Sunday's Obituary: Cora Mae (Jones) Fox

Last week we did my 2great-grandfather, Louis Arthur Fox. Let's stay in that family for a bit and read about his wife, my 2great-grandmother Cora Mae (Jones) Fox, today. These articles are also courtesy of that wonderful Red Oak Community History Archive.

Her obituary appeared in at least two of the local papers, the Red Oak Express and the Sun. First we will hear from the Express.

Services Are Held For Mrs. Louis Fox

ELLIOTT--Funeral services for Mrs. Louis Fox, 77, Elliott community resident since 1897, were held Wednesday, Mar. 31, at the Methodist church here with the Rev. A. Breeling officiating and burial in Hillside cemetery.

She died Sunday, Mar 28, at the hospital in Red Oak, where she had been a patient four weeks.

Cora Jones was born Aug. 12, 1876, in Missouri and moved to Coburg with her parents as a youngster. She was married there in 1897 to Louis Fox, who survives.

Also surviving are three daughters, Mrs. Mable Peck of Elliott, Mrs. Hazel Hoyt of Council Bluffs and Mrs. Viola Leighton of Griswold, son, Clyde, near Stennett; seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Her obituary in the Sun gave much of the same information, but with perhaps a few more details. (And an erroneous middle initial for her husband, Louis Arthur Fox.)

Mrs. Louis Fox Of Elliott Dies

Elliott, March 31--Funeral services were held Wednesday at 2 p. m. at the Methodist church here for Mrs. Louis F. Fox. Rev. A. Breeling officiated at interment was in Hillside cemetery, Elliott.

Cora Jones was born August 12, 1876 in Missouri. When a small child she came with her parents to Coburg and was married there Dec. 19, 1897, to Louis Fox. They have resided in this community since that time. Mrs. Fox has been a patient invalid for a number of years. She died Sunday afternoon at Murphy Memorial hospital where she had been four weeks She is survived by her husband and three daughters and one son as follows: Mrs. Mable Peck, Elliott; Mrs. Viola Leighton, Griswold, Mrs. Hazel Hoyt, Council Bluffs, Clyde Fox, Red Oak. There are seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

As if two obituaries weren't enough, there are a couple further notes in the Sun, mentioning some of the guests at her funeral.

Mr. and Mrs. Lon Sheppard and Dave Morgan were in Elliott to attend the funeral of Mrs. Louis Fox, 77, which was held at the Methodist church Wednesday.

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Jones attended the funeral of Mrs. Louis Fox in Elliott Wednesday. Services were held at the Methodist church.

Kenneth Jones was Cora's nephew, a son of her brother John Martin Jones. I have not yet identified Lon Sheppard or Dave Morgan. They may have been relatives of some sort, or they may have been friends.

Source:
"Services Are Held For Mrs. Louis Fox," Red Oak Express, 1 Apr 1954, p. 2, col. 1-2; digital images, Community History Archive (https://redoak.advantage-preservation.com/ : accessed 24 Feb 2023).

"Mrs. Louis Fox Of Elliott Dies," Sun, 1 Apr 1954, p. 2, col. 6-7; digital images, Community History Archive (https://redoak.advantage-preservation.com/ : accessed 24 Feb 2023).

"Personals," Sun, 5 Apr 1954, p. 2, col. 1-2; digital images, Community History Archive (https://redoak.advantage-preservation.com/ : accessed 24 Feb 2023).

 

Sunday's Obituary: Louis Arthur Fox

Here's a tip: If you don't already have access to Newspapers.com, make sure to at least get on their mailing list. About once a year they provide free access to the site for an entire three-day weekend, but you can only take advantage of the offer through the link in the email.

A little over a month ago, for President's Day Weekend, the offer appeared. It was an inconvenient time for me; my laptop had just died. And by died, I mean died. I could not get it to turn on. I bought a new one, but my genealogy program with all its tasks was still on the old one. There was no way I was going to miss out on free newspapers, though! I just couldn't be as strategic as I would have liked. My searches would have to be based on the bits and pieces I have in the cloud, and pure, fitful memory. Inevitably, searching this way resulted in finding some things I have found before, but I still made a considerable number of new discoveries.

In the past couple of years since I first began taking advantage of these Newspaper.com weekends, I have developed a process. I clip and download as many relevant articles as I can in the time available, and when the weekend is over I go through the tedious work of transcribing and creating citations. That is what I have been doing every evening in the intervening days.

