An Unusual Death, A Darker Side of My Family Tree

 

Richard O. Allen and Charlotte Golden are my 2nd great-grandparents.  It took me years to know their story, though mysteries about Charlotte remain.  They spent much of their adult life in southwestern Indiana.  Richard was a farmer, having come there with his parents from Mason County, Kentucky, between 1816 and 1820.

                                           Wheat Field in Daviess County, Indiana.  Public Domain.

 

Charlotte was born in Ohio.  She moved to Daviess County, Indiana, with her parents between 1817 and 1821.   I didn’t know her parent’s names, and because of this, I did not know much else beyond her marriage to Richard. 

 

I soon learned that she had a previous family, as did Richard.  She was first married as a seventeen-year-old to Robert Akester, with whom she had 7 children.  Robert died in 1845, and by 1848 she had married Richard.  Richard had 3 daughters with his first wife.  These children appear on the 1840 census with him and his first wife but disappeared from any further census documents.

 

Many of Charlotte’s children from her first marriage would go on to live with Richard and Charlotte after their 1848 marriage.  Court documents show Richard as their guardian.  They had 3 children, one of whom died as a 7-year-old child.  My great-grandfather, William, was born to the couple in 1848.

                                       Marriage License of Richard O. Allen and Charlotte Golden

At some point, through communication with other researchers, I identified her family line.  Her father and stepmother met in Ohio and married.  Charlotte’s mother was Elizabeth Lynch.  Her family came to South Carolina from Ireland.  They had several indigo plantations along the Saluda River.  Elizabeth’s parents lived in central South Carolina.  Her father struggled with slavery.  He started attending a Quaker meeting house, though he never became a Quaker.  When his wife died, he married a Quaker woman.  They decided to take Elizabeth and her sibling to Ohio, a free state.  

 

Charlotte’s father came from Virginia to Ohio sometime before his 21^st birthday.  He married her mother, Elizabeth, in 1811.  Not much is known about Elizabeth’s paternal grandparents, except they were in Ohio by 1809.

 

The story is a classic tale of families looking for new opportunities, seeking opening lands and the fertile soil of the Midwest.  Families who worked the land raised their children and died quiet deaths in their homes.  What I found instead is a much more profound and disturbing tale.  

 

By 1888, Richard and Charlotte were an elderly couple living on their farm, attended to by servants.  All the children were out of the home, most with their own families.  In 1887, my great-grandfather, William, was visiting his parents.  He died while there at the young age of forty-one.  He left a wife and 5 children living in southeastern Kentucky.

 

 A few months ago, a woman contacted me with questions about Richard’s first family.  She had also found a rather shocking newspaper article indicating that Richard had committed suicide by tying himself to a tree and slitting his own throat.  The article was unbelievable, but with further research, I found several other articles that shed light on the story.  

                                                Death Thought to be a Suicide.  Newspaper Archives.

 

One article reported on the coroner’s inquest.  The coroner believed Richard was somewhat feeble-minded and distressed because he had been accused of selling his vote in the November election.  The coroner thought he had committed suicide.  The final article, written months later, revealed the true story of what happened to Richard.  Charlotte had murdered her husband.  She described the entire circumstances first to her servants and then apparently to the police.   Charlotte recounted that because of an argument about their property, she drugged him, dragged him to a tree, tied him up, and finally slit his throat. 

                                              Confession Leads to a Story of Murder.  Newspaper archives.

 

I found no further articles.  Charlotte died in 1894, years after the murder.  She is buried in the cemetery with Richard, her son William, and many other family members.  I don’t know what happened to Charlotte after her confession.  She was seventy-seven years old when she murdered Richard.  I am also curious about William’s death.  He was in his early forties when he died.   Is there a story there?  I looked for any news articles about his death and found nothing.  The next step is to locate court records about the murder and perhaps information about William’s death.

                                                           Richard O. Allen Headstone.  Find a Grave

Originally published in Generations, a newsletter of the Southwest Colorado Genealogical Society.

Durango’s Endangered Historic Animas City Cemetery

                                        

 

Durango, Colorado, has an endangered historic cemetery overlooking old Animas City.  The Animas City Cemetery is one hundred and forty-seven years old and predates the town of Durango.  It was initially threatened simply because of its remoteness and its age.  Little was known about any of the burials in the cemetery.  As the years passed, the cemetery was neglected and almost forgotten.  Interest in the cemetery has increased over the past 25 years.  Now, it is threatened by development.

