Tuesday, June 15, 2010

My Mertena Conundrum: Part III: Clues

My surname Saturday post about the MERTENA line got me to thinking that I needed to wrap-up my posts on the mysterious John Henry MERTENA. There are several clues that I have found online. I would like to summarize those clues here because I have not yet taken the time to write them all down in one place.

The first clue is the marriage record of Amos TETRICK and Rolla MERTENA on 21 Feb 1872 in Jackson County, Illinois. I've found the entry in the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index at the Illinois State Archives website. John Henry MERTENA lived in Jackson County at the time of his marriage to Carrie ORTH in 1876. Perhaps Rolla was the sister of John Henry MERTENA. I need to order the marriage record to see if it has any clues about Rolla's family members.

The only other marriage record for MERTENA's in the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index is for Carrie's second marriage to James Leonard COTHERN in 1887 in Williamson County.

I decided to do a little more research on Rolla MERTENA and Amos TETRICK in the census records. In 1880 in El Dorado, Saline, Illinois, is the following family:

A.J. TETERIC, white, male, age 26, married, dry goods merchant, b. Illinois, f.b. Illinois, m.b. Illinois

Cinderela TETERIC, white, female, age 22, wife, married, keeping house, b. Illinois, f.b. Pennsylvania, m.b. Pennsylvania

Birdie TETERIC, white, female, age 5, daughter, single, b. Texas, f.b. Illinois, m.b. Illinois

N.B. TETERIC, white, male, age 28, brother, single, dry goods merchant, b. Illinois, f.b. Illinois, m.b. Illinois

H. MARTINA, white, male, age 15, brother by law, single, clerk in store, attends school, b. Illinois, f.b. Pennsylvania, m.b. Pennsylvania

Barlius DENIS, mulatto, female, age 15, servant, single, domestic servant, cannot write, b. Illinois, f.b. Illinois, m.b. Illinois

This is likely the right family because the brother-in-law of Amos TETRICK has the surname MARTINA, which is most likely a variant of MERTENA. Saline County is one county east of Williamson County, where John Henry MERTENA married Carrie ORTH. It also borders Franklin County to the southeast and is two counties east of Jackson County. Here is a county map of Illinois. Rolla must be a nickname for Cinderella. She was born about 1857-1858 in Illinois. This means she was about 14 when she married in 1872. This is possible, but I'm wondering if the age in the census record is slightly off. Amos and Rolla must have moved to Texas around 1875. Both of Rolla's parents were born in Pennsylvania. There was mention that John Henry the son's father, our mystery man, was born in Pennsylvania. Maybe he was born in Illinois, but his parents were born in Pennsylvania. Or maybe he was older than Rolla and H. MERTENA and was born in Pennsylvania before their parents moved to Illinois.

I couldn't seem to find Cinderella/Rolla in the 1900 census, but I did find her in the 1910 census. She was living in Osceola Township, St. Clair, Missouri. This is in southwest Missouri. The family was as follows:

Cinderella TETRICK, head, female, white, age 58, widowed, mother of one child, one child still living, b. Pennsylvania, f.b. Pennsylvania, m.b. Pennsylvania, speaks English, own income, able to read and write, owns home free of mortgage

Byrd GOLLAR, daughter, female, white, age 34, divorced, mother of one child, one child still living, b. Texas, f.b. Illinois, m.b. Pennsylvania, speaks English, milliner, own shop, works on own account, able to read and write

Harry GOLLAR, grandson, male, white, age 6, single, b. Missouri, f.b. Missouri, m.b. Texas, attends school

This census record gives Cinderella/Rolla's birthplace as Pennsylvania instead of Illinois. Her age suggests a birth date of 1851 to 1852, which is more likely, given her marriage date of 1872.

I also did a Google search for Amos TETRICK, and came up with the following info. On this Perry County, Illinois website, there was a page about epidemics and early doctors. There was a general practitioner there named Amos Jubilee TETRICK who settled in the town of DuQuoin in 1858. His father had immigrated from Germany. He received his medical degree from McKendree College in St. Louis. His wife was Polly BARRON of New York. He died in 1901 at the age of 80. Could this possibly be my Amos' father? No wife named Cinderella or Rolla was mentioned, and because of his age, I assume this couldn't be the same Amos as Cinderella/Rolla's husband.

Next, I found a copy of Cinderella's death certificate at the Missouri Digital Heritage Project website. It said her parents were John MERTENA of France and Hannah MILLBURN of Pennsylvania. My John Henry's birthplace was once listed as France. If he is Cinderella's brother, is it possible his father was born in France instead? Cinderella was born 25 Mar 1852 in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. She died of diabetes melitis 17 Feb 1916 in Osceola, St. Clair, Missouri. The informant was Mrs. W.H. ROEDER of Osceola. She was buried in Osceola on 18 Feb 1916. I then found that she had an obit in the St. Clair County Democrat on 24 Feb 1916 and 16 Mar 1916. I obtained this info from the St. Clair County obituaries and deaths indexes at Ancestry.com. I need to order this obit.

I also need to order the obit of Amos TETRICK, who died on 10 Sep 1908 and had an obit in the same newspaper on 17 Sep 1908. He did not have a death record online because the death records database at Missouri Digital Heritage does not begin until 1910.

What's also interesting is that in 1870, in Perry County, Illinois, Amos TETRICK the physician is listed with his wife and children. His sons, Noble B. TETRICK, who was living with Amos and Cinderella TETRICK in 1880, and Jubilee TETRICK, whom I presume may be the same person as Amos J. TETRICK, were both listed as druggists. There is a family legend that John Henry's mother married a man who was a druggist after her first husband (John Henry's father) died at sea. Perhaps John Henry's sister married a druggist instead of his mother. In 1880, Noble and Amos are listed as dry goods merchants. I have seen in other branches of my family dry goods merchant and druggist used interchangeably in the census.

Amos TETRICK the physician is also enumerated in St. Louis in 1870. Family legend states that John Henry and some of his children were buried in St. Louis. The son of John Henry MERTENA, also named John Henry MERTENA, may have been born in East St. Louis, Illinois, according to his death certificate.

These are all the clues that I have for now. My next post will summarize my to-do list.

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