John Gilbert - You don't know Jack! Part 7 - Jack's fathers

Let's take a look at Jack's fathers.

John George Pringle
Data on familysearch family tree click
John Pringle was Jack's father by birth. But he will actually meet him for the first time in 1924 during the filming of "The Merry Widow". John Pringle had his own stock company touring the country - the Johnnie Pringle Stock Company.
According to Leatrice Gilbert's biography "Dark Star" Johnnie came to Logan ... and Ida became an actress, left town and became pregnant.

I could not find a birth certificate for John Pringle.
But his certificate of death states he was born July 13th 1865 in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

First evidence I could find was the US Census 1870.
His name is John George Priegel. He is six years old and lives with his parents and six siblings (there will be more siblings in future years) and his grandfather in Missouri.

US Census 1880.
John is 16 years old. He lives with his parents, siblings and his maternal grandfather in Plattsburg, Clinton, Missouri. Since several of his siblings were born there, we can assume that the family lived there for a couple of years.

Unfortunately I could not find any paper trail that shows how John George Priegel became John/Johnnie Pringle. Maybe his existence as a touring artist is the reason.

When he actually met Ida, married her (did they actually marry?) and how long they were together, I could not find out. A marriage certificate would be hard to trace, where would they have married?

The only written proof linking Johnnie, Ida and Jack is the US Census 1900. A source we're already familiar with.

Johnnie is with Ida and Cecil in Pueblo City, Colorado.
He was born in Missouri, his parents were born in Germany, he is 35 years old.

I couldn't identify any more census records for sure for Johnne Pringle. There just are too many "John Pringle"s.
However there is one "suspect" I have. He shows up in the US Census 1910 and 1920. He is listed as John W. Pringle, was born 1864 in Missouri, had a daughter who was over 20 years old, a wife and several small children. But I could be mistaken!


1924 "The Merry Widow". We already heard about what happened ... Jack's turbulent life, his first successes, he is on the brink of huge success and now he is filming a movie that will catapult him into Hollywood super stardom.
During the filming an extra stepped up to Jack and told him he was John Pringle ... and was his father. (This is supposedly the moment Jack learns for the first time the name he had as a small child.)
Jack will never meet Johnnie again.

We have the pictures taken on this day, father and son playing next to each other. (Of course we don't know if Johnnie had already revealed himself as Jack's father.)
This is the beginning of the big ball room scene. Jack's character had been drinking all day and night before the ball because he was heart broken. That's the reason Jack looks rather dishelved in the pictures.

All the way to the left, Johnnie Pringle as a servant. Jack is standing in the middle of the frame.

The same scene, but now we see the front. Jack is still in the middle. Johnnie is the servant to the right.

And now we see their faces. Jack in the middle, Johnnie Pringle to the right.

Jack's character suffering from his hangover. To the right, still Johnnie being a servant.

Upstaging much, Johnnie? Are extras as servants actually allowed to laugh?

And one last look at the scene. Johnnie Pringle on the left side of the frame. Jack is all the way in the back of the room now, meeting his "brother" who is sitting on the throne.

On familysearch you can see his certificate of death. I linked it to his family tree entry.
On August 12th 1929 Johnnie died at the California Hospital in Los Angeles.
He was 64 years old and left behind a widow named Florence Pringle.
His occupation was actor, his parents according to the document were J G Pringle and Charlotte Stewart.
His cause of death is illegible. But he was operated on June 3rd 1929 and two chronic diseases attributed to his death.
He had been in hospital for two months, he had lived in California for over four years.
He was laid to rest on August 14th 1929. Take a look here.

This is the sketch of the life of Jack's birth father.
What do we know about Johnnie's family life?
His parents were John George Priegel and Charlotte Stuhr.

John George Priegel was born March 17th 1828 in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. (His birth name was probably Johann/Johannes Georg Priegel.)
1856 he married his wife in the USA.
1859 the couple officially immigrated to the US.
Around the same time John G. became a methodist priest.
But he wasn't just a priest, he was an artist and painter also.
On familysearch family tree John G.'s parents are listed - John M. Priegel and Rosa Rosenbauer. (No sources given.)


