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Sarah Annette (Younkin) Byal |
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Maple Grove Cemetery, Findlay Courtesy Marilyn Law |
Sarah Annette (Younkin) Byal
was born on May 8, 1823 in Lancaster, Fairfield County, OH, the daughter of Abraham and Sarah (Montgomery) Younkin Jr.On May 10, 1828, in the Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, Fairfield County, OH, she and six of her siblings were given the rite of Christian baptism.
In 1840, as a teenager, Sarah migrated with her parents to Findlay, OH. Then on Nov. 12, 1843, at the age of 20, she joined the Presbyterian Church of Findlay on a professional of religion "during a communion season of precious interest," wrote her former pastor, known only to us by the initials "R.H.H.," as he published in the Findlay Jeffersonian.
[She] was a devoted wife, and a kind, faithful and sympathizing mother. In the community she was respected by all who knew her, and as a Christian, she was exemplary though retiring. The home circle was the place where her christian virtues were best seen. Previous to making a professional of religion, she said to the writer who was at the time pastor of the church, that she felt it to be a very solumn thing to profess religion and became a member of the church but still she felt it to be a great privilege. Her christian life was characterized not by excitement, but by a calm and quiet deportment, exemplifying an humble trust in the Savior.
On Sept. 25, 1845, she was united in matrimony with Col. Absalom P. Byal (June 19, 1821-1911), a native of Stark County, OH.
The known children born to this couple were Clara E. Byal, Sarah Catherine "Kate" Carlin, William A. Byal and Ida Hercilia Bradner plus an infant daughter who died in 1851.
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Absalom P. Byal
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During that first era of marriage, the 1845-1846 timeframe, Absalom is known to have hauled wheat to what today is Sandusky, OH, receiving as pay a bushel of corn for a bushel of wheat transported. He later remembered that "I afterward engaged to furnish wheat to parties in Carey," said the Jeffersonian. "The price ran up to $1.00 a bushel, but I could not haul it for the mud. I bought a hog that weighed 400 pounds for $7.00. I also bought a pair of very fine horses for $110.00. If there had been a Railroad here, they would have been worth more than double that sum."
As sheriff in 1847, he led a jury of six men to appraise a corridor of land from Findlay to Carey, where the first railroad eventually would be constructed.
The federal census enumeration of 1850 lists the Byals in Findlay, with him employed as a clerk with the "C.C.P." (Court of Common Pleas). That year, Catharine Jane Henderson, age 14, and William Snyder, age 15, lived in the household. Under a new constitution of 1851, the clerk's position was changed from appointed to elected, and he left to study law. Judge Thurman of the state supreme court admitted him to practice law in about 1852 and he worked in this field for five years, until 1857, when he devoted himself to full-time farming.
Absalom's occupation in 1860, as shown in the U.S. Census, was farmer. He was active with the Hancock County Agricultural Society and in 1859 was elected vice president. He appears to have served with the Society for decades. He also was an officer of the local lodge of the Masons. The family relcoated into Findlay in 1861, purchasing a town lot north of Front Street on a property on the east side of Main Street. He held onto this lot until 1868 when selling it to Gen. M.B. Walker and then buying a farm on the Lima Road, where he eventually "built a fine residence and embellished the grounds with groves and shrubbery, until it is one of the handsomest homes in Hancock County."
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| Absalom's biography, 1903 - Courtesy Google Books |
Sadly, at the age of 42 years and 13 days, Sarah died following a short illness in Findlay on May 21, 1865. In her obituary in the Jeffersonian, "R.H.H." said that "as she came near her departure, she calmly took leave of her husband and dear children, expressing the assurance that the Savior was with her. 'Her end was peace'." Burial was in Maple Grove Cemetery. Her demise occurred just a little over a month after the close of the Civil War.
Absalom in 1867 wed a second time to Sallie P. Maverty (1841-1897), who was a native of Ontario, Canada, then known as "Upper Canada." They are shown together on a farm in the 1870 federal census of Findlay. Sadly, their daughter Nellie, born in 1868, drowned in a well at the age of 2 on May 29, 1871. Their son George F. Byal became a well known farmer.
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Absalom's profile, 1910 - Courtesy Google Books |
Absalom also was profiled on three pages of the 1910 book Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, authored by J.A. Kimmell, MD (Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co.). The section says that "Few, if any, of the men living in Hancock County today, have been so closely connected with the progress and official affairs of the county as has the Hon. Absolam P. Byall.
In 1869, Absalom was elected president of the Democratic Central Committee of Hancock County and later in the year appointed a viewer of a new country road in the community. He was chosen as chairman in 1870 of the Farmers Club of Hancock County. Among the goals of the new club were to protect against horse thieving and also selection of the best horses for breeding.
