The Unforgotten - The First Edith Lenora Sauser

 I must warn you, this blog post is tragically sad. 

Years ago, when researching my step-father's side of the family, I came across a conundrum. It has literally taken me five years to solve.

Let's begin with my step-great grandmother, Edith Lenora SAUSER. 

She was the daughter of Paul Frederick SAUSER and Orpah Annette SCHNOOVER who were married in Johnson County, Iowa, 27 July 1911. According to her birth certificate, she was born 07 October 1911 in Prarieburg, Linn County, Iowa. Paul was 23 and Orpha was 28. Edith was born after just 2.5 months of marriage. 

As I began to work my way up her tree, I came across an article before her birth, mentioning her father, Paul SAUSER. It was a plea for divorce by a Margaret SAUSER who claimed abuse and wanted custody of their ONE YEAR OLD daughter, EDITH LENORA SAUSER. 

The Courier; Page 3, Waterloo, Iowa, Mon 30 March 1908

I immediately began investigating this Margaret, but couldn't find a marriage record on Family Search or Ancestry. I also began looking for records for an Edith Lenora SAUSER born 1907 and all the results were either completely wrong or records that I knew were MY Edith Lenora SAUSER born 1911.

Then last week I decided to google archived marriage records for North Dakota. I ended up at the State Historical Society of North Dakota. I did a vague search, only entering SAUSER for the groom's last name and then the year 1905 and got exactly one hit. 

SAUSER/BEATTY 

Notice this tells us Paul's middle initial is the same as MY Paul FREDERICK.

The next information I found were Waterloo, Iowa,  city directory entries for Paul F SAUSER, wf Margaret, for the years 1906 and 1908. 

Then the 1910 census find Paul F SAUSER living in Boulder, Linn, IA, with his brother John M. SAUSER. His marital status was marked 'D' for divorced. 

So then I began looking for Margaret V. BEATTY. I found her in the 1900 census as VIOLA M. BEATTY age 12, birth state, Illinois, the daughter of James W. and Edith BEATTY, living in Whitewater, Dubuque, IA.  and in the 1905 Iowa State census she's again listed with J W BEATTY as Margaret BEATTY, her mother, Edith is not listed. I later find two obituaries for Edith and it creates more questions than answers. 

The first obituary is from page 5 of Monticello Express 11 Dec 1902. It states, "Mr. and Mrs. BEATTY had no children of their own but their hearts were full of sympathy for the little ones who were without parental care"

And the second obituary from page 5 of the Cascade Pioneer, published in Cascade, Iowa on Friday, December 12th, 1902 goes on to name the foster children as "Margaret BEATTY, Mildred RAFFETY, Myrta DAVIDSON, Elon RAFFETY, and Linnie SHOTWELL" 

I have searched and searched for Margaret Viola BEATTY SAUSER in the 1910 census and can find no trace of her or the one year old baby, Edith Lenora SAUSER, from the 1908 article. 

I keep searching and find a marriage record in Jackson County, Missouri on the 21 Dec 1918 for a Margaret V BEATTY, born in 1888, to a Charles PRATT. I decide to look for them in the 1920 census to see if this Margaret was also born in Illinois and sure enough, they're living in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri and she is indeed born in Illinois. But there is no Edith Lenora born 1907. It's only Charles and Margaret PRATT.

I research this couple a little more to discover sadly, that two short years later, Margaret dies from pulmonary tuberculosis. Her death certificate goes on to list her parents as David E. GLENN and Mary L. CLARK. I begin to second guess myself. Maybe this isn't the right woman after all. But when I find the obituary for this Margaret I get some answers..... and more questions.

So now I don't know who Margaret's birth parents were and I don't know why baby Edith born 1907 wasn't with her in 1920 or mentioned at all in her obituary. Did Paul get custody? Was my Edith actually 4 years older? Did they falsify records? Was her birth certificate accurate? Was Orpha SCHNOOVER not her mother after all?

Or, more likey, maybe the first Edith Lenora SAUSER died. Babies died often back then. I can find no birth record or death record no matter how much I search. I laid everything aside and decided to come back later. Maybe a few days would give Ancestry's algorithms a chance to catch up to all the new information. 

When I came back, there weren't any accurate hints. They all are records for my grandmother born in 1911. But when I hit "search" a Find-a-grave record comes up for an Edith SAUSER born in 1906 and died 24 March 1930 in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. I feel this is unlikely to be her so far away but the inscription on her stone makes me decide to dig a little further. 

