ARD CHURCH (1870-1916)

This grave marker is located in the Dayton City Cemetery in Dayton, Washington.

This is where my love and interest in genealogy and family history began.  This information is about my great great grandfather, Ard Church.  The only clue of information that led me to him was the 1900 Federal census in Mt. Idaho, Idaho where he is listed as being married to Stella.  I was then able to find a marriage certificate in Idaho County where a Miss Stella Moyers marries Ard Church on April 29, 1900.  Interesting enough that they have one child, Elmer Ellsworth, who is born in 1899 before they were married.  In 1902 Mrs. Stella Church marries Owen William Montgomery and they have five children.  Elmer Ellsworth takes on the name of Montgomery and this happens to be my mother's maiden name.  
My Mom just made the hand off comment, "Why don't you see what you can find out about Ard Church.  I couldn't find anything on the guy.  I thought he may have had a tragic death in one of the many mines located in an Idaho city because Estella kept the name of Church when she married Owen Montgomery.  Mining was a booming industry in 1900.  And then I found this headstone pictured above.  It is located in Dayton, Washington near Ard's parents, Elias and Mary Ann Church, and his brother's (Ellis) headstones.  There was no death and as far as I could tell no divorce.
Well, fortunately for me, Washington state was really proactive in getting state census during the 1880's and I was able to locate the family and Ard on a few censuses from Columbia county.  Washington state also has a wonderful digital collection online at www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/  and I was even able to find a court case involving Ard in his youth!  This proved very exciting and helped paint the picture of what kind of life Ard was making for himself.  He was accused of stealing a saddle with a buddy.  In the end, his friend ended up with the blame for everything but he seemed to be present to help the court out in deciding where the blame was to be pointed. 
The next step in finding clues about this elusive fellow was trying to find out the details of his death.  Washington State also has a wonderful service of looking up obituaries at Eastern Washington University.  It is a wonderful service that is free of charge.  I use it a lot. http://www.sos.wa.gov/library/obituaries.aspx will explain the requirements for having a librarian look up an obituary for you.  They were unable to provide me with an obituary unless I had a defined date within a few days.  We can all understand that they don't want to have to search every newspaper for the entire year!  So I wondered how I might find out the death date for Ard Church.  There are plenty of death certificates on the Washington State website but there were none for my dear old grandpa, Ard Church.
Thank goodness for my genealogy buddy.  She loves helping me out and has done so on more than a dozen occasions.  I will forever shout her praises for the support and knowledge she has shared with me.  She searched and found a death certificate for a man named Justin Art Church who died of tuberculosis in a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I must admit I was skeptical at first, but then she pointed out the parents to me and the place of residence.  They all matched up! Elias and Mary Ann were listed as his parents and Dayton, WA as the residence!  Wow!  It was an incredible huge piece of puzzle that clicked into place.  On the death certificate it stated that Ard had been in the state of Utah for only three weeks and he was hospitalized for the last week before his death. The cause of death was listed as tuberculosis of the lungs.  
The question is why is his name listed as Justin?  Looking closer at the document, I see his brother-in-law, Frank Ehl, is the person that happens to be picking up the body and taking it back to Dayton.  Maybe Justin was the name he went by and that Frank thought it was his first given name.  Or maybe Frank didn't know him very well because we learn a little about Ard from his obituary that I was able to finally get because I had a death date of 8 April 1916.


ARD CHURCH

The remains of Ard Church, aged 46 years, who died in Salt Lake City last Saturday, were brought to Dayton yesterday by his brother-in-law, Frank Ehls. He spent his youth in Dayton, but was a rover and never remained long in one place. He died of tuberculosis. He was a cousin of W. E. and A. P. Cahill, and is well remembered here.

A simple burial service will be conducted at the grave some time today, dependant on the arrival of his sister, Mrs. Ehls. (Julia)


The rover part struck me as interesting and that he never remained long in one place.  I guess it was the Wild West. It would be fun to know some of the adventures of Ard Church.
I will never really be able to prove that Ard is my great great grandfather unless I do some DNA comparisons with other descendants of the Church family.  I do know that Elmer always seemed to think that his father was Ard and that he told his wife that his name would have been Church.  Ard's name was mentioned at Stella's funeral and the fact that she was married to him first and then to Owen Montgomery.  I don't have a picture of this man but I am grateful for the facts I have been able to learn about his family.
Tuberculosis seems like an awful way to suffer.  Interesting that Ard's father, Elias, also had a lung condition contributed to his service in the Civil War.

Sarah Brush (1815-1896)

I just love sharing information and having information shared with me.  This past week I received an e-mail from a distant cousin and was able to get some valuable information about Mary Ann Doyle’s mother, Sarah.  Up until this point, I had no idea what her maiden name was, but now I can happily report what information was provided to me in the Centennial History for Susquehanna County by Stocker.  It is located on page 829 in the section about Ararat.

