My Gay Relatives: Jon Lormer

Jon (John) Austin Lormer, 1906-1986.

I never met my distant cousin Jon Lormer, now deceased. The funny thing is, I’d seen him and heard him in action several times. So I had at least some awareness of his existence. But until about a year ago, I had no idea we were related.

John Austin Lormer was born in Canton, Stark County, Ohio, on May 7, 1906. His father was Robert Austin “Bud” Lormer (1880-1958), the son and grandson of English immigrants to the USA. Bud was born in Massillon, Stark County, Ohio. After a stint in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War, Bud worked at Dueber Hampden Watch Works in Canton where he met Bird Smith, a jewel setter. They married in 1905.

John’s mother, Lydia Birdella “Bird” Smith Lormer (1878-1966), was also born in Massillon, Stark County, Ohio, the daughter of John E. Smith (1851-1929) and Elemina “Ellen” Shanower Smith (1849-1938). [UPDATE: In another post on this blog I discuss a photo I believe pictures Jon Lormer's maternal grandparents, John and Ellen Smith—click here.] Ellen’s parents were John Abraham Shanower (1814-1859) and Mary “Polly” Roush Shanower (1820-1896), my great-great-great-grandparents. So John Lormer and I are second cousins twice removed.

In 1924 John Lormer graduated from McKinley High School in Canton. A school yearbook from the period when his younger brother Donald attended McKinley High School suggests that John was involved in school plays, a hint of things to come.

By 1925 John was living in Cleveland, Ohio, and working as first teller in the Lakewood branch of the Cleveland Trust Bank. At the same time he studied stagecraft at the Bradley School of Dramatic Art in Cleveland. Evidently he had a back-up plan in mind in case acting didn’t work out, because he also attended the Case School of Applied Science, now the Case School of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

His apprenticeship on stage began at the Cleveland Play House. Though the Cleveland Play House was just over a decade old at the time, today it's the longest-running professional regional theater in the USA and it celebrates its 100^th anniversary this year.

Jon Lormer, about 1930.

One of John Lormer’s first parts was the lead in Elmer Gantry at the Little Theater in Cleveland. He later managed that theater and worked at the Ohio Theatre with Bob McLaughlin’s stock company, as well as at the Colonial, Hanna, Metropolitan, and Alhambra stock companies in Cleveland.

He changed the spelling of his first name from John to Jon for professional reasons. I don’t know the details of what prompted the change. Perhaps there was another actor with a similar name. Perhaps he thought the spelling of Jon was more distinctive.

During the late 1920s he traveled east to New York City where he directed and assisted with stage productions there. Plays he appeared in include Gods of the Lightning by Maxwell Anderson and Harold Hickerson, based on the Sacco-Vanzetti case, and Wild Birds by Dan Totheroh. He appeared with such well-known actors of the day as Jacob Ben-Ami, Fritzi Leiber, Georgette Cohan, Charles Gilpin, and Patricia Collinge. He’s reported to have been in the 1929 motion picture Glorifying the American Girl, an early sound and Technicolor movie produced by Florenz Ziegfeld to show off his Ziegfeld Follies performers.

By 1929 Jon had moved to Bayonne, New Jersey, where he was leading man with the Bayonne Art Players, Inc. He starred in the plays Two Girls Wanted by Gladys B. Unger, Abie’s Irish Rose by Anne Nichols, and Crime. In February 1929 he sang to the music of Vincent Youmans in Hit the Deck.

I don’t know how Jon Lormer formed a partnership with the young dancer Waldo de Castro. They most likely met in New York City where Waldo had appeared in recitals at the Forrest and Hampden Theaters. Waldo’s earlier career included performing at the Folies Bergere in Paris, France, and the Teatro Reale in Madrid, Spain, where he was a principal dancer. In New York he appeared in the 1924 Sigmund Romberg musical Artists and Models on Broadway and in musical revues such as Broadway’s 1927 A Night in Spain in which he played the female dancer.

Waldo de Castro, about 1930.

By 1930 Jon Lormer and Waldo de Castro were touring together in a joint recital. Jon presented half of the recital, performing a series of character sketches in the form of monologues he’d written himself. In the recital’s other half Waldo de Castro performed dances from his native Spain and other European countries, while clad in colorful costumes appropriate to each dance. This might seem like an unlikely pairing of performance types to an audience of today, but back in 1930 when vaudeville was not yet dead, such a presentation would probably not have seemed quite so unusual.

Jon and Waldo presented their recital in Jon’s hometown of Canton, Ohio, on May 5, 1930. Waldo’s performance included typical Spanish numbers and humorous imitations of well-known dances, including the Garrotin Flamenco from Seville, a dance from Manuel de Falla’s ballet El Amor Brujo, the “Alegrias Toreadas” by Spanish composer Joaquín Valverde Durán, “Jarabe Tapatio (Mexican Hat Dance)” by F. A. Partichela, and the “Dance of Fate” from Carmen by Georges Bizet. The next day in its review of the recital, the Canton Repository singled out as “most unusual” Waldo’s performance of “Cadiz” by Isaac Albeniz, in which he portrayed La Argentina (Antonia Mercé y Luque), a world-renowned Spanish dancer known for her rendition of “Cadiz.”

Jon’s second act consisted of character sketches. He used no make-up, costumes, or props in his monologues, only his voice and gestures to communicate his characters to the audience. His performance included his original pieces “Old Man’s Folly,” “One That Was Hanged,” “The Rehearsal,” “A Chip,” “Trapped,” and a sketch suggested by de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace” titled “Reward.” He also performed a characterization of the female character “Tosca,” which the newspaper review called “extremely well done.”

By the time I learned about Jon and Waldo appearing on stage in performances that included female roles, my gaydar was going off bigtime. Were Jon Lormer and Waldo de Castro simply just stage partners, touring the USA with their two-part recital? Or could they have been lovers? I don’t have an answer about their relationship behind the scenes. But I do have more evidence that suggests they were both gay.

May 4, 1930, Canton Daily News ad for the recital with Lormer and de Castro.

In August 1930 Jon and Waldo announced that they were accepting registrations from both adults and children for the fall term of the school of dance and drama that they were opening in Canton, Ohio. There Jon taught classes in elocution and the dramatic arts. Waldo taught classical ballet, ballroom dancing, Spanish dancing, and dances of other nations.

That fall of 1930 was busy for Jon Lormer. In September he accepted directorship of the Rainbow Players Club, a Canton organization that performed plays, often in conjunction with Parent-Teachers associations and Boy Scout troops. Then a recital by the dance and drama students of Jon and Waldo’s school took place October 13, 1930, at Lehman High School auditorium. All the costumes used in the recital were made under Jon’s direction at the school. And on November 8, Jon performed two of his monologues, “Reward” and “Ticklish,” at a morning musicale of the Canton Women’s Club.

Then came the weekend of November 15-16. Jon and Waldo, both 23 years old, were arrested in Canton by probation officer Frank Schumacher, along with Earl Leon Crubaugh, a 39-year-old music teacher. The three were charged with “contributing to the delinquency of boys of juvenile age.” By Monday, November 17, both Jon Lormer and Earl Crubaugh were out of jail on bond.

Jon’s uncle, Ira Manderbaugh—husband of Lillian Smith Manderbaugh, the sister of Jon Lormer’s mother—was a captain of police in Canton at this time. From 1928 through 1932 Ira Manderbaugh battled with Canton Chief of Police Earl W. Hexamer in a departmental feud that sometimes made newspaper headlines. Chief Hexamer believed Manderbaugh routinely neglected his duty and specifically charged that Manderbaugh failed to properly handle vice conditions in giving orders to vice squads. I don’t know whether Captain Manderbaugh played any part during his nephew’s arrest or influenced his release, but Manderbaugh was in a position where he might have.

I also don’t know what specific actions led to Jon and Waldo’s arrests. I don’t know the ages of the “boys of juvenile age” whose delinquency they contributed to—I prefer to think they were about 17 years old rather than, say, 13. I don’t know if anything sexual occurred among the adults and the “boys of juvenile age.” I don’t know how active Jon and Waldo were in getting themselves into this situation. I prefer to think that the much older Earl Crubaugh was the leader. Earl never married. He seems to have lived with his mother in Alliance, Stark County, Ohio, for the rest of her life and then remained alone until his death on December 3, 1963.

Or were Jon and Waldo set up? Were they accustomed to a more relaxed atmosphere in the New York theater world and not discreet enough for the gatekeepers of Canton, Ohio?

After the arrest why wasn’t Waldo released on bond with the other two? Was Waldo considered a flight risk and denied bond because he was a foreign national? Did Jon’s parents or other relations pay Jon’s bond and refuse to pay Waldo’s? Was this incident the end of Jon and Waldo’s relationship, whatever that relationship was?

It seems to have ended their dance and drama studio. I find no more reference to the studio, and I don’t suppose any parent in Canton, Ohio, was willing to enroll a son or daughter in a school run by anyone publicly exposed for such a crime.

Waldo continued to perform Spanish and other European and character dances around North America at least through 1939. I don’t know what happened to him after that.

After I learned of the arrest of Jon Lormer and Waldo de Castro, I wondered whether Jon’s acting career had completely collapsed and he had faded into obscurity. The only later information I had about Jon said that he was living in California in the 1970s. I didn’t see anything special about this, since I knew his birth family had moved in the late 1940s to the San Francisco area, where his parents, Bud and Bird Lormer, are buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery.

But I began to find references to a Jon Lormer—sometimes spelled Lorimer, other times spelled Lormier—who had been a television actor throughout the 1960s and ’70s. A check of this Jon Lormer’s Wikipedia entry showed a birthdate that matched the birthdate of my cousin Jon. The television actor Jon Lormer’s Internet Movie Database entry revealed his birthplace as Canton, Ohio. After that I easily found an obituary that clearly established that this Jon Lormer and my cousin were one and the same.

No online source gives a thorough picture of Jon Lormer’s career. IMDB lists many of his credits, but the list is incomplete. Fortunately I’ve found other sources that together give a fuller picture of his career after he left Canton.

