Wordless Wednesday - The Enon Adena Mound

Wordless Wednesday - Clark County, Ohio One Room Schoolhouse 1878

Wordless Wednesday - The First Post Office in Franklin, Ohio

The first post office in Frankin, Warren County, Ohio, along the banks of the Great Miami River.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Search Engines!

Not long after I got married, about 28 years ago, I found a bound "family history" book at a discount store here in town. I thought it was one of the greatest things I had ever seen. It started with a record of our marriage, and then it took my husband and me through each of our family trees. I was pretty lucky. I knew the names of my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. For many people, that is a lot of information. But, after I filled out those names and what dates I knew, I still had quite a few blank spots to fill. Back then, my resources were pretty limited as to where I could find further information. I remember asking my paternal grandmother about her lineage and she told me her grandmother was a "Jacks". She couldn't remember much more.

Fast forward to 2002 and the availability of a myriad of resources on the internet and genealogy CD-rom programs.

I don't enjoy driving and I'm limited to the amount of time I can actually research outside my home, so the internet has been my lifeline to my family history research.

I was able to find out from my aunt that my 2nd great grandmother's first name was "Ella". So, armed with the knowledge that I had an ancestor named "Ella Jacks" I headed for my free trial membership at one of the first genealogy websites. Lo and behold, I found her with her husband , Eli, and her father and mother in law, Elkanah and Catherine Jacks. They were living in Sabina, Clinton County, Ohio, so I knew for sure it was them. Now, I had more names to search, but the census records gave me only so much info.

I headed for the message boards, trying to link up with distant "Jacks" cousins. In short order, I began to discover the entire "Jacks" family tree.

At that point, search engines became even more valuable. Searching for an uncommon name like "Elkanah" seemed like it had some very good potential for return. I wasn't disappointed. I discovered that Heritage Pursuit had several vintage history books, printed, in full, online. In The History of Clinton County, Ohio, by Beers, 1882, I found a particularly interesting story.

from the History of Clinton County, 1882
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
RICHLAND TOWNSHIP.
BY THOMPSON DOUGLASS.
Mrs. Catharine Jacks came into the township in 1818. She was born in Woodford County, Ky., March 15, 1795, and died in Richland Township June 25, 1880. She was the daughter of Timothy and Betsey (Hoblit) Bennett, who moved to Warren County in 1800, and to Clinton County in 1801, where they located on a farm east of Wilmington. Catharine married Joseph Doan in September, 1813, and moved with him to Indiana, where they remained until 1818, when they came to Richland Township, settling on the McClintock farm where Mr. Doan died September 2, 1825, leaving seven children. On the 7th of May, 1826, Mrs. Doan married Elkanah Jacks, by whom she had five children. Her first husband came to Richland Township from North Carolina in 1810.

Mrs. Doan married Elkanah Jacks. Okay. Catherine was married once before she married Elkanah. Check. And she was the daughter of Timothy Bennett and Betsey Hoblit. HOME RUN! Two more names, two more ancestors.

The next thing I found, IN THE SAME BOOK was this paragraph:

Union Township-Timothy Bennet is credited with being the first to locate a home within the limits of what is now Union Township, having settled east of the site of Wilmington in the month of March, 1801. No other family arrived for over two years, or until the fall of 1803, when George Haworth became the second settler in the township.

What? My 5th great grandfather was the FIRST settler in Union Township, Clinton County, Ohio. Hey, doesn't that qualify me to be a member of The First Families of Clinton County?

Guess I had better join the genealogical society there. (Which I soon did!)

I found Timothy and Betsey's children in history books in Tazewell County, IL, which led me to finding their gravesites on findagrave.com.

You see how it works? Sometimes, you have to get creative in the manner in which you search, but you won't find anything unless you look for it! Seek and Ye Shall Find!

The Newspaper Article or Why I Love Curt Dalton

Curt Dalton is one of my heroes. If you live outside of the Dayton, Ohio area, you probably have never heard his name, but in the circle of those of love Dayton history, Curt is quite an icon. His official job is as visual resources coordinator for Dayton History, the official name of Dayton's historical society. However, he is also an author of several books about Dayton, as well as the creator of the website Dayton History Books Free Online (http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/index.html). You don't have to love Dayton, Ohio to love this site.

The first time I came into contact with Curt was through a series of resource books he created that I just happened to stumble upon while shopping one Christmas. They were in a group of books, thrown into a heap on a table at a discount bookstore. They didn't look like anything special. The covers looked like a strong construction paper with ink sketches and an inexpensive binding. I wasn't sure what they were at first, until I opened them up. On each page were names, listed alphabetically, along with dates and page numbers. They were resource books that someone named Curt Dalton had painstakingly created from Dayton newspapers and various other local publications. He had listed the names of those persons about whom articles had been written and photographs had been published. Not only that, he told me the name of the publication and page number where the information could be found. I think I made an audible gasp when I realized what I had in my hands! Quickly, I opened the books to look for Norris, Routsong, Swadner, Suman; the names of those branches of my family that were rooted early in Dayton. To my delight, there were several articles listing members of the Routsong family. I quickly picked up the rest of the books. There was only one copy of each book, and they were now going to belong to me!

My next step was the library. The Dayton-Montgomery County Public Library in downtown Dayton has a large local history room with microfilm copies of the publications to which Curt had referred. Armed with my new books, dates, and names, I headed for the librarian. I found several small articles, and some group pictures where it was hard to pick out my family member. However, there was truly one gem among them. On page 5 of The Dayton Daily News on 4 August, 1908, was a family photograph and story about my great great grandfather, Henry Mathias Routsong and his wife, Clarinda Swadner Routsong. My great grandmother, Elizabeth, was not in the picture, but her brother was. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself.

Here is what the article said:

Eighty Four Years Old and Has Never Been on a Railroad Train

Representatives of four generations of the Routsong family were gathered Sunday at the home of Lester Routsong, Rural Route No. 2 on the Dayton and Lebanon Pike. In the party were the oldest representatives, H.M. Routsong and wife Mrs. Clarinda Routsong, aged respectively 84 and 82; their son, William A. Routsong, aged 56, their grandson, Lester Routsong, aged 30, and great-grandson, Harold Routsong, aged 8. This was the first occasion for the assembling of the entire family together for a number of years. H.M. Routsong, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Routsong, was born near Dayton and has lived on the same farm for the past 84 years. His parents came to Ohio when it was almost a backwoods, from Middletown, MD. Evidently, the family is what is commonly termed long-lived for he has two sisters, Mrs. Caroline Swadner and Mrs. Rebecca Emmert, who are aged 82 and 80 respectively. At the age of 26, he was married to Clarinda Swadner. Eight children were the result of this union, of which only three survive. For a man of his years, Mr. Routsong is most spry and active. He works daily on the farm. To rusticity and the quiet of farm life, Mr. Routsong is peculiarly wedded, and this same feeling has been instilled in most of his descendants. When a very young man he rode to Dayton to see the first train. While he has, of course, observed several trains since, he has never in his life ridden in a railroad coach. A conclusive proof of his unusual strength was demonstrated about 8 years ago when he was on the petit jury. During that time he made 37 trips to the city on foot.

This was just the jolt I needed to jumpstart my family history research. If this was here, what else was out there, just waiting for me to find it? I haven't stopped searching and it's because Curt Dalton cared about Dayton History enough to spend his valuable time creating that book for people like me, and that is why he is my hero!