July « 2007 « All My Ancestors

29 July 2007

Mary Esta Ball Shelman (1848-c1885)

Filed under: Arkansas, Ball Family, Indiana, Iowa, Photos — allmyanc @ 7:42 pm

This is Martha Jane’s aunt Mary, sister of her father John Washington Ball.

Mary Esta

and here is another photo of her, which looks like it was taken about the same time.

Mary Ball Shelman

I think she looks like her father’s daughter. And I also think these photos were taken around the same time. Mary died sometime between 1885 and 1890 at the age of 40 – 45. Her last child was born in 1885 and I don’t know if her death was related to childbirth.

Do you think she looks older here? I need lots more work in the styles and ways of earlier times as portrayed in photographs. I would have guessed she was at least 60 here, and I don’t know if it’s that her life was hard so she does look older or if the styles made women look older, or both.

Mary was likely born in Missouri, though I don’t know where. I believe her family went there from Clark County Indiana about 1842 and then was in Warren County Iowa by 1845. Some of the census records say she was born in Missouri, and I keep finding scraps of info about the “Dr. Ball family” who came to Warren County from Missouri. My initial searches of Wm. Green Ball’s land records did not indicate where he was in Missouri, but then again, when I was looking, I didn’t know he’d been there.

So that’s a lesson learned–I’ll have to go back now and look at those records again to see if there’s a hint of their location in Missouri. They might be in his Indiana records or they might be in the Iowa records–I just know that I’ve used land records before to track down the former residence of a person. Or to prove that the two men in separate counties are the same person. This happened with Dr. Ball himself–I did find records in Iowa of him having been in Montgomery County, Kansas. When these sorts of moves are in between census years and are stays of only 3-4 years, land records are one of the best ways to track them. Deeds will say something like, “Wm G. Ball of Benton County, Arkansas, formerly of this county. . .” in Montgomery County, or perhaps he’s sold the land after he left the county so it’s registered also in Benton County. You have to be a detective, and that’s the addictive part for me.

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15 July 2007

A tombstone for Martha Jane

Filed under: Arkansas, Ball Family, Cromwell Family, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas — allmyanc @ 8:14 pm

Martha Jane Ball Cromwell’s grave is unmarked. I feel fortunate to know her resting place because of a trip I took to California in 19??. I took my parents out there to visit my brother who then lived in Fresno, but we also visited Auntie in Buena Park. As in any worthwhile family visit, we went to Olive Lawn to see her mother’s grave, my great-grandmother Roxy Grace Cromwell Anderton. Then we drove to Rosemead to see where Roxy Grace’s mother, Martha Jane Ball Cromwell was buried in Savannah Memorial Park, aka El Monte.

Martha Jane, born 1858 in Iowa, survived the attack on the wagon train that killed her father and uncle in 1862, went on to Nevada with her mother who shortly remarried and then died, and by 1870 was back in Iowa to be reared by her grandparents, William G. and Elizabeth Charlton Ball in Warren County, Iowa. She subsequently moved to Arkansas, married Daniel W. Cromwell, reared 8 children in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Sometime after Daniel’s death in 1925, Martha Jane went to California where some of her children were living. [Daniel is buried in a country cemetery named Blue Mound in Beaver County, Oklahoma. His grave is marked by the funeral home marker set in concrete. You can see it here.]

Her grave is not marked. No other family members are buried in this cemetery. I have since confirmed with the Southern California Genealogical Society that this is the site of Martha Jane’s burial. You can see the placement of her grave on a map I’ve posted with her entry on the family website at www.allmyancestors.com. And I’ve finally made a call to Valley Monument Company in neighboring San Gabriel to see what it would cost to put a marker on her grave. Here’s what I found–we can order a small (12″ x 24″) dark gray or black granite marker for $260. The cemetery’s setting fee 4 years ago was $100–the person I spoke with is checking to see if it’s gone up. So for probably less than $400, we can mark her grave. What do you think?

It’s been almost 70 years since Martha Jane died. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if by the 70^th anniversary of her death on 21 April 2008 we could have a marker in place? You can use Paypal to make a donation using the button below or I will most definitely accept personal checks, money orders and particularly cold, hard cash. I’ll keep a running total available so you can see how close we are to reaching the goal. Please, if you are one of Martha Jane’s descendants, consider helping with a small donation to mark Martha Jane’s resting place.

For more information about using Paypal (it’s free), check out this link.

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8 July 2007

More Amigos

Filed under: Osborne Family, Photos, Texas — allmyanc @ 12:26 pm

The picture in the last post of my maternal great-grandfather reminded me that I also have these photos of my paternal grandfather, Thaddeus Morrison Osborne, aka T.M., aka Thad, aka Bud. He’s the one on the left in both pics. You can see that someone has written his initials at the bottom of one of the pictures, TMO.

tmo2

TMO

Again, I would love to know the circumstances of these photos. My granddad was born in 1888 and I’d guess he’s about 20 in this picture. He wasn’t married until 1913 when he was 25, and somehow I don’t think this would have been made after he was married. So that would make the picture taken about 1908, give or take a couple of years. My great-grandfather, in the previous post, was born 1882 and married in 1904. So these pictures were taken in the same general timeframe. Perhaps I should send copies to one of the places that analyzes photos, but they make me think there were itinerate photographers who marketed themselves to young men working, perhaps away from home. It’s just a theory–if the photo guy at the place where I work wasn’t so crabby, I’d ask him. I just think they are interesting photos–both have two young men who are dressed for work.

In neither of the photos above do I know the identity of the fellows on the right. I suspect at least one of them is one of his Mobley cousins, but I have no way of verifying that. Grandad had 4 brothers, so one of them could be a brother, though I think if one of the family members was identifying him, as in the left photo, they would have identified the other person if he were a brother.

Family reunion is in a little less than a month, so maybe someone there can help identify the other person.

In any event, I’m glad to have these pictures.

Here’s the photo of my grandparents taken on their 50th wedding anniversary in December, 1963. He was wearing his ever-present khakis–still his work clothes.

50th anniversary

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