Aged Couple Fatally Burned - Noah And Lydia Sweigart Runyan

This may be new news to a few Runyan/Runyon researchers out there. In the 15 years I've been doing research on the Indiana Runyans I have not once seen this story circulated. I found this clipping searching the newspaper archives at Footnote.

The Fort Wayne Evening Sentinel. 

Tuesday, April 25, 1905.

AGED COUPLE IS FATALLY BURNED

____________

Noah Runyan Blistered Trying to Save Wife---Both of Them Will Die

____________

     Muncie, Ind. April 25 - Mrs. Noah Runyan, 73 years old, was fataly burned, her husband perhaps fatally injured and their granddaughter, Miss Hazel Lamb, painfully injured in a fire today as the result of Mrs. Runyan's apron catching fire from a natural gas stove while she was preparing breakfast at her home, eight miles south of this city.

    Seeing his wife's clothing aflame, the aged husband did his best to put out the fire, and finally succeeded but not until she had been burned beyond recovery. In his effort to save his wife Runyan was so seriously burned that it is doubtful if he can recover. Miss Lamb was seriously burned trying to save her grandparents.

________________

Noah died over a year after this accident. Lydia was Noah's second wife. Noah was a great grandson of Benjamin and Rebecca Barton Runyan, my 5th great grandparents. Noah, Lydia and Noah's first wife Ann Hewitt Runyan are all buried in the Batson Cemetery, Liberty Township, Henry Co., Indiana.

Wordless Wednesday: An Old Clipping From Reader's Digest

Where one of my favorite quotes came from, as seen on my blog
"Old Stones Undeciphered" and on my Facebook Profile and on my Find A Grave Bio
 Quote by:  Mavis Fruge 

The Case For Milton Runyan

A RUNYAN OVERLOOKED

Much of the early Runyan lineage has been well researched and documented over the years and I have documented my complete line from our earliest ancestor to arrive in America to my mother where the Runyan name "daughters out". (See my blog over at "Old Stones Undeciphered" entitled "Uh, Oh Dad!")

But, to put it simply, Milton deserves a family. I don't know if his only son survived, but that shouldn't matter. Why have all the Runyan researchers ignored or overlooked this man? He's been there all along. None-the-less, in all the years I've been climbing my tree, of all the Runyan researchers I've met, I've never seen Milton placed in a family by any of them.

So, I am here to help Milton along and to put this small accumulation of evidence out where anyone doing a search may find it. I need more proof but the evidence I have points to Milton being a brother of Michael Runyan, my great, great grandfather and the first born child of Noah and Anna Barnes Runyan.

My lineage from Noah to my grandfather Lawrence

I will start with the 1830 census of Hamilton Co., Ohio because Milton was born in 1828 and Noah and Anna clearly have two boys (clue #1) under the age of five living in their household, one of those is Abraham. My ancestor Michael is the third boy and not born until the end of 1831. 

In 1840 this Runyan family is living in Montgomery Co., Indiana. By this time there are four sons. Two are the age of Milton and Abraham (clue #2) and two are the age of Michael and James.  

In 1850 the family is back in Hamilton Co., Ohio - Colerain Township. Milton is now age 22 and living with an unknown family of the surname Sparks just two residences away (clue #3) from Noah and Anna. His occupation is that of Cooper, same occupation as the head of household, Sparks. Abraham and Michael are also Coopers. Their father Noah is a Blacksmith. Milton is the only child not living with (his alleged) family. 

On December 29, 1857 Milton marries Celia Jane Woollen, first cousin to Michael's mother in law (clue #4). In 1859 Amos Henry Runyan is born to that union.

In 1860 Howard Co., Indiana - Liberty Township we find Milton, Celia, "Henry", and Celia's mother, brother, sister and a brother-in-law living in the same household.

In 1870 Henry Co., Indiana - Spiceland Township, Milton is now living with his alleged brother Michael (clue #5) and Michael's family. Milton is a Cooper and INSANE. Celia is still in Howard Co. with her mother and son "Amos H."

On December 8, 1870 Milton's name shows up on a Henry Co., Indiana list titled  "Allowances at December Commissioner's Court", whatever that means.

Celia Jane dies on March 2, 1871. She is recorded as buried in Spiceland Friends Cemetery although no stone has been found.

And here's where my information comes to a halt. I have not found Milton or his son in any census after 1870. I have not found a record of death for either of them. Noah and Anna Runyan lived to 1880 and beyond and Milton is not listed in their household. He may be in a home or an asylum if living but I have had no luck in finding a record....so far.

Rest in peace Milton...I will dig until I have your proof. 

Wordless Wednesday: Did I Just Scan A License Plate?

 My heart yearns to go there again.....

LOUISA TYREE: More Sources Required

Louisa's birth parents, will I ever know for sure?

Louisa

Sam

Sarah

Rebecca

To help bring clarification to yesterday's post I thought it would help to have a visual aid. 

Louisa is clearly of an age to be either the youngest child of David Sr. or the oldest child of William. She is 28 years older than Sam and Sarah and 16 years older than Rebecca.

My great grandfather, Oliver Wallen, rarely mentions the Tyrees in his diary and that fact has always seemed odd to me. Actually, Oliver didn't mention a lot of things that I'd have considered important, such as marriages and births of close family members, etc.

