This narrative is meant to be a summary, shorn of many details and documentation, of over three centuries of family history of my Muffley line.
QUINCY, ADAMS COUNTY, ILLINOIS
Julia’s brother Adam Biddle Wilhelm had been in Quincy for some time, with an interlude of involvement in the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush. He worked in a saddlery, and helped Julia with lodging and employment for her sons. See the Wilhelm Blog. Adam Biddle Wilhelm moved his saddlery business to 517 Hampshire Street, Quincy, in 1868. Julia and her kids lived (definitely from 1873 to 1878) above Wilhelm Saddlery, and the apartment entrance was off a side alley, up a covered iron staircase. By 1871 (and probably earlier), Joe and his brother Franklin Biddle Muffley both worked in harness making. Joe continued to be a harness maker for all of his working life. Their brother Jacob Milton Muffley worked as a tinner, but tragically died young, on Sept. 10, 1872.
According to the 1880 census of Quincy, Julia lived between 5th and 6th streets, an alley entrance off of Vermont. Her kids Joe, Will, & Sadie, all in their 20s, lived with her. Joe worked as a harness maker, and Will as a bookbinder. Sadie at various times was reported to work as a seamstress. Frank by that time had married Florence Kansas “Cannie” Tyrer, lived nearby, and worked as a commercial traveler.
On Mar. 8, 1882, in Quincy, our Joseph Pierce Muffley married Emma Jane McCreary. She was the daughter of John Skinner and Margaret Williamson McCreary (John b. 1825, Warren Co., Ohio). John was a descendant of Hugh McCreary (b. abt. 1744 in Pennsylvania). Margaret (b. May 29, 1835) has interesting Dutch ancestry, well researched (e.g. Van Voorhees ). John Skinner McCreary was a livestock dealer in Quincy. The McCreary family had previously lived in Springfield, Illinois, where they had initially lived across the street to the west, and up the block to the north, from Abraham Lincoln in 1861 just before Abe moved to Washington D.C. as President. Emma Jane had a brother Abraham Lincoln McCreary. (pictured: Back, from left: Christine, Alice, Marilla. John Skinner & Margaret Williamson McCreary. Silas, Emma, & Abraham Lincoln McCreary.)
The 1884-1885 Quincy directory first places our Joe Muffley at Schott Saddlery, while his brother Frank B. Muffley worked as harness maker at John B. Kreitz. Joe and Emma McCreary Muffley then lived at 525 Maiden Lane, and their son Albert Harold Muffley (my grandfather - pictured here with his mother Emma) was born on Dec. 19, 1885. Frank’s family lived at 92 S. 3rd. Julia and her kids Sadie and Will lived behind 518 Vermont. Will worked as a book binder from then, and Sadie shortly was a seamstress.
QUNICY Continued
Julia Wilhelm Muffley died in 1894, and was reportedly buried in Halstead, Kansas, home then of her daughter Sadie. Sadie had married William Henry Lentz, harness maker, in 1892. The Lentz family had a farm near Halstead, Kansas.
The John Skinner McCreary family moved from Quincy to Galesburg, Illinois, sometime after Emma Jane McCreary married Joe Muffley (1882). This probably was after John’s stockyard burned. The insurance had lapsed, and McCreary family fortunes took a dive. In Galesburg Ward 6 in 1900, John McCreary was a day laborer at age 72. This, after years of having several businesses. In 1890 in Galesburg, Silas William McCreary (brother of Emma Jane McCreary Muffley) married Mary Alice “May” Jagger. May Jagger was a sister of Edna Una Jagger, who later married Albert Muffley (son of Joe & Emma Jane McCreary Muffley). Thus, the initial link between Jagger and Muffley was via the McCreary family.
