The Tragic Life of George Muhlig

George John Muhlig was born in about 1873 and worked as a farmer in the areas around Walton and Liberty, New York.

He married Mary Jane Henderson; you may remember her from either this previous post on the Hendersons or the following post. Here's an early photo of Mary.

George and Mary had a son, Howard Ezra, born in 1906. According to an article in the October, 8, 1917 edition of the Kingston Daily Freeman, 11-year-old Howard was hit in the stomach with an apple thrown by another boy. The boy complained of a sore stomach and despite medical attention died a few days later.

In the following year, the Monticello, New York Republican Watchman published this article. It's a little hard to read, so I have transcribed it below.

Source: Old Fulton Postcards

MEN INJURED  WHEN BOOZE ESCAPED
When Car Was Overturned Near White Sulphur Springs
Accident Revealed the Fact That Supposedly Dry Territory is Very Wet

Two bottles of rum escaped injury Tuesday evening when the Ford automobile in which they were riding struck a fender near White Sulphur Springs and overturned but three men who were also riding in the automobile narrowly escaped death. George Muhlig, of Liberty, who was driving the car, had his shoulder injured; Frank Burgher, who lives on the Stevensville Road, was cut severely in the thigh, and Orlando Donaldson of Neversink, had his leg injured so that he was unable to stand on it.

The men said they were run into by another car, but eyewitnesses of the accident say that no other cars were in sight. Harry Knack, from his residence a quarter mile away, and his brother Gus heard the crash and ran to give aid. They found the Ford on its side and the men beneath it in a dazed condition.

Burgher was bleeding profusely in the leg where he had been cut and the other men were so quiet that bystanders feared they had been killed. The Ford and the fenders were almost a total wreck. The booze, which had been wrapped carefully in paper placed in a burlap bag, and stowed away in the rear, came out without a scratch. A large jug was also found in the bag and it was unhurt. But unlike the bottles, it was empty.  Those who saw the wreck say that not all the booze aboard was in the bottles.

The place where the meeting of the fender and the Ford occurred was about two-thirds of the way from Youngsville to White Sulphur.

After the accident, Gus Knack brought the men to Liberty  for medical treatment and Cliiff Edwards took the Ford to White Sulphur, where it got first aid. Dr Payne treated Burgher and had to take several stitches in his wound. –Liberty Register

 George is one of the men in this photo, though I can't be sure which one.

Here's why. I have two  copies of the same photo, but they are labeled differently.  Both have George listed, but the second man is identified as hired man, Blake Schoomacher on one card and as John Washington on the other.  I couldn't find a record of any Blake Schoomacher or Schumacher, but I did find John Washington and he was 14 years older than George. The postcard could have been printed anytime between 1904 and the 1920s, so George would have been between 31- 46 when the photo was taken. That doesn't narrow it down enough to be sure which one is George.

I'm guessing that George is the older man. I'm trying to compare the known photo of George with this one - and trying not to be too influenced by the mustache.

The next entry I find for George Muhlig is in 1924. It's the Delaware County coroner's report from the Delaware , NY Genealogy & History website. The coroner writes in his report:

On October 1, 1924 was called to the home of George Muhlig in Walton village where he had just been found hanging by the neck in the upper story of the barn. I found it to be a case of suicide. 

Mary had now lost both her son and her husband to tragic deaths.
They are all buried together at the Liberty Cemetery in Liberty, New York.
 

Source

This is a photo of Mary in 1925, the year after her husband's death, standing in a field with an empty chair.

The  writing on the back of the postcard/photo says:
Mrs. Mary J. Muhlig
taken 1925 at Mrs. Cutters at White Sulphur Springs, Sull. Co. New York.

Addendum - February 13, 2014
Every now and then we find another photo that turns out to be a missing piece of one puzzle or another. I immediately recognized it when I read the inscription on the back of this card. Here's a photo of Howard Ezra who died at 11 after being hit in the stomach by an apple thrown by another boy. How old do you think he is here? Nine, maybe? Poor fellow.

It looks like Mom did the writing:  

Dear Grandpa + Grandma. Will send you a picture of myself I got at school This is taken on the door (?) yard in front of the house
all well
Howard E. Muhlig
when are you coming down to see us

Grace Shapley in Upstate New York

These are all scanned from the collection of Grace Shaply of Binghamton, New York. You may recall the previous two posts that showed some of Grace's other photos of cars and airplanes, and Oquaga lake.

