#52Ancestors-Week 31-Oldest: Thomas Adamson 1835-1864

Week 31 of #52Ancestor Challenge was "Oldest". Next weeks' challenge is "Youngest". I decided to write about the oldest and the youngest sons of Allen and Elizabeth Sanders Adamson.  So this post is about "Oldest"-the oldest son of Allen and Elizabeth.

Thomas Adamson was born in about 1836 in Illinois.  He was apparently named after Elizabeth's father, Thomas Saunders. 

The family moved from Illinois to Missouri around 1842.  By that time, Thomas had a sister Nancy, and a brother William.  In 1850, the family was living in Crawford County, Missouri. At that time, there were eight children listed in the family.

Around 1858. Thomas' mother, Elizabeth, died.  There were then twelve children in the family.  For an unknown reason, After Thomas' mother died, Thomas' father (Allen) left Missouri and went back to Kentucky to live with his father.  Allen's children were all sent to live with Elizabeth's relatives (mostly her siblings).  Thomas was listed in the 1860 census living with Robert and Margaret Reeves (Margaret was Elizabeth Saunders Adamson's sister). Thomas' sisters, Sarah and Polly, were also living with the Reeves family. Thomas was twenty-five years old in 1860.

When age twenty-seven, Thomas went and enlisted to serve in the War of the Rebellion.  He enlisted on the 1st of February in 1862.  He was originally in the 10th MO Infantry Company C-CSA. In November of 1862, Thomas  joined up with his uncle Peter Saunders' unit (4th MO Cavalry Company E-CSA).  He was listed as a Blacksmith. Thomas was captured on the 24th of September in 1863 in Perry County, Arkansas. In December of 1863, Thomas was listed on the Roll of Prisoners of War and political prisoners received at Gratiot Street Military Prison (in St. Louis, MO).  He was transferred to the Rock Island Illinois Prison on the 18th of January in 1864.

Thomas died while a Prisoner of War at Rock Island, Illinois on the 13th of February in 1864.  He died of Catarrh Fever.  He is buried in the Rock Island Cemetery, Grave #475.  He was about twenty-eight years old.

I have not found any other records regarding Thomas.  It is assumed that he never married.  His life seems very sad to me.  His mother died when he was twenty-two years old, his father left the family, he joined the Confederacy, was captured and died. I wonder if anyone has ever visited his grave. Maybe I should.

#52Ancestors-Week 30-Colorful:Mom

My mom, Pat Murphy Adamson, was certainly the most colorful person I have ever known.  She had a wicked sense of humor, an Irish temper, and, as I discovered as I got older, was one of the kindest persons in the world.  She has been gone for six years now, and I miss her every single day.

#52Ancestors-Week 29-Music: James Ryan

This week's prompt is Music.  Why is this such a difficult one? Oh, perhaps because there is little musical talent known in my family.  However, I always think about one little fact that I saw researching James Ryan.

James was born in about 1833 in Ireland.  It appears that he came to the United States with his brother, John C. Ryan. John married my great-great-great aunt, Johanna Murphy in 1852.  James married my great-great-great aunt, Mary Murphy (Johanna's sister) in Peoria, Illinois in 1854.  I have not found either John or James in the 1850 Census, so they may have arrived about 1851.

James and Mary had a daughter, Maggie, on the 1st of October in 1856, then had daughter, Alice, on the 17th of March in 1858.  On the 12th of September 1859 another daughter, Johanna, arrived.

The 1860 Kickapoo, Peoria, Illinois Census was taken on the 30th of June 1860. James, Mary and daughters, Maggie and Alice, are listed.  Sadly, their infant daughter, Johanna, had died.  The family were living with Mary's parents, James and Alice Murphy.

On the 22nd of August in 1862, James Ryan enlisted in the 108th IL Infantry Company C with his brother-in-law, William H. Murphy. James' rank was  listed as musician.  He was 5'6" tall, had light hair, grey eyes,and a fair complexion. The record also shows that James deserted on 1 October 1862.

James and Mary had a son, Edmund, born to them around 1863.

And that is the last that I know of James Ryan.  Mary remarried around 1865 to James Corrigan.  I suspect that James Ryan enlisted or joined another company and died in the Civil War, but I don't know that to be fact.

