Aberdeen Ohio

This place, Aberdeen Ohio, really intrigued me. The thought that a family member 8 generations back was the first to settle here, set up a ferry across the Ohio river at the end of Zane's Trace, became quite wealthy and ended up owning a large chunk of land, and, oh by the way, fought in the Revolutionary War as well... Well I just had to check this place out in person.

Got a leisurely start to the morning, as I had no real time agenda. Decent breakfast at the Comfort Inn which I would have to say was a pretty nice hotel. Oh, and extra points toward the Comfort Inn for NOT tuning into Fox and Friends in the breakfast room.  I could get used to this lifestyle real quick, it's going to suck next week when reality hits me in the face and I have to get up early and head downtown...

The hotel bills itself as being close to the Horseshoe Casino and the Creation Museum. All true, the casino is just down the road and the Creation Museum is right over the river in Kentucky. I have absolutely no interest in gambling, but a part of me wanted to go to the Cretin, er, Creation Museum for a hoot. But thinking about it, any money that I give them supports THEIR cause, even if I'm doing it in jest, protest, whatever. I can't do that, they are building a massive lie out of a work of fiction that has no basis in reasonable, rational human thought. So I drive on by with a little wave...

Leaving the greater Cincinnati area, I headed east on RT52 which hugs the banks of the Ohio River on the Ohio side. Nice drive, the river is big, the bluffs are tall and wooded. I'm in no rush, just soaking up the scenery as it rolls by. That is so not like me, I'm the worst A-type speeder normally.
One thing that I can't help but noticing is that the main industry of the region appears to be VERY LARGE coal fired power plants. I think that I passed 6 of them on the way. Now I totally get it that the river is an easy pathway for delivering the coal via barge, but so many, so close together... Must be serving a large geographical area...

Aberdeen is a nice enough little town. It's main claim to fame is that there are two bridges over the Ohio River, with none in-between here and Cincinnati. I spent some time just  driving about town trying to soak up the atmosphere and looking for any Ellis references. Well, there were none that I saw, only a sign for Ferry St. which so happened to be right under the present bridge.

Now, whether or not this had any relationship to where Captain Nathan Ellis had established his ferry remains to be seen... but I like to think so...

Nathan had helped route Zane's Trace to his ferry, giving him a monopoly on travel across the Ohio into Kentucky.

The bridge stands in what I assume to be the path of Nathan's ferry. There are still some remains of a ferry landing under the bridge on this side.

In Mabel's " Ellis Family History", she states that Nathan and family members were buried in the Ellis Family Cemetery on Old State Road, just 350 yards off RT 52. There is a cemetery in town, but it's not named "Ellis", it's Oakwood or some such... Still I took a look there, it's the only place in the area where 350 yards from RT 52 doesn't put one in the river or into a bluff. Also, Old State Rd. doesn't come anywhere near 350 yards from RT. 52. Found one Ellis there, but there is no mention of a W.R. Ellis in Mabel's work. May be a relative, but most likely not.

So the mystery of the old Ellis family grave still needs to be researched. Google marks a Ellis Grove on Old State Rd. which is consistent with Mabel's other descriptions of a cemetery up and out of Aberdeen proper. I had saved pages of Google Maps of the backroads around Aberdeen in a couple of scales on my lap top and iPad, thusly armed I set off... Oh my, the state route out of town is a narrow 2 lane and the first road that I turn off on is even smaller, 1 and 1/2 lanes at best... But at least it's paved... the next road is a narrow, single lane (maybe) gravel and rock affair. And it's steep and twisty and did I mention narrow? I'm glad for the 4wd truck, actually it's kind of fun, but I'm sure glad that I didn't encounter anyone coming from the opposite direction. I traversed the area in both directions a couple of times and ended up following Old State Rd. for it's entire length as one can never be sure with the Google maps locations. Nothing, not even a sniff. There might be an old graveyard back in those hills, but I couldn't find it. Might well have be on someone's present property, or the descriptions that I have are corrupted through the passage of time... The nearest that I could pinpoint was the intersection of Old State with Wilson Rd ( Google's mark ), but there was a nice, well kept, newer looking farm there. Maybe once upon a time there was a graveyard there but has since been plowed over... who knows...

There were other sights to be seen and these weren't a mystery, the little hamlet of Ellsberry and from it, Ellis Run Road.

 Here it should be noted that there are a lot of " ____ Run Roads" in the area. A "run" must refer to a creek / valley that cuts through the massive bluffs of the Ohio river valley. The roads hug the banks of the creeks as they twist and turn their way down to the mighty Ohio. I of course, just had to drive Ellis Run... It was, umm, interesting, it was one lane and paved, my mirrors and radio antenna were getting thwacked constantly from the tree branches... some ok looking places along the way with the majority of homes being the mobile variety, really quite a few were just smaller, old RV's that were functioning as homes. Some places weren't so nice.

