Dead Wisner Children

This fall, I came across a cache of pictures that I didn't know existed of my wife's family. So not only was it awesome to find pictures that I didn't know existed, but also within the pictures was some more info that I didn't have. Like pictures of children that had died young, and had the unfortunate timing of being born and dying in between the 10 year censuses, making it more difficult to find info on them. I know that child deaths were more common as you go back 100 years or more, but when you come across pictures of children that died, it makes them a little more real.

George Albert Wisner (1829-1905) and Julia Ann (Barto)(1843-1924) had 4 children that we know of: May Ellen, Lawrence Smith, Mattie Irene and Guy Clifford. Based on the dates when George and Julia's children were born, they may have had some other children that died. However it's the children that lived and their families that I have pictures of, and now have knowledge of previously unknown children.

So first, I know the most about the Lawrence Smith Wisner family (my wife's great great grandparents). Here is their portrait as I had come to know their family: Lawrence, Martha (Morey) and their son Raymond.


They had another son that I had discovered had died when he was 3 years old. In the box of pictures I found one of him and it may be the only one that exists. His name was Frank Morey Wisner and he died in 1906 at the age of 3. Here are the 2 brothers together:


Lawrence's older sister May Ellen Wisner married Andrew T Jackson. I knew that they had 3 children: George Elvin, Herbert Andrew and May, but on the back of this family portrait it shows the names of the children in the picture, but one I hadn't seen before: James M.


This photo was dated 1908. May was born around 1909. So James was born around 1904 and died between when this photo was taken in 1908 and 1910 when the census was. Here is another photo of James when he was a year old.


The younger sister of Lawrence and May was Mattie Irene Wisner. It looks like she was called Aunt Irene based on writing on photos. She married Charles Bonner Anderson and had 3 children: Florence, and twins Frank and Laura. Here is the portrait of the family that I have, and it's missing Florence:


Florence was born in 1898 and died in 1902. Here is a picture that I now have of her:


Now May, Lawrence and Irene had another brother named Guy, and he never married to my knowledge. Few pictures of him exist and so it was nice to find a couple with him in them. This is Lawrence and Guy together (Guy is standing):


So I guess the greater point that I discovered is the fact that the 3 families of Lawrence, May and Irene all lost 1 child in each of their families sometime during 1905-1910. Then add to that that their dad George Wisner died in 1905. That's just a whole lot of death happening in a few short years. No one is currently living who would remember these children, but if it wasn't for these few photos in a small box that were buried in a closet and forgotten, it's almost as if these children never existed.

As for Guy, he died in 1954 at the age of 74. My father in law remembers him, and I'm sure there are more his age and older that have memories too, but since Guy never married he didn't have a family legacy to pass down. I was thinking on that and realized that he is also almost like a child that died, with no descendants to pass on his name and no blood line to show that he existed. I haven't even been able to find were he was buried.

In the end though, will it matter if any of us have lived? After death will we remember life? I kinda think that in heaven, most things of earth won't matter and there will only be happiness.

Where is Forest, Washington?

I found some postcards from my wife's side of the family that were from 1909. They were to Martha (Morey) Wisner, wife of Lawrence S Wisner. They were living in Waukegan, Illinois from 1900 till about 1910 when they were in Stockton, California. But then I saw this postcard and it was sent to the town of Forest, Washington.


So this was postmarked August of 1909, and it looks like they were living in the town of Forest in Washington, but where is that? There is not much of an address, just the town. Then I saw it again in another postcard from December of 1909.


So since there were there for at least a few months, they had to be living there. I tried to look up Forest, Washington on Google Maps and came up with like a thousand hits. They have a few trees in that state. So I found the fact that they were living in Washington for at least a few months, maybe up to a year, significant because I thought they went straight from Illinois to California.

So I searched some more and couldn't find anything. I figured it was a small town that probably changed it's name. I went on Ancestry.com and went to the 1900 census and started looking at the available districts for Washington. I went county by county until I found one that said Forest, and I found it in Lewis County!

