Reed Family Riddles

The inspiration for this post was a photograph. Luckily, I didn't have to try to figure out whose family was in the photograph, because someone had written the family name on the back. The caption on the back of the photo says: "Uncle Boone and Aunt Mary / Mother's brother and family -- Elsie, Kentucky, at their home on the banks of Licking River, Elsie, Ky." Great description--if you know who the writer was, and I do. It was Aunt Emma Day, sister of my great-grandmother, Sarah Florida Day. Probably 40 years ago she sent my grandmother several family photos, most of them with identified people and places. Just a little sleuthing required--the man in the photo is her uncle, her mother's brother, and her mother was Nancy Emily Reed. So my question to myself was: What could I find out about Uncle Boone Reed?

Along with the facts of his life and the lives of his family members, I also learned that sometimes those very facts are not apparent, even on Ancestry.com, which usually makes research amazingly easy. If you're not familiar with Ancestry, you might not know that once you create a profile for a family member, Ancestry is generous with hints and suggestions. In researching Boone Reed, I had suggestions from other people's family trees and links to all kinds of documents, including census, marriage, and death records. But when I tried to verify his birth and death dates, I couldn't find a document that matched up with the dates that most Reed researchers had listed for his birth and death.

The Social Security Death Index listed his birth date as 22 September 1867, but it didn't show a death date--just a "claim date," 12 June 1957. There was no link to a death certificate, but when I did a search for one, I found out the reason why. First, the name on the certificate was D. B. Reed, and he died in Holton, Indiana! How did I even know this was the same person? Because at the very bottom of the certificate, under burial information, the cemetery was listed as "Reed Cemetery, Elsie, Ky." The death date was 21 December 1957, and the birth date was given as 10 September 1967 (he was 90!) And honestly, I don't even know if the birth date is correct, because the informant listed on the death certificate is Henry W. Reynolds, who says that D.B. Reed is his "step-father-in-law." More about that later.

D. B. Reed Death Certificate

Even though Holton, Indiana, was a surprise, the name D. B. Reed was not. Uncle Boone was really Daniel Boone Reed, and throughout his life he used the names Boone, Daniel Boone, Daniel B., and D. B. interchangeably. He and his sister, Nancy Emily Reed, my 2nd great-grandmother, were the children of Lewis Reed and Sarah Patrick. The first census on which Daniel Boone Reed appears is the 1870, where the family is listed as: Lewis Reed, age 40; Sarah, age 40; Martha J., age 19; Nancy E., age 17; Mary, age 10; Eli, age 9; Sarah A., age 8; Daniel B., age 2; and (Catlet) Lee, age 3 months. The 1880 census lists Lewis, Sariah, Ely, daughter Sariah, Daniel B. and Catlet. (By 1880 Martha Jane had married Harrison Patrick, Nancy Emily had married James Thomas Day, and Mary had married Mason Gullett.) 

1870 Magoffin County census

By 1900 both Lewis and Sarah had passed away, and all their children had married. Further research into the siblings of Nancy Emily and Daniel Boone Reed solved a little mystery I have wondered about for years. In addition to family photos, Aunt Emma also gave my grandmother the Day family Bible. Under the Deaths was a date for a Sarah May. I never could figure out who that was, since there was no Day family member by that name. It turns out that Sarah, daughter of Lewis and Sarah, sister of Nancy and Boone, listed above in the 1870 and 1880 censuses, married Abel May.

According to Kentucky marriage records, D. B. Reid married Mary Elizabeth Patrick on 5 December 1889. (Another complication is that Reed is spelled several ways in the records.) Of course, since his mother was a Patrick, I wondered if Mary Elizabeth was his cousin, and yes, she was. Her father was Brice Patrick, brother of Sarah Patrick Reed. By the 1900 census Boone and Mary had four children: Cassius, Curtis, Nora, and Fannie. By 1910 Levna and Tilden had been added to the family. (Yes, Levna is the correct spelling. It's been transcribed as Levenia and Leona, but Levna is the spelling used in her will, which she signed.)

Boone and Mary's marriage record

So, back to the photo--who, besides Uncle Boone and Aunt Mary, posed for this photograph? Assuming, of course, that the children were the children of Boone and Mary Reed, this is the conclusion I came to, although I could be wrong:  

1. Just judging generally by the clothing, I thought the picture was probably taken in the early 1900's. Mary died in 1929, so it had to be before then.

2. Unless the boy shown in the photo is a grandchild, he has to be Tilden, who was born in 1905. Cassius and Curtis are the only other boys and they were much older and close to each other in age. If the picture was taken when they were young, both of them would be in it. Tilden appears to be 8-10 in the photo, so my guess is that it was taken about 1913-1915.

3. Looking next at the girl to the far right, she is wearing shorter skirts than the other females, so she is probably still considered a child. Levna was born in 1902, so dating the picture at 1913-1915, she would be 11 to 13, which is exactly what she looks to me.

4. That leaves the other female. I can't find a marriage record for Nora Reed, but on the 1920 census, her oldest child is 6, so I'm guessing she married about 1913. Fannie married in 1916, so I think she is the one shown in this photo.

I found this photo of Nora on Ancestry, contributed by an Ancestry user with the username Airsoup. Isn't she pretty? She was 16 in this photo. Does she look like the girl in my photo? In my opinion, no. I still think the girl in my photo is probably Fannie.

Nora Reed, age 16

My only qualm is that Boone looks old to me in this picture, but he would be getting close to 50 in 1915. That's young nowadays--or at least it is to me!--but people seemed to age earlier back in the day. But wait! Boone has a lot of life left in him yet. 

As I mentioned, Mary died in 1929. On 23 September 1930 D. B. Reed married Eliza Patton (maiden name McCarty), a widow. (She is listed as a widow on the 1930 census--taken in April of 1930--with five children, Eulah, Ruth, Dillard, Mary, and J.B.) Boone was 63, and Eliza was 35. They go on to have a child together, Grover, who was born in 1931.

And that is how Boone ends up in Holton, Indiana. Henry Reynolds (Remember him? The source for Boone's death certificate?) married Ella Ruth Patton, Eliza's daughter. Apparently, at some point after the 1940 census, Boone and Eliza go to live with or near Eliza's daughter in Indiana. Boone dies there in 1957 at age 90; Eliza dies there in 1980 (after marrying again!) and is also buried in Elsie, Kentucky, according to her death certificate.

Moral of this story: Sometimes you really have to hunt, especially when there have been name and geographical changes that don't seem to make sense. Clues lead to clues, and eventually you can make sense of the timeline of a person's life.

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

DNA Circles: Daniel Reed and Martha "Patsy" Lewis

Daniel and Martha Reed were my 4th great-grandparents. Their son Lewis was the father of my 2^nd great-grandmother, Nancy Emily Reed (See “Grandpa and Grandma Day”) and the grandfather of my great-grandmother, Sarah Florida Day Castle (See “Big Mom”). Lewis Reed married Sarah Patrick whose parents were the object of my last post on DNA Circles. The Reeds were certainly an easier family to research than the Patricks—hardly any mysteries.

In fact, one little mystery was cleared up. Lewis had a twin brother. I have always called him “Lipe.” Lewis and Lipe—I thought those were cute names for twins, and since Lewis was obviously given his mother’s maiden name as a given name, I assumed Lipe was also a family name, maybe even a clue to the maiden name of some female ancestor.

As I began to research the Daniel Reed family, I realized that none of the public trees on Ancestry.com showed a son named Lipe. Instead, Lewis’s twin brother was named Jesse. A closer look at the 1850 census, along with some help from a Google search for handwriting styles in the 1800’s, led to the discovery that “Lipe” is really Jesse. Apparently, when writing a double “s” in the 19^th century, a swooping letter--resembling a cursive "f"--was used for the first “s.” Together, the two s's look like a p. Only after learning this fact did I notice that the loop on the “J” at the beginning of Jesse’s name was on the left, while the loop on the “L” of Lewis was on the right. How many mistakes in family trees, I wonder, have been made because of penmanship?

It is also interesting to note that these twin boys began a tradition that followed the family through four generations. While Nancy Emily Reed Day had a passel of girls and one little boy, her daughter, Florida Day Castle, had twin boys—Wardy and Warner, and her daughter, Fannie Castle Smith, had twin boys—my dad Jack and his twin brother Mack. I wonder if any of the other members of the DNA Circle of Lewis and Martha Reed had twin boys.

Warner and Wardy Castle

Jack and Mack Smith

 The 1850 census of Morgan County, Kentucky, was particularly helpful in establishing all the children of Daniel and Martha Reed. I really have never seen one census where the oldest child is still living at home and the youngest child has already been born. Usually, you have to look at two or three censuses in order to establish the names of all the children in a family, but for the Reeds, the 1850 census lays it all out. From oldest to youngest, they are: Jesse and Lewis, twins, age 20; James, 17; Anna, 16; Nancy, 13; Eliza, 12; Rachel, 10; John, 8; Wiley, 6; Solomon, 5; Sarah, 4; Phebe, 3; and William, 0.

1850 census, Morgan County, Kentucky

 On the 1860 census the family is enumerated in Magoffin County (I think the residence remained the same but the county boundaries changed.) The children still living at home are: Wiley, 18; Solomon, 16; Sarah, 15; Phebe, 14; and William, 10. Pheby, 22, and William, 20, are still living with Daniel and Martha on the 1870 census. The addition to the family is John M. Reed, age 1. Now who does he belong to? Martha is 62, so he can’t possibly be hers. Is he a child of Phebe’s or William’s, or a son of one of the other children, visiting his grandparents? I found no documentation of Phebe’s marriage, but trees on Ancestry show her marrying Samuel Jackson in November of 1871. James has a son, also born in 1869, but he is enumerated with his family in 1870 as John F. Reed. Okay, so maybe the Reed family has one small mystery—but this one I can live with.

The spouses of the children of Lewis and Martha are illuminating. Some of the names, such as Lykins and Stacy, are common names in Morgan County. It’s obvious that the Reed children married within a small community, as evidenced by the surnames of their spouses. Lewis and William married Patricks; Jesse and Nancy married spouses named Walters; and James and John married Praters.

Looking farther back in the tree, I find I have another situation like the one with my Wheat ancestors. Again, I hear the voice of Jeff Foxworthy in my head, saying, “You know you’re a redneck when your family tree doesn’t branch.”

Martha Lewis was the daughter of John Lewis and Rachel Henson. John was the son of James T. Lewis and Winnie Henson. James T. was the son of Nathaniel Lewis, and Winnie was the daughter of Paul Henson. Rachel was the daughter of John Henson and Mary “Polly” Lewis. John Henson was the son of Paul Henson, and Mary “Polly” Lewis was the daughter of James T. Lewis and Winnie Henson. That means that the parents of Martha “Patsy” Lewis, John Lewis and Rachel Henson, were 1^st cousins on the Henson side of the family, and 1^st cousins, once removed, on the Lewis side of the family. 

			Nathaniel Lewis
		James T. Lewis
			Elvira Helton
	John Lewis
			Paul Henson
		Winnie Henson
			Elizabeth
Martha "Patsy" Lewis
			Paul Henson
		John Henson
			Elizabeth
	Rachel Henson
			James T. Lewis
		Mary "Polly" Lewis
			Winnie Henson

It stands to reason that there will be some strong DNA matches among the descendants of Martha “Patsy” Lewis. Again, it’s too bad that Ancestry doesn’t offer a way to determine if a DNA match comes from Martha’s side of the family or from Daniel Reed’s. What I do have are 22 people in Daniel’s DNA Circle and 22 people in Martha’s. Ancestry put all of us in the same circles because we all have Daniel and Martha in our trees and all of us have a DNA match with at least one other person in the circle. The 22 people in each of my circles are the same, although with 5 of them I do have DNA matches as well. 

Among the Ancestry members in Daniel’s and Martha’s circles, six of them descend from Lewis’s twin brother Jesse; 3 from James; 3 from Nancy; 3 from William; and 2 each from Rachel, Sarah, and Solomon. I am the only descendant of Lewis in the DNA Circles. I have DNA matches with two descendants of James Reed, and one each from Jesse, Sarah, and William.

At the very least, the DNA Circles have caused me to revisit some of these ancestors that I haven’t looked at in a long time. My brother will be very interested to see the Revolutionary War record of our ancestor, Paul Henson, as described in his (and his widow Elizabeth’s) applications for bounty land and pension due for his service. I was also very interested to read the conclusions of Lewis researchers who believe they have traced Nathaniel Lewis and his wife Elvira Helton to their origins in Wales and Ireland. 

DNA Circles: Robert Patrick and Elizabeth McMullen

Two more of my DNA Circles on Ancestry.com are centered on Robert Patrick and Elizabeth McMullen. Looking at these two ancestors in more depth has led to questions I didn’t know I had.

Robert “Robin” Patrick is my 4^th great-grandfather. He was born in Staunton, Virginia, in 1764, and lived in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee before settling in Floyd County, Kentucky. His daughter, Sarah Patrick, born 5 January 1830, married Lewis Reed on 3 May 1849 in Morgan County, Kentucky. Their daughter, Nancy Emily Reed, married James Thomas Day in Magoffin County, Kentucky, in 1876 and moved to Oklahoma before statehood. They were the parents of my great-grandmother, Sarah Florida Day.

For years, without question, I have listed Robert’s wife and my 4^th great-grandmother as Elizabeth “Betsy” McMullen. However, in doing more research for this post, I have found that there are facts about the marriage of Robert and Betsy that call into question whether she is my ancestor. In 1819 after the birth of seven children, Hugh, Henry, Hiram, Robert, Nancy, Margaret, and Brice—the latter two were twins born in 1816—Betsy filed for divorce, citing her husband’s adultery and abandonment as causes. According to Betsy, Robert was living with another woman.

Robert was ordered to come before the court but never appeared. One sheriff remarked that he “got sight of the defendant but could not arrest him.” Elizabeth was afraid that Robert would dispose of property with which he could provide her support, and Robert was “restrain(ed)…from removing or consigning his property without the jurisdiction of (the) court.” Apparently, after living with a woman named Nancy Prater Allen for several years, Robert finally married her after Elizabeth’s death in 1830. It has been assumed that all of the children born after Betsy filed for divorce in 1819 are the children of Nancy. In 1838 the couple, along with Robert’s brother James and several other families, left Kentucky for the West. They traveled over 700 miles to the new state of Arkansas, mostly by river raft. Robert was 74. If nothing else, he was a tough old man.

Most of Robert and Nancy’s children—Robert Jr., Wiley, Jemima, Mary Ann, George, and Rhoda--moved with them to Arkansas. And therein lies the problem. Sarah, my ancestor Sarah, didn’t. She married Lewis Reed in Morgan County in 1849. She is listed on the 1850 census in Morgan County with her husband; they are both 20 years of age. She died in Magoffin County in 1892. If she was born in 1830, she should be Nancy’s daughter.

But why would Nancy move to Arkansas and leave an 8-year-old behind in Kentucky? Who did she leave her with? So is Sarah really Betsy’s, as I have shown in my tree all along? Looking at just the evidence of family names, it would appear not. Sarah did not have any daughters named Elizabeth, but she named the daughter who would become my 2^nd great-grandmother Nancy Emily. Surely Sarah would not name a daughter after the woman who had caused her father to abandon his family.

No doubt because Robert had so many children—most researchers claim 17 total—I have tons of matches to Patrick descendants. Not only do they show up in my DNA Circles and on the Ancestry DNA site, but also on Family Tree DNA. In all, I have at least 50 matches with Patrick descendants. I think I can confidently say that I am a descendant of Robert Patrick. But from which wife?

Again, the lack of chromosome data on Ancestry hampers my ability to answer this question. In theory I should be able to compare amounts of mutual DNA with my matches and determine if we descend from a full or half relationship. In other words, are we only connected by Robert Patrick, or do we have both of our 4^th great-grandparents (Robert and Betsy, or Robert and Nancy) in common?

Putting that question aside for a minute, let’s look at my matches (35 of them!) within the Robert Patrick circle. Within the Robert Patrick circle are descendants that match at least one other person in the circle by DNA and also show Robert Patrick as a descendant in the tree they have submitted to Ancestry.

The trees don’t always match the facts. Some list all of the children with birthdates through 1830 as Elizabeth’s (since she was his known wife during that time period and no date of an actual divorce can be found), even when the submitter’s ancestor is quite probably a child of Nancy’s. Some list all the children born after 1819—the date of the divorce petition—as Nancy’s, even though in the case of Sarah, that doesn’t really make sense. Some even show Elizabeth dying in Arkansas, although that was obviously Nancy.

I have to admit that I had listed Elizabeth as the mother of all the children, because I didn’t know until recently about the existence of the divorce petition. This resulted in my being placed in the Elizabeth McMullen circle, even though she might not be the mother of my Sarah. (By the way, when I changed the mother’s name in my tree to Nancy Prater, my Elizabeth McMullen circle disappeared. Now, even though I have changed the name back to Elizabeth, her circle has not reappeared. Shoot. I wish I hadn’t been so hasty; in comparison to Robert’s circle with 36 members, my Elizabeth circle had only 15 members. I really wish I had compared the names before the circle disappeared.)

Within the Robert Patrick circle are descendants of 5 of the 7 children that Robert had with Elizabeth McMullen: 4 descended from Margaret, 3 from Hugh, 3 from Henry, 3 from Brice, and 2 from Hiram. The remaining members of the circle descend from probable children of Nancy: 8 from Mary Ann, 5 from Jemima, 4 from George, and 1 from Rhoda. I am the only descendant of Sarah in the circle.

Eight members of the circle are DNA matches to me. Three of those are descended from Robert Patrick through his daughter, Jemima, a daughter of Nancy; then I have one each from Margaret, Henry, Hugh, and Hiram (all children of Elizabeth) and one from George, a son of Nancy.

The conclusions I reached about my first two DNA circles—Samuel Wheat and Cynthia Stephenson—also apply here. 1) Exploring these ancestors in more depth is a good exercise and gives a direction to my further research. 2) Lack of tools to manipulate the DNA data and erroneous trees make the DNA Circles a dubious help.

My main question is: Where was Sarah from 1838 to 1849? She wasn’t with her father, and she couldn’t have been with either mother. Nancy was in Arkansas, and Elizabeth was dead. So where was Sarah? Maybe if I can ever determine which of Robert’s wives was her mother, I might be able to find her with relatives of that wife. And then again, maybe not. I could only theorize, since her name doesn’t show up until the 1850 census after she is already married to Lewis Reed.

The Patricks and related families ended up in Madison County, Arkansas, and a little community, still called Patrick, grew up around them. Patrick, Arkansas, where Robert and Nancy are buried, is about two hours from where I live in Oklahoma. Robert Patrick was the grandfather of Grandma Day, my grandmother’s grandmother. I never heard my grandmother mention any relatives in Arkansas, and on some of our family trips we weren’t that far from Robert’s final resting place. Still, it makes me wonder. Grandpa and Grandma Day came to Oklahoma first, and later the Castle family followed. Even if Grandma Day never had any contact again with her grandfather, aunts and uncles in Arkansas, she had to know they were there. Maybe their trek by river 60 years before gave her courage to leave all she knew in Kentucky and move to Oklahoma.

I’m not sure what I think about ol’ Robert. For sure, adultery and abandonment of first wives is nothing new, but I think he treated Elizabeth pretty badly. I guess I have to admire his tenacity—he knew what we wanted and he just hung on until he got it—and his courage in moving west. I think a trip to the cemetery in Patrick is in order.

Photo from www.findagrave.com

Big Mom

Today is the birthday of my great-grandmother, Sarah "Florida" Day Castle, born in 1878 in White Oak, Magoffin County, Kentucky.  "Big Mom" was my paternal grandmother's mother and the center of my family's life when I was a child.  She lived in a 1-1/2 story house in Red Fork, a community that was annexed to Tulsa in 1927.  After her death in 1962, my grandparents, my dad, my brother and I moved into her house at 3319 W. 38th St.  

That house was as much a part of my life as Big Mom was, and it still shows up often in my dreams. Big Mom and her dad built the house themselves, modeling it on another house in Red Fork.  She was working on the roof when family members came by to tell her that her first grandchild, Aunt Georgia's Marilou, had been born.

She had come to Oklahoma from Kentucky in 1907 with her husband, George Turner Castle, and her six oldest children.  They settled first on a farm between Davenport and Chandler, where her youngest two, Jessie and Tommie, were born in 1909 and 1914. Their first home in Red Fork was a farmhouse rented from Dr. Fred S. Clinton on the site of the future Clinton Middle School.

Sarah Florida Day, known as Florida (or more commonly, Flordy) was the second oldest of seven daughters of James Thomas and Nancy Emily (Reed) Day.  The other sisters were Ida, Zedda, Emma, Margaret, Minta, and Retta Lee.  Their only brother, Cassa, died at the age of 4.  Florida married George Castle in January 1896 after the death of his first wife, Frances Nickell, in childbirth. She was 17 and he was 32.

George T. Castle had been a leader of the community in Kentucky--a postmaster and county court clerk--but became increasingly handicapped with arthritis. Florida worked hard to support the family, working as postmistress of the Red Fork post office and making salads at the Mayo Hotel kitchen.  She also started the first Methodist Sunday school in Red Fork and was president of the Park Elementary School PTA.

Her newly built house on 38th St. backed up to Red Fork Hill and the family kept livestock and chickens in the lot behind the house. Her older sons, who were in their teens and 20s, pretty much came and went as they pleased, which was a trial to Florida.  Sometimes she would wait until they were asleep and then switch them before they were awake enough to defend themselves.  One night as some of the boys stumbled in, they found their mother in the kitchen plucking and cooking a number of chickens.  She had discovered robbers stealing them and had run them off with a shotgun. Upon discovering that the chickens' necks had already been wrung, she proceeded to pluck and cook them in the middle of the night.

The Big Mom I remember was a big-boned woman with lots of wispy white hair twisted into a knot on the top of her head and held with tortoiseshell combs.  By the time I knew her she was blind with cataracts, practically deaf, and still an indomitable presence in the lives of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  I remember her sitting with quiet dignity on the front porch of the house on 38th St., head held high, looking into a distance she could not see. Blind and deaf, she lived all by herself in the house on 38th St.

Although she became a Methodist again at the end of her life, when I was a very young girl Big Mom was a member of the I AM Church. The I AM Church was very "New Age" for the time, using crystals for healing, and perhaps she felt the need to be healed from the disabilities of old age.  I remember going with the family in the car to take Big Mom to I AM meetings downtown and waiting for her in the car until the meeting was over. 

She developed what was probably cancer in her 80s, refused to go to the hospital, and announced her intention to die at home. Somebody from the family was always keeping vigil at her bedside, and I remember being there a lot, taking our turn. She is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa, next to her husband and surrounded by many of her children and grandchildren, as she was in life.

Castle In-Laws and Their In-Laws

Before I leave the Castles, I would like to summarize what I know about their in-laws, the Days, and their in-laws, the Reeds, Oneys, Patricks, Lewises, etc. 

My great-grandmother, Sarah Florida Day, was the daughter of James Thomas Day and his wife, Nancy Emily Reed.  She was born in White Oak, Magoffin County, Kentucky, and a couple of generations of family members are buried there. The counties of Morgan and Magoffin border each other, and in fact, if you just keep driving out of West Liberty on Hwy. 460, you will reach White Oak in about 10 minutes.

The parents of James Thomas Day were Andrew Jackson Day (1836-1921) and Sarah Oney (1840-1862).  They were married on 25 September 1855 in Morgan County. The marriage registration shows that “Jackson” Day, age 19, lived in Caney, Morgan County, and was born there. Sarah “Owney” was born in Tazewell County, Virginia, and was living in White Oak at the time of her marriage at age 15.  Sarah died in 1862, and Andrew J. Day remarried to Catherine (Jane) Reed. 

Marriage record of Jackson Day & Sarah Oney

Andrew Jackson Day & 2nd wife

Sarah Oney’s parents were William Oney and Susanna Coburn who were both born about 1807 in Kentucky. (Correction: Not true. Sarah's parents were Rhoda Day and James Oney, who were first cousins. James Oney's father was probably William Oney from Tazewell, Virginia. See post "The Oneys and a Couple of Great Stories") They were still living and listed on the 1870 census in Floyd County. Most researchers on ancestry.com list William’s father as Benjamin Oney with a trail leading back to Tazewell County, Virginia. William’s death record on 9 Mar 1878 lists his father as Samuel Oney from Pike County. That’s a question to be answered on another day.

William Oney, died 9 March 1878, father Samuel Oney 

Andrew Jackson Day’s father was Thomas P. Day. He was born in 1804 in Virginia and died before 1880 in Kentucky. On the 1840 census he is in Tazewell County, Virginia; on the 1850 and 1860 he is in Morgan County; and on the 1870 he is in Magoffin County.  His wife was Margaret “Nancy” McGrady, who was born in 1812 in Grayson County, Virginia.

Thomas’s father was Joseph Day who married Rhoda Cock, daughter of Andrew Cock, on 10 August 1796.  Rhoda died 16 August 1827 at age 49, after having given birth to at least 10 children.  Joseph remarried to Rebecca Dunn in 1830, and his second wife had 7 children!  At the age of 80, just a few months before his death, he wrote his will and listed his youngest son as age 8.  Joseph lived in Grayson and Carroll counties in Virginia.  Joseph and Rhoda are both buried in Carroll County, VA.

Nancy Emily Reed’s parents were Lewis Reed and Sarah Patrick. They married 3 May 1849 and were living in Morgan County at the time of the 1850 census. On the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses they are living in Magoffin County in Salyersville and Johnsons Fork. Lewis died on 9 December 1895 in Elsie, Magoffin County.  Sarah Patrick, daughter of Robert Patrick and Elizabeth McMullen, was born 5 January 1830 and died 15 March 1892 in Elsie. Robert Patrick was from Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia.  He was born in 1779 and died in 1859 in Madison County, Arkansas.  His headstone reads “KY Militia, War of 1812.”  His parents were Hugh Patrick and Susanna Harris.

Patrick Cemetery, Madison County, Arkansas

The parents of Lewis Reed were Daniel Reed and Martha “Patsy” Lewis.  Daniel was born 3 April 1806 in Virginia.  Daniel and Patsy were enumerated on the 1830-1870 censuses in either Morgan or Magoffin counties. They were living near the mouth of Cow Creek when Daniel died on 8 February 1878. Patsy died on 18 April 1880 in Magoffin County of pneumonia.   

Patsy’s father was John Lewis. He was born in North Carolina in 1782 but was living in Kentucky by 1820 and in Morgan County by 1830. His parents were James Lewis and Winnie Henson.  According to Lewis family researchers, James came from Wales to America with his father Nathaniel in 1740. They settled first in Virginia. James died in 1825 at Cutshin Creek, Perry County, Kentucky, and is buried in the J.C. Lewis Cemetery in Wooton.  He served in the North Carolina Militia during the Revolutionary War. There is a sign in the cemetery listing his children and commemorating his service.