Welcome to my Umstot page. On this page I will give some factual details and also share some stories told to me on tape by my grandmother before she passed away several years ago. There will be links to pages with pictures. In order not to disturb the "storytelling" part of this page too much, I will also put links to the bottom of the page if you want to compare the "story" to the factual information I have been able to confirm or at least have found a backup secondary source. At the bottom there is also a link to a register report I just published online. At this point, it is rather short.
My great-great-great-great-grandfather was Philip Umstot, born on July 31, 1781, in Hampshire County, West Virginia. He married Elizabeth Long Taylor, and together they had five children. (They may have had more, but I am only aware of five.) The five children were:
Their firstborn son, Simon Ulysess Umstot, was my great-great-great-grandfather. He was born on June 1, 1816. About 1843, Simon married Eliza Adams. They only had seven years together before Eliza passed away (June 13, 1850). To my knowledge, they did not have any children together.Simon Ulysess Umstot (b. June 1, 1816)
Amos Umstot (b. July 1, 1818)
Susan Umstot (b. abt. 1822)
Sarah Umstot (b. abt. 1832)
Conrad Umstot (b. abt. 1838)
A little over a year later, on September 6, 1851, Simon married Keziah Ellifritz, my g-g-g-grandmother. My grandmother gave me some old pictures. One of them was a picture of Keziah, and the other a picture of one of Keziah's daughters, Susan Umstot (my g-g-grandmother). When I was getting ready to post the pictures to my website, I noticed faint penciled writing on the back of the picture that was supposed to be Keziah, and it said Susan Fleek. So that made me wonder if it was a picture of Keziah and was being sent to Susan Fleek (also spelled Flick), or if it was really a picture of Susan Flick. I can't tell you for sure, so your guess will be as good as mine.
The information in this paragraph and the next several paragraphs is based on a tape recorded interview of my grandmother taken a number of years ago before her death. Consequently, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of what I was told, but can only repeat it. I do know for a fact that my grandmother left out certain things, but nonetheless I will tell the story the way she told it. Since my grandmother was born in 1909, the information she gave me is based both on her own recollections and also stories she heard from her grandmother.
The only thing that divided West Virginia from Maryland was a bridge. Simon Umstot and his family were fairly well off. They owned the distillery at Gunnings Grove, Maryland. Remember there was only a bridge separating Maryland from West Virginia. They had 12 children and used to eat dinner at this long table. At each end of the table, they would set a honey dish. They had honey bees, you see, and they would take and put a honeycomb in each one of the honey dishes. [My grandmother gave me two glass dishes that were rather strangely shaped, and she called them honey dishes. She told me this story when I asked her why they were called honey dishes. Someday I will take a picture of them and post it here. But continuing on...]
Whenever one of Simon Umstot's children got married, he would give them a headstart by giving them hundreds of acres of land and livestock. But he expected them to marry well. Susan married a Sam Ryley and they had a baby that died. I don't know what happened for sure, but Susan and Sam ended up either getting divorced and Susan's father had the marriage annulled. Later Susan met and fell in love with James Henry Flick [my great-great-grandfather].
Well, I guess Susan's daddy wasn't all too happy with her, and so he only gave her five acres instead of lots of land like the other kids got. But she and Jim (James Henry Flick) built a real nice cabin on the land. They had a lot of trees, and they would have them cut down and sawmilled the trees. They dug a big well at the back of house which sat up about 100 feet from the county road between Short Gap and Keyser.
It was pretty much all family that lived around them. Uncle Charley lived over to the right of Susan and Jim's property, facing the county road. Uncle Charley never got married. He was engaged to be married once, but my grandma told me that he went into town one day and found his girlfriend in the arms of another man, and that was it. He never would have nothing to do with women after that. He ended up turning to drink and drank up all that land his daddy gave him.
Aunt Hattie lived on the same side of the county road that Uncle Charley lived. Aunt Hat ended up marrying a Daniels. They never had any children. She couldn't have children. Aunt Hat was quite prissy.
Uncle Enoch ended up marrying a lady by the name of Ida, and they had two children. Enoch died of manaporche, and Ida died pretty soon after that. Aunt Hattie took the kids and raised them.
Aunt Liney, now she was one of my favorites. Aunt Liney was a real corksnorter. She married a preacher by the name of Phil Urice, and sometimes Aunt Liney would make fun of his preaching. It was all in good fun of course. She was jolly and comical. She was a real sweetheart. She had a daughter by the name of Daisy but can't remember her other kids.
