Tag Archives: Young family

Uncle Harold and the Invisible Wheelchair (52 Ancestors #17)

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Harold Young was many things. Son. Brother. Husband. Father. Railroad worker. Wheelchair user.

He was my grandmother’s brother. As muscular dystrophy took a toll on his body, Uncle Harold eventually became confined to a wheelchair. Sometime after Grandpa died, Uncle Harold moved in with Grandma. In many ways, I think that caring for her younger brother gave her a sense of purpose.

I don’t remember Uncle Harold not in a wheelchair. For some reason, however, I wasn’t scared of it. Maybe it’s because it’s the only way I knew him, so it didn’t seem unusual. Maybe I was fascinated with the apparatuses that he used, including a hydraulic lift that Grandma used to move him from his wheelchair and into bed. But there’s something else that probably explains why I wasn’t scared of Uncle Harold or his wheelchair:

diceYahtzee.

Uncle Harold loved to play games of all sorts. He played a mean game of Yahtzee. Think your set of 5s is going to rule the day? Hardly. He could roll 6s like you wouldn’t believe. Going to Grandma’s and playing with Uncle Harold was always a treat.

Uncle Harold died 11 August 1979 and is buried at St. Joseph Cemetery in Columbus, along with his wife Anne and his son Tommy, who was killed by a drunk driver in 1960.

Harold Young (seated) with his sister Adah (Young) Johnson and his son David. 1972.

Harold Young (seated) with his sister Adah (Young) Johnson and his son David. 1972.

Genealogy Note

All of the cousins called him “Uncle” Harold, rather than “Great-Uncle” or “Grand-Uncle.” Keep that in mind when you’re sorting out relationships in your own family. When someone refers to Uncle so-and-so or Aunt such-and-so, it might be another relationship.

Great-Grandma Young Wasn’t Always Old (52 Ancestors 13 and 14)

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The mind’s eye can be like a funhouse mirror. You know that there’s a “normal” person standing there, but the reflection is twisted and turned into something not quite real. So it was in my mind’s eye with my great-grandmother Clara (Mason) Young.

Great-grandma Clara (Mason) Young and me. Photo taken in my grandparents' (Stanley and Adah Young Johnson) back yard.

Great-grandma Clara (Mason) Young and me. Photo taken in my grandparents’ (Stanley and Adah Young Johnson) back yard.

My family doesn’t have many ancestral photos. We’re pretty thin in that department until the 1960s when my dad started taking slides and Polaroids. Though I met Grandma Young, I don’t remember her; she died when I was 3. Growing up, there were lots of photos of her. In all of them, she was an old woman with thinning white hair who wore simple dresses. She was usually sitting and often surrounded by her great-grandchildren.

My young brain tried to fill in the gaps and used the information at hand. Great-grandmother + white hair + frail = OLD. When thinking of Grandma Young, my mind’s eye would fill her in as an old woman.

But there’s another photo of Grandma Young, one that sits on a shelf behind my desk. It’s from around 1903, when she married my great-grandfather Robert Young. In this photo, she is anything but old.

Clara (Mason) and Robert Andrew Young. We believe this photo was taken around the time of their wedding in 1903.

Clara (Mason) and Robert Andrew Young. We believe this photo was taken around the time of their wedding in 1903.

Instead of a simple house dress, she’s wearing something stylish. She has a bow in her hair and a brooch on her blouse, Her eyes are big; her hair is thick. She looks determined, yet gentle.

She hadn’t yet experienced the birth of any of her 10 children… nor the loss of a 2-year-old son. She hadn’t yet seen her home swept away in the great flood of 1913. She hadn’t yet moved from town to town as her husband looked for work.

The mind’s eye can play tricks on us. It’s good to get a different view to get a clearer picture.

