Stembel Notes

The Family's Osage Indian Connection

This is a summery of my research on a descendent of Oliver and Margaret Stembel.  Oliver was a son of John Stembel, who was a son of Frederick Stembel of Middletown, Maryland.

Oliver and Margaret Stembel were married in 1850.  Oliver was a farmer in Ohio. They had five children, four boys and a girl.  Sometime after 1880 they moved west, eventually settling in western Missouri. Their daughter, Elenor, married Frank Lanham and they set up household in Missouri, but in 1903 Frank and Elenor moved their family to Creek County in the Oklahoma Territory.  Oklahoma was not yet a state.  

Frank and Elenor Lanham had nine children, eight boys and one lone girl, Sadie Marie Lanham.

About this time, John (Hum Pah See) Long and his wife Mary Louise, both full-blood Osage Indians had a daughter, Josephine (Pah Skah) in 1882.  They lived along Quapaw Creek, west of present Skiatook, Oklahoma.  When Josephine was 16 she married 35-year-old Isaac Tell Bratton, a white man born in Ohio. Josephine gave birth to her first child soon after.  They named him William Ernest Bratton. Josephine had six children in all, three sons by Isaac (who died in 1908) and three daughters by a second husband, John Nix. They owned a large homestead which they named Turkey Creek for the creek that ran through it.  They raised their children in the Osage Indian culture.

In 1918, Sadie Marie Lanham, granddaughter of Oliver Stembel, and William Ernest Bratton, an Osage Indian, married. By now Oklahoma was a state (the 46th state) and Osage County (which included Quapaw and Turkey Creeks) was now an Osage Indian Reservation with 2,228 registered Osage Indians living within. That number included Josephine (Pah Skah) and her three sons at the time, one of whom was Sadie's husband.

Sadie and William lived on the Bratton's Turkey Creek homestead and raised their seven children as Osage Indians.

When I first realized we had a distant cousin who married an Indian and chose to live on a reservation back in the early 1900s, I jumped to the conclusion that they probably lived in near poverty based on my preconceived idea that Indians living on reservations equaled poverty, especially back at a time when Indians were not held in high esteem by a significant portion of the population. As I began to research this family in depth I found I had underestimated the Osage Indian leaders who bargained hard and intelligently to extract as much from Congress as possible when they were setting up the new state of Oklahoma.  In the end the 1906 Osage Allotment Act contained many benefits for the tribal members.  Each registered member of the tribe was allotted 657 acres of land (the normal allotment was 150 acres), and more importantly, they retained the mineral rights to their shared reservation land. Oil had been discovered on their reservation in 1894, but there was not much demand for oil in 1906 when the bargain was negotiated, but by the mid-1920s oil was much in demand and the Osage Indians were among the richest people in Oklahoma!

Researching this branch of the family required learning more about the history of the Osage Indians. I learned of the special relationship the Osage had with French traders in the early 19th century (apparent in the names of two of Josephine Bratton's grandparent's: Louis Baltimore and Francois Celeste Cardinal), and the treaties and forced moves, none of which were as devastating as the "Trail of Tears" suffered by the Cherokee and Choctaw in the 1830s, but they were disruptive.  Even so, it is not hard to feel the outrage at the many disturbing failures of our government, and the cruelty of individuals, including murders of Osage Indians for their oil money.  To get a feel for what the Osage have experienced, read the Wikipedia entries for 'Osage Nation' and 'Osage Indian Murders.'

Report to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant Describing Capt. Stembel in Action. A Second Report Written by Gen. Grant.

Ancestry.com has recently added many files of scanned Civil War correspondence to their website.

Here is a report from Col. Gustav Waagner, Chief of Artillery, to Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant who was in charge of the U.S. forces in the area.

