MADDENS - CO. CORK TO MASSACHUSETTS TO ILLLINOIS

~ A Ryland Family ~


It is a lucky day for a genealogist when the tombstone carries magical information.

Here is what my third-great grandfather's stone says:

Sacred to the Memory of Stephen Madden
Died May 28, 1877, aged 75 years
Born in the Parish of Kilbragen
Town of Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland.

And his wife's says:

Sacred to the Memory of
Hanorah
Wife of Stephen Madden
Died August 23, 1870 age 72 years 3 mo.
Born in the Parish of Kilbragen
Town of Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland

And the following inscription is on both of them:

When the hours of life are past
And death's dark shades arrives at last,
It is not sleep, it is no rest,
'Tis Glory opening to blest.
N. Imus

These stones are in the Madden plot at Holy Cross Cemetery in Mendota, Illinois.

Stephen and Hanorah (found sometimes as Honorah, and occasionally shown as "Nora") arrived in the United States sometime between June of 1830 and July of 1834. They brought three children with them: Julia, b 1825; Timothy b abt 1828; and John C., b 10 June 1830. Settling in Taunton, Massachusetts, their last child, Ellen, was born there on 10 July 1834. She was my second-great grandmother.

On the 1850 census records Stephen is shown as a "laborer." By this time son Timothy had gone to California (and was never heard from again,) and daughter Julia had married Peter Donohue. In 1853 the records in St. Mary's Church show that son John had married Mary Sullivan and Ellen had married Robert Whitters, a young man from Ireland. Unfortunately Robert died in 1855, leaving Ellen a young widow with Edward, a year-old child.

All the Madden family except for Ellen moved to Mendota, LaSalle County, Illinois in 1853. But after her husband's death she took Edward and followed her family. It was there that she met and married Chester Stevens in 1857. Edward Whitters retained his birth name but was raised in the Stevens family as the oldest son.

Stephen and Hannorah were devout Catholics and were not too pleased at their daughter Ellen marrying outside the faith, according to a letter in the possession of granddaughter Lucile G. Fulton York in 1969. Written to a grandson of Julia Madden Donohue, these are the salient parts:

My Grandmother, Ellen, was, I think, the only member of her family born in this country. She married Robert Whitters and they had a son before he was killed, leaving her a young widow with a baby son....I think, but am not sure, that Grandfather [Chester]Stevens was in the same business as Uncle Pete and was selling machinery - traveling around. Grandfather was from English parents and Steven's Point, Wisconsin is named that because they founded the town. When they were married, Grandfather and Grandmother migrated to Raymond, Kansas.

The reason our branch of the family knows little about Grandma's people is that Grandfather was not Catholic and her people were displeased. He died around the turn of the century so I didn't know him. His sister, Sophronia, married Gen. Steven Hurlbut and he and Grandma were frequent visitors at the White House after Grant became President. Grandma was a great gal, walked like a queen, and had a combination of Irish and Bostonion accent that was really something....I have a remnant of a paisley shawl, which was a wedding gift and which I am putting in small antique frames for the grandchildren, along with the records I have...."

Nothing more is known about Steven and Hanorah

THESE ARE THE FACES OF GENEALOGY

A recent picture posted on LA Weekly purported to be the face of genealogy, but it was a less than flattering picture of two young boys. Frankly, it was a tasteless illustration and whoever chose that picture was no friend of genealogists.

I offer here my take on the face of genealogy - my Uncle Bob Ryland and my Aunt Florence Ryland, sitting for the photographer in Caldwell, Kansas in 1908. This Ryland line goes back to Paulus Reylandt - who died in Berks, PA in 1789.

ROBERT GASTON DOBBINS - 1828-1851

~ A DOBBINS RELATIVE ~

I am always afraid that relatives who die either young or at least before they marry and start a family will get lost both in the memory and in the record. Robert Gaston Dobbins was my great-grandfather's brother. He died when he was only 23 years old and unmarried. Although my great-grandfather named his first son after him, (Robert Gaston Dobbins 1872-1929) by the time I started genealogy in 1984 no one in the family had any inkling that there had been an earlier relative by that name. I am hoping that my record of him will here always be available to anyone running a search on that name. He is truly an Immortal Nobody.

Robert Gaston Dobbins had been born in Clermont County, Ohio to James "Jim" Alexander and Elizabeth Perkins Dobbins. In 1834 the Dobbins family, headed by the Rev. Robert B. Dobbins, a circuit-riding Presbyterian Minister, left Ohio for Illinois, where Rev. Dobbins had purchased enough land to ultimately deed some to each of his children. The family settled in Vermont Township, Fulton County, Illinois.

