Clan William: Mary Ann Munson and William Custer Smith, Part 3

Read Part 2  

Harland Smith

We left off with the death of Mary Ann Munson in 1888. She was a mere 51 years old. Many of the children had married by the time of her death, but some were still at home.

William Custer Smith found a second wife. At this time, I need to address "family lore." Within my family tree was a lovely lady who was the granddaughter of William & Mary Ann's son Harland - the guy who lived on the family farm with his wife and raced horses. She wrote an extensive letter full of her "memories," many of which were factually not true. You can read a bit about her reminisces here.

Her primary assertion was the woman W.C. married was previously married and had children. It was alluded the new wife was greedy and vengeful, casting out Harland and Fannie from the family farm. We'll get back to this lore as the story continues.

W.C.'s new wife was found in the family tree of his wife. His new wife was an unmarried "spinster" woman of 30 who was his wife's cousin. Specifically, she was the granddaughter of Mary Ann's sister Henrietta Munson Vaughn. Daughter of Sarah Jane Vaughn Simmons. The Vaughn/Simmons families had settled in Fayette County in NE Iowa. Just a few hours' buggy ride from the Smith farm in Fremont Township.

W.C. and Alice Simmons hopped on a train from Plainfield to Charles City and married March 20, 1893. They returned to the Smith farm and their lives went on. 

In the meantime, the rest of the kids grew up and married.

Edwin Smith married Kate Smull on 11 Jun 1890. The couple would fairly soon settle in Plainfield. Edwin was a laborer. They had 12 children. Wife Kate was known throughout the area for her expertise in wallpapering. 

Parker Smith, a struggling Baptist preacher, married Estella Irene "Stella" Pierson on 20 Nov 1896. After the turn of the century, they would spend the rest of their lives moving from church to church and into various leadership positions within the Baptist faith.  They would adopt one of Stella's nieces.

Young Mirt Smith

Mirt Smith married Emma Haehlen Schafstall on 22 Jun 1898 in Mower, Minnesota. Mirt was a barber. The couple would have three children. Mirt was known in the region for his award-winning chickens.  They lived in Waterloo for most of their marriage.

Mr & Mrs W. C. Smith did not have a long marriage. A massive stroke took W.C. on 16 Nov 1895 while going between the house and barn. According to the obituary, the turnout to say goodbye was a large one.

According to "family lore" as described by Harland's granddaughter, the widow stole the farm after W.C.'s death so she could leave it to her children. As I mentioned, not true. In fact I was able to find the documents that were with the courthouse and the current owner of the property. Alice, within a week of the death, sold the farm to the children for $2,040 on 22 Nov 1895. Each child owned an equal share. Son Parker managed the farm during this period at the behest of the family; my guess is Harland's departure had been caused by a similar family decision. 

Alice returned to her family and married a single Englishman named Arthur Sinderson 16 Aug 1898. She never had any children during her lifetime.

On 08 Mar 1897, Eva Smith Bryce sold her share to her siblings for $600. Finally, on 08 Dec 1898, the farm was sold to the Diedrich Dieke family for $5,040. 

This would be the end of the direct William Custer Smith-Mary Ann Munson story, but they would live on through the stories of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren's and great-great grandchildren's lives.

Click these links for more stories about William and Mary's families.

Clan William: Mary Ann Munson and William Custer Smith, Part 2

See Part 1 here.

William and Mary Ann Munson Smith set up house in Fennimore, Grant County, Wisconsin. The couple farmed during their time in Wisconsin. On 19 Sep 1854, they had their first child, Walter Clarence Smith. The next surviving child was Mary Madora "Dora" Smith, born in Hazel Green, Grant County on 23 Jul 1850. The third, was Harland Smith, born 02 Nov 1861 in Grant County. Finally, the fourth Wisconsin baby, Eva Elvira Smith was born on 05 Apr 1864 in Fennimore.

Butler County, Iowa Fremont Township Plat Map, 1895

In 1866, the Smith family packed up and moved to Fremont Township, Butler County, Iowa. On 16 Sep 1866, their fifth child, Ella Mae Smith was born in Fremont Township. The Smith's then purchased a farm one mile west of the town of Plainfield, in Butler County, from the widow of former Horton postmaster Amos Head. Head had cleared the land and made it livable. The Smith's purchased 140 acres of prime farm land for $800.00 on 01 Nov 1866. The farm was right on the county line between Butler and Bremer county. The couple worked together to build their house and barn. They had a large family to house and more were on the way.

In addition to the children, the couple also housed William's mother "Cathy"  and his mentally disabled brother, Isaac, and spinster sister, Sara. Along came sons Edwin (06 Jun 1869), Parker (01 Sep 1872), Mirt (09 Sep 1875), and baby John, born 09 Jun 1879 and died 28 Sep 1881. This would complete their family.

The house is the one William & Mary Ann Munson Smith
built. The people are the next family who lived there.

The couple completed their house and barn and as the older ones grew, they married off.  

The original farm and farm today. The house is long gone. The Dieke family have owned
the property for over 100 years and the farm is recognized as a Centennial Farm.

By 1880, William's mentally disabled brother, Isaac, was living in Wisconsin again, with another Smith brother, John. Mother Cathy is believed to have died in Fremont Township before 1880 and was probably the reason Isaac was sent to the oldest brother. Sister Sarah Jane was finally married off to a widower with a disastrous marriage record and history of alcohol abuse and violence, Francis "Frank" Doole, on 27 May 1887 in Floyd County. She did not get a happy ending.

