Sophia Mae “Hopie” Sexton: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber

Sophia Mae “Hopie” Sexton was born 9 March 1910 in Boyd County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Jasper Newton Sexton and Mariam Roberts Lambert Sexton.  Whenever family remembers and talks about her she is simply “Hopie.”  Her father’s nickname was “Hop.”

Hopie went to Portsmouth, Ohio and was working as “forelady” for a steam laundry company when she was eighteen.  When she and her friends went to the river to swim and cool off. Tragedy struck.   Hopie drowned in the Ohio River on June 30, 1930, when she was twenty.  

The Portsmouth Daily Times told the sad story. “…Found near foot of Harmon Street where she met death Monday night -Companions rescued. Zelda Lowder of Bluefield and Everett Harlowe 12 have close call.  Strangled by waves from a ferry and a barge ...Miss Hopie Sexton 20, of 2334 Jackson Street, was drowned in the Ohio river...occurred about 300 yards west of the upper ferry landing...body was recovered...by city firemen. … about 20 minutes after the victim disappeared the rescue squad of the city fire department hooked the body and lost it as it neared the surface. The body was later recovered near the same spot which is close to the place where she went down...Miss Sexton is the fourth drowning victim here this month...Zelda Lowder and Everett Harlowe were saved by the girl’s father C. L. Lowder. John Wall 17...Clarence Johnson 19...Nobel Sadler 21 ...Charles Lemon 35 of 2334 Jackson Street cousin of the drowned woman....others....were bathing  in the river near the scene when the drowning occurred and went to the rescue...Miss Sexton came here from Cannonsburg, Kentucky south of Ashland, Kentucky about two years ago. She was employed in the American Steam Laundry. For the past two months she had been living with her cousin Mrs. Charles Lemon[i]. Previous to that time she resided on Glover Street.  She is survived by her parents Mr. and Mrs. Jasper Sexton, three brother, Edgar, Harold and Mert[ii] and one sister Billie[iii] all of Cannonsburg …”

Hopie Mae’s death certificate[iv] simply states “Accidental drowning” “Drowns while in River.”   Her brother Thomas Edgar Sexton was the informant for the death certificate.  Thomas became a pastor for the Church of God in Boyd County, Kentucky.

The Ashland Daily Independent was either given incorrect information or confused the death.  On July 2 the paper stated that Hopie Mae Sexton had died at her home after an illness of several days.  If this were the only article, researchers would incorrectly think Sophia “Hopie”  Mae Sexton died in Kentucky, which would be an error. The family brought Hopie back to Boyd County, to be buried in Klaiber Cemetery on 3 July 1930. 

 

 

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[i] Mrs. Charles Lemon maiden name Bertha French was a 2st cousin once removed through her mother’s family.

[ii] Mert is an error – the brother ‘s name is Wirt Elam Sexton

[iii] Billie in the article is Willa Bertran Sexton. Her nickname was Bill.

[iv] OH Vital, Scioto 38680

Wagon Maker Heinrich Gorath

By Teresa Martin Klaiber, 2020

My mother remembered German spoken in the house, as a child.  Mary Helen Feyler Martin was born in 1921.  She was 18 when her grandmother Anna Katherine Gorath Halderman died in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio 19 June 1939.

The Gorath’s left a small treasure trove of official documents to help tell their immigration story.  Anna’s father Heinrich (Henry) Gorath was born 22 June 1829[i] [ii] in Wusting, Holle, Osterburg (Oldenburg) Germany, the son of Johann Heinrich Gorath and Anna Elizabeth Kroog.  His baptism is recorded in the Holle kirchlich and when fourteen he was confirmed in the same church.

His parents dutifully had him vaccinated for smallpox the 24^th August 1830[iii], at one year of age. Smallpox vaccine had been established for decades.  By the 1830’s towns in Germany had sanitary police.  Schoolmasters, master craftsmen, servants and apprentices were requested to only accept vaccinated persons.[iv]

At the age of 18 Heinrich began keeping a small booklet, or day book, dated Oldenburg 1847.  His designs for sleds and wagons are a joy to look at.

