It's taking me a little longer to get to work on the Quilt today. I had to (virtually) stop off at the Lancaster County Poorhouse and collect Juliana Fox and elder John Fox.
In 1870 old John Fox is on the US Census with wife Clarrissa and Gentle Mary (whose forty). And John's in the County Poorhouse. Oh yeah, right in between two younger men, Frederick Shiveman and Martin Dickens. Shiveman's from Bavaria and he can read and write but not vote. And Dickens was born in Ireland and he's a US Citizen who can vote but he can't read or write. John might be translating for all we know. This is the third page of Poorhouse people the enumerator is tackling. And the enumerator had been to the Lancaster County Hospital first. Four and a half pages of various ailments battled through to get population information. The Superintendent and his family start off the list. J.O. Steinheiser is in his fifties and his Lydia keeps the house. Little Ada A Steinheiser is only ten.
Lines 20-40 of the regular US Census 1870 for Lancaster County are listing hospital patients. The next page gives us forty more people. And the next are forty more to boot. There's very little difference between the lists of the Lancaster County Hospital and the Lancaster County Poorhouse. Image 5 gives us sixteen more lines of Hospital. And then we bump into Elain Herr. He's a thirty-six year old "steward." His Anna M is 29 and Thaddeus R. is just two years old. These Herrs take up lines 17, 18, and 19.
Line 20 is a Patricke McGraw, a middle-aged white man. So there's 20 names on this sheet, forty more on the next, and on the third list of forty names we find Juliana. She's sixty. She can't read or write.
It's not until the next page when we come across John. He's number 16 although he's seventy years old.
The names go on for another twenty or so lines until we get to Mary Stoveman. She's only twenty-eight, just about the same age as Martin Dickens.
Then the enumerator is off to the Zimmermans. Isaac, Catharine, and Anna. Isaac's a laborer there in Lancaster.
John Fox is on a big list over in Green County that year too. There's a household in Perry Township that puts him as the head of household with whose named as his wife in the 1880 census of this place. Mary's forty in 1870 and there's a Samuel D. (9), John H. (7), Grant (5), Deford Fox is four years old and little Lindsay is about one year old. And that's just the Fox on the list...there's a bunch of Dyes and a Bogus. Jospeh Dye is 20 and Hope Dye is fifteen. Elizabeth J. and Jasper are 13 & 7. Selden Bogus is seventeen.
And we don't see Selden ten years later in the same place, but we do find Jasper Dye, he's defined as a step-son to old John Fox who is almost eighty in 1880. But we do find a couple Williams (Eliza, 48 and George E. Williams whose a four year old). Gentle Mary is up in her fifties on this list. And Samuel Fox (19) is close in age to Jasper Dye as is John H. Fox (17). But Julius S. Fox is the only fourteen year old because Lindsy Fox is only eleven.
"United States Census, 1880," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal://MM9.1.1/MWFF-G3B: accessed 15 JUNE 2013), John Fox, 1880.
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Eti Fox is sixteen years old. Lives in the household of John Fox whose almost thirty. That household is dwelling # 73 on the enumerator's path, and they're family # 73. On this Census of 1850 for Perry Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania we're looking at the schedule of Free Inhabitants (M432) and we can see that most of the families of free inhabitants had their own dwellings. There are lots of farms with big groups of people and there are laborers who have smaller units of people per dwelling.
Following the Census Taker makes a path through the Township and from this path we can construct a sort of Perry Township (in 1850) directory.
We can access the path by going through a single record on FamilySearch. We picked our Henry Fox's brother Eti Fox because his name is a little more unusual.
"United States Census, 1850," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal://MM9.1.1/M4HJ-H58: accessed 15 JUNE 2013), Eti Fox in entry for John Fox, 1850.
There's Eti, he's about sixteen. In House number 73, Family # 23.
John Fox is twenty-nine and there's a Catharine Fox...she's 49. A Henry Fox who is 18 and only Mary is older at age 22 on the list of young people with John and Catharine. We call her "Gentle Mary" but the enumerator ticked off the column that says Mary's deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper or convict. James is next youngest to Eti on the list, he's fourteen. Luerettia Fox is 12, Mary Ann is ten, and Malissa is six years old. But she's not the kindergarten aged Malissa around here. The enumerator is going to meet some other little girls later on this October day like the little Malissa Fox who hangs around Mary Gump's place to see what's going on. The Malissa's would be sure to point out that Malissa is NOT Matilda. The shoemaker's little girl? That CHRISTINA, she's SEBEN like Sarah DelanA. Sarah goes to school.
So does henry and Eti and James and LuerETTia.
And then the enumerator is off to the Headley farm; one of them. Elias Headley is #74/74. And it's possible that after he makes way for the next stop...wondering which way to go...Elisabeth Headley might have sent someone over to John Fox's place to be sure about this Census taking.
The (70) Causgrangs and (77) William Sunk seem to be not far off. And then there's old Isaac Jackson he's like a hundred at seventy. But he's dwelling #78/family 78). The next family in the next abode is the young couple the Woodruffs...it's William and Elisa. And 80/80 is more Headley. Then Lemley and Abraham Teates and Alexander Henderson (83/83).
But go back, go back...If we were examining these records on microfilm we'd have to slow down the engines before coming to a STOP. Or else we might snap the roll of film.
Eti's Head of House has a valuable property, it's either worth 4000 or 7000, it's hard to tell. Sometimes the Census taker's writing looks slightly different as we follow along on his trail through the page.
We heard from the Cornerstone Genealogical Society that John Fox was "Captain John Fox," but it doesn't say that on the Census list.
#72/72 is Peter Fox. He's a fifty year old laborer with no real estate value. With him is Mary (40 yrs. old), Susanna who is eighteen and Jane who is either 13 or fifteen. In the olden days people called young women who weren't married yet, "maidens" like people did in Europe and in Spain.
There's Causgrang's place, he's...70/70.
But 71/71...that's the OTHER Peter Fox. He's with Sarah. And the three children with them are littles. Catharine is five, Christopher's three and Bassel, he's a boy, he's only one year old if that.
Then it's on to the Coons. James and Rachel and Sophia. Pretty name for a brand new baby newborn. Uh-oh...they get recorded as 70/70 too.
Now we're going east/west/north/south???? The ink blots on the entry for where Benjamin Dulany was born. Might have been VA or it might have been PA. It was twenty-five years before. He's with Sidney and a newborn named Ingraham. He's a boy...in family #69.
George Fox gets listed as 65/65. He's an aging laborer, born in NEW YORK (which was a different shape in 1850 than it was later in time). The Nancy who dwells with him was born in Pennsylvania though, just like the Mary and George in house #65.
Next we come to eight or nine lines of ROSE. Elisha's bunch. They're 66/66.
And at last we get to our GRANDMOTHER MATILDA. She's in dwelling visited number 67 with the long list enumerated as family #67. There's William Fox (age 27), and EliZabeth (23), Jonathon Fox who is three and John Fox who is one like Bassel. AND there's John DELANA, he's eight years older than Metilda who is forty. There's another EliZabeth Delana who is twenty one, Pishna Delana (18), Margaret (17), Thomas is fourteen. The next girl's name is not perfectly clear, it looks like Mesiah, she's 13. When sublings are that close in age they get called "Irish Twins." Sarah DELANA is ELEVEN and William DELANA a nine year old man. John's just 7 years old though so he's not a man yet. Jane-A DelanA is three and Isaac Delana is another one year old.
Sunk's place...that's 77/77.
Woodruff, Headley, Lemley, Teates, and Henderson. Then we've got James King and Mary Gump and Mary Gump and James King. There in #84.
But Mary Gump the third in a row she's 85/85 and sixty-four years old. Lives nearby one of the little Malissa Fox girls in 86/86.
Elizah Fox is a farmer and he's with EliSabeth Fox, she's twenty-three. Martha's seven and Benson is two. Asker Fox is brandy new.
Then David Bare's in 87/87 and Richard and Lydda in 88.
The enumerator goes from 88/88 to 84/84 and then from 84/84 to 40/40. That's George Buffey, farmer at age 25 in 84. And then there's Marion, more Fox in 40/40 with the young in's David (2), William (2) and EliSabeth who is fourteen.
The Census pages are filling up. Busee's in 41/41 and the Evans in 42/42. There's Denley in 43/43 and Magaret Addison is almost eighty in 44/44. There's a George Bare and a James Dunley, a Thomas Griffith in the numbers before another Evens at 88/88.
Phillip Barreck gets 99/99. And Joseph Danley is the hundredth visitation. Hard to believe this all happened on October 19th, 1850. Which may be why the handwriting looks markedly different when the enumerator gets into the twenty/twenty's. More headley and a Whiteland. Daniel Masters and Thomas Wade, he's the farmer at 24/24.
Then we seem to come across a sawmill of one of the Sentees. Might be John (23/23), might be David (22/22) or it might be James (18/18). Presley Wade is a laborer with a family numbered 21. And there's Simon Spitsnagle #20/20. William Clovis comes up on the list just before James Sentee and David Lemley, both farmers.
Then there's Asbury and Rachel LemLA and Jeremiah LEMLA. In 14/14 we find peter Phillips who is a farmer and who lives with a cooper. William's the cooper. And they all live right near David Canada and his clan.
Elizabeth Fuller is in between the two Canadas--David and David.
And Peter Mason is in 10/10.
C. Boydson is listed as a farmer. He's fifty year old but he's #9 today.
John Phillips is after Boydson. And then we get to the Oaks place. Joseph and Abigail are the older couple, and, Joseph Commes and Margaret Oaks the younger. They're all 7/7.
Jean Johnston is the first one on this batch of images of the US Census 1850--Sechedule of Free Inhabitants for Perry Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania. He's dwelling #6/family #6.
The shoemaker? Jean Johnston is a farmer in his twenties. The shoemaker is Ezekel Jenkins and he's in his sixties but he's in dwelling #30 with DorAthe and a younger Ezekel, Charlotte who is twenty-one, a teenge Orlando, Mary and little Christina and a boy named Leroy. They live next to the St. Clair's. Mister St. Clair was born in Virginia and he has a Metilda too.
And in 32/32 is Milly Troy. She can't read or write and she was born in Virginia, but she's with David (18) and Leroy (9) who CAN read and write and were born in Pennsylvania.
Jeremiah Roberts is 33/33 and Levi Anderson is 34/34. It's A.L. Hughes in 35, also born in Virginia. And next to them is the weaver, George Cox. He was born in New York and he's literate but his Nancy is not.
Michaud and Cassina Snider...37/37
John Pyles...38/38
David Right (39/39) and David Amons (40/40)
It's LEWIS Pyles in #41 and Patent Wright in forty-two.
Mary Stonking is 43/43, Joshua Pyles with family 44. Zack Pyles is 45/45. And it's more Headleys in 46. JEREMIAH WRIGHT in 47.
48/48 is Abraham AMENS. Then there's more Lemley; some Grinnage; a John Cowel; and Sarah Stewart and A. Stewart have two different numbers, 52/52 and 53/53 respectively. H. Cross is in #54 and Wash Stephens holds the record at 55/55.
56/56...I don't know.
But 57/57 is Jonathon Delana who is a 55 year old farmer with a real estate value of 1200. His Eliza, Alfred, and Jane are illiterate like Massi and Rode but William is fifteen and in school. Their matilda is eleven.
In 58/58 is ABRAHAM Delana. He can't read or write either but has a house full of children in school. Susannah is close in age to Abraham. But Sharlotte is 23 years younger at thirteen. They have a John Delana (11), a Samuel Delana (9) and a bright young in school Sarah Delana (she's only seven). There's also Persey who is a five year old boy and "Mg" a three year old girl. The newborn in here (family #58) is about five months old since this is still October. And these folks live with Sarah Lemley who is almost eighty. LEMLEY.
Its Headley in 61/61 and B. Fordice in #60.
LEMLEY (59/59)...Samuel, Margaret, Jacob, Morris or Moses, Sarah, Samuel and Jeremiah (he's FOUR).
__ __ __ __ __ __ --Lara Lynn Lane, 15 JUNE 2013
Whoa...
While we do find a Metilda and John Delana (ages 48 and 40) in the household of William and Elizabeth Fox in Perry Township, Green County, Pennsylvania on the Census of 1850...
We also find A John, Matilda, and Malissa Delany in Wayne Township in July of 1870 (#285,232). That's only five years after the Civil War...tumultuous times. John's a laborer and Matilda's keeping house. All born in Pennsylvania. Malissa's fifteen. It appears they're all literate as opposed to the John and Metilda who can't read in 1850.
Unfortunately we found a death record. In the registry of the 1874 Western District Monongalia County West Virginia. It looks like there was nobody there to give the details of the death, even though the death is told of by the informant, Isaac Delany, son.
The man is John Delany, a white male, age 70. Date of death--"squiggly line" Name of parents: just a squiggly line. Occupation, farmer. Name of disease or cause of death: unknown. This man was born in Pennsylvania.
The registry includes columns for colored people--free or slave, and, Name of the owner of the slave.
Place of death, John Delany, Battelle District. Consort of, or unmarried: Delany Matilda.
This is from the County Records. "West Virginia, Deaths, 1853-1970," index, Familysearch (https://familysearch.org/MM9.1.1/NMV1-FSG: accessed 11 JUNE 2013), Matilda Delany in entry for John Delany, 1874.
It's by the US Census 1880 for Battelle that we find our Matilda as head of household with son Isaac (age 28), and daughter Malissa, 23 years old, and granddaughter Adda J.; she's two.
We find her more in our West Virginia site too which we've been working on stocking with records.
We also find A John, Matilda, and Malissa Delany in Wayne Township in July of 1870 (#285,232). That's only five years after the Civil War...tumultuous times. John's a laborer and Matilda's keeping house. All born in Pennsylvania. Malissa's fifteen. It appears they're all literate as opposed to the John and Metilda who can't read in 1850.
Unfortunately we found a death record. In the registry of the 1874 Western District Monongalia County West Virginia. It looks like there was nobody there to give the details of the death, even though the death is told of by the informant, Isaac Delany, son.
The man is John Delany, a white male, age 70. Date of death--"squiggly line" Name of parents: just a squiggly line. Occupation, farmer. Name of disease or cause of death: unknown. This man was born in Pennsylvania.
The registry includes columns for colored people--free or slave, and, Name of the owner of the slave.
Place of death, John Delany, Battelle District. Consort of, or unmarried: Delany Matilda.
This is from the County Records. "West Virginia, Deaths, 1853-1970," index, Familysearch (https://familysearch.org/MM9.1.1/NMV1-FSG: accessed 11 JUNE 2013), Matilda Delany in entry for John Delany, 1874.
It's by the US Census 1880 for Battelle that we find our Matilda as head of household with son Isaac (age 28), and daughter Malissa, 23 years old, and granddaughter Adda J.; she's two.
We find her more in our West Virginia site too which we've been working on stocking with records.
OUR Grandmother Matilda...
Pretty sure we've found out for sure that Matilda was Ida Mae's grandmother!
Ida Mae's father is listed as Isaac Delana on the Census of 1910. From there we went back to the Census of 1880 and found Isaac at age 28. At that time he was living with his mother Matilda (already widowed) and his sister Malissa. We also find a granddaughter, Adda J. Delana, with them and she's only 2 years old.
Adda Jane is Ida Mae's sister.
This had us scouring even older records and we were looking in Greene County, Pennsylvania since that's where many of the West Virginian Foxes and Dulaneys hailed from.
We'd found Isaac at age 11, born in Pennsylvania and still in Perry Township at that time, 1860.
But Isaac is NOT Ida and Adda's father. For a minute we were confounded by the conflict of information.
Their father is John Delaney who married Rebecca Blaker...we'd gleaned from vital records such as Ida and Adda Jane's death certificates.
We were actually looking at some Fox families searching for Grandfather Henry's origins, and, we found our Matilda and her husband John DELANA, with a mess of kids--living WITH some Foxes! If we hadn't read into the records around the family we were looking at, we wouldn't have found them because they weren't landowners.
We are so excited.
THERE they are in 1850!
AND, we can put this information together with some other stuff we've been reading, like...
Historical papers. We were very lucky to find some genealogical work done by John Conklin in the late 1880's. He was an actual grandson of John and Matilda Delaney! John Conklin's mother was MALISSA DULANEY! Isaac's SISTER!
This is incredible to find such a confirmation.
In some letters about John Conklin's genealogy we find another list of John and Matilda's children.
AND, we find out that Matilda was a Calvert! That was her maiden name, Matilda Calvert. She was actually born (not in 1810 as the estimation reads, but) on the 9th of March 1811. And she married John Delaney born in 1804.
We have a lot more reading to do now. But here we go again grounding around our elders to understand our whole story. Mama's ECSTATIC of course. She's a devout Catholic and nothing is as exciting to her than learning about anything Catholic. To find a Calvert in our family tree, well that opens up an exciting chapter in our family tree. And brings forth a lot of questions like...If our Calvert was related to Lord Baltimore what was she doing so far from Maryland? How exactly does a grandmother born in Kentucky tie up with some people getting off a ship and having a first mass?
Mama waits patiently for us to do all our textbook reading AND family tree rendering.
These papers of John Conklin, they are filed with the Cornerstone Genealogy Society and they are technically named, "The Descent and Ancestry of Isaac Calvert of Greene County, Pennsylvania."
Malissa wasn't born until 1857 so she wasn't on the Census of 1850.
That Census of 1850 also tells us that Sarah was attending school but she was "dumb." Maybe she was just really quiet and shy or maybe she was autistic but nobody knew that word way back then.
It's John Delaney, the younger on John and Matilda's household list who is one of our grandfathers! So that makes Matilda one of our grandmothers!
Reading Censuses we came up with another question for our list of questions....
What was Matilda Delany doing in St. Louis, Missouri (7th ward of St. Louis City) in 1860?
Could've been, the fire at the Fox homestead could've burned up our family documents. The good news about most documents is that they are rarely singular items. There are usually copies or at least notations about SOMEWHERE.
We don't have money to drop on this project, so we're taking the long way to compile our information.
A closer reading of A BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, PA by Samuel Penniman Bates gives us some information. Even more than what's on Family Search although an entry on Adeline Mestrezat there is tied to that very book.
Family search only lists three children whereas Bates' material gives us six children when it tells us about William Long, the eldest son of Adeline (Mestrezat) and Samuel Long. Our G-something grandmother Clarissa's memorial tells us that Clarissa was one of several children connected to Samuel Long.
So according to what we're piecing together...William Long was the older brother of our Clarissa Long. Clarissa went on to marry Henry Fox (born abt 1832) and they had a bunch of children among whom was our Pappy--Elias Fox. See, there we go tumbling about in the family tree soon as we get a clue.
William Long, the Biographical History tells us, was a farmer and stock grower. And he wasn't the only one in the area listed as either a stock grower/stock dealer. Leads us to wonder more about stock tending in Greene County as a historical place where people were dealing in agriculture and labor. Reading through the biographies in Bates' book en masse gives us a sense of place. Large acreage, stock supply. We can imagine a bird's eye view at the time of William's birth in 1831. And look back on that in hindsight after the Civil War.
In general we see that the longer people stayed in place the more real estate value they accumulated either by purchase or by being positioned in a family to be the asset manager.
We also see that William and his son, Merritt Leonard Long were listed as Democrats and this book of Bates' came out in 1888. We might deduce that the Longs who'd lived through the Civil War and Reconstruction were anti-Union and so may have been racists or even old school "masters." But we don't know that by simply reading some evidence written in the available language of the day like political party labels.
Genealogically, the sketches give us William Long as son of Samuel (born 1801) and who died in 1886. And there is a reference to Samuel Long's parents both being born in Ireland. Samuel Long and his second wife, Adeline (maiden name: Mestrezat) were "natives of Greene County and residents therein until their death, which occurred in Perry Township" (Bates). The information tells us that the children of Samuel Long were from this second marriage.
Elsewhere [insert familysearch citation] we found the name Jemima as his first wife. And we have in our heads a cloudy mix of cultural creations that have us somewhat daunted here. What if our relatives were slave holders? And mean and nasty people? What if they were the ones having sex with captives? What if there was that kind of stuff going on? Can't make apologies for the people of the past. And can't go back and change things. So we have to brave on and try to see what was what with our people in the past. Finding out about ancestors is kind of like knowing famous people. What is it exactly a third party is trying to see? Trying to say? What's the point of a claim to fame when that claim is not much more than witnessing somebody else actually being famous?!
We're not out to plug our Southern kin into the dead horse position here. We're just trying to piece together our Quilt which is a very human understanding of very human humans. It's got good stuff in it and it's got hard stuff in it. If it's got bad stuff in it, there's not much we can do about other peoples' doings. That's a way to try and take an objective perspective. Of course, there's no telling what kinds of reactions contemporary people will have to the past. Something that seems like water under the bridge to one person might be an emotional hot button for somebody else. Just "plain old facts" might string together to make a story people don't want to know about. And what about matching facts to actions and philosophies? It's people, afterall, who stack the facts about our lives and these make our stories. Some facts seem to happen to people while other facts are made by hand by individuals and groups of people. And some "facts" turn out to be more temporal than others. Somebody's convictions, for example, are like personal facts on top of vital statistics and other numerical data.
William Long was born near Garard's Fort but came to own 400 acres near Mount Morris. At the time of his birth Greene County was more pioneer-like than urbane. He was reared on a farm in Whiteley Township.
As was, presumably, Clarissa. Unlike the children of itinerant preachers and military men, farmers' children were more settled down from the get go. When we find Clarissa on the Census of 1880 (already married to Henry Fox) she's 46 years old, so we believe she was born in 1834. That's about three years younger than brother William.
William received his early education in subscription schools. We're able to learn more about that online these days.
Family Search only lists three children of Samuel and Adeline. William, Harriet, and MaryAnn. On that list Clarissa would've come in between William and Harriet (who was born in December of 1843). MaryAnn's birth year is listed as 1854. That's 23 years after William!
Bates also mentions Allena.
Harriet grew up to marry David L. Cowell in 1864. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
And in the sketches we also see Lemleys and Headlees. You remember them?! We met some of their kin in West Virginia.
Of course, we have to understand that biographical sketch books were a phenomena of nearing the 20th century. Like marketing plotting a region's phonebooks in the later days of the 20th century...there was some generalizing. Elsewhere in our family tree we had creative types who wrote the entries for this type of biographical sketching! But you can imagine that not every family had someone to pitch in a sketch to these broad projects.
By way of saying that date disparities between biographical sketches and census information are quit common. This is why people have the most luck in research when they give space on either side of their dates. Adding five years on either side of a window, for example, helps open up the possibilities.
And we have this rare photograph of a "Grandma Fox" compliments of the collection of Sherry Candy Lane which we believe is that Clarissa Long who married Henry Fox (born abt 1832).
I know, it's kind of terrible when people don't have their photographs taken at various times in their lives. In some lovely way, she definitely rivals the tobacco smoking granny in the Black family as pictured in O'Brien's book At Home in the Heart of Appalachia.
A cursory browse at the Long-Mestrezat connection on Ancestry.com seems confusing! For example, they list a Samuel Long who married Adeline Mestrezat but that Samuel Long was purportedly born in 1793.
Guess I'm not surprised. I'm not a member of that website so I don't feel I can trust the freebie info, like maybe members get the real information and the freebie stuff there is scraps and leftovers. 'Sides, the other day a colleague was telling me that Ancestry.com had her connected to just about every famous person that's ever existed. I know it's a small world, but some of this technology that's cramming stories together is TOO small. Crammed together like that the boundaries blur and the details tend to get shaved and shoved into packages which may or may not be the truth.
We took our clues to our Census readings...
MESTREZAT! The maiden name of the biological mother of Clarissa Long. That's a huge piece of information for our family tree. And knowing that her first name was ADALINE helps us identify her in the household of Samuel Long on the US CENSUS 1880. That is where we learn that our Samuel Long's parents were both born in Ireland.
Knowing that Clarissa's mother's name was ADALINE also explains why Henry and Clarissa named their first child, ADALINE (Elias's big sister).
On that Census of 1880 are also listed WILLIAM LONG and his son Merritt Leonard Long whom we'd heard about in the entry of Bates' HISTORY. That history tells us that William's father died only six years after that 1880 census and that Adaline Long had died in 1880 although we found that she was recorded on the 1880 census as being 80 years old. So Adaline (Mestrezat) Long was born in 1800. And Samuel was a year younger having been born in 1801 according to the 1880 Census.
The US CENSUS 1850 has him seemingly born in 1800 since he's recorded as being a solid 50 years old. In that year we find Samuel not in Perry Township, but in Whiteley Township (house #146, family #146) and he is married to "Jemima Long." I am not sure that this clarifies for me the confusion about his marriages. But his household list tells us that William and Clarissa Long were connected in 1850.
There they are...William is 18 years old and Claressa sixteen. Allena is 12 and Harriet is eight years old. There is also a 63 year old woman who lives with them and her name is Nancy Freeland. Either they were ALL "white" or the census recorder just didn't bother to record any other "color" on the sheets for Whiteley Township. Jamima is aged 45 on this 1850 Census so she would've been born in about 1805. And we can read further in the Census to see that the Freelands are neighbors. Alfred and Rachel Freeland and more children.
Claressa is our direct relative in that Census snapshot. And there she is at 16 years old.
The townships in the area saw some rearrangement from 1781 onward. And from 1775-1780 Greene County PENNSYLVANIA was part of Virginia!
I think we can see Samuel and Adeline's homestead on Historic Map Works' 1876 Atlas map...
Click here to view the map in a separate window!
Like I said, I seem to find him there along the edge of Perry Township. And if Clarissa Long was the neighbor of her husband Henry Fox (as it says in her memorial article) then we might consider that the JOHN FOX listed there near Samuel Long was the home of Henry's parents: "Captain John" and Catharine Fox.
What we find in the census readings is that Captain John and Catharine lived in Perry Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania so as far as locating them on one of these HISTORIC MAP WORKS panels we may have other options...like finding them in closer proximity to Catharine's parents: Peter and Mary (Thomas) Fox whom we seem to find in the central area of this map.
We learned in our correspondence with the Cornerstone Genealogical Society that Henry's folks, Captain John and Catharine were cousins.
Catharine was the daughter of Peter Fox and Mary Thomas, and "Captain John" was the son of Joseph Fox and Jane "Jennie" Wilson. Without more detailed information I cannot be certain that this couple had children of their own. Even with reports of births that did not happen in hospitals with blood work and members of communities present for the affair we cannot be 100% sure about biological connections.
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Have a look at the Census via family search...
Samuel Long's family in 1850
In this post place we'll also put "a newspaper article that was written in memory of Clarissa Long a year after her death" (correspondence 13 JUNE 2011, Yeager to Lane) which we obtained from Cornerstone Genealogical Society.
The correspondence tells us that Claressa "married to Henry Fox at the age of 18, and after their marriage they moved to Miracle Run" (later in West Virginia).
We look more at Henry and Clarissa in our Miracle Run website too which you can get to by clicking the link below on this website.
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The Mestrezats which Bates gives us in the History came to Greene County among the earliest settlers about 1795. These were natives of France and had lived briefly in Carmichaels (in Cumberland Township) then settled in Mapletown. These were Charles Alexander Mestrezat and Louisa Dufresne. Dufresne may be confused in some family histories with old Hollanders like Depues but that's drifting. Charles and Louisa are said to have had eleven children including Jean Louis Guillaume Mestrezat whom people called William. Jean Louis was born 11 MAY 1809 in Mapletown. And that was only six years before his father Charles Alexander died.
Jean Louis (William) Mestrezat was reared in Mapletown, learned the gunsmith trade, some farming, and carried on a mercantile business. At the time the Bates History was written he owned 330 acres, was a Democrat, and had been a school director for fifteen years. He'd married MaryAnn Hartley and they had five children...C.A. Harriet married Samuel Hudson; S.L. was an attorney at Uniontown, PN; Charlotte Amanda married the Honorable M. John of Colorado; and J.L.G. was a cattle-dealer in the West.
William's mother Louisa had died in 1849 but she was alive at the time of William's marriage to MaryAnn Hartley (in 1843) whose parents were of Irish lineage (Hannah Leslie and Mathias Hartley).
Two years before Jean Louis (William) was born to Louisa and Charles Alexander, Frederic Mestrzat had been born in the September of '07. The biographical sketch of William shows a discrepancy in the year in which Louisa and Charles came to North America from France. Frederic's says 1793 while William's reports 1795. Frederic was the sixth child and the second son of the eleven children. He attended the subscription schools taught by teachers hired by parents by the year and a half. This "select" education influenced Frederic to be involved in securing good educational advantages for his Township as an adult.
You can read the book The Hoosier Schoolmaster by Edward Eggleston to gather a sense of schoolmastering in the day. It's a "classic."
Frederic Mestrezat learned the hatter's trade and dealt exclusively in wools and furs. And he, too, had married before his mother died. In the April of 1833 Frederic married Miss Martha Hull. Miss Martha's people were of Delaware and of Scotch-Irish and German origin. Her mother was Sarah Grove and her father Lemuel Hall or Hull). Frederic and Martha had six children (four of whom were still living in 1888ish). John A. was a carpenter; Mary A. married B.F. Mercer; Aline A. married Wm. W. Shaffer; and there was Caroline A. Frederic and Martha's eldest son was educated at Morgantown, West Virginia and was in the 14th Pennsylvania Calvary, Company E. But he was captured in a battle at Sulphur Springs on the 27 of August 1863 and he was taken to Belle Isle, Richmond. From there he was removed to Hospital No. 21 in Richmond where he died on the 27th of March 1864. Frederic was Republican in politics. He was a worker in the Sabbath-school and for his church. He joined his wife in her lifelong congregation later in his life--the Presbyterian Church of Greensboro.
Born in the first decade of the 1800's sure does make for a big age difference between Clarissa Long and Frederic and Jean Louis. Clarissa wasn't born until 1835. Which is one more clue suggesting that Adaline Mestrezat was a sibling on Charles Alexander and Louisa's list of eleven children.
We don't have money to drop on this project, so we're taking the long way to compile our information.
A closer reading of A BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, PA by Samuel Penniman Bates gives us some information. Even more than what's on Family Search although an entry on Adeline Mestrezat there is tied to that very book.
Family search only lists three children whereas Bates' material gives us six children when it tells us about William Long, the eldest son of Adeline (Mestrezat) and Samuel Long. Our G-something grandmother Clarissa's memorial tells us that Clarissa was one of several children connected to Samuel Long.
So according to what we're piecing together...William Long was the older brother of our Clarissa Long. Clarissa went on to marry Henry Fox (born abt 1832) and they had a bunch of children among whom was our Pappy--Elias Fox. See, there we go tumbling about in the family tree soon as we get a clue.
William Long, the Biographical History tells us, was a farmer and stock grower. And he wasn't the only one in the area listed as either a stock grower/stock dealer. Leads us to wonder more about stock tending in Greene County as a historical place where people were dealing in agriculture and labor. Reading through the biographies in Bates' book en masse gives us a sense of place. Large acreage, stock supply. We can imagine a bird's eye view at the time of William's birth in 1831. And look back on that in hindsight after the Civil War.
In general we see that the longer people stayed in place the more real estate value they accumulated either by purchase or by being positioned in a family to be the asset manager.
We also see that William and his son, Merritt Leonard Long were listed as Democrats and this book of Bates' came out in 1888. We might deduce that the Longs who'd lived through the Civil War and Reconstruction were anti-Union and so may have been racists or even old school "masters." But we don't know that by simply reading some evidence written in the available language of the day like political party labels.
Genealogically, the sketches give us William Long as son of Samuel (born 1801) and who died in 1886. And there is a reference to Samuel Long's parents both being born in Ireland. Samuel Long and his second wife, Adeline (maiden name: Mestrezat) were "natives of Greene County and residents therein until their death, which occurred in Perry Township" (Bates). The information tells us that the children of Samuel Long were from this second marriage.
Elsewhere [insert familysearch citation] we found the name Jemima as his first wife. And we have in our heads a cloudy mix of cultural creations that have us somewhat daunted here. What if our relatives were slave holders? And mean and nasty people? What if they were the ones having sex with captives? What if there was that kind of stuff going on? Can't make apologies for the people of the past. And can't go back and change things. So we have to brave on and try to see what was what with our people in the past. Finding out about ancestors is kind of like knowing famous people. What is it exactly a third party is trying to see? Trying to say? What's the point of a claim to fame when that claim is not much more than witnessing somebody else actually being famous?!
We're not out to plug our Southern kin into the dead horse position here. We're just trying to piece together our Quilt which is a very human understanding of very human humans. It's got good stuff in it and it's got hard stuff in it. If it's got bad stuff in it, there's not much we can do about other peoples' doings. That's a way to try and take an objective perspective. Of course, there's no telling what kinds of reactions contemporary people will have to the past. Something that seems like water under the bridge to one person might be an emotional hot button for somebody else. Just "plain old facts" might string together to make a story people don't want to know about. And what about matching facts to actions and philosophies? It's people, afterall, who stack the facts about our lives and these make our stories. Some facts seem to happen to people while other facts are made by hand by individuals and groups of people. And some "facts" turn out to be more temporal than others. Somebody's convictions, for example, are like personal facts on top of vital statistics and other numerical data.
William Long was born near Garard's Fort but came to own 400 acres near Mount Morris. At the time of his birth Greene County was more pioneer-like than urbane. He was reared on a farm in Whiteley Township.
As was, presumably, Clarissa. Unlike the children of itinerant preachers and military men, farmers' children were more settled down from the get go. When we find Clarissa on the Census of 1880 (already married to Henry Fox) she's 46 years old, so we believe she was born in 1834. That's about three years younger than brother William.
William received his early education in subscription schools. We're able to learn more about that online these days.
Family Search only lists three children of Samuel and Adeline. William, Harriet, and MaryAnn. On that list Clarissa would've come in between William and Harriet (who was born in December of 1843). MaryAnn's birth year is listed as 1854. That's 23 years after William!
Bates also mentions Allena.
Harriet grew up to marry David L. Cowell in 1864. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
And in the sketches we also see Lemleys and Headlees. You remember them?! We met some of their kin in West Virginia.
Of course, we have to understand that biographical sketch books were a phenomena of nearing the 20th century. Like marketing plotting a region's phonebooks in the later days of the 20th century...there was some generalizing. Elsewhere in our family tree we had creative types who wrote the entries for this type of biographical sketching! But you can imagine that not every family had someone to pitch in a sketch to these broad projects.
By way of saying that date disparities between biographical sketches and census information are quit common. This is why people have the most luck in research when they give space on either side of their dates. Adding five years on either side of a window, for example, helps open up the possibilities.
And we have this rare photograph of a "Grandma Fox" compliments of the collection of Sherry Candy Lane which we believe is that Clarissa Long who married Henry Fox (born abt 1832).
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| Believed to be Clarissa (Long) Fox married to Henry Fox |
A cursory browse at the Long-Mestrezat connection on Ancestry.com seems confusing! For example, they list a Samuel Long who married Adeline Mestrezat but that Samuel Long was purportedly born in 1793.
Guess I'm not surprised. I'm not a member of that website so I don't feel I can trust the freebie info, like maybe members get the real information and the freebie stuff there is scraps and leftovers. 'Sides, the other day a colleague was telling me that Ancestry.com had her connected to just about every famous person that's ever existed. I know it's a small world, but some of this technology that's cramming stories together is TOO small. Crammed together like that the boundaries blur and the details tend to get shaved and shoved into packages which may or may not be the truth.
We took our clues to our Census readings...
MESTREZAT! The maiden name of the biological mother of Clarissa Long. That's a huge piece of information for our family tree. And knowing that her first name was ADALINE helps us identify her in the household of Samuel Long on the US CENSUS 1880. That is where we learn that our Samuel Long's parents were both born in Ireland.
Knowing that Clarissa's mother's name was ADALINE also explains why Henry and Clarissa named their first child, ADALINE (Elias's big sister).
On that Census of 1880 are also listed WILLIAM LONG and his son Merritt Leonard Long whom we'd heard about in the entry of Bates' HISTORY. That history tells us that William's father died only six years after that 1880 census and that Adaline Long had died in 1880 although we found that she was recorded on the 1880 census as being 80 years old. So Adaline (Mestrezat) Long was born in 1800. And Samuel was a year younger having been born in 1801 according to the 1880 Census.
The US CENSUS 1850 has him seemingly born in 1800 since he's recorded as being a solid 50 years old. In that year we find Samuel not in Perry Township, but in Whiteley Township (house #146, family #146) and he is married to "Jemima Long." I am not sure that this clarifies for me the confusion about his marriages. But his household list tells us that William and Clarissa Long were connected in 1850.
There they are...William is 18 years old and Claressa sixteen. Allena is 12 and Harriet is eight years old. There is also a 63 year old woman who lives with them and her name is Nancy Freeland. Either they were ALL "white" or the census recorder just didn't bother to record any other "color" on the sheets for Whiteley Township. Jamima is aged 45 on this 1850 Census so she would've been born in about 1805. And we can read further in the Census to see that the Freelands are neighbors. Alfred and Rachel Freeland and more children.
Claressa is our direct relative in that Census snapshot. And there she is at 16 years old.
The townships in the area saw some rearrangement from 1781 onward. And from 1775-1780 Greene County PENNSYLVANIA was part of Virginia!
I think we can see Samuel and Adeline's homestead on Historic Map Works' 1876 Atlas map...
Click here to view the map in a separate window!
Like I said, I seem to find him there along the edge of Perry Township. And if Clarissa Long was the neighbor of her husband Henry Fox (as it says in her memorial article) then we might consider that the JOHN FOX listed there near Samuel Long was the home of Henry's parents: "Captain John" and Catharine Fox.
What we find in the census readings is that Captain John and Catharine lived in Perry Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania so as far as locating them on one of these HISTORIC MAP WORKS panels we may have other options...like finding them in closer proximity to Catharine's parents: Peter and Mary (Thomas) Fox whom we seem to find in the central area of this map.
We learned in our correspondence with the Cornerstone Genealogical Society that Henry's folks, Captain John and Catharine were cousins.
Catharine was the daughter of Peter Fox and Mary Thomas, and "Captain John" was the son of Joseph Fox and Jane "Jennie" Wilson. Without more detailed information I cannot be certain that this couple had children of their own. Even with reports of births that did not happen in hospitals with blood work and members of communities present for the affair we cannot be 100% sure about biological connections.
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Have a look at the Census via family search...
Samuel Long's family in 1850
In this post place we'll also put "a newspaper article that was written in memory of Clarissa Long a year after her death" (correspondence 13 JUNE 2011, Yeager to Lane) which we obtained from Cornerstone Genealogical Society.
The correspondence tells us that Claressa "married to Henry Fox at the age of 18, and after their marriage they moved to Miracle Run" (later in West Virginia).
We look more at Henry and Clarissa in our Miracle Run website too which you can get to by clicking the link below on this website.
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
The Mestrezats which Bates gives us in the History came to Greene County among the earliest settlers about 1795. These were natives of France and had lived briefly in Carmichaels (in Cumberland Township) then settled in Mapletown. These were Charles Alexander Mestrezat and Louisa Dufresne. Dufresne may be confused in some family histories with old Hollanders like Depues but that's drifting. Charles and Louisa are said to have had eleven children including Jean Louis Guillaume Mestrezat whom people called William. Jean Louis was born 11 MAY 1809 in Mapletown. And that was only six years before his father Charles Alexander died.
Jean Louis (William) Mestrezat was reared in Mapletown, learned the gunsmith trade, some farming, and carried on a mercantile business. At the time the Bates History was written he owned 330 acres, was a Democrat, and had been a school director for fifteen years. He'd married MaryAnn Hartley and they had five children...C.A. Harriet married Samuel Hudson; S.L. was an attorney at Uniontown, PN; Charlotte Amanda married the Honorable M. John of Colorado; and J.L.G. was a cattle-dealer in the West.
William's mother Louisa had died in 1849 but she was alive at the time of William's marriage to MaryAnn Hartley (in 1843) whose parents were of Irish lineage (Hannah Leslie and Mathias Hartley).
Two years before Jean Louis (William) was born to Louisa and Charles Alexander, Frederic Mestrzat had been born in the September of '07. The biographical sketch of William shows a discrepancy in the year in which Louisa and Charles came to North America from France. Frederic's says 1793 while William's reports 1795. Frederic was the sixth child and the second son of the eleven children. He attended the subscription schools taught by teachers hired by parents by the year and a half. This "select" education influenced Frederic to be involved in securing good educational advantages for his Township as an adult.
You can read the book The Hoosier Schoolmaster by Edward Eggleston to gather a sense of schoolmastering in the day. It's a "classic."
Frederic Mestrezat learned the hatter's trade and dealt exclusively in wools and furs. And he, too, had married before his mother died. In the April of 1833 Frederic married Miss Martha Hull. Miss Martha's people were of Delaware and of Scotch-Irish and German origin. Her mother was Sarah Grove and her father Lemuel Hall or Hull). Frederic and Martha had six children (four of whom were still living in 1888ish). John A. was a carpenter; Mary A. married B.F. Mercer; Aline A. married Wm. W. Shaffer; and there was Caroline A. Frederic and Martha's eldest son was educated at Morgantown, West Virginia and was in the 14th Pennsylvania Calvary, Company E. But he was captured in a battle at Sulphur Springs on the 27 of August 1863 and he was taken to Belle Isle, Richmond. From there he was removed to Hospital No. 21 in Richmond where he died on the 27th of March 1864. Frederic was Republican in politics. He was a worker in the Sabbath-school and for his church. He joined his wife in her lifelong congregation later in his life--the Presbyterian Church of Greensboro.
Born in the first decade of the 1800's sure does make for a big age difference between Clarissa Long and Frederic and Jean Louis. Clarissa wasn't born until 1835. Which is one more clue suggesting that Adaline Mestrezat was a sibling on Charles Alexander and Louisa's list of eleven children.
Many people have been working diligently to upload old newspapers and other printed matter onto computering.
Findings From Fordyce’s Work:
Stray Bull
Came to the plantation of the subscriber, living in Centre township about the last of October, a Brown Bull about three years old, marked with an underbit out of the right ear and the lope of his horns sawed off, a small white spot in the forehead. Entered on the township clerk's book according to law. The owner is desired to come forward, prove property, pay charges and take it away.
--Joseph Ankrom
Centre township
Saturday, November 30, 1822
Waynesburg Messenger
Twenty Dollars REWARD
Absconded from the subscriber on Friday night, the 11th inst. and indented apprentice to the Printing business, named William Allinder. He is between 19 and 20 years of age, 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high - fair complexiond and thin visaged and [unreadable] his disposition, and generally speaks in a muttering kind of tone. He had on when he went away a roram hat nearly new, a blue broadcloth coat and vest and green linen pantaloons. The above reward with all reasonable charges, will be paid for apprehending and securing him in any jail so that I may get him again. All persons are cautioned against harboring him.
--Robert Fee
Editor of the Western Register
Brownsville, (Pa.) Oct. 24, 1822
APPRENTICE WANTED
A smart, active boy, from 10 to 14 years of age, who wishes to learn the Tailoring Business, will meet with good encouragement by applying immediately to the subscriber, in Greensburgh.
--John Salvards
August 27, 1825.
Saturday, October 15, 1825
Waynesburg Messenger
DIED
On Friday morning the 1st of February, at his residence in Whitely township, of extreme old age and debility, Mr. JOHN STANLEY, long an inhabitant of this county. It is doing the deceased but bare justice to state that he was known and remarked by all his acquaintance as an "honest man." He came from his native country (England) some years before the Revolutionary war, and it is not known that he has a blood relation in the U. States. In Jefferson, on Wednesday last, Mr. FRANCIS DRUMMOND. On the following day his remains
were interred with Military Honors, by the Jefferson Blues - the deceased being a respectable member of that company.
Saturday, March 8, 1828
Waynesburg Messenger
MARRIED
Lately, by the Rev. John Fordyce, Lieutenant William Johnson, of Wayne township, to Miss -----, daughter of Mr. John Lantz, of Monongalia County, Virginia.
On Monday evening last, by James Seals, Esq. Mr. Jacob Odenbaugh, to Mrs. Catharine, widow of Mr. Arthur Hook, deceased.
Saturday, April 19, 1828
Waynesburg Messenger
Dr. Brown RESPECTFULLY offers his PROFESSIONAL SERVICES to the citizens of Waynesburg and vicinity. He may be consulted at the Office, lately in the occupancy of DR. MORGAN.
Waynesburg, August 4, 1834.
Tuesday, October 28, 1834.
Waynesburg Messenger
LAND FOR SALE
IN pursuance of the Last Will and Testament of the late Judge Minor, we will sell that WELL KNOWN AND VALUABLE TRACT OF LAND, late the Estate of said deceased. It is situated on Bid Whitely creek, about two miles from Greensburg and New Geneva, and is supposed to contain about 700 Acres. Few Farms in Western Pennsylvania present greater attractions than this one. About Four Hundred Acres are cleared and in a good state of cultivation. A comfortable MANSION, a valuable Grist and Saw-Mill, and four Tenant Houses, are erected thereon. There are also a number of ORCHARDS. If the entire Tract cannot be sold to advantage soon, the Tract will be divided into three or four parts, and sold separately. Persons desirous of purchasing will leave their proposals with either of the undersigned.
--WM. G. HAWKINS,
--L. L. MINOR,
Executors.
June 16, 1834.
Tuesday, October 28, 1834
Waynesburg Messenger
October Election.
We are authorized to announce Dr. J. V. BOUGHNER, of Perry township, as a candidate to represent the people of Greene County in the next Legislature of Pennsylvania. (Subject to the
decision of the Democratic Convention.) We are authorized to announce WASHINGTON PIPES as a candidate for Sheriff at the next October election.
May 1, 1845
Waynesburg Messenger
Information Wanted.
Whereas my wife left my home on the 2d inst. in a deranged state of mind, and I have not been able to learn any thing of her since. - This is therefore to request any person who may have any knowledge of where she is, to give me information, either by mail or otherwise. She is something over forty years old, rather of a slender build, quite a strait, delicate shaped
woman, with dark eyes and dark hair, not very large in stature. She took with her a plaid flannel dress, a blue and white calico, and a gingham dress, a sun Bonnet of red and brown calico with square spots, a long shawl, light colored, also a large reticue made of brown sercassion. It is supposed that she may have started for Greene county, Pennsylvania, as she has friends residing there.
--JACOB ADDLEMAN,
Centerburg, Knox county, Ohio,
April 11, '46
May 5, 1846
Waynesburg Messenger
CAUTION.
Whereas my husband, George Trussell has left my bed and board without any just cause or provocation, this is to warn all women from harboring him at their peril, as he is my lawful
husband, and if he returns to me by the 4th of July, he will be made welcome.
--Hannah Trussell,
formerly Hannah Tittle,
May 12, 1846.
Waynesburg Messenger
Lieut. Stewart Speers, of the Fayette County Volunteers, has returned from Mexico, and paid a visit to Waynesburg, last week. We had not the pleasure of seeing him, but those of our citizens who did, were highly pleased with him, and if he did not tell them everything it was not for the want of questions being asked. He spoke in the highest terms of the Volunteers from this place, and says that the "Coon Killer" alias Andrew Ferguson, was quite a favorite with the whole regiment. Mr.
Speers is a gentleman and a soldier, and would not have returned at this time but for a shot through his hand from his revolver.
May 25, 1847
Waynesburg Messenger
On Tuesday, the 8th inst, by the Rev. P. Axtell, Mr. ASA B. McFANN to Miss AMANDA MARTIN, all of Waynesburg.
In the hurry of making up our paper last week we entirely forgot the above notice. We were really sorry for this, as the happy couple were far from forgetting us amid their joy. We were remembered with a most beautiful poundcake for which the young pair have our sincere wishes for a long life of
uninterrupted happiness and prosperity. We can't write poetry but we do tell the truth, which is far better.
February 22, 1848
Waynesburg Messenger
Serious Accident.
We regret to learn that Mr. Isaac Lacock, of Morris township, was considerably injured, on Thursday of last week, whilst engaged in blowing rocks, near the residence of Mr. James Ringland, in that township. His right eye was blown out, both hands greatly mangled, and the face much lacerated. He is a son of Mr. Ira Lacock, of Morris township, and by all who know him is esteemed as a worthy and industrious young man. We are glad to be informed that he is rapidly improving.
Washington Examiner picked up by the Waynesburg MessengerJuly 6, 1847
Measles Death
Infant Samuel Cleavenger
27 July 1847
To read more interesting items taken from the pages of the Waynesburg Messenger transcribed by James Fordyce in 2001, click here.
We also heard wind of a small newspaper called the Mount Morris Tidings put out of the print shop of a Mr. Hood but we haven't been able to find its pages yet.
YIKES! A snippet from a Home Guide produced by the Ladies Aid Society of the M.E. Church...1906
"To clean white hoods or woolen shawls: Saturate with flour, let lay overnight, rub well with the hands, shake out thoroughly and they will look like new. --Nora Rush"
THE LATE RAID!! ALL QUIET ON BORDER!!
"The excitement consequent the threatened Rebel Raid on Greene and adjoining counties has almost entirely subsided. The Rebels have disappeared from Morgantown, but are said to be still in the vicinity of Fairmont or Warren. On Thursday last, Major Showalter, in command of some 700 Union troops and a section of Artillery at Morgantown, expecting to open communications with the Railroad someplace west of Fairmont, sent a dispatch to Waynesburg for help. Our Committee of Safety immediately got our home forces in readiness and our Washington friends sent us a fine Company of Infantry under command of the gallant Captain Wishart. Before their arrival, however, news reached us that Major Showalter had evacuated Morgantown and was on his way to Wheeling via Uniontown. On Saturday morning, all imminent danger of a Rebel incursion having passed away, the Washington lads returned to their homes and our own people resumed their usual business occupations. At present, all is quiet, and all alarm allayed."
--from the Waynesburg Messenger, 6 MAY 1863
We are also very interested in learning more about this...
Findings From Fordyce’s Work:
Stray Bull
Came to the plantation of the subscriber, living in Centre township about the last of October, a Brown Bull about three years old, marked with an underbit out of the right ear and the lope of his horns sawed off, a small white spot in the forehead. Entered on the township clerk's book according to law. The owner is desired to come forward, prove property, pay charges and take it away.
--Joseph Ankrom
Centre township
Saturday, November 30, 1822
Waynesburg Messenger
Twenty Dollars REWARD
Absconded from the subscriber on Friday night, the 11th inst. and indented apprentice to the Printing business, named William Allinder. He is between 19 and 20 years of age, 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high - fair complexiond and thin visaged and [unreadable] his disposition, and generally speaks in a muttering kind of tone. He had on when he went away a roram hat nearly new, a blue broadcloth coat and vest and green linen pantaloons. The above reward with all reasonable charges, will be paid for apprehending and securing him in any jail so that I may get him again. All persons are cautioned against harboring him.
--Robert Fee
Editor of the Western Register
Brownsville, (Pa.) Oct. 24, 1822
APPRENTICE WANTED
A smart, active boy, from 10 to 14 years of age, who wishes to learn the Tailoring Business, will meet with good encouragement by applying immediately to the subscriber, in Greensburgh.
--John Salvards
August 27, 1825.
Saturday, October 15, 1825
Waynesburg Messenger
DIED
On Friday morning the 1st of February, at his residence in Whitely township, of extreme old age and debility, Mr. JOHN STANLEY, long an inhabitant of this county. It is doing the deceased but bare justice to state that he was known and remarked by all his acquaintance as an "honest man." He came from his native country (England) some years before the Revolutionary war, and it is not known that he has a blood relation in the U. States. In Jefferson, on Wednesday last, Mr. FRANCIS DRUMMOND. On the following day his remains
were interred with Military Honors, by the Jefferson Blues - the deceased being a respectable member of that company.
Saturday, March 8, 1828
Waynesburg Messenger
MARRIED
Lately, by the Rev. John Fordyce, Lieutenant William Johnson, of Wayne township, to Miss -----, daughter of Mr. John Lantz, of Monongalia County, Virginia.
On Monday evening last, by James Seals, Esq. Mr. Jacob Odenbaugh, to Mrs. Catharine, widow of Mr. Arthur Hook, deceased.
Saturday, April 19, 1828
Waynesburg Messenger
Dr. Brown RESPECTFULLY offers his PROFESSIONAL SERVICES to the citizens of Waynesburg and vicinity. He may be consulted at the Office, lately in the occupancy of DR. MORGAN.
Waynesburg, August 4, 1834.
Tuesday, October 28, 1834.
Waynesburg Messenger
LAND FOR SALE
IN pursuance of the Last Will and Testament of the late Judge Minor, we will sell that WELL KNOWN AND VALUABLE TRACT OF LAND, late the Estate of said deceased. It is situated on Bid Whitely creek, about two miles from Greensburg and New Geneva, and is supposed to contain about 700 Acres. Few Farms in Western Pennsylvania present greater attractions than this one. About Four Hundred Acres are cleared and in a good state of cultivation. A comfortable MANSION, a valuable Grist and Saw-Mill, and four Tenant Houses, are erected thereon. There are also a number of ORCHARDS. If the entire Tract cannot be sold to advantage soon, the Tract will be divided into three or four parts, and sold separately. Persons desirous of purchasing will leave their proposals with either of the undersigned.
--WM. G. HAWKINS,
--L. L. MINOR,
Executors.
June 16, 1834.
Tuesday, October 28, 1834
Waynesburg Messenger
October Election.
We are authorized to announce Dr. J. V. BOUGHNER, of Perry township, as a candidate to represent the people of Greene County in the next Legislature of Pennsylvania. (Subject to the
decision of the Democratic Convention.) We are authorized to announce WASHINGTON PIPES as a candidate for Sheriff at the next October election.
May 1, 1845
Waynesburg Messenger
Information Wanted.
Whereas my wife left my home on the 2d inst. in a deranged state of mind, and I have not been able to learn any thing of her since. - This is therefore to request any person who may have any knowledge of where she is, to give me information, either by mail or otherwise. She is something over forty years old, rather of a slender build, quite a strait, delicate shaped
woman, with dark eyes and dark hair, not very large in stature. She took with her a plaid flannel dress, a blue and white calico, and a gingham dress, a sun Bonnet of red and brown calico with square spots, a long shawl, light colored, also a large reticue made of brown sercassion. It is supposed that she may have started for Greene county, Pennsylvania, as she has friends residing there.
--JACOB ADDLEMAN,
Centerburg, Knox county, Ohio,
April 11, '46
May 5, 1846
Waynesburg Messenger
CAUTION.
Whereas my husband, George Trussell has left my bed and board without any just cause or provocation, this is to warn all women from harboring him at their peril, as he is my lawful
husband, and if he returns to me by the 4th of July, he will be made welcome.
--Hannah Trussell,
formerly Hannah Tittle,
May 12, 1846.
Waynesburg Messenger
Lieut. Stewart Speers, of the Fayette County Volunteers, has returned from Mexico, and paid a visit to Waynesburg, last week. We had not the pleasure of seeing him, but those of our citizens who did, were highly pleased with him, and if he did not tell them everything it was not for the want of questions being asked. He spoke in the highest terms of the Volunteers from this place, and says that the "Coon Killer" alias Andrew Ferguson, was quite a favorite with the whole regiment. Mr.
Speers is a gentleman and a soldier, and would not have returned at this time but for a shot through his hand from his revolver.
May 25, 1847
Waynesburg Messenger
On Tuesday, the 8th inst, by the Rev. P. Axtell, Mr. ASA B. McFANN to Miss AMANDA MARTIN, all of Waynesburg.
In the hurry of making up our paper last week we entirely forgot the above notice. We were really sorry for this, as the happy couple were far from forgetting us amid their joy. We were remembered with a most beautiful poundcake for which the young pair have our sincere wishes for a long life of
uninterrupted happiness and prosperity. We can't write poetry but we do tell the truth, which is far better.
February 22, 1848
Waynesburg Messenger
Serious Accident.
We regret to learn that Mr. Isaac Lacock, of Morris township, was considerably injured, on Thursday of last week, whilst engaged in blowing rocks, near the residence of Mr. James Ringland, in that township. His right eye was blown out, both hands greatly mangled, and the face much lacerated. He is a son of Mr. Ira Lacock, of Morris township, and by all who know him is esteemed as a worthy and industrious young man. We are glad to be informed that he is rapidly improving.
Washington Examiner picked up by the Waynesburg MessengerJuly 6, 1847
Measles Death
Infant Samuel Cleavenger
27 July 1847
To read more interesting items taken from the pages of the Waynesburg Messenger transcribed by James Fordyce in 2001, click here.
We also heard wind of a small newspaper called the Mount Morris Tidings put out of the print shop of a Mr. Hood but we haven't been able to find its pages yet.
YIKES! A snippet from a Home Guide produced by the Ladies Aid Society of the M.E. Church...1906
"To clean white hoods or woolen shawls: Saturate with flour, let lay overnight, rub well with the hands, shake out thoroughly and they will look like new. --Nora Rush"
THE LATE RAID!! ALL QUIET ON BORDER!!
"The excitement consequent the threatened Rebel Raid on Greene and adjoining counties has almost entirely subsided. The Rebels have disappeared from Morgantown, but are said to be still in the vicinity of Fairmont or Warren. On Thursday last, Major Showalter, in command of some 700 Union troops and a section of Artillery at Morgantown, expecting to open communications with the Railroad someplace west of Fairmont, sent a dispatch to Waynesburg for help. Our Committee of Safety immediately got our home forces in readiness and our Washington friends sent us a fine Company of Infantry under command of the gallant Captain Wishart. Before their arrival, however, news reached us that Major Showalter had evacuated Morgantown and was on his way to Wheeling via Uniontown. On Saturday morning, all imminent danger of a Rebel incursion having passed away, the Washington lads returned to their homes and our own people resumed their usual business occupations. At present, all is quiet, and all alarm allayed."
--from the Waynesburg Messenger, 6 MAY 1863
We are also very interested in learning more about this...
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