NE/SD Family History Road Trip (part 4)

Day 6, Thursday, Oct. 24

Thursday we headed east for Geddes, SD passing through Yankton and Bon Homme County on our way there. Our first stop was the cemetery. It did not take us long to find the graves of another set of great-grandparents, William and Mary (Herren) Ogden. We also found the graves of Mary’s parents, my great-great-grandparents John and Julia (Adelbush) Herren.

After the cemetery, we headed out to find the farms of my ancestors in Charles Mix County. I had located the descriptions of the farms and maps of their locations at the General Land Office website of the Bureau of Land Management. I was able to use Google Maps to find them and figure out how to get there. The first one was a doozy. It was the farm of John Frederick Herren, who owned the northwest quarter of section 29 and the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 30 in Jackson Township. I had expected we’d be on some unpaved back roads, but the “Minimal Maintenance” sign we passed made me question the wisdom of our quest. It was worth the effort though--his land was high on a bluff from which you can see the Missouri River to the south. Very picturesque. He farmed there from about 1895 to 1910. It was his second farm in SD, the first being somewhere in Union County.

John Herren's farm in Jackson Twp., Charles Mix Co., SD

The next two farms were easier to find. James Robert Ogden’s was northeast of Geddes in Moore Township, as was his son’s William Ogden’s. JR farmed there from about 1882 to 1895, when he headed farther west to Rapid City, where he and his wife are buried. William was on his farm from sometime in the late 1890s to between 1906 and 1910.

James Robert Ogden's farm in Moore Twp., Charles Mix Co., SD

William F. Ogden's farm in Moore Twp., Charles Mix Co., SD

After visiting all of the sites in Charles Mix County, it was on to Mitchell, SD for the night. We of course had to visit the Corn Palace. There is not much else to see or do in Mitchell. 

Heading back to our hotel room after a dip in the indoor swimming pool, we met a group of pheasant hunters who like us were from the Chicago suburbs, Frankfort, Bourbonnais and a third one that I cannot recall. 

(to be continued)

Tombstone Tuesday: William and Mary Ogden

This is a picture of the grave marker for my great-grandparents William Fredrick and Mary Elizabeth (Herren) Ogden. They are buried in Pleasant Lawn Cemetery in Geddes, SD. William died thirteen years after Mary. He was living in Platteville, WI at the time. He had two funerals, one in Platteville and one in Geddes. I don't have any birth or death information on his second wife, Mary Charbonneau. My genealogy to do list just keeps getting longer and longer. I barely have time to organize the information I already have without running off after new sources.

Surname Saturday - 13: Herren

1. Kevin Joseph HUIGENS

2. Joseph Anthony HUIGENS
3. Shirley Ann OGDEN

6. Emery Julius OGDEN (b. 9 Sept 1896 in Elk Point, Union Co., SD, USA, m. 19 Mar 1929 in Gordon, Sheridan Co., NE, USA, d. 8 Apr 1984 in Martin, Bennett Co., SD, USA)
7. Esther Louise JOHNSON (b. 23 Feb 1902 in Milan, Rock Island Co., IL, USA, d. 24 Mar 1984 in Rapid City, Pennington Co., SD, USA)

12. William Fredrick OGDEN (b. 10 Oct 1871 in Simcoe, Norfolk Co., Ontario, Canada, m. 25 Jan. 1895 in Elk Point, Union Co., SD, USA, d. 19 May 1951 in Platteville, Grant Co., WI, USA)
13. Mary Elizabeth HERREN (b. 22 Dec 1873 in Batavia, Scott Twp., Sheboygan Co., WI, USA, d. 14 Nov 1938 in Mission, Todd Co., SD, USA)

26. John Fredrick HERREN (b. Nov 1847 in WI, m. 1868 in WI, d. 8 May 1920 in Charles Mix Co., SD)
27. Julia Ann ADELBUSH (b. Jun 1850 in WI, d. 24 Aug 1912 in Charles Mix Co., SD)


52. Johann HERREN (b. 1804 in Hannover, m. before 1830 in ?, d. after 1880? in ?)
53. Anna BRUNS (b. 1807 in Oldenburg, d. after 1881 in ?)

These are my Wisconsin ancestors.  Johann was born in the Electorate of Hannover (AKA Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg) which was part of the Holy Roman Empire.  Except that one year before he was born, Napoleon Bonaparte's armies had occupied it.  So technically he was born under French rule.  Anna was born in the independent Duchy of Oldenburg.  Both places are now parts of Germany.  No idea yet when or where they married.  It was probably somewhere in Germany before their oldest known son was born there.  They came to America some time between 1841 (when their daughter Hannah was born in Germany) and 1847 when John Fredrick was born in WI.  The family first settled near West Bend, Washington Co., WI, then later moved to Sheboygan Co., WI.

Some time between 1880 and 1884, John Fredrick moved his family to Charles Mix Co., SD, where Mary Elizabeth met and married William Frederick OGDEN.

