Homer and Nettie Chapman - The Kansas Years

My great grandmother would sometimes reminisce about her childhood years in Kansas. Her name was Edna Mertie Chapman, but everyone just called her Mertie. She was born July 10, 1894 in Seneca County, Ohio, the second of three siblings, the children of Charles "Homer" Chapman and Nettie Margaret Flack. Mertie had an older brother, Earl Chapman, and a younger brother, John Chapman.



Homer and Nettie Chapman, with Earl, John, and Mertie,
just before the family moved from Ohio to Kansas

The family lived on a farm in Liberty Township three miles southeast of Bettsville, Ohio, land owned by Homer's father, Edwin Chapman. Edwin, a Civil War Veteran and former prisoner of war, had inherited the land from his foster mother, Sarah Robertson King. Follow the link at the end of this article for tales of Edwin's life and service in the Union Army.

Edwin's sister, Mary Frances Chapman, was raised in a different foster family in neighboring Wyandot County, Ohio, along with a brother, Buell Chapman, Jr. Buell was a sergeant in the 9th Ohio Cavalry during the Civil War when he died of illness in June, 1864.

In 1866, Mary Frances married William Hollenshead, also a war veteran. The Hollensheads raised five children, and four others died during infancy. They left Wyandot County and relocated to Madison County, Iowa, where they raised cattle during the decade of the 1870's. In 1880, they moved further west to Norton County, Kansas, in the northwest part of the state on the Nebraska border. Hollenshead acquired two tracts of land, 160 acres in 1883 and another adjoining 160 acres in 1895. The first acquisition was free land under the Homestead Act of 1863, requiring the recipient to make improvements, cultivate the land, and build a dwelling. The annex was free land under the Timber Culture Act of 1873, requiring 40 of the 160 acres to be set aside to plant trees, a legislated solution to the lack of lumber on the prairie. The requirement was subsequently reduced to 10 acres, and a grove of about that size was established at the south end of the farm.

By the late 1890's, Homer Chapman had acquired 320 acres in Norton County just a short distance from the Hollenshead homestead, his aunt's family. Mary Hollenshead was obviously instrumental in the Chapmans' decision to relocate there. Homer, Nettie, and the three kids packed their belongings and headed west to build a new life on the prairie.


The Hollenshead and Chapman farms
in western Norton County, Kansas.



The Homer Chapman farm in Norton County, Kansas about 1900

My great grandmother spoke of the home the family built in Kansas, a house made of sod, as she remembered it. Pioneers who moved to the prairie quickly learned that there was not the abundance of lumber they enjoyed back east, so they had to make do with whatever building materials were available. "Soddies" were constructed quickly and inexpensively from blocks of the deep rooted sod they plowed up from the landscape so that crops could be cultivated. "Dugouts" were rough structures built into the side of a hill. The Chapman farmhouse shown in photographs appears to be a combination of a soddy and a dugout. Later, as better materials became available, the sod walls and roofing would have been covered by more durable and more watertight panels.



The Chapman farmhouse after improvements

The children attended school in Norton County, but Mertie did not have fond memories of her time there. One can only imagine the difficulties the family had to endure, the unsanitary conditions, snake and rodent infested walls, leaks, bedbugs, fleas, lack of adequate food and drinking water. Mertie, it is said, became very ill with typhoid fever. She was so ill, it's said, that she lost much of her hair.

The Chapman kids attended the Aurora School

Mamie Carnine was their teacher, and Homer Chapman served as Treasurer

The Chapman farm was located in a remote area about a dozen miles southwest of the county seat of Norton. The nearest town of any note at that time was Oronoque, a few miles north of the farm, and much of the family's town business  likely took place there. Oronoque sprung up in the late 1880's when the town was platted next to the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. Plots there sold for $150 each, and businesses included a hotel/diner, post office, general store and drug store. The town's population reached about 200, even though it had to rebuild three times following devastating fires. Another town, South Oronoque, was laid out in the 1890's about a mile and a half away along the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad. It's name was changed to Dellvale, and it peaked out with a population of about 30, with a stock yard, grain elevator, hotel, and post office. Both Oronoque and Dellvale vanished from the landscape in the aftermath of dust storms in the 1930's that chased away even the hardiest of the pioneers.

