Wilbur L. Davis

I am seeking more information for Wilbur L. Davis.  According to the 1910 federal census for Oklahoma City, OK, he was born in 1885 in Illinois.  Both his parents were born in IL.  At the time of census, he was married one year to Cabitola (sic) (mother of two children, one living).  He was a cook, and she (Capatola Viola Eller, b. 1888, OK) was a waitress in a restaurant.

By 1918, his wife was married to Salem J. Hardin.  The lack (so far) of a WWI draft registration card makes it appear that Wilbur died between 1910 and 1918.

I would like to find any documents at all for Wilbur, either that WWI draft registration, census record between 1885 and 1910 or a census record for 1920 (showing that my guess about his death is wrong), a marriage, divorce or death notice, a headstone (possibly in Oklahoma City), etc.

Tall Chief

Oh how my grandfather, Estal Earnest Sparlin, would have loved today's internet!  Oh my!

In a memoir/letter he wrote about the Osage, those Native Americans who influenced him so profoundly as a boy in Oklahoma, he wrote about the chief of Gray Horse, Tall Chief.  Below is an excerpt.

Tall Chief

Fairfax, where I attended school in the third to sixth grades (1915-19), is four miles from Gray Horse.  Many Osage families lived in Fairfax and one of my classmates was an Indian boy named Tall Chief.


Do you remember that the chief of the Gray Horse group in 1872 was named Tall Chief?  It seems likely that my classmate was a grandson of the 1872 chief.


About 1960 Ed Sullivan had a beautiful young Indian lady on his popular TV show who was one of the premier ballerinas of the time.  Her name was Maria Tall Chief.  After she finished her performance, Sullivan said, "I am sure the people of her native Fairfax, Oklahoma, are proud of her."


My classmate (Tall Chief) and I were born about the same time: I have children in the same age group as Maria Tall Chief; do you suppose my classmate sent his daughter to an eastern school and she took up ballet?  Could be!

Immediately after reading this at my desk, curious, I tapped "maria tall chief" into the google search and up popped a plethora of images and articles for the prima ballerina Maria Tall Chief.  I could only imagine the delight my grandfather would have had at instantly learning that Maria "was born in Fairfax, Oklahoma to a father who was a chief in the Osage Nation and a Scots-Irish mother." and that the family moved to California in the 30s where she learned to dance and that Maria later moved to New York to further her career.

Partial Newspaper Transcript: Horrors of the Blizzard

In the book, Alva, Oklahoma The First 100 Years 1886-1986, Mary Olive Cromwell wrote that the Ellers gave up ranching in Beaver, O.T., explaining that a severe blizzard killed many of their cattle herd, which prompted the move to Alva in the 1890s.  Since learning this, I have been looking for the storm, which she mentions as singular.

The Kansas state census places the Eller family in Springvale, Pratt Co., KS in 1895, and the 1900 federal census locates them in Alva, O.T. in that year, so the storm must have occurred in the intervening five years.  I first discovered the Children’s Blizzard, but it was too early; 1888.  Today, I came across this storm in 1894, still too early but worth a transcription, nonetheless, especially since the article contains several names that might be useful to family historians.  I provide the first part of the article from Guthrie, but the paper reports similar scenarios from all over the west and midwest.  Follow the link for more.

Source: The Ottawa Free Trader, Feb 17, 1894 (published in Ottawa, IL), online at the Google Newspaper Archive,http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AiUoAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SgUGAAAAIBAJ&dq=alva%20oklahoma&pg=986%2C3986330

 

VICTIMS ARE MANY

The Blizzard Responsible for a Number of Deaths.

GREAT SUFFERING IN OKLAHOMA.

A Settler Kills His Family to Prevent Their Freezing to Death Wide Sweep of the Storm—All Modes of Traffic interfered With.

HORRORS OF THE BLIZZARD.

Guthrie, O. T., Feb. 13—Reports come from the strip of great suffering among the homesteaders residing there.  Several persons, it is reported, have perished in the storm, among them two families residing near Cross.  No particulars can be obtained.  Hundreds of head of stock were frozen to death.