Absalom served as a member of the constitutional convention of 1873 that met in Columbus. The Twentieth Century History says they "held sessions until the breaking out of cholera in August of 1872, when it adjourned and reassembled in Cincinnati December 1st of the same year, and remained there until the 15th of May, 1874." According to Wikipedia, the delegates proposed a new constitution with a host of changes. Among them were establishing annual legislative sessions, a gubernatorial veto that could be overridden by a three-fifths vote of each house, creation of state circuit courts, allowing for women to be elected to school boards, and restrictions on municipal debt. They also proposed that circuit courts be established to relieve the case backlog of the Ohio Supreme Court and to allow the licensing of liquor sales. All were voted down.
Absalom and his wife are known to have traveled to Philadelphia in September 1876 to help celebrate the nation's centennial anniversary. He was elected in 1878 as a board director of the Findlay Manufacturing Company.
In December 1883, Absalom is known to have purchased 83 acres in Findlay from seller Samuel J. Fellers for the price of $7,000. He also sold part of his acreage to the county for use as the camp-meeting grounds, which were named the "A.P. Byal Park" in his honor.
He was elected to the Ohio legislature in 1883. Among his initiatives was an amendment to the Ohio liquor laws, which was voted down in the lower house in February 1885. The Twemtieth Century History said that as a legislator, Absalom "displayed great strength of character, and many important measures were entrusted to his care in their passage through the House, not only from his own county but from others as well. His well known integrity and steadfastness called forth the confidence in his honesty and influence to carry a bill to a favorable termination in that body."
He passed away in Findlay at the age of 89 on June 16, 1911. Burial was in Maple Grove Cemetery. An obituary said he was "one of the best known citizens of Hancock county..." He left behind an estate worth an estimated $70,000.
~ Daughter Clara Edith (Byal) Bahl ~
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Mt. Hope Cemetery, San Diego Courtesy "PIN" |
Daughter Clara Edith Byal (1846-1932) was born on July 1, 1846.
On Dec. 14, 1868, she entered into marriage with Civil War veteran Perry William Bahl (Sept. 28, 1843-1929), son of Jesse Bahl and a native of Wooster, Wayne County, OH. Rev. J.M. Cross officiated the nuptials, conducted in Findlay. Among the attendees was Clara's sister Kate Carlin. News of their marriage license was printed in the Hancock Courier of Findlay.
At his birth, Perry's name was inscribed in the family Bible along with his date of birth. The book, in English, had been published in 1847 by James B. Smtth & Co. of 23 South Eight Street, Philadelphia. This record played an important role later in Perry's life when he needed proof of his birth.
He stood 5 feet, 6½ inches tall, weighed 145 lbs. and sported a ruddy complexion and hazel eyes.
During the war, Perry joined the Union Army on Sept. 18, 1861. He served for term of three years in the 16th Ohio Infantry, Company C. He was honorably discharged at Camp Chase, OH on Oct. 31, 1864.
The pair's together produced a trio of children including Harry A. Bahl (born Sept. 1, 1871), Ida Maude Ball (born Dec. 16, 1872) and Madge Alice Bahl. Sadly, only Madge lived to adulthood. Son Harry died at birth and daughter Ida at age nine months on Sept. 15, 1873. Their tender remains sleep side-by-side in Fredonia City Cemetery.
After returning home and marriage, Perry and Clara began to build their lives. He was active with the Hancock County Teachers Association and was elected its secretary in 1868. He also was employed circa 1868 as deputy auditor for the County of Hancock.
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Perry's army discharge - National Archives |
After a press of business, having spare time for a few moments, in order to relieve my conscience in regard to the promises I made to you and my own friends in Findlay, I comply. Since arriving in our grand and prosperous new State we have enjoyed ourselves extremely well. The sun rises as beautiful, the birds sing as sweetly, and all nature seems to rejoice as much here and more so than at our old home. In fact, we have enjoyed better health, as the fragrant air that passes over our beautiful rolling prairie is more pure than in old Ohio. Our little town is named after the great, old patriarch Horace, and is situated on the south fork of the Pottawatomie, in one of the richest valleys on the continent. The scenery around Greeley is magnificant there being a succession of beautiful formed mounds, or rather hills, some of which are of great magnitude, and afford ample stone for building material. The soil of this section is a strong limestone, and the rankness of vegetation indicatyes its quality to be good. Timber is abundant, and consists mostly of walnut, white and bur oak, hickory, elm, sycamore, &c. -- Wood per cord, delivered, $2.50. Building material from two to three dollars per hundred. We have in the county thirty-five school districts, and about thirty good houses, all frame except a few good stone structures. About thirty schools have been in operation during the season. Our schools in this place, during the past term, had forty-nine scholars enrolled, and a general average attendance of forty. There is in Kansas a deeper interest manifested in schools than in Ohio. Each county has its Superintendent, and, if its pupils are over two thousand, his salary is one thousand dollars, if not, three dollars per day for all necessary time employed. The population of the county is about five thousand and the number of children reported is over fourteen hundred. The railroad prospects of the county are good. It is true we have been baffled for over a year, having voted twice on propositions, and, on the 13th of September, are requested to take another vote, for the sum of $325,000, $200,000 of which is to be applied on the road leading from Leavenworth to Galveston, and $125,000 to the Paola and Fall River R.R., said last road to run through our town, and, if so, ere long will rival our county seat, as we have advantages far superior to Garnett... Now, in conclusion, allow me to state that if any wish to make a fortune in a few years, with small capital, let them to Southern Kansas and invest. All our investments have doubled and we have been truly blessed.
