"And if she be not obediente and healpeful unto hym; endevoureth to beate the fere of God into her heade, that thereby she may be compelled to learne her dutye and do it."
—Footnote for 1 Peter 3.7 in the "Wife Beater Bible," an edition of the Taverner's Bible printed in 1549 (this eleventh Commandment never really caught on).

   During early Colonial American history, there was no census-taking (the first real census in the U.S. was in 1790), so a genealogical history could only be obtained through church records (if there was even a church nearby at the time), cemeteries (if there were tombstones), and/or most reliably, the family bible. In those days, family bibles were very personalized and contained pages for family trees, letters, drawings, and mementos. The Daughters of the American Revolution keep track of many of these bibles all across the country, and hold the information from those books for genealogists.
   Our family is most fortunate in that there are bibles, saved correspondence, and scrapbooks going back hundreds of years that detail our history:

Correspondence
File Image
From:   Alfred B. Hause
To:   James Dwight Hause
Subject:   Hause Family Geanealogy, Ovid Bible
Date:   January 28, 1904
View file
SOURCE: Collection of Stephen Hause.
   This Bible was the property of Joseph Hause, Jr. (1821-1864), a grandson of my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great-Grandfather, William Hause (it has to be Joseph Jr.'s, because his dad Joseph, Sr. never lived in Ovid). It traced the Hause line back to Johannes Haus' birth in Germany in 1690. It speculates on his marriage to Sarah Allen ("a woman of fine English blood"), and connects Johannes to the family of Princess Diana. But I have never read it, and it's apparently now lost. However, sketchs from the Bible were copied and handed down over the years.¹
   In a 1904 letter from Joseph's grandson, Alfred Hause, he writes: "I have an indistinct recollection of having seen and read the balance of that portion of the history as I find it now in the old bible, and that it did come directly down to William, but it was so long ago that I first saw it, that I cannot tell now where it connects, and came to the conclusion from the age of John about 60 at the time William was born that he was his grandfather. This John's children seem to have been born in Haverstraw, Rockland Co. N.Y. and and if my idea is correct then the rest of the descendants would most likely have been born in this country also, still there may have been a return to the old country." He adds: "Lyman's (great-grandson of William through William Jr.) story of the old man's lighting his cigars with V's would indicate that the old fellow must have been one of the 'boys' in his days, and as Holy writ mentions in places that some faults will not be eradicated until the ninth generation, it makes the outlook bad as I am of the fourth only from him."

   The Hause family Bible that is nearest to my line of the family is safely tucked away in Michigan, in the drawer of a small table near he dining room of Jerry Hause, the son of Basil Hause. It's the prize jewel of his massive family history collection, which includes the spinning wheel of my Great, Great Great Grandmother, newspaper clippings, the scrapbooks of Charles Hause Jackson (see below), a scale from Frank Hause's general store, and other relics of a time when a person's hand-me-down possessions meant more than their net worth on E-Bay.
   This Family Bible's terrific—Cruden's Complete Concordance, printed in Philadelphia by A.J. Holman & Co., copyright 1880. It's about six inches thick—full of notations and biographical data on births, marriages and deaths, and includes several pages with inserts for family photos, going back five generations. (Oh yeah—and there's a bible in it, too.)


Jerry and Jeff Hause pose with the Hause Family Bible in Michigan in 2006.

Family Bible
Images
Title: Cruden's Complete Concordance
Years: 1880 - Present
Subjects: Hause Family Genealogy
Publisher: A.J. Holman & Co., Philadelphia
Images: 1, 2, 3
View .PDF
SOURCE INFORMATION: Collection of Jerry Hause.
   In the sample pages at left, the first image displays tin-types of my Great, Great, Great Great Grandfather, Augustus Hause, Sr. (1804 - 1875), with his second wife, Fannie Alexander (top). Underneath them are my Great, Great, Great Great Grandfather David Sanderson (1804-1888) and my Great, Great, Great Great Grandmother Polly Briggs, the parents of Melissa Sanderson.
   The next page, with most of the sleeves apparently looted by relatives, features the next generation, with Laban Hause (1831 - 1906) and his wife, Melissa Sanderson Hause (1839 - 1921).
   The final page features Frank Hause (1867 - 1951) and his wife Fladella Raymond Hause (1869 - 1961), my Great, Great Grandparents. Beneath them are Frank's sister, Edith Hause (1871 - 1949), and her husband George Cottington, who co-owned the general store with Frank and Fladella. There are also pages listing births and deaths (pictured here are xerox copies provided by Jerry Hause).


