Week 51 - (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks) - Musical - Chimes

 Music brings back memories in an instant, whether it be a favorite song or a favorite instrument that you played.  Our family has many singers and band members in it, and even a Grammy winning conductor.  But today I want to concentrate on an instrument that I think older people might remember hearing maybe without knowing what it was.  

I have been given the care of my great grandfather's, Foster Heacock, Military Dinner Chimes.  They came from Foster to his daughter Helen, then to Helen's niece Peg then to her children and finally to me, Peg's niece. 

                                                                   Foster Heacock

Foster Heacock was born in 1869 in Illinois, He was of a Quaker family and moved around a bit before settling in Bedford Co, Pennsylvania.  He was a teacher and a noted agriculturist and orchardist.  I do not know how he came to own this set of Dinner Chimes but he may have had some kind of interest in music.  Or they could have been used in meetings as a call to order. This does make sense for Foster as he held memberships in varied organizations over his lifetime.  Historically, they were used in military schools and the armed forces as a call to dinner, hence the name.  The chimes were also used in railroad cars and steam cruise ships for dinner call and even small churches used them.  The Deagan Co of Chicago started making the chimes about 1910.  They were known for their high quality chimes. Some chimes used metal plates for the tones and some used round open ended tubes.  A soft hammer or mallet was used to strike the plates. The Dinner Chimes commonly came in three sizes, 3,4 or 5 strike plates. Ours is a three plate on a carved wooden box.  The notes that it plays are G, C, and E.  It came with it's mallet and a small booklet of chime music to play.  Unfortunately. most of the music in the booklet cannot be played on a 3 plate chime, but the NBC tune can.  And this is where we older people may remember hearing them on old time radio or television shows.  The NBC network used them in their broadcasts.  

Our chime hangs on the wall above my desk. I may give it new life and try this out as a dinner call on Thanksgiving this year!

For a Video of our chimes playing Taps and the NBC chime go here on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFmHVW44XuM

The Deagan Dinner Chimes

Deagan Plate Chime No 123

  

The Music Booklet from 1917

Sources:

https://nbcchimes.info/deagan.php

https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/single-post/j-c-deagan-co/

https://nbcchimes.info/nbcpromo.php

https://nbcchimes.info/nbc.php

https://sites.google.com/view/marksmodelrailroads/real-trains/deagan-dinner-chimes

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2025. All rights reserved

Week 49 - Written (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

This is an interesting hand drawn document from my McGuin family that was found in my grandmother's home.  The creator is not known but it details the family of William Thomas McGuin my  2nd great grandfather. Maybe this is where my daughter's calligraphy gene came from!

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 The topic "Written"  made signatures come to my mind.  We all have one. It is one of the things that identifies us as an individual.  We use our signatures in so many ways. We wrote checks and sign documents such as wills, loan papers and drivers licenses, wrote letters . But in today's digital world, the signature may become a thing of the past.  Now we use fingerprints, facial recognition and eye scans to identify us.  But our ancestors, those who could write and read, only had their signature.  Those who could not write, made a mark that was witnessed by others. So I looked at some ancestors to try and find their signatures. As you will see, there are many different sources of these signatures.  Here is what I came up with.

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Three of the oldest signatures are by Myles Standish (1584 - 1656) and Tristram Coffin (1605 - 1681), my 8th & 9th great grandfathers. Myles Standish ,of course, from the Mayflower and Tristram Coffin, one of the founders of Nantucket.

Stephen Flanders (1646 - 1744) My son in law's 8th great grandfather and early settler of Massachusetts

William Heacock (1716 - 1800)  My 5th great grandfather and Revolutionary War Patriot

Johannes Arnold (1717 - 1803) My 5th great grandfather's signature and his brothers, Wilhelm and Peter, on a ship passenger list in 1749

Jacob Ober (1703 - 1769)  My 7th great grandfather signature from a passenger list in 1729

Jacob Sinton ( 1819 - 1903) My husband's 2nd great grandfather - signature from his family bible

Zachariah Nixon ( 1770 - 1844) and his wife Martha Toms ( 1774 - 1844) signed a document selling some land for $105 in Washington Co, Indiana.  It is interesting that the wife was included in this transaction in 1830.  They are my 4th great grandparents. 

I found several signatures in Civil War Pension records.  

John B Amos (1833 - 1901) my 3rd great grandfather He served from very early in the war till it's end. He was wounded twice and a letter he wrote from the war survives.

A portion of his letter 

William Harvey Gray (1838 - 1907)  My husband's 2nd great grandfather, an 1886 pension file letter written by William H Gray

Another document from William H Gray's file shows the signatures of his Uncle and father in law who wrote in support of his pension request. A.W. Gray and Alfred Estes, my husband's 3rd great grandfather. 

