The Brosius Family: South Shenango, 1862-1863

(Continued from “The Brosius Family: South Shenango, 1861.”)

The petition of John McGranahan Administrator of the Estate of Adam Brocas late of said County deceased, respectfully represents… That the personal Estate of said decedent is insufficient to pay his debts and that it is requisite to sell a portion of his real Estate for the payment thereof…

—Petition of Administrator to sell land, 10 Apr 1862

The Civil War had been raging for a year, already a much longer and deadlier war then either side had expected, but in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, life went on much as usual. Perhaps the newspapers were read more assiduously, and perhaps some of the neighbors had enlisted and were off fighting the war or had already been killed, but still all the ordinary chores must be attended to and debts must be paid.

The widow Margrette Brosius was presumably living with her three children on the family farm in South Shenango Township. The two older children, Mary and John—ages 13-14 and 10-11 respectively—were old enough to help out around the house and on the farm, but the youngest, Rebecca, was now only about a year old. Upon the death of her husband, Adam, Margrette had been left not only the three children, but also debts amounting to over $950. It need hardly be said that this was an enormous sum for the year 1862. Adam’s “personal assetts” were able to cover a part of the debt, but the family was still left with a balance of $585.27. There seemed to be but one solution: sell some of the real estate.

The administrator for Adam’s estate, a man by the name of John McGranahan, petitioned the Orphan Court of Crawford County for permission to do just that. The request was granted, and the following month he sold forty acres of the Brosius land to a David K. Wier for $700, more than enough to pay off the debts Adam had left behind. It appears that for now Margrette and her children were more or less comfortably situated; they were able to settle their debts and still had over sixty acres, including “thirty-five acres improved” on which stood a house, barn, and orchard.

However, the nation was still in the midst of the Civil War, and no one could feel completely at ease. The famous Confederate general Robert E. Lee was achieving victory after victory, pushing his troops ever northward. By June of 1863, they had reached the state of Pennsylvania. Although their particular position was about two hundred miles away, it surely felt to close for comfort to the people of South Shenango. If the Confederate forces were to continue their advance, fighting could soon be on their very doorsteps.

(Continues with “The Brosius Family: Margrette’s Second Marriage.”)

Citations:

Kitchen, Cyrus, recorder. Deed. 19 May 1862. Deed from Adam Brocius’s Administrator to David K. Wier. Office of the Recorder of Deeds, Meadville, Pennsylvania. Xerox copy sent to the author by Gloria Brosius.

McGranahan, John. Adam Brocus Dec. Petition of Administrator to Sell Land. 10 Apr 1862. Petition to the Orphan Court of Crawford County. Office of Clerk of Courts, Meadville, Pennsylvania. Xerox copy sent to the author by Gloria Brosius.

The Brosius Family: South Shenango, 1861

Library of Congress [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Capitol building was a sight, looking strangely like a three-tiered wedding cake with an oil well in the place that should be occupied by figures of the bride and groom. The explanation for this unusual sight was mundane enough: the domed roof was in the process of replacement. Over 25,000 people, many of them strangers to the city, milled in the sun-warmed streets, but their interest did not lie in the reconstruction of a dome. They were engrossed in the events unfolding at the foot of the edifice.

A tall, homely man, seeming even taller in his high top hat, stood up after an introduction and approached the podium. There was a moment of uncertainty as he searched for a place to set his hat. The atmosphere was turbulent. Opinions regarding this man varied, and there was no doubt but that this crowd was about to witness history. Whether the history they were to witness was to be an inauguration or an assassination remained a question.

“…I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement,” said Abraham Lincoln. Clearly in his inaugural address he was going to discuss the divisive issues of slavery and the southern secession. He had not yet been sworn in, but his administration was already plagued with difficulties: two months before, partly in response to his election, seven of the southernmost slave states had already seceded from the Union, and four others were poised to follow suit. Moreover, when the newly created Confederate government insisted that the government of the United States hand over some of their Federal forts, they were refused. The South responded by seizing the forts. Tensions were high, and it was readily apparent that the country was on the verge of war.

Although the thoughts of many citizens revolved around the secessionists and the probability of war, one household in northwestern Pennsylvania was distracted by another, more immediate distress. Only three days before Lincoln’s inauguration, that is, on 1 March 1861, death had claimed Adam Brosius. Adam had been the head of the Brosius household which resided on 100 or so acres in the township of South Shenango in Crawford County. His young widow, Margrette, only 27 years of age, and possibly still pregnant with their daughter Rebecca, was left alone to raise three children.

