Worth the Drive

John A. Shanower and Mary "Polly" Roush Shanower grave.

The past couple blog posts of mine have been heavy on the drama—what with murder and messy marriages—so this week will be lighter.

Pizza!

My fourth cousin Rocky Corlin Shanower and his wife Courtney Yoder Shanower own Park Street Pizza in Sugarcreek, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Rocky and I share the same great-great-great-grandparents, Johannes "John" Abraham Shanower (1814-1859) and Mary “Polly” Roush Shanower (1820-1896).

Park Street Pizza and me.

I suspect Courtney and I might share some relatives, as well. I don’t have solid evidence of that, but every once in a while I run across Yoders marrying into my family lines. One of these days I’ll have to dig a little deeper into the Yoders.

Park Street Pizza seems to be something of a family business. Rocky and Courtney have two young sons, Rigsby and Raleigh, who aren’t old enough to work there, but Rocky’s sister Sarah Shanower Whiddon and brother Edward Shanower have both worked there.

At Park Street Pizza they’re dedicated to making great food and inventing new recipes for delicious gourmet pizzas. Rocky and his crew often seem to be attending one pizza competition or another. The company strives to be planet-friendly, buying their ingredients locally when possible and using recyclable products. Rocky and Courtney seem pretty principled about all this. Watch this Youtube video—it’s less than five minutes—and see:


A few months ago David and I went out for dinner at Park Street Pizza. We drove. Since Sugarcreek, Ohio, is about 2500 miles away from where we live, we did a lot of other stuff on the way. Actually, Park Street Pizza wasn’t the only reason we went, but sampling their wares was definitely on my list of things to do while planning our trip.

Rustic Chicken Pesto pizza.

We didn’t get to meet Rocky and Courtney when we stopped in—previous plans prevented them from meeting up with us. But the pizza helped to make up for that. And we did meet some other Shanower relatives that evening.

I’d have been glad to try just about every item on the menu, but that wasn’t practical. I ordered the Rustic Chicken Pesto pizza, made with basil pesto sauce, grilled chicken, red onion, and mozzarella, parmesan, and feta cheeses. It tasted just as excellent as that description sounds.

Park Street Deluxe pizza.

David ordered the Park Street Deluxe, topped with pepperoni, mushrooms, Italian sausage, green peppers, red onions, and hot banana peppers.

For dessert David and I split an order of Campfire Fun Smores Ravioli. “It’s like smores without the camping,” says the menu. All I know is that they were yummy, and by the end of the meal I was stuffed.

Campfire Fun Smores Ravioli.

I asked David whether Park Street Pizza was worth the 2500 mile drive. He wasn’t too sure about that, although he liked his pizza. Maybe 2500 miles is a little excessive. But if you live nearer than we do to Park Street Pizza, I say definitely stop by and order some of their delicious food.

Park Street Pizza is located at 215 Dover Road NW (that’s the same as Route 39) in Sugarcreek, Ohio. You can visit Park Street Pizza on the web at www.parkstreetpizza.com.

Or call 330/852-2993 for delivery. There’s a minimum $10 order for delivery, and the delivery charge varies depending where you’re located, so ask about that when you call. If I didn’t think the delivery charge for a distance of 2500 miles would be exorbitant, I could easily order a pizza myself right now.

Click on either menu page to view it larger.

 

Gathered Grants

A large gathering of my Grant relatives had a group photograph taken in the summer of 1904 in Geauga County, Ohio. I first saw this photo on the genealogy site of Rick and Becky Johnson, who are my distant cousins related by several marriages along various family branches. I was excited to see the faces of so many relations that I’d never seen before.

Later I found the same photo printed in the book Geauga County, Ohio: A Pictorial History by James J. Anderson and Jeannette Grosvenor, originally published in 1989. I have the 2006 printing by The Donning Company. The book gives information about the photo, but that information has several problems.

