Bob Mottice, son of Grant Mottice, graduated from Glenville State College (WV) in 1952.
He began his college studies on the GI Bill after he was discharged from the Army at the end of WWII. I don't know how he came to be aware of Glenville, or why he chose to attend there. But he thoroughly enjoyed his four years there, and made many lifelong friends.
While at Glenville, he majored in education and earned a number of honors, including the ones shown here.
It was at Glenville that he met Maxine Elliott. Although she was younger than he was, she was a year ahead of him at college and graduated from Glenville in 1951. They married after he graduated in 1952.
This a postcard dated 1920 that shows the Case camp near Waynesburg, but is otherwise unidentified.
The postcard was among loose photos and other items in the possession of my father, Bob Mottice. Since he was born in 1916 and only 4 years old at the time of this camp, it is likely that it came from one of his older relatives.
I am, however, unaware of what "Case" might refer to. Too late for WWI, so probably not military in nature, it could be associated with an educational institution instead -- perhaps Case Western University.
Catherine Gross was the wife of John C. Mottice and mother of Grant.
She was born March 6, 1837 and died June 24, 1901. She married John C. on Sept. 23, 1862. I believe both she and John C. are buried in the "new" Waynesburg cemetery west of town towards Magnolia.
The photo at the right has her name written on the back. It is of a type where there are slight color painting-like enhancements made to it.
The photo on the left below is also, I think, of Catherine. There are no markings on the back, but there are definite similarities in the hairstyles and dress even though the woman pictured is of an older age. The location is unknown, and the photo itself is in poor condition.
This is a framed photo formerly in the collection of Robert N. Mottice of his grandfather Andrew Dieringer and 4 of his brothers. Andrew, who was born in Germany, was the father of Frances Dieringer who married Grant Mottice.
These brothers were the sons of Mathaus Dieringer and Katharina Strobel. From left to right they are Andrew, John, Jacob, Frank, and Gervatius. There was evidently a sixth brother, Theodore, not in this picture.
According to a written account of Dieringer family history, "Mathaus Dieringer and family located at Mineral City where he worked at his trade as a stone mason, and among many pieces of work left as monuments to his memory are the tunnel on the C.& P. railroad, near Mineral and the Octagon school house between Sandyville and Magnolia. Besides the two sons, Andrew and Gervatus, who accompanied them from Germany, the following children were born, John Franciska, Frank, Jacob and Theodore. Mathaus Dieringer died August 18, 1898 and his wife Katharina, March 25, 1889."
There is no date given on the photo. In comparing this image of Andrew to the one in his son Will Dieringer's photo album, here he looks a bit older. The other photo was taken in 1894, and since he died in 1918, this picture of him and his brothers was probably taken sometime around 1910.
This photo was probably taken in Canton, or perhaps Waynesburg, evidently sometime between 1870 and 1880 and is captioned "Fiala Military Band."
According to a history of Canton ("Canton", by Kimberly A. Kenney) this is the story of the band: "The GAR [Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization made up of former Union soldiers] lists Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty as the objects of their organization. They sought to "perpetuate the history and memory of the dead", "to assist such comrades-in-arms that need help and protection", and "maintain true allegiance to the United States of America."
The local GAR hosted several events over the years. "The Grand Army Band was organized in 1866, 13 years before the local GAR post was established. Though it was not directly affiliated with the GAR, a core group of Civil War veterans were charter members.
When Charles Fiala came to town in 1869, the band had no leader. Fiala was the son of a Bohemian musician and had been trained in Europe for a career in music. He took over the Grand Army Band, and the group quickly gained a reputation for being one of the finest music groups around.
An octagonal bandstand was built on Public Square in 1874 and the band gave concerts there regularly. Band members wore white trousers, long black boots, and white helmets trimmed in brass.
"In 1876 Fiala took the band to the Philadelphia Centennial where they competed with bands from all over the country. In 1901, the Grand Army Band was invited to play for the Confederate Veterans' Reunion in Dallas, TX. It was the first time a northern band had been invited to participate in a confederate gathering.
But the band earned its greatest fame playing for William McKinley's many campaigns. They played for all his congressional campaigns except for the one he lost. They also played for the conventions where he was nominated for governor and for president."
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.
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.
This photo is one of several that had been in the possession of Richard S. Bowman, grandson (I believe) of James Bowman and Loretta Jane Mottice Bowman. Loretta Jane was a daughter of John C. and Catherine Mottice, and sister to Grant Mottice.
The photo is labeled on the back in the form of a question, evidently from Richard Bowman: "Do you think this could be my grandparents and Aunt Ora (on left) -- visiting at Butch and Lucy's farm?" There is no indication as to when the photo was taken, but if the people are correctly identified by Richard, a date between 1920 and 1930 seems reasonable. Loretta Jane died at the age of 64 in 1937. She and her husband James G. Bowman would be the older couple in the middle of the photo. "Aunt Ora" would be Ora Catherine Bowman, daughter of Loretta Jane and James.
"Butch and Lucy" would be Loretta Jane's brother and sister-in-law James Garfield Mottice and his wife Lucy Ann Snyder. James Garfield's nickname was "Butch." I always heard him referred to by Grant's family as "Uncle Butch." Uncle Butch and Lucy lived on a farm just north of Waynesburg on old Rt. 43 toward Indian Run, I believe.
If Richard Bowman is correct, the girl and three boys on the right side of the photo are probably Uncle Butch's and Aunt Lucy's children. But if this is so, there is a discrepancy with my records. I have Butch and Lucy with five children -- 4 boys and 1 girl. This could be explained by the simple absence of one of the boys from the picture. But my records indicate that the daughter was the second oldest child. The photo clearly shows her as youngest of those shown.
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 attached article from the Canton Repository sometime in 1944 announces that Merle Mottice has received a military honor while fighting at the Battle of Guam in the Pacific.
He was a leader of an ammunition and pioneer squad during that battle and received the combat infantryman badge for "outstanding performance of duty and exemplary conduct in action in the Guam operation."
Here are a couple of pictures of a house on Mottice Rd. outside of Waynesburg that -- maybe -- are of the building that housed Peter Mottice's tavern in the early 1800s. The photos belong to a woman who grew up there in the 1950s. Both photos were taken around that time and show her family in front of the house.
Why do we think it may have been the tavern? The age is right -- around 1810. The location is right -- 2 miles north of Waynesburg on the road where local history says the tavern was located. Other than that, we are guessing. The Stark County Library has a map of the location of the original Peter Mottice property, and some time I'll try to find the property and search for evidence. According to Stark County historian E.T. Heald, the tavern was "on [Peter's] farm which later became the property of J. Creighton Rogers."
In the meantime, here is what she says about the house: "We were very poor when I was a child living out there. My father was disabled and a lot older than my mother. Who ever owned the property at that time, (I always believed it was Spikers of what is now Spiker & Foster Funeral Home in Canton, OH) allowed us to live there for free in exchange for my father keeping an eye on things. There was some concern of people coming in and cutting all the locust trees for fence posts.
"My father died in that house on May 30, 1960. My mother and I moved out the next day. A few months later the house was torched and all that remained for a number of years was the sandstone block walls. Then they were finally carted off as well.
"It was sandstone with what I would now call stucco on the outside but most of it had fallen off. I remember that the walls were very thick, probably 1 1/2 ft thick. The house was built on a hill side so that the view in the pictures shows the front door on the upper level. But if you went downstairs the backdoor opened into the back yard. "The upstairs consisted of a living room and 2 bedrooms. The bottom floor consisted of a large kitchen and beside the kitchen was a cellar with a dirt floor (possibly a wine and food storage cellar) on the same floor. There was no electricity and no indoor plumbing. We had wood stoves, a pot bellied on the top floor and a wood cookstove on the lower level.
"My Mom carried water from a spring that came out of the hill behind the house. We had an outhouse. There was an attic. I do remember hearing that the house was 150 years back then before 1960 and I believe it sat on either 60 acres or 160 acres. Looking back on it now, I can see that it was possibly more suited for an inn or tavern than it would originally have been as a house."
