Getting Back to Martha (Pepper) Daugherty

This is Martha Peper Daugherty, 1838-1924.

I'm getting tired of worrying about what my previous postings have contained and the desire NOT to duplicate. I'm thinking that that is what has made me cautious about blogging lately. Phooey...if I repeat myself, too bad. This is my 175th posting and I guess thath I want to get back to Martha.

What do I know about Martha Pepper Daugherty? Above you'll see an obituary of her.
Martha was born January 3, 1838, in Chillocothee, Ross County, Ohio. I need to find out where that is in the state. She was married to William Henry Daugherty February 19th, 1861 in Wapello, Iowa, though I do have an possibility of Delavan, Tazwell County, Iowa (stated by her obituary.) In front of me, after a bit of hunting through all my Daugherty information, I have a State of Iowa, Certificate of Marriage, County Wapello, of William H. Daugherty and Martha Pepper. There really is very little information other than this. They were married by A.A. Douglas, Justice of the Peace. Their marriage was License No. 23. I just deleted the Delavan, Tazwell County fact. I'm wondering who mistakenly wrote that in. Don't always believe everything in an obituary!

William Henry Daugherty and Martha Pepper Daugherty had 10 children, one being my ggrandfather, George Henry Daugherty. There is a possibility of them having only 9 children. William was said to have had some habits that were detrimental to their marriage. I have heard philandering, gambling, drinking...a "scallowag". No matter what his problems were, I have heard that Martha kicked him out of the house, where he ended up in a poor farm in Kansas. Martha was heard saying, "Don't bury me by that son-of-a-bitch." So needless to say, she's buried in Wessington Cemetery and he, in an unmarked grave in Glen Wood Cemetery, Glen Elder, Kansas. You've got to admire a woman with that kind of guts. I rather believe the gambling part, as William started with quite a bit of land and I'm not sure where it went. I need to do some more research on this.

Martha was the daughter of John Pepper and Rebecca Gordon. She was one of 11 children...many of them well educated. Thomas Shawcross has been very helpful in sharing his Pepper information. We really don't know about the Pepper family before John's parent, Frederick Pepper ( b. 1762 in Pennsylvania) and Deborah Gisburt ( born 1779 in Ohio). Of Deborah's parents, I know nothing. Of Frederick's maybe his father's name...Jacob.

There is so much information needed on the Pepper/Peppers family. Perhaps they were originally from Germany.

Letter to Bill (John William) Daugherty 1935

To begin this posting, I must admit a confusion of dates. Mother's great uncle Bill (John William) Daugherty was the brother of my ggrandfather George Daugherty. I have his death date as 1927, which does not jive with the date this letter was sent to Bill...Feb. 15th, 1935. Note: Just got a message from Mom and she said that that date must be wrong, as she remembers her mother and Dad (Irene and Fred Daugherty) living at Bill's place before they moved to Colorado and maybe before they lived in Bonilla. She remembers visiting them there. That certainly would date Bill's death no earlier than 1947. The letter was sent from Muscogee, Oklahoma.

I have John William Daugherty as born May 1862 in Illinois, the son of William Henry Daugherty and Martha Pepper Daugherty. He was married to Mary Murphy, in 1904. The area of Gettysburg, SD is located NW of Miller, or SE of Mobridge, on the east side of the Missouri River. This letter was written during the Great Depression.

Here are portions of the letter, copied from information from Helen McNeil (McGirr).

