The Lost Souls of Bethany Orphanage

From researcher and archivist Carl Bloss:

"While proofing the translation from the German of the Bausman History found in the Board Minutes Bk 1, we found the names of the first 4 children that Rev. Boehringer took in at Morris Street: being Caroline Engel, but the next 3 were Vogel's. We found them in Yundt's and Vandevere Histories as Fogel, but we couldn't find them in the Book of Life? We know and understand the role that Caroline Engel held as the first child to enter the orphanage but no very little about many others.

 The fire at Womelsdorf in 1881 seemed to have destroyed all the children’s records, so they had to be reconstructed from the past; any notes carried over, memories of children remembered from the past even though not currently living at the institution. The Books of Children and then the Book of Life were the reconstructions but many names of children seem to have been missing. These are the “Lost Souls” of Bethany. 

Rev. Yundt made the first attempts by keeping a list of children already at Bethany in the year 1886, the year he became the Superintendent and eventually published in his history of Bethany. Rev. Vandevere repeated this list and added more to the year 1962. There are a variety of other lists that we found in different locations of the Archives as well the census lists.

So, Who were the VOGELs? From the German translation we read: ( On 21 September 1863, the first orphan was accepted into the home of Pastor Emanuel Bӧhringer, No. 702 Morris Street, Southwark, Philadelphia. In the October number of “The Shepherd of the Lambs”, Pastor Bӧhringer reports as follows: “ Accepted children: Karoline Engel from Philadelphia – 6 years old. Heinrich Vogel from Perryville(sic) Parryville, Carbon Co, Pa. – 11 years old. Franz Johannes Vogel “ – 8 years old. Philippina Vogel “ 5 years old. The last three are orphans of the fallen Sergeant Konrad Vogel, who fell on 14 September 1862 in the battle at South Mountain, Md., who left behind a poor widow with eight children.”

From these statements alone, we have, genealogically, been able to track Konrad Vogel and his family at that time. In the 1859 census, we find Conrad Vogel, age 26, as a shoemaker from Germany living in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife Margaret, 27, son John 5 born in NY, and daughter Mary 2. In the 1860 census we find Conrad Vogel, 35, wife Margaret 38, son John H 15, Mary E 12, Peter, 10, Henry 6, Francis 3, Philippine 1, Caroline & Louisa 4/12 and probably his mother-in-law, Phillipa West (Werther), 74, living in Weissport, Franklin Twp, Carbon County, Pa. (Parryville area). In the Boyd’s Pa State Business Directory we find Conrad Vogel living in Parryville, PA in 1861.

Also in 1861, we find Conrad Vogel enlisted in Company F, Pennsylvania 42nd Infantry Regiment, 1st PA Rifles for Civil War service on May 29, 1861 as a Sergeant. His (47 page) widow’s Pension file verifies his death at South Mountain, Md among 443 known Union deaths in that Battle (Fold3.com). The 2 Widow’s pension was filed in 1863. With the death of their mother on January 16, 1869, guardianship and pension was transferred of the minor children to daughter Mary AVENS of Brooklyn, NY. The 1870 census shows Wm Avenes 27, engineer, and Mary, 22, along with Henry 15, and apprentice boilermaker, Francis 15 an apprentice cigar maker, Philippine 11 at school as with Louisa 10.

Information on Ancestry shows that Philippine survived and the Archivist has been in touch with Michael Fanning, 3x great grandfather being Konrad Vogel through Philippine. (hntsgt@gmail.com) We look forward to sharing known pictures of Philippina’s family over the years. The family did not seem to know about this part of their lives. So we have learned a little bit more about another of the several “Lost Souls” of the Civil War and our own past. It is a known fact the “Bethany” had served more than 129 children through the Pa Soldier’s Orphans School Program after the Civil War – Another topic"

Sergeant Conrad Vogel: From German Immigrant to Civil War Casualty

Conrad Vogel, my 3x great grandfather was born in the town of Germersheim in the Bayern (aka Bavaria) region of Germany in December, 1823. He was born to Philipp Jacob Vogel and Philippina Werther. Ancestry.com provided an image of his baptismal record from the Lutheran church in Wörth.He married Margaret Huhn and after the birth of their first son, Johannes (John), they immigrated to America.

They settled in Brooklyn and in 1847 had their first daughter, Mary. The 1850 census shows them living in Brooklyn's 1st Ward, which would be today's Brooklyn Heights/Downtown area. His occupation was listed as a shoemaker.

By the 1857, Conrad and Margaret had moved to Parryville, Pennsylvania. The 1860 census report confirms them in Franklin Township, Carbon County and he is listed as a carpenter. They had eight children by this time, John, Mary, Peter, Henry, Francis, Phillipine (my 2x great grandmother), Caroline and Louisa Vogel. They owned the property they lived on, which was valued at $500, and their personal property value was $100. It seemed that they were living a comfortable life... until the Civil War.