SD Census Cards, Part 1: 1905

The images below are from this Family Search database. According to the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center website “the actual 1905 census cards are stored in the State Archives at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. General information found on the census includes name, county, city, address, (township, section, and range if applicable), age, occupation and place of birth. The census enumerators also marked if the individual was male or female, white, black, red or yellow, married, single, widowed or divorced, whether they could or could not read or write, and if they were blind, deaf, idiotic or insane.” A few other helpful fields are: Years in South Dakota, Years in the United States, Birthplace of Mother and Birthplace of Father.

I have 7 ancestors that appear in this census, in addition to many other relatives. James Robert and Hannah (GIBBON) OGDEN are two of my great-great-grandparents, as are John F. and Julia Ann (ADELBUSCH) HERREN. Their children, William F. and Mary (HERREN) OGDEN, are my great-grandparents, the parents of my maternal grandfather Emery OGDEN.

The James Robert Ogden Family

Hannah and J.R. Ogden

Name: J. R. Ogden
Ward: 3, City: Geddes [Charles Mix Co.]
Age: 69, Occupation: Labor
Place of Birth: England
Years in SD: 24, Years in US: 30
Birthplace of Father: England
Birthplace of Mother: England

The calculated date of birth from this information is 1838, which is a little off from the 1836 date in our family tree. That’s not nearly as bad, though, as the place of birth. Everything we have shows his place of birth as New Brunswick. I suppose if you squint your eyes really tight you can pretend the British colony of Canada in 1838 is England. The same goes for the birthplaces of his parents. In the 1880 US Census, he gave all three birthplaces as New Brunswick. Not sure what is going on here. The time in the US outside of SD, he spent near Deerfield, MI. I’ll have more on that some other time.

Name: Hannah Ogden
Ward: 3, City: Geddes
Age: 68, Occupation: House wife
Place of Birth: Canada
Years in SD: 24, Years in US: 30
Birthplace of Father: Scotland
Birthplace of Mother: Scotland

At least Hannah knew where she and her parents were born and her age matches the birth year that we have for her.

The John F. Herren Family
Name: John F. Herren
County: Charles Mix, PO: Geddes, Township: Jackson
Section: 29, Township: 97, Range: 67
Age: 57, Occupation: Farmer
Place of Birth: Wis
Years in SD: 22, Years in US: 57
Birthplace of Father: ---
Birthplace of Mother: ---

The printing on this image is very faded, so I played around it with to get it to be more legible. The interesting information on this card is the location of the farm. It’s southwest of Geddes, SD and the location where he filed a homestead claim on 1-June-1903. He was in SD from around 1883 according to this census information. Not sure why it took him twenty years to establish a homestead. I’ll have to see if I can find him in the 1885 territory census and the 1895 state census. I sure hope Charles Mix County is in the archives of what still exists for those censuses. Curiously John Herren does not appear in the 1906 Atlas for the county. I’ll have more on the Herren migration in a future post.

Name: Julia Ann Herren
County: Charles Mix, PO: Geddes, Township: Jackson
Section: 29, Township: 97, Range: 67
Age: 55, Occupation: Housekeeper
Place of Birth: Wis
Years in SD: 22, Years in US: 55
Birthplace of Father: Germany
Birthplace of Mother: US NY

The printing on this card’s image is very, very faded. Anyway, all of the information jives with what we already knew about Julia Ann. Nothing to see here; let’s move on.

William F Ogden family
William F. and Mary Ogden

Name: W F Ogden
County: Charles Mix, PO: Geddes, Township: Moore
Section: 11, Township: 98, Range: 66
Age: 32, Occupation: farmer
Place of Birth: Canada
Years in SD: 20, Years in US: 29
Birthplace of Father: not know
Birthplace of Mother: not know

Well, it’s no wonder that William did not know where his father, JR Ogden was born—as we saw above, even his father did not state it correctly. I’m thinking they were not much into genealogy. He also seems to have a different memory from his mother and father as to when they came to the US and SD. It’s going to take a lot more research to figure out where they were when. William's farm was northwest of Geddes, SD. He filed a homestead claim on that section in 1906. He had filed claims on two other sections in that township in 1903. I still have a lot of research into land records ahead of me.

Name: Mary Ogden
County: Charles Mix, PO: Geddes, Township: Moore
Section: 11, Township: 98, Range: 66
Age: 30, Occupation: farmers wife
Place of Birth: Wis.
Years in SD: 22, Years in US: 30
Birthplace of Father: Wis
Birthplace of Mother: Wis

Not much new information here. Her date for coming to SD from Wisconsin matches her parents from above, so that helps in determining when they moved from Wisconsin to SD.

Name: Emery Ogden
County: Charles Mix, PO: Geddes, Township: Moore
Section: 11, Township: 98, Range: 66
Age: 8, Occupation: farmers wife
Place of Birth: Wis.
Years in SD: 8, Years in US: 8
Birthplace of Father: Canada
Birthplace of Mother: Wis.

No new or contradictory information here. Since my grandfather turned 9 on 9-Sep-1905, the census information was gathered before that date in 1905.

In future posts, I’ll cover records for my ancestors from other South Dakota censuses.