Now some of my family are wondering, (if they don't know) who this is. Roma "Daisy" Stanley was the child of Eva Stanley (Vaughn) when she was 18 years old and was my Great Aunt and a half sister to my grandfather Alfred Tennyson Vaughn and his siblings. I have been told by Aunt Eveleen's daughter, that before her death, Eva intentionally burned many letters. Since it was well known that Eva and Daisy wrote letters up until Eva's death in 1940, I am convinced that some if not all of those letters were the correspondence between Eva and Daisy. Thanks to Larry Robinson, a Stanley descendant, he has provided me with memoirs of "Aunt Roma Daisy". Hope you enjoy!
Roma E. Stanley Douglas wrote the followings history of the John Stanley Sr. family and immediate relations as she remembered and could gather at different times. She apologized in her memoirs for the lack of dates and other facts about John Stanley Sr. because the old family Bible was destroyed by fire many years ago. Ironically she was the daughter not of the John Stanley side, but of the Hiram Stanley branch. But Eveline Stanley, daughter of William Lindley Stanley who was the son of Old Hiram Stanley, gave her child up to William D. Stanley, a cousin.
Roma said that John and a brother and sister came to this country from England when they were young. However, other information would seem to indicate that John was born right here in the USA, probably in Virginia since he was born in 1793, a year after his father Isaac married Elizabeth Brooks around Goochland VA it is believed. It was also in 1793 that Isaac set out for the Ohio Territory to establish a farm and send for his wife once the homestead was set up.
Roma wrote the following:
"The brother Archelaus lived at Marietta, Ohio for a while. Then married Jane Bowers and they located in Athens County, OH. There may have been more brothers and sisters. Eventually John Stanley Sr. located on Irvin Creek. I have been told that he lived for a time in the trunk of a large tree. I can remember the immense tee stump that I was told that he lived in, It was a Sycamore tree and stood on the bank of Irvin Creek near the Ford where people crossed to go to the Jackson Stanley Home.
Jackson Stanley was one of John Stanley Sr.'s boys. The hollow tree was large enough for three or four yearling steers to get into out of the storms. I remember where two log houses used to stand near where he later built a very nice large brick house. And he may have built the log houses and lived in one before he built the Brickhouse. There was two log barns there, one larger than the other.
The smaller barn had sides built across one end and side. John dug a very deep well and walled it up with rock, it had an abundance of clear cold water. The water was always salty. All live stock loved the water.
John built a small one room stone house there out of hewed sand stone. It had a loft in it where the men slept sometimes. It was roofed with clapboards, and the roof extended out over the wall.
I have been told that John Stanley Sr. got the clay to make his brick some where on the farm. I do not know where at. But I do know where the kilns stood, where they burned the brick. There were two kilns between the house and the road. The house had four large rooms, and a double hallway through the middle of the house. It was two story, with an open stairway going up from east side of hallway.
The stairway had a heavy banister, and children always loved to slide down it. Each room was 32x36 feet and the hallway must have been ten feet wide. Three steps down from top of stairway was a landing about four feet square. Turn left three steps into upper hallway which was large enough to set in a bed when needed.
Each of the four brick rooms had a large brick fireplace at the outside wall for burning logs, and each had iron cranes built in for cooking or heating water. The cranes could be swung in or out of a fireplace. Sometime later a frame kitchen and woodshed was built across back of the brick house, with a screened in porch. The woodshed did not have a floor in it. Wood and logs were used for heating and cooking. On this large screened in porch stood a big octagonal cupboard covered outside with perforated tin and had wide doors. It had four large shelves which was on a swivel and could be turned easily. The whole cupboard could be turned also. It must have been seven and a half feet tall. It almost reached the ceiling and about six or six and a half feet across. It was used to set milk and butter in, also for storing food in. A large porch was built across the front of the house. It did not go all the way across the front. A Virginia Creeper was planted at east end of porch and grew all over end of porch and end of house. The basement and foundation of the house were of large hewed sandrock. The basement had seven or eight rooms. It helped hold up the house. I only remember one room that had a door and it was used to store vegetables and fruits in. Most of the other rooms did not have doors. A stairway went up into the big hall. There was also a wide outside opening that had big steps hewed out of of sand rock, big enough to roll barrels of cider in. The basement was higher on one side (east side) and never had good drainage. So as far back as I can remember some water was always there. Several cisterns have been dug there at different times..But none were satisfactory so very long. I never knew why. Most of the drinking water was carried from a never failing spring under a big rock up the hollow.
Since the brick house was built the Public Road was changed and put on other side of Irvin Creek. Then the road up to the house was on low ground. It was never a good road, rutty and some quicksand in it. Never much shade tress around the buildings since the virgin timber was taken off. East of the Brick house down near the well house was na old log house and east of log house was a log barn. John Stanley Sr. may have used these buildings for a time. Over to left of brick house was another log house ((small)) and below that was a run. Across the run was a fair sized garden, and a wooden foot bridge across the run, which often washed out during heavy rains. These tow log houses and log barn were nearly rotted down as far back as I can remember. But the foundations were there and the logs where they had rotted and feel in. I do not know the size of the farm originally but it was several hundred acres. In those days he was considered a very wealthy man. (See Roma's scrapbook for picture of the old brick before a cyclone tore off the roof and second story).