The book proposes that the photo was taken at the Chardon, Ohio, home of Leonard and Betsey Grant, the couple sitting on the right side of the middle row. But I think that the photo was more likely taken at the home—probably also in Chardon—of Leonard and Betsey’s son Charles and his wife Arletta, who are sitting at the left side of the middle row. That’s because most of the Grants in the photo are sons and grandchildren of Charles and Arletta. The only two children of Leonard and Betsey in the photo are Charles himself and Leonard, Jr. The rest of Leonard and Betsey’s children—including Mary Elizabeth Grant McNaughton, my great-great-grandmother—are absent.

The Grant Family, 1904.

The photo's caption in the book identifies the people like this:

Top row, left to right: John Grant with son Glen “Chicken” Grant and John’s wife Grace Armena “Minnie” Alderman Hubbard Grant; William L. Grant with daughter Mabeletta Grant and William’s wife Noma A. Trask Grant; Leonard Grant, Jr.; Carrie Beach Grant and daughter Myrtle Grant with Carrie’s husband Orie Grant.

Middle row, left to right: Arletta Fox Grant and husband Charles Grant; Leonard Grant, Sr., and wife Betsey Marshall Patterson Grant.

Front row, left to right: Edward Grant, Charles “Dick” Grant, Lloyd W. Grant, Roy Robert Grant, Florence Hubbard, and Clarence Hubbard.

But whoever wrote this caption didn't pay attention to the ages of the kids, who are all my cousins. Some of these identifications are decidedly odd—assuming the date of the photo is indeed the summer of 1904. I think it is 1904, and, as I indicated in a post of a couple weeks ago, based on the children's ages I believe that the names assigned to many of them are incorrect.

Let’s take a closer look at the people in this photo. I’m going to assign what I believe to be the correct name to each. I’ll also discuss a little history where I know it.

(If you want to see a larger version of the photo, just click on it and a larger version will open in your browser window. By the way, the same thing will happen to all other photos posted to Several Times Removed.)

Here are my name assignments:

Top Row, Left to Right:

John Grant (1870-1915), the eldest child of Arletta and Charles W. Grant, who are the lefthand couple in the middle row. John was thirty-four here.

Edward Louis Grant (1903-1988), the second child of John, who's holding Edward, and Minnie, who's standing just to the right of Edward. Geauga County, Ohio: A Pictorial History identifies this little boy as Glen Newton “Chicken” Grant (1914-1972). But if this photo was taken in 1904, this can’t be Chicken Grant, because he wouldn’t be born for another ten years. Edward Louis was just one year old in July 1904, about the time this photo was taken, and this child certainly looks that age.

Grace Armenia “Minnie” Alderman Hubbard Grant (1870-1922) was the granddaughter of Jarvis Alderman (1803-1857) and Charlotte Grant Alderman (abt 1804-1903). An online posting here claims that Charlotte Alderman's Grant forebears are connected to the family of Minnie’s husband, John Grant. I haven’t found any verification that these two Grant branches are connected, although I’d certainly like to find some. Charlotte Grant Alderman was a direct descendant of Matthew Grant (1601-1645) and Priscilla Grey (1600-1644), immigrants from England in 1630 on the ship John and Mary. That makes Charlotte and her granddaughter Minnie (and Minnie's children) blood relations to US Civil War Union General and later US President Ulysses S. Grant. Minnie’s first husband was Eldredge Hubbard, and in this photo she was thirty-four.

William L. Grant (1873-1960), the second son of Arletta and Charles W. Grant. He was twenty-nine here.

Mabeletta Grant Mumford (1903-?), held by her father, William. Geauga County, Ohio: A Pictorial History correctly identifies this child who grew up to marry Otto Elmer Mumford (1907-?). Mabeletta was less than a year old in the photo.

Noma Amelia Trask Grant (1875-1950), wife of William L. Grant and mother of Mabeletta. Noma was twenty-eight.

