Grace Bernhardt Raney Family Tree

 

Wedding party of Grace Elizabeth Bernhardt & Paul Whitman Raney 2 July 1934, Spokane. Celeste McKenna maid of honor, Freddie Shelton best man. Next to Freddie is Denny Raney, Josephine "Grandma" McKenna in glasses, then our grandfather Frank Raney. Behind Freddie is Butch, two of his brothers to the right.

This blog is addressed to Pat, Sandra, Michele and Paula Raney. As with other family blogs, if you are a child of the above-mentioned persons or of Larry Raney (1942-2008), you add a great- to the individuals described below; if you are a grandchild, you add two greats- .

Miss Grace Bernhardt, Daughter of J.F. Bernhardt of Colfax, will be married Monday morning to Paul Raney, son of Mr. and Mrs. F. Raney of Parkwater. The ceremony will take place at St. Paschal's church in the valley.

Her children recall that Grace Bernhardt Raney didn't talk about her childhood. They believe she'd been an unhappy child. As an adult, she avoided driving past her childhood homes in Spokane. Here are two anecdotes my mother, Jean (Raney) Charbonneau, told me.  At Grace and Paul’s wedding reception in 1934, my mother, then nine, burst into tears and clung to her brother Paul and he hugged her back, tears running down his face. Grace approached, not a little displeased. “Why are you two crying? Everyone’s supposed to be happy here.” She had a point, of course.

Grace and her father "Butch" on her wedding day

Perhaps it was a few months later when Grandma and Grandpa Raney and Mom (maybe Mary Agnes, too) were invited to dinner at Paul and Grace’s apartment. It was the first time Mom ate canned fruit salad tossed with whipped cream, which meant Grace used an egg beater to whip that cream, which took at least 20 minutes of frenzied handle-turning. As an adult, my mother served canned fruit salad with whipped cream on Sundays and special occasions, the electric mixer having become de rigor.

2011 photo of 420 E. Euclid, Spokane, where Paul & Grace reared their family 1945-1950

When parents died young or were not storytellers, their children lacked family stories to pass on. This is an attempt to place Grace (Bernhardt) Raney’s ancestors in the context of our family’s American story.

Melva, Grace, George and George Martin Hyatt c1919

Your mother, Grace Elizabeth Bernhardt, was born 13 April 1914 in Hibbing, Minnesota. She died in Seattle, April 5, 1989.  A relative in Minnesota put Grace in her Ancestry family tree, writing that she was known as “Kissy” as a child. 

1907 postcard of Holy Names Academy, Spokane. The only change when Grace attended was that the trees had grown taller.

Grace attended Holy Names Academy in Spokane, where she met Celeste McKenna, eventually moving in with the McKenna family, who lived on Nora near Hamilton. This was before Frank and Mary Raney bought the house at 513 Nora in 1935. The McKennas became her "adopted" family. Pat Raney and his children called the mother Josephine McKenna "Grandma McKenna." She remained close to Grace and her family the rest of her life.

The McKenna house at E.712 Nora, where Grace lived while attending Holy Names Academy.

During my freshman year at Holy Names Academy, Spokane, everyday I passed Grace's graduation photograph on the wall of the 3rd floor hallway. She was a lovely graduate.

Butch, Paul Raney and son Pat, Felts Field, Spokane. Pat appears to be about a year old.

After Grace and Paul Raney had son Pat in April 1935, they lived at 322 E. Augusta, a couple of blocks away from where our grandparents lived on Nora. 

Grace, Pat and Butch Bernhardt 1936.

Patrick Raney was born in 1935 in Spokane

Sandra Raney was born in 1939 in Spokane.

Larry Raney was born in 1942 in Spokane and died in 2008 in Chelan, WA

 Paula Raney was born in 1949 in Spokane.
 

Michele Raney was born in Seattle in 1952

Grace's mother, Melva Lenore (Hyatt) Bernhardt c.1920

Your grandmother, Melva “Mellie” Lenore Hyatt (27 May1893, Duluth, MN–15 April 1926, Spokane, WA), was listed as a telephone operator in the 1910 census when she was 17. She continued working at the exchange after her marriage to your grandfather, John Frederick Bernhardt, on 7 September 1910.  

