INTERLUDE THREE: OUR FOUR GENERATIONS

The blue bars are the Mackey branch of our tree. The mauve bars are the Phillips branch. We now have stories of all of these folks and will begin the fifth generation of great great grandparents next week.

EMMA MORRISON

Great grandmother, Sarah Emeline Morrison, preferred to be called Emma. She was born in 1855, on a farm, in Jackson Township, Crawford County, Ohio. She was the tenth and youngest child of her family of six brothers and three sisters. Her mother's parents lived on a farm nearby, too. 

She was only 17 when she married David Spitzer, and needed her father's signature and consent for the marriage to happen. Emma and David had eight children. Their first child was a worry to them because she had epilepsy and needed to be sent to an institution in Galiopolis, Ohio where people afflicted with this disease could be cared for and safely housed.

Emma was widowed  in 1896, when she was only 41 years old. She and her youngest children were living in Galion when David died. Some of her children were married and living in Akron, Ohio so Emma decided to join them there sometime around 1900. She found an office job on High Street in down town Akron and her young children found employment also.

The happiest part of Emma's story, for me, is that she visited her daughter, Alma Spitzer Mackey's family in New York City, when my dad was six years old, the year of 1914.  Dad had fond memories of her presence there and was pleased to share that story with me when I started to learn about our family history.

On the 19th of April, 1918, Emma died of lobar pneumonia, which may have started with her catching  the Spanish influenza (an epidemic that killed many Americans from 1917-1918). She is buried next to David at the Fairlawn Cemetery in Galion, Ohio.

Sarah Emeline Morrison
Born: 9 Jun 1855 Jackson Twp., Crawford, OH
Married: 5 Sep 1872 North Robinson, Crawford, OH
Died: 19 Apr 1918 Akron, Summit, OH
Buried: 23 Apr 1918 Fairview Cemetery, Galion, Crawford, OH

Sources: Census: 1860; 1870; 1880; 1900; 1910. Marriage certificate; "Ohio County Marriages, 1789-3013" of Alma Spitzer and Guy Mackey mentioning Emma Morrison, mother of Alma. FHL microfilm #388,686. Death certificate; Akron and Galion city directories-many years.

Sergeant David C. Spitzer, Confederate Soldier

David Spitzer was born in Rockingham County, Virginia in January 1845 in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley (see photo) among a group of people who had emigrated from the Rhine River Valley of Germany. There were several people with the surname of Spitzer living in a small town called Linville Creek in this valley, but I have not been able to link David to parents yet. Perhaps some day, when a descendant or other relative takes over my role as family historian, this gap in our family tree can be filled. I hope so. One of the major blocks in finding information in Virginia is that there were many Civil War battles in this state, causing the destruction of  numerous records of the early Virginia years. Shenandoah Valley was devastated during this war. Homes and barns were burned, crops were trampled on, orchards were destroyed, and animals were either eaten or driven away. So there wasn't any town left for David to return to after serving in Captain B.F. Price's Light Artillery 1861-1865.

I suspect that David may have had German relatives or friends in Crawford County, Ohio where he migrated to.  This is where David met his future wife, Sarah Morrison. Sarah had two brothers who were partners in a clothing store near where David had established a restaurant in the town of North Robinson.  That may be how Sarah and David became acquainted. They married in 1872.

 It's a special treat when a family historian finds words written by an ancestor. Below is an exerpt from David's  application for a patent in 1883:
"Be it known that I, DAVID C. SPITZER, a citizen of the United States, residing at North Robinson, in the county of Crawford and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Butter-Molds, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in butter-molds, and has for its object the construction and arrangement of a butter-mold in two sections that will admit the butter between said sections, properly mold and imprint the butter or other substance, and at the same time release the same without defacing or injuring it after the molding is completed."

(David must have thought it was important for his restaurant customers to have decorative butter.)

David and Sarah and their family of eight children moved to Galion, in Crawford County, about 1885.  I assume that the restaurant business wasn't as satisfactory as David would have liked, so  he was working as a carpenter at this time of his life. David died at age 50 of cancer and is buried at the Fairlawn Cemetery in Galion.

David C. Spitzer
Born: 03 Oct 1845 ,Rockingham, VA
Married: 05 Sep 1845 North Robinson, Crawford, OH
Died: 29 Jan 1896 Galion, Crawford, OH
Sources:www,fold3.com;U.S. Nat'l Archives military records; birth probate court record of daughter Spitzer, naming parents; 1880 census; Galion city directories, Crawford County marriage records and death records; Ohio County Marriage Records 1789-2013; Patent Application of 1883.