 

Animas City was founded in 1876, the same year Colorado obtained statehood.  Durango was founded in September 1880.  The earliest three burials in the Animas City Cemetery were in 1877, James Henry Tilghman, a traveling preacher, Shepard Clark, and Isaac Doty, sheep herders murdered near Pagosa Springs.  The final burial was of the Rev. William Henry Folsom Jr., a minister at the Free Methodist Church in Durango.  He was buried in 1966 but was exhumed in 1976 and moved to Greenmount Cemetery.

                                                James Henry Tilghman Courtesy of Julie Pickett

 

The total number of probable burials in the cemetery is currently believed to be 156.  During the first eight years of the cemetery, at least 92 individuals were buried there.  Over time, burials dropped off.  Ninety-three of the total burials were of individuals born in the United States.  The remaining 15 individuals were European-born.  At least 37% of the total burials in the cemetery were children; 26% of these were children between the ages of zero and four.  Several Civil War veterans are buried there, as well as Ike Stockton, a local outlaw.  Many of Durango's pioneer families have family members buried in this cemetery.

 

The cemetery contains a variety of headstones, monuments, fieldstones, enclosures, and plantings, as well as other historic artifacts.  It is wild, overgrown, and generally unmaintained.  Currently, it is accessible by a primitive trail from the bottom of the hill or by a route through a resident's backyard that requires permission from the landowner before entry.  Neither of these choices is ideal.  

 

The Daughters of the American Revolution recorded some headstones in the 1950s.  The Boy Scouts were involved in a cleanup of the cemetery after a 1985 fire.  For more than a decade, Henry Ninde, a volunteer from the La Plata Historical Society, photographed the cemetery.  In 2002 and 2004, Fort Lewis College Archeological Field School surface mapped and investigated the suitability for remote sensing.  

                                   Empty Enclosure Stabilization, Courtesy of Julie Pickett

 

Julie Picket and Ruth Lambert, both members of the Southwest Colorado Genealogical Society and Friends of the Animas City Cemetery, have been involved in archeological survey and mapping, extensive historical research, photography, documentation workshops, and several other follow-up projects.  Volunteer cleanups, a repair project of some enclosures, and periodic tours have occurred.
 

Durango is a small town, and developers have fewer and fewer places within the city to build.  However, out-of-state developers have discovered several parcels of land below the Animas City Cemetery, where they plan to develop over 200 high-density apartment units and parking spaces.  A gym, outdoor swimming pool, and access road will be built feet from the cemetery's boundary.  The road will have a five-foot "buffer" from the cemetery boundary.  The road and the clubhouse cannot be moved away from the cemetery boundary because of a steep slope to the northeast. 

 

While the cemetery is a designated Durango Historic Landmark, under the auspices of the Parks and Recreation Department, little has been done to preserve and protect this historic cemetery.  In 2010, the city assisted with mapping it, and after volunteer cleanup projects, the department sent trucks and workers to pick up the waste materials.  The last volunteer cleanup was in 2015.

 

If construction goes as planned, pedestrian traffic from the apartment units and elsewhere will increase the threat to unstable headstones and enclosures.  Children from the proposed development will undoubtedly use the cemetery as a playground.  This could have dangerous consequences.   Children have died after accidents involving falling headstones in other cemeteries around the country. 

                             Listing Headstones, courtesy of Stephen Studebaker
  

 

To protect the cemetery, a survey using ground penetrating radar and magnetometer must be completed along the cemetery's perimeter.  This needs to extend at least 20 feet beyond the boundary.  Depending on the results of these surveys, the area may need to be extended to the entire bench.  A fence must be built around the cemetery, and a gate and appropriate signage must be constructed.  Headstones and enclosures must be stabilized, and plants threatening historic markers and enclosures must be pruned or removed.  The Animas City Cemetery is a treasure to be protected and visited perpetually.

                    View of Upper Animas Valley from Lambert Enclosure, courtesy of Julie Pickett

 

Update:  The City of Durango Planning Commission met to discuss the project.  Many interested parties attended the meeting virtually.  All speakers expressed concerns about the project.  The Planning Commission decided not to support the project and ultimately advised the builder and architect to not take the project to the City Council.  The builder has agreed to rework the project and take it to the City Council.  As of June 8th, 2023, the developer has pulled out of the project.  The property is still for sale.  The community will stay vigilant.  The Parks and Recreation Commission has set aside money in its budget for remote sensing of the areas outside the current cemetery boundaries.

Originally published in Generations, a newsletter of the Southwest Colorado Genealogical Society.

Western Surveyor, Map Maker, and Explorer, Hubert Page

Hubert DeForest Page is my great-grandfather.  He was born in 1865, three miles from the shores of Lake Ontario, in Richland, Oswego County, New York.  By age five, he had moved with his family to La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he attended school.  After high school, he started working in the office of county surveyor H. I. Bliss. This was to be the start of his career as a noted surveyor, map maker, and civil engineer.  

