Week 9 - Family Secret - Dillingham Family

My grandmother, Nellie (Dillingham) Porter was the youngest of 14 children of Nathaniel and Carrie (Barnhart) Dillingham. She was born 10 July 1894 in Carroll County, Iowa. After her and my grandfather Harry Edward Porter were married, they bounced around quite a bit between Iowa and South Dakota and eventually ended up in Michigan. I never heard any stories regarding her older siblings except for her brother Grover Cleveland Dillingham who ended up in Flandreau, Moody County, South Dakota. And that was because my mother would say how wonderful Grover's wife Christine (Hanson) was.

So, it wasn't until around the year 2000 that I was handed some stories about Nellie's older siblings. This led me to dive into research to uncover the answers to all the questions that abounded from those stories.  What I discovered were true family secrets.

Nellie's 2nd oldest brother Samuel Dillingham was born 8 December 1869 in Manning, Iowa. In 1894 Sam was prisoner #2941 in Anamosa Penitentiary for assault to commit manslaughter (with a knife) against O. W. "Hock" Hunter in Manning. He was remanded for two years. He was age 24, of medium height, occupation laborer and was Methodist. It was his 1st offense and was released in September 1896.

Sam married Katherine "Katie" Jones 17 Mar 1900 in Ft Dodge, Iowa. They had four children: Leona, Mary Ellen, Robert and Violet. They divorced and he married Florence Dillow 23 Oct 1918 in Webster City, Iowa. They had three children: Willard, Ruby and Florence.

In 1903, oldest brother Frank F Dillingham (born 2 October 1868 in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa was Prisoner #5033 for 'larceny from the person' i.e. a pocket watch and received nine months at the Anamosa Penitentiary. He was age 28, medium complexion and a widower. Actually, during this time, his wife Caroline (Potts) filed for divorce and moved away with their three children: Lois, Jessie and Marie.

Then in 1908 Frank got into a quarrel with his younger brother Joseph N. Dillingham. Joe was born 17 Dec 1877 in Cerro Gordo, Iowa, number six in order of the children, and died 10 June 1908. Joe and Frank were well known as troublemakers and 'tough characters' and had gotten into one of their frequent alcohol-induced quarrels in the basement of the Park Hotel in Carroll, Iowa. During the fight, Frank got the better of his brother and struck him over the head with a piece of gas pipe. Joe was seen alive, cleaning his wounds in a bucket of water and then about three hours later, was found dead in the stock yards. Meanwhile, Frank was in the saloon drinking and making remarks about how he wished Joe was dead. A gas pipe and also a large rock was found in the basement and there was blood and hair on both. Frank was arrested and bail was set at $5,000. Frank was given the maximum sentence of eight years for manslaughter, served at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.

Frank married a second time to Bessie Chaffin Cline in 1939 and died 15 June 1959 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Only some of the siblings stayed in Iowa, albeit in different counties. Nellie and Grover went to South Dakota, Katherine and Lena headed for Minnesota and Sidney went to Nebraska. Maybe those that left went because of those secrets??

Barbie

Coon Rapids 

Courier ENTERPRISE
100 Years Ago

June 12, 1908

Gory with blood and his head
crushed in, Joe Dillingham was
found dead in the stockyards in
Manning this afternoon and his
brother, Frank Dillingham, is
locked up in jail charged with
murder. While no one saw the
crime, suspicion points strongly
toward Frank and the coroner’s
jury is expected to return a verdict
against him. Drink was probably
at the bottom of the crime.
Though men grown, both more
than 30 years of age, the two Dillingham’s
grew up into worthless
“boozers”, living chiefly from
the meager savings of their parents
and working only occasionally.
When drunk they quarreled
with each other violently at times
and frequently fought with each
other fiercely over various grievances.
This morning the trouble
was uptown where they had one
of their quarrels and afterwards
Frank was heard to declare that
sometime he would kill Joe. Joe
was seen at 11 a.m. down at the
stockyards It is believed that the
brothers met here again upon
noon and that then the fatal
blows were death. Frank was arrested
soon after the crime was
discovered. When taken he was
filling up on liquor.

 

 

Week 8 - Migration - Porter family

My great-great grand uncle Hosea Bellon Porter, better known as HB, was born about 1830 in New York the youngest son of Aaron and Lovina (Chapman) Porter. The family migrated from New York state to Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana by 1818 based on the birth places of some of their children and Aaron showing as head of household in 1820 and 1830 census records. The family than traveled on to Cedar County, Iowa about 1832. The father Aaron died in 1846 and by 1860, many of the siblings, including their mother Lovina, had headed for Minnesota and then on to Oregon. John J (my 2x great grandfather) and his brother Nicholas and their families stayed in Iowa.

