Jesse “Joseph” Preston Bender’s WWII Draft Registration

After his youngest two children died in a house fire in November of 1942, Joseph (the name which he was going by at the time) sent his two youngest surviving sons Charles and Harold to a farm where they would be taken care of as payment for working on the farm. His son Jack remained with his mother Elizabeth Jenkins and his father.

According to Jack the couple argued a lot, and eventually divorced. It seems that by the time that Joseph gave information for the WWII draft in 1942 he and Elizabeth had possibly parted ways, but they also tended to move around a bit and it is unlikely that mail or news was reaching them as well as it could. “Jess Preston Bender” was still living in Wayne County, Michigan but listed his nearest relative as “Mr. L. Fast”. I know that Jesse was close with his maternal uncle Clemons “Clem” Fast, but had no uncles with “L” names.

I found a Mr. Lloyd Raymond Fast living in Grosse Point, Wayne, Michigan at the time of the draft. His place of business matched Jesse’s address for “Mr. L. Fast” even more interesting was that this Lloyd Raymond Fast gave his place of birth as Neptune, Ohio which is located in Jesse’s native Mercer County, OH very near Jesse’s birthplace of Dublin Twp.

Looking further into Lloyd, I found that he is the son of George Branaman Fast (1846-1920) and Martha Cecilia Nelson (1861-1954). George B. Fast was the younger brother of Jacob Ginter Fast (1840-1912), Jesse’s paternal grandfather.

John Chauncey Fults

Rewritten from the History of Montcalm, MI Vol.II 1916
Biographical by John W Pasef

John C. Fults, successful farmer and pioneer citizen of Sidney Township, Montcalm, MI was born in Herkimer Co., NY on July 11, 1830 son of Wm. and Mariah Mckoon Fults, natives of NY state, the former of German descent and the latter of Scottish descent. Wm. died shortly after his marriage. Following which, Mariah and only child John, came to MI in 1835 settling in Romeo, Macomb, MI then moving to St. Clair County where Mariah married Benjamin D. Thornton, a union to which 2 daughters were born; Hulda and Esther (Sally) both of whom and the mother are deceased.

NOTE:
Mariah/Mariah Mckoon Fults married B.D. Thornton of Berlin, St Clair Co October 3, 1843 she was 31 and living in Ray TWP, Macomb. Her surname was given as “Collins”

John lived with his mother until the age of 7. Then he became a part of Wm Garris’ home, Garris was a farmer in Macomb County, John resided there until the age of 10. During that time he received education at the common schools in Macomb Co. In about 1840, John went to live with the Sutherland Family for about 5 years, after which he began making his way in the world, working at different places in various lines of activity, chiefly farming. Until a few years later, he purchased 40 acres in Macomb Co, a place where he engaged in farming for a short time. He then moved to St Clair Co. where he lived for several years. During the year 1879, John moved to Montcalm, purchasing 146 acres in Sidney Twp, on the south side of Lake Dickerson, which prior to his arrival was without settlement, and occupied solely by a mill. On his farm he has placed extensive improvements and now lives there as a successful farmer.

On Nov 13, 1850 John C. Fults married Catherine Youngs, who was born in Wayne Co, NY on June 1835 to Harry Youngs and wife.

9 children, 7 living:
• Cornelia w/o Josiah Decker, Douglas TWP, Montcalm
• Mariah w/o John Trumble of Pinnconning, Bay, MI
• Catherine Abyer w/o John Coleman of Stanton, Montcalm
• Ira, deceased
• Annie w/o John Adams of Stanton, Montcalm
• Andrew, lives on the homestead
• Lincoln, died in infancy
• Johnson of McBride, MI h/o Minnie
• Eva Grace w/o Seth Pickett Day TWP

Catherine died March 26, 1915 at 80 yrs. They were devout Seventh Day Adventist’s. Fults has been a lifelong republican, casting his first vote for John C Fremont.

Luther Taylor and his Girls

My 5x great grandfather Luther Taylor was born about 1805 in Connecticut according to US Census records. He married Desire Norton/Newton prior to 1831. Desire died prior to 1860 (probably even before 1850). Sometime before 1860, Luther had relocated along with his three youngest daughters to Kalamazoo, Michigan. He died September 11, 1895 in Watson, Allegan, Michigan.