 

Hubert married my great-grandmother, Emma Kaiser, in Box Elder County, Utah, in 1890.  My great-grandmother was a seamstress, making her wedding dress and most of her other clothing.  She made a lovely dress for a dance she was going to attend and this is where she first met Hubert. 

      

                                             Emma Kaiser and Hubert Page Wedding

                                                          Collection of the author

Their union would lead this couple and their eight children on years of adventures around the western United States.  Their first son, Hubert, was born in Vancouver, Washington.  The rest of the children were born in Utah and Idaho.  The 1890 census shows Hubert as being a surveyor operating out of Brigham City.   

 

Returning from an 1892 survey for the government in the Blue and La Sal mountains of southeastern Utah, Hubert said, “he is deeply impressed by the future possibilities in the La Sals and predicts great mining activity in that section.”  An 1896 newspaper article from Salt Lake City notes the return of the family from California, “where they have been living for the past few months.”  Another article notes that H.D. Page was running the field crew in 1896, surveying a route for the Salt Lake and Pacific railroad into Deep Creek territory in western Utah, along the Nevada border.  This was a short spur route going into the gold fields surrounding Gold Hill. 

                                                        newspapers.com

In 1899, Hubert Page and James Lentz were subdividing the southeasterly most township in Utah.  While completing the survey in the area of the Four Corners, they discovered the original Chandler Robbin’s monument for the corner was broken and disturbed.  Page and Lentz marked and set a new stone in the original location of Robbin’s marker.

 

                                                           Four Corners Marker

                                                        Creative Commons Zero

By 1902, the family had moved to Salt Lake City, where Hubert was listed in several city directories as a civil, hydraulic, and mining engineer. He went to San Francisco in April to submit a bid for the grading of the Ogden-Lucin railroad cut-off west of the Great Salt Lake.  The work was expected to cost $350,000.  Later, in 1902, Hubert was surveying various mining claims in the Deep Creek region, where he had been involved in developing the spur railroad line.  He describes a find of a high-grade lead-silver deposit in the region of Dutch Mountain.

                                                                Hubert D. Page

                                                           Collection of the author

In June 1905, a large article was printed in the Salt Lake Herald regarding the opening of the Uinta Indian Reservation.  The article was technical in nature, referring to various legal descriptions of the area.  It was some time before I realized the map that was printed with the article was the same map I had framed on my wall.  He would later sell copies of the map to settlers for 55 cents. The map was made to facilitate opening Ute land to white settlers. 

                                                      Page Map of High Unitah

                                                        Collection of the author

 By 1906, Hubert was involved in a very large project called the Payette-Boise Irrigation Project.  This included building the New York Canal.  Hundreds of men and some women were employed on the project. Total costs for the project were expected to exceed $7,800,000.  Funding for this project had always been problematic.  The original private developers ran out of money, and the federal government did not pay their bills in a timely manner.  My great-grandfather had to get some of his payment through a special congressional bill shepherded through Congress by his senator. 

                                                                 New York Canal

                                                           Collection of the author

Page Camp Cookhouse

Collection of the author

Hubert had been to Washington D. C. several times pursuing claims against the U. S. Government for lack of compensation for the Payette-Boise Irrigation Project.   C. C. Calhoun was his lawyer during these disputes with the government.  He wrote letters home describing his trials and tribulations, including his deteriorating health.  He also kept a small journal.

                                                   Page 1913 Journal                                                     

                                           Collection of Hubert "De" Page

A frustrated and worn-out Hubert died on his final trip to Washington on the 21^st of June 1913 with my great-grandmother, Emma, by his side.  He was 47 years old.  Hubert was a 32nd-degree Mason.  My great-grandmother enlisted the assistance of the Masons in procuring transportation by train back home to Idaho, where he was laid to rest in the Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise.

                                                                    Page Family

                                                            Collection of the author

I used dozens of newspaper articles to flesh out the details of Hubert's life.  Hubert became a true Westerner.  He rode by horseback to many of his assignments and camped under the stars while he worked.  He would be gone for many days, even months, while he pursued his work, leaving Emma at home alone to raise their children.

My Husband's Favorite Photo of Grand Canyon

From the Collection of Stephen Studebaker

In June of 1928, Guy Emerson Studebaker, my husband's grandfather, and his wife Ella Mae Funderburg, along with Drue Funderburg, his brother-in-law, and his wife Ethel Forrest Delinger embarked on a train trip to Long Beach for the annual conference of the Church of the Brethren.  Drue was a minister in the church and a professor at Bethany Theological Seminary in Chicago.  

