Elizabeth Jane Laws

Family records tell me that Elizabeth Jane Laws was born in England, probably in Northumberland, on this day in 1845. She attended a church school where she learned to read, write, do arithmetic, and sew. She probably also learned to think independently and to make careful decisions.

When she was 16 she married Andrew Doyle, a widower who was 9 years older than her. As you can imagine, her unhappy parents opposed the marriage. They were probably even more unhappy when, 8 years later her husband left for America and a year later she emigrated with their 4 young children.

My siblings and I are strong-willed; some might even go so far as to call us stubborn at times. Over the years we've always attributed that trait to the Doyle side of the family, probably because we saw it so clearly in our father. When I consider Elizabeth Jane, I think perhaps the strong will comes from the Laws side of the family, too!

I wish you a happy, happy birthday, Grandy! I'm so glad you made the choice you did -- or I wouldn't be here!

Coal Miners in My Family

Among those soot covered faces in the left photo, above, is my grandfather, Gust Doyle.  He's standing in the center of the back row.  It's nigh on impossible to recognize him compared to the photo on the right but I was assured by his daughter that indeed, that is Gust.  Of the two photos, I believe he was younger in the #7 Mine photo.

I've never been into or observed the workings of a coal mine but in my brain float images of a dark and dangerous environment with the sounds of hammering, pounding, and explosions.  I imagine dirt and grit from head to toe, and the darkness of night all day.  The scrubbing that must have been required to clean one's skin upon returning above-ground surely turned it pink or red, or possibly raw!  And how did they live without sunshine?!

The mines in Stoneboro and the rest of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, were sources of bituminous coal, less hard than anthracite, but no less dirty and dangerous to mine.  As far as I know, none of my direct-line ancestors were in mine accidents but there are several Doyles and Fromans listed on the Pennsylvania USGW Archives of Mine Accidents who may be collateral relatives.

In searching for Stoneboro Mine #7 I was hoping for photographs.  Instead, GoogleBooks provided Coal Mines by B. H. Rose, a 1910 publication which told me that Mine #7 was operated by the Mercer Iron & Coal Company.  The vein was called Brookfield Bed A with a thickness of 4½ feet.  It was a shaft mine where both machines and picks were used.  Its daily capacity was 700 to 1000 tons.  It did not record the number of employees who mined those 700-1000 tons/day.  Mine #7 seems to have extracted the largest quantity of coal per day of all the local mines.  It was serviced by the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad.

I asked Tressa (Doyle) Wilson, Gust's daughter and my father's half sister, about coal mines and the miners in our family.  I knew that my dad grew up on a farm and that he had worked for a while in a coal mine, but I wanted more information.  Below is what she told me about a mine on their farm property.

Most of the men in this area were coal miners.  They had to walk several miles to and from work.  Dad [Gust] and Pap [William Doyle, Gust's father] worked in the mines.  This was the main source of income.

The coal mine your Dad [Lee] worked in was in our pasture field.  In the late 1920's Dad, Pap and your Dad dug the shaft for the mine.  The shaft was 35 feet deep but I don’t know the other dimensions.  I’ll never know how they had the knowledge and wisdom to know there might be coal at the bottom of the shaft they were digging.  They had to keep shoring the sides to keep it from caving in.  Also had to build a ladder for ascending and descending.  There wasn’t any heavy equipment at that time – they had to do all the digging by hand.  They struck coal at 35 feet.  They built a tipple and a building for the hoist what would bring the loaded coal cars up the shaft to be emptied in the bins and returned to the bottom of the shaft.  Your Dad helped with all of this.  [Lee was born in 1913 and would have been 15 in 1928.]

Until the coal mine was in operation our main source of income was from the milk we sold.  When we started to sell coal I’m sure the income from it was almost as good as the income from the cows.

Digging a coal mine by hand would have been a huge, labor-intensive undertaking.  I have a hard time imagining how it would be done, considering that I have trouble digging a 2' hole for a plant.  I think digging a small mine with only a few miners would have required courage, steadiness, and extreme care to succeed.

