The Cowboy-Fiddler: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Nickname”

 

Intriguing Shirt-tail Relative with an Occupational Nickname

Robert Hargrave: 1859-1923 (Maternal Grand-Aunt’s Stepson)

 

I was researching a Smith family descendant by the name of Serelda Hargrave Potts, and ran across a news item that mentioned her daughter, Julia Potts Coe and Julia’s cousin Nellie. The item went on to note that Julia and Nellie “are nieces of Nymphia Carillo Hargrave and Robert Hargrave, violinist, and granddaughters of Robert Hargrave, inventor, who came to California from Texas in a covered wagon train.” My research on poor Serelda was abandoned for a delightful trip down a Hargrave rabbit hole. A violinist married to a woman named Nymphia? I had to know more.

Robert Hargrave, the violinist, was Serelda’s half-sibling, born in 1859, ten years after Serelda was born. Alas, Robert is what my grandmother used to call a “shirt-tail relation”, meaning he’s rather distantly connected to the family, and not even necessarily by blood. That’s the case with Robert. Serelda’s mother was the Smith descendant, not her father, Robert Sr. So Robert Sr.’s son Robert by his second wife was not a blood relation to my husband’s family.

Photo of Robert Hargrave with his violin

Still, Robert sounded fascinating. As I poked around on Ancestry, trying to pin down exactly how he fit in the Smith family line, I ran across another gem of a newspaper item:

 

The “Cowboy Fiddler”? Now that is a wild nickname! I found Robert on census forms from 1880, 1900 and 1910. Each time he states he is a music teacher, presumably a violin instructor. But apparently by 1920, teaching music was no longer paying the bills, so he had branched out into tending cattle herds on ranches outside San Diego. He was sixty years old, no longer a young man by that point, so he must have been a little desperate.

But despite his circumstances, he had obviously continued to perform. The “Cowboy Fiddler”—I imagine him playing jaunty tunes by a campfire or in a bunkhouse to the applause of his coworkers.

It appears Robert “Cowboy Fiddler” Hargrave died on March 31, 1923, just three years after this news item was published. He was sixty-five years old. He and wife Nellie had several children. Sadly, I did not find a record of a wife named Nymphia, unless, of course, Nellie was a nickname for Nymphia. That’s a rabbit hole I will not pursue!

Sources:

Cowboy Fiddler news item. The Daily Times Advocate. Escondido, California. January 14, 1920 issue. https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-times-advocate-the-cowboy-fiddler/163112544/

“Mrs. Durand is Guest During Celebration”. San Bernardino County Sun. San Bernardino, California. November 23, 1938 issue. https://www.newspapers.com/image/49170018/?article=52604465-1eb2-4097-9a7a-51a6ee02419a&xid

 

Harry Aird’s WWI Service: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Surprise”

A Funny Draft Card Leads to Serious Service for Grandpa Harry

Henry “Harry” Aird: 1886-1966 (Paternal Grandfather)

While I knew my father-in-law John Aird had served in the Army in World War II, I hadn’t been aware that his father, Henry “Harry” Aird, had also been in the Army, serving his adopted country in World War I. An Ancestry hint first led me to Harry’s amusing draft card, and from there to a few records verifying his service.

John Aird, left, in WWII uniform, with his father Harry Aird, who served in WWI

Harry Aird was born in Dundee, Scotland, on September 16, 1886, to parents James Aird and Jane Ann Robertson. He was the fourth of their seven children. Following his father’s death in 1908, Harry decided to emigrate to the United States. His older brother, William, had already emigrated in 1906 with his wife and young children, and had settled in the Detroit area. Harry followed his brother to Detroit in 1910, and found a job as a hardware salesman.

When America began preparations for entry into World War I, men across the country were ordered to register for the draft. Harry complied. His draft card, dated June 5, 1917, stated that Harry was single, worked as a salesman for Bostwick Braun Company based in Toledo, Ohio and said he was a naturalized citizen. The second page noted that he had blue eyes, brown hair and was tall in build.

But the real kicker on the draft card is Harry’s response to Question No. 12 at the bottom of the first page, which reads: “Do you claim exemption from draft (specify grounds)?” The few times I have seen this question filled out, it mentioned disabilities, like a weak heart, lung problems or missing fingers or leg and foot issues. The second type of response usually dealt with being the sole support of aged and sick parents or of minor children.

But Harry gave a very unique response. The draft board representative wrote that Harry “does not want to go.”

Obviously the Army didn’t think Harry’s lack of enthusiasm was grounds for exemption. He seems to have been quickly drafted into the Army. His exact service dates are unclear from the records I have seen. He was discharged in 1919. The article below lists him among the Detroit veterans who need to pick up their official discharge paperwork, and his Fold 3 service record lists his discharge as February 1919.

The final little puzzle piece involves Harry’s naturalization as a U. S. citizen. I found a naturalization index card in his military records. I am not sure if that index card indicates that the army merely reviewed his naturalization status, or if he took advantage of the military’s offer of expedited naturalization for any immigrant who served in the war.

Harry had only lived in the U. S. for six years when he filled out his draft card. Since in 1910 naturalization required five years of continuous residence at the minimum, unless Harry started the naturalization process right away, he might not have been fully naturalized by the time he was drafted. I have placed a request with the National Archives to try to get Harry’s service record. Perhaps that will help to shed light on his military service and naturalization.

Interestingly, just four days after Harry completed his draft board interview and draft card, he married Mary Shields. The marriage record shows a Pastor Christopher Burnett performed the ceremony, and their witnesses were their siblings James Aird and Margaret Shields. 

Did Harry know he was about to be drafted and wanted to get married before he shipped out? Did he hope the marriage would prevent his being drafted? Or was the wedding already planned, and not wanting to leave his soon-to-be bride led to him telling the draft board that he didn’t “want to go”?

Harry Aird died November 6, 1966, so I will never be able to get answers to many of my questions. I will continue to search for Harry’s military records, although the National Archives responded to my request by stating that most of the service records from World War I were destroyed by fire years ago. At least Harry’s surprising response to why he should be exempt from service has survived.  

Sources:

Fold3, US, Index to Naturalizations of World War I Soldiers, 1918 (https://www.fold3.com/publication/107/us-naturalization-index-wwi-soldiers-1918 : accessed Jan 9, 2025), database and images, https://www.fold3.com/publication/107/us-naturalization-index-wwi-soldiers-1918

U. S. Veterans Administration Master Index entry for Harry Aird. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61861/records/670316?tid=81812584&pid=78014052183&ssrc=pt

Marriage Record for Harry Aird and Mary Shields. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/9093/images/41326_342329-00147?pId=460439

United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6482/images/005257979_03790?pId=18134121

The Lengthy Rap Sheet of Albert Wing: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Legal Troubles”

Double Murderer, Thief and Prison Escapee: The Worst of the Wild Wing Brothers

Albert E. “Burt” Wing: 1860-Aft. 1920 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)

 

I wrote about the Wing brothers in two previous posts, but I saved the worst of the brothers for last. Albert Wing was the youngest of the six Wing brothers, but he had the longest and most varied criminal career of the “bad” brothers in the family.

Albert Wing was born February 24, 1860, to parents Samuel Morrison Wing and Emily M. Weir. His mother died just a few weeks after his birth, and his father, feeling unable to care for the infant, sent him to be raised by Samuel’s unmarried sisters in Greenville, Kentucky. While Albert’s brothers all attended college and law school, I have found no records that indicate Albert sought a degree or trained for a profession. Instead, he seems to have continued to live with his aunts (see the census record below) with no occupation. In later years, he was a gambler.

Albert seems to have been impulsive and dangerous from an early age. He first appears in the press in a brief note in the Crittendon Press’s November 18, 1879 issue:

Albert was only nineteen at the time of this shooting. There is no indication that he faced any legal consequences for this crime. Other articles about Albert’s brother Charles state that Albert attacked and injured one of Charles’ political opponents a year later. Albert may have briefly left the area to avoid prosecution, or his influential family may have interceded to protect him.

However, protecting Albert did him no favors. Just three years later, he committed murder. He was involved with a woman who seems to have been working as a prostitute, despite being the daughter of a well-respected judge. The woman was married and the mother of two children, but she had abandoned her family and had been supporting herself as a prostitute when she wasn’t living with Albert. She was entertaining a man named Joe Glenn when Albert burst in on them and in an apparent fit of jealousy, shot Glenn twice in the head. He tried to tell the police he was acting in self-defense and that Glenn had pulled the gun on him, but Albert’s paramour, variously called Essie Davis and Mrs. Reno, as well as her maiden name of Miriam Eaves, told the police that Albert—who she claimed to have never met before-- shot Glenn deliberately. Ms. Davis/Reno/Eaves quickly recanted, supporting Albert’s story—did Albert’s family intercede to persuade her? Did Albert reach out to her from jail? Or did she just regret throwing her lover under the proverbial bus?

An article about the Glenn murder in the Memphis Daily Appeal noted: “It is said that this is Wing’s second man; that he killed his first man in Kentucky some time ago.” It is unclear whether this is a reference to the political dispute attack in 1880-- the details of which are murky but don’t seem to have ended in death-- or if there was yet another violent incident in Albert’s past.

Albert was released on bond a few months after the murder, and immediately got re-arrested after threatening women at a house of ill repute where his lover Essie/Miriam was working. The house’s madam persuaded the police to release Albert yet again.

Albert finally went to trial for the Glenn murder in March of 1884. Essie Davis/Miriam Eaves’ testimony supported his claims of self-defense, and included her admission that “she visited Wing in the jail and gave him food and money, and after he was released he lived with her for a short time.” The jury was out several days before returning a verdict of guilty of second degree murder. Albert only received a ten-year sentence. To my shock, the press and Albert seemed surprised by the supposed severity of the verdict. They may have been expecting him to be acquitted based on his self-defense claim. However, a mob had rioted recently in Cincinnati in protest of a light charge and sentence in a murder case there, and the press suggested that the St. Louis jury may have feared a similar reaction if they let Albert off too lightly.

Albert’s special treatment continued even in jail.  He only had to serve six years of the ten-year sentence. He was pardoned by the governor of Missouri in April 1890, around the same time as Essie Davis nearly died from an overdose of morphine. She had, amazingly, spent a few years in a convent after Albert went to prison, but when she left the convent, she returned to her old life of prostitution and drug use.

Despite their past and present problems, Albert and Miriam married in April 1892. A later newspaper article provided lurid details of the wedding and their life together:

“Albert Wing and Miriam Reno were suddenly married in Greenville last May at midnight. The next morning, in the presence of a number of witnesses, both swore to a strange and brutal marriage contract. The husband vowed that should ever his newly-made wife be untrue to him he would kill her with the best and most fatal instrument he had at hand.

At the same time the wife swore hat should her husband ever return to his life of drunkenness, that she would put a sudden end to it. Neither party kept rigidly to the threatening nuptial vows….

After four months of married life at Greenville, the wife left her husband and went to Louisville. The husband followed, and after considerable notoriety, the depraved couple went to Myrtie Edwards’ unlawful house at 732 Green Street. Three weeks ago the wife was installed a regular inmate of the house.

732 Green Street in Louisville twenty years later--Myrtie Edwards "unlawful house" and the scene of Miriam's murder

Wing himself remained in the city, and did nothing but gamble and allow himself to be supported by the proceeds of his wife’s shame. Both husband and wife seemed to have forgotten their marriage contract.”

Albert and Miriam got into some sort of argument at the “unlawful house” on the night of November 1, 1892. Albert stabbed Miriam six times, and then fled out the window while the other prostitutes attempted to break into the locked room. The women found Miriam taking her last breaths.

They testified at the inquest two days later, providing lurid details about Albert and Miriam’s relationship. They referred to Miriam as “Kitty”. Lillie Roberts stated:

“Kitty told me her history…and said that she did not doubt but that Albert would kill her, but she would stick to him, because she loved him, and she did not believe that a woman could love but once. She often told me and the presence of the girls at the house that he was a dangerous man, and that if any one ever had trouble with him it would be well for that person to look out, for Albert would surely kill him. I think that both of them were ‘crooked.’ When he did not get money, she would. He would often leave the house without a cent and come back in a few minutes with money. I do not think that he was gone long enough to win this money by gambling. I do not know how he got it unless by robbery. Albert and Kitty would disappear every once and a while for days at a time and I have understood that they ‘worked’ the Indian towns not long ago when the races were going on there. It was told to me that she would manage to get to her room some man who had money and the Albert would make him pay to keep the matter secret…”

Headline from November 11, 1892 Louisville Courier

Albert was finally captured on November 9, 1892 in New Orleans. He was sent back to Kentucky for trial. At his first appearance before a judge, he said that he “was tired of life, that remaining in jail was like so much torture to him, and that as he believed there was no possible chance for him to escape the gallows, he desired to plead guilty and ask for the death sentence to be pronounced.”

Albert changed his mind by the time his case came to trial on February 17, 1893. He pled guilty but asked for clemency. Surprisingly, his father-in-law, the father of his victim, begged the judge and jury to show him mercy and give him a life sentence rather than a death sentence. The jury was out a little over an hour before returning with the life sentence.

Albert once again evaded justice. On January 1, 1908, Albert escaped from the penitentiary in Frankfort, Kentucky. He’d been made a trusty and didn’t have to wear a prison uniform. He managed to acquire a key from a guard and slipped out. He was forty-eight years old.

Albert remained at large for six years before turning himself in Cincinnati in April 1914. According to a news article in the Paducah Sun, Albert told police:

“I have traveled about the country dodging the police. Lots of times I have seen circulars advertising my escape and offering rewards for my capture. I laughed at the efforts of the police to locate me. Then I got in with a fellow known as ‘Toledo Red.’ He and I began holding up people. We robbed all over the state of Ohio. The last good robbery was at Dayton. We held up a man and got $150.”

Albert reported that he was robbed of part of those proceeds when he got drunk with some other people who were as crooked as he was. He went to the police department in Cincinnati to report being robbed, and then broke down and confessed to being a prison escapee and double murderer. The cops reported that Albert was whistling comic opera tunes as he was taken to his cell.  

He was sent back to the penitentiary. However, Albert was once again the recipient of unearned mercy. He was granted parole by the Kentucky state prison commissioners in February 1916 at age 56. The prison’s former warden, a Mr. Chinn, offered Albert a home on his farm near Harrodsburg, Kentucky after his release. An Owensboro Messenger article on his parole noted that “thousands of letters have been written to governors of the state and the prison commissioners asking that Bert be pardoned or paroled.” Once again, I am shocked that this career criminal had such popular support and was given so many undeserved breaks.

Albert seems to have disappeared from records following his parole. I can find no death notice or obituary. There are also no reports of further crimes, so perhaps he truly was reformed following his parole.  

 

Sources:

1880 census image showing Albert Wing and three Wing aunts. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6742/images/4241266-00465?pId=42234089

“A Bloody Tragedy” Nashville Tenneseean, Nashville, Tennessee. April 4, 1883 issue. Accessed on Newsapers.com.

“Essie Davis’s Story”. Memphis Daily Appeal. Memphis, Tennessee. April 6, 1883 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Bert Wing in Trouble Again”. Owensboro Messenger , Owensboro, Kentucky. Nov 27 1883 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Ten Years for Bert Wing: Effect of the Cincinnati Riot on a St. Louis Jury”. Messenger and Examiner. Owensboro, Kentucky. April 2, 1884 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Essie Davis not Dead”. Calhoun Constitution. Calhoun Kentucky.  February 13, 1890 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Married After Many Years.” Owensboro Messenger. Owensboro Kentucky. April 16, 1892 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Bert Wing Stabs His Wife Six Times in a Louisville House of Prostitution.” The Madisonville Hustler. Madisonville, Kentucky. Nov. 5, 1892. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Still Free: Albert Wing, the Wife Murderer, Not Yet Arrested.” The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. November 3, 1892 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Wing, the Wife-Murderer, Captured in New Orleans”.  The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. November 11, 1892 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Wife Slayer Give self to Justice.” Paducah Sun. Paducah, Kentucky. April 30, 1914 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Parole is Given to Bert Wing, a Noted Prisoner.” Owensboro Messenger, Owensboro, Kentucky. Feb 13 1916 issue. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

 

52 Ancestors 2024 Final Post of the Year: “Resolution”

 

I am so pleased to have finished another year of 52 Weeks, 52 Ancestors. I managed to write 45 blog posts about some really interesting ancestors.

According to Ancestry, in 2024 I added 993 people to my two big trees on Ancestry. I’m amazed that I had that much growth. I attribute it in part to my growing use of DNA matches to build my tree—I’m adding a lot of collateral ancestors, but they are helping to confirm my connection to my direct ancestors.

Here’s where my trees stand as of New Year’s Day 2024:

Aird Family Tree: 2334 people, and 1201 photos.

Peterson Macbeth Family Tree: 8,759 people and 2785 photos.

And here’s where my genealogy blogs stand:

Twigs on the Family Tree: 214 blog posts.

Another Tree to Climb: Researching the Aird, Sheild, Smiths and Jandeseks: 112 blog posts.

My New Year’s Resolution: I will complete at least 45 of the 2025 blog post prompts, and will continue to build both family trees.

I’m excited to see where I will be at the end of 2025. Happy New Year!