Jon seems to have remained in Canton through at least 1932. By 1935, he was back in New York with his acting career in full swing. In the first half of 1936 he had parts in three Broadway shows: he played Joe Lash in American Holiday by Edwin L. Barker and Albert Wineman Barker, he played the Third Knight in T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, and he played the Policeman in Class of ’29 by Orrie Lashin and Milo Hastings, all produced by the Popular Price Theatre of The Federal Theatre Project of the WPA.

After the USA entered World War II, Jon Lormer was shipped off to Europe on June 15, 1942. He spent the war in the Army Signal Corps, stationed in England and France. On June 3, 1946, following the war’s end, he departed Le Havre, France, on the ship Tufts Victory, and returned to New York City.

There he joined the American Theatre Wing Professional Training Program. He served as the head of the Theatre Training Division until 1956. Meanwhile, his stage career continued. He branched out into television beginning in 1948 and appeared on many early live television shows, including Studio One, Ford Theatre, and Playhouse 90.

The early 1950s found him in Hollywood. From then until his death in 1986 he appeared in television shows and feature films, only occasionally returning to the legitimate stage.

Jon Lormer as the Scientist in "The Legacy" episode of the live television series Planet of the Apes, 1974.

It was Jon Lormer’s television appearances that really struck me. I’d seen shows he’d been in. If you watched television during the 1960s and 1970s, you very likely saw him on one show or another. I’d seen him in an episode of tv’s Planet of the Apes, I’d seen him in Star Trek, I’d seen him in the tv movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden starring Elizabeth Montgomery. I’d even seen him in the 1982 motion picture Creepshow where he played Nathan Grantham in the “Father’s Day” segment. I went to that movie with my cousin Carol Shanower-Strazinsky when it was released. Neither of us knew that we were watching our second cousin twice removed.

Although I’d seen Jon Lormer perform many times, I’d never remembered him in particular. He was what I’d guess they call a character actor. He had speaking parts in nearly all of his projects, but he was never a lead on television. His looks seem to have made him fit to play judges, doctors, and preachers, roles he was cast in again and again. In a number of shows he had recurring roles, most notably on Peyton Place where he played Judge Irwin A. Chester in eighteen episodes. But he was usually cast in small parts, there for just one or two scenes.

Jon Lormer on the set of the television series Peyton Place, 1966.

Nevertheless, his resume remains impressive in both length and breadth. He played all sorts of parts throughout his career, usually sporting his white comb-over. He was in movies that are still worth watching, such as Pollyanna (1960) with Hayley Mills and I Want to Live! (1958) with Susan Hayward. He was also in clunkers, such as A Fine Madness (1966) with Sean Connery and Doctors’ Wives (1971) with Dyan Cannon. When he was sixty-nine years old he played the father to sixty-eight-year-old Katharine Hepburn in Rooster Cogburn (1975). Name a television Western either well-known or obscure—Jon Lormer was probably cast in it—and likely more than once. He’s unique in having been on an episode of The Twilight Zone as a different character in each of its four seasons on television.

While Jon Lormer’s professional career from the late 1950s onward is pretty well documented, his private life in those decades is virtually unknown, at least to me. He didn’t marry. I wonder what sort of relationships he had and whether he found a partner to share his life.

Jon had two younger brothers, Donald Marshall Lormer (1908-1986) and Robert Wilmer Lormer (1916-1972). Donald had seven children, six of whom lived to adulthood. Four of those are still alive. One niece of Jon Lormer stayed in touch with her uncle while he was alive. When Jon Lormer died of cancer in Burbank, California, March 1986, that niece attended his funeral. I’d love to speak with her, my third cousin once removed, about her uncle Jon, but I haven’t been able to contact her.

In any case, I’m proud to be a cousin of Jon Lormer. I’ve assembled a list of his credits from a variety of sources. A number of the early dates I’ve had to be a bit vague on and the list of early plays is certainly not complete. But as far as I know, what follows is the most comprehensive resume of his acting career:

Gods of the Lightning (play) by Maxwell Anderson and Harold Hickerson (circa 1920s)

Elmer Gantry (play) by Patrick Kearney (circa 1920s) role: Elmer Gantry; Little Theater, Cleveland, Ohio

Wild Birds (play) by Dan Totheroh (circa 1920s)
 
Crime (play, circa late 1920s) Bayonne Art Players, Bayonne, New Jersey

Two Girls Wanted (play) by Gladys B. Unger (circa late 1920s) leading role; Bayonne Art Players, Bayonne, New Jersey

Hit the Deck (musical play) music by Vincent Youmans, lyrics by Clifford Grey and Leo Robin, book by Herbert Fields (circa late 1920s) leading role; Bayonne Art Players, Bayonne, New Jersey

Abie’s Irish Rose (play) by Anne Nichols (circa late 1920s) leading role; Bayonne Art Players, Bayonne, New Jersey

Stepping Heels (movie, circa late 1920s)

Nothing but the Truth (play) by James Montgomery (April 20, 1928) leading role; benefit performance for the Firestone Park Presbyterian Church, Akron, Ohio

Glorifying the American Girl (movie) produced by Florenz Ziegfeld (1929)

Cradle Snatchers (play) by Russell Medcraft and Norma Mitchell (circa late 1920s-1930s) vaudeville Keith Circuit with Bertha Belmore

The Mother Heart (play, circa 1930s) vaudeville circuit tour with Ida Kramer

Treasure Island (play) by Jules Eckert Goodman (opened May 14, 1938) role: Long John Silver; Hippodrome, New York City

American Holiday (play) Edwin L. Barker and Albert Wineman Barker (Feb 21, 1936 - Mar 1936) role: Joe Lash; Manhattan Theatre, Broadway, New York City

Murder in the Cathedral (play) by T. S. Eliot (Mar 20, 1936 - Apr 1936) role: Third Knight; Manhattan Theatre, Broadway, New York City

Class of ’29 (play) by Orrie Lashin and Milo Hastings (May 15, 1936 - Jun 1936) role: Policeman; Manhattan Theatre, Broadway, New York City

Young Loves (play, circa 1930s-1940s) New York City

The Sun and I (play) by Barrie and Leona Stavis (February 26, 1937 – May 22, 1937) roles: Ishmaelite Slave Merchant & Shilah; Adelphi Theatre, Broadway, New York City

Hippolytos (play, circa 1930s-1940s) New York City

The First Year (play, circa 1930s-1940s) on tour

The Thirteenth Chair (play) by Bayard Veiller (circa 1930s-1940s) on tour

Stage recitals of monologues, including “Ticklish,” “Tosca,” “One Man’s Folly,” “One That Was Hanged,” “The Rehearsal,” “A Chip,” “Trapped,” and “Reward,” written by Jon Lormer (1930s-1940s) New York City and on tour, including at the Hotel Northern in Canton, Ohio, on May 5, 1930, and at the Canton [Ohio] Women’s Club on November 8, 1930

Fireworks on the James (play) by John Cournos and Elizabeth McCormick, based on Chekhov’s Platonov (May 14, 1940) Provincetown Playhouse, Provincetown, Massachusetts; planned two-week run cut short after one week

The Classic Comics (play) “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” segment (March 3, 1948) role: Starveling, Equity Library Theater, New York City
(click review at right to see larger)

The Classic Comics review, Billboard, March 20. 1948.

Big Knife (play) by Clifford Odets (after 1949) New York City

The Ford Theatre Hour (TV series)
“Subway Express” (1950)

Nash Airflyte Theatre (TV series)
“The Boor” (1950)

The Philco Television Playhouse (TV series) 
(circa early 1950s)

The Big Story (TV series) 
(circa 1950s)

Sure As Fate (TV series)
“Macbeth” (1951) role: King Duncan

Martinsville, U.S.A. (TV series)
Unknown (1951)

Studio One in Hollywood (TV series)
“A Bolt of Lightning” (1951) role: Mr. Huntington

Miss Susan (TV series)
(1951)

The Goldbergs (TV series)
“Dreams” (1955) role: Henry Carey
“The Jury” (1955) role: Juror (uncredited)

Crime Syndicate (TV series)
(circa 1950s)

Lamp Unto My Feet (TV series)
(circa 1950s)

The Goldbergs (TV series)
“unknown episode” (circa 1955) role: unnamed juror
“unknown episode” (circa 1955) role: Mr. Carey
“unknown episode” (circa 1955) role: Mr. Carey

Finian's Rainbow (muscal play) by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy (July 9, 1956, through rest of week) Brandywine Music Box, Wilmington, Delaware; role: Mr. Shears

Playhouse 90 (TV series)
(circa 1956-60)

Search for Tomorrow (TV series)
(circa 1950s)

Cheyenne (TV series)
“Town of Fear” (1957) role: Dan Slater

Girls on the Loose (movie, 1958) role: Doctor

The Millionaire (TV series)
“The Tony Drummond Story” (April 9, 1958) role: Job Foreman

Zane Grey Theater (TV series)
“A Handful of Ashes” (May 2, 1958) role: Doc

Have Gun - Will Travel (TV series)
“Three Sons” (May 10, 1958) role: Judge Cates

From Hell to Texas aka Hell Bent Kid (movie, 1958) role: Grizzled Man (uncredited)

The Matchmaker (movie, 1958) role: Mr. Duckworth, Jeweler (uncredited)

The Californians (TV series) 
“Overland Mail” (1958)

Lawman (TV series)
“The Prisoner” (October 12, 1958) role: Harry Tate
“The Joker” (October 19, 1958) role: Harry Tate
“The Jury” (November 9, 1958) role: Harry Tate
“Bloodline” (November 30, 1958) role: Harry Tate
“The Outsider” (January 4, 1959) role: Harry Tate
“The Big Hat” (February 22, 1959) role: Harry Tate

Matinee Theatre (TV series)
(circa 1955-58)

Wanted: Dead or Alive (TV series)
“The Giveaway Gun” (October 11, 1958) role: Jack the Stableman (uncredited)
“Railroaded” (March 14, 1959) role: Mark Crow (uncredited)

The Walter Winchell File (TV series)
“Hot Night in Manhattan” (1958) role: Store Owner
“Death Comes in a Small Package: File #37” (1959) role: Watchman

I Want to Live! (movie, 1958) role: San Quentin Doctor (uncredited)

Rescue 8 (TV series)
“Find That Bomb!” (1958) role: Motel Manager

Sugarfoot (TV series)
“Deadlock” (February 4, 1958) role: Mike Feeny
“The Wizard” (October 14, 1958) role: Sam McClain
“Outlaw Island” (November 24, 1959) role: Doc Basher
“The Shadow Catcher” (September 26, 1960) role: Paul Loring

Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (movie, 1958) role: George Melvin (uncredited)

Maverick (TV series)
“Day of Reckoning” (February 2, 1958) role: Somers
“The Lonesome Reunion” (September 28, 1958) role: Newspaperman
“Brasada Spur” (February 22, 1959) role: Belle Morgan's Personal Waiter (uncredited)
“The Town That Wasn't There” (October 2, 1960) role: Sam Bradford

The Loretta Young Show (TV series)
“The Woman Between” (November 23, 1958) role: Dr. Gibbs
“The Best Season” (April 17, 1960) role: Doctor (credited as John Lormer)
“Switchblade” (1960) role: Corey Bellman Sr.

