Recollections: Lois

One ancestor, Runyon C. Tunison, comes to mind as a person of interest.

1817. C. was the oldest of 6 children born to William and Elizabeth Fitz Randolph in 1817. Siblings were Tunis, Ira, John, Alexander, and Sarah E.  He died at age 72 + months per the obituary of Humboldt County IA (putting birth year in 1815 which agrees with enlistment in Civil War Iowa Regiment 31 as age 45).

Runyon married Margaret Breese in 1840, had son William, then Wallais and Ira C in New Jersey.  Margaret died in 1854 of heart failure and he married Elizabeth Chandler Turner, widow of Henry B, and they had two sons – Adelbert John and Willis Wesley …residing in Buffalo NY.

During his lifetime, Runyon lost siblings, a wife, and children – health and tragedy.

1. Brothers: Ira was killed in Battle of Chapultepec, Alexander died of wounds two weeks after the battle in 1847.
2. Son Wallais died in 1853 Congestion of brain
3. Wife Margaret died in 1854 of heart failure
4. Brother Tunis died in Buffalo in 1873
5. Son Adelbert “Del” was murdered in Kansas in 1885

In 1880 Runyon was listed on census as a boarder, widowed, in Newark.  His son William was living in Union NJ.  He had divorced Elizabeth and by late 1880’s was living in a County Farm home likely for veterans in Humboldt County IA where his son Ira resided.  Runyon died in May of 1887.

A newspaper article in Rock Island IL in 1870 was titled “Misdeeds of R. C. Tunison” – it was about a scam when Runyon started a collection to provide funds for a man who was injured in a plow works factory, unable to work thereafter.  He recorded names and amounts donated for a time until someone became suspicious, contacted the injured man, and found out he (Mr. Cook) asked R. C. to stop collecting on his behalf.  Within days, “Tunison had eloped, gone – subscription paper and all with a report he had likely collected about $25.  He left a letter with the watchman on the Island bridge telling him to go to his shop and secure a few scraps and keep them, also bidding him good bye, as this place would see him no more”.  The closing line of the newspaper article:  Good bye, Tunison, thy charities covered a mighty mean specimen of morality”.

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Researching my ancestors has been fulfilling beyond belief. My grandmother Maggie Tunison’s line and her mother’s line of Hewitt provided 400 years of insight into the lives of my ancestors in America.

ADDITION FROM LOIS July 3:

The link with your ancestor’s origin and all the facts was very interesting.  A cousin published my mom’s side (German/Polish) in a book the size of an encyclopedia in 1996 almost 15 years before I started research on my paternal grandmother – cannot imagine the difficulty without the Internet and all the resources since then.  Lots of surprises on the “grandmother’s sides” like being related to Humphrey Bogart.      Thought of a few facts on my family and how after 185 more years we are “Midwesterners”.

My grandmother Maggie descended from English, French, and Dutch.  No records of marriage on two Great GM and 4X GGM has no clues.  From 1640 to 1840 my blood line of ancestors moved from Manhattan Island to Somerset County New Jersey.  Without the military land grant for service of Runyon’s brother in the war against Mexico, the move to Iowa most likely would not have occurred. Hmmmmm I wonder how Runyon and his family traveled from Buffalo NY to Waterloo IA.  Just noticed in the 1860 census it listed info on value of estate – Runyon had $25 which is about the amount he supposedly collected in his scam.