I have not been able to locate a birth, marriage or death certificate for Louisa...and then there's her missing headstone...in an e-mail received on March 10, 2003 from my cousin Connie Borgren: "Grandma swears that she went to the cemetery and Louisa had a headstone. Mom could not find it when she was there in the late 90's and in one of the letters in grandma's stash, there is mention of it not being in very good shape."  [Pollard-Gregory Cemetery in Denton Co., Texas]

I've studied the skimpy clues I have until I'm cross-eyed. I've got to come up with some new sources somewhere! And I will.


UPDATE: This mystery has been resolved! See the story over at my other blog "Old Stones Undeciphered" by clicking here.

Monday's Mystery: The Parents Of Louisa Tyree Wallen

Louisa Tyree Wallen

(My paternal 3rd great grandmother, always known as "Grandma Wallen" in Oliver's Diary)

b. February 1830 - d. bet. 1813-1814

Kyles Ford, Hancock Co., Tennessee
Home of the Wallens pre 1852

NOTE: For this new blog I have created my own Monday theme: "Monday's Mystery". I have chosen Mondays to post clues and evidence collected in my research for various family members where I have not (yet) been able to provide certain proofs.

Who were the parents of Louisa Tyree?

For years cousin Charlie (Charles Homer Wallen) and I were sure Louisa was a daughter of David Tyree Sr. However, I have recently found clues in my great grandfather's diary (diary of Oliver Morton Wallen) that point to David's son William and wife Lucy Osborne as her parents. The 1840 census for both William and his father David show them living with females in their household that fit into this age slot. William actually has two 10 to 15 year old females in his household at that time.

Louisa Tyree married Jesse B. Wallen circa 1848/49. Jesse's family lived in Kyles Ford, Hancock Co., Tennessee just a couple of miles south of the Blackwater, Virginia area of Lee Co.  Jesse and Louisa are found in the 1850 Hancock Co. census (taken Dec. 7, 1850) with a 7 month old child.

Wabd, Rockcastle Co., Kentucky

The Wallens, Tyrees, Bloomers and other families from the same general area between Blackwater  and Kyles Ford, appear to have migrated together to Rockcastle Co., Kentucky in 1852.

After his wife Lucy Osborne died circa 1854, William Tyree married the widow Martha Kilgore Francisco. They lived very close to Jesse and Louisa's farm in Wabd, Rockcastle Co., Kentucky.

(Wabd, I found out, is pronounced "Webb" by the locals). 

In fact, the Wallens and Franciscos shared a small family burying ground. 

Martha left the Francisco farm in charge of her son-in-law and oldest daughter, Andrew D. & Mary Jane Francisco Baker, and went to live with William in his home just a short distance away.

My great grandfather Oliver, grandson of Louisa and Jesse, wrote in his diary: "Oct. 15 – Went to Mt. Vernon. Met grandma Wallen’s cousin Sam Tyree, wife and two little daughters at H. C. Gentry’s. They all promised to come to my house tomorrow." and "Oct. 16 – Jess staid with us last night. He and uncle Billy went to church. Grandma and Ola came over early. Sam Tyree, Wife and two daughters, George Gentry and wife and Rebeca Gentry came at ½ past 10 A.M. Uncle Billy and Jess came back for dinner. Papa came afternoon. We all had a real nice time." Sam was son of David Tyree Jr. and was living in Laurel Co., Kentucky at the time of that writing (1904). Laurel Co. borders Rockcastle Co., where Louisa and the rest of the family lived, on the southeast. While Sam was in Rockcastle Co. he and Louisa got together with Sarah Tyree Gentry and Rebecca Tyree Gentry - daughters of Jesse Tyree Sr. who married Gentry brothers. They all met at Oliver's home along with other family members and spent the day together. It is certainly fact that Sam, Sarah and Rebecca are all first cousins. Later on the same day of the cousin reunion at Oliver's: "Grandma went to Mt. Vernon with her cousin to be gone a few days."

On February 18, 2003 I was contacted by a distant cousin, Connie Borgren, who is also a 3rd great granddaughter of Louisa. Her mother and grandmother had done research on the family in the mid to late 1900s. Connie shared with me their notes and letters. These writings indicated that Louisa died in 1913 or 1914 in Cooke Co., Texas and indeed the last we find of her in the census is in 1910 when she is found living with her son D. T. "Uncle Tom" Wallen. These notes also state that Louisa told of having a sister Sarah who also married a Wallen and went to live in Arkansas. Bingo! Another clue pointing to Louisa as a daughter of William & Lucy Tyree. David Tyree Sr. did not have a daughter named Sarah. However, William and Lucy did have a daughter named Sarah and she married James Wallen, a cousin of Jesse's. James and Sarah Tyree Wallen left Kentucky and lived out their lives in Howell Co., Missouri, not Arkansas; however, Howell Co. is right on the border of upper Arkansas. Sarah also had a sister Elizabeth who married her husband's brother John Wallen. I think the reason this was not mentioned by Louisa is that John Wallen died early in the marriage and Elizabeth married John Sowder to whom she was married for 40 years before Louisa died.

With the diary entry and the statement of my cousin's grandmother combined with the rest of the evidence, I am quite convinced that Louisa is a first cousin to Sam, and Sarah and Rebecca and that she is the daughter of William and Lucy Osborne Tyree. If she were David Tyree Sr.'s daughter she would be their Aunt. My great grandfather called someone an Aunt only if she were actually an Aunt or a great Aunt. He never called a cousin an Aunt or vise versa. There were times he called an unrelated person a "brother" or a "sister" if they were a member of a congregation, but he was very distinct about actual family relationships.

UPDATE: This mystery has been resolved! See the story over at my other blog "Old Stones Undeciphered" by clicking here.