Friday’s Faces from the Past

Join the fun! I recognize my Great Grandparents Lewis Penny Doty and Emily (Wight) Taylor along with my grandfather’s siblings Mable, Florence and Harry. 

This had to be a family reunion. It looks like somebody’s backyard. I wish I could make out what was on the kitchen table. Can you see the parents off to the left? I don’t know the names of the children but Aunt Florence is the adult supervision in the center of the 2^nd row. (Aunt Florence was Florence Adelia Doty, daughter of Lewis Penny and Emily Wight Taylor Doty.)

Yeah! I know them. Beginning on the left is Aunt Florence Doty Gardner, Aunt Mable Taylor Doty Regan, Uncle Harry Taylor Doty and their parents Lewis Penny and Emily Wight Taylor Doty.

Okay, I can only name a few this time. The white haired lady in the middle row is Grandmother Emily Wight Taylor Doty with husband Lewis Penny right beside her. If you look very carefully you can barely see Aunt Mabel behind Grandmother. Behind Aunt Mabel might be her husband Frank Regan. All the way over to the right (in the middle row) is Aunt Florence.

Boy, they were really having a good time here! At least you get a better look at Aunt Mabel (2^nd row just about the middle joining in on the beer toast) and Uncle Frank (3^rd row slightly to her left) in this snapshot. 

Goodness, is Grandmother hiding a beer bottle behind her back? I don’t know who her fellow beer drinker is on the right.

It’s too bad my grandfather, Frank Leroy Doty, missed the festivities. The picnic might have taken place in Orange County, New York or Tioga County, New York. Grandmother, Grandfather, Aunt Florence and Uncle Harry were all Orange County dwellers while Aunt Mabel and Uncle Frank lived in Tioga County.

If any of my relatives know who’s who, please leave a comment below.

Harriet Cornelius Ogden, the Last Born to Gilbert Ogden and Mary Hazen 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks

2^nd Great Grandmother

Harriet Cornelius (Ogden) Clark

1842-1912

 2nd Great Grandmother Harriet Cornelius Ogden was the youngest and 15^th child of Gilbert Ogden and Mary Hazen. She was born in Orange County, New York October 16, 1842. Parents Gilbert Ogden and Mary Hazen married and raised the children in the towns of Wallkill, Minisink and Mount Hope until a few years after Harriet’s birth when Gilbert moved the family across the New York/New Jersey border to Wantage, Sussex County, New Jersey. You can read more about Gilbert and Mary in an earlier post titled Gilbert, Mary and the War of 1812  published Feb. 27, 2014.

Harriet was only 6 years old when her father passed away June 6, 1848. Four of her siblings had married by this time leaving Mary (Hazen) Ogden with 11 children ranging in age from 6 to 25 years of age. Mary took the children back to New York. The older sisters married while the older brothers found work.

When the 1850 federal census was enumerated, Mary Ogden was living in Mamakating, Sullivan County, New York. Sullivan County is north of Orange County. Eight year old Harriet was with her mother along with her 11 year old sister Mary Jane, and brothers, Andrew, Joseph and Gilbert.

By June 15, 1855, Harriet, her mother and twin brothers Andrew and Asa were residing in Wallkill with Harriet’s 26 year old brother, Seth Ogden. Harriet’s recently widowed sister, Melinda Crane, was also in the home with her two children. So far I haven’t been able to find Harriet and her mother in the 1860 federal census.

On July 3, 1861 Harriet married Jeremiah B. Clark in Westtown, Orange County, New York. Jeremiah’s parents were William Parkinson Clark and Charity Kimber from the town of Wawayanda, New York. Please see my earlier post WEDDING WEDNESDAY Jeremiah and Harriet Marry July 3, 1861 for details.

Jeremiah and Harriet made their home in Wawayanda where their first daughter, Frances E., was born in 1864.  Four more children—David Pullis, Minnie I. and twins Asa Ryerson and Franklin Emerson were all born in Wawayanda. Their youngest daughters Lillian and Grace were born in Westtown, New York in 1873 and 1875. During these years Jeremiah worked as a butcher.

Harriet and Jeremiah were living in Greenville, Orange County, New York June 10, 1875. Within 5 years Jeremiah moved the family to Goshen, New York where he would eventually have his own butcher shop known as the J. B. Clark Meat Market on West Main Street. Their children married and they became grandparents in Goshen.

It must have been heartbreaking when her daughters Minnie and Grace died leaving six motherless children between them. Jeremiah and Harriet helped care for the grandchildren along with other relatives.

Jeremiah became ill and died within a few months’ time on August 13, 1908 (cause of death was tuberculosis). Harriet was then 65 years old and went to live with her daughter Lillian Hewitt in Middletown, New York.

While visiting my grandmother, Viola Lillian Wilson, in Hartford, Connecticut Harriet died December 19, 1912 as a result of heart disease. Her death certificate is featured in my June 28, 2014 post SYMPATHY SATURDAY Grandmother Harriet Died Visiting Granddaughter.  She was brought home and buried beside Jeremiah in the Wallkill Cemetery.

Sunday’s Obituary and Tribute to Joseph Henry Clemmer, Arbor Hill, Augusta Co., VA

Staunton Spectator and Vindicator, Staunton, Virginia, Friday, June 28, 1901, page 3

  Mr. Joseph H. Clemmer, one of the best known farmers of the Arbor Hill neighborhood, died on Monday afternoon after an illness of about three weeks duration, age 53 years. His funeral took place Wednesday morning from Mt. Tabor church, of which he was a consistent member. Deceased was a son of the late Wm. K. Clemmer, and a brother of Mr. G. Lewis Clemmer. He is survived by his wife and several children. Golden Link lodge of Odd Fellows, of Middlebrook, of which he was a charter member conducted the exercises at the grave, assisted by a delegation from this city. Mr. Clemmer was widely known in the county and city, and was a man of the highest Christian character, and enjoyed the esteem of all who knew him.

A few weeks later the Golden Link lodge of Odd Fellows published a Tribute of Respect for 2^nd Great Grandfather Joseph Henry Clemmer in the July 12, 1901 issue of the Staunton Spectator and Vindicator.

Joseph was born March 7, 1847 in Augusta County, Virginia being the 4^th child born to William Kinser Clemmer and Nancy Jane Miller. He married Sarah Jane Snyder March 24, 1870 at Arbor Hill, Augusta County, Virginia. Sarah Jane was the daughter of Adam Snyder and Hannah Hull. Joseph and Sarah Jane became the parents of Katherine Hannah born in 1871, Addie M. born 1872, James Clyde born1875, Emmett Joseph born 1883 and William Spiegel born in 1886.

Granduncle Casper Garber learned more about Joseph’s funeral from his son William Spiegel and wife Eleanor many years later. Uncle Casper always maintained a keen interest in our family’s history and prepared a written history for the Clemmer family which he distributed at the annual Clemmer reunion. Casper Garber was my Grandmother Lucy Leora (Clemmer) Joseph’s brother-in-law and the husband of her sister Helen.

      Uncle Casper wrote “Some years after we were married, we took Uncle Bill and Aunt Elnora up by the home place, which is a beautiful county residence. A large spring, a very large white house, and then we drove on up to Mt. Tabor cemetery to the graves of the grandparents. Uncle Bill said that his father had died with typhoid and he was still a boy. He said that so many attended the funeral that when they arrived at the grave they could look back and see the house, their home place, and the carriages were still leaving the house. There was a solid line of carriages in that procession for over a mile and a half. He said it was a long wait until the last of those carriages arrived at the cemetery, the funeral was so large. All these things reflect on the kind of man that the family had for a grandfather.”