George Chalkley Haworth

George Chalkley Haworth

A picture is a worth a thousand words. After I discovered a photograph of my 4th great-grandfather George Chalkley Haworth (see Facebook Tags Forgotten Ancestor), it seemed appropriate that I add a few more words and assemble a profile of his life.

Early Life and Quaker Upbringing
George Chalkley Haworth was born January 16, 1833 (according to his headstone) in Indiana to parents Mahlon Stanton Haworth and Mary Hockett. The family moved to Iowa before 1850.

Although he was disowned for "marrying contrary to the faith," Mahlon had belonged to the Religious Society of Friends, and, it would seem, adhered strictly to Quaker doctrine throughout his life.

Mahlon was an ardent abolitionist; a trait closely aligned with the tenants of his faith. According to Bryn Mawr College (a Quaker founded institution), the Religious Society of Friends was the first organization in North America to "fully condemn slavery as both ethically and religiously wrong in all circumstances."

It was discovered, years after his death, that Mahlon's Iowa home contained secret rooms that hid slaves escaping to freedom on the Underground Railroad. This was the environment in which George Chalkley Haworth was raised. These were the values to which he was exposed.

Building Family
On October 29, 1859, George married Mary Emily Hadley in Warren County, Iowa. They had three daughters, including my 3rd great-grandmother Iva Elzina Haworth.

Marriage Registration for George and Mary (Hadley) Haworth

The marriage was short lived. Mary passed away in January 1865, and was buried in Ackworth Cemetery in Warren County. Her headstone indicates she was 25 years old.

Two years later, on March 21, 1867, George married Ann Simon in Warren County, Iowa. They had five daughters - all born in Iowa. A son would be born in Kansas.

Marriage Certificate for George and Ann (Simon) Haworth

Wagon Train and Founding of Haworth Town

In about 1880, George and Ann Haworth loaded their family and possessions into a covered wagon and followed his brother Mahlon Haworth, Jr. from the prairies of Iowa into Kansas.

A granddaughter of Mahlon Jr.'s later recounted the journey across the plains in Reflections of the Old Homestead. She describes a long and tiresome trip.

"They traveled slow by day and camped before dark...The teams of horses couldn't make it more than ten to fifteen miles per day, depending on the weather, for the wagons were loaded and heavy. The roads were just two wagon wheel paths made by the wagons that traveled this route...the miles from Indianola passed slowly."

 Their search for a new home came to an end when, as Mahlon Jr.'s granddaughter recounts, "they rode down a hill...a valley spread out before them with a muddy creek winding through the valley of trees." Mahlon Jr. said, "well I believe we have found our spot!"

Most of the other travelers in the wagon caravan continued onward, except George who "spotted a place up on the hill a piece from Mahlon's."

There was another influencing factor in the Haworth brothers' decision to settle where they did. In a 2012 academic article, Haworth: Flag Stop Town in Republic County, Kansas State student Rebecca Hall notes that they set up homes near a pre-existing rail line.

"When looking at the 1884 Plat map of Republic County, the establishment of the little town in that specific area seemed to be perfect for the time. The track curved through the eastern portion of Republic County mostly parallel to Mill Creek; its meandering ways continued until running through Cuba, Kansas."

In the ensuing years, George and Mahlon Jr.'s family settlement grew into a proper town, appropriately named Haworth. 

In 1991, The Belleville Telescope ran a feature that included reflections from Haworth's former residents (by that time, the settlement was a ghost town). 

"Haworth may have never been much more than the dream of its founders, George Chalkey [sic.] Haworth and his brother, Mahlon Haworth, Jr.," but, as the paper observed in 1901, it was a "beautiful little city in the eastern part of the County. It has a population of 20. It being situated on the B and M railroad and Mill Creek makes it an important business center."

Postmaster and Final Years
The greatest indication that the town of Haworth was on the map, so to speak, came on May 5, 1884, when a post office was established. George was appointed the first postmaster.

