Our Pilgrm Ancestor

A Davison ancestor with a vivid history is my 8th great-grandfather Robert Goodale (1604-1683), who set sail for the Massachusetts colony from Ipswich, Suffolk County,England on April 30, 1634. This was just 14 years after the Mayflower settled in Plymouth colony. He arrived on the ship Elizabeth when he was 30 years old and he was accompanied by his 28-year-old wife Kathrin Killiam (the maiden name of my 8th great-grandmother) and three young offspring. Kathrin was born in Dennington, Suffolk County, England. Our 7th great-grandmother Mary Goodale was just 4 years old and her siblings included 2-year-old Abraham and 6 month old Isaac (Isaacke). Studying ancestors can be confusing because names were spelled many different ways, and no one seemed at all concerned about which spelling was the correct one. Goodale was often spelled Goodell or Goodall. Kathrin Killian’s name was spelled variously as Catherine, or Katherine and her maiden name alternate spelling was Kilham.

Robert is related to us through the mother of Riley Davison (Alma Pease). The line is as follows: Riley Davison (1884-1937) then Alma Pease Davison (1854-1886), then her father Edmund Pease (1809-1885) and his father Joel Pease (1760-1844). Joel’s father was James Pease (1713-1760) while his father was also James Pease (1679-1748). His father was John Pease (1654-1734) and his father was another John Pease (1632-1688). This oldest Pease ancestor married Mary Goodale and Mary is our direct ancestor who arrived on the ship Elizabeth at the age of 4 years. The Pease side of the family also has an interesting history, but today I will concentrate on the Goodale side.

After Robert and Kathrin arrived in Massachusettes with their young brood, they proceeded to settle in the young village of Salem. Robert’s home in Salem was located by a spring in the area that is now call Liberty Hill Park.  This Salem is the same town where witch trials were held some 58 years after the Goodale’s arrival. By that time some descendants of Robert’s still lived in Salem. One of Robert’s sons, Jacob, was beaten by a man named Giles Corey around 1675 and this severe beating resulted in his death. At the time, the assailant was merely given a fine, but 17 years later he and his wife were both put to death as witches, and the beating of Jacob years earlier was one reason given for the death sentence by pressing (laying heavier and heavier stones upon a person until they died, which in this case took two days). Jacob was named in a poem or story by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “New England Tragedies” as it was rumored that Jacob’s ghost appeared from time to time, complaining about his murder. To quote Longfellow “Look! Look! It is the ghost of Jacob Goodale, whom 15 years ago this man did murder, by stomping on his body! In his shroud he comes here to bear witness to this crime.”

Another of Robert’s children, Sarah, married John Batchelder, and he was one of the jurors during the witchcraft trials.

Robert and Kathrin had five more children after they arrived in Salem. In addition to our 7th great-grandmother Mary (1630-1669), and her siblings Abraham (1632-presumed to have died young) and Isaac (1633-1679), there was Nehemiah (1636-1726), Sarah (1640-1728), Zachariah (1640-1715), Jacob (1641-1675), and Hannah (1645-1677). It is assumed that Kathrin died as a result of birth complications during the birth of Hannah, as she died in 1645, at the age of 37. In those days, it was essential that a widower remarry quickly in order to have another spouse to care for the young children and to assume all the duties that kept a family thriving. Some of these duties included making clothes for the family, making candles, cooking, and raising a garden. Robert remarried either in 1645 or in 1646 to a Maragret Lazenby. They may have had one daughter, Elizabeth (1646-1692), but her birthdate is in doubt, so she may actually have been Mary’s daughter.

Robert died in Salem in 1683. During his lifetime he had become a wealthy man by the standards of time. He amassed over 1,000 acres in the town of Salem. He must have been a well-to-do man when he lived in England, because immediately upon his arrival in Salem, he was able to purchase 543 acres of land from the towns of Salem and Danvers. That same year, he purchased another 40 acres and in 1652 the town sold him another 504 acres. Upon the marriage of his son Isaac, Robert had a beautiful house built for him. This house was disassembled and moved to Ipswich, Massachusetts and reassembled in 1928. A private family lives there but the home is on the Historic Register of Homes and is located at 153 Argilla Rd, Ipswich. If you go to the website zillow.com and type in the address, you can see several pictures of where your 7th or 8th great grand-uncle lived. I have included one picture here.

The following is information I copied from a book called ‘The Goodale-Goodell-Goodall Family.”