According to the 1910 census, John Bernhardt (2 Dec.1888, Duluth, MN-1 Nov. 1954, Pasco, WA) was working as a wagon driver for  "Wholesale Meats" at the time they married. The family lore is that John possibly met Melva when he  worked as a chemist, selecting samples of iron ore from cars waiting to be loaded on ore ships in Duluth harbor, and then taking them to a laboratory for testing. The manager of the lab was Melva's father, George Hyatt. We don't know exactly when Melva and John met. In the 1910 census her father is listed as a laborer in the building trade - not much help. John Frederick Bernhardt's parents immigrated from Austria to Minnesota in 1886.

Melva and John had George in 1912 (d.1975) and Grace two years later.  The 1920 census, enumerated 10 January, lists Melva, age 28, and John F. Bernhardt, age 32, living in Duluth with children George (8) and Grace (5).  John was a fireman for the city, later telling grandson Pat Raney he drove the steam engine and would have to jump down from the driver's seat and block the fire engine's wheels on those steep streets.  They lived in a mortgaged house. The marriage must have been unhappy, because Melva and John divorced two months later, 5 March 1920.

Grace, George and their father John F. Bernhardt. Taken in Duluth, c.1921

Melva married Eliezer Andreas Landre, a recent Norwegian immigrant, on September 16, 1920 in Duluth.

Eliezer Landre

His wife had died in the 1918 influenza pandemic, leaving him with four small children. He, Melva and their combined families were living in Duluth in 1921, but sometime in 1922 moved to Spokane.

After the divorce, John Bernhardt was listed in the Duluth city directory as a meat cutter for CZ Thoreson, boarding with his brother, Leo Bernhardt.

Bernhardt brothers. Tom, not shown, died in 1929 of head injury in auto accident and speculation is the photo was taken after his death, but John looks rather young, so probably between 1918 when Tony returned from the Marine Corps and an arbitrary date of 1921.

John moved to Montana, and worked for the Great Northern Railroad as a news agent, commonly called a "news butch" or just a "butch," vending cigars, playing cards, sandwiches, and other snacks, a job that allowed him free passage to Spokane to occasionally visit his children. His nickname "Butch" resulted from this occupation, not from his abilities as a meat butcher.

Melva died in Spokane on 15 April 1926, age 32, of encephalitis lethargica, an epidemic of which had been ongoing from 1916 through 1926. Wikipedia article HERE

Aliezer Lande died the following January,1927, back in Duluth. Either before Melva's death or just after, John Bernhardt moved to Spokane. He appears in the 1926 Spokane Directory as "news agent, GNRy" and was living at E730 Boone Ave. Now with  Grace and George living with him, John again took up his butcher’s cleaver. By the publication of the 1928 Spokane Directory, he was a seller of retail meats at 828 Sharp Ave.

John Bernhardt, 2nd from right, at Golden Rule Market, corner of Sharp and Hamilton, Spokane. The tall boy on the left became a Jesuit and in the 1950s taught Pat Raney English at Seattle University.

John Bernhardt's business card

In the 1930 census, John Bernhardt described himself as widowed, a butcher in a meat market, and living at 828 1/2 Baldwin with daughter Grace (14) and son George (18). His rent was $15.00 per month.

Grace and brother George c. 1930 Spokane

By 1934, the year Grace married Paul Raney, John was living in Colfax. He went back to Minnesota in 1938 and married Lillian Cecelia Golcz. In 1940 he was a butcher and living in Spokane with Lil, but in 1942 they were living in Pomeroy, WA, where they operated a grocery for about six years.  In 1950 John was divorced again and living in Pasco, WA. At the time of his death on 1 November 1954, his obituary described him as “retired” and employed by Ace Tavern in Pasco. He was only 65. 

In a different sweater. George Bernhardt, Gonzaga High School class photo,1930

Grace's brother, George John Bernhardt (1912-1975), graduated from Gonzaga High School (becoming Gonzaga Prep after its move to the North Hill). He married Mary Weitz (1914-1999) in 1936 in Colfax, Whitman County, WA.  They had sons Richard (b1938), Thomas George (1943-1994), and Jerry. George remained in Whitman County the rest of his life.

Whitman County, Washington

 Pat Raney writes of his grandfather, John Frederick "Butch" Bernhardt:

My first memory of Grandpa was from when I was three.  We were at the Sportsman Fair, held under the elevated railroad tracks near Trent and Howard in Spokane.  I think it was about the time that Sandra was born, so 1938. Dad was also with us that day.  I remember an automated sign above our heads, flashing on and off.