So anyway, that was a long-winded way of saying that I have a whole new batch of obituaries, and they may be pretty random as to who they are or to which branch of family they belong.

Let's begin with my 2great-grandfather, Louis Arthur Fox. This was my Grandpa Jack's maternal grandfather, and the only grandparent whose name Grandpa Jack was able to tell me. The reason he knew his name, he explained, was that one day when he was visiting, a package arrived that needed to be signed for. Louis Fox had lost an arm, and was holding something in his other arm, so he had Grandpa Jack sign for it. He told him his name and how to spell it.

Incidentally, I also discovered a number of newspaper articles from the time that Louis Fox lost his arm, but I'll save those for another post.

Services at Elliott For Louis Fox, 87

ELLIOTT -- Services were held Wednesday, Dec. 3, for Louis Fox, 87 of Elliott, who died at his home here Monday, Dec. 1.

He was born July 3, 1871, at Lebanon, Ohio, and came to Iowa when he was quite young. He was married to Cora Jones at Coburg in December, 1896. He lived in the Elliott community a number of years as a farmer, retiring in 1943.

Services were held at the Elliott Methodist Church with the Rev. Clarence Landis, officiating.

Survivors are four children, Mrs. Hazel Hoyt of Council Bluffs, Mrs. Viola Leighton of Griswold, Mrs. Mabel Peck and Clyde Fox of Elliott; seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

 I realize as I paste in the citation that this article did not come directly from Newspapers.com. I discovered it as an indirect effect of the Newspapers.com weekend special. Searching for this family and not finding them on that website, I did a search for newspapers from Red Oak, Iowa, and discovered that there is a free website of newspapers for that area! My finds from there and from Newspapers.com are all jumbled up in my head, and will continue to be all jumbled up in the order I present them.

Source:

"Services at Elliott For Louis Fox, 87," Red Oak Express, 4 Dec 1958, p. 2, col. 5; digital images, Community History Archive (https://redoak.advantage-preservation.com/ : accessed 24 Feb 2023).

Sunday's Obituary: Claude Robinault

Baseball runs in my family, though I thought it was on my dad’s side only. Much to my surprise, I have now learned that one of my Robinaults was also a baseball player. At another time I will have to go into his career, but here I will transcribe how his career was cut short. His name was Claude Robinault, and he was the son of the subject of the last Sunday's Obituary post, Robert Robinault.

I have found a series of three newspaper articles regarding the end of his life, the first telling of his serious illness due to diabetes.

AT THE POINT OF DEATH

As we write Claude Robbinault lies at the very threshold of death and before this reaches our readers his soul will in all probability have passed away. For a year he has been a victim of diabetes although this last acute attack has been of but short duration. He has been in great agony for the past twenty-four hours and death will come as a welcome relief from suffering. Claude has been an industrious helpful young man, a great comfort to his parents and a favorite among his friends. Our hearts are with him and his loved ones as they pass through the Valley of the Shadow.

The second article confirms his demise, and includes a long obituary. Judging by the strange spelling errors in the secondary heading, I whimsically like to think that the typesetter, whoever he or she may have been, was overcome with grief and unable to concentrate on the job at hand.

DIABETES CLAIMS YOUNG VICTIM
STALWART YOUNG ATHTETE [sic] SUCCUMBT [sic] TO INSIDIOUS DISEASE.
ORA CLAUDE ROBINAULT DIES

Denison Home is Stricken and Many Friends Grieve for Prematurely Shortened Career.

On the morning of Thursday, Feb. 18th, the soul of Ora Claude Robinault winged its way from the pain wracked body into the bourne from which not traveller returns. In our last issue we told of the death angel hovering over the stricken home and e’er the Review reached its readers the hopeless agonizing struggle was at an end. Claude, as he was called by all his loved ones was a young man just a little less than twenty-eight years of age. He was born in Goodrich township in this county on February 26th, 1881. His was the life of the country lad, working and helping in the field and with the colors going to school in the winter months and making the best of the opportunities afforded him. In 1890 his parents Robert Gillispie and Mary Lee Robinault moved from the farm to Denison and Claude was then given opportunity to receive better school advantages. He attended the schools of Denison, completing the junior year in the high school but leaving them to take up the burden of life. He was a light hearted cheerful boy, doing his work as a painter well and proving himself to be superior in athletic sports; it was this that lead him finally into the semi-professional base ball ranks and he gained a reputation as one of the best and most dependable pitchers in western Iowa. In the last few years he played with Ida Grove, Lake View, Bassett, Neb., Green River Utah and with Denison. He made the Nebraska trip with the Denison team last year and did excellent work. The nomadic life of the ball player spoils many young men, but it did not spoil Claude, he was temperate in his habits kindly in his relations with others, quiet, trustworthy and altogether like able young man.

