A Matter of Mistaken Identification

When Dad’s cousin, Harold Mitchell’s wife, Jacquie, sent me a photo in 1998 of the Waggoner family, she identified them as follows, left to right: Eli and Rachel in front; the four daughters are Mary, Alice, Ida, and Amanda; the four sons, she said, are Emery, Gordon, Jacob, and Leo. I'm afraid I perpetuated what I've come to believe is mistaken identification of Leo and Emery. After studying other photos and learning more about the family, I began to realize that something was wrong. 

First, Emery was the eldest (born in 1884), and would have been around age 25+ when this photo was taken. The boy on the left does not look to be over 20. Leo would have been about 15, and this son looks more that age to me. 

My revised identification: Eli and Rachel in front; girls l. to r: Mary Alice, Ida, Amanda; boys l. to r. Leo, Gordon, Jacob, Emery.

Second, when the family moved to Missouri, Emery and Gordon went farther west, and they were not present when the family portrait was taken. Their pictures were added later. When Jacquie sent me the above photo, she said, “Two of the son’s pictures were added to the photo later, but I do not know which two.” I sent her a copy of the photo my dad had given me of the family (below), and wrote, “This photo will tell you which two.” My guess is that this photo was taken, possibly in Missouri, after Gordon and Emery had already gone west. So it is likely that the two missing photos added later were Gordon and Emery, not Gordon and Leo.

My identifiers: Eli and Rachel in front; girls l to r, Mary, Alice, Ida, Amanda; boys, Leo and Jacob.

Third, looking at pictures known to be Leo and Emery when they were older, I just think the boy on the left in the family portrait looks more like pictures of Leo, and the man on the right looks more like pictures of Emery.

In the photos below, compare the lower known portrait of Leo at about age 25 to the boy above from the family portrait that I believe is Leo.

Leo, age 15

Leo, age 25

Now in the photos below, compare the lower known photo of Emery at about age 40 to the one from family portrait that I believe is Emery.

Emery, age about 20.

Emery, age about 40

What do you think?

(c) 2013 Z. T. Noble

Grandma Mary's siblings: Leo's Legend

About fourteen months after Alice, another baby boy was born to Eli and Rachel in December 1891, but he was apparently either stillborn or died shortly, for he was not named, and other than birth,[1] no other record of him exists, that I’ve found, anyway. The 1910 census records that Rachel had 9 children of whom 8 are living.

Then along came Leo. On Oct. 8, 1893, almost three years younger than Alice, he was the seventh child of Eli and Rachel Waggoner. In family records, his name is Leo Cleveland, but that middle name does not appear in any other records, thus far in my research. The middle initial C does, however.

Leo C. Waggoner

Being one of the three youngest children in the family, Leo was about 15 years old when the family left Rich Valley, Smyth County Virginia and moved to Mexico, Missouri. Leo is with the family in 1910.[2] Eventually, his two older brothers, Emery and Gordon, must have influenced his decision to go elsewhere, however. When he registered for the World War I draft, he was farming in Lyon County, Minnesota, where his brother Emery lived. The card says he had brown hair, brown eyes, medium height, and stout build. Interestingly, he gave his birth date as born Oct. 11, 1894, instead of the date on the birth record, Oct. 8, 1893.

Leo C. Waggoner's World War I registration card.

Leo has eluded me in the 1920 census, but I found evidence that corroborates a story my dad told me that Leo lived in California. He seems to have been a hell raiser, at least in his early days. I remember my dad telling us that Leo got in a fight with someone in California and bit off his finger. Or was it nose. I couldn’t remember for sure. Dad laughed as if it were a joke to shock us kids. Years later, I wondered about the truth of it. Surely not, I hoped! A few weeks ago, I decided to search  California newspapers on GenealogyBank, thinking it would be a long shot and nothing would turn up. I was wrong. I found the story in the just a few minutes:

“BITES THUMB OFF

Associated Press

                        FRESNO. Aug. 28 [1925].—Charged with biting off the thumb of Thomas Spano, a ranch superintendent near Clovis, Leo Waggoner, packing plant worker, is being sought by officers on a charge of mayhem.”[3]

Never would I doubt Dad’s stories again.

Just five years later, Leo was living in Lakeshore, Kootenai County, Idaho, where Gordon had lived and had been buried a few years earlier. He shared a place on Yellowstone Trail with two other men: Levi G. Childers, widowed, age 56, and Guy A. House, single, age 31. They were all unemployed.[4] The depression must have hit them hard.

Leo never married, but he had at least one female friend whom he admired enough to have this picture taken with her. They both look dressed to the nine--for cold weather.

On the back of this photo is written, "Leo Wagner and his girlfriend."

