Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Working on Wednesday: Joshua Butler Walsh (1810 - 1888), Blacksmith and Soldier, Mexican War

Born in South Carolina on May 30, 1810, Joshua had already survived two wives when he met and married my widowed great great grandmother Mercy Ann Darling Webb in Texas in 1864, thereby becoming the stepfather of my great grandfather Jesse Webb

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

He had enlisted as a army private in the Mexican War in May of 1847 in Alton, Illinois.*

Census records confirm that he was a blacksmith, although how much heavy work he was doing in the 1885 Nebraska census (below) is in question.

[Year: 1850; Census Place: District 11, Marion, Illinois; Roll: M432_119; Page: 41B; Image: 609. 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.]

[Year: 1870; Census Place: Fairview, Jones, Iowa. 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.]

[Nebraska State Census; Year: 1885; Series/Record Group: M352; County: Antelope; Township: Verdigris; Page: 8. Ancestry.com. Nebraska, State Census Collection, 1860-1885 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors in partnership with the following organizations: Nebraska State Genealogical Society Bismarck Mandan Historical and Genealogical Society Original data: Nebraska. Cass County. “County Census, 1876-1882.” Microfilm RG220, 9 rolls. Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln.Nebraska. Lancaster County. “County Census, 1860-1880.” Microfilm RG207, 4 rolls. Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln.Schedules of the Nebraska State Census of 1885.
NARA Microfilm Publication M352, 56 rolls.Washington, D.C.]


Joshua died in Antelope County, Nebraska, on July 5, 1888, and his widow is listed on the 1890 Special Schedule - Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc.**

[Year: 1890; Census Place: Verdigris, Antelope, Nebraska; Roll: 37; Page: 2; Enumeration District: 2.
Ancestry.com. 1890 Veterans Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: Special Schedules of the Eleventh Census (1890) Enumerating Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M123, 118 rolls); Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]




*None of my direct ancestors fought in that war.
**One of the few records to escape the fire that destroyed almost all of the 1890 U.S. Population Census.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

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