Union Army Roster Card For Conrad Vogel

 

Conrad enlisted in the Union Army in Harrisburg on May 29, 1861 and was placed in the 42nd Volunteer Infantry, Company F. He enlisted as a sergeant as part of the Pennsylvania Bucktail Rifles, also known as "Kane's Rifles". Bucktails carried breech-loading Model 1859 Sharps Rifles, normally only issued to sharpshooters.According to information online, Company F was known as The Irish Company, so I expect Conrad may have stood out among his fellow soldiers.

Battle of South Mountain

 

This regiment fought in several important battles during the Maryland Campaign, including the Battle at Bull Run (Manassas), on July 21, 1861. In September of 1862, Union forces needed to regain control of three passes at South Mountain, Maryland. On the 14th of September, the battle of South Mountain took place at three locations: Crampton's Gap, Fox's Gap and Turner's Gap. I do not know at which gap Sgt. Vogel was fighting but he was shot and killed during the fierce battle. The Union Army was victorious but not before losing 443 men. Three days later the Battle of Antietam took place and another 2,108 Union soldiers were killed. It is believed that the remains of those killed at South Mountain were buried with those of Antietam.

A rendering of Confederate dead at Fox's Gap.

 

There were still two and a half years left before the end of the civil war that ravaged our nation. However, the death of Conrad Vogel, 39 years old, had already ravaged the Vogel family before the end of the war. Margaret was unable to care for her eight children and had died in New York in 1865 at the age of 40 years old.

I will continue the remarkable story of the Vogel children in the next post.

Alice Curtis Fuller Wright Frazer LeRoy

My great-grandfather, Frederick Harriman Wright, is a difficult subject to nail down. An artist & sculptor who lived from 1863 through 1933, I have not been able to locate one photograph of him. The only image we have in the family archives is this very intense self-portrait.

F. Harriman Wright

Before marrying my great-grandmother, Marie Antoinette Finck, he was married to Alice Curtis Fuller (1865-1947). They were married on October 9, 1886 in Manhattan. It was a short marriage and they were divorced in 1888. I found her to be an interesting woman, however, and continued to do some research on her.

Alice Fuller was the daughter of William James Appleton Fuller of Boston and Charlotte Elizabeth Oakes of Charleston, SC. Mr. Fuller was an attorney who had graduated from Harvard. Mr. Fuller was a master chess player and appears to have lead an interesting life:

William James Appleton Fuller was born at Boston, April 8th, 1822.
After spending some time at Harvard College, he paid a brief visit to Europe. He commenced playing chess at sixteen; and enjoyed the instruction of Mr. Hammond, who, with Dr. Oliver, used to play with him at odds. A checkered life gave him but few opportunities to cultivate the game. Among his numerous adventures, we are told that "he has hunted whales in the Polar seas - swam for a wager, and most unexpectedly for life, at Niagara Falls and among the amphibious Fayaways of the tropics - taught school and edited newspapers in the Far West - lost his way and everything else but his life, in crossing the wilderness on his route to California - doubled every cape and horn on the globe - and last, not least, drunk champagne with M. Godard while high up in a balloon." Although he taught chess while on a whaling voyage to the officers of the ship, and encountered in Cuba the magnates of the ever-loyal isle, he did not resume regular practice of the game until he settled in New York in 1854. Then he entered the Club, and in the following year took charge of a Chess department in Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, where he displayed high literary as well as powerful Chess abilities. He was chiefly instrumental in giving accelerated impulse to the outward march of the game, and his brilliant, humorous, and instructive column aroused an enthusiasm for our sport, which had never before been experienced by the public of this country. Mr. Fuller is now (1859) engaged in the successful practice of the law, in New York, and is an Honorary Member of the New York Club.

-Prof. George Allen, 1859 (copied from http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/Fuller.html)

Back to Ms. Alice... after divorcing Frederick H. Wright, she married Dr. Francis MacDonald Frazer in September of 1896. MacDonald was the son the Rev. Dr. Frazer, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Newark, NJ.

A Peek Into the Hurley Family & The Polo Grounds

(L-R) Vera Hurley, Borromeo Hurley and newly married George Wright &Madeleine Hurley

August 1944
 

On my mother’s maternal side, we have the Hurley family. My grandmother’s name was Madeleine Elizabeth Hurley and was born on May 13, 1919. She would have been 102 in a couple of weeks but she passed away in February 2006 at 87 years old. She was born in Manhattan to Bartholomew J Hurley (1879-1963) and Elizabeth C Hoffman (1880-1948). Like most Manhattanites, they lived in an apartment building and at the time of her birth, the family lived at 62 East 129 St near Park Ave. The building still stands but appears to have been heavily renovated as opposed to many of the building on the street. Madeleine was the middle child of the family. Her sister, Veronica, or as we also knew her as Aunt Vera, would live near or with my grandmother for most of their lives. There was a little brother, Borromeo, who was born in 1921. According to the census reports they lived on East 129 St for several years until a move to the Bronx, where they lived at 1021 University Ave near West 165 St. The family remained in Highbridge section of the Bronx for many years.

 

On the left is a young Bartholomew Hurley as a police officer. Right is Elizabeth sitting in Bart's lap during a summer visit to Lebanon Springs, NY.

 

In the 1900 census, Bartholomew was 21 years old and listed as a lithographer. His family lived for a few years in Cornwall On The Hudson when his father, Bartholomew Sr. ran a hotel. He then became a police officer with the NY-Pennsylvania Railroad for a few years. The 1910 census states that he was a theater manager and the family had moved back to the city residing at 166 East 82 St. He eventually took a job with the Independent City Owned Rapid Transit Railroad as a fare collector. This railroad later became the IND line of the NYC subway system. According to my mom, Bart was a token clerk at he the 155 St – Polo Grounds station for many years. I have often wondered how many spectacular sporting events he may have worked in the subway station beneath the action. Did he sneak into the stadium during his lunch break to catch Christy Mathewson win one of his record 373 games? Was he there when Bobby Thompson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round The World” defeated their Brooklyn rivals? How about when Willie Mays made his famous over the should basket catch? There wasn’t just baseball at the Polo Grounds either. Maybe he worked the crowds headed to one of the many Army-Navy football games or those between the Ivy League rivals Fordham vs Columbia University. However, he was surely retired by the time the NY Mets played their first couple of seasons there before Shea Stadium was built.

The Polo Grounds Stadium

Some irony is found with ole Bart’s position at the subway station at West 155 St which sat just beyond the shadows of Coogan’s Bluff. Twenty-four years after he passed away I would be walking the same mezzanines as a NYC Transit Police Officer. The Polo Grounds were long gone by then, replaced by several towering public housing buildings of the same name that were notorious for their crime. Eight years after my great-grandfather died and 15 years before I joined the police department, a horrific incident occurred just down the street from the subway entrance. Two NYC policemen, Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini, were assassinated by avowed members of the Black Liberation Army. The suspects in these killings were also responsible for shootings and deaths of other police officers in California.

One of the longest and most lonely nights of my career I was posted at the West 155 Street station. It was New Years Eve of 1987 and I was stuck there for 12 long hours starting at 4PM. It was cold and desolate with the sounds of fireworks, or was it gunshots, echoing down the stairways throughout the cavernous subway. The times had changed for certain from the heyday of my great-grandfather to the footpost of my young police career.

Going Down To Monto, Lan-ge-roo!

It’s been quite a while since I have made any entries in this family ancestry blog. I cannot state any one particular reason why except life carries you in different directions.

I had restarted my genealogy research a year or so ago and have made some interesting discoveries, at least to me. I have delved a bit deeper into the DNA aspect of the hobby and discovered several connections to distant relatives within my family tree. This has given me affirmation to much of the research.

Peter Simon Fanning III

However, this blog post goes back to my great great grandfather, Peter Simon Fanning III, and his family’s life in northern Dublin in the mid 19^th century. While going over some records I found that Peter’s parents, Peter Fanning and Teresa Courtney, lived on Mecklinburgh St when he was born in 1864. I couldn’t find it on modern era maps and searched out its history online.

I first found a New York Times article that described Mecklinburgh Street as it ran through the center of a square mile of brothels, speakeasies, and slums known as Monto. The next street over was then called Montgomery Street, where this slum area obtained its nickname Monto. It was an infamous red-light district, perhaps one of the most well known in Europe in its day. James Joyce wrote of the area in Ulysses, which he dubbed Nighttown.

By all accounts, Monto was truly abysmal. The streets were lined with brothels and lowly taverns. Its proximity to the railway made it an easy entrance and escape for those looking to get their fill of society’s evils undetected. It became a dumping place for unwed pregnant women. Their children often landed in the hands of nuns who operated orphanages that surrounded the district.

 

A map of Dublin's red-light district known as Monto.

 

In 1864, the Fannings lived at 58 Mecklinburgh Street. I am not certain if this was considered the upper or lower end of the street. This apparently made a difference as the working class residents of the upper end lobbied to have their portion of the street renamed in 1886 to Lower Tyrone Street to disassociate itself with the seedier end of the road. In the 17^th century, the road was called Great Martin’s Lane and in 1911 it was renamed again Waterford St on one end and Railway Street at the other. The whole area was torn down during the 20^th century and was reconstructed in an effort to distance itself with the horrors of its past.

From the genealogical value of this post, the document where this info was gleaned came from the baptismal records of St Mary's Pro-Cathedral on Marlborough Street. Young Peter was given the sacrament of Baptism on November 4, 1864. All writing was done in Latin and their last name was actually listed as Fannin. One small mystery has emerged though. The record (a section that is not pictured here) has Magarita O'Brien as the child's sponsor (I assume this is a Godmother) and there is no male sponsor listed.

 

Peter Simon Fanning baptism record.

Coincidentally, when I was a young father, I had a long trek across Long Island to pick up my son for our weekends together. I often played Irish music on cassettes in my car. On one such tape there was a song by the Dubliners called Monto. My son did not enjoy much of the music on these trips but he did fancy this particular song and its catchy refrain. “Going down to Monto, Monto, Monto. Going down to Monto, lan-ge-roo… to you!” Here is a YouTube of Ronnie Drew's version of the song… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSXwttg88Zo

To read a bit more on Monto and Mecklinburgh Streets visit:

https://wideandconvenientstreets.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/nighttown-dublins-monto/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/world/europe/magdalene-laundries-ireland.html