Johannes Heinrich Wilhelm “Henry” Hoffman: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt “Bearded”

Unusual Beard on a Handsome Face

Johannes Heinrich Wilhelm “Henry” Hoffman: 1836-1906

 

            I have only one confirmed photo of my second-great-grandfather “Henry” Hoffman, and in it he sports the most amazing beard—I’ve never seen one quite like it! While it may have been unusual, the beard didn’t disguise his handsome face and beautiful bone structure.

            Johannes Heinrich Hoffman was born on June 4, 1836 in Odelum, Hanover, Germany. His parents were Freidrich Behrend Hoffman and Maria Christina Uepkendanz. He was one of several children.

            Johannes Heinrich immigrated in 1855 according to the 1900 census. I have been unable to find the records of his departure from Germany or his arrival in the United States. Nor do I know where he first went when he reached America. Did he travel alone at age nineteen, or did he immigrate with a friend or relative?

            By 1860, the United States Census finds him living in Greenfield, Wisconsin. He is married to Sophia Maria Christiane Streu, and he is working as a carpenter. Sophia is 20 to his 24, and according to the census record, she was born in the Michlenburg area of Germany.

            I found the Streu family on the May 1, 1857 departure list for the ship Johannes, leaving the port of Hamburg for New York City. Sophia was 17 years old; her father was fifty. I wonder what motivated a man of his age to uproot his family and sail to America?

            By the 1860 census, Sophia’s parents and two youngest siblings were living in Racine, Wisconsin. Racine is under thirty miles from Greenfield, so the young couple must have met in Wisconsin—perhaps at church or through mutual acquaintances-- and married on October 18, 1859.

            Henry and Sophia had moved their growing family to a farm near Greenfield by the 1870 census. They had five young children by then, and also had Sophia’s younger brother William, age 26, living with them, probably as a laborer on the farm.

            By the 1880 census, the family had moved to a farm near Mankato, Minnesota, where they would live for the rest of their lives. Sophia’s aging parents had moved with them. The older couple were probably helpful with the Hoffmans’ growing family—they had eleven young children by that point, and would go on to have two more before 1884.

            I suspect the photo was taken at some point after the 1880 census, probably around 1885-1888, when Henry would have been in his early fifties, and Sophia was in her late forties. Henry’s amazing beard is white, and the soft waves of his hair are graying. Sophia also appears to be graying, although she may have had fair hair to begin with.

            I love the details in this photo. It appears Henry’s suit pants had been let down at some point—there are two lines above the hem where the fabric had been folded at some point. The suit appears to be a solid wool fabric—I would guess they took great care of it so that it would last for years. Sophia’s dress is the same sober shade as her husband’s suit. The skirt features rows of pintucks, echoed on the bodice of the dress.

            Sophia is a slender woman—you would never guess she gave birth to thirteen children and had nursed them all. Putting on the dress must have taken several minutes, with at least thirteen buttons to fasten. Sophia looks strangely serene and her face is very smooth—no grooves or frown lines reflecting stress or an irritable disposition.

            Henry looks a little more careworn, with his downturned eyes, creased from squinting into the sun while in the fields. He is still a strikingly handsome man, clean-shaven but for that amazing little white beard that falls from the very base of his chin—it appears he shaved beneath his lower lip so the beard was rigidly confined to his chin. It’s a striking look that suits his face.

            I wish I knew more about this amazing couple. Henry died June 21, 1906, less than twenty years after this photo was taken. He was only seventy years old. Sophia lived another sixteen years, dying March 23, 1922. She lived with her youngest son, Edward, and his family in the family home just outside of Mankato.

What Became of Naomi Hull Daniels’ Illegitimate Daughter?

The Mysterious Fate of Naomi's Daughter

Female Child Hull: 1667-?

 

In my previous blog post on my seventh great grandmother Naomi Hull, I noted that Naomi gave birth to an illegitmate child in her twenties around 1667. She was sentenced to be whipped for fornication, and her child was taken away from her. The community of Dover bribed a man named John Church to raise the child and “keep her till she be 20 years old”. On October 3, 1667, Church was granted sixty acres of land if he would take the child with the promise of ten more acres when the girl reached her majority.

