Clearfield (Utah) Naval Supply Depot

Originally posted September 14, 2012  

One of the things I like about my job is getting to visit historic sites. They may not be 'historic' in the touristy way, but somehow contributed to some aspect of American history. A few weeks ago, it was the General Motors B-25 plant in Kansas. Today, it is the Naval Supply Depot in Clearfield, Utah.

After nearly 11 months of construction, the 871 acre depot opened in April 1943. It's proximity to established highways and rail lines in addition to it's Air Force neighbors over at Hill in Ogden, made Clearfield a prime site. Initial construction included 58 warehouses totaling 8.3 million square feet (191 square acres) of inside storage, plus 6.7 million square feet of covered storage and 1.3 million square feet on outside, paved or concrete storage. At it's peak, the depot employed 7600 civilian and military personnel. In April of 1945, 500 German Prisoners of War we interned there and were put to work loading and unloading supplies. In April, 1946, the prisoners were removed and the POW camp deactivated and the area where they were held was sold off. Most the the warehouses still stand and remain in use to day by civilian companies. Which explains why I am here.

Letters of Administration

In a previous post, I mentioned Letter Of Administration. In Delaware County, Indiana, these are found in the Probate Court Records. These dates give us at least a 'dead by' date to work with when other documentation has not been found. The following information gleaned from the Book 1846-1852 Index to the Letters of Incorporation and is used courtesy of Juanita Weaver Lewis.

Early in the 1990s, the estate files were stored in a remote basement outside of the courthouse. A local genealogist, Nona Nunnelly, went there to do some research and discovered estate packets had been under water. The contents of the packets incuded, among other items, the original wills and estate settlements. Nona contacted the Indiana State Archivist who ordered the responsible official to rescue them.  Nona, along with other interested parties began the long and tedious project to empty the water from the packets, remove the mildewed contents, unfold the papers, hang them out to dry, then return to the packet envelope. Some of the papers were too fragile and could not be unfolded. Consequently, the contents of the packets was lost to posterity. The packets went back to the courthouse.