Town of Oronoque in its prime

Homer's entry in Earl Chapman's autograph book, 1905

The Homestead Act and Timber Culture Act required land recipients to stay on that land for a minimum of five years. Once their commitment was fulfilled, sometime in 1905 or shortly thereafter, Homer and Nettie decided to move the family back home to Ohio. There they farmed the Chapman land in Liberty Township for several decades. Homer inherited the farm from his father in 1913 and it was passed on to his son Earl, and then to Earl's son, Gerald "Gig" Chapman. The farmhouses have been gone for many decades, and the land has been rented out for farming. After Gerald Chapman died in 2014, his heirs fulfilled his wishes to sell the land to Hank Heilman, who had been renting the farm for several years.



  

John, Mertie, and Earl, back in Ohio!

 

Homer and Nettie Chapman in 1916.



The Hollensheads remained in Kansas for the rest of their lives. They were considered to be one of the significant early families to settle Norton County, arriving just eight years after the county was organized. William Hollenshead became prominent in local government and served as a state representative. His biological sketch is included in a 1894 book highlighting Norton County's significant pioneers, as follows:

William H. Hollenshead was born November 3, 1842 in Marion county, Ohio. Lived on a farm and received his education in the district schools. He enlisted in company M, 3rd Ohio cavalry, September 8, 1861, as a private, participated in the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Chickamauga, Missionary ridge and many smaller ones. Was taken prisoner at Stone river, December 31, 1862, with two others of his company, he succeeded in making his escape the following night and the next day arrived safe inside the union lines. He was subsequently detailed as brigade scout for General Long and served as such the last nine months of his army life. He was discharged at Columbia, Tennessee, October 11, 1864, and returned to Wyandot county, Ohio, where he cast his first vote, it being for Abraham Lincoln in November 1864. His early environments were all democratic, but while he was in the army he learned to shoot right and when he came home he voted the same way, and has kept it up ever since. He engaged in the stock business and continued in that until the spring of 1866.

 

W.H. Hollenshead

Mr. Hollenshead was married March 15, 1866, to Mary F. Chapman; she was born November 20, 1844, in Tiffin, Seneca county, Ohio. They have had nine children, five are still living. Cora B., was born April 18, 1867, was married to F.C. Spencer, June 19, 1888, and is living in this county at this time; Della M., was born January 25, 1889, died March 29 of the same year; F.M., was born March 17, 1870, and is now attending school at Salina, Kansas; Ernest J., September 24, 1872, and lives in Colorado Springs; Maud A., June 9, 1875, is at home; Eddy, September 15, 1878, died February 14, 1879; Pearl S., September 14, 1880; Eliza L, April 27, 1883, died January 12, 1884; Carl, was born February 1, 1886, and died January 20, 1887.

Mr. Hollenshead moved from Ohio to Madison county, Iowa, in 1869, engaged in farming and stock raising until October, 1879, when he came to Kansas and took the land upon which he still resides. He went back to Iowa the same fall and in February, 1880, returned with his family. He landed here with a team of horses and wagon and a $5 dollar bill as his total assets.

He was elected member of the house of representative in 1884, served in the regular session of 1885, and the extra session of 1886; voted for John J. Ingalls for United States senator. He has been active in politics since coming here and has been a delegate to nearly every county convention since 1880, and has been chairman several times. He has represented this county in three state conventions and has been a delegate to several congressional and judicial conventions. He was nominated for county treasurer in 1893 by the republicans and elected, defeating Albert Hicks, populist. He is a leading member of the G.A.R. organization and a member of the Masonic lodge at Lenora. 

 

Norton Cemetery

Follow this link for more information about the Chapman farm in Ohio and Edwin's life and service: Edwin Chapman of the 72nd Ohio Voluntary Infantry

Sources:

• The History of the Early Settlement of Norton County, Kansas, Francis Marion Lockard, Champion, 1894.
• Family photographs contributed by B.Funkhouser and D. Martin.