Oldest son Walter had married Isabell Monteith in 1876 in Plainfield. Isabell was one of three Monteith sisters who married into the greater Smith family. The Monteith's hailed from Scotland and settled in Wisconsin.

Daughter Dora married a young businessman originally from Somerset, Pennsylvania, but had moved to Waterloo, Iowa on 21 Jun 1878 in Janesville, Iowa. His family made an indelible impression on the City of Waterloo through the next several decades. The couple would reside in Waterloo and husband Claude Lichty would build a manufacturing company which ran successfully during his lifetime.

Son Harland and Fannie had been married in a double ceremony with Harland's next younger sister, Eva Elvira on 21 Aug 1881. Son Harland and William loved to race horses and built a horse racing track on the property at it's southern side. They traveled the state racing horses and held races on their property. Harlan and his wife Fannie Magoon lived on the farm with the Smith's after their marriage in 1881. Fannie fed the chickens and worked the farm. She did the laundry in a vat on the lawn. Harland, reportedly, was far from industrious and just wanted to race his horses.  

Eva Elvira, who married farm laborer Arthur Marion Bryce on 21 Aug 1881 in a double ceremony with her brother Harland and his wife Fannie. The Bryce's moved on to Fort Dodge and then returned to Plainfield, where Arthur died young in 1886 and Eva did not remarry.

Daughter Ella Mae married farmhand and later railroad man Howard Cunningham on 30 Aug 1885 in Bremer County. They moved to Moberly, Missouri, one of the hubs of the Wabash Railroad.

Plainfield, Bremer County, IA sometime between 1874-1880

William and Mary Ann seemed to have a lot of friends in both Nashua and Plainfield, though Plainfield was where they went most often. Their mail was delivered to the Plainfield post office and that's also where they saw the doctor and did their shopping. Plainfield and Nashua were both thriving farm towns, with just about everything a family could need in those days in the 1880s.  

In 1888, Mary Ann took sick. She was expected to recover and though she was sick, no one expected her to die. She died on 24 Sep 1888. She was 51 and her youngest child, Mirt, was 13 years old. 

Life would change for the Smith family after Mary Ann's death. Family lore would prove false after a long research road.

Part 3 - After Mary Ann Munson Smith

Click these links for more stories about William and Mary's families.

Clan William: Mary Ann Munson and William Custer Smith, Part 1

Photo by Mark Miller and can be
purchased through Fine Art America

As I have researched over the past many years, my posts focus on a piece or part of a story as I find it. I wanted to put to pen, or rather, to blog, the thus far semi-complete story of my 2nd great grandparents, pioneers William Custer Smith and his wife, Mary Ann Munson, daughter of Amos Munson of Clan William.

Mary Ann Munson was born to Amos Munson and Mary Ann Kearney on 08 Jun 1837* in Trumbull County, Ohio. Samuel (2nd) Munson, Freeman's father, and Amos' father Freeman Munson had pioneered into Trumbull County beginning in about 1802 and were some of its earliest settlers. Mary Ann was the third child of the couple's eight known children. 

In 1850, her family moved from Trumbull County to Grant County, Wisconsin. Grant County is in what is called the "Driftless Area." That is the stunningly beautiful formerly mountainous area that was missed by ice sheets shifting down from Canada that flattened the plains starting about 100,000 years ago. Only a small part of SE Minnesota, NE Iowa, and a larger part of Wisconsin were missed.  Over time, the mountains wore down to beautiful green hills. 

The area was also full of mining production. Zinc, Lead, and Iron were mined in this area. Many Cornish miners flocked to the area to work in the mines. The Munsons, I believe, joined thousands of others who found the beauty of the area irresistible. 

Some time between 1852 and 1853, Mary Ann met her future husband, William Custer Smith. They married 30 Jun 1853 in Grant County. 

William Custer Smith's middle name was not derived from General George Armstrong Custer, but from Custer's father, Emanuel Custer. William's father, Jacob Smith and his wife Mary Catherine "Cathy" farmed in the same community as the Custers in eastern Ohio.  It's believed that James Smith, Jacob's father, came from New Jersey to Ohio. William Custer Smith was born on 04 Oct 1831 in Harrison County, Ohio. He was the middle of seven known children. 

Mary Catherine, according to family lore, had the last name Randolph. DNA, however, indicates she is the child of John Lodawick Schmidt and Mary Kinter. We don't know what her connection was to the Randolph family (and for which I have yet to find any link). So, for now, I will refer to her as Mary Catherine "Cathy" Schmidt Smith.

In 1846, Jacob's oldest son James and his wife had their third child, John Richard, in Grant County; their previous child, Alexander, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio in 1845. So, we can presume, since they all went together, that they arrived in Wisconsin in late 1845 or earlly 1846. Jacob and children are all reflected in the 1850 census in Grant County.

Oddly enough, there was another Jacob Smith in Grant County during this time, who died in 1850. Many trees in Ancestry reflect this being "my" Jacob Smith. It's not. A review of the deceased Jacob Smith's will shows it wasn't him at all - different wife, different children.  

