On September 23, 1873, Cyrus Fairchild Styer (1843-1920), son of Cornelius and Roseanna Styer married Harriet “Hattie” Brugler (1845-1914), whose parents were Samuel and Jane Brugler. Both were born close to the Columbia Hill Road, Harriet at the stone Brugler House and Cyrus at the old Styer homestead, the Clover Hill Farm. Both the Bruglers and Styers were members of the Presbyterian congregation at Columbia Hill and probably met each other there among other social functions.
Education and military service
Cornelius T. Styer had established the Styer School, where Cyrus attended grade school. He furthered his education at the Millville Academy which was like a high school. Harriet Brugler likely attended school in Hemlock Township, Columbia County, where she grew up. After finishing his education, Cyrus taught school for eight years working in the White Hall school in Madison Township, the Bright School in Valley township, and the Styer School near the family homestead.
During the first rebel invasion of the North during the Civil War, at age 18, Cyrus was either drafted or enlisted in a 6-week emergency regiment raised to defend the commonwealth. He served in Company A of the 13th Pennsylvania Emergency Militia (of 1862) during the Antietam Campaign. Happily, they did not see any serious action, and after Lee’s withdrawal over the Potomac following the battle, the unit was disbanded, and the men returned home.
Marriage, to Missouri, and back to Clover Hill
Cyrus and Harriet were married at about ages 30 and 28 respectively the year after Cornelius Styer died. Cyrus and Harriet took up residence in the Styer home along with Cyrus’ mother, Roseanna, and his two siblings, his unmarried older brother Ezra and his yet unmarried sister Ellen. Cyrus farmed, Harriet kept house, Ezra ran the store which once stood across Styer road from the house.[1] While in this situation, Cyrus and Harriet were earning enough money to employ a 17-year-old domestic servant named Emma Cook. Four of the Styer’s five children were born during this time.
I ought to include a note on Ezra that I missed in the earlier article. I always found it strange that he should have gone so late in life without marrying or leaving home. Analysis of the 1880 Census record shows that he was either “maimed, crippled, bedridden, or otherwise disabled.” According to the terms of the census, he was neither blind, deaf, dumb, mentally disabled, nor insane, so one wonders what the condition of his disability was. All we can say is that he never left home, never married, and died in his 40s. We may never know the answer. If anyone has any family history at this point, feel free to comment.
In about the year 1884 Cyrus and Harriet got itchy feet and decided to Go West. They purchased 325 acres of ground in Shannon County, Missouri and farmed there for four years. Later in 1884, they had their last child, Charles Cornelius, our direct ancestor. Family tradition records that the land they bought in Missouri was so rocky they couldn’t really make a living on it, so they returned to West Hemlock Township in 1888 and purchased the old homestead, where they remained. Peter Styer (son of Wilbur and Florence) found that after Cyrus moved his family back to Pennsylvania, he leased the property (Info from Styer Memories video). Another story said Grandad Charles travelled out west to sell it in the 1920s or 30s. After returning to Pennsylvania, Cyrus and his family operated the ancestral Clover Hill Farm as a produce enterprise, growing orchard fruits, vegetables, berries, and various poultry and pork products to be sold in their own store and abroad at various local town markets.[2]
Death and Legacy
In May 1914, tragedy struck the family when Grandma Hattie unexpectedly passed away. Her death certificate shows that she died of a heart attack in Philadelphia after having a surgery related to uterine cancer at the Gynecean (Women’s) Hospital in Philadelphia. Around the time of her death, the newly married Charles and Emily (Crossley) Styer worked the farm with Cyrus. While they lived at the old Styer home, Ralph, Leonard, and Allen were born.
After Charles and Emily moved to the farm in Liberty Township, his older brother Peter Brugler Styer and his wife Lillian farmed the Styer home. (For more on Charles and Emily’s decision to move out and many other interesting family stories, watch the excellent Styer Family Memories video on Youtube. A big thanks to Eugene Styer for uploading this to the internet for everyone to access). Cyrus died in 1920, succumbing to intestinal and cardiovascular trouble. Besides being Presbyterian in religion, he was also staunchly anti-alcohol and a member of the Prohibition Party.
The Children of Cyrus and Harriet Styer were as follows (In the future I would like to do a post on each son):
- George Rufus Styer (1877-1921) was an educator. He graduated from Susquehanna University to be a teacher and worked as a principal at Berwick, Montoursville, and Oxford (Chester County) School Districts in Pennsylvania. He was married to Sarah (Sally) Deighmiller, was a Mason, and a member of the Presbyterian Church.
- Peter Brugler Styer (1879-1959) spent some time working for a lumber outfit in Washington State. His wife Lillian (Freas) preceded him in death by 9 years. They farmed the old Styer home on Columbia Hill until his death. His son and daughter-in-law, Paul and Nancy, took over the old homestead, where Nancy still resides. Peter was a Mason and a member of the Presbyterian Church on Columbia Hill. His other two daughters were Pauline Krum and Martha Stine.
- Samuel Tyson Styer (1880-1942) was a farmer in Columbia County. He married Nellie Ohl, and had four children, Martha and Cyrus who died as infants, and Harriet (who married Ariel Boop) and Esther (who married Charles Harris and later Val Gohmert). Samuel died at Bloomsburg Hospital after he fractured his skull as a result of a fall off a loaded hay wagon.
- Paul John Styer (1884-1941) married Margaret Moore and had the following children: Martha Lois (who married Wilmer Kitchen) and Ruth Irene(who married Jon Harabes). He died of testicular cancer in 1941. According to the censuses of 1930 and 1940 Paul was an electrician for a construction company.
- Charles Cornelius Styer (1888-1964), our direct ancestor, was born in Summersville, Shannon County, Missouri. He married Emily Crossly Styer and will be the topic of a later blog. To quote the Spare Family genealogy, “They have a large family.”
Cyrus and Harriet also must have been interested in family history. There is newspaper clipping concerning a Lutsey Reunion in 1903 at the old Lutsey homestead in Slocum Township that mentions that the Cyrus Styer Family was in attendance (Remember the Fairchilds were descended from John Lutsey who was a Hessian soldier). Their children bore ancestral names like Peter Brugler (after Hattie’s grandad), George (after Cyrus’ uncle), Samuel Tyson (after Hattie’s dad and Cyrus’ grandmother’s family), and Charles’ middle name, Cornelius (after Cyrus’ father). The fact that the family appears in the 1915 Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties (a publication in which one could pay to have one’s family history recorded) demonstrates that the family was not only interested in genealogy, but they were willing to pay money to have the status of having their family’s story listed among local blue-bloods and historical characters.
Cyrus and Harriet continued Styer traditions of farming, Presbyterian Christianity, opposition to alcohol, and interest in family history. Cyrus took up arms to defend his homeland in 1862 and later left that land for the promise of Western prosperity- only to return four years later to the family homestead.
The next several posts will concern the lineage of the Crossley Family along with their associated matrilineal lines of the Carr, Wintersteen, and Wilson families. After these, I will finally get to Charles and Emily Styer.
[1] 1880 Federal Census for West Hemlock Township, Montour County, PA, page 5.
[2] Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, page 402.
Styer Stories 