homestead – A Deck of Ancestors

52W Mark IV – Week 43: Card L4 Jacob Anton

My Great Great Grandfather, Jacob Anton, is another one of my Germans from Russia whose ancestors originated near Karlsruhe, Germany. Most likely they were from Mörlheim, Landau, Rhinepalatinate, which is about 30 kilometers northwest of Karlsruhe. Jacob’s people settled in the Karlsruhe Colony of the Beresan District. It was located north of Odessa in what is now Ukraine, but at the time it was part of the Russian Empire.

Jacob was born on May 3, 1865 in Karlsruhe, where he grew up to be a farmer. Sometime before 1890 he married Margaretha (“Margaret”) Heck, most likely in Karlsruhe. Together they had ten children, the first five of whom were born in the Beresan.

The family remained in the Beresan until sometime in between February 1898 and April 1900. In that time, they moved to Selo Suchoi, Veronesch, Russia. My relatives told me that Selo Sochoi was a settlement of 12 or so families who all separately owned their own land. As I understand it from my own reading, a “selo” is a small settlement with a church, as opposed to a “derevnya”, which did not. In Selo Suchoi, Jacob and Margaret had five more children, including my Great Grandmother Emelia Anton.

The Antons remained in Selo Suchoi for just over ten years before emigrating for Canada. Jacob and his family sailed from Hamburg on June 18, 1912 aboard the S.S. Pennsylvania. They arrived at Ellis Island on July 1, 1912 – Dominion Day in Canada (now “Canada Day”). Their declared destination was Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, to join Jacob’s son and eldest child, Rochus Anton. The passenger manifest stated that Jacob paid for the entire family’s transport, other than his son Philip’s wife Rosa, whose passage was paid for by her father. In total, the family brought $6000 with them.

On July 31, 1912, Jacob applied for entry to land located at Southeast Section 22 Township 17 Range 24 West of the 3rd Meridian, which is due east of Fox Valley and not far south from the Rastadt Cemetery. The application noted that there were 12 people in the family – 5 adult males, 3 adult females, and 4 children under 12.

Affidavits filed in support of Jacob’s homestead application show that in the first three years of occupation, he broke 60 acres per year. The first year he cropped 60 acres, in 1913 he cropped 120 acres, and in the following four years he cropped 180 acres. Jacob did not own any stock animals during that time, although it appears that he obtained some in 1918. Jacob built a 30 x 30 wood frame house on the property, which was completed by August 1912. In 1918 the house was worth $2,000. He also built a stable and four granaries, along with a well valued at $100. Jacob was granted the patent for the land on January 13, 1919.

In the meantime, Jacob became a naturalized Canadian (British subject) on October 26, 1914.

Sometime in 1916 or 1917, Jacob and his brother Joseph, who had also moved to Canada, returned to the Beresan to sell land they still owned over there. They had success in selling to relatives but barely made it out before the 1917 revolution began. Moreover, one of the brothers apparently missed their passage out of Russia and had to remain behind for a time. To me, the whole idea of crossing the Atlantic and through Europe in the middle of World War I was not the wisest idea.

Jacob died in Fox Valley a few years later, on May 3, 1921. Jacob executed his will that same day, written in German. His sons Rochus and Phillip were named executors. At the time of his death, Jacob had a second piece of land, SE 8 Twn 17 Rng 24 W 3, in addition to the original piece of land he acquired by homestead after arriving in Canada (SE 22 Twn 17 Rng 24 W 3). Jacob also owned a full line of farm implements, fourteen horses, and sixteen horned cattle. The total value of the estate was $10,305.00.

The original piece of land was bequeathed to his son John Anton, who was to pay one-quarter of the value of the land to his brother, Rochus. The other property was left to his son Ralph, who was then to transfer half to his brothers Mathias and Jacob. Smaller cash amounts were left to Jacob’s wife, Margaret, and to his other seven children.

Jacob is buried at Rastadt Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Cemetery. Along with the school, which closed in 1970, the cemetery is the only thing that is left of Rastadt.

52W Mark IV – Week 30: Card B4 John Alexander Nelson

When I was 13, we went to Montana for a family reunion of the descendants of John Alexander Nelson, my Gx2 Grandfather. Of course, we were also the descendants of his wife Ella, but there wasn’t a lot of talk of her that weekend, but there certainly seemed to be a lot of reverence and awe when people spoke about John.

The event made an impression on me in many ways. It was the first (and pretty much only) organized family reunion I’ve ever been too. While it wasn’t my first time to the States, at that time I had not been there many times, and it had never been to see relatives. At the time I didn’t really have much connection to or knowledge about my American relatives, nor were they particularly close to me – lots of second or third cousins, once or twice removed. As well, it was my first real exposure to my Mormon relatives. John was my grandfather Leo Burgess’s grandfather, and my grandfather really wasn’t much of a practicing Mormon. He had pretty much left the church and didn’t follow any of its practices, so I didn’t really know much about it at the time.

