Cemetery Surprise: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Cemetery”

 

Two Childhood Deaths Discovered Through Cemetery Records

Margaret Esther Macbeth: 1912-1914 (Maternal Great Aunt)
Leland Macbeth: 1909-1909 (Maternal Granduncle)

 

I received an interesting email from FamilySearch a week ago, with the subject line reading “You have 12 ancestors buried in the Eagle Lake Cemetery.” I think this is a new service by FamilySearch, sorting ancestors by burial site. While I was surprised by the type of information, I wasn’t surprised to learn I had several ancestors buried in Eagle Lake. I’d visited the cemetery several times over the years and had photographed several ancestors’ graves. However, I decided to explore what FamilySearch had uncovered, and clicked on the link marked “View Ancestors”.

The information FamilySearch had compiled included the ancestors’ names, birth and death dates and locations, their relationship to me, and a photo, if available, of the headstone. I recognized most of the names and headstones, which included my great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, and third-great-grandmother, along with several great-aunts and uncles. However, two names were unfamiliar: Marguerite Esther Macbeth and Leland Macbeth. According to FamilySearch, they were my grandaunt and granduncle. Who were these new Macbeths?

Leland and Marguerite/Margaret Macbeth headstone in Eagle Lake Cemetery. Photo from Findagrave. 

I clicked on the “View Relationship” tab and was surprised to see they were said to be the children of my great-grandparents, Walter Macbeth and Lucy May Dane Macbeth, which made them my grandfather Ivan Macbeth’s younger sister and brother. But I had no record of these children in my tree, and as far as I knew, other relatives’ trees I’d seen also had no mention of these two children.

I quickly did some research, and was able to find Leland’s Birth and Death Index records. Leland was born March 25, 1909, and died exactly one month later on April 25, 1909.

I had even more luck with Marguerite Esther’s records. I found her birth record, showing she was born October 26, 1912. Her death record was even more helpful. In addition to the Index record, I found the actual handwritten Death Record from March, 1914 in FamilySearch records (see citation below). As you can see below, Marguerite, now listed as Margaret, died March 19 of “acute perforative appendicitis—general peritonitis.” 

The record shows her parents’ names, as well as the name of the doctor who treated her, JL Macbeth. Dr. Jesse Macbeth was little Marguerite’s uncle, Walter’s brother. I can just imagine the fear and desperation Lucy and Walter felt as their little toddler cried in pain—appendicitis causes severe abdominal pain—and eventually faded and died from infection after her appendix burst. Poor Uncle Jesse must have felt helpless, as appendectomies simply weren’t done in that era so there was little help he could provide.

Death Record section showing Marguerite's parents and doctor

Interestingly, Marguerite’s name was listed as Margaret in her death record, and was also listed as Margaret on the headstone. Only the birth record reads Marguerite. The headstone appears to have been made some thirty years after the childrens’ deaths; it was probably ordered at the time Lucy Dane Macbeth’s headstone was ordered in 1939, as they are similar in composition and style. Perhaps the family had forgotten how to spell Marguerite’s name by that point, or they based it on the death record.

My grandfather never mentioned either of these siblings. He would have been only five years old when little Leland was born, so might have forgotten Leland’s brief life. However, he was ten when Marguerite died, so he surely would have remembered her life and death. Was it simply too painful to discuss? Did my mother ever know about these siblings? They were buried next to her grandparents, so she must have seen the graves when they visited the cemetery on “Decoration Day”, as my grandmother was a stickler for bringing flowers to family graves on Memorial Day. Perhaps they seemed unimportant to her as she had never met them, so she never told me about them when she talked about her father’s family.

I probably should have noticed that the 1910 census for the Macbeths showed that Lucy had given birth to seven children, of whom only six survived. At that time, Leland had died a year previously, and Marguerite had not yet been born. This is a good reminder that I should check every 1910 census record more thoroughly.

1910 Census showing Lucy gave birth to seven children, with six surviving

I am grateful for FamilySearch’s email; it prompted me to take a different look at cemetery listings. If I hadn’t examined the listing of the twelve Macbeth and Dane ancestors buried in the Eagle Lake Cemetery, I might never have realized my grandfather had two additional siblings that I hadn’t included in my family tree. Family groupings of graves can provide important hints about family structure.

 

Sources:

"Minnesota, Death Records and Certificates, 1900-1955", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FDDQ-HT5 : Sun Jan 19 23:07:23 UTC 2025), Entry for Leland MacBeth and Walter H. MacBeth, 25 Apr 1809.  

Findagrave memorials for Leland and Margaret Macbeth. Photo by Richard Jacobsen. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151369712/margaret-macbeth?_gl=1*yyaf2p*

Minnesota Historical Society; St Paul, Minnesota; Minnesota Birth Certificates Index; URL: https://www.mnhs.org/search/people

910 United States Federal Census. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.Original data - Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Was Year: 1910; Census Place: Le Roy, Blue Earth, Minnesota; Roll: T624_691; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 0010; Image: 83; FHL microfilm: 1374704.

Wheeling Through the Decades: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Wheels”

 

Family Cars from the 1920s Onward

Ivan Macbeth: 1904-1972 (Maternal Grandfather)
Juhl Peterson: 1917-2001 (Father)
Rex Macbeth: 1934-2006 (Maternal Uncle)
 

Cars have always been important to my family. Living in the country on farms, they found cars to be essential means to connect to the outside world. When I saw the prompt “Wheels”, I decided to do a little photo essay showing some of the cars my family had over the decades, from the early models to the flashy, huge 1960s era vehicles that sported chrome and fins.

