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Paul R. Swan     15 Feb 2009 Return to Home Page Hide All Notes Swan ~ Hartzell Family History
Swan ~ Hartzell Family History
ALFORD CHAPTER
  ALFORD, MICHAEL1     born 1760 Ireland, died 1800 Pennsylvania
  m  MARTHA MCCREADY     born 1764 Ireland
  ALFORD, HUGH2     born 1798 Pennsylvania, died 1851
  m  MARTHA WELLER     born 1805 New Jersey, died 1894 Iowa
  ALFORD, JOHN WELLER3     born 1837 Pennsylvania, died 1905 Oklahoma Terr.
  m  ELIZABETH TEETER     born 1843 Pennsylvania, died 1906 Oklahoma Terr.
  ALFORD, MARY JANE "MERRIE"4     born 1866 Iowa, died 1942 Missouri
  m  JOHN EATON HARTZELL     born 1862 Kansas, died 1904 Oklahoma Terr.
INTRODUCTION
From the Alford American Family Association's web pages we have this picturesque (but probably apocryphal) account of the history of the surname Alford from Rev. Josiah George Alford's Alford Family Notes published in London, England in 1908.
"It all began about 1160 when there was this fellow Richard who lived in a castle near the old Roman road where it forded the River Dee going from England into Wales. Richard was known as "Richard de Ald Ford" or "Richard by the old ford" and that evolved into Richard Aldford. To this day there is a town of Aldford in Chestershire near the River Dee. One can still see faint remains of the Alford Castle that was situated there. In a church there one can view a brass wall plaque that mentions one of the Alford daughters."
There are also towns named Alford in Lincolnshire, Somerset and Surrey, as well as in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It's interesting that there are no towns in the British Isles named Alvord (although there are several of that spelling in the United States) even though for surnames there are more Alvords than Alfords in the IGI for Britain.
The primary source for our own earliest generations of Alford is The McCready Clan, of Scotland, Ireland and Pennsylvania by Marie McConnell [McConnell, 1965]. See the introduction to the McCready family in this history for an analysis of this source and, in particular, a discussion of its limitations as to the earliest generations. Although she doesn't document their location in the British Isles, it is most likely that Michael and Martha (McCready) Alford were part of the so-called Scotch Irish immigrants who settled western Pennsylvania, among other places in this country. Members of this race were Protestant Scotch by recent bloodline (although from Ireland if you go back to their fourth century ancestors), but resident in Northern Ireland for a few generations before coming to this country in the mid-eighteenth century [Dickson, 1966].
Alford, of course, is not a very Scottish (or Irish, for that matter) sounding surname. During the reign of Charles I of England, Parliament enacted a scheme of raising money to pay for an army to suppress the rebellion in 1641 of the Catholic Irish [O'Hart, 1884]. In return for each "Adventure" purchased (we might call them "Ventures" today), each "Adventurer" was promised, and eventually received, land in Ulster in proportion to the investment made. The name of Alford is one of those who participated in this enterprise (as is Swan) [Bottingheimer, 1971], and that individual could conceivably be the progenitor of our Alford family in Ireland, about 150 years (say, five generations) before our Michael Alford came to America. That James Alford, a London grocer who invested £50 in March 1642, finally received in 1653/54, at the lotteries held at Grocers' Hall, London, during the Commonwealth, 111 Irish acres in Waterford, Munster, somewhat south of the more likely roots of our McCready line in County Antrim.
Two hundred years later, by the time of the Griffith Evaluation of households in 1848, there were no Alfords living in Waterford. There were, in fact, only two dozen Alford familys in that survey of all Ireland, most living in or near Dublin.
Our Michael Alford appears to have immigrated in 1790 (see discussion below). There were earlier Alfords in Pennsylvania who might have been related. One was a Hugh Alford taxed on 100 acres in West Pennsborough township of Cumberland county, south central Pennsylvania, in 1780. Since Michael and Martha of our first known generation named a son Hugh (our ancestor), this earlier namesake might be a relative. And since we lose track of Michael and Martha between their 1790 immigration and their purchase of land in western Pennsylvania in late 1798, they might well have been staying with relatives during that period.
Michael Alford & Martha McCready

Michael1

Michael was born about 1760 in Ireland, and died 1799/1800 in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

Michael and Martha married before 1789 in Ireland.

Martha was born 1764 in Ireland, the daughter of Hugh and Mary (Dickson) McCready. Martha was married 2nd to James Quiqley.

Michael was an immigrant from Ireland in 1790, possibly coming over with the McCreadys, his wife's family [McConnell, 1965]. This latter surname is undoubtedly Scotch or Scotch-Irish, the people who were the principal settlers of Beaver County (along with some Germans, including our Wellers) on the western border of Pennsylvania. Although some may have come there earlier, the official occupation of the county, then Allegheny, began in 1792. Settlement was dangerous, however, until the Treaty of Greenville which provided for the safety of the settlers after the defeat of the Indians in 1795. It is probable that Michael and Martha tarried in the eastern part of the state when they first arrived, as did some McCreadys who were in Lancaster County in 1790 but later moved to Washington County, just south of Beaver.
The history of this land is interesting. Before Beaver County was created, all the land west of the Allegheny River and Conewango Creek had been purchased by the General Assembly in 1784, and set aside into what were known as Donation Lands to the north, and Depreciation Lands to the south. Depreciation Land was offered for sale in 1785 to redeem certificates given to Pennsylvania Line soldiers to compensate them for having received pay in depreciated currency. Donation Lands were set aside to provide tracts to donate to each Pennsylvania Line soldier and officer who served in Continental service to the end of the war. After it was found that the tracts were not being utilized for their intended purpose, the unsold tracts were opened for settlement in 1792. That represents the earliest date that the Alfords and McCreadys could have settled (legally, at least) in what became South Beaver Township.
The area where the Alfords settled is near the forks of the Mahoning, Shenango, and Neshanock creeks along the Pennsylvania-Ohio border. This was the location of Kuskuski, a center for the Iroquois Indians of the Ohio Valley during the decade from 1743 to 1753. After that, the general area was under the control of the Delaware tribe, until finally opened to white settlers. New Castle was platted at the juncture of the creeks in North Beaver Township in 1798, actually laid out in 1800, and by 1806 had twenty houses. The first white settlers were James Stewart, his brothers-in-law John and Hugh Wood, and John McWhorter of New Castle, Delaware, who came together early in 1798. (See our McCready Chapter with regard to a possible Stewart ancestry of Martha.) It was south and east of this town that the Alfords, McCreadys, and Wellers established their farms and homes. In 1800 Beaver County was erected to include this region, but remained attached to Allegheny County until 1803. In 1849 a new county of Lawrence would be carved out of Beaver and Mercer Counties, with New Castle as its county seat.
Michael and Martha on 27 Nov 1798 bought from Ephraim Young 400 acres on Little Beaver Creek in Allegheny County adjoining land of John McCready [Allegheny Deeds; 10:216, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Deed Book]. Thus, both families settled in this part of western Pennsylvania very shortly after the first settlers came early that same year.
A map of Beaver county as it was shown in 1817 is shown below [Bausman, 1904]. I've added a dark oval to mark the location of the Alford and McCready parcels on Little Beaver Creek, and the land from there northward later became part of Lawrence County. The dashed line just north of their properties is the northern limit of the Distribution Lands. The Ohio River can be seen looping briefly across the southern edge of the county.
image: Beaver Townships 1817

Beaver Townships 1817

By the time of the 1800 census Michael had died, and Martha was censused (as Martha Allford) in South Beaver Township with one son ten to fifteen (Stewart), and 4 sons (John, William, Hugh and Thomas) and 2 daughters (Elizabeth and Elinor) under the age of ten, and herself 26 to 44. She appeared in the census between William McCready, identified by McConnell [1965] as her brother, and John Sharp, possibly the man who married Mary McCready, daughter of Daniel McCready, a probable first cousin of Martha. On the 20 March 1802 tax list, Martha was still listed as head of household, but in 1803, the tax list for Big Beaver Township shows only James Quigley with 200 acres. Apparently he and Martha were married 1802/1803.
In 1810 James Quigley was censused in Big Beaver Twp., Beaver County (11001 22010) indicating one male and two females under ten (Martha Alford and Julia Ann and James Quigley), 1 male and two females 10 to 15 (either William, Hugh or Thomas Alford, and presumably Elizabeth and Elinor Alford who were actually over 16), a female 26 to 44 (Martha, who was actually 45 or 46), and himself over 45.
James Quigley was censused 1820 (010001 01001 0100), a farmer with a male and a female between 10 and 16 years (Julia Ann and James Quigley, about 15 and 14 at the time), and he and Martha were both over age 45. Her Alford children by 1820 were all on their own in Shenango Township. It's interesting that later land maps show that the McCreadys moved north from Martha's land, while her sons moved a ways east to Shenango.
Maps of surveyed plats in Lawrence County are available online in the Digital Map Library of the U. S. GenWeb Archives. The Big Beaver Twp. map shows in detail the 430 acres plat of "Martha Quigley, Executrix for heirs of Michael Alford". Abuting her land is the property of her brother John McCready, which he called "Difficulty Surmounted". Somewhat to the north lies the property of Robert Paden, Martha's brother-in-law, husband of her sister Elizabeth McCready.
Here I've taken a detail of that map, on the left below, then traced the three land parcel boundaries in black, Little Beaver Creek (in blue), and county and township boundaries (in green) to overlay them on a modern USGS map of the area. The plat map had to be rotated slightly to align the boundaries. The vertical green line is the boundary between Little Beaver Township, on the left, and Big Beaver Township. The town of New Galilee is about 0.4 miles south of the southernmost tip of Martha's plat. So, if you've driven the Pennnsylvania Turnpike in the western part of the state, you've crossed the land that 200 years ago belonged to the Alfords.
image: Martha (McCready) Alford Quigley plat map

Martha (McCready) Alford Quigley plat map

This plat of Martha's straddles the line marked (on the original, east of this detail) "County Line", between Lawrence and Beaver Counties, established in 1849. This dates the original to sometime after that year. From the dates shown, the land was surveyed and warranted, January 1810 through November 1813. When Beaver County was erected in 1800, South Beaver Township extended from the Ohio River north to the Donation Land line [Bausman, 1904], which explains the census location of South Beaver Twp. for this plot of land in 1800.
The children of Michael and Martha (McCready) Alford are taken from McConnell, page 153. She cites a chart by a Mrs. Eckles who in 1927 sent a copy to Mrs. James G. Woodruff of Dodge City, Kansas, a descendant of Daniel McCready. After Mrs. Woodruff's death, her husband sent the chart to Mrs. McConnell in 1961. That this chart was made by a descendant of Daniel McCready provides circumstantial evidence that he and our Martha McCready were closely related, probably siblings. Martha and Julia Ann were named on this Eckles chart, both by given names only, but McConnell says they "had to be Quigleys". (These two were followed by James Quigley - explicitly - on this chart of Martha's children.) Michael's son Thomas was according to the chart born in 1800, and by the time of the census that year Michael had died, but this Martha could have been conceived between those two times, and born after her father died. The reason for this interpretation of mine is that the Weller Genealogy from Mrs. Markley gives the name of the wife of William Weller as Martha Alford. In 1830 William Weller was censused in the middle of a group of seven relatives of Martha (McCready) Alford. The 1850 census has the age of William Weller's wife Martha as 48 (thus born 1801/02, in Pennsylvania). Finally, William Weller's sister Martha Weller married Hugh Alford, son of Michael and Martha. So these are the clues to Martha's identity as the daughter of Michael Alford, not of James Quiqley, and inaccuracies of the date estimates surely contribute to the difficulty in pinning down the sequence of events.
The last child of Martha's, James Quigley born 1804/05, married a Mary Sharp and they had eleven children.
The earliest of the few firm birth dates we have for Martha's children is that of John, born 18 Jul 1790. This comes from a well researched lineage of Ruth Eckles, John's wife, furnished to me by Joe Eddleman [Personal Communication, 16 Oct 2000]. The other dates are from census ages except in two other cases.
Martha's children by James Quigley are, of course, not Alfords, but they are our step-relatives. I will provide their story in the McCready Chapter of our history, but simply mention here that by James she had Julia Ann and James Quigley, born about 1804 and on 8 Aug 1805, respectively. James, Jr., had eleven children born about 1835 through 1860, who for the most part stayed in Slippery Rock Township. What we know of them will be included in the McCready Chapter, but until that appears online, anyone interested is invited to get in touch with me by e-mail to discuss that lineage.
The eight children of Michael and Martha (McCready) Alford were Stewart, John A., Elizabeth, Elinor, William, Hugh, Thomas and Martha.
i     Stewart Alford, son, born about 1789 in Ireland, died 22 Feb 1854 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and was buried in New Castle, Pennsylvania.
  Stewart was married before Jan 1847 to Sarah Shaw {born 1792/1795 in Washington Co., Pennsylvania, and died 1867 in Lawrence, Pennsylvania}.
  Stewart was a soldier and lost a leg during the siege of Fort Erie, August through October, 1814, by the British forces. Sometime after his return home, he moved across the state line to Unity Twp., Columbiana County, Ohio. This location was about 14 mile west and 8 miles south of Shenango Twp. where he was raised. He was censused, as Stewart Alfred, in Unity Unity in 1840 (11000001… - 100001…) indicating that he was aged 50-60 and his wife 30-40. The children in the household were a boy and girl aged under five, and a boy aged 5-10. I don't have the ages of Sarah's children by her first husband, so it's not clear as to just whose children these were, but probably Stewart's step-children.
  Stewart worked as a shoemaker, and lived in Shenango township with his brothers Thomas and Michael. The 1850 census gives his age as 58, and his birthplace as Ireland. This combination contradicts the well attested fact that his older brother John was born on 18 Jul 1790 during the voyage to America. The simplest explanation I've come up with is that Stewart was actually older than John, so born in Ireland before 1790 and was at least 61 years old in 1850. This is supported by the fact that Stewart gave his age as 51 in 1841 on military pensioner papers. Consequently (Jan 2009), Ive moved his position in the family to firstborn.
 
image: Stewart Alford, 1850 in Shenango Twp.

Stewart Alford, 1850 in Shenango Twp.

  With Stewart in 1850 was Sarah, his wife, aged 57, David Gribble (sic), 10, and Amanda Garner, 16. McConnell gives Sarah's birth year as ca. 1799, so she must have read the census as age 51 (the horizontal part of the "7" is quite faint), and speculates that the two young children in the household were grandchildren, which is not the case. Nothing more has been found about Amanda, but see below regarding David.
  The facts of Sarah's life were given to me in January, 2009 by Kathy Miller [Personal Communication and WorldConnect web pages]. All that follows here are the result of Kathy's research. Although she is not completely sure, all of the evidence she has collected points to Sarah's parents being John and Jane Shaw of Washington County, Pennsylvania. John brought his family north to Beaver County about 1801 and purchased land in that part of Shenango Twp. which later became Slippery Rock Twp.
  Sarah's first marriage in 1813 was with David Crable, and the couple had seven children, George Washington, John T., Angeline, Samuel, Elizabeth, Mary and David Perry, all born about 1814 through 1840, all except possibly the first born in Shenango Twp., Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The younget child, David Perry Crable, is clearly the David "Gribble" censused in 1850 with Sarah and Stewart, and hence Stewart's step-son.
  Sometime after David died in 1844 and before Jan 1847, Sarah married Stewart Alford and was his wife until he died 22 Feb 1854. The 1847 date marks the commencement of a court battle in which some of her Crable chlldren instituted procedings to eject Sarah and Stewart from land they had inherited from their father, Dr. David Crable. That struggle lasted essentially all of the rest of Sarah's life, although it abated somewhat when she remarried again after Stewart's death.
  Sarah was married 3 May 1855 to Thomas Hanna, a well-to-do farmer of Shenango Twp., and lived with him for another decade until her own death in 1867. The couple were censused (as Hamah) 1860 in Shenango Twp. living next to his son Thos. R. "Hamah", a Farm Agent.
  Sarah wrote her will 25 Jun 1867 which was probated in Lawrence County 20 Sep 1867. Her executor was James Shaw, and mentioned in the will were her sons John J. and David Crable, and her daughter Angeline Cubbison. As far as is known, Sarah and Stewart had no children together, since she was about 50 when they married.
ii     John A. Alford, son, born 18 Jul 1790 on the Atlantic Ocean, died 2 Jun 1877 and was buried in Center United, Presbyterian, New Castle.
  John A. was married in 1810 to Ruth Eckles (1) {born 15 Aug 1792 in Beaver County, dtr of Arthur and Abagail ( ) (Mathews) Eckles and died 30 Oct 1865 in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania}. He was married 1865/1870 to Elisabeth ____ (2) {born 1800/1801 in Pennsylvania}.
  It has been reported by McConnell, [op. cit.], that John was born while the family was coming over from Ireland. In the 1880 census his daughters Martha and Eleanor, at that time widows living together, reported that their father was born on the Atlantic Ocean, while his sons Arthur, Thomas and Stewart said that he was born in Ireland. Then, in 1900, Stewart changed his vote and said that John's birthplace was "Sea". I interpret these records to mean that the family emigrated from Ireland, and that John, conceived there, was born on the voyage to the new world.
  Unfortunately, John's own 1850 census record is somewhat defective as to his birthplace. This particular census taker only wrote down the place of birth when it differed from the previous ones, leaving blanks instead of using ditto marks. The result implies, incorrectly, that both John and his son Arthur, adjacent in the census, were born in New Jersey, a previous family's birthplace. Clearly, the census taker simply neglected to record the birthplaces of both Alfords, an unfortunate oversight from any point of view.
  John's age in various censuses varies only slightly (over 10 in 1800, over 40 in 1830, 59 in 1850, 70 in 1860 and 80 in 1870). Joe Eddleman [Personal Correspondence, 16 Oct 2000], a researcher of the Eckles family, gave 18 July 1790 for his birth. I understand that his source for this date was Eckles and Eckels families in the United States... by Harry E. Eckles, 1946. Thus the year of the family's immigration would seem to be firmly fixed as 1790.
  John enlisted at Albany (New Albany in eastern PA?) 20 May 1814, in the 15th U. S. Infantry. He was 23 years old, 5 feet, 7 3/4 inches tall, born in Ireland, and enlisted for the duration of the war. I don't know how long he served, but his enlistment was just before the seige of Fort Erie during which his brother Stewart lost his leg, and the War of 1812 wound down in 1815.
  On the 1815 Big Beaver Township Tax List, John appears owning 80 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow.
  John was censused 1820 and 1830 in Shenango Township, Beaver County, adjoining New Castle to the southeast, where his brothers Hugh and Thomas also settled. In that latter year he and his wife were recorded as 30-40 years old, and they had 2 sons under 5, one 5 to 10, and one 10-15, plus four daughters, one in each five year age range.
  In 1836 John and his brother Thomas were signers of a petition to divide Shenango Township to form Slipperyrock Township. In 1850 he and his family were censused in South Slipperyrock, where he remained a farmer for the rest of his life.
  John and Ruth, 59 and 58, were censused 1850 in South Slipperyrock Tp. with their three youngest children, Rebecca, Stewart and Silas, ages 16, 14 and 11.
  The census for John in 1860 presents an anomaly, as it shows John Alford, 70, and Elizabeth Alford, 63 in Slipperyrock Township. But the Eckles web page, discussed below, puts Ruth's death on 30 Oct 1865. So, either that date is wrong, and John remarried, or they had separated and some Elizabeth Alford, otherwise unknown, is living with John, and was still ten years later. Also in their home in 1860 were Sylvester Alford, 16, and N. E. Zeeliche, a 9 year old female. I've not been able to find out anything more for Sylvester, and I have no idea what the reorded name Zeeliche really was.
  The 1860 census does not show that he was born in Pennsylvania, and the actual place name is carelessly written, but I think it reads "Unown". Finally, however in 1870, when John was 80 years old, we have a clear record that he reported his own birthplace as Ireland. John, a Retired Farmer, was censused in Slippery Rock with Elisabeth Alford, 69, and Elisabeth Guist, 18, both keeping house for him. Note that these last two censuses place this Elizabeth Alford birth year as 1796/1801.
  Ruth's father Arthur and grandfather Charles Eckles were both born in Northern Ireland according to Joe Eddleman. This latter source relates details of the famiy's emigration ca. 1748. While examining IGI records of Eckles in Ireland, I came across a John Dickson Eccles, born 22 Sep 1783 in Ecclesville, Tyrone, Ireland, son of Daniel Eccles and Ann Dickson. This Ann would have been just one generation later than the Mary and Elizabeth Dickson sisters proported to have married McCready brothers, with Mary being the mother of Martha (McCready) Alford. While no relationship can be inferred, these Eccles/Dickson/McCready/Alford/Eckles connections at least provide a hint not to overlook County Tyrone in researching our McCready ancestry.
  The following analysis of the children of John and Ruth tries to combine the various information sources using the theory of parsimony, which dictates that the minimum number of children to fit the data is the best solution. The first two double columns are combined into minimum span recorded ranges up to 1830. These are then parsed in the next column into the typical two year average period between children. Eleanor's known birthdate from Joe Eddleman, the later census data of John and his sons' households are added, and finally the list given by McConnell citing a chart from Floyd Alford made early last century is appended. That chart had "Ealnor" first, and I had to switch the order for John and Thomas using the latter's 1880 census. This result is surely at least in part incorrect, but causes the least insult at this time to the known facts:
 
image: ALT TITLE

 

