by Laura Stolk, February 27, 2019
Cooley
Georgianna P. Cooley was born in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts in 1867. Her parents were William Cooley and Laura Hennegan. She went by the nickname Annie or Anna.
When Annie was eighteen, she had a son, whom she named Arthur Cooley. On the record of his birth, there was an indication of “ILL”, which meant that she was not married at the time of his birth. On this record, his middle initial appears to be “O” and hers “P.” Nothing of his father is listed on the record, except his location. The record indicated that his parents both lived in Suffield, Connecticut.
At some point, after Arthur was born Annie married a man with the surname Patton. There is little record of this brief union, which lasted less than three years.
Abells/Abell
Annie married Alfred Eugene Abells in 1888 when her son was three years old. Their marriage record indicated that it was the second marriage for each. Just as with Annie’s first husband, it is not known who Alfred’s first wife was, nor what happened to her. The surname “Patton” was listed in the record. Traditionally, the maiden name is put in parenthesis like in the record above. However, later records for her and her children confirm that her maiden name was McCooley or Cooley. So, Patton must have been the surname of her first husband.
After their marriage, her son’s name was listed as Arthur Eugene Abells. It is possible that Arthur did not know that Alfred was not his biological father.
Alfred was the son of Charles Abells and Fidelia Sweet. He had one brother who was named named Willie. The Abells family traces its roots back to the early 1700’s in Massachusetts. Alfred’s father was a farm laborer and the family was from Hatfield, Massachusetts, which was very close – about fifteen minutes away – from Northampton.
Northampton, Hatfield, Suffield, and Springfield were all towns along the Connecticut River.
At the time of his marriage to Annie, Alfred worked as a brakeman. The Connecticut River Railroad was likely where he worked.
On March 11, 1889, Annie and Alfred had a daughter, Georgiana Fedelia Abells. She was born in Fitchburg, which was east of Northampton and Springfield. On her daughter’s birth record, Annie’s middle initial is very clearly listed as “J”, not “P”. Sadly, their baby died when she was only 9 months old, a few days after Christmas. She had a type of brain injury, which could have been caused by illness or trauma.
Three years later, another daughter, Helen Marie Abells, was born in Northampton, Massachusetts on April 22, 1892. This record verified Georgian’s place of birth as Indian Orchard, which is a neighborhood in Springfield.
After Helen was born, the family moved to a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio near the shores of Lake Erie. Here Irene and Hoyt Abells were born. They lived in this area for about nine years.
Alfred Abells worked as a house painter while they were living near Cleveland, but when they moved to Cincinnati in 1904, he was listed as an engineer. In Cincinnati, they lived on the corner of West Court and Cutter Streets. From this point the “s” was rarely listed on their surname.
Alfred and Annie divorced around 1905. There was an article in the newspaper alluding to the fact that she sued him for non-support and he accused her of an affair that resulted in a baby, which he refused to support. His actual statement was, “I will pay her rent and give her $6 a week for the support of my child, but won’t support the baby. Let the other man do that.” Since her youngest known child, Hoyt, was five at this time, it must mean that she was currently pregnant, thought to be pregnant, or recently had a baby.
At the time of the divorce from Alfred, Annie had three children at home, whose ages were five, ten, and thirteen. Her eldest son, Arthur Abell, who was twenty, remained or returned to work in Northern Ohio. She did not have a baby within a year of the accusation made by her husband.
Annie was listed in the 1907 Williams’ Street Directory as a widow and she lived at 1419 Central Avenue, not far from Music Hall on the West side of Over-the-Rhine. Central Avenue had been a canal until right around this time. It specifically states “Abell, Annie wid Alfred h rm 5 1419 Central Av”. So, apparently, Arthur Abell died sometime soon after their divorce, although a death record or burial record has not yet been found.
Annie did have a baby on April 1, 1908. This was the child of Henry Korfer and his name was William Korfer. It is not clear how Annie met Henry, or if Henry was the man referred to in the non-support legal case from 1905, however, Annie remarried to Henry Korfer on July 3, 1908, when they baby was four months old. Annie was listed as divorced, not widowed, on this marriage record. There are no known children that were born between Hoyt and William. So, it is not clear what happened in 1905 regarding a pregnancy.
Annie and Henry moved a lot. Each year between 1910-1920 they lived somewhere different – Clinton, Linn, Central, Plum. From the time she moved to Cincinnati, Annie, sometimes going by “Anna”, listed ads in the newspaper offering cleaning and laundry services. Henry was an upholsterer.
Henry, was also once listed in the paper (1918), unfortunately, for the offence of public disturbance that involved “hitting a woman”. The judge fined him $25 and advised that he was on thin ice, so to speak, due to the fact that he had been in the U.S. for 39 years, yet had failed to naturalize as a citizen. (He was originally from Germany.)
In 1920, Henry and Annie were separated. On the census that year, he was listed as a border on Plum Street. Their son, William Korfer, was twelve at the time. He was sent to live at the Franciscan Brothers of Poor Boys Protectory in Norwood, Ohio.
Henry Koerfer died in 1926 and his burial unknown. Georgiana died in 1931. She is buried at Spring Grove Cemetery.
Annie and William (The photo of the oldest child is William. It is presumed the other two photos are also of him.) :
A side note here on the number of Annie’s children:
- In 1900, the census indicated that by that point she had given birth to five children and only three were living. Arthur, Helen, and Irene were her three living children in 1900. Hoyt was two days old on the day the census was taken, but he was listed on that census. Georgina Fidelia had died in 1889. So, it is unclear if there had been another child, perhaps a child of the Patton spouse, or if the 5th child was Hoyt.
- In 1905, Alfred said that he would not pay support for “the baby”. It is unclear if she had a baby and it died before 1910, if she had been pregnant in 1905 at the time of the divorce, yet lost the baby, or if this was a false accusation of pregnancy by either Annie or Alfred.
- In 1910, the census indicated that she had given birth to 4 children and 4 were living. This is not correct because by 1910 she had 5 children living. The correct number in 1910 was likely 6 or 7 children born, 5 living.
- Known children were: Arthur, Georgiana Fidelia, Helen, Irene, Hoyt, and William.
- Arthur Abell – married twice, one child (Helen Letitia Abell), died 1952 in Lorain, Ohio.
- Georgiana Abell – died at 9 months in 1889
- Helen Abell – married twice, one child (Raymond Stratton) , died in 1917
- Irene Abell – married three times, one biological child (James Edward Klehammer), one adopted child (Helen Patricia Standriff nee Audrey Stratton)
- Hoyt Abell – married once, two children (Charles Abell, Irene Helen Abell)
- William Korfer – married twice, but did not have children. He was a sergeant in WWII. He died in 1979 and is buried in the veterans cemetery in Dayton, Ohio.