Benders in Mercer County, Ohio

When I was 15, I was almost too excitable to do genealogical research. I found the 1890 marriage record of my great-great grandparents Martha (Mattie) Magnora Fast and William G. Bender, and that lead to my first major mistake… I connected the first William Bender I found in Mercer County, Ohio to my family tree. I told myself “No one will see this, if I need to change it I can.” But, a lot of Fast Descendants must’ve seen it and soon it was all over the internet. The William I had tied to my family was the son of Jonathan Bender and Hannah A. Murlin in Mercer County in 1870. But, the entire family ended up moving to Iowa by 1880, where that William was married in 1888.

But, there was another William in the county in 1870, William G. B. McClellan Bender was born in 1865 in Mercer County, Ohio to Henry Bender and his wife Clementine Lavina Long (she seems to have gone by Clementine/a until her husbands death in 1875 at which time she switched to Lavina). Henry and Clementine Lavina moved to Mercer County, Ohio between 1860-1865 from Hempfield, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania.

By the time Henry and Clementine moved to Ohio, they had three children:
Elizabeth Mathilda (b. November 13 1854), Charles J., and William H. (They must’ve changed his name to John H. Bender in his early childhood) Below is the Bender family on the 1860 census in Hempfield, Pennsylvania.

In 1870, Clementine and Henry are living in Hopewell, Mercer County, Ohio with William, aged 5 and Eliza, aged 4. It is unclear where the other children are. I think it is likely that the older daughter, Elizabeth Mathilda had passed away due to the younger sister’s name and the fact that Elizabeth Mathilda was the only child not listed in Henry’s probate records from 1875.

Charles Bender had settled in Portland, Jay, Indiana by June 1887 when he married Mary Chapman there (she was remarried in 1895 to James McGill in Jay County). There in April 1898, he was married again to Sadie Hearn (divorced and remarried in Jay County 1899 to William Little). On census records he always listed his birthplace as Ohio and his parent’s as being born in Pennsylvania, his maternal grandfather died in Portland in 1893. Charles died May 4, 1939 in Portland, Indiana.

John H. Bender married Mary A. Crouch on August 15, 1897 in Mercer County. After she died in 1917, he married Donna Lawson Chapman. Together, they had two children John R. Bender born about 1926 and Mary Ann Bender born 1929. He died in Mercer County in 1946 and is buried in the Swamp College Cemetery.

William (G.?) B. Mclellan Bender is my possible link to these Bender’s. He is not living with his mother, stepfather, and sister on the 1880 Census. If this is my William G. Bender, he was married in Mercer County to Martha M. Fast on November 27, 1890. And had two children with her before he disappeared around 1896…

Eliza Ann Bender was born in 1865 in Mercer County. She applied for a marriage certificate to marry Henry Lehman in 1883, with her stepfather giving consent for her to marry, but the two never went through with the ceremony, they had an illegitimate daughter born in November 1883 named Nora E. (Elizabeth) Lehman. In July 1885 Eliza married Seth Adams in Mercer County. They moved to Auglaize County, Ohio where she died in 1944.

More on my Ohio Trip

I went to Ohio feeling extremely giddy and hopeful to find out more about Louella, Martha, and Martha’s parents; Sarah Ann Keyser & Jacob Ginter Fast.

For Martha Magnora Fast Bender Couts, I thought I would certainly be able to locate a marriage announcement from December 1890 which would tell me who William G. Bender’s parents were. But there was no announcement following their marriage and no announcement of Jesse Preston Bender’s birth in 1892. I also thought I would be able to find articles concerning her second marriage in 1903 to James McClellan Couts and subsequent divorce after between 1910 and 1920. I anticipated finding out if Martha’s daughter, Louella Bender was born with a mental disability or if it was caused by illness or injury, but I found nothing on her. Not even a birth announcement.

I was also looking for more on Martha’s parents. Especially on Jacob G. Fast’s stomach troubles and his red automobile which he supposedly drove through his barn.

Even though I didn’t find all I had hoped to find on the Fast’s and the Bender’s, I was glad to finally stand at the Riverside Cemetery and see their graves in person. There they were, all next to each other and next to family. To the left of Sarah and Jacob is their daughter Laura Ethel Fast Pennell and an infant. Martha and Louella are in two different rows, but you can walk almost in a straight line from one to the other. I think Louella was buried next to Pennell relatives.

Above: Louella’s marker in the foreground with her mother Martha’s directly across.

For me, visiting a grave in person instead of just seeing a photo that a stranger posted for Findagrave is a way for me to pay my respects. I’ve seen so much lately about cemeteries being “pointless” because everyone forgets about the people buried there, but not me. I may not be able to visit every grave, but the ones I do just fill me to the brim with gratefulness. I exist because they pressed on in the face of challenges. So much had to go right (and perhaps more had to go wrong) in order for my existence to be possible. If that isn’t enough to make someone appreciate life just a little more, then I don’t know what will.

“Deserted and Abandoned”

I received the full divorce file of Martha Fast and William G. Bender from an extremely helpful Deputy County Clerk in Mercer County, Ohio and although unsurprised that the full record did not shed any light on the residency of William, I am a bit disappointed.

Martha Magnora Fast, wife of the ever elusive William was about 24 in the year 1896. She had two little children; a two year old daughter, Louella, and a four year old son, Jesse Preston (my great grandfather). This was also the year that her husband of six years, William G. Bender, vanished seemingly without a trace. He left his wife and children and failed to provide necessities such as food, clothing, and a home. Martha waited four long years before filing for divorce.

