Custer Massacre

Found a grave stone in Brownville, NY cemetery that had a reference to Gen. Custer.  I was lucky enough to find his obit on fultonhistory.com and include it below.  He just missed being a fallen hero.  A picture of his stone is available on his FAG memorial.

Watertown Daily Times, Watertown, NY, Thursday Afternoon, March 1, 1917, Page 6, Column 4

Was With Custer in the Far West
Veteran of Civil War and Indian Wars
George W Ceigler Dies
His Term of Enlistment Expired Six Weeks Before the Custer Massacre at the Little Big Horn

George W Ceigler, well known Civil war veteran and pulp and paper maker, died late Wednesday afternoon at his home, 825 Cooper street, following a years illness, aged 70 years. He had been in failing health for over a year and had not been able to work since last June. He was born at H???lion, Pa, Oct. 26, 1846, a son of George W and Sarah Welterhahn Ceigler, and spent his early life in that locality. When a boy, his parents moved to Lebanon, Pa., where his father died in 1865. He was educated in schools at that place and when the Civil war broke out, he entered the United States army as a driver. He was wounded at Gettysburg the third day, July 3, 1863, and was carried from the field with two bullets in his left leg. As soon as he recovered, he again took up service in the regular army and was assigned to the regiment commanded by General George A Custer. In early May, 1876, six weeks before Custer's massacre by Sioux, at the Little Big Horn river in Montana, his term of enlistment expired and he left active service of the army. Had he remained with Custer until June 25 of that year, he would undoubtedly have shared the fate of the brave men of the Custer command.

In 1877 Mr. Ceigler came to this city and had resided in or near this city ever since. He was employed on farms at first, but later engaged as a pulp and paper maker. He was employed for a number of years at the mill at Felts Mills, and later was employed at the Harmon paper mill at Brownville. For a number of years he was employed as pulp maker at No. 4 of the International Paper Co.'s chain, located at Glen Park. Last June he gave up active occupation on account of failing health.
He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Adeline Palmer Ceigler, one son, Lewis W Ceigler, two grand children, Ida Maud and Helen May Ceigler, and two step children, John Johnson and Mrs. Frederick Jackson, all of this city.

The funeral will be held from his late home, 825 Cooper street, Friday at 2:30 pm, Rev. James Brockle, pastor of Hope Presbyterian church will officiate. The body will be placed in the vault until spring, when interment will be made in Brownville cemetery.

Jefferson County's Clever Pioneers

I hope you are enjoying Memorial Day.  Just posted a bio for Moses Eames, FAG# 90763142, which I include below.  A very interesting person and another Jefferson county native you've never heard about but who made big contributions to the development of the county.  He and Dr. Samuel Guthrie, FAG# 83084724,  both appear to have been very cleaver and curious men.

The Oswego Daily Palladium, Oswego, NY, Wednesday, June 8, 1892, Page 6, Column 4

Death of a Jefferson County Pioneer

Moses Eames, one of the pioneers of Jefferson county, died at his home in Watertown yesterday. Mr. Eames was one of the oldest residents of Jefferson county and his family was among the earliest pioneers, his father, Daniel Eames, locating in Rutland in 1802. Moses was the ninth son and twelfth of thirteen children. He was born in Rutland, March 19^th, 1808. He was always interested in agriculture and kindred pursuits and it was he who discovered the present method of manufacturing cheese. The original portable steam engine was also a product of his brain. He was a member of the Hunter lodge, an organization connected with the Patriot war, in 1838. He represented Jefferson county in the Legislature in 1855, was author of the bill passed that year providing for the organization of agricultural societies. He was a Republican, an Odd Fellow, a member of the Sons of Temperance and was a vice president of the Jefferson County Historical Society since it's formation.

