Peter Howard of Brunswick, New York (1797-1865) The Father of a Gentleman

  Johann Gottfried Hauer (John Godfrey Howard) Family Line

 Peter Howard of Brunswick, New York (1797-1865) The Father of a "Gentleman"
___________________

 by Carolyn Ann Howard
This post was updated 05 May 2022
Click on photos to enlarge

The purchase of Peter Howard's bible was nearly fruitless
I'm glad I have it, though.

My Howard family came to America through John "Godfrey" Howard, a Hessian soldier, who was hired by the British to fight against the Americans in the Revolutionary War. After the war, Godfrey Howard took up George Washington's offer to stay in America simply by taking an oath of allegiance to the United States. Howard settled down in Grafton, New York, got married and had children. One of those children was Peter Howard.

Peter Howard was born in Grafton, New York on 17 May 1797. He was baptized as an infant at The Gilead Lutheran Church in Brunswick, New York. I have these records in a box that's in the closet. I'm sure the record has the exact date, but all I recorded on my Ancestry tree was 1797 for the baptism. And that box is not easy to get down, either, so we'll leave it at that for now. Peter's baptismal sponsors were Peter Hoener, Jr and wife Elisabeta. The church building where he was baptized is no longer there, but the Gilead Church itself is still going strong, having relocated 2-1/2 miles south in 1817.

Peter married Sarah Brust 01 Feb 1823. I only know this because I have his Bible, and it is written inside it. I don't have a marriage certificate or any other document on Ancestry for this marriage. (Correction: Family Search has a text file for this event. The marriage occurred at the Gilead Lutheran Church.) Sarah was the daughter of Matthew Brust and Anna Maria "Mary" Wager. She was born somewhere in or around 1801 in New York. Peter and Sarah had only 3 sons that I can tell: Isaac (1824-1887),  Lyman (1826-1843), and Jacob (1835-1877).

Peter's father, John Godfrey, along with several of his brothers and sisters, migrated to Middlebury, New York, in or around 1831 at the age of 77. After the trip, he soon died, which so often happened to the older folks. Peter and John, Jr. were the only sons still living who stayed behind in Grafton.

I know very little about Peter Howard and family. I was hoping the purchase of his Bible on eBay would tell his tale. It didn't. We do have the census records, however. In the 1850 census, Peter was with his wife, Sarah, and 2 surviving sons in Brunswick, New York. Peter was listed as a farmer. His eldest son, aged 26, a school teacher. His younger son, aged 13, a laborer. Their middle son had since died. This Howard family were surrounded by Brusts!

In the 1855 New York State Census, the family were in the same place, and Peter and his two surviving sons were all listed as farmers. In the 1860 Federal census, they were in the same place; they were all together in the same household, and they were all listed as farmers. Peter's land, according to the census, was worth $2,000. His personal estate: $300. 

The subject of our essay, Peter, died in 1865 of stomach cancer; my cousin told me the cause of death. Isaac was his - as they say now - personal representative. I can find no records of how the will was distributed, only that Isaac was the one in control of the estate.

Am I wrong to wonder why these two sons never got married? Don't you think it's a little odd in the late 1800s to have two sons who didn't marry? And how did that middle son die?

Five years after Peter's death, in the 1870 census, Sarah and her two sons were still together on the same farm, that was now worth $3,000. The eldest son, Isaac, 46, was listed once more as a school teacher. The youngest son, Jacob, 35, was listed as a farm laborer. Why was Isaac a school teacher and not a farmer? After all, he now was the head of household on a farm that in 1870 was worth $3,000. Isaac had been a schoolteacher before, however, and maybe after his father died, he felt he could get back to it.

There also are no longer any Brusts on the same page as they are, nor the page before, nor the page after. There is the George Wager family, who likely was a relation to Peter's mother-in-law.

In the 1875 state census, it was just Isaac and Jacob living together. Their mother, Sarah Brust, had died that same year. Isaac was listed as a school teacher and Jacob as a farm laborer. Two years later, Jacob was dead. It is said that he drowned while intoxicated. I don't believe it. And why not? Because by the 1880 census, Issac had sold all the land and had moved to Lansingburgh, New York, a part of modern-day Troy. He was a boarder of George Clickner. I did George Clickner's tree to see if there was any familial relationship between his family and the Howards. There wasn't.

Issac's occupation on that census? Gentleman. Translation: Someone who has made so much money off an inheritance, that they no longer need an income. Well, good for Isaac, I guess. But why not just put "retired" or "retired school teacher?" That he told the census enumerator that he was a "gentlemen" feels arrogant to me. I do not have the answer. But hopefully one day, I will! And when I find it, you, dear reader, will be the first to know!