JUSTIN LEE DOYLE.-His parents, John and Ann (Snow) Doyle, came from Connecticut about 1816, and settled in the western part of Ararat, where D. Hines now resides, the tract taken up comprising now several farms adjoining.  Here they resided until 1835, when the father and his son John went to Illinois, where the father died and his son John went to Illinois, where the father died and John settled subsequently in Kansas, where he resides in 1887.  The children of John and Ann Doyle were Thomas L. (1799-1870), cleared up a farm in Ararat, and resided in the township until his death; he has one son, William, a resident here; Justin Lee, born in Connecticut, May 30, 1803, died in Ararat June 27, 1876; Mary, married Abram Wrigley, and both died in Abington, Pa.; Fanny, wife of Joseph Bloxham, of Ararat; John married Sarah Brush, a daughter of his step-mother, and went west with his father; Julia married Gardner Avery, and resided in Ararat; and Abby became the wife of  Phillip Matteson, of Abington.  John Doyles’s second wife was the widow of Ard Brush, formerly Mary Treadwell, and the mother of Samuel Brush, of Brushville, in this county, by whom he had no issue.  Justin Lee Doyle was thirteen years old when his parents came to Pennsylvania, and settled in the then wilderness country of the present township of Ararat.  During his boyhood he acquired a fair education from the meager opportunities offered and learned the trade of stone-mason, which he followed more or less during his early manhood.  In 1833 he married Lydia Ann Ward Avery, who was born in Ostego County, N.Y. in 1817, and whose parents John (1744-1884) and Eleanor Griffith (1772-1840) Avery, settled in Ararat from Ostego County in 1826, whose sketch can be found in this volume.  Mrs. Doyle survives her husband and is a woman of  known benevolence in the community, possessing those characteristics of her sex which make her useful member of society and a benefit to all with whom she may be associated.  Their children are Lucetta M., born in 1836, was a teacher for several terms, and married in 1856, Leonard O. Baldwin, a farmer of Ararat, whose parents settled in the township from Connecticut in 1816; and Emeline D. (1841-65), also a teacher, became the wife of Alfred W. Larrabee in 1862, but only survived her marriage three years.  Two years after his marriage, Mr. Doyle bought fifty acres of land, partly improved, the present residence of his widow, upon which he erected, five years afterwards, in 1840, the present house.  Here he spent the remainder of his life, an industrious, kind hearted and honest man.  Mrs. Doyle added to this homestead some sixty acres, the whole of which she conducts in general farming.

This was quite a great find for me.  I am so grateful for this person contacting me and sharing his information.  He lives close enough that he has been able to drive around the area and explore the roads and farms where the Doyles lived.  My distant cousin also provided with a map showing where families lived in the area at the time that this record was written.  Anyone interested in it, I will gladly share it with you!

The key things that I was able to glean from this document were Sara’s maiden name, Brush.  Also, I found it so interesting that John S. Doyle marries his step-sister!  His father, John, marries Mary Treadwell, a widow and Sarah is her daughter.  Mary Ann names her son Ard Church and Sarah Brush’s father is Ard Brush.  So now I know where the name comes from!

Ann(e) Snow is John Doyle’s mother and she dies before he marries Sarah Brush.  These are HUGE discoveries.  I was content with the information that I had but no I am overjoyed to have discovered another generation and connect with cousins who live back East still!

JOHN STEPHEN CHURCH (1852-1875)

John Stephen Church was the oldest son of Elias and Mary Ann Church.  He was born around 20 September, 1852.  I was able to obtain his full name and birth date from his tombstone in the Lancaster Cemetery.  Elias and Mary Ann were married on the first of January of that same year.  I assume that John must have been a honeymoon baby!  Census records all state that he was born in Illinois.  John S. Doyle was his maternal grandfather and Stephen Church was his paternal grandfather.  These men were most likely who he was named for.

The first census that shows record of his life is the 1860 census taken in Seneca, Nemaha county, Kansas.  We know that his grandfather, John S. Doyle, built the first house in Seneca so it makes since that the family would come and live near them.  Elias is also listed as a master carpenter on this census.  He may have possibly helped to build the house that John S. Doyle built in Seneca, Kansas.

On November 26^th, 1861, John’s father, Elias B. Church, enlists in the Civil War and is discharged November 25^th, 1864.  On the 1865 Kansas State census, Elias, Mary Ann, John, Ellis and Julia Church are living in the home of John S. Doyle with his wife, Sarah and their daughter, Emma.

