Losing a Job Led to Lost Freedom: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Working for a Living”

Former Cop Convicted of Crime of Spousal Non-Support

Cecil A. Banker: 1896-1939 (Maternal Second Cousin 2x Removed)

 

When I researched Cecil Banker’s work history, it led to some surprises. He had some fascinating work experiences, but his loss of employment ended up being even more fascinating to me. “Working for a living” had more than one meaning in Cecil’s life. He needed to work to live as a free man.

Cecil Banker was born August 12, 1896 in Janesville, Minnesota. His parents were Albert Banker and Jennie Anderson Banker. He was the second of their three children and was the only boy. While he was still a young child, his parents moved from Janesville back to Wisconsin, where his father had been born. The family settled in Superior, Wisconsin, at the northwest tip of the state on the shore of Lake Superior. Only a bridge separates Superior from the Duluth area of Minnesota.

Map of Superior, Wisconsin

Cecil’s father, Albert, died in 1914 when Cecil was eighteen. Cecil went to work for the Great Northern Railroad, working as a switchman. He married Helen Billmayer on September 8, 1917. He was twenty-one and Helen was two years older.

Cecil registered for the World War I draft in 1918. He listed his job as switchman, with a notation that he has “gasoline experience good”. This was probably a note made by the draft board regarding any work experience that could potentially be valuable to the army. It does not appear that Cecil was drafted or served. Interestingly, he listed his name on the draft form as Cecil Almond Banker. Some records, including his Social Security Application, list his middle name as Albert after his father, rather than the unusual Almond.

Cecil and Jennie had a son, Albert Cecil Banker, on August 17, 1918. They also had a second son, Roger Jay Banker, on February 17, 1923. Sadly, baby Roger died on August 12, 1923 at only six months of age.

At some point in late 1926 or early 1927, Cecil decided to change careers, and went to work for the police force in Superior, Wisconsin. At that point in time, Superior had a population of nearly 40,000 people, far more than today’s 26,000. 

Superior downtown in 1930s

Cecil appears in a few news articles about crimes and arrests in 1927 and 1928, and he is listed as a patrolman. The articles include his arrest of a drunk driver and his assisting a man who claimed to have been robbed and run over by a car.

Arrest notice from Oct 21, 1927 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram

Cecil was fortunate to be employed by the city government when the stock market crashed in 1929 and the country entered the Great Depression. He took and successfully passed the police exam in September 1929. The news article reported that “among those taking the policeman’s test were several who are on the force at present, but since they had not been confirmed, had to go through the exams for the second time.” I assume this is why Cecil took the exam in 1929 despite having worked as a patrol officer for two years.

Cecil was involved in a notorious criminal case in 1929. His commanding officer, a Sergeant Zimmerman, had chastised another officer, Patrolman Ben Meyers, for drinking on the job. Meyers pulled out his service weapon and shot the sergeant. Zimmerman ordered Cecil to arrest Meyers, and then walked to a nearby store to call in his injury. He died days later in the hospital, so the prosecution of Meyers rested in large part on Cecil’s testimony.

Headline from the December 2, 1929 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram

The Superior Evening Telegram reported on Cecil’s testimony in the January 14, 1930 edition:

“Patrolman Banker, the next witness on the stand, was questioned for about two hours and a half. He told of seeing Meyers shortly after midnight, and of seeing Zimmerman a short time later. At 3: 22 a.m., Banker met Zimmerman at Belknap Street and Tower Avenue, he related on the stand, and the two officers walked toward Fourteenth Street. ‘We saw Ben come out from behind the Kindy Optical Company while we were standing in front of the post office,’  Banker testified. ‘Zimmerman said ‘there’s Ben, I’m going over to meet him.’ … Banker watched the two men walk toward Thirteenth Street, he told the jury. Then, shortly after passing a lamp post a few feet from the northeast corner of the street, he saw them separate, he said, and then he heard a shot and saw a flash.

‘Did you watch the two men continually from then on?’ Attorney Cooper asked.

‘Almost, I was running and had to watch the ice a little,‘ Banker answered. ‘When I got in front of the Grand Rapids, I stopped for a few seconds, wondering what I had best do,’ Banker testified, ‘and then, drawing my gun from my pocket, I walked across the street, and told Ben I had my gun on him. I stuck my gun in his back and told him to give me his,’ Banker said. ‘Then Zimmerman grabbed my arm and pulled himself up. He led the way across the street. Meyers followed him and I followed Meyers,’ the patrolman said.

The consequent telephoning of the police department for the patrol wagon and ambulance were related by Patrolman Banker, and then he made his statement in regard to the final conversation between the two officers, one of whom had shot the other a few minutes previous.

It was a glowing tribute to Sergeant Zimmerman. A silent courtroom heard the gruff officer tell of the wounded police officer’s last utterance, ‘You shouldn’t have done it, Ben, you shouldn’t have shot me.’ While Banker made no statement in praise of Zimmerman’s action, his attitude portrayed an admiration of the dead sergeant’s manner of mildly rebuking the man who had shot him.”   

Cecil was still on the police force at the time of the 1930 census. However, he was no longer on the force by 1932, when he was sued for non-support by his wife. By that point, Cecil and Helen had a third child, a daughter, Beverly, who was born in 1929. The news article on the non-support arrest stated that Cecil was a “discharged” police officer. I am unsure whether this means he was fired for cause or if the city, facing financial problems during the Depression, layed him off. The result was the same: he had no job, so had no means to support his wife and children.

