THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PERSONAL RESEARCH OF THOMAS AND SANDRA GALE WATROUS AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED OR PUBLISHED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THERE SEARCHERS. IT MAY BE USED TO COMPLETE THE PERSONAL ANCESTRAL RECORDS OF ANY INTERESTED PARTY. INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS RECORD HAS NO GUARANTEE OF ACCURACY

The Descendents of Johann Peter Pfannkuchen and his wife Catharine Holtzwartz
 with Emphasis on Direct Ancestor
William Pancake 1792
Completed December 2003

The Original American Ancestor

In 1725, Johann Peter Pfannkuchen was born in Prussia which became Germany. At the age of 27 he boarded the ship Phoenix in Rotterdam under the direction of Captain Ruben Honor and set sail for Cowes and then for the Port of Philadelphia. He was included in a record created by the Council of the Courthouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, November 22 in the year of 1752.

Three years after arriving in America, Johann Peter married Catharine Holtzwartz Dietz, a widow with three small children. They married on July 21 1755 when Johann Peter was 30 years of age.

Catharine Holtzwartz had previously been the wife of Johann Jacob Dietz, also of Prussia. He died shortly after the birth of their third child, Elizabeth. Jacob and Catharine had been married at the Hill Church where he was also buried in 1754. His tombstone is the oldest found today in the Hill Church Graveyard and is carved, oddly enough, with a skull and crossbones.

The children Catharine brought to her marriage with our ancestor Johann Peter Pfannkuchen were John, born in 1749; Anna Magdalena born in 1751 and Elizabeth born in 1753.

In the year of 1756, the oldest of the children of Johann Peter Pfannkuchen and his wife Catharine Holtzwartz Dietz Pfannkuchen was born in Dauphin County near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was Johann George Pfannkuchen, father of William Pancake 1792, who is the direct ancestor. He would later be known as George Pancake and the use of the Pfannkuchen name would slip from usage for this family line.

Siblings of our ancestor George followed with Johann Valentine in 1758, Johann Peter in 1760, Mary Catharine in 1762, Maria Elizabeth in 1766, Rosina Catherina in 1768 and Johann Frederick in 1770. All were born in or around Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

These families were Lutheran as were most of the early German and Dutch immigrants to this part of Pennsylvania.

Sometime before the year of 1792 we believe Johann George Pfannkuchen married a woman named Anna. They became the parents of Johann George Pfannkuchen born 15 November 1788 and baptized at St. John Lutheran, Shirestown, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, followed by Anna Barbara in July of 1791 and the direct ancestor William Pancake in 1792. Then followed Benjamin, Peter, Sarah Elizabeth born 4 March 1801, who died 30 June 1883 andCatharine, born in 1806 or 1807 who died 30 September 1893, and another female sibling whose name is not known to us at this time.

While our interest is primarily in William Pancake, born in 1792, without research into the siblings of our ancestors and other connected people, it would have been impossible to find the records and the information that has made this narrative possible. For the record, additional information about the siblings of William includes:

Benjamin Pancake who appears in many records and censuses in close proximity to William, his father George and a brother George.

Peter Pancake who left a will and reference to a wife, Elizabeth Mahan. In the Will, he leaves money to his two brothers William and Benjamin.

Some family researcher records indicate that George settled near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and also lived in Canton, Ohio.

Sarah Elizabeth married George Washington Poorman. A complete family group for Sarah Elizabeth with several descendent generations is in our Family History File.

The three daughters of George Pancake and his wife Anna, who were the sisters of our direct ancestor William Pancake, married. Their information is in our Family History File. We know that the four daughters of ancestor George Pancake married, migrated together with their husbands and families and lived their lives near Apple Creek, Wayne County, Ohio near Wooster.

Catherine Pancake, daughter of George and sister of direct ancestor William, married Samuel Hammer who was born in 1802 in Pennsylvania. He died 29 May 1881 in Wooster, Wayne, Ohio and was a farmer. Catharine Pancake Hammer was born in 1806 or 1807 and died 30 Sept 1893, also in Wooster, Wayne, Ohio. Catherine and Samuel Hammer had the following children:

William, Josiah, Mary, Rebecca, John, Samuel, Catherine, Corrington, Anna Elizabeth, Emma and Ellen.

William Pancake Senior was born in 1792 near Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Before the year of 1812, he migrated from Pennsylvania to Columbiana County, Ohio. Census records suggest that he migrated with his father George, a brother George and a brother Benjamin though there is often confusion about the two men named George Pancake.

During the year of 1816, he married Mary Crawford. She was the daughter of Samuel Crawford and we believe, Ann Bates. At the age of 92, Samuel Crawford and a young man, Perry Crawford are found living in the home of William and Mary Crawford Pancake in Coshocton County, Ohio. We assume that Perry Crawford is a grandson to Samuel Crawford, or possibly a great grandson because of the difference in age between 92 year- old Samuel and 17 year -old Perry.

William Pancake was a farmer as were most men of his day. He is also listed in one historical record as an “orchidist”. He and his wife were among the early founding members of the Warsaw Methodist Society. He and his wife Mary had at least three children. All were born in Ohio. They were; Jane born in 1816, Samuel C. Pancake, born in 1820 and William C. Pancake, born in 1835. There was a very large age difference between Jane and younger brother William. Perhaps there were other children born to William and Mary who did not survive.