Charlotte Matilda Stuhr was Johnnie's mother.
Charlotte was born in Frankenhausen, Thüringen, Germany.
Her parents were Charles (Karl) Stuhr. Charles is the grandfather living with young Johnnie Pringle.
In familysearch family tree is an entry for Charles' wife - Sophia Garthoff. But I could find no evidence of her.
Charles was born in 1805 in Sachsen, Germany. His occupation is listed in the two census as vetinary or doctor of medicine. By the time the US Census 1880 was taken, Charles was still alive.

Charlotte and John G. had many children. Here is a list of Johnnie Pringle's siblings:

Charles A Priegel
born in 1858 in Pennsylvania
Henry O Priegel
born 1859 in Pennsylvania, occupation "painter"
Matilda Priegel
born in 1860 in Pennsylvania
Anna Maria Priegel
born in 1862 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1885 married to John Boone and died in 1952
Jacks father Johnnie Pringle/Priegel
born 1865 in Missouri, actor and stage producer, died in 1929 in Los Angeles
William H Priegel
born 1866 in Plattsburg, Missouri, occupation "paint maker", he was a soldier who got injured in battle, resulting in losing his index finger of his left hand, died in 1928.
Edward Priegel
born 1870 in Missouri, last trace of him in the US Census 1880 as "Eddie Priegel"
Louis Ernest Priegel
born in 1873 in Missouri, occupation "baker and candy maker", married Rhoda B., moved to Minnesota where he had a successful bakery, as a pensionist he lived of the bakery's profits.
Mary Priegel
born 1874 in Missouri, I could only trace her as a child
Plato Pathagarus Priegel
born in 1876 in Plattsburg, Missouri, occupation baker, during the war he worked in an ammunition factory, after that worked as a baker again, made headlines as "master baker", he married Amanda Schmitt, died in 1957.
Emmanuel A Priegel
born in 1878 in Missouri, occupation blacksmith, married Charlotte Hammer, died in 1960 in Los Angeles.

A big family. Some with artistic ventures.
While Jack was touring the county with Ida and Ida send him to Logan, Utah when she could not take care of him, Jack never found refuge with the big family of his father.

So who was Jack's stepfather? Would he take responsibily for Jack?
Walter B. Gilbert
The man Jack thought was his father for the longest time was actually his stepfather, actor and comedian Walter B. Gilbert.
Born November 26th 1877 in Philadelphia. His birth name was Walter Bennett Gilbert.
Before Walter married Ida in March 1907 in Ohio, Walter had already been married. I could find no evidence of any child of Walter.

Walter's parents were Franklin A. Gilbert, born 1852 in Pennsylvania.
Julia A. Bennett, born 1852 in Pennsylvania.
Walter and Julia had - so it seems - two children: Walter and another son called Francis M. Gilbert, born 1880.

After Ida's death in 1913, Walter handed Jack Ida's makeup kit, ten dollars and a train ticket to San Francisco. He practically kicked 16 year old Jack out of his life.
They were in contact by letter for some years after that, Walter used his contacts to get Jack a job with Thomas Ince in Hollywood. But when Jack really needed him because he ran out of money and had Olivia Burwell to support, Walter just wrote him a letter, saying Jack should have saved money and Walter wouldn't help him. "I never wasted stamps on him again." said Jack.

Walter remarried in 1919 and died in 1951 in San Francisco.

So - what do you think? How do you feel about Jack's fathers?
Both completely disappeared from his life as soon as they could.
That's sad.
Even if they didn't have the means to support him, at least they could have tried to give some emotional support for him, but that obviously didn't happen.

Another thing that comes to attention is the religious component in both the lives of Jack's parents - Jack's grandparents were very religious folk.
Ida's family were mormon. Jack's paternal grandfather was a methodist priest.
We do not know how Jack identified or if he considered himself a religious person at all.
But we know Johnnie Pringle demanded that baby Jack was baptisted in the Church of England as soon as Ida had returned to the stock company that were staying in Canada at the time.

