the family.

(Please pardon the quality, but names are not important at this point.  I just want to illustrate the relative size of known ancestors at this point.

Harriette Anderson

Harriette Anderson Kaser Pedigree Chart 11 generations. Two more not shown.

Paul Kaser Pedigree Chart

Paul Kaser Pedigree Chart, five generations.

In January, I also announced that I would be starting with the known–the parents of Elizabeth Stahler Kaser who married Joseph Kaser.  Then I proceeded to spend three months researching the families of Adam Stahler and Eva Maria Henrich. I assumed they were Elizabeth’s parents.

I WAS WRONG!

TRUST BUT VERIFY

The feeble “evidence” for most of my father’s line comes from a history about the family of Joseph Kaser. From that book, which does include some references, I determined that Joseph Kaser’s wife was Elizabeth Stahler from Pennsylvania. I wrote about Elizabeth Stahler Kaser hereAnd about Joseph here.

A distant cousin who is related to my father’s maternal line, the Butts/Butz family, long ago had told me about the Goshenhoppen Register–a record of itinerant Catholic priests. The Butts family were Catholics.  The Kasers that I knew of were not.  However, she found an Elizabeth Stahler in the Goshenhoppen Register, along with her birth and baptism in 1775 and her parents, Adam Stahler and Eva Maria Henrich.  This was good new indeed, I thought. Although I did wonder at whether she changed religion just to marry Joseph, or what was happening there.

In hindsight, I should have looked for additional confirmation before proceeding down that particular rabbit hole.  But I dug up what I could, which was not much, and explored the lives of her children and Joseph’s will to help fill in some blanks.

WHY I TRUST THE GRAVESTONE

When I found her on Find a Grave–complete with a picture of her gravestone in Nashville, Ohio, it seemed strange.  I knew that Joseph and Elizabeth  Kaser had lived in Clark, Ohio, and Joseph, who died several years before she did, was buried at the Zion Reform German church in New Bedford Ohio. Many Kasers are interred at New Bedford.  However, Exploring their children’s lives and Joseph’s will points to evidence that Elizabeth spent her declining years in Nashville with her youngest son. In addition, I have no doubt that this is Joseph’s wife, Elizabeth, because their tombstones are identical in style. The same stone carver made their stones, even though they are in different parts of Holmes and adjacent Coshocton Counties in Ohio.

The tombstone says Elizabeth Kaser was born August 5, 1777–NOT 1775 as in the Catholic birth and baptism records.  Tombstones are not perfect, but in this case, I am inclined to believe the tombstone’s date.  My problem–I had found that Find a Grave reference a couple years ago.  Why did I ignore it?  Just because it was inconvenient?  I need to slow down.

WHAT I DON’T KNOW

The key to learning sometimes is realizing what you do not know.  Earlier, I assumed that the Kaser history was right about Elizabeth’s maiden name and I assumed that my distant cousin was right about her baptism and birth records in a Catholic Church register. I thought I knew those things.  Now, I have to admit that I don’t really know her parentage or her birth place.

I have found a Pennsylvania marriage record for an Elizabeth Stahler who married a man whose name is described as Fye (but I believe it is probably Frye). That tells me there was indeed at least one other Elizabeth Stahler in eastern Pennsylvania.  However, I have not found a marriage record for Joseph and Elizabeth Kaser.

So I don’t know:

  • Elizabeth’s maiden name (although the Kaser History has proven reliable on that score, and odds are it actually is Stahler.) [With new evidence, I now believe the Kaser history was wrong even about the surname of Joseph’s wife.]
  • The date and place she and Joseph were married.
  • Who her parents are and where she came from in Pennsylvania.

The basic information!

NEXT STEPS

While I looked through the Lutheran/Reform church records of Pennsylvania some time ago, I was not looking for the name Stahler, so I need to go back to those records.  It appears that they are not on line, so I will have to go to the Family History Center at an LDS church to peruse them.  If I am lucky, a marriage license will show up.[In fact, I need to stop focusing on Stahler all together.}

But what if even the Kaser history is wrong and her last name is not even Stahler?  Although I do not generally look at other people’s family trees and I never depend on them for answers, they can lead to new sources and sometimes a contact with the tree owner can be useful. So I need to contact people whose family trees show Joseph Kaser(1776) and his wife  Elizabeth.

Meanwhile, I have corrected as much as possible in the posts on Ancestors in Aprons. I have decided to let the posts I wrote about Adam Stahler, Eva Maria Henrich and Christian and Margaret Henrich stay on Ancestors in Aprons. Although I do not need information about the Stahlers and the Henrichs since they are not related to Elizabeth Kaser, there are many people out there looking for information about Stahlers and Henrichs and they might get something out of my research.

Oh yeah–just to keep things interesting, one of Joseph and Elizabeth’s sons–George, who is my great-great grandfather–also married a woman whose last name is Stahler. I am making no assumptions about her! [And in fact her name might be Stehler instead. Or something else close to Stahler. Open mind!]