One year after the birth of her brother William C. Pancake Junior, Jane Pancake married William W. Thompson who was born in Pennsylvania in 1812. Sometime before 1838, William Pancake and his family, and the newly married Jane Pancake Thompson and her family, left Columbiana County, Ohio for Coshocton County, Ohio. Once moved, Jane gave birth to at least two daughters. They were Mary Jane Thompson born in 1838 and Rachel Ann Thompson born in 1840. Shortly after the birth of Rachel Ann, Jane Pancake  Thompson died. By the time of the 1850 US Census, her husband William Thompson had remarried and both of Jane’s daughters were in the household of their father and his new wife. Jane died after 1840 and before 1842 when William remarried.

Mary Jane Thompson grew to adulthood. She is, perhaps, the Mary Thompson who married Jacob Hooker in 1861 in Coshocton County, Ohio. In the year following the end of the Civil War, and the death of her uncle William Pancake Junior, Mary Jane contributed information to the Pension File Application of Maria Wilmott Gallagher Pancake which stated that she, Mary Jane had been present at the births of the three daughters of William Pancake Junior. She was listed as Mary Jane Thompson. Since these daughters were born after her possible marriage in 1861 we are not certain if the Thompson/Hooker marriage is hers.

Rachel Ann Thompson was born in 1840 in Coshocton County, Ohio. In 1867 she married Jason T. Younker who was also born in the same county and in the same year she was remembered in the Will of her grandfather, William Pancake Senior as Rachel Ann Yonker. Her husband Jason was an adventurer and is included in historical references to the exploration of Pike's’ Peak. Rachel is listed differently in many records. Sometimes she is Rachel Ann, or Annie R. but the names are both the same person. Jason and Rachel lived in Colorado and Texas. Several children were born to them in Colorado. They were Perry in 1869, Harley in 1871, Inez in 1876 and a daughter listed on the census whose name we do not know. She was born in March of 1880. The Younker surname is also spelled Yonker in some records.

We know nothing else of Perry Younker except that he died after 1913. We know that Harley Younker married Annie Dunn, who was born in Wisconsin in 1872. They married in 1891 in Colorado. They became the parents of Rolland in 1891, Jennie in 1894, Thomas in 1898 and Clarence. The archives of Notre Dame University list Harley Younker as a student for the two years prior to his marriage to Annie. Descendents of Harley and Annie are: Rolland A. Younker, born in 1891 who died in October of 1952 in Colorado, his wife Edith A. Fiala, born in 1891 in Colorado who died after 1952. The marriage of Rolland and Edith Younker took place 18 September 1913. Rolland and Edith had children Dorothy May Younker in 1915 who married Mr. Lazzeri and Laura F. Younker who married Mr. Setter. Laura was born in 1922 in Colorado. Dorothy May Younker Lazzeri died in 2002 in Colorado. The next child of Rolland and Edith was Robert Alfred Younker, then Clarence T. Younker who died in 1966. Clarence’ wife was Reba, born in 1911 who died in 1998 in Texas. Following Clarence was Edward C. Younker, born in 1929 in Denver, Colorado.

The second child of William and Mary Crawford Pancake was the direct ancestor. He was Samuel C. Pancake. We assume the “C” was for Crawford, the maiden name of his mother. He was born in 1820 in Columbiana County, Ohio and appears to have been named for his maternal grandfather Samuel Crawford. We know  nothing of his childhood but only that by the time he married, his family had migrated from Columbiana to Coshocton County, Ohio. In 1844 he married Catharine Darling, daughter of Thomas Darling and Demie Butler. Catharine was born in 1826 in the same county. The story of her ancestral lines are equally interesting. It includes the overlapping families of Butler, Severns, Darling and Pancake.

Samuel and Catharine Pancake became the parents of at least 12 children. All were born in Jefferson Township, Coshocton County, Ohio.

The oldest child was Ophelia Pancake. She was born in 1846 and died before 1930 but after 1920. She married William Franklin McVey who was also born in Coshocton County, Ohio about 1845. They married in 1870. Before 1877 they migrated to Blandinsville, McDonough, Illinois where in 1872 a daughter was born named Grace. Following Grace was Myrnie V. McVey, born 13 Oct 1875 in Illinois who died in October of 1959 in Monterey, California. At the time of her death she was married to Mr. Hutchison. The next child of Ophelia and William was Emert C. McVey, born in February of 1878 in Illinois followed by William L. McVey in May of 1880, also in Illinois. In the year of 1906, William L. McVey married Ethel M. Tufts and they had a daughter Ethel Wilma McVey. She was born in May of 1907 in Oakland, Alameda, California and died in June of 1997 in Walnut Creek, California. Ethel married Cecil Vinson Boucher in November of 1937. He died in June of 1977. They had a daughter, Betty Mary in Oakland, Alameda, California who married Edward Arthur Spring. They have two children who are most likely living today. Their names are in our Family History File.

In the year of 1882, Ophelia and William McVey, made their way to Utah along with Ophelia’s parents and most of her siblings and their families. This journey by this extended family is one of the most interesting and surprising we have found. It will be told during the records of many members of the family in this narrative. While in Utah, Ophelia gave birth to Pansy McVey in Aug of 1882. Pansy died in Los Angeles, California in December of 1952. She married Fred Burke who was born in 1868 in Indiana. When Pansy’s aunt Priscilla Jane Freeland Pancake, applied for a Civil War Pension upon the death of her husband Stewart, Pansy and Fred Burke witnessed the California document. Following Pansy was sister Maude McVey in August of 1885 in Illinois. She died in 1962 in Alameda County, California. Maude married Harvey Buteau Mount. He was born in January of 1883 in California and died in November of 1944 in California. Maude Mcvey and Harvey Mount had children Mary Emma in 1916 in California who married Charles Schlegel and Betty Ann Mount in 1921, also in California who married Gus Schneider.

William and Ophelia McVey were very active in the community of Fresno, California. As early as 1887, William ran ads for his furniture business in the Fresno papers. These ads ran for several years. In the year of 1887, William Franklin McVey joined other local businessmen in petitioning a railway in Fresno, California. By 1890, his daughters began to appear in the social section of the local paper. Myrnie McVey was listed in 1890 as was Pansy McVey. In 1894, a niece to Ophelia Pancake and William McVey was also listed in the Fresno Paper. She was Galena Conwell who lies in the Samuel Pancake Family Plot in Salt Lake City, Utah as Galena Conwell Giesy. She was active in school and the was the president of her class. Her mother, a widow, was listed in the Directories of Salt Lake City, Utah at the time as Carrie Conwell. In 1895, William McVey’s daughter Myrnie is again listed in the social section of the Fresno Paper.

In the year of 1905, William F. McVey built two beautiful victorian homes side-byside for his daughters Maude and Pansy McVey. Photographs of these homes are carried in the History of Fresno. By this time, William was the vice president of the Fresno National Bank.

The second child of Samuel and Catharine Pancake was Stewart Megge Pancake, born in 1847. He died in 1920 in San Diego, California. Stewart married Priscilla Jane Freeland, also known as Jennie, in 1876 in Illlinois. She died in 1941 in California. Stewart and Priscilla had at least two children. They were Carl Darling Pancake, born in 1878 and Edythe Lillian born in 1879. Stewart was a Civil War veteran. He was listed as active in many community organizations of McDonough County, Illinois and was a farmer, surveyor and fruit grower by occupation. Sometime after the birth of his children, he left Illinois for Utah in the company of many members of his family. He is listed in the directories of Salt Lake City, Utah as Deputy Surveyor and shares office space with his father Samuel C. Pancake and his brother-in-law, Henry Reynolds Watrous. He attested to his personal migration as follows: Warsaw, Ohio 1865 to 1871, Blandinsville, Illinois from 1871 to 1884, Salt Lake City, Utah from 1884-1886, Fresno, California from 1886 to 1909 and Glendora, California by 1910 with his death in San Diego, County in 1920. He and his sister Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous died the same year. While in California, there is at least one census where Stewart and his brother Jackson are listed together, separate from Stewart’s family in the “Citrus District”. His wife Jennie is listed with son Carl.

Carl Darling Pancake was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles. He died without posterity in 1943. The second child of Stewart and Priscilla Pancake, Edythe, married the well-known baseball player and manager, Frank Chance. Edythe Lillian Pancake Chance died in California in 1954. Her husband Frank Chance, born in 1883, died in California in 1924. The posterity of Stewart Pancake ended with the death of these two children since neither had children of their own.

Jackson Pancake was the third child of Samuel C. Pancake and Catharine Darling. He was born in 1849 and died in California in 1929 without children. He came to Utah during the 1880s with his family and was listed in various city directories as a  Miner. He bought 160 acres of prime mining land in Tooele County during the time he was in Utah. He was the administrator and informant for his brother Stewart’s Will when Stewart died in California. They appear to have lived close to each other.  In fact, one census lists them in the “Citrus District” together, while another census entry lists the rest of Stewart’s family at another location. Jackson is listed in the directories of Salt Lake City, Utah as a miner, as late as 1893 which is also the year his father died in the same place. He does not appear after that time, but then appears near his brother Stewart in California.

Demie Seville Pancake was born in 1852. She died in 1913 in Salt Lake City, Utah and is buried in the family plot purchased by her father. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Demie Butler. She married Theodore Washington Whitely in Illinois at the home of her parents in 1877. He was born in Pennsylvania and died in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1940. He worked as a produce manager for a Salt Lake City business and later married Rose Hartwell. She was an artist whose work is permanently displayed at the Brigham Young University. When Theodore died in 1940, he was buried with his second wife in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery, several streets away from the Samuel C. Pancake burial plot. Demie and Theodore did not have any children.

Carrie Virginia Pancake is the next child, born in 1852. She married Albert C. Conwell. Albert was also known as Ollie and Allie. Carrie and Albert appear to have come to Utah first. They are found as early as 1870 in the Census for Springville, Utah County where Albert and his brother-in-law Marion are listed as miners. Their odysey to Utah came right after the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Point, in Ogden, Utah, joining the railway east to west. The brother-inlaw is Marion D. Pancake. In 1878, George E. Conwell was born to Albert and Carrie. At the age of 17, George is found in the household of his aunt Camilla Pancake Elliott in Wellington, Sumner, Kansas. The second child of Albert and Carrie was Galena Conwell. She was aptly named for “Galena”, a much- desired secondary ore that was taken from the prosperous mines of the area in which her father and uncle worked. Her birth year is not clear. The birth of George in Illinois in 1878 may suggest the family traveled to Illinois for family events. The marriage of Carrie’s sister Edith Glendora took place in Blandinsville, Illinois in 1878 as did the births of many of the grandchildren of Samuel and Catharine Darling Pancake. We believe that Galena was born about 1880 but we do not have a record. Her own death record states a range of years rather that a definate year.

In 1886, Albert Conwell died in Salt Lake City, Utah and was laid to rest in the Samuel C. Pancake Family Plot in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery. He joined his brotherin- law Marion D. Pancake, who had lived with Albert’s family in Springville, Utah. Marion’s record will follow. During the period of time following her husband’s death, Carrie Virginia Pancake Conwell is found working in a Salt Lake City business named Fylar and Sons, along with her sister Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous who came to Utah about 1884. Both Carrie Pancake Conwell and her sister Glendora, are listed in the same place of business through the year of 1895.

As time passed, Galena Conwell married John Ulrich Giesy. He was a prominent physician in Salt Lake City but was also well known as a writer of Science Fiction including a writer of script for films. He has many works to his credit which can be accessed via the Internet. Some are archived at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. John Ulrich Giesy died in 1947 and is buried in the Samuel C. Pancake Family Plot. Next to him is Galena Conwell, his wife, who died in 1953. Galena and John did not have any children.

Prominent in the business community of Salt Lake City, Utah at the same time that John Giesy was a practicing physician, was William Giesy who was an insurance agent. These brothers are usually listed in the City Directories with office space next door to each other.

George E. Conwell was found at the age of 17 in the home of Charles Everest Elliott and Camilla Pancake in Wellington, Sumner, Kansas. This is the first time Edith Glendora Watrous, sister to Camilla and wife of Henry Reynolds Watrous appears in Wellington. Prior to this time, from 1884 until 1895 she is with her husband and two sons in Utah. Also in the household of Camilla is her sister Nettie Pancake, who appears to be a widow with the married name of Cole.

The next child of Samuel and Catharine Pancake is Harry or Harvey. The Census writing is unclear. He was born in 1854 but we know nothing else about him at this time.

Edith Glendora Pancake is the direct ancestor. She is the grandmother of Everest Raymond Watrous and the mother of Everest Elliott Watrous. She is the husband of Henry Reynolds Watrous. There were no written records from which to tell the story of this family and only one statement of oral history which proved to be false. It was “that Glendora had left her husband and two little sons somewhere in the midwest, that Henry had just wandered around and had ended up in Utah.” That statement was according to the memory of Everest Raymond Watrous who knew his grandfather Henry. What else did Everest Raymond think he knew about his ancestors? He thought that his grandfather Henry was divorced from his grandmother Glendora. He thought that his grandfather had just happened upon Utah. He thought that his own father, Everest Elliott Watrous had been born in Illinois rather than Iowa. He thought that his father had been abandoned by his mother Glendora when he was about two years of age. He didn’t think his father had ever seen his mother, Glendora again. He thought that his grandfather Henry was a Catholic and a Mason and that he was so distraught over his divorce from Glendora that although he was an attorney, he never practiced law again. All of the things Everest Raymond Watrous “thought” about his ancestors were false. He thought his grandfather and father had been the originators of the mining business that would continue to interest the Watrous family into the 1950s. What he thought and what was true were two different things.

Edith Glendora Pancake was born 17 July 1856 in Jefferson Township, Coshocton, Ohio. She attended the Lake Erie Female Seminary which became part of Mt. Holyoke College for three years which meant she was quite well-educated for her  times. In 1878 she married Henry Reynolds Watrous, a 31 year old attorney from Terre Haute, Henderson, Illinois at the home of her parents in Blandinsville, McDonough, Illinois. Henry had studied law at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, was graduated and ready for his first job. Henry was the son of Jerome Timothy Watrous and Mary June Reynolds. The story of the Descendents of Timothy Watrous of Connecticut follows his descendents which includes his son Jerome Timothy Watrous, born in 1818.

Henry Reynolds Watrous was named for his maternal grandfather Henry Reynolds. His mother Mary June was the daughter of Henry Reynolds and Sarah Painter.

Shortly after their marriage, Henry and Glendora moved to Henry’s first job in Red Oak, Montgomery, Iowa. Several of Henry’s family members moved with them including his parents Jerome and Mary, his sister Sarah Rebecca and an adopted sister, orphaned by the Civil War named Mary Ellen Byrnes.

While in Red Oak, Iowa, the first of four sons was born to Henry and Glendora Watrous. He was Earl Pancake Watrous in 1879. A second son, Wayne Watrous was born in 1881. He died of cholera at the age of 6 months and was buried in the Red Oak Cemetery without a marker. His death record is on file. A third son, the direct ancestor in our line, was born in 1883. He was Everest Elliott Watrous, the father of Everest Raymond Watrous. His name created some confusion as we put together this record, for in the city of Wellington, Sumner, Kansas at a later date . . . Camilla Pancake, sister to Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous would become the wife of Charles Everest Elliott a Wellington attorney. We are not sure what to make of the similarity of the two names.

A fourth son, Martin was born after Henry and Glendora came to Utah “together” in the year of 1884. Little Martin lies in the Samuel C. Pancake family plot in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. He died within a year of his birth.

The Pancake family came to Utah as early as 1870 and were well -established by the time Henry Reynolds Watrous and Edith Glendora Pancake joined them. Henry is listed in the directories of Salt Lake City as an attorney until his death in 1923. He shared office space over many years with his father-in-law and brothers-in-law. All, members of the Pancake family of his wife Glendora. Glendora was listed in directories with her family until the year of 1895 when her sons were 12 and 15. In the year of 1888, Samuel C. Pancake forced the sale of a significant piece of land in Northern Utah in a Marshall Sale. It appears that he was owed a great deal of money by someone with whom he had done business and his option was to “attach” to this person’s property, which was sold to pay the debt owed to Samuel C. Pancake. Samuel often goes by S. C. Pancake in these documents.

The descendents of Henry Reynolds Watrous have spoken of the mining efforts of the 1900s as originating with Henry. We now know that the “capitalist”, Samuel, who appears to have been a man of means, a banker and someone who had money to invest in the mining industry, came to Utah at the height of the opportunity. The Pancake children who would eventually make a home in Utah, at least for a period of time, were Ophelia Pancake McVey, Stewart Pancake, Jackson Pancake, Demie Pancake Whiteley, Juliett Pancake Guthrie, Carrie Pancake Conwell, Edith Glendora Pancake, Camilla Pancake Elliott . . . presumably other known children such as Nettie Pancake Cole, were also in Utah at some time.

The Watrous oral history, which always focused on Henry Reynolds Watrous as the originator of the mines, became quite consuming for his posterity well into the 1950s. It is now clear that it was the Pancake family who came to Utah for the purpose of investing and working in the mines. Long after the death of Samuel C. Pancake, correspondence from Sarah Rebecca Watrous Gittings to her brother Henry Reynolds Watrous includes concerns about his mining investments and those of many others. Henry’s interest and the involvement of his sons began with the Pancake family and continued after the interested Pancake parties had moved on to California.

When Henry Reynolds Watrous and Edith Glendora Pancake joined her family in Utah, Jerome and Mary Watrous with their two daughters, Sarah and Mary Ellen, moved to Oberlin, Kansas. The daughters taught art and music at the college, which was established for the education of those orphaned by the Civil War. On that note, Mary Ellen Byrnes qualified to attend and later to teach there.

In the year of 1884, at the age of 27, Marion D. Pancake, son of Samuel C. Pancake and Catharine Darling, died of Consumption. We know that both of his parents were in Utah with their children. He was the first person buried in the Samuel C. Pancake family plot, purchased in 1883 for the price of $40. It held twelve graves.

The purchase of the such a large plot and the cost of the plot, suggested to the sexton that Samuel C. Pancake was a man of means for the time. It also suggest that Samuel thought his large family would be staying in Utah to live their lives and die.

From about 1879 until his death in 1893, Samuel C. Pancake and his wife Catharine Darling lived in Utah. For about 18 months in 1891 and 1892, Samuel and Catharine traveled to California where they stayed with son Stewart, who had moved from Utah with his family. In 1892, his wife Catharine died in California and was buried in Fresno County. Samuel returned to Utah after his wife’s death at lived at #2 Hawkes Court. The address exists today. He died the next year, 1893 of “softening of the brain”, otherwise known as a series of strokes. He was buried in the same space with his son Marion D. Pancake, both men together taking up three burial plots.

When Samuel Pancake died in 1893, he had many children and grandchildren in Utah including the grandson who never told his children about his grandfather and grandmother Pancake. Everest Elliott Watrous had many cousins on his mother’s side of the family as well, who lived and died in Utah.

During 1891, while Samuel and Catharine Darling Pancake were spending time in California, nine year old Everest Elliott and his thirteen year old brother Earl Pancake Watrous boarded a train in Salt Lake City, Utah. They traveled 50 hours to Henderson County, Illinois where they spent the next two years with their paternal grandparents Jerome Timothy Watrous and Mary June Reynolds. These grandparents were known to them, for they had been present at their births and had lived with them until their parents moved from Red Oak, Iowa to Utah in 1884. During the year of 1893, Mary June Reynolds became ill and died in Illinois. The two brothers, Everest and Earl, made the 50 hour journey back to Utah. During the time they were gone, in the same year, their grandfather Samuel C. Pancake died in Utah. They had lived around Samuel, in Utah for almost 10 years. Yet, Everest never spoke of any of these people or events.