Non-Support Charge from May 24, 1932 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram

To my surprise, I discovered that being unemployed and unable to provide for your family was a crime in Wisconsin in the early 1930s, and was punishable by a prison sentence! That seems patently ridiculous, as a prisoner had no ability to provide for his or her family from jail, so the family still suffered. Certainly Cecil was not the only man unable to find a job in 1932, when the unemployment rate was a horrifying 23.6 percent! However, on January 6, 1933, Cecil was convicted by a jury on a charge of non-support and was jailed. There was no newspaper story on the sentencing portion of the trial, so I don’t know how long a sentence he received. He did file a motion for a new trial on January 28, 1933, but the newspaper did not have any further articles about this effort.

Helen Banker was granted a divorce from Cecil in December 1936. Cecil was released from jail at some point, as he remarried June 1, 1938. He married a woman named Ella Schroeder in Carlton, Minnesota. Carlton is less than twenty miles from Superior, so obviously he stayed in the Superior area following his release.

Divorce notice from the Dec 19, 1936 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram

Sadly, Cecil died on September 17, 1939 after a brief illness. He was only forty-three years old. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Superior.

Obituary from the Sept 18, 1939 edition of the Superior Evening Telegram

Cecil’s story was a revelation for me. Working for a living was essential in the early twentieth century, not just as a means of supporting oneself and one’s family, but to keep one’s freedom. Failure to work and provide support for family members was a criminal offense punishable by jail time. Cecil tried to provide for his family, but during the Great Depression, it proved impossible once he lost his job as a policeman.

 

Sources:

U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Registration State: Wisconsin; Registration County: Douglas. Ancestry.com

Articles from the Superior Evening Telegram, Superior, Wisconsin. 1927-1939. Accessed from Newspapers.com.

Findagrave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64587526/cecil-albert-banker?_gl=1*1cgwa9n*_gcl_dc*R0NMLjE3NzMwMjg1NTguMmFkMjdiYWI1M2UyMTM4ODkzMDIxMjA1NGVkNjc5YzU.*_gcl_au*NDkwNDQ5MTA0LjE3NjcxMzEzNzA.*_ga*MzAzMzcxNzI0LjE3NjcxMzEzNzE.*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*c2JlNzY4NTQ0LWJmYzYtNDg4MC1iYmZmLTE4ZDYzYzRjZmQ0MyRvMTE4JGcxJHQxNzc0MTkxNzMxJGo1OCRsMCRoMA..*_ga_LMK6K2LSJH*c2JlNzY4NTQ0LWJmYzYtNDg4MC1iYmZmLTE4ZDYzYzRjZmQ0MyRvMTE3JGcxJHQxNzc0MTkxNzMxJGo1OCRsMCRoMA..

Different Parents on Different Genealogy Sites: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Conflicting Clues”

 

Family Search vs Ancestry: Are Sarah White’s Parents from Otterton in Devon or West Bagborough in Somerset?

Sarah White: 1795-1880 (Maternal Third Great-Grandmother)
Isaac White: 1742-1819 (Maternal Fourth-Great-Grandfather)
Elizabeth Cox: 1755-1841 (Maternal Fourth-Great-Grandmother)
John White: 1743-1809 (Purported Maternal Fourth-Great-Grandfather)
Sarah Gooding: 1772-1841 (Purported Maternal Fourth-Great-Grandfather)
 

Every once in a while, I receive an email from Family Search telling me about a new Source or a Memory for an ancestor in my tree. Sometimes these emails lead to a new, valuable piece of information or a new family photo. But sometimes, they simply lead to confusion. That was the case with my third-great-grandmother, Sarah White Herniman. I clicked on the link in the email I received about her, and was surprised to discover that Sarah White had completely different parents and siblings on FamilySearch than the parents and siblings I had found on Ancestry. This conflicting information left me confused and worried. Had I missed something critical in my Ancestry research?

So how did the two sets of purported parents for Sarah White compare? FamilySearch showed Sarah as the second child of John White and Sarah Gooding, and said she was born in 1796 in Otterton, Devon, England. John White, born in Otterton in 1743, had married Sarah Gooding on August 16, 1792. Sarah Gooding was born in Devon in 1772 and was christened at Collaton Raleigh, Devon on October 6 of that year. The couple had eight children between 1795 and 1807.

According to my Ancestry research, Sarah White was the daughter of Isaac White and Elizabeth Cox. Isaac and Elizabeth were born in Somerset, England, Isaac in 1742 and Elizabeth in 1755. They were married November 16, 1773 in Hillfarrance, Somerset. They had eleven children between 1773 and 1798. Sarah was the tenth of those eleven children, born in 1795. She may have been born in Sidmouth (one record suggests that) but her baptism took place in West Bagborough in Somerset, where most of her siblings were also baptized.  

Sarah White, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth White, baptism record.

Both the FamilySearch tree and my Ancestry tree agree that Sarah White married James How Herniman on March 28, 1819 in Taunton St. Mary, Somerset. The marriage record states that Sarah White was from Sidmouth, Devonshire.

Marriage Record for James Herniman and Sarah White, showing she was from the Sidmouth Parish

So how can I determine which set of parents is most likely correct? First, I looked at locations. The FamilySearch Sarah was supposedly born in Otterton, Devon, but married a man from Somerset, at Taunton St. Mary, a church in Taunton, Somerset. I looked at the distance from Taunton to Otterton, and discovered the towns were 35 miles apart. That would be quite a distance in the early nineteenth century. How would an Otterton woman meet a man from the Taunton region of Somerset?

James How Herniman, Sarah’s husband, was actually born in Crowcombe, Somerset, which is only three miles from West Bagborough, where my Ancestry Sarah White was baptized and where her siblings were born and baptized. It is easy to understand how a West Bagborough woman could meet someone from a town barely three miles away.