  The thirteen children of John A. and Ruth (Eckles) Alford:
1     Unnamed Alford, dtr., born about 1811.
  There were two daughters censused in 1820 as well as in 1830, but we have no name for this eldest one.
2     Unnamed Alford, son, born about 1813.
  There were also two sons censused in John and Ruth's family in 1820. We do not have a name for this first son, either.
3     Unnamed Alford, dtr., born about 1815.
4     Arthur E. Alford, son, born 1815/1817 and died 30 May 1885.
  Arthur E. was married 26 Nov 1842 to Rebecca Scott {born 2 Oct 1820}.
  Arthur and Rebecca were censused in South Slipper Rock Township in 1850, he 34 and she 30, with their one month old daughter Ruth. This census entry is adjacent to that of his father John. In 1860 their Slipperyrock census listed three children, Ruth E., John and Samuel, four households away from that of his father.
  In the 1880 census in Slippery Rock, Arthur, as "A. E.", gave his age as 63, or born 1816/17, and Rebecca in 1820/21, which agrees with her known birth date. That year they had their son Samuel, 23 years of age, at home. Arthur gave his place of birth as Pennsylvania, his father's birthplace as Ireland, and his mother's as Pennsylvania.
  McConnell lists as the children of Arthur and Rebecca: Sarah E., James S., Ruth E., John C., Samuel S. and Rebecca A. Also given below are descents for several generations from some of these children.
  The six children of Arthur E. and Rebecca (Scott) Alford:
i     Sarah Elizabeth Alford, dtr., born 2 Nov 1844 in Princeton, Lawrence, Pennsylvania.
ii     James Scott Alford, son, born 20 Oct 1846 in Princeton and died 17 Mar 1850.
iii     Ruth Ellen Alford, dtr., born 27 Apr 1850 in Princeton and died 1910/1920.
  Ruth Ellen was married 16 Jan 1879 to Daniel Gross {born Mar 1851 in Pennsylvania and died 1910/1920}.
  Daniel and Ruth Gross were censused 1900 in Slippery Rock Twp., Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, in 1900. He was a farmer whose father had been born in Germany and his mother in Pennsylvania. They had been married 21 years, with no chilldren. They were still in Slippery Rock in 1910, but I could find neither one in the 1920 census index.
iv     John Calvin Alford, son, born 30 Sep 1853 in Princeton, died after 1892 and was buried in Center United.
  John Calvin was married 31 Jan 1871 to Ella Jane "Ellen" McCullough {born 9 Oct 1853 in Prospect, Butler, Pennsylvania, dtr of George Washington and Mary (McCormick) McCullough, and died 15 Dec 1928 in Grove City, Mercer, Pennsylvania}.
  From his son John Calvin Alford's burial as "Jr.", I expand this John's middle initial "C" to "Calvin".
  John and Ella Jane were second cousins, both being grandchildren of Michael and Martha (McCready) Alford, John through Michael and Martha's son John A., Ella Jane through their daughter Elizabeth.
  John, a farmer, and Ellen Alford were censused 1880 in Slippery Rock, Lawrence Co. with their first two children, Mary R. and Howard S., at home. In 1900 they were still in Slippery Rock, having been married 29 years. Ellen had borne 4 children, of whom three were still living, including Eva who was at home at age 15. Two households away was the census of their daughter's family, Mary and William Leslie including their grandson Howard S. Leslie.
  The four children of John Calvin and Ella Jane "Ellen" (McCullough) Alford:
1     Mary Rebecca Alford, dtr., born 6 Nov 1872 in Slippery Rock, Lawrence, Pennsylvania.
  Mary Rebecca was married 1894/1895 to William Stuart Leslie {born 21 Feb 1869 in Slippery Rock, son of John and Christina (Mayne) Leslie and died 13 Oct 1947 in Lawrence}.
  William Leslie was a farmer in Slippery Rock Twp., Lawrence Co., Pennsylvania. Rebecca and William were censused in 1900 and reported being married 5 years, and their one child, Howard S., was four years old. They were listed two households away from her parents, John and Ellen Alford.
  Their 1910 census indicates that they had been married 15 years, and that Howard was the only child Mary had born.
  William's parents were found on a WorldConnect web page of Nancy Smith.
2     Howard Scott Alford, son, born 5 Jan 1874 in Princeton.
  Howard Scott was married in 1898 to Margaret M. Brennen? {born 1877/1878 in Ireland}.
  Howard S. Alford was censused 1930 in San Jose Township, Santa Clara, California with his wife Margaret M. and a 15 year old nephew John J. Brennan, born in California of parents both born in Ireland. I'm showing that as a possible surname for Margaret. This census indicated that Howard and Margaret had been married when he was 25 and she was 22.
  Margaret might be the daughter born 1876/1877 to John and Catharine Brennen in Cass, Schuykill, Pennsylvania, but that supposition is based only on the similarity of name, age and Pennsylvania birth, which is not enough by itself to accept such a linkage.
3     John Calvin Alford, son, born 29 Apr 1883, died 12 Mar 1884 and was buried in Center United.
4     Eva Eliza Alford, dtr., born 31 Dec 1884.
v     Samuel Scott Alford, son, born 10 Oct 1856 in Princeton.
  Samuel Scott was married 26 Oct 1881 to Mary E. Kerchoff {born Jan 1860 in Pennsylvania, dtr of Reuben and Sarah (Keller) Kerchoff}.
  Samuel S. and Mary E. Alford were censused 1900 in New Castle, Lawrence County in 1900 with their three children, Ira, Mary K. and Rena. Samuel was a well driller.
  Mary was censused at age six months in 1860 with her parents "Rhuben" and Sarah Kerchoff, and again at ages 10 and 20 at home with them. Reuben was a farmer in Slippery Rock Twp., Lawrence County.
  In 1900 Reuben was censused as Kerchief, and he and Sarah had a boarder in their home, John Keller, a widower age 88 born Feb 1812 in Pennsylvania. This could be Sarah's father, particularly since she gave her daughter Mary the middle name of Keller, and so I've taken this as her maiden name. However, in 1850, the only 12 year old Sarah I could find was in the household of Andrew and Elisabeth Keller in Bullskin, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, so I'm not quite sure that John was her father.
  In 1910 Mary E. Alford, 50, was living in Ward 5, New Castle, Lawrence County with her daughters Rena, 20, and Mamie K., 23, and with her parents, Reuben and Sarah Kerchoff. Mary wasn't working outside the home, but Rena was working as a Chocolate Dipper in a Candy Shop, and Mamie as an "Operator PowerMach" in an overall factory.

In 1920, Sarah Kirchoff, then 80 years old, was head of household in the 4th Precinct of New Castle with her daughter Mary E. Alford, 59, her granddaughter Mamie K. Alford, 34, and her great-grandson Thaddeus Lutz, 7 year old son of Mamie's sister Rena. Mamie was working this year a a Seamstress in a Manufactory. Here are four generations in one household:

 
image: Sarah, Mary, Mamie and Thaddeus - 1920

Sarah, Mary, Mamie and Thaddeus - 1920

  The three children of Samuel Scott and Mary E. (Kerchoff) Alford:
1     Ira Kerchoff Alford, son, born 14 May 1883 and died 7 Dec 1950.
  Ira Kerchoff was married 1905/1906 to Caroline E. Glasser {born 5 Apr 1883}.
  McConnell gave 14 Apr 1883 for Ira's birth date, but his 1900 census at age 17 gave May 1883. I've kept parts of both sources. In 1920 Ira K(?). Alford with his wife Caroline E. were censused in New Castle, Lawrence Co., both 36 years of age. They had a son and a daughter in their home, ages 10 and 9(?), but the census image is so poor that I cannot read their names. Someone age 67 was also living there, but again the name is not legible.
  In 1930 Ira as working as a plumber and still living in New Castle. They were both 46, and had been married 24 years. Their children Harry L., 20, and Clare E., 19, were at home, and also living with them was Ruth E. Gross, 79, described as an aunt.
  The reported birth date of Caroline E. Glasser is exactly one month before the birth of Caroline Ella Glasser on 5 May 1883 in Boston, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, daughter of Thomas and Belle (Leech) Glasser [Delayed birth record dockets, filed 1941-1971, (Allegheny) Pennsylvania]. I think it not unlikely that these are the same Caroline, but I've been unable to find Thomas Glasser and daughter anywhere in the 1900 census in order to confirm this hunch.
2     Mary "Mamie" Keller Alford, dtr., born 10 Dec 1885.
  From some now unknown source (possibly McConnell), I had it that Mary married a Thornberg, but note (above) that she was supporting her mother, sister and nephew in 1920 at age 35. I was unable to identify her in the 1930 census indexes, either as an Alford or a Thornberg.
3     Irene Scott "Rena" Alford, dtr., born 27 Apr 1889.
  Irene Scott "Rena" married ____ Lutz.
  Rena's birth date as given by McConnell was 27 Apr 1889, her 1900 census had "Apr 1888, 11 years" with the 11 then overwritten with a 12. It's hard to judge which year she was actually born. I've been unable to find any record of her marriage, but the Thaddeus Lutz, above, born 1912/13, was surely her son. She may have died before that 1920 census.
vi     Rebecca Alford, dtr., born 18 Aug 1860 in Princeton and died 27 Mar 1873.
5     Martha Alford, dtr., born Feb 1819 and died in 1885.
  Martha married W. John McMillen {born 1819/1821 in Pennsylvania}.
  In 1860 a W. J. McMillen, 40, with wife Mary A., 41 was censused in Hickory Twp., Lawrence County. When the couples' age and the children are compared with Martha's, it seems that this is indeed her family. Why the given name Mary appears I don't know. W. J. was a farmer, and the chldren are shown as Jno, 20, Elizbeth, 14, Wm, 11, R. H., 8, and Marth, 1. The R. H. is presumably Rebecca M., and again why the middle initial is given as "H" is unknown.
  In 1870, however, in the same township, the wife of W. John McMillen (indexed as McMiller), 48, was named Martha, 51, both born in Pennsylvania. Their three daughters were at home, Mary E., 24, Rebecca ?., 17, and Martha A., 11. I cannot read the ornate middle initial of Rebecca, but it definitely was not "M". The census taker misplaced the household and famiy number of the next family, so it looks like Kate McMillen, 3, was living next door. The second next family was that of their son Wm S. McMillen, 21 and his wife Martha J., age 22.
  By 1880, Martha was a widow, in Hickory Twp. next to her son William, with her daughter Kate and her sister Eleanor (by her second married name, Kelty) in her home:
 

Martha MC MILLEN  Self   W  61  PA  Keeping House ATLANTIC OCEAN  PA 
Kate MC MILLEN    Dau    S  13  PA  At Home       PA              PA 
Eleanor KELTY     Other  W  52  PA  Retired       ATLANTIC OCEAN  PA 
-------------------------------------------------------------------- 
1880 census, Hickory, Lawrence, Pennsylvania, T9-1144, 39B 

  In 1900, Martha was living with her youngest daughter Kate and her son-in-law Thomas Chambers (see below). She had borne eight children of whom six were alive that year. I have record of only seven.
  The seven children of W. John and Martha (Alford) McMillen:
i     John A. McMillen, son, born 1838/1840.
  John A. married S. E. ____ {born 1841/1842 in Pennsylvania}.
  The children of J. A. and "S. E." McMillen were Jennie and John, ages 7 and 3, in the 1880 census in Scott, Lawrence County. J. A.'s age was 41 and his wife's 38. He was a farmer.
  The two children of John A. and S. E. (____) McMillen:
1     Jennie McMillen, dtr., born 1872/1873 in Pennsylvania.
2     John McMillen, son, born 1876/1877 in Pennsylvania.
ii     Mary Elizabeth McMillen, dtr., born Apr 1846 in Pennsylvania.
  Mary Elizabeth was married 1870/1871 to W. J. Glass {born Jul 1847 in Pennsylvania}.
  Mary Elizabeth and W. J. lived in Scott Township; he was a farmer. Their three children were Martha, Jane and Joseph Glass, but the two daughters' names given for the 1880 census were Mattie and Jennie, ages 5 and 3. W. J.'s father was born in Ireland and his mother in Pennsylvania.
  In 1900 William J. and Mary E. Glass were living in New Castle, Lawrence Township. He as a steel worker and his wife a day laborer.
  The three children of W. J. and Mary Elizabeth (McMillen) Glass:
1     Martha "Mattie" Glass, dtr., born 1874/1875 in Pennsylvania.
  Martha married a Reiber, and had three children, Clarence, John and Gladys Reiber.
2     Jane "Jennie" Glass, dtr., born 1876/1877 in Pennsylvania.
  Jane married Samuel P. McCreary and they had a son Leon E. McCreary.
3     Joseph Glass, son.
iii     William S. McMillen, son, born about 1849.
  William S. married Martha J. ____ {born about 1848}.
  Wm. S. and Martha J McMillen were censused 1870 two houses away from his parents. William was a farmer. In 1880 he was censused adjacent to his widowed mother, with Martha, their two children, and a retired housekeeper Rebecka Mullen, age 60 and born in Ireland. This might, of course, be Martha's mother, but I have not been successful in using that surname to find other records of the family.
  The two children of William S. and Martha J. (____) McMillen:
1     Joseph McMillen, son, born 1875/1876 in Pennsylvania.
2     Minnie McMillen, dtr., born 1876/1877 in Pennsylvania.
iv     Rebecca McMillen, dtr., born about 1853 in Pennsylvania and died after 1920.
  Rebecca married Lyman Thorn {born about 1851 in Pennsylvania}.
  Rebecca's middle initial was given as "M" by McConnell, appeared as "H" in 1860, and was unreadable in 1870. By 1880 it was back to "M". Lyman, a Sawyer of Lumber, and Rebecca M. Thorn were censused in Hickory, Lawrence County with their three children that year.
  From the birth places of the children, Lyman and Rebecca apparently were in Ohio in 1785/86, but whether that was a move, or a visit, is not apparent, and they were back in Pennsylvania by 1798/99. Hickory Twp. is just east of New Castle, which is about 20 miles from Youngstown, OH, the largest town in the area.
  By 1920, Rebecca F. Thorn was a widow living with her son Harry's family in the 12th Ward of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  The three children of Lyman and Rebecca (McMillen) Thorn:
1     Edward Thorn, son, born 1873/1874 in Pennsylvania.
  Edward was married 29 May 1899 in Lawrence to Florence Madden.
  I'm naming Florence as Edward's wife based on very flimsy evidence, an unsourced, submitted IGI record that spells his surname as Thorne, and gives no ages or other data except the location in Lawrence County.
2     Martha J. Thorn, dtr., born 1775/1776 in Ohio.
3     Harry S. Thorn, son, born Mar 1879 in Pennsylvania.
  Harry S. was married 1896/1897 to Margaret E. ____ {born May 1880 in Pennsylvania}.
  Harry and Margaret Thorn were censused 1900 in the 4th Ward of New Castle with their daughter Nirta, born May 1898. They had been married three years, and Harry was a tin worker, as were a half dozen of his near neighbors.
  By 1910 Harry S. and Margaret E. Thorn were in Penn Twp., Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. That census record shows that Margaret had born 4 chlldren, of whom 3 were still living. Indeed, Nirta, who would have been 12, is not on that census. The other three children were listed, but their names are essentially unreadable. Their ages appear to have been 9, 4 and 1 years. Harry was working as a conductor for a railroad. Interestingly, there were two other Harry Thorns in Allegheny County that year, Harry L, 44, in the 12th Ward of Pittsburgh, and Harry M., 17, in the 16th Ward.
  In 1920, the family was in the 12the Ward of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Harry working as a Railroad Freight Conductor. His mother Rebecca F. Thorn was living with the family at that time. The eldest child, who would have been 19, had either died or was out of the home, the two youngest children were Margaret E., 14, and Paul Edward, 10.
v     Martha A. McMillen, dtr., born 1853/1854 in Pennsylvania.
  Martha A. married T. Scott Fisher {born 1847/1848 in Pennsylvania}.
  T. Scott Fisher, a farmer, and his wife Martha were living in Hickory Twp., Lawrence County in 1880 with their four children, from which record we get their names and ages. He was a farmer, and both of his parents were born in Pennsylvania.
  The four children of T. Scott and Martha A. (McMillen) Fisher:
1     Elsie Fisher, dtr., born 1872/1873.
2     Rebecka M. Fisher, dtr., born 1874/1875.
3     Mary E. Fisher, dtr., born 1876/1877.
4     Robert R. Fisher, son, born 1878/1879 in Hickory, Lawrence, Pennsylvania.
vi     Emily McMillen, dtr., born about 1858.
  Emily married John M. Rhodes {born about 1852}.
  The three children of John M. and Emily (McMillen) Rhodes:
1     John H. Rhodes, son, born 1878/1879 in Pennsylvania.
  John H. married Ellen M. ( ) Sivefelter {born 1881/1882 in Pennsylvania}.
  John H. Rhodes was censused in New Castle in 1920, working as a foreman in a steel(?) mill. I am assuming based on his full name, age and location match that this is the son of John M and Emily Rhodes. His wife's name was given as Ellen M. Rhodes, and they had in their home Earl Sivefilter, named as a stepson. He was 21, and working as a hotel cook. It's hard to tell what that surname reallly was, but it was presumably the surname of a first husband for Ellen.
2     Gertrude Rhodes, dtr.
3     Hazel Rhodes, dtr.
vii     Kate McMillen, dtr., born 1866/1867.
  Kate was married in 1888 to Thomas W. Chambers {born Mar 1862 in Pennsylvania}.
  I have from some source, probably McConnell, that Date married a Chambers, and this is proved from the census records.
  In 1880 Thomas W. Chambers, 19, was censused in East Brook, Lawrence County with his mother Elizabeth, 49. Then, in 1900 in the 2nd Ward of Allegheny City, Allegheny County, we find Thomas W. and Kate Chambers censused with his mother-in-law Martha McMillen, 81, a widow. They had been married 11 years. From this record we take the birth month/years of all of the family including their three children Jessie A., Ruth and Lloyd. Thomas worked as a salesman living in a rented home on Clifton Park Avenue, and the city was on the north side of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers from Pittsburgh.
  By 1910 Allegheny had been annexed by Pittsburgh, and we find Thomas and Kate in the 25th Ward of that city, he working as a paper hanger.
  The three children of Thomas W. and Kate (McMillen) Chambers:
1     Jessie A. Chambers, dtr., born Jul 1889 in Pennsylvania.
2     Ruth E. Chambers, dtr., born Mar 1897 in Pennsylvania.
3     Lloyd M. Chambers, son, born Oct 1899.
6     Unnamed Alford, son, born about 1821.
  Again, we have no name for this son.
7     Eleanor "Nellie" Alford, dtr., born 12 May 1823 and died 19 Jun 1902.
  Eleanor "Nellie" was married in 1843 to Robert McCaslin (1) {born about 1820}. She married (2) ____ Kelty {died before 1880}.
  In 1850 Robert and Eleanor McCaslin, 30 and 27, were censused in Neshannock, Lawrence County, with their three children William, Rachel and Ruth, ages 6, 4 and 2 years.
  The 1880 census record shows Eleanor living with her sister Martha, both of them widows. That census implies that Eleanor was born 1827/28, i.e., that she was five years younger than her true age.
  By 1900 Eleanor was living with her daughter Rachel and son-in-law John McCreary in Hickory, Lawrence County, at age 77. For some unknown reason, the census taker reported that she had borne only one child, with that one still living. She also reported this year that her father was born at sea.
  The six children of Robert and Eleanor "Nellie" (Alford) McCaslin:
i     William McCaslin, son, born 1843/1844 in Pennsylvania.
ii     Rachel McCaslin, dtr., born 22 Nov 1845 in Pennsylvania and died 19 May 1919.
  Rachel was married 13 Jun 1867 to John McCreary {born 1 Jan 1841, son of Enoch and Margaret (Pierson) McCreary and died 25 Jan 1925}.
  John, a farmer, and Rachel were censused, as McCleary, in Hickory Township, Lawrence County in 1870 with their two small sons. In 1880 they had three sons listed, Leon, Earnest and Pearson, ages 11, 10 and 6 years. It may be that Geneva had died by 1880, as she was not at home nor did she appear in every name indexes of that census.
  John and Rachael McCreary were censused 1900 in Hickory Township, Lawrence County, with two daughters and her mother Elenor McCaslin, 77. The census taker failed to record his occupation. They were adjacent in the census to her younger brother Joseph McCaslin and his family.
  The six children of John and Rachel (McCaslin) McCreary:
1     Robert Leon McCreary, son, born 1868/1870 in Pennsylvania.
  Robert was listed as 5 months old on 13 Jun 1870.
2     Ernest M. McCreary, son, born 1768/1770 in Pennsylvania.
3     Geneva E. McCreary, dtr.
4     Samuel Pearson McCreary, son, born 1873/1874 in Pennsylvania.
  This son was censused as Pearson in 1880, and I may have made a mistake in conflating it with the name Samuel I had previously. They could have had a son die before 1880.
5     Edith E. McCreary, dtr., born Aug 1881 in Pennsylvania.
6     Ruth E. McCreary, dtr., born Jun 1884.
iii     Ruth McCaslin, dtr., born 1847/1848 in Pennsylvania.
iv     John McCaslin, son.
v     Joseph McCaslin, son, born Nov 1852 in Pennsylvania.
  Joseph was married 1891/1892 to Emily ____ {born Dec 1862 in England}.
  Joseph and Emily and their four children were censused 1910 adjacent to his sister Rachel McCreary in Hickory, Lawrence County. Joseph was a bookkeeper and his wife a grocer. Emily had had seven children, of whom five were still alive in that year.
  The four children of Joseph and Emily (____) McCaslin:
1     Geneva/Genevra McCaslin, dtr., born Nov 1885 in Pennsylvania.
2     Ernest McCaslin, son, born Feb 1887 in Pennsylvania.
3     Ruth E. McCaslin, dtr., born Apr 1891 in Pennsylvania.
4     Mary E. McCaslin, dtr., born Nov 1895 in Pennsylvania.
vi     D. Scott McCaslin, son, born Jul 1859 in Pennsylvania.
  D. Scott married (1) ____ ____ {died before 1900}. He was married 1900/1901 to Elizabeth H. ____ (2) {born 1864/1866 in Pennsylvania}.
  When the widower Scott McCaslin was censused 1900 at age 40 in Hickory Twp., he had in his home 60 year old Sarah Campbell, born May 1840 and described as a servant. This could be his mother-in-law, although one would expect the census taker to so describe her.
  IN 1910 D. Scott McCaslin and wife Elizabeth with their two young children were censused in New Castle, where they indicated they had been married nine years, this his second marriage and her first. Scott was a city policeman.
  The two children of D. Scott and Elizabeth H. (____) McCaslin:
1     Nancy Jane McCaslin, dtr., born 1901/1902 in Pennsylvania.
2     Murray F. McCaslin, son, born 1903/1905 in Pennsylvania.
8     John Alford, son, born 1824/1825.
  Floyd Alford's chart notes that John "went west".
  He was of the right age to be the John Alford serving as a soldier in the Civil War from Lawrence County, but so was his second cousin John, the son of Thomas and Rebecca Alford. One of them enlisted as a Private on 14 August 1862 in Company B, 135th Infantry Regiment Pennsylvania, and mustered out on 24 May 1863 at Harrisburg, PA.
9     Thomas J. Alford, son, born 15 Nov 1827 in Pennsylvania and died 28 Jan 1900 in Lawrence.
  Thomas J. married (1) Elizabeth Mershimer {born 1 Sep 1829, dtr of Peter and Lucretia "Polly" (McCaslin) Mershimer and died Sep 1856}. He was married before 1860 to Mary Shannon (2) {born May 1828 in Pennsylvania and died 2 Nov 1900}.
  Thomas was censused in 1850 as born 1827/28, his wife Elizabeth born 1818/19, and with a one year old child whose name I couldn't read, presumably Mary, on which assumption I date her birth.
  In 1860 Thos. and his second wife Mary were in Slippery Rock, censused adjacent to his younger brother Silas. Thomas was working as a Butcher, 31 years old, Mary was 30, his daughter Mary, 9, and his son James 6 years of age. In 1870 in Slippery Rock, Thomas J., a farmer, and Mary Alford, both 42, were censused with his son James P., 16, and their three children, Thomas J., Emma and George V. L., ages 5, 4 and 3.
  "T. J. Alford" was censused 1880 in Princeton, Lawrence County, with a birth year of 1827/28, and a wife Mary of the same age, and their children were named as Emma, 14 and and George, 13. This is the record which places the birth of Thomas' father John in Ireland, as well as both of Mary's parents.
  The surnames of Thomas' wives are taken from McConnell, who also lists the children of each. She says they lived in Slipper Rock Township, Thomas working as a farmer. The grandchildren as given here are also from McConnell.
  Thomas J. Alford is listed as drafted from Lawrence County during the Civil War. In 1861 Thomas would have been 33 or 34 years old.
  Much of the detail of Thomas' family and descendants given here were found on the Carder Family web page of Deborah "Debbie" Carder Mayes.
  In 1900 Mary was censused as a 72 year old widowed head of household in Slippery Rock, Lawrence County, with daughter Emma E. and grandchldren Mary A. and James. The census taker did not record the surname Weller for Emma and her daugher Mary A., leaving them as Alfords by implication. Emma is shown as born Mar 1866, married 14 years, and had only one child, Mary A., born Oct 1892. She is recorded as married, not widowed, but apparently separated from her husband Charles Weller.
  The grandson James is indeed an Alford, the son of Mary's son James Pollock Alford and Eunice C. Morrison, as shown by the birth date of Dec 1886.
  This 1900 record is also defective in that it gives Mary's birth as May 1838 and her age as 72. From other censuses she was born 1827/28, so I accept this record corrected by one decade. The census shows that she owned her home free of a mortgage, but does not report an occupation for either her or Emma.
  The four children of Thomas J. and Elizabeth (Mershimer) Alford:
i     Levi Alford, son, born in 1849.
ii     Mary Alford, dtr., born 1848/1851 and died 4 Oct 1885.
  Mary married Urban Huey Morrison {born 1848 in Pennsylvania, son of Joseph and Lucy Ann (Zellers) Morrison and died 24 May 1933 in New Castle, Lawrence, Pennsylvania}.
  The Elk, Clarion, Pennsylvania 13 Sep 1850 census of Joseph and Lucy An Morrison, ages 23 and 22, lists a two year old son Urban Huy and a daughter Allice Oxana(?), one month old. Clarion County is some 50 miles east of Lawrence County.
  Ten years later we find Urban Morrison, age 12, living with the widow Susan Noble, 74, in Tionesta, Venango County. The were censused adjacent to the Mark and Lydia Noble family, ages 34 and 30 with three children ages 2, 4 and 6. Venango is the county abutting Clarion on the northwest. What relationship Susan had to the Morrisons I don't know.
  Urban hid from the censors for most of the next 60 years, but in 1910 we do find him living with his daughter, Hattie Kottraba (see below for the weird disguise of his name).

