Tuesday, August 31, 2010

You're Right, Amy - It's Not Fair

My friend and genealogist, Amy Coffin had a post yesterday on her great blog, The We Tree Genealogy Blog, about how easy some of her research was into her husband's family but how difficult researching her own family has been. Amy, you're right! It's just not fair.

I have been researching my Hadden (paternal) and O'Neill (maternal) families for 30 years and I still can't find a confirmed date of birth for one of my maternal great grandfathers. He died in 1927 so I'm not conducting research deciphering cave drawings! Although I have had more success on my paternal Hadden family, it has not been easy and I would have thought that after 30 years I would have more to show for it.

On the other hand, I began researching my wife Ellen's family about seven years ago and at times the information flows so fast, it's tough to keep up with all the source citations - multiple sources for almost all facts. Granted Ellen's family has a much longer history in Ontario, Canada and having more local sources is a benefit but my excitement in discovering multiple prominent local and national political connections doesn't always seemed to be shared with the same fervour. Four mayors, Members of Canada's Parliament, Members of Provincial Parliament(in Ontario), a Canadian Senator, and today's discovery of a connection to Ontario's 18th Premier (more on that on a later date when all the sourced facts are known). I've even found a local pioneer village where spinning wheels produced by Ellen's third great grandfather are on display.

Maybe one day, my family will feel as easy. It's a good thing hope comes in large quantities!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Hadden Family Reunions


As I grew up in my parental family, there really wasn't anything heard of called a 'family reunion.' We tended to stay home and were not really the 'visiting' kind. As a result, I feel a bit of envy when I read about other families gathering from near and far over the course of the summer for reunions - refreshing established connections and making new ones.

My Hadden family has come together usually at weddings and funerals, typically leaving with the same promise to get together again, and especially in the case of funerals, at a happier time. While the intentions are always good, only rarely have they materialized. One occasion was around 1980 at an uncle's farm near Belleville, Ontario. Below is a photo of my grandfather, John Gaull Hadden (centre) flanked by his four children (from left to right - Carol, Lewis, James, and Douglas).



With special thanks to Alan Cope, a Hadden cousin through marriage and genealogist in Australia, I learned of an earlier Hadden reunion - one that took place in 1923, the same year that my Hadden family left Scotland for Saskatchewan, Canada. In that year, Hadden aunts of my great grandfather Alexander Shand Hadden gathered in Scotland (photo below courtesy of Alan Cope).



As my great grandfather's parents never married and Alexander was raised by his mother, Helen Shand Gammie, I don't know if he knew his father, John Hadden's family. It seems a shame that as his Hadden relatives gathered he left Scotland behind for the promise and adventure of a new land.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Family Patriarch Photos

One element of my wife Ellen's family that fascinates me is the amount of information, that is records, available to aid with research. This includes, vital records, family documents, wills, legal agreements, and most fascinating to me, old photos.

In my family line, I have very few photos of my grandparents and only a couple of my Hadden great grandparents. As a result, I think it's remarkable that I have found a photo of Ellen's great-great grandfather and one of her great-great-great grandfather and grandmother! More remarkable still when you consider that photography was a relatively 'new' invention when these folks were alive.

Jacob Emanuel Muerner and his wife Susanna Schluchter (Ellen's three times great grandparents) were born in Berne, Switzerland in 1789 and 1787, respectively. All eleven of their children were also born in Switzerland. In 1837, they immigrated to Canada and settled in New Hamburg, a hamlet located west of what is now Kitchener, Ontario. Below they are pictured in undated photos, but as Jacob died in 1869 and Susanna in 1875, these photos are the oldest in my digital family collection.




The Rev. Jacob Wagner was born in Germany in 1824. In 1832, he immigrated to the USA and settled in Lyons, New York state. Eventually he and his wife, Margaret (nee Hailer) would move to and settle in Berlin (Kitchener), Ontario. The date of his photo below is unknown, however Jacob died in 1858 so it would have been taken sometime before that time.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Family Education Records

I never imagined it possible to find records related to the education of ancestors dating back to the 19th century. But thanks to one of my favourite Canadian history websites, Our Roots, that is what I have basically discovered.

Our Roots was developed as a collaboration by colleges , universities, and archives across Canada to put Canada's local histories online. Containing local history works in both French and English, the site describes itself as "a library, archive, museum and school all in one."

A site search lead me to the book, Berlin Collegiate and Technical Institute - Historical Sketch and Calendar of Pupils 1855 - 1904, published, it appears, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the high school. Although the Head Masters over that fifty year period were described as visionary educators, I suspect the school was likely a stern and disciplined environment for the teen-aged students over the period the 'calendar' covers.

