52 Ancestors: #38 - Windle EBERT/EPPARD

Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued a challenge:  write one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor.  It can be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem – anything that focuses on one ancestor.

My 5X great-grandfather Windle EBERT/EPPARD was among the first generation of Eppards born in what became the United States.  He was born about 1736 in Pennsylvania, son of Hans Jerg (George) and Margaret Christina Starke EBERT.  By 1750, this family had worked its way down through Maryland and into the Shenandoah Valley. 

In 1762, Windle obtained a patent for about 300 acres on the south side of Naked Creek in Rockingham County  (it was Augusta County at the time). 

Windle paid thirty shillings for his 300 acres

Most of this is the metes and bounds description
from Library of Virginia
Augusta County Land Grant to Windle Evert
dated 15 August 1762
Land Office Patents No. 36, 1764-1767
(v.1 & 2 p.557-1083), p. 613 (Reel 36)

Windle married Christiana MOYLE/MOYER about 1769. How many children they had is unknown; however, in 1780 they had twin boys, Johann George and Philip B.  Their baptism was recorded in the Parish Register at Saint Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. 

Windle and his father Hans Jerg (George) were farmers, but they also had an iron ore mine on Fox Mountain.  Mountain ore or “brown ore” could be fed directly into blast furnaces to produce pig iron. Windle’s property provided the three essential ingredients for a furnace:  an adequate supply of iron ore and limestone (plentiful enough on Fox Mountain), a water source powerful enough to turn a waterwheel (Naked Creek and Shenandoah River), and enough timber for making charcoal which was the fuel for the furnace (the mountains and valley were covered in trees!). 

Image from waymarking.com

The iron industry was responsible for much of the success of the early colonies.  Towns grew up around the blast furnaces which required a fair number of employees not only to operate the furnace but also to cut down trees, burn charcoal, dig for ore, mine the limestone, and even care for the mules and oxen.  In 1781, Thomas Jefferson listed five operating furnaces in Virginia, two of which were in the Shenandoah Valley.  It is most likely that Windle sent his iron ore to Henry Miller at Mossy Creek in present-day Bridgewater.  No doubt pig iron for the Revolutionary War was made from ore supplied by Windle’s mine. 

Windle died about 1810.  His wife Christiana was head of household in the 1810 Rockingham County, Virginia census.  A male older than 45 was there as well suggesting there might have been another son besides the twins. 

Windle and Christiana were likely buried on their property or in one of the two Eppard cemeteries located on their land since those cemeteries were associated with the original St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.  However, due to a terrible flood in 1800, many graves were moved.  Also the church was rebuilt in another part of the county following a fire.  The current St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Cemetery in nearby Elkton is one of the oldest cemeteries in the Shenandoah Valley.

THREE GENERATIONS:

Windle EBERT ( 1736 Pennsylvania – 1810 Rockingham Co, VA) & Christina MOYLE/MOYER  1769

1. Johann George EPPARD ( 23 Apr 1780 Naked Creek, Rockingham Co, VA – 1869 Naked Creek, Rockingham Co, VA ) & Catherine BEASLEY ( 1784 – 1850 Rockingham Co, VA )  28 Apr 1802 Rockingham Co, VA