In 1930 we find Erban H. Morrison, 80, living with his mother Lucy, 102, in Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence County. With the clear middle initial "H" in this census, and the "Huy" of 1850, we can discount the middle name "Guy" which appears online. My surmise is that his name was Urban Huey, with mispellings in both census.

  Back in 1860 Urban's parents and sister were in the township of Liberty in Mercer County, the next one west of Vernango, in a large household of Morrisons whose relationships are not obvious. The head of the household was John, 59, a stone mason, with Eunice, 54. Joseph and Lucy, 35 and 32, were working as a day laborer and domestic, respectively. Then, Alice, 10, was listed among five other Morrisons ranging from 3 to 16 years of age. Deborah Carder Mayes (op. cit.) ascribes all of these children to Joseph and Lucy, but Lucy would have been only 16 at the time of the birth of the eldest in Jan 1844.
  The two children of Urban Huey and Mary (Alford) Morrison:
1     Franklin Morrison, son, born about 1870.
  Frank was married 1893/94 to Hattie May __ {born Apr 1872 Pennsylvania}.
  Since we know that Franklin's father grew up in Tionesta, Venango County, it's likely that Frank J. Morrison censused there in 1900 was indeed Franklin. I've assumed that this is so, and taken that record for the names of his wife and first daughter, and their birth months. But the case is not airtight. That year he was a 32 year old farm laborer in the town of Scrub Grass, some 40 miles from Tionesta, his wife was Hattie M., age 28, they had been married 6 years, and his daughter was Mary E., age 4, born Jun 1895.

In 1920 John F. Morrison, 42 and undoubtedly this same man, was a driller in an oil mine in Eau Claire, Butler County, Pennsylvania. His wife was Hattie May, 38, and his daughters were Mary R., 15, and Dorothy, age 9. Finally, in 1920, we find Frank, 52 and Nattie, 46, Morrison in Venango, Butler County, were he was still a driller in an oil field.

2     Hattie Morrison, dtr., born about 1873.
  Hattie married Milo D. Kottraba {born sep 1869 in Pennsylvania}.
  Milo was a dentist in Butler Borough, Butler County, Pennsylvania in 1900 where he was censused with his wife Hattie F. and their first child, Cecil E., born Jul 1899.

In 1910 we make a connection backwards. Milo D. and Hattie Kottraba, married 14 years, had living with them his father-in-law E. H. Ervan, age 62. (Ancestry.com read the surname as Ewan.) However mangled by the census recorder, this name has to refer to Urban Huey Morrison. Milo was the proprietor of a dentist office, and their second child, James, was 6 years old.

In 1920 Milo was continuing his same line of work in the city of Butler. Their third child appears, Milo, age 9, but he was not a Junior because in 1930 he is named as Milo J. Also in 1930 James M. is living with his father and married to Georgia, aged 23. Her age at marriage is also shown as 23, so they were newly weds that year.

iii     James Pollock Alford, son, born 6 Feb 1854 in Princeton, Clarion, Pennsylvania, and died 4 Aug 1922 in Emlenton, Venango, Pennsylvania.
  James Pollock married (1) Eunice C. Morrison {born 7 Apr 1857 in Princeton and died 21 Feb 1943 in Painesville, Lake, Ohio}, and they were divorced. He was married (2) in 1895 to Susan Shaffer {born Feb 1870 in Pennsylvania}.
  James was censused 1880 in Rosepoint, Lawrence County as 26 years of age, with wife Eunice, 23, and three children, Alice 7, Silas 5 and Fannie 1. All of the family and the grandparents were born in Pennsylvania, and James' occupation was given as "Enginer".
  James and Eunice lived in Rosepoint, Slippery Rock County, Pennsylvania in 1880, where he was again censused as an Engineer, and they had with them their first three children, Alice, Silas and Fannie, ages 7, 5 and 1 years. His stepbrother Thomas J. Alford and his uncle Stewart G. Alford appeared on the same census page. Sometime after that date, James and Eunice divorced, and she with her children moved to Ohio according to Deborah Carder Mayes (Personal Communication, Jan 2009).

James also lived for a time in Ohio, where he is found 1900 in Marietta, Washington County, with his wife Suson [sic], born Feb 1870 in Pennsylvania, and daughters Leafy M. and Hattie M., born May 1895 and Oct 1897, both in West Virginia. How long James and Susan tarried in West Virginia before moving on west I don't know, but they were there for at least the two and a half years between the daughters' births. Susan's birth date is give as Feb 1870 in Pennsylvania, they had been married 5 years, and she had borne only the two daughters. James occupation was that of an oil driller. By 1910, however, James and Susan were censused back in Pennsylvania, living in Rockland Township, Vernango County, with James working a a farmer. This time they indicated that they and been married 16 years, and James claimed that this was his first marriage. Their daughters were named as Margrete L. and Marie H., ages 14 and 12.

I couldn't locate James and Susan in 1920, two years before his death, but by 1930 Susan, age 60, was living with her daugher Marie H. and son-in-law Harry S. Gramlick. Also in their home that year was Catherine M. Rairden, age 9. Harry was a salesman, age 42, and born in West Virginia.

Considering the connections that James had with Vernango County, including those of his close relatives, it's very likely that his wife Susan was the Susan Shafer, age 9 in 1880 in Rockland of that county. Her parents were Marh. (very difficult census to read) and Margaret A. Shafer, both age 49, with nine children ranging from 23 years down to 6 months, including Susan and 11 year old twins. Since the location and age match, and noting that Susan named her first daughter Margarete, I'm accepting Marh.(?) and Margaret as James in-laws.

  Eunice was married 11 Jun 1906 in Lake County, Ohio, to Eugene F. Freeman as his second wife. The couple were censused 1910 in Painesville, Lake County, ages 56 and 52. Eugene, a machinist, was born in Ohio and working for the B&O RR. They had been married 4 years, and all five of her children were still living that year.

Also in their home was her grandson Francis E. Rider, son of her daughter Mary Alice. Francis was 8 years old and had been born in Ohio, and his father in Michigan.

By 1930 Eugene had died, and Eunice as the widow Freeman was head of household in Painesville. In her home were her grandson Charles Ryder and his wife Ruth, aged 27 and 23, both born in Ohio and married 3 years, Eunices' son James (Grove) Alford, a widower at age 43, and a great-granddaughter Jean Ryder, age 6. Charles was working as a machinist, and James as a fireman.

  The five children of James Pollock and Eunice C. (Morrison) Alford:
1     Mary Alice Alford, dtr., born 12 Jun 1873 in New Castle, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, and died 24 Sep 1946 in Princeton.
  Mary Alice was married (1) to Albert Rider. She married (2) Nathan Isaac Carder, and (3) Frank Connell.
  Mary Alice, referred to as Alice by her great-granddaughter Deborah Carder Mayes, had three children by her first husband, Nina Evylin, Francis Earl and Charles Edward Rider, born 1898, 1900 and 1903. By her second husband she had four children, Nathan Eugene, Wilbur Silas, Clarence Melvina and Margaret Eleanore Carder, born 1907, 1909, 1911 and 1915.

Her son Wilbur married Erma Jennette Alford, daughter of James Grover Alford, Mary Alices's sister, and hence his first cousin.

On Deborah's Carder web page (op. cit) she writes: "Mary Alice was known as Alice from her birth throughout her life. After Albert`s death, Alice took the money she inherited and returned to Ohio. With Grandma Freeman, Goldie & Jen, she used it to start a restaurant. This is where Nate & Alice met and supposedly they got married three days later." She also reports that Alice and her sister Fannie lived with their mother 1895 in Painesville, Lake County, Ohio.

2     Silas F. Alford, son, born 1874/1875 in Pennsylvania.
  Silas was married 1901/02 to Lila A. Lauer {born 1879/80 in Ohio, daughter of John and Margaret Lauer}.
  Silas was working as an oil driller in Newport, Washington, Ohio in 1910. He was the head of a household which included his wife Liah (later recorded as Lila), her parents John and Margaret Lauer, ages 61 and 60, her brother William, 23, her sister Nellie Green, 29, and her nephew Robert Green, age 3 years. John Lauer was born in Ohio of German parents, while his wife Margaret was herself born in Germany. He was working as a saddler, and William was a teacher in a common school.

By 1930 Silas F. and Lila A. Alford were in Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas where he was an oil drilling contractor.

3     Fannie Alford, dtr., born 1878/1879 in Pennsylvania.
  As mentioned above, Fannie and her sister Alice were living with their mother in Ohio in 1895, where Fannie was working as a domestic.
4     Goldenlief "Goldie" Alford, dtr., born 24 Apr 1881 in Princeton and died 17 May 1953 in Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Ohio.
  Goldie was marrried (1) to Charles Williams {born 5 Dec 1861 in North Madison, Ohio, died 11 Sep 1935 in Painesville, Lake, Ohio}. She married (2) before 1946 Howard Winford Buck {born 24 Apr 1881 in Princeton and died 17 May 1953 in Ashtabula}.
  Goldie married Howard Buck as his second wife. They were censused 1920 in Painesville Ward 2, Lake County, Ohio. After Charles' death in 1935, and sometime before 1946, Goldie married Howard Buck.
5     James Grover Alford, son, born 11 Dec 1886 in Franklin, Pennsylvania, and died 14 Feb 1937 in Painesville.
  James Grover married Margaret Kennedy {born 16 Sep 1886 in Painesville, dtr of John and Margaret A. (Flynn) Kennedy, and died 16 Aug 1928 in Painesville}.
  James and Margaret Alford had three children, James K. (1908-1983), who married Dorothy B. Quincy, Emma Jennette (1916-1988), who married Wilbur Silas Carder, her first cousin, and Thomas (1920-1988), according to Deborah Carder Mayes.

James was censused 1930 living in the home of his mother, by then widowed by her second husband, Eugene Freeman.

  The two children of James Pollock and Susan (Shaffer) Alford:
1     Margareta Leafy Alford, dtr., born Aug 1895 in Pennsylvania.
2     Marie H. "Hattie" Alford, dtr., born 1898 in Pennsylvania.
iv     Franklin Pierce Alford, son, born May 1856 in Pennsylvania and died in 1939.
  Franklin Pierce was married before 1880 to Mary Fruella McCurdy {born Feb 1861 in Pennsylvania}.
  According to McConnell, Franklin lived with his maternal grandparents, Peter and Lucretia Mershimer, and the 1860 census shows him with them in Shenango Township at age 4, and still with them 1870. This probably implies that his mother Elizabeth died before 1860, possibly even at his birth, although his father lived at least another twenty years. But that he didn't return to his father's house after Thomas married his second wife, by whom he had children starting by 1863/64, when Franklin was about seven or eight years old, seems somewhat unusual.
  Given that his age works for the sequence of children in the family, and that he had the same middle initial "P" as that for another son James, I identify the F. P. Alford censused 1880 in Princeton, Lawrence County as this Franklin. His wife was named as Mary, and at 19 years of age, she must have quite recently been married.
  There was a Mary L. McCurdy, 9 years of age in July 1870, a daughter in the home of Abram and Minerva C. McCurdy in Slippery Rock, censused adjacent to Thomas Alford and his second wife Mary. Thomas was Franklin's half-brother, and one might think this adjacency sufficient to identify Mary's parentage.
  In 1900 in Shenango Twp., Lawrence Co., Frank P. and Mary F. Alford were censused with Nancy McCurdy, "Boarder", born Oct 1824 in Pennsylvania, which one would ordinarily assume was Mary's mother. However, Deborah Carder Mayes straightened me out on this point [Personal Communication, Jan 2009] by identifying Nancy as Mary's aunt, sister of Abraham. She then also said that Abraham and Minerva were indeed Mary's parents.
  Franklin and Mary had children Herman C., Edna M., James D. and Floyd F. in the home in 1900, from which record I take their birth dates.
  In 1910 Frank P. and Mary Alford, 57 and 49, were censused with sons James D. and Floyd, 22 and 17, again in Shenango Township. Delbert, named by McConnell, turns out to be James Delbert (see below).
  The four children of Franklin Pierce and Mary Fruella (McCurdy) Alford:
1     Herman C. Alford, son, born Apr 1881 in Pennsylvania.
  Herman C. married Anna B. Bratchie {born Jul 1883 in Pennsylvania, daughter of Samuel Gottlieb Bratschi, born Jul 1847 in Bern, Switzerland, and Mary E. Kirker, born 15 Feb 1850 in Pennsylvania}.
  The maiden name Bratchie of Herman's wife I believe I first found in McConnell, and according to his father's 1900 census in New Castle, 19 year old Herman C. Alford's next door neighbor was 16 year old Annie B., daughter of widower Samuel G. Bratschi, born Jul 1847 in Switzerland. According to a WorldConnect record, Samuel had been born in Bern, son of Samuel Bratschi and Elizabeth Dallenback, emigrated 2 Jun 1856 to Butler County, Pennsylvania, and married Mary E. Kirker about 1870. That particular record listed only Samuel's first four children, born about 1872 through 1879, and spelled their surname as Bratchie, apparently the preferred spelling in this country.

The 1900 census record for 16 year old Annie B. Bratschi incorrectly gives her birth as Jul 1873, but since all subsequent records indicate 1883/84, this year, not her age, must be incorrect by a decade.

Herman C. and Anna B. Alford and their first three children, Lois S., Francis P. and Chester H., ages 3, 2 and one year two months, were recorded in New Castle, Ward 7, in 1910. Herman was 29 and working as a railroad brakeman, while Anna gave her age as 26.

In 1920 Francis P. was now named as F. Paul, aged 12, their son Chester does not appear, and there was an addition to the family, Mary E., aged 7, but Anna B. was by that time a widow. She was supporting her four children by working as a laundress for a private family, and indicated that her father had been born in Switzerland, and her mother in Pennsylvania. Chester H. Alford, age 9 (actually, 11), was living in New Castle with his uncle and aunt, Frank H. and Minnie V. Bratchie.

By 1930 Anna B. and her family, still in New Castle, were being supported by her eldest son, F. Paul who was a 22 year old record clerk for the railroad. William H. and Mary E. were still in the home, giving their ages and 19 and 18, and Anna reported that she was 21 years old when she married.

2     Edna M. Alford, dtr., born Sep 1883 in Pennsylvania.
  Edna M. was married 1913/14 to William H. Halcomb {born 1876/77 in Iowa}.
  Edna M. and William H. Halcomb, ages 46 and 53, were living in Cisco, Eastland, Texas in 1930 with her brother James D. Alford. See his history, next below, for details of that census.

William could conceivably be the three year Hamlin H. Holcomb in the 1880 census of the family of Susannah Holcomb, 40, in Colfax, Boone, Iowa. That requires only that the census taker misheard William and wrote down (clearly) Hamlin, otherwise the record matches Edna's husband. Hamlin had three sisters older than him, and Susanna's mother Joana Hambake, 69, was living in the home.

3     James Delbert Alford, son, born 7 Jun 1887 in Pennsylvania.
  James was married 1919/20 to Mary ____ {born 1885/85 in Pennsylvania}.
  James was censused in his parents' home as James D. age 12 in 1900, born Jun 1887, and age 22 in1910. James Delbert Alford registered for the draft in 1917/18, but the image Ancestry.com gives for his name belongs to someone else. From the vital data on the index to that card I take the day of his birth on 7 June 1887.

In 1920 James was censused as Delbert Alford, 32, in Shenango, Lawrence County. His wife was named Mary, age 35, and his brother Floyd, age 36, was living with them. James was working as a farmer on a dairy farm, but Floyd's occupation was left blank.

In 1930 James D. Alford, age 42 and born in Pennsylvania, was living with his brother-in-law William H. Halcomb, 53, and William's wife Edna M., 46, in Cisco, Eastland, Texas. James was married (but there was no wife living with him) and indicated that he had first been married at age 32, 'i.e.', in 1919/20. William, born in Iowa, was married at age 37, and this record identifies Edna's husband for us. He was the manager of a recreation club, and James was the manager of a club room. Cisco is a small town about a hundred miles west of Fort Worth.

