William Frederic Strandt

 The prompt for this week is "Spirit". I decided to remember the 'spirit' of my great, great grandfather William Frederic Strandt, who died on October 30, 1962 in Allegan, Michigan. He also liked the spirits of alcohol a little too much.

William Frederic Strandt was born on February 15, 1876 in Chicago, Illinois to Carl Friedrich Theodor Strandt and Wilhelmine Marie Friederike Gley. Carl and Wilhelmine had come to Illinois with their 3 children in November 1871 from northern Germany. They were joining Strandt family members who already lived in the area. Meanwhile, Wilhelmine had a sister who lived a bit further away in Allegan, Michigan.

The 1880 Federal census finds William living with Carl and "Amena" in Downer's Grove, Illinois. Carl's profession is Farmer. William is the only child still living at home. Older brother Carl is working as a laborer on another farm, while older sister Caroline has moved out. She would be 16 so I'm guessing she probably was living with another family as a servant. She marries and starts a family in 1884. Younger sister Wilhelmine Johanna has disappeared completely. I have not been able to find any record of her death, or marriage, or anything related to her after the family comes to Chicago. If anyone knows anything about her, please let me know. 

The next big event in William's life is marrying a young Mary "Matie" Elizabeth Pulsipher in Allegan, Michigan on June 8, 1898. William is 22 years old and Mary is 21. I often wondered how William came to Allegan when he lived in and around Chicago. While researching his mother's family I discovered he had an aunt and uncle who came to Allegan, before his parents came to America. My guess is that on a trip to visit his aunt and uncle he must've come across and met Mary. After marrying Mary, William put down roots in Allegan. Almost a year later, their first child was born, Eva Wilhelmina Strandt. She was born on April 20, 1899 in Allegan. She's named after both of her grandmothers. 

William and Mary Strandt, Baby Eva 1899.

On March 10, 1901 their son Carl Albert Strand is born. Carl is also named after both of his grandfathers. The 1900 Federal census finds William and Mary and baby Eva living with William's parents, Carl and Wilhelmine in Watson Township. Both Carl and William are listed as Farmers. 

Mary Strandt in the middle. William Strandt on the far right with a young Carl Strand. 1903. Possibly Carl and Wilhelmine Strandt. Others unknown. 

In 1904 daughter Ruth Bessie is born in Otsego, Michigan and son Howard is born in 1909 in Hinsdale, Illinois. Sometime between Ruth's birth and Howard's birth, William decided to move the family back to Illinois, where he thought he might have better luck in earning money. It was not to be though, and the family moved back to Michigan. The 1910 Federal census finds the family living with William's father Carl in Trowbridge Township. Both William and Carl are listed as Farmers. 

It is sometime around here where Mary's uncle, Charles Richard Brownell, who was very successful in the lumber business in Louisiana, deeded a farm to William and Mary. From what I've been able to find out, William didn't seem to have much luck in farming. He wasn't very good at it, or at training horses. Younger son, Carl, was good at farming, and training horses. Carl had one pair of horses trained so well he could drop the reins and the horses would continue down the row and wait for Carl at the other end. Carl was also very good at farming. He liked to farm "the German" way and had disdain for his neighbors who farmed "the American" way. These disagreements led to many arguments between William and Carl. The one thing William did seem to be good at, was drinking. By all accounts, William drank. A lot. William would get drunk and become belligerent. Arguing and yelling. One time he became so drunk he chased Carl around the outside of the house with an ax, threating to kill him. Daughter Eva would often fear for her mother's safety. Not trusting what William might do. Finally, Mary had had enough and filed for divorce from William January 13, 1917, citing Cruelty. William contested it but a divorce was granted on July 31, 1917. It was Absolute. 

Carl was happy about the divorce and began to farm the farm his way. Unfortunately for Carl, William and Mary reconciled and almost a year to the day, on July 15, 1918, William and Mary remarried and William moved back home. Upon moving back home, the arguments between William and Carl started back up again. The final straw came when William sold Carl's favorite work horses that he had trained so well. Carl was still upset about it, years later talking about the incident. Carl then moved out.

