For a couple of reasons I didn't jump on the 52 Ancestors bandwagon right away. I had started this blog in 2013 and many of the blog posts that I had already written profiled an ancestor or a family. For example, I had already done short posts about my parents and each of my grandparents, along with posts like The Smiths in Oklahoma, The Castles in Kentucky, The Wheats in Texas, and The Ming Dynasty about the ancestors of my four grandparents.
Another reason I didn't take the 52 Ancestors challenge is that I found it hard to start in January. January was all about finishing the old year--taking down Christmas decorations and doing taxes--and going back to school after Christmas vacation ready to fill teenagers' heads with knowledge. I didn't have much time left in my schedule to write weekly posts.
Now it's 2019 and I'm finding it hard to find new things to write about. When I find a new relative or take a trip, I share what I've learned or experienced, but I need something that keeps me writing every week. 52 Ancestors is the inspiration I need, but I'm going to start and end the 52 Weeks with my birthday instead of the traditional January through December. My schedule is still pretty full--even though I'm retired--but I hope to meet the challenge of "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks."
I'm starting with my 3rd great-grandmother on my Smith side, Elizabeth Simmons. I have mentioned her in several blog posts, but I've never done an individual profile of her. I think she's a good example of how a hunt for primary documents can lead to surprising information about an ancestor.
When I started doing genealogy 30 years ago, I didn't know anything about Elizabeth Simmons, the mother of my great-grandmother, Fannie, who was the wife of Stephen Albert Smith and the mother of my grandpa, Weaver Harris Smith. I had always thought that Fannie's maiden name was Cotton. I had never heard the last name Mansell, the surname of Elizabeth's first husband.
Then my brother and I were in Oklahoma City, looking for evidence that we had Cherokee ancestry. Yes, we had one of those families with a story about having a Native American ancestor. We had always been told that Fannie was Cherokee. What we found in Oklahoma City was Fannie's rejected application for Cherokee citizenship. That was the bad news. The good news was a lot of genealogical information that we didn't know. For this post I'd like to focus on what we found out about Elizabeth from this application.
Some of the information was in Elizabeth's own words. The application included a deposition that Elizabeth had given about her background and ancestry, and therefore her daughter's. Almost certainly, some of the statements in the deposition are not true, and consequently it throws the whole document into question; however, some of the statements have been verified by DNA results and other documents, and maybe someday proof will be found for other statements that Elizabeth made.
Here is a transcript of the deposition followed by further explanation of the numbered statements:
Exhibit "E"
Territory of Oklahoma
County of Cleveland 1
I, Elizabeth Cotton having first duly...and...[unclear, blot, and words marked out] and says. That I was born November 11 A.D. 1812 near Raleigh N.C. 2 That my maiden name was Elizabeth Simmons. That I was married to John Mansell in A.D. 1826 near Raleigh N.C. who died on or about the year A.D. 1850. 3 That I was again married to William Cotton on or about the day of _____ A.D. 1861 and that said William Cotton died in the year A.D. 1875. 4 The affiant further states that her mother's maiden name was Priscilla Soules and that she was born in North Carolina near Raleigh. 5
This affiant further states that her mother was a half breed Cherokee and so recognized by the authorities of the Cherokees, 6 and that the said John Mansell to whom I was first married was a Cherokee by Blood. 7 That I do not remember the names of any of the Principal [Minor?] Chiefs of the Cherokees.
The affiant further states that Frances [Sclania?] Smith is my daughter by my first husband John Mansell 8 and is the only child now alive 9 and further deponent saith not.
Witness to mark A. [Nicodemus?] Elizabeth X Cotton
J. R. Shaver her mark
Subscribed and [unclear--same word as above] to
J. R. Shaver Notary Public
Commission expires Oct 9th 1897
1. I have no idea why Elizabeth would have been in Cleveland County. The family story has Elizabeth coming to Indian Territory with the Smith family in 1894. Cleveland County is south of Oklahoma City, and as far as I know, the Smiths have always lived in northeastern Oklahoma. According to my grandfather's World War I and World War II draft registration cards, he was born in Catoosa, Indian Territory in 1895. His family later lived in Collinsville and Oologah. All of these locations are in northeastern Oklahoma.
