It’s funny how in a small town it seems like everyone is related.  Often families settle, spread out and expand and within a generation or two the family connection is lost.  You might live close to a relative, work, go to school, maybe even date someone who, if you looked at your family history, turns out to be a second or third cousin.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to people who tell me they have no cousins, only to discover a vast, untapped family waiting to be reconnected.

    Families have their own quirks and personalities. I wonder how much of this comes from the area they settle in and how much they shape the tenor of the area.  When I bought my house I was told that the family I was buying it from had built it several generations back.  They were, I was told, one of the founding families of the area and the house and yard I was buying had served as the first itinerate church during the conception of the town.  They claimed this house was one of the very first ever built in the area, and they had started it all.

     I decided to take a look and see what I could find out about the family that had so shaped the town, built the house and brought religion to this small hamlet.  My facts did not quite match their description.  Maybe they did not really know the truth.  No matter, I loved the house and the yard and would have bought it regardless of the history or perceived history of the place.  In fact the property did not come to the previous owner’s family until 1911, well after the founding of the village, the township and the county.

    I purchased the house from a relation of Mary F. Jones. Looking at the deed to the house I discovered the first registered owner, though likely not truly the first owner of the property was Martha S. E. Van Horn. Intrigued, I decided to take a look at the people involved with this house and looked into the history of the town, the founding fathers, etc.  I discovered some interesting family connections, searched through several of the small, mostly forgotten cemeteries in town and discovered that the town of Catharine, Schuyler NY, as recently as 1879, held several small villages and thriving industries.

  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the Finger Lakes region of New York, Schuyler County New York is a small, mostly rural county.  It is the second smallest/ least populated county in New York, and as such, a fairly poor county, with a median family income (2000 Census) of $36,010.  It is contiguous to Tompkins (County seat-Ithaca), Chemung (County seat-Elmira), Seneca (County seat-Waterloo), and Yates (County seat-Penn Yan).  The County seat and best known village in Schuyler is Watkins Glen, home of the beautiful Watkins Glen State Park and The world famous Watkins Glen Race track, which draws auto race fans by the thousands each year.  It is a beautiful part of the country and well worth a visit if you are a history buff, a genealogist or anyone who loves nature, photography and camping.  The county has several natural water falls, several   small village and town parks in addition to the state park, sits on the banks of Seneca Lake and also houses the smaller Cayuta Lake, nestled in the town of Catharine.

     Before the revolutionary war the Finger Lakes were populated entirely by Iroquois tribes.  It was the Clinton –Sullivan Campaign, launched by General George Washington to annihilate the natives who aligned with the British forces that brought European colonists to the Finger Lakes area.  In 1778-1779 General Sullivan forced his march through the Finger Lakes, blazing trails where none had existed, burning villages, destroying crops and capturing horses and livestock. American soldiers destroyed nearly 50 Iroquois villages, adjacent croplands and winter stores.  Surviving natives were forced to take refuge in British held Niagara.    

    Nestled in the Valley now known as Montour Falls- Schuyler County, was a large native village known as Catharine’s town.  Catharine Montour was the de facto leader of the tribe after the death in battle of her chieftain husband.  American soldiers describing their passage through Catherine’s town marveled at the abundance of orchards, crops and the marvelous horses, raised and bred at that site for trade with other villages along Seneca Lake.  Catherine’s town was the preeminent supplier of horses to the Seneca tribes.  The soldiers lay waist to the land, killed the horses and burned the crops and orchards.  They made their way through present day Watkins Glen, along the lake and continued their attack on tribes living in present day Hector. For more on the Clinton-Sullivan campaign I have included the following link http://sullivanclinton.com/.

     Following the war many of the men, having fallen in love with this area desired to move back and settle the land for themselves.    The first permanent settlements were established in Schuyler County as follow; Town of Montour 1788; Hector 1790; Dix 1797; Cayuta, Reading and Tyrone, 1798; Catharine 1799 and Orange in 1802. (http://www.schuylerhistory.org/Schuyler_County_Townships.pdf)

     Schuyler County as we know it today was not established in its own right until

1854.  Prior to that the land that now makes up Schuyler County belonged to Tompkins, Chemung and Steuben counties.  (This information will help you should you be looking for a relative living in this area prior to 1854) The eight towns that presently make up the county are; Catharine established in 1798; Hector 1802; Reading 1806; Tyrone 1822; Cayuta 1824; Dix 1835; Orange 1836; and Montour, 1860.  Watkins Glen is the county seat, established in 1877 after a protracted legal battle with Montour.

