'Til Death Do Us Part

This particular article is about my own ancestors and to me hints at true devotion as husband and wife, as they died only 8 hours apart on January 9, 1881.  I guess it's triggered my romantic imagination of a great love story.  The article indicates they were married 61 years, which is pretty impressive for that day, however my math is indicating they were married 65 years!  This is the short yet long sweet love story of Johan "John" Finefrock and Elizabeth Harple (Harpell) Finefrock.  

Elizabeth was born in Wurtemburg, Germany on March 6, 1798.  Elizabeth arrived in America with her parents and three siblings in 1803 at the age of 5.  The family made their way to Lancaster, PA, where Johan "John" Finefrock (Funfrock) and his family were well established since the mid-1700's.  John was born on November 15, 1792, so he was about 6 years older than Elizabeth.  They married on December 8, 1816 in Lancaster, PA.  They lived in Lancaster 6 years before taking a 4 week wagon trip to Centerville (Carrollton), Ohio arriving on July 4, 1823. They had seven sons and three daughters.  John was a farmer and a locksmith.  Their Ohio family farm remained in the family until 1918.  

And here is the article regarding their deaths from the Jan 21, 1881, Carroll Chronicle.  "Recently, two of the most aged and respected citizens of Sandy township, Stark county, died. They were husband and wife and died within eight hours of each other. The wife, Elizabeth Finefrock, aged 83, died very suddenly Saturday evening, January 8, 1881, and John Finefrock, aged 89, who has been ill for several weeks, died Sunday morning. By the kindness of Providence this aged couple, who had lived together as man and wife for 61 years, were not parted in death, and on Tuesday, they were buried in one grave, in Waynesburgh -- Rev Weber, Lutheran, officiating. Mrs. Finefrock was a sister of Peter Harple, Sr., of Harrison township, this county."

Divorces of Yesteryear

I happened to run across several articles in my search for my family history related to divorce which tell a very interesting story of yesteryear.  These articles are not related to my ancestors, they just caught my eye as I was looking for info on my ancestors.  

Our first exhibit is from The Fremont Weekly Journal October 8, 1869.  I just love the quote:  "Eleven times two hearts, which didn't "beat as one'".  So that's where Stacey Q got her "Two of Hearts" lyrics from.

Peculiar Woman from 1902:

I ran across another divorce article but didn't copy the article.  The article from around 1899 in an Indiana newspaper reported that a woman was granted a divorce because her husband would only bathe once a year.  She had been married to him for 30 years!  I don't know that I would have waited that long to leave him, but I know divorce was not a great situation back then, especially for a woman.  

In fact, just as an aside, it was common for people of that time to say they were widowed, rather than to say they were divorced.  I found it to be the case for several of my ancestors.  However, I also found it to be the case that most divorces were reported in the newspaper.  Some were reported more factually and objective, while others were much more detailed such as the one copied above, but so far I've seemed to always see a "reason" for the divorce mentioned.  

And here is another common article announcing not only the intent to divorce for some horrible reason, but also that no one should allow this man's wife to take on any debts in his name.  This was of course well before credit cards came around or else he could have just cut up his wife's credit cards.  From the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette, 1807:

Can you blame an 80 year old man for expecting his much younger wife to show him "love and affection"?  Perhaps he could have waited a a bit longer than a week?  From the Gettysburg in Compiler in 1899:

I may continue with this theme of divorce, not sure yet since this is my first post.

Welcome to the Blog of All Things Yesteryear

I have been doing my family genealogy for several years now.  With full credit to Newspapers.com as well as Ancestry.com, I have come to find out a lot about my own family.  As I looked through old newspaper articles I've come to understand that the newspaper of yesteryear was very different than the newspaper of today.  Of course, now with social media in play, information about people's lives is very much accessible if it is shared online.  The newspapers of yesteryear, say perhaps from the early 1900's and earlier, were utilized in a way that I had not realized until my genealogy searches began.

Of course the newspapers were meant to be a way for people to understand the comings and goings of people within their small town communities.  Newspapers had little tidbits about who was in town visiting a relative, or when someone returned from visiting someone out of town.  They even sometimes listed all of the people staying at the town's hotels and where they were from.  They also had articles of a political nature and talked a lot about local government activities, city councils, etc., which is the same as we find today. 

Newspapers had articles about legal cases and crimes, just as they do today.  Sometimes, however, the perspective of those articles were very different than those of today.  Today the newspapers report on such things as legal cases and occurrences with a certain air of objectivity, however the flavor of many articles from yesteryear seemed to have a more subjective quality to them.  Often, those articles had a very catchy title.  There was often much detail related to someone's actions.  In some of these cases, if I were the subject of some of these scandalous articles, I would have been mortified and would not know how to face the public again.

At this juncture I think I will proceed with posting and commenting on articles of a particular theme for each blog post.  It may evolve in a different way at some point, but that is my initial attempt in entertaining you, the reader, with the stories of yesteryear.  I do have to throw out a disclaimer that I do have an odd sense of humor sometimes, so what I may think is hilarious, you may simply think is tragic.  But be prepared for me to post some very odd stories nonetheless.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.