 Robert seems to have devoted his life to the development of his large grant for the

benefit of his sons and daughters to whom, as they married, he gave generous acreage as

wedding gifts, thus creating a family settlement about his own homestead. His firm clear

handwriting would indicate  that he had received a good education, but he took no part in

governmental affairs and his name seldom appears in the records in any capacity except as

plaintiff or defendant in suits based on the ownership of his land and stock. On August 30, 1669,

he made settlement on his second wife, Margaret; “12 acres of land, a new dwelling house,

two cows and a horse or mare fit for her to ride on.” He died and his will was proved on June 27, 1683.

 He left his estate to his youngest daughter Elizabeth and his grandson, John Smith.

Wife Margaret was mentioned as having already been provided for, as were his other children.

While Robert was a Pilgrim , he was not a Puritan. He appears to have made the journey for the economic advantages that he felt he could gain and pass on to his children, rather than for any strong religious dissention with the Church of England.

Our 7th great grand-mother Mary had four children after her 1653 marriage to John Pease. These children included John Pease (1654-1734) who is our 6th great-grandfather, as well as Robert (1656-1744), Margaret (1658-1737), Sarah (1661-1735), and Abraham (1662-1735). Mary died on January 5, 1669 at the age of 39. John Pease remarried an Ann Cummins/Cummings on December 8, 1669. The Pease family also originated in England. John Pease Senior was born in Great Braddow, Essex County, England and he came to the Massachusetts colony as a young man of 21 (1653). He and Mary were wedded shortly after his arrival in Salem. The young couple moved to Enfield, Hartford County, Connecticut and settled there at some point in the 1660’s and three of the four children spent their entire lives in Enfield, Connecticut. The Pease descendants stayed in Connecticut for about 100 years and then my 3rd great-grandfather Joel Pease moved with his family to Ashtabula, Ohio, where his son Edmund and then his grand-daughter Alma Pease were born. Edmund moved his family to Randolph, Crawford County, Pennsylvania prior to 1870 (as seen in the 1870 census) where Ama met my great-grandfather Isaac “Pete” Pearson Davison and they married in June, 1882. Riley was born to them in 1884, and Lee Roy was born in 1885. Alma died on February 6, 1886 when Lee was just 4 months old. A family story relates that the cause was a ruptured appendix.

Tracing the Buchan family back to 1725.

Granddad’s second wife, Elizabeth Walker Buchan Schriver was born in Cumbernauld, Dumbartonshire County, Scotland in December, 1892. She sailed to American with her parents and a few of her siblings in1910. She went back to Scotland for a visit in May 1923, sailing from New York City to Glasgow, Scotland. Elizabeth married Grandad on April 18, 1927. Elizabeth’s mother’s maiden name was Mary McFarlane (1865-1940). Mary’s father was George McFarlane (1843-1891). Her grandfather was John Mcfarlane (born 1808). John was born in Glasgow but spent much of his life in Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He died some time after 1871.
On Elizabeth’s father’s side, we can trace the Buchan family back as far as 1725. Elizabeth’s father was Thomas Mercer Buchan (1855-1924). Thomas was born in Glasgow and lived in various town including Old Monkland , Lanarkshire county, Cumbernauld, Dumbartonshire County, Glasgow, and New Monkland, Lanarkshire County. Thomas’ father was John Buchan, born in 1823. He spend most of his life in Portmark, Kinross County, Scotland. He died sometime after 1891. Elizabeth’s great-grandfather was another John Buchan (1785-1873). This John also spent much of his life in Portmoak, Kinross County, although he spent his last few years in Strathmiglo, Fife County. Elizabeth’s great-great grandfather was Andrew Buchan (born 1751). He spent his life in Portmoak, Kinross County and in 1781, he married Elizabeth’s great-great grandmother, Elspeth Normand (born 1748). The farthest back that I have traced the family, thus far, is is to Elizabeth’s third great grandfather, who’s name was Alexander Buchan (born 1725). Alexander was born in what was then known as Kinross-shire, Scotland, which I assume was the later named Kinross County. He married Ann Scot (born in 1732).
I copied the following from Wiki-pedia, in order to provide you with more information about the Kinross County area. It was so interesting to learn that Mary, queen of Scots was held prisioner in the Loch Leven Castle there in 1567. I wonder if the Buchan family lived there at that time and heard of the Queen’s imprisonment?
Kinross-shire or the County of Kinross is a registration county, electoral ward and historic county in the Perth and Kinross council area in the east central Lowlands of Scotland. Surrounding its largest settlement and county town of Kinross, Kinross-shire borders Perthshire to the north, Fife to the east and south and Clackmannanshire to the west.
Kinross-shire was a local government county, for most of its history running a joint county council with Perthshire. It was finally abolished in 1975, becoming part of the former Tayside Region. Since 1996 it has been part of Perth and Kinross council area.
The area is dominated by Loch Leven, a large inland loch, with 2 islands and home to an internationally important nature reserve. One of the islands contains a castle, where Mary, Queen of Scots, was once held prisoner. Much of the land in Kinross–shire is fertile agricultural land and most of the inhabitants were originally employed on the land. The gently-rolling farmland surrounding Loch Leven gives way to steep, more rugged terrain.