The first photo shows my grandfather, Ivan Macbeth, in his car parked in a grassy lane. This would probably have been his first automobile—I think it might be a Model A. The photo would have been from the years my grandparents were courting, so during the early 1920s.

The second photo was a bit of a surprise to me. My grandmother, Nora Hoffman Macbeth, had proudly written on the bottom of the photo in red ink “Our Willys Knight”. I had never heard of this car manufacturer, so I was forced to turn to Google.  I discovered that the Willys-Knight brand was founded in Ohio by John North Willys. He acquired the Stearns-Knight auto company of Cleveland that used a Knight engine, so the brand became known as the Willys-Knight. The company operated from 1914 through 1933. I believe the car in the photo was a model 70, manufactured in the late 1920s. It was probably the first auto my grandparents purchased after their marriage. I wonder what color it was—the Wikipedia page featured a green Model 70 that was beautiful.

The next photo is from around 1950, and features my grandmother Nora, my mom, Ione, my grandfather Ivan, and my uncle, Rex Macbeth in front of the family car. I love this photo as it shows them probably on their way to church or to a family event, all dressed up in hose and heels and bundled in winter coats and gloves as they stand in the snowy yard. I’m unable to identify the model of the car but as was typical for late-1940s vehicles, it had a spare tire on the back end and that sort of curved boxy shape. The Macbeths were proud enough of the vehicle to pose in front of it.

Nora, Ione, Ivan and Dwight "Rex" Macbeth around 1950

The following photo brings back memories. This one features my dad, Juhl Peterson, with his Pontiac. It was probably taken while he was dating my mom, around 1956. I can remember riding in this car when I was very young. I was in love with the hood ornament, which featured a stylized Pontiac chieftain in a feathered war bonnet. Dad was proud of this sleek black automobile.

The final shot is a fun one of my Uncle Rex Macbeth with his wife Susan and their daughter Jessica taken around 1970. They were posed with a marvelous, over-the-top, huge American convertible from the late 1960s. I’m not sure of the car’s make or model, but I remember it had air conditioning, which my dad’s car did not. I can’t even imagine trying to park something so long in today’s parking lots, or to even find a garage big enough to hold it! My grandfather had a silver Plymouth Mercury that was nearly as long, with crazy fins in the rear.

Susan, Jessica and Rex Macbeth around 1970

This little trip down Memory Lane shows how car styles have transformed over the decades. While the car shapes and engines and interior comforts changed drastically, my family’s pride in their vehicles remained unchanged.  

Sources:

Family photos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willys-Knight

DNA Match Leads to Fourth-Great-Grandfather: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “DNA”

Confirmation Through a Distant Cousin: Isaac White is My Fourth-Great-Grandfather

Isaac White: 1742-1819 (Maternal 4^th Great-Grandfather)
Sarah White: 1795-1880 (Maternal Third Great-Grandmother)
Jacob White: 1791-? (3^rd Great Granduncle)
John Clement White: 1828-1903 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)
Margaret Estella White: 1860-1944 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)
Mary Irene Farrell: 1892-1979 (Maternal Third Cousin 2x Removed)
MLR: 1928-2022 (Maternal Fourth Cousin 1x Removed and DNA Match)

 

When I get a DNA match notice from Ancestry, I try to connect the match to my family tree. Often that can be a challenge, particularly if the match has no family tree on Ancestry. So I’m always excited to see a match with a tree, and even more excited when Ancestry has identified a possible common ancestor. My  DNA connection to a fourth cousin I will call MLR (she passed away recently so out of courtesy to her family I will use only initials) was just such a match. And MLR’s DNA and tree helped me confirm the identity of my fourth-great-grandfather, Isaac White.

My great-great-grandmother Nancy Ann Herniman was the daughter of James Herniman and his wife Sarah White. The records I uncovered for my third-great-grandmother Sarah White indicated she was the daughter of Isaac White of Somerset, England. However, I was mostly relying on other people’s trees to make that connection. I had limited records to work with. I had found the parish birth and baptism record for Sarah, seen below, so I was reasonably sure I had the right parents for Sarah. Still, I wanted more positive confirmation.

Sarah's 1796 Birth Record in Somerset.

MLR’s family tree led straight back to Isaac White through Sarah White’s brother Jacob. Jacob was born July 24, 1791. His birth record appears below. 

Jacob White's 1791 birth record, between the lines in the middle.

Sarah and Jacob had similar life trajectories. Both married in Somerset in the early nineteenth century. Sarah married James Herniman on March 28, 1819 in Taunton St. Mary. She was twenty-four and James was two or three years younger. I have been unable to find the marriage record for Jacob and his wife Ann Clement, but they seem to have married at least two years earlier than Sarah, for their first child, Mary, was born September 24, 1817. Both couples had several children over the next few years.

Both Jacob and Sarah’s families appeared on the 1841 England Census, residing in Somerset. John Herniman was working as a carpenter, while Jacob White worked as an ostler (worker employed to care for horses, often at inns). At some point following this census, both families decided to emigrate to the United States. Jacob and Sarah’s father, Isaac White, had died August 15, 1819, and their mother, Betty Cox White, had died February 27, 1841. Perhaps these losses freed the siblings from parental obligations, enabling them to consider moving abroad.

Jacob and Ann White and two children appear on the 1850 United States Census living in Dane County, Wisconsin. By the time of the 1860 census, they had moved north to the town of Fountain in Juneau County, Wisconsin. Jacob died there the same year.

