Joseph Leonard's Service in World War I: Just in Time for Meuse-Argonne

I "discovered" Joseph Leonard when I attended the dedication of Veterans Memorial Park in my new hometown of Cohoes, New York. In the park there was a memorial dedicated to Joseph and his service during the Philippine Insurrection for which he had been awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor.

Sgt. Joseph Leonard memorial in Veterans Memorial Park,
Cohoes, New York; personal collection

I wondered why Joseph Leonard had enlisted in 1897 using the name Joseph Melvin and wanted more details about his service. During my research journey, I learned Joseph led a very eventful life with several tragedies along the way. I also learned that he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps a second time and served in World War I.

On 19 April 1918 Joseph Leonard, at the age of 41, walked into a Marine Corps recruiting station in Cleveland, Ohio, and re-enlisted as a Private. He was given 5 days furlough and stationed to the Marine Barracks in Brooklyn, New York. In New York he was assigned to the 12th Co. until he was transferred to the Marine Detachment aboard the USS North Dakota (BB-29), a battleship, on 13 June. The dreadnought was based at the Brooklyn Naval Ship Yard and the York River in Virginia. She was tasked with training gunners and engine room personnel. The Marine Detachments aboard naval ships were responsible for the brig, defense of the ship and attack operations against the enemy ashore. Private Leonard would have participated in gunner training.

USS North Dakota (BB-29); courtesy of Wikipedia

On 17 August 1918 Private Leonard was transferred to Co. A in the 1st Separate Machine Gun Battalion at Quantico, Virginia. Sometime prior to 1 October the battalion was transferred to France where it was designated 1st Training Machine Gun Battalion as part of 1st Training Regiment. The regiment was stationed west of Tours in Chatillon-sur-Cher and Billy. On 16 October Private Leonard was transferred to USMC 5th Regiment as a replacement soldier. The regiment was near, Chalons-sur-Marne, south of Reims, and fighting in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. The 5th Regiment fought primarily as part of 4th (Marine) Brigade, 2nd (Army) Division.[1]

On 19 October the brigade of which 5th Regiment was a part was detached from 2nd Division and assigned to the French IX Corps to relieve its 73rd Division near Attigny, about 40 miles north of their position. About 5 miles from Attigny, the regiment received orders to return to 2nd Division. The plan was for the American Expeditionary Forces to force the Germans back across the Meuse river.

The remainder of Private Leonard's battle chronicle is told in A Brief History of 5th Marines, by the Historical Branch of the U.S. Marine Corps:

"From positions six miles southeast of Buzancy, the Marine brigade and 23rd Infantry (on the right) moved out in the attack early on 1 November. Throughout the day, resistance remained light, and each of the 5th's battalions had a hand in the successful advance. On 2 and 3 November, the 5th Regiment (minus the 2nd Battalion, attached to the 9th Infantry) was in support of 3rd Brigade. On 4 November, the 5th returned to the lines and sent out strong reconnaissance patrols to the Meuse. During the next four days, the regiment continued to move forward in the right of the division zone. Plans were made to cross the river on the night of 9-10 November, but were postponed because of the difficulty in obtaining bridge-building materials.

The 2nd Division had been ordered to cross the Meuse at two points, Mouzon on the left (north) and Letanne, five miles to the south. The 6th regiment, with the 3rd Battalion of the 5th attached, was to make the Mouzon crossing, while the remainder of the 5th Regiment, plus one battalion of the 89th Infantry Division was to accomplish the Letanne movement. At Mouzon, attempts to gain the opposite bank on 10 November failed when the enemy discovered the site and brought all available fire upon it. The thrust at Letanne, however, did not share the same fate.

Floating bridge at Letanne; courtesy U.S. Marine Corps Archives

Beginning at 2130 on 10 November, the 2nd Battalion started crossing the cold river. Despite heavy fire from German machine guns and artillery, treacherous footing on the board covered logs that served as floating bridges, and the uncertainty in the dark of night, the battalion crossed in one hour. Casualties and the scattering of units brought about by the difficulties in the crossing cut the battalion fighting strength to about 100 Marines by early morning. It reorganized, nevertheless, and moved out to the northwest, removing any enemy that remained. These efforts by the 2nd Battalion made the 1st Battalion's movement to the east bank less difficult. When both battalions were across, they joined forces in a sweep along the river towards Mouzon. At this time, word on the armistice reached the Marines.