It is unknown if Grandpa Guy had planned his Grand adventure before he left Ohio.  My guess is that he had.  By Jun. 25, Guy was at the Grand Canyon, on the back of a mule, fourth from the top, at the head of the Bright Angel Trail.    He was a farmer, owned mules, and was probably more comfortable with the animals than the other dudes in this photograph.  But of course, what do I know of any of their backgrounds?  

One of the Kolb brothers from the famous Kolb Studio photographed this group at the head of the Bright Angel Trail.  Other families across the country have similar treasured mementos in their homes.  Thousands of these photographs were made, but their survival from this period is remarkable.  My husband's grandmother gave him this photograph because he was a national park ranger at the Kolb Studio and on the Bright Angel Trail.   The Kolb brothers made photographs from this spot for 75 years. 

Kolb Studio.  Public Domain

By 1903, the brothers had gotten permission from the trail owner, Ralph Cameron, to start their photography business.  They took photographs at various locations in and around the canyon.  They would photograph the riders as they set out on their adventures and have the pictures ready for sale by the time they returned to the rim.  They even filmed a motion picture of their 101-day run of the Colorado River.  They built the present studio in 1906.   The studio was saved from Park Service demolition in 1966 when Congress passed a bill to preserve historic Park Service buildings.

                             Pittsburg Post Gazette, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Sunday, Oct. 26, 1913, col. 1, page 37

These intrepid riders were guided into the canyon by way of Indian Gardens to the overlook for the inner gorge by wranglers, one who rode in the front and one who rode in the rear of the group.  It was a 13.3-mile round trip ride from the canyon's rim to Plateau Point.  It took approximately 7 hours to go down and back.  Each returning rider was undoubtedly filled with stories of their day's adventure.

                                                                         Indian Gardens.  Public Domain

Guy Studebaker's grandson, Stephen, was a National Park Ranger at the Kolb Studio in 1980.  The Park Service used it as a visitor contact station at the time.  His grandfather would have never guessed that his oldest grandson would someday hike more than 1500 miles in the Grand Canyon and climb 18 towers and buttes below the rim, including two first ascents. 

Teachers and Preachers

My husband Stephen’s family came from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to Ohio in the first half of the 19^th Century.  They settled in Clarke, Miami, and Knox counties.  They farmed the land, preached the gospel, and educated their children.

The first of the Kellers to come west was Jacob, son of Henry, who walked from Pennsylvania to Ohio in 1800, three years before statehood.   He returned from this sojourn in 1806.  While he was there, his father, Henry, came by horseback to Ohio looking for land.

By 1808 the family loaded up and traveled by wagon for a four-week trip to Ohio, settling in Fairfield County.  Over time many family members also moved, including his son Benjamin.  Henry bought 1000 acres of land through the years, later selling some of it to his children.   

When my husband’s family came to Knox County, it was a rugged, wooded wilderness populated with many game animals, dangerous bears, and wolves.  Native Americans hunted and lived in this region.  While clashes occurred between the settlers and native people, many interacted more peacefully.  The forest gave way to farms as the settlers cleared the land, and native people were eventually forcibly removed to Oklahoma territory by the United States government. 

  

Benjamin’s son Henry was born in 1829 in Pike Township, Knox County, possibly near the location of his land.  Henry was a minister overseeing the Owl Creek Church of the Brethren for twenty-five years.  Two maps dated 1871 and 1896 show a school located on the corners of Henry’s land.  It appears that the maps represent two different schools from two different dates.  Note the location of Keller properties in the upper left-hand corner of each map. 

1871 Pike Township,  Knox County, Ohio, Atlas of Knox County, Ohio

1896 Pike Township, Knox County, Ohio, Knox County Atlas

 Henry’s son Daniel was born in Pike Township in 1851.  Family stories have long been shared naming Daniel as a teacher.  He seems to be the first teacher of the Keller family though one might argue that the ministers in the family were teachers of a kind.  Most family members were German Baptist Brethren or Mennonites.  In 1880 Daniel Keller appeared with his first wife Elnora and their first child Walter in the home of his father Henry on the Pike Township, Knox County, Ohio, US Federal Census.  Seeing that the census taker recorded Daniel as a school teacher was exciting.  

1880 United States Census for Daniel Keller, Pike, Knox Ohio

My husband keeps a photo of his great-grandfather Daniel and his second wife, Ardella, in our home on a lovely curly maple table his father made.  Sitting alongside is Daniel’s school handbell, a true family heirloom.  

