Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Response to Reader Question: Am I Living in Allie's Relative's House?!

"WE ARE THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY OF YPSILANTI." That is a motto printed out from a computer and hung up in the Ypsilanti Archives near the door to the reading room. But imagine Dusty D's amazement when she saw this motto come to life thanks to the collective comments left by incredibly helpful readers. When one kind reader, in the Allie's gravestone post, remarked,

The 1910 Washtenaw County Telephone Book has listings for Elmer and W.L. McCullough - http://books.google.com/books?id=S4bNAAAAMAAJ
Elmer: 369-J, Foundry, 4. E Congress;W.L.: 370-J, Residence, 217 Woodard; W.L. Co.: 369-J, Machinists, 4. E Congress

another reader responded,

217 Woodard is my house! My deed says it was built in 1916. Is WL a relative of Allie? This information and this question so intrigued DD that I immediately scurried off to the archives to find the answer.

Guess what I found. I found the obituary index card for Allie's father, in the obituary card files.

Here is the front of the obituary card. You can see it lists William, his wife Catharine, and seven (!) children--including Wm. L., born in 1854! He was Allie's older brother! Allie wrote her diary in 1874, when she was 16--so William was around 20 at the time of her diary.

Here is the back of the obituary card. You can see that there is no birth date or death date recorded for Alexander, another younger brother of Allie's. I wonder why; was he stillborn? You can see that his mother Catherine would have been 41 at the time of Alexander's birth--a high-risk age even today.

From the obituary card, we can construct this family tree (click for larger image):

You can see that Allie was the 4th-born child and that she had twin older sisters, Mary and Marion. You can also see that Allie was the exact middle child, in the heart of the family as it were, and that all her younger sibs were male. You can also see that Catharine had 7 children over a span of nearly 20 years!

Her little brother's name, "Benjamin" is spelled "Benjamin" on the obit card but "Benjiman" on his gravestone--odd, that.

So, to answer the kind reader's question, YES!--you are living in Allie's older brother's house! Thanks to Mr. V. for the invaluable info-tip and to K.P. for the wonderful question!
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7 comments:

  1. Dusty DMay 26, 2009 at 7:27 PM

    Dusty Diary always gets a bit frightened when making statements such as "you are living in Allie's big brother's house" since you never know if there was another William McCullough elsewhere in the family tree--and there were indeed other McCulloughs in town.

    However,

    1. The inclusion of the middle initial, L., in Mr. V.'s information from the telephone book, corresponds with the info on the obit card and narrows it down and

    2. I did check all the other McCullough obit cards in the obit card file and did not see another William listed other than Allie's father.

    So it seems *extremely likely* that K.P. is indeed living in Allie's older brother's house (it's never 100% certain of course).

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  2. Kristin Perkins Glass JewelryMay 26, 2009 at 7:56 PM

    That is so exciting. When I first found your blog (only about two weeks ago!) I was drawn to it to see if I could find out something about my house or my rental house. I used to also own HP Glover's house on Huron St. and I have always had a deep interest in Ypsilanti history. On Friday I started reading your posts from Allie's diary hoping there would be something familiar and I was really touched reading the words of girl who lived so long ago in Ypsilanti. Amazing that I am (or my house is) possibly this close to the story!

    I would love to be able to trace the history of this house. Who built it? As I mentioned, my deed says it was built in 1916, but the deeds of my other two houses in Ypsilanti were inaccurate according to historical accounts. I know that is a bit off subject of your history of Allie, but maybe it would help solve whether or it it was her brother who lived here.

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  3. Dusty DMay 26, 2009 at 8:19 PM

    Dear K.P.:

    What a great question. I would be delighted to take a look in the archives tomorrow (I will be there) and share what I find. There are "Locations" files that are arranged according to street, and a wonderful collection of old Polk directories showing who owned what property through history. Why don't I check it out and post what I find tomorrow; would that be OK?

    I just love reader questions because I learn so much that I might never have otherwise found, so thank you!

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  4. Kristin Perkins Glass JewelryMay 26, 2009 at 9:11 PM

    That would be great! Thank you!

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  5. Dusty DMay 26, 2009 at 9:19 PM

    My pleasure!

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  6. AnonymousMay 27, 2009 at 12:25 AM

    Have you seen Back to the Future? This is amazing! Or, really the best way to sum it all up:
    "Great Scot!"

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  7. Dusty DMay 27, 2009 at 1:02 AM

    I too was fairly amazed--but then I found the answer to another reader question and it started to get downright eerie (new post coming soon re: Materials Unlimited site).

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