Christopher Hornaday
b. 1 October 1843, Zanesville, Ohio, to Christopher and Lucinda (Zentmeyer) Hornaday
d. 3 February 1926, Girard, Kansas

m. 25 March 1866
Mary Ella Rominger
b. Hope, Indiana, to Charles W. and Mary Ann (Walter) Rominger
d. 29 December 1937, Pittsburgh, Kansas

Children with Mary Ella Rominger:

• Harry E. (28 October 1867–4 August 1904)
• Etta A. (b. 28 August 1869) married [–?–] Sillaman
• Martha (b. 22 February 1872) married [–?–] Kagey
• Ethel (b. 4 July 1884)
• Jessie M. (b. 15 March 1885[?]) married [–?–] McMahon
• Charles E. (b. 22 March 1888)

In July of 1862, Christopher enlisted in Company I, 67th Indiana Infantry. He was captured at the Battle of Mumfordsville, Kentucky, and paroled on 17 September 1862. Later he was slightly wounded by a spent ball at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and was discharged at Galveston, Texas, on 19 July 1865.

In 1873 Christopher and his wife Mary Ella and three children moved to Crawford County, Kansas, and in 1894, to 160 acres in Osage Township, two miles north of McCune, Kansas. Christopher Hornaday’s father, Christopher Sr., died young before Christopher was born. Harry E., the son of Christopher and Mary Ella, also died in his 30’s. It is now suspected that both Christopher, Sr. and Harry E. had Noonan’s syndrome, a genetic disorder identified in 1962 which includes a heart defect. In 1993, Harry’s great-grandson was diagnosed as having this disorder and underwent angioplasty in 1994 before his second birthday.

Mary Ellen Rominger’s father was a farmer, carpenter, and casket maker. He had helped to build cabins and churches for the early settlers who followed him to Indiana after July 1829. The Rominger family had come to this country from Germany via Maine to North Carolina, where Charles was born.

With Mary Ella’s roots in Indiana, she may have been full of apprehension about going to unknown Kansas, but she moved there with her husband and three children in 1873. There, four more children were born. Mary Ella lived 90 full years, which took her from the days of the horse and buggy to the days of the automobile. She fell and broke her hip on 21 December 1937 and died eight days later at Pittsburgh, Kansas.

Submitted by:
Pat Cravens Hornaday
Tarpon Springs FL