The Bahls stayed in Greeley until 1870, when they moved to Fredonia, Wilson County, KS. Perry advertised in Ohio newspapers in 1871 and 1872 that he was serving as a land agent and notary public in Fredonia. He took part in a movement to establish a local Congregational Church in that place in 1871.
He also earned income with the county treasurer's office and as principal of the Neodesha Union Schools. He ran for election in 1872 as county superintendent of public instruction but lost. When teaching the fall term in 1873 in Fredonia, his building was located on East Mound Street, north of the square.
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| West side of the square in Fredonia, KS |
Clara and Perry are known to have traveled home to Ohio in 1874. Upon their return, said the Wilson County Citizen in Fredonia, they were "looking well and seeming glad to get back." He was appointed city clerk in Fredonia in September 1874 on the resignation of J.S. Gilmore, with the Citizen claiming the he "will make a competent and efficient official." He also held the post of secretary of the Annual Fair of Wilson County and continued to teach locally. Perry was found guilty of assault and battery on one of his pupils in 1875 when he broke up a fight that had broken out during a baseball game.
Their daughter Madge was born in 1875 in Fredonia. Their home was along Mound Street, and they maintained a small orchard of 25 or 30 peach trees which bore "unusually large" fruit "of a very rich flavor," said the Citizen. The family entertained a visit in August 1879 from Clara's brother Dr. William A. Byal, with him traveling "on a western tour for the benefit of his health," said the Citizen, "and will probably to go Colorado before returning to Ohio." Perry's father brought his family out for a visit from Columbiana County, OH in 1879 and made plans to settle on the old Cone farmstead, southeast of Fredonia.
Perry was assigned to a new school in the Barrett District west of town in the summer of 1877. He continued to work in the county treasurer's office until about 1881. At that time he accepted employment as an agent for the Adams Express Company which involved a move to Trinidad, CO. He wrote to a friend in May 1882 that the company was closing the Trinidad office and that he was building a house and was likely to remain there. Then in 1883, they pulled up stakes and found a home in Pueblo, CO. From Pueblo in 1884, he advertised that he was selling their Mound Street home and 80-acre farm three-and-a-half miles east of Fredonia. The house finally sold in mid-November 1884.
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| Stationery of Perry's wholesale fruit company in Springfield, MO, both dated 1905 - National Archives |
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From Fredonia, they made the decision to migrated to Missouri and in 1884 settled in Springfield, MO. During those years, circa 1888, Perry was active in Springfield with the Capt. John Matthews Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, serving as adjutant, and holding their meetings in the GAR Hall on the third story of the county courthouse.
In 1886, Perry established his own business, P.W. Bahl Wholesale Fruits and Produce, located at 1350 Boonville Street in Springfield. His letterhead circa 1913 advertised consignments of berries, cantloupes, peaches and beans, "solicited in season."
When the special federal census enumeration was made in 1890, the Bahls were back in Findlay. Then in 1900, census records show the couple in Springfield, Greene County, MO, with him continuing to deal in wholesale fruits.
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| Perry's stationery, 1913 - National Archives |
When a GAR encampment was held in 1900, in Springfield, he served as head of the bureau of information. He also attended a regimental reunion in Cleveland in the autumn of 1901 where he saw a schoolhood friend and neighbor, Hiram Fisher.
In 1905, Perry was awarded a government pension for his military service. [Invalid Application #1.341.140 - Certificate #1.117.013]
After her father's death in 1911, Clara sued in the Hancock County Court of Common Pleas regarding codicils that had been included in his last will, asking that they be "set aside" as she thought he was too enfeebled to make sound decisions. The case made its way to the Supreme Court of Ohio, and was decided on March 17, 1914, Case No. 14249.
Perry was in the news in Springfield in October 1914 when receiving the first annual remittance on an old-age benefit of the Knights and Ladies of Security. A related story in the Springfield News-Leader called him a "wholesale fruit and vegetable dealer on Boonville street" and added that he was "the fifth member of the order in Springfield to be placed on the pension list."
In about 1913, Perry appears to have sold the wholesale fruits and produce company to H.H. Chaffee.
