Malinda (Hagenbuch) Ferry and Her Family

My father, Mark, and I have mentioned before about how our Hagenbuch female lines don’t receive enough attention. There are a number of reasons for this. However, the primary one stems from the custom of a wife replacing her surname with her husband’s—a practice that makes female lines challenging to follow.

Recently, we received a message from Brandon Meier about his third great grandmother, Malinda (Hagenbuch) Ferry. His family line is: Andreas (b. 1737) > Michael (b. 1746) > Jacob (b. 1777) > Enoch (b. 1814) > Malinda (Hagenbuch) Ferry (b. 1851) > Louis Ferry (b. 1882) > Pearl (Ferry) Meier (b. 1913) > Burton Meier > Greg Meier > Brandon Meier. It is worth noting that while Enoch and Malinda spelled their last name as “Hagenbuch” they may have pronounced it “Hagenbaugh” something that is common with other family from the Midwest.

In a followup email, Brandon included three pictures of Malinda, which made me want to learn more about her. Thankfully her father, Enoch, was one of our Hagenbuch family’s first historians and wrote about Malinda in his 1886 genealogical work the Descendants of Andrew Hagenbuch:

Melinda [sic], youngest daughter of Enoch, born Sept. 15, 1851, in Delaware Co., Ind. She married Jan. 18, 1874 to Edward Ferry. He was born in France. At twenty years of age she weighted 260 pounds, and very active at almost everything. At thirty-three years of age she weighted 309 pounds. Three children were born, two sons and one daughter, and the two sons are living. The eldest child, a daughter, died an infant.

How swiftly flows the silvery stream of time.

Malinda was born in Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana in 1851. She was the youngest daughter of Enoch (b. 1814) and Christina (Greenawald) Hagenbuch (b. 1815). Before she turned one, Enoch moved the family west to a 160 acre farm in Waltham Township, LaSalle County, Illinois. There she appears on the 1860 and 1870 United States censuses. She married Edward Ferry (b. 1840) on January 18, 1874.

Edward and Malinda (Hagenbuch) Ferry with their sons Louis and Henry, c. 1894

Ferry was originally from France and arrived in the United States at New Orleans, Louisiana on the ship Nuremberg on February 5, 1849. In 1870 prior to meeting Malinda, he worked as a farmer in Illini Township, Macon County, Ill. How he met his future wife isn’t clear as Illini Township is about 120 miles from Waltham Township, where Malinda lived with her parents.

After being married, the couple moved to a farm near Ivesdale, Campaign County, Ill. Their first child, a girl whose name has been lost to time, died as a baby around 1876. The couple then had two sons: Henry Edward who was born on June 20, 1879 and Louis who was born on August 26, 1882. By 1900, the family of four had moved to a farm in Salina Township, Kankakee County, Ill.

Louis Ferry and Myrtle Agnes Greenwood on their wedding day, 1904

Sometime between 1901 and 1909 Edward Ferry died. By the time of the 1910 United States census, Malinda was a widow and lived with her son Louis’ family in Creston, Lincoln County, Washington. Louis had married Myrtle Agnes Greenwood (b. 1886) in Washington State on April 2, 1904. The couple eventually had six children together: Roy Willard (b. 1905, d. 1987, m. Helen Wilkinson), Floyd James (b. 1907, d. 1987, m. Edna Schwandt), Leona Pearl (b. 1909, d. 1979, m. Edward Hall Jr.), Pearl Vanita (b. 1913, d. 1983, m. George Meier), Burton Merle (b. 1919, d. 1922), and Duane Marion (b. 1924, d. 2003, m. Esther Ellsworth).

Malinda (Hagenbuch) Ferry in front of her home in Spokane, WA, c. 1920

In 1911, Malinda moved to nearby Spokane, WA and bought a home there. Here she lived with her eldest son, Henry. He appears to have never married and was working at a local saw mill. According to the census for that year, the address of Malinda’s home was 827 East Hoffman Avenue, Spokane, WA. The house presently at this address bears some resemblance to the building in the above picture, suggesting that Malinda is standing in front of her home in Spokane that she shared with her son, Henry. He may have even taken the picture!

Malinda appears to have relocated two more times before she died in 1936. As noted on the 1930 United States census, she lived for awhile in a house she owned at 919 East Central Avenue in Spokane. Finally, at the end of her life, she moved into the home of her grandson, Floyd Ferry, at 202 East Euclid Avenue. She died on February 8, 1936 and is buried at Riverside Memorial Park in Spokane.

Malinda (Hagenbuch) Ferry, c. 1935

Brandon Meier, whose message inspired this article, traces his line through Malinda’s son Louis and his daughter Pearl Vanita. Pearl married George Thomas Meier (b. 1905) on August 22, 1929 in Vancouver, WA. The couple would go on to have eight children together: Leonard, Lawrence, Roland, Burton, Gaylord, Lois, George, and Darrell. Their son, Burton, and his wife, Gretta, are the grandparents of Brandon, whose father is Greg.

There are so many branches on our Hagenbuch family tree that remain to be explored. In particular, those that follow female lines are in need of our attention. Thanks to the efforts of Brandon Meier and the preservation efforts of his family, we are able to enjoy these photographs of Malinda (Hagenbuch) Ferry and share her story.