George C. Haworth 1884 Appointment as U.S. Postmaster

Hall notes that "the post office was more than just a place to collect mail; it covered a need that was similar for many people in rural Kansas in the late 1800's. Residents needed a way to communicate with the rest of the world, to keep in touch with families and friends beyond their little plot of land on the prairie."

It would be from this post office that the photo of George C. Haworth and family was mailed to my 3rd great-grandparents Edmond and Iva (Haworth) Hawks.

George wouldn't live to see the town's continued growth or its subsequent decline. On April 8, 1896, he passed away and was buried in the Hawks Cemetery just outside of Haworth. His headstone still stands prominently in the sea of surrounding farmland.
After the turn of the 20th century, the town began to decline. The post office was closed in November 1910. Families moved to bigger settlements. Buildings were torn down and the materials were used to create new structures. Eventually, the land reclaimed remaining foundations and quietly erased the town, relegating its existence to memory and its founder to a photograph.

Facebook Tags Forgotten Ancestor

It's happened again. Social media played a key role in solving another family history mystery. First, it was Twitter (See: Tweet & Tell: Oral History Surfaces). This time it's Facebook.

A Family Heirloom
This past summer I inherited an old family photo album. Its plush purple velvet cover was faded from years of family thumbing through it. The fragile pages holding the cabinet cards were yellowed from age.

When I first received the album, I removed each photograph with surgical precision. Every image was carefully examined and scanned. Fortunately, some of the photos were labeled. Unsurprisingly, a small handful were not.

One image above all others stood out to me. It was a picture of an older man sitting beside an older woman, likely his wife. Between them was a young boy with his hand resting on the older man's knee. Standing in the background was a young woman with her hand delicately resting on a chair back. Gazing at the camera, all of them cast solemn glances void of any discernible emotion. 

The back of the photograph was inscribed, "To EO Hawks." EO Hawks would be my 3rd great-grandfather Edmond Oscar Hawks.

The people pictured stuck with me. The faces of the older man and younger woman looked familiar. I felt like I knew them or had seen their faces before. Was it a family resemblance that I was picking up on?

Scrutinizing the picture, I saw there was a clue not in the image itself but in the border. At the bottom, the photographer's name, Hooper, was embossed along with the studio location: Washington, Kansas.

That immediately triggered a red flag. I have ancestry in Washington County, Kansas. My Haworth family. In fact, my 3rd great-grandfather Edmond O. Hawks was married to Iva Elzina Haworth.

Was the photograph from Iva's family? I immediately turned to my online family tree and zeroed in on one man: George Chalkley Haworth. He was Iva's father - my 4th great-grandfather - and lived in Washington County.

Following the death in 1865 of his first wife Mary Emily Hadley (Iva's mother), George remarried to Ann Simon. George had many daughters with both of his wives. However, with his second wife Ann, he had one son Robert Elwood.

Robert was born in 1884. I figured the boy pictured was about six years old, which, if this was George and his family, would suggest that the photo was taken in approximately 1890. Based on the clothing, that seemed plausible.

Who's Who?
I decided I needed help to confirm my theory. I shared the photograph with the Haworth Association of America, a group of descendants that research all things Haworth. The photograph was posted on their site with a call for help in identifying those pictured.

I also posted the picture on this blog's Unknown Photos page with the hope someone would glance through the images and serendipity would lead to an answer.

After half a year, lightning hadn't struck. Neither effort yielded any promising leads on identification.

I decided to take a more proactive approach and research descendants of Robert Elwood Haworth. Perhaps someone in his family inherited a similar photograph and could confirm my hunch that he was the young boy.

Facebook: An Indispensable Genealogical Tool
Robert had three children, and I was soon able to locate surviving grandchildren. Leveraging the power of social media, I plugged those names into Facebook. In minutes, I found two of his grandchildren with profiles.

The beauty of Facebook is that you can message anyone. You can even include attachments like a mysterious unlabeled black and white photo. I wrote an introductory note explaining who I was, that I was researching family history, thought we were distant cousins, and that I had a picture of - I believed - our common ancestor: George C. Haworth. Could they confirm? Had they seen it before?