Accounts of the reactions of Marines and Germans to the the news of the armistice differed. Some said that both sides celebrated, even together, while others stated that the friend and foe alike received the report joyfully, but in silence. Regardless of sentiments, the 5th still had much work ahead of it; realizing that the cessation of hostilities might be temporary only, the men began organizing the ground for defense. Then, on 14 November, after being relieved, the regiment moved south to Pouilly, on the Meuse opposite Letanne, to re-fit and re-equip for the last phase of its European operations.

The 2nd Division, of which the Marine Brigade [including 5th Regiment] was still a part, was one of six American divisions immediately ordered to move into Germany for occupation duty. The march to the Rhine began before sun-up on 17 November, and the 5th had the honor of providing the advance guard for the division. The first phase of the movement -- to the German border, approximately 60 miles away -- was made in six marching days and one rest day. The route to the border took the regiment southeast through Montmedy, France, across Belgium, and into Luxembourg to its eastern border with Germany. Here, the regiment participated in a defensive alignment of the division until crossing into Germany the first day of December...

...The 5th Regiment crossed the Rhine river at Remagen on 13 December and on the 16th moved to permanent winter quarters in the Wied River Valley just to the southeast [in Datzeroth]. Here the regiment began its mission of occupation. This duty involved not only a military preparedness to counter and defeat any riotous or warlike action of the German people, but also, a civil 'know-how' to supervise the local governments of the various towns in the regimental area.

8th Machine Gun Co., 5th Marine Regiment in Datzeroth, German; courtesy
of U.S. Militaria Forum

Training, of course, constituted the most important event in the day's activities. Schools, range firing, maneuvers, and reviews prevailed. To take advantage of duty-free time, Marines of the 5th took part in educational programs and availed themselves of the opportunities for leave in the larger French cities or for tours along the Rhine. Continuous emphasis was placed upon the physical readiness of the troops."

While stationed in Datzeroth, Germany, Private Leonard was promoted to Sergeant. On 24 March 1919 Sergeant Leonard was transferred by Special Order No. 79 to Marine Barracks, Washington, DC. From there he was transferred to Casual Co. 3912 in preparation of being discharged. He was discharged on 3 July and issued an honorable discharge button.

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[1] During World War I 2nd (Army) Division was twice commanded by Marine Corps generals, the only time in military history Marine Corps officers commanded an Army division.

Joseph Leonard was born in 1876 Cohoes, New York, to James and Mary (Melvin) Leonard. He served in the USMC from 1897 through 1902 during the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines. After being discharged, he migrated to Fergus County, Montana, and married Grace Cunningham in 1911. They had two children before her death from complications related to pregnancy. He homesteaded 160 acres near Stanford in present day Judith Basin County. At the time the area was called Coyote, which had a post office from 1909-1914 (thank you, Dave Wallenburn!).

After World War I Joseph returned to Montana where he worked as a copper miner and lived in a boarding house in Butte. His children were raised by their maternal grandparents. Joseph died at the California Veterans Home-Yountville in 1946 and was interred at Veterans Memorial Grove in the same town.

A Brief History of the 5th Marines, Marine Corps Historical Reference Series No. 36. Historical Branch, G-3 Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, (Washington, DC: U.S. Marine Corps, 1963), pages 10-12.

The Cadastral Survey System Explained

My great grand uncle, Herbert Bartist Beck's farm land was spread across three different townships/ranges in Fergus County, Montana:

• 20 North Range 24 East, abreviated as T20N R24E
• T20N R25E
• T19N R25E

Each township/range was six square miles in size:

The above diagram indicates the three township/ranges where Herbert Beck bought land. Each township/range was divided into 36 sections, which were 640 acres in size. As an example, we will use Township 20 North, Range 24 East (T20N R24E):

Herbert Beck owned land in four sections of T20N R25E. Sections could be further subdivided, typically into quarters, each comprising 160 acres. Then those quarters could also be quartered. Each quarter of a quarter section was 40 acres. So Herbert Beck's land was located in the following areas of Fergus County:

This system of legal land descriptions makes so much sense to me. It is so much easier than trying to find land my ancestors bought in Virginia, for example, 300 years ago when the description uses creeks, old trees and other landmarks which may no longer exist.

