Tag Archives: Mary Brink Anderson

Revisiting the Andersons of Holmes County Ohio

EDITED to indicate John Anderson’s (Jr.) proper lineage.

Among the things that getting a DNA test has done  to influence my research–I discover ancestors I skipped over when I wrote about members of their family. That has been the case with both my maternal line of Andersons and my paternal line of Kasers.

DNA strand

DNA strand from pixabay

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Last week I remedied an oversight in the Andersons by talking about my great-uncle William McCabe Anderson. (My attention had been drawn to Will because of a DNA match.) William, second son of the 2nd marriage of John Anderson—to my grandmother Isabella McCabe—survived the experience of a P.O.W. during the Civil War.

As I looked at Will Anderson, I realized there were other Andersons that I had missed.

A Recap of the Andersons I Have Introduced

Caroline Anderson Bird

Family portrait Anderson and Stout, 1909

For identification of everyone in the Anderson and Stout family picture above, follow this link.

Leonard Guy Anderson, my maternal grandfather. You can see “Daddy Guy” in the photo at the top of the page–an ancestor in an apron. I have written about Guy’s second wife, Vera Stout Anderson many times. I was named for her and spent a great deal of time with her when I was young.

Bernard Franklin (Ben) Anderson, great-uncle, was Guy’s brother. I wrote about the tragic loss of his young wife and his family, which presented quite a tangle. His descendants included his nephew Telmar, Guy’s son by his first wife and brother to Rhema Anderson Fair (below); Estil Anderson Sr., Ben’s only son; and Estil Anderson Jr.

Mary V. Brink Anderson and Joseph J. Anderson, my grandfather’s parents. Joseph was the next to youngest son of Isabella McCabe  and John Anderson, and died young.

Isabella McCabe Anderson and her husband John Anderson, my great-great grandparents moved the Andersons from Ohio to Pennsylvania. Isabella lived a long time– long enough that my mother knew her great-grandmother, who sits in the center of the family picture above.

Great-Great Uncle Erasmus Anderson (actually a half-uncle of my grandfather), a soldier in the Civil War had a series of posts dedicated to his letters from the front and description of his service and death during the Civil War.

Margaret Anderson Lisle, great-great aunt. Margaret, the first child of John Anderson and his second wife, Isabella McCabe, played the role of family caretaker.  It was Margaret who wrote to Erasmus during the war. It was Margaret who kept a family scrapbook with locks of hair and obituaries. It was Margaret who raised her own family and the grandchildren who needed a parent.

Franklin Anderson, great-great uncle– my grandfather’s uncle who raised him when his father died. Franklin was the youngest of the Andersons family.

Caroline Anderson Bird, great-great aunt.

Amy Anderson Roof, great-great aunt.  Caroline and Amy were the two youngest children of Isabella and John Anderson, and close in every way for the rest of their lives.

I also wrote about the generations after my Grandfather–

Rhema Anderson Fair, my mother’s half sister.  The daughter of Guy Anderson and his first wife, Lillis Bird.

William J. Anderson. My Uncle Bill could be a rascal, as in the story I told about his running away, but my mother’s older brother held a place in my heart as a favorite relative.

Herbert Guy Anderson, son of Guy Anderson and his 2nd wife, Vera Stout Anderson. My uncle Herbert was my mother’s younger brother.

And I have written many times about my mother, Harriette Anderson Kaser. (I’ll let you use the search function to find those articles and pictures.

Andersons in Waiting

Which Andersons still wait to have their stories told?  Well, I am currently working on Sarah Jane Anderson McDowell and her family.

I have not written about John Anderson, first child of John Anderson and his second wife, Isabella McCabe  I have a puzzle to solve about John’s possible service in the Civil War before I can write about this man who died from a farm accident in his 30s.

The first child of John and Emma may have been a girl named Mary who married before the Andersons left Pennsylvania. But information on Mary is scarce.

