Fun: The Hunter Sisters ~ 52 Ancestors #48

I have quite a few fun (and funny) photographs of my grandmother, Helen Lysle Hunter, and her four older sisters from very early in the 20th century. See My Grandmother and Her Sisters.

Since I originally shared photos of the Hunter sisters, MyHeritage has made their enhanced and colorized photos available.

Here is one I previously shared and two more that I don't believe I have shared before. I believe these photos are taken at the home on Perrysville Avenue in Allegheny City, where their paternal grandparents lived and where they lived after their grandparents died in 1902.

The sisters look like they're having fun in these photos. All three have been enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage.

Caption: MUD PIES; sisters from left: Marion, Mary, Caroline, Margaret, and Helen

Full House: James Hunter's Family ~ 52 Ancestors #42

My second great grandfather, James Hunter, was in construction. He fathered ten children with his wife Mary Freeland.

Because of his construction business, he was very involved in building his home on Perrysville Avenue in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, where the Hunter family moved by 1890-1891 (based on city directories).

Undated photo

Fall 1905

Fall 1905

Fall 1905

The 1900 U.S. Census shows that it was a full house:

1900 U.S. census, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Allegheny Ward 10,
ED 82, p. 15A, dwelling 270, family 306, record for James Hunter.

James Hunter, Head, age 55
Mary S. F. Hunter, Wife, age 50
James F. Hunter, Son, age 24
Samuel K. Hunter, Son, age 21
John R. Hunter, Son, age 18
Chester A. Hunter, Son, age 16
Helen R. Hunter, Daughter, age 13
Mary Lois Hunter, Daughter, age 11
Curtis C. Hunter, Son, age 8

The household included three servants: Mary Coyne, age 21, Katie Malley, age 20, and John Jones, age 17. Mary and Katie were born in Ireland and John Jones was born in Virginia.

Sadly, Mary died in March 1902, at age 52. Her husband, James died about seven months later at age 58. I believe that his second son (and my great-grandfather) Percy Hunter, became guardian for his underage siblings and moved back into the family home with his growing family. 

School Pins and Rings ~ 52 Ancestors #38

Recently, my brothers and I were going through some items that had come from my mother's collection of family treasures.

Some items had symbols on them that needed to be deciphered.

The first items were relatively easy to decipher. This pendant has the Greek letters Beta Theta Pi. It is just under an inch in diameter and is stored in this small leather case.

Grandfather Lowell Townsend Copeland attended Northwestern University in the early 1920s. He was a proud member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. I shared information from his school yearbook at What Else You Can Find in Yearbooks.

Mechanical Bank Collectors of America ~ 52 Ancestors #34

I have written about the sisters of my grandmother many times. Great Aunt Margie was a favorite of her nieces and grand nieces and grand nephews. Great Aunt Mary not so much. Together with their sister Caroline, both aunts fought Standard Oil in 1952, protecting their and their neighbors' farms north of Pittsburgh.

In my post about Aunt Margie, I mentioned her membership in the Mechanical Bank Collectors of America (MBCA). In fact, both Aunt Margie and Aunt Mary were longtime members. Aunt Mary collected so many mechanical banks that she was written up in a Pittsburgh newspaper in 1947.

Girl Skipping Rope bank

Preserve: Mary Lois Hunter ~ 52 Ancestors #19

This week's theme is Preserve. I have so many items that have been saved and handed down to me as the family historian, so it was hard (but fun) to choose one item to share.

My second great-grandparents, James Hunter and Mary (Freeland) Hunter, had ten children. Their ninth child (my great great aunt) died at age 22.

Pennsylvania, U..S., Death Certificates, 1906-1970, courtesy Ancestry.com

Her death certificate reports that she died on April 14, 1911, at Allegheny General Hospital, of "General Peritonitis following operation for appendicitis & floating kidney." Interestingly, her oldest brother, H.L. Hunter, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was the informant. Her parents both died in 1902.

What is the preserved item here? I have a copy of her original will, written about three weeks before her death.

Favorite Recipe: Spiced Pecans ~ 52 Ancestors #14

In recent years, my mother downsized a couple of times and had consolidated her recipes at the family summer house. When my siblings and I were emptying the kitchen for a renovation, I was given my mother's collection of recipe boxes. This week's theme prompted me to take them out of the bag and see what I have.