EVEN THOUGH ALONE IN LIFE NOT FORSAKEN IN DEATH

I decide to once again turn to old newspapers and there her tragic story unfolds. 

Edith had been adopted around 1908 to a Mr. and Mrs. H T HECHT according to the below articles. This turns out to be an error that I discover once I was able to find her marriage record. She married Mr. Alphia O HART in 1921. Marriage announcements give her the name Hazel HECHT, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A B HECHT of San Bernardino, CA. I was then able to find Hazel E HECHT, the adopted daughter of  Albert and Jessie HECHT in the 1920 San Bernardino census. She was born 1907 in Iowa. And again in 1910 with Albert and Maude HECHT in Waterloo, IA.

Maude died in 1912. Notice that her husband, Albert worked for the same company Paul SAUSER did in the 1906 Waterloo, IA, directory. 

Something happened between Hazel/Edith and her husband and the marriage ended in 1927. Sometime afterwards in Jan 1929 she gave birth to an "invalid" son at Holmes Home of Redeeming Love in Oklahoma, City. He was 14 months old at the time of his mother's death. I'm unsure if Mr. HART was his father or not.

Edith struggled to make ends meet and suffered with unimaginable heartbreak and depression as well as failing health. She was a waitress making $16/week. Because of sympathy and her good nature, her employer paid her more than the going rate. But life was just too cruel. I imagine when child services took her son, it was the last straw and she decided to end her life by drinking poison. Her last words, "I'm to blame for everything."

In one of the articles it mentions that she was born in Waterloo, IA.  

Edith Lenora Sauser - May she rest in peace. 

Edith Sauser sketch

So here's to a woman whose history and existence is only to be found in Newspapers for those who would take the time to connect the dots. 

If her son survived and has heirs, I hope they one day find this information. I have no idea what his name was, first or last. 


Here's a picture side by side of Grandma Edith and her half-sister by the same name. As well as a picture of their father in later years. 

Until next time
Becky 

After posting inquiries online where one might find old adoption records, the following article from the 'Semi Weekly Reporter' 7 July 1908 was shared with me. 

I dug a little more using a different newspaper archive and found another similar article from the Waterloo Daily Courier 3 July 1908. This article gets the name change right.

DNA, Home Remedies, and Customs

This is a picture of my grandmother's maternal grandmother, Clara Inda EVANS ACORD. She went by the name "Indie". In this picture she is about 26 years old. 

Her parents Josiah EVANS and Jane CONNER were some of the early pioneers of NE Johnson County, Arkansas, and they started the little backwoods cemetery known as Evans Cemetery. It sits on a little level area on the side of a mountain  above the Little Mulberry Creek.

Family tradition has always been that Jane's mother, Effie, was Native and her last name was BULL (a few researchers say CHRYST) The only records Effie can be found in are the 1850 & 1860 census in Greene and Webster counties, in Missouri. There are no marriage records. No one can be certain who her parents were. In census records she gives her birth state as North Carolina and says she was born around 1794/5. 

While I may not be able to prove parentage, I'm starting to feel confident about heritage. 

Several years ago, I tested my DNA with 23andMe and noticed that I had trace amounts of "Indigenous American" and "Broadly Sub-Saharan" DNA. I then began to look at my DNA matches and only those who also descended from Grandma Indie also had these results. 

My grandmother's oldest sister tested her DNA with Ancestry.  Ancestry narrowed her African results down to the Cameroon, Congo & Western Bantu Peoples of Africa. This really piqued my interest, but I didn't really investigate further until I began reading a book that was describing superstitions, remedies, and recipes of former slaves and one story reminded me of one that has been told in my own family. In the book a former slave mentioned that cow manure tea brewed with mint could cure consumption. My grandmother tells a story of  how Grandmother Indie made sheep dung tea to cure grandmother's sister of the measles. Her sister didn't know what was in the tea, but grandma had seen Indie making it and was told not to tell her sister! 

This reminded me once again of the African DNA results. But this isn't the only connection to possible slave roots. The Evans Cemetery, I mentioned earlier, has lots of broken pieces of pottery scattered around. Each year when it's time to clean the cemetery, descendants go through and pick up any that have been strewn from weather and wildlife and place them once again on their ancestors graves. This tradition was started by Indie's mother Jane, who was sometimes called "Black Granny". According to stories told by her descendants, Granny Jane would take her grandchildren and walk over the country gathering broken dishes. They would then take them to decorate the graves at the cemetery. Each grave had a wooden frame built around it. Just before decoration, Jane and the children would carry water from the Little Mulberry creek to the cemetery where they would remove all the pottery and glass and wash it. Then they would take newspaper and place it in the frames as a weed barrier and then take the now clean pottery and glass and place it on the newspapers. (Taken from the Evans, Oark, Patterson Springs and Yale cemetery book compiled by Doris Evans and Jimmie Dewberry).

