CONFIRMING EBENEZER ABBOTT AND ANNA WRIGHT AS SOPHRONIA ABBOTT JACOBS’ FATHER AND MOTHER

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CONFIRMING EBENEZER ABBOTT AND ANNA WRIGHT AS SOPHRONIA ABBOT JACOB’S FATHER AND MOTHER

For several years, a search for the parents of Sophronia Abbott Jacobs has not proven successful so I assembled all the information Writemapper, a mind-mapping tool and then a simple memo format with sources listed to create a conclusion.  It is uploaded to Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org and has invited additional sources to be recommended to me.  

It doesn't really matter for long term genealogy because the men believed to me her father are brothers.  One or the other, the Abbott line is an interesting one and I look forward to concrete sources if there are any.  

It does matter if anyone is ever interested in Daughters of the American Revolution application because only Ebenezer Abbott is documented to have served in the revolution.  

At this time, I am confident in my research and opinion but will update if there are any comments or suggestions.  There are, of course, many generations between Sophronia and Ebenezer and Rufus and still more to their ancestors.  With great interest and appreciation of their lives and struggles, this is the story.  

Who Is the Father of Sophronia Abbott Jacobs?

Sophronia Abbott Jacobs’ daughter Mary Jane Jacobs Rider emigrated with her husband Azariah Rider from a farm community near Ridgefield, McHenry County, Illinois to Sioux City (1) Iowa  before 1874 (2).  She is my maternal 3x great-grandmother.  The family history passed along to my generation centered around Sioux City and Omaha, Nebraska, my hometown.   None of it included Sophronia or Illinois much less Massachusetts so there is no word-of-mouth or family tradition information.

This is the direct line from me to Sophronia:

Mary Sharon Wilmes

Mary Virginia Ryder Wilmes, my mother

Thomas Francis (Frank Thomas) Ryder, her father

Fred Rider, his father

Mary J Jacobs Ryder, his wife

Sophronia Abbott Jacobs, her mother

 

She also may have used the spelling Safrona or Sopronia but the probate documents use Sophronia (3). Her children listed in the probate include my great-great-grandmother Mary J or Mary Jo Jacobs then residing in Sioux City, Iowa, the wife of Azariah’s son Fred Rider. 

Over several years, a considerable amount of research about Sophronia has presented me with this question:  who were her parents? 

 Unsourced claims of her parents and place of birth

 Many in Ancestry.com, Family Search.org and MyHeritage.com name her father as Rufus Abbot who was born in 1784 in Murrayfield, Hampshire County (originally Hampden), Massachusetts which became Chester, Massachusetts in 1775.  I have used the AmericanAncestors.org databases, including the Chester Births to 1850 compilation (5) but found only the birth of Ebenezer’s daughter Tryphena in 1812 in Chester Births to 1850 about their children.  It is my belief that it is possible that few of the children of either brother were born in Chester. 

 Is her father Rufus Abbott?

 Some online family historians are quite firm about their claim of Rufus as Sophronia’s father but not even one of many who claim him have even one source citation for that claim.  In fact, there are no birth records for any of the children for either man. At least one, Ebenezer’s son George Abbott, in federal census lists, repeatedly states New York as his place of birth.  Some of the children of Rufus may have been born in Norfolk, Lichfield County, Connecticut.  Although the names Rufus and Ebenezer are unused in the modern era, there were so many of each in the records that it seems impossible to identify these two specific Abbotts in New York State. 

Several years ago, when Family Search staff included Sophronia in a list of the Rufus Abbott family in Jackson County, Missouri, I offered the sources to select Ebenezer as her father, and they agreed that Sophronia is not mentioned anywhere in Missouri.  In fact, she was married (1835) (7) by the time one Family Search source suggested she was in Missouri.  Rufus was probably in a different county, Caldwell County, Missouri by the early 1830’s.  This was a county created by the state of Missouri to isolate Mormon immigrants.  There is an unsourced listing on an ancestry.com tree of persons who forfeited land for tax defaults in the mid- 1860’s which includes Rufus.  Because it is not sourced and I could not locate it, it is not included here. 