    There were several small villages scattered throughout Schuyler county that have been lost to time including Decker’s town and Havana in Montour and Catharine and Alpine in Catharine township.  Decker’s town and Havana were swept away to become part of Montour Falls and the village of Catharine, once a prosperous area coexisting with neighboring Odessa, is all but forgotten these days.  Where once there stood two churches, one Methodist Episcopal and one Protestant Episcopal, a general store, two blacksmith-shops, two wagon shops, one tannery, a public school, a post-office and an active cemetery, as recently as 1879, there remains one active church, the Protestant Episcopal, numerous farms, one recently added dairy and a small convenience store, and a youth theater located in the former Methodist church, the first church /church building established in the county in 1809.  The village of Catharine is now a part of the village of Odessa.

    The village of Alpine remains today, marked by a sign indicating its location on county route 11 off of route 224 between alpine junction and Odessa.  Once a part of Tompkins county, Alpine was a thriving community of about 300 individuals.  As recently as 1879 Alpine boasted the following commerce; two general stores, one grocery store, a hotel, two meat markets, three blacksmiths, two wagon-shops, a cabinet-shop, a pump-manufactory, two shoe-shops, one tin-shop, one grist-mill, one saw-mill, one planing-mill, one Baptist church and a Methodist Episcopal Society, a public school, two resident physicians, one undertaker, and a resident minister of the gospel  (http://genealogytrails.com/ny/schuyler/1879history9.html).  Today Alpine sits off the beaten path, a small, tired little town filled with homes but without commerce.  Find a grave.com lists a cemetery in Alpine NY but does not provide map directions and I have yet to locate it.  Residents of Alpine, like most of Schuyler county, rely on the village of Watkins Glen, or the small cities of Ithaca or Elmira and it’s several suburbs, to meet their commercial and employment needs.

   The village of Odessa, in 1879, co-existing with its neighbors in Alpine and Catharine also had a thriving commercial trade.  At that time Odessa boasted the following active business;  one general, one grocery, and one drug-store, one millinery establishment, two blacksmith shops, one wagon-shop, one grist-mill, and three sawmills (at the place or close by), one planing-mill, a hotel, three churches,-one each of the Methodist Episcopal, Free-Will Baptist, and Wesleyan Methodist denominations, -a public school, two resident physicians, three ministers of the gospel, and one justice of the peace.  At the center of town was the small community cemetery known as the Catlin-Odessa cemetery. The population at that time was about 300.  (In April of 1911 the Catlin-Odessa cemetery was moved to make room for the village hall.  The stones and bodies were relocated to the Laurel Hill cemetery on county route 10 in Odessa.)  One has to wonder at the loss and change that has occurred over the past 136 years. 

     The town of Catharine was settled by pioneers coming from Connecticut.  As stated above, they were men who had fought in or been hired by men who fought in the Clinton-Sullivan campaign of 1778-79.  They were predominately men with vision who knew the fertile soils and understood the potential bounties of the area so rich in wildlife, forests, and lakes, streams, fish, etc.  The Johnson settlement encompassed what is now the village of Odessa, including the former village of Catharine.  John Mitchell laid the first claim in 1799 and was quickly followed by; Josiah Hinman, from Trumbull, Fairfield Co., Conn., David Beardsley, from the same county in Connecticut, having come West by way of Geneva

   In 1800 the following settlers arrived to stake their claim in the town;  Samuel Winton, from Fairfield Co., Conn, Solomon Booth,  John Coe and Ichabod Meeker, from Fairfield County Conn, and  Simeon Lovell, who was the first blacksmith in town, and noted as an excellent workman.

