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John
'Clyde'
Hyatt |
John "Clyde" Hyatt was born on Sept. 10, 1888 in or near Ohio Pyle, Fayette County, PA, the son of David Ross and Minnie (Cassel) Hyatt.
As a very young boy, he was taken into the home of his mother's adoptive parents, John K. and Lucinda (Minerd) Hall and raised there to adulthood.
When a teen, Clyde was named in the gossip columns of the Connellsville Daily Courier when accompanying his grandmother into Ohiopyle to do some shopping. Then at the death of his grandfather Hall in 1908, the Uniontown Morning Herald reported that under a "radical change" in the man's will, made just 11 days prior to death, Clyde was to receive from the estate "$300 in three installments of $100 each, one each in the years 1908, 1909 and 1910."
Clyde entered into marriage with Blanche Estella McNair (Sept. 24, 1892- ? ), the daughter of Clark Henry and Oshia Anna "Oschie" (McNair) McNair of Confluence, Somerset County, PA.
Together, they bore four known children -- Margaret Gertrude Hyatt, Dorothy L. Hyatt, Carl Ross Hyatt and Mary Elizabeth Hyatt.
Daily Courier, 1910
At the age of 22, Clyde was employed by the Ohiopyle Lumber Company. At the Ohiopyle railroad station, on the evening of Sept. 30, 1910, he suffered a crippling injury "while attempting to board a freight train," said the Connellsville Daily Courier. "Missing his footing... [he] fell under the train. He was brought to Connellsville about 9:30 o'clock and removed to the Cottage State hospital, where it was found that his right leg was so badly mashed that amputation below the knee was necessary."
Grief cascaded over the family in the winter of 1912 when their 19-month-old daughter Margaret was stricken with pneumonia. A doctor was called, but it was too late. The angel of death carried her away on Feb. 28, 1912. The Daily Courier said that:
Pneumonia has claimed four lives in three families at Ohiopyle since yesterday and a fifth death is expected at any time. The three families living in adjoining dwellings in the Falls City. The three were taken with severe colds which developed into pneumonia. The disease made such strides that it was impossible to check it. In the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Joseph, Harry, aged 2½ years, died last evening. He was in such a serious condition that a Connellsville physician was summoned, but medical aid proved futile. The child died within an hour or so after the physician arrived. In the home of Clyde Hyatt, adjoining, Margaret, aged 2 years, is dead. In the home of Hugh Sands two children are dead and a third is in such a serious condition that it is not expected to recover.
Funeral services for young Margaret were held in the Fairview Church, today known as Sugar Loaf Church, with interment following in the cemetery across the road. A notice of her passing also appeared in print in the Meyersdale (PA) Republican.
Within a few years, by 1916, Clyde and Blanche moved their family to Charleroi, Washington County, PA. In this locale, he was employed as a "scale man" for the Pittsburgh Steel Products Company.
In 1917, John registered for the military draft during World War I. The registrar wrote that John was of medium build and height, and had blue eyes and brown hair, and had "Right leg off." He and their daughter Dorothy made a short May 1918 visit to see his grandmother Hall and, with the aged woman failing from dementia, brought her back home to Charleroi.
The federal census of 1920 shows the family in North Charleroi Borough, with Clyde employed as a "gauger" in a steel mill. Blanche's brother Harry W. McNair, a steel mill laborer, boarded in their home that year. In 1923, they made their home at the corner of 7th and Conrad Avenue in Lock Four, Allenwood, in North Charleroi.
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Busy Lock #4 on the Monongahela River near the Hyatt home |
The Angel of Death, "hovering over
the Hyatt family for some time," claimed five victims in the early months
of 1923, including Clyde himself.
