Forgotten Life of Significance

Today I feel compelled to preserve the memory someone I never met and few people in the College View community even remember anymore. The story starts in June 2015 when this picture, in water color with pencil, of the old College View Seventh-day Adventist Church shown below was given to the Union College Library Heritage Room. The donor claimed the picture was drawn by a Bill Harris and given to her parents in the late 1940s. College View Seventh-day Adventist Church clerk Mary Dickerson has identified two William Harrises in the membership records. I believe the artist was William "Bill" Lloyd Harris, a member of the church who died in 1949.

Old College View Seventh-day Adventist church about 1945-1946,
 corner of South 49th  Street and Prescott Avenue.

Bill was the son of William Allen and Susan Herron Harris of Hardin County, Kentucky born in 1859. In the 1860 census his father William is listed as a tavern keeper, born in Virginia. William died in 1864, possibly a victim of the Civil War. Susan then married Donald Ross and they moved to Illinois. I haven't been able to discover what happened to Donald Ross. In the 1880 census Susan is listed as divorced and living with her daughter Annie's family. In the 1899 Battle Creek (Michigan) city directory she is listed as a widow and in the 1900 census she is living with her son David and his family in Battle Creek.

According to his obituary,* Bill joined the Adventists in 1881 and then moved to Battle Creek, Michigan about 1885. He in fact is listed as a bath attendant in the 1883 Battle Creek city directory. His obituary supports this occupation claiming he worked as a hydrotherapy nurse. We don't know where he was a bath attendant, but chances are good it was at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. When he married Leah Faucher on January 7, 1886**, Bill was working as a painter, a career he was to fall back on for a good share of his life.What kind of painting he did is unclear. While census records and city directories list him as a painter in 1897, 1899, 1923, 1924, 1930, and 1936, the 1930 Census also lists him as a sign and house painter and his obituary claims he was a "decorator" implying that he may have been more than your average house painter.

I find no evidence that any of Bill's siblings or his mother joined the Adventist church. It appears that Bill was the first to move to Battle Creek and the others followed him, David even going so far as to take up painting as well. And when Bill and his wife and children moved to Oklahoma, they may have led the way for David and his family again. While the 1901 Battle Creek city directory still lists David, Bill is absent. What we do know is that by 1910, both brothers were farming homesteads in Oklahoma. Bill was issued a land patent in Rock Township, Ellis County (near Shattuck) on August 12, 1907. A patent for David's land was issued February 23, 1910 in nearby Beaver County. Ultimately David would give up farming to try retail, eventually settling in Wichita, Kansas where he died in 1930.

When Bill and Leah gave up farming in Oklahoma and moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1920 they joined the College View church. Their membership was accepted on May 8, 1920. Their membership was taken on the basis of "other" rather than the usual letter (if transferring from another congregation) or baptism (if new to the Adventist faith). At first glance one would assume that this unorthodox membership acceptance was likely the result of no Adventist congregation in sparsely populated Ellis County, Oklahoma. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Today the Shattuck, Oklahoma Seventh-day Adventist church is the only Adventist church in Ellis County and it is also one of three originally German Adventist congregations in the state. In fact the Harris' may have been among the founding families of an English-speaking congregation. The Southwestern Union Record first reports on evangelistic meetings in Shattuck in 1907 and a church was organized by 1908 with a building under construction. Did Harris help build it? (In addition to the numerous references to Bill as a painter, the 1920 Census reported him a carpenter.) We don't know but the idea isn't farfetched. But this wasn't the first Adventist church in Shattuck. According to the Ellis County Historical Society, a German-speaking congregation was established in 1901 by immigrants who migrated from Germany by way of North Dakota and Missouri. When the Review and Herald reported a church organized with 19 members in 1906 it did not specify whether this was a German or English-language congregation. But that same year report was made of a substantial school in a German neighborhood. And whether the statistic refers to the German or English congregation or a combination of the two, in 1910 Shattuck was considered the largest church in the Oklahoma Conference.