The Mississippi River is the western border of Illinois
and many rivers feed into it. The dot on the map below shows approximately where the Dobbinses settled and you can see the waterways that course through it. The two biggest are the Illinois River and nearer to Fulton County the Spoon River.



My friend Carl Peterson, a retired history professor, a superb genealogist and a terrific social historian, told me that the Mississippi Valley, of which west-central Illinois is a part, had a terrible cholera epidemic in 1851, and it is possible that this is what Robert died from. Of course we don't know for sure. We do, however, know that it was from an illness, as one of the charges against his estate was a bill from the doctor that read: “To P. S. Secor, Dr. For 20 visits, advice and medicine per self in last illness - $33.25,” Carl noted that is is unlikely that someone dying in a cholera epidemic would have had occasion for 20 visits to the doctor.

What we do know is that Robert did not leave a will, but he had enough assets that his estate had to be probated. Robert's father Jim was the administrator and he had to declare all of Robert’s assets and all of his liabilities.



Although this record is difficult to read, Robert apparently loaned money to Levi J. Sperry, who was married to Robert’s sister Paulina Jane; Robert was holding two notes, one for $20 and the other for $12.50. As administrator of the estate Jim noted that it was “doubtful” that these were collectible. I suspect that this was a way to “forgive” the notes. After all, Levi was his son-in-law, and what father hasn’t helped out his kids? The husband of daughter Elizabeth Dobbins Kinsey owed seventy-five cents, but Jim didn’t “forgive” that debt. (Claudius Kinsey had deserted Elizabeth some years earlier). And Jim himself owed $8.87, which he said he was good for. The total money outstanding was $78.57.

Among the bills that Robert’s estate incurred was one for $8.00 from Thomas Grewell for making the coffin and one for $2.00 paid to John Marshall “for crying Sale of the Estate of said deed.” “Crying” is a word used when there is an auction or sale – the auctioneer “cries” the sale.

An inventory was taken of all Robert’s possessions, and among the items on the list were some fairly uncommon items for a young man who lived on a farm on the Illinois prairie:

1 leather trunk
1 silk plush cap
1 pair pantaloons
1 satin vest
2 silk neck handkerchiefs
1 pr hose
1 mole skin hat
1 fine shirt
2 pair cashmere pants
1 gold ring
1 umbrella
1 Missouri Harmony

Of course there were the usual undershirts, underpants, jackets, hats, etc. that you would expect. All the inventoried items were sold at auction. Purchasers included family members and a few neighbors.

I originally thought a “Missouri Harmony” was a harmonica. But I learned that it was a shape-note singing book that had been used since the 1820s in the various singing schools that were held in many areas during that period of our country’s history. They were created for people who didn’t read music; singers could identify the tune by observing the shapes of the notes. Sometimes they are called “wheat notes.” There also was another book that was popular at that time called “Sacred Harp.”

In my investigation to learn about the Missouri Harmony, I was able to purchase a reproduction from the University of Nebraska book store for $1.00 – a closeout price. They had one copy left, obviously waiting for me! Here’s what it looks like.



I know nothing more about young Robert Gaston Dobbins except that he was buried in the Dobbins Cemetery in Vermont Township, Fulton County, Illinois. No picture exists.

CHARLOTTE BOND RYLAND - 1820-1908

~ A RYLAND RELATIVE ~


Charlotte was the third of six daughters and one son born to New Englanders Elijah and Catherine Whipple Bond. She was born in Genessee County, New York. Her parents were from New Hampshire.

It's possible to get an idea of the family's movement west by looking at birth and marriage places. Elijah and Catherine were married in Kingston, Vermont in 1816. The first daughter, Mary Angeline, was born in Vermont. The next five daughters, Philena, Charlotte, Harriet, Jane and Marinda, were all born in New York. Son John was born in Summit County, Ohio in 1836.

Sometime around 1847 the senior Bonds, along with several of their married daughters, moved to Noble County, Indiana, and that is where they settled. Charlotte and her husband, James Ryland, lived near Kendallville and Charlotte's sisters, Harriet Graham and Marinda Ihrie lived near Lisbon, where their father, Elijah, became an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

It is unfortunate that in that time period women's stories are mostly the stories of their husbands, especially when they settled in somewhat rural areas. So Charlotte's life was circumscribed by being the wife of a farmer and the mother of 5 sons - Francis Marion, James Arthur, George Washington, Charles Albert Eugene, and Alfred Adelbert - and 1 daughter, Olive Clerzen, who died as an infant.

Son Alfred died unmarried at the age of 29. George Washington had some sort of accident that left him somewhat brain damaged and he lived with his parents until they died, after which time he was cared for by his brother Charles.

