Where is Lura Buried? Part 3

John CRAPSEY, Jr.

A very interesting stranger moved to town.

Thirty-six-year-old Reverend John CRAPSEY, Jr. was a widower¹ with a ten-year-old son, Angelo.² He was also described as crazy and a false prophet.³

John hailed from Western New York State,⁴ a region described by the evangelist Charles G. Finney as the "burned-over district," meaning it was so heavily evangelized, there was no fuel (unconverted souls) left over to "burn" (convert). It was a region where Protestant evangelists such as Finney achieved many converts to the Congregationalist, Methodist, and Baptist churches. However, there were a large number of uneducated people who were easily influenced by folk religion (Christianity impacted by superstition). Furthermore, there were a number of nonconformist movements founded by laypeople that caused much concern among the traditional church bodies. These included Mormonism, the Millerites, Spiritualism, the Shakers, and the Oneida Society.⁵

So when John started preaching hellfire and brimstone, with his congregation speaking in tongues, trembling, and seeing visions of graves opening from earthquakes, it was not surprising that a mob of 70 men confronted him with a warrant to leave Roulette and never return.⁶

Despite this, Lura married him on 18 January 1853.⁷ Was it a marriage of convenience, love, or a little of both?

Besides Lura's daughter, Viola, and John's son, Angelo, they added four more children to the family within the next ten years: Alice, William Merrick ("Willie"), Harriet (sometimes called "Suky,"⁸ but more often, "Hattie"), and George Bayard CRAPSEY.⁹

But religious fervor was not the only thing troubling the country. 

To be continued....

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1 Dennis W. Brandt, Pathway to Hell: A Tragedy of the American Civil War (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2010), 33.^↩
2 Ibid., 30.^↩
3 Ibid., 25.^↩
4 Ibid., 31.^↩
5 Wikipedia contributors, "Burned-over district," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burned-over_district&oldid=635275417 (accessed January 12, 2015).^↩
6 Brandt, Pathway to Hell, 35, 36^↩
7 Ibid., 35.^↩
8 1870 U.S. census, Cottonwood County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Southwood, p. 6, dwelling 89, family 89, John Crapsey household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 January 2006); citing NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 187.^↩
9 Brandt, Pathway to Helll, 35.^↩

Where is Lura Buried? Part 2

Now it's really not fair to wonder about Lura's burial place without first discovering a bit about her life.

This life started nearly a thousand miles east of St. Paul, Minnesota in a tiny community called Lymansville, in Potter County, Pennsylvania. Today Lymansville is simply a crossroads of Pennsylvania Route 6 (a.k.a. the Grand Army of the Republic Highway) and Route 872 (a.k.a. Hollow Road)¹, on the eastern border of Coudersport Borough. Coudersport itself was only a village at the time, at another crossroads one mile west of Lymansville.²

Here in Lymansville Lura Ann JACKSON was born on 11 January 1826 to Joshua JACKSON and his second wife, Elsie ROUNDS, the seventh of their eight known children.³ And it was probably here--or in Coudersport--that she married Nelson H. PECK around 1847. Their only child, Viola Gertrude PECK, was born 14 April 1848 in Coudersport.⁴ She became my 3rd-great-grandmother.

We don't know much about Nelson. We do know he was a carpenter and a joiner and that he paid his taxes.⁵ There are a number of Peck families that lived in the area, but I have no idea how he connected to them. Nelson died a day after Viola's first birthday, on 15 April 1849.⁶ I'm not even sure where or how he died and I definitely don't know where he was buried. I can only guess at Lymansville or Coudersport for both his death and burial.

But these posts really aren't about Nelson. We'll have to visit his story another time. Our focus is on Lura and where she might be buried.

What's a widow with a year-old baby to do in 1849? She moved in with her sister, Harriet, her brother-in-law, Eli REES, Jr. (himself a carpenter, as well as a farmer), and their four young children in Eulalia Township. And that's where we find them when the 1850 U.S. Federal Census was taken; the first time either Lura or Viola are named on a census.⁷

Lura probably felt like her life came to an end when Nelson died. But it didn't...not for another 45 years. In fact, her life was about to get very interesting.

To be continued....

