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.