John was born in Farmington, Utah, on October 17, 1854 to Irish immigrant parents, Robert Nelson and Elizabeth Joseph, who had spent some time in Scotland before they joined the Mormon church and moved to America with their first three children. After arriving in the States, the Nelsons lived in Missouri for a couple years before continuing on to Utah in 1852. While he was Robert and Elizabeth’s second child born in the United States, John was the first of their children born in Utah.

Sometime between 1860 and 1862, when John’s youngest siblings were born, the family moved to Smithfield, Utah, almost 100 kilometers to the nouth of Farmington. While he married his wife, Ella Elizabeth Thomas, in Salt Lake City on January 9, 1879, he continued to reside in Smithfield, apparently until the family emigrated for Canada.

^{The house John built in Smithfield in 1879}

It appears that John might have flirted with the polygamous practices of the Mormon church. On March 19, 1885, he was “sealed” (a Mormon ritual meant to bind familial relationships for eternity) to two sisters, Matilda Jane and Eliza Rankin. Sometime in 1892, John was sealed to Frances Rebecca Purser.

I received this information from my great aunt Fon Hogg (née Burgess), John’s granddaughter. Fon was an avid and proficient genealogist. As a member of the Mormon church, Aunt Fon had access to information that is not available to non-adherents. Fon stated that they were “only sealed,” suggesting there was no civil marriage. In any event, as a polygamous marriage, these unions would not be recognized by the civil authority. Fon also informed me that the sealing between John and Frances was “cancelled” in 1896.

In 1887, Charles Ora Card, a significant Mormon leader, founded the settlement that became Cardston. In part, Card was seeking to avoid arrest for bigamy and was hoping Canada would be more accepting of plural marriage. The Canadian government quickly quelled that prospect, but the settlement flourished. In 1889, he returned to Utah to recruit more settlers.

Lee Creek and the land John settled in 1890.

John and Ella answered the call, so they and their five children moved to Canada in September 1890. They travelled by covered wagon and brought 13 horses, 7 cows, 7 “other horned cattle”, and a pig. Upon arrival, John constructed a sod dugout on a 160 acre homestead on Lee Creek, which ran though the land and on to Cardston. The land is located on what is now Alberta highway 501. John and Ella were nationalized as British subjects domiciled in Canada in 1896 (there was no “Canadian” citizenship until 1947).

John’s land also had a quarry. Rock from his quarry helped build, among other things, included the Cardston courthouse and, reputedly, the Alberta Stake Tabernacle that stood from 1912 to 1954. The one structure for which John definitely did not supply the stone was Cardston’s first saloon. As if farming and operating a quarry was not enough, John was also a carpenter and operated the first lime kiln in the region. He also served as a school trustee in 1907.

In 1906, John and Ella moved to nearby Woolford, Alberta, where John continued farming. They briefly returned to Utah in the early 1920s, where John operated an orchard or fruit farm, but they returned to Woolford in 1924. John continued farming there for the rest of his working life.

John died on September 29, 1942, a year after Ella passed away. At the time of his death, John had 10 children, 54 grandchildren, and 25 great grandchildren, on both sides of the Canadian-US border. No wonder there were so many people at that family reunion in Montana!

^{One of the big stars at the Nelson family reunion was Cleveland Nelson (1893-1982) , the last living child of John and Ella. He’s with five of his nieces, my grandfather Leo Burgess’s sisters: Fon, Cleve, Julia, Ella, Molly, and Irene. You can also see my mother over Irene’s shoulder.}

52W Mark IV – Week 28: Card B2 Horace Conrad Liggett Burgess

^{Horace Conrad Liggett Burgess (1854-1940)}

What can I say about my Gx2 Grandfather Horace Burgess that I haven’t said before? It seems like I’ve written about or mentioned him many times in the four years that I’ve been participating in the 52 Ancestors Challenge.

Horace was born in 1854 in Lehi, Utah. As far as I can find, he was named Horace Liggett Burgess. His middle name reflects the Mormon custom of giving their children their mother’s maiden names as middle names. Census and marriage records show he was still using Liggett as his middle name in his late 40s. It was not until after he moved to Canada in 1903 that he began to use Conrad. The family lore I’ve found suggests he adopted the middle name Conrad later in life in order to add support to his claim in a dispute over his ownership of some land. Horace dropped Liggett from his full name when he applied for homesteads in Alberta in the first decade of the 20th Century. The name Liggett does not appear on his death certificate or headstone.

Horace was the only child of William Burgess and Charlotte Elizabeth Liggett, who married in 1852. The union was polygamous, as William was still married to his first wife, Maria Pulsipher. William and Maria had been married for 12 years at the time and had six children; they remained married until Maria died in 1892. Moreover, William was more than twice Charlotte’s age when they married – he was 30, she was 14. Based on my research, this was typical of polygamous Mormon marriages of the time.

Charlotte left William sometime around when Horace was three. Apparently she did not get along with Maria. Horace went with his mother when his parents separated. Charlotte remarried in 1857, entering into another polygamous marriage. By the time Horace was 17, he had five half-siblings through his mother and step-father. William married his third wife in 1858 – another polygamous marriage for him, too. William had three more children with Maria and four with his third wife. In all, Horace had 19 half-siblings.