4     Francis Floyd Alford, son, born 15 Mar 1893 in Pennsylvania.
  Francis Floyd was married 1923/1924 to Laura E. ____ {born 1892/1893 in Pennsylvania}.
  McConnell gives this son's name as Floyd F., and he was censused that way in 1900 and 1910. But his military records indicate that he was Francis Floyd. His World War II draft registration card gives his full name as Francis Floyd (and his wife's as Laura), but he signed the card as F. Floyd Alford. The Ancestry.com site indexes his World War I registration card as Floyd F., but points to the wrong image, so I cannot see details there.

Francis F. Alford and wife Laura E., both 37, were censused 1930 in Shenango Township. They had three young children, James W., Mary R. and Edna J., which match (for the girls) the names provided by McConnell. I take this record for the name of his son, which McConnell didn't know, but she listed the full names of his daughters as Mary Ruth, Edna Jean and Elizabeth Ann. I have birth dates, but no death dates for the children, so am not recording their ages here, as they may be still living.

  The three children of Thomas J. and Mary (Shannon) Alford:
i     Thomas J. Alford, son, born 1864/1865.
  Thomas J. was married 1901/1902 to Margaret Lamb {born 1879/1882 in Ohio, dtr of Thomas G. and Jennie (____) Lamb}.
  This Thomas is surely the 16 year old Thomas censused 1880 as a laborer boarding in the household of Peter McClaferty in Rosepoint, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. His stepbrother James P. was censused two households away in one direction, and his uncle Stewart G. Alford two households in the other direction. Based on this, I'm adopting a birth year of 1863/64 for this Thomas, which fits well with that of his siblings.
  In 1900 we find a Thomas Alford, born Aug 1865 in Pennsylvania, working aa an Oil Producer in Salamonie, Huntington County, Indiana. He was a roomer in the household, #75 on Wayne Street, of Chas. Wuersten. What makes this particular Thomas interesting is that in household #93 on Main Street in that town was the family of Thomas G. and Jennie Lamb, with children Homer T., Margaret B. and Water (Walter?). Thomas, a Superintendant of an oil lease, was born Jan 1850 in Scotland of parents both born in Scotland, and Jennie was born Jan 1853 in Ohio of Scotland born parents. Homer was born Jan 1878 in Pennsylvania, Margaret Jan 1882 in Ohio, and Walter(?) Apr 1889 in Pennsylvania. That age of 18 for this Margaret Lamb is reasonably close to that of Margaret Alford in 1910, below.
  Although Salamonie is about 300 miles away from where George Alford was working at that time also as an Oil Producer in Marietta, Ohio (see below), my judgment is that this Thomas is indeed his brother. On the basis of this record I'm tentatively identifying Thomas and Jennie Lamb as the in-laws of Thomas Alford.
  In 1910, two households away from his brother George in Lemon Grove, San Diego County, California, we find Thomas and Margaret Alford, he age 46 and born in Pennsylvania, she 30, born in Ohio. They had been married 8 years, and she had borne two children, both deceased by that time. He and George both worked on a fruit farm. I take his wife's given name from this record.
ii     Emily E. "Emma" Alford, dtr., born Mar 1866 in Pennsylvania and died May 1900 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
  Emily E. "Emma" was married 1885/1886 to Charles H. Weller {died in 1914}.
  Emily and Charles Weller had a child Mary [McConnell]. Her husband has a fair chance of being related to the other two Wellers who married into the Alford line in previous generations. However, I have been unable to find this couple in any online datbases.
  Emily was censused with her mother in 1900 and recorded as married (for 14 years). She indicated that she had borne only one child (Mary A.), who was still living. Where her husband Charles was at this time is unknown, but I do have a death date for him from some lost source (possible McConnell) of 1914.
  The only child of Charles H. and Emily E. "Emma" (Alford) Weller:
1     Mary A. Weller, dtr., born Oct 1892 in Pennsylvania.
iii     George V. Lawrence Alford, son, born 1866/1867 in Princeton.
  George V. Lawrence married Hattie ____ {born 1876/1877 in West Virginia}.
  George, at age 13, was listed in his father's 1880 census as "laborer".
  In Ward 3, Marietta, Washington County, Ohio, George L. and Hattie L. Alford were censused in 1900, he working as an Oil Producer.
  In 1910 George L. Alford was in Lemon Grove, San Diego County, California, with wife Hattie V. and son Ray M. Alford, age 13. They had been married 14 years, and Hattie, born in West Virginia, had borne only one child, Ray, in Ohio.
  The only child of George V. Lawrence and Hattie (____) Alford:
1     Ray M. Alford, son, born 26 Sep 1896 in Marietta, Washington, Ohio, and died Nov 1983 in California.
  Ray M. Alford's draft registration card (undated), says he was 21 years old, gives his birth date and place, and says he was an instructor in the School of Military Aeronautics in Berkeley, California. The card goes on to report that he had 7 1/2 years of military service, 4 years in the Army and Navy Academy in San Diego, 3 years as a U. C. Cadet in Berkeley, and 6 months in the Aviation School in Berkeley.
  Rays's death in recorded in the SSDI, born 26 Spe 1896, died Nov 1983, with death localities in Coronado and San Diego, San Diego County, California. His SS card had been issure in Nevada.
10     Elizabeth Alford, dtr., born 1829/1830.
  Elizabeth married ____ Ruffcorn.
  Elizabeth appears as the sixth child on the Floyd Alford chart. McConnell says her name was probably Rebecca Elizabeth in her attempt to match various sources, a conclusion which I reject on the basis of my own analysis, see chart above, of the children in this family.
11     Rebecca Alford, dtr., born 1833/1834.
  Rebecca appears in the 1850 census, but not on the Floyd Alford chart. As mentioned above, McConnell conflates her with Elizabeth as one child.
12     Stewart G. Alford, son, born 25 May 1835 in Pennsylvania and died 22 Dec 1901 in New Castle.
  Stewart G. married Sarah A. Miller {born Dec 1843 in Pennsylvania}.
  Stewart appears as Steward on the Floyd Alford chart. McConnell reports that they lived in Slippery Rock Township, which was formed from the eastern half of Shenango.
  Stewart G. Alford enrolled at Princetop, PA, for the Civil War 27 Aug 1861 at age 26, and mustered in four days later at Camp Wilkens, PA. He was a musician in Company F, 100th Infantry Regiment Pennsylvania. After re-enlisting 29 Dec 1863 at Blaines Cross Roads, Tennesee, he was finally discharged 24 Jul 1865. His Civil War Veteran's card describes him as having a muddy complexion, brown hair, hazel eyes, 5 ft 9 in and a farmer residing at Princeton, PA, about six miles east of New Castle.
  In 1870 Stewart G. Alford was censused two households away from that of his father John, with his wife Sarah A. and their daughter Maggie, 1 year old. Also in the home was a John Shafer, born in Pennsylvania 1859/1860.
  In the 1880 census he was listed as "S. G.", working as a Manager. They were in Rosepoint, Lawrence County, with his age given as 45 years, and Sarah's as 36, and he indicated his father was born in Ireland. Their third child Howard did not appear that year, so must have been born over seven years after Margaret, their second, or died young. On the same census page were two of his nephews, Thomas J. Alford and James Pollock Alford.
  In 1900 Stewart G. Alford was an "Old Gent" of 65 years, he and Sarah were living in the 3rd Ward of New Castle, Lawrence County, and this time he said his father's birthplace was "Sea" (as was a neighbor's wife two houses away).
  Although there was another Sarah Miller in Lawrence County of about the same age, Sarah A. Miller, 16, was censused in Slippery Rock of that county as the daughter of Lyle and Margaret Miller. That age and middle initial seem to point to this family as Stewart's in-laws. Lyle was a farmer, age 48, his wife Margaret was 43, and Sarah waa the second oldest of eight children.
  In 1910, Sarah A. Alford, a widow, 66, and her daughter Margaret Boak, also a widow, 41, were censused in New Castle Ward 3, Lawrence County. She indicated that she had borne 3 children, of whom only Margaret was still alive, and Margaret had one child, still living. Margaret was working as a sales clerk in a dry goods store.
  In 1920 the ladies were joined by Sarah's grandson, Charles H. Boak, 30, a laborer in a mill.
  The three children of Stewart G. and Sarah A. (Miller) Alford:
i     Margaret Alford, dtr., born Dec 1868 in Pennsylvania.
  Margaret married Thomas Boak {born Aug 1861 in Pennsylvania, son of Charles and Eleanor A. (Weller) Boak}.
  Margaret was listed as "Magie" on the 1880 census of the family. Her marriage to Thomas, and his descent from the Weller line, is documented in "Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, Lawrence County Pennsylvania" by the Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, NY, 1897, and available online in the USGenWeb Archives.
  That source also mentioned their son Howard, whose name turns out to be Charles Howard. Thomas and Margaret were second cousins, illustrated in the following chart:
 
image: Alford-Boak common ancestry

Alford-Boak common ancestry

  In 1900 they were censused in New Castle as Thomas A. and Margret Boak, ages 38 and 31. Thomas was a Tin Worker, and their son Charles H., was 10 years old.
  Margaret is said to have had in her possession the John and Ruth (Eckles) Alford Family Bible, which Harry Eckles used as a source for the Eckles genealogy (Howard Eckles, Personal Communication, Jan 2009).
  The only child of Thomas and Margaret (Alford) Boak:
1     Charles Howard Boak, son, born 18 Jun 1889 in Princeton.
  Charles Howard was married before Jun 1915 to .
  In 1910 Charles H. Boak, 21 and born in Pennsylvania, was censused while serving in Troop 6, 3rd Cavalry in the Artillery and Cavalry Post at Fort Sam Houston in Bexar County, Texas. He had enlisted 26 Sep 1908 giving his birth place as Princeton, PA, his age as 19y 3m, and his occupation as steel worker. He was discharged 27 Sep 1911 at Ft. Sam Houston [Ancestry.com].
  Charles Howard Boak's World War I his registration on 5 Jun 1917 said he was working as an electriian for the Carnegie Steel Co. in New Castle. He was married, and listed his mother Margaret as a dependant. He also reported that he had served 3 years in the 3rd U. S. Cavalry, but didn't claim exemption from the draft WW I Registration Card. He was described as tall, of medium weight, with blue eyes and light brown hair.
  In 1920 Charles H. Boak, 30 years old and divorced, was living with his grandmother Sarah A. Alford, 76 (widow of Stewart G.), as head of household in New Castle, and his mother Margaret, 52. He was working in a steel mill, and his mother was a saleslady in a dry goods store. I've found no other possible census record for Howard in 1930.
  In his World War II registration he gave his age of 53, birthdate, mother's name, their address in New Castle, and the name of his foreman at the W. P. A. in Big Run, New Castle. He was 5' 11" tall, weighed 110 pounds, and had a very well educated hand as testified by his signature WW II Registration Card.
ii     Jessie Alford, dtr., born 1872/1873 and died before 1910.
iii     Howard Alford, son, died before 1910.
13     Silas W. Alford, son, born 1837/1838 in Pennsylvania and died 25 Mar 1865 in Petersburg, Virginia.
  Silas W. married Elizabeth Lorraine {born 1838/1840 in Pennsylvania}.
  Silas appears on the 1850 census in the home of his parents, and on the Floyd Alford chart as Silas W. Alford.

On the 1860 census Silas was a shoemaker, age 22, living in Slippery Rock with Elizabeh and their first child, Tacy R., age 10 months. They were censused adjacent to his brother Thomas.

  Silas W. Alford was a soldier in the Civil War. His Veteran's card, Pennsylvania Digital Archives gave his age as 26 when he enrolled 2 Oct 1863 at New Castle, PA. He was a shoemaker with sandy complexion, auburn hair and stood 5' 5" tall. He mustered in as a private at Harrisburg 15 Oct 1863, served in Co. F, 100th Inf., and was killed 25 Mar 1865 at Petersburg, Virginia.

After his death, Elizabeth was married to O. O. Warner, age 45 in the 1880 census in New Castle. Her daughter Mary F. Alford, 18, is in the family as a stepdaughter, confirming this second marriage. Elizabeth's second husband was a laborer, born in Pennsylvania, and they had a daughter G. Myrtle Warner, aged one year.

