(Lutheran)
Note: The lives of some of these people were simply so fantastic that mere time lines do not suffice and for this reason, there is plenty of documentation in the Clingman section. Whether you’re a direct relation or not, all the documents bear reading. Two such remarkable people were my DAR Patriot Captain John Michael Clingman and his wife Anna Elizabeth Miller.
1.) John Michael Clingman, born October 26, 1734 in Germany.
Marries Anna Elizabeth Miller on April 13, 1756 in Philadelphia, PA.
He died Jan, 26, 1816 in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio and is buried in the Kinney cemetery in Portsmouth. He is a DAR Patriot.
Burial photos:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohscogs2/Kinney/pages/100_0466_JPG.htm
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohscogs2/Kinney/pages/100_0467_JPG.htm
Site where he died is The Kinney House, or the1810 House, 1926 Waller Street, Portsmouth, Ohio:
http://ohiorivertourism.org/attractions/the_1810_house
http://www.sciotocountyohio.com/1810.htm
John Michael CLINGMAN (son of Jacob Klingermann) was born in Germany. In approximately 1740, Jacob Klingermann sold his property in Northern Germany. The family sailed from Germany for the Province of Pennsylvania in the American Colonies. John Michael was a small child and during the long voyage, his mother died shipboard. A sister died shortly after their arrival in America. After coming to America, Jacob Klingermann took a second wife, but our ancestor is the offspring of the first wife who died en route to this country.
John Michael Clingman married Anna Elizabeth Miller (Millerin) April 13, 1756, a Tuesday, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Michel & Zion, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. John was a Lutheran.
John Michael Clingman was a storekeeper and a farmer. He is listed in the Daughters of the American Revolution index. He farmed from 1767-1776 on land that is now just a few blocks from Independence Hall in Philadelphia. By 1769 he and his wife had settled on a twenty-four acre farm in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania for which he is listed as paying taxes on January 22, 1774; including one horse and three cattle.
Pennsylvania Archives, Series 3, Volume 14, page 134; volume 25, pages 94,96.
John Michael Clingman was a soldier of the American Revolution, was Captain of the 7th Company 1778 of Pennsylvania Militia Northumberland County; Home Guards and “his name was a terror to the Tories.” (He is listed on the Official Roster of Soldiers of the American Revolution Buried in Ohio).
In the DOCUMENTS section, you will see that Capt. Clingman is listed as being with General George Washington at Valley Forge. I have not been able to prove that he fought in any battles there, which would entitle us to membership in the Valley Forge Society.
Later he and his wife settled in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where on September 25, 1779, they sold three town lots to Henry Strarrett for the sum of “eight thousand pounds lawful money of the state.”
For years John Michael Clingman engaged in merchant-banking in Philadelphia. In a bitter political fight with Alexander Hamilton, John Michael Clingman and other bankers were defeated. Being prosecuted and proscribed against (estate and holdings forfeited) by Hamilton, John Michael Clingman left his family in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, and fled alone to the Ohio wilderness. He was growing old and had become broken in health, when he arrived at Alexandria, Ohio, a log cabin settlement which had become a haven for adventurers and political refugees from 1796 to 1804.
Before long John Michael Clingman moved from Alexandria, Ohio, to Portsmouth, Ohio, just across the river. Here he bought and built upon this land near one of the big springs, but did not take title in his own name; the land was placed in an unwritten trust with his son-in-law, Aaron Kinney, who had married his daughter, Mary Clingman. This unwritten trust between John Michael Clingman and Aaron Kinney, with George Washington Clingman (son of John Michael Clingman) as assignee, contained the lands in a patent given and signed by President James Madison, dated August 7, 1812:
Aaron Kinney Land Trust:
“To all to whom these presents shall come, Greetings. Know ye, that Aaron Kinney, Assignee of George Washington Clingman having deposited in the Treasury a Certificate of the Register of the Land Office at Chillicothe, whereby it appears that full payment has been made for the fractional of Congress entitled An Act provided for the sale of lands of the United States in the Territory North- West of the Ohio and above the mouth of the Kentucky River and of the Act Amendatory of the same, there is granted, by the United States, unto the said Aaron Kinney, the fractional lots or sections of land above described. To have and to hold the same fractional lots or sections of land with the appurtenances, unto the said Aaron Kinney, his heirs and assignees forever”
“On testimony wherefore I have caused these letters patent to be made and the Seal of the Land Office to be hereunto affixed.”
