Mary Hay Stotler and John Ross

This is a photo of Mary Hay Stotler. It is captioned "April 1883, age 19" on the reverse of the image.

According to my notes, Mary Hay Stotler was born January 27, 1864 in Sangamon township, Piatt County, Illinois to Hiram A. Stotler (1838-1920) and Hannah (Argo) Stotler (1833-1871). Her father was from Pennsylvania and mother was from Ohio. She was their second child, but Catherine E. Stotler died in 1862 less than a year old. She had two brothers, George and John, that survived to adulthood, and a sister Jane Gregory that was born and also died in 1869.

Mary grew up in the vicinity of Mahomet, Champaign County, Illinois and Mansfield, Piatt County, Illinois. Her mother died in 1871, and her father remarried before 1880. At the time of the 1880 census the family was living in Mansfield, Illinois. This photo dates to 1883. Mary was married to John Franklin Ross on March 27, 1889 in Mansfield, Illinois. John was also a native of that area, born in Mansfield August 2, 1859. His parents came from Pennsylvania.

The photo to the left is of John F. Ross. One copy of this photo is captioned "c.1890?" so that date is not certain.

Mary and John had seven children from 1890 to 1906. Their first child George Adam Ross was born in Illinois May 5, 1890, but their second, Mason Hiram Ross was born in Calhoun County, Iowa April 14, 1892. John and Mary lived in Calhoun county for the rest of their lives. John died December 11, 1934 and Mary died February 15, 1959. Both were buried at Lake Creek Cemetery, Rockwell City, Calhoun, Iowa.

The connection to the Brassfield surname is their daughter Clara Ross (1897-1994) married Frank Fowlie (1892-1977). Their daughter married Elvis John Brassfield. John and Mary would be my 2nd Great Grand parents.

Happy New Year

Well, it's 2011, so here's a photo from around 142 years ago. This on is from 1869 of Mary Hay Stotler. It is captioned "Age 5". She was born in 1864. In 1870, her family was living in Sangamon township, Piatt County, Illinois near Mohamet and Mansfield, Illinois.

Mary is my 2nd Great Grandmother. Her grand daughter married Elvis John Brassfield. More to come Sunday morning on Mary Stotler and John F. Ross (Sr.).

I have plenty of photos scanned and ready to post in the coming year. I'm going to shoot for about one post a day, though it will probably be closer to 4 or 5 a week. I have plenty of Brassfield, Hunt, Ross and Fowlie photos to post and I hope to get to the other side of my family at some point too. Hopefully you will enjoy the photos and my commentary about them.

Just Married - John and Jennie Hunt

This is a wedding photo for John Hunt and Jennie Johnson. It is captioned on the reverse as follows: in hand writing is, "John Hunt and Wife" "John Hunt & Jennie (Johnson)" "Married 27 May 1896". Then typed on the back is "We were married the 27 may this was taken in june 1896".

John Hunt (1869-1965) and Jennie Johnson (1878-1914) were married in Blair, Washington County, Nebraska. They are both buried at Coleridge Public Cemetery, Coleridge, Cedar County, Nebraska.

The connection to the Brassfield surname is that their daughter Thelma Sarah Hunt (1898-1976) married Floyd Gipson Brassfield (1898-1961). John and Jennie are my 2nd Great Grandparents.

I uploaded the 5 MB version of this image suitable for printing to imageshack. Click the photo to see it much larger.

Alexander and Mary Fowlie

This image is a scan of an 8x10 labeled Alexander Brown Fowlie and Mary (Kiesel) Fowlie. Personally, when looking at the full 1200 dpi scan, the image looks very odd, like the faces don't match the bodies. It doesn't look like a photo, maybe some kind of drawing?I have no other details, dates, etc on this image.

Alexander was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in May 1834. He emigrated to the US in 1870 and married Mary Kiesel December 19, 1872 in Benton County, Iowa. Mary was born in Kankakee County, Illinois. In 1880, they were living in Jackson township, Benton County, Iowa. By 1900 they had moved to Twin Lakes township, Calhoun County, Iowa. Alexander Brown Fowlie died January 12, 1906 and was buried at Rosehill Cemetery, Rockwell City, Calhoun Cty, Iowa. Mary died July 22, 1923 and is also buried there.

Alexander Brown Fowlie (1834-1906) and Mary (Kiesel) Fowlie (1854-1923) had 13 children. Mary would have been pregnant for 9 years and 9 months, for those that might keep track of that sort of thing. Their first child was born in 1874 and the last in 1899 when she was 45 years old. Even more incredible, according to the 1900 census she was listed as having 13 children and 12 were still living. Given the infant mortality rates back then, that's pretty impressive.

Their 11th child was Frank Brown Fowlie (1892-1977). His daughter married Elvis John Brassfield and that is the connection to the Brassfield surname.

Wordless Wednesday - Irene Brassfield

This is a photo of Irene Shirley Brassfield (Terzo-Ireland) (1924-2010). It is most likely a college graduation photo, I'm guessing she was around age 20, so about 1944. She graduated from Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in Sioux City, Iowa (now St. Luke's College). According to her obituary, she went on to receive a BS from Western Connecticut State College and a Masters of Education degree from Columbia University, specializing in mental health and psychiatric nursing.