It appears that she copied recipes to have at two different residences (and possibly to give away), because I see multiple copies of the same recipes in these boxes. (One being Hermit Cookies, which I blogged about over a dozen years ago.) There are recipes in my grandmother's handwriting, recipes from other relatives and friends, and many cut from newspapers.

Here's a favorite of my mother, me, and my family, in my mother's handwriting.

SPICED PECANS

Earning a Living: Firefighter John Hunter ~ 52 Ancestors #6

This week's theme is Earning a Living.

 

There is one firefighter in my family tree of about 6,900 individuals. Great-great-great uncle John Kirk Hunter, third child and second son of my third great-grandparents, Samuel Hunter and Catherine (Carr) Hunter, was born December 1, 1845, in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (later known as Old Allegheny or North Side Pittsburgh).

He held a few odd jobs before joining the Allegheny City fire department in the 1860s, after serving in the Civil War. He lived and worked in Allegheny City (later Pittsburgh) for the rest of his life.

In 1870, he was living with his mother and working as Engineer, but I'm guessing that it was as an engineer for the local fire company. He was living with his widowed mother. (See Catherine Carr Hunter for more information about her.)

1870 U.S. Census Catherine Hunter household

Sometime in the very early 1870s, he married Emma Bailey and they had three or four children, only two living to adulthood. The 1880 census shows his household with two children (and a sister-in-law) and his occupation as a "City Fire Man."

1880 U.S. Census John K. Hunter household

Newspapers tell much more of the story than census records and city directories (which I'm not sharing here due to the already long post).

Influencer: Percy Hunter and Bridge Safety ~ 52 Ancestors #5

This week's theme is Influencer.

 

A very early post on this blog was about my great-grandfather, Percy Earle Hunter (1873-1937) and his occupation as a civil engineer. 

Percy E. Hunter, 1895

For many years, he was president of the Independent Bridge Company in Pittsburgh, a company that literally built one of the bridges over the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh (the Liberty Bridge), among many other bridges.

Between 1915 and 1937, Percy obtained several patents for annealing boxes, welding apparatuses, bridge structures, and other manufacturing tools.

It appears that he influenced the development of safety railing for bridges and other structures.

Percy E. Hunter has 29 patents to his name, discovered at the Patent Public Search (searching for Applicant Name = Percy AND Applicant Name = Hunter).  (You can also search for patents at Google Patent Search by entering Percy Hunter in the Google Search box provided.)

Favorite Photo: For Jack From Mama ~ 52 Ancestors #3

This week's theme for this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is "Favorite Photo."

I have many photos that I have previously shared under the Wordless Wednesday prompt. Here are a couple that I haven't previously shared.

This is a tiny envelope, about 2.5" x 3.5". On the front is written: "For Jack from Mama."

And on the back is my mother's handwriting identifying the individuals in the photos as James Hunter and Mary (Freeland) Hunter, who are my second great-grandparents. This suggests that the handwriting on the front is my second great-grandmother's, Mary (Freeland) Hunter. Inside this small envelope are four tiny pictures.

I previously shared portraits of them when they were younger.

Stories From the 1950 Census ~ My Great Aunts Were Farmers

I previously shared that my mother remembers walking (quite a distance) to visit her grandmother Marguerite when she was growing up outside of Pittsburgh. She was supposedly her grandmother's favorite grandchild and even spent three months living with her when she was eight years old and recovering from (possibly) rheumatic fever, which left her with a lifetime heart murmur.

My great-grandmother, Marguerite (Lysle) Hunter, was the first ancestor I found in the 1950 census when it became available on April 1 at the National Archives website. No, I didn't find her by searching for Marguerite Hunter (a relatively common first name combined with a very common surname in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania). I searched for her divorced daughter, Mary Gerken.

1950 U.S. census, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Hampton Township, ED 2-366, sheet 7, lines 17-19, household 55 (Marguerite Hunter & daughters); U.S. National Archives, 1950 Census (https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

Counting Third Cousins

Summer 1982; see
Throwback Thursday-Cousins Day

My current project (which I have spent many months on) has been to identify all the descendants of my eight sets of second great-grandparents. This is to help me identify my DNA matches on the several genetic genealogy testing sites where my results connect me to cousins. Smaller amounts of shared DNA suggests more distant relationships and knowing my third cousins might help identify those relationships.

