Random Photo Saturday: kids at play

I check the stats for this blog regularly, not because I'm expecting the modest number of visitors to grow, but because I'm looking for patterns. Have noticed that posts that appear on the Friday - Saturday - Sunday schedule don't really get looked at until the next week. Guess everyone is busy playing "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun" with Randy Seaver:) Because of that and because maybe my weekend posts aren't usually very thrilling but your weekend activity is, today let's try something different. I'll go find a couple of random photos from the archive and post them with a bit of commentary. How's that? Shouldn't be too taxing for either you or I. Now for the photos!

 

 

That's my Gandma Kelly, Helen (Zeller) Kelly (1894 - 1985). She's what, maybe five years old? She's in her back yard of their home at 89 West Main Street, Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland. The yard was resplendent with fruits, vegetables, chickens, roses and other flowers, and as you can see, dogs. Her father, Gus Zeller (1858 - 1927) owned barber shops in Western Maryland and his shop on Main Street at the heart of the market district was a showplace of mercantile marketing. It sported a ten-foot barber pole and in the window passersby were entertained by a giant fish tank that held "fancy fish" or colorful goldfish that entertained men, women and children alike. There was a flair to most everything he did so if there were to be dogs they had to be special too. I'd heard about Grandma's dogs well before I saw this old photo so I wasn't too surprised to see this grouping of white pooches. Grandma is likely playing "baby" with them and the one in her carriage seems to look at us with the thought, "For gosh sakes, save me from this child!"

 

 



 

I'd be hard pressed to name a favorite cousin because I do really like them all. Here are the two children of my aunt Helen Lee (Kelly) Natolly (1914 - 1989), Chrissy and her brother Tom who we all called Tommy Lee. They lived in the house just one door west of where Grandma and Grand Pop Kelly lived at 89 West Main Street. When Grandma Kelly's father (Gustav Zeller 1858-1927) passed he left the house to Grandma. Her mother, who all called Ma (Moretta (Workman) Zeller 1859- 1946) lived with the family.

Chrissy was born in 1940 and was just enough older than I that she saved special outfits for me after she was done with them. I loved visiting and trying on her old dresses, especially when she started going to school dances. I remember a beautiful deep turquoise satin number with a bubble skirt. Wore it to one of my very first high school dances. Thank you Cousin Chrissy!
Her brother was too much older - and a boy, yuck - so that he and I didn't have much in common and I didn't know him as well as his sister. She was fun and he was, well, a boy. Yuck.
Chrissy got married and lived in the house just opposite her parent's house and Grandma's house on Main Street.

 

 



 

That's me there. I'm about five years old and maybe about the same age as Grandma in that picture of her with the dogs. I'm riding my tricycle on East Main Street in front of the apartment Mom and Dad rented until 1952 when we moved from little Frostburg in the western mountains of Maryland to the big city of Cleveland. When we lived here Mom and I walked everywhere, from our place on East Main Street, uptown to the main business district, and then further up to Grandma Kelly's house on West Main Street. We'd also walk to Mom's parents house and visit with Grandmother Williams, and Grandfather if he was home. We walked and walked. I thought it was the best!

 

A word about the name of the street. It was named Union Street and the two ends were North Union and South Union. About 1938 it was renamed Main Street and the two ends became East Main and West Main. Whenever I think about that change I have to laugh. What the heck happened? The four compass points remain constant so how did the street change from north and south to east and west. East and west is correct on the compass, so the unfortunately mistaken naming was the earlier north and south. Anyway, a bunch of streets were renamed about the same time and Mom's beloved Loo Street was renamed to College Avenue. It really helps to know this when looking at older records! Loo Street? Where's Loo Street??

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/06/random-photo-saturday-kids-at-play.html

SNGF: About Those Houses

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings blog throws out a challenge every Saturday for some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, or SNGF. I try to do as many as I can but as a relative newbie don't make it as often as I would like. This weeks is right up my alley because it's about family homes. Here's what he said in his blog post:
1) Determine where your ancestral families were on 1 January 1913 - 100 years ago.
2) List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible). Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?
3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post

I've decided to change up Randy's challenge a tad and talk about three houses that were occupied by ancestors in 1913 and list all the relatives who called each their home at some point in their lifetimes.  I chose these because they are houses that held each family through at least two and sometimes three generations and 1913 is a good confluence year for them. They are:
1) the Zeller and Kelly family residence at 89 West Main Street, Frostburg, Maryland
2) the Eckhart and Kelly family residence in Eckhart Mines, Maryland, and
3) the Williams family home in Ocean Mines, Maryland.
So here goes!

1) the Zeller and Kelly family residence at 89 West Main Street, Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland
This house was built in the 1840s on the main thoroughfare of the town, also known as the Old Pike, The National Road, and the Cumberland Road. Built in the first couple of decades of the 1800s, the National Pike was the first road west paid for by the federal government.