Still, the marriage record states that Sarah White is from Sidmouth, which is on the coast of Devonshire not far from Otterton. That supports the FamilySearch parentage.

One additional piece of information makes me more confident that my Ancestry tree is correct. I have a DNA match to a distant cousin who is a descendant of Jacob White, a son of Isaac White and Elizabeth Cox. Jacob was therefore Sarah White’s older brother. I checked the FamilySearch records, and John White and Sarah Gooding had no sons named Jacob, nor does John White seem to be related to Isaac White. That indicates that the only way my DNA could match a descendant of Jacob White is if we shared the same ancestor, Isaac White.

When I examined Ancestry’s ThruLines, I found even more DNA connections. I have distant cousins who are descended from four additional siblings of Jacob White and Sarah White. These siblings are Mary White, Hannah White, William White, and Elizabeth White.

DNA really doesn’t lie. Therefore it is doubtful that John White and Sarah Gooding’s daughter, Sarah White, could be my third-great-grandmother. My DNA connection to the descendants of Isaac White’s children is indisputable.  Isaac White is clearly my fourth-great-grandfather, not John White of Otterton.

I am confident that my Ancestry tree correctly identifies Sarah’s parents as Isaac White and Elizabeth Cox. Apparently Sarah must have spent time in Sidmouth before her marriage, despite her family being from Somerset. Perhaps the family had relatives there, which would explain why her birth record also shows she was born in Sidmouth even though she was later baptized in West Bagborough.

I have found it difficult to change parentage on FamilySearch. People just change it right back. I will probably attempt to correct it at some point noting the DNA evidence, but for now I am content to have come to my own conclusion about the conflicting clues relating to Sarah White’s parentage.

Sources:

Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 for Sarah White. Marriage Registers, Taunton St. Mary, 1813-1828. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60858/images/42886_1831115184_0991-00111?_gl=1*1r6sio9*_up*MQ..&gclid=65117a15095f10dbfb8c13bb1b2b7843&gclsrc=3p.ds&pId=903444864

Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812 for Sarah White. West Bagborough, 1701-1812. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60856/images/engl78030_d-p-w-bag-2-1-3_m_00022?_gl=1*56y138*_up*MQ..&gclid=65117a15095f10dbfb8c13bb1b2b7843&gclsrc=3p.ds&pId=366409

Ancestry ThruLines for Isaac White. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-geneticfamily/thrulines/tree/134748591:9009:66/for/38B5E694-2D64-4CC7-BEFE-4FE8A7F44961

 

The Serious Side to a Funny Incident: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Changed My Thinking”

 

Anthony Nutter and the Attack on Colonial Tax Officials

Anthony Nutter: 1630-1685 (Maternal 9^th Great-Grandfather)
 

When I first saw the engraving pictured below, I was amused. The man depicted laughing uproariously at the two other men scuffling in the fireplace was my ninth-great-grandfather, Anthony Nutter. The violence depicted looked like a bar brawl to me. I assumed the men had drunk too much and had gotten into a scuffle. The description accompanying the illustration referred to Anthony as a “tall big man” who accompanied his friend Wiggin when they “visited Mason when the latter got his wig burned.” That description trivializes the incident, which was far more serious than I’d surmised. Rather than a scuffle amongst friends, the fight was political—an act of resistance by colonial settlers against British overreach. I had to drastically change my thinking about the meaning of the illustration.

Anthony Nutter was the son of Hatevil Nutter and his wife Ann Ayers Nutter. Anthony was born in England around 1630, and traveled to what is now Stratford County, New Hampshire with his parents and siblings sometime prior to 1640.  In 1662, at the age of 32, he married Sarah Langstaff. They had at least eight children, perhaps more than ten.

Anthony first lived in Dover Neck, New Hampshire, but eventually moved across the Piscataqua River to what is now Newington, New Hampshire, but was then called Welshman’s Cove on Bloody Point. He inherited the property from his father in 1674, and fortified the house into a garrison. Anthony became a freeman in 1662, and was a “corporall” in 1667, and was called a “leftenant” by 1683. These titles probably referred to militia positions—the colonists needed to protect themselves from raids by native tribes and the French. He served as a selectman in 1666 and 1667, as a Representative to the colonial General Court for six years between 1674 and 1684, and was named to the Provincial Council in 1679. He was obviously a respected citizen.

Historical Marker in the Bloody Point area of New Hampshire

So what led him to participate in a brawl with colonial bigwig Robert Mason and the Lieutenant Governor of New Hampshire Walter Barefoot?

In the 1680s, there was conflict in the colonies over the control of land in what is now New Hampshire. The area had originally been part of the Massachusetts Colony, but was eventually separated into a separate entity called a “royal province”. At that time, a man named Rober Mason asserted a claim that his family owned all the land in the province, and he arrived in the area with a warrant from the king and the expectation that all the colonists would begin paying him to lease their lands.  As might be expected, the colonists objected. They believed they had clear title to their lands and refused to pay rents, taxes or any other fees to any government entity connected to Mason.

Mason curried favor with the Provincial Governor, Edward Cranfield, so Cranfield attempted to enforce the lease arrangement. He was unsuccessful; his officers were unable to enforce his orders. Cranfield returned to England, turning over his duties to his Lietuenant Governor, Walter Barefoot.

The book Colonial Life in New Hampshire describes what led to the Nutter/Wiggin incident:

“Barefoot was not an improvement over his predecessor and used every means in his power to annoy the colonists. During his short stay an incident occurred which shows the contempt with which the government was held by the settlers. Thomas Wiggin and Anthony Nutter, who had formerly been members of the assembly, called one day at the house of Barefoot to remonstrate with him concerning the injustice of his proceedings. Mason, who was his guest at the time, was also present. During the discussion, the visitors told Mason very plainly and forcibly that his claim to the land amounted to nothing. This so enraged him that he took hold of Wiggin to force him from the house.