• William EPPARD ( 1803 Rockingham Co, VA – 24 Feb 1872 Page Co, VA ) & Helena FOLAND  (02 Apr 1818 – 1880 Page Co, VA )  24 Dec 1835 Rockingham Co, VA
• Andrew EPPARD ( 1804 Rockingham Co, VA – after 1870 Luray, Page, VA ) & Melissa SMITH (04 Jan 1811 Rockingham Co, VA – 07 Mar 1896 Rockingham Co, VA )  25 Jan 1827 Rockingham Co, VA
• John EPPARD ( 1806 Rockingham Co, VA – 1855 Luray, Page, VA ) & Mary “Polly” Mathene SMITH  (22 Jan 1816 Rockingham Co, VA – 05 Jan 1913, Madison Co, IA ) 02 Feb 1832 Page Co, VA
• Elizabeth EPPARD ( 1807 Rockingham Co, VA – 25 Apr 1889 Elkton, Rockingham Co, VA ) & Isaac GOODEN ( 12 Apr 1816 Shenandoah, Page Co, VA –  12 Apr 1898 Rockingham Co, VA)   30 Aug 1841 Rockingham Co, VA
• Mary EPPARD ( 24 Aug 1808 Rockingham Co, VA – 1879 Rockingham Co, VA ) & William MERICA (28 Aug 1804 Rockingham Co, VA – 31 Aug 1895 Rockingham Co, VA )  17 Oct 1834 Rockingham Co, VA
• Parmelia EPPARD ( Nov 1808 Rockingham County, VA – 1905 Shenandoah Iron Works, Page, VA ) & Joseph Hiram SAMUELS JR. ( 1804 – Aft 1880 ) 28 Aug 1828 Rockingham County, VA
• Nancy EPPARD ( 1812 Rockingham Co, VA – 31 May 1890 Rockingham Co, VA ) & Zachariah TAYLOR JR.  (1800 –  21 Jan 1871 Page Co, VA )  03 Sep 1834 Rockingham Co, VA
• Reuben EPPARD ( 1815 Rockingham Co, VA - Bef 1880 Rockingham Co, VA ) & Sarah Elizabeth SMITH  (31 Aug 1819 – 06 Apr 1864 Page Co, VA )  12 Feb 1837 Rockingham Co, VA
• Jacob EPPARD ( 1817 Rockingham Co, VA – 1850 ) & Pamelia COOK ( 1819 – )  11 Jun 1836 Page Co, VA
• James D. EPPARD (1819 Rockingham Co, VA – 1857 Rockingham Co, VA ) & Mary Ann FOX (17 Aug 1817 –  23 Nov 1908 )  06 Aug 1842 Page Co, VA        
• Wesley EPPARD ( 1825 Rockingham Co, VA – 09 Sep 1882 Argonia, Sumner, Kansas) & m1) Phoebe BREEDEN  ( 1831 – 1874 Randolph Co, MO ) 18 Dec 1848 Page Co, VA ; & m2) Sarah F. TURNER (1847  Missouri –  )

2. Philip B. EPPARD ( 23 Apr 1780 Naked Creek, Rockingham Co, VA – Before 1850 Moonsville, Madison, IN ) & Margaret UTZ  (1785 – 23 Aug 1853 Madison Co, IN )  11 Mar 1803 Rockingham Co, VA

• Daniel EPPARD ( 28 Nov 1803 Rockingham Co, VA – 30 Jul 1878 Rockingham Co, VA ) & Delilah Ann HENSLEY  (15 mar 1810 Rockingham Co, VA – 1890 Page Co, VA )  08 Dec 1825 Rockingham Co, VA
• David EPPARD ( 1810 Rockingham Co, VA – 13 Jul 1895 Muncie, Delaware, IN ) & Sarah Elizabeth JONES (1812 Indiana – 1880 Indiana )  1834 Indiana
• Mary Virginia EPPARD ( 1814 Rockingham Co, VA – 1870 Madison Co, IN ) & David PENCE (01 Mar 1809 Shenandoah Co, VA – 22 Mar 1883 Madison Co, IN )  06 Aug 1835 Champaign, OH
• Samuel EPPARD 02 Jun 1815 Rockingham Co, VA –  1887 Indiana )  & m1) Mary Ann EBERT (Aft 1820 Ohio – Before 1850 Indiana ) ; & m2 Hannah WRIGHT  16 Jan 1853 Delaware Co, IN
• Noah EPPARD ( 23 Jul 1823 Rockingham Co, VA – 28 Dec 1900 Madison Co, IN ) & Rebecca Ann MOON (30 Nov 1827 Clinton, OH – 07 Oct 1900 Madison Co, IN )  20 Jun 1842 Indiana 

Sources:

"George Washington & Jefferson National Forests - History & Culture." U.S. Forest Service. N.p., 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 18 Sept. 2014. <http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/gwj/learning/history-culture/?cid=FSBDEV3_000460>.

Lauck-Ranson, Louise. "Shenandoah History." Town of Shenandoah. N.p., 2014. Web. 18 Sept. 2014. <http://www.townofshenandoah.com/index.php/component/content/article/76-history/149-shenandoahhistory>.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: F is for Floral

This is Day 6 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name but no story.

is for Floral.

Floral May Sullivan Merica was my maternal grandfather’s cousin, therefore my first cousin twice removed. 

She was the third of five daughters born to William and Laura Jollett Sullivan. 

Seated: Minnie Sullivan
Standing in the back:  Pearl Sullivan
Standing in front:  Floral Sullivan

Growing up, I always thought it ironic that Laura had a lovely and refined name but she had selected the most old-fashioned old-lady names for her own girls:  Minnie, Pearl, Floral, Leota, and Elta.  On reflection, those were probably cutting edge names in their day while “Laura” had assumed the title of “old fashioned.”

They must have been a fun bunch, judging by the number of photos my grandfather and his sisters had from their younger days spent with their cousins.

