This Week in Frick-Heckman History

On 27 August 1857, Michael Crissman and Nancy Jane Hooks were married by the Rev. James Joy, probably in or near Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. Their date of marriage and Nancy's maiden name are preserved in a certified statement within Michael's federal Civil War pension file.

Michael, born about 1839 in Washington Township, enlisted as a private in Company G of the 78th Pennsylvania Infantry on 13 September 1862. He died of disease at Nashville, Tennessee, on 25 February 1863, leaving Nancy a young Civil War widow. Their daughter Mary Rachel Crissman carried this line forward and later married Wilson Bowser.

Nancy eventually married William Henry and moved to Monaca in Beaver County. By 1900 she reported eleven children, nine still living. This offers a glimpse of the large blended family and long life she built after Michael's early death. The pension file connects her identities as Nancy Hooks Crissman and Nancy Jane Henry and directly documents daughter Mary.

After his death, Michael was buried in a mass grave at the Nashville military hospital and later reinterred by the War Department at Nashville National Cemetery. His headstone abbreviates his first name as ‘MICH'L’ and misspells his surname ‘Chistman.’

Nannie Edith Bowser was born in North Buffalo Township, Armstrong County, the daughter of Wilson Bowser and Mary Rachel Crissman and the granddaughter of Michael and Nancy. Some family-tree material gives 28 August, but Nannie's Pennsylvania death certificate records 29 August 1889.

At seventeen she married John Louis ‘Happy’ Heckman on 24 October 1906, with her father personally signing the required consent. Their children recorded across the censuses included Charles, Wilmer, James, and Wilma. Widowed by 1940, Nannie owned her home at 1414 Johnson Avenue and worked as a practical nurse.

Later she married Clyde McGregor and lived on Orr Avenue. Nannie died at Kittanning on 24 March 1960 and was buried in Kittanning Cemetery.