Edwin Chapman of the 72nd Ohio Infantry

My 3rd great-grandfather was just 17 years of age when he was captured by the rebels in a Mississippi cornfield. As a prisoner of war for the final year of the conflict, his survival would be a testament to his determination and, I believe, his genetics.

Edwin N. Chapman, ca. 1863

Edwin Chapman was born September 12, 1846 in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio. His parents were Buel D. Chapman and Fanny Northrop. Buel Chapman, born in 1815, relocated to Ohio from Massachusetts with his mother and some of his siblings. Fanny Northrop, born in New York, was the daughter of John Northrop, originally of Rhode Island; a DNA match connects us to a descendant of Fanny's sister Harriett, the wife of Abial Canfield. Follow the link at the end of this article to trace the Chapman line back to New England and to The Mayflower.

Thousands of New England families arrived in the Western Reserve beginning about 1800.

Chapman and Northrop ancestors migrated to north central Ohio in the early days of the state, settling near the town of Litchfield in Medina County. This part of Ohio, prior to her statehood, was organized as Connecticut's "Western Reserve." Much of the land served as payment to New Englanders who served in the Continental Army during America's Revolutionary War. The plots were often sold or passed along to ambitious heirs who were ready to go westward.

Buel Chapman and Fanny Northrop marriage record.

Buel and Fanny were married in 1841 in Medina County. The couple moved 65 miles west to Tiffin, and this is where all three of their children were born: Buel D. Chapman, Jr in 1842; Mary Frances Chapman in 1844; and Edwin in 1846.

At a young age, the three Chapman children were placed with foster families. Their mother Fanny had been admitted to the Ohio Lunatic Asylum in Columbus on February 15, 1849, escorted there by the Seneca County Sheriff, Eden Lease. According to the admission record, the condition which resulted in her hospitalization was "Ill treatment from her husband, probably, jealous, Hereditary", which had been ongoing for a year and a half. There is no record available for her discharge, but Fanny Chapman is enumerated as a patient there on the 1850 Census. The facility, which opened in 1838, was later renamed Columbus Hospital for the Insane and then Columbus State Hospital.

Fanny Chapman Admission 1849

Meanwhile, after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California in 1848, it seems that Buel Chapman joined the ranks of the tens of thousands of "forty-niners" who made the journey, either by land across country or perhaps by ship around Cape Horn, in hopes of striking it rich. The only clue to his whereabouts during these years is on California's first State Census in 1852. In Northern California's Siskiyou County, a "B.D. Chapman" is enumerated, white male, age 32, born in Massachusetts. Buel eventually acquired land and settled in the Sioux City, Iowa area, married for a second and third time (1866 and 1878) with a daughter born into each marriage. Buel Chapman died in 1880 in a Mondamin, Iowa saloon that he operated, chronic alcoholism determined to have been the culprit, leaving a widow and a one year old daughter.

Buel and Fanny Chapman's two older children, Buell Jr. and Mary Francis, were placed with the Milton Morral family on a farm west of Upper Sandusky in Wyandot County, Ohio. Edwin Chapman, at the age of 2, was bound to David and Sarah (Sweet) King in Tiffin. The Kings also had two children of their own, John Pearson King and Louisa King, about ages 12 and 14 respectively.

Mrs. King died in June of 1850, leaving David, a weaver by trade, to raise his two children and Edwin Chapman. Soon he had remarried to Sarah Robertson, widow of Nelson Yeakey who had died in 1848. Sarah had been married to Yeakey since 1841, but this marriage did not produce any children. Edwin Chapman was raised by the Kings and remained close to them into his adulthood.

Sarah Robertson King plays a very important role in the Chapman story. She had moved to Seneca County from Loudoun County, Virginia sometime around 1840 with her mother and some of her siblings. Her father was John T. Robertson, a Scottish immigrant who purchased land in 1822 from the U.S. Government, 480 acres in Liberty Township, ten miles north of Tiffin. Mr. Robertson died in Virginia in 1836, bequeathing the land in Ohio to his five daughters. Sarah was deeded the easternmost 80 acres of the plot, about three miles southeast of what would become the village of Bettsville. Much of the adjacent Robertson family land straddled a swath of exposed limestone, duly reported when Liberty Township was established and surveyed in 1832. This land, known to locals as "the ridge," would later be quarried by what would become Basic, Inc., the largest employer in the area and the lifeblood of the community for well over half a century.