Many people are still living in tents and as fuel is scarce the condition is awful.  James Mulligan, living 4 miles south of Perry, was found Monday evening frozen to death, and his partner, Harvey Newcomb, died from exposure and cold fifteen minutes after being found.  At Ponca Mrs. Jennie Cramer and two children, Lizzie and Sallie, were discovered frozen stiff in a coyote’s burrow, 10 yards from their abode.

An Awful Alternative.

Word comes from Cross that Sherman Stone and family, consisting of wife and five children, were found sitting about a stove with their throats cut from ear to ear.  The following note found on a table near by Stone gives a horrible story of murder and suicide in connection with the storm.

“Wood all gone.  Mollie frozen to death, the rest of us freezing.  I have killed my family and now kill myself to prevent further suffering.  God have mercy on us.”

Stone was a homesteader and lived in a tent.  It is thought that after the snow melts hundreds of dead settlers will be found, along with the remains of thousands of cattle.

Other Fatalities.

Col. Henry Melton, a cowboy, who was with Buffalo Bill at the world’s fair, was discovered by a party of hunters early Monday morning dead under his horse.  At Anadarko two Indian pupils were found Sunday evening buried under a snowbank.  Upon being taken to a house one of the children immediately expired.  The other, however, showed signs of recovery.  A report has reached here that a family named Sears, residing on a claim near Woodward, was found frozen to death, but no particulars can be obtained.

A Missing Schoolma’am.

Miss Jennie Johnston, a young Indian teacher, who came to Alva recently from Scranton, Pa., left her school Saturday for her boarding house.  She has not been seen since.  No reports have been received from other west side towns, but it is certain the suffering is great, as the west side people are living mostly in tents.  All trains are delayed.

Miss Johnston’s case is rather a romantic one.  She recently fell heir to $20,000 at her old Pennsylvania home, and was immediately surrounded by a score of admirers.  Miss Johnston, of course, thought all of her lovers were mercenary, and, feeling piqued, gathered up her effects and came west, where she secured a school.

A courier just in from Alva, another strip town, reports great suffering among the homesteaders near the river.  One hundred head of horses and cattle were frozen and volunteer relief committees are now scouring the country gathering together the people and caring for them in the schoolhouses.

Estal Earnest Sparlin: Justice of the Peace

 Partial Transcription;

"State of Arkansas

To All to Whom These Presents Shall Come-Greeting:

Know Ye, That Whereas, It appears that

E. E. Sparlin was duly elected 

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE

in Prairie Township,

in and for the County of Washington

in the State of Arkansas, at an election held in said

County on the fifth day of November, 1940.

..."

Note: The copy of this document was amidst my dad's family papers, specifically in his notebook labeled "Glimpses of Father" by Mother.  E. E. Sparlin was Estal Earnest Sparlin, b. 1907, Oklahoma Territory, d. 1998, Ohio.

Biography: ELLER, Nick F.

Nick F. Eller was born in Missouri in 1850.  He and Jane Warrick Eller were the parents of one daughter, Viola, and four sons, William (Bill), Charles, Harrison, and Joe.

After the death of Jane, he married her sister Marietta, and they were the parents of two daughters, Helen and Ida, and one son Ray.

The family was engaged in ranching in Beaver County, but because of the loss of the herd from various diseases and the severe blizzard, it was necessary to relocate, so they settled in Alva in the 1890s.

In 1904 Nick purchased the block at Tenth and Barnes.  That property has remained in the family and is owned by his granddaughters, Mary Olive Cromwell and Billy Ann Brown.

Nick and his sons manufactured cement blocks and were excellent cement finishers.  Many sidewalks in Alva still bear the Eller name.

Nick died in Alva in February 1932 at the age of 82, and is buried in the Alva IOOF Cemetery.  All of his children are also deceased.

by Mary Olive Cromwell

Source: Alva, Oklahoma The First 100 Years 1886-1986 by Seekers of Oklahoma Heritage Association, copyright Seekers of Oklahoma Heritage Association and Curtis Media Corporation 1987.