“Given unto my hand at the City of Washington, the seventh day of August in the Year of Our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twelve and of the Independence of the United States, the thirty-seventh.”
Signed – James Madison
President of the United States
The land owned contained something more than a square mile of what is now the finest residential district of Portsmouth, Ohio.
John Michael Clingman died January 26, 1816, aged 81 years at the Kinney House, first floor front room. He is buried on top of the hill in Kinney Cemetery, on the east side of the grounds. This is at the head of Waller St., and overlooks the whole city of Portsmouth, Ohio. He has a headstone, but his wife–our ancestress–lies unmarked.
(Source: William Jackson, A Family History)
Other sources for John Michael Clingman family information:
DAR Family Records
Pennsylvania Records of Marriage, page 646
Pennsylvania Vital Records, page 549
Don Kinney Porter
Verna Robinson, author of “Generations March On”
Martha J. Birchum, 110 Arlington, Chickasha, Oklahoma 73018 (1996)
PLEASE SEE http://www.gencircles.com/users/mrsunshine/3/data/871
Regarding JM’s wife:
Ann Elizabeth Miller had lived in northern Germany until a teenager. Her father was a descendant of a family of Upper Germany, in good circumstances possessing considerable property, among other real estate, a large mill, which had been in his ancestral family for many years, and from which they are supposed to have derived their name Muller or Miller.
In early life he became an officer in the household of the King of England. During a sojourn in Wales he married a Welsh lady and subsequently returned to Germany.
The Prince in whose territory he resided, wishing to become possessor of a certain property owned by Miller, the old mill, which he had here-to-fore persistently refused to sell at any price, caused the same to be valued by appraisement and forcibly took possession. As Miller refused to receive the money for the forced sale, it was held by the government for account of his family: where-upon he made his will, in which he declared, that if any of his children should receive any part of the money, so held for the land forcibly taken from him, such heir should be entirely cut off, and excluded from all participation in the distribution of the residue of his estate, which should then revert to the other heirs.
Becoming disgusted with the tyranny of his Rulers, he decided to send some of his children away from the country, to the care of near relatives residing in South America. Not being permitted to send much money with them, by some strange law, he shipped in the vessel boxes of fire-arms consigning them to an American house to be sold to their account. To avoid public attention, they were embarked for America at different times. The vessel containing two of the children was driven by a contrary wind to the West India Islands, where they settled, became wealthy and died leaving no heirs. On the voyage of Ann Elizabeth Miller and her brother John, very stormy seas drove the sailing vessel onto a reef and damaged it severely. Another ship happened upon the ill-fated boat and took the passengers to Philadelphia, its original destination. (2)
Ann Elizabeth and her brother found it hard to never hear from their parents and other brothers and sisters. But Ann Elizabeth soon found work in the home of a rich German family, where she could look after her brother also. After a few years in Philadelphia she met John Michael Clingman. The romance made her forget her own losses. Soon they were preparing for a wedding. John Michael Clingman and Ann Elizabeth Miller were married at St. Michaels and Zion Lutheran Church on 13 April 1757, (3) and settled on that 24 acre farm John had his eye on, between 4th and 7th Streets north of Vine Street in the heart of Philadelphia now. (4) In 1976 it was cleared for a parking lot for visitors to the Liberty Bell, which was just across Vine St. The owners of the land lived across the ocean from America so never bothered their renters. In 1767 when the land was put-up for auction, John bought it so they could continue raising their children on a place so near the fast growing city. By now they had had eight children.
Philadelphia had been growing faster than any other city in the British Empire. But here was an unrest among the people in this new country, especially after the Proclamation of 1763 which closed the territory west of the Allegheny Mountains to settlement. This upset the hopes of settlers and land promoters. The Stamp Act of 1765 followed. The British put a stamp tax on all papers, but there was such a violent reaction by the people it was repealed in 1766.
John Michael and Ann Elizabeth could see that in Philadelphia they were sitting on a hot box. This was an important city to the British. Not only was it an outstanding port, but it was the center for the government of this new country. The British living in the city were becoming more concerned that the Germans’ needs were so successfully met with churches, books, newspapers, schools that the Germans would remain unassimilated and possibly hostile to the British majority. Sometimes this feeling was very evident to them. Now before Great Britain put on more proclamations about the land, they had better get away from the center of action and buy on the frontier while it was still possible.