Student marks are not provided but the book lists all students by year of entry into the high school. By reviewing the full calendar of students, I found the following ancestors of Ellen's listed (their relationship to Ellen noted in parentheses):

1869 - Louis Jacob Breithaupt (first cousin, three times removed)

1871 - William Henry Breithaupt (first cousin, three times removed)
Louis Henry Wagner (great grandfather)

1876 - John Cristian Breithaupt (first cousin, three times removed)

1880 - Melvina Breithaupt (first cousin, three times removed)

1881 - Ezra Carl Breithaupt (first cousin, three times removed)

1886 - Albert Liborius Breithaupt (first cousin, three times removed)

1889 - Herbert Leslie Staebler (first cousin, two times removed)

1902 - Louis Jacob Gordon Wagner (grandfather)

1904 - Rose Breithaupt (second cousin, two times removed and founder with her husband Spencer Clark of the Guild Inn)

Unfortunately, the book doesn't contain confirmation of graduation but it still nice to find documentation verifying their education, up to 150 years ago.

Monday, August 23, 2010

The Last Birthday Party for Margaret Hailer Wagner Bean


Margaret Hailer was born in 1831, in Chippewa, Ontario, Canada, a small hamlet on the banks of the Niagara River, almost within hearing of the Horseshoe Falls. Her father, John Jacob Hailer is reported to be the first European settler in the Waterloo region of Ontario, purchasing his first acre of land and settling with his family in what is now the downtown core of the city of Kitchener, Ontario.

Margaret married Jacob Wagner in 1849, when she was eighteen years of age. Jacob died suddenly eight and one half years later in 1858, leaving a young widow and two young children. In 1862, Margaret married Daniel Bean, a school teacher, and they had eight additional children. Daniel passed away in 1885.

In 1918, Margaret's family gathered with her in the Bridgeport section of Kitchener (renamed from Berlin in 1916) to celebrate her 87th birthday. A 1918 clipping from the Daily News newspaper, part of the treasure trove found of family records on file at the University of Waterloo, donated by Gordon Wagner, states that "Even today it is her custom to go to church twice every Sunday. During all the past years she has been one of the staunchest Sunday School workers."

The article further indicates that 6 of her 10 children were able to attend the birthday celebration - unfortunately the article only lists four of the six: Euphemia Bean Schmidt (of South Dakota), Emma Mary Bean Haist (of Buffalo, New York), Margaret A. Bean Bender, and Samuel Bean, both of Berlin/Kitchener, Ontario. All four children were from Margaret Hailer's second marriage to Daniel Bean. In additon to her children, the article indicates that grandchildren, many other family members and friends participated in the celebration of her birthday.

Unfortunately, just a little over a month later these family and friends were to gather again but this time for Margaret's funeral in July 1918. As one newspaper obituary so eloquently described it, "At the ripe age of 87 years, 1 month and 7 days, mother Margaret Bean, nee Hailer, eldest daughter of the sainted Jacob Hailer and his wife Margaret Riehl, was suddenly translated from her earthly pilgrimmage (sic) to her heavenly mansion on Sunday, July 7th, 1918, at her late home, Frederick St., Kitchener, Ont., without any premonition or previous illness."

Margaret was laid to rest in the Breithaupt family section of the Mount Hope Cemetery in Kitchener (photo of her monument above right).

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A Canadian Senator in the Family


It's a frequently offered piece of advice, one that I have offered to both experienced and inexperienced genealogists as a lesson learned over the years - go back and re-check your records for nuggets of information you may have initially overlooked. If only I could remember to follow the advice I offer! Oh well, better late than never!

As the result of a recent cemetery trip, I decided to go back and review the pedigree charts and family group sheets left by Gordon Wagner, Ellen's uncle, that contain the information resulting from his family history research. I was looking for a particular family name but in reviewing Gordon's notes, I noticed that beside the name of one of Ellen's second great grandmothers, Anna Muerner, Gordon had penciled in "(sister of Senator Muerner)." I had never heard of Senator Muerner and, in fact, because I had not yet pursued Anna's family, I wasn't aware that she had any siblings.

I checked the Canadian Parliament web site's listing of past Members of Parliament and the Senate and it indicated that there were no Muerners. I did however find a short Wikipedia biography of "the Honourable Samuel Merner" (pictured above right in a photo from the Parliamentary library taken in 1898). Using the more 'anglicized' Merner spelling, I found the Parliament biography for Ellen's second great granduncle, 'Honest Sam' (as he was apparently called) Merner.