In the end, we are put in a place that the best we can narrow down my Jacob Smith's death date to between the census of 1850 and 1860. 

We may never know what happened to Jacob, but there is a high likelihood he did not ever come to Iowa with several other members of the family, but died in Grant County. We do know what became of the rest of the Munson and Smith Clans. 

Part 2 will cover the marriage years of William Custer Smith and Mary Ann Munson.

Click these links for more stories about William and Mary's families.

*-I have yet to prove this date personally, but I'm going with it for now.

LINSEY FAMILY: Owen Dorathy & Sarah Lindsey

Owen Dorathy & Sarah Lindsey Family

Much of the history of my Lindsey/Linsey relatives is still a mystery. The immigrant was reportedly Harvey Lindsey, who has been reported to have been from Ireland or England (or possibly Scotland). He married Peace Macomber and had an unknown number of children.  This was ascertained from death certificates for what were the two known children, Oscar Linsey and his sister Mary Lindsey. 

Through the miracle of DNA, about a year ago, another connection popped up. Sarah Lindsey. it turns out, was the older sister of Oscar and Mary. The story fit neatly together on all fronts, including that her family also traveled from Chautaqua County, New York to Whiteside County in Illinois. 

After recently locating the 1830 Census for Harvey in Washington County, New York, I was able to confirm an, as to yet unnamed, daughter born between Sarah and Mary born between 1825 and 1830.

Born in 1821, in Washington County to Harvey and Peace, Sarah was most likely the oldest or one of the oldest children of the couple. Sarah married Owen Dorathy (an altered form of Dougherty) around 1840 in New York. The couple lived in Ellington in Chautauqua County. Owen was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1815 and emigrated to the US in 1835.

The couple relocated to Whiteside County, Illinois between 1856-1857, settling in the area near Portland. Their post office was the Spring Hill post office. By the time they'd arrived, they already had six of their final count of eight children. The Dorathy's farmed.

While the Dorathy's remained in Whiteside County (until today, in fact), Sarah's younger brother Oscar, my 2GG, moved his family to Benton County, Iowa, near Vinton. Mary, the only other sibling I know about, lived in Whiteside County for most of her life, but died in Vinton, most likely because her brother was there.

Morris Dorathy & Lydia Besse

The Dorathy's were a very well regarded family in the county and in the coming generations were very involved in civic activities and the Methodist church. While that is true, they aren't a particularly interesting group, leading fairly routine recorded lives, much like the lives of Sarah's brother Oscar's family in Iowa. Here is a brief summary of the children of the Dorathy's:

Morris Dorathy: Born 04 Dec 1842/Ellington, Chautaqua, New York (some reports say Cattaraugus County); Died: 10 Apr 1930, Portland, Whiteside, Illinois. Married: Lydia Rose Besse, 12 Nov 1970 in Whiteside County. They had six children. Morris served in the Civil War, with the 75th Illinois Infantry. He served for three years, seeing action Perrysville, Stone River, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge. He was also on the front lines of the Atlantic Campaign. He was discharged in 1865. He was a member of the Modern Woodsmen, the Grand Army of the Republic (a Civil War veteran's organization), and the Masons.

Dennis Dorathy: Born 04 Nov 1844, Ellington, Chautaqua, New York. Died 04 Jan 1922 in Fremont, Dodge County, Nebraska. Married: Charlotte Dickerson, 10 Nov 1867 in Henry County, Illinois. The couple was the only Dorathy who continued west during this time. The couple moved to Nebraska around 1870, but possibly prior. The couple owned a couple of different farms in the North Bend area, but after the death of his wife in 1913, Dennis moved to Fremont where he died after developing a cold
which sounds like turned into pneumonia. The couple had two children.

Charles Dorothy

Charles Dorathy: Born 25 Apr 1846, Ellington, Chautauqua, New York. Died 07 May 1937, Maywood, Cook County, Illinois. Married: Never married. Charles Dorathy was the last Whiteside County Civil War veteran when he died at age 91. He served with Company B, 140th Illinois Infantry Volunteers from 1863 to 1865. He farmed his entire life. The last few years of his life he suffered from illness and resided in the veteran's hospital in Cook County until his death.

William Dorathy: Born 09 Mar 1851, Ellington, Chautauqua, New York. Died 24 Mar 1924 in Portland, Whiteside, Illinois. Married: Clementine Toms, 21 Dec 1876, Whiteside County, Illinois. The couple had four children. After farming for many years, the couple moved to Prophetstown. Mrs. Dorathy died in 1940 after a heart attack at her son Bruce's home outside of Prophetstown.

William Dorathy

Catherine "Katie" Dorathy: Born Aug 1852, Ellington, Chautauqua, New York. Died 08 Feb 1875,

Prophetstown, Whiteside, Illinois. Married: George Erastus Breckenridge, 22 Jan 1869, Whiteside County, Illinois. George was also a farmer. The young couple had two children before Katie's premature death. George remarried Nancy Agnes Allen in 1876 and the couple raised his two children and their two children before George's death in 1910 in Red Eye, Wadena County, Minnesota.

Mary Ann Dorathy: Born 24 Mar 1956, Ellington, Chautauqua, New York. Died 02 Jun 1934, Portland, Whiteside, Illinois. Married: Cecil Fuller, 28 May 1973, Whiteside County, Illinois. Cecil was a farm laborer. The couple did not have any children. She was a Methodist and an honorary member of the Portland Club.