So what happened to this child, who would be my seventh-great-aunt?

The child was only identified as “Naemys child”, so we don’t even know her name. There is no further mention of the child in the records. However, there are some hints and clues that paint a possible picture of the child’s fate.

John Church lived in Dover in 1689 when the Dover Massacre or Cochecho Massacre occurred. Natives in the area, bitter after years of poor treatment by colonists, attacked the garrison houses at Dover, killing 23 people. An additional 29 people were taken captive. John Church was one of those captives; it is likely that his home was one of the several buildings the natives set ablaze. While I have been unable to find a full list of the captives, his entire family may have been taken captive, including Naomi’s daughter. She would have been about 22 years old at that point, so might still have been part of the household.

Charles Weygant, in his book The Hull Family in America, posits the following:

 “John Church was captured by Indians in the Dover massacre of 1689, and he was killed and scalped, 7 May 1696, at Cochecho. Among the pupils registered at Quebec was Nimbe II, whom Miss Mary P. Thompson thought to be Naomi Hull [Joseph’s daughter]. Is it not more probable that this was Naomi Hull, the ‘Neamy’s child’ brought up in the family of John Church, named for her mother, and captured with him in 1689?”

It is possible that this captive, turned over to the nuns in Quebec, was Naomi’s child. However, as I pointed out, Naomi’s daughter would have reached the age of 22 by this point, so I question whether she would have been enrolled as a pupil at the convent, unless they took in women as well as children.

We may never know the girl’s fate. I just hope that Naomi was kept apprised of her daughter’s well-being over the years. Life in colonial America was cruel to unwed mothers and illegitimate children.

 

Sources:

The Hull Family in America; Weygant, Charles. Hull Family Assoc., 1913

History of the Town of Durham, New Hampshire : (Oyster River Plantation) with Genealogical Notes; Stackpole, Everett Schermerhorn, 1850-1927; Thompson, Lucien, b. 1859; Meserve, Winthrop Smith, 1838-. Pages 222-223, 235-240.

https://www.dover.nh.gov/government/city-operations/library/history/the-cochecho-massacre.html

https://commonheroes3.wordpress.com/12th-generation/hull-joseph-agnes/

https://www.geni.com/people/Joanna-Davis/6000000001791625198

The Troubled Life of Naomi Hull Daniels: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt "Quite the Character"

 The Strange and Sad Life of Naomi Hull Daniels

Naomi Hull: 1640-about 1686

 

My seventh-great-grandmother Naomi Hull Daniels had a troubled life, and ended up causing trouble for her relatives as she grew older. She was quite the character.

Naomi was born sometime in 1640 to Rev. Joseph Hull and his second wife, Agnis Hunt. She was the tenth of Joseph’s sixteen children, and the third child born in America after Rev. Hull had fled England in 1635 seeking religious freedom in Massachusetts.

Unfortunately for the family, Rev. Hull’s preaching ran afoul of the Puritan church that predominated in the first northern colonies. He was forced to repeatedly move his family further north into the wilderness, trying to find a congenial congregation for his ministry. By 1648, Rev. Hull decided that life in the colonies was even worse than the church conflicts he left behind in England. He booked passage on a ship back to England, taking his wife and only a few of their children with him.

I can find no record of Rev. Hull’s return voyage to England, so it is unclear exactly which children accompanied him. Most of the children from Rev. Hull’s first marriage were either grown and out of the house, or were nearly grown. Despite Naomi’s youth, she was left behind. As Rev. Hull’s son in law John Bickford and a neighbor named John Symonds described the situation,

“about four and twenty years ago or there about naomy hulls father and mother they went for England: and left theyer Children to the wid wilderness: and Left them very young and wear not tutred (tutored) as they ought to have been.”

There are some problems with this testimony. The deposition was supposedly given in 1669, so the time period is off by about three years; the Hulls abandoned their children in 1648, which was twenty-one years prior. However, there is no doubt about the basic charge. The description of leaving the children to the “wid wilderness” is heartbreaking. The mention of the children not being “tutred as they ought to have been” shows that the community felt the Hulls’ behavior was out of the ordinary and that they failed to meet basic community standards for parenting. What arrangements did they make for the care of their minor children? Did they expect their eldest children to care for the younger ones? Did the older children agree with this? Did they take in their siblings? How could any parent with a conscience leave behind an eight-year-old child?

