Michigan – Ever Widening Circle

Some ancestors hide in plain sight, behind nothing more than the sound of their own name.

Dorman J. Cortright was born on Monday, October 31, 1825 — Halloween day — in Butler, Wayne County, New York, a son of Lt. Simeon Emerson Cortright and Margaret Haines. Sit with that a moment. Two hundred years ago this month, in a farming town in upstate New York, a Halloween baby opened his eyes — and nobody in that house could have guessed that his great-great-great-granddaughter would one day come looking for him in October, and find him by the sound of his name.

Because the name would not sit still. In the records he is Cortright, and he is Courtright. In other papers the clerks wrote it the way their ears heard it, and our family grew up saying it — “Cartright.” I grew up hearing it sounded out just that way. He was the same man every time: a farmer, a husband, a father. The spelling changed with whoever held the pen. That is how an ancestor gets lost — not because he left no trace, but because his trace is filed under three different names.

Tintype portrait of Dorman J. Cortright and Elizabeth 'Eliza' Egbert Cortright

On Tuesday, October 23, 1849, Dorman married Elizabeth Egbert — “Eliza” — a daughter of John L. Egbert and Lydia Crandall, born May 12, 1829, in Tompkins, Delaware County, New York. The newlyweds began their life under her father’s roof: the 1850 census finds them in Veteran, Chemung County, New York, in John L. Egbert’s household, Dorman listed at 24, a married son-in-law, Eliza beside him at 22.

Then the family did what so many New York families did — they went west. By the fall of 1860 the census taker found them in Clarence, Calhoun County, Michigan: Dorman — written down as Courtright — 35 years old and farming, Eliza keeping house, and their little girl Emma five years old, with baby Doy just arrived. There had been a first son, Ferdinand, born in Clarence on March 18, 1851 — and lost on July 10, 1853, “a lil over 2 yrs old,” as the family’s own note says. Some griefs this family carried quietly for a very long time.

Eliza did not get to grow old. She died in Clarence on October 16, 1864, at only 35, and was laid to rest in Clarence Center Cemetery — Section B, Row 5. Dorman married again, to Elizabeth Bennett of Erie (born April 2, 1833), and they had a daughter, Ella, born in 1868. In the 1870 census Dorman is still in Clarence, 44 years old, working by then as a house carpenter, with Emma, 15, at school.

His own time ran out on June 15, 1872. The county death record gives his age as 47 and the cause: consumption — the record’s word for TB. His gravestone, carved by the family who buried him, says June 16 and gives his age to the day — 46 years, 7 months, 16 days, counted from his Halloween birthday. The record and the stone stand one day apart, and I go with the record — but both are here for you to see. He was buried in Clarence Center Cemetery, Plot B05.10 — back in Section B, in the same ground as Eliza. That fall, on October 29, 1872, his estate went through the Calhoun County probate court — Case No. 2184, a sixteen-page packet of petitions and administration papers, the whole paperwork of a life being settled by the people he left behind.

Calhoun County Return of Deaths, 1872, page 128 — Dorman J. Cortright's line, record No. 335 — Calhoun County Return of Deaths, 1872, p. 128 — record No. 335: Dorman J. Cortright, died June 15, 1872.

Facing page of the Calhoun County death return — cause of death: consumption — The facing page of the same return — cause of death: consumption; born New York; farmer.

Gravestone of Dorman J. Cortright, Clarence Center Cemetery — His gravestone, Clarence Center Cemetery — it reads June 16, 1872, aged 46 yrs 7 mos 16 ds.

But here is where Dorman stops being just a name I found, and becomes mine.

His daughter Emma Estelle Cortright — born Friday, June 8, 1855, in Chemung, New York — grew up and married D Elton Mathye Griffith on Friday, July 4, 1873, in Lansing, Michigan, he 23 and she 18. (The marriage record spells her Courtright one more time, for good measure.) Emma lived to 84, dying in Rochester, Michigan, on October 22, 1939 — and her Michigan death certificate, filled out in a new century, names her parents one final time: father, Dorman Courtright; mother, Eliza Egbert. Among Emma and Elton’s ten children was a son named Ernest Emmit Griffith — the young father some of you met here as our Ancestor of the Day on September 26, lost in the dynamite explosion of 1915. Ernest’s daughter Marion was my grandmother. Her son Rex was my dad.

So the Halloween baby of 1825 is my great-great-great-grandfather — and the line from his New York cradle to a porch in Louisiana runs straight and documented, census by census, record by record.

This week, two hundred years after he was born on Halloween, we light his candle first.

Welcome home, Grandpa Dorman. We found you — under every name they ever wrote you down with. 🕯️

— Coni Dubois

The records behind this story

Every claim above rests on one of these, from my own research files.