A blacksmith by trade, Samuel Merner established a successful wagon and carriage manufacturing business in the village of New Hamburg, Ontario. Prosperity in business lead Samuel into leadership roles in his community like membership on the local school board and time as village councilor and reeve. In 1878, Samuel lost a provincial election but was elected to represent the federal riding of Waterloo South in the Canadian parliament in Ottawa, Ontario.

Unfortunately for Samuel, he was defeated in the 1882 election but on 12 January 1887, Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, appointed Samuel to the Canadian Senate. The charmed life continued for Samuel - business successes included two iron foundries (that he subsequently gave to two of his sons), large farms, and a silent partnership in a large, profitable furniture manufacturing business. His original carriage shop, he sold to his brother Frederick. Samuel and his wife Mary Ann brought fourteen children (seven boys and seven girls) into the world and lived in an elegant home beside the Nith River in the heart of New Hamburg.

Sadly, on the twentieth-fifth anniversary of Canada's Confederation, July 1st, 1892, Samuel's wife Mary Ann died of "congestion of the lungs." Samuel did re-marry, in 1898, and following a re-location of his family to the Brunswick Hotel in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, which he owned, he began to experience a decline in his health and wealth. According to the Universities of Toronto and Laval's Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, it appears that Samuel, in desperation, unsuccessfully attempted to end his life in 1905 by taking carbolic acid. Samuel passed away on August 10, 1908 and was survived by his second wife and eight of his 14 children.

Ancestral Mayors of Berlin/Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

A number of my wife Ellen's ancestors successfully entered the political arena of public service with four serving as Mayor of the Town of Berlin and, as of 1916, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. While I knew of some of the political lives of her ancestors, our recent genealogy quest to Kitchener highlighted these four men in particular, presented here in chronological order of mayoral service:

1. Phillip Ludwig 'Louis' Breithaupt


Louis Breithaupt (Ellen's 2X great granduncle) moved to the town of Berlin, Ontario from Buffalo, New York, USA in the late 1850's. He had been introduced to the area by his friend and brother-in-law, the Rev. Jacob Wagner (Ellen's 2X great grandfather). Catharine Hailer, the younger sister of Jacob's wife Margaret, subsequently married Louis. On April 1, 1858, Louis and Jacob completed a written agreement to go into the tannery business together but, unfortunately, Jacob died on April 19th. Louis opened the tannery on his own and built the business into a family enterprise that spanned four generations before it was sold to the A. R. Clarke Co. Louis was elected Mayor of Berlin in 1879 and died while in office in 1880.

2. Louis Jacob Breithaupt


Louis Jacob (LJ) was Louis' son (and Ellen's first cousin, three times removed) and served as Mayor of Berlin from 1888 - 1889. He had previously served on the local school board and had been a town councilor, deputy reeve and reeve. Subsequent to his service as town mayor, LJ represented the area as the Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1899 - 1902. When not serving in public office, LJ was president of the family leather company.

3. Jacob Merner Staebler


Jacob (Ellen's great granduncle) established a highly successful insurance company in Berlin in 1873. No longer in the family, the Staebler Insurance Company still operates as a multi-million dollar per year insurance firm. First elected to town council in 1880, J M Staebler held successive public offices leading to a term as Mayor in 1891. An interesting side note about J M Staebler - when he first established his business, he had his initials placed over the main entrance door to the company offices. Subsequently, the building was sold to another man who shared the same initials and who, understandably, was thrilled to purchase a building for his new business that already bore his initials. That man was J. M. Schneider and his company went on to become one of the largest producers of meat products in Canada.

4. Louis Orville Breithaupt


'LOB' (Ellen's second cousin, twice removed) became, up to that time, the youngest Mayor of Kitchener in 1923. Louis subsequently went on to represent the area in 1940 as Member of Parliament in Ottawa, Canada, in the government of Canada's longest serving Prime Minister, and old Breithaupt and Wagner family friend, William Lyon MacKenzie King. Louis left Parliament in 1952 to take up the appointment as Ontario's 18th Lieutenant Governor. He died suddenly in 1960 while serving as Chancellor of Victoria College at the University of Toronto, Ontario.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Happy 1st Blogiversary!

It is hard to believe that a year has already passed since I started this family history blog. In the past year, I have somehow managed to write a new post every two days on average and there have been more than 5,000 visits to the blog. Blog visitors have been from about 35 different countries literally around the world, with the majority of visitors from just about all provinces in Canada, almost all states in the continental USA, and across the United Kingdom.

I started the blog based on urgings that I listened to through genealogy podcasts during my daily work commute, particularly Lisa Louise Cooke of the Genealogy Gems podcast and Drew Smith and George G. Morgan of The Genealogy Guys podcast. One year ago, I had hit the threshold of 10,000 names in my family tree database and thought the blog would be a useful and easy way to share the stories from the family histories of both mine and my wife Ellen's roots. I shared the link to the blog with about twenty-five family members from both our families, with the hope that they didn't think it was too stupid an idea.

It would be an understatement to say I am amazed by the response the blog has received! I have connected with cousins, previously unknown, from both our families. Ellen's family has a long and rich history in Ontario, Canada as well the New England states so that is the primary base for her cousin connections. My cousin connections are more international, reflecting different twentieth century emigration points from the mothership of Scotland. My 'new' cousin connections can be found in Australia, Finland, Luxembourg, Scotland (of course), and 'around the corner' from my house, in Pickering, Ontario.

It's been a great year with times of seemingly unlimited stories to share mixed with dry spells during which I couldn't fathom what I might be able to blog about next. Those dry spells tended to be the catalysts for more research to seek out the next topic or story. I can only hope that the next year will provide as much benefit to me!

Thanks for visiting. I hope you will drop by often!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Wagner Hailer Family Fonds

In my last post, I wrote about part one of our genealogy vacation outing to the city of Kitchener, Ontario to search out more about Ellen's family roots. The first part of our journey took us to Kitchener's Mount Hope Cemetery and the discovered of some (but not yet all) of the prominent ancestral graves, including her first, second and third great grandparents.

The second part of our day was dedicated to visiting the University of Waterloo's Dana Porter Library, in particular, the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room to examine the Wagner Hailer family fonds. I had discovered this document collection purely by accident many months ago while conducting an Internet search for Wagner family information. The website for the university states "The Hailer and Wagner families were both prominent early families residing in Waterloo County, Ontario, as were the Staebler, Biehn/Bean and Breithaupt families, whose documentation is present in this fonds to a lesser degree." The documents contained in these fonds were donated by Ellen's uncle, Gordon Wagner who found himself in the circumstances faced by many genealogists - at the time that he was winding up his family history research, no one else in the family was interested enough to take it on. If he only knew that his niece would marry a genealogist!

Gordon completed his genealogy research during the 1980's, at a time when the options for obtaining documentation involved waiting for records to arrive via 'snail mail' or traveling to sources. Fortunately, Gordon had the time and resources to travel although I still imagined that the record documentation that he had donated to the university likely consisted of a few pages in a file folder. To my amazement, the fonds consist of two filled archive document boxes.

As the university describes, "The fonds consists of correspondence, legal documents, photographs, genealogical records, relating to Jacob Hailer (1804-1885), Henry Wagner (1793-1867), Jacob Wagner (1824-1858), Louis Henry Wagner (1857-1945), Staebler Family, Biehn/Bean Family and Breithaupt Family. Documents relating to each have been family have been arranged separately with the exception of the correspondence and some legal documents which have been arranged in two chronological sequences."

Needless to say, I was doing the 'genealogy happy dance' when I discovered this 'mother lode' of family history material. I went equipped to the library with my digital camera so that I could take photos of all the documents and materials - unfortunately, the library does not permit the use of cameras! The university does offer a free self-serve scanner that saves images onto a USB key. While I typically carry more than one USB key with at all times, on the day of my visit I had no key because I had brought the camera so a short walk to the university campus 'tech' store was required to purchase a new USB key. After two hours of scanning, I had managed to complete one of the two boxes of materials. Another trip or two will be required to complete the second box along with the complementary "Breithaupt Hewetson Clark Collection" (the Breithaupt family records alone occupy 125 linear feet shelf space). Enough to keep me busy for some time!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Genealogy Vacation Trip 2010

Last December, I wrote about our 2008 genealogy quest to find ancestral graves and our hope that in 2010 we could resume these adventures following Ellen's recovery from her 2009 neurosurgery. Well, yesterday was the day and what a genealogy bonanza it turned out to be!

Ellen's German roots in Canada are only a little more than an hour's drive from our home so it is perhaps odd that we hadn't taken greater advantage of the location proximity. The Kitchener, Waterloo region is famous for its German heritage, hosting an annual, world renowned 'Oktoberfest.' My research has uncovered that Ellen's ancestors were among the first German settlers in the area, in fact, her second great grandaunt, Catherine Hailer Breithaupt is said to be the first person of German heritage to have been born in the area.