      In 1804, Isaac Lyon came in from Fairfield Co., As did John Stiles.  John died shortly after arriving, at the house of David Beardsley. In 1806, Lemuel Shelton,  and William H. Prince, from Dutchess Co., N.Y.   James Osterhout came in 1811, from Ulster Co., N.Y. ,Zachary A. Lewis came in 1812. Eli Beardsley settled on lot No. 21, in 1812. Eaton Agard came in from Litchfield Co., Conn., in 1813,. Mr. Agard was justice of the peace from 1837 to 1855; supervisor in 1846-47, and at one time an associate judge of the county. He died Oct. 7, 1863. Barnabas Miller came in 1814 from East Hampton, L. I., He died in February, 1872.

     In 1824, Phineas Catlin, Esq., son of Judge Phineas Catlin for whom the cemetery mentioned above was named.  Rev. J. W. Nevins was ordained a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1829, and in 1837 was stationed in the town. Dr. Van Veckten arrived at Johnson's Settlement in 1830-31, and practiced medicine there for many years. He was one of the earliest physicians in that part of the town.

     Before 1813 the northern part of the present town of Catharine, about  two-thirds of its area, remained in the hands of non-resident owners. A few small openings had been made, generally by girdling the trees, in the neighborhood of Cayuta Lake, mostly by hunters and trappers.  It is reported that the earliest trapper in the area around Cayuta Lake was a man by the name of Paulding.  It is believed he was the first white man living within the present limits of the town.

   In 1800  Isaac Buckalew made a girdling about half a mile southwest from the lake on lot 44; It lay on the line of the Indian trail passing from the head of the Seneca to the head of Cayuga Lake, which ran on the west side of the lake. The Buckalew clearing was for many years a well-known landmark in "the seven-mile woods," lying between the north settlement in Catharine and the Harvey settlement in Hector. Its identity is now effaced by the removal of the surrounding woods.

     About 1803, James Smith made an opening on the east side of the lake, he was killed about 1816 by the accidental discharge of his rifle. His two sons, William and Hooker Smith, long resided near Cayutaville, and left numerous descendants. Smith Valley, in Hector, derives its name from the sons of James Smith, who were half-brothers of Hooker and William Smith. Garrard Smith also settled at an early day on the east side of the lake. He was drowned in the lake in 1815, and was buried on the point, which, in commemoration of him, is still called "Garret's Point". He said that he had visited the lake in 1779 while acting as a scout for Sullivan's army.

     About 1812, Sylvanus A. Beeman commenced a clearing on lot 35, In 1813, ___ Connor occupied a cabin near the lake, and  In July, 1813, Samuel and Joseph Lawrence, sons of Jonathan Lawrence, one of the partners in the Watkins and Flint Purchase, and who had inherited from the father the principal part of the northeast section of township No. 3 in that purchase, constituting about half of the present town of Catharine, having determined to fix their residence on the west side of Cayuta Lake, contracted with the late Samuel Winton, of Johnson's Settlement, to erect houses for them, to be completed within the following year. In the fulfillment of this contract the late David Beardsley and Elijah S. Hinman afterwards became partners.

In 1816 a settlement was begun on Oak Hill, situated directly south of the lake; Titus F. Mix having contracted to buy land from Samuel and Joseph Lawrence for the following men; Samuel F. Mix, David Olmstead, Jr., Coleman Olmstead, Richard Wilcox, David Olmstead, Sr.,

    In 1815 settlements were begun about one mile west from the lake, in the valley of the east branch of Catlin's Mill Creek, extending up that valley to the south line of Hector, and westerly along that line. Early settlers included; Elijah and David Sturdevant ,Jonathan Sturdevant,,; John and Henry Chapman, __ Sackett, __ Mead,; Abijah Wakeman,; and Isaac Ganung,.

   The firsts in the new town of Catharine were as follow:

The first birth in the town was that of Charles, son of John Mitchell, in 1801.

The first marriage was that in which the high contracting parties were Samuel Winton and Alice Hinman.

The first death was that of Abel Peet, in 1800. Lewis Beardsley was killed by the falling of a tree, in 1802.

The first store was kept by Elijah Booth, on the farm subsequently owned and occupied by Barnabas Miller, in 1800.