I have included a link to a web site that tells more about Kinross county. wouldn’t it be lovely to have a family trip there one of these days? Now that would be some family reunion!
http://www.kinross.cc/

The Witch of Windsor

Some people who research their ancestors hope to find kings and queens somewhere in the background. I only hoped to find out where we lived before we came to this country, but I am finding out far more than I ever imagined when I began this search. I found Alse Younge (Alice Young), tried, convicted, and executed for the crime of witchcraft on May 26, 1647, in the town of Hartford, Connecticut. Furthermore, Alice had the dubious distinction of being the first witch executed in the American colonies after the special law that created witch hunts was passed in Connecticut in 1642. This was 50 years before the infamous witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts.
You are certainly wondering how this poor woman was related to the Davison clan. She was found on Granny Shriver’s side. I’ll take you through the line, without exploring the other members for today’s post. I’m sure I’ll relate stories about them another time. Nancy Grace Hooper Davison Shriver’s (1891-1971) mother was Sara Lyon (maiden name of the female ancestors will be used) who lived in W.V (1853-1933). Sara’s mother was Elizabeth Miller (1841-1922) and she also spent her life in the state of WV. Elizabeth’s father was David Miller (1795-1870) and he lived in WV his whole life. David’s father, William D. Miller (1757-1825) was the first ancestor from New England. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts but moved to WV as an adult. William’s father, Joseph Miller (1700-1767) was born and died in West Springfield, Massachusetts. The father of Joseph was John Miller (1657-1676) and John’s wife was Mary Beamon (1667-1735). Both John and Mary spent their whole lives in Springfield, Massachusetts. Mary’s parents were Simon Beaman (1630-1676) and Alice Young (1640-1708). Simon was born in Shropshire, England, came to the American colony of Massachusetts, and died in Springfield. Alice or Alis (variant spellings for first and last names were often used due to the limited literacy of people in those days) was born either in Massachusetts or in Connecticut. This Alis/Alice was the daughter of the Alice/Alse Young who was executed for witchcraft. The younger Alice also had her run in with the authorities. She was accused of witchcraft around 1677, 30 years after the death of her mother, but she seems to not have been convicted and she lived a good long life, for her time. She died in Springfield, MA.
Now we will return to our original Alice/Alse who is the 9th great grandparent of my generation. Wikipedia provides the following information. Very little is recorded of Alse Young; her existence is only known through her reputation as a witch. She is believed to have been the wife of John Young, who bought a small parcel of land in Windsor in 1641, sold it in 1649, and then disappeared from the town records. She had a daughter, Alice Young Beamon, who would be accused of witchcraft in nearby Springfield, Massachusetts some 30 years later. Like many similar cases of witchcraft, Alse Young was a woman without a son when the accusation was lodged, which implied that she would be eligible to receive through inheritance her husband’s estate. There is no further record of Young’s trial or the specifics of the charge, only that Alse Young was a woman. Early historical record hints at the possibility that there may have been some sort of epidemic in the town of Windsor in early 1647. Alse Young was hanged at the Meeting House Square in Hartford, Connecticut, on what is now the site of the Old State House. A journal of then Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop states that “One… of Windsor arraigned and executed at Hartford for a witch.” The second town clerk of Windsor, Matthew Grant also confirms the execution with the May 26, 1647 diary entry, “Alse Young was hanged.”
My further research finds that Alice (as I will refer to her) was born either in Kent or Nottinghamshire, England in or around 1600. It is not known, at this point, whether or not she had married earlier in life in England, but records do show that she married John Young in Windsor, Connecticut in the 1630’s. It is still unclear who her parents were or when she immigrated to the Connecticut colony. In addition to her name being written variously as Alice/Alse/Alis, it is also sometimes written as Achsah. Her maiden name seems to have been Stokes. One of my sources lists her husband as one of the early founders of Windsor, Connecticut.
The following information is from a book about the history of witchcraft accusations in New England.
This case has presented formidable problems for witchcraft scholars. The Alice Young in question is not mentioned elsewhere in the documentary record of early New England. It seems probable that she was the wife of one John Young, whose lands at Windsor were recorded as early as 1640. The same man sold all of his holdings in Windsor in 1649-perhaps as part of a removal from the town, following the execution of his wife. A John Young subsequently appears in the records of Stratford; dying there in 1661, he left a modest estate (including “carpentry tools”) and no specific heirs. Very probably, however, he and his wife had raised at least one child-a second Alice Young, recorded as marrying Simon Beamon at Springfield on December 15, 1654. The line of the Windsor “witch” is suggested by the following fact (1) the children of Simon Beamon include both a John and an Alice (and it was customary to name children after grandparents). (2) There is no other Young mentioned in any seventeenth-century records at Springfield (implying a place of origin for Alice [Young] Beamon, outside of the immediate area). (3) Two Beamon children seem, when grown, to have married Windsor residents, and one of them settled there. (4) Years later, 1677,Thomas Beamon, son of Alice [Young] Beamon, sued another man for slander- specifically for saying that “his mother was a witch, and he looked like one” (Was not the unsaid presumption here “like mother, like daughter”?) Admitting the speculative nature of these conjectures, a rough profile of the first New England witch can now be sketched. She was a married woman, probably no younger than forty nor older than fifty-five, with at least one child (aged between ten and twenty at the time of the mother’s death). Her husband was a humble sort, perhaps a carpenter by trade. They had lived in Windsor for at least seven years before her trial and conviction.