On the move again, the pair migrated back to Kansas, where he was a member of the Constellation lodge of the Masons in Fredonia. From there they moved yet again to the warm climes of San Diego. There, he also transferred his GAR membership to the Datis E. Coon Post. Their address in San Diego was 1305 10th Street.
In 1914, he contracted a bad case of influenza but survived. His memory began to falter circa 1924.
Perry's final years were burdened with acute arthritis, hardening of the arteries and heart disease. He fell from a porch in early May 1929, striking his right shoulder and the right side of his head. With these injuries, he was admitted to San Diego's U.S. Naval Hospital on May 12, 1929. His stay was brief. The angel of death spirited him away three days later, at the age of 85, on May 15, 1929. The remains were lowered into eternal sleep in San Diego's Mount Hope Cemetery. An obituary appeared in his old hometown newspaper, the Springfield Leader and Press.
The widowed Clara then petitioned to receive her late spouse's pension, and it was awarded the following month [Widow Appl #1.643.782 - Cert. #A-10-9-29]. She died on June 1, 1932.
Her remains slumber in eternal rest next to the Wrights' in Mount Hope Cemetery.
Daughter Madge Alice Bahl (1875-1962) was born on April 2, 1875 in Fredonia, KS. In 1926, Madge purchased her parents' lot in Springfield for $100. By 1929, at the death of her father, she was living with them in San Diego. In time, by 1935, she wed Iowa native Jetson G. Wright (1880-1955). The 1940 and 1950 United States Censuses show them together in San Diego, residing in the city and without any occupations. Jetson surrendered to the angel of death in 1955. Madge followed him to the grave in 1962. They both repose in a plot of graves with her parents at Mount Hope.
~ Daughter Sarah Catherine "Kate" (Byal) Carlin ~
Daughter Sarah Catherine "Kate" Byal (1848-1933) was born on Feb. 21, 1848.
At the age of 22, in 1870, she lived at home and was a teacher.
On May 1, 1872, in nuptials held in her father's home, she wed Cass Rawson Carlin, MD (Sept. 13, 1846-1884), son of William D. and Harriet E.H. (Rawson) Carlin, MD. The wedding ceremony was conducted by Rev. A.B. Fields and announced in the Findlay Jeffersonian.
The couple produced five children -- Carl G. Carlin, Maude Byal Carlin, Claire Rawson Carlin, Claude Byal Carlin and Blanche Carlin. Sadly, son Carl died at the age of three in 1876.
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| Sheep ranch in Montana, as Dr. Cass Carlin would have known |
Burdened with poor health, Cass is known in January 1875 to have purchased an apiary (beehives) in Shreveport, LA and moved there for a time. The following winter of 1876, he and J.J. Bradner and family made arrangements to go to Florida to continue to "engage in bee culture," said the Jeffersonian. "May they be prospered."
Circa 1882, back in Findlay, Cass made news when he built a new fence around their house at the corner of Lima and Main Streets .
He also purchased a ranch in Montana about that time, where he began raising sheep at Miles City. The Carlins all moved there in about 1883. The family was plunged into grief when Cass and their three-year-old son Claude tragically and senselessly were murdered by a posse of lawmen at Christmas 1884. Reported the Fort Benton River Press:
A desperado named Sullivan, on Christmas Eve at a dance, killed a man named Roberts. He escaped but was promptly followed by several deputy sheriffs. He took refuge at a sheep ranch a short distance from town. The proprietor, Dr. Carlin, not knowing who he was, allowed him to come in and get warm. The deputies coming up opened fire upon the house without warning, Sullivan escaping through the back door. They were told Sullivan was not there, but the firing continued, even after being told the house was full of women and children. The doctor finally came to the door with his child on his arms, and both were shot and killed by the deputies. The doctor was a quiet inoffensive man and a good citizen and the citizens of Miles City (Mont.) are greatly agitated over the affair. Sullivan was finally captured and lodged in jail, which was strongly guarded to prevent him from being lynched.
The horrific news was telegraphed to Cass's brother W.L. Carlin in Findlay. An obituary in the Jeffersonian said "His violent death is all the more to be regretted, as the widow will soon again become a mother." A story published in the Cleveland Leader, and reprinted in the Jeffersonian, gave even more details:
A vigorous search by officers and vigilantes has been made two days and nights for Bob Sullivan, who fled immediately after shooting Roberts Thursday afternoon. Jim and Frank Conley found him at a ranche fifteen miles north of this place. The officers, knowing the desperate character of Sullivan, stood at each side of the door and called on him to surrender. As he emerged he threw up both hands, but in the right he held a revolved thrown back so that officers could not see it. As soon as he gained sight of Frank, he commenced shooting, then throwing down his revolver, he grabbed a Sharp's rifle, continuing the fire. In the excitement Dr. Carlin, with a three-year-old boy in his arms, also ran, out, when Carlin was struck, a ball penetrating his wrist and the child's neck,, and passing diagonally through his breast. Sullivan then escaped in the darkness. At 3 o'clock this morning, as they were topping a hill, they saw an object ahead which proved to be the desperado. As the officers neared him he lay down, and warning him that he would not surrender without further fight, he offered to go ahead to Miles City. Rather than shoot him the officers told him to go on. They followed and on arriving here he gave up his rifle and was placed in jail. Carlin was a respectable, well-to-do sheep grower, who came from Findlay, O. His wife and two children arrived here this afternoon. Sullivan has been known as one of the hardest characters of Muscleshell county. Much indignation is expressed at the foul deed, and many threats of lynching are heard.
