Peter M. Howell (1805-c.1865) and Archive.org

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Don Taylor

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 29 – Peter M. Howell (1805-c.1865)

By – Don Taylor

 There are occasions when you find something totally awesome regarding an ancestor.

Book Cover
Courtesy: Amazon.com

I use a simple name and date of birth search often on several sites, one of them is Archive.Org, a great site for many reasons.  Well, a search for “Peter Howell 1805” yielded a book, The Life and Travels of Peter Howell.  OMG – Could it be?  Sure enough, I had found a book about and by Peter Howell, my wife’s ancestor. I used the PDF version on Archive.Org to glean lots of information about Peter’s life; I downloaded the Kindle version for my wife so she could read about him in his words.  I also found that there were two print versions available through Amazon. I bought one of each of the versions as gifts.  I learned that not all reprints are the same.  One of the reprints was good, the other unacceptable. I wrote about my experience with the two versions in a review on Amazon.Com.  Probably one of the greatest finds in the book was a drawing/illustration of Peter, so we can see what he looked like.  A copy of his portrait now adorns our living room “Ancestor Wall.”

 

Sadly, his “life and travels” never mentions his parent’s names. It does mention a sister, but never her name either. The book did give new information about exactly where he lived and when, as well as new information about his children, one of whom we had never heard of before.

Sometimes a simple search on the right website can yield the most amazing finds. Archive.Org is one of those must search sites that you should include if you don’t already do so.

Bio – Peter M. Howell (1805-c.1865)

Peter M. Howell abt 1849
Source: The Life and Travels of Peter Howell

Peter was born 15 Jul 1805 in Charlotte County, Virginia.

In 1807, his family moved to Buckingham County, Virginia. When he was only 12 years old, his father died.  His mother remarried sometime between 1819 and 1820.  Also about 1819, his half sister (name unknown) married a man named Holman. About 1821, Peter apprenticed himself to Mr. Holman to learn carpentry. Which he did for about 3-1/2 years.  He relocated with Mr. Holman and his half-sister to Alabama, “not far from the Tennessee River.”  By 1827, Peter returned to Buckingham County and was living with his mother and her new husband near Farmville (Prince Edward County).

On June 11th, 1829 Peter married Caroline M. A Pankey in Cumberland County.

The 1830 census finds the young couple living in Cumberland County.  Also, about 1830 their first child, a daughter, Louisiana was born.  In 1832, they lived back in Buckingham County near Willis Mountain. They had two more children in the 1830’s, Phillip C in 1833 and Elizabeth in 1836. In 1937, they appear to have been living on his brother’s (Gideon) land at “Deep Bottom.”

Vintage Photo of Parker's Meeting House

Parker’s Meeting House Source: Sally’s Family Place

The 1840’s census finds the family in the Northern District of Buckingham County, Virginia. In 1842 another son, (great-grandfather) Peter Fletcher Howell was born. We know that Peter had business at the Buckingham County courthouse several times in the 1840s.  In 1845 another son, Lorenzo Dibrell Howell was born. During the 1840s, Peter started preaching regularly, walking everywhere in the area.  He preached in long circuits going from town to town and ranging far and wide. That period of his life is the subject of his book.  In January of 1846, he relocated his family to Murfreesboro, North Carolina about a mile from Parker’s Meeting House.

In 1848, Peter moved to Halifax, North Carolina. In the ensuing years, he became the minister of a church there.

Peter is in the 1860 census but not in the 1870 census, so I believe he died sometime in that decade. I have been unable to located death or burial information regarding Peter.

 Further Actions:

Investigate all Howells in Charlotte County in 1800 looking for Peter’s father.
Investigate all Howells in Buckingham County in 1810 looking for Peter’s father.
Investigate Peter’s siblings’ lives.
Determine church Peter became minister of in Halifax.

List of Greats

[Note: Formatting updated and #32 in List of Greats added on 12 Jul 2017.]