In the next post, I'll summarize the finds and give you links to all the blogposts I wrote.

John Gilbert - You don't know Jack! Part 6 - more about Ida's family

We go one generation back to Ida Adair's parents. This is the family Jack gets send to when Ida cannot take care of him.

Ida's parents are Lydia Ann Mangrum Crocket and William Henry Apperley.
Behind all the names Ida's mother caries, lies some history. But that is for later on. First let's meet Ida's father:

Ida's father - William Henry Apperly
William Henry Apperley was named after his father who was named after his father. (One William following another ...)
William's father - Ida's grandfather - was a mormon pioneer. So it comes as no surprise that they are fairly well documented on familysearch. (Mainly by church documents I assume.) Click
William's parents were born in Ireland. Leatrice Joy's biography "Dark Star" tells of how William's father was a British officer in India and while he was away his wife became mormon. Upon his return to Ireland, William became a mormon too. The family immediately immigrated to the US.

There are many resources for the mormon pioneers on the internet. And certainly even more in libraries and archives. The pioneers started to form groups who would take the long and dangerous travel together. Usually that group formed even before they stepped onto a ship.
William, his wife and their son William were part of the so called "Richard Ballantyne Trail/Company".

Richard Ballantyne was a missionary in India at the time William was in India. Shortly after his missionary service in India was over, Richard Ballantyne went to Liverpool to gather the people who would be part of his company. William went back to Ireland, picked up his family and went with Ballantyne.
A detailed report of the Ballantyne Trail can be found here

The Apperleys (along with the Ballantyne Company) boarded ship in Liverpool on January 15th 1855. The ship was called the "Charles Buck". Two days later the ship set sails. During their trip children died (one of which had been born aboard), several members of the company were shunned (including a woman who spoke to non-mormons). You have to picture the situation - families either left their home countries because they were religiously oppressed or couldn't make a living anymore. Only very few people immigrated for sheer adventure. And you would have to travel in a group because there were so many obstacles, it just wasn't a good idea to go alone.
The Apperleys were mormon pioneers who fled religious prosecution.
The travel diary linked above gives you a small look into their hardship.
The Charles Buck arrived in New Orleans on March 14th 1855.
From there the group travelled by the steamboat Michigan all the way up the Mississippi to St. Louis. There they embarked a river boat called Golden State, shipping on the Missouri River all the way to Atchinson, Kansas. They arrived there April 5th 1855.
By now the company had travelled for almost three months. But the hardest and most dangerous part of their trip lay still ahead. First they started getting ready for the trek across the plains. Filling stock, building waggons. Every man who was capable was equipped with a gun. The families were put on waggons.
On July 1st 1855 the Trek started in Atchinson. Ballantyne had 414 people on 46 waggons with him!
Surprisingly only 5 people died during the trek - 3 were shot by accident. Eight people had been rolled over by waggons, that would have caused horrendous injury.
The trek arrived at the Salt Lake Valley on September 25th 1855.
That was three quarter of a year after they had set foot on the Charles Buck in Liverpool.

The Apperleys were a family among many: William was the oldest (living?) son of William Apperley and his wife Susan Meaton. When their trip started William was nine years old. His sister Unity was seven, his sister Sarah four years old.
In the US Census 1870 we find the family in Logan, Utah. Both parents live with their grown up children William and Sarah in one household.

I couldn't find out when Ida's parents William and Lydia met or married. But the couple's first child Millie was born in January 1875.
1877 William's mother - Ida's grandmother - Sarah died. Widowed William remarries.

Around this time William - the younger - started working at the Brigham Young College in Logan. This college was a combined high school and university. William becomes a teacher and professor.

Here you can take a look at him. This article features a photo of William.
And you can even read William's own words! For a bonus we get some biographical information.
While he was teaching at Brigham Young College wasn't paid handsomely, it did secure him some income. The farm he lived on and maintained as told by family members was to provide for him and his family. (A custom that was common for everyone who did not live in a big town.)
What we learn from this article is that he worked at Brigham Young College until his retirement and lived in Logan the rest of his life. The only exception being his time as a missionary in England in 1882.
What did William teach at Brigham Young College?

