Data Summary:

Full Name: Asa B. McFann
Born: 2 July 1826, in Waynesburg, Greene Co, PA
Died: 3 November 1912, at the Indiana State Soldiers' Home, near Lafayette in Tippecanoe Co, IN
Burial: North Manchester Cemetery (now Oaklawn Cemetery), North Manchester, IN
Places of Residence: Greene Co, PA; Liberty Mills and North Manchester, Wabash Co, IN; Indiana State Soldiers Home, Tippecanoe Co, IN
Military Service: Bugler, 23rd Independent Battery Indiana Light Artillery, 1862--1865

Father: Jonathan McFann
Born: 1800--1810 in PA
Died: 1838--1840

Mother: Nancy McClelland
Born: 1807 in PA
Died: After 1880

Amanda A. Martin
Born: 13 May 1830, in PA
Died: 1 November 1885
Burial: Oaklawn Cemetery, North Manchester, IN
Date of Marriage: 8 February 1848, in Waynesburg, Greene Co, PA

Martha M. Hill
Born: 1828--1830 in Greene Co, PA
Died: 2 May 1912, at the Indiana State Soldiers' Home near Lafayette, IN
Burial: Green Mount Cemetery, Waynesburg, PA
Date of Marriage: 27 August 1896, in Greene Co, PA

Alexander Franklin McFann
(a. k. a. Franklin McFann)
Born: 29 October 1848, in Greene Co PA
Died: 31 January 1934 in South Bend, IN
Married: (1) Mary E. Clemens, 16 Novemeber 1873, in Wabash Co, IN, divorced May 1885; (2) Sarah E. Mulford, 9 June 1885, in Logansport IN

Catharine M. McFann
Born: 30 April 1850, in Greene Co, PA
Died: 4 June 1935 in Indianapolis, IN
Burial: Oaklawn Cemetery, North Manchester, IN
Married: Oscar S. Williams, 30 December 1871, in Wabash Co, IN

James Preston McFann
Born: 6 November 1851, in Greene Co, PA
Died: 1928
Burial: Crown Hill Cemetery, Wheat Ridge, CO
Married: Laura M. Knowles

John Dawson McFann
Born: 13 November 1854, in Wabash Co, IN
Died: May 1938
Married: (1) Buntz?; (2) Martha Jane Jarrett, 23 December 1889, in Noble Co, IN

Laura J. McFann
Born: 15 April 1856
Died: 16 July 1940
Burial: Oaklawn Cemetery, North Manchester, IN
Married: Melvin O. Lower, 7 December 1876, in Wabash Co, IN

Clara W. McFann
Born: 27 March 1858, in Wabash Co, IN
Married: Sala

Minnie McFann
Born: 1 February 1860, in Wabash Co, IN
Died: 3 February 1864
Burial: Oaklawn Cemetery, North Manchester, IN

Lewis A. McFann
Born: 4 October 1862, in Wabash Co, IN
Died: 26 March 1885
Burial: Oaklawn Cemetery, North Manchester, IN

Thomas W. McFann
Born: 5 Jan 1866, in Wabash Co, IN
Died: 27 April 1896
Burial: Oaklawn Cemetery, North Manchester, IN

Sybil C. McFann
Born: 6 August 1868, in Wabash Co, IN
Married: Shear

Grayzilla McFann
Born: 8 January 1871, in Wabash Co, IN
Died: 5 October 1871
Burial: Oaklawn Cemetery, North Manchester, IN

Martha E. "Mattie" McFann
Born: 29 July 1873, in Wabash Co, IN
Died: 24 March 1964 in Fort Wayne IN
Burial: Oaklawn Cemetery, North Manchester, IN
Married: L. Frank Bonewitz, 5 March 1893, in Wabash Co, IN

Sources:

1830: assumed to be in the household of Jonathan McFann, Franklin township, Greene Co, PA (pg 433).
1840: not found.
1850: in Marion township, Greene Co, PA (pg 243, household 99).
1860: in Chester township, Wabash Co, IN (pg 345, household 771).
1870: in Chester township, Wabash Co, IN (pg 5, household 61).
1880: in N. Manchester, Wabash Co, IN (Enumeration District 183, sheet 37, household 388 [pg 231]).
1900: in Waynesburg, Greene Co, PA (Enumeration District 103, sheet 2, line 6), according to the 1900 Soundex for PA, code M215.
1910: in the Indiana State Soldiers Home, Wabash township, Tippecanoe Co, IN (Enumeration District 190, sheet 5).

