The Blind Fiddler, Papa's grandfather on his mother's side

Obituary for Peter R. Van Houten as published March 8, 1876 in the Western Christian Advocate (publication of the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church), copies held in the Special Collection on the Ohio M.E. Church in the Archives of Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio.

Van Houten --- Rev. Peter R. Van Houten was born near Paterson, N. J. in 1814, and died in Delaware, O., January 20, 1876. When but an infant, a mistake in medical treatment induced lameness, so that until five years of age he was unable to walk, and during the rest of life he walked with difficulty by the aid of two canes.  When nine years of age, by an accident, he lost his eye-sight.  Crippled, blind, and poor, there seemed no hope for him but entire dependence on charity.  But he possessed more than ordinary determination, hopefulness, and mental power.  He soon learned to support himself by his rare musical ability, and the “Blind Fiddler” was in great demand at all the marry-makings in the vicinity of his home.  Converted in 1837, he joined the Church, and renounced attendance upon sinful pleasures and pursuits, and with it, it seemed to him, the hope of self-maintenance.  In 1839 he was licensed to preach, and from that time to the last week of his life he traveled as an evangelist, and was well known in many parts of the land.  In 1845 he came to Ohio to reside.  His acquaintance with the Bible was very thorough.  His knowledge of books, marvelous for a man of his opportunities, would have done credit to any one possessed of sight.  His library, read to him by his faithful wife, was well selected and carefully studied.  His preaching showed original thought as well as deep feeling.  He labored to the last, though under the added weight of a painful disease, and reached his humble home only in time to die.  In full confidence in Christ, he bade farewell to his wife and daughter and opened his eyes at last in heaven.

[End]

Sunbury Cemetery:

 “The blind preacher’s monument, to which was awarded the first premium of the second annual state fair of the State of Ohio, Sept. 27, 1851”.  [Hmmm. The date of this award is puzzling because his first wife, Alice, didn't die till October 1852.] The tombstone has many names on it, his parents, all of his siblings and his daughter Mary R.W. who was never buried there.]

Peter Van Houten (1814-1876) Writes to YOU: the background

I transcribed the handwritten journal (excerpted in the next post) of the Reverend Peter R. Van Houten, my great-great grandfather on my mother’s side.  The journal has been in my mother’s possession.  She is Nancy Lawder Wolcott and the journal came to her from her father, Donald Lawder, and to him from his Aunt Mamie (Mary R. W. Van Houten) Dawes, (daughter of Peter R. Van Houten and his first wife Alice White).  Mamie Dawes is the “little Mary Rebecca W” spoken of in the end of the diary.  It is the last days of Alice White’s life that are recounted, dialogue and all, in Peter Van Houten’s diary.  Peter V. H. was crippled at age 4 from medical maltreatment, and then suffered again when he was blinded in an accident when he was nine years old.  He found his calling in the Methodist Episcopal Church while still in New Jersey and pursued a travelling preacher’s life until a week before he died in 1876.   He dictated his journal to various amanuenses (mostly his wife Alice) as he mentions in the journal.

I have transcribed most of it: sketchily in the first section detailing his travels and preachings; but have included every word when the material was more personal.  The complete original will soon be held in the Archives of Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio.  They have Special Collections on the history of Delaware and on the Methodist Church in Ohio, both important to Peter.  It is good home for the diary.  It would continue to fall apart in generations of attics. It’s an amazing experience to read your 2x or 3x great-grandfather’s words.  I am happy to bring it to the attention of the rest of Peter’s descendents and to the descendents of his brothers and sisters.

I corrected more of the spelling as I went along.  Not as historically accurate, but easier to read.  My explanatory comments are in brackets here and there.

Peter Van Houten (1814-1876) Writes to YOU

Excerpt from his journal (1845-1852).  Peter is sitting at the bedside of his dying wife, Alice.  This is one of their conversations over the 4-5 days before she dies.  He writes:

 "She wishes to know if I had any objection of her sending a present to each of her friends. I told her I had none whatever and whatever she wished for them to have I would either take myself or convey to them.  She seemed very much pleased and said my little testament--give to my mother and have written in it “presented to Rebecca White by her daughter Alice while on her death bed” with this prayer to be added: “Lord save my mother, Lord help my mother to meet her daughter in heaven. Galena, Delaware Co., Ohio, Oct. the eighteenth 1851.” Also one ready-made dress.  Give my bonnet and another dress to my sister Pollie. And another to my sister Harriet which is not made. And a fourth one which is not made to my sister Lucy. She said nothing about sending anything to Warren. She then spoke of little Mary, our only child living who was only three and a half years old, and said my silk apron, veil, parasol, and silver teaspoons, keep till she is grown up as they will not damage by keeping. [jwc: amazingly my Mom has these very teaspoons (shown in photo above).  No one knew whose initials they were until we read Peter's journal.  The initials are Alice's, A. E. V. H. ]  The thirty acres of land in Pennsylvania belongs to her also by heirship and if she should not live then I give it to you. She several times expressed a doubt of Mary living long and at one time said she is so subject to the croup that I think she will be with me by next spring. She remarked after a while, I suppose you will change your situation though I have said nothing to you about it. I exclaimed, “oh Alice, how can I give you up, how can I live without you?” She replied: “I suppose it will be hard, Peter, but nature has so constituted us that time will measurably heal the wound caused by the death of a friend. We conversed about two different individuals whose names it would not be proper here to mention, either of which would be suitable and desirable. I observed that my case would be a critical one as those whom I might desire and with whom I might be suited I could not obtain and those whom I might obtain would be neither suitable nor desirable. I once made a good choice with whom I was suited.  But never expect to be suited as well again. Whatever I have said or done that had a tendency to hurt your feelings, I heartily regret. it is the bitterest ingredient in the cup of my affliction. Home was a desirable place to me and never contented when absent I most fervently hope you will forgive all the past, she replied, “I do, with all my heart and I hope also you will forgive me.” I observed most cheerfully do I forgive.  Oh the solemnity of that hour conversing in the valley of death. Our feelings eternity alone can develop and I would here say to husbands, wives, parents, children, brothers and sisters, be kind and courteous, love as brethren and do good to each other as you have opportunity for the neglect of duty towards your friends and the doing or saying to them that which you ought not, though in themselves they may be of small importance for the time being comparatively speaking, yet they will be keep arrows in your hearts in that day when you are called to die or to stand by the side of a friend when bidding adieu to earth and its cares."

Trip back in time to Delaware, Ohio

This will be just the first post on the Lawders and Van Houtens of Ohio.  I have so much to share.  I know you need a family tree diagram to follow this and I'll figure out how to get it on this blog.  Here's a start, a quick summary of the Lawder side, going from youngest generation to the first born in America:

8.  "the grandkids' generation: Liam, Olivia, Nora's Bryn, et al.)
7.  Our kids' generation "the kids" (Nina, Bryn, Cate, Nora, Jaymie L., Kate P et al.
6.  Our generation ("the cousins")
5. Our parents ("the parents":  Don Jr., Wally and Nancy)
4.  Donald Lawder (Papa) b. 1889
3.  Paul Lawder b. 1865 (Papa's father -- born deaf)   m. Alice J. Van Houten (mentioned below)
2.  John F. Lawder b. 1833 (Papa's grandfather, a lawyer, moved from Ohio to Missouri with his wife (and 1st cousin) Marion Lawder (both their obits are in earlier posts of the blog, you can search on their names)
1.  Rev. William H. Lawder  b. 1809 (Papa's great-grandfather father of John L. and six others, born in Virginia in 1809 m. Catherine McDole (first generation born in the US of this line of Lawders)
  (Will soon share a lengthy obit for William and also for Catherine, from the archives at Ohio Wesleyan)
* The immigrant: Frederic Lawder, (Papa's great-great grandfather, born in Ireland in 1780, died in VA 1866), m. in Virginia to Margaret Reid.

The Delaware Ohio trip was fascinating.  I have to get a little quiet time and start to send out the stories.  LOTS of information, all interesting, some amazing, some sad.  Three Lawder brothers, Papa's great, great uncles, had studied at Ohio Wesleyan University for more than a year in the 1850s-60s, their father (Rev. William H. Lawder, Papa's great grand-father) was a Methodist Episcopal minister and served on the board of Examiners at OWU in the latter half of the 19th c..  And Papa's mother in the 1870s attended a year of prep school there and a year of studying classics and piano, before a disastrous marriage in 1875.  Disastrous in that it was abusive* and ended in divorce and a custody struggle for the two children of that marriage.  I believe, but don't have specific evidence, that some time after Alice was granted a divorce from Alonzo Lumbard, she took their two children, Charles Vernon and Mary G. (who became known as "Aunt Mamie" to Papa and his children) and fled to a safe location where she had a connection.  That was Missouri, to the home of John and Marion Lawder.  Shortly afterward, she married their son, Paul Lawder, and they had a baby, Donald (our Papa) in 1889 in Paola, Kansas (not far from the Lawder's Missouri home. Paul L. would seem like an unlikely choice since he was both deaf from birth and ten years younger than Alice.   But such is fate and the rest is history.  PS. BOTH of their mothers (Marion Lawder and Sarah [Thrall] Van Houten) joined them and were living with Paul, Alice and their three children in the 1890 census.  

* I now know about Alice's first marriage in painful detail because in the Delaware County records of court proceedings, I read Alice's own statement detailing the physical abuse, her constant fear for her life, and Alonzo's failure to support her and the children.  It was shocking to read and I almost felt guilty for bringing it to light.  At the same time, it was an example of how intimate historical research can be when you really "meet" these people from the past and their stories, although only just part, come out.  


Alice and Alonzo's son Charles Vernon Lawder is the subject of an earlier post on his career as a gold mine "shift boss" and his death in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1918.  Search the blog for that story.