Alse Young was hanged at the Meeting House Square in Hartford, Connecticut, on what is now the site of the Old State House (pictured)

The Hartford Courant posted the following postscript story in 2007. May 27, 2007
By SUSAN CAMPBELL, Courant Staff Writer. On May 26, 1647, a Windsor woman named Alse Young was hanged for witchcraft where Hartford’s Old State House now stands. On Saturday, a group of descendants, historians and interested onlookers gathered down the road at Barnard Park – the South Green – to remember Young and 10 other Connecticut residents executed for witchcraft in Colonial Connecticut. As each of the names of the nine women and two men was read, a bell was rung, and a white rose laid at the base of a tree, over which a hangman’s noose dangled. A 12th rose was laid to remember the children of the executed.
“When’s the hanging, yo?” asked one passer-by, a man astride a bicycle, prompting several of the assembled to walk over and explain why they were in the park.
If Massachusetts is better known for its Colonial witch hunts, Connecticut’s hysteria preceded that state’s by a half-century, yet the accused remain mostly unacknowledged by history books. Saturday’s ceremony (May 27, 2007) was an attempt to change that, said organizer Kathy Spada-Basto, a teacher at Hartford’s Burns Elementary School. She hopes to make the commemoration an annual ritual. The longtime Hartford-area resident said she became interested in Connecticut’s secret past about five years ago after she picked up a book on Colonial witch hunts in New England.”I’ve lived here all of my life, and I didn’t know this,” said Spada-Basto. Researching the trials and getting to know the small army of genealogists and amateur historians who share her passion “has been a labor of love for me,” she said. Young’s execution is the first one recorded for witchcraft in New England, and her name is known only because the Windsor town clerk at the time recorded it in his diary. No official record of her trial exists. From some counts, she was the wife of a John, a carpenter, and he left town soon after her death. A woman thought to have been her daughter was later accused of witchcraft in Springfield, though the daughter was not executed and her case may not have even come to trial; historians say second-generation accusations were common.

Convicted Witch, Alse Young of Windsor Hanged May 26, 1647

When the law was passed that permitted the conviction and execution of witches, only one witness was needed for the accused to be brought to trial. A formal complaint started the process and then the local magistrate would collect evidence by questioning the witness and by examining the accused. The examination could take bizarre turns. The accused could be placed in a deep body of water and if she floated, it was assumed that the water was rejecting her due to her “unholy” nature. She could be tortured into a confession. After the “evidence” was collected, the information was forwarded to the court and there was a jury trial. In those days, of course, the jurors were all men. Sometimes the accused was afforded council and sometimes she was not. The jury delivered the verdict and the governor of the colony or the magistrate would impose the sentence.
Accusations of witchcraft often came about when a contagious illness hit a town. The records show that an epidemic of some sort occurred in Windsor during the time that Alice was accused. Women who were accused were often healers or herbalists and one record I read indicated that Alice was a woman who collected herbs for healing purposes. Could her accuser been someone who died after taking some herbs? We can only speculate because there is no record of the nature of the accusation.
Alice is our earliest known ancestor. We don’t know with certainty where she was born in England or when she crossed the Atlantic and moved to Connecticut. All we know for sure is that she was wrongly convicted and executed. We can remember her as a brave colonist who crossed the ocean under terrible conditions and who settled in an area where danger from Indian attacks (as they tended not to be pleased at having their land stolen) and lack of abundant food and the diseases that resulted, were borne so that her descendants could enjoy a better life in a new country.

