Genealogy Trail: Brush Valley - Home of the Brothers Smull

Last week I made the long-awaited trip to Brush Valley in Pennsylvania. This includes towns like Centre Hall, Rebersburg, Aaronsburg, Smullton, and other villages within Centre County at its east end. I had the immense pleasure of having a tour guide, Evonne Henninger, who is the greatest historian of the area for whom I could wish. We spent the morning traveling around the valley and spent a bit more time in Rebersburg, the place my family had settled. I learned more in two days there than in years of studying from afar.

As a refresher, Johann Peter Schmoll and Julianna Sarah Mueller lived in Montgomery County,
Pennsylvania. They had ten children. Four of these went to Centre County to help build the Union Church in Rebersburg. Jacob, the oldest of the four, Peter, Henry, and the much younger Jesse. Jesse later returned to Montgomery County, but the others did not. The church was used from 1823-1876  by the Lutheran and Reformed denominations. According to Evonne, the bricks for the church were made along Elk Creek in Smullton (formerly Kreamersville) in the area of the Raymond Bair farm. Evonne drove me past this location. They razed this church after a Lutheran and a Reformed Church were built next to each other in 1876. The Amish recently purchased one of these, but neither is being used as a church at this time.

Jacob Smull's 1825
Georgian Style Home

After the building of the church, Jacob, Peter and Henry (1799) stayed on and became a big part of the community. Jacob ended up a building a German-influenced Georgian style house on E Main St in 1825 which still stands. He ended up dying in 1830. The two daughters of his marriage who survived to adulthood moved on to Lock Haven in adult life.

Peter, who is extensively written about here on the blog, left in 1847 for Stephenson County, Illinois. His entire family eventually joined him in that area.

That left Henry. Henry farmed and did whatever else he could to make a living. His first wife, daughter of one of the town's earliest residents, Elizabeth Royer, had seven kids. She died in 1834. Henry married immediately the former Catherine Kreamer, who was the widow of George Hosterman, who also died in 1834.  They combined their families and continued with life in Rebersburg. The couple had an additional five children.

One of the cool things he did was operate a toll house on Rockville Rd near Hwy 192. Toll houses existed on many roads in Pennsylvania. The tolls paid for maintenance and operation of the road since the government was not then involved. Henry Smull, in addition to his farm, had a toll house in Rebersburg. The toll house is on the right. Operators of such toll houses could earn a chunk of change each month as well. Tolls at one toll house were:

Henry Smull's Toll House on Right

Toll Gate Charges –

A score of sheep – 4¢ (score = 20)

A score of hogs – 6¢

A horse with his rider – 3¢

A score of cattle – 12¢

A sulkey with 1 horse and 2 wheels – 6¢

2 wheels & 2 horses – 9¢

4 wheels & 2 horses – 12¢

4 wheels & 4 horses – 20¢

Henry also had an opportunity to go to other parts of Pennsylvania and picked up ideas along the way. He

remodeled his toll house with unique diagonal design. During his time in Rebersburg, he also farmed. We went to the farm he ran between what was originally Kreamerville and Rebersburg. Today, the farm is in the hands of the Amish and a new homestead has been built.

Here is Henry's toll house with its unique design:

And here is the Henry Smull barn (later the C H Smull barn and now an Amish barn). This is an example of a L-shaped Pennsylvania barn.

There was so much more to learn about Henry and his kids on this trip. What I loved most is that I could feel the place and see the mountains and see how the villages connected to the mountains. It allowed me to gain perspective that no book or Internet record could provide. And, having a tour guide like Evonne was priceless. More to come.

B&W photos courtesy of Evonne Henninger of Penn's Valley, Past & Present

Things and Other Things that Are Coming Up with Love

What we work on, in our genealogical research, is discovering what the lives and loves of our ancestors were like in whatever small way we can, without a big book of family stories to read from. Filling in those blanks has brought me great pleasure this past three years. I've taken trips of exploration, interviewed distant relatives, researched parts of family I never knew I had, and met with others in my own far-flung family who share my interests in-person from time-to-time (shout out to my cousin in Clarksville!)

