#7-2021. Unusual Source. cemetery card

 

#7-2021 Unusual Source.  The Cemetery card

The first unusual source in my search for ancestors was a cemetery card from the East Harrisburg Cemetery, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

This was my “first” genealogy research trip!  I attended a genealogy conference in Harrisburg, the home of many of my ancestors.  I was a bit apprenshive about this trip as I had never been to Pennsylvania and tackling research in a “foreign” area.  I was very lucky to have friends in Reading, Jay & Gracie Wolfe, who met me at the plane and toured me around Harrisburg. I had a list of addresses where the Shaffner family had lived and Jay graciously drove me!

One of the sites I wanted to see was where my great great grandparents, Gabriel Shaffner & his wife Margaret were buried in the East Harrisburg Cemetery.  My cousin Donnee Shaffner Stibal has listed where he was buried but never a picture of his headstone.  Jay stopped at the cemetery office so I could get directions,  Luckily the office was open, whether I knew that at the time or not, I don’t remember.   The clerk was very helpful and copied every cemetery card with the name Shaffner!  And Shaffner is a very common surname in Pennsylvania.   She handed me a map of the cemetery & gave me to directions to Shaffner plots.

Gabriel and his wife Margaret's headstone.

It was leaning that day in 2005, probably fallen over by now.

A cemetery card was a new genealogy resource for me.  As I was going through them, one name caught my attention.  The name of my grandfather’s mother, Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher!  Why was that exciting to me?  Because I never knew where she was buried!  Grandpa Shaffner never had mentioned that and Donnee had never recorded that information.   I find it unusual that Grandpa Shaffner had never written about where his mother was buried.  Grandpa Shaffner, John F. Shaffner, had written so much about his family, but never a word about his mother’s burial.  

Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher Shaffner

(1858-1899)

There was the information on the cemetery card!  Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher Shaffner was buried in her father in law’s plot.  No headstone!

Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher died in 17 November 1899.  My grandfather was 12 years old when his mother died. There were 3 other siblings, one a new born baby.  And then his father, John Martin Shaffner, remarried in 1900.  And he is buried with his second wife.  But why not a headstone?  Perhaps money was an issue.

Not only did I learn where Elizabeth was buried, but also John Martin Shaffner. 

I wonder why my grandfather never wrote about the funerals or burials.  And then I realized that his mother was buried on 18 November 1899 and his son, Don,  my father was born on 18 November 1919.  

#4 Favorite Photo. Grandma on the horse, Jerry

 #4-2021. Favorite Photo

With the genealogy collections that I have inherited, there are MANY pictures.  Choosing a “Favorite Photo” is a challenge.  And difficult because there are too many excellent, interesting pictures that brought up memories and stories.  

This picture of my grandmother, Della Rae Kurtz Shaffner, bring up questions, research and memories.  And I have always looked at wishing for more...

Della Rae Kurtz Shaffner, and Jerry

Donnee Shaffner Stibal wrote on the album page, "Jerry and Grandma.  She rode him from Custer, Mont to Dillon”.  Donnee was the granddaughter of Della & John, and worked with Grandpa to label pictures as well as write some of the family history.  I am sure there is more to the story that Grandpa told her.  I wish I had that information!

Della & John married in 1913 in Dillon, Montana; returning to Sims, North Dakota were he was the telegrapher.  The first son was born in 1914 in North Dakota.  The second son, Walter, was born in Dillon, Montana in 1917.  

What I do know, is that Jerry is the horse purchased by Grandpa, John F. Shaffner in North Dakota.  I have the original bill of sale. He final payment of $10.00  was made on 18 January 1915.  Jerry was a Hamiltonian gelding that gave the family many memories.

He applied for a homestead in Beaverhead County, Montana on 21 October 1915 and filing for additional acreage on 9 Feb 1916, meanwhile still living in North Dakota.  Della spent the summer while proving it up.  The first summer, Della & George lived in a tent.  I am not sure when the first cabin was built.     