Lucy Sutherland Photo and Losing Focus

Despite pledging to myself that this year I would stick to the main line of ancestors, I can never resist a mystery.  And Lucy Sutherland presented a mystery.

Lucy Sutherland

Lucy Sutherland (Fair) carte de visite.

In sorting through old photographs, I came across this pretty lady.  On the back I saw it was photographed in Millersburg, Ohio, by a photographer who took many pictures of my other ancestors.  The hand-written name below the photographer’s imprint on the back was Lucy Sutherland.  At the top on the back someone had also written #4 Mrs. L. S. Fair,Clark.

Both of those surnames struck a chord.  One of my father’s aunts, Emma Kaser married a Sutherland.( I  found the story of Emma and George to be quite interesting. You can follow the link to her name if you’d like to read it.)  And my mother’s half-sister, Rhema Anderson married a Fair.  The Sutherlands, Fairs, and Kasers all lived near or in Clark, Ohio.  So how come I didn’t know Lucy Sutherland? And was she born a Sutherland or did she marry one? And why would my mother or father have her photo in their collection?

What I Knew Or Learned

The carte de visite photo looks to have been taken in the 1870s, judging by the style of the photograph and by the style of her dress.  I guessed her age as in her 20s or 30s.

I searched my family tree for Sutherlands, but Lucy was not there.  So next I turned to Fairs. Since I had not added the family of my uncle (by marriage) Earl Fair, my tree was of no help, so I emailed a Fair cousin. He consulted with his sister, who did some research and came up with the fact that Lucy Sutherland married Phineas Franklin Fair, brother of Lyman S. Fair.

That solved the question of why Mrs. L. S. Fair’s name appears on the back of the picture, and firmly places the drama in Clark, Ohio.

P.F. Fair and Lucy were married on November 4 1879, so Lucy was unmarried when she had this picture made, but it is logical to assume that it was indeed taken in the 1870s.  The two newlyweds were twenty-five years old according to their marriage license, so in the picture she was a bit younger than I had guessed–in her early twenties.

A little more digging, and some mysteries clear up, but as usual–new ones emerge.

Three Families Come to Clark, Ohio

In the 1820s, a young Joseph Kaser (III) arrived in Ohio with his parents.  He married and had a large family including Emma Kaser (b. 1864) and Clifford Kaser (b. 1867).

In 1836, five-year-old Daniel Fair arrived in Ohio with his parents. He grew up and married and had several children including Phineas Franklin Fair (b. 1855) and Lyman S. Fair (B. 1866)

About 1864, the Daniel Sutherland Family, with nine-year-old Lucy Sutherland (B. 1855) and other children, including two-year-old George Sutherland (b. 1862) moved from Pennsylvania to a farm near Clark, Ohio (then called Bloomfield).

By 1879, when Lucy Sutherland married Phineas Franklin Fair they were both twenty-five years old.

In My Tree

The cast of characters as they show up in my family tree:

Clifford Kaser, My paternal grandfather.

Emma Kaser, My great-aunt, Clifford’s sister.

Lyman S. Fair, Father of my uncle by marriage, Earl Fair.

Phineas Franklin Fair, Uncle of my uncle by marriage, Earl Fair.

George Sutherland, husband of my great-aunt, Emma Kaser.

Which makes Lucy Sutherland, the lady in the picture, the sister of the husband of my great-aunt. AND the wife of the uncle of the husband of my aunt.

Got that?

More Lucy Sutherland Mystery

The mystery of why my parents would have her photo remains unsolved.

And the fact that Phineas Franklin married a second time in 1903 adds piquancy to the story.  Lucy pretty much seems to disappear from records after her one son is born in 1886. Find a Grave identifies a grave marker as hers and says she died in 1951 (age 96) but I can’t read the tombstone, so don’t currently have any more information from that. There also is a Lucy A. Fair on a property map of the area where P.F. Fair also has land, but most records refer to her as Lucy J.

I am going to leave it to the Fair family to sort this out if they choose, and go back to my direct line, now that I at least know my connection to the lady in the photo. Thanks for the entertaining distraction, Lucy, but I’m back in focus.

Aaron Purdy Lures Uncle Jesse Morgan to Ohio

When we last saw Mary Bassett, she was settling the affairs of her first husband, Asahel Platt with the help of her new husband, Jesse Morgan. My 2nd great-grandmother, she had married a much-older Mr. Platt when she was only nineteen, hoping for stability after her mother died. Unfortunately, things did not work out the way she had hoped, and he died just a few years after they married. Read Mary’s story here.

What is the Question?

Family letters that Mary and her daughter, grand-daughter and great-grand daughter saved, are helping me learn more about Mary and particularly about her somewhat elusive second husband, Jesse Morgan. One of my quests is to figure out why Jesse Morgan wound up in the little town of Killbuck, Ohio.

