LOCAL OBITUARIES

Local obituaries

            Most of you know how to find older obituaries from the Hartford newspaper(s) using online searches and I suspect that many of you know that the Daviess County Library (DCPL) has an online database of obituaries starting with deaths in 1842.  You can do your own searches fairly easy on the DCPL site and I encourage you to do so. I’ll give you the link at the end of this post.

            Interestingly, their database is broken into three groupings: 1842-1919; 1920-1989; and 1990 to present.  The information available in each is slightly different and is described as: 1842-1919 Detailed abstracts; 1920-1989 Brief abstracts; and 1990-Present Detailed abstracts.  You will understand that better when you start digging.

            Of course the data is not just for Ohio County residents – it covers several counties in the Owensboro area. So keep that in mind when you are searching.

            I have done some digging for you in the first category (1842-1919) by limiting my search for all data from Ohio County (not using any surname) and I got about 30 hits.  I will post all of these for you.

          The following is an example of one of those hits and in the example below I have circled (1) the name of the deceased, (2) the date of death, (3) cause of death, and (4) date & source of the info – which happens to be the Hartford News.  So, although we would prefer more info, this is a lot here and it might help anyone searching the Cummins' line.  One way to read the actual obit would be to go to the Ohio County library and read the actual newspaper (probably on micro-film, but I’m not positive of that).  Note that some of these “abstracts” have less information than my example because some came from very brief mentions of a death instead of a more formal obit, and some have a bit more info – it’s just hit or miss, but if you haven’t searched this site you should. 

EXAMPLE:

Here is a portion of what I found (various names; only filtered by "Ohio County") – too many for one post:

And here is a link to the site:  http://obits.dcplibrary.org/

A Connection with the Titantic

James H. Bracken and wife, Addie Greathouse

            James H. Bracken, Ohio County, has a unique story as he was one of the over 1500 people who perished in the sinking of the famous RMS Titanic in April of 1912. His body was lost at sea, so he has no place of burial and I don’t believe that there was ever a death certificate issued for him. James had a wife and a 160 acre land claim in Lake Arthur, New Mexico. There are various stories as to why he was in London, but the ships records stating that he had been residing in Southampton for about a month and that he was a stock man. Given his livelihood, I believe that meant live stock. His wife stated that he would have had about $3000-$4000 cash in his possession on his return home.

James H. Bracken

• Born: 08 Sep 1882 in Beaver Dam, Ohio County, Kentucky
• Married: Addie Greathouse about 1907 in Texas
• Died: 15 Apr 1912
• Age: 29 years, 7 months, 7 days
• Buried: Lost at sea
• Cause of Death: Ship wreck
• Parents: William B. Bracken and Sarah A. Morris

Addie Greathouse

• Born: 09 Jun 1881 in San Saba County, Texas
• Married: James H. Bracken about 1907 in Texas
• Died: 31 May 1969 in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
• Age: 87 years, 11 months, 22 days
• Buried: Rose Hill Cemetery in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
• Cause of Death: A Sudden Myocardial Infarction due to ASHD
• Parents: Archibald Donahue Greathouse and Sarah Ann Jackson

I’m not sure what happened to Addie, but at the time of James’ death she was invalid with no hope of ever recovering. It seems as though her mother was tending to her needs while her husband was overseas. It is very sad to me that the informant on Addie’s death certificate was the Red Cross. It appears she died alone in a nursing home without family or friends. Most likely she was put there after her mother passed away or could no longer care for her as she needed.

Sources:

1. Year: 1900; Census Place: Justice Precinct 2, Hale, Texas; Roll: 1641; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 28; FHL microfilm: 1241641.
2. Year: 1910; Census Place:  Lake Arthur, Chaves,  New Mexico; Roll: T624_913; Page:  1A; Enumeration District: 0027; Image:  832; FHL microfilm:  1374926.
3. Encyclopedia Titanica – 2nd Class Passenger, James H. Bracken
4. Encyclopia Titanica – Red Cross Committee Report
5. Death Certificate of Addie (Greathouse) Bracken
6. Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Agreements and Crew Lists, Series III: Titanic. BT 100/259 and 100/260. The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England.
7. Ancestry.com. UK, RMS Titanic, Deaths at Sea, 1912 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea. BT 334/52 and 334/53. The National Archives, Surrey, England.
8. Ancestry.com. UK, RMS Titanic, Outward Passenger List, 1912 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outward Passenger Lists. BT 27/776 and 27/780. The National Archives, Surrey, England.
9. Find A Grave Memorial# 64026190 – Addie C. Greathouse Bracken

Source:  Beth’s Blog