 The result is an endless loop of cross-referenced family trees with the 1850 federal census for McHenry County, Illinois as the earliest and only source of Sophronia’s birth occurring in Massachusetts.

 Neither Sophronia nor her siblings – or cousins, whichever man is her father – are shown in Chester Records to 1850 or (just confirmed with the help of the staff of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Berkshire Athenaeum) in the index of Chester Baptist Church Records (6). Those Baptist Church names are not included in the Chester Births to 1850.

 In addition, the tax records for Chester do not show either brother owning real property there, only their father.  It does appear that their grandfather Joseph, as well as uncles Joseph Jr., Abiel and John Abbott owned real property in Chester. The father Joseph’s land and tax responsibilities fell to his widow Lois by 1798. (8)

 There may be reasons there are so few records in Western Massachusetts which is discussed below.

 The Abbotts’ Conversion by Mormons

 I include this section because the demographic material might have provided documentation of her birth and birthplace.  There are brief records that show both brothers converted to Mormonism after they both moved to central New York, but not where or precisely how long they remained there.  The index card records I obtained indicated that Rufus was converted by “Thomas” in New York and that Ebenezer “denied the faith” at an undated point.  There is a Thomas Abbott included in lists of persons who lived in Jackson County, Missouri during the period of Mormon settlement there.  That is the same list that does not include Rufus.  It is possible to trace Rufus’ later move across the country, all in Mormon communities.  I have not found records for the births that occurred in early Mormon communities in upstate New York.

 Of course, the Ohio area to which they moved was part of the new Northwest Territory.    I think it is reasonable to say that following removal of native Americans from those lands, the federal government opened them to further settlement on legally documented purchases or land bounties from Revolutionary War Service.  There were federal requirements and mortgages were available to assist settlers with land purchases.  Ebenezer the father of Rufus and Ebenezer, a documented Revolutionary War veteran, may have used a land bounty in the Northwest Territory/Ohio or Illinois but I have not found it.  It does not appear from searches through documents about the area that there were birth records kept at that early time.

 It is not yet clear when both eventually moved on to the Cuyahoga County, Ohio area but it was somewhere during the same time as the large Mormon migration from the region where it was founded in central New York.   As suggested earlier, Rufus moved on again in the early 1830’s with his some of his family to Missouri, where, after his departure, his son Hiram died from injuries suffered in an October 1838, anti-Mormon pogrom at Haun’s Mill (9a).  Rufus and his wife moved back to the Nauvoo, Illinois area (Hancock, Illinois), on to the Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska area and then by a pioneer wagon or cart train led by Daniel Snyder to Salt Lake City (9b) in 1848.  I spoke with a representative of the Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters in Omaha and Rufus and Anna were not located in the records of the Council Bluffs or Omaha Mormon Winter Quarters so they may have been with a daughter’s family settled in that area of Iowa until the westward migration. Rufus remarried twice after the death of his first wife Anna Owen and is buried in Payson, Utah County, Utah.    I did not locate a probate for Rufus.

 It appears that several of the children of Rufus and Anna relocated to or remained in Iowa.  A full family history of all children of Rufus Abbott has not been completed because there are still no birth records but a number have been traced.  Using the genealogical term “FAN” (Friends, Associates, Neighbors), some research has been done but without birth records, it has not been possible to prove anything about birth locations-or the precise family size.  

 Rufus was the older and it appears that he left Massachusetts by 1811.  Ancestry.com family trees show two or three of his daughters whose birth dates fit that report:  Minerva 1811 born in Litchfield Connecticut (no source cited), Malona with the same birth date in one tree and Parintha or Perentha born 1816 or 1817 (cemetery records show birth 1817) in Hartford County, Connecticut.  The 1820 federal census report for Rufus in Mayfield, Cuyahoga, Ohio (7Aug 1820) shows two females under 10 when there might have been three or four if Sophronia was part of the family. Two of those women appear in Mormon records, one California and the other Iowa.  The other three all lived into the late 1870’s and 1880’s. 

