Schoolteachers, Fall Term, 1886

While searching for something else, I came across this mildly interesting list of schoolteachers in Lake County for the fall term of 1886.


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Crown Point Register, 25 Nov. 1886.

"Names and addresses," it says at the top, so perhaps the towns are where they lived but not necessarily where they were teaching, although where they lived would seem to be less important.

Many of these names are familiar.

Among the teachers in Ainsworth, if Alice Palmer was living there she must have been teaching there as well; otherwise she would have stayed at her father's home in Merrillville.

I wonder if A.H. Swain was related to our 1904 Grand Trunk station agent, P.H. Swain? I can't find out anything about either of them.

The only Charles Jones I can find in the 1880 Census would have been about 19 years old in 1886 — old enough to teach school. His father was a farmer named James. His mother, in the 1870 Census, is named Eliza, but in 1880 she's Jennie. Stepmother, or just using her middle name? Eliza J. Jones shows up in the 1890 Plat Book owning 142 acres in Section 19. Much of that land, I believe, was later purchased by Michael Weiler. Beyond that, I can't find out anything about Charles or his family.[1]

Kate Marble was the daughter of Horace and Mary Ellen (Booth). In June 1887 she married John Wesley Ott.


I don't have the time or energy today to look into all the names listed under Merrillville and Hobart, many of which are familiar. I will just say that among the Hobart teachers, Mary Sullivan was known to all Ainsworthites, and the Gadsbys were a teaching family, as well as being active in the Union Sunday School: here George is listed with two daughters, Annie and Nettie.

Just for search-engine purposes, I will list all the Hobart, Ainsworth, and Merrillville surnames list that I haven't discussed: Booth, Collins, Cook, Davis, Flick, Frazier, Halfman, Kern, Nash, Parks, Pattee, Smith, Spencer, Spray, Zuvers.


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[1] The 1860 Census shows a 25-year-old Jacob Jones working as a stagecoach driver and living with Lewis Merrill, stagecoach proprietor. The age is right for this to be our James, and of course James is the Anglicized form of Jacob.

To Eulalia White, a Long Way from Home

Among the random old stuff I've collected is this little envelope with nothing in it:


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No date on the postmark from Pittston, Maine, but whoever addressed it was taught to write no later than the early years of the 19th century: note the way the ss in Miss is formed.

In the 1860 Census of Ross Township, we find a 23-year-old Eulalia White in the household of Joseph Henney — or is it Kenney? It's indexed the first way, but looking at the handwriting, I think it really is Kenney. (In the same census we also find a 25-year-old Eulalie White in Pittston, Maine — maybe the same person counted twice?)

The Merrillville Eulalia is a teacher. She is presumably boarding in the Kenney household. Joseph Kenney describes himself as a merchant; some of his neighbors give occupations that would be practiced in town (clerk, shoemaker, physician) and among the farming neighbors are names that we find in the general Merrillville area on the 1874 Plat Map. From all of this I conclude that Joseph lived in the village of Merrillville, and Eulalia taught at the Merrillville school.

I cannot find Eulalia White before or after 1860. However, in the 1850 Census, in the household of David and Sophronia White of Pittston, Maine, is a 15-year-old Mary E. — was her middle name Eulalia, I wonder? In the same household is a 79-year-old Hannah Kenney — Sophronia's mother, maybe?

I cannot positively identify Joseph Kenney (or Henney) before or after 1860.

On the envelope, above the address, someone has written very lightly in pencil: "Oh my brother." This makes me wonder whether the letter brought Eulalia bad news of her family. (She did have one brother, David Jr., but I can't determine when he died.)