Documenting my family's past for future generations. My family tree includes the Smith/Mansell families of Alabama and Oklahoma, the Castle/Day families of Kentucky and Oklahoma, the Wheat/Ming families of Texas and Oklahoma, and the Bell/Roberts families of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Oklahoma.

Saturday, January 7, 2023

Family Christmas

I can't believe it's been almost exactly a year since I last posted to this blog. It's interesting how I have less time to write now that I'm retired. I have gotten involved in several volunteer organizations and find myself getting ready to become President of one of them in May. My only grandchild was born in October of 2021 and lives close by, so he has become the most looked-forward-to part of every week. I joined a DNA study for my Wheat family side that has involved learning how to use WikiTree and keeping up with matches. It has also led to a new friendship with one of my distant Wheat cousins who lives in Kentucky; we communicate by email or text every few days and talk on the phone often. It seems I have something to do almost every day, and I have found I have less ability to multi-task the older I get.

I have to say that I haven't had any genealogical breakthroughs lately either, although I hope to write about one at the conclusion of the Wheat family study. So far, that looks unlikely, although we think we have decided who our common Wheat ancestors are not. What I want to write about today is the other side of my family, the Castle/Smith side. They always predominated at the holidays, because my dad's twin brother, Mack, and almost all my paternal grandmother's siblings lived close by when I was growing up and were always a part of our celebrations. This year was no exception, although so many who were an important part of past Christmases are now gone.

As my son and my brother's daughter have gotten older and started their own families, it has become harder and harder to schedule a time when we can all get together to celebrate birthdays or holidays. This year we finally decided to postpone our Christmas celebration until the afternoon of New Year's Eve. We would all meet at my house for lunch-y snacks, Dirty Santa for the adults, and presents to unwrap for the little ones--my grandson and my brother's granddaughter and grandson. In making our plans for the day, my brother Tim asked if there was anything special we did during our childhood Christmas celebrations. I think he was mainly asking about food, but I reminded him that our Christmas Eve get-togethers with our Uncle Mack's family in the 1950's and 60's usually involved a "program" of readings, songs, and poems, along with food and enthusiastic unwrapping of presents.

We're not talking anything classical here--somebody picked out "Jingle Bells" on the piano, somebody read the Christmas story, but my grandmother always recited a poem that she had learned for a Christmas program at school when she was in 3rd or 4th grade. We marveled that she could recite it word-for-word after 60 years; in fact, she knew 2 or 3 narrative poems by heart that she recited until she was 90, 80 years after she learned them in elementary school. We begged her to recite all of them whenever we got together for any kind of celebration, but I especially loved the one she recited at Christmas about Santa Claus on an immigrant train. Back to that later--

Since Tim was in a nostalgic frame of mind, I decided to create a slide show of photographs from family Christmases--from my 2nd Christmas in 1954 to his daughter's first Christmases in the 1990's. It was when I was looking for these photographs that I found one that was a lot older and would become a great addition to a get-together with our Castle cousins on Christmas Day. It was a professional photograph of the whole Castle family on Christmas Day 1942. That's the other part of this story.

Last year I got together with my cousin Ann's family at a restaurant dinner and then at her house for their family Christmas. Tim wasn't able to come last year, so this year he contacted our cousin Jayne, Ann's daughter, and asked if we could see them Christmas evening. We had both had Christmas with our respective nuclear families earlier in the day, which is why we couldn't do our joint Christmas celebration on Christmas Day, but we could both make it to Ann's for their family get-together that evening. I took the Castle photograph I had found. I don't know if you have done the math, but that photograph had been taken exactly 80 years ago to the day. Only two people in the photograph are still living, and one of them is my cousin Ann, seen at the far right on the front row.


Castle Family, Christmas Day 1942


Ann, Tim, and I were the only ones who could identify the people in the photograph, and none of us were sure about all the little boys. Using information from my family tree on Ancestry, I think I have been able to identify all the children of the 8 Castle siblings that were born by Christmas Day 1942.

So that was Christmas Day. Fast forward a week and my brother and his family were at my house for our Christmas celebration on New Year's Eve. We ate and visited and opened presents, then it was time for the program. It was pretty relaxed, but those that wanted to took turns with their parts of the program. My grandson Jack managed a few toots on a plastic flute; the little ones jingled bells while we all sang "Jingle Bells"; Tim's granddaughter sang her favorite Christmas song, "Last Christmas"; her father, who is from Liverpool, told us about English Christmas traditions; and I read the poem my grandmother used to recite, "Santa Claus on the Train." 

I can't believe I found it! I have looked for it for decades and had just about given up. This time I googled from my phone which gave different results than googling from my laptop. It took me to the blog of a woman whose mother had recited that same poem in a Christmas program when she was in school. The blog included a photograph of a faded and torn copy of the poem. It must have been a Christmas miracle, because I can't find it now using the same search I used a month ago. So--here it is--the poem my grandmother recited from memory 80 years after she learned it and I read to my family on New Year's Eve 2022.

Santa Claus on the Train

On a Christmas Eve an emigrant train

Sped on through the blackness of night

And cleft the pitchy dark in twain

With the gleam of its fierce headlight.

 

In a crowded car, a noisome place,

Sat a mother and her child;

The woman’s face bore want’s wan trace,

But the little one only smiled.

 

And tugged and pulled at her mother’s dress,

And her voice had a merry ring,

As she lisped, “Now, mamma, come and guess

What Santa Claus’ll bring.”

 

But sadly her mother shook her head,

As she thought of a happier past;

“He never can catch us here,” she said,

“The train is going too fast.”

 

“O, mamma, yes, he’ll come, I say,

So swift are his little deer,

They run all over the world today;

I’ll hang my stocking up here.”

 

She pinned her stocking to the seat,

And closed her tired eyes;

And soon she saw each longed-for sweet

In dreamland’s paradise.

 

On a seat behind the little maid

A rough man sat apart,

But a soft light o’er his features played,

And stole into his heart.

 

As the cars drew up at a busy town

The rough man left the train,

But scarce had from the steps jumped down

Ere he was back again.


And a great big bundle of Christmas joys

Bulged out from his pocket wide;

He filled the stocking with sweets and toys

He laid by the dreamer’s side.

 

At dawn the little one woke with a shout,

‘Twas sweet to hear her glee;

“I knowed that Santa Claus would find me out;

He caught the train you see.”

 

Though some from smiling may scarce refrain,

The child was surely right,

The good St. Nicholas caught the train,

And came aboard that night.

 

For the saint is fond of masquerade

And may fool the old and wise,

And so he came to a little maid

In an emigrant’s disguise.


Saturday, January 8, 2022

The Long Search for Mr. Spurlock, or The Tale of Two Marriage Certificates

 Over 30 years ago my cousin shared a photocopy of a marriage license with me. 



I'm not sure where she got it. It probably was photocopied by the person who possessed the original marriage license, but if so, I don't know who may have had it. More than likely the original has been lost. I have also never been able to find the certificate online, not even indexed. That could be because it hasn't been scanned, or because of the location in which the marriage took place, which I will explain below, or perhaps because I haven't been looking in the right place. In any case, this copy of the license/certificate is all I have, and I have examined it carefully for any clues it contains.

