Handed Down: Grandfather's Baby Book ~ 52 Ancestors #49

I have boxes and boxes of handed down items, including my maternal grandfather's baby book.

The BABY'S BOOK

The book is small, about 3 1/2" x 5 1/4" in size, with some embroidered decoration.

Libby: Least Number of Cousins ~ 52 Ancestors #40

My paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Adsit, known as Libby, is the grandparent with the least number of close family, specifically first cousins. I have no first cousins, second cousins, or third cousins on this specific ancestral line. I showed this graphically at  Descendants of my Great-Grandparents and in a list at Counting Third Cousins.

Elizabeth Adsit, circa 1913, about 16 years old

End of the Line - Charles Chapin Adsit Jr. ~ 52 Ancestors #31

Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr. was born in 1892, to Charles Chapin Adsit and Mary Bowman Ashby. His father and his grandfather, James, had been prominent businessmen in Chicago for many decades. He was four years old when his sister, Elizabeth, was born. He is the end of this particular ancestral line of men with the Adsit surname as can be seen at Surname Saturday:Adsit. See a photo of him and his sister at 1904 Car.

By 1917, he was a stock and bond broker, working in his father's office at The Rookery Building, an historic office building at 209 South LaSalle Street, as reported in his World War I Draft Registration Card.

This is one section of his registration. All men were required to register for the draft, but not all men served in the military.

From the WWI Draft Registration Card for Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr., June 5, 1917

However, one week after he registered for the draft, he enlisted in the navy.

Louisa May Greeley, Health Teacher ~ 52 Ancestors #23

Louisa May Greeley was born in December 1895, in Winnetka, Illinois, to Morris Larned Greeley and Anne Sophia Foote. She was half first cousin of my grandfather, Lowell Townsend Copeland.

She attended Wellesley College, graduating in 1918 with a BA degree from the "department of hygiene."

Wellesley College Yearbook, 1918, p. 115

The one other yearbook page that I find her on is the Running page. I have placed a blue star to identify who I believe is Louisa.

Wellesley College Yearbook, 1918, p. 172

Nickname: Townsend Toby Lowell ~ 52 Ancestors #21

My grandfather was born Lowell Townsend Copeland on December 21, 1900, to Lowell Copeland and Ethel May Greeley. This is his Cook County, Illinois, birth certificate.

He was called Townsend, to differentiate himself from his father. He is Townsend in census records, on the back of photographs, and in school yearbooks.

In this labeled photograph, Grandfather was 2 years, 9 months old. His nurse / nanny was Elvira and he was very fond of her. This was likely taken at his home or his maternal grandfather's home in Winnetka, Illinois.

For Aunt Ruth [Ruth Lyman Wells, 1862-1943]
Townsend and his Elvira
Sept 1902

Witness to History: James Adsit and the Great Chicago Fire ~ 52 Ancestors #4

This week's theme is "Witness to History."

I have written about my second great grandfather, James Monroe Adsit a few times, at First Chicago Banker; when I shared his death certificate; about his New York roots; and also when I listed his children. (He had seven children, three grandchildren, and only one great-grandchild, my dad.)

A biography from Album of genealogy and biography, Cook County, Illinois: with portraits (1899) states that he arrived in Chicago on April 2, 1838. He was definitely there by 1839 when he is listed in a city directory.

James Monroe Adsit
Born February 5, 1809, Spencertown, Columbia County, New York
Died September 4, 1894, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois

62-year-old James was a witness to the Great Chicago Fire in October 1871. In fact, he was right in the middle of it!

Currier & Ives lithograph from Library of Congress

Handed down in the family is a worn and torn newspaper clipping that had been saved in an envelope for many years. I now keep the paper unfolded, in an acid-free folder in an archival box.

Mr Adsit / Chicago Fire - 1871

Unfortunately, I don't know whose handwriting this is but the envelope and the enclosed newspaper were so important that it has been handed down in the family for over a century!

1903 Photo Mary Adsit ~ 52 Ancestors #2

I am hoping to blog more, using Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks themes, and this week's theme is Favorite Photo. (And, no, you didn't miss post #1; I didn't post last week.)