For two years following the brothers’ return from Illinois to their parents in Utah, Henry and Glendora worked in Utah and lived with their sons, now ages 12 and 15. In 1895, Edith Glendora Pancake left Utah and visited her sister Camilla Pancake Elliott in Kansas. The next year, Edith Glendora Pancake attended the Illinois wedding of her husband Henry’s cousin Luella Schillinger in Moline, Illinois. Hardly the thing one would do if estranged from the family.

We will never know what prompted Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous to stay permanetly in Wellington, Kansas. All subsequent directories list her as a widow of HR Watrous and Henry lists himself as a widower, but no divorce is on record. From this seperation that eventually spanned 25 years until her death in 1920, Everest Elliott Watrous would pass along the oral history that had his mother leaving his father when he, Everest was two and never living in Utah at all. It is easy to see why it has taken so long to put this family together. Henry Reynolds Watrous was an active attorney. He did not quit practicing law as his grandson passed along, but was very active as a representative or various communities and prosecuted and defended many law cases which were substantial enough to make it into Utah papers.

We know that Edith Glendora Pancake and Henry Reynolds Watrous lived together with their children in Illinois, Iowa and Utah from their marriage in 1878 to her departure in 1895. They had become the parents of four sons, one buried in Iowa, one buried in Utah and two who had survived.

In the year of 1896, she attended the aforementioned wedding along with her husband’s sister Sarah Rebecca Watrous Gittings. This fact would suggest that the separation was not intended to be a long one, but we know it would become a long seperation.

By the time that Edith Glendora Pancake died in 1920, she was a grandmother to the three sons of Everest Elliott Watrous and a granddaughter born to oldest son Earl Pancake Watrous. The little girl was named Wilma. In the year of 1919, when Wilma was just three years of age, her mother Florence Nelson Pancake died. This fact must have been a concern to a grandmother in Kansas. We know of at least one postcard sent during that year by Glendora to her granddaughter Wilma.

Everest Raymond Watrous, whose statements demonstrate the absence of information he was given about his family, was 11 years of age when his grandmother Glendora died. There is nothing to indicate he knew her or communicated with her.

During the same year that Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous went to Kansas, her sister Juliett Pancake was married in Utah to Ralph Guthrie. In 1898, Earl Pancake Watrous is listed in the same residence with his father Everest. Earl is a student. In 1899, Earl is listed as “Inspector”, RM Bell Tel Co.. Earl and Henry are listed together during these years. In 1902, Everest Elliott Watrous married Mary Maria Jenkins in Utah. That same year, Earl is listed as working for RM Bell Tel Co.

Marion Darling Pancake was born in 1857 in Coshocton, Ohio. He died in Utah in 1884. The sexton of the cemetery in which Marion and his father were buried in three instead of two graves, suggests that they might have been big men to require three graves.

Emma Pancake was born to Samuel and Catharine Darling Pancake in 1859.

Camilla Pancake was born in 1863 in Ohio. She died in 1932 in Jersey City, New York where she had gone to live with her daughter after the death of her husband. He died in 1923. Her body was returned to Wellington, Kansas for burial in the Prairie Lawn Cemetery next to her husband and her sister Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous. Camilla and her sister Glendora had a close relationship judging by the time she spent with her sister and references made by Camilla in her own hand in letters which are preserved. When Glendora died, it was to Camilla that she left her estate, not her sons.

Camilla and Charles Everest Elliott had one daughter, Katharine who was born in 1885 in Kansas. Upon her mother Camilla’s death, she is referred to as Katharine Elliott Simon of New York. Katharina was also remembered in her Aunt Glendora Watrous’ Will as Katharine Elliott, age 35. Her occupation was that of teacher. In the year of 1920, Camilla Pancake Elliott and her daughter Katharine, traveled through Utah on their way to Yellowstone Park. This according to her own letters. Returning from the Park, and before she could stop to visit relatives in Utah, she received word that her sister Glendora was failing fast in Kansas. She rushed back. One week later, she wrote a letter to Glendora’s son Earl Pancake Watrous, telling him of his mother’s death. The letter survives. She informed him that she, Camilla, was the executrix of the estate and that his mother had left most of her assests to her with the exception of a few items. Her note was followed by an official letter from Charles Everest Elliott, in his capacity as attorney for his wife, informing Earl and Everest Watrous of their aunt’s role in the settling of their mother’s estate. How did Glendora aquire an estate? Perhaps Samuel Pancake left a Will when he died in 1893 which allowed Glendora to invest in what would be an $8000 Oklahoma Ranch in Caddo County. He did not file a Will in Utah. Perhaps he filed it in Illinois or in California.

The Will of Glendora Watrous was filed in two places. The copy in our possessioon was for Caddo County, Oklahoma. Camilla was instructed in the Will to keep or sell the ranch at her discretion. Upon her, Camilla’s, death, the balance of the estate was to be dived between Camilla’s daughter Katharine, her husband Charles and Glendora’s sons Earl and Everest. It is not know what became of the estate. One letter from the sister of Henry Reynolds Watrous to Earl Pancake Watrous, asks him is he ever got anything from his mother’s estate.

In her Will, she left various pieces of property to others. She left a painting to each, to Earl and Everest some silver tea spoons and to her granddaughter Wilma a gold locket.