James and Sarah Herniman were more difficult to trace. They appeared on an 1855 New York State census living in Grand Island, Erie County, New York. James was farming. None of their children were living with them although Nancy Ann and husband Charles Macbeth were in the same town and a couple other of their children were in Erie County. By the time of the 1860 census, Sarah and James were living in Lawanee, Michigan. James was working as a laborer and had shaved a few years off his age on the census form. They were living next door to their son John Herniman and his family. In addition, their youngest daughter Mary Redick, now the married mother of two, was living with them. By the 1880 census they had relocated to Juneau County, Wisconsin to live with son William and his wife. Sarah died there in 1880, and James died in 1882.

My cousin MLR was descended from Jacob and Ann’s son John Clement White, who remained in Juneau County for much of his life, serving as the chairman of the county board of supervisors thirteen times. He had a daughter named Margaret Estella White, who married a man named Daniel Farrell.

Fountain, Minnesota to Fountain, Wisconsin.

The Farrells relocated to Minnesota. In a strange coincidence, they also settled in a town named Fountain, about 120 miles away from Fountain, Wisconsin where Margaret’s family lived.  Among the Farrells’ children was a daughter named Mary Irene Farrell, born October 3, 1892 in Fountain, Fillmore County, Minnesota. She married Gordon Rowley, and moved to first to Walla Walla, Washington and then to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Mary and Gordon had two daughters, and one of those daughters was my DNA match.

Thanks to this DNA match, I have confirmation that Isaac White is my fourth-great-grandfather, and I have been able to add another branch to my family tree. DNA matches are proving to be a big help in my research.

Sources:

Census records accessed on Ancestry.com.

Birth records accessed on Ancestry.com.

A Tale as Old as Time: 52 Ancestors 2025 “Oldest Story”

Love at First Sight Fades Quickly For Macbeth Teen

Zella Macbeth: 1888-1951 (Maternal First Cousin 1x Removed)
 

Young, impulsive love: truly the world’s oldest story. Sadly, it’s a story that rarely ends happily, and Zella Macbeth’s teen marriage followed that pattern. However, her story was entertaining enough that it attracted plenty of press attention. It had all the elements of a great soap opera: carnival workers, a fast-talking young man who could also play a pretty tune on a calliope, a pretty teen girl, elopement, an angry father tracking down the young couple, and even the police wading in to jail the musical groom. Front page news!

Zella Macbeth was born November 11, 1888, to parents William H. Macbeth and Nettie Houk Macbeth. She was the oldest of their three children, and the only girl. Her parents moved back and forth between a farm property in LeRay Township in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, and a house on South Broad Street in nearby Mankato. William both farmed and worked as a real estate agent. Zella likely attended a one-room school in the country for her elementary education, and then went to high school in Mankato.

In July 1906, when Zella was seventeen years old, a carnival rolled into town. Mankato was a sleepy little city, so the Parker Carnival, with all its games, rides and shows, would have been an exciting diversion. The carnival employed a young New York man, Arthur Franklyn, as a calliope and piano player. Zella attended the carnival and met Arthur, and the two started a romance. The carnival was only in town for a week, so, as one news article stated, “good use had to be made of the time between performances.”

Vintage postcard of a circus calliope--Arthur Franklin would sit inside the calliope wagon to play, and could be seen by his audience.

Apparently, they made very good use of their limited time, for on July 13, Arthur went to the Blue Earth County Clerk’s office and obtained a marriage license. As you can see below, the license had a few “errors”. Firstly, despite Zella’s birth record and all other records on which she appeared showing her first name as “Zella”, the marriage license lists her as “Catherine Macbeth”. Secondly, while Arthur’s age is correctly listed as 28, his intended wife’s age is listed as twenty, three years older than Zella’s true age.

According to press accounts, Arthur and Zella “quietly sought a prominent divine, Rev. George W. Davis, pastor of the aristocratic First Presbyterian church. He quickly made them husband and wife, and then they sought the handsome home of the bride.”  The news reporters tended to exaggerate the Macbeths’ wealth. Their home was hardly in the ritzy part of town. It was nice, but not “handsome” and certainly not a mansion.

Broad Street just a block from the Macbeth House, circa 1910.

Predictably, William Macbeth was not pleased to be presented with a carnival musician for a son-in-law. One news report said he gave the couple “a marble heart” and “ordered Franklin to leave the city “on pain of arrest for perjury” due to the lies on the marriage license.

Franklin left the Macbeth house, but remained in the city, donning some sort of disguise. Zella and her brother Ralph drove downtown the next day, and the young couple spotted one another. The newspaper said “she at once flew to his side, while her younger brother pleaded with her to return.”

Ralph went home to get his father, who charged downtown, grabbed a policeman, and demanded that the officer arrest Franklin. The poor policeman refused to make an arrest without a warrant, so William, Zella, Franklin and a “great crowd of curious people” descended on City Hall. One article said the carnival even sent their lawyer over to defend Franklin. While the situation was ripe for a brawl, saner heads prevailed and an arrangement was worked out. Zella was sent home with her parents, and Franklin was ordered to head out with the carnival on their next stops in South Dakota and Canada. When the show returned to Minnesota in three weeks’ time, the young bride would be allowed to join her new husband.

Some of the articles were over the top. Here is a section from the Mankato Daily Review:

“Miss Macbeth saw Doc Franklin, and Doc looked at her. He was playing away in his faultless style when she confused him in his part, something which had never occurred before. There followed a short courtship, not exactly approved of by Lord and Lady Macbeth of Mankato, and they showed they did not carry their name in vain when they caused Doc to be arrested before the carnival was to leave town.”