Lassie (TV series)
“The Teacher” (September 21, 1958) role: School Board Member (uncredited)
“The Contest” (September 20, 1959) role: Silas Huff
“The Grasshopper and the Ant” (January 24, 1960) role: Silas Huff
“The Odyssey: Part 1” (February 18, 1962) role: Henry DeShaw
“Guide Dog” (April 5, 1964) role: Jim Stanton 
“The Eighth Life of Henry IV” (1967) role: George Ramsey
Lassie: Joyous Sound (TV movie, 1973) role: Man With Yorkshire Terrier (uncredited)
“A Joyous Sound: Part 2” (1973) role: Man in the Park

Gunsmoke (TV series)
“Young Love” (January 3, 1959) role: Jesse Wheat
“Jailbait Janet” (February 27, 1960) role: Clerk
“He Who Steals” (1965) role: Mr. Hoyt (uncredited)
“McCabe” (November 30, 1970) role: Judge Clairborne
“New Doctor in Town” (October 11, 1971) role: Cody Sims
“Trafton” (October 25, 1971) role: Storekeeper (uncredited)
“Alias Festus Haggin” (March 6, 1972) role: Judge Clayborne

77 Sunset Strip (TV series)
“The Secret of Adam Cain” (January 16, 1959) role: Hotel Clerk #1 (uncredited)

The Real McCoys (TV series)
“Son of the Mystic Nile” (January 25, 1959) role: Sam Watkins
“The Big Skeet Shoot” (June 4, 1959) role: Announcer
“The Politician” (1959) role: Sam Watkins
“The Perfume Salesman” (1959) role: Sam Watkins
“The Television Set” (1959) role: Sam Watkins
“Weekend in Los Angeles” (1960) role: Sam Watkins
“The Delegates” (1960) role: Sam Watkins
“The Berry Crisis” (1961) role: Farmer

Peter Gunn (TV series)
“Pecos Pete” (February 9, 1959) role: Coroner 
“See No Evil” (February 1, 1960) role: Judge (credited as John Lormer)  
 

Jon Lormer on the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Glamorous Ghost," 1962.

Perry Mason (TV series)
“The Case of the Jaded Joker” (February 21, 1959) role: Coroner
“The Case of the Stuttering Bishop” (March 14, 1959) role: Doctor
“The Case of the Calendar Girl” (April 18, 1959) role: Autopsy Surgeon (scenes deleted)
“The Case of the Frantic Flyer” (January 9, 1960) role: Autopsy Surgeon
“The Case of the Clumsy Clown” (November 5, 1960) role: Autopsy Surgeon
“The Case of the Provocative Protege” (November 12, 1960) role: Autopsy Surgeon
“The Case of the Renegade Refugee” (December 9, 1961) role: Autopsy Surgeon
“The Case of the Glamorous Ghost” (February 3, 1962) role: Dr. Oberon
“The Case of the Melancholy Marksman” (March 24, 1962) role: Medical Examiner
“The Case of the Hateful Hero” (October 25, 1962) role: Autopsy Surgeon
“The Case of the Elusive Element” (April 11, 1963) role: Autopsy Surgeon
“The Case of the Devious Delinquent” (December 5, 1963) role: Medical Examiner

Northwest Passage (TV series)
“The Counterfeiters” (1959) role: Jonathan Henderson (uncredited)
(click link to watch)

Richard Diamond, Private Detective (TV series)
“Pack Rat” (February 22, 1959) role: Gerald Wilkerson 

Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond (TV series)
“The Captain's Guests” (May 26, 1959) role: Realtor Caleb Leach
"Who Are You?” (1960) role: Joe Fisher
“Legacy of Love” (December 20, 1960) role: Resident

The David Niven Show (TV series)
"The Vengeance” (June 30, 1959) role: Jake  

Riverboat (TV series)
“About Roger Mowbray” (September 27, 1959) role: Dr. Landers

Career (movie, 1959) role: Process Server (uncredited)

The Gazebo (movie, 1959) role: Dr. Weiner, Police Surgeon (uncredited)

Shotgun Slade (TV series)
“Mesa of Missing Men” (1959) role: Bascomb
“Misplaced Genius” (1961)

Destination Space (TV movie, 1959) role: Professor Logan
(click link to watch) 

Trackdown (TV series)
“The Trick” (1959) role: Will - The Blacksmith (uncredited)

Jon Lormer in "The Scapegoat" episode of Bonanza, 1964.

Bonanza (TV series)
“The Newcomers” (September 26, 1959) role: Doc Riley (credited as John Lormer)
“The Scapegoat” (October 25, 1964) role: Collings
“The Thirteenth Man” (January 21, 1968) role: Lamar Forbes (credited as John Lormer)
“The Bottle Fighter” (May 12, 1968) role: Winter
“The Real People of Muddy Creek” (October 6, 1968) role: Jody
“Is There Any Man Here?” (February 8, 1970) role: Preacher

Laramie (TV series)
“Duel at Alta Mesa” (1960) role: Wally

Pollyanna (movie, 1960) role: Mr. Geary (uncredited)

Bourbon Street Beat (TV series)
“Interrupted Wedding” (June 20, 1960) role: Organist

Tate (TV series)
“The Return of Jessica Jackson” (September 14, 1960) role: Indian Chief

Thriller (TV series)
“The Mark of the Hand” (October 4, 1960) role: Dr. Emil Berland (replaced by Marc Lawrence) (scenes deleted)

The Jim Backus Show (TV series)
“Mike O'Toole, Angler” (1960) role: Goodman

Dan Raven (TV series)
“The Night Is Numbered” (1960) role: Kallen

Rawhide (TV series)
“Incident of the Last Chance” (June 10, 1960) role: Harry Gillespie
“The Lost Herd” (1964) role: Clayton (uncredited)

The Rebel (TV series)
“Night on a Rainbow” (May 29, 1960) role: Doctor
“The Legacy” (November 13, 1960) role: Judge Adam Ricker (credited as John Lormer)

Where the Boys Are (movie, 1960) role: Motel Manager (uncredited)

Death Valley Days (TV series)
“Extra Guns” (November 24, 1960)

Route 66 (TV series)
“A Fury Slinging Flame” (December 30, 1960) role:  Mr. White
“In the Closing of a Trunk” (March 8, 1963) role: Man #2

Twilight Zone (TV series)
“Execution” (April 1, 1960) role: Minister
“Dust” (January 6, 1961) role: First Townsman (credited as John Lormer) 
“The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank” (February 23, 1962) role: Mr. Strauss
“Jess-Belle” (February14, 1963) role: Minister  

Outlaws (TV series)
“Beat the Drum Slowly” (1960) role: Pop Morton
“The Sisters” (1962) role: Judge

Two Faces West (TV series)
“The Accused” (1961)

Naked City (TV series) 
“New York to L.A.” (April 19, 1961) role: Minister

Stagecoach West (TV series)
“The Dead Don't Cry” (1961) role: Liveryman

Ada (movie, 1961) role: James Ordman - Committee Man (uncredited)
 

Jon Lormer as the man on the riverboat in the movie The Comancheros, 1961.

The Comancheros (movie, 1961) role: White-Haired Man on Riverboat (uncredited)

Tales of Wells Fargo (TV series)
“The Dodger” (October 7, 1961) role: the Clerk
“End of a Minor God” (April 7, 1962) role: Bert Hensley

The Untouchables (TV series)
“Death for Sale” (April 27, 1961) role: Clary
“Fall Guy” (January 11, 1962) role: Finley Connors
“Pressure” (June 14, 1962) role: Lawton Hollis, School Superintendent

Dennis the Menace (TV series)
“Dennis and the Good Example” (March 26, 1961) role: Mr. Bergstrom
“Wilson's Little White Lie” (1963) role: Mr. Nelson (uncredited)

Bronco (TV series)
“Destinies West” (February 26, 1962) role: Doc Emory 

The Tall Man (TV series) 
“Phoebe” (May 26, 1962) role: Medford (credited as John Lormer)
 
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (movie, 1962) role: The Doctor (uncredited)

The Andy Griffith Show (TV series)
“Bailey's Bad Boy” (January 15, 1962) role: Fletch Dilbeck
“The Cow Thief” (October 29, 1962) role: Tate Fletcher  
“Opie's Fortune” (November 16, 1964) role: Parnell Rigsby

Saints and Sinners (TV series)
“Slug It, Miss Joyous” (1963) role: Templar

General Electric True (TV series)
“The Black-Robed Ghost” (March 10, 1963)

Empire (TV series)
“Nobody Dies on Saturday” (April 16, 1963) role: Sam Richmond

The Third Man (TV series)
“Meeting of the Board” (1963)

Temple Houston (TV series)
“Billy Hart” (November 28, 1963) role: Matt Turner

Ben Casey (TV series)
“Hang No Hats on Dreams” (May 13, 1963) role: Sam Carstairs
“Journeys End in Lovers Meeting” (April 19, 1965) role: Dr. Martinson

The Virginian (TV series)
“Vengeance Is the Spur” (February 27, 1963) role: Tom the Blacksmith
Series retitled The Men from Shiloh for final 1971 season
“Nan Allen” (February 6, 1971) role: Dr. Walker     
“The Angus Killer” (1971) role: Doctor

Arrest and Trial (TV series)
“Somewhat Lower Than the Angels” (1964) role: Vicar

Dead Ringer (movie, 1964) role: Alonzo (uncredited)

One Man's Way (movie, 1964) role: John Hellman

A Tiger Walks (movie, 1964) role: Mr. Wilson, Butcher (uncredited)

Dr. Kildare (TV series)
“A Day to Remember” (April 2, 1964) role: Mr. Teale

Kisses for My President (movie, 1964) role: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (uncredited)

Youngblood Hawke (movie, 1964) role: Dr. Eversill (uncredited)

The Fugitive (TV series)
“Tug of War” (October 27, 1964) role: Pastor
“End of the Line” (December 21, 1965) role: Conductor

The Young Marrieds (TV series)
(circa 1964-66)

General Hospital (TV series)
(circa 1960s?)