  The two children of Silas W. and Elizabeth (Lorraine) Alford:
i     Tacy R. Alford, dtr., born Sep 1859 in Pennsylvania.
  Tacy may have died young.
ii     Mary Florence Alford, dtr., born about 1862.
  Mary Florence married ____ Van Sickle.
  Mary was living with her mother and stepfather, O. O. Warner, in 1880. Mary and her husband had a daughter who married Bert Pence and had several children [McConnell].
iii     Elizabeth Alford, dtr., born 25 Jan 1794 and died in 1864.
  Elizabeth married Benjamin McCormick {born 5 Jan 1790 in Moon Twp., Allegheney, Pennsylvania, son of James and Mary (Duncan) McCormick, and died 11 Jul 1861 in Prospect}.
  Family Group Sheets were received 12/4/01 by mail from Larry McCullough of Warner Robbins, Georgia. He gives for Elizabeth's birth the date 25 Jan 1794, rather than the 1797 I previously had from McConnell, who said she died unmarried. Since this is Larry's line, I accept this date. He also gave a date of 1794 for Elinor, possibly from my records. Whether that date is correct, and the girls were twins, is unknown at the present time.
  There is significant disagreement among various sources as to the birth and death dates of Benjamin. Kurt Albert (Personal Communication, Jan 2009) gives 11 Jul 1781 in Moon Twp., Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania for his birth, and 11 Jul 1851, Prospect, Butler Co., Pennsylvania for his death at age 70, probably from a gravestone at Prospect Presbetyrian Church Cemetery, Butler Co., PA. Chris, in a 24 Aug 1999 Rootsweb post gives 5 Jan 1790 and 11 Jul 1861. Larry McCullough (Personal Communication, Jun 2001) also gives the birth year as 1790. Benjamin's age recorded in Butler County censuses put his birth year as 1788/1790. I think it quite possible that there were two Benjamin's whose identifies have become intermixed, although the 11 July death dates exactly one decade apart point to a transcription error.
  In the 1860 census Benjamin "McCormic", 69, and Elizabeth, 66, were censused in Muddy Creek, Butler, Pennsylvania with their son Thomas, 27, and daughter Margaret Degarmo.
  Larry provided the names of the eleven children in this family as given below. The children as listed here also appeared on an Ancestry Message Board date 24 Aug 1999 and signed by "Chris", which provided the birth dates and spouses I give here. Finally, in Jan 2009, Kurt Albert sent me a copy of his "Descendants of James McCormick" which provided additional dates and enabled me to correct some errors I had in my original work on this McCormick/McCullough branch of the family. (Three sisters marrying three brothers seems to require extra care in sorting out records.)
  The eleven children of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Alford) McCormick:
1     James McCormick, son, born 20 Nov 1814.
2     Michael McCormick, son, born in 1816.
3     Eleanor Ann "Nellie" McCormick, dtr., born 24 Jul 1817 in Hopewell, Beaver, Pennsylvania, and died 15 Aug 1897 in Muddy Creek, Butler, Pennsylvania.
  Eleanor Ann "Nellie" was married 1837 in Muddy Creek to Thomas McCullough {born 1811 in Muddy Creek, son of Matthew and Jane (Hunter) McCullough and died 9 Mar 1887}.
  The children of this family were first taken from the WorldConnect web pages of Mark Murphy, who indicates that there were three more children in the family whose names and dates are unknown. He traces six of the sons and daughters to later generations. Kurt Albert (op. cit.) brought the total number of children to twelve, and added additional details on the family.
  The twelve children of Thomas and Eleanor Ann "Nellie" (McCormick) McCullough:
i     Benjamin McCullough, son, born 18 Dec 1838 and died 9 Mar 1887.
  Benjamin was censused 1850 at age 11, and as a farment 1870 at age 30, living with his parents, first in Franklin Twp., then in Muddycreek Twp., Butler Co.
ii     Martha Jane McCullough, dtr., born 4 Mar 1838 in Butler, Butler, Pennsylvania, and died 21 Oct 1921.
  Martha Jane was married in 1859 to Joseph Allen {born 6 Jun 1836 in Northern Ireland}.
iii     Elizabeth McCullough, dtr., born in 1842.
  Elizabeth married David Taylor {died 30 Jun 1887}.
iv     Matthew Jackson McCullough, son, born 12 Dec 1843 in Prospect and died 28 Dec 1915.
  Matthew Jackson was married Jun 1865 to Margaret "Maggie" Tebay {born in 1847 and died 4 Jan 1921}.
v     Mary P. McCullough, dtr., born 1846 in Butler.
  Mary P. married Ralph A. Kiskadden {born in 1834 and died 25 Jun 1899}.
vi     Eleanor A. "Ellie" McCullough, dtr., born in 1848.
  Eleanor A. "Ellie" married William Harrison Gallagher {born 16 Apr 1848 and died 7 Nov 1936}.
vii     Louise "Lou" McCullough, dtr., born 20 Feb 1851 in Buler, Butler, Pennsylvania, died 22 Feb 1919 and was buried in Prospect.
  Louise "Lou" married Henry H. Gallagher {born 10 Nov 1843 and died Nov 1893}.
viii     Margaret E. McCullough, dtr., born in 1853.
  Margaret E. married (1) ____ Gallagher. She married (2) ____ Bailey.
ix     James P. McCullough, son, born 1854/1855 in Pennsylvania.
  James was censused 1860 and 1870 with his parents at ages 5 and 15. In 1893 he was living in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania.
x     William Findley McCullough, son, born 11 Dec 1858 in Muddy Creek, died 14 Aug 1926 in Portersville, Butler, Pennsylvania, and was buried in Prospect.
  William Findley was married about 1881 to Mary Adelia "Della" Pyle {born 5 Oct 1857 and died 22 Mar 1959}.
xi     Felicia B. McCullough, dtr., born 15 Jul 1860 in Buler and died 3 Sep 1930.
  Felicia B. was married about 1886 to Philip Houk Frew {born in 1843 and died 21 Nov 1912}.
xii     Thomas A. McCullough, son, born 1862 in Pennsylvania.
  Thomas was censused with his parents in Muddy Creek Twp., Butler County in 1850 at age 7.
4     Benjamin McCormick, son, born in 1819.
5     Mary McCormick, dtr., born 15 Apr 1821 in Pennsylvania, died 8 Nov 1867 and was buried in Prospect.
  Mary was married in 1849 to George Washington McCullough {born 1814 in Muddy Creek, son of Matthew and Jane (Hunter) McCullough, died 31 Jan 1896 in New Castle and was buried in Prospect}.
  The eight children of George Washington and Mary (McCormick) McCullough:
i     Martha B. McCullough, dtr., born in 1844.
ii     Matthew R. McCullough, son, born in 1844 and died 9 Jul 1892.
iii     Jerusha McCullough, dtr., born 9 Aug 1847 and died 14 May 1935.
  Jerusha married Allexander C. Allen {died in 1934}.
iv     Mary E. McCullough, dtr., born in 1849 and died about 1927.
  Mary E. married ____ Anderson.
v     Selina "Lina" McCullough, dtr., born about 1853 in Pennsylvania and died in 1899.
  Selina "Lina" married Joseph Smith Cunningham Hennon {born 9 Feb 1847}.
vi     Ella Jane "Ellen" McCullough, dtr., born 9 Oct 1853 in Prospect and died 15 Dec 1928 in Grove City.
  Ella Jane "Ellen" was married 31 Jan 1871 to John Calvin Alford {born 30 Sep 1853 in Princeton, son of Arthur E. and Rebecca (Scott) Alford, died after 1892 and was buried in Center United}.
  From his son John Calvin Alford's burial as "Jr.", I expand this John's middle initial "C" to "Calvin".
  John and Ella Jane were second cousins, both being grandchildren of Michael and Martha (McCready) Alford, John through Michael and Martha's son John A., Ella Jane through their daughter Elizabeth.
  John, a farmer, and Ellen Alford were censused 1880 in Slippery Rock, Lawrence Co. with their first two children, Mary R. and Howard S., at home. In 1900 they were still in Slippery Rock, having been married 29 years. Ellen had borne 4 children, of whom three were still living, including Eva who was at home at age 15. Two households away was the census of their daughter's family, Mary and William Leslie including their grandson Howard S. Leslie.
  The four children of John Calvin and Ella Jane "Ellen" (McCullough) Alford:
1     Mary Rebecca Alford, dtr., born 6 Nov 1872 in Slippery Rock.
  Mary Rebecca was married 1894/1895 to William Stuart Leslie {born 21 Feb 1869 in Slippery Rock, son of John and Christina (Mayne) Leslie and died 13 Oct 1947 in Lawrence}.
  William Leslie was a farmer in Slippery Rock Twp., Lawrence Co., Pennsylvania. Rebecca and William were censused in 1900 and reported being married 5 years, and their one child, Howard S., was four years old. They were listed two households away from her parents, John and Ellen Alford.
  Their 1910 census indicates that they had been married 15 years, and that Howard was the only child Mary had born.
  William's parents were found on a WorldConnect web page of Nancy Smith.
2     Howard Scott Alford, son, born 5 Jan 1874 in Princeton.
  Howard Scott was married in 1898 to Margaret M. Brennen? {born 1877/1878 in Ireland}.
  Howard S. Alford was censused 1930 in San Jose Township, Santa Clara, California with his wife Margaret M. and a 15 year old nephew John J. Brennan, born in California of parents both born in Ireland. I'm showing that as a possible surname for Margaret. This census indicated that Howard and Margaret had been married when he was 25 and she was 22.
  Margaret might be the daughter born 1876/1877 to John and Catharine Brennen in Cass, Schuykill, Pennsylvania, but that supposition is based only on the similarity of name, age and Pennsylvania birth, which is not enough by itself to accept such a linkage.
3     John Calvin Alford, son, born 29 Apr 1883, died 12 Mar 1884 and was buried in Center United.
4     Eva Eliza Alford, dtr., born 31 Dec 1884.
vii     Martha E. McCullough, dtr., born in 1856.
viii     Emma McCullough, dtr., born 25 Mar 1858 and died 24 Jul 1932.
  Emma married John S. Anderson {died in 1906}.
6     Martha McCormick, dtr., born in 1823.
7     John McCormick, son, born in 1825.
8     Elizabeth McCormick, dtr., born 1827 in Hopewell and died 1900 in Forest County, Pennsylvania.
  Elizabeth was married 20 Jun 1849 to Robert McCullough {born 1822 in Muddy Creek, son of Matthew and Jane (Hunter) McCullough and died 14 Dec 1867 in Prospect}.
  The details of this family are also taken from the WorldConnect web page of Mark Murphy, who traces the descent from the youngest son John Pressley who moved his family north to Forest County, Pennsylvania.
  The five children of Robert and Elizabeth (McCormick) McCullough:
i     Josephine McCullough, dtr., born in 1850.
ii     Elizabeth McCullough, dtr., born in 1851.
iii     Jane McCullough, dtr., born in 1853.
iv     James Madison "Max" McCullough, son, born 1855 in Prospect.
  James Madison "Max" married Gertrude ____.
v     John Pressley McCullough, son, born 12 Feb 1858 in Butler and died 9 Jun 1942.
  John Pressley married Corabelle Renola Phillips {born 1 Sep 1863 and died 28 Aug 1895}.
9     Hugh McCormick, son, born 1829 in Franklin, Butler, Pennsylvania.
  Hugh was married 24 Jun 1864 to Elizabeth Craig (1). He married (2) Mary ____.
10     Thomas McCormick, son, born 1831/1833 in Franklin and died in 1862.
11     Margaret Jane McCormick, dtr., born 21 Mar 1834 in Prospect and died 1904 in Lawrence.
  Margaret Jane married Seth Degarmo {died in 1912}.
iv     Elinor Alford, dtr., born about 1794.
  Elinor married Charles W. McClaugham.
  See the note for Elinor's sister Elizabeth as to birth dates for the two girls.
  Larry McCullough gives this surname as McClauglan, and I've lost track of where I originally found Elinor's husband as McClaugham.
v     William Alford, son, born in 1796.
  William is a complete blank in all of the sources I've been able to search. It may be that he died young.
vi     Hugh Alford, son, born 1797/1798.
vii     Thomas Alford, son, born 29 May 1800 in Pennsylvania and died 12 Sep 1870.
  Thomas was married 4 Sep 1822 to Rebecca McMillen {born 6 Sep 1796, dtr of John and Rebecca (____) McMillen and died 14 Oct 1850}.
  Thomas was a shoemaker in Shenango township, as was his elder brother Stewart. In 1830 the Shenango census recorded Thomas and his wife, aged 30-40, 2 sons under 5 and 1 daughter 5 to 10 years. In 1836 he and his brother John were signers of a petition to divide Shenango township to form Slipperyrock township. At one time, Thomas was the delegate from Shenango township to establish a common school system for Beaver county.
  Hazen, in his history of Beaver County [1908] writes that a Thomas Alford was appointed elder of the United Presbyterian Church 17 Apr 1850, and left soon afterward for Illinois. That could well have been this Thomas, traveling with his brother Hugh and wife Martha.
  According to another history of the county [Bausman, 1904], Thomas represented Slipperyrock Township on the Beaver County Agricultural Society.
  I've lost the source of Rebecca's maiden name and birth date. However, I do find (April 2004) her marriage to Thomas without dates, in a web post on GenForum by Pete Williams. That extensive lineage in western Pennsylvania uses the spelling McMillin. Rebecca's parents first lived in Finleyville, Washington County, Pennsylvania, some 12 miles south of Pittsburgh, but the family later moved to Beaver County.
  The birth date I do have is a couple of years earlier than that implied consistently by her age in three different censuses, but those may have been hedged a bit so as not to appear too much older than her husband.
  Note that Thomas' niece Martha Alford, daughter of John, married a John McMillen. Undoubtedly a relative of Rebecca's, but the specifics are not yet known.
  The six children of Thomas and Rebecca (McMillen) Alford:
1     Rebecca Alford, dtr., born 1823/1824 in Pennsylvania and died after 1880.
  Rebecca married John Dinsmore {born 1816/1817, son of Mathew and Christina (Patterson) Dinsmore and died before 1880}.
  The Mahoning Township, Beaver County census of 3 Oct 1850 gives John and Rebecca's ages as 33 and 25, and lists their children as Alford, 3 and Victoria, 1. Also in the household was Rebecca's brother John Alford, 22, a student.
  Their son Charles W., born Apr 1860, gave his birthplace as Illinois in the 1900/1910/1920 censuses, but it was given as Pennsylvania when he was still at home with Rebecca in 1870. This is somewhat mysterious, and I don't know for how long John and Rebecca might have been in Illinois. Unfortunately, I cannot find any member of the family in the 1860 census indexes.
  Rebecca was censused as a 46 year old head of household in 1870, livng in Hickory Twp., Lawrence County with her children Thomas A., his wife Sarah J., 18, and their daugher Mary, one month old. Also at home were Rebecca's children Martha E. and Charles W., aged 21 and 10. The eleven year gap between the last two might indicate a missing child. By 1880, Rebecca was living in East Brook, Lawrence County, with her son Charley, daughter-in-law Mariah A., 21, and grandchild Annie Dinsmore, aged 2 years.
  I'm assuming the John who married Rebecca is John the son of Mathew and Christina Dinsmore. Hazen says that John was deceased at the time of writing [Hazen, 1908], and we know that Rebecca was a widow by 1860.
  The four children of John and Rebecca (Alford) Dinsmore:
i     Thomas Alford "Alford T." Dinsmore, son, born Jul 1846 in Pennsylvania.
  Thomas Alford "Alford T." was married in 1869 to Sarah Jane ____ {born Aug 1851 in Pennsylvania and died 1910/1920}.
  This son's name was given as Alford at age 3 in 1850, and as Thomas A. in 1870 when he was 24 and still in his parents home, which is reasonable as a mother's married name was often used as a middle name for one or more children. But he gave his name as Alford again in his own 1880 census, and as Alford T. in 1900 and 1910.
  Alford and Sarah Jane Dinsmore were censused 1880 in East Brook, Lawrence County, at ages 33 and 27. Alford worked as a grocer, and they had three children, Luella May, John Wilbur and Albert Richard, ages 10, 7 and 3. Luella May, by her age, is their first child recorded as Mary (misheard by the census taker?) in the 1870 census. By 1900 they were in Hickory Township, Lawrence County, as Alford T. and Sarah J., from which record we get the months of their births, and that of their daughter, now named as May L. (the family did feel free to change the order of their given names), aged 30. Alfred was still a grocer, and they were censused adjacent to their son Albert. That 1910 census also reported that they had been married 40 years (thus married 1869/70), and since May was born in the month of May, 1870, I've listed their marriage as 1869.
  Also in the family that year (and ten years later) was Ivan E. Dinsmore, 10 years old so twenty years younger than May, but clearly marked as the son of Alford and Sarah. Sarah was only thirty-nine years old when Ivan was born, and her 1900 census reported that she had borne six children, of whom only four were still living. I've placed the two, unknown children in that two decade gap between Albert and Ivan, but that is just an educated guess.
  In 1910 Alford T. and Sarah J., ages 63 and 58, were still in Hickory, with their children May L. and Ivan E., ages 38 and 19, at home. Alford was working as a merchant and May as a saleswoman in a store, and they were censused on the same page as his brother Charles W. Dinsmore.
  Who was Alford's wfie Sarah, born Aug 1851? The ancestry.com census index for 1860 lists no less than five "Sarah J."s in Lawrence County aged nine or ten. The surnames were Lustre, McGimiss, Stewart, Booker and Fisher. And there were two dozen more plain "Sarah"s, no less than nine in Hickory Twp., alone. The chances are that one of these Sarahs married Thomas Alford, but without more information there's no way to distinquish which, if any, were to become his wife.
  The six children of Thomas Alford "Alford T." and Sarah Jane (____) Dinsmore:
1     Luella May "May L." Dinsmore, dtr., born May 1870 in Pennsylvania.
  The 1880 census gave this daughter's name as a child as Luella May, but in all subsequent censuses she gave it as May L. She was still at home with her parents in 1900 and in 1910, working as a saleswoman, and living by herself 1930 In Hickory township, at age 59.
  Whether or not I've found her in the 1920 census is problematic. There was a "Ma L. Dinsmore", age 49, in Hickory Township that year listed a a daughter of "V. T." Dinsmore, a widow aged 73. May had an aunt Victoria Dinsmore, born 1848/49, but why she would be listed as a widow Dinsmore isn't very clear. And I haven't found any trace of Victoria (per se) since the 1850 census.
2     John Wilbur Dinsmore, son, born Jul 1872 in Pennsylvania.
  John Wilbur was married 1893/1894 to Abbie P. Bell {born Sep 1872 in Pennsylvania, dtr of John and Isabella (Brothers) Bell}.
  In 1900 John and Abbie were living in Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan, and he was working as a Civil Engineer for a limestone company. They had two sons, John, 3 years, and Marvin B., 7 months and born in Michigan.
  Abbie's mother Isabel Bell, born Aug 1832 in Ohio, was living with them, as was her sister Diela Sergrant (Della Bell, who married Edward Sergeant - see below), born Aug 1864. Abbie and Della listed their father as born in England, and their mother in Ohio.
  By 1910 John and Abbie were back in Lawrence County, living in Neshannock Township. Their son Marvin got censused as Marion that year; John was still in the same job.
  In 1920 their son Marvin, age 20 was still living with them, and wording as a Rodman for the Pittsburg Limestone Co. John was working as a Civil Engineer also for that company. Finally, as far as census data goes, John W. and Abie were censused still in Neshannock in 1930, John working as an engineer for U. S. Steel, and Abie listed both of her parents as born in Pennsylvania (or the census taker forgot to ask and just continued to use asterisks).
  A biography of Abbie's father John Bell can be found on USGenWeb Archives from which I take her name as well as that of their son John. She was one of twelve children raised in the New Castle, Neshannock Township area. Her father was born in Durham, England, her mother in Ohio.
  Abbie's father was a coal miner both in England and after he emigrated where he worded in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In 1852 he moved to Beaver county and worked at both mining and farming in Neshannock Township.
3     Albert Richard "Albert M." Dinsmore, son, born Feb 1876 in Pennsylvania.
  Albert Richard "Albert M." was married 1896/1897 to Jenetta J. Henderson {born Jul 1873 in Pennsylvania, dtr of William and Sarah A. (____) Henderson}.
  Albert worked as a farm laborer, censused 1900 adjacent to his parents. While his name in 1880 had clearly been recorded as Albert Richard, here as well as in later censuses he gave it as Albert M. His wife's name was recorded as Zetta in 1900, Lizzetta in 1910 (the census taker wrote it particularly strong and carefully, as if someone were spelling it out for him!), and as Jetta in 1920.
  In 1900 Albert and Zetta were in Hickory Township, where he was working as a farm laborer. They had been married three years, and Zetta had borne one child, no longer living.
  By 1910 Anbert M. and Lizetta were living in New Castle Ward 3, and had in their home sons Donald and Alford, ages 8 and 3. That year Albert was working as a livery stable driver, they had been married 13 years, and his wife reported that she had born three children, all living, slightly in disagreement with her 1900 testimony. I'm taking this as a census error, since they had only the two sons living with them and she had reported the death of a child the previous decade.
  In 1920 Albert and Jetta were still in New Castle, and he was working as the Proprietor of a company the name of which I can't decipher. All three sons, Donald A., 18, Alford J., 13 and Robert, 9, were in the home.
  I was unable to find any member of this family in the 1930 census.
  Who was Albert's wife Zetta/Lizzetta/Jetta? Most likely she was Jenetta J. Henderson, daughter of William and Sarah A. Henderson of Mahoning Twp., Lawrence County. William, a carpenter, and Sarah, ages 40 and 36, had five children in the 1880 census with ages 15 down to 1 year old. Jenetta, their fourth, was 6 years old, which corresponds exactly to Zetta's birth recorded in 1900 as Jul 1873.
  Mahoning Twp is around ten miles west of Hickory Twp. where Albert grew up. Jenetta was the first of their children to be born in Pennsylvania, so the family moved from Mansfield, Richland, Ohio [1870 census] east to Lawrence County, Pennsylvania about 1873. In 1900 William and Sarah were running a boarding house in Ellwood City, on the south edge of Lawrence County. I've listed this couple as Albert's in-laws based on these name, age and nearby location agreements.
4     Unnamed child, born in Pennsylvania and died before 1900.
5     Unnamed child, born in Pennsylvania and died before 1900.
6     Ivan Eugene Dinsmore, son, born 21 Oct 1890 in Pennsylvania.
  Ivan's World War I Draft Registration Card of 1819 gives his middle name as Eugene, and his birth day as 21 Oct 1890. He was living in East Brook, PA, working as a Clerk for A. T. Dinsmore (his dad), and was single with no dependants. He was recorded as being medium tall, of meduim build, with brown eyes and dark brown hair.
ii     Victoria T. Dinsmore, dtr., born 1846/1849 in Pennsylvania.
  The 1920 census recorded a V. T. Dinsmore, 73 old widow working as a general store saleswoman, in Hickory Twp., Lawrence County. This is somewhat confusing, since if Victoria had married, one would expect her to have some other surname. Living with her was "Ma L." Dinsmore, most probably Victoria's niece, Luella May who was censused ten years later as May L. Dinsmore.
iii     Martha E. Dinsmore, dtr., born 1848/1849 in Pennsylvania.
iv     Charles W. Dinsmore, son, born Apr 1860 in Illinois.
  Charles W. was married 1877/1878 to Sarah A. ____ {born Jan 1859 in Pennsylvania and died 1910/1920}.
  Charles W. and Sarah A. Dinsmore were censused 1900 in Hickory Township with all six of their children at home, ranging in age from 19 down to 3 years. From this record we get the months and years of births of all of the family. Charles reported that he had been born in Illinois (as he did in the next two censuses), and was working as a carpenter. Sarah was 41, and had borne 7 chldren, all of them still living.
  In 1910 in Hickory Twp. they were censused in Hickory eight households from his brother Alfort T. (Thomas Alford) Dinsmore. Charles was working as a house carpenter, and their daughter Sarah was "working out sewing", presumably "out" of the home. Sarah was 51, and had borne 7 chldren, all of them still living. By this time, the three eldest daughters, Eva, Martha and Mary, had left the home.
  By 1920 Charles was a widower and had moved to New Castle where he was working as a carpenter at the cement plant. His daughter Martha V. was back at home working as a stenographer at the electric office, and Mary E. was back and working as a saleswoman in a clothing store. His son Harry had moved out, but Sarah C. had married William S. Reed, who was working as a fitter in the railroad shops, and the two of them were living with Charles and his other three daughters.

The middle name Chambers of Sarah's son Harry hints that that might have been her maiden name. There was, indeed, a Sarah Chambers born 1858/59 in Hickory, daughter of Jas. and Nancy Chambers, age 28 and 21 at the 1860 census in that town. James was a stonemason born in Pennsylvania. (There was also a Sarah E. Chambers born that same year in Hickory to Joseph and Christina Chambers, aged 37 and 30 in 1870, but although the age matches, the middle initial doesn't and she was still unmarried in 1880.)

I suspect that this daughter of James and Nancy is indeed Charles wife, but I was completely unable to locate the family in the 1870 census. This is troubling enough that I hesitate to claim that relationship for certain.

  The six children of Charles W. and Sarah A. (____) Dinsmore:
1     Eva L. Dinsmore, dtr., born Jun 1880 in Pennsylvania.
2     Martha V. Dinsmore, dtr., born Sep 1884 in Pennsylvania.
3     Mary E. Dinsmore, dtr., born Apr 1888 in Pennsylvania.
4     Sarah C. Dinsmore, dtr., born Oct 1890 in Pennsylvania.
  Sarah C. married William S. Reed {born 1889/1890 in Pennsylvania}.
  Sarah's husband William was a C____ Fitter in the Railroad Shops in 1920.
5     Harry Chambers Dinsmore, son, born 14 May 1894 in Eastbrook, Lawrence, Pennsylvania.
  Harry married Winifred ____ {born about 1895}.
  Harry's WW I Draft Card of 1917 gives us his middle name of Chambers, and the day and place of his birth. He was a book keeper at the Citizen's National Bank in New Castle, and was married with a wife to support. He was of medium height and build, with Gray eyes and light colored hair.

In 1920 Harry Dinsmore was a bank teller living in New Castle Ward 5 in 1920 who gave his age as 25. Harry's wife was Winifred, also 25 and born in Pennsylvania, and they had a son Charles, 2 years 5 months old, and a son Harry W., two months old.

A possibility for the identity of Harry's wife is Winifred Sheark, born Jul 1896 to Geo. W. and Emma Sheark, censused at ages 43 and 30 in Newcastle Ward 5 in 1900. She was the youngest of five children, and George's occupation was listed as laborer. (The census taker wrote the name of the second previous head of household as O. J. Shirk, which makes one wonder if both surnames were actually Shark.)

6     Ruth A. Dinsmore, dtr., born Sep 1896 in Pennsylvania.
2     Michael C. Alford, son, born about 1826.
  Michael C. married Ann ____ {born about 1826}.
  There is a Civil War Veteran's card for Michael C. Alford who enrolled and mustered in at New Brighton, PA on 16 Feb 1865 at age 39, and thus born 1825/26. He was mustered out 11 Aug of that year. A farmer living in Lawrence County with black hair and hazel eyes, standing 5'6", he was almost surely this Michael, and I have added the middle initial "C" here on the basis of that record.
  The two children of Michael C. and Ann (____) Alford:
i     Thomas Alford, son, born about 1847.
  This is probably the Thomas "Alfred" (he's cross-indexed under "Alford") whose Civil War Veteran's card says that he enrolled and mustered in 21 Feb 1865 at New Brighton, PA, at age 17, and was mustered out 11 Aug 1865. His residence was listed as Lawrence County, and he was 5'4" tall, dark complexioned with brown eyes and hair and his occupation was farmer.
ii     Elizabeth Alford, dtr., born about 1848.
3     John Alford, son, born Jan 1828 in Pennsylvania.
  John married Mary A. J. Blakeslee {born Feb 1832 in New York}.
  John was aged 22 when he was censused 1850 as a student living with his sister Rebecca (Alford) Dinsmore in Mahoning Township, Beaver County.
  He was of the right age to be the John Alford serving as a soldier in the Civil War from Lawrence County, but so was his second cousin John, the son of John A. and Ruth Alford.
  John and his wife, listed as "Mary B.", were censused in the 3rd Ward, Newcastle, Lawrence County in 1880. Presumably that "B." stands for Mary's maiden name, not middle name, as McConnell named her as "Mary A. J. Blakeslee". Rather unusual in a census. From this census, we find John and his New York born wife lived in Illinois for at least a couple of years where their first two children were born, before moving to Pennsylvania and settling in New Castle. John was a Minister, and the first two children were teaching that year.
  In 1900 John was listed as a "Minister R.P." in the 3rd Ward of Beaver Falls, Beaver County. He was censused with Mary and their daughter Martha, and from this record we get their birth dates.
  The seven children of John and Mary A. J. (Blakeslee) Alford:
i     Martha "Mattie" Alford, dtr., born Aug 1856 in Illinois.
  Mattie as well as her brothers Charles and William were school teachers.
ii     Charles M. Alford, son, born 1858/1859 in Illinois.
iii     William J. Alford, son, born 1860/1861 in Pennsylvania.
iv     Mary "Polly" Alford, dtr., born about 1864 in Pennyslvania.
  McConnell suggest that Mary may have died young as she was not censused in her parents' home in 1880, when she would have been about 16 years old.
v     Ralph B. Alford, son, born 1866/1867 in Pennsylvania.
vi     Hattie J. Alford, dtr., born 1869/1870 in Pennsylvania.
vii     Carrie B. Alford, dtr., born 1875/1876 in Pennsylvania.
4     Thomas Alford, son, born about 1831.
5     Charles Alford, son, born about 1835.
6     Martha Alford, dtr., born about 1837.
viii     Martha Alford, dtr., born 1801/1802 in Pennsylvania.
  Martha married William Weller {born about 1802 in New Jersey, son of Philip and Eleanor (Parks) Weller, and died in 1852}.
  See the discussion above as to the identification of this daughter Martha, Jr. as an Alford and as the wife of William Weller. The Weller genealogy indicates that William was married second to Sarah Frew, but no dates are provided which might indicate when his wife Martha died.
  Since we don't know when the widow Martha Alford married James Quigley, this daughter could have been his (as McConnell said she "had to be"), but would not in that case have been raised as an Alford, and thus not the woman married to William Weller.
  William Weller was censused 1830 (10001... 11001...) in a compact group of seven adjacent households, all relatives of Martha Alford Quigley. The census indicaes one son and one daughter under 5 (Eleanor and John), but also a female between 5 and 10. At this writing (Jan, 2009) I don't have William and Martha's marriage date, so this may be a previously unknown child. I'm entering such, but note that this could also be a niece of either parent, as that often occurred in those days.
  William worked as a farmer in South Slippery Rock according to the 1850 census. He and Martha, both aged 48, had in their home Eleanor, 21, John, 19, William, 16, Thomas, 12 and Martha, 10. They were censused two households away from Martha's step-brother, James Quigley.
  William died in 1857, but in searching for Martha in the 1860 census, I came across a John Weller, 27, and Meartha (sic), 21. This latter could be the widow of William, but there were three John Wellers in the area any of whom could have had a wife "Meartha".
  The six children of William and Martha (Alford) Weller:
1     Unnamed Weller, dtr., born 1820/1825.
2     Eleanor A. Weller, dtr., born 1826/1830 in Pennsylvania and died in 1890.
  Eleanor A. married Charles Boak {born 1826/1831 in Pennsylvania, son of Charles Boak and died in 1893}.
  From the 1897 Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, Lawrence County Pennsylvania autobiography of his son Dr. Robert G. Boak, we have "Charles completed his education in Scott township schools, and then turned his attention to farming, which he followed all the years of his life given over to active labor in Slippery Rock township; in 1887, he moved to New Castle, where he lived in retirement until his death." The article goes on to record that his wife was a daughter of William Weller, and that they were the parents of seven children, namely .... However, the author then lists only five, plus three grandchildren, which we adopt here.
  The 1880 census finds Charles and Nellie Boak, ages 49 and 50, in Slippery Rock, Lawrnce County. Their three children at home that year were Mary, 22, Thomas, 18, Gavin, 15 and Angess, 11. From this we get that theiir youngest son Robert's middle name was Gavin
  The five children of Charles and Eleanor A. (Weller) Boak:
i     Charles Boak, son, born 1855/1856 in Pennsylvania.
  Charles married Carrie Badger {born 1859/1860 in Pennsylvania}.
  Carrie was of Portersville, Butler, Pennsylvania. She and Charles, Jr., were censused 1880 in Slippery Rock, Lawrence County, where he was a farmer.
  Carrie might well be the Carrie G. Boak censused 1920 as a widow, aged 57, living alone in the City of Butler, Butler County, just northeast of Slippery Rock.
  The only child of Charles and Carrie (Badger) Boak:
1     Clyde Boak, son.
ii     Mary Boak, dtr., born 1857/1858 in Pennsylvania.
  Mary married William Joiner.
  William was of Louisville, Kentucky.
iii     Thomas Boak, son, born Aug 1861 in Pennsylvania.
  Thomas married Margaret Alford {born Dec 1868 in Pennsylvania, dtr of Stewart G. and Sarah A. (Miller) Alford}.
  Margaret was listed as "Magie" on the 1880 census of the family. Her marriage to Thomas, and his descent from the Weller line, is documented in "Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, Lawrence County Pennsylvania" by the Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, NY, 1897, and available online in the USGenWeb Archives.
  That source also mentioned their son Howard, whose name turns out to be Charles Howard. Thomas and Margaret were second cousins, illustrated in the following chart:
 