As Elizabeth would have been 81 at the time of the deposition, it is more than likely she was living with relatives. It has been suggested that Elizabeth came to Oklahoma with the Smith family and then traveled with her niece's family back to Alabama. Census records show that Elizabeth's niece, Joanna Mansell Webb, traveled back and forth between Alabama and Oklahoma before finally settling in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, which is closer to Oklahoma City than to Tulsa.
Perhaps the Webbs were living in Cleveland County in 1894, maybe Elizabeth traveled there to make the deposition for some reason, or maybe there is another explanation yet to be uncovered.
2. When I discovered this document many years ago, I didn't question Elizabeth's birth date or place. Who would know better when and where they were born than the person herself? In the years since I found this deposition, other information would surface to call both date and place into question. The date is all tied up with the identity of Elizabeth's parents. It took me a while to connect Elizabeth with the right family, because as you may have noticed, she does not give the name of her father in this document.
When I first began to search for Elizabeth Simmons' mother, Priscilla Soules/Soles, I found a few trees on Ancestry that showed her as the wife of Luke R. Simmons. Many more trees, however, listed his wife as Priscilla Hargette. (I have never found the source for that identification.) I also found a lot of trees that didn't even list Elizabeth as one of the children of Luke and Priscilla. My only paper source for the identification of Priscilla Soles as Elizabeth's mother came from Elizabeth's deposition.
When DNA came into the picture, however, I found plenty of matches to Simmons and Soles descendants. One of them has done a great deal of work on Simmons lines--his website is sjcjr.com--and corresponds with me frequently. A few years ago he shared the transcript of births listed in Luke Simmons' Bible that he found in the Troy, AL Public Library. It is obvious that all of the births except the last one were recorded years after the fact, as the Bible was published in 1827. Here is the list of births (and one marriage) from the transcript:
Page 1 -- This Bible the Property of Luke R. Simmons
Page 2 -- Luke R. Simmons and his wife Priscilla was married January 24, 1811
Page 3 -- Luke R. Simmons was born May 20, 1791
Priscilla Simmons was born April 5, 1792
Elizabeth Simmons was born December 10, 1812
Jemima Simmons was born October 13, 1815
Susannah Simmons was born August 14, 1817
Patience & Nancy Simmons was born January 2, 1821
Page 4 -- Leonard M. Simmons was born February 20, 1823
Rebekah Simmons was born June 8, 1825
Elizar Simmons was born August 7, 1827
So here is another paper document verifying that Luke and Priscilla (why, oh why, didn't he list her maiden name?) had a daughter named Elizabeth, their firstborn, but her birth date is exactly 30 days late, according to the birth date she gives for herself.
Elizabeth's place of birth is confusing, too. On the 1820 census the Simmons family is living in Columbus County, NC, over 100 miles south of Raleigh. Some family researchers have found it implausible that Elizabeth was born in Raleigh, a location not known to be associated with the Simmons or Soles families.
I recently found a Findagrave entry for Elizabeth's sister, Eliza, born 1826, that said that she too was born in Raleigh. After doing a little research, that one is easier to explain. Their father, Luke R. Simmons, was first elected a delegate from Columbus County to the House of Commons of the North Carolina General Assembly in 1820 and subsequently served until 1834, first in the House and then in the Senate. The General Assembly met in Raleigh, the state capital, so for at least some parts of those years, Luke R. Simmons (and apparently, his family) lived in Raleigh. That still doesn't explain Elizabeth, born in 1812.
3. According to the U.S. and International Marriage Records database on Ancestry, Elizabeth Simmons married John Mansell in 1826 in North Carolina. The first time that John Mansell appears on the census is 1830 in Columbus County when he was already married to Elizabeth. The assumption is that he is from Columbus County. Did he and Elizabeth marry in Raleigh as she stated? Her father would have been serving in the General Assembly there in 1826, so it's possible.