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Annie Deborah Long Hobbs (1846-1913) and WorldCat

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Don Taylor

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 28

When you have a family that lived in one area for a while, it is extremely important to check the Historical Society of that place and see if they published a book on the early or important residents of that place. Through other research, I know that Annie Deborah Long and her husband James Ashley Hobbs had lived in Martin County, North Carolina most of their lives.
World Cat (www.worldcat.org) is one of the best on-line resources there is for finding books and a quick search for “Martin County North Carolina Historical Society” yielded some thousand results. Because I sorted the results by relevance, only the first ten or twenty books are probably going to be of interest. I worked through the books on the first page and found one of them was at my local county library (while I was living in Georgia). I visited the library there and gleaned a ton of information regarding many of the individuals that populated Martin County during the time of my wife’s family was there. “Aunt Hazel” who was actually a 1st cousin of my wife’s father wrote several of the articles. In the book, she highlighted
family members who she actually knew. Cool. There was even a photo of my wife’s here-to-unknown great uncle. My process for using WorldCat is really easy.
Created an account on World Cat if you don’t have one. It is free and
lets you organize all of your book requirements. Then create several folders
to help organize your books. I used:

“Search the Internet”
“Order via Interlibrary Loan”
“Visit the Library”

Then, use WorldCat.org to find which books might be relevant. If a title is of interest, select it. I generally give the
book a tag that relates to the surname I am researching and then move it to my “Search the Internet” folder.
Later, I go through my “Search the Internet” folder and search for the book title. Sometimes the book is available online. Sometimes, an index for the book is available online. The index can really help you know if the book is one you want to see or not. I add notes regarding my searches directly to the item in my folder. These notes may be either public or private. You choose.
If the book is not available on the Internet and seems to be one I still would like to see/read, I move the book to the “Order via Interlibrary Loan” folder. I then use my local library’s inter-library loan system to order the book. Again, I make a note when I ordered it. Some libraries will let you order directly from World Cat after you have logged in via their website or proxy. Others require you fill out a local form. Interlibrary loan is great, I’ve been amazed at some of the books I’ve been able to read using it.
Finally, if the book isn’t available via Inter-library loan (not circulating), I
move the information about the book and libraries it is at to my “Visit the Library” folder. I then use Evernote to capture the information about the book and libraries and put it into a folder “Library Visits”. What is cool about that is that if I visit say the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, or Allen County Public Library, I can just search for that library in Evernote and it brings up a list of all the books at that library that I am interested in and what I was looking for.

Annie Deborah Long Hobbs (1846-1913)

Annie was born July 7th, 1846, the oldest daughter of Samuel Aquilla Long and Martha Ann Bryan Long. In 1860, I’m sure she was a typical 14-year-old of the day; she attended school[1] and otherwise things were normal until the Civil War. Her older brother, Joe, enlisted in 1862 and her father joined up in 1863.
Stories about the war survived. In one story, related by Sara Long Johnson, “The Yankee soldiers plundered the entire house, taking
every feather bed to the yard where they cut them open and had great fun yelling, “it’s snowing, it’s snowing. They cut the feet off the chickens, geese, and young pigs leaving them in great misery. As soon as they left the animals
were salvaged as much as possible.”[2]  I can only imagine the terror and fear that a young 17-year-old Annie had as the Yankees plundered her home.
In another story, also related by Sara Long Johnson, when the war was over, Annie’s brother, Joe, was making the long trek home. After receiving much hospitality from another Long family, they placed a gold piece in his hand. He expressed his gratitude an told them that his sister [Ann Debora Long] was to be married in a short time and he would give it to her for a wedding present.[3]
And yes, shortly after the war, Annie Deborah Long married James Ashley Hobbs on 16 May 1866. A respectable 15 months later, she gave birth to her first child, a boy, Charles Leon Hobbs. She and James Ashley would have nine children in total.
Martin County Courthouse abt 1885
Courtesy www.carolana.com
She kept house and maintained a close relationship with her
friends at the Primitive Baptist Church in Hamilton. In 1898, her husband was
elected to be Clerk of Court for Martin County and the family moved to
Williamston. In the new home, she still kept house and maintained a close
relationship with her new friends at the Primitive Baptist Church in
Williamston.
According to Hazel Armstrong Valentine, “Debbie Hobbs
was a petite little woman whose life revolved around her home and family. She was conservative by nature, frugal in her habits and very generous with her friends.”[4]
Annie’s grandson, Frank Alton Armstrong, Jr., became the celebrated WW II Colonel that the movie 12 O’clock High was patterned after. Her granddaughter Hazel’s husband, Itimous T. Valentine, Sr., was a famous judge, eventually becoming an associate judge in the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Annie died on 17 May 1913 in Williamson, N.C.[5] I am yet to find where she is buried.
Further Actions:
Find where is Annie buried?
Determine the location of their homestead from tax rolls.
List of Greats
1.    Annie Deborah Long
2.    Samuel Aquilla Long
3.    John Long
4.    Aquilla Long
[1] 1860 Census,
District 9, Martin, North Carolina; Roll: M653_905;
Page: 443; Image: 291; Family History Library
Film: 803905. Enumerated 26 Sep 1860; Accessed 8 Apr 2014. https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1860usfedcenancestry&indiv=try&h=41411573.
[2] Hughes, S. J. N.,
& Martin County Historical Society (N.C.), Martin County Heritage
(Williamston, NC, Martin County Historical Society, 1980), Article # 579 – The
Samuel Long Family. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7138421.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Hughes, S. J. N.,
& Martin County Historical Society (N.C.), Martin County Heritage
(Williamston, NC, Martin County Historical Society, 1980), Article # 418 –
James Ashley Hobbs. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7138421.