Application for Marriage License, Asa B. McFann and Martha Hill, no. 2224 (1896), Green County Court, Waynesburg, PA.

Indiana Marriages: 1851--1900, Family Archive CD 243, (Broderbund Software). Contains information from the marriage records for Catharine, Frank, John D., Laura J., and Martha McFann. The information was extracted for me by a lookup volunteer from the Genealogy CD List.

Wabash County Marriages: 1835--1899, compiled by Larry and Cynthia Scheuer (Warsaw, IN: Scheuer Publications, 1996). Contains the information from the Wabash County record books for the marriages of Frank McFann to Mary E. Clemens, Catharine McFann to Oscar S. Williams, Laura J. McFann to Melvin O. Lower, and Martha McFann to Levi Bonewitz, including the book and page number of the original records. Linda Thompson looked up these records and sent me the information.

Abstracts: Bender Funeral Home, North Manchester, Indiana: 1922--1981, Edited by Linda Robertson (Wabash, IN: Wabash Carnegie Public Library, 1983). Contains records for Catharine Williams and Laura Jane Lower. Linda Thompson looked up these records and sent me the information.

Death Certificate, Asa B. McFann, no. 198 (1912), Indiana State Department of Health, Indianapolis, IN.
Genealogical content: Date of birth: July 2, 1826; Name of father: Jonathan McFann; Maiden name of mother: Nancy McClellan; Date of death: Nov 3, 1912; Place of death: Indiana State Soldiers' Home, Tippecanoe Co IN; Place of burial: North Manchester IN; Informant: Hospital Records.

Death Certificate, Mrs Catherine Williams, no. 19096 (1935), Indiana State Department of Health, Indianapolis, IN.

Asa B. McFann's Pension Records, National Archives, Soldier's Certificate 242247

Binnie, Lester H, Cemetery Records for Chester Township, Wabash County, Indiana, Revised Edition (North Manchester, 1983). Contains the Oaklawn Cemetery inscriptions for Asa B., Amanda A., Lewis A., Minnie, Grayzilla, and T. W. McFann; L. Frank and Martha E. [McFann] Bonewitz; Melvin O. and Laura J. [McFann] Lower; and Catherine [McFann] Williams.

Asa B. McFann obituary, Wabash Plain Dealer, Wabash IN, Monday, 4 November 1912, page 4, column 1. Linda Thompson looked up this obituary and sent me a copy.

Asa B. McFann obituary, Waynesburg-Republican [complete citation not available; see Note 3 below].

Amanda McFann obituary, Wabash Weekly Courier, Wabash IN, Friday, November 6, 1885, page 3, column 3. Linda Thompson looked up this obituary and sent me a copy.

Marriage announcement, Asa B. McFann to Amanda Martin, Waynesburg Messenger, 1848 [complete citation not available; see Note 6 below].

"North Manchester Cornet Band", transcribed from Helm, Thomas B., History of Wabash County, Indiana (1884), pages 284--5, by Linda Thompson.

Transcription of family records from Asa B. McClelland's Bible, found in Levi R. McFann's pension file. Includes the date of birth for Asa B. McFann.

Deaths Mentioned in the P. H. Bolinger Diary, 1881--1899, on the Wabash County, Indiana Genealogy web site. The page lists items found in the diary, including dates of burial for Lewis and Thomas McFann, and for a Mrs John P. McFann (buried 9-10-1887) which possibly refers to John D. McFann's first wife.