The family had been started early; Adam had been only 31 or 32 at the time of his death, yet his oldest child, a girl named Mary, was already 12 or 13 years old. John S., the second child, was 9 or 10. The relative ages of Mary and her mother Margrette, as well as the large age gap between John and Rebecca, suggest the possibility that Margrette may have been Adam’s second wife and Mary and John’s stepmother. At this point no evidence has been found to either support or disprove this hypothesis, and it bears only academic relevance to our present narrative, so we will set the question aside for later research.

Whether mother or stepmother, Margrette was faced with the daunting task of running a farm and being what would now be called a single mother of three—and this just as the country was beginning its descent into the longest and the bloodiest war it had yet experienced. Just over a month after her husband’s death, the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter.

(Continues with “The Brosius Family: South Shenango, 1862-1863.”)

Citation:

“President Abraham Lincoln’s First Inauguration.” The Civil War. Son of the South. Web. Accessed 7 Feb 2012.

Halloween

Ahh, Halloween. All Hallow’s Eve. Celebrated down through the centuries even to today. But how was it celebrated by our ancestors? I can’t speak for everyone’s family, but I did take a look through my great-aunt Elsie’s memoirs this evening to see what she says about how the Underwood family celebrated Halloween in the early part of the twentieth century.

Elsie didn’t focus much attention on the holiday in her manuscript, but she did mention it twice. You will notice that I include a paragraph or two before each anecdote; I do that for context. After all, this blog is primarily for historical and genealogical material, and the introductory paragraphs reveal a slice of life in a day gone by.

The first of Elsie’s allusions to Halloween remind us that “trick-or-treat” once was more focused on the “trick” than it now is.

We didn’t have a bathroom in our house. Just a out house or (privy) as they were called. This was a small shed like type building, located a short distance from the house. Inside was a long seat across the back with holes small medium, and large, with covers, when not in use you put the cover on. Lye was used to keep it clean and odorless.

At night we would carry a lantern to see our way. One of the older ones would walk out with us, and stand out side and wait for us.

           

On Hallowe’en the big boys in the neighborhood, would like to tip one of these over, hoping someone was inside. They never got ours, maybe because we had a fence all the way round our place. The fence had barbed wire on top of the mesh fence, hard to climb.

 (Now that is a Halloween trick I am glad to live without.)

The second reference Elsie makes to Halloween regards an actual incident. This episode reminds us of the dangers of a former day, when jack-o-lanterns were invariably lit with real flames.

These tent houses were made from the large gunny sacks, our feed for our cattle and pigs and chickens, came in these large sacks.

Dad let us play with these sacks. So Walter and Bill made us a tent house, one for each of us. These were cool in the summertime, Idaho summers are real hot.

           

Walter cut out dishes, knives and forks and spoons. Out of tin sheeting Dad had.

On one Halloween we had our jack o lanterns on our (box probably a apple box) table. Right close to the opening of our tents. Our dad was on the school board, we were having a program that night. Our teacher was over to our house, she wanted Dad and Mom to drive her on an errand, they were gone a short time, when they came back my teacher asked me to turn around. I turned, all the back of my dress was burned. But how? The only fire I was around was our jack o lanterns. We had lit our lanterns to show the teacher, when she got back. The wind must have blown my dress against the lit pumkin, as I was closing the door of my tent house. I must have sat doun real fast to have put the fire out. I always believed I had a guarding angel. Of course I had to wear my school dress to the program that night.

 I hope you have enjoyed this little trip through holidays past. Happy Halloween!

Citations:

Crocker, Elsie. unpublished typescript.

Mrs. TUFTY and the Shaniko album

For many years, throughout my Dad’s childhood and continuing into my own, my grandmother’s next-door neighbor was a kind old woman named Mrs. Tufty. There had, of course, once been a Mr. Tufty as well, whom Dad could remember, but he had died long before I was born. I can still remember Mrs. Tufty in a vague sort of way. I was very young when she died, but she is cemented into my memory as the person from whom I got my first guitar (a small, child-sized model). I also remember Grandma and Mrs. Tufty occasionally chatting over the fence.

