
What's not to love about a face as handsome as that? But that's not all. It gets even better. He has a kind and tender heart besides. And the very best part? He's my husband!
Best happy birthday wishes, Michael!
STATISTICS OF LIFE.--The yearly mortality of the globe is 33,333,333 persons. This is at the rate of 91,554 per day, 3,730 per hour, 62 per minute. Each pulsation of the heart marks the decease of some human creature.
The average of human life is 33 years.
One-fourth of the population die at or before the age of seven years.
Among 10,000 persons, one arrives at the age of 100 years, one in 500 attains the age of 90, and one in 100 lives to the age of 60.
Married men live longer than single men.
In 1,000 persons, 95 marry, and more marriages occur in June and December than any other months in the year.
One-eighth of the whole population is military.
Professions exercise a great influence on longevity.
My great-grandfather was 33 when that was written. I imagine he felt pleased to have already outlived the average human lifespan. He lived to be 87.
One page is devoted to the history of Steubenville. To me it reads like a cross between a travel brochure, a textbook, and an encouraging invitation for people to become residents. I enjoyed this quote: "Nature has done all the most ambitious could require to constitute a great manufacturing centre. Enterprise and capital alone are wanted. The first must be sought for in the sound judgment and energy of the inhabitants; the last must be wrought out by the industrious conversion of the raw materials, so abundantly provided, into articles adapted to supply the wants and the luxuries, and to gratify the tastes of a great and prosperous people."
Other pages include information about the industry of the community, and advertisements tell me what businesses there were in the city. I was surprised to see a veterinary surgeon listed in 1871. I was not surprised to see plasterers, house & sign painters, paper hangers, gunsmiths, and coopers, among others. I wondered if my grandfather worked as a wagon maker in one of the shops or as a carpenter in another business or industry.
I enjoyed looking at the full-page ads with their ornate lettering and 140-year-old language that sounds so unusal to my ears in 2010. Perhaps you will, too.
If your ancestor lived in a town or city and if you're trying to fill in information between census records, city directories may be helpful to you. They really are fun to peruse and if you find your ancestor, not only can you fill in a location for him on his timeline, you can also learn more about the situation in which he lived. I know the information in directories is not primary source material, but it can help put a little meat on the bare bones of names and dates. I know that the Family History Library has microfilmed many which are available for loan at family history centers throughout the world. Maybe you'll be as amazed by what you find as I sometimes am!
Copyright © 2010 by Nancy Messier.
This is Henry and his family in the Steubenville Official City Directory 1904-1905, p. 208
I have information from the 1906-07 directory, but it's fun to see who's moved away, or who's grown old enough to be listed in each subsequent volume.
And now, I really am going to put Henry to rest for a while. (Unless, of course, . . . .)
Copyright © 2010 by Nancy Messier.
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In the photo above, Henry is the older man holding the pipe. I don't know who the tall lady on the left is. On the other side of Elizabeth is her daughter Isabelle. The three children may be Isabelle's, and the man on the right may be her husband, Benjamin Hashman. In the back from left to right are Lula and Charlie Sticker and George Harris, Mina's husband. Perhaps Mina is taking the photograph.
Elizabeth's obituary was published in "The Steubenville Herald-Star," Monday, June 28, 1920, p. 10.
Sources
Jefferson County marriage record for Henry and Elizabeth Armitage Meinzen
1851, 1861 England Census
1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 U.S. Census
Belmont and Jefferson County Probate Court naturalization records of Henry C. Meinzen
Jefferson County, Ohio, property records
Jefferson County, Ohio, birth records
Steubenville city directories, 1906, 1911, 1913
Ohio death certificate for Elizabeth Armitage Meinzen
Union Cemetery interment records
Last will and testament of Elizabeth Meinzen
Obituary of Elizabeth Meinzen
If you want specific sources for any of this information, please ask.
Copyright © 2010 by Nancy Messier.
City directories - found in several different years in Steubenville, Ohio
Local newspapers - on specific dates for births, marriages, and deaths of him and his children. Also general searches on Ancestry.com’s newspapers - found his involvement in I.O.O.F and gardening; found articles about several of his children; obituary for him and Elizabeth
Death certificates for him, his wife, and several of his children - found at the Ohio Historical Society Archives and online at familysearch.org
Burial records - found him and the rest of his family and several non-family infants buried on his plot in Union Cemetery, Steubenville, Ohio
Unsuccessful searches
Passenger records - did not find him (though found someone that fits every description except first name)
Will/estate file - as far as I can tell, he didn't have one, though his wife did
Civil War Graves Registration Index - there is a card with his name but I have been unable to find any further information indicating that he served in the Civil War (4 years before his naturalization papers state his arrive in America); no pension applicaton; nor are there any family stories about him having served in the Civil War
IOOF - I know he was a member but two requests for information have gone unanswered
Possible Future Searches
Carpenters' unions, 1870-1910, Jefferson County, Ohio