Margaret Alice Parmer, more commonly known as Margy, was Born Sept 1, 1871. The Civil War had ended five years previously. In 1871, the Franco-Prussian war ended, The Great Chicago Fire devastated thousands, Jesse James robbed banks, and major league baseball started. Also in 1871, some of the first pictures of Yellowstone Park were taken. Perhaps Samuel and Hetty saw some of those photos, never imagining that their newly born daughter would one day be connected to the park.
Margy was the third child of Samuel and Hetty Parmer. At the time of the 1880 Census, Margy was 8 years old. The census indicates she had attended school that year. The Census was taken in June 1880. Her father, Samuel, is shown in the census with an occupation of “laborer.” Her oldest brother, John, was boarding at a Farm not too far away, and not too far from the grandparents, John and Martha Parmer. The second oldest child, William, who was 10 years old, was living at home. Margy’s next older sibling had died 3.5 years previous to the census. Also living at home when the census was taken was Samuel at 4 years old, Annie at 2 years old, and Harry at 9 months old . Margaret’s mother, Hetty, would give birth to another child in one month.
With a houseful, no doubt there was plenty that needed done, and Margie, at 8 years old and the oldest daughter, likely had plenty of chores and babysitting duties to keep her busy when not in school. Of course school was quite different then as noted in my post about John Jacob Parmer’s Youth. The 1880 census is of East Lampeter, and it’s interesting that the census does not list any street names. We do have the map showing the location of John and Martha’s property, which you can see at my post about John Jacob Parmer’s Youth.
As is typical for the time period, there are very few records other than a census for the time of a person’s youth until they get married. The marriage license for Margie is similar to that of her siblings, as discussed in my previous post about Marriages, the Minister, and the Church. She was married 5 Sept 1889 by D.W. Gerhard at 131 South Duke St. There’s more info about Rev Gerhard and a video of South Duke St at my previous post, Marriages, the Minister, and the Church. She would have been 18 years old and Abraham, who was 12 years older than her, was 29 years old according to the marriage license. He was occupied as a teamster.
1890 city directory shows Margie is employed as a millhand and living in Rockland near Old Factory, which is where her father lived. As a millhand, she probably worked in a factory related to textiles. The City of Lancaster’s largest employer in 1880 was the Conestoga Steam Cotton Mills. A nice article about the Mills can be found at https://lifewithldub.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-fabric-of-lancaster-part-i-story.html. You can learn more about textile manufacturing at https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/textile-manufacturing-and-textile-workers/. This article focuses on the Philadelphia area, but has a lot of good information, photos, and links for additional resources.
In 1900, we find Margie, living in West Lampeter, married to Abraham Rote and with 5 children: Ester–age 10, Della–age 8, Charles–age 7, Maud–age 6, and Carrie–age 4. Also living at the home is Margie’s brother Harry–age 21, who is listed as a servant. One other individual, 14 year old A[rom] Farrel (the spelling of the first name is difficult to make out), who is listed as a farm laborer and who had been in school for 5 months and was non employed for 5 months (likely while in school), which means he was at 14 years old fully employed when not in school. The younger children had been in school for 7.5 months.
Some time before 1913, Margie and Abraham moved their family West to West Yellowstone, MT. There Abraham worked at and/or managed the Bar N Ranch. We know he was there before 1913 because Margie’s brother John Jacob Parmer and his family succeeded the Rote family in managing the Ranch, and John Jacob Parmer took over that job on June 1, 1913. The Bar N Ranch was mostly used for hay freighted into Yellowstone National Park for the work and stage horses.
Perhaps the Rotes left the Bar N Ranch to start a homestead of their own. A homestead of 160 acres was proved and ownership transferred to Abraham on April 5, 1916. You can see the related documents at the BLM website. As you explore the homestead records, you see many names of the Parmers and Rotes relatives–Battle, Fuller, Gorman, Hutchison, Murray, Rightenour, and Tibbles–who the Parmer’s and Rote’s children married.
Certainly life there in the winter was difficult. It’s possible that they left the area in the winter and returned in the Spring. We next find the family in the 1920 Census.
The 1920 Census shows them living in Ashton, Idaho. Abraham is 60 years old and Margie is 48 years old. They were living with their daughter, Maud, and son in law William R. Hutchinson, and 2 year old granddaughter Vonda.
Margie died Nov 27, 1926 of pneumonia at 55 years old, myocarditis contributing. She had lived at 530 Montana Ave, Bozeman, MT for five years according to her death certificate.
Margie Alice Rote death announcement BozemanArticle from 03 Dec 1926, Fri The Bozeman Courier (Bozeman, Montana)
Abraham died of a strep infection on Feb 3 , 1933. He was living with his daughter Carrie Rote Fuller at 209 S 7th, Bozeman, MT. He was 73 years old and is listed as being a rancher.
Some of their posterity continued to live in the West Yellowstone area for many years. Others moved to other parts of Montana and to other areas of the country.
parmersancestors.com 