"Dear Friend, Will,
Your letter at hand and glad to hear from you. I often live over the times we had in Dakota during the summer of 1883--regarding the killings of a Buffalo near Gettysburg (SD). Chas. Bently and his cousin Ned Abercrombie and I were on claims in Potter County, some 8 miles SW of Gettysburg. It was late in the afternoon. I had a tent in which we had our beds and other belongings. Nearby was their shack, built across their two claims in which we had a stove and cooked and ate all our meals. Ned and I noticed Charley coming out of the tent and running out to where his horses were staked, jumping on one of them and away he went in a dead run towards the north, and towards two black looking objects, which we couln't make out what they might be.
Sometime during the night, Charley came to the tent and threw in one forefoot of the Buffalo, which he had brought to show us the reason for his wild ride. He told us in detail how he saw the 2 buffalo coming toward our habitation and ran to the tent for a bridle and jumping on his horse with one suspender holding his trousers up, gave chase. Knowing the buffalo had come from the direction of Gettysburg, he headed thence back that direction hoping that he could find the settlers there on the hunt for them and sure enough as he approached Gettysburg he saw several out, some on horses and one man afoot and who had an old army musket and who gave the gun to Charley. During this time our man who had a good gun had been shooting at one of the buffaloes, the other having escaped. Charles rode alongside the animal and let him have the contents of the old army musket, which brought the animal down and the other men with guns soon finished the battle. As I remember, two men with guns were at the finish and claimed it their game.

Charles claimed it was his one shot that brought the animal to the ground and as he had run them to these men he was going to have part of it. Well, Charles said to Ned and I, "Boys, we will get up early in the morning, go over to Gettysburg and we will bring back 1/3 of that buffalo." Of course, we unanimously agreed. So soon after sun up we were in Gettysburg. As I remember, these 2 men had a Hardware store. The 3 of us went into the store, quite a few townspeople were there standing around. The storekeeper had all the meat cut up and offering it for sale. Charles addressed the man, saying "I have come for my share of that buffalo." (Ned and I never said anything but tried to look as if we were ready for any emergency.) The man didn't agree that Charles was entitled to any of it. Charles says, "I run them in here and it was my shot that brought the animal to the ground, whereupon your men finished him and I claim 1/3 of it."

Charles knew one of the citizens who was in the store and evidently the town people were favorable to our having a share of the meat, so the 2 store keepers said all right. Charles at once offered some of our part to the man he was acquainted with and some others, but they said, "no, you have neighbors over where you are located and who would like it, we can get what we want of these men who were in at the killing" so we returned home after favoring out neighbors with fresh met, ourselves with several bountiful feeds. We salted the remainder and having it out in the hot sun for a few days where it cured.

Charles gave me a hunk of it when he left us to return home to teach school, having engaged to teach near his home town Aleda, Ill. Ned returned to Aledo and became a veterinarian. I came to Mo. and finally became a druggist. Have had my ups and downs and it seems mostly downs, but for all I had had a good time generally speaking. I have good health, like to work, have been busy today making a garden. Have a comfortable home in Muskogee, modern, gas, water and electricity. Due to my age (76) unable to have a steady job so I get a day or so now and then as relief for some druggist who want off. We came here in 1920 or '30. Wages $35.00 now $15 to $20 would be considered good. One man gave me $40 a week is just about broke now, has no clerk except the soda fountain help.

Well, Will, you had better sell out your Dakota holdings and come to the Ozarks. Here we have a fine climate, have had scarcely any winter. Letters from Mo. and Chicago today tell me all are well. I am glad to hear from you. Hope you can read this, 'tis 10:30 bed time. With very best regards, W.L.Crabb

I thought this letter very interesting. Killing a buffalo meant a lot of food for the people in that area. I did find the name W.L.Crabb periodically in Internet searches.

Continuation of Ann Pryor Enke

The following is the rest of Jack's story of Mauch Chunk, Penn. I am quoting him on most of this posting.

"I mentioned that Mauch Chunk (Penn.) was founded in 1818 by Josiah White, head of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. Josiah had an aunt Hannah who married Thomas Pryor. These were all Quaker folk from Burlington Co., New Jersey (and later Philadelphia). Thomas and Hannah had four known children: Mary, John, George, and Thomas Jr. Mary Pryor married William Letchworth and several years ago I was surprised to find that this was the ancestry of my uncle (by marriage - husband of my dad's sister). John Pryor (2/14/1771) married Keziah Weeks and they had 12 children, the third of which was Anne (6/24/1799) who married 'Mr. Enk'. John and Keziah Pryor were among the early settlers of Mauch Chunk and he died in 1838 in Mauch Chunk. Keziah died in 1843 in Wilkes Barre.