Comments: This is the information as known and remembered by Nick's granddaughter, now deceased, and it is a fair sketch of events as I can find them in the records, although with some differences.  As a family researcher, I am greatly in her debt and grateful that she shared her memories and family stories with us.


The son, Charles, attributed to Nick and Jane, was born later and could only have been the son of Nick's second wife, Marietta.  Nick Eller's descendants, as well as I can piece it together from records, are listed at this link lower down in my blog.

Also, the family was engaged in farming and ranching, possibly in Beaver County, which at that time included all the panhandle.  They are also found across the border in Kansas as late as 1895.

Indeed, Nick is buried in the Alva Municipal Cemetery, which I have visited to photograph his headstone.  If the citizens of Alva refer to the Municipal and the IOOF as the same, I don't know.  His birth date of 1850 is consistent with his headstone, but not with his earlier census records.  It is later that Nick's date of birth is pushed back to 1850.  Also, Nick had traveled from Missouri, but was probably born in the north in Illinois, as he reported on his census records.

Finally, in 2012, the city of Alva is in the process of updating their town square, which means pulling out the present sidewalks, perhaps those same sidewalks in which Mary Olive took pride.  For that reason, I am planning a trip down there soon to explore the streets, hoping to find a trace of the Ellers before the sidewalks are destroyed.  I won't forget my camera...

 Nick F. Eller in a family photo around 1927.  Nick is the man waving his hat on the left.

Obituary: Ferdinand Dewey Ditzenberger 1898-1971, Indiana

Ferdinand Dewey Ditzenberger, 72, a Fort Wayne resident most of his life, died in the Allen County Health Center where he had lived since 1950, at 11:15 a.m. yesterday.

 Mr. Ditzenberger operated a farm near New Haven before 1950.

Services will be at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at J. A. Demoney & Son Funeral Home in Columbia City.  The Rev. Graham L. Kleespie will officiate.  Burial will be in Coesse Lutheran Cemetery.

Survivors are one brother, Edward D., Hales, Corners, Wis.; and three sisters, Mrs. Joel Diener, Elkhart, Mrs. Sue Densel, Wheeler, Ore., and Mrs. Harold Young, Marion.

Friends may call at the funeral home after 7- p.m. today.

Source: Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN, 9 Jun 1971, p.8A

Awesome Sparlin Family

Around 2005 or so, Dad gave me a big, cardboard box of papers that turned out to be all the letters between his parents and siblings and himself, as well as, genealogical information the family had scraped together in the pre-internet era on Sparlins, together with the scrapbook "Glimpses" that my grandmother assembled on my grandfather's many accomplishments.  Grandmother continued to add photocopies, articles and pictures by mail to this book over the years.  When Dad realized his mind was failing (as a consequence of Parkinson's disease) and that I was interested in pursuing family research, he gave me this box, and I, being the grand procrastinator that I am, stored it away and never looked through it carefully...until now.

Somehow I need to share this gold mine, but I'm not sure how to do it effectively.  While I ponder, I will try to share bits now and then, like this one about my uncle, who is pretty awesome...from a family of awesome.

"Miss James was fortunate in her accompanist, Dale Sparlin, head of the music department at St. George's School, whose support was always sensitive but never obtrusive.  Sparlin made his own contribution to the program with the brilliantly projected offertory, Cesar Franck's 'Prelude, Fugue and Variation,' one of the favorites in the organ repertory."

Photo: Three RYAN Sisters of Oklahoma and their spouses, SPARLIN, RICE AND TAYLOR, c.1910s

Adults L-R; Oscar Clarence and Bertha May RYAN-SPARLIN, Cornelius and Dacie Belmore RYAN-RICE, William M. and Lula Edith RYAN-TAYLOR.

Children L-R; Estal Earnest SPARLIN, Ezekial RICE and Lena Viola TAYLOR

The youngest child on the left, Estal, was born in 1907, dating this photo to about 1910.  The place was Ralston or Fairfax, Oklahoma.

Descendants of William and Mariah J. RITTER ELLER

Descendants of William and Mariah J.

