Does Bacon's Rebellion remind you of going to market?

No, well, it's my attempt to connect the Ancestors meme with my family's history. This week "52 Ancestors 52 Weeks" asks us to "An Ancestor who went to Market."

Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. 

My ancestor Great Times 7 Uncle Thomas Hansford/Hansford from Virginia was part of Bacon's Rebellion which burned Jamestown.  

The Burning of Jamestown by Howard Pyle, ca. 1905.

Thomas Hansford was born in 1646 in Virginia
Death 13 November 1676 in York County, Virginia

FATHER: John Hansford 1590-1661
MOTHER: Elizabeth Jands
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Thomas Handsford was hanged by Gov. Berkley of Virginia for his participation in Bacon's Rebellion. He is said to be the first American-born person to be executed in the Colonies.

Southside Virginia Families, Vol. 1, by John Bennett Boddie, Genealogical Pub. Co, 1966, page 157.

Hansford pleaded that he be shot as a soldier not hanged like a dog, and protested his loyalty as he stood on the scaffold.   (Wikipedia) 

NOTE: one source says as many as 23 men were hung. 
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Wikipedia says:

Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. The colony's disorganized frontier political structure, combined with accumulating grievances (including leaving Bacon out of his inner circle, refusing to allow Bacon to be a part of his fur trade with the Native Americans, and Doeg tribe Indian attacks), helped to motivate a popular uprising against Berkeley, who had failed to address the demands of the colonists regarding their safety.

About a thousand Virginians of all classes rose up in arms against Berkeley, attacking Native Americans, chasing Berkeley from Jamestown, Virginia, and ultimately torching the capital. The rebellion was first suppressed by a few armed merchant ships from London whose captains sided with Berkeley and the loyalists. Government forces from England arrived soon after and spent several years defeating pockets of resistance and reforming the colonial government to one more directly under royal control.

It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part; a similar uprising in Maryland took place later that year. The alliance between former indentured servants and Africans against bond-servitude disturbed the ruling class, who responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery. While the farmers did not succeed in their initial goal of driving Native Americans from Virginia, the rebellion did result in Gov. Berkeley being recalled to England.

Bacon's wealthy landowning followers returned their loyalty to the Virginia government after Bacon's death. Some former rebels of lower classes were ordered to make public apologies, and many were fined or ordered to pay court costs.

Bacon [had] promised his army tax breaks, predetermined wages, and freedom from indentures, "so long as they should serve under his colors." Indentured servants both black and white had joined the frontier rebellion. Seeing them united in a cause alarmed the ruling class. Historians believe the rebellion hastened the hardening of racial lines associated with slavery, as a way for planters and the colony to control some of the poor. For example, historian Eric Foner writes, "The fear of civil war among whites frightened Virginia's ruling elite, who took steps to consolidate power and improve their image: for example, restoration of property qualifications for voting, reducing taxes, and adoption of a more aggressive American Indian policy." Some of these measures, by appeasing the poor white population, may have had the purpose of inhibiting any future unification with the enslaved black population.

It's interesting to read more recent historians' view of the rebellion.

According to the Historic Jamestowne website, "For many years, historians considered the Virginia Rebellion of 1676 to be the first stirring of revolutionary sentiment in [North] America, which culminated in the American Revolution almost exactly one hundred years later. However, in the past few decades, based on findings from a more distant viewpoint, historians have come to understand Bacon's Rebellion as a power struggle between two stubborn, selfish leaders rather than a glorious fight against tyranny."

Nonetheless, many in the early United States, including Thomas Jefferson, saw Bacon as a patriot and believed that Bacon's Rebellion truly was a prelude to the later American Revolution against the control of the Crown. 

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Thomas Hansford had a younger brother, Charles, born May 9, 1654.  He married Elizabeth Folliet Moody, and their son William Hansford is a direct ancestor of mine.  Five generations later was born my grandfather, Albert J. "Bud" Webb.

So my rebellious spirit might have been well tamed, but the blood runs true!

Sharing with Generations Cafe, a Facebook Group where "52 Ancestors 52 Weeks" is collected. 

Week 46 (Nov. 12-18): “This Ancestor Went to Market…” Pardon my use of Bacon's name as that of something purchased in a market!

An unusual name, Lebbeus Booth

Repost of blog from When I Was 69, dated 1/5/2019

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 Week 3 - 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks (Jan. 15-21): Unusual Name

#52 Ancestors

When different cultures merge, many times there are unusual names from one to another.  I like one that was popular in the 16th through 19th centuries in several ancestors, women named Kesiah.  But I think it may have originally been Native American.  So for them, it wouldn't have been unusual.

So I'm going to do the "throw the pin at the map" kind of selection...just log onto one of my three lines of ancestors, and find a name that sounds unusual, then figure out how they are related to me.  It's pure chance.

I had many ancestors with Bibical names, from many different faiths.  So I dare say that one of them would be my choice.

But here's a Booth cousin, and a name I've never run into before. Lebbeus Booth. I find it was also Bibical, a name for one of the appostles named Jude Taddeus.

The 1850 NY Census states Lebbeus Booth was 60 years old, thus born in Connecticut around 1790. Actual birth date was June 25, 1789. This census also lists his wife (?) and children.

