Dewey Utsler, second husband of my Great Aunt Annie Mae Bennett

My Great Granddad Albert R Bennett

Anna "Annie" Mae Bennett is my Great Aunt.

She is the daughter of my Great Grandparents, Albert Rudolph Bennett and Mertie Mae Titcomb Bennett. Annie could be my Mom's sister instead of cousin.

Great Grandma Mertie Mae

Annie Bennett Utsler

Originally all from Maine, they moved to California to seek a better life during Maine's very tough times in the 1920s.

Dewey Myron

Although Dewey Myron Dewitt Utsler was the second husband of Great Aunt Annie, I thought his life and that of his son Dewey Rudolph "Jr" Utsler were interesting and decided to share some of my understanding of snippets of their life journeys on this blog.

Dewey Myron was born in Lockport, PA in 1898, so he was much older than Annie who was born in 1914.  At age 19 (or so he stated...as many young men accelerated their ages in order to join the fight in WWI), he joined the National Guard; actually he joined on my birth date and month (July 28) but long before I was born - 1917.  During WWI he was slightly wounded.  Also, mustard gas harmed the valves of his heart for the rest of his life.

His blessing came though when he found his long lost half brother, John E. Utsler who was also serving in this war.   Both were from Ohio - not far from one another, but it took a war to bring them together.  A wonder in life!

Dewey Myron Utsler

Great Aunt Annie married Dewey Myron when she was just a young teenager.  She and her husband, and her brother Norman Erwin Bennett (my great uncle), lived in the mountainous part of California called Springville.  My Great Uncle was a bootlegger!  He and Dewey produced their moonshine in the mountains and ran it to and from the San Joaquin Valley of California including the Santa Barbara area.

Dewey had a reputation for being a bit of a braggart, and one of his stories was that he could outrun any revenuer.  Perhaps it was true, as Norman shared similar tales, including a jail term.  This is so interesting to me because my husband's Grandmother Ruth Ridgeway died following an auto accident in which revenuers, chasing bootleggers, struck the car she was in; this happened in the District of Columbia.

All of the Bennetts tended to be short in stature.  For example my grandfather Charles Bennett (Annie and Norman's brother) was only 5'1" tall.  Evidently the Utsler side was similarly short.  Supposedly there evidently is a photo somewhere of him, the shortest man in his unit, standing under the arm of the tallest man in his unit in Europe.  I have not seen it.

Great Aunt Annie and her family, Dewey Myron, Dewey Jr, and daughter Loda, moved to Oregon ultimately. There is a family story that the farm they rented belonged to Ginger Rogers of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers fame!  Since Ginger did indeed have a farm and ranch in Oregon that she purchased in 1940, this is likely very true.  The family memory is that when the Utslers went to pay the rent at her home one day, there was a bearskin rug on the floor which had a red eye and a green eye - must have been Christmas!

Dewey Jr was playing on some logs in an Oregon lumber yard, slipped, and fell in the pond. Dewey Myron rushed to save him, and did.  Either at that event, or soon thereafter, Dewey Myron suffered a heart attack and died.

Great Aunt Annie returned to California for a bit and then went back to Oregon to her children.

Dr. Joseph C. Placak, Pioneer in the Treatment of Tuberculosis

Dr. Joseph C. Placak

On February 22, 1882 a child named Joseph Charles Placak was born in Cleveland to parents Anthony and Jennie Goldstein Placak of Austria. He would grow up to marry Eunice S. Emde. He would become an educated man, and a doctor, graduating from The College of Physicians and Surgeons, Western Reserve University in 1903 and receiving his post-graduate degree from the University of Prague, Austria. Joseph completed his residency as both a pathologist and a physician at Cleveland City Hospital by 1905.

MARRIAGE

On September 25, 1888 a child named Eunice Sabina Emde was born in Ohio to Fred Christian Emde and his wife Jesse Williams Emde. Eunice would grow up to marry the renowned tuberculosis expert Dr. Joseph C. Placak and they would have four children, Joseph Jr. (1907), Frederick (1910), Robert (1913) and daughter Jean (1917).

When he was 25 and Eunice 19 they wed on March 20, 1907 in Cleveland. His mother on the marriage record was listed as Grace B. Dushanek. By the time of the 1930 Census for Cuyahoga County, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Joseph was 48 and Eunice was 41. Their 4 single children ages 12 to 22 still lived at the family home valued at $50,000 '" a remarkable amount for that period of time, in a wealthy Cleveland neighborhood at 2228 Woodmere Road.