The lineage of Nancy Grace Hooper Davison Shriver

My paternal grandmother Nancy Grace (usually known as Grace) was born in Sardis West Virginia, which is located in Harrison County. She was born on December 13, 1889 and was the seventh child in a family of nine. Her parents were James Edward Hooper (1851-1937) and Sara Lyon Hooper (1856-1933). Sardis is a small town south of Morgantown WV. Is is close to Clarksburg WV, where grandmother also lived. Sardis is 216 miles south of Titusville, so it is unlikely that granny  had much opportunity to visit her family after she married. Nancy Grace’s family line on her father’s side can be traced back as far as 1538, when her 9th great grandfather (my 11th great grandfather) was born in 1538 in England! I haven’t looked closely at her mother’s line as yet but here is her father’s line:

Her father: James Edward Hooper 1851-1937. Her mother was Sarah Lyon (1856-1933). Her parents had nine children.    I will post more about grandmother’s parents another time.

Her grandfather: John G Hooper 1825-1898 (m Elizabeth Gain 1821-1887). John was born in Harrison County, Virginia, which later became Harrison County, West Virginia. He lived in Clarksburg Township. He was first married to a very young Jane Laughery (1833-1849) but she apparently died in childbirth, at age 16, during the birth of their daughter, Alice who was born in 1849. John remarried Elizabeth Gain that same year and they had two children, one of whom was my great grandfather, James Edward Hooper. They lived in Tenmile, Harrison County WV. John served as a private on the side of the Union during the last year of the Civil War. He was in the WV 6th Infantry Regiment from 1864-1865. After Elizabeth died in 1887, John quickly married a third time, and to a much younger woman. Mary Catherine Hurst was born in 1851, so she was 37 and John was 63 when they married in 1888.  They had one child, George, who was born in 1890. John and his family were living in Salem, Harrison County WV when he died at the age of 73 in 1898.

Her great grandfather: Nicholas Hooper 1800-1859 (m. Rachel Ash (1803-1860). Nicholas was a farmer. He and Rachel married in 1825. They lived in Harrison County, Virginia. According to the census of 1830, 1840 nd 1850, they did not own slaves, although Nicholas’ father and grandfather did.

Her 2nd great grandfather: James Irvin C. Hooper 1769-1837 (m. Judah 1770-1841). James was born in Buckingham, Virginia and died in Bedford, Tennessee. Judah was born in Norfolk, Virginia. The 1820 census sadly indicates that James and his family owned 7 slaves including 4 children under the age of 14, 2 males aged between 14-25, and 1 male aged 45 or older. The 1830 census unfortunately indicates that James still owned 5 slaves. He owned 1 male slave under 10 years of age, 1 male between 10-23 years old, 1 male 24-35 years old, 1 male 36-54 years old and 1 female 24-35 years old.

Her 3rd great grandfather: George Hooper 1736-1800 (m Elizabeth Cooke 1740-1818).  George was born in Buckingham County, Virginia. George served in the Revolutionary War. Col. George Hooper was commanding Col. in the Revolutionary War and is buried with his wife on Hoopers Mountain in Arcanum, Buckingham County, VA. Unfortunately, the 1810 Federal Census states that George’s family owned 23 slaves. Colonel Hooper was the first cousin to Dr. William Cabell, an ancestor of the famous Cabell Family of Virginia and William Mayo, the famous Surveyor and Mapmaker. The Buckingham County plantation of Colonel George Hooper and wife Elizabeth was called ARCANUM, a Latin word meaning an inner secret or mystery, referring to the underground source of water that flows from the beautiful spring near the site of his home. The old home place, Arcanum, no longer stands. Elizabeth and George maried in 1758. She  died about 1818. She was the daughter of John Cooke Sr. and Mary Singleton.

Her 4th g-grandfather: John Hooper 1681-1720 (m. Mary 1681-1720). John was born in Merriott, Somerset County, England. He was our ancester who immigrated to the United States from England. He died in the United States.

Her 5th g-grandfather: Hugh Hooper 1651-1705 (m. Dorothy 1651-1696). Hugh was born and died in Selwood, Somerset County, England.

Her 6th g-grandfather: George Thomas Hooper 1627-1698 (m. Joane Townsend 1629-1724). George was born and died in Selwood, Somerset County, England.