In the north-eastern part of this township, is a tract of land about three miles in length, and three-fourths of a mile in width, remarkably stony. In some places, the lime-stone rock literally covers the ground. In others, it is not so thickly covered, and tolerable crops are raised. The lime-stone, by being exposed to the weather, becomes white, giving to the land a singular appearance. This tract is the more remarkable, as the county in general, is so very free from any thing of the kind. 

From the 1836 Will of John Robertson

The Civil War broke out in 1861, and many young Ohioans enlisted for military service. Soon after his 17th birthday, Edwin traveled to nearby Fremont on October 7, 1863 and enlisted in Company "C" of the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry with rank of Corporal. He may not have been aware that his brother Buell Chapman had enlisted three months earlier. Buell served in Company "F" of the Ohio 9th Cavalry Regiment, having mustered in at Fort Dennison near Cincinnati.

Regimental Colors of the 72nd Ohio Voluntary Infantry

After its formation in 1861 and into early 1862, the 72nd marched through western portions of Kentucky and Tennessee, and then into Mississippi.  It was involved in several important campaigns, including the Battle of Shiloh in southwestern Tennessee. By the time Edwin joined up with the 72nd, they were huddled up near Memphis, where they had been ordered until January 1864 to guard the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, the first railroad to link the Mississippi River with the Atlantic Ocean.

In the Spring of 1864, the 72nd received orders to join General Samuel Sturgis' expedition against Confederate troops led by Nathan Bedford Forrest in north Mississippi. There, at Brice's Cross Roads, the Union forces met a formidable foe, and just as the tide was turning in their favor, Sturgis' troops were ordered to retreat. Then when their ammunition dwindled, the men of the 72nd were forced to run for their lives. Only about one-third managed to escape, while the rest were destined to spend months in the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia, formally known as Camp Sumter.

 
Edwin Chapman was one of more than two dozen men from the 72nd captured by the rebels on June 11, 1864 near Ripley, Mississippi.  He spent about ten months as a prisoner of war at Andersonville, enduring unimaginable horrors. The camp was known for its horrible conditions and disregard for human life. By July of 1864, nearly 30,000 prisoners of war were held there, with no sanitation or medical treatment, and very little food. Disease ran rampant, and about 13,000 men died at the camp during its existence, including no fewer than four of Edwin's mates captured alongside him near Ripley. For more about Edwin's prison camp experience, follow the link at the end of this article.

The camp was emancipated in May of 1865, and those who had survived were free. Edwin Chapman and the others from the 72nd officially mustered out of the Federal Army on September 11, 1865 at Vicksburg, Mississippi, where they boarded a steamship back to Ohio.

Monument to the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Vicksburg National Military Park

Buell Chapman, Edwin's brother, faced an even worse fate. He was hospitalized at a military post in Nashville after becoming ill with measles. His condition deteriorated, and he died on the 9th of June, 1864. Back in Wyandot County, his foster parents arranged for the relocation of Buell's interment from Nashville National Cemetery to Oak Hill Cemetery just south of Upper Sandusky, Ohio. A grand headstone marks Buell's gravesite in the Morral family plot next to Milton and Eleanor Morral, who raised Buell and Mary Francis. On the headstone, his first name is spelled incorrectly as "Bewel," but his biological parents are correctly identified as "B.D. & F" (Buel D. and Fanny).

