Tombstone Tuesday: Benjamin and Elizabeth Miller

Benjamin B. Miller

b. 1814  Pennsylvania  -  d.1892  Illinois

Elizabeth [Smith] Miller 

b.1814  Ohio  -  d. 1858  Illinois

married January 14, 1835 in Holmes Co., Ohio

My paternal third great grandparents
buried Post Oak Cemetery, Louden, Fayette Co., Illinois

This stone is, I assume, replacing an old or missing stone and appears to have been put in place by a grandchild, considering the inscription below the names. There are more complete birth and death dates to be found on various family trees but are somewhat suspect because none seem to be sourced. If anyone reading this has that source information I hope you will consider e-mailing me at the g-mail link towards the bottom of this page.

Photos were taken May 31, 2011.

Descendancy Chart

Miller tombstone and me

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Tombstone Tuesday: Clotilda Vincent Bean

Daughter of Lord and Lady Francis Vincent of Ireland

b. March 14, 1769 - d. September 13, 1864

Wife of Edward Columbus (John) Bean
Buried St. Joseph's Cemetery, Bardstown, Nelson Co., KY

Clotilda Bean

Clotilda was the paternal fourth great grandmother of my husband, Mike. She has an interesting history which I summarized a little over a year ago in my blog: Irish Ancestors: Clotilda, Daughter of Lord and Lady Vincent. 

On Friday, May 27, 2011, Mike and I visited the Bean Cabin which has been preserved and moved to Historic Old Bardstown Village's Museum Row in Bardstown, Kentucky. As stated in my previous blog, Clotilda's husband was killed by Indians while returning to Maryland for supplies. John Bean was also of Irish heritage. 

Clotilda never remarried, she raised her family of 8 children and prospered. She was a charter member and an active church worker at St. Joseph's Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown. Clotilda was 95 years old when she died and the tombstone seen here was erected by her slave, Joe Bean. 

Mike Logsdon and Clotilda Bean Tombstone

Descendancy Chart

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Treasure Chest Thursday: Digging up Evans Cemetery

Evans Cemetery, Fayette Co., Illinois

I really hadn't planned on spending much time or taking many photos in the Evans Cemetery in Hagerstown, just outside of Vandalia. The main stone I wanted to see was that of my 5th great grandfather, Jeremiah Evans. Jeremiah donated the land for the cemetery long ago and there were many of his family buried there along with other townsfolk, but he and his wife Mary were the only "direct" (is there any other kind?) ancestors of mine that had stones there. I'd already seen the two stones on FindAGrave.com [FAG] so I wasn't all that excited. They weren't in good shape and were laying on the ground and Jeremiah's appeared to be just a little piece of stone, the bottom part.

Big, BIG tree!

It was Wednesday, June 1, 2011 and Mike and I went early to beat the heat and we were the only ones in the cemetery. There was a giant tree that had fallen and uprooted itself and someone had been sawing it in sections for removal. It did quite a bit of damage in the fall and standing next to the hole the roots made I wondered if I might see bones down there.

(Click on the photo and see for yourself!)

All that was showing of Jeremiah's tombstone

As soon as my eyes fell on Jeremiah's stone I recognized it from the sad little photo on his FAG memorial. Next to it was his first wife Mary (Larimer) Evans. Mary's was a full stone but we could barely see the top part because of all the grass that had covered it. Mike started pulling away at the grass until he had it mostly uncovered. It wasn't easy work since he only had a stick to loosen the grass before pulling it up. Next, we moved on to Jeremiah's stone. I could see there was more than was showing but I didn't think it was much. Mike said "Lisa, I think the whole stone is there, I'm going to find out." and he began to work away at removing grass with his little stick. I was hot so I went off to photograph some stones that were in the shade!

Mike...hard at work, uncovering Jeremiah with a stick.

I don't know how many years Jeremiah's stone has been covered but after at least an hour Mike had the entire thing cleared. It was broken in pieces and mostly unreadable but it was the whole stone. I photographed it many times and when I got home I uploaded it to Jeremiah's FAG memorial and let the creator know that a new photograph of the stone was there. 