By 1870 Elias has moved his family to their own residence in the same town of Lancaster, Atchison county, Kansas.  Elias, John and Ellis are all listed as laborers on that census.

John lives with or near his grandparents, John and Sarah Doyle, on the 1875 Kansas State Census in Lancaster.  This is the last census that I have for John Church.  The date the census was taken is March 1, 1875.  I checked with my friends at the Kansas State Historical Society and they helped me to locate the cemetery records for Lancaster.  There is a record for John Stephen Church who died April 13, 1875.  His age was 22 years, 6 months, 23 days.  This is the same cemetery that his grandparents are buried in.

Also on this census he is listed with a woman who is age 19 and only has the initial of “E.”  So now it is my mission to find out who “E” is and what ever happened to her.  So now I am on the hunt for a marriage certificate.

EMMA DOYLE (1854-1888)

Isn’t weird how you can look at a document what feels like a thousand times and totally miss a huge piece of information?  That happened to me this week as I was looking over the information I have for the Church family.  Two pieces of information totally smacked me over the head. 

Both of these observations come from the 1875 Kansas state census.  John Church, who is Elias’ oldest son, is listed as owning his own property valued at $250.  The other is that there is a female listed after him with the initial E.  This is important because he lives next to his grandparents and their last name is Doyle.  So female E Church is most likely is his wife.  I can’t seem to find any more information on John Church after this census.  I am also looking for a marriage certificate that will help me find who E Church might be.  I am assuming he may have died before the 1880 census but I am still searching for a marriage record, a death record or a grave stone.  New clues are always exciting!

The third piece of information that jumped off of the page at me was some information on Emma Doyle.  Interestingly enough, Emma is John’s aunt but they are almost the same age.  Emma’s mother, Sarah would have been 39 years old when she was born.  Her closest sibling, Edwin is 13 years older than her.  John Church seemed to live with or near his grandparents most of his teenage years from what I can tell from the censuses I have seen. The thing that I noticed on the 1880 Federal census was that Emma was noted as not being able to read or write and also that she was insane.  The 1870 census confirmed that she was insane at age 16.

In doing further research I found out that when someone was marked as insane, the person taking marking the census record had to fill out an additional form that would tell what kind of disabilities the person had.  The form is called the DDD Schedule.   The D’s stand for Defective, Dependent, Delinquent.  So if you have an ancestor that was marked as being insane or idiotic on the 1880 census, you can find more information about them.

I was able to contact my friend at the Kansas State Historical Society and she was able to provide me with the following document:

Isn’t weird how you can look at a document over and over and totally miss a big piece of information?  That happened to me this week as I was looking over the information I have for the Church family.  Two pieces of information totally smacked me over the head. 

The first is that I noticed on the 1875 Kansas state census, John Church, Elias’ oldest son, has his own property valued at 250 and that there is a female listed after him with the initial E.  This is important because he lives next to his grandparents and their last name is Doyle.  So female E Church is most likely is his wife.  I can’t seem to find any more information on John Church after this census.  I am also looking for a marriage certificate that will help me find who E Church might be.  I am assuming he may have died before the 1880 census but I am still searching for a marriage record, a death record or a grave stone.  New clues are always exciting!

The second piece of information that jumped off of the page at me is some information on Emma Doyle.  Interestingly enough, Emma is John’s aunt but they are almost the same age.  Emma’s mother, Sarah would have been 39 years old when she was born.  Her closest sibling, Edwin is 13 years older than her.  John Church seemed to live with or near his grandparents most of his teenage years from what I can tell from the censuses I have seen.  The thing that I noticed on the 1880 Federal census was that Emma was noted as not being able to read or write and also that she was insane.  The 1870 census confirmed that she was insane at age 16.

In doing further research I found out that when someone was marked as insane, the person taking marking the census record had to fill out an additional form that would tell what kind of disabilities the person had.  The form is called the DDD Schedule.   The D’s stand for Defective, Dependent, Delinquent.  So if you have an ancestor that was marked as being insane or idiotic on the 1880 census, you can find more information about them.

I was able to contact my friend at the Kansas State Historical Society and she was able to provide me with the DDD Schedule for Emma Doyle.

On this schedule it tells me the form of disease as being epileptic fits.  It also states that she has an attendant and she has never been hospitalized for her illness.  Interesting that someone with epilepsy would be classified as insane.  This gives me a lot of insight into the family dynamics and the love they had for each other.  Emma was buried in the Lancaster Cemetery next to her parents in 1888.