Planning for our genealogy 'day trip' was supported by two important online tools: the Find A Grave website helped me confirm that family members were buried in the city of Kitchener's Mount Hope Cemetery and the University of Waterloo's website told me that they were holding the "Wagner Hailer family fonds," the genealogy source documents that Ellen's Uncle Gordon Wagner had collected in the years he conducted his family history research.

Our first stop was at the Williamsburg Cemetery office in Kitchener as they hold the cemetery records for the Mount Hope cemetery. In addition to providing us with the plot numbers for various family members, they provided a cemetery walking tour map and helped us determine the locations of the family plots. The map provides three walking tour routes through different cemetery sections and points out the locations of the graves of prominent individuals, several of which were Ellen's ancestors!


With our maps and guided by our GPS unit, it was on to Mount Hope cemetery where to our amazement we discovered what 'prominent' meant. The cemetery is located on Moore Avenue in Kitchener, Ontario, just off of Breithaupt Street (our first clue!). Among many, our most amazing finds was what I described as a 'gated community' within the cemetery containing the graves of Ellen's great great grandparents, Jacob and Margaret Hailer Wagner along with members of the Breithaupt, Goetz, Devitt and Anthes families. This large corner section of the cemetery has an iron fence with concrete, monogrammed concrete posts surrounding it (as seen in the photo above). The earliest internment appears to be that of Jacob Wagner, Ellen's second great grandfather, in 1858 (photo below).




Among other notable graves - that of Ellen's great grandfather, the Rev. Louis Henry Wagner who officiated at many Breithaupt weddings and the Hon. Louis Orville Breithaupt, former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (photos below).


Next post: the Wagner Hailer family fonds.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Musings of Gordon Gilbert Wagner


I have posted previously about my wife's uncle, Gordon Gilbert Henry Wagner (1914 - 1994), pictured left from October 1980, who by profession was a land surveyor in British Columbia, Canada but was also a published author and genealogist. The pedigree charts and family group sheets that Gordon compiled in the 1970's and early 1980's have been invaluable in helping me further my research into Ellen's fascinating family roots.

Gordon's research into the family was laborious, as any involved in pre-computer and Internet research will recall. The family group sheets he left behind provide various notations but offer little to explain some of his findings.

So, I was thrilled to receive copies of some of Gordon's writings - short stories and poems - believed to have been compiled in the early 1980's while Gordon was taking some creative writing classes. The connection to genealogy? Gordon used his family history as a setting for many short stories needed to complete class assignments and in these stories, Gordon is able to offer his narrative explanation and sources on family history questions.

One such story offers his explanation for the date of birth of Ellen's second great grandmother - Eleanor Ann (Ellen) Kimmerly - predating the marriage date of her parents. Gordon's short story in which he 'meets' and 'speaks' with his second great grandfather Sylvester Faulkner, in part, reads as follows:

"Sylvester's [Faulkner] son, Francis Dwight, had married Ellen Kimmerly, the daughter of Andrew Kimmerly and Huldah Ostrum. I had a copy of Andrew Kimmerly's will. He died in 1828. Ellen, her mother Huldah and her two brothers, George and Allen, were beneficiaries.

Lottie (Faulkner) Fuller, my mother's cousin and family historian, showed that Ellen had been born on July 11, 1821. This agreed with the Belleville Intelligencer article reporting her death May 29, 1896, in her seventy-sixth year. Records on file in the Belleville Public Library showed Andrew and Huldah married May 14, 1822 by Reverend McDowell of Kingston, Ontario. [Note: This record is found on page 29 of Rev. McDowell's register]. I had confirmed this in the archives of the United Church in Toronto.

Sylvester listened patiently as I told the story, his shaggy eyebrows frowned over his deep-set blue eyes; I could fell them boring through me. The rocker had stopped. He stood up and slowly and deliberately added wood to the fire.

He settled back in the rocker. "You're right about the dates, and that happened quite often. In those early days Reverend McDowell was the only ordained minister between Kingston and the shores of Lake Huron. Used to come through once a year, and if you missed him you'd have to wait until his next trip. The Kimmerlys were Lutheran, had a church at Big Creek, usually had a lay preacher. Andrew and Ellen must have been married there then had a proper service the first time Reverend McDowell came by. That sort of thing happened all the time, same with christenings."

Creative writing class assignments as a genealogy source - who knew?