My cousin and I share great-grandparents, Thomas Jefferson Bell and Cornelia Roberts, whose marriage certificate this is. While the details of Thomas's life are fairly straightforward, Cornelia has been a bit of a puzzle. She was born in Jackson County, Tennessee, 4 February 1865, according to her headstone in the Fairview Cemetery, Dustin, Hughes County, Oklahoma. She first appears on the 1870 census of Jackson County with her parents, Stephen and Elzina Roberts. Here's the first little anomaly: she is listed as Permelia, age 14! I have determined, to the best of my knowledge, that this was just the census taker's mistake, either in mishearing name and age, or having been given wrong information by a family member or neighbor. Permelia does not appear on the 1860 census with the Roberts family when she would have been 4, nor in any record since 1870. She first shows up on the 1870 census, which would also be the first census in which Cornelia should appear at age 5.

Stephen and Elzina divorced in the 1870's (I've written about the divorce in this blog on several occasions), and Elzina moved herself and her children (minus oldest daughter Mary/Polly who had married in Jackson County) to Caldwell County, Kentucky, sometime before 1880 when they appear on the Caldwell County census. Puzzle #2: Why there? I have been unable to find any relatives in Caldwell County, nor any direct route that would lead Elzina's family there. Maybe they just saw an advertisement for farm land and took the chance to start a new life away from Stephen. On the 1880 census of Caldwell County the household consists of Elzina (enumerated as Elmira), age 54; Nancy, age 24; James Henry, age 18; Thomas J., age 14; Cornelia, age 13; Nathan J., age 12; and hired hand John Grider, age 23, who would later marry Nancy.

From there the family splits up. Cornelia ends up in Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, in what is now southern Oklahoma. The marriage license/certificate above records her marriage there to Thomas J. Bell on 15 October 1893. Puzzle #3: She is listed as Mrs. Cornelia Spurlock on the marriage license. Until yesterday I didn't know anything about Cornelia's life between 1880 and 1893.

I wasn't even looking for proof of Cornelia's marriage to an unknown Spurlock, which I have done for over 30 years without success. I actually was looking at the 1860 Jackson County census, trying to make some sense of the DNA matches I have that might lead me to the names of Elzina's or Stephen's parents. For the hundredth time I saw the family of Drury and Paralee Spurlock at Dwelling #206 and Stephen and Elzina's family at #215. I have always suspected that Cornelia's first husband came from this family just because of their proximity but I had never been able to find proof of it. For some reason this time I clicked on the name Lock, the 4-year-old son of Drury and Paralee. Suggested Records showed me that the only other time he appears by this name is on the 1870 census. 

I clicked on his name there, and Suggested Records showed me records under various names, including Jones T. Spurlock, James T. Spurlock, and James L. Spurlock. Thinking that James L. might be Lock, I clicked on his name and under the Suggested Records was a marriage record for a James L. Spurlock in Kentucky. Knowing that Cornelia had lived there, this was a possibility. When I clicked on it, I couldn't believe my eyes! Here was the marriage record for Cornelia and the formerly unknown Mr. Spurlock, now known as James L. They had married in Caldwell County, Kentucky, on 10 August 1882 when James was 26 and Cornelia was 16.




I don't know why I had never been able to find it before, but this was one time when clicking around was not a waste of time! My guess is that I gave up on finding that record long ago, and in the meantime it had been added to Ancestry's database. In any case, I wouldn't have found it this time because I wasn't searching for it. It was just a very happy accident. 

I was hoping to find something in the document that was new information about Cornelia's family. I really didn't, but it did verify information that I already knew or suspected and gave me a couple of new questions to ponder. I already knew that Cornelia, her mother, and four of her siblings were living in Caldwell County, Kentucky, in 1880, so it doesn't surprise me that she married there. 

Of course, the most important piece of new information was the identity of Cornelia's first husband--James L. Spurlock. Information about the groom and bride show that both of them resided in Caldwell County at the time of the marriage, and both of them were born in Tennessee. There were no Spurlock families in Caldwell County in 1880, so it seems likely that James L. Spurlock is from one of the Jackson County Spurlock families. How did he end up in Caldwell County? It seems unlikely that he followed Cornelia there, as she was only 13 on the 1880 census and could have been much younger when her family moved to Kentucky. I can't find James on the 1880 census in either Jackson County or Caldwell County; all I know is that he was there by 1882 when he married Cornelia.

John Grider and James signed the marriage bond. Remember John Grider? He was the hired man listed with the Roberts family on the 1880 census and also Cornelia's new brother-in-law. He had married her sister Nancy on 30 July 1882, just days before Cornelia married James. Is there a previous connection between James and John, or did they just strike up a friendship because each of them had a connection to the Roberts family? If I knew why the Roberts family moved to Caldwell County, it might help solve this mystery too.

I started this journey by clicking on Lock Spurlock in Jackson County, Tennessee, on the 1860 census. He was living with his parents, Drewry (Drury) and Parilee (Paralee) Spurlock. On the 1870 census he is again enumerated as "Lock." I don't know if this is just a nickname for Spurlock or perhaps a family name. There were Lock/Locke families in Jackson County that intermarried with the Spurlocks, but I can't find any preceding the birth of Lock Spurlock in 1856. After a quick search for males named James or James L. Spurlock of the right age in Tennessee before 1880, I can't find any that aren't accounted for by other marriages. I cannot find anyone named Lock Spurlock after 1870. My gut instinct tells me that Cornelia married the Lock Spurlock that was her childhood neighbor in Jackson County.

I still don't know how or why Cornelia came to the Chickasaw Nation. There is a lot of time unaccounted for from her marriage to James L. Spurlock in 1882 and her marriage to Thomas Jefferson Bell in Woodford, Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation, in 1893. As far as I know, T. J. Bell never lived in Kentucky, so he probably met Cornelia in Indian Territory. Did she come there with her husband, James L. Spurlock, or perhaps with her youngest brother, James Nathan, around 1890? James Nathan married in Troy, I.T., in 1903. What happened to James L.? Did he die in Kentucky, did they divorce, did he come with her to Indian Territory and die there? 

I thought I had found a clue years ago, when I found the grave of Maggie L. V. Spurlock in a cemetery in Woodford, which is now Carter County, Oklahoma. I surmised that she was the daughter of Cornelia and the unknown Mr. Spurlock. There are no other Spurlock headstones in the cemetery, so still no clue about what happened to James. (There is a family story about a father and child dying in a wagon accident, but if it was James and Maggie, wouldn't James be buried there too?) Maggie was born in 1887 and died in 1892, before Cornelia married T. J. Bell in 1893, so the timing of a divorce or James's death around 1892 is plausible. The location of the cemetery ties Cornelia to this area as well. George Benjamin Akers, the second husband of T. J. Bell's mother, is buried in the same cemetery. There are lines written on Maggie's headstone below the birth and death dates. Maybe someday soon I can visit the cemetery and see if there are any other clues. 


Headstone of Maggie L. V. Spurlock
1887-1892
Woodford Cemetery, Carter Co., OK
Contributed to Findagrave by pegsueca

By the way, if you know anything about the history of Oklahoma, you probably wonder how my ancestors were able to reside in a tribal nation before those lands were open to settlement by non-tribal individuals. I'm not sure I know the answer, but I know that ancestors from all four of my family branches were in what became Oklahoma before statehood in 1907. As far as I know, none of them had tribal affiliation. Only one of my great-grandparents applied for tribal (Cherokee) citizenship and was denied because she could not prove her connection to a tribal member. 