John Stanley Sr. was married four or five times, and was the father of nineteen children. Some died in infancy. I do not know who John Stanley Sr. married for his first and second wives. As far as I know these are the children by his first or second wife. -- Isaac, Jackson, Gordon, Mazie, Catherine, and Nancy. (Nancy may have been a half sister to these other children, or a step-sister). After these wives died he married Julia Grimes of Rutland, Ohio. To them were born - Archelaus Archer, William D, Felix A, Rebecca, Mary A, and Elizabeth, There were more children, but I do not know to which wife they belonged. When Gordon was a small boy he fell off top of a fence post and broke his neck. They always said he was a very pretty child. Jackson Stanley married Sarah Gooden and they raised these children - John and Washington. They had a little girl that only lived a few years.
John Stanley married Mary Bolin. There children were Earl Jackson, William Culbert, Charles Allen, Eugene, Virgil, Hobert, Roma Amanda, Robert, and Edward. Washingotn Stanely married Esse Rumfield of near Oak Ridge in Gallia County, Ohio and there children were - Willima Archie, Henry, Little Lyman Lish, Alvin, Sarah, Samuel and Dora. Isaac Stanley married Jane Hewett. There children were - Willima, Thomas, Julia and Mary. I do not know who Willima married. Thomas married Icebinda Hundell. I do not know names or how many children they had. They lived around Jeffersonville, Illinois. Mary married a man named Everett. They had a son Cephus and a baby girl that died in infancy. Mary later married William Porter.
Mazie married a McDonald (name may have been Kennard) I do not know how many children they had. I do know they had two boys. Mazie later married Joe Abbott and raised Stanley and Samantha who married a Brooks. Joe Abbott died. Mazie then married Daniel Brickles and raised Johiel, William and Elizabth (who married Byron Welch). There may have been more children. After Mazie got sick with cancer, Brickles was so mean to her that she left him and went to her half brother William where she died and Willima buried her on his lot at Burlingham, Ohio cemetery in Meigs County.
Sally Stanley married Floyd Davis. They raised Elizabeth (Bettty) who married Frank Adkins. They had twin girls and a son Franklin. Girls names were Made and Madge. One of them married Will Wyatt and the other twin lived with them. They lived at Albany, OH and had no children. Wyatt's father owned the Flour Mill near the Depot. Mill burned down several years ago. Sally and Floyd Davis had other children. I do not know how many others or there names. Most of them located in the West somewhere. Cathrine Stanley married Jacson Gilkey when she was 14 and he 19 years old. There children wee - John, Floyd, William, Andrew, Allie, Jesse, Janie, Annie, Nancy and Mazie.
Nancy Stanley married a man name of Saltz. They had children I do not know how many or there names. Archelaus Archer Stanley was a doctor. He married Aneliza Brooks. They lived at Rutland, Ohio. they never had any children, but adopted George Prall when he was four years old. They also raised a girl Arizona Pullins. They did not like the name, so had it changed to Roma Stanley. She married Royal Grimes.
William D. Stanley married Amanda Ruth Blackwood and had these children -- Willima Blackwood, Amanda Rachel, Clara Eva (Katie), Ray and Roma Ethyl (author of this document and adopted). Felix A .Stanely married Mary Elizabeth Sapp and raised these children -- Nora, Edgar, Beatrice and Bernice.
Rebeca Stanley married Johiel Alkire and raised these children -- Jackson, Archelaus, Johiel, Scott, Selim, Felix, Julie, Mary, and Jenny.
Mary Stanley married William Isaac Blackwood and had Willima (Little Will) and a girl that died. Isaac Willima Blackwood died in Andersonville Prison during the Civil War. Then Mary married Abbott Castle. He died and she then married Janas Castle. After his death she married Elias Story.
Aneliza Stanley married John Alkire, a cousin of Johiel Alkire. There children were Emma, who married Andrew Dye, Howard and Ray.
Up on the hill a little to the east at the Old Brick farmstead stand the family cemetery. Several people other than the family are buried up there. About all the grave stones have fallen over or broken up and covered over with dirt or vines and briers. The Stanley Sr. place was one of the very first settlements and is very much of a landmark.
Felix A. Stanley being the youngest son got the Home Place where the house stood. HE went heavily in debt for it and never go it all paid for. Felix was sick and not able to work for about four years before he died. While he was able to work he set out a large orchard apples, peaches, cherries, plums and pears. Also set out blackberries raspberries, and strawberries. Also grape vines. They have all been gone for several years. Felix had one son and three daughters. At Felix's death his son Edgar Stanely took over the farm and tried to pay off the debts. He had to quit school, but kept his three sisters in school. HE never got it all paid for. After the girls were married Edgar bout out their shares of the estate, going still farther in debt. He died before he got clear out of debt, leaving his wife and children. Gladys, Edgar's wife, stayed on farm with the children and waned their son Paul E. Stanley to have the farm. Paul was not very interested for a while but after he was married he decided to buy his sisters share of the place. Gladys and the girls have nearly paid out the indebtedness by this time, but the buildings are all badly in need of repair. Most of the fields grown up to weeds and briers. Nearly all cross fences gone and line fences badly in need of repair.
While Felix A. Stanley was still living he took the old frame part off the back of the brick house. He put in its place a Kitchen and dining room and two bed rooms up over kitchen and dining room made of frame. Edgar E. Stanley added a screened in back porch, and dug out a spring on hillside above house and put in some tile and piped water to house into a kitchen sink. The water was god, but very warm in summer as there was no shade tress or other shelter over the spring. Edgar worked hard, kept up his fences, and buildings best he could. After Edgar Eid the fences went down, place grew up to brush and weeds. The buildings and fences all needed repairs. Both girls were married and at that Paul was young and not much help to his mother.