Armstrong, Mary p.37 ~ 30 Dec 1851
Baneigh, Andrew p.43 ~ 14 Sept 1852
Bartlett, Robert L p.36 ~ 28 Jan 1852
Blackford, James p.8 ~ 16 Feb 1852
Boots, Adam p30 ~ 4 June 1851
Brammer, Henry p.43 – 20 Aug 1852
Brees, Moses p.8 ~ 6 Dec 1847
Case, Samuel p.3 ~ 4 March 1847
Caster, George p.41 ~ 28 May 1852
Clark, John A p.7 ~ 22 Sept 1847
Coffin, Francis p.27 ~ 28 Dec 1850
Conner, Isaac p.6 ~ 26 Aug 1847
Crum, Lydia A p.21 ~ 24 Apr 1850
Cumerford, James p.1 ~ 9 Sept 1848
Cunningham, Samuel p 24 ~ 14 Aug 1850
Danner, Andrew p 27 ~ 21 8 Apr 1851Jan 1851
Davis, Aquilla p 24 ~ 13 Aug 1850
Davis, John .p 25 ~ 23 Aug 1850
Davis, Lucretia p.19 ~ 9 March 1850
Day, George W p.34 ~ 3 Nov 1851
Dille/Dilley, Joanna p.40 ~ 10 May 1852
Dougherty, MaryAnn Elizabeth p.23 ~ 27 July 1850
Dougherty, Barnet L p.26 ~ 23 Nov 1850
Duddleston, Ralph p.13 ~ 28 Nov 1849
Ferguson, Isaac p.29 ~ 19 May 1851
Fishburn, Daniel p.33 ~ 6 Sept 1851
Fodge, Jacob p.1 ~ 26 Dec 1846
Garner, Enoch p.39 ~ 7 Apr 1852
Gilbert, Edmund p32 ~ 19 Sept 1851
Green, William p.14 ~ 17 Feb 1849
Harris, Bemjamin p.5 ~ 21 June 1851
Heaton, Samuel p.18 ~ 11 March 1850
Helm, Jsaac C p.20 ~ 19 March 1850
Hensley, James p.12 ~ 21 Nov 1848
Holdren, Benjamin p.30~ 20 May 1851
Hutchings, Saml p.15 ~ 10 Aug 1849
Jackson, Jeremiah p.31 ~ 22 Aug 1851
Jackson, Jesse p.13 ~ 1 Jan 1849
Jackson, Jesse, p.16 ~ 8 Oct 1849
Keasbey, Edward S p.3 ~ 13 April 1847 (actual death date 27 Mar 1847)
Kennedy, Andrew Sen p.9 ~ 15 Jan 1848
Kennedy, Andrew p.22 ~ 15 Feb 1850
Kennedy, James p.21 ~ 20 April 1850
Ketterman, George p.17 ~ 23 Oct 1849
Kirkwood, Thomas p.36 ~ 24 Dec 1851
Knight, John p.14 ~ 2 May 1849
Lee, Thomas p.15 ~ 9 May 1849
Legally, James p.35 ~ 1 Dec 1851
Liggitt, Cyrus J p.20 ~ 26 March 1850
Love, Isaiah p.39 ~ 7 Apr 1852
Love, James p.5 ~ 28 June 1847
Lyon, William p.38 ~ 5 March 1852
McCalister, Alexander p.9 ~ 9 May 1848
McColister, John p.10 ~ 23 Aug 1848
McCreary, James p.18 ~ 27 Dec 1849
McCreery, James p.23 ~ 22 June 1850
Martin, Israel p.33 ~ 25 Sept 1851
Michael, Adam p.33 ~ 9 Oct 1851
Miller, Daniel p.18 ~ 11 Feb 1850
Noe, Archibald p.31 ~ 29 Sept 1852
Norris, Isaac p.4 ~ 19 April 1847
Norris, John p.28 ~ 8 Apr 1851
Price, William p.17 ~ 17 Dec 1849
Pugsley, Abraham p.4 ~ 5 June 1847
Pugsley, Abraham p.25 ~12 Sept 1850
Rench, Mary p.1~18 Dec 1846
Reynolds, John J p.29~19 May 1851
Rhodes, Francis p.5.~ 10 June 1847
Russell, Nancy p.7 ~ 2 Oct 1847
Secrest. Jacob p.4 1 Sept 1851
Shearer, George p.26 ~ 18 Dec 1850
Slack, James p.2 ~ 9 Feb 1847
Slack, Wm Simpson p.16 ~ 6 Sept 1849
Sparr, (? faded ) p.40 ~ 21 April? 1852
Spilker, George A p.31 ~ 26 Aug 1851 (actual death date 7 July 1851)
Spilker, George (W?) 42 ~ 10 June 1852
Stewart, James p.10 ~ 29 March 1848
Sullivan, John p.8 ~ 6 Jan 1848
Summers, William Se n p.11 ~ 9 Oct 1848
Thomas, Thomas S p.12 ~ 21 Nov 1848
Tilden, Isaac p.2 ~ 28 Dec 1846
Vannatre, p.6 ~ 3 Sept 1847
Willson, Benoni p.22 ~ 27 Apr 1850
Wilson, Joseph p.37 ~ 4 Feb 1852
Witt, William C p.28 ~ 12 March 1851

Outside The Box

Gaps in available records, regardless of the cause, poses a problem for any researcher. Fire, weather, negligence, no requirements. Any of these situations can cause us to pound our foreheads on our monitors. Sometimes we need to think outside the box to get an answer. We may not always be able to come up with the exact documentation, but sometimes we can come close.

In Indiana, death records were not required until 1882. When looking for something prior to that, we must be a bit more creative. Two of the sources I am working in are the county pauper's records and court records involving the letters of administration.