Other coal miners among my ancestors:

• William Doyle, Gust's great-grandfather, was a pitman in Northumberland, England, in the early 1800s, until his death in 1838.  His cause of death was stated as "Run over by a Cart Wheel."  I've been unable to determine what kind of cart and whether it was a mining accident.
• Andrew Doyle, Gust's grandfather, was a miner in Northumberland, England, in the mid-1850s and '60s.  He came to America to find work in 1869, when he was 32, because, wrote Tressa, "the mines in England were being mined out - making it difficult to earn a living."  He settled in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.  His wife and children came one year later.  Andrew eventually owned a small mining store in Stoneboro. 
• William Doyle, Gust's father and Andrew's son, was 7 when he arrived in the U.S.  It is possible that he worked in the mines in England but I believe that laws had been put into effect by then preventing children from working in the mines until they were 10 years old.  He may have worked in the mines in Stoneboro as a youth.  It is certain he worked in the mines as an adult. 
• Abel Armitage, my maternal great-grandfather, was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England in 1821.  Sometime between 1851 and 1861 he began working at the Trimdon Colliery in Durham.  He immigrated to the U.S. in 1863 or 1864 and worked as a coal miner in the Steubenville area of Jefferson County, Ohio.  The 1870 and 1880 census records both record him as a coal miner but by 1880 he was disabled.  Perhaps he was injured in a mine accident.  He died sometime after 1880, though I can find no record of his death. 
• John Froman/Frohman is my paternal grandmother's father.  He appears in the 1870 U.S. census living in West Salem Township, Mercer County, Pennsylvania.  From what I can gather, he passed away in 1872 but I have been unable to find information about his death or an exact date of death.  Until I learn more, I will wonder if he died in a coal mine accident.

It is hard for me to imagine being a coal miner or living in a coal mining community.  I wonder how, after an 8- or 10- or 12-hour day in the mine, my grandfather Gust was able to do the work necessary to keep the farm going.  How did he manage in the winter when the days were were short and he had missed most of the daylight hours?   I'm grateful for his work ethic and that it's been passed down through several generations.

Below are some postcard photographs of coal mining in eastern Pennsylvania where anthracite was mined.  (Click on any of them to see them larger.)  They were uploaded to Flickr by j3net and are on her Photostream where she has additional coal mining images.

This post was updated on December 5, 2019, to include William Doyle (~1802-1838).

–Nancy.

Copyright ©2010-2019, Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner. 
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Some Fellow

I say, this fellow sure looks like a character to me. There he is with his thumbs hooked under his armpits, a pipe in his mouth, knee-high boots, and, well, look at that expression on his face! (If you didn't know it, you can click on the photo to enlarge it in a window by itself. Click on it again and it should enlarge even more. When you're finished looking click the back arrow in your browser window.)

This fellow is my father, Lee Doyle, probably when he was about 18 or 20. This photo was taken sometime before he left the farm in Stoneboro, Pennsylvania, in 1934. I wish I knew who took it.


Here are two photographs of the barn on his family's farm. I'm trying to decide where he might have been standing when the photo at left was taken. Do you have a guess? It looks like he might have been mucking out stalls.



Do you ever wish you had been able to know a parent or grandparent when he/she was the same age as you? Or when you were the age the person was in a specific photograph? I definitely wish I could have known my father when he was a young man. Aunt Tressa, my father's half sister, wrote that my dad had a great sense of humor, something we children very rarely saw. It's much easier to believe when I look at this photo. Though we didn't often see his sense of humor, we did see that Dad could fix just about anything that broke, do triple digit math problems in his head, and repair watches, something he learned to do via a correspondence course. I think he could have been an engineer had there been an opportunity for him to obtain the education.

Thanks for coming to look at these photos and for sharing comments. This is a contribution to Sepia Saturday. If you go to the Sepia Saturday blog there are links to others' old photos and posts.

Pap, Because "Grandpa" Sounded Too Old

When I was a young child, I remember my father mentioning "Pap," but I didn't know who he was - except that he was someone I'd never met. As a young adult, I learned that Pap was my father's grandfather, William Doyle. I sensed that Dad held Pap in very high regard, but Dad didn't say much about him.

A number of years ago, after my father's death, I began corresponding with my father's half-sister, Tressa. I learned that she also held Pap in very high regard.

She said that Pap was "an extremely kind person and loved children." He was "short and just a little on the stocky side." My mother remembers hearing him make this comment to someone, maybe her: "You might be good for something if you weren't so tall." I don't know if the comment was made in jest or not. Aunt Tressa wasn't sure whether Pap held a bias against tall people, but said that Pap was "outspoken and definite in his opinions."

I asked Aunt Tressa how her grandparents came to be called Maw and Pap, she said they "didn't want to be called Grandma and Grandpa -- they thought it sounded 'too old.'" The grandchildren called him Pap, but the neighbors, his friends, and possibly adult relatives, called him Billy.

Pap was the oldest child in his family. In 1869, his father, Andrew Doyle, came to America from Northumberland, England. Then in October, 1870, at the age of 7, Pap came to America with his mother, Elizabeth Jane (Laws) Doyle, and 3 siblings. They lived in several different towns in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, until they eventually settled in Stoneboro.