By the year 1870, HB was found near Winters, Yolo County, California about 30 miles west of Sacramento. He owned land, was worth about $1500.00 (over $46,000.00 today) and had two farm hands. In 1880, he was located in Solano County, California; not because of moving, but because the county lines had changed.  By then he had a foreman and ten Chinese workers that helped on his ranch. Obviously, an entrepreneur for the times.

Traveling to California from Iowa during the 1860's would have been challenging at best. The most common route was the Oregon-California Trail that would have taken close to four months to complete by wagon. In 1870, the Pacific Railroad / Overland Route was completed, and a train would have made the travel time shorter, with a cost of between $65 and $135 (between $1400.00 and $3900.00 today) depending on what class you traveled.

Solano County played a significant role in the development of the U.S. fruit industry during the 19th century. Between 1845 and 1910, it was renowned for producing the first deciduous fruits such as apples, figs, nectarines, plums, and others. The region’s climate and fertile soil made it ideal for cultivating these crops, and its early contributions helped shape the agricultural landscape of California, which would become known as a major agricultural hub.

Hosea never married and when he died 18 Mar 1890, he stated in his will that the property he owned was to be left to his nephew William Arthur Young who had been living with him for about a year. William was the youngest son of Hosea's sister Sarah.

Doing a follow-up on William Young, I find that in 1900, 1910, 1920.... he was living in Winters, California - but he was living in town. 

Not on the land that had been given to him. Did he sell it, or did he lose it? That will be another mystery to be researched.

Barbie

Week 7 - Letters and Diaries - Conner family

 I always dreamed of finding a slew of diaries from my Sheridan family that I could ooh and ahh over and find all the answers to all my questions. Ya, right. Never going to happen.  

Instead, I do have a letter written on my husband's side that has a lot of family information in it.  It was written by Eva Gates Connor who was the daughter in law of Archibald Conner. Archie was a younger brother to my husband's great-grandfather, William Conner.

Archie was born 3 Jan 1879 in Barrie, Ontario, Canada and ca 1897 married Elisabeth Weigett. They had two sons by 1900, Russell and Ernest, both born in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. Between 1900 and 1904 the young family had immigrated into Michigan.  Children Alice, Kenneth and Hazel were born 1907, 1910, and 1913, respectively in Twining, Arenac, Michigan.

In Archie's immediate family, each person seemed to like a different spelling of their last name, so they are intermixed throughout their records. In the cemetery Archie and Elisabeth is spelled Conner. The large 'name' stone is spelled Conners. One son is Connor and another is Connors. All in the same family plot.

Back in 2000, I had spoken with Dan's Aunt Eldora Conner about his family, and she shared that Eva would be able to help. Eva had been married to Ernest Connors, and he had passed back in 1981, but she was a wealth of information, although she had just turned 90 years old.  I asked Eldora to help out and she sent off a letter. Back when it had to go via US Mail. Eva answered her in a missive dated 21 November 2000. This is verbatim.....

Dear Eldora,

I received your note and was glad to hear from you.  My eyesight is poor and I have tremors. Some days very bad.  These people in genalogy should start earlier. Most have died and you have lost a lot of history.  Ernies father's name was Archie. He was married to Elizabeth Weigett. Both from Barrie Ont Canada.  He had 3 brothers. Wm, Frank & Ed. Ed was never married. He lived with Ernies family for some time. I don't know what happened to him.

Leota might know. She wasn't very old. I don't know if Archie had sisters. Archie had 3 sons Russell, Ernie & Keny. He had 2 daughters Alice & Hazel. Alice died when she was 13 during the 1918 flu epidemic, so did her father. Hazel was only 19 when she died. I think 1929. She left Leota just a toddler who was <raised> by her grandmother & Ernie & kenny. The boys married. Russell to Tillie - West VA. Ernest to Eva Gates - Turner, MI no children. Kenneth to Gladys Matuzak - Omer, MI no children.  Russell & Tillie - 2 boys. Archie & Raymond.  Archie & Joyce live in Prescott, MI.  Raymond died in a car accident. Hazels daughter married Thornton Cueriston (sp). They had 5 children. 2 boys - 3 girls.  Thornton died Sept 1985. Girls were Karen, Jill & Holly. 1 boy was Alan and can't remember the other. Russell died 11-6-1971 Standish hospital.

Ernest died 12-16-198_ in Traverse City, MI.

Kenneth died 1988 in nursing home.

Archies family came across the ice on a sleigh to Grand Marais, MI.  They lived there several years and moved to Twining where Kenny, Alice & Hazel were born.

Hope you can read this as I am pretty shakey.

Happy Thanksgiving

It took me a number of years to put all those people in the correct families and order. But the best part was the comment about them coming across on the ice. I have never found an immigration record for Archie, Elisabeth or their sons Russell and Ernest.

Barbie