Ove Syverson Family: 52 Ancestors Prompt "At the Cemetery"

Ove Syverson/Severson/Siverson Family and Linden Lutheran Church Cemetery 

52 Weeks/52 Ancestors Prompt: At the Cemetery

            My great-grandparents, Ragnhild and Ove Syverson, (my paternal grandmother’s parents) worshipped at a small church near their Linden Township farm in rural Minnesota. The church, like the township, was named for a nearby lake, Linden Lake. The cemetery surrounding Linden Lutheran Church holds the graves of many of the Severson family members, and has been a great help in my genealogical research. 

            Linden Church is located amid fields or corn and soybeans in Brown County, Minnesota. It is accessible only by creeping along bumpy gravel roads that wind around the sharp corners demarcating the property lines of old homesteads. The church is a pretty little white building with a square, squat steeple topped with a six-sided bell tower and black-shingled roof. 

There are four arched and not very colorful windows on each side of the sanctuary, and a low, single-story church hall built on the back, looking like a tiny 1950s ranch house grafted onto the much older church.

Unfortunately, few people come to Linden Church anymore. The countryside around Linden emptied out during the last couple decades as small family farms were sold to large farm corporations and jobs disappeared from the surrounding small communities. Young people moved away, and the older people who remained are now dying off.  The church congregation withered away until a few years ago, the church was forced to close its doors when there were no longer sufficient funds coming in to heat the building. The remaining parishioners were forced to worship at the Lutheran parish in the nearby town of Hanska or to find another church even further away. 

            Despite the closure, people still care about the property. The cemetery that wraps around three sides of the church is still neatly mowed and tended, and the church is available for special events such as the occasional wedding or funeral. A farm family lives across the road from the property, keeping watch and protecting Linden from vandals. 

The cemetery board has done a wonderful job. The cemetery records have been digitized and are on Findagrave and are accessible on Ancestry. The cemetery also features a kiosk with a record book listing the surnames of the people buried there, and a map showing where the plots are located. I was able to find several ancestors’ graves due to the efforts and diligence of these volunteers. 

Cemetery records helped to clear up confusion about the number of children the Syversons had, and when they died. The couple had a young son named Syver, born in Wisconsin in October 1869. This child disappeared from census records, and a second Syver was born in 1882. While no stone survives at the cemetery, the records indicate the first Syver—called Syver Overson in the cemetery records (Ove’s son, a surname conforming to Norwegian surname patterns)—died in 1876 and was buried in the family plot. Another son, Ole, was born in 1872 and died the next year. I only know of his existence due to the cemetery records listing him as Ole Overson and showing his parents’ names. When another son was born in late 1873, he was named Ole in honor of his dead baby brother. Without the cemetery records, the duplicate birth and death dates for the Oles and Syvers would have led to great confusion. 

Ove Syverson

Ove and Ragnhild also had a daughter, Anne Sirine or Syrina, born in 1877 who died in 1896, shortly before her twentieth birthday. Like her little brothers, she has no surviving headstone. 

Ragnhild Syverson

Ove and Ragnhild’s headstones are in the cemetery. I noted that there is vacant space around their graves; I hypothesize that space is the likely location of the three children’s missing graves. 

Jorgine Syverson

The cemetery also contains the graves of two of the Syverson children who reached adulthood, Jorgine Syverson Ahlness, 1879-1908, and Ole Syverson, 1873-1933. Along with Ole’s grave are those of his wife Inger Syvine Broste, 1876-1905, and their little son Oscar, 1900-1904, who died just a month after his fourth birthday. Without the headstone for Oscar, I would have had a hard time confirming his was Ole’s son—Ole’s obituary failed to even mention him. 

 

Oscar Syverson

Ole Syverson

I love to visit Linden Lutheran Church Cemetery. Its peaceful, remote location evokes the past. I feel closer to my ancestors buried there, and I am grateful for the work of the volunteers that contributed to my records of the Syverson family.  