He married Tressa Rose Froman on March 17, 1885. If you're interested, come back on the 17th and learn a little more about them as a couple and family.

Pap farmed, mined coal, and grew strawberries for a cash crop. After his widowed son, Gust, remarried, Pap and his wife built a home in Stoneboro and moved into town. Every day Pap travelled the 2 miles from town to the farm to help on the farm: he drove the car in the summer, walked in the winter.

This photo is of Pap standing outside the home of his closest and next youngest sibling, Elizabeth Jane or, as she was usually called, Liz Jane. A closeness developed on the ship from England that remained throughout their lives.

Pap was born on this day in 1863. Happy Birthday, Pap! It hope it's a grand one. I look forward to meeting you.


Copyright © 2010 by Nancy Messier.

Tressa

Have you ever met someone with a personality that sparkled? A person who made you feel like you were the most interesting, most important person in the world? Aunt Tressa had such a way about her! Whenever I spent time with her, I felt like she thought I was the most special person in the world. I suspect that my siblings - and everyone else who interacted with her - probably felt the same way. I honestly don't know how she did it. Perhaps it was just her sincere interest in people, especially in those she loved.

Aunt Tressa is Tressa (Doyle) Wilson, my father's half-sister. They shared the same father, Gust Doyle, but different mothers. Aunt Tressa was named for Gust's mother and her own grandmother, Tressa Rose (Froman) Doyle.

Though she was short, perhaps not more than 5' tall, every inch of Aunt Tressa was packed with enthusiasm, energy, and joy. She once told me that whatever work she had to do, she just decided that she would enjoy it. And I believe she did!

Aunt Tressa provided me with generations of names and dates, and the stories to bring my family to life. I met my grandfather, Gust Doyle, and his parents, William and Tressa (Froman) Doyle, through her. I'm so very grateful for her generosity in sharing her memories and for the time she took to do it. On one visit, she gave my daughters and me a tour of the farm where she and my father and their father grew up, sharing stories, memories, and answering our questions; she took us to the cemetery and showed us the graves of family members whose memories I hope to preserve; she shared photographs that I treasure; and she gave us a tour of Stoneboro, where she and my dad grew up.

I am also grateful to her for her enthusiasm, her love of life, and her great example. I cherish the memory of having an aunt like her. If she were still with us, she would be celebrating her 88th birthday. She passed away from cancer a few years ago at much too young an age. What a loss to those of us still here. I miss her.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Tressa!

Grampa Gust Doyle

My grandfather, Gust Doyle, was born on November 17, 1888, in Stoneboro, Pennsylvania. His parents were William and Tressa Rose (Froman) Doyle.

I love this photo of my grandfather. I love how he looks directly into the camera lens. It almost feels like he's looking directly at me, across the span of time that separates us. When I saw this photograph it was the very first time I saw what my grandfather looked like. The original photograph, which was a beautiful sepia, belonged to Aunt Tressa. She thought, because of the two different hats, that perhaps he'd had it taken at a fair or a carnival. No matter that it's a very poor copy of a very tiny original which was, perhaps, about 1 1/2" x 3". Considering how small the original was, it's amazing it came out as well as it did.

I just noticed that the hat he's wearing in the photograph on the right, above, looks like the same hat he was wearing in the photograph on the back porch of the farmhouse. He doesn't have a bowtie in the farmhouse photograph, but the shirt, coat, and hat look the same. Perhaps both photos were taken the same day and they had a professional photographer at the farmhouse to take family photographs that day.

Grampa Gust is the grandfather I never knew: he died when my dad was just 20 years old. Because I didn't hear stories about him growing up, I didn't learn about him until after Dad died when I asked Aunt Tressa, Dad's half-sister, about their father. She so willingly answered every question.

She described Grampa like this:

"Dad was not a tall man -- about 5 ft. 4 or 5 inches at the most. He had blue eyes and brown hair -- a nice looking man.

"Dad was easy going, yet serious and extremely kind. He had a great compassion for the under privileged. I remember the story he told about helping a crippled boy at the Wesleyan Camp Ground. A 'Big Bully' was teasing and making fun of him. Dad knocked the 'Bully' down and made him apologize to the crippled boy. This was Dad's nature to protect and be good to people. He was strong and never backed away from a fight....

"Dad wasn't extremely talkative but he was a good conversationalist and had a great knowledge on many subjects. He had a good sense of humor and liked to joke and tease the family. He never failed to catch us in April Fool Jokes.

