Spellchecking the John Berlin Mystery

When you sit down to solve a jigsaw puzzle, you already have a few advantages. Usually, you know that you have all of the pieces in your box. And usually, you have a picture on the box to show you what your solved puzzle should look like. Most importantly, though, you know that only the pieces that should fit together will fit together.

Solving a family history puzzle is the opposite of all of those things. You probably know you don't have all the pieces, and you probably never will. The picture on the box may not have been labeled properly, and when you do find clues, they may add up to give you three or four different answers - sometimes, even the right one!

If we're lucky, we can find enough evidence that matches the pieces we have to tell us where to look for the next several pieces. And that's the game. You will find a lot of information, and some of it is obviously wrong. But some of it is right — and how do you know what to hold onto, and what to let go?

Today, I'm taking a fresh look at the family of Elizabeth Berlin, rebuilding the case I made in a post from 2016.

The Pieces

The Callin Family History

According to the Callin Family History, Elizabeth Berlin is my 3rd-great-grandmother. Here's what we have to work with from the CFH:

Record of William Callin, 3rd son of John Callin, who was 2nd son of James 1st.
Born May 10, 1813, died Nov. 9, 1881, at Bowling Green, O.

Married to Elizabeth Barlene 1837 who died Nov. 14, 1903, at Bowling Green, O., aged 86 years.

The William Callin-Elizabeth Berlin marriage record

One guiding star in any kind of historical research is the rule that tells us to always look to original and primary sources. The CFH is not a primary source, but a marriage record would be. We can see the image of the original record here:

Detail from Ohio, County Marriage Records, 1774-1993

Despite the florid handwriting and odd line break, it is easy enough to see that "Mr. Wm. Cal-lin and Mifs Elizabeth Berlin" were married on the 29th day of Sept. in Richland County, Ohio, in 1836. (I had to crop the part of the image that showed the year, but if anyone needs to see that to believe it, I can send the whole page.)

Notice the way things add up, yet are different. The CFH says William married Elizabeth Barlene in 1837, and the marriage record says he married Elizabeth Berlin on 29 September 1836. It's easy enough to accept this record as proof that corroborates the CFH, but even though they aren't exactly the same. The year is definitely close enough, and the spelling of the surname suggests that a combination of pioneer illiteracy and varied pronunciation could complicate things for us.

Rosemary's Memoir

If you are a long-time reader of this blog, you may remember an early post, Silk or Satin, in which Elizabeth's granddaughter, Rosemary (the youngest daughter of George Callin, the writer of the Callin Family History) recorded her memories of Elizabeth after her death in 1903. Even Rosemary wasn't sure how to spell Elizabeth's maiden name, and she titled her memoir, "Things I Have Been Told About My Grandmother, Elizabeth Berlien (Barline) Callin."

That confusion in what, exactly, Elizabeth's maiden name was makes it difficult to find Elizabeth's family in the Census because there are many households with similar surnames in the 1830 and 1840 Census records for Ohio. Without more information, it would be impossible to track them down.

The Wood County history

Pages 923 and 924 of the Commemorative Historical and Biographical Record of Wood County, Ohio have a biographical sketch of my great-great-grandfather, John H. Callin, son of William and Elizabeth. In its description of William, it says: "In 1835, he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Barlin, of Ashland..."

The Wood County book is definitely not a primary source, but that statement may help us find one. At least we have two more crucial clues: a father's name, John, and a location to hunt in: Ashland. (Also, with that source, we are now up to five alternate spellings of the surname.)

Detail from the 1840 U.S. Census for
Mifflin, Richland County, Ohio

I assume that the location referred to as "of Ashland" is Ashland County, Ohio, where William's father and uncle settled when they arrived in Ohio from Pennsylvania. However, we have to note the fact that Ashland County, Ohio, did not exist in 1835, when the Wood County book says they were married. That book was published in 1895 or 1897 (depending on which edition you find), and it seems that it was referring to the counties as they existed in the 1890s. Ashland County was formed in 1846 from parts of Huron, Lorain, Richland and Wayne Counties. When the Wood County book says "Ashland," it could mean any one of those other counties.

The U.S. Federal Census

In the 1840 Census, we find a John Barlean listed as the head of a household in Mifflin, Richland County. Mifflin is near enough to Milton that the Barlean and Callin families likely knew each other. The 1840 Barlean household is enumerated as having one male between the ages of 50 and 59 (presumably John, putting his birthdate between 1781 and 1790), one female between 50 and 59, and one female between 15 and 19. This could be a younger sister of Elizabeth's, with a birthdate between 1821 and 1825.

Further searches failed to turn up records for 1850 or 1860, but in 1870 we can see an 83-year-old John Barlean listed with his wife, Mary A (age 79), living in the Young household in Vermillion, Ashland County, Ohio. The head of that household is listed as Catherine Young, 50 years old, and born in Pennsylvania. Not only do the estimated birthdates of John (1787, in Pennsylvania) and Mary A (1791, also in Pennsylvania) fit with their 1840 record, but Catherine Young (estimated birthdate of 1820) could be the younger female in that 1840 record, too.

Detail from the 1870 U.S. Census for
Vermillion, Ashland County, Ohio

The Ashland County History

Catherine's eldest son, Samuel, is featured in a biographical sketch in A. J. Baughman's History of Ashland County, Ohio, which says (emphasis is mine):

He is a son of Michael and Katharine (Berlean) Young, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania as were the paternal grandparents, Mathias and Mary Young. ... The maternal grandparents of our subject were John and Mary Ann Berlean, who were likewise born in the Keystone state and died in Ashland county. ...John Berlean served his country in the war of 1812 and was at Baltimore during the hostilities there. The Berlean homestead, upon which the mother of our subject [the same Catherine we see in the 1870 Census] was born, was situated in Pennsylvania on the Maryland state line.
...Michael Young ...accompanied his parents on their removal to Mifflin township about 1829 and Katherine Berlean arrived about a year later. They were married here and became residents of Mifflin township, taking up their abode on a farm within its borders immediately after their marriage and remaining there until called to their final rest.

A War of 1812 Pension record

So, we now have another clue that tells us where to hunt for primary sources on John Berlean: his military service in the war of 1812. But this is also where I think I made a mistake; look at what I said in 2016, in the post "Great-great-great-grandpa William Callin," specifically this part:

"John Berlin turns up in the War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index, 1812-1815 and from that record we learn that he served from 21 April 1813 to 22 November 1814, in both Captain William Craig's and Captain Jonathan May's companies in the Pennsylvania Militia. The record also shows that he married his second wife (the widow claiming his pension) in 1830 in Columbiana county, Ohio. (Happily, his first wife, Anna Coy, is also named.) It also lists residence dates for Van Wert county, Ohio (1851-1856) and Canton, Stark county (1871); he died in Stark county in 1874."

When I wrote that previous post, I ignored some problems with that record that probably indicate it does not identify our John Berlin/Berlean. First, that pension record says nothing about Ashland County, or any of the neighboring counties that became Ashland later on. Second, the name of the widow given in the pension record was Catherine Landis; this means that even if we assume some scenario where the John Berlin in this record lived in Mifflin in 1840 and in Vermillion in 1870, the name of his wife in the 1870 Census does not match the name of his widow on the pension record.

I suppose it is possible that John and Mary Ann lived in Ashland in the 1840s, moved to Van Wert County during the 1850s, then back to Ashland in time for the 1870 Census, moving finally to Stark County by 1871. But there are problems with that theory. I find it unlikely that "Catherine" would use the name "Mary Ann" only when living in Ashland County. (Mary Ann is not Anna Coy, either, because Anna Coy died before 1830.)

The Ashland County History also specifically states that John and Mary Ann Berlean "died in Ashland county." Unfortunately, I have been unable to confirm this with records of any kind. They do not appear on the 1880 Census, and I can find no death records in Ashland county during the 1870s. I do see a Find-A-Grave memorial for John Berlin and Catherine, both of whom died and are buried in Stark County. It is possible that the writer of the Ashland history confused the location of their deaths, but that seems unlikely, as the two counties are about 60 miles apart.