We do not know if Earl and Everest ever saw their mother after she left Utah in 1895 and died in 1920. It appears there was correspondence between Glendora and her son Earl . . . but no mention of any that has survived between Glendora and her son Everest.

In the year of 1923, Henry Reynolds Watrous died of Mengenitis, Secondary to Carcinoma of the Face. The preceeding year he had lived in the home of his son Everest, with Everest’s wife Mary and three sons Mervin, Wayne and Everest Raymond. Three years before his death, he was living in Big Cottonwood Canyon, the site of ongoing efforts to find the right ore in the right mine. He is listed along with many other men, as miners.

Henry was buried without a funeral and without a marker in the Murray City Cemetery. In the year 2000, with the help of family donations, a marker was placed on his grave. Now buried in the cemetery are Henry Reynolds Watrous, his two sons, Everest and Earl, both of Earl’s wives, Florence Nelson and Ellen Stauffer and Henry’s granddaughter Wilma Watrous. She died at the age of 37 of the same thing that had claimed her granddfather . . . carcinoma. She was Wilma Watrous Adams Hambleton and left behind three daughters.

The mineral rights to the property of interest were eventually terminated by the Federal Government and the mine filled with water. The little cabins which had housed the miners, Henry and his sons stood until the early 1960s when they were torn down. The area became the Spruces Campground. Earl remained active for a time in the Cottonwood Metals Mining Company as a shareholder but it does not appear much came of it.

Shortly before the death of Henry Reynolds Watrous in 1923, his cousin moved to Utah. She was Mary Reynolds, with the same name as his own mother. She came to Utah with her husband Hartson Jerome Fitzgerald and two children. They were Marie and Charles. We do not know what brought them to Utah. We do not know if Charles, son of Hartson and Mary, had any children. We know that he had two wives, who are both buried with him. They were Bertha and Mary Alice. All members of this family are buried together with markers. All are complete except for the marker for Marie Fitzgerald. It appears she did not marry, was the last in her line and did not have anyone to complete her marker.

Samuel and Catharine Darling Pancake still have children to know. Juliett was born in 1864 in Coshocton County. She met and married Ralph Guthrie in Utah in 1892. This was the year that her mother died in California, her brother-in-law Henry’s mother died in Terre Haute, Henderson, Illinois and her little nephews Earl and Everest returned to Utah. Her marriage was one year before the death of her father Samuel Pancake. Ralph was a stockbroker and the Postmaster for Salt Lake City. He and Juliet lived in nice neighborhoods in Salt Lake City. He died in 1932 and was buried in the Samuel C. Pancake Family Plot. Juliett lived a long life and died at the age of 93 in 1957. She could have answered all of our questions if someone had started earlier to find her. She died at the home of her son Boyd, in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Juliett and Ralph had one son, Boyd. He married Anora. Boyd’s papers are on file in the archives of the University of Utah. He was the director of the Colorado Anvil Project in the 1960s. Boyd and Anora did not have children. The line of Juliett Pancake ends here.

Nettie M. Pancake was born in Coshocton County, Ohio in 1867. We have found only one reference to her in the household of her sister Camilla Pancake Elliott in Wellington, Sumner, Kansas. This same census contains the names of Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous and George Conwell. George is a cousin to Nettie, a nephew to the owner of the home, Camilla, a nephew to Glendora and the son of Albert Conwell, deceased and Carrie Virginia Pancake Conwell. Nettie is listed as Nettie Cole.

The last child of Samuel and Catharine Pancake was Mary. She was born in 1870 just 8 years before the marriage of her sister Edith Glendora Pancake. We have not seen Mary listed in subsequent records or censuses. Perhaps she did not survive.  Perhaps you have lost track of where we started. We have shared the first two children of William Pancake Senior and his wife Mary Crawford. Now, here is the last child.

William C. Pancake, Junior was born in Columbiana County, Ohio in 1835. He was 15 years younger than his brother Samuel. He married Maria Wilmott Gallagher in 1856. This is the same year direct ancestor Edith Glendora Pancake was born in the same place. William and Maria were the parents of three daughters. They were Rosella Ann in 1857, Mary Lucinda in 1859 and Cora Wilmott Pancake in 1864. The last of the three children was born in Butler Township, Knox County, Ohio. William served in the Illinois infantry during the Civil War. Austin Gallagher, the brother of his wife, served with him. Austin was killed in Vicksburg, Mississippi while fighting as a Union Soldier. Also serving at the same time was Stewart Pancake, his nephew and oldest son of Samuel C. Pancake and Catharine Darling. During his service he contracted disease and spent considerable time in a military hospital. When he was released, he was still ill. He traveled home to Warsaw, Coschocton, Ohio where he died a short time later. His widow applied for and received a Widow’s Pension.

In 1860, William and Maria Pancake lived next door to her parents, Edward and Lucinda Gallagher in Gilead, Weston Township, Wood, Ohio. In 1870, after William’s death, Maria Pancake is listed in Jefferson Township, Coshocton, Ohio with her three daughters. When William Pancake Senior died in 1867, he remembered his three granddaughters, Rosa, Cora and Mary in his Will. He also remembered the children of his deceased daughter Jane . . . Mary Jane and Rachel Ann.