The pauper's records, here anyway, include doctor's bills, dental care (as crude as it was back then), and the best items for us, burial expenses and payment for coffins. They may not give the date the work was done, but gives the date the expenses was paid. Letters of administration are issued when someone passes away intestate (without a will). Someone must oversee the debts and assets of the estate. By noting the date this paperwork is issued, at least we know that the subject was deceased prior to this time. Coroner's reports fall in line with these types of sources as well. Neither is quite as informative as a death certificate from a genealogical standpoint, but sometimes it is the best we can get.

Excerpted from the Pauper's Records of Delaware County, Indiana, as quoted in Delaware County, Indiana 1827-1850 The Frontier Period By Althea Stoekel and Ross Johnson:

Pauper's Files
Funeral expenses for Alfred Moore (5 yards of muslin at $.25 per yard, 1 pair
     of socks at $.25, 1 white crevat at $.25, 1 shirt at $.50)      1837
Coffin for Mrs. Shackelford        1838          $5.00
Coffin for Mrs Shackelford daughter  1838   $3.00
Coffin for Joshua Everhart          1844          $5.50
Coffin for Stephen Everhart        1844          $1.50
Clothes and attendence for Everhart 1844   $1.00
Coffin for Mrs. Cowgill                1844           $5.00
Funeral expenses for Daniel Payne (9 yards of Cambrick for shrouding at
     $.37 per yard, 3 yards of bleached shirting at $.185, 1 yard of Jackinett
     $.75, 3 large spools of Boss thread at $.185, 1 pair of stockings at
     $.75, 1 dozen  coffin screws $.125) 1846
Coffin for Samuel Howell            1846          $8.00
Coffin and box for Sullivan          1849          $7.00
Funeral expenses for John Parker (11 yards bleached muslin of winding
     sheet at $1.37, 1 bed cord at $.25) 1850
Coffin for Solomon Simmons     1851           $2.50
Burying clothes for A. Becker     1851           $3.315
Burying clothes for A. Becker child   1851     $1.685

From the Files: Obituary of Henry Scoville, Livingston County, New York

Obituaries of yesteryear were works of art. Someone who knew and loved the deceased would recall memories, share their grief, and incidentally preserve local history in the newspaper. Reading these brings a life to our ancestors that no census record, no tombstone, and even approach. Henry is of no relation to me. I merely stumbled across his obituary and thought it sad that it would remain relatively unnoticed in the musty pages of history. I would like to bring the story of Henry's life back into the light.

Henry died in Mount Morris, Livingston County New York. His obituary apeared in the Nunda (New York) News, September 22, 1922.

Henry H. Scoville, proprietor of the Scoville House, Mt. Morris, in which hotel he was born eighty seven years ago and of which hotel he had been proprietor since he was 19 years old—a period of sixty-eight years, died at his apartments in the hotel Wednesday afternoon. For the past several years, Mr. Scoville had been confined to his apartments most of the time and his death was not unexpected. The Scoville House, built by Mr. Scoville's father, is one of the best known country hotels in the state. It has long been famous for its meals and the same high standard has been maintained throughout Mr. Scoville's long illness, his niece, Miss Helen Scoville, who has lived with him since she was 16 years old, having had general supervision of the house. Miss Maggie O'Brian, the hotel cook, has been with Mr. Scoville continuously for thirty-five years and if she ever prepared a poor meal, we have never heard of it. Her cooking not only equals, but far surpasses that of the largest and best hotels. Wm. Duffy, the hotel clerk, has been with Mr. Scoville for over twenty years and Frank Upson, assistant clerk, four years. Mr. Scoville never married. He leaves five nieces and one nephew: Miss Helen Scoville. Mrs. Fay Wheelock and Mrs. Albert McCarthy all of Mt. Morris; Mrs. Wm. O'Brian, Corning; Mrs. Willis Willard, Geneseo, and Mr. John Bishop of Jacksonville, Florida. Mr. Scoville had served as president of the village of Mt. Morris and was a director of the Bingham State Bank. He always paid close attention to business matters and accumulated considerable property. He had long been a member of the New York State Hotel Men's Association. The funeral will be held to-morrow at (?)., and interment will be made in the Mt. Morris Cemetery.