 Sophronia’s obituary, probate records and headstone show 23 February 1816 as her birthdate.  All the unsourced entries for Sophronia show her birthplace as Chester, Massachusetts.  That would mean theoretically that if Rufus is her father, he stayed in Connecticut for a time and moved back to Massachusetts before moving back to Connecticut or on to either New York or Ohio.  The next two daughters of Rufus and Anna are apparently Dora 1819 and Ruby Ann 1821, possibly in Ohio.  It is certainly possible that both brothers left for these new areas without their families for a time and returned but the distances are considerable and meant difficult journeys.  

 Is her father Ebenezer Abbott?

 I have found several ways Sophronia is possibly the daughter of Ebenezer Abbott.    Sophronia’s possible sister and brother-in-law connected her to Ebenezer Abbott.  Sophronia married Norman James Jacobs in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in 1835 and it appears that Ebenezer’s daughter Juliette Abbott a year earlier married Norman’s brother Riley.  A 1906 historical encyclopedia of McHenry County, Illinois citizens does refer to another daughter, Betsey A. Abbott, who married a local McHenry County farmer and businessman Mark Hickox (10).  The entry states that Betsey arrived with her sister Sophronia before her parents Ebenezer and (Berniece) Nicy Pomeroy moved there a short time later.  Ebenezer and Nicy died and are buried in McHenry County (11).  Rufus and Anna Abbott never lived in McHenry County, Illinois.

 As discussed above, entries in Family Search, Ancestry and My Heritage use the document compilation Chester Births to 1850 (5) to list the birthplaces of children of both brothers in Chester, Massachusetts.  There should be church records of that. There is no entry for Sophronia’s birth or any other children of Rufus or Ebenezer except Tryphena Abbott in the Chester Births to 1850 data for either church.  Searches in towns around Chester and Hampden and Hampshire Counties in Massachusetts and Connecticut do not find records of her there.  Some of the children of Rufus and Anna include Norfolk, Litchfield, Connecticut as the birthplace.   I did eliminate from consideration one Sophronia born in eastern Massachusetts because it appeared that woman married and died in eastern Massachusetts. 

 Sophronia died in Ridgefield, McHenry County, according to an obituary in a local paper and her birthdate is listed as 23 February 1816.   A search for births in the central New York area is difficult and has located nothing about Sophronia.  It is not clear to me that any central New York church would have the birth record of a child born to a Mormon convert there.  One of Ebenezer’s sons, George, repeatedly states in federal census records and his Civil War draft registration that he was born in New York.   

 It is possible that Rufus, the older of the two, was living in upstate New York by the 1810’s. Tax roll entries are available for both brothers in both New York (only possibly because there may have been multiple Ebenezers and Rufuses) and Ohio (definitely, Rufus in Mayfield in 1820 and Ebenezer in Mayfield in 1833 and 1837) but do not really pinpoint their exact departure or arrival dates.  There is no record of Sophronia’s birth in Ohio. 

 Perhaps their rapid relocations meant they did not have local church relationships which would have recorded her birth.  I have not yet fully researched deeds in New York to establish specific addresses for land purchases and occupancies but have begun “browsing” FamilySearch unindexed deeds.

 Reasons the records were poor

 Working to provide any other explanation for the missing birth records, I also noted that 1816 was a very unusual weather year because high level atmospheric pollution caused by a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia led to massive crop failures across New England (12).  The authors of Upstate Cauldron (13) note that it was the reason that Mormon founder Joseph Smith’s family moved to New York from Massachusetts.  Further, it might have been economic disruption from the Panic of 1819 that led to church record omissions. 

 There was a political and doctrinal split between factions of the Chester Congregational Church leading ultimately to establishment of a new Chester Baptist Church but those records do not include birth records of any Abbotts, either Rufus or Ebenezer (14).  One of the Elders of the Baptist Church was Sam Abbott but the index contains no reference to either Rufus or Ebenezer.  Perhaps there was a time between the division of the Congregational Church of Chester and formation of the new Chester Baptist Church during which some births may have gone unrecorded. 

 It is possible that Sophronia was adopted but I found nothing in court records available on Ancestry and Family Search that recorded an adoption.  I have been told that adoption was a rather informal matter at that time. 

 I list only some of the sources and material located in this research.  If helpful, I will email or mail copies of any of the other sources. Also, my full name is Mary Wilmes and that is my Member Name in ancestry.com. 