Heinrich Gorath in possession of compiler 2020

Heinrich Gorath served in the 3^rd Battalion where he asked permission to marry in October 1853.  Four months later he received a permission after learning the trade right, from the Kirschpiel, to master the trade of wagon maker.

With his life in order, Heinrich married Anna Marie Holman in the Kirschlich Oldenburg 19^th April 1854.  He duly recorded a simple one line note in the back of his day book about his marriage.  Flip the page and the birth of baby Anna is carefully noted as 3 April 1855.  About midway in the book at a bottom of a page is the last date – he simply wrote “Marie Gorath Oberhausen 1857”.

Oberhausen translates to “upper house” and I have wondered if Heinrich was trying to get cabin passage for them when the family migrated to America.  During the early 1850’s  Germany was having an industrial boom but what comes up comes down and the bubble went bust in 1857 with a financial crash. 

His last official act in April 1857 Heinrich was to receive an honorable discharge from six years of military service.   The discharge gives a wonderful description of Gorath.  He was 6 ½ feet tall, his eybrows dark, a high forehead, grey eyes, ordinary mouth and nose, uneven teeth, oval chin, a round face, healthy and a scar on his left hand thumb.

Now with small baby Anna Katherine, and his wife’s widowed mother, Anna Catherine Neumann Holman, they paid passage on the barke Rastede.  There were 226 passengers along with the Captain H. A. Kahle.   A barke is a sailing vessel with three or more masts.  The barke may have been named for the village Rastede which is 12 kilometers north of Oldenburg.  It was built in 1852 by Oltmann’s at a town, near Bremen named Brake.  It was said to have two forward square-rigged masts and a rear mast rigged fore-and-aft.[v]

The family embarked at Bremen.  Among the passengers were eight children under the age of eight which would have included two year old Anna.  The Gorath’s did not pay for cabin passage and are listed as between deck, passengers 219-222 on the manifest whish was submitted by the captain upon their arrive in New York.[vi] The New York Times reported the barke was cleared on July 3^rd.  

When the couple celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary, Gorath gave an account of their voyage. The Wellston Telegram  wrote on 26 April 1904:

 “…Mr. Gorath’s account of their voyage would frighten the twentieth century traveler. They were seven weeks coming across, taking passage on a sailing vessel. At one time when almost in port they were blown out to sea and three weeks passed before they sighted land again. They came direct to Portsmouth and from there to Jackson county. Later they settled at Berlin, where for thirty years Mr. Gorath has been the village wagonmaker…”

Seven weeks between decks with a toddler and elder.  Yet today we complain about cramped seats on jets that cross the world.  They had a destination.  They came directly to southern Ohio because Heinrich Gorath’s, brother-in-law, Hermann Heinrich Hollman had already established themselves.  Hermann Holman and Anna Marie Holman Gorath were children of Johan Heinrich Hollman (1795-1857) and Anna Catherine Neumann Hollman who travelled to America with the Gorath family. Hermann Henry Hollman/Holman was a shoemaker born in Wusting, who with wife, Isabella Katherine Mittendorf, had settled at Pine Creek, Bloom Township, Scioto County, Ohio.

Scioto and Jackson county are noted for furnaces.  Jackson county was not lacking in work and wagons were needed to haul coal, ore and fire clay.  There was plenty of work for Gorath.   At least two Bituminous furnaces are listed in Berlin Cross Roads.