Wiggin, who was a powerful man, seized Mason by the collar and threw him with great violence across the room and into the fireplace, where his clothing and legs were severely burned. Barefoot upon coming to his assistance was treated even more severely. Several of his teeth were knocked out and two of his ribs were broken. Mason meantime called loudly upon his servants to bring his sword, but upon its being brought, Nutter quickly took it from him, and mocked the discomfiture of the highest officer of the state.”

Another description of the incident said that the fight was broken up by neighbors who were alerted by the screams of Barefoot’s maid.

Neither Nutter nor Wiggin faced any criminal charges for their altercation with two powerful men, even though both of those men were left with fairly serious injuries. Nutter and Wiggin had walked into the meeting with confidence, unafraid of Mason and Barefoot. While they were both big, strong men, I believe they felt more emboldened by the support of their fellow colonists. They knew that powerful titles and rank meant little so far from England and the king. The outcome proved them right. Barefoot soon lost his position and was replaced, while Mason was never able to assert his claim of ownership over the province’s land.

The fight at Barefoot’s house seems to have occurred in the early to mid 1680s when Anthony Nutter was in his early fifties. In 1685, he contracted smallpox. The journal of Rev. Pike noted:

“Feb 19. Lt. Anthony Nutter of Welch-Cove deceased of the smal-pox bef: it came out.”

I’m not sure what the reference to “before it came out” means. Before the rash appeared? Anthony Nutter died from the disease at the age of fifty-five. I have been unable to find his probate or burial records.

While I first looked at the story of Anthony Nutter and Thomas Wiggin’s fight with Mason and Barefoot as a humorous incident of drunken machismo, I changed my thinking when I read what led up to the incident. This is an example of the necessity of searching for information that can provide important context. Without context, we can misconstrue our ancestors’ actions and motivations. Where I once saw a drunken brawl, I now see political resistance by colonists against greed and an out-of-touch king.

 

Sources:

New England Historical Society. New Hampshire. “Edward Gove and this One-Man Revolution of 1683”. https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/edward-gove-and-his-one-man-revolution-of-1683/#google_vignette

Colonial Life in New Hampshire. James H. Fassett. Chapter 4. Ginn & Company, Publishers. Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 1899.

Photo of Newington Historical Marker. Wikimedia Commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/NewingtonNH_sign.JPG

https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LZ1W-4ND/lt.-anthony-nutter-1630-1685

 

A Young Man’s Big Decision: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “A Big Decision”

 

Lawrence Buckminster Makes His Will Before Setting Sail to England

Lawrence Buckminster: 1619-1645 (Maternal 8^th Great-Granduncle)

 

Sometimes I run across records or documents that make me laugh, and other times I find something that breaks my heart a little. Lawrence Buckminster’s probate record was unique—I had both reactions. Lawrence was barely twenty-five when he made the decision to take to the sea aboard a ship bound for England. As most sailors did in those days, knowing the hazards that ships and sailors faced, he made his will before he left. Sadly, he never returned to Massachusetts, and the will he dictated—filled with humor and pathos—is all that survives of his life.

Lawrence Buckminster was the eldest son of my ninth-great-grandfather, Thomas Buckminster and Thomas’ first wife, Margaret Cossen. Lawrence was born in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, England in September of 1619. He was baptized on September 12, 1619. Lawrence’s mother died in 1629, and his father took Lawrence and his three siblings to colonial America around 1630. Lawrence would have been about eleven years old.

Sempringham church where Lawrence was baptized.

Lawrence’s father remarried, and by Lawrence’s twenty-first birthday, he had eight younger siblings.

Lawrence apparently wrote his will in September 1645, and it was probated in May of 1646. This implies he died in late 1645 or early 1646. None of the details about his cause or place of death was recorded. His body does not seem to have been returned to his family, so he may have been buried at sea.

The remarkable part of Lawrence’s story is his delightfully detailed will. It begins in a rather unusual fashion, which I read as rather wry in tone. Lawrence wrote (or dictated) as follows:

“Seene that I am now bound for the sea & so for England, them smole (small) things that I have heare live & thos desposed of, if Capt. Smith doe not recover my wages againe, then thus I have ordered it if God take me away by death or any turne of God’s providence that I am never like to enjoy it againe…”

Copy of Lawrence Buckmaster/Buckminster's will from Massachusetts Probate Records

This opening is amazingly chatty and really shows personality. I can almost hear a cocky young man describing his possessions as “them small things that I have here”. And then there’s the puzzling line about his ship’s captain, which seems to have a bit of a mocking note: “if Capt. Smith doe not recover my wages againe”. What can we gather from this line? First, Lawrence had sailed with Capt. Smith before, and apparently there was some dispute about Lawrence’s wages. I am surmising that the meaning of the word “recover” in this context is more akin to “revoke” or “confiscate.” It sounds as if Lawrence does not trust his captain to convey any wages earned before his death to his heirs.

Next follows a very detailed accounting and distribution of Lawrence’s possessions. First, he leaves “the piece of land bought of & payd excepted of the said Thomas Spaule” to his sister Elizabeth Buckminster [which he dictates as “Buckmaster”, an alternate spelling during that era]. I am a bit unclear about Thomas Spaule’s [alternate spelling Spowell] connection to the land—had Lawrence bought it from Thomas? It appears that Lawrence’s sister Elizabeth was his favorite of all his siblings, as she received the most valuable inheritance.