image: Alford-Boak common ancestry

Alford-Boak common ancestry

  In 1900 they were censused in New Castle as Thomas A. and Margret Boak, ages 38 and 31. Thomas was a Tin Worker, and their son Charles H., was 10 years old.
  Margaret is said to have had in her possession the John and Ruth (Eckles) Alford Family Bible, which Harry Eckles used as a source for the Eckles genealogy (Howard Eckles, Personal Communication, Jan 2009).
  The only child of Thomas and Margaret (Alford) Boak:
1     Charles Howard Boak, son, born 18 Jun 1889 in Princeton.
  Charles Howard was married before Jun 1917, but his wife's name is unknown.
  In 1910 Charles H. Boak, 21 and born in Pennsylvania, was censused while serving in Troop 6, 3rd Cavalry in the Artillery and Cavalry Post at Fort Sam Houston in Bexar County, Texas. He had enlisted 26 Sep 1908 giving his birth place as Princeton, PA, his age as 19y 3m, and his occupation as steel worker. He was discharged 27 Sep 1911 at Ft. Sam Houston [Ancestry.com].
  Charles Howard Boak's World War I WW I Registration Card of 5 Jun 1917 said he was working as an electriian for the Carnegie Steel Co. in New Castle. He was married, and listed his mother Margaret as a dependant. He also reported that he had served 3 years in the 3rd U. S. Cavalry, but didn't claim exemption from the draft. He was described as tall, of medium weight, with blue eyes and light brown hair.
  In 1920 Charles H. Boak, 30 years old and divorced, was living with his grandmother Sarah A. Alford, 76 (widow of Stewart G.), as head of household in New Castle, and his mother Margaret, 52. He was working in a steel mill, and his mother was a saleslady in a dry goods store. I've found no other possible census record for Howard in 1930.
  In his World War II registration he gave his age of 53, birthdate, mother's name, their address in New Castle, and the name of his foreman at the W. P. A. in Big Run, New Castle. He was 5' 11" tall, weighed 110 pounds, and had a very well educated hand as testified by his signature WW II Registration Card.
iv     Robert Gavin Boak, son, born 16 Mar 1865 in Slippery Rock.
  Robert Gavin married Minerva McCurdy.
  "Dr. Boak taught school for seven years, during which time for the space of one year he read medicine under the direction of Dr. Charles Hunt of Princeton, Pa. ... He then entered the Baltimore Medical College of Baltimore, Md., in 1893, and after one year changed his location, becoming a medical student in the medical department of the Western University of Pittsburg, Pa., from which he graduated in 1897 Biographical Sketches.
  The two children of Robert Gavin and Minerva (McCurdy) Boak:
1     W. Earl Boak, son.
2     Robert C. Boak, son.
v     Agnes Boak, dtr., born 1868/1869 in Pennsylvania.
  Agnes married Phillip Sechler.
  The only child of Phillip and Agnes (Boak) Sechler:
1     Gula Sechler, dtr.
3     John Weller, son, born Nov 1831 and died in 1915.
  John was married in 1860 to Priscilla Monroe {born Apr 1836 in Pennsylvania, dtr of Joel and Margret (____) Monroe}.
  An ancestry.com family tree gives the marriage in Lawrence County between John and Pricella Monroe, but without sources. In light of the 1900 census matching this couple in Slipper Rock, I accept this surname for John's wife, but point out this needs independent confirmation.
  That census gives the birth months for John Weller, farmer, and wife Priscilla, married 40 years, that I've adopted here, and the names and birth months for their five children as listed below. They also had in their home George F. Elliott, a servant, born May 1845.
  Priscilla's parents I take from the Shenango Township census of 23 Jul 1860 for which she was still at home, aged 24. With her first child born Sep 1861, their marriage must have been between that date and December of 1860.
  The five children of John and Priscilla (Monroe) Weller:
i     Riley M. Weller, son, born Sep 1861 in Pennsylvania.
ii     William Weller, son, born Dec 1864 in Pennsylvania.
iii     John A. Weller, son, born Jul 1867 in Pennsylvania.
iv     Margaret J. Weller, dtr., born Jul 1873 in Pennsylvania.
v     Lillie M. Weller, dtr., born Jul 1878 in Pennsylvania.
4     William Weller, son, born 1833/1834.
5     Thomas Weller, son, born 1837/1838.
  This son is probably the Thomas W. Weller of Lawrence County who enrolled and mustered in the army 24 Jul 1861 at age 22 at Harrisburg. He mustered out 9 Jun 1864, and was described as a student with light complexion, blue eyes, dark hard and 5'8" tall [Civil War Veterans' Card File].
6     Martha Weller, dtr., born 1839/1840.
Hugh Alford & Martha Weller

Michael1, Hugh2

Hugh was born 1797/1798 in Beaver, Pennsylvania, and died about 1851.

Hugh and Martha's marital data are not known.

Martha was born 8 Dec 1805 in Sussex, New Jersey, the daughter of Philip and Eleanor (Parks) Weller. She died 4 Jul 1894 in Batavia, Jefferson, Iowa, and was buried in Brethren Cem., Des Moines Twp., Jefferson, Iowa.

Hugh Alford was censused 1830 in Shenango, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and in 1840 in Slipperrock, Beaver County.
Hugh purchased 7 Jan 1846 a tract of six acres of land in Slipperyrock, Beaver (now Lawrence), Pennsylvania, part originally of Lot No. 11 of 500 acres in the first district patented 1786 to Bernard Hully for military service. Hully's widow sold it to Charles McClaugham, possibly the father of the man of that name who married Hugh's sister Elinor, and he sold it in 1829 to James Gibson, from whom Hugh purchased it in 1846.
Hugh worked as a carpenter, and was censused 1850 in South Slippery Rock Township. The eight youngest children were in the household that year. Hugh sold land 10 Oct 1851 for $150, with Martha's affirmation being dated 14 Nov 1851, to Robert Gibson, most likely the son of the man from whom he originally purchased it. In the deed of sale, it was described as being adjacent to land of James Quiqley, either Hugh's stepfather or his stepbrother. In 1850, Hugh and James Quigley, Jr., his stepbrother, appear adjacent to one another in the census.
This sale was apparently in preparation for the family's move westward from Pennsylvania. Hugh died on the Ohio River enroute from Pennsylvania, in late 1851 or early 1852, according to Martha's obituary. His death is also listed this way in the Des Moines Township, Jefferson County, Iowa, Index to Burials, but no gravestone is indicated and this surely is only a entry in the records, not an actual burial in that location. I checked the available cemetery indexes for Wayne Co., Illinois, where Martha settled temporarily, but failed to find Hugh's name. Also checked were the sparser indexes for Gallatin and Hardin Counties, Illinois, along the Ohio River, equally without success.
Martha's obituary was in the Fairfield Ledger for 11 Jul 1894, citing a notice in the Batavia Sentinel: "They started west, with a family of twelve children, in 1851, and the husband and father died on the journey. Other members of the family [also] came to Jefferson County [Iowa] in 1858 and resided for a long time near County Line. Mrs. Alfred was eighty-eight years of age."
In Wayne County, Illinois, all records prior to 1880's were destroyed by fire, so the marriage record there of Rebecca Ann must have come down through the family. Apparently the family paused in that state for several years on their way to Iowa, as the 1855 Illinois Census shows Martha with eight people in the household. Missing at that time were her three eldest daughters, Rebecca Ann who by then was married, and one of the three sons John, Michael or Ross. John or one of the other two could have gone ahead to Iowa with Rebecca Ann and Abraham Teeter in 1853, with Martha and the rest of the family following later.
Hazen, in his history of Beaver County [1908] writes that a Thomas Alford was appointed elder of the United Presbyterian Church 17 Apr 1850, and left soon afterward for Illinois. That could well have been her brother-in-law Thomas, traveling with her and Hugh.
No Alfords appeared in the 1856 Jefferson County, Iowa census, but Martha Alfred was in Des Moines Twp., that county, by 1860, when the federal census indicated she was a widow aged 55, born in New Jersey, and could neither read nor write. In her household were her children William, 30, a blacksmith, Stuart, 28, John, 23, and Michael, 20, all farmers (but the latter two also attending school), and May Ann, 15, Louisa, 14, and Gustus, 11, all noted as attending school. Also censused 1860 in Des Moines Township was Stuart "Alfort", 24 and born in Pennsylvania, working as a farm hand for Daniel Sheaffer. This was probably her nephew, Stewart G. Alford, son of Hugh's eldest brother John A. Alford, as that was the right age for him.
On 25 May 1867 Martha bought Lot No. 13, Old Plat, in Batavia for $175. Apparently she had been renting since at least 1860, as there were no Alford land transactions in Jefferson County prior to 1867. Her son Stewart was still in Batavia when he died in 1909. In the 1870 census, Martha Alfred, 62, born in Pennsylvania (sic) had a "Stuard", born in Pennsylvania and aged 21 living with her. That age is weirdly wrong, as Stewart had his 38th birthday 8 days before the 30 June census was taken, but there are no other Stewart Alfords who could have been living with her. Her census was adjacent to that of her son John Weller Alford (see his story below for an image of this census).
In 1880 Martha Alfred is still in Batavia with (explicitly) sons Stewart and Mickel, as well as her grandson Eddie Rasmus in her home. Both of the online censuse indexes misread her and her parents' birth state as NY (even though the "J" of NJ was identical to that of Jefferson County).

Martha ALFRED   W   Female  74  NJ  Keeping House NJ NJ 
Stewart ALFRED  S   Male    40  PA  Laborer       PA NJ 
Mickel ALFRED   S   Male    30  PA  Laborer       PA NJ 
Eddie RASMUS    S   Male    11  IA           Denmark PA 
------------------------------------------------------- 
1880 Census, Batavia, Jefferson, Iowa, T9-347, 424A 