EDWIN B DOYLE 1841-1915

The will of Edward B. Doyle, formerly of Lancaster, who died in the Atchison hospital Monday morning, was probated today by Ralph U. Pfouts, who drew it and is named executor.  The estate is valued at $11,000 and consists of 160 acres of land north of Lancaster and about $4,500 personal property and it is to be divided equally between five nephews and nieces who are Ida Bell Cahill of Chalcolet, Idaho; Mrs. Julia M. Ehl of Vancouver, Wash; Mrs. Jerusha Wilson, of Walla Walla, Wash.; Cap Church and Ard Church who addresses are unknown.  Three years ago Mr. Doyle deeded 70 acres of the Doyle homestead to Miss Mary Holland, an old neighbor and a friend of his and his mother’s.  Property he owned and in Lancaster he gave to Mrs. Cory Seever, of Atchison, in return for a home which he enjoyed for three years.  The will was made December 15, 1914.

This notice was published in the Atchison Weekly Globe, September 30, 1915, page 5.

The following affidavit comes from Edwin Doyle in behalf of his brother-in-law, Elias Church.

GENERAL AFFIDAVIT

State of Kansas, county of Atchison

In the matter of the pension claim of Elias Church co B 111^TH Reg

Personally came before me, a probate judge in and for aforesaid county and state, Edwin B. Doyle age 48 years resident in Lancaster Township Atchison County Kansas whose post office address is Atchison City Kansas persons of lawful age, who, being duly sworn, declare in relation to the aforesaid case as follows

Saw claimant E. Church a few days after his discharge from the U. S. Service.  He worked some around the sawmill that I was part owner of for about two months after he returned.  He was troubled with spells of coughing  more or less violent sometimes to a degree that he would have to cease his labor.  Finally, he quit working at the mill, not being able to stand the work. 

In August 1865 I was working with him again when he quit his labor as he felt unable to do more, his cough troubling him with shortness of breathing.  From Feb 20^th 1866 I lived about two miles from his residence to about 1870 and saw him frequently.  I noticed during the time  that his cough gradually grew more frequent accompanied with shortness of breath.

When I saw him he would frequently complain of getting no sleep the previous night.  His cough and shortness of breath preventing rest to the best of my knowledge I think he accomplished not more than one fourth of a full hands labor during any year of the above time.  As for claimant having lung disease, it would not be proper for one to say it was or was not.  As I understand that the best doctors are some times deserved in diseases of lungs and heart.  Above statement is from personal knowledge.

Edwin B Doyle was born 22 September 1841 in Illinois.  Most likely in the township of Northville because this is the place the family is living during the 1850 census.  Sometime between 1850 and 1860, the family moves to Richmond in the Kansas territory.  Kansas becomes a state January 29, 1861.  On 26 July, 1863, Edwin marries Amarillis Inghram in Nemaha county, Kansas.  Amarillis marries another man, Stephen F. Brown on April 21, 1869 in Nemaha county, Kansas.  This is confirmed on the 1870 census where Edwin is listed as being divorced and a blacksmith.  I believe that Edwin served in the Civil War shortly after getting married.  Amarillis shows up on the Kansas state census in 1865.  She is living with her parents and her last name is listed as Doyle.  So I don’t believe the divorce had taken place yet at this time.  The Civil War had ended by this time and I have not been able to locate Edwin on the state census for 1865.  His parents are living in Lancaster at this time and Elias is living with them and he has returned from the war and the rest of Elias’ family is living there too.

I found a record for an Edwin B. Doyle who served in the Civil War.  The record shows that this person was born in Illinois and was the age of  22 on July 1, 1863.  it also states that this person is married and served in Missouri.  Missouri is very close to the county that Amarillis and Edwin were married in so this could very likely be our guy. 

Edwin B. Doyle was the last living relative in the area and most of his property went to friends who lived in the area.  The rest was divided up between the five Church children living near Dayton, Washington.  They were the children of his sister, Mary Ann Doyle Church.  Edwin had a nice sized estate for the time he was living in.  He had ownership in a sawmill and was also skilled in being a blacksmith as well as being a farmer.  He lived with his parents until their death and most likely served in the Civil War for the state of Missouri.

Elias B Church, Civil War Pension Record

So I received my legal sized package in the mail last week!  What a treat to read through this packet.  It has taken me a week to actually fully digest everything that was sent to me.

The package came from my third cousin who is a descendant from Angeline Church Cahill.  Angeline and Elias are siblings from Stephen and Jerusha Church.  He sent me a copy of a marriage certificate for Elias B Church  and Mary Ann Doyle, a pension application for the Civil War,  census records and lots of research that I’m sure took hours to compile. 

The one thing that I found to be the most valuable was the pension application for Elias Church.  Apparently, he served in the Civil War from November 26, 1861 to November 25, 1864 and incurred injuries for the rest of his life because of his service.  I was not aware of this prior to getting these documents.  Included in his application are many affidavits from members of the family who knew him prior to his service and after his service.  Wm R Cahill, C. J. Cahill, Edwin B. Doyle, C. H. Martin, Frank Ells, John S. Doyle, Joshua Hollands and Elias Church in his own handwriting all have sworn affidavits in his behalf.