Some news accounts had a tearful Zella begging the police officers to lock her up with her husband—that she could not bear to be parted from him. I suspect the actual scene was not quite as dramatic as that.

After three weeks, the couple was reunited in either Mankato, Brainerd, or St. Cloud, Minnesota, depending on which news account is to be believed. The Daily Review described it as follows:

“St. Cloud was the place where the lovers were united Sunday. Doc grinned yesterday when he was accosted by the Journal Press man and asked how he liked married life….[Doc responded] ‘I went from the church to the jail, and from the jail to heaven. It was a long trip by way of Sioux Falls, Winnipeg and Brainerd, but I found the heaven in St. Cloud.’  Mrs. Macbeth (sic) was radian and happy. A letter…from her father’s lawyer did not affect her in the least…that her father had changed his will, and his daughter Catherine was absolutely disinherited. But the music of the calliope sounds better to Mrs. Franklin than the jingle of silver…”

Zella apparently performed in the carnival in some fashion.  The Daily Review reported on August 7 that “Mrs. Franklin is taking part in one of the attractions and made her debut at St. Cloud Monday night. It is said she is not pleased with show life and is somewhat homesick.”

The bloom was off the rose of teen passion after just four weeks. It is unclear how long Zella remained on the road with Arthur. The Minneapolis Journal reported on Zella’s divorce petition on June 26, 1908.

“Judge Pfau has granted a divorce to Mrs. Zella Franklin (note that this is the first news article to use her real name of Zella rather than Catherine) from her husband, Arthur Franklin, on the ground of desertion and non-support, and she is allowed to resume her maiden name of Zella Macbeth. They were married in this city two years ago, after a few days’ acquaintance…Two months later, it is alleged, Franklin deserted his wife, who comes from a well-known family.”

So what happened to Zella following her divorce? A 1908 Mankato City Directory shows her living with her parents at 326 South Broad and working as a nurse. But by the 1910 census she had changed professions. She was still living at home but was now an actress in the theater industry. I found an article from an October 13, 1911, Mankato newspaper titled “Miss Zella Macbeth Meets with Success”. It stated that she “began her stage career three years ago. She studied at a theatrical school in Chicago for six months…” The article goes on to list some of her theater credits and reported that she was the leading lady in a touring show of a musical comedy called “The Girl from Bohemia” which would play in Mankato later that year.

I believe Zella started out performing under her middle name, Helen, as a Helen Macbeth appeared in a comedy at Garrick’s Theater in Chicago in May of 1909, around the time she would have completed theatrical school in the same city. She appears on records following 1909 as both Zella and Helen.

Zella disappears from records for a few years following the 1911 article. She married a man named Herbert Williams and they had a daughter, Jean Williams, around 1916. I have found no marriage or census records for them. The couple seem to have moved fairly frequently. According to census data, Jean was born in California. By the time Zella’s father William died March 23, 1931, the obituary listed survivors as Mrs. H. Williams of Detroit, Michigan. Another newspaper stated she was living in Toronto, Canada.

Zella, calling herself Helen Williams, appeared on the 1940 census living in in the Broad Street house in Mankato with her widowed mother and daughter Jean. Zella stated she was a widow and was retired, so Herbert Williams had died sometime prior to 1940. Zella had also shaved several years off her age; she stated she was 46 but in reality was nearly 52. The census record also noted that Zella and Jean had been living in London, England in 1935. Jean, then 24 years old in 1940, was working as a dental nurse in a dental office.

Zella made only one last appearance in the records, at her death on April 1, 1951. She died in a Long Beach California hospital, and had been living at 330 West Ocean Boulevard, a beachfront apartment highrise. Her obituary appeared in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, and continued Zella’s fictions about her life. She was listed as Helen Macbeth Williams, not Zella, and her age was given as 52 when she was actually 63. Her mother Nettie and daughter Jean were listed as survivors living in Mankato.

Headstone image from Findagrave. Photo by RB Hall-Gallea and MS Gallea.

Zella’s body was returned to Minnesota. She was buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Mankato near her parents. Her headstone lists her true name, Zella M Williams, and her true birthdate of 1888.

Sources:

“Surprise and Trouble.” Mankato Daily Review. Mankato, MN. Jul 14, 1906.

“Groom Did Not Leave City”. Mankato Daily Review. Mankato, MN. Jul 16, 1906

“Street Carnival Yields a Romance.” Minneapolis Journal. Minneapolis, MN. Jul 17, 1906.

“Sudden: Mankato Couple Become Acquainted, Wed and Separate All in One Week.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Minneapolis, MN. Jul 18, 1906.

Item on Franklins. Mankato Daily Review. Mankato, MN. Aug 7, 1906.

“Lovers United at St. Cloud.” Mankato Daily Review reprint of St. Cloud Journal-Press article. Mankato, MN. Aug 9, 1906

“Married in Haste”. Minneapolis Journal. Minneapolis, MN. Jun 26, 1908.

“Miss Zella Macbeth Meets With Success.” Mankato Daily Review. Mankato, MN. Oct. 13, 1911.

“Macbeth Funeral Will Be Saturday”. Mankato Free Press, Mankato MN, Mar 26, 1931.

Obituary for Mrs. Helen Macbeth Williams. Long Beach Press-Telegram. Long Beach, CA. Apr 3, 1951.