"The college circular for 1893 reports that he taught “Spanish, Book-keeping, Grammar, (Winter Course), Book of Mormon Studies, Key to Theology, Orthography and Punctuation, English Classics, Ethics.” He published a slim volume of poetry in 1910, A Souvenier, and gave one of the lectures in the Logan Temple Lectures series (1885-1886, published 1886) entitled Language and English Literature. This extract is taken from that lecture."

Go to the website to read a part of William's writing about English literature.

Be careful to not mistake Brigham Young College for Brigham Young Academy which still to this day exists in Provo, Utah. The College in Logan was closed in 1926. Its books were given to the State University of Utah, located in Logan. Some of the property went to the University too, one building was turned into a high school. The rest was torn down.

But William was already dead then. He died on April 14th 1923.
You can take a look at his grave on findagrave.com. Click
He was laid to rest on the cemetary in Logan which today is part of the University grounds.

So we've learnt a lot - William grew up in a family of mormon pioneers. They settled in Logan, a town which mainly consisted of mormons. He was a teacher/professor, taught English literature (among other subjects). (His interest with English literature would have been shared with Ida and Jack!) To provide for themselves they had their own small farm.
The Apperleys don't fit the cliché of the uncultured farmers living at world's end!
Jack would have missed the perks of city life and he would have had to work on the farm. But on the plus side he would have had access to books which meant the world to him! (When he was travelling with Ida, he could not keep books as the transport was too difficult.)

But let's take a look at the sources to get a proper timeline:
US Census 1870 here
Started June 1st 1870.

US Census 1880
familysearch here
The Census started August 1st 1880.
Head
William Apperley
35 years old, born in Ireland
Wife
Lydia A. Apperley
23 years old, born in Utah
Daughter Lydia A. Apperley - that's Millie
4 years old, born in Utah
daughter Serrah J. Apperley - that's Ida!
3 years old, born in Utah
Son William Apperley
less than one year old, born in Utah
listed as "other" in the household is
Mary Christianson, 17 years old, born in Denmark.
William is married, US citizen, "school teacher". He was born in Ireland in 1845.
The names of his parents aren't given. (But could have been filled in.) Both his parents were born in England.

January 15th 1908
Widowed William marries Lottie, his second wife click here

US Census 1910
here
William lives with his wife Lottie alone in Logan.
William H. Apperley is 65 years old, born in Ireland in 1845. He immigrated in 1855.
Place of birth of his parents - England.
His wife is Charlotte L. Apperley.

US Census 1920
here
January 1920
William and Lottie still live in Logan.

On April 14th 1923 William dies.
Death Certificate William Henry Apperley.
occupation "retired teacher".
See it here from the collection "Utah Death Certificates, 1904-1956". Click
Entry in the Utah Death Registry "Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1908-1949" here.
There is an entry for him at billiongraves.com here.


Ida's Mother - Lydia Ann Mangrum
In "Dark Star" we hear about her: Lydia had been an orphan as s small child. She grew up as a servant in Washington, Utah. After ten years of marriage and eight children, Lydia had enough. She was tired of the poor teacher's earnings and she fled to San Francisco. William brought her back but Lydia later ran away again, never to return. They got divorced. The children were scattered all over Utah. Only Ida Adair stayed with her father William, because she was his favourite.

Let's see what we can find out about that.
First let's check out her name.
Lydia Ann Mangrum Crocket Apperley.
Lydia Ann are her "first names".
Apperley is her married name.
Leaves us with Mangrum and Crocket.
Mangrum will be her born family name. According to "Dark Star" she was an orphan, so Crocket will be her adopted name.

Already in her name a lot of history.

Check out Lynn Anns data at familysearch family tree. Click
Lydia was born March 13th 1856 in Washington, Utah.
Her father was James Mitchell Mangum. Her mother Eliza Jane Clark.
Eliza Jane died February 21st 1859 in Washington, Utah.
Her father died many years later. So Lydia was not an orphan, she was semi-orphan.
She did however leave her birth family and lived with the Crockets who adopted her.
From "Dark Star" we know that she wasn't treated equal to the other children in the family. She was the family's servant.

