I caved.....and another little nugget found.

Yeah yeah yeah......I said I was done for awhile and taking a break and I was truthful about that.  I was struggling though because as I was going through my files and moving things around, I was having to refer to my tree and I kept seeing those danged little shaky leafs!  I got an email about new subscribers getting 50% off a subscription and using a friend's suggestion I called and they honored the discount for me too.  That means I'm good for 6 more months but it doesn't mean I'm going to back to what I had been doing.  I am rather enjoying where I'm at with my searches.  I've gotten all of my digital photos organized and have cleaned up my entire genealogy folder.  I got rid of iCloud because it wasn't working like it was supposed to (although ironically after I deleted some stuff from it the 30 missing gigs of information suddenly appeared - too late Apple).  I am using Google Drive and it is AMAZING!  $2.99/month for 200 gigs and the file structure is just like windows.  It's stupid easy to drag and drop files where I want them.......I love it.  I'm typing this on a laptop I know is actively dying but I'm doing so with the knowledge that all of my files are safely backed up on a thumb drive in my safe and in the cloud, unlike my last hard drive failure.

So what nugget did I find?  I've written a lot about my Comstock ancestry and wrote an entire blog post about my 3rd great-grandmother Barbara Harris Comstock.  In there I referenced that I'd found that she married George Tibbett 28 Feb 1882, almost 8 years after the death of her husband David Barkley Comstock.

Bottom lines (record #170)

I wrote in that previous blog that I could find no record of them together after the marriage, which struck me as odd given that I know where she was between then and her death.  I was poking around at genealogybank.com a few nights ago and there it was, in the Grand Rapids Evening Leader 28 Feb 1884 (exactly 2 years after they married) they divorced.

Thankfully the article is incorrect in stating that she resumed her maiden name of Comstock, since her maiden name was actually Harris.  I wouldn't have found this if they hadn't messed up.

Interestingly, I also found mention of a lawsuit that Barbara was involved in.  There were quite a few mentions of legal filings and then this really lengthy article about her winning her lawsuit in the Grand Rapids Evening Leader 07 Apr 1881.  You will have to zoom in on this to read it but I tried it with my laptop and it does work.

What was particularly interesting to me about this article is that a cousin in California sent me a bunch of photos and in them was this picture of houses that David Barkley Comstock allegedly built.  The article lists clues to a possible location.  All in all, I'm glad I went back through and scoured those papers more.

Another awesome "gift" from California

It's been so long since I've blogged that I'm not even sure where to start.  I've had some exciting finds since last time I wrote.  I decided that I'd write about another find from my cousin in California.  I already wrote one blog about a find that she sent me and several of the Comstock family photos I've blogged came from her aunt's belongings as well.  She told me well over a year ago that she had letters written by my 2nd great grandfather George Delmer Comstock and that she'd send me what she found.  Out of the blue a few weeks ago she sent me one:

I've never seen anything of Delmer's writing so this was neat to see just for that.  It's even nicer to see because he's referencing the death of my grandma's sister Georgia, giving an insight into his thoughts about her.  But the really intriguing part is his talk of visiting with Vernon S. Phillips of Ohio, who contacted him and drove up regarding the Comstock genealogy.  As someone who has made lots of phone calls and sent many letters and emails it's really cool to see that 83 years ago this was occurring as well!  He mentions that they (Delmer and Vernon) along with the Governor (now I have to figure out how he connects to my tree) are from the royal house of William the Conqueror of England (which I'd never seen or heard before).

Today I got to looking in my file to figure out where Vernon would fit.  Delmer mentions their "great grandmothers letters", which I would obviously give anything to get my hands on.  Since my family doesn't have them (which makes me sick since Delmer says he has them in the letter) I guess I need to find Vernon's family.  I looked at Delmer's grandfather Amos Comstock, son of David Comstock and his 2nd wife Hannah Parris (I've never found a death record for Hannah but she was born in 1765 so the listed letters have to be OLD) and found that a sister Hannah married Joseph Phillips.  I check out some family trees and find that they (apparently since I have no actual documentation) had a son Daniel Paris Phillips.  Daniel had a son Vernon Servilian Phillips, who lived in Akron OH.  Doing some digging I found that Vernon died in Akron in 1935 so I'm not sure how much correspondence happened after this letter.  With census records I found that he had a son Stanley Nash Phillips (that I think I found on findagrave dying in 1950) and a daughter Katharine Louise.  I found Katharine married in 1937 to Arthur Harvey Durant and dying in AZ in 1998.  Unfortunately in the 1940 census they had no children so I need to track down her obituary and see if there are any surviving grandchildren of Vernon.  Fingers crossed that this pans out for me!  I'm not sure that after this much time the letters even exist BUT Vernon was clearly interested in genealogy and perhaps someone has held onto his work.  He joined the Sons of the American Revolution (but didn't use his Comstock connection):