Solomon Sutton Dane: 52 Ancestors Prompt "Nature"

Solomon Sutton Dane: 1820-1885

52 Ancestors Prompt “Nature”

            Solomon Sutton Dane, my first cousin four times removed (he was my third-great-grandfather David Dane’s nephew), spent the majority of his life out of doors in nature—more the “nature red of tooth and claw” than the pretty, leafy nature we might imagine. Solomon worked as a merchant sailor for most of his life, spending brief periods onshore living with family, and during the 1860s, trying his hand as a gold miner in California, before heading back to sea.


            Solomon was born around 1820 to parents John Dane and Sarah Sutton Dane. He was the second of their eventual eight children. The couple married in New Hampshire, but had relocated before 1817 to the town of Rumford, Maine, where John farmed. Rumford was founded in large part by settlers from the Concord, New Hampshire area, so that may help to explain why John and Sarah chose to move there. 

            I am not sure how Solomon came to decide on a career as a sailor, but it apparently was a common one for Rumford natives, despite the town’s location of over eighty miles from the port of Portland, with no other ports any closer. However, Rumford was situated on a river with a large waterfall, and was a popular fishing location, so Solomon was probably comfortable around water at a young age. If we look at the 1850 census record for Solomon, we find him at age 30 living with his parents and listing his occupation as “sailor”, I noted that the family just above his also includes a sailor son living with his parents, indicative that it was a popular alternative to farming. 


            One of the first records I have found for Solomon is a Citizenship Affidavit filed in Bath, England on October 10, 1839, stating that Solomon S. Dane of Rumford, Maine was filing for a Certificate of Protection. "Seamen Protection Papers," or "Seamen Protection Certificates," were issued to American seamen during the last part of the 18th century through the first half of the 20th century. These papers provided a description of the sailor and showed American citizenship. They were issued to American sailors to prevent them from being impressed on British men-of-war, during the period leading to and after the War of 1812. Solomon’s has a description written along the left-hand margin stating he was 5 feet 6 ½ inches tall with light brown hair, and that he was 19 years old. 

            I have little further information on his travels by sea. Obviously he crossed the Atlantic, having sailed to Bath, England. He eventually sailed the Pacific Ocean as well, landing on the coast of California, for by 1867 he appears on records in Sacramento California. Voter lists and the Great Register of California Voters from 1867 and 1868 show him living in Sacramento and list his occupation as “miner”. Although this is nearly twenty years past California’s 1849 Gold Rush, people were still making their way to the hills around Sacramento hoping to strike it rich. Solomon seems to have been one of those dreamers. 


            By 1869, he was working as a laborer, and boarding at the Haines Exchange on the corner of J and 11^th Streets in Sacramento The site is now near the heart of downtown Sacramento, and is the location of the Elks Tower Casino, which is housed in a handsome 1926 brick high-rise. I expect it was a far less attractive spot in 1869.

Old Front Street, Sacrament late 1800s

            By the 1870 census, Solomon is still in Sacramento, but he now lists his occupation as “seaman”, not miner; he seems to have given up on his mining dream and any plans to become a true landlubber, preferring to return to the sea. 

I have found no further records for Solomon until his death on August 23, 1885 at age 65. He was buried in the Sailors’ Snug Harbor Cemetery in New Brighton, Staten Island, New York. This cemetery was reserved for residents of the Sailors’ Snug Harbor Retirement Home. He apparently moved to the home when he could no longer go to sea, living out his remaining years with other sailors. The Home was founded by the Randall family of New York, many of whom served as sea captains and privateers, who chose to spend some of their wealth to care for the less fortunate men who served under them. It was one of the first large scale retirement facilities in the United States. Over 10,000 seamen lived there between its founding in 1833 and its closure in 1976.

Sailors' Snug Harbor Cemetery gates

The cemetery, now closed to the public, used metal stake markers for most of the 6,500 seamen buried there. These markers corroded away, so nearly all graves are now unmarked. The location of Solomon’s grave is Plot 5, Row 2, Grave 12 somewhere in a grassy, treed expanse. The retirement home’s buildings have been repurposed as a cultural center and botanic gardens. 