I'd been told Butch had operated a meat market in Sprague, Washington - it must have been between 1935 and 1938 - so Barb and I stopped in town on one of our trips east, but couldn’t find anyone who remembered that far back.  We drove up to the county seat, but the library was closed and I haven’t pursued the search. Butch and Lil married in 1938. It was not a random meeting; they knew each other back in Duluth.  Lil was Melva’s floor supervisor at the telephone exchange, so they were all acquainted.  She was a tiny lady, about the size of Grandma Raney, but a couple of dress sizes smaller. 

The house at 2017 N. Hamilton, Spokane, for which John paid rent of $17.00 for the 2nd floor, according to 1940 census (photo vertically distorted )

I remember their living at 2017 N. Hamilton on the second floor. The stairs to their apartment were exterior on the alley side.  The house was painted green and white and the last time we were in Spokane, it was the same.  The landlord was a foreigner with an accent.  His daughter's name sounded like "Bobidah" and was the nosiest kid.  She was younger than I was, but would barge in uninvited.  I remember Butch taking ill one time. Bedridden on my visit, he pulled his quilt up to his chin and exclaimed that the only way to beat the illness was to bake it out.

Garfield County, Pomeroy its only city.

They moved to Pomeroy about 1940. Mom, Sandy and I took the Greyhound to nearby Dusty, where Butch picked us up in his puddle jumper, a 1932 Model A with a rumble seal. 

I came down with strep while we were there.

Grace, Sandra, Pat Raney and Lil Bernhardt, Pomeroy c.1942

I remember lying in the back seat of the bus on the way home as I was quite sick.  Had my tonsils out shortly after.

Pomeroy, Washington c1960

I spent a couple of weeks down there when I was older.  Butch and Lil lived in the back of the store, located on the East-West highway through town. 

Old Pomeroy Train Depot

Behind it was the train station, an exciting place for me.  The unit came to town every couple of days, so it was fun to sit on the back stairs and watch.  One day Butch sent me to the station to bring back in a wagon a quarter-side of beef that was offloaded from a refrigerator car. He took out the rumble seat of his Model A and put in a box for deliveries to his customers. 

Imagine this 1932 Model "A" with a hard top and a box of groceries in place of the rumble seat

 He always sang “Asleep in the Deep” when we two drove around in that puddle jumper. 

During my stay, Butch taught me to bone beef and make hamburger.  We also made mock chicken legs, grinding up chicken meat, rolling in on a stick and then in breadcrumbs.

Lil wasn’t happy in that tiny dwelling, so she eventually bought a house on the south-side of town.  I think Butch had a drinking problem, although I never saw him intoxicated. They finally divorced. She remained in Pomeroy [where she died at age 79 in 1969 from complications from a broken hip] when Butch found employment in Pasco. He ran a male-only tavern in downtown that was owned by a rancher from Pendleton, Oregon. 

Pasco, Franklin County, Washington

He loved to fish, play cards (Pinochle and Cribbage) and tell yarns. When I was small, Butch told me stories about giants and trolls and goblins and all sorts of nasty things.  (I would have nightmares.)  In my sophomore year of college I studied German.  We purchased six small softbound books with stories in German.  After I could understand the language, I began reading the stories.  Lo and behold, here in German were the yarns my Austrian grandfather had told me several years earlier.  I was excited and looking forward to writing to him in Pasco “auf Deutch.” Alas, he died in late autumn that year 1954, I think from colon cancer, so I never had the opportunity to do that. I think about him often. 

Great-grandfather Josef Bernhardt c. 1890 Duluth, MN

John Frederick Bernhardt’s father was your great-grandfather, Josef Bernhardt (Bernhard), born 1850 in Kaltenbach, Zwettl, Niederösterreich (Lower Austria, near the Czech border). 

The town, located in the Tyrol, is now a ski resort. Josef first married Anna Rinlander (d.1873) and they had baby Theresa Bernhardt Vilsmeyer. A descendant stated on Ancestry: "It's in my family lore that Joseph's first young wife visited him with baby Teresa to drop off his lunch while he was at work at the log mill. And that she wasn't careful and part of her apron caught on the log cutting machine and started pulling her in. She was able to throw baby Teresa to Joseph who caught her and then she got sucked in and killed by the machine..."   

