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!