Solomon never married, and never had children. However, he traveled the world during his lifetime. He spent years outdoors, both at sea and laboring under the hot California sun.  He experienced nature at its harshest as well as its most beautiful. 

Francis Dane: 52 Ancestors Prompt "Military"

Francis Dane: 1725-1745

52 Weeks, 52 Ancestors: Military

            When I think of military service in relation to family history research, I generally think about service to the United States, or to the colonies during the Revolution. However, my ancestors served other countries before they emigrated to the United States, or served England before the Revolution. My 6^th Great Uncle Francis Dane is an example of military service to the King of England prior to the revolution, service that took his life before his twentieth birthday.


            Francis was the youngest of the six children born to my 6^th great grandfather, John Dane (1692-1763), and 6^th great-grandmother, Sarah Chandler Dane (1693-1747). He was born December 21, 1725 in Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts.


            By the time Francis reached adulthood in the mid-1740s, the English settlers in the American colonies had grown concerned about the French further north in what is now Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. In 1744, this colony was known as Ile Royale, and its capital was the city and fortress of Louisbourg. England was engaged in the War of the Austrian Succession, also known as King George’s War, and was fighting the French. The war had spread to the colonies.

            According to Wikipedia, in the summer of 1744, 

“a French and Wabanaki Confederacy force sailed from Louisbourg…to the nearby British fishing port of Canso, attacking a small fort on Grassy Island and burned it to the ground, taking prisoner 50 English families. This port was used by the New England fishing fleet as it was the closest mainland North American British port to the fishing grounds; however, the Canso Islands (including Grassy Island) were contested by both Britain and France.

The prisoners taken during the Canso raid were first brought to Louisbourg, where they were given freedom to move around. Some of the military men took careful note of the fortress design, layout and condition, as well as the size and condition of its garrison and armaments.[4] These men were eventually released to Boston, where their intelligence, along with that provided by merchants who did business at Louisbourg, proved useful in planning [an] attack…” on Louisbourg.

The Wikipedia article goes on to state,

“In 1745, the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, William Shirley, secured by a narrow margin the support of the Massachusetts legislature for an attack on the fortress. He and the governor of the Province of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth, sought the support of other colonies. Connecticut provided 500 troops, New Hampshire 450, Rhode Island a ship, New York ten cannons, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey funds.[7] The force was under the command of William Pepperrell of Kittery (in the portion of the Massachusetts colony that is now the state of Maine), and a fleet of colonial ships was assembled and placed under the command of Captain Edward Tyng. Governor Shirley sent to Commodore Peter Warren, the chief officer of the Royal Navy's West Indies station, a request for naval support in the event of an encounter with French warships, which would significantly outclass any of the colonial ships. Warren at first declined this offer, lacking authorization from London to assist. Only a few days later, he received orders from the Admiralty to proceed to protect the New England fisheries. The expedition set sail from Boston in stages beginning in early March 1745 with 4,200 soldiers and sailors aboard a total of 90 ships.”

            Among those 4,200 soldiers was 19-year-old Francis Dane. I don’t know whether he volunteered for the expedition or whether he was conscripted by the colonial government. The British and colonial forces chose to attack by land where the fortress was more vulnerable rather than by sea. The forces landed May 11, 1745 and began a long siege of the fortress, slowly gaining ground and capturing the Island Battery that defended the fort from sea attack, and eventually building a battery of their own, hauling in ten cannons to shell the fortress. The French and Native American forces surrendered on June 28 after six weeks of siege.

            Francis, along with his fellow colonial soldiers, was probably jubilant. The British and colonial forces had experienced minimal losses during the siege, far fewer than the French forces. However, as the year dragged on, the weather took a toll on the occupying forces. Wikipedia notes that, “Losses to the New England forces in battle had been modest, although the garrison that occupied the fortress during the following winter suffered many deaths from cold and disease.” Apparently only 100 troops were killed or wounded in the six-week battle, but 900 were lost to disease.