And of course, each time I research a great-great aunt or uncle, I discover their children and grandchildren, new cousins galore.

Are You an Anderson?

Anderson is such a common name that even in the small county of Holmes in Ohio, I find Andersons that are not visibly related to my John Anderson line.  I keep hoping to meet someone who holds the key to where John Anderson (1795-1879) came from and who his parents were. Perhaps there is a family Bible. Perhaps an earlier Anderson wrote a family history. Until then, John Anderson is one of my brick walls, and I will continue to explore the families that came after him.

 

Abraham Brink Takes Root in Ohio

Abraham W. Brink 1820-1898

Curious about what made my great-grandmother Mary Brink the kind of woman she was , I am excavating through the murk of official records to discover her father Abraham Brink and other relatives.

Mary Brink Anderson

Mary Brink with grandchildren Telmar Anderson and Rhema Anderson (Fair) Photo from Ancestry, property of user KManery65

I wrote about Mary Brink previously and her fortitude in the face of losing a husband to become a single mother with a farm and two young boys to care for. I have since added and corrected information in that piece, so you might want to read it before proceeding.  Before she married my great-grandfather Joseph Anderson, Mary lived on the prosperous farm of Abraham and Dorcas Middaugh Brink in Killbuck Township, Holmes County, Ohio.

Abraham Brink Arrives and Marries

Like so many of my ancestors of that generation, great-great grandfather Abraham Brink, known as “Abe”, was born in Pennsylvania.  In 1820, Ohio was still developing from territory to state. It was the promised land of abundant rich land  to farmers who were beginning to feel crowded by development in neighboring Pennsylvania.

Although I don’t know exactly when he made the move from Pennsylvania, it appears that his entire family may have migrated around 1840 from Pennsylvania.  I know that “Abe” married Dorcas Eliza Middaugh in November 1844 in Ohio, when he was twenty-four years old and she was nineteen.

In the first five years of their marriage, Abraham and Dorcas had two sons and two daughters. They experienced their first loss when the second son died when he was two weeks old.

The Farm Grows as the Family Grows

Meanwhile in 1850, Abraham was cultivating 40 acres on a farm that totaled 80 acres and was worth $1000 (roughly $30,000 today). Nearby, three other Brink farms  of similar size measured similar worth according to the farm schedule of the United States Census of 1850. Who were these other Brinks?  I will explore that in a future post. Although I cannot say for sure at this moment, it is a pretty sure bet that they are all related.

In 1860, one Brink farmer is three years younger than the 39-year-old  Abraham, one nine years older and the other 16 years older.

Abraham Brink and family

Brink familys on non-population schedule in 1860

In the next ten years(1850-1860), two sons and three daughters were born, including my great-grandmother Mary (1858).  Meanwhile, Abraham’s farm continued to grow. In the farm schedule in 1860, he said he had 90 acres of improved land and 75 acres of unimproved, for a total increase of 44 acres. And the total value had gone up to $2000.

As a little girl, Mary was living on a farm with some cattle and sheep, fields of wheat, rye, hay, buckwheat, oats and corn. Her father also grew five acres of potatoes. Perhaps this descendant of Dutch immigrants was still enjoying hutspot, the Dutch recipe I shared with you earlier.

A Bad Decade

The years between 1860 and 1870 were tumultuous for the Brink family, and not just because of the Civil War (for which Abraham registered in 1863 at the age of 41). A son was born in 1862. In July, 1864 a daughter was born, but died a week later. Then some kind of epidemic must have swept through the countryside, because between March 1865 and May 1865, the family lost a 3-year-old son, a 16-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son.

My grandmother, Mary Brink, would have been six to seven years old when she lost three siblings plus saw an infant die. It is reasonable to assume that other members of the family might have also been ill and if she herself was not sick, she probably had to help care for those who were ailing.

The birth of baby daughter Ada in 1867 provided the only bright spot in that dreary decade.  That and the farm.