It was still bloody hot and humid here today and I had had enough exploring. Off to my hotel across the river in Maysville Kentucky. The Hampton Inn is fortuitously located in a shopping center with a Kroger Foods at the other end. Right next door is a Tumbleweeds restaurant, a local chain of Tex -Mex joints. All set for the night then. I did something out of character for myself, I went for a swim in the pool before dinner. I usually avoid motel pools as they are usually filled with rug rats, today it was all mine! Sweet...

Walked across the parking lot to dinner. I wasn't holding out high hopes for culinary excellence as all of the Yelp reviews were lukewarm at best. The other places in town fared worse in the review status, so here goes... Picture a Chili's only smaller and with more emphasis on the Mexican part of the menu. On the positive side, Tumbleweeds really works on the Margarita business. My drink was right up there, a 8 out of 10. I'm surprised at myself for only having one... if I had this drink in Chicago or Santa Fe I would have been happy. My only demerits for the cocktail was the use of a mix versus using fresh squeezed lime juice. Otherwise they nailed it. The other thing that they have going on is something that you just can't teach, train, put in your company manual... the world changes south of the Ohio River. The waitresses all refer to one as "sweetie, dear, honey"... They don't mean anything by that, it's not flirting or anything like that, but to this old cynical yankee, it's a nice touch. The food was only so so, but the Margarita and the "sweetie" made for a nice experience...

I walked across the shopping center to walk off some of the burrito and to get some toothpaste. Still pretty warm but tolerable. Back in the hotel room I'm writing this blog entry at the desk with a weird old naugahyde chair that lists considerably to the right, it's most disconcerting and uncomfortable. Last night's hotel had a really good office chair. Funny how these things matter in one's experience...

Tomorrow I'm heading back home. My work here is done and Friday is a full track day at Autobahn, something that I have not taken advantage of over the past couple of years and the race car is running strong for now...

Dillsboro, Indiana

I learned on Monday that we wouldn't have any work for this week, so I got to work planning out my unfinished road trip to visit my ancestors homes in Indiana and Ohio. Made a couple of reservations, we have a plan...

I was packing the truck this morning when Mitch called so say that, "Oh by the way, we have a couple of backsplashes that we can do this week..." Me, "Oh by the way, I'm leaving town, you said that we have no work and I took you at your word..."

Off to a boring drive down south through Indiana. I dread this part of the trip as I have made this drive so many times in the past. Just south of Merrillville on I65 there was a large billboard on the side of the road that read in all caps;  HELL IS REAL!  Driving on 65 I couldn't agree more, but I don't think that was the intended message.

The goal for today is to visit the farm where my Great, Great grandfather, Michael Radspinner settled in 1840 upon emigrating to the USA from Germany. My main tool for this adventure is the genealogy of the Radspinner family written by W. A. Radspinner. This combined with Google searches lets me get a pretty good idea of the farm's location. I also have in my family's memorabilia, the original deed or land grant to the farm with a readable legal description. So I have a pretty good idea as to the general location, but am shy on present day specifics.

I arrived in Dillsboro after 5 or so mind numbing hours of driving. It's hot, 95 and sunny. Glad to start exploring. First I took a cruise through town, not much to see, didn't expect much for that matter. Now it's time to start zeroing in. I found Station Hollow Road which took me steeply down into the South Hogan Creek valley. By all reckoning, the farm's southern boundary was along the creek. Following the creek road for several miles yielded nothing that stood out to me, so I turned back and retraced my way back to where Hogan's Creek Rd. intersected Long Branch Rd. Took Long Branch up and out of the north side of the valley, where I came across several farms cleared on the bluff top. W.A.'s account describes stone walls built by Michael and sons, saw nothing of the sort. But his work also states that the Radspinner children went to Long Branch school ( which was already gone at the time of his writing in 1970). So, by the lack of any other roads through the area, and going on the other information that I had on hand, I'm sure that I was in the immediate location of the farm, just don't have anything concrete that I can use to state that this is the definitive spot.