About the middle of July in 1956 (some say the 14th and some the 17th) a terrible cyclone swept through Snowville. The worst that was ever known come down Irvin Creek. Blew roofs off several buildings and blew over a lot of trees and telephone lines. The Old Stanley Homestead was hit hardest of any place around Snowville. The two storms seen to meet there. One coming down Irvin Creek and the other coming down Flint Fork. A great deal of the roof and down nearly to the first floor was blown off the Brick house. The house seemed to have been twisted as almost all the rest of plastering fell off. A sheet of tin roofing blew through a power line pole that set in the yard cutting the pole in two. Blew roof of large grainery off. Some of the roof looked like it had been rolled up and dropped down at the side of the grainery. Most of the upper side of barn roof was blown off and scattered all over hillside clear down to Flint Fork Bridge.
A large Sycamore Tree down across the road looked like the limbs had been twisted off and lay all around the tree pointing in most all directions. As the storm went on it blew roof off the Mr. Harry Douglas (Ella) home near Darwin, Ohio. Also blew her garage clear of the hill and unroofed and damaged a lot of other places in the Darwin vicinity.
Paul E. Stanley now owns the John Stanley Sr. farm. And has remodeled the house. Ne took the rest of the top of the house and made it into a modern ranch type house. Paul added on a few rooms and a bath room and drained the basement and cements it. He also put in gas furnace. By adding on another room or two to the large brick room down creek Paul made a nice little apartment for his mother, Gladys Stanley. When Paul bought out his sisters his mother left in her share of farm, so she makes her home there. In 1954 a new bridge was put across Irvin Creek in front of the house and the road was widened and straightened a lot at that time.
The Willima D. Stanley homestead suffered a lot of damage to roofs blown off and windows broken and other damage. I was spending the night that this all took place at the home of my niece may Mason and her husband Rev. Headly and sons Paul and Russell. The two Mason boys had gone to a tent meeting at Athens, Ohio and were coming home when the storm struck.. I had gone upstairs to bed when the wind commenced so hard. The boys stopped car down at road. Paul Mason came on up in the rain. Just behind him a big maple tree blew over right behind him, blocking the gate to the house. When Russell came a little later he had to climb over the yard fence to get in as the tree had blocked the gate.
I had gone to my nieces the day before to pick some blackberries. Next morning May and I went up on the hill back of there house to see how much damage the storm had done there. Several large trees had been blown out by the roots, and a lot of smaller ones. While up there I showed May a cemetery there that she did not know was there. The tombs stones were all gone just a few hewed sand-stone markers left there. This cemetery has been forgotten for years, not fence around it. It is out in pasture field up on top of till above May Mason's House.
When I was a little girl I have been up there with the Hon Green girls (see photos in FTM scrapbook for Roma). At that time the Greens owned the farm and built the two story house. The cemetery is fairly large, and used to have a lot of tombstones there. I do n ot remember any of the names or the name of cemetery.
Mr. John Green used to have a large Apple orchard close to cemetery.. There could have been a hundred or more graves there. A great many years ago there was a public road up the hill near where the cemetery is and on out farther there was a schoolhouse. I didn't know name of Schoolhouse, but I have seen it.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Grandma's Spoons
Some people contacted me through this site. Their descendant, Sarah Louise Hand was a mother(my great-great-great grandmother and wife to George R. Hand) to my great-great grandmother, Mary Louise Hand Vaughn. In their possession are spoons owned by both of them. I thank them for this picture and wanted to share it with all of you.
Here are the details on the spoons from the Hand relative:
The spoons and Mustard dip spoon with S.L.H. initials belonged to my great-grandmother, Sarah Louise Hand, all sterling silver.
The large sugar spoon belonged to my Aunt Mary Louise Hand Vaughn (who married Joseph Thomas Vaughn)
Here are the details on the spoons from the Hand relative:
The spoons and Mustard dip spoon with S.L.H. initials belonged to my great-grandmother, Sarah Louise Hand, all sterling silver.
The large sugar spoon belonged to my Aunt Mary Louise Hand Vaughn (who married Joseph Thomas Vaughn)
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Life and Times of George R. Hand
This is the Life and Times of George R. Hand. He was my paternal great-great-great grandfather, through his daughter Mary Louise Hand Vaughn. This essay was written by a Hand cousin, Carol and I thank her for the information and knew you guys would enjoy it too.
Life and Times
of the
Rev. George R. Hand
George R. Hand was an educator and evangelist and worked tirelessly for the organization and advancement of both public school in Cincinnati and its teachers and Christian Church on the western frontier. During the 1830’s and 40’s Cincinnati was rapidly advancing on all fronts and was a gathering place for many of the great minds in the West. Dr. Lyman Beecher opened the Lane seminary during 1838 (?) in the Walnut Hills. Prof. Calvin E. Stowe taught at Lane and married Dr. Beecher’s daughter, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Alexander Campbell visited Cincinnati many times promoting the “restoration of the primitive church.” Dr. Daniel Drake established the Medical College of Ohio in 1820; Dr. Albert Pickett was a teacher and author of Pickett’s Readers (1833) and W. H. McGuffey, author of McGuffey’s Readers (1836). These were the intellectual leaders, the educators, the religious leaders of the West. Alexander Campbell’s Restoration Movement was changing Christianity throughout the West. George R. Hand knew these people; worked with these people. Their discussions and ideas became the “Western Literary Society and Professional Teachers College” which helped create the public school system which now exists in Ohio.