Lewis county rang a bell in my mind. Someone else from the family had been there I thought. So I looked up the other towns in the county and the ones that caught my eye were Napavine and Chehalis. Napavine is where Lawrence S Wisner's father George Wisner had died. George had left Illinois sometime after 1901 and in 1905 he died in Napavine. Lawrence was still in Illinois in 1906, so I wonder if he moved to Forest because it was near where his father was working.

I wanted to find out where Forest was on a map. After searching for a while I found out about 2 sentences on the history of that town, from "The Origin of Washington Place Names" written in 1923 by Edmund Meany:

FOREST, a postoffice in Lewis County, was established and named by W. R. Monroe in March, 1897. On October 1, 1897, it was moved a mile and a half southeast to its present location by the postmaster, Joseph Grenner. The place is usually called Newaukum Prairie.

So I kept searching and finally found an old map of Lewis County. And I got lucky because it happened to be from 1909, when the postcards were written.


It may be hard to see, but Forest is under the L in Chehalis. And just to the southwest of Forest is Napavine! So Lawrence did move to the area where his father was. My guess would be because he knew work would be there. Mystery solved, at least the mystery of where Forest is.

Update: As I was going through some more photos I came across this one that says it was the school that Ray C Wisner went to in Washington. I'm assuming that this is near Forest.

Amanuensis Monday - Martha Morey's Last Wishes

I came across a note that was written by Martha (Morey) Wisner to her husband Lawrence S Wisner and her son Raymond C Wisner. It appears to be her last wishes, but based on some info she gives in the letter, I think it was written at least 20 to 25 years before she died. She says she wants her son Ray to get married in a few years. He was married in 1921, so it had to be written before that. She died in 1939.

Also in the note, it says that "...if I had been well all these years," which begs the question was she sick? Sick for a long time? Or maybe not quite right in the head? It's hard to tell. I was not aware of any circumstances like that. My first thought was that she might have caught the Spanish Influenza during the outbreak in 1918 or something and thought she might die. But based on the sick for a long time comment, I'm not sure.

Another possibility about her nature could stem from the fact that her 2nd son Frank M Wisner died when he was 3. That was in 1906. Maybe due to that loss her temperament or nature changed. It the note it mentions that she used to rock Frank in a rocking chair, and she wanted Ray to have it. It also made me curious as to where that ended up.

      
To Papa & Raygie, to read later

My Darlings,

If it is God’s will that I shouldn’t come back to you, I want you to get the place – you be a comfort to each other & be good to each other & always stay together & never be separated. I want Ray to marry some nice girl in a few years & have a home & be happy, & papa live with him.

Don’t be an old back, please, read your Bibles & go to church. It makes no difference to me where I’m buried, I like Lodi tho. Cremation would be cheaper. What ever you think best. Don’t mourn. If I go it is for the best. God knows best. I love you both dearly & want you to be good & all in all to each other.

I know I fell short many times but I believe if I had been well all these years, I would have been happier & better natured. You both have been good to me. A woman never had a kinder or more thoughtful husband than you have been to me hubby.

Hope Ray is as good to his wife & I think he will be. Always have good habits Raygie & go with good men & go to church & work in it.

God bless & keep you both
-wife and mother

Any of my things Ray wants he can have. Let Mrs. Lattin have anything of mine I have here she wants. The table cloth with fringe & any waists or dresses. She’s been good to me. Or shoes or slippers. Keep the quilts. The curtains in front room she gave me, she can have them back if she wants them.

I want Ray to always keep my little rocker. I rocked he and Frankie in it when babies. Keep the carpets, Ray will need them some day. I sewed the rags for them all. Raygie is to have the tablecloths & things like that, that are home & anything else he wants. Papa is to always live with Ray.

