Wanted: A history of the Hartough-Hartsough-Hartsock family

I am interested in purchasing a copy of this book:

A History of the Hartough-Hartsough-Hartsock Family

Author: Mary Mae Hartsough

Published in 1964

According to WorldCat, the book is available in several libraries in the United States, but I would like to obtain my own copy.

The book contains a great deal on my Hartsough/Hartsock and Pecht/Peight lineage.

If you have this book available for purchase, please contact me.

Sunday's Obituary: Leo Steele Peight, Sr.

Leo S. Peight

Leo S. Peight, 52, a native of Freeport and a former Freeport high school football star, died at Hines hospital, Chicago, Saturday night.

Services will be held at the Tews funeral home, 2434 East 79th street, Chicago, at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Interment will be made in Greenwood cemetery, Chicago.

Mr. Peight was born in Freeport Jan. 30, 1897, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Peight, Sr. He received his education here and while attending Freeport high school played fullback on the school football team. Later he attended Charthage college.

His marriage to Miss Louise Leudtke took place in 1924.

Survivors include his wife and two sons, Leo S. Peight, Jr., and John Henry Peight. A brother and a sister also survive, Charles W. Peight, Freeport, and Miss Vera Peight of Chicago.

A number of years ago Mr. Peight was special delivery carrier at the Freeport post office.

In the first world war he served with an engineering corps.

Later he was employed as a clerk in the Chicago postoffice. during the second world war he became a civilian employe of the quartermaster's department of the U.S. army and had continued that work until recently.

source: Freeport (IL) Journal-Standard, June 13, 1949

relationship to me: second cousin, twice removed.

Notes:

I was unaware of the Freeport, Illinois and Chicago lines of the Peight family until a couple weeks ago when I began corresponding with one of the descendants on Ancestry.com. It turned out that our ancestors were brothers. From sharing our information on Ancestry.com, along with the California descendants of the Pecht family, more of the fabric of our ancestry is being woven together.

Fortunately, there is a lot of information on this branch of the Peight family in the Freeport and Chicago area newspapers, so there are many newspaper articles to read, sort through and assimilate.

His son, also named Leo Steele Peight, was killed in an automobile accident less than two years later. This is an example of why all clues and documents must be reviewed. It would be very easy to confuse the two Illinois death records for this father and son.

My Great Great Grandparents - John and Amanda Pecht

John Crispin Pecht
Amanda Stover Pecht
and children Leroy and Lottie
photo courtesy Michalyn Bauman

It was only two days ago that the first photograph I'd ever seen of my Jeremiasen great great grandparents arrived via email. Late this afternoon, this photo of another set of great great grandparents, John Crispin Pecht and Amanda Melvina Stover Pecht, arrived from a new found cousin. I had one photo each of John and Amanda in their earlier years, so to see this family portrait has been quite a thrill.

I believe that the two children in the photograph are the couple's eldest children, Albert Blair Pecht and Cora Bell Pecht.

John and Amanda Pecht are buried at
Rosemound Cemetery in Republic County, Kansas

Related posts:

Pecht family Bible
John and Amanda's marriage certificate

Surname Saturday - Pecht - Peight

My father’s mother’s family name was Pecht. In our family, it was always pronounced so that it rhymed with Faith (Paith). I’ve come across other lines of the family where it was pronounced Peck, and even others who pronounce it as Peck with the T on the end. Going back to my third great-grandfather, the name was spelled Peight. Some lines of the family retained that spelling, where my line changed it to Pecht.

The name Peight originates in Germany. Ancestry.com shows four people with the name Peight emigrating from Germany in November 1882. I haven’t connected our family to any of these immigrants yet.

I’ve traced my Peight family line to my third great-grandfather, George Peight, of Altoona, Pennsylvania. Some scandal surrounds this ancestor, as I’ve discovered newspaper articles stating that he killed his teenage daughter and then committed suicide. It’s a family tragedy that somehow was sanitized through the years since a family history written about forty or fifty years ago states that the daughter drowned while swimming and the father drowned while trying to save her. Somehow, I can’t imagine anyone swimming in Altoona, Pennsylvania in February! The two newspaper articles I’ve discovered about the murder-suicide were from outside the state of Pennsylvania, so one of the tasks on my to-do list is to find news accounts in the Altoona area newspapers.