Unknown gentlemen
outside the Sullivan gate
1924

While there seemed to be lots of men calling at the Sullivan house, Floral did not marry until late in life.  She completed four years of high school and achieved success as an assistant cashier and later THE cashier for the local bank in Shenandoah, Virginia.

Sometime between 1940 and 1954, Floral married Cletus Homer Merica (now THAT’s a name!).  Those dates are based on the 1940 census when she was single and living at home and a 1954 city directory for Alexandria, Virginia, in which she appears as “Floral S. Merica” alongside Cletus H.

Left to right:  Floral Sullivan Merica, Lucille Rucker Davis (Grandma),
Pearl Sullivan Strole, Leota Sullivan Racey, Elta Sullivan Farrar

There were no children, and Floral outlived her husband.  She died in a nursing home in Chesapeake.  My guess is that this was most convenient for her only living sister and survivor, Elta Sullivan Farrar.

Tombstone at EUB Church Cemetery
Shenandoah, Virginia

For more F Fun, Find your way over to the A to Z April Challenge.  

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: B is for Bessie

This is Day 2 of the A to Z April Challenge.

is for Bessie.  Ok, it’s not really an unusual name like I promised yesterday, but her story is unusual and therefore worth the telling.

Bessie E. Merica, my second cousin twice removed on my mother’s side, was the youngest of 8 children born in 1895 to John and Victoria Frazier Merica.  The farming family lived surrounded by other Merica families in the Shenandoah district of Page County in Virginia.  

1900 Page County, Virginia census

By the time Bessie was thirteen, her mother had died and had been replaced by an 18-year old bride and stepmother, Ila Anne Meadows.  It was rather common (at least in my research on my family lines) for a much older widower with a passel of kids to take on a young bride, someone with energy to keep up with the demands of laundry and cooking for a crowd, someone who hadn’t already been dumped on thoughtlessly.   Ila might have seemed more like a big sister than mother. 

1910 Page County, Virginia Federal Census

In 1915, Bessie, age 21, married William Henry Cardin, 22.  One month shy of their first anniversary, young Bessie died despite receiving treatment in the hospital for three weeks.

Meanwhile, back at the Merica ranch, Bessie’s father John and his replacement wife, the young Ila, probably provided quite a bit of comfort to their widowed son-in-law.  So when John died in 1920, it probably surprised no one that the widowed stepmother-in-law and widowed stepson-in-law found comfort in each other.   And if truth be told, age-wise they made more sense together than Ila and John ever did.

So on August 7, 1921, Ila Meadows Merica and William Henry Cardin were united in marriage, a marriage that was a “till death us do part” kind.  William Henry died in 1948. 

William H. Cardin
Jan 6, 1893 - Mar 13, 1948
Photo courtesy Jan Robinson

Ila Merica Cardin
Feb 8, 1890 - Dec 7, 1974
Photo courtesy Jan Robinson

Breeze on by or Barge in at the A to Z April Challenge for a Bounty of Blogs.  Be Brave.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Tombstone Tuesday: The Sullivans

Tombstone Tuesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers which asks bloggers to create a post including an image of a gravestone of one or more ancestors; it may also include a brief description of the image or the ancestor.

At Coverstone Cemetery
Shenandoah, Virginia 2011

My great-grand aunt Laura Jollett Sullivan and her husband William J. Sullivan are buried in Coverstone Cemetery (formerly the EUB Church Cemetery) in Shenandoah, Virginia, along with most of her brothers and sisters, as well as four of their five daughters.

SULLIVAN

William J.                             Laura E.

Jan. 13, 1866                       May 30, 1865

May 22, 1942                      July 30, 1947

Close by are the tombstones of their daughters Floral and husband Cletus Merica, 

MERICA 

Cletus H.              Floral M.

Feb. 23, 1899      Mar. 4, 1895

Oct. 11, 1971      Feb. 14, 1987

Pearl and husband Clyde Strole, 

Pearl Strole

June 9, 1891

May 29, 1986

Minnie and husband John Wesley Breeden, 

BREEDEN

Minnie B.             John W.

1887 – 1952         1879 - 1961

and Elta and husband Lewis Farrar.

FARRAR

Lewis G.               Elta G.

1898 – 1970         1899 - 1991

Leota is buried with her husband Forrest Racey and his second wife in Winchester, Virginia.

