Where did we come from Part 2. Ireland?

Ireland was one country, but now it is two. There is The Irish Free Republic which is Irish and Catholic. Then there is Northern Ireland which is British and Protestant. Ireland used to be just one country.  What happened?

In 1271 Henry II invaded Ireland. That was almost 750 years ago. Wow those Irish folks know how to stay mad, and the English can’t take the hint that they aren’t welcome.

The Irish have fought to get rid of England ever since. English monarchs have tried everything to make the Irish shut up about being invaded.

The northern part of Ireland (Ulster) was especially irksome to Queen Elizabeth. (late 1500's)  She found a general who killed their herds, burned their crops and buildings, starved them out and then killed any Irish who remained. In effect he depopulated large portions of Ulster, which were then seized by England as English land.

In addition a couple guys from Scotland helped out an Irish guy who was in prison and who owned a lot of land (thousands of acres). Long story short, they wound up owning all his lands. Then King James I claimed an even bigger chunk of Northern Ireland after defeating the Irish of Ulster. The nine counties of Ulster were now in the hands of either Scottish businessmen or King James. This area is still in British hands and is where the fighting in Ireland has gone on for genertions.

About now you are wondering what all this history has to do with the Wisely surname. We are almost there.

The two Scottish businessmen, Montgomery and Hamilton, set up plantations in Ulster. King James later did the same. The “plantations” were not like the plantations of the United States in the 1800’s where one person owned it all and slaves did the work. These “Ulster plantations” were divided into large blocks of land, which were given or sold to wealthy or well connected Scottish and English who would then lease smaller farms to individuals. The Irish were excluded from leasing these Irish lands.  Good soil, long leases of 17years or more, low cost and nearness to Scotland enticed a flood of Scots to move to Ulster. Large numbers of English from overcrowded London also took advantage of the opportunity. King James knew the Scots were better suited to hard work than the “tender” English. Most of the English returned to London with in a year or two. By about 1720 The Scots would be the predominant group in Ulster.  Geography was part of it. Scotland is 20 miles from Ulster and London is almost 350 as the crow flies. 
It is from these Scots who lived in Ireland that we get the term Scotch-Irish or Ulster Scots.  They were born on Irish soil (technically then British soil) of Scottish parents and raised as Scots. Many would return to Scotland for Education. Children of marriage age would be sent back to Scotland to find a mate. Culturally and in every other way this group of farmers in Ulster were Scots with an Irish mailing address.

So back to the question? Where did the Wiselys come from? Many early U.S. census records show Ireland as birthplace of Wiselys. Yes they were born in Ireland, but they were not Irish. If your wife makes you sleep in the garage for five years does that make you a car? No, you are just an abused husband. Same with the Scots who were in Ireland for a few generations. They were Scots and not Irish. There is much more to this story than I have included here. I fear I have already bored some of you to tears. But this background is essential in understanding why our ancestors came from Ireland but were not Irish.

If you want to know more details please go to
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation_of_Ulster
or Google “Ulster Plantations” There is a map there that
will help you see how close Scotland is to Ulster, less than 20 miles across the north channel. We will continue to answer the question of where the Wiseleys originated in future blogs. Thanks for reading.

The Tears of Amos

Following the Lancaster Line –

Tears of Amos

First a quick review of the Lancaster line. The oldest record I have is from Pennsylvania in the Lancaster, PA area. My 4G grandfather was John. I know his mother was named Mary and she remarried twice after John’s father passed away. But I do not know for sure what my 5G grandfather’s name was. Some people point to a marriage in 1726 between a John and Mary and use that as my 4G Grandfather's dad. But that would put about 30 years between their marriage and the birth of their children so I have to reject that notion.

My 4G grandfather John was born about 1755 and had two brothers, William and Francis who were both bachelors. His only sister, Mary is a complete mystery to me. I have very little on where she went or what happened to her other than a marriage.

Francis stayed in the area and headed a little south to Delaware County, PA where he died in 1835, and having joined the Quakers would leave no headstone. (Quakers seldom had a headstone)

William headed a little west, settled in York Springs, PA, He invested in the toll road that went by his house and left a will at the county seat, Gettysburg. He  left money to his step brothers from his mother’s second marriage and $400 to John.

