Sympathy Saturday - John Henry Percival

John "Henry: Percival

This is an obituary for my great grandfather John "Henry" Percival. Make sure you read through to the end to see my comments on the errors.

Obituary, From the "Richmond Conservator", July 4, 1929.

JOHN HENRY PERCIVAL DEAD

John Henry Percival, a former resident of this city, died at his home in Kansas City, 704 East 41st street, at 7:30 Tuesday night.

Mr. Percival had been ill for several weeks, and was operated on at the St. Joseph Hospital in that city about a week ago for cancer of the liver.

He had been removed to his home and suddenly became worse.

Mr. Percival was the son of Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Percival, early settlers from Kentucky, residing at Waverly, Mo., where he was born February 26, 1862. He was 67 years, four months and six days old at the time of his death.

His father died in that vicinity after which he and his mother moved to this city.

After several years residence here he went into the furniture business with the late A. M. Fowler. The firm was known as Fowler & Percival. A few years later, Mr. Fowler withdrew and he entered into partnership with Norman Holt, adding plumbing and heating to the business. They were located for years in the building now occupied by Fred Harrison. After retiring from business Mr. Percival became traveling salesman for a plumbing company and made his headquarters in this city, moving to Kansas City some years ago where he continued as salesman.

Mr. Percival was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Maitland, at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Maitland, near Millville, by whom he is survived. He also leaves a son, John Percival, Detroit, Mich., and a daughter, Mrs. Mary French, of Casper Wyo., three step-sisters, Mrs. Bert Clark and Mrs. George Hudgens, North Main street, this city: Mrs. W. E. Roeschel, of Boonville, and a step-brother, Dr. W. Holt of Washington, D. C.

Funeral services will be held in this city, Friday afternoon at 2:00 o'clock at the Thurman Funeral home, conducted by Rev. Dr. Rogers, of Kansas City. The body is now at the Thurman Funeral home.

Burial will occur in Sunny Slope Cemetery.

Mr. Percival was one of the outstanding citizens of Richmond while a resident and in business here. He was widely known over the county and had many friends.

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All in all it is a nice obituary, BUT there is a lot of misinformation in those paragraphs.

His father came from Kentucky - it is true, but he died during the Civil War outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. No mention is made of his brother Herbert. It's true that Herbert went back to Covington, Kentucky to live with relatives while he completed medical school. From there he eventually settled in North Dakota and then in California from whence he disappeared. It's great that the obituary lists his step-brothers and sisters, but since Henry was apprenticed out by the time his mother remarried and did not live with her, does it really count? And where is the mention of Henry's grandchildren. By this time he had four of them.

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Where Did That Come From?

As I was following up from some research done over the weekend, I stumbled upon a Florida death record on beta.familysearch.org (even though I found him on Ancestry, that record is all but useless) for Henry Spencer Jackson. What caught my eye was his mother's information. he record gave her name as Sarah Ann Percival and her birthplace as Portville, New York. I knew of Edward Burnham Percival (son of Jabez Chapman Percival, Sr & Ann Burnham) and knew there were other children, could this be yet another? So I wasted spent my afternoon looking for evidence that this was indeed a daughter of Jabez and Ann Percival. I came across a newspaper article, that I already had, for Chapman & Polly Percival (this would be Jabez, Jr) visiting Edward & Caroline Percival in Portville. Then I found Mrs. T. S. Jackson (Thomas Spencer Jackson) visiting her sister Sophia Percival in the 1880's. BINGO! Sophia was one of the daughters of Jabez & Ann, who had never married. The icing on the cake, however, was an obituary of Edward S. Jackson, son of Thomas & Sarah (Percival) Jackson, whose middle name was Stannard. Another Percival daughter, Julia, was married to Elisha Stannard. And a son of Chapman & Polly Percival was named Charles Stannard Percival. I'm not sure what happened to Dr. Thomas Spencer Jackson, but Sarah was buried in Riverside Memorial Park in Tequesta, Florida. Also buried there is her son Henry Spencer Jackson and other family members whom I have yet to research. I love it when things fit neatly!

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Wedding Wednesday - Maitland & Percival

My great grandparents, Helen "Nellie" Maitland and John Henry "Henry" Percival were married on Christmas Eve, 1889 in Richmond, Missouri. Nellie was the daughter of Alexander Maitland & Mary G. Oliphant. Henry was the son of the late John Stearns Percival and the late Susan Davidson Percival Holt. I'm not sure what the thing was with marriage announcements and marriage records for this couple, but both are extremely bad. Here they are anyway.

Wedding invitation

Marriage record

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Anticipation - Is Keeping Me Waiting

Okay, now I am anxious to get started on the next project, transcribing letters written to my uncle John S. Percival during World War II. As I've said before, I've taken a sneak peek at them and now that I have other things cleared up I'll be starting the tedious process of scanning, naming, and transcribing them. There aren't as many as my grandfather wrote to my future grandmother, but enough to keep me busy for a while. No doubt some of them will have to be laid flat for a while before scanning begins. Fortunately, they aren't as dusty/musty smelling as the older letters and hopefully won't trigger allergy attacks.

I'll start them as soon as I recover from the Scrapbooking Luau!

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Wedding Wednesday - Percival & Bowman

My paternal grandparents' wedding notice that appeared in the Lexington (Missouri) Intelligencer. They were married March 3, 1920.

