Ida Foutz Moreland | 1873 – 1917
As someone who grew up the oldest of four brothers… whose father was youngest of three… and now has two sons of his own…
It’s always fascinated me to think of female Foutzes out there in the world. Particularly Foutz gals who are family.
Today’s post — part 6 in a series on the family of my great-great grandparents, Jonathan Foutz and Rebecca (Caldwell) Foutz — concerns Ida, the youngest of my great-grandfather Vance Foutz’s older sisters.
What must it have been like, back on the Jonathan Foutz farmstead, to live in a house of three older sisters, three younger brothers and a likely aloof, oldest brother Sherman, a bit above and beyond it all?
Well, now I’m editorializing. But I imagine the girls, just four years apart (two years between each of them), got along. And even doted on brothers who were a good five years younger (in the case of middle siblings Ida and John) to a yawning 18 years younger (in the case of oldest sister Lila to youngest brother Vance).
Still, it seems that after the two summers all three Foutz sisters managed to get married (Lila and Ida first, in 1889, at 20 and 16, respectively; then Rachel, in 1891, also at 20), and they became mothers shortly after, some of the family connections — at least of the type that reverberate down through the generations — seemed to waver.
Too many of the Foutz siblings would die young. And for the last one left, my great-grandfather Vance, barely anyone in his immediate family got to know, and really no one remembered, his siblings or parents.
A happy quirk of modern-day genealogy research is that in the effort to solve family mysteries, you sometimes come into contact with descendants of your distant relatives. Happier still when these latter-day Foutzes have answers to your questions, and a trove of goodies — photographs, documents, stories — to share.
One connection I’ve made is to Dawn James, a descendant of Ida’s and one who is avidly on the trail of Harrison County’s first Foutzes herself. She shared the pictures in this post. And some tidbits from the diary of Sherman Moreland, one of Ida’s sons. By extension, she’s a Foutz gal, and well, to me that’s fascinating.
But now about Ida….
A Healthy Mix of Morelands – From One Big Family into Another
Ida Belle Foutz was born Sept. 27, 1873, probably on the family farm south of Bowerston. I’m not sure where the name Ida came from. Or Belle, which is how my grandma Foutz mistakenly identified Jonathan’s mother (Delilah Ann Jones) for awhile. Rebecca did have a younger sister, Isabel, born in 1862. But… who knows?
Ida was of the first generation of Foutzes in America to receive consistent, and good, schooling. All censuses she appears on record that she could read, write and speak English.
In September 1889 she was married — at 16 — to Thomas Moreland. He was seven years her senior, and fifth of 14 children born to Thomas Moreland Sr., a prominent carpenter, storekeeper and lawyer in Bowerston (and eventual 4-time mayor; from 1885-1891, and from 1894 to his death). Thomas Jr. was the grandson of William Moreland, a soldier in the War of 1812 (Battle of Baltimore) and an early settler of Jefferson and Carroll Counties. (Well, that’s what the book by Fred J. Milligan tells us, anyway….)
Ida and Thomas set about raising a large family of their own. Within 7 months of their marriage, Bessie Marie was born (April 1890). She was followed by Lloyd Charles (1891), Sherman Earl (1893), Clyde Thomas (1895), Lola Belle (1898), Roy Wilfred Vance (1899), Nancy Jane (1893), Ralph Vernon (1905), Ruth Geraldine (1907), Donald Dale (1909), and a premature daughter, Ida, who died a half hour after birth in 1912.
The family first made its home in Union Township in Tuscarawas County, west of Bowerston. The Ohio Democrat of Jan. 17, 1895 records the transfer of the east 1/2 of Lot 3 in Dennison from C.V. McClusky to Ida B. Moreland for $1,000 — a significant sum in those days, brought into significant contrast by the other purchases recorded in that edition, most of which were in the $100 to $400 range.