                                                            Collection of Stephen Studebaker

Another family heirloom is the 1910 student souvenir book given to Daniel’s daughter Lola by her teacher G. S. Strausbaugh.  This wonderful little book had a photograph of the teacher on the cover, inspirational drawings and poems, and Lola’s final report card for the year.  

                                                                 Collection of Stephen Studebaker

Lola, three of her siblings, and other relatives and neighbors were included in the pupil list.  Lola was about fifteen or sixteen when this book was given to her.  Perhaps the children attended one of the schools illustrated on the maps.

                                                            Collection of Stephen Studebaker

Early class photo with G.S. Strausbaugh and Keller children, collection of Stephen Studebaker

Three of Daniel’s six children were educators at some point.  His oldest son Walter was listed as a teacher on the 1910 census.  His sister Chloe had a long career as an educator.  Walter’s half-sister, Lola, is described by her granddaughter Nancy as having been a teacher for a short time before her marriage in 1915.  No record of this exists. 

Early photo of Lola, Walter, Mabel, and Ada, collection of Stephen Studebaker

Chloe started as a public school teacher, recorded in the 1910 census.  She continued in education, probably up to the time of her retirement.  Chloe completed three years of college and served as a principal in Lorain, a city in northern Ohio, on Lake Erie.  The first record of her in this position is in the 1920 census.  Chloe lived and worked here when a terrible tornado hit Lorain in 1924.  78 lives were lost, 500 homes were destroyed, and 7000 were homeless. 

Years of successive city directories show her as a principal at Brownell Elementary School, the final record in 1937.  She declared herself retired on the 1940 census in Pinellas County, Florida.    

Aerial view looking north, 1908-1918, Lorain, Ohio.  Wikimedia Commons

Ultimately Daniel Keller’s granddaughter Ruth met Eldon, a young man who attended Manchester College, their church school in Indiana.  When her beau graduated from college, he found a job teaching vocational agriculture at Dixon Township High School in Preble County, Ohio.  We think he took this job because it was close to Ruth, who was studying at the Indiana Institute of Art.  When Ruth graduated, she stayed at her alma mater as an instructor.  In later years, Eldon was a Sunday school teacher and deacon in the New Carlisle Church of the Brethren.  

 Eldon Studebaker and Ruth Workman Studebaker, collection of Stephen Studebaker

Three of Ruth and Eldon’s four children became involved in education.  Nancy taught German and was a high school librarian for many years.  Dan served on his hometown school board for twenty-four years.  Stephen was a teacher for 35 years.  Twenty-three of those years were spent teaching on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.  Steve’s daughter, Stephanie, has worked in education in many capacities.  Ted found another path,  working with people as a counselor.

   

The Missing Census Reports

1840 Harlan County, Kentucky Census

The idea of using the census as part of my research keeps taking me to the census records I can’t find for some of my Kentucky kin.  It’s not the ones I have.  It’s the ones I don’t have.  Census records contain a wealth of information, so not having them can create mysteries that seem unsolvable.

My 2^nd great-grandfather James Miller and a woman and child to be the correct ages of my second great-grandmother Lucretia Bingham and their daughter Sarah are found on the 1840 census in Harlan, Kentucky.  James and his family lived next door to Noah Hendrickson, his brother-in-law.  James drops off the face of the earth after that.  He never shows up on another census with or without Lucretia.  Lucretia is traceable until she died in 1904.

1850 Harlan County, Kentucky Census

The 1850 census shows Lucretia with her three children in the household of her sister and brother-in-law, Noah Hendrickson, in Harlan, Kentucky.  This is probably the same location but without James in the area.  The 1860 census is missing for the entire family.  On the 1870 census, she is in Knox County, Kentucky, with three children.  Lucretia and an adult child and a grandchild show up on the 1880 census for Knox County, Kentucky.  These would now be located in modern Bell County.  I have yet to find another census showing James Miller.  The death certificate of James’ youngest daughter, born about 1863, shows James as her father.  My great-grandmother, his middle child,  listed James Miller as her father.

Where is James on any census after 1840?  James lived at least until 1862, possibly fathering all five of Lucretia’s children.  There are stories of Civil War involvement and James possibly being shot by his own men as he ran out the back door at his brother-in-law, Noah’s house.  But he is missing from the 1850 and the 1860 censuses.

Where was Lucretia on the 1860 census?  Family stories told of Lucretia working for “toting” privileges around the time of the 1850 census.  This means she worked in someone’s household and took home any leftover food for her family.  She was destitute, with no husband to help support the family.  These missing census results continue to fuel the Miller family mystery.

Burying grounds for Lucretia, her sister, and Noah Hendrickson.
 The daffodils mark their graves.