She was the third child of Floyd Gipson Brassfield (1898-1961) and Thelma Sarah (Hunt) (1898-1976).

Tombstone Tuesday - Oak Hill Cemetery

This is a September 2009 photo facing north looking towards the south entrance of Oak Hill Cemetery, Town of Westfield, Marquette County, Wisconsin. I've mentioned this cemetery in previous posts about the Alexander and Parker surnames.

Joachim Prigge - 1000 Emigrants To America From The District Of Harsefeld

This post is pretty far off my normal subject matter, as in not related to me. Instead, Joachim Prigge (1823-1910), is connected to the Brassfield surname by his 3rd great grandson marrying a Brassfield. According to this source, Joachim and his family arrived in New York 7 May 1868 on the steam ship Allemannia. They settled in Utica township, Winona County, Minnesota before 1880. His son Johann Nicolaus Prigge (1858-1943) had a daughter named Mathilda Prigge (1889-1964). She married Hugo Dorn (1885-1972). Their daughter Meta Dorn (1915-1994) married Herbert G. Gensmer (1914-2003). Their daughter, then had a son that married a Brassfield.

Also, there are many members of that family buried in the cemetery at Silo Immanuel Lutheran Church (LCMS) north of Lewiston, MN. Founded in 1862, Immanuel Lutheran must have been the home church for that group of German immigrants.

Elvis starts a fire in December 1973

This is a photo from Clara (Ross) Fowlie's photo album. It is her son-in-law, Elvis John Brassfield, starting a fire in December 1973, at his home in Jefferson, Wisconsin.

Wordless Wednesday - F.G. Brassfield's Dodge Truck - 1934

This photo is dated 1934 and shows one of Floyd Gipson Brassfield's Dodge trucks that he used at his trucking company to haul ice, milk and other things in western Iowa.

Tombstone Tuesday - Lloyd and Norma Parker

This is the tombstone of Lloyd and Norma (Alexander) Parker at Oak Hill Cemetery, Town of Westfield, Marquette County, WI. It is located near the Alexander plot where Norma's parents are buried.

Their connection to the Brassfield surname is that their granddaughter married a Brassfield.

Closing out sale - 60 years ago today

On December 20, 1950, a closing out sale was held marking the end of Floyd Gipson Brassfield's career as a farmer at age 52. He lived there from 1946 to 1950 and moved west. He died in 1961 and was buried at Evergreen Memorial Gardens, Vancouver, Clark county, Washington. He was a farmer or rancher in South Dakota for a few years in the early 1920s, then moved to Cherokee, Iowa for a couple years. Around 1926, they moved to Lake City, Iowa until 1946. At least part of the time he operated a trucking business in Lake City, delivering Milk and Ice and other things.

I've marked the approximate location of the farm, on the location feature below. It looks like it was in Thompson Township, Guthrie County, Iowa by the description in the ad. Looking at the topography of that area, it doesn't seem very hospitable to farming.

The text of the poster is after the jump.

Moses Bates - The history of Black Hawk County via Google Books

Following up on the census records from Saturday, here is a paragraph or two from the book "The history of Black Hawk County" (Iowa) by Western Historical Company, 1878. Moses Bates was the father of Gipson Bates, father of Nellie Belle Bates-Brassfield-Evers. Gipson Bates was also the namesake of Floyd Gipson Brassfield. Moses Bates would be my 4th great grandfather.

Moses Bates was an early settler of Black Hawk County. His family was one of only 26 families and was one of 135 people in the county in 1850. I linked the middle of section 14 of the township in the location field below. More info at Rootsweb - Rea Genealogy.

The history of Black Hawk County - Google Books

Couldn't Scare Him.

About 1847, Moses Bates, from Western Indiana, located on Section 14, Township 87, Range 11 (Spring Creek Township), on the bank of Spring Creek. Bates appears to have been connected with the gang of prairie bandits, and was a 'hard case.' On one occasion he went to the cabin of Henry Gray, who had settled near him. Abruptly entering his neighbor's house, he roughly inquired of Gray if he knew who his visitor was. Gray said he had that honor, whereupon Bates, who was armed with a rifle, tomahawk, three revolvers and a bowie-knife, informed his quiet neighbor that he might have just three days to pack up his 'traps' and leave the county. Gray, however, did not belong to a timid family ; he didn't ' scare' worth a cent. His trusty rifle was hanging just over his head. He coolly took it down, 'drew a bead' on his surly neighbor and exclaimed, 'D--n you, Bates, I'll give you just three minutes to get out from here. Git!' It is needless to add that before the three minutes had expired, Bates had placed himself at a safe distance from Gray's rifle.

On another occasion a German from Allamakee County, in search of some horses that had been stolen, found them in Bates' possession. There were other evidences of Bates' propensity to appropriate to his own use the property of others, without rendering compensation, and about a dozen stalwart settlers gathered, took the offender into the woods, stripped him and tied him securely to a tree. The men then prudently formed a ring with their backs to the center while the irate owner of the stolen horses applied a liberal dose of hickory to his bare back. Bates afterward had his castigator arrested, but as there were no witnesses who had seen him chastised, he was unable to maintain his accusation. Bates sold out to John Clark in 1852, and removed to Boone County, where he died.