The Oneys (and a Couple of Great Stories)

A few months ago I wrote a post on the Days--the ancestors of my great-grandmother, Sarah Florida Day, who was born on 5 November 1878 in White Oak, Magoffin County, Kentucky. Her father was James Thomas Day, and his parents were Andrew Jackson Day and Sarah Jane Oney. At the time I realized that I had listed the wrong parents for Sarah, but until last weekend I had never actually added all the corrected family info to my tree on Ancestry. 

Sarah's father was James Oney, born in 1818 in Virginia. Her mother was Rhoda Day, born in 1820 in Virginia. (Sarah and her husband, Andrew Jackson Day, were 1st cousins.) James and Rhoda married on 17 December 1837 in Tazewell County, Virginia, which had been formed from Russell County in 1799. In 1850 James and Rhoda were living in Tazewell County with their children--William, age 12; Sally (Sarah), age 10; Richard, age 8; Joseph, age 6; and Rufus, age 2. Daughters Rebecca and Lou Emma were born in Tazewell County in the early 1850's, but by the time son Creed Fulton was born in 1855, the family was living in Magoffin County, Kentucky. John Wesley was born in Magoffin County in 1858 and Mary in 1861.

I decided to take the Oney children--Sarah's brothers and sisters--one by one and document their birth, marriage, and death information.

The Children of James and Rhoda (Day) Oney

According to his headstone, William P. (Patton) Oney was born 17 December 1838. It is interesting to note that this date is exactly one year after the marriage of his parents--either an amazing coincidence or a made-up birth (or marriage) date. I'm also not sure of his place of birth, as I can't find James Oney on the 1840 census in Tazewell County. There are some Oneys there in 1840, but no James. On 8 August 1861 William married Perlina Allen in Magoffin County, Kentucky. 

Documenting William's service during the Civil War was somewhat confusing at first, but I think I have a better understanding after finding his records on Fold3 and doing a little research. I'm not a big Civil War scholar, although I did know that Kentucky held a special place as a border state during the Civil War. What I didn't know is that Kentucky actually declared its neutrality at the beginning of the war. However, by September of 1861 Kentucky's General Assembly passed a resolution, over the Governor's veto, ordering the withdrawal of Confederate forces, and by early 1862 the Union pretty much controlled Kentucky.

I thought this explained why, even though William was living in Kentucky in 1861, he enlisted in Caldwell's Battalion of Cavalry back in Tazewell County, Virginia, his childhood home. Interestingly, I also found a register of "...Persons subject to do military duty in the Ninth Congressional District, consisting of the Counties of ...Magoffin...Morgan..., State of Kentucky, enumerated during the month of October 1863," that listed William Oney. So, though he had served in the Confederate Army, he was considered "subject to military duty" for the Union. No wonder I was confused! 

We'll come back to the Civil War in a little bit, but now back to the children of James and Rhoda Oney.

Sources vary as to her age, but most family trees on Ancestry list the next child of James and Rhoda in order of birth as my ancestor, Sarah Jane Oney. Some trees list her birth date as 17 October 1840 which corresponds fairly well with her marriage age of 15 on her marriage date of 25 September 1855. On the 1860 census where she appears with her husband A.J., age 23, she is listed as age 18 (born 1842). Also on that census is son James T., my 2nd great-grandfather, age 4; and daughter Nancy, age 1. Sarah lists her birthplace as Virginia. Her marriage took place in Morgan County, Kentucky, and the 1860 census places the family in Magoffin County. Oney researchers give Sarah a death date of 16 March 1862; if her birth date is correct, she was 21 at the time of her death.

According to his headstone, Richard K. Oney was born 1 January 1843. He enlisted as a Private in Company A, 5th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, Confederate States of America, in West Liberty, Kentucky, on 21 October 1861 and was mustered out on 20 October 1862. And I'm back to confused again, because apparently there were Confederate units in Kentucky during this period, because Richard joined one. 

I assumed that Richard just enlisted for a year, as was typical, since his discharge date was one year from the date of his enlistment. However, after doing a little research I found out that the 5th Kentucky Infantry was actually organized in Prestonburg, Kentucky, on the same date as Richard's enlistment--21 October 1861--and was disbanded in Hazel Green, Kentucky, on the date of his discharge on 20 October 1862. Richard could have joined another regiment at this point, but I have found no evidence of further service.

