It's all relative…
My father, George Ernest Hackathorn, was born on New Year’s Day 1910 in Bergholz, Ohio, to Thomas John and Flora Hackathorn. He shared his birthday with his sister Elsie (born 1908). His mother died when he was 7 and his oldest sister Mary took over the motherly duties for her younger siblings. George attended high school into his senior year (c. 1928), as we have his senior photo, but he did not graduate. He was working in the spring and decided to continue in his job and forego graduation.
I don’t know if it was a tree-trimming job, but by 1932 he was working for Nelson and Kuemmerling, Inc., the first power-line-clearing tree-service company in the U.S. That’s George and his crew in the banner photo for the family page. The photo was taken in Cleveland, Ohio.
While working in Cleveland, he met my maternal uncle, Ed Reising, who introduced George to his younger sister Ruth. George and Ruth were married in Wellsburg, West Virginia, on New Year’s Eve 1932, the eve of his 22nd birthday; Ruth was 17. George’s sister Lois was one of the witnesses; the minister’s wife was the other witness. My sister Kay (Kathleen Lois) was born June 11, 1933. (You can do the math.) George and Ruth lived with her parents in Cleveland for several years, and had another child, Tommy (Thomas Henry, named for his two grandfathers) in 1934. By 1937, George and Ruth had moved to the Adrian, Michigan, area, and had three more children—Gloria (1940), Leora (Cookie) (1941), and Dennis (1945). George was still working as a tree trimmer. In 1949, George was offered a job with the Union Line Clearance Co., based in Lorain, Ohio, so they packed up and moved back to Ohio. They looked at many towns in the Lorain area, but chose to live in Norwalk because they thought it would be the best place to raise their family. At the end of 1949, I came along, their sixth and last child.
George was a representative for the Union Line Clearance Co., traveling in Ohio and West Virginia to negotiate tree cutting for power-line rights of way. I can remember riding along with him in the summertime, listening to Arthur Godfrey on the radio. In early 1963, George became ill and was diagnosed with arteriosclerosis, complicated by Buerger’s disease. He had one leg amputated, and recovered fairly well, but the circulation in his other leg began to fail, and they had to amputate his other leg. He never really recovered from the second operation and died in Good Samaritan Hospital in Sandusky on September 26, 1963.
Some random stories about George Hackathorn:
My Dad told us that one time his sister Goldie got so mad at him that she threw a fork at him, and it stuck in his forehead.
At some time while growing up, George was kicked by a horse and had back trouble all his life because of it.
During World War II, George tried to enlist in the Army but was designated 4F (physically unfit) because of his back problems.
My Dad told my brother Denny that he, George, was a semi-pro heavyweight boxer for awhile, weighing 250 pounds. I have never found any information about that aspect of his life. It is hard to believe he could have weighed that much! In all the photos we have of him, he has a trim build.
When researching my ancestors, I am often struck by how similar the lives of a lot of them are. “Same old story, same old song, and dance.” They seem, when just looking at the birth, death, and marriage facts, to start their lives on the east coast, work their way across Pennsylvania to the edge of the frontier (western Pennsylvania), marry and have children – wife dies, marry again, have some more children, settle in Ohio and live out the remainder of their lives there. It’s a distinct pattern with many, many of my ancestors. Rarely, though, is there any indication of who exactly these ancestors might be as a people. Except…with my 4th great-grandfather, Hugh A. Clark.
My grandmother, Elsie Marcella Hackathorn, would often mention her “grandfather’s grandfather” who was a music teacher. I have not spent a lot of time researching the Clark family over the years, but I have a good idea that I will be dedicating a lot more time to this surname after looking into them for this week’s 52 Ancestors posting. This appears to be a very interesting family and there are stories waiting to be told. On the surface, there are many teachers, at least one author, a well-known minister, some lawyers, a few characters, and a lot of well-educated people. I can hardly wait for a good chunk of free time to delve into the Clark’s history, but first, we’ll take a look at Hugh since he’s an ancestor after my own heart.
Hugh A. Clark was born near Brownsville in Fayette County, Pennsylvania around 1778 to Samuel Clark and Eleanor “Nellie” Violette. Samuel had been born in Hagerstown, Maryland and his brothers, George and John, had been killed by Indians. Hugh was the youngest of four brothers (Alexander, George, and Samuel) born to Samuel and Nellie. This family eventually ended up in Washington Couty, Pennsylvania. Soon after Hugh came of age, he was employed by an uncle (a brother of his mother) on the uncle’s slave plantation in Kentucky. Because of his experiences there, he became an abolitionist. Around 1800 (and when Ohio was opening up to settlers) he hopped across the river to Jefferson County, Ohio and married Elizabeth Fishel in 1811.