Of course, another mystery is: why was James Ryan listed as a musician? What instrument did he play?  I sure would like to learn more about him!

Enlisted

22 August 1862 • Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois

Enlisted in 108th IL Infantry Company C with his brother-in-law, William H. Murphy. James deserted on 1 October 1862. Was listed as a musician.James and Mary Ryan had a son, Edmund, born to them in around 1863.

#52Ancestors-Week 28-Travel-David Erskine Gray

Travel is the prompt for this week, so I decided to write about David Erskine Gray, my great-great-great-grandfather who came to the United States from Scotland.  I had originally thought that he had come over in 1832, as it was written that his son William had.  As I searched for any records of Erskine (as he was called) immigrating, I found the passenger list with him listed!  After all these years searching!

Erskine was born in 1789 in Scotland.  He married Elisabeth Wood in 1819 in Scotland.  Erskine and Elisabeth Gray had five children, with only two of them living until adulthood.  One of the children was my gg-grandfather, David Erskine Gray, and the other was his brother, William Gray.

According to a history, the family left Scotland, landed in New York and went to Chicago where they spent some time, then went on to Indiana.

When I found the Passenger Record, I learned that Erskine, age 42, Elizabeth, age 32, and David, age 11, left Liverpool and arrived in New York on the 23rd of February in 1837.  They traveled on the ship named Emanuel with two boxes.  I can't even imagine how the family could leave with only two boxes of belongings.  What I found interesting is that their son, William, is not listed as a passenger on this ship.  William would have been about sixteen years old in 1837.

I wonder what travel would have been like on a ship across the ocean during the winter.  It must have been brutal.

The family was in Vigo County, Indiana by 1840 where David was listed with his wife and two sons, so somehow son William ended up with them.  How did they even find each other back then?

So this search continues to leave me with questions, but I am thrilled with locating the Passenger List!

#52Ancestors-Week 27-Independence

This week's prompt is appropriately "Independence".  Yet here I sit feeling deflated because after over 20 years of researching my family, I have yet to find one of my ancestors from the Adamson family or the Ferrel family who fought in the Revolutionary War.  And I have no doubt that the men did fight, I just can't locate records.

John Adamson (married to Ann Skuse) was in New Jersey by 1718.  I am sure that, if not any sons, surely some grandsons, fought in the War.  James Ferrel (married to Hannah Kennison) was born about 1770.  I would guess that his father and/or uncles fought in the War.

And I could go on about more family lines for whom I have been unable to find Revolutionary War records.  It's so frustrating.

The only ancestor that I do know of that fought in the Revolutionary War was Walter Dickerson.  I wrote about him and his War experience for this same blog in 2015 at:

http://suesresearch.blogspot.com/2015/07/independent-walter-dickerson-1763-1855.html

Of course, nothing about Walter has changed since then!

I do have to be proud of my ancestors/family who fought in all of our other wars, from the War of 1812 up to the Iraq war. All of them, along with all of those who have fought each day for our way of life, have given us our Independence.  And the fight goes on.  We need to make our ancestors proud as we continue to fight for our Constitution and all the freedoms that we have.  I am grateful to all of my family who have fought to keep us free and Independent!

#52Ancestor's-Week 26-Black Sheep: Dennis Haggerty

This week's prompt is "Black Sheep".  I struggled for a bit to come up with anything to write about.  Out of the blue, after a couple of weeks,  I thought of my husband's great-great grandfather, Dennis "Denny" Haggerty.

Dennis was born in 1833 in Ireland to unknown first name Haggerty and Mary Finucane.  His mother married John Fitzgibbons in 1845 in Limerick, Ireland and the family was next found in the 1850 Census for Fall River, Massachusetts. A half-sister to Denny was born in 1846 in Fall River, so they must have arrived there between October 1845 and June 1846.

The family was in Marshall County, Illinois by 1855.  Denny was listed in the 1860 Census as "Dennis Fitzgibbon", living with his step-father, mother and siblings. Dennis was Naturalized in October of 1860.  In about 1861, Dennis married Margaret O'Brien.  From 1864 to 1878, Dennis and Margaret had six known children.