Lawrence then begins an itemized distribution of what he described as “smale things in my chest”:

“first a greate coate I freely give to Thomas Spaule & the six shillings due to me from Thomas Wellens with it, My black hatt I do bestow it upon Abigail Sherman, the suite of apparel to my brother Zachary Buckmaster & a shirt and band or two for my ffather, there wilbe left a paire of stockings the best to be given to Matthew Coy, the worser paire or two paire & the chest in which these lye in unto the said Thomas Spaule…”

This section of the will indicates how important and how limited clothing was during that era. Even “worser” stockings were important enough to list in a will. My ancestor Zachary Buckminster received an entire suit of clothing, which would have been a valuable possession. Their father Thomas was to receive a shirt and “band”.

But non-family members also received bequests. Someone named Matthew Cay or Coy was to inherit Lawrence’s best pair of stockings, and an unrelated young woman, Abigail Sherman, was to inherit his black hat. Was Abigail a sweetheart of Lawrence’s? Or was she an extended relative? Why was she to receive the hat? After all, what was a woman to do with a man’s hat? It seems rather bold to include an unrelated woman in a man’s will in the mid-seventeenth century.

The next passage in the will is very confusing. It reads that Thomas Spaule was to take “a smale caske of Mackrells that Thomas is to send to sea for me for to let them go to sea for his daughter Mary till they come to some thing or nothing, but if that I live to come againe, or desire an account of them by sending to you an account to be given to me.”

After a little research, I discovered that mackerels were salted and packed in casks to be used as food on ships or to be sold abroad. I think what Lawrence was proposing was that a cask of mackerel that Lawrence had intended to export be instead exported by Thomas Spaule on behalf of Spaule’s daughter Mary. In other words, any proceeds of the sale of the cask would go to Mary, unless Lawrence survived his voyage and returned to claim the proceeds or sent for an accounting from England. I did a bit of research on Thomas Spaule’s family, and it appears that Mary was just a baby when the will was written. I wonder if she ever received the proceeds of that cask of salted fish.

The will is signed as follows: “Lawrence Buckmaster in the presence of Thomas Spaule”, with a man named Robert Portons signing as the writer of the document, dated September 27, 1645. It is likely that Lawrence needed assistance to write the document and dictated it to Mr. Portons; like many men of the era, he was probably barely literate.

Thomas Spaule must have been Lawrence’s best friend, as so much of the will and the means of distributing the possessions was entrusted to Thomas. Perhaps this explains the chatty nature of the will—the two friends were sitting in a room discussing everything as the will was written.

Lawrence makes some last-minute amendments, perhaps in response to Thomas’ questions or comments. He writes:

“But the land she is not to make it away nor part fro, but she is not to have it, nor have nothing to doe with it till the yeare of our Lord 1649 & that Mayday, but if she sell it then let Thomas Spaule have the refusing of it, if she let it, then he to hyer it afore another if he please & if I dye at sea then to demand upon inquiry you may true wages for the time & to give my ffather it.

I wonder why Elizabeth was required to wait until May Day 1649 to gain full control over her inheritance? She was born in 1628, so perhaps that date was selected to ensure that she had reached her majority, the age of twenty-one. Also, once again, Lawrence’s friend Thomas received preferential treatment. While Elizabeth was to inherit the land Lawrence owned, she could not sell or rent it out without offering Thomas Spaule the right of first refusal.

It is interesting that seven years after this will was written, a man named William Spowell married Elizabeth Buckminster. I believe William Spowell must have been related to Thomas Spaule/Spowell—perhaps his brother. The two families must have lived near one another and were friendly. I wonder if Elizabeth held onto the land after inheriting it, or did she sell it or lease it to Thomas Spaule? I will have to keep researching to see if there are any land transfer records.

While Lawrence Buckminster may have approached the making of his will with a bit of irreverence, it is also obvious that it was a serious undertaking. He was well aware of the possible consequences of his decision to go to sea. While he left no descendants and few records of his existence, this will provides a window into his short life and the difficult lives of early colonial settlers.

Sources:

Suffolk County (Massachusetts) Probate Records, 1636-1899; Author: Massachusetts. Probate Court (Suffolk County) https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9069/records/367187?tid=46986934&pid=322685714523&ssrc=pt

Photo Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

The Case of the Missing Mothers: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “A Theory in Progress”

 

Thomas Buckminster’s Two Wives and Nine Children: Which Wife Gave Birth to Which Children?

Thomas Buckminster: 1593-1656 (Maternal 9^th Great-Grandfather)
Margaret Cossen: 1597-1629 (Maternal 9^th Great-Grandmother)
Joanna Robinson: 1597-1676 (Wife No. 2)
 

I’ve been making use of the new Ancestry feature, the Tree Checker program. It helps me identify errors in my tree, and equally important, which individuals in the tree lack sources and records. I discovered that when I originally added the Thomas Buckminster family (my maternal 9^th Great-Grandfather) to my family tree, I had found sources verifying basic birth, death and marriage information for my direct ancestor, Thomas’ son Zachariah Buckminster. However, I had failed to do the same for Zachariah’s eight siblings. I hadn’t even verified which of Thomas’ two wives had given birth to which child. Ancestry’s Tree Checker flagged all of Zachariah’s siblings as “people with no sources”. I decided it was time to rectify this omission.

My 9^th Great Grandfather Thomas Buckminster was born in England in 1593, and immigrated to the American Colonies around 1630 following the death of his first wife, Margaret Cossin, in 1629. He settled in the Muddy River area of Suffolk County, Massachusetts and married Joanna Robinson.

Muddy River on a 1777 map of Brookline area near Boston.

I had some theories about his nine children’s parentage. Other Ancestry trees tended to show that second wife Joanna was the mother of at least six or seven of the nine children. I believed that first wife Margaret was actually the mother of not only my 8th Great Grandfather Zachariah, but four or five of his siblings as well. I needed to see if I could verify that theory.