Leonard E. Grant, Jr. (1857-1923), sixth child of Leonard and Betsey Grant, the couple seated on the righthand side of the middle row. Leonard, Jr., standing right behind his father, Leonard, Sr., is also the youngest brother of Charles W., seated just to the left in the middle row. Sometime between 1900 and 1920 Leonard, Jr., divorced his wife Emma E. (last name unknown). Emma isn’t in this photo. Maybe they’re already divorced and that’s why Leonard, Jr., is at this gathering at his brother Charles’s place. If Leonard had left his wife by 1904 and was living either with his parents—Leonard, Sr., and Betsey—or possibly living with his brother Charles and family, that could account for Leonard, Jr.’s presence. Or maybe Leonard and Emma were just having marital problems at this point and she refused to either be in the photo or attend the family gathering. They had no children that I’m aware of—maybe the reasons for that were a factor in their divorce. But that’s mere speculation. Leonard, Jr., was forty-six.

Carrie Beach Grant (1882-1960), wife of Orris Grant. Carrie was twenty-two.

Myrtle Grant (1903-?), daughter of Carrie and Orris Grant. Myrtle was a little over a year old here.

Orris H. “Orie” Grant (1879-1953), fourth and youngest child of Arletta and Charles W. Grant, the lefthand couple in the middle row. Orie was twenty-four or twenty-five.

Middle Row, Left to Right:

Arletta S. Fox Grant (1851-1919), wife of Charles W. Grant, and mother of John E., William L., and Orris H., who are all standing in the back row. Arletta and Charles also had a daughter, Millie S. Grant (1876-?), who isn’t in the photo—maybe she died before 1904. At the time of this photo Arletta was fifty-two.

Charles William Grant (1846-1937), Arletta's husband and eldest child of Leonard and Betsey Grant, who are seated to the right of Charles in the middle row. Charles was fifty-eight when the photo was taken.

Leonard E. Grant, Sr. (1823-1911), was my great-great-great-grandfather and the husband of Betsey who's to the right of him in the photo. Leonard's father was born in Connecticut according to the 1900 US Federal Census, although I also have a reference that says his father was born in New York. I prefer Connecticut. His father may have been named Leonard, too, but that’s questionable. I’ve looked for Leonard Grant, Sr.’s ancestors, but with no luck. There are a slew of Grants in eighteenth century and nineteenth century Connecticut. Which of them might be the right Grants I’ve found impossible to determine. Early Ohio Grants don't tie definitively to Leonard either. As Geauga County, Ohio: A Pictorial History says (and I'll have to trust the book on this), Grant Street, which runs between North Hambden and South Hambden, Geauga County, Ohio, was named after Leonard Grant. The street is also the dividing line between Chardon Village and Hambden Township. Leonard was eighty in this photo.

Betsey Elizabeth Marshall Patterson Grant (1818-1912) was my great-great-great-grandmother and Leonard Grant, Sr.’s wife. Leonard and Betsey were the parents of Charles W., also sitting in the middle row, and Leonard, Jr., standing just behind Leonard, Sr. They had other children who aren’t in the photo: Abby Rosette Grant Conley (1849-1931), John Grant (1851-1853) who died as a child, Sarah M. Grant (1853-?), Mary Elizabeth Grant McNaughton (1856-1946) who was my great-great-grandmother, and Emerette Anna Grant Zorn (1861-1926). The absence of these other children is what leads me to strongly suspect this photo was taken at Charles and Arletta's place. Betsey Grant was married previously to Alonzo Patterson and had four children with him: Edna Maria Patterson, Persis Ellen Patterson (1840-?), George B. Patterson (1842-1916), and James O. Patterson (1846-?). Betsey’s parents were William Obadiah Marshall (1784-1854) and Polly Rider (1793-1870), a daughter of “Deacon” Benjamin Rider (1761-1854), whose gravestone I posted a picture of a couple weeks ago and whose branch of the family goes back to Samuel Rider (1601-1679) and Anne Gamlett (1605-1695) who immigrated by 1638 to Plymouth, Massachusetts, from Northampton, England. At eighty-five years old, Betsey was the oldest person in this photo.