To learn how I use the cadastral survey to locate my ancestor's land today, click Working with Land Patents and Plat Maps.

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All the diagrams included in this post were created using Microsoft Excel.

Worldwide Genealogy: Working with Land Patents and Plat Maps

I am reprising my post about working with land patents and plat maps at Worldwide Genealogy -- A Genealogical Collaboration today. I hope you'll click over and read it if you haven't already and are struggling to learn where your homesteading ancestors lived.

My great grand aunt, Jane (Muir) Beck, was the youngest child of James and Margaret (Semple) Muir. My grandmother always called her Aunt Janie. Janie's grandfather, father, and most of her brothers were coal miners but Janie married a farmer, Herbert Bartist Beck on 20 June 1912 at Lebanon, Illinois. Herbert had been living and working on his brother, John's, farm. They had two children in Illinois, Thelma Christena and John Wesley Beck.

Herbert's brother had been out west with his uncle. He and his wife decided to move to Montana and homestead land in 1918. Herbert and Janie followed them a few years later. They took a train from Illinois and arrived in Roy, Montana, on 7 April 1923.

Roy, Montana, circa 1916; photograph courtesy of the Bureau of Land
Management

In two separate transactions with the General Land Office, Herbert Beck acquired nearly 425 acres of land in two counties.

• 17 October 1928: 
• Southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 27 in Township 20 north, Range 24 east
• 26 September 1928: 
• South half of the northeast quarter of section 34 in Township 20 north, Range 24 east
• Southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 31 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• West half of the southeast quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• East half of the southwest quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• Southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• Lot 4 of section 5 in Township 19 north, Range 25 east
• Lot 1 of section 6 in Township 19 north, Range 25 east

Learn how I used this information to locate where the land is and what it looks like today.

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A first-hand account of what life was like on a homestead in Montana may be found here. It was written my Herbert and Jane (Muir) Beck's daughter.

This post was originally published on Tangled Roots and Trees as a 52 Ancestors post.

52 Ancestors #25: Working with Land Patents and Plat Maps

Ancestors: Herbert Bartist Beck (1889-1981) and Jane (Muir) Beck (1894-1990)

My great grand aunt, Jane (Muir) Beck, was the youngest child of James and Margaret (Semple) Muir. My grandmother always called her Aunt Janie. Janie's grandfather, father, and most of her brothers were coal miners but Janie married a farmer, Herbert Bartist Beck on 20 June 1912 at Lebanon, Illinois. Herbert had been living and working on his brother, John's, farm. They had two children in Illinois, Thelma Christena and John Wesley Beck.

Herbert's brother had been out west with his uncle. He and his wife decided to move to Montana and homestead land in 1918. Herbert and Janie followed them a few years later. They took a train from Illinois and arrived in Roy, Montana, on 7 April 1923.

Roy, Montana, circa 1916; photograph courtesy of the Bureau of Land
Management

In two separate transactions with the General Land Office, Herbert Beck acquired nearly 425 acres of land in two counties.

• 17 October 1928: 
• Southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 27 in Township 20 north, Range 24 east
• 26 September 1928: 
• South half of the northeast quarter of section 34 in Township 20 north, Range 24 east
• Southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 31 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• West half of the southeast quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• East half of the southwest quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• Southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• Lot 4 of section 5 in Township 19 north, Range 25 east
• Lot 1 of section 6 in Township 19 north, Range 25 east

These are the legal descriptions found on a land patent of parcels of land identified using the cadastral survey system, which was used by the United States federal government when Montana was surveyed and is still in use today. A township was 6 square miles and contained 36 one-square mile sections, or 640 acres. A quarter of a quarter section was 40 acres.

Map of lands surveyed by the government using the cadastral system;
courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management

Townships were arranged north and south along the principal meridian and ranges, east and west along the baseline. Once you know the section, township, and range numbers, there are several apps that enable you to view the land as it is today to gain a better understanding of where your ancestors lived. Plat maps have become favorites of mine and I collect them for the places my ancestors lived.