Basically, the affidavits testify that prior to being in the service Elias B Church was healthy strong young man who could put in a good days work.  After he returned home he was unable to perform such labor due to being short of breath.  Most of the affidavits testified that he was unable to perform ¼ days worth of work.

The following statement came from a document titled

DECLARATION FOR ORIGINAL INVALID PENSION. 

State of Kansas

County of Atchison

“On this 8^th day of May, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and eighty personally appeared before me, Judge and Clerk of the Probate Court, a court record within and for the county and State aforesaid, Elias Church, aged 47 years, a resident of the township of Lancaster, county of Atchison State of Kansas, who, being duly sworn according to the law, declares that he is the identical Elias Church who was ENROLLED on the 26^th day of November 1861, in Company B of the 4^th regiment of Kans Infty Vos commanded by Cap Rose, and was honorably DISCHARGED at St. Louis Mo. On the 25^th day of November, 1864; that his personal description is as follows: Age, 47 years; height, 5 feet 8 inches; complexion, light; hari, grey; eyes, blue. 

That while a member of the organization aforesaid, in the service and in line of his duty at or near Fort Union, in the state of New Mexico on or about the tenth day of November, 1863, he was taken sick from the effects of a violent cold received whilst on guard duty caused by a violent North West storm coming on whilst on said duty from the effect of which he was prostrated with a hard spell of lung fever, was unable to go on the march that day, was carried along in the ambulance for two days and then left at Gray’s Ranch extremely sick with an attendant to look after and nurse him and without any medical aid-Remained there under charge of attendant until on or about January 1^st 1864 when he was sent to the Invalid Hospital at Leavenworth City Kansas” this document is stamped by the Office of the Interior Pension Office May 22, 1880.

On November 8, 1905 notice is given that the pension of $12 was dropped due to the fact that Elias B Church had died on April 10, 1904.

Elias testified that his disease was inflammation of the right lung and that he “was unable to do much work or exercise being greatly distressed for the want of breath.”  He also stated that when he would catch a cold he would “throw bloody matter and white froth streaked with blood from my lung and would be confined to the house for weeks at a time.” 

In honor and memory of the service of those like Elias who served in the Civil War 150 years ago, I’m grateful to have an ancestor like him.  He paid a price that lasted his whole life and didn’t come from the battlefield, but from an unusual and unfortunate circumstance.  It sheds a little more light on the love his wife had for him as she cared and took care of him.  This information also helps me understand maybe the burden of work placed on his sons, John, Ellis and Ard so that the family could survive. 

Stephen Church

I contacted the Dayton Library and they gave me the name of a lady who is a local genealogy volunteer.  Once again she got back to me within 24 hours with information about the Church family.  She told me that Angeline Cahill was Elias brother.  She is buried in the Dayton City Cemetery and this can be seen on
www.findagrave.com

This information was also incuded:

Angeline C. Cahill - Stephen Church - Herrick - Washington State Death Records
Record Series: Death Records
Collection: Washington State Death Records
County: Statewide

Da Reference Number: {24D28E25-4F05-4B4C-A15C-E88279A9E90F}
Image Number: 35
Document Number: 24
Document Reference Id: 24
Name: Angeline C. Cahill
Date Of Death: 13 Apr 1920
Age: 81
Gender: Female
Father Name: Stephen Church
Mother Name: Herrick Batch Id: 275789
Batch Locality: Washington, United States
Death Place: Dayton, Columbia, Washington
Mother Name Surname: Herrick
Source: http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/ViewRecord.aspx?RID=05784EA9AAC2F6A52B347332E23DCFCBAAC2F6A52B347332E23DCFCB
This Obituary comes from Columbia Chroncile, Dayton WA, 14 Apr 1920, Page 1. 

"ill but a short time, being stricken a few days ago with paralysis. She recovered somewhat from this stroke, but suffered another Tuesday and passed away peacefully." ...1850 moved to WI where she married William R. Cahill in 1855 (deceased Jan 1890 according to the obit; cemetery records say he was buried 18 Dec 1889)...after the War they moved to KS; 1878 moved to this area taking a homestead on Eckler Mountain...Mother of 4: Alice D., A.P., W.E., and Stanley (dec'd 1880)...

There was lots of valuable information here.  I have her death certificate which gave me the name of her parents and those happen to be Elias parents too. 

Her son Alpha Patrick Cahill (A P) was a well known figure in the area.  He is also mentioned in Ard’s obituary as being a cousin.  I was able to find an interesting article on A. P. Cahill.