Mrs. Tufty had no children, and no living family that we knew of. Therefore, when she died, her belongings scattered. Somehow, through the intermediary of my grandmother, her old family photo album descended to my parents. I have always been fascinated by the album. It is not in the best of condition, and few of the photos are marked with names, but it has always seemed to me a treasure.

For over twenty years my parents have planned to donate it to the museum in the city of Shaniko, where Mrs. Tufty had lived as a child, but they have never quite gotten around to it. This summer, the opportunity presented itself: I was to join my parents on a vacation in central Oregon, and during that time we would make a day trip to Shaniko and some of the other ghost towns in its neighborhood. While there, the presentation could take place.

Shaniko is today, as hinted above, essentially a ghost town, with a current population of about 25. Although nowadays it relishes its status as a ghost town, employing it as a gimmick for tourists, in its heyday it was the transportation hub of a vigorous wool industry, and frequently called the “Wool Capital of the World.”

Mrs. Tufty had lived in Shaniko during its boom, and we figured that the town’s museum would be interested in an album from that time period.

A day or two before we planned to make the trip to Shaniko, an interesting thought occurred to us: we didn’t know Mrs. Tufty’s maiden name. What were we going to tell the folks at the museum?

So it was off to the library to see what I could find.

First, however, I gathered the little information I had to begin with. Questioning Dad, I learned that her first name had been Ethel. Then I asked her husband’s name. “Mr. Tufty,” was my Dad’s laconic reply. So all I had to work with was that her name had been Ethel TUFTY; she had lived on 68^th Street in Portland, Oregon for many years; she had lived as a child in Shaniko, Oregon; she had been married; and she had died when I was very young, but old enough to remember.

Once at the library, I began my research at Ancestry, typing her name into the search field and specifying that she died in Oregon. Within a few moments, I satisfied myself between the Social Security Death Index and the Oregon Death Index that Ethel Mar TUFTY (The “Mar” is probably an abbreviation for Mary or Marie) was born on 25 May 1896 in Ohio and died 26 Jan 1985 in Portland, Oregon. A few more clicks, and I discovered that her husband’s name had been Charles. He had been born in Aug 1894 and died 15 Mar 1967 in Portland. I found them living in Tonasket, Okanogan, Washington in 1930, and listed in a 1938 directory at 6615 SE Sherrett Rd. in Portland, Oregon.

I searched for a marriage record, but found none. Oregon’s marriage records are not online; one must travel to the state archives in Salem during business hours to find them. I had hoped (having found them located in Washington in 1930) that perhaps they had been married in Washington state, whose archives are online, but found nothing there either. This was getting me no closer to discovering Mrs. TUFTY’s maiden name, so I tried another tack.

My library has a subscription to the wonderful collection of historical newspapers at GenealogyBank, part of NewsBank, so I typed her name as the search term and limited my search to Oregon and Washington. After wading through a few completely irrelevant results (“Ethel” and “Tufty” being found on the same page, but not necessarily within the same article), I hit the jackpot.

It was on page 22 of the 17 Jan 1952 edition of the Oregonian. An obituary of someone named Clarence A. MERCHANT, and listed among his relations was his daughter, “Mrs. Ethel TUFTY.” I was reasonably certain from my earlier research at Ancestry that there were no other Ethel TUFTYs on the west coast, so this answered the question of her maiden name. She must have been born Ethel MERCHANT.

However, it also gave me a surprise. Clarence MERCHANT had two grandchildren. Mrs. TUFTY had never had any children of her own, but according to this she must have had nieces or nephews! These would be the more proper recipients of the family album.

After a look at the rest of the results and a few quick searches for “Clarence MERCHANT,” “Gertrude MERCHANT,” and “Lee MERCHANT,” which yielded no additional information, I went back to Ancestry to see what I could find with the new family members.

I quickly found the entire family in the 1910 census living in Shaniko. Here I learned their approximate years of birth and probable birthplaces. (I say probable because census records cannot always be relied upon for accurate information.) I also learned that Clarence, the father, worked as Watchman at “Round House,” probably referring to part of the railroad.

I wanted to see if I could find out more about their time in Shaniko, so I googled “MERCHANT family Shaniko.” I found a posted page of Polks Wasco Co. 1910 Directory, which listed Clarence O. MERCHANT as a watchman for the Columbia Southern Ry. Co. and Lee MERCHANT as a “clk” (clerk) in the Eastern Oregon Banking Co.