 I believe Ebenezer is the father of Sophronia Abbott Jacobs. 

 What other values or weights of proof should I put on this information? What other records or sources should I search?

 Sources

 (1) Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Illinois State Archives, www.CyberdriveIllinois.com, Vol A.,Lic. No. 2316, Accessed 9/4/2014.

 (2) Original data: Microfilm of Iowa State Censuses, Ancestry.com. Iowa, U.S., State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.

(3)  Probate packets, 1840-1957; Author: Illinois. County Court (McHenry County); Probate Place: McHenry, Illinois

 

(4)  [https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Massachusetts_County_Creation_Dates_and_Parent_Counties

 (5)  New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Vital Records of Chester, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 and Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Compiled Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1700-1850 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018.

(6)  Chester Baptist Church Records.  Held by Pittsfield Berkshire Athenaeum, Call Number LH BERKCOL 974.49 C42.15v.3.  Accessed by email March 2021 from Donald Warfield, Local History and Genealogy Department, Berkshire Athenaeum, 1 Wendell Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201 (413) 499-9480. 

(7)  Cuyahoga County Archive; Cleveland, Ohio; Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Marriage Records, 1810-1973; Volume: Vol 3-4; Page: 92; Year Range: 1832 Oct - 1849 Sep

Title Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Marriage Records and Indexes, 1810-1973

Author.  Ancestry.com. Publisher Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.Publisher Date 2010 Publisher Location  Provo, UT, USA

(8)  Massachusetts and Maine:  Direct Tax, 1798, (Online database.  /AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003) Original Manuscript:  Direct tax list of 1798 for Massachusetts and Maine, 17998.  Accessed March 20, 2021. 

(9a) Ancestry.com. Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Black, Susan Easton, compiler. Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1848. 50 vols. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 1989. Private Donor.  Description:  A “Who’s Who” of early LDS church members with a genealogical goldmine of details.

(9b) Rufus was a Pioneer of 1847 arriving in Salt Lake Valley with Capt. Daniel Spencer's 100, Capt. Ira Eldredge's 50 and Capt. Samuel Ensign's 10 Source: Publication: Pioneers of 1847: a Sesquicentennial Remembrance.  Ancestry.com. LDS Pioneer and Handcart Companies, 1847-1856 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com, 2013. Original data: Black, Susan Easton. Pioneers of 1847: A Sesquicentennial Remembrance. Provo, Utah: © 1980. Private donor.

(10)  Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, edited by Newton Bateman and D. Paul Selby, vol. 2, Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co., 1903.  Arrived with her sister and brother-in-law, Sophronia and Norman J. Jacobs.

(11)  Ebenezer Abbott  Death1 Nov 1852 (aged 61) McHenry County, Illinois, USA
Burial	Ostend Cemetery McCullom Lake, McHenry County, Illinois, USA
Plot	B8
FindAGrave Memorial ID	14587511 ·

 (12)  The Year Without Summer:  1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History by William Klingaman.  Kindle Edition, 351 pages.  Published February 26, 2013 by St.

(13)  Upstate Cauldron: Eccentric Spiritual Movements in Early New York State by Jocelyn Godwin.  Paperback, 386 pages.  Published June 1, 2015, by Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press ISBN: 1438455941

(14)  From Our Country and It’s People

Accessed through Google Play Books 2/20/21 page 368 original

 Regarding the Baptist Church:

 “It arose from a personal difference between the pastor Rev. Mr. Bascom and Dr. Martin Phelps, one of the prominent members of the church.  Out of this feud is said to have grown the Baptist church enterprise, organized in 1811.  Dr. Phelps, either voluntarily or by compulsion, withdrew from the Congregational church, and with others joined in the formation of a Baptist church, which was incorporated by an act of the legislature dated February 26, 1811.   (Long list of incorporators). The people above named were from all the different parts of Chester.  Elder Grant became the first minister. Elder(Samuel?) Abbott…

 From chestermass.com, Vol. 3, Issue 1 March 2004

Accessed 2/20/21 through google.com

 