History of Old Walla Walla County,
Section IV, p. 487
Alph Patrick Cahill, manager and cashier of the Broughton National Bank at Dayton, Columbia county, was born at Markesan, Green Lake county, Wisconsin, October 7, 1859, a son of William R. and Angeline C. (Church) Cahill. His paternal grandfather, Patrick Cahill, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1800 while his maternal grandfather was one of the pioneer preachers of western Pennsylvania. William R. Cahill, the father, became one of the early settlers of the state of Wisconsin and contributed in substantial measure to the pioneer development of Green Lake county. At the time of the Civil war he responded to the country's call to arms and went to the front in defense of the Union. At the usual age Alph P. Cahill became a pupil in the public schools of his native state, passing through consecutive grades until he completed a high school course in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1873. He then turned his attention to the occupation of farming but afterward engaged in merchandising and subsequently took up the milling business. Step by step he progressed as the years went on and in 1909 he assisted in the organization of the Broughton National Bank of Dayton, Columbia county, Washington, and has since continued as its manager and cashier, largely shaping the policy and directing the activities of the institution. He has been most careful to safeguard the interests of stockholders and depositors alike, while the progressive methods of the bank have ever been tempered by a wise conservatism. On the 2nd of December, 1882, Mr. Cahill was united in marriage to Miss Irene M. Starr, a native of Oregon. For his second wife he chose Frankie G. King, a native of Columbia county, and a daughter of one of the pioneers of this section, William B. King, who was an old-time stage man, operating the Walla Walla-Lewiston stage and mail route in the early days. The second marriage was celebrated April 14, I915. Mr. Cahill's children are: Roy R., who is a graduate of Whitman College and also of the law school of Columbia University of New York and who married Jessie M. Criffield, a daughter of W. R. Criffield, of Walla Walla; Fred V., who is a graduate of Washington University and is now engaged in mercantile business and who married Grace J. Crossler; May, who is the wife of Frank G. Barclay, a Columbia county farmer; Patrick E., who married Ethel Johnston and is a bookkeeper in the Broughton National Bank; Mack, a graduate of the Newberg (Oregon) high school; and Burr, who is at home. Fraternally Mr. Cahill is connected with the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Masonic orders, being a Royal Arch Mason. He has always been an active worker in these different organizations and has been presiding officer in each. In politics he has ever been a stalwart republican since age conferred upon him the right of franchise and from 1892 until 1896 he filled the position of county auditor, his reelection being an acknowledgment of his excellent service during his first term. He was county commissioner from 1910 until 1912 and he has always been loyal to every cause and trust reposed in him. His military record covers three years' service with the National Guard. His fidelity to duty has never been called into question, whether in behalf of the public or in the conduct of his business Interests. There is nothing spectacular in his career but his record is that of a busy life, such as contributes to the substantial force of every community.

We learn a few things about Stephen Church who was born 17 May, 1795 in Vermont.  He married Jerusha Herrick and was a pioneer preacher in Western Pennsylvania.  I am still reasearching the family.  That will probably be my next post after I receive a package from a 3rd cousin I got in contact with by talking with my new genealogy friend from Dayton, Washington.  I am checking the mail everyday!!

OCTOGENARIAN

Sarah passed away almost exactly a year later than her husband on March 3, 1896.  From the censuses I gather that she had at least four children: 

·        Mary Ann born in Pennsylvania December 6, 1832

·        Caroline born in Pennsylvania about 1836

·        Edwin born September 22, 1841 in Illinois

·        Emma born about 1854 in Illinois  

 

Kansas State Historical Society provided me with this obituary.  It comes from the Atchison Daily Champion on March 4, 1896, on page 1

OCTOGENARIAN

Mrs. Doyle of Lancaster, Died Monday, Aged Eighty Years.

Mrs. Sarah E. Doyle, who was eighty years and six months to spare, died of heart failure at her home near Lancaster Monday.  It lacked only four days just a year since her husband died.  They were old and respected pioneer citizens of Atchison county, having lived here since 1858.  They leave a son and a daughter.  The daughter's home is in Washington, Tex(Territory), but she is now at Lancaster.  Funeral at 1:30 Thursday, from the M.E. Church at Lancaster.

Here's what I learn from Sarah's obituary.  The article mentions that Mrs. Sarah E. Doyle only had one son and one daughter living at the time.  I believe the son that was still living would be Edwin and the daughter is Mary Ann. 

We know that Mary Ann Doyle Church was living in Dayton, Washington at this time.  The article mentions that she came for her mother’s funeral.  That must have been a long train ride, but it also shows the love and respect she had for her mother.  Mary Ann only lives three more years before she passes on herself.  Also, I learned a new word!  Octogenarian means one who is between the age of 80 and 89. 