All this had taken about half an hour, and, as I was at the library, I wanted to free up the computer for someone else’s use as well as look at some of their books. Being in central Oregon, the library had several local history books on Shaniko. The most promising looked to be Shaniko People by Helen Guyton Rees. Fortunately it had an index. Clarence and Lee MERCHANT were both listed, giving the same information the directory had given, with the additional information the Lee was Clarence’s son.

My time at the library ended, and when I shared what I had found with my parents we all agreed that it would be better to find the children of Lee MERCHANT and give the album to them (or their descendents), and make our journey to Shaniko as strictly a pleasure trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day of ghost towning as well as the rest of vacation, and once back at home I began the search for the children of Lee MERCHANT. However, it has turned out that they were both daughters, and I have thus far been unable to discover their married names. The search goes on, slowly.

“Old Ben Wade”

For years I have been unable to trace the WADE branch of my family farther back than my great-great-great-grandfather Joseph WADE, who, according to census records, was born c. 1797 in Ohio. The earliest record I have of him is the 1850 census, where he is found in Bond County, Illinois. I have been unable to trace him prior to that because he is not located in the same area, and prior to 1850 only the heads of household are named in the census. Joseph WADE is a common name, and trying to locate the correct one has been time-consuming guesswork.

This morning, I was not even attempting the chore. I had located his son Joseph S. WADE’s obituary in the Sedan Lance and was reading it. Joseph S. WADE was the brother of my great-great-grandfather Allen C. WADE, and it was with some interest that I read the history of his movements.

Suddenly, the following paragraph arrested my attention:

Joseph S. Wade was always a good citizen. He deceived nobody. He was a direct descendent of the Wade family of Ohio of which “Old Ben Wade” was the acknowledged head, and he had many of the characteristics of his great uncle.

Who could “Old Ben Wade” have been? Surely the quotation marks surrounding the name implied that he was a prominent person, whom the readers of the newspaper would likely recognize. I googled the name.

“Old Ben Wade” was a nickname for the senator Benjamin Franklin WADE, a radical Republican who supported women’s suffrage and equality for African-Americans. My heart swelled with pride. Then I learned that after Abraham Lincoln’s death, when Andrew Johnson became President, Ben WADE was next in line for the Presidency!

The lack of a hyphen in “great uncle” as well as the birth dates of both men lead me to believe that the author of the obituary meant “his uncle who is great” rather than “his grandfather’s brother.” Therefore, if the obituary is correct, Ben WADE must have been the brother of Joseph WADE, my great-great-great grandfather.

As my research on Joseph WADE before 1850 has hitherto been unproductive, I will now try working from Ben WADE down: finding out the names of his siblings and what information is known about them. Although I very much want to be related to him, I will have to be extremely careful to weigh the information accurately and not force it to fit.

Update: A couple hours’ search on the genealogy of “Old Ben Wade” quickly proved that he could have been neither the uncle nor the great-uncle of Joseph S. Wade.

Sources:

Brockett, L.P., M.D. "Benjamin Franklin Wade, Late Vice-President of the United States." Men of Our Day; or Biographical Sketches of Patriots, Orators, Statesmen, Generals, Reformers, Financiers and Merchants, Now on the State of Action: Including Those Who in Military, Political, Business and Social Life, Are the Prominent Leaders of the Time in This Country. Philadelphia: Ziegler and McCurdy, 1872. All Biographies. Web. 1 Oct. 2011.

“Joseph S. Wade Dead.” Sedan Lance 8 Jan 1904: 5. America’s GenealogyBank. News Bank Inc. Web. 20 Sept 2011.

The Northwest League, 1935

This picture has long reposed in our family album, depicting my grandparents Aileen UNDERWOOD and Vinis “Red” BROSIUS. Although the identity of the subjects has always been apparent, the date has been more uncertain. We knew that it had been taken before they were married, that is, before November of 1940, but a more precise date was undetermined. On the back of the photo, Aileen had written that Red played for the “Bradford Clothiers,” but it seems that the now-defunct team has no presence on the internet whatsoever. Such a discovery is not surprising, of course, considering that it was not a professional team, and that any interest in its history would be extremely localized, but it is still disappointing. Apart from the desire to date the photograph, I am something of a baseball fan and wanted to learn more about my grandfather’s ball-playing years.