I am very lucky to have many family photos and I have many favorites. See my many posts with the tag Wordless Wednesday.

Here is a portrait of my great-grandmother, Mary Bowman (Ashby) Adsit, taken in July 1903 according to a penciled notation on the back.

She would have been 40 years old.

Mary Bowman Ashby was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, in 1863 (though for most of her life, she lied about her age). She married Charles Chapin Adsit in 1890.  They settled in Chicago, where she gave birth to her son in July 1892 and to her daughter (my grandmother, Libby) in June 1897. I shared a photo of her with her son at M. B. Adsit and C. C. Adsit Jr. Circa 1893.

I also shared a photo of brother and sister at Wordless Wednesday ~ 1904 Car.

I have several portraits and photographs of Mary Adsit throughout her long life and she always looked very stylish.

What Else Can You Find in Yearbooks: Grandfather at Northwestern

After reading about Leighton Mount, a college freshman who disappeared during a hazing incident in September 1921 at Under Every Tombstone (see Part 1: The Strange Disappearance of a Northwestern University Freshman - Leighton Mount and Part 2: The Shocking Conclusion), I remembered that my grandfather, Lowell Townsend Copeland, graduated from Northwestern University. He was known as Townsend, and later Toby, to distinguish him from his father, Lowell Copeland.

The family story from my mother is that her father attended Harvard University for one year, where his uncle Charles Copeland was a well-known English professor (see Copey of Harvard). Uncle Charles had Townsend take two English classes, which apparently was more than he could handle, and he flunked out.

He returned home to Winnetka, Illinois, and enrolled in Northwestern University, in neighboring Evanston, and based on the student lists and yearbooks that I found online, he was there in the fall of 1921 when the story of Leighton Mount was all over the news.

From Google Books

Google Books has a few years of the Northwestern University Bulletin / Annual Catalog, which provides lists of enrolled students and I found Lowell Townsend Copeland, of Winnetka, Illinois, enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts for the 1919-1920 school year and for the 1922-1923 school year. I wonder if he didn't take a full course load for a few years, because he was enrolled in 1919-1920 and ended up as a member of the class of 1925.

School yearbooks tell me a little bit about grandfather's experience at Northwestern. Unfortunately, they often didn't provide information for freshmen unless they were class officers (and Ancestry doesn't happen to have the 1923 copy at its U.S., School Yearbooks collection).


The following images are from the 1924 Northeastern University Yearbook (the Syllabus), which covered events and activities for the 1922-1923 school year, when the class of 1924 were juniors (and the class of 1925 were sophomores).

Grandfather was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and he was listed as Townsend Copeland, a sophomore.

He is in the back row of the fraternity photograph:

Greeley Half Cousins - WWII Weddings

I've been sharing stories about my grandfather's cousin, Harriet Greeley, who lost her first husband in WWI and lost a son in WWII.

Harriet had an older brother, Sam, who also had sons who served in the military in WWII.

Samuel Arnold Greeley, born in 1882, and his wife, Dorothy Coffin, had five children (all second cousins to my mother):
Anne (1916-1919)
Samuel (1914-2001)
Frederick (1919-2004)
Lois (1922-1995)
Dorothy (1929-1979)

The two sons served in WWII and three of the siblings were married within an 18-month period in 1944-1945.

Daughter Lois married Master Sgt. Nicholas Blatchford on June 3, 1944, when he was home on leave, but her two brothers were not in attendance:

"Wedding News," Chicago Tribune, 7 June 1944, p. 19, col. 1; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/370107834/ : accessed 14 September 2019).

Frederick Greeley served as an Army Air Force navigator and was reported missing in action in March 1944 after a raid over Germany. He survived a parachute jump over Belgium and was rescued by the Belgian underground and stayed hidden until the arrival of Allied troops about seven months later. [1]

Alvah Crocker Died in the Great War

My grandfather, Lowell Townsend Copeland, had several half first-cousins because his grandfather, Samuel Sewall Greeley, married twice and had many more descendants from his first marriage than his second. I have found several DNA matches among these descendants, as well as some interesting stories that I think tell me a little more about my grandfather.