He is living with a woman, younger than he was, age 46, named Laurietta, Lucretia.   The others listed in his household also have unusual names. A 22 year old man named Moss Pant  Kent Booth.  Then a woman, Marthy H Booth, age 20. 18 year old male has a common name of John C. Irrebela G Booth comes next (though she may have been Isabela) at age 11, as well as Lecretia, while Susan E. Booth is just 6.  Mary Johnson is 25, and may be a servant, who has a daughter, Adaline, age 1.  This census was taken in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, NY.

He is listed as a student in Union College of New York in 1817 as being from Ballston Spa, New York (published in 1833).  (Catalogue of the fraternity of [Phi] B K, Alpha of New York. Union College, Schenectady, 1827.)

In 1818 he is in the Albany NY City Directory, in Montgomery.  Upon checking, Montgomery is about an hour away from Albany, so he may have had interests in both areas.  

He is again listed in Union College of New York in 1845 as being on a committee to organize the 50th anniversary of the college, being listed as class of 1813.  

His death listing happened on 16 Dec, 1859, when he was 70 years old, with his occupation as a retired gentleman.  His cause of death was marasmus (wasting disease). He was still married at that time.

He had written a will, in 1856 leaving his possessions to his children and wife. He was survived by Martha Booth Seely, John C. Booth, daughters Lucretia Booth and Susan E Booth, the last 2 being considered minors, so they were given a  male guardian. His wife also was named Lucretia (rather than the garbled name the 1850 census taker gave her.)

Oh, who is he to my ancestors? His father, Silas Booth (1758-1835) was the brother of Isaac Booth Sr, (1755-1841), who was my 5 times great grandfather.  So we have a 6 times great grandfather in common, and I think that makes him my 2nd cousin 6 times removed.  Please let me know if I've got that wrong.  I always scratch my head on that cousin stuff.

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

More notes by writer:

"Lucretia Foot(e) ...married Lebbeus Booth, a banker who helped establish the Ballston Spa National Bank.  (probably in Roerig, Ruth W. The History of Ballston Spa National Bank, 1838-1988: A Story of “The Old Bank,” Its Community, and Its People. Ballston Spa, NY: Ballston Spa National Bank, 1988.)

Lebbeus was 2nd Principal of Female Academy, 1815-1824, founded by Ebenezer Foote, whose only daughter was Lucretia Foote Booth, Lebbeus' wife.

Had private school in Ballston several years.

Source: http://dunhamwilcox.net/ny/ne_albany_bio1.htm

Ancestry finally posted his relationship to writer...1st cousin 6 times removed!

Richard R. Booth, my murdered great grand

Repost from blog When I Was 69 dated 2/7/2017

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 NOTE: I am so embarrassed...well Blogger should be! All the comments that have been coming to this site for the last year (and it's not really many) didn't get sent to me as notifications (like I'd asked Blogger to do.) They've been sitting in a folder "awaiting publication" over here, and I never looked at it before today (June 18, 2018) because I was under the impression that I'd be getting emails when people commented.  That used to be the way of Blogger.  Sigh.  I haven't had a chance to answer them, and all those comments were really valuable.  So sorry.

Richard R. Booth was born 23 Sept 1846 in Jackson, Indiana.  He moved from Indiana to Texas with his father, William Lewis Booth, an attorney. The Booth family emmigrated (with William's, brother Charles M.) from western New York state (Farmington, Ontario County) to Indiana and (then in 1849) to Genesee Twp, Whiteside, Illinois, to Hempstead, Waller County, Texas, and Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas.

Present day photos of farm now on Booth homestead, "2nd farmhouse north of SW corner of section 22 on Coleta Rd," Genesee Twp, Whiteside, Illinois

Present day photos of farm now on Booth homestead, "2nd farm north of SW corner of section 22 on Coleta Rd," Genesee Twp, Whiteside, Illinois

Richard also became an attorney...or lawyer.  By 1855 his father had purchased the land for his home and Richard was living in Hillsboro,Texas.

Richard's first wife was Jemima J. Johnson, who gave birth to two children.  When she died the same year as her second child, (1868) Richard didn't long remain a widower with 2 year old WIlliam Lewis, (1866-1940, named after his grandfather.)  On July 20, 1869 he married his second wife, Eugenia Almetta Whitty, in Hillsboro, Texas, where they lived according to the 1870 census.

I think his father William, was living in Hempstead, Texas prior to 1880, though he had returned to Hillsoboro when he died in 1893.  

Richard's son Edwin Whitty Booth was born in 1871 in Hillsboro. The William L. Booth Sr. family home in Hillsboro may have been where Richard was living with his wife and children, but apparently he was working in Hempstead as well.  The top of the following photocopied page names my great-grandmother, Eugenia Almeta Booth, daughter of Richard R. Booth, born in 1873 in Hillsboro, Texas.  They had one other daughter (unnamed) who died at birth in 1875.

The following notes are photo-copied onto his Ancestry.com pages, and give a source of his lineage back to his great grandfather.  It also tells of how he was shot by a man named  Richard Dilk, of Springfield.  Richard Booth died either on July 29, or May 30, 1879, at age 32, in Hempstead, Waller County,Texas.  I think Richard Dilk was said to have been a man he was prosecuting.  (The notes below give date of death in July, while Ancestry.com gives the May date.)

  

Early notes on Booth genealogy

originally by Anna Booth Calder and then by Laurie Mae Booth Calder.

There are maybe a few mistakes in these written records, since William Lewis Booth is said to have been born in Livingston County, NY, rather than Farmington, Ontario County, NY (as Ancestry lists)  I wish the whole page had been copied also, since many dates kind of slide off the edge.