The year 1906 was very eventful. Joe, Emma, and son Albert Muffley lived at 328 Chestnut. Joe was still at Schott Saddlery. Albert worked for George Ertel. Frank B. & Florence Muffley lived at 308 S. 3rd, and Frank worked for Schott. On Jan. 18, 1906, fire began in the harness area and was discovered in the barn and livery stable at Schott Saddlery by 3:10AM. It became one of Quincy’s most destructive fires. Blazing saddles. On June 11, Effie Wilhelm (daughter of Adam Biddle Wilhelm) married Harry J. Eickmeyer in Quincy, and four days later her cousin Albert Harold Muffley eloped to Monmouth with Edna Una Jagger of Galesburg, Illinois. Albert’s mother had wanted him to marry Bertha Slotman (whose photos are in Emma’s album). Previously, when a letter from Albert arrived in Galesburg, sisters of Edna Jagger tried to snatch it away. Edna read the letter on the run, and then ate the letter. With the marriage, Albert’s Uncle Silas William McCreary (married May Jagger) became also a Jagger in-law of Albert. Silas and May (= “Cuz-Unc” & “Cuz-Aunt”) had a son Dick McCreary who soldiered in World War I. Before 1909, any Muffley presence in Quincy probably ended.
HANNIBAL, KANSAS CITY, and St. LOUIS, MISSOURI
In 1906, after Albert Harold Muffley of Quincy (pictured above) eloped with Edna Una Jagger of Galesburg, they initially lived in Quincy, Illinois. Albert and Edna Jagger Muffley (my grandparents) lived at 317 Paris Ave., Hannibal, Missouri, in 1909, and he worked for City Electric Light. Their first home (1910-1912) was rather basic. Their 3 kids were born in Hannibal: Mary Louise in 1909, Robert Pierce Muffley (my father) in 1911, and Kenneth Muffley in 1913. Albert worked at the Electric Light Company in subsequent city directories. The family lived at 804 N. 6th (1911-1912) pictured below on left, then rear of 1008 Paris Ave. (1912-1913), and finally 830 Hazel (1914-1918)- pictured below on the right. Incidentally, Hannibal had been the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and was the inspiration for the fictional town of St. Petersburg in the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn stories.
Meanwhile, Joe & Emma Muffley resided in Kansas City, and then in St. Louis. In 1907, Joe & Emma initially roomed at 1233 Pennsylvania in Kansas City, Missouri. Joe was a harness maker at Velie Saddlery. Stephen Velie Jr., founder of the saddlery, was a grandson of John Deere. Velie Saddlery had a charging bull logo (pictured). The address for the saddlery appeared in 2001 to be at the site of an FBI building. Joe continued employment at Velie all during the Kansas City years, although Joe and Emma moved a number of times. They lived at 1817 Pennsylvania from 1908-1911; that location appears to be at a current Interstate site. Their residence in 1912 and 1913 was at 1819 Washington, and there is now a house there which might be of that age. Joe & Emma Muffley moved from Kansas City to St. Louis, and in 1914 (to 1917) lived at 2340 Louisiana Ave., the first of their 4 homes in St. Louis.
In 1918, the Albert & Edna Muffley family moved from Quincy to Gary, Indiana. However, the Muffley presence in Hannibal was not at an end. Albert’s Uncle Franklin Biddle Muffley and Aunt Cannie Tyrer Muffley had children (Frank Raymond and Ora Vivian Muffley) who had put down roots northwest of Hannibal. Franklin Biddle and Cannie Tyrer Muffley retired to the farm there by 1925. I occasionally correspond with my cousins from this line.
MUFFLEY FAMILIES FROM 1918 TO 1930
By 1920, Albert & Edna Muffley lived in Bushnell, McDonough Co., Illinois. Albert was working as an electrician. Albert’s parents Joe & Emma McCreary Muffley about this time moved from 3118a Sidney St. to 2544a Eiler St. (to 1923) in St. Louis. From 1924-1928, Joe and Emma lived at 3227a Dakota, and Joe worked at J.B. Sickles Saddlery.
In 1921, Margaret Williamson McCreary (mother of Emma Jane McCreary Muffley) died. Margaret’s husband John Skinner McCreary had died in 1911 in Galesburg. Incidentally, John Skinner McCreary (my great-great grandfather) had in 1869 and 1870 been the mayor of Canton, Fulton County, Illinois.