Lee Watson Dorathy

Frank Dorathy: Born 18 Oct 1858, Whiteside County, Illinois. Died 03 Apr 1895, Whiteside, Illinois. Married: Christina Catherine "Katie" Kelly, 04 Jul 1882, Whiteside County, Illinois. He worked as a farm laborer during his short life. The couple had no children.

Lee Watson Dorathy: Born 18 Jun 1861, Whiteside County, Illinois. Died 16 May 1932, Whiteside County, Illinois. Married: Lydia Rawson, 29  Jun 1887, Whiteside County, Illinois. The couple had two children. 

While not a lot was gleaned from researching this family, I was struck by one thing - the dour expressions of Sarah and several of her children, were exactly the same expression shared by my own antecedents!

Clan William: Marrying Up - William Edgar Mattison Jr

This is a short little story about a Munson-descended man "marrying up." William Edgar Mattison married Elizabeth Dean Alford, a descendant of Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson >  Martha Munson > Eliakim Doolittle > Tirzah Doolittle > Mary Eddy Montgomery > Effa Roslie Galusha > William Edgar Mattison Jr m Elizabeth Dean Alford

William Edgar Mattison, Jr. was born to William Edgar Mattison, Sr and Effa Galusha on 07 Sep 1912 in Shaftsbury, Vermont. The Mattison's were of modest means. William Sr. worked at various labor jobs and farmed throughout his life. They had seven children. William was the second youngest. By 1935, they had both passed away.

By the time Jr. was 17, he was no longer in school and was working in a furniture factory. He then took a job as a night watchman at the newly opened women's Bennington College (1932) in southwest Vermont. Bennington was the first liberal arts college to offer visual and performing arts in its program. While patrolling the campus one night, he met young Elizabeth Alford, daughter of the prominent and uber wealthy Brookline, Massachusetts Mr & Mrs Edward Balch Alford family. 

Bennington College

Elizabeth had her society debut in the 1933-34 season and was most eligible. A freshman at Bennington, she was a  member of the junior league and the exclusive Vincent Club. 

The society wedding was held on November 5, 1935 at the Alford Estate in Brookline. The event was picked up on newswire and published all over the country as "handsome cop marries wealthy socialite."

You have to kind of wonder how the senior Alford's felt about a working class young man marrying their daughter.

William became a dairy farmer in Concord and dubbed the farm "Arrowhead Farm." This farm should not be confused with the Arrowhead Farm of Herman Melville in Pittsfield.  This house was the original homestead of Ezekiel Miles, built in 1741. The Mattison's raised their six children on the farm. Mrs. Mattison gave tours to school children and the children participated in 4H. They seemed to live a very happy life. You can read a lovely oral history by the eldest Mattison child, William, about the farm in the 1940s and 1950s.

Farm today. Photo credit JB the Milker

In 1940, Elizabeth's father died, leaving his fortune to his wife and two children, leaving the Mattison's even better off than before. There was an account of her brother, Edgar, after inheriting while serving in the Army, that also made the newswire. 

William died in 1972 while on a visit to his native Bennington. He had been a life member of Nashawtuc Country Club and the Bennington Elks. Elizabeth was listed in her obituary as the wife of William - not the wealthy socialite and descendant of generations of Boston Brahmins. In getting to know her, I'd say that was probably just the way she wanted it.

Click to Enlarge

Clan William: James Ralph Doolittle, WWI Flyer

James Ralph

Today's story is about a young man, who received some benefit from his great grandfather's fame and reputation, but it didn't keep him from the tragedy that would befall him.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson >  Martha Munson > Reuben Doolittle > Reuben Doolittle > James Rood Doolittle > James Reuben Doolittle > James Rood Doolittle > James Ralph Doolittle

James Ralph Doolittle was born 07 Jan 1894 in Chicago, Illinois to James Rood Doolittle, publisher and grandson of Senator James Rood Doolittle of Wisconsin and Frances Sterling Golsen. 

Doolittle as a young man decided to volunteer with the American Norton-Harjes ambulance services that served the Allied Forces in France World War I. The cadre was made up of 600 volunteers. He later became the 37th American to join the LaFayette Escadrille, the French Air Force unit which began flying in 1917, nearly a full year before the US got into the war. The unit was made up largely of American volunteer pilots. 

Spad Aircraft

Doolittle trained at Buc, Avord, and Pau. During training. In April 1917, he was injured when his 
aircraft side-slipped into the ground, breaking his ankle and cutting his face, leaving scars. After spending eight weeks in the hospital, he joined La Fayette Escadrille on 02 July 1917. On 17 Jul 1917, he was flying to the newly created base at Dunkirk and became lost in the clouds. Two German aircraft attacked and shot him twice in the leg. While trying to come down, a British Archie (anti-aircraft gun) also hit him as they tried to fight off the German aircraft. On landing, his Spad aircraft flipped, but thankfully, in British territory. His injuries were severe, and his facial injuries were reopened. He eventually recovered and was released from the French service so he could return home. 

La Fayette Escadrille

He was not deterred in the flying department and became a civilian flight instructor for the US Air Service. He resided at the University Club in Chicago. While at Kenilworth Field near Buffalo, New York, he met  socialite Mary Louise Thomas and they became engaged. Their wedding was scheduled for 01 Aug 1918. 