Atticus Hause poses with the Hause Family Bible in 2018.

Scrapbook
Images
Author: Charles Jackson Hause
Years: 1870's-1960's
Subjects: The families of Laban and Frank Hause
View
SOURCE INFORMATION: Collection of Jerry Hause.
   Another way to trace the family line is through family scrapbooks, filled with correspondence, photographa and other keepsakes, some of which are detailed here.
   Much of this family history was contructed with the scrapbooks of Charles Hause Jackson (1875 - 1962), the grandson of Laban Hause through his daughter, Elma. These large, over-stuffed scrapbooks, which Charles kept throughout his life, are filled with newspaper articles, photographs, letters, birth, wedding and death notices, and a genealogical chart written by Melissa Sanderson Hause. (A similar chart was once owned by Carlisle, as my father remembers, but that chart is now lost.) Many of these items are on display in this genealogy, and a few sample pages can be viewed at right to give you an idea of what the scrapbooks look like.
Book Information
Book Image
Name: Raymond Hause's 1910 Scrapbook
Author: Raymond Hause
Year: 1910-11
View Scrapbook
SOURCE INFORMATION: Collection of Carl Hause, Jr.
   Meanwhile, Raymond Hause (1888 - 1970) also created a scrapbook, this one a photo album now in the possession of my father. It was found in an unwanted box of photos in a San Diego basement, offered up by the descendants of Lois Baumbaugh, the daughter of my Great-Grand-Uncle, Raymond "Dick" Hause. It chronicles a period in which Dick brother Carlisle were travelling around Michigan in what looks like their father's over-sized clothes to sell a detergent called "Sunny Monday." Apparently they didn't do too well selling it, because I've never heard of the stuff. They were both married a year later, so their days as traveling salesmen were numbered, anyway.
   It shows all of their relations from that time (sadly Laban died a few years before), but because all of the photographs are being taken for fun by Dick (in college at the time), everyone looks much more relaxed in these photos, and, in a rarity for the Hause family, actually appear to be having fun.
   "Uncle Dick" also shows what college life was like, with shots from pep rallies and his boarding room with drunken roommates at the YMCA near the University of Michigan.
   Most amazingly, he has shots of my Great-Grandfather actually LAUGHING, which was a rarity in photographs. Turns out that my smart-ass forefathers were just as shiftless and goofy as me, at times. It's kind of reassuring...

NOTES ON THIS PAGE:

¹—I traveled to New York and Michigan during the summer of 2018 and tried to track down the provenance of the Ovid Bible quotes used on this website. I met with 90-year-old Jerry Hause in Detroit, and he gave me a document that was mailed out as a form/chain letter to Hause descendants all over the country in the 1970s - 1980s, quoting "legal records of both Germany and England and to records copied in the Bible of Joseph Hause of Ovid, New York." The genealogist who sent the letter out was Josephine Gregory (1920-2013). She says in the letter that she based the line of descendancy on material from Alberta Spaid Reeder (1871-1954), her 2nd cousin, 1x removed, and the letter begins, "According to the legal records of both Germany and England and to records copied in the Bible of Joseph Hause of Ovid, New York..." I have notated the entire letter here.
   Ms. Gregory died in 2013, and I don't know which parts of the letter are from Reeder's notes, and which parts are from the bible (the quoted portions from the bible probably end with William Hause, because the Bible tracks the line of a son of William's named Joseph, and Reeder's line descends from Joseph's brother, John). The letter then lists a few generations of Reeder's line (through William's other son, John Hause) and after that it becomes Gregory's line (that's how I figured out who the author of the letter was, because it was unsigned). Neither Reeder or Gregory had anybody with a Hause surname in their family for several generations, so I doubt they were dealing with original source material.
   There are major inaccuracies in the letter that have remained—and become ingrained—in Hause family history for the past forty years: It lists William Hause (b. 1750 on his DAR marker) as a son of John the immigrant (b. 1690), which would have put William in his 60s before his last five children were born. Obviously a generation was skipped: William's actual father had to be John Hause of Warwick, who this letter has dying at White Plains with his brother Simon.
   The sketches copied from either the Reeder history or the Bible are incomplete—after the section when John (b. 1719) and Simon Hause (b. 1717) are killed at White Plains, Reeder (or Gregory) either ignored or skipped the fate of the late John's wife and his children, John and Polly. In the notes of other family histories that tell this story, John's wife remarried after 1775 and had six more kids! Gregory and Reeder (or maybe even the Ovid Bible) have skipped a generation or two, because it would mean Sarah would have remarried and had 6 more kids as she approached age 60! Didn't fit in their timeline.
   The John Hause who died at White Plains would have to be at least William's age for the wife to be young enough to remarry and have six more kids, so he looks to be a brother. This also fits into the timeline of the John Hause will from Warwick in 1796, which names William as the "ownly living son" and a grandson, "John, son of Simon Hause." This could be the Simon Hause who died at White Plains. Simon Hause's land is named on maps for General Washington of Orange County during the revolution, but he disappears from the record after the war until he is named as deceased in the will.
   So with the added generation, William still has two brothers who died at White Plains, but with an added generation, they are all the sons of John and Sarah Hause of Warwick, and the ages match the actions. Again, I can't tell if the Bible did this, or Reeder did this, or Gregory did this, but SOMEBODY forgot a John.
   Normally at this point you'd throw the whole history out, but 95% of the family trees you see online, and even some professional genealogists, still use this chronology. If you see Gregory or Reeder in the sources, then they're citing this letter.

Article
Image
Name:Hause, Alfred; Hawes, James P
Newspaper:Watkins Express
City:Watkins Glen, Schuyler, NY
Date:21 Jul 1904
View file
View Newspaper
SOURCE: Watkins Express, Watkins Glen, Schuyler, New York. Publisher: L.M. Gano. Dates of publication: 1854-1988; -v. 129, no. 23 (June 8, 1988). Frequency: Weekly (Old Fulton New York Postcards)
   The part that I KNOW is from the Bible is the story of the immigrant John Hause, b. 1690, who was supposedly a cousin of Queen Mary, and married Sarah Allen in 1715. I know this to be from the Bible of Joseph Hause of Ovid because Joseph's son, Alfred, and a cousin were interviewed for the Watkins Express in 1904 and tell that story almost word-for-word, and say they have completed a history of the Hause family that had been sent out to other Hauses... which I STILL haven't found. The article also appeared in the Seneca County Courier-Journal the same year. My guess is that since Reeder is from a distant line to Alfred (her 2nd cousin, 2x removed) that she got the family history from these guys and added her own line after William Hause. On a side-note, although the Hause book hasn't appeared, Alfred did a history of his mother's line, the Purdy family, which tells the John Hause story in his father's bio. The Mormon Church has that book, but I have that page up on the link, as well.

CHAPTER 1: THE LEGEND OF JOHN HAUSE (1690-?)

CHAPTER 2: JOHN HAUSE OF WARWICK (1719-1794)

CHAPTER 3: WILLIAM HAUSE (1750-1818)

CHAPTER 4: JOHN HAUSE OF FAYETTE (1773-1844)

CHAPTER 5: AUGUSTUS HAUSE (1804-1875)

CHAPTER 6: LABAN AUGUSTUS HAUSE (1831-1906)

CHAPTER 7: FRANK AUGUSTUS HAUSE (1867-1951)

CHAPTER 8: TWENTIETH CENTURY MICHIGAN

CHAPTER 9: CARLISLE HAUSE (1891-1972)

CHAPTER 10: THE GREAT DEPRESSION

CHAPTER 11: CARLETON MARCHANT HAUSE, SR. (1917-1983)

CHAPTER 12: CARLETON MARCHANT HAUSE, JR. (1939-2014)

CHAPTER 13: AFTERWARD - THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

APPENDIX #1: ORIGINS OF THE HAUSE FAMILY

APPENDIX #2: HAUSE FAMILY TIMELINE, 1690-PRESENT

APPENDIX #3: WILLIAM HAUSE GENEALOGY, 1750-PRESENT

APPENDIX #4: THE HAUSE FAMILY IN THE CIVIL WAR

APPENDIX #5: HAUSE FAMILY BIBLES



Music: "Into to Bookends," by Simon & Garfunkle