On Jan. 22, 1773 John Michael Clingman had 800 acres of land surveyed for his use in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania on the Shamokin Creek. A year later he was on the tax records for this land. (5) They bought lots in the newly developing town of Sunbury on the Susquehanna River. They were in the mercantile business for a while in Sunbury.
The were right that this was not the end of trouble with the British. The Townshend Act put a heavy tax on imports from the British. In 1773 Philadelphians refused to accept a shipment of tea. The ship returned home. Boston followed Philadelphia’s example and the Boston Teaparty resulted.
Tom Paine, a pamphleteer, called for immediate independence nudging public opinion and Congress toward irrevocable steps. So on June 11, 1776 a committee was appointed to prepare a declaration of independence. And on July 4, 1776 the declaration of Independence was adopted.
They sold their little farm at Philadelphia in 1776. (6) But things up north on the frontier were not an awfully lot better. The Indians, once friendly, were being bribed by the British to help them win their war. The British were paying the Indians well for each white man’s scalp brought to them. The many attacks by the Indians were unbelievably savage.
This was the Revolutionary War. John Michael at first served his country by being on the Committee of Safety. (7) The idea of a Committee of Safety was started in Massachusetts and spread to Pennsylvania. Each town ship in the county was represented by three men elected by their fellow countrymen to serve as members of this patriotic body that met as a county group. This committee was delegated to attend to the administration of internal affairs and to the organization of the militia. John Clingman served at the meetings on Aug. 13, 1776 and Feb. 13, 1777. In May 1778 the Northumberland Militia seemed to be reorganized to include John Clingman in Col. James Murray’s 2nd Battalion 8th Company as the Captain over 73 men in Wyoming Township. Terrible encounters with the Indians took place in various parts of the county until the people became so frightened they fled to forts for protection. Everyone was to take a two month turn in the militia. The people of Northumberland County needed more protection than they were receiving. Men who did leave the county to fight elsewhere had few guns, and not enough clothing nor blankets. Often they were not paid for months and some, never.
In 1779 John Michael and Ann Elizabeth sold 3 lots in Sunbury. (9) And in 1780 we find John Michael’s signature on several Memorial Petitions to the Executive Council of Pennsylvania. (10) Since being in Northumberland County four more children were added to their family.
For years John Michael Clingman engaged in merchant banking in Philadelphia. In a bitter political fight with Alexander Hamilton, John Michael Clingman and other bankers were defeated. Being prosecuted and proscribed against (estate and holdings forfeited) by Hamilton, John Michael Clingman left his family in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania and fled alone to the Ohio wilderness. John Michael Clingman was growing old and had become broken in health when he arrived in Alexandrea, Ohio, a log cabin settlement which had become a haven for adventurers and political refugees from 1796 to 1804.
Before long John Michael moved from Alexandria, Ohio to Portsmouth, Ohio across the river. Here he bought land but did not take title in his own name. The land was placed in an unwritten trust with his son-in-law, Aaron Kinney, who had married his daughter, Mary Clingman. The land owned by John Michael Clingman contained something more than a square mile of what is now the finest residential district of Portsmouth, Ohio in Scioto County.
Mary, daughter of John Michael Clingman, married Aaron Kinney in December, 1797 in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. After the death of her mother, Ann Elizabeth Miller Clingman, at Northumberland County, Pennsylvania on Jan. 19, 1805, the Kinney family and some of the other Clingman children moved by wagon to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, thence by flat boat to join John Michael Clingman at Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio.
Note: Following the above text, a description of the unwritten trust between John Michael Clingman and Aaron Kinney is printed. As this trust is already printed on pages 35 and 36, I did not duplicate what Verna Clingman Robinson had printed in her “Generations March On.” Please see the Chicago Chapter, N.S.D.A.R. record compiled by Mrs. Harold I. Meyer, National No. 343911, dated 1954, on pages 35 and 36.
The graveyard description is a little different in Verna’s account. Verna writes, “It became known as the ‘Kinney Graveyard.’ now a little walled in, unkempt graveyard near the top of a hill once known as “Clingman Hill,” which is inside the city of Portsmouth, a city of around 30,000 inhabitance in 1980.”