Have you done the math? John Mansell, born in 1800, was 26 when he and Elizabeth married. Elizabeth, born in 1812, was 14.
Elizabeth stretched the truth a little with John's death date. He died in 1844, not 1850. I'm pretty sure I know why she did so. Fannie, her youngest child and only daughter, was born in 1849, so John Mansell's death date of 1844 means he is not her father. Elizabeth was claiming that Fannie's father, John Mansell, was also Cherokee by blood, in case it was not enough to claim that citizenship for herself. So the question is, who was Fannie's father? I may never know, unless I can someday determine it from DNA results.
4. Elizabeth married William W. Cotton on 26 August 1863. Her deposition states that he died in 1875. I have not found any document to verify this. Elizabeth's daughter used the maiden name Mancil when she married Stephen Albert Smith in 1868. The only name I knew for her until I found the deposition was Fannie Cotton.
5. While I have not been able to find verification that it was indeed Priscilla Soles who married Luke R. Simmons and was the mother of Elizabeth Simmons, my DNA matches with Soles descendants do seem to back it up.
6. Elizabeth claimed to be half Cherokee, but given everything I have found out about her ancestry, that doesn't appear to be true. My Simmons cousin who has done so much research has yet to determine if our Simmons family was English or Swiss, but they certainly weren't Cherokee. It looks like Priscilla Soles descends from a Mayflower passenger. (See my post "DNA Circle: Timothy Soles.") The applications for Cherokee citizenship made by Fannie Smith, and later by Stephen Albert Smith on behalf of his children, were rejected as they could not make a connection to anyone on the Cherokee tribal roll.
7. The Mansells who applied for Cherokee citizenship were also rejected.
8. Not true, as explained above. Fannie was not the daughter of John Mansell. There is an interesting tidbit in this statement though. Elizabeth refers to Fannie as Frances [Sclania?] I'm not sure I'm even reading the handwriting correctly, although that's what it looks like. On anything where Fannie used an initial for her middle name, it was "A." Again, if anybody knows, it would be Elizabeth. Maybe it's a misspelling of Selina, a popular name in those days, or maybe Elizabeth was trying to make up an Indian name. Who knows?
9. Sadly, I think this one is probably true. Elizabeth had 7 sons (more about them later). At least 4 of them died in the Civil War. One lived until 1876, and another until 1880. I can't find one of them after the census of 1860, so it's possible he died young or in the war.
10. Obviously, Elizabeth lived until at least 1894. In my great-grandfather's deposition attached to the application for Cherokee citizenship, dated 28 August, 1896, he stated that "my mother-in-law is now dead."
So those are the biographical details of Elizabeth's life--birth, marriage, death--in a document based on her own words. What else can we found out about her from census records?
1820 census -- Columbus County, NC. Three females under 10 are enumerated with head of household, Luke R. Simmons, two females 26-44, and one male under 10. Elizabeth is presumably one of the females under 10, along with her sisters, Jemima and Susannah. Some trees show Luke R. Simmons, Jr. as a son in this family, and he might be the male under 10 on this census; however, he is not listed in the Bible record. I don't know who the second female 26-44 is.
1830 census -- Elizabeth would have been enumerated with her husband, John Mansell. I cannot find him on the 1830 census.
1840 census -- Pike County, Alabama. John Mansel, head of household, is listed with family as follows: 1 male, 15-19; 2 males, 10-14; 1 male, 5-9; 2 males under 5; 1 female, 15-19; and 1 female under 5. With varying birth dates for Elizabeth's sons in other documents, these figures might fit with her known male children. However, Elizabeth should be listed as a female, 20-30. The female under age 5 must not have survived until adulthood.
1850 census -- Pike County, Alabama. Elizabeth "Mansfield," age 37, is listed as head of household (John Mansell having died in 1844) with sons William, age 25; Samuel, age 22; Daniel, age 18; Simeon, age 14; Benjamin F., age 10; John, age 9; Amos, age 6; and daughter Frances, age 1.
1860 census -- Pike County, Alabama. Elizabeth Mansill, age 47, is listed as head of household with sons Wm. A, age 34; Samuel J., age 27; Simeon C., age 15; daughter Francis, age 11; Pugh and Nancy J., age 7. As far as I know, no one has ever been able to verify the identity of twins, Pugh and Nancy. Were they Elizabeth's grandchildren, possibly children of William or Samuel who were living with her at the time? Were they Elizabeth's own children? In any case, they seem to disappear after this census.
1870 census -- Pike County, Alabama. William A. Mansell, age 44, is listed first at residence 110 along with William W. Cotton, age 57, and Elizabeth, age 58.
1880 census -- Lauderdale County, Alabama. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Cotton, age 69, is head of household. Her son William A. Mansell, age 55, is living with her.
We know that by the time Elizabeth made her deposition in 1894 she only had one child living, her daughter Frances/Fannie. What happened to her seven sons? Let's take them one by one.
William, the oldest, was born when Elizabeth was 14 years old, and he was still living with her in 1880 when he was 55 years old. A strong bond must have existed between mother and son. The William A. Mansell who enlisted in the 60th Alabama Regiment in 1864 in Montgomery, Alabama, may or may not be our William. (Brother Daniel also enlisted in the 60th Alabama.) A marriage license between a William A. Mansell and Elizabeth Hancock in Pike County, Alabama, is dated 25 March 1866. If this is our William, the marriage dissolved or Elizabeth died before the 1870 census when William is living with his mother and stepfather.
Samuel J. married Eliza Ann M. Tharp on 30 June 1854. He enlisted in the 15th Alabama Infantry in September of 1861 and died of disease in Richmond, Virginia, in November of 1862. In the document by which his mother claimed his final pay she stated that he left "neither child or children or father or wife." My cousins, who wrote a history of the Mansel family called "Pages from the Past," have a hypothesis about Samuel and his wife, involving the mystery twins, Pugh and Nancy, who appear on the 1860 census. They wonder if perhaps Eliza died giving birth to the twins. Samuel left them with his mother when he enlisted, and they subsequently died before Elizabeth made the statement that Samuel left "no child or children..."
Daniel Monrow/Monroe Mansell married Margaret Brooks on 21 December 1854. Daniel enlisted in the 60th Alabama Regiment, Company C, in 1863, and survived engagements at Chickamauga, Bean's Station, and Drewry's Bluff. He and his wife raised a large family, and he died in 1876 in Waterloo, Alabama.
Simeon C. is a little bit of a mystery. He appears on the 1850 at age 14 and the 1860 census at age 15, then he disappears. No records of Civil War service have been found for Simeon, but it's possible he died in the war or during that decade.
Benjamin Franklin Mansell enlisted in Company G, 1st Regiment, Alabama Infantry, and died as a prisoner of war at Camp Randle in Wisconsin on 14 May 1862. He is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, Wisconsin.
John E. joined the 15th Alabama on 15 August 1861 at age 19 and died of measles on 6 December at Hay Market, Virginia, before he turned 20.
Amos P. enlisted in the 15th Alabama at age 18 on 15 August 1861. He was wounded at Cold Harbor, Virginia, in 1862 but rejoined the fighting and was killed by a minie ball through the head on 2 July 1863 at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Elizabeth died in 1896 with only one child still living, her youngest and only daughter, Frances "Fannie." Fannie died in 1905, leaving a 10-year-old, my grandfather, motherless. She is buried at Oakhill Cemetery in Oologah, Oklahoma, the only one of her family buried there.
So much loss. When I think of Elizabeth, it is with compassion at all she lost: two husbands and seven sons--four or maybe five, too young, in the violence and ruin of war.
There are two competing stories about Elizabeth's burial place. I had heard that she was buried in an unknown location in Oklahoma, until my cousins showed me the place where she is thought to be buried in Alabama. If she is in Alabama, she lies next to her eldest son, William, who was so close to her throughout his life. I hope that's where she is.
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