The Beauty of Community

Pardoning Board of the State of Michigan
under Gov. Geo. Bliss, c. 1903

 I love being a family historian because I love mysteries and uncovering new truths. I also enjoy being a part of a community helping one another in their own searches. In genealogy, we are taught to document and cite and compelled to do so (see Elizabeth Shown Mills book Evidence Explained or the Genealogy Standards).

It is good practice for one's own research–it’s a heck of a lot easier than having to go back years later and try to recreate how you know something is true or where an original photo might live–and you can’t help out the community if you don’t do it. When working with others, I keep excellent track but with my own family I do a so-so job and every January I find myself listing “Document and cite everything” among my New Year’s Resolutions so do better. Sometimes, just sometimes though, I do do it right.

Lansing State Journal
10 Jul 1903

In 2012, I shared the group photo of my husband’s great-great-grandfather Russel Ralph Pealer (1842-1919) with other board members (he’s 2nd from the right) on my Ancestry.com family tree and included (unbelievably!) in the notes section what was written on the back, “R. Holzhey, Photographer, Marquette, MI. Taken when on pardoning board under Geo.(sic) Bliss”. Russel was born in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, actually not too far from where we live now. Russel was a member of the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry, known as “Gregg’s Cavalry” during the Civil War. After the war, he continued his study of the law and was admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania in 1867 and later that year to the bar in Michigan. He moved with his wife to Three Rivers, Michigan where he practiced law, became a Circuit Judge, and eventually served on the Pardoning Board for the State of Michigan. This photo was taken between 1901-1903, while he was serving on the board. 

R.R. Pealer c. 1865

Fast forward 8 years to August of 2020, I was contacted by two historians from the Netherlands and asked if I owned the original photograph. (Thanks to Jim’s Aunt AnnaMarie Breyfogle Austin, we inherited this among MANY wonderful photos of RR Pealer most dutifully identified by Jim’s grandmother Bertha DeBoer Breyfogle) The Dutch historians had found the photo while researching in Ancestry.com and they were interested not in any of the people in the photo but rather the photographer! They were writing a book about the photographer, Reimund Holzhey, who had quite an interesting life after immigrating to the United States from the Netherlands. Reimund, for unknown reasons, resorted to robbing stagecoach and train passengers in northern Michigan and Wisconsin during the late 1880s. During one such event in the summer of 1889, he shot a man (Adolph G. Fleischbein) who died the next day. A massive manhunt was created and he was eventually caught in Republic, Michigan in the fall of 1889. He was sentenced to life in prison and sent to Marquette prison in the Upper Peninsula. 

He was a difficult prisoner until 1893 when he underwent surgeries related to a childhood brain injury and was completely transformed as a result. He became a model prisoner in Marquette and developed a passion for reading and photography!  The rest is history, as they say, and although I can’t read the book they produced and I own a copy (it’s written in Dutch), I can appreciate that I have helped to contribute to the story and the book. The authors have told me that the book was nominated for the most important history prize in the Netherlands and they are pleased with its reception. They are currently looking for a publisher in the US, so someday it might be printed in a version that I can read! (Most of the information for this blog about Reiumund Holzhey was found in an article  called “The Last Stagecoach Robber in Michigan” on Michiganology.com that was adapted from one that appeared in the Summer/Fall 2018 issue of Trace, the Archives of Michigan magazine.**)

Who would have ever dreamt that a photo of my husband’s great-great-grandfather, Russel Ralph Pealer (1842-1918) would find its way into a Dutch book in 2021?! It’s a beautiful story of the wonders of the internet, a culture of sharing, and the beauty of community. 

**In case you were interested, Reimund’s sentence was commuted by Governor Fred Warner on the advice of the warden, James Russell, in 1910. He was discharged in 1913 and lived and worked as a photographer wherever he found tourists, like Yellowstone and Captiva Island until 1952!