I also was able to get a copy of some burial records for Lancaster Cemetery.  Four of the Doyle family are buried here. 

·        John S. Doyle 1808-1895

·        Sarah E. Doyle 1815-1896

·        Edwin B. Doyle 1841-1915

·        Emma S. Doyle, daughter of John and Sarah Doyle, died 1888

This looks like I need to add another cemetery I want to visit!  I will just have to add it to the list.  Maybe I will win the trip that www.ancestry.com is giving away!  That would be FABULOUS!!

Irish Roots? John and Sarah Doyle

In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day this week, I wanted to highlight Mary Ann’s parents, George and Sarah Doyle.  Doyle has got to be Irish, right?  That is something yet to be determined but I am working on.  I am hopeful that I will find the ties that connect me to Ireland! 

This past week I had the chance to contact the Kansas Historical Society http://www.kshs.org/   They provide the service of looking obituaries up for a small fee.  Since I had located death certificates for John and Sarah on http://www.familysearch.org/ I was able to give them exact death dates.  John S. Doyle was born August 6, 1808 somewhere in Connecticut.  He died 7 March 1895 in Lancaster, Kansas.  This is the obituary provided to me by the Kansas Historical Society which came from the Daily Globe and was dated March 11, 1895.

The funeral of the late J. S. Doyle, at Lancaster yesterday, was one of the very largest in the history of the county.  The deceased was an old settler of Kansas. He built the very first house of Seneca.

I have to admit I was hoping for more clues into this man’s life.  Just three short sentences.  I'm kind of sad knowing that I know so little about someone who was well known and loved in his community.  The last sentence was interesting too.  He built the very first house in Seneca.  So I googled that and this is what I found:

The first house built in Seneca was erected in the fall of 1857; it was a double log house, with a wide hall through the centre, or rather, two houses connected with a wall of logs at the rear. It was built by John S. Doyle for Finley Lappin, who immediately occupied one end of it for a hotel, while Downing & Stewart opened a grocery store in the other end. The hotel portion of the building also served as the office of register of deeds, Samuel Lappin holding that position. One end of the structure was afterward used as a dwelling; the other end as a shoe shop and carpenter shop successively. It passed from Samuel Lappin to Albert Clark, finally returning to its former owner, who demolished it to make room for what is now known as the city drug store.

information from William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas

http://www.seneca-ks.com/main_street/seneca.htm

Another source tells me that he was one of the first settlers in Nemaha county.  Here is what it says:

 Transcribed from volume II of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar. Transcribed July 2002 by Carolyn Ward.

---

Nemaha County, the third west from the Missouri river in the northern tier, was one of the original 33 counties created by the first territorial legislature in 1855, and one of the 19 counties to be organized in that year. It is bounded on the north by the State of Nebraska; on the east by Brown county; on the south by Jackson and Pottawatomie counties, and on the west by Marshall county.
It is claimed by some historians that Nemaha was included in the region visited by Coronado and that he reached its northern boundary in Aug., 1851, but it is probable that the first expedition to cross the county was in 1842 when Fremont made his journey across the continent. His route entered the county on the east line, south of the present town of Sabetha, extended northwest to Baker's ford, turned south, passing near the place where Seneca now stands, thence northwest again and crossed the county line near the present village of Clear Creek. This road was used by the Mormons in the early '40s and by the California gold-seekers in 1849, later becoming the military road used by the government troops moving westward.
Nemaha county took its name from the river, which in Indian language means "no papoose," indicating the malarious character of the climate at that time. The earliest settlement was made in 1854, when W. W. Moore located near Baker's ford, 9 miles north of where Seneca now stands. In the same year, Walter D. Beeles, Greenberry Key, Thomas, John C. and Jacob B. Newton settled in the same vicinity. John O'Laughlin took a claim on Turkey creek and B. F. Hicks in Capioma township. The settlers in 1855 were James McCallister, William Barnes, Samuel Magill and Robert Rea, in Capioma township; David Locknane, in Granada township; James Thompson, John S. Doyle, Cyrus Dolman, Elias B. Newton, H. H. Lanham and wife, S. M. Lanham and Joseph Lanham, in Richmond township; William M. Berry and L. J. McGown, in Valley township; Horace M. Newton, in Richmond township; William Harris, on the creek that bears his name; Hiram Burger, George Frederick and George Goppelt, on Turkey creek. Along with these last named came a negro by the name of Moses FatIey, who took a claim which he sold the next year to Edward McCaffery for $200. He bought his own freedom, the freedom of his wife, his sister and two of her children. C. Minger and wife settled in Washington township, and Reuben Wolfley in Wetmore township.
These early claims were taken without warrant, as there were no facilities for entry and no place at which payment could be made to the government. The earliest payments were made in 1857. Preëmptions were made up to 1860 at the land office at Kickapoo, where entries were made for the district of which Nemaha county was a part. The settlement and development of the county having begun during the time when the pro-slavery element had the upper-hand in Kansas, most of the early towns started at that time do not now exist, having given away to free-state towns before 1860. Among those to disappear were Central City, laid out in 1855 by William Dodge, for Thomas Newton and sons and H. H. Lanham, which had the first postoffice in the county; Pacific City; Lincoln, the dream of J. E. Hawkes; Ash Point; Urbana, the first town in the county; Wheatland and Richmond. The last was started in 1855 by Cyrus Dolman, a pro-slavery man and a member of the territorial legislature. Richmond was made the county seat by legislative enactment at the time of the organization of Nemaha county. The town company was given a right to enter by preëmption any quantity of land up to 1,000 acres, lay off the same into lots and sell it. Richmond was 3 miles north of the present town of Seneca.