The first school was taught by Abraham Garry

The first church society organized was the Methodist Episcopal in 1805. This was the first in Schuyler County.

The first sawmill was erected by Isaac Swartwood for Robert C. Johnson, in 1799 at Odessa.

The first gristmill was built by David Beardsley, John Coe and Robert C. Johnson in 1801; also located at Odessa.

The first road was laid out June 1, 1799 from George Mills' to Phineas Catlin's; the record being signed by John W. Watkins and Phineas Catlin, Overseers of Highways.

  (http://genealogytrails.com/ny/schuyler/1879history9.html)

        Many of these names are familiar to anyone living in Schuyler county New York.  Many of the families still reside in the local area.  Streets, buildings and organizations are named for them.  As I mentioned earlier, I started this research project when looking into the history of my house.  In my search I stumbled across many of the above mentioned families.  In my search of the local cemeteries I “met them” in person.  In too many cases their graves are forgotten, the stones unreadable, broken and left to recede into the ground. 

    The genealogies of the founding fathers extend from England in the 1600’s as far away as Mexico, Texas and California and many states in between.   The next several posts will contain pictures of the Catharine cemetery as it looks today and the Coe cemetery along with the lineage of the former owners of this house, the Jones family, the Van Horn family and through them, many of the founding families in the town of Catharine.   Where available I will also try to include some biographical information. This is a very involved project.  I hope you will find the information interesting and useful.

   Because I know that what you are really eager for are names and dates to help you with your personal search I am adding the names of persons originally buried in the Catlin-Odessa Cemetery.  If you find a loved one on the list you will find their marker now in the Laurel Hill cemetery, as mentioned above. Happy hunting.

The Catlin - Odessa cemetery was, according to Mrs. Cleaver, located where the Odessa Town Hall now stands.  It was established some time after Phineas Catlin purchased the land and mapped out the village in 1824.  There was a discussion of removal of the cemetery in 1875, but nothing was done about it until Apr. 1911, when the building of the Town Hall was planned, and the removal was completed.  The stones were placed in the northwest corner of  Laurel Hill Cemetery -- and so these  names are usually included in the readings of Laurel Hill.  Mrs. Cleaver wrote that the markings on the stones were somewhat obliterated, and the names and dates were hard to  obtain, so there may be errors.  Mrs. Clever obtained the information for Louis Catlin of Odessa.  We hope to update this later.

ADAMY        Rhoda (probably dau of Ebenezer & Elizabeth Adamy)

ARCHER       Lyman B.                     d. Oct 1849      aged ?

BEERS        Sarah, wife of Wakeman       d. 1859

BEERS        Wakeman                      b. Mar 20,1788,  d. Apr 23,1861

BUCHANAN     wife of Solomon; dau of Hiram Brown, d. Jul 20,1855, aged 24

BUEL         Ezra                         d. Jun 20,1850,  aged 50

BULKLEY      Aaron                        d. Aug 23,1870,  aged 68

BULKLEY      Ebenezer                     b. Jan 22,1770,  d. Apr 20,1830

BULKLEY      Hannah, wife of Ebenezer     d. 1848          aged 88

BULKLEY      John,   son of Ebenezer      d. Sep 6,1826,   aged 21

BULKLEY      Mary,   wife of Aaron        d. Jul 22,1880,  aged 70

BULKLEY      Moses,  son of Ebenezer      d. Aug 18,1826,  aged 23

DARLING      Dr. Jarvis                   d. Dec 26,1853,  aged 58

DARLING      Lucy,   wife of Samuel       d. Jun 18, 1836, aged 73

DAVIS        Huldah, wife of Nathaniel    d. Jul 23,1826,  aged 58

DAVIS        Ebenezer, son/John & Lucinda,d. 1840,         aged 2

DAVIS        Nathaniel                    d. Aug 26,1826   aged 62

DAVIS        Sarah, dau/John & Lucinda    d. Oct 13,1843,  aged 7

EUMANS       Andrew, son/Morris & Mary    d. 1860,         aged ??

FOSTER       Adelia, dau/John & Laura     d. 1827,         aged 26 days

FOSTER       Laura, wife of John          d. 1831,         aged ??