17th Century Map of the New Hampshire Colony

We don’t know where poor Naomi was sent when her parents left, but by her teens she was a servant in the home of Samuel Symonds of Ipswich, a former neighbor of her parents. She may have lived with the Symonds family all along since 1648, paying off her room and board with service. Servants had minimal rights; they were treated barely better than slaves, even by supposedly God-fearing Puritans.

She witnessed a deed for her “master” Symonds in April 1661, and had to testify about it in court in June of that year. A few years later, she gave birth to a child out of wedlock, a great scandal in those days. On September 17, 1667, she was “presented for committing fornication, sentence to be whipped to the number of 15 stripes and fees.” What a cruel society! This impoverished, abandoned young woman was whipped and then charged a fine for either being a rape victim or for seeking a few moments’ pleasure to brighten a miserable life. As a servant in someone else’s home, completely at their mercy, she had no chance of paying off the fine.

Having been publicly humiliated, she had little hope of marriage, respect or help. The town saw her and her illegitimate daughter as a problem. As a solution, in 1667 the town bribed a man named John Church of Dover with sixty acres of land if he would agree to take in “Neamys child” and “keep” her until she came of age. Why did they choose this man? Was he the child’s father? If not, why wasn’t the father of the child identified and whipped along with Naomi?

So Naomi lost her child and reputation. In desperation, she moved in with a man named William Williams, Rev. Hull’s former neighbor in Oyster River. The community was offended by this arrangement, so in July 1668 they turned on Williams, ordering the “Constable take of William Williams sinyer (sinner) by way of distress the som of nineteen shillings for a fine for a breach of a town order for entertaining Naomie Hull.”

There is no record of Williams’ reaction to the fine, but shortly afterward Naomi apparently married a man named Davey Daniels. I have found no record of the marriage so the date is uncertain. In fact, there are few records of Davey Daniels prior to the marriage. He appears in tax rolls in 1661, and from 1662-67 jointly with another colonist named Phillip Crommett. He was fined for quarreling in 1664. It is hard to believe he was the father of Naomi’s illegitimate child, for surely he would have raised it himself rather than have another man do so. Davey must not have cared for public opinion, for he chose to marry a fallen woman that the community despised.

The couple lived in the Oyster River/Durham, New Hampshire area and had several children, including my ancestor John Daniels, who was born around 1679. By 1685, Naomi is referred to as the “Widow Daniels”, so Davey must have died around 1685.

Before Davey’s death, Naomi accused her relatives of some amazing crimes. Naomi’s half-sister Dorothy Hull, was about eight years older than Naomi, and had been widowed around the same time Naomi married Davey Daniels. Dorothy married Benjamin Mathews in 1670 and they lived near the Daniels family. It appears the sisters were closer in proximity than emotionally, for on July 4, 1682, the Oyster River Constable was ordered to bring Naomi before the Counsel in Portmouth to face charges of “reproachful and slanderous speeches against Benjamin Mathews and others.”

Two of Naomi’s neighbors testified against her. The first, a young man named Joseph Grafton, stated that when he asked Naomi about her cow that had gone missing, she said that “Wishes and Divells have bewished my cow in the the myer twice.” She identified the witches and devils as her “sister Matt” and “my brother Benjamin Mathes is as bad.” Grafton asked why she was saying such things about relatives. She responded, “Hang them wishes and wizards. Let them Bring me out If they Dare…”

A woman named Remembrance Rand testified that Naomi said “hir sister Mathews was a wizard that her husband was noe better…naomy said that they tould you that it was I did bewich your child, but it was they that did bewich your child, but they did hit to hid their own Rogry…”

It sounds as if Naomi believed some of her neighbors suspected her of witchcraft, so she was turning suspicion onto her sister with whom she obviously had quarreled..

The History of Durham book that quoted the court case did not include the trial’s conclusion. The Salem Witch Trials were still a decade in the future, so perhaps the court did nothing to investigate any sort of rumors of witchcraft.