Theresa Merry Bernhardt Vilsmyere (1873-1929)

However, Ancestry.com indicates Theresa's descendants have DNA connecting them to both Josef and Anna (Steiner) Bernhardt, so she would be your full great-aunt, not a half-great aunt. It's a puzzlement. O, what tangled roots we weave . . .

Kaltenbach, Austria, at foot of mountain, showing ski slopes above.

So, when did Josef marry Anna Steiner (b.1850 Vienna, Austria –d.1910 Duluth, MN)? We know only that they married some years before they immigrated to America in 1884. Anna had earlier borne a son, Ignatius Max Steiner, in 1874. Was he Josef's son or another man's? A descendant discovered that Anna herself had been born in a foundling hospital, but its significance – whether her mother was destitute or unmarried or both, is unknown. 

Your Great-grandmother Anna Steiner Bernhardt

Josef's and Anna's daughter, Mary (Bernhardt) Lockhart, was born in Austria in 1876.

Mary (Bernhardt) Lockhart (1876-1943)

Five more children would be born to them. Frank, Leopold, Thomas, John and Anton "Tony" Bernhardt.

c1895 Joseph and Anna (Steiner) Bernhardt and children. Sitting children: Thomas, Anton (in dress) and John. Standing children: Leopold, Max Steiner, Mary and Frank. Theresa is not pictured.

Anton "Tony" Bernhardt (1891-1932). Photo taken c1909, when in the state guard (we assume). He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1914 and served 4 years, most of it at Pearl Harbor; discharged May 1918 at Mare Island, CA

Because the 1890 Federal Census was destroyed in a fire, and Duluth city directories say only that Joseph (Josef) Bernhardt was a “laborer,” his place of employment is unknown. He and Anna had a quarrelsome marriage. Josef may have been physically abusive. He was arrested at Anna’s request in April, 1898, and placed on bonds to keep the peace.  On 2 May 1898, a Monday, he and Anna quarreled early in the afternoon. She threatened to pack up and leave and, as in the past, he retorted that if she did, he'd kill himself. According to Anna, she stepped out on the front porch and Josef, still in the kitchen, grabbed the loaded shotgun standing in the corner, placed the barrel against his throat and touched the trigger with his foot. Entering below the left side of his jaw, the load embedded in his brain and killed him instantly. Hearing the shot, Anna rushed in to find him bleeding all over her kitchen floor.  She ran from the house, her cries alerting neighbors, who came to her aide and called the police. When the coroner inspected the body at about 5 p.m. and heard the story of the family’s troubles from Anna and the neighbors, he decided it was a clear case of suicide and waived an inquest.

Anna's home. Note image of photographer in window and that the attic appears in use.

In 1888 Josef had purchased for $250.00 a vacant lot, on which the house at 604 E. 10^th Street, Duluth, would be built for this large family. Anna (Steiner) Bernhardt wasted away with cancer and died at age 59 in 1910. The visible tumor was on her genitals, so possibly it was secondary to bladder and urethra cancer, which often shows features of transitional cell carcinomas with lymph node metastasis. She left the house to youngest sons John and Anton. There are no gravestones on Anna's and Josef's graves at Calvary Cemetery in Duluth, but the lot numbers are registered.

610 10th Street, Duluth, today. Note the upstairs windows have been rearranged.

The Hyatt Line: 

Your great-grandfather, George Martin Hyatt, c.1918

Your great-grandfather, George Martin Hyatt, was born in 1867 in Minnesota and died in 1945, at Bruno, Pine County, MN; at least that’s where he’s buried.

Melva (Hyatt) Bernhardt and father George Martin Hyatt in MN, photo taken 1910-1916

Goodhue County, MN

In the 1870 census in Burnside, Goodhue County, MN, George Martin Hyatt was three. His father John C. Hyatt (sometimes spelled Hiatt) stated his age as 59 (actually, he was 43), a stone mason, born in Pennsylvania. His mother Amelia was 37, born in Michigan. He had siblings John E. (13, born in MO), Mary Ann (12, born in IL), Thomas J. (9, born in MO), Herbert (1, born in MN).

Big Stone County, MN

In the 1880 census in Brown’s Valley, Big Stone County, MN, George Hyatt was 14; his father John C. Hyatt (stated age as 59, actually 53) was still a stone mason; his mother Amelia (47) kept house, but the head of household was the 23-year-old son, John Hyatt, a farmer. Nearly everyone in the family was suffering from typhoid fever at the time of the census. Living with them were George's sister Mary Hyatt Wright (21), husband James Wright, and 1-year-old son, Edgar. George had other siblings Herbert (12), Minnie (10), Jane (8) and Francis (4).