Two on a Guillotine (movie, 1965) role: Minister at Funeral (uncredited)

Wendy and Me (TV series)
“Jeff Takes a Turn for the Nurse” (February 22, 1965) role: Doctor

Zebra in the Kitchen (movie, 1965) role: Judge

Branded (TV series) 
“The Mission: Part 1” (March 14, 1965) role: Col. Harry S. Snow
“The Mission: Part 2” (March 21, 1965) role: Col. Harry S. Snow
“The Mission: Part 3” (March 28, 1965) role: Col. Harry S. Snow
“Now Join the Human Race” (September 19, 1965) role: Judge Markham

Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (TV series)
“The Further Adventures of Gallegher: A Case of Murder” (1965) role: Pete
“The Further Adventures of Gallegher: The Big Swindle” (1965) role: Pete
“The Further Adventures of Gallegher: The Daily Press vs. City Hall” (1965) role: Pete

Hank (TV series)
“Candidate” (October 15, 1965) role: Professor Grimley

Jon Lormer as Dr. Theodore Haskins in the Star Trek pilot episode "The Cage," 1964.

Star Trek (TV series)
“The Cage” (filmed in 1964, this pilot for the series wasn’t broadcast until 1986) role: Dr. Theodore Haskins (uncredited); filmed his scenes on Monday, December 7, 1964, and Tuesday, December 8, 1964, at Desilu Culver Stage 16
“The Menagerie, Part 1” (November 17, 1966; incorporated scenes from the pilot episode “The Cage”) role: Dr. Theodore Haskins (uncredited)
“The Return of the Archons” (February 9, 1967) role: Tamar; filmed his scenes on Monday, December 12, 1966, at Desilu Stage 10
“For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” (November 8, 1968) role: Old Man

Dawn of Victory (short, 1966) role: Nicodemus

Laredo (TV series)
“Meanwhile Back at the Reservation” (February 10, 1966) role: Banker

The Singing Nun (movie, 1966) role: The Bishop (uncredited)

A Fine Madness (movie, 1966) role: Dr. Huddleson

Dimension 5 (movie, 1966) role: Professor

The Sand Pebbles (movie, 1966) role: Hamilton (uncredited)

Peyton Place (TV series)
“Episode #2.146” (August 22, 1966) role: Judge Chester (uncredited)
“Episode #3.5” (September 26, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester (uncredited)
“Episode #3.6” (September 28, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester
“Episode #3.7” (October 3, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester
“Episode #3.11” (October 17, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester (uncredited)
“Episode #3.12” (October 19, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester (uncredited)
“Episode #3.16” (November 2, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester (uncredited)
“Episode #3.21” (November 21, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester
“Episode #3.22” (November 23, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester
“Episode #3.26” (December 7, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester
“Episode #3.27” (December 12, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester
“Episode #3.31” (December 26, 1966) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester
“Episode #3.74” (May 30, 1967) role: Judge Chester
“Episode #3.75” (June 5, 1967) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester
“Episode #4.15” (October 30, 1967) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester
“Episode #4.28” (December 21, 1967) role: Judge Irwin A. Chester
“Episode #4.92” (September 11, 1968) role: Judge Chester
“Episode #5.3” (September 23, 1968) role: Judge Chester

Daniel Boone (TV series)
“When a King Is a Pawn” (1966) role: Doctor
“The Renegade” (September 28, 1967) role: Eli Jimson
“The Flaming Rocks” (February 1, 1968) role: Yellow Knife

The Wild Wild West (TV series)
“The Night of the Infernal Machine” (December 23, 1966) role: Judge Vickerman
“The Night of the Spanish Curse” (January 3, 1969) role: 2nd Elder
“The Night of the Bleak Island” (March 14, 1969) role: Boatman

A Man Called Shenandoah (TV series)
“The Impostor” (April 4, 1966) role: guest star

The F.B.I. (TV series)
“The Satellite” (April 2, 1967) role: Earl Page

Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (movie, 1967) role: Emergency Room Doctor (uncredited)

Don’t Go Gentle (play) by William Inge (1967) UCLA Theater, Los Angeles, California

The Invaders (TV series)
“Valley of the Shadow” (1967) role: Minister

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)
“Fatal Cargo” (November 5, 1967) role: Dr. Pierre Blanchard

Batman (TV series)
“How to Hatch a Dinosaur” (November 9, 1967) role: Professor Dactyl

Judd for the Defense (TV series)
“Citizen Ritter” (1967) role: Judge

The Big Valley (TV series)
“The Stallion” (January 30, 1967) role: Wilson
“The Time After Midnight” (October 2, 1967) role: Dr. Russell
“Days of Wrath” (January 8, 1968) role: Doc Saxton
“They Called Her Delilah” (September 30, 1968) role: Dr. Thomas J. Merar
“Run of the Cat” (October 21, 1968) role: Dr. Merar
“A Stranger Everywhere” (December 9, 1968) role: Senator Roberts

Run for Your Life (TV series)
“One Bad Turn” (January 10, 1968) role: Judge Wallace Barnes

Lancer (TV series)
“Blood Rock” (October 1, 1968) role: Preacher

If He Hollers, Let Him Go! (movie, 1968) role: Chaplain
 

Jon Lormer as Charles Gant in "The Counterfeiter" episode of Mission: Impossible, 1968.

Mission: Impossible (TV series)
“The Counterfeiter” (February 4, 1968) role: Charles Gant
“Nicole” (March 30, 1969) role: Minister

Ironside (TV series)
“Officer Bobby” (March 14, 1968) role: Tommy
“Gentle Oaks” (November 25, 1971) role: Walter Cook

The Outcasts (TV series)
“They Shall Rise Up” (1969) role: Creasy

The Guns of Will Sonnett (TV series)
“The Trial” (February 28, 1969) role: Judge

The Learning Tree (movie, 1969) role: McCormack

Mannix (TV series)
“Death in a Minor Key” (February 8, 1969) role: Boylan
“War of Nerves” (March 14, 1970) role: Hotel Clerk
“A Step in Time” (September 29, 1971) role: Dr. Kenbrook

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (TV series)
“Once Again a Star” (October 31, 1969) role: Manager
 
The Young Lawyers (TV series)
“Pilot” (1969) (credited as John Lorimer)
“Down at the House of Truth, Visiting” (1971) role: Dean Stewart

Love, American Style (TV series) 
(circa 1969-74)

The Cliff (TV movie, 1970)

Medical Center (TV series) 
“The V.D. Story” (March 25, 1970) role:  Dr. Riedmont

Getting Straight (movie, 1970) role: Vandenburg

The Bold Ones: The Senator (TV series)
“Power Play” (November 1, 1970) role: Holden Stowe

The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (TV series)
“The People Against Doctor Chapman” (1970) role: Judge

Family Affair (TV series) 
“Wish You Were Here” (December 10, 1970) role: Mr. Bradley

My Three Sons (TV series)
“Dodie's Dilemma” (1970) role: Judge Markham
“TV Triplets” (1972) role: Blake Willerson

Winesburg, Ohio (play) by Christopher Sergel, based on the book by Sherwood Anderson (1971) Performing Arts Center at Santa Barbara High School, Santa Barbara, California

Adam-12 (TV series)
“Log 175: The Con Artists” (1971) role: George Sawyer

Doctors' Wives (movie, 1971) role: Elderly Doctor

This Is the Life (TV series)
“A Will to Live” (1971) role: Bradford

The Smith Family (TV series)
“The Weekend” (1971)
 

Jon Lormer in the "Lady in Waiting" episode of Columbo, 1971.

Columbo (TV series)
“Lady in Waiting” (December 15, 1971) role: Hearing Officer

Alias Smith and Jones (TV series)
“Wrong Train to Brimstone” (February 4, 1971) role: Farmer
“Return to Devil's Hole” (February 25, 1971) role: 2nd Desk Clerk
“Jailbreak at Junction City” (September 30, 1971) role: Telegrapher (uncredited)
“The Biggest Game in the West” (February 3, 1972) role: Parsons
“The Long Chase” (September 16, 1972) role: Proprietor

The Rookies (TV series)
“The Good Die Young” (1972) role: Mr. Baxter

Summer and Smoke (play) by Tennessee Williams (January 23 - October 21, 1973) role: Reverend Winemiller, Peachtree Playhouse, Atlanta, Georgia (January 23-28); New Locust Theater, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (March 30 - April 1); Palm Beach, Florida; Kennedy Center, Washington, DC; Westport, Connecticut; Music Hall for the Performing Arts, Detroit, Michigan (through September 9, 1973); and the Hartford Theater, Los Angeles, California (three weeks beginning October 1)

The Man (movie, 1972)

The Delphi Bureau (TV series)
“The Face That Never Was Project” (1973) role: Senator Hicks

The Wide World of Mystery (TV series)
“Frankenstein: Part 1” (January 16, 1973) role: Charles DeLacey
“Frankenstein: Part 2” (January 17, 1973) role: Charles DeLacey

Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (TV series)
“Seed of Doubt” (1973) role: Dr. Edwards

The Gun and the Pulpit (TV movie, 1974) role: Luther

Dirty Sally (TV series)
“Horse of a Different Color” (June 21, 1974) role: Miller  

Lincoln (TV mini- series)
“Mrs. Lincoln's Husband” (September 6, 1974) role: Senator Sutton   

Harry O (TV series)
“Gertrude” (September 12, 1974) role: Mr. Olsher
“Victim” (March 4, 1976) role: Old Man  

Paper Moon (TV series)
“Second Prize” (September 19, 1974) role: Farmer 

Planet of the Apes (TV series) 
“The Legacy” (October 11, 1974) role: Scientist

The Legend of Lizzie Borden (TV movie, 1975) role: Bailiff

Katharine Hepburn and Jon Lormer on the set of the movie Rooster Cogburn, 1975.