Artillery Department
Cairo, Ill., September 8, 1861

[written to Brig. Gen. U.S. Grant, Commanding Forces, Southeast Missouri]

Sir: In consequence of your order received yesterday, I started [from Cairo, Illinois] this morning at 5 o'clock on the gunboat Lexington, commanded by Captain Stembel, for a reconnaissance to Columbus [Kentucky]. About 7 o'clock a.m. we passed Islands Nos. 3 and 4, where we discovered the camp fires a few miles above Columbus., on the Kentucky shore, exactly in the center of two natural platform bluffs commanding the river and Belmont.  In attempting to pass the foot of Lucas Bend, near Columbus, two batteries opened fire on us, one consisting of three the other of four guns, but, notwithstanding the high elevation given to their pieces, their shot all fell short.  We did not answer, as they were out of range and we could not do them any damage, the caliber of the guns being two 24-pounder howitzers and 24 and 32 pounders on barbette carriages.  The direction of their guns was good. the powder weak, and the fuses entirely too long.  I am quite well satisfied with the reconnaissance, but having some suspicion of gunboats lying in Lucas Bend, I requested Captain Stembel to throw some shell in the bend. This was done, and caused the appearance of two gunboats. One of them followed us. As it was not our intention to to enter into an engagement we retreated and arrived at Cairo this day at 10 o'clock a.m. It is beyond doubt that on the bluffs at Columbus there is a camp of at least 2,000 men, with two batteries of heavy guns, about six pieces in all, and opposite between Belmont and Lucas Bend there are about 1,000 men and some field pieces.

It affords me pleasure to report the cool, calculating, and energetic behavior of Captain Stembel, his officers and men.

Very respectfully,

G. Waagner
Chief of Artillery

Captain Stembel, of course is Roger Nelson Stembel, who was captain of the Union gunboat Lexington.

Here is a second letter, this one from General Grant to General Fremont two days later.

Hdqrs. District Southeastern Missouri
Cairo, September 10, 1861.

[to Maj Gen. John C. Fremont, St. Louis, MO]

This morning Colonel Waagner started from Norfolk, with all the force that could be spared from that point, to reconnoiter towards Belmont, supported by the gunboats Conestoga and Lexington. They went as far as Beckwith's farm, about 5 miles below Norfolk. Found no regular force, but had 1 man wounded and lost 1 horse by shots from the pickets of the rebels.  The gunboats, however penetrated farther, and found large numbers of cavalry on the Missouri shore, and as near as they could ascertain 15 pieces of artillery on wheels and 1 large piece in position. Some of the pieces were ascertained to be 24-pounder rifled guns.

The [Confederate] gunboat Yankee could not be induced to come far from a battery on the Kentucky shore. Captain Stembel, however, succeded in bursting a shell in her wheel-house, disabling her so much that she retired, working but one engine. The batteries on shore were silenced, and the officers commanding gunboats think with considerable loss to the enemy.  On two occasions they saw shells explode in the midst of the batteries, after which they could see by the aid of their glasses men being carried to the rear. One man was wounded dangerously by a musket-ball fired from the shore. Further than this no damage was sustainedby either of the boats. The machinery of the Lexington is out of order, and I have permitted her to go to Mound City [near Cairo] for repairs.

All forces show great alacrity in preparing for any movement that looks as if it was to meet the enemy, and if discipline and drill were equal to their zeal, I should feel great confidence even against large odds. The enemy were seen to cross and recross the river, with what design I am at a loss to tell. My impression is that they want time to prepare for defense of their position or for an advance on one of our positions, likely Paducah.  If it were discretionary with me, with a little addition to my present force I would take Columbus.  Your order will, however, be executed.

U. S. Grant,
Brigadier-General

The more reports I read from Roger's superiors, about his skill as a gunboat captain, the more I believe he would have risen in rank during the war had he not been badly injured early in the war, an injury that kept him out of action for the remainder of the war.

Byron Stembel's Obituary

I was digging through my file of Theophilus Stembel's family documents and I noticed I had an obituary for Byron "Doc" Stembel that ran in the Benton County newspaper (I assume).  It was sent to me by Maurice Paul Roberts, a great-great-grandson of Theophilus  (same generation as Judy Stembel Thomas).