In the 1895 Minnesota state census, George was married to Bertha Hammer (1872 Norway-bef. 1900 MN) and listed himself as a mason.

Duluth is on Lake Superior in Saint Louis County, Minnesota

By 1900, Bertha had died, and in the 1900 census George Hyatt and daughter Melva, listed as Mellie, were living with his sister Mary (Hyatt) Wright (b.1851 MO) and husband James in Duluth. Son Ernest George, age 3, was absent from this census, his whereabouts described farther down. George stated his father was born “at sea” and his mother was born in Michigan, to which his sister agreed, giving the census taker the same information (or one of them supplied these details). In 1902, George was working as a boilermaker for the Zenith Furnace Co. In 1905 he was listed in the city directory as a laborer for Ramstad & Todd. In 1906 he was a hod carrier, and had purchased the house on 3221 Vernon in Duluth.

Present-day photo of George Hyatt's home at 3221 Vernon, Duluth, where Melva lived from 1906 until her marriage in 1910.

In the 1910 census in Duluth, George Martin Hyatt (42), a laborer in the building trade, owned his own home with no mortgage. The census taker listed George's his father as having been born in Denmark [he was mistaken] and his mother in New York. He had married in 1901 2^nd wife Celia F. Hyatt, age 39, born in Norway. Children [Melva] Lenore was 18, and Ernest George was 12 (he'd probably been returned to his father after the 1901 marriage). After 1910, George doesn't show up in a Duluth city directory, so perhaps he'd moved away after Melva's marriage. There is no 1920 census found for him. 

A word about Melva's brother Ernest George Hyatt (1897-1977). He finished 8th grade; married his first wife Marie Goberstein in 1915, a month after their daughter Jeannette Bertha was born. They had son Clarence the following year. These children were Grace Bernhardt's first cousins and your 2nd cousins. George enlisted in the army in October 1918, but was discharged in December, the war having ended November 11. The marriage failed and by 1920 Marie had taken her children to live with her parents on a Minnesota farm. Ernest, who became an auto mechanic, eventually remarried. He is buried at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery in Minnesota.

In the 1930 census George Martin Hyatt owned a dairy farm at Norman, Pine County, MN. He stated his father was born in Denmark and his mother in New York.

Pine County, Minnesota

In the 1940 census in Norman, Pine County, MN, George Martin Hyatt (73) and his 3^rd wife Mary Catherine (Shoemaker) Hyatt (59) and their son George Marion (age 14 - b.1925) (not to be confused with first son Ernest George Hyatt)  lived with his stepson Arthur Tietz (from Mary Catherine’s first marriage) and his family. George Martin Hyatt died in April 1945 and is buried in Bruno, Pine County, MN.

Your great-grandmother, Alberta Lenora “Bertha” Hammer (born 1872, Hedmark, Norway–died before 1900, Duluth, MN), immigrated to America in 1881 with her parents, your 2^nd great-grandparents Johan Fridrik Welhelm Hammer and Anna (Stori) Hammer, her brothers Ludwig (1863-1944), Johan “John” (b.1867), Olaf (1880-1968), Inga (1870-1968), Oline/Olena (1865–bef 1900) and Karen (b.1874). 

Not a relative, but shows that Norwegian immigrants often debarked in America in their best clothes. Photo taken at Ellis Island.

It’s probable the Hammer family took passage from Norway to Great Britain and then to Canada. The Cunard and White Star lines had a monopoly on transporting Scandinavian immigrants.  After arriving in Montreal, either they  took a steamship up the St. Lawrence and through the Great Lakes to cross the border into Minnesota, or they traveled via the Canadian Pacific part of the way. Most Scandinavians arrived in Midwest America in this manner and I find no arrival information for them at an American port. 

Otter Tail County, Minnesota

The family was in Fergus Falls, Otter Tail County, Minnesota, by 1884 and appear in the 1885 Minnesota state census.

 

1890 View of Fergus Falls, MN

The father Fridrik is not listed in the 1885 state census – a  census taker's error because Anna is listed as head of the family, but identified as a male. Fridrik’s name does appear on some Evangelical Lutheran Church records in Minnesota: In 1884 daughter Inga was confirmed in Fergus Falls and their place of origin is “Norge.” In 1887 in Fergus Falls Alberta Hammer (your great-grandmother), age 15, was confirmed (giving Fridrik’s full name, mother Anna, and that they came from Romedal, Norge. When daughter Karen was confirmed in 1890 in Duluth, their place of origin is listed as Hedemarken, Norge. Romedal is a municipality in Hedemarken (now Hedmark) When Oline married Theodor Berg in Fergus Falls in 1886, both Oline and Theodor’s places of origin were listed as Romedal, Norge.  

Hedmark, Norway

The modern Hedmark is a land-bound county in eastern Norway near the Swedish border containing the municipalities of Hamer and Romedal, among others. These are the ethnicities probably inherited from the Hammer side: Michele (Raney) Betts' DNA indicates 12% Swedish, 7% Norwegian and 1% Finnish; Sandra (Raney) Reynolds' DNA indicates 20% Swedish, 8% Norwegian and 1% Finnish. Pat Raney's DNA indicates 10% Norwegian and 1% Finnish (oddly  no Swedish, but that might change as Ancestry refines its DNA testing). As you can see, siblings do not inherit equal portions of their parents' DNA. NOTE: 21 Oct 2019: Since my writing this blog, Ancestry has fine-tuned the DNA again. Now Pat Raney has 16% Swedish; 4% Norwegian, no Finnish. Sandra now has 12% Sweden, 9% Norwegian, 1% Finnish. Michele now has 13% Swedish, 9% Norwegian, 1% Finnish and 1% Baltic. I'm not including what I consider ethnicity from the Raney side or the Bernhadts - just the Hammers.

Modern-day Hedmark, Norway

In 1865 a Norwegian census was conducted, now accessible through the Norwegian government site, and since Ludwig, the oldest child was born in 1863, Johan Fridrik Wilhelm Hammer was a family head and should show up. Remember that in Norway they were still using the son-of and daughter-of instead of fixed surnames. 

Here’s another bit of trivia – Grace (Bernhardt) Raney’s descendants share at least one Norwegian ancestral line with the descendants of Junice (Moe) Raney, who also had Norwegian forebears; Junice's great-grandfather was born in Hedmark, too. Grace's and Junice's descendants are double cousins, although the Norwegian connection isn't close.

In 1890, daughter Inga Hammer married Lars Bernt “Louie” Ramstad (immigrated from Norway 1884), and afterward Bertha Hammer boarded with them, appearing in the 1890 Duluth city directory. The 1892 Duluth directory lists Bertha Hammer as “bds G. M. Hyatt W.D. [West Duluth]”  George and Bertha had married 18 July 1891. Melva Lenore (Lenora) was born in 1892. Bertha had son Ernest George Hyatt (1897-1977) and lived long enough to attend his christening at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Duluth in October 1897, but died before 1900 (I can find no death information on her). I’ve found no christening record for Melva. It is sad that both Melva and Grace lost their mothers early.

Roberts County, South Dakota

After Bertha’s death, George kept Melva with him in Duluth, but his son George appeared in the 1900 census with George’s brother Thomas Hyatt out in Lockwood, Roberts County, South Dakota. George remarried in 1901 to Celia F. [surname unknown], also born in Norway, who immigrated in 1878. On the 1910 census, she and George stated they’d been married 9 years. Melva was using the name Leanore, age 18, a telephone operator in Duluth. Ernest George was 12.  

Grundy County, Illinois

George Martin Hyatt’s father was your 2^nd great-grandfather, John C. Hyatt, born c1827/8 in Pennsylvania (not Denmark). He died in June 1885 in Big Stone County, MN [see map near beginning of Hyatt family section of blog],  across the line from Roberts County, South Dakota. On the 1850 Morris, Grundy County, IL census John C. Hyatt, age 22, was married to Amelia, age 17, born in 1833 in New York (in later censuses she consistently claimed Michigan as her birthplace, so possibly one or both her parents were New Yorkers, and she was born duirng a short stay in Michigan). Married within the year, they had no children. Although still in Morris, Grundy County in 1855, before 1856 was done, they'd floated down the Illinois River from Grundy County to relocate in St. Louis, Missouri.

St. Louis, Missouri is now an independent city surrounded by St. Louis County.

It was a time of economic expansion with a high influx of immigrants and St. Louis' population grew from 77,860 in 1850 to more than 160,000 by 1860. In the 1860 census, John C. Hyatt, age 32, was a plasterer in St. Louis. Amelia, age 27, had given birth to John, age four, born in St. Louis, and Mary, age two, born across the Mississippi River in Illinois. The river wouldn't be bridged until 1872. A 42 year-old river-man boarded with them. 

We don't know how they fared during the American Civil War. St. Louis remained pro-Union because of its immigrant German and Irish population, but there were Confederate sympathizers, also.

Federal Army bivouacked in St. Louis during Civil War

Before 1867, when George was born in Minnesota, the family had steamed north on the Mississippi River to Goodhue Co., MN., settling in the town of Burnside. In the 1870 census John was still a stone mason, but stated his age as 51 (instead of 41 or 42). Had he earlier changed his age to avoid being drafted into the Union Army? Amelia’s and his children now numbered five. John (13), Mary Ann (12), Thomas J. (9), George M. (3), Herbert M. (1).  Unlike his neighbors, a colony of Swedish immigrant farmers, John’s real and personal property values were left blank. Had they lost everything in a fire or flood, or did he feel it was no one’s business but his own?

 

Steamboat in Goodhue County on the Mississippi

They were still living in Goodhue County for the 1875 Minnesota state census. John claimed to be 51 (but was 47), born in Pennsylvania, his mother born in Virginia (?) and his father born in Denmark (another inaccuracy). Amelia stated she was 40, born in Michigan, with both parents born in New York. 

Big Stone County, Minnesota

They crossed the state and in the 1880 census for Brown’s Valley, Big Stone County, MN. John and Amelia were living with oldest son John on his farm, along with daughter Mary Ann Hyatt Wright, her husband and year-old son, and children George (14), Herbert (12), Minnie (10), Amelia Jane (8) and Francis (4). Everyone in the household was suffering from typhoid fever. Amelia stated her place of birth as Michigan; her father’s place of birth was left blank; her mother’s place of birth was New York. John C. Hyatt, still a stonemason, had been out of work for 8 months. He stated he was born in Ohio; his parents’ places of birth were left blank.  He died five years later. 

Widow Amelia Hyatt was listed in the Duluth City Directory for 1900 and 1904. In the 1910 census, she was living in Girard Township, Otter Tail County, MN, with her son, John Edward Hyatt (1857-1943), a widower with four sons. Her daughter Minnie Hyatt Comstock appeared on that census, but claimed to be married, so may have been visiting. Amelia was 74, stated she had borne 13 children, of which 7 were living. She said she was born in New York, her mother born in New York, and her father born in Germany. Was this correct or a mistake of failing memory? We shall see. She died the following year, August 1911, in South Dakota, while visiting or living with a different child.

I've been unable to find the marriage of John C. Hyatt and wife Amelia, so am unable verify her maiden name. Other descendants of John C. Hyatt with trees on Ancestry.com have decided she was Amelia Paddock, living in Lake County, IL, but they haven’t produced a marriage license either. Amelia Paddock married Jurgen Peterson in 1851. Because Amelia’s and John’s first surviving child John was born in 1856, the descendants have decided she was widowed and they place her marriage to John in 1855. However, the 1850 census I found for Grundy County, IL, fits John and Amelia Hyatt as to names, ages, recently married, his occupation, place of birth and no children. When Amelia answered the invasive census question of 1900 with the fact that she had borne 13 living children of which only 7 survived, one can imagine the heartache she and John experienced as infant after infant succumbed until John, born 1857 in Missouri, survived and thrived.  I don't accept that her maiden name was Paddock.

On the 1850 Grundy County, Illinois, census, a few miles from where John C. Hyatt and Amelia lived, a couple resided in the town of Morris, consisting of Frederic Lawden [Lowdon, Lowden or London] age 70, a tailor, born in Germany, and his wife Margaret, age 55, born in New York. Were they Amelia’s parents? Also, on the 1850 census in Grundy County, but in the adjoining township of Mazon, lived Frederick Hyatt (54), a carpenter, born in Delaware (not Denmark), his wife Elizabeth (50) born in Pennsylvania, and his large family, all born in Pennsylvania. 

Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, possibly where John C. Hyatt was born in 1828

My research leads me to believe that Frederick Hyatt is John C. Hyatt’s father. John fits into the 1840 census and would have been the oldest male child in a large family. Although I find no DNA matches as yet with descendants of Frederick Hyatt, I do find DNA matches with earlier ancestors in that line.

Probable ancestor, Frederick Witzell Hyatt 1799 New Castle DE - 1895 Pierce Co., WI

Because of these DNA matches, here is the lineage I think belongs to your Hyatt line: 

2nd great-grandparents: Frederick Witzell Hyatt (1797, New Castle Co., DE-1895, Prescott, Pierce Co., WI), who married in 1821 in Philadelphia, Elizabeth "Betsy" Wummer Phillips (1800, Hempfield, Lancaster Co., PA-1853, Pierce Co., WI). 

3rd great-grandparents: Thomas D. Hyatt (1770, Wilmington, New Castle Co., DE-1838, New Castle Co., DE), who married in 1797 Sarah Witzell (1773, Wilmington, New Castle Co., DE-1850 Wilmington, DE)

Your 4th great-grandmother, Sarah Witzell's father was George Witzell (abt 1745-1825 Wilmington, New Castle Co., DE), who married Mary Stedham (1747 DE-1824 Wilmington, New Castle, DE). Your 5th great-grandmother, Mary Stedham's father was Hendrick Stedham (1686, New Castle Co., DE-1759, New Castle Co., DE). He married Margary Owens (1715, Wilmington, New Castle Co., DE-1790/2 Brandywine, New Castle Co., DE).

4th great-grandparents: John Hyatt (1725, Delaware-bef. 1795, New Castle Co., DE), married Catherine King (1730, New Castle Co., DE - about 1797, New Castle Co, DE)

5th great-grandparents: Thomas Hyatt (1707, Tarrytown, Westchester Co., NY-1742, New Castle Co., DE), married Catherine Monfoort (1710- c.1760, New Castle, DE)

6th great-grandfather: Thomas Hyatt (1675 NY-1742, New Castle Co., DE); wife unknown.

7th great-grandparents: John Hyatt (1651, Stamford, Fairfield Co., CT-1724, Rye, Westchester Co., NY) married Mary Jones (1647 Stamford, CT-1697 Rye, NY).

Going back to 2nd great-grandmother Elizabeth "Betsy" Wummer Phillips (1800, Hempfield, Lancaster Co., PA-1853, Pierce Co., WI), who married in 1821 in Philadelphia, Frederick Witzell Hyatt, her father was James B. Phillips (1766, Mount Joy, Lancaster Co., PA-1844 Wattsburg, Erie Co., PA), who married 1798 Catherine Funk/Funck (1776, Lancaster Co., PA-1863, Aurora, DuPage Co., IL). 

Catherine Funk's father was Henry Funk/Funck (1734, Lancaster Co., PA - 1800, Lancaster Co., PA). He married Martha Killhoover (1736-1782 Lancaster Co., PA). Grace's children have DNA matches with descendants of Funk and Killhoover, through Catherine's sister Barbara Funk (1763-1848) and brother John Funk (1760-1823).

2nd great-grandfather, James B. Phillips' parents were Thomas Phillips (1739 maybe Ulster, Scotland, or Wales-1806 Wattsburg, Erie Co., PA). Thomas served in the 2nd Co., 7th Bn., Lancaster Co. Militia 1781-83 during the American Revolutionary War. He married in an Anglican ceremony in 1765, Lancaster Co., Mary Elizabeth Carson (1744, Wrightsboro, Berkshire Co. PA-1800, Turbot, Northumberland Co., PA). Pat Raney matches DNA with a descendant of their daughter Mary "Polly" Phillips (1774-1856) and Sandra (Raney) Reynolds matches DNA with a descendant of daughter Hannah Phillips (1772-1837), these being your 2nd great-grandfather James B. Phillips' sisters.

As for your 2nd great-grandmother Amelia (Louden?) Hyatt's parents, if her father was Frederic Louden, he was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1786 and died in Grundy Co., IL between 1865 and 1870. Amelia's mother Margaret, whose maiden name we don't know, was born in New York State in 1795 or '97, based on her statements to the census takers. She died sometime after the 1870 census in Grundy Co., IL.

Here are the lyrics to the song "Asleep in the Deep" that Butch Bernhardt sang to Pat Raney as they drove about in the "puddle jumper." At the bottom of this Wikipedia article you'll find the audio for the song, sung by Thurl Ravencroft. Worth a listen. HERE

Paul & Grace (Bernhardt) Raney's 50th anniversary family photograph 1984. You know who you are.