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1 PA HomeTownLocator, database (http://pennsylvania.hometownlocator.com : accessed 10 January 2015), results for Lymansville search.^↩
2 Google Maps, database (https://www.google.com/maps/), results for Coudersport, Pennsylvania search.^↩
3 Kay Brownell Reed, Potter County [Pennsylvania] Historical Society Genealogist, pottercohist@adelphia.net, to Miriam Robbins Midkiff, e-mail, 8 December 2004, "PECK/JACKSON - Potter Co., PA," info from society vertical files on Joshua Jackson.^↩
4 “Obituary of Mrs. Charles Robbins,” Grand Rapids [Michigan] Herald, 13 March 1918, p. 10. "..."who was born at Cowdersport [sic], Potter county, Pa., on April 14, 1848...."^↩
5 Early History of Coudersport - Pioneer Families of Coudersport (Coudersport, Pennsylvania : Potter County Historical Society, 1949), 11.^↩
6 Potter County (Pennsylvania) Historical Society, newspaper files (typed transcriptions); Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Entry for Nelson H. Peck.^↩
7 Pennsylvania. Potter County. 1850 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com : 2014.^↩

Where is Lura Buried? Part 1

As a genealogist, it's ironic that I've only visited a total of eleven of my ancestors' graves, and of those eleven, three were not biological ancestors (one grave belongs to my step-grandfather and two belong to the set of great-grandparents who adopted my paternal grandmother). But considering that I was born and grew up in Alaska, have spent the majority of my life in Eastern Washington, and only four^1,2,3,4 of the hundreds of my direct ancestors who have lived and died in North America are buried west of the Mississippi River, it's not so strange, after all!

Now there's one ancestor who lived within only a mile of that Mississippi River: my 4th-great-grandmother, Lura Ann (JACKSON) PECK CRAPSEY. And if she's buried where I think she is, her grave lies only two miles from the east bank of the river, technically to the north of it, as it loops through St. Paul, Minnesota.

Join me as I do a little ancestor grave hunting.

To be continued....

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1 Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8682931 : accessed 26 April 2004), Sgt. Robert Louis Robbins.^↩
2 Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=90313908 : accessed 18 May 2012), Jeanne Marie (Holst) Robbins.^↩
3 Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11016499 : accessed 24 May 2005), Charles Frisbie Strong.^↩
4 Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11016496 : accessed 24 May 2005), Mary Lucy (Wright) Strong. I've visited Charles' and Mary's graves. At "only" a six-hour-plus drive away, they are the closest ancestral graves to my residence.^↩

Pathway to Hell: A Tragedy of the Civil War

The Battle of Fredericksburg, 13 December 1862. From an early draft of Pathway to Hell: A Tragedy of the Civil War:

Charlie Robbins [of the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves, the "Fighting Bucktails"] ran harder than he ever had in his life and tried to spring over one of those ditches. It was too wide, and he thumped hard into the ditch. Stunned and bruised, he looked back and saw the enemy swarming toward him. Running was useless now. He hunkered in the ditch and awaited inevitable capture. Others had beaten him to this exposed hiding place and more leaped in. To his amazement, some of them were Rebels he assumed were trying to desert. Charlie braved another glance over the top of the ditch, and saw Angelo [Crapsey] running toward him. "He was completely done out," Robbins recalled, "and could not run as the rest did to get away from the rebels." Miraculously, Robbins escaped capture to report Angelo's "wounding." Angelo must have been wounded, Charlie assumed. Angelo would never give up no matter how stacked the odds against him.

But he had. The lad who vowed never to compromise threw up his hands and shouted, "I surrender!" A bullet would have been more merciful. At least then Angelo Crapsey would have died gloriously.

Source: Crapsey, Angelo. Photograph. C. 1863. Digital copy from the Faces of the Pennsylvania Reserves website [http://www.pareserves.com/PRVCGALLERY/details.php?image_id=559]. Original photograph's whereabouts unknown. 2008.

Angelo M. CRAPSEY was the stepson of my 4th-great-grandmother, Lura Ann (JACKSON) PECK CRAPSEY. He was raised with Viola Gertrude (PECK) ROBBINS, my 3rd-great-grandmother, and served in Company I of the 42nd Pennsylvania Infantry, later the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves with his childhood friend, Charles H. ROBBINS, who would become my 3rd-great-grandfather. Known as the "Fighting Bucktails" because of their reputation as sharpshooters, the 13th Reserves were often attached to other regiments in some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, including Gettysburg, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. Angelo was interned in the infamous Libby Prison, and was released before the end of the war. His incarceration horribly affected him, and for the rest of his short life, he engaged in one suicide attempt after another, finally succeeding on 4 August 1864, at the age of 21.

While researching the the intriguing story of Angelo Crapsey, Dennis W. Brandt read the many letters Angelo wrote during his war days, along with educating himself about the 42nd Pennsylvania Infantry/13th Pennsylvania Reserves and the Pennsylvania communities of Roulette, Potter County and Smethport, McKean County. I am indebted to him for his research on the Robbins, Peck, and Jackson families, which he generously shared with me. He is also the author of From Home Guards to Heroes: The 87th Pennsylvania And Its Civil War Community (2006, University of Missouri Press; the Shades of Blue and Gray Series).