Evans Decoration 1939 (my grandmother is the baby being held by her father, Newell)

Jane's son Rev. William Walker EVANS at his wife's grave.

Below are some current photos of the broken pottery that remains. 

 

Whenever I research this tradition of decorating graves with pottery online, the very first search result said,

The Africans of the Congo introduced this tradition of decorating graves with grave goods to America. They did this by using pots and shells as grave goods to signify certain statuses or traits, honoring and protecting the spirit. [3] This tradition has continued through the twentieth century and has evolved over time.   

Another resource said,

In North America the surface decoration of graves with ceramics and other objects is the most commonly recognized African-American material culture indicator of cemetery sites. William Faulkner, in Go Down, Moses, described a black cemetery with “shards of pottery and broken bottles and old brick and other objects insignificant to sight but actually of a profound meaning and fatal to touch, which no white man could have read”(Faulkner 1942:135; cf. Vlach 1978:139)

 

Notice above the mention of the Congo region of Africa, precisely the same area our DNA results indicate. Using Ancestry, I began to compare DNA results to other descendants of Jane and found several others had the same results ranging from 1%-3% of Cameroon, Congo and Western Bantu Peoples. From Jane's eldest daugher, Effie,  (pictured to the left and named after her maternal grandmother) my great aunt had three matches that shared this same African DNA. From Jane's son "Jody" my great aunt had one match that shared this same DNA as well as one who had Nigerian. And from another son, William, (pictured below) there one descendant who also had Nigerian DNA results. 



 
 

     From the maps below you can see that these two regions border one another. Several of these descendants also had Indigenous markers. All of this leads me to have a strong belief that not only was Jane's mother, Effie, native, but she was most likely also a descendant of a slave. We may not know the names of our ancestors going further back in Effie's lineage, but I think it's truly special that this particular custom belonging to her heritage remains today.

Also, today I noticed my flowering quince that I dug from Granny Jane's homestead a few years ago has bloomed for the first time. 

My Aunt Diane, my mother's sister, tested recently with Ancestry DNA and her results came back with Cameroon and Congo as well! 

Until next time, 
Becky 

Busting Through Brick Walls

I've been lying in my bed in the reclining position for days now, fighting an intense muscle spasm in my neck that just will not respond to all the usual tricks I have up my sleeve. Usually, when I find myself confined to my bed, I take that time to deep dive into my genealogy research. This time, I think it might have paid off. 

Years ago, I began researching my step-mom's side of the family. I quickly encountered a brick wall on her maternal side with her great grandfather, James Walter Moore. You can find my previous blog post about him here. I have gone back numerous times trying to discover who his parents could be and today, I may have just found them. It all starts with a widowed mother, Sarah JONES, living in Bates Township of Sebastian County, AR. She is 40 years old and is listed with the following JONES children:

1. Nittie age 19 born in Texas
2. Walter age 18 born in Texas
3. Littie age 15 born in Texas
4. Susan age 14 born in Texas
5. Clyde age 5 born in Arkansas
6. Elsie age 3 born in Arkansas
   

The first thing I notice instantly are the three names Nittie (I have "Nettie" in my tree), Walter, and Susan. The ages and birth dates all fit for my previous MOORE siblings theory (read the blog I linked earlier).

Then I notice the age gap between Susan and Clyde meaning JONES could be a second marriage for Sarah. Thirdly this family is on the same page as James Walter's soon-to-be wife's family, the DILLAHUNTYS. 

Other things that begin to line up are so many familiar names. Is Littie actually something along the lines of Lettie? James Walter named his daughter Leta. A little more research shows I was correct, Littie's maiden name was not JONES but a marriage record indicates it was indeed MOORE. Now bear with me because "Littie's" name is all over the place in all the records I find her in. Her marriage record gives her name as Lillie. But the entry is directly across from who I believe to be her sister, Nettie. With the records only being a week apart.

See the record for yourself below:

Now remember when I mentioned James Walter Moore's daughter Leta? Her middle name was Grace. The youngest JONES child, Elsie's middle name was also Grace. And she married a MARTIN. Her half-sister, Susie's brother-in-law, Leonard Larkin MARTIN, to be exact. 