1850 United States Federal Census — Veteran, Chemung County, New York (Sept 30, 1850); Dorman Cortright, 24, in the household of his father-in-law John L. Egbert. NARA M432_486, p. 120.
1860 United States Federal Census — Clarence, Calhoun County, Michigan (Sept 11, 1860); “Dorman Courtright,” 35, farmer; Eliza; Emma, 5; Doy, 1. NARA M653_539.
1870 United States Federal Census — Clarence, Calhoun County, Michigan (July 13, 1870); Dorman J. Courtright, 44, house carpenter; Emma, 15, at school. Roll 666, p. 519.
Michigan, Wills and Probate Records, 1784–1980 — Dorman J. Cortright, probate Oct 29, 1872, Calhoun County; Case No. 2184; Probate Packets 2153-2201 (16 images: petitions, orders, administration papers). Michigan Probate Court (Calhoun County).
Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867–1952 — Dorman’s second marriage (Elizabeth Bennett); and daughter Emma’s marriage to D. Elton Griffiths, July 4, 1873, Lansing, Ingham County, Record No. 2168; witnesses Ida M. Griffith & Charles M. Braduer; performed by J. W. Robinson.
Michigan Death Certificates, 1921–1952 — Emma Estelle Griffith, d. Oct 22, 1939, Rochester, Oakland County; parents named: Dorman Courtright & Eliza Egbert. GS Film 001973061, Image 00262.
Michigan, Death Records, 1867–1950 / Deaths and Burials Index, 1867–1995 — incl. the Calhoun County Return of Deaths, 1872 (p. 128, record No. 335): Dorman J. Cortright, died June 15, 1872, Clarence; age 47, married; cause: consumption; born New York; farmer; parents unknown — and Emma Estelle Griffith.
Find A Grave — Dorman J. Cortright #11133561 (Clarence Center Cemetery, Plot B05.10; his stone reads June 16, 1872, aged 46 yrs 7 mos 16 ds); Elizabeth “Eliza” Egbert Cortright #20160553 (Section B, Row 5); Emma Estelle Cortright Griffith #61105532 (Mount Avon Cemetery, Rochester, Addition 3, Plot 644, Space 8).
County histories on the Internet Archive — Peirce, History of Calhoun County, Michigan (L. H. Everts & Co.); Biographical Review of Calhoun County, Michigan (Hobart & Mather / Benson).
U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860–1918 — Cortright, Clarence, Calhoun County (1894).
From my own notes (Dec 10, 2010): I called the Rochester clerk’s office and spoke with Toni — five Griffiths rest at Mount Avon; Emma lies in Addition 3, Plot 644, Space 8, and her son Dill in Space 4.

A note on the name: the surname appears across the records as Cortright, Courtright, and in family speech as “Cartright.” These are the same family — clerks writing what they heard. This post uses the spelling carried in my family file: Cortright.

Who do you want to see next? Tell me below.

Oval studio portrait of Emmett Griffith, a young man in a suit and tie, circa 1910s

He was 26 years old, a farmer in Whitney Township, Michigan, and he died at 11:30 on a Thursday morning — September 23, 1915. His death certificate says it in handwriting I can read plain as day: “Dynamite Shot (accidental).”

Watch the Ancestor of the Day short film:

Michigan certificate of death for Emmet Griffith, died September 23, 1915 — cause of death written as 'Dynamite Shot (accidental)'

Ernest Emmit Griffith was my great-grandfather. The newspaper called him Emmett. The death certificate calls him Emmet. My own research files say Ernest Emmit. I believe they’re all the same man — records spell names the way ears heard them — and his mother’s name wobbles the same way: Cortright, Courtright, Cartnight. I grew up hearing “Cartright.” That’s how family history really sounds.

Here’s what happened that morning, from the Arenac County Independent, September 23, 1915 — “EXPLOSION KILLS TWO MEN”:

Emmett Griffith and 19-year-old Robert Smith were blowing up stumps, clearing farmland the way everybody did it then. They sat down on a log to rest a moment. Beside them sat a pail holding 20 sticks of dynamite, a quantity of dynamite caps, and fuse. Both men were smoking, and the supposition is that a spark from one of their pipes fell into the pail. The explosion came a few minutes after they sat down.

Griffith had both legs blown off near the thigh and was otherwise mangled. He lived two to three hours. Smith lost a leg and an arm and died about five o’clock that afternoon. Both men regained consciousness before they died, and both told the same story. The funerals were held Saturday and Sunday.