The marriage certificate for Mr. Thos. J. Bell, age 22, and Mrs. Cornelia Spurlock, age 25, states that they both are residents of Woodford, Pickens County. Pickens County doesn't exist anymore. It was one of four counties that made up the Chickasaw Nation  from 1855 until statehood in 1907. All or part of eight present-day Oklahoma counties comprise what was once Pickens County. In reality, Woodford doesn't really exist anymore either. According to Wikipedia, it no longer has a school; students in the area attend school in nearby towns. Its last store closed in the 1980s. 


Marriage licenses are usually handled by the county. You can see why it might be hard to search for documents from Pickens County since it doesn't exist anymore. It doesn't even show up as an option when I search on Ancestry.com. Woodford does come up in a search, but in present-day Carter County, Oklahoma, where it is located.  If you do research in the areas of Oklahoma that belonged to the tribes before statehood, you will find that searching for "Indian Territory" often doesn't get you where you want to go. 

As it turns out, marriage licenses for white inhabitants of tribal nations pre-Oklahoma statehood were not given by the county; they were requested from and recorded by the U.S. Federal Court. Thomas and Cornelia's wedding license and certificate of marriage were given by the "United States of America / The Indian Territory / Third Judicial District" and signed by Joseph W. Phillips, Clerk of the U.S. Court. 

According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, three judicial districts were established in 1890. The First District included the Creek and Cherokee Nations and its court seat was in Muskogee. The Second District included the Choctaw Nation and its court seat was in South McAlester. The Third District, where Thomas and Cornelia got married, included the Chickasaw and Seminole Nations and its court seat was in Ardmore. In 1895 the districts were divided further and more court seats were added. 

The Oklahoma Historical Society Research Center in Oklahoma City holds the marriage records of the U.S. District Court in Ardmore, Chickasaw Nation, Carter County, from 1895 to 1907 on microfilm. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society's guide to Territorial marriages on their website, the County Clerk of Carter County holds the original 12 volumes of records. They were microfilmed by the LDS Church. An index to the marriages has been produced and is also available at the OHS Research Center. 

Where are the records from 1893? The Third District Court seat at Ardmore didn't change from 1890 to 1907, so where are the records from 1890 to 1895? 

I haven't been to the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Center since before covid. The center is open now and available to the public Tuesday through Saturday. I think I am going to have to make a field trip to Carter County by way of Oklahoma City. I could visit the cemetery where Maggie Spurlock is buried and check out the available marriage records at the OHS Research Center. I'll let you know if I find out anything.


Monday, April 19, 2021

A Road Trip by the Book

Granville, Tennessee hosts a Genealogy Festival each April, at which they focus on the history of a particular family from the community. In 2020 the Huff family was supposed to be the highlighted family, but of course, that festival was postponed due to the Covid pandemic. It suddenly occurred to me about a month ago that they might have re-scheduled the festival for this April. A quick look at their website showed me that they had, and that the Huffs had been re-scheduled as the focus family. The parents of my ancestor, Elzina Huff, are a big question, and I was hoping that someone who would be at Granville for the festival would have the answer.

I was determined to attend, even if I had to drive there myself. Fortunately, my brother is always up for a road trip, so we started making plans. Since we had already discussed revisiting the community near West Liberty, Kentucky, where our Castle grandmother lived until age 10, we decided to make that a part of this trip. We had also never visited nearby White Oak, Kentucky, where our Day great-grandmother was born. I had discovered that our 3rd great-grandmother, Sarah Oney Day, was buried there, so that cemetery went on our list, along with the resting place of our 6th great-grandfather Lewis, who is buried in Leslie County, Kentucky. Leslie County is conveniently on the way to the Cumberland Gap, which was another place my brother and I had always wanted to visit, so that went on the list too. 

We would spend three days working our way through Kentucky, then attend the Genealogy Festival in Tennessee on April 10. If we had time, we might hit a couple of historical sites along the way, and just for fun, a bourbon distillery, since that's a new interest of my brother's. Thank goodness my brother loves to drive--we made 8 states in 5 days! Our plan was to make it from Tulsa to Frankfort, Kentucky, in the first day, stopping at about the halfway mark at the Daniel Boone Home National Historic Site in Defiance, Missouri. 


Daniel Boone Home National Historic Site


Daniel Boone Home, Defiance, MO

Tim had been listening to the audiobook, Boone, by Robert Morgan, and in fact, we listened to a few chapters of it in the car. It was one of the books that inspired our trip and is one of the reasons I called this post, "A Road Trip by the Book." Since we would be visiting the Cumberland Gap, the place for which Daniel Boone is most famous, we thought it would be fitting to visit the place where he spent the last years of his life. 

Boone came to Missouri, then Spanish Louisiana, in 1799 at the age of 65, having been offered 850 acres by the Spanish government. Always in debt and in trouble because of it, Boone gladly accepted the invitation, bringing his wife Rebecca and several of his children. Although the historic site that stands today in Missouri is named for Daniel, it actually was the home of his youngest son, Nathan. According to the Daniel Boone Home website, although Daniel had his own property, he spent most of his last 20 years in Nathan's house, dying there (in the bedroom below) on September 26, 1820, at the age of 86.




Both Daniel and Nathan worked as surveyors, which was interesting to Tim and me because we both had just read the book, Measuring America by Andro Linklater. I would definitely recommend it for any  genealogist or history enthusiast, as there is quite a story behind the efforts to survey the expanding U.S. 

I'm sure the tour guide at the Daniel Boone House was surprised at our reaction to the Gunter chain, a surveyor's measuring tool, that he picked up off a display table in the house. We had just read about how this measuring device, which was invented in 1620 by English mathematician, Edmund Gunter, was adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1785 to measure Western lands for settlement, replacing the colonial metes and bounds system. I could go on and on about how the Gunter chain reconciled different measuring systems and established measurement language that we still use today, but you really just need to read the book. 


Gunter chain at Campus Martius Museum, Marietta, OH


Nathan Boone's surveying notes from Daniel Boone House;
powderhorn made by Daniel Boone


After another six hours of driving, we gratefully sank into our beds at a Hampton Inn in Frankfort.

Maker's Mark Distillery

Our first stop the next morning had nothing to do with genealogy, or at least I don't think so, but in this Covid year my brother had become interested in Kentucky bourbon. He had suggested I watch a documentary about Kentucky and bourbon making that he had seen on Amazon Prime Video, and it really was interesting and educational. Not many of the distilleries are back open for tours, and the one he really wanted to visit--Buffalo Trace in Frankfort--had filled all their tour slots for the date we would be there. 

We ended up on the back roads from Frankfort to Loretto, Kentucky, to visit the Maker's Mark Distillery. We all laughed at the inside joke when the tour guide said, "Did you think you were on the wrong road?" because who would ever think a nationally known distillery is located down a twisting, rural two-lane road? She pointed out this view of the distillery grounds as her favorite and the one that is sketched on the Maker's Mark label.






We thoroughly enjoyed the scenery to, at, and from the distillery; the tour; and even I enjoyed the tasting at the end of our visit.


