Allison Royce Drake: The Married Years

Allison Royce Drake marries Jane Myers in June 1882 in Hillsdale.  On His marriage license he lists himself as a farmer.

             ***NOTE*** What's the difference between a "farmer" and a "farm laborer"? To me, "farmer" implies you own a farm.  "Farm Laborer" implies you do farm work on a farm that you don't own.

Allison was living in Camden, Hillsdale, Michigan when he applied for a marriage license.

Jane and Allison's first child was Lucia -- named after Allison's mom -- born 24 Nov 1883.  The date proves that no shotgun was involved in their marriage.  Lucia was born in Amboy, Michigan.

John Stout Drake died 29 June 1884 in Amboy, Hillsdale, Michigan.  His second wife Mary Pease was still in the house as was Allison's little sister, Lucy .  I can't find any records that show Lucy Drake living anywhere else.  So Mary Pease was left taking care of her step daughter.  Well, Lucy was 19 years old when her dad died, so how much taking care of did she need?  With that being said, Lucy died of consumption in 1886.  Maybe she was already sick by then?

Allison and Jane's second daughter -- Hattie Gavena was born 01 Mar 1886 in Amboy.  Very sadly, Lucy died a few months later, 06 May, 1886 in Amboy.

I have muddled through the probate records and in my humble conclusion, John Stout Drake died intestate -- without a will.  I was a little surprised at that as John Stout was kind of a big deal farmer with quite a bit of property AND a second wife.  Surely he would want to make sure she was taken care of.

Whatever the lapse of foresight, Mary Pease Drake, the second wife was appointed executrix.

I won't take the time here to list all of John Stout's asssets and debts but there was one page in the probate records that caught my eye.  This was written on 16 Feb 1887 -- approximately 2 years and 8 months after John Stout Drake died:

"... that all of said heirs and said widow have sold and assigned and quit claimed all their right, title and interests in and to said estate both real and personal to Allison R. Drake one of said heirs it is therefore ordere, adjudged and decreed that all of the extate of said deceased both real and personal be and the same is hereby assigned to said Allison R Drake and upon exhibiting in this court proper receipts the said Administratrix with her bond will be discharged from her trust."

Somebody please let me know if I'm misinterpreting this, but it sounds like Allsion Royce's brothers and sisters turned over their shares of the farm to Allison. Was this a generous move by the family towards the littlest brother, or were things such a mess that none of them wanted to deal with the estate and the step mom?

Family Reunions

I used to really love the family reunions that we used to have at my grandfather's house on Bedford Road, in Urbandale, Michigan.  Actually, I think there was only one, but it was pretty great.  All my cousins were there:  Charlene, Dee and Kay.  That's right.  Three measly cousins.  Charlene was way older than us, Kay and my little brother Mike Drake were practically babies and worthless.  So that left me, Dee and Dob.  And Dob didn't have much use for us and went off to hang out with my dad and Uncle Jack.  Dee or Deeter as we called him, laid in the hammock and talked about how much we hated Dob.  There was always a ton of great food, no naps unless we accidentally fell asleep.  And this set the stage on how family reunions were supposed to be. 

In another direction -- and stay with me -- when tracing your family tree, we sometimes forget that we are not all descending from only child homes.  That most generations had more than one child and when you get back past the turn of the century (the 1900s not the 2000s) there were many, many children and many children that died and are long buried. 

When I get stuck, I will sometimes take a couple and list all their siblings, like I was getting ready to send out invites for a family reunion.  I recently did that with my great grand parents Allison Royce Drake and Jane Myers Drake.  For as much as I know about them, I certainly don't know very much about them.  And this kills me because I knew people that knew them, that could have told me a lot, I'm sure, if I had only been so inclined to ask.  But I wasn't into family trees at that time.  The only thing I was interested in about families is how to get away from mine.

So here's what I discovered and you can see the glaring gaps:

Allison Royce Drake had 9 siblings:

1. James Amos Drake
2. Ann Drake
3. Sidney Drake
4. Mary Cerenus Drake
5. Alfred Bird Drake
6. Jane Drake
7. Lucy Drake
8. John C Drake

 I might note here that there are some people that will claim that there were 10 Drake kids in all, but I believe that Alfred Bird Drake and Bird A Drake are the same person in spite of the 1820 US Federal Census that lists them both, 2 years apart.  And I will prove that before I die.