At Bassett he won the heart of Miss Gertrude E. Alderman and they were soon to have been married. It was about a year ago that he first learned that he had diabetes. He kept on with his work however and made a brave fight to overcome the disease. All this winter he had not been well but as late as Tuesday, February 16, he was down town bright and cheery as usual. Tuesday night he was taken violently ill and the final struggle lasted but forty-eight hours.

Claude was a good boy, a loving son, a conscientious worker, an honest lover. He had much to live for and many hearts are saddened by his going.

The funeral services were held on Sunday afternoon at the Baptist church, Rev. C. E. La Reau officiating and the large number present well testified the esteem in which he was held. Besides his parents Claude leaves two brothers, Charles and Raymond and his fiancee Miss Alderman, all of whom are heartbroken at his death. Mr. and Mrs. S. P. Alderman and Miss Gertrude Alderman of Bassett, Neb., and Mr. A. J. Robinault of Pritchard, Neb. were among those who came to be present at he [sic] obsequies. Our sincere sympathy goes to all the loved and loving ones.

Finally, his parents published the customary "Card of Thanks" for the sympathy they received.

Card of Thanks.

We wish to thank the friends for their sympathy and helpfulness during the sad hours of our bereavement.

Mr. and Mrs. Robt. Robinault and Family.

Sources:

"At the Point of Death," The Denison Review, 17 Feb 1909, p. 1, col. 4; digital images, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 19 Jun 2022).

"Diabetes Claims Young Victim," The Denison Review, 24 Feb 1909, p. 1, col. 1-2; digital images, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 19 Jun 2022).

"Card of Thanks," The Denison Review, 24 Feb 1909, p. 2, col. 5; digital images, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 19 Jun 2022).

 

Wade family from Kentucky to Ohio, part 3

Note: This series of posts deals extensively with the historical animosity between Native Americans and white settlers. Although the point of view of the Native Americans is underrepresented and deserves better recognition, my ancestors happened to be white settlers. Unfortunately, they participated in the historical travesties perpetrated against Native Americans. However, since this is a genealogical blog, it is primarily told from my ancestors' point of view, with an attempt to be sympathetic to both sides. The term "Indian" is used in reference to the indigenous peoples (when the nation or tribe is unknown) because it was the term most often used at the time, and because I have recently been informed that it is still the preferred term in many native cultures. I am not an expert in the subject, and humbly apologize if anyone finds it offensive. 

 

 

Nathaniel Massie, destined to become an important figure in the lives of the Wade family, had been making expeditions into the Virginia Military District north of the Ohio River (now part of the state of Ohio) to locate and survey lands since the year 1788. This land, part of the Northwest Territory, had been reserved by the state of Virginia to disperse among veterans of the Revolutionary War. The recipients of land warrants employed locators and surveyors like Massie to identify and claim the property for them. These lands were deep in the territory of the Shawnee, who had already experienced the injustice of misrepresented treaties and were determined, under the leadership of Tecumseh, to fight back. The white settlers and the American government, however, considered the treaties binding, and the explorations of surveyors perfectly legal. Because of the danger inherent in these expeditions, the surveyors were often rewarded liberally by their clients, often with a portion of the land itself. In this way, Nathaniel Massie stood to amass substantial land holdings.

On 10 Aug 1790, an Act of Congress passed “An Act to enable the officers and soldiers of the Virginia Line on Continental Establishment to obtain titles to certain lands lying northwest of the River Ohio, between the Little Miami and Sciota,” which opened up the Virginia Military District. Massie recognized opportunity. He knew that there would soon be high demand for his skills, but he also recognized that he and his crew could easily be annihilated by the Shawnee as they explored. He resolved to build a fort and settlement on the north side of the river as a base for his survey crews. "A settlement on the north bank would not only serve as a haven for the survey crews, it would also be a show of force to the Shawnee," Stephen Kelley explains in his article "The Founding of Manchester... Massie's Station."

