K is for Kunkle, Estella May

Born on March 1, 1878, Estella was the daughter of John Henry Kunkle and Sarah Jane Fehnel Kunkle.   She was 18 years old  when she married the than 21 year old Arthur Smith (son of Edmund and Camilla Engler Smith ) on May 10, 1896.  They were married by  Rev. W. J.  Andres in Bath, Pennsylvania.  Art was a farmer who rented property  to raise crops and also had dairy cows.

Estella  became the mother of  thirteen  children,  all born at home, and for which the only time she ever  saw the doctor was when he came to the house for their births.  The doctor was paid $5.00 at each delivery.   She was 46 when her last child was born and never entered a hospital until she died.  Two of her sons, Emmet and Herbert died at an early age.   

 

Here are the first four of  Estella's children.  The oldest, Emmet Edmund was born August 3, 1896. (Arthur always said, the first baby could arrive any time, but the rest each took  nine months!).  Helen May, was born July 25,  1897.   Herbert John, came along on August 19, 1899  and Ronnie's grandfather,   Russell Valentine  was born on  September 19, 1900.   These four would be considered a large family by today's standards.

 

 

 The next five children were all girls.  The family continued to grow with the birth of Eva Camilla, on August 15, 1902.  Hilda May, arrived on  October 24, 1905.  Another daughter  Marie Kunkle  was born on February 2, 1907.   Dorothy Eliza joined the family  October 6, 1908.  And then  Florence Anna, born  June 28, 1910 when Estella was 32 years old. 

Maybe she thought she was  done having children  by then.  Aunt Eva remembers that her mother did all her cooking and canning on a wood burning stove.  She baked fresh pies and cakes every day.  They didn't last very long since it took at least two to feed her large family at meal time.   Estella was busy with household chores and raising children.  There was plenty of work for all the children to do on the farm. The girls all became mighty fine cooks with their mother teaching them.  And someone had to haul in the wood to keep that stove going!

But babies were still to be born to Estella and Art.  Her tenth child, Franklin Arthur was born  July 27, 1914.  Soon after twenty year old Emmet was injured and died in a thrashing machine accident in 1916, Lillian E.  was born on June 19.    Estella was still changing diapers when she became a grandmother for the first time when Helen's daughter Eva was also born in 1916.

Lester Charles was born  August 19, 1918, the year Herbert became ill with pneumonia and died at the age of 19. Russell  and Beatrice gave her  three more grandchildren, Clarence, 1919,  Arlene, 1921, and Margaret, 1922  before  Estella's last child, Walter, was born May 22, 1924. Baptism records for all the children were found in the church records book of St. John's Lutheran Church, Bath PA 1876 - 1928.   The picture below was taken some time in the 30's.

The following newspaper article, circa May 10, 1954 was found in a scrapbook at a flee market  in April, 2003.

        NAZARETH: LOCAL COUPLE CELEBRATES 58th YEAR OF MARRIED LIFE.

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Smith of Georgetown, Sunday Celebrated 58  years of marriage.  Mr. Smith holds daily employment at the Keystone Dehydrating Co. and Mrs. Smith does all her own household chores, works in the  garden and plants flower beds.
They  enjoy taking short trips through the country, with short stops to visit  relatives and friends, but most of  their pleasure is brought  when their children  and their families visit them  Sunday afternoons they say.
The couple was married May 10, 1896, by the late Rev. W. J. Andres,  in the parsonage of the Lutheran Church, Bath.  They are now members of the St. John's Lutheran Church, Nazareth.
They are the parents of thirteen children.  Mrs. Helen Williamson, Lester and Walter of Nazareth,  Russell, Bath,  Mrs. Eva Bartholomew, Quakertown,  Mrs. Hilda Werkheiser of Blairstown, NJ,  Mrs. Dorothy Gerhart, Easton, Mrs. Florence Fehnel,  Allentown,  Mrs. Lillian Spohn,  of Tatamy, Franklin of  Mt. Bethel.  Three children preceded the couple in death, two sons, Emmet and Herbert  and one daughter, Mrs. Marie Bilheimer.  The couple have  21 grandchildren and 10 great grand children.  The Smith's will celebrate their wedding anniversary  May 16,  by entertaining their children at a family dinner.

                 These pictures was taken at the celebration of their 58th wedding anniversary.