This past several months have been most busy. Hopefully making memories that won't be quite as hard to unearth for future generations.  I am blessed to be the mother of three children, all brought into my life and heart through adoption. They are all well-adjusted and amazing kids and I couldn't be more proud of them and their accomplishments thus far in life. They are all grown now and settling into adult lives of their own making. My oldest is married and has a two-year-old child of his own. To see him with her would warm the coldest of hearts. You can read a little bit about my youngest two's start in life here. They are doing far beyond early predictions. All three are the greatest joy of my life.

Recently, I've been trying to put together pieces of the family trees of all three of them. Fortunately, two will share the same information or it might have gotten a little crazy. In discussing doing the work on this with them, they, who have generally shown little or no interest in their biological families, are indeed most interesting in hearing about the people who came in generations before.

What I've discovered thus far is compelling and fascinating. The two stories are about as different as they could be from one another as it relates to the path of immigration, but each story is very rich. And, both stories end up in the north-central Midwest.

I don't have the resources with their research I've had with my own biological family. I can't ask a cousin to ask a cousin if I can come up and talk to them. Most of their relatives don't even know they exist. It could be a bit shocking to make those calls! They all had open adoptions, so talking to at least one birth parent is not a problem, but, what we find out from that adventure, we have yet to discover. It's one I'm looking forward to doing what I am able to do and providing it to my children to help them in their own quest for self-identity.

Jacob Smull Family: Uncle Billy Klise & Anna Elizabeth Bechtol

JACOB SMULL > REBECCA SMULL m Solomon Bechtol > Anna Elizabeth Bechtol m William

Uncle Billy Klise

Klise

Jacob Smull, Rebecca's father, was one of the original four Brothers Smull of Brush Valley. Rebecca Smull was born in 1827 in Rebersburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania. She married Solomon Bechtol and they eventually relocated to the Lock Haven area when Anna Elizabeth was a young girl. Anna was born 18 Oct 1863 in Rebersburg.

The family belonged to St John's Lutheran Church. Anna would be the church organist when she grew up and hold that job for 50 years. On 21 Oct 1880, she married William "Uncle Billy" Klise in Bellefonte, Centre County. The couple resided for many years in the 300 block of E Bald St. Klise later lived over his tailor shop at 231 E Main St in Lock Haven.

Uncle Billy was a tailor in Lock Haven and stayed in business for over 60 years. Billy was born in Northumberland County on 04 Feb 1854 and came to Lock Haven when he was one year old. His father was one of about 100 men who came to Lock Haven to work in the burgeoning lumber business.

Klise recalled  the early days of the town. When the town began, there were relatively few businesses in town and most of the town was concentrated between Mill and Henderson Streets. The business section was along Water St. The building next to what is now his tailor shop, the Irvin Hotel, was originally built by William Morehead, for a courthouse, but the founder of Lock Haven, Jerry Church, donated three lots in the First Ward for the courthouse. Morehead turned his building into the Manslon House hotel in about 1838. It wasn't until the Civil War that the business district shifted from Water Street to Main Street. This was due in large part to a great fire that burned all the buildings on Grove St between Main and Water and all of those on Water between Grove and the Canal.

Irvin Hotel, Lock Haven

Billy learned the tailoring business through an apprenticeship  starting once he had had enough of school. In 1869, he established himself in the business. When he started in the business, there were only 31 stars on the flag. His first shop was in the Opera House building which later housed the YMCA, Mason's drug store, and several other businesses.He was also one of the first in the city to get a telephone.

Billy formed the "Klise Klub" - made up of friends and comrades who enjoyed friendship over sweet cider while hanging about in the barn behind the tailor shop.

The couple had no children. Anna died after a long illness at age 64 on 15 Oct 1926.