Thomas Buckminster’s first wife died in 1629. Obviously, any children born after that date were the children of second wife Joanna Robinson. So my first job was to find birth records or documents that verified the birth year of the eight siblings.

Muddy River today

I located a transcription of Thomas’ will, made out in 1656 shortly before his death. His heirs included the following children: Zackery (Zachariah); daughters Elizabeth Spowell, Mary Stevens, Dorcas Corben, and Sarah Buckminster, and sons Thomas, Joseph and Jabesh (Jabez). The will offered me some clues about which children were the progeny of second wife Joanna. Thomas noted that sons Thomas, Joseph and Jabesh, and daughter Sarah were all minors under the age of twenty-one. The will instructs that they receive forty shillings “each to be paid when severally ‘one & Twenty years of Age.’” That means that each of them were born after 1636, so could not have been the children of Margaret, who died in 1629. All four, therefore, were Joanna’s children.

But what about the other children? I found birth and probate records for Thomas’ son, Lawrence Buckminster. He was born in England in 1619, so his mother must have been Margaret Cossen. Lawrence was Thomas’ eldest son, six years older than my ancestor Zachariah. Lawrence died at sea in 1645, thus preceding Thomas in death.

As for daughter Elizabeth, I found a baptism record for her dated August 17, 1628. The baptism took place in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, England. This is the same parish where her brothers Lawrence and Zachary were baptized. Although I have found no actual birth record, she was obviously born before August 17, 1628. This confirms she was Margaret Cossen’s daughter. Elizabeth accompanied her father to Massachusetts and married William Spowell in 1652. I have been unable to find a death record for her.

As for daughter Dorcas, I have been unable to find any birth or baptism records for her. Her headstone states that she died January 22, 1721 at the age of 92. That would mean she was born in 1629 when Thomas Buckminster was still in England, meaning Dorcas was Margaret’s last child. Perhaps Dorcas’ birth led to her mother’s death, which occurred in 1629.

Thomas Buckminster’s ninth child was daughter Mary. I was unable to find any birth records for her. However, court records related to her father’s estate hint that she was the daughter of second wife Joanna Robinson Buckminster. Following Joanna’s remarriage, several of Thomas' children petitioned the court that administration of the estate be transferred from Thomas’ widow Joanna to them as Thomas’ children.

“On 27 July 1669, "Jabesh Buckminster, Mary Stevens, Dorcas Corbin, and Sarah Lawrence, son and daughters of Thomas Buckminster sometimes of Muddy River in Boston deceased," petitioned the court to be appointed administrators to their father's estate, referring to the marriage of their mother, Joanna Buckmaster, to Edward Garfield. Among the many depositions collected during the consideration of this petition was one from "Henry Stevens" who "affirmed in court 27 July 16[70] its four years come August next since his mo[ther]in] law Joanna Garfeild died."

Henry Steven’s reference to Joanna as his mother-in-law would suggest that his wife Mary was Joanna’s daughter. Mary’s uncomfirmed birthdate from several Ancestry trees was 1632, which followed the estimated 1630-31 date of Thomas’ marriage to Joanna. Henry and Mary also named one of their daughters “Joanna”. While these things suggest Joanna is Mary’s mother, without any actual documentary evidence, Mary’s parentage will remain theoretical.

So my original theory was only partially correct. I was able to confirm that three of my 8^th great grandfather’s siblings were his full siblings—the children of Thomas Buckminster’s first wife Margaret Cossen. However, I confirmed that four other siblings were the children of Thomas Buckminster’s second wife, Joanna, and that last sibling is probably also her child. I had theorized that at least one and possibly two of those siblings were Margaret Cossen’s children.

I need to continue to research this family to see if there are any additional records that can clarify family relationships. But at least the entire Buckminster family now has records attached to them, and will no longer appear on Tree Checker as “people with no sources.”

Sources:

Photo of Muddy River. Wikimedia Commons. John Stephen Dwyer, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Olmsted-Park-Muddy-River.jpg

Henry Pelham’s 1777 Map of Boston area.

Photo of Dorcas Buckminster Corbin headstone. Gravestones of the First Corbins in America.

Where She Lived: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “A Record That Adds Color”

 

Obit for Stena Severson Leads to Info on the Living Situation of Working Women in the 1910s-1930s

Christine “Stena” Severson: 1881-1931 (Paternal First Cousin 1x Removed)

I had very little information on my ancestor/cousin, Stena Severson, beyond the bare facts of birth and death—nothing that really gave any insight into her life. But as I read the brief obituary notice printed in the Minneapolis Journal in 1931, a small piece of information caught my eye. After a little online research, Stena’s life story had a little dash of color at long last.

Christine Severson was born in June 1881 in Brookings, South Dakota to parents Julia Peterson Severson and Sever Severson. I have found no actual birth record, and no other records provide the actual day of her birth. She was the second of their seven children. Her father drank himself to death when she was sixteen, and she was forced to grow up quickly and support herself. She appears in the 1900 census still living at home. She was nineteen, but was listed as “at school”. Since she became a stenographer, I believe she was probably attending a trade school that prepared young women for office work.

Christine "Stena" is probably the seated woman at the left.

I found no census records for Stena in either 1910 or 1920. The 1930 census finds her living in Minneapolis and working as a stenographer for a law firm.

Just a year later, on June 12, 1931, she suddenly died. According to her obituary, she was only forty-nine years old, which means her birth date must have been after the 12^th in June 1881. I found no news articles about her death, so it was apparently due to natural causes—perhaps a stroke or heart attack, or an illness like pneumonia that led to death.