The Taylors had five known children, all daughters:

• Cynthia Marie Taylor (my 4x great-grandmother) was born May 6, 1831 in New York. She married Levi Decker, the son of Wilhelmus and Mary Decker of Wayne Co, NY in 1850. Cynthia and Levi moved to Michigan in about 1858, settling in Allegan County. She died on the Decker family farm on Big Lake in Watson, Allegan, Michigan of Jaundice coupled with Senility on March 4, 1907. She rests in Hicks Cemetery in Watson.
• Melissa Surviah Taylor was born May 3, 1833 in Fowler, St. Lawrence, New York. She married Eli Charles Spencer in Kalamazoo County, Michigan on June 24, 1855. Together they had three known children and she helped raise his older children from his previous marriage. They moved to Kansas where he passed away around 1877. She eventually moved with her son Allison to Delta County, Colorado where she passed away on April 27, 1919.
• Caroline E. Taylor was born in 1836, also in New York. In 1850, a sixteen year old Caroline was living with her newlywed sister Cynthia in Ontario, Wayne, New York. She married a soldier with the Michigan 1st Regiment of Mechanics and Engineers named William Bates May 1, 1861 in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. They had one daughter; Edith Bates. William died in 1863 in Tennessee. Caroline married James M. Flanagan of the same company and regiment as Bates on December 4, 1865 in Kalamazoo County. James and Caroline moved from Michigan to Kansas where she died sometime before 1902.
• Emaline Louisa Taylor was born February 21, 1842 in NY. She married Irish immigrant John Shaw in Kalamazoo on April 1, 1862. They settled in Texas Township, Kalamazoo, Michigan and had many children. She passed away there on June 1, 1921 of Dropsy and is buried in the Hope Cemetery in Texas Corners.
• Mary Taylor was born November 3, 1845 in NY. She married Charles Campbell in Kalamazoo on May 9, 1863. They lived in Cooper, Kalamazoo, MI with her father Luther in 1870, at that time their family also included their 10 month old son, Charles Jr. and Adeline Fuller and her husband farmhand Jonathan Fuller. Mary died of dropsy of the heart August 30, 1873 and was buried in the West Cooper Cemetery. Campbell then went on to marry Adeline Fuller, who was by then 21 and had been divorced from Jonathan prior to 1872. In 1880, Luther Taylor was still living with the Campbell family, his grandson was by then 11 years old.

Quick Brick Wall Update: Levi Decker’s Parentage

Levi and Cynthia Decker are my 4x great grandparents on my maternal grandmother’s side of the family. According to a family bible (not in my possession) they were married on July 1, 1847 in Puttneyville, Wayne, NY.

Based on their graves located in the Hicks Cemetery, Watson, Allegan, Michigan I knew that Levi was born on February 22, 1818 and died August 27, 1891. Cynthia was born May 6, 1831 and passed away on March 4, 1907.

On the 1850 Census the couple was living in Ontario, Wayne, New York along with a sixteen year old named Caroline Taylor,her closeness in age to Cynthia makes me think that they could be sisters. The couple’s first child, Mary, would be born in October of that year.

By 1860, the family had relocated to Watson, Allegan, Michigan and had grown to include Mary, Francis, Levi Luther (my 3x great grandfather and the first to be born in Michigan), and George. Caroline Taylor is no longer listed as living with the family. The Decker family operated an 80 acre farm on Big Lake in Watson, and grew to include five more children by 1873.

Doing various Google searches on Levi, I found an article ordering all the children of Wilhelmus Decker to see the county judge on March 20, 1854 at 10 o’clock to prove their age and claim their inheritance.

This notice indefinitely ties Levi Decker of Watson, Allegany (Allegan), Michigan to to the late Wilhelmus Decker formerly of Ontario, Wayne, New York – where the couple lived while still newlyweds.

An interesting note is that George W. Cowles of Gallen, Wayne, NY, “special guardian of Nancy Decker”, was a republican member of the New York Congress from March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1871 and wrote a book on the history of Wayne County, New York. Why he was the “special guardian” of Nancy I do not know… yet!

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.