But the interesting points of the Harris saga don't end here. Bill's wife Leah Faucher was born in St. Anne, Kankakee County, Illinois around 1865 into a family who used the name Leah far too much. Between 1863 and 1866 French Canadian brothers Augustine, Sylvestre, and Antoine all had daughters named Leah. So which one married Bill Harris? Sylvestre's daughter is easiest to rule out as her death certificate is readily available on Ancestry.com and clearly states her father's name. Augustine's daughter was born first in 1863 which is at least a year earlier than one would expect Leah Faucher Harris' birthday based on later birth estimates in marriage and census records. So Antoine's daughter is most likely the Leah Faucher who married Bill Harris in 1886. Why is this question significant enough to spend the time sorting out this family? Because while we don't know how Bill was introduced to Adventism or why he or Leah were in Battle Creek, we do know how Leah became Adventist thanks to her father's obituary as written by her brother, George:

FAUCHER. -Died of cancer, at Grand Prairie, Dallas Co., Tex. Aug. 9, 1893, Antoine Faucher, in the seventieth year of his age. Father was born in Illeverte, Komauraska, Canada. He was brought up in the Catholic faith, and was confirmed by the young priest, Charles Chiniquy. At the age of twenty-eight he and a sister and two brothers, with a French Canadian colony and Father Charles Chiniquy, left Canada and moved to St. Anne, Kankakee Co., III. At the age of twenty-nine he was married. In 1858, by an act of providence, he, with almost the entire congregation, the above-named priest included, while standing in their church, were excommunicated from the Catholic faith by a drunken bishop. They then joined the Presbyterian Church. In 1875 Elder D. T. Bourdeau went to St. Anne, and began to lecture on the prophecies in that church; and my father was captured by the convincing power of the word. This time only he and his family took the step to obey God's law and the faith of Jesus. In 1876 he with his family left Illinois and moved to Texas, and in 1890 he was seized by that dreaded malady, cancer. He suffered patiently for three years, but now it surely can be said of him, "He is at rest," Words of comfort were spoken by A. W. Jensen. 

Leah's reason for leaving Texas and going to Battle Creek in the 1880s is unknown. But like many other young Adventists she may have planned to attend Battle Creek College, the sanitarium nurses training, or work in one of the Adventist institutions in the city. Her marriage certificate does list Battle Creek as her residence in 1886.

So what about the other William Harris found by Mary Dickerson? According to Dickerson, he joined the College View Church by letter in 1945 and died shortly thereafter. She was unable to provide additional information and I've been unable to positively identify him. But he may have been the William R. Harris listed in the 1945 city directory as a maintenance man.

______________________________

*HARRIS.-William Lloyd Harris was born in Kentucky in 1859, and died in Lincoln, Nebr., on Oct. 5, 1949. He became a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1881 and was a member of the College View church at the time of his death. In 1885 he went to Battle Creek, Mich., where he was employed in the sanitarium. While in Battle Creek he met Leah Faucher, whom he married in 1886. He led an eventful life as bellboy, hydrotherapy nurse, farmer, baker, and decorator. One daughter preceded him in death. The surviving members of his immediate family are his wife, and son, Lloyd, both of Lincoln; a daughter, Mrs. Annie Robertson, of Scottsbluff; nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

**Although both bride and groom were living in Battle Creek they were married in Kalamazoo. George Hunting officiated and the two witnesses were Frances Hunting and Berniece Hunting suggesting the marriage took place in the minister's home.

Sources:

"Adventist Cemetery AKA Seventh Day Adventist AKA Weiss Cemetery SEC-15 TWP-20 R-25 Ellis County, Oklahoma." Oklahoma Cemeteries.

Baker, Richard. "German Seventh-day Adventist School at Shattuck, Okla.: Fall Term 1906." Advent Review & Sabbath Herald, v.84 no.6 (February 7, 1907) 29.

Faucher, George E. "Faucher" [obituary]. Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, v.70 no.39 (October 3, 1893) 627.

"Field Notes." Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, v.83 no.45 (November 8, 1906) 20.

Joyce, R.S. "Harris" [obituary]. Central Union Reaper, v.18 no.48 (December 6, 1949) 7.

Olsen, O. A. "A Tour of Kansas and Oklahoma." Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, v.87 no.12 (March 24, 1910) 14.

Conflict of Interest

Often just identifying ancestors back to the 1600s or earlier is a major achievement. Understanding something about the time period and culture in which they lived provides context for the bare genealogical facts. To actually discover specific details of their lives, to have a window on their relationships, thoughts, feelings, and the detail of their daily lives is exceptional. In the case of my Cornell ancestors, a tragic set of circumstances left a record preserved by the Rhode Island General Assembly which reveals more than the typical facts about 17th-century Cornell ancestors. What follows is a "Cliff Notes" version of Elaine Forman Crane's book, Killed Strangely: The Death of Rebecca Cornell.