Township/Range map of Fergus County, Montana, c1916.
Township 20N/Range 24E is the square with Crooked and Antelope creeks
on the upper left. Township 20N/Range 25E is to the right. Below them are
Township 19N/Range 25E is on the lower right. Map courtesy of the Montana
Memory Project.

Township/Range maps can be found on the Bureau of Land Management's General Land Records website. Click the Survey Plats and Field Notes link and enter the legal description of the land. From the search results page, I click the Plat image icon and scroll down to the bottom of the page and generate a PDF document.

Original survey of Township 20N/Range 24E, dated 1914. Herbert Beck
owned the south half of the northeast quarter of Section 34. Image courtesy
of the Bureau of Land Management

I've drawn the south half of Section 34 on the image so you can better understand how the subdividing of sections work.

The northeast quarter of Section 34 divided into quarters and a south half

Here is what the south half of the northeast quarter of Section 34 in Township 20N/Range 24E looks like today from a satellite:

Satellite view from Google Earth

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge optional theme Old Homestead.

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A first-hand account of what life was like on a homestead in Montana may be found here. It was written my great grand aunt and uncle, Herbert and Jane (Muir) Beck's daughter.

Homestead Shacks Over Buffalo Tracks

My great grand aunt, Jane (Muir) Beck, was the youngest child of James and Margaret (Semple) Muir. My grandmother always called her Aunt Janie. She married a farmer, Herbert Bartist Beck on 20 June 1912 at Lebanon, Illinois. They had two children in Illinois, Thelma Christena and John Wesley Beck. In 1923 they moved west to Montana and homesteaded land. After my great grandfather retired from the coal mines, he traveled to Montana to visit with his sister, Janie.

From left to right: Robert Muir; his sister, Janie (Muir) Beck, his nephew, John
Wesley Beck from my personal collection

Janie's life seemed so different from the rest of her siblings who mostly stayed in the midwest and worked in coal mines or factories. What was life like in big sky county for Janie and her family?

In 1990 the Roy History Committee published Homestead Shacks Over Buffalo Tracks: History of Northeastern Fergus County. Thelma (Beck) Erickson, Herbert and Janie's daughter provided three articles about her family and their early experiences in Montana. So I'll my first cousin twice removed, Thelma tell the story.

"I, Thelma Beck Erickson, remember my trip to Montana, when I arrived at Roy with my parents and brother, Johnnie on the train. This was a long train ride. The last 22 miles to my uncle John's homestead, we traveled by pickup and car.

In Billings, we saw our first Indians. There was a pow-wow going on and we saw papooses, feathered head dresses, beautiful blankets and real Indians. What a sight for a seven-year-old girl!

It was all green at Trenton, Illinois when we left there and there was snow on the ground at Roy. Uncle John came with his pickup, to haul our trunks and his neighbor, T. L. Petersen came with his car, two-seated with side curtains. The back seat held our suitcases, grub box and some groceries and just enough room for me to sit, while Mr. Petersen and Pop were in the front seat. Mom and Johnnie rode with Uncle John. It was late that night when we finally arrived, for whenever we came to a steep hill, Mom and Johnnie got out and walked and T. L. and Pop would push, as the pickup was weighted down with our possessions. We followed in T. L.'s car.

Janie (Muir) Beck, son John, and husband Herbert Bartist Beck; photograph
from Homestead Shacks Over Buffalo Tracks published by the Roy History
Committee

The next morning, the snow was so white and pretty. All the winter wheat that had come up was covered. One of those late spring Montana snow storms. That same year, 2 August 1923, there was snow on Black Butte.

The folks lived in cramped quarters in the three-room shack with Uncle John and Aunt Ethel. He had moved another shack prior to our coming and so, when warmer weather came, my family slept there and we continued to cook and eat with Uncle John. Mom helped with housework, cooking and canning and Pop helped Uncle John while he was filing on our homestead.

At this time, the land was not in one piece. One parcel was right on Crooked Creek with the creek running the full way across. One parcel had been homesteaded and let go so it was again open. This place had a shack with a gabled roof and small dam, plus some old machinery had been left. This was four miles down Crooked Creek. Pop made a road across those four miles and finally got some converts for crossings. He fenced all the land, but there was often trouble with wires being cut, which allowed range cattle, horses and sheep to get in, eat and trample the crop which was so hard to grow.