Another benefit of researching Vernon today is that I stumbled on someone on Ancestry that had the will of my 5th great grandfather David Comstock (Delmer and Vernon's great grandfather) from 1827:

I'm not sure how long it will take but this family seems to keep coming around offering little tidbits for me to find and research further so I'm hopeful that somewhere along the line I may find the letters and unlock a possible royal connection! 

How did I overlook that?

I've recently started going through my file folders with the many pages of genealogy that I'd printed/collected over the past decade or so.  I want to decide what's really necessary to have in hard copy, what can be scanned and what can be pitched altogether (what is really accessible via the internet now that I don't need to keep a copy of).  There is a scanner feature on the copier at work so on my breaks I can quickly run through a folder, scan it to .pdf and email it to myself.  This project is going to take awhile but it's got me revisiting many items.

Today's item of note - I've written about my 3rd great grandfather David Barkley Comstock and the Comstock genealogy book I'd gotten from my grandmother's cedar chest.  When I got that book I had quickly slammed as much information into my FTM as I could and left it at that.  I'd always known that David's parents were Amos and Hannah (Upton) Comstock and from that book I had Amos' family "traced" back to the 1600s.  Later on in my searching (as I grew into the hobby and understood the importance of documenting) I looked for Hannah's parents and other than some shoddy looking family trees online I couldn't find anything.  Fast forward to yesterday..........I'm digging through my "Comstock" folder and I have this packet that a gentleman in NY sent me in 2006.........I open it up and vaguely remember looking at it.  I'm not sure why nothing registered with me back then but I'd venture to guess that I saw a little of it, figured it verified what I already had and filed it away.  Upon closer inspection I saw:

Hannah's parents are not only listed but it appears a sibling of hers married a brother of Amos'.  I had the brother in my tree as "William P Comstock" with a matching date of birth for Parris (that'll be shown later) with nothing else, no spouses or children.  This overlooked record held the parents and a sibling of Hannah and also filled in another sibling for Amos (who I'm researching now and has led to finding living descendants in that family).  I also stumbled on an Upton genealogy book on Google books that I haven't even had a chance to peruse yet but I did find and confirm Hannah's parents and their family:  https://archive.org/details/uptonfamilyrecor00upto.  Another item of interest in this record was one of the witnesses "Joseph Shove" - one of Amos and Hannah's daughters Julietta Comstock Harris had a son she named Joseph Shove Harris.  I've always been curious about this name and now I may be able to find something about about that. 

 This information matched what I had from my Comstock book for Amos' father and his wife (which was his 2nd wife/family), with the exception of listing Petersburgh NY instead of Berlin NY (both in Rensselaer County) as the birth location for the children.  I had no further information on any of these family members of Amos until I took a look at these pages and discovered the marriage record for Parris and further into the packet the marriage records for 2 of the sisters of Amos and Parris.

I also stumbled on David's marriage to Hannah which confirmed the parentage I had listed from the Comstock genealogy book

 After I'm done researching Parris' family I'll have to work on these 2 sisters and see what I can find there. 

 So I'm looking at all of this information and wondering if I can trust it - is this any better than the Comstock genealogy book?  Where did this information come from?  I'm unsure what the name of the book that these came from is but again, it's an undocumented book.  Who provided the information?  I then read through the 1st three pages I'd been sent, which appeared to be from an old newspaper article covering history of the area and I found all the proof I need that this information is accurate:

 I'm not sure how this Daniel Upton is connected to Hannah's father Isaac but I suspect he's a nephew.  These books he turned over (and what got transcribed into the above clippings) are priceless records of the Quaker church Amos and Hannah belonged to.
Another interesting tidbit that I found is in this historical wrap-up of the Quaker church at Adams, MA was a writeup about Susan B. Anthony and how she was born at Adams to strict Quaker parents.  I saw a Susan Anthony as a witness in a couple of the marriage records and jumped to the conclusion that she was a witness at the marriages of my 4th great grandfather's siblings but as she was born in 1820 that's impossible.  Her wiki page  lists her father as being Daniel Anthony and I'm confident he was a witness at them as he's listed as a witness in most of them.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_b_anthony.  I'm also confident that at some point as a child she went to church with my ancestors. 