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Knox Family of Livermore, California



Thomas Elliott Knox, my wife Ellen's great grandfather, was sufficiently prominent in early California to deserve a biographical section in "A History of The New California: Its Resources and History, Volume II," edited by Leigh H. Irvine, published in 1905 by The Lewis Publishing Company. Thomas is seen on the right side in the above 1923 photo taken in Orillia, Ontario, Canada, along with his wife Amy Squires Knox (centre) and Edward Latimer (on the left) with their granddaughter, and Ellen's mother, Olive Teresa Evelyn 'Tess' Latimer.

The information contained in these biographical sketches can not only confirm that which vital records provide but add 'flesh to the bones' in providing a wide variety and chronology of occupations and locations that otherwise would be difficult to attain. One interesting note, in the first paragraph, the author states that Thomas' father died in 1873 - he actual year of death was 1875. When this book was published in 1905, Thomas' mother was still living as stated but she died the following year.

THOMAS ELLIOTT KNOX

Thomas Elliott Knox, mayor and postmaster of Livermore, was born
in Huron county, Canada, on the 13th of March, 1855, his parents being
Thomas and Catherine (Young) Knox, the former born in Buffalo, New
York, while the latter was a native of Canada. The father died in the year
1873, but the mother is still living and yet makes her home in her native
country.

Thomas E. Knox pursued his education in the schools of Canada and
at the age of fifteen years he left home, going to Michigan, where he secured
employment in the lumber woods. After engaging in scaling timber two
years he made his way to Lake Superior, Michigan, where he worked for a
time at brick work and at plastering. The year 1875 witnessed his arrival
in California. He was then a young man of twenty years, and he made his
way from San Francisco to Santa Barbara and the following year came to
Oakland. Here he followed his trade for a time, and subsequently removed
to Berkeley, Alameda county, California, where he remained until 1878, and
during that period assisted in the organization of the town, which at that
time contained only about two hundred voters. This was during the period
of the Kearney excitement, and Mr. Knox organized what became known
as the Workingmen's party, and, although in no way connected with the
Kearney principles, placed a ticket in the field and was instrumental in elect-
ing the whole ticket. In 1879 he was elected town marshal and held that
position for two terms, being the second incumbent in the office in Berkeley.
In 1880 he purchased one hundred and fifty acres of land near Livermore
and established what is known as the Berkeley colony. He was here engaged
in the conduct of a vineyard for ten years, and when that decade had passed
he took up his abode in the town of Livermore and has since been very active
in its political circles. He first entered the assessor's office as an employe,
doing field work in the district known as Murray township. He was thus
employed for eight years, a part of the time being under Tom Molloy, the
first county assessor, and a part of the time under Robert Leckey, the present
chief deputy recorder. On his retirement from that position he began con-
tracting and building, and has since been identified with industrial interests
in this locality. He has taken and executed the contracts for considerable
bridge work in the county, and at present is associated with Mr. Bradshaw
as contractors in the construction of the new Livermore opera house.

Mr. Knox, however, has never put aside his active and helpful interest
in political affairs, and is a stanch Republican in his views. He has been
to many of the county conventions of his party, and his opinions carry weight
in its councils. He was elected a trustee of Livermore in 1899, and has
continuously served in that capacity for more than four years, being chairman
or mayor of the city during 1902-3. In April, 1903, he was appointed by
President Roosevelt to the position of postmaster at Livermore and has since
acted in that capacity. His official service is always faithfully and promptly
performed, and he is as loyal to the welfare of his community as he is to his
private business interests, whereby he is acquiring a comfortable competence
for his family. In his social relations he is connected with the Independent
Order of Foresters.

In October, 1881, Mr. Knox was united in marriage to Miss Amy
Squires, a native of England and a daughter of John Squires, the former
treasurer of Berkeley, California. Her brother-in-law is now secretary of
the harbor commission. To Mr. and Mrs. Knox have been born two sons
and a daughter: Arthur, who is assisting his father: Elliott, who is now in
school; and Mattie, a student in the high school at Livermore.

Monday, August 2, 2010

John and Maryann Got Married!

I was unable to make to the other wedding that took place on Saturday, July 31st - the one in Rhinesbeck, New York - because John and Maryann Hadden got married! It is always great to witness the next generation achieving milestones, evoking memories of when you achieved those same stages in life's journey.

I'm pleased to share a few images of the happy event and the party-all-night that resulted.

John places a ring on Maryann's finger!


The bridal party ready to celebrate!


Introducing Mr. and Mrs. John and Maryann Hadden!