Bottom Row, Left to Right:

Charles Elwood Grant (1900-1945), eldest son of John and Minnie Grant. Geauga County, Ohio: A Pictorial History says this is Edward Grant, Charles Elwood Grant’s younger brother and second son of John and Minnie. But Edward was born in 1903, the year before this photo is supposed to have been taken, and I think that's Edward in his father's arms in the top row. The child pictured sitting here is certainly more than a year old. Charles Elwood would have been four years old in the summer of 1904, and this child looks about four years old, so I think it’s reasonable to conclude this is Charles Elwood Grant. Charles would grow up to marry Helene Thelma Stafford (1902-1985), descendant of Richard Warren of the ship Mayflower, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago.

Clarence Hubbard (1891-1973), son of Minnie Grant and her first husband Eldredge Hubbard. Geauga County, Ohio: A Pictorial History claims that this child is Charles “Dick” Grant, who I believe is the child sitting to the left of this one. This child is obviously much older than four-year-old Charles. Clarence Hubbard was thirteen years old in 1904, and this child could easily be thirteen. Also, look at his face—it's a bit rounder than all those long Grant faces. Compare his features to the girl sitting on the ground to the right. I know her features are a bit hard to distinguish, but what's visible closely matches this boy’s features. I conclude they’re brother and sister, Clarence and Florence Hubbard, Minnie’s children from her first marriage.

Lloyd William Grant (1895-1978), also known as William Lloyd Grant, eldest son of William L. and Noma Grant, who are standing in the center top of this photo holding their youngest child Mabeletta. Geauga County, Ohio: A Pictorial History got this one right in my estimation. Lloyd would marry Louise Marie Sturm (1895-1939), a marriage that connects me to Rick and Becky Johnson of the website mentioned in this post's first paragraph, the site where I first saw this photo. And through Lloyd's marriage, a further chain of marriages connects to Mayflower passenger Edward Doty. Lloyd was eight years old in summer 1904.

Roy Robert Grant (1897-1988), the middle child of William L. and Noma Grant. Geauga County, Ohio: A Pictorial History has this right, too. Roy would eventually marry Hilda Lucille Stafford (1898-1973), sister of the Helene Stafford who married Roy's cousin Charles Elwood, who's on the bottom far left, providing yet another family connection by marriage to Mayflower passenger Richard Warren. Roy was seven years old in this photo.

Florence Hubbard (1888-1972), daughter of Minnie Grant by her first husband, Eldredge Hubbard. Florence was sixteen years old here.

Now comes The Mystery. Geauga County, Ohio: A Pictorial History says this is Clarence Hubbard, brother of Florence, but I find that extremely difficult to believe. This young man looks much older than thirteen-year-old Clarence—he looks like he could be anywhere from sixteen to twenty-five. Compare his features to Florence beside him and to the second child from the left, the one I believe to actually be Clarence. This young man’s features are quite different from both. If you didn’t think the boy second from the left resembled Florence before, I’d be surprised if you don’t think so now in comparison to the mystery man. This young man is also sitting off to the side, out of the perimeter all the others have posed within, as though he doesn't quite belong. Could he be someone not related to the family? His long nose and narrow face resemble those of many of the Grant men in this photo—John in the upper left; both Charles and Leonard sitting in the center; Leonard, Jr., just behind Leonard, Sr. So I think he’s related by blood and belongs to this family, even though he’s off to one side. But there are no Grant children that were between sixteen and twenty-five years old in 1904, at least not that I know of. He could be an unrecorded Grant child. But notice that his features also resemble Betsey Grant’s. As I mentioned before, Betsey had four children with her first husband, Alonzo Patterson. One of these children, George Baker Patterson (1842-1916), and his wife Lois Francelia Watts Patterson (?-1916) had eight children. Their fifth child, Fred Patterson was born in 1881 and would have been twenty-two or twenty-three in the summer of 1904 when this picture was taken. Could this young man be Fred Patterson, Betsey’s grandson through her first marriage? I can't find a male Grant relative who fits better. So Fred Patterson (or another Patterson grandson—I don’t know of another close to the target age, but my Patterson research has holes, so there could be one) is my best guess for this guy’s identity.