The Baptist and Independent Society of Chester

 “The story of political and religious divisions in Chester that led to the creation of the Chester Baptist Church as covered in a previous edition of our newsletter (Volume 1, Issue 2, May 2002).  In summary, Dr. Martin Phelps arrived in Chester late in the 1790’s at the invitation of the Reverend Aaron Bascom, pastor of the church here, after Phelps was involved in a dispute with his pastor in Belchertown.  Though his early years in the Chester church were harmonious, Dr. Phelps was eventually excommunicated partly due to some doctrinal differences with the church, but also because he was a Jeffersonian Democrat and the Rev.  Aaron Bascom and his deacons were Adams’ Federalists.  Upon his excommunication from the Congregational Church in 1808 he sought to join the Baptist faith and practices.  They asked him to explain his past criticisms and he wrote “Scripture Reasons for Renouncing the Principles of Pedobaptism and Uniting with the Baptists”.  He read the pamphlet publicly in the Hinsdale church, which accepted his conversion and baptized him on July 29, 1809.”

Other Sources: 

St. Martins Press Accessed through google Play Books  H

History of the town of Goshen, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Chapter III, 1782.  “1816. This year was remarkable for its cold summer.  Severe frosts occurred in every month.  June 7 and 8 snow fell, and it was too cold for comfort even  in winter clothing, and frosts cut this corn down to the roots, but it was replanted.  September 25, corn was still in the milk and so thoroughly frozen by three wintry nights, that it never ripened and was scarcely worth gathering.  Breadstuffs were scarce and prices high, and the poorer class of people were often in straits for want of food.”

Gutman, Robert.  “Birth and Death Registration in Massachusetts. I.  The Colonial Background, 1639-1800.” The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan 1958): 58-74  (Accessed through JSTOR, which requires registration)

It Was Dangerous For Gearens In Early Sioux City!

Long time since a post on Long Since Dispersed!  This story was largely based on clippings found in Newspapers.com combined with photos from several sources.  Although I originally began assembling it on St. Patrick’s Day 2020, the Corona Virus or Covid-19 pandemic intervened and I have been distracted!

The family subjects of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter of times past was found in news and social articles of local newspapers.  Recently, the previously digitally unavailable Sioux City Journal became available on Newspapers.com, a subsidiary of Ancestry.com.  Patrick Gearen, James Gearen and his sister Mayme Gearen (she used Guerin most of her life and her father may have changed the spelling from his birth in Ireland AND her name is variously Mary, Marie or Mamie) appeared in several very interesting pieces.

Unfortunately, there is no picture which has turned up so far of Patrick's daughter Mayme, described in the following story.   Mayme was born in Illinois in 1864 (date on the death certificate or 1862 as stated in this story) and died of a heart attack in 1934 in a Fort Dodge, Iowa, hospital.  She had for decades been the housekeeper for a Catholic priest in Iowa, Rev. James L. Fitzpatrick, identified in several Sioux City Journal articles as a "cousin" or "uncle".  I have not been able through research to make the family connection but he was very close to the Gearen family and officiated at the funeral of Patrick and his son James in January, 1923.   Rev. Fitzpatrick was the "informant" on her death certificate.   

Mayme and her father Patrick were injured in a horse and buggy accident in Sioux City in July 1897.  The Sioux City Journal reported on the accident in the following story.  

The clipping above is difficult to read so here is a transcription:  

A Runaway Accident

Sioux City Journal, Sioux City, Iowa  July 13, 1897  Accessed through Newspapers.com, March 21, 2020

Miss Mamie Gearen Suffers Serious Injuries – Her Father Sustains Cuts and Bruises.

Miss Mamie Gearen of 1231 Iowa street, was seriously injured in a runaway accident which occurred Sunday evening.  P. Gearen, her father, sustained several cuts and bruises on the face.  The horse was badly cut and the buggy was demolished. 

