A search for Stotler in the Newspaper Archive

George Henry, Mary Hay and John Harrison Stotler

This is a photo of the Stotler siblings from 1879 and was taken in Bedford, Iowa. Mary was born in 1864, George Henry was born in 1865 and John Harrison was born in 1867. I'm not certain why they were in Bedford, Iowa in 1879. According to various census documents, in 1870 they were in Piatt county, Illinois. In 1875, they were in Nobles County, Minnesota and in 1880 they were back in Illinois.

Today I'm also posting some notes I found in the Newspapers listed on Newspaperarchive.com. People with IP addresses in Wisconsin can access the archive for free via http://www.badgerlink.net courtesy of the State of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. These posts give a bit of detail on George and John Stotler from 1890 to 1902. I'm searching for more details about what happened to Rev. John H. Stotler after his brother died in 1902. According to these articles, Rev. Stotler moved around quite a bit from Ohio to Indiana to Illinois preaching at various Christian churches. There might be more to find, but I will look again another day.

Young George and John Stotler

George Henry Stotler

John Harrison Stotler

These photos were taken in Monticello, Illinois in 1869. They are John Harrison Stotler (1867-Unknown) and George Henry Stotler (1865-1902), brothers of my 2nd great grandmother Mary H. Stotler-Ross.They were in an old photo album that belonged to Mary H. Stotler-Ross.

Click the labels for George and Henry to see more articles about them. I'm still searching for more information about Rev. John Harrison Stotler. He was alive at the time of George's death in 1902 and after that, I lose track of him. I don't know when he died or where he is buried.

Rev. John H. Stotler - Pastor of the Church of Christ in Eaton Ohio

Rev. John H. Stotler

Here is another photo from one of Mary Stotler-Ross's old photo albums. This one was captioned Rev. John H. Stotler. Pastor of the Church of Christ, Eaton, Ohio. It is not dated, but probably around 1890 +/-. John was married in Ohio in 1890. John Harrison Stotler was the brother of my 2nd great grandmother, Mary H. Stotler-Ross. He was born in 1867 and the family kind of lost track of him after 1902. All that I know for sure is that he signed for the burial plot for his brother in Crown Hill Cemetery in 1902.

His wife Anna Perry apparently died in Ohio not long after the 1910 census, but she was living with her family. John Stotler was not listed as living with her in Ohio. It is not known to me if they divorced (which seems unlikely for a Christian minister in the early 1900s) or if he died. I have been looking through the diaries of Mary H. Stotler-Ross, but she doesn't seem to mention her brother John. She does mention George, but not John. He is not buried with his father and brother at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

Wordless Wednesday - Anna Perry Stotler with the horse and buggy

Anna Perry-Stotler with a horse and buggy

This photo was captioned "Aunt Anna Stotler" and had "Harry" written on the back. It is Anna (Perry) Stotler, wife of John Harrison Stotler.

John was known to his sister's family as uncle Harry. He was my 2nd great grand uncle. The family lost track of him in the early 1900s after he finished preaching at Mt. Carmel, Illinois. He was said to be moving from Illinois to California or Pennsylvania and to my knowledge he was not heard from again.

His wife Anna was listed as single and living with her family in Ohio at the time of the 1910 census. She died a few months later.

The last record I have of Rev. John H. Stotler was from 1902 when he purchased two cemetery plots at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana. One was for his brother who had just died and his father was eventually buried in the other. I have no idea where or when John Harrison Stotler died or where he was buried.

If anyone has any additional info, feel free to add a comment here.

Amanuensis Monday - John H. Stotler holds revival meetings

Christian Church at Mt. Carmel, Illinois c. late 1890s.

The photo above is said to be the church where John Harrison Stotler preached for 5 years in the late 1890s and early 1900's. It is from my grandmother's collection of photos and is captioned on the reverse with "Christian Church Mt. Carmel, Ill" and "where uncle John preached for 5 years." John Harrison Stotler was the brother of my 2nd great grandmother, Mary Hay Stotler-Ross.

According to Genabloggers, "An Amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. Amanuensis Monday is a daily blogging theme which encourages the family historian to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts."

