Monday Musings - Brethren Gold Mine!

It was such a productive weekend!  I even had the time to re-arrange my office a bit and still get some other stuff done.  My husband, Mr. Brown Eye's loves to research in the census and he does a bang up job typing them in as well.  I enjoy it too, just not as much as he does.  So he did lots of census work over the weekend. 

Back between Christmas & New Year's we spent some time down in Montgomery County, Ohio - where most of my mom's family came from.  She was born there so there are still cousins in the area.  Anyway one of the places where I had some digging to do was the Brethren Heritage Center in Brookville, Ohio.  A fabulous resource for all things Brethren.  While there I was told about the Brethren Digital Archives which recently came on line. 

I really had not had the time to spend any serious time browsing or searching the site until Sunday, but let me tell you- I was so glad I did!  The gold mines I found there! 

The link I gave you above is a "masterlink" sort of thing.  In my case I was looking for the main "newspaper" for the Brethren, which is the Gospel Messenger.  So in the alphabetical line up I clicked on the G.  It opened up the flood gates of obituaries for me!  There in digital splendor was a major portion of the Gospel Messenger in its entirety!  I don't know that it could be any better than it is. 

There are some years missing but for what is available the missing is such a small portion, I can live with it.  I'll just have to make a trip back to Brookville to get the ones I can't find on line. 

If you even think you might have ties to the Brethren faith with your ancestors its worth a shot to look here.  The Messenger covers all states where there are Brethren congregations and its one stop shopping, all in one informative newspaper.  I've even found some pictures.

If you've not been fortunate enough to locate any Brethren obits, this might be the time to try.  The obits I've found are full of birth, death and marriage dates & places.  Parents are named, maiden names are given.  The number of children born to the couple are listed, but as a rule children are not named unless still living with the parents.

Some of the surnames I have that are in the Brethren Church are Early, Eby, Kreitzer, Boomershine, Wampler, Garber and quite a few more!   My states of interest for the Brethren are Virginia, Ohio, Missouri and Indiana. 

Tragedy Thursday

Gospel Messenger, 07 JUN 1941, Pg. 41 

 

Crist, Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Sallie Garber Early, was born at Broadway, Va., July 24, 1872, and died Jan. 15, 1941.  While at the home of her daughter in Washington, caring for her three grandchildren in the absence of their parents, she was burned to death.   She was married to Joseph F. Crist on Jan. 10, 1900.  Surviving are her husband, two sons, one daughter and five grandchildren.  She became a member of the Church of the Brethren when she was a girl.  She was a woman of kindly disposition and was active in the work of the church.  The body was brought to her home in Bridgewater for burial.  The pastor, C.G. Hesse, assisted by O.S. Miller, conducted the service.   –Mrs. Stuart Miller, Bridgewater, Va.

*Gospel Messenger found at the Brethren Heritage Center, Brookville, Ohio

Tombstone Tuesday -

                                                          PIONEER DEAD

  In the death of David Early, Miami Township and Montgomery County loses one of the oldest residents.  He passed away Sunday morning at the home of his son, Jacob Early, east of town, aged 93 years, 4 months, 14 days.

  Mr. Early was born near Staunton, Va., September 29, 1822, and was one of a family of seven children.  In 1832 his parents moved to Ohio. They traveled here in a four horse covered wagon, the journey requiring four weeks.  They located at Lewsiburg, but after one year removed to near Miamisburg on what is known as the Gamble farm.

  In 1854 he was married to Elizabeth Gebhart, and moved on the Adam Schuster farm, east of Miamisburg, lving there three years.  He then removed to Warren county and after nine years residence there moved to his farm five miles southeast of Miamisburg, where he resided constantly until recently.

  Mr. Early was the last of the original family.  His brothers were John, Jacob, Joseph and Isaac; sisters, Mrs. Sallie Fox, Mrs. Lydia Fox.

  Mr. and Mrs. Early were the happy parents of six sons and two daughters: Albert, Peter, Jacob, George, Charles, David Early Jr., Mrs. Wm. Phillips, Mrs. John Emby, all living in the vicinity of Miamisburg.

  Since the death of his wife in 1897 he has been living with his children.  He had unusual health and for eighty years did not have an illness sufficiently serious to go to bed.