After much deliberation and discussion, Massie decided to build his fort at a well known landmark of the Ohio River, known as Three Islands. These islands were located about ten miles upriver from Limestone and Washington, and the area was notorious for Indian ambush. "The river channels were narrow around the islands and proved a perfect place for the Shawnee to strike out into the river in their rapid-moving bark canoes and overtake the slower flatboats of the whites," says Kelley. Therefore the location would be ideal not only in its nearness to the lands needing surveying, but also in preventing further depredations on settlers traveling down the river.

To this end, Massie began advertising in Kentucky for families to join him. He offered one in-lot, one out-lot, and one hundred acres of land near the new town to each of the first twenty-five families to sign on with him. In return, they had to agree to help build a fort and man it for a period of two years. The contract was written and signed in the town of Washington, and four of the Wade men signed it. The patriarch of the family, William Wade, along with his sons Josiah, Zephaniah, and George all put their names to the paper.

 

Manchester Island 1 as seen from Manchester Island 2, the two islands that remain today of "Three Islands"
Photographed by Michael Schramm, USFWS
Public domain

 

 
Work on the new town apparently began by November of 1790, because the contract stipulated that the men make it their "permanent seat of residence" by December first. Beginning the station in the winter was strategic; Massie knew that the Indians seldom attacked during the coldest months, being much more occupied with simply surviving.

John McDonald, who actually lived in the fort as a child, says that Massie's group "went to work with spirit. Cabins were raised, and by the middle of March 1791, the whole town was enclosed with strong pickets, firmly fixed in the ground, with block houses at each angle for defence." The place was dubbed Massie's station, and is the site of present-day Manchester, Ohio. It was the first permanent white settlement anywhere in the Virginia Military District, and the fourth in what would later become the state of Ohio.

Building the station was only the beginning of the work to be done. Once the fort was defensible, "the whole population went to work, and cleared the lower of the Three Islands, and planted it in corn. The island was very rich, and produced heavy crops," remembers McDonald.

Nor did Massie forget his purpose in establishing the station. He continued to venture into the lands within a reasonable distance of the fort in order to survey them. On these expeditions, he was accompanied by a company of men. McDonald describes the process:

Three assistant surveyors, with himself making the fourth, were generally engaged at the same time in making surveys. To each surveyor was attached six men, which made a mess of seven. Every man had his prescribed duty to perform. Their operations were conducted in this manner:--In front went the hunter, who kept in advance of the surveyor two or three hundred yards, looking for game, and prepared to give notice should any danger from Indians threaten. Then following after the surveyor, the two chain-men, marker, and pack-horse men with the baggage, who always kept near each other, to be prepared for defence in case of attack. Lastly, two or three hundred yards in the rear, came a man, called the spy, whose duty it was to keep on the back trail, and look out lest the party in advance might be pursued and attacked by surprise. Each man (the surveyor not excepted) carried his rifle, his blanket, and such other articles as he might stand in need of. On the pack-horse was carried the cooking utensils, and such provisions as could be conveniently taken. Nothing like bread was thought of. Some salt was taken, to be used sparingly. For subsistence, they depended alone on the game which the woods afforded, procured by their unerring rifles. (pp. 44-45)

Despite the precautions, these expeditions did not always go as planned. In April 1791, one group was surprised by some Indians arriving in a pair of bark canoes. The surveying crew fled, but one of them, by the name of Israel Donalson, tripped and was captured. Although he managed to escape after about a month and make his way back to the white settlements, and later penned an account of his adventure, such a conclusion was not the norm.

This incident did not deter Massie in his efforts to survey the district. He enlisted help from many of the men at the station, including at least three of the Wades. The History of Warren County, Ohio records that a certain property in Hamilton Township was "Surveyed October 6, 1792, by Nathaniel Massie; Josiah Wade and Matthew Hart, chain carriers; Thomas Massie, marker."

Shortly thereafter, "During the winter of 1792-3, Massie ... employed two men, Joseph Williams and one of the Wades, to accompany him to explore the valley of Paint creek, and part of the Scioto country," stated John McDonald in his Biographical Sketches. Unfortunately, I have thus far been unable to determine which Wade accompanied Massie on this exploration. The survey mentioned above, in Hamilton Township, cannot have been part of this expedition. That was located in present-day Warren County, which is not near Paint creek or the Scioto country. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that Josiah Wade was not the Wade in question; only that the Hamilton Township survey does not prove that it was him.