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Rufus Harry Darling (1857-1917)

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Don Taylor

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 26 – Rufus Harry Darling (1857-1917)

Photo of Rufus Harry Darling

Rufus Harry Darling

It is just plain fun to research for some ancestors. I found that my wife’s great-grandfather Rufus was such an individual. Family legend said Rufus Harry Darling was a riverboat gambler and something of a cad so researching him would be interesting.

 Rufus was born on 30 June 1857 to Rufus Holton Darling and Elizabeth Jane Swayze in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the fifth child of Rufus and the sixth child of Elizabeth.[i] His
father was a prominent businessman and one of the early settlers in Kalamazoo. His
mother had a child from a previous marriage, was widowed and remarried.
Before Rufus was born one of his sisters, Eva, had died and another
was disabled. Less than a month after his birth his father died of consumption. His mother never remarried and it appears that he did not have much of a father figure in his life.
He entered the “First Division” (First Grade) of the Kalamazoo public schools in the 1863/64 school year and live in the family home at the northwest corner of Cedar and Rose Streets. It must have been a large
house and must have had several entrances because the address for the residence changes between Cedar and Rose quite frequently. The house no longer exists.
In 1870, Rufus was 13 years old, was attending school and
living with his mother and sister Emily. Rufus continued in school until at
least 1876 when he was not only a student but also worked as a clerk.
His father had the contract for building the Michigan Central railway from Michigan City through to Grass Lake in 1845 and later worked as an abstract clerk for the Michigan Central Railroad (MCRR). We know
that in 1880, Rufus Harry was living in the 42 Rose Street house and was working as a clerk, but we do not know where. In addition, in 1880, Rufus was “away” during the census taking. We do know that in 1887, young Rufus was working as an abstract clerk for the MCRR, as his father did thirty years earlier and
was living at 207 N. Edwards Street (which is probably the parking lot of the current Kalamazoo Beer Exchange).
In June of 1889, Rufus married. We do not know her name nor do we know if they had any children. In any event, for the next few years Rufus bounced between Kalamazoo, Chicago, and Kansas City. Back in the late 1800’s,
there were sometimes floating poker games that were on the trains. This may have been where he started the gambling practice. In 1894, Rufus resigned his position with the MCRR and “went to Texas.” I haven’t found anything that places him in Texas during those years, but he does seem to bounce between Kalamazoo and Kansas City.
In 1898 his wife died and the 1900 census finds him alone in
Kansas City. Sometime between 1900 and 1905, Rufus met the young Hannah McAllister. I say “young Hannah” because she was 27 years younger than Rufus. Family legend says they met down on the docks in Pittsburgh. Young Hannah had a daughter, Elizabeth, by Rufus in March of 1906. She quickly became pregnant again, and in February of 1907 the two married in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, (about 40 miles up the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh).[ii] In August of 1907 their second child Robert Harry was born. It is interesting to note that there was a family legend that Elizabeth had been born on the “wrong side of the sheets” (out of wedlock), an assertion that Elizabeth refuted. It appears that Elizabeth even doctored a copy of the marriage certificate to indicate that Harry and Hannah married in 1905 instead of 1907 as the state’s copy of the certificate indicates.

Marker Rufus H Darling

It doesn’t appear that Rufus was around much. None of the
surviving photos of Anna (who changed her name from Hannah to Anna when she married Rufus so she could sign things “A. Darling”) include Rufus. In addition, the 1910 Census indicates that Rufus is at the Curtis Hotel, 10th & Broadway, Kansas City while his wife and children were roomer in a house in Pittsburgh.