Estella died on Christmas Day, 1966 at the age of 88.  She and Art  had been married  70 years!!!!   They were devoted to each other.  Four years later Arthur passed away at the age of  95.  According to the 1940 census neither she nor Art went to school after the sixth grade. They lead remarkable lives  and are still held in high esteem by those who remember them.

                        They are buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Bath, Pennsylvania.

                                              This page  © 2013,  Cynthia H. Smith
                                            Send email  to chsmith47@yahoo.com
GENEALOGY IS A WORK OF HEART Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. It is with pleasure that I am able to present this information here for you to enjoy. If you discover a relationship here, I would very much enjoy hearing from you.

                Email address--- chsmith47@yahoo.com

J is for Jennie

Hummm....  so what was your real name, and by the way,  what really was your birth date?  Ronnie's great grandma  has really been an enigma  and maybe one of the most challenging  ancestors to research.

Jennie's  family was from Hazard, Pennsylvania, a community of hard working families, where most of the men were metallic ore miners like Jennie's father.   Beatrice Graver Smith said her mother was  Jennie Lauer, daughter of  William Lauer and Amanda Anewalt.  Part of the problem of finding records  for Jennie was the spelling of  her father's last name, Lauer or Lower,  or various variations.   But then there was also the problem of  her given name.  Was it Ellen or Jennie or  Genevieve? 

Her marriage license to Wilson Graver  says her name was  Ellen J. Lawer  or Lauer.  Both spellings appear on this document.  This  shows her birth date as June 19, 1882.

The first census record in which she is ever listed is the 1900 census. Here she is listed as Ellen J. Graver, the 17 year old wife of Wilson Graver. She never showed up on a census with her birth family.  She wasn't born yet  for the 1880 census and the 1890 census records were all destroyed in a fire. 

Jennie had just turned 16 years old when she and Wilson were married on the 4th of July, 1898.  She was expecting their first child Helen who was born  6 months later on January 4, 1899.  When Jennie was 17 years old she became the mother of Beatrice, born January 16, 1900.  The rest of her children arrived in rapid fire order.  Baby Arthur was born and died in 1902.  David   was born on  December 14, 1904 followed by  Naomi I. on  March 17, 1906 and  Ida A.  on December  23, 1907.  That is six children in seven years.  Can you imagine having six children to take care of by the age of 23?   Jennie must have been worn out!  She was kept busy  taking care of all these children. And then along came Thomas in June 21, 1911.   Life was hard for Jennie!

And at some point in time Wilson left.  Why?  I have not been able to locate a 1910 census record for members  of  the Wilson Graver family except for  daughter Beatrice who was living with her uncle,  J.  David  Graver and his wife Annie in  East Allen Twp.,  Northampton Co.   Beatrice says that her  father left the family  in 1912 and moved to Ohio to live.  However,  since Thomas was  born in  1911, (conceived November, 1910)  maybe they were separated for a time and then got back together.  By 1918 however,  Wilson was in Ohio as evidenced by his draft registration in Lorain, Ohio.  Jennie had to find a way to provide for  her children and Beatrice said they were scattered, living with different family members.

In 1920 three of the children were  listed as "inmates"  in the Ebenezer Orphans Home in  Thompson, Seneca Co., Ohio on  the 1920  Census. 
Naomi Graver       F      14y       Pennsylvania
Ida Graver             F      13y       Pennsylvania

Thomas Graver     M      9y        Pennsylvania
This is not far from Lorain, Ohio.  Maybe Wilson took these three children to Ohio with him.  Ida and Naomi were deaf so maybe it was to provide them with a better education.   Wilson may have gone to Ohio  for work.  He was a bricklayer by trade.

Sometime around 1923 Jennie relocated to Fort Wayne, Indiana and started calling herself  Genevieve.  She married Whitney Moore  on  April 16, 1927 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The marriage license  gives her name and birth date as Genieve E. Lauer,  born June 19, 1884.   Jennie was 43 years old.  Or maybe she was she was 45 since she shaved 2 years off her  previously recorded birth year of 1882. She was 5 years older than Whitney, or maybe that was 7 years.  Oh, Jennie, I wish I could have known you!

This is a transcription of the obituary of  Jennie Ellen (Genevieve) Lauer Graver Moore  which appeared in  the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette  on Sunday, Dec. 4, 1932.