Hugh and his bride, Elizabeth then moved across the state to Mad River, Clark County, Ohio. Elizabeth gave birth to two daughters, Eleanor and Mary, and then passed away around 1814. After Elizabeth’s death, Hugh moved with his young daughters to Columbiana County, Ohio near Yellow Creek and just a few miles west of what would become the town of Salineville. Although Hugh was a farmer by occupation, during farming down-time he taught school and taught music. One county history has described him as being a “singing-teacher”.
Yes! An ancestor with a strong appreciation and knowledge of music! And these very things are what make me like this ancestor an awful lot. I have always loved school (I’m still attending classes working toward my degree) and music has always been very important to me. I sang in regular choir, concert choir, and ensemble throughout junior high and high school. I took coronet lessons, drum lessons, and guitar lessons when I was a kid. I have a keen appreciation of music and have always listened to a LOT of music and have owned huge music collections over the years. And I absolutely adore books. Yes, I was that kid who when told to go outside and play, took my book outside to read. Under the blankets with my little flashlight reading? Yep. Me. And although I’m not a farmer, I love gardening and have been planting things since I was a second grader. Yes…I can relate to this Mr. Hugh Clark.
On 11 January 1815, the widower, Hugh married Letitia Kerr in Columbiana County. Letitia was the daughter of James Kerr (also a teacher) and Hannah Beard. Hugh and Letitia had seven children together:
Letitia passed away in May of 1855 and Hugh died 12 December 1857. He is buried at the cemetery in Monroeville.
This is my Week #12 post for Amy Johnson Crow’s
52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Challenge.
The optional theme for this week was “Same”.
SOURCES:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABaschenis_-_Musical_Instruments.jpg
Descendants of Samuel Clark: From Hart Family History: Silas Hart, HisAncestors and Descendents: William Lincoln Hart; Alliance, Ohio 1942
Mack, Horace. History of Columbiana County, Ohio: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Evansville, IN: Unigraphic, 1976. Web.
History of the Upper Valley – Vol. I – Publ. Madison, Wis. – Brant & Fuller – 1891 – Page 306
Week #11’s 52 Ancestors post is more than a little late and I’m afraid that the only excuse that I have is that with the plethora of Irish research site links posted across the internet over the past week, I felt compelled to investigate many, many of them (and there is only so much free time).
My family never leaned toward any cultural or ethnic traditions while I was growing up. I had lots of friends who had those type of family traditions, but we never did. We were just people who lived in Ohio. Because of my auburn hair, fair skin, blue eyes, and smattering of freckles across my nose, I had been asked many, many times in my life if I was Irish – usually around St. Patrick’s Day. I have usually replied that maybe I was, just a little. I really had no idea. Most of my lines, both maternal and paternal have been kicking around the U.S. for hundreds of years, so I think that would make me mostly an American with a heavy dose of European and Scandinavian roots. Now, thanks to DNA testing estimates, I found that indeed I am a bit Irish – approximately 12% worth. There are certainly surnames in my tree that have the appearance of being Irish, but I have always assumed that these people were probably Scotch-Irish. The problem is that all of these Irish sounding ancestors have been here in America forever. Seemingly so, anyway, since I’m not having much luck tracking down the immigrant ancestor for these lines and the records in Ireland are sketchy, at best, pre-1843.
My maternal grandfather Moore’s death certificate stated that he was Irish/American Indian. But then, that’s what my grandmother told them as the informant and that’s the story that he told her. So far, the Native blood hasn’t surfaced, but he did have black hair, darker skin, and eyes that were so brown that they looked black. Moore’s can be Irish. I did a lot of reading seeking information about what exactly the term “Black Irish” means, but it seems that there is no definitive answer on that. It also seems that there is really no answer about what “Luck of the Irish” means, either. Is that bad luck? Is that good luck? So many questions.
After all of my fruitless searching this week, I decided to put Susannah Crawford out here as blatant “cousin bait”. This is one of my huge brick walls that has a bunch of circumstantial evidence, so let me tell you what I know and don’t know. Susannah is my 3rd great-grandmother. She is the mother of Mary Amna Myers, who married Jacob Hackathorn. According to the 1900 census, Susannah was born in February of 1815. This is very consistent with ages given in all other censuses since 1850. In fact, the very consistency with Susannah’s information is why I’m writing about her this week. In giving information to the census enumerator, she always states that both of her parents were born in Ireland (and that fact has also been part of family tradition) and her age is always consistent with the progression of the census years. There is a researcher in Augusta, Ohio who states that Susannah is daughter of Matthew Crawford and a Susannah. As of this writing, no proof of that exists. I had always taken Susannah to be a daughter of one of Matthew’s sons, either William, Matthew, John, or James. My initial reasoning was circumstantial, at best. All of these people lived relatively nearby each other between Augusta and Norristown in Carroll County. These families also lived nearby the family of Silas Myers and all had settled in Columbiana County early on (this part of Columbiana County became Carroll County in 1832 on December 25).
