Oscar M. Vanness

Oscar M. Vanness was the older brother of my 4x Great Grandfather, Lewis Vanness Sr. He was born 1834 in New Jersey to Euphemia Dey and Aaron Vanness. The Vanness family (including Aaron, Euphemia, Oscar, Lewis, Anna, and boarder Jabez Tucker) settled in Afton, Dekalb, Illinois.

On September 22, 1859 he married Samantha A. Duffey (b.abt 1840, she may have been the daughter of George & Sarah Duffey) in Dekalb County, Illinois. On the 1860 Census he was listed twice; once with his parents and again with Samantha and their son William H. Vanness who was born in May or June of that year. Oscar worked as a carpenter. I couldn’t find any further records on Samantha or William beyond that, but I assume that they died or that Oscar and Samantha divorced by 1870…

Oscar enlisted as a Private in the 42nd Illinois Infantry, Company K on August 10, 1861 in Chicago, Illinois. He was discharged December 20, 1862 in Atlanta, Georgia due to re-enlisting with the 16th United States Infantry, Co. D as a Sergeant and resumed his service on December 24, 1862. He was honorably discharged August 10, 1864 near Atlanta due to his term ending.

Once out of the service, Oscar married a woman by the name of Ann Ellis who was born in Wales. In 1870, they were living in Newton, Jasper, Iowa along with their two daughters; Helen (3), and Mabel (2) and Oscar still worked as a carpenter there. By 1878, Oscar and Ann had divorced and she was remarried to Martin L. Phillips on November 9, 1878 in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Ann and her new husband, along with Helen Vanness were living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois in 1880. Mabel isn’t listed with them – she may have passed away but I was unable to locate Oscar on the 1880 Census, so I cannot conclude anything.

At 61, on March 20, 1894 Oscar was admitted to the Illinois Soldier and Sailors Home. He listed Lewis Vanness, his brother, of Shabbonna Grove, Dekalb County, Illinois as his nearest living relative. Oscar was 5’8″, had a light complexion, dark hair, and blue eyes. He was a carriage-maker living in Chicago, Illinois before coming to The Solders and Sailors Home. Curiously, he also wrote that he was a widower.

Oscar died at the Illinois Home for Soldiers and Sailors on May 12, 1899. Thirteen days later, his ex-wife Ann Ellis Vanness Phillips filed for a pension, her second husband had died some point previous to 1888 and she had been running a boarding house. In 1900, Ann was using the surname Vanness again and still taking boarders in, she was the mother of 10 children out of which 4 were living in 1900 and 3 in 1910. She died in Chicago in 1912.

Helen Vanness had married at sixteen on January 23, 1883 in Chicago to Charles Dougherty and again at age 20 to Albert E. Connolly on February 4, 1887 also in Chicago. I couldn’t locate her after that.

Oscar M. Vanness is buried in the Sunset Cemetery in Quincy, Adams, Illinois under a military headstone.

When Family History Sounds More Like a Daytime Drama

I have previously  posted about my 3x great-grandfather, James Fredrick Trumble and his wives Mary Scriver and Ellen
Lockhart Fletcher once before. But, since I began digging more and reading through historical newspaper articles I have uncovered the story of James and Ellen’s tumultuous marriage. After James’ first wife Mary died of Typhoid Fever on September 12, 1910, he and his unmarried children (including my 2x great grandmother, Alice Agnes Trumble Okolow) moved to Flint, Michigan where he operated a boarding house. On December 8, 1911 he married Ellen Fletcher.

Reporters in Flint began running the family’s dramatic story not even six months after the marriage on May 3, 1912. Mrs. Trumbe had brought James to court because she planned on leaving him on the grounds of non-support. She stated that she had left because his children from his previous wife interfered and that the oldest wrote letters to try and separate them (James’ eldest daughter was Edna Isabelle Trumble was around 19 at that time and living at home). The article states that on recommendation of the prosecutor and the couple had decided to work out their differences.

The next time the Trumble family is was the headlines was later that same month when Mrs. Trumble left her five week old daughter Hazel and another child under 2 years of age with a neighbor so that she could go to the court at 8am and withdraw a statement from the previous day in which she accused James of assault and battery. Afterward she did not return to the neighbor’s home for her baby, instead at 1pm she called the sheriff from a drug store and stated that someone had stolen her children. At the time of the call, the baby had already been brought to the Sheriff’s Office because she would not stop crying with hunger. Little Hazel Trumble died in August 1912 of Enteritis.