I have identified 49 second cousins and over 180 third cousins. Note that on my father's mother's side (Adsit-Ashby), I have no known first cousins, second cousins, or third cousins. This makes it difficult to confirm more distant, colonial New England cousins on this side because I've got lots of other colonial New England in other ancestral lines.

Some families were more difficult to track forward than others; it depended on where they lived and whether I could find useful obituaries in online newspapers (among other resources). Then there are families with common names: Bailey, Hunter, Murphy, Smith, Walsh, as well as branches of cousins who moved abroad, making it harder to find them.

Notes:
* The couple's name in bold are my second great-grandparents.
*  In many cases, the number of third cousins is an estimate (especially McAlpin-Rose, Greeley half-third cousins, and Hunter-Freeland).
*  I refer to 3 siblings under my maternal lines and 4 siblings under my paternal lines as I have one sibling with whom I share my father and not my mother.
*  The colors are based on my long-time color-coding system.

PATERNAL-PATERNAL
James Pyle (1823-1900) and Esther Abigail Whitman (1828-1921) had:
   7 children (only 2 had children)
   9 grandchildren
  10 great-grandchildren
  40 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 4 siblings, no first cousins, my 31 second cousins, and 4 third cousins)

David Hunter McAlpin (1816-1901) and Frances Adelaide Rose (1829-1870) had:
  10 children
  23 grandchildren
  48 great-grandchildren
(at least) 139 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 4 siblings, no first cousins, my 31 second cousins, and (at least) 103 third cousins)


PATERNAL-MATERNAL
James Monroe Adsit (1809-1894) and Susan Arville Chapin (1820-1906) had:
   7 children
   4 grandchildren
   1 great-grandson (my dad)
   5 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 4 siblings, no first cousins, second cousins, or third cousins)

Daniel Morgan Ashby (1828-1907) and Mary Elizabeth Gorin (1833-1891) had:
   6 children
   3 grandchildren
   1 great-grandson (my dad)
   5 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 4 siblings, no first cousins, second cousins, or third cousins)


MATERNAL-PATERNAL
Henry Clay Copeland (1832-1912) and Sarah Lowell (1833-1916) had:
   3 children
   6 grandchildren
   7 great-grandchildren
  20 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 3 siblings, my 5 first cousins, my 11 second cousins, no third cousins)

Samuel Sewall Greeley (1824-1916) and his first wife Anne Morris Larned (1828-1864) had:
   4 children
  10 grandchildren
  27 great-grandchildren
  (at least) 57 great-great-grandchildren (my half-third cousins)

Samuel Sewall Greeley (1824-1916) and his second wife Eliza May Wells (1839-1880) had:
   5 children
   3 grandchildren
   7 great-grandchildren
  20 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 3 siblings, my 5 first cousins, my 11 second cousins, no third cousins)


MATERNAL-MATERNAL
James Hunter (1844-1902) and Mary Freeland (1850-1902) had:
  10 children
  10 grandchildren
  16 great-grandchildren
  (at least) 28 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 3 siblings, my 5 first cousins, my 7 second cousins, my (at least) 12 third cousins)  (Some with the surname Hunter are very difficult to trace, as the names are somewhat common.)

George Lysle, Jr. (1845-1900) and his first wife Marion Helen Alston (1850-1885) had:
   2 children
   7 grandchildren
   7 great-grandchildren
   21 great-great-grandchildren (me, my 3 siblings, my 5 first cousins, my 7 second cousins, my 5 third cousins)

George Lysle, Jr. (1845-1900) and his second wife Edith O. Hadly (1869-1933) had:
   2 children. One son died young and the other married, but didn't have any children. No half-third cousins here.

I have added these third cousins to my tree in Family Tree Maker and plan to upload it to Ancestry, MyHeritage (and perhaps other sites) to help connect me to more cousins. I have added many surnames to my tree and have already identified several cousins on the DNA testing sites while doing this project.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Hunter Plots at Allegheny Memorial Park

In addition to visiting Union Dale Cemetery in late August 2017, my cousin, my husband, and I visited Allegheny Memorial Park. I am ever so grateful that my cousin was willing to drive us all over the North Side of Pittsburgh.

My cousin and I knew several family members buried at Allegheny Memorial. After we visited the office to get the burial location, one of the employees followed us and helped us find the plots, as these are in-ground markers and grass grows over them if they are not edged regularly.

He kindly edged them for us.

There are two plots, side by side of six burial lots each. There are burials in ten of the twelve lots. These six are on the left:

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Hunter Plot at Union Dale Cemetery Pittsburgh

Two years ago, I visited Pittsburgh and thanks to my first cousin who was willing to drive my husband and me around the North Side of Pittsburgh (where we also visited our mothers' childhood home), we visited a couple of cemeteries, including Union Dale Cemetery.

All of my maternal grandmother's grandparents are buried there. (See a family tree at Visiting Pittsburgh's Uniondale Cemetery.)

I took lots of photos and here is one of the Hunter family plot.

There are eight burials in the plot:

The Grandparents of My Grandparents

Dana at DanaLeeds.com and Jen at JenGenX Files both recently wrote blog posts to answer the question:

How many grandparents did their grandparents likely know?

This question intrigued me and I decided to figure it out while also looking for photographs of my grandparents when they were children.

PATERNAL GRANDFATHER, CHARLES MCALPIN PYLE:

Paternal Grandfather, Charles McAlpin Pyle

Charlie was born in 1893. He knew three of his four grandparents because they were all part of the same social circle in New York City and Morristown, New Jersey:
   James Pyle died in 1900, when Charlie was six and a half.
   His wife, Esther Abigail (Whitman) Pyle, died in 1921, when he was 28, two years after Charlie married.
   David Hunter McAlpin died in 1901, when Charlie was seven and a half.
   (His first wife, Frances Adelaide Rose, died in 1870.)

~~~~~~~~~

Helen Hunter Follansbee ~ 52 Ancestors #51

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow.

In a roundabout way, I'm writing about a second great-aunt of mine, Helen Rainey Hunter (1886-1939).

My great-grandfather, Percy Earle Hunter, was the second of ten children of James Hunter and Mary Freeland. Mary died in March 1902 and James died in October 1902, and his obituary reports that since his wife's death, "he has never been the same man he was before."

When their parents died, Percy took responsibility for many of his younger siblings, the youngest of whom were 10 (Curtis Carr Hunter), 14 (Mary Lois Hunter), and 16 (Helen Rainey Hunter). (I still need to look to see if there are official guardianship records.)

Therefore when Percy's sister Helen Rainey Hunter got married in 1909, it was "Mr. and Mrs. Percy E. Hunter" who announced the marriage of their sister.

"Marriage Announcement," The Pittsburgh Press, 15 October 1909; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/141365338 : accessed 22 December 2018), p. 24, col. 3.

William and Helen (Hunter) Follansbee lived in Pittsburgh their entire lives and had three children: William U. Follansbee III (b. 1912), and twins, Lois Hunter Follansbee and Mary Freeland Follansbee (b. 1915). Although two of these children married (William and Mary), there were no grandchildren.

Helen and her children attended my grandparents' 1931 wedding, signing the guest list and appearing in the group photo.

I believe she is behind and between my grandmother and her father in the 1931 wedding photo. This would be just before her 45th birthday. Her older brother, Percy, is 58 in this photo. Grandmother was 24.

Helen (Hunter) Copeland, Helen (Hunter) Follansbee, Percy Earle Hunter

The only other record I could find was Helen's death certificate, which reported that she died at age 53 of colon cancer. ["Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1966," Ancestry.com (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=5164 : accessed 22 December 2018), certificate file no. 76326, record for Helen Hunter Follansbee, d. 24 September 1939.]

If any Hunter family members have any memories or photos of this Follansbee family, please let me know in the comments.

My Grandparents' 1931 Wedding ~ 52 Ancestors #40

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and this week's writing prompt is Ten.

I have published 446 blog posts since April 2011 and I decided to go back to see what my tenth blog post was.

It turns out that this was one of my favorites, so I am repeating it here, slightly edited:

A Small 1931 Family Wedding

My mother's parents were married on September 5, 1931, in Princeton, New Jersey. I have a few items from this wedding. The announcement:

Helen and Toby (Lowell's nickname) had originally planned to marry in October 1931, but my grandfather's mother was ill and not expected to live long, so they moved the wedding back to September 5. The groom's mother, my great-grandmother Ethel May (Greeley) Copeland, died on October 3, 1931, in Princeton.

Ogontz School Yearbook 1926 ~ 52 Ancestors #35

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and last week's writing prompt was Back to School.