On 26 Jul 1918, he was flying with another Air Service employee, Lawrence J Dunham in an experimental Curtiss a/c powered by a Liberty Motor. Doolittle, who was piloting, took a sharp turn, and apparently attempted make that turn with the engine throttled with insufficient air speed. The plane crashed, killing Dunham, 20, instantly. Doolittle survived the crash and was taken to the Buffalo hospital, where he died an hour after arrival. He was just five days from his wedding to Mary Louise. His ashes were sent to France to be buried with his comrades in arms.

Mary Louise Thomas
Murray Dier

I always wonder what happened to those left behind. At his memorial, his father said, "If death was to come to my son in the way it so happened, I only regret it did not come after he shot a number of enemy planes."

Mary Louise went on. She married a year later, in 1919,  to Clifford J. Murray, another person in her social realm. She went to Reno for her divorce in 1927. She married again and divorced again. She had one child from each marriage. She died in 1967 in Florida.

Clan William: Senator James Rood Doolittle

Senator James Rood Doolittle, who served as Senator to Wisconsin, was arguably, Abraham Lincoln's best friend. Senator Doolittle's line from William Munson is as follows:

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson >  Martha Munson > Reuben Doolittle > Reuben Doolittle > James Rood Doolittle

Doolittle was born on January 15, 1815 in Hampton, New York, "on the shores of the Poultney River..."[1] to Reuben Doolittle, Jr. and Sarah Rood.

As a young child, the family moved to Wyoming County, NY. J. R. went to the Middlebury Academy prep school in Wyoming Co. and to Geneva (later Hobart) College, where he graduated top of his class in 1834. 

J. R. then moved to Rochester to study law. In 1837, the year he was admitted to the bar, he married Mary Lovina Cutting, who had also attended Middlebury Academy. They moved to Warsaw, New York in 1841. He had some interest in politics and from 1845-1849, he served as District Attorney of Warsaw County. He identified at the time as a Democrat. In 1847, he jumped into the anti-slavery movement as a Barnburner. In 1848, the Democrats ran General Lewis Cass, who believed states should have the option of allowing slavery. Democrats were split on this stance, and J. R. firmly stood on the side that opposed slavery and broke off into leadership of the Free Soil Party. As a leader in this faction, J. R. wrote what would become the Cornerstone Resolution:

"Resolved: That while the democracy of New York represented in this convention will faithfully adhere to all the compromises of the Consitution and maintain all the reserved rights of the states, they declare, since the crises arrived when that question must be met, their uncompromising hostility to the extensioin of slavery into territory now free, or which may be hereafter acquired by any action of the government of the United States."

Finally, he became one of the leaders of the new Republican Party. Back home, his family had grown to five children by the time he and his wife moved to Racine, Wisconsin in 1851. J. R. practiced law, became a judge, and in 1857, ran for his first of two terms as a US Senator as a moderate Republican. In 1852, his final child, Sallie, would be born. 

During his terms in office, he became a favorite advisor of many.  He helped unify the young party - his speaking powers were strong and persuasive. J. R. made an excellent nominating speech on behalf of  Abraham Lincoln at the Republican National Convention. When Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, J. R. became not only a trusted advisor, but according to Leonard Swett, advisor to Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln would say of him:

"During the years 1863 and 1864...often I saw Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Dolittle together, and often heard the president speak of him in his absence. The most cordian and friendly relations existed between them, and the president always spok of him in terms of warmest friendship and esteem." 

Once, while perusing a list of senators who would hopefully support Lincoln's re-nomination, Swett asked the president: "You don't consider all these your friends?" Replied Lincoln, "No...when you speak of friendship, I sometimes thought Doolittle was the only real friend I had here." James was frequently invited to breakfast with Lincoln, famouly riding his warhourse, Chacamauga, to the White House early in the morning."

Upon Lincoln's assasination, the president became Andrew Johnson. Johnson won the next election, but he would face many challenges.  J. R. supported Johnson's opposition to "radical reconstruction." J. R. was working in direct opposition to the instructions he received from the Wisconsin legislature and he was censured by his constituents. The legislature than passed a resolution directing J. R. to resign. It was supported by the then governor, Governor Fairchild. Doolittle refused. At the end of the day, J. R. was not going to be re-elected and his days in politics would be, for all intents and purposes, over. J. R. switched back to the Democratic Party after a brief foray with the new political party formed on the basis of Johnson's reconstruction model.

J. R.  then went to Chicago and started up his law practice. He continued to maintain his residence in Racine, but began teaching law at the Old University of Chicago, serving as acting president for one year, and remained on the Board of Trustees until his death. In 1884-1885 he served as president of the Chicago Board of Education. 

He died 27 Jul 1897 in Providence County, Rhode Island. 

The story of James Rood Doolittle is far more complex and interesting than can be addressed in a short introductory blog post and his impact was great. I hope that if you love history as much as I do, you take some time to learn more.

