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Efner Atchison

The Efner Atchison Breakthrough

September 22, 2013 by Jill Holman

As you may remember from my earlier post, we had a mystery on our hands. The family story was that Efner worked for the railroad & died in a hotel fire, perhaps in Wadena or Staples MN. The death date for him in the family Bible was 28 Oct 1909, but I hadn’t found a death certificate.

So my clever & persistent mother has been at it again. She decided to tackle this problem. First she got all organized & made her fact sheet. She found a census record for him that I had missed – he was listed as Efner Efnerson in 1895!

Efner Atchison Fact Sheet


Then when she ran out of leads, she contacted the Wadena County Historical Society & they provided several helpful tidbits:


1) Cemetery information – Efner M. Atchison, May Atchison, Clair Atchison Fjerstad, Nettie Kilts and Ruben Kilts are buried at Evergreen Hill Cemetery, Section 4 old east Lot/row L62/W/1/2 in Staples, MN. (Hooray we have more information about where he is buried!)

2) Wadena Pioneer Journal 11/4/1909 “Last Thursday the relatives in Thomastown of Dick Atchison of Staples were advised that his death had occurred in Minneapolis where he had been for a couple of weeks for treatment. The funeral services were held from the Methodist Church, Rev. L. Dodds officiating. The remains were interred in the Evergreen Cemetery north of Staples. The deceased leaves a wife and three children and numerous other relatives to mourn his loss.” (Dick!? When did Efner go by Dick!?)

3) Wadena Pioneer Journal, Neighborhood News 11/4/1909 “Owing to the recent fire, the Hotel Ransford at Brainerd, has been closed. Thomas H. Beace, who has been managing the hotel, will not renew his lease, as he has arranged to manage a new hotel at Virginia.” and “Brainerd had a bad fire Thursday of last week. The damage amounted to between $150,000 and $200,000. The fire started in the Schwartz drug store. The Columbia block and contents were a total loss. The Odd Fellows block and post office burned, and the Ransford hotel was practically ruined. The Masons, Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows and Red Men lost heavily.”
(There was a fire, but no link that Efner was involved & it looks like he was already in Minneapolis having his treatment at the time.)

Then my clever & persistent mother decided to search for the death certificate by the date. (Luckily the last name starts with A!) She found one for Richard Achison & enough information matches up that we think it is him.

So, it looks like we have another family story that doesn’t appear to be true. We can’t find any evidence he worked for the railroad (& others do say they worked for the RR in the census). And on his death certificate it says he died from: chronic nephritis with valvular disease of the heart, which doesn’t seem fire related.

I was surprised that he wasn’t listed at a hospital on the death certificate, since he was supposedly in Minneapolis for treatment according to the newspaper article. I was very curious who or what was at “304 Aldrich Ave S” in 1909 and found that the address listed was not a valid address. (I spent some time with the 1909 City Directory & some old maps.) And my clever & persistent mother also looked up the doctor that signed the death certificate and he was located on Nicollet Ave., pretty far away.

Still another mystery for someone to solve! And there is so little information for Efner’s son Glenn – who wants to work on that puzzle?

You might also be interested in:

  • Early Atchinsons in America
  • Three Generations of Atchisons
  • Histories, Mysteries and Little Old Ladies

Filed Under: Discoveries, Stories Tagged With: Efner Atchison

Three Generations of Atchisons

April 14, 2013 by Jill Holman


May & Efner Atchison
May & Efner Atchison in Staples MN (maybe their 1897 wedding?)

This has been a long time coming! These Atchisons were rather messy and some of the information was from way back at the beginning when I didn’t know what I was doing & didn’t keep track very well. Here is what I have pieced together so far . . .