This ends the excerpt from “Generations March On” by Verna Clingman Robinson.>
SOURCE: http://members.aol.com/ClingmCLan/ClingGBC.html
Their son was
2.) John Clingman is born February 9, 1774 in Sunbury Township, Northumberland, County, PA.
He marries Mary Ashton Briggs (born April 2, 1776 in Chester County, PA) on April 16, 1796 in Sunbury, PA. I believe that Mary Briggs Clingman is the “Old Grandma” referred to in the interviews done with the three bachelor sons of George Washington Clingman.
Mary Ashton Briggs Clingman dies on December 10, 1852 in Scioto, Ohio.
John Clingman dies on April 23, 1854 in Bloom Township, Scioto, Ohio.
<John Clingman was the oldest son of the immigrant, John Michael Clingman. He was born near Philadelphia probably about 1772 or 1773. He was married to Mary Ann Briggs in the early 1790′s. He and his brother, George W. both moved to Ohio in 1804 and it is reasonable to suppose that they made the trip together. We know, among the little information we have about him, that he was real “Pennsylvania Dutch.” When he visited his son, A.B. Clingman, of near Cedarville, Illinois in the 1850′s, my father, Stephen Clingman, who was a boy of eight years or thereabouts, remembers that he spoke very little if any, English. Stephen Clingman writes “He visited us in Illinois sometime in the Fifties. It was after 1852 for that was the year we built the “new house” and we were living in it at the time. I remember going upstairs to get his watch for him, (the old silver watch I now have). He died a year or two later and Father went to Ohio to settle some business matters”.>
SOURCE: http://members.aol.com/ClingmCLan/ClingGBC.html
Their son was
3.) Abner Briggs Clingman is born July 13, 1797 in Northumberland County, PA.
In 1804, Abner’s family moves to Ohio, near the town of Portsmouth, along the Miami River. Family history indicates that he plied the inland rivers in many states.
He marries Sarah Woolever on May 26, 1822 in Scioto County, Ohio. He and his wife live outside Chillicothe, Ohio.
In 1839, he comes to Illinois and visits Iowa. He returns to northern Illinois and finds the land he is looking for in Stephenson County, Illinois. He builds a two-story log house there. After building and outfitting the house, he returns to Ohio and disposes of his property there. He loads up his family and driving ox teams across land, he brings them to Illinois. They arrive on December 31, 1839 in a snow storm.
Seventeen people winter over in the two-story log house during the winter/spring of 1840. It is described as being 16 x 24.
In 1852, he builds the “new house,” which is where his father will visit him. Reportedly, Abner’s father spoke very little English.
In 1872, his wife Sarah dies. She is buried in the Cedarville Cemetery, Cedarville, Illinois. (My mother and I made a trip to Cedarville in the spring of 2000, and we went to this cemetery. We have pictures of her grave.)
On line, her grave can be seen at:
After his wife dies, Abner moves with his son George Washington Clingman to Oregon. There is some confusion over the exact year in which this happens, but I put it in 1888.
Abner dies on September 17, 1895 in Halsey, Linn County, Oregon and is buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery in Linn County, Oregon.
The following comes from http://members.aol.com/ClingmCLan/ClingGBC.html
>Abner Briggs Clingman’s parents were pioneers in Ohio, and, living along the Miami River all through his youth, he was familiar with the heavy labor of “carving a home out of the wilderness.”
