Three Pictures Of The Unidentified Beach Sisters Of Canada, Ohio, Michigan, Nebraska And Points West I have considered the possibility that ours are not the only copies of these pictures, so I continue to search for descendants of those I've identified as having participated in this photographic courting charade. There are hundreds of descendants, and hopefully some of our distant "cousins" were more careful in identifying those pictured. Over the past few weeks I've sent dozens of letters to surname listings I've found in towns from Oregon to Texas. If you are visiting this web page because of one of those letters, and if you have anything to add to this information, please send it to Tim Duffie. I have unlimited long distance, so add a phone number and I'll call you.

Big Break #1

April 20, 2005, 8:45 PM: with help from Kathryn Dowds Miller, Shelby, Ohio, I located Eleaner Bloomfield Dillinger, daughter of one of Rachel Beach Bloomfied. Through Eleaner's son, Bruce, we have some additional pictures of the Beach family. This picture is of Rachel Beach, taken sometime in the mid-1890s. The picture gave us the location of Broken Bow, Nebraska, finally placing the family somewhere that allowed me to seek more detail:

For the first time we knew GGrandfather Beach's first name....Hugh....additional sister's names....and then began to put together the "By Sister" family sections linked below.

Mrs. Willis Anderson (Miss Henrietta Beach)
&
Mrs. Blake Duffie (Miss Sarah Ann Beach)

From the 1900 Census

1890 is a mistake. The written census actually says 1880.

The sequence of the listings is Surname, Given Name...Misc Data...Birthplace...Birthplace Father...Birthplace Mother

Sarah Beach was the second wife of Blake Munroe Duffie (AKA Blake Munroe Duffy) of Ontario, Canada, and Buffalo, N.Y. Blake's first wife, Lucinda Campbell, of Oxford County, Ontario, Canada, died in 1909. Blake & Sarah married in 1910.

I found Sarah Beach on the 1900 US Census in Shelby, Richland County, Ohio. Sarah Beach is listed as "Sister-In-Law", living with Dr. Willis S. Anderson. Therefore, we concluded that Dr. Anderson's wife, Henrietta Anderson, was one of the seven Beach sisters in the pictures. Dr. Anderson also was the source of Monroe Anderson Duffie's middle name.

Henrietta Anderson continued to be the subject of newspaper bits and pieces for another 36 years in Shelby, and she was the first big break I had in this search. From all of them, we gathered the following, and we hope to find some of our distant cousins...most of whom may never have seen the three pictures.

Henrietta's son, Ralph Anderson, was killed in an automobile accident in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1934. He was the nephew of Judge C.J. Anderson, and he may provide one link to family in the area.

From the 1910 Census

We had always understood that Sarah Beach had lived in a sod hut in Nebraska, but we never knew any details. We have a picture of the sod hut...located in the middle of nowhere...but nothing more. She was born in Canada, immigrated to the U.S. sometime in the 1880s...grew up in Nebraska...then returned to Canada where she married Blake Duffie in 1910.

Finding the Beach family with Dr. Willis & Henrietta Anderson in 1910, was a huge piece of the puzzle. Apparently when Hugh Percy Beach died in 1900, Mary Beach returned to Ohio, staying with the Andersons in Shelby, Ohio, before she ultimately moved to Oregon. Sarah (Beach) Duffie was living in Canada, having returned there sometime around 1900. Sarah and Blake married on December 24, 1910, so Sarah was still single at the time of the 1910 census.

In Shelby, Ohio, 1910 Census, w/Dr. Willis S. Anderson: Head of Household

• Henrietta A. Beach Anderson: wife, born in Canada...one of the seven sisters in the pictures.
• Elizabeth M. Beach: Mother-In-Law, born in Michigan.
• Mary B. Beach: Sister-In-Law, born in Canada, Estimated 1874.
• Rachel A. Beach: Sister-In-Law, born in Nebraska, about 1887...married in Shelby, 12Aug1910.
• Gertrude M. Beach: Sister-In-Law, born in Nebraska.

  
  
  

  Both Sarah and Rachel were married in 1910. Sarah in Canada to Blake Munroe Duffie, and Rachel in Ohio to Clare C. Bloomfield. (Subsequent data indicates his name was spelled wrong in the newspaper.) It appears neither attended the wedding of the other.

  
  
  

  16Apr1934	1937