Of the other children of Thomas and Hannah Pryor, George married Betty Pierson in 1803 (the extent of what I know of that branch) and Thomas White Pryor married Susanna Edge and they seem to have settled in Montgomery Co., Pa.

It is interesting that John and Anne (Pryor) Enke ended up in Mahoning Co., Ohio. A few miles south of Mauch Chunk/Jim Thorpe is the township of Mahoning. It was carved out of East Penn Township about 1833 and is still a mostly rural area. The town of Lehighton was originally part of this township but separated from it in the 1860s. It would be interesting to know the roots of Mahoning Co., Ohio and how it got its name.

Enke sounds like it could be a name of Pennsylvania German background. Maybe the spelling is a variation on 'Eck', a common 'Pennsylvania Deutsch' surname in southeastern PA. As for Annie White Wilson and her son, Wm. White Wilson, it is probably just a coincidence with no connection to the Josiah White. I had mentioned that Lydia (Anne's daughter) married a William White Wilson...interesting repetition of the White name. Josiah White had 5 children but only a couple reached maturity and none had children - so there's no living descendent of Josiah White today. Of Josiah's 5 siblings, only one brother seems to have had children.

You should be in luck researching the Pryors and Whites since my understanding is the Quakers kept very good genealogical records. I haven't been able to find anything on the background of Thomas Pryor, but the Whites I've traced back to the 1600s using the Family Search (Mormon Archives) website.

Looking at the map of Pennsylvania, I see that Jim Thorpe is located not far from the home of my uncle David. He lives in Allentown. I checked the Internet for information concerning the Mauch Chunk/Jim Thorpe area and found some terrific photos and information. I think I'll visit eBay and see what is to be found there.

3rd Great Grandmother - Anne Susan Pryor (Enke family)

I just love it when I get a totally unexpected message from an historian opening up a new venue of information. That's what happened this week - March 25th. Jack, historian for the Mauch Chunk Historical Society wrote to me about my posting concerning Alfred Enke. Jack knew of Alfred's father, Jesse Pryor Enke and of Jesse's mother Anna Pryor. Anna (I have her as Anne Susan Pryor) was the daughter of John Pryor, who was "one of the earliest settlers of Mauch Chunk (Penn)." This John Pryor was "a first cousin of Josiah White, the industrialist who founded both the town of Mauch Chunk and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. Anna Pryor had a brother named Jesse Pryor as well as a nephew with that name. In many cases, 'Jesse' is the affectionate form of the name 'Josiah' and it would make sense John Pryor would name a son for his benefector cousin." Jack feels that Anna and "Mr. Enke" (that would be John Enke) left Mauch Chunk before 1830.

I just knew tiny bits about Anne Susan Pryor and her husband John Enke. I knew that Anne was born in New Jersey. She and John were married about 1817 in Lancaster, Penn. They had a huge family, about 15 children, including the above Jesse Pryor Enke and my 2nd great grandmother, Lydia, who married William White Wilson.
Here is what Jack wrote to me on April 2, 2010

"In 1954 the towns of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk merged to form the town of Jim Thorpe. It was a major shipping point for anthracite coal in the 19th century. The offices of two railroads and several coal companies were here and towards the end of the century it was one of the wealthiest towns - per capita- in the USA. Besides being at the forefront of the industrial reveolution it also became a very popular tourist town. When coal fell out of favor and the railroads nearly all died out, the town almost died, too. But since the 1970s, tourism has returned and Jim Thorpe's gone through quite a revival. If you go to eBay and do a search of 'Mauch Chunk' you'll find a lot of photos of the town and surroundings. It was one of the most photographed places in America durig the Victorian era." I'll continue Jack's wonderful dialogue in the next posting.