When all is said and done, I don't think the John Berlin in this pension record is the same as the John Berlin who lived and died in Ashland County.

The Westmoreland County history

George Dallas Albert's History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania holds two more clues to the origin of our John Barlean (again, emphases mine):

pg. 611 -

"THE BERLIN FAMILY

"In 1794 one of the soldiers who came from Eastern Pennsylvania in the army to put down the "Whiskey Insurrection" was Jacob Berlin. He got a furlough in Pittsburgh to come out to that part of Franklin township now included in Penn, to visit his uncle, Jacob Berlin, who had settled there some twenty years before. He so liked the country that in the spring of 1795 he returned with his wife, formerly Miss Eve Carbaugh.
"He finally settled between the Fink and Lauffer farms. His children were four daughters and six sons, viz.: ...John, Frederick, Joseph, Samuel, Powell, and Elias, of whom Powell removed to Forest County, Frederick to Clarion, and John to State of Ohio. Col. Elias Berlin, the youngest son, was born in 1803...His brother John served in the war of 1812."

And there is this about John's likely bride:

pg. 668 (within the biographical sketch of Jacob Baughman)

"After his marriage Adam Baughman settled on a farm in Armstrong County, about seventy miles up the Allegheny River, and here four children, viz.: Catharine, Michael, Polly, and Jacob, were born. Upon the death of his brother Henry...he sold his place in Armstrong County and returned to Westmoreland, and became the owner of and occupied the homestead until his death. Here the following children were born, viz.: Elizabeth, Margaret, Peter, Anna, Henry, Christian, and Lydia...Anna, wife of John Berlin, six sons and three daughters..."

While none of the places associated with Jacob Berlin are places that I would describe as "situated in Pennsylvania on the Maryland state line," I'm inclined to think that the other details fit with our John Berlin; I'm even willing to think that because the biography of Samuel Young (which names his wife as "Mary Ann") might be more accurate than the biography of Jacob and Adam Baughman (which calls her merely "Anna") because the Samuel Young biography was written by a descendant of the Baughmans! (How's that for history rhyming?)

Conclusions

While I would prefer to have solid, primary sources to prove the relationships here, I think it's reasonable to say that I have enough evidence to assert that we know the key facts about Elizabeth Berlin:

1. William Callin married Elizabeth Berlin on 29 September 1836 in what was then Richland County, Ohio.

• Ohio marriage record (primary source)
• Callin Family History (secondary source; last name given as "Barlene" and date as 1837)
• Wood County History (secondary; last name given as "Barlin" and date as 1835)

2. Elizabeth's father was John Berlin, "of Ashland County" (Ohio)

• Wood County History (secondary; last name given as "Barlin")

3. Elizabeth's sister was Catherine (or Katherine) Young

• Ashland County History (secondary; last name given as "Berlean" and Elizabeth not named)
• 1870 U.S. Census (primary; shows Catherine Young and John & Mary Ann Barlean living in same household)

4. John Berlin's origins were in Westmoreland County

• Ashland County History (secondary; gives name as "Berlean," identifies Pennsylvania, mentions 1812 service)
• Westmoreland County History (secondary; gives name as "Berlin," identifies wife as "Anna," places him in Ohio)

That should give us some solid ground to build on.

Turning Another Page

Sarah Ferrell, if you recall from The Montgomery Connection, was the daughter of Mary Montgomery, and granddaughter of Elizabeth Callin (1798-1834). Last time, in the post A Ferrell Child, we looked at the descendants of Sarah Ferrell's first-born child, Glenn Powell.

After the death of Glenn's father, Joe Powell, Sarah Ferrell Powell married a man named E. J. S. Page in the home of her father-in-law, Noah Powell. We know next to nothing about him, as the records I have found don't even agree on his initials, and do not mention his date or place of birth. Sarah and Mr. Page produced one child before whatever fate took him away from his young family.

II. Sarah Olive Page  (1868–1968) was born on 14 May 1868, in Junction City, Oregon. By 1870, she was living in the home of her step-father, James Addison Bushnell, her mother and half-brother, Glenn, and her new step-siblings, the four remaining Bushnell children.

She married Walter Byron Beebe (1867–1935) in 1889. He was born in March 1867 in Massachusetts to parents James M Beebe (1838–1897) and Louisa Worth Coffin (1842–1915). The Beebe family lived in Chillicothe, Livingston, Missouri, in 1870, before relocating to Oregon.

Sarah and Walter had one child. Walter worked in a dry goods store and was the proprietor of his own store in Ashland, Jackson, Oregon. He died there on 10 January 1935, at the age of 67.

Sarah remained in Ashland until the very end of her life. She died on 1 March 1968, in Bishop, Inyo, California, at the age of 99, and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Ashland, Oregon, with Walter.

     A. Henry Clare Beebe (1891–1988) was born on 12 May 1891 in Ashland, Jackson, Oregon. He matriculated at the University of California at Berkeley in 1912 and graduated from Stanford University as a geological engineer in 1916. On 25 August 1917, he married Elizabeth Marie Abbott (1893–1980), the daughter of Elija T Abbott (b. 1847) and Carrie E. Hart (1851–1923), in her hometown, Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota.

Henry's work finding oil for oil companies took him all over the world. He and Elizabeth both liked to travel, but they called Ashland, Oregon, home in the 1940s, after spending the early part of the 1930s in Tacoma, Washington, and Minneapolis. Eventually, Henry and Elizabeth moved to California.

Elizabeth died 29 Dec 1980 in Chula Vista, San Diego, California; Henry died a few years later on 8 April 1988 in Auburn, Placer, California. They were survived by one of their two sons and a daughter.

     i. James Lawrence Beebe (1922–2004) was born July 9, 1922, in New York. He enlisted on 16 September 1940 in the Coast Artillery Corps of the National Guard; his enlistment record says he was an actor.

I haven't found much that tells me about James's life from 1940 to 1992 when he appears in the Brookings city directory. According to his obituary, he died at age 82, on 4 September 2004, in Crescent City, California, of natural causes. He was a resident of Brookings, Oregon, for 17 years before his death. He was survived by his wife, his brother and sister, two daughters, a son, and one granddaughter.

 - -- - 

After wedding James Bushnell in 1870, he and Sarah had five children; however, only two of them survived to adulthood, and only one left behind a family of her own.

III. Henry Clay Bushnell (1871–1933) was born 3 November 1871, on a farm south of Junction City, Lane County, Oregon. He was a graduate of Monmouth Normal school. For many years he operated a large orchard along highway 99, and at one time he was head of the Valley Apple Growers' association.

In March 1896, Henry married Livva Skaggs (1876–1971) daughter of Abram D. Skaggs (1843–1929) and Frances Elizabeth "Fannie" Kirkpatrick (1851–1887). Livva was born in Missouri on 24 November 1876, and the Skaggs family lived in Illinois, then Kansas, during the 1880s, before settling in Lane County, Oregon, in about 1890.

Henry died at his home in the Riverview section near Junction City Monday evening of a heart attack.
He was survived by his wife, four sisters, and one brother, Glenn Powell of San Francisco.

Livva seems to have remained in their home through at least 1940; she died in Eugene on 15 August 1971.

IV. Walter Scott Bushnell (1874–1881) died at 8 years, 1 month, and 9 days old on 24 December 1881.

V. Albert Bushnell (1876–1876) was ten months old when he died on 1 October 1876.

VI. Mary Bushnell (1879–1881) died at 3yr 1mo 22 da of age on 31 December 1881 - just six days after her brother, Walter.

These three children are all buried in the Luper Cemetery in Lane County, Oregon.