Jane Myers Drake had 7 siblings:

1. Eveline Myers
2. Huldah Myers
3. Stephan Myers
4. Mary Myers
5. John H Myers
6. Joshua Myers
7. Mattie Bell Myers

So you'd think that if they all got together that it would be a helluva a family reunion, right?

So far, this is what my quick research has discovered.  And I haven't run down every single lead, with every single piece of information at Ancestry and the Internet.  This might not be 100% accurate, which is why I'm putting it here, until I can verify.

Here we go:

1. Allison Royce Drake married Jane Myers and had 4 children -- Hattie, Don Dee, Allison Royce and Lucia
2. James Amos Drake married Mary A Wright and had 4 children -- Ethie, Hiram, Carrie and John Haight.
3. Eugene Emery Drake married a gal named Amelia and had 5 children:  Minie F, Issa May, Clarance, Lloyd B and Eva.
4. Ann Drake never married.
5. Sidney Drake married Sarrah and had one daughter: Lucredia
6. Mary Cerenus Drake -- I have no record of her marrying or having a child.
7. Alfred Bird Drake married Eugenia Priestly.  Eugenia may have been nicknamed Mattie.  I have no record of them having any children.
8. Jane Drake married George Priestly.  George and Eugenia were brother and sister.  They had three children:  Earl, Katie and Fern.
9. Lucy Drake, died at 23 years old of consumption.  I have no record of her marrying or having children.
10. John C Drake was born and died in 1871 and is buried with his mom, Lucia Cahoon Drake.  There still seems to be controversy over the spelling of Cahoon.  I am wondering if the C initial in John's name would be her maiden name.  I should order the birth certificate.

For all the Drake siblings, there are a total of 17 cousins.  For the time and the number of people that were involved, that wasn't very many.

On to Jane Myers siblings:

1. Eveline Myers married David Cope and had 5 children:  Clarence Earl, Edgar Floyd, Albert Roy, Harriet L, Iva B.
2. Huldah Myers married Elisha M. McElhenie and had two sons:  Walter Scott and Charles Edgar.
3. Stephan Myers I believe died in 1874 at 12 years old with no wife or issue.
4. Mary Myers -- I can find no records at all.
5. John H Myers -- no record.
6. Joshua Myers -- no record.
7. Mattie Belle Myers married Edward Collins Schwartzwaller.  She was 42 when they got married and I find no record of there being any children. 

For all the Myers siblings, there are a total of 11 cousins.

So, what did all this rigmarole do for me?  I noticed that John C Drake has the middle initial "C."  I've seen the grave with my own eye.  The boy and Lucia share the same side of ol' John Stout Drake's tombstone.  I don't know why, but for many years, I just assumed the C stood for Converse, another side of the family.  So that is a lead to pursue.  It also shows me how much I don't know.

John Stout Drake -- Where do I Start?

Too many unanswered questions and not enough resources.  I feel that all it would take would be a couple of days at the Hillsdale Library.  Maybe this fall!  It seems like every article I read about the Drake family, the writers say that there has been so much written about this pioneer family that they aren't going to go into it.  Where is all this stuff that's been written about  us?

I guess I need to get an actual death certificate for Lucia Cahoon.  Then maybe some people on Ancestry have an Elinore Drake on their tree.  Next I need to find a marriage license for John Stout Drake and this Elinore woman.  Perhaps she was from Ohio?  Seems like the Drakes went back in forth over the state line.  Then I guess I should call JM Converse.  I consider him the patriarch of the family and he might remember something.  And then write Jeanne Converse his mother.  Jeanne was married to  John Converse.  John Converse's mom was Lucia Drake, daughter of Allison Royse Drake and Jane Myers.  Allison was a son of John Stout Drake.  Jane Myers eventually lived with Lucia Drake Converse and Lucia Drake Converse ended up living with John and Jeanne Converse on the farm.  Wouldn't it be great if there was something in the attic?  I got to get on it.  Jeanne has got to be in her mid-90s.  When I talked to JM over Thanksgiving, he said that she was still sharp as a tack, but her eyes are going.

I will continue to develop the family group sheet starting with John Stout Drake and Lucia Cahoon.  I never really much cared about doing family group sheets, but they give such a better picture into what was going on in any particular family.

I also intend to start a John Stout Drake page on Facebook.  I have signed up for a class at the public library for August 4.  It's how to use social networking in genealogy.  I just know there are cousins out there that have the information I need.