Catherine and Zella Macbeth: Two People or Just One? 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Big Mistake”

 

Changing Names, Changing Places: The Mixed-Up Macbeths

William H. Macbeth: 1855-1931 (Maternal Great-granduncle)
Zella Helen Macbeth: 1888-1951 (Maternal First Cousin 2x Removed)
Catherine Macbeth: 1888-? (Maternal First Cousin 2x Removed)

Several years ago, I was conducting some family history research at the Blue Earth County Historical Society in Mankato. The Society maintains a wonderful archive of local newspapers from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, and a card catalog-type index of surnames. Among the names I was researching were my great-grandfather Walter Macbeth’s numerous siblings, including William H. Macbeth. When I searched for him, I discovered an amazing set of news articles about the elopement of a young woman, Catherine Macbeth, in 1906. Catherine was listed in the articles as the daughter of William H. Macbeth of Broad Street in Mankato, Minnesota. She had run off with a calliope player in a traveling carnival. Her father did not react well to his little girl running off with a carney. The press had a field day. The society volunteer who was helping me print the articles was reading them and laughing, saying this was far more entertaining than the usual articles she helped researchers print! I had to agree!

I took my treasure trove of articles home, eager to research wild young Catherine Macbeth. But I immediately hit a snag. My great-granduncle never had a daughter named Catherine. His daughter’s name was Zella. She was the same age as the mysterious Catherine, and my William and his daughter Zella lived on Broad Street in Mankato on the 1910 census. I could only find one record for Catherine Macbeth: her marriage license. Then she simply vanishes in the records.

Marriage License for Arthur Franklyn and Catherine Macbeth, dated July 13, 1906

I was baffled. Were there two young women living on Broad Street in Mankato with two different fathers named William Macbeth? Had the newspapers made a mistake about the young girl’s name? Did the Calliope Man falsify her name on the marriage license, along with her age? (He told the county clerk she was twenty, but she was barely seventeen.) I threw up my hands and made a rookie mistake: I added both Zella and Catherine to my tree, listing both as the daughters of William H. Macbeth. I probably led multiple other researchers down a bad path if they copied my tree. This year, I was determined to find the truth about Calliope Catherine and fix my big mistakes.

I started by looking for birth records and found them confusing. I could find no birth records for a Catherine Macbeth anywhere in Blue Earth County, Minnesota from 1880 to 1900. However, FamilySearch had an indexed birth record for Zella Macbeth, showing the birthdate of November 11, 1888 and a birthplace of Blue Earth County, Minnesota. This date corresponded to the birthdate on her death and burial records. However, the parents were listed on the index as August and Celia Macbeth. Who were they? I couldn’t find either parent anywhere on any Blue Earth County records, or anywhere else in Minnesota. I suspected a transcription error, so I went in search of the actual record image. I had to scroll through 1,957 microfilm images on Family Search to find the hand-written birth records for LeRay Township in 1888. I discovered the children’s names were written on one page of the ledger, and the parents on the facing page.

Zella's 1888 birth record

 The microfilms of the facing pages didn’t match up perfectly, so the indexer had connected the wrong parents to Zella—William and Nettie’s names appear above August and Celia’s, whose actual surname seems to have been Bescue. I finally had proof that Zella Macbeth had been born to William and Nettie Macbeth on November 11, 1888.

William and Nettie appear above August and Celia in birth ledger facing page.

Next I needed to prove that William, Nettie and Zella Macbeth lived on South Broad Street in 1906. Property and residence records were also confusing. William and his wife Nettie seem to have moved back and forth from rural Blue Earth County to Ward 4 in the city of Mankato. The 1895 Minnesota State Census shows William and his family, including Zella, living in Mankato’s 4^th Ward. Yet the 1900 census has them living back on their farm in LeRay township. The 1904 Mankato City Directory lists William as living in rural Eagle Lake/LeRay Township. But by 1906, when Catherine/Zella elopes, they are living at 326 South Broad Street in Mankato’s 4^th Ward. 

1910 Census record showing William, Nettie, Zella and sons Ralph and Donald living at 326 South Broad, Mankato, MN

The 1910 census still has them on Broad Street, but now William’s occupation has changed from farmer to real estate agent. Perhaps they owned both the farm and the Broad Street property, and moved back and forth, or perhaps the extended Macbeth family owned one or both properties. But I was able to confirm that William was on Broad Street in 1906.

I found the final piece of proof that Zella Macbeth and Catherine Macbeth were the same person when I found newspaper articles reporting her divorce from Arthur Franklyn/Franklin, the calliope man. The article states that following her divorce, “she is allowed to resume her maiden name of Zella Macbeth.”

I discovered that I had made further errors in Zella’s entry on my Ancestry tree. I erroneously linked her to second and third husbands in Wisconsin, when the actual wife of those men was a different Zella Macbeth—I made the mistake of thinking her name was fairly unique, when in the early 1900s it was not.

I determined that Zella did remarry once, and had a daughter, but since she and her husband Herbert Williams moved frequently and lived abroad in both Canada and England, I didn’t find the expected census and birth records in the United States.

Zella Macbeth’s entry on my tree now has correct information. I have proved that despite several newspapers claiming the name of the bride was Catherine Macbeth, Zella Macbeth was the actual seventeen-year-old who eloped with a carnival calliope player she’d met just days earlier. William H. Macbeth had only one daughter—Catherine Macbeth did not exist.

Zella’s full story is well worth writing about, so I will provide the details of this age-old story of impulsive love gone bad in my next blog post.

Sources:

Marriage License Arthur Franklyn and Catherine Macbeth. July 13, 1906. "Blue Earth, Minnesota, United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939Z-B2SW-1D?view=index : Apr 4, 2025), image 1931 of 2144; Minnesota. County Court (Blue Earth County).