Yes, I have found family members in school yearbooks, but also, I own one of a small number of yearbooks created upon the 1926 graduation of my grandmother from Ogontz School, Rydal, Pennsylvania. The school, an all-girls finishing school, no longer exists; it is now the campus of Penn State, Abington.

Yes, that's a latch on the right.

Grandmother: The Youngest Sister ~ 52 Ancestors #32

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and this week's writing prompt is Youngest.

My grandmother, Helen Lysle Hunter, was the youngest of five sisters. I have many photos and old negatives from this family for which I am grateful.

I have shared family photos in the past but I couldn't resist sharing a couple more here.

Grandmother was born on 1 February 1907, in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (now the North Side of Pittsburgh), so it's pretty easy to date these photographs to the summer of 1907.

Mary Hunter (b. 1903), Helen (b. 1907) held by Caroline (b. 1900), Marion (b. 1899)

I don't know why two-year-old Margaret is not in this photo, but she is being held by her sister Mary in the following photo, which was taken on a different day: the girls' clothes are different and it looks like baby Helen has just a little bit more hair.

From the back: Marion (b. 1899), Caroline (b. 1900), Mary (b. 1903), Margaret (b. 1905), Marguerite (b. 1876), and baby Helen (b. 1907)

I'm pretty sure these photos were taken at the Hunter home on Perrysville Avenue. See photos of the home at The Old Homestead.

Aunt Mary Fights Standard Oil ~ 52 Ancestors #30

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and this week's writing prompt is Colorful.

I have written about my mother's colorful Aunt Mary before (at Bald Mary) and about the five Hunter sisters several times. Earlier this year, I wrote about Mary's younger sister, Margaret, for the Maiden Aunt theme.

This story starts with the purchase of a small farm in 1943, and comes to life with the rising demand for oil, gasoline, and natural gas in the early 1950s.

On July 5, 1943, for $18,500, sisters Mary H. Gerken and Margaret L. Hunter purchased a 41-acre farm in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, which included buildings, chicken coops, and farm machinery and equipment.^[1] The farm was on Middle Road and McCullough Road (now known as McCully Road) in Allison Park, north of Pittsburgh. They lived with their mother in a home about a mile south on Middle Road (see a photo at 1940 US Census - Great-Grandmother Hunter) and employed a farmer to work on their farm. Unfortunately, if I ever visited the farm with my grandmother and great aunt Margie in the 1970s, I don't remember it, but my cousins who grew up in Pittsburgh have wonderful memories of it. (See the Maiden Aunt post link above.)

Because of the increased demand for oil products in the following decade, new pipelines were being constructed across the country. In 1952, Tuscarora Oil Co., of Harrisburg, a subsidiary of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, planned on laying a 360-mile long pipeline from Linden, New Jersey, to Midland, Pennsylvania, on the Ohio River, downriver from Pittsburgh and almost due west of the farm.

On Wednesday, May 7, 1952, the Tuscarora Oil Company reached the sisters' farm on Middle Road, and attempted to install the pipeline across their farm. The sisters fought the oil company by initially barricading access to their property with their jeep, tractor, and car and refusing to move. An attorney for the oil company claimed that a bond posted in federal court allowed them to place the pipeline on the land by right of eminent domain. On May 9, a federal judge permitted the work to continue.

Aunt Mary was quoted in The Pittsburgh Press as saying: "We’re fighting for the rights of the small land and home owner against a greedy corporation. I’ve watched their shameless exploitation, intimidation and deceit too long."^[2]

The following photograph was also included in that issue of The Pittsburgh Press.

It is primarily Aunt Mary (Mrs. Gerken) who is quoted in the newspapers, explaining that they were fighting for the rights of small landowners, though it's "Miss Hunter" (Aunt Margie) who is quoted as saying: "We believe in private ownership and big business. Squeezing out the small farmer leads to Communism. The small farmer has always been considered the backbone of the country."^[2]

Percy and Marguerite Going to the Chapel ~ 52 Ancestors #23

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and this week's writing prompt is Going to the Chapel.

My great-grandparents, Percy Earle Hunter and Marguerite Lysle were married in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on 21 October 1897.

Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Clerks of Orphans' Courts, Pennsylvania County Marriage Records, 1885-1950, FHL Film 878632, p 49, no. 13646, digital image, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DY8Q-7CL : accessed 25 January 2012), citing marriage record for Percy E. Hunter and Marguerite Lysle, 21 October 1897.