COOLEY FARMS

As a young married man, he was the Medical Superintendent at the 2000 acre Cooley Farms in Warrensville, which housed the municipal tuberculosis sanatorium for Cleveland '" the first person named to this position. Those infirmed here had access to the outdoors that aided their comfort while confined to the sanatorium. He worked with the disease of tuberculosis and lectured on internal medicine at the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons until 1911. In 1915 he was the head of the Division of Tuberculosis for Cleveland City Hospital.

WWI AND THE HAYMARKET DISTRICT

During WWI, he was a Major in the Medical Corps of the Army and Chief of Medical Services for Evacuation Hospital #5 at Coblenz, Germany.

Tuberculosis was to always be the focus of Joseph's medical career. He became the physician in charge of the Tuberculosis Dispensary in the Haymarket District, visiting pathologist for Eddy Road Hospital, and a member of the American Medical Association regarding the study and prevention of this dreadful disease.

DR. HARRY PLACAK, PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMIST

In 1940, Joseph's relative, Dr. Harry Placak, a prominent pharmaceutical chemist from Cleveland, Ohio, with a "masked value" selective service classification, moved to Skyuka Road in Tryon, NC. His property included his home and his laboratory where he conducted research on animal feeds, including being an advocate for the soybean. He lived there until his death at St. Luke's Hospital in 1967, following breaking his hip in a fall at the elderly age of 96. Dr. Joseph C. Placak was the informant for the death certificate. More information on catorfamilies.com

MEMBERSHIPS, POSITIONS, & WWII

In 1941 Joseph Placak held memberships with the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians. He was on the board of directors for the National Tuberculosis Association and on the Board of Regents for the American College of Chest Physicians. He was elected President of the Anti-Tuberculosis League of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County and named Chief of Staff at Mount Royal Sanatorium for Tuberculosis plus he consulted at Lake County Memorial Hospital and wrote many papers on chest illnesses and public health. Joseph Placak was known by many as the physician who did the most to prevent and cure tuberculosis.

WWII came and in 1942 at the age of 60 Joseph completed his Draft Registration Card listing his home as 2228 Woodmere Road, Cleveland, his wife as Eunice, and his career as physician with his place of business being the Carnegie Medical Building in Cleveland.

RETIREMENT

Six years later the Spartanburg Herald-Journal Sunday morning paper announced that noted Dr. Joseph C. Placak, head of the tuberculosis division of City Hospital in Cleveland and president-elect for the American College of Chest Physicians and Surgeons, would retire to his long-owned mountain home on Tryon Mountain on Skyuka Road, NC '" in the vicinity where Dr. Harry Placak also resided.

Under the directorship of Joseph, the Polk County Museum was started in the Tryon Depot to house records, books, photographs and artifacts. It is still open today. It is likely that Dr. Joseph Placak is the Joseph Placak that wrote an article on Polk County.

Interestingly, in March of 1970, Eunice died at the age of 88, but, if her death certificate is correct, she was no longer Joseph's wife '" they had divorced at some point. Her son, Dr. Joseph Charles Placak Jr., was the family member who handled the notification; he lived in the area and was at some point, the coroner for Columbus, NC. Eunice was cremated in Atlanta Georgia following her passing at Saluda Nursing Center in Columbus, NC. Dr. Joseph Placak, Jr., son of Joseph and Eunice, died on the 2 ^nd of July in 1988 in Columbus NC at the age of 80. Their son Fred Emde Placak died there at the age of 81 in 1992.

Per the Social Security Death Index, Dr. Joseph C. Placak (Sr.) died in Abington, Washington County, VA in November of 1970 at 88 years of age.

HANNAH DUSTIN

7 Interesting Facts About Indian Captive and Escapee Hannah Dustin, an ancestor of my Great Grandmother, Alvra Cunningham (Mrs. Ralph Southworth)...and me

Hannah Emerson Dustin is one of my ancestors who had a moving and horrifying life experience. Hannah was born in 1657 and lived until about 1737. During the King William's War Hannah was abducted by Indians. People of that era were very hardy as they did endure hardships daily. She unquestionably was strong-willed and survived an intensely violent attack. Hannah, her nurse, and her newborn daughter were captured by Abenaki Indians in colonial Massachusetts. This is the story of her capture, her heroism, and some other interesting tidbits about her life.

1. Hannah, wearing her nightclothes, was abed holding her newborn infant when Indians came upon the homestead. Thomas, Hannah's husband ordered the older children to flee quickly to a garrison. Hannah sent Thomas after the children for their well-being, though it meant terror and impending death or capture to herself, her baby and a young nurse.