Texas Index Cards, (a source that kept track of Texas biographies I believe,) said Richard R. Booth had been an "attorney 1876-1878, Waller County and Navarro County Judge."  I wish there was access to whatever biography the index card refers.

At one point in my many years, I held a newspaper clipping which told of the murder of Richard R. Booth, which was in the possession of my Great Aunt Margaret.  I can't find any records from Hempstead archives, nor Hillsboro.  I wonder which publication printed that article. 

William Booth Home, 208 N. Waco St. Hillsboro, TX, purchased land on 12 May 1855, (photo 1993)

Eugenia Witty's youngest sibling

Repost from When I Was 69 blog 3/3/2015

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 Susan E. Witty Moore was born Dec 28, 1856, in Texas.  I'm not sure of the actual location.  I believe by 1857 her father had started the Subdivision in Hill County that was to be named Woodbury, and in the cemetery many of the Witty family are buried, including Susan.  But I'm not sure they moved there (from Marshall, TX) as a family until 1860.

By the 1860 census of the Witty family, she is listed (as of July 30 when the census was taken) as being four years old. There was one source (another census) which gave her age such that she would have been born in 1857, but I'm going with 1856 and have changed the Ancestry listing on my tree.

It is nice that the youngest of 9 children was named after her mother, Susan Hoke Witty.  

In the 1870 census her family says she is 13 (in agreement with having been born in 1856, because her birthday isn't until Dec. and the census was in July again...thus the question was answered, how old will she be in this year?

The wonderful census of 1900 tells how long people had been married, as well as listing their names and birthdates and states in which they were born.

In 1877, Susan had married a farmer, James J. Moore, and they lived in Justice Precinct 2, Hill County, Texas with their 14 year old daughter, Edna.  James is listed as having been born in Alabama, as her parents were, though later records suggest he was born in Texas. 

Susan Witty Moore died Sept 10, 1902, in Woodbury, Hill County, Texas, and has a nice big grave marker in the Old Woodbury Cemetery, where many other of the Witty family are buried. 


The "Texas Find A Grave" information gives this information about her:

Children: Edna Mae Moore (1885 - 1916)

Siblings: Martha E Witty Barnes (1846 - 1914) Mary Witty Hughes (1848 - 1876), Laura Dove Witty Patty (1854 - 1935)

Her daughter, Edna, died of tuberculosis in 1916, and her death certificate information was given by her father, J. J. Moore. So I know he lived until that year in June.  Unfortunately I am unable to find much information about James J. Moore.

She may have been only 46 when Susan E. Witty Moore died, but she outlived her sister, my great great grandmother who died at 23 in 1877.

William Wiley Witty and Laura Dove Witty, twins

repost from Mar 1, 2015 When I was 69 blog

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A twin who was a sibling of Eugenia Witty Booth

Yesterday I introduced to you Laura Dove Witty.

She was actually a twin.

William Wiley Witty has the same birthday on most of his records.

But there is discrepancy on some others.  So though his year of birth is always within a year of the same one, the place is given on some records differently.

So about half the Ancestry listings in families have him born in Marshall Texas on the same birthday as Laura, the other half (out of 10) say he was born earlier in the same month, to the same parents, but in either Missouri or Georgia, these mainly coming from his death certificate and the grave site information.

Now I've got a bit of logic on my side, the Marshall Texas and twin story that I'm presenting today.  His mother gave birth in Marshall 2 years earlier to my great great grandmother, Eugenia.  The kids are all on the first census in 1860 in Subdivision, Hill County, Texas...and there's no mention anywhere that Susan Hoke Witty (their mom) could have gone to Missouri or Georgia.  It's just not logical.  Until proven otherwise, I'm sticking with this direct movement of the family from Alabama, to Marshall (eastern Texas) to Hill County (central Texas)

Unfortunately a lot of his, and his children's records in "Find A Grave" use the earlier March 3, 1854 and Missouri information.

So who was William Wiley Witty?

The 1870 Census of Precinct 1 in Hill County, Texas, taken in July of that year, lists him as 16, while Laura is 17, both born in Texas.  So here he is a year younger than she is. But the 1860 Census had also been taken in July, and there he and Laura were both 6 years old.  One of these records gives his birthday a year off, I think.

But skip ahead to the 1900 census for Precinct 2, Hill County, Texas, taken in June, and here is some interesting information that has been added to the data.  He is married and age 46.  That still has the 1854 birth year, including month of March.  He states he's been married 26 years, making his marriage happen in 1874 to Mary Witty.  They have 10 children at that time, and he owns his own farm.  Mary was born in Georgia in Nov 1854, but William was born in Texas, as well as all their children.

The very same 1900 Census also gives his sister, Laura, a clear birthday as March 1854...though they no longer lived in the same area...so a different census taker was recording it.

So I continue, at this time, to think these siblings were twins.

As I mentioned his wife was Mary, and one source gives her as Molly, and another says Mary Jane Paschal.  I haven't looked into her family beyond the fact that they came from Georgia to Texas.

AND they had at least one set of twin children: Stella and Della.
They not only have the same birthday, but were buried under the same headstone, though one died in 1909 and one in 1926.

I was thinking perhaps a pair of their older siblings were also twins, being sometimes listed as born the same year, but I haven't found any more information on one of them...and some information again gives their dates a year apart.  Both are possibilities.