VII. Gertrude E Bushnell (1883–1977) was born on 15 March 1883 in Junction City, Oregon, and remained at home with her family until she married Robert Martin Movius (1872–1932) on 15 September 1912, at the age of 29.

Gertrude was Robert's second wife. He was born in Minnesota on 15 August 1874 and in 1900 he lived in South Dakota, where he was married to Anna Murry Shull (1873–1957). Robert and Anna had four children, and they were living with Anna's mother in Bowbells, North Dakota, in 1910. And yet, two years later, Robert was in Oregon, marrying Gertrude.

Robert and Gertrude had two children before 1920, as well as a son, James Albert Movius, who was born 31 August 1921 and died 13 July 1922, at only 10 months of age. The family lived in Eugene until Robert's death on 6 April 1932. Gertrude supported herself and her two surviving children by working as a librarian in Eugene. Eventually, she remarried Albert Nellis Froom (1884–1973) on 28 Dec 1953 in Vancouver, Clark, Washington.

Albert died in Multnomah County, Oregon, on 14 August 1973. After that, Gertrude moved to Michigan, to live near her son. She died on 13 February 1977 in Drayton Plains, Oakland, Michigan.

     A. Gretchen B Movius (1914–1966) was born in Junction City, Oregon, on 28 December 1914. She was raised in Oregon and graduated from Utah State University. Gretchen became a school teacher, teaching in Oregon, California, and Utah. She married Edwin Robert Butze (1912–1999) on 3 Jul 1936 in Vancouver, Washington.

Edwin was born on 23 January 1912 in Baker County, Oregon, the son of Edwin Ira Butze (1880–1925) and Martie Josephine "Weetie" McKim (1883–1964). After they were married, they lived in Prineville, Oregon. Edwin enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1942, and after the war, they lived in Corvallis until 1950, when they relocated to Brigham City, Utah.

Gretchen died after a bout with cancer on 15 February 1966 in Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah, at only 52 years of age. Edwin died 20 December 1999 in  Clearfield, Davis, Utah.

Edwin Robert Butze, sophomore year

     1. Kim Butze Wheelwright (1946–2001) was born on 27 August 1946, in Corvallis, Oregon. She was captain of her high school swim team at Box Elder High School (Go, Bees!), and she frequently appeared in the local paper writing about school and local event under her own byline. She married in the 1970s.

Kim died on 13 May 2001, in Ogden, Weber, Utah, at the age of 54, and was buried in South Ogden, Utah. She was survived by her husband.

     2. Edwin Robert Butze (1951–1991) was born on February 27, 1951, in Pocatello, Idaho, and graduated from Box Elder High School, Class of 1969. He died on February 7, 1991, in Kern County, California, at the age of 39. According to his memorial on the Box Elder High School webpage, he was survived by two children.

      B. Oswald F Movius (1919–2010) was born on 1 April 1919, in Junction City, Oregon. He was married in 1957 in Kanawha, West Virginia. He and his wife had three sons, two of whom are still living.

Ozzy was a veteran of the Merchant Marines during World War II. He retired from Fleet Carrier in 1986 after 3,000,000 miles of interstate truck driving service. He was a member of Marimont Community Church who loved reading his Bible, bird watching and traveling.

He died on 14 April 2010 in Waterford, Michigan, at the age of 91.

     1. Stephen Douglas Salisbury (1952–2015)  was born on 26 December 1952 in Clearwater Pennsylvania. He was five years old when his mother married Ozzie Movius, moved to Michigan, and Ozzie adopted him as his own.

Stephen was employed with the State of Michigan as a Resident Care Aid for the State Hospitals and was a member of AFSCM-Union and the Waterford Hogs Harley Club. He died suddenly at his home in Millington on Wednesday, 14 October 2015. Stephen was 62. He is survived by his wife, four children, eight grandchildren, one great-granddaughter, and by his beloved dog Cleo. Stephen is also survived by his mother, two brothers, seven nieces, nephews, and other extended family and friends.

 - -- --- -- - 

I have one more week before school starts, and I expect my time to work on these posts will disappear. I apologize if my work seems hurried because of that; my hope is that any descendants of this family will forgive me when the book eventually comes out!

Speaking of which, I have ordered a DNA kit from Ancestry so I can confirm whether there is a genetic connection to Elizabeth Callin Montgomery's branch. If you have done a DNA test with Ancestry or FTDNA, let me know privately, and we can try to find out whether we match.

As always: you can email me at my Gmail address, callintad, or request entry to the private Callin Family History Facebook group. You can also comment below, and I usually forget to mention that I am user "Tad_Callin" on Ancestry, if you prefer to contact me there.

Whew.

A Ferrell Child

Standards of proof are very important.

When you do any kind of research, it's important to understand not only what you know, but how you know it, and how confident you are in your sources. Of course, sometimes you simply don't have sources - records are non-existent, or at least not online, and all you can do is document what you do have, and make a note of where you think you need to look for more information.

There is a very good essay about evaluating "proof" at DNA Explained which has some advice I suggest you keep in mind as you read this post because much of the information I'm putting together here today is definitely not proven.

If you read my previous posts, Echoes & Rhymes and The Montgomery Connection, you know that I'm already on shaky ground when I assert that Elizabeth Callen is the daughter of James Callin of Milton Township, Richland County, Ohio. I think I made a strong case that she is, but now I'm going to make a much weaker case that we know who Elizabeth's daughter is.

This is as much as I can prove:

Mary Montgomery

James Ferrell and Mary Montgomery were married in Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana, on 23 March 1843. We know this much from the marriage record in Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001.

That's not a lot to go on when you consider the standards of proof I just made such a big deal about!

We do know that Elizabeth had a daughter named Mary, because there is a mention of a Mary Montgomery in the biographical sketch of Caleb and Elizabeth (Callen) Montgomery's son, Theodore found in the Fulton County, Indiana Handbook (published by Tombaugh House, and available on the Fulton County Public Library's website): "To these parents were born five children--Mary, now deceased; Sarah, now the wife of Henry Davidson, living in Halsey, Oregon; Theodore, of whom this sketch is concerned..." I have not found records to prove the relationship of the Mary Montgomery in that Fulton County marriage record to Caleb and Elizabeth, but it seems like a reasonable "right place/right time" guess to make.

I have also found no birth records or death records that prove the relationship of James and Mary (Montgomery) Ferrell to the Sarah Ferrell who appears in the household of Sarah (Montgomery) Davidson on the U.S. Census records for 1850 and 1860, but it seems reasonable that if her parents died before 1850, the Davidson family might have taken in their orphaned niece.

Based on the scant evidence, my guess is that James and Mary were married (1843), had a daughter (1846), and at least Mary died before 1850 - probably all in Fulton County. There are records for men named James Ferrell (spellings can vary) in Indian and Ohio after 1846, but my hunch is that the one we are interested in might have died before the 1850 Census. I can't really rule out any number of other scenarios - including one in which the Davidson family simply adopted an orphan from another family. But for now, I'm going to assume that Sarah Elizabeth Ferrell (1846–1916) is the granddaughter of Caleb and Elizabeth, and the orphaned daughter of James and Mary.

Sarah Elizabeth Ferrell (1846–1916)

Whatever her true origins, "Sarah E. Faroll," age 4, was living in the home of her aunt, Sarah (Montgomery) Davidson, in Newcastle, Fulton County, Indiana, according to the 1850 U.S. Census. The Davidson family, along with many others, took the Oregon Trail west in 1852 and 1853, and in 1860 "Sarah Ferrell", now age 14, appeared listed in their household in Linn County, Oregon, near the Harrisburg post office.

By the time of the 1870 Census, Sarah was newly married to her third husband and living with him, his four children, and her son and daughter from her two previous marriages in Lancaster, Lane County, Oregon. That is a lot to deal with in ten short years.