Next mission was to find the family grave site. W.A.'s account says that Michael, his wife and 2 children are buried in the Mt. Tabor Church cemetery just a coupe of miles east of Dillsboro. Well the church was easy enough to find and the cemetery is right next to the church. Now the Mt. Tabor Church seems to be in fine repair, but the cemetery is in sad shape. the gravestones are all old and badly weathered, many unreadable. Quite a few broken markers are piled in a heap. It's clear that it has been a long time since anyone cared for this place. After looking through all of the markers, I didn't find any Radspinners.  But I did notice another graveyard a little ways south when I turned in to the church lot.
So I headed over there to see what I might find. This was a bit more promising, most of the stones could be read, some were pretty new. W.A. states that "They are buried in the new part of the Mt. Tabor church cemetery between their two children born on the farm, all facing east, as was the custom, to see the sunrise first and to be the first to arise on judgement day". Well most of the lot was arranged in a general east facing direction, but as I made my way from grave to grave, no Radspinners. Until the last set that I came to, there it was, Rebecca Radspinner's marker laying over flat in the grass and next to it a smaller stone, also laying over and partly buried. I could make out enough of that one to see that it was a Radspinner too, probably Michael's.

Feeling flushed with success and flushed with the heat, it was time to move on and find my hotel for the night in Lawrenceburg. I was looking forward to a nice dinner, I had spotted a place on Yelp that looked real promising. So after cleaning up at the hotel, I head out to find that the place is closed Tuesdays. Arrgh. I settled for a mediocre Mexican joint instead, notable only for the sternest, most unfriendly waitress ever, I mean she had to have practiced to get that mean... The food kind of sucked and I've already spoken of the Mexican Gestapo Princess, but it still beat some fast food chain rubbish or worse yet a pizza in the motel room. I'll survive...

Tomorrow I continue my travel east to Aberdeen Ohio, founded by early Ellis ancestors.

An Interlude...

I had to come back to Gurnee as it was I who had arranged a group outing with our friends Nancy and Gene to the Lake Geneva Wine Festival on Sat. the 7th. While I wanted to carry on with my travels and research, I knew that it I alone who had started the momentum toward the LGWF. So I made my way back via a more southern route, seeing a part of Indiana that I had never visited. Nice enough and an interesting enough diversion from the all too boring direct route of US 30.

Well, the Lake Geneva Wine Festival was to my mind, a complete waste of time and money. There was only one wine that I tasted that I was remotely interested in, and the food was utterly unremarkable. Shouldn't have been a surprise, this is Wisconsin after all... But then I thought that it might be fun, and I was the one who brought it up, so I felt a responsibility to follow through. So much for that notion, we would have been better off chucking the notion of getting something for our money and just chalked it off to a charitable donation, and skipped the whole thing altogether. Seriously. I think that we were amongst the last to arrive and the first to depart... Now I hope that Nancy and Gene will trust us on the Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta coming up in a couple of weeks. Fool me once... no never again...

So now I find that our work has not materialized, and I have a week off. so it's back to the road for me. First stop will be the first farm in the USA of my mother's ancestors in southern Indiana.

Huntington

Well, I have had this idea to go out and find my ancestors homesites and such for some time now. Back in 2004 ( or maybe 2003 ) I visited my mother's home in Warren Pa. That was a no brainer as I had stayed at my grandparents house many times in my youth, and it was pretty much as I had remembered. So no real sleuthing involved there. On my father's side, the Ellis side, things were a bit trickier. My grandparents ( Ellis ) had moved about quite a bit during their lives, finally settling down in Kansas City, Ka.( been there a bunch too ). But what piqued my interest was the Indiana farm that my grandfather, John C. Ellis grew up on. I knew of the farm from what my father had told me, but I'm not sure that he had ever been there. If so, I am not aware of it. I do recall a trip to Huntington to visit my dear great aunt Mabel ( Grandpa John's sister ) but she was living in a farmhouse somewhere outside of Huntington and for the life of me, I can't remember if she took us by the old farm, so in the present, to my recollection, I have never seen the farm.

A little aside, I am the eldest of my generation of Ellis's. With that, I have inherited a great deal of family memorabilia, giving me a big leg up on researching family history... And it may well be that having all that at my disposal further flames the interest. Of particular note, I possess my grandfather's arrowhead collection. I had marveled at it as a child, now through the years, it is in my possession. It's not limited to arrowheads, there are larger stone implements as well. The pieces were all gathered at the farm in Huntington County to my knowledge, and to further back this up, I have found references to the fertile pickings of arrowheads and other prehistoric implements in the Huntington Country area. So blame this adventure on the arrowheads...

This past week I have found myself with some time on my hands after a particularly long spell of hard work. This wasn't planned, in fact I was led to believe that we had work for this week, up until when things went south with the designer. So what to do,  I am physically and mentally exhausted from the past month. Biking, hiking, running have no appeal. Road Trip! That's it! But first I need to do some research, I can't just light out for the territories like Tom Sawyer. So I spent Wednesday doing my due diligence, and between my Great Aunt Mabel's genealogy and a lot of Google searches, I am able to pinpoint the location of my great grandfather's farm and I have a good clue as to where my relatives are buried.