BYRON R (DOC) STEMBEL

Byron R. (Doc) Stembel, 76, a resident of Gibson City, IL, died at 5:40 a.m. Monday, May 4, 1992,at Gibson Community Hospital, Gibson City, IL.  He was born October 4, 1915, in Boswell, the son of Ralph and Edna Waldrip Stembel. He married Eva Mae Smith, August 20, 1943, in Champaign,IL, she died April 16, 1973. On February 18, 1974, he married Maria Bane at Paxton, IL, and she survives, along with one daughter, Kay Bradshaw, Edwardsville IL, 1 step-son Bill Bane, Clarence, IL, and 3 step-daughters, Mary McCormick, Tolono, IL, Rose Beasley, Austin, TX, and Patricia Farris, Elliott, IL. A granddaughter Jamie Renee Ahlers, Edwardsville, IL, 10 step-grandchildren, and 1 great-granddaughter also survive. He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother Kingston Stembel, Fowler.

He owned and operated Stembel Wool Co., Gibson City, IL, 1940-61, Polled Hereford Business, 1961-68, and an antique business from 1968 to present.

He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, Gibson City, IL.

The funeral was held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, at Lamb Funeral Home, Gibson City, with Rev. Patrick W. Cox officiating; burial in Elliott Cemetery, Elloitt, IL.

Memorials may be made to Gibson Community Hospital, Gibson City, Illinois. 

Notice his first two marriages and the children of those marriages are missing entirely.  I'm told they were missing from his will as well.

If I had been paying more attention to this obituary when I received it years ago I would have known of Maria's four children, including Kim's mother, Rose Beasley of Austin, Texas.  I also notice this gives Jamie Proctor's married name, Ahlers!

I guess this should show me the importance of reviewing all of my records periodically!

Welcome to two new family members!

Last month Judy Stembel Thomas sent me the phone number of A.J. Stembel, the oldest son of her half-brother, Jan Stembel.  Jan, now deceased, was Byron Stembel's oldest child. Judy was his second child.

Before I go any farther, let me set the stage, because both of the family members I'm about to introduce are similarly related to Byron Stembel. One is his grandson, the other is his step-granddaughter.

Byron Stembel (1915-1992) is a great-grandson of Theophilus Stembel, one of the early settlers in Benton County, Indiana.  Byron - pictured here as he looked in 1938 - had three children with three different wives and four step-children from a fourth wife.

It was a real pleasure to talk to A.J. I've known of him and his two brothers from other relatives, but I had never actually met or talked to him before.  A.J. told me his father had moved to Tennessee years ago where he worked as a civilian employee for the U.S. Air Force.  In that position he worked on many secret projects in his career.

A.J. (or Adrian Jan) lives in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, as does his brother Brett.  A third brother, Michael, lives in New York.

Given that A.J. is Byron Stembel's grandson, it was a real coincidence that just a few weeks later I received an email from Kim Harrington.  Kim is Byron's step-granddaughter!  She happened to find our Stembel Family History on the Internet and sent me an email.  She wrote that she remembered her "Grandpa Stembel" fondly and offered to share information and some of her memories of Byron, or "Doc" as everyone called him.

I replied that I would love to know more about Byron, and Kim sent me a nice letter with all kind of information about her family.

So, let me introduce Kim Harrington, and thank her for contributing to our Stembel history.

Kim's grandmother, Maria Rupa, was born in Germany before WWII.  Near the end of the war she met a GI named Charley Bane from Gibson City, Illinois.  They fell in love and got married, and when Charley returned home he brought his bride back to Illinois with him.  Over the next few years Maria gave birth to four children: three girls and a boy.  Her children gave Maria a lot of pleasure but her marriage to Charles was rocky and eventually ended in divorce in the late 1960s.