Pathway to Hell: A Tragedy of the Civil War has been recently published by Lehigh University Press and is available for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Friday Findings: GenLine, CRAPSEY Burials, Cousins, and SNOOK Graves

Due to the Blogger debacle this week, I was not able to post my Friday Findings in a timely manner. Here's a rundown of my research results for the week of July 26 - August 1, 2008:

More on Many Marriages
While entering the marriage records of my husband's granduncle, Lee Joseph "Mick" MARTIN, I realized that the witnesses for his third marriage, to Martha Isabell (JONES) DVORAK, were his daughter from his first marriage and her husband. Hmm... It made me wonder if his first wife had died by then (I'm not sure how their marriage ended; by divorce or by her death?). I couldn't find any death information for her, but I did find Isabell, as she was called, on the SSDI.

Swedish Parish Records
Also following up on last week's findings, I went to my local Family History Center to use their free subscription to GenLine, the Swedish parish records database, to find and verify my great-great-grandmother's birth (Ida Charlotte (GUSTAVSON) HOLST). I had never used it before, so it took some time. Fortunately, it has a nice tutorial, available both in English and Swedish. It is necessary to know the name of the parish to do a search. The records appear in digital image format, not unlike looking at a roll of microfilm. They are not indexed by name in any way, so it takes some searching. All I had for Ida's birthplace was Hamnada, Sweden. I had no idea where this location was, and used both Wikipedia and the FamilySearch Library Catalog to find it, without any success. I had a feeling I was spelling it incorrectly. I then did a Google search and found a mention in someone's online family tree of a "Hamnada-Småland, Krnberg". I went back to Wikipedia to look at the political structure of Sweden. Småland is one of 25 provinces (landskapen) of Sweden and has no political structure as of 1634. It is a cultural, geographical and historical subdivision. Kronoberg is a county (län), a political subdivision, that lies in what is a part of Småland. I still could not find Hamnada or a a similiar name in any of the lists of municipalities (similar to American townships), villages, or cities of Sweden.

I went back to GenLine, and looking up Kronoberg County records, I noticed that Hamneda was one of the parishes. Bingo! They had birth and christening records up through 1861 (I don't recall the beginning year), so I went to take a look. In 1861 alone, there were NINE Ida Charlottas (no Charlottes) born in Hamneda parish! Only one had a surname close to GUSTAVSON, and that was a Ida Charlotta GUSTAFSON born, it appears on 29 December 1861 and baptized 31 December 1861. I say "appears", because I am not certain of what the dates stand for. There are three numbers and a month before each record. The first number is the record number, as they are all in sequence from 1 until the last record. Then comes the month abbreviation, which is very similar to our English month abbreviations. Then two numbers follow. The first number is always lower than the second number, and none of the numbers go beyond 31, so my assumption is that the first one is the birth date and the second one is the christening date. The words "Births and Baptisms" appear at the the top of each of these pages (in Swedish, of course), adding credence to my theory. I used FamilySearch's online Swedish Genealogical Word List to figure out the words.

My Ida Charlotte GUSTAVSON was born 28 October 1861, but I need to find my source of information for that. Her 1900 U. S. Federal Census enumeration does have October 1861 as a birth date. I ran out of time to double check 1860 records, and there are none available at GenLine for 1862. I will need to search other nearby parish records, too, I think. I also did not have time to figure out how to save or print the image with the birth date of the Ida Charlotta GUSTAFSON I found. This was an interesting first foray into Swedish records, and I felt I learned quite a bit.

CRAPSEY Burials
I've been trying to find a death date for my 4th-great-grandmother, Lura Ann (JACKSON) PECK CRAPSEY. I know she was deceased by 1900, when my step-ancestor, the Rev. John CRAPSEY, Jr. was listed as a widower in the Federal Census for that year. She was alive as late as 1891, when her husband filed an application for a pension based on his deceased son's military service. They were living St. Paul, Ramsey Co., Minnesota. Attempts to have a volunteer at RAOGK look up her death records did not work out. I then came across John's obituary stating he was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery. There is a Forest Lawn Memorial Parks and Mortuaries in Ramsey County, and I contacted them to see if I could find burial information (and thus a death date) for the Crapseys. I received an immediate response that there was no record of either one in their records. I need to follow up with wording from John's obituary to make sure that the Forest Lawn Cemetery he was buried in is the same as what Park and Mortuaries company now manages, when their records begin, and if they have record of John and Lura's children being buried there (it's possible, if their children are buried there, that John and Lura are buried without markers).