Rooster Cogburn (movie, 1975) role: Rev. Goodnight

The Waltons (TV series)
“The Nurse” (December 11, 1975) role: Lafe Basham

Conspiracy of Terror (TV movie, 1975) role: Mr. Slate

The Blue Knight (TV series)
“Odds Against Tomorrow” (1975) role: Louis

Barney Miller (TV series)
“Werewolf” (October 28, 1976) role: Mr. Fuller

Phyllis (TV series)
“Phyllis and the Jumper” (1976) role: Rumsey

Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers (TV mini-series, 1976) role: Depositor

Mary Tyler Moore (TV series)
“Mary and the Sexagenarian” (1977) role: Ronny Williams

James at 16 (TV series)
“Mrs. Carson” (1977) role: Minister

Loose Change (TV mini-series, 1978) role: Mike

Rhoda (TV series)
“Two's Company” (March 5, 1978) role: Mr. Steiner

With This Ring (TV movie, 1978) role: Reverend
 
Greatest Heroes of the Bible (TV series)
“Joshua and the Battle of Jericho” (November 1978)

The Incredible Hulk (TV series)
“Haunted” (February 7, 1979) role: Dr. Rawlins

The Golden Gate Murders (TV movie, 1979) role: Archbishop

Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
“The Preacher Takes a Wife” (October 22, 1979) role: Jeremy Tyler
“Marvin's Garden” (January 3, 1983) role: Mr. Jedediah Thoms

The Dukes of Hazzard (TV series)
“People's Choice” (November 30, 1979) role: the Preacher

Life and Times of Eddie Roberts (TV series)
“People's Choice” (January 7, 1980)  

Nero Wolfe (TV series)
“The Golden Spiders” (1981) role: the Butler

Quincy M.E. (TV series)
“Seldom Silent, Never Heard” (March 4, 1981) role: William Anders

The Boogens (movie, 1981) role: Greenwalt, the old man

Lou Grant (TV series)
“Double-Cross” (December 7, 1981) role: Max Matheson

Magnum, P.I. (TV series)
“Ghost Writer” (December 24, 1981) role: Barker, the Butler

Harper Valley P.T.A. (TV series)
“Firechief Follies” (1982) role: Colonel

Jon Lormer as Nathan Grantham in the "Father's Day" segment of the movie Creepshow, 1982.

Creepshow (movie, 1982) segment: “Father’s Day,” role: Nathan Grantham

Father Murphy (TV series)
“Outrageous Fortune” (1982) role: Station Agent

The Healing (Video, 1983) role: Jamie

Highway to Heaven (TV series) 
“Help Wanted: Angel” (November 21, 1984) role: Martin Lamm

Beyond the Next Mountain (movie, 1987, released posthumously) role: Watkin Roberts

Additions and corrections are welcome.

My Mayflower Ancestors

The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, William Halsall, 1882.

Crossing the Pond

I’ve mentioned in previous posts several distant family connections to passengers aboard the Mayflower, the ship famous for one particular crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. It carried along with its crew a group consisting of religious Separatists, who disagreed with the Church of England, and English merchants with their families and servants. The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620. In mid-November of that year it came within sight of Cape Cod in present-day Massachusetts.

Before venturing ashore, most of the male members of the group signed an agreement known as the Mayflower Compact, by which they would govern themselves in the colony they founded at the spot England’s King James I had named New Plymouth. The first winter was hard on the colonists. Death from disease and hardship claimed more than half of the one hundred and two passengers. In the spring of 1621 the survivors stepped onto Plymouth Rock. Shortly afterward the Mayflower, its crew diminished by disease, bade farewell to the colonists and returned to England.

The Plymouth Colony struggled for survival, but with the cooperation of the Wampanoags and other native Americans, they were able to celebrate their first anniversary in the New World. That celebration is still commemorated in the USA on the final Thursday of each November, the holiday known as Thanksgiving.

Mayflower by Marriage

While researching my genealogy I’ve discovered quite a few connections by marriage to Mayflower passengers. Here are those I’ve found.

Catharine Rathbun Huss (1818-1894).

Catharine Rathbun (1818-1894), five-times-great granddaughter of Mayflower passenger George Soule (1597-1680), married Christian Huss (1815-1864), my five-times-great uncle.

Samuel Rider (abt 1601-1679) and Anne Gamlett Rider (abt 1605-1695), my eleven-times-great grandparents, arrived at Plymouth Colony between 1636 and 1638 and settled there. A number of their descendants married descendants of Mayflower passengers, as follow:

Hannah Harlow (1720-1792), great-great granddaughter of Samuel and Anne Rider, married Ebenezer Sampson (1716-1808), a direct descendant of no less than four Mayflower passengers: Myles Standish (1584-1656), Priscilla Mullins (1602-1685), John Alden (1598-1687)—all three immortalized by Longfellow’s poem The Courtship of Miles Standish—and Henry Samson (1604-1684).

Hannah Rider, great-great granddaughter of Samuel and Anne Rider, married Josiah Bradford (1724-1777), great-grandson of William Bradford (1589-1657), Mayflower passenger and second governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

William Bradford’s seven-times-great granddaughter, Rena Ann Newcomb (1883-1938), married my great-great uncle Charles Thomas Shanower (1882-1952), not a Rider descendant.

Samuel and Anne Rider’s son Samuel Rider (abt 1632-1715), my 11-times-great-uncle, married Sarah Bartlett, granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren.

Roy Robert Grant and Hilda Lucille Stafford Grant.

Other descendants of Richard Warren, sisters Hilda Lucille Stafford (1898-1973) and Helene Thelma Stafford (1902-1985), married Roy Robert Grant (1897-1988) and Charles Elwood Grant (1900-1945) respectively, first cousins to each other and second cousins twice removed of mine. These Grants were both seven-times-great grandsons of Samuel and Anne Rider. I discussed the Grants and Staffords in a previous blog post here.

Richard Warren’s five-times-great granddaughter Mary “Polly” Knowles (1806-1879) married Silas Rider (1803-1871), three-times-great grandson of Samuel and Anne Rider. The same Silas Rider, my third cousin six times removed, was also the four-times-great grandson of Mayflower passengers Stephen Hopkins (abt 1580-1644) and Elizabeth Fisher Hopkins (abt 1595-abt 1643).

Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins have other Rider connections by marriage. Their great-great granddaughter Desire Godfrey married Nathaniel Ryder (1705-?), Samuel and Anne Rider’s great-grandson. Stephen Hopkins’s great-great-great granddaughter Mehitable Snow (1731-1813) married Reuben Ryder (abt 1717-?), great-great grandson of Samuel and Anne Rider. And Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins’s great granddaughter Elizabeth Pierce (1737-?) married Gershom Rider, great grandson of Samuel and Anne Rider.

The just-mentioned Elizabeth Pierce was also the great-great granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Edward Doty (abt 1599-1655), a servant of Stephen Hopkins.

I also have non-Rider connections to Edward Doty. His great-great-great grandson Aaron Doty (1807-1843), married my five-times-great aunt Polly Grandy (abt 1805-1838).

Celia Hietanen Woodland as a schoolgirl.

Ellis Doty (1861-1895), Edward Doty’s six-times-great grandson, was the first husband of Alta Lucinda Flowers (1870-1929). After Ellis Doty died, Alta and her second husband had a son Homer Floyd Woodland (1898-1959). Homer married two great-great aunts of mine, Ida Justiina Salo (1894-1967) and Celia Hietanen (1902-1925). You can read about Homer and his wives in this previous blog post.

Homer Woodland is also reputed to be an eight-times-great grandson, through his mother’s mother, Maza Rowley Flowers (1835-1910), of Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller (1575-1621) and his wife, whose name is unknown.

There may well be other marriages that I’m not aware of between my blood relatives and Mayflower descendants.

Fuller and Sons

Over the years, I’ve wanted to find more than simple marriage connections to Mayflower passengers. I’ve been hoping to stumble across a direct Mayflower ancestor.

I may have done that. The Mayflower passengers I mentioned just above—Edward Fuller and his wife—seem likely to be my eleven-times-great grandparents. I'm not absolutely certain of that because there's a weak link the in the chain of descent.

The first few generations descending from Edward Fuller and his wife have been established by decades of research by others into Mayflower passenger genealogy. Edward Fuller and his wife were part of the Separatists who moved from England to Leiden in the Netherlands in order to practice their form of Christianity. After several years in Leiden, members of the Separatist community formed the plan to move to the New World where they wouldn’t have to worry about their children being absorbed into the Dutch community of the Netherlands. Edward Fuller with his wife and younger son Samuel (abt 1608-1683) decided to go along. Edward Fuller’s brother, also named Samuel Fuller (abt 1580-1633), joined them on the Mayflower as physician. Brothers Edward and Samuel Fuller both signed the Mayflower Compact. Edward Fuller’s elder son Matthew, stayed behind, probably in England, and arrived with his wife and family in the Plymouth Colony on a later ship.

Both Edward Fuller and his wife were among the many Mayflower passengers who died during the first winter in Massachusetts. Their son, Samuel Fuller, survived and lived with his uncle Samuel’s family in the Plymouth Colony.