            Sadly, young Francis was one of these deaths, succumbing to unspecified disease on November 12, 1745. The Andover death records state that he “died with sickness in the king’s service at Louisbourg”. He was six weeks shy of his twentieth birthday. His body was returned to Andover for burial.

            I had never heard about the War of Austrian Succession or the Siege of Louisbourg before my research on young Francis Dane led me to learn about it. His life may have been short, but it led me to discover a fascinating period of colonial history. The discoveries and connections to the past make genealogy exciting for me.


Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Louisbourg_%281745%29

https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2495

https://www.cbisland.com/louisbourg/

Jesse Lynn Macbeth: 52 Ancestors Prompt "Road Trip"

Jesse Lynn Macbeth: 1880-1946
52 Weeks 52 Ancestors Prompt "Road Trip"
 

                As a country doctor in the first half of the 20^th century, my second great uncle Dr. Jesse Macbeth’s life was one long “road trip”. He was a doctor in the era of house calls, starting his practice with a horse and buggy before upgrading to a Model T.

                Jesse was born June 20, 1880 to parents Charles Macbeth and Ann Herneman Macbeth. He was the youngest of eleven children, born when his father was 51 years old and his mother 45.

While his father was a farmer in rural Minnesota and some of Jesse’s siblings followed him into farming, Jesse’s older brother Albert Macbeth paved a different path. Albert attended medical school in New York state and set up practice first in New York and then in Fort Wayne Indiana. He generously helped siblings and nephews to pursue medical and dental degrees, funding their schooling and helping some set up their own practices.

Jesse was a recipient of his brother’s help. I believe he attended the same medical school as his brother back in New York state, although I haven’t found confirmation yet. Once he finished medical school, he set up practice first in Macpherson, Minnesota, where he cared for his mother until her death. He then moved to St. Clair, Minnesota, and later practiced out of Mankato.

                Like his brother, Jesse encouraged his nephews to consider a medical career. My grandfather, Ivan Macbeth, rode along with his uncle on numerous house calls one year, trying to decide if medicine would be a good fit for him. According to my mother, her dad found medicine too gory and disgusting for his taste, and grew to dread heading out in Jesse’s Model T to deal with some new illness or injury. Ivan retreated back to farming, saving his limited medical skills for his cattle.

                Jesse was my grandparents’ doctor. My mother remembers him driving up and pulling his medical bag out the car when she or a family member was sick. Jesse attended my grandmother in her second pregnancy, delivering my Uncle Rex in my grandparents’ bedroom in their farmhouse. My mother still remembers with some horror hearing her mother’s moans and cries for over a day—it was a difficult birth. (My mother was delivered in a hospital by a woman doctor—my grandmother was more particular the first time around!)

Note on draft card he lists brother Albert as next of kin, not wife, and provides local address for Albert, who lived in Indiana.

                I believe Jesse practiced out of his house in St. Clair and then in Mankato in addition to attending patients in their homes. The life of a country physician was exhausting and physically demanding. That may explain Jesse’s comparatively early death at age 66 on November 19, 1946.

                Jesse married Sadie Eaton sometime around 1920. She had been working as a clerk in Mankato as late as 1919, and then appears in local directories as Jesse’s wife in the mid-1920s. I have been unable to locate a marriage record for them. My mother has the impression that the marriage was not a very happy one, but she has no clear memory of any family gossip that would explain her impression. The couple had no children, and Sadie died in 1956, ten years after Jesse.

Lavina Fitch Dane: 52 Ancestors Prompt "Nurture"

"Nurture"

Lavina V. Fitch Dane: 1843-1927

Wife of My Third Great Uncle

Lavina was born January 24, 1843 in New York to John and Gertrude Fitch. Her family moved to Columbia, Wisconsin, where she married my third great-uncle, Brewster Dane, on January 14, 1858. who was . I suspect there’s a story behind their courtship, as Brewster was not only thirteen years older than she was, but because she was only 14 or 15 years old when they married! She didn’t have her first child until she was 17, so at least it wasn’t a shotgun wedding, but it still seems an unlikely match!