I feel sorry for Naomi. She must have been emotionally scarred by her parents’ abandonment, her life of servitude, and the community’s disgust at her giving birth to a child out of wedlock. She must have always been whispered about and scorned by her neighbors. Perhaps her own sister was ashamed of her. It is unsurprising she ended up bitter and possibly mentally ill. She must have been quite the character in Oyster River/Durham, New Hampshire.

I have found no record of Naomi’s death or burial. She seems to disappear from records in the late 1680s, so she probably died just a few years after her husband’s death. I hope that in death she found peace from the “Wishes and Divells” that plagued her.

 

Sources:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Records_and_Files_of_the_Quarterly_Courts_of_Essex_County%2C_Massachusetts%2C_1636-1686 known as EQC.2: 296-297.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Records_and_Files_of_the_Quarterly_Courts_of_Essex_County%2C_Massachusetts%2C_1636-1686 known as NHPP 40:229

History of Durham, N.H. Prov. Court Files, VI.481.

History of the Town of Durham, New Hampshire : (Oyster River Plantation) with Genealogical Notes; Stackpole, Everett Schermerhorn, 1850-1927; Thompson, Lucien, b. 1859; Meserve, Winthrop Smith, 1838-. Pages 222-223, 235-240.

Craziest Census Transcription Error Ever!

 A Census Transciber Makes A Ridiculous Mistake

Lola Conway Trosdahl: 1891-1947

Wife of First Cousin Once Removed Nels Trosdahl

 

I had to laugh when I looked at the 1940 Census record for Lola Conway Trosdahl, the wife of my first cousin once removed Nels Trosdahl. Whoever transcribed that census page for Ancestry either had extremely poor eyesight, or was trying to be amusing. In 1940, Lola was a fifty-year-old woman living separately from her husband. She was a lodger in the home of a man named John Baldwin, who was a laborer on road construction projects, so not a wealthy man by any means.

According to the transcription, Lola was employed as a “carpenter” for “Two Grand Underwear”. I was agog. A fifty-year-old female carpenter in northern Minnesota in 1940? It seemed unlikely. And what in the world was “Two Grand Underwear”? Some bizarre underwear manufacturing company? Why did they need a female carpenter?

I pulled up the actual image of the census record. The census taker’s penmanship was neat and quite legible, and Lola’s entry did not include any of the information provided in the transcription.

So what was Lola’s occupation? She was an unpaid “caretaker”—other than the words “caretaker” and “carpenter” both starting with “car-“ and ending with “-er”, they are quite distinct visually, so I can’t explain the transcription error. And Lola’s workplace had nothing to do with underwear. The census taker quite clearly wrote the words “two grandchildren”.

The household included two of John Baldwin’s grandchildren, both toddlers. Lola was their caretaker—today we’d probably say she was their nanny.

I would think that transcriptionists have editors. How did this egregiously ridiculous mistake slip past? Lola probably would have preferred doing carpentry work for Two Grand Underwear—it was bound to have paid better than the room and board she was receiving from the Baldwin family.

Lola’s life provided one other interesting and tragic piece of information. She married her husband, Nels Alfred Trosdahl on December 29, 1905. Since she was born in July 1891,that means she was a 14 year old bride. Nels Trosdahl was 22. Lola gave birth to their first child, Myrtle, barely five months later in May 1906, so she was nearly four months pregnant at the time of the marriage. Nels is fortunate that 1905 was a kinder time for pedophiles—Lola was a child! He was eight years older and an adult—he took advantage of her. What a sad, miserable life she must have led—Nels was a poor provider who worked as a farm laborer on other people’s land. Lord knows how they managed to support five daughters.

Lola died in 1947 at age 55. She was probably just worn out from a lifetime of labor and stress.

An Early Halloween Tale: Walking on Philip Cox's Grave

Halloween Appropriate Story: Walking on Philip Cox’s Grave
 
Philip Cox: 1677-1736

 

Years ago, when someone experienced a sudden chill that made them shiver, they would say that either a cat or “someone” had “walked over their grave”. The phrase meant that someone had stepped on the ground where they would eventually be buried. Poor Philip Cox must have been shivering for decades in his grave, as his headstone ended up as part of someone’s front walk where people stepped on it daily!