Before his marriage, he and some other young men, built a log school house, secured a teacher by subscription and attended school about three months. This was all the “schooling” he ever got; but he studied at home, developed a talent for mathematics and mastered surveying. The studying was done by the light of the fireplace after his day’s work was over. He filled the office of county surveyor in Ohio–did a good deal of surveying in Illinois but never made a business of it. He was a cabinet maker in his younger days and a fine workman. A brother-in-law, Mr. Ransom was a cabinet maker and doubtless he learned the trade from him. The huge “secretary” made by Grandfather Clingman and known to three generations or more, is now in the home of Burleigh S. Clingman. (Note: This secretary is now in my possession, Gordon B. Clingman. We had the secretary restored by an noted antique refinishing company in San Francisco in 1982. It remains a beautiful piece of furniture. – February, 1996)
S. C. “He made a number of trips down the Ohio and Mississippi. I do not know whether he ever reached New Orleans. He was in the War of 1812 but not, I think in active service. I have seen his commission as Lieutenant from Governor Lucas of Ohio. The Company was drilled and, I think, held subject to call.” S.C. “Father came to Illinois in 1839. He had lived in the Miami River bottom. Had cleared two farms of heavy timber. Had very bad water (sulphur) and for years hauled the drinking and cooking water. Then he decided to change location and prepared for his journey on horseback. Questioned about his destination, he said it was uncertain, but that he was going until he found a good prairie farm with a spring of good water upon it and within reach of timber. He went through Central Illinois, I suppose because his brothers John and Cyrus had located there, went on to Iowa, was at Iowa City when it was being surveyed, struck north and east and went into Northern Illinois, probably because his Uncle Washington was there. He located about two and a half miles from Uncle Washington’s place and found what he wanted – good prairie land, a spring of good water (four springs and a spring-fed creek on the place) and timber about three miles away. He then went to the timber, selected, cut and hewed the logs for a house. He got an extra horse and a wagon, hauled the logs to his claim, and built the house, himself, a two-room structure with clapboard roof, puncheon floor and fire-place ready for occupancy. He went back to Ohio, disposed of his property and with his brother Hiram and the two families, started to the new home-over land, of course. They drove ox-teams and arrived the last of December, 1839 in a snow-storm. I do not know the size of the house, but it was probably 16 by 24. At any rate, seventeen people stayed there during the winter. Uncle Hiram built a house the next spring and finally settled about one mile south of us.
Father was married in 1822. He had nothing but land covered with heavy timber. With his ax and a few tools, he made all the furniture in his house. He lived at this time eighteen miles from Chillicothe, Ohio. He got a horse, also a cow. Kept milk in a vessel hewed from a small log. I remember the story that one day he walked to Chillicothe on business, saw some earthen crocks, bought several for Mother to keep milk in, and carried them home in a bag across his shoulder. Reaching home, he fell over a stump in the door-yard and broke every one!
His leaving his early environment and moving to Illinois was perhaps the most important event of his life. Where did he get his incentive to strive for something better, to get an education, to accomplish things? I regret deeply that I never knew enough to appreciate what he had done until too late. We all just took him as a matter of course. If there was a difficult thing to do, either a physical or a mental problem to be solved, we realized that Father could do it. He had five boys that grew to manhood and none of them could measure up to him in work, tenacity of purpose and real accomplishments.
After his active life which led him across the continent, he rests peacefully on a beautiful mound overlooking the Pacific, with his sons Cyrus and George beside him.”
SARAH WOOLEVER CLINGMAN
S.C. “You ask me to give some particulars of my Mother’s appearance and of her people. It is a little difficult to do. Her name, as you know, was Wolweber (variously spelled). Her mother’s maiden name was Lewis. (Does that indicate English descent?) I remember an old picture at home of a Mr. Lewis who was either a brother or step-brother of my mother’s mother–a rather fine-looking man, I thought. Of my mother’s father, I know nothing. He seems to have been a roving worthless sort of a man and my impression has always been that he left the country. I may have received this impression from the fact that my mother lived with her Uncle Lewis (her mother, also). People were poor in those days and girls were expected to work. I have heard my mother say that when she was nine years old she worked for a neighbor three miles distant–that she was allowed to come home on Saturday night after she had finished her day’s work but had to return Sunday evening to be ready for work Monday morning. The road she travelled was through the timber which was infested with wild animals, wild cats and panthers, a fear-some journey for a child, yet her desire to see her mother overcame her natural terrors and she made the trip occasionally, I think not every Saturday night. Among her duties was to spin a certain number of “cuts” each day. I cannot say how many, but it was nearly a woman’s work. I can remember when as a small boy, she told me the story, how indignant I got at the cruelty of it all, and I have never felt much pride in this line of my maternal ancestry. Other people at the time, I suppose were about like them. They simply, had not “evoluted” very much from the stone age. Mother was born in 1807, married in 1822 and died in 1872, aged 65 years. I was at Iowa City at the time. Owing to slow trains, I reached home the day of the funeral but after the burial.