Here is another example of a photo that I have no information about, yet was kept by my father for years. So I assume it had some significance to him and his brother Merle.
This is a photo that looks to be from the 1940s or 1950s found in an envelope labeled only "Pictures for Merle and Kathleen Ex . . ." The last 3 letters of Kathleen's name are unreadable. It looks like "ver", but that makes no sense. The people are unidentified.
Robert Neil Mottice was the 6th child (out of 8) of Grant and Frances Mottice. He was born in 1916 at North Industry, OH, which is between Waynesburg and Canton. Apparently his middle name was originally "Neal", as this is the name that shows on some early documents. The photo to the right is his high school graduation picture.
He served in the U.S. Army during WWII and upon the end of the war, attended college at Glenville State University in Glenville, WV. There he met his future wife, Maxine Elliott. They were married in 1951.
They moved to Elyria, OH for a short time, then to Smithville where he taught in the Wooster City School system for the remainder of his career. He died in 2003 of congestive heart failure while sleeping peacefully.
In his later years he dictated an autobiography, the transcript of which can be read here.
Ruth Mottice was the oldest daughter of Grant and Frances Mottice. Born in 1908, her obituary lists the location as Canton although it is not clear if perhaps the actual location wasn't North Industry. Grant and Frances lived in North Industry around this time, and there are suggestions that children were born at home rather than in a hospital.
Ruth married Waynesburg physician Verle Garster (his son was her stepson), and after his death moved to Canton. Her mother, Frances, lived with her in Canton for the rest of her life. The photo to the right is undated but was probably taken before she was married.
Ruth spent the last few years of her life in a nursing home while suffering from Alzheimer's disease. She passed away in 1999. This photo below taken in her later years is also undated but is probably from the early 1990s.
The caption on this undated postcard picture says "View from Whitacre Hill, Waynesburg."
Although the area has changed a great deal, the scene looks similar to the view looking north across the railroad tracks and creek from what is now N. Main Street. Whitacre Hill could reference the old Whitacre Fireproofing Co., but I don't know where this business was located.
If this does indeed show a northerly view, the cluster of houses at the top of the photo is the intersection of Rt. 43 and Mottice Road. A mile or two up Mottice Road -- left as you are looking at the photo -- is where the Peter Mottice homestead was.
This is a reprint from an undated newspaper article showing the members of all the classes at Waynesburg High School during the school year 1919-20.
Don Mottice is third row, second from left (beside teacher); Arnold Mottice is third row, fourth from left; and Willam Dieringer is sixth row, first on left. Also in the photo are Ida Dieringer and Mildred Mottice.
William (Will) Dieringer (1870-1940) was the brother of Frances Dieringer, wife of Grant Mottice. His father was Andrew Dieringer and mother was Katharina Stroble. This photo album was in the possession of my father, Robert Mottice. I suspect it came to him by way of his sister, Ruth Garster Mottice, after Frances Dieringer Mottice passed away.
The album is in excellent shape for being somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 years old. The photos are very high quality, most having been taken at the J.M. Jenks studio in Waynesburg, OH. The oldest photo in this album is of William's father Andrew as a young boy. Since Andrew was born in 1843, the photo probably dates to around 1850.
William Sherman Mottice, brother of Grant Mottice, was the the fourth son of John C. and Catherine G. Mottice. He was born on April 14, 1870 and died Oct. 21, 1923. He married Mary Rose Keck, and they had three children; John H., Arthur Leon, and Gladys C.
This photo of Sherman standing beside a bicycle was in the possession of Richard S. Bowman, and has written on the back "Uncle Sherman Mottice." This caption was probably written by Richard Bowman's father, who I believe to be Edgar Bowman, son of Loretta Jane Mottice Bowman who was Sherman (and Grant's) sister.
The article pictured here appeared in the Canton Repository sometime in 1942. It announces the induction into the military of two of Grant and Frances Mottice's sons, Bob and Merle.