Edward D. Mansfield, editor of the Cincinnati Chronicle and a member of the Western Literary Society and College of Professional Teachers, described it in 1860:
“About the year 1833, was founded what was called the “COLLEGE OF TEACHERS,” which continued ten years, and was an institution of great utility and wide influence. Its object was both professional and popular; to unite and improve teachers, and, at the same time, to commend the cause of education to the public mind. The former object might have been obtained by the meeting of practical teachers only, but the latter required that gentlemen of science and general reputation, who had weight with the community, should also be connected with it. Accordingly, a large array of distinguished persons took part in its proceedings; and I doubt whether in one association, and in an equal space of time, there was ever concentrated in this country, a larger measure of talent, of information, and of zeal. Among those who either spoke or wrote for it, were ALBERT PICKETT, the President, and for half a century an able teacher, Dr. Drake, the Hon. THOMAS SMITH GRIMKE, the Rev. JOSHUA I. WILSON, ALEXANDER KINMONT, JAMES H. PERKINS, Professor STOWE, Dr. BEECHER, Dr. ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, Arch. Bishop PRUCELL, President MCGUFFEY, Dr AYUDELOTTE, Mrs. LYDIA SIGOURNERY, and Mrs. CAROLINE LEE HENTZE…”
The first documented source we have for George R. Hand in Cincinnati is found in the Transactions of the (8TH) Annual Meeting of the Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers for 1838, where at age 24, he is listed as Corresponding Secretary; in 1839, treasurer and in 1840 he was recording secretary. He was an active participant in many reports and discussions. The American Journal of Education lists his participation in the following annual meetings of the College of Teachers:
Hand, G. R. – Reports on Primary Instruction, 1839
Course of Instruction in common schools, 1840
10TH Annual Meeting - Cincinnati – Oct. 5 – 10, 1840
Report on “The definite objects for the action of the College” Prof. Stowe,
G. R. Hand et al
12th Annual Meeting – Louisville – Aug. 15- 20, 1842
Active participant in discussions on:
“The school laws and the proposed organization of a profession of
Educators”
“Bill concerning public Instruction”
“The various methods of education and Instruction”
The Catalogue for the Union Literary Society of Hanover College in Indiana lists
George Hand as a member in 1834, also as a teacher. Hanover College is a Presbyterian Liberal Arts College formed in 1827. In 1830 two student organizations, the Union Literary Society and the Philosphronian Literary Society were formed at Hanover College, each with their own libraries and reading rooms. The group held discussions and debates, papers were read and guest speakers brought in. In 1834 Hanover Preparatory School had 119 students and 101 students at Hanover College.
George is listed in the City Directories of Cincinnati as a teacher from 1839 to 1851 and from 1847 to 1852 he is listed as principal for the 11th District. In 1841 George R. Hand is listed on the Board of Directors of the Ohio Mechanics Institute which was a trade school that held annual industrial fairs until the civil war.
January 6, 1941, George married Miss Sarah Scudder who was also a school teacher in Cincinnati. Their eldest daughter, Mary Louisa was born Nov. 5, 1841, V. Ella was born about 1843 then came David about 1846, and finally George Pickett was born March 18, 1848.
At some point George became a member of the Christian Church. The followers of Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander were referred to as Campbellites. They sought to restore the primitive church which was independent and based on the Bible alone, discarding the rules and doctrines of the formal denominations. They believed in baptism by immersion. They called themselves Christians, Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ or just Disciples. In the late 1840’s, Alexander Campbell began writing in his journal, Millennium Harbinger, about the need to organize the Disciples in order to spread the message. This led David S. Burnet to organize the America Christian Bible Society.
On February 7, 1848, the following Act to Incorporate the American Christian Bible Society was ratified by the General Assembly of the House of Representative of the State of Ohio:
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That David S. Burnet, James Challen, George R. Hand, Thurston Crane, B. S. Lawson, D. L. Talboth, William P. Stratton, George Tait, G. Vandausol, James Hopple and S. S. Clark and their successors, be and they are hereby created a body corporate and politic, with succession for thirty years, who shall be known by the name and style of the American Christian Bible Society; and by that name and their successors shall be capable of contracting and being contracted with, of suing and being sued in all courts of law and equity and elsewhere, with full power and authority to have and use a common seal, to receive donations and legacies, and secure the same, and to acquire, hold and occupy, and the same to sell and convey, all such real estate, not to exceed in value twenty-five thousand dollars, as maybe necessary and convenient for the accommodation of the association and the furtherance of its objects; and shall also have full power and authority to pass such bylaws, and to make and enforce all such rules and regulations for the government of such association, as they may deem for the welfare of the same, not contrary to any law of this or of the United State: Provided, however, that this association shall not engage in the business of banking.
Sec. 2. That the trustees and other officers be personally liable for labor done for said corporation.
JOSEPH S. HAWKINS
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
CHARLES B. GODDARD,
Speaker of the Senate
One year later the, on October 24, 1849 a National Convention of Christian Churches met in Cincinnati, Ohio. The American Christian Missionary Society was formed “as a means to concentrate and dispense the wealth and benevolence of the brethren of the Reformation in an effort to convert the world.” Alexander Campbell was elected president. This organization was to replace the Bible Society.
George was active in the Ohio State Teachers Association, serving on the executive committee. In 1852 he was elected 1st Vice President and appointed to serve on the finance committee.