[1] https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2012/05/north-country-abolitionist-james-rood-doolittle.html

[2] https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS7121

[3] https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40193846.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A29994e1078884e9453d23f35113198f0&ab_segments=&origin=

[4] https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS7121

[5] https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1261&context=fvw-pamphlets

Clan William: Edith Minerva Brace, Teacher

Clan William descendant Emily Cowles and husband C Lusk Brace made smart little babies. Son Dr DeWitt Brace was a world-class physicist. His baby sister, Edith, is the one we will be talking about today. She was a biologist and teacher.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Peter Munson > Lydia Munson > William Zelus Bristol > Emily Cowles Bristol > Edith Minerva Brace

Born 29 Dec 1867 in Lockport, Niagara County, New York, youngest child Edith was a smart cookie. 

She attended University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where brother DeWitt was on faculty. She studied biology with an emphasis on botany and zoology, her true passions.  I believe there was a good chance, since her mother was living with DeWitt prior to his marriage, that she also resided with them in Lincoln, though I have no source to prove that at this time. She received her bachelor of science degree, then attended the University of Chicago, where she recieved her master of science degree in biology. 

Rochester Free 
Academy

Many men of that era with such a scientific and resarch interest, might have gone on to teach at the college level. That was not an easy for a woman and an almost impossible option at that point in time, with rare exceptions. 

Women weren't open to attending University of Rochester prior to 1900, but at least 12 did, including Edith. Those individuals attended classes with men, but could not receive credit for their classes.

Her first noted teaching gig was beginning in late 1899 at the Rochester Free Academy, which was a secondary high school in Rochester, New York. While there she also stayed involved in the science research world, and was the editorial assistant for neurology for the Journal of  Applied Microscopy and Laboratory Methods from 1899.

It's not known when she left Rochester, but in 1904, she was teaching as a professor at Western Maryland University. During the summer of 1904, she participate in a summer program in zoology for the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science teaching zoology.

In 1908, she began teaching at the secondary level in Brooklyn. Sorting through the various transfers was quite a project, but here's how it broke down so far.

Eastern District HS, Flatbush; Morris HS, South Bronx; Erasmus Hall HS, Flatbush

As I get access to more records, I hope to fill in the blanks for Edith's job history and housing history. Her obituary mentions she worked at Morris High School in the South Bronx between Eastern District and Erasmus Hall high schools, but the only reference I have to her teaching at Morris HS is in 1922, when in the 2nd semester, she was transferred from Morris to Eastern District. We do know she was at Erasmus Hall, teaching biology, from 1924 through her retirement in 1939. 

School and Home History

Some of Edith's residences

Edith wasn't all work. She also vacationed!  In a 1915 article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, titled "Notables at Easthampton," it's mentioned that Edith was spending time at The Osborne House in Long Island. During the middle half of the century, the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania was a hot spot for vacations - honeymooing, skiing, camping, swimming, fishing and more. In the 1940s, Edith visited several times. Buck Hill Inn was built in 1901 on 1,000 acres. The resort, one of the premier resorts in the Poconos, had horseback riding, golf, and tennis. The Inn had a downturn in business in the 1960s and 1970s and closed forever in 1990 and was finally demolished after several failed starts at renovation, starting in 2016.

Buck Hill Inn Entrance, Dining Room, and Olympic-sized pool

World War I and Loyalty Oaths

Now, to the most interesting part of Edith's records. Her opposition to signing a "Loyalty Oath" in 1917 at the onset of World War I.

Summarizing the issue in the most compact way possible, before our entry into World War I against "The Hun," (Germans), a trend swept across the nation to bolster support for us entering the war that required people in government, education, and other industries to sign "Loyalty Oaths," which basically said they agreed with the US involvement in the war and would not do anything to hinder or subvert our policies or efforts around the war.

Now, many people took issue with signing such an oath. Many people lost their jobs for failing to do so and it became basically a witch hunt to punish those who would not sign. That included the Quakers, conscientious objectors, and others who did not agree with the war. Teachers in New York who failed to sign were put in front of what to me sounds like a tribunal and forced to state their case. They were nearly all fired or transferred to less desirable schools. Some would later be rehired, but many were not.

The mob mentality of a large group of teachers against those who refused to sign formed committees and organizations to vilify those who wouldn't toe the line. One group even supported having those who didn't sign interred, as we would later do with the Japanese during World War II.

Our brave Edith made headlines over the course of several days despite the fact she signed the loyalty oath. She refused to sign the next document proferred, which opposed settling for a "negotiated peace." Below is one of the articles that best explains the situation (click the article at the bottom to enlarge). They published her home address and her salary!  

It does not appear as any significant fallout befell Edith for this defiance, but many, many educators fell victim to this rabid "patriotism" from 1917-1919.

One More Fight

In 1915, Edith, along with 200 other NYC teachers, marched on Albany around two different Senate proposed bills.

The Cromwell Bill or Senate Bill 1414, which would put the responsibility for determining the number and pay of teachers, under the Board of Estimate and Apportionment and the Alderman of the city. The NYC Controller was in favor of the move and stated he would not only recommend no raises, but would recommend reducing salaries. The bill was almost universally opposed by teachers. Imagine.

The second bill, known as the Boylen-Kelly Pension bill was supported by the NYC Interborough Association of Women Teachers.

Neither bill seems to have been passed and were left to die in committee.

Alice retired from teaching in February of 1939. She lived the remainder of her days in Brooklyn. At the age of 86 she became ill and was hospitalized in Brooklyn Hospital, where she died on 10 Nov 1954. Her only living relatives were nieces and nephews. 