John moved with a group of people to the Ohio territory about the time it gained statehood in 1803. They settled north of Lancaster near a small town of Carroll. John had 5 children; William, James, Edward, George, and Ann.

John’s son William had a son named Allen who moved to Findlay and filled the Findlay and Toledo area with Wiseleys. If your family has any history from that area it is possible this may be your line.

John’s son James had a son named George and in 2002 I received a nice letter with the “James Line” that led to New Mexico. If you are from that area perhaps you are from this line as well.

Edward is my 3Ggrandfather, had 15 kids and has caused me a lot of work. One of his kids was Henry my 2G grandfather. Henry and his brother Amos moved from the Lancaster, OH area to near Logansport, Indiana in about 1843.

George also had several children and is the Grandfather of Electious and Allen Newton Wiseley who went to Oakwood.

And finally there is Anne and I have done no research on her at all.

OK that pretty well does a quick thumbnail sketch on my line and may give you some clues to your family history. Now back to Amos and his tears.

Amos and his brother Henry were born near Lancaster, OH. They were sons of Edward and Leah. Here is a good thumbnail sketch of Amos.

       Amos and Elizabeth had five children. Amos did well as a farmer and sold a lot of land he had acquired early. Shortly after coming to Royal Center their first child arrived. A little girl named Leah was born in Oct 1847. Then in June of 1849 Isaac and 18 months later Elizabeth in Dec 1850. Henry would not be born until 1855 and finally William arrived 7 years after Henry in 1862.

Amos and Elizabeth had suffered the loss of one of their children. Little Leah died during the winter in Feb 1853. She was only 5.  It must have been heart wrenching to lose a five year old daughter.

In 1866, four years after their last child William, was born, their 17 year old Isaac got sick over the weekend. It was late October.  He quickly went from feeling a little sick to severe vomiting and diarrhea.  He died on Monday. (Oct 29)  Can you imagine the loss of a 17 year old to a farm family? Then the following Saturday (Nov 3) 11year old Henry died the same way. And 3 weeks from the following Thursday 16 year old Elizabeth also died. (Nov 29) Amos and Elizabeth had lost two teenagers and an 11 year old in one month! And now you know why I named this blog “the tears of Amos”



Cemetery listing of the four children. North and south refers to which side of the headstone
has their inscription.





These two headstones are where the children are buried. Each stone carries 2 inscriptions
Notice my wife in the white pants in the distance next to Amos's headstone.



Elizabeth's inscription. She was just 16!

Here is a closeup of Elizabeths inscription. You can just make it out in the picture above on the stone closest to the camera.

What had happened? As I walked around the Kistler cemetery where they are buried I noticed several gravestones had a death date in 1866. People of all ages had all died about the same time. What had happened to this little community?

When I got home I found the answer. Cholera. I have a wonderful two volume work by Buley “The Old Northwest” He traces how Cholera spread through Europe and arrived in America aboard a ship and was eventually spread to Niagara Falls. A military detachment was sent from there to Chicago to fight the Indians. That resulted in Chicago having a cholera epidemic in 1832. It sprang up again in 1849 and 1866. It spread well beyond Chicago, and affected most of the nation.  

Do a quick Google search on Cholera in Chicago and you will find how devastating a disease this was. People would get Cholera in the morning and be dead by that night or the next day.

Now we know why there is only Williams name on the back of Amos’s tombstone. He was the only one of their five children to survive. I still remember standing in the Kistler cemetery in front of those poor children’s tombstone and trying to imagine the grief that Amos and Elizabeth endured. I cannot help but think those tombstone were once wet from the tears of Amos.





Where did the Wiseleys come from

Part 1 – Which is it? Wiseley, Wisely, Wisley, or Wisly

Are the Wiseleys Irish?  A lot of Wiseleys came here from Ireland. It would make it a lot simpler if we were named O’Wiseley or McWiseley. It might be nice if people who spell Wiseley one way are from one place and a different spelling are from somewhere else. But that is not the case. 

      This might be a good place to discuss how Wisly –Wisley – Wisely – Wiseley  is spelled  I often run across a story of two brothers who got mad at each other and changed how they spelled their last names, and that is the reason for different spellings.  If you like that story don’t let me spoil things for you. Go on believing it. It won’t hurt anyone. It may even be true although I have no documentation to support that idea.  The primary reason for different spellings is not country of origin, feuding brothers, or even different family lines. 