FOSTER       Samuel                       d. Aug 11,1826,  aged 26

GANOUNG      Jonathan                     d. Jan 24,1861,  aged 55(?)

GRAVES       Mary, wife of Bela           d. Jul 18,1831,  aged 23

                   dau of Robert & Diana Howard

GREEN        Letilla                      d. Sep 12,1840,  aged ??

HOWARD       Arly Jane, dau/Robert & Diana, d. Oct 22,1837,aged 20

JOHNSON      John A.

JOHNSON      Sarah, wife of John          d. Jun 18,1874,  aged 76

KING         Daniel, son/Jehiel & Mary    d. 1863,         aged 10

MILLER       Gurdin                       d. Aug 1818      aged ??

MISNER       Mary B., dau/Henry & Sarah   d. 1853

MORGAN       Edwin M.                     d. 1870

MORGAN       George                       d. Jan 19,1875

MORGAN       George W., son/Chas. & Kate  d. Jan 18,1871,  aged 4mo

MORGAN       John O.                      d. 1851

MORGAN       Sarah J.                     date not readable

NELSON       Minnie M., dau/A.& B.        d. Aug 18,1860,  aged 29

OGDEN        Jane Elizabeth, wife/Samuel  d. Nov 27,1870

PORTER       Polly                        d. Jan 18,1847

SEAMAN       Margaret, wife/Chauncey      d. Mar 20,1837,  aged 27

SEAMAN       Mary, dau of Chauncey        d. Mar 8,1837

SHELDON      Melissa                      d. May 26,1860

SOULE        James

THOMAS       Daniel J., son/Wm. & C.J.    d. Aug 10,1863,  aged 19mo

UPDIKE       Almira M.                    d. Jul 28,1842

UPDIKE       Minnie                       d. Aug 18,1869

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyschuyl/cat_odes.htm

Too often people overlook the importance of history when compiling their genealogy.  I have known many family researchers who roll their eyes at the mention of history and state emphatically, “Oh, I don’t like history, never did.”  But compiling your genealogy is all about history.  What’s that you say?  “That’s different, it’s not about places and dates and things, it’s a collection of my personal family information.”  That’s true but I still believe history matters.

   If your school experience was anything like mine, history class, or Social Studies, was often dry and boring.  The teacher expected us to memorize a bunch of dates and places and events that did not appear to have any bearing on our lives.  What did I care if Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492?  We rarely heard about the men and women behind the dates and events, other than that some people were heroes or “good Guys”, like George Washington, and some people were not, like Benedict Arnold.

     But history is so much more than dry collections of facts.  It is the study of how people, often average citizens like you and I, shape events and how they and their families are shaped by them.  Very often this happens by chance, rather than by heroics. Take, for example, Peter Keenan, Civil War hero.  Peter was a major in the union Army.  He was leading his men one foggy night down a narrow path in Chancellorsville Virginia.  He came upon the confederate Cavalry, led by Stone Wall Jackson and startled them into firing blindly into the fog.  As a result Stonewall Jackson was hit and killed by a bullet fired by his own men.  Peter Keenan was also killed in this battle but he claims the victory for the kill, as it was his actions that set the fire fight in motion. The loss of Stonewall Jackson crippled the Confederate army and left a pall of defeat over them that was very difficult to shake.  This has been seen by many historians as a turning point in the war.   If not for this one event the Confederacy may well have won the war.

     This is not to say that Peter was not a heroic man, but I am pretty sure he did not expect to run head long into or cause the death of Stonewall Jackson when he woke up that morning.  He was one man, doing his job and being in the right/wrong place at the right time to alter an event.  These are the things that make up history, the events and the people that shape them or are shaped by them.

     To explore this a little more closely let’s look at Poland in the 1800-1900’s.  Russia and Poland were long standing enemies, going back to the 16th and 17th centuries.  When the royal rule began to falter in Poland in the early 17 hundred’s, Russia stepped in, stirring the polish citizens to succession.  Further weakened, the royal house gave way and Russia, Austria and Prussia stepped in to take up the slack.  Poland was divided among the three counties in a series of three partitions with a fourth taking place at the Congress of Vienna in 1814 1815, tsarist Russia received a greater part of the Duchy of Warsaw, replaced with the Kingdom of Poland.  Russia dissolved the Kingdom and country of Poland, and persecuted the predominantly Catholic Poles.