Alternatively, the mystery Wade could potentially be Zephaniah, the subject of my first post on this family. In Portrait and Biographical Record of the Scioto Valley, Ohio, it is reported that Zephaniah "bought 100 acres or more from Massie, paying Massie by assisting him in surveying lands in various parts of Adams, Highland and Ross counties, as chain carrier and marker." It is a vague statement, but at least it confirms that Zephaniah was present on some of the surveys. Perhaps the Paint creek trip was one of them.

Finally, Jean Wallis records in her article "Putting ‘Hillsborough’ on the map" that Lot number 2513 in Highland County "was surveyed April-May 1795 by Nathaniel Massie, deputy surveyor. Chain carriers were Benjamin Massie and Joseph Wade, the marker was George Edgington." This brings a third Wade brother into the mix.

Therefore, we know from these sources that Josiah, Zephaniah, and Joseph all took part in Massie's surveying expeditions. Josiah and Zephaniah were two of those who had initially signed Massie's contract, and Joseph was a younger brother. He would have been only about fourteen years old when settlement at Massie's Station was begun, but, since his father and three of his older brothers had all joined up, it seems likely that Joseph would have been there from the beginning as well--or at least from when the men felt that their station was secure enough to bring their families. 

 

 

Sources:

 

Morten Carlisle, "Buckeye Station: Built by Nathaniel Massie in 1797," Ohio History Journal 40 (Jan 1931); digital images, Ohio History Connection (www.ohiohistory.org/ : accessed 8 Apr 2021) 1-22. 

 

Curran, A. F., "Israel Donalson, Maysville's First School Teacher: His Thrilling Escape From the Indians," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 15 (May 1917); digital images, JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/ : accessed 24 Jan 2021) 51-62.  

 

Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers, A History of Adams County, Ohio From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time Including Character Sketches of the Prominent Persons Identified with the First Century of the County's Growth and Containing Numerous Engravings and Illustrations  (West Union, Ohio: E. B. Stivers, 1900).

The History of Warren County, Ohio: Containing a History of the County; Its Townships, Towns; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; History of the Northwest Territory; History of Ohio, Map of Warren County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, Etc., Etc. (Chicago: W.H. Beers & Company, 1882),  605. 

 

Stephen Kelley, "The Founding of Manchester... Massie's Station," Ohio Southland 3 (Issue #2 1991); digital images, Adams County Public Library, Biblioboard Open Access (https://library.biblioboard.com/anthology/e552f221-42f0-4b9b-963d-32739ee859fd : accessed 24 Jan 2021) 19-25.

 

John McDonald, Biographical Sketches of General Nathaniel Massie, General Duncan McArthur, Captain William Wells, and General Simon Kenton: Who Were Early Settlers in the Western Country  (Dayton, Ohio: D. Osborn & Son, 1852).  

Portrait and Biographical Record of the Scioto Valley, Ohio  (Chicago, Illinois: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1894),  346.  

 

Jean Wallis, "Putting ‘Hillsborough’ on the map," Times-Gazette, 28 Sept 2016, online archives (https://www.timesgazette.com/news/10602/putting-hillsborough-on-the-map : accessed 4 Dec 2022).  

Sunday's Obituary: Robert Gillispie Robinault

For this post, I will stay within the Robinault family, as I have for the past couple weeks, but feature the obituary of a more distant relation. Robert Gillispie Robinault would have been a nephew of my 3great-grandfather Barney Robinault: a son of his brother Jeremiah. That makes his relationship to me a first cousin four times removed.

The obituary appeared on the front page of the Denison Review on 20 May 1914:

DEATH OF ROBERT ROBINAULT

Pioneer Resident of Crawford County Dies at His Home in West Denison Last Wednesday.

Robert Gillispie Robinault passed away at his home in Denison on last Wednesday, May 13th, after a long illness. Mr. Robinault was one of the pioneer citizens of Crawford county, coming to Denison almost fifty years ago. For a number of years he was engaged in farming in Goodrich township, moving to Denison in 1890, where he has since resided. Mr. Robinault has been in failing health for the past few years and death came as a relief from his long suffering. He has been afflicted for some time with hardening of the arteries and his death was primarily due to this.

The deceased was born Sept. 16, 1849, near Meadville, Crawford county, Pa. At the age of sixteen he moved with his parents to Crawford county, Iowa, first locating on a farm in Goodrich township. He was united in marriage to Mar Lee, Dec. 15, 1873, and to this union three children were born: Charles and Raymond, living, Claude having departed this life Feb. 18, 1909.

