Month: March 2024

The Social Whirl in 1912

Candace W Leave a comment

The Dayton Home Makers’ Circle held their monthly meeting on Saturday, May 11, at the home of Mrs. Richard Schmidt. In spite of the inclement weather there were twenty seven members and a number of guests present. After the regular business meeting a musical program was given and then a very enjoyable talk from Miss Mabel Carney, of Normal, Illinois, who spoke upon Country Community Life, especially of our own state. Mrs. Schmidt served refreshments and then came the social hour after which the guests departed, all feeling a pleasant and instructive afternoon had been spent.1

The members of the Dayton Country Club were very pleasantly entertained at the home of Mrs. E. A. Dallam, in that village, Thursday evening. Bridge whist was played and sumptuous refreshments served.2

  1. The Ottawa [IL] Free Trader, 24 May 1912, p8, col-1-2
  2. p.8, col 3

The Hite Twins – Albert and Alcinda

Candace W Leave a comment

Albert and Alcinda Hite were the fourth and fifth children of David and Elizabeth (Stickley) Hite. They were born May 8, 1840, in Licking County, Ohio, and came to Illinois in 1848 with their parents. They grew up on the family farm that their father bought in 1850. The picture above shows the family farmhouse, though it is not known if it is the original building or a later one on that site.

By 1865, Albert’s older brothers had married and established their own families. Albert remained and farmed with his father, taking over the full management as his father aged. When his father died, Albert was named the executor of his will. The will left everything to the widow, Albert’s mother, for her lifetime. Following her death the property would be divided evenly between the children. Elizabeth did not die until 1890, so Albert’s duties as executor could not be completed until then. He was also named the executor of Elizabeth’s will, but declined to serve, probably due to the complications of administering both estates, so Alcinda was named as administratrix for her mother’s estate.

On February 22, 1881, Albert married Ida Bell Durkee, the daughter of Lewis M. and Zeruah J. Durkee, of Serena township. They had three children:

1. Calvin Wallace, born December 16, 1881; married December 23, 1907, to Henrietta Belrose; died October 11, 1923 in Ottawa.
2. Lavina Maud, born July 10, 1893; married September 9, 1918 to William Temple; died October 15, 1987.
3. James Edward, born July 5, 1897; married June 7, 1922 to Jeanne Hisler; died March 27, 1961 in Ottawa.

Albert died September 26, 1905, and was buried in the West Serena Cemetery, where many of his wife’s Durkee relatives can be found. Ida died in Ottawa, December 23, 1938 and was buried beside her husband.

Alcinda never married. She continued to live at the farm with  her mother and brother after her father’s death.  Sometime before 1900, Alcinda moved to Ottawa. She appears to have rented out the land she inherited, as her occupation in the 1900 census is given as “landlord”. She was a frequent visitor to Schuyler, Nebraska, where she had relatives, and she invested in land in that area.  Around 1912 or 1913 she moved from Ottawa to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she had relatives. In 1917 she was committed to the state hospital at Norfolk, Nebraska, where she died July 17, 1924. Her remains were returned to Illinois and she was buried in the Dayton Cemetery.

It is the probate of Alcinda’s estate that provides much information about her family. Because Alcinda outlived all but one of her siblings, her heirs, her nephews and nieces, had to be identified in court. One niece, another Alcinda, testified to the names and addresses of all her aunt’s siblings and their children, including the three who died young and others who predeceased Alcinda. The court proceedings are a veritable goldmine for family historians.

Time to Put in Your Orchard

Candace W Leave a comment

It’s SPRING!

Time to stock your orchard with fruit trees.

Wells Wait was born in New York. In the 1840s he brought his wife and children to Illinois and purchased land in Dayton township. He held many positions in agricultural committees and served as school  commissioner from 1857-1863. As seen in the advertisement below, he could supply a wide variety of fruit trees.

 

50,000
Grafted Fruit Trees

Are now awaiting purchasers at my Farm and Nursery, on the west side of Fox River, near Dayton, and five miles north-east of Ottawa. They consist of nearly

300 Varieties of Apple,

And a great variety of Pears, Plumbs, and Cherries, which have been selected with care and great expense from the most popular and approved Nurseries in the Union, embracing nearly all the standing varieties in the eastern and southern states, the fruit of which it is confidently believed, cannot fail to suit the most delicate and refined palates.

The subscriber assumes with confidence that he has the greatest variety and most splendid assortment to be found in northern Illinois. The trees are from 1 to 3 years of age, and ranging from 3 to 7 feet in height, and well proportioned.

It is believed that the lamentable remissness on the part of farmers, every where observable in planting fruit trees, is mostly attributable to the almost total failure, in most cases, where trees have been transplanted from a distance; and the fibrous roots on which the tree relies for its nutriment have become dead from too long exposure to dry air or severe frosts after taking them up, either of which is fatal to its growth. But these embarrassments no longer exist. The farmer can now be supplied in his own vicinity with the number and variety he wishes, grown in the same soil and climate in which they are to be transplanted.

If the trees are taken up in the spring, it should be done soon after the frost is out of the ground — at all events, before the leaf begins to put forth. If taken up in the fall, they should be buried until spring.

Apple trees at the Nursery 12 ½ cents; all other kinds, 25 cents.

Wells Wait1

1, The Ottawa Free Trader, March 2, 1849, p. 4, col. 3