Grace was born to Sara Mary (Thorne) Shapley and William S. Shapley in 1902. She seems to have graduated from Binghamton High School in 1923, which would have made her a little older than her classmates. I am guessing that her mother's death in 1919 had something to do with the delay in her schooling. And it appears that her father died the very year of her high school graduation, leaving Grace, who was an only child, very much on her own.
Here's Grace changing a tire.

I think this is Grace posing with her father.

In the next photo, it looks as if young Grace is wearing the big hat and her father is standing to the right. Is that her mother standing next to her?

And here's a male cheerleader at a Binghamton High School football game.

After Binghamton High School, Grace enrolled in Russel Sage College, a women's school, in Troy, New York. I think this picture shows some of her college pals.

Grace with unknown child.

 

Here are some additional pictures from her folder of negatives and photos.

Grace never married or had children. She is buried with her parents in Spring Forest Cemetery in Binghamton, New York.

Source

Lake Oquaga, New York

When you walk into Scott's Oquaga Lake House in the Catskills of upstate New York, you might just as well have stepped out of a time machine in the 1940s or 50s. In fact, I'm guessing it wasn't all that different in the teens/early1920s when Grace Shapley was there.

I have a folder of negatives and prints that belonged to Grace, showing Binghamton and surrounding areas, including Oquaga Lake, Russel Sage College, as well as Syracuse University and Scranton, Pennsylvania. Grace was born in Binghamton in1903. In the 1920 Census her father is listed as proprietor of an iron foundry, presumably Shapley and Wells, which manufactured steam engines.

The young woman on the right is standing a little too close to the edge for my comfort. I don't know who any of the people are, but I really like the clothing, including these boys' shoes.

 

I think I have a clear sense of what it must have been like to spend time at the relaxed family resort, because it just doesn't seem to have changed that much. The resort has been there since 1869. We stopped by for lunch on October 7, 2007.

Here's a copy of the menu.

This is a sign on the outside of one of the buildings; it looks like it's been there for awhile too.

You can take dancing lessons in Scott's Playhouse or canoeing lessons out on the lake. There's also shuffleboard and a golf course where Grace took a few pictures.

Here's a photo of the Scott's bus and a couple of guys who may have been slightly damaged on their voyage in the time machine.

More Photo Sleuthing

Remember the Hendersons from yesterday's post? Well, I unearthed some more photos from the family and discovered that I had also posted something on one of them in 2010...and forgotten all about it. And that photo was from a different box of photographs. It just goes to show you how things can get mixed up. It was another one of those Aha! moments.

The first carte de visite photo is labeled James and Hanna Henderson. The 1850 Census shows them both born in about 1806. They had 10 children. One of those, Ezra, was the father of all Hendersons from yesterday's post. This photograph was probably taken around between 1865 and 1870.

James and Hanna Henderson

Then there's this carte de visite, which is hard to stop looking at! It must be linked to the Anna Henderson Nesbitt in some way, but I couldn't tell you how. Isn't it the oddest thing? Is he a giant? Is she a midget? The writing on the back says this is Eliza Nesbitt and father, and the imprint on the back shows that it was taken at A. Hickox Gallery of Art in Binghamton, New York.

Eliza Nesbitt and father

This post is really about Anna Eliza Henderson (1868-1950) who married William S. Nesbitt Jr. (1852-1931). This is the lovely photo from yesterday of Anna with William and their son George Earl Nesbitt, who went by the name Earl (born 1895).

William, Anna, and Earl Nesbitt

And here's another photo of Earl, relaxing in an ornate wicker chair. The photo was taken by S.S. Cornell of Stamford, New York.

Earl Nesbitt

But Anna and William had another child, Lillian, who was born in 1890 and is not shown in the family photograph, because she died at the age of six when Earl was only one year old. The writing on the back of the card says Lillian Nesbitt, Earl's sister.

Lillian Nesbitt

10/31/12 Update. I just found another photo labeled Anna Nesbitt and daughter Lillian., so I'm adding it. 

Finally, here's the photo I posted in 2010 that I had forgotten about. It shows Anna and William Nesbitt at the Los Angeles Ostrich farm in California. The back of the card is labeled Anna Nesbitt Boggs. Why Boggs? Because she remarried.  But we can see that this is clearly her first husband, William Nesbitt in the photograph.