The family settled at Berlin Cross Roads.  Heinrich dutifully registered for the Civil War draft. On July 17, 1863,  John Hunt Morgan was on the march with Ross county militiamen chasing them.  Two Confederate scouts sent into Berlin Cross Roads were shot.  By noon it was over.   It did not deter Heinrich Gorath in October he filed his naturalization in Scioto County.[vii]

Mother-in-law Anna Catherein Neumann Hollman died in March 1867 and was laid to rest at Monroe Furnace, Jackson County, Ohio. By the 1870’s Heinrich/Henry Gorath is well established with his shop in Berlin Cross Roads.  Daughter Anna Katherine Gorath married Dr. Stephen Simpson Halderman 28 August 1873 at Berlin Cross Road, Milton Township, Jackson County, Ohio. By 1875 Gorath is listed as a manufacturer of all kinds of carriages and wagons, with special attention given to repairing.[viii] A simple sign on the shop reads “H. Gorath Wagon Maker.”[ix]

The family lived happily at Berlin Cross Roads until after the death of Anna Marie Holman Gorath, 16 February 1908.  She was buried in South Webster Cemetery.  In March the Portsmouth papers report Henrich Gorath is ill and now residing with his son (in-law) S. S. Halderman at 826 Gay Street, Portsmouth, Ohio.  “venerable Mr. Henry Gorath…continues ill in bed …gaining ..in strength …His old home in Berlin, made desolate by the death of his life partner, the late Mrs. Gorath, has been broken up, and the household goods sold-excepting articles the family desired to keep, and among which is some quaint furniture from the native place of the Gorath’s Germany.”[x]

My 2^nd great grandfather died 11 March 1909 in the home where my grandmother and mother were born, where family passed from this life, and many patients were tenderly treated.   “Venerable Citizen Answers Last Call…contracted a severe attack of the grip, which gradually superinduced serious complications…passed away peacefully at the home of Dr. and Mrs. S. S. Halderman where he was tenderly cared for…”[xi]

I cried when the beautiful brick home at 826 Gay Street had to be torn down in the 1970’s. The bricks were crumbling and could not be saved.  But the whisper of so many voices in that house still linger.  I am 70 now and my mother gone.  I don’t want to be the last to tell the stories. 

826 Gay Street, Halderman Home demolished, late 1970’s.  Still Standing can be seen the outline of attached dental office between Halderman and Feyler Home. Shortly after the Feyler Home was also demolished.  Today both properties are parking lot.  But the carriage house still remains.  Carriages that were repaired and possibly even built by Heinrich Gorath.