  The Polish national liberation uprising of 1794, led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko, was cruelly suppressed, as were the subsequent insurrections of 1830-1831, 1846, 1848 and 1863-1864.  Following the uprising of 1863-1864 many poles fled from the constant religious persecution and economic devastation.  They longed to see their home land returned to them but knew the only way to survive and continue the fight was to emigrate.  And so it was that millions of Polish immigrants, frequently registered as   being from one of the three governing countries, came to live in the United States of America.  Many were illiterate, unable to read of write, but determined to build a new and better life for themselves and for their families.

     Among these came devote Catholics,   Pawel Czolgosz (1/2/1843 Poland) and his wife Mary Nowak (1/13/1844-10/2/1883) and their children; Waldeck (1868), Frank (1870) Joseph (1872), arriving in 1873.  Pawel/Paul settled his family in Alpena Michigan where he and Mary had several more children; Leon (1874), Cecelia (1876), Walter (1876), Jacob (1877), and John (1879).  Paul worked as a laborer.  He did not speak English, could not read or write and never learned to speak English. 

   With Paul and his family came other family members, his brother John Czolgosz and his family also settled in Alpena Michigan and remained close to Paul and his family, as did Brother Andrew Czolgosz who settled in Mettownship Plesque Island Michagan.    Others of the Czolgosz family may also have immigrated to the U.S. as well as siblings of Mary Nowak. ( I have not traced the extended families for this article)

     The Czolgosz lived within the immigrant Polish community, a fairly close knit group of near refugee status struggling to find their way in their adopted homeland.    Mary Nowak Czolgosz died in Alpena Michigan on Oct. 2, 1883, leaving Paul alone to raise 15 year old Waldeck, 13 year old Frank, 11 year old Joseph, 9 year old Leon, 7 year old Cecelia, 6 year old Jacob and 4 year old John.

    Paul moved his family to a farm in Orange, Cuyahoga  Ohio, outside of Cleveland, and married a second time in 1887, to Catherine Metzfaltr. She and Paul had four children, , Charles Czolgosz (1888) and Atone (Tony) (1890), Michael  Czolgosz (1880), Wiktaryia Czolgosz (1885). Neither Michael nor Victoria were living in the household in 1900.

    It is probable that Paul and Mary, and Catherine after her, were bitter about events in Poland.  Immigrants were not treated very well and poverty was a way of life for the Czolgosz family.  The boys helped their father on the farm and learned to work hard and to take pride in their work, except for young Leon.  Leon was reportedly an odd child.  He did not make friends easily and preferred to keep his own company. He did not get along with his step-mother and often refused to take meals with her, preferring to eat alone in his room or in the barn.  Catherine would later be recorded as saying he was not very bright, he was frail and often sickly.  His father did not expect as much from him as from the other boys.

   Waldeck, the eldest, having been born in Poland, had some memory of life before the move.  He kept close ties with his uncle Frank Szolkowski, who Waldeck lived with from 1897-1898 in St. Paul Minnesota, and his brother in law ( Cecelia’s husband) Wladeslaw Bandowski. The three were known to discuss socialism, politics and to have very strong opinions.  Leon often sat in on the discussions, taking in the conversation but saying very little.  A neighbor who was part of the Czolgosz inner circle before they left the farm to move to Cleveland,  reported being very happy when the family moved away as he thought they were too radical in their thinking and they often made him uncomfortable  with their discussions.

    By 1901 Waldeck was alone working the farm and the rest of the family had moved on to Cleveland.  Cecelia Czolgosz (12/26/1875-11/15/1976) married Wladyslaw Bandowski (5/1866-Poland.Russia) in 1894. Wlad had immigrated in 1886.  In 1900 they are living in Cleveland Ohio with no children of their own but Cecelia’s sister, 15 year old Wiktayia (Victoria Czolgosz) is living with them.  