I do know that Grandpa served as a telegrapher in Custer, Montana.  He left the employ of Great Northern Railway in June of 1917.  He went to work for the Oregon Short Line Railroad in November of 1917.  

What year did Della ride the horse from Custer to Dillon?  Maybe 1917.  The mileage would have been about 320 miles.  How many days?   Where was George?  Where did she stay at night?

And where was the picture taken?

#3-2021. Namesake. Middle Names in the Shaffner Family

 #3-2021.  Namesake  Middle Names

Donald Kurtz, Walter Fanoit, George Blanchard and Dean Fletcher Shaffner

estimated in the 1930's

My grandfather and grandmother, John Shaffner and Della Rae Kurtz had 4 sons.   The middle names of their sons was a family surname, except for one.

The oldest George, born in 1914, was given the surname Blanchard.  No one knows where that name came from.  I am not even sure George knew and certainly his children didn’t.  Nor did anyone ask before he died.

The second son, Walter, born in 1917, was given the middle name of Fanoit (Fainot).  This was also John’s middle name but it was the surname of his great great grandfather, George Fredric Fanoit who immigrated from France in 1752.  (Information from Family Bible)

The third son, Donald, born in 1919, was given the middle, Kurtz.  Kurtz was the his mother, Della Rae’s maiden name.

The fourth son, Dean, born in 1924, was given the middle name of Fletcher.  Fletcher was the maiden name of his mother, Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher.  

But where did Blanchard come from?  Since I have began researching the family genealogy and history, I have always been on the lookout for the name Blanchard.  Was it a neighbor?  (None in neighborhood in census reports).  Was it a co-worker?  A family friend?

I did find the name Blanchard as the captain of the ship that brought Della Rae’s grandfather to the United States in 1842.  Peter Paul Deewall immigrated from Ludweiler, Germany leaving behind his mother, step-father and step-sisters.  The family story indicates he left in the middle of the night, posing as the driver of the wagon carrying his friends. (Which I have discovered were related to him).  I have yet to find paperwork indicating that he left Germany legally.  Do you suppose he left illegally and the ship captain covered for him?  Peter Paul died in 1890, Della Rae was born in 1886, her mother, Mary Etta Deewall was born in 1849 and died in 1940.  I can’t help but wonder if there is a family story involving the ship captain.  I will continue to research my theory.

#29-2020 Newsworthy. John Shaffner-telegrapher

John F. Shaffner

1926

Telegrapher at Union Pacific Depot in Dillon, Montana

John F. Shaffner (my grandfather) secured a position as a student telegrapher in September of 1907 with the Pennsylvania Railroad when he was 20 years old.  By December of 1907 he was classified as a "telegrapher".  Grandpa wrote that in the years following the turn of the 18th century, the country was in a real panic, jobs were scarce and wages were low.  Work day was usually 10-12 hours usually from 7 to 6.  He had worked as a printer previously earning $2 a day.  When he became an apprentice, his wage was increased to $3.00 a day.  John's first position as a telegrapher was at a tower a few miles out of Muncy, Pennsylvania and that is where he began to court Della Kurtz who would later become his wife.  He worked for the railroad for 5 years (until February of 1912) and then a short time (5 months) for Congressman Lafferty from Oregon.  He was anxious to go west so wrote to the Northern Pacific asking for a job and was offered a position on any division between St. Paul and the west coast.  He chose the Yellowstone division and was even a pass to Glendive, Montana.  When he got there he was put on a train for Sims, North Dakota where he remained for 2-3 years.  He began with the Yellowstone Division in September of 1912 and worked until June 1917.  When he moved to   Dillon he began with the Oregon Short Line and then the Union Pacific Railroad.  He worked as a telegrapher until 1944, for 33 years.

A telegrapher often got the news before the newspapers did.  Grandpa stated they were not connected with any newspaper, they didn't make public announcements, unless it was an emergency.  He remembers getting the news of inaugurations, when Pearl Harbor was bombed, when Woodrow Wilson was elected President.  When they got the news of Pearl Harbor attack, it was announced to people that were around the depot.  Since there was no television, the baseball scores were sent by telegraphy.  He would get the scores and give them to the theater which would announce them to the audience.  He stated there were telephones but the news and such all came in by telegraphy.  