Her first husband was Josiah S Powell (1839–1865), son of Noah Powell (1808–1875) and Mary E. "Polly" Smith (1812–1893), and he died at 26 years of age on 21 November 1865. Since Joe and Sarah's son, Glenn O. Farrell Powell (1865–1948), was born on 19 March 1865, I calculate that they were married in the spring or summer of 1864.

Sarah married her second husband, E. J. S. Page, on 4 August 1867, in the home of her father-in-law, Noah Powell, according to Marion County, Oregon, Marriage Records, 1849-1900. Their daughter was Sarah Olive Page (1868–1968). We know precious little about Mr. Page, not having any birth or death records to refer to. We don't even know his full name, or whether he died or simply moved on; I'm inclined to think that he probably died.

Sarah Ferrell's third husband was a widowed banker named James Addison Bushnell (1826–1912). They were married 2 April 1870 in Lynn County, Oregon, after the death of his first wife, Elizabeth Crowley Adkins (1831–1868) on 2 January 1868 in Lane County, Oregon. To everyone's relief, they survived their second year of marriage, and each lived until the 1910s.

James was the son of Daniel Bushnell and Ursula Griswold Pratt (1789–1883). He and his first wife, Elizabeth, had seven children before her 1868 death:

• Charles Alvah Bushnell (1851–1874)
• Lucy G Bushnell (1854–1937)
• Ursula Josephine Bushnell (1857–1859)
• Mary Elizabeth Bushnell (1859–1859)
• William Francis Bushnell (1860–1865)
• Helen V. Bushnell (1862–1935)
• George Addison Bushnell (1867–1882)

In addition to the seven children from his first marriage, James and Sarah had five children together:

• Henry Clay Bushnell (1871–1933)
• Walter Scott Bushnell (1874–1881)
• Albert Bushnell (1876–1876)
• Mary Bushnell (1879–1881)
• Gertrude E Bushnell (1883–1977)

James died on 8 April 1912 in Lane County, Oregon. He was 85 years old, and  Sarah was 70 years old when she died on 29 January 1916 in Lane County, Oregon. They are buried Luper Cemetery.

We'll get to Sarah Page and the others in a later post, but for now, let's look at:

I. Glenn O. Farrell Powell (1865–1948), was born on 19 March 1865 in Albany, Linn County, Oregon, to Joe and Sarah Powell. As discussed above, his father died when Glenn was barely two years old; and a step-father also came and went before he turned five. But Glenn grew up in the home of James Addison Bushnell.

Glenn married Arvilla Howard (1869–1918) in 1887. Arvilla was born 28 July 1869 in Lane County, Oregon. Her parents were Royal Varney Howard (1833–1916) and Eda Jane Smith (1841–1919). Glenn and Arvilla raised four children: a son (Noble) and three daughters (Ada, Claudia, and Pauline). Arvilla died at only 48 years of age on 17 February 1918 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, and was buried in Lincoln Memorial Park in Portland.

Glenn farmed and supported his family as a carpenter. After Arvilla's death, he was remarried to Alice Jane Waud (1862–1942) on 18 December 1920 in Lane County, Oregon. He was the last of her five husbands. She died on 30 October 1942 in Renton, King, Washington, where she was living with one of her children from a previous marriage. Glenn died on 17 April 1948 in San Francisco, California, where he was living with his daughter, Pauline.

     A. Ada Gertrude Powell (1888–1975) was born in Oregon on 9 October 1888. She married Leon Leroy Myers (1886–1991) in 1910 in Multnomah County, Oregon.

Leroy was born 24 January 1886 in Morganville, Clay, Kansas. His parents were Conrad Myers (1855–1943) and Anna Augusta Roenigk (1860–1895). Augusta was born in Bremen, and Conrad was born in Iowa to John and Catherine Meyer/Myers, who were both born in Bavaria; so these Myers are probably not related to other Myers families in the Callin Family History.

Rev. Leon Myers photo Tue, Aug 4, 1936 – Page 4 · Macon Chronicle-Herald (Macon, Missouri) · Newspapers.com

The Reverend Leon Leroy Myers took his degree in May 1913 from the Eugene Bible College, and after a few years in Oregon, the family moved down to Redlands in San Bernardino. Leon became a prominent member of the Ku Klux Klan in Anaheim, and he was a crusader against liquor during the 1920s. In January 1925, after Rev. Myers was rebuked for making allegations against police and local officials that turned out not to be true, he was targeted by an anti-klan assassination plot. Later that spring, he was attacked and beaten by a citizen he had accused from the pulpit.

The Myers moved to Kansas in 1927, and to Cincinnati, Ohio, in the 1930s. Leon was frequently invited to speak at revivals.

Ada and Leroy had six children together, including twins, Leroy and Leon. But in 1954 she sued Leon for gross neglect and was awarded alimony. She did not sue for divorce, but it seems clear that they were no longer together after that.

When Ada died on 25 March 1975 in Half Moon Bay, San Mateo, California, she was survived by Paul, Eugene, Elizabeth, and James, as well as 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Leroy lived to be 105 years old, dying on 22 November 1991 in Calaveras County, California.

     i. Paul Addison Myers (1911–2002) was born on 19 July 1911 while his father was leading his first congregation at the Christian Church in Dallas, Polk County, Oregon. By 1920, the family was living in Redlands, San Bernardino, California. In 1930, the 19-year-old Paul was enlisted in the U.S. military and stationed in the Panama Canal Zone with his unit at Fort Clayton.

After his enlistment ended, Paul married and became an accountant in San Francisco. His wife was Esther O'Dell (1913–1954), daughter of the Reverend Charles Norman O'Dell (1883–1973) and Ione Grundy (1887–1968). The couple lived in San Francisco until after the war began, and Paul enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. On 7 December 1942, he entered boot camp as a private first class at Quantico, Virginia, and by October 1943 he had received his commission as a Second Lieutenant. He was wounded at Iwo Jima, and hospitalized at Guam in 1945.

After the war, Paul and Esther were living in San Pedro in 1949, but I get the impression from the records that the separation of the war took a toll on their marriage. I don't see any evidence that they had children, and Paul was living in Seattle with his second wife already when Esther died on 25 February 1954 in Stanislaus County, California.

Paul's second wife was Janet Kathrine Lynch (1927–2000); they probably met during their service, as she was a member of the Cadet Nursing Corps from 1945 to 1948. I wonder if they didn't meet at the hospital when he was wounded - but that's pure speculation on my part.

Janet died 9 April 2000 in Kirkland, King, Washington. Paul also died there on 11 August 2002.

     ii. Eugene Powell Myers (1913–1998) was born in Silverton, Marion, Oregon on 19 December 1913. When he was 8 years old, and his family was living in Redlands, he and his little sister created a stir in the local community when they tried to run away and "see the world"!

Myers children "see the world" Mon, Oct 3, 1921 – Page 12 · Santa Ana Register (Santa Ana, California) · Newspapers.com
In 1930, Eugene was 16 and residing at the State Juvenile Training School in Gatesville, Texas.

He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on 20 March 1942, and by the end of the war, he had achieved the rank of technical sergeant, having spent 20 months in the Pacific theater. He was discharged on 19 March 1946.

On 31 July 1951, he married Joyce Emily Hughes (1925–2009) in Alameda County, California. They had five children, four sons and a daughter; three of whom are still living.

Eugene died on 15 July 1998 in Grosse Pointe, Wayne, Michigan, survived by Joyce and four of their children. Joyce died there on 12 March 2009.

     a. Wayne Leon Myers (1953–1995) was born on 23 June 1953, in Berkeley, California, and died on December 27, 1995, in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the age of 42. Dr. Wayne L. Myers was listed in the City Directory of New Orleans in 1992.

     b. Dana O'Farrell Myers (1961–2011)  was born on August 9, 1961, in Detroit, Michigan, and he worked for the United States Postal Service in St. Petersburg, Florida, from 1986. His passions were sports, the beach, and camping. He never married, but he spent 24 years with his companion (she is still living) and their cat, Smokey. He died in Sunset Beach on 1 December 2011.

     iii. Elizabeth Jane Myers (1915–1989) was born in The Dalles, Wasco, Oregon on 30 December 1915. She grew up in Redlands, San Bernardino, California (surviving her adventure with her brother, Eugene, when she was six), and followed her family to Kansas in the 1930s. Her father was a pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio, when Elizabeth probably met and married Norman B Hallenback (b. 1904).

