WORKMAN

FAMILY

HISTORY

WORKMAN

FAMILY

HISTORY

 

 

 

 

by

Thelma C. Anderson

Salt Lake City, Utah

1962

 

 

 

 

copyright

1962

Thelma C. Anderson

 

 

 

 

Litho in U. S. A.
by

An individual expression of thanks to all those who have contributed records to this compilation would be impossible. The list would be too long and complicated and many who have contributed over the years have passed from this mortal existence. The cooperation of the members of the Workman clan all over the nation has been necessary to make this book possible. For this help I say a sincere, "Thank you!"

There have been those who have helped in various ways with the actual work of publication and who. merit special acknowledgment:

Mrs. Lydia Billings and Mrs. Millie Erickson for their invaluable help during the entire time of the publishing venture;

Mrs. Julia B. Goodwin for her helpful suggestions in the preparation of the final manuscript;

Mrs. Betty E. Sipe for her help during the proof reading and indexing;

Mr. and Mrs. J. Quince Johnson for the cards used in the indexing;

The officers of the "John Workman, Jacob L. Workman and National Workman Families, Inc.", the sponsoring organization for their support, and encouragement, the officers being:

Meltiar H. Workman, President

Willard J. Workman, Vice. President

Karl M. Workman, Vice President

Clifford Workman, Vice President

Mark Wignall, Vice President

Millie W. Erickson, Secretary

Venita W. Smith, Asst. Secretary

Kendrick Workman, Treasurer

Lydia W. Billings, Genealogist

An especial thanks is extended to my husband, Mr. Elmer C. Anderson, for his generosity in supplying the funds for materials and allowing me the time, at great inconvenience to himself, necessary during the. long time that the project has taken.

'The records contained in this volume have been proved and are as accurate as it is possible to, make them from the existing sources. There will undoubtedly be discrepancies in places arising from our inability to interpret handwriting or from faulty information submitted. But it has been impossible to check. We are not entirely free from human element error, either, but those who compiled the record as well as I, the author of the manuscript, have endeavored to make it as true as we possibly could.

Very few abbreviations have been used other than the common ones for long months and names of states. Those that will be encountered rather consistently are: dau for daughter, chr for christened.

The lines of descent are indicated by a simple numerical listing with no attempt to note the number of the generation. A number refers to one person only and is used as an identifying code where-ever that person is mentioned. The early English ancestors are identified separately by the addition of E and numbered from 1E to 34E. The families of the migrants from Holland and down to the change of the name from Woertman to Workman are numbered 1H to 116H. The Bilyeu ancestry is identified by the use of the letter B and covers numbers 1B through 160B. Beginning with Abraham Workman', the common ancestor of the largest of the family branches in the volume, all other people are identified simply with a number.

-THELMA C. ANDERSON.

Mary W. Chidester and Delmon S. Workman

Many years ago a small girl in a modest home in Southern Utah was given the vision of keeping records. She, was a rather fragile child confined to her bed many times while a broken bone healed or she recuperated from one disease or another. A wise father helped. her pass the time by giving her the responsibility of recording the pertinent events of the family. This father loved his family dearly and enjoyed sitting with them of an evening, singing the songs he had composed in lonely hours, and telling the tales of pioneer life. This same father had been asked by his parents to be their record keeper, and now he was passing that responsibility on to, his young daughter. In old copy books and in a brief family record book, Mary Elizabeth Workman (known then familiarly as Lizzie) wrote painstakingly the names and dates of birth of her brothers and sisters, the information concerning church ordinance work, and the salient facts concerning the lives of her parents.

When Mary grew to womanhood, found a mate, and married, this service to her father's house seemed to, have been laid aside. After brief wifehood and a number of years of widowhood. she took it up again with renewed vigor and a determination to gather the record of her forefathers no matter what the obstacles. When her father, Abram S. Workman, wrote of his responsibility to his ancestors, he said, "My parents had given me the responsibility ... but I made little headway until my daughter Mary began to work with me. "

Mary E. Workman Chidester, as she was called at this time, had experienced many trials and was inured to the pains of disappointment. She had learned patience and forbearance, but above all she had a consuming love for her family. She was a successful school teacher; and, since the death of her husband in 1913, she had supported her children by this means. It was difficult for Mary, as she had never been a strong woman except in her will to do. Having been left with a heavy indebtedness and small children to care for, she struggled to further her education through summer school and extension courses in order to keep her teaching certificate valid. ,

Eventually the educational goal was reached and Mary obtained a Life Certificate. Now she could relax a bit and begin to do some of the things she had wanted to do for so long. She obtained a position near Salt Lake City and began spending her spare time visiting the genealogical library and compiling records of her family. In 1856 her grandfather, Jacob Lindsay Workman, had written a brief account of his family. This account formed a nucleus from which she was to work for many years. She also learned of a record that had been made by her great- grandfather, John Workman; and she diligently followed the trail of this record to the bitter and disappointing end.

In the year 1920, having contacted all the members of the family she could find, Mrs. Chidester and her father, Abram S. Workman ' called the family together and proposed that an organization be formed to better acquaint them with each other and to further aid in gathering the family history. An organization w effected with Abram S. Workman as president, Mary Workman Chidester as genealogist and secretary, and Cornelius Workman as treasurer. Oliver G. Workman, John W. Workman, Charles A. Workman Joseph Nimrod Workman, Hyrum Parley Workman, and Alice Winegar were chosen as vice presidents to represent the various family lines which descended from John Workman, oldest Workman immigrant to Utah.