Buell Chapman Gravesite near Upper Sandusky, Ohio
(photo by M & K Bramel)

Mary maintained contact with her brother Edwin throughout their lives even though she left Ohio as a young woman. In 1866, she married William Hollenshead, also a war veteran who was involved in several important campaigns during the conflict. The Hollensheads left Wyandot County in 1869 and settled for the next decade in the Des Moine, Iowa area near the town of St. Charles, Madison County. Mary had reconnected with her mother Fanny Chapman, and Fanny also relocated to Iowa, settling in the town of Indianola less than 20 miles from her daughter. In 1880, the Hollensheads relocated again to Norton County, Kansas, where they would live out the remainder of their lives, raising five children along the way. Mr. Hollenshead was involved in local government in Kansas and was an officer in the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). Fanny Chapman remained in Indianola, Iowa until her death in 1891. With the satisfaction of her debts and the settlement of her meager estate, her heirs Edwin and Mary each received an inheritance of twenty-five dollars and some change.

Fanny Chapman gravesite in Indianola, Iowa.

From Fannie Chapman probate documents 1891

After surviving the war, nineteen year-old Edwin Chapman settled into a more normal life back in Ohio. In 1866, he married Anna Elizabeth Burkett of Old Fort, Ohio. "Ed and Anna," as they were known, operated the farm owned by Edwin's foster parents, David and Sarah King after the Kings retired to nearby Fort Seneca. David King died in 1876, and when Sarah died in 1891, Edwin inherited the farm after buying out her relatives for the sum of $2,000 split between Sarah's step-grandchildren, siblings, nieces and nephews.

Excerpt from the Will of Sarah Robertson King, probated February, 1891.

Ed and Anna's first child, Eva, died during infancy in 1868. A son, Charles "Homer" Chapman was born in 1871 (my great great grandfather), followed by Edwin "Cornie" Chapman, Florence Myrtle "Mertie" Chapman, and Harrison Morton "Harry" Chapman. Diphtheria took the lives of Mertie and Cornie during the winter of 1892-93, Mertie at age 13 and Cornie at age 18. Harry Chapman enlisted for military service on July 14, 1917 and was severely wounded during combat duty in France and Belgium during World War I; he died in 1937 at the age of 49 after living for several years at a disabled soldiers' home in Dayton, Ohio. Homer Chapman married Nettie Flack, daughter of Jefferson Flack and Harriett Lott, in 1892, and they lived in a second house that was constructed on the Chapman homestead. Harriett Lott's grandfather Jeremiah Lott passed down some remarkable tales from his experiences in the American Revolution, and a link at the end of this article takes the reader to his story. Another link connects to stories of the Flack settlers of early Seneca County.

John T. Robertson’s original land entry was for the eastern half of section 11 and the southwestern quarter of section 12 in Liberty Township. The easternmost 80 acres became the Chapman farm.

The western portion of John Robertson's purchase was later quarried by Holran Stone Company and then Basic Refractories

Some first hand stories involving Ed and Anna Chapman have been preserved in the diary of Sarah Green Murray, wife of Jerome Murray. Her mother was Helah Robertson, wife of Valentine Green, and a sister of Edwin's foster mother Sarah Robertson King. Helah's portion of the Robertson homestead was adjacent to the Sarah King plot. So Ed and Anna were neighbors and best friends with the Murrays, sharing many memorable experiences. The Murrays were there when Ed and Anna lost two children to diphtheria. The children were buried at Pleasant Union Cemetery in Old Fort, where Ed served on the Cemetery Board. Ed decided to relocate his first child Eva's interment from the Crissa Cemetery near Maple Grove over to Pleasant Union to the family plot there, and he called on Jerome Murray for assistance. In an era when permits were not required for such a deed, the pair dug up the pine box, badly deteriorated after a quarter of a century underground. Ed drove the carriage for the bumpy five mile trip while Jerome held the casket together the best he could.

Ed and Anna Chapman family plot at Pleasant Union Cemetery

The operation of the Chapman farm was eventually turned over to Homer and Nettie when Ed and Anna retired to nearby Old Fort. Anna died in 1909 and Ed followed in 1913.

Edwin Chapman's farm in Liberty Township was passed to his son, Homer Chapman.