“Married in Haste.” (Article detailing Zella Franklin’s divorce.) Minneapolis Journal. Minneapolis, MN. June 26, 1908 edition. Accessed via Newspapers.com.

Gunshot Mystery: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “In the News”

 

Fred Macbeth Victim of Shooting in Mankato

Fred Macbeth: 1873-1906 (Maternal First Cousin 3x Removed)

 

Fred Macbeth had a short life, dying at the age of only thirty-two. He left few records behind, but there was one tantalizing hint that he enjoyed what time he had—that he might have been a bit wild. At age 26, he was the victim of a shooting—not in the more crime-ridden big city of St. Paul, where he was living and working, but back in his sleepy hometown of Mankato, Minnesota. Fred was in the news, and the news wasn’t good!

Fred Macbeth was born September 1, 1873, in Mankato, Minnesota to parents Collin Macbeth and Ellen Downing Macbeth. He was the fifth of their six children, and the youngest of their four sons. His father, Collin, died when he was ten years old.

By 1893, Fred was living in St. Paul, Minnesota, working as a laborer and boarding in someone’s home. I have found no 1900 census record for him. But he did appear in the newspapers the year before.

The first article, dated October 18, 1899, reported that Fred was shot in the left leg by a man named Alois Getzell. The article states Fred was “on his way to the home of his brother.” (See No. 1, below.) Two of his brothers, Charles and John H. Macbeth, were living in Mankato at the time, so he could have been intending to visit either of them.

The shooter apparently panicked, “supposing Macbeth and companion were going to hold him up.” What was Fred doing at the time to convince Mr. Getzell that he was in danger? And who was Fred’s companion? The article went on to state that Fred’s wound could be fatal, and that he was visiting friends in Mankato, but lived and worked in South St. Paul for “commission merchants” Tomlinson & Stafford.

The follow-up article, dated November 1, 1899, left me with more questions. (No. 2, below) The shooter “was allowed to plead guilty to assault in the third degree and paid a fine of $15.” Quite a light sentence for a shooting on a public street. “Both parties were considered at fault, and Mr. Macbeth was not seriously injured and did not care to prosecute Getzel, who is an old man.” This makes it sound like Fred really was threatening to rob the old fellow! The article noted that Getzel was drunk at the time. I would wager Fred had been drinking as well. 

There are no further records for Fred until his marriage on January 13, 1904 to a young woman named Addeline “Addie” Leseman. Fred was thirty; Addie was just twenty-one. After the marriage, the couple moved to South Dakota, where they appear on the South Dakota State Census in 1905. Fred and Addie were living with Fred’s brother Collin and Collin’s wife Mamie on the farm Collin homesteading.

Fred's 1905 South Dakota Census Record

Tragically, just a year later on January 26, 1906, Fred died in South Dakota. I have found no death record indicating his cause of death. Addie filed probate papers in Minnesota as his executor. 

Fred's probate record following his death in 1906

She seems to have moved back to Minnesota following his death. She may have been ill herself and needed to live with her parents in Blue Earth County, since she died August 26, 1907 of tuberculosis at the tender age of twenty-three. (See No. 4 below) She is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Mankato, as is Fred. They are probably buried together, but there is no marker for her grave so I can’t be certain.

Addie Macbeth's death record: cause of death listed as end stage "tubercular consumption".

Without two small news items about Fred’s altercation with an old, frightened man with a gun, Fred’s life would have passed in obscurity. To family historians like me, the sum of his life would have been his birth, a few census records and a headstone. He left no children, and even his widow died shortly after his untimely death. Thanks to the newspaper, I have a glimpse into his real life: that of a young man who cared enough about his family and friends to travel nearly one hundred miles to visit them, but who may have been a little wild and out of control that night in October 1899, leading to a dangerous encounter in a quiet Minnesota town.  

 

Sources:

 

1.       Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN. Oct. 18, 1899 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

2.       Minneapolis Journal, Minneapolis, MN. Nov. 1, 1899 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

3.       "South Dakota, State Census, 1905", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MM4B-ZN1 : Sat Jul 20 04:06:03 UTC 2024), Entries for Addie Macbeth and Fred Macbeth.

4.       "Minnesota, Deaths and Burials, 1835-1990", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FD41-6MR : 16 January 2020), Addie Leaseman McBath.

 

Was Our Farmhouse a Kit House? 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Home Sweet Home”

The Peterson Family House: Lumber and Supplies Arrived By Train

Paul Peterson: 1867-1941 (Paternal Grandfather)

 

The house I grew up in and that my brother lives in now was originally built during my father’s childhood. He was born in 1917, so it was probably built around 1930. My father said the house was a “kit house”.

So what is a kit house? Wikipedia defines it as follows:

“Kit houses, also known as mill-cut houses, pre-cut houses, ready-cut houses, mail order homes, or catalog homes, were a type of housing that was popular in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere in the first half of the 20th century. Kit house manufacturers sold houses in many different plans and styles, from simple bungalows to imposing Colonials, and supplied at a fixed price all materials needed for construction of a particular house, but typically excluding brick, concrete, or masonry (such as would be needed for laying a foundation, which the customer would have to arrange to have done locally).”

“Depending on the size and style of the plan, the materials needed to construct a typical house, including perhaps 10,000–30,000 pieces of lumber and other building material would be shipped by rail, filling one or two railroad boxcars, which would be loaded at the company's mill and sent to the customer's home town, where they would be parked on a siding or in a freight yard for unloading. Once the materials arrived, a customer would arrange for a local carpenter or contractor to assemble the house on a piece of property owned by the customer.”