This is a photo taken in the early 1900s in the general vicinity of the Zeller and Kelly house to document the National Road. The house would probably have been on the right.

We have the house history going back to its origins, but for this exercise, here are the ancestors and families who might have lived there in the decades before and after 1913. Here's the house as it was recently in October of 2012.

1. Helen Gertrude Zeller, my grandmother, born in this house 6 Aug 1894, and died there 13 Feb 1985. She left the house to my Dad, Francis Patrick Kelly. She married John Lee Kelly on 30 Sept 1913 in Frostburg, Maryland. She inherited the house from her father, Gustav Zeller. Grandma and Grandpop lived there with all six of their children:
Helen Lee Kelly Natoly 1914 - 1989
Francis Patrick Kelly, Dad, 1916 - 2007
Bernard Michael Kelly 1918 - 2007
John Delbert Kelly, living
Christiana Kelly Fraley 1923 - 1993
Louise Kelly Chaney 1924 - 2002
As you can see Grandma was living in the house in January of 1913 but not yet married to Grandpop. That would come later in the year in September, and the babies started arriving the next August right there in the house
2. Gustav Zeller, my great grandfather, born 3 Feb 1858 in Allegany County, Maryland was the first in the family to own the house. He died 3 Dec 1927. He married Moretta Workman born 3 Apr 1880 and died 24 Mar 1946. I don't know if they both died in the house but if I had to guess, I'd guess that they did. They lived in this house with all five children. The boys left after marriage but Grandma, the apple of GGF's eye never left the house.
Charles Sample Zeller 1880 - 1966
Adelbert (Bert) Zeller 1883 - ?
Gustav William Zeller 1884 - 1964. He owned a house across the street and down three houses.
Helen Gertrude Zeller, Grandma
Anna M. Zeller Mar 1882 - Sept 1882
There was always a full house at 89 West Main Street, and many ancestors lived there for a while after they were married or between houses. My family lived there one summer while the new-to-us house was getting ready. During the Great Depression a few traveling salesmen boarded there as well.


2) the Eckhart and Kelly family residence in Eckhart Mines, Allegany County, Maryland



This is the house where my Grandpop John Lee "Lee" Kelly 1892 - 1969 was born, and the photo was taken last year with one of the many remodels in progress. Uncle Delbert Kelly tells of walking from the house at 89 West Main Street, above, to this house maybe 2 miles east on the Old National Pike, as a young boy of six or so, to visit his grand mother, Christiana Eckhart Kelly 1861 - 1932, who scared the daylights out of him. After the long walk downhill he would enter by the front door to sit properly for a visit in the front parlor on the stiff leather chair! Afterward, Delbert and Grandpop took the trolley back up the hill to home.
Here are the ancestors who lived in this house:
1. Christiana Eckhart Kelly 1861 - 1932, most likely born in this house to her parents, John Eckhart 1831 - 1917 and Mary Myers Eckhart 1837 - 1909. She met and fell in love with my great grandfather Francis Patrick Kelly 1854 - 1932. Yes, you have not been fooled: Dad and his own grandfather were named the same! 
By 1913 they had a house full of kids:
Mary Kelly 1880 - 1949
Eugene Francis Kelly 1888 - 1986
Margaret Ann Kelly 1909 - ?
Edith Bridget Kelly 1891 - ?
John Lee Kelly, my Grandpop, 1892 - 1969
Dora Elizabeth 1894 - 1962
Francis Patrick Kelly Jr. 1897 - 1946 (yes, another Francis Patrick Kelly!)
Also living with the family at the time of the 1910 US Census was Christiana's father, John S. Eckhart 1831 -1917 who was the great grandson of the town founder, George Adam Eckhart 1729 - 1806. I can only imagine which other of my ancestors lived there and am willing to bet there were more than three.

3) the Williams family home in Ocean Mines, Allegany County, Maryland.

Ocean Mines, known locally as simply Ocean, sits in the George's Creek Valley. Ocean Mine Fields were one of the richest coal mine fields in Western Maryland. The little mountain town of Frostburg sits at the top of the George's Creek valley where the Ocean Mine Field runs and this house is perhaps three miles south of Frostburg.
My great grandfather Daniel Williams 1852 - 1920 and his wife Jane Price Williams 1862 - 1939 called this house their family home and would have been living there with most of their eight children in January of 1913. Daniel was born in Wales, was a miner or collier there, and worked in mining when he came to the rich coal fields of the George's Creek area. Most anxious to purchase his own home and settle down, as were the vast majority of miners there, it was not possible at the time to also purchase the mineral rights. So that's why the mining company ran a mine shaft right under the house! And the house eventually sank!
Here's the list of the kids living in the home in 1910:
James Henry Williams 1882 -1936
William Williams 1884 - 1964
Thomas Williams 1890 - 1951
Joseph Williams 1895 - 1948
Cambria Williams, my grandfather 1897 - 1960
Charles Williams, Aunt Betty's father, 1899 - 1979
Aunt Betty and her parents also lived in this house. She remember stories of hearing the miner's voiced under the house as they worked the min shafts! Spooky!