In the US Census 1860 Lydia shows up in the Crocket family.

Before 1875 Lydia marries William Apperley. Soon after she will start having seven children with him.

After the birth of her youngest child Clifford, we kind of loose track of her.
We know she ran away from Logan, but when we do not know.
But Lydia probably left the family before June 1900 because in the US Census 1900 which was taken in June that year, Ida is travelling with her youngest sister.
Maybe there wasn't anyone at home in Logan who could take care of the kids? Maybe Lydia had taken her youngest Clifford with her? We do not know.

Next time we can pinpoint Lydia is in the California Death Index.
She died January 20th 1919 in San Francisco.
For her last couple of years she seems to have been looked after by her son Clifford. That's what Clifford WWI drafting card suggests.

I found no more documents for Lydia. But I did find information about Lydia's father online - James Mitchell Mangum.

The mormons were not only a religious group who suffered intolerance, there is unfortunately also a massacre in their history. The so called Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Here I will link to a short video which discusses the Mountain Meadows Massacre. This is a mormon presenting what he knows about the massacre, but it is very balanced and he gives links and tips for further reading and not just mormon-friendly sources.

I've read quite a lot about the massacre by now and there are a lot of very disgusting details about the whole affair. The question whether church leaders knew or even promoted the course of action is heavily disputed. We can only hope that the victims of this crime found some peace.

James Mitchell Mangum was one of the men who participated in the massacre. He was a perpetrator not a victim.

The massacre took place on September 11th 1857.
The only survivors were 17 children under the age of seven. (It was considered the children would be too young to be able to remember.) What would have been the right thing to do, was to give the children to surviving family members.
But that of course would have been telling that their parents were dead. So the kids were given to local families and the relatives did not learn about the fate of the victims and the surviving children. In 1859, two years later, the children were returned.

What really gets to me are the parallels in Lydia Ann's life.
I am not saying that her parents too were murdered in the massacre. But she was moved from the family she knew to a new family that same year.
And because her father was part of the massacre and years later arrested because of it, she must have been aware of this. Maybe not as a child but some time in her life, she would have heard about it.
So there is a clear shadow above Lydia Ann's life.

Lydia was born in March 1856 in Washington, Utah.
February 1859 her mother Eliza died.
June 1860 Lydia lives with the Crocket family.

Take this with Leatrice Gilbert's statements, saying Lydia had had enough of taking care of children and doing the household. Well, Lydia had done nothing else in her life. Worse still, she was treated poorly.Then she asked herself, just who were my parents?
Eliza was dead.
James Mitchell ... well, he sounds like a real sunshine.
The Crockets never were a family to her.
Then came talk about the massacre. (Only years and years later people would start talking about it! It still is fairly unknown to general public. I have no idea of how aware mormons are of the massacre.) Lydia just had enough of it all and ran.

There is no proof for this as I found little paper trail of Lydia.
But indirectly there are signs ... look at the documents Lydia's kids left behind concerning their heritage.
Consistently they said their father's family came from Ireland/England.
But their mother's heritage was always flipping from state to state. Either they didn't know or weren't sure. Or they knew that Lydia had been told one thing and later found out that this wasn't correct at all.

Another very interesting clue is Jack's mother's name - Ida Adair!
Why did she call herself Adair??

Well, Lydia Ann's grandmother (Eliza Jane's mother) was a born Adair! Click

So - frustration about unfair living conditions throughout her life, then she hears about her personal family history ... she was just fed up. She went to San Francisco.
(And why San Francisco? Interesting question but I have no clue.)
Lydia's children leave Logan also. Her husband gets divorced, writes poetry and articles about English literature on his farm in Utah, teaching class and remarries.
None of his children will live with him.
But they do live near Lydia in San Francisco!

Lydia didn't really know a good family life from her growing up years. Her family life is a mystery, but she did leave the family.
That influenced Ida Adair (Adair!). Ida tried the best, but she had limited skills to begin with.

Next time we'll take a look at Jack's fathers.