Finding Hattie/ In Which An Obscure Poetry Site Yields An Answer And A Tombstone Disappears

 

     Eighteen forty-nine was a cholera year.  From Ireland, where nearly 600 people perished in Ballinasloe workhouse in a single week, to Europe and America, the pandemic immured the world in misery.  A dangerous, highly contagious disease, Asiatic cholera first arrived in the United States at port cities like New York and New Orleans, rapidly spreading death along inland waterways and the burgeoning railway system.  Desperate communities were easy pickings for swindlers promising cures and preventatives.  In the spring of 1849 at Rochester, New York, a Mr. M. O'Brien was manufacturing something he called, "Cholera Candy", while Dr. Ripley was hawking a vegetable compound claimed to be infallible if taken in the first stages of illness.

     Not far from Rochester, the town of Phelps, New York lay between Flint Creek and the Canandaigua Outlet making it prime mill property.  It's location near the two waterways also made it prime property for numbers of travelers to be passing through.  My third-great-grandfather Russell Galloway operated a grist mill in that place during the late 1840's.  He and his wife Harriet B. Moore arrived in Phelps from Wolcott, New York sometime around 1845, settling on the banks of the outlet with their family.

     In researching the Galloways, I came across a site containing inventories of cemeteries in Ontario County of which Phelps is a part.  I was surprised to see listed in Pioneer Cemetery in the village of Phelps, Harriet P. Galloway, daughter of R and H B, aged 2 years.  Without that information I would never have known of little Hattie's existence; being born in 1847 and passing away in 1849 meant she was not enumerated in any census.  I have an aunt who lives a block from Pioneer Cemetery, so we set out one hot, humid day to find Hattie.

     Pioneer is not a large cemetery so we split up and did our best, but we could not locate the grave.  Discouraged, we walked back to my aunt's home to cool off and plan our next steps.  We called the village clerk who informed us the cemetery was cared for by the town.  The town had no maps of burials, but they too began searching other records and lo and behold, found a photograph of the stone, not in their files, not on a cemetery site, not on a genealogy or history site, but on one called Poetrex.  A poetry site.

     

Harriet P. Galloway died May 18 1849 2 yrs 2 mo 21 days

     That photograph left us puzzled, the inscription appeared so deep and clear.  How on earth did we not find it?  Reinvigorated by this new information, (and a glass of chilled prosecco), we returned to the cemetery confident we would locate it this time, but the results were the same as before.  Retreating once again to my aunt's air conditioning we studied the photo for clues.  There weren't many.  A few fallen leaves near the stone gave some perspective as to its size and at the top, part of a small flag decorating another grave could be seen in the background, that was about all.  After enlarging the photo for a closer look, it became apparent those white marks near the bottom were in fact gashes, the base was quite damaged.  It appears the stone was originally white, and now I wonder if it didn't topple at some point.

     While disappointed that I may never know where Hattie rests, at least there is a photograph of her tombstone.  I also don't know if Hattie was a victim of the cholera epidemic raging in New York that May of her death, but I think there is a fair chance she was.  I plan to make one more trip to the cemetery, on a cool day, to check for fallen stones but even if I don't find her, Hattie's all too brief life is recorded, she is not forgotten.

   

     

Beware False Prophets or There's One Born Every Minute

 

Jesse James Strang

     The place was Beaver Island, largest of several that lay in the northernmost reaches of Lake Michigan, the year 1856.  In this lovely spot a murder was about to take place, though there were more than a few who would consider the man's death divine vengeance.

     Who was this man, why did he come to his violent end here, far from his birthplace?  His story began over six hundred miles away in Cayuga County, New York in 1813, the Town of Scipio to be exact.  Later he and his parents Clement Strang and Abigail James would relocate to Chautauqua County in the same state.   Clement Strang was the grandson of my 5th great-grandaunt Antje Clement and her husband Gabriel Strang.  Antje's father Johannis Clement was my 6th great-grandfather making the victim my 3rd cousin 4 times removed.

      His given name was Jesse James Strang, though later in life he would reverse those names to become James Jesse Strang, the king of Beaver Island.  The next step in this curious tale was the chance meeting in Illinois between James Strang, who had fled his creditors in New York, and Mormon prophet Joseph Smith.  Not long after, Smith was assassinated by an anti-Mormon mob and James, ever the opportunist, saw his chance.  He forged a letter naming himself as Smith's chosen heir to lead the new faith, signing it with Smith's name. This so enraged the other contender for the job, Brigham Young, that after winning the leadership Young promptly excommunicated James.  Not to be deterred, James took his wife and children further west to Wisconsin where he set about building his own religious utopia he named Voree. 