Then there's the youngest JONES child from the 1900, Sebastian County, census -- his name being Clyde. James Walter Moore also named his youngest son, Clyde

James Walter Moore eventually moves to Vann, Muskogee County, OK and by 1930 the Clyde JONES family is living there as well, with his mother going by the nickname Sallie rather than Sarah.

Sarah, the mother of these MOORE/JONES children died in 1940 and is buried in Lone Star cemetery in Sebastian County, AR. Her headstone says she was the wife of Lee JONES. Using that information I was then able to his death notice in Fort Smith Elevator published Friday, 11 March 1898. If he was about 25 that would make his birth date around the year 1873.

This lets me look for a marriage record between a Lee JONES and Sarah/Sallie MOORE and sure enough, I found one even if her name is given as MOON instead. (Why is it so hard to get an accurate name?) But notice Miss is marked through and Mrs. is written over it, indicating she was previously married. Also of note, in this record from 1890, Mr. Lee JONES is said to be 30 years of age. So which one do we believe, his marriage record or his death notice?

Regardless, here's the marriage record.

Littie MOORE BUCKNER's death certificate claims her father's name was Thomas MOORE. I wish I had any of her siblings' death certificates to compare because sometimes the informant gives bad information in their time of grief. Was Littie's middle name actually Thomas? And was her mother's maiden name truly JONES before she married Thomas MOORE?



I can't access the actual image of Clyde JONES' death certificate from Burlington, Skagit County, Washington, but the information given is that his full name is Clyde Thomas JONES and that his father's name was Lee JONES and his mother's name was Sally STROUD. His death date was 14 June 1955. 

And that lead me to this gem!

Then searching in that same county, Fayette County, Texas, I find 12 year old Sallie STROUD living with a 29 year old female with the initials E A HART and several young HART children in the year 1870. There's also a 13 year old house servant living with the family. Her name was Sophia McKEEN.

I don't believe E A HART to be Sarah's mother. As there is evidence she was the widow of Lucius Simmons HART and her name at the time of their marriage in 1860 was HUNT not STROUD. So what relation is she?

After further digging in Fayette County, Texas I discovered that a Mr. Balus C STROUD married a Ms. Louisa A HEART in 1864 is this a connection? Baylis STROUD was married previously to a Nancy GILL and can be found with two young children; Walter (age 3) and little Sallie (age 7/12) THIS is her parents!

And using that I find that Sallie STROUD was enumerated twice in 1870. 



Once with her widowed father and brother on page 38. And then again with E A HART on page 44, who would have been her recently deceased step mother's sister-in-law, so her aunt through marriage, both her father's remarriage and then her step-mother's brother's marriage. Maybe she was helping her with the younger children? 

There's another HART connection. Lucius and Louisa HART had a brother named Junius HART who married Lois Antoinette MOORE who was the sister of Thomas Lyt MOORE (see further down below). Lois Antoinette is also who I believe Walter's older sister "Nettie" is named after.

AND as a BONUS there's even a birth record from the GILL Family Bible



And for now the trail ends with a few Thomas MOOREs born around the same time frame all living in Fayette County, Texas in 1870. For now, I don't know which one is mine. But I believe I'm settling on the Thomas L Moore b 1856 in Mississippi with parents named James K and Mary MOORE.

I also believe I have found a memorial tribute and it all starts to make sense, with his daughter's name -- Littie Thomas MOORE, she was indeed named after her father. West Point was a small community that sprang up in the 1880s at the crossroads of the MKT railroad. 




I hope you're able to keep up. I've convinced myself these are indeed the parents and siblings of James Walter MOORE. Hopefully, I've also convinced you.

***********************************************************************************

This is a bit out of order but I also wanted to include the 1910 census where the remaining Sarah aka Sallie JONES family is right next door the the remaining Emily DILLAHUNTY family on Burnville and Booneville Rd. 

Until next time, 
Becky

Remembering Grandpa Leroy

 My Grandpa passed away recently. In the pictures that were shared during his memorial and viewing was a picture of my Grandpa with one of his teenage best friends standing in front of an old truck. I immediately thought of a letter Grandma had written to me on his behalf a few years ago talking about Grandpa's first truck. Sure enough this truck he was standing in front of was the very same she had written to me about. 

Grandpa is on the right. His friend Eugene Mchols (sp?) is on the left. 

I'll also include a copy of Grandma's letter as well as a link in case it's hard to read in this format. 

If this is too hard to read, try clicking here. 

