LYDIA'S AUTOGRAPH ALBUM 1880's

 I found something amazing the other day, in a litle junk/antique/second hand shop in Campbell River. It was marked under $12. The  shopkeeper was appalled at the price, but nevertheless she sold it to me. Should have bene 4 or 5 times that. A little Autograph album from the 1880's. For under $12 I am learning so much............

 The book had belonged to a girl named Lydia Stoll . The dates in the book ranged from 1871-1890. Friends, relatives, sisters, teachers....she would have started the book at 8 and it finished it in 1890.

 This is the oldest entry from her cousin Meta Neuenschwander, June 27 1871. They lived in Elkton, Missouri, in Hickory County, in the middle of nowhere, I might add. I started sleuthing into this little book, into this Lydia Stoll.The Neuenschwander name appears many may times in the archives.

 Turns out in Hickory County at that time there were Mennonites  who established a church in Elkton around 1868. It is now extinct. I think I've discovered an entry in her autograph book by P.S. Lehmann, the Mennonite Preacher from Berne, who preached in Elkton, but then moved back to Berne by 1896.I'm hoping to learn more about him as time goes on.

P.S. Lehmann...has to be the preacher from Berne

 

Lydia married one Levi M Zehr Oct 16, 1884

 They  had 7 children, Bertha ( died in 1888), Elmer in 1962, Mary, Ben,Lula Belle 1938,Otis, and Samuel.

 Lydia's parents were Jacob and Mary Leichty Stoll. Her father died in 1906, her mother in 1928.

 She had numerous brothers and sisters: Fanny Stoll Klopfenstein, Peter, Catherine Stoll Gerber, mary Jane, Adam Jacob, Emma Stoll Allen (died in 1967)

 Historically  in 1880 the pop of the US. was about 50,155,783. Ben Hur was published in this decade, President Garfield was shot in 1881......

 Mark Twain published Huckleberry Finn in 1884,and the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York, all the way from France, in 1885.

 In 1889 on May 3 the Johnstone Flood ocurred, devastating the area......

 In 1889, November, North and South Dakota, Montana and Washington became states.

 And good old Queen Victoria was on the throne of England, opening Royal Albert Hall with a bottle of champagne, or possibly cutting ribbons.....

 This entry is by Lydia's sister, Catherine Stoll Gerber 1865-1958

 During the Civil War, Missouri was busy sending men to both sides of the war. Missouri sent 110,00 to the Union side, and about 40,000 men to the Confederates.

 Some of the names that figure in the census of the time, show up in this book. It can be no coincidence.  Names such as Lehmann, Vaughn, Stoll, and Neuenschwander.

 Mary Jane Stoll Wyall ( 1868-1957) Sister to Lydia

 And an entry by Lydia, herself. She died in 1930  in Williams County, Ohio.

 
  Her father was born June 10th 1830

 and he died Nov. 19 1906 in Hickory County, Missouri.

 Her sister, Emma married Bert Allen, Dec 14 1899. She had a child named Ruby born 1902. This entry would have been made a year after Lydia married Levi. I know there is more to find out about  Lydia's story and the people surrounding her. I recently found surviving Stoll family relatives, and have since forwarded the scanned copies of the album to them. Until recently, I was informed, there have been Stoll family reunions in Hickory County.
                     Not bad for  under $12........