 By 1936, evidence shows that Leo was back in California where the city directory of Stockton, shows the name Leo C. Wagner, gardener, living at 838 E. Channel.[5] The picture below shows Leo (on right) and friend in California.

Leo Waggoner and friend in California

 I have not been able to find Leo in the 1940 census, so from 1936 until he died at age 73, his life is a mystery. He passed away in Sanger, Fresno County, California on 6 January 1967, and he is buried in the Sanger Cemetery. Someone on Find A Grave created a memorial for him and added a photo of his tombstone. The beautiful outdoor scene on his grave marker seems to me to reflect a deep feeling he must have held for the mountains. 

Leo C. Waggoner is buried in Sanger Cemetery, Sanger, California. Photo used by permission from a. dot of Ca., findagrave contributor.

(c) 2013 Z. T. Noble

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[1] Bland County, Virginia Births: 1861-96, p. 287, No Name Waggoner, Dec 1891; database Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com : accessed 23 July 2013), extracted from Fridley, Beth, comp.. Bland County, Virginia Births: 1861-96 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000; original records, Richmond, Virginia, USA: Library of Virginia, 1861.

[2] 1910 U. S. census, Salt River, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 11, p. 7-B, dwelling 140, family 140, Leo Creelman [Waggoner]; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 767. Note: Due to a transcription error, all of Eli and Rachel’s children’s names are indexed in this census as Creelman. This is not only a misreading of Mary’s last name, Troutman, but also a misinterpretation (or misuse) of ditto marks for the last names of all the children listed under Mary’s name.

[3] “Bites Thumb Off,” Evening Tribune (San Diego, California), 28 August 1925, p. 5; digital image Genealogy Bank (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 12 August 2013).

[4] 1930 U. S. census, Lakeshore, Kootenai County, Idaho, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 8, p. 3-A, dwelling 50, family 50, Loco [Leo] C Wagner; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 903.

[5] Stockton [California] City Directory (1936), Spokane, Washington: R. L. Polk and Company, 1936, U. S. City Directories, 1821-1989; digital image Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed 27 August 2013), "Wagner, Leo C."

Grandma Mary's siblings: A Sister at Last!

With three brothers to contend with, my grandmother Mary surely was happy when her sister Alice arrived on 8 October 1890, the fifth child born to Rachel and Eli Waggoner in Bland County, Virginia. It was likely a clear fall day with blue skies and sunshine, the trees on Walker Mountain splashed red, orange, and yellow, among the green. I’m sure Alice learned to do all the housework that her older sister had learned. Maybe Mary helped to teach her. Yet, Alice didn’t seem to share Mary’s desire for an education for she attended school only through seventh grade.[1]

Mary and her sister Alice (right) Waggoner, about 1909.

 

When the family moved to Missouri about 1909, Alice was 18 years old. In 1910, the Eli and Rachel Waggoner family lived just a short distance from T. C. and Nancy J. Ellington and their 21- year-old son, Herbert, and 28-year-old daughter, Minnie.[2]

Ellington and Waggoner families in 1910 census, Audrain County, Missouri.

In time, a romance ensued between Herbert and Alice, who were married on 19 February 1912 in Mexico, Audrain County Missouri.[3] When the Waggoner family moved to Nebraska later that year, Alice must had felt apprehensive about being left behind.

Marriage record for Alice Ellington and Herbert Ellington.

 In 1920, Herb and Alice lived in Prairie Township, Audrain County, where Herb worked a rented farm and Alice kept house. By this time, they had a 6-year-old daughter named Hazel, who seems to have been their only child.[4]

About 1922, Alice’s father Eli came to live with her and Herbert on their farm seven miles northeast of Mexico, where he stayed until he died in February 1925.[5] Whether Rachel also came to live with them, I’m not sure. Whatever the case, Rachel didn’t stay in Missouri after Eli’s death, but returned to Nebraska where she died fourteen years later.

In 1930, Herbert, Alice, and Hazel lived in a rented home in Mexico, Missouri. Herbert is listed as a farm laborer, Alice is at home, and 17-year-old Hazel is a stitcher in a shoe factory.[6]

By 1940, Herbert and Alice lived on W. Liberty Street in Mexico. Herb is unemployed and Alice is working as a tree-er in the shoe industry.[7] Hazel’s whereabouts is unknown. What happened between that time and their deaths is also unknown. Herbert died in 1973[8] and Alice died in August 1980 at the age of 89.[9]

I wonder whether Alice kept in contact with Grandma Mary and her other siblings. During my family's annual travels from Nebraska to Virginia to visit my mother's parents, we sometimes stopped on our way through Missouri to visit Dad's relatives, but I do not remember whether he took us to see his Aunt Alice. I wish he were here so I could ask him.

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[1] 1940 U. S. census, Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, Salt River township, enumeration district 4-16, sheet 12-B, visit no. 279, Alice Ellington; digital image Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com ; accessed 15 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T-627, roll 2082.