My first cousin twice removed, John Wesley Beck; courtesy of
Exploring Central Montana's Past: Missouri Breaks Historical Homesteads
Tour published by Bureau of Land Management

The folks got a shack moved onto another parcel Dad owned where we went to live. It was roofed with heavy metal roofing and a slate covered, heavy tar paper was put on the outside. The inside was covered with a heavy pale blue building paper, put up with lath to secure it. Mom made curtains to put around beds and in one corner. We had a cookstove with two doors in the oven, hearth in front and a water reservoir in back, tin stove pipes and a metal roof-jack, so that no wood would be near the paper as they would get hot. We had a brick chimney later. As time went on, another building was added, giving us two rooms. We had one bed and two cots. The kitchen was used as the dining room and a place for the cream separator. Cream was our cash product from milking cows. Later we bought the Garwood house, as this family had moved away, and it was added to our home. It gave us three bedrooms and it had a brick chimney, also a little room that was intended for a bathroom (this was never accomplished) and it was used for a clothes closet. The north room was my special den when I was home. Mom and I did a lot of sewing and made many quilts and rugs.

I started school at Little Crooked and boarded away from home with the Bakers for two terms. They lived at the Little Crooked post office and store, which was on the north side of the Rocky Point Trail, across from the log school building. The building was used as a dance hall, meeting place, voting and for political gatherings. Yes, there were politics then!

The Byford School District #207 was formed and had the first school in 1925-26 term with Hazel Van Heining and Roland Schrier as the teachers. Johnny and I and the younger Jakes children attended. 

Courtesy of Exploring Central Montana's Past: Missouri Breaks Historical Homesteads
Tour; published by Bureau of Land Management

I used to stay with Mabel Cottrell and helped with all her small children and did the milking. With the money I earned, I bought my first pair of patent leather dress shoes with a strap. I cleaned them with Vaseline and put them in a shoe box and wore them for Sunday and special occasions. 

My folks got our first car in 1934 and it was second-hand. This was shortly before I was married. My brother John went right to work on that car and that started him fixing autos and the car business which was the love of his life. As I write his, many old friends and neighbors have gone over the Great Divide and we who are left aren't getting any younger.

52 Ancestors #19: 1949 Road Trip

Ancestor Names: Gustav LANGE (1888-1963), Wilhelmina (SCHALIN) Lange (1894-1960), Dorothy Ailein (LANGE) Jennings (1930-2014)

My mother was the eighth of nine children born to Gustav and Wilhelmina (Schalin) Lange. Grandpa immigrated to Canada in 1911 at age of 23, and Grandma was the first child born to her parents after they immigrated to Canada in 1893. Gustav and Wilhelmina married in Winnipeg in 1915, moved to Michigan in 1916, and purchased a farm in southern Maryland in 1919. Their last six children were born on that farm.

In 1949 my Mom and her parents drove from Maryland to Alberta, Canada to visit family my grandparents hadn't seen in over 30 years. Mom's sister, Millie, may have accompanied them, but I do not know for sure. Mom would mention the trip from time to time; and as we were clearing out her house prior to selling it, she reminisced as we went through old photograph albums.

Somewhere in the United States on the way to Montana, 1949; Mom is on
the left. From my personal collection

Oh, how I wish I would have been in family historian mode and asked questions about the people in the photographs and the places they saw along the way. But I didn't. I was project manager mode. I was working to a schedule, checking things off the task list, and trying to keep Mom excited about her decision to move into an assisted living facility.

These photos were taken in Montana. To the left Grandpa Lange is
is in the light shirt holding a cup. It looks they were watching a
living history demonstration of some sort. On the right (left to right)
are Grandpa Lange, Grandma Lange, her sister Hilda Wendell and
John Wendell. From my personal collection

A small digression so you may appreciate why I focused on the route my Lange/Schalin ancestors took on that Summer of '49 road trip...

My husband says my family can't be together for 5 minutes before a map is out; and we are tracing routes for possible vacations, reliving old vacations, or answering a geographical question that has come up in conversation. He is simply amazed by the phenomena and we never let him down. It's genetic we abashedly tell ourselves as one of us is going to get a map.