The 1900 census finds them still living in Union Twp., in a house they rent. Thomas works as a foreman for the railroad. By 1910, they are living in Carroll County, within the Carrollton village limits. They rent this home as well, and Thomas now works as a fireman at a pottery business, along with son Sherman. The census notes that Thomas and Ida have been married 21 years, and that 9 of her 10 children are living, indicating the passing of daughter Ruth just shy of her second birthday in 1909.
Ida Foutz Moreland, c. 1913
Growing Older, and Ida Gone Too Soon
By 1910, Ida’s oldest son, Lloyd, had gone to live with her youngest brother, Vance, in Dover. This continued a Foutz tradition — and probably a commonplace practice in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and even today — of putting up extended relatives and in-laws and even taking them into the head of household’s profession.
As far back as the 1850 and 1860 censuses, my great-great-great grandfather Gideon Pfouts is shown giving his sister Mary’s brother-in-law (or son) John Hurless a job as laborer on his farm. My great-great grandfather Jonathan got his start farming the land owned by his namesake uncle Jonathan and his aunt Elizabeth, the elder Jonathan’s sister and lifetime companion. And Lloyd, it seems, was working for the same company as his Uncle Vance, who would one day usher each of his three sons into the steel industry in Dover, Ohio.
By 1910, Thomas and Ida’s oldest, Bessie, had married Harry B. Coleman, and had a young son, Robert. I don’t know whether Harry Coleman is related to Bessie’s aunt Rachel (Foutz) Coleman’s husband, William, or if Robert ever got to know his Coleman uncles, Karl and Frank, by way of his grandmother’s sister, Rachel. The photo below, probably taken about 1913, shows five generations. Clockwise, from left, are Bessie (Moreland) Coleman, Ida (Foutz) Moreland, Rachel (Cramblett) Caldwell, Robert Coleman and Rebecca (Caldwell) Foutz.
By the time of this photo, Ida’s features appear drawn and lined. She looks much older than her 39 or 40 years. She is only a few seasons removed from losing her final child, a daughter named Ida Bell; born at six months term, she lived for just half an hour.
Ida may already have been suffering from the ailments that will kill her. Although she becomes sick with bronchitis in November 1917, her death certificate reports declining health for three years. An autopsy conducted after her death the morning of Nov. 5 indicates the presence of pancreatic cancer, an abscess of the right kidney and gallstones, among other afflictions (the doctor’s notes are barely legible).
Following Ida’s death, Thomas is shown on the 1920 census with their three youngest children, still living in Carrollton. In 1930, Thomas is living with his youngest son, Donald Dale, and his daughter-in-law Margaret and two young grandchildren.
(One interesting side note on the name Donald Dale Moreland — this son of Ida, born 5 years before his cousin of the same name, my grandfather Donald Dale Foutz, was born to Ida’s brother Vance — is so far the only evidence I’ve turned up of this name on this side of the family. There is a Donald D. Johnson, an uncle of my grandpa Don’s eventual wife, Erma Johnson. But that’s a bit too Michael J. Fox in the DeLorean for reality. Could Vance have taken a cue from Ida? And where did Ida get the name?)
By the time of Thomas’s death in March 1949, he and Ida can count nearly 30 grandchildren, and eventually, a few dozen more great-grandchildren and further descendants, who, fortunately, we’re getting to know today. Last summer, the Morelands held their family reunion at Tuscora Park in New Philadelphia, and among the pictures and family artifacts shared were pictures of my great-great grandparents, Jonathan and Rebecca Foutz. Sharing these finds with my father this summer, it was probably the first that generation of Foutzes in my family had seen the faces of their ancestors.
And that’s one good reason why it pays to keep tabs on Foutz gals — past and present.
Five generations, about 1913. Clockwise, from left: Bessie (Moreland) Coleman, Ida (Foutz) Moreland, Rachel (Cramblett) Caldwell, Robert Coleman, Rebecca (Caldwell) Foutz.
Whispering Across the Campfire 