Belle Mary Kline Family History

[For clarity, the appended family tree chart is given first, followed by the letter. In her chart, generations are listed vertically from oldest to youngest; siblings are on same line, separated by /backslash. Some parts of the letter not applicable to the family history have been omitted. Where Belle uses the terms "father", "his grandfather", etc., names have been inserted in parentheses.] E. W. Williams

Darius Walker (Note: Per Janet Gritzner, this name should be Dyer Walker)
Polly Walker Twichell
Mary Belden Twichell Vorse/Henry Twichell
Franc Vorse Kline
Paul/*Belle/Opal/Lois (*Belle is author of this chart & letter)

Henry Twichell (brother of Mary Belden Twichell above)
Andrew/Nell
Dale/Lorna

Carolyn Mathilda Pinkney Pollock vorse
Thomas Vorse
Franc Vorse Kline/Henry Roland Vorse
Paul/*Belle/Opal/Lois

John Kline
Reuben Kline/many brothers & sisters
Andrew Curtin Kline/3 brothers, 3 sisters
Paul/*Belle/Opal/Lois

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Feb.3, 1973
Dear Janet,
Was so glad to receive your letter and while my knowledge of the family history is spotty I am interested. Mary Bee was gathering information for a while...About all I know of Fathers (Andrew Curtin Kline) family is that his grandparents moved from Berks Co., Penna to Clarion Co. and were farmers. They must have been born in Germany and Scotland for he told me they both spoke such broken English he could not understand how they understood each other.(Maternal Heasley grandparents perhaps? His paternal grandparents were John Kline & Anna Fenstermacher, both from German heritage, from Lehigh Co. PA). His (Andrew Curtin's) grandfathers name was John (John Klein? Heasley grandfather's first name not known), his fathers Ruben (Reuben Kline), and his Mother was Eliza Heasley Kline. I know where they are all buried. Father (Andrew Curtin Kline) was fifth in a family of seven and was born in a log house down in the woods. After the War Between the States Grandfather (Reuben Kline) built a new house and a huge barn on Route 322 which was the road between the county seats, Franklin and Clarion and is still in fine shape. You probably know the first roads in Penna connected the County seats, and were stage coach routes. What is now Rt. 322 was one of the first roads connecting Phila to the west.
As to Carolyn Mathilda Pollock Vorse am not sure from which state she came. She must have been hopelessly in love to leave a home equipped with servants to live in the wilds of western Penna. David W. Vorse whom she married was born near Rochester, N.Y. at a place no longer in existence. Maryland sticks in my mind as Carolyn's home base as Mother spoke of it but it could be any Southern state. how David, in those days of stagecoach and horseback connected with Carolyn M. is a mystery. I think the only Methodist university to train ministers at that time was Emery near Atlanta. Too, the Pinkneys and Pollocks (Pres. Polk's father had the name changed from Pollock to Polk, see encyclopedia) came from the Carolinas or Georgia. ... Carolyn's son had red hair and his name was Thomas.
The little white chair (which fell apart) and the table Frannie has were among the things Carolyn M. brought to Penna. The two slaves a man and a woman worth about 42,000 each were freed when they reached Penna. They were given her as a wedding gift. With a load of furniture and two slaves they must have come to Penna overland and by wagon. That must have been in the 1820s. Rev. David Vorse was a circuit rider preacher whose travels ranged from Edinboro to Youngsville, Pa. He kept record of his marriages in a little pocket note book which I gave to the Erie Co. Historical Society. After the Civil War it was sent to Washington as proof of marriage for widows of the U. S. Army Veterans for there were no certificates.
Mother's (Franc Vorse) father (Thomas Vorse) was a farmer and a clerk in the Penna Senate or House, am not sure which. He died of a stroke in Harrisburg while attending a session. He had one son, Henry, who died without children so the name Vorse ended. The only other one of that name of whom I ever heard was the author Mary Heaton Vorse, of Phila. who was accused of being a communist.
the only soldier I knew of on the family tree was Darius (correction: Dyer) Walker who gets a flag on Memorial Day for fighting in the War of 1812. Darius (Dyer) was Mothers (Franc Vorse's) great grandfather. I cannot think what his wife's name was. They lived in Edinboro and when he was quite well he weighed 90 lbs. There were no patterns then so when his wife made him a pair of trousers, he laid on the floor and she cut around him. They got about in a two wheeled -solid wooden wheels- cart propelled by a pair of oxen. They were on the road one day when the oxen became separated from the cart and he was so busy gee-ing and haw-ing he did not miss his passenger. She was a constant knitter, so she just sat in the cart, purled until he got back. According to Mother (Franc Vorse) she even knit while walking.
Their daughter Polly (Polly Walker, dau. of Dyer Walker & wife) married Evi (corrected to Edwin) Twichell; could stand under her husband's outstretched arm. Evi (Edwin Twichell) had a general store and a shoe store in Edinboro (PA) built buildings and was a cabinet maker. Sort of doubled (dabbled?) in brass. There was some sort of academy in Edinboro and Evi (Edwin Twichell) helped promote it into a Penna State Normal School, now Edinboro State University, and he built the first building. I was in it just once and it was then the Music Department. He was quite prosperous for his day, made at least one buying trip to New York and his daughter-in-law spent her vacations at Chatauqua Lake, N.Y. taken there by a matched team and driver. During the Civil War he went about making speeches to encourage enlistment and came home to find his son Henry, fifteen, had enlisted. His son (Henry Twichell) was Mothers (Franc Vorse's) Uncle. Henry was wounded and captured and was in Libby Prison. Mother told me her grandfather (David Vorse or Ed Twichell?)was a sort of banker for the community for the nearest bank was in Erie. People would take their money to him and he would put it out for loan, but when money got tight they all demanded their money at one time and he could not call in his loans and he went bankrupt. About that time the town had a fight over the head of the school, families were broken up and what not. Half the town hated the other half. Your grandparents were both teaching in the Normal School at that time and Mother (Franc Vorse) told me that fight finished their teaching.