Now, thanks to Mike all Jeremiah's descendants can see the full stone...and lucky for Mike, he got to spend the rest of the day in a cool, quiet library, reading to his heart's content about his Kentucky pioneers...and probably their moonshine stills!

My point here is...which is the Treasure, the Stone or the Man? Bet you know what my answer is!

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Capt. Joseph L. Townsend: 1812 New Jersey Militia

I am certainly pleased that my husband and I decided to make a visit to the EVANS Public Library (named for a descendant of my paternal 5th great grandfather, Jeremiah Evans) on our recent trip that included a 3 day stop in Vandalia, Illinois. I am even more pleased that I had my trusty Flip-Pal portable scanner with me. I discovered the library houses a large collection of the Fayette County Historical Society's publication called "Fayette Facts". For over a dozen years I had owned all the Fayette Facts that had previously been offered by the FCHS as back issues to the public...about 25 of them. But when I looked on the library shelf there were a good 40-50 issues there and most of them were copies I did not have in my personal library. I pulled them all from the shelf and sat down at an empty table and started going through the indexes for my surnames: Evans, Miller, Owen, Patterson and Townsend. It was Wednesday, June 1 and being a week day morning it was quiet in there, but my Flip-Pal was smokin'!

By far the most surprising and exciting item concerned my paternal 3rd great grandfather's military service and was found in Fayette Facts, Vol. 38, No. 4, pg. 36:

"WAR OF 1812 VETERANS BURIED IN FAYETTE COUNTY

            Joseph L. Townsend, born 1796 and died 1875 was a Captain in the New Jersey Militia. He married Christianna Wheaton and is buried at Howard's Point, Howard Township, according to Daughters of the War of 1812 records.

            Howard Township is now known as Avena and a check of these burial records indicated that Christianna Townsend, wife of J. L., died August 28, 1872, aged 74 years 10 months and 22 days and is buried in Yolton Cemetery. Joseph's grave is probably here as well."

            

Prior to seeing this short article I had found no clues of any military service for Joseph, not that I hadn't tried to find them. His family was from Quaker stock back in New Jersey but after they came to Illinois it appears they left that faith behind so there shouldn't have been a refrain from serving due to religious views, but I still failed to produce anything showing a service record for Joseph. This find was certainly a lucky break! It just goes to prove what I've heard over and over again: 95% of genealogical information is found in repositories other than the Internet.

A search on Ancestry.com's War of 1812 Service Records turned up two entries for a Joseph Townsend in the New Jersey Militia.  One shows a Captain in Read's Battalion and the other shows a Private in Howell's Regiment. Nothing about the online records proves to me that either of these entries is for MY Joseph Townsend. I guess the Daughters of the War of 1812 have already done this investigation for me. I'd certainly like to see a copy of the records myself though!

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Tombstone Tuesday: Christianna Townsend

Christianna Wheaton Townsend  

October 6, 1797 - August 28, 1872

Wife of Joseph L. Townsend, daughter of Uriah Wheaton

buried Yolton Cemetery, Avena Township, Fayette County., Illinois

My paternal third great grandmother.

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Horseshoe Bend Farm: The Logsdon Ancestral Home

Nearly a year ago in July of 2010 I posted an article on the maternal grandparents of William Logsdon and as a result of that article and one other earlier article,"Who the heck is Alice?",  I met Bernard Thompson, a half-cousin of my husband Mike. (See my blog post "Treasure Chest Thursday: The Perks of Blogging".) Bernie's and Mike's common ancestor was their great great grandfather, William Logsdon (1799 - 1882), but Bernie descends from William's first wife and Mike descends from William's second wife.

In an e-mail, Bernie told me he'd been to the Logsdon ancestral farm at Horseshoe Bend outside of the small town of Springfield, Kentucky. He said if we were ever up that way to let him know and he'd take us there. He had met and made friends with the wonderful old couple that had lived there for the past 60 years and was sure they'd be delighted to show us the home. Up to that point I'd had no idea that the farm was still in existence and Mike and I were both excited at the possibility of getting to see it.

