Sympathy Saturday - Alexander Maitland

My great-great grandfather, born in Toronto, died in Missouri. Someone in the family collected all these bits and pieces of obituaries and then didn't attribute them. Fortunately, I've been able to source some of them.

Kansas City (Missouri) Star, Wednesday, April 23, 1924.

Alexander Maitland, Sr.,Dies.
Death of Missouri Pioneer, 84, Caused by Heart Disease.

    Alexander Maitland, Sr., 84 years old, a retired farmer and pioneer of Missouri, died last night at the home of his daughter, Mrs. J. H. Percival, 704 East Forty-first street.

     Mr. Maitland was the father of Alexander Maitland, 3801 Tracy avenue, chairman of the former bipartisan water commission and member of the firm of Fuller & Maitland, engineers.

     Mr. Maitland died from heart disease at 9:45 o'clock following an illness of several days.  Mr. Maitland was born in Toronto Canada, April 13, 1839.  He came to Missouri with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Maitland when he was 13 years old.  The family settled near Lexington, where the elder Maitland engaged in the milling business.

     Under the administration of Governor David R. Francis, Mr. Maitland was appointed a member of the state board of agriculture. He served sixteen years in this position and became widely known in the state.

     Mr. Maitland's wife, Mrs. Mary Oliphant Maitland, whom he married March 4, 1865, died on the Maitland farm near Richmond in May, 1922. After her death, Mr. Maitland came to Kansas City.

     Besides Mrs. Percival and Alexander Maitland, Jr., Mr. Maitland is survived by a sister, Mrs. W. J. McDonald, Fowler, Col., another son, George F. Maitland, 1735 Houston avenue, and five other daughters, Mrs. M. M. Watkins, Caldwell, Tex.; Mrs. H. A. Booth, Pacific, Mo.; Mrs. D. B. McCammon, Dallas, Tex.; Mrs. J. W. Shackelford, 820 East Forty-first street, and Mrs. W. R. Ballinger, 2928 Forest Avenue. He also leaves twenty-two grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

     Funeral services and burial will be held tomorrow at Richmond.


Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Sympathy Saturday - August Zimmeth

From the Iosco County (Michigan) Herald, July 17, 1925:


AUGUST ZIMMETH.  August Zimmeth of East Tawas died Friday, July 10, cause of death being due to old age and asthma.  He was 86 years old at the time of death. August Zimmeth was born at Lancaster, NY, and has been a resident in Iosco County for 60 years.  Mr and Mrs Zimmeth had eleven children, but only five survive him.  They are Joseph Zimmeth, Mrs G Whiteside of Grand Rapids, Mrs S Whiteside of Detroit and Mrs John Ochsenfeld of Detroit, besides his aged wife. The funeral services were held on Monday from St Joseph Church, Rev E A Brogger officiated, and the remains were laid to rest in the St Joseph Cemetery.

August, Charles & Augusta Zimmeth circa 1896

Two interesting things - first the obituary say five children survive him, but they only name four! The one they missed is the youngest son, Charles (Charlie) who also lived in Detroit. August is my great-grandfather and Charlie is my grandfather.


The picture is of Charlie (center) with his parents. Charlie was born September 1, 1888. August was born May 29, 1839 and was 49 years old when Charlie was born. Augusta Wilhelmina Cleasotte was born October 7, 1849 and was 39 when Charlie was born. He was the youngest of 11 children of August and "Mina" Zimmeth. The surviving 5 children are therefore: Joseph Zimmeth, Josephine "Phene" (Mrs. George) Whiteside, Mary "May" (Mrs. Samuel) Whiteside, Rose (Mrs. John) Ochsenfeld, and Charles.  The children who predeceased August were: Frank Zimmeth (1874-1909); August, Jr (1877-1897); George (1881-1918); and 3 male infants, all named Charles according to my grandpa.  George & Samuel Whiteside were brothers.


The other interesting thing is the date of publication, July 17, 1925, is incidentally the exact day my dad was born. But he was a Percival, not a Zimmeth.


Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~
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

Sometimes You Get Lucky!

Genealogy Bank sent me a notice of new content today. One of the newspapers I check out is the Arkansas Gazettes (Little Rock) because some of my Percival descendants lived there - the Weaver and Knox families come to mind.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find this little "obit" for a five year old:

OBITUARY

Died in this city, on the 5th inst., of Scarlet Fever, Horace, youngest son of S.M. and Eliza Weaver, aged 5 years and 5 months.

"Weep not for those whom the veil of the tomb,
In life's early morning, hath hid from our eyes,
Ere sin threw a veil o'er the spirit's young bloom,
Or earth had profaned what was born for the skies."


Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Great Stuff!

One of the items on my to-do list for the Lexington Public Library was an obituary For Elizabeth Chapman Graves Coleman. Pretty Lizzie, as she was known, was a sister of my great-great-great grandmother, Barbara Garland Graves Chinn. Barbara died in 1850 in Lexington, Missouri, and very little of her brothers and sisters was known to me.

I easily found what was not so much an obituary as a tribute to Elizabeth, which named her children, sort of. It's a practice that is sometimes still seen today, where the daughters are not named other than by their husband's name, such as Mrs. Levi Prewitt. I really hate that. Well, I soon found out that Mrs. Levi Prewitt was Mary Ellen Coleman and I was lucky enough to find an obituary for both Levi & Mary Ellen. I then went to work on Mrs. Dr. S. W. Willis, Mrs. J. L. Calloway (turned out to be Mrs. J. T. Calloway) and Mrs. Willard Davis. Mrs. Dr. S. W. Willis (and it is that way on her death cert, don't ya love it) I found was Anna courtesy of one of her children's death certificates; Mr. J. T. Calloway was Lucy and Mrs Willard Davis was Adda or Addie Coleman.

My search led me to some great obituaries for daughters and their husbands, and one that is totally unreadable. I thought I'd put it up in case someone else can read it! the obituary is for a former attorney general for Kansas. The obituary appeared in the Kansas City, Missouri Times.

Click on the images to view a larger image. The tribute for Elizabeth Graves Coleman, you will need to click on again once it comes up in the browser to be able to read it.

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes