Trail of the Reese Family Bible

  This book was published in 1863 in Chicago.  Adam Reese ran a small store in the village of Reeseville, Wisconsin about 120 miles north of Chicago, Illinois.  The two towns were connected by train.  Adam probably bought his store goods wholesale from the larger city.  When Adam saw the big bible advertised, he must have thought his wife Mary Ann would like to have it.
  All the initial entries, some of which are retroactive, concern Mary Ann's parents (1798), her own birth, her husband's birth, their marriage, and the births of their 4 children.  She records the marriages of her children and one grandchild (1873), but then she stops.
  It seems odd that Mary Ann never entered any information on either of Adam's parents, who she knew very well.  They lived in the same small village.  She also neglected to mention her own 2 brothers, who were back in New York, although a photo of her brother William is inserted into the book.
   It appears that one or more of her 3 daughters took over making the entries.  Perhaps they share the duty.  Whoever is doing it is fair.  All of the 3 sisters children's births are carefully recorded, including the children's subsequent marriages.  It seems Rosetta's wider family is the most thoroughly documented, so I suspect she is the principal.  But her death (1913) is recorded in the book, only a decade after her mother Mary Ann's passing (1902).  Then 18 years after Rosetta, May Bell's death (Aug 1931) is written in the book.  This is the last entry in the book.  Ella, the remaining sister, dies just 2 days after May Bell.  Nobody records her passing in the bible's pages. (I have the Illinois State record as evidence of Ella's death).

   Following May Bell and Ella's deaths, the bible must be inherited by a relative who doesn't do anything with it, besides possibly losing a couple of valuable pages.  Who has the book?  How does it get to the West Coast?  Ella has 3 children, but they don't arouse my interest.  Ella's children continue to live in Wisconsin or Illinois.  Upon her death, May Bell Reese Travis has one living son, Charles Travis, who resides in Northern California.  Did he attend his mother's funeral, take the bible back home as a curiosity, then forgot about it?  When Charles dies (1949), perhaps his son Patrick collects it.  This angle may need more research.

   Previously, I tried to tie the Burgess family into this, and I have communicated with at least one living relative, but they don't fit the timeline.  The Burgess family are direct descendants of the Reese family, but they are spreading out in Washington State and northern California, in the same era that someone is making bible entries with events in Illinois.  Did Charles Travis know his great aunt Almira Reese Burgess' family (his cousins)?
    This really needs some research.

The Wilcox Family

Lately, I've been very busy researching the Wilcox branch of the Reese family descendants.  As mentioned the the Nov. 6th 2011 post, Adam Reese's son William Henry Reese takes his family to Washington State in the 1890s.  William's daughter Ruby Amelia Reese, who was born in Reeseville, Illinois accompanies her parents to Washington.  By the way, Amelia is also the middle name of Adam's sister Ella.  Ruby marries W.W. Wilcox and they raise a large family in South King County, Washington.
  I found a family portrait of Ruby surrounded by her adult children.  The people in the photo were not identified by name, so we didn't know who was who...

.... Until now.  I made contact with Ruby Amelia Reese Wilcox's living granddaughter, June.  I sent June the Photo and she immediately recognizes her mother and grandma, plus a few of her aunts and uncles.  With my research, we fill in the missing names.  The significance of this is that I am now working in the present time with Reese family descendants.
     June was wondering if she had any living relatives.  I try to help.  I find her older half-sister's obituary to answer that question.  The next day, I locate her late uncle's living 92 year old widow.  I give June the phone number and address.  June calls her and they have a nice conversation.  It was a nice feeling of success to reconnect the two ladies.  I try to find another cousin of hers.  I feel sure she is still alive, but I strike out, unable to find her.
    The Reese Bible never had any information on William Henry Reese or his descendants, so I don't think they were ever in possession of the book.  That part of the mystery remains unresolved.

Almira Reese Burgess

Almira, or Almina, I’ve seen this spelled several ways.  But family called her ‘Polly’.  Almira was born in Warren, New York in 1821.  About 1846, as a young lady, she accompanies her parents and other Reese family pioneers from New York to the Wisconsin wilderness where her father and older brother Adam carve out homesteads.  Polly likely helps to care for her younger brother William and her 2 younger sisters Lucretia and Matilda.   She is Adam Reese’s oldest sister, but will be the last of the 3 girls to get married.   In 1851, in Reeseville, Wisconsin, Almira marries a neighboring widower, Jeremiah J. Burgess,  who has a 4 year old son.  Almira has four children with Jeremiah.  Her first child is George W. born in 1851, then Maltisa in 1852, followed by Samuel Reese Burgess in 1852, named after her father, and Mary Ann in 1854, named after her sister-in-law (Adam’s wife).

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Jeremiah Burgess enlists in the Union Army , Company K, 11^th Wisconsin Infantry in Nov 1862.  He is gone for 3 years as the regiment marches through Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama.  After the end of the war, Jeremiah is mustered out of the army in Alabama in Sep 1865 and he returns home to his family.

 In 1870, Almira’s elderly parents Samuel Reese, 74 and Elizabeth Bell Reese, 75, are staying in Almira’s and Jeremiah’s home in Reeseville, Wisconsin with Almira’s four children.  In the late 1870s, their children are on their own, her father Samuel is buried, and her widowed mother Elizabeth is staying in the home of Almira’s sister, Lucretia Reese Hilliker.

  About 1879, Jeremiah and Almira leave Wisconsin for California.  Accompanied by their son George W, the Burgess family sets up their new residence on a farm in rural Shasta county, California. The record does not say what becomes of Almira after the 1880 U.S. Census, but Jeremiah regularly continues to register to vote in Shasta and Yolo counties (women could not vote in those days).  In 1886, 65 year old Jeremiah registers to vote in Sacramento, California where his now married son George W. is living and raising a family.

Ima Lee Pedro

Snug in the pages of the Reese Bible is a funeral card for a Ima Lee Pedro, died June 1, 1976 in Kelseyville, California.  Presumably this is a relative or family friend of a Reese family descendant who possessed the bible in the 1970s.

See my November 5th post 'A New Clue'.  Because Kelseyville is not extremely far from Shasta, California,  I want to connect (her?) to Jeremiah J Burgess and his wife Almira Reese, but I'm not having the quick results that I expected.  Something doesn't add up.

Ima was not very old, having been born 6 June 1935.  Because she misses the 1930 U.S. Census, the last Census to be publicly released, it makes it somewhat more difficult to connect her with parents, husband, children.  Her tombstone in Kelseyville cemetery doesn't give any helpful family information either (other than her birthdate that I just mentioned).

William Henry Reese and surprising discoveries

At one time I doubted that he even existed, and nearly deleted him from my tree.  Then I found 3 sources confirming that Adam Reese did have a younger brother named William.  Born in Columbia, Herkimer, New York, in 1832, William Henry lived with the family in Reeseville, Wisconsin before getting married in 1856.  He and his wife Sarah took their 4 Wisconsin born children as far West as possible, to little Port Orchard on the Kitsap Peninsula, southwest of Seattle.  His Washington State Death Record in Seattle in 1908 correctly names his parents, Samuel Reese and Elizabeth Bell.  Amazing.   Colonial New York and 20th century Seattle are separated by just one generation.

  William and Sarah's daughter Ruby Amelia, born in Reeseville, Wisconsin marries a good man in Seattle, William Winston Wilcox and has 9 fine children with him.  I have found photos of Ruby and William and one of Ruby surrounded by her 9 good looking children.  In the photo, Ruby has an open book on her lap.  What's with the book?  Could it be a bible?  ...probably... but it is too slim to be my bible, I think.

  William's son William Ellis Reese has less luck.  His two sons, Ellis and Dewitt are a couple ne'r-do-wells.  Wisconsin born Dewitt is a musician who amazingly joins the Canadian Army, deserts after a few months, returns to the USA, registers for the draft in 1917 in Coos, Oregon, but claims exemption because he is a Canadian citizen and his mother's sole support.  On the same day in June 1917, his brother Ellis, who works as a bill poster in Spokane, Washington State also claims exemption from the draft because he is his mother's sole support.  Their mother, I assume, dies in poverty.  But I have not confirmed that.

A New Clue!

It has been a while since I've posted, but new developments come in their own time.

 I have discovered siblings of Adam Reese who moved their families to Washington State.  This may be a crucial breakthrough in discovering the bible’s last family owner.

Adam Reese’s younger sister Almira, born in the New York Mohawk Valley in 1821, ends up on the West Coast.  Almira did live with her parents Samuel and Elizabeth Reese in Reeseville, Wisconsin until she was in her late 20s and married Jeremiah Burgess.  Almira had 4 children born in Wisconsin.

 In 1880, Almira and Jeremiah Burgess are living in Shasta, California.  I lose track of the aging couple after that, but their son Samuel Reese Burgess appears in 1889 in Ferndale, Whatcom County, Washington State, living with his wife and 5 children.   Two of Samuel Reese Burgess’s daughters marry a pair of brothers named Shaw.  Almira Burgess’ grandchildren are soon spreading out in Washington’s Whatcom County, starting their own families there with the Burgess or Shaw surnames.

  Osee Reese Burgess.  I gotta like a guy with a name like that.  His father’s name was Io Burgess.  I don’t even know how to pronounce that.  Osee was born Christmas Eve 1908 in Bellingham, Washington.  During WWII he serves in the U.S. Navy as a cook.  He must enjoy that line of work, because after the war he is listed as a ship’s baker on numerous commercial vessels, sailing between Seattle, San Francisco and other Pacific ports, such as Japan.  Osee, the sailor, marries very late in life and lives in the San Diego area, a Navy town.  It does not appear  that he had any children.   His wife is buried in San Luis Obispo in 1987.  However in 1989, Osee the veteran, is buried at the Presidio, the San Francisco National cemetery.
  Osee's Burgess and Shaw cousins are well spread out in Washington State in the late 1900s.  More to come on that in following posts.

   

Success Story

Proving beyond doubt that Mary Harwick was Mary Ann Bass' mother involved proving my assumption that the portrait in the Reese Bible of the bearded Wm W. Bass was Mary Ann's brother.  This was accomplished some weeks ago.  Schoolteacher William Bass was found back in Warren in 1850 living with Henry and Mary Bell plus with another brother, medical student Edgar Charles Bass.  That led to a contemporary biography that I found on the prestigious Dr. Edgar Bass, clearly stating that his parents were Lovell Bass and Mary Harwick.  So I had my proof.  Time to move on...

However, I had come across a fascinating 1878 letter posted on a Bass family tree in Ancestry.com.  The letter was addressed to my William Bass by a relative talking about the family history and the recent death of an "Aunt Mary".  The relationship details were difficult to decipher simply because the writer just didn't explain enough, and the writer's identity was hidden by his/her scrawled signature.  William Bass probably easily understood everything in the letter.  But it was all a mystery to family descendants more than a hundred years later.

I read this letter many times trying to glean any Bass family information.  I figured a couple things out concerning the letter.  It was sent from New York state, near the town of Warren.  The Aunt Mary who died was my Mary Harwick, the mother of William and Edgar Bass.  I sent Ken, the Bass tree owner my comments.  Ken was astounded and we traded a flurry of e-mails.  My info immediately led him to more clues in other family papers in Ken's possession.  He showed me evidence that Mary Harwick, now that he knew his great-great grandmother's name, was the same person as Mary Bell.  For a moment it seemed that we were both up to speed on the data.
  A week later, I was updating my Reese tree with the Bell family information.  I was reading Ken's old letter again and noticed a couple more things. Just details, really.
  Don't think that I sit at my computer all day on a Saturday.  I did manage to get outdoors in the nice weather to weed my flower gardens, mow the lawns, and do a bunch of other errands.  I relaxed in the evening at my desk browsing through cemetery burial listings on genealogical sites for the Warren, New York area.  I found Henry Bell's grave which connected to something else in the letter.  My details were piling up.
  I wrote Ken again summarizing these small items, and asked him to check the original of that old letter.  Could the writer's signature possibly be Harwick?  That got quick a response, and Ken sent me a scan of the original letter.  Yes, we agreed.  Now that we had enough clues, we could see that the scrawled signature said Menzo Harwick.  In a burst of activity we found Menzo's family in the U.S. Census, including Menzo's siblings and his father David, who would be Mary Harwick's brother.  David's 77 year old father Peter, was living with the family in 1850 in Warren, NY.
  Now the old letter is starting to make sense.  The jigsaw pieces are coming together, forming a clearer picture.  Mary Harwick was Menzo's great Aunt who was Lovell Bass' 1st wife.  The Lovell Bass and Mary Harwick in the Reese bible were my friend Ken's great great grandparents.

   BUT WAIT!  There's more!  Old Peter is Mary Harwick's father too.  The names mentioned in the letter, Philip and Hannah Bronner have to be old Peter's parents!  Ken is researching the Harwick family furiously now.  He soon finds more documents proving the Philip in the letter is Philip C. Harwick,  a Revolutionary War soldier,born in Germany in 1742.  Philip Harwick and his 2nd wife Hannah Bronner, are Ken's great-great-great-great grandparents on the Harwick side.
    A huge success for the Reese Bible!