Tommy Young: The Cousin I Couldn’t Know (52 Ancestors #9)

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It was Labor Day, 1960. Tommy Young was 18 and out with his friend Paul Ballman. They were heading east on Main Street on the east side of Columbus, waiting to turn north onto Noe-Bixby Road. Just waiting for a break in the traffic…

Also heading east on Main Street was Willie Martin. Martin was 34, lived in Columbus… and was allegedly drunk. Martin slammed into the back of the car Paul Ballman was driving, sending it into the westbound lanes, where it hit a station wagon.

The crash sent both cars spinning. “Then a violent explosion flung the two teenagers to the pavement with their clothes on fire.”1)“Holiday Auto Deaths Climb to 3 in City,” Columbus Dispatch, 6 Sept 1960, p. 1. Bystanders rushed to their aid, smoldering the flames with blankets.2)“Crash Claims Life of 17-Year-Old,” Sandusky Register, 7 Sept 1960, p. 2.

Tommy and Paul were taken to St. Anthony Hospital. Paul died at 3:50am Tuesday. Tommy died at noon.

Willie Martin was treated for cuts over his left eye and ear. He was charged with driving while intoxicated, failure to keep a safe distance ahead, and no operators license. The police investigated him for second-degree manslaughter in the deaths of Tommy and Paul. (It is unclear how that investigation turned out.)

Friends and family mourned Tommy and Paul together at a double funeral at St. Pius Catholic Church in Reynoldsburg.

Thomas Joseph Young was the second child of my great-uncle Harold and his wife Ann. He was killed by a drunk driver before I was born.

Found on Newspapers.com

References   [ + ]

1. “Holiday Auto Deaths Climb to 3 in City,” Columbus Dispatch, 6 Sept 1960, p. 1.
2. “Crash Claims Life of 17-Year-Old,” Sandusky Register, 7 Sept 1960, p. 2.

Great-Grandpa Was Inked! (Robert Young – 52 Ancestors #27)

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Clara (Mason) and Robert Andrew Young. We believe this photo was taken around the time of their wedding in 1903.

Clara (Mason) and Robert Andrew Young. We believe this photo was taken around the time of their wedding in 1903.

My great-grandfather Robert Andrew Young was a hard-working, responsible man. He was the only surviving child of Thomas and Ella (Steele) Young; his two younger sisters died in childhood.

You get a sense of his nature when you read Ella’s Civil War widow’s pension. Robert and his wife Clara took care of Ella in her final days. Robert wrote this letter to his congressman on 18 Apr 1940:

My mother was a soldiers widow… She kept her own house until two years before her death. Doctor’s bills, fuel bills and necessaries of life soon eats up 40 dollars [Ella’s monthly pension], so when she died there was $116 doctor’s bill. The last 14 months she lived she was helpless and had to be cared for like a baby. My wife took the best of care of her… I am a poor man, have raised a big family and trying to pay for a little farm. I am not able to meet these bills but I am the only child and am responsible for all mother’s debts. The New Deal might be O.K. but I prefer a square deal…

My dad remembers his Grandpa Young as hard-working and fairly no-nonsense. Once when Dad and his siblings were visiting their Grandpa and Grandma Young in rural Ross County, they came across a big Mason jar filled with some clear liquid tucked in a tree in the woods. This seemed pretty strange to the kids, so they took it back to their Grandpa.

“Where did you find this?”

“Tucked in a tree in the woods.”

“Which tree?”

As Dad said, there were miles and miles of trees surrounding their house and they had explored all day. How were they to know which tree it was?! Grandpa Young was concerned that the moonshiner would find that his stash was gone and come looking for whoever took it. Since they couldn’t return it, Grandpa Young went out back and without saying a word, poured the whole jar of moonshine on the ground.

Recently, Ancestry updated its collection of World War II Draft Registration Cards. (They added Ohio! Yay!) What is online is the 1942 Fourth Registration, often called “The Old Man Registration,” as it included men born on or between 28 April 1877 and 16 February 1897. Robert fits in this category.

