Edward W. Osburn's church assignments in Ohio

Edward's church in Wadsworth, Ohio. He was assigned there from 1900 to about 1902.










Edward's church in Shreve, Ohio, 1902 - about 1905.

Counter

Counter on 2/28/2011 = 118.
Counter on 4/10/2011 = 292.
Counter on 5/23/2011 = 413.
Counter on 12/29/2011=847.

Harmon Osburn - Abt. 1870 or before

Here's another photograph of Harmon Osburn, probably 1870 or earlier. The back of the photo states it was taken in Rushville, Indiana. Harmon and his family moved from Rush County to Greencastle in 1870 - that's the basis for the dating. The photo image was kindly given to me by my cousin Kay Osburn, Harmon's great-granddaughter.

Children of Don Eugene and Alma Lawson Osburn (or Osborn)

Well, I don't know why I've perseverated on finding Don Eugene Osburn (or Osborn or Osborne, or maybe Osburne), and his children, other than, I guess, trying to find out about the descendants of my great-x2-grandparents, Harmon and Eliza Packard Osburn.

Having deduced that Eugene's eldest child, Dorothy Day Osburn, had married Claude Sipes, I "googled" Dorothy Sipes and found the obituary of Grace "Patches" Osborn Hiddleson at http://cagenweb.com/yolo/yolobits/hi.htm , search on "Hiddleson" - Dorothy Sipes was a sister who had predeceased Grace. Grace Hiddleson clearly must have been Eugene and Alma Lawson Osburn's youngest child. She died only a few years ago at age 97 - as I was on my "quest". How I wish I had had the opportunity to talk with her.

I then learned that David Osborn (Osburn with an "O") had died in the late 1940s in New York. I was noodling around records for another Osburn, and ran across David Eugene Osborn on a list of burials at veterans cemetery gravesites. I know that David was in the U. S. Navy. So I searched a veterans cemetery gravesite locator, and found, under "Osburn" with a "U": David Eugene Osburn, Ch Com Steward, U.S. Navy, World War II, date of death 5/24/1950, buried at Section H, site 11086, Long Island National Cemetery, 2040 Wellwood Avenue, Farmingdale, NY 11735. No additional information. But I think this must be "my" David Osburn - my second cousin once removed.

Claude and Dorothy Day Osburn Sipes

My great-grandfather, Edward W. Osburn, listed the children of his brother, Benjamin Franklin Osburn. They included Don Eugene Osburn (1866 – 1951).

Eugene was a missionary. His first wife was Amy Lawson, who died in 1908 in India about a month after giving birth to her third child.

Eugene and Amy’s first child was Dorothy Day Osburn, born 1899 in Louisiana, shortly after they had returned from their work in Liberia, Africa. Eugene and Amy were living with his parents, Benjamin Franklin and Mary Torr Osburn, in Indiana when the 1900 U. S. Federal Census was taken. Dorotha D. (sic) is listed in Benjamin and Mary’s household. Dorothy is again listed in Benjamin and Mary’s household on the 1910 census, absent Eugene, who was then living in California, and, of course, her late mother. Thereafter I had found no record of her, and assumed she had died.

My cousin Melvin Praiswater sent me the two pictures exhibited here, and from the inscriptions on the back, it became obvious that the reason Dorothy “disappeared” (she didn’t know she’d disappeared) from the record (the record searchable on today’s internet) was that she had married Claude Sipes. I understand they lived most of their lives in Arizona, but I have no knowledge of their subsequent life together.

It was then that I was able to trace Eugene and Amy’s youngest daughter, Grace Alma Osburn (or Osborn as she spelled it), by “googling” Dorothy Sipes. I think I see the subject of another post…

It's Osburn, with a "U"

The name "Osburn" has been spelled variously as "Osborn", "Osborne", "Osburn", "Osburne". One Osburn researcher wrote to me:

"As a comment on the name spelling, I have numerous instances in which the father and the son spell the surname differently. That is in addition to a 150 year old letter written in the hand of one of my family members in which he spells his surname three different ways--all in the course of a two-page letter. It's no wonder there is considerable confusion about the "correct" spelling of the name, or when it may have changed."

My great-x2-grandfather, Harmon Osburn, spelled his name with a "U", as did my grandfather Edward Walker Osburn and my granduncle Benjamin Franklin Osburn.

Here are examples of how Harmon, Edward, and Benjamin Osburn signed their name - Osburn:

Harmon Osburn:Benjamin Osburn:Edward Walker Osburn

Edward W. Osburn and Mary Osburn Adkinson

My cousin very kindly gave me access to her old family photographs, which included this picture postcard of brother and sister, Edward Walker Osburn and Mary Almira Osburn Adkinson, taken in Atlanta in 1905. You'll find write-ups of Mary Adkinson and Edward W. Osburn, including other pictures, in previous posts.