RITTER ELLER

William ELLER (b. 1831 NC, d. c.1893, OK or KS), parents unknown, m. Mariah J. RITTER (b.14 Feb 1831, KY, d. 28 Feb 1908, KS), parents unknown. 

+2 ??? (hypothetical between 1850 and 1860)

+2 Franklin Elias (b. Oct 1860, MO, d. 2 Sep 1937, KS) m. c.1918 Margaret Lavilla ONEAL-GATES (b. Mar 1873, MO, d. 27 Oct 1948, KS), parents Alpheus John and Lucetta Jane MILLER ONEAL

++3 Evelyn Grace (b. c.1919, KS, d. 11 May 1953, KS) m. unknown.

+2 Nick Frelow (b. Aug 1862, IL, d. 15 Jan 1932, OK) m. 1^st c.1886 Marggret Jane WARRICK (b. c.1859, IL, d. c.1896, OK), parents Lazarus W. and Catherine BROWN-WARRICK

++3 Capatola Viola (b. 11 Jan 1888, O.T., d. 4 Mar 1956, CO) m. 1^st 4 Mar 1906 Wesley Jacob DITZENBERGER (b. 14 Jul 1879, IN, d. 17 Apr 1909), parents Henry Linguen and Elizabeth DAVIS-DITZENBERGER

+++4 Ruby (b. c.1907, OK, d. 13 Apr 1908, OK)

+++4 Myrtle Edith (b. 8 Nov 1908, OK, d. 8 May 1992, KS) m. 20 Jun 1926 Odie McBride SMITH (b. 15 Jun 1903, MO, d. 6 Sep 1988, KS), parents Elbert Columbus and Etta Gertrude GROVES-SMITH

++++5 living

++++5 Darlene Odean (b.1 Feb 1929, OK, d. 9 Apr 2006, KS) m.1^st bef, 1948 Kenneth E. WHETSTINE (b. 15 Jun 1927, d. 3 Mar 2005, KS), parents unknown

+++++6 living

+++++6 Penny Dawn (b. 27 Jan 1949, d. 25 Feb 2007, KS) married.

---Darlene m. 2^nd bef. 1953 Bejamin Robert CALVERT (b. 1929, KS, d. 9 Jan 1997, KS), parents Benjamin Roy and Eva Mae TETER-CALVERT

+++++6 Ricky Dee (b. 25 Oct 1953, KS, d. 6 Mar 2001, KS) married.

+++++6 Rocky Dale (b. 25 oct 1953, KS, d. 17 Jan 1984, IA) married.

+++++6 Bobby Dean (b. 9 Oct 1957, d. 27 May 2005, KS)

+++++6 living

++++5 living 

++++5 living

++++5 living

++++5 living

---Capatola m. 2^nd c.1909 Wilbur L. DAVIS(b. c.1885, IL, d. ?), parents unknown

---Capatola m. 3^rd c.1916 Salem Jackson HARDIN (b. 15 Jul 1882, TX, d. ?), parents William H. and Mary A. HARDIN

---Capatola m. 4^th aft. 1930 Paul Roy MENEFEE (b. 31 Mar 1890, MO, d. 13 Jan 1961, CO), parents John M. and Charlotte YATES-MENEFEE 

++3 William Lazareth (b.16 Oct 1889, KS, d. 14 Dec 1970, OK), m. 14 Oct 1924 Anna Margaret SHANAHAN (17 Aug 1894, O.T., d. 12 Feb 1977, OK), parents Edward and Mary SHEEHAN-SHANAHAN

+++4 Mary Olive (b. 13 Nov 1925, OK, d. 11 May 2010, OK) m. 22 Aug 1953 Frank CROMWELL (b.23 Jul 1920, OK, d. 11 Aug 2008, OK), parents Guy and Emma R. WOOD-CROMWELL

++++5 living

++++5 Guy William (b. 30 Nov 1960, OK, d. 22 Dec 2008, OK)

++++5 Laura Jane (b. 1962, OK, d. 24 Jul 1973, OK)