Oney Cemetery, White Oak, Kentucky

On from Loretto to West Liberty, Kentucky, for the first genealogical site on our trip. On arriving in West Liberty, we first tried to visit our Castle family cemetery on Centerville Road. After a couple of tries at finding this cemetery on past trips, Tim and I had visited it once, and my cousin Linda and I had visited it again a couple of years ago. We knew through Castle cousins in the area that the land on which the cemetery is located was up for sale. Well, apparently, it sold, because we were disappointed on this visit to find access to the cemetery fenced and posted "No Trespassing." 

We turned instead to finding the Oney Cemetery in White Oak--a place for which I had downloaded detailed instructions from Mapcarta. I had never noticed that instead of north/south/east/west, the directions said "turn right, turn left," but from where? After circling West Liberty endlessly--which is easy to do and which we had done before--we finally got out a paper map to find the road mentioned in the directions, 1081, which was not far from the community of White Oak, where our great-grandmother, Sarah Florida Day Castle, was born in 1878. 

After passing through White Oak and turning on 1081, we were supposed to find the cemetery in about 1-1/2 miles. Tim and I have gotten good at finding Kentucky cemeteries, usually half-hidden far up a hill, but we went for several miles without seeing it. Tim turned the car around and suggested we each examine our own side of the road for signs of a cemetery. Going at it from the other direction was the trick--it had apparently been hidden from sight on our way in. I was the first to see it on my side of the road. 

You can't tell from this photo, but it was on a steep incline, and the way up to it was just a grassy track. I offered to walk, but Tim--I called him "intrepid"--was able to drive his car up the narrow track almost to the cemetery gates. We could tell right away that we had the right place; there were lots of Oneys. 




Our main objective was to find the grave of our 3rd great-grandmother, Sarah Oney Day. You can read about Sarah, her siblings, and her children in my post, "The Oneys (and a Couple of Great Stories)." Sarah Jane Oney was the first wife of her 1st cousin, Andrew Jackson Day. The couple married in 1855 when Sarah was 15; after having three children, one of them my 2nd great-grandfather, James Thomas Day, she died in 1862 at age 21. Andrew J. remarried to Catherine Jane Reed. They moved to Ohio in the 1910's and are buried there.


Sarah Oney Day, 1840-1862


Sarah's headstone apparently broke in half at some point; the top half of the headstone is leaning against the bottom half. Below her dates is possibly a verse of some kind; I'm not able to read it.





Since we have found from experience that many Kentucky graves are to be found on the tops of hills within the farm boundaries of individual families, I assume that the Oneys may have owned the land where the cemetery is located, or at least, lived somewhere in the vicinity. I took this photo of a field and hilly vista on the other side of the road from the cemetery. Somehow it's comforting to me to think that my Oney ancestors lived in this pretty little valley.



Having reached the end of Day 2 of our trip, we drove back to the hotel in Frankfort. The next morning we were on our way to the Cumberland Gap, via Wooton, Leslie County, Kentucky, and the cemetery where our 6th great-grandfather, James Lewis, is buried.

Lewis Cemetery, Wooton, Kentucky

Commemorative plaque at Lewis Cemetery

This cemetery was easy to find because a nice Findagrave member named Sandra Feltner had sent me directions. Off Hwy. 80 in Wooton, we turned on Hwy. 699 (Cutshin Road). I had been surprised to find that James was buried in Wooton, as his death place is always given as Cutshin, a name which certainly sticks in your memory.  

I have seen many pictures of this plaque online, but what nobody tells you is that there is barely a foot of grass to stand on to take a picture. One step backwards and you are on a busy road. The plaque reads:

JAMES T. LEWIS

A DARING PIONEER BORN IN WALES, 8-9-1735. DIED

IN WOOTON, KENTUCKY 9-1-1825. A SOLDIER IN

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR SERVING IN THE

MILITIA. HIS 11,000 DESCENDANTS ANSWERED THE

CALL IN TIME OF WAR, AS WELL AS SERVING IN 

EVERY ELECTIVE OFFICE IN THE USA EXCEPT THE

PRESIDENT'S OFFICE.

It then lists his children by two marriages: by Lady Griffin, 1. Elvira, 2. James, 3. Gideon; by Winnie Henson, 1. Patsy, 2. Andrew, 3. Margaret, 4. John, 5. Nathan, 6. Joseph, 7. Thaddeus, 8. Henry M., 9. Betsy, 10. Samuel, 11. Mary, 12. Absolom, 13. Winnie, 14. Juder, 15. Sallie, 16. Isaac. 

Tim and I are descended from his son John by 2nd wife, Winnie Henson. His daughter, Martha "Patsy" Lewis, married Daniel Reed. Their son, Lewis Reed, married Sarah Patrick. They are the parents of my great-grandmother, Nancy Emily Reed. Nancy Emily married James Thomas Day, the son of Sarah Oney Day, whose grave we found in the Oney Cemetery. The daughter of James Thomas Day and Nancy Emily Reed was my great-grandmother, Sarah Florida Day, who married George Turner Castle of Morgan County, Kentucky. 

While our previous trips to Kentucky had focused on our Castle ancestors, this trip had taken us to the homes and resting places of the families that made up the Day branch of our family. 

This must be a really old cemetery, although the headstones show some more recent burials. Many of the stones are broken off and completely unreadable. Across the road and up the hill was a cemetery that appeared to be newer. It made me wonder if the cemetery had been separated when the road was built. More likely, a new cemetery was built when this one ran out of space. 


Lewis descendants must have had this newer stone laid for James Lewis. I don't know if it replaced an older one, or if it just commemorates James's burial somewhere in this cemetery. Also a note on the middle initial T. that appears in James's name on the plaque, but not on the headstone: Many trees give his name as James Theophilus Lewis, but I have never found a document that gives him a middle name. In fact, most people didn't have middle names in the era in which James lived. Perhaps one of his descendants named James had the middle name, Theophilus, and it was assumed that the name had originated with this James.



We were excited to be on our way to the Cumberland Gap. As many times as I have been to Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, I had never seen the gap through which so many of my southwest Virginia ancestors came to Kentucky.

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

After leaving the Visitor's Center at the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, where I spent too much money on books, we drove the 4-mile winding road to Pinnacle Peak. At Pinnacle Peak you are actually standing in Virginia and looking out over the states of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The road up was not too harrowing, except for a couple of places where my heights-averse brother had to make blinders with his hand so he couldn't see the view down the mountain. We finally made it to the Pinnacle Peak Overlook; Tim chose to hike into the woods close to the parking lot, while I made my way to the very sturdy overlook with the big strong guardrail. Even I didn't get too close to the edge, so my photos aren't very awe-inspiring.






There are some really cool rock formations in the woods around the overlook.





I couldn't help reflecting on the reactions of the first explorers that saw the rock formations and the view. It's hard to imagine the longhunters, much less families, making this grueling journey up and over a mountain on foot or horseback. It reminded me of the story of my Whitley ancestors who made the trip through the mountains single-file on horseback. Esther Whitley rode with 3-year-old daughter Elizabeth (my 4th great-grandmother) tied to her back and 1-year-old Isabella in her lap. According to the story, the horse fell more than once as they made their way over the mountains.  

We made our modern way through a tunnel under the Gap. We were on our way to Cookeville, Tennessee, to spend the night. I was excitedly looking forward to the next day, which was the Genealogy Festival in Granville.



