SUNDAY’S OBITUARY ~ Roy Jerome Hart (1883-1946) Perry, Shiawassee, Michigan

Published in the Lansing State Journal 16 Sep 1946, page 2

Roy Jerome Hart is a descendant of my 3rd great grandfather, Henry Hart and his first wife, Sarah Sumner.  This makes Roy my half 2nd cousin twice removed.

Transcription of Obituary:

 

PERRY, Sept. 16 - Funeral services for Roy J. Hart, 63, will be held Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 o'clock from the Church of the Nazarene, Rev. John Smith, pastor, officiating.  Burial will be in Oak Plains Cemetery, Shaftsburg.
The body is at Oakes funeral home where it will remain until one hour previous to the services at the church.
Mr. Hart died suddenly about noon Sunday while attending church.  He had just taken up the collection and sat down in his pew when he dropped over dead.  Death was caused from a heart attack.  He had been ill about three months.
He was born March 14, 1883, at Plainfield, the son of Seth and Nettie Hart.  He was married twice, the first wife being Olive Hart who died September 9, 1931, at Shaftsburg.  He was married the second time October 29, 1932, to Mrs. Rose Martin at Shaftsburg.
He had been the manager of the Laingsburg pickle station for 15 years and had resided in Shaftsburg until he came to Perry 11 years ago.
Surviving are the widow; three daughters, Mrs. Lizzie Woodbury of Pontiac, Mrs. Lucille Martin of Rochester and Mrs. Lenna Nanasy of Morrice; three sons, LeRoy Hart of Williamston, Leo Hart of Lansing and Lawrence Hart of Perry; five brothers, Ned Hart, Eugene Hart, Hartley Hart, all of Laingsburg, Robert Hart of Haslett and Harry Hart of Shaftsburg; two sisters, Mrs. Lizzie Southwell of Shaftsburg and Mrs. Mable Richard of Lake City; four stepchildren; 31 grandchildren; 1 great grandchild; 13 step grandchildren and 6 step-great grandchildren.

I imagine having someone die in the middle of a church service must have been a shock to all the members.

While I’ve always been interested in my Hart line, that interest was recently peaked when I connected with a 4th cousin via DNA.  She is directly connected to Roy Jerome Hart who is her 2nd great grandfather.

Roy married Olive Venina Hunter on 14 Mar 1901 in Carunna, Shiawassee, Michigan.  They had 7 children together: Lelah May, Vivian “Lizzie”, Leroy Andrew, Lawrence B., Leo George, Lucille V. and Lennah Louise.

Here's Roy & Olive with 5 of their children.  Photo courtesy of Peter Young.

After Olive died, according to Roy’s obituary, he married again to a Mrs. Rose Martin.  Until finding this obituary I had no record of a second wife.

NOTE:  This particular obituary is full of genealogical information, from marriage and death dates and places to names of a lot of family members.  We don’t always get this lucky when it comes to obituaries.  I’d like to thank whoever wrote this one. 

I have located Roy in census records with his parents, Seth Andrew Hart and Nettie Wright and with his wife Olive.  After his marriage to Olive in 1901 he worked as a Farmer, according to the 1910, 1920 and 1930 census records.  I see from the obituary that he managed a pickle station for 15 years. What in the world is a pickle station?

Since Google is our friend, let’s find out.  According to what I learned Shiawassee County, Michigan was a center for the growing and processing of cucumbers into pickles.  Who knew?  I have no evidence at this point that our Roy Jerome Hart was growing cucumbers in his farming endeavors.  However, he is listed in the Shiawassee Farm Journal (published in 1917)  on page 22.

I checked the front of the book to learn what all the abbreviations in the entries stood for and from that I can translate Roy’s entry as follows:

Hart, R. J. (Olive) 5 children, Owns 80 acres with 2 horses and 7 cattle, address of Rural Route No. 1, Shaftsburg Wdhl 48, Ind tel ( I suspect the tel stands for telephone).  I did not find a translation of Wdhl or Ind in the journal.

Roy was only 63 when he died.  He and Olive are buried at Oak Plain Cemetery in Shaftsburg, Michigan.  You can visit their memorials here; Roy #40017951 and Olive #40017952.  There are 39 Hart memorials in the Oak Plain Cemetery.

Update - After finishing this blog post I discovered another child born to Roy & Olive.  A little girl named Edith Pauline, born 29 Jul 1903 and died at age 4 on new year's day 1908.  Her death was a result of peritonitis from an intestinal obstruction.  How sad. I have not found her burial location.

If you are related to any of the people mentioned in this post and want to exchange information, I’d love to hear from you.  Leave me a comment or use the “contact me” tab on the blog.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

HOW I FOLLOW A TRAIL OF RECORDS & ANALYZE WHAT I FIND–HENRY HART FAMILY–PART 3 (from here you can read Part 1 & 2)

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

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