Her 7th g-grandgather: John Hooper 1598-? (m. Marie Stowell who was born 1600). John was born in Hatherleigh, Devon County, England.

Her 8th g-grandfather:  George Hooper 1568-? (m. Margett Beare 1568-1592). George was born in Hatherleigh, Devon County, England. This is located in southwest England. Margett died in Surrey, England.

Her 10th g-grandfather: Oliver Hooper born 1538. This is as far as the lineage can be traced at this time.   Oliver was born in Hatherleigh, Devon County,England.

As you probably know, families didn’t always have last names (surnames). When surnames were first developed, they were often the name of a town, or the name of a profession the person pursued. Sometimes the surname was taken from the father’s first name with the word son added to the end (as when David’s son became Davidson or Davison). A hooper was a person who was engaged in the profession of barrel making or fitting hoops onto a barrel. So, it is likely that our earliest ancesters on the Hooper side constructed barrels for a living in England. Surnames did not become popular until after the 14th century. Therefore, the fact that our ancester, Oliver Hooper had that surname in 1538, makes it even more likely that he or his ancesters were indeed hoopers.  My research tells me that the hooper surname was first found in the county of Devon which is where we see that Oliver, as well as his son George and grandson John resided. The Hooper family had  a family seat in Devon from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066AD.

I hope you found this blog entry interesting. I will add more to it as time goes on. I find that when I answer certain questions, then other questions arise. We have certainly answered the question where did we come from, at least on Nancy Grace’s side of the family. We are definately English on that side.

The families of the first two wives of H.D. Shriver

Grandad Shriver had three wives. The first two died young and tragically while the third shared 30 years of marriage with him. What do we know of the families of the first two women? Where did their families come from and did they have siblings? These weren’t questions I often considered when I was younger.

Goldie Elvina Edwards was born in Titusville, Pa on October 15, 1885. Her parents were Emery A Edwards who was born in Pennsylvania in 1855 and Hellen (sometimes seen as Helen) Amanda Tobias Edwards (1853-1892). Helen was born in Troupsburg, Stuben County, New York. The 1880 census states that Helen’s parents were also born in New York. Hellen and Emery were married on March 25, 1877 and wasted no time starting a large family. They included the following children: Eddie Orange (1878-1947), Arnetta (1879-1880), Eva Janetta (January, 1881- ), Emery J (June, 1882- ), Alta Helen (1884- ), Goldie (1885-1925), Olive Pearl (1887- ), Solomon Charles (1889- ), and Sherman A (1891-1957). As you can see, Hellen had ten children in the space of 13 years. I wonder if this exhausting effort led to her death in 1892? She was 39 years old when she died. Goldie was only 7 when her mother died but her father remarried a woman named Grace M. (maiden name unknown at this time). Grace M. was listed as married to Emery in the 1900 census. She was born in 1875 so she was 20 years  younger than Emery. That census as well as the 1910 census does not show that any children were born to Grace. I’m not sure which was worse; having no children at all or giving birth to 10 children in 13 years.

After Goldie’s death in 1925, which occurred a few days after Grace Anna Shriver was born, Isla Strawbridge, helped care for the baby until Grandad Shriver remarried. Isla was Grandad’s sister.

Grandad married Elizabeth Walker Buchan (1892-1937) on April 18, 1927. Her parents were Thomas Mercer Buchan (1855-1924) and Mary McFarland Buchan (1855-1940). Elizabeth (1892-1937) was one of 11 children and some of the children accompanied the parents to American in 1910, when Elizabeth was 18. The Titusville Herald states that the family arrived in America in 1914, but other information I have states that they arrived in 1910. Thomas and Mary were 55 years old when they arrived in this country. I wonder what made them decide to take that long journey when they were this age? Immigration is usually undertaken by young men and young families who are looking to start their adult lives in what they would then have considered to be  a land of great opportunity. It would have ben very unusual for a couple in the later years of middle age, to want to start over in a new country. The following is the obituary for Thomas M. Buchan which appeared in the Titusville Herald on September 26, 1924.

Well Known East Main Street Resident Passed Away Early on  Thursday Morning.