Mrs. William Witty, Molly, after giving birth to 10 children, lived to 79, dying in 1933.
William, the farmer, predeceased her in 1929, dying at 74.

They had married in Hill County Texas, but lived in Star, Mills County, Texas.  Where is that, you may ask?  Star is a small unincorporated area with agriculture, named after nearby Star Mountain.

From The Texas Historical Association:

The first settlers, (Mills County) like the Indians, subsisted primarily on hunting. A number of the early settlers were German immigrants who toiled, as one put it, in a "place that was a heaven for men and dogs-but hell for women and oxen." Life on the frontier was often precarious; Dick Jenkins and several other early pioneers were killed by Indians. In 1858 Mr. and Mrs. Mose Jackson and two of their children were killed by Indians at Jackson Springs, while two other children were carried into captivity. After a force of settlers routed the Indians at Salt Gap, their pursuers and a company of Texas Rangers recovered the captive Jackson children. In 1862 a band of twenty Comanches raiding for horses was pursued by settlers to the mouth of Pecan Bayou and put to flight after three Indians and one white, O. F. Lindsey, were killed. After Indians killed John Morris, a rancher, settlers pursued them and killed or wounded seven of the twenty-seven raiders. Few of the settlers joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War because their own frontier required protection against the depredations of Indians and outlaws.

During the Civil War and for decades thereafter whites caused settlers more trouble than Indians, as cattle rustlers, horse thieves, murderers, army deserters, and other rogues infested the area. Vigilante committees were formed to deal with criminals, but then these groups degenerated into warring mobs committing criminal acts themselves. A reign of terror followed conflicts between vigilante groups, which broke out in Williams Ranch in 1869. Vigilantes drove out some bad characters, but killed other innocent men; lynchings and assassinations became commonplace. The turbulence lasted until 1897, when the Texas Rangers finally broke up a group of vigilantes who frequently gathered at Buzzard Roost. The first post office in what is now Mills County was established in Williams Ranch in 1877, and the place became a center for the area; between 1881 and 1884 250 people lived there. In 1885 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built tracks into the region, stimulating settlement and demands for organization. In 1887 the Texas state legislature carved Mills County from lands formerly assigned to Brown, Comanche, Hamilton, and Lampasas counties. Goldthwaite became the county seat. In 1890 5,493 people lived in Mills County. By that time, the area's agricultural economy was already fairly well-established. The county had 680 farms and ranches, encompassing 142,299 acres, that year.

Sources:Hartal Langford Blackwell, Mills County-The Way it Was (Goldthwaite, Texas: Eagle Press, 1976). Flora Gatlin Bowles, A No Man's Land Becomes a County (Austin: Steck, 1958).

 There are at least 6 graves of Witty's in this Cemetery, very near Star, Texas.  At the information site about the cemetery, it says:

Hurst Ranch Cemetery is in Hamilton County, Texas but has so many Mills County connections from Star, (originally Hamilton County) Mills County, Texas...

Eugenia Witty Booth's next younger sister

 Repost from When I Was 69, 2/28/2-15

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Laura Dove Witty Patty was born on 29 Mar 1854, in Marshall Texas.  This is where my great great grandmother Eugenia Witty Booth also was born just 2 years earlier. 

 Then by 1860 the family settled a new area in Hill County, much further west.  Actually their father, Carroll Witty had purchased land and "settlers began moving into the area about 1850, and the community was established in 1857."  I note that the Hillsboro Historic Association doesn't have any records of him...which seems interesting somehow.  (More on Hill County tomorrow when the Witty's family has settled there.)


But let's go back to Marshall, which was founded in 1841 as the seat of Harrison County, in East Texas, and was incorporated in 1843.


Marshall quickly became a major city in the state because of its position as a gateway to Texas; several major stage coach lines and one of the first railroad lines into Texas ran through it. The founding of several colleges, including a number of seminaries, teaching colleges, and incipient universities, earned Marshall the nickname the Athens of Texas, in reference to the ancient Greek city state.Marshall was the first city in Texas to have a telegraph service....by 1854 the local paper had a telegraph link to New Orleans, which gave it quick access to national news. By 1860 Marshall was one of the largest and wealthiest towns in East Texas, with a population estimated at 2,000.  With slavery still prevalent for the major industry, cotton, over half the population were Blacks.

The whole Witty family had still lived in Limestone County, Alabama as of Feb 1850s census.  Carroll Witty probably settled his wife and the younger children in Marshall, by 1852 when Eugenia was born, then took his two oldest sons with him (this is pure speculation on my part) to set up a home in Woodbury, Hill County, Texas.  Then they would all have a place to live on the frontier.

 Obviously Carroll visited the Witty family in Marshall, perhaps for supplies or other reasons, including fathering Laura Dove.

Isn't that a pretty name?

She married like many young women in that time when she was 17.  Her husband was James Riley Patty, born on 14 Oct 1845 in McMinn County, Tennesse.  He had been a Corporal for the 59th  Tennessee Mounted Infantry, Company A, during the Civil War.  So he moved to Texas following the war, and was 26 when he married in 1871 in Hill County, Texas.

The Patty family included 9 children, the last one born in 1890.  The youngest, Eva Laura Fay Patty Herring, lived to be 96, dying in 1987, after having 4 children.