     The place prospered but James believed it was still too close to the gentiles, as he called non-Mormons.  With the lynching of Joseph Smith still fresh in his mind James looked about and happened upon Beaver Island, telling his followers he had seen it in a vision.  The group began the move to that place though they had no legal claim to the land which was then populated by a few Native Americans and some white fishermen and their families, many of them Irish.  Things went well on the island for a time, the town grew with new members arriving regularly, but James was not yet satisfied.  Now he must be king.  Somehow, James convinced his followers that his edicts were revelations from God himself.  In 1850, after one of these revelations, while wearing red robes and a paper crown decorated with golden tinsel stars, James Strang had himself crowned king by his adherents in a farcical ritual devised by one of the group who was a former actor.

     Had James in fact been the benevolent leader he proclaimed himself to be, he might have lived out his days in comfort and peace, but as often happens, power went straight to his head.  Among the unpopular revelations he now began to receive was the requirement that women wear bloomers instead of long skirts, the introduction of animal sacrifice, and most unpopular of all, the institution of polygamy even though he had perviously been against it.  James himself aquired four new wives, initially going about it quietly.  He traveled frequently, looking for new recruits, and on one of these trips he was joined by his nephew Charles James Douglas.  Many of those who met Charles sensed something was off about the young man, it was not long before the jig was up.  Charles was in fact Elvira Field who had become James' second wife on Beaver Island, now dressing in men's clothing and cropping her hair in an attempt to avoid scandal while traveling alone with him.

Elvira Field dressed as a man

     As James steadily devolved into a petty dictator, resentment against him grew.  Another teaching of his was the idea Mormons, being the rightful heirs of earth, were not constrained by property laws and were therefore entitled to take whatever they desired from gentiles.  As a result of depredations against their neighbors, anger was now growing outside the group as well as within. Eventually, other residents of the island had enough of being robbed and threatened; complaining to authorities they demanded action be taken.  In 1851 the federal warship Michigan approached the enclave, arrested James, and whisked him off to Detroit to stand trial, where he was acquitted.  Afterwards an unrepentant James returned to Beaver Island, taking up right where he had left off.  In 1856 the USS Michigan was forced to make a return voyage to that place where the following ensued on June 16th, 1856--

Capt. McBlair sent a messenger to Mr. Strang, requesting him to visit him on board.  Mr. Strang immediately accompanied the messenger, and just as they were stepping on the bridge leading to the pier, two assassins approached in the rear, unobserved by either of them, and fired upon Mr. Strang with pistols.  The first shot took effect upon the left side of the head, entering a little back of the top of the ear, and rebounding, passed out near the top of the head.  This shot brought him down, and he fell on his left side so that he saw the assassins, [Thomas Bedford and Alexander Wentworth former followers]... The assassins immediately fled on board the U.S. steamer, with pistols in hand, claiming her protection.—Northern Islander, June 20, 1856

     Though fatally wounded, James was conscious and supposedly requested he be taken to Voree where his estranged first wife Mary was living.  It was here he died on July 9th.*  Mary was not by his side, she being in Illinois visiting her brother.  Only two of his five wives, four of whom were pregnant, were present when James departed his earthly kingdom.  His assassins were never punished.

     I can't say why it it is, but it seems whenever I look closely at the non-Irish ancestors in my mother's side of the tree, weird things come to light.  Accused witches, clowns, spiritualists, bigamists, and now a self-proclaimed monarch all frolic among those twisted limbs.  I often wish I was able to tell her about them.

    

 * There is so much more known about this man and his life it would require a book, not a blog, to cover it all and indeed, several have been written.  Many articles are online, and a search of Google Books brings up a good number of pages as well.

My Irish Native Americans

      

Emily Beane aka Obezaun

     Today as I was reviewing and entering information about the McGarr family into my Ancestry tree  I got a surprise.  It seems one of my McGarr line married a Native American.  Well, half native, but enough so that he and his siblings were listed in the Indian Census Rolls.  He even had a native name, Mah Koonce, to go along with his English name which was Truman Beane.  