Mrs. Genevieve Moore, 48,  of 1314 Wells Street died of heart disease at her  residence about 7 o'clock Saturday night.   Born in Bowmanstown, Pa, the deceased had lived in Fort Wayne approximately nine years.  She was a member of the Ben Hur court No. 15.  Surviving are the husband, Whitney Moore;  two sons, David Graver of Akron, O., Thomas Graver, a member of the United States army stationed at Ft. Hayes, Columbus, Ohio;  four daughters,  Mrs. Ira Zeek (Helen) of Wilkes Barre, Pa., Mrs. Russell Smith (Beatrice) of Bath, Pa. and Mrs. Lloyd Braun (Naomi) and Mrs. Murvin Chester (Ida), both of Fort Wayne;  a brother Grant Lauer of Bowmanstown, Pa., and a sister, Mrs. Oliver Stehly of Fort Wayne, and nine grandchildren. 

Interestingly, daughters Ida and Naomi and her older sister, Amanda Lillie, were also living in Fort Wayne.  There was love in this family!  Jennie had difficulties  holding her family together, but neither she nor Wilson lost touch with them over the years.  

She is buried in the  Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery,  Adams Township, Allen County, Indiana.  Rest In Peace Grandmother.

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This site may be linked, but not duplicated in any way without consent. The copyright on this page must appear on all copied and/or printed material.

GENEALOGY IS A WORK OF HEART Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. It is with pleasure that I am able to present this information here for you to see. If you discover a relationship here, I would very much enjoy hearing from you.

Immick... I is for Sarah Immick

Someone once said what mattered most of all was the dash between the years.  There is more to the story of Sarah E.  Immick  than is told here on her tombstone in the Three Church Hill Cemetery in Lower Mount Bethel Pennsylvania.

Sarah E. Immick, the great, great grandmother of my husband Ron,  was the daughter of Aaron Immick and Catherine Morey.  According to her death certificate, she was born on November 28, 1845 and even though her parents were  living in  the  Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania area I can't find a baptism record for her.  She  died on April 7, 1924.   So what went on  in that dash between her years?

Sarah  was the second of four children  in her family.  Her older sister Adelaine married and remained in the area, but younger sister Susan and brother Ruben moved to Michigan after they married.   Sarah married Samuel Frey  of Lower Mount Bethel, PA  on November 24, 1866.  Together they became the parents of only one child, a son Isaac, born January 14, 1868.  In the three census records of 1870, 1880 and 1890, Sam is said to be a farmer.   So  Sarah  must have done the typical chores of a farm wife and mother during those years.  When Sam died April 6, 1900 they had been married 33 years.

So what was special about grandmother Sarah? (That's her standing on the porch with granddaughter Edna.)  I have been saving this!    In the late 1800’s the telephone came to Lower Mount Bethel.   Households subscribed  to the phone service and rural homes were connected via party lines with several households on a line.  When the telephone  first arrived in the rural neighborhood there  was a need for  someone to  operate the switchboard to connect the calls of telephone subscribers. This was the perfect job for a lady to do in her home.  She could take care of her daily housework activities while listening for a call to come in.

Sarah Frey was the first telephone operator  for the exchange on the Belvidere - Martins Creek Highway.  The switchboard  was in her house located on the  Belvidere - Martins Creek Highway.   As a recent widow Sarah  had the time needed  to stay by the switchboard waiting for calls.  She was a technology pioneer,  taking on a tough job  that required skill and confidence.  And as a rural telephone operator she was on top of all the news in  the neighborhood too!

                      Here is granddaughter Edna with her grandmother Sarah Immich Frey, circa 1910.

Sources:

1. Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1967; Certificate Number 37000
2. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 04 April 2020), memorial page for Sarah E. Immick Frey (28 Nov 1845–7 Apr 1924), Find a Grave Memorial no. 127770818, citing Church Hill Cemetery, Mount Bethel, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, USA

                                             This page  © 2013,  Cynthia H. Smith
                                            Send email  to chsmith47@yahoo.com

GENEALOGY IS A WORK OF HEART Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. It is with pleasure that I am able to present this information here for you to enjoy. If you discover a relationship here, I would very much enjoy hearing from you.

                Email address--- chsmith47@yahoo.com