So those are my hand-picked and often loved homes of the ancestors. I do hope that you are not too bored by my rambling SNGF adventure!


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/01/sngf-about-those-houses.html

He Died In The Outhouse

Am reading Betty VanNewkirk's second book, Kaleidoscope, ever a treat! Betty writes a weekly column about local history for the Cumberland Times-News newspaper. Here's a link: http://times-news.com/bettyvannewkirk . Some of the columns specifically about Frostburg have been gathered together to form this and another book, Windows To The Past.

I do like reading local Western Maryland histories because I never know when an ancestor might pop off the page. My paternal GGGF Charles William Zeller (1829 - 1901) and my GGF Gustav Zeller (1858 - 1927) have both been mentioned a couple of times in Ms. VanNewkirk's entertaining books! So let me share the bare bones of one story in which my GGF's barber shop is mentioned, although as you'll see, the story takes some twists and turns far afield of his excellent establishment!

This particular story, "The Body in the Privy", can be found on page 103 and mentions Mr. Zeller's barber emporium up the street from the location under discussion and the fact that Gus had not only running water in the 1920s but tubs and basins for showers and baths! Imagine! Family lore has it that GGF prided himself on having the most elaborate and top level barbershop in all of Western Maryland.

But the story on page 103 isn't about Gus Zeller. No, it's about that inconvenient body they found when excavating for a new building 115 East Main Street and down the street from the Zeller Barber Shop. The building at 115 had been purchased and improvements were required. Digging revealed an old outhouse cleared and limed when indoor plumbing was installed. In July of 1923 the boys digging a sewer ditch for the new building found - are your ready - a leg bone! They called the cops.

More digging revealed a full human skeleton, gold cuff links with the initials J. R. D., small change, a watch fob and bits of fabric. If you want the full Monty of gory details you'll have to read the book:)

Through a series of CSI Frostburg deductions and general questioning the man's identity was determined. The story came out, it seems, in dibs and drabs. The cuff links, it was determined, belonged to one John Daniels also known as Uncle Shink, a rotund jovial man who liked his drink. Not married... wise were the single ladies of town!

On the night in question, Uncle Shink visited two of the numerous bars, said he was going home, and then just up and disappeared! The hunt for him extended to Ohio and other mining areas of the country with no results. On what would have been his 45th birthday his body was found in the old outhouse so long out of use that everyone had forgotten that it was even there in the first place.

Now I ask you, how drunk would you have to be to fall in an outhouse?!

Photos of the Day from the Archive:

Gustav Zeller (1858 - 1927)

 

The day the first electric trolly came to Frostburg
and Gustav Zeller in his white barber's coat,
hand to head, at the front of the trolly.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/10/he-died-in-outhouse.html

SNGF: Ancestor Roulette!

Randy Seaver's bolg post for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is called Ancestor Name Roulette. (find it at: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ancestor.html )  Now doesn't that sound cool?! Sign me up!

Here's part of Randy's SNGF post for Ancestor Name Roulette:
1) What year was one of your great-grandfathers born? Divide this number by 50 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."
2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel"). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?
3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

OK, so here we go:) First step: pick a GGF. I picked my paternal GGF, Gustav Zeller born in Frostburg, Maryland in 1858. 1858 divided by 50 is 37, and that's my roulette number.

Second step: Using my Family Tree Maker software I ran an Ahnentafel report and checked out number 37. It's Delilah Porter! Delilah Porter was born 1812 in the general area of Eckhart, Maryland and died 1881 in that same place. She married Jacob Eckhart, born 1812 who died 1836, also in Eckhart.

Now, Delilah Porter has been a brick wall for Mom and I. Mom has investigated every nook and cranny containing records in Western Maryland, gone to every repository looking for her. Believe me, Mom knows this territory... and all the people at the front desk:) She came up empty for poor Delilah.

What we did know is pretty skimpy: birth and death year. Luckily she married a prominent resident of the area who left a pretty good paper trail and a dandy probate record. In it Josiah Porter was named the guardian of Jacob Eckhart and Delilah's children. This Josiah Porter was a thin thread linking Delilah to her family but it was just about all we had to go on.

So here are three facts about Delilah Porter of which we are sure:
1. Her husband was Jacob Eckhart (1812 - 1836, son of John Eckhart (1768 - 1835) and grandson of George Adam Eckhart (1729 - 1806).
2. Delilah Porter Eckhart and Jacob Eckhart had two children, a son John Eckhart (1831 - 1917) from which I'm descended, and a daughter Rachael Eckhart Anderson (1829 - 1895).
3. After Delilah's husband Jacob died she married for a second time to James Anderson (1818 - 1860). They had an additional 8 children.