Let me explain; I knew from Mabel's work that my great great grandfather Clinton Ellis had a farm in Huntington County In. and that his son ( great grandfather ) William I. Ellis had taken over that farm where my grandfather John C. Ellis was born and raised. A bit of Google work found that the farm was  located in Sec. 22 of Lancaster Township, Huntington County In. Armed with that knowledge, I found a plat map on Google Books, and there it was in black and white. The plot was clearly identified as W & G Ellis, William and Gertie Ellis, my great grandparents. The book must be a hundred years old to have that as current information. I love Google! With that information it was easy to go to Google Maps and look at the parcel from the satellite view. Plain as day, there it was. A creek cuts through the property diagonally from the south west to the northeast and the roads are all still the same. Bang on.

I had had grand plans of going to Huntington as well as the original Radspinner ( mother's family ) farm in southern Indiana, as well as Brown County Ohio, home of many early Ellis family members, but time and previous commitments left me with a decision to only do Huntington this time. The others will have to wait...

Another aside if you will indulge me; Back in 2000 / 2001 when we built our home in Gurnee, Ann and I went furniture shopping in the Amish areas north and west of Huntington / Ft. Wayne. While staying there, I got the most incredible vibe that this was home, that somehow I was a part of this. I expressed this feeling to Ann and my parents (who were obviously alive at the time ), it was bringing back that visit to Mabel even though she was really miles away. I still can feel it to this day, so now I'm wondering if this visit will conjure up those same feelings...

Nope, not a bit. Nothing feels familiar, no vibe at all. I don't have any information as to where Mabel lived, so I can't go there, but I was able to drive right to my great grandfather's farm easy as pie. Nice enough place, but no vibe there. The Google search was almost more rewarding.  Decided to continue south through the little town of Lancaster and head west to the town of Mt. Etna where my great, great, grandfather had a pharmacy before he bought the farm in Lancaster. According to Mabel's record's, Clinton and William ( and families ) are buried in the Lancaster Cemetery. But there is no clue with Google as to a Lancaster Cemetery. Plenty of other cemeteries in the neighborhood, but no Lancaster. So I head south, through Lancaster and to my left appears a cemetery, Lancaster Cemetery! I pull in and it's quite apparent that this first section of the cemetery that I come in to is more recently active. The ancestors that I am looking for would have died circa 1910 - 1940. No big deal, I cruise around until I see older gravesites. I then parked the truck and started to walk. From the historical accounts, my great, great grandfather was quite the man and had some wealth and prestige in the community, so armed with that info, I didn't bother with the small gravestones, and in a few minutes of walking, I came upon Clinton's grave. A fine red granite monument listed Clinton, his wife Mary and on the back their six children including my great grandfather William I. Pay dirt! A few yards west found  William's grave with another nice monument and headstones for William, Gertie and Aunt Mabel. I don't know for sure if Mabel is buried here, she spent the last part of her life in Florida and the marking on her headstone is incomplete, it only lists her birthdate of 1899 with no date of death. But I like to think that she is here at home...

The family farm was nothing that pictures from the road could capture, imagine corn and a shady grove of trees where the house stood. The brick home was well back in the trees and I just couldn't capture it with a camera from the road. There was no one about, if there was, I was willing to engage them, but, there wasn't and I wasn't about to go in up to the door unannounced. I could better do it justice with the Google satellite view. I did drive west to Mt. Etna, site of Clinton's pharmacy, there is only a small cluster of homes there, no business establishments whatsoever. All in all the day's adventure was a success, I really had little hope of finding the graves of my great (great) grandparents and yet I did. The farm was a slam dunk and it almost seemed too easy to drive right to it. So now I have been to the origin of the arrowheads. It's easy to see that the area would have been a fine place to live in prehistoric ( that is pre-white man ) times with fertile land, many streams and abundant wildlife. I like to imagine my grandfather playing along the creek and helping out with the chores as child. He clearly had no taste for the farm life though. John went to Purdue and became an engineer and served in WW1 in France.
Great grandfather William had no other male heirs, Mabel and Mary were not about to take on the farm, so it's reasonable to conclude that he sold the farm when it came time to retire to Huntington.

Oh and about those arrowheads... ever since I first laid eyes upon them, and I could not have been much more than 5 or 6 at the time, they were kept in a couple of cigar boxes. I always thought that somehow, it was undignified, that they needed a better presentation. Well, they are still in the same cigar boxes to this day. Sometime, somehow, I need to display them in in a proper fashion and it wouldn't hurt a bit to get some archeological insight as to their origins. Some day...

The farm. The house is in the grove of trees in the background. Corn looks nice!