The remains were shipped back to Ohio to sleep for the ages in Maple Grove Cemetery in Findlay. The Jeffersonian ran a lengthy story about the funeral:
Two pieces of crepe, the larger black and the smaller white, emblematic of manhood and infancy, fluttered on the front door of the residence of Dr. B. Rawson, on Main street yesterday afternoon. Within the parlor of the mansion rested two coffins, one of a man full-grown, the other of a child... The bodies arrived on the noon train from Fostoria yesterday and were met at the depot by a delegation including nearly every physician of the city, and a number of other friends, who escorted them to the residence of Dr. Rawson. The bodies had been well prepared by the undertakers in Montana, and were in metallic caskets, and arrived here in a very good state of preservation. At the depot the body of Dr. Carlin was placed in Clark's large hearse and the body of the child was place in the small white hearse, used only for children, and conveyed slowly to the home of the grandfather and great-grandfather of the unfortunates, who less than a year ago left it with such bright hopes and anticipations. During the afternoon and this forenoon there were many callers who mingled their sympathy and tears with those of the mourners.
Dr. Cass Carlin was well known to almost everybody in Findlay as a quiet, kind and courteous gentleman, a man of few words, rather timid in his deportment, slow to make friends, but when once a friend he was as true as steel. He was a resident of this city nearly all his life, and grew to manhood here, graduating from the union schools, and afterward taking degrees in medical colleges in New York and Philadelphia. He had a thorough medical education, and practiced his profession with success, but for a number of years followed other vocations on account of ill health, residing at various times in Louisiana, Florida, Southern California, and other parts of the country. About fifteen years ago he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah K., daughter of Hon. A.P. Byal, and their union was blessed with happiness and prosperity. Three bright-eyed children came to make life's pathway pleasant, and Dr. Carlin and his wife lived surrounded with all that heart could desire. The doctor returned from the west, where he had located a sheep ranch, about a year ago, and after remaining a short time making preparations, himself and family bade adieu to the home of their childhood, the scene of so much joy, and bravely faced the hardships and dangers of a life on the frontier. They made a rough home in the wilderness of the west and were already beginning to reap the reward of their labor when the awful blow that made the widow a widow and a double mourner, came.
In the night, when sharing the hospitality of a friend, in common with other wayfarers, to whom every door is open when night overtakes them, the family were startled by an imperative knock at the door, and a demand for a hunted murderer to throw up his hands and come forth. This man was also a transient guest at the house, and no one knew him or his autocedents. With the coolness characteristic of the thorough desperado, he seized the rifle and ammunition of the host and benefactor and sallied forth unseen by the cowards who waited outside, and who poured volley after volley of death-dealing bullets into the little cabin that sheltered none but just men, innocent women and prattling children. When opportunity offered the officers of the law were informed that the desperado had fled, and that none but law-abiding people were in the cabin, and the majority of them were women and children. In rough tones the officers ordered them to leave the building and look out for themselves, so that the brave (?) posse could again bombard the wall of logs with their leaden hail.
At this juncture the inmates flocked through the little doorway, eager to leave the scene of so much danger, two of the children clinging to their mother's hands while the father picked up the third one -- his baby boy -- and pressing the terrified darling to his breast, while the child twined his little arms tightly around his father's neck, scared, and wondering at the horrible noises and strange scene. It was when the child's little head crept closer and closer to his father's breast, as that father was hurrying to a place of safety that the cruel blow was struck. A bullet, nearly an inch in diameter, large enough to bring down the largest, fiercest tiger in the jungle, was fired, and passing through the delicate throat of innocent boy, entered the breast of his noble father and both fell dead almost at the feet of the agonized wife and mother.
Let us draw a veil over the horrors of the long hours of watching that followed. The agony of the young mother, in her delicate condition, protector and child weltering in their precious life blood, separated by thousands of miles from all her loved ones, in the rough cabin of the frontier settler, the sorrowful scene can be vividly pictured in the minds of all who have a spark of humanity in their breasts. Let us hope that the events of that terrible night may pass into the sea of forgetfulness and that the mother may have the necessary strength and fortitude to survive the cruel blow.