Main St Lock Haven, Looking West

The days of ready to wear would eventually lead to the demise of many tailor shops, but Billy Klise was able to maintain his business with only custom made suits for its entire life. He finally retired at the age of 78.He made his rounds each day of his retirement, which almost always included a visit to the Western Union Telegraph Office and the "lobby Senate" at the Irvin Hotel.  Every day, after lunch, he went to Sam Brickley's ice cream shop for a scoop of ice cream. Then, he'd return to his shop to visit with those who had stopped by.

On the event of Billy's 90th birthday, the Lock Haven Express gave Billy a lifetime free subscription for his loyalty in reading the paper every days since the paper's inception in 1882. He also asserted, "I'd like to go through it all again. I had a grand life." His nephew and wife resided with him and cared for him at the end of his life in his apartment over the shop.

Billy continued to his active retirement until he injured his hand in a fall the summer of 1945 which eventually got gangrenous. The infection killed him 21 Nov 1945. As his wife had, Billy died in Lock Haven.

Sideroad: Harry S Woodington, Deserter

Marine Barracks
League Island, Philadelphia 

Jonathan Woodington (abt 1800) and Sarah Ann Wayman (abt 1818) had a very large family and lived primarily in the Philadelphia area for much of their lives. One son, Moses, married Henrietta Munson - the younger sister of my 2nd great grandmother, Mary Ann Munson, who moved with her family to the Eastern District of Wisconsin in the 1840s from Trumbull County, Ohio.

The youngest Woodington from Johnathon's family, Harry S (Moses' youngest brother), shares a not-so-nice commonality with Mary Ann Munson's grandfather, Freeman Munson. They were both deserters. While Freeman went on to have a happy and productive life, I've yet to locate Harry after his desertion. This is not the Harry I intended to post on who is this Harry's nephew of brother George. I'll get to that next.

Harry was born in about 1866 in Bristol, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. At the age of 23, on 23 Mar 1889, he joined the US Marines and was stationed at League Island Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, which was located at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuykill rivers. The shipyard was an additional shipyard which began being built up in 1871, meant to augment and eventually replace the shipyard on Front Street in Philadelphia which had been in use since 1776,

I was able to locate all the muster rolls during his brief military career:

29 Mar - 31 Mar 1889: Received instruction in drill

01 Apr - 30 Apr 1889: On drill (that had to be exciting-not!)

01 May - 31 May 1889: On drill

01 Jun - 30 Jul: Regular duties

01 Jul - 18 Jul: Regular duties

18 Jul - 31 Jul: Sick in hospital

01 Aug - 31 Aug: Sick in hospital

01 Sep - 15 Sep: Sick in hospital

15 Sep: Deserted from hospital

Now, we get to the why he was hospitalized and just how serious it was.  Harry had gonorrhea. The disease has been around for hundreds of years, but the bacteria was finally discovered in 1879 by Albert Neisser. Earlier in the 19th century, doctors used shots of mercury to the tip of the penis to help. Later, in the 19th century, gonorrhea was treated with the help of silver nitrate. However, this compound was discontinued and protargol was used which was a type of colloidal silver sold by Bayer from the year 1897. But, not all cases were helped by these treatments and further health problems could set in to the urethra, prostate, and even the liver in men over the short and long term.

In the case of Harry, he spent eight weeks in the hospital where the purge treatment (shooting various solutions, like mercury or saline directly through the tip of the penis through the urethra) and other remedies did not work in short order. By Sep 11, his case was still not beaten. On the 15th, he was granted liberty and never returned to base. On Sep 23, they closed his case and assumed he would not return. His complete treatment record is provided below. 

I've been unable to find any further evidence of Private Harry S Woodington. Now, I'll really get to the Harry Woodington I intended to get to as mentioned in the last post. Two Harry's, completely different lives on opposite coasts.

Sideroad: George Woodington Heads to California

Gabrielino Indians who settled on land taken by the
Spanish and then by US pioneers. They were
nearly decimated by disease.