Cousins
A distant LEWIS cousin of mine, Bob Stefanich, contacted me to tell me about another cousin of ours (related more closely to me than Bob is) and that the LEWIS family reunion is occurring today in Fruitport, Muskegon Co., Michigan (wish I could be there)! I've contacted Jim with the hope that I can get more information on the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of my 2nd-great-grandparents, George Emmett LEWIS and Mary WILKINSON.

Also, a McARTHUR cousin contacted me. She lives in Michigan and is able to visit the ancestral cemeteries. She promised to take some tombstone photos of some of our mutual ancestors...so exciting!

SNOOK Graves
Speaking of ancestral graves, I heard from a Find A Grave photo volunteer--Catherine Bryon--who photographed the graves of my husband's 3rd-great-grandfather, Reuben Wohlford SNOOK, and his second wife, Elizabeth NEARHOOD, at the Forsyth Cemetery in Rosebud Co., Montana. Click on the links to view the photographs. Thanks, Catherine!

A Civil War Soldier: 2nd Lt. Merrick JACKSON (1822 - 1908)

Source: Jackson, Merrick. "Out of the Attic." Potter-Leader Enterprise (Coudersport, Pennsylvania), undated clipping, c. 2000s. Original privately held by Joyce Jackson Bailey, address unknown. 2004.

How Related: Brother of my 2nd-great-grandmother, Lura Ann JACKSON

Born: 26 April 1822 in Pennsylvania

Parents: Joshua JACKSON (c. 1780 - c. 1828) and Elsie ROUNDS (1790 - 1869)

Siblings: older paternal half-sister, Asenath "Cena" JACKSON (c. 1800 - 1875); Lucina (1810 - 1882), Joshua T. (1814 - 1883), Prudence (b. 1820), Harriet A. (1820 - 1891), Jane Cordelia (b. 1824), Lura Ann (1826 - bef. 1900; my ancestor), and Noble Victor JACKSON (1827 - 1906).

Married: Sally WEIMER (1827 - 1897) before 1848, probably in Potter Co., Pennsylvania. Sally was probably the sister of Kate WEIMER who married Merrick's brother Noble.

Children: Adelaide (b. c. 1848), Elsie (b. c. 1851), Lura Ann (b. c. 1853 - named for his sister/my ancestor), William B. (b. 1858), and Orlando Joshua JACKSON (1860 - 1929).

---

Source: Civil War Pension Index Card of Merrick Jackson. Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900. National Archives and Records Administration. Publication T289. Digital image purchased at Footnote [http://www.footnote.com/].

Enlisted: 13 September 1861 in Co. H, 46th Pennsylvania Infantry; private. Promoted to Full Sergeant on 30 October 1862. Promoted to full 2nd Lieutenant on 17 June 1863.

Side served: Union

Dismissed: 2 May 1864

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Biography or Information of Interest: Since Merrick was a soldier who worked his way up the ranks from a private to a second lieutenant, I was surprised not to find information on him beyond his military service, or even a photo online. His namesake was my great-great-grandfather, Angelo Merrick ROBBINS, his grandnephew. I find it curious that Merrick's Civil War Pension Index Card lists his "late rank" as private, and not second lieutenant.

Died: 3 April 1908

Buried: Watson Cemetery, Borie, Summit Twp., Potter Co., Pennsylvania

A Civil War Soldier: Sgt. Angelo M. CRAPSEY (1842 - 1864)

Source: Crapsey, Angelo. Photograph. C. 1863. Digital copy from the Faces of the Pennsylvania Reserves website [http://www.pareserves.com/PRVCGALLERY/details.php?image_id=559]. Original photograph's whereabouts unknown. 2008.

How Related: Step-brother of my 3rd-great-grandmother, Viola Gertrude PECK; best friend and step-brother-in-law of my 3rd-great-grandfather Charles H. ROBBINS

Born: 9 Dec 1942, New York

Parents: only child of Rev. John CRAPSEY, Jr. (1816 - 1903) and Mercy Rhuama "Mary" (BARNUM) FRANTZ (c. 1822 - 1952); step-mother, Lura Ann (JACKSON) PECK CRAPSEY (1826 - bef. 1900)

Siblings: Older maternal half-sisters Catherine (b. 1833), Anna Maria (b. c. 1835), and Ann Orilla FRANTZ (b. c. 1838); younger paternal half-siblings Alice (b. 1855), William Merrick "Willie" (1858 - 1946), Harriet, a.k.a. Hattie/Suky (b. 1860), and George Bayard CRAPSEY (1863 - 1943); step-sister Viola Gertrude PECK (1848 - 1918)

Married: never

Children: none

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Enlisted: 30 May 1861 at Port Allegany, McKean Co., Pennsylvania in Company I, 42nd Pennsylvania Infantry (a.k.a "The Bucktails"); private. Promoted to full corporal. Promoted to full sergeant.