At that first reunion on the 14th of June 1920, a meager fund was raised to help defray the expense of an eastern trip for the purpose of gathering genealogy. When Mrs. Chidester returned, she had secured many records and a wealth of knowledge concerning the family; also, she had made many friends who were to help her in countless ways in the years to come. It was at this time that she met Delmon S. Workman of Danville, Ohio.

After this, the school year for Mary and her family became a contest of frugality. They saved every penny so the summers could be spent for the family. During the winter she and her daughter,, Thelma, spent all available time copying records gathered in the summer into the rapidly growing volume of history.

In 1925 the eastern trip was repeated, this time at the insistence of Clifton E. Workman of Columbus, Ohio. At Columbus, Mrs. Clifton E. Workman joined Mary and together they drove to Kentucky and Tennessee seeking out the spots where the Workmans had lived and where many of them still resided, visiting courthouses and other places where records would be kept, and digging into attics to locate old Bibles and other valuable papers.

After his first contact with Mrs. Chidester and having fallen under the spell of her zeal and the persistent call to family consciousness, Delmon S. Workman became an enthusiastic worker in the cause. He and his wife, Hattie, geared their travel times and vacations to the ancestral call. They visited Maryland and Pennsylvania, the lands of their fathers; and wherever they went in Ohio, they obtained Workman records. These were forwarded to Mrs. Chidester to become part of her record. After the death of his wife, Mr. Workman decided that he would like to spend all of his time in this work. He had retired from active business a number of years previously; and, although he was president of the Commercial and Savings Bank of Danville, Ohio, and held other important civic posts, he considered himself free of obligation. Accordingly, in 1927, he visited Salt Lake City, Utah, and persuaded Mrs. Chidester to retire from the school room and promised that together they would search out the family wherever it might be. 'This they did as long as they were physically able. Heedless of their own welfare, financial as well as physical, they spent everything they had.

Typical of the manner in which this couple ferreted out otherwise lost information is this experience in Mrs. Workman's own words:

"We had been successful in obtaining the family record of hen, Joseph and David Workman, three of the quartet who came to Ohio at a very early date; but it seemed impossible to find anything regarding the other member, Abraham. We had spent one day late in July looking over the cemeteries of Tiverton Township and visiting old residents who might be able to give us some information. We took dinner late in the afternoon with a lady at Tiverton Center -who gave us more information on the family than we had yet been able to glean. She said that Jesse Workman, second son of Abraham, was a great hand to keep records and relics and he had his father's Bible when he married his second wife, Mariah T. Parsons. Mariah survived Jesse several years, spending her last days with her youngest son, Willis Workman, who would have the Bible or any of her belongings, but the lady doubted that he would be able to give us any more or as much information as she had given us.

"Having been told the road was rough where Willis lived, we first thought we would not undertake to drive there; but with the desire to leave no stone unturned in our efforts to obtain this record, we were overpowered by the desire to go. When we reached Willis Workman's farm, we found him working in his orchard; and a nice orchard it was, too, heavily laden with fruit.

"Mr. Workman soon assured us he could give no information regarding his forefathers. He said, 'You see, I was not quite three years old when my father died at the age of 63. The members of his first family were all so much older than I and I did not live around the Workman family much, so I know very little about them.' This was our cue to leave, but not feeling satisfied we asked to meet his wife. He then asked us into the house where we met his wife and granddaughter, the latter being about ten years old.

"Immediately on entering the room we saw a small frame on the wall containing the genealogical record of four generations of his wife's progenitors. When we called attention to this, he began telling us what wonderful people they were; whereby we answered, "That is the same old story. The Workmans are very fortunate in mating up with wonderful people, but their own family record does not seem worth remembering. Can you give us nothing regarding your father's family?'

" 'No.'

"'Was there an old Bible?'

"'No.'

"'Yes there was, Grandpa,' said the little granddaughter. 'I saw an old Bible in the attic just the other day; and it was all yellow, had been rained on, and the writing faded.'

"While he was saying, 'Oh, no, no,' we were telling her to run and get it, which she did. She had described it well, for it was in a bad state of preservation. When we opened it to the record page, there in a most beautiful hand were written the names and dates of birth of Abraham and his family which we sought. There were some death dates and marriage records also. The comer of one of the record pages was torn off, taking with it some dates that were unobtainable. The writing was very similar to that of my great grandfather, John Workman. When we began reading the records over, Willis exclaimed, 'Those are such old ones I don't know anything about them!'

"We were very glad to get this record and thought the day well spent."

Together Delmon S. and Mary Chidester Workman succeeded in compiling 1,000 pages of family history; establishing the Workman Cemetery of Danville, Knox Co., Ohio, as a permanently endowed monument to the Workman men who had started it; and founding and chartering a National Workman Family Organization with chapters in Belmont Co., Ohio; Knox Co., Ohio; and in Utah. Of these, the Utah Branch, which had been organized in 1920; and the Belmont County Branch, which had been formed in 1899, are still holding annual reunions. The Knox County Branch, parent to the national organization, has been inactive since Mr. Workman's death.

Mr. and Mrs. Workman made several attempts to publish their record but found that to do it as they wished would be prohibitive. 'The organization passed resolution after resolution to raise. the funds necessary, but year after year passed without this being accomplished. Fortunately, with recently developed methods and the backing of the Utah officers, this record has become possible for the benefit and edification of the people. Many of the old records previously collected, but which need further research, have not been included in this volume. However, to the work of Mr. and Mrs. Workman have been added many records of the later generation collected by Lydia Workman Billings, present genealogist for the society. 'Through her efforts, also, the early American records have been expanded. It is hoped this book will be a fitting monument to those people who have sacrificed so much and for so long have kept the torch alight that there might be a story of the Workman family.

-The Author.

The Workman family reunion held in Liberty Park, Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1938.