After the divorce Maria remained in Gibson City.  She worked as a waitress in a restaurant where Byron Stembel often ate.  Maria thought he was nice and they started spending time together.  They eventually got married in 1974.

By this time Maria's four children were grown.  One of those children was Rose, Kim's mother.  Rose was close to her mother so it was only natural that Kim and her cousins spent a lot of time with Maria and Doc.  Those were years Kim remembers fondly.

Here are some of the memories she shared,

I think one of my best memories from when we were kids is that Grandpa had two antique playing pianos in their garage and we would always beg him to turn them on and he’d get out those paper rolls (he had dozens of them) and we’d sit at the piano and he’d stand there with us and we’d all sing those funny old songs… I think the one about red posies was our favorite.   He also had a huge trunk of really old clothes and tiny shoes, that he said belonged to an aunt of his I believe it was, who was only about 4 feet tall or so. And he had lots old vintage jewelry to go with it so we could play dress up.

We all remember Doc as this very wise man who knew everything about everything.  He treated my grandma very well and he was extremely kind to all of us grandkids (all together there were 8 of us).  Back then we all lived close by and we always had the holidays together – Grandma and Doc and our family and my aunts and uncle and all their families.  It was a great time.  My mom and her family were all very close and we spent a lot of time at their house.  Doc would even take all 5 of us older girls to his store sometimes and let us play there all day.  I still love the smell of all that old dark antique furniture and still have a fondness for antiques today, I think because of that.

What a wonderful environment to grow up in, to have parents and grandparents who not only love you, but are kind and generous and enjoy having you around.

I enjoyed Kim's letter, reading of the wonderful time she had with Byron before his death in 1992.  But as a family historian it presented me with a quandry, because this view of Byron is not shared by the children of his earlier marriages, and I feel it is only fair to them to mention the fact that their relationship with their father was not pleasant.

Judy Stembel Thomas, Byron's daughter writes,

Byron cut all ties with me after he left my mother.  I was 3...Mother would call him once in awhile and make plans for me to visit with him because I asked.  She would take me over to Gibson City to visit with him for an hour or so occasionally...He never instigated any visits and never sent cards or gifts or made calls.

But I sense she's not unhappy that Byron turned it around and learned to love. She also mentioned that Byron's mother died when he was a teenager and he went to live with his Aunt Edna [even though his father was still living], who had no children of her own.  The death of his mother could have left Byron with some unresolved anger.

It's hard to know why people act the way they do, but generally adults mellow as they age (I have!).  We learn whats important in life.  I might add that Byron's third wife died suddenly while he was talking with her in the hospital (this information is from Kim).  Maybe that had an affect on him.  In any case, it sounds like he and Maria had a good marriage and he enjoyed his new grandkids.
 
Thank you Kim, for sharing your memories of Doc and thank you A.J. for sharing information about your Dad.

An Interesting Discovery

One question that I had when I started researching our family was, are we related to anyone famous?  Another question men might ask is, are we related to anyone who played professional baseball, or football or basketball?  Chances are slim on both counts, only a very small percentage of people ever become truly famous or ever play professional sports.  So it should come as no surprise that there are no Presidents or famous ball players nestled into our family tree, however last week I did discover that a direct descendant of Frederick Stembel did marry a professional baseball player.

Ella Michael was Frederick's great-great granddaughter.  Ella's father, Christopher, was the son of Frederick Michael, who was the son of Ann Catherine Stembel Michael , who was Frederick's daughter.

Sometime around 1900 Ella married Johnny Siegle in Urbana, Ohio, where they both lived.  Johnny was a local legend who played for various teams in the Urbana area.  Toward the end of the summer of 1905 he was signed by the Cincinnati Reds to play the outfield for them.  He played in 17 games and hit .304 in 56 at bats.  He returned in 1906, the magic was gone from his bat. He hit only .118 in 22 games that season and never played in the major leagues again.