Norman was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 30 May 1904. His parents Bert Cornelius Hallenbeck (1875–1954) and Edith Testut (1878–1944), moved the family to New Jersey by 1920. He married Helen J Frank (1908–1985) on 14 Aug 1926 in Bridgewater, Somerset, New Jersey, and in 1930, Norman left her with three small children when he disappeared from the movie theater where he worked with $1600 and a pretty, young cashier. Helen officially divorced him in 1932.

Norman turned up in Cincinnati in 1938, where he was charged with forgery. This arrest led to the alerting of authorities in New Jersey to his whereabouts. Elizabeth probably met Norman in Cincinnati, as that's where her father was preaching. They were married and living in Caldwell, Essex, New Jersey, in 1940, with a daughter (still living) and a son.

Unfortunately, 1940 is the last we see of Norman. He left his second family and disappeared from view; and he is almost certainly deceased. (If he is still alive, he should appear on this list!) Elizabeth remarried in New Jersey in 1945, and divorced in 1951 in Florida. In 1962, she married
Raymond Edwin Hebeler (1914–2005), and they lived in Calaveras County, California, where she died on 12 March 1989. Elizabeth was buried in Mokelumne Hill Protestant Cemetery.

     a. Robert Norman Hallenbeck (1940–2001) was born on 3 September 1940, in Montclair, New Jersey. He was married in 1961, in Los Angeles, California, and again in 1974, in Clark County, Nevada. He died on 13 June 2001, at the age of 60, in California.

     iv. Leroy J Myers (b. 1921) and his twin brother Leon David were born on 21 February 1921, in San Bernardino, California; Leroy was not a healthy child, and while records have not been identified, he is said to have died while his family was living in Dodge City, Kansas, where he appeared on the 1930 Census.

     v. Leon David Myers (1921–1944) was quite an accomplished young man. He was a Master Councilor of the Cincinnati Chapter of DeMolay, and graduated from Withrow High School. He was employed by the American Surety Co. and attending evening college at the University of Cincinnati when he enlisted on 25 April 1942.

Leon received a commission and acheived the rank of Captain. He was flight leader of the 396th Fighter Squadron of the 368th Fighter Group (a Thunderbolt group), serving in the Ninth Air Force. He received the Air Medal, 12 Oak Leaf Clusters. Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart. He was killed in action over Saint-Lô, France, 26 July 1944, near the end of the invasion of Normandy, leaving behind a young widow.

In 1949, he was returned to the U.S. and buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Fransisco.

     vi. James Conrad Myers (1924–1986) was born on 10 Oct 1924 in Orange County, California, and was very small when his father moved the family to Kansas. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on 3 July 1943 in Cincinnati, and served with the Chinese Combat Command.

James married after the war, on 9 October 1949; his wife and son are still living. James died on 14 September 1986 in Pacifica, San Mateo, California.

     B. Noble Glenn Powell (1890–1936) was born on 7 April 1890, in Oregon, the only son of Glenn and Arvilla Powell. He established himself as a professional driver in 1910, at a time when chauffuers were transitioning from horse-drawn carriages to motor vehicles. He appears in the Oregon Motor Vehicle Registrations database as early as 1912.

He married Bertha Ann Johns (1896–1980) around 1913; she was the daughter of Oliver Troy Johns (1862–1908) and Ella Francis Elliott (1872–1966). They had a son and daughter in Portland. Bertha also worked as a waitress.

Noble died on 14 February 1936, in Portland, at the age of 45, and was buried there. Bertha was remarried twice, but died on 9 September 1980 in Eugene, Lane, Oregon.

     i. Noble Glenn O Powell II (1914–2015) was born in Portland, Oregon to Bertha and Noble Powell. As a teen, he served in the Civilian Conservation Corps at Mt. Hood. He served in the U.S. Navy in WWII in the Pacific theater. He moved to Eugene in 1951.

On 25 July 1936, in Portland, Noble married Mary Trofimenko (1915–2008), and they enjoyed traveling the world together for 73 years. Mary was born 1 December 1915, in Killdeer, North Dakota, to Wasyl and Anna Procentko Trofimenko. She attended Girls Polytechnic School in Portland. She worked as a retail clerk for Eugene Toy and Hobby.

Mary died in Eugene on 7 October 2008. Noble spent his final years at Gateway Living in Eugene, and died on 26 January 2015, four months after his 100th birthday celebration. He was survived by his two children, 7 grandchildren, 8 great-grandchildren and, 3 great-great-grandchildren.

Two of his grandchildren are deceased:

• Noble Glenn O. "Bo" Powell IV (1966–2017) was born on May 28, 1966, in Eugene, Oregon. He graduated from Willamette High School in 1984 and joined the U.S. Navy, where he excelled as a boatswain's mate. He deployed for operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom, earning multiple Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals and Commendations along the way. After 26 years, Senior Chief "Bo" Powell retired from the Navy with honor in 2009.
  
  Bo was married in 1991, and he is survived by his wife and two sons, as well as his parents and a sister. He died on 13 September 2017, after a long battle with multiple myeloma cancer.

• Leslie Gayle Powell Daum (1970–1997) was born on 16 February 1970, in Eugene, Oregon. She was killed in a car accident on 24 August 1997, at the age of 27. She was survived by her ex-husband and two sons, as well as her parents, brother Bo, and her sister.

     ii. Arvilla Powell (b. 1920) born just before the 1920 Census, Arvilla did not appear in any other records with her family. Presumably, she died as an infant.


     C. Claudia Mae Powell (1891–1974) was born on 14 November 1891, in Oregon. She married Joe Mulholand on 19 October 1910, in Marion, Oregon; however, they seem to have been separated by 1916, when she appeared in the Portland city directory alone as "Claudia Mulholland."

Claudia lived in Portland and San Fransisco, where she operated a candy shop; she moved to Stayton, Marion, Oregon, in 1951. She died on 15 July 1974, in Stayton, at the age of 82. Private interment was in Rose City Cemetery, Portland.

     D. Pauline B Powell (1892–1970) was born on 31 December 1892, in Oregon. She married George O Greybrooke (1888–1961) around 1920, and they lived in San Fransisco for about 30 years. George was born in the Dakota Territory, and served in the U.S. Army from April 1918 to May 1919, at the end of World War I.

Pauline died Saturday, 14 November 1970 in a Salem nursing home at the age of 78 years. She was survived by her sisters, Claudia Powell, also of Salem, and Mrs. Ada J. Myers, of Half Moon Bay, California.

 - -- --- -- - 

 Family can be hard.

When you start digging into the history of any family, there are stories that can be hurtful or embarrassing to uncover. And when, like me, you are so distant a relative that you might as well be a random stranger, you don't know any of the people who might be hurt or embarrassed by the stories you uncover. That means being extra careful, not only to do thorough research and adequately document what you know, but also to reach out to the survivors of those stories in a way that represents them well.

There were several examples here of (potentially) messy divorces, family abandonment, and the impossible-to-ignore involvement with the Klan. Fortunately for me, I have found the other researchers I've met over the years to be pragmatic about confronting these stories. People who get into this hobby seem to become accustomed to the idea of accepting "black sheep" and scoundrels into their family tree along with the upstanding pillars of the community.

After all, it's not like we have much choice in the matter by the time we come along!

Of the living people mentioned in this post, it looks like I may have found at least one candidate to look for in the DNA database. Once I find a match, I'll be sure to post an update.

