Working on Wednesday: Jesse Sill (1782 - 1857), Investor in Railroad Stock

Although my maternal fourth great grandfather Jesse Sill* was a farmer for most of his life, it's apparent from his July 1857 will, written a few months before his death, that he also owned shares of stock in the Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad because he left five shares each to two of his sons, William and John.

We have no idea how much Jesse paid for his shares, when he bought them, or what his heirs did with them. At the time of his death the U.S. was experiencing the worst financial panic it had ever experienced. Banks failed, stocks plummeted and work on the railroad stopped for a time. The line wasn't completed until 1871 after overcoming opposition and funding problems over the decades.

[Source: George H LeBarre Galleries, Inc.

http://www.glabarre.com/item/Pittsburgh_Connellsville_Railroad_Company/6342/p10c30]

The image above is of a bond for that railroad, not a stock certificate. The sailor holding an anchor on a dock with a ship on the horizon refers to the connection to the Atlantic that the Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad was expected to give to the coal deposits being mined in Western Pennsylvania. Its route is now part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

*My connection to Jesse is through his daughter Jane who married Isaac Webb. In his will he left bequests to her three children, including my great great grandfather Abner, who was living in Iowa with his bride Mercy Darling by that time.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find Update: California Trail Interpretive Center

Apparently this is a "Westward Ho!" day because I've just found another resource for those of us trying to better understand their ancestors' experiences on their way to the West. It's the California Trail Interpretive Center in Elko, Nevada, which was established in 2009.

[Source: The California Trail Interpretation Center]

Here's what they have to say about themselves:

"We are a Bureau of Land Management interpretive center focusing on the California Trail experience and its global impacts from 1841-1869. 

We have researched dioramas and interactive exhibits that immerse the visitor in the trail experience. We feature costumed interpretations and demonstrations of daily life for both Native Americans and pioneers. We feature a reconstructed Shoshone village and wagon encampment."

Sounds like a great place to visit.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: Westward Ho! How to Trace the Trails of Your Pioneer Ancestors

[Camp 100 - Humbolt River by Daniel A Jenks, 1827-1869, Created 1859;

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA;

digital id: ppmsc 04819 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.04819 ]

While looking for something entirely different (as happens so often), I discovered this great guest post by Mary Harrell-Sesniak at the GenealogyBank.com blog. While a lot of her post is naturally dedicated to information gathered from Genealogy Bank's resources (a subscription database), she includes other useful online resources.

The first illustration chosen by Ms. Harrell-Sesniak for her post also reminded me of the awesome resources available at the Library of Congress's website. The above illustration is taken from a series of sketches drawn by Daniel Jenks during his 1859 travels in the West.

Our family is lucky enough to have a newspaper account of B.R. Biddle's trek to California in 1849 as published in the Daily Illinois State Journal.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Madness: "Excessive study is alleged to have caused mental derangement."

Occasionally I find an ancestor who obviously struggled with mental illness.  Viola Frazee (1866-1929), a 1st cousin 3x's removed from me on my Hartley side, is an example.  This mention of her distress in 1890 ends with a curious diagnosis:

Morning Star
Rockford, Illinois
24 Aug 1890
page 6
Desperate From Excessive Study.
SAVANNAH, Mo., Aug. 23.--Viola Frazee, a school teacher, made several desperate attempts to kill herself Thursday night.  she cut her throat with a razor, but although the weapon severed the windpipe no large arteries were cut. She fainted from loss of blood, and when she regained consciousness swallowed a bottle of bluing and attempted to jump in the well.  The noise at the well aroused the family and she was rescued just as she was jumping in.  Excessive study is alleged to have caused mental derangement.

Fortunately she survived the suicide attempt, but unfortunately she spent the rest of her life (up to 39 long years) in the Missouri State Hospital for the Insane No 2 in St Joseph, Missouri (also known as the St Joseph State Hospital).  It seems likely she had depression, anxiety, possibly bipolar or schizophrenic, and could probably have led a normal life today with the help of psychiatric medicine and counseling.





© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Susan Grubb (After 1800 - After 1870)

According to her entry in the 1860 U.S. Census, Susan Herrod, nee Grubb, was born in Mississippi about 1805 because her age is given as 55. (However in the 1870 census she's listed as being 70 and 38 in the 1850 census so there's a choice available.)

[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]

If we have her parentage correct, her father was Benjamin Grubb* who moved west from Virginia in about 1790, settling first in Natchez and then moving on to Louisiana about seven years later where he remained for the rest of his life. As for her mother's name, there are at least two choices and a lot of uncertainty with either of them.