Laura and her husband both died in 1935.  He died first, March 30, and she applied for pension as a Civil War widow in April of that year.  She died on Oct 5.  Her adult son who lived with her, Birch, gave information for the death certificate, saying she was still married.  He had been 50 when the 1930 census was taken, and his 45 year old sister Hettie also still lived with their parents.  Birch was employed as a grocery clerk, but Hettie didn't work outside the home.  These adult children  didn't marry or have children as far as I know.

Edith, who died at 90, their oldest child, also was living with her parents as of 1920, and she was a public school teacher.  By 1930 however she was living as a boarder in Dallas, TX, and was still teaching.  She didn't marry or have children.

Lexie Patty, their 6th child, is on a Sevier County, Tennessee Census in 1930 as a widow, with 3 sons who all have Patty as their last name.  And Lexie is the head of a household which farms, while parents who are listed must be her in-laws, Levi and Sarah Henner.  She also gives her birth as well as that of her parents as being in Tennessee (which wasn't true).  At some point in her life Lexie returned to Hill County Texas, and she died there age 84 in 1968.

Major Riley Patty...the next youngest of their children...what another interesting name!  As a child he was given Major Riley as his name, but later records just show him as Riley.  Perhaps various official persons thought the title should belong to someone who had attained that rank.  He lived from 1885 till 1951, dying at 71 years of age.  In 1940 it is interesting to note, that he lived with his brother Birch, and sisters Hettie and Lexie, in Hillsboro, Hill County Texas.

These were siblings that came back to, or never left, the home of their parents.

William Canal Patty did marry, and had 2 children, then in his fifties became an inmate of the Colorado State Hospital, where he died after 5 years at age 57.  How sad.









 

Eugenia Witty Booth's birthday

repost of Feb 24, 2015 from When I Was 69

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 Last year I posted a pretty thorough bio of my great great grandmother's life...HERE.

Yesterday was my grandmother's birthday, (on my father's side) but most of the people I've been sharing about this week have been Eugenia Almeda Witty Booth's siblings.  I had never looked into their lives before now.

But what can I add to Great Great Gran's information now?  That she died in childbirth at 25 is a piece of information that I mentioned last year.  But it sadly happened often in 1875.  She had married at 17 to a man who's first wife had also died in childbirth.

And she lived in a time when Texas was changing rapidly as well.  Her husband and father moved their families to Hemstead, Texas from at least 1875 - 1880, then back to Hillsboro, Hill County Texas by 1896, when my great grandmother, Eugenia Booth, was married there.

Her husband and father were attorneys, and probably involved in the new county courts in Hempstead Texas.  Unfortunately I can't find any 1890 census reports for either city, so I don't know where they lived at that time.  I know that after her husband died in 1879, their children went back to be raised in the grandparents home, that of William and Hannah Booth.

Her step son William (Willie) Lewis Booth, had childdren, and at least one of them had children, so I've got some more Booth cousins, though I'm not sure how step-son cousins get counted!  But they have the same great great great grandparents, so we are blood relatives of some kind!

Out of Eugenia Witty Booth's three births, only her daughter, my great grandmother, Eugenia Booth Miller, lived to be an adult, and she had 4 daughters.

Not my Booth family, but another one from Missouri, then Oklahoma and Texas, taken around 1900

Built in 1855 in Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas...the Booth Home of William Lewis Booth, father-in-law to Eugenia.  She was born in 1852 before they arrived here, as well as her next younger sister, Laura Dove Booth, born in 1854 in Marshall, TX.  I'll give you more information on her soon!

Texas Pioneers

repost from When I Was 69 dated 7/12/14

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 Carrol Witty  my great grandmother's grandfather.  (Eugenia Almeta Witty Booth Miller is my mom's mother's mom.

Carrol Witty was born: Nov. 6, 1818,
Death Sep. 19, 1898 Burial:
Old Woodbury Cemetery Woodbury Hill County Texas, USA

Spouse: Susan E Hoke Witty (1817 - 1895)

This list of children (below) from Texas Find a Grave doesn't include Eugenia.  She was born in 1852.   But I am going to use the information on these sisters to my family tree, because most of them only have estimated dates of birth based on census data.  This is a real find, though of course only depends upon the iffy source of Find A Grave which left out my great grandmother. 

Children:  Martha E Witty Barnes (1846 - 1914)*
 Mary Witty Hughes (1848 - 1876)*
Susan E Witty Moore (1856 - 1902)*
Laura Dove Witty Patty (1854 - 1935)*

I now have checked the source from 1860, the Census of Hill County, Texas, where Carrol Witty was a wagon maker.  He was one of the original founders of the community of Woodbury, Texas.

WOODBURY, TEXAS. Woodbury is on Farm Road 309 twelve miles northwest of Hillsboro in north central Hill County. Anglo-American settlers began moving into the area about 1850, and the community was established in 1857, when Carrol Witty, William R. Nunn, and Rev. Thomas Newton McKee purchased property and offered it for sale. After the Civil War settlers began moving into the area. The first business, a dry goods store, opened in 1869. A general merchandise store opened the following year. A post office opened in Woodbury in 1871. In 1892 the town had a population of 200, two general stores, a drugstore, two blacksmith shops, and a steam-powered cotton gin and gristmill. By 1900 the school registered 114 students and employed three teachers. The town was bypassed by the rail lines, and by 1936 only 148 people and two business were in Woodbury. In 1946 it had forty people and one business. During the 1950s and 1960s the population was twenty. From the 1960s through 2000 the community reported a population of forty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hill County Historical Commission, A History of Hill County, Texas, 1853–1980 (Waco: Texian, 1980). Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County (Chicago: Lewis, 1892; rpt., Dallas: Walsworth, 1976).