Apparently my 5th great grandfather did something to upset the church:

For close to 8 years I had information at my fingertips to fill in so many gaps in my tree...........I wonder how many other nuggets of information I'll find as I reorganize my papers?

Robbing the cradle to start over - George and Minnie Comstock Swank

So far my blog has focused on the Comstock family, my maternal grandmother's maternal ancestry.  I have mentioned my great grandmother Minnie Comstock Swank and now is as good a time as any to talk about her and segue into the Swank family, (which is one of my biggest brick walls).

Minnie Alvina Augusta Comstock was born August 6th, 1897 at Grand Rapids, Kent Co MI, 4th of 5 children of G.D. and Augusta Comstock.  I'm not sure why but she got 2 middle names, the 1st part being the name of her mom's older sister.  Minnie married George Swank on August 6th, 1920, also at Grand Rapids.  As listed in my post about Minnie's sister Clara, George and his brother William married sisters but George robbed the cradle even more, he being born August 28th, 1870 at Paris Twp, Kent Co MI.

Minnie was George's 2nd wife, he having been married in 1899 to Margaret "Nellie" Kelley (1871-1916).  They had 2 children:  Mary Mona 1902-1980  (Max Patterson) and James Ronald (1900-1956).  According to my grandma's notes Nellie died "in the operating room".  Her notes list that when George remarried Mona and Ronald went to live with Nellie's sister.

My grandma stayed in touch with Ronald's children (who were her age) but Mona's family didn't seem to have any interest in the 2nd family (my grandmother and her siblings weren't even mentioned in Mona's obituary).  I did speak with a son and a daughter of Mona who were both really friendly with me.  Last I knew one of Mona's sons still lives on the old farmstead at 28th/Patterson in Kentwood.  I am in contact with a widow of one of Ronald's sons and she is such a sweet woman - truly a gem who reinforces why I love this hobby.

1900 & 1910 Paris Twp, Kent Co MI - George and Nellie with George as a farmer.  In 1910 his brother Adam and sister Elizabeth are neighbors.
1920 Paris Twp (Kent Co Farm Line Rd) - George widowed with 2 children, George farming
1930 Grand Rapids - 715 Worden St SE - George and Minnie (George shaved 20 years off his age) - George listed as a "laborer - odd jobs"
1940 Paris Twp (RR6 Breton Rd SE - probably 3559) - George and Minnie - George farming

  This picture has George 3rd from the right (holding who I assume is Mona) - I assume Nellie is holding his arm.  This photo came from my grandmother (yet another item I didn't get from her while she was alive) - nobody else is identified but my assumption is it's the Kelley family as nobody looks like George's parents.

James Ronald Swank

In spite of already being 50 years old with 2 grown children George remarried and started another family with Minnie:

William Peter Swank 1921-2004
Claire Augusta Swank 1923-2001 (my grandma)
Georgia Leviney Swank 1929-1933
George Charles Swank 1934-1994

Mary Mona Swank

I don't know much about my grandma's siblings.  She wrote that she didn't know her brother George like most siblings because she was so much older and because he had alcohol problems. He lived with Minnie until her passing and ended up taking his own life.  My grandma was never one to talk about someone's problems so she didn't discuss him.   She did write that when she and my grandpa would visit her parents George wouldn't be around so I don't think there was much in the way of contact there.

George Swank 80^th birthday 05/30/1950

Back row left to right:

George Swank Jr, William Swank, Melvin and Kathy Swank

Middle row left to right:

George Sr and Minnie Swank, Marilyn and Bunny Swank

Bottom row left to right:

Donald Swank holding Connie, Ronald Swank holding Chris, Laverne and Claire Hugmeyer holding Craig Hugmeyer

My grandma wrote that her brother Bill was on the Ottawa Hills wrestling team and was "very good".  He extended the basement under their farm home at 3559 Breton Rd SE (Kentwood) and modernized the kitchen and bathroom plumbing.  Upon graduating he started the "Swank Dairy" but was so successful it was a 7 day a week job.  He was very religious and told his father "no more Sunday work".  He ended up in Oregon and I don't recall ever meeting him (as I don't remember meeting any of my grandma's siblings).

