Wordless Wednesday: Harvey and Rose Logsdon

Joseph Harvey Logsdon and mother Rose Lee (Mattingly) Logsdon
Father and Grandmother of my husband Mike
Louisville, Kentucky circa late 1940s

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Tombstone Tuesday: Nancy Eliza (Martin) Brown

Nancy was the daughter of James Monroe and Susannah (Grabeel) Martin. She was the sister of my paternal great, great grandmother, Ursula Ann (Martin) Davis-Burnette. Nancy was born 10 Dec 1850 in Lee Co., Virginia. She married Pleasant H. Brown on 16 Oct 1868 in Pulaski Co., Kentucky and died a little over two years later.

Tombstone of Nancy E. Brown, Friendship Cemetery, Rockcastle Co., Kentucky

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Military Monday: Pvt. James Alexander Grunden

Pvt. James A. Grunden 1841-1906

James A. Grunden was the son of Joseph and Martha (Dungan) Grunden. He was the brother of my maternal great, great grandmother, Mary Louisa (Grunden) Newby. This photo was in our collection as an "unknown" for many, many years, until I accidentally met my cousin Frances, James's great granddaughter. To my amazement, Frances had a duplicate of this same photo! This discovery was one of the most startling cases of serendipity in my early days of genealogy.

James was a private in Co. B. of the19th Indiana Infantry and a part of the famous "Iron Brigade". His outfit went through the worst: Gettysburg, Antietam, and many other big battles.The Iron Brigade suffered the highest number of battle deaths during the war. 115 men made up Co. B. when they left Richmond, Indiana in 1861 and only 10 of those men returned in 1865. James was one who returned.

James can probably attribute his survival to an accident that happened early in his service. One night while standing guard, his musket accidentally discharged, blowing off the forefinger of his right hand. This wound would prevent him from ever using a musket, so when he returned he was assigned to driving an ambulance. James drove the ambulance for nearly four years.

Some of James's story is told in On Many A Bloody Field: Four Years In The Iron Brigade by Alan D. Gaff. There is another photo of him in uniform on page 364 that was donated to the author by my cousin Frances. Frances had a large oil painting done from that photo which is now proudly displayed in her home.

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And George Cook Makes Six

When I received the obituary of John B. Cook, saying he was the youngest of six children, I assumed it was a simple error. After all, who knows who wrote that obituary? The only immediate family member left was John's son Charles who was living in California when John died. John had resided in Indiana all his life and was living in a home for the elderly for a number of years with his wife who had died two years before him. It appeared to me that someone at the home had written the obituary. What if they were mistaken about the number of older siblings John had?

When, just a short time later, another researcher pointed out that a George Cook had married Sarah Ann Kirkpatrick, sister of Nancy Jane Kirkpatrick, wife of John's oldest brother Allison, I was in denial for almost a year. How could there be a sibling I knew absolutely nothing about? Last week I decided it was time to chase it down.

I knew that my maternal third great grandparents, Giles and Martha (Brown) Cook had five children. One daughter, Elizabeth Ann, had died as a toddler and was buried next to her parents in the Reddick Cemetery in Rush Co., Indiana. The other four siblings, Allison, Phoebe, Eliza Jane, and John B. appear in two group photos in our family album. One photo was of just the siblings, the other included their spouses. Their mother Martha died in 1841, probably due to complications of giving birth to John, and in 1842 Giles married again to the widow Rebecca (Goble) Parkhurst who had already given birth to at least ten children from her first marriage. Only three of those Parkhurst children lived to see 1850.

Giles Cook (see end note)

By the time the 1850 census was taken, Giles had farmed all his children out except for the youngest, John. I never understood the practice of farming out your children after you remarried, especially teenage boys that could help with farm chores, but I've come across it quite often on both sides of my family.  None of the three living Parkhurst children were in the home either, but Giles and Rebecca had added three brand new Cook children to the fold: William, Margaret Ellen, and Amanda Jane. Three others had been born dead or died as newborns.

