“Aunt Hattie” of course is Clarence Bessey’s sister. She lived her entire life in Ionia, Michigan. Hattie’s husband was Hugh Galloway. They had two sons, Edwin born 1895 and Clare born 1897. By the time Clarence and Ethel started their family in 1915 with the birth of Murell and Pearl, Hattie’s oldest son was an adult and their youngest was 17. Hattie passed away in 1975 at the age of 103.
Murell states “Grand Dad Jacob was born March 29, 1840.” I have Jacob’s birth date as 28 Nov 1840. His wife Johanna Rosanna Schuldt was born 9 Oct 1805. It is not known whether they got married in the United States or were married before they came. Their first child was born in 1831.
Murell states “His family included four girls and a boy Jacob Bessey.” Jacob and his wife actually had nine children total as follows: John born 1831, Rosanna born 1834, George born 1836, Christine born 1838, Jacob born 1840, Catherine “Kate” born 1842, Jeremiah born 1844, Henry born 1847, and Mary Ann born 1850. The first three children were born in Pennsylvania. It appears they had migrated to Ohio by 1838 when their fourth child was born. Jacob Jr. was born in Ohio in 1840. There is a German Bible in the possession of one of the descendants who lives in Ohio. There are copies of it in Jacob Bessey’s gallery in my tree on Ancestry.com. I have attached a few pages here.
Only two of Jacob’s sister remained in Ohio, Catherine and Mary Ann. His sister Christine married and moved to Iowa. His sister Rosanna and her husband settled in Woodland, Barry County, Michigan and later Lake Odessa in Ionia County. Jacob’s oldest brother John moved to Michigan in the 1850s but passed away a short time later in 1857. Brother George remained in Ohio. Brother Jeremiah spent most of his adult life in Missouri. And the youngest Henry died in 1864 (in the Civil War?).
Jacob served in the Civil War. He enlisted into H Company, 101st Infantry (Ohio) on Aug 30 1862. He was injured fairly early on in the Battle of Stones River and spent two years in the Invalid Corp as a disabled veteran presumably working in hospitals.
Jacob and Catherine Blocher of Clarence NY, married on 1 Mar 1868, in Seneca County, Ohio. Their first child, Cora Ellen, was born the following year in Woodland, Barry County, Michigan.
Ancestors Across the Ages 