Monessen Daily Independent, 1923
On the morning of Jan. 25, 1923, nine-year-old daughter Dorothy (1914-1923) awoke and got out of bed to get dressed. While walking past an open gas stove, her clothes ignited. "Suddenly her screams attracted the mother who was in an adjoining room," said the Monessen Daily Independent, "and when the parent arrived on the scene the child was a mass of flames and it was with great presence of mind and composure on the part of the parent that the child was not burned to death and the home set on fire. By wrapping the unfortunate victim in a blanket the mother smothered the flames and called a physician." The Independent added that while Dorothy "is suffering intensely from her unfortunate experience... she has a good chance of recovery should no complications develop." But the girl was not able to overcome the shock of the burns, and after suffering for about a month, died at home. Her scorched remains were taken to Confluence for burial.
While attending the funeral, Blanche's father became seriously ill with pneumonia, and he remained at the Hyatt home. Said the Independent, "His relatives from Confluence have been summoned here." Fortunately, he recovered, and after six weeks' convalescence was able to return home. Three other relatives also passed away during the first few months of 1923, but their individual stories are not known.
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Pittsburgh Steel's sprawling plant in Monessen |
Then, while at work at Pittsburgh Steel Products on April 22, 1923, Clyde "was taken suddenly ill ... and he was removed to his home," reported the Monessen Daily Independent. He had been stricken with cerebral meningitis thanks to an infection in his frontal sinuses. "His wife who had been called to Confluence by the serious illness of relatives, returned immediately and when the husband took a sudden turn for the worse early yesterday it was decided an operation would be the last hope and he was rushed to the Charleroi-Monessen hospital, but his death occurred a few minutes after he had been admitted to the institution." His death occurred on April 26, 1923.
Among those attending the funeral at Sugar Loaf were John C. Lytle and his son Preston. After services led by Rev. Greenlee of the Charleroi Methodist Church, Clyde's remains were returned to Confluence for burial at Johnson Chapel. After the funeral, Blanche remained in Confluence with her aged father and other relatives. Within a few weeks, she moved back to Confluence with her children.
Blanche in May 1923 relocated from Charleroi to Uniontown, and moved into an apartment in the Williams Building on Commercial Street.
She was joined in wedlock again, on Sept. 29, 1923, with Jacob "Jake" Stover (Oct. 28, 1892-1950), son of Levi and Almira (Teal) Stover of Wyandot County, MI. By 1926, they put down roots in Michigan.
Together they bore one daughter, Ruth Stover, born circa 1926 in Michigan.
On a visit to John H. McNair in Ohiopyle in June 1926, she was mentioned in the gossip columns of the Daily Courier. Her aged father is known to have come to visit her in Roseville, MI in 1928 and, after suffering a stroke, died in her home on Aug. 18, 1928. In an obituary for her father, her married name was misspelled as "Stauffer."
The federal census enumeration of 19300 shows the Stover family in the village of Fraser in Clinton Township, Macomb County, MI. Jake's occupation was shown as a machinist in an automobile factory, and Walter McNair and Edward McNair lived under their roof at that time.
As of 1940, continuing to use the name "Stover," Blanche resided with her son Carl at the Detroit address of 2187 Lillibridge.
After enduring a three-year illness, Jacob passed away at the age of 57, at home in Detroit, on March 26, 1950. His obituary in the Marion (OH) Star said he was "formerly of Sycamore" and had been a machinist. His remains were transported to his Ohio hometown for funeral services in the Belle Vernon Evangelical United Brethren Church, led by Rev. Eicher of Detroit. A similar obituary was published in the Bucyrus (OH) Telegraph-Forum.
Evidence suggests that in February 1957, at the age of 64, she wed a third time, to 65-year-old Ellis Raymond Albertson (March 20, 1891-1963), a resident of Fort Smith, AR. He was the son of Rufus T. and Dora (Garmon) Albertson and a native of Moffett, OK. Even though Blanche was still a Detroit resident at the time, their wedding was held in Siloam Springs, AR. It also was his third marriage, having previously been divorced from Lula Taylor (1945) and Ruby Lee Jackson (1950).
They may have lived in Detroit, while Ellis also is known to have made a home in Fort Smith at the address of 505 South E. Street. He worked in Fort Smith as a night watchman for a compress company.