     Truman was the son of an Englishman named Wallace Beane (1832-1899) and his Native American wife Emily Branley (1840-1915), whose native name was Obezaun.  She was a member of the Mississippi Band of Chippewas who in her later years lived at the Gull Lake Reservation.  I was initially confused by the Indian censuses but discovered that at least at Gull Lake, an individual did not have to be an actual resident of the reservation to be included in this census.  It seemed to actually be more of a head count of tribal members.  For instance, in 1900 Truman was listed on both the Federal and Indian censuses.  I also found the Beanes listed in a land allotment database.  The Nelson Act of 1889 established the allotment of American Indian lands to American Indians in Minnesota, enabling them to become landowners. The real goal however, was the removal of the Chippewa from their reservations with the "surplus land" being sold to white settlers and logging and mining companies.  Naturally, I was curious about all this, I had questions. After much reading things began to be clearer.

     Emily or Obezaun, the matriarch of this family, was born about 1840, probably near the shores of Gull Lake in Minnesota.  A tree online asserts her father was the handsome, charismatic leader, Chief Hole In The Day, but offers no proof of that.  Turning to one of my favorite sites, Google Books, I found a book called, The Assassination of Chief Hole In The Day.  It was filled with interesting information, and even named one of his children as, "Ohbezzum", that's pretty close to Obezaun.  It also said one of his wives was a white woman, reputedly Irish.  Unfortunately, the book also said three of his children, including Ohbezzum, died young.  Then I tried typing, Mah Koonce Bean, into Google's search box.  The first hit was a site with old genealogies of the White Earth Agency Native Americans!  There I found Obezaun's father was in fact, Ogahbaishcumoquay, her mother was Baydwayway.  So much for being the chief's daughter.

Obezaun and Wallace Beane

     But how did Obezaun get together with Wallace Beane from England in the first place?  Another book at Google helped explain that.  Wallace came to America and spent several years knocking around Illinois before moving west to St. Paul Minnesota, where he worked hauling merchandise from that place to the frontier beyond the city.  In 1856 Wallace moved his business to the Chippewa agency, most likely it was here that he crossed paths with O.  Yet another publication on Google Books recorded Wallace being paid for delivering oats to the Pillager and Lake Winnebagosh Chippewa bands.  He married Obezaun in 1859, several years after the birth of their first child Franklin, going on to have seven more, one of whom was Truman who married Mary O'Neil.  

     I wondered how Wallace and Obezaun's mixed marriage was viewed by their neighbors.  While there were probably some who looked askance at their union, it remains there were exactly three white women living in their area as late as 1866, none single, and such marriages were not uncommon.  Evidence of that can be seen in a report done in 2014 concerning eligibility requirements for tribal membership, determined by, "blood quantum".  One tribe member when asked his opinion on the current requirements in 2014 stated, "They should be lowered, they have a lot of us down as part Irish".

     But back to the McGarrs -- what was an Irish girl like Mary O'Neil, whose mother Eliza McGarr was the child of Irish immigrants, doing in the wilds of 19th century Minnesota?  That's a long story.  The short version is, Mary's father, Philip O'Neil, brought his wife Eliza McGarr and their four children to Iowa from New York, (their fifth, the above-mentioned Mary, was born in Iowa), at the same time Eliza's parents John McGarr and his wife Hannah Kilfoyle left the state in a bit of a hurry right after John was acquitted of murder.  After Eliza's untimely death at the age of thirty-one, Philip left Iowa under circumstances explained in still another tome -- "he stayed until 1878 when he was called away to the regret of his numerous creditors". You have to love Google Books.

     By the time of the 1900 census Philip was in Brainerd, Minnesota, living with his daughter Elizabeth O'Neil Breason and her family.  Mary O'Neil and her husband Truman Beane, aka Mah Koonce, whom she had married in 1889 in Crow Wing, Minnesota, were living in Brainerd as well.  Mary died that year of "heart trouble", as the newspaper put it, but the cemetery has a record of an infant born to her at the same time who also did not survive.  A sad fact of life in those days.  Her own mother, Eliza McGarr, may have suffered the same fate.  Her death came two years after Mary's birth, just when a new baby might have been expected to join the family.

     One of the many things I really love about doing family research is the fascinating history that comes with it.  I have learned so much about Irish and American history while seeking my own personal history.  And now a small bit of Native American history as well.

     

He's not Obezaun's father, but he's pretty handsome so I included his picture