Oh, what a find!

I am volunteering again this summer at the Tecumseh Historical Society & Museum, helping to organize and catalogue their vertical files. Last week, I came across a set of photos donated in 2006 by a woman whose aunt was a subject of some of the photos with the family she married into. This family was the Rosacrans family from Tecumseh whose family owned the Rosacrans & Sons dry goods store for 95 years, closing in the 1960’s.

A few of the photos were particularly interesting because she claimed that they were taken in 1922-24 at their cottage on Sand Lake! This is the lake that I have spent every summer of my life. I have spent hundreds of hours researching many of the people and cottages around the lake with my father and was curious where this cottage was.

After a week of various investigations…searching deeds in the court house and tax rolls at the Lenawee County Historical Museum, looking for people/photos at the Tecumseh Library, watching the 1980’s Oral History of Ned Rosacrans (a young boy in the photos), and posting the photos to two different historical facebook pages, I had nothing!

I learned a lot about the Fred Rosacrans family, their kids, and grandchildren. I even learned that they lived (and Ned grew up) in a house at 207 N. Union St, which was next door to my husband’s family! (A house that my husband’s great-great-great-grandmother, Harriet Spofford Webster built in 1850 and 4 generations of his family lived in for almost 100 years! In the 1920’s Jim’s great-great grandmother Eliza Virginia Webster would have still lived in the house, although her husband Myron Conklin died in 1922 after over 50 years of marriage.)

                                                                                            Fred Rosacrans House, 207 N. Union St.

Webster-Conklin House, 211 N. Union St. c. 1980s

Webster-Conklin House, 211 N. Union St. c. 2023

There was one last place I learned about to look…it turns out that there were home movies that Fred Rosacrans made. So yesterday at the Tecumseh District Library, I watched the Fred Rosacrans home movies that he took in 1928 and 1929. It was an amazing silent film filled with every day and special occasions. There were images of boys ice skating on a local pond, playing baseball, men bailing hay, Memorial Day parades, GAR gatherings…and then there it was!

Unexpected and so surprising... nothing about Sand Lake...instead there was a home movie of Eliza Virginia “Jenny” Webster in 1928 (Jim’s great-great-grandmother)! I have seen plenty of photos of her and in fact last year I found a few more (check out blog Sometimes you really luck out!) but I never imagined I would ever see a video of her! This is NOT AI or just animating a photo, this was really truly Jenny sitting on her front steps welcoming (I think her granddaughter) Georgianna Conklin. I wish I could hear her voice, but this is an absolutely amazing find, so I will take it!

This is a reminder to me to keep my eyes open, you never know when you will come across something completely unexpected and totally wonderful!

The Mysteriously Appearing China

My grandparents, Roc and Dot Massey,
and my parents at my parents'
wedding reception, 1962

As care takers of the family heirlooms, Jim and I have an old house full of fun and interesting things. Much of it we know who it originally belonged to and how it came to be in our possession. It’s important, though, as we are blending so many families’ things that we catalog it for future generations. I listened to Lisa Louise Cooke podcasts sharing the importance of a genealogy will, in order to describe heirlooms and make sure that treasures get to the right people. If we don’t document the stories and provenance, it will be more likely that things end up being donated or even worse, in a dumpster.

Most of our treasures came from my mother’s mother’s mother’s side of the family, but some came from my father’s and husband’s families. My mom happens to be the only child of the youngest child (Elizabeth Leach) of the youngest child (Florence Stoddard). (Interestingly, I have no known family heirlooms from my mother’s father’s side, except for a few photos.) I’m not sure which is more important (birth order or gender) for the passing down of heirlooms but since I am the youngest and a daughter it was doubly certain we would receive many of the treasures! 

Our China Cabinets

This past summer, I spent time investigating and cataloging china that came from my father’s parents. My grandparents, Rockwell Joseph Massey (born Rocco Mazziotti) and Dorothy Sedlock, were married on the 9th of February 1934 (the 26th wedding anniversary date of his parents). Given that it was the midst of the depression and they were both 1st generation Americans, I’m not sure how prevalent it was to register for/choose a china pattern. (It seems widely accepted that the Chicago-based department store Marshall Field’s established the first bridal registry service in 1924, so it would have been possible in 1934.)

My Grandparents’ China

My father remembers china displayed in a built-in china cabinet in his childhood home in Ridgewood, NJ between 1940-1950. But when the family moved to Michigan (he was about 10 at the time), he never remembers it being used or even displayed. There apparently was no place in either of their homes in Dearborn, Michigan to display it, so it remained for over 40 years in “barrels” in their basement. My grandfather traveled for work (he became a Regional Manager for the GM Training Centers) and my grandmother didn’t entertain often once they  moved to Michigan so there wasn’t much need for using the china. I remember hearing about china in the basement as a kid visiting their house, but I don’t think I ever saw it.

In the 1990s, my grandparents passed away, my parents retired and downsized, and Jim and I were married, so in the late 1990s we became the caretakers for their china. In 2002, when we moved into our present house (built in 1896) we had an entire wall of built-in shelving in our dining room perfect for all of the china! It’s not a mystery how WE came to possess the china, but how it came to my grandparents is a mystery to my dad and me! 

Was it my grandparents' wedding china? Was it passed down from my grandmother’s parents’ wedding china…she was the youngest? Or was it just purchased at yard sales/resale shops up by my grandfather to fill the china cabinet in their Ridgewood house and really has no sentimental value? But if this was the case, then why wouldn’t they just have gotten rid of it when they didn’t have the room? Maybe some investigation into the actual china might help?

Beginning the Investigation

The interesting thing about all of my grandparents' china is there is not a complete set of anything! There are bits and bobs from 7 different sets. Some look fairly similar but others are very different. One set has 11 plates and a serving bowl, another is just 4 cups, 5 saucers and 6 lunch plates, another has 13 small plates, 11cups/12 saucers–you get the idea. As a kid, I had heard people (mostly my mom and grandfather) oohing and aahing about “Limoges” china. I really didn’t know what it meant until this summer. 

Limoges China

I had thought that Limoges was the name of a company that made china. No, it is the name of a town in France close to the abundant kaolin mines, out of which comes the special white clay used to make the hard paste-porcelain. “Porcelain Limoges is famous for its durability, whiteness, and ability to resist chipping” (limogesboutique.com) and you know it’s real if you can nearly see through it when you hold it up to the light. 

There were many companies that used Limoges, but the most famous companies were Haviland & Co, Theodore Haviland, and Charles Haviland. The Haviland Company history began in 1840 with David Haviland who had a china shop in New York City and established an alliance with a manufacturer in France who would specifically make the pieces for America. In 1853, he established his own company and was the first to have artists on site to do the decorating. His sons went on to develop their own companies. Theodore Haviland was apparently known as an innovative marketer and his goal was to have “a set in every home” and in the 1920s, the Sears Catalog had 32-piece sets for $22.50 (about $412 in today’s money). (From History of Haviland).

“Our” China

Out of the 7 different sets, three are Haviland & Co. and two are Theodore Haviland brands (the 6th and 7th are Zeh Scherzer from Bavaria). I wondered if/how I might be able to identify the patterns and maybe narrow down the timing for when they were produced. I’ve written a couple blogs about some family heirlooms, like my great-great-grandfather’s gift of a pocket watch to my great-great-grandmother, my great-grandmother’s irises, Jim’s great-great grandfather’s trinket, and Jim’s father’s treasured toy car. In each of these cases, I learned a lot and found that there is a collector’s organization for nearly everything! Haviland China is no different!

There is a Haviland Collectors International Foundation (HCIF) dedicated to the study of porcelain and pottery produced by the Haviland companies. They have a newsletter and even an annual conference! They do also have an identification service, but I thought I would try my hand at it. The HCIF does have a very handy guide to Haviland Blank and Decorator Marks. 

What is a blank? That was new to me, too! The blank is what they call the porcelain item before it’s been fired and painted. Some blanks are plain, but others have a pattern and the size and shapes differ and help to determine the specific pattern. Looking at this photo, this blank is quite decorative, with the scalloped edges and it might be hard to tell, but that shadowed pattern is actually a raised pattern around the edge and into the plate to make it look like petals. 

There are two sets of marks (this was not a mistake!), there are marks that are made prior to glazing and then marks made by the decorator after the glazing. You can see here on this cup the green underglaze mark, which is Mark I that was used between 1894-1931 and the red decorator mark, which is Mark c, used 1876-1878/1889-1931. So we’ve narrowed to 1894-1931. Can the flower pattern help us at all in the identification?

Schleiger Numbers

It turns out that there are estimated to be over 30,000 different Haviland China patterns created by the 1930’s and most did not have a name and very few even had a number. According to the A Pattern Identification Guide for Haviland China: Volume Two by Gertrude Tatnall Jacobson (1979) only 725 of the patterns had a name. These 30,000, though, are just variations and combinations of blanks, flower patterns, and use of gold/silver trim. Because there was no easy way to catalog these, an amazing collector, Arlene Schleiger, decided to try to do it. She, with the help of her talented architect son, provided hand drawings and descriptions for nearly 11,000 of these patterns. She produced 6 volumes of these amazing books beginning in 1950 through 1991. One amazing benefit of working at a university is the library collection. It turns out that my university had the first 4 volumes of her books!! Unbelievable luck!

Using her guide, I was able to identify one of the 4 sets. It is a Theodore Haviland set BL 205 (blank #205) Pattern # 248, described “Small pale pink flowers touched with white. Some all white. Green leaves and stems. Gray shadows around flower groups.” (p. 48, Volume II) An additional investigation into the mark suggested S, 1903. (https://archive.org/details/havilandchinavol00gert/page/157/mode/2up?view=theater). 

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the other 3.

Replacement, Ltd.

I contemplated joining the HCIF, but thought I would try one other source recommended by the organization. Have you ever broken, chipped, or lost a piece of your everyday plates or your fine china or crystal or sterling and found that it was discontinued? But you really wanted to replace the piece? Well, there is an organization that began in 1981 called..you guessed it…Replacements, Ltd that went into business collecting and distributing replacement pieces. You need to know your manufacturer and then pattern name to really be successful, but once you do their search engine brings up a photo of your item. For example, our everyday plates we chose before our wedding in 1990 are the Poetry pattern from Pfaltzgraf. It was long-since discontinued but if we wanted to, we could replace all of them!

Although I could have paged through all of the Haviland patterns it would have taken weeks! Instead I ordered from Replacements, Ltd the book Haviland: A Pattern Identification Guide (no, our library didn’t have this one, so I invested in the book–I was hooked now). This 577-page book includes photos, pattern names for those that had names,  the Schleiger #s and Blank #s. After pouring over the china and the book for just 3 days, I was able to identify two of the other patterns! 

So, whose were they?

I am now asking myself, what did this GIANT rabbit hole (and huge investment of time and money) gain me? Am I any closer at figuring out whose they were and how they came to be with my grandparents?

Well, given the Theo Haviland patterns were around 1903 (based on the mark), I am pretty convinced that none of these were wedding china for my grandparents…and I have no idea whose they were…I’m leaning toward the theory that my grandfather just picked up them random places to make the china cabinet look pretty.

But…

Remember how I said that 5 patterns were Haviland and the 6th and 7th was Zeh Scherzer? Well, using my skills in porcelain developed through investigating the Haviland patterns, I think I figured out who these sets might have belonged to. 

Zeh Scherzer (Z S & Co) was a porcelain producing company located in Bavaria, Germany that began in 1880. Their marks changed over the years and the mark that we see on our china was used from 1899-1910. I haven’t found the exact patterns (there doesn’t seem to be a collector’s club for this china) but given the timing, I would say that this was perfect timing for my great-grandparents Alonzo Sedlock and Louisa Hillman who were married 18 May 1904. Louisa’s parents were both from German families, her father (Johann Willheim Hillman) immigrating in 1879 from Bremen, Germany and her mother (Emma Amanda Sackman) was born in Germania, Potter County, Pennsylvania but her older siblings were born in Hamburg, Germany (Emma was my last week’s post.). According to newspaper accounts of Louisa in the social columns, she was a socialite and it would not be surprising to me that they were given china for their wedding. 