Catherine Hiller Hahn (1827 - 1912) 3rd great grandmother of my son in law who was requesting  a widow's pension based upon her husband Gottlieb Hahn's service who died on board a ship on his way home at the end of the Civil War.

These are also from Civil War Pension records and are from my grandson in law's family.

Conrad Ide (1832 - 1900) his 4th great grandfather

Anderson Peter Miller (1845 -1891) his 3rd great grandfather 

Hannah McCanna Miller (1849 - 1930) Anderson Miller's wife requesting a Widow's Pension

Jacob Miles (1833 - 2909) his 3rd great grandfather

Some signatures were found on applications for citizenship or Naturalization papers

Benjamin Johns (1840 - 1897) my husband's great grandfather who came from Cornwall, England about 1869 and applied for citizenship in 1890

Andrew McGlynn ( 1886 - 1963) my son in law's great grandfather who emigrated from Scotland in 1912

Edward Lomb (1845 - 1925) my grandson in law's 3rd great grandfather who emigrated from Germany before 1880 

 Michael Zamba (1904 - 1976) my grandson in law's great grandfather who emigrated from Slovakia in 1921

A few signatures came from Wills

Levi Standish (1764 - 1848) my 4th great grandfather

William Werner (1792 - 1852)   my husband's 3rd great grandfather from his 1852 will

Albert H Flanders (1834 - 1907)   my son in law's 2nd great grandfather from his 1903 will 

Many of my signatures have come from WW1 and WW2 Draft Registration Cards

William Ralph Arnold (1880 - 1961)  my great grandfather WW1 & WW2 - a change in his signature

Charles Lomb (1885 - 1984 my grandson in law's 2nd great grandfather WW1

Joseph Frederick Garver (1882 - 1944)  my grandson in law's 2nd great grandfather WW1

Harry Leamon Miles (1900 - 19  my grandson in law's great grandfather WW1

John E Betz Jr (1886 - 1933)  my husband's grandfather WW1 draft registration card

Anthony Francis Flanders (1891 - 1966)   my son in law's great grandfather WW1 draft registration card

Floyd Hanley Heacock (1905 -1989)  my grandfather WW2

Charles Christmas Bonadio (1906 - 1982  my grandfather WW2

Oscar Malvin Sinton (1891 - 1967) my husband's grandfather WW2

Walter John Schiller I (1918 - 1994)  my daughter in law's grandfather WW2

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William Theodore Flanders (1919 - 1991) my son in law's grandfather WW2

Robert Sylvester Flanders (1922 - 1992)  my son in law's grandfather WW2

Clarence Wilber Garver (1915 - 1986) my grandson in law's great grandfather  WW2

Some signatures from driver's licenses and employment cards

Pasquale Bonadio who went by Patsy (1877 - 1952) my great grandfather an Italian immigrant whose name was spelled several different ways over the years 

Mary Elizabeth Heacock Arnold (1906 - 1996) my grandmother who went by Elizabeth. When she sent birthday cards to us, she would always sign them "Lots of Love" .   I have continued that today with my own grandchildren.  I overheard the youngest one the other day talk about grammy's funny writing.  I hope someone told him what it said, but he did recognize the writing as mine.

The familiar signatures of  close relatives such as our parents, bring back memories of many letters and cards received from them.  

Gary Gray Sinton Sr ( 1926 - 2005)  my father in law

Caroline Stone Betz Sinton (1925 - 2002)  my mother in law 

John Floyd Heacock (1929 - 2016) my father

Kathryn Carole Bonadio Heacock  (1931 - 2019) my mother, both before and after marriage, she always went by Carole.

  

A few favorite signatures were found in books that were saved by my family.

Sarah Nixon Heacock (1835 - 1911)   my Quaker 2nd great grandmother - this was found in a book entitled "A School Compendium of Natural And Experimental Philosophy" published in 1851. 

Sarah's son Foster James Heacock (1869 - 1939) my great grandfather - this came from a book called "Harvey's Elementary Grammar" published in 1869 - two a little bit different, He spent some years as a teacher.

William T McGuin (1839 - 1905) my 2nd great grandfather

One last signature that I just have to share because the story that goes along with it was very involved and rather unbelievable.  This note was published in many newspapers along with other stories of the sale.  George Rosengrant is not an ancestor but is a 5th cousin of my husband.  I wrote a separate post about him and his extended family that can be found here: 

https://eclecticann.blogspot.com/2022/07/week-28-characters-52-ancestors-in-52.htm

Follow the writing, you never know where it will lead you.  I wonder what more we could find out about our ancestors from a handwriting expert?  

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2025. All rights reserved