Mordecai's on Main Restaurant

Plans were made and on Thursday, May 26 we met in Springfield with Bernie and his wife Mary Ann and another local genealogist couple, Gerald and Martha Thompson. First, Bernie treated us to lunch at Mordecai's On Main Restaurant on Main street there in Springfield.

(Notice the "o" in the name is a Lincoln head penny. President Abraham Lincoln's parents, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married in Springfield in 1806.)

After lunch we made our way to Horseshoe Bend Farm. I had checked this farm out from the description Bernie had given me of where it was and using Google Earth, it was easy to pinpoint.

Horseshoe Bend Farm, Springfield, Washington County, Kentucky

What I saw from Google Earth was somewhat deceptive though. It doesn't give a sense of the steep elevation! We turned onto a very narrow, nicely paved road that went up, and up, and UP! Looking down from the road you could see the original wagon road not far below. The Horseshoe Bend Farm was on a hill..or knob. I live in Florida so I call it a mountain!

closer overhead view

When we reached the top, we saw among the trees the quaint old farm house, built by William Logsdon in the early to mid 1800s. There were two large barns, the old original wooden barn and a newer barn.  As we stepped from the car we saw our hostess standing just inside the screened front door. There was a strong breeze scented with earth, animals, and honeysuckle and the surrounding scenery was breath taking! I was a little shy snapping that first picture so after I took it I handed the camera to Mike and he took the rest. I felt like I was invading privacy but I think he felt a sense of his ancestral roots and he wasn't the least bit shy about taking more pictures.

Front view from outside the gate

Front view closer up

Back view showing the 1950s addition (kitchen and enclosed porch).

We don't know for sure exactly when this house was built by William Logsdon. William had at least 10 children by his first wife, Nancy Worland (Bernie's ancestor), who he married in 1823. Nancy died in 1838 and William married Mike's ancestor, Alice McIlvoy, in 1840 and had at least 10 more children by her. The farm is several hundred acres and still a working farm with cattle and crops. Below are a few photos of the surrounding countryside. To get the full effect you really should click to enlarge!

Yes, we did tour the interior of the home but for the privacy of the present owners I will refrain from making those photos public. The home originally had four large rooms, two upstairs and two downstairs with a stairway in the center. I have since wondered, just how do you sleep that many in one family? Not that all 22+ family members were living there at one time, but there had to be a fairly large number of them living there at any given time just the same! I assume male children had one bedroom upstairs and the females had the other and the parents must have slept in one of the two rooms downstairs. The upstairs bedrooms must have looked like dormitories!

William Logsdon owned a small number of slaves and I'm not sure where they would have lived on the property. There may have been another building at one time. In the 1850 slave schedule William had three male slaves ages 60, 14 and 12 and one female slave age 42. In 1860 only the three male slaves are listed, ages 72, 24 and 21. I think Mike was a bit dismayed to learn he had an ancestor that owned slaves but of course it was common at the time, especially if you had a fairly large farm such as this one.

I believe the property known as Horseshoe Bend Farm may have been purchased originally by William's father Joseph and that William did not own it until after his father died. In the will of Joseph Logsdon he states: "I bequeath unto my son William Logsdon, the plantation he now lives on...". This will was written in 1839 so it is likely the farmhouse was built years before then.

I wish to thank Bernie publicly for making this visit possible. It was a memorable, enjoyable and informative day. To top it off, Bernie left us with a couple of wonderful parting gifts: The books "2008 Maryland to Kentucky Reunion - A Guide to the Kentucky Holy Land" and "Putting Meat on the Bones - A Tribute to our MD to KY Ancestors", Written by their Many Descendants, Compiled by the 2008 MD to KY Reunion Committee. It is my understanding that the couple that accompanied us, Gerald and Martha Thompson, were involved in making these books happen. They are absolutely priceless additions to my genealogy library! Our thanks to all four Thompsons for a wonderful visit!

Original barn at Horseshoe Bend Farm

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Wedding Wednesday: Newby-Trowbridge

CHARLES LEE NEWBY to IDA MAY TROWBRIDGE 

May 25, 1892

Charles and Ida Newby were my maternal great grandparents. The witnesses, Milla and Henry McMullen, were Ida's sister and brother-in-law. This beautiful certificate is a page from Ida May's 1891/92 Bible which was likely a wedding gift to Ida and Charles from her parents.

