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 | Ghering |
| Chandler |
| Crawford |
| Baney |
Mother's side:
| Proper |
| Bush |
| Sutton |
| Britton |
If you can fill in
missing information, or would like to exchange information, please email me.
Kathy Goodman
by George Holice Ghering
Chapter 1 - Mother's Early Life
This is my grandfather's book about his family history. It was probably written in the 1950s. There are some errors in it. I have made notes correcting those I have found.
It is the year of 1866. In the rugged, hilly country of Canada, within the sound of Niagara Falls, (when the wind was in the right direction), was a small grist mill along a small stream. A small cottage built of rough lumber stands nearby. Here the miller lives with his family.
John Chandler, the miller, had two brothers, Jacob and Charles, two sisters, Eliza and Jane. The family had immigrated here from England. John's family consisted of his wife and small daughter aged three.
On October 6 of that year a little baby girl was born in the Chandler home. They named her Louisa.
Note: Louisa was born in Tidioute, PA according to her death certificate. In the 1870 Census for Warren County, Tidioute, PA Louisa is listed as being born in Pennsylvania and her sister Lillian was born in New York. Louisa’s mother, Margaret, was listed as born in Canada and her father, John Chandler, was listed as born in England.
In those days life was not easy for the Chandler family. Some of John's customers brought a bag of grain slung across the horses back, in front of the saddle, and they shared the flour with the miller in payment of his work. Some brought a grist on a wagon and were in such financial difficulty that they were unable. Mr. Chandler gave credit, some paid him later, many never paid. Of course the well-to-do paid cash.
There is little doubt with the delicate state of her health; living without many of the necessities of life, and the severe cold of those Canadian winters, it all contributed to the fact that when Louise was seven years old, the two little girls were left without a mother.
At this time oil industry was bringing a moderate amount of prosperity to the locality near the Drake Well at Titusville. This is probably the reason why the father brought his two children, and they operated another grist mill on a small creek that empties into the Allegheny River at Tidioute.
The venture apparently failed and the father left the two girls with their Aunt Jane who lived three miles south of Titusville just west of what is now known as Route 8.
It is also a known fact that John Chandler at one time operated a grist mill at the little village of Cherrytree, also on Route 8 between Oil City and Titusville.
John's sister, Jane, had married a widower by the name of James Hamilton. They lived on a small farm, kept a few cows and raised chickens and porkers for a living. The orphan girls made their home with their aunt for some six or seven years.
Meanwhile Aunt Jane's other sister, Eliza, had emigrated to Iowa where she married an ambitious young farmer by the name of Joseph Wadson. They took up a large tract of unbroken prairie land near the tiny village of Vincent. They were so successful that it attracted the attention of the rest of the family back East. Charles Chandler went West, too. He took up land joining the Wadsons. However Charlie was very unfortunate, for he lost his right arm in an accident, working on a sorghum mill.
Louise, now sixteen, decided to go to Iowa to help her Uncle Charlie, who was laid up for a long time, and when he finally got back to work, the smallest tasks were very difficult for him.
In 1882, Louise stepped off the train in Vincent, Iowa. Here she spent eight years of her life as housekeeper, handyman, field hand, and even back-firing for prairie fires that in dry, windy weather could travel across the prairie faster than a horse could run.
They had a rough board two-room shanty for living quarters. They built windbreaks of rough lumber and corn shocks for the cattle to give the cattle a little protection from the severe storms.
She told of one such storm that lasted four days without any let-up; when Louise and Uncle Charlie had to go out and force-feed freezing livestock, by prying open their mouths, placing grain and a few swallows of water, (thawed from ice on the cook-stove), in their mouths to keep them alive.
She told of the many nights when she fell completely exhausted across her bed and never realized that she had slept all night without even undressing.
Eight years of it before she came back to Pennsylvania. In February of 1890, Louise received a letter from back home. That letter changed everything and she came home in October of that year.
