Hello everyone - I've gotten the following from my daughter-in-law who now
lives in Camas, Washington - she sent this to me, knowing that I'm
interested in genealogy things for Kosciusko county. I'm passing it along,
in hopes it may give someone out there a clue.
Good luck in your searching.
Laurie Smith
SLEUTHS SOLVE POOR FARM CEMETERY MYSTERY Monday, July 9, 2001
By GREGG HERRINGTON, Columbian staff writer
A Connecticut family in search of its roots has learned it descended from a
man who left his wife and seven children in Indiana, came west and lies in
the only marked grave at Clark County's old Poor Farm Cemetery. The
headstone for Elias Koser is the sole remaining grave marker on the hillside
in Hazel Dell where 200 indigents were buried between 1913 and 1937. Cheap,
10-inch tin markers on the other graves have all disappeared over the years.
But, thanks to that tombstone, Brian Koser of Terryville, Conn., now knows
how his great-great-grandfather died and where he is buried. And, thanks to
several months of sleuthing by Vancouver genealogists Rose-Marie Harshman,
Kitty Oman and Mary Snell, the identities of all of the people buried at
Poor Farm Cemetery are known and have been listed in a book published by the
three.
"When Rose-Marie forwarded the death certificate, I knew it was him," Brian
Koser's wife, Donna, said last week from their home in Terryville, near
Bristol, Conn. "We were excited, after a year and a half of looking for
him." The solution to the cross-country puzzle was worked out by her and
Harshman. They were brought together via the Internet at
www.genforum.genealogy.com. A story and photos about the old Poor Farm in
The Columbian in February had sparked Harshman's efforts. He never returned
Donna Koser said the Koser family's roots are in Wurttemberg, Germany,
with the first Koser arriving in America at Philadelphia in 1749. The
story told descendants, she said, is that Elias Koser, then living in
Kosciusko County, Ind., went outside to cut wood one day in 1896 or '97 and
never returned, leaving a wife and seven children. The family later
learned he made his way to the Northwest and ended up in Camas. But details
of his 1929 death and burial remained a family mystery, until last month.
Elias Koser's wife, Mary Ellen (Ella), is said by descendants to have gone
insane after her husband ran off, but also to have remarried in 1901.
The seven Koser children were sent to live at a poor farm or with foster
parents.
Family tree roadblock Donna Koser said she has been piecing together
a family tree for more than a year but hit a roadblock in trying to learn
the fate of her great-great-grandfather-in-law, Elias. Then, last month, she
found some answers. Actually, the key to the information had been posted on
a genealogical Web page since Feb. 1 in this message from Rose-Marie
Harshman of Vancouver: "I am looking for any information on Elias Koser, b.
1857, don't know where, died 15 Nov. 1929, Vancouver, WA. "The local
newspaper is looking for information on this man for a story they are
working on.
"Thank you, Rose Marie" But the Kosers of Connecticut have a 2-year-old
son "who keeps me busy," Donna Koser said, and she wasn't able to
thoroughly
follow up on Harshman's electronic query. Then, in late May, Donna was back
on the trail and messaged Harshman: "I am looking for an Elias Koser who
was last heard of in Washington. I have a letter Elias wrote to one of his
children. "Elias was married in Warsaw IN, 1881, divorced 1899, his bride
was born in 1858 and died in 1943. "I do believe there is some
connection. Please tell me more if you have time. "Thank you, D. Koser"
Actually, Donna Koser said, the letter she referred to was written by
Karl West, thought to be an orchardist or farmer in the Camas area for whom
Elias Koser had worked as a laborer. It was written in 1934, amid the
Great Depression and five years after Elias Koser died. It skipped mention
of Elias but offered thoughts on the economy and weather in the Northwest.
"The (Camas) paper mill is running as usual and throughout the hard times
has been a lifesaver for the men employed there," West wrote. But mostly,
his letter discouraged the Koser children from moving to the area. Leg
amputated West was listed on Elias Koser's death certificate as the
"informant." Dr. R.W. Armstrong of Vancouver performed an autopsy and
listed the cause of death as blood poisoning caused by gangrene. One of
Koser's legs had been amputated on Aug. 15, 1929, three months to the day
before he died. Koser was buried in the Clark County Poor Farm Cemetery,
which would later become the Washington State University agricultural
research station on Northeast 78th Street, about a half-mile east of Highway
99. About 200 men, women and children are buried there. Some not Koser
lived at the Poor Farm itself. Questions remain "I love having the
picture of Elias Koser's gravestone," Donna Koser said last week, noting
that Harshman had mailed her a copy of the newspaper's February story and
photo.
"I keep looking at it, wondering who would have placed it there." She
said West seems a likely candidate. Despite the new information, Donna
Koser still has questions about Elias. "I wonder if he had made amends
with his adult children who he had abandoned years before," she said. "I
wonder why he chose to go to Washington. I wonder if he gave his wife Ella
(Mary Ellen) the chance to go with him and she refused. I just wish I had
Elias's story."