Now Uncle Gil lived out a ways from Keyser. He had a big farm he called the Greenway [or perhaps Green Wade??] Farm. It was opposite of the road that went to Keyser. He had a beautiful place, acres and acres and acres. And he kept building onto it. They had fields and fields of horses and cows. Uncle Gil first married ___ [couldn't understand what she said on the tape], and had two children by her. Pat and Clarence. They ended up owning a big grocery store in Cumberland [Maryland]. After Gil's wife died, he married ___ [couldn't understand, but sounded like Anndalera ?]. She was a Skelly. And they had a bunch of kids. Think I can remember most their names. There was Samuel, Bucky, Lloyd, Maude, Elmer and Hazel. Years later Uncle Gil sold off part of the Greenway Farm and bought some land on the other side of the county road and had a big orchard up there.
Uncle Gip got married to a woman in Ellersley. They were very aristocratic. They had 2 maybe 3 kids. One of Uncle Gip's kids, Frank, ended up becoming states attorney in Tampa, Florida. Uncle Gip's daughter, was Bridget. She married, but can't remember who. Frank Umstot married too, and had a son also named Frank who also became an attorney.
Uncle Amos never married. He lived and died an ol hermit. He just liked to do his farming and mostly keep to himself.
Susan Jane Umstot, that was my grandma. She was their oldest daughter and she had to work real hard. She had to do the laundry for the whole family. Susan's mother was quite hard on her. Susan ended up running away and getting married to get away from home. Of course, that ended up not working out, so she came home. Then like I told you before, she married Jim Flick and they settled down on the land her daddy gave her.
Well, Susan and Jim and several children. . . . (story to be continued on Flick page)
I learned (by reading my "Genealogy for Dummies" book) that it is important to establish primary sources as well as secondary sources. I had copies of a number of documents, but needed more. So my search began on the internet (recently). I found a wonderful website for Mineral County, West Virginia, on Roots Web, and it was there I found much information regarding my ancestors. I still have to order copies of various documents to confirm some of the facts. Some of the information was found in a sample census that was published online as a 1% sample census, and much to my surprise, the "sample" family was my g-g-g-grandparents.. I also established other dates by information found at cemeteries in Mineral County, West Virginia. There were also some marriage records that listed some of the names and dates I had been searching for. So, all in all, I feel very fortunate to have found so much information in one place. What a wonderful website! And what a wonderful idea the person had who came up with the Roots Web, and all the wonderful people who contribute to it... but enough of that, let me continue. The following information was taken from a sample census. Interestingly enough, not all the children were named. But while my search continues, I will add information to this page as I find it.
C E N S U S
MINERAL, WV Enum. Dist. 30 Reel 1408 Page 90 Date: 06/19
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1880 1% Sample Census for Mineral County, West Virginia
Headings are:
Last Name, First, MI, Race, Sex, Age, Status, Marriage status, self born, father born, mother bornUMSTOT, SIMON W M 63 Head M Virginia Virginia Virginia
UMSTOT, KEZIA W F 45 Wife M Virginia Virginia Virginia
UMSTOT, HARRIET V W F 19 Child S Virginia Virginia Virginia
UMSTOT, ULYSSES G W M 17 Child S Virginia Virginia Virginia
UMSTOT, SOLOMON G W M 14 Child S West Virginia Virginia Virginia
UMSTOT, AMOS G W M 12 Child S West Virginia Virginia Virginia
UMSTOT, ENOCH B W M 9 Child S West Virginia Virginia Virginia
UMSTOT, CHARLES J W M 6 Child S West Virginia Virginia Virginia
UMSTOT, L. BERKLEY W M 6 Child S West Virginia Virginia Virginia
__________________Based on dates I am sure of, together with the above info, I was able to approximate birth years for Simon and Kezia's other children.
UMSTOT, Simon (b. 6/1/1816)
UMSTOT, Kezia (b. 1/28/1834)CHILDREN:
UMSTOT, Harriet V. (b. approx. 1861) [my grandmother called her Aunt Hattie]
UMSTOT, Ulysses G. (b. approx. 1863)
UMSTOT, Solomon G. (b. approx. 1866)
UMSTOT, Amos G. (b. 11/21/1867)
UMSTOT, Enoch B. (b. 7/19/1870)
UMSTOT, Charles J. (b. approx. 1874) Twins
UMSTOT, L. Berkley (b. approx. 1874) (Burt and Charley)
[MORE TO COME - STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION]
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