1926 Canada Census for Clara Belle (Dodge) Morgan

The 1926 Canadian Census for the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta is now released and available for public search. I just finished searching the census database and was only able to find Clara Belle Morgan and her daughter Mary Anne Morgan. Below is the image of the 1926 Canada Census that I found.

The 1926 Census shows where Clara lived after their homestead was foreclosed on in 1922. At that time, they were living near the town of Wilkie, where they had resided since 1911. The exact location of their homestead was the Southwest corner of Section 10, Township 41 North, Range 18 West of the 3rd Meridian.

At the time William John Morgan was served with notice of the foreclosure proceedings in 1922, he was located at Section 34, Township 39 North, Range 16 West of the 3rd Meridian, near the hamlet of Cando, approximately 30 miles southeast of Wilkie. In the 1926 Census, Clara and her daughter Mary were living near the hamlet of Red Pheasant, which is 7 miles north of Cando and 20 miles east of Wilkie.

I was only able to find Clara and her daughter, Mary, in the 1926 Census. Clara and Mary were living with the family of Arthur Amor. The exact location of their residence is Section 22, Township 40 North, Range 16 West of the 3rd Meridian. Clara is listed as a lodger and Mary was working as a Domestic. One discrepancy in this census is that Clara's age was listed as 38 years old (she would have been 42 years old - born in 1884) and Mary was 16. Another discrepancy is their year of immigration to Canada. Clara's year of immigration is listed as 1910 and Mary's year of immigration is listed as 1909 (one year before she was born!). They, along with her son William Hiram, immigrated to Canada in June of 1911. Although certainly still of school age, Mary did not attend school during the previous year.

I was not able to find William John Morgan, Clara's husband, or their son, William Hiram Morgan, in this census.

Below is a map showing the locations of where Clara and her family lived in Saskatchewan during the 1910's & 1920's. This comes from the Cummins Rural Map Directory (my previous post looks at these maps). I have outlined where their homestead was (which was still owned by the mortgage company as of 1930) and where Clara and Mary are found in the 1926 Census. It makes me wonder where they will be found when the next Census (1931 National Census) will be released in five years.

Cummins Rural Directory Maps - Saskatchewan, Canada

Here is an interesting find I came across last night. Rural Directory Maps for the province of Saskatchewan that were published by the Cummins Map Company during the 1910's, 1920's and 1930's. (http://www.saskgenealogy.com/databases/cummins/Cummins_Rural_Director_Map.htm). 

These maps are landowner maps that show who owned which parcel of land. I was able to find the maps for William John Morgan in 1917, 1920 and 1922. He owned a 160-acre homestead in western Saskatchewan, not far from the town of Wilkie. (Section 10, Township 41, Range 18, West of the 3rd Meridian), which he applied for in 1910 and obtained in 1913. He and his family lived on the homestead until 1922, by which time the homestead appears to have been abandoned and was foreclosed on. William John Morgan took out an $800 mortgage on the homestead in 1917 and failed to pay back the mortgage. (I have detailed the homestead application and foreclosure in earlier blogs). I also found a rural directory map for 1930 and found that the foreclosed homestead was still owned by the mortgage company. 

(Just a brief review, William John Morgan came to the United States in the early 1890's and went to Colorado. He married by great-great aunt, Clara Belle Dodge, in 1906 in Buena Vista, Colorado. Following a few years in Silver City, New Mexico, William returned to Canada in 1910. Clara and their children followed in June of 1911).

On a related note, I am anticipating (as are many others) the release of the 1926 Census for the Canadian Prairie Provinces. According to Library and Archives Canada, this census should be available sometime in March (fingers crossed). I am hoping to find William John Morgan and his family in this Census, as I am not sure where they moved to or were living at after their homestead was foreclosed on several years earlier. Perhaps after I find them in the 1926 Census, I will look for them in the later directory maps as well.

Below are the Cummins Rural Directory Maps that I have found. I have outlined their property to make it easier to find. (To get a closer look at each map, click on the map, and then right click and select 'open image in new tab'.)

1917 Cummins Rural Directory Map

1920 Cummins Rural Directory Map

1922 Cummins Rural Directory Map

1930 Cummins Rural Directory Map 

Even after several years, the land was still owned by the mortgage company

Sherman Dodge newspaper articles in Crested Butte, Colorado

It's interesting how pieces of the puzzle continue to fall into place, little by little; or how certain suggestions on what or where to search just pop out at you unexpectedly. This is one of those unexpected searches that yielded some interesting pieces of the puzzle. 

The Crested Butte, Colorado newspaper Elk Mountain Pilot just became available to search on one of the historical newspaper websites that I keep tabs on from time to time. My great-great uncle, Sherman Dodge, was from Crested Butte, Colorado, according to his marriage certificate, in 1900.

I don't know how long he had been there prior to 1900, but it doesn't appear to have been too long. Before living in Crested Butte, Sherman lived in St. Elmo. This is from The Salida Mail: August 18, 1896: St. Elmo Items. Special Correspondence of The Mail. St. Elmo, Aug. 11. Sherman Dodge has been running on the mail route of late in Mr. Fisher’s place.

I went ahead and did a quick search for Sherman Dodge in the Elk Mountain Pilot newspaper and found the following articles for him throughout 1900.

May 29, 1900: Sherman Dodge came up from Jack's Cabin Monday to go to work at the saw mill.

(Side note: his father, Nathaniel T. Dodge, worked at a saw mill in Gardiner, Maine, for a time during the 1870's).

July 31, 1900: Sherman Dodge had the second finger on his right hand badly crushed Wednesday [July 25] by the engine while working at the Stanley mill.