        Census takers did the best they could, as did lawyers, clerks and anyone else who wrote someone’s name. But a person who could not read or write had no idea how to spell their name. Even if they did they had little control over how their name was spelled by those who wrote their name in records. Even first names were sometimes altered. If you recall from the last blog Clive was a nickname for Clyde. That is understandable. But I saw numerous references for Olive C Wiseley. It took a little for me to realize that was actually Clive and not Popeye’s girlfriend. Even worse is poor Electious. (see Oakwood blogs)   

        Most of us have also heard stories about immigrants coming to this country with difficult names and processing through Ellis island. 

     “OK Next. What’s your name?”

     “My name is Olfandorfer Von Higenbackelsteinsen”

      The immigration officer would look up puzzled and then start writing and tell poor Olfandorfer “No, your name is Peter Johnson.”   And it was! 

        Fortunately Wisely is pretty easy to say and easy to spell….if you aren’t particular what letters get used.  Some times the different spellings are so obvious you start to wonder if any one was paying attention.  For instance the Pennsylvania Archives are a great source for people from Pennsylvania before 1800. 

    Here we find John Wiseley and William Wiseley, brothers from the Lancaster, PA area. (John is my 4G grandfather). Near the bottom of the list we find two more brothers, Francis and William Wisely.  Francis and William are my uncles, and both are brothers to John Wiseley above. Yep, William Wiseley is William Wisely, and on the same index page. This index lists Militia members, Tax rolls, freemen, and other "official" lists. 

  

    What about other lines of Wiselys?  If we look at the Wytheville line of Wiselys we note that many of them spelled their name with just the first E.  That is how Daniel's last name appears here in a listing of property exchange.  Daniel Wisely, just as you would expect from this line of Wiselys.  



    



A Wytheville, Viginia Wisely

Here again we see the same person mentioned with their last name spelled different ways. And yes these two Daniels are the same person.

The John listed earlier had a son named Edward who married Leah Thomlinson (Not Tumbleson as is often listed) Here is her headstone from the Coffman cemetery about 5 miles north west of Lancaster, OH. Her name is plainly spelled Wiseley.  But at the lancaster court house i found "official" documents that listed it differently. 

 Here in a land transfer document we find her as "Leah Wisely"  And in another land transfer document we find her name is spelled "Wisley". These documents came from the same court house and were dated within a few years of each other. The two documents must have been written by a different clerk.  We know that her Father-in-Law John was literate enough to sign his name on his will. But neither his son Edward  nor  Leah were able to sign their names.  I have seen the original documents where they both made their mark.   

As long as we are talking about "marks" there is one early Wytheville Wisely that could only make his mark. His name is Peter Wisely and he signed his name with an X. When  that is done the clerk or secretary writes the name and they "make their mark". Usually the "mark" is an X and is made just above the space between their names, but sometimes on the same line as the written name. I cannot count how many times i have found someone posting information about Peter X. Wiseley.  Did his folks really name him Xexavier, or perhaps xylophone??                                

Then there is one of Leah's sons. My 3 G Uncle Amos. His Tombstone is in the Kistler cemetery just east of Royal Center, IN 

I have posted this picture in previously blogs but it is such a good example it is worth reposting here.  His name is spelled "WISLEY" on the front of the tombstone and "WISELEY" on the back. Based on all his family names the front spelling is a mistake. Or maybe that was how he spelled his

  name???  I think one or the other is wrong and i think

(for obvious reasons) that Wiseley is correct.



William was one of Amos's children. Now if Amos's mother was named Wiseley and his son was named Wiseley I think he was named Wiseley. 

Nearby Amos's magnificant headstone is my GG Grandather Henry's headstone. If you look closely you can see that my 2GGrampa  spelled his name Wiseley.   (Remember you can click on a picture to inlarge it.)

I used to be really fussy how my last name was spelled and assumed that anyone who spelled their name with only one E was not the same "kind" of Wiseley I was. And anyone named "Wisley" might as well have been named Smith. But now I am aware that all these spellings are probably referring to people from the same family lines. But i still spell my name Wiseley, Thank you!

     In the next blog we will explore the reason why so many Wiseley's came from Ireland.  I will also explain why, even though they came from Ireland, I don't believe they were Irish!   

My apologies for the "ragged" formatting. The blog editor did not want to cooperate with me tonight.

A last Visit to Oakwood.

Put on your Sherlock Holmes Hat

Was the Marshal of Oakwood a deadbeat? We know he was a Wiseley but ...well...was he a deadbeat?  Before we look at the facts let's clean up some loose ends on Oakwood. According to a newspaper clipping (with no date or other source information) the town of Oakwood was originally named "Wide Awake"  Sort of an odd name for a sleepy little village. Later someone with more sense decided it should be called Oakwood, due to the numerous Oak groves in the area.

     The town was not platted into lots until 1872, although there had been a store or two until the Tiffen and Ft. Wayne RR went out of business in the late 1850's. In 1867 they had a postmaster and post office. Then about 1874 Electious and his brother Allen Newton Wiseley came to town.

      Paulding Pathways Vol 1-3,  1987-1989 lists an old record of the early settlers in Paulding county. When they list Brown township, where Oakwood is located, they include A. N. Wiseley among the 60 or so names.  But Electious is not included in the list and he came about the same time as his brother.

     What reason would they have to not list Electious?  My best guess requires a little background.  In the mid to later 1800’s there were people who wrote county histories.  They would include several of the prominent citizens of the county and say really nice things about them. The county history with the biographical sketches of leading citizens would be offered for a “discounted” prepublication sale price. And you probably have already guessed it. The people who bought the book appeared in it’s pages, and the ones who did not were not included. Oh they would include the really important people, but the average person had to buy the book to be included.  



State library Ohio.   "I can't find my name anywhere"



     The practice still continues today, only now it is “Who’s Who among American Women”  Or "Who’s Who among American Educators." Etc Etc. My wife received a letter saying she had been nominated and asked her to write a brief biography.  She was offered the book at only $400 dollars or some such silly price. She responded with a biographical sketch the 3 or 4 times she was selected for various "honors". But we never agreed to buy any of the books. When we were in the Ohio State library in Columbus, OH she found a whole shelf full of Who’s Who.  You are right again. Her name did not appear in any of the books which asked her for a biography. She did however, find the name of a teacher she worked with who had bought the book.

     Now I have no way of knowing if A. N. Wiseley “bought the book” but I am guessing that his brother Electious did not!

 Now back to our question, was the Marshal of Oakwood a deadbeat?  First who was the marshal? Well there were several and at one time we find Clive Wiseley being paid for marshal's services.

Here is a receipt from the Oakwood records. It shows Clive received a salary for being marshall in 1913. 

And the next receipt shows Clive was marshall in January 1916.  Although different years the two are only a few days apart December 2 and January  6.  

Clive Wiseley - The town Marshal!

     We also find from his WWI and WWII Draft registration that Clive's middle name was Clifton. Did the townfolk know him as C. C.? (Clive Clifton) He is the only Wiseley I have found that has both first and middle names starting with C. around Oakwood at this time.

Besides playing on the ball team he played with the town band.

Sounds like a decent kind of guy.  He was the Marshal, played on the ball team and in the town band. So why would I wonder if he was a dead beat?  OK I will explain.
       Clive Clifton Wiseley lived in Oakwood. There was also a C. C. Wiseley that lived there that had problems. Since I could not find anyone else with those initials I wondered if C C was Clive Clifton.  We also know that some time before Aug 1918 C C was operating the store his father and uncle founded    

Electious (sic) and Allen Newton were the brothers that opened the store. Electious had a son named Clive Clifton Wiseley.  Allen Newton had kids as well but I have not found any with initials of C. C.  And the way this article is written either man could have been his father or uncle. 
 

Problems started long before this August 1918 closing of the Wiseley store. From a listing of cemetery inscriptions for Paulding County we find this. Evens is listed as son of  C.C. and V Wiseley,but the absence of dates of birth and death suggest newborn children. Then five years later they lost Armelia. Infant deaths were more common in those days but no less painful for parents.  

        Then I found that on the same page Clive was listed as a member of the band and there was a reference that said "C C Wiseley has installed a cooling room on the second floor of his store...." So it did not seem reasonable that the same person would have two different "names" on the same page.  I decided that C C and Clive C were not the same person.  Then in preparing the last entries for CC I discovered this.

On August 9th, 1920 there are two judgements against C C on the same day for outstanding bills. Here is the first one for $22.02. It also says he had 10 acres of oats that he was planning to convert to cash so it would be beyond the reach of creditors.