2. Thomas shot one Indian while rushing the children to hurry. They made it to the garrison alive but exhausted.

3. When the Abenaki Indians attacked, 40-year old Hannah (March 1697), her one-day old infant daughter, plus a young nurse Mary Neff were captured in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Almost 30 others from the frontier families were slain.

4. The captives were hastened to an Indian camp where the infant was slammed against a tree and died quite quickly from severe head injuries. Some tales speak of it being an apple tree. Mary's revenge ignited.

5. Hannah and her nurse were forced to march for several days in a northerly direction of about 75 or more miles. They were joined by another captive who was just 14 years of age, Samuel Lennardson, who had been a captive for about 18 months and was somewhat adapted to being an Indian captive versus risking escape. Samuel knew how the Abenaki killed and scalped captives. He shared this info with Hannah and Mary. Hannah during this travel was still in nightclothes; she may have had no shoes. The ground was somewhat covered with old snow, and the streams were touched with bits of ice. The women and Samuel likely suffered greatly from the cold.

6. The Abenaki Confederation were allies with the French in Canada. Some Indians she encountered spoke French. It is likely that Hannah and the others were being marched to Canada where they would be sold into slavery.

7. Hannah plotted their escape, and told Mary and Samuel to stay vigilant. The Indians did not have adequate guarding of the campsite. I have read that Hannah prepared soup for the captives and the Indians on the night they escaped. Some say that when serving, she may have tossed in an herb to help the Indians sleep or may even have added a local mushroom causing amatoxin poisoning. True or not, the Indians were evidently listless when shortly after midnight Hannah, Mary, and Samuel seized the Indian weapons and killed 10 Indians; 2 escaped.

8. The captives fled the scene, but Hannah returned shortly when she realized either that she might need proof of this adventure, or she remembered that Indian scalps provided precious monetary rewards. Hannah scalped the 10 dead; they did receive their rewards for killing the captors and having the scalps.

9. The group traveled south to home by canoe, traveling only during night's darkness. The trip took several days, but they did arrive home in Haverhill.

10. Hannah was the only female captive in New England history to massacre her captives and escape. Indian attacks had been endured for years; her escape was viewed as heroic.

11. Henry David Thoreau immortalized Hannah Dustin in his written works. In 1870 a statue of the courageous Hannah Dustin was positioned in the town square. There is also a statue of her in New Hampshire where Hannah and the captives killed the raiders and escaped with the scalps. Hannah's harrowing experience sparked the imagination of her fellow frontier colonists, just as it has endured and appealed to the people of today. Hannah Dustin Memorial statue was the first statue erected in NH using public funds. This occurred long after her death, in 1874.

12. John Greenleaf Whittier wrote of Hannah in his Legends of New England in 1831.

13. Cotton Mather penned Magnalia Christa Americana, in which Mather shared his respect for Hannah. He knew Hannah and spoke with her about the frightening incident himself. His version included moral questions which do not take away from the horror, but does speak of using the situation, perhaps, for his own means.  Remember that Cotton Mather was a Puritan and a witch hunter in Salem.

14. Her husband Thomas participated in building more garrisons around Haverhill to ward off Indian attacks.

15. Hannah was a survivor and a heroine in her time. Since not much is known about her life after this harrowing event, she evidently proceeded to live a calmer existence until she died around 1737.

16. Sadly, Hannah had a sister, Elizabeth, who was severely beaten by their father as a child with a flail swingle and by her father's kicking of her body. Violence towards children was not uncommon, but her father Michael was brought to court and punished for his overzealous actions. Elizabeth did not marry, but had three bastard children. Years later, Hannah's sister killed her own illegitimate twin daughters immediately after birth. This was discovered and Elizabeth was hung.

17. Hannah and Elizabeth's surname is written many ways, such as Dustin and Duston. This is common in colonial history.

Thank you, ancestor Hannah Dustin, for being a survivor!  

This was originally published by me on http://voices.yahoo.com/17-interesting-facts-indian-captive-escapee-12171756.htm

Sources:

http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=characters&FileName=dustin.php

http://wprokasy.myweb.uga.edu/Emerson2.htm

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-story-hannah-dustin-joan-arc-lizzie-bordon-116091.html?cat=37

http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Literature/NativeAmericans&Blacks/HannahDuston/MMD2169.html

http://www.nhstateparks.org/explore/state-parks/hannah-duston-memorial-state-historic-site.aspx

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hannah-dustim-statue-boscawen-nh