I'm also going to include a few other pictures of Grandpa that were new to me and a few that aren't:

Leroy and Betty June

Young Grandpa (Leroy) with his Dad (OZ aka Trig) and their HUGE watermelons

Grandpa's first and only remaining cousin on his mother's side, Stanley, told us at Grandpa's memorial, that  Trig and Leroy had won the blue ribbon at the county fair for these watermelons and someone took their cane and jabbed it into the prize melon in order to get some seeds!

Grandpa holding baby Diane

Oz, Bondell, Betty June and Leroy

Reine on Leroy's lap, Michelle on Reba's lap and Diane

Obituary

Leroy Harrison Melson

Age 84, a resident of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, passed away Friday, June 18, 2021 in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. He was born April 13, 1937 in Oark, Arkansas, the son of O.Z. and Bondell (Bynum) Melson.

Leroy worked for the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park for fourteen years.

He was preceded in death by his parents, one son Steven Melson and one sister Betty June Young.

Survivors include his wife of 65 years Rebecca Stepp Melson; three daughters Karen "Diane" Walls of Bismarck, Arkansas, Denise "Reine" Moore and her husband Steve of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, and Michelle Hyler also of Prairie Grove; six grandchildren Landon Patterson, Preston Patterson, Christy Hood, Becky Drake, Tyler Moore and Bradley Smith, thirteen great grandchildren and five great great grandchildren.

The family will receive friends Monday evening from 6:00-7:00 p.m. at Luginbuel Funeral Home.

Funeral service will be held 2:00 PM Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021, at Luginbuel Chapel in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Burial will be Wednesday, June 23rd, 2021 at 10:00 AM in Evans Cemetery in Pettigrew, Arkansas.

The family would like to express their appreciation to the staff of Circle of Life Hospice for the loving care given to Leroy.

Grandpa will be missed by many. He left a legacy of many people who will cherish him and remember him fondly. 

Until next time, 
Becky

The Unforgotten -- Benton Q. Williams

 A week or so ago, while digging in and searching for surnames belonging to my husband's ancestors in the Miami Record - Herald, I came across one that mentioned his 2nd great grandmother, Mrs. Eliza Sneary of Commerce. She was named as the next of kin and was to receive a memorial certificate in honor of a soldier who had died inWW1. 

Miami Record-Herald 20 Feb 1920

From Eliza's obituary, I knew that she had three sons that preceded her in death. They were listed by name as: Lorenzo Dow, William Sherman, and Ben Q.

The Houston Herald 8 March 1934

I have never found Lorenzo or William in the census records, but Ben Q. Had been in both the 1900 census as 'Binnie' and then 1910 as Benton. I went to Fold3 and began searching for military records. I came up empty on Lorenzo and William and even when I put in Benton. Then finally, I tried the name written in her obituary; Ben Q.  and found his burial card. It states that he was a private in Co F, 16th Infantry. His cause of death was K/A. His date of death was 4 Oct 1918. 

He was temporarily buried in plot 5 at Chatel-Chehery where he had fallen in battle. Coordinates were even given for his plot. 

 He was then disinterred and reburied 9 June 1919, in Grave #44, Sec. 26, Plot 3. at Argonne American Cemetery. 

The emergency address on file was for Lizza Sneary (Mother) at Western Grove, Arkansas. She was notified on 12 May 1919

 *Western Grove, AR was also given as their residence in Eliza's MIL's obituary*

Ben's grave marker was a cross. Another contact listed was his brother Martin in Commerce, Oklahoma. 

His body was once again disinterred 16 July 1921 and prepared for shipment. It arrived at the European port of Antwerp in Belgium. From there it was shipped on the Wheaton to Hoboken, NJ on 6 Aug 1921. It arrived two weeks later. From there it was shipped to Miami, Oklahoma on 28 Sept 1921. It arrived four days later 2 Oct 1921.

I was also able to find an article mentioning Benton's reburial at the G.A.R. Cemetery in Miami. 

Joplin Globe 4 Oct 1921

I searched the G.A.R cemetery on Find A Grave and was unable to find him listed so I created a memorial for him there, using a few of the images above. 

In all of my research, this is the first WW1 casualty of war I've found in my family as well as my husbands. I will say that one month after Ben's death, my great grandfather boarded the RMS Aquitania headed for France. How different things might have been, had he been called up just a month or two earlier. .

I hope in the years that follow that you'll remember Ben Q. Williams and the countless others who were lost to the Great War. Many of those young men and women were so young they were unmarried and without children of their own. It would be easy for them to be forgotten in just a generation or two. 

I also encourage you to click any of the links highlighted in this post, especially about the USAT Wheaton both here and above.

Until next time, 
Becky