So how did Mom and my grandparents drive to Canada? I know they drove because they took Mom's new car and that she and Grandpa did the driving. From the photograph albums I know the relatives they visited.  Grandma's sisters Aunt Hilda in Livingston Park, Montana, Aunt Julia in Red Deer, Alberta, and Aunt Lena and Grandpa's brother Richard Lange in Winnipeg. They also saw Grandma's sister, Aunt Martha, but I believe she and her husband drove west or took the train from Ontario for the visit. They also stopped in North Dakota to visit the Tridtke or Fridtke family, but I do not know who they are.

Shell Oil map of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Part of the route my Mom
and Grandparents drove in 1949 on an extended family visit.

I have acquired a 1945 map published by the the Canadian Government Travel Bureau of the main automobile routes between the United States and Canada (Eastern Sheet), and Shell Oil maps of British Columbia and Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba published about the same time period. Based on the order of the photographs in Mom's album, I believe the route of their trip was Montana, Alberta, Manitoba, and North Dakota and back to Maryland. Using modern roads the trip is just over 5,500 miles. They were on the road for just over two months.

This photograph was taken in Red Deer, Alberta, likely at the home of
Julia (Schalin) Kirkham. Grandpa Lange is at the far left, then Felix George
Allen, my Mom, her Aunt Martha (Schalin) Allen, and Grandma
Lange; From my personal collection

Mom and I are different in another way as well. I used to come back from vacation and none of my photographs would include a person. It's only since I've become interested in genealogy that I may remember to photograph people. Mom's photographs rarely included the sights they saw along they way; they are all of people. Family were always in her heart. When her minister gave the eulogy at her memorial service, he told such moving stories of Mom's childhood; it was almost as if he was her brother and grew up along side her. Those were the stories she'd told him about her family over the nearly 30 years they knew each other.

And so one last photograph from Mom's album of their 1949 road trip.

According to Mom's album this photograph was taken in Winnipeg,
the home of Pauline "Lena" (Schalin) Parsons. I assume these men
are Parsons/Schalin family but I have no idea who they are. From my
personal collection

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge optional theme There's a Way.

52 Ancestors #7: Love Gone Wrong?

Ancestor Name: Hazel Elizabeth (WENDELL) Criger Reed (1917-2002)

Hazel Elizabeth Wendell was my first cousin once removed. Her mother, Hilda Helen (Schalin) Wendell, was my maternal grandmother's older sister. Hazel was born on 22 March 1917 in Lima, Montana. She was a twin; her sister was Helen Myrtle Wendell. Her father was a machinist for Northern Pacific Railway, and sometime between 1920 and 1930 the family moved to Livingston Park, Montana. Hazel lived in Livingston Park for most of the remainder of her life. It is a picturesque town on the Yellow river that began as a trading post.

At the age of 19 Hazel married Philander "Phil" Warren Criger. His family had also moved to Livingston Park between 1920 and 1930 and his father worked in the railroad shops.

In 1937 Phil worked as a warehouse man for Milling Co. In 1940 he was a foreman at the same company. The 1954 city directory indicates Phil was not working and Hazel had taken a job as a nurse's aide at Lott Hospital. In 1956 Phil was a wood worker and Hazel was not working. During their marriage they had two sons.

Hazel and Phil Criger with one of their sons; photograph courtesy of
Ancestry.com member Scott Goddard

The couple divorced sometime in early 1960 and on 14 May 1960 an event that must have been tragic for Phil's family and sons occurred.

Montana Standard, 17 May 1960; image
from NewspaperArchive.com

Livingston Gunshot Death is Probed
LIVINGSTON (AP) - Investigation continued Monday into the gunshot death of Phil Criger, 46, Livingston, who was found outside his automobile at a firing range three miles east of Livingston.

Coroner Wesley Cloyd said foul play does not appear to be involved.

Critter's body was found about 5 p.m. Saturday. A .32 caliber Winchester special model 1894 rifle was on the front seat, pointed in the chest.

A native of Jones, Michigan, Criger had resided in Livingston most of his life. For a time he managed a grain elevator at Wilsall. Lately, he had been operating a delivery truck in Livingston.

Survivors include two sons, two brothers, and two sisters.