Historian Tom Wilson wrote an article in the Galesburg Register-Mail on Feb. 22, 2008. “In February 1925, Galesburg placed an electric traffic signal in the intersection of Main and Seminary streets in downtown Galesburg. City electrician Bert Muffley was instructed to check the new fangled device daily to assure a smooth operation. On the 10th day Muffley opened the signal box to check the machinery and much to his shock discovered it was jammed with letters intended for the post office. The mail that was deposited in the traffic signal by confused citizens was intended for Wataga and Macomb and the states of Kentucky and Nebraska.”
Mary Louise Muffley wrote in her Galesburg High School Memory Book, on Sunday July 5, 1925: “We went out to Camp Shaubena to bring Bob home. While we were there we saw what wonderful times the boys can have. I almost wish I could go out when the girls go.” Camp Shaubena is at Lake Bracken, which I vaguely recall.
Tragedy struck on May 8, 1926, when Mary Louise Muffley (pictured), age 16, died of pneumonia in Galesburg. This is an aunt I never knew, but I have an album of hers, with photos of her and her friends, and her writings. More loss occurred in St. Louis in 1928 with the death by pneumonia of Emma Jane McCreary Muffley at age 66 (I have her death certificate). She had had an extensive period of ill health. The widowed Joe Muffley moved in with the family of his son Albert. Emma Jane was buried at Linwood Cemetery, Galesburg, as were Joe, Edna, and Louise Muffley.
At the time of the 1928 death of his sister Emma Muffley, Abraham Lincoln McCreary lived in Seattle. In the 1930 census, A. Lincoln McCreary was a real estate agent, living alone at 3706 East 55th in Seattle. It is not known what became of him after this.
Recall that Joe Muffley had a brother Will, who had married Lillie Kimmel. In 1930, Will was age 70, but was still working in the bookbinding department of the U.S. Government Printing Office. Will and Lillie lived then at 339 Shepherd NW in Washington D.C.; that was the last of their several homes in D.C. Will lived another 10 years, and Lillie died in 1946. They are buried at the Ft. Lincoln Cemetery, Brentwood Md. I have photos of a couple of their homes, their church, the printing office, and the cemetery. In 1930, Joe Muffley’s brother Franklin Biddle Muffley and his wife Cannie were living northwest of Hannibal. Joe’s sister Sadie Muffley Lentz died in 1930.
Albert Muffley was not working at his electrician work in 1930; according to the census, he was a confectionary salesman that year. The Muffley household in that census of Wethersfield, Illinois, consisted of Albert, Edna, Bert’s father Joe, Robert, and Kenneth.
ROBERT PIERCE MUFFLEY
FRANCES CHRISTINE LINDSTROM
Her Lindstrom ancestry is traceable back to a Peter Sunesson born c. 1765 at Mörlunda Parish, Kalmar Län county, Småland province, Sweden. I have been to this place and had amazing experiences of discovery and meeting previously unknown Swedish cousins. It was only days after this meeting in June 2002 that my first wife Anne died of a heart attack at the home of a new cousin in Sweden.
Frances Lindstrom was a graduate of the class of 1928. Her daughter Shirley Ruth Coad was born on Sept. 10, 1928, in Galesburg. Shirley’s father was Robert E. Coad. He was a man shrouded in mystery, as Mom had little to say about him. Incidentally, I have been able to track some of what happened to Robert Coad and his descendants in California. By 1930, Robert Coad was living with his mother and other kin in Galesburg.
Frances and Shirley lived with Frances’ parents until Frances married. The Lindstrom family lived on East Losey, East South Street (1930 census), and East Main. In 1930, the Lindstrom household consisted of Albert and Emma, Lawrence (Larry), Ruth, Edna, Frances Coad, and Shirley Coad (age 1). In 1931, Larry died. Ruth married Silas Winberg in 1933. Shirley started school at Weston School, through the 3rd grade.
Frances Lindstrom liked the song “Tea for Two”, and I have her teapot which plays that tune. She liked to dance, and went to the famed Arcade Roof Garden, “where the sky begins”, atop the Weinberg Arcade in Galesburg. Lawrence Welk and his Novelty Band played there in 1931. Big band music was played under the stars in good weather, and on the third floor otherwise.