 I also learned that his children as of 1860 were many more than those who apparently have been noted by the Find A Grave people.

Carrol and Susan at 43, had 9 children living with them.  The oldest sons, John (16) and James (15) are already working as stockmen (I think, it's not really clear stock raisers?).  Then come daughters, Martha, 13, Mary, 12, and Fanny,10; then Eugenia, 9, William, 6, and Laura, 6, (twins?) and the smallest is Susan at 4.  Of course there could have been some children who were being fostered, as always happens in old records, so that might account for the extras that haven't appeard elsewhere in Ancestry.

Now I've got to find out more about Carrol's parents.  I just discovered there is more information available and I'm so excited to chase down details.

I know, it's just moving information from one place to another.  Going to see where the grave is, maybe there's a photo of the headstone that I can download onto my computer...and this is what excites me these days.  Mmm, don't you dare say what you're thinking!

Anna Rosanna White Porter

Repost from 2018...

 Happy birthday to Anna Rosanna White Porter 

BIRTH 13 JULY 1600 • Shalford, Essex, England 

DEATH 11 MAY 1647 • Windsor, Hartford, Conn

She was the mother of Sarah Porter Judson and great grandmother of Anna Curtiss, wife of  Zachariah Booth, Emigrant to American Colonies.

Daughter of Robert & Bridget (Allgar) White. Sister of three other New England emigrants: John White, Elizabeth (White) Goodwin. & Mary (White) Loomis.

She and John Porter had eleven known children. The Parish records of Shalford & Messing, Essex, England list Anne Whighte baptised July 13, 1600 in Shalford, daughter of Robert Weight. SOURCE: American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) vol 138, Pg. 460.

And she's one of the few of my ancestors that has a birth date (actually her baptism date) for a great times 10 grandmother!

And I must mention the fact that I lived in Windsor Connecticut in the 1960s, where the Porter family had lived and Anna and her husband died.  I admit I didn't walk the same paths that she did, but I probably drove the same roads that were part of her life.  Just 320 years later!  I must mention that my husband had grown up in the Hartford, Connecticut area in the 1950s and attended a "prep school" named Loomis.  I'm sure it was founded by the same family.

It's fun to look back at any of the New England ancestors, especially those who were in leadership positions, because there are so many records about them, and if they came from a family in England (which most of them did!) who had church records about birth/baptism, marriage and death, then there are lots of records to check.  However, when all the records say a man was married at 4 years of age, and another record at least lets him get to be 27 before marrying, which one am I to believe?  So at this juncture, I've been looking at John Porter's father, and finding some of the dates of his death are based upon a written text (thank heavens I could find and read it) where it says, "John Porter a boy."  So I doubt that this is our ancestor.  I can only do this research for about a half hour at a time, because it really gives me a headache.  

And in honor of Anna (Rosanna) White Porter, the records that I have give her birth, her marriage, and a whole list of children's names.

Burke's American Families with British Ancestry (pg. 2869) says her husband,

John Porter of Windsor Conn, born 1590; emigrated to America from Felsted, Essex, England ca. 1637, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, later moving to Windsor in 1639; married Anna (who d. 1647) dau. of Robert White, and d, 1648, leaving issue, 1. Samuel, 2. Nathaniel, 3. Eleazar Porter, 4, William Porter (physician.)

Her father, Robert White, left a will, which gives a lot of information about the family in England.  I won't go into his life here, because I might want to feature him in a separate blog sometime.

Anna Rosanna married John Porter of Windsor Connecticut,  and she was the 6th of 8 children of Robert and his wife Brydgette Algar. Source: Descendants of Joseph Loomis in America, and his antecedents in the Old World, pg 104 in Loomis Genealogy.

Anna and John Porter had their first 9 children born in England.  They are listed in records of their baptisms from 1621 to 1637.  One son, Samuel, died at 2 months of age.  This is interesting because the Burke's publication quoted above has him continuing to live, and being the head of a family.  Yes, having lost the first Samuel in 1632, the Porters named another son Samuel who was born in 1635. Source: English Origins of New England Families, Second Series Vol. III, pg. 736.

In the same source, page 732, Anna White Porter and her sister, Mary White Loomis, are described living in homes next to each other in Windsor, CT.

And on page 731, same source, Anna White of Messing (England) is married to John Porter of Felsted on 18 Oct 1620.  That same page talks of Anna's death (as John Porter's wife, in 1647) and her husband's will, when he died in 1648.

Much of the same information is repeated in "Families of Ancient Windsor," under John Porter, Sr.

Though there was a date of death in Windsor CT for Mrs. Porter (her given name wasn't mentioned), her burial is unknown.  Her third child was Sara Porter, who married Joseph Judson, and they were my 9 times great grandparents.  But their story will be for another day.

This post belongs to the Barbara Booth Rogers Family Tree. Photo shows Mataley Mozelle Rogers, and her mother Mozelle Booth Miller, and my sister Mary Beth Rogers.

Webb Family of Texas

Happy Father's Day for 2021!

Repost from 2018 

...here are the siblings of my grandfather who I never knew, Albert (Bud) Webb, (1891-1919). Bud was the next to youngest of 8 children of Leroy 1857-1921) and Annie Elizabeth Williams Webb (1862-1942).