There were several more spouses (see down below in The Basic Facts section), but for now, let’s focus on these 3 families!:


John & Lydia had these children:
Buel Goodsell ATCHISON
Orett ATCHISON
Zebedee ATCHISON
George ATCHISON
Milton ATCHISON


Buel & Almira had these children:
Ephner (Efner M) ATCHISON
Nellie P ATCHISON


Efner & May had these children:
Claire (Clara) ATCHISON
Glen ATCHISON
Milton ATCHISON

May Atchison & Children
May Atchison & Children (maybe 1910?)

Atchison Timeline

  • 1 May 1786 – Lydia Packard born (cousin Linda)
  • 1787 – John born North Adams MA (cousin Linda, family Bible)
  • 22 Jan 1807 – John and Lydia married Jericho VT (register)
  • 25 Sep 1813 – John enlisted, served 1 month 23 days (Roster War of 1812-14)
  • 14 Jun 1817 – Buel born VT (family Bible)
  • 12 Sep 1832 – Almira born Franklinville NY (family Bible)
  • 5 Aug 1840 – Lydia died buried Underhill VT (cousin Linda)
  • 9 Mar 1843 – Buel married Philena Jericho Chittendon VT (register)
  • 1850 – John with Lucy and John jr Chittendon Co VT (census)
  • 1850 – Buel with Philena and Mary and Lucien living with brother George’s family Underhill Chittendon Co VT (census)
  • 31 Jan 1855 – John died buried Underhill VT (Veterans buried in Underhill)
  • 1858 – Buel got 80 acres in WI (index)
  • 1860 – Buel 43, Philena, 38, Mary 15 and Alsam-maybe a cousin? Little Falls Monroe WI (census)
  • Dec 1863 – Philena died Little Falls WI (family Bible)
  • 31 Jan 1865 – Buel married Almira Little Falls WI (certificate)
  • 14 Mar 1866 – Nellie born Little Falls WI (family Bible)
  • 4 May 1868 or 67 – Efner born Little Falls Monroe WI (family Bible, census)
  • 1870 – Buel 53 VT, Almira 37 NY, Nellie 4 WI, Efner 2 and Nellie Hotchkis Little Falls Monroe WI (census)
  • 25 Dec 1875 – May born Beaver Dam, WI (obit, MN Death Index)
  • 1877 – Buel & HH next door in business in Little Falls WI (Monroe Co WI Pictorial History 1976)
  • 1880 – Buel 63, Almira 47, Nellie 14, Efner 12 Little Falls Monroe WI (census)
  • 13 June 1886 – Almira died Little Falls WI (family Bible)
  • 4 Mar 1891 – Ruben & Nellie married Spart WI (family Bible)
  • 1895 – Buel is with Nellie Kilts & husband & Susan Hecyes is head of household? [hard to make out] Todd Co MN (census)
  • 6 May 1896 – Buel died Todd Co MN (family Bible)
  • 27 Oct 1897 – Efner and May married Thomastown, Todd MN (family Bible)
  • 2 Sep 1898 – Clara born to Mary and EM in Todd Co MN (certificate)
  • 4 Mar 1891 – Reuben Kilts married Nellie Atchison Sparta Monroe WI (certificate)
  • 1900 – Efner 33 born 1867 WI, May 24 born 1875 WI, Clare 1 born 1898 MN Todd Co MN (census)
  • 1905 – Efner 37 WI, Mary 28 WI, Claire 7 MN, Glenn 5 MN Todd Co MN (census)
  • 19 Feb 1908 – Milton was born (death index)
  • 28 Oct 1909 – Efner died Wadena MN or Staples (family Bible) – the family story is he worked for the RR & died in a hotel fire
  • 1910 – Mary 34, Claire 12, Glen 10, Milton 2 Todd Co MN and brother Edward Williams. It says she was divorced!? (census)
  • 1910 – Ruben & Nellie – he is a well driller Staples Todd Co MN (census)
  • 1916 – Mary 39, Claire 17, Glen 15, Milton 8 Sasman Saskatchewan! Came from USA in 1913. Methodist. (census)
  • 1919 – Pete and Claire married Hendricks MN (Fran & Margaret)
  • 1920 – Pete 24 MN, Claire 21 MN Deuel Co SD (census)
  • 1920 – Ruben & Nellie – he is a well driller Staples Todd Co MN (census)
  • 1930 – Ruben & Nellie – he is a well driller Staples Todd Co MN (census)
  • 5 Nov 1939 – Ruben died Staples MN (family Bible)
  • 29 Nov 1942 – Nellie died Staples MN (family Bible)
  • 30 Aug 1951 – Claire died Ramsey Co MN buried Staples (certificate)
  • 15 Dec 1971 – May died Todd Co MN (MN Death index) May was one of Staples oldest residents when she died. (obit)
  • 17 Aug 1990 – Milton died Minneapolis MN (MN Death index)
Nellie & Ruben Kilts
Nellie & Ruben Kilts probably Staples MN

Notes & Questions

1) Big mystery for Efner’s death! I have not been able to find a death record & in the 1910 census record, it says May is divorced when I thought he was supposed to be dead. I wonder if he just left? Does anyone have the answer to this mystery?
2) And what were they doing in Canada!? And they were there for several years – at least from 1913-1916. In Saskatchewan! Was there someone else there to help May with the 3 children? I have heard that Ruben & Nellie Kilts helped care for the kids (Claire, Glen & Milton) when they lived near each other.
3) Who was Alsam in 1860?
4) Who was Susan in 1895?
5) There is a brief mention that Philena married Buel Atchinson, had one child, Mary, and moved to Wisconsin. (They had another but he died young.) And also that John Atchinson took the Freemen Oath in 1808. That is in the History of Jericho VT from 1916. It is available online (just a text file version or pdf version that stops after page 319)
6) Thanks to cousin Linda for her enthusiasm & generosity!


P.S. A note about the spelling – Atchison v. Atchinson . . .


I did a quick survey of the official records I have and we seem to have lost the ‘n’ during Buel’s watch. He waffled during this time period:

  • 1860 – did not have the n
  • 1865 – did not have the n
  • 1870 – had the n
  • 1880 – did not have the n
  • 1891 – had the n

Before this, we consistently had the n and after this we consistently did not have the n.

Milton Atchison
A Four Generation Picture with Uncles! Sam Williams on the right with his nephew Milton Atchison with his nephew Dean with his niece Carol (maybe 1944?)

The Basic Facts:
John ATCHISON (also married Lucy Story & Rosina Wells)
b. 1787, North Adams, Berkshire, MA
d. 31 Jan 1855, Underhill, Chittendon, VT
& Lydia PACKARD
b. 1 May 1786, VT
d. 5 Aug 1840
m. 22 Jan 1807, Jericho, Windsor or Chittendon, VT
Buel Goodsell ATCHISON (also married Philena Whitten)
b. 14 Jun 1817, Underhill, Chittendon, VT
d. 6 May 1896, Staples, Todd, MN
& Almira S McNALL (also married Benjamin Hotchkip)
b. 12 Sep 1832, Franklinville, Cattaraugus, NY
d. 13 Jun 1886, Little Falls, Monroe, WI
m. 31 Jan 1865, Cataract or Little Falls, Monroe, WI
Ephner (Efner M) ATCHISON
b. 4 May 1868, Little Falls, Polk, WI
d. 28 Oct 1909, Wadena, Wadena, MN
& May (Atchie) (Mary E) WILLIAMS
b. 25 Dec 1875, Beaver Dam, Dodge, WI
d. 15 Dec 1971, Staples, Todd, MN (Mary Rondorf home)
m. 27 Oct 1897, Staples, Todd, MN

 
You might also be interested in:

  • Early Atchinsons in America
  • John & Margaret Williams
  • Appreciation for an Old Photograph
  • A Brief Timeline for the Fjerstads
  • The Efner Atchison Breakthrough

Filed Under: Old Photographs, Timelines Tagged With: Almira McNall, Buel Atchison, Efner Atchison, John Atchinson, Lydia Packard, Mary Williams

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