"The only story I can remember about Dad's childhood is the one he told about the last day of school. He always threw his lunch pail away on the way home. I don't remember why he threw it away. It could be he was happy to be out of school for the summer. He completed 6th grade. I think that was all that was required at that time."

I'll post more of Aunt Tressa's words about Grampa Gust and the rest of the family later.

I'm thinking of you, Grampa, and sending you and Gramma love. Happy Birthday!

A Doyle Anniversary

Elizabeth "Bess" Laws and Andrew Doyle were married 148 years ago today, on November 11, 1861, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England. I'm so happy they were. I can't count the number of descendants they have - I don't know them all!

In this photo, Elizabeth is the lady in black sitting on the right as we look at the photograph. Her husband, Andrew, is the gentleman in black, also sitting on the right.

When they married, Elizabeth was 16 and Andrew was 25. He was a widower and her family opposed the marriage. She must have been pretty strong-willed, don't you think, to go against her parents' wishes when she was only 16? I know she passed on some of those strong-willed genes....

They immigrated to America in 1869-1870. Andrew came first, in 1869, then Elizabeth followed in the fall of 1870 with their children, William (Pap), Elizabeth Jane, Robert, and Martha. They lived first in Arnot, then moved to Pardoe, then Croton, and finally settled in Stoneboro, all in Pennsylvania.

They had 10 more children - Margaret, Andrew, Mary Ann, George, Isabell, Ida, John, Emma, Fred, and Frederick - after moving here.

Happy Anniversary, Gramma and Grampa Doyle! I love you.

Remembering Beulah

This is my paternal grandmother, Beulah Mae (Gerner) Doyle.  Isn't she lovely!

I'm celebrating her birthday today because I missed it in September.  She was born on September 13, 1888, to Fred and Elvira (Bartley) Gerner in Butler County, Pennsylvania.  She was the 11th of 16 children, and the 7th of 10 daughters.

I know so very little about her, and nothing at all about her early years.  In fact, I didn't learn her name until I was in high school, having grown up completely unaware of a 2nd set of grandparents.  My mom's parents lived down the street from us and were the only grandparents I knew.  Dad never spoke about his parents.   

Her family lived in Butler County, Pennsylvania, most of her life but for a time during her young adult years, they lived in Mercer County.  It was there that she met Gust Doyle.  I was told that they met when Beulah attended a camp meeting not far from Gust's parents' farm.  They married on December 19, 1911.  Beulah and Gust were both 23.

Gust and his father, William (also known as Pap to family members) were farmers in Stoneboro.  They owned a very large strawberry farm, had milk cows, and grew crops on the land.  I don't know who lived where when Beulah and Gust married.  Perhaps they lived in the farmhouse and Pap and his wife, Tressa (known to family as Maw), had already moved into town.

On February 27, 1913, my dad, Lee, and his twin sister, Leila, were born.  Leila died just 3 days later on March 2.  I can't imagine how Beulah must have felt at the loss of one of her wee babes.  Devastated, no doubt.  But then, just 4 weeks later, on April 2, Beulah died, too.  Her death certificate lists cause of death as "puerpral septicemia," an old medical term that translates to blood poisoning after giving birth.  What a sad home, husband, and family!  As a youth I overheard a conversation in which someone said that Beulah had gone outside earlier than she should have after giving birth.  I don't know that that would have caused blood poisoning but it could have increased her susceptibility during those late winter weeks.

Gust remarried a few years later.  Lee grew up in a home where his father loved him and his stepmother didn't.  (I once heard Dad indicate that he knew what it was like to live with Cinderella's step-mother.)  Gust protected Lee by keeping him nearby as much as possible instead of in the house with his stepmother.  Lee worked the farm with his father, helped mine coal on the farm, and spent time with his grandparents, Maw and Pap.  Gust died of colon cancer in October, 1933, when Lee was just 20 years old.

I wonder if Dad grew up not hearing many stories about his mother, and so there were none to pass on.  I wonder if his growing up years were so difficult that he didn't want to bring them forward in his memory and share them.  And perhaps his memory of his father was just too precious and painful to share.

I wish Gust had shared good memories of his wife, Beulah, with my dad so that he could have shared them with his children.  I wish Dad had passed on to us his good memories of Gust.  They would have become second-hand memories to us, precious and dear, to help us know those who came before us.

Dad had this beautifully framed photograph of his mother, Beulah, hanging in his and Mom's bedroom.  The photograph at the top of this post is a digital image of the framed photograph at the right.

–Nancy.

Copyright ©2009-2020, Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner. 
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