Services in memory of Thomas Buchan, brief mention of whose death was made in the Herald yesterday,will be conducted from the family home, 419 East Main street, at 2:30 o’clock Saturday afternoon, Rev.Samuel Semple, D. D. pastor of the First Presbyterian church officiating, and the interment will be made in Greenwood cemetery. Thomas Buchan was born in Kincardine on Forth, Scotland, September 26, 1855, so would have been 69 years of age had he lived until today. He was the oldest son of John and Agnes Buchan and grew to manhood  in his native Scottish home where most of his life was spent. On October 31, 1875 he was united in marriage with Miss Mary McFarlane of Dumbartonshlre, who survives him.To Mr. and Mrs. Buchan were born eleven children, one dying in infancy, and ten survive as follows; John and James Buchan of Durban, Natal, South Africa, Mrs. David Barbour of Ardrie, Scotland, Mrs. W. G. Carson of Toronto, Can., William  Buchan of Chicago, Ill, Thomas Buchan, Jr., David, Joseph and Robert Buchan and Miss Elizabeth Buchan, all of Titusville. There are sixteen grandchildren, two sisters, Mrs. Elizabeth Hunton of Kinross, Scotland and Miss Christina Buchan of Ardrie, Scotland, and one brother, David Buchan of Chicago, Ill.

As a young man, Mr. Buchan learned the stone cutters’ trade and he was an expert in this line. He was an honorary member of the Bricklayers and Stone Masons union and held in high esteem by all who knew him. Mr. Buchan and family came to America in 1914 and located in Titusville.  He had been in failing health for the past two years and for about two months had been confined to his bed and room.  Mr. Buchan was a member of the First Presbyterian church.

Buchan Family Home

The picture at the left is a photo of the home where Elizabeth Buchan Shriver lived from the time her family arrived in Titusville, until she married H.D. Shriver. It is located at 419 East Main Street. This picture was taken by Eric Shriver in August 2011. His father (Tom Shriver)

had a first cousin who lived here until her death a few months ago. Her name was Patty Buchan Elderkin.

I found a passport picture of Elizabeth’s mother. Mary had applied for a passport in 1921 so she could return to Scotland to visit daughters of hers who lived there. On the passport, Mary does state that the family came to America in 1910.

Mary M. Buchan 1921

In my next blog, I’ll delve more into Nancy Grace Hooper Davison Shriver’s family history. You will be surprised at some information I found.

Nancy Grace Hooper Davison Shriver and HD Shriver

This is my first blog about our Davison/Shriver family.  Much of my information was gathered after I joined ancester.com. I’ve learned so much and I know that I’ll learn more as time goes on. I hope you will also enjoy learning about the family. I’ve decided that the best place to start is with Granny and Granddad Shriver (Nancy Grace and Harold Dean). If you have and stories to pictures to add, please send them to me and I will enjoy inserting them in the blog for everyone to see.

Like everyone else on this planet, Granny and Granddad had lives filled with both great joy and great sorrow, with almost unbearable trials and with much happiness. In this picture we see Nancy Grace looking lovely in her wedding photo, with her sister Chloe as her attendant. Nancy was born on December 13, 1891 in Sardis, Harrison County, West Virginia. Riley Edward Davison was born on August 17, 1884.  They met when Riley traveled to West Virginia for work. Nancy Grace was the daughter of James Edmund Hooper (1851-1937) and Sarah Lyon Hooper (1856-1933). She was seventh to be born in a family of nine children (siblings: Birtha, Chloe, Glen, Jesse, Rosa, David, Charles, Mabel) and she was born when her mother was 35 years old. I do not have information about her growing-up years.

Riley was born to Isaac Pearson (Pete) Davison (1841-1920) and Alma Pease Davison (1854-1886). I have information about them that I will cover in a later blog. Riley had one sibling, Lee.  Riley was born when his mother was 30 and his father was 43.  After the death of their mother, when the boys were only 4 months and 18 months of age, they went to live with other families. Lee was raised by the Park Seely family. Riley was mainly reared by the Williams family but he also spent weeks at a time at his aunt’s home in Bradleytown (Mrs. Bernie Collins, the sister of Alma). He attended the South Troy school and at age 16 he left the area and did odd jobs in various locations. At age 20, he was a lumberjack in Montana and in another state out west. When he returned to the Venango county area he “dressed tools” for Bill Williams, a cousin. Finally he became an oil driller. I don’t have a wedding date but I did see the 1910 Federal Census and at that time Riley was 26 and still single. The marriage took place sometime between 1910 and 1913.