One of grandfather's cousins, Harriet Greeley, was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1885. She was daughter of Frederick Greeley, the oldest son of Samuel Sewall Greeley. (See Surname Saturday ~ Greeley for my Greeley line.)

She married Alvah Crocker, of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in 1907, in what sounded like a lovely wedding in Winnetka, Illinois.

"Country Wedding in Winnetka," Chicago Tribune, 20 October 1907, p. 4, col. 1; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/350217401/ : accessed 25 August 2019).

The couple settled in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, after their marriage, where the Crocker family had been prominent in Fitchburg for many decades. Alvah Jr.'s father was a manufacturer of paper and his great-grandfather (also named Alvah) in addition to being a paper manufacturer, was a U.S. Congressman.

Alvah, Jr. was studying to be an architect and by 1909, was in Paris, France, to study art and architecture, bringing his wife and first child with him. The youngest was born in early 1917, just before her father, Alvah, joined the military.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Grandfather and Greeley Cousin?

My grandfather, Lowell Townsend Copeland, was born in December 1900 in Winnetka, Illinois. His maternal grandfather was Samuel Sewall Greeley, who had several children with his first wife before she died. They all lived in the Chicago area and my grandfather was close to his Greeley cousins. In fact, my mother stayed in touch with some Greeley second cousins for many years.

I think this might be a Greeley cousin playing in the snow in Winnetka, Illinois, sometime in the first decade of the last century. He looks like he is showing off the snow tunnel that he has just dug.

And I think this is the same boy in the go-cart with my grandfather leaning on the cart behind him.

His half-first cousins on his maternal grandfather's side include:
Samuel A. Greeley (1882-1968), son of Frederick Greeley (1856-1912)
Morris L. Greeley (1893-1982), Sidney F. Greeley (1894-1988), and Joseph May Greeley (1902-1996), sons of Morris Larned Greeley (1863-1945)

If any Greeley cousins can confirm the identity of this boy, please let me know if my theory is correct.

Orramel Chapin ~ Boarding House Keeper

Because I'm still trying to determine the parents of my third great-grandmother, Susan Rood (see Susan Rood Chapin ~ A Challenging Ancestor), I am going back to look more closely at any and all records that I have for her and her family.

Since I wrote about the family's westward migration at Orramel Chapin Moving West Part 1 and Part 2, I have found a couple of additional pieces of information about Orramel Chapin, my third great-grandfather, who married Susan Rood in 1816.

I knew that he was in Hartford, Connecticut, in the 1830 U.S. census, in a household with a total of nineteen, ten of whom were men between the ages of 20 and 29. This puzzled me until I recently discovered a Hartford City Directory at Ancestry in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 database. It listed "Chapin, Orramel, Boarding house, front 71."

That explains the additional people counted in his household.

Hartford City Directory, for 1828 (Hartford: Ariel Ensign, 1828), p. 21;
digital images, Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2469 : accessed 22 January 2019).

By the time of the 1840 census, he was in Chicago, Illinois, with thirteen in his household including six men between the ages of 20 and 29, who didn't fit into the family as I knew it.

Great-Grandmother was a Golfer ~ 52 Ancestors #41

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 Sports.

I have previously written about the athletes in my dad's family at Sports Center Saturday ~ Dad and golf and about his mother at Libby Was a Tennis Player.

One of my brothers mentioned to me that Libby's mother, Mary Bowman (Ashby) Adsit (1863-1956) was a very good golfer as a young woman. I had never heard this story, which goes to show that genealogists should interview everyone, even younger relatives, who might know something about the family.

My great-grandmother is found only as Mrs. Adsit or Mrs. C. C. Adsit in the nine or ten newspaper articles in which she is mentioned as playing in or winning golf tournaments.

According to this September 1898 Chicago Tribune article, the first women's golf tournament "in the west" was held at Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, Illinois, and Mrs. Adsit placed 19th. At the time, she was about 35 years old and had a six-year-old son and a 15-month-old daughter (my grandmother).

     "Women's Golf Tourney," The Chicago Tribune, 8 September 1898, p. 8, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/349853896/ : accessed 11 October 2018).