Philip Cox was the husband of my first cousin eight-times-removed Dorcas Hull. Philip was born in England in 1677 to a merchant tailor named Isaac Cox. He immigrated to New Jersey sometime before 1700, marrying Dorcas Hull before 1702. The couple had at least six children, and owned a sizable farm in Middlesex, New Jersey.

Philip died July 12 or 13, 1736. He left a decent estate, including money and land which was divided between his surviving sons Philip Jr. and Phineas. The family apparently buried Philip on the Cox farm in a family burial ground rather than in a dedicated cemetery. This would help to explain what happened to his headstone years later, after his descendants had sold the farm:

“In 1947 Charles C. Gardner, a genealogist, recorded this information about his tombstone:

 ‘On the farm of Mr. Thomas at Springdale, on N. side of road from Warrenville to Martinsville in use as part of a walk by kitchen door: philup cox July ye 12 1736.’”

I surmise that Mr. Thomas was the most recent owner of the old Cox family property, and lacking all respect for the graves of the Cox family, made use of the headstones as stepping stones near his kitchen door.

Three years later in 1950, Philip Cox’s fifth-great-granddaughter Grace Hendrickson Riddle, “discovered his marker in the sidewalk at the Fred Dilzell house, 155 Washington Valley Road. After chalking the inscription, she took the picture shown here, the only one known to exist.” Sadly, I have been unable to find the referenced photo.

Less than a decade later, the stone had either been removed or had become so worn that it was no longer identifiable as a headstone, for subsequent efforts to find it failed.

I find it rather horrifying that the people in this town had so little respect for the dead that they could stomp over a headstone every day without a single qualm. Even if Mr. Cox was not one of their ancestors, the dead deserve more respect.

With the stone being hauled around for use in at least two households’ walkways, the actual location of the grave was obviously lost. Who knows how many people are unknowingly walking over Philip Cox’s grave every day? Or how many cars are driving over him?  The blog embersoftheflame.com, run by Steve Cox, provided more information on the possible location of Philip Cox’s remains:

“According to Crane, there were tombstone inscriptions made by Charles Gardner in 1947. One read, “Philup Cox, July, ye 12, 1736.” The second one read, “In memory of Philip Cox who died Sept 19, 1785, aged 80 years.” Two witnesses remembered seeing the stones, Mrs Hazel Mundy and Donald Freiday. Mrs. Munday believed the stones were originally back to back, and that the cemetery was probably on the north bank of the Mountain Boulevard Extension at the intersection with 155 Washington Valley Road. The tombstones have disappeared, and Crane discovered that local people believe the cemetery is buried underneath Mountain Boulevard Extension. This would be the most likely place to find the property where Phillip was living at his death.”

Map of Mountain Blvd. Extension--Cox Burial Ground Likely beneath the road

So poor Philip and any other members of his family who were unfortunate enough to be buried in the Cox Burial Ground are probably beneath a freeway entrance in Warren, New Jersey. There is no indication that the burials were properly removed and reinterred during construction of the road. Since the headstones had already been removed by community members before the road construction occurred, the construction company may have had no idea that they were digging through a family cemetery. While his grave is lost, at least Philip will be remembered as part of my family tree.

 

Sources:

PHILLIP COX FAMILY AMONG EARLIEST SETTLERS IN "THE BLUE HILLS"[From Warren History Vol Two, No. 8, Fall 1997]  http://warrennj.org/wths/cox2.htm  

https://embersoftheflame.com/jacob-cox-1727-1809/jacobs-ancestors/phillip-and-dorcas-hull-cox/-cox/

Robert Severson and Helen Anderson Severson: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt: Should Be a Movie

Husband and Wife Hero Aviators: Perfect Plotline for a World War II Tearjerker

Robert Severson: 1918-1944

Helen Jo Anderson Severson: 1918-1943

 

How many war movies have we seen that feature a handsome young aviator kissing his new bride goodbye, and then flying off to a certain death? But if Robert and Helen Severson’s love story became a movie, they would both fly off into the clouds—both were aviators who died in air crashes while serving our country in World War II. They were heroes who gave their lives for America.