The January, 1853, issue of “ Ohio Education Monthly: A Journal of Education” reports that:
“Mr. Geo. R. Hand, for more than seventeen years a Teacher in Cincinnati, has resigned his place as Principal of the School in the eleventh District, for the purpose of taking charge of a Female Seminary in Georgetown, KY. We can most heartily commend him and his excellent lady to the people of Kentucky, and feel assured that they will find him worthy of entire confidence.”
Little is known about George & Sarah’s time in Georgetown. By the 1860 Census the family is found in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri, with children Mary Louisa age 18, V. Ella age 16, David age 13 and George age 11. Also living with them is Nate Scudder age 11, who is probably related to Sarah but no further information is found about him. George and Sarah are both listed as teachers, Louisa as a student, and Ella as a housekeeper. This is the last time we find George Hand’s occupation listed as teacher. From this time forward he is very active as an evangelist and preacher, holding protracted meetings and organizing churches in northwest Missouri and Nebraska until moving to California in 1872 where he continued this work.
In the book “R. C. Barrow: His Life and Times” Rev. Barrow relates a story about traveling with George Hand which illustrates the difficulties of moving about from church to church. Having been challenged to a debate in Plattsburg, Nebraska, by a self-proclaimed “Cambellite killer,” Leonard Parker. Rev. Barrow accepted the challenge. “Knowing that Bro. Hand would wish to be present and believing that his counsel might be beneficial, I crossed the Missouri river and rode to Sydney [Iowa], intending to return with him to attend the discussion. Bro. Hand closed his meeting and we started back together, but when we reached the river at Kenosha, it was full of floating ice, and the ferryboat, a flat boat propelled by oars, had stopped running. Bro. Hand made the dangerous passage in a skiff, and I rode down the east bank, hoping to be able to cross with my horse by the steam ferry at Nebraska City, twenty miles below. When I reached Nebraska City the steam ferry was not only laid up for the winter, but crossing in a skiff was pronounced impracticable. Through a terrible winter storm I traveled on down the river opposite Brownville, and there in sight of my Nebraska home where the dear ones awaited my coming, sick disappointed, and thoroughly wretched, I was compelled to pass three weary days.”
After successfully overcoming his Methodist challenger, George R. Hand went on to hold a protracted meeting in Plattsburg and received eighteen new members in the church” Rev. Barrow also relates: “in the fall of 1865 Bro. G. R. Hand, of Missouri, came to the territory and was engaged in protracted meetings for some months, and afterwards preached at Nebraska City half a year. The first week in December, Brethren Hand, Dungan, and Judd…began a meeting at Rock Bluff. I came to the meeting after it had been in progress several days, and as Bro. Hand had an urgent invitation to hold a meeting at Sidney, Iowa, and Bro. Dungan desired to visit …Salt Creek, some forty miles west, I was left in charge of the meeting.”
Rev. Hand was possibly based in Maryville, Missouri, during this period or moved to Nebraska. In 1860 he attended the Franklin-Rush debate in Chillicothe, Missouri. Northwestern Missouri was not a safe place to live during the Civil War, besides the Union and Confederate armies; we find the guerilla bands of “Bloody” Bill Anderson, Quantrell, Jesse James and the Youngers terrorizing the country side. During the winter of 1864-65 Elder Hand held a protracted meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. He held occasional meetings at Bethany Church in Clinton County, Missouri, until 1867. After this we find him in Ray County, Missouri.
Elder G. R. Hand was preacher at the Elkhorn Christian Church in Richmond, MO. In August, 1867, a “protracted meeting” was conducted by Elder Hand and others to raise money and appoint a building committee for Pleasant View Christian Union Chapel in Ray County. After its completion the church was “duly Dedicated by Elder G. R. Hand, to divine service.” In 1870 he was pastor of the Gallatin Christian Church in Daviess County, MO.
On June 23, 1867, George and Sarah’s daughter Mary Louisa married Joseph Thomas Vaughn in Richmond, Missouri, by the end of the year Joseph T. had died of tuberculosis. They had a son, Joseph George Vaughn, born Mar. 22, 1968 in Richmond, Mo. The 1870 Census shows Louisa and son Joseph age 3, living with Cornelius and Mary Vaughn her husband’s grandparents in Richmond. The following is from the November 11, 1871 issue of the Richmond Conservatory:
“Sunday last, Rev. Waller preached the funeral sermon of Mrs. M. Louise Vaughn, daughter of Elder G. R. Hand of this city, at the Christian Church, and after religious services her remains were consigned to Richmond Cemetery to await the final resurrection. Mrs. Vaughn had resided here for nearly five years, and was beloved by all who knew her, for her Christian deportment and many virtues. But consumption had marked her for its victim, and after a long and painful illness, she sank quietly to rest on the night of the 3rd inst.”
During 1872, George R. removed to California; it is unknown whether he and his son, George Pickett Hand, went to California at the same time. In 1874, the Christian Church in Downey, CA, “succeeded in calling George R. Hand as pastor. Hand, a veteran preacher of the Ohio Valley had been associated with the great pioneer stock of the Restoration Movement…Hand remained with the church for more than two years. He was regarded by his ministerial colleagues as scholarly and thoroughly committed to a definite fundamental theological position. Hand used Downey as the center of his evangelistic efforts, and only as he saw another struggling congregation would he consider leaving the Downey pulpit. Accordingly, he went to Ventura, California to aid work there.”
February 28, 1875, the first Disciples of Christ Church in Los Angeles was organized and preacher G. R. Hand, minister of Downey Christian Church officiated at the organizational meeting [presently the Wilshire Christian Church]. Also in 1875, Rev. Hand oversaw the organization of the Christian church at San Luis Rey (Oceanside).
