Hazlitt, William 1863-1930 and Annie Gourley Family

HAZLITT, GOURLEY, WARD, MCQUILLAN

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 3/21/2022 at 04:01:13

Hazlitt, William Hazlitt 1863-1930 and Annie Gourley Family

This story was taken from page 170 of the Rock Valley St. Mary’s Catholic Church Book written for the centennial of the church in about 1982(?). The story was transcribed for this BIOS by Beth De Leeuw of the Greater Sioux County Genealogical Society. Some research notes were added.

ANNIE GOURLEY was born January 7, 1860 in County Antrim, Ireland. She immigrated to America in 1872 and resided in Chicago for several years with a sister, Mrs. Jane Hanely. She was in Chicago during the Chicago fire and it is reported she stayed out in the lake while Chicago burned. Annie Gourley came to Iowa and lived with her brother, James Gourley, Sr. She later married WILLIAM HAZLITT and to this union seven children were born. In about 1899 Mr. Hazlitt was committed to Cherokee mental hospital where he remained until his death. Annie Hazlitt was an expert seamstress and she would walk over a wide area doing sewing to raise a few dollars. At one time the family lived eight miles west of Rock Valley and a mile south. While she was sewing away from home the four children were alone at home. They were friends of Charlie Austen’s, now Mrs. J.T. Johnson of Hudson, S.D. She informs us the Hazlitt children would stay with them. Total children, Hazlitt’s and Austen’s numbered nine. After they left this farm they moved to a farm house belonging to John Johnson, grandfather of Merle Solberg, southeast of Hudson, S.D., there she resided with her aging father and four children. Mr. Gourley died sometime while residing on this farm. Annie died at home and Mr. Ted Johnson drove the hearse to St. Mary’s for her funeral Mass. The hearse was drawn by four black horses and when they were one mile west of Rock Valley, Mr. Ed VandeMore saw Mary (Molly) for the first time. It was his first glance of his bride to be coming three years later.

RESEARCH NOTES: by Wilma J. Vande Berg
From a family report on Ancestry.com (done by other than submitter)
William John Hazlitt was born 6 May 1863 Illinois and died 23 Aug 1930 Cherokee, Iowa. His parents were Henry Hazlitt 1835-1892 and Mary Ward 1839-1898.
He married on 16 Nov 1887 to Annie Gourley born 7 Jan 1860 County Antrim Ireland and died 20 Aug 1910 Rock Valley Iowa. She was the daughter of John Gourley 1810-1906 and Mary Mc Quillan 1809-1887.
Their children listed in the report were:
1 . Mary ‘Mollie’ Cecelia Hazlitt 1889-1963, she married Edward Christopher VandeMore 1889-1964.
They were the parents of six children.
2 . John Hazlitt 1893-1952
3 . James Joseph Hazlitt 1895-1977, he married Sadie C. Hawkie 1896-1950
4 . William James Hazlitt 1895-1996, he married Cuba Elizabeth Hayes 1898-1983. Listed about 5 children.
5. Robert Jack Hazlitt born 1896
6 . Laura J. Hazlitt born 1898-1979, she married Francis Ranney.

DEATH OF WILLIAM HAZLITT
Hazlitt, William J. born abt 1862 Illinois buried in West Lawn cemetery Orange City as listed in the Sioux County IA cemetery index. He died 23 Aug 1930 in Cherokee County IA.
Note see the obit of his wife Annie G. Hazlitt 1861or1869 – 1910 for more family details. He was apparently in the Cherokee Mental Hospital for several years.

OBITUARY OF ANNIE HAZLITT
Source: Hawarden Independent (8-25-1910)
Born: 1869
Died: 1910
Mrs. Annie Hazlitt died at her home in Garfield Township last Saturday after a week’s illness from cholera niorous(?). She was married to William Hazlitt in 1887 and several children were born to them, four of whom are still living. Her husband has been an inmate of the Iowa Hospital for the insane at Cherokee for the past twelve years and the burden of raising the family has since fell upon the wife and mother, a burden she nobly and faithfully carried out to the end.
Interment took place at the Catholic Cemetery in Rock Valley Monday.