Mrs. Adsit's home club, the Onwentsia Club, was formally organized at its present location in 1895, hosted the U.S. Amateur in 1899, and hosted the U.S. Open in 1906. (See History - Onwentsia Club.)

Wordless Wednesday ~ M. B. Adsit and C. C. Adsit Jr. Circa 1893

The back has my grandmother's distinctive handwriting:

M. B. Adsit (Mary Bowman (Ashby) Adsit)
C. C. Adsit Jr. (Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr.)

(The very light penciled handwriting in the upper right-hand corner is my handwriting, clarifying that this is Mary B. A. Adsit (1866-1956), though since I wrote that, I learned that she was older than she said. See Matrilineal Monday ~ My Kentucky Great Grandmother.)

This is the older brother and mother of Elizabeth Adsit (1897-1983), my paternal grandmother. Charles, Jr. was born in July 1892, so this photograph was taken before his younger sister was born, likely in late 1893.

Max Platz was a well-known Chicago photographer in the late 19th century. He died in early 1894 and his studio was continued by a business associate, according to his obituary.

Photos of the 1913 Dedication of the Greeley School in Winnetka

I have written about my second great grandfather, Samuel Sewall Greeley, several times. (See The Great Chicago Fire and excerpts from obituaries at Samuel Sewall Greeley 1916.)

Recently a first cousin of my mother died. (See the wonderful obituary for Sally Whitcomb Keen at Legacy.com.)

Her daughter is going through her mother's family materials and scanning and sending me great things, including information about our common second great grandfather, Samuel Sewall Greeley.

There is a school named in his honor in Winnetka, Illinois, where my husband and I visited last September.

My second cousin sent me scans of photographs from the 1913 school dedication. She also sent a scan of a document about the 1938 presentation of a portrait of Samuel Sewall Greeley to the school and includes details of the 1913 dedication. Greeley had encouraged the community of Winnetka to build a school and the community recognized its prominent citizen by naming the school in his honor.

It is the oldest operating public school in Winnetka today. A brief history of the school can be found at the school's website and it implies that the design and configuration of the school was innovative for its day.

On October 24, 1913, Greeley was brought from his home to the school's entrance in a carriage decorated with flowers and flags and drawn and guarded by Boy Scouts. Here is a photo of that procession:

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Arville S. Chapin Adsit

Arville S. Chapin

Wife of

James M. Adsit

June 9, 1820 - May 6, 1906

Arville Susan Chapin was born in Massachusetts, moved with her family to Chicago in 1838 (according to her obituary), where she married James M. Adsit, and where she died.

She is buried in the Adsit family plot at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, where I visited for the first time last September.

I descend from Arville Chapin as follows:

Arville Susan Chapin

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Charles Chapin Adsit

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Elizabeth Adsit

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Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr.

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Me

Wedding Wednesday ~ St James Church, Chicago

97 years ago today, on Sunday, March 2, 1919, there were wedding announcements for my paternal grandparents' wedding, which had occurred the previous day at St. James Episcopal Church in Chicago.

We visited Chicago last September and although the church was undergoing some renovation, we talked our way in and here is a photograph of the inside of the church, taken by my husband.

Here is the wedding announcement from page 5 of the Chicago Sunday Tribune.

Very early in my blog, I shared a scan of the other part of the announcement, with photographs. Now I know it's from the Chicago Sunday Tribune.

Wedding announcement of my grandparents

My Grandfather, Toby Copeland - 52 Ancestors #51

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, I thought I'd write about my grandfather.

My maternal grandfather died the summer I was nine. Because he lived in Pittsburgh and I lived outside of Boston, I didn't know him well, but from everything I've heard about him, he was well liked.

Lowell Townsend Copeland was born on December 21, 1900, in Winnetka, Illinois, to Lowell Copeland and Ethel May Greeley. He is named as Townsend in the 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses, which I shared at Grandfather Copeland's Family 1900-1920.

The summer he was 16, he traveled out west and I shared photographs of his trip in a series of blog posts which start here.