My grandma wrote that "Georgia was in the hospital a long time, died of a mastoid infection.  She is laid to rest in the plot next to Peter and Phoebe Swank" (George's parents at Oak Grove Cemetery).  My grandma used to say that her dad's hair went white "overnight" when Georgia died.  I guess she was sick for awhile and they felt guilty they didn't get her into the doctor in time.  Nobody knows if that would have saved her or not.  Her grave was overgrown when I was there a few years ago - the stone is worn completely smooth and has nothing to identify it anymore.   

George passed away May 13th, 1959 at their home in Paris Twp and Minnie passed away July 31st, 1981 at Grand Rapids.  They are both buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Grand Rapids.  I wish I had talked to my grandmother about her father.  The few that are left that remember George have fading memories and weren't in his life enough to have concrete memories.  Minnie's grandchildren remember her fondly.  This is what my grandma wrote about her parents (she refers to her mom as "grandma" as she was writing a niece at the time):

Minnie and Georgia Swank

 

Minnie Swank, Vern and Claire Hugmeyer w/grandchildren 1980

A very strange house indeed - Clara Comstock Swank

I mentioned in an earlier post that there was bad blood between my great grandmother Minnie Comstock Swank and her brother Charles.  From what I can tell 36 years later it all hinged on two burglaries at Clara's home at 4145 Shaffer SE in Kentwood MI.

Clara Barbara Comstock was born August 26th, 1889 at Grand Rapids, Kent Co MI,  the eldest child of G.D. and Augusta Muche Comstock.  My mom said she wouldn't talk about her age and I can't find a birth record for her (or her brothers Charles and William).  She had a baby brother David Muche Comstock that lived from July 21st - September 21st, 1892 and a younger sister Minnie (she'll be in another post).

Clara, Charles, Minnie and William

Clara married February 2nd, 1932 at Fort Wayne IN to William Swank, a brother of George Swank (who took Minnie as his 2nd wife).  William was 18 years her senior having been born November 9th, 1871 at Paris Twp, Kent Co MI and on his 3rd marriage.  William's 1st wife Laura Hindenach died April 7th, 1900 after having given birth to an unnamed boy April 1st (that died on April 2nd).  William's 2nd wife Carrie Squires died January 19th, 1931 and suffered greatly from mental problems.  William died October 8th, 1943 at Grand Rapids and Clara lived as a widow for 34 years.

My uncle Craig told me that the home that Clara and William lived in was delivered by train from Sears.  It was quite the stately home in it's time, complete with servant quarters and a separate entrance and walkway behind the walls for them to get to their room.  My dad remembers the room as having a light bulb hanging from the ceiling as lighting.  Carrie Swank went insane and tried to kill herself and set the house on fire.  My dad recalls that the rafters in the attic were still charred when he was at the house.   

Adrian Daily Telegram January 10th, 1916

My uncle remembers that the house was haunted and that my great grandmother Minnie wouldn't stay overnight in the house.  He remembers Clara staring out the back window and asking her what she was looking at and her pointing at a Civil War soldier on post in the backyard.  Given the deaths of his 1st 2 wives and young baby and his 2nd wife's mental state it doesn't surprise me that strange things happened in the house.  Apparently none of this bothered Clara. 

I digress............Clara was always rather well off, telling my grandma that she'd "never want for anything" after she died.  The Swank family owned fairly large tracts of land in Paris Township including the land that Centerpointe Mall currently sits on.  My mom said that when Clara agreed to sell the land she did it under the agreement that they would name a street after the family.  Swank Dr SE, Kentwood Michigan

Clara went into the Springbrook Manor nursing home after being struck by a car while getting her mail.  She had a broken hip and never recovered to go home.  Her house was burglarized twice, was ransacked and her will went missing.  There were fingers pointed between Minnie and Charles and from what I gather their relationship was never good again.  My mom told me that Charles and his wife hadn't had anything to do with Clara for years before that so perhaps the relationship was already strained.  It makes me sad to think that something could come between the last remaining siblings, especially given that nobody knows what happened. 