Robert Severson was my second cousin, the youngest of Chester Severson’s children. Chester was my great-aunt Julia Peterson Severson’s son, so Robert was my grandfather Paul’s great-nephew. Robert was born June 18, 1919, just two years after my father was born. He grew up in Brookings, South Dakota, excelling in school and entering South Dakota State College in the late 1930s, graduating in 1942.

While in college, he met a young woman named Helen Jo Anderson. She was born to Edwin and Amy Anderson in rural South Dakota in 1918. Her family moved to Brookings sometime in the late 1930s. By 1940, Amy was working as a stenographer in the State College Library while getting her degree in general science like Robert. Both Helen and Robert were exceptional students. They also both enrolled in State College’s Civilian Pilot Training Program—the CPT. This government funded program began in the late 1930s to increase the number of trained pilots. Helen is believed to be the first woman to complete the State College CPT program.

Helen graduated in 1941, and the young couple must have married shortly thereafter; I have been unable to find a marriage record that would provide the exact date. Following Robert’s graduation, he immediately entered the military, and was of course sent to pilot training. Helen pursued a master’s degree in library science at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, continuing her flying out of the Urbana air field.

Piper Cub Spotter Plane like Robert flew in WWII

Robert was shipped overseas as a “spotter pilot” in the U. S. Army’s Africa campaign. Spotter pilots had very dangerous missions. They flew in small planes—Robert flew a one-man Piper Cub—over enemy territory “to detect the enemy concentrations of troops and materiel and relay the position to the artillery.” Since the pilots needed to drop to low altitudes to see the enemy positions, they were easy targets for anti-aircraft guns.

When Robert got his orders to deploy, Helen became the manager of the Urbana airport, and when the Women’s Army Flying Service (WAFS, later WASPS) was formed, she volunteered.

WAFS at Avenger Field in Texas

Helen was sent to Avenger Field near Sweetwater, Texas for training. She was just eleven days from graduating from the program when a routine training flight turned disastrous on August 30, 1943. Helen and fellow student Margaret Siep were flying a UC-78 from Sweetwater to Big Springs, practicing radio navigation. Helen was flying “under the hood” which means her vision was restricted by a hood to simulate conditions that would necessitate flying by instruments. The plane suffered a mechanical failure, and crashed, killing Helen, Margaret and their 22-year-old flight instructor. According to a history of the WAFS, that evening some of their classmates gathered around a vine that Margaret and Helen had planted in March to hold a vigil in their honor. The vine had grown to cover the rear wall of a barracks.

Cessna UC-78 like Helen was flying when she crashed in 1943

On October 11, 1944, Robert, by now a Lieutenant, was awarded the Air Medal for “meritorious achievements in 25 flights, totaling 22 hours, 12 minutes, as a pilot of a field artillery liaison type aircraft in July and August, 1943, in Sicily, 12 of which were combat missions totaling 9 hours 35 minutes. Due to the extreme ranges at which hostile artillery was firing, it was often necessary for these planes, both on surveillance missions as well as when adjusting artillery fire, to fly deep into enemy territory, thus endangering them to possible hostile aircraft and anti-aircraft weapons. The changeable weather conditions, rugged terrain, and improvised landing fields, which were often subjected to enemy bombings and strafings, added materially to the hazards faced by the pilot. The meticulous care while flying, and the undying devotion to duty displayed by him, reflect great credit upon himself and the military service.”

Following Helen’s death, Robert volunteered for an even more dangerous assignment, becoming a spotter over Germany. Just one day after his Air Medal was awarded, he was shot down over Germany in his Piper Cub observation plane. His parents were informed he was missing in action two weeks later. The article reporting him missing noted that he had served as a spotter for over two years in Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany, and that his “efficient work” had been written up and reported by both the military and civilian press.

His family had to wait three long years before the Army was able to retrieve his body and return it to the United States. The Argus newspaper in South Dakota reported that he received military rites overseas before his body was sent home for burial in December, 1947.  He was laid to rest beside his wife Helen in Brookings’ Greenwood Cemetery.

