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