Anna (Hannah) died in 1913 leaving the children to be raised by her mother. Rufus died on June 8, 1917 and was buried at the Mountain Home Cemetery in Kalamazoo. [iii]
In my research, I found nothing to refute the family legend
of Rufus being a gambler and a cad and it certainly appears that he had an
interesting life.
[i] Michigan, Dept of Public Health, Death
Certificate, Rufus H. Darling – Death June 5, 1917. . https://seekingmichigan.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p129401coll7/id/123256.;
Seeking Michigan.
[ii] Pennsylvania County Marriages, 1885 – 1950, FamilySearch.org, Rufus Darling & Anna McAllister.
[iii] Find a Grave –  https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=30754148

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Eliza Jane Fannin (1861-1882)

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Don Taylor

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 25 – Eliza Jane Fannin (1861-1882)

Sometimes it is necessary to go back to the drawing board.
My records on my 2nd great-grandparents are abysmal.  I have a couple documents.  One is a paragraph titled, “Family History” and in the corner is written “oral history.”
Of course, it doesn’t have anything about who said it or when.  It is fairly old, it might go back to the 1970s, probably the 1980’s, although I’m not sure.  The second document
is is a copy of a sheet titled “Family History Carter County – KY. “
It is more of a chart than prose about the family.  I don’t know where it came from either but I think it probably came from about the same time.  Maybe it will become evident when I go back though all of the resources that I have on Joe (John) Mannin, his wife Eliza
Jane Fannin, and the rest of the Mannin clan.

From “Family History”

“Joe (John) Mannin (one-half Cherokee) & Eliza Jane Fannin Parents of Phebe Mannin (Brown) (Richmond) (Upton).  Charlie Mannin brother of Joe fought opposite of Joe in the Civil war, Joe Conferate [sic] & Charlie Union. Joe Mannin’s parents were Enoch Mannin & Minerva Tolliver (full Cherokee). Nancy Ann Mannin (Joe’s sister) married Jesse Monroe Barnett. Jesse’s son Enoch married Elizabeth Warner & are Zachariah Barnett’s parents. Zackariah married Estella (Brown) Barnett. Jesse Monroe
Barnett was a drummer boy in the civil war & run alongside Lincoln’s horse at Gettysburg & played his drum. Mary Jones was Joe Mannin’s sister and raised Phebe Mannin from a baby as her mother died when she was born.
(Enoch Barnett disappeared when Zachariah was 15, we went to northern Minnesota
to work in the logging camps & never came home.)”

[Note: I’ve added punctuation where appropriate.]

There are a number of bits of information in this document that I am sure are not true.  Once you find one certain error the rest become questionable.  We know that Joe (John) William Mannin, the son of Enoch Mannin, fought for the Union. 

The National Archives has a wonderful record that I found through Fold 3 [i] that is John William Mannin’s Volunteer Enlistment. What is really great about the document is that John was only 17 years old when he enlisted and his father, Enoch, gave his consent.  The names, places,  and dates are all spot on. Enoch also enlisted on the same date. 

Discover yourself at 23andMeSimilarly, this record states that his mother Minerva was full Cherokee. As descendants of hers, I would expect my mother to have some portion of Native American blood. All things being equal I would expect my mother to be about 1/16th (6.5%)Native American.  An autosomal DNA Test from 23 & Me indicated that that she is 99.8% European. 

Now, I know that because of the “stickiness” of DNA through the
generations it is fairly possible that the Native American segments were
lost.  However,  none of the cousins (descended from Minerva) I have been in contact with that have had DNA testing with have any Native American either. Because of this, I find that Minerva being full Cherokee as being native unlikely. Additionally, Minerva is never reported in any of the Census reports as being “Indian.”  Finally, I have not been able to find a Charlie Mannin as a brother of Joe in any of the census reports or other
documents.  Possibly “Charlie” was a cousin or other relative and was considered like “a brother.”

 

Much of the other material is accurate, but because I know several of the “facts” are incorrect, I am loathe to accept any of it.

The other document I have regarding “Family History Carter County – KY” is easy to read. It says:

Family History

Carter County – KY

 (Joe) John W. Mannin (1/2 Cherokee) Aunt Mary Brown, Eliza Jane Fannin Phebe Jane Uptons Parents sold their land to Charlie Mannin brother of John after Civil War. They fought on opposite sides
according to Victoria Brown’s letter to Lila Cole.  (John for South)

Enoch Mannin – John (Joe’s) father  }  Phebe Uptons

Minerva Tolliver – Full Cherokee    }  Grandparents

Nancy Ann Mannin Barnett – Sister to (Joe) John – Phebe’s Father

Married Jesse Monroe Burnett (Drummer boy for North in Civil War)

Elizabeth Warner Barnett (Her mother was a Horn) Father Zachariah Warner

Married

Enoch Mannin
Barnett         – Jessie Monroe’s son

Nancy Ann’s son

 

Aunt Mary & Tommy
Jones Raised Phebe from a small baby as her mother died at her birth

Aunt Mary Jones
later married George Gates

Aunt Mary Jones
and John (Joe) Mannin  (Phebe’s father)
were Brother & sister.