The brave women of the WAFS/WASPS were not recognized for decades as veterans who served their country. Helen was finally recognized over sixty years after her death. Her Findagrave memorial contains the following information:

“Helen was a forgotten veteran who was finally recognized as WWII veteran. It took 60 years, but thanks to Tammy Schroeder, commander of the Grant County American Legion, arranged a memorial service for Helen, who died in a plane crash while she served her county in the WASP program during the war. Also thanks to Tammy, Helen was awarded the status of a veteran."

"The family of Helen tried for many years to have Helen recognized as a vet, but Tammy did her job and came through for the family. She said women like Helen served during the war ferrying military planes around the country. Helen was never given the honor of a military funeral and now her day has come… Sixty years later Helen got the funeral she should had gotten. The rifles were fired and her flag was folded and given to her beloved sister Neoma Isaak after a thunderous flyover.”

The story of this brave and patriotic young couple would have made a real tear-jerker of a movie. They were such wonderful young people who exhibited great leadership skills, courage and honor. Imagine what they might have accomplished had they survived the war!

Sources: 

https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/campfire-stories/wasp

https://www.wwii-women-pilots.org/the-38.html

http://www.wingsacrossamerica.us/records_all/PDFWEB/38.pdf

Sever James Severson: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt “Newest”

Newest Unusual Cause of Death: Intemperence

Sever James Severson: 1855-1897

 

Sever James Severson was my great-aunt Julia Peterson’s first husband. While doing some research on Julia and Severson’s restaurant business in the newly-created town of Brookings, South Dakota in the late 19^th century, I ran across a news item describing Sever’s death at the shockingly young age of forty-three. The cause of death stunned me: intemperance. That was a new one I’d never seen before!

My only experience with the word intemperance was through its antonym, temperance. I was familiar with the Temperence Movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s that eventually led to the ill-conceived 18^th Amendment that brought about Prohibition. I inferred from the news report that Sever died of alcohol poisoning or liver damage, or some other fatal malady experienced by chronic alcoholics. He died in June 1897 while visiting a farm on a sales call. Did he arrive inebriated? Did he drink while there? Did he collapse? Did he pass out and never regained consciousness? There were no details, so all I can do is speculate.

Sever was born sometime in 1855 in Wisconsin. By the late 1870s, he had moved to Minnesota where he met Julia Peterson, a new immigrant from Norway. The couple married on February 9, 1877 in Madelia, Minnesota, the town nearest the homestead near Lake Hanska where Julia’s parents and brothers, including my grandfather Paul, had started farming.

After the wedding, Julia and Sever, who was often going by the name James Severson or SJ Severson, moved to South Dakota. They were one of the original pioneering families that established the town of Brookings, South Dakota. The young couple opened a restaurant in 1880 in the new community. It is unclear how long they continued to operate the business. Records show that they added to their family over the years, ending up with four daughters and three sons, the last child, Philip, born just months before his father’s death in 1897.

An article in the October 21, 1889 Daily Plainsman newspaper details a multi-day drunken spree that Sever James went on, causing his wife and children to decamp to a neighbor’s house. He brought home a friend, Knut Westrum, but the two had a disagreement and “Severson took up some of the furniture and demolished it over Westrum’s head. At last Westrum was found on the floor with a broken head by a passer-by…”

If this sort of violence and destruction was typical when Sever James went on a bender, it is understandable that Julia packed up the children and fled to the home of friends. The article went on to report that “Severson is now in the cooler” awaiting the results of Westrum’s injuries—this sounds like there was a chance that Westrum could die.

The article concluded by noting that “Severson is a gentleman when he is sober and has good business qualifications, but the demon makes him worse than a brute.”

Obviously Sever James Severson had a long-standing drinking problem that was public knowledge. Perhaps his early death was a relief to his long-suffering wife and children. While “intemperance” listed as a cause of death was new to me, the danger of long-term alcoholism is an old, sad story.

Sources:

The Daily Plainsman, Huron South Dakota. 22 Oct 1889. Page 1.

Sioux Falls Argus Leader 15 Jun 1897.