Her brief obituary lists only her mother and siblings as survivors, and notes that interment will be in South Dakota. The only information the obituary provided about her life was the brief notation “residence, Belmont Hotel.”

A hotel? That piqued my curiosity. What would cause a woman with an office job to live at a hotel? Research on the Belmont Hotel provided some answers. The current owners of the building, the Honig Company, provide a history of the building as follows:

“The Belmont, located in the historic Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis near the Hornig Companies’ Home Office, sits on the corner of West Franklin and Hennepin Ave South.  The “Belmont Inn,” as it was originally known, opened in 1920 and was built as an “Apartment Hotel,” a style of living that was popular for a short time in the early 1900’s.  Residents could rent an apartment for a day, a week or by the month and receive the amenities of fully furnished units, housekeeping services as well as garage services.  Built by the Fleischer Brothers, who also built the Calhoun Beach Club, the building was a popular winter home for families who owned summer cabins on Lake Minnetonka.

At its prime, the lower level boasted a dinner and dance hall, a continental bath and beauty shop with mineral steam baths, a barber shop and a billiard & club room…

The Belmont Hotel, circa 1920s

I looked at the 1930 census record for Stena more closely, and saw that her neighbors included several single, professional women, including teachers and other stenographers. I can see the attraction of such a property, with all the additional amenities available such as furnishings, housekeeping services and the onsite beauty shop. The “rooms” were more like small apartments, which would be perfect for a single woman. Perhaps Stena developed friendships with her single female neighbors, which would have made the property even more attractive.

Looking at Minneapolis City Directories for the period Stena lived in Minneapolis, I was able to trace both her jobs and her residence locations. In 1910, Stena was working for a company called the Mercantile Adjustment Co., and was living in a “flat” at 712 E. 14^th Street. By 1915, Christine found a stenographer position with a lawyer named Harry G. Amick. His company, H.G.Amick Co., worked in “legal collections and adjustments”, and had offices in the Palace Building, located near 315 S. 4^th Street in Minneapolis. In 1915, Stena had moved one block further to 22 E. 15^th Street.

The Palace building in Minneapolis, circa 1930s

The following year, Stena moved to one of the first “apartment hotels”, the Ogden Hotel at 70 s. 12^th Street. This was ideally located, only one mile from her new office in the Baker Building at 7^th Street and 2^nd Ave. H.G. Amick had merged his legal practice with another firm, which became known as Deutsch, Loeffler & Amick. The firm seems to have been a full-service legal firm.

The Baker Building in the 1930s, location of the offices of Deutsch, Loeffler & Amick.

Stena’s boss, H.G. Amick, had kept an apartment at the Ogden Hotel around 1912. He also had a home further out in the city, so probably kept the apartment due to its proximity to his offices. Perhaps he suggested that Christine move there in 1916. She lived in Apartment 4 at the Ogden for at least six years, possibly more. The Ogden had much to offer. The location was near a large library, Loring Park, and the Minneapolis Auditorium, a performing arts location, so there was plenty for Ogden residents to do and enjoy.  

The Ogden Hotel in the 1960s when it was renamed the Continental.

Christine received promotions during her years at the law firm. By 1922, her city directory listing showed her as the firm’s “chief clerk”. By 1928, the directory listed her as “department manager”. She had also moved to yet another apartment hotel building, the Leamington. It was an elegant building at 1014 3^rd Avenue.

The Hotel Leamington, Minneapolis, circa 1940s

The following year, 1929, Christine moved for the last time to the Belmont. She obviously enjoyed the “apartment hotel” lifestyle, as she lived in three different ones during the last fifteen years of her life.

I loved finding photos of the buildings where she lived and where she worked. I could imagine her walking briskly to work on chill mornings, or catching a street car or bus on wet winter days. She must have felt very sophisticated, working in high-rises and living on her own in busy city apartment hotels. Her life in Minneapolis was vastly different than life in much smaller, quieter Brookings. I hope Stena loved her life and her career. I am so glad I ran across that mention of the Belmont Hotel in her obituary. It led me to dig more deeply and add some color and detail to the bare facts of Stena's life.

 

 

Sources:

Christine Severson obituary. Minneapolis Journal. Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jun 14, 1931. Newspapers.com.

https://www.hornigcompanies.com/2021/03/25/the-belmont-apartments

Belmont Inn and Hotel. 1940s Star and Tribune Company, donors to Hennepin County Library Digital Collections. (1970https://hennepinco.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5vC8z9bbQSyJsuW

Hotel Leamington. Hennepin County Library Digital Collections.https://digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/collection/CPED/id/5220/

Historic Minneapolis Minnesota Facebook Group. Photos of buildings. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1494515567441974/posts/1912207682339425/

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Ogden Hotel. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/1b2f1f60-072f-41f4-b942-3c39b2c82513

Census data and Minneapolis City Directory entries: Ancestry.com.

Strength and Persistence on the Prairie: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “An Ancestor I Admire”

 

Great-Aunt Julia: Never Surrendering When Far From Family and Facing Adversity

Julia Joramo Peterson: 1857-1939 (Paternal Grand-Aunt)

 

So much of history is written only from the male perspective, and it is easy to fall into that trap as a genealogist. Most records from prior to the mid-1960s were created by men. Women had little power over their own money or personal agency, yet they were often powerful, amazing people. When I find records that actually provide a glimpse of a female ancestor’s life, I rejoice. My great-aunt Julia Joramo Peterson was one of those female ancestors, and her life story shows her strength and determination in the face of tragedy and difficulty.

Julia was born February 6, 1857 in Lesja, Oppland Norway to parents Peder Pederson Joramo and Anne Gulbrandsdatter. She was the second of their five children. When she was thirteen, the family emigrated from Norway to the United States, and ended up in Madelia, Minnesota.