That age of 40 for Stewart is again quite wrong, as he was at this time eight days short of his 48th birthday when the census was taken on 14 June.
The family name is most often found spelled "Alfred" in Iowa. Janet Markley [Markley, 1991] relates that one of the sons–in–law persuaded the family that it "should" be spelled that way. Since Martha could neither read nor write, she was apparently susceptable to persuasion, or agreed in order to keep peace in the family. Even her obituary used that spelling, but her name is spelled Alford on her tombstone, which reads "Dec. 8, 1805 -- July 4, 1894", so she or at least some of her sons eventually insisted on the original spelling. And her son William's tombstone reads Alford, although his wife Hannah's tombstone next to his was carved as Alfred thirty years later. Martha's son John's death notice in Oklahoma in 1905 spelled his name as Alford, and the aberrant spelling seems to have occurred only in Iowa. No will was recorded for Martha in Jefferson County, her death date is from the Batavia cemetery records.
Details of Hugh and Martha's children came from Janet Markley [Markley, 1991], whose father gathered them from his grandmother, Louisa Abigail Alford, the twelfth child in the family. Janet also interviewed Elizabeth Teeter Linge in Douds, Iowa, in 1981, who says that "tradition" has it there were two Alford brothers, one stayed in England while the other came to this country. This may have been simple error, or a desire to deny an Irish heritage, but Hugh's brother Stewart gave his birthplace as Ireland.
There was a male born 1815-1820 in the household in the 1830 census (but not in 1840) whom I take to be a son who died young. He doesn't appear in the Markley record, nor in the count of children in Martha's obituary. The three daughters Ellen, Elizabeth, and Martha named by Janet appear in the 1830 census, and two of them in 1840, when the eldest could have been nearly 20. By 1850 and later, no trace of these three appears in any census of the family, so most likely they married.
All of the middle initial W's among the children are undoubtedly "Weller", as we know John's to be, but I have no documentation for that assumption. It was a not uncommon practice to give all of the children in a family their mothers maiden name as their middle names.
The thirteen children of Hugh and Martha (Weller) Alford were a son, Ellen, Elizabeth, Martha, William W., Stewart W., Rebecca Ann, John Weller, Michael W., Ross W., Mary Ann, Louisa Abigail and Augustus W.
i     Unnamed Alford, son, born 1821/1822 and died after 1830.
  This son is inferred from the 1830 census which lists a male, born 1820-1825, who doesn't appear in the 1840 census, nor in Janet Markley's family chart. Apparently he died as a child.
ii     Ellen Alford, dtr., born 1823/1824 in Beaver.
iii     Elizabeth Alford, dtr., born 1825/1826 in Beaver.
iv     Martha Alford, dtr., born 1827/1828 in Beaver.
v     William W. Alford, son, born 6 Apr 1830 in Beaver, died 22 Mar 1899 in Batavia and was buried in Brethren Cem.
  William W. was married 4 Jul 1861 in Jefferson, Iowa to Hannah Pennsylvania Miller {born 19 Jun 1844 in Bedford, Pennsylvania, dtr of Martin Teeter and Esther (Smith) Miller, died 11 Aug 1929 in Eldon, Wapello, Iowa, and was buried in Brethren Cem.}.
  William and Hannah's marriage by Peter Lutz was recorded in Jefferson County, Iowa. They had nine children born 1863 to 1877 according to the family group sheet given to me 1991 by Mary Ellen (Alford) Hall of Fairfield. She is the daughter of William and Hannah's son Augustus Miller Alford and Bessier Pearl Donovan.
  William Alfred is listed in the 1850 census in Neshannock township as a laborer, and as a blacksmith in the 1860 census while living with his mother Martha. He was listed as a section hand living in Batavia in 1879.
  William W. and Hannah "Alfred" were censused 1880 in Locust Grove, Jefferson, Iowa, with ages 50 and 35. His occupation was listed as Justice of the Peace, and he reported that his father was born in Ireland and his mother in Pennsylvania, both in conflict with our other records. All of the children except Augustus were at home; George, 16, Mary E., 14, Edwin L., 13, Wiley J., 11, Emma L, 7, James E., 4, and Steward C., 2 years of age. Why Augustus, who would have been 6 at the time, was not in the home is unknown, unless the census taker accidently omitted him when he turned the page and wrote "Alfred, Emma L." as the first entry.
  His obituary in the Fairfield Tribune 29 Mar 1899 said he left his wife, five boys, and two girls. Since we know the death dates for the other sons, this leaves Augustus as having predeceased his father. William's tombstone gives the dates of his birth and death, spells his name Alford, and gives his age a death as 68y 11m 23d, which doesn't quite agree with the birth day I give here. His wife Hannah's next to his is also spelled Alfred.
  Hannah was the daughter of Martin T. and Esther (Smith) Miller, and sister of Mary who married William's brother Augustus. She and Mary were killed on the way home from church when the car in which they were riding stalled on a railroad track near Eldon and was hit by a train. The Batavia News of 19 Jun 1919 marked "the 75th milestone in the life of "Aunt" Hannah Alfred, one of the pioneer residents of Batavia". Her obituary was in the Fairfield Ledger of 20 Aug 1829.
  The children in this family are given here as reported by Phyllis Gillaspie [Gillaspie, 2000], who also gives vital data and spouse names for these. Phyllis' set of Family Group Sheets on the Teeters and Alfords which she gave, dated 30 Oct 2000, have been meticulously researched with citations given for all of the data, and I'm very grateful for her sharing these with me.
  The nine children of William W. and Hannah Pennsylvania (Miller) Alford:
1     Martin Alford, son, born 27 Jan 1863 in Jefferson.
  Martin died in infancy.
2     George Cornelius Alford, son, born 27 Aug 1864 in Jefferson, died 9 Jan 1943 in Ottumwa, Wapello, Iowa, and was buried in Batavia Cem., Jefferson, Iowa.
  George Cornelius was married 26 Aug 1885 in Wapello, Iowa to Laura J. Morrison {born 26 Jul 1866 in Iowa, died 13 Aug 1913 and was buried in Batavia Cem.}.
  George's census does not appear in 1900, unfortunately, since that source might identify early children in the family. (The census is so faint, however, that he might have been listed under a completely incorrect surname.)
  George C. and Laura J. Alford were censused in the 2nd Ward of Ottumwa, Wapello, Iowa, in 1910 with two sons, Merrel and Allan. His occupation was listed as a carpenter, and his father's birth place was written "Ire.Irish", while Laura's parents were born in Massachusetts and Illinois. George gave his age as 42 (instead of 45) and Laura's as 39 (instead of 32), and they indicated that they had been married 24 years (which was correct!).
  In 1920 George C. Alford (it looks like someone overwrote a previous Alfred that appears in the index) was censused as a widower boarding with Milton O. Wallen(?) in the 7th Ward of Ottumwa.
  The two children of George Cornelius and Laura J. (Morrison) Alford:
i     Merrel Harry Alford, son, born 1889/1890 in Iowa.
  Merrel Harry Alford was a 33 year old roomer in the boarding house of Harry B. Somers in the 2nd Ward of Ottumwa in 1920. Phyllis Gillaspie gave his middle initial as "N", which probably should have been an "H" for Harold.
ii     Allan W. Alford, son, born 1894/1895 in Iowa.
  A. W. Alford and wife Mary were censued 1920 in the 3rd Ward of Eldon, Wapello, Iowa. His age was not given, and Mary's was recorded as 70 years. Whether this is a garbled census of Allan is hard to tell. The location is one where would be expected Allan to have settled, as did his sister Mary Elizabeth Mullenix.
3     Mary Elizabeth Alford, dtr., born 29 Nov 1865 in Batavia, died 16 Jan 1921 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, and was buried in Evergreen Cem., Fairfield, Jefferson, Iowa.
  Mary Elizabeth was married 30 Sep 1885 in Fairfield, Jefferson, Iowa to Asher Birdine Mullenix {born 14 Jul 1863 in Oswego, Illinois, son of John P. and Margaret (Long) Mullenix, died 18 Feb 1942 in Los Angeles and was buried in Forest Lawn Mem., California}.
  Asher B. Mullins (as indexed, but the end of the name has been scribbled over on the census, and may have been Mullinex) and wife Mary E. were censused 1900 in 1st ward, Fairfield, Jefferson, Iowa with their three sons, All of the ages as recorded agree with those shown here for the family, and Asher's occupation was barber.
  His parents, John B. and Margretta, ages 64 and 72, were censused on the previous page with several sons and daughters still in their home. In their case, the surname appears to read Mullenix. The couple were both born in Ohio, and their parents were all from VIrginia.
  In 1910 Asher and and Mary were censused in the 3rd Ward, Fairfield, with two of their sons, Frank and Augustus at home. They were censused three households from Mary' brother James.
  It's interesting that an Alfred Mullenix was born 1883/84 in Kansas, but censused 1910 in the 5th Ward of Ottumwa. Possibly a nephew of Asher's coming back to Iowa?
  The three children of Asher Birdine and Mary Elizabeth (Alford) Mullenix:
i     Edwin C. Mullenix, son, born 8 Aug 1886 in Batavia and died 1957/1958 in Los Angeles.
  Edwin C. married an unknown person.
  Edwin C. Mullenix, 33 years old and born in Iowa, was censused 1920 in the city of Los Angeles, California. He had a wife censused with him, but with no given name listed, aged 32 years and also born in Iowa.
ii     Frank C. Mullenix, son, born 26 Aug 1888 in Eldon and died 26 Apr 1958 in Paxton, Nebraska.
  Frank C. married (1) Carrie May Pittington {born 31 May 1884, died 12 May 1923 and was buried in Evergreen Cem.}. He married (2) Adelaide ____.
  Frank Mullenix, 32, was censused in the 4th Ward, Fairview, in 1920, but the census image is so faint that I cannot be sure of his wife's name, but it looks more like Sarah than Carrie. There were no children listed with them.
iii     Augustus Ray "Gus" Mullenix, son, born 25 Sep 1889 in Eldon, died 22 Feb 1955 in Fairfield and was buried in Evergreen Cem., Fairfield.
  Augustus Ray "Gus" was married 10 Jan 1912 in Galesburg, Know, Illinois to Bessie Pearl Donovan {born 9 Dec 1893 in Fairfield, died 26 Jul 1958 in Fairfield and was buried in Evergreen Cem.}.
  Gus and Pearl Mullenix were censused in 1920 living in the 3rd Ward, Fairfield with sons Asher and Glenn. Gus, like a brother and brother-in-law, was a barber.
  The four children of Augustus Ray "Gus" and Bessie Pearl (Donovan) Mullenix:
1     Asher Burdette Mullenix, son, born 2 Jul 1912 in Fairfield, died 30 Nov 1981 in Ottumwa and was buried in Evergreen Cem.
  Asher Burdette was married 15 Jan 1934 in Kahoka, Missouri to Irene Ruby Keller (1) {born 28 Sep xxxx in Jefferson, dtr of Louis Raymond and Elsie Iowa (Rubey) Keller}. He married (2) Mildred Catherine Passwater.
  Irene is identified in a WorldConnect file as the daughter of Louis Raymond and Elsie Iowa (Rubey) Keller based on a 1920 Locust Grove Twp. and a 1930 Polk Twp., Jefferson, Iowa, censuses in which Irene R. appeared at ages 5 and 15, respectively. Their marriage was in Kahoka, Missouri, according to Phyllis Gillaspie, and that seems somewhat strange.
2     Glen Donovan Mullenix, son, born 5 Oct 1914 in Fairfield, died 28 Jul 1969 in Fairfield and was buried in Evergreen Cem.
  Glen Donovan was married 23 Apr 1947 in Fairfield to Macel Lee Blough.
3     Mary Ellen Mullenix, dtr., born 2 Dec xxxx in Fairfield.
  Mary Ellen was married 23 Oct 1947 in Fairfield to Don Dale Hall {born 14 Dec xxxx in Pleasantville, Marion, Iowa}.
4     Roy Richard "Dick" Mullenix, son, born 17 Oct xxxx in Fairfield.
  Roy Richard "Dick" was married 12 Oct 1963 in Fairfield to Patricia Ann Miller {born 7 Oct 1935 in Libertyville, Jefferson, Iowa, died 25 Apr 1993 in Rochester, Minnesota, and was buried in Wahpeton, North Dakota}.
4     Edwin Lewtellis Alford, son, born 9 May 1867 in Batavia, died 24 Dec 1938 in Batavia and was buried in Batavia Cem.
  Edwin Lewtellis was married 25 Feb 1889 in Jefferson to Mella E. Williams (1) {born in 1871 and died after 1920}. He was married 10 Jan 1894 to Mary Susan "Mollie" Nace/Mace (2) {born in 1871, died 1928 in Jefferson and was buried in Batavia Cem.}.
  Edwin L. and Mollie ?. Alfred were censused 1920 in Batavia, Jefferson, Iowa. His age was given as 52 and hers as 48. Edwin was yet another barber in the family, Mollies parents were both born in Iowa.
  There was a Millie Williams, age 8, censused in 1889 as the daughter of Thom F. and Melvina Williams of Columbus City, Louisa, Iowa. Columbus is about a 54 mile drive east and north of Fairfield. And there is an extracted IGI record of the marriage of Mella E. Williams to Edward L. Alfred on 27 Feb 1889 in Locust Grove Twp., Jefferson, Iowa, probably the same source that Phyllis Gillaspie cited, even though off by two days on the marriage date, and a bad approximation to Edwin's name.
  My guess is that Millie was indeed the wife of Edwin, but the records are too unreliable to be sure of that connection. A careful look at their daughter Helen's birth record might give another clue to the name of Edwin's wife. Her death and burial are incorrectly recorded (as 1889) in Phyllis Gillaspie's family group sheets.
  The only child of Edwin Lewtellis and Mary Susan "Mollie" (Nace/Mace) Alford:
i     Helen Vivian Alford, dtr., born 27 Oct 1897 in Batavia.
5     Wylie John "Mart" Alford, son, born 27 Aug 1869 in Batavia, died 3 Apr 1922 in Bernhart, Jefferson, Iowa, and was buried in Batavia Cem.
  Wylie John "Mart" was married 8 May 1901 in Batavia to Nellie B. Gabbert {born 1869/1871 in Illinois, dtr of B. F. and America A. (____) Gabbert}.
  The 1910 census of Wylie J. and Nellie B. Alferd in Lost Grove Twp., Jefferson County, Iowa, reports that Nellie was born in Illinois. This makes it fairly certain that she was the 10 year old daughter Nellie B., age 10, in the home of B. F. and America A. Gabbert of Fountain Green, Hancock, Illinois in 1880. Nellie was the middle of five children in that family.
  B. F. was born in Iowa, so his daughter going back there by the time she married is quite plausible.
  The only child of Wylie John "Mart" and Nellie B. (Gabbert) Alford:
i     Mildred Lorraine Alford, dtr., born 1904 in Batavia, died 1904 in Batavia and was buried in Batavia Cem.
6     Emma Leota Alford, dtr., born 7 Jul 1872 in Batavia and died 1950 in Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa.
  Emma Leota was married 13 Nov 1888 in Batavia to Elija Burton Brown {born May 1859 in Ohio}.
  Elija B. and Emma L. Brown were censused 1900 in Batavia, ages 41 and 27, with sons George and Neal and daughter Reva M., ages 10, 9 and 6. Emma's birth month and year were overwritten on the census and thus illegible, but this record provides us with Elija's date and names and dates of the three children. He was born in Ohio of parents both born in Ohio
  In 1910 Elija and Emma were censused in Locust Grove Twp., Jefferson County, with Neal and Reva still at home. He was a hotel keeper, and one of two boarders living with them was John A. Teeter, 49, a house painter and Emma's first cousin. His mother Rebecca Ann and Emma's father William were sister and brother. The other boarder was William W. Lewis, 50, a name not recognizable to me as a relative.
  I was unable to locate Elija and Emma in the 1920 census.
  The three children of Elija Burton and Emma Leota (Alford) Brown:
i     George A. Brown, son, born Jun 1889 in Iowa.
  George A. was married 1907/1908 in Iowa to Dorthy B. ____ {born 1892/1893 in Iowa}.
  In 1910 George A. Brown and wife Dorthy B. were censused in Locust Grove Twp., Jefferson County, ages 21 and 17, and they had been married two years. George was working as a printer for a newspaper; Dorthy and her mother were born in Iowa, her father in Missouri.
  The age of their daughter Lola V. was recorded as 1 year, 2 months, and since their census was taken on April 20, that give's Lola's birth as February or March, 1909.
  The only child of George A. and Dorthy B. (____) Brown:
1     Lola B. Brown, dtr., born xxxx in Iowa.
ii     Neal Brown, son, born Jul 1890 in Iowa.
iii     Reva M. Brown, dtr., born Nov 1893 in Iowa and died 1912 in Jefferson.
7     Augustus B. Alford, son, born 16 Sep 1874 in Batavia.
  Augustus did not appear in the 1880 census of his father, and I was unable to find Augustus Alford (of any spelling variation of his given and surnames) in any US census index through 1920. Nor does he appear in any IGI record. Phyllis Gillaspie does not provide a date for his death, and he may have died in infancy.
8     James E. Alford, son, born 12 Apr 1876 in Batavia, died 24 Jul 1941 in Burlington and was buried in Evergreen Cem.
  James E. was married 13 Aug 1901 in Jefferson to Jennie P. Armstrong {born in 1881, died 19 Dec 1967 in Jefferson and was buried in Evergreen Cem.}.
  James E. and Jennie P. Alfred were censused 1910 in the 3rd Ward, Fairfield, Jefferson, Iowa, with their two sons. He was a barber, and they were listed three households from his sister, Mary and her husband Asher Mullenix, also a barber and certainly their son Asher's namesake.
  IN 1920 the family was located in Fairfield City, and James owned his own barbarshop.
  The two children of James E. and Jennie P. (Armstrong) Alford:
i     William R. Alford, son, born 1904/1906 in Iowa, died 8 Jul 1973 in Jefferson and was buried in Evergreen Cem.
  William R. married Winona B. Barnes {born in 1905, died 23 Apr 1973 in Jefferson and was buried in Evergreen Cem.}.
ii     Asher Edwin Alford, son, born 13 Apr 1908 in Jefferson, died 18 Mar 1936 in Jefferson and was buried in Evergreen Cem.
9     Stewart C. Alford, son, born 17 Nov 1877 in Batavia, died 28 Dec 1948 and was buried in Eldon Cem., Wapello, Iowa.
  Stewart C. was married 5 Sep 1906 in Ottumwa to Emma Latta {born 1871/1879 in Iowa, dtr of Hugh and Catherine (____) Latta, died in 1938 and was buried in Eldon Cem.}.
  Stewart and Emma Alfred, aged 32 and 37, were censused 1910 in Pleasant Twp., Wapello Co., Iowa. They were recorded as having been married four years, with Emma noted as having been married twice. Gillaspie gives her first husband's surname as Franklin. Stewart's occupation was listed as general farmer. Emma was born in Iowa, her father in Pennsylvania and her mother in Ohio.
  Right next to them in the 1910 census were Hugh and Catherine Latta, 69 and 67, married 45 years, and Cora, 33, surely her parents and sister. Looking back to 1880, we find Emmie as the 9 year old daughter of Hugh and Catharine Latty, aged 39 and 38 in Pleasant Twp. Hugh and Catherine's surname was spelled Latta also in the 1870 census in that township, so I'm inclined to believe the Latty spelling is an aberation.
  Stewart and Emma Alford were in Washington Twp., Wapello County in 1920, aged 42 and 41, Stewart working as a watchman for the railroad. The age of 41 was clearly written, so we really don't know when Emma was born.
vi     Stewart W. Alford, son, born 22 Jun 1832 in Beaver, died 3 Feb 1909 in Batavia and was buried in Batavia Cemetery.
  Stewart was a member of Company H, 30th Iowa Infantry from 15 Aug 1862 to 15 Jul 1865. He died in Batavia, single, at age 76 [Jefferson Deaths; 4:33].
vii     Rebecca Ann Alford, dtr., born 4 Nov 1834 in Beaver, died 4 Dec 1912 in Batavia and was buried in Brethren Cem.
  Rebecca Ann was married 10 Feb 1853 in Wayne, Illinois to Abraham Burger Teeter {born 26 Dec 1829 in Morrison's Cove, Bedford, Pennsylvania, son of John Shively and Susanna Heffner (Burger) Teeter, died 25 Jun 1905 in Jefferson and was buried in Brethren Cem.}.
  The marriage of Rebecca Ann Alford to Abraham Burger Teeter is only one of two close connections between the Alford and Teeter lines. Her brother John Weller Alford married Abraham's niece Elizabeth Teeter, daughter of David Burger Teeter and Margaret Mock. The connections are illustrated in this "focus" ancestral chart:
 
image: Alford ~ Teeter Connections

Alford ~ Teeter Connections

  Their marriage was in Wayne Co., Illinois, according to the story related in 1981 to Janet Markley [Markley, 1991] by their granddaughter, Mrs. Elizabeth (Teeter) Linge of Douds, Iowa. She said that Abraham moved his family back and forth between Pennsylvania and Iowa several times, until "Grandma Teeter told him they were not going to move again" and, if he wanted to go, he could. He left, but was back in two days. Abraham was not censused 1855, as was Rebecca Ann's mother Martha Alford, in Wayne County.
  An Abraham Teeter entered 80 acres of land in Section 29 of Des Moines township, and sold that land in 1865. Abraham B. mortgaged lots in Absecom to his brother David B. in 1860, and 14 Dec 1969 sold Lot 77 in Batavia for $620 to Samuel Brown, father–in–law of his cousins Isaac K. and Levi K. Teeter.
  Abraham was censused 1870 in Des Moines Twp., Jefferson County, Iowa, with Rebecca and five sons at home. The obituary of his wife Rebecca Ann (Alford) says they lived in various parts of Iowa until they settled "five miles NE of Eldon", Wapello Co. in 1879. (This would have been just south of Batavia across the county line in Jefferson County.) They were again censused 1880 in Des Moines Township:
 

Abraham TEETER  Self  M  50  PA  Farmer         PA  PA 
Rebecca TEETER  Wife  M  43  PA  Keeping House  PA  PA 
Adam TEETER     Son   S  24  PA  Farming        PA  PA 
John TEETER     Son   S  20  IA  Farming        PA  PA 
George TEETER   Son   S  17  IA  Farming        PA  PA 
Augustus TEETER Son   S  14  IA  At School      PA  PA 
Wilson TEETER   Son   S  11  IA  At School      PA  PA 
Eva TEETER      Dau   S   8  IA  At School      PA  PA 
Lizzy TEETER    Dau   S   4  PA                 PA  PA 
------------------------------------------------------ 
1880 Census Des Moines, Jefferson, Iowa, T9-0347, 441D 

  In 1990 we Abraham and Rebecca A. again in Des Moines Township (where the census taker forgot to cross his "t" so they got indexed as Teeler), with John A., David A. and Eva A. at home. By 1910 Abraham had died, and Rebecca was censused as head of household, age 75, with daughters Eva E. and Lizzie A., 38 and 37. That Lizzie is recorded as born in Pennsylvania confirms the story of the family moving back and forth.
  Abraham's obituary says that he united with the Brethren Church 1871 in Jefferson county and had made that county his home since 1876, and his death date is from his tombstone.
  The tombstone in the Batavia cemetery gives the birth and death dates of Rebecca and Abraham on the west face, and of their son John A. on the north face.
  I am uncertain of where I originally found the names of the children in this family, but they, with their vital data as given below, are confirmed by Phyllis Gillaspie citing a Family Bible owned by Bruce Curtis of Michigan.
  The nine children of Abraham Burger and Rebecca Ann (Alford) Teeter:
1     Adam Alford Teeter, son, born 29 Aug 1854 in Altoona, Blair, Pennsylvania, and died 14 Jun 1918 in Martinsburg, Keokuk, Iowa.
  Adam Alford was married 24 Dec 1885 to Sarah Elizabeth Rooker {born 25 Jan 1865 in Ohio, dtr of Stephen Rooker and died 26 Jul 1917}.
  Adam, a painter, and Sarah Teeter were censused 1900 in Steady Run Twp., Keokuk, Iowa with three children and her father Stephen in their home. His name and age and those of the children as shown below come from this record.
  The three children of Adam Alford and Sarah Elizabeth (Rooker) Teeter:
i     Harry A.\tab child, born Aug 1888 in Iowa.
ii     Winnie Teeter, dtr., born Oct 1885 in Iowa.
iii     Alta O. Teeter, dtr., born Oct 1898 in Iowa.
2     William Alford Teeter, son, born 24 Apr 1857, died 5 Apr 1861 in Jefferson and was buried in Brethren Cem.
3     John Alford Teeter, son, born 24 Nov 1860 in Iowa, died 24 Nov 1911 in Jefferson and was buried in Brethren Cem.
  John was censused at age 49 living with Emma Leota and Elija Brown in Locust Grove Twp., Jefferson, Iowa. Emma Leota was his first cousin, his mother Rebecca Ann Alford and Emma's father William W. Alford being sister and brother.
  John worked as a paperhanger and house painter. His birth and death dates are on the side of the tombstone of his parents, his own has only "John A." inscribed.
4     George A. Britain Teeter, son, born 27 May 1863 in Knoxville, Marion, Iowa, died 18 Dec 1941 in Libertyville and was buried in Fell Cemetery, Jefferson, Iowa.
  George A. Britain was married 8 Jun 1892 to Fannie Ureka "Ollie" Steele {born 6 Mar 1872 in Iowa, dtr of Joseph and Sarah E. (____) Steele}.
  His birthplace is from an Iowa Death Record [Jefferson Deaths; 7:10], which also gives his obituary. This same source states that his mother Rebecca Ann ("Alfred") Teeter was born in Illinois, although actually that is where she was married.
  Phyllis Gillaspie [Personal Communication, 29 Oct 2000] writes that George's given names were "George A. Britain", and that they had a son Bernard Steele who married Iva Isobel Manning. In the 1910 census they were living next to a Steele, and then two Manning households.
  George B and Fannie U. Teeter were censused 1900 in Des Moines Twp., Jefferson County, with children Earnest A., Irene and Rebecca E. George was a farmet; Fannie was born in Iowa of parents both born in Indiana. She had six children, of whom three were still lliving. It is from this record that I take the names and birth dates of the three living in 1900. Earnest's record is defective, as it reads born Jul 1892, age 6.
  By 1920 they were living in Polk Township, Jefferson County, with all of their children except Irene still at home.
  Fannie U. Steele was censused in 1880 at age 8 living with her parents Joseph and Sarah E. Steele in Des Moines twp., Jefferson County, Iowa. Censused adjacent to them was a Rasmus Rasmussen who was probably the brother-in-law of George's aunt Louisa Abigail (Alford) Rasmus.
  The five children of George A. Britain and Fannie Ureka "Ollie" (Steele) Teeter:
i     Earnest A. Teeter, son, born Jul 1893 in Iowa.
ii     Irene Teeter, dtr., born Jul 1895 in Iowa.
iii     Rebecca E. Teeter, dtr., born Sep 1899 in Iowa.
iv     Josephine M. Teeter, dtr., born 1903/1904 in Iowa.
v     Bernard Steele Teeter, son, born 1906/1907 in Iowa.
  Bernard Steele married Iva Isobel Manning.
5     David Augustus Teeter, son, born 23 Jan 1866 in Batavia, died 24 Jun 1947 and was buried in Brethren Cem.
6     Wilson Alford Teeter, son, born 20 Sep 1870 in Batavia and died 4 Dec 1927 in Eldon.
  Wilson Alford was married 13 Aug 1895 to Mary Etta Murphy {born 20 Oct 1875 in Ohio and died 4 Dec 1927}.
  Wilson and Mary were censused 1900 in Des Moines Twp., Jefferson County with their first three children. He gave his occupation as farmer.
  By 1910 they were in Washinton Twp., Wapello County, with all of their children at home except Gladys. Mary reported that she had borne nine children, with seven still alive, but who the other lost child was we don't know. She gave her name as Etta M. for this census. Wilson was a trucker for a railroad company.
  By 1920 Wilson had progressed to being a machinist for the railroad company, and he and Etta had added to more children to the family. Only Orpha, who would have been 23, was away from their home.
  The ten children of Wilson Alford and Mary Etta (Murphy) Teeter:
i     Orpha Lucretia Teeter, dtr., born Jan 1897 in Iowa.
  Orpha Lucretia was married 6 Oct 1917 in Iowa to George Breckenridge {born 1894/1895 in Iowa}.
  George and Orpha were censused 1920 in the 2nd Ward of Eldon, Wasington Twp., Wapello County. He was a brakeman for a railroad company.
  In the 7th Ward of Ottumwa in Wapello County lived a Harve and Oster Breckenridge, 51 and 53, with three chldren the oldest of whom was born 1895/96, a year older than George.
  And there was another George Breckenridge, 76, living in the 1st Ward of Eldon in the home of his nephew Dick Huffstutter and wife Florence. Neither Harve or this elder George appeared in the Iowa census of 1900, so I was unable to identify Orpha's father-in-law.
ii     Orvil E. Teeter, son, born Feb 1898 in Iowa.
iii     Gladys M. Teeter, dtr., born Apr 1899 in Iowa and died before 1910 in Iowa.
iv     Ruth Teeter, dtr., born 1900/1901 in Iowa.
v     Elmer Teeter, son, born 1901/1902 in Iowa.
vi     Raymond Teeter, son, born 1904/1905 in Iowa.
vii     Harold Teeter, son, born 1905/1906 in Iowa.
viii     Elizabeth Teeter, dtr., born 31 Jan 1908.
  Elizabeth was married 7 Sep 1929 in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa to Harold Linge.
  Elizabeth (Teeter) Linge lived as a girl in Eldon, Iowa. Her daughter is a Mormon living in Idaho, and has done much work on the family tree [Markley, 1991].
ix     Marie Teeter, dtr., born xxxx/xxxx in Iowa.
x     Kenneth Teeter, son, born xxxx/xxxx in Iowa.
7     Eva A. Teeter, dtr., born 20 Mar 1872 in Moulton, Appanoose, Iowa, died 14 Sep 1946 and was buried in Brethren Cem.
8     Carrie A. Teeter, dtr., born 19 Jun 1874, died 29 Sep 1874 in Jefferson and was buried in Brethren Cem.
9     Elizabeth A. "Lizzie" Teeter, dtr., born 12 Nov 1875 in Bedford, died 20 Jan 1962 and was buried in Brethren Cem.
viii     John Weller Alford, son, born 25 Feb 1837.
ix     Michael W. Alford, son, born 1838/1839 in Beaver and died after 1895 in Batavia.
x     Ross W. Alford, son, born 1840/1841 in Beaver.
  Ross does not appear with the family in the 1860 census, nor is he listed elsewhere in the Iowa census index. Similarly, he's absent from the 1880 census anywhere in the country, just like his older brothers.
xi     Mary Ann Alford, dtr., born 1842/1844 in Beaver.
  Mary Ann was married 21 Oct 1866 in Batavia to John C. Leech {born about 1842}.
  Her name given as May Ann in 1860 census, but Mary Ann when she married, with her brother Augustus testifying, at the home of the Widow Alfred in Batavia, Hugh P. Holmes, J.P., officiating.
xii     Louisa Abigail Alford, dtr., born 8 Dec 1845 in New Castle, Beaver, Pennsylvania, died 20 Dec 1936 in Eldon and was buried in Evergreen Cem.
  Louisa Abigail was married 2 Sep 1868 in Wapello to Hans Rasmus {born 25 Apr 1845 in Denmark, son of Rasmus and Gertrude (Nickle) Rasmussen, died 22 Jul 1910 and was buried in Evergreen Cem.}.
  Rasmus, the son of Rasmus Rasmussen and Gertrude Nickle, worked as a harnessmaker. Their six children born 1869-1882 are listed with their spouses in the Markley Family Group Sheet [Markley, 1991].
  Hans and Louisa were censused 1880 in Buchanan, Jefferson, Iowa, where at the time he listed himself as a farmer. The census details do not agree with the exact birth dates, nor with Louisa's middle name, but this certainly is the correct family record, from which I take the children's information.
 