The desperado, Morris Sullivan, was charged with murder in Custer County. Because the community was so upset with the entire incident, and he likely feared he could not get a fair trial, he asked for a change of venue to Billings. Back in Findlay, the local physicians gathered as a body to give eulogies and create a resolution to be published in the hometown and Miles City newspapers. Very pregnant at the time, Kate remained in Miles City for the birth of their daughter Blanche in January 1885. She then returned to Ohio and subsequently petitioned the Hancock County Probate Court for permission to sell her husband's real estate. Her heartaches were not over. When black diphtheria struck in June 1889, she lost daughters Claire and Blanche a week apart, with burial in Findlay. Daughter Maude also contracted the black diphtheria but recovered with serious handicaps, and Kate spent the rest of her life providing her with constant care. In May 1920, she traveled to California for a vacation, staying with her sister Ida Bradner at the Eleanor Hotel in Long Beach and then going to Pasadena for a week's visit. Her final years were spent at the address of 803 South Main Street. Kate suffered a stroke in the fall of 1933 and lingered for a few months, dying in Findlay at the age of 85 on Nov. 24, 1933. On her official Ohio certificate of death, her mother's maiden name was spelled "Youngkin," as provided by informant Dr. W. Byal of 2602 South Main Street.
Daughter Maude Byal Carlin (1877-1918) was born on July 18, 1877 in Louisiana. In 1889, at the age of about 12, she and her sisters contracted black diphtheria, with the sisters succumbing to the illness. Maude "recovered after a frightful illness that left her handicapped as to health for a number of years," said a newspaper. "Her life has been one struggle to maintain a condition of health consistent with real enjoyment in living. The mother's constant care has surrounded her with every pleasure possible [and every] comfort was provided for..." Maude never married. She resided in Findlay, on South Main Street and she suffered from kidney disease. While spendng the winter and spring of 1918 in San Diego, at the age of 40, her kidney problem became more acute. She died three days after the onset on May 24, 1918. Burial was in San Diego's Greenwood Memorial Park.
~ Son William A. Byal ~
Son William A. Byal (1850-1941) was born on June 9, 1850 in Findlay.
He earned a living in 1870 as a farm laborer in Findlay and in 1873-1874 served as secretary of the Hancock Grange.
On Oct. 7, 1874, he entered into marriage with Eliza Bushnell ( ? - ? ). The nuptials were led by Rev. Dr. Bushnell at the home of the bride's parents in Fremont. Punned the Fremont (OH) Weekly Journal, "We tender our warmest good wishes to the young couple. May their life's journey be a pleasant one. Eliza is a good girl and William is By-al accounts well aware of it."
William went on to earn medical and law degrees from Ohio State University. He is known to have purchased an elegant new home in 1887 on Logan Avenue, having"wisely concluded to remain in Findlay permanently in the future," reported the Findlay Weekly Jeffersonian. That same year, he purchased shares in the Findlay LaGrange Rolling Mills with partners Thorp and Andrews. At that time, said the local newspaper, Andrews was "having the machinery made ready for shipment. Some of the lighter machinery was shipped yesterday."
Two years later, he purchased a horse-drawn streetcar line in Findlay. Circa 1892, he was admitted to practice law in the state of Ohio but appears to have spent his career practicing medicine in Findlay. Continuing to expand his business interests, he bought an interest in a mine in Colorado and in May 1899 traveled there to Lake City to oversee his investment.
William and partners R.K. Davis and Dr. E.B. Brokaw acquired a 36-acre trace in south Main Street in 1913 from William's widowed sister, S. Kate Carlin, with an eye toward organizing a land company. As of 1913, his portfolio also included wholesale hay shipping. His last address was 803 South Main.
He died as a widower at the age of 90, having suffered from senility and hardening of the arteries, on Jan. 6, 1941. Charles B. Byal of Upland, IN was the informant for the death certificate.
~ Daughter Ida Hercilia (Byal) Bradner ~
Daughter Ida Hercilia Byal (1854-1930) was born Jan. 20, 1854 in Findlay, OH.
When she was 20 years of age, on Nov. 10, 1874, she tied the marital knot with John James "J.J." Bradner (Oct. 1837-1918), a native of New York. The nuptials were held at the home of Ida's parents, by the hand of Rev. Eben Muse.
Together, they produced a brood of at least five -- James P. Bradner, Carrie Graner, Clarence M. Bradner, Don Byal Bradner and one who died prior to 1900.
When the federal census enumeration was made in 1880, the family lived in Findlay, next-door to her father and stepmother. That year, John employed as a fanning mill maker. Fanning mills were wooden farm implements using a metal crank and wooden hand grip to separate chaff, dirt, dust, straw and weeds from grains such as barley, oats and wheat.
