All My Ancestors

Check it out–high-tech tombstones in Japan can provide photos and audio clips to a cell phone.

This version of the Carnival of Genealogy asks which 4 ancestors I would invite for dinner, whether we would meet in my time or theirs, and what I would tell them. I can’t hope for my version to be as clever as The Genealogue’s conversation over pizza rolls, but I’ve chosen 4 of my ancestors that I have some questions for. We’ll meet in “my” time and it probably won’t be all that enjoyable an event for them as I plan to quiz them hard!

Jonathan Osborne (c 1771 NC-1826 NC) 3rd great-grandfather
Jonathan’s father Christopher is my brickwall–the family brickwall for over 50 years. I just want to know where he came from and why he didn’t leave deeper tracks. My theory is that if I talk to Jonathan rather than his father Christopher I can find out more about the succeeding generation as well as the preceding one–conservation of resources, don’t y’know? Christopher

I want to know if Jonathan’s brother Christopher had children in his first marriage. I want to know why this Christopher’s mother-in-law, Mary Stutts Furr, disinherited her daughter, Catherine, his wife–did it have anything to do with Christopher’s first marriage or that in 1818 he moved to Alabama with other families to start Valley Creek Presbyterian Church in Dallas County, Alabama?

I want to know if Jonathan and Christopher had another sibling born after their father’s death in 1789–their father says something in his will about his belief that his wife might be pregnant. I also want to know who all his sisters married–there are names like Brown and Smith and Polk among Jonathan’s brothers-in-law and I want to know first names, marriage dates, and where this tribe ended up. Not too much to ask, do you think?

Delilah Jackson Landrum (1780 SC-1870 TX)4th great-grandmother
I’ve written about Delilah before. I first wanted to know here when I read my great Aunt Marge’s memoirs. She was writing about going to a youth camp where there were racial tensions. She was very much for accepting everyone, regardless of color or creed. She was discussing this with her father and he tells her, “You are very much like my Grandmother Delilah.” I found that statement fascinating because as far as I knew, her father, born and reared in Texas, did not have contact with his Grandmother Delilah who lived in Tennessee. On the other hand, she did spend her later years in East Texas with her youngest daughter, so perhaps he did know her. I love her self-possession when she refused to join the frenzy at the revival as I wrote about here. I have lots of questions about her Jackson family back in South Carolina, and I particularly want to know about the “Dutch fan” that her father left her in his 1817 Union County, South Carolina, will.

William Green Ball (1806 NYC-1881 IA) 4th great-grandfather

Dr. Ball is chosen as another bridge between generations. I definitely want to know more about his father–even though he was a young boy when his father died, he must know about his origins, and those of his mother. His parents were married in Baltimore, I think, in 1797, and then his father was a shipwright in New York City. After the death of his father, his mother and family moved to Clark County, Indiana and then some went on to Delaware County, Ohio. His sisters married well–one married twice, first to the district attorney and state congressman, and then to another attorney who was a national congressman. What was the basis of these sorts of alliances? And I also want to know what kind of medical training Dr. Ball went through–I believe he did that while he was living in Indiana, but who was his mentor and how did he come to that profession?

What can Dr. Ball tell me about his wife’s family? Why did they move from Tennessee to Indiana? Who was the minister, John M. Dickey, who appeared on so many of their records? How did his being an abolitionist fit in with their own beliefs?

It was Dr. Ball and his wife who reared their granddaughter Martha Jane after her father was killed enroute to “the West” and then her mother died shortly thereafter. How did they learn of their sons’ deaths? What were the circumstances under which those two sons were moving? Did Dr.and Mrs. Ball plan to join them in the west?

And, finally, what was the impetus for this man to move from New York City to Indiana to Missouri to Iowa to Kansas to Arkansas and then back to Iowa?

Sarah Ann Davis Anderton (1841 AL-1915 OK) Great-great grandmother
I don’t know very much about my Anderton and Davis lines from Alabama. There were about a zillion Anderton families in Marshall County and most of them were named John or James. I believe I have the right line back to a James Anderton, b. Virginia about 1760. This is not work I’ve done myself, but I believe it’s probably correct.

I don’t even have all of Sarah Ann and her husband James’ children all documented. Some of the older daughters stayed in Alabama when they came to Oklahoma after the Civil War. I always have questions about what makes a family move that far to an area that must be unfamiliar to them, not to mention what would possess them to move to the Oklahoma panhandle, aka “No Man’s Land.” Their granddaughter, my grandmother, told me that they did logging back in Alabama–they floated the logs down the river. That kind of work was certainly not a big draw here in Oklahoma. I suppose it was the opening of the land that drew them. They were still in Alabama on the 1900 census, but by 1910, they had “proved up” on their land in Beaver County, Oklahoma. I have their homestead files and they worked hard.

I found this picture of them in a county history, she’s on the left and he’s on the right. One reason she is dear to me is that she doesn’t appear to be “dainty.” And doesn’t he look like the stereotypical Civil War vet?

Sarah Ann is buried out in Blue Mound Cemetery in Beaver County, Oklahoma.

My grandmother told me she really wanted to go back to Alabama but she died before that could happen. Her husband James got his Civil War pension here in Oklahoma– he’d served in the artillery back in Alabama. He was approved and apparently went back to Alabama. Years ago, I sent for his death certificate only to be told that it could not be located. Then a few years ago, I was at Samford Institute in Birmingham, Alabama with some friends. The husband of that group was going out to do some research and I told him if her ran across a tombstone for James Anderton, to be sure to let me know. Amazingly enough, he did. He’s been my genealogical hero ever since. James evidently died in March 1918 and he’s buried in Cochran Cemetery.

Anyway, I have lots of questions for Sarah. Her mother’s maiden name was Campbell–another name I haven’t pursued due to the overwhelming amount of info and my lack of familiarity with records in that part of the country. Her father left all of his 1868 estate, 1450 acres, to his youngest son, Joseph Montgomery Davis, with the proviso that he care for the oldest son, William B. Davis. What were the circumstances that required this sort of care? The will did not stand and the estate was eventually equally divided among the widow and 8 children, including Sarah.

So those are the folks I want to interview, two from the maternal and two from the paternal. I want them to know how much I’ve enjoyed learning more about them and how much I honor their lives and their sacrifices. It’s not surprising that I’ve already written about some of these folks–their lives and times are the targets of some of my greatest curiosity.

I don’t know yet what we’ll have to eat, but I’ll definitely cook. I’ll bet those grandmothers could use the rest.

Today at work I was looking for an online listing of a tombstone for a family I assumed was of German from Russia descendancy. I was looking at the usual sites–Findagrave and Internment.net and the web page for the county on Oklahoma’s GenWeb page.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with my great Aunt Edna. She was my maternal grandfather’s sister, the oldest child of that family. I was talking to her about the Karoma Cemetery in Goltry, Oklahoma where her parents and both sets of her grandparents, and a few of her great-grandparents are buried. (This is the cemetery I took my husband to early in my genealogy quest. We wrote down all the family names I knew and we came up with 86 people!) I told her that I’d found tombstones for all the family at Goltry but there was only a small funeral home marker on the grave of her Unruh grandparents who had died in 1929 and 1932.

She told me they’d be pretty unhappy to know there was even that much marking of their grave. I knew that side of the family were all Mennonites, but all Mennonites are not created equal. Benjamin John Unruh (1854-1929) and his wife Helena Nachtigal (1852-1932) were evidently from one of the more conservative sects. Aunt Edna said there had been no mirrors and no photographs in their home, and they would not approve of a tombstone to mark their grave. Then she grinned and said they were called the “fur-bearing Christians.” She said her grandfather Unruh always had a big long beard, also part of his religious beliefs. Aunt Edna’s description of them as “fur-bearing” still makes me smile.

So many topics floating through my head.

I’ll pick two–more info about the Missouri Blair line and research in Oklahoma.

I found the burial site of the governor’s father–he’s in the same cemetery in Jefferson City as the governor. As is the governor’s brother Sam C. Blair, US Attorney, and a third brother, William Clark Blair. I haven’t dug about long enough for William C. yet, but all three of these men served in World War II, one a colonel, one a major and one a lt. (jg) in the Navy.

Then there’s Dr. Anna Lou Blair, whom I found as well. She is the sister of James T., Sr. and distinguished enough in her own right. She taught 49 years at Missouri State University in Springfield, served as the chair of the Modern Languages department, and has a building named for her. I found her on the 1930 census studying at Yale and in 1940, she’s returning from a trip to Chile. She sounds like no slouch.

That’s just one of the topics I want to explore. (Not to mention that I keep thinking I should be able to find an obituary for James T., Sr. So far, I have not been successful in any of my subscription databases.)

Then there’s the article in one of the recent genealogy magazines that lists online sites for each state. There’s one lonely entry for Oklahoma, and it’s the Access Genealogy site that has the index to the final rolls of the Dawes Commission. It’s listed as a site that charges, which I’ve not found to be so, and the site also has in caps and bold letters the most ignored statement in Native American genealogical research:

IF YOUR ANCESTOR WAS NOT LIVING IN INDIAN TERRITORY DURING 1898-1914 THEY WILL NOT BE LISTED ON DAWES!!

But the point is that there are some other Oklahoma sites that are pretty terrific. One of the best, in my opinion, is the database of the Indian Pioneer interviews done in the 1930s–another one of those great WPA projects. These interviews were done with “89ers” (those who came to Oklahoma for the 1889 land run, or a subsequent run) or their descendants AND with Native Americans who already lived here, or their descendants and covers a time period of about 1860-late 1930s. With almost 80,000 entries, it is a rich, rich resource, and the University of Oklahoma Western History Collections has all the interviews mounted for access by name, place or subject.

The Research Center at the Oklahoma Historical Society has some good information up as well. The index to the 1890 Territorial Census is available at here. This census is particularly important since most of the 1890 census for the rest of the country was destroyed. Because Oklahoma was not yet a state, this census was not with the federal census and thus survives. It covers a portion of the Unassigned Lands (Logan, Oklahoma, Cleveland, Canadian, Kingfisher, and Payne Counties) in the center of the state and Beaver County in the panhandle.

Photos from early Oklahoma are also available online at the Oklahoma Historical Society’s site. Use the Archives link in the online catalog and type in a subject. If you see “file available” in the lower right corner, click on that link and see the photo. This database is no where near complete, but it’s fun to browse–type in the name of an Indian tribe or an old Oklahoma town and see what comes up.

Another online source, though not tied to any agency or company, is the work done by the late Mary Turner Kinard. She indexed many of the pre-statehood marriages from Indian Territory and that index is available online here. The documents themselves are in various repositories, but the site tells the searcher where to obtain copies.

We shouldn’t forget the Oklahoma portion of the USGenWeb project–I still find myself using it on an almost daily basis when I’m at work. It’s well maintained and has some very good information for anyone researching in Oklahoma.

I’ll stop.

Those are just two of the topics floating through my mind, and they aren’t even related except that they both address genealogical quests. Granted the Oklahoma resources aren’t all that straightforward, but they are there and they are free for now. And what’s the use of having a blog if not to use to clear my head?

It’s amazing what you can learn by just listening at family funerals.

I learned where one of my aunts was from–didn’t think it was all that interesting until I started looking for her family on the census. Her birth name is not the same as what I always knew her by. And her mother died when she was very young. I remember a light sort of going on when someone said where she was from–why hadn’t I ever asked that question?

Another aunt’s father was married 3 times–the wife I knew was #3 and quite a bit younger than him. Guess that could account for why she is almost contrary about digging for family history.

I also heard about a couple of arguments in the family, long ago, that account for some of what I saw growing up. I don’t want to go into detail here, but I never could figure out why there was such a gap between members of the same families who lived only 60 miles apart.

I didn’t go to that funeral hoping for more family information–I was glad that I’d gone to family reunion last month and that this wasn’t our only recent get-together. I went to honor my uncle, my dad’s brother. All his siblings were known and dear to me as a child–and now there are only two left. I went because that’s what we do in families–I went for the living. I enjoyed being in the cemetery where 3 generations of my family are buried–not because I’m glad they’re gone, but I am glad that I knew so many of them and it’s somehow meaningful to me that they are buried all together in the same cemetery. As the minister recited the “dust to dust” passage, it seemed especially appropriate–my family were farmers and they loved the land. It’s comforting to me to hear that “dust to dust” part because I think they’ve always viewed themselves as part of the land. As I told my brother, there was a lot of Osborne dust at that cemetery.

Delilah Jackson was my 4th great-grandmother. She was married to Merriman Landrum and outlived him by several years.

I get the impression that Delilah was from a locally prominent family from Union County, South Carolina. Her father was Ralph Jackson, Jr. and her mother was Delilah Murphy. Ralph Jr’s mother was Amy Williams. Amy is a patriot, in the sense that if I were so inclined, I could use her as my ancestor to join the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) since she is on record as having furnished forage to some of the Revolutionary soldiers’ horses. Delilah inherits, among other things, a “dutch fan” at her father’s death. I’ve spent some time trying to determine exactly what this item was, and I think it must have been a hand-held fan used by ladies in that day that came from Holland. Simple enough, but probably highly prized in those steamy South Carolina times.

Much of the information I have about Delilah comes from a book about her son. Her oldest son was John Gill Landrum, a Baptist minister of some note in South Carolina. He seems to have been a fairly conservative fellow, but I did like the fact that when he married a Methodist woman, he had apparently had no issues with her attending her own congregation while he tended his. My “genealogical advice” here, however, is to repeat the “search the whole family” mantra–if I hadn’t found this biography of my grandmother’s brother, I would be much the poorer for it. Another serendipitous path discovered through the reading of this book is that John G’s son, John Belton O’Neall Landrum, usually referred to as JBO Landrum, authored a history of Spartanburg County, SC, and in the preface to one of his books, he notes he is writing it from Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory. whoddathunkit?

The book is entitled The Life and Times of Rev. John G. Landrum, written by H. G. Griffith in 1885. It was reprinted in 1992 by Brent Holcomb, to whom I am most grateful for making this book more readily available. The book was the result of an article Mr. Griffith was asked to write for the Baptist Courier, a South Carolina Baptist publication, about Rev. Landrum. Despite his birth in Tennessee, John Gill Landrum evidently made his claim to fame in South Carolina. After the death of his father, Merriman, he was sent back to South Carolina for schooling and as with many students who go off to study, he made his life where he was educated. (This 6th generation Texas has now lived in Oklahoma much longer than her time in Texas, Oklahoma being where she went off to college, married, and has her life.)

Not all of the family information in The Life and Times is correct–but the general outline is there. The author evidently went to great length to contact Landrum descendants–there is a quote from my 3rd great grandmother, his older sister, Elizabeth Landrum Cooper who was living in Texas at the time. Delilah’s daughter, John G.’s sister, Elizabeth was among the first of my relatives to come to Texas, resulting in my being a 6th generation Texans. Elizabeth and her husband Job Cooper were my entre into the Daughters of the Republic of Texas

My favorite story from this book is that of Delilah after the death of her husband and while she was still living in Tennessee. Her youngest daughter Mary wanted her mother to go to a neighborhood revival meeting. This was not the church to which they usually went, but she agreed to go with her daughter. This description took me right back to my own youth in way too many revivals

“The preacher soon rose to fever heat, and his audience indicated their sympathy by shouts and groans, and many other noisy demonstrations. When the excitement had reached its climax, the preacher, in the tones of a trumpet, demanded that all who wanted to go to heaven should rise from their seats and clap their hands. The whole congregation, with the single exception of Mrs. Landrum, rose and gave the required response. The quick eye of the preacher noted the defalcation, and he immediately added: “And all who want to go to hell, will please keep their seats.” Mrs. Landrum still calmly k3ept her seat to the grat horror of the zealous worshipers, and especially to that of the little daughter Mary. The latter, on reaching home, came to her mother with a heavy heart, and, in childish simplicity, said: “Mother, do you want to go to hell?” “No, my child,” replied Mrs. Landrum; “but that preacher is not my captain. God knows the hearts of all his people, and it is not necessary to make unnatural and unbecoming demonstrations in order to merely gratify the curiosity of others.”

I don’t know if this passage would have eased my way as I navigated through the religious minefield that comprised my own youth, adolescence and young adulthood. I like to think it would have, but I do know that it mightily soothed me when I found it a few years ago. Part of me wanted to proclaim, “See, it’s genetic!” when I recalled how I couldn’t bring myself to pray aloud when called upon in church to do so, or to stand and give a “testimony,” to resent having to “shut my eyes and bow my head” and to raise my hand when the evangelist was taking some sort of heaven-bound poll. I didn’t have Delilah’s strength, but I like to think some of it has come my way as I’ve worked out my own spiritual path.

Some forty years after the death of her husband Merriman in Tennessee, Delilah died and is buried in Texas in an unmarked grave. She probably rests beside that youngest daughter Mary and Mary’s husband Thomas Ballenger in New Prospect churchyard in Rusk County, Texas.

Mother’s Day 2007 seems like an appropriate time to express gratitude for strong foremothers, and for the satisfaction that comes my way when I find such gems as The Life and Times of Rev. John G. Landrum to make her come alive and inform my own 21st century existence.

This is my 4th great-grandfather, William Green Ball.

Remember, he’s the one whose mother I finally found not too long ago. We’d always suspected his middle name came from his mother’s maiden name but didn’t know for sure. After all, he had brothers named Jacob Weaver Ball and James Robinson Ball, and those were perfectly good maiden names as well.

He died in Iowa in 1881, and I wish I knew more about when and where this photo was taken. I’ve never seen the original, but there seem to be some other family photos that were taken at the same time. On the 1880 census, he and Elizabeth, his wife, are living down in Benton County, Arkansas. He was born in New York City in 1808, went to Clark County, Indiana after the death of his father about 1818, and then on to Warren County, Iowa by 1848. I suspect he spent some time in Missouri before he went to Iowa but I haven’t dug that part out yet. I do have some indication that he was in Montgomery County, Kansas in between Iowa and Arkansas. He became a part of the community wherever he was, but he also didn’t seem hesitant to move on if he thought there were more opportunities elsewhere.

In Iowa he was a “country doctor,” but he was also one of the founding members of the agricultural society. On occasions he ran for a county office, and his home was sometimes the voting site for the precinct where he lived west of Indianola. His father had been a shipbuilder and both of his brothers remained in New York City. Two of his sons died “crossing the plains,” and he raised one of their daughters, Martha Jane, who was my grandmother’s grandmother. I feel fortunate to have a photo of him. It took me a long time to find it, and sure enough, it proved my theory that you have to track the daughters of the daughters of the daughters–she’s the one who had them. Thanks so much, Kel.

And here’s Grandmother Elizabeth Charlton Ball.

She was born in Tennessee, married in Indiana, and died in Iowa in October, just weeks after her husband. In fact, his obituary of September, 1881, says “he returned to Warren County about 4 weeks ago, with his aged wife, who it is expected will soon follow him to the long sleep.” Sure enough, they both “sleep” in Linn Grove Cemetery in Warren County, Iowa.

That tall marker just to the right of the flag pole is theirs. Her name is on one side and his is on the other.

At 10:00 Wednesday morning I went to the funeral of a dear friend. The memorial service was here in Oklahoma City in a big air-conditioned church with a pipe organ and rituals and attendants in their suits.

The committal service was 5 hours later and 156 miles north–in a small-town country cemetery. It was hot and windy and lots of people came who had not attended the memorial service in the city.

Many of them had on their boots and starched Wranglers and straw hats. Others wore their knit slacks and a light cotton top and brought an umbrella for some protection from the unrelenting sun.

And there were also a couple of horses.

My picture didn’t turn out all that well despite using the zoom lens, at least in being able to see the horses. But it does give a good picture of the cemetery and the day.

I like country cemeteries. And I liked seeing the men with white foreheads and brown faces, holding their hats in respect for the service and for Elmer, with their heads bowed and reciting the Lord’s Prayer. We were all standing in the blazing sun when the minister/hubbo started to gather us for the service. Then I heard the unmistakable rattle of a trailer. Across the road I saw a pickup slowing down and bumping along the road’s shoulder. It stopped, two straw-hatted men got out and came over to join us gathered around the casket. They’d parked over there to avoid having to negotiate the curves of the cemetery road, I’m sure, and because there were two horses in the trailer they were pulling. These were working men taking a few minutes from their day to come pay their respects to their friend.

I know Elmer would have had a grin over the fact that his funeral was attended by horses as well as lots of loving friends and family.

Despite the 7+ hour round-trip, this year Hubbo and I went to the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles to do a little ancestor acknowledgement on Memorial Day. The trip is just long enough to be almost too much for a day trip, but I can’t get comfortable with the idea of staying overnight in a motel in the town I grew up in. Dunno what that is about.

The two cemeteries we visited are both out in the country in two states. One is about 12 miles south of town. It’s the main cemetery for Ochiltree County, Texas, and was established when the town of Ochiltree was down there.

Ochiltree Cemetery, Ochiltree County, Texas

Lots of my family are there–both maternal and paternal grandparents, a great aunt and uncle who are the brother and sister of my grandparents, various cousins and other aunts and uncles. It’s a place I’ve gone all my life–I recognize more and more of the names. The gate was built with the help of the WPA, and there are still a few elms from that era hanging on as well. There are usually some calves grazing in the pasture to the north and some traffic checking the wells to the south. What can I say? Life in the panhandle goes on.

The other cemetery is about 15 miles northeast of town–really out in the country. It’s a small country cemetery in Beaver County in the Oklahoma pandhandle that’s been there for years. One of my great-great grandmothers was buried there in 1915, and before her, my grandmother’s younger 4 year old brother in 1911. It looks like it’s in a desolate place but to those of us who know the names from the community, it doesn’t seem quite so lonesome. In some respects, my maternal grandparents should have been buried there–they went to school in that community and lived nearby early in their marriage. But they wouldn’t make the decision–there was talk about rattlesnakes and sunburnt grass. So when my grandmother died first, my mom opted to have her buried in the cemetery where my dad’s family are buried, and where Mom and Dad would eventually be buried. It was an ok decision–they spent more time in the town in Texas than they did in the one in Oklahoma and lots of people from Beaver County are buried in Ochiltree Cemetery.

Anyway, out at Blue Mound, I noticed a lone tombstone this time next to a great grandfather, a great-great grandfather, and the above mentioned great uncle who’d died as a child. I don’t know why I’d never noticed it before but it was apparently a Civil War Soldier. It provided only his name, Peter O. Preuett, and the name of his regiment, Co. B, 1st Ark Cav. There were no dates for birth or death.

At first glance, I assumed he’d been a Confederate soldier–he’d served in Arkansas and was buried in Oklahoma. Probably part of the reason I’d never noticed him is that his name was not familiar to me–I focus on all the Andertons, Cromwells, Morrises, Padgetts, Pattisons–names I know. But when I started doing a little research, I discovered he’d actually been a Union soldier. I suppose I should have noticed the shield engraved behind the name and unit, but I was too busy operating in my world of assumptions. This man was born in Tennessee, lived in Arkansas at the time of the war, lived a bit in Texas, came to Oklahoma and died there. He must have died about 1908 or 1909 as best I can determine. He’s in the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory in 1900, to enroll his wife on the Dawes Rolls according to some accounts. His widow and family are in Grand Valley Township in Beaver County, Oklahoma in 1910. By 1920, they are back in Texas.

I uploaded a photo to FindaGrave, but I think I’ll take a flag for his grave next trip out there.