Tonight's transcription is from The Edwardsville Intelligencer, Edwardsville, Illinois, November 30, 1897 edition, "Pew and Pulpit" section on page 1:

Revival meetings are in progress every night at the Christian church. Rev. J. H. Stotler, of the Christian church at Mt. Carmel, is doing the preaching. His subject tonight will be "Hindrances to Christian Growth," Gal. 5:7; Wednesday night. "The Intermediate State of Man, or Future Probation," 1 Peter, 3:19; Thursday night, "The Mission of the Church." Services begin promptly at 7 o'clock. All are invited to attend the meetings, as they will continue only for a short time.

This was followed a few weeks later with this item from The Edwardsville Intelligencer, Edwardsville, Illinois, December 24, 1897, "Pew and Pulpit" section on page 1:

The revival meetings at the Christian church, conducted by Rev. J. H. Stotler of Mt. Carmel, closed Wednesday night. They were very successful and the interest aroused was great.

I find this interesting since Edwardsville is on the western side of Illinois while Mt. Carmel is on the eastern border. It's about 120 miles straight line distance, but about a 2 1/2 hour drive in modern times. It's curious that the meetings were publicized so far away.

Tombstone Tuesday - Stotler plot at Crown Hill Indianapolis

A couple months ago I wrote to Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana and requested cemetery records and photos of the Stotler plot. They were very prompt in sending a detailed response and even waited until the grass was green to before taking the digital photos I paid for. The photos and records confirmed the information I have for Dr. George Henry Stotler, but also created a further mystery.

As you can see in the above photo there is a main stone that says Stotler and has the "Woodmen of the World" seal on it. I mentioned this stone in a previous post last October.There is also a smaller stone that says G. Henry Stotler M.D. 1865 - 1902. This matches the information I have for Dr. George Henry Stotler. Apparently George preferred to go by the name Henry.

Dr. G. Henry Stotler

The cemetery provided me with 3 detailed maps to assist in locating the plot, which is in section 36, lot 47. If you're look at this post in blogger you'll see I've pointed to the approximate location in the "location" field below. The records Crown Hill provided state that Mrs. Emma Stotler and John H. Stotler purchased the north 1/2 of lot 47 on Feb 19, 1902 for $200. My records indicate the G. Henry Stotler died the day before, Feb 18, 1902. Emma was G. Henry's wife (of just under 4 months) and John was his brother. G. Henry and John Stotler were the brothers of Mary Hay (Stotler) Ross, my 2nd Great Grandmother.

The cemetery records also listed the interment time as 2:00, February 20, 1902. Date of death, Feb 18, 1902 age 37, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Cause of death was listed as "Nervous Prostration", which apparently is equivalent to a serious nervous or mental breakdown of some sort. Those are all interesting details and except for the cause of death, I already had most of that information. So far so good, right? Not quite.

Hiram Stotler

The second burial location in the Stotler plot should be G. Henry's father, Hiram Stotler, at least according to the information I have. Unfortunately, cemetery records don't match that, so I have some conflicting information. Their records say that G. Henry's brother John H. Stotler was buried in the second spot, grave 8, lot 47, section 36 on June 14, 1920. They also provided a copy of the lot interment order that says the same thing. Unfortunately, there is no headstone for the plot, so there is no information that can help.

I've mentioned John H. Stotler before, he is somewhat of a roadblock for me. There was some indication that he died in a flood in Columbus Ohio, in 1913, but that was apparently not the right John H. Stotler. So I'm stuck with only the 1900 Census record for Rev. John Harrison Stotler and his wife Anna (Perry) living in Wabash County, Illinois. After that, I can't find much on John, though apparently his wife died in 1910 in Columbus, Ohio. Beyond that, I'm stumped on John H. Stotler.

Family history passed down to me indicates that Hiram Stotler died June 10, 1920 in Rockwell City, Iowa. His body was shipped to Indianapolis, and he was said to be interred at Crown Hill Cemetery, with his son. These dates match up with the interment dates listed by the cemetery, only the name doesn't match.

So what does all this mean? Well, my guess is that the cemetery records are misleading. Since the records say that John H. Stotler owned the lot, I'm guessing that they just put his name on the 1920 record. I don't think Hiram died a wealthy man, so my working theory is that he was buried in John's lot and for whatever reason, the paperwork did not match. It is a bit troubling to me that my 3rd Great Grandfather is basically buried in an unmarked spot, under the wrong name, but there isn't much I can do about that. I'm certainly not in the position to prove who is actually buried in that location. I'm still not any closer to figuring out what happened to John H. Stotler, perhaps he died prior to 1920.