Chapter 3 Has Been Rewritten

Most of my family research time for the past year or so has been concentrated on downloading census records and entering the data into my family database.  Most family members are fairly easy to find in the indexes. Their names are spelled correctly and the handwriting is legible and they are living where I expect them to be living, but about one out of seven searches end up in failure.  No matter how I spell the last name or what combination of search strategies I try, I can't find the person I'm looking for.

For example, earlier today I was looking for John Poffenberger in the 1900 census index.  I knew he was born in Ohio in 1837.  I knew his wife's name was Adeline and she was born in Vermont in 1836.  I started asking for a list of every female in America in 1900 who was born in Vermont in 1836.  This should have resulted in a relatively short list of people which make it easy to spot Adeline.  No such luck.  After a few hours I finally found John and Adeline Poffenberger living in Missouri.  Their last name had been misspelled, Adeline's first name was misspelled. both of their ages were incorrect and it had Adeline's birth place as New Jersey instead of Vermont!

Now that I have a year's worth of new information, there's enough to make rewriting some of the chapters of the family history website worthwhile.  I just finished rewriting Chapter 3, "Ann Catherine Stembel Grove Michael (1774-1838), Harmony, MD)".  I included new material, corrected a few errors, cleared up some poor wording, and probably added a ton of new misspelled words.  Oh, and I added some pictures.

Recordings Unlimited

Last week I was again contacted by a member of a band in the Chicago area who had cut a record in Oren Stembel's recording studio, Recordings Unlimited, back in 1967.  The writer, who identified himself as Steve, a member of a band called Thee Other Half, saw my earlier post on this blog and sent me an email to ask if I would put him in touch with the music historian I had mentioned in that post.

Fortunately I still had the historian's email address handy so I sent it too him.  Steve replied to thank me and included a scan of Oren's old business card.  He thought other family members might be interested.

The 1960s were an exciting time for rock and roll.  A lot of fledgling bands in the Chicago area played gigs in clubs and parties and high school functions to earn enough to have a demo recorded in Oren's studio.

Note. The Stembel Family History website just received it's 5,600th visitor today!
http://familyhistory.stembel.org/

Frederick Stembel's House

I was browsing the Internet the other day and I happened onto the Library of Congress's "Historical American Buildings Survey" website.  One of those structures Is Frederick Stembel's house in Middletown, Maryland (since demolished).



Here is what Frederick Stembel's house looked like around 1915. 

Here is a brief history of Frederick's house (from the Library of Congress):

In the late 1700's, Middletown was a small, rural village, situated in the heart of a broad, fertile valley in the Maryland mountains. Through it passed a toll roadway known as the Frederick Pike that connected Baltimore with Cumberland and later became a part of the Great National Pike. Frederick Stemble, a Revolutionary War veteran and local resident, built his house along this road in Middletown in 1790. The house, as originally built by Stemble, was a five bay 2 1/2 story brick structure, with a one story brick kitchen appended to the rear. Stemble himself was not a man of any great historical merit, but he did live in the house intermittently until his death in 1840. Soon after, the house was sold off within his family.

Some time thereafter, a two story split log and mortar addition was constructed in the rear of the house; in the 1880's the south and west facades were "Victorianized" with the addition of the highly ornate wooden porch that featured decorative cast iron cresting. In 1926, the building was once again enlarged with the addition of the third story onto the main part of the house. After the death of its most recent owner, the Stemble house was purchased by the adjacent Zion Lutheran Church, and in May 1980 the house was demolished to provide space for a church parking lot.

Sometime in the late 1970s, the Zion Lutheran Church - located right next door to Frederick Stembel's old house - purchased the old house and decided to tear it down to make room for more parking, the Middletown Valley Historical Society sprang into action to document the structure and design of the house before it was demolished.  The house was carefully measured and it's construction material examined and everything was documented on six architectural drawings.  To view these go to the Library of Congress's search page at http://memory.loc.gov/pp/hhquery.html and type in "Stemble House" (make sure the name is spelled with a -ble).  This should find the Stemble House file.  At the top left, click on the "6 drawings" icon.