Mr. Gearen and his daughter had been driving in Morning Side (Park?) and had returned to the house for a wrap for the young woman.  Both got out of the buggy and Miss Gearen went into the house for her wrap.  She returned and got into the buggy .  Her father untied the horse, but before he could get into the buggy the animal started down Iowa street.  Mr. Gearen had hold of the reins and was dragged for about 130 feet in his efforts to stop the horse.  As the runaway animal turned into Thirteenth street he was compelled to let go his hold on the lines.  The animal dashed up Thirteenth street and turned down Court street.  As it turned the corner it struck a curb (unreadable) and Miss Gearen was thrown from the buggy to the ground.  The horse kept up its run until it got tangled up in some old old iron on Fifth Street near the old skating rink. 

Miss Gearen was rendered unconscious by her fall to the ground.  She sustained a severe cut in one of her arms, which was sewed up by physicians who were called.  Other bruises were sustained and her face was badly cut.  It is feared that internal injuries were sustained and that the accident might result seriously.  She is suffering from the shock of the accident and is confined to her bed.  Mr. Gearen escaped injury with a few painful scratches and bruises.  He was able to be around today. 

The horse which ran away was a young animal and had not been driven a great deal.  It is high strung and does not like to stand.  It suffered several cuts and bruises but none of them were of a serious nature.  The buggy was badly broken after the long run behind the frightened animal.

Mayme's obituary was in the Sioux City Journal in 1935.

There are pictures of Patrick and James.  This family portrait was in the Sioux City Journal on June 3, 1906.  It was accessed through Newspapers.com on July 10, 2019.  Patrick is on the right and James is top center.  James' son William E. Gearen is at left and the clipping identified the infant as Edward T. Gearen who was born that year.

The next family portrait is Patrick Gearen on the right.  His son James Edward is at left. The younger man in the middle is John Florence Gearen, called Forry or Fleury, Ruth's oldest brother.  The boy in the portrait is Phillip J. Gearen.   The exact date, location and photographer are not known but the original is in the collection of Jim Gearen of Chicago.  It is possible the photo was taken around 1915. 

Private Collection of Jim Gearen

In August, 1912, according to the following articles articles, Patrick Gearen was a victim in a dangerous automobile accident.   

Marshalltown, Iowa 16 Aug 1912

The Sioux City Journal provided a full description of the accident and a transcription follows: 

CAR HITS TWO; DRIVER HELD

 Sioux City Journal (Sioux City, Iowa) 15 Aug 1912, Page 4

 Patrick Gearen and Mrs. Alfred Mathieson Felled by Machine

 Two persons were injured yesterday at Fifth and Pierce streets when the automobile of Louis Wagner, a Beresford, S.D., merchant, turned sharply at the First National bank corner, Those hurt were:

 Patrick Gearen, 1111 West Fourteenth street. 

Mrs.  Alfred Mathieson, 109 Ross street. 

Wagner was arrested on the charge of reckless driving and was placed under a $500 bond to appeal this morning in the police court.  His bond was signed by Otto Longseth, a Sioux City druggist.

 Mrs. Mathieson was struck first.  She had seen the car approaching, but thought it was so far away that she was in no danger.  She was knocked to the pavement by the front of the machine as it swung into Fifth street from upper Pierce street.

Engrossed in this accident, Mr. Wagner did not notice Mr. Gearen in front of the car and the next instant Gearen, too, had been knocked down.  Then Wagner stopped the car. 

Mr. Gearen was taken into a doctor’s office in the Iowa building and later was removed to his home.  He was bruised about the head and shoulders, and internal injuries are possible. 

Mrs. Mathieson arose alone and was assisted to the basement rooms of the Davis Typewriter company.  She was bruised on the left side.  After an hour she was taken to her home in Wagner’s car.  It is not thought her injuries are serious.

There were no follow-up stories to describe Patrick's injuries or the outcome of the charges against Mr. Wagner.  The injuries may have been less serious than first thought because he did not die until 1923.

Patrick's son James was the first to die.  This clipping is from the Sioux City Journal, accessed through Newspapers.com on October 20, 2019.

This is the transcription of the very hard to read clipping.   

James E. Gearen, Plumber, Dies
 Widely Known Businessman Expires After Protracted  Illness
 

James  E. Gearen, 2014 Nebraska  Street, widely known Sioux City plumber, died Saturday, after a long illness.  He was 63 years old. 