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Tombstone Tuesday: Elza C. and Florence P. Scott

Elza Chandler Scott (birth name CHANDLER) 1895-1969
Adopted son of Ottway Norville and Mary Cordelia (Arnold) Scott
Florence Polly (Melvin) Scott 1903-1989
daughter of Michael and Edna A. (Metcalf) Melvin
buried Evergreen Cemetery, Louisville, Jefferson Co., Kentucky

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Amanuensis Monday: A Convenient Marriage-Part 2

After the widow Florence Polly (Melvin) Moore received the letter from suitor Elza Chandler Scott (whom she'd never met in person), she quickly shot off a reply to him which she tucked into another letter to her friend Mrs. Reed because it was the time of the Great Depression and she had only one stamp. This is her reply to Mr. Scott:

                         March 29, 1931

          Mr. E. C. Scott.

                 Dear Friend:

                          Will answere

your letter with pleasure, I

am certainly sorry if I gave you

a bawling out because I

did'nt intend to do so, I was

glad to get the photo of you, and

to tell the truth about it, I

dont think you would spoil

my appitte, but I may spoil

yours. I am sorry but I cant

find a photo of my self. I

have some that were made

about 3 years ago. but I

look quiet differant now.

if every thing is OK, I think

I will see you in a few days.

lets hope so anyway.

I am 27 years old, a widow of one

year & 2 months, 5 feet 1 1/2 in tall

weigh 102 pound. Blue eyes light

complected & auburn hair. and

I have a daughter nearly 9 years

old. I love children and it is

a pleasure to be with them

especially with nicely raised

children  Mrs Reed spoke real

well of you and the Boys, Jack &

Mrs Reed are real nice people

I think as much of them

as I do my own people. they

have certainly treated me

nice, I have the head ache so

bad to day I cant hardly write.

so please excuese this short

letter, may be we can arrange

every thing when I get

their, so please answere this

as soon as possible, Mr & Mrs

Reed are moving to Latonia

will you go with them or

will you stay where you are,

so you have just bought a car

it doesent matter if it

isnt a swell one, times are

to bad to put so much money

in a car are any thing. I all

way try to save for a rainy

day, but havent had any

thing to save for over a year.

but after the rain the sun

all ways shines, so I hope it

will soon shine for me.

I am sorry I havent a picture

of my self at present, but

may be you wont be

disappointed when you

see me. I think I will

be there Sunday the 5th if

everything works out allright.

I will be looking for an

Answere in a few days. please

write, good bye good luck.

             your lonesome Buddie

                    Florence Moore

                       2206 - Standard Ave

                            Lou

                               Ky.

the reason why I am putting

this in Mrs Reeds letter

because this is the only

stamp I have and I

can't get any till tomorrow

Apparently Florence arrived in Cincinnati on Sunday, April 5th as planned and she and Elza must have gotten along famously just as Jack and Mrs. Reed predicted because on the following Saturday, April 11th.....

Marriage License of Elza C. Scott and Florence P. Moore
dated April 11, 1931

And 29 years later....they were still happily married....

Florence Polly and Elza Chandler Scott - May 1960

....til death they did part in June of 1969 with the passing of Elza, age 72. (No children from this union.)

Click here to read Part 1

Thanks go to my sister-in-law Rose, who has allowed me to keep and preserve these historical family artifacts!

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Sunday's Obituary: Mrs. Rose L. Logsdon

ROSE LEE (MATTINGLY) LOGSDON

August 1, 1886 - September 1, 1973

My husband's paternal grandmother, daughter of William M. and Lou Ann (Grimes) Mattingly, wife of Joseph Leslie Logsdon who died at the age of 25 in 1919.

This clipping was among the items my sister-in-law placed in my care a few years ago. There are two other obituaries dated September 13, 1973 on Rose Lee's FindAGrave memorial that were taken from the Louisville Courier Journal. This clipping may be an earlier obituary from the same paper or it may have come from another newspaper.

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