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[iii] Vaccination Certificate, James & Teresa Martin Klaiber Family Artifact Collection; privately held by Teresa Martin Klaiber, [address for private use], Rush, KY 41168. Carried on ship to America - original. From Stephen Halderman Home, Gay St., Portsmouth, OH to Mary Helen Feyler Martin to Teresa Martin Klaiber.[iv] The History of Smallpox Vaccination in Germany: A First Step in the Medicalization of the General Public. Journal of Contemporary History Vol 20 #4 Oct 1985 p 617-635[v] Breener & Bonne, The Steffen, Brandt and Euler family histories…p. 138. 1999.
[vi] New York Passenger Lists 1820-1897, microfilm publication M237 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives, ), 175, Arranged by date; Rastede, 1 July 1857, .[vii] 1863 Oct 8 NATURALIZATION: Scioto Co Oh FC Searl Judge
"...of Oldenburgh...emig from Bremen on 4 May 1857 DI from Jackson
Co Ohio 30 Jul 1860 ae 31. Jnl 2 208 {NAT PAPERS OF SCIOTO CO Ohio,
Portsmouth Public Library, Gallia St., Portsmouth} and original document possession of compiler
Gorath notebook item 32 "...of Oldenburgh...emig from Bremen on 4 May 1857 DI from Jackson
Co Ohio 30 Jul 1860 ae 31. Jnl 2 208 {NAT PAPERS OF SCIOTO CO Ohio,
Portsmouth Public Library, Gallia St., Portsmouth} and original document possession of compiler
Gorath notebook item 32
"...of Oldenburgh...emig from Bremen on 4 May 1857 DI from Jackson
Co Ohio 30 Jul 1860 ae 31. Jnl 2 208 {NAT PAPERS OF SCIOTO CO Ohio,
Portsmouth Public Library, Gallia St., Portsmouth} and original document possession of compiler
Gorath notebook item 32
"...of Oldenburgh...emig from Bremen on 4 May 1857 DI from Jackson
Co Ohio 30 Jul 1860 ae 31. Jnl 2 208 {NAT PAPERS OF SCIOTO CO Ohio,
Portsmouth Public Library, Gallia St., Portsmouth} and original document possession of compiler
Gorath notebook item 32
"...of Oldenburgh...emig from Bremen on 4 May 1857 DI from Jackson
Co Ohio 30 Jul 1860 ae 31. Jnl 2 208 {NAT PAPERS OF SCIOTO CO Ohio,
Portsmouth Public Library, Gallia St., Portsmouth} and original document possession of compiler
Gorath notebook item 32
"...of Oldenburgh...emig from Bremen on 4 May 1857 DI from Jackson
Co Ohio 30 Jul 1860 ae 31. Jnl 2 208 {NAT PAPERS OF SCIOTO CO Ohio,
Portsmouth Public Library, Gallia St., Portsmouth} and original document possession of compiler
Gorath notebook item 32
"...of Oldenburgh...emig from Bremen on 4 May 1857 DI from Jackson
Co Ohio 30 Jul 1860 ae 31. Jnl 2 208 {NAT PAPERS OF SCIOTO CO Ohio,
Portsmouth Public Library, Gallia St., Portsmouth} and original document possession of compiler
Gorath notebook item 32
[viii] D. J. Lake, Atlas of Jackson County, Ohio (Philadelphia, PA: Titus Simmons & Titus, n.d.), Berlin Business Directory.[ix] Berlin Xrd, OH, original photograph possession of compiler. 2020
[x] Portsmouth Daily Times 7 Mar 1908
[xi] The Daily Blade Mar 1909

[i] Gorath Auszug [Extracts] Kirchengemeinde kirchlich Oldenburg State Archives, privately held by Teresa Martin Klaiber, [address for private use]; Holle Page 109 Best 250-37 Bd. 2; , Evangelical Lutheran Church, Oldernburg, Germany
[ii] Birth Certificate, James & Teresa Martin Klaiber Family Artifact Collection; privately held by Teresa Martin Klaiber, [address for private use], Rush, KY 41168. Original hand written brought on ship from Germany. From Halderman Home, Gay Street, Portsmouth, Oh to Mary Helen Feyler Martin to Teresa Martin Klaiber.

There Is A Doctor in the House

By Teresa Martin Klaiber Feb. 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znTVi3CDouY – then and now!

Halderman home left, Feyler Home right, Carriage House behind, 9^th & Gay, Portsmouth, OH

All my life I have been surrounded by medical professionals.  My father was a veterinarian. A maternal great granduncle was a veterinarian in Europe before WW I. Don’t forget to spay and neuter. 

My maternal grandfather was a dental surgeon who promptly diagnosed, at my birth, that my mouth was to small, my teeth would be crowded and I would need braces. He was spot on.  I wonder if that is why I always have had such a booming voice, to compensate for the small mouth.  There should be a joke somewhere in that but I digress. 

My great uncle was a physician, to please his father, who practiced a few years, stated medicine was bunk, and stopped practice to enjoy homegrown philosophy, collecting clocks, books, cats and stamps.  But he is a story for another time.  He was not the only medical person to drill into me that every medicine you take will have cause and effect.  Try to stay away from them. 

Henri Halderman doing home visits 1910, Powhatan Point, Ohio

In our family, my great grandfather, Stephen Simpson Halderman, was believed legendary. He was a successful physician and surgeon, who had a wonderful practice, built a hospital, and was good at real estate. He had been deceased twenty years when I was born but his presence was felt by the family. Maybe my thinking he had a bigger than life personality comes from my hauling around the huge ornate framed portraits of him and his wife.  I think I inherited them simply because I had the wall space. 