For 36 years, Mr. Gearen had been a resident of Sioux City, being identified with the plumbing business nearly all of that time.  A great portion of the time he was connected with his brother, the late John F.  Gearen.  Recently, he had been associated with the Orr & Graves company.

Funeral services will be held at 9 o’clock Tuesday morning at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.  Solemn requiem high mass will be celebrated.  Burial will be in Mt. Calvary cemetery.  Mr. Gearen was a member of Epiphany Council, Knights of Columbus.

Surviving Mr, Gearen are his widow, five sons, five daughters, his father, two sisters and two brothers.  

The sons are James F., William E., James L. and Joseph A. Gearen of Chicago, and Percy P. a student at Kendrick seminary in St. Louis, Mo.

The daughters are Marie C., Grace, Margaret, Lucille and Mrs. Frank Ryder, all of Sioux City.

The father, Patrick Gearen, a sister Theresa, and a brother, Thomas H. Gearen, reside in Sioux City.  Another sister Mary, resides at Barnum, Ia., and a brother Joseph Gearen, resides at Chicago.    

The next clipping describes very simply  one of the first family history stories I ever heard.  The headline is not exactly correct, but it conveys the unfortunate and very sad coincidence of the deaths of Patrick and James.  

         Nebraska State Journal

The full obituary for Patrick was in the Sioux City Journal, January 29, 1923.

Here is the transcription:

GRIEF STRICKEN FATHER IS DEAD

Sioux City Journal, Sioux City, Iowa 29 Jan 1923, Page 1

 Passes Away 24 Hours After the Demise of His Son

Stricken by grief over the death of his son, James E. Gearen, Patrick Gearen, 85 years old, died Sunday morning at his son’s home, 2014 Nebraska street, exactly 24 hours after the younger man had expired.  Death in both cases occurred at 10 o’clock. 

Mr. Gearen who was apparently hale and hearty despite his age, arose Sunday morning and attended mass at the cathedral at 8:30 o’clock.  Returning home after mass, the aged man was waiting for his breakfast when the end came suddenly.

While talking with friends Saturday evening, Mr. Gearen referred to the death of his son that morning and said that he wished he had been called in place of James.

 Lived Here 36 Years

Mr. Gearen has made his residence in Sioux City for the greater part of the past 36 years, and for the past eight years has made his home with his son at the residence in Nebraska street.  He was born in Ireland and came to America when he was about 10 years old, settling first in Chicago.

Two sons, Joseph P. Gearen, of Chicago, Ill., and Thomas H. Gearen, of Sioux City, survive Mr. Gearen.  He is also survived by two daughters.  They are Miss Mary Gearen of Barnum, Iowa., and Miss Theresa Gearen of Sioux City.  Besides sons and daughters he is survived by 31 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.   

Last Rites Tuesday

Double funeral services will be held at 9 o’clock Tuesday morning, at St. Joseph’s church.  Rev.A. E. Zimmerman celebrating the solemn requiem high mass.  He will be assisted in the sanctuary by R. J.L. Cooper of St. Michael’s church in Leeds, and Rev. J. Walsh.  Interment will be in Mt. Calvary cemetery.  

The above article mentions the other two sons of Patrick Gearen (his son John F. Gearen, who headed a  plumbing business) had died some time before.  I believe Tom Gearen was also a plumber in that business and Joseph Gearen of Chicago was a professional musician!).

And a final article from Wednesday, January 31, 1923, provided the details of their funeral.

The full clipping is not shown here because of the arrangement of the columns but here is a transcription:

Sioux City Journal,(Sioux City, Iowa) 31 Jan 1923, Wed. Page 8

FATHER AND SON ARE LAID TO REST

Double Ceremony Is Held at St. Joseph’s Church-Burial in Mausoleum

Side by side in the mausoleum at Mt. Calvary cemetery the stilled forms of James E. Gearen, son, and Patrick Gearen, father, were laid in their final resting place Tuesday morning.

Within the short space of a few hours the son, a victim of a lingering illness, was joined by the grief stricken father.

The son, a widely known Sioux City businessman, died Saturday.  The aged father, although apparently hale and hearty, died suddenly Sunday morning.   