See the court records listed on Nancy McClelland's Family Page.

Laura J. (McFann) Lower and Amanda (Martin) McFann, date unkown, photograph in the possession of Gene Goff, scanned by his daugher, Anne Lipp.

The famous McFann band, date unknown, from the collection of Wilber Van Scoik.

Levi R. McFann and his extended family, ca 1910, photograph in the possession of David Christy, scanned by David Christy. One of the old men in this picture may be Asa B. McFann.

Notes and Credits:

1. I am grateful to Linda Thompson for all her time and effort looking things up for me.

2. Lloyd Roupe has suggested that Asa B. McFann's middle name may be Brown because he had a first cousin named Asa Brown McClelland, his grandmother's maiden name was Brown, and it was common practice at the time and place to give family names as middle names. My grandfather told me that Asa B. McFann's middle name was Ben.

3. Asa B. McFann's date and place of birth is given on his 1907 Declaration for Pension. His date of birth is also given on his death certificate. His date of death, place of death, and place of burial are taken from his death certificate. I was able to write for his death certificate because Lloyd Roupe supplied me with the date and place of his death. Roupe extracted this information from an obituary in the Waynesburg-Republican; he did not supply the full text of the obituary or a complete citation.

4. Dates of death for Amanda A McFann, Lewis A. McFann, Minnie McFann, and Grayzilla McFann were taken from the Oaklawn Cemetery inscriptions published in Binnie, Lester H. Cemetery Records for Chester Township, Wabash Co, IN (North Manchester, 1983). The information was sent to me by Wabash County lookup volunteer Teri Pettit.

5. Asa B. McFann identified his parents as Jonathan and Nancy McFann on his 1896 Marriage Licence. A copy of the marriage license was sent to me by Joan Egan (who got it from Richard M. Hughes). Asa B. McFann's death certificate identifies his father as Jonathan McFann and his mother as Nancy McClellan.

6. The date of Asa B. McFann's marriage to Amanda Martin was extracted from a notice in the Waynesburg Messenger by Lloyd Roupe. Roupe did not supply the original text or a complete citation. Amanda Martin's date of birth was calculated from the Oaklawn Cemetery record.

7. The date of Amanda Martin's death was given as Nov 26, 1885 by Asa B. McFann on the 1898 circular in his pension file. The Oaklawn Cemetery inscription gives the date as Nov 1, 1885.

8. Martha Hill's middle initial, place of birth, date of death, and place of burial were extracted from her obituary in a Greene County newspaper by Lloyd Roupe. Roupe did not supply the original text or a complete citation. Roupe reported her date of death as 12 May, but the 1912 letter from the Soldiers' Home Post Office, found in Asa B. McFann's pension file, gives her date of death as 2 May.

9. Asa B. McFann was asked to give the names and dates of birth of his living children on the 1898 circular in his pension file. He listed Frank A., Katharine M., James P., John D., Laura J., Clara W., Sybil C., and Mattie E. Dates of birth for Lewis A., Minnie, and Grayzilla were calculated from the Oaklawn Cemetery inscriptions. The dates of birth and death for Thomas W. McFann, and the date of death for Martha E. McFann, were taken from the Oaklawn Cemetery inscriptions. Places of birth for all of Asa B. McFann's children were inferred from census records. I have assumed that Maria, listed in the 1860 census, is Minnie; and Sarah, listed in the 1880 census is Sybil.

10. Date of marriage and name of spouse for Catharine, Frank (first marriage), John D. (second marriage), and Laura J. were taken from Indiana Marriages: 1851--1900 (cited above) with the help of a lookup volunteer from the Genealogy CD List. No marriage records could be found in the index for Clara, Preston, or Sybil McFann.

11. Date of death for Catharine Williams was taken from her death certificate (cited above) and is corroborated by the Bender Funeral Home record (cited above) and her Oaklawn cemetery inscription.

12. Sources for the information on Franklin, Preston, John, Laura, and Martha can be found on their Family Pages.