Stephen Simpson Halderman

He was also written up in several 1880’s history books with vanity biography’s included.  Those were not always correct and several errors appear in his.  S. S. Halderman was born Stephen Simpson Halterman 31 January 1852.  The family bible, his passport and letters all say he was born at Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio.  But those vanity biographies stated he was born in Beaver, Pennsylvania and moved to Jackson County, Ohio.  It would take genealogy sleuthing to unravel the error and realize that the family was from adjoining Beaver, Pike County, Ohio; not Pennsylvania.[i]

Stephen Simpson Halterman/Halderman

His parents John J. Halterman, a circuit riding minister and farmer, resided in Scioto Township, Jackson County prior to Stephen’s birth.  He was the youngest of eight children.  One of his brother’s Daniel Ripley Halterman died in October that same year S. S. was born.

By the time Stephen was ten, the family had moved to Miami County.  His father died in 1866[ii] when Stephen Simpson Halderman was only fourteen.  His mother remarried in 1870 in Shelby County, Ohio. Stephen went back to Pike County, Ohio to reside with an older sister, Nancy Halterman Brown.  The 1870 census states S. S. is a carpenter and joiner, now seventeen.  Through the years the family knew that his older sisters had been close and helped to raise him.  Carpentry may have been a way to earn money for his medical education.

Stephen Simpson Halderman a young man.

The family never discussed or appears to have known that mother Isabella had remarried.[iii]  Over the years Stephen Simpson Halderman set moral proprieties that his growing family must follow.  When Isabella died in 1889 she was buried in Pike County as Mrs. Isabel Halderman. 

Stephen married Anna Katherine Gorath at Berlin Cross Roads, Milton Township, Jackson county, Ohio 28 August 1873.  He managed to put himself thru the Medical College of Ohio and graduate in March 1875, with a wife and tiny daughter Ruhama May Halderman who was born in May 1874 at Berlin Cross Roads.  By the time they married Stephen is consistently spelling his name Halderman.

Stephen Simpson Halderman in top hat with school mate Dr. Robinson at Medical School of Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio

Halderman set up his first medical practice in Sciotoville, Scioto County. Those first few years were colorful.   He purchased property and Arson struck three members of the Pension Examination Board of which he had become a member, in 1886.  When interviewed  he stated “…he did not lose any sleep in keeping a vigilant watch…the board aimed to impartially discharge the duties of the office and report according to the nature of the disease of the applicant.”[iv]  By then the Halderman’s were proud parents of Ruhama, Henri Gorath and Laura Halderman.

At the age of 33, a no nonsense, doctor removed to Portsmouth, Ohio where his family and practice could grow.[v]  The Halderman’s purchased a brick two story home, with an amazing curved staircase on the corner of 9^th and Gay[vi] where their youngest daughter Katherine Marie Halderman was born, in 1892, in the upstairs room overlooking City Park, later named Tracy Park.  The Portsmouth Daily Times reported:

“Dr. S.S. Halderman is the happiest man in town. He is so happy he can't talk over the telephone for laughing. Somebody brought a girl baby to his house last Thursday, and now he acts just as if the thing never happened to anyone before. It has been thirteen years since the like occurred in Doc's family - a long time between children, one would imagine. That is what makes him so happy. He rang the curtain down thirteen years ago and supposed the show was over.”

As his practice grew, so did articles in the local Portsmouth, Ohio newspapers.  Papers of the era were sometimes dramatic but one particular article shows, again his love and care of people. 1892 July 16 Portsmouth Times Nellie Purtle a girl of 14 took an overdose of laudanum Thurs morn because her mother       scolded her for hanging over the gate so late with her fellow.  Dr. SS Halderman administered an emetic and gentle Nellie was rescued from a sad end. 