Evi and Polly's (Edwin Twichell & Polly Walker)'s children were Henry and Nell. Evi Twichell's daughter, Mothers mother was Mary Belden Twichell Vorse. Mother said the Belden name was a family name from way back. Mother's own was only Franc. I think it is of Irish extraction.
Evi (Edwin) Twichell came from the Boston area but I do not know how young. i do not know if Darius (Dyer) Walker was born in the U.S.A., but that is an English name....
The Rev. David Vorse in addition to preaching was a Justice of the Peace. Near his grave at mcLane, Pa. , a couple miles north of Edinboro, is the grave of Asa Vorse and his wife - who mother (Franc Vorse) told me was her Great Uncle. He has the highest momument in the cemetery and left Mother $45 when he died and that bought the lot at 925 West 1st St. in Oil City.
To my knowledge Tommy Sheets who still lives in Edinboro I think, is great grandson of Evi (Edwin) Twichell's was the one and only descendant of Evi Twichell who ever attended the Edinboro State School. Our father (Andrew Curtin Kline) went there about 1885 or 1886 and when he and his buddies drove into the town he saw Mother walking by on the sidewalk and remarked "There goes the girl I am going to marry." She was very pretty with black hair and eyes and red cheeks. At that time the town was divided as to students rooms int "Girl Town" and "Boy Town" and curfew was early.
Between Edinboro and Meadville there was a family of Magills lived and one of the girls married Henry Twichell, the civil War veteran who was a son of Evi (Edwin) Twichell. One of her brothers became Governor of Minnesota about 1885 to 1890. Mother's brother Henry (Vorse) went there to act as some sort of aid for him. When the governor went out of office Uncle Henry joined the St. Paul paid fire department, at that time a good job. but he fell in love and his girl died before they were married so he left there and went to Oil City (PA).
To get to Edinboro from Oil City he had to drive from the farm about fifteen miles to Oil City. Then by train to Cambridge Springs then by tally ho to Edinboro, six miles. The tally ho was not what is known as a conventional tally-ho but a carriage with seats on the sides drawn by a team. In those days every hotel owned one with which to meet trains and convey customers to the hotel besides other uses.
Father's Mother (Andrew Curtin Kline's mother Elizabeth Heasley)died when he was small and his father(Reuben Kline) married again, a Civil War widow with two sons. She was of Penna Dutch persuasion and I liked her. An item few people are aware of was the fact that after the war, the government set up schools for soldier's orphans. Grandmother (apparently she is speaking of the 2nd wife, Harriet Weaver) lived on Spring St. in Oil City during the War and after that took her boys to Mercer, Pa. where there was a government school and worked for the home.
Another thing that intrigued me was Father (Andrew Curtin Kline) occasionally spoke of such a person having been a "bound boy". I could not imagine that even in his generation. A parent could sign over his son to another to learn a trade and that person had complete control.
When Grandfather (Reuben Kline) built his new house after the war he had a porch at the side of the house, closed on three sides, that sheltered the pump from the weather and it was just outside the kitchen door. The neighbor farms had a spring or outdoor pump. There also was a "buttery" where all food was prepared and where the dishes etc were kept, the stove was in the kitchen where the meals were served. The house had two bedrooms, two big living rooms beside the kitchen on the first floor and three or four bedrooms on the second with a long room over the kitchen where the six boys slept (ie. 4 sons of Reuben & Eliza Heasley, and 2 sons of 2nd wife Harriet Weaver). On the other side of the house just outside the kitchen door Grandmother (Weaver) had an outdoor oven where she baked her bread & pies. The lower part ws brick, the upper which was the oven was made of some sort of plaster, the heat came from wood burned in the lower brick part. I remember she had a long pole to push the loaves around. When Paul(Klein, Belle's brother) and I were about eleven and thirteen we used to go there on weekends and sometimes they would be making apple butter in the yard, an enormous kettle supported on poles with wood for fuel and stirred with an arrangement mad of broom handles. There were no telephones, so from the time we left on Friday after school until we got back with the horse on Sunday afternoon they would not hear from us. It ws fun gathering chestnuts. Always having had a good appetite, part of the enjoyment to me was eating saltines and sardines on the way.
Before I came down here -Sarasota- I went to the various cemeteries and wrote down the birth and death dates of all I could I gave Mary Bee (Belden) a family album she wanted and Joanne has one of an earlier period. Either one can give you the dates I wrote in under the pictures. one of them has a picture of Rev. David Vorse. Opal (Belle's sister) and Joanne both have heart shaped faces resembling his but Mother (Franc Vorse) looked exactly like him and he was her grandfather.
Years ago I had a vague notion of joining the D.A.R. Mother wrote some relative in another state she thought might have some information. Whoever the lady was wrote back that the only soldier she knew of was known as "Colonel", a completely honorary title who was not much of a provider. His wife sent him to the store for supplies and he came back with a pair of trousers. the wife did not comment but when he lifted the tureen cover to serve the meal, there behold were his new trousers.
Maybe these remarks will get you started, and if I can help i would be happy to. Love, B.