+++4 living

++3 Harrison E. (b. 4 Jun 1891, O.T., D. aft 1930)

++3 Jasper Joseph (b. 16 Oct 1893, KS, d. Jul 1967, IL) m. bef. 1917 Marybelle (b. c.1890, OH), parents unknown

---Nick m. 2^nd c. 1897 Mary Ettie WARRICK (b. Sep 1872, IL, d. 28 Mar 1931, OK), parents Lazarus W. and Catherine BROWN-WARRICK

++3 Hellen Ellen (b. 15 Jan 1898, O.T., d. 22 Dec 1974, CA), m. 10 Jul 1916 James Matthew GAUZE (b. 19 Sep 1892, WV, d. 9 May 1963, CA), parents GAUZE and SANCHEZ

+++4 Catherine Pauline (b. 14 Feb 1917, OK, d. 27 Jun 1993, CA) m. 11 Feb 1936 Woodrow Erdman BAY (b. 21 Apr 1913, KS, d. 1 Sep 1987, CA), parents Hugh and Ruby Barbara ERDMAN BAY

++++5 Billy Joyce (b. 4 Jul 1940, AZ, d. 3 Nov 1940, TX)

++++5 living

++++5 living

++++5 living

++++5 living

+++4 Agnes (b. 1922 d. ?)

+++4 Virginia Maxine (b. 8 Aug 1923, OK, d. 3 May 1997, CA) m. 11 Jan 1961 Loren E. JOHNSTON (b. 27 Mar 1922, KS, d. 9 Dec 1987, CA), parents Howard R. and Lola M. FOSTER-JOHNSTON

+++4 Jane (b. 1925, d. 1925)

+++4 Helen Naomi (b. 17 Dec 1926, KS, d. 30 Apr 1993, CA)

+++4 Delores Jeanine (b. 7 Dec 1928, KS, d. Apr 1992, CA) married.

+++4 James Matthew Jr. (b. 14 Jan 1931, KS, d. 1 Feb 2001, CA) married.

++3 Raymond R. (b.17 Dec 1899, O.T., d. 13 Aug 1947), m. bef. 1928 Mattie A. BECK (b. 12 Jan 1905, O.T., d. 1 Jan 1969, OK), parents James Gibney and Mary Elizabeth McGINLEY-BECK

+++4 Wanda May (b. 1 Jan 1928, OK, d. 8 Feb 2009, TX) m. 5 Jun 1946 Gene Raymond HAWKINS (b. 20 Mar 1926, OK, d. 12 Dec 2000, GA), parents Henry L. and Hazel HAWKINS

++++5 living

+++4 Leroy (b. 5 May 1931, OK, d. 24 Jan 2010, WI)

+++4 Roseann

+++4 ?

++3 Christopher (b. 1900, O.T., d. ?, O.T.)

++3 Charley (b. 1902, O.T., d. 20 Jan 1915, OK)

++3 Ida Bell (b. c.1904, O.T., d. 6 June 1968, MO) m. 1943 Roy G. WILLIAMS (b. 3 Apr 1892, MO, d. 11 Jul 1966, MO), parents Christopher Columbus and Teresa M. LUMPEE-WILLIAMS

++3 ??? 

+2 Eliza A. (b. c.1866, IN, d.?)

O.T. = Oklahoma Territory

Marriage Certificate: Wesley Ditzenberger and Capatola Viola Eller

Certificate of marriage performed 4 March 1906 in Woods Co., Oklahoma Territory between Wesley Ditzenberger, white, age 26, born in Indiana, and Miss Capitola Viola Ellers, white, age 18, born in Kansas, both currently of Alva, O.T.  Officiating was Hermann B. Mayo, Presbyterian Minister.  Witnesses were J.A. Bowling and Lillie Bowling. 

Antler's Cafe, Alva, OK

The Antler’s Café, site of Harrison Eller’s crime a year earlier, Alva, OK, in 1918 after a fire. (café sign highlighted in pink.)  source: The Okie Legacy, V.11 Iss.13, 2009-03-29.