52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.  Week #4 theme - Witness to History

Today I will share about Charles W. Terry, the brother of my Gt Grandmother, Lizzie Terry Griffin. Immigrating from England with his family as a young teen in 1849, Charlie's life spanned nearly a century with many experiences.  He became a naturalized citizen of the United States. We came across a news item written when Charlie was 92 years of age.  A few quotes are following:

"Mr. Terry is said to be the original youth to whom Horace Greeley said: "Go west, young man." When Lincoln and Douglass were traveling through Illinois debating, previous to the senatorial election of 1858 in that state, Charles Terry says he was present and heard several of their verbal encounters. He was also present when Abraham Lincoln defended Duff Armstrong in that famous murder trial. The word "remarkable" describes Mr. Terry."

"Charles Terry voted for Abraham Lincoln three times while a resident of Illinois; the first time was in Beardstown, when Mr. Lincoln was a candidate for congressman at large. Mr. Terry enlisted for the civil war in 1862, with the 68th Illinois."

A history of the 68th Illinois states: "Though the boys of the Sixty-eighth were never under fire, they did the duty assigned them with alacrity. It was theirs to care for the wounded as they were sent into Alexandria from the disastrous field of Bull Run.

They once passed in Grand Review before President Lincoln, being the only Illinois Regiment present on that occasion, and when Company G, at the command of their Captain, gave a hurrah for the President, his kindly recognition of the boys from Illinois by waving his hat, and his evident pleasure, manifested by a smile which lit up his careworn countenance, waved the company from reproof by superior commanders."

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week 3 Theme - Favorite Photo

My photo for 2024 is our McGill family on their farm west of Edmond OK, about 1900. Daniel Patrick McGill, seated center, made the Land Run of 1889, claiming this free land to homestead. He came from Iowa to Arkansas City, Kansas, where he boarded the train to make the Run at the sound of a gunshot at noon, April 22, 1889. It is said that he got off the train at Waterloo Rd with 3 other men, and was able to stake the claim with the best water since he had a large family. The rest of the family came by covered wagon in the next months. My Grandmother, Hattie (Harriett Emily McGill) is in the photo, 4th from right, along with her parents, and siblings. This land is still pasture land and the pond is still there, although the suburbs of Edmond have surrounded the property.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week #2 Theme - Origins

As we keep searching further and further back in the generations of our families, we can never hope to find the origins of our ancestors. But at every level we discover clues about immigration, occupations, and family history. In a couple of cases, I've found origins of places where my ancestors had an influence in exploration or naming, etc.

When the area of Cleveland, Ohio, called Columbia Station, was being surveyed, our Frost and Paine ancestors from Connecticut were among the first settlers. Elias C. Frost, son of our ancestor, Isaac Frost, is mentioned as one of the first surveyors of the Columbia Station in 1807. These first men came from Waterbury, CT to Buffalo, NY, then spent 21 days on the rough waters of Lake Erie to reach Cleveland. Elias C. Frost and 4 others, as ax and chain men, "set out from Cleveland taking a southwest course until the northeast corner of the town was reached. From this point they proceeded west two and a half miles, thence south a like distance to the center of the township. The party made their encampment here, on the west bank of the Rocky River. A daughter of Levi Bronson, (possibly a cousin of the Frosts) Mrs. Oliver Terrell, accompanied the party to do their cooking, to whom must be accorded the honor of being the first white woman that ever set foot on the soil of Columbia.” History of Lorain County, Columbia Township (Part 1).

Father, Isaac, and sons, Elias C. and Lyman J. Frost (our direct ancestor), are shown to settle on lot #28 of the Columbia Station Township in 1808. Another direct ancestor, Seth Paine, helped survey the town of Brecksville, OH, where he was the first settler, in 1811. Streets in the area are named for Seth Paine and his daughter Oriana (our 3Gt Grandmother,first teacher in Brecksville, OH), and the first post office was Frostville.

Thus, our family was influential in the origins of what has become the metropolis of Cleveland and suburbs.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. 2024 - Week #1 theme is Family Lore. When we were growing up in the 1940s and 50s, we didn't know much about our paternal Gt Grandparents. Surnames were mentioned, but not attached to lines. "We are Frosts." "We are Terrys." "Our Griffins are NOT the Virginia Griffins." And another time..."We had ancestors from East Virginia." "Great Grandpa McGill was an orphan. He remembers seeing his mother in her coffin when he was about 5." These phrases were all we had to go on when we started making our family tree. So we started asking questions about those surnames. We found that we had a 2Gt Grandfather Frost. Our Gt Grandmother's maiden name was Terry. Our Griffins way back had come from Connecticut, by way of West Virginia. The East Virginia line was our 2Gt Grandmother Elizabeth M. Rodgers. (A name no one had mentioned.) And yes, Gt Grandpa Daniel Patrick McGill was orphaned and raised by a foster family who changed the direction of our family by educating him and giving his life a new direction. Advice to fellow searchers, listen to those tidbits of Family Lore, then dig a little deeper !