My sister Shirley said that our mother Frances went to the dances with her sisters Ruth and Edna. Ruth was with Silas Winberg (they married in 1933), and Edna was dating Harry. Frances’ mother disapproved of a divorced woman going to dances. It may have been at such a dance that Frances Christine Lindstrom met Robert Pierce Muffley.
FRANCES and ROBERT MUFFLEY
The wedding was not attended by Frances’ parents, her sister Edna, or her daughter Shirley, due to opposition to the wedding. Robert and Frances Muffley went to McCook after the honeymoon, and returned by train to Galesburg in August to fetch Shirley. Shirley had been living with her grandparents. Shirley’s departure from the home was hotly and physically contested by Emma & Edna Lindstrom. Additionally, Edna’s boyfriend Harry reportedly disliked Edna’s mean behavior, and ended their relationship.
So, it was on to McCook. Shirley did not know what to expect, except that she had no contact with her grandparents. She recalls living at the 506 West 4th St. location in McCook. She started 4th grade at Central School, and later went to East Ward School. The Robert Muffley family had moved into a duplex at 509 East 2nd Street. Bob’s Uncle Lee Jagger lived in the other half of the duplex. It was while living here that Bob began the building of a new home at 1006 West 3rd St. By then, Lee Jagger was on the conductors’ seniority list, but cousin Roy Weidenhamer chose to remain at the top of the brakemen’s list for the McCook division instead of moving to the bottom of the conductor’s list (with less choice of work assignments).
RAILROAD
Bob Muffley’s Uncle Lee Jagger (see Jagger Blog) helped Bob toward a railroading job in McCook, Nebraska. Bob only had to find a way to get to McCook, which he did by hopping freight trains and dodging railroad police. Bob Muffley made the brakeman’s list on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad on Nov. 4, 1935. As of January, 1937, Bob Muffley was #69 on the brakeman’s list, and his kinsman Jesse Roy Weidenhamer was #1 for the McCook Division. Bob Muffley sometimes went back to Galesburg to visit his parents and other relatives, and must have courted Frances at that time.
McCook NEBRASKA
The new home (pictured) on West 3rd in McCook was completed the summer of 1941, and there was a visit then to McCook by the Galesburg Muffleys: Joe, Albert, & Edna. Shirley recalls that they were not long in the new house before she answered the phone to hear of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Back in Galesburg,
Robert’s brother Kenneth Francis Muffley married Flossie Wilson on April 5, 1942. (pictured: 1942 Wedding of Ken and Flossie Muffley- from left: Bob, Ken, minister, Flossie, Bessie). Ken was interested in motorcycles by this time, and raced motorcycles. Ken was drafted into the army, and worked as a military policeman. Flossie followed him to his job in Maryland. Ken was in the hospital with a back injury at the time of the birth of their daughter Karren Louise Muffley (b. June 24, 1944) in Havre de Grace, Maryland.
Albert, Edna, & Joe Muffley made a trip from Illinois through McCook and on to the Rocky Mountains in 1942. I was born in McCook, Nebraska, on June 1, 1943, and shortly after that Dad made the conductors’ seniority list. At some point, I inadvertently (I’m sure) dropped some food from my high chair onto the floor. My mother asked, “Did you throw that on purpose?” I reportedly replied, “No, I threw it on the floor.” (That's me on the left- with my first camera).
SPEARFISH REUNION OF 1959
The Muffly people attending this reunion mostly descended from Charles Timothy Muffly (b. 1828, Pennsylvania). For those with Ancestry.com access, refer to the Howlett-Muffly tree at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/11302215/person/-488963449
Charles Timothy was a brother of Joseph Wendell Muffly, who wrote a Civil War history of 148th Pennsylvania Infantry. Charles Timothy was also a 3rd cousin of our ancestor Joseph “Joe” Pierce Muffley. Charles Timothy Muffly lived in Pennsylvania, then Illinois, then Nebraska, then South Dakota. He was a Nebraska State Senator (1897) prior to retirement to Hot Springs, Fall River County, South Dakota. He was buried in Madison County, Nebraska, in 1913. He had at least at dozen kids by two wives. Descendants of his kids James Henry Muffly and Alma Alice Muffly Cooke were known attendees at the 1959 reunion, and there were likely others as well.