The 1920 census finds William, Mary, Eva, Ruth and Howard all living in Watson Township at the Strandt farm. In 1926 William, Mary and Howard are living with son Carl and his family in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Both men are working as drivers. Carl started his own trucking company and allowed his parents and younger siblings to move in with them so Ruth, and then Howard could attend high school. After Howard graduated from high school, William and Mary moved back to the farm.

William's lack of farming skills really showed during the Great Depression. Unable to pay bills and in danger of having the farm foreclosed on by the bank, William and Mary asked Carl and his family to move in and take over running the farm. William and Mary agreed to move out. Carl agreed. Carl took out loans, bought supplies, and got to work. He was able to turn things around and get the family farm stable again. However, William and Mary decided to stay, and not move out as they had agreed to. This led to more arguments between William and Carl and led to an eventual lawsuit filed by Carl against his parents, to get them to move out. The case went to the Michigan State Supreme Court. Carl eventually won, and William and Mary moved out. The case left such a bad taste in Carl's mouth, that he never spoke to William and Mary again. He also forbid family members to speak to them. Something which, his family did not respect. I've heard many stories of Carl's children, and wife Mildred, sneaking over to visit William and Mary and not letting Carl know. 

The 1940 Federal census finds William and Mary living next door to Mary's younger sister, Florence and her husband. William's occupation is Laborer, and the home is rented.  William also says he only went to 7th grade in school. Mary had worked as a teacher off and on over the course of her life. Her income as a teacher helped support her and William.

The 1950 Federal census finds William and Mary living just down the road from granddaughter Viola and her family. Viola would sneak down and visit William and Mary and not say anything to her father, Carl about it. William's occupation is listed as a Farmer once again. 

William's wife, Mary, passed away in November 1961, and William passed away October 30, 1962. I haven't been able to find a cause of death yet, but he was 86. After Carl cut off contact with William and Mary, and forbid others from seeing them, I don't know how William was as he got older. If he mellowed and drank less, or if he continued to drink. I'd like to know more about William. Did he drink because he was unsuccessful in earning a living and supporting his family, or, was he unsuccessful because he drank? Which came first? The drinking or the economic failure? Maybe it was a combination of both? 

William and Mary in later years.

A hymnbook belonging to William Strandt.

Another picture of William. 
 

"Dig a Little Deeper" Martha Patty Mabbs

 The prompt for this week is "dig a little deeper." I've been researching the Mabbs line lately and, digging deeper into the research, I discovered a new document that opened up a whole new branch and brought the Family Tree back another generation!

Going back on the maternal side of the family, Viola Strand's mother was Mildred Bellingar. Her mother was Elnora Truman. Elnora's mother was Harriet Mabbs. Her mother was Martha Patty Warner. That was where the maternal line stopped. I knew that Martha Warner had married William Mabbs from England in 1851, and I knew that she had been born in 1828 in New York. Aside from that I didn't know any more about her. I didn't know her parents' names, her siblings, how many siblings, or even if she'd been married before. She was a complete mystery. Then, last week, Ancestry gave me a new clue about her. It suggested I look at the Will of a William E Warner of Ransom, Michigan. Martha had lived in Ransom Michigan for most of her life. I started reading the Will and in it he says how he wants his belongings and money distributed to his wife and children. Among the children listed is a daughter named Martha Mabbs! While Warner is a pretty common name, Mabbs is not. The odds of having two women both named Martha Mabbs living in Ransom, Michigan in 1864 is pretty high, so I'm fairly confident that this Willam E. Warner is the father of our Martha Mabbs. In the Will William names his wife, Susannah, and his surviving children, William L., Orville, Martha, John W., Mary Jane Saxton. He also leaves to daughter Martha a silver watch that had belonged to her deceased brother Samuel. 

After finding out the names of Martha's parents I was able to put them into the family tree. I then received new hints about them. I found their marriage license from New York. Susannah's maiden name was Fitzgerald. I was then able to discover the names of her parents, Edward Fitzgerald (1765-1816) and Anne Wallace (1768-1851). Edward Fitzgerald was born in Northern Ireland and came to America. Anne Wallace was born in New York. A lot of research has been done on the Fitzgerald line. I will have to read over that at some point. Not much is known so far about Anne Wallace.