Until then, if you recognize yourself in this family, and want to fill in gaps or make corrections, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I'm on Gmail as "callintad," or you can comment below. You can also follow the link above, on the right, to the Callin Family History Facebook group, which is a private group for descendants of James Callin. (Be prepared to tell me how you're related to this family, so I know to let you in!)

I'll be working hard to get as much of this branch documented before I start school in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

The Montgomery Connection

As preparations to publish the Callin Family History revision continue, we have a new branch to consider. The evidence I outlined in Echoes & Rhymes that connects Elizabeth Callin to the James Callin named in the CFH appears to be at least as strong as the evidence that connects James and his brother John to James "1st" Callin; so in that spirit, I'm going to include her descendants in our family tree while I search for more concrete proof. My hope is to find a descendant of Elizabeth and Caleb Montgomery with DNA that matches mine.

To that end, I have begun researching their descendants.

Elizabeth Callin (1798-1834) was born in Pennsylvania, and if she was the daughter of James and Mary Callin, moved with her family from Westmoreland County, PA, to Richland County, Ohio, when she was twelve years old. On 13 August 1822, she married Caleb Montgomery (1799–1872) in Richland County.

According to the Fulton County, Indiana Handbook, published by Tombaugh House, Caleb was born 23 June 1799 in Virginia to Benjamin and Nancy Montgomery, the family who originally settled in Milton Township and established the town of Olivesburg, in Weller Township, which was named for Caleb's sister, Olive Montgomery. The History of Richland County says that Benjamin built the first grist-mill in the township on the Whetstone, at Olivesburg, in 1817. That book also describes the town in 1821:

"The village of Olivesburg was laid out by Benjamin Montgomery in the year 1816, and called Olivesburg in honor of his oldest daughter, Olive. In 1821, the village contained one tavern, kept by Benjamin Montgomery; one blacksmith-shop, by Abel Montgomery; one tailor-shop, by John Grum; one cabinet-shop, by Thomas Beach; one tannery, by Joseph Burget; one horse-mill and water-mill, by Jonathan Montgomery; one wheelwright-shop, by William Lee, or James Hall, and about the usual per cent of loafers."

Caleb and Elizabeth had five children in Olivesburg between their marriage and 1829. When Elizabeth died on 5 November 1834, she was buried in the Olivesburg Cemetery on land deeded to the town by the Montgomery family.

With five young children to care for, Caleb quickly remarried; he and his second wife,
Sarah Mercer (1812–1877), had ten children; the first, Levi, being born in 1835. In 1837, Caleb moved his family to Fulton County, Indiana, where Levi would grow up to become sheriff.

The five children of Caleb and Elizabeth are as follows:

     1. Mary Montgomery married a James Ferrell on 23 March 1843, according to Fulton County, Indiana, marriage records. I have not found any records to indicate when either of them died, but there is a Sarah Ferrell in the household of Mary's sister and brother-in-law in 1850 and 1860.

     2. Sarah Montgomery (1824–1918) was born 27 December 1824 in Olivesburg. She and Henry Davidson (1818–1894) were married on 22 April 1841 in Fulton County, Indiana. They had six children; three sons and three daughters. Henry and Sarah took their family west on the Oregon trail in 1852.

     3. Theodore Montgomery (1826–1904) was born 12 September 1826 in Richland County, Ohio. He enlisted and served a year in the Mexican American War. He later returned to Fulton County, Indiana, and married Margaret Wilson (1831–1916) on 11 March 1849. They had four sons and a daughter.

     4. Porter Montgomery (abt. 1828) died in Vicksburg, presumably during the Civil War, but records have not been found to support that.

     5. Callin "Cal" Montgomery (1829–1912) was born in October 1829 and headed for California to become a gold miner. He lived in El Dorado County for many years and died in Napa in 1912. As far as I can tell, he left no family behind.

In coming weeks, we'll look at the descendants of Mary, Sarah, and Theodore.

As always, if you're a descendant of any of these folks, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at callintad (@gmail.com), post a comment below, or ask to join the Callin Family History group on Facebook.

A Crash Course in Colonial Geography

There is a lot to learn in pursuit of my most distant Callin ancestor, James Callin.

The Callin Family History places him in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, after the Revolutionary War, but I have been unable to locate the land records that might confirm this, or service records that contain any family information.

I have written before, in Lafayette on the Brandywine and A #HamiltonMusical Intermission, about the records showing a James Callin serving in the 4th Virginia Regiment of Foot. So, of course, that raises the question: if our guy lived in Pennsylvania, why did he serve in a Virginia Regiment?

There may be a good answer to that question.

Map of Ohio, Monongalia, & Yohogania Counties.
Yohogania County is in light blue.

Yohogania County was created by the new state of Virginia in 1776, in an area long disputed between Virginia and Pennsylvania. In 1773 the region had been designated Westmoreland County by Pennsylvania, and settlers were moving into the area from both directions. There were two men listed next to each other in the 1773 tax roles of Hempfield, in Bedford County, Pennsylvania: James Callen and Patrick Callen; Hempfield was located in the part of Bedford County that became part of Westmoreland County that year.

The disputed territories included the entire southwestern corner of what is now Pennsylvania, west of the Laurel Ridge (Allegheny Mountains) and south of the Kiskiminetas, Allegheny and Ohio rivers. The disputes over which colony had authority over the area led to overlapping land grants to settlers and battles between Virginians and Pennsylvanians in the period 1774–1775. In 1774, a Virginian militia group even attacked and captured the Westmoreland County seat at Hannastown and arrested three Westmoreland County justices who refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of Virginia.

On December 27, 1779, a resolution by the Second Continental Congress recommended to the two now-states of Virginia and Pennsylvania that, rather than continue to quarrel with each other as well as fighting the British, they should reach an agreement on the border situation. This was done in theory by an agreement reached by commissioners from both states in Baltimore in 1779 and ratified by the legislatures of both states in 1780. From 1782 to 1786, surveys demarcating the borders of Pennsylvania were completed. The areas of Yohogania County ceded to Pennsylvania included all of present-day Westmoreland County and parts of the present counties of Allegheny, Beaver, Washington, and Fayette.

The take away from this is that the James Callen listed in Hempfield in 1773 would have found himself living on land that was considered to be both Pennsylvania AND Virginia for more than a dozen years.

(There is a rather extensive history of the conflict, including more neat maps, at http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/paboundary.html).

Prior to the Revolution, the Virginia Regiment had a history of recruiting from Pennsylvania.  The Virginia militia was established in 1607 and the main purpose of the Crown's militia was to repel invasions and insurrections and to enforce the laws of the colony. Militia service in Virginia was compulsory for all free males.

In 1754 the Virginia General Assembly voted to raise a regiment of 300 men and send it to the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers to defend the area against encroachment from the French. Most of the recruits were characterized by the commander, a Colonel George Washington, as "loose, Idle Persons ... quite destitute of House, and Home." There were frequent desertions because of poor supplies, extremely low pay and hazardous duty, so Virginia Regiment recruiters went to Pennsylvania and Maryland for men.

In contrast, the Quakers who ran the government in Pennsylvania were pacifists, and were reluctant to support fighting in any way. According to one account, "a wagon load of scalped and mangled corpses was drawn past the State House" and a group of "...Presbyterian Scotch Irish, fortified by whiskey and prayers and armed with long greased rifles, descended with blackened faces and Indian costumes upon Philadelphia," to impress upon the Friends the desperate nature of their situation. "The Quaker utopia by the Delaware (River) finally opened its eyes, a bit, to the terrible glow of burning cabins on the frontier." (The Callen Chronicles*, quoting from Bedford Village, written by Harvey Allen).

If the James Callen who lived in Hempfield did enlist in a Virginia Regiment, that could be a reflection of his feelings about the Pennsylvanian government.

