Person Page - 538

     Eunice Shephard married Leonard Tompkins.¹

     O. D. Signor was born circa 1896 at IL.¹ He married Blanche Langford, daughter of John Langford and Julia Arminia Holcombe, circa 1914.¹

     Richard Langford married Elizabeth Brewer on 19 December 1844 at Bureau Co., IL.^1,2

     Elizabeth Brewer married Richard Langford on 19 December 1844 at Bureau Co., IL.^1,2

     Harvey Holcombe was born circa 1816 at VT.¹ He was the son of VT Holcombe. Harvey Holcombe married Laura (?)¹

     Laura (?) was born circa 1819 at NY.¹ She married Harvey Holcombe, son of VT Holcombe.¹

     Oscar Holcombe was born circa 1842 at NY.¹ He was the son of Harvey Holcombe and Laura (?)¹

     Mariett Holcombe was born circa 1856 at NY.¹ She was the daughter of Harvey Holcombe and Laura (?)¹

     Jane E. Close was born on 6 April 1841 at Harmonsburg, Crawford Co., PA.^1,2 Jane E. Close also went by the name of Jennie Close. She married John Jay Holcombe, son of Luman Holcombe and Achsah Sanders, circa 1865.¹ Jane E. Close died on 22 June 1919 at Warren, Trumbull Co., OH, at age 78.² She was buried at Oakwood Cemetery, Warren, Trumbull Co., OH.²

     May Holcombe was born circa 1878 at PA; adopted.¹ She was the daughter of John Jay Holcombe and Jane E. Close.¹

     Z. B. Farr was born circa 1841 at VT.¹ He married Sophronia Holcombe, daughter of Asa Holcombe and Fanny Orcutt.¹

     George Roland Mainville Jr. was born on 26 October 1957 at Hartford, Hartford Co., CT.¹ He was the son of George Roland Mainville and Anne Marie Holcombe. George Roland Mainville Jr. died on 22 October 2006 at Sarasota, Sarasota Co., FL, at age 48.¹

From the Hartford Courant 1 November 2007:

George R. Mainville, Jr., 48, beloved son of George R. Mainville and Anne Marie (Holcombe) Mainville, died Sunday, (October 22, 2006) at his home in Sarasota, FL. He was born October 26, 1957, in Hartford and was raised in Simsbury, attending St. Mary's School and graduating from Simsbury High School, class of 1976. He was employed as a Quality Control Inspector at Veeder Root for nine years, then attended A.I. Prince Technical School to become an electrician. He resided in New Hartford and was employed as an electrician at Timothy Mainville Electrical. In 1992 he moved to Sarasota, FL where he was a self-employed electrician for many years. He was an avid fisherman, enjoyed riding his motorcycles and was a friend to everyone. Besides his parents, he is survived by a sister and brother-in-law, Jeanne Mainville Denalsky and her husband Kurt of Simsbury; two brothers and a sister-in-law, Steven D. Mainville and his wife Debora of Tolland and Richard B. Mainville of East Windsor; a niece, Kalyn Anne Denalsky; and two nephews, Kyle Andrew Denalsky and Tyler Liam Mainville; many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. There are no calling hours. A memorial mass will be celebrated Friday, November 3, 10 a.m. at St. Mary's Church, Simsbury. Burial will be in Simsbury Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to a charity of the donor's choice. Vincent Funeral Home, 880 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury, has charge of the arrangements.

     Achsah Evarts was born circa 1787 at Rutland, Meigs Co., OH.¹ She married Brewster Higley V, son of Judge Brewster Higley and Naomi Higley, in 1814 at Rutland, Meigs Co., OH.¹ Achsah Evarts died in 1828 at Dunlapsville, Union Co., IN.¹

     Dr. Brewster Higley VI was born on 30 November 1822 at Rutland, Meigs Co., OH.¹ He was the son of Brewster Higley V and Achsah Evarts.¹ Dr. Brewster Higley VI married Eleanor Page on 17 August 1852 at IA. Dr. Brewster Higley VI died on 11 May 1911 at Van Buren, Crawford Co., AR, at age 88.¹

When Dr. Brewster Higley sat down on the banks of Kansas' Beaver Creek in 1872 and jotted down the lines that would become "Home on the Range," he had little notion that his words would reverberate well into the next century.