Anna Nesbitt Boggs

The second husband, William Sidney Boggs (1868-1957), was still listed as widowed in the 1940 Census, and Anna Henderson Nesbitt died in 1950, so it must have been a brief marriage when they were both in their 70s. As the previous post of Anna Nesbitt Boggs at the Ostrich Farm will tell you (the one I forgot about!), Anna is buried next to her first husband in the Valley Views Cemetery in Stamford, New York.

Photo Sleuthing

So, I get this big box of unsorted photographs that belonged to my father-in-law. Who knows where he got them. Photographs from different sources ended up in the same box--cabinet cards, tin types, cartes de visite, slides, glass negatives. But the minute you start separating them you are potentially discarding the clues that could tell you who these people are. It turns out that many of them are actually connected.

Here's an example. I find a number of photographs with the last name Henderson on them.  The Census provides me with basic clues, but some of the siblings have already left home and married by 1900. I can't find anything in the 1880 Census, but there are some useful newspaper articles. At the turn of the century and even into the 1940s, local newspapers would often let you know that Mr. and Mrs. So and So were hosting her sister Mrs. Everett Squires and the name of the town she was from. This it what brings it all together.

The writing on the back of this photograph, taken in Stamford, New York, tells us that this is Mary Henderson when she was 18 years old. The 1910 Census shows that she was born in 1881 and lived in Neversink, Sullivan County, New York with her husband, George Muhlig (more on them in a future post.)

Mary Jane Henderson

Then there's a photo labeled Hannah Thompson. I would have missed the connection, despite the resemblance, if I hadn't found a newspaper article that identified them as sisters. She was born Hanna Henderson in 1877 and the 1910 Census shows her living in Middletown, New York with her Husband, Andrew Thompson. Just in case I had any doubts about her last name, the Census shows that her aunt, Nancy Henderson, lived with them.

Hannah Thompson

10/31/13: I just found a photo of the aunt, Nancy Henderson, so I'm adding that. I'm sure she was a lot friendlier than she appears.

There's a photo labeled Will Nesbitt and family, with a woman looking very similar to these two. Sure enough, she turns out to be Anna Eliza Henderson, born in 1868. The 1910 Census shows her living with her husband, William Nesbitt and their 5-year-old son, George Earl.

Will Nesbitt and family

There's another photo with the name Elizabeth Squires written on the back. I would have missed the connection here if it hadn't been for the newspaper article that referred to one of the sisters as Mrs. Everett Squires. Elizabeth Henderson was born in 1885 and is show in the 1900 Census living in Middletown, New York with her parents and brothers James and John.

Elizabeth Squires

This photo is labeled John Henderson, Grandma's brother.  John was born in 1887.

John Henderson

And then there are the photo postcards with Jay Johnson written on the back of them. This must be James, born in 1883.

There are probably other photographs in this box that are related to these in ways I will never know. But at least I know to keep these together. More on the Nesbitts and the Muhligs coming soon.

Just Peachy

I finally got around to scanning an envelope of slides that was just labeled Kodachrome slides.  I had no idea who they were, so I thought I'd post them as Anonymous Family slides.   

Anonymous Family slides have played an important role in slide shows around here. The architect who steals my covers loves to take pictures when he travels and he used to invite friends to see slide shows from these trips. The problem is that he tends to only take pictures of buildings; human subjects are few and far between. To keep the audience from falling asleep, he would insert slides of the Anonymous Family in between every dozen or so building images. We still don't know who that Anonymous Family was, but they went on lots of trips to national parks and wore a lot of plaid--and they were popular with the slide viewing audiences. The image below reminded me very much of those slides.

Elizabeth with Mom and brother

It didn't take me long to realize that this was not an anonymous family though. These slides are from Elizabeth Brady Cabot Winslow's family. (See previous post on Elizabeth and on her father Hugh.) I thought I recognized her, but the photo with her brother and father is very recognizable. These are all from the mid/late 1940s.

Elizabeth with Dad and brother

Elizabeth with Mom and brother in front of peach tree

Maybe someone they knew was in the car ahead? Otherwise I can't imagine the reason for this photo.

Included in these slides are a good number of images with a finger across the top. Makes you grateful for digital cameras, doesn't it? At least you don't have to pay to have them developed.