Tombstone Tuesday: A partial answer to a family mystery found in Lake Mills!

What happened to Susanah DOLE HARVEY after her husband left for Canada "not to return until he could pay his debts" when she was left with at least 2 young children?  Joseph HARVEY never did return supposedly to die in Canada in the War of 1812.  The story of her husband is the topic of another (or many) posts since it is more complicated.

I have found Vermont records for the birth of two children of Susannah DOLE and Joseph HARVEY.  Enoch Dole HARVEY was born 10 January 1811 and Judith Dole HARVEY was born 11 December 1808.  The family story says that Enoch (my GGG grandfather) was "farmed out" to an old family member who was a Deacon (another story here).  I have not verified where he went because this was before the 1850 census where everyone is listed by name.

So, what do I know about Susannah's location?
• Over the years she told the census takers that she was born in Massachusetts or in New Hampshire.  The town history of Bedford NH mentions her birth there as a child of Deacon Silas DOLE.
• She married Joseph HARVEY on 10 September 1807 (VT vital records).
• The 1801 census for Shrewsbury, Rutland, VT includes the Joseph Harvey family with 1 male between 16 & 25 [Joseph], 1 female between 16 & 25 [Susannah], 2 females under 10 [Judith & ??].  So it fits if this is the correct HARVEY family.
• If Joseph left the family after 1810 and probably before the 1820 census (based on family legend and lack of finding him in the census).
Over the years I don't know what happened to Susannah, for example, the numbers don't fit to find her in her parents' household in the following census and she isn't listed as a head of family.
• The 1850 census for an unknown township in Washington VT lists a farmer, Elijah NYE, the grandfather of Enoch's wife Mary Hubbard NYE, with a wife of Susannah.  The family history says he married Mary HUBBARD and she died in 1838.  So I checked the Vermont records and discovered Elijah NYE married "Mrs HARVEY"  on 24 January 1840. Looks like he remarried.   Could thi "Mrs. Harvey"  be my Susannah DOLE HARVEY?  Looks like she got remarried to the grandfather of her daughter-in-law!
• Elijah NYE died in 1852, so where did Susannah go then?
•There is a Susan NYE, age 78, in Aurora, Kane County, IL born in MA in the 1860 census.  Is this the same Susannah?  Why Aurora?  Her son was in Lake Mills Wisconsin at this time.  I have no idea where her daughter was.  She is living with the Justin and Juliet DODGE family.  Is she a boarder or possibly a grandmother?
• In the 1870 census for Lake Mills WI, Susan NYE is living with her son and his family.  Under occupation "In the family" and she is from Massachusetts.
• Horatio Gates book on the McGeoch-Harvey Descent says she died in Lake Mills WI on 3 April 1871.
I didn't find a death certificate for her in Jefferson County WI.

The above tombstone puts her in the HARVEY family plot.  Susannah is buried with her granddaughter Isabel Susannah HARVEY and her husband August Henry WEGEMANN.

This tombstone was a wonderful find on my trip to the Lake Mills cemetery on my tour with my Genealogical Hostess from Heaven, Marie Copeland, that I wrote about in my last post.  I confirmed that she made it to Wisconsin and spent the last few years living with her son Enoch HARVEY.  The details about the years in between, are a bit fuzzy and fruit for some more research.  Does it ever end?

The Genealogical Hostess from Heaven in Jefferson WI

I enjoy reading Randy Seaver's blog, Genea-Musings.  After attending the FGS conference in Springfield IL, he has extended his genealogical tour around the midwest.  On day 10, he starts his morning in Jefferson WI and talks about the generosity and help from folks there and in Dodge County.  Reading his blog brought back fond genealogical memories from my own experience in Wisconsin.