Johnathan Woodington (abt 1800 and Sarah Ann Wayman (abt 1818) had a very large family and lived primarily in the Philadelphia area for much of their lives. One son, Moses, married Henrietta Munson - the younger sister of my 2nd great grandmother, Mary Ann Munson, who moved with her family to the Eastern District of Wisconsin in the 1840s from Trumbull County, Ohio.

Moses' oldest brother George, left Pennsylvania as well. He headed down to the Woodbine in Jo Daviess County area of Illinois, near the great Mississippi River sometime after 1860 from Elizabeth in Bensalem Township, Bucks County where he had been living with a cousin's family and working as a day laborer.

A ranch in Los Angeles/Orange County in the 1880s

On 26 Jan 1865, he married Margaret Alice "Alice" Neal in Jo Daviess County. Three children would be born to them there: Edwin, William Wallace, and Harry. B. In 1870, he visited California for the first time. His dream became to move there permanently. In the meantime, the boys were born and he farmed.

It appears his westward migration to southern most Los Angeles County came before 1877, for his next child, Lulu Maus, was born in Westminster Township in 1877. Daughter Mabel would come along in 1880.Westminster Township is comprised of the entirety of Rancho Los Alamitos consisting of over 28,000 acres. Westminster and Westminster Township later became part of Orange County in 1889.

Spanish Ranchos

Over 8,000 years ago, the earliest known settler here were the Oak Grove people. They abandoned the area when food sources dwindled and the temps became too dry. According to the Westminster website:

"The area remained uninhabited until the Gabrieleno Indians moved in from the desert to this area and numbered over 200,000. Diseases such as measles, smallpox and diphtheria reduced the Indian population.

The next recorded history of the North Orange County area dates to 1492, when Pope Alexander IV decreed that all unclaimed land in the North American continent belonged to the King of Spain. Large land grants called ranchos were awarded by the King to induce colonization of the continent. The Spaniards cleared, surveyed and mapped their new land. In 1784 the Spanish Governor of California honored Manuel Nieto with a 21 mile square concession of land to be called the Rancho Las Bolsas. It covered most of what we know today as west Orange County. The Rancho prospered with large crops and fine herds, however, after Nieto’s death in 1804 his heirs quarreled and the Rancho was partitioned in 1834.

During the 1850’s with California’s admission to the Union, the U.S. Land Commission was set up to review claims that rose from original Spanish land grants. An American named Abel Stearns saw this as an opportunity to buy up shares from the disputing factions of the Rancho Las Bolsas. With the Commission’s acceptance, Stearns became the sole owner of the rancho changing the name to Stearns Rancho."

Westminster was set up in about 1870 as a "temperance colony" by a Presbyterian minister who purchased 6,000 acres. This is a community that prohibited the sale or use of alcohol. By 1872, the first school had opened and by 1874, the first general store. It was a brutal agricultural terrain (part of the reason many Indians left the area long before) with swamps, tulles, and flooding due to the lack of irrigation. By 1881, with the passage of the Irrigation Act, thousands of acres were turned into usable ag land. He had been engaged in farming the greater part of his life and during the fourteen years of his residence in California, he worked as a farm laborer in many quarters, most extensively on the Bixby Ranch and later raised grain on the San Joaquin (Irvine) ranch - two of the largest ranches in California. He never worked his own land while in California, beyond family sustenance.

George lived here until his death in 1905. Alamitos Cemetery would later become Magnolia Memorial Cemetery. His wife, Alice, would live on until 1920. His son Harry would stay on in the area and will be the subject of the next post (along with info on his long relationship with "The Celery King."

MysteryMuddle: Solving the Mystery of the Early Smulls

George Henry Smull, the first subject of
the Smull Commemorative
Biographical Sketches

Way back in the day (sometime around 1825-ish), three brothers arrived in the Brush Valley, in Centre County, Pennsylvania. The story is not told through records, but through the centennial commemorative publications popular throughout the United States that profile prominent citizens and told the history of the town. Their accuracy was only as good as the transcriber and the subject providing the information so these publications often offer only mixed results.