After marrying Nancy Grace, they lived in West Virginia for a few years and then took Clair (born 1914) and Wayne (born 1916) and went to Texas. The 1920 Federal Census shows that the young family was living in Cross Plains, Callahan County, Texas with Clair and Wayne. Richard was born in 1920 and when my dad was born in 1923, the family was living in Eastland, Texas.  In the mid  1920’s the family moved back Pennsylvania. The 1930 Federal Census shows them living in Salem Township, Clarion County, Pa with Clair (15), Wayne (13), Richard (10),  Jack (6), Kenneth D. (2 7/12) and Mary Lou (3/12 or 3 months old). In March 1936, they moved “to the Bernie Collins place below Bradleytown.” In September, 1936 they moved “to the Dave Grove place.” On March 26, 1937, Riley and Wayne were in their vehicle on West Central Avenue in Titusville on their way home from work, when their Ford sedan was struck by a train at 12:09 AM. Riley died of his injuries at 10:30 AM later that morning.  Riley was employed as an oil driller and Wayne was employed as a dresser of his father’s tools. Flasher lights had been ordered for the railroad crossing but had not yet been installed. The Titusville Herald stated that ” the local police aroused Postmaster H.D. Shriver at Diamond by telephone and asked him to notify members of the Davison family who reside a mile or so south of Diamond.” A later Coroner’s Jury ruled that “there should have been flasher lights or other protection at the crossing.”

My mother tells me that when H.D. came to inform Nancy Grace of Riley’s accident, she refused to believe it and so he left her home, thinking that the call he received had been a misunderstanding. When he found out that the information he had received was correct, he had to return to the Davison home and convince Nancy Grace that the tragedy had indeed occurred. Her youngest child, Maxine Yvonne (later Weisgerber) was only three months of age.

H.D. “Dean” Shriver was born at the Homestead Farm on December 17, 1894. to Jacob M (1868-1927) and Anna Ghering Shriver (1873-1948). He was joined by a sister Isla Shriver (later Strawbridge) in 1900. He graduated from Edinboro State Normal School (now Edinboro University) in 1915. He had been an excellent college athlete. He taught school for a time but decided it was not the profession for him. He then entered Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. He enlisted in the service during World War I on May 9, 1917 and served in the French Theater for 13 months. He was discharged as a corporal in June, 1919. He was then employed in farming and he had a milk route until 1930 when he moved into the Diamond residence where he would spend the rest of his life. The Titusville Herald obituary stated that ” after the death of his father in 1927, Mr. Shriver became postmaster of the Diamond office, a position he held until that office was closed by the government on December 30, 1964.” On January 2, 1923, he married Goldie Elvina Edwards. She gave birth to Grace Anna (later Nichols) two years later but died within a few days, on May 2, 1925. Her death was caused either by childbirth complications or by a ruptured appendix. Isla assisted with the care of Grace Anna until Dean remarried.

He married Elizabeth Walker Buchan on April 18, 1927. She  lived at 419 East Main Street, in Titusville. This was the first marriage for Elizabeth who lived with her widowed mother, Mary McFarland Buchan (1855-1940) and some of her siblings. Her father was Thomas Buchan (1855-1924). She had come to America from Scotland with her parents in 1910, when she was 18 years of age. She had been born in Airdrie, Scotland. She was one of 11 siblings, but not all the siblings came with the parents to America. Some stayed in Scotland,  some moved to South Africa, and at least one moved to Canada. After marrying Dean, Elizabeth gave birth to Richard, Tom, and Mary Jean (later Nichols). On April 30, 1937, just a few weeks after the death of Riley Davison, Elizabeth was found in her home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, with the bullet entering her liver. Postmasters were required to keep a loaded weapon in the post office and Elizabeth had removed the weapon from its drawer in the post office. Dean was working on a “highway job” and the children were in the school at the time the injury was sustained. A mail carrier who had returned to the post office after his mail was delivered discovered her and she was taken to the hospital where she died on May 1. I have copies of the information surrounding this tragic incident if anyone would like me to email it to you.

Four years later, on September 17, 1941, Harold Dean Shriver and Nancy Grace Hooper Davison were married. Aunt Mary Lou just told me that they went across the border to New York where they married quietly and spent the weekend. A neighbor watched the children. It would have been a busy household with the children being about the following ages: Maxine 4, Mary Jean (around 8-9) Mary Lou 11, Tom 11, Dick 12, Kenneth Dean 14, and Jack 18. Jack had recently graduated from high school and within a few months he would be off to join the service as soon as World War II began. The older children, including Richard Davison, Wayne, and Clair were apparently gone from the home by the time of the marriage.

Granddad and Granny were married for almost 30 years when she died on May 20, 1971. He died on November 8, 1982. I had many fond memories of spending weekends at their home. I remember that we watched the Ed Sullivan show on their black and while TV, as well as Lawrence Welk.  I was not so fond of Lawrence!  I remember having a big bowl of ice-cream every night before bed when I was lucky enough to spend the night there. I wonder what happy memories you have of the time you spent with them? I hope you share some of those memories in response to this blog.