In 1850 Allison, 16 years old and the oldest child, was living on the farm of a couple who had a large family. My ancestor, Phoebe, 14, was living with her maternal grandparents, George and Rebecca (Sutherland) Brown. Eliza Jane, 11, was living with her uncle and maternal aunt, Peter and Phoebe (Brown) Smelzer. Eliza would later marry her step brother, George Mason Parkhurst. John B., as I said, was living with his father and step-mother along with his three half-siblings.

When I received John's obituary from the Knightstown Banner, and was later alerted to the fact that Allison's sister-in-law had married a George Cook who was just one year younger than Allison, I knew it was possible that brothers had married sisters. However, Cook is a common name, so I was hesitant to jump to conclusions. So, last week, I decided to  re-examine the 1840 census. Sure enough, there were two boys in the 1830 - 1835 age slot, not one. I searched and searched for George in the 1850 census. Nothing. Where was the 15 year old living? The only possibility I found was in Tippecanoe Co., Indiana. But that was pretty far from Rush county. What made it intriguing though, was the presence of a slightly older boy, Samuel Cook, and two young men with the surname Brown, all living in the same household. If this was our George, who would later marry Sarah Ann Kirkpatrick, these others could all be family members, uncles or cousins. So far, I have not been able to come up with anything worth while on that.

Over the next few days I was able to locate George and Sarah Ann and their family in every other census up until their deaths. George died in 1895 and Sarah Ann married her second husband, Richard Abernathy, in 1901. Sarah died in 1929 and she and George are buried in the Brookside Cemetery in Windfall, Indiana.

Cook siblings in order of age

I still have a lot of work to do to fill in all the accumulated information on George's many descendants in my database. I don't have absolute proof George belongs, but I do have enough bits of evidence to convince me that I need to accept him into the family.  Adding to what I've already mentioned are naming patterns; George may have been named after his maternal grandfather, George Brown, and he named a daughter Martha, possibly after his mother. He named a daughter Nancy Jane, after his wife's sister. George's age also fits him perfectly between Allison and Phoebe. Then there is the obituary of Allison's wife Nancy, where it states that George's son John came all the way from Windfall, Tipton Co., Indiana to attend the funeral. But of course, we know Nancy was his maternal aunt. Was Allison also his paternal uncle? And lastly, there is a family history written a couple of generations later by the granddaughter of Amanda Jane, daughter of Giles and Rebecca, that states that Giles and Martha had eight children before Martha died. If John B. Cook told of being the youngest of six children, it is possible he was not including the toddler Elizabeth Ann, who died before he was born. If the family history is correct, then I'm still one child short somewhere. Another child who, perhaps, died young.

Note: Photo of Giles Cook was from a copy, made for me, of a tintype owned by half-cousin Kathy, very likely made on the farm in Rush county. The two little girls are not identified but, if it is a very early tintype, these may be his two youngest daughters, Margaret Ellen and Amanda Jane, but it is much more likely that they are granddaughters. My best guess would be that they are the two oldest daughters from the first marriage of my ancestor Phoebe: Sarah Elizabeth and Laura Alice Trowbridge. 

Up until fairly recently, I always imagined that Giles Cook was a poor farmer, but those fine horses (click on the photo to see a larger version) are not the horses of a poor farmer!

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Sunday's Obituary: Nancy J. (Kirkpatrick) Cook

Nancy Jane was the daughter of Joseph Rankin and Lucretia (Zion) Kirkpatrick. She was the wife of my maternal great, great grand-uncle, Allison Cook, son of Giles and Martha (Brown) Cook. 

Obituary - Knightstown Banner 2 Oct 1914

   In loving memory of a dear mother, who has passed from labor to reward.

I love each furrow in thy face,

The silver in thy hair,

There's naught but beauty I can trace,

There's none that's half so fair.

The love shone out from those dear eyes,

How well I knew the sign

Of kindness, sweetness, all that's good,

Dear mother, mother mine.