Across the road from the Chapman farm, Isaac Murray, son of Jerome and Sarah, built a farmhouse around 1910, on the land that I remember from my youth as the Stanley Miller farm. The remainder of the original Robertson purchase, the acreage to the west of the Chapman and Murray land including the Valentine and Helah Greene home, had been sold by the turn of the century. Cleveland businessman John Raymond Holran started a small stone quarry on "the ridge" for the construction of roads. The quarry was later acquired by Howard Parmelee Eells, also of Cleveland, for the mining of dolomite and the manufacture of refractories used in steel production. The unique quality of the dolomite here, coupled with the construction of two rail lines intersecting at Maple Grove, made this an ideal site for Eells' operation, which was turned over to his son H.P. Eells, Jr. The Dolomite Production Company became incorporated in 1931 under the name Basic Dolomite, Inc., and in 1941 the name was changed to Basic Refractories, Inc.

At her farmhouse on "the ridge," Helah (Robertson) Greene, seated right, with Jerome and Sarah (Greene) Murray, standing center, and other family including grandson Isaac Murray, standing second from right, ca.1890

Holran Stone Company, Maple Grove, Ohio

Basic, Inc., Maple Grove, Ohio

Homer and Nettie Chapman raised three children, Earl Edwin Chapman, Edna "Mertie" Chapman (my great grandmother), and John Webb Chapman.  All three children remained in or around Bettsville, Ohio for all of their lives with the exception of a five-year stint in Kansas around the turn of the century. Homer was drawn westward by the lure of free land and acquired a farm very near the Hollenshead homestead there, his aunt and her family. But by about 1905, the Chapman's had returned to Ohio. For more about the family's time in Kansas, and their Hollenshead cousins there, follow the link at the end of this article.

State Street in Bettsville 1907

Earl and his wife Mabel (Falvy) inherited the farm and it was later passed to their son, Gerald "Gig" Chapman. The farm and its two houses were rented for decades, with the houses eventually being razed. After Gerald Chapman's death in 2014, the farm was sold to Hank Heilman who had most recently rented the land.

At home on the farm - Top L to R: Nettie Flack Chapman, Harriett Lott Flack, Jefferson Flack, Charles Homer Chapman; Bottom L to R: Edna Mertie Chapman, John Webb Chapman, Earl Edwin Chapman, Harry Chapman. 

Homer (seated), Nettie, Earl, Edna, and John

Earl, Mable, and Gerald Chapman

Edwin Chapman obituary from 1913

My mother, Sharon Jeanette Bramel, down on the farm

Homer Chapman funeral 1941: Nettie with her daughter Edna,
granddaughter Winnie, and great granddaughter Sharon (my mother).

Read more about Edwin Chapman's experiences at Andersonville here: Surviving a Civil War Prison Camp

Read about the Hollenshead and Chapman families in Norton, Kansas here: The Kansas Years

Trace the Chapman ancestry back to Connecticut and Massachusetts here: Isaac Chapman Bible - A Legacy from His Mother

Delve into Jeremiah Lott's Revolutionary War tales here: Jeremiah Lott: Honored by Washington

Read about the Flack family and a troublesome feud here: Flack Family of Seneca County

Sources:

• Ohio, County Marriages, 1774-1993, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2016.
• History of Seneca County, Ohio, containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages ... portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of the Northwest territory; history of Ohio; statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Michael A. Leeson, Warner, Beers, and Company, 1886.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com, memorial page for SGT Bewel D. Chapman (30 Nov 1836–2 Jun 1864), Find a Grave Memorial no. 64408346, citing Oak Hill Cemetery, Upper Sandusky, Wyandot County, Ohio, USA ; Maintained by ProgBase (contributor 47278889).
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29945879/fannie-c-chapman : accessed 08 March 2022), memorial page for Fannie C Chapman (unknown–26 Feb 1891), Find a Grave Memorial ID 29945879, citing IOOF Cemetery, Indianola, Warren County, Iowa, USA ; Maintained by 46620252 (contributor 46620252) .
• The History of the Early Settlement of Norton County, Kansas, Francis Marion Lockard, Champion, 1894.
• Family photographs and stories contributed by B.Funkhouser, D.Martin, and L.Swickard
• Regimental Colors photograph, ohiosyesterdays.blogspot.com, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums - Manuscripts Division, Nan Card
• Edwin Chapman Death Notice, Fremont Daily Messenger, 31 March 1913
• "California State Census, 1852," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V4NX-JRB : 30 July 2017), B D Chapman, Siskiyou, California; citing p. 18, State Archives, Sacramento; FHL microfilm 909,233.
• Ohio History Connection, Columbus State Hospital (Ohio), Admission Books, State Archives Series 896, 1838-1868

The Jennette Family of Lightkeeper Lore



Everyone has seen images of the famous lighthouses of North Carolina, but only recently did I discover our family's close connection to them.

The famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has stood since 1870.

My grandfather, Joe Jeanette, descended from a Williamson County, Tennessee family of blacksmiths. His father, Ben Jeanette, moved to Ohio in 1916 for a job with the Pennsylvania Railroad when my grandfather was just an infant. Joe and most of his family believed the Jeanettes originated in France, settled in French Canada, and then New York, Kentucky, and Thompson's Station south of Nashville, Tennessee, a family of loggers.

But researchers now agree that these Jeanette ancestors received bad information somewhere along the line, because before Tennessee and Kentucky, census data traces them to the eastern counties of North Carolina, along the barrier islands and on the mainland along the various waterways.

So my research took me to North Carolina's Outer Banks and a branch of the family that settled in the south end of Hatteras Island, in and around the town of Buxton.

Joseph Claud Jennette and his wife, Terah Levena (Williams) Jennette

I focused my research on Joseph Claud Jennette, who lived his entire life on Hatteras Island. Joseph is believed to have descended from the same John Jennett line from which my Jeanette line descended, although the exact connection remains a bit fuzzy. Joseph was born in 1805 and died in 1866. He married Terah Levena Williams, and they had about a dozen kids.


During the 1700's, shipwrecks became all too common off the Cape near what was known as the Diamond Shoals, where the warm Gulf Stream from the south collides with the cold Labrador current from the north. It was so bad that the area became known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." So around 1800, the United States Congress appropriated funds to construct a lighthouse on Hatteras Island. The four acres of land for the project was purchased from four Jennett orphans, William, Mary, Jabez, and Aquilla, by the U.S. Treasury Department for the purchase price of $12.50 per acre.



The original Hatteras Lighthouse was completed in 1803.

Joseph Jennette was the chief keeper of this lighthouse from 1843 into the 1850's. After that, many of his sons, in-laws, and grandsons also served as either chief lightkeeper or as an assistant. His son Joseph Edward Jennette manned the lighthouse after his return from the Civil War, where he fought for the Confederacy in North Carolina's 1st Infantry. Another son, Benjamin Claud Jennette, was keeper of the light from 1868 to 1871. You can check out the entire list of Hatteras lighthouse keepers here... Hatteras Keepers.


Benjamin Fulcher Jennette,
grandson of Joseph and Terah

Mariners complained that the lighthouse was inadequate, so improvements were made in 1853. It was increased by 60 feet to a new height of 150 feet. It was also painted red at the top and equipped with a brighter light, illuminated by refracted mirrors.

But by the 1860's, with the elements taking a toll on the structure, Congress again appropriated funds for a new and improved lighthouse. In 1870, construction was completed on a 210 foot lighthouse, and the old structure was demolished the following year.

Unaka Benjamin Jennette cleaning the lenses

The Cape Hatteras lighthouse keepers were phased out by 1937 when the U.S. Coast Guard took over the duties. Unaka Jennette, great grandson of Joseph and Terah, served as the last lightkeeper from 1919 to 1937. In 1999, a major project was successfully completed to relocate the historic structure one-half mile to save it from the eroding coastline and encroaching sea.

Here is an entertaining story penned by Unaka's son, Rany Jennette, his memories of life around the lighthouse....  Cape Hatteras Lighthouse As I Knew It

About a mile from the lighthouse, in the town of Buxton, I found an old cemetery, just off Highway 12. Take a right turn onto Buxton Cemetery Road and drive about 100 yards along a very creepy lane. It is called Quidley Cemetery, or just Buxton Cemetery.