Wedding placecard

Percival-Bowman. The wedding of Mr. John Stearns Percival of Des Moines, Iowa, and  Miss Mary Anne Bowman, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bowman of this City, was solemnized at 4 o'clock Wednesday afternoon, at the home of the bride's parents, 1607 South Street. Rev. R. B. Briney of Kansas City performed the ceremony. The bride was born and reared in Lexington, and educated in the public schools and Lexington College. She has a host of friends and acquaintances who will wish her joy and happiness. The groom is a son of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Percival, former residents of Richmond, but now living in Kansas City.  He is a graduate of the engineering department of the University of Missouri, and is at present employed as a civil engineer with the Burlington Railroad. After a wedding tour they will be at home in Des Moines.

Wedding Placecard  back

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Taking a Sneak Peak - More Family Letters

One of my Percival cousins in Holland (Michigan) was kind enough to send me home with a couple of bundles of letters written to her dad, my uncle, during World War II. Among the writers are Helen Maitland Percival and Elizabeth Webb Bowman "Maw Maw", my great grandmothers, my dad's cousin James Rankin, Jr, Mary Percival French, my grandfather Percival's sister, Bess Bowman Rankin, my grandmother Percival's sister and a couple people I don't know. Finally, some other family members are mentioned, and so far I know them all. I wish I was all caught up from vacation so I could sort them all into date order and start copying and transcribing! Looks like I'll need some more binders!

 Born on this date in 1875: Leslie Chinn, son of Christopher Columbus Chinn and Margaret Cordelia Warren.

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Wedding Wednesday - Batchellor and Percival

We're off to Vermont for this wedding:

BURTON N. BATCHELLOR WEDS MISS JESSIE PERCIVAL

The marriage of Miss Jessie Percival, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence N. Percival, of St. Alban's Bay, and Burton Newell Batchellor, son of Mr. and Mrs. Carlos N. Batchellor, of Fort Worth, Texas was solemnized at the First Congregational Church in this city at 10 o'clock this morning. The Rev. S. W. Anthony performing the ceremony. The bride was given in marriage by her father. She wore a suit of Madura brown broadcloth and carried Orphelia roses. The attendants were Mrs. Frederick E. Pierce, of New Smyrna, Fla., sister of the bride, who acted as matron of honor, and Miss Jessie Warner and Miss Hazel Parmelee, of this city also Miss Beatrice O'Brien, of Swanton, teachers of the Messenger st. school, where the bride has been principal for several years. All the attendants were attired in suits of dark blue and wore corsage bouquets of Orphelia  rosebuds. Merrill D. Armstrong of this city acted a best man. The ushers were Donald Brill and Henry Allen, both of this city. Ralph F. Watson rendered an organ recital before and played softly during  the ceremony. The church was simply decorated with yellow and green.

A breakfast was served at the home of the bride's aunt. The house decorations and breakfast were in charge of Mrs. L. M. Tracy.

Those present from out of town were Mr. and Mrs. C. N. Batchellor, of Fort Worth, Texas, Rodney Brown and Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Brown and family of Franklin; Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Stiles and Mr. and Mrs. William Flynn of Alburg; and Mrs. F. E. Race, of Burlington.

After a trip up the St. Lawrence, and the Saguenay Rivers to Chicontimi, Mr. and Mrs. Batchellor will pass several days in Quebec City. Upon their return to St. Albans they will reside at "Comfycot" the home of the bride's aunt, Miss Gertrude A. Percival.

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Wedding Wednesday - Percival & Zimmeth

Sometimes you don't find a newspaper article for a wedding. Sometimes you can't even find a newspaper mention of a marriage license. Which for my parents at the time was probably a good thing.

Hank & Kaye on cruise for their 50th anniversary.

My parents drove to Fremont, Ohio in July of 1946, to be witnesses for friends who wanted to get married. Hank and Kaye, as they were known to their friends, those oh-so-crazy-and-impetuous-kids, decided what the heck let's get married, too on July 20th, 1946. I am sure my dad was thrilled as he had been chasing my mother for a while via letters while in the Navy during WWII and afterward when he was living in the same boarding house with his father that my mom and her sister, Margie also lived in.

The deed done, Hank and Kaye returned to Detroit and resumed their former living arrangements, Hank living with his father and Kaye with her sister, and did not clue anyone in to their newlywed status. Both were unemployed.

Life progressed in this fashion for three weeks until someone discovered that they had eloped.

My mother always told me that a fortune teller told her that she would be married twice. And so she was. On February 23, 1947 Kaye and Hank were again married, this time at St. Boniface Catholic church in Detroit.

So while I have no newspaper articles of my parents wedding, I have this great family story. Incidentally, yesterday would have been my parent's 64th wedding anniversary.

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

I Keep Looking, Part Two

I've added the Massachusetts 1855 and 1865 State Census to one of those places I will automatically check for Massachusetts residents, and finding the 1855 for the William Allen Thayer family sent me back to the 1850 to search for this family yet again. Well I did find Allen Thayer and his wife Cornista and their children, Helen and William living in Hampshire county. Okay, so I didn't find them before because a) William is now Allen and b) Cornista? Interestingly enough I find Jerusha Percavil (their spelling not mine) living with them. Jerusha was a younger sister of Calista Percival Thayer. So now I have them in 1850, finally.

On the 1855 census, the Thayer family can be found with the addition of children Mary & George. Jerusha Percival is still living with them and has added her own little bundle, Eva M. Percival. The Massachusetts Vital Records show that Eva is the daughter of T. O. Morton. Interestingly enough, no illegitimate designation is given this child, but no marriage record is found for Jerusha and T. O., either. And the child is listed as Percival and not Morton in both the birth record and the census.

By 1860, her mother, Jerusha Percival aka as Rusha and Rusia has married Artemus Whitney and in the 1860 census, Eva is enumerated as Whitney. And that is the last I find her. If she has died, no Massachusetts death record has survived, and if she married, I don't know to whom or where.

Another Percival mystery.

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes