Category Archives: Stufflebean

Stufflebean

12 for ’26: School Days – Cursive Penmanship

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This 12 for ’26 month is dedicated to school-related mementos since this week is Back to School for many districts around the country.

While browsing through one of my Stufflebean family archival albums, I came across a document that I likely thought “Oh, that’s cute,” and then promptly forgot about it when I first discovered it.

Since it’s handwriting-related and “Cursive” is somewhat of a current today, I thought I’d share it and my thoughts about cursive.

Creamers Certificate of Award

This is to [Great Seal of the State of Oklahoma 1907] Certify the

Edward Stufflebean
Has reached the required degree of efficiency
in the prescribed work and is entitled to
this Credit Certificate in penmanship

Given at Norman, Okla
under our hand and seal this 11 day of Jan. 1926.

Grade 3

Nora Jackson, Teacher J. Don Garrison, Supt. or Principal

I can’t find any information on the Creamers organization, but I am assuming with the Oklahoma State Seal on it that it was connected to the Oklahoma dairy business. I wonder since it was a “Credit” certificate if it might have included some free milk or butter?

This award was given at least through 1945 as someone online found a certificate presented in that year.

Edward Stufflebean was eight years old when he earned this certificate for mastering cursive handwriting. Notice that the certificate itself is created using cursive, too.

Checking out the FAN club – Ed’s teacher and principal, I learned that J[oseph] Don Garrison, born 1899 in Oklahoma, was married with three children. He was the principal of the elementary school in 1926, but, by 1930, he had moved up to principal of the junior high and, in 1940, was the school superintendent. He died in 1969 and is buried at the IOOF Cemetery in Norman, where some of my husband’s extended family are also laid to rest.

Nora Jackson is more of a mystery, as she isn’t found in the 1920 or the 1930 census. The Norman Transcript has several mentions of her in the 1920s, including that she was a third grade teacher and is identified as Mrs. Nora B. Jackson, married, which is still a bit unusual for the time. Most female teachers were required to be single. Other than the newspaper snippets, nothing further has been found and it seems that Nora moved on after a few years.

Suggestion: Since so many schools no longer teach cursive handwriting, if you have children or grandchildren who are in Grade 3 or older, teach them yourselves. It’s not difficult – just demonstrate a letter or two at a time and show them how to connect the letters.

It’s such a shame to think that future generations won’t be able to even read names of ancestors on the backs of photographs nor will they be able to read family letters. And, no, it’s not okay that they’ll get AI to do it for them.

Cursive is an easy skill to learn and easy to read. It shouldn’t become obsolete!

Stufflebean, Stufflebean-Stoppelbein

Stufflebean Serendipity

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Recently, I alluded to the discovery of Mr. and Mrs. Stufflebean for a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge.

It’s time to meet them:

This fashionable older couple are Jacob Henry Stufflebean and his wife Mary Anne Jane Hurlburt, who lived in Sheldon, Franklin, Vermont.

The person who contacted me knew this couple as Mr. and Mrs. Stufflebean and said the photos had been in his family for years, but no one today knew exactly who they were or how they were related.

From my own experience, I dated these photos to around 1870, especially with the style of paper border added to Mary Ann Jane’s photo.

My reader didn’t give much information about his mother’s family – not even her name, but mentioned that they lived in New York and Vermont for a long time. He also mentioned that the Bailey and Bixby families were in the tree.

He was quite sure the Stufflebean tie was to his mother’s family as his paternal line is French Canadian. However, he had no idea which branch of his mom’s tree led to these photos.

Knowing his name and the Vermont, New York and Bailey/Bugbee surnames, it only took me about an hour to pick up his family lines and find a connection to the Stufflebeans.

Unfortunately, the connection is by marriage so he isn’t an actual cousin.

Because there are living people involved, this story will be told from the Stufflebeans down a generation instead of working back in time.

Jacob Henry Stufflebean, son of Peter StufflebeaM and Janetje (Jane) Diel (Thiel, Teel) of Columbia County, New York, was born on 17 December 1818 in Ghent, Columbia, New York and died in Franklin County, Vermont on 25 February 1897.

Jacob was a relatively well-to-do merchant, although his business apparently had some ups and downs as he once filed for bankruptcy.

Mary Anne Jane Hurlburt was born in 1823 and died in 1887, likely in Franklin County, Vermont. Normally, I would question whether a person really had three given names, but she was enumerated once in the census as “M.A.J.,” which convinced me that was, indeed, her true name.

Jacob and Mary Anne Jane married on 30 March 1845 in Sheldon, Franklin, Vermont.

Jacob and Mary were the parents of two known children, but with the gap in birth years, it’s possible they lost one or more children.

Children:

  1. Samuel B. Hurlburt, born June 1849, Franklin County, Vermont; died 9 December 1908, Burlington, Chittenden, Vermont; married Electa Caroline Walker, 1 March 1876, Sheldon, Franklin, Vermont. Electa was the mother of one daughter, Lena, by her first marriage, but Samuel had no children of his own so he has no descendants today.
  2. Ellen, born c1858, Franklin County, Vermont; died 9 May 1924; married Eugene Abram Bates, 7 November 1877, Franklin County, Vermont. They were the parents of two children, but only one living in 1900, a daughter Lillian. However, Lillian was quite ill and died on 3 October 1900 of tuberculosis. The couple’s other child, Ellen Marion Bates, was born 15 February 1883 and died a few months later on 30 August 1883, both in Highgate, Fraklin, Vermont. Eugene was a doctor.

From this it is clear that Samuel and Mary have no descendants today.

However, the connection to my reader is through Samuel’s wife, Electa Caroline Walker.

Electa Caroline, born 1849; died 1923) was the youngest of eight children born to Robert Henry Walker and Caroline Thiel (aka Diel, Teel), who was related to Jacob Stufflebean’s mother.

The seventh child of Robert and Caroline Walker was another daughter, Harriet or Hattie L., as she was known, born 1847 and died in 1900.

Hattie married Robert Bixby on 7 December 1865 in Lincoln, Addison, Vermont. A daughter of theirs married a Bailey and that was the connection needed to figure out the identities of Mr. and Mrs. Stufflebean.

I also mentioned an unexpected surprise in the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post.

Back in 2016, I wrote about discovering these silver-plated teaspoons on EBay that I snapped up because they were engraved with Stufflebean on the ends.

It turned out that my husband is a 2nd cousin, 4X removed from the original owners of the teaspoons, who happen to be none other than Jacob and Mary Anne Jane Stufflebean!!!

How is that for serendipity?

Stufflebean

Mystery Photo – Stufflebeans in Noble, OK, c1915

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This photo is in terrible shape, and I’ve even used the MyHeritage photo enhancer, which has improved it slightly.

On the left, we have a little girl, who I believe is a grandchild of John Henry Stufflebean and the daughter of Iva Myrtle Stufflebean Baker.

Myrtle Baker seemed to favor that hairstyle for her four daughters. I think this is her first child, Mildred, who was born in 1909. that would date this photo to c1915 and undoubtedly taken at the home of John Henry and Addie Stufflebean in Noble, Oklahoma.

The little girl looks like she could be about six years old.

Here is a photo with Mildred, two of her sisters and cousin Nolan Stufflebean, a few years later. Mildred is top and center:

The mystery child on the right (in the original photo at the top) appears to be a little boy, given his haircut.

I do have a guess about him, too, though. Could this be Harry Glenn Stufflebean, John Henry’s only son with his second wife, Addie Belcher?

Glenn, as he was called, was younger than Mildred, as he was born on 10 August 1911.

The little boy in the photo looks like he could be about 4 years old and that would fit with an estimated photo date of c1915.

Here is Glenn with his sister in a photo taken around the same time:

What do you think readers? Is the photo of Mildred Baker and Glenn Stufflebean? by the way, Glenn was actually Mildred’s uncle!