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC

Bertha "Esther" Carroll (1903-1930) "Factory Girl"

 Benjamin W. Carroll Family Line

Bertha "Esther" Carroll (1903-1930)
____________________

by Carolyn Ann Howard

I was nearly 22 when my grandmother, Grace Mae Carroll Howard, died in 1983. I was engaged to my first husband, in college, and so out-of-touch from my larger Howard family. My then fiancé and I went to the visitation in Shoals, Indiana, but we came back to Evansville soon after. It was a Sunday, and he stayed the night with me. We slept on the sleeper sofa that Mom had in her living room, as my room was only big enough for a twin bed. The next morning, I went to school and my fiancé went to work.

My mother was particularly distraught when they arrived back home that Monday night. She sat in her car just bawling. I'm not sure how I joined her in the car, but I did, and I couldn't console her. I didn't understand exactly what was wrong. I remember it had something to do with the family divvying up my grandmother's possessions after her funeral. In hindsight, the children went awfully fast settling my grandmother's estate. And, oh, I get it, after having lost both my parents as well. But Grace only died on a Friday and all of her possessions were distributed among the children before Monday night was over. I got the sense that it was a little messy.

After I started working on my Howard family tree in or around 2011, I asked my father if I could have something that belonged to his mother and *hopefully* maybe even something that belonged to my great-grandmother. His answer? He didn't have anything. Neither my mom nor my dad, as far as I can tell, took anything for themselves that evening.

Not only was my mother not close to her mother-in-law, but I also wasn't close to my grandmother, but I understand my grandmother all too well. Grandmother Howard, as she wanted to be called, was a Methodist "in name only." Her roots were Pilgrim Holiness, and she was quite devout and eager to follow the rules. No pants. No cards. No dice. No gambling. No make-up. No jewelry. No hair cuts. No shorts. No fun. The environment inside her home was, to me as a child, stifling.

When I started doing my Howard family's genealogy, I was shocked to find pictures of my grandmother's beautiful sister, Bertha Carroll, who went by her middle name, Esther. Why? Because she had styled hair with ornaments in it, and her neckline wasn't tight fitting. I was intrigued by this beautiful picture. Click on photos to enlarge

Esther Carroll
Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection

The Carroll sisters at their home in Newton Stewart
Grace is on the left, Esther is on the right
Notice that Grace's arms are completely covered
Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection

Esther Carroll was born in 1903 in Newton Stewart, Indiana, which is now underwater as Patoka Lake. The U.S. Corp of Engineers purchased 3,150 acres of land from the occupants of Newton Stewart. From what I understand, it wasn't pretty. As far as my grandmother, Grace, who inherited the Newton Stewart home from her mother in 1934, I imagine she had sold the house long before the U.S. Corp of Engineers started poking their noses in sometime in the 1970s.

Esther Carroll with her two nephews, my late Uncles Paul and Albert
She's in a dress, yes, but it is ornamented and has short sleeves
Is that a pearl necklace? (I'm pretty sure it is!)
Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection

Another clue that Esther Carroll wanted nothing to do with Pilgrim Holiness is that, instead of getting married, she took a job as a machine operator at Remy Electric Company in Anderson, Indiana. How brave of her to leave her family to work in a factory nearly 200 miles away from her home! The Remy Company made many things, such as electric motors. In 1919, it was taken over by General Motors.

In her obituary, it states she transferred her United Methodist membership to the Methodist Church in Anderson, Indiana, in 1928.

Esther Carroll
I've always considered her a woman of fashion
Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection

My family has always been so very secretive about e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Nobody ever talked about Esther. The subject was taboo. Therefore, feeling she was rebellious by going against the status-quo, I always wondered if she died in childbirth. Esther died in 1930 at the age of 26 at the home of her mother in French Lick, Indiana.

Her obituary feels contrived: 

In May 1929 in a meeting held at the Second Pilgrim Holiness church by her [half] brother, Rev. J. H. Carroll, she received the experience of Sanctification. She lived a consecrated Christian life to her departure, singing, testifying and praising God on her death bed. Just a few hours before her departure she told her doctor she was saved and sanctified."

To my grandmother and, honestly, to my dad as well, someone telling a doctor about being saved and sanctified was just as good as talking to Jesus himself.

I always wondered what happened to her at Remy that caused her to come back home and succumb to the experience of "Sanctification." What was this change of heart, especially since her mother and stepfather never struck me as being faithful churchgoers? This is why I came to the conclusion that perhaps she had become pregnant, and that my grandmother needed to cover that up.

Even this final line from her obit is forced: 

Death came quietly and peacefully, just stepping from this life of toil and labor to the beautiful reward, promised to them that love God.

Did my grandmother write this? I don't know for sure, but it sure sounds like her.

Finally, sometime last year, Ancestry posted Esther's death certificate. Her cause of death? Typhoid Fever. Yikes. This is what happened that caused her to come home from Anderson. She had become ill. Nor did she die quietly and peacefully. The symptoms of typhoid are grueling. Esther most likely had extremely high fever, rash, pounding headaches, and severe abdominal pain. Poor dear. I doubt she was doing any singing.