However, the marriage was very successful. In 1908, the couple celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary with all seven of their adult children present. Raising seven children to adulthood is a remarkable success ratio considering the time period and the “hardships and privations” of homestead life referred to in Lavina's obituary. Their nurturing abilities were exceptional.  Here’s part of the newspaper article about the Golden Wedding day:


 "Mr. Dane was quite overcome with joy when he looked down on the table and saw his family seated as of old, with not a face missing from the number.  After the blessing had been said Mr. Dane made an appropriate and touching little speech and then placed a wedding ring upon the finger of the bride of fifty years.  Mr. and Mrs. Dane were very kindly remembered by their children and numerous friends, especially the W.C.T.U. and the W.R.C.  Congratulations poured in from all sides both by wire and letter.  Mr. Dane was born in Genesee County, New York, Mrs. Dane in Cattaragus County, New York.  They were married in Portage City, Wisconsin, in 1858 and came to Minnesota in 1863, bringing one child with them.  They spent one year in Northfield where another child was born.  In 1864 they moved to their claim in Blue Earth County where they lived for forty years and there the five other children were born.  In 1904 they moved to Janesville to spend the remainder of their lives.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Dane are in perfect health and we hope will continue for many years to come." 


It sounds as if the couple still cared about each other after fifty years—I like the symbolism of his placing a wedding ring on her finger at the dinner. They had a hard, active life,  homesteading at the Eastern edge of Blue Earth County. Their farm was located in Medo Township, at the far right of the plat map below. 

Lavina died January 3, 1927, fourteen years after her husband. More interesting information can be found in Lavina’s obituary: 


“Mrs. Dane was closely identified with the first temperance movement that got under way in this section and was one of the organizers of the Carrie Knox chapter of the W.C.T.U. in 1885.  She was chosen as the first president and continued to hold that office for 19 years until she took up residence in Janesville.  She was also president of the district organization of the W.C.T.U. for several years and was recognized as a leader of rare ability and a woman whose well directed efforts resulted in brilliant work by the association.”


So she was a teetotaller! I wonder what led her to the Temperance Movement—was Brewster a heavy drinker in their early years of marriage? Or her father, perhaps, who died while she was still in her teens and whose son, John B. Dane, is named for his grandfather, John B. Fitch. 


The obituary noted that she had been an invalid for some years, but “retained her faculties to a remarkable extent” and that she was well known in the area. I bet she was a pistol! Probably kept old Brewster well in line! I wish I had a photo of her!

Lena Hellena Funk Family: 52 Ancestors Prompt "Brick Wall"

               Lena Hellena Funk is my maternal great-grandmother, and her family is my ultimate “brick wall”. As I wrote in a previous blog, I have little information about my grandmother’s mother. I have potential parent names that I have added to my Ancestry tree, but these relationships are far from confirmed.

                Before my great-grandmother’s marriage to my great grandfather William Hoffman, I have only one possible census record from 1870. The record misspells the family surname—transcriptionists recorded it as Frenk rather than Funk. The parents are listed as John and Catherine, and there are six children listed: William, Sophia, Mary, Charles, Amelia and baby Lena, only one year old in 1870. This birthdate coincides with post-marriage records, and the family’s location seems appropriate for her meeting her future husband. However, I have no confirmation that these people truly are my Lena Funk Hoffman’s family.

 If I accept that this record is correct, then what can I learn from it that may help my research?  I see that Lena’s father was an immigrant from Prussia and that her mother was born in Ohio. The first four children were born in Iowa between the years 1858 and 1864. Does that mean Charles and Catherine met and married in Iowa, or in Ohio? Where did they live in Iowa? Why did they leave? Are there any Iowa birth records for the four children somewhere?