By the time he died in 1911, the rest of the country had little idea of the song's true origins. As it trickled across America, on its way to the Oval Office and the Rocky Mountains, the legacy left to Dr. Higley by his most famous contribution to American culture was one of anonymity.

Higley settled in Kansas in 1871, on a small plot of land. Though he had made a living as a physician in Indiana, he came to Kansas to stake a claim as part of the Homestead Act of 1862.

As part of Present at the Creation, NPR's Steve Lickteig reports for Morning Edition that Higley's plot, on which his cabin still stands, probably looks much the same as it did some 130 years ago.

The blue skies, endless prairie, and abundant wildlife inspired Higley, who wrote the original poem, "My Western Home," in the fall of 1872 without intending it for an audience.

Oh, give me a home,
Where the buffalo roam,
And the deer and the antelope play,
Where never is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not clouded all day.

A local man named Trube Reese found the poem while visiting Higley's cabin and convinced him to turn it into a song. Higley got fiddler Dan Kelley to help him set the poem to music.

Higley's fellow homesteaders took an immediate liking to the result.

"I think the big appeal of the song is there's a longing for a fairer place and for home at the same time for all these settlers," says Tom Averill, a Kansas scholar and writer.

The song quickly took on a life all its own. Due in part to the settlers passing through the territory, and cowboys constantly on the move, "Home on the Range" spread across the country. The universality of its lyrics made it easily adaptable to each new locale.

"Everybody changed the words to suit the place they were from. So it became 'My Colorado Home' and 'My Arizona Home,'" Averill says. "The fact that Dr. Brewster Higley wrote it and the fact that Dan Kelley set it to music was completely lost probably within four, five or six years."

Some of the modifications stuck, and changed the song forever. The words, "home on the range" never appear in Higley's original lyrics.

Averill explains, "His line is: 'I would not exchange my home here to range forever in azure so bright.' In other words, it's a verb. I wouldn't range anywhere else. And then the cowboys get it, and you know how cowboys like to sing about home. It's the most rootless job you can have. And they're thinking about a home on the range."

When Texas singer Vernon Dalhardt made the first commercial recording of the song, it was a hit, and several other singers recorded the tune over the yeas. President Franklin Roosevelt even declared it his favorite song in 1932. By 1935, "Home on the Range" was everywhere.

People identified with the personalized versions the same way they felt attached to their own homesteads. Some may have identified so strongly that they felt they themselves had created it. In 1935, a couple in Arizona filed suit against NBC Radio and several publishing companies. The couple claimed they had written the song 30 years earlier. The song was yanked from the airwaves.

One of the defendants hired a lawyer to confirm the song's origins. He traveled through every state west of the Mississippi until a tip led him to Kansas, specifically to the Kirwin Chief, a Kansas newspaper. In an 1876 edition, he found a copy of Higley's original poem "My Western Home" with words that closely matched the lyrics to "Home on the Range." That discovery closed the case. Brewster Higley was now officially the song's author. And it went back on the radio.

Higley's song is still popular today, serving as the state song of Kansas and as an immediately recognizable slice of American folk music.

Karen Panter, who takes care of the cabin that still stands on the site where Higley first wrote his famous words, says that this probably would surprise the doctor.

"He probably thought he hadn't anything special written down," she says. "It was just something he was thinking through at the time when he was sitting there." ²

     Eleanor Page was born circa 1826.¹ She married Dr. Brewster Higley VI, son of Brewster Higley V and Achsah Evarts, on 17 August 1852 at IA. Eleanor Page died in 1855.¹

Donna Stene, csstene@msn.com, proposes that Eleanor did not die in 1855 but is the same woman married in the 1860 census of Iowa to David A. Smith.

