#2-2020. Favorite Photo. 52 Ancestors in a Year

#2-2020. Favorite Photo.  52 Ancestors in a Year

As the recipient & keeper of many, if not hundreds of family photos, it was very hard to choose just one favorite photo.  So I chose 2 related photos.

Yes, I really do have lots of family photos and luckily most are identified.  Thanks to my grandfather, John F. Shaffner and my cousin, Donnee Shaffner Stibal, most are identified in the Shaffner family line. 

My mother, Helen Lloyd's family also had many family pictures and most are labeled.  In both sets of inherited collections there those unlabeled ones that I am always looking for clues on.

This is picture is favorite because it is the only picture I have of my great great grandmother, Margaret Maria Fetter Shaffner.  The plus to the picture is her holding Walter Ruskin Shaffner, the youngest brother of my grandfather.   

Margaret was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1820 and died 10 November 1903 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at 83 years of age.  

Walter Ruskin Shaffner was born 7 September 1899 and his mother died 17 November, 1899.

I believe the picture would have been taken about 1900-1902.  

Margaret Maria Fetter Shaffner, daughter of Jacob George Fetter III & Margaret Maria Ernest (or Ermet) married Gabriel Shaffner in 1845 in Pennsylvania.  Their son, John Martin Shaffner, born 15 July 1855 married Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher in 16 September 1880 in Whitesville, New York.

I suspect that Margaret helped out raising Walter Ruskin until his father remarried.  

John M. Shaffner married Emma Reamer, but she did not like his children.  The younger children all went to live with older siblings. 

Walter Ruskin Shaffner went to live with his sister, Cecelia and her husband, Richard Daggett in Tioga County, Pennsylvania.  He died December 1916 at the age of 16.  Probably from appendicitis, but the death certificate said acute indigestion.   

His older brother, John F. Shaffner, intended to bring him to Montana. He always regretted that and named his 2nd son, Walter.

This is the Shaffner Family Bible that my grandfather, John F. Shaffner,  took from his Pennsylvania home after his mother died.  Emma was not happy about that according to Grandpa.  But what a treasure it is.  

Included in the Bible was Margaret's family history which I believe are in her handwriting due to the old style of cursive script.

Don Shaffner, my father, holding the Shaffner Family Bible

#31 Brother---Walter Ruskin Shaffner--52 Ancestors in a Year

#31 Brother.  Walter R. Shaffner.  52 Ancestors in a Year

Walter Ruskin Shaffner was my grandfather, John Fanoit Shaffner’s brother.  Walter was born 7 September 1899 to John Martin Shaffner and Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

His middle name is not a family name that I am aware of yet.

Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher Shaffner died on 17 November 1899 in Harrisburg.  Her cause of death on her death certificate is listed as kidney trouble and that she had been ill 2 weeks.  

Walter was 2 months, 12 days old when his mother died.  John M. Shaffner was left with 6 children to raise, the oldest was 18 years old.  

John Martin Shaffner's mother, Margaret Maria Fetter Shaffner holding Walter

Walter was about a year old

With 6 children to raise, and a newborn baby, the care was provided by the older sisters (Ettie and Lida) who were 14 and 16 years old.  John remarried Emma Reamer on 10 July 1901, about 19 months later.  

Grandpa maintained that the step-mother, Emma, did not like the stepchildren.  Baby Walter went to live with his mother’s sister, Celia Metalla Fletcher Daggett and her husband Richard in Lawrenceville, Tioga County, Pennsylvania.  

Walter Ruskin Shaffner

Walter died in Elmira, New York on 15 December 1916 from acute indigestion.  

It had been Grandpa Shaffner’s goal to bring Walter to Montana but unfortunately Walter died before Grandpa was settled on the homestead in Beaverhead County, Montana.  

We have few pictures of Walter.  Grandpa wrote in his life story that he did not know where Walter was buried.  Since Grandpa Shaffner was living in Montana, I suspect that he never received information of where Walter was buried.  I am surprised that in Grandpa’s family history collection there was never a mention of where he was buried or a photo of his headstone. I wonder if Grandpa ever looked for the grave.