Finally one day, while doing a cursory search for the BROSIUS surname in the Oregonian newspaper’s historical archives, I stumbled across the phrase “Brosius and Spears forming the Bradfords’ battery.” This sent me running to the library for the microfilm, in which to my delight I traced the entire 1935 summer season.

The summer season was really not a season in itself, but the second half of the 1935 baseball season. However, the teams’ rankings were reset, and every team had a fresh start to work for the second-half pennant. At the end, the winners of the first- and second-half pennants would compete for the championship. There also seem to have been some changes in the team rosters. As I am primarily concerned with genealogy and my grandfather does not appear to have played in the first half of the season, I will leave the reconstruction of that half to another researcher.

The Bradford Clothiers, or Bradford’s Clothes Shop as it usually appears in the papers, was a team belonging to what was known as the Northwest League. This bush league consisted of eight teams, most of which seemed to be named after a sponsor. The exception was Linnton, a community near Sauvie Island, but the name was probably the abbreviation of a business name. In alphabetical order, the teams and their known players in the summer season of 1935 were:

Bradford’s Clothes Shop (alternately the Bradford Clothiers)

Pitchers: Vinis “Red” BROSIUS, CHRISTENSON, ELSASSER, KARANEN, LIGHT, MASON

Catchers: BUCKNUM or BUCKMAN, GARRISON, SPEARS or SPEERS

Unknown position: Ray LINN

Bridal Veil Timber Company

Pitchers: BRUNNER or BRUNER

Catchers: FEHRENBACKER

Building Labor Union of Vancouver (alternately the Unionites)

Pitchers: DEGAGNE, LOMBARDO, LYONS, STEWART

Catchers: HOPKINS, HUNTER

Hammel’s Pharmacy (alternately the Drugmen)

Pitchers: CARLIN or CORBIN, ST. GEORGE

Catchers: Pete GETTE, LAWLER

Journal

Pitchers: CRISSWELL, HELM, RICKMAN, SCHUBLE

Catchers: ENSTONE or ENSTON

Linnton

Pitchers: EVANS or BEVANS, PETERSON

Catchers: BARLOW, FENTON, HUNGERFORD

Other teammates: Eddie FOSS

Mantle Club

Pitchers: DEITER or DIETER, HICKS, SCHNEIDER

Catchers: BARKER

Other teammates: KELDNER

V. & V. Coffee Shop

Pitchers: GILBERT, LUND, SWANSON

Catchers: McGUIRE or MacGUIRE

Outfielder: LEVEY

Other teammates: LESLIE

I can attempt no more than a partial reconstruction of the 1935 summer season, as all of my information is gleaned from the sports pages of the Oregonian. Never is there a complete list of the players, and only the highlights and final scores of the games are reported. However, in addition to the above list of teams and incomplete list of players, I can provide a chronology of the games played.

The 1935 summer season opened on June 16^th, with Bridal Veil visiting Sellwood Park to play against Bradford’s. Bridal Veil won the game with a final score of 5-4. Three other games were also played that day, with Hammel’s beating the Building Union 6-3, the Journal massacring Linnton 16-3, and V & V beating Mantle 4-3.

The following week, Bradford’s lost a humiliating 23-7 to V & V Coffee Shop. Meanwhile, the Journal beat the Mantle Club 10-4; Hammel’s won over Bridal Veil 4-3, and the Building Labor Union beat Linnton 7-4.

The Bradford Clothiers must have hoped to redeem themselves in the following week’s game against the Building Labor Union, however the game was rained out, and the scores stood as they were another week. The following week, they were scheduled to meet the Journal, but that game, too, was postponed due to rain. Finally, on July 14^th, they faced the undefeated Drugmen of Hammel’s Pharmacy at Montavilla Park, and lost. The final score was 5-3, and put Hammel’s into a tie with the Journal for the lead of the league.

In the other league games of that day, the Journal won 8-7 against the V & V Coffee Shop, Bridal Veil won against the Building Labor Union 10-9, and Linnton and the Mantle Club met in a game described as “wild, but exciting,” and ended in a score of 12-11, with Linnton winning.