Side Served: Union

History of Unit: See the history of the 42nd Pennsylvania Infantry (also known as the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves), including battles and rosters, here and here.

Discharged: 15 October 1863

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Source: Libby Prison, 1865. Photograph number B-119. Matthew B. Brady Collection of Civil War Photographs. National Archives and Records Administration. Publication T252. Viewed at and downloaded from Footnote [http://www.footnote.com/] 16 Apr 2008.

Biography or Information of Interest: Angelo's widowed father married my widowed 3rd-great-grandmother, and thus he was raised with my 2nd-great-grandmother as step-siblings. When the Civil War began, Angelo enlisted, followed not long after by his best friend, my 2nd-great-grandfather Charles Robbins, who after the war, would marry Angelo's step-sister.

During the Battle of Fredericksburg, Angelo was captured by the Confederates and imprisoned in the infamous Libby Prison on Richmond, Virginia. The deplorable conditions combined with shell-shock caused Angelo to lose his mind. When he returned to his community and family in Port Allegany, McKean County and Roulette, Potter County, he was suicidal and had to be watched continuously. Tragically, his attempts eventually were successful when he managed to get a hold of a gun.

His father later applied for his veteran's pension. The pension application is full of details pertinent to my families, as his father, step-mother, step-sister and several Robbins family members gave their testimonies to his war experiences.

Source: Civil War Pension Index Card of Angelo M. Crapsey. Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900. National Archives and Records Administration. Publication T289. Digital image purchased at Footnote [http://www.footnote.com/].

Angelo's is one of many, many tragic stories of the Civil War, and a reminder that not all men who die as a result of war die in battle. The complete fascinating story waits to be told in the as-yet-unpublished historical novel by Dennis W. Brandt.

Died: 4 Aug 1864 (age 21), Roulette, Potter Co., Pennsylvania, due to self-inflicted gunshot

Buried: Lyman Cemetery, Roulette, Potter Co., Pennsylvania

World-Famous Bear Has a Name: Alice Teddy

You just never know what tracing your family tree will lead you to!

First of all, I was doing some searching this evening for more information on George Bayard CRAPSEY (see previous post). Mike Kirchmeier had told me that he and his wife, Carrie, had died in Oregon. So I went to Ancestry and searched the Oregon Death Index. I found both their deaths listed in Jackson County. Carrie died 16 Apr 1941, and George died 12 July 1943. It appears that George may have remarried in the two years between Carrie's death and his own, because there is also an Anna Mae CRAPSEY who died in the same county on 13 March 1985. Her birth date was 10 May 1890, and her spouse is listed as George. Since George and Carrie did not have any children, it is possible that Anna was George's much younger wife, rather than a daughter-in-law. I Googled to see if I could find more information on Carrie, and did find her listed as "CRAPSEY, Carrie L." in the Lincoln County, Wisconsin probate cases index. I'm fairly certain this was the same Carrie that George married, as the county seat for Lincoln County is Merrill, Wisconsin, and I had already found several pieces of information online about George residing in Merrill.

Seems like George's rollerskating bear really was a globe-trotting show! First of all, I found this family history website by Thomas J. DALEY, great-grandson of John AKEY. AKEY was a personal friend of George CRAPSEY, and he, too, trained a bear to rollerskate. On the website is a transcription of an undated newspaper clipping from what appears to be the Merrill Daily Herald:

BEAR LEARNING TO ROLLER SKATE

MAKES GREAT PROGRESS WITH-IN LAST TEN DAYS. IS OWNED BY LOCAL BUSINESS MAN.

John Akey, the Second street business man, has been quite busy the past ten days teaching his bear to roller skate. Mr. Akey has only had the bear for about three weeks and for the past ten days has been teaching it to skate at the Union Roller rink. From the progress that has been made in that time, Merrill will undoubted be made famous by being made the home of two roller skating bears. Geo. Crapsey has traveled for several years with Alice Teddy; and is known not only in this country, but has also exhibited for the crowned heads of Europe.

Here's another one from the same source:

AKEY'S BEAR AT PORTAGE

QUEEN WAS CAPTURED MAY 28, LAST, FIFTEEN MILES FROM THIS CITY.