By the time Martha started trying to divorce her husband, she was just five days past her 28 birthday. She now had an eight year old son and a six year old daughter, they were all living in the home of her parents. Because she could not find her husband even after a diligent search and inquiring his whereabouts, she turned to a publication of her intent to divorce William in an attempt to notify him. The publication ran every Thursday for six weeks beginning on August 2nd 1900 in The Celina Democrat, ending on September 6th, 1900. On September 26th, 1900 the final paper was filed and the divorce, along with custody of the children was granted to Martha.

Although I haven’t succeeded in my ultimate goal of locating William Bender, it is amazing to know how brave Martha must have been during all of this. I have to wonder why she waited four years, maybe it was the stigma that came with being a divorcée back then, or maybe she wanted him to come home to her.

Still Searching

It has been almost two and a half years since I’ve posted about my elusive 2x great grandfather, William G. Bender, my most contemporary brick wall. What makes it so hard to find him is that I cannot seem to find any census records on him. I have managed to find his marriage record placing him in Mercer County in November 1890.

And today I am posting this because I received this lovely divorce record in my email inbox this morning, dated September 26, 1900 in Mercer. In June 1900, when the census was taken, Martha Bender listed as married but was living with her children in her parent’s home (Jacob Ginter Fast and Sarah) in Dublin, Mercer, Ohio. I was hoping this would tell me where William went, but all it’s told me is what I already knew: that he left.

There are two William Benders living in Mercer County, Ohio in 1870, one was the son of Hannah Amanda Murlin and Jonathan Bender, he moved from Center Twp. to Iowa by 1880 and married Melissa Ella Raw there in 1888. The other William Bender was the son of Clementina Lovina and Henry Bender, Henry died prior to 1880 and in the 1880 Census it’s just Lovina and daughter Eliza living with a farm laborer Lovina would later marry. Because Lovina had such a large farm I would assume that her now 15 year old son would be living with her if alive, but William is missing by 1880 and I presume he is dead.

Hopefully I am one step closer in locating William and his family…

The Continuing Story of Richard and Helen

Following accidentally stumbling upon the records of Helen Bender (aged 3), and Richard Bender (4) just after the 71st anniversary of the house fire that took their lives, I called their oldest and only surviving brother, Jack, at his home in Arkansas. I told him that I’d found the information on the fire and that it was reported in newspapers on the opposite side of the state.

Then I got to the big question I had for him this time, why was his mother absent at the time of the fire? Shocked, he asked where I gotten that from, and I told him that it was included in the newspapers. He explained to me what happened that day. Jack was around twelve years old at the time, he said that Helen and Richard were sleeping in a bedroom – part of a new addition being put on the house to better accommodate the family of seven. Jack, who was twelve that year was helping his father’s uncle Clemons Fast work on the addition while his mother Elizabeth looked on. My grandfather and his brother Harold were at the neighbor’s house.

The homes electric had been shut off while they were doing structural work, and a line was being ran from the neighbor’s to provide the Bender’s with electric. Fast had a pot of tar heating on the stove in the kitchen – just outside the door where little Richard and Helen were asleep. The tar, being unattended, got too hot and started the fire. By the time the family outside had noticed, the whole kitchen and bedroom were aflame. There was no way to save the children. They died on November 6th, 1942 and were laid to rest in nearby cemetery Cadillac Memorial Gardens West on November 9th, 1942.

Just when I thought the chapter on my father’s late aunt and uncle would soon be closed, a Find a Grave member named Nancy sent me an email telling me of how she scoured Cadillac Memorial Gardens – West for the graves of the brother and sister to no avail. She didn’t stop there though! She asked the office if they were in fact buried in the singles section – to which she was given a definite “yes” and two groundskeepers later came to help, sadly the search was in vain. I called the cemetery next day and was informed by an employee named Rich that the Bender children were never given headstones.

52 Ancestors #7: Jacob Ginter Fast is my 3x great grandfather. He was born June 4, 1840 in Fairfield County, Ohio to Abraham Fast and Mary Jane Ginter.

On October 7, 1861 at around 20 years old, Jacob entered service with the Union for the Civil War, serving with Company D of the 71st Ohio Volunteer Infantry alongside his younger brother Abraham. He came back home and married Sarah Ann Keyser on March 6, 1864 in Mercer County – their first son Charles was born that year but died before reaching adulthood.

After marrying, Jacob returned to service and on January 1, 1865 he was appointed corporal. After three years of service, he was mustered out on October 17, 1865 at Camp Dennison, Ohio by order of the War Department.

After the war, Jacob returned home to Mercer where he and Sarah raised their ten children while he became a pretty successful farmer. He was the first in the county to own a car, which he kept in his barn and some sources say that he actually went through the barn in his red auto.

In 1900, Jacob G. and Sarah took in their daughter, Martha Magnora Bender and her two children Jesse Preston Bender (my great grandfather) and Louella Bender after Martha was deserted by her husband, William G. Bender.

Fast loved to eat, but suffered from chronic stomach problems which made it necessary for him to carry a stomach pump. He is said to have gone back behind his barn to pump his stomach.

He died February 13, 1912 in Dublin Township, Mercer, Ohio of his stomach problems. On February 14 the local news wrote:
Jacob Fast, a well-known and aged resident of Rockford, died early Tuesday morning at his home in that village. He was about seventy years of age, and is survived by a large family. The funeral is to be held in the United Brethren church at Rockford, Thursday afternoon at one o’clock, and is to be conducted by the Rev. L. T. Lemunyon of this city, assisted by Rev. E. A. Lilly and Rev. Thomas Coates.

Jacob is buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Dublin, Mercer, Ohio next to his wife and near many of their children and grandchildren.