Hans RASMUS         Self    M   35  DEN Farming       DEN   DEN 
Louisa S. RASMUS    Wife    M   32  PA  Housekeeping  PA    PA 
Edwin G. RASMUS     Son     S   11  IA  At School     DEN   PA 
Nettie M. RASMUS    Dau     S   10  IA  At School     DEN   PA 
Frank RASMUS        Son     S   7   IA  At School     DEN   PA 
Gertrude RASMUS     Dau     S   4   IA                DEN   PA 
Harry RASMUS        Son     S   1   IA                DEN   PA 
--------------------------------------------------------------- 
1880 Census, Buchanan, Jefferson, Iowa, T9-0347, 357A 

  Notice below that Edwin, as Eddie, was censused also in his grandmother's home in 1880.
  The five children of Hans and Louisa Abigail (Alford) Rasmus:
1     Edwin G. Rasmus, son, born 1868/1869 in Iowa.
  Eddie Rasmus, 11, was living with his grandmother Martha Alford in 1880 in Batavia, Locust Grove Twp., Jefferson County, Iowa.
2     Nettie M. Rasmus, dtr., born 1869/1870 in Iowa.
3     Frank Rasmus, son, born 1872/1873 in Iowa.
4     Gertrude Rasmus, dtr., born 1875/1876 in Iowa.
5     Harry Ulysses Rasmus, son, born 23 May 1880 in Iowa and died 2 May 1926.
  Phyllis Gillaspie lists Rasmus as a "possible" son of Louisa and Hans, but that was perhaps because she did not, at that time (2000) know of his four elder siblings, born 1869, 1870, 1873 and 1876. Rasmus' birth in 1880 fits very well in this sequence, and is, of course, confirmed by the census that year of his parents.
xiii     Augustus W. Alford, son, born 10 Apr 1848 in New Castle, died 30 Sep 1923 in Eldon and was buried in Eldon IOOF Cem.
  Augustus W. was married 31 Mar 1874 in Jefferson to Mary "Polly" Miller {born about 1854 in Libertyville, dtr of Martin Teeter and Esther (Smith) Miller, died 11 Aug 1929 in Ottumwa and was buried in Odd Fellows Cem., Eldon, Wapello, Iowa}.
  Augustus' marriage, recorded in Jefferson, Iowa, says he was 23, but he actually would have been 26 on his next birthday He moved to Eldon in 1874, and worked for 32 years on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, 18 years as a passenger train engineer. He was initiated 28 May 1878 into the IOOF Lodge in Eldon, and was a member of the Christian Church.
  In 1880 Augustus and Mary were censused in Eldon, Wapello County, Iowa. Both were listed as born in 1847/48, he as an Engineer and Mary keeping house. His mother's birthblace was correctly listed as New Jersey, and her parents both as Pennsylvania
  This is the record from which I obtain their daughter's name and age.
  Daughter of Martin T. and Esther (Smith) Miller, and sister of Hannah who married William, the brother of Augustus. She and her sister Hannah were killed when the car in which they were riding stalled on a railroad track near Eldon and was hit by a train.
  One news article gave her age as 81, another 82, indicating a birth year of 1846-48. Her marriage record of 31 Mar 1874 said she would be 19 on her next birthday, giving 1854-55, seven years later. In that case she was 74, not 81 or 82, when she died. I'm using the marriage record age, even though her husband's marriage record differs by three years from the family record of his birth.
  The only child of Augustus W. and Mary "Polly" (Miller) Alford:
1     Jessie M. Alford, dtr., born 1875/1876 in Iowa.
John Weller Alford & Elizabeth Teeter

Michael1, Hugh2, John Weller3

John Weller was born 25 Feb 1837 in New Castle, Beaver, Pennsylvania. He died 21 Jan 1905 in Henderson, Cleveland, Oklahoma Terr., and was buried in Lexington, Cleveland, Oklahoma.

John Weller and Elizabeth married 23 Jan 1862 in Batavia, Jefferson, Iowa.

Elizabeth was born 27 Apr 1843 in Bedford, Pennsylvania, the daughter of David Burger and Margaret (Mock) Teeter. She died 24 May 1906 in Mulhall, Logan, Oklahoma Terr., and was buried in Rose Hill Cem., Lexington, Cleveland, Oklahoma.

John "Alfred" on 23 Jun 1868 bought Lots No. 15 &16, Old Plat, Batavia, Jefferson County, Iowa, for $25. His mother Martha had the previous year bought Lot 13. If these lot numbers are the same as those given on a 1939 town plan, John's lots were on Main (3rd) Street, while Martha's was at the other end of the same block. The corner lot No. 16, on Alto Street, later became the site of the town fire department.
The birth of their daughter Olive May in March, 1868, is recorded in FHL IGI submitted records both as Batavia and as Bonaparte, Van Buren County, Iowa, some 25 miles to the southeast. It is possible the family lived there for a short while after Mary Jane's birth in Batavia 1866, and their purchase of house lots in Batavia marks a move back near his mother's place right after Olive's birth. It's also possible that the Bonaparte record is in error.
In 1870 John was censused adjacent to his mother, with his wife Elizabeth and their five children as of that date as shown below. This one image catches three generations of our ancestry, Martha (Weller) Alford, John Weller and Elizabeth (Teeter) Alford, and Mary Jane "Merrie" Alford, then four years of age, who married John Eaton Hartzell in 1897:
image: Martha Alford and John Weller Alford 1870 censuses

Martha Alford and John Weller Alford 1870 censuses

J. W. Alfred testified at the 12 Jan 1873 marriage of his brother-in-law Jacob E. Teeter, 20, and Eliza Smock, 18, in Batavia. This may be a misprint for Snook, since an Emeline Snook had married Samuel M. Teeter, another brother of Eizabeth, in 1866.
John and Elizabeth were in Wamego, Pottawatomie, Kansas by 1880 when the census fortuitously caught all eight of their children at home.

John Alford         Self   45  PA  Farmer         PA  PA 
Elizabeth Alford    Wife   37  PA  Keeping House  PA  .. 
David Alford        Son    17  IA  Farmer         PA  PA 
George Alford       Son    16  IA  Farmer         PA  PA 
Mary Alford         Dau    14  IA                 PA  PA 
Olive Alford        Dau    12  IA                 PA  PA 
William Alford      Son     9  IA                 PA  PA 
Maggie Alford       Dau     7  IA                 PA  PA 
Louis Alford        Son     6  IA                 PA  PA 
Elizabeth Alford    Dau     4  KS                 PA  PA 
-------------------------------------------------------- 
1880 Census, Wamego, Pottawatomie, Kansas, T9-0393, 344A 

By 1900, in the census of John "Alfred" and Elizabeth, only sons George, and William were still at home in Canadian Twp., Cleveland County, Oklahoma, although David was censused adjacent to them.
Elizabeth's obituary said that she and John moved in 1876 to Kansas where they lived twenty years, and that they spent the last ten years (as of 1906) in Oklahoma near Henderson in Cleveland county.
A death notice in The Lexington Leader of Friday, 27 Jan 1905 says that "John Alford, 86 years old, died Thursday at his home near Henderson". He was described as a prominent farmer of his neighborhood. This indicates a death date of the 26th (or, possibly, the 19th), not the 17th or the 21st as I had it from various famiy sources. And the age is clearly a misprint for 68 years, the age he would have reached in one more month. Lexington, referred to as a city in that notice, is a small Cleveland county town south of Norman on the South Canadian River, and Henderson was about five miles east and a mile or so north, right on the Pottawatomie County line, although it has disappeared by now.
I had from some source that he was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, but Elizabeth's obituary named it as Hill's Chapel Cemetery. I've been unable to locate either of these, but it's possible that they were what is now Lexington Cemetery just east of town.
Census of 1850 had Elizabeth as 9 years of age, in disagreement by at least two years with her birth date as given in her obituary.
Elizabeth had been ill for some time "with dropsy [edema] and heart trouble", and had been living in Mulhall with her dauhters for some weeks prior to her death. Her obituary Friday, 25 May 1906 in The Mulhall Enterprise, said that she died "Thursday afternoon, May 24th", and her remains were taken on the evening train" to be laid beside her husband in Hill's Chapel cemetery near their home in Cleveland County".
I had Elizabeth's death as 29 May, from family records, and Frances Bishop had it as 17 May. Also, I had from family records that her birth was in Harrisburg, Dauphin, Pennsylvania. The obituary gave it as Bedford Co., Pennsylvania, which is much more consonant with the Teeter family's residence in Morrison's Cove for many years.
Elizabeth "joined the Dunkard church when quite young and remained in that faith until death", according to her obituary.
The nine children of John Weller and Elizabeth (Teeter) Alford were David, George, Mary Jane "Merrie", Olive May, Milton, William, Margaret "Maggie", Lillian E. and Elizabeth.
i     David Alford, son, born Jun 1863 in Jefferson, Iowa, and died Jan 1905.
  David was married 22 Jan 1899 in Cleveland, Oklahoma to Stella Neff {born Sep 1871 in Ohio, dtr of Peter and Nancy J. (____) Neff, and died 1 Apr 1910}.
  David "Alfred", a farmer, and Stella were censused in 1900 adjacent to his parents in Canadian Twp., Cleveland Co., Oklahoma. Unfortunately, the poorly written month of his birth is partially obliterated, and may be either Jun or Jan, but that of Stella's clearly reads Sept 1871, and that of their son Floyd Oct 1899 with an age of 8 months. Stella's birthplace was Ohio, as was that of her parents, and they had been married one year.
  The deaths of David and his brother William, in January, 1905, were both from pneumonia, according to the information submitted to the Mormon Church by Paul L. Middleton, which also included Stella's name and death date.
  There was a Stella Neff born 1869/70 in Harrison, Wells, Indiana, her three year older brother having been born in Ohio. Their parents were Ira and Margaret Neff, both born in Ohio. If some of the above information is incorrect, this could be David's wife.
  The three children of David and Stella (Neff) Alford:
1     Floyd Alford, son, born Oct 1899 in Oklahoma.
  Floyd was 8 months old in the 1900 census taken on 14 June, so was born in either September or October 1899.
  The 1910 census in Corpus Christi, Nueces, Texas seems to be that of Floyd, censused in the household of Peter and Nancy J. Neff, ages 73 an 62. Stella Alford, 37 year old widow, was listed as their daughter, and Floyd, 10 and Frank N., 6, as grandsons, both born in Oklahoma. The census also records that she had borne three children, of whom one was deceased. Peter Neff was listed as a farmer with the notation "Idle at present ill health".
2     Unnamed child, died before 1930.
3     Frank N. Alford, son, born 1903/1904 in Oklahoma.
ii     George Alford, son, born Feb 1864 in Iowa.
  George was living in Norman, Oklahoma at the time of his mother's death 24 May 1906.
iii     Mary Jane "Merrie" Alford, dtr., born 25 Feb 1866.
iv     Olive May Alford, dtr., born 8 Mar 1868 in Bonaparte, Van Buren, Iowa, and died 19 Jul 1909 in .
  Olive May was married 9 Oct 1892 in Wamego, Pottawatomie, Kansas to Augustine Lowrey "Gustin" Huey {born 20 Nov 1865, son of Benjamin and Christina E. (Benn) Huey and died 6 Feb 1956}.
  Olive May was referred to as "Mrs. G. L. Huey, of Norman" at the time of her mother's death 24 May 1906. Our mother's picture of her was labeled as "May Alford", so she probably went by her middle name.
  Gustin was censused as Gustine L., age 12, in his parents' household in Belvue, Pottawatomie, Kansas in 1880. That implies a birth year of 1867/68, a somewhat surprising discrepancy. Possibly the census index should have read 15 instead of 12, since it described his occupation as "Works On Farm".
  In 1900 "Gustave L." and Olive were censused in Burnett Twp., Pottawatomie Co., OK, with their four sons. The birth information was correct except that of Frank, born six months after Earl. Earl was recorded as born in Kansas; the other three sons in Oklahoma.
  The 1910 census in Norman, OK, provides the only source I have for Gustin's second marriage which lists him as Gus L., aged 52, with wife Florence, age 46, born in Indiana of parents both born in Indiana. Their daughter Pauline was recorded as 14 years old in that census.
  The birth place of Pauline's mother, Indiana, documents that Pauline was a
  daughter of Florence, and so half sister to Gustine's sons. Gus's age in
  that census implies a birth year of 1857/58, yet another discrepancy.
  The Huey brothers were good friends of our parents, and we have several pictures of them taken over the years. On the left below are the four of them, and on the right is one of Frank in his uniform when he served in World War I, during which he lost an arm.
 
image: The Huey brothers

The Huey brothers

  I have researched both the ancestry and descendants of the "Huey boys", as they were referred to in my family. It can be seen on my web page James and Elizabeth (Everhart) Huey.
  The four children of Augustine Lowrey "Gustin" and Olive May (Alford) Huey:
1     Earl Lowrey Huey, son, born 1 Jul 1894 in Wamego and died Sep 1962 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon.
  Earl Lowrey was married 20 Jun 1923 in Portland to Ethel Lillian Owen {born 6 Sep 1896 in Portland, Oregon, dtr of Harry S. and Caroline E. (Rudolph) Owen, and died 11 May 1968}.
2     Frank Leroy Huey, son, born 20 Jan 1896 in Shawnee, Pottawatomie, Oklahoma, and died 26 May 1974 in Topeka, Shawnee, Kansas.
  Frank Leroy was married 28 Aug 1920 in Topeka to Violet Josephine (Baker) Durkee (1) {born 9 Jul 1894 in Mayeta, Johnson, Kansas, and died 12 Aug 1937 in Kansas City, Kansas}. He was married 23 Mar 1947 in Topeka to Marie ( ) Phelps (2).
3     Benjamin "Ben" Huey, son, born 25 May 1898 in Norman, Cleveland, Oklahoma, and died 17 Sep 1975 in Norman.
  Benjamin "Ben" married Irene Oakley.
  The only child of Benjamin "Ben" and Irene (Oakley) Huey:
i     Ben Huey, son.
4     Carl Albert "Bert" Huey, son, born 17 May 1900 in Norman and died 29 Oct 1970 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan.
  Carl Albert "Bert" was married 1 Aug 1923 in Topeka to Alta Marie Betts {born 11 Feb 1905 in Helper, Carbon, Utah, dtr of Elmer S. and Josephine (Litchenstern) Betts, and died 27 Jul 1961 in Flint, Michigan}.
v     Milton Alford, son, born Sep 1869 in Jefferson.
vi     William Alford, son, born Jan 1871 in Jefferson and died Jan 1905.
  His name was listed as Milton, aged 8 months, in the 1870 census, and so born Sep or Oct 1869.
  William, born Jan 1871 and 29 years old, was censused 1900 in his parents home in Canadian Twp., Cleveland County, Oklahoma, next to his brother David.
  William's and his brother David's deaths in January, 1905, were both from pneumonia, according to the material submitted to the Morman Church by Paul L. Middleton.
vii     Margaret "Maggie" Alford, dtr., born 29 Nov 1873 in Iowa.
  Margaret "Maggie" was married 1916 in Guthrie, Logan, Oklahoma to Clarence Pinkerton Maxwell {born 1876 in Kansas}.
  In the 1880 census of her parents household, Maggie's age was given as 7 years. Her age was recorded as 25 in 1900 in Mulhall, Logan, Oklahoma Territory, and as 30 while living with her sister Merrie in Guthrie, Oklahoma, at the time of the 1910 census. The actual date of 29 Nov 1873 can be found in a submitted IGI record, but I think I originally had that date from some family source, now lost. (This same IGI record lists her siblings as Dave, George, Will, Lois (female), Elizabeth and Lillian with very approximate dates.)
  Maggie had in Sep 1899 been a teacher in Mulhall, and in 1902 was living at 124 N 1st and teaching at the Capitol Hill school in Guthrie. She was probably the "Miss Alford" who performed in the Metropolitan Stock Company in Mulhall in December, 1907. In 1910 she was a clerk with the State Capitol Company, and living with Merrie at 211 E. Collee Ave, and in 1912 was a clerk living at the Oklahoma Methodist Episcopal Hospital in Guthrie. Then, in 1915, she was a stenographer with C. G. Hornor and back living with her sister Merrie at 607 E. Grant.
  That Maggie married Clarence Pinkerton Maxwell in Guthrie, Logan, Oklahoma, is from a genealogy chart drawn by my mother, but I've not found an independent record of their marriage nor of his middle name. Susan McMahan (Personal Correspondence, Jan 2009) states that he was born 1876 in Kansas. In 1920, Clarence P. Maxwell and wife Margaret were censused, ages 44 and 41, in the 1st Ward of Oklahoma City. (Clarence thus born 1875/76, and Margaret would actually have been 46 at that time.)
  There is recorded (extracted IGI) the marriage of Clarence P. Maxwell to May J. Osborne on 18 Dec 1901 in Dewey, Oklahoma. That Clarence was 26 at the time of his marriage, so born 1874/75 in Kansas. If May died before 1920, it could be that Margaret wed the widower Clarence, but that is supposition based only on the correspondance of names and ages of the two Oklahoma men.
viii     Lillian E. Alford, dtr., born 26 Feb 1874, died 18 Jul 1952 in Norman and was buried in Willow View Cem., Cleveland, Oklahoma.
  Lillian E. was married in 1899 to Thomas E. Blair {born 8 Sep 1862, died 31 Aug 1938 in Cleveland and was buried in Willow View Cem.}.
  Lillian was Thomas Blair's second wife, and they were married before her mother's death in 1906. They had four children, Mary, Cecil, Agnes, and Albert. One of those children named a daughter Mildred after our mother, Mildred (Hartzell) Swan [Family records].
  Lillian's tombstone, from findagrave.com,
 
image: Lillian Alford and Thomas Blair tombstone

Lillian Alford and Thomas Blair tombstone

  clearly gives her birth date as 26 Feb 1874, but she did not appear in the 1880 census. In fact, that census lists a son Louis, age 6, thus born 1873/74. I now agree with Susan McMahan [Personal Communication, Jan 2009] that "Louis, son" was a census taker error, written instead of "Lillian, daughter".
  The four children of Thomas E. and Lillian E. (Alford) Blair:
1     Mary M. Blair, dtr., born about 1904.
2     Cecil T. Blair, son, born 28 Sep 1905, died 16 Oct 1975 and was buried in Lexington Cem., Cleveland, Oklahoma.
3     Agnes Blair, dtr.
4     Albert W. Blair, son, born 20 Nov 1913, died 23 Mar 1924 and was buried in Willow View Cem.
ix     Elizabeth Alford, dtr., born 1875/1876 in Kansas.
Mary Jane "Merrie" Alford & John Eaton Hartzell

Michael1, Hugh2, John Weller3, Mary Jane "Merrie"4

Mary Jane "Merrie" was born 25 Feb 1866 in Batavia, Jefferson, Iowa, and died 20 Dec 1942 in Joplin, Jasper, Missouri.

Mary Jane "Merrie" and John Eaton married 6 Jun 1897 in Norman, Cleveland, Oklahoma Terr.

John Eaton was born 30 Jul 1862 in Campbellton, Johnson, Kansas, the son of Adam Leonard and Louisa Ricker (Eaton) Hartzell, and died 30 Jun 1904 in Guthrie, Logan, Oklahoma Terr.

image: Mary Jane

Mary Jane "Merrie" (Alford) Hartzell
25 Feb 1866 - 20 Dec 1942
Iowa, Oklahoma Territory, Kansas, Missouri
Please see my Hartzell Chapter for Merrie's history. The three children of John Eaton and Mary Jane "Merrie" (Alford) Hartzell were Lawrence Eaton, Lillian Roxie and Mildred Louise.
  HARTZELL, MILDRED LOUISE   born 1903 Oklahoma Terr., died 1989 Kansas
  m  PAUL REESE SWAN     born 1903 Kansas, died 1953 Kansas
  SWAN, PAUL REESE   born 1929 Kansas
  m  MILDRED LOUISE HAMILTON     born 1930 Pennsylvania, died 1998 California