As her sons married, some moved away - James to Kansas and Francis to Ohio. Charles stayed in Indiana until both Charlotte and James died, and then he and his brother George moved to Mississippi.

Charlotte was widowed in 1902 and our family has letters from her written in 1907 where she admits she is going deaf and that she is lonesome to see her sons who have moved away. She chides her sons for not writing often enough and praises her grandson, Byrd Ryland (son of son James) for continuing to write letters to her, the last one about the birth of Byrd Jr., her grandson, in Kansas. She died in 1908.

She and her husband are buried in the Kendallville, Indiana cemetery. Two obituaries exist, one from the Kendallville Sun on 11/5/1908:

Ryland, Charlotte, 87, died at Lima Ohio where she was visiting her sister, Monday. She was the widow of James Ryland of Allen Twp who died about 6 years ago. She had resided in Allen Twp since 1847, coming to this county from Ohio. She leaves 4 sons, C.A. and G. W. of Allen Twp., F.M. of Cincinnati, and J.A. of Caldwell, Kansas.

A second larger obituary was printed on November 11, 1908 that added the following information:

Charlotte Ryland: Daughter of Elijah and Catherine Bond, she was born in Genessee County, NY Dec. 25, 1820. She with her parents came to eastern Ohio in 1832 and was married to James Ryland in 1841. On July 24, 1902 her husband died, aged 82 years 3 months and 23 days. They had 5 sons and one daughter. The daughter died in infancy and one son in early manhood. She died November 3, aged 87 years 10 months and 8 days.

LILLIE JANE McCONNELL McCAMMON WHEELER - 1886-1939

~ A DOBBINS RELATIVE -


Lillie Jane (sometimes Jennie) McConnell was the first of eight children born to John B and Narcissa Frances "Bonnie" Wright McConnell and one of only three who survived to adulthood. She was my Grandma Maud's sister. There was 8 years between Lillie and Maud another 8 years before brother Harrie Uberto "Bert" was born. The first seven children were born in Glasgow, Barren County, Kentucky. Sometime before 1880 the McConnells left Kentucky and settled in Kosse, Texas, where John took up farming.

The family records that Lillie spent a year teaching school in Texas and then in 1886 married Benjamin Franklin McCammon, a train engineer. They shortly moved to Colorado City (now part of Colorado Springs) and by 1892 four children had been born. The oldest baby died, but the other three children, Hazel, Floyd and John all lived.

Ben either purchased or had a house built at 1804 Colorado Street, which remained in the McCammon family until 1977.


In 1893 Lillie was widowed when her husband was killed in a train wreck. A local newspaper gave the details:



Lillie's family came from Texas to help her, and it was decided that her younger sister Maud, now nearing 18 years old, would stay and help her sister with the children.


Once they got to be of school age, Maud took a job at a bookstore in town, and in 1898 she met and married Scott Dobbins, a rancher and musician. The wedding was held at Lillie's house. A year later, Lillie married Charles Wheeler, a building contractor and in 1900 she gave birth to their only child, Lucy Eleanor Wheeler.

Maud's husband died in 1917, leaving two children, Dorothy 13, and Scott Jr. 9. Maud had to go to work full time, so Lillie returned the favor and became a loving caretaker to her own sister's children. Lillie died in 1939 and Charlie in 1940.

EDWARD EMMANUEL "SWIFTY" KAUFMAN - 1897-1984

~ A TITLE RELATIVE ~


Ed was born Jan 31, 1897 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the fourth of six children. His parents were Henry and Carrie Kaufman. According to his story, he joined the Marines at a young age, probably somewhere near 17, and by June of 1918 he was fighting against the Germans in a very famous WWI battle at Belleau Woods, 70 miles outside of Paris. The Germans used gas warfare (a poisonous mustard gas) and Ed was taken ill from the gas and hospitalized. He was released from the service with severely impaired lungs. By 1920 he was back home with his family in Baton Rouge, but the doctors advised him that if intended to continue living, he needed to get out of the humid climate of Louisiana and go to Arizona. He did, but he found way too much desert in Arizona so he decided to try California. He was able to find a job with Swift Meat Company in Los Angeles and settled in Glendale.

While Ed was still living with his family in Baton Rouge, a young female student at LSU, took a room in the Kaufman house. Her name was Sylvia Asher. She had been born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana but both parents had died about the time she headed to college. She and Ed fell in love and after his move to California she followed him. They married in Los Angeles in 1926 and had a single child, Carolyn Phyllis Kaufman, in 1930.

After working a few years in Los Angeles, Ed was assigned the territory of East Riverside County. The family moved for a short while to Banning and ultimately settled in the city of Riverside.