The Bradners migrated to Indiana, where in 1900 they dwelled in Franklin, Grant County, with John working as a manufacturer of beekeeping supplies. During the decade between 1900 and 1910, they moved again, this time to Marion, Grant County, with John continuing to produce beehives. In time they pushed further to the West Coast and settled in Los Angeles County.
Sadly, John died on Feb. 15, 1918 in Altadena, CA.
Ida survived as a widow for another dozen years. In 1920, her sister Kate Carlin visited from Findlay, and the two stayed at the Eleanor Hotel in Long Beach. Her final address was 577 North Chester Avenue in Pasadena. As her health failed, she went to San Francisco where her son James was living. The spirit death whisked her away into eternity in San Francisco on Sept. 18, 1930. The San Francisco Examiner and Pasadena Post published obituaries. Their remains sleep for all time in Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, CA. James P. Bradner was named to administer the estate.
Son James P. Bradner (1876-1957) was born on Jan. 7, 1876 in Findlay, OH. He learned the electrician's trade and in 1900, a bachelor at age 24, earned a living in that field in Franklin, Grant County, IN. Then in 1910, still single, he worked as an electrical engineer in an electrical works in Marion, IN. He later moved to San Francisco, where he was employed with General Electric Company. James is known to have served as a captain during World War I and was promoted to major in August 1918. At the death of his mother in 1930, he was named executor of the estate. He was employed in 1930 as district manager for a fire extinguisher company. Bearing the title of "Major" he served on the board of directors of Buttes Oilfields Inc. and the Buttes Gas & Oil Company of Oakland. He died in San Francisco on Dec. 6, 1957.
Daughter Carrie Helen Bradner (1877-1953) was born in July 1877 in New York, her father's home state. Unmarried at age 32, in 1910, she lived with her parents and adult siblings in Marion, IN. On July 13, 1913, when she was 36 years of age, she wed Adolph George Graner (1877-1957), a native of Lancaster, Atchison County, KS. Their wedding ceremony was held at the Glenwood Mission Inn in Riverside, CA and announced in the El Dorado (KS) Republican, which said that "Butler county people will be interested in this news, as Mr. Graner was in the clothing business in El Dorado two years and made many friends here. He left here for New York City four years ago." The newlyweds' first home was at 840 South Flower Street in Los Angeles. At the death of Carrie's aunt Kate Carlin in Findlay in 1933, Carrie received the bequest of a town lot at San Clemente, CA. As of 1944, the Graners dwelled in Pasadena. Sadly, Carrie was spirited away by the angel of death on Nov. 23, 1953. Her remains repose for all time in Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena, CA. Adolph outlived her by four years. He died in Los Angeles County on March 5, 1957.
Son Clarence M. Bradner (1879-1966) was born on July 31, 1879 in Ohio. His occupation was box maker in 1900 in Franklin, Grant County, IN. By 1910, now in Marion, IN, he was an operator of gold and silver mines. He and his brother James relocated to San Francisco in the early 1910s. In 1914, he married Mabel A. Mitchell (1887-1955) and their union held over the span of 41 years ago. They resided for a time in Tonopah, during the World War I era, where she volunteered with the American Red Cross. In recognition of her efforts, she received a Distinguished Service Medal "for being the only Red Cross secretary who worked without remuneration during the period," said the Reno Gazette-Journal. They came to Reno, NV in about 1922. Clarence worked in the automobile business and insurance services. He held memberships in the Kerak Temple, Scottish Rite and Washoe lodge of the Masons. Sadly, Mabel passed away in a local hospital on Oct. 31, 1955. Rev. John T. Ledger, pastor of the Trinity Episcopal Church, led the funeral rites. Soloist John Battaglia, accompanied by Mary A. Atcheson, performed "Abide with Me" and "Jesus Lover of My Soul." His final address was at 306 Wonder Street. He died at the age of 86, in a local rest home, on July 12, 1966. An obituary in the Reno Nevada State Journal named his survivors as nephew Hugh Bradner of Berkeley, CA, nephew Mead Bradner of Foxboro, MA, cousin George Gradner, sister-in-law Marie Yeazelle and brother-in-law Alvin Malmberg. Burial was in Mountain View Cemetery, known today as Masonic Memorial Gardens of Reno.
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Arlington National Cemetery
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Son Capt. Donald Byal Bradner (1891-1955) was born on Nov. 26, 1891 in Marion, IN. He was a student in 1910 at the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada. In 1913, he wed Agnes Claire Mead ( ? - ? ). Two sons resulting from this marriage were Hugh Bradner, PhD and Mead Bradner. The family resided in Tonopah, NV in 1918, where his brother Clarence was living at the time, and he was employed as a metallurgist with Monopah Mining Company. Said the Wilmington (DE) News Journal:
Then he went into government work, first as assistant chief of the explosives section of the U.S. Bureau of Mines and later in charge of research for the Chemical Warfare Service at Edgewood Arsenal. he was chief chemist at the Chemical Warfare Service from 1921 to 1924 and for the next two years, was a chemical engineer in DuPont's chemical Department. From 1926 to 1942 he was director of research and development of the Champion Coated Paper Company, later reorganized as the Hamilton Division of the Champion Paper and Fibre Company, and from 1934 to 1942, he was vice president and general manager of Hamilton Laboratories, a subsidiary of Champion Paper an Fibre Company. During his career, more than 50 patents were issued in his name.