Personally, she was a woman of medium height, was of rather stout build, but I think not very fleshy. She had brown hair, blue eyes and regular features, a rather square, broad face, and always, I think, a pleasant expression. She had a sense of humor, not over-developed. She was cheerful, patient, with a kindly feeling for everyone. She was naturally religious and a true Christian. She was not of an assertive nature and was willing to consider the other person’s views, but they were not likely to change her opinions. I do not think she ever went to school. her mother taught her to read and write. She could read intelligently but did not do any general reading. I think she read her Bible daily in the later years of her life. Naturally intelligent, she learned from experience. I do not remember of ever receiving a cross word from her although doubtless I often needed them. As I was the youngest child living, the others being much older, I may have been somewhat favored. And undoubtedly our dispositions change as we grow older and learn more. It seems that I have described an almost ideal woman and such is my recollection of my mother. How much of it is due to imagination and boyish regrets, I cannot tell. I know now that she and my Father lived in distinct and different worlds. Of course they had interests in common, but in his reading and studies that educated him and gave him a standing among men of his time, she of course took no interest except in a general way, but devoted her life to the care of her house and her family, which, after all, may not be an unequal division of the “privileges” of married people. At any rate, “Aunt Sarah” as she was lovingly called by the neighbors, universally had their respect and esteem.”
Following is part of a letter from Franklin Clingman, another son of A.B. and Sarah Clingman.
“I never thought she was an ordinary woman. She had traits that made her distinct from the ordinary class moving in about the same circle. She had ability, good judgment–not much school education, but she could accomplish things. I don’t think we children ever gave her half credit enough for what she did and was willing to do for us. As to her build, it was rather slight, I think below medium height; fair complexion, blue and very friendly eyes, rather dark and abundant hair. Her unselfish and helpful disposition made her friends everywhere. She was a firm believer and worker in the church. Her and Father’s tastes were quite different and made a little friction sometimes. She was always active while Father liked to take it easy in his old days. Mother’s normal weight was perhaps between 115 and 125 pounds, but she got quite a good deal heavier since I can remember.”
At home (in David City, Nebraska) there is a daguerreotype of Grandma Clingman taken in her later years, a quaint old-fashioned picture. She wears a cap and had black lace “mitts.” —- Father has a blue and white double Irish chain quilt that she pieced for him. It is all done by hand, of course. Each block is beautifully quilted with tiny even stitches and I think there is a different design on each block. I remember also a needlecase that she made. It was in the shape of an oak-leaf with the veins embroidered and silken leaves inside.
The life in Illinois was a busy one. The family outgrew the log-house and in 1852 the “new house” was built. It was a two-story house with large rooms and high ceilings. Of course much native hardwood went into its building and it probably is strong and sturdy now in its 71st year. The house was built largely by the family. I remember of hearing how the shingles were made by hand. There was a spring house containing boards cut out to hold crocks of milk and placed at such a height that the water would cool them in passing. The churning was done in the cellar and when the older children were gone, it fell to the lot of Hester and Stephen to do it. They took turns, and when each had done so many strokes, they would cut a notch in a board that was fixed somewhere on the wall—a shelf, probably. More than fifty years afterwards, Aunt Hester visited the old place, and shelf and notches were still there.
In the winter, the cellar held a goodly store of apples, nuts and cider and no visitor ever left without tasting of their hospitality. I suppose they used a stove in later years, but for a time they used a brick oven, built the fire inside, then raked out the coals, and filled the oven with bread, pies, and whatever else they baked in those days. Wool was spun and woven on the farm, hides were tanned and once a year a cobbler came and made up a year’s supply of footwear for the family. Aunt Hester had one of the first “calico” dresses in the neighborhood. It cost half a dollar a yard and doubtless was worn only on Sundays and treasured for a long time. I suppose their methods of farming would be considered primitive now, but if they farmed on a smaller scale, their lives were simpler and their wants fewer. Most of the living was raised on the farm. No attempt was made to derive an income from chickens, dairy products, etc.
It was Grandfather’s ambition to have all his children settle near him. Several started farming near the old home, but in time all drifted away. I believe he was a man of much influence in his community in his prime. He always stood for the betterment of conditions. He and Squire Addams, father of Jane Addams of Hull House fame, established a public library in Cedarville, when libraries were less common than they are now.
This record would not be complete without a record of the old stone schoolhouse. I suppose it was near Cedarville for the Clingman boys and girls attended. It was also the scene of spelling-schools, singing schools, debating societies and other social activities, and doubtless “preaching” was held there many times.>
Their son was
4.) George Washington Clingman (son of Abner and Sarah), born on December 4, 1829 in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio.