Part of the Spearfish S.D. reunion involved a visit to a ranch in adjoining Crook County, Wyoming. Charles Timothy’s daughter Alma Muffly Cooke (1858-1950) & family had settled there. Gary recalls meeting Alma’s son Vane Cooke (1889-1965), who appears in some reunion photos. An old address book in McCook had the name Svoboda as a descendant of Alma. That rings a faint bell. It is now noted that Larry Svoboda of Houston had put posts (2000 & 2001) on a “Muffly Board” at Ancestry.com. A 2002 note on that board refers to periodic Muffly reunions in the Black Hills, so the 1959 reunion was just one in a series. Also at the 1959 reunion was Marjorie Muffly (b. 1907), daughter of Glenn Muffly of “first contact”. In the 1970s, Marjorie’s brother Gary Muffly (1909-1979) & his wife Cynthia were visited in Powell, Tennessee, by the family of Gary Muffley (b. 1943), then living in North Carolina. Marjorie & Gary Muffly were 6th cousins of Gary Muffley.
GENETIC GENEALOGY
9/15/09 update
Further SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) Haplogroup R1b subclade panel testing of Gary Muffley’s yDNA has yielded a code of R1b1b2a1a1 (new coding system adopted in early 2009). It seems that my male-line ancestors bearing the basic R1b Haplogroup y-chromosome may not have entered Europe as early as I had previously thought, so probably did not spend the last Ice Age in the Iberia Refugia after all. My y-DNA is positive for Marker M269 (yielding a R1b1b2 code), which may have developed about 8,000 B.C. in the vicinity of the Caucasus Mountains. The R1b1b type was later found in the Maykop Culture (northeast of the Black Sea) and in adjacent cultures to the south. The Maykop Culture arose about 3,500 B.C. in the area thought to be the origin place of R1b1b2, was an advanced Neolithic culture of farmers and herders, and later saw early development of metalworking and metal weapons. The R1b people in this area comprised part of the Proto-Indo-European peoples, along with their R1a neighbors to the north: The Yamma Culture, first domesticators of horses.
About 2,500 B.C., well into the Bronze Age, there was a sudden decline in the Black Sea Maykop Culture, perhaps due to large scale migrations of this Proto-Indo-European group, possibly crossing the Black Sea and going up the Danube River. By about 2,300 B.C., R1b1b2 was found in central and western Europe. Proto Italo-Celto-Germanic people settled around the Alps, where metals for bronze-making were abundant. The incoming Indo-Europeans had several advantages over European peoples who were already there, particularly the Indo-European use of metal tools and weapons, horses, and chariots. The R1b Haplogroup in time replaced earlier haplogroups as the predominant male haplogroup (female-line mtDNA haplogroups were less affected by the new migrations) in western Europe, and the Indo-European languages came to dominate. As the centuries passed, the Indo-European peoples of the Alpine area differentiated into Italic, Celtic, and Germanic groups.
About 1,500 B.C. (give or take a few hundred years), Gary’s Marker S21 likely appeared (yielding the R1b1b2a1a1 Haplogroup subclade). It is not known exactly when or where this genetic mutation occurred, but places where the R1b1b2 Indo-European group settled for long periods are prime contenders: Old Maykop stomping grounds beyond the Black Sea (least likely); Austrian Alps/southern Germany (suggested by considerable R1b subclade diversity in this region); and the Frisian coast of northwest Europe (highest frequency of S21). By the birth of Christ, S21 was reportedly well-established in future Frisia. The marker has been termed a Frisian or Western Germanic marker. At the birth of Christ, my ancestor bearing the S21 marker would have been at least 55 generations back from me.
The Alemanni may have been the Germanic group who carried my yDNA to Switzerland, as my ancestor Christian Maffli Sr. (born about 1651) was in an area where High Alemannic was spoken. Alemanni operated along Rome’s Rhine frontier, e.g. 212 A.D., and eventually settled in future Switzerland. The West Germanic S21 marker was particularly spread by 5th Century migrations, especially by Frisians and Saxons to England; by Franks to Belgium, France and Franconia; and by Lombards to Austria and northern Italy.