At long last we begin to get close to ancestors who some people living can still remember. Stories about Frank and Mary Catherine Crossley still make their rounds through the Styer family. John Fanklin Crossley (1/28/1861-12/17/1928) was the son of Reuben and Martha (Wilson) Crossley. On January 8, 1891, he married Mary Catherine Carr (5/2/1864-7/31/1936).
Mary Catherine and J. Franklin Crossley, about 1891
The Carr Family:
Mary Carr was the daughter of Alexander and Harriet (Wintersteen) Carr. The Carr family may have originated in Delaware, but migrated to Pennsylvania when Archibald (2/15/1789-8/15/1853) and Catherine Carr (7/17/1837) moved to Montour County. They are buried at Columbia Hill. Archibald and Catherine Carr had ten Children, most of whom moved to St. Joseph’s County, Michigan. Their son, Alexander Carr: 1/27/1822-5/14-1891 married Harriet Wintersteen (7/8/1833-9/17/1900). The two are buried at Dutch Hill Cemetery.
Dutch Hill (Emanuel Reformed) Church, resting place of Alexander and Harriet (Wintersteen) Carr
The Wintersteen Family:
Like the Bruglers, the Wintersteens were among the many New Jersey families who moved west to Pennsylvania in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Harriet Wintersteen was the daughter of Henry Wintersteen (1798-1866) and Lydia Ebner (1810-1886) (sometimes spelled “Ebnerin”; adding “in” or “ine” as a suffix to the end of a female’s last name was common in old German families). Lydia’s parents were from the Lehigh Valley and are buried at Strawberry Ridge. Henry’s first wife was Mary Gingles of the Jerseytown area. At different times, Henry Wintersteen served as a Democrat in all the elected offices for Valley Township as well as serving in Danville’s militia cavalry unit. Henry was also an active member of Straub’s Lutheran Church, where he and his wife are buried. Henry Wintersteen and his wives had ten children including Harriet, who married Alexander Carr.
Straub Lutheran Church outside Kaseville, final resting place of many Crossleys and Wintersteens
Alexander and Harriet Carr had six children. They included:
- Lydia Carr: b. 11/9/1856
- Henry James Carr: 5/7/1858-11/26/1916
- Daniel W. Carr: b. 11/19/1860
- Mary Catherine Carr: 5/2/1867-7/31-1936
- Sara Ida Carr: b. 3/26/1867
- Harriet Iantha Carr: b. 9/5/1875
Stories about Mary and Frank Crossley:
Mary Catherine Carr married J. Franklin Crossley 1/8/1891. They lived on the farm along Columbia Hill Road which later became the Leonard and Mary Styer farm. One of the more interesting details of Frank Crossley’s life was that as an older man, he had a peg leg. There are many versions of the story about how he lost his leg, but I heard that he was a diabetic- and one day he clipped a toenail too deeply, and the wound developed gangrene. His leg was amputated at the knee. The peg leg has been passed down through the family to this day.
Grandpa Frank’s prosthetic leg made farming impossible, so he and Catherine moved in with their daughter and son-in-law, Emily and Charles Styer in Liberty Township. Kay Heim told me that though disabled, Frank Crossley insisted in “doing his part” to not be a burden the family- so he cut firewood every day for the stove and would drive the wagon during harvest season.
Edna (Lazarus) Styer, remembered that before marrying her future husband, Ralph Styer (oldest of the 12 children of Charles and Emily), Grandmother Mary Crossley sent her an unusually formal invitation in the mail asking her to attend Thanksgiving dinner with the family. The more senior of the 12 Styer children would have remembered Grandmother Catherine living with them until her death in 1936.
Many day-to-day details of the lives of Frank and Mary Crossley can be read about in the 1913 diary of their daughter, Emily. For instance, we know that Grandpa Frank must have been a cat lover, because the diary records that one day he stopped mowing hay to save one of Emily’s kittens which had become stuck in a tree.
Glenn and Emily Crossley
Frank and Mary Crossley had only two children, Emily Dorothea Crossley, our grandmother (born 1893), and Glenn, who died aged 6 in 1902 of tubercular meningitis. He is buried, along with his parents, Frank and Mary at Straub’s Lutheran cemetery. After this, Emily continued on as an only child, playing and doing chores around the farm on Columbia Hill Road. During her teenage years, she became interested in one of the neighbor boys, Charles Styer, who lived a short carriage ride up Columbia Hill, but we will save that story for the next article.
Styer Stories 