Flipside: Nickname--Charles Stark

Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to give a try for the second year.

The prompt for week # 3 (January 15-21) is Nickname.

Last year the ancestor challenge also had a nickname theme and I blogged about mine.

I have always been a person who assigned nicknames to folks, both family and friends. My grandparents--Teek, Grams and Pop Pop; my sons--Big Ar and Bucky Bee or Buck; my pledge in college--Lutterbein became Lima Bean; children I babysat and on and on......

I have countless blogs about the Civil War soldier in the tin type pictured above. My maternal great grandfather, Charles Stark, was born in Germany, immigrated to America in 1860, traveled to Pittsburgh and was mustered into service in 1861. After the end of the war he re-enlisted and went west to the Dakota's probably to fight Native Americans. This is a capsulized version. A more detailed blog about Charles Stark is on Flipside as well as several other items about his life.

When my maternal grandmother, Martha Marie Frederick Stark, died, my Mom found a large box with a collection of "old" stuff in her apartment. It was a collection of all sorts of items. Turn of the 20th century jewelry, old metal opera purses, sterling silver initialed teaspoons, Dresden Christmas ornaments and a tin type of a Civil War soldier. This box of Stark/Frederick memorabilia came into my possession.

When I began my genealogical research, I remembered "the box" and was able to locate it in the attic. Questioning my Mother about her roots was pretty much a blank. She had no knowledge of her grandparents on either side.

The tin type of the Civil War soldier took me by surprise. He was the first one I found in my family to be in the Civil War in my early discovery years.

Who was this fellow? I knew of my Frederick great grandparents from census reports. It was not my maternal great grandfather, Alfred Frederick. My Stark great grandfather? I didn't even know his name. After more research, I found my maternal grandfather's death certificate and saw he and his father had the same name, Charles Stark.

During these early years I had to send in a form to get a copy of his Civil War pension file. (so much easier today). When it arrived it proved to be quite a bonanza.

From Charles Stark Pension File
Assignment of a male guardian
Jacob Colmer
September 30, 1890

The tin type was most definitely my maternal great grandfather. Also part of the file were copies of the five Stark kids birth certificates and a surprise. Apparently my Great Grandfather was hospitalized in the Allegheny City Home in 1890 at age forty-five as a lunatic. Now it was apparent why no one ever talked about him or knew of him among my Mother's generation.

1890 Pittsburgh Daily Post,
Sep 15, 1890,
page 3

1895 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
27 April 1895
Page 2

We speculated that perhaps his lunacy was caused by his long military service today known as PTSD. I held on to this theory until I subscribed to the newspaper website through Ancestry. Charles Stark obituaries told the tale of a man who was financially well off; however, through some poor financial choices, lost all his money causing his mental downfall.

And where does this all lead to the topic of this blog--Nickname? Not me, but my husband announced one day, "That must be where the term stark raving mad came from". And a nickname was born--Stark Raving.

Also on Flipside:

Charles and Wilhelmine Stark Part 1

Numerous individual blogs about Charles Stark are on Flipside

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published. PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.