I had long assumed that Jesse was born in New York because of this letter that he received addressed to New York.  But he probably was born in eastern Pennsylvania, where his father, Jesse Sr. moved from Connecticut. However, after the Jesse that became my 2nd great grandfather married his first wife, they moved to New York, because two daughters, and possibly two earlier sons were born there.  In 1835 when he received the letter, he had a three-month-old daughter, plus the older children, but he moved the family to Killbuck before 1938 when his third son was born.  His wife died,probably when that child was born.

The evidence is fairly strong that the letter he received in 1835 was influential in convincing him to move. He probably was a private school teacher, and might have wound up in Killbuck because there was  a need for a teacher.

What to Look For in the Letter

  • Aaron’s focus on the value of farm produce,
  • a lot of family gossip–which is invaluable to the family researcher,
  • a revealing couple of paragraphs pointing out the strong prejudices against German immigrants in the early 19th century. (I wrote about that anti-immigrant feeling in the late 18th century here.)
  • His sales pitch to Jesse to come to Ohio, appealing to the sense of adventure and novelty.

Note: As with the previous letter I shared, I have added paragraphs and punctuation. However, I have left Aaron Purdy’s very original spelling alone.

July 21st 1835

Folded with Address on the outside; from Clark’s Ohio

August 7th
Mr. Jessee Morgan

To: Volucia,Chautauqua Co., New York

Dear uncle I take this opertunity to inform you that we are all well at present and hope that these few lines will find you enjoying the same. I have just been perusing the last leter we had from you dated the 3rd of July 1833. We have not had any letter from you since but I think that father has wrote one since he received it. We hear from you by some one that moved from there and we only believe that you are still alive.
We just received a leter from Matilda [Morgan Howard] which was bad news to us. She writes that her oldest dauter is dead and the rest of them has been very sick. Towner Savage [Aaron Purdy’s borther in law] has had two shocks of the palsy [strokes] and is not able to do any hard laborer. We expect them here next summer. [Matilda and Towner Savage live in Oregon Territory] We have such bad news of the western country I think that we will be satisfied whare we are. I am now akeeping a store of my own on Dowdys fork, Mechanick[Mechanic] Township, homes county[ Holmes County, Ohio] I commenced the 18th of April. God only knows how I shal get along. I am aselling goods very fast.
(back of first page)

Wheat has been a beter price this Spring than it was even more before from 100 to 100.20

on the ___________ (?) which is not very far from us. Every thing that we have to sell we can get the cash for it and thare is no lack of it neither – corn 50c oats 31c and 37c. Some of our ole neibours were back to Pensylvania this Spring and it does us good to hear that old town says that we can raise wheat here and send it thare cheaper than they can aford to raise it thare.
I must tell you something of our prosperity. I have 3 children, 2 boys and 1 girl, all healthy enough. Sally [Sister of Jesse Morgan] is married to George Bucklew and he is a brother to my wife [Belinda Bucklew] and if you call her duch [Dutch, meaning German] you may gess what he is and how well they are liked in this country.

I am sorry to hear of George [Jesse’s brother’s first wife died, and he married a second time. His second wife died in 1834.] having such misfortune in choosing a companion.  If it be true to have the bad luck to meet with a dville instead of a friend, we only have it from hearsay.

I want you to writ to me as soon as you can I think of enough to fill a sheet, and if you can’t think of enough perhaps some of uncle family can fill it with something interesting. I should like to know what you are all occupiing and how you
(2nd page)
you are ageting along. I want you to tell me the prices of your markets of catle, sheep, horses, wheat of which we have a plenty of here. I should be glad to See you here if you could come. I supose it would be more satisfaction from you to come here than for me to come there. I supose I have a beter idea of that county than you have of this.

I don’t know as I have much more to write at present only for some apologies made in your laste leter respecting some of the duch. I know I hope that you wont think any the less of me [or] Sally for choosing our companions because they are reported to be duch nor of us if we were as duch as the devil.

You must excuse me for not writing sooner and something more entertaining for I have so mutch to do behind this desk that I can’t think of mutch at this time
Yours with Respect, Aaron Purdy

The Family

The letter writer, Aaron Purdy, is the son of Jesse’s sister Hannah Morgan and her husband Isaac Purdy, who had moved to Ohio after they married–the only one of Jesse’s siblings to leave Pennsylvania. Aaron is married to Belinda Bucklew. Despite his enthusiasm for Ohio, he and his wife will eventually move to Oregon territory.

Sarah Morgan, who married George Bucklew, is the sister of Jesse Morgan. Her husband George is the brother of Belinda Bucklew Purdy.

Matilda Morgan Howard, Jesse’s older sister, has death and illness in her family.

Towner Savage, as described in the letter above, is the husband of Aaron Purdy’s sister, one of the many Purdys who move to Oregon Territory. (Her name was also Matilda. This family was one where they reused the names of sisters and brothers quite often).

George, Jesse’s brother lost two wives, probably dying in childbirth. The second would have died a few months before this letter was written. I believe the reference to “some of Uncle family,” has to refer to George as well.

Reading Aaron’s letter to his uncle has given me an enormous amount of information, and I believe has indicated an answer to my question about why Jesse moved to Ohio.