My Old Ohio Home

I stop to smell lilacs one morning
and wonder if anyone is watching.
That man over there with the mower—
up and down one week and crosswise the next.
The young girl out walking her dog—
around the block clockwise and back.
The woman back there in the house I just past—
a clipboard and phone in her hand.
The National Guard overhead—
the training copter again.
All those blades in slow motion.

Credits

The photograph of the lilacs can be found at wikipedia at Stockholm Lilacs. The photographer was Marisa DeMeglio at flickr. It is used under a Creative Commons Generic 2.0 License.

Robert Redig,
1922

This website includes a picture of the 1922 second grade class at Holy Name Parish on Broadway on the southeast side of Cleveland. My mother was in that class and identified most of the children in the picture. She identified the fifth young man from our right in the third row as Robert Redig. There was a Robert Redig living in the area, described below, who is probably him.

Robert Edward Redig was born July 30, 1914, in Cleveland, Ohio, the middle child of Phillip J and Theresa L (Gibbons) Redig. In 1920, the family was living at 7801 Maryland Avenue, in the same home as Theresa's brother Thomas. They remained there until at least until 1930, then moved to Garfield Heights.

Between 1941 and 1943, Robert married Lois C Hart. I'm not sure if they had children or not. Robert died in 1997 and Lois in 2009. They are buried in All Saints Cemetery, Northfield.

The Redigs, Gibbons, and Reynolds

Usually I include some research on the parents and grandparents of the school children, but in this case I didn't find much more than what is already in a tree at familysearch. Start here: Robert E Redig. The only thing I could add to that information is that Theresa Gibbons' paternal grandparents were Henry Gibbons and Mary Salmon. The names were on her father's death record.

Albert Elwell,
1922

This website includes a picture of the 1922 second grade class at Holy Name Parish on Broadway on the southeast side of Cleveland. My mother was in that class and identified most of the children in the picture. She identified the third young man from our left in the third row as Albert Elwell. There was a Albert Elwell living in the area, described below, who is probably him.

Albert Francis Elwell was born October 19, 1912, in Ohio (probably Cleveland), the son of George and Josephine (Messer) Elwell. In 1920 the family was living at 9332 Harvard, Cleveland. In the home, besides the Elwells was Joseph Messer, Josephine's father.

The family moved to East Blvd, Garfield Heights, and in 1940 Albert was the last of his family at home with his now widowed mother. Albert never married; he died in Summit County, Ohio, on November 10, 1972.

Usually I include some research on the parents and grandparents of the school children, but in this case I would rather refer you to two online trees: the Robert Hicks family at ancestry.com for everything on Albert Francis Elwell, and a tree at familysearch.org, George Elwell Jr, for a thorough genealogy of the Elwell and Messer families.

By the way, Albert is not a close relative of Kathryn Elwell, 1922, Newburgh, Cleveland, the subject of the last article.

Kathryn Elwell,
1922

This website includes a picture of the 1922 second grade class at Holy Name Parish on Broadway on the southeast side of Cleveland. My mother was in that class and identified most of the children in the picture. She identified the fifth young lady from our left in the back row as Catherine Elwell. There was a Kathryn Elwell living in the area, described below, who is probably her.

Kathryn Elwell was born August 15, 1913, in Cleveland, Ohio, the only known daughter of William Clarence Elwell and Mary Egan. In 1920, the family was living at 8004 Force Avenue, on the southeast side of Cleveland. In the household were Kathryn, her parents, her older brothers Eugene and George, and her younger brother Robert. Kathryn's father was working as a foreman for a hoist company.

Brown Hoisting Machinery Company, 1905

The family was still on Force Avenue in 1930, but by 1935 they had moved to Bay City, Michigan. On the 1940 census, William Elwell's occupation was "foreman, crane manufacturing." My guess is that, while in Cleveland, William worked for the Brown Hoisting Machinery Company, located at the northwest corner of East 45th Street and Hamilton Avenue.¹ In 1931, Industrial Works, of Bay City, Michigan, and Brown Hoist, consolidated their operations. Evidently as a result, William Elwell relocated to the plant in Bay City.²

Bay City is where Kathryn Elwell, on February 14, 1942, married Myles Boucher, a salesman, living in Bay City also. They had at least one child. Myles died October 4, 1960 and is buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery, Bay City. Kathryn died October 11, 2010.

The Elwells

Kathryn Elwell's father William, was born October 22, 1882, in Cleveland, the oldest known son of William Elwell and Emma Frederick. That William was born January 12, 1859, in England, most likely in Tynemouth, Northumberland, one of at least seven children of John Elwell and Martha Graham. The family is on the 1851 census of West Bromwich, Staffordshire and the 1861 census of Tynemouth. John Elwell died in Cleveland in 1877; I couldn't find an exact death for his wife Martha, his son William or William's wife Emma.