Besides his bereaved widow and two sons, he leaves to mourn his death two brothers, Jackson, of Purdum, Neb., and Henry, of Taft, Cali.

Funeral services were held at the Baptist church Saturday afternoon at 2:30, Rev. Williams officiating, after which the body was laid to rest in Oakland cemetery.

Source:

"Death of Robert Robinault," The Denison Review, 20 May 1914, p. 1, col. 5; digital images, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 16 Nov 2014).

Sunday’s Obituary: Mrs. Barney Robinault

As last week’s obituary explained, my 3-great-grandfather Barney Robinault was “twice married.” This obituary is that of his second wife. Although her given name is never revealed in the article, their 1892 marriage record calls her “Veronego Diedrich.” I suspect that Veronego is a phonetic spelling of Veronica.

Barney and Veronego were married in Denison, Crawford, Iowa, in 1892. Both were previously married, but I have not yet looked into Veronego’s past, and cannot tell you the name of her prior husband. 

Her obituary appeared in the Denison Review on 29 July 1903:

Mrs. Barney Robinault died at her home in south Denison on Monday at six o’clock in the afternoon. The cause of her death was dropsy. She was seventy-six years of age and was born in Germany. The funeral was held yesterday. Her husband is very aged and almost blind and will miss the care of his wife, who was constantly looking after her wants.

I presume there is a typographical error on that last line, and that it was intended to read “looking after his wants.”

Sources:

The Denison Review, 29 July 1903, p. 5, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 20 Feb 2022).

FamilySearch, "Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934," database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 11 Oct 2015), entry for Barney Robbennolt and Veronego Diedrich's 1892 marriage; citing Denison, Crawford, Iowa, United States, county courthouses, Iowa. Reference ID BK1 PG130 CN1679; GS Film Number 1035130; Digital Folder Number 004311126.

The Westbere Butts

 

When someday I finally make the trip to England, I will have to go on the ultimate pub crawl. Members of my family have been associated with any number of pubs around England—as my research progresses, the list only keeps growing. There is the Creeksea Ferry Inn, which I detailed in my very first blog post, and which, alas, is now only a vacant building. And it isn’t the same building my great-grandparents would have known, anyway. There are also other pubs, with names like the Railway Hotel, the Chelmer Brig, and the Round House, some still in business under the same or different names. But one pub had the best name of all.

It was called the Westbere Butts.


Say it out loud. It’s fun.

The origin of the name is likely more prosaic than it sounds. It was located in the village of Westbere, Kent, just outside my ancestral village of Sturry. Thus the first part of the name. A butt is a name for a cask which may hold ale. This, I suspect, explains the second part of the name. Alternately, butt can refer to an archery range, and there are a number of places in England with names that refer to Medieval archery grounds. I have found no indication that Westbere Butts is one of those places, but then again, neither have I found anything to eliminate that possibility.

Grolltech, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I have found the Westbere Butts, in Kent, more difficult to research than those pubs located in Essex, so many facts remain missing at this time. Some of those missing facts pertain to dates. Usually I can find newspaper accounts of the precise dates that public house licenses were transferred from one publican to the next, but that has not been possible in this case, at least before the twentieth century. Nor can I ascertain the reason for this difficulty, as license transfers seem to have been published as regularly in Kent as they were in Essex.

However, I can state with certainty that Robert Gurney, a brother of my 4great-grandmother Mary Gurney, appeared in both the Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal of 20 Feb 1810 and the Kentish Gazette of 23 Feb 1810 with a concise marriage announcement referring to him as “Mr. – Gurney, of Westbeer Butts.” Assuming that Westbere Butts was the name of the pub only, this establishes that it was in operation by 1810. However, it could conceivably refer to the area, implying nothing about the alehouse.

There is more definite evidence in the 1838 directory. Robert Gurney can be found in the lists of both “Gentry and Retired Persons” and “Retailers of Beer” with the address of Westbere Butts, Sturry. That “Retailers of Beer” listing is a much stronger indication of a pub on site.

It is still not proof.

As late as 1881, an article appeared in the Kentish Gazette discussing a desired change of license for a beer retailer in Westbere. The house was not named, but was in the tenancy of a Mr. Ede, who already held an off-license. He was requesting that it be changed to an on-license, and the article colorfully describes the difference between the two:

The granting of an on licence would be a great boon to the neighbourhood as at present people had to stand out in the roads when they wanted a glass of ale and other refreshment that the house afforded. The Bench were asked to give permission for beer to be consumed on the premises as this drinking in the street must necessarily be more or less a nuisance.