Getting back to William E. Warner. I haven't found information on his parents yet. He was born in Connecticut in 1792 and passed away in Michigan in 1864. He was a minister and a farmer. He came to Michigan in approximately 1835, making him one of the first settlers in the area. When he died, he left the bulk of his estate and land to his son, Orville. Martha, William L., John and Mary Jane were given money. Martha received $20. She was already married to William Mabbs by that point.

Roles of Men and Women in the Mabbs Family

 I was doing more research when I received a hint about Ralph I. Mabbs. Ralph is my 1st cousin, 4x removed. He would have been 1st cousins with Mildred Strand's mother, Elnora Truman. Elnora's mother was Harriet Mabbs. I started looking over the Mabbs tree and I couldn't help but notice the difference between the men and the women of the family. The men of the family led quite interesting lives. Take Harriet's family, for example. 

Harriet was the oldest child of Immigrant William Mabbs (1824-1884). William's father had a soap making business in England. He brought his family to America and set up a business venture in New York City. He lost his money when the banks failed so he moved everyone to Michigan to farm. His son John went into the mining business and became very successful. His son went into engineering and helped make elevators safer.

Another Mabbs son, Austin (1828-1909) also went into mining and had quite the adventures out West in Deadwood, South Dakota. I wrote a blog post about his adventures. 

What did William's daughters do? The daughters all married and raised children. They kept house.

Harriet Mabbs married Madison Truman, and then Albert Bush. Altogether she raised 10 children while moving from Michigan to Arkansas and back to Michigan again. Harriet's younger brother William (1857-1934) was a farmer. He moved his family from Michigan to St.Louis. He had 2 sons and 1 daughter. His oldest son Ralph graduated high school and earned a scholarship to attend Northwest University. He completed 3 years before going to work for Illinois Bell Company which later became AT&T. He was an engineer and eventually ended up living in New York City on Madison Ave. One of his sons also went to work for the phone company, as an engineer and worked his way up to assistant to the Vice President of Public Relations. Ralph's other son went to Cornell and worked for different companies before starting  his own company and retiring as president of it. Ralph's daughter married. 

Ralph had 2 sisters. His older sister married and moved to Wyoming where she raised 13 children. His younger sister worked as a teacher before moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan where she worked as a secretary for the University of Michigan. 

So, while some of the men of the Mabbs family had great careers in engineering, starting and running companies, traveling the world, and leading fulfilling lives, the women of the Mabbs family were relegated to marrying, raising children, and doing charity work or joining social clubs. I can't help but wonder what the Mabbs women would have done and accomplished if times had been different then and they had been allowed to become engineers and have careers after being married?

The above article mentions Ralph Mabbs and how a 10 digit telephone number was coming for every phone in America.

This article is about Ralph's son, Ralph R. The article notes that, in 1969, women are being invited for the first time to an Open House. How nice. 

This is the obituary for Ralph's other son, Edward. Ed had quite the business career. Once again, his sister married and I can't find any more information on her. 

Traveling back in time with the Pulsipher Family

 The prompt for this week is "travel". I've written before how our ancestors traveled to Michigan, or traveled the country. So today we're going to travel back in time with one branch of the family.

Carl Strand's maternal grandfather was Albert E. Pulsipher. Albert was born in Ohio in 1849 and some time before the age of 10 he had moved to Watson Township, Michigan with his family. He married Eva Brownell and they had 7 children, including Carl's mother, Mary. Albert was a farmer and passed away in 1927. I'm not sure what kind of relationship Carl had with Albert, if any. 

While Albert was born in Ohio, that's not where his family was originally from. Getting into the "Way Back Machine" we're going to travel back with the Pulsipher family to Vermont.

Albert's father was a man named Horace Pulsipher. Horace was born in 1824 in Stowe, Vermont. His father was a man named Ebenezer Pulsipher, who was born in Rockingham, Vermont in 1787. His father was also named Ebenezer and was born in 1759 in Massachusetts to David Pulsipher and Elizabeth Stowell. 

Some time after 1759 David moved his family from Massachusetts to Vermont. David was one of the founding members of Rockingham and helped to organize the first church of Rockingham, donating land for the church and cemetery. David was active in local affairs. When the revolution for American independence started David and his son John went off to fight. The story that is recorded, that was told by the family and handed down, is that David went off to fight and was involved in the Battle of Bunker Hill. David would have been 66 years old at the time of the battle. It's not known whether he was killed fighting or died of disease. He just marched off one day and never returned. 