Sadly, Ellis died in Fort Smith, of natural causes, on Sept. 10, 1963. Burial was in Forest Park Cemetery, Fort Smith.
Blanche was named in the 1959 obituaries of her brother Charles of Ohiopyle and sister Sittie Candis Harter of Pittsburgh and then the Oct. 16, 1965 Detroit Free Press obituary of her daughter Ruth Sponer.
Nothing more about her is known.
Blanche's daughter Ruth Stover (1926- ? ) was born in about 1926 in Roseville, MI. On April 16, 1949, in Highland Park near Detroit, she entered into marriage with Ernest M. Sponer ( ? - ? ). They bore one daughter, Donna Plouffe. Ruth died on Oct. 14 1965, with a death notice printed in the Detroit Free Press.
~ Son Carl Ross Hyatt ~
Son Carl Ross Hyatt (1916-1971) was born on Aug. 22, 1916 in Charleroi.
His early years were spent in his parents' residence in Charleroi. In adulthood he stood 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed 140 lbs., with blue eyes and black hair.
Carl migrated to Michigan with his mother and lived in 1930 with her and his stepfather in Clinton, Macomb County, MI.
By the late 1930s, he found employment in Detroit with Imerman Screw Products. In 1940, he and his mother resided at 2187 Lillibridge, Detoit.
He also was referred to as "Carl Stover" in news reports over the years, but whether he ever actually used that surname is not confirmed.
Carl surrendered to the spirit of death in Detroit on Nov. 16, 1971.
~ Daughter Mary Elizabeth (Hyatt) Tickus ~
Daughter Mary Elizabeth Hyatt (1923-1964 ) was born in 1923 and a baby at the time of her father's tragic death.
She moved to Michigan with her widowed mother and brother Carl. Census records for 1930 list her in the household of her mother and stepfather in Clinton, Macomb County, MI.
On March 22, 1941, at the age of 21, she was united in holy matrimony with 28-year-old salesman Louis John Tickus (May 7, 1912-2008), son of John and Anna (Harry) Tickus. Their nuptials were held in Detroit, with Rev. Lewis F. Rayfield officiating, and Ruth Stover and Kenneth Downing serving as witnesses.
One known daughter born to this union was Marilyn L. Tickus.
Said an obituary, "Louis served in the United States Coast Guard from 1930 to 1937. He held a supervisory position for 20 years at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor until his retirement in 1968. He later worked for R.M. Young Co. in Ann Arbor and Traverse City, MI, developing meteorological equipment until 1976."
The federal census count of 1950 lists the Tickuses in Van Buren, Wayne County, MI, with Louis employed as a tech engineer at an airport. That same year, at the death of her stepfather, she was named in the Marion (OH) Star as living in Bellevue, MI.
Mary's residence in 1964 was in Dearborn, MI. Tragically, at the age of about 40, she was killed in a July 14, 1964 automobile collision with another vehicle. The Associated Press circulated a story picked up by the Benton Harbor Herald-Palladium and Lansing State Journal.
Louis wed again on Nov. 4, 1962 to Beulah "Ann" (Draper) Doyle (1916-2005). She brought a stepson to the second marriage, Ronnie Merle Doyle. Ann passed away on April 5, 2005, while Louis died in Adams County, IL on July 31, 2008. The remains were interred in St. Anselms Cemetery in Kampsville, IL.
Daughter Marilyn L. Tickus (1944-1979) was born on July 25, 1944 in Detroit. She was the mother of Richard Lynne Cialone. Her home at the end of her life was in Inkster, MI. She succumbed to the spectre of death three days after Christmas 1979. A notice of her death was printed in the Detroit Free Press, calling her "Dear daughter of Louis; mother of Richard Lynne Cialone; stepdaughter of Ann." She sleeps for the ages in Glen Eden Memorial Park in Livonia, MI.
- Grandson Richard Lynne Cialone ( ? - ? ) made his home in Dearborn circa 2008.
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Copyright © 2010, 2023 Mark A. Miner |