Edith's Refusal to Sign

Clan William: Physicist DeWitt Bristol Brace, PhD

Today's subject is the incredible pioneer scientist, DeWitt Bristol Brace, PhD. He was a brilliant physics professor and researcher who died young. Makes me wonder what he could have done had he lived a full life.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Peter Munson > Lydia Munson > William Zelus Bristol > Emily Cowles Bristol > DeWitt Bristol Brace, PhD

DeWitt Bristol Brace was born to Emily Cowles Bristol, our Munson descendant, and C. Lusk Brace near Wilson, Niagara County, New York on 05 Jan 1859. Lusk was a farmer and later a Lockport mill operator. Lusk and Emily had four children, DeWitt being the second son and child.

DeWitt received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Boston College in 1881-1882. He then studied under Dr. Henry Augustus Rowland at Johns Hopkins University for two years. He then went to Berlin, Germany to study under Dr Hermann Helmholtz and Dr Gustav Kirchhoff at the University of Berlin. He received his PhD in 1885 in Berlin after he completed his dissertation on the magnetic rotation of the plane of polarization.

Dr Brace returned to the US, he traveled to the University of Michigan, where he spent a year as an assistant professor of physics. 

Old Physics Lab at UNL

The University of Nebraska at Lincoln was founded in 1869 and built in a four block section of the city. It's farm campus was built in 1873, outside of the city of Lincoln on the prairie. In the beginning, the science department was not divided into specialties like Chemistry and Physics. It was the first university west of the Missisippi to offer a doctoral program. There apparently was a bias in eastern academic circles that the western education insitutions were inferior in both the academic backgrounds of its faculty and its research capabilities. DeWitt helped dispell this myth when he arrived to take a full professorship in 1887. Part of his charge was to create a physics department.

Research had not necessarily been a big deal at UNL, but Brace believed that such research was critical to the operation of the University. He believed strongly that higher education centers must develop research.  His own research led to great distinction for the University. With a growing reputation, Brace used his clout to lobby for updated equipment, laboratories, facilities, and money for research. He built a very strong Physics department but the department still needed a home on campus. 

UNL Physics Staff 1905
UNL Library Archives

 "Brace also began building a graduate program and hired two additional instructors in 1896, Burton Evans Moore and Louis Trenchard More. A few years later Clarence Aurelius Skinner and John Edwin Almy were also added to the physics faculty. In 1896 one of Brace's students, Harold Allen, was awarded a Ph.D. degree by the University of Nebraska. This was the very first Ph.D. given by any school west of the Mississippi. With one or two exceptions, no further Ph.D.s were given until the present Ph.D. program in physics was initiated after World War II. The photograph on the left shows members of the Physics Department in May 1905 in front of the old Nebraska Hall, which is where the Department was housed until it moved into Brace Laboratory later that year." https://www.unl.edu/physics/department-history

DeWitt made a special study of radiation and optics and published, "The Laws of Radiation and Absorption," in 1901. Life in Nebraska was good. His mother lived with him and had been with him for many years. But, it was time to focus on more than just science. That same year, he went east to marry Iowa native Elizabeth Wing on 16 Oct 1901 in West Newton, Massachusetts. The couple returned to Lincoln and began their family.

Lincoln Journal Star, 12 Oct 1901, p 6

In addition to securing several patents in the course of his research, his body of work had continued to grow as evidenced here: 

"Brace’s own contributions to physical science were almost exclusively in the domain of optics. By the invention of his sensitive-strip polarizer, and his half-shade elliptic polarizer, he extended the range of observation far beyond that previously attained, and he devised and partly executed many experiments in which this increased sensitiveness could be used in the study of fundamental optical problems. Returning to the question which he dealt with in his first published paper, he succeeded in showing that the beam of polarized light which undergoes rotation in a magnetic field is susceptible of resolution into two circularly polarized beams. He showed that, to a very high order of sensitiveness, no effect is impressed upon a ray of light by a magnetic field, if its lines of force are at right angles to the ray. He showed that, up to the third order of the ratio of the velocities, no double refraction could be observed in a medium due to its motion through the ether. He planned and tested a method for determining the velocity of light, from which he expected still greater accuracy than that attained in the classical researches of Michelson and Newcomb. He executed several repetitions, with greatly improved instrumental appliances, of classical experiments bearing on the fundamental question of the relative motion of matter and the ether."  ~ © American Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System

Brace fought mightily to get a building in which to house the Physics department. The Regents approved $75,000 for a new building. Brace guided it's development and building with the construction team. Then he hit a roadblock when the all powerful athletics department which believed the building was perilously close to its football field. To keep things on track, Brace altered the footprint of the building. Progress on the new building with its state of the art laboratories continued through 1904 and 1905. 

At the beginning of the 1905 school year in September of that year, Brace became ill. He developed septicemia believed to have stemmed from an infection in having a carbuncle removed from his face (an infected boil)  and would die on 02 Oct 1905, having never seen the completion of the project. The school named the building the Brace Physics building in his honor. Much of his research would not be completed by Brace, leaving other physicists to continue his work. Today's Physics Chair, Dr Dan Claes, believes that Brace's research provided a result that "contributed to Einstein's theory of relativity."

New Brace Physical Science Building
(Click to enlarge)

From 1903 to 1905, the Brace's had three children born to them. The youngest, Alice, was born after her father's death in 1905. 

