Samantha
Jane
(Minard) Armstrong
(1865-1899)
Samantha Jane
"Jennie" (Minard) Armstrong was born on Aug. 29,
1865 in Knox County, OH, the daughter of Clenon
and Mary Ann (Kunkle) Minard. Her death at a young age left her husband with
five young children to raise.
On Sept. 20, 1885, Jennie married Hugh Armstrong (1862-1945). The ceremony was performed by F.G. McCauley in Knox County.
The Minards and Armstrongs were close, and Jennie's sister Ida married Hugh's brother John.
Jennie and Hugh had six children all told -- Lee Leonard Armstrong, Corwin Clenon Armstrong, Elzie
Edwin Armstrong, Minnie May Armstrong, Clytice Armstrong and Byron Stanley
Armstrong. Sadly, Clytice died at only one day of age, in 1894, and was laid to
rest at the nearby Bigelow Chapel Cemetery.
The Armstrongs resided near Jelloway and Nunda, Knox County, about 15 miles northeast of the county seat of Mt. Vernon.
The photo seen here shows the family circa 1892, with four of their six children, from left to right: Elzie, Lee, baby Minnie and Corwin. An error in the original printing of the photograph resulted in a distortion of Corwin's head and the background picket fence at far right.
The names and birthdates of their children were written in a family Bible published in 1881. Today, the Bible is in the hands of a direct descendant, with a copy of key pages held in the archives of the Ohio Genealogical Society.
According to a local newspaper, Jennie was
"a good and useful woman. For some time she superintended a Sabbath school
at Biglow chapel and was a faithful member of the Methodist Protestant
Church."
Tragically, Jennie came down with typhoid fever, and passed
away on the Fourth of July, 1899. She was buried beside her infant daughter
Clytice at Bigelow Chapel Cemetery. She left behind her husband and five young children, who grew up never
knowing much about their true mother.
The photo seen here shows Hugh and his five motherless children posed with an empty chair in front of their home circa 1901.
According to a memoir by a granddaughter:
It was common in the 19th century to take a picture of the family after the mother or father died and show it by having an empty chair in the picture. It was done as a mark of respect for the deceased... It appears there is a crazy quilt laying over a couch or chair to the left. Jennie had made such a quilt. It is beautiful, many, many colored wool and silk patches, each connected with embroidery. We had it at home and Dad put it in the Ashland Museum, on Center Street. They hang it on the wall for special occasions.
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Graves of Jennie and Clytice at Bigelow Chapel Cemetery near Jelloway, 2005 |
Widowed for
three years, Hugh
longed for a partner who would help him share life's burdens. After an unusual
romance, he married Camelia Grace of Tennessee
in the winter of 1902. Their romance was so remarkable that it generated a news story headlined
"Couple First Met at the Altar."
Some eight months ago, through mutual friends, there was an exchange of life
histories between Mr. Hugh Armstrong, of Nunda, Ohio, and Mrs. Camelia Grace, of
Midway, Tenn. A correspondence took place which soon ripened into love and
reached its culmination Tuesday evening at 7:30 o'clock, when, in the presence
of a few invited guests in the M.P. parsonage at Butler, O., they took the
marriage vows.
They had never met until they came together to be man and
wife. Then their imaginary love proved real and fervent for their modest
attentions show them to be foolishly fond of each other.
After the ceremony the groom requested a song, and as he had
long been a candidate for a second term in the matrimonial office, some one
suggested as appropriate that old Methodist hymn, "This is the way I long
have sought and wept because I found it not." A rousing serenade is
prepared for them the evening of their arrival at Nunda.
Hugh and Camelia were married for more than
four decades.
He remained close with his former Minard in-laws, and once hosted a reunion at
their home, seen here. Hugh is seated at far right, with his brother John
squatting at far left.
He passed away on May 23, 1945 in Franklin County, OH, and is buried with his second wife, and several children, in the Shauck Cemetery in Morrow County, OH.
Son Lee married Effie May Grace.
Daughter Minnie never married. Throughout her lifetime, she placed great value on family connections and heritage, and preserved many old photographs, papers and newspaper clippings. She often took her nephews and nieces for picnics in old cemeteries, and would tell them about the relatives buried there.
Elzie's daughter Mary
Jane (Armstrong) Henney carried on Minnie's work, and has done a tremendous amount of research on this
line of our clan. She
herself is a pioneer in Ohio genealogy. For many years, as a key leader and now
Fellow of the
Ohio Genealogical Society, she
spearheaded the effort to identify and locate each cemetery in Ohio, large and
small. This voluminous data eventually was published in the landmark book, Ohio
Cemeteries. In the preface of the book, Mary Jane was thanked for having
"worked tirelessly toward this book until ill health force[d] her to
resign." The book today is considered a standard reference, not only for
genealogists, but for monument companies needing to deliver grave markers, and
in the resolution of cemetery lot disputes. In an addendum published in 1990,
the preface said: "Special acknowledgement should go to Mary Jane Henney
for her dedication in proofing each edit of this addendum."
During the time that
Mary Jane served on the board of the OGS, it planted chapters in each of Ohio's
counties. When
she published a compilation in 1997 entitled From the Annals of Richland
County, Ohio, in conjunction with the Richland County
Genealogical Society, the Mansfield News Journal printed a major feature
article, "Woman Brings Past Alive." The article is seen here.
Mary Jane also has published other books. For nearly two and a half years, from 1985 to 1987, she wrote a weekly column, "Once Upon Another Time," in the Mansfield News Journal.
Copyright © 2002-2003, 2005, 2008 Mark A. Miner