Genealogy Festival in Granville, Tennessee


It was a rainy Saturday morning, but a lot of people had already come out for the festival(s) in Granville. Granville has gained a reputation in the last few years as a historic town that welcomes visitors to lots of events--nostalgic, musical, and genealogical. The weekend of the genealogy festival was also Mayberry Day and I Love Lucy Day. There would be impersonations of Barney Fife, Floyd the Barber, and Lucy and Dezi; the Darlings would play music again; and members of the Huff families would provide opportunities for descendants to collaborate. 

I was excited to meet James Clemons, one of the genealogical presenters, who I suspected was my 2nd cousin. He is 92 and had a bad bout with Covid this year, but I was able to confirm with him that we share ancestors in Elzina Huff and Stephen Roberts. He is descended from their daughter, Mary/Polly, and I am descended from their daughter, Cornelia. In the photo above, from the Historical Granville Facebook page, I am seated with Anna Stout Stephenson, a presenter and Huff descendant, and the son of James Clemons, who would be my 2nd cousin, once removed.  

Unfortunately, the Huff family members that were going to be in Granville for a reunion on Sunday had postponed the event until August; I had determined that they were probably not my branch of the Huffs anyway, but I had hoped somebody from that group might know where Elzina belonged on the Huff family tree. I did have a chance to visit with Karen Hall Sarraga, another presenter, with whom I had shared family trees on Ancestry, but she didn't have any information on Elzina. Carver Moore, who was manning the Findagrave booth, was a great help. On a large map of Jackson County, Carver pointed out the way to the Dry Fork of Martin's Creek, where Elzina lived, and all the cemeteries in that area. 





After purchasing a new book, The Legacy of Granville Tennessee, and donating a small book of my Huff family blog posts to the Granville Museum Library, Tim and I set off to explore the Dry Fork of Martin's Creek. 



I have no idea if Stephen and Elzina Roberts lived along the road we drove. All I know is what Elzina said in her 1874 divorce complaint--that she had lived on the Dry Fork of Martin's Creek her whole life. Carver told me that Pharrises lived all along that road; DNA tells me that I have a Pharris connection somewhere, but I'm not sure I'll ever know exactly what it is. For now it was enough to know that I had ancestors who lived somewhere along this creek.



We saw evidence all along the road that there had once been homes that no longer exist--even a chimney standing all by itself. It makes me wonder what kind of home Elzina left behind when she left Tennessee. I didn't find answers on this trip, but I did get a feeling for the place where she spent most of her life.



Stones River National Battlefield

Our last stop before heading home was this Civil War battlefield.  I had never heard of it, but Tim knew it as one of the most important battles of the war, and it was in Murfreesboro, only a little over an hour from Granville. Unbeknownst to him, we had an ancestor that might have taken part in the battle--our great-grandfather's brother, Alexander Jackson Smith.

We know that he joined Company A, 33rd Alabama Infantry, C.S.A.; his pension application gives the date of his enlistment as 1861. He was on a muster roll dated 11 March 1862. According to the same pension application, he was wounded at Perryville (October 1862) and held prisoner at Harrodsburg, from where he escaped. We know that Alexander rejoined his company because he was wounded at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (June-July 1864) and hospitalized at Macon, Georgia; he was paroled from North Carolina at the end of the war. The Battle of Stones River took place from 31 December 1862 to 2 January 1863. If Alexander had been able to rejoin his company after his capture at Perryville, then it's quite possible he was at Stones River.


Cemetery at Stones River




My brother and I took the self-guided tour of the battlefield and walked several of the trails. I learned about the Pioneer Brigade, created by Major General William Rosecrans, that consisted of two men from each company to serve as an engineer corps--clearing roads, building bridges, etc. According to this sign at the battlefield, "Many of the men. . . had been carpenters or miners in civilian life." Some of the earthworks they built still exist.




The Battle of Stones River, like many other Civil War battles, had to do with protecting or disrupting supply routes. The Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad was vital to both armies fighting at Stones River; today the railroad still runs right behind the Stones River cemetery and this monument to the Hazen Brigade, the only Union soldiers who didn't retreat during the fighting on December 31. Over 400 of them died here. Most monuments were built after the war; this one was built by the Hazen Brigade survivors in 1863, while the war was still going on, and became an attraction on the railway line after the war. 




One Last Book

One other audiobook that we listened to on the trip was News of the World by Paulette Jiles. Tim had seen the movie but hadn't read the book, and I had intended to do both. The central character is Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a veteran of the Civil War. It is 1870, and Captain Kidd travels all around Texas reading the "news of the world" to its citizens. His life changes when he accepts the job of returning a 10-year-old Kiowa captive named Johanna to her German family in Castroville. 

Along with the latest blog posts I have written about our Wheat family in Texas, I think News of the World has piqued Tim's interest in Texas history. Our next trip, hopefully this summer, will take us to Texas and Alabama.


Saturday, November 28, 2020

The Wheat Brothers: Myths and Legends, Part III

In "The Wheat Brothers, Part I," I profiled Samuel Wheat, who is my 3rd great-grandfather. Brothers Benjamin and Josiah were the subjects of Part II. In this post I'll talk about William, who is also my 3rd great-grandfather, and tell you what I know about John, the fifth brother. 

Wheat Genealogy has this to say about William:

WILLIAM -- born c. 1785; married Hester Whitley and lived in Alabama, in Tennessee, and in 1833 went to Texas

If William actually was born in 1785, that would make him the second oldest of the brothers for whom we have birth dates. Josiah was born in 1779, and Samuel was born in 1787. It is also interesting that the 1850 census gives William's birth place as Kentucky. While I think I have eliminated Loudoun County as the origin for the brothers, both Josiah and Samuel consistently gave their birth place as Virginia. 

William married Esther Stephenson in Madison County, Alabama, on 15 September 1813. Esther and Samuel's wife, Cynthia, were daughters of Robert Stephenson and Elizabeth Whitley. Another sister, Susannah, who married Thomas N. Ming, is also my 3rd great-grandmother. Thomas and Susannah's son, William F. Ming, married his first cousin, Susanna Wheat, daughter of Samuel and Cynthia. Just to give you some perspective, out of my mother's 8 great-great-grandparents on her paternal line, 5 of them are either Wheat brothers or Stephenson sisters. 

The Stephenson sisters were granddaughters of William and Esther Whitley, notable pioneers of Kentucky. It's no wonder that the author of Wheat Genealogy misnamed William's wife as Hester Whitley. 

I have not corroborated the statement that William lived in Tennessee. In 1810 a William Wheat, living in Mississippi Territory east of the Pearl River in what would become Alabama, was involved with a petition to Congress for the division of the territory; the petitioners felt themselves too far removed from their territorial representatives. (It was 1817 before Mississippi was admitted as a state and the eastern half of the territory was designated Alabama Territory.) In 1815 he appeared on the tax list for Madison County AL. On 1816 he appeared on the Mississippi Territory census. He may have served in the Mississippi militia in the War of 1812; a William Wheat served in Lt. Col. Neilsen's detachment formed in Amite County, Mississippi. However, Amite County MS is in the Gulf area bordering with Louisiana, which seems too far from William's home in Madison Co. AL for this to be the same William. In 1830 William's family (1 m 40-49; 1 f 40-49; 1 m 10-14; 1 m 5-9; 2 m under 5; 1 f under 5) is living in Limestone AL. There doesn't seem to be much time for William to have lived in Tennessee, unless it was before 1810 or after 1830; however, Tennessee was a staging area for settlers waiting to move legally to Alabama, so William might have lived there briefly before 1810.