After Hazel’s death in August 1912, the papers didn’t mention Mr. and Mrs. Trumble much. In 1913, they had their second child together, a son they named Howard Trumble. It seemed that things were finally going right for Mr. and Mrs. Trumble. But in July of 1914, a headline reading “Half of Family Lives in Tent; Half in Small Shack” added to the Trumble’s unhappy marriage. By this point, Edna Isabelle was married and had left her father’s residence. Of James Tumble’s children; Harley Wesley, Mary Catherine, Alice Agnes, and Manley Herbert were all still living at his home – or tent. The baby, Howard lived in his mother’s ice cream shack. It is said in the article by an unnamed source that when the families were both living under one roof it was too crowded and living conditions were poor. The article states that James was given until August 24 to “make good” on his monetary support.

In July 1916, little Howard Trumble died. And in November of 1916, James Trumble passed away as well from pneumonia. Ellen would go on to remarry three more times, dying in 1952.

Relations we Didn’t Know We Had: A Murder Victim (& The Murderer)

Mary Eichler Nightingale was the daughter of Asenath and Dean Eichler (my 5x great grandparents). On March 5, 1913 she was shot by her son-in-law Joseph Byron Hatfield in Gobleville, Van Buren, Michigan.

Hatfield and Florence A. Nightingale, Mary’s daughter, were married on October 21, 1909 in Bloomingdale, Van Buren, Michigan. On August 2, 1910 she birthed him a son in Otsego, Allegan, Michigan they named him Lawrence Jay Hatfield. On the 1910 Census, Florence is living with her parents and listed as single although she had been married to Hatfield for 10 months and was 6 months pregnant with Lawrence. Hatfield also had a record for petty crimes.

Apparently, Florence repeatedly refused to live with Hatfield and chose to stay with her parents, claiming that her husband had been extremely cruel with her a number of times. He had tried several times to get her to live with him as man and wife again, even attempting to have law enforcement help him but the motion was denied.

On March 5, 1913, Hatfield came to the home of his mother and father in-law to ask his wife to come home with him, but she refused. He then wept over his son, kissing him and left the residence. From there, he went to Kalamazoo where he purchased a revolver and took a cab back to Gobleville.

At about 8:30 that evening he knocked on the door at the Nightingale home. Mary Nightingale answered, he asked if he could speak to his wife and she refused. Then he shot point-blank her in the neck, severing her spinal cord. Afterwards, he turned the gun on himself.

Mary didn’t die right then, she lingered paralyzed and with the bullet in her body, but able to give statements to the sheriff about the incident. Hatfield also lived, and was tried for assault with intent to murder which he was sent to serve a life sentence at the Northern Michigan State Prison in Marquette on April 18, 1913.

On May 21, 1913, 45 year old Mary Nightingale passed away from the injuries she sustained two and a half months earlier at the hand of Hatfield. Hatfield himself died ending his imprisonment on January 6, 1914 when he dropped dead while working in the box shop at 11:30am. A blood vessel in his brain had ruptured, stemming from his self inflicted gunshot wound. He was 25. After his death, Florence remarried. She had four more children and died in 1951 at 59.

Hatfield stated to reporters at the Kalamazoo Gazette that his mother-in-law had tried to persuade Florence to leave him ever since their marriage. He said if it had not been for her, he and Florence would have lived happily. Together. One has to wonder what would have become of Florence and little Lawrence if Mrs. Nightingale had permitted him to see them.

BONUS RELATION: Turns out I am also related to the murderer. His mother, Mary Eliza Reames Hatfield (1860-1944) was the daughter of Silas Zane Reames & Mary “Polly” Phillips. Her older sister was Melvina/Lovina Jane Reames Mckeeby who had a daughter, Minerva Mckeeby (b.1869) who married Platt Eichler (my 4x great grandparents). Platt is the son of Asenath and Roy Dean Eichler, making him Mary Nightingale’s brother.

Little Anna Decker

Anna Decker, the daughter of my 3x great grandparents Lewis Luther Decker and Margurite/Margaret Edith Layton Decker. She was born in Hopkins, Allegan, Michigan on February 3, 1894. She lived on the family farm in Hopkins with her siblings Oren George (b.1887), Lee Aaron (b. 1889), and Maude (b. 1891). Her life ended in tragedy on the farm one warm fall day on November 9, 1899 when she asked to run and play in the yard without her shoes.

**Caution, this is a very graphic and sad story**

Little Anna was running through the yard while her brother Lee Decker (if the news article is accurate in saying the brother was about ten years old) was cleaning a stable when he unintentionally hit his sister with the fork. It punctured her eye and entered her brain four inches… she died almost instantly. It is also worth note that at the time of Anna’s death, Mrs. Decker was seven months along with her sixth child, my 2x great grandfather William Decker. In 1902, the Decker’s would have another daughter and name her Anna in honor of the little girl they lost so tragically.

Below is the actual news article from the paper in Otsego, Allegan, Michigan: