Siblings Day

Since today is Siblings Day, I am posting a picture of my brother and me. When this photo was taken, he was 5 years old and I was 7 years old.

Thriller Thursday: Charles Buise Shoots His Wife and Her Lover, Then Commits Suicide

On 25 January 1893, Charles Buise (the son of Margaret McGillivray, the "mystery woman" in the Winters family Bible) was responsible for a triple shooting in Butte, Montana. When Charles was away on a visit to Montreal, Canada, his wife, an actress known as Lillie Hampton, had run off with another actor, Waldo Whipple. The two actors had traveled from Spokane, Washington to Butte, Montana, where they were performing at the Theater Comique. Charles Buise tracked them down and went to their residence on West Mercury Street. He shot his wife in the arm. He shot Waldo Whipple in the chest, and the bullets entered his right lung. He then put the gun in his mouth, pulled the trigger, and committed suicide.

The tragedy was reported in many newspapers throughout the United States, with varying degrees of accuracy. Some of the reporters believed that Charles Buise was a stranger to the couple, and that the actors were married to each other; one believed that Buise must have been crazy. Some newspapers reported that Waldo Whipple would live; others reported that he could not live, or that he had died. Whipple survived the shooting and continued to perform as an actor.

Charles Buise's death certificate reports that he died on 28 January 1983. However, many reports of the incident were published on 26-27 January 1893. Perhaps the certificate was filled out a few days later and the wrong date was written down.

Certificate of death, Chas Buise. 28 January 1893. State of Montana, Bureau of Vital Statistics. Available from Montana, County Births and Deaths, 1840-2004. FamilySearch.

Salt Lake Herald, 26 January 1893, page 1

San Francisco Chronicle, 26 January 1893, page 4

St. Paul Daily Globe, 26 January 1893, page 8

 Daily Plainsman (Huron, SD), 27 January 1893, page 2

Ohio Democrat, 4 February 1893, page 3

Workday Wednesday: Scranton Coal

In 1866, my 4th-great-grandfather Hugh Winters was a cartman. He drove a coal wagon for the Scranton Coal Co., located at Furman St., near State St., Brooklyn, New York.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 23 November 1866

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 30 April 1866

The coal was delivered from northeastern Pennsylvania to New York by way of the Delaware & Hudson Canal and the Gravity Railroad.

Coal had many uses. It was a source of fuel for steamships and railroads, and it was also used in stoves. There was a monthly public coal sale in Brooklyn, New York.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 23 March 1866

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 21 December 1866

Available from  Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, BEDT, East River Terminal Railroad & Palmers Dock

Coal wagon. One of a series of designs for various types of horse-drawn transport by J & C Cooper, 1904.  Coachbuilders and Wheelwrights' Art Journal. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

Portion of map of Brooklyn and vicinity, from Rand McNally's Atlas of the World, 1897. Scanned by David Rumsey Collection. Available from Wikimedia Commons. This is the area where Hugh Winters lived and worked in 1866.

World Health Day

April 7 is World Health Day. It is a global health awareness day which is celebrated on the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization. World Health Day has a different theme each year. The theme for 2015 is food safety.

Cholera can be transmitted by contaminated food or water. In 1969, when my maternal grandparents John and Margaret (Schneider) Boe were traveling, they may have been exposed to cholera.

Amanuensis Monday: Joseph S. Tarkington's Southern Claims Commission Claim: Cross-Examination of Witness, Jack Smith

Joseph S. Tarkington filed Louisiana claim #12265 with the Southern Claims Commission. One of the witnesses was Jack Smith, his former slave and employee. When Joseph married Nancy (Sanders) Theall (the widow of Joseph Theall), Jack became his slave. Jack's cross-examination is transcribed below.

Cross-examination of witness, Jack Smith, by the Commissioner

My name is Jack Smith, I am 45 years old, and reside at present at 20 St. James St. New Orleans La. I am at present working as a gardner [sic]. Before the war I resided in the Parish of St. Mary La. J. S. Tarkington was my master, for thirty years before the war, I became his servant through marriage, and I resided with him until the close of the war, but after the proclamation of emancipation he paid me wages. I left him in 1865, because he broke up, being too poor to continue farming. The claimant was always called a Union man among the coloured people. I have heard the claimant openly speak against the Confederates to white people, and if he had been a younger man they would have prosecuted him. I know that the claimant never took any part in the war and did all in his power to assist the Union cause. I heard the claimant urge the young men at the Court house not to go to the Confederate Army, but I do not know of any other act done or language used by claimant which would have prevented him establishing his loyalty to the Confederacy. I have no interest in this claim.

                                                                    his
                                                            Jack x Smith
                                                                  mark

Sworn before me this
12th day of April 1872
Wm. Grant

Cross-examination of witness, Jack Smith, 12 April 1872; Orleans Parish, Louisiana claim no. 12265 (Joseph S. Tarkington), Allowed Case Files, Southern Claims Commission, 1871-1880; Settled Accounts and Claims, Third Auditor. Records of the Treasury Department Accounting Officers, Record Group 217. National Archives, Washington, DC. Available from Fold3.

Cross-examination of witness, Jack Smith, 12 April 1872; Orleans Parish, Louisiana claim no. 12265 (Joseph S. Tarkington), Allowed Case Files, Southern Claims Commission, 1871-1880; Settled Accounts and Claims, Third Auditor. Records of the Treasury Department Accounting Officers, Record Group 217. National Archives, Washington, DC. Available from Fold3.

Easter 1955

This photo of my aunt Gail, my grandmother Helen Martha Marie (Anderson) Gatlin, and my father was taken on Easter Sunday, 11 April 1955.

52 Ancestors: Week 14 "Favorite Photo": Anna Gertrude Tarkington

One of my favorite photos is the above picture of my great-grandmother Anna Gertrude Tarkington. This photo was probably taken in upstate New York, possibly at her home on Orangeport Road in Brewerton, New York. I am not sure if she lived anywhere else after she and her second husband Walter Enloe "Bill" Davis moved to New York. My father visited Gertrude and Bill in New York when he was young, and he recalls that they had wild strawberries in their backyard. One of the things I love about this photo is that Gertrude is holding a cat (probably her cat). I have loved cats since I was young (I got my first cat at age 4). I currently have five cats. They are my babies. My paternal grandparents, Gertrude's son Henry Cornelius Gatlin and Helen Martha Marie (Anderson) Gatlin, did not have pets. From knowing my grandfather, I would not have guessed that his mother would be a "cat person," but she seems very fond of the cat that she is holding in the photo. This is the first photo of Gertrude that I ever saw, and I immediately had positive feelings about her. One reason is that she seems to have liked cats, but another is that I see a resemblance between her and my grandfather, her son. Although I never met her, this photo gives me the impression that she was a very nice woman.