A brief history of the Scoville House appeared in The Picket Line and the Mount Morris Union on June 17, 1927.

Stop 1. Photographic Proof

When I tell people I have been in genealogy for more than 40 years then they realize I am not a 'seasoned citizen', they often call what they think is my bluff. But I have photographic proof of my pre-school connection with my family's history. My mother began her research journey in 1970 or so. I was the ripe old age of three, and spent many an afternoon nap under a table in a courthouse or library as my mom (heretofore known as Mumsy for her privacy) and her sister, Aunt Fish (because I couldn't pronounce her name correctly) mined the records for tidbits of our family history. Once I was old enough to read, maybe five or six, Mumsy would make a list of surnames and hand me a book with an index. That seemed to work well, and soon I was going by myself to the counter to request books. Can you imagine the look on your local clerk's face when a six-year-old wants possession of a hundred-year-old tome as big as she is??  It's a small wonder than none of them fainted. I was a well-behaved child in that atmosphere, and once they got to know me a bit, the would relinquish their grip on the smaller books and occasionally carry the larger ones to the table for me. No doubt I was never far from their watchful eye. But the thought of tearing out pages or marking in the books never crossed my mind. After all, I had to find my people! I had a list! These days, my work keeps me traveling away from home a lot, but I steal a few hours here and there for research. And it is Mumsy who, at the age of 81, needs that afternoon nap at the library.

October 1971. I was four and a half years old in this 

picture with the stones of my fourth great-grandparents
at James Cemetery, Franklin County, Indiana.

Richard Perkinhon Clarkson was a veteran of the War of 1812. Following the Year Without A Summer, times were hard in Penobscot County, Maine. Leaving his family behind, Richard came west  to Franklin County, Indiana, in about 1818. A tailor by trade, he was able to establish himself in business and soon sent for his family. In the early 1820's, Richard and wife, Mary Simpson, and their children settled on a farm near Brookville, Franklin County, Indiana, just outside of a hamlet called Mount Carmel. Construction was begun on a large, two-story brick home to shelter their growing family. 

Richard and Mary's home still stands on Highway 252 in Mount Carmel. The earliest construction included bricks fired in a kiln onsite. The second phase, being the massive perpendicular addition, included the one story segment on the far left of the second photo. The newest portion seemed to finish out the rectangular footprint of the building. The roof on the front portion is clearly installed over and earlier one, while the rest seem to be original to their construction.

The house was demolished sometime between about 2008 when these photos were taken and 2018 when I realized via Google Street View that it had been demolished. To say I was heart-broken would be an understatement. Aerial America has an excellent shot on their website. It can be seen here.

A Little Background To Get Us Started

I don't recall my first trip to a cemetery. No introduction. No realization. They were just there as an integral part of my childhood. Decoration Day, or Memorial Day as we call it these days, was spent traipsing all over Delaware and Grant Counties, Indiana, and, on rare occasions, to far-flung locations like Boone or Franklin Counties.The trunk of the car would be filled with five gallon buckets of cut iris and peonies, a years worth of coffee cans, and milk jugs of water to fill them. And spare shoes because someone would inevitably dump a bucket or jug. Stopping at a cemetery or two following a family reunion or funeral was common. A weekend drive with a picnic basket resulted in a blanket spread somewhere in a field of memories more times than not. All that being said, I suppose it is of little surprise that childhood lifestyle has evolved into a passion for every aspect of cemeteries. Visiting. Studying. Preserving. Restoring. Photographing. Remembering.

These days, as a middle-aged adult in late 2012, I have the occasional opportunity to visit cemeteries outside of my home state. I look forward to sharing a mix of taphophilia, genealogy, photography, American history, even geography. Whether unknown, famous, or infamous, every stone represents a story waiting to be told. So hop in and fasten your seat belt. We will see where the road takes us!