Here is the article itself, word for word:

“Explosion Kills Two Men: Two Delano Farmers, Robert Smith and Emmett Griffith, Have Fatal Accident with dynamite. As a result of a premature explosion of 20 sticks of dynamite, the lives of two well known Delano farmers were snuffed out last Thursday. Emmett Griffith and Robert Smith were blowing up stumps and had set down on a log to rest a moment. Near them was a pail containing 20 sticks of dynamite, a quantity of dynamite caps and fuse. They both were smoking and the supposition is that a spark from one of their pipes fell into the pail and caused the explosion which occurred a few minutes after they had seated themselves. Griffith had both legs off near the thigh and otherwise mangled. He lived for only two or three hours after the accident. Smith had one leg and one arm blown off and suffered other severe injuries. He died about 5 o’clock that afternoon. Both men regained consciousness before they died and told the same story as to how the accident occurred. The funerals were held Saturday and Sunday. Griffith was 26 years old and leaves a widow and one child. Smith was 19 years old and single. The sympathy of the entire community is extended to the bereaved relatives.”

— Arenac County Independent, September 23, 1915 (transcription contributed by Penny Bliss, MIGenWeb Arenac County; the clipping in Coni’s research files is credited to researcher Penny Carney)

He was buried September 25, 1915, at Sims-Whitney Cemetery in Au Gres — the same Griffith family plot I wrote about here on the blog back in 2014: http://conidubois.com/2014/07/08/griffith-family-plot-sims-whitney-cemetery-also-known-as-point-lookout-cemetery/

Now here is what the newspaper didn’t know, or didn’t print. Ernest had married Lucy Genevieve Amo on March 29, 1909 — he was 19, she was 26. They’d already buried a baby boy, Murther, who died of cholera at five months in 1911. And five weeks before that dynamite went off, on August 19, 1915, Lucy gave birth to a daughter. That baby grew up to be my grandmother.

The paper said he left “a widow and one child.” My records say more than that. I report the paper’s words as written — and I keep my own count beside them. That’s the pledge: the record, honestly, even when the records argue with each other.

He was 26. A farmer. A husband. A father who never got to watch his youngest grow up. The clerk wrote “Dynamite Shot (accidental)” and moved on to the next certificate. I don’t move on. He’s mine.

Outdoor photograph of Emmett Griffith standing beside his seated wife Lucy Amo Griffith, who holds their small child on her lap, circa early 1910s

🔍 LOGO HUNT: I hid my Ever Widening Circle logo somewhere in the family photo above — first one to spot it and tell me in the comments gets a shoutout in tomorrow’s Ancestor of the Day!

🗳️ YOU PICK ANCESTOR #3: Starting today, YOU vote who I feature next! Here are your three choices:

Lucy Genevieve Amo (1882–1947) — Ernest’s widow. She buried her dynamite-killed husband in September 1915… and was married again by the next August. Then married a third time. The dynamite widow with three husbands.
Clorenda Rose Short Barber Porter (1838–1912) — my 3rd great-grandmother. In July 1912 her husband, a Civil War veteran, died at 9 PM — and two hours later, shattered by the shock, she walked onto the porch, cried out, and fell dead in the farmhand’s arms. The coroner wrote her cause of death as “a shock occasioned by the death of her husband.” They were buried in a single grave.
Theodore James Barber (1835–1863) — he marched off with the Union’s 57th Pennsylvania at 28 and never came home from Chancellorsville.

Vote in the comments below (or in the Facebook group poll) — winner gets featured next, and I’ll read out the results in tomorrow’s post. Get your people voting!

Your turn: Has a sudden death ever rewritten your family tree in a single day? Tell me in the comments.

Tomorrow afternoon: another ancestor, another record. And remember — one Ancestor of the Day each week is YOUR ancestor. Brick wall? Send it through my contact form at https://conidubois.fyi/contact.

— Coni

Sources: State of Michigan Certificate of Death, Arenac County, Whitney Township (Sept 23, 1915 — Coni’s files) · “EXPLOSION KILLS TWO MEN,” Arenac County Independent, Sept 23, 1915 (transcription at MIGenWeb Arenac County https://migenweb.org/arenac/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/d-explosion-kills-griffith-smith-bliss.pdf, contributed by Penny Bliss; the clipping in Coni’s research files is credited to researcher Penny Carney) · Individual Report for Ernest Emmit Griffith, by Coni Dubois (1900 & 1910 U.S. Federal Census; Michigan Marriage Records; Michigan Deaths and Burials Index; Find A Grave #62841351) · Griffith Family Plot @ Sims-Whitney Cemetery http://conidubois.com/2014/07/08/griffith-family-plot-sims-whitney-cemetery-also-known-as-point-lookout-cemetery/ (this blog, 2014)

#AncestorOfTheDay #EverWideningCircle