It's also Mrs. Webb's birthday on June 20, so happy birthday great grandmother! 
And this former post talks about Annie Williams Webb's ancestors who traveled west to Texas.
HERE is a former blog I wrote about Granddad Bud.

The photo below shows the Webb feed store, including some gentlemen standing up high!

Here is a blog about his father, Leroy (Larry, Leary) Webb and his family.

I have looked a bit more at Bud Webb's older brother, John Webb (1880-1938) Here,
and HERE.

Great grandfather Leroy (or L. F. perhaps) lived with his family in San Antonio at 130 Lewis St. for several census reports. When my grandfather, Albert Bud Webb, signed his draft card in 1917, his address was 96 Lewis St, which is still a small cottage.  At that time he had married my grandmother, and my mother had just been born.

2016 street view of 125 Lewis St, San Antonio, TX  Google image, with some strange coloration through my printer!  There was no 130 Lewis St any more, but the curved 2 story porch on this house situated on a corner, says that it was thoughtfully created. This house now holds offices of a psychological practice. If the homes were arranged the normal way of counting, 130 would have been across the street from this house.

Grandpa Bud's oldest brother, James Eugene Webb, (1878-1927) married in 1904 to Alvina (Ollie) Albrecht Webb, who had been born in Texas in 1885, and lived until 1971. She had a 4th grade education, and her father Wilhelm came from Germany, but her mother Louise Alwine Dorbritz Albrecht was born in Texas. Ollie was one of 18 children according to the list at Ancestry.  But she and J. E. only had one child.  So that's just 2 grandchildren of the L. F. and Annie Webb, so far.

Many German immigrants settled in the area of West Central Texas, part of the Mexican and then early Texan effort to have settlers come and make new communities in the mid nineteenth century.

So after James E, the next son born was John Webb (as mentioned in 2 previous posts.)  He had 3 daughters, bringing grandchildren total to 5.

Then Annie and L. F. Webb had a little girl Laura, who only lived 5 years.  Next birth for Annie and L. F.  was Marguerite Ellen Webb Carroll (1883-1951). Her husband also had his name spelled Carrel, and apparently was born in Arkansas.  Marguerite and David William Carroll  had one girl that I know of. (Grandchildren total now 6.)

The next youngest Webb was Thomas Ketch Webb, (1886-1959).  When he died in 1959 he was listed as owner of a small cafe' in San Antonio.  In 1930 he owned a "Flour and Feed" store. At the census of 1940 he and his wife lived with her parents, and his father-in-law owned a cigar stand and Tom worked for him.  At age 56 he registered for the draft for WW II in 1942.  His wife was Lenora Augusta Bilhartz (Bichortz) Webb, (1896-1972) with either German or Swiss parents.  They had no children. I like knowing that they both returned from Rio de Janeiro in 1947 on a ship, which records include his Brazilian visa and photo.

The next Webb child was Clara Belle Webb Bruce, ( 1888-1971) who married Fred C. Bruce (1881-1972).  They also had no children. Fred also was a proprietor of a cafe, in the 1930 census.  He lived a year beyond his wife.

And the baby of the family, born in 1905, was L. F. Webb, Jr.   He and his wife, Evelin Lafortune Webb, lived with the senior Webb family in that house (above at 130 Lewis St.) in the San Antonio Directory of 1929.   There's also a Social Security claim (undated) after L. F.'s death in 1937 with a daughter Evelin listed, who died in 1999, born 1927.  But there's a change I just noticed.  After L. F., (a labor foreman for the Missouri Pacific railroad,) died in 1937, Evelin Lafortune Webb married again. I don't have the date, but the census of 1940 shows her tucked into the Shults family living in "rural Beaxar County TX"

So it looks as if her next husband adopted her daughter Evelin, and she became Evelin Shults...and whether others of the family had been from a former marriage of his, or they were born to Evelin Sr., there were 5 children then.  And that wasn't the last of Mrs. Webb Shults.  Her husband Lt. Ray Shults of the US Air Force died in 1980, and she remarried in 1985 to Alphonse Paul Donaubauer, whom she also outlived.  I don't know if she died in 1997, and the Social Security lagged behind, or if she lived until 2000, when Social Security listed.

I can only share what's available on Ancestry, after all.  So I'm adding the one child of  L. F. Jr and his wife, Evelin Webb, namely Evelin Webb Shuts, giving the Webb family 7 grandchildren, one of whom was my mother.

This post belongs to the Barbara Booth Rogers Family Tree. Photo shows Mataley Mozelle Rogers, and her mother Mozelle Booth Miller, and my sister Mary Beth Rogers.

The Scottish connection - back to 9 times great grandparents

 I'm going to look at my ancestors on my mother's family tree next...which I call the Booth Family Tree.

Isaac Booth Jr. (1795-1836) was my 4 times great grandfather.  His wife was Jane McElhany Booth (1794-1833) who had been born in Dauphin County PA.  Her father had also been born in Dauphin County, and he was William McElhany (abt 1866 -1815) 

Let's look at the male line first. His father was Capt. Thomas McElhany, who served in the American Revolution. He was born in Hanover Township, Lancaster Co. PA in 1744, and lived until 1828, dying in Dauphin County, PA.  His father was Alexander McElheney, born abt. 1725 in Scotland, d. 1761 Lancaster Co. PA. He was the furthest back of that line that I have information on, my 7 times great grandfather.