For extra credit and to win the trivia prize (in my head), Delilah's presumed father Gabriel MacKenzie Porter (1776- 1842) married a second time to Sarah Anderson... and that's a whole bunch of Andersons right there, if you ask me!

Below you'll find a previous blog post about how Mom and I narrowed down possible family connections for Delilah using information contained in the book, "A genealogy of the Porter family of Maryland, West Virginia, Michigan," by Samuel Doak Porter. We each worked on our own and came to the exact same conclusion. Now as a relative newbie, I don't trust my results but I  sure trust Moms, not just because she's Mom but because she's been doing this since the early 1970s:)

http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/delilah-porters-parentage-good-luck.html

In a nutshell, we think that Josiah Porter named in the will was her brother. And if so that gives us a whole other window into the Porter clan and more family connections.

Thanks, Randy! That was fun:)

The Old Porter Cemetery.

A view from the Rose Hill, the Porter Property of old.
The site of old house (pictured below) sits to the right of this view.

 

"Independance (Squire Jack Porter)"
a painting by Frank Blackwell Mayer,

Now in the Smithsonian.
Squire Jack at home in Rose Hill.
Squire Jack was Gabriel's brother.
Gabriel is our most likely candidate for Delilah's father.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/08/sngf-ancestor-roulette.html

Was Grandma's House Haunted?

Now I'm not one to go watch the celebrity haunting programs on TV, but when Cousins Linda and JoAnn and I got talking recently there was one big item on our conversational agenda... about haunting. Cousin JoAnn looked at me with big eyes and asked, "Do you think Grandma Kelly's house was haunted?" Woooah!

Now you have to have known Grandma Kelly. She was pretty much a Victorian woman in many respects. She never met a cabbage rose wallpaper pattern she didn't like. She played rag-time on the piano which, just for fun, she called her pi-an-nee. She loved to tell stories, fact based or not, and was given an award for elocution when she was a girl. In a time before TV and even radio, this was a good skill to have.

Grandma grew up in the Western Maryland town of Frostburg, was born in the old house at 89 West Main Street and died in the same room in which she came into the world. It was her father's house and after she and Grandpop Kelly were married they lived there too. When her parents were gone, the house was hers entirely. But it was kind of haunted.

Helen Gertrude Zeller (1894 - 1985)

As a lovely young girl and before she married.

Cousins Linda and Joann started telling what they knew about the haunting and retelling stories of haunting as I mostly listened and made notes as fast as I could.

The first in a long line of stories had to do with Ma, Grandma's Mother, Moretta Workman Zeller (1859 - 1946). Ma would say with regularity, "Oh what I saw last night!" Tales of furniture moving on the upper floor were quite common. As was the report of head laughing. No body, just a head.

Moretta Workman Zeller
(3 April 1859 - 24 MAR 1946)

Now I do have to admit here that Ma was a jokester and story teller in her own right. I have the distinct impression that when Ma got bored she'd cook up some fun! So what did Ma see?

Finally, a young Helen told her parents that she had seen a woman's face with gold teeth laughing. Grandma was the apple of her father's eye, Gustav Zeller. He was well off and owned a couple of barbering emporiums in the region so money was no object. He promptly built an addition to the house as Grandma's bedroom so she wouldn't have to sleep upstairs... and the hauntings always happened upstairs.

Gustav Zeller
(3 FEB 1858 - 12 Mar 1927)

At this point you need some information about "upstairs." Next to the indoor bathroom with the six-foot tub designed especially for Gus Zeller because he was tall, was an exceedingly narrow stairway, hidden behind a curtain, that immediately made a sharp bend to the left. Kids could scamper up it but it was difficult going for the older folks. At some point Grandma Kelly just gave up on going up there altogether and sent us kids to fetch stuff. I gotta say, I could be kind of spooky up there.

Cousins Linda and JoAnn said that whenever they went to Grandma's house she'd usually send them up on errands and say, "Now hurry and go up can come back down!" No wonder we all thought the place was haunted!

Mom and Dad and I lived in Cleveland but when we went to visit we'd bunk upstairs. I never thought a thing about it being haunted... but then maybe they didn't tell me!

When Grandma passed we bought the old house from the estate. Just wanted to freshen it up a bit and then we'd have a country place to stay in summers. One thing lead to another and we found out that it was way crooked on the foundation, needed a new furnace, plumbing, electrical, and oh, by the way, the walls were all coming down because they were original horse-hair plaster. Many bills and a year and a half later I finally slept in Grandma's house for the first time. Have to confess it was sort of spooky! Said a wish to Grandma to protect me from hauntings. It worked! I slept like a baby:)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/was-grandmas-house-haunted.html