MUFFLEY FAMILIES FROM 1918 TO 1930

The Albert & Edna Jagger Muffley family home in 1918 was in Gary, Indiana. Albert worked for a power plant. The family spent some time at a beach on Lake Michigan. They appeared to be in Indiana at the time of their June 15 anniversary, and they attended the big Weidenhamer 1918 reunion in Galesburg. (see photo)

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

Robert Pierce Muffley (my father - pictured) was 19 in that 1930 census of Wethersfield/Kewanee, Henry Co. Illinois. Bob had lettered in football and basketball at Wethersfield High School (I have the letters), and was a graduate of that school, “Home of the Flying Geese”. I recall that Dad once went back to a quite enjoyable class reunion. He had a slight knee problem from a sports injury. In his early years, Dad enjoyed cartooning, he played the harmonica, and at some point he built a boat. Dad had great talents in designing and building things, including our home and garage. Later in life he did excellent woodcarving. Dad and his cousin Johnny Weidenhamer once went to a speak-easy. They had one drink of hard liquor and went home. This Johnny Weidenhamer appears to have been John Keith Weidenhamer, grandson of John Chancey Weidenhamer (brother of Frances Weidenhamer Jagger).

FRANCES CHRISTINE LINDSTROM

Frances Christine Lindstrom (my mother) was born in Kewanee on May 28, 1907.

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

Frances Lindstrom and Robert Muffley (pictured) were married on June 2, 1937, in Galesburg. A newspaper stated, "Mrs. Frances Coad, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Albert Lindstrom, 808 East Main Street, and Robert P. Muffley of McCook, Neb., son of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Muffley, 368 South Whitesboro Street, were married this morning at 9 a.m., in the home of the Rev. W. Harry Freda, 982 North Prairie Street, in the presence of the immediate families. The bride's sister, Mrs. Silas Weinberg, and the brother of the bridegroom, Kenneth Muffley, were attendants. The bride was dressed in blue and white accessories, and a shoulder bouquet of gardenias. Following the ceremonies the group went to the Hotel Custer, where a wedding breakfast was served. The couple left on the Burlington this morning at 10:30 for a 10-day trip to Chicago and points in Wisconsin. Mrs. Muffley was graduated from the Galesburg High School and Brown's Business College, and has been employed in the offices of the W.A. Jordan Company here. Mr. Muffley attended the Galesburg public schools and was graduated from the Wethersfield High School. He is employed as a brakeman by the Burlington, and is located in McCook, Neb. After July 1 the couple will be at home to friends at 506 West Fourth Street, McCook, Neb."

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

Back in Galesburg, Albert Muffley in 1939 was working for Berg’s Radio and Appliances at 258-264 E. Simmons, and his family lived at 368 South Whitesboro, near the Jagger family. This was the address from which Albert wrote a letter about Muffley family history to James I. Muffley of Alma, Michigan. Albert said in his letter that an unknown Muffley family lived in Quincy after our branch left. Some John Muffley, of unknown ancestry, died on May 19, 1919, and was buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Quincy; his widow Lutie Bosier Muffley and kids appear in the 1920 census of Quincy. Albert also knew then of the existence of Glenn Muffly, refrigeration engineer, who years later contacted my father about family history.

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

Our “first contact” with hitherto unknown Muffly/Muffley kin was when Glenn Muffley (b. 1884) visited the Robert Pierce Muffley family in McCook, Nebraska. Some time after that was the 1959 Muffly reunion in Spearfish, South Dakota, attended by the McCook Muffley family. Robert Pierce Muffley took a number of slide photos of the attendees, but identification of those in the photos (attached to this blog section) is incomplete. Blog reader help would be appreciated; please make notes in the Comment section, if you know anyone in the photos.

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 5^th Century migrations, especially by Frisians and Saxons to England; by Franks to Belgium, France and Franconia; and by Lombards to Austria and northern Italy.