Here's an important tip for genealogists: Do not send your message to someone with whom you are not friends. It'll go into a wasteland where it will sit unread while you wait impatiently for a response that's never coming.

When sending messages through Facebook to people with whom you are not friends, you have the option to pay $1 and put your message in their primary Facebook in-box. Do it! If you don't, it will be delivered to their "other" folder and won't ping them with a notification that they have an unread message. Your $1 tells Facebook you're serious about this message and ensures its delivery with a notification. It's a small price to pay to put your angsty genealogist's heart at ease.

I sent the same message to two grandchildren of Robert E. Haworth. I attached the photograph to both messages. And I paid $1 to send each message. Then I waited.

Thirteen hours later (yes, genealogists count!) I had a response. One of the grandchildren replied:

"Yes - I have that same picture hanging in my dining room. That is our great grandfather George Chalkey Haworth, Ann Simon, my grandfather Robert Elwood, and his sister."

After six months, I had corroborating confirmation. It only cost me some genealogical detective work to uncover Robert's descendants, a Facebook message out of the blue and $1.

I finally had affirmation that I possessed a photo of my 4th great-grandfather. Please, allow me to introduce you to George Chalkley Haworth.

George Chalkley Haworth

The value of a picture is more than a thousand words, particularly when it unveils a previously never-before-seen image of your great! great! great! great! grandfather. For that, I am four times grateful to Facebook and its indispensable role in connecting me with my distant cousin who had all the answers hanging on her dining room wall.

Family History on the Road - Day One

The day after my maternal grandmother's funeral, I set out on a 7-day family history road trip with my mother and aunt. We traveled across five states, nearly 2,200 miles in total, and paid our respects at the graves of 36 direct ancestors.

It was my hope that the week-long trip would be a healing experience and an opportunity to see and connect with our ancestors' lives. Family was important to my grandmother, and this experience was an opportunity to reinforce and honor that legacy.

My grandmother was from Plainville, Kansas. It's a small farming community with a population today of approximately 1,900. My 3rd great-grandparents Albert and Anna (Dornon) Benedick were among its early settlers. Following their arrival, several generations called the town home and today rest eternally in the Plainville Cemetery. In total, 11 of my direct ancestors are buried on the grounds, including my grandmother who always called Plainville home.

From Plainville, we traveled north to Stockton where my grandparents were married (and later divorced) in the town courthouse. Making our way east, we drove to the small community of Cuba, Kansas. My 2nd great-grandmother Minnie (Hawks) Lumpkins Barber was born in a dugout nearby in 1881.

Coincidentally, the town was holding a festival. Main Street was closed to vehicles, and folks were cooking BBQ and playing games. In one game, people would pair up, grab hold of a rope and pull a sled weighted with blocks down the street. As the couple hauled the sled, onlookers would toss more weights onto the load to heighten the challenge. The crowd's cheering and laughing was occasionally drowned out as biplanes would come in low over Main Street, climb skyward, turn around and make another swoop.

We drove about four miles east of town to the Hawks Cemetery, which is situated alongside a dirt country road. The cemetery is fenced off from the farmlands that stretch for miles in every direction. The grounds are beautifully kept despite the seeming isolation from human activity. 

The Hawks Cemetery is the final resting place for my 4th great-grandfather George Chalkley Haworth and his father Mahlon Stanton Haworth. George and his brother founded the now abandoned ghost town of Haworth. George was the town's first postmaster. Sadly, the road to what remains of Haworth was muddied and prevented my wimpy rental car from making the trip. If I needed a reason to return, this would be added to the list.

Mahlon, my 5th great-grandfather, was a Quaker and an ardent abolitionist. After his death, it was learned that he served as a station manager on the Underground Railroad. His home in Iowa was found to contain secret rooms to hide slaves seeking freedom in the north. That's a legacy in which I take great pride. Not a bad start to our family history journey.

Day One Recap

Miles Traveled: 260

Direct Ancestor Graves Visited: 13