The Fredericks and Schultzs

Emma Frederick was born about 1861 in Pennsylvania, probably in Perryville, Ross Township, Allegheny County. Her father had been born about 1830 in Baden, Germany, and her mother was born about August 1843 in Pennsylvania, one of at least nine children of John Schultz and Magdalena Seiler.

The Schultzs and Fredericks were listed one after the other on the 1870 Census of Perrysville; John Schultz was a farmer and John Frederick was a hotel keeper. I wondered what kind of place Perrysville was, to have a hotel and farm next to each other, then I read that it was

"a stopping point for merchants and farmers taking their goods to the markets in Pittsburgh. It was a stagecoach stop and an early home to hotels, churches, merchants and inns."³

A 1906 map of Perrysville indicates that the White House Tavern was on the land of a John Schultz. It would be interesting to find out if this is the same Schultz family and if the tavern was the hotel that John Frederick managed. A local history society or library would probably know the answer, or how to find it.

Perrysville, 1906

As for birthplaces, John Schultz said he was born in Württemberg, Germany. His wife, Magdalena Seiler, said "Germany" part of the time and "France" the other part, leading me to believe she was born in the Alsace region or nearby. There were a few Seiler/Saylor families in Berks County, Pennsylvania, who also said they were from Alsace, so that might be a lead for a future researcher.

The Egans

I had time to spend on Kathryn's father's side of the family because I had already worked on the Egans for a first cousin. Kathryn's mother, Mary Egan, was born October 17, 1886, the fourth known child of William Egan and Ellen Boland. The death record of William's brother Timothy (July 12, 1882, Cleveland) said he had been born in Roscrea Parish, County Tipperary, Ireland, so I assume that is where William was born also. Their parents were Timothy and Sarah.

The Bolands and the Dowds

Finally, Ellen Boland was born November 11, 1854, in Ireland, the first known child of William J Boland and Catherine Dowd. The death record of Ellen's sister Mary (February 19, 1881, Brecksville, Ohio) said Mary had been born in Finod, County Sligo, Ireland. Her father William's parents were Patrick Boland and Mary Sweeney; her mother's parents were Frank Dowd and Anna Devine. There aren't baptism records available for Easkey Parish for the time during which the Boland children were born, but I found enough traces of those surnames in the Finod/Easkey area of Sligo to convince myself that I had the right place.

Conclusion

The records were there, so I was able to trace all four sides of Kathryn Elwell's family back to the early 1800's–three of them to the country from which they emigrated. I think that the Seiler family should be "do-able" as well, if someone had the time and skill for the German or French research.

Sources and more information are in the Ohio Families section of this site.

If you are a relative or descendant of Catherine Elwell you are welcome to download the class picture and pass it on. If you would like a larger image with possibly better resolution, contact me.

Next up, as long as I have Elwells fresh in my mind, is Al Elwell, also a member of that 1922 second grade class.

Update: Kathryn and Albert Francis Elwell, may have been classmates, but they were not closely related.

Notes

^1. I learned the location of the Brown Hoist building from the article, The Brown Hoist Building, at ClevelandAreaHistory.com, and verified it by Google Maps Street View. The building is still standing.

^2. A history of Brown Hoist Machinery can be found at Brown Hoisting Machinery Company, and a history of Industrial Works/Industrial Brownhoist can be found at Industrial Works (1873-1983) aka: Industrial Brownhoist.

^3. From the article Perrysville, Pennsylvania, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Credits

The picture of the Brown Hoisting Machinery Company plant on Hamilton Avenue, Cleveland, comes from the .pdf version of "Brownhoist": Patent Automatic Hoisting and Conveying Appliances, by Brown Hoisting Machinery Company , Brown Hoisting Machinery Company, 1905, at https://archive.org/.

The map of Perrysville in 1906 comes from the G.M. Hopkins Company Maps collection at the University of Pittsburgh "Historic Pittsburgh" site. Title: Ross, Perrysville. Plate 38.

Why watch the Derby when I don't bet on horses?
The answer is easy:
my father did.
My mother and brother and sister did too.
We planned dinner around it–
hot dogs and onions, soda and beer–
just like we were there.

It was easy back then–
no hour long pregame,
no endless commercials,
no horse with a cousin that overcame cancer.
Just a couple of minutes of surrogate thrills—
they go into the gate and they're off.

Did he have money on it?
My father I mean. He might have I guess.
I know he made book before he was married,
but that's one thing he didn't pass on to his children.

No, we just sat there and screamed
like we had our allowance on win place and show,
and when it was over all three of us knew:
two weeks till the Preakness, three more till New York.

Credits

The picture of the Kentucky Derby is used courtesy of Kentuckytourism.com.