The following week, July 21^st, Bradford’s faced a more equal opponent: the Mantle Club. It was called a “cellar game” because neither team had yet won a game. Unfortunately, one of the teams had to remain in the cellar. That team was the Bradford Clothes Shop. At least they made a fair showing, ending the game a single run behind. The final score was 7-6. The other games of the day had Hammel’s taking the league lead after their 8-1 win against Linnton, V & V winning 6-2 over Bridal Veil, and the Building Labor Union beating the Journal 8-6.

Bradford’s was, naturally, out of the running for the league pennant at this point, but they met Linnton, another team out of the running, at Pier Park on July 28^th. Now that it no longer mattered, the Clothiers finally won a game. And I can say with pride that my grandfather was responsible for at least one of the team’s seven runs.

As for the other games that day, Hammel’s beat Mantle Club 4-1. The other two games are mysteriously omitted from the newspaper article. The final scores, therefore, cannot be known, but the winners can be deduced from the team standings the following week: the Journal won over Bridal Veil and V & V beat the Building Labor Union.

The following week, Bradford’s traveled to Vancouver to play against the Building Labor Union. The results are omitted from the next day’s paper, but through the same process of deduction used above, it is clear that Bradford’s, once again, lost. The Journal played Hammel’s Pharmacy, losing 4-2; V & V Coffee Shop opposed Linnton winning 8-2; and Bridal Veil played the Mantle Club, ending with a close score of 2-1, Mantle Club the winners.

The games scheduled for August 11^th were Hammel’s vs. V & V, Linnton vs. Bridal Veil, Mantle Club vs. Building Labor Union, and Bradford’s vs. the Journal. V & V beat Hammel’s in what must have been a very tense game, with a final score of just one run, bringing them to an even score and therefore requiring a tie-breaking game. The Journal beat Bradford’s with a score of 6-5, and the Building Labor Union won out over the Mantle Club 1-0. The score is not listed for the Linnton vs. Bridal Veil game, but it can be deduced that the winner was Bridal Veil.

Hammel’s and V & V played their tie-breaking game on August 18^th, with Hammel’s taking home the pennant for the second half of the season. V & V had won the pennant for the first half, so they had to play one more game for the championship. Oddly, I have been unable to find the results of this final game. However, whichever team took home the championship went on to play in the Oregon fall baseball tournament, competing against ten other league champions for the title.

Inez UNDERWOOD, Ray LINN, and Red BROSIUS. The driver of the car is unknown.

Despite the fact that the Bradford Clothiers fared very poorly in the 1935 summer season, it has been an interesting project to look at them and their league. Perhaps, too, this will assist other researchers. If anyone has any further information to offer, or other photos of players in the Bradford Clothiers or any of the Northwest league teams of 1935, I would be happy to post them as well.

Now… if only I could identify the teams and dates of the other pictures in which Red BROSIUS appears in a baseball uniform!

Sources:

(All of these articles—with the exception of that dated 15 July—may also be viewed online for a fee through News Bank, or for free with a Multnomah County Library card.)

Found on Microfilm. Oregonian: Portland Oregon 566 (1946): Jun 9, 1935 thru Jul 5, 1935. 

• “Northwest Nines to Start Round.” Oregonian [Portland] 16 June 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 2.
  
• “V and V Coffee Shoppers Hold to Bush Loop Lead.” Oregonian [Portland] 17 June 1935, Morning ed: 16. 
•  “Two Undefeated Teams to Meet.” Oregonian [Portland] 23 June 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 3. 
•  “Bradfords Fail to Stop Hitting of the V & V Team.” Oregonian [Portland] 24 June 1935, Morning ed: 11. 
•  “Loop Lead Goal of Three Teams.” Oregonian [Portland] 30 June 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 3. 
•  “Tilts Halted by Rainy Conditions.” Oregonian [Portland] 1 July 1935, Morning ed: 12. 

 Found on Microfilm. Oregonian: Portland Oregon 567 (1946): Jul 6, 1935 thru Aug 2, 1935.

• “League Leaders Will Vie Today.” Oregonian [Portland] 7 July 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 3. 
•  “Rain Stops Games.” Oregonian [Portland] 8 July 1935, Morning ed: 14. 
•  “Unbeaten Teams to Resume Play.” Oregonian [Portland] 14 July 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 3. 
•  “Hammel Pharmacy Team Goes Into First Place Tie.” Oregonian [Portland] 15 July 1935, Morning ed: 16. 
•  “Lead Northwest Nine Lists Union.” Oregonian [Portland] 21 July 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 3. 
•  “Hammels Capture Top Position in Northwest Loop.” Oregonian [Portland] 22 July 1935, Morning ed: 16. 
•  “Hammel to Play Mantle Club Nine.” Oregonian [Portland] 28 July 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 3. 
•  “Hammel’s Pharmacy Adds to Loop Lead.” Oregonian [Portland] 29 July 1935, Morning ed: 16. 