Two of David's sons, John and Ebenezer, also fought in the revolution. John fought in the Battle of Ticonderoga and Ebenezer marched to Manchester where two different battles took place. One of which involved Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. 

All of the information above I found in a book I found online.

Source: History of the Town of Rockingham, Vermonth, 1753-1907 (1907) MyHeritage.com [online database], MyHeritage Ltd. https://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-61145/history-of-the-town-of-rockingham-vermonth-1753-1907-1907  Record: https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-61145-654/history-of-the-town-of-rockingham-vermonth Unknown  Citation: History of the Town of Rockingham, Vermonth, 1753-1907 (1907) Place: Rockingham, Vermont Page: 654

The book was found online on the MyHeritage website.

Surprise! You're Swedish!

 One of the biggest surprises I found after taking an Ancestry DNA test was how high the estimate of Swedish/Danish DNA was. I knew my maternal grandfather was full Swedish, but that would have given my mother around 50%, and I should have received about 25%, more or less. Instead, my Swedish/Danish estimate was close to 50%, and my mother and some of her siblings were at 50% or more. How was this possible? Did I have more Swedish ancestors I didn't know about? The answer was to look back into the history of the Baltic Sea area.

I knew for a fact that some of my ancestors had lived in southern Sweden. I also discovered that other ancestors had lived in northern Germany, and northwestern present day Poland. In fact, I traced many of my ancestors back to areas that bordered right along the Baltic Sea. It was time to look at the history of this area, and specifically Sweden.

Today, Sweden stays neutral and doesn't get involved in wars among countries. In the past, it was much different. The Viking Age of Sweden was from 800-1050 AD. The Vikings sailed around the Baltic Sea, up rivers, and pretty much all over Europe. Some stayed in these new found lands, while others brought slaves and wives back to Sweden. During the 14th century trade among towns and villages on the Baltic Coast began to grow. The Hanseatic League was formed. Many towns were part of this trade and business alliance. North German towns would trade with Scandinavian towns. Migration occurred and people scattered. When I was in Bergin, Norway last summer our tour guide told us about how the locals didn't appreciate the German merchants coming and taking Norwegian girls back to Germany as their brides.  

Sweden also had a foreign policy of which the aim was to dominate the Baltic Sea area. There were repeated wars with Denmark. Eventually Sweden controlled the area from Sweden east to Finland, along the Baltic coast and down to northern Germany. All land area bordering the Baltic Sea was under Swedish control. This was in the 1600's. Sweden was unable to keep control of such a large empire, though, and eventually lost control of this land. This was the Great Northern War of 1700-1721. Sweden fought against Denmark, Poland, and Russia. During the Napoleonic wars Sweden lost Finland to Russia. Norway was forced into a union with Sweden in 1814. Norway gained their independence from Sweden in 1905.

So, when you take all this into account and see how much land Sweden used to control in the Baltic Sea area, and see where our ancestors lived, then it's not surprising that so much Swedish/Danish DNA shows up. 

This is just a very small, brief, Cliff Notes version of Swedish history. One day I'll do a more in depth blog of Sweden's military past, and the Hanseatic League. Information for this came from Sweden's history 

Adversity - The Swedish Famine of 1867/1868

 The prompt for this week is "Adversity." Now, most of us are familiar with the Irish famine of 1845-1852 that led to the deaths of one million Irish citizens and was responsible for the large number of Irish immigrants in the mid 1800's. There was another famine in Europe that also had a direct impact on immigration to America. 

The 1860's were not very kind to Sweden. Swedish farmers had numerous crop failures and it was a difficult time trying to harvest crops and grow enough food to feed family and farm animals. Times were hard. In 1867 times were going to get harder. Due to the weather patterns the winter of 1866-1867 was colder and lasted longer than normal. Spring came so late that farmers had to wait to sow seeds. The summer was very short lived and then Fall came. It became difficult to feed animals, and people. The price of food increased, making it tougher. The early arrival of ice and snow also made travel and communications throughout the land harder. All parts of Sweden were affected, but the northern parts of Sweden suffered the most. In southern Sweden, where Carl and Ulrika Andersson lived, the large farms were able to export their crops, but the smaller farmers, like Carl, had a harder time. In 1868, instead of cold and rainy weather, a drought occurred. No rain meant crops still couldn't be grown or harvested so the famine continued for another year. Little to no food for people or animals. 