     Events shape people and people shape events and that is what makes history.  The events that shaped this family began in Poland with the occupation and dissolution of Poland and the persecution of the Catholic Poles by tsarist and later socialist Russia.  Poverty and displacement added to the picture.  The Czolgosts were hard working, God fearing Polish immigrants struggling to raise their children.  They did not speak English, they could not read or write, but they worked very hard and they set a good example.

  Leon Czolgosz did not follow his parent’s example.  In fact, he came to embrace the ideologies of the very people who had displaced his family and dissolved his country.  Leon, with time on his hands and largely supported by his family, took an interest in the works of Emma Goldman (born June 27, 1869, Kovno (now Kaunas), Lithuania, Russian Empire—died May 14, 1940, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) infamous Anarchist and author. When she spoke in Cleveland he was there, absorbing her every word.  Following the lecture he approached her and introduced himself.

   Shortly after that meeting Leon told his family he was going west on business and did not know when he would see them next.  He traveled to Chicago and then to West Seneca NY, a suburb of Buffalo, where he took up residence under an assumed name.  Leon was reported to have large sums of cash on him during this time, though he had not worked and did not appear to be employed.  His brother Waldeck sent him money orders, also using his assumed alias. The rest of the family did not appear to know where he was.

    On September 6, 1901 Leon Czolgosz stood in line waiting to meet and greet the president of the United States, William McKinley, in Buffalo NY.  Leon held a hand gun concealed by a handkerchief draped over his hand, giving the appearance of a bandage.  As the president reached to shake his hand Leon shot him twice.

    Leon Czolgost was arrested.  President McKinley had been shot twice but appeared to rally and was expected to make a full recovery.  Unknown to his Doctors Gangrene had settled in his stomach wound.  He died on September 14, 1901.

     Leon had successfully assassinated the president of the United States of America.   Leon refused his lawyer, refused to mount a defense, stating that he had done his duty and was glad he had done it.  He professed to be a socialist and an anarchist, though Anarchistic societies did not claim him as a member.  His family were quick to denounce his actions and distance themselves from him, all but his brother Waldeck and brother in law Wladeslaw.  Paul Czolgosz traveled to Buffalo along with daughter Victoria, Waldeck and Wladeslaw.  Paul was not allowed to see his son.  He answered questions for the police and returned to Ohio.  Waldeck and Wvlad remained in Buffalo and visited Leon every day.  His trial was remarkably swift, taking place on September 23, 1901 and lasting only 2 days, 12 hours.  He was sentenced to death via the electric chair and executed on October 29, 1901.

     A weak, frail young man living a seemingly insignificant life, rising from an average immigrant family, and yet he irrevocably altered history.  Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was quickly sworn in as the President and wasted no time taking charge.

   President McKinley, an often over looked president, was beloved by the people and was heralded as the last of the intellectual visionaries following the principles of the constitution and the founding Fathers.  Under McKinley the US enjoyed a period of prosperity, peace and increased civil rights.  He sought to use free trade and diplomacy to insure world peace and had built a successful trade alliance with Russia during the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.  The US was supplying all of the steal and rail cars for the projects.  McKinley had arranged for a Pan American trade summit to establish trade agreements with South America.  Agreements which would have increased the wealth and security of the US American People and offered the South American countries of Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. the means to build up the economic stability of their own countries, through innovations, new Technologies, scientific expansion and fair trade agreements.

    McKinley believes in the green back economy.  He wanted gold standards and held a deep mistrust of credit.  McKinley was not an imperialist.  He did not trust Great Britain and refused to follow their examples around the world.  Following the Spanish American war he promptly released Cuba to its own governance and would have done the same for the Philippines, had he survived.  

    It has been speculated by historians that, had McKinley lived to serve out his term, there would have been no WWI, because his trade and economic expansion would have bred and sustained peaceful negotiations and strengthened the world economy.  There would have been no stock market crash resulting in entrenched worldwide depression, because he would not have supported extended credit practices which led to the crash in the first place.  Because there was no WWI and no great depression there would have been no WWII. If trade agreements had been made and nurtured there would be no need for the peoples of South America to flee their countries and seek refuge in the US.  This is, of course, all speculation because he did not have a chance to realize his vision.