My father remembered the train bringing the house materials. Rather than stopping in nearby Hanska, the train stopped about half a mile outside town. The train tracks crossed the rural road where our farm was located just a little ways from the house site. The rail car of materials was unloaded into my uncle’s field across the road so the lumber and supplies didn’t have to be transported as far. 

My father said that my grandfather, Paul Peterson, hired local people to prepare the foundation and construct the house. My brother jokes that the foundation installers didn’t use the best materials; our basement always leaked during spring snowmelts and after big rainstorms, and the concrete was a little crumbly in texture. However, the foundation has successfully held up the house for nearly a century.

Ad for a four-square kit home

I have been trying to verify that the home is actually a kit house. I’ve looked at a lot of the kit house catalogs for the era, but haven’t been able to identify a specific plan that matches our house. I can find similar designs, but the windows and door placement don’t quite match up.

The house style is a “foursquare”, described by Homesandgardens.com as “a two-story, cube-shaped single house characterized by a full or half-width front porch, a hipped roof, double-hung wood windows and dormer windows in the attic.” Other sites note that there are often four rooms on each floor. Our house is definitely a four-square, as it is cube-shaped, has a hip roof, a half-width front porch, double-hung wood windows, a single dormer in the attic, and four rooms on each floor of the house.

Another four-square style, fairly close to our home

Four-squares were popular kit home styles. Kit homes were available through general mail-order companies like Sears and Montgomery Ward, as well as through companies like Aladdin Homes and Gordon Van Tine, who only sold homes. So did Paul Peterson actually order a kit from a catalog from one of those major companies? Or did he work with a regional company that used a basic design to pre-cut a home?

Our house from the rear. Attic dormer visible at left, window on stair landing in center. Hipped roof.

I will probably have to search the archives of the local newspaper to find any answers. If the house truly was a kit home, I am sure it would have been a bit of a curiosity and would have been covered by the local paper. There would at least have been a mention in the gossipy community news items that residents submitted for publication. It would be fun to verify my father’s story.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_house

https://everydayoldhouse.com/american-foursquare-kit-homes-wardway/

https://searshomes.org/index.php/2014/10/14/montgomery-ward/

https://kithouses.org/topic/identification/

https://everydayoldhouse.com/foursquare-sears-kit-house/

Heading North to Break Down the Wall: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Brick Wall”

Where Have All the Wee Brothers Gone? Gone to Canada Every One?

Nels or Nils Wee: 1882-1938 (Paternal Second Cousin 1x Removed)
Henry Theodore Wee: 1884-1944 (Paternal Second Cousin 1x Removed)
Ingvald Julius Wee: 1886-1961 (Paternal Second Cousin 1x Removed)
Karl Jorgen “George” Wee: 1888- ?  (Paternal Second Cousin 1x Removed)

 

Brick walls in genealogy either come down painfully slowly, brick by precious brick as information is pieced together, or they collapse all at once with a fortuitous discovery. I made one of those lucky discoveries recently.

I had previously posted about the Wee or Vee brothers who emigrated from Norway and settled near their aunt, my great-grandmother Ragnhild Olsdatter Ve Syverson and her husband Ove in Brown County Minnesota. One of those immigrant brothers, Anders Olsson Wee (or Vee), had ten children who were raised near Hanska, Minnesota. I easily found records for most of those ten children, but three of them, sons Henry Theodore, Ingvald Julius, and Karl Jorgen, seemed to have simply disappeared from records. A fourth brother, Nels, disappeared for years before reappearing in Hanska burial records. The Wee brothers were one of my brick walls. This winter I returned to researching the family in the hopes that I would find some clue to the fate of the missing Wees. And amazingly I did, by looking further north to Alberta, Canada.

Nels, Henry, Ingvald and Jorgen were the second, third, fourth and fifth of Anders and Sigrid Wee’s ten children. Ole, the eldest son, was the natural choice for helping Anders with the farm and his youngest siblings, with the idea that he would take over the farm when Anders needed to step back. Anders and Sigrid’s daughters would marry and leave the farm, but what were the other sons to do? Anders’ farm wasn’t large enough to divide it among them. In 1890s Brown County, most men farmed or plied a trade like blacksmithing or cabinetry. Other options were professions like the ministry, medicine or law, but training for those professions required money for college, something immigrants like the Wees did not have. The Wee sons knew how to farm, but all the homesteads in southern Minnesota were already claimed, so farmland was no longer cheap to acquire: you needed a lot of money. If the four brothers wanted to farm, they were going to have to move. But where?

Ingvald had a fairly unique name, so I began searching for him first. He was born in January 1886, and appeared in the 1900 census as a fourteen-year-old. But by the 1910 census, he was gone. I found him on a census record from an area called Battle River in Alberta, Canada. Could this be the same man? The census record stated that he was born in 1886 in the United States, that he immigrated to Canada in 1908 and was naturalized in 1919. He was a farmer and stated that he was Norwegian and a Lutheran. The evidence suggests this is the correct man.

I found his homestead records from January 1908. He was only 22 when he applied for his homestead. The opportunity to acquire farmland without having to buy it was obviously the draw to Alberta. He was still on the same plot of land in 1916, and in 1931 as well, so he obviously proved up his homestead.

However, it must have been a lonely life. He never married; not surprising as there were few women in the area, and none who were single. He seems to be the only Norwegian on the census page, and the only one to immigrate from the United States. Did he speak English well enough to communicate with his neighbors? The photos of the area’s early years show a rather barren, treeless and flat land, and the community he lived closest to, Acadia, was very small. The census records say he lived in a wood house and had no radio. The house was valued at $4000, which was about the median value for the area. Was Ingvald happy there? Did he ever travel back to Minnesota to visit his family? Hanska was over one thousand miles from his Alberta farm.  