Jefferson County Journal, Adams, NY Tuesday, June 21, 1892

Hon. Moses Eames, one of the oldest residents of Jefferson county, and ??? ???  died at his home in Watertown, Tuesday morning, aged 84 years. Mr. Eames was possessed of an inventive mind. He gave to Jefferson county the credit of the discovery of the present method of manufacturing American cheese. The original portable steam engine was also a product of his brain. In 185? he introduced the first drain tile; and in 1852 the first mowing machine in his section. Mr. Eames was also preeminent in Republican politics. Before the war he sided many slaves to escape to Canada. He was educated at Lowville academy.

Ghostery

I use the Firefox browser and after the last update, it started hanging up after shutdown.  Ccleaner said it couldn't finish the cleaning because Firefox was still open, and I couldn't restart it because the profile was in use.  Installed the Ghostery add on, a tracker blocker, and haven't had the problem since.  The trackers must have been causing the shut down to hang.

While researching Calkins in Oswego county, NY, I found a interesting article in the Pulaski Democrat, 1884 about the coming of 4 Calkins families to the Town of Richland.  They were living in Ontario just before the War of 1812 and had to sign a loyalty oath to the Crown or get out.  They chose to go and ended up in Oswego county.  I'll post it on my site as soon as it's transcribed.  That could take a while as it's tree columns long.

Bobolinks, Wilson's snipes and barn swallows are back.  The frogs sing most nights.

Hartson Page Added

While researching Masner, I found so much material on Hartson that I created a Hartson page in the Family events section of my homepage.  In the Rome Semi-Weekly Citizen, I found a long article about a multiple structure fire that burned the hotel, several houses and barns and all associated out houses in Stokes  August 1896.  I've fished in Delta lake and been to the state park and it's interesting to read about people who lived in Delta before it was flooded.  Baretown and Quaker Hill are mentioned but I'm not sure where they were except somewhere north of Rome.

April Snow

An inch of heavy wet snow with high winds today.  We'll be lucky to avoid a power outage.  The new leaves are holding the snow but maybe the wind will shake it off.

Added a few more items to Masner Events.  They reported a thief of $7.25 while they were all away working at a canning factory.  I didn't know there were canning factories in Rome. The family apparently came to New York from Germany in June of 1845.  I can't tie it down exactly because of the early date but based on the dates from the 1880 census for Mary/Anna Masner, b. Germany 1802, it appears they arrived June 6, 1845 and the surname was Maussner or that is what the immigration agent thought he heard. 

Added a new page to Family Events, Jefferson Vets B.  This is more of the obits and news articles I've found while looking for information on veterans buried in Jefferson county.  Someone hit by a train and another caught in old, new then, belt driven farm equipment.  The newspapers when into a lot of detail about injuries back then.

Very odd spring

Very odd spring to be sure. Nice mild days with freezing nights.

Created a Masner page in the Family Events section of my website. It also contains Hartson, Holland and Kipfer. Some of this material was moved from the Others folder which is now quite small. I was asked a question about the Hartsons in my ancestry tree and in answering that, I found more information about the Masner family. Putting it together with the material I already had , it was enough for a new page.

Update

Updated the Family events for Calkins and Applegate. An obituary for Helen Calkins, wife of Perry, was added. On the Applegate page, I was able to add an obituary for Edmund and a news item about the death of his first wife, Nettie King. They had a incubator in the back of their home that was warmed by a kerosene lamp. When the lamp caught fire, she threw it out the window but her clothes caught fire. By the time they were extinguished , she was burned on her lower body and died two weeks later.

Whenever I encounter situations such as " Paul Smith son of Mr. and Mrs John Smith", I enter Paul's father as John in my tree, with no entry for his mother as I don't know her given of maiden name. If it's " Paul, son of Mrs. Mary Smith", I enter his mother as Mary Unknown. It's unlikely her maiden name was Smith and I use Unknown as a place holder. It now appears that one of the largest families in my tree is Unknown and it's surprizing how many people named their children, male and female, Unknown. When things are slow I attempt to clear some of these up but that often result in another Unknown a generation back.