God bless you both. Both go east some time to see my relatives. Read your Bible, go to church & be Christians – that’s the only way & best way to live.

mama

The Wedded Life

Last weekend when we were moving stuff out of my wife's grandma's house, one of the things that I came across was this book: The Wedded Life by J.R. Miller. It was with a little bit of luck that I came across it at all. It was on their shelves with a bunch of other books that we were putting out for the garage sale. It looked a little old to me so I took a closer look and saw written in pencil on the cover "Martha Morey weds Lawrence Wisner."


This would be in reference to my wife's grandpa's grandparents (or her 2 great grandparents). It looks like it would have been possibly a wedding present for them as the book is about how to have a good marriage, or how to be married. Also consistant with it being a wedding present is the fact that it was printed in 1894, and they were married in 1899.


Also inside in one of the front pages was a fill-out-page of wedding info, sort of like a Bible with family tree info. It had the date of their wedding and the witnesses and is made to look like a wedding certificate. I thought that was kinda cool, I already had that info. But the real treasure was what was just inside the front cover. BAM! 4 newspaper clippings - 3 for their wedding and an obituary for their son that died when he was 3.


I already had the date for their wedding, June 1 1899 and the basic info, but it's always cool to find them in the newspaper. Plus these give a little bit more detail about their life, how they were married and where they went on their honeymoon. In the obit it tells of how their son died, which I didn't know before. So anyway I was pretty excited by this find. Here are the 4 clippings from the book if you'd like to see more detail.

Family Resemblance - The Morey Chin

When looking through family pictures of relatives during various times in their life, I often find pictures in which they look like another relative. Usually it is a parent or a child, but sometimes is a grandparent.

This example is of the "Morey Chin" - at least that is what I'm calling it. I don't know who it originates from but Martha Morey (1876-1939) definitely had it. It is a relatively broad and square jaw. Her son Raymond C Wisner (1900-1977) also had it. Here are some comparison photos.




You can see on the sides of the cheeks and jaw as they get older they both have 2 lines on either side. There is yet another person in this line that appears to have the Morey Chin to me, and that would be Raymond's daughter Millie.



After looking at these pictures, to me it seems that Millie's chin might look a little more like her grandmother's. Maybe that's because it appears that Raymond has a cleft chin, while the other two do not. That makes them have a smoother, rounder tip to the chin while maintaining the squareness of the jaw that Raymond has.

Wordless Wednesday - Lawrence Wisner at Homestead

The Trail of Susan Amanda Greene

My 3 Great Grandma, Susan Amanda Greene, was born 167 years ago on 28 April 1845 in St. Albans, Vermont. But until fairly recently I knew nothing about her. Well, I still know relatively little, but now I know a couple dates, and have been able to trace her family line back pretty far. Part of the problem is that her first and middle name seem to be interchangeable. I have seen Susan Amanda and also Amanda Susan equally the same. So I decided to go with Susan Amanda.

The search for info on Susan all started when I got a copy of her daughter Martha's marriage license. Martha C Morey married Lawrence S Wisner on 1 June 1899, and on the license it says that her mother's name was Amanda Green. Ok, cool, I thought. Now I have the name of Martha's mother (which I didn't have at the time). So I started to try and find anything on Amanda. Nothing. I posted on message boards and everything, but still had no good sources of info. I didn't have much success with finding Martha's father either, William Morey, according to the same marriage license. And actually I still am stuck on him, so if anyone has any info on him or his line I'd really be interested in it. You can find out more on him on my World Connect page on Rootsweb.com.

On a seemingly unrelated front, I was scanning a bunch of pictures out of an album that belonged to my Great Grandma Wisner (Beatrice Marie Hawver). There were some pictures of her husbands parents, Lawrence S Wisner and Martha C Morey. There were also a number of other pictures. This one to the right was labeled as "Grandma Anners July 5 1924." I had no idea who they were and how they were related to the family.