My dad drove me by the home about 10 years ago and it looked like it was being renovated.  There was a brand new roof on it (that couldn't have been cheap!) and new doors.  It wasn't long after that it was torn down and a new subdivision built.  Were the new owners being tormented by spirits and gave up on remodeling or did they simply get an offer they couldn't refuse for the land?

I was one when Clara passed away and don't have any pictures with her but I do have this picture of her at her old roll-top desk with a clock that is now in my possession.

 The clock holds a place on the buffet that was made by her father G.D. Comstock that is in my living room.  There is a date written on the back that doesn't correspond to anything in my family tree.  It looks to me like it could be my grandma's handwriting but my grandma wasn't born until 1923.  There is nobody left alive that can tell me why the date is written there.

Another find that came from Clara's house is the stack of postcards pictured.  I was contacted several years ago by a woman who found a post I put on a Rootsweb message board about my Swank and Comstock families.  She told me she had these postcards and asked if I'd like to buy them.  They are all from the 20s to the 60s written between Clara, Charles and Minnie.  I told her I'd like to see them but that I probably couldn't buy them.  She emailed me months later that she was on her way to Grand Rapids to bring them to me and got in a horrible car accident so she couldn't bring them down.  I had forgotten about them until she made the trip to Grand Rapids and dropped them off to my work for me years later (unannounced - it was a pleasant surprise as I had forgotten about them).  I contacted her and thanked her immensely and asked where she got them.  She said she got them from an abandoned home she was digging through in the 70s and described them as being on the floor in an upstairs room that had newspapers covering the floor.  My mom told me that Clara used to line her upstairs floors with newspaper to try to help insulate the lower level.

***I am in no way suggesting a correlation between the burglary and these postcards - just noting that I'm sure they came from Clara's home and found their way back to family after 30+ years***

Clara died at Springbrook Manor in Grand Rapids May 1st, 1978 and is buried with her parents, husband William and her bachelor brother William at Grandville Cemetery.  Although I never met her I can honestly say she was a great woman who was loved by all.  I have never heard an ill word spoken of her and know she was deeply involved in the lives of her nieces and nephews.  

How heirlooms almost vanished - G.D. Comstock the "wood turner"

Finally back to my 2nd great grandfather George Delmer Comstock.  He was born March 11th, 1864 at Grandville, Kent Co MI the 5th of 7 children of David Barkley and Barbara King Comstock.  He married Augusta Bertha Christy Muche of Prussia September 7th, 1888 at Grand Rapids, Kent Co MI.  They had 5 children, 4 living to adulthood and lived in Grand Rapids most of their lives.

What little I know about "Delmer" is from a handwritten family history I received a copy of that was written by my grandmother shortly before her death (again, I'm not sure why she didn't share any of this with me directly).  She writes "they were wonderful grandparents & my brother Bill and I were always welcome to stay with them.  We loved the comfortable beds with the warm quilts and grandma's delicious food was the best.  Our grandparents took a real special interest in our activities and listened to us.  It only takes a few words to describe their way of life, true Christians.  Grandpa wasn't the most ambitious but he loved to read.  He had worked as a wood turner in a G.R. Furniture Factory and my mother (Minnie) told many happy stories about their family life when she was a girl & lived on a small farm in Ada, Mich".

I'm not sure they ever lived in Ada based on the census records from 1900-1940 listing them living in Grand Rapids :

1900 living at 18 Lamont Ct, working as a "wood turner"
1910 living at 92? Woodlawn as a "turner" in a furniture factory
1920 living at 1145 Burton SE as a "wood turner" in a furniture factory (I question the house number)
1930 living at 1105 Burton SE as a "salesman at feed store"
1940 living at 1105 Burton SE, no occupation listed (age 76 so assume retired)

According to his obituary he worked at the "Fancy Furniture Factory" in Grand Rapids for 18 years prior to his retirement.  I find it interesting that he was a wood turner and in 1860 his father listed his occupation as a carpenter.

 After my grandfather passed away in 1997, my grandmother started clearing out her house "so nobody would have to mess with it" when she was gone.  I showed up one day and the Salvation Army was in her driveway and they were loading items up.  She saw me and asked if I would want this buffet and hutch that her grandpa Comstock had made.  I of course took them but found out after the fact that there was a 3rd piece to the set that managed to get away on the truck.  I had never seen these pieces before so I have no idea what the missing piece looks like.

The buffet has held a spot in our living room since 1997 being used as storage (for amongst other things Wii controllers) and as the setting for our Christmas village every year.  The hutch is in my basement awaiting our move to a big enough house that it can be utilized.












There was another piece that my grandma offered me - she told me it was a lamp stand but it looked like a coat rack missing the top hangers.  It was about as tall as me and beautifully turned wood with a hole in the middle (for a cord?).  I didn't see a use for that at the time and let it go.  I kick myself for that!  At least I was able to save these 2 pieces from being hauled off to the Salvation Army.

Delmer apparently had some musical talent as well - I found this article describing a song that he composed:

Grand Rapids Press October 12, 1907

 I found the song here (at one of my favorite Michigan genealogy websites):
 http://seekingmichigan.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p4006coll5/id/256/rec/1

Delmer passed away April 14th, 1950 at the age of 86 of a heart attack.  He is buried with his wife, daughter Clara (William Swank - more on her later) and son William at Grandville Cemetery (in a different section than his father). 

I don't know much more about Delmer - his obituary lists that he and his wife were members of Plymouth Congregational Church but his great grandchildren (my mom and her brothers) remember hearing that he was Jewish and that he wore a yarmulke.  I've found no proof of that but it's intriguing.

Left to right:  Augusta, Clara, Charles and G.D. Comstock - October 1949

 Believe it or not - he lived until 1950 and other than the store picture from my earlier post and these 2 photos I have no photos of him.  Perhaps other cousins will come out of the woodwork that will have more to share?

Barbara King Harris Comstock - a mystery solved

As I've already written several times - I have accumulated a large number of pictures and documents simply by being persistent and reaching out where others normally wouldn't.  The pictures of Barbara's husband David Barkley Comstock that I posted in my last post came from the great grandchildren of two brothers of my 2nd great grandfather.  When I introduce myself to those people it takes a moment to explain how we're related!

Barbara was born May 15th, 1829 at Edinburg, Saratoga County NY, the 11th of 11 children of John Harris and Esther White.  The problem I had was that until last week I only knew about 4 of her brothers and her, and the gap between her and her preceding brother was 10 years leading me to believe she was possibly not their daughter.  I had seen dozens of online family trees listing Barbara as their daughter but had no proof.  I tried tracking down her death certificate to no avail and was really frustrated with this.  Then my Cali connection came through for me again, this time in a big way.  She found in her aunt's belongings the following 2 pages of family notes:

 These papers not only gave me birth, marriage and death dates for Barbara's parents but gave me 7 siblings I wasn't aware of (6 if you count that I had a picture of Royal sent with the other Comstock photos but no way of knowing who he was).  Additionally the second paper helped explain why she had "King" in her name - it was her father's mother's maiden name!  I about fell out of bed (yes, I opened them on my phone in bed when I woke up - always have to check my email for this kind of stuff before I get up) when I read these pages.  I'm told more good stuff is forthcoming and I can't wait to see it!  I'm told letters between the Comstock families in Grand Rapids MI and Sacramento CA exist so I'm hoping to see the handwriting of my 2nd (and do I dare hope 3rd) great grandparents? 

Here is Royal Harris, officially my 3rd great grand-uncle.  I've already tracked down a direct descendant of his and am hoping to find a death record for him soon.  I find him up until 1880.


I know very little about Barbara's life other than marriage to D.B. Comstock and subsequent family.  After losing David she moved to California but apparently found love again with the Canadian George Tibbett who she married February 28th, 1882 at Grand Rapids MI.  Unfortunately other than that record he's a phantom so I don't know what happened to that. 

 On the left is another photo taken from my grandmother's cedar chest.  It saddens me that my grandmother didn't take the time to show me these things.  Perhaps she had forgotten they were there.  I know she never knew her personally but when my grandma died and I found all of this it makes me wonder how much more about their lives I could have known.

These 3 photos on the right are from the California connection.


 

Barbara died of "exhaustion" January 28th, 1894 at Palermo, Butte County CA. I stumbled on her obituary using genealogybank - was very surprised and thrilled to find it.  I had a findagrave.com volunteer confirm her burial in Old Oroville Cemetery - he had to completely uncover the marker as it was buried in grass. 

Grand Rapids Press February 10, 1894