Julia met another Norwegian immigrant in Madelia, Sever James Severson. They married February 9, 1877 when Julia was twenty and Sever was twenty-two. Their first child, daughter Anna, was born eight months later. The young family decided to strike out on their own, leaving their parents and numerous siblings behind in Minnesota, and moved to Brookings, South Dakota in the middle of the winter of 1880. How brave they were, to leave everyone and everything they knew in their new country behind, moving to a place where they had no support system. Brookings was a railroad stop, so the Severson family probably traveled by train, their possessions in the baggage car.

Julia was interviewed by the Brookings newspaper in 1939, shortly before her death. The headline noted that she was “the longest continuous resident” in the city of Brookings, and the article also noted she was the “oldest living person having operated a business here.”. She recalled her early days in the city as follows:

“Early in January 1880, my husband and I landed in Brookings and immediately opened a restaurant on the lot where now the Economy Center Market is on or the one directly south of it, occupied by Mr. Louis Johnson.

It was a fine summer and we had a fine business. There was another restaurant in town on the west side of the street, and there was a hotel, south of us, on the lot now occupied by the Community Oil company. Meals were 25 cents everywhere, and we had no trouble getting food of sufficient quantities and varieties.

Hotel in on Main Street in Brookings in 1890s

Our labor problem was easy to solve. Girls newly arrived from the old country, were glad to work for us at $2 a week and their board, and we never had any trouble with labor. One girl stayed with us for a full year. The meals were put on the table and you ate all you wanted.”

I am amazed at her confidence and work ethic. She had never run a restaurant before they arrived in Brookings. I’m sure Julia had helped her mother with cooking for their family, but cooking for the public all day long is a far different experience. She and Sever faced difficulties as well. She told her interviewer the following story:

“The first winter we were in business was the winter of the big snow. Everything was eaten up in the grocery stores here, and we had to send to Volga with a pair of ponies to try and get some groceries. We kept a man hauling wood all winter from the river. We had a little coal, and that with the wood helped us, especially in baking bread. Thee was a tunnel across the street, to the grocery store, the snow was so deep. I remember a man came in and wanted me to bake him a birthday cake, but we didn’t do it, because we had no flour.

We owned a pair of ponies so I took a ride in a sled on the railroad track. There wasn’t much danger of trains at that time. In the spring I told my husband we were out of butter and that I couldn’t eat [or cook] without butter, so my husband went out to Korstad’s to try and get some. He didn’t get back that night and the next morning he came back, floating up to the back part of Main Street in a wagon box, the creek had come up so much that night, but he had one and one-half pounds of butter. We still had some crackers and ham and a lot of goods that were at Tracy, but they were of no value to us at that time.”

These stories make light of the danger and back-breaking work involved in this life—digging that tunnel through gigantic snowdrifts, risking drowning by floating down a roaring creek in a wagon box—what happened to the wagon base and the horses? Hopefully Sever left them somewhere safe and could retrieve them when the stream receded.

View of Brookings, SD in 1910s

And poor Julia kept that restaurant running while she gave birth to two more children in 1881 and 1884. How did she manage? How did she care for her babies while she was prepping meals and cooking them, washing the dishes, etc. Even with young women working at the restaurant, the hours and labor must have been brutal on her while she was pregnant and nursing.

I am also impressed with Julia and Sever’s ability to quickly build connections in their new community. They found people who could provide them with wood to keep their oven and fireplace going, they found sources for the food they needed for the restaurant like Mr. Korstad, the buttermaker, and of course they built a customer base. They must have been outgoing, charming people.

Julia finished her account as follows:

“We ran this restaurant four years and I enjoyed it. If I had known as much then as I do now, I would have kept right on with it. You know, if you have a place like that you always have a living.”

I’m sure that wasn’t Julia’s only regret. Her husband was an alcoholic who could become violent when he was drunk. He made the newspapers after committing assault during one bender, and he died of alcohol poisoning in 1897 at the age of 42. Sever had been working “selling groceries for a Minneapolis house” when he died.

Sever J Severson, from tree on Ancestry

Julia must have been in desperate straits after Sever’s death. She had seven children between the ages of one and eighteen, while Julia was forty years old. How could she support her family? On the 1900 census, it appears she was working as a “wash woman”. Her eldest children were helping to support the household. Daughter Anna, then 22, was working as a milliner. Son Charles, only 15, was a grocery salesman. He may have taken over his father’s old job, which seems to have involved door-to-door grocery sales.

Julia at right, with her children. Since youngest looks to be about 4-5 years old, probably taken circa 1901-02.

By 1910, Julia was no longer working. Her eldest son Charles seems to have been supporting not only his mother and three youngest siblings, but his new wife as well.

Four years later, Julia married a widowed farmer, Iver Grudem. They lived in a small house on Eighth Street in Brookings. He died in 1925. Julia died fourteen years later on September 21, 1939. She was 82 years old. Her obituary stated that she had been in poor health for five years, but was still up and around each day.

I feel so fortunate that my family kept this news clipping of Julia’s interview with the Brookings newspaper. Reading her own words helped bring her to life. I could see what a strong, determined woman she was., and how she was a valued member of her community. Her resilience and positive attitude in the face of hardship is admirable. She was an impressive woman.

Sources:

Julia Severson-Grudem obituary. Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, Sioux Falls, SD. Sept. 22, 1939. Newsoapers.com.

“Mrs. Julia Severson-Grudem, Longest Continuous Resident in City, Recalls Early Restaurant Business, Spring Flood. Brookings Register. Brookings, South Dakota. Jan. 12, 1939.