Some time had passed, maybe a year or 2 of continuing genealogy research, not just on this line but also on the many other lines in the family. I then found some info on other lines in Google Books, or more specifically, the books in Google books. It's actually a pretty cool resource, being able to search for names and words and have the passages in the books come right up. So I started looking up other names in Google Books and came across this:

Amanda S., born April 28, 1845. married (first) Nelson Morey, (second) William Anners

Awesome! Not only had I connected the dots, but the info the the book took the Greene family pretty far back. She was the daughter of Henry Collamer Greene and Hannah Larrabee from Vermont. So it was a great connection. The Greene family goes way back to the founding of Rhode Island as a colony in the 1630s. Also another branch of the family that attaches to the Greene line seems to go way back and connects to Henry I of England and Charlemagne. It looks like it's pretty solid, but I haven't had the chance to go through all the info yet. If you want to see the chart that is available, go to The Order of the Crown of Charlemegne.

Another tid bit of info that confirmed the picture's connection to Susan was that I recently found another copy that another relative had, and on the back it said "Grandma Anners & Ed H Morey, her only son."

For more on Susan Amanda Greene's immediate family, check out my info on World Connect on Rootsweb.com.

The Ides of March Anniversary

Recently I made some pretty good headway on the Morey side of the family. Over Thanksgiving I was able to scan some pictures from my great aunt, and I came across one that had a bunch of people that I didn't recognize. Luckily, all their names were written on the back, and they turned out to be from the Morey family, of which I had very little information.


So from left to right in this picture are Nellie Hannah (Morey) McLeod (1866-193X), Susan Amanda (Greene) Morey-Annners (1845-1925), Edward Henry Morey (1870-1935), Charlotte Amanda (Morey) Marles (1879-1949), and Martha Cornelia (Morey) Wisner (1876-1939).

With the info that was on the back I was able to find more references to the Morey children, and put together a pretty solid picture of their lives thru census records. AND I was also able to find some of their marriages including Susan Amanda's marriage to William Nelson Morey. I did not have a date or any info on it, but now I have these 2 marriage index cards that I found on Familysearch.org.


So with this new information I discovered that today is the 147th anniversary of William Nelson Morey and Amanda Susan Greene, married on 15 March 1865 in St. Albans, Vermont. Also in this string of discoveries I found the names of William's parents, John Morey and Betsey Stearns and their marriage in 1835. I also discovered that William and Susan had at least 2 other children that died as children, John F Morey (1867-1974), and Mary E Morey (1877-1882).

Lawrence S Wisner's Gravestone

73 years ago today, on 8 January 1939, Lawrence S Wisner died in Lodi, California, but it actually took me a while to establish where he was buried. I started to look for where he was buried because I didn't have a death date for him, and was hoping to find a year.

The first clue that I found was on Interment.net. I found a listing for a "Wisner, Lawearce, b. 1870, d. 1939, age: 69yr, Plot #4.071" in the Woodbridge Masonic Cemetery. That looked promising because Lawrence was born in 1870, and I estimated that he died sometime late in the 1930s. Lawearce was obviously a misspelling, so I added that grave info on Find-A-Grave.com and requested a photo. The photo that came back was this one:


Well, that didn't help that much. Lawrence was misspelled again as Lawrance, and his middle initial was Q! Not only that, but his wife wasn't buried next to him (Martha C Morey) so I couldn't confirm his grave with hers. At this point even though the name was set in stone wrong, I believed that this was the right grave. There aren't very many Lawrence Wisners that lived in Lodi and were born in 1870 and died in the end of the 1930s.

So on a family trip as we were passing through Stockton, I stopped in at the County Clerk's office and got a copy of Lawrence's death certificate and was able to confirm that that was the right grave. On the death certificate it gives of course his death date, but also that he was buried in Woodbridge Masonic Cemetery. It didn't help me with finding out where his wife was buried, but fortunately I was able to figure that out later.