"Marriages 1839-1992, Washington County, Iowa." It lists, "Groom, David A. Smith and Bride, Ellen Higley, Married 20 Apr 1856." (This is now online at http://iagenweb.org/washington/main_index.htm)

David and Eleaner were enumerated in the 1860 Jackson, Washington Co., IA, federal census. He was a farmer, age 39, she was 28. Children in the household were Cordelia Smith 15, Ophelia Smith 13, Emily Smith 8, Mary E. Smith 6, Bruster Higley 7, Elisa Smith 3, and Catharine Smith 1.

Ellenor Higley Smith died some time between 1867 (birth of last child) and 1870 (census).

     Brewster Higley VII was born on 30 March 1853 at IA.¹ He was the son of Dr. Brewster Higley VI and Eleanor Page.¹ Brewster Higley VII died on 9 May 1948 at Shawnee, Pottawatomie Co., OK, at age 95.¹

     Frank Gisi was born on 27 May 1904.¹ He married Lena M. Holcombe, daughter of Frederick C. Holcombe and Anna C. Bannick.¹ Frank Gisi died on 14 November 1992 at Bradenton, Manatee Co., FL, at age 88.¹

     Ernest L. Holmes was also known as Bud Holmes. He married Ethel L. Holcombe, daughter of Frederick C. Holcombe and Anna C. Bannick, on 12 September 1928.¹ Ernest L. Holmes died.

     Leo J. Lauff was born on 15 August 1908.² He married Ida H. Holcombe, daughter of Frederick C. Holcombe and Anna C. Bannick.¹ Leo J. Lauff died on 6 June 2002 at Sterling, Whiteside Co., IL, at age 93.²

     John Gould married Eleanor Kochersperger.¹

     Eleanor Kochersperger married John Gould.¹

     Melton A. Price was born on 31 January 1877 at Rock Falls, Whiteside Co., IL.¹ He was the son of Henry Price and Anna Johnson.¹ Melton A. Price married Florence L. Langford, daughter of John Langford and Julia Arminia Holcombe, in 1908 at Clinton, Clinton Co., IA.¹ Melton A. Price died on 5 May 1957 at Rock Falls, Whiteside Co., IL, at age 80.¹ He was buried at IOOF Cemetery, Rock Falls, Whiteside Co., IL.¹

     Arthur Ufkin was born on 28 September 1908.^1,2 He died on 21 September 1987 at Rock Falls, Whiteside Co., IL, at age 78.^1,2

     Louis R. Morris was born on 22 February 1900.^1,2 He married Blanche Langford, daughter of John Langford and Julia Arminia Holcombe, on 3 June 1944 at Rock Falls, Whiteside Co., IL.¹ Louis R. Morris died on 29 August 1982 at Rock Falls, Whiteside Co., IL, at age 82.^1,2

     Joseph J. Knaple was born on 29 July 1903.¹ He married Myrtle Signor, daughter of O. D. Signor and Blanche Langford.¹ Joseph J. Knaple died in July 1973 at Rock Falls, Whiteside Co., IL.¹

     Anson Martin Holcombe was also known as Anton Holcombe. Anson Martin Holcombe was also known as Anderson Holcombe. He was born on 16 January 1870 at Southwick, Hampden Co., MA.^1,2,3 He was the son of Martin Philander Holcombe and Abigail Blood.^1,3 Anson Martin Holcombe married Jennette E. Morgan circa 1894.² Anson Martin Holcombe died on 19 July 1948 at Westfield, Hampden Co., MA, at age 78.

Anton M. and Jennie were enumerated in the 1900 Southwick, Hampden Co., MA, federal census. He was a farm laborer age 29, she was 22. Children in the household were Bertha J. 4, Herbert 2, Ruben L. 1, and Charles E. 2 months.

Anson and Jenette were enumerated in the 1910 Granby, Hartford Co., CT, federal census. He was a farmer, age 40, she was 32. Children in the household were Bertha 14, Herbert 12, Bubin 11, Charles 10, Ernest 8, Grace 6, and Raymond 1.

Anson and Jennie (recorded as Ann by Ancestry.com) were recorded in the 1920 Southwick, Hampden Co., MA, federal census. Children in the household were Reuben, Grace, Raymond, Withia, and Ralph.

     Frank P. Holcombe was born circa 1871 at MA.¹ He was the son of Martin Philander Holcombe and Abigail Blood.^1,2