So now I’m not so sad because I have some more clues into the adventures of this man.  I know that he was born in Connecticut and that some of his children were born in Pennsylvania and others were born in Illinois.  They ended up moving to Kansas and were some of the first settlers there.  I can only imagine that this was a huge adventure full of hard work much like the times of Laura Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie.  I would love to have a journal from one of these ancestors but for now I will settle for the three sentences in the Daily Globe!

 

A REAL SHOOTOUT!

I just want to show how great Google is in helping you find more information on your ancestors.  I was curious about Ellis S Church, second son of Elias B Church and Mary Ann Doyle.  I didn’t know much about him and so I typed in his name and the state Idaho.  I automatically got a hit from the Idaho Free Press, which is the newspaper from Grangeville, Idaho!  You can only imagine my squeal of joy in finding this sweet treasure. 

http://idaho.idgenweb.org/murders/chammurder.htm

After reading this article, I felt I knew Ellis a lot better and I felt sorry for Ellis.  He was alone on Christmas, wanted to close the saloon early and had these guys come by and harass him because they were desperate to get some booze.  It sounds like he acted in self defense.  I went to the Idaho Historical Library located in Boise, Idaho to see if I could find more information.  I searched newspapers on microfilm to try to find the outcome of a trial or an arrest, but I came up empty handed. 

I learned several things about Ellis from reading this article.  The first was that he has some type of disability.  I looked back at the documentation that I had and found that on the 1880 census, it also noted that he was crippled.  In 1880, he is living in Columbia County, in the state of Washington and he was a sheep herder for a Mr. Frank Ping.  He is the first of his family to move west to Washington.  They join him by 1885 (Washington State Census, Columbia county).  The second thing I find out is that he hangs out at saloons and likes to play music for others.  The article mentions Lewiston but I have no documentation placing him there. 

Here is a rough sketch of Ellis S. Church life:

He was born September 1856 in Illinois (1900 Federal Census, Warrens, Idaho, Idaho).  Sometime before 1860 the family moves to Richmond Township in Kansas territory.  We know that Elias, Ellis father, serves in the Civil War for three years and we find everyone living together in Lancaster, Atchison, Kansas in 1865 on the state census.  The family consists of his father and mother, Elias and Mary Ann, and his older brother, John, and younger sister, Julia are all living with Mary Ann’s parent, John and Sarah Doyle. John and Sarah also have a daughter, Emma, age 12, living at home still.  In 1870, Ellis, age 14, and his sister, Julia, age 9, are listed twice on this census.  They are listed with their grandparents and also with their parents, both living in Lancaster, Kansas.  Here’s a map to give you an idea where Lancaster is located.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Lancaster,+kansas&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Lancaster,+Atchison,+Kansas&gl=us&ll=39.571822,-95.300903&spn=1.028925,1.760559&z=9

In 1875, Ellis is still in Lancaster helping out on the farm.  By 1880 he has gone to Washington by himself.  We see him on the 1885 State census in Columbia county living with his parents and helping out on the farm (I love that Washington had so many state censuses).  By 1900 he ends up in Warrens, Idaho and he is a saloon proprietor.   Ellis mother, Mary Ann died in 1899 and then his father died in 1904.  I have obtained records from probate court in regards to Elias estate and there it mentioned that Ellis was living in Lewiston at that time.  Maybe he went back to playing his music!

As far as I can tell, Ellis never married.  He is buried by his parents in the Dayton City Cemetery in Dayton, WA.  He doesn’t get a grand gravestone like his parents but still it is a very nice and loving gesture.  I’m guessing one of his sisters made the arrangements for that.