Marriages are unique things. And I often wonder what went wrong with Phil and Hazel's. Was it the reason he killed himself a few short months after the divorce?

Hazel married Gilbert Allen Reed on 16 January 1963. She moved near Brewster where the couple lived close to Gilbert's family. After he died in 1992, Hazel returned to Livingston. She died on 11 October 2002.

I have always been interested this part of my mother's family. Mom met her Aunt Hilda when she and her parents drove across the country from Maryland to Montana and on to Alberta, Canada, in 1949. It was the first time my grandmother had seen her siblings in over 50 years. Hilda also named Hazel and Helen's older sister, Albertine Schalene, and Schalene is my given name in honor of my maternal grandmother. Albertine married Phil Criger's older brother and that happened my my family, as well. My Dad and his brother married sisters!

Johannes "John" and Hilda Helen (Schalin)
Wendell in 1949, Hazel's parents; photograph
from my personal collection

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge optional theme Love.

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Hazel Elizabeth and her twin Helen Myrtle Wendell were born on 22 March 1917 in Lima, Montana, to Johannes "John" and Hilda Helen (Schalin) Wendell. John was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and immigrated to Wyoming about 1891 at the age of 18. Hilda was born in the Volhynia region of what was then Russia (now Ukraine) and immigrated to Alberta, Canada, in 1893 at the age of 4. The twins were the youngest of four children. Hazel graduated from Park County High School in 1935 and married Philander "Phil" Warren Criger the next year. They had two sons before divorcing in 1960. A few months after the divorce Phil committed suicide. Hazel married Gilbert Allen Reed in 1963. Allen had been married previously to Veta Rue Hodges. He died in 1992 and was buried at the Sunset Hills Cemetery in Bozeman, Montana. Hazel died on 11 October 2002 in Livingston Park, Montana. Her body was cremated.

52 Ancestors #4: Man Crazy

Ancestor Name: Theodora (MORACK) Knapp VanDusen Barr (1914-2006)

Theodora was born on 9 July (my birthday) 1914 in Helena, Montana. She was the second of the five known children of Michael "Mike" and Anna Maria Marovich. At various times in her life she went by Theo and Dora. Her father was a miner, who immigrated from Russia in 1909 at the age of 30. I do not know if he had been married before.

Theodora's parents' marriage was not a happy one and the divorce seemed more than a bit acrimonious. Anna Maria accused Mike of cruelty and he accused her of infidelity. They were finally granted a divorce in 1920. He went on to marry at least two more times. Anna Maria remarried as well but her second marriage was more stable.

As published in the Anaconda Standard on 4 July 1918

As published in the Anaconda Standard on 2 July 1920

Theodora's younger sister, Elizabeth, known as Betty, was the wife of my third cousin twice removed. She was 14 years old when they married; the couple divorced in less than a year. She went on to marry at least four more times. The Morack family seemed to be marriage happy!

At the age of 17, Theodora married Beryl Leroy Knapp in Fort Benton, Montana in 1932. Beryl worked as a carman for the railroad and the newlyweds lived in Great Falls, Montana. Between 1933 and 1940 they had five children: Beryl Lucille (1933-1997), Bernard Leroy (1934-2011), Dollie (1937-2001), Nancy Ann (1938-2011) and Alice Holbrook (about 1940-before 2011).

Theodora was in her mid 30s when her youngest child was born. Married with children must not have suited her. Some time after 1949 (the last Great Falls city directory I can find) she left Beryl to raise their five children alone, possibly for another man or just to escape. This was confirmed by a niece, who did not think Aunt Dora was a very nice person. Thankfully, those children had one responsible parent.

I do not know if Beryl ever remarried, but did find this interesting photograph of him on page 1 of the 7 April 1976 Independent Record.

Beryl Knapp shoveling snow; photograph published on 7 Apr 1976
in the Independent Record

In 1959 Dora married Henry "Harry" Earl VanDusen in Los Angeles County, California. He was 26 years old and Dora was 45. Harry died in 1998 and is buried at the Tacoma National Cemetery in Kent, Washington.