Those are my revised identifications of the people in this photo. Of course, there’s always the chance the photo could have been taken at a time other than 1904. But except for the mystery man, I believe my revised list matches the faces and ages so closely that a date of 1904 is virtually confirmed.

My Mother the Genealogist

Up until several years ago I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about my family genealogy. Family stories were often interesting and of course I liked to know my specific relationship to relatives that I’d actually met. But I was happy to leave researching, compiling, and recording to others.

My mother, Karen Elizabeth Hietanen Shanower, was one of those others. In the early 1970s she began seriously researching both her own family tree and my father’s. We lived near Washington, DC, so things like US Census records were close.  Some days when my dad was at work and my sister and I were in school, my mother would travel into the city to do genealogical research.

Back then I had little concept of how research libraries worked. But I’ve since had experience looking up entries in catalogs, submitting call numbers, and waiting for books and other written records to be delivered to the call desk, then either consulting the index or going through the laborious task of visually scanning pages. These time-consuming methods of research are a lot of work. (But I find the process kind of fun when I’m interested in the subject I’m researching. I never know when the next surprising and valuable nugget will turn up.) Today, gathering much of the same material my mother found back then simply takes an internet search, winnowing through results, then a few computer commands to copy and paste it into a word processing document and backing that up. But personal computers and the internet weren’t available to my mother in the 1970s.

For a while all things genealogical seemed to interest her. One time she went to hear an author speak about his forthcoming book that incorporated family research. Afterward she told my sister and me how this author had incorporated family stories passed down through generations into a book, which my mom had put on request from the public library. It seemed like a year or two passed before the book was finally published. But when it was, Alex Haley’s Roots was a sensational best-seller and adapted into the first tv mini-series. To me Roots seemed a little old-hat, since it felt like I’d known about it forever.

I remember my mom trying to explain to my sister and me the ranking of cousins. On the big chalkboard on the family room wall my mom would write the names of relatives into a grid. She’d patiently explain how and why so-and-so was a certain number cousin, so many times removed. At eight years old I didn’t get it. Eventually, however, I was able to understand the concept. Now it’s hard for me to understand how I couldn’t grasp it at one point.

My mother, sister, and I would play a game. One person would think of a relative, then recite the chain of relationship leading to that relative. The challenge was for the others to guess the relative the speaker was thinking of. For instance, my mother might say, “Your father’s brother’s mother’s father’s wife.” My sister and I would each try to be the first to call out, “Grandma Dell!”

One Christmas—must have been about 1972—we were visiting relatives in Ohio, where both my parents were born and grew up. My mother interviewed her maternal grandfather, Mattias Vihtori Stuuri (1888-1981), about immigrating to the USA from Finland when he was a child. This was one of the few times I was present when my mother was actually doing genealogical work. Usually I might only hear about results, which were fine, but not of great interest to me then. But hearing Paappa* Stuuri relate facts about his family’s trip from Europe to North America stuck with me—mostly, I think, because I rarely saw Paappa Stuuri interact with others.

Mattias Vihtori Stuuri (1888-1981), my great grandfather, is seated at left in this photo from the early 1940s. My mother, Karen Elizabeth Hietanen Shanower, is the child standing center. My great aunt Adela Mirjam Stuuri Bixler (1918-2003), also mentioned in this post,  is standing on the right.