“In October, 1876, Elder G. R. Hand came to Ventura and engaged to preach for one year. The church then reorganized with thirty members. Rev. Hand preached until May, when he left and went East.” He also held occasional services at Yuba Christian Church in northern California.
Thus, in 1877 George Hand returned to Missouri to write his first book, “D. B. Ray’s Textbook of Campbellism Exposed” which was published by Christian Pub. Company of St. Louis in 1880. Rev. Ray, a Baptist minister, wrote the “Text Book on Campbellism” in 1867 in order to “expose the errors” of Alexander Campbell’s movement to restore the primitive church and teach by the Holy Bible alone. Rev. Hand wrote in defense of the Campbellites. Many well attended debates were held on the issue of Campbellism during this time.
On October 27, 1878 spoke at the Christian Church at Pleasant Hill, Cass County, Missouri. This sermon, “The Name ‘Christian’,“ was included in Rev. Hand’s second book “Gospel delineator and survey: a volume of sermons, addresses and essays on revelation and science, and the science of Christianity” which was published by News Publishing, Sacramento, CA, in 1886.
Prof. Hand was contributing articles to “Wilford’s Microcosm” during the 1880’s. “The Microcosm: The Organ of the Substantial Philosophy” was a monthly journal “devoted to the discoveries, theories, and investigations of modern science, and their bearings upon the religious thought of the age” edited by A. Wilford Hall, Ph.D., LL. D. In Volume III, 1883, the list of Special Contributors has Prof. G. R. Hand from Richmond, Mo. during months August 1883 through Nov. 1883, then from Sacramento, Cal. during December 1883 and January 1884. March 1884 until June 1884 finds Prof. Hand in Red Bluff, Cal., and July 1884 finds him located in Sycamore, Cal.
According to historian, Ben F. Dixon, Rev. Hand returned to Northern California during 1885. October 31, 1886 he established the Covenant at Central Christian Church, San Diego, California. “Rev. R. G. Hand was the first minister…Mr. Hand remained only a few months.”
Reverend George R. Hand, teacher, preacher, and evangelist, died in Santa Ana, California during 1888.
Life and Times
of the
Rev. George R. Hand
George R. Hand was an educator and evangelist and worked tirelessly for the organization and advancement of both public school in Cincinnati and its teachers and Christian Church on the western frontier. During the 1830’s and 40’s Cincinnati was rapidly advancing on all fronts and was a gathering place for many of the great minds in the West. Dr. Lyman Beecher opened the Lane seminary during 1838 (?) in the Walnut Hills. Prof. Calvin E. Stowe taught at Lane and married Dr. Beecher’s daughter, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Alexander Campbell visited Cincinnati many times promoting the “restoration of the primitive church.” Dr. Daniel Drake established the Medical College of Ohio in 1820; Dr. Albert Pickett was a teacher and author of Pickett’s Readers (1833) and W. H. McGuffey, author of McGuffey’s Readers (1836). These were the intellectual leaders, the educators, the religious leaders of the West. Alexander Campbell’s Restoration Movement was changing Christianity throughout the West. George R. Hand knew these people; worked with these people. Their discussions and ideas became the “Western Literary Society and Professional Teachers College” which helped create the public school system which now exists in Ohio.
Edward D. Mansfield, editor of the Cincinnati Chronicle and a member of the Western Literary Society and College of Professional Teachers, described it in 1860:
“About the year 1833, was founded what was called the “COLLEGE OF TEACHERS,” which continued ten years, and was an institution of great utility and wide influence. Its object was both professional and popular; to unite and improve teachers, and, at the same time, to commend the cause of education to the public mind. The former object might have been obtained by the meeting of practical teachers only, but the latter required that gentlemen of science and general reputation, who had weight with the community, should also be connected with it. Accordingly, a large array of distinguished persons took part in its proceedings; and I doubt whether in one association, and in an equal space of time, there was ever concentrated in this country, a larger measure of talent, of information, and of zeal. Among those who either spoke or wrote for it, were ALBERT PICKETT, the President, and for half a century an able teacher, Dr. Drake, the Hon. THOMAS SMITH GRIMKE, the Rev. JOSHUA I. WILSON, ALEXANDER KINMONT, JAMES H. PERKINS, Professor STOWE, Dr. BEECHER, Dr. ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, Arch. Bishop PRUCELL, President MCGUFFEY, Dr AYUDELOTTE, Mrs. LYDIA SIGOURNERY, and Mrs. CAROLINE LEE HENTZE…”
The first documented source we have for George R. Hand in Cincinnati is found in the Transactions of the (8TH) Annual Meeting of the Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers for 1838, where at age 24, he is listed as Corresponding Secretary; in 1839, treasurer and in 1840 he was recording secretary. He was an active participant in many reports and discussions. The American Journal of Education lists his participation in the following annual meetings of the College of Teachers:
Hand, G. R. – Reports on Primary Instruction, 1839
Course of Instruction in common schools, 1840
10TH Annual Meeting - Cincinnati – Oct. 5 – 10, 1840
Report on “The definite objects for the action of the College” Prof. Stowe,
G. R. Hand et al
12th Annual Meeting – Louisville – Aug. 15- 20, 1842
Active participant in discussions on:
“The school laws and the proposed organization of a profession of
Educators”
“Bill concerning public Instruction”
“The various methods of education and Instruction”
The Catalogue for the Union Literary Society of Hanover College in Indiana lists
George Hand as a member in 1834, also as a teacher. Hanover College is a Presbyterian Liberal Arts College formed in 1827. In 1830 two student organizations, the Union Literary Society and the Philosphronian Literary Society were formed at Hanover College, each with their own libraries and reading rooms. The group held discussions and debates, papers were read and guest speakers brought in. In 1834 Hanover Preparatory School had 119 students and 101 students at Hanover College.
