This page shows posts about the principal individuals in the Elliott ancestral line. Use the links on the right to explore other Mottices among the ancestral families.
John C. Mottice was the father of Grant Mottice. His middle initial "C" evidently stands for "Creighton", although I have little documentation to support this. His wife was Catharine Gross.
This photo of him probably dates from around 1900 since he died in 1906. It was formerly in the possession of the Bowman line of the family who is descended from John's daughter Loretta Jane. The back of the photo reads, "John Mottice, father of Loretta Jane Mottice." Farther down the back appears to be an obscured signature of James Bowman, Loretta Jane's husband. Finally, a return address sticker is affixed to the bottom of the photo with the name of Richard S. Bowman of Columbus, Ohio. I presume Richard is the grandson of James and Loretta Jane, and the great-grandson of John C.
The elusive father of Peter Mottice is thought by Charles D. Mottice to be James Thomas. In a letter to Bob Mottice, son of Grant on Aug. 31, 1994, Charles D. says:
"There are records that do indicate Peter's father was named James Thomas Mottice. He was born in Mons, France. He was at an early age forced out of France by the Catholic faith and so all Protestants left France and went to Germany or as close to Germany as they could get. From there [Peter's] father came to the colonies. As you know, his father went into the colonial army under George Washington."
Unfortunately, Charles D. does not specify the records he says name Peter's father. Nevertheless, his story fits a working hypothesis about Mottice ancestors. Peter's naturalization papers citing prior citizenship of France plus his stout Presbyterianism support the idea that his father left France to escape persecution.
The city of Mons is now in southern Belgium although was part of France in the mid 1700s. Jean-Marie Motice, who Lynn Mottice claims is Peter's brother and therefore James Thomas' son, was supposedly born in Isle-de-France, which is the Department that includes Paris. Mons is not particularly close to Paris, so placing Jean-Marie in Paris when James Thomas allegedly moved close to Germany requires an explanation. The German aspect of the story, however, fits in with other vague threads of family history that suggest that the Mottices were, at some point, in Alsace-Lorraine. This area is along the Franco-German border and has shifted between French and German sovereignty for hundreds of years.
The last sentence of Charles D.'s story, "As you know, his father went into the colonial army under George Washington," is a reference to the widely circulated family history story that Peter's father died in Washington's service at the Battle of Trenton in 1776.
Grant Edgar Mottice was born on Dec. 6, 1865 in Waynesburg.
In his father's Bible he is referred to at two separate pages as "Edwin Grant" and "Grant Edgar".
He was the son of John C. Mottice and Catherine Gross. He married Frances Dieringer on Dec. 28, 1903, and they had eight children. He died unexpectedly on March 9, 1938 of a ruptured gastric ulcer. He is buried in Waynesburg cemetery.
The photo to the right is undated, but probably before the turn of the century although it could be a wedding photo. It is the best photo of him I know of.
Andrew Dieringer was the father of Frances Dieringer. He was born on Nov. 13, 1843 and died Feb. 11, 1918. 
He married Mary Holshoy on Aug. 27, 1844 and they had 12 children of which Frances was the eighth.
This old tintype photo is, I think of Andrew. Other photos of Andrew, including Andrew and his brothers and in his son Will's photo album strongly suggest that this is him.
John Mottice, son of Peter and Pheby Mottice, was born in 1800 and died in 1879. He was the only son of Pheby.
There is uncertainty about his middle name. Charles D. Mottice, in his genealogy of John's half brother James, identifies him as John Crawford Mottice. Charles K. Mottice, in his history of the line that runs through John's son James, identifies him as John L. Mottice. But the 1870 census report identifies him as John B. Mottice, and all other documents list his middle initial as "B".
John's place of birth is also somewhat uncertain. Charles D. says he was born in Pennsylvania while Charles K. says he was born in New Jersey. Moreover, in the two available census reports, one gives his place of birth in Pennsylvania and the other cites Ohio. Based on the other inferences about Peter and Pheby's location around 1800, I suspect he was born in Pennsylvania.
He married Elizabeth Cachel (born Sept. 30, 1810) on Sept. 7, 1828 in Sandy Township in Stark County, OH. According to "Early Marriages of Star Co., Ohio -- 1809-1840, his marriage was officiated by a John Brown.
The 1850 census for Sandy Township in Stark County, OH, which simply refers to him as John Mottice and both he and Elizabeth born in Ohio, lists his occupation as "Farmer", and all of their 10 children were born by then and living with he and Elizabeth at that time. The children were Peter, Louisa Jane, Abigail, James W., John Creighton, Calvin, William Henry Harrison, Milton, Kinsley, and Nancy.
Twenty years later in the 1870 Census, they are still living in Sandy Township, and the children living with them are Jane (Louisa Jane), Abigail, Kinsley, Nancy, and a William H, age 4. John is identified as "John B.", and his place of birth is listed as Pennsylvania's while Elizabeth's is Virginia. The 4 year old William H. may be a grandchild, perhaps of Louisa Jane who, some records indicated married a man by the name of Griffith at some point.