1925 Northwestern University
Yearbook

Later, he acquired the nickname Toby which stuck and is what he was known as for much of his life. He attended a couple of boarding schools in New England: Kent School (Kent, CT) and Phillips Exeter, from which he graduated in 1920. He is not listed as a senior (but as a member of the "Upper Middle Class") in the 1919 Yearbook at Ancestry.com; Ancestry's Yearbook collection doesn't include 1920.

He graduated from Northwestern University in 1925. His yearbook indicates that he participated in Track, Homecoming parade Manager, Dad's Day, and the Junior Prom Committee. This Yearbook is in Ancestry.com's Yearbook collection.

~~~~~~~~~

Naughty Charles C. Adsit - 52 Ancestors #50

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is Naughty: we all have an ancestor who probably received coal in his stocking.

The following isn't really that "naughty," but was rather negative news to be published in newspapers across the country.

First a summary: my great-grandfather, Charles Chapin Adsit, lived in Chicago, Illinois.  I have written about him a few times:

• Tuesday's Tip ~ City Directories (confirming the family's residence in 1900)
• The Adsit Family in Chicago (1910 and 1920 U.S. Census and city directories)
• Tuesday's Tip ~ International Passenger Lists (Why the family is not in the 1900 U.S. Census)
• Wordless Wednesday ~ Charles Chapin Adsit
• More on the Adsit Family (I list the seven children of James and Susan Adsit: Charles' parents)

He was born on July 14, 1853, to James Monroe Adsit and Susan Arville Chapin. His father, James, is considered the first banker in Chicago. Both Charles and his brother, James, Jr. followed in their father's footsteps and became active in Chicago's financial industry.

He married, first, Hattie L. Webster, on November 22, 1881, in Evanston, Illinois. She died less than a year later, in childbirth, and is buried with their unnamed child in Chicago's beautiful Graceland Cemetery.

It took Charles a few years before he was ready to marry again: he married Mary Bowman Ashby (known as "Bowmie") on October 30, 1890, in Louisville, Kentucky. See a lovely description of their wedding here.

Charles and Bowmie had two children, Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr. (b. 1892) and Elizabeth Adsit, my grandmother (b. 1897), known as Libby, who had quite a society wedding in 1919.

After Libby had been married for just a few months, it appears that her father had a bit of financial trouble.

Samuel Sewall Greeley Born in October - 52 Ancestors #40

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is "Birthday in October."

Family Tree Maker's filter option makes it easy for me to filter for direct ancestors (of the person shown) or to filter for those with "Oct" in the Birth field. I have several ancestors with October birthdays, including my great great grandfather, Samuel Sewall Greeley, who was born in Boston 191 years ago this weekend on October 11, 1824.

The best evidence that I have for his birth date is an 1890 passport application.

Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Roll 344: 01 Mar 1890-31 Mar 1890.
Record for Samuel S. Greeley

He was 65 years old when applying for this passport in March 1890. If you look closely at the document, it appears that he crossed off "swear" and wrote above it "affirm" in each case where the word "swear" appeared. He also crossed off the "So Help Me God" in the middle of the document.

Here is closeup of the middle section of the passport:

At 65, he was 5 feet, 9 1/4 inches tall, with brown eyes and Hair: black, flecked with grey." He had a dark complexion and a "full beard + mustache, grey."

I believe I have mentioned before how much I love passport applications from this collection at Ancestry.com.

I have written about Samuel Sewall Greeley before: He graduated from Harvard in 1844, and was a surveyor and civil engineer in Chicago for decades, even using these skills to build a sewer during the Civil War. You can find additional wonderful descriptions in a couple of obituaries I have previously shared.

He was the oldest living graduate of Harvard for a period of time before his death on March 8, 1916, at the age of 91. Apparently he signed his name with "OLG" after it during this period, though it's a little unclear as to how long he was the "Oldest Living Graduate."

He is buried at Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, and I visited the Greeley family plot at the beginning of September. I previously wrote about obtaining this plot card and the interesting mysteries solved and mysteries introduced by it.

He had two wives (I descend from his second wife, Eliza Wells) and nine children, five of whom predeceased him. My descent from Samuel Sewall Greeley:

Samuel Sewall Greeley

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Ethel May Greeley

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Lowell Townsend Copeland

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my mother

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me