He marries Nancy Walkey on November 25, 1852.
At some point, he moves to Oregon (I place it in 1888) where he dies on September 20, 1909 in Halsey, Linn County, Oregon. He and Nancy are buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery in Linn County, Oregon.
The following comes from: http://members.aol.com/ClingmCLan/ClingGBC.html
<George married Nancy Walkey whose family lived in the neighborhood. They built a house and lived about forty rods south of us, just across the road from the old log school house, the first school house in that part of the country.
Their oldest child, Harvey, was just about the age of Oscar DeHaven, perhaps a little older. Then there were Ella, Silas, Edward, I am not sure whether there were others. George and his family and Cornelia and Oscar, all moved to Oregon, about 1880, taking Father with them. George’s children married and settled in Oregon, I think, but farther south. George and his wife are buried near the coast where Father and Cyrus rest.>
Dana’s Note: Nancy Walkey’s father Daniel Walkey is buried in the Davis cemetery in Davis, Illinois. Please see:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScid=192722&GRid=46910633&.
Their daughter was
5.) Ella Clingman is born April 18, 1860.
She marries Alva Rowland in Stephenson County, Illinois on February 26, 1884.
She dies in 1952 in Linn County, Oregon and is buried with her husband in the Pine Grove Cemetery in Linn County, Oregon. My cousin Leslie Rowland Roboski has only just recently provided me with Ella’s Obituary.
Family legend has it that Alva and his brother Melvin Titus were in Alaska during the Gold Rush. The two brothers were there, and that is a fact derived from census information. The real legend involves Ella who, upon hearing that the brothers were broke and practically starving, went up to Alaska and opened up a boarding house known as “Ma Rowland’s Boarding House.”
Allegedly, this enterprise kept the brothers from starving to death and much to everyone’s chagrin, they came back to the Lower 48 and were not wealthy.
The myth of Ma Rowland’s Boarding House became a hot spot during the life of Audra Liska Rowland who, after her husband Dr. Floyd Rowland died, rented out most of her house at 14 Rowland Drive in Chatham, MA to local fishermen while she herself lived in one of the bedrooms upstairs. Personally, I remember coming to the house in Chatham for many summers and found strange men sleeping in bunk beds in the basement. Her son Steven Rowland (Uncle Steven) also lived in the house on and off for many years. The family *joke,* if that is what you wanted to call it, was that just like Ella, Audra Rowland was operating “Ma Rowland’s Boarding House.”
The son of Alva Rowland and Ella Clingman was
6.) Dr. Floyd Rowland born October 18, 1885 in Hartwick, Poweshiek County, Iowa.
He married Clauda Anderson on June 17, 1909 and divorced her on October 26 1938 (final in Suffolk Co., MA. I have the documents.)
He formally married Autillia Liska on November 24, 1938 in Seabrook, NH.
He died on June 11, 1961 in Hyannis, Barnstable County, 1961.
Floyd Rowland obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from Oregon Agricultural College in 1907. He was an Assistant in Chemistry at OAC from 1911-1912. In 1914, he obtained an A.B. degree from the University of Illinois; and in 1915, he obtained his A.M. degree from the University of Illinois.
He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in in 1918. He was in the Army for a few brief months from September, 1918 until December, 1918, at which time he was discharged. He was a First Lieutenant in the Chemical Warfare Service. Floyd’s ss# is 021-03-1697. From 1919 until 1920, he was an Ass’t. Prof. at the University of Kansas.
Please see:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/l/i/Gordon-B-Clingman/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-1099.html
NOTE: Gordon B. Clingman and I struck up en email friendship, and I provided him info on the “missing Ella Clingman” and her descendants:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/l/i/Gordon-B-Clingman/index.html
Gordon is dead now. He was a wonderful man and our cousin. He spent the last part of his life traveling this country to see, photograph, and record the Clingman family history.
Their daughter was/is
7.) Floy D’Onn Rowland (my mother, born in Boston, MA) who married Dan Louis Eilers (October 13, 1904-January 18, 2006). My mother is 77 years old and has returned to the Rowland family homestead on Cape Cod, MA. As of this writing, she lives here with both my sister and myself.
I am their daughter:
8.) Dana D. Eilers