George is listed in the City Directories of Cincinnati as a teacher from 1839 to 1851 and from 1847 to 1852 he is listed as principal for the 11th District. In 1841 George R. Hand is listed on the Board of Directors of the Ohio Mechanics Institute which was a trade school that held annual industrial fairs until the civil war.
January 6, 1941, George married Miss Sarah Scudder who was also a school teacher in Cincinnati. Their eldest daughter, Mary Louisa was born Nov. 5, 1841, V. Ella was born about 1843 then came David about 1846, and finally George Pickett was born March 18, 1848.
At some point George became a member of the Christian Church. The followers of Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander were referred to as Campbellites. They sought to restore the primitive church which was independent and based on the Bible alone, discarding the rules and doctrines of the formal denominations. They believed in baptism by immersion. They called themselves Christians, Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ or just Disciples. In the late 1840’s, Alexander Campbell began writing in his journal, Millennium Harbinger, about the need to organize the Disciples in order to spread the message. This led David S. Burnet to organize the America Christian Bible Society.
On February 7, 1848, the following Act to Incorporate the American Christian Bible Society was ratified by the General Assembly of the House of Representative of the State of Ohio:
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That David S. Burnet, James Challen, George R. Hand, Thurston Crane, B. S. Lawson, D. L. Talboth, William P. Stratton, George Tait, G. Vandausol, James Hopple and S. S. Clark and their successors, be and they are hereby created a body corporate and politic, with succession for thirty years, who shall be known by the name and style of the American Christian Bible Society; and by that name and their successors shall be capable of contracting and being contracted with, of suing and being sued in all courts of law and equity and elsewhere, with full power and authority to have and use a common seal, to receive donations and legacies, and secure the same, and to acquire, hold and occupy, and the same to sell and convey, all such real estate, not to exceed in value twenty-five thousand dollars, as maybe necessary and convenient for the accommodation of the association and the furtherance of its objects; and shall also have full power and authority to pass such bylaws, and to make and enforce all such rules and regulations for the government of such association, as they may deem for the welfare of the same, not contrary to any law of this or of the United State: Provided, however, that this association shall not engage in the business of banking.
Sec. 2. That the trustees and other officers be personally liable for labor done for said corporation.
JOSEPH S. HAWKINS
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
CHARLES B. GODDARD,
Speaker of the Senate
One year later the, on October 24, 1849 a National Convention of Christian Churches met in Cincinnati, Ohio. The American Christian Missionary Society was formed “as a means to concentrate and dispense the wealth and benevolence of the brethren of the Reformation in an effort to convert the world.” Alexander Campbell was elected president. This organization was to replace the Bible Society.
George was active in the Ohio State Teachers Association, serving on the executive committee. In 1852 he was elected 1st Vice President and appointed to serve on the finance committee.
The January, 1853, issue of “ Ohio Education Monthly: A Journal of Education” reports that:
“Mr. Geo. R. Hand, for more than seventeen years a Teacher in Cincinnati, has resigned his place as Principal of the School in the eleventh District, for the purpose of taking charge of a Female Seminary in Georgetown, KY. We can most heartily commend him and his excellent lady to the people of Kentucky, and feel assured that they will find him worthy of entire confidence.”
Little is known about George & Sarah’s time in Georgetown. By the 1860 Census the family is found in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri, with children Mary Louisa age 18, V. Ella age 16, David age 13 and George age 11. Also living with them is Nate Scudder age 11, who is probably related to Sarah but no further information is found about him. George and Sarah are both listed as teachers, Louisa as a student, and Ella as a housekeeper. This is the last time we find George Hand’s occupation listed as teacher. From this time forward he is very active as an evangelist and preacher, holding protracted meetings and organizing churches in northwest Missouri and Nebraska until moving to California in 1872 where he continued this work.
In the book “R. C. Barrow: His Life and Times” Rev. Barrow relates a story about traveling with George Hand which illustrates the difficulties of moving about from church to church. Having been challenged to a debate in Plattsburg, Nebraska, by a self-proclaimed “Cambellite killer,” Leonard Parker. Rev. Barrow accepted the challenge. “Knowing that Bro. Hand would wish to be present and believing that his counsel might be beneficial, I crossed the Missouri river and rode to Sydney [Iowa], intending to return with him to attend the discussion. Bro. Hand closed his meeting and we started back together, but when we reached the river at Kenosha, it was full of floating ice, and the ferryboat, a flat boat propelled by oars, had stopped running. Bro. Hand made the dangerous passage in a skiff, and I rode down the east bank, hoping to be able to cross with my horse by the steam ferry at Nebraska City, twenty miles below. When I reached Nebraska City the steam ferry was not only laid up for the winter, but crossing in a skiff was pronounced impracticable. Through a terrible winter storm I traveled on down the river opposite Brownville, and there in sight of my Nebraska home where the dear ones awaited my coming, sick disappointed, and thoroughly wretched, I was compelled to pass three weary days.”