Horace had no memories of his biological father during his childhood and teens. Based upon the 1860 and 1870 censuses, Horace went by his step-father’s surname. According to his half-brother George, Horace was 18 when he learned the identity of his biological father from his mother. Horace then sought out his father and began using the surname Burgess.

Horace married his first wife, Sarah Florilla (“Rilla”) Cook, in Goshen, Utah on March 3, 1876. He was 21 and she was 18. Together they had nine children – seven boys and two girls. Six children survived childhood and into adulthood. By 1887 the family had moved to Lawrence, Utah. As of 1891 they had relocated to Vernal, Utah.

I don’t know how Horace earned a living at the time he married or when his first two children were born. However, by 1880, he was working in Goshen as a teamster. It appears that he worked at this occupation in one form or another for the next twenty years.

^{1880 United States census, Utah Territory, Utah County, Goshen Precinct, Enumeration District 35, page 3.}

Rilla passed away in January 1894, a few weeks after giving birth for the ninth time. Just over a year later, on June 1, 1895, Horace married Julia Josephine Lundquist in Atlantic City, Wyoming. It is neither a city nor located by the Atlantic. In fact, the village is well more than twice as far from the Atlantic as it is from the Pacific. Apparently it takes its name from the fact it’s on the eastern (Atlantic) side of the Continental Divide.

Horace was 13 years Julia’s senior. It was her third marriage. Julia was born in Sweden and immigrated to the United States when she was 16. Horace and Julia had nine or ten children. I say nine or ten because I cannot find much evidence regarding their first child, said to have been born sometime in 1895. Even his name is unconfirmed. I have it as Lewiston Leon Burgess, other places it’s James Harvey Lewiston Leon Burgess. If he in fact existed, Horace and Julia had five children in the United States and five in Canada.

Based on the records I have, how Horace came to be in Wyoming is little more than an exercise in speculation. I suspect it was related to Horace’s occupation of transporting freight.

Horace is included twice in the 1900 census, in Freemont and Sweetwater counties, both in Wyoming. For both, his occupation was entered as “freighter”. Since records for other times show Horace as a teamster, it’s likely that his work as a freighter meant he transported cargo. The fact he was listed in the 1900 census at two different locations, it may be that his transport work involved travel between the two counties.

The Freemont County census shows three of Horace’s sons as being with him in that county, with their occupations listed as sheepherder. One of those sons, John, is also listed in both census records. Together, this suggests that Horace’s transport work might have been related to agricultural products.

Horace and family moved to Canada in 1903, when Horace made the first of two attempts at homesteading. In August of that year he settled on a piece of land near Grassy Lake, Alberta, which is midway between Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. The venture did not last long, because he had returned to the United States the following year. In a subsequent application for a homestead at another location, Horace reported that he had forfeited his claim to this land.

The family came back to Canada soon afterwards and made a second attempt as a homesteader on a piece of land near Brant, Alberta, about 60 kilometers southeast of Calgary.

Horace obtained entry for the land on June 19, 1905. He built a home on the land and began continuous occupation in April 1908. That was the same year Horace was naturalized as a Canadian national (at that time, a British subject domiciled in Canada). According to the homestead application Horace filed in June 1908, on two occasions after entering the land he spent several months working in British Columbia. On this homestead, Horace had seven horses and ten head of cattle. The land was granted to him on August 22, 1912. Horace remained here until 1916. I do not know his ownership status there after that time.

^{The yellow square marks the land granted to Horace Burgess, upon which he was a homesteader – not far from Vulcan!}

Sometime in 1916, Horace and family relocated to a farm at Glenwood (at the time, “Glenwoodville”), north of Cardston. Sometime after 1916, Horace and family moved several times, to places in Utah and Idaho, but they did not sell their home in Glenwood. Horace, Julia, and their two youngest children moved back to Glenwood in September 1924. It appears that from up to 1930, Horace divided his time between Glenwood and Cherry Grove, which is midway up the province close to the Saskatchewan border.

Two years before Horace left Glenwood the last time, the village honoured its oldest residents at a banquet in January 1928. At age 73, Horace was the oldest of those honoured. However, the bar for what was considered “aged” was pretty low. According to the newspaper account of the event, from age 72 “down to 33 consisted of what was considered the aged of the town.” I suppose midlife crises in Glenwood occurred when people were in their teens.

Horace ultimately retired in 1930 and remained in Cherry Grove from that time on. His hobbies included vegetable gardening. Horace passed away at age 85, on February 25, 1940. While the cause of death was due to kidney problems, the registration of his death said it was secondary to “senility”, amongst other health problems. Horace is buried at the Cherry Grove Cemetery.

^{Horace’s Gx3 and Gx4 grandsons, visiting the land he farmed just over 100 years ago.}

52W Mark III – Week 39: Homestead

I’ve covered a lot of ground¹on the topic of “Homestead” in past posts. As a result, it’s been hard to think of something new for this week’s prompt for the 52 Ancestors Challenge – so much so that I’m now a week late.

What I can offer is this handy graphic that might be of use to family historians trying to find their ancestors’ homesteads in the Canadian Prairies.

Note: “HBC” stands for “Hudson’s Bay Company”

¹All puns are intended.

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