Martha
(Purinton) Wyandt
(1867- ? )
Martha "Mattie" E. (Purinton) Wyandt (also spelled "Wiant") was born in 1868 in or near Independence, Preston County, WV, the daughter of Thomas and Matilda "Tillie" (Hanshaw) Purinton.
Mattie married Jacob W. Wyandt (1863- ? ) in about 1891. They had at least five children -- Helen Wyandt, Friedricke "Freda" Wyandt, Harriet Wyandt, Owen Heaton Wyandt and one who died young, sometime during the 1890s.
Circa 1896-1903, the Wyandts made their home in Angola, Steuben County, IN, where Jacob was superintendent of public schools. Their three daughters were born there. During that time, he received his bachelor of science degree at Tri-State College (1890).
By 1908, they had moved to Bryan, Williams County, OH.
In 1908, at the death of her uncle Dr. Guy Hanshaw, Mattie was entitled to a 1/32 share of the estate, which included lucrative oil and gas wells. She received an immediate payout from the estate of $57.81 in 1909. At intervals over the years, through 1942, she received royalty payments from the wells. The high point was in 1918, when she received $24.54. In total, Mattie inherited $267.18.
According to Brewer's Directory of School Superintendents and Normal School Principals in 1907, Bryan's school enrollment that year was 902 pupils, and Jacob's salary was $1,300.
Circa 1910, the Wyandts resided at
132 Portland Street in Bryan. The center of town of Bryan is seen
here in a rare old postcard view, circa 1909. Jacob continued his work in
Bryan as superintendent of public schools.
In 1910, Mattie's aged, widowed father came to reside in their home in Bryan. He remained until his death in 1919. His passing was noted in the Sept. 11, 1919 Edon (OH) Commercial newspaper.
When the federal census was taken in 1920, the Wyandts had moved to a residence on Central Drive. That year, Jacob was superintendent of city schools. Jacob remained superintendent at least through 1930, as shown on the census.
Daughter Helen Wyandt (1895- ? ) at age 24 was a "bacteriologist" for the U.S. Navy, circa 1920. She accepted a position as an instructor at University of Nebraska in Omaha, and in 1930 boarded there with the family of Julius and Hazel Glasshaff. At some point she obtained her master of science degree, and focused her career on the study of the shape of human red blood cells. Helen published a scholarly paper in October 1940, entitled "Oval Blood Cells in Human Subjects Tested for Linkage with Taste for PTC, Mid-Digital Hair, Hair color, A-B Agglutinogens, and Sex." The paper was co-authored with Barbara S. Burns of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Click for the full text of the paper. In 1941, with Paul M. Bancroft, M.D. and Theodore O. Winship, M.D., she published another study, in the Archives of Internal Medicine, entitled "Elliptic Erythrocytes in Man." According to the introduction to the 1941 paper, "In recent years attention has been directed to the fact that the red cells of an apparently healthy person are not necessarily round but may be distinctly elliptic or even sausage shaped." Nothing more about her is known.
Daughter Friedricke "Freda" Wyandt (1897- ? ) is lost to history for now.
Daughter Harriet Wyandt (1903- ? ) married (?) Cockfield in about 1929. She was a registered nurse in Bryan circa 1930, when she made her home with her parents.
Son Owen Heaton Wyandt (1907- ? ) graduated from Bryan High School in 1924. In about 1910, he married Harriet (?) (1907- ? ). They had at least one daughter, Joan S. Wyandt. They resided on Clyde Avanue in Chicago, Cook County, IL, where Owen was employed as a bookkeeper in a law office. Owen died in Evanston, IL at the age of 89 on Nov. 28, 1996.
Copyright © 2004, 2008 Mark A. Miner.
Helen Wyandt 1940 paper courtesy of www.genetics.org.