On September 8, 1822, my great great great grandfather Barnabas (or Barnett) Herrod married Susanna Grubb in Franklin County, Mississippi. The couple had at least seven children, of whom their daughter Celestine Letitia Herrod is my direct ancestor.

Although there are various court records of Barnabas owning land and acting as the administrator of several estates, there's no reason to believe that he was particularly successful. The 1850 U.S. Census shows this clearly as Barnabas is an innkeeper with real estate worth $160 and his wife Susan owns $4,000 worth of property herself.

[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.]

For a closer look at Susan's property, here's an 1849 Madison County tax list which shows that B. Herrod owes a total of $0.50 solely for his poll tax while his wife is taxed for a carriage, a clock and a slave under the age of 60 for a total of $1.25.

["Mississippi, State Archives, Various Records, 1820-1951," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-21381-45784-58?cc=1919687&wc=9B4Z-CXF:211900801,212009201 : accessed 16 December 2014), Madison > County tax rolls 1849, Box 3717 > image 18 of 39; Mississippi Department of Archvies and History, Jackson.]

A wife owning property separate from her husband is very unusual for this time, especially in a southern state like Mississippi. I wonder how that came about?

In the 1860 U.S. Census above, we can see that the widowed Susan Herrod and her youngest daughter Missouri are living in a hotel in Canton, Madison County, and there are no assets listed for her.

By 1870 she's still living in Canton but is living in the household of Joseph Davenport who was Missouri's husband. Susan is listed as having "no occupation" and no property.

[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]

And that's the last record we've been able to find for my three-time great grandmother.

*There are some very interesting things to say about old Benjamin, who definitely deserves his own post and will get it someday.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

52 Ancestors in 54 Weeks: Week 7: Rasmus Pedersen Fister (1827-1876)

Rasmus Pedersen Fister, my 2nd great grandfather, was born in Fister, Rogaland, Norway on Jun 19, 1827, to Peder Faltinson (1804-1864) and Randi Pedersdottar Folsvig (1804-1871).  He was baptized seven days later on June 26 in the Lutheran church in Folsvig, Fister, Rogaland, Norway ("Norway, Baptisms, 1634-1927," index, FamilySearch).  He was the oldest of eight children.

In early 1839, when Rasmus was almost 12, one of his younger sisters, Karn Serine Pedersdottar, died at about 2 1/2 months old.

Rasmus married Anna Pedersdottar Sandvig (or Dahl?) (1830-abt 1915) sometime around 1850 when Rasmus was about 23.  They had at least 8 children:

• Rakel Karine Fister (1851-1873), an opera singer who died of consumption.
• Peder Fister (1856-1860)
• Peder "Per"R Fister (1857-1913), a farmer and fisherman who stayed in Norway
• Peder Olaus Fister (1859-1861)
• Peder Olaus Fister (born 1861), a seaman
• Berdines Rasmussen Fister (1864-1934), my great grandfather
• Falentin "Frank' R Fister (1867-1938), who came to Illinois at the same time as Berdines
• Ivar J Fister (1874-1926), who also came to Illinois originally but then settled down as a farmer in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Rasmus, 38, and his family appear in the 1865 Census ("Folketelling") in Sandvik, Hjelmeland Parish, Rogaland, Norway.  He is listed as a "Husmand med Jord":

A "husmand" or "cotter"  provided farm labor without owning the farm or having a lease.  A "husmand med jord" was a renter who also had a small plot of land where he might grow a few crops or maintain some livestock of his own.  The husmand's duties to the land owner always came before any responsibilities related to his own pursuits.  Some renters also learned a trade - lumberman, blacksmith, even tailoring - and used the additional income to purchase a few comforts, or saved in order to purchase a farm or, in later years, establish themselves in America.  http://www.hadelandlag.org/resources/resbasics.htm

Rasmus and his family were in the same place ten years later in the 1875 Folketelling, and he was still a husmand med Jord.

Rasmus died in Sandvik the following year, May 6, 1876, age 48.



© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Iowa Research

Ancestry has just announced its latest state research guide for Iowa.  I have had a lot of success in researching people in Iowa with the sources they list.

I would like to add NewspaperArchive.com (subscription database separate from Ancestry) as a resource to consult when researching in Iowa.  They have a tremendous collection of Iowa newspapers.  There is a bit of a learning curve in using the search, but it is worth it for the type of information that newspapers offer: family connections, stories, obituaries, and tidbits, and just a general context for the lives of our ancestors.


© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.