A double funeral ceremony was held this morning at 9 o’clock at St. Joseph’s Catholic church, Rev. J. L. Fitzpatrick, of Barnum, Ia., celebrating solemn requiem high mass.  Rev. A. Cooper, of St. Michael’s church of Leeds was sub-deacon.  A. E. Zimmerman was deacon.  Rev. J. L. Cooper, of St. Michael’s church of Leeds, was sub-deacon, and Rev. T.J. McCarty was master of ceremonies.

In the sanctuary were Bishop Heelan and Rev. P.T. Mason of LeMars, Iowa, Rev. J.P.Finnegan of Early, Ia., was chaplain.  Rev. J. Sullivan of Hawarden, Ia., and Rev. J. Walsh of St. Joseph church, Sioux City, also were present. 

Pallbearers for James Gearen were R. H. Greer, Leo Marolf, F. E. Comer, M. J. Orr, J. A. Walsh, and T. H Sullivan.  Patrick Fitzpatrick, M.J. Lynch, George Griffin, M.J. Nolan, J.P. Coyle and P. J. Donahue were pallbearers for Patrick Gearen.  

This is one of the articles which describes Rev. J. L. Fitzpatrick as the celebrant and also lists his brother Patrick Fitzpatrick, a bachelor of about 67 years old at the time.  Their parents were Jeremiah Fitzpatrick and Kathryn (or Catherine) Collins.  Hopefully some other genealogist will provide more clues or the full connection to Rev. J.L. and his brother Patrick Fitzpatrick.  I'll keep searching. 

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The Wedding Stories of Ruth Gearen and Frank Ryder

THE WEDDING STORIES OF RUTH GEAREN AND FRANK RYDER

In addition to the traditional wedding details, the story includes descriptions of the bride and bridesmaid’s gowns which made me go back to a photo of Ruth in a dress which is quite possibly her wedding photo.  See if you agree.  

Sioux City Journal (Sioux City, Iowa), 22 May 1921, SUNDAY Page 22​

SOCIAL CALENDAR. 

Mrs. And Mrs. James E. Gearen announce the engagement of their daughter, Miss Ruth Harriet Gearen to Frank T. Ryder.  The wedding will be solemnized at St. Joseph’s Catholic church in June.  

SIoux City Journal (Sioux City, Iowa), 29 June 1921, Page 7

SOCIETY AND CLUBS

Miss Ruth Harriet Gearen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Gearen and Frank T. Ryder, son of Mrs. Mary Ryder, will be married this morning at 7:30 o’clock at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, where an uncle of the bride, Rev J.L. Fitzpatrick, of Barnum, Ia., will officiate and the attendants will be the bride’s sister Miss Marie Gearen, and Charles T. Donohue.  Miss Marie will wear a dress of yellow crepe de chine, with white picture hat, and will carry Ward roses.  The bride’s gown is to be of white pussy willow taffeta, with a veil of white silk net caught with a bouquet of orange blossoms.  She’ll carry a bouquet of ophelia roses and lillies of the valley.  The wedding March will be played by Mrs. Helen Smith, the nuptial music will by Miss Alice O’Connor and Miss Margaret Hacker of Chicago.  

Following the service, there will be a a breakfast at the bride’s house, 2014 Nebraska street, for 50 guests.  At noon, the couple will depart on a northern honeymoon, on returning from which they will live at 419 John street.  The out-of-town visitors for the ceremony include Mr. and Mrs. Dave Arends, Mrs. And Mrs. Flurry Gearen and family, Al Gearen, B.J. Gearen, all of Chicago; Miss Marguerite Hartnett, of Hubbard, Neb. 

However, the story includes two amazing details which continue the search for her other ancestors!  First, the celebrant was her “uncle” Rev. J.L. Fitzpatrick oF Barnum, Is.    I have not found the connection yet but the search will be assisted by this fact.  Second, Ruth’s mother was (El)Dora Virginia Curtis Gearen.  After finding one census entry showing her family in the 1870 census in Lexington, Rockbridge, Virginia, there were no other records until the mention of Mr. and Mrs. Dave Arends in this story.  Other newspaper stories identify her as Dora’s sister!  I’ll do another brief post about her soon.  

Sometimes it takes a long time and many clues!