Sideburns: Burnsides

Benjamin Ling Hales 1843-1905

Benjamin Ling Hales immigrated to Wisconsin with the Hales family in 1856. His middle name was the maiden name of his maternal grandmother. By 1860 he was working on a farm in the Town of Burnett, Dodge County. After serving for nearly three years during the Civil War, he married Sylvia Jewett of Dodge County in 1866. They lived for a time in Waupaca County but moved to Hancock, Wisconsin in 1874. He was the proprietor of a drug store there; first with his brother-in-law Selden Minor and later by himself.

I always admired the facial hair in this photograph of Benjamin as a wonderful example of "sideburns." The Wikipedia description matches his photo exactly.

"Sideburns are facial hair grown on the sides of the face, extending from the hairline to run parallel to or beyond the ears. The term sideburns is a 19th-century corruption of the original burnsides, named after American Civil War general Ambrose Burnside, a man known for his unusual facial hairstyle that connected thick sideburns by way of a moustache, but left the chin clean-shaven."

Benjamin Ling Hales

52 Ancestors: "Bearded"

1920 Census

Sometimes you just have to be patient! I have never been able to find the Churas family in the 1920 census. According to my mother, they moved to Portage County, Wisconsin sometime during that year. The 1920 census was the only time the census takers were asked to use January as the date. It seemed possible that weather was an issue: the family might have left Chicago before the census taker arrived and settled in Portage County after the census taker had visited the farm.

The explanation was much simpler, however. The indexer misread the name as "Chuvas" instead of "Churas." This mistake meant the name would not turn up when I looked for a closer spelling.

How did I find it? FamilySearch did, not me. They were living on Throop Street in Chicago's Fourth Ward.







* 52 Ancestors: Mistake