Not long after his discharge, Richard married in Magoffin County on 18 December 1862 to Mary Margaret Collinsworth. They had one child, Mary Virginia, before Richard died on 16 January 1866.

The next of the children of James and Rhoda (Day) Oney was Joseph Day Oney, born 19 May 1845 in Tazewell County, Virginia. After the death of his brother, Richard, Joseph married Richard's widow, Mary Margaret, on 5 September 1866 in Magoffin County. They had four children together. Joseph died 2 December 1936, age 91.

Rufus Hickman Oney, "Hickey" on the 1860 census and "Hick" later in life, was born 3 February 1848 in Tazewell County, VA. He married Delpha Hammond on Christmas Day, 1866. They had three children. Rufus Hickman died in Morgan County KY on 14 April 1876.

Rebecca Oney has been given a birth date of 7 January 1850 and later censuses seem to uphold a date around 1849/50, although she is not listed on the 1850 census and on the 1860, her age is given as 7. Rebecca married John M. Collinsworth, brother of Mary Margaret, in about 1867. (The 1900 census says they had been married 33 years.) Rebecca and John had 10 children, and Rebecca died in 1931 in Magoffin County.

Okay, so here's one of the great stories, and it's a doozy. The next of James and Rhoda's children was Lou Emma Oney, born 1852 in Tazewell County. In 1871 she married William Preston Taulbee, a Morgan County teacher. Later, he became ordained as a Methodist minister. Together, they had five sons from 1872-1885. When I added Lou Emma and then her husband to my tree on Ancestry, I got over 20 hints--mostly to newspaper articles from all over the country. What in the world? 

William Preston Taulbee

William Preston Taulbee was an ambitious man. In 1878 and 1882 he was elected to the office of Magoffin County Clerk. In 1884 he made a run for a much more prestigious job; he beat his Republican opponent to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and was re-elected to the office in 1886. It's remarkable enough that we have a member of Congress in our family tree, but what happened next put him in the history books--and newspapers.

In December 1887 the Washington Post reported a story about a Representative being found in a "compromising position" with a clerk from the Patent Office. No names were named, but later, an article by Charles E. Kincaid appeared in the Louisville Times with the titillating title, "Kentucky's Silver-Tongued Taulbee Caught in Flagrante, or Thereabouts, with Brown-Haired Miss Dodge, Also of Kentucky." (Both Taulbee and Dodge denied the affair.) Thus began a feud of several years between Taulbee and Kincaid, that would lead to a shocking event the evidence of which still remains in the Capitol today.

Taulbee had already decided not to run for re-election in 1888 but to buy a house in Washington, D.C. and remain there to work as a lobbyist. For some reason, of all the journalists who reported on the scandal, Taulbee focused on Kincaid, the Washington reporter for the Louisville Times, whom he saw often in the Capitol, and upon every occasion of their meeting found some way to humiliate Kincaid. Things came to a head on 28 February 1890 with a scuffle outside the entrance to the House of Representatives. The House doorkeepers had to separate Taulbee and Kincaid. This time Taulbee warned Kincaid that he had better arm himself for their next meeting.

Kincaid went home and got a revolver, and the next meeting was not long in coming. That very afternoon Taulbee and Kincaid met again on a set of marble stairs that led to the basement restaurant in the Capitol. Apparently without waiting for a remark from Taulbee this time, Kincaid raised his revolver and shot Taulbee in the face. The blood drips from the wound stained the marble staircase, even though Capitol janitors were quick to clean it up, and the bloodstains remain there to this day.

Photo from Kentucky Explorer Magazine

Taulbee actually was expected to live, but an abscess surrounding the bullet, which still remained in his skull, caused his death on March 11. Kincaid was released on bail and went home to Kentucky until his trial a year later in March 1891. Several witnesses, including Kincaid, described Taulbee's harassment of the journalist, and amazingly, Kincaid was acquitted by reason of self-defense. 

Lou Emma raised her five sons, with the older boys helping financially. All of the boys had distinguished careers, several of them in the military and two of them as physicians. They always considered that Kincaid had gotten away with murder and described him as a frustrated office-seeker. Lou Emma apparently believed--or forgave--her husband, because she is buried beside him in the Taulbee Cemetery in Morgan County. Kincaid died at the age of 51, still working as a journalist. Miss Dodge, who had lost her job at the Patent Office after the scandal, found another job in the Pension Office, married well--twice--and died at the age of 89. (For more details see "William Taulbee: A Stain on the Capitol" in the blog, The Downfall Dictionary by Dirk Langeveld. It was very helpful to me in writing this post.)

Creed Fulton Oney was born on the 4th of July, 1855. He was the first of James and Rhoda's children to be born in Kentucky. He married Nancy Emma Ball on 13 May 1880. I have written about C. F. Oney before in the blog post, "The News from Oklahoma." With a group of other Methodist ministers, he bought townsites in Davenport, Oklahoma, and encouraged Kentuckians like my 2nd great-grandparents, J.T. and Nancy E. Day, to settle there, so I guess he is the reason I am sitting here in Oklahoma tonight writing this post.

John Wesley Oney was born 9 April 1858 in Magoffin County. His first wife was Annie Sprague, who died. He then married Loduska "Lowie" Whitt. He had children with both wives, but a discrepancy in dates makes me hesitant to list the number of children that belonged to each wife. John W. died in 1935 and is buried in the Gullett Cemetery in White Oak, next to his second wife. 

The baby of the family was Mary F. Oney, who was born 7 January 1861 in Magoffin County. She married David C. Williams on 8 July 1879. I was able to find her marriage license on Family Search. It is a little hard to read, but the witnesses to the marriage were two of her brothers-in-law, John Collinsworth and William Taulbee. It looks like she might have been married at the home of her uncle, Joseph Oney. 

James Oney and the Civil War

The other interesting story concerns James Oney and his changing allegiances during the Civil War. Going strictly by the existing documents in chronological order, this is what happened.

James appears on a Company Muster Roll for the 5th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, C.S.A., the same unit that his son Richard joined, dated November 23, 1861. Two other dates on the muster roll document are a little confusing. Under "Enlisted" the date is 25 October 1861 in Prestonburg, and under "Remarks" it says that he was "Sworn into service at West Liberty October 21." Remember that at this point Kentucky had taken sides in the conflict, and not the side that James took. At least until he got caught.

The next document is dated 17 February 1862. This is my best attempt at transcribing the document. 

Know all men by these presents that I James Oney of Magoffin County in the state of Kentucky owe the United States of America the sum of one thousand dollars to be levied of my goods and chattels lands and tenements.

The __________ of this obligation is such that whereas the said obliger having formerly enlisted in the rebel army of the so called Confederate States of America and now desirous to renounce all allegiance to said so called government and having taken an oath to support the constitution government and laws of the United States of America and to support maintain __________ the same against all enemies and opposers whomsoever.

Now if the said obliger shall faithfully keep said oath and shall hereafter and ever refrain from aiding the said rebel government in any action or influence? -- and if the said obliger shall remain a true and loyal citizen of the United States of America and shall ever aid her against any and all enemies by word act and influence then this obligation shall be void and of no effect otherwise? to be and remain in full force and __________ in law.

Given under my hand and seal at Camp Buel this 17th day of February A.D. 1862

                                                                                              James Oney (signature)               SEAL

I hereby become surety for the above named obliger for the performance of the conditions of the foregoing bond as witness my hand and seal at Camp Buel this 17th day of February A.D. 1862.

Albert L.A. Sheldon? (signature)                                  Name unreadable (signature)     SEAL

And here's the oath.

I James Oney of Magoffin County Ky do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the government of the United States of America that I will faithfully and to the best of my ability support the constitution and laws thereof that I will aid and defend her in all my acts words and deeds influence against all her enemies and opposers whomsoever more especially against the so called Confederate States of America so help me God!

Camp Buell Paintsville Ky

Feb 17 1862

James Oney (signature)

But that wasn't the end of it. The next document in chronological order was dated 24 May 1863. 

James Oney

Pvt Co A. 5 Regt. Ky. Inf

Appears on a Muster Roll

of prisoners of war confined by the Provost Marshal at Louisa, Ky. 

Roll dated Louisa, Ky., May 31, 1863.

Where captured or arrested  Morgan Co Ky

When captured or arrested  May 24 1863

By whom captured or arrested  Capt Patrick 14 Ky.

When confined  May 24 1863

Charges  Being a Rebel officer

Remarks: Released May 28, 1863, by military commission on giving bonds and security of $1000, and taking oath of allegiance

The exact same document exists for James's son, Richard. Apparently, James cannot learn his lesson, and it makes me wonder if he was on the 1860's equivalent of a "watch list." In fact, the 14th Kentucky, the unit that arrested him, was charged with protecting eastern Kentucky and the border with Virginia from Confederate forces, so they would be on the lookout for those who continued to encourage pro-Confederate views. I also wonder at that strikeout of the word "deeds" in his oath, replaced with the word "influence." Maybe James Oney was arrested not because of a deed he had committed but because of the influence he had wielded with his family and neighbors.

Some interesting facts about Kentucky in the Civil War:

Kentucky provided about 35,000 soldiers to the Confederate Army.

Over 75,000 Kentuckians joined the Union Army.

Both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were born in Kentucky.

Magoffin County was formed in 1860 from portions of Floyd, Johnson, and Morgan counties. It was named for Beriah Magoffin, who was Governor of Kentucky from 1859 to 1862. Even as he sympathized with the South, he maintained the neutrality of the state of Kentucky through the first couple of years of the war. He was the Governor that vetoed the removal of Confederate troops from the state.

The Oney Cemetery Near White Oak, Kentucky

I've mentioned serendipity before in this blog. It's amazing how often I'm working on something genealogical and something else pops up that relates to the thing I'm researching. About the time that I was adding the Oney ancestors to my family tree and starting to work on this post, I was cleaning out a tote bag and found a printout of a message board post that I had found in 2012. It was a list of people buried in the Oney Cemetery near White Oak, Kentucky. At the time I printed it off I'm sure I knew very few people on the list, but after working on this blog post, I know who most of them are.

Oney Cemetery (photo contributed to Findagrave by Roger Sprague)

The message was in reply to a question about the Oney Cemetery and had been written by an Oney descendant named Scott Chafin in the year 2000. Scott's list includes some graves that are not on the Findagrave listing for the Oney Cemetery and omits others. A visit to the Oney Cemetery is definitely in order for my vacation next summer. Here are the graves that Scott documented. (His words are in italics; my notes follow in parentheses in regular font.)

I believe "Annie Oney" is nee Annie Sprague, daughter of Ambrose D. Sprague and Sarah Bloomer. She married John Wesley Oney, son of James Oney and Rhoda Day Oney (my ggg-grandparents).

The "Elisha Oney" is probably son of William Oney and Sarah Brown, married Elizabeth Whitt. (Elisha is James Oney's brother.)

"Elizabeth Oney" probably his wife.

"Rebecca Amyx" is nee Rebecca Oney. She was married to Preston Amyx at the Elisha Oney residence. (This Rebecca is the daughter of Elisha Oney, not the Rebecca listed above as the daughter of James and Rhoda Oney.)

"Rhoda Harper" is nee Rhoda Ellen Oney; married Lafayette Harper. (Rhoda was the daughter of William Patton Oney.)

"Richard K. Oney" ... was a son of James and Rhoda Day Oney and married to Mary Margaret Collinsworth. After his death, she married his next-youngest brother, Joseph Day Oney.

"Rhoda Day" is probably Rhoda Day Oney, wife of James Oney, but without dates I'm not 100% certain. It was unusual for a married woman to be buried under her maiden name, but as I know she's buried there, it's probably her. (I have seen a photograph of a headstone at the Oney Cemetery that shows the names of both James Oney and his wife, Rhoda Day Oney. I wonder if that headstone did not exist in 2000 when Scott Chafin wrote this message board post.)

"Boney Oney" is probably Napoleon "Bonapart" Oney. (Son of Elisha Oney.) Married to Mary Oney, only child of Richard K. Oney and Mary Margaret Collinsworth.

"Sarah Day" is nee Sarah J. Oney, daughter of James Oney and Sarah Day Oney, married Andrew Jackson Day. (My 3rd great-grandmother)

Scott omitted the grave of James Oney. He has the aforementioned headstone shared with his wife Rhoda and a military headstone engraved with his unit, "Co A, 5 KY Inf, CSA."

Contributed to Findagrave by Roger Sprague