![Donegal Bay. Kelisi at the English language Wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons](https://relativityitsallrelative.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/donegalbaycloseup.jpg)
Matthew Crawford, Susannah’s suspected father, was born about 1750 in County Donegal, Ireland. County histories all seem to agree that he immigrated to America in 1803 or 1804 and settled in Washington County, Pennsylvania accompanied by his four sons William, Matthew, John, and James and their families. James’ birth has been stated to be in Drumhome Parrish, County Donegal. A diligent search of ship’s passenger lists from Ireland from 1802 until 1805 have, so far, failed to produce these Crawford families. While son William remained in Pennsylvania, between 1810 and 1820 Matthew and sons Matthew, John, and James removed to the Augusta Township area and the three boys entered 160 acres of land each.
It appears that Matthew, the father, did not purchase land. Although, apparently, he was living in Augusta Township and “spent his last days on this land”. Matthew has sometimes been associated with two younger daughters – Rebecca, born in 1787 and Mary, born in 1791. The mother of the boys is probably named Margaret Letta Brown (or Lettie). Indeed, in the 1810 census where we find him in Washington County, Pennsylvania, the household would appear to reflect this. I have not found Matthew in the 1820 census in Ohio. The Matthew that is attributed to being Matthew, the father, in several trees for the 1820 census I believe to be Matthew the son because of ages of the males. Information for if, and when, Matthew married a Susannah – who would be my Susannah’s mother – has not been found and neither has what happened to her after Matthew died, assuming that he passed before her. I even put out an S.O.S. to the Carroll County Facebook page to see if anyone there might be related to the Crawford or Myers family and still hanging out in the area. No luck.
During these past two weeks I have systematically gone through the 1850 through 1880 censuses noting the sons of Matthew and their families. First, to get them straight because they continue to repeatedly use the same names for their children (and occasionally, using the names again if a young child dies). And secondly, to make sure that Susannah, my 3rd great-grandmother, doesn’t turn up as one of their children. Excepting Matthew, the father, it has also been relatively easy to find the wills of these people through probate records and my Susannah has not turned up as being named as a child in any of these wills. So…speculatively, Matthew, born in County, Donegal, Ireland is going to be who I’m working with as Susannah’s father.
Susannah Crawford married Lambert Myers, son of Silas Myers and Catherine Eads, on 14 September 1830 in Columbiana County, Ohio.
Susannah gave birth to eleven children who survived to adulthood, 3 daughters and 8 sons.
Between the 1850 and 1860 censuses, Susannah and Lambert moved to the East Liverpool area from Carroll County and would live out the rest of their lives in that vicinity. Lambert passes away sometime after the 1880 census. No death certificate or burial site has been found, as of yet, for him. We find Susan living with her daughter, Margaret Elizabeth, 83 years old and widowed, in the 1900 census. This daughter had lived nearby Lambert and Susannah for many years. The 1904 East Liverpool City Directory lists Susannah living just around the corner from Martha Elizabeth in a room at 118 Jackson Square and then she passes away 24 July 1904 and is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in East Liverpool, Ohio.
I don’t have a positive identification on most of the women in the photograph of Susannah at the beginning of this post. We know that Susannah is sitting front center and standing behind her, slightly left is her daughter Margaret Elizabeth. Susannah had three daughters, and because of the similarities between the woman sitting on left and standing far right to Margaret, I have to believe that the one standing is daughter Katherine and the one sitting in front is daughter Mary. Katherine had two daughters, Minnie G., born 1868 and Mary Susan, born 1870, and it is possible that these two young girls pictured beside and in front of the supposed Katherine in the photo could be those daughters. Because of the clothing styles, it is not unreasonable to think that this photograph could have been taken somewhere between 1880 and 1887, but what the heck would Mary be doing in East Liverpool when she was living in Indiana at that time? One possibility might be that everyone was in town because of the death of Lambert. One might think that Susannah does not look the age of a woman who might be a couple of years either side of 70 in this photo, but some of the women in our family wear their age incredibly well. I really have no idea who the women standing on far left might be. Perhaps they are wives of Susannah’s sons? Perhaps more photographs of the family will surface in the future and we will be able to identify all of these women. Hopefully. So many questions…
This is my Week #11 post for Amy Johnson Crow’s
52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Challenge.
The optional theme for this week was “Luck of the Irish”.
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