Samuel, son of Edward Fuller, married Jane Lathrop (bef 1614-bef 1683). One of their children was John Fuller (abt 1655-1726), who married Mehitabel Rowley (1660/61-abt 1732), and lived in East Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut. Mehitabel was a granddaughter of Matthew Fuller, the elder son of Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller and his wife, and so a first cousin once removed to her husband John Fuller. Church records from East Haddam provide information that one of John and Mehitabel Fuller’s children was Shubael Fuller (abt 1684-1748), who married Hannah Crocker. One of Shubael and Hannah Fuller’s children was Shubael Fuller, Junior, (1721-abt 1800), who married as his second wife Sarah Chapman.

Uh-oh, Jethro

Up to this point the line of descent from Edward Fuller and his wife is firm, proven primarily by wills and church records. Beyond this, the evidence for further descent grows scanty. The book Genealogy of Some Descendants of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower by William Hyslop Fuller, published in 1908 (hereafter referred to as Descendants of Edward Fuller), claims that Shubael Fuller, Jr., had a son Jethro Fuller (1770-1821).

This Jethro Fuller was Shubael, Jr.’s second son named Jethro. The first Jethro is attested in church records from East Haddam, Connecticut. Descendants of Edward Fuller claims the first Jethro died young. The idea of naming a child the same name as a previously deceased sibling might seem dubious. But this naming custom was common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I’ve run across so many instances of it that I don’t find it unusual anymore. So there’s no reason there couldn’t have been a second Jethro Fuller, son of Shubael Fuller, Jr.

I’ve found apparent geographical links between Jethro and other Fullers who seem to be his family. The 1810 US Federal Census records a Jethro Fuller and household of eight others living in Lenox, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Descendants of Edward Fuller says that Jethro died in Lenox, Massachusetts. Lenox was also the dwelling place of Jonathan Fuller, clearly a son of Shubael Fuller, Jr., as attested in East Haddam, Connecticut, church records. Both Jethro and Jonathan were also from Dawes Grant, a tract of land in Hawley, Massachusetts, where Jethro married Siba Kelsey in 1795. Other sons of Shubael Fuller, Jr., linked by Descendants of Edward Fuller to Lenox and Savoy, Massachusetts, were Jedediah and another Shubael. Eliezer Fuller had property exchanges in Massachusetts with Jonathan Fuller and Shubael Fuller. The idea that these Fullers were all brothers of Jethro, as Descendants of Edward Fuller claims, is well within the realm of possibility.

Town records of Savoy, Massachusetts, give two sons of Jethro and Siba Fuller: Japheth, born December 29, 1790, and Lorin, born February 8, 1798. That’s where the more-or-less documented chain of descent ends for this line descended from Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller and his wife.

Jethro Fuller and Siba Kelsey Fuller's children listed in Genealogy of Some Descendants of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower by William Hyslop Fuller, 1908.

Loring vs. Lorin

Elma Louisa Conkey Grandy, June 1, 1930.

But can I connect that line to my known ancestors? Let's see.

My great-great-great grandmother was Elma Louisa Conkey Grandy (1835-1934), grandmother of Adella Cecil “Dell” Grandy McElroy Evans Hundhammer (1888-1974)—who I wrote about in this blog post—and mother of Millard Curtis Grandy (1867-1941).

Elma’s maternal grandfather was named Loring Fuller (1798-1863). Census records, other written sources, gravestones, and the fact they and many of their immediate family members lived in Chatham, Medina County, Ohio, support this.

What are the chances that Elma’s grandfather Loring Fuller and the Lorin Fuller reported to be the four-times-great grandson of Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller and his wife are one and the same? This is the weak link I mentioned above.

Let’s examine the evidence for these two Fullers.

Spelling of names:

One is spelled with a “g”—Loring. The other isn’t—Lorin. Yes, they’re different, but only slightly. In a time when many Americans were illiterate and the spellings of words hadn’t been standardized, I’m not sure that the difference in these Fuller first names is significant.

Place of birth:

In the 1850 and 1860 US Federal Censuses, my certain relative Loring Fuller, who lived in Chatham, Medina County, Ohio, was recorded to have been born in Massachusetts. An entry for Loring’s son-in-law George Melton in the 1889 book Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas lists Loring as being from Massachusetts. That information is in general agreement with information about Lorin Fuller, the son of Jethro Fuller, who was recorded to have been born in Savoy, Massachusetts. 

1860 US Federal Census listing for Loring Fuller and family in Chatham, Medina County, Ohio. Remember you can click on any image to see it larger.

Date of birth:

The gravestone of Elma’s grandfather Loring Fuller stands in the Chatham Township Cemetery in Chatham, Medina County, Ohio. Here’s a photo of that gravestone. It gives Loring's death date as March 17, 1863, and his age at death as sixty-five years, one month, and eight days. That would make Loring Fuller’s birth date February 9, 1798. That date doesn’t match the birth date of Lorin Fuller, son of Jethro Fuller, which is February 8, 1798. But notice that the difference between them is a single day.

Other possible evidence for Loring Fuller, grandfather of Elma:

The 1840 US Federal Census lists a Loren Fuller living in Sullivan, Lorain County, Ohio. “Loren” is another spelling, but is this individual the same as either Loring or Lorin? There’s no sure means to tell. This Loren is between forty and fifty years of age, and any Loring born in 1798 would be about forty-two. So that matches. There’s a white female between thirty and forty years of age. This agrees with Loring Fuller’s wife who was born in 1801 and would be about thirty-nine in this 1840 census. Her name is variously spelled Orpha, Orphila, and Orphilia. Her maiden name is unknown. However, the age ranges listed for the other people in this 1840 census mostly match the records I have of Loring and Orphila Fuller’s children, but not exactly. There are also discrepancies in the number of them and their genders.

Jonas Chilson Conkey and Mary Loretta Fuller Conkey.

The 1830 US Federal Census lists a Loring Fuller living in Nichols, Tioga County, New York. Here the children exactly match the number, genders, and age ranges in my records for Loring and Orphila Fuller’s children. Also, Loring and Orphila’s first three children, including my four-times great grandmother Mary Loretta Fuller Conkey (1824-1877), were all born in the state of New York, where this Loring Fuller and his household were living. But this 1830 census lists both the adult male and adult female in the household as being between forty and fifty years of age. This doesn’t match with my relative Loring, who’d have been about thirty-two, nor with his wife Orphila, who’d have been about twenty-nine.

These two censuses, 1830 and 1840, might be the right Loring if the census-taker recorded inaccuracies. The censuses might record the necessary path of Loring and his family from Massachusetts through New York to Ohio. But they might not.

Too Many Lorings

There was another Loring Fuller, a son of Zephaniah Fuller, who was born in Kingston, Massachusetts, in 1789. He was a descendant of Samuel Fuller, the Mayflower physician brother of Edward Fuller, and a distant cousin to Lorin Fuller, son of Jethro. For a while I suspected that my five-times-great grandfather Loring Fuller might be the same as this Loring Fuller of Kingston. But I’ve come to discount that possibility because the birth dates of the two don’t match at all. There are still sites on the internet that conflate them, however.

But I don't want to conflate my Loring with Lorin, Jethro's son, if they were not the same person. If they weren't, are there any traces of Lorin, Jethro's son, that would disprove it? Other Loring Fullers, who were alive at about the right time, include:

A Loring Fuller was born 1800 in New York, as recorded in American Genealogical-Biographical Index, volume 59, page 349; and a Loren Fuller was born 1800 in New York, as recorded in American Genealogical-Biographical Index, volume 59, page 349. I suspect these two are the same person. He's possibly identical with Lorin Fuller, son of Jethro Fuller, although there’s a discrepancy between this Loring/Loren Fuller’s New York place of birth and Lorin Fuller’s evident birth in Massachusetts. And he's also possibly identical with Loring Fuller, grandfather of Elma, except for the same birth place discrepancy. The birth year is slightly off, too.

A Loring Fuller and wife Betsey had son Philo S. Fuller in 1827. Philo Fuller died in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1876, so it’s quite possible that his father Loring was the son of Jethro Fuller born in 1798 in Massachusetts.

A Loring Fuller and wife Laura had daughter Caroline A., born in Berkshire, Massachusetts, about 1827. It’s possible that this Loring was the son of Jethro Fuller, especially since Savoy, Massachusetts, where Jethro’s son Lorin was born is in Berkshire County, the same county where this daughter Caroline died.

I have no record that my five-times-great grandfather Loring Fuller had any child named either Philo or Caroline. There are no records that he was married to either a Betsey or a Laura. So if either of these two previous Lorings is identical with Lorin, son of Jethro, then the chain of descent doesn't connect. But I've found nothing to suggest that either of these other Lorings was, in fact, a son of Jethro Fuller. So this evidence is inconclusive.

There are many other Loring/Lorin/Loren Fullers recorded at various times and places in North America, but they all have birth years so distant from 1798 that I have discounted them from consideration.

Conclusive or Not?

So after sifting the available evidence, what is the chance that my five-times-great grandfather was the son of Jethro Fuller? They had a similar name. They had the same general birthplace. They had a similar birth date. In the end, it's that birth date, with a discrepancy of a single day, that I believe means they were almost certain to have been the same person.

A cousin of mine who has done years of research on this family line doesn’t accept that our ancestor Loring Fuller is the same as Lorin, son of Jethro Fuller, because there is no proof. I agree there isn’t proof. But the evidence weighs so heavily in favor of them being the same person that I accept the idea as true.

Of course, there’s a bit of wishful thinking in my acceptance—because if it’s true, then I’m a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller, his unnamed wife, and their son Samuel.

That means I’m also related by blood to Edward’s brother Samuel Fuller, the Mayflower physician. That opens up a whole new slew of marriage connections to other Mayflower passengers, including Francis Eaton and his wife Sarah, their son Samuel Eaton, John Billington (the first murderer in the Plymouth Colony) and his wife Elinor, their son Francis Billington, and John Howland (who fell off the Mayflower in a storm and was rescued).

It also means I’m related by blood on my father’s side to Homer Floyd Woodland, who married two of my great aunts on my mother’s side.

So I conclude that I'm related by blood to four Mayflower passengers and have connections by marriage to fifteen more. I’ll take it.