I rarely interacted with Paappa Stuuri myself. He didn’t talk much and my impression is that he was hard of hearing. When I knew him he usually sat in his accustomed chair on the enclosed porch of the house at 503 Independence Street in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, the house where several generations of the Stuuri family had lived for decades. He’d just sit there silently. Whenever my family arrived on a visit, his eyes would light up for a moment, he’d smile, and he’d let out an "ohhh," perhaps chuckle, and say a few words of greeting in his high, rough voice. Then we’d go on into the house to see the rest of the relatives.

In 1976 my sister and I stayed a week in that house with my great aunt and uncle, Adela Mirjam Stuuri Bixler and Alvin Ahlstrom Bixler. Their youngest child, my cousin Jim Bixler, was still living there, too. One day I was searching for a library book I was reading, one of Tove Jansson’s Moomintroll titles. I passed by the door to the porch and spotted my book—open in Paappa Stuuri’s hands. He was more than just casually glancing through the book, he was reading it! I was a little annoyed that someone had usurped the book I was reading, but I was also struck by the fact that this old man originally from Finland was reading a children’s book by a Finnish author.

Through the years my mom’s interest in genealogical research has waxed and waned. In the summer of 1978, my mother, sister, and I stopped in Pennsylvania where my mom did some research into the Lancaster County Shanowers. But after that I don’t remember her doing much with genealogy. Maybe I was simply unaware of it after I moved out of my parents’ home. In the 1990s other members of the family began to contact my mom for assistance with their own research, but I don’t think she ever plunged back into it to the depth she’d gone in the 1970s.

Her research has proven valuable to later family researchers. For instance, she had determined the place in Finland where her father’s family branch originated. In pre-internet days my mom hadn’t had the time or resources to follow where that information pointed. But in the 1990s when a US cousin researching the Hietanen branch of the family contacted my mom, she was able to guide him in the right direction. He forged ahead, made contact with Finland, and uncovered a wealth of information on our ancestors there. He credits my mom with providing the foundation for his success.

After I became fascinated with family genealogy a few years ago, my mother, I think, was a little relieved. Finally she had someone to turn all her research over to. She wouldn’t have to store all those papers and books anymore. I got them all. Well, a lot of it, at least. She held on to most of her old family photographs.

But I was grateful for everything that she gave me. I began entering all the information into the online family tree. It was fascinating to study some of the process she’d gone through to gather information. She’d kept neat graphs detailing which relatives she’d contacted, when they’d replied, and when she’d followed up. Different types of pencil and pen are used on the same pages, making it clear that at certain points she was filling in information later. Some of her questions have still not been answered. Her research into the McNaughton branch is exhausting to look at. She copied down McNaughton names and dates from record after record, even including variants such as McNorton. She had no way to be sure whether these were related or not.

About two weeks ago, when I wrote a blog post here about my McNaughton forebears, I didn’t have much more information about them than my mother had gathered back in the 1970s. At the end of that post I noted that some details of info I’d gathered myself seemed questionable. Writing that post spurred me to look again at the McNaughtons. I found more information. Turns out I was right to be suspicious—some of my information was wrong. But I’ve now revised it and have discovered a slew of relatives I hadn’t known about before as well as a consistent scenario for their movement from Scotland to Ohio. I’ll save that for another blog post.

Among the research my mom gave me I found the notes from her interview with Paappa Stuuri. I’d only had vague memories of the answers he’d given her back then. But now, decades later, here they were written down in front of me. I’ve recorded them on the online family tree so that the rest of the family can see them if they’re interested, so that any other interested researchers can access them, and so that they’ll be preserved for future generations. And, yes, I perform regular back-ups of the family tree to a couple external drives.

My mom is still interested in her family history. A few years ago she was excited to learn from one of her uncles that he’d found an archive of family letters from the 1940s. The letters contain some family history as well as being of immense sentimental value. I haven’t seen the letters, but I dearly want to make copies and computer scans to preserve them. One of these days.


* Paappa – Finnish word for grandfather, pronounced “boppa.”