On May 23, 1673 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, my 8th great-grandfather, Thomas Cornell II, was hung for the crime of murdering his mother, "the only fully recorded case of matricide in colonial America," (4) according to Crane. But whether or not Thomas actually killed his mother is far from a closed case. In fact, the evidence can be interpreted at least four different ways. Rebecca's death could have been an accident (the first ruling), she may have been murdered by her son (the second ruling), she might have committed suicide (something she threatened to do), or possibly someone else killed her (a possibility authorities considered after Thomas had already been convicted and executed).

So with evidence which can be plausibly interpreted so many ways, what information can be relied upon as fact? First, Rebecca (aged 72) died in her own room on the first floor of her home on the afternoon of February 8, 1673. Fire was involved, but Rebecca's death was judged an accident and she was buried on February 10. During the night of February 12 Rebecca's brother John Briggs claimed Rebecca's ghost appeared to him revealing that her death had not been an accident. John shared this experience with authorities on February 20 and shortly thereafter, his nephew was arrested. Rebecca's body was also disinterred for a second examination.

How could Thomas have been arrested on the basis of an apparition which may have actually been a dream? The ensuing testimony makes it clear that Rebecca and her son did not share a happy relationship. But whether Rebecca was an unhappy, impossible-to-please, crotchedy old woman or the victim of elder abuse from a resentful and equally unhappy son is hard to determine. On Rebecca's side, as testified by her friends, she believed she was mistreated by her son and feared for her life. On Thomas' side, whatever other points of disagreement he had with his mother, as the 45-year old patriarch of the family, Rebecca should have turned her house and land over to him upon his father's death. Indeed, Rebecca exercised a great deal of authority as the executrix of her husband's estate. Instead Rebecca insisted on maintaining ownership of the property, although Thomas, his second wife, six children, and hired hands lived with her. And then there is the reported animosity between Thomas' second wife, Sarah Earle, and his mother. Furthermore, while Thomas was Rebecca's heir, her will stipulated he would receive no property from her until she died although she distributed other property among his siblings while she was still living. And her will made a bequest to one daughter-in-law, Thomas' first wife, Elizabeth, suggesting they shared a warm relationship. Rebecca appears to have not gotten along with the much younger Sarah Earle. Perhaps this tension made the relationship with her son worse.

But without modern forensic science to pinpoint the time of Rebecca's death and specific cause, determine the source of the fire and how it was extinguished before the entire house was consumed (the family was in the next room eating supper at the time), identify the object which caused a wound in Rebecca's torso, and gather trace evidence of possible assailants, it is impossible to know the truth. Although pathology was more advanced in the Europe and England, colonial medicine did not contribute any truly helpful knowledge. And most frustrating, evidence which today would be considered vitally important to the case was overlooked. In other words, not enough physical evidence was recorded to even attempt an historical forensic analysis.

But even more astounding in this case is how the legal system worked. John Brigg's apparition was admitted as evidence. The coroner, William Baulston, was also the executor of Rebecca's will and long-time friend of her husband, Thomas, Sr. In the 17th century juries were permitted to consider private information gathered outside of the trial. And religion may well have played a role. As noted in my previous post, Convergence, Rebecca joined the Quakers after her husband's death. Thomas did not and he may not have been particularly spiritually inclined as part of the generation for whom the Halfway Covenant was devised. Both inquest panels were dominated by Quakers who had reason to be more sympathetic to Rebecca. In the final trial there was a clear line between the panel of judges, mostly if not all Quaker, and jurists, mostly if not all Puritan. And in that era, judges were known to overrule juries. Based on the shakiness of the evidence, Thomas should have been acquitted, but he was not.

And after his death, authorities seemed to second guess themselves, trying Thomas' wife, Sarah, and a Native American, Wickhopash, who had resided with the family at the time. Both were acquitted. But the whole episode make people uncomfortable enough that little has been said about it in Rhode Island and Cornell family histories. In fact most genealogical notes presume that Thomas was falsely accused and executed. John Cornell in his 1902 family history calls the trial a "farce" (24). But in Crane's final analysis, although it is impossible to determine the truth over 340 years later, the possibility that Thomas really did murder his mother cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Sources:


Cornell, John. Genealogy of the Cornell Family: Being an Account of the Descendants of Thomas Cornell of Portsmouth, R. I. New York: A.T. Wright, 1902.

Crane Elaine Forman. Killed Strangely : The Death Of Rebecca Cornell. Ithaca: Cornell University Press; 2002.