I'm open to alternative theories and documentation, so let me know if anyone has anything on John Harrison Stotler or proof that Hiram was buried at Crown Hill.

Anna M. Perry Stotler

This is a photo of Anna M. (Perry) Stotler, wife of John Harrison Stotler. I don't have too many details about her, except born in Ohio March 1865 from the 1900 census on Mt. Carmel, Wabash County, Illinois. John and Anna lived on 6th St while John was a minister there. I don't have anything else on her and I can't find them in the 1910 census. The oral tradition in my family has been that John died in a flood during 1913, probably the Great Flood of Indianapolis in Columbus, Ohio of March 1913. They may have lived in Indianapolis in 1913, but Stotler is a difficult name to search the census for since there are many ways the census taker can misspell it and the people creating the database can misread their writing. Stotler, Stotter, Statler, Statter, Stattler, etc etc. It makes it tricky to search the databases and Indianapolis is too large to check page by page. I'll keep working on it. 

Update: I'm starting to have doubts on the flood story. The source of that story was the April 1913 notification of Mary Ross by a Franklin County Coroner following the disastrous flooding. I now think that the notification was in error and in the confusion following the flood, the wrong Stotlers were notified. The death certificates for John and Katherine Stotler that died during the flood indicate they were much older by 20 years and were born in Germany, not Illinois. Based on this, I think I need to go back to the drawing board on John Harrison Stotler.



As I mentioned the other day, John H. Stotler was the brother of Mary Hay Stotler-Ross. He was my 2nd great grand uncle.

John H. Stotler at his desk

Here's a followup photo of John Harrison Stotler. The caption just says John Stotler minister on the back of the photo. I can almost read the calender on the wall on the 1200 dpi scan, but not quite. It's a 30 day month that starts on a Sunday, looks like 190-something. I'm guessing April 1906, but you decide...(Update: Can't be 1906, see below)

I'm always impressed at how much detail from the scanner. The calender is not even 1/2 inch tall in the original photo.

Update: The photo dates to the time period where J.H. Stotler was a pastor in Mt. Carmel, IL. The bottom of the photo says it was printed by a company in Mt. Carmel. According to other information that I have, he was there for about 5 years. This was after 1894 when he was in Burlington, IN, but before 1902 when he was in Centralia, IL. 

John Harrison Stotler

This one is captioned "John Harrison Stotler". He was the son of Hiram Stotler (1838-1920) and Hannah Argo (1833-1871). He was the brother of my 2nd great grandmother, Mary Hay (Stotler) Ross, so that makes him my 2nd great grand uncle. He would have been Clara (Ross) Fowlie's uncle, if that helps connect things.

John Harrison Stotler was born February 15, 1867 in Illinois to Hiram A. Stotler and Hannah Argo. He was probably born in or near Piatt County, Illinois since his family was recorded to be living in Sangamon township, Piatt County, Illinois in 1870. John became a minister and married Anna M. Perry around 1890. In 1900, John was a minister in Mt. Carmel, Wabash County, Illinois. I don't have a religion listed, but it was most likely a Protestant faith. They had no children in 1900. According to my notes, he died in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1913 due to a flood. There was a large flood in Indiana in March of 1913, so his death might have occurred in that flood. He might be buried at Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN where his brother and father are buried, but the online database for Crown Hill conflicts with some of my notes. I'll post an update in the future if I find anything else.

Update: John Stotler apparently was killed in Franklin County, Ohio rather than Indianapolis. My grandmother has a letter from the Franklin County, Ohio Coroner dated April 3, 1913 that says he and his wife Katharine were killed in the flooding at that time. The best I can do at this time is say that according to the Ohio Historical Society's website around 100 were killed in Columbus, Ohio and 467 total in the state of Ohio. I will scan the telegram and post it when it becomes available. Apparently, John Stotler remarried Katharine following Anna's death.

Update: I'm starting to have doubts on the flood story. The source of that story was the April 1913 notification of Mary Ross by a Franklin County Coroner following the disastrous flooding. I now think that the notification was in error and in the confusion following the flood, the wrong Stotlers were notified. The death certificates for John and Katherine Stotler that died during the flood indicate they were much older by 20 years and were born in Germany, not Illinois. Based on this, I think I need to go back to the drawing board on John Harrison Stotler.