So, I am going out on a limb and conjecture that the 11 plates and 4 cups/saucers and 6 small plates were gifts to Alonzo and Louisa Sedlock for their wedding.

We probably won’t ever know the real story of this mysteriously appearing china but for as long as we own our current house, it’s a beautiful addition to the shelves and I don’t mind using the china for entertaining. In fact, this past weekend, I used several platters for our DAR Special Tea!

Serendipity or Determination? The Cascading Photos of George

Dr. George Howell, Class of 1863
Enhanced by myHeritage

 My whole life “things” have worked out for me. I am a hard worker, goal oriented, and determined, but I sometimes wonder if I don’t live under a rainbow of serendipity. Instead of having a raincloud follow me, I tend to arrive when the rainbow appears and find a proverbial pot of gold! And it’s never been so true in my family history journey than the past two weeks!

It’s no secret that I love old photos, especially ones of our ancestors. I feel so fortunate to have as many as we do and have at least 1 photo of both Jim and my grandparents (collectively all 8), great-grandparents (collectively all 16), and great-great-grandparents (collectively 21 of possible 32). Earlier this summer I shared that I found a number of “new to me” photos about Jim’s ancestors I had photos of but a different point in their lives (See Sometimes you really luck out!), today this Blog is about Dr. George Howell (1836-1909) and a cascading number of photos I have seen and acquired in the past three weeks. Was it serendipity or determination?

Original Photo

Previously, my only photo of George

Prior to this summer, I had one version of a photo of Dr. George Howell, a portrait from the Lenawee County Biography (see Our Genealogy Angels). Over the last 3 weeks, I have acquired 5 more portrait photos from very different points of his life and numerous family group shots, which might not have happened if the order of events were different.

The first domino

After learning that George was instrumental in the Lenawee County Court House (see Connections at the Court House) and that he earned his MD from U of Michigan, I decided to go to the Bentley Library Archives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’ve been there before for my own family (see Always Check the Original), but there is so much more to their holdings. It was fun to find not only his original handwritten Thesis on Cholera Infantum manuscript, but also a Class of 1863 Photograph.

(These are over 160 years old!!) There were two versions of the photographs, one where his portrait was labeled and a second where he wasn’t identified. If the unlabeled version had been the only one to survive, I’m not sure I would have figured out which was George or even if he was present! (Call Number: 87253 Bimu C 46 2; Oversize Folder 3) (It is interesting to note that class photos like these were few and far between, in fact there is NOT a class photo for his brother who graduated the year before.)

Maybe you can see the resemblance, but I don’t think that I would have ever identified young George! I now had 2 portraits, young and old.

The Cascade

The next day I decided to go to the Lenawee County Museum, looking for images and records for my other project on Sand Lake. I didn’t find a whole lot, so I turned my attention to George and other ancestors from Lenawee county. There was a file on George Howell and in it was a fading pixelated copy of a family portrait scene and a distinguished gray George portrait. I definitely would have identified this George, but had never seen these photos before.

Two days after the Bentley and the next day after the County Museum, I was at the Tecumseh Museum to buy some tickets for a Bicentennial celebration and had time to chat with some other members and relook through the binders. I’m not sure if I missed a binder or now that I had seen young George’s image I was sensitized to it, but I found an unidentified tintype that looked like George! 

Equipped with a photo on my phone of young George, I compared them and was in awe that here is an image of George probably a year later for his wedding in 1864. If I had not had the Medical School photo, there is no way I would have identified this one now. Fascinatingly, it was with 4 other tintypes that I didn’t recognize but hoped to identify (I have since figured it out, a blog for another day!). My count had increased to 4 portraits and a hard to recognize family shot.

A Relative’s Collection

Jim and I became acquainted with one of his second cousins and her husband in 2016. They had several plastic tubs of photos and albums they were willing to bring to us to see. Her grandparents remained in Tecumseh through the 1960’s and her mother became the owner of all of the family photos and her husband is the family historian. Jim’s second cousin has since passed away but her husband is still actively searching and sharing the collection. I knew that he shared photos on Ancestry.com and also to the Tecumseh Library. I thought maybe he was the source of some of the other photos at the museums, so I reached out to ask if he was and if I could see the originals for better copies. I sent him the “new to me” photos and asked if he had seen them.

The young George photos were new to him and although he had provided a few photos to the Tecumseh Library, he had not provided any to either of the museums. He did have the original of the family shot and asked if I wanted to come over to his house to see the collection the next week. Of course!!

Spending nearly 5 hours with Rich Renaud and his collection of his wife’s family portraits, I took over 150 photos of his collection (not all George!) and among them collected four more family group photos and originals of another, and one more portrait and a fun little business card.

The cherry on top

After I left Rich’s that afternoon, he realized that there was one more photo he wanted to show me but had forgotten. He sent me a picture and asked if I knew who it was? 

Yes, there is no doubt in my mind that it was George Howell, probably a high school or Hillsdale College photo. A beautiful ambrotype in a case taken about 1858.

If I had not seen the 1863 identified photo, I would have never known it.

Serendipity or Determination? Maybe a little bit of both!

References and Compliments:

Thank you to Rich Renaud, Bentley Library Archives, Tecumseh Public Library, Tecumseh Historical Museum, and Lenawee County Historical Museum for maintaining and sharing their collections.

Sometimes You Really Luck Out!

Me at Tecumseh Historical
Society Museum

 For nearly 35 years, Jim and I have lived every summer about 10 miles from Tecumseh, Michigan (where lots of Jim’s ancestors are buried). I have visited Brookside Cemetery often where 14 of his direct ancestors are in their final resting place (from grandparents through great-great-great-grandparents) and spent hours in the History Room of the Tecumseh Public Library, but for whatever reason I never knew that there was a Tecumseh Historical Society with a Museum! Last week in my Facebook feed, I saw a posting about Memorial Day activities sponsored by the Society and it dawned on me that I should stop by. It is open once a week on Saturdays from 10:30-3pm. So, last Saturday I stopped in, not knowing what I would find, I was expecting to only spend about 30 minutes to an hour there. Well, 4 hours later I was smiling and so very excited by my finds and looking forward to going back! Let me give you a little perspective and background about Tecumseh and Jim’s ancestors before I share my finds!

Bi-centennial or Semiquincentennial?!

When I think of bicentennial, I think of 2nd grade and wearing a colonial outfit that my friend’s mother made for me (Thanks, Mrs. Wennerberg!), and this year as part of a DAR Meeting someone brought up that we need to start preparing for the 250th celebration of the Constitution. What? How is it possible that we’re already at 250 years when I swear it was just the bicentennial?! (I guess you now know how old I am.) Yep, 2026 the US will be celebrating its Semiquincentennial!

Michigan is a little younger, though, it wasn’t given its statehood until 1837, so we have a little while before even its bicentennial. In 1824, it was a territory and towns were popping up all over and Tecumseh was founded, when Musgrove Evans, a surveyor, arrived to the area. Tecumseh will be celebrating its Bicentennial anniversary this summer and I’m delighted to be here!

According to Clara Waldron’s One Hundred Years: A Country Town (1968) another man arrived that year with his family, an Abner Spofford, who traveled with livestock from Jefferson County, NY to Tecumseh. Note that the Erie Canal did not fully open until 1825, so they could not take it, and as long as the ice was cleared on Lake Erie they could take boats to Buffalo. For Abner, his route was to travel by land from Jefferson County along the southern shore of Lake Ontario to Buffalo. At Buffalo, they took  a ship across to Detroit. Since he had livestock, he herded them from Detroit to Tecumseh along the Sauk Trail. His wife and their 8 children made the same trip to Detroit, but they then boarded a schooner named the Firefly to Monroe. The last leg was a 29 mile journey from Monroe to Tecumseh that took them almost 2 full days with carriages and oxen with a stop in Macon. I can’t even imagine! Abner is Jim’s great-great-great-great-grandfather and lived 1778-1859.

Lenawee County

Dr. Joseph Howell

Tecumseh is in Lenawee County, which includes a few other important towns for my husband’s family, all within 7 miles of Tecumseh. They are Macon, Ridgeway, and Raisin Township. To these towns 5 important early settlers came between 1824 and 1837 and a “latecomer” in the late 1840’s. They were Abner Spofford (4th great-grandfather) in 1824, Dr. Joseph Howell (3rd great-grandfather) in 1831, James Wheeler (4th great-grandfather) in 1833, Anson Bennet Webster (3rd great-grandfather) in 1834, James L. Remington (3rd great-grandfather) in 1837 and Samuel Conklin (3rd great-grandfather) sometime between 1840 and 1850. You should know by now how important photographs are to me and I’m pleased to say that I have photos of 4 of these 6 men.

Samuel Conklin 

Why am I so lucky?

Well, as I was perusing the Memoirs of Lenawee County (1909) again, a book that I have read and known about for decades with a fresh view keeping in mind these various settlers. I found a few tidbits that were new. I also reviewed the Atlas from Lenawee County (1893), and found a few maps of homesteads. There was a 3rd resource I was provided and that was the Directories of Tecumseh from 1869. I knew that Dr. George Howell, son of Dr. Joseph Howell was a Dr. in Tecumseh, but it was fun to see his office information and also Samuel Conklin(g) now retired and living at the “s e cor Pearl and Pottawatamie st” and a map that shows where that was! Here’s a rendering from 1868 of the houses in Tecumseh.

"Scary Woman"

But the really lucky thing was that I went into the research room and found a binder (actually many) filled with cabinet cards and other photographs, some unlabeled and others labeled. It’s needles in haystacks, but once you find one needle you can’t help yourself from going back again and again. And sometimes it pays off, like today! I didn’t find photos for people I didn’t already have photos, but I did end up with numerous photos representing different times in people’s lives. I only need one photo to hang on our family tree wall, but having a variety of photos provides insight into people’s lives, one photo just doesn’t capture a life. (I’ve written about this before, see A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words)

Ella, Harriet, and Virginia

Harriet Spofford, 1897

The first new photo to me is this one with three women. The mother in the photo is Harriet Spofford Hoag Webster. She is the daughter of Abner Spofford who moved his family to Tecumseh with the original settlers in 1824 at the age of 8. She outlived 2 husbands (Milton Hoag & Anson Bennett Webster) and lived as a widow for over 30 years. My daughters are very delighted to have a new photo to put on the wall because the only photo I had of her they used to run by fast down the hall fearing the “scary woman”. That “scary” photo was a photo I had found as part of a collage of early settlers to Tecumseh in the Tecumseh Library. This photo shows Harriet with her two of her three children, probably about 1880. Harriet had 3 daughters, one with her first husband and two with her second. The eldest daughter died in 1874, so this is a complete family photo of her immediate family with daughters Eleanor (Ella) on the left and Virginia on the right. Eliza Virginia Webster was married at this time to Myron Henry Conklin. In the same album a few pages later is an older Harriet Spofford in July 1897, a year before she died. 

I couldn’t stop at just one binder, so I searched through another and was rewarded by what appears to be the engagement photos for Eliza Virginia Webster and Myron Henry Conklin when they were married in 1870. I love these photos for two reasons-the first is that while I have several wonderful photos of Myron and Eliza, they are all taken in their older years and I love seeing them as young newlyweds (See Close to Home for a beautiful family photo). And the second has less to do with the photo and more to do with who took the photo. 

Eliza Virginia Webster, 1870

Myron Henry Conklin, 1870

Back of Virginia, taken by
Cynthia Spofford Bissell

Famous Tecumseh Resident

Virginia’s photo was taken by her aunt (Harriet’s sister), Cynthia Webster Bissel Tilton. Cynthia was famous in Tecumseh for being the first white woman to be married in the town, when she wed Theodore Bissell in 1827! She was a celebrity in the town, so much was written about her and also by her. She appeared to be a force to be reckoned with. She went with her husband (Bissell) to Texas but didn’t enjoy the lifestyle so she left him and returned to Tecumseh and became a photographer! She owned her own studio and as you can see from the photo of Virginia touted her award winning photography prowess in 1869. She owned her own house and made her opinion known in the newspaper. If she had lived long enough to be suffragist, I’m positive she would have been.

I’m not sure why it took me so long to go to the Tecumseh Historical Society Museum but you better believe that I have learned that sometimes the treasures are right under our noses!