As I began to consider the blog topic of brother, I began to look for where Walter was buried.  Although I could find nothing on FindAGrave or other internet sources, I contacted the Historical Society of Dauphin County (Pennsylvania).  With in a few days by email, I received the cemetery plot information of where he was buried in the Harrisburg Cemetery.   A search on another subscription website provided a funeral notice with his burial stated in the Harrisburg Cemetery

Walter Ruskin Shaffner

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Cemetery

But how did I receive a picture of the headstone??

Story at end!

Now for the amazing part of the story.  I have a genealogy friend in Colstrip, Montana who I knew was from Harrisburg.  I texted her one evening and asked if she knew anyone that could go and check out the cemetery and see if there was indeed a headstone.  Within 2 hours I received information from her that her aunt would go tomorrow afternoon.  By the next morning, I received the picture of Walter's headstone!  

My next question, is why was Walter buried in the Harrisburg Cemetery when his mother is buried at the East Harrisburg Cemetery.  I hope to answer the question in next week's blog!

The Women in my father's Family

Mother's Day got me to thinking of all of my female ancestors.    I decided to find the pictures, thus the delay in posting!  Quite a collection of women!  I can't imagine their lives, what they lived through, and how hard they worked.

Margaret Maria Fetter was born 19 May 1820 in Pennsylvania.  She married Gabriel Shaffner (father of John Martin Shaffner)  24 December 1845 in Manheim, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Margaret died 11 November 1903 in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  She is also buried in the East Harrisburg Cemetery.  The date on the picture written by Donnee Shaffner Stibal is about 1901.  She is holding Walter Ruskin Shaffner.  Estimating Margaret's age would make her 81 year old.  Margaret's ancestor were from France; her Great Grandfather was George Fredric Fanoit who came from Montebeliard,  France in 1842.

Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher, who was born 4 July 1858 in Covington, Tioga County, Pennsylvania.  She married John Martin Shaffner on 16 September 1880 in Whitesville, Allegheny County, New York.  There is no date on the picture.  Elizabeth died 17 November 1899 in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  I discovered that she was buried with her father-in-law at the East Harrisburg Cemetery.  There was no headstone.  Her last child, Walter Ruskin Shaffner, was born 7 September 1899.  I wonder if she was pregnant in this picture.

The Peter Paul Deewall Family.

Peter Paul came to the U.S. in 1842.  He married Catherine Troutman in Pennsylvania in 1847.

Mary Etta was the oldest girl born in 1831.  George Albert was the youngest son born in 1865

Catherine died in 1877, so this picture was taken in the 1870's.  

Mary Etta Deewall Kurtz, who was born 17 December 1849 in Pennsylvania.  Her father was Peter Paul Deewall (Duval)  who came to the U.S. in 1842 from Ludweiler, Germany.  Mary Etta married Emanuel Kurtz 23 February 1871 in Pennsylvania.  

My grandmother, Della Kurtz Shaffner.  This picture was taken in 1905 taken at her high school graduation.  She was salutatorian, although her name is at the top of the graduate list so perhaps she was valedictorian.   And I have the speech that she gave, which is labeled her salutatory speech.    She graduated from Muncy High School, in Muncy, Pennsylvania.

Della Kurtz Shaffner, my grandmother.  She married by grandfather, John Fanoit Shaffner on 12 September 1913 after their trip through Yellowstone Park.  Donnee Shaffner Stibal wrote on the picture:  Jerry and Grandma.  She rode the horse from Custer, Montana to Dillon, Montana.  After John & Della married they returned to Simms, ND where he worked as telegrapher on the railroad.  He also worked at Custer, Montana as a telegrapher.  They homesteaded near Dillon, Beaverhead County, Montana.  The story I heard was that Grandpa rode the horse to Dillon!  Since Donnee got the information from Grandpa; I will believe her story!