Happy New Year's Eve 2016: Some Historical Highlights

As we get ready to celebrate the dawning of a New Year; a glimpse back in time...

December 31- New Year's Eve- On This Date In History

  

Some Famous Births on New Year’s Eve:

British General Charles Cornwallis, 1^st Marquess Cornwallis- 1738
George Meade, American Civil War General- 1815
Elizabeth Arden, Canadian cosmetics businesswoman- 1878
Sir Anthony Hopkins, Welsh Actor
John Denver, Singer-Songwriter- 1943
Sir Ben Kingsley, English Actor- 1943
Val Kilmer, American actor- 1959
 

Famous Deaths: Historical figures and celebrities who died on New Year’s Eve:

Humphrey de Bohun, 3^rd Earl of Hereford, died in Essex, England , 1297
Frederick III, Duke or Lorraine, 1302
Thomas Beaufort, 1^st Duke of Exeter, England, 1424
Richard Neville, 5^th Earl of Salisbury, England, 1460
Gustave Courbet, French Painter, 1877
Alexander Popov, Russian Physicist, 1905
Malcom Campbell, English race car driver, 1948
Ricky Nelson, American Musician and Actor, 1985
Michael Kennedy, American politician, 1997

Some Marriages, Births, and Deaths In My Family Tree On New Year's Eve:

William Samuel Thompson, born 31 December 1691 at Blair Manor in Ayrshire, Scotland.  (He was my maternal 6x great-grandfather)

William Jasper Harrison marriage to Annie Elizabeth Mosher; 31 December 1871 in Maries County, Missouri. (He was my paternal great-uncle)

Charlie Jackson Clark, died 27 Dec and was buried on 31 December 1965 in Henry County, Tennessee. (He was my maternal 2^nd great-uncle)

Claude Eugene Harris marriage to Ruby Helen Baker, 31 December 1937 in Phelps County, Missouri. (He was my paternal 3^rd cousin, 1x removed)

Harriett Jane Tucker, died 31 December 1955 in Calloway County, Kentucky. (She was my maternal 1^st cousin 2x removed)

William Lester Clark, died 31 December 1967 in Graves County, Kentucky. (He was my maternal 1^st cousin, 2x removed)

WELCOME TO ANOTHER NEW YEAR, 2016

Friday's Faces: William Jasper Harrison

Copyright 2015, The Hopelessly Hooked Genealogist (B. Harrison)

Friday's Faces: Spotlighting Some Faces In My Tree;

William Jasper Harrison

William Jasper Harrison 

1852 - 1917, Missouri

My Great-Grand-Uncle

There are some people in my tree that I know are related to me but that I don't know a great deal about, other than census records, birth or death records, marriage records and maybe a fuzzy photo or two. I am still piecing together their life stories. 

I don't know a lot about great grand-uncle William Jasper Harrison, other than that he was the brother of my great-grandfather John Milton Harrison, and the son of my 2x-great-grandparents William Harrison and his wife Nancy Shepherd Harrison. He was born in 1852 and died about 1917. 

Jasper married Annie Elizabeth Mosher in 1871 in Maries County, Missouri. He was the father of at least 5 children, and raised his family in Johnson Township, Maries County. He would have been too young to serve in the Civil War, at the age of only 9 years in 1861 when the war commenced. However, his older brother John Milton Harrison served in the Union Army, and many of their other relatives and neighbors also joined the Union Army.  Missouri was technically a neutral territory, but there were Confederate sympathizers and Bushwackers among their Maries County and Phelps County neighbors, and tensions ran high throughout the war. 

The photo and some information on Jasper comes from a local area history book: "History Of High Gate Missouri, the First 125 Years, 1850 -1975" by Glenis L. Southard.  This photo and various articles from the publication have been widely circulated on the internet. Other information comes from his Find A Grave Memorial page (reference F.A.G. memorial # 61286311).  He is buried at High Gate Cemetery in Maries County, Missouri.

I definitely see the Harrison family resemblance in this photo, fuzzy though it is. Based on my scant family history photo collection, he looks a lot like his older brother, my paternal great-grandfather John Milton Harrison. He also greatly resembles my paternal grandfather, John P. Harrison, who would have been Jasper's nephew. He reminds me quite a bit of my own brother as well, John David Harrison.  Jasper physically resembled his own father too, William Harrison (my 2x-great-grandfather), who was tall and lean; though somewhat less than he resembles his brother and nephew. This suggests that some of his (and their) physical features are probably inherited from the maternal Shepherd side of his genetic tree. Jasper was about age 65 when he passed away, and rests near many other Harrison kin at High Gate Cemetery in Maries County, Missouri. 

Headstone of William Jasper Harrison and Anna "Annie" Mosher Harrison

Find A Grave Memorial# 61286311

Photo by Gravefinder1

High Gate Cemetery, Maries County, Missouri

Photo by Find A Grave contributor/volunteer SteveZ

Cemetery notes and/or description:
At the intersection of State Hwy H and State Hwy U. This cemetery is 1000 feet east-southeast of the High Gate Baptist Cemetery.