 Found on Microfilm. Oregonian: Portland Oregon 568 (1946): Aug 3, 1935 thru Aug 31, 1935.

• “Hammel’s Needs Win to Hold Top.” Oregonian [Portland] 4 Aug 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 3. 
•  “Close Contests Seen in North-West Ball Loop.” Oregonian [Portland] 5 Aug 1935, Morning ed.:12. 
•  “Win By Hammel’s Will Clinch Flag.” Oregonian [Portland] 11 Aug 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 3. 
•  “Northwest Nines End Second Half in Top-Place Tie.” Oregonian [Portland] 12 Aug 1935, Morning ed.:15. 
•  “Northwest Nines Arrange Playoff.” Oregonian [Portland] 18 Aug 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 3. 
•  “Hammel’s Team Defeats V. & V. for Half Crown.” Oregonian [Portland] 19 Aug 1935, Morning ed.:15. 
•  “Fall Tournament Dates Scheduled.” Oregonian [Portland] 25 Aug 1935, Sunday ed., Sports sec.: 2. 

The Capricious Credibility of Oral History

Let me begin by saying I love oral history. It is one of the first things that interested me in my family history and genealogy. I was never one those children who groan and seek escape when a grown-up would intone, “When I was your age…” Instead, I would sit in rapt attention, eager to hear what would follow. The stories helped me to understand the speaker as a person, to realize that he had once been as young and ignorant as I. My family’s stories became my stories, wrapping themselves around my heart and subtly guiding me in my own life.

And, of course, there were those evanescent stories of people long dead, whom I had never met. These stories were wonders, enveloping dusty bones with living flesh and blood. People who had died even before my parents were born became known to me. I learned to love them almost as well as I loved those whom I had really met.

Of course, it helped that I had some talented storytellers in my family—and ones who loved to reminisce. But as my study of genealogy became more serious, and I myself grew older and more discerning, I began to realize that only some of the “facts” recalled really were quite reliable, but others were often speculation or wishful thinking cemented into belief through the years.

It is interesting to look at different branches of the family and see how the oral tradition has affected my genealogical research. For instance, my great-aunt Elsie CROCKER had an amazingly accurate memory, and the foresight to type out a memoir of her childhood. She wrote of her parents’ families back in England, so that despite the relatively common surnames of UNDERWOOD and AMOS, it was a simple task to find the correct families in the census records: all I had to do was find the family in the right area with the right children. Though she made occasional mistakes, I am often astounded by her accuracy. For instance, in a 1999 conversation, when Elsie was almost 92 years old, she told me that her parents and older brother came to America on a ship called the Mayflower (not the famous one), which left England 6 May 1903 and arrived in Boston 20 May 1903. When I found the ship’s manifest, it turned out that the ship was indeed called the Mayflower, and it departed from Liverpool, England on 7 May 1903 and arrived in Boston 16 May 1903. I only hope that when I am in my nineties I can remember the date (within four days) of an event that happened before my birth!

Ship manifest of the Mayflower, 1903

 

The BROSIUS ancestors, by contrast, are much harder to trace, due partly to the inaccuracy of the oral tradition. The sons of John S. BROSIUS, or at least some of them, believed that their father had come from a town called Sedan in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, and given the name of his hometown to the town of Sedan, Kansas. While it is true that Sedan, Kansas is supposedly named after Sedan, France, and it is possible, and even probable, that the BROSIUS family originated in the Alsace-Lorraine, John S. BROSIUS was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and had probably never even visited France. According to the 1860 census of the United States, his father, Adam BROCIUS, was also born in Pennsylvania. I have thus far been unable to trace the BROSIUS family prior to their appearance in Crawford County.

John S. BROSIUS

Perhaps my favorite exaggeration, however, is the BROSIUS boys’ belief that their maternal grandmother, Angelina (EVANS) WADE, was an American Indian. The idea, as far as I can tell, seems to derive solely from her habit of sitting under a tree and smoking a pipe after dinner!