Below is information on John F. Beal and for the
Titus Family of
Union Mills.
I am including my sources in the
following. If I write that an
event occured in a particular place, then
there is a document on file in that
county or city to prove that date and
event. What I have tried to do is to
tie the Beals to the Titus family
that is buried in the Union Mills Cemetery
and where possible to other
families in LaPorte County as I assume that is
part of your goal.
John Franklin Beal
buried in Union Chapel Cemetery, New Durham Township
In the material that I have that I found on the cemetery reading in the
library at the LaPorte County Historical Society there is a handwritten note
that says Civil - after his entry. I assume that that means Civil War. I
have
never found any service record for him, but I am researching
this.
According to family records (handwritten notes by my grandmother
Ethel Titus
Reuter) he was born in Mt. Sterling IN. Dates are correct as
on the
gravestone. He married Maria(h) Griswold on 20 Jan. 1850 in
Crawford Cty
Indiana. The marriage lic from Crawford Cty states that she
is the daughter
of John Griswold. The death certificate for Maria’s
sister,(Sarah) Jane
Swanson, on file in Cook County, gives their mother as
Julia Ackley.
Maria(h) is buried in an unmarked grave in Oak Ridge
Cemetery, Hillside
(Cook) IL. Sie died 19 Feb. 1925 in Chicago.
Another sister, Elizabeth Griswold married into the Gillham family that lived
in Union Mills.
Maria Griswold and John Franklin Beal had 3
children.
Theodore who died as an infant
(Sarah) Ellen b. 1851/54 d. 5
Oct. 1922 who married her cousin Frank
Griswold 26 Oct. 1882 (LaPorte
County IN index of marriages for 1850-1920)
Records of this Frank should
be found , as he died and is buried in LaPorte Co.
His son Irving is also
buried in LaPorte County. Irving and his wife Clara
had a small farm off
of old Rt 1. At one time the family moved to Maywood
Illinois and then
came back to LaPorte Co.. Irving and Clara had four or five
sons, one of
whom was in the Bataan Death March and later died in a Japanese
prison
camp in the Phillipines during WWII. I know that at least one of the
sons
had 2 boys who were nameed Bill and Jim because I used to play with them
when we would visit during the late 1940s and early 1950s and they were
living with their grandparents because of family problems " not discussed
before children". I believe both of these boys later went into the Air Force.
There are lots of people researching the Griswold family but we have never
traced anyone descended from Irving and Clara.
Amanda b. 3 Feb.
1856 d. 12 Feb. 1922 Chicago IL. (death certificate Cook
County IL) Buried
in unmarked grave in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Hillside IL in
the Colby family
plot. She married Charles William Titus of Union
Mills/Wellsboro IN on 1
Oct. 1874 (LaPorte County IN index of marriages for
1850-1920) More on
this under the Titus Family.
Titus Family buried in Union Mills
Cemetery
Titus, Martha Warner wife of James.
According to Pension
Records on file in the National Archives Martha was
called Polly by the
family. She was the daughter of Noah Warner and his wife
Mary Power(s).
Noah and Mary were married in West Springfield Mass. Noah is a
proven DAR
patriot and is buried in Ashtabula Co Ohio. Martha should be
honored as a
"real" daughter.
Martha was probably born in New York State -
possibly in Chanango County. She
married James Titus Jr but there is no
marriage record so far found for them.
However, they were probably married
in Chanango County NY. They had 12
children of whom 8 lived to adulthood.
In 1820 James, Martha and her family
moved to Ashtabula Co Ohio where they
lived until around 1836 when James and
Martha moved on to LaPorte County.
Land records in LaPorte County show how
they moved and where. James Titus
Jr. died 6 Nov. 1866 in Mound City, Holt
Co. Mo where he is buried on a
side hill. The cemetery where he is buried has
been abandoned and most of
the headstones are gone. A search in 1981 turned
up no gravestone and
there are no records for this cemetery. However, in a
letter to Ethel
Titus Reuter from Nellie Titus Hay in 1925, Nellie told of
visiting this
gravesite as a child on a trip there with her parents. In this
same letter
she promised to go over to the house in Wellsboro and copy out
the records
from the family Bible stored in a closet there. This Bible has
since
disappeared but the list sent by Nellie Titus Hay to Ethel Reuter still
exists. (James Titus Jr. is the son of James Titus Sr and Lovisa Huntley...
scource: estate proceedings for James Titus on file in Chanango Co NY.)
Children of Martha Warner Titus and James Titus
Sr.
Gilbert b. 5 Oct. 1812 d. July 1887 m. Nancy Carrier (Currier)
Emoline b. 25 June 1814 d. 24 Apr. 1904 in Holt County Mo. m. Job Reynolds
Horace W. b.27 Jan 1819 d. 20 Jan 1909 Pueblo Co. m (1) Mary Ann Swett
and
(2) Maria DeClute both marriage in LaPorte Co IN.
Mary L. b. 19 March 1821
d. 30 May 1862 m. Nelson Bennett (and I believe
they are buried in Union
Mills Cemetery.