Abraham had the farm to occupy his mind during this time of trial, and it continued to grow.  By 1870 he owned 145 acres and the total worth of the farm had climbed to a whopping $5400. This year’s farm census no longer shows the other Brink families that were living in the neighborhood on the earlier ones, but now his oldest son Jeddiah Brink owns a farm next door worth $1500 (The same value that Abraham’s land had in 1850 when Abraham was 30).  At twenty-six, he has been married four years, and so far has only improved twenty-six acres of his holdings. We know that Jeddiah purchased forty acres in 1867, but do not know where the additional acreage comes from. Since it is immediately adjacent to his father in the 1870 census, it probably is part of family land that his father has given or sold to him.

Abraham’s valuable farm grew by another twenty acres by the 1880 census, to 164 acres (100 under cultivation). He was fifty-nine years old and only his youngest daughter remained at home.

Abraham Brink Plans for His Family Future

In July 1892, Abraham thought it prudent to write his will.  He left everything to his wife Dorcas, but also gave instructions for the splitting of the property after her death.

Abraham Brink will

Abraham Brink’s original will, 1892.

By 1892, Abraham has outlived all but six of his twelve (or eleven) children. There is one census entry that has me puzzled. Those offspring remaining are Jedediah/Jeddiah who “Abe”makes the executor of the will; Alfred, who has already “received his share”; my great-grandmother Mary Brink Anderson and her sister Sarah Jane Brink Anderson who married the brother of Mary’s husband; Catharine Brink Turner; and the youngest daughter, Ada Brink Allison.

My grandfather, Leonard Guy Anderson, would have known all of these aunts and uncles, but the only one that I have evidence of close ties to is Ada, whose son worked on the family farm and is in the family picture taken in 1909. He also would have known his grandfather Abraham Brink, who died when Guy was twenty years old.

Vera and Guy Anderson and families 1909

Vera and Guy Anderson and families 1909

The Abraham Brink Connections in the Anderson-Stout family picture

Daughter: Mary Brink Anderson, long a widow, stands just slightly to the left of the porch pillar, above the infant held by my grandmother Vera.  At the time, Mary was living with Guy and Vera on the Anderson farm that had belonged to Joseph Anderson, her husband.

Grandson: Leonard Guy Anderson standing in center back with white shirt and dark tie.

Daughter and Son-in-law: Ada Allison, Abraham and Dorcas’ youngest daughter is in the far left of the middle row beside her husband in a dark suit–DeSylva Allison.

Grandson: Errett Allison, son of Ada Allison stands beside his wife Nettie behind the seated man holding two young children. Errett is wearing a necktie. He and his wife both worked on the farm when my grandmother and grandfather lived there.

Plus, the children and infants in the photo are great-grandchildren of Abraham Brink.

(Want to know who everyone else is? See this Identification post.)

Unlike many of my ancestors, Abraham was forward-thinking enough to write his will before his final illness. He survived for another six years. In 1898 he died and was buried where so many of the Brinks rest, at the Wolf Creek Cemetery in Holmes County.

Abraham W. Brink

Abraham W. Brink tombstone in Wolf Creek Cemetery, Holmes County, Ohio, picture compliments of Jim and Susan Brink.

How I Am Related

  • Vera Marie Badertscher is the daughter of
  • Harriette Anderson Kaser, who is the daughter of
  • Leonard Guy Anderson, who is the son of
  • Mary Brink Anderson, who is the daughter of
  • Abraham W. Brink.

Notes on Research

United States Census, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, Killbuck Township, Holmes County, Ohio

United States Census Non Population Schedule (Agriculture) Killbuck, Holmes, Ohio, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880

Ohio, Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998, Abraham W. Brink, August 1, 1898, Case Number 1020, Will records Vol. 4, 1894-1911.

U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General’s Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865); Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau, Abraham Brink, July 1, 1863.

Find a Grave, Abraham W. Brink,  Plus information and photo from Jim and Susan Brink.

Other information and photos from my personal collection.