   Theodore Roosevelt, well known for his slogan “speak softly and carry a big stick” was a Confederate sympathizer and an imperialist.  He admired Great Britain and had relatives living in England in order to avoid standing trial for their participation in the Civil War.  His first act as President was to cancel the Pan American trade summit.  Where McKinley can be seen as an intellectual, embracing science and ingenuity, Teddy Roosevelt is often seen as a bull in a China shop.  His approach was often heavy handed and his presentation clumsy and rushed.  He embraced the idea of a credit based economy and cast aside the Green Back ideology, setting America on its course towards the great crash 1929.

    When working on your own family history keep in mind that there real is no insignificant life and history really is what it’s all about.  We are all shaped by the events around us, some more significantly than others, and we are also all shaping the events that play out.  This is the thread of history; the tapestry of mankind is woven by this intricate interplay.

    Mother’s day is upon us once again.  In honor of Mother’s day I thought we would take a look at how this national holiday got started.  Being raised a Catholic; I had always heard that Mother’s day was celebrated to commemorate Mary Mother of Jesus. May is, after all, her month.  It turns out I could not have been less informed on this topic.

    Mother’s day was created in 1910 after a short campaign to set aside a special holiday to celebrate Mothers, started by Anna Jarvis in 1905.  Anna wanted a way to demonstrate her love and respect to her own mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, a peace activist who had aided wounded soldiers on both sides during the Civil war.

   Anna Jarvis celebrated the first Mother’s day in 1908 when she held a memorial for her mother in Grafton West Virginia. Mother’s day was officially recognized by the state of West Virginia in 1910.   In 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed into law that the 2nd Sunday in May would be a national holiday- Mother’s day. 

    Anna had a vision about this holiday that she hoped would be shared by all.  She wanted the day named Mother’s day- to personalize it for each and every mother, not just a blanket for all mothers.  She wanted a day when people would reflect and honor their mothers in a personal way. 

    Anna was disappointed when Hall Mark jumped on the band wagon and commercialized the holiday with pre-printed cards. Florists, Candy makers, etc. soon took up the banner and the Mother’s day of today was born.  Anna was so disappointed by the commercialism, in fact, that she started a brief and failed campaign to scrap the holiday all together.

     In honor of Anna, take some time to visit your mom this year, make her a card, cook her dinner, and do something very intimate and personal.  Interestingly, Anna never married and had no children. She was never the recipient of the holiday she started.

  Happy Mother’s day to you; I hope it is filled with memories, love, and laughter.

THE JARVIS FAMILY OF WEST VIRGINIA

            Anna Jarvis was born 5/1/1864 in Webster West Virginia.  She died on 11/24/1948 in West Chester Pa.  Anna never married. No children.  She was the founder of mother’s day. 

   Anna was the daughter of Granville E. Jarvis (1824-1902) and Ann M. Reeves (1834-5/9/1905).The Jarvis married in 1850 and Ann indicates she was the mother of 13 children, 7 of them died before Anna was born in 1864. 

      In 1850 Granville Jarvis was married to Sarah M. ?.  and living on a farm close to his parents.  Granville and Sarah had two small children; Louisa A. Jarvis (1848), and John V. Jarvis (1950).  Sarah passed away shortly after baby John was born and Granville married Ann M. Reeves before the end of the year. Both children had died by 1860.

   Ann M. Reeves was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Reeves of Prince William Va.  Thomas was a shoe maker.  In addition to Ann the Reeves had at least two sons; S.A. Reeves (1834), working as a laborer in 1850, and Thomas C. Reeves (1841).

 Granville and Ann Jarvis had the following known children; Josiah W.P. Jarvis (1853), (Columbia E. (1855), Claude (1859), Jarvis Jr. (1860), Anna M. (1864), Thomas R. (1866), Lilly (1868)Ellen Jarvis (?), Ralph Jarvis

   Granville was the son of a Baptist Minister, born near Pruntytown Taylor Co. Va.  He was a well-known and successful merchant and was appointed Post Master in Webster, Taylor Va. On 6/12/1858.

   On behalf of mothers around the US I say, Thank you Anna M. Jarvis, for your thoughtfulness.