Idealized painting of the first Thanksgiving by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.

A Rider from Revolution to Rest

Deacon Benjamin Rider and Sally Pratt Rider, about 1852.

My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Rider (1761-1854), was born in Provincetown, Massachusetts, on December 1, 1761, the second of at least six children. His father, also named Benjamin Rider (1725-1811), was at sea much of the time, so to ease the burden on his mother, Achsah Crosbe Rider (abt 1737-1780), young Benjamin was placed with another family to bring up.

Benjamin grew to dislike the way his foster family treated him. So when he was about fourteen, he ran away. He joined the Massachusetts Colonial Navy, which had recently been founded by the Massachusetts legislature on December 29, 1775, in response to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The legislature authorized the construction of ten ships. One of these, the sloop Freedom set sail in September 1776. The Freedom was later converted to a brigantine under the command of Captain John Clouston. Benjamin Rider served on board as a Boy, then as a Seaman, from August 29, 1777.

After Benjamin had been on the ship for sixteen days, the British Navy captured the Freedom in mid-September 1777. Benjamin was among the crew taken to the prison ships in Wallabout Bay, Long Island. He seems not to have been released from captivity until 1780 or 1781.

On June 13, 1781, at nineteen years old, Benjamin enlisted as a private in the Continental Army and served with the 1^st Massachusetts regiment under Colonel Joseph Vose. Benjamin served for over two years before the Revolution ended. 

Family tradition records a charming story. Near the end of the war the army roll call was being read. An older captain of the 4^th Plymouth Company approached Benjamin. The captain introduced himself as Benjamin’s father. He had heard Benjamin’s name during roll call and sought him out. It was the first reunion of father and son in many years.

With the war over, Benjamin’s regiment was disbanded at West Point, New York, on November 3, 1783. He was twenty-six years old when he married twenty-three year old Sarah “Sally” Pratt (1764-1860) on April 10, 1788, in Massachusetts. Sally was the daughter of Rufus Pratt (1738-1777), who had fought in the Revolutionary War and died from wounds sustained at the Battle of Bennington.

Benjamin's daughter Hannah Rider Gorman, circa 1870s.

Benjamin and Sally settled in Greenwich, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, where their eldest child, Crosby Rider (1789-1845), was born on March 19, 1789. Eight more children followed—Benjamin (1791-1878), my great-great-great-great-grandmother Polly Rider Marshall (1793-1870), Rufus (1795-1870), Nancy (1797-1817), Isaiah (1799-1886), Samuel (1801-unk), Hannah Rider Gorman (1804-1879), and Lucy (1809-1892).

In 1816 Benjamin and his eldest son Crosby became pioneers. They set out westward and ended up in Chardon, a town in Geauga County in northeastern Ohio. Benjamin bought an 800-acre tract of land for $4 per acre. There he and Crosby cleared timber, built a log house, and planted wheat. Benjamin returned to Massachusetts to get the rest of the family. In June 1817 they all arrived in Chardon to take up permanent residence.

Gravestone of Deacon Benjamin Rider.

As a devout leader in the church, Benjamin became known as “Deacon” Rider. In his later years, he and his wife Sally moved to nearby Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, and into the home of their son Reverend Isaiah Rider, the founding minister of the Baptist church in Chardon.

Benjamin died at his son Isaiah’s home on March 20, 1854, at the age of ninety-one. He was buried in Chardon’s Rider Cemetery on land that was part of his original tract. His gravestone can still be seen in that small cemetery on North Street, not far from Chardon’s town square. His wife, Sally, who died in 1860, lies beside him where they are surrounded by the graves of many of their children and grandchildren.

My Famous Relatives: Jaakko Ilkka

The 1978 premiere of the opera Jaakko Ilkka by Jorma Panula, with Tuomo Häkkilä, center, in the title role

Most people in the USA won’t recognize the name Jaakko Illka. But in Finland he’s a well-known folk hero, the leader of the Cudgel War of 1596.

I know the name Jaakko Ilkka because he’s my eleven-times-great grandfather, at least according to research by a Finnish cousin of mine. Finnish church records, which have been the legal repositories of birth and marriage announcements, are all that researchers have to rely on. Those records seem to confirm two lines of descent from Jaakko Ilkka to proven ancestors of mine on my mother's side.

One line of descent comes down through my great-grandfather Wilhelm Hirvi, who I’ve written about on this blog before. You can hear a recording of him singing here. 

The other line of descent comes down through my great-great-grandfather Matti Uhmusberg Hietanen, who I’ve written about on this blog here.

Sigismund III by Pieter Claesz. Soutman

In the late 16^th century Finland was a part of Sweden under King Sigismund III.  Sigismund lived in Poland, which he also ruled, so to oversee Finland he appointed a governor, Klaus Eriksson Fleming. At the same time Sweden was overseen by Sigismund’s uncle Kaarle. Governor Fleming of Finland and Duke Kaarle of Sweden did not get along. They vied for power, often at the expense of the poorest of the Finnish peasants.

The people of the Ostrobothnia region of central Finland resented the feudal military tax imposed to help pay for Sweden’s war with Russia. The Ostrobothnians had been legally exempted from this tax during the reign of Sigismund’s father, in return for their defense of Ostrobothnia against the Russians. But when Sigismund took the throne, the exemption was ignored. Crushing taxation—collected, often brutally, by Governor Fleming’s military—only added to the Finnish peasants’ woes, which already included the loss of men drafted to defend the border and poor harvests of the little ice age.  In some places the peasants faced starvation. Small rebellions broke out from time to time, but the taxation continued.

In 1585 Jaakko Ilkka (1545-1597), a farmer, lived with his wife and son in Ilmajoki in Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland. He bred cattle on his farm and became a merchant, shipping his cattle to Sweden. From 1586 through1588 he served as the second sheriff of Ilmajoki. This position increased his prestige and his income. He flourished and became the seventh richest merchant in Southern Ostrobothnia, managing shipping to Sweden, Estonia, and elsewhere.

His first wife died about 1588. He re-married and eventually had three more sons.

In 1591 Jaakko Ilkka joined the army. As a member of the military he was tax-exempt and collected feudal taxes. He participated in three expeditions in Sweden’s war with Russia. By 1593 his military activity stopped. He collected no more taxes from his peasant neighbors. In 1592 Governor Fleming declared a trade embargo in the Gulf of Bothnia. Merchant shipping in the Gulf of Bothnia virtually ceased. Ilkka concentrated on cattle farming.

By late fall of 1594 Sweden and Russia began negotiations to end their war. To support the negotiations Governor Fleming had Swedish troops transported to Finland. The Finnish people, already crushed by military taxes, refused to pay the Swedish forces’ costs. Fleming ordered the military to force collection.

On May 18, 1595, the Treaty of Teusina ended the twenty-five-year Russo-Swedish War. Despite the war’s end, Fleming’s militia continued to collect the feudal tax. Fleming wanted the revenue in order to combat Duke Kaarle’s efforts to take the Swedish crown. But this meant little to the Finnish peasants who lived in fear of being robbed, tortured, and having their homes burned if they could not pay.

Duke Kaarle, later King Charles IX of Sweden.

By late 1595 Duke Kaarle of Sweden was denouncing the oppression of the peasants by Fleming and his military. Encouraged by this, the entire population of Finland’s Ostrobothnia region refused to pay their butter tax.  A small force of Finnish peasants approached Jaakko Ilkka with the idea to take back the grain that had been collected as tax since the end of the war. He agreed to lead them.

On December 24, 1595, while the military was preoccupied with Christmas celebrations, the rebels attacked the Swedish cavalry in Isokyro and Rautalampi. They recovered their grain and drove the soldiers out of the region. But by mid-January 1596, the Swedish military had suppressed the rebellion and arrested Ilkka. He was imprisoned in Turku Castle in Turku, Finland.

Ten months later he escaped. One story says that a draft in his cell led him to a sewer duct that he crawled through to freedom. But the actual duct at Turku Castle is too small for a man to fit inside. Another story says he used a concealed knife to pick mortar from between the stones of his cell wall. He used the holes to climb the wall, then let himself down the other side with a rope made from his coat. A more plausible explanation is that friends, sympathizers, or possibly his second wife’s relatives used their influence to free him.

Unrest among the Finns grew. On November 15, 1596, St. Catherine’s Day, Duke Kaarle sent an emissary to a gathering at the church in Isokyro, Finland, urging the people to fight for their rights. He also sent a shipment of distilled spirits. The men at the church decided to stop paying the feudal tax and to defend themselves with arms. They gathered a small resistance army from all over Finland and named Ilkka their leader. In mid-December three groups of these fighters set out marching south by different routes toward Turku. Jaakko Ilkka and Yrjo Kontsas led the main group of about eight hundred, looting and burning soldiers’ farms and crown-owned properties and gathering adherents along the way.

The spiked cudgels carried by many of the peasants were effective weapons in piercing soldiers’ armor. These instruments gave their name to the rebellion, the Cudgel War—or as it’s known in Finland, Nuijasota.

On December 26, Ilkka and his men, now about 2500 strong, defeated a party of two hundred cavalry soldiers and set up camp in Nokia. On December 31, Governor Fleming attacked the rebels with his army of over 3000 professional soldiers and several cannons. The rebel army defended themselves successfully.

During the night Fleming, having failed to defeat the rebels and realizing that other groups of rebel reinforcements were coming, sent emissaries into Nokia to treat with the rebel leaders. The emissaries offered an end to the feudal tax and safe passage home for the rebels. In exchange they demanded the rebel leaders, particularly Jakko Ilkka. Fearing betrayal, Ilkka and several others fled on horseback into the night.

Now unable to fulfill Fleming’s demands, the rebel army broke up and began to flee. Fleming’s cavalry attacked the fleeing peasants and a massacre was on. Other groups of rebels were also defeated by the military. Peasants were slaughtered until one local governor pointed out that dead peasants could not pay taxes.

Jaakko Ilkka returned to Ilmajoki where he was captured by his neighbors. He was turned over to local governor Abraham Melkiorinpoika, who had orders to transport Ilkka to face Fleming in Turku. However, Melkiorinpoika feared that rebels would succeed in freeing Ilkka during the long trip to Turku. He staged a quick court martial in neighboring Isokyro. Ilkka and five other rebel leaders were sentenced to death.