After the French and Indian War, the Virginia Regiment was disbanded in May 1763, but at the outset of the Revolutionary War, less than a decade later, a Congressional resolution passed on 14 June 1775 authorized ten companies of expert riflemen to be raised for one-year enlistments as Continental troops. Maryland and Virginia were to raise two companies each, and Pennsylvania six. Pennsylvania frontiersman, however, were so eager to participate that on June 22 Pennsylvania's quota was increased to eight.

As noted in previous posts, James and Edward Callin appeared in the muster rolls of the 4th Virginia Regiment, from 1777. The Regiment was raised on December 28, 1775, at Suffolk Court House, Virginia, for service with the Continental Army. The regiment saw action at the Battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and the Siege of Charleston. Most of the regiment was captured at Charlestown, South Carolina, on May 12, 1780, by the British and the regiment was formally disbanded on January 1, 1783. Edward was not seen on the muster rolls after 1778, and James had also likely completed his service in 1779, returning to his home in what would soon be undisputably Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Of course, pinning down exactly where he settled is still difficult, because there were many changes in the organization of Pennsylvania's counties both before and after the time we are searching in. What was called "Westmoreland County" depends on when you are asking. The records may simply not be available online, yet.

 - -- --- -- - 

*The 1773 Bedford County tax records for James and Patrick Callen and the muster rolls of James and Edward Callin, as well as a number of other miscellaneous records and the passage from Bedford Village are discussed in the Callen Chronicles, which is available in free/downloadable PDF format at www.callanfamily.net.

For a glimpse of how complicated the evolution of this area was, there are animated maps illustrating Pennsylvania county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Pennsylvania County Boundary Maps" (1673-1878) which may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Echoes & Rhymes

As you might know, I'm working on the manuscript of the revised Callin Family History. (Replicas of the original are still available on Lulu and Amazon.)

This project has already taken a year longer than I expected it to take, mainly because I found the family of Sarah Callin and John Scott (and yesterday was the anniversary of THAT post!). But I'm not complaining! After all, filling gaps in the record is what this hobby is all about.

The point is, as I'm putting together several years' worth of research, I'm seeing new clues that I missed before, and learning new things that may add even more people to the tree. And just this morning, I found a clue to another missing branch of the family.

For those of you who may be new to this project, here's what we know:

Detail from 1820 Census of Milton Twp
(Note the two Burget men here)

The original Callin Family History told us about two men, James and John Callin. They were brothers who settled in "Ashland County, Ohio" in 1810 and 1816, respectively. Their father was James Callin, a Revolutionary War soldier who lived in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

George Callin, who wrote the original Callin Family History, was the grandson of John Callin, and as I've researched the people he listed as John's children, I've found that the information about them he put in his book was fairly complete and accurate. If you refer to my earlier post, The Brothers Callin of Ohio, I included my analysis of John's family as it appeared in the 1820 and 1830 Census records for Milton Township, and James's family in 1820. (And in the process of drafting this post, I made a minor update to that one to reflect some of what we're talking about here.)

But when it came to James Callin's family, George's record was less complete. He listed only three sons of James and Mary, but the Census in 1820 showed that there were three more children in their family that we did not know about. Of course, there is always the chance that the younger people in a census record might not be related to the head of the household, and there is very little information in the 1820 Census to base a record search on, but we do what we can.

Thomas:

I don't have a lot to add about Thomas, except to note that he married Nancy Burget in 1823. We talked about their family in more detail in Tragic Thomas and there are some great Find-A-Grave photos collected in the update to that post.

Alec and James:

Just a quick recap of what little we know about Alec and James (the youngest son) - you can read a bit about them in The Pull of the West. But the thing I wanted to refresh everyone's memory on with regard to Alec is that the Callin Family History said that he took his mother (Mary) to Iowa with him and that she is buried in Muscatine in a grave that shares a marker with Callin Rayburn. (As discussed in this post.) We know he bought at least three parcels of land in Iowa, but haven't found him in the 1850 Census, as we should have expected. His fate and his descendants remain a mystery.

Hugh:

Detail from 1830 Census of Milton Twp.
(Note the surname "Montgomery" here)

If you don't want to click over and review, I can tell you here that the 1820 Census record for James Callin shows three children - one boy and two girls - who George did not list in his book. As I mentioned in that earlier post, I found Hugh in the 1830 Census in Milton Township, with a wife and two children under 5 years: one boy, and one girl. I also found his 1840 record in Louisa County, Iowa; they have two more daughters and one more son in that record, and the ages are close enough that I can believe this to be the same family. I also found several references to Hugh in the History of Louisa County by Arthur Springer.

Again, there is nothing there that proves he is the son of our James Callin, but Louisa County adjoins both Des Moines and Muscatine Counties, which is where Alec Callin purchased land in the 1840s and 1850s. I would have expected to find more records of Hugh - his marriage in Richland County, an appearance on the 1850 Census, or a death record of some kind - but to date, I have come up empty.


The New Kid:

Okay - now that we've got all of that background in place, here's what I found this morning:

Ohio Marriages, 1800-1958

Name:	Caleb Montgomery
Spouse's Name:	Elizabeth Callen
Event Date:	13 Aug 1822
Event Place:	Richland,Ohio

This is exciting and a little embarrassing. Obviously, it's exciting to find a clue - and this Elizabeth Callen is the right age to be the older of the two daughters in James Callin's 1820 Census record. It's embarrassing because it never occurred to me to go looking for her! I only ran across this record because I was hoping to find a marriage record for one of her brothers. And after all the fuss I've made about the way we erase women from history, I should have thought of doing that particular search years ago!

But there's more.

It didn't take long to start looking into Caleb Montgomery's family, and I learned a lot about them very quickly. The easiest way to share it all with you is to quote the relevant bits from the biographical sketch of Caleb and Elizabeth's son, Theodore (which can be found in the Fulton County, Indiana Handbook,  published by Tombaugh House, and available on the Fulton County Public Library's website):

Theodore "is a native of Richland County, Ohio, where he was born September 12, 1826. He is the son of Caleb and Elizabeth Montgomery, the former a native of Virginia, the latter of Pennsylvania. Caleb Montgomery, a pioneer from birth and a sturdy son of toil, was born June 23, 1799, in Virginia... His father, Benjamin Montgomery, was a native of Virginia, and a miller by trade. His mother, Nancy, was a native of the State of Delaware. They left Virginia when Caleb was a small boy, and settled in Richland County, Ohio, where they died, and where Caleb grew from a mere boy to a man of family. ... In 1820, he was united in marriage to Elizabeth Callen, a native of Pennsylvania, as before stated, born August 7, 1798 and a native of the same county as her husband. To these parents were born five children--Mary, now deceased; Sarah, now the wife of Henry Davidson, living in Halsey, Oregon; Theodore, of whom this sketch is concerned; Porter, deceased at Vicksburg, Miss.; and Callen, now interested in the mining business in Coloma, Cal. In 1834, Mrs. Montgomery deceased, leaving a mourning husband and family, and in 1836 he married Sarah L. Mercer, a native of Ohio, born in 1812."

The circumstantial evidence is very tantalizing. That 1798 birthdate makes Elizabeth just the right age to be the daughter of James and Mary, and their family would have still been in Pennsylvania at the time. This isn't proof, but it makes a strong case. Well, that and the fact that we aren't aware of another Callin/Callen family living in Richland County that she could belong to.

And then there are all of the historical "rhymes" - things that aren't quite proof of anything, but make up the fabric of a community like the one we have been researching in Milton Township.

It's worth commenting on the fact that Elizabeth and Benjamin named a son "Callen Montgomery." Remember that her theoretical mother, Mary, was buried in Muscatine, Iowa, next to a "Callin Rayburn"? Callin Rayburn's mother was Eleanor "Nellie" Callen, the daughter of Patrick Callen of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, and sister of the Hugh Callen who founded Callensburg in Clarion County, PA. We still don't know what the connection is between our Callin family and Patrick, but my hunch is that Mary Callin could have been born a Rayburn, or that her husband, James Callen, could be a cousin of Eleanor Callen Rayburn. With all of these coincidences, I keep hoping they will add up to something!