[2] 1910 U. S. census, Salt River, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 11, p. 7-B, dwelling 140, family 140, Eli P. Wagoner family; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 767. 1910 U. S. census, Salt River, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 11, p. 7-B, dwelling 138, family 138, T. C. Ellington family.

[3] Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002, p. 65, digital image Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com : accessed 15 October 2013); from Missouri Marriage Records, Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives, microfilm.

[4] 1920 U. S. census, Prairie, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 8, p. 3-A, dwelling 50, family 50, Herbert Ellington; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 903.

[5] “Eli P. Waggoner Obituary,” Mexico Weekly Ledger, Mexico, Missouri, Feb. 19, 1925.

[6] 1930 U. S. census, Prairie, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 8, p. 3-A, dwelling 50, family 50, Herbert Ellington; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 903.

[7] 1940 U. S. census, Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, Salt River township, enumeration district 4-16, sheet 12-B, visit no. 279, Alice Ellington.

[8] Social Security Administration, “U.S. Social Security Death Index,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 October 2013); entry for Herbert Ellington, 1973, SS no. 373-26-8893.

[9] Social Security Administration, “U.S. Social Security Death Index,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 October 2013); entry for Alice Ellington, 1980, SS no. 491-05-5278.

Grandma Mary's Siblings: Gentle Jake

Compared to his two older brothers, Emery and Gordon, Grandma Mary’s brother Jake Waggoner led a quiet life. He never traveled much, except to move with his parents from Virginia to Missouri to Nebraska, he never married, and he never left farming. Nonetheless, there was a small mystery surrounding his life, maybe a bit of scandal.

Named Jacob for his paternal grandfather, Jake entered the world on 13 March 1889 or 1890 in Bland County, Virginia.[1] He was the fourth child of Eli and Rachel Waggoner, my grandmother Mary being the third. Jacob’s early years were probably spent playing in the woods, helping with farm work, and being tormented by his two older brothers, for that’s often the plight of younger brothers. He attended school through the eighth grade,[2] and he most likely traveled with the family to Missouri in 1909 when he was about twenty years old, for in 1910, he was counted with them in the census in Salt River, Audrain County, Missouri.[3] His pictures as a young man show that he was also a nice looking guy. He has light eyes, probably blue, and dark hair under that hat.

 Jake Waggoner

In the next picture taken at the same time, he stands beside his friend, Bob Terry. I’m not sure where or when these pictures were taken.

Jake Waggoner, on right, and friend, Bob Terry.

 Apparently, he also moved to northeast Nebraska with the rest of the family about 1912.[4] An article in the Omaha World Herald describes a tornado that touched down on May 25, 1915, on “Jacob Waggoner’s place,” twelve miles northeast of Schuyler, Nebraska, and “destroyed all the large buildings” and killed livestock. The house and surrounding farms escaped damage.[5] Now I’m not sure this is our man, but I couldn’t find any other men named Jacob Waggoner living in this area of Nebraska at that time. Schuyler is about 50 to 70 miles from Winside, depending on the road you take, so if this is our Uncle Jake, he was living further from the rest of the family than was his usual pattern.

In 1920, he was living at Brenna Precinct, Wayne County, Nebraska with his parents and his sister Amanda where he was working a rented farm.[6] Two farms over, his brother-in-law Clint Troutman also rented a farm where he lived with his wife Mary with their five children. [7]

In 1930 Jake was still living on the Brenna Precinct farm with his widowed mother and a hired hand named Chris Jacobsen from Denmark.[8] Ten years later, at age 51, Jake was in the same place, but this time he lived with a housekeeper named Mrs. Ida Sanburn, age 68. She had been with him since 1935, at least.[9] His mother had passed away in 1939.[10]

Jake Waggoner working on his farm in Wayne County, Nebraska, about 1940.

 I vaguely remember my dad taking us to visit Uncle Jake and Mrs. Sanburn. (She was always called Mrs. Sanburn. I didn’t know her first name until I saw it in the 1940 census.)  Having to sit and listen to the men talk about weather and crops put me to sleep. There were no children to play with, and he’d never prospered financially, so his place was sparsely furnished and lacked amenities, such as electricity and an indoor toilet. My brother Vance remembers being fascinated by his kerosene lamps. My cousin Connee remembers his bushy eyebrows and his heavy body. They recall Mrs. Sanburn as frail, bent over, and quiet. Dad called Uncle Jake an “old bachelor.” To us children, he seemed ancient.

During the 1950s when our family lived at Stanton, Nebraska, we had an extra house on our farm besides the one in which we lived. As Uncle Jake and Mrs. Sanburn grew older, Dad let them move into the extra house, so he could make sure they had enough to eat. Some of Dad’s family members didn’t think this was a wise move for Dad, being new in town and Jake and Mrs. Sanborn not being married. What would the townsfolk think? But Dad insisted. Whatever was the actual relationship between Jake and Mrs. Sanburn, we’ll never know for sure.