Those Centre County Smulls were Henry, Peter, and Jacob. Another brother, Jesse, lived in another part of Pennsylvania and the two daughters referenced below have not been identified.

The Smull story is muddled by these very bio sketches. George Henry Smull, son of Reuben Smull, grandson of one of the three Brush Valley Smulls who first arrived to the area, Henry, was profiled in the J. H. Beers & Co. Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania, including the counties of Centre, Clinton, Union and Snyder Counties:

"The first of the line in America was _____ Smull, the great-grandfather of our subject (Henry, son of Reuben). He was a native of Ireland, whence he came to this country in the latter part of the

Centre & Clinton Counties, 1792

eighteenth century to locate in the eastern part of Pennsylvania. 

Six of his children lived to adult age - two daughters and four sons, the names of the latter being Henry, Jacob, Peter and Jesse. The Smull family in Brush Valley is descended from the first three sons, who were skilled masons, and all went at the same time to Rebersburg to build the wall for the Lutheran Reformed Church. They remained in the Valley, and, living in German settlements, they and their children adopted the language and customs of their neighbors. Of the brothers, Jacob, in later years, did an extensive business in cutting tombstones for the Rebersburg cemetery from native rock, and several of  these monuments are still standing. Jacob died at his home below Aaronsburg, and was buried at Rebersburg. Peter removed in later life to Stephenson county, Illinois, and died there." 

Just off the bat, this doesn't make sense. While there are some Smull's hailing from Scotland, the Schmoells, Schmulls, Smulls, Smalls, etc. hailed from Germany. The areas like Rebersburg were very German, speaking and conducting all of their business within their German communities in their language, educating their children in German, and maintaining their customs. It would not make sense for Irishmen to integrate into the German community. But who knows?  Intermarrying had already started.

Centre County Township Map, 1861

On that basis, I've since been looking for some other explanation and finally found one, which also may or may not be fully accurate. This taken from Portrait & Biographical Record of Macon County, Illinois, 1893 by Lake Publishing and the subject was Henry Smull (1842*), a heretofore unidentified child of Peter Smull and Mary Waggoner. There is one child of Peter and Mary whom I still have not identified, based on 1830 & 1840 census calculations. It tells a completely different tale about the same ancestor (the unidentified grandfather of both profile subjects):

"The latter (Peter) was of German descent. The paternal grandfather (unidentified) of our subject was a hero of the Revolution. He left the Old Country to avoid entering the army, and arrived in the United States just in time to aid the Colonists in their struggle for independence.

For seven years he (the unidentified grandfather) participated in the Revolution. The father (Peter) of our subject (Henry)was born February 27, 1796, and died in February, 1869, being buried in Rock Grove, Stephenson County, Ill. His wife, who was born February 4, 1801, died and was buried in the same place in September, 1878. Mr. Smull was always a supporter of the Democratic party. He was a mechanic, and always followed the occupation of farming. He came to Illinois when Henry was a lad of twelve years, and located upon a farm in Stephenson County, where he spent his remaining days."

I think this description may be more accurate, but may be bloated in the heroic description. Until it can be ascertained who the parents of the Brothers Smull were, it's all moot. I have yet to find one person who has a reasonable solution to the problem. What I know is that the family is not related, or is very distantly related to John Augustus Smull, the author of the Smull's Legislative Handbook. 

The big questions for me are:

• Did Jacob Smull have wife and children and if so, whom?
• Did Jacob Smull leave the Centre County area? No records of him exist, but the house which he built in Centre County is on the National Historic Register
• Who are the parents of Mary Waggoner, Peter Smull's wife? I have a case to put before the court of public opinion, but will share that later.
• And, finally, WHO ARE THE PARENTS OF THE BROTHERS SMULL?

*Henry Smull (1842) is the son of Peter Smull and Mary Waggoner and is listed with his birth year to differentiate him from Henry Smull, brother of Peter.