You nursed me through my infant years,

You loved me as a child,

You shared with me my hopes and fears,

With counsel good and mild.

And when my erring footstep strayed

How sad that heart of thine,

You loved me better than before--

Dear mother, mother mine.

  And so today, neighbors, friends and kindred have met to pay a tribute of respect to a good woman, who had traveled down life's rugged journey, lo these many years.

   Nancy Jane Cook, daughter of Rankin and Lucy Kirkpatrick, was born in Rush county, Indiana, July 10, 1842, and departed this life September 23, 1914. She was the second child of a family of thirteen children.

    She was married to Jacob Johnson, January 21st, 1858, and to this happy union was born two daughters, Elnora and Lucretia, the latter dying in early childhood.

     On May 26, 1864, death again entered this home and took away her beloved companion. 

   November 16, 1865, she was married to Allison Cook. Three children came to bless this home, Mrs. Ollie Harrold, now residing in Indianapolis; Mrs. William Moffitt, who died in Emporia, Kansas, a bride of only six weeks; Joseph R. Cook, of Knightstown, with whom she has made her home for more than twelve years past.

 The death angel again visited this home and took away her companion and left her to tread life's weary pathway all alone, her children all having married and gone away to set up omes of their own.

     She became a christian in early life and was buried with her lord in christian baptism. She united with the Missionary Baptist church in Grant county, that being her home at that time. On moving back to Rush county she, with her husband, identified themselves with the Christian church at Center, Indiana, and was a humble worshiper in the sanctuary of the Lord. When she came to make her home with her son in Knightstown, she transferred her membership to the local congregation and was in harmony and sympathy and attended the services faithfully until deprived of the privilege by her late afflictions and loved to talk of her hopes and desires of the christian life, until the Master said - "It is enough; come up higher," and she went to join that company of redeemed who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.

    Her last few years were full of suffering, but she bore it with christian fortitude, never complaining, but in her weakness of body battled on, ever ready to meet and greet her friends with a happy smile, and saying as life was drawing to a close that she was ready and willing to depart and be with the Savior.

    She leaves to mourn her departure six sisters, two brothers, three children- Mrs. Columbus Moffitt and Joseph Cook of Knightstown, and Mrs. Ollie Harrold of Indianapolis; also eleven grand children and ten great-grand children, and many friends and neighbors who have only words of praise for her.

    The following poem is one she expressed a desire to have read in connection with the last sad rites:

"Home is not home, for mother is not there,

Angels have taken her out of our care;

Dark is our home and vacant her chair,

Home is not home, for mother is not there.

She has gone from her dear ones,

Her children and friends,

Whom she willing toiled for

And loved as her life,

Never shall her memory fade;

Sweetest thoughts shall ever linger,

Around the cemetery where she is laid,

Often comes from our hearts a bitter cry,

Why did our dear mother die?

Yet again we hope to meet her

When the days of life have fled,

And in heaven with joy to greet her

When no farewell tears are shed."

________________ 

CARD OF THANKS.

     By this means we want to thank our neighbors and friends for the beautiful flowers and the many kind acts done during the sickness and death of our mother.
                                                           Joseph and May Cook,

                                                           Elnora Moffitt,

                                                           Ollie Harrold.

________________

     The following persons from a distance were in attendance at the funeral of Mrs. Cook: Mrs. Ollie B. Harrold, Miss Fern Harrold and Clarence Harrold, Indianapolis; John Cook, Windfall, Ind.; George Kirkpatrick and wife and Mr. and Mrs. McKay, Kokomo, Ind.; J. W. Cooper and wife, Greenfield; E. M. Tentmyers, Elwood; Mrs. Elizabeth Farrington, Anderson; Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Pickering, of Kennard; Mrs. Frank Livezey and Mrs. E. S. Jackson, New Castle; Mrs. Harry Griffith, Delphi; Mrs. Horace Worth, of Morristown; Mr. and Mrs. Otto Price, of New Castle.


Nancy and Allison are buried in Center Cemetery, Mays, Rush Co., Indiana.

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