Soon after this tragic event, my great-great grandfather, John Crispin Pecht and his mother (George’s widow), Rachel, moved west and the family name for my line has been spelled Pecht since that time. Some of John’s siblings who remained in Pennsylvania retained the Peight spelling.

In the 1920 census, the majority of Peights in the United States were still in Pennsylvania; however there were also some in Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska and Colorado. Some of my line lived in Wyoming for a while.

The Pecht name had wider distribution in the United States in the 1920 census, with families using that spelling residing in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, California, Montana and Washington. At that time, the frequency of the Pecht name in the census was highest in Nebraska, Pennsylvania and New York. My ancestors settled in the area of Nuckolls County, Nebraska and just across the border in Republic County, Kansas.

The majority of Pecht immigrants also originated in Germany. As with the Peight spelling, these immigrants departed from Bremen, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium. Some left from Southampton, England; France; and the Netherlands, but Germany was the country of origin for the Pecht immigrants.

In 1880, most of the Pechts in the United States were farmers, while others were miners and laborers. Several of the men in my Pecht families were carpenters.

Today, the Pecht name can be found throughout the United States. Many of the descendants of my great-great grandfather moved west, with many of them in the western coastal states. It’s not that common a name and with so few immigrants named Peight or Pecht, I have little doubt that most of us around today are probably related somehow. It’s an interesting thought to ponder (and research!).

George Washington Peight died after marching in parade - Named after the first President

Since today is President's Day, it seems fitting to share information about the death of a family member who was named for George Washington and who shared a birthday, February 22, with the father of the country.

Participant Dies Suddenly After Parade

One participant in Saturday afternoon's parade, George W. Peight, aged 71, of 419 Cherry avenue, a retired machinist of the Altoona works, died of a heart attack while watching the firemen's demonstration at the Cricket field following the parade.

Mr. Peight marched in the parade in a high silk hat, waving a policeman's night stick and handcuffs. He collapsed at the Cricket field and was removed to the Altoona hospital where it was found death had already ensued, Deputy Coroner Edgar G. Walls reported.

Mr. Peight was born in Altoona on Feb. 22, 1878, a son of Jacob and Elizabeth Peight, and retired from the railroad company service on Jan. 1, 1943 after more than 47 years employment.

Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Mary E. (Burns) Peight; one step-son, Calvin Baird of Mill Creek; an adopted daughter, Katherine Peight of Altoona; seven grandchildren; and four great grandchildren; two sisters, Mrs. Cora Deshong and Mrs. Alice Beck, both of Altoona.

He was a member of the Fourth Street Church of God. Friends will be received at the Axe funeral home.

Altoona Mirror
Altoona, Pennsylvania
August 15, 1949

What if your ancestor was an axe murderer?

My research on my Pennsylvania ancestors this past week left me face to face with this possibility! I won't list any of the names here so I can protect the innocent in case this happens to be a different individual.

I was fairly confident that I had traced a couple different families in a specific community in Pennsylvania and was digging deeper by looking through newspaper accounts available on the internet. I came upon some articles that appeared in newspapers halfway across the country about this "well respected farmer" with the same name as my ancestor, living within a 10 mile radius of where my ancestor lived. The article stated he killed his 18 year old daughter by hitting her on the head with an axe and then killed himself. The incident was called a murder-suicide in the press.

There were variations on how the family spelled their surname, so this is why I haven't yet confirmed if this is my ancestor or not. But - both were farmers, both were living in the same vicinity, both had daughters 18 years of age. I've found information that the daughter in my family line died the same year as this incident, although another researcher indicates a different cause of death.

My ancestor disappeared from the census records after this incident. His widow had moved West with one of the sons and his family. They changed the spelling of their last name from the way it was spelled in Pennsylvania.

Hmmm. I suddenly feel as though I'm in the midst of a CSI "cold case" investigation! I shall continue looking into these people and see if I am able to prove or disprove if the killer was my ancestor.

Who said family history couldn't be exciting?