Rosella Ann Pancake, also known as Rosa and Rosalie, married William H. Helman in 1877 in Columbiana County, Ohio. By 1880 they were listed in East Palestine, Ohio where they lived out their lives with their families and in the close company of Rosella’s sister Cora Pancake. Rosella and William Helman had children Roy Howard Helman 1879 who died in 1951 in East Palestine, Ohio. Rosella Ann Pancake Helman died in 1925 in East Palestine, Ohio. William H. Helman died in 1933 in the same place. Roy Howard Helman married Edna Ireme Jeffery in 1903. She was born in 1881 and died in 1966. They had three children who have posterity to the present day.

The second child of Rosella Pancake and William Helman was Charles W. Helman. He was born in 1881 and died in 1929. He married Catharine Jones and together, they had three children. A third son was born to Rosella and William named William.

Mary Lucinda Pancake married Frank W. Mead in 1879 in Pennsylvania. Mary Lucinda was known in her family records as “Mell”. They had a son, Carl Mead in 1880. Mary Lucinda Pancake Mead died in 1927 at the home of her son Carl, who was living in Frankfurt, Kentucky. Frank W. Mead was born in 1857 and died in 1883 in East Palestine, Ohio. Carl Mead married May Correll in 1905. They had one known son, Kenneth Mead.

Cora Wilmott Pancake married O. J. Dorsey in 1888. In 1891 she was living in Youngstown, Ohio.

The Will of William Pancake Senior was entered in Knox County, Ohio. Mary Crawford Pancake was found in the 1860 US Census with William, but is not found in the 1870 US Census. She was living at the time of his Will in 1867. Upon first reading, we only recognized one person in the Will. Samuel C. Pancake, our direct ancestor. Graduly we came to know the grandchildren William and Mary, by their daughter Jane and son William . . . both deceased. It must be difficult to outlive your children.

In the year of 2003, The Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah, turned over to Thomas Ray Watrous, the last burial plot in the Samuel C. Pancake Family Plot. Buried in an old section of the cemetery, just off of 400 South is Samuel C. Pancake, his son Marion D. Pancake, his daughter Juliett Pancake Guthrie, her husband Ralph Guthrie, their son Boyd Guthrie . . . Samuel’s daughter Demie Pancake Whiteley, his son-in-law Albert Conwell, Albert’s daughter Galena Conwell Giesy and Galena’s husband John Ulrich Giesy. Galena was Samuel’s granddaughter. Last but not least, little Martin Watrous, child of Samuel’s daughter Edith Glendora and Henry Reynolds Watrous. Samuel and Marion are buried together in three graves. The last grave belongs to Thomas Ray Watrous who is the great great grandson of Samuel C. Pancake.

When our journey took us to the cemetery and we gradually learned about these and all of the people in this record, we found that several of the ancestral graves were not marked. There was no marker for Samuel C. Pancake, his son Marion and little Martin Watrous. In the Murray City Cemetery, in Murray Utah, Henry Reynolds Watrous had rested without a marker since his death in 1923. With the help of family members, markers were placed on these four graves in the year 2001.

This story of the Descendents of William Pancake does not include the Descendents of Timothy Watrous. That record is separate but essential for anyone descending from Henry Reynolds Watrous and Edith Glendora Pancake. While Edith Glendora Pancake descended from William Pancake, Henry Reynolds Watrous descended from Timothy Watrous. Many of the events of life overlapped between these two families. Both migrated to Ohio just after 1800. Timothy Watrous to Muskingum County and William Pancake to Columbiana and then Coshocton County. Timothy’s descendents of the next generation migrated to Henderson and Peoria Counties in Illinois. William’s son Samuel and his family migrated to McDonough County, Illinois. Eventually, through the marriage of Henry and Glendora, Pancake and Watrous families came to Utah and many members of both families settled in California.

Because there were no family records passed along, there is only what we have been able to reconstruct by vital statistics and a few historical notes. We have no photographs of anyone in this narrative until Henry Reynolds Watrous and then we are not entirely certain if the photograph we have is Henry.

So many of the people who descended from William Pancake Senior lived and moved through our home town in Utah. Henry, Everest Elliott, Everest Raymond and his oldest children were all alive during a time when many of their Pancake relatives were right down the street. Boyd Guthrie, so of Juliett Pancake Guthrie did not die until 1969. Last week we finally found another descendent line. Dorothy Younker Lazzeri died in 2002 in California. These events emphasize the importance of putting together family histories without procrastination.

The Descendents of Johann Peter Pfannkuchen is spread over eight pages and contains 220 identified direct descendents as of December, 2003. It includes all of the known living descendents through his descendent Edith Glendora Pancake and as many collateral relatives as we have been able to find. It is found in the Family History File in our home.

The Letters of Sarah Rebecca Watrous Gittings, sister of Henry Reynolds Watrous deal primarily with her relationship with her nephew Earl Pancake Watrous. They do, however, include many references overlapping the Pancake families with whom she was connected by virtue of her brother’s marriage.

December 2003