The family relocated to Blue Earth County, Minnesota sometime between 1864, the year of son Charles’ birth in Iowa, and 1867 when daughter Amelia was born in Minnesota.

I also see on the census form that Charles Funk was a cabinet maker. That leads me to another record from Iowa, an 1863 Civil War draft registration document listing Charles Funk, German immigrant and cabinet maker. He lived in Oskaloosa, Iowa at that time.

I have been unable to find birth records in Iowa. Counties were not required to record births until the 1880s. I found no Iowa census records that match the family.

Minnesota records for Catherine Funk and the three oldest children end with that 1870 census. I can find no death records, further census records, or any sign that they moved, married or died. There are a few records for son Charles, who seems to have become a bartender, for Amelia who married, and of course for Lena. Charles the father appears once more, then also disappears.

I have found no DNA links to the Funks either. So until I have a chance to travel to Mankato Minnesota to search records and newspapers for death records and obituaries and for land records, or until a descendant of someone in the family takes a DNA test, I am left staring at this very solid, very thick brick wall.

Henry Clay Dane: 52 Ancestors Prompt "Out of Place"

Henry Clay Dane 1833-1895 (both years approximate)

                While reviewing my Dane family ancestors, I noticed that I didn’t have a death date for my First Cousin 4x Removed Henry Clay Dane. (Relationship: his father was my paternal third-great-grandfather David Dane's brother.) I decided to fix that. When a preliminary Ancestry records search failed to provide information, I turned to Google, and that’s when things got interesting.

                Google pulled up an Ancestry Message Board request from 2008. An Australian researcher was asking for information “regarding an American man named Henry C. Dane, a former Massachusetts resident who is confirmed to have married an Australian woman. He is referred to as a "Major", possibly in the American Civil War, as he is said to have served in either the 41st Mass Infantry; or may have been a 1st Lieut. in Co C, 3rd Mass Cav.; 1861-1865. He may have been born around 1833. Before his military service he was said to have been a lawyer. He became a resident of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1875.”

                Australia? What was Henry Dane, a Maine native who ended up working as an attorney in Washington D.C. and Boston after serving in the Civil War, doing in Australia in 1875? This was a man who was truly “out of place”.

                Following up on leads contained in the message board led me to some fascinating resources and information. I was able to confirm the Australian Henry Dane was in fact my ancestor Henry Dane. His path to Australia was quite amazing, and taught me about a nineteenth century form of entertainment of which I was unaware.

                Henry Clay Dane was born in Fayette, Maine in either 1833 or 1834. Fayette is a small town in Kennebec County in the Winthrop Lakes region near the center of the state. His father, Massachusetts native John Dane, had moved there after his 1812 marriage to Sarah Sutton of New Hampshire. John farmed and was a tanner according to census records. He and Sarah had several children—other people’s Ancestry trees list eight children although the records on some of them are very sparse. Henry was the second youngest of their children.

                Henry abandoned farming and Fayette while quite young. By age 16, he was living with his older sister, Sarah Augusta Dane Newcomb and her husband Josiah Newcomb in Norton, Massachusetts. His younger sister Eliza was also living there. It is unclear if his parents weren’t able to care for them, or if they were in Massachusetts for educational or work opportunities. Henry’s brother-in-law was listed on the 1850 census as a “housewright”, a builder of wood houses, and Henry was listed as an apprentice, so perhaps he was living there to learn Josiah Newcomb’s trade.

1850 Census entry

                By 1855, Henry was 22 years old, and had apparently relocated to Otsego, New York where he was boarding with an unrelated family. The census record identifies him as H.C. Dane, and states he was born in Maine and was a student. I found historical records from the Otsego area describing the Cherry Valley Academy, an apparently well-respected school that employed several lawyers as faculty during the 1850s. Since I know that Henry eventually worked as an attorney, I hypothesize Henry was in the Otsego area to train in the field of law.  