Going back to Jane McElhany Booth, her mother was Elizabeth (Betsy) McNeal McElhany, (1768-1849) having been born in Dauphin Co. PA. Unfortunately I don't know which McNeals had been her parents. 

Her husband's mother, Mary McCord McElheny (1743-1807) had been born in West Hanover, Dauphin Co. PA. She was one of my six times great grandmothers. 

Her father was John McCord, Sr. born in 1702 in Stewartstown, County Tyrone, Ireland, and died aft. 1762 in West Hanover, Dauphin Co, PA. 

Mary McCord McElheny's mother was Mary MacIntyre McCord, born in 1712 in Derry, County Cavan, Ireland, and died about 1775 in Hanover, York Co. PA. We don't know anything about the MacIntyre family.

But John McCord, Sr.'s parents were:

John Duncan MacCord (MacKorda), Clan Chief, born in 1660 in Argyle, Skye, Scotland, who died in 1715 in Stewartstown, County Tyrone, Ireland.  His wife was Mary (Sarah) MacDougall McCord, b. 1664 Argyle, Skye, Scotand, d. 1725 Stewartstown, County Tyrone, Ireland.

Mary (Sarah) MacDougall McKorda portrait  (1664-1725)

John Duncan MacCord's father was Sir James Duncan MacKorda, Clan Chief, b.1620, Argyle, Skye, Scotland, d. 27 July 1689, Battle of Killiecrankie Pass, Perthshire, Scotland. Sir James' wife was named Jean, but we don't know her surname. She was born in 1638 in Argyle, Skye, Scotland, and died in 1670 in the same place. She was my 9th great grandmother.

There are still a few more mothers to discover...

Parents of Mary (Sarah) MacDougall McKorda (1664-1725) were:

James Bernard Edward MacDougall, b. 1623 Inverness, Scotland, d. in battle 27 July 1689, Battle of Killiecrankie Pass, Perthshire, Scotland.  His wife was Blanche Casey MacDougall, b. 1623 in either Ulster Ireland or Argyle, Scotland, and d. in Argyle, Skye, Scotland after 1623.

The parents of James Benard Edward MacDougall were James MacDougall b. 1590 Argyle, Scotland and d. after 1629 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canadian Colony...and Margaret McClellen MacDougall, b.1603 in Scotland, d. 1647 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canadian Colony. James and Margaret MacDougall were my nine times great grandparents!

And the way Ancestry has hints, giving more information for different individuals, I just found out supposed parents of Margaret McClellen MacDougall. They were Crusader Thomas II MacLellen, (1520-1597) and wife Lady Grissel Maxwell MacLellan (1550-1597). The addition of their names to my tree includes a 17 page document describing their Castle, Dunollie Castle, of which there are remains today, on Maiden Island, Scotland.

However, as I looked at the various dates of the MacLellens, I notice a bit of difficulty for mistress Margaret in having been born in 1603. It seems both the McLellen parents died in 1597. I haven't removed them from the tree yet, because I'm a sucker for documents. After I read about their castle, I'll probably have to let them go.

I've gone through several generations, and don't think I'm finished quite yet! Next I'll go as far as each line is listed as of now, from Ancestry. Of course I keep having some stops due to hints about the more famous ancestors!

I did notice that about 3 direct ancestors died on 27 July 1689, at the Battle of Killiecrankie Pass, Perthshire, Scotland.

That's an interesting story...for another post.

On the frontier of Texas

Molly (Marry Elizabeth) Brooks Dennis, aka Mrs. J. F. Dennis, wrote this enjoyable autobiography much later in her life. But it does give a glimpse of what those people faced.

For time-line information, the Brooks parents, Mary Cobb Brooks and James B. Brooks had married in 1858 in Chatahoochee County GA. Their first son, William, was born in 1859 in Atlanta, Fulton County GA, and Molly (Mary Eizabeth) our author, was born a year later in 1862, in Brooklin, Covington County AL.

In 1863 the Brooks next son, James Nathaniel (Nat) Brooks, was born in OK, and the next child in 1864, Ela Ladusky Brooks, was born back in Covington County AL. As that was during the Civil War, it's possible that mother Mary Lou Cobb Brooks had gone to be with family members for the 1863 and 1864 births. But I honestly don't see her traveling all the way to OK with her children from southern AL. Maybe Nat was adopted...or someone has his birthplace changed.

Father James B. Brooks was in the Confederate army, the 2nd Battalion of the Alabama Light Artillery. Company C. He was a Corporal when he joined, and Sergeant when discharged. More about him is part of the story below.

The last son, Bert (Berton), wasn't born for another 11 years...in 1875 in Desdamona, Eastland, TX.

Here're photos of Molly Brooks Dennis and her family (more were displayed in yesterday's post.)

Not sure which one is Molly, and who the other woman might be...

Jim Dennis, and Molly Brooks Dennis and children, Jim Jr, Maggie and Isaac the baby.

Old Jim and Mollie Dennis.

Molly Brooks Dennis' death certificate when she was 80. I include it here because she died on Aug. 2, 1942, just 21 days before I was born.

James died in 1944.

Sharing this with Sepia Saturday. I'm pretty sure these two British boys didn't think once about the people in Texas, no more than these Texans would have thought of two Brit boys!

Hope you have a great weekend! Spring is just around the corner!