After a move to Ohio with Champion, Donald and William J. Montgomery jointly invented a process for coating paper and received a patent in 1936. Working for Hamilton Laboratories in 1938, he and Mahlon J. Rentschler developed an invention, patented in Canada, "for a germicidal and antiseptic composition consisting of a saline phenylmercury compound acidified by a tribasic acid." He also received a patent in 1931 for producing "irritating smoke clouds... a mixture of white phosphorus and a halogen derivative of acetophone." The Hamilton (OH) Evening Journal near Cincinnati reported that he "offered the use of this new kind of tear gas to the government without royalty or other charge. It is invaluable for national defense and will effectively conceal the location and movement of our troops from an enemy and also so affect the enemy as to impede its advance." The Cincinnati Enquirer said in 1938 that Champion Paper proposed to increase its shares by 5,000 to sell to him, as director of research, at $20 per share, as part of a 10-year contract. Another of his patented inventions was an enhanced method of making starch sized paper in 1940. Donald in 1946 joined DuPont Company in 1946 as a consultant to its development department. He sued his former employer Champion Paper in September 1951 for $109,463 and a mandatory injunction over some sort of practice to which he objected. Death claimed him in Washington's Hotel Statler at the age of 63 on Sept. 30, 1955. The body was transported to Fort Myer, VA for interment in Arlington National Cemetery. His rank of captain was inscribed on his upright grave marker.
Son Hugh Bradner, PhD (1915-2008) was born on Nov. 5, 1915 in Tonopah, NV. In childhood he and the family relocated to Ohio, settling near Cincinnati in Hamilton, OH. At the age of three, it's said, he was "dropped from a pier to sink or swim," reported the Miami Herald. "He swam, and as time went on became sufficiently at home in water to coach swimming and water polo at Caltech." He was an alumnus of Miami University of Ohio and received his doctorate in physics from the California University of Technology. He was united in holy matrimony with Marjorie Hall ( ? -2008). At Caltech, said the Herald, he "studied not only the constituents of the atom but also the floor of the ocean, doing both with a characteristic zest and adventurousness." Hugh went on to a career as a physicist and oceanographer. In his early career, Hugh was chosen by J. Robert Oppenheimer to set up the atomic bomb laboratory at Los Alamos, NM. Later, testing a new invention in icy cold Lake Tahoe, he created the rubber/neoprene wetsuit initially used by Navy divers to remain warm and wet in cold water, and later adopted by swimmers and the surfing community. In a latter to the U.S. Navy in 1952, he spelled out his disinterest in obtaining a patent for the wetsuit, to not "compromise my position of unbiased consultation on swimmers' problems." He taught physics and conducted research at the University of California at Berkeley until 1961, when he joined the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. He died at home in San Diego, 25 days after his wife, on May 5, 2008.
Son Mead Bradner ( ? -1997) grew up in Hamilton, OH in the suburbs of Cincinnati. He was a 1932 alumnus of McGuffey High School and a 1938 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was employed in the 1950s as research director for an industrial control instrument manufacturer. On July 3, 1943, he married Margaret Scott Peg Lincoln ( ? - ? ), daughter of Francis French Lincoln of Mt. Airy near Philadelphia. The marriage was announced in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Six children of this family were Scott Bradner, Lincoln Bradner, Kay Bradner, Allen Bradner, Vern Bradner and Grant Gradner. Mead created a specially built "house-bus" in their garage that the family used for vacations, called the "Shoe." It was fashioned from a 22-passenger bus built in 1941 and featured cold and hot running water, 24-volt electrical system, a bottled gas range and a radio receiver. The vehicle and family were featured in the West Lebanon (NH) Valley News (Aug. 16, 1956). All eight members of the family were pictured with the Shoe in the Spokane (WA) Chronicle (July 27, 1957) during a driving trip to visit his mother in California. Circa 1978, he worked for the Applachian Mountain Club overseeing the Warner Trail, a 34-mile course from Diamond Hill, RI to Canton, MA. In 1991, he was a director of the Neponset River Watershed Association. Mead died on May 25, 1997. His obituary was published in the Boston Globe, in which the family asked that any memorial donations be made to the Friends of the Warner Trail.
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Copyright © 2019, 2023-2024 Mark A. Miner |
Research for this page graciously shared by the late Donna (Younkin) Logan |