Dr. DeWitt Brace, wife Emily, Lloyd and Roger Brace about
1905. UNL Library Archives

Mrs. Brace moved to Massachusetts after her husband's death and her children would be educated at top East Coast schools as far from the prairie as they could be.

Clan William: Super Nerd Television Pioneer George Harvey Seward

C. Fred Wolcott, Chief Engineer of Gilfilan 
Laboratories and Television Engineers'
Institute of America President
George H. Seward, 1939
Electronics Magazine, Jan 1941

One thing about the Munsons and their progeny, there are a lot who were involved in advancements in
science and education generally. Today's fellow, George Harvey Seward, is about the greatest science geek/promoter I've read about yet. Here's the descendency:

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > William Munson II > David Munson > Miranda Munson > Alice Jane Bird > George Harvey Seward m. Jessie Leiba

George Seward was born to Alice Jane Bird and Harvey Seward in New Haven, Connecticut on 17 Feb 1873. The oldest of two sons, George attended the Hopkins Grammar School, built on the New Haven Green and founded in 1660. The prestigious schools continues today. The school's website had an original dedication that read: "breeding up of hopeful youths...for the public service of the country in future times."

Following grammar school, George received a bachelor's in philosophy from Yale in 1895. He worked as a optical cataloguer in 1900. At the age of 33, he married Jessie Lebia of Kentucky in 1905. I couldn't find the pair in 1910, but by 1920, they were located in Hollywood, California.

George was a real estate and insurance man and owned a 3-unit home at 765-767-769 Gower Street  on a 9,000 sq ft lot, right across the street from the storied RKO Studios (it's now Paramount Studios). From the earliest days in Hollywood he was nerding out. He operated a short wave radio station and became one of the earliest pioneers in developing television.

(Left) RKO Studios at the corner of Melrose and Gower
(Right) the Gower St. Entrance right across the street 
from the Seward residence (Click photo to increase size)

Sometime in the 1920s, his wife, Jessie, was sent to the Patton State Asylum for the Insane in Highland, San Bernardino. George then lived alone, with the assistance of an older woman, a housekeeper who made his meals and cared for the home for the amount of $600 per year. She would remain with him until his death.

While George was involved in a lot of community efforts, the thing he is most noted for was getting publicity for his hobbies in the press. He was a leader and organizer on a pretty decent scale and was always formulating ways to connect people with similar interests to advance the cause of his particular interest. He was also very involved in the Southern California Yale Club and was known to present scholarships to students attending Yale.

In 1935, he made time to write a clearly frustrated, but unrealistic plea for people not to take up the parking spaces in front of his house

Seward was a short wave expert and was selected by the War Department to participate in an emergency test to simulate a national emergency. While many, many short wave operators were invited to participate across the country, Seward was deft in getting the publicity to go with it! His channel was W6CCT. He also got press in 1935 when he sent an encoded message via his short wave - to advertise his Federated Radio Clubs banquet. 

Though many people and organizations had been working toward television broadcasts for many years, the first demonstration of television occured in London, England in 1926. From that moment, the modern race was on. In 1930, RCA created its first experimental television station, W2XBS. RCA then created the National Broadcast Channel (NBC) in 1931 and shortly after, Columbia Radio System (CBS) was started). These two experimental stations were broadcasting on a small scale. Enthusiasts across the country began working in earnest to advance the experimental capabilities. RCA would still not start selling televisions until 1956.

In the US, several people had developed home television receivers with varying degrees of success. Seward seemed to have a gift for pulling these people together with a lot of hype and publicity. Some of his more interesting television undertakings were related to communications via radio, short wave, and television.

• Organizing the Hollywood Producers-Consumers Cooperative, the focus of which was sound recording and reproduction. Men with or without sound equipment were invited as were housewives, who'd make baked goodies to sell or barter with other cooperatives. (1934)
• Television Engineers Institute of America, Inc. Organized by George to provided educational and social opportunities in the realm of burgeoning television research and application. (1939)
• He also incorporated the Hollywood Television Society (1938) and the Television Artists and Writers Guild. (1939)

He was a great spokesperson and got a lot of media to draw attention in hopes of getting fellow enthusiasts together to advance the cause of developing a commercial and international ability to broadcast television. 

Dr. Lee DeForrest, the "father of radio"

In 1940, he sponsored a conference of over 200 people which headlined Dr. Lee DeForrest, known as
the "father of radio" and other technical speakers in both radio and television. He too, spoke, and never seemed to be short of things to say about his hobbies.

In the last year of his life, Seward decided to run for the Los Angeles Board of Education. He died before the election was held. 

George was honored by many organizations after his death on 30 Oct 1940 in Hollywood.  He was recognized by a number of organizations for his accomplishments to the burgeoning field of television. 

Seward was honored after his death by
many technical publications

His industry obituary read:

International Photographer
Vol 13, Jan-Dec 1941
(Click to enlarge)

And, though not a robust obituary, the hobbyist's death notice made the AP wire. 

Oakland Tribune, Oakland, CA 
31 Oct 1940, Thu, Pg 9

As a side note, Jessie would pass away in 1947, still a patient at the Patterson Asylum for the Insane in Highland, San Bernardino. The house, with it's three units, has been updated and is currently valued at over $1.1 million and is across from what is now Paramount Studios. I wonder if they still have the parking problems?

765-767-769 Gower St