Acadia, Alberta in early 1900s when Ingvald arrived

Ingvald died August 21, 1961 at the age of 75 in Edmonton, Alberta. Edmonton was far from his farm—about 430 kilometers. Did he move there when his health failed? Did he have the financial means to support himself when he could no longer farm? And what happened to his land after he moved and died? I still have so many questions about his life.

Once I had located Ingvald in Canada, I looked for his brothers there as well. I found Henry on the 1931 census living in the region of Innisfail, Alberta, about 325 kilometers from the Acadia area where Ingvald lived. 

I believe Henry also homesteaded, although I have been unable to find his paperwork. There is a homestead application for a Henry Andrew Vee, but the birth dates are wrong, although that Henry was also born in the United States. Innisfail appears to have been a more prosperous town than Battle River/Acadia, so perhaps that is why Henry chose to homestead so far from Ingvald.

Innisfail, Alberta in 1909, one year after Henry Wee's arrival

I was able to confirm my 1931 Henry T. Vee was the Wee brother I was searching for when I discovered a 1923 border crossing document for Nels Wee, Henry’s older brother. Nels, then age 42, was on his way back to the United States from Alberta. He listed his last address as “Lomless, Alberta”, which I believe is some sort of misspelling. His next of kin was listed as his brother Henry, living in Disbury (near Innisfail), Alberta, and he states he was born in “Henskert, Minnesota”, a misspelling of Hanska by the U. S. Border Agent in Idaho where Nels was entering the country. Obviously, Henry and Nels were the sons of Anders Wee. Interestingly, Nels stated he was headed for Spokane, Washington. I wonder what motivated him to go there.

Knowing that Nels had been in Alberta, I started searching for him on the census records, locating him in Battle River, Alberta not far from Ingvald, in the 1916 census. Like his brothers, he immigrated in 1908 and was naturalized a few years later. He must have homesteaded as well; he was farming. And, like his brothers, he was living alone.

Nels Wee census record 1916

I have found no records of Nels in the Spokane area after the 1923 border crossing. It appears he was moving back to the United States, so I guess that something must have gone wrong with his homestead plan. Did he get a poor piece of land that simply couldn’t be farmed profitably? Was he a poor farmer and went bankrupt?

The only other record I found for Nels was his burial record. He died October 27, 1938 at the age of fifty-seven and was buried at the Lake Hanska Cemetery. This would indicate he returned home to Hanska at some point between his leaving Canada in 1923 and his death in 1938.

As for Henry, I found a voters record for him dated 1940, and his death record just four years later. He died March 17, 1944 at the age of sixty. He was buried in Innisfail Cemetery.

The final brother, Karl Jorgen or George Wee, took a slightly different path than his older brothers. He remained in Minnesota when they all moved to Canada in 1908. He appears on the 1910 US census at age 22 living with his widowed mother, brother Ole, who was running the farm, and three sisters and two little brothers. He was still using Jorgen as his name that year, and was working as a farm laborer, presumably for his brother Ole.

George Wee at far left of photo. His younger brothers Willie and Gilbert are in the front seat. Photo approximately 1914.

He is still living at home at the time of the 1920 census, although he is now going by the anglicized first name of George. His sisters are all married and out of the house, so the Wee farm residents include only widowed Sigrid, Ole, still running the farm, and George’s two younger brothers Willie and Gilbert, now in their twenties. It must have been an awkward existence for George—no wife and no land of his own as he entered his thirties. That may have prompted him to finally join his older brothers in Alberta. He appears on the 1921 Canada census as a farm laborer living with his employer, Clayton Wallace, in the Coronation area of Battle Creek, Alberta, not far from Ingvald and Nels. This must have been frustrating for George—once again he was working for someone else rather than farming his own land, and this time his boss was two years his junior.

George Wee working in Alberta in 1921

After that 1921 census, George simply disappears. I have found a 1930 census record for a George Wee who was an inmate at the state mental hospital in St. Peter, Minnesota. The patient was born in Minnesota in approximately 1890, and his parents were both Norwegian. The age is two years off from George’s, who was born January 26, 1888, but it is close enough to be a possibility. Inmate George Wee died August 18, 1946 in the state hospital. Is that the explanation for George’s disappearance?

Thanks to a chance discovery of Ingvald Julius Wee’s Canadian census record, the brick wall that blocked my finding the lost Wee brothers came crashing down. I had made a rookie genealogy mistake: I had kept searching where I thought the brothers should be, Minnesota, not expanding my search further afield. If I had thought about what those young men would have wanted, land of their own to farm, perhaps I would have thought to look towards Canada, where determined, hardy settlers could still get free land through the Canada homestead program. While I still have questions about Nels and George, I have so much more information about their lives than I did just a month ago.

 

Sources:

1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Ancestry.Com. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1556/records/761056689?tid=46986934&pid=322350819542&ssrc=pt

Alberta, Canada, Homestead Records, 1870-1930. Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60865/records/120180?tid=46986934&pid=322350819542&ssrc=pt

Alberta, Canada Deaths Index, 1870-1970. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61561/records/294572?tid=46986934&pid=322350819540&ssrc=pt

Henry Theodore Wee Findagrave Entry. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122467897/henry-theodore-wee?

U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960, Eastport, Idaho. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1075

United States Census Records. 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930. Accessed on Ancestry.com.

Prairie Towns website. Historical photos of Alberta towns. http://www.prairie-towns.com/innisfail-images.html