I grew up hearing my grandmother say, "I am Adelaide Copeland Harvey Richardson -- Copeland of the Copeland Ryder Shoes."  So years later, when I got to wondering about "Copeland & Ryder Shoes," I googled it.  I discovered there really was a Copeland & Ryder Shoe Company in Jefferson WI for many years and it had been sold to Dr Scholls Shoes in 1946.  In 1868, George COPELAND and Lewis RYDER arrived in Jefferson WI, from Bridgewater MA, with plans to establish a shoe company.  Their business was originally opened as the Jefferson Boot and Shoe Factory.   I was looking for information on the Copeland's of the shoe company and discovered that, yes, they were her relatives.   My grandmother, who was born in 1893 in Lake Mills WI, was a first cousin twice removed from George COPELAND.

In 2002, I checked to see if there was any local historical society that I might find in Jefferson and Lake Mills.

In my search for a local historical society, I got a letter from a local resident which started, "Hi Cousin!"  Marie Copeland had been told by someone at the historical society "to get all the information together and send it to" me since she was also researching the COPELAND family.  Starting in 2002, we sent information back and forth, comparing our own records on the Copeland family.  Our relationship has continued over the years.

As a budding family historian, I needed to verify the data I had on my family and decided to take a genealogical field trip to Wisconsin on my school spring vacation in 2004.  I figured I could check out where the factory was located, maybe identify some pictures, find tombstones and vital records to verify the data I had on the COPELAND and HARVEY families in Lake Mills and Jefferson.   I also wanted to see if I could find where the WORTHINGTONs were buried in Oconomowoc WI.   Marie graciously invited me to stay at her home in Jefferson.  

I flew to Chicago and drove to Jefferson.  Since M.C. wasn't related to either my WORTHINGTON or to my HARVEY family, I figured I'd explore those parts of my family on my own.  My amazing hostess had different plans.

I arrived and she welcomed me as a long-lost relative who has finally come home.  She had prepared for my visit.  When I arrived she gave me a copy of a book on the history of Lake Mills WI, People Their Places & Things by Roland R Liebenow, M.D.  Since there was no index, she had already gone through the whole book with a highlighter and picked out every mention of anyone named Harvey, Brun and Wegemann (other family connections) so we would be prepared for our first day of exploring.

The next morning she put me and her husband into the car and we headed for  Lake Mills.  She had called the cemetery ahead of time,  and had made an appointment to meet someone there to show us where all the HARVEYs were buried.  As we arrived, I commented:  "We didn't stop at a bakery to take something to the nice caretaker who met us" -- no problem, she had planned ahead and took a bottle of wine out of the car trunk to give him.  The next stop was the house my grandmother lived in as a young child (she not only highlighted the book but she checked out the address ahead of time -- this was before those handy GPS machines and Google Maps!).  Here one of the mystery photos I had brought with me was identified!

210 East Madison St, Lake Mills Wisconsin.  My grandmother's first childhood home.

We also visited the local library and the town Clerk's office to see the vital records.

The next field trip for the three of us was to explore Jefferson.  She headed to the cemetery where the COPELANDs are buried and then we did a tour of the various houses in town that the large extended COPELAND family had lived in -- including all those aunts that my grandmother talked of so fondly.  We headed to the vital records office and the town library and then we needed to go home because she had invited her whole family to dinner (her children, their spouses and children).  A wonderful large family dinner -- much larger than any dinner in my experience, I never had any cousins or relatives in the same state in my childhood.  Everyone graciously welcomed me.

The next morning, I got up ready to drive to Oconomowoc to try to find the cemetery where my WORTHINGTON family was buried.  Much to my surprise, Marie, her husband and I made the trip.  It was good she was driving. First of all she knew where Oconomowoc was located and knew the back roads to get there.  Finding the cemetery wasn't easy; and sure enough, she had checked out where to find it.

My Genealogical Hostess from Heaven was definitely a blessing.  I might have stumbled on all the information I gathered on my research trip to Wisconsin without Marie Copeland.  But, I probably wouldn't have done it as efficiently or in three days.  I was a real genealogical newbie at that point and didn't know all the questions to ask or to compile before taking the adventure.  Best of all, I found a wonderful friend/distant family member and we have stayed good friends all these years.