  Funeral services were held on Wednesday at 1 pm from the residence of his son, Jacob Early and at 2 pm from the Progressive Brethren Church, east of Miamisburg, Rev. Garber of Ashland officiating. Burial in Hill Grove cemetery.
                                              *********************
Source: Miamisburg News (Ohio), Thursday 17 FEB 1916, Pg. 8, Col. 1

In Memory of Elder A.B. Early

In Memory of Elder A.B. Early


Elder A.B. Early was born Feb. 7, 1847, near Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, Virginia. He departed this life March 16, 1937. He was a son of Joseph and Hester Norman Early, a prominent family in both Rockingham and Augusta counties. His home was near New Hope, Va., within the bounds of the Middle River congregation. Bro. Early united with the church when a young man. He served a term of years in the deacon's office. He was elected to the ministry March 24, 1888, and ordained elder in the year of 1906. He was not only an active minister in the church, taking his turn in the pulpit, which place he was able to fill acceptable, and forcefully, but he was also prominent in business circles. He was a farmer, and as such had few equals. He was a lover of the fields, a close observer of nature, and it was out of this atmostphere, that many of his sermons, which were practical in thought and application were born. His methods were practical and fruitful, serving to give him prestige in the community. His counsel was much sought in financial circles. There principals were applied to his church activitites. His business turn of mind, far-seeing, fair judgement, fitted him splendidly for an important phase of church work. WHen problems and difficulties arose he was usually able to see the way out. His counsel was conservative and safe. Doubtleses his greatest contribution to the church was in this avenue of activity. Truly his works will follow him. "He being dead, yet speaketh." Bro Early was married twice. His first wife was Miss Hannah Mary Myers; his second Mrs. Mary Early, who survives. Two sons survive from his first marriage: George Early (minister) of Westminster, Md., and Joe Early of New Hope. Surviving sisters are the misses Mary and Maggie Early of Los Angeles, Calif., and Miss Annie early of Bridgewater, Va. He also leaves four granddaughters and two grandsons. Funeral services were held from the Middle River Church, in the presence of a large gathering of neighbors and friends. Services were conducted by Bro. D.L. Andes, assisted by J.W. Garber and J.W. Wright. Burial in the adjoining cemetery.

Weekend Adventure - On The Road Again... Berrien Springs, Michigan

As many of you know when I get the chance to run off and research presents itself, I don't turn it down. Last Thursday Mark announced that he would have a car "that needed miles on it" for the weekend. He is an engineer with one of the automakers here in town. At times when they change things on the brain of one of the newer models they are working on, they need the car driven some miles to check how it works out. Of course we volunteer to help. Wouldn't you?

So Saturday we ran off to chase a few families that had migrated over to Berrien Springs, Michigan. Berrien Springs is in Berrien County, Michigan which is very close to being on Lake Michigan on the western side of the state. Basically the most Southwestern county in Michigan.

First stop - the library. A nice library, with a genealogy room that clearly needs a bit of tlc. The librarian was helpful. I had printed out group sheets on the two families that were of interest to me.  I've included the larger of the two here. 

Remember that you can click on the image and it will open in a seperate window with a larger image.  Use your browsers back button to return to Genealogy Frame Of Mind. 

The family we were working on was that of Jesse Garber & his wife, Amanda Coning.  Amanda is a Boomershine descendant.  As you can see from my group sheet we were busy.  Mark went for the books, I went for obituaries.  The first thing I found were several notebooks, arranged alphabetically.  I noted the words non-inclusive on the spine with the title.  My search of the notebooks yeilded nothing.  Very nicely done but didn't have what I was looking for. 

 Next to the notebooks I found a small six drawer cabinet.  I pulled out a drawer and found cards with obituaries that had been removed from newspapers.  After a quick search, they were alphabetical as well, I came across the obituary for one of the sons, Vernon Edward Garber.  Nice extra - it had his photo! Luckily we had the camera!  It named names & places.  A very good find.  It also stated he was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.  We already knew that his parents were there so no surprise really.  With his obituary I also noted that one of his sisters had remarried, something we didn't have. 

With no further luck I sort of felt a let down. Was that the end?  As I turned around to talk with Mark who was still checking out the offerings on the shelf, I noted yet another multi-drawer cabinet on the counter top between us.  Quickly pulling out a drawer, I began a search for the surnames in question.  BINGO!  I quickly located two of the sisters and a niece.  I had surnames for the husbands but not first names.  These obits yeilded those names as well as other information on locations for the remaing siblings not in Berrien Springs area. 

Mark had found the cemetery books and we started to look for burial locations.  We found the one for Rose Hill cemetery and it had maps, complete with plot locations, and a listing of burials.  With the location of this we were able to locate all that we had found obituaries on.  Very cool! 

I still had two more that I knew died there, but could not locate any obituary for in the boxes or notebooks.  One was from this group sheet, the other was the one on the other group sheet.  I checked the cabinet and found the newspapers I needed.  Both obituaries were quickly found on the front page of the day after their death.  SUCCESS!   The downside was that the microfilm reader handle did not work so all film had to be loaded & rewound by hand. Did I mention that the film reader did not print?  So both obits were typed into the computer as found.  A chore but worth the effort with the location of the two obituaries.

After cleaning up all our books and putting our microfilm away we thanked the librarian, said our good bye's and headed out to Rose Hill.  We located all but two of the graves we searched for.  They are now photographed, renamed and linked in our software. 

A day trip succesfully researching with the love of my life -  It's a very good thing!

Happy Researching!

Karen