John F. Shaffner

1989

Donnee Stibal (John's granddaughter) wrote in his scrapbook beside the picture that Grandpa was cleaning house and wanted to give it to the museum for the old depot where he originally typed with it.  She took him down to turn over to them.  John Burrows understood the Morse code when Grandpa typed out a message to him.  She thought the typewriter was made of iron as it was heavy.   Grandpa typed letters on it until not too many years ago.

Donating his Typewriter

The newspaper article in the Dillon Tribune

21 November 1989

Page 10, image 10

#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!

#13 In the Paper 52 Ancestors in a year

This week's challenge, #13, "In the paper".  I struggled with this challenge as I thought of a couple of ancestor discoveries "In the Paper".  Then my niece, Morgan gave me an idea!  

My grandfather, John F. Shaffner, was in the paper more than once!  He was nearly 104 when he passed, so he had lots of interviews.  He also wrote his life story and history more than once.  (And the story is the same each time!)

John was born 18 September 1887 in Harrisburg, Dauphin, Pennsylvania and passed away 17 July 1991 in Dillon, Montana.  He came west with the railroad, serving in North Dakota and Montana.  Grandpa married Della Rae Kurtz in Dillon on 12 September 1913.   He homesteaded in Beaverhead County, Montana where he raised 4 boys.  He gathered and worked on his genealogy most of his lifetime.  Working with his granddaughter, Donnee Shaffner Stibal, he documented family and labeled pictures.  It is truly quite a collection.  Now that they are gone, I so wish I had asked him a few questions!

Grandpa was quite a character!  We all have stories about him; as he taught us all in various ways from learning what hard work was, how to be scared when he drove, perhaps not trusting his mechanical skills but to look forward to each day.  His comment "yesterday is history", was a guideline for me in many situations.  And most importantly how important family was.  I hope more there are more blog challenges to provide more Grandpa Shaffner stories.

He was interviewed for his 100th and his 103rd birthday!  

100th birthday interview

When he is 102 (1989) he returned his typewriter to the desk at the depot

 And he celebrated his 103rd Birthday!

On his 100th Birthday his family gathered to celebrate

His sons, Dean and Don 

second row:  daughter in laws-Eloise, Stella (husband George) and Helen

He lost 2 sons, Walter & George

and 2 wives

With his grandchildren

Bob, Geoffrey, John

Sydney, Gail, Grandpa, Donnee

With his great children

Lori, Grandpa, Lynda

Megan, Greg, Annie

 Josh, Luke, Courtney

Della Kurtz-School Memories

As the school year begins, thoughts of what school like for our ancestors passed through my thoughts.  I remembered this collection of my Grandmother's school years.  The memories are in a scrapbook album, made by my cousin, Donnee Shaffner Stibal.  Her notes indicate that the original copies of the diplomas are in her files.  The diplomas were large and she states that the copy was reduced in size.  A picture of a rolled up diploma with a ribbon comes to mind, but I have no idea if that is how Della Kurtz received her diploma!


Della Kurtz was my grandmother who was born in Muncy, Lycoming, Pennsylvania on 29 October 1886.  She was the daughter of Emanuel D. Kurtz and Mary Etta Deewall.
Della married John F. Shaffner in 1913.

These are her report cards

Top Left:  Second Intermediate  1896-1897

Middle top:  Freshman

Top Right:  Sophomore 1902-1903

Bottom Left:  Junior  1903-1904

Bottom Right:  Senior  1904-1905

Her diploma from Department of Public Schools

1902

Della Kurtz 1905

Graduation

Donee wrote that Aunt Edith (Della's sister) gave the picture to Donnee when she graduated from High School

Della Kurtz's Salutatory speech in 1905

 Della's High School Graduation

 Della's Diploma in 1905