Jaakko Ilkka’s exact method of execution on January 27, 1597, is unknown. The standard method of the day was to have the hands and feet crushed, the right arm cut off, and then the head severed from the body.  Ilkka’s parts were publicly displayed in Ilmajoki before the rebel army buried him honorably in the local cemetery.

The rebellion continued. The climactic Battle of Santavuori on February 27, 1597, was a disaster for the peasants. Many were brutally slain. The Cudgel War, one of the largest European peasant rebellions, ended in failure for the oppressed. Governor Fleming died a couple months later. Duke Kaarle, who had given lip service to the rebels’ cause but provided little in actual support, eventually became King Charles IX. But little changed in the lives of the peasants.

Duke Kaarle insults the body of Klaus Fleming in 1597, painting by Albert Edelfelt, 1878.

Jaakko Ilkka, the first Finnish freedom fighter, was hailed as a hero.  His example of a common man rising up to lead the fight against injustice has continued to inspire Finland as a nation.

Jaakko Ilkka monument in Ilmajoki, Finland.

Among the memorials to Jaakko Ilkka is a large monument raised in his home town of Ilmajoki in 1924. In 1978 Jaakko Ilkka, an opera by Jorma Panula with a libretto by Aarni Krohn, was first performed at the Ilmajoki Music Festival. A recording of the opera was released in 1979.  A Finnish television production of the opera was broadcast in 1982. The legacy of the Cudgel War has continued in literature, art, and academic studies. Each year since 2003 The Cudgel War has been reenacted at a camp in Kavalahti, Inkoo, Finland. In 2004, viewers of the Finnish television show Great Finns (Suuret suomalaiset) voted Jaakko Ilkka number 75 of the 100 greatest Finns of all time. 

I have no means to double-check the genealogical research that says Jaakko Ilkka is my forebear since I don’t speak or read Finnish and don’t have easy access to the records. But I’m happy to accept my descent from Jaakko Ilkka as true. 

Dropping Bombs

Lucille and her mother Dell.

I love my grandma. She’s a calm, matter-of-fact, generally happy woman, who laughs easily. She’s ninety-eight years old, and she plans on making it to one hundred.

Grandma’s not a secretive person. I’ve spent time with her discussing her life and our family. And she’s willing to tell me her stories. Yet not too long ago, when I was asking her about family matters, she dropped a bombshell.

For years I’d known the general outline of Grandma’s early life.

My paternal grandmother, Verna Lucille Evans Shanower Cote—called Lucille—was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1916, an only child. Her parents, Joseph Edward Evans (1884-1943) and Adella Cecil "Dell" Grandy (1888-1974), divorced when she was just four years old. Lucille and her mother Adella moved in with Adella’s parents—Millard Curtis Grandy (1867-1941) and Bertha May Flora Grandy (1868-1942)—at their home in Cleveland. For the next few years, while Adella worked as a telephone operator, Lucille was basically raised—along with her aunt Helene Grandy (1907-1987) and first cousin once removed Elva Flora (1907-unk)—by her grandmother, Bertha.

The Grandy Family, l to r: Clayton Curtis Grandy, Verna M. Grandy Lundberg, Elma Helene Grandy Haylor Humes, Bertha May Flora Grandy, Grace L. Grandy Draper, Millard Curtis Grandy, Inez Irene Grandy Balcomb Kolinski, Adella Cecil "Dell" Grandy McElroy Evans Hundhammer.

So much for the outlines, but I wanted to get some detail out of Grandma. “How much did you see your father after your parents divorced?” I asked her.

Joseph Evans and Lucille, c. 1917.

“Oh, he came by once in a while,” Grandma answered. “He’d send a card at Christmas. But I didn’t see him again after he married his second wife and moved to California.”

Whoa! Hold on! Second wife? Moved to California?

My uncle, Lucille’s son, who happened to be in the room, did a double-take.

Trying to process this revelation, I said, “Grandma, I don’t remember hearing this before. Your father re-married and moved to California? I thought he was buried in Cleveland.”

“They shipped his body back,” she said.

This was news to everyone except Lucille—including my dad, who I phoned to tell soon after. Was this the first time in over seven decades that she’d bothered to mention it?

Maybe. She wasn’t keeping it a secret on purpose. Until I asked, there just hadn’t been any particular reason for her to talk about it.

But what did my great-grandfather Joseph Evans’s second marriage mean? Did my grandmother have half-siblings out there somewhere?

I started research.

Grandma’s information was right. She’s in her late nineties, but her mind is unimpaired. On October 29, 1930, more than a decade after his divorce from Adella Grandy, Joseph Evans married Elizabeth Prosper (1891-unk) in Cleveland, Ohio. I uncovered no children from this marriage, so no half-siblings.

Sarah Jane Hopton Evans and Jonathan Rapier Evans, c. 1940.

It’s unclear when Joseph moved to California. The 1940 census, ten years after his wedding to Elizabeth, lists him living in Cleveland with his Welsh immigrant parents, Jonathan Rapier Evans (1860-1944) and Sarah Jane Hopton Evans (1860-1948). But California death records confirm that he died three years after that, June 12, 1943, in Los Angeles. His body was shipped back across the country and buried in the Monroe Street Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

Elizabeth Prosper, Joseph’s second wife, had been married twice before. Before 1910 she married Harry J. Damme (1889-1923) in New York and they had four children. First husband Harry died, leaving Elizabeth a widow. In 1923 she married a second time to Turkish immigrant Steve Totolidis (or maybe Fotolidis) (abt 1894-unk) in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Perhaps Steve Totolidis died, although I suspect he and Elizabeth divorced, leaving her single to marry Joseph Evans in 1930.

That’s all I know about Elizabeth Prosper Damme Totolidis Evans. One of her four children with Harry Damme, Harry John Damme Jr., had descendants, but I can’t find any who might be able to provide further details about Elizabeth.

After learning about the second marriage of my great-grandfather Joseph Evans, I asked my grandmother whether she had any other deep, dark family secrets that she hadn’t told anyone. She laughed and told me that she didn’t, that her father’s second marriage hadn’t been a secret, there’d just never been a reason to mention it before.

No more family secrets. Right.

While doing more genealogical research some time later I came across the marriage certificate of Lucille’s parents, Joseph Evans and Adella Grandy. No surprises there—but, wait! What was that listed with Adella’s information? A previous marriage? Whoa, another bombshell.

I immediately e-mailed my dad and my uncle. What was this about their grandmother Adella’s marriage to a Charles E. McElroy (1888-unk), who she’d divorced before marrying Joseph Evans? Did any of them know about it?

No.

So my uncle asked his mother Lucille about this first marriage of Adella’s. Lucille explained.

After Lucille graduated from high school in the 1930s, a man she didn’t know paid a visit to her mother Adella. Lucille asked her mother who this stranger was. Adella explained that he was her first husband, Charles McElroy. Today Lucille suspects that if Charles McElroy’s visit hadn’t prompted Lucille’s curiosity, Adella would never have revealed to her daughter the fact of her first marriage.

Marriage record of Charles E. McElroy and Adella C. Grandy, May 9, 1911. Charles's first wife is listed as deceased. As always, you may click the image to see it larger in a new window.

My uncle told me that Lucille got a good laugh out of the idea that she’d kept this bombshell a secret on purpose. Actually, she hadn’t mentioned her mother’s first marriage to me simply because she’d completely forgotten about it.

(An aside: I should have discovered Adella’s marriage to Charles McElroy earlier. Another family researcher, a McNaughton cousin, had Adella and Charles’s marriage recorded on his family tree. I’d seen that information there, but I’d dismissed Charles McElroy’s name as being an error.)

Adella Grandy and Charles McElroy had no children together, so Grandma remains a single child. However, Charles McElroy was married both before his marriage to Adella on May 10, 1911, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and again after their divorce in October 1913.

Lorriane F. McElroy Pecka, 1927.

Who was Charles McElroy’s first wife? I can’t find her name recorded anywhere, but in 1906 a daughter was born from their union, Lorriane F. McElroy (1906-unk). When Lorriane married James Pecka (abt 1901-unk) in Cleveland on June 1, 1927, she listed her mother on her marriage license as Anna Voelker (1886-unk). But Anna Voelker was Charles McElroy’s third wife, not his first wife who was Lorriane’s mother. Charles's first wife was recorded earlier as deceased. But is that true? Was third wife Anna listed on Lorraine’s marriage license as a matter of convenience, since she was Lorriane’s step-mother? Or was Charles McElroy actually married to Anna Voelker twice, both before and after he was married to Adella Grandy? Who knows?

Another question remains. Why did Charles McElroy pay that visit to his second wife Adella after Lucille had graduated high school in 1935, more than twenty years after Charles and Adella had been divorced? Was Charles trying to re-ignite their relationship, despite the fact that his third marriage seems to have been intact? Lucille doesn’t know, so there’s little chance anyone does.

Aloysius "Ollie" Hundhammer.

After marriages to both Charles McElroy and Joseph Evans, Adella Cecil Grandy McElroy Evans married a third time in 1924, just after Lucille turned eight years old. I knew about this marriage to Aloysius “Ollie” Hundhammer (1894-1964), since there had never been any secret about it. Ollie moved his new wife Adella and step-daughter Lucille to Mentor, Ohio.

According to Lucille, Ollie was a mean man. He was also Catholic. My Protestant grandmother Lucille for decades looked unfavorably at Catholics, partly because of her mean stepfather Ollie. Ironically, however, following the death of Lucille’s first husband, my grandfather, Stanley Raymond Shanower (1917-1987), she married a Catholic, Rene Cote (1906-2002), as her second husband in 1990.

After the bombshell revelations about her parents’ marriages, I asked Grandma again whether there were any more family secrets that she was keeping. She laughed and told me no.

But she hadn’t thought her father’s second marriage was any big deal, much less a secret.

And she hadn’t even remembered her mother’s first marriage.

So who knows what other secrets she may hold?

Grandma and me, 2014.