And on the same day another merchant filed for an outstanding bill of $40.36 in merchandise (on credit) and also a mote for $38.83 for a total of $79.19  as seen here.

Then I discovered I had assumed that both of these outstanding bills were against CC Wiseley and upon reading before entering them here I saw the second one was for Clive C. Wiseley.  The final piece was finding in a 1920 census that Clive was married to a woman named Vere.   If you recall C C and V were the ones that lost two children. It seems too coincidental that both Clive and C C would have a wife with a name starting with V. and that both Clive and C C had suits filed against them on the same day for outtstanding debts.  (Dr Watson would not have needed Sherlock to solve this case)
      Yes, I think Clive (real name was Clyde) and C. C Wiseley were the same person. What do you think?  This is the last information I have on Clive or C. C.  Makes you wonder what happened for a fellow who was so active in town to go from a town marshal to being filed against for unpaid bills. But I don't think he was a deadbeat. Life has twists and turns for all of us and it look's like he just hit a rough patch. We can all relate to that. relatives or not. 
     Next time we will answer the question of where the Wiseleys came from. Scotland, Ireland, Germany, all three or somewhere else.

The Oakwood, OH Mystery - Solved

A couple Blogs back I told part of the story of Oakwood, OH. I did not know where that group of Wiseleys came from or where they went. I do now. Here is the rest of the story.

The first part of unraveling the mystery was Electious Wiseley.  He is the same person that the book on Oakwood named Electus. I found official documents that listed his name as Election. A newspaper obituary of his brother Isaac referred to him as Lechus.  Once I was satisfied that all these people were the same person it made it easier to trace the family.

Where did they come from? The same line of Wiseley I came from; the Lancaster Wiseleys. John Wiseley came to the Lancaster, Oh area about 1800-1803. He had 5 children. (he only mentions five in his will)  The boys were named Edward, George, William, and James.  (Don’t forget you can click on a picture to enlarge it.)




Portion of John's will listing children

John left different amounts of money to his kids. Puzzling at first until you realize that John's bachelor brother had left him $400 and perhaps the children were in debt to the dad and he cleared their debt up as he passed some of their Uncle Williams money on to them.  That's my guess, what's yours?

 Now it gets a little confusing. Two of John’s boys, George and William, each named one of their sons Allen.  William's son Allen moved to Findlay and became a prominent citizen. (we will do a blog on him later) George's son Allen married Mary Gilmore and had several (ok..lots and lots) of kids. In this Allen family we find familiar names Allen Newton Wiseley (listed as A.N. Wiseley in Oakwood), Electious Wiseley (the Electus of Oakwood) and Elizabeth.  Why anyone would name their kid Electious is beyond me. Perhaps they just ran out of names.  Here are their children’s names Eliza, Nathan, Elizabeth, William, John G, George W, Emaline, Electious, Isaac, Henry, Allen Newton, Mary Martha, Virginia, Jesse, and Amos.

That answers the question where they came from and makes Electious my 3^rd cousin but 3 generations ahead of me so technically it is my 3^rd cousin thrice removed. His grandfather was a brother to my GGG grandfather.  Ok Enough of the technical stuff.

 

I don’t know where their dad Allen lived but we do know the two brothers, Electious and Allen Newton, moved to Oakwood about 1874.

Lastly where did they go?  We don’t find much trace of them after about 1919 when Allen Newton would have been about 69. The answer to these questions often pop up unexpectedly; As they did on my recent trip to Springfield, IL.

    

 On my way home I stopped for a day at the Allen County Public library in Ft. Wayne, IN.  They have a newly built state of the art library so I decided to learn how to use their computer scanning microfilm. where I found the following Obituary from the July 19th, 1919 Ft Wayne Journal Gazette, pg 14.

Yep. There they are. Lechus (Electious) Newton (Allen Newton,) Amos and a sister.  I wasn’t searching for Electious but there he was, disguised by someone who wrote his brother Isaac's obituary and  reported his name as Lechus. That is the kind of fun discovery that keeps me going back to libraries.

     Please let me know if you are related to anyone in these blogs to help me continue to discover how the wiseleys are linked together. Or send me your questions about who your ancestors are.  davidwiseley@gmail.com or on face book, or comment here.  Thanks for any response.