The Biard Family, a family history compiled and written by Maud Biard Smith in 1929, states that Robert S. Wheat, William's son and future brother-in-law to the Biards, came to Texas in December of 1832 with his parents. (He would have been 13, so he undoubtedly did not come alone.) According to Smith, the Wheats were living in Red River County near Clarksville when two Biard brothers came there from Alabama in 1836. So we have at least some hearsay evidence that William Wheat was in Texas in 1833, but we know he was there in 1838, as you will see below.

The Biards--mother Rebecca (Stone) Biard, sons William Washington, Andrew Jackson, and John Gaines, and daughter Minerva Jane Biard Stephenson--came to Lamar County, Texas, in 1846. (Lamar was formed from Red River County in 1840.) Smith wondered why they came to Lamar County. She thought it was because "the Wheat boys, three of one set and three of another, cousins to the first" were already there.

I wish she had spelled out which "Wheat boys" she was referring to. Because she mentions him by name, it appears that one of them was Robert S. Wheat, and by her statement I conclude she means that one set consisted of Robert and his two brothers, Samuel and Henry. But who are the other three brothers, cousins to Robert and his brothers? It's unlikely she could be talking about Samuel's sons, as they were living in Arkansas in the 1830's, or Josiah's sons who were living much farther south in Tyler County. I think she's talking about Benjamin's sons, James, John, and William. I haven't found documentation that proves they were in Texas in the 1830's, but we know they were in Lamar County in the 1840's and 50's. 

The connection to the Biards is an interesting one. Apparently, Robert S. Wheat returned to Limestone County, Alabama, sometime before October 1845 when he married Elizabeth Finn there. She was the daughter of Edward Wilson Finn and his wife, Martha Mullins. Elizabeth's sister, Delila, had married Andrew Jackson Biard in 1833, and another sister, Amanda Menifee Finn, had married William Washington Biard in 1840. So the Biard brothers were now Robert's brothers-in-law. Robert was also related by marriage to the Biards' sister, Minerva Jane. Her husband was William Stephenson, son of Logan Stephenson and his wife (and cousin), Mary "Polly" Stephenson. Polly was another of the Stephenson sisters, so Robert's aunt; William Stephenson was his cousin.

In October of 1950 Maud Biard Smith was asked to tell about the history of Biardstown in the column, "Backward Glances," in The Paris News (Paris, TX). In the first installment, published 3 October 1950, she wrote that 

"The first person to own the land on which Biardstown is located was Robert S. Wheat, a native of northern Alabama, who had come to Texas with his parents in December, 1832, and had fought in the battles for Texas independence. As a reward for his military service for the Republic of Texas [I've found no record of what that was, but bounty warrants for military service began at 320 acres for 3 months service; for Robert to get 1,000 acres he must have served nearly a year] he was granted a tract of land, a First Class Headright, numbered 242, containing five labors and...1,000 acres of land. The patent for this land was signed in Austin by President [of the Republic of Texas] Anson Jones, November 7, 1845."

She goes on to describe how the two Biard brothers, William Washington and Andrew Jackson, both unmarried, had come to Clarksville in 1836, where they stayed for two years. After returning to Alabama, they married the Finn sisters. "When Robert Wheat came back to Alabama and married their sister-in-law he told such wonderful stories about the Republic of Texas that the Biard brothers and all their families decided they wanted to live in Texas."

In the next installment of the story, published in the paper on 4 October 1950, Mrs. Smith told the story of how the Biards made the trip to Texas. It sounds harrowing. Keep in mind, this is almost 15 years after the Wheats came, so their journey was probably even worse. Their remembrances of the journey were just never written down.


In The Biard Family, Maud Smith estimated, to the best of her knowledge, the date that the Biards left Alabama for Texas. She wrote, "The nearest I can come to fixing the date of the trip to Texas is this: A. J. Biard buried a child in Alabama, Feb. 24 1846, and S. H. [Sam Houston Biard, son of W.W. and Amanda] Biard was born at Clarksville, Aug. 27, 1846. So they came between those dates."

Here is how she described the trip:

"They procured two flatboats, fastened them together and loaded them with all their possessions, including chickens, cows, at least one pony, and a wagon. They stayed close to the river, and helped the boat along with long poles, and at times with the pony. At night lanterns were lighted on the boat to guard against collisions.

They were four months making the journey. Coming from Limestone County in north Alabama, down the Tennessee River to the Ohio; down the Ohio River to the Mississippi; down the Mississippi to Red River [In The Biard Family she recounts the story of one of the Biard children, Matilda, who fell off the boat into the Red River and was rescued by her brother James]; then up Red River to the mouth of Mill Creek near Clarksville. 

There they ran onto a sandbar and stayed three weeks. They sent word to Robert Wheat, who had come back to Texas and was living in Clarksville, of their arrival. He came with wagons and carried the movers and their possessions to Clarksville where they stopped long enough to make a crop in 1847."

Not long after their arrival in Texas in October of 1846, the two Biard brothers, William Wheat ("a cousin of Robert Wheat"; this has to be Benjamin's son) and a fourth man, William Cheatham, bought Robert's 1,000 acres at $2 an acre. In the summer of 1847 the four men built log cabins on their land. Washington Baird later gave this first house to the Christian Church for their meeting place and built a second house, "the first house built in the present village of Biardstown, which was built on his land and named for him." 

I have not been able to find Robert's father William on the 1840 census, but I think I know where he was: what later became Wheatville in Morris County. Wheatville, which no longer exists, was in the area of present-day Naples in Morris County. The area has gone through many county changes. According to the Handbook of Texas, the area that is now Morris County was part of Red River County when it was established by the Republic of Texas in 1836. In 1846 the state of Texas established Titus County which included all of what is now Morris County; finally Morris County itself was established in 1875. So when the Wheats were said to have lived in Red River, Lamar, Titus, and Morris counties, they're really talking about what was Red River County in 1836.


Texas counties where the Wheats lived

I've known about Wheatville for a long time, but for years I didn't know exactly how the town was connected to my branch of the Wheats. A little over a year ago I got an email from a man who wanted to share some information about Confederate papers that had belonged to Robert S. Wheat. (I never did figure out how he found me.) The email spurred me to do some research on Robert and led me to discover his 2nd wife and their children, which I wrote about in the blog post, "Cousin Communication." In researching Wheatville, I found this website with information about Wheatville prepared by Glenda Brown Scarborough. She wrote:

"Wheatville was indeed the true beginning of present-day Naples, Texas. It received its name from the William Wheat family sometime before 1852. William Wheat received a Land Grant for 20 labors of land by the Board of Land Commissioners for Red River County on the 27th of April, 1838. By using the classification of land grants and references to the locations of homes, it is felt that William Wheat was living in the Morris County area as early as 1836."

William was definitely in Red River County, Texas, in 1846, because he appears on the Texas Census for that year. William was in Red River County on the 1850 federal census with wife Esther and sons Samuel and Henry, both age 27. Since I couldn't find William on the 1860 census, I have assumed he died sometime in the 1850's; however, Esther, age 84, was living with son Samuel on the 1870 census, so maybe William was alive in 1860 and the census record is just missing.

In 1830 William and Esther Wheat had five children, but as far as I know, only Robert, Samuel, and Henry lived to adulthood. 

Robert S. -- I have already said quite a lot about Robert S., but here is just a thumbnail sketch of his life. First, I have no idea what the S. stands for. His name is consistently given as Robert S. Wheat, but nobody ever spells out his middle name. Wouldn't it be amazing if it was Stephenson? It is not unlikely, as his grandfather, Esther's father, was Robert Stephenson.

He was born 23 February 1819 in Madison County, Alabama. Conflicting marriage data has him marrying Elizabeth Finn in Limestone County AL on either 10 October or 14 October 1845. On the 1850 census he and Elizabeth are living in Tyler County with son William E. and daughter Harriet Gordon. In 1860 they are in Titus County with additional children, Lawrence W., Charles L., Louis N. B., and Samuel Henry. 

On 1 May 1863 at the age of 44 Robert enlisted in the 33rd Regiment, Texas Cavalry, in the Civil War. His unit was mostly occupied with patrolling the Rio Grande and later escorted prisoners who were captured in a raid into Indian Territory to Camp Ford in Tyler, Texas. Robert's discharge from the C.S.A. in June of 1864, shown below, was "by reason of Surgeon's Certificate of Disability."  

Contributed to Ancestry.com by ddscott2008

Apparently, some time in the 1860's Elizabeth died. By the 1870 census Robert had married Mary E. (Corprew) Sheppard, widow of Williamson B. Sheppard, and they were living in Grayson County. On the census the Wheats' blended family included five of Robert and Elizabeth's children; Mary's daughter by her first marriage, Mary; and Robert and Mary's son, James. Still in Grayson County in 1880, Robert and Mary had had two more children. 

After such an interesting life, Robert S. Wheat had a sad end. On the 1900 census he is age 81, living in the North Texas Hospital for the Insane, possibly suffering from senile dementia. He died in 1901 and is buried in the Hall Cemetery, Howe, Grayson County, Texas.



Samuel -- As I mentioned above, on the 1850 census of Red River, Samuel and his brother Henry, both born 1823, are living with their parents. I'm still not sure whether they were twins. Later censuses consistently show Samuel's birth year as 1821, but then Henry's headstone says he was born 18 October 1821. Nothing I have found proves or disproves that they were twins.

Samuel married Rebecka (Beckie) Box on 13 June 1852 in Red River County. Samuel and Rebecka appear on the 1860 census of Cass County with their three daughters, Mary J., Margaret, and Esther. On the 1870 census they are in Grayson County with four more children, two boys and two girls. As I mentioned above, on that census Samuel's mother, Esther, age 84, is living with them. Samuel's brother Robert is living next door.

Samuel and Beckie are living in Parker County on the 1880 census. Four teen-aged children are still living at home, and two more daughters have been added to the family. Samuel, age 79, and Rebecka, age 65, are living in Eastland County on the 1900 census. They have been married almost 50 years. Two adult children are living with them.  

It appears that the end of Samuel's life was rather sad, as well. On the 1910 census of Nolan County, Samuel, age 88, widowed, is living as a "Lodger" with the family of W. J. Edwards. I have tried to find some family connection, but it appears that "Lodger" is the correct word for what Samuel was to this family. It's possible that this is not our Samuel, since there are no family members to compare, but he fits the parameters of birth date, birth place, father's birth place, and mother's birth place.

This timeline of Samuel's life leaves me with questions. Why was his family in a new county every 10 years? These were not adjacent counties, or a situation where the family remained in the same home but the county name changed. It looks like the family hopped a couple of counties west every time they moved, and finally Samuel ends up alone in Nolan County. Where are all those children he raised, and why are they not taking care of their father in his old age? There has to be a story there.

Henry Clay -- I've written about Henry Clay Wheat before in the post, "The Mystery of J. Wheat." After doing some intensive research in Grayson and Collin counties in Texas for all the Wheats that lived there at about the time my great-grandfather, J. (Joseph) Wheat married my great-grandmother, Cynthia Ming, I determined that Henry Clay Wheat was the best bet to be my 2nd great-grandfather. 

Henry's headstone at the Cottage Hill Cemetery in Celina, Collin County TX, says that he was born 18 October 1821. The 1850 census of Red River County is the first time he appears on a document, along with his parents and brother Samuel. Weirdly enough, he is the same age, 27, on the 1860 Titus County census in which he appears with wife and children. (He had married Caroline Farris in about 1855.) On 1 March 1862 he enlisted in Company K, 23rd Texas Cavalry, C.S.A., which is also acknowledged on a military headstone at his gravesite.





On the 1870 Davis County census he catches up those ten years, as he is enumerated at age 47 with wife Caroline, and five children, including Joseph, age 13. He appears on the 1880 census in Grayson County as a widower with daughters Lucy, Mollie (Henrietta), and Emma. (Daughter Elizabeth, "Lizzie," married John Alexander Cooper in 1882.) I have been able to trace all of his daughters as they married and had children, but son Joseph just disappears after the 1870 census unless . . . he is the J. Wheat who married my great-grandmother Cynthia Ming, his 2nd cousin, in 1877 and appears with the Ming family on the 1880 Collin County census. 
 
There were a couple of details that didn't quite match, the biggest being that the J. Wheat on the 1880 census with Cynthia gives his father's birthplace as Arkansas and his mother's as Mississippi. Caroline was born in Mississippi, which I thought was a good sign I was on the right track, but Henry was born in Alabama, not Arkansas. 

Now I am beginning to wonder if my Joseph is the son of James or John, Samuel's sons who were born in Arkansas in the 1830's. Either of them would be just the right age to be Joseph's father; but speaking of disappearing, James and John just vanish after the 1850 census in Milam County (Salado). If either of them really is Joseph's father, it makes my family tree even more gnarly. Cynthia Ming's mother was Susanna, the sister of James and John, so if Cynthia married a son of one of those men, her uncles, she would have married her 1st cousin.

Henry Wheat, who may or may not be my 2nd great-grandfather, died on the 4th of July, 1893.



And finally--

JOHN -- "went to Kentucky"

There are John Wheats all over Kentucky in the early 1800's, but how do you connect one of them with the other Wheat brothers if they have all moved to Mississippi Territory? 

The 1800 federal census shows a John Wheat in Prince George's County, Maryland. A John and a Zachariah are on the tax list of Bourbon County KY in 1800. Called the "Second Census of Kentucky," this is a compiled list of 32,000 taxpayers based on original tax lists on file at the Kentucky Historical Society. Hard to tell anything from this, except that John and Zachariah would have been heads of household in 1800.

1810 is the first federal census in which I found Wheats in Kentucky. A John and a James are in Adair County. Hezekiah, Joseph, and Zachariah are in Bourbon County. Hezekiah and Joseph are possibly the sons of Charles Wheat from Montgomery County, Maryland, according to Wheat Genealogy. A Samuel and his wife, both younger than 25, with no children, are in Lewis County. A John with young children is in Green County, and a Bazel, also with a young family, is in Madison County. 

In 1820 two men named John are enumerated in Kentucky--one in Adair County and one in Green County, probably the same men that appeared on the 1810 censuses in those counties. Assuming that each of them would be the oldest male in the family, they both fall in the 26-44 column, which would be about right for the John I'm looking for. 

Three John Wheats appear on the 1830 census for Kentucky--John K., 30-39 in Bourbon, possibly the son of Zachariah who was in Bourbon County in 1810. Again, that family appears in Wheat Genealogy with documented parents and children. The John in Green County is 50-59, so is his wife, and they have six children that vary in age from 5-9 through 15-19. The John in Russell County is 50-59, with a wife 40-49, and possibly a married son or daughter, 20-29, with his or her spouse, as well as 3 teenagers and a son 5-9, which could be a child or grandchild. By age, which is really all I have to go by, either the John in Green County or the John in Russell County (or neither) could be the fifth Wheat brother.

Both the John in Green and the John in Russell are still living in 1840, both 60-69. The John Wheat in Green County wrote a will, probated 3 November 1845, mentioning wife Sarah (possibly Hudson), sons James, Booker, and William, and daughters Mary, Nancy, and Elizabeth. Some trees on Ancestry show John Wheat and Susannah "Sukie" Gatton as parents of John of Green County. The same trees give conflicting information about the origins of this Wheat family in Prince George's County MD and Loudoun and Bedford VA. 

John in Green County could still be our fifth Wheat brother--lots of trees have the wrong parents--but John in Russell County seemed more likely to me. It appears that John of Russell also passed away between 1840 and 1850 (he was 60-69 in 1840), leaving a wife named Martha. (Some trees show her as Martha Rosson, probably because the researcher found a John Wheat who married a Martha Rosson in Albemarle Co. VA in 1843; it seems unlikely that John would leave Russell Co. to marry someone in Virginia, or that she could be the mother of his children when they were all born by 1830. Do people not do the math?) Martha was living with daughter Parthena Bibee (husband Allen) in 1850 and with son Samuel in 1860. 

This John's children include Samuel (usually shown as Samuel Baker Wheat although I've not seen that on any document), Drury, Parthena, John R., Alfred, and Blatchley Calvin Wesley. Some trees also include another son named John Wesley. The two children that are of most interest to the question of the identity of our John Wheat are Samuel and Alfred. 

Alfred married Amanda Eastland, and they moved first to Georgia in 1850 (where Drury was living with his family), and then to Van Zandt County, Texas in 1860. Van Zandt is not a county that any of the five brothers ever lived in, but it is in that same northeastern quadrant of Texas where most of the brothers lived.  

The other connection to Texas comes from three children of Samuel (Baker) Wheat, the oldest son of John of Russell. They are Doctor H., Valentine, and Samuel. Doctor (yes, that's his given name) and Valentine were twins. 

Doctor married Nancy Margaret Paul in Russell County in 1866; sometime between 1866 and 1870 they moved to Collin County, TX. I had seen Doctor's name before. When I was trying to find the father of my great-grandfather, J. (Joseph) Wheat, who was in Collin Co. in 1880, I did research on every other Wheat family in Collin Co. I saw Doctor's name but finally eliminated him as having any connection to my Wheats. (That was before I started looking for the fifth brother, John.) Valentine moved to Texas between 1870 and 1880.

This was just about the time last night when I thought, "It would be nice if I could find Doctor or Valentine living next door to one of our known Texas Wheats. Then I would know that they knew they had cousins from Kentucky living in Texas, and maybe we could theorize that they had maintained contact with John and knew that Doctor and Valentine were his grandsons."

Be careful (or happy) what you wish for! About this time I located Valentine on the 1880 census of Bell County, Texas, and everything fell into place. Remember back in Part I when I told the story of the first of the five brothers, Samuel, and how he was one of the first settlers in what became Bell County? I was about to find just the evidence I was looking for to prove that John Wheat of Russell County, Kentucky, was the fifth Wheat brother.

I searched for Valentine on the 1880 census and found him living in Bell County, Texas. I looked just below him on the actual census record and saw a Sam Wheat. I clicked back a page on the census and found more Wheats. Finally, I just searched the 1880 Bell County census for anybody named Wheat and found seven families. I had to make a chart--because what was really exciting is that I recognized some of these names, and they weren't all John's children; some of them were Samuel's grandchildren, and one of them was a grandson of Josiah! So the other Wheat families in Texas did know that John's grandchildren were in Texas; they were living next-door to them. And John Wheat of Russell County was the fifth Wheat brother!

Wheats on the 1880 Bell County, Texas census:
  • Dwelling #62: Doctor, born 1841 in Kentucky, son of Samuel (Baker) Wheat, grandson of John Wheat
  • Dwelling #109: Samuel DeWitt, born 1840 in Texas, son of Joseph Wheat, grandson of Samuel Wheat
  • Dwelling #113: Joe, born 1855 in Texas, son of Joseph Wheat, grandson of Samuel Wheat
  • Dwelling #121: William Jasper, born 1842 in Arkansas, son of Joseph Wheat, grandson of Samuel Wheat
  • Dwelling #123: Valentine, born 1847 in Kentucky, son of Samuel (Baker) Wheat, grandson of John Wheat
  • Dwelling #124: Sam, born 1851 in Kentucky, son of Samuel (Baker) Wheat, grandson of John Wheat
  • Dwelling #407: Cordilleras, born 1852 in Texas, son of Brice M. Wheat, grandson of Josiah Wheat


1880 Bell County TX census, showing
Dwelling Nos. 121, 123, 124


Unlike their Confederate cousins, Doctor and Valentine fought for the Union in the Civil War. Both of the brothers enlisted in Co. B, 13th Kentucky Infantry. They both enlisted at Camp Hobson KY on 5 October 1861. According to records for Valentine, he mustered out on 12 January 1865, having served for most of the war. (The 13th KY Infantry was at Shiloh, among other battles and campaigns.) After being in the hospital in Indiana for six months for "chronic diarrhea with incipient tuberculosis," Doctor was discharged in November of 1862. It makes me wonder if there was any lingering animosity between the Kentucky cousins and the Texas cousins. I would love to think not.


Twins Doctor H. and Valentine C. Wheat
Contributed to Ancestry.com by Dora Coffey
 

At one point yesterday when I was working on this post, I thought I wouldn't be able to come to any kind of conclusion about the fifth brother, John. It just goes to show that sometimes you have to go forward to go back. If I hadn't worked the second generation of descendants for all of the brothers, I wouldn't have found the proof I was looking for in Bell County, Texas. It was not anything I expected at all. First, I thought that probably all of John's descendants had stayed in Kentucky. Second, I honestly didn't think any of Samuel's grandchildren were still in Bell County. Familiarizing myself with the first four brothers and their descendants helped me find the fifth one.

I also might mention here at the end that in looking at family trees for John of Russell County, I found some that named his parents as John Wheat and Susannah Gatton, the same parents that others gave for John of Green County. A very few named John's father as Zachariah Wheat. With so little information available, researchers have used what there is to come to many incorrect conclusions, in my opinion. However, when asked by the census taker where their parents were born, many of John's children said their father was born in Maryland. Maybe we will never be able to conclusively identify the father of the five brothers, but maybe we should expand our search to include names other than Zachariah and places other than Virginia.