Portsmouth, Ohio was a hub for the Scioto Division Norfolk and Western Railroad, and short lines. In 2003 this compiler published Scioto Division Norfolk & Western Railroad Life and Limb 1895-1928.  Halderman was the Scioto Division surgeon and kept detailed records of the many maimed, wounded and healing success’s which I hope have helped others on their own genealogy journey.   

By 1902 S. S. Halderman needed to move his family practice out of his home.   Stephen Simpson Halderman and Joseph S. Rardin purchased property at 44 East Ninth Street, Portsmouth, Ohio.  The property faced Tracy Park.    They converted the existing building into Park hospital.  Rardin and Halderman along with other area physicians saw a need for seriously ill and injured people to receive proper care that they could not receive in their own home or at a boarding house. 

Park Hospital, Portsmouth, Ohio

Stephen Halderman’s son, Henri Gorath Halderman was house physician. A total of twelve patients could be treated at any given time. Park Hospital included an operating room six private rooms and a ward.  It had a reception room, nurses’ quarters and dining room. The laundry was in a separate building

Patient records were carefully handwritten in a 8 ½ x 14" lined ledger maintained by Dr. Stephen Simpson Halderman.  Park Hospital records from November 1903 through December 23, 1908  were carefully preserved by his granddaughter Mary Helen Feyler Martin who in turn has shared them with daughter and compiler Teresa Lynn Martin Klaiber.  The records have been transcribed for my blog readers in six entries posted in 2018 at this site.

 Stephen Simpson Halderman loved to travel.  His oldest daughter Ruhama married  Eugene Graham Anderson in 1897.  The Anderson brothers were well known for their mercantile business both in Portsmouth and Huntington, West Virginia.  Ruhama and Eugene moved to the state of Washington.  Halderman kept a tight watch over his family and in 1909 travelled to Saskatchewan and King County, Washington.  When he returned he wrote about his western trip for the Portsmouth Daily Times.[vii]

Anderson Brothers, Portsmouth Ohio Postcard

He was politically active in the Democratic party donating a whopping $1.00 to the election of Woodrow Wilson as president and Thomas R. Marshall for vice-president. His family attended the Episcopal Church where he was a vestryman.  When Katherine married and the military shipped them to Honolulu, S. S. was determined to meet his new granddaughter.  They travelled to San Francisco and took the S. S. Sachem in December to meet baby Betty Lee Feyler born there in October.

In January 1920 he sat down to write his son and report on the family:

“Dear son, rcd our mail letter and razor strop now I have 2 bought one in Frisco. The folks have a nice house and seem to enjoy … Howard works from 8 to 12 as is in the office then comes to lunch returns to the office at one and is usually through at 3. It is wonderful how --- you -- sleep ...the weather is warm but then is always a breeze that one does not feel the heat except in the direct rays of the sun. Yesterday about 4 pm I looked at the thermometer mercury stood at 72 degrees f. We sleep under blankets ..with the doors open - out on to the porch. Betty has a crib on wheels on the upper porch - screened and less than ---up her bare feet and legs....Tell Ada May that the first thing Betty Lee tried to play with was the rattle she sent. Now about the --- tax report. I talked with ... definitely collect ...advised me I will write B. E. Williams Columbus O and tell him that my income will be mostly the same as last year. Send a ck for about half the amount and tell him that I will send a complete report in April. You will receive blanks for the purpose. Keep them carefully and also keep a -- book for ---I have not advanced any suggestions but only listened and both Howard and Katherine have their faces set towards the states and civil life. This post is the finest of the few I have even seen. Large area several miles long - perfectly saved roads and ...side walks Everything in circles for the officers quarters and in squares of the privates. Fine con...and...slate roofs vines and flowers and...of very description. We had ...breakfast...plenty of sweet milk.Betty Lee is perfect in development ...healthy and sleeps ...of the time...seldom cries and only when hungry. The parents are particular that she be not disturbed or taken except at feeding. She gets her last meal at 6 pm or at times 6.30 is put in her crib in her own room adjoining Howard and Katherine and that is the last you hear of her until the next morning then she does not cry. I think she would wait longer for her breakfast but Katherine and Howard...but everything is on the dot....I don't know how long I can stand this idleness but if it becomes to dull I will try to get an earlier boat. I am booked now to leave here March 3rd and will advise you if I should decide that we sail earlier....We spent a pleasant 2 days in Frisco ....”