The following article was clipped from a recent edition of the Portage Daily Register and will be read with interest by local people:

"The people who were about the streets Monday were given the unusual sight of seeing a bear driving an automobile. The sight was an unusual and much commotion was created to get a peek at this bruin at his new job. The animal was owned by John Akey of Merrill and is known about the fair and show circles as Foxey Queen. She drives a car us through the main streets, making all the turnouts and appears to be a cautious driver. Mr. Akey is seated with the bear on the front seat and she presides at the steering wheel absolutely, Mr. Akey pointing the direction she is to take.

"'Queen was captured, May 28, last, fifteen miles from Merrill,' said Mr. Akey, 'and we have been busy domesticating her since. She appears to take a liking to humans and performs roller skating stunts as well as other tricks. We are touring the state giving exhibitions with Queen and expect to give the people of Portage a chance to see her perform.'

"Akey has a large collection of wild animals at his place in Merrill, a bear, monkey, porcupine, coon, wild cats and ferrets mingle with the patrons of his place at the northern city.

"Akey is a personal friend of George Crapsey, who was here at the fair a few years ago with his world famous "Alice Teddy" the roller skating bear which is now exhibiting Manitoba and has netted Mr. Crapsey over $55,000."

I also found this newspaper article from the front page of the 1 Jan 1911 Greensburg [Pennsylvania] Morning Review at the Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania archives at RootsWeb:

Skating Bear A Wonder

Alice Teddy draws record breaking crowd at the big rink, will be here all week - one of the world's animal wonders.

Amid the enthusiastic applause of fully two thousand people, Alice Teddy, the wonderful skating bear, made her initial appearance and performance at The Big Rink carnival last night.

To say that this wonderful skating bear is one of the most unique animal wonders of the world is merely stating a fact and voicing the verdict of two thousand people who saw her performance last night. Following is Alice Teddy's history.

Alice Teddy, the wonderful roller skating cinnamon bear appearing here this week, was a tiny baby bear when captured in Oregon. Geo. B. Crapsy, her present owner, who also made the capture, says that at the time little Alice weighed four pounds. Today Alice is past two years old and weighs 215 pounds.

When Mr. Crapsy returned home to Merrill, Wis., he brought Alice along. Her remarkable intelligence prompted hi2m to spend his spare time in teaching Alice tricks. She readily learned to wear shoes, clothes, to walk upright and finally, after months of hard practice, to skate on ball-bearing rollers. Alice is the only bear in the world skating and dancing on skates.

So it appears that George found Alice in Oregon, and not Wisconsin, as Kirchmeier believed. Another archived RootsWeb source, DC Old News, has this article from a list of amusements on page 4 of the 4 April 1912 Washington Post:

AT THE ARCADE
Fourteenth Street and Park Road.
EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK AT 9:20
JOE TURNER, Champion Middleweight Wrestler of
the World, Will Meet All Comers.
Agreeing to Throw in 15 Minutes or Forfeit $25.
THURSDAY NIGHT
Turner will attempt to throw in 15 minutes be???
HARRY FIDDISO?, ?????????
and VINCENT COSIMANO, "Young Greek" Of Washington
ALICE TEDDY The Bear That Skates on Roller Skates
EVERY NIGHT AT 9 0'CLOCK
Tues., Thurs., Fri. also Sat. Afternoon at 4.
ROLLER SKATING WRESTLING BOUT-ALICE TEDDY
ALL FOR ONE ADMISSION, 25 CENTS

At Google Books, you can download a copy of The Vaudeville Theatre Building Operation Management by Edward Renton (New York: Gotham Press Inc. 1918). On page 257, you will find the following line:

Alice Teddy, roller skating bear, lobby stunts.

You can also view some of the flyers used to advertise the act at various theaters. HistoryLink.org, The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History (a fabulous site, by the way!) has an image of a flyer from the Pantages Theater in Seattle in the 1910s here. And a similar one, c. 1909, for the Empress Theater (location unknown) sold on Hake's auction website for $50.14 last year.

The Schuco toy company of Nuremburg, Germany, founded in 1912,

made a roller skating bear toy that was probably inspired by Alice Teddy, a real-life bear whose skating party trick wowed audiences in the United States before the First World War,

according to Christopher Proudlove at this online article.

I'm sure if I look at some newspaper database websites, I could find more. Isn't this fascinating? As I said earlier, you just never know what you'll find when you start digging through your family roots!