So it is possible that the Westbere Butts had been in a similar situation. It could have been permitted to retail beer, but not allowed to serve the beer in-house. Therefore, it might not have been a proper pub. 

"Sporting Intelligence: Hunting Appointments: Hariers," Morning Herald, 4 Mar 1854, p. 7, col. 5; digital images, British Newspaper Archive (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk : accessed 21 June 2022), Image public domain.

We do know that it become a pub at some point, though, and that point had to be prior to March of 1854 when the Morning Herald’s lists of sporting events included the “Westbere Butts Public-house” as one of the locations. But what of my family connection?

Robert Gurney passed away in 1848, and his son William seems to have taken up the mantle of beer selling, although not immediately. In the 1851 census William was apparently an ordinary farmer residing in Sturry. It was not until the 1861 census that he was residing at the “Butts Inn” in Westbere, and his occupation given as “Innkeeper + Farmer.” In 1871, he and his family were still at the Butts Inn, but William’s occupation was given merely as “Farmer.” In my research experience, innkeeping often included being the proprietor of a public house, and any premises ending in the word “Inn” tended to be pubs. We do know that the Westbere Butts was considered a pub by this point, so it can be reasonably assumed that William Gurney was the proprietor.

By the 1881 census, though, he had relocated to a place—still in the village of Westbere—known as Walnut Tree Farm. This was apparently an actual farm, as he was reported to be a farmer of 60 acres, who employed one man and two boys. The farm has proven even more difficult to research than the pub, but one website, “Hersden History,” claims that it is “now the sewage farm.” Somehow I prefer the older name.

After the reign of the Gurneys, the Westbere Butts went on to be operated by a series of other publicans, none of them, as far as I have yet discovered, related to me. As the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth, license transfers for the pub began to make their way into the newspapers. In 1903, the license was transferred from Mrs. Emma Bentley to Frederick Luckhurst, and in 1904 the license was renewed. Presumably the license was transferred a few more times before 1936, but those transfers, like those of the earlier century, seem to have disappeared into the ether. The last notice I have been able to find has been of the temporary transfer from Ambrose V. L. Hogbin to Michael J. Lynch in 1936.

Eventually, the Westbere Butts was converted into an Indian restaurant called Spice Master, and then the Mortar and Pestle, before eventually being abandoned. Last year plans were made for its demolition, and, according to a rejoicing comment on Facebook, it has since been demolished. Sadly, the former Westbere Butts with its amusing name will not be able to be included in my prospective genealogical pub crawl. 

Mortar & Pestle (formerly Westbere Butts), Island Road, photo taken 18 July 2021
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © John Baker - geograph.org.uk/p/6937443

Sources:

1851 census of England, Kent, Sturry, folio 155, page 4, household of William Gurney; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Jun 2022); citing PRO HO 107/1625.

1861 census of England, Kent, Sturry, folio 8, page 9, household of William Gurney; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Jun 2022); citing PRO RG 9/522.

1871 census of England, Kent, Sturry, folio 8, page 8, household of William Gurney; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Jun 2022); citing PRO RG 10/971.

1881 census of England, Kent, civil parish of Westbere, village of Westbere, rural sanitary district of Blean, folio 42, page 6, schedule no. 30, household of William Gurney; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Jun 2022); citing PRO RG 11/961.

“Adjourned Licensing Meeting St. Augustine’s Division,” Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 14 Mar 1936, p. 10, col. 2, digital images, British Newspaper Archive (http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk: accessed 23 Oct 2021), Image © Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

Eason, Baldrick. 2022. “On a trip to Hersden yesterday, I was very pleased to see that the old Westbere Butts/Spice Lounge has finally been demolished.” [Post to Canterbury ‘grot-spots’ group]. Facebook. May 22, 2022. https://m.facebook.com/groups/1497870623854226/permalink/2799265447048064/?m_entstream_source=group

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Stapleton & Co., Stapleton & Co.’s Topographical History and Directory of Canterbury, Faversham, Herne-Bay, Sittingbourne, Whitstable, Boughton, Bridge, Fordwich, Greenstreet, Herne-Street, Milton, Ospringe, Sturry, Westbere... (1838), 35-36; digital images, Internet Archive (archive.org : accessed 23 Oct 2021).

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