31 July, 2005
My Grandfather, Carl Craig Summerville, was born on 19 Apr 1893, in
Rimersburg, Clarion County, Pennsylvania. He was part of a very large extended
family that had lived in the region since colonial times. Summerville is one of
those names that has many variations in spelling, including:
Summerville;
Somervill; Summervill, Sommerville; Sommervill; Somerville; Simmeral; and
Simeral.
He was the youngest child of Joel Elmer Somerville and Hannah Catherine Flick, who were married on 26 March, 1880 in Clarion County.
Joel was living with his parents in 1880. He was 18, and he was living in Madison Township in Clarion Co. He would marry two years later. I have not yet obtained the 1890 census. The 1900 census is the last of census for the family in Pennsylvania. It shows Joel and Hannah, both 38, living with Charles, 17; Ila Livona, 16; Jessie Pearl, 14; Elmer Merrill, 12; and Carl Craig, only 7.
At some time during the next 10 years, Joel, Hannah and Carl moved to South Sharon, Mercer Co, Pennsylvania. It seems that Charles married and stayed in Pennsylvania, moving later to Steubenville, Ohio. Elmer Merrill dropped the Elmer, and known as Merrill, he was the first to move to Steubenville, where he married and lived with inlaws. Ila Livona and Jessie Pearl also seems to have made their lives in Pennsylvania.
In the 1910 census, Charlie has not been found, and Merrill is in Steubenville (see Steubenville census page).
In the 1910 census, Joel is listed as Joe E Summerville, and he, Hannah and Carl are living in South Sharon, Mercer Co, Pennsylvania.Joe is listed as a policeman.
Between 1910 and 1917, Joel moved to Ft McCoy outside of Ocala, Marion Co, Florida. Carl seems to have gone with them, and in 1917, at 24, met Anna McAnsh. In spite of some negative comments from her family, they married, and lived together for the next 42 years, until Anna died.
In the same year, Carl enlisted in the Ocala Rifles (see history of this unit), the 124th Infantry. Anna moved to Norfolk, VA, during his term of service, and it was there that Hazel was born on 25 Nov 1918.
After his discharge in 1919, Carl and family moved to Steubenville, Ohio, where his two brothers, Charles and Merrill had gone. It was there that Jessie, and Caroline were born.
Carl became a postman, and was so for much of his life afterwards. He and Anna belonged to the Episcopal church, and were both in the Masons. Anna was in the Eastern Star, and Carl was a high degree Knights Templar.
By 1945, Hazel had married, Caroline had died as a child, and my mother, Jessie, had moved to the city to practice medicine as a senior nurse. She later moved to Niagra Falls, and then to the San Francisco bay area.
Carl and Anna were also surrogate grandparents to some of the neighbours, and it was the man who lived next door, David who found Carl after his death on 13 Jun, 1970. Anna had died nearly ten years before, in 1961.
I knew little of my grandparents. My main memory of my grandmother is a couple of years before she died, when we visited on our way to California. I got to know my grandfather a bit better. After Anna's death, he came out as stayed with us for a few month, while he went through the greiving process.
I wish I had know them better. It's a shame when family connections erode just because they were not maintained.
Rest in Peace