CRAPSEY Photos...and a Rollerskating Bear

A week and a half ago, I posted some transcribed news clippings about my ROBBINS ancestors and their extended family who lived in Southbrook Township, Cottonwood County, Minnesota from the mid-1870s to the early 1880s. These were sent to me by Mike Kirchmeier of Windom, Minnesota, who is working on a genealogical project of Southbrook Township citizens. He also sent me some photographs, as well as some genealogical information on these family members. I was very excited to get all of this. These have helped to "flesh out" some of the people in my family tree who were little more than names, dates, and locations to me.

First a little background: one of my paternal 4th-great-grandmothers was Lura Ann JACKSON (1826 - bef. 1900), whose earliest residences I've found have been in Potter County, Pennsylvania. She first married my ancestor, Nelson H. PECK (c. 1819 - 1849), and they had one child, my 3rd-great-grandmother, Viola Gertrude PECK (1848 - 1918). After Nelson died, Lura Ann married a widower, the Rev. John CRAPSEY (1816 - 1903), who had one child, Angelo M. CRAPSEY (1842 - 1864), by his previous wife. The family moved to neighboring McKean County, Pennsylvania, to land adjoining that of the ROBBINS family in Liberty Township. Angelo's best friend was Charles H. ROBBINS, and the two signed up together after Fort Sumter was fired upon, and served in Company I of the First Pennsylvania Rifles (a.k.a. the Bucktails). Angelo was captured during a battle and spent some time in Libby Prison, the infamous Confederate prisoner-of-war prison in Richmond, Virginia. Although released later, he was there long enough to lose his mind, and tragically committed suicide after several unsuccessful attempts, at the home of a family friend, Laroy LYMAN, in Roulette, Potter County, Pennsylvania.

Charles and Viola were wed at the war's end, married by her step-father, the Reverend CRAPSEY (see the photograph likely taken at that time, here). First, the ROBBINSes accompanied Charles' parents to Oceana County, in Western Michigan, but later removed to Cottonwood County, Minnesota, where Viola's mother, step-father and half-siblings were living. Angelo and his friend Laroy had purchased some land in Minnesota before his death, and that may have been what prompted the CRAPSEYs to move to that state. Charles and Viola lived about eight or nine years in Cottonwood County, on land neighboring her parents and also some of her adult half-siblings. By 1884, the ROBBINS had returned to the Oceana-Newaygo County area in Western Michgian. They named one of their sons Angelo, after their friend/step-brother. He is Angelo Merrick ROBBINS, Sr., the father who is mentioned in the "Polar Bear posts" I have been writing.

Viola's younger half-siblings (John CRAPSEY and Lura Ann JACKSON's children) were:

• *Alice (CRAPSEY) HANDY McBAIN (1855 - 1905)
• *William "Willie" Merrick CRAPSEY (1858 - 1946)
• *Harriet "Hattie" or "Suky" (CRAPSEY) HARDY (b. 1860)
  
• *George Bayard CRAPSEY (b. 1863)

Below is a photo of Willie in 1940:

SOURCE: Crapsey, William "Willie" Merrick. Photograph. 1940. Digital image. Privately held by Michael Kirchmeier, Windom, Minnesota, 2007.

Here is a photo of George and his wife Carrie [--?--]. She's the one in the skirt!

SOURCE: Crapsey, George Bayard with wife Carrie [--?--] and trained bear. Undated photograph. Digital image. Privately held by Michael Kirchmeier, Windom, Minnesota, 2007.

Mike tells me that George found this bear as a cub while living in Wisconsin. He trained the bear and used to travel all over the country--possibly the world--to feature him in shows. Now isn't this some fun information to add to my family history? Seems like the Robbins family and bears are destined to go together...first the rollerskating bear with my Great-great-great-grandma Robbins' half brother; then my Great-grandfather Robbins' experiences as a Polar Bear in Russia; and, oh yes! the bear that kept raiding my parents' Alaskan farm back in 1975...but that's another story...maybe even another blog altogether.

Connecting with Cousins on Memorial Day

Three years ago, my husband, children and I traveled across the state of Washington to spend Memorial Day weekend with my in-laws in Vancouver, Washington, which lies just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. I always enjoy this cross-state visit, as the longest leg of it--driving along the Columbia River on the Oregon side--follows both the Lewis and Clark trail and the Oregon Trail. I enjoy imaging the explorers and pioneers traveling the same route, and seeing Mt. Hood towering in the distance.

