The tombstone here, located in Bethel Cemetery, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania --- not far from Pittsburgh --- marks the graves of Isaac Webster and Jennie (McCully) Hultz, grandparents of another Isaac Webster Hultz, known as Webb.
That Webb Hultz and his wife, Ida (Blizzard) Hultz, built Chariton's now vanished Hultz/Culbertson house during 1898 to a design by architect George Barber on South Main Street two blocks south of the square. You can read more about the Hultz family and the house here in a 2011 post.
Susan Dryer, a Hultz descendant and genealogist, happened onto that blog post while looking for information about her Iowa cousins, and shared the tombstone photos and the story behind it as follows:
Webb’s great-great-grandfather (and my 5-great grandfather) was Henry Hulse/Hultz who first came to the Pittsburgh area when dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia over ownership of the area still raged. Henry had a Virginia certificate for 400 acres of land that was honored and he cleared his stake south of the city along Saw Mill Run, now Castle Shannon. He was one of the first English men in the area and Indian attacks were still frequent.
When he was out chopping trees one day he heard similar sounds coming from nearby and, I’m sure cautiously, investigated. He met a man named William McCully who was also clearing his newly claimed land. The two became friends and the families united when Henry’s grandson, Isaac Webster Hultz, married William McCully’s granddaughter, Jennie. This Isaac Webster was Webb’s grandfather, and obviously his namesake.
To commemorate this uniting of families Isaac Webster had a gravestone made for himself that told the story of the meeting in the woods and I’m adding the photo for you, as well as a close-up of the axe. The axe handle has been AWOL for a long time.
Isaac Webster Hultz Sr. died Aug. 14, 1870; and Jennie (McCully) Hultz, on Aug. 9, 1894.
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My friend Bill Hart suggests that I might have exaggerated a little yesterday when I wrote (Nehemiah Hart's oak leaf cluster) that "dozens" of Harts were among the earliest settlers in Wayne County, Lucas County's neighbor to the south. And he's probably right. But you can judge for yourself after reading Bill's concise guide to some of Wayne County's Hart families:
I'm not sure there were "dozens of them among Wayne County's earliest settlers," although there were several and they certainly had lots of descendants.
There were a couple other large Hart family groups that I can't connect with ours, and one that is undoubtedly related but I don't know the specific connection, but I think it's safe to say the majority of Harts in Wayne County before the Civil War were related to Truman Hart. He was a key figure and would probably be my choice of the one to visit with a time machine as he must have had an interesting life.
Truman was born in Connecticut and descended from Deacon Stephen Hart, one of the founders of that place. He moved by age 10 with his father's family to the wilds of New York in the finger lakes area and some of his children were born there. For some reason, he then moved to Mason County (West) Virginia and raised his family. I don't know where he was in 1840 because he had apparently left Virginia and I haven't found him in any census. Myrtillo was in the Illinois census and the Mason County, WV, tax records listed Truman as being in Illinois about that time, but I don't think they stayed long.
Some of Truman's children lived in Clay County, Missouri. All of Myrtillo's four sons gave Missouri as birthplace and Elisha T. was married in Clay County. There was a family story that "old man Hart went out west and looked around but came back to Iowa" and I wish I knew which generation that referred to. Speculation: Truman went on the Oregon Trail but decided not to move the family there. A branch of a later generation did wind up in Oregon, although a lot of those who moved went to McPherson County, Kansas (and some Radcliffes, I think).
The clan was in Wayne County by 1848 or maybe 49, including Truman and Clarissa and their adult children Myrtillo, William B., Kellogg M., Elisha Truman, and Louisa Hart Smith. Elisha Truman Hart owned the land he is buried on, that became the Hart-Woods Cemetery, just as Myrtillo owned the land that became Hogue Cemetery. Kellogg didn't marry until age 44 and was known as "Bachelor Hart." That nickname even showed up in someone's IOU when he lent money, that paper being filed in the probate records. He was married for six and a half years before he died and left at least four children. William B. is something of a mystery to me as I have never figured out where he went after Wayne County --- possibly Lucas County?
That other branch that I think is related came through Michigan a little later and most of them are buried in the back rows of the Cambria Cemetery. Ansel L. Hart, the father of that family, was probably a nephew of Truman Hart. Ansel was born near Rochester, NY, and his children into the 1850's born in Michigan with the last ones in Wayne County, IA.
One significant group that I don't know any relationship to descended from John S. Hart, buried at Rush Cemetery, who came via the Ohio-Indiana route. Several descendants were around the county as I was growing up.
Another group descends from David Hart, buried at New York Cemetery, who came through Ohio and was in Indiana in the early 1850's. His daughter Rebecca married Thomas Boswell.
There are some others that I can't tie on, but only a few of them compared to those discussed.
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