I'm not sure where my father got his believe that sickness = sin, but he did have this belief, even though he fought against it. He knew it was false doctrine, but it had been ingrained into his psyche from an early age. But, this belief might be the reason for all the secrecy surrounding his Aunt Esther. Even so, my Grandmother Grace named her daughter in honor of her sister.

Esther's occupation on her death certificate was "Factory Girl."

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC

Things My Great Granduncle Said - John Louis Pfingston (1902 - 1900)

 John Heinrich Pfingston Family Line

John Louis Pfingston (1902-1990) Things my Great Granduncle Said

____________________

 Transcribed by Carolyn Ann Howard
Click on photos to enlarge

My friend and I just got back from the Henderson County Library after having listened to an in-depth interview with my grand grand uncle, John Louis Pfingston. John Pfingston lived in Henderson County, Kentucky, close to the ghost town of Scuffletown, which was located on the Ohio River directly across from the Newburgh, Indiana Lock and Dam.

Where Scuffletown Was
Google Maps
Proper Attribution Given

 Scuffletown quickly became a ghost town in 1937 after record flooding. Here is what John Pfingston had to say about that.

In 1913 we had water that got 48 [feet] and some 10ths, the biggest water we ever had, and we never thought we'd have something like that anymore. [The year] 1937 started and people knew [the water from the Ohio River] wouldn’t get higher than it did in 1913. They blocked [their] furniture up above the 1913 water [mark]. [The river] kept rising and kept raining.  And raining upstream. It rained 1 to 4 inches up there practically everyday. When it crested, it crested 54 [feet] something. That was 6 feet higher than 1913. Didn’t nobody ever dream of getting water that big...

...We started out with these boats. First we got the people out of the river bottoms. We took them to Newburgh, Spottsville or wherever they wanted to go. They wanted us to get their furniture, but we didn’t have time to fool with their furniture. We were going to get people and then we were going to get livestock. We got all the people out and got them on high ground, and then we started to get livestock. We got everything about out of Scuffletown bottoms and took them to Newburgh or Spottsville. I had one boat I didn’t see for 2-3 weeks and when I did, it was tore all to pieces. Tom, Dick, and Harry ran it. Even the motor was burned out; they didn’t put any oil in it

As far as rescuing the cattle:

Some of them had been in that cold water so long they couldn’t walk. They were numb. They liked to froze to death. A lot we had to drag onto the boat. We had some feed on there, some corn and hay. They would lay there and eat and by the time we’d get to Spottsville, Newburgh, Henderson, a lot of them were able to stand up and able to walk. 

On the future of our country:

I said now you boys and girls grow up and be good men and women, that's what the whole world needs. I said, you’re important. You’re going to be running our country before long. We have older people who are going to have to step down. You might be governor or president of the United States. The world is starving for is good men and good women.

About growing up on the farm:

It was a lot of hard work. Nothing easy about it. All hard work. We had to pump water for all the stock. We finally got a windmill at home, and that solved the problem pretty well. It was 60 feet tall. I didn’t mind the climb back then when I was a kid. Didn’t take hardly any wind to turn it, and when it turned, it would pump water. I'd go up every 2 weeks to oil it. Pretty soon our neighbors got windmills, and they’d give me $1 to oil their windmills.

On the World Wars:

World War One. There was four of us boys. And it just happened that we were in the age group that none of us had to go to World War One or Two. We didn’t do anything to keep from going, we were just out of the age. Of course somebody had to go. I get to thinking about these wars. We whooped Germany twice. Whooped Japan. Japan now is taking over.

On Russia:

And I’m scared to death of Russia. I was over there in Russia 12 days; I’m scared of it. You can’t depend on them. Afraid something is going to happen to blow us off the map. And they’ll do it. They don’t believe in God. They don’t value life.  I will say one thing, they keep everything clean. There’s something good about them.

On the Great Depression of 1929:

Nobody had anything. There was no money. I don’t know where the money was at. You could canvas the whole county or go house to house, I doubt you would find $300. There just wasn’t any money.

On the Use of Chemicals in Farming

Farming has changed. Used to chop weeds over there with a hoe and now they use a chemical... But this chemical that farmers are using, I’m afraid sooner of later its going to backfire. They are absolutely getting this soil full of it, and when it rains, part of it goes into the river. I’m afraid they’re going to have troubles.

Advice to Youth

I done said it. I want to tell them to stay away from this dope. This marijuana and alcohol. Absolutely no good. It’ll ruin your life. There’s people in penitentiary right now, dope addicts, wish they never saw the stuff.

The Greatest Thing to Ever Happen 

The greatest thing that happened to the rural area is getting electricity. That got rid of a lot of the hard work. Before that, they didn’t have nothing. No refrigerator, radio, TV, [or] bathroom, and that’s why people are living longer today. Things are a lot cleaner than they used to be.

© 2022 by December Moonlight Publishing, LLC