RACEY

Forrest S.             Leota Sullivan

June 9, 1902       Dec.  24, 1901

June 8, 1988       Jan. 28, 1981

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Census Sunday: The Sullivans

Laura and Will Sullivan
with some grandchildren

Judging by the number of photos of the Sullivans passed down through the family, I suppose my great-grandmother Mary Frances Jollett Davis and her sister Laura were very close and that the Sullivan and Davis cousins enjoyed each other as well.  In fact, I remember my grandparents getting together with the Sullivan girls frequently even in their older years. 

In the 1940 Shenandoah, Virginia census, William J. and Laura Sullivan, both age 74, were still living on North Third Street where they owned a home valued at $2000.  Uncle Will had only a fourth grade education, but he was a successful merchant who owned a store.  However, he claimed no income for 1939 yet worked 60 hours the last week of March 1940. 

Click to enlarge

Living with them was their daughter Floral (enumerated as Flora) who at age 44 was yet unmarried.  (Now I wonder when she and Cletus Merica married.)  She had three years of high school and was working as an assistant cashier at the bank.  Floral earned $900 for a full year’s work in 1939, which equates to about $14,917 today.  The last week of March 1940 she put in 48 hours.

Uncle Will was listed on one of the two lines that asked additional questions.  Two bits of information came to light:  he had no Social Security number and he was not a veteran of any military forces.

Click to enlarge

  

What the 1940 census does not reveal was Uncle Will’s service to the community as a member of the School Board and town council at different times.  He was also on the YMCA Board of Directors. 

Living right next door was their daughter Pearl (enumerated as Lula P.).  Her husband Clyde Strole (indexed on Ancestry as “Stoole”  but correctly on FamilySearch) was a brakeman for the railroad and earned $2411 in 1939, which is roughly $39,960 today.  They owned their home valued at $2500. Pearl had completed two years of high school and was listed as a homemaker with no income.  Their daughter Pauline at age 17 had completed three years of school.  She was not employed nor was she looking for work. 

Below are two views of what I think are the same house.  The first is Laura and Will's house as it looked in the 1920s.  The second is what I'm sure is the same house photographed but unidentified by my mother in the 1990s.  The widow's walk and peak on the roof are gone, but the sidelights at the front door, steps to a slightly raised porch and placement of columns are the same. 

Leota, Pearl and daughter Maxine,
and probably Floral at the Sullivan house
about 1920 

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z Challenge: H is for Hiram

This is day 8 of the A to Z April Challenge.      

is for Hiram.  Who would put that name on a sweet little baby?  Apparently at least 7 of my ancestors.  It comes from the Hebrew meaning “my brother is exalted.”  I wonder if they knew that.  Here is a thumbnail sketch of each of my Hirams (because there isn’t much more to say).

1. Hiram Franklin Davis is my 2^nd cousin 3 times removed.  He was born 13 Sep 1867 along Naked Creek in Rockingham County, son of John Barton Davis and Sarah Samuels.  He married Cora Eppard May 10, 1888.  She was also my 2^nd cousin 3 times removed, so apparently they were related to each other as well.

2.       Hiram Franklin Meadows, son of Mitchell and Virenda McDaniel Meadows, was born 14 Sep 1849 in Naked Creek, Rockingham County, Virginia and died 22 Feb 1911.  He was the husband of Mary E. V. Jollett, my 1^st cousin 3 times removed.  I love his tombstone – he’s buried between his two wives.  Cozy.

3.       Hiram M. Meadows is Hiram Franklin Meadows’ son by his second wife.

4.       Hiram Merica, my 1^st cousin 4 times removed, was born in 1842 in Naked Creek, Rockingham County, Virginia.  He was the son of William and Mary Eppard Merica.  (The Eppards were my maternal grandmother’s line.)

 

Are we sensing a pattern here?  “Hiram” must have been the “Jason” of the 1800s in Naked Creek.

5.       Hiram Oscar Eppard was my great grand uncle.  He died young at about age 23.  He was the son of George and Segourney Shiflett Eppard. 

6.       Hiram Smith, born near Naked Creek in 1841, was husband to my 2nd cousin 4 times removed, Eliza Ann Eppard.

7.       Hiram Taylor, born in 1838, in where else but Naked Creek, was my 1^st cousin 4 times removed, son of Zacariah and Nancy Eppard Taylor. 

 

What a helpful exercise this has been.  I learned that Hiram was a big name among the Eppards.  As difficult as it is to believe, “Hiram” is NOT in the top 1000 names for baby boys today and hasn’t been for almost 30 years.  But those old-fashioned names are becoming popular again.  Move over Matthew and Justin – here comes little Hiram!

Hop on over to the A to Z April Challenge for Hundreds of posts on the letter H.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.