Katherine and Howard, along with Betty returned to Portsmouth, Ohio where Stephen’s second granddaughter Mary Helen was born in the same room, as her mother, overlooking Tracy Park, 13 December 1921.  A home was built next to Stephen and Anna, on Gay Street, with a dental office attaching both homes.  He kept his youngest close. While Ruhama was  residing across the country there continued constant contact, letters and news articles.  Henri, as stated before, was not happy as a physician but lived his life in the house on the corner of 9^th and Gay.  Their sister Laura also grew up in Portsmouth, never married and lived at home until her death in March 1944.

The Ohio State Medical Association presented Stephen and Anna Gorath Halderman with a beautiful silver set on the occasion of their Golden Wedding Anniversary.  This compiler treasures the set complete with two goblets and engraving and I try to keep it polished.

Stephen Simpson Halderman died 30 March 1929.  The editorial for the Portsmouth Daily Times, like the published biographies, has a few flaws.  The Medical College of Ohio was well established by the time he went there. 

 The late Dr S S Halderman was truly a man who had lived a life of service to his fellow man. He was one of the few survivors … older type of country doctor and physician. He began his practice in the rural sections and there he learned to respond at all hours and at all times...When later he came to the city to practice he did not deviate from the habits of his young manhood. He was at the call of any one who desired his services...doctor prepared himself well for his profession and he kept up with the progress of medicine. He became an expert surgeon, in addition to being a general practitioner, in fact was an all around medical man, one of the best in the state....president of the Ohio State Medical Association....organized the Medical College of Ohio...organized the Central National Bank...associated with the Commercial Building and Loan Company...His death causes much regret to many...

I always wonder what makes a person “tick.”  My great grandfather left home at such a young age, and succeeded beyond expectations.  He had this drive to keep his family in the best of positions and close yet, I would find out along my genealogical journey, in his own words he knew very little about his own background:

Sciotoville, Ohio March 15, 1889 Mrs. O A Barbe McLaughlin Mt Auburn, Cin., O Dear Madam Yours of March 4th received promptly and I did not answer immediately ...I tried to get accurate data but could get nothing very definite. Father died while I was quite young and his books and papers were not preserved. He had quite a library and many valuable papers. I know very little of my ancestors. Trusting the enclosed may be of some value. I am very resp. Stephen S. Halderman[viii]

He is legendary in this compiler’s mind.  He took care of not only his own but many others.  From a teen with nothing to financial stability, he taught the family dignity, work ethics, love and financial responsibility.  He invested wisely and I wonder if he realized those choices would help all his children  thru their final years and beyond.  It is quite a legacy.

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[i] Halderman, Stephen S.," 15 March 1889; letter, Box 7; Olive McLaughlin Collection; Cincinnati History Library and Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.

[ii] D. Adams Co., Oh and buried there.

[iii] Ohio, Shelby M Records . Isabella Halterman to Eli Baldwin

[iv] Scioto Chapter Ohio Genealogical Society, Newsletter Jan/Feb 1992

[v] Bannon, Stories Old and Often Told

[vi] Portsmouth Times 23 Aug 1890 purchased from estate of Frdk Gabler

[vii] Portsmouth Daily Times. 22 Jul 1909

[viii] Halderman, Stephen S.," 15 March 1889; letter, Box 7; Olive McLaughlin Collection; Cincinnati History Library and Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio