Monday Is for Mothers: Timney P. Watts (1805 - 1863) - Probate Records, Part 15, Final Settlement

I don't know about you, but I'm certainly happy to come to the end of this examination of the probate records for my 3X great grandmother Timeny P. Watts Warren Phillips. 

Timney died on September 5, 1863, by which time  Lee's invasion of the North had been turned back at Gettysburg (July 1-3), Vicksburg had fallen (July 4), the Mississippi River was in Federal control and the South was on the defensive.  Perhaps events during the months leading up to the Confederacy's final defeat in 1865 are part of the reason why it took 3-1/2 years for the final distribution  which took place in 1867.

Estate of
Timney P. Phillips

J.D. Phillips
     Admr

Final Settlement

Recorded Book 11 Page 353
     C.A. Stanton
          Judge of Probate

Filed in Office   Sinclair[?]
Feb 18th 1867

Set for 2nd Monday
April 1867--

C A Stanton
     Judge
R F Ligon

J D Phillips Admr of Timney
P. Phillips dec'd. in account
current for final Settlement

Admr charges himself as
follows----                       Dr[?]

To Amt of Sale of personal property
on the 15th day of December 1863
and which was in Confederate
Money-------------------     $12175.71

To amt of sale of Real estate
in the                                     $120.00
                                            12295.71

Admr ask to be Credited as following
                                                   Cr
By amt paid  R A Johnston {?]nd  1   394.68
 "     "       "    W D Hall                  2     47.60 
 "     "       "     T H Phillips             3     25.00
 "     "       "    W C Martin              4       6.75
 "     "       "    Henderson & Baith  5       5.00
 "     "       "    J W Webb & Co       6      23.20
 "     "       "    Taxes 1863               7      25.25
 "     "       "    R A Johnston           8     185.60
 "     "       "    R A Johnston           9       80.00                
 "     "       "    R A Johnston          10    200.00
 "     "       "    W H Hodnett          11    183.00
 "     "       "    Court Costs            12      54.00
 "     "       "    Attorneys fees        13      30.00

By amt of Confederate Money on hand 4015.63

[Description : Estate Papers, Phillips, Nancy (Minor) to Piques, Sarah. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

                             Amt brt forward
By amt paid A Lockwood Guard
=ian for Elizabeth A Lockwood as per recpt $1500.

By amt paid James O A Adams as
     per receipt on file            --------------     $1950

By amt paid Isabella Varner 
     as per receipt on file       --------------     $1950

By amt paid L B Phillips
     as per receipt on file       --------------     $1500


The State of Alabama          }
   Macon County                  } Personally appeared before C.A. Stanton
Judge of he probate Court J D Phillips Admr of Timney Phillips dec'd who being
duly sworn says that the foregoing account for final Settlement is just
true and Correct and that the heirs at law are, Thos H Phillips and 
your petitioner who reside in Macon Co Ala, W.R Phillips and L.B. Phillips who
reside in Geo, Josiah Phillips in Texas, Mary E Lane wife of 
Alexander Land in Barbour Co Ala, Martha Adams wife of  James O.
Adams in Pike Co Ala all of whom are of full age Elizabeth
Lockwood who resides               County Ala, also the children
of Thadeus Phillips dec'd, to wit, Elizabeth, Eugenie, Columbiana
and John H Philips who are minors and live in Georgia--
Sworn to & subscribed before me   }
22 January 1867  ------                      }       J.D. Phillips
   C A Stanton Judge of Probate


If I'm reading this correctly everyone received Confederate money which was worthless.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Timney P. Watts (1805 - 1863) - Probate Records, Part 12, Two More Phillips Daughters

Last week I dealt with the Phillips men whose names were discovered through my research into the probate records of my great great great grandmother Timney P. Watts Warren Phillips. Now I'm turning to what the various records can tell us about the two women whose existence was uncovered at the same time:

[Description : Probate Records, Vol 10, 1863-1866; Probate Records, Vol 11, 1866-1868. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

Mary Emily Phillips (1826-1907)*, whose mother Nancy Ann Pennington Phillips died the year she was born, married Dr. Alexander Lane (1818-1887) in Macon County on October 12, 1843. By the 1850 U.S. Census the Lane household comprised Mary E., her husband, their three children and a Georgia farmer no doubt hired to run the farm while Dr. Lane practiced medicine.

[Year: 1850; Census Place: District 21, Macon, Alabama; Roll: M432_9; Page: 284B; Image: 191. 

Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

The ink on this page is badly faded and even inverting the colors didn't help me decipher the value of the real estate he owned--perhaps you can do better.

Although I wasn't able to locate Dr. Lane's name in the 1850 Federal Census - Slave Schedules I did find him listed in the 1855 Alabama State Census as the owner of 26 enslaved persons.

[County : Macon. Ancestry.com. Alabama State Census, 1820-1866 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. This collection was indexed by Ancestry.com World Archives Project contributors. Original data: Alabama State Census, 1820, 1850, 1855 and 1866. Montgomery, Alabama: Alabama Department of Archives & History.

Rolls M2004.0008-M2004.0012, M2004.0036-M2004.0050, and M2008.0124.]

The 1860 federal enumeration shows that the Lane family has added their fourth and last child and according to the Slave Schedules the number of enslaved persons doubled in the past five years.

[Year: 1860; Census Place: Southern Division, Macon, Alabama; Roll: M653_14; Page: 724; Image: 243; Family History Library Film: 803014. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

[Township : Southern Division. Ancestry.com. 1860 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls.]

Ten years later Mary Emily, her husband and their youngest child Richard Q. were living in Tanyard in Pike County, Alabama, with a freedwoman Violet Malone keeping house for them. Despite the effects of the Civil War, the Dr. Lane is still a rich man-- worth $40,000.

[Year: 1870; Census Place: Tanyard, Pike, Alabama. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

By the 1880 U.S. Census the Lanes had moved east to Dawson, Terrell County, Georgia. Their son Richard and his young family are living with them. Dr. Lane's profession is listed as "Grocer" in this census.

[Year: 1880; Census Place: Dawson, Terrell, Georgia; Roll: 166; Family History Film: 1254166; Page: 156B; Enumeration District: 077; Image: 0937. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Seven years later Mary Emily was widowed when Dr. Lane died on March 28, 1887; with the loss of the 1890 census, the next record we have for her is in the 1900 U.S. Census when she was living in the household of her son Richard and his family, this time back in Alabama in Hartselle, Morgan County.

[Year: 1900; Census Place: Hartselle, Morgan, Alabama; Roll: 35; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 0136; FHL microfilm: 1240035. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.:

National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.]

The 1907 Birmingham Alabama City Directory listed her as a resident** and that's where Mary Elizabeth Phillips Lane died on May 18th of that year. She and Alexander are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Birmingham. All of their known children survived them and left descendants.

[Birmingham, Alabama, City Directory, 1907. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. 

Original data: Original sources vary according to directory. ]

The other previously unknown Phillips daughter Martha Norman Phillips (1833-1916) was Timney's third child with John P. Phillips***; she married South Carolina native James O.A. Adams (1826-1900) on November 15, 1849, in Macon County.

A year later the 1850 U.S. Census enumeration listed only Martha and her husband who was described as a farmer with no real estate assets although the Slave Schedule lists him as the owner of a 22-year old enslaved woman and her 4-year old son.

The 1855 Alabama State Census also lists only the couple but without slaves.

[County : Macon. Ancestry.com. Alabama State Census, 1820-1866 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. This collection was indexed by Ancestry.com World Archives Project contributors. Original data: Alabama State Census, 1820, 1850, 1855 and 1866. Montgomery, Alabama: Alabama Department of Archives & History. Rolls M2004.0008-M2004.0012, M2004.0036-M2004.0050, and M2008.0124.]

In the 1860 U.S. Census the Macon County enumeration of the Adams household included 10-year old Willis (born in Florida) and I have no idea who she could be (nor is there any other mention of this person). As we can see James O.A. has become a person of substance--perhaps due to his wife's inheritance after her father's death in 1852.

[Year: 1860; Census Place: Southern Division, Macon, Alabama; Roll: M653_14; Page: 767; Image: 286; Family History Library Film: 803014. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

According to the 1870 U.S. Census Martha's husband had become a successful businessman in Bughall in Bullock County and her widowed sister Lucinda Isabelle P Phillips Varner (1837-1904) and her two daughters Viola and Martha Mary were living with them.

[Year: 1870; Census Place: Bughall, Bullock, Alabama. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

A decade later Martha**** and J.O.A. had returned to Macon County where he was described in the 1900 U.S. Census as a "Merchant." He died on November 20, 1900, and was buried in the Tuskegee City Cemetery.

[Year: 1880; Census Place: Tuskegee, Macon, Alabama; Roll: 21; Family History Film: 1254021; Page: 406D; Enumeration District: 118; Image: 0315. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints  Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Martha survived her husband by 16 years and by 1910 she was living in Macon with Lucinda's oldest daughter Viola Varner (1857-1941) who had married Francis Joseph DeBardeleben in 1875. Viola was listed as the head of the household because her husband was no longer living with her.*****

[Year: 1910; Census Place: Precinct 1, Macon, Alabama; Roll: T624_23; Page: 19B; Enumeration District: 0122; FHL microfilm: 1374036. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

When Martha made her will on November 25, 1916, she was a resident of Alabama's Chilton County. Her heirs included her niece Viola Varner DeBardeleben and the children of Viola's eldest daughter Phala Belle****** and her husband Evan M. Pinckard.

[Description : Estate Case Files, Abbott, Fannie - Armstrong, Laura, 1868-1919. Ancestry.com.

Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

Martha Norman Phillips Adams died on Christmas Day, 1916 and was buried near James O.A. Adams in the Tuskegee City Cemetery.

The probate court estimated her estate to be worth about $5,000.



*So according to Ancestry she's my step third great aunt.
**Another of her sons, Alexander Oscar Lane (1848-1916) is the attorney at the top of the list.
***Which makes her my third great aunt.
****This record shows that she never had any children.
*****I wasn't able to locate Francis Joseph DeBardeleben until 1920 when he was living in Seattle, Washington, where he remained for the rest of his life, outliving Viola by six years. In various census records he called himself either married or widowed. Viola's tombstone names her as his wife.
******Phala had unexpectedly died only four days before Martha signed her will.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Timney P. Watts (1805 - 1863) - Probate Records, Part 10, The Commission and the Depositions

As we saw in the previous post about probate records for my third great grandmother Timney P. Watts Warren Phillips, her heirs petitioned the Court to allow her land to be sold because "Said lands cannot be equitably fractioned or divided between Said Joint Owners without a Sale [.]" and that the Court appointed W.F. Hodnett as Commissioner empowered to take depositions of witnesses. Here's the official Commission signed by Judge C.A. Stanton which was misfiled in John P. Phillips' probate records.

[Description : Estate Papers, Petteway, Ignatius W to Phillips, Nancy. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

Below is a printed form* describing the process.

[Description : Estate Papers, Phillips, Nancy (Minor) to Piques, Sarah.

Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

[Description : Probate Records, Vol 10, 1863-1866; Probate Records, Vol 11, 1866-1868. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

Thomas H Phillips       } Petition in Macon Probate Court
Jeremiah D Phillips     } to Sell Real Estate for a division
          vs                       } Interrogatories to be propounded
William R Phillips       } to William H Stanton & Alanson
                           Etal   } Lockwood Material Witness for the
Petitioners
Interrogatory 1, Are you acquainted with Certain lands, Situate
in Said County of Macon, and Known as the South half of the
north west Quarter, and Eighty Acres on the west half of the
South half of Section Eighteen (18) Township Fifteen (15) of Range
Twenty Four (24) being the dower Interest of Mrs Timney Phillips

Interrogatory 2, Are you acquainted with the heirs of John
Phillips? if Yea, name them, which are Minors, can or not
cannot Said land be equatably divided between said heirs without
a Sales? if not, state why not?                       Clopton & Ligon
                                                                      Attys for Petitioners

Depositions of Alanson Lockwood and William H Stanton
witnesses Sworn and examined under and by Virtue of a Comm-
-mission issued out of the Probate Court of the State of Alabama
for Macon County, in a Certain Cause therein depending between
Thomas H Phillips & Jeremiah D Phillips Plaintiffs and
William  R Phillips Etal Defendants,
   The witnesses being duly sworn to tell the truth, the whole
 truth and nothing but the truth, do depose[?] and Say as follows

To the first Interrogatory, they say they are acquainted with the
lands described in Said Interrogatory.

To the Second Interrogatory, they Say they are, their names are 
as follows W.R. Phillips, Josiah Phillips, Thomas H. Phillips,
Littleberry B Phillips; Jeremiah D Phillips, Lucinda I Varner

[Description : Probate Records, Vol 10, 1863-1866; Probate Records, Vol 11, 1866-1868. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

Martha Adams, Mary Lane, Elizabeth Ann Lockwood, Elizabeth
Phillips, Eugenia Phillips, Columbiana Phillips & John T Phillips
of who the last named five (5) are minors, they further answer,
that Said lands cannot be equitably divided without a sale for
the following reasons (Viz, 1st there is not enough of it, 2nd there is
no timber on it, 3rd there are two public Roads running through
it, with a lane fence to be Kept up
                                                                     A. Lockwood
                                                                    W.H. Stanton
We the Commissioner in the Said Commission named, do hereby
Certify, that the evidence of the witnesses A Lockwood & W H
Stanton, was taken down under Oath & Subscribed by them in
in our presence on the 4th day of November 1863 at Cotton Valley in
the County of Macon State of Alabama, and that we have
personal Knowledge of Said witnesses
                          Witness our hand and Seal
                                            W F Hodnett {L.S}

The living children of John P. Phillips (1792-1852) by both his wives** are named as Defendants in this "Certain Cause." And the first two men, William R. (W.R.) and Josiah***, weren't previously identified as his sons. Because William's name leads the list I'm assuming he's the eldest. It's equally unclear to me who Martha Adams and Mary Lane are as they aren't accounted for in our family tree.

The named minor heirs include Elizabeth Ann Lockwood (1851-1917) the only child of Timney's oldest daughter Elizabeth Ann Phillips and her husband Alanson Lockwood. However the connection of Elizabeth, Eugenia, Columbiana and John T. Phillips to this family are unknown to me at the moment.

So thanks to these two pages of probate records I have new people to research.



*This form is part of the records for the 1866 petition but it's unlikely that the procedure changed in the meantime.
**His first wife was Ann Nancy Pennington (1798-bef.1827).
***Our tree did have a Josiah Phillips (b.1822) who married my first cousin 4 times removed Martha Ann Chappell but we hadn't connected him to John P. Phillips and Nancy Ann.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Johannes Magendanz (1878-1964), Musician

How did this German pianist, born in what is now Gniew, Poland, on January 22, 1878, and educated at Berlin University, find a place in my extended family tree?

An examination of his arrival in New York on board the S.S. Rhein in 1905 provides a substantial clue: he was bound for Tuskegee, Alabama, where some of my great great great grandmother Timney P. Watts Warren Phillips' descendants were still living.

[I found this image at The Linosaurus]

[Year: 1905; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 0619; Line: 1; Page Number: 62. Ship or Roll Number : Roll 0619. Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897.

Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. NAI: 6256867. ]

[Detail of above page]

The above snippet gives us a further clue for his destination. Dr. John Massey was the President of the Alabama Conference Female College from 1876 to 1909.*

[Courtesy of Huntingdon College Archives and Special Collections]

The year after his arrival, Johannes married a student at the college, Velma De Bardeleben (1884-1967), Timney's great granddaughter and my second cousin, twice removed.** The couple's oldest child was born in Alabama in 1907.

By 1910 the family was living in Lincoln, Nebraska, where Johannes had been named Director of the Conservatory and Head of the Piano Department at the Nebraska Wesleyan University.

[Piano Recital, Johannes Magendanz. Source: Nebraska Memories]

However he doesn't appear to have remained in Oklahoma for long as the 1911 second semester catalogue for the college shows:

[Catalogue by Nebraska Wesleyan University, 1911-12. Source: Archives.org]

And in 1912 he had moved his family to New York State, where he and Alfred H. Jay were Directors of the Utica Conservatory of Music.

[The Ogdensburg journal. (Ogdensburg, N.Y.) 1868-1916, August 18, 1913, Page 2, Image 2.

Image provided by Northern NY Library Network]

Here's his listing in a Who's Who in music published in 1918.

[International Who's who in Music and Musical Gazetteer: A Contemporary Biographical Dictionary and a Record of the World's Musical Activity, Current literature publishing Company, 1918. Source: Google Books.]

Johannes and Velma remained in Utica for the rest of their lives and established a musical dynasty. Here's a photo of Johannes and son Felix taken the year before his death.

[Source: Old Fulton NY Post Cards By Tom Tryniski]

And an article from the same source about the family.

[Source: Old Fulton NY Post Cards By Tom Tryniski]

*Originally founded as the Tuskegee Female College in 1854, it's now called Huntingdon College and was moved to Montgomery in 1909.
**Here's her family tree back to Timney and her second husband John P. Phillips.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.