It is fairly clear that this
document and the other document had different authors, however, both documents
contain some of the same information. What this does do is solidify what we
believe to be family history (oral).  I
have little doubt the family believed Joe (John) fought for the South and that
they believed that Minerva was Cherokee.
I have about an inch of materials,
documents, that I need to go through (including a transcript of the letter from
Victoria Brown), catalog the sources where I can, and incorporate the
information into my tree. We will see if anything about John and Eliza becomes clarified as wade through the information.So, here is what I think I know about Eliza Jane Fannin.

Bio Eliza Jane Fannin

She was born about 1861 in
Kentucky.[ii]
She married John Mannin probably
about 1875,
She had two children, Mary
Elizabeth was born in 1876, although it could have been 1877.
In 1880 she lived in Pine Grove, Rowan
County, Kentucky with her husband and daughter Mary.[iii] [Note: Rowan and Carter counties adjoin.]
She died December 1881 or December
1882, probably in Carter County Kentucky, giving birth to her second child
Phebe.

Although I know very little about my 2nd great grandmother, Eliza Jane Fannin.List of Greats

Mary Elizabeth Manning
Eliza Jane Fannin

 

———- DISCLAIMER ———-

 

I am sorry that I messed writing
about David Swayze (Week 23) and Marion Sanford (Week 24). Due to my moving
from Georgia to Maine and due to a computer hard disk crash (which left me
computerless for 27 days), I was unable to write the past two weeks. I hope to be able to catch back up with them later.
Next week I plan to write about
Rufus Harry Darling, my wife’s great grandfather.

 


 

[i] www.fold3.com/image/#232425255
NARA M397. Compiled service records of volunteer Union soldiers who served in
organizations…
[ii] 1880 Census – Place: Pine Grove, Rowan, Kentucky; Roll: 441; Family History Film: 1254441;
Page: 453B; Enumeration District: 114; Image: 0110
[iii]
ibid.

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Mary Harvey (Marie Harvie) (1605-1661)

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Don Taylor

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 22 – Mary Harvey (Marie Harvie)  (c.1605 – c.1661)

I entered Mary Harvey’s dates as “circa” because I don’t remember what the dates are that I have for her. I actually think I know quite a bit about Mary’s life, however, because of several things I don’t have access to my records. The physical records I have for her are ten states away in a moving trailer in Maine.  The electronic records I have for her are on my computer which are also in Maine. Adding to my frustration is that my computer crashed so I will need to see if it is repairable or if I should replace it.  It is about 5 years old so it will probably be the latter.  My copy of Family Tree Maker for Mac 3 somehow corrupted my family tree so that it won’t sync/upload to Ancestry.  I meant to try to fix that but didn’t take the time to do so.  I am not too worried about losing the data and information I have as I have a “Time Machine” backup of the files.  I also have “Crash Plan” which is a great cloud backup system.  It certainly reminds me of the importance of multiple levels of backup. 

And last, but not least, as I write this I’m in the middle of a move and am really busy cleaning and painting woodwork, patching walls, and otherwise making the house in Georgia ready for sale.  By the time this posts I should be in Maine having closed on a new house on the 30th.  The household goods should be delivered (on June 1st) and I should be unpacking and otherwise getting my office and other things together. Hopefully, by the weekend I’ll have an office cobbled together, a computer up and back in business.

Although my memory is not what it once was, I’ll try to remember some of Mary’s life. She is on the Darling/Swayze/Beardsly/Harvey line. Some records indicate her name as Mary Harvey, some as Marie Harvie. As I continue my research on her I’ll make a decision regarding which name I believe is more accurate.

I am looking forward to the move to Maine. It will be close to my wife’s family and very close to the beach and great seafood.

Mary Harvey (Marie Harvie)  (c.1605 – c.1680) 
Mary Harvey was born in England around 1605.  She married William Beardsley in England around 1630. They had three children in England. About 1635 the family came to America. They arrived in Mass. Her husband was adjudged a freeman in Boston. They had at least one more child while in Boston. about 1639 the family relocated to Connecticut and was one of the founding families there. 

I know that Mary had many more children, possibly as many as a dozen children total, but I haven’t had the opportunity to confirm the information. 

Followup
It is my plan to update this entry sometime in the next couple months to update what I think I know about Mary including sources and new information about her. 

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