Tombstone Tuesday – Enos Bennett

 

Enos Bennett was my great-grandfather.  He was born in Russell County, Kentucky on 14 Sept, 1885 to Silas Jackson Bennett and Mary Elizabeth Rumbo.  He spent some time in Oregon around 1915, but returned to Russell County and married Lelar George on 4 Mar. 1917.  After Lelar passed away in 1927, he married Ledora Helen Christman McQueary.  He went to Indiana to find work around 1932 and later brought his family to Franklin, Indiana to live.  He passed away in Franklin on 6 Feb, 1999.  He is buried in Clear Springs Cemetery in Russell County.

1915 Enos Bennett in Oregon

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Tombstone Tuesday – Lelar Bennett

 

Lelar (George) Bennett was my great-grandmother.  She was born on Dec. 25, 1896 in Russell County, Kentucky.  Her parents were William George and Mary Elizabeth Stephens.  She married Enos Bennett in Russell County on March 4, 1917.  She had 4 children, including my grandmother, Vesper Mary Bennett, before she passed away from tuberculosis on Oct. 2, 1927.  Her youngest child, William, died a short time later on Oct. 16, 1927 at the age of 4 months. 

Lelar in 1915

I’ve had a poor quality black and white photo of her tombstone for quite awhile, but was finally able to visit Clear Spring Cemetery and take this photo in August.  I also did a foil rubbing of the stone, which was an improvement, but not perfect.  I wish I could tell what the words below the death date are, but I had no better luck on that with the foil.  I took photos of all of the stones in the cemetery and am in the process of uploading them to Findagrave.com.

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Andrew Dabelstein family – Tombstone Tuesday

Dabelstein family plots

After my family research trip to Chicago this week-end, I have most of the blanks in the Andrew Dabelstein group sheet filled in. I need 1 date of death for a son and confirmation of the marriage guess that I have made (and the parents of Andrew or his wife, Alvina Carsten).  A combination of church records on microfilm from the Newberry Library and a visit to the cemetery helped fill in blanks or confirm educated guesses that I had made.  Here’s what I have:

Andreas “Andrew” J Dabelstein – b. 27 Jan 1853  m. around 1879  d. 23 Nov 1929 in Kankakee County, but buried in Concordia Cemetery, Chicago.
Alvina Carsten/Karsten – b. 17 June 1857 d. 27 May 1912.

Andreas was born in Lubeck, Holstein, Germany and Alvina was born in Kayhude, Holstein Germany.  They came to America in 1882 along with their 11 month old son.

John (Hans) Dabelstein – b. 27 Dec 1881 in Germany.  I don’t believe he was married.  He died 6 Mar 1903 in Chicago and is buried in this plot in Concordia Cemetery.

Martha Dabelstein – b. 5 Jan 1883 in Chicago.  Never married.  d. 27 Mar 1913 in Chicago and buried in this plot.

Wilhelmina Dorothy Dabelstein – b. 25 Apr 1885  m.  Paul Danker on 28 Apr 1909 in Chicago  d. 18 Feb 1972 in Rockford, Illinois.  Also buried in Concordia Cemetery with her husband and 3 daughters in the Danker plots.

William Dabelstein – b. 13 Sept. 1887 in Chicago.  Never married.  d. 18 Jun 1917 in Chicago.  Buried in this plot in Concordia Cemetery.

Henry “Andrew Jr.” Dabelstein – b. 26 July 1894 in Chicago.  Possibly married to Emma Stolz on 26 July 1916.  I have no date or location of death.

I would love to be able to fill in the final blanks for Andrew Jr and obviously, I’d like to find the next generation back.  For the next generation, I think the next step will be to take a look at some Kayhude and Lubeck records, but I’m uncertain what is available and if I’ll be able to determine which church records to look at.  There are some records for Lubeck on Ancestry, but everything is in Germany and the last time I was at the library, I was unprepared to do any translations.  I don’t believe any of the records were church records.  I know that AWAP is working on transcribing an index for Lubeck census records and I’m anxious to see those!  Guess it’s time to visit the Family Search web site!

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Tombstone Tuesday – George VonLanken

George and Anna VonLanken

George VonLanken was born Apr. 19, 1892 in Douglas County, Illinois.  He was the 5th child of Heinrich VonLanken and Maria Heit.  Heinrich (Henry) had come to America at the age of 12 and moved with his family directly to Douglas County.

George married Anna Marie Klink on Jan 12, 1911 in Douglas County and remained there to raise their 5 children.  George passed away in Douglas County on Feb. 22, 1966 and is buried next to his wife in Zion Cemetery.

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Tombstone Tuesday – John Herscher

John Herscher - 1842 - 1885

John Herscher was born in Vogelgrun, Alsace France on 24 May, 1842.  John and his mother, Catherine, arrived in the US (as well as 2 of his 3 siblings) around 1852. One brother, Frederick,  came 2 years later.  Interestingly, John’s father and step-father were both named Andreas Herrscher (which made for interesting research puzzles!)

John was the founder of Herscher, Illinois, although his brother, Frederick had more of a leadership position within the town government.  John and his wife, Caroline Wesemann, had no children.  John’s sister, Mary, was my husband’s great-great-great grandmother.  All three brothers served during the Civil War.  The third brother, Jacob, was killed during that war.

John’s tombstone is located in the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church cemetery near Herscher, Illinois.

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Tombstone Tuesday – Oliver and Mintie Smith

 

These are my great-grandparents – my grandfather’s parents.  They spent most of their lives in Russell County, Kentucky, but moved to Franklin, Indiana around 1946.  They are buried in the cemetery of First Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Franklin.

Mintie was the daughter of Joseph Scott and Nancy Jain Gilpin – the subject of my Madness Monday!  Oliver Smith’s parents were Elias Smith and Victoria Coffey.

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Tombstone Tuesday: Vesper Smith

Vesper Mary Bennett Smith

Vesper Smith was my maternal grandmother.  She was born in Russell County, Kentucky in 1918 and died in Johnson County, Indiana in 1999.

My grandmother had a difficult life.  When she was 8 years old, she peeked around the corner of the bedroom and watched as her mother passed away from tuberculosis.  She became a mother to her 2 younger brothers especially when their new step-mother proved to be quite hateful toward them.  Step-siblings were permitted to eat first while Vesper and her brothers waited for left-overs.  They were never allowed to be ill, but had to sneak outside at night to be sick.  When Vesper’s father moved the family to Indiana for better job prospects, he bought 2 houses – one for Grandma and her brothers and the other for his 2nd family.

Vesper met my grandfather, who was also from Russell County, in a church in Franklin.  She recalls that he had the largest Bible in the church.  After they were married, the hard truth came out – he was an alcoholic.  As a colicky baby, his mother had added alcohol to his bottle to induce sleep.  Life with an alcoholic husband was a difficult one and raising 5 children was a challenge.  Some family members have hinted that Grandma may have “turned him in to the draft board” around 1944 in order to have a reliable income to support the family.  Eventually, my grandparents divorced.

In spite of these years of hardship, my Grandmother had a gentle, caring spirit.  She was a dedicated Christian woman and my most vivid memories of being at her house include the sounds of good old fashioned Gospel music coming from the radio in her kitchen as we spent evenings sitting on her front porch.  We lived far away from her while I was growing up, so I didn’t get to spend much time with her.  When I think of Grandma, I can taste the “church gum” and smell the Jergins lotion! 

My mother says I look like her when she was young.  I’ve chosen to make her picture my Twitter icon in honor of her!

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