Long ago, my Mother shared with me some memories of her paternal grandmother. Mom mentioned Ada's "eyes," and said that she was a "tiny woman." Also, Ada apparently was a witch. With that as a lead-in, who wouldn't be interested in genealogy and the chance to learn more?
Genealogy & Family History Community
|
|
Leave the blood feuds at home
|
|
|
|
I've written in the past about my g-grandfather Cal, but in honor of Women's History month, it is time to talk a little bit about his 4th wife--my g-grandmother Ada. Herstory. It has been a challenge to uncover tidbits of her life from the limited paper records. Even with the half-remembered family anecdotes there are gaping holes in the narrative. However, in this photograph the "eyes" that Mom remembered stare at me across the years, compelling me to keep going.
Ada's ancestors came to North America from Germany in the 1750s, eventually settling in Morris County, New Jersey. Unlike Cal's ancestors from the same county, Ada's gg-grandfather Mathias Buchner was a fierce loyalist who chose to move the family to Canada after the Revolution. Ada's parents were married in London, Ontario in the 1830s, but moved to the States a few years later, eventually settling in McHenry Co., Illinois. Ada was born in 1851 and was the next to the youngest of a large family of daughters. The family moved for the last time in about 1856, to a farm adjacent to that of Cal and his 3rd wife Mary (Davis) in Monroe Co., Wisconsin.
Cal, who was born in 1829, had a number of children from his several marriages close in age to Ada; in fact his oldest daughter was also born in 1851. It appears likely that Ada's earliest playmates would eventually become her step-children...but that was many years in the future. Meanwhile, other events were drawing the families closer together during the 1860s: one of Ada's older sisters married a brother of Mary Davis Day. Another sister married Lewis Walker, who was a first cousin to Cal's first wife Eleanor and Cal's lifelong best friend. I'll stop there before the convoluted relationships derail the rest of the diary.
The 1870 census has the 18-year-old Ada still living at home with her parents and one younger sister; interestingly, she is listed as a schoolteacher. I haven't determined specifically which school in the township she taught at, but I hope it was this one:
This lovely ruin stands on the edge of old Cal's homestead ... he dug clay for the bricks from his land and fired them in his own kiln ... Cal's many children would have made up a large share of the students; perhaps that is why he ensured it was a sturdy building. (Sadly, the current owner knocked out the back wall and is using the structure as a machine shed.)
In 1873, wisely investing in her future, Ada acquired 40 acres of land just over the county line (click on thumbnail for a larger image):
Shortly after this land purchase, Ada accompanied a couple of her married sisters to a logging community in northern Wisconsin, where she married her first husband Adolph LaRonge. Her husband's family were early settlers in that area, having arrived from Saskatchewan in the 1850s. They were metis; on the 1900 census Adolph indicated that each of his parents were half French and half Ojibwe. There is a bit of a mystery as to what happened next (no one ever spoke of it, at least in my hearing), but the marriage was not a happy one. It seems Ada was pregnant when she took the couple's first son and returned home to her parents in about 1876. At any rate, she is listed on the 1880 census as a divorced daughter living with her parents, with two sons born in about 1874 and 1876.
Cal's wife Mary died in early 1883. As a widower with all 7 living children and one grandchild in early adulthood there was not a pressing need for Cal to marry immediately, but he was never a man who could live his life alone. As a no longer young woman (by contemporary standards), with the social stigma of being a divorcee with two children, and rapidly aging parents (they both, in fact, died in 1885), Ada had a more pressing need for marriage. The fact that she was educated, had land of her own, and was well known to Cal's family for many years made the match suitable on many levels.
So, Cal and Ada were married at her parents' home in September of 1883. The marriage record is a thing of beauty (to me, anyway).
(click on thumbnail for larger view)
The marriage produced another four children, my grandfather and his twin brother were the youngest (born in 1891). Here is picture of Cal and Ada, with some of the extended collection of children; my grandfather and his twin are the two boys at the far left (yeah, grandpa was always short). I haven't been able to figure out the significance of the dilapidated building as the backdrop instead of their farmhouse; some of my cousins think it may be the original cabin Cal and Mary built when while they were living in the cave.
We may never know for sure, as the structure no longer exists.
The next picture is from about c1908 with a "few" more children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Grandpa is is second from the right in the row of "guys in hats."
Ada is standing next to Cal in the top row ... you can only see those "eyes" peeking over the top great-uncle Lewis' derby hat!
After Cal died in 1918, Ada lived with Mom's family until just before her death in 1925, when Mom was five. Her farm remained in the family apart from Cal's homestead for many years; her second son from her first marriage farmed the land until his death in 1960.
And the witch stuff? Mom was fond of telling of Ada's ability as a spirit medium. According to family legends, Ada often had premonitions of deaths and held seances for the neighbors. She also apparently had the ability to heal sick or hurt animals by laying her hands on them ... I have not inherited any of the "witchy" skills, but I like to think that maybe some of my sheer dumb luck in genealogy may be due to Ada helping me along.
Now, as it is open thread Friday, it is your turn to share!