Henry returned to Massachusetts at some point in the 1860s, for he was in Cambridge when he enlisted in the Union Army on October 4, 1862. He mustered in as 1st Lieutenant in the Massachusetts 41^st Regiment, and later received a commission as Captain of Co. "F", Third Massachusetts Calvary Regiment. He was promoted to Brevet Major 13 March, 1865. He later claimed to have participated in the capture of New Orleans, the siege of Port Hudson, the Red River Expedition and operations in the Shenandoah Valley during his war service. I will have to find his Civil War service record to confirm those claims.

Maj. Henry C Dane, Civil War

Following the war, he returned to Cambridge and set up a legal practice in Boston. He married a young Cambridge woman on November 5, 1867. He was 34; his bride, Angeline E. Parker, was only 22. The marriage was short-lived; Angeline died in 1869.

Henry remained in Boston until at least 1876; a city directory lists him as a lawyer with offices at 30 Kilby, a downtown address that now houses a high rise building. Another source states he was in practice with another attorney and the firm was called Dane & Baker.  

At some point between 1876 and the 1880 census, Henry left the practice of law and became a professional lecturer. During the late nineteenth century, public lectures were popular entertainments, and companies were formed to hire interesting speakers and arrange the bookings. Henry joined one of these companies, the Redpath Lyceum Bureau. 

Maj. Dane's speaking bureau photo          

He had several speaking topics, including descriptions of his travels in Europe under the titles “Up the Rhine and Over the Alps with a Knapsack” and “Constantinople, the Queen of the Levant” as well as a speech on the female sex cryptically titled “The Heroic in Womanhood”.

His most popular speech was based on his Civil War experiences, and was titled “The Great Naval Battles of the American Rebellion.” An Australian reporter described it as follows: “The furious engagements between the Confederates and the Federal ships were depicted in the most graphic language, which completely riveted the attention of the audience for the two hours the lecture lasted, while the drily humorous sallies which the lecturer occasionally indulged in created a good deal of merriment.” The Daily Advocate of Newark Ohio was equally complimentary, stating that “Major Dane is simply matchless in his style of oratory. He has the quality known as ‘ideal presence’ in a greater degree than any other speaker we have listened to.”

Handbill promoting three of Dane's speeches in Australia, 1887

I found several newspaper reports of his performances around the country. He was a very popular speaker, and, according to a letter he wrote a friend in 1887, “I have advanced somewhat up the line of my class, and now stand among the head chaps.”

                Speakers for the Redpath Lyceum could command good fees for the era. Minor speakers could get $200 per engagement, while famous individuals could command up to $800 or so. Presumably, Henry Dane fell somewhere in the middle range. He traveled extensively across the country, ending up on the West Coast in the late 1880s. He was being courted by Australian venues, and after receiving assurances “that many who had come to this land have had all expenses paid and received more than that”, he set sail for Sydney on a steamship. He was excited by the beauty of the country, writing  to friend Henry Allison of Massachusetts on August 18, 1887 about his experiences in Australia, and assuring him that “I am safe in the land of former savages and convicts.”

Letter from Henry to friend Henry Allison

During his travels, he met a young woman named Jeanie Grahame Cook, the daughter of Samuel Cook, the longtime general manager of the Sydney Herald newspaper. They married July 14, 1891 in what was described “the wedding of the week”. The ceremony took place in the backyard of the Cook home under “a large tree where a floral rail and altar had been erected, the guests watching the proceedings from the balcony”.  It was a true May-December romance: Major Dane was 58 years old, and his bride a tender 24!

                Following a honeymoon in Tasmania, the couple moved to the United States, where Henry returned to his speaking engagements. They traveled back and forth to Australia over the years, and on one of their return trips somewhere between 1895 and 1898 (have not found death records), Henry died on board the ship Mariposa and was buried at sea somewhere in the Pacific. Jeanie moved back to Australia. She never remarried, becoming an advocate for early childhood education and universal kindergarten.

                Obviously, I have more research to do on this fascinating man, who was truly “out of place” not just geographically, but professionally as well. Henry Clay Dane was a daring, unique man who turned a love of travel, adventure and performance into an unusual career.