OF SCOTTISH, ENGLISH, AND GERMAN ANCESTRY

DESCENDANT OF MARYLAND'S FIRST PROTESTANT GOVERNOR WILLIAM STONE

DISTANT RELATION OF PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON, VICE PRESIDENT JOHN C. CALHOUN, DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE SIGNER THOMAS STONE, AND ARTIST MAXFIELD PARRISH

REPORTEDLY A DESCENDANT OF ROBERT THE BRUCE AND KING JAMES IV "IRONBELT" OF SCOTLAND THROUGH HER GREAT GRANDMOTHER ELIZABETH CALHOUN MATHEWS

MOTHER OF IRL FAST

----------------

A BIOGRAPHY OF MARY FRANCES MITCHELSON FAST (1869-1941) OF POLK, ASHLAND CO., OH, by Laurence Overmire, genealogist and family historian (great grandson), updated June 2018:

Mary Frances Mitchelson was born Oct. 24, 1869, in Jackson Twp., Ashland County, Ohio, the second of four children of Benjamin Mitchelson and Rebecca Matthews. She probably knew very little about her ancestry had any idea that three of her great great grandfathers fought in the American Revolution, Capt. William Adams and Private Samuel Calhoun for the American side and Private Georg Adam Bartels for the British as a German mercenary. Bartels served in the Brunswick Musketeer Regiment Von Rhetz. He deserted ranks on Dec. 12, 1778, and decided to settle down and make his home in America in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

When she was about 22 years old, on Nov. 23, 1890, in Ashland County, she married Elvin Fast, the son of Judge Jacob Fast and his second wife Melissa Burlingame. She and Elvin had one child, a son, whose name she spelled "Irl." Irl explained the rationale in his memoirs:

"Grandfather [Benjamin Mitchelson] added a nickname and called her 'Pet.' She hated it but carried it for a good part of her life until her nieces dropped the nickname... When I, a grandson came along, my mother named me Irl and chose the three letters, thinking Grandfather would be satisfied and not give me a nickname. But it did not work. He nicknamed me 'Jackie.' My cousins picked it up and shortening it to Jack, carried it to school. So I was Jack around Polk and did not lose it until I found employment away from there."

Irl noted that his mother spent much of the time during the summers canning fruits and vegetables and making jams and jellies. He also talked about his mother's parenting tactics:

"During my early years, my mother was my chief disciplinarian since she was constantly with me while my father was at work in the fields. I remember one specific incident when she missed me after looking in my usual haunts, must have seen me at our closest neighbor's on the adjacent farm. She came after me with a switch and did a little more than tickle me with it all the way home. I felt deeply hurt and cried. My offense was not so much that I had gone to the neighbors as that I had gone without telling her and getting her permission."

Mary's granddaughter Nancy Fast Kepner (Irl's daughter) remembered that Mary was "a little, energetic lady with piercing black eyes that seemed to look right inside of you. She worked hard around the farm and house and was known to do many of the chores that the men were expected to do."

An opinionated woman who wasn't afraid to speak her mind, Mary was deeply religious, a member of the Christian Church of Polk for more than 40 years, a member of the Missionary Society of the church and of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Evidently, her religion was of the "fire and brimstone" variety. As Irl grew up and became a teenager, he refused to go to church any longer. Mary would point her finger at him and tell him he would go straight to hell, but Irl just wouldn't be persuaded. "He couldn't believe in a God that would allow so many bad things to happen to innocent children or good people," his daughter Nancy explained.

Mary died of pelvic and abdominal cancer in Samaritan Hospital, Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio, on Jan. 30, 1941, at the age of 71. She and her son Irl had been very close. When Mary died, it was the only time, Nancy Fast Kepner recalled, that she ever saw her father cry.

Sources:
1) "Genealogy of Fast, Shriver, Burns, Scott, McKibben, Including Descendants of Revolutionary War Hero Christian Fast," by Laurence Overmire, RootsWeb World Connect Project, 2000-2018.
2) "The Memoirs of Irl Fast," by Irl Fast, self-published, 1979.
3) Ohio, Births and Christenings Index, 1774-1973 (shows she was born in Jackson, Ashland, OH)
4) Ohio, County Marriage Records, 1774-1993
5) 1870 census, Jackson, Ashland, Ohio, Roll: M593_1169, Page: 650, Image: 155.
6) 1880 census, Jackson, Ashland, Ohio; Roll: T9_991; Family History Film: 1254991; Page: 76B; Enumeration District: 82; Image: 0155.
7) 1900 census, Jackson, Ashland, Ohio; Roll: T623 1237; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 4.
8) 1910 census, Jackson, Ashland, Ohio, Series: T624, Roll: 1151, Part: 2, Page: 111B
9) 1920 census, Jackson, Ashland, Ohio Roll: T625_1347 Page: 6B ED: 5 Image: 127 (She was living with her father Ben Mitchelson.)
10) 1930 census, Polk, Ashland, Ohio, Polk, Ashland, Ohio; Roll: 1749; Enumeration District: 8; Image: 113.0, Ancestry.com
11) Death Certificate of Mary Frances Fast, #153, from Ohio Deaths 1908-1953, FamilySearch Labs (Lists Benjamin Mitchelson and Jane Matthews as parents. Lists birthdate 24 Oct 1869 in Ashland Co., OH. Irl Fast was the informant. He was living at 2124 Hampstead Rd. in Cleveland Heights, OH)
12) "Mrs. Mary Fast Dies At Polk," Obituary of Mary Fast, from an unknown newspaper (says she was born in Nankin, probably an error)
13) Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Obituary Index, 1810s-2016
14) Ohio, Death Records, 1908-1932, 1938-2007
15) Correspondence of Nancy Fast Kepner, daughter of Irl Fast, with her nephew Laurence Irl Overmire, grandson of Irl Fast, 2002.
16) David Mason's research on Georg Adam Bartels, Rootsweb Database, 11 Dec 2006