Here are two images from that survey.

50th Wedding Anniversary!

Judy Stembel Thomas recently sent me an email with a couple of pictures of her and her husband Jerry  celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary!  They were married September 13, 1957 in Vermillion County, Illinois.

Also pictured is their son, Bradley, and his wife Michelle, and their two daughters Chaney (13) and Cassandra (11).

Judy and Jerry live in Bourbonnais, Illinois (about 40 miles south of Chicago).

Judy is a great-great granddaughter of Theophilus Stembel who settled in Benton County, Indiana, around 1843.  Theophilus was the son of John Stembel (Champaign County, Ohio) who was the son of Frederick Stembel (Middletown, Maryland), who is our common ancestor.

Congratulations to Judy and Jerry!   

October Update

I think I've mentioned that my current goal is the find all the census records of all the Stembel family members and enter the information into my family database.  I made a spreadsheet of all the major family members showing which censuses they were alive for.  When I find that record I show it in the spreadsheet.

I figure there are 870 family members so far and each was alive for an average of 5 censuses, that means I have to find over 4,000 census records.  Since Ancestry.com has all the records online I can do all the research at home (in my pajamas if I choose!).  I think I'm about 45% done, so I've got at lot more work to do, but even so I now have more information than I had when I wrote the family history that is on the Internet (at http://familyhistory.stembel.org/), so I've begun rewriting some of the chapters.  I began with a section of Henry Stembel's chapter where I had made a gross mistake (what are the chances of there being TWO William H. Protzmans, both born the same year, living in the Dayton, Ohio, area?  Pretty slim I would say, but of course there were two, and of course I picked the wrong one to write about originally. That has been corrected).

Don't be surprised if the website looks a little different in the future. I like to write my own HTML code so that's why it looks so plain.  I think it's time for me to learn some new HTML tricks and improve the way it looks.  Then again, maybe this old dog is too old to learn new tricks.  We'll see.

Another Stembel checks in!

More good news.  Last week I received an email from Steve Stembel, the grandson of Gilbert Stembel who was the brother of my grandfather, Grover Stembel.  They were raised in Wheatfield, Indiana.  My grandfather died young and his wife eventually moved her family to Elkhart, Indiana.  Gilbert moved to Chicago.

I'm glad Steve got on touch.  I don't know very much about his family because both of our families weren't very good at keeping in touch, but I hope now I can fill in some of the missing information in Gilbert's family.

Steve's dad went by the name of Oren Stembel, the same name my dad went by and the same name as me.  Steve's dad owned a recording studio and recorded a lot of local rock and roll bands.  You can read more about it here.

The Copins Check In!

Back in January I posted some pictures Dave Stembel of Philadelphia sent me.  They were pictures taken at a family get-together his parents had with Clarence Stembel (Oxford, IN) and his daughter's family, the Copins.  Davids parents and the Copins both lived in Silver Spring, MD, at the time.  You can see the pictures here.  One of the pictures was of the Copin family: Mary Alice and Ray and their two children, Lucinda, age 9, and Charlotte, age 5.

Imagine my surprise (and delight) a few weeks ago to receive an email from Charlotte Copin (now Charlotte Patterson)!  While browsing the Internet she had come across our blog and saw her picture, and sent me an email to say hi.  She told me that she and her sister are both married and that, while her mother died a few years after the picture was taken, her father is still living and has remarried.  They all live in the Seattle area now.  Like David Stembel, who provided the photographs, Charlotte is an architect. She and her husband Mark have two children, a son and a daughter.

The Copins are related through Theophilus Stembel who settled in Benton County, Indiana, about 1845.

Throughout history, the normal trend is for families to lose touch with each other over time, especially the more distant relatives.  The Internet and search engines such as Google are now bringing families back in touch. Charlotte and I are fourth cousins - with different last names even - and yet here we are, in touch for the first time in our lives.  Welcome, Char, Cindy and Ray!