Scary cemetery lane

This cemetery is the final resting place for Joseph Claud and Terah Levena Jennette, and for many of their descenants. This branch of our family seems to have added an "e" to the end of the original "Jennett" version of the surname in the following generation or two.

Terah Levena Jeanette (1807-1882)

  

Joseph Claud Jennette (1805-1861)

It is unknown whether this branch of the family moved southward to Hatteras from the northern end of the outer banks, or if our John Jennett direct line moved northward from Hatteras to the area in the mainland just west of Roanoke Island.  The Jennett legacy in the outer banks dates back before 1700, and many researchers speculate that they might have coexisted with the native tribes that inhabited the area. There are many more mysteries to be solved.

Ziemer Family of Alleghenyville, Berks County, Pennsylvania

I found out that my grandmother, who was a Semer from Northwest Ohio, descended from the Ziemer family of southeast Pennsylvania.  They were part of the very large German-American community commonly known as the "Pennsylvania Dutch."


The Jeremiah Ziemer farm as it looks today at 889 Maple Grove Road, Mohnton, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The farm was passed to Johannes Heinrich (Henry) Ziemer, who passed it to John Ziemer, Esq., who passed it to his brother Peter Ziemer, who passed it to his son Peter D. Ziemer (Journal of the Berks County Genealogical Society, Vol. 32, Number 4).

I took a day trip to the village where Jeremias (Jeremiah) Zamer/Ziemer and his wife Anna Barbara Sauder first settled after arriving from Germany in 1738. In 1765, Jeremiah purchased 183 acres south and west of the intersection of Alleghenyville Road and Maple Grove Road in Berks County, the site of a farm that was passed along to several generations of Ziemers.



Allegheny Union Church, Brecknock Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania

This church, ten miles south of Reading, is where John and Keziah Semer, my 3rd great grandparents, had their three oldest sons baptized in 1849, two years before the family moved to Ohio. The current church was built in 1878 on the site where the previous structure had stood since 1800. The church was once shared by Mennonite, Lutheran, and German Reformed denominations.

Baptism of William, Henry, and John Ziemer in 1849

This church record from 1849 was the research clue that connected the Ziemer family of 1850 Berks County, Pennsylvania to the Semer family of 1860 Van Wert County, Ohio.  If not for this document, I never would have realized that the family name evolved from Ziemer to Semer.

Peter Ziemer's Tavern at 773 Alleghenyville Road - A sign
hanging in the house reads, "Ziemer's Tavern 1854."

On the 1850 Census, John H. Ziemer listed his occupation as "Innkeeper." The family operated a popular inn, Ziemer's Tavern, in Alleghenyville.  The building was restored years ago and is now a private residence.



The Ziemer section of the cemetery is located just behind the church building. It is one of the largest and oldest plots in the cemetery. Most of the older headstones are scripted in German.

Wilhelm Ziemer was the infant brother of John H. Semer. Wilhelm died in 1825 at just six months of age.  John also had a sister named Salome Sarah Ziemer.

Heinrich Ziemer (1780-1825), father of John H. Semer, was my 4th great grandfather.  John was just age five when his dad died. His mother, the former Lydia Hertz, later remarried to a man named John Shearer, and they moved to nearby Reading.  John stayed around Alleghenyville and apprenticed under his uncle, Peter Ziemer, in the operation of the family-owned inn.  John married Keziah Catharine Matz.  They migrated west to Van Wert County, Ohio in 1852, where they raised a family of ten children.  Their oldest son, William Semer, was my great-great grandfather, and William's son, William Lampson Semer (1882-1920) was my grandmother's dad.

Left: Johannes Heinrich Ziemer (1745-1822) was the only son of Jeremias Ziemer who arrived from Germany in 1738. Johannes was the father of Heinrich, grandfather of John H., and my 5th great grandfather. Right: Anna Catharine Scharman (1750-1827) was the wife of Johannes Heinrich Ziemer and my 5th great grandmother.  They were known simply as Henry and Catharine Ziemer.

For more information, check out my blog entry, "Whatever Happened to John H. Semer?"