Ed was the consummate salesman. He made friends easily, could talk a good talk, and made money for the Company. He was known to his customers as “Swifty.” Those customers were buyers of large quantities of meat – restaurants, hotels, resorts – and a great deal of his business was done in Palm Springs, which in those days (1930s) was to Southern California what Las Vegas became later to Nevada.

Ed’s lung condition was greatly improved by the mellow California climate, though of course his smoking wasn’t helping it any. Ed had started smoking unfiltered Chesterfield cigarettes in Louisiana when he was eight years old and continued smoking until his death in 1984. Sometime around 1953 or 1954, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was put in the Riverside Community Hospital. He was there for a month or so before a bed became available at the City of Hope in Duarte. Ed spent a year there recovering. At the end of the year, Ed was released as recovered and he went back to Riverside and to work.

Ed's wife, Sylvia, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1956 and died within the year. Later his only daughter, Carole, also developed breast cancer and she died in 1974. Ed spent his last years back and forth between Southern California and Louisiana. He loved being near his own family in Baton Rouge but hated the humid weather. In Southern California he had two grandchildren but he rarely saw them except at the Jewish holidays. As much as anything he lived a nomadic life, using his stationwagon bed in lieu of motels on the trips back and forth.

During his lifetime he had serious intestinal problems, which necessitated removal of a portion of his stomach. As he aged he became more and more debilitated and finally in his 87th year he passed away in a convalescent home.

It was not in Ed's genes to die of lung cancer after smoking for almost 80 years. And a tiny bit of his obstreperous nature kept him from stopping "just in case." In spite of the loss of his wife and daughter, he led a life on his own terms, a life full of fun, family and friends.

He and Sylvia are buried side by side at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

WILLIAM JAMES HURLBUT - 1878 -1957

~ RYLAND FAMILY ~


Family History
William Hurlbut's paternal grandfather was Stephen Augustus Hurlbut, an attorney from South Carolina who arrived in Belvidere, Boone County, Illinois, in 1845.

William’s paternal grandmother, Sophronia Stevens, was the daughter of George Stevens, a New York lumberman for whom Stevens Point, Wisconsin is named. Leaving Almond NY in the late 1830s, George made his way to the Wisconsin river and prepared to go up into the pineries. The point on the river where he offloaded his supplies became known as Stevens landing, later Stevens Point. Upriver he set up his sawmill at Big Bull Falls, which later was called Wausau. The story of his lumbering years is told in Malcolm Rosholt’s “Pioneers of the Pineries.”

George Stevens moved his family from New York to Belvidere by 1847, where he retired. Sophronia Stevens and Stephen A. Hurlbut married in 1847.

Two of his daughters married attorneys. These men knew Abraham Lincoln, who practiced law in the same area. In 1861 Stephen was appointed a Brigadier General by General Grant and saw action in Missouri, Mississippi and Louisana. Later in his career he was appointed minister to Peru.

Stephen and Sophronia had only one child, George Henry Hurlbut, who was born in 1848. George H. graduated from the University of Chicago where he received a degree in Civil Engineering. He was mayor of Belvidere for two three-year terms. He was a businessman and an inventor, as well as a community activist. In 1905 he and his wife moved to New York where both their sons, Stephen A. and William J. had located.

Their oldest son, Dr. Stephen A. Hurlbut, became a Professor of Greek and Latin and taught both in New York city and later at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C.. He also operated St. Alban’s Press in Washington and later in Charleston, S. C.

So it is not unusual to find that William J. Hurlbut, George’s youngest son, made his own name in “lights” – both on Broadway as a playwright and in Hollywood as a screenwriter.

William's Career
Newspaper clippings from Belvidere indicate that as a child, “Will’s” interests were in writing, acting and drawing. In fact, upon graduation from high school he attended art school in both St. Louis and Chicago, intending to be an illustrator. But before graduating, he decided he was ready for New York, where he set up an art studio and sold some magazine illustrations. However, he found himself dissatisfied with what he was producing and what he was selling, so instead he began writing for the theater, with his first play produced in 1908. After 25 years writing for the stage, he was summoned to Hollywood and from that time on he lived in the Los Angeles area where he finished out his career. His two best known movies were "Bride of Frankenstein" and "Imitation of Life."


He built a house up in Whitley Heights near the Hollywood Bowl where he entertained lavishly. The house was demolished to make way for the 101 Freeway. In the late 1930s he had an acquaintance with Meher Baba, a Spiritual Master from India, who was involved with a number of members of the movie colony.

William continued writing through the late 40s. He died on May 4, 1957 and is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.