John is mentioned predominantly with Peter Mottice's estate as he was an executor along with his half-brother James B. Mottice.
John died on Aug. 14, 1879, and according to the official Stark County Record of Deaths, succombed to the "flux", which is evidently dysentery or something similar. He and Elizabeth, who died on Oct. 7, 1885, are buried in the Old Pioneer Cemetery in Waynesburg, although the gravestone is worn with age and difficult to read.
The genealogical search for the Mottice family effectively ends with Peter Mottice, 1772-1855. As I posted previously, we don't know the name of his father or any other details with any degree of certainty.
Peter Mottice, however, is a different story. We have his obituary, his will, historical records, church records, and family records that paint a fairly detailed portrait of Grant Mottice's great grandfather. He was an early pioneer in the area of Waynesburg when it was largely uninhabited and still subject to Indian attack. He was founder and elder of the Waynesburg Presbyterian Church in 1823. He was a Justice of the Peace for the county for many years, and we have his written records of at least a portion of this time.
Despite this wealth of information about a man born over 200 years ago, there are many question marks that remain. A number of the records we have for him are contradictory. For example, his will, written in 1852, identifies his "heirs, John Mottice, Abigail Creighton, Sarah Mottice, and James B. Mottice." These are all either sons or daughters. At least two others predeceased him. And James B. Mottice was son by his second wife, so his list of heirs seems comprehensive.
Yet his obituary, written after his death just 3 years later in 1855, mentions "leaving 4 sons to mourn his loss." Where did the other two sons come from? There are no other records, including census, death, or cemetery records that indicate 2 other sons.
Charles D. Mottice, a descendent of James B. Mottice has a family history which entices us with a little more information but adds further to the confusion. According to Charles D., Peter had 2 sons, but within just a few sentences attributes 4 sons to Peter. Moreover, he mentions a 5th son that was illegitimate. This intriguing story was that, between the death of his first wife Pheby and subsequent marriage to his second wife Elizabeth, he took a black mistress who bore him that additional son.
Charles D. Mottice also has a genealogy of James. B. Mottice, but here shows only 2 sons of Peter. I have to surmise, then, that his other reference to 4 (legitimate) sons was a mistake and he meant 4 children instead. And since he refers to only one illegitimate son, we are still left with a total of 3 sons, not 4.
That takes us back to the obituary and the possibility that perhaps the author of the obituary simply made a mistake. This seems unlikely since the author was probably one of his children. A more likely circumstance suggests that the error -- confusing "children" for "sons" -- could have come from the newspaper. (I have had to post several obituaries in newspapers, and none were error-free.)
Yet even if we assume that the newspaper made a mistake in 1855 and listed Peter with four sons when it meant four children, we are still faced with the distressing question of whether there are other errors in the obituary about Peter that lead us down rabbit trails.
But all this makes Peter Mottice a fascinating subject for exploration. Many of my posts will be focused on him, and a number will be speculative because there is simply not much definitive information available. I hope, however, that there will be those who read these postings who have information that I don't and share it on this website. We might be able to make some progress in filling in the blanks of Peter Mottice's life.
Here is a document, dated November 17, 1872 and written in German that I cannot translate, in part because of the elaborate script.
It refers to "Andreas Dieringer" and his "fine wife" who was born "Maria Holzhey", then in large letters "_urde geboren" followed by the date in 1872 and the location in Waynesburg, OH. "Geboren" means "born" in German, but the first letter of "_urde" I cannot decipher and cannot translate.
Later in the document are the large letters "Getauft", which means "Baptised," followed by an unrecognizable name who -- and this is a guess -- is a witness or someone present to the event, although the words around the name do not translate into either.
Following this is another reference to Andreas and Maria, and the name of the pastor of the St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Waynesburg. Now we know that Maria Holzhey (Mary Holshoy) was baptized at birth, so if this is a baptismal certificate for her it may represent a Believer's Baptism, that is, baptism after a conscious commitment to the Lord. Or, it may be Andreas' (Andrew's) baptism. I do not have evidence of his prior baptism. Another possibility is that it documents his/her/their welcome into the communion of the Church.
I initially thought that it was the baptismal certificate of one of their children since they were married sometime prior to 1866. The only children born before November 1872 are Catherine, Elizabeth, William, and Lucy. None of these names appear on the certificate, however.
If anyone can translate this certificate and tell me what it is, I would appreciate it.
Frances Dieringer was the daughter of Andrew Dieringer and Mary Holshoy, and later wife to Grant Mottice.
She was 8th of 12 Dieringer children, ten of whom were girls. Of her 9 sisters, six were older than she. She was born in Waynesburg and lived there most of her life. In the 1950s (perhaps earlier), she moved to Canton with her daughter, Ruth, after Ruth's husband Verle Garster died.
She married Grant Mottice in 1903, and they had 8 children before he died in 1938.
In the last year(s) of her life, she lived in a nursing home in Canton. This photo of her was probably taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and is probably at Ruth's house in Canton.
She is buried, along with Grant, at Waynesburg Cemetery.