After successfully overcoming his Methodist challenger, George R. Hand went on to hold a protracted meeting in Plattsburg and received eighteen new members in the church” Rev. Barrow also relates: “in the fall of 1865 Bro. G. R. Hand, of Missouri, came to the territory and was engaged in protracted meetings for some months, and afterwards preached at Nebraska City half a year. The first week in December, Brethren Hand, Dungan, and Judd…began a meeting at Rock Bluff. I came to the meeting after it had been in progress several days, and as Bro. Hand had an urgent invitation to hold a meeting at Sidney, Iowa, and Bro. Dungan desired to visit …Salt Creek, some forty miles west, I was left in charge of the meeting.”
Rev. Hand was possibly based in Maryville, Missouri, during this period or moved to Nebraska. In 1860 he attended the Franklin-Rush debate in Chillicothe, Missouri. Northwestern Missouri was not a safe place to live during the Civil War, besides the Union and Confederate armies; we find the guerilla bands of “Bloody” Bill Anderson, Quantrell, Jesse James and the Youngers terrorizing the country side. During the winter of 1864-65 Elder Hand held a protracted meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. He held occasional meetings at Bethany Church in Clinton County, Missouri, until 1867. After this we find him in Ray County, Missouri.
Elder G. R. Hand was preacher at the Elkhorn Christian Church in Richmond, MO. In August, 1867, a “protracted meeting” was conducted by Elder Hand and others to raise money and appoint a building committee for Pleasant View Christian Union Chapel in Ray County. After its completion the church was “duly Dedicated by Elder G. R. Hand, to divine service.” In 1870 he was pastor of the Gallatin Christian Church in Daviess County, MO.
On June 23, 1867, George and Sarah’s daughter Mary Louisa married Joseph Thomas Vaughn in Richmond, Missouri, by the end of the year Joseph T. had died of tuberculosis. They had a son, Joseph George Vaughn, born Mar. 22, 1968 in Richmond, Mo. The 1870 Census shows Louisa and son Joseph age 3, living with Cornelius and Mary Vaughn her husband’s grandparents in Richmond. The following is from the November 11, 1871 issue of the Richmond Conservatory:
“Sunday last, Rev. Waller preached the funeral sermon of Mrs. M. Louise Vaughn, daughter of Elder G. R. Hand of this city, at the Christian Church, and after religious services her remains were consigned to Richmond Cemetery to await the final resurrection. Mrs. Vaughn had resided here for nearly five years, and was beloved by all who knew her, for her Christian deportment and many virtues. But consumption had marked her for its victim, and after a long and painful illness, she sank quietly to rest on the night of the 3rd inst.”
During 1872, George R. removed to California; it is unknown whether he and his son, George Pickett Hand, went to California at the same time. In 1874, the Christian Church in Downey, CA, “succeeded in calling George R. Hand as pastor. Hand, a veteran preacher of the Ohio Valley had been associated with the great pioneer stock of the Restoration Movement…Hand remained with the church for more than two years. He was regarded by his ministerial colleagues as scholarly and thoroughly committed to a definite fundamental theological position. Hand used Downey as the center of his evangelistic efforts, and only as he saw another struggling congregation would he consider leaving the Downey pulpit. Accordingly, he went to Ventura, California to aid work there.”
February 28, 1875, the first Disciples of Christ Church in Los Angeles was organized and preacher G. R. Hand, minister of Downey Christian Church officiated at the organizational meeting [presently the Wilshire Christian Church]. Also in 1875, Rev. Hand oversaw the organization of the Christian church at San Luis Rey (Oceanside).
“In October, 1876, Elder G. R. Hand came to Ventura and engaged to preach for one year. The church then reorganized with thirty members. Rev. Hand preached until May, when he left and went East.” He also held occasional services at Yuba Christian Church in northern California.
Thus, in 1877 George Hand returned to Missouri to write his first book, “D. B. Ray’s Textbook of Campbellism Exposed” which was published by Christian Pub. Company of St. Louis in 1880. Rev. Ray, a Baptist minister, wrote the “Text Book on Campbellism” in 1867 in order to “expose the errors” of Alexander Campbell’s movement to restore the primitive church and teach by the Holy Bible alone. Rev. Hand wrote in defense of the Campbellites. Many well attended debates were held on the issue of Campbellism during this time.
On October 27, 1878 spoke at the Christian Church at Pleasant Hill, Cass County, Missouri. This sermon, “The Name ‘Christian’,“ was included in Rev. Hand’s second book “Gospel delineator and survey: a volume of sermons, addresses and essays on revelation and science, and the science of Christianity” which was published by News Publishing, Sacramento, CA, in 1886.
Prof. Hand was contributing articles to “Wilford’s Microcosm” during the 1880’s. “The Microcosm: The Organ of the Substantial Philosophy” was a monthly journal “devoted to the discoveries, theories, and investigations of modern science, and their bearings upon the religious thought of the age” edited by A. Wilford Hall, Ph.D., LL. D. In Volume III, 1883, the list of Special Contributors has Prof. G. R. Hand from Richmond, Mo. during months August 1883 through Nov. 1883, then from Sacramento, Cal. during December 1883 and January 1884. March 1884 until June 1884 finds Prof. Hand in Red Bluff, Cal., and July 1884 finds him located in Sycamore, Cal.
According to historian, Ben F. Dixon, Rev. Hand returned to Northern California during 1885. October 31, 1886 he established the Covenant at Central Christian Church, San Diego, California. “Rev. R. G. Hand was the first minister…Mr. Hand remained only a few months.”
Reverend George R. Hand, teacher, preacher, and evangelist, died in Santa Ana, California during 1888.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Letter #6 from JG to Eveleen
This one maybe a little harder to read. It is done on plain notebook paper and in pencil.
Monday, June 15, 2009
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