Younger men apparently didn't suit Dora either as her marriage to Harry lasted less than ten years. In 1969 she married Charles M Barr in Orange County, California. Charles was ten years older than Dora. Records for Charles have proved to be elusive. I do not know if the couple remained married or when Charles died. I do know that Theodora (Morack) Knapp VanDusen Barr was living in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in 1985. She died on 2 December 2006 in Teton County, Montana, and her surname was listed as Barr.

Perhaps in Charles Barr she found the husband for which she was always searching?

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge optional theme Closest to Your Birthday.

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It appears 9 July was a great day for birthing babies in my family tree. No fewer than 23 people share my birthday. It should be noted my tree is large and sprawling. I maintain one public tree and it includes my One Place studies as well as research I've done for my in-laws.

Marriage Happy!

52 Ancestors #25: Marriage Happy!

Ancestor Name: Elizabeth (Morack) Semple Robertson Furlong Vann Pierce ... and Counting?

Some girls just like weddings and can never have too many.

Elizabeth Morack must have been just such a young woman. She was born on 15 May 1915 in Helena, Montana, to Michael and Anna Marie (Moravich) Morack. Michael was born in Moscow, Russia, and immigrated to the U.S. via Canada in 1909. Anna Marie was born in West Virginia. Anna Marie's daughter spelled her mother's maiden name many different ways: Morokovich, Maronich, Marivich, Moravitch, and Marovich.

A month after her 14th birthday Elizabeth married Henry Semple, my third cousin twice removed. Henry was almost 20 years old when they married but said he was 21 and Elizabeth said she was 18 years of age. They were married by a Justice of the Peace on 7 June 1929 in Deer Lodge County, Montana. Like so many of my other ancestors of Scottish descent, Henry was a coal miner.

Less than a year later when the 1930 census was enumerated, Elizabeth was living with her mother and step-father, Fred Jacob (or Jacobs), at Anaconda, Montana. Elizabeth was listed with her correct age of 14 and her marital status was divorced. Her ex-husband Henry was also living with his parents again in Washoe, Montana. He indicated he was divorced.

Elizabeth married for the second time on 5 July 1934 to Oscar Ruben Robertson, who was 32 years of age and had not previously been married. Elizabeth fibbed a bit on the marriage license and said she had not been married before either, yet she used Semple as her surname on the license. I thought perhaps Oscar was the man for Elizabeth. But I probably shouldn't have. It's possible they divorced and remarried in 1936. The records are a bit confusing on this point. They were married at least 10 years and had two children by 1940, but more weddings were in Elizabeth's future.

Oscar Ruben Robertson; photograph courtesy of Ancestry.com
member heylolly

Husband number 3 was Joseph Newell Furlong. They were married on 18 June 1946 in Missoula, Montana. Number 4, William Charles "W C" Vann. They married on 9 April 1951 in Deer Lodge County, Montana. Both celebrants had been married previously. Perhaps W C was her soulmate? Sadly he died just a year later on 5 May 1952 in El Dorado County, California, during a fire -- truly an awful story.

As published in the Mountain Democrat on 15 May 1952

Husband number 5 was Chester Pierce. They were married on 16 Nov 1955 in Dillon, Montana. Chester was hard to find because I didn't locate the record for their marriage in the usual places. I just knew Elizabeth wouldn't stay single! So I kept looking. However, this marriage lasted about 4 years before Elizabeth filed for divorce.

As published in the Montana Standard 4 June 1959

I don't know if it took a long time to divorce in the 50s but when Elizabeth's step-father died in 1961, she and Chester were listed as married in the obituary. Did they reconcile?

I have yet to find any information about Elizabeth (Morack) Semple Robertson Furlong Vann Pierce's death. The trail has gone cold. She either married again or is still alive and next year will be 100 years old. If the latter is true, what stories she could tell!

Hunting Elizabeth all started because of my Kiwi cousin and Semple research collaborator. She emailed me one evening just as I was going to bed about Elizabeth's age at the time of her first marriage, wondering if it could be possible to legally be married and divorced by 14 years of age. I researched all morning while Sarah slept and she was hard at it by the time I came home from work. As of this writing, we've both been plugging away on the extended Morack family for five days! It's great fun to collaborate with someone as equally addicted as me. We've now wandered off into the family of her step-father and siblings and step-siblings. I just love interesting sort-of ancestors.

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If anyone has additional information about Elizabeth, my cousin and I would love to hear from you.