It’s tempting to skip a record like this when you know so much about the person already, but I’m a firm believer that you never know what you might find. Yes, I found Robert’s draft registration right where I expected it: Granville, Licking County, Ohio. What I didn’t expect was on the back of the card:

Page 2 of Robert A. Young's draft registration card. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, Ancestry.com.

Page 2 of Robert A. Young’s draft registration card. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, Ancestry.com.

Tattoo on left forearm?! Sure, today everyone and their brother (and sister) have ink, but back in the day, that was pretty much reserved to soldiers and sailors. Robert was neither.

I called Dad and asked him about his Grandpa Young’s tattoo. Did he remember it? What was it?

“I didn’t know he had one. Being a farmer, he kept his sleeves rolled down all the time.”

Robert Young, ever the responsible one. Did he keep his sleeves rolled down to avoid sunburn? Did he keep them rolled down to hide his tattoo from his neighbors and friends (and maybe his wife)? I don’t know. I do know this:

  1. Never skip a record just because you think you know what it’s going to say.
  2. Always go to the next image when you’re looking at digital images. This wonderful little gem of information was on the back of the card.

Robert Andrew Young died 8 July 1953 in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. He is buried next to his wife Clara in Wilson Cemetery.

Robert and Clara Young's grave, Wilson Cemetery, Licking County, Ohio. Photo by Amy Crow, 13 September 2014.

Robert and Clara Young’s grave, Wilson Cemetery, Licking County, Ohio. Photo by Amy Crow, 13 September 2014.

Oh My Darlin’ Mary Darling (52 Ancestors #19)

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How can you not like an ancestor named Mary Darling? My 4th-great-grandmother was born in 1770 in Scotland. On 3 June 1796, she married John Young in Crichton, Midlothian, Scotland.

Mary and John moved to Washington County, Ohio. They are enumerated there in 1850. Mary died 11 March 1855 and is buried in Lynch Cemetery in Fearing Township.

An Enigma Wrapped With a Bow: Clara Mason Young (52 Ancestors #11)

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It’s amazing what you think you know until you go to write about it. Such is the case with Clara Mason Young, my great-grandmother. Perhaps it’s because I have several photographs of her. Perhaps it’s because she’s the only great-grandparent I ever met. But for someone who I thought I had a good handle on, it turns out I know fairly little.

Clara Mason, the daughter of  Eber and Lavada Jane (McKitrick) Mason, was born in West Virginia 10 October 1884, according to her death certificate. Though census records seem to be in agreement, I’ve yet to find a birth record for her.

By 1900, she had moved with her parents and siblings to Washington County, Ohio. It was there that she met and married Robert Andrew Young.

Clara (Mason) and Robert Andrew Young. We believe this photo was taken around the time of their wedding in 1903.

Clara (Mason) and Robert Andrew Young. We believe this photo was taken around the time of their wedding in 1903.

Clara and Robert had ten children; my grandmother Adah was their oldest. When I started into genealogy, I got a kick out of discovering that my dad is older than one of his aunts (Clara and Robert’s youngest daughter, Vida).

Clara (Mason) Young with her great-grandchildren, 1964.

Clara (Mason) Young with her great-grandchildren, 1964.

I’m fortunate to have several photos of her, including this one of her with her great-grandchildren in 1964. (This photo was scanned from a slide. Eat your heart out, Instagram.)

Great-grandma Clara (Mason) Young and me. Photo taken in my grandparents' (Stanley and Adah Young Johnson) back yard.

Great-grandma Clara (Mason) Young and me. Photo taken in my grandparents’ (Stanley and Adah Young Johnson) backyard.

Despite the photos, I don’t feel like I know her as well as I should. I need to go back through Grandma’s memoirs and see what I can glean. I also need to talk to Dad and my Aunt Clara (named for her grandmother) to get more stories.

Clara (Mason) Young died 25 August 1970 in Licking County, Ohio and is buried with Robert in Wilson Cemetery. Dad has promised to go with me to the cemetery if this winter would ever stop.

Ella (Steele) Young, The Original Groupie? (52 Ancestors #5)

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Ella (Steele) and Thomas Andrew Young, Washington County, Ohio, circa 1910.

Ella (Steele) and Thomas Andrew Young, Washington County, Ohio, circa 1910.

You might remember the man in the photo from a previous 52 Ancestors post. I suspect that Thomas Andrew Young, my great-great grandfather, was an original member of ZZ Top. If he was, does that make the woman in the photo — his wife, Ella Steele Young — the original groupie? (Maybe I shouldn’t continue this analogy much further!)

Ella, the daughter of James and Mary (Belt) Steele, was born in Washington, D.C. in 1855. The Steeles moved to Washington County, Ohio sometime before 1880. (More likely before 1879, as Ella and Thomas were married there 10 August 1879.)

If you look at just the 1910 census for Ella, you would get an incomplete (and inaccurate) picture of her life. According to it, she was the mother of 0 children, 0 of whom were living. In reality, she was the mother of 3, only 1 of whom was still living in 1910:

  • Robert Andrew, born 1880, died 1953. (I’m quite thankful he lived; he’s my great-grandfather!)
  • Mary Elizabeth, born and died 1885
  • Clara Adah, born 1893, died 1894

Ella M. (Steele) Young died in Licking County, Ohio (where her son Robert lived) 5 November 1937. She is buried in Lynch Cemetery in Washington County with her husband Thomas.

Sources:

  • Washington County, Ohio birth and death records.
  • Young, Ella M. death certificate, certificate 70109 (Ohio, 1937), Licking County, Ohio, downloaded from FamilySearch.org.
  • Young, Thomas, 1910 U.S. census, Fearing Twp, Washington Co, Ohio, page 5A.
  • Young, Thomas A. Civil War pension file application 1122569, certificate 1000598.
  • Young, Thomas A. and Ella M. Steele marriage record, vol. 6, entry #5819, Washington County, Ohio marriage records.

I Think My Ancestor Was in ZZ Top (52 Ancestors #4)

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Thomas Andrew Young, my great-great grandfather, was born in Washington County, Ohio 30 August 1847 and I suspect he was a founding member of ZZ Top.

Thomas was the son of John and Jane Mary (Douglass) Young. Among his 11 siblings were his two worthless brothers John and Douglass. Thomas lived his entire life in Washington County, with the exception of 1903-1906 when he and the family lived in Reynolds Store, Frederick County, Virginia.

He served in the Civil War for a brief period. He enlisted in the 189th Ohio Infantry on 20 February 1865 and was discharged in September of that year. For his service and subsequent disabilities of “heart trouble, rheumatism, throat trouble, chronic diarrhoea and deafness in left ear,” he originally drew a pension of $6/month. This was raised periodically. By the time he died in 1920, his pension was $19/month. His widow Ella (Steele) Young, whom he had married 10 August 1879, drew a pension of $40/month.

So, why do I think Thomas Andrew Young was one of the founding members of ZZ Top? Compare his photo (circa 1910) on the right to that of two members of ZZ Top (shown on the left).

Thomas Young, circa 1910.

Thomas Young, circa 1910.

ZZ Top by Renato Cifarelli. Used under Creative Commons license.

ZZ Top by Renato Cifarelli.
Used under Creative Commons license.

 

Thomas Andrew Young died in Washington County, Ohio 23 October 1920 and is buried in Lynch Cemetery. Ironically (or maybe not so ironically), his cause of death was “cancer of the face.”

Sources:

  • Young, Thomas A. Civil War pension file application 1122569, certificate 1000598.
  • Young, Thomas A. Death certificate #36644 (1920), Ohio Historical Society, Columbus.
  • Young, Thomas A. and Ella M. Steele marriage record, vol. 6, entry #5819, Washington County, Ohio marriage records.

52 Ancestors – #1 Adah Young Johnson (1904-1979)

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It seems appropriate to begin the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge with the ancestor who first got me into genealogy: my paternal grandmother Adah Young Johnson.

The Young family, 1909. L-R: Adah, Robert (holding Harold), Clara, and Ralph.

The Young family, 1909. L-R: Adah, Robert (holding Harold), Clara, and Ralph.

Grandma was born in Reynolds Store, Virginia in 1904, the oldest child of Robert and Clara (Mason) Young. The family moved back to Washington County, Ohio (Robert’s birthplace) sometime before Grandma’s brother Ralph was born in 1907.

Grandma married Stanley Johnson (my Grandpa) 24 June 1922 in Ross County, Ohio. They were married 49 years (until Grandpa’s death in 1971).

She was an awesome grandma. (It sounds cliché, but it happens to be true.) She could cook and she she could sew just about anything (including my mom’s wedding dress). She always had time for her grandchildren. I loved going to her house. We’d play games (Yahtzee was a favorite) and read books. Sometimes I accompanied her to her little Methodist church where she’d help set up for communion. (The smell of Welch’s grape juice brings back memories of her.)

Grandma reading to me, 1970. I have no doubt that she read to me all of the books that I was holding.

Grandma reading to me, 1970. I have no doubt that she read to me all of the books that I was holding.

Grandma was one of the kindest people you could ever meet. She truly lived by the motto, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” The closest that any of us can recall her saying something less-than-nice was the time she dropped by our house unexpectedly on a Sunday afternoon. Mom and Dad invited her to have dinner with us, and she did. After the meal was finished, Mom said that she was sorry, but she hadn’t fixed any dessert. “But I do have orange sherbet.” To which Grandma replied, “Then you don’t have any dessert.” (We think of her whenever we have orange sherbet!)

Though she probably wouldn’t have called herself one, she was a family historian. She was the keeper of the family Bible, the family photos, and the family stories. I remember going to her house shortly after “Roots” had aired on tv. She pulled out the family Bible and explained to me who all of the people listed on the yellowing pages were.

Not only did she keep the family photos…. She labelled them. Her descendants are still thankful! She also did a series of cassette tapes where she told stories from time she was a little girl until the time she met Grandpa. Yes, she recorded her memoirs! (See, I told you she was an awesome grandma!) Included in there was her recollection of the Flood of 1913 that swept away her house in Marietta, Ohio…  and how she once locked her grandfather Mason’s second wife in the outhouse.

Grandma died 22 December 1979. It was ironic that she died then, as Christmas was her favorite time of year. She loved to decorate and cook and make presents for all of the grandkids. All of us went to her house on Christmas evening. How all of the cousins, aunts, and uncles fit into that tiny house, I’ll never know.

Grandma was a dear, sweet lady. She nurtured all 14 of us grandkids with her love and kindness. I shall always be thankful for all that she was and for inspiring me to climb our family tree.

Grandma, I miss you and I love you.

Two Worthless Brothers

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John R. Young and Douglass H. Young were born and raised in Washington County, Ohio and they were worthless. Now, before you think that I’m being harsh, hear me out.

John and Douglass were two of the sons of John and Jane (Douglass) Young (my 3rd-great-grandparents). In 1870, John, Jane, and 8 of their 12 children (yes, 12) were living together in Fearing Township, Washington County. Included in the household were John, Douglass, and their wives and children.

John Young 1870 census

John Young household, 1870 U.S. Census, Fearing Township, Washington County, Ohio, p. 130.

See that note on the right-hand side of the page? That’s a note added by Joseph Palmer, the enumerator in Fearing Township, and it brackets John R., Douglas H. and their families:

Note on Young 1870 census“Not worth anything nor doing anything. — Living with Parents, J. Young”

Yes, the enumerator called out John and Douglass for being worthless and not doing anything. (I’d like to point out that my ancestor, their brother Thomas, was not included in that note. This is one time I don’t mind my ancestor not being mentioned!)

Who said genealogy wasn’t interesting?