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.

Three Sheets of Paper

Sometimes, you bring home a stack of papers with details on the lives of your ancestors. Sometimes, you bring home lost family photographs gifted from a distant relative. Sometimes, you bring home three sheets of paper…

That’s all I got. Three sheets. But, this is the best lead I’ve had on William G. Bender in years. 

My three pages are all from a guardianship of estate record dated 1875. For twelve hundred dollars of a deceased man by the name of Henry Bender’s money. The guardian was Lavina Bender of Mercer County. Henry’s children were named Charles J. Bender (19), John H. Bender (16), William Bender (13), and Eliza A. Bender (9).

Of course, William is my primary interest. When looking at his name on the record it appears to say “William B McC Bender” but what is that little thing between his first name and the letter “B”?

This page states that Lavina Bender was in charge of the money and that she is the guardian of Charles J. Bender, John H. Bender, William B. McClellin/McClellan Bender, and Eliza A. Bender. William’s other middle name peaked my interest because Martha M. Fast Bender’s second husband, James Couts whom she married after divorcing William, shared that middle name. Couts was born in 1863 and this particular William Bender was probably born between 1862-1865. So, I did a simple Google search for “McClellan Civil War” and I found George Brinton McClellan. So, if William was named after this Union General turned Democratic President Nominee in 1864, his name would be William George Brinton McClellan Bender. It’s a long name, but I think it is a possibility. It also would explain those little marks between William’s name and the middle initial “B”. It kind of looks like someone attempted to stick in a “G”.

I’ve already begun looking into this family but I don’t have enough to share yet, when I do I will post more about them! 

Louella.

Louella Bender has been mentioned in passing here before, the younger sister of my great grandfather Jesse “Joseph” Preston Bender, she and her brother were the children of Martha Magnora Fast and the enigmatic William G. Bender. Like her father, Louella has always been under a veil for me. Unlike her father, I know where and when she was born, I’ve seen her name on every census right up to 1940. I know when, how, and where she died. I know where she was buried. What is so curious about Louella? She never married or had children. Now, I’m not saying that makes her bizarre – it just got me to wondering… Was she just against it? Did she just never fall in love? Did her father abandoning her at the tender age of two affect her that profoundly?

I was testing out Newspapers.com when I found the above article from the Delphos Courant dated August 6, 1949. Delphos lies partially in Allen County, Ohio and partially in Van Wert County, Ohio. Louella’s mother, Martha Fast Bender Couts, died in Van Wert County on May 3, 1949. I believe Dillie Showalter was actually “Dollie” Lydia Anne Showalter nee Mowrey, mother of Sarah Jane Showalter whom married Robert Stanley Bender (son of Louella’s brother, Jesse P. Bender) in 1941. If I hadn’t already been curious about Louella’s life, I certainly was now. Why would a 54 year old woman need to have a guardian of her estate?

Louella was born January 8, 1894 in Mercer County, Ohio. In 1896, her father left the family and seemingly disappeared. In 1900, her mother divorced her father after running a notice in the Celina Democrat for six weeks straight. In 1903, Martha remarried James M. Couts, a laborer on the steam railroads, they also ended their marriage with a divorce. From at least 1910 to 1940, she lived with her mother at 137 East Third Street, Van Wert. Louella would complete the third grade, one year more than her mother – but five grades less than her brother. She knew how to read and write. And in 1920, at 26, she was a domestic worker and was paid wages. She hardly sounds like she would need a caretaker of her estate, perhaps she was just a more independent woman than most in that time.

In the neatly typed letters resting in the four little lines that lay out the borders of the box where other significant conditions contributing to death lie; I found why Louella never married, never had children, and why she needed someone to handle her finances for her. Mental retardation. My heart sank when my eyes found the words. Obviously, I knew that would be the most likely reason for her needing to have a guardian of estate appointed to manage her affairs. But she went to school (it would be unlikely she would have been sent to a school as a mentally disabled child to school around 1900).

Was she born that way? If so maybe that contributed to her father abandoning the family… Or was there an accident or illness that caused it to happen?

I called the probate court for the guardianship record hoping for answers, unfortunately all that is on there is the following:

• She was “feeble minded”.
• She was 54.
• She had a brother, Jesse Bender.
• She had a relative named Robert Bender (her nephew).

Hopefully I’ll find out soon whether or not it was an accident, illness, or the way she was born.

“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…

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.

52 Ancestors #5: Jesse Keyser is my 4x-great grandfather on my father’s paternal side. He was born on July 16, 1816 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania to Jacob and Rebecca Keyser.

He married Martha Yost, daughter of Eli and Susan (Hendricks) Yost, on April 25, 1835 in Pennsylvania. That same year, the newlyweds and their firstborn daughter Audora Keyser Fast moved to Ohio, first settling in Miami County and then moving in 1837 to live in Mercer County. Jesse, on of the pioneer settlers of Mercer, bought and cleared a tract of land and built a round-log cabin, later building a cabin of hewed logs.  In time the latter was replaced by a frame house and this in turn by a brick residence.

The Fairview Church of God was established on January 30, 1868 in the Keyser residence with nineteen members.

Keyser passed away on August 29, 1895 at the age of 79 years, 2 months, and one day. He was buried next to his wife Martha in the North Grove Cemetery in Celina, Mercer County, Ohio

Brick Walls: William G. Bender and The Klondike Gold Rush 1896-1899

While speaking to my great uncle, Jack Bender a few days ago I asked again about his grandfather, William G. Bender, of whom nearly all traces have been lost other than his marriage record, and two children’s birth records.

Jack had told me once before that William went to Alaska, but he’s in his 80’s, so I disregarded it.

This time, Jack told me that William left for Alaska to mine gold and was never seen or heard from by his family again. Seeing as I’ve looked EVERYWHERE for my 2x great grandfather, I feel compelled to look into the story. It’s the only clue I have, after all.

I am assuming he went to Alaska or Canada as part of the Klondike Gold Rush around 1896-1898. Hopefully I’ll be able to find what happened to him.

William G. Bender (born OH) married Martha Magnora “Mattie” Fast November 27, 1890 in Mercer, Ohio. They had two children Jesse Preston in 1892 (my great grandfather) and Luella in 1894 (who never married).

On the 1900 US Census Martha and the kids are listed as living with her parents and she is still listed as married. And in 1903, she remarried.

William is my most contemporary brick wall.