In August of 1876 "A terrible tragedy was enacted at Lacon, about nine o'clock Tuesday night, the results of which will probably occasion the death of three men, who were fired upon by a mob of six men, through a window, all armed with guns or revolvers, all desperate characters, and who had gone there to do deadly work, regardless of consequences".

Backstory: there was a "...one room house, kept by a Mrs. Locke, a woman of easy virtue."   A man had attempted to enter the house, but the house was full of other visitors, so he was turned away.  He refused to leave, so Mrs. Locke shot at him. On the fatal night, an "attacking party" of Dennis Haggerty and five others came and demanded those in the house to come out (there were 7 people in the house), but before they could, firing began. It appeared that Dennis Haggerty was the leader of the "riot".  It was also later reported that it was not six men who went to the one-story house that night, but that there was a crowd of 30 or 40 men and boys.

It was also reported: "that Haggerty ordered them to leave the house in two minutes, and within a minute, two or three shots were fired in at the window, and were immediately followed by a volley from the remainder of the guns."
Some of the men "gave a tacit approval of the plan of 'cleaning them out' as it was expressed." Three men were arrested (including Dennis). "The parties arrested show no signs of remorse for this dastardly work, but boast that they meant to do it and were not ashamed of it."

Bail was set at $8000 for Dennis, $2000 for Thad Power, and $1500 for Charles O'Hare. "O'Hara was immediately bailed out as he is generally believed to be innocent of any criminal intent in joining the mob."  One man, Robert Iliff,  died within a month or so from the attack.

It ended up that Dennis and two other men were put on trial for murder and were found not guilty.  However, the newspaper articles (found in the below link), stated that some of the jury got out of town immediately following the verdict as they did not feel safe.  The article also stated "Had not the witness Reddan Ames (who turned states evidence), been so anxious to appear 'smart' upon the witness stand, his testimony would not have been utterly disregarded by the jury as it was.  Had he given his testimony in a straight forward manner, the jury, with ever so strong prejudices, could not have avoided finding a verdict of guilty against at least one of the defendants."

Link for the newspaper items: http://genealogytrails.com/ill/marshall/1876LaconShooting.htm

Dennis lived until December of 1889, when he died at the age of 56. I found this to be an interesting obituary for him:

from Marshall County Democrat, Lacon, IL, Friday Morning, Dec. 20, 1889:

"Denny Haggerty, well known in this community for the past fifteen years, died at his home on Wednesday night at about 11 o'clock. His disease seems to be a mystery to everybody but the doctors. He seems to have been taken with rheumatism or neuralgia and this seems to have settled about the brain. The doctors thought there might be something of a scum over the brain or some decay incident to some old contusion. Any way he has lain for some weeks a very sick man and death must have been a relief to both him and his family. Denny was esteemed a very rough man, but he had many good points A lack of education was his greatest drawback. He had the energy, the sense and the method to get on in the world. His will power was immense, and when he set himself to do or not to do, he brooked no opposition. This got him into a good deal of trouble and made him appear to disadvantage. Many men occupying 'front seats in the synagogue' are not as honest in purpose as Denny Haggerty. The funeral will take place at 10 o'clock this morning."

I think that Dennis qualified as a bit of a black sheep!

#52Ancestors-Week 25-Same Name: Matthew Henebery

This week's prompt was "Same Name". I decided to look into the name Matthew Henebery in my family tree.

The first Matthew Henebery that I know of in my family was born in 1834 in County Kilkenny, Ireland.  His father, Nicholas, brought the family to the United States in 1849 and they settled in Peoria, Illinois.  Matthew married Mary Daniels in 1857.  They had thirteen known children.  Oddly, I just learned of two of the children this past week. I've been working on this family for over twenty years.

One of the children that I just learned of was a son, Matthew Henebery.  He was born in 1872, and lived for just three months.  Following his death, two more daughters were born, then in 1877, another son arrived.  He was also named Matthew Henebery. But sadly, this Matthew died when he was almost three and a half years old.

Matthew Henebery's sister had a son in 1877 named Matthew Henebery Cunningham.

A daughter of Matthew and Mary, Josephine, married and had a son in 1891 named Matthew Henebery Cashin.

I find it sad for Matthew and Mary that they were unable to carry Matthew's name on, as they obviously wanted to do.  I wonder if there is a Matthew Henebery out there now from this family line that I don't know about?