Phebe b. 18 July 1823 d. 30 Nov. 1914 in Martinez, CA. m. 9
Nove. 1840
George Henry Disher in LaPorte Co. (see marriage records of
LaPorte
Co 1832-1850)
Norman Warner b. 21 July 1825 d. 7 June 1907 in
Payette Cty Idaho.
m. Martha Bell
Eliza Jane b. 16 Aug. 1828 d. 29 July
1838
Nancy M b. 17 July 1830 d. 22 Aug 1838
William B. b. 11 June 1832
d. 13 Dec. 1838
Nelson James b. 29 Nov. 1835 d. 10 Sept. 1898 in
LaPorte Co. m. (1) Laurilla
Dunham (2) Charlotte Brown. in LaPorte Co
IN.
Fannie Marie b. 20 May. 1837 d. 10 Sept. 1839
Esther Ann b. 18
Apr. 1840 d. 4 Nov, 1872 possible in Mound City Holt
Mo. m. (1) David
Worden (2) James Ash (3) --- Morrison.
Titus, Nelson J.
Nelson is - as you can see from the list above, son of Martha Warner Titus
and James Titus Jr. He was born in Ashtabula Co Ohio and moved to LaPorte
County at about one year of age. After his marriage to Laurilla Dunham in
1856, they moved in about 1858 to Holt County Mo. Nelson Titus was a
carpenter and opened a shop in Forest City. By summer of 1862 Nelson and
Laurilla wre back in Union Mills. Nelson enlisted in Co. H 87th Indiana
Volunteers and served thru the entire war. (Also serving in the 87th Indiana
were his brother Horace, Horace’s son-in-law Bernard Wise,
Nelson’s
brother-in-law Ambrose Dunham, and his brother-in-law James
Ash.)
As you can see from the gravestones, Nelson’s first wife
Laurilla Dunham
Titus died in 1864. Shortly after returning from the War,
Nelson married
Charolotte Brown. He built a house in Wellsboro and
according to his obits
that is where his funeral was held. He was member
of the G.A.R. and of the
Masonic Order and of the M.E. Church. He also
either owned or had something
to do with the hotel in Wellsboro. In c.
1886 or88 he took over the
superintendency of the cemetery in Union Mills
and according to one of his
obituaries " when he took charge of the work
ten or twelve years ago it
presented the appearance of a jungle. Its
presnt beautiful appearance is a
monument to this untiring energies and
time freely given for which the public
is truly grateful." He died of a
heart attack as did his father and his son
Charles and his granddaugher
Ethel.
Titus, Lorilla (correct spelling - also spelled Laurilla)
Dunham.
She is the daugher of Ira Dunham and is related to all of the other
Dunhams
around in Union Mills and LaPorte Co. Her mother was probably
Betsy Holland.
Ira moved to Holt Co Missouri either with Lorilla and
Nelson or when his son
Ambrose when there, or returned there, after the
Civil War to get married. A
lot of the immediate males in this part of the
Dunham family were killed or
died in the Civil War. Mary Jane Way Dunham
was her sister-in-law.
Nelson Titus and Laurilla Dunham had two
children
Charles William b. 29 May 1857 who married Amanda Beal
Cora
Esther b. 18 Sept 1959 (Holt Co. Mo.) d. 27 July 1887 m. Allen Craft
5
Oct. 1876..
Cora is also buried in the Titus Family Plot but her
gravestone is very
difficult to read. From the will of Nelson Titus (on
file in LaPorte Co) I
believe that there were four children born to Cora
Titus and Allen Craft.
Eugene who married a Mina R. Frederick who may have
d. 13 Feb. 1909 in
Milwaukee and whose wife was Catherine, Lorilla who
married George Adelman
and Grace who married Arthur White. I believe that
this family moved to
Milwaukee Wi after the death of Cora. Will of Nelson
Titus shows that
Catherine Craft was guardian for Allen Craft in 1914.
Charlotte Brown’s
"clipbook" has an obituary from a Milwaukee paper
detailing the death of a
John Craft who died fighting a fire at the
Johns-Manville Co. John may have
been a part of Frederick’s name or
it may have been a son of Eugene’s or
Frederick’s. I include
this for anyone who might be researching this part of
the family.
Charles William who married Amanda Beal ran away with an 18 year old girl
that he met while building her father’s house. (that is a family story). ,
Charles was also a carpenter and built a great deal of the homes in the
early setting of Chicago suburbs of Franklin Park and River Grove in
partnership with Edward G. Hines. Their idea was to built affordable
"cottages" for the railroad men who worked out of the yards there. He died
16 March 1916 in Joplin Missouri and is buried there. His second wife’s
name
was Rosa and according to census records they had two daughters, May
(Mae)
and Mary.
Titus, Arthur N.
Infant son of Charles and
Amanda. His twin brother was Charles Hermann,
always called Hermann.
Hermann was retarded and from his pictures probably
was encephilitic. He
died, according to a note in the papers of Lowell T.
Hay, 27 May. 1895.
Nelson Titus paid for the funeral. He is buried somewhere
in the Chicago
area but no one has ever found the grave and my grandmother,
Ethel Titus
Reuter never mentioned where her brother was buried and I failed
to
ask.
Charles and Amanda also had a daughter, Ethel Lorilla b. 25 Dec.
1878. She
married William John Reuter in 1895 and is buried in Oak Ridge
Cemetery,
Hillside (Cook) Illinois. This is my paternal grandmother.
Charlotte Brown Titus
Daughter of Amos Brown and Melisa Hyde. She
married Nelson Titus 28 March
1866 in Union Mills. They had one daughter,
Nellie Marie who married Dale
Hay.
Article written by:
Barbara Lee
Reuter Metzger
email : bametz@aol.com