Curious about Ida Sanburn, I noticed on the 1940 census that she was born in Virginia, so I did a brief search. In 1910, a woman named Ida M. Sanburn, age 41, lived at St. Clair Bottom, Smyth County, Virginia, with her parents, John and Sarah L. Hanna. The household included William L. Sanburn, age 50, son-in-law to head, and step-grandson William R. Sanburn, age 16.[11] In 1920, Ida Sanburn and W. L. Sanburn live in Douglas, Page County, Iowa, with daughter Martha, age 8, and son William R., age 25.[12] In 1925, the former three are living at Valley, Page County, Iowa.[13] In 1930, William Sanburn died,[14] and we know that by 1935, Ida was keeping house for Jake Waggoner.

Uncle Jake died in 1957[15] at age 67 while living in an IOOF nursing home at York, Nebraska.[16] (His brother Gordon was also a member of IOOF. See the IOOF symbol on Gordon’s tombstone.) I do not know for sure what happened to Mrs. Sanburn, but my brother thinks she died in about 1951 (more research needed). Jake was buried near my grandmother Mary and her family in Pleasant View Cemetery, Winside, Wayne County, Nebraska.

Jake Waggoner's tombstone, Pleasant View Cemetery, Winside, Wayne County. 

(c) 2013 Z. T. Noble

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[1] Bland County Virginia Births, 1861-1896 (states 13 March 1889). 1900 U. S. census, Broadford, Smyth County, Virginia (states Mar 1890). Tombstone inscription, Pleasant View Cemetery, Winside, Wayne County, Nebraska (states 1890).

[2] 1940 U. S. census, Brenna Precinct, Wayne County, Nebraska, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 90-1, p. 3-B, visited no. 52, Jacob Waggoner; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 2268.

[3] 1910 U. S. census, Salt River, Audrain County, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 11, p. 7-B, dwelling 140, family 140, Eli P. Wagoner; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 2268. (Note: Jacob Wagoner’s name is incorrectly transcribed as Jacob Creelman in this census.)

[4] Obituary posted on Ancestry.com for Rachel Havens Waggoner; dangeleyes originally submitted this to Poteat Family Tree on 11 Jun 2010, newspaper title and date unknown. (Obituary states year the family moved to Nebraska.)

[5] “Twister Near Schuyler,” Omaha World Herald, 27 May 1915, p. 10, GenealogyBank (http://genealogybank.com : accessed 23 September 2013).

[6] 1920 U. S. census, Brenna Precinct, Wayne County, Nebraska, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 218, p. 5-A (penned), family 87, Jake Waggoner; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 2268.

[7] 1920 U. S. census, Brenna Precinct, Wayne County, Nebraska, family 85, Clint Troutman.

[8] 1930 U. S. census, Brenna Precinct, Wayne County, Nebraska, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 90-1, p. 4-A, dwelling 69, family 69, Jake Waggoner; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1295.

[9] 1940 U. S. census, Brenna Precinct, Wayne County, Nebraska, Jake Waggoner.

[10] Obituary posted on Ancestry.com for Rachel Havens Waggoner; dangeleyes originally submitted this to Poteat Family Tree on 11 Jun 2010, newspaper title and date unknown.

[9] 1910 U. S. census, St. Clair, Smyth County Virginia, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 93, p. 14 (penned), dwelling 227, family 227, John Hanna family; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 1649.

[12] 1920 U.S. census, Douglas, Page County, Iowa, population schedule, enumeration district [ED] 100, p. 6 (penned), dwelling 121, family 121, W. L. Sanburn; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 October 2013); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 506.

[13] 1925 census, Valley, Page County, Iowa, Iowa State Census Collection, 1836-1925, population schedule, home no. 45, Wm. L. Sanburn; digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 October 2013); microfilm of Iowa State Censuses, 1856, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1925 as well various special censuses from 1836-1897 obtained from the State Historical Society of Iowa via Heritage Quest.

[14] bdaley, “William L. Sanburn,” memorial #91690142, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 3 October 2013).

[15] Tombstone inscription, Pleasant View Cemtery, Winside, Wayne County, Nebraska.

[16] Verna Troutman, Blue Springs, Missouri, E-mail from [(E-ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE),] to Zola Troutman Noble, e-mail, 23 September 2013, “Uncle Jake,” Research/Jake W folder, privately held by Noble, [E-ADDRESS & ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Anderson, Indiana, 2013. Vance Troutman, Bloomfield, Connecticut, E-mail from [(E-ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE),] to Zola Troutman Noble, e-mail, 24 September 2013.