September 25, 1900: The following Crested Butte people attended the dance at Jack's Cabin Friday night [Sept. 21]: Harvey Stanley and wife, Arthur Stanley and wife, Mrs. Harriett Wieland, Miss Brown, Geo. Schaefer, Sherman Dodge, Frank Young, Will Hartman, Geo. Adams, Warren Small, Tom Walters, Colon Moore, Bert Smith, Harry Tingey and Geo. Cook. A number of the Jack's Cabin people were present and an enjoyable time was had by all.

(side note: Miss Brown very well could be his soon to be wife, Mary May Brown.)

December 4, 1900: Sherman Dodge departed Friday for Denver [Nov. 29], at which place he will be married to Miss May Brown. They will reside in Crested Butte.

Following their marriage, they were living in Denver by 1902, when they lost a son in childbirth. They divorced in October of 1903 (their divorce is detailed in the Denver newspapers and covered in my other posts on Sherman Dodge).

Just a little geography: Jack's Cabin is a little rural mountain locale along Colorado State Road 135 and County Road 749 about half way between Gunnison and Crested Butte. There isn't much to note that people live there; just a few homes and barns (according to google maps). 

World War I Veterans Affairs Master Index Cards

Here is a find I came across yesterday: U.S., Veterans Affairs Master Index Cards, 1917-1940. These have recently been published on familysearch.org as 'United States, Veterans Affiars master index, 1917-1940'.

These Index Cards are presently being indexed through familysearch.org. The entire index contains upwards of 6,000,000 names (from what I can ascertain) and contain millions of names of American Veterans, primarily from World War One. The index also contains the names of some veterans from the Civil War and the Spanish-American War as well as some that served in the years following World War One. (For more information on these records, please visit the following: www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States,_Veterans_Administration_Master_Index_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)

Searching for family members through these records is like finding a few small needles in a massive haystack. They are alphabetized, but not quite as expected. For example: to find Clarence Keith Newitt, I had to search through a series of last names beginning with the letters NEWH--- to NEWK---. Each series of last names is then alphabetized by first name (NEWH--- to NEWK---, first name beginning with letter A, then NEWH--- to NEWK---, beginning with letter B, and so forth until I found the name I was looking for). It is tricky to go through, but once I was able to figure out how the index is organized, it became somewhat easier to go through.

Here are the family members that I was able to find in this index: James Robert Dodge (my great-grandfather), David Nemetzky (his brother-in-law), and Clarence Keith Newitt (his sister's step-son). Below are the records that I found:

Each card gives the veteran's name, rank, unit they served in, and their mailing address (I'm assuming at the time they applied for their bonus due them from the Federal Government during the 1920's and 1930's). The index cards also list their dates of birth and death, dates of enlistment and discharge, their bonus application number (the 'A' number), their War Risk Insurance number (the 'T' number), and their WWI Certificate Number (the 'Ct' number) as well as a Claim Number that would have been made by a surviving family member following their death (the 'C' number). 

Just a brief review of the above-displayed cards: my great-grandpa, James Robert Dodge, is living in Rawlins, Wyoming. He lived in Buena Vista, Colorado at the time he was drafted in 1918. He lived in Rawlins, Wyoming, beginning in the mid 1930's. 

Clarence Keith Newitt served in the Navy during World War One (he enlisted in April of 1917 from Leadville, Colorado) and lived in San Francisco following his military service. Unlike U.S. Army enlisted personnel records, U.S. Navy enlisted personnel records still exist. Keith applied for his World War I Bonus in 1924, and was living in San Francisco at the time he applied for his bonus. The bonus application number on the index card matches the application number from the application form.

David Nemetzky is an interesting case. He first enlisted in the Army in 1904 and didn't retire from the service until 1931. I have already posted a blog about what I have found on his life and military service. While this sheds a little more light on his service, such as his service number, as well as one of the places he served during his time in the Army (China, where he probably was stationed when he would have applied for his World War I Bonus), it also raises more questions. Most specifically, his date of birth. Each record I have found on David Nemetzky shows a different date of birth. This record is no different; according to the index card, he was born in September of 1882. 

The enlisted U.S. Army personnel records no loner exist; they were destroyed in an accidental fire at the National Archives in St. Louis in the early 1970's.; so his complete military file, as well as that of my great-grandfather, no longer exist. Sadly, because these records no longer exist, there are some questions that won't be able to be answered.

Arlene Elizabeth Christensen (1907-1978)

Arlene Elizabeth Christensen was born on May 21, 1907 in Loleta, California, to Peter Hansen Christensen and Emma Sofia Smith. She grew up in Ferndale, California (260 miles north of San Francisco), and graduated from Ferndale High School in 1925. 

Sometime during the 1930's, Arlene moved to San Francisco and became a court reporter. Although not found in the 1940 Census, Arlene is found in both the San Francisco Directory and the voter registration for that year. She married Clarence Keith Newitt in November of 1944 in San Francisco. 

They lived in San Francisco until the mid 1960's, when Keith retired from his job with Pacific Gas and Electric Company and moved to Florence, Oregon. Following Keith's death in 1974, Arlene returned to California and lived in Fresno until her death in 1978. She is buried at Sunset Memorial Park in Eureka, with her husband and parents.

1910 Census - Pacific, California

1920 Census - Ferndale, California 

1925 Senior High School yearbook picture - Ferndale, California

 1930 Census - Pacific, California

1930 Voter Registration - Ferndale, California

1933 Voter Registration - Ferndale, California 

 1940 San Francisco Directory

1940 Voter Registration, San Francisco, California

SSN Application - February 1952

Gravestone

Death Certificate