Fundraisers were held in America to help the Swedish famine victims and money was sent to Sweden. The Swedish government also sent money to the affected areas to help. However, local authorities would put their own restrictions on who was able to receive the money. People would have to agree to work, or supply labor, to receive the funds. Exceptions were made for people who physically couldn't work or the very old, but many people were turned away for aid if they couldn't say they could work for the funds. In turn, much of the relief money stayed with local authorities or went to wealthy and large farmers who could guarantee work for the funds. Famine victims were often told to eat bark bread. Bark bread is bread made from the inner bark of trees, and lichen. It's mixed with flour and gives the bread a greyish green appearance. The bread doesn't rise much and eating too much of it can cause vomiting and nausea, especially in children. The Swedish press criticized the distribution of the relief funds. Some felt that the lack of aid extended the suffering of the poor. 

Swedish famine victim eating bark bread.

Newspaper cartoon criticizing aid. Aid given to County Governor, then wealthy officials, wealthy farmers, then the poor getting what's left over.

 Carl and Ulrika moved out of Hjalmserd Parish in 1870. Carl was listed as a lodging pauper. That year 105 people left the parish. Annika from "Find a Swede" notes that between 1861 and 1870, 11,514 people left Jonkoping County. The Swedish famine, and the Swedish response to it, was the beginning of the great Swedish migration to America. 

Sources:

Swedish_famine_of_1867%E2%80%931869

Find a Swede

Viola Mildred Strand Henrickson

 Today, September 9, 2023, we're celebrating the 101 year birthday of Viola Mildred Strand Henrickson. Last year was her actual 100th birthday. Viola is one year older than the Walt Disney Company which is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. 

Viola was born to Mildred and Carl Strand on September 9, 1922 in Allegan, Michigan. Viola was the only child of Carl and Mildred's 7 children to be born in a hospital, the others all being born at home with Mildred's mother Elnora acting as a midwife. Shortly after being born Mildred suffered from post partem depression and voluntarily checked into the Kalamazoo State Hospital. Older brother Howard went to live with his Bellingar grandparents and Viola was taken care of by neighbor Jay Treece and family. Viola slept in a dresser drawer. Mildred eventually came back home and got better with help from a local Native American medicine man.

In the 1930's Viola and her family moved to the Strand family farm. It was while she was living on this farm that as a teenager she met Raymond Henrickson, a local farmer. Ray and Viola started seeing each other and became engaged. They were married in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 20, 1940. On April 6, 1941 Viola was baptized into the Lutheran faith and confirmed as a member of the Sandhem Lutheran Church. 

Ray and Viola lived on the Henrickson family farm Ray had taken over from his parents. Together Ray and Viola raised 8 children on the farm. There were 20 grandchildren, and even great grandchildren born before Viola passed away on December 8, 1999 at home. Viola raised children, cooked, cleaned, helped with farm chores and always had food on the table. Despite Ray saying her cooking wasn't as good as his mother's, Viola's children thought her cooking was pretty good, especially her pies and cookies. I can attest to the fact that the macaroni and cheese, and chicken and dumplings she made while visiting us in Florida once were the best I'd ever tasted. I always enjoyed any time I got to spend with her. One time while visiting her on the farm a phone solicitor called and said she had won a free prize. She said, Great, send it to me then. He said she had to pay for the shipping and handling. Viola huffed and said, "It's not free then, is it?!" and slammed down the phone. lol. I knew then I'd never have to worry about her being scammed. I also remember how she and Ray would sit and watch Jerry Springer every day and get a hoot out of the people who came on. She was definitely a treasure and continues to be missed. 

Mildred and most likely Howard and Viola

Mildred, with Viola standing to the left, Mildred's right.

Viola and Milton

Viola and Ray, and kids, having dinner with Carl and Mildred. 

Viola, 2nd from right, front row. With Carl and Mildred and brothers and sisters, circa 1970.

Feel free to leave any stories about Viola down below. I know there are a lot of good ones out there. The prompt for this week was "prosperity". I think prosperity fits Viola. She brought a lot of happiness and joy to all who knew her. She may not have been prosperous in a financial sense, but she was prosperous in friends and family.