While in Vancouver, we went with Norm's parents and sister to Park Hill Cemetery in Vancouver, to visit and photograph the MIDKIFF, TOLLIVER, DAVES (step-ancestor), LUKE, and CHAPLIN graves. The following year, 2005, we made the same trip, and I insisted that we were going to travel down to the Willamette Valley to visit and photograph the grave of one of Norm's great-great-grandmothers, Rebecca Catherine (SNOOK) WESTABY, buried in Salem, as well as the graves of my great-great-grandparents, Charles Frisbe STRONG and his wife, Mary Lucy WRIGHT. Charles and Mary are two of only four of my ancestors buried west of the Mississippi River, and the other two are nowhere near my home! My paternal grandfather, Robert Lewis ROBBINS is buried at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas, and a 4th-great-grandmother, Lura Ann (JACKSON) PECK CRAPSEY, is apparently buried in St. Paul, Minnesota. So to actually be able to be within a few hours of an ancestor's grave is a big deal to me, and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.

When we arrived at Belle Passi Cemetery in Woodburn, Marion Co., Oregon, where Charles and Mary are buried, we found that the graves had already been cleaned and decorated. They were surrounded by other graves, obviously of the family of their daughter, Ethel Melissa (STRONG) HASTIE, who is buried there along with her husband, the Rev. Ezbon Roy HASTIE. I remember visiting the widowed Aunt Ethel in 1979, when we first moved to Washington State, and remembered meeting her son.

We were rather rushed on that visit, and so I didn't have time to try to find out how to contact the family. But on the way home, I had a couple of ideas that could work for you to help you connect with cousins on Memorial Day. Obviously, I could have looked up the Hastie family in the phone book in Woodburn, or on Dex Knows when I got home. But what if you are looking for descendants of an ancestor, yet you don't know your cousins' surnames?

First off, you need to know where your ancestor is buried. If their grave is in your hometown or nearby, you're in luck. If you are like myself and live far from your ancestral cemeteries, it's important to obtain death certificates and/or obituaries of your ancestors to determine their final resting places. I use Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness quite frequently to get obituaries of ancestors. They're easier and less expensive to access than death certificates. Once I have the name of a cemetery in hand, I use Find A Grave, Interment.net, Dex Knows, or Cemetery Junction to find an address and telephone number (check out Cyndi's List of Cemeteries as well).

My next step is to cold call the cemetery office during local business hours. I have had so much luck with this! You would be amazed at how helpful cemetery employees are! From phone interviews I have discovered the names of other ancestors and relatives buried in the same cemetery, the names of the funeral homes that provided services (I'll post more about this in the future), the names and addresses of the lot owners (which may be obsolete, but may provide relatives' names). I always try to obtain the lot number of the grave(s) I am interested in, and sometimes the employee will mail me a cemetery map. I ask the cemetery employee if it's okay to send them an info packet that they could place on my ancestor's grave (see following paragraph). In fact, I have been so successful in this type of research, that I've created a form that I use to help me remember all the questions I want to ask when I call.

The fourth step is to write a letter explaining that I am a descendant of the ancestor buried in that cemetery, and that I am doing genealogical research on the family. I leave contact information: a phone number, mailing address and e-mail address. This letter is folded and sealed in a zip-lock bag and then placed in an envelope which is addressed either to the cemetery office or to a volunteer in the area that I've contacted through the local genealogical society or Random Acts. The cemetery employee or the volunteer can then place the info packet (my letter in a zip-lock bag) on the grave, hopefully weighted with a small rock or wedged into a crevice of the headstone, so it won't blow away. If this is done about a week before Memorial Day weekend, there's a chance that I could connect with another descendant of that ancestor who has come to the cemetery to clean and decorate the grave! If the cemetery doesn't allow an info packet left on the grave itself, ask if your letter could be placed in your ancestor's file at the office.

So what's the purpose of this? To hopefully connect with other relatives of a common ancestor and exchange information...photos, documents, stories, etc. It's likely that the two of you have missing information that the other may be seeking. Perhaps you'll break down a brick wall! Memorial Day weekend is only two weeks away, so I hope you'll take advantage of this tip. Good luck to you!

My Jackson Line - Connection to the Mayflower and Ol' Stonewall?

Speaking of my Pennsylvania ancestors, Charles' wife, Viola Gertrude Peck was the daughter of Lura Ann Jackson.  I've discovered Lura's father was Joshua Jackson of Potter Co., Pennsylvania, and her mother was probably Elsie Rounds (Joshua's second wife).  This week another descendant of Joshua, Linda Smith, contacted me.  She believes her ancestor, Lucinda Jackson, a (half) sister of Lura, was the daughter of Joshua's first wife, Miriam Standish...yes, THOSE Standishes, of Mayflower fame!  Linda quoted a biography of one of Lucinda's grandchildren that states the Standish connection, as well as making the claim that Joshua was related to Stonewall Jackson.