The Benjamin Montgomery described in Theodore's biography was the original settler of the town of Olivesburg, which he named for his daughter (Caleb's sister), Olive. Olivesburg, of course, is located in Milton Township, and the Montgomery family deeded land to the town for the Old Olivesburg Cemetery, which is where several of our Callin ancestors are buried.

And if you look again at that detail from the 1830 Census above, you can see a Jonathan Montgomery and a Levi Mercer listed above Hugh Callin. Coincidentally, Benjamin Montgomery and Sarah Mercer named their first child Levi M (for "Mercer"?) Montgomery.

Also, Olive Montgomery was married twice: once in 1812 to John Farrell, and again in 1843, to Boston Burget--quite possibly the same Boston Burget I theorized was a brother of Nancy Burget, the wife of Thomas Callin.

So, What Now?

If you happen to be a descendant of Caleb Montgomery and Elizabeth Callen, you might be able to help me prove our family connection with DNA. I am on FTDNA, and you can find my family tree here. Same goes for any Iowa descendants of these missing Callin boys, or their Rayburn cousins!

And, of course, you can always subscribe to this blog, or join our Callin Family History Facebook group if you want to be updated as I go.

Happy Hunting!

My Sixteen No. 10: Sarah Jane Bellamy

My Sixteen refers to my great-great grandparents. Or, to put it another way, the sixteen grandparents of my four grandparents.

Sarah Jane Bellamy was born in 1837 in Cabell County, Virginia. She died on 22 May 1920 in Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky. According to The Bellamys of Early Virginia, Sarah Jane was the daughter of Bennett Bellamy (1810-1867) and Jane West (1810–1858). They were married in Cabell County in about 1831, and Bennett appears as a head of household in that county on the 1840 U.S. Census. Bennett and Jane appear in the 1850 Census in Greenup County, with children Matthew (18), Nancy (16), Elizabeth (15), Sarah (13), Jesse (12), Thomas (10), Columbia (9), Joseph (7), Eliza (3), and "Claspa" (Cleopatra, age 1).

Cabell County was located on the western edge of Virginia, sitting just across the Ohio River from Lawrence County, Ohio. Boyd and Greenup Counties were located in Kentucky, on the other side of Lawrence County. By 1850, Bennett Bellamy's family was living in Greenup County.

Sarah married Joel Clark, a native of Lawrence County, in Greenup County on 17 October 1859, according to the Kentucky, Compiled Marriages, 1851-1900. They set up their home near Catlettsburg in Boyd County, just a couple of miles south of Ashland. This is where they were in 1860.

Kentucky was a key Union border state during the Civil War. Most of the fighting took place in the center of the state, far to the west of the Ashland area, but in the summer of 1861, Union troops under General George McClellan drove off Confederate troops, which essentially freed Unionists in the northwestern counties of Virginia to form a functioning government of their own. This rift led to the formation of a separate state, West Virginia, made up of 41 Virginia counties that had voted against secession--including Cabell County.

After the war, Joel and Sarah were living near Bellefonte Furnace in Greenup County in 1870, where they raised their family. In 1900 and 1910, Joel and Sarah were living in Oakview, Boyd County, and their eldest daughter, Hannah Fraley, lived with them in 1910. Joel died on 15 May 1915, and Sarah went to live with their son, Amos, and his wife, Effie, in Pollard, also in Boyd County. She died on 22 May 1920.

The Known Children of Joel and Sarah Clark

  The 1900 and 1910 Census collected information from women about the number of children they had given birth to, and how many of those children were still living. Sarah stated that she had given birth to 12 children, 11 of whom were still living in 1900; the same was true in 1910. The first four children below appeared in the 1870 Census; four others were identified in Kentucky and Ohio vital records which listed the names of the parents.

1. Hannah Elizabeth Clark Fraley (1860–1947) was born on 7 June 1860, probably near Catlettsburg, Boyd County, Kentucky. She married Samuel Rufus Fraley (1853–1940) on 8 May 1882 in Greenup County, Kentucky. They had two sons: Charles Monroe Fraley (1883–1967) and Isaac Joseph Fraley (1891–1968). Hannah died 30 April 1947 in Fayette County, Kentucky.

2. John Thomas Clark (1862–1954) was born 5 February 1862 in Ashland, Boyd, Kentucky. He married Temperance "Tempa" Lake (1871–1937) on 31 July 1890 in Lawrence County, Ohio. They had two sons: Luther George Clark (1891–1973) and Cecil A Clark (b. 1904). John died 1 April 1954 in Ashland, Boyd, Kentucky.

3. Julia Ann Clark Hughes (1863–1963) was born in Kentucky in February 1863. She married
John William Hughes (1852–1927) on 8 August 1883 in Greenup County, Kentucky. They had six children: Naaman Hughes (1884–1912), George Washington Hughes Sr (1886–1970), Sherman Hughes (1892–1970), Clara Ethel Hughes (1895–1958), Bessie Ann Hughes (1898–1996), and Theodore Roosevelt Hughes (1902–1988). Julia died 13 April 1963 in Athens, Ohio.

4. Joseph Bennett Clark (1867–1953) was born 15 September 1867 in Greenup County, Kentucky. He married Caroline Stanley (1876–1935) 21 February 1892 in Greenup County, Kentucky. Their children were Edgar James Clark (1893–1957), Kelly Clark (b. 1896), Earl D Clark (b. 1899), Tempa Clark (1902–1995), Stanley Albert Clark (1904–1950), Virginia Gross Clark (1909–1913), Hortense C Clark (1912–2001), and Lucille Clark (1914–2005). Joseph died on 20 June 1953 in Ashland, Boyd, Kentucky.

5. James Sylvester Clark (1868–1960) was born 27 December 1868 in Greenup County, Kentucky. He married Mary Ann Arthur (1876–1954) in 1897. They had two sons: Chester Leon Clark (1901–1983) and Arthur Harold Clark (1905–1981). James died 6 January 1960 in Portsmouth, Scioto, Ohio.

6. David Ulysses Clark Sr (1873–1948) was born in Greenup county, Kentucky, in 1873 (probably in June). He married Mary Ann Viceroy "Vicie" Reynolds (1879–1957) on 4 September 1898 "at the home of John Clark in Oakview" in Boyd County, Kentucky. The marriage was witnessed by John and Joel Clark. David and Vicie had many children: Opal Clark (1899–1932), Traxel Clark (1901–1961), Alma Clark (1903–1988), David Clark, Jr. (1905–1966), Sallie Clark (1908–1932), Thomas Ray Clark (1910–1933), Jennie May Clark (1911–1975), Jerry M Clark (1913–1996), Floyd Morris Clark (1915–1916), Victor F Clark (1918–1995), and my grandfather, Russell Hudson Clark (1920–2002). David died 9 January 1948 in Pulaski County, Arkansas; he was my great-grandfather.

7. Bertha Clark May (1875–1952) was born in June 1875 in Ashland, Boyd, Kentucky. She married Francis Marion May (1870–1946) 4 June 1892 in Boyd County, Kentucky. They had five children: Leonard Victor May (1894–1942), Joel DeWitt May (1897–1986), Verna May (b. 1901), Julia May (b. 1903), and Bettie M May (b. 1915). Bertha died 4 June 1952 in Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio.

8. Amos Clark (1877–1962) was born 19 February 1877 in Greenup County, Kentucky. He married Letitia Effie May (1880–1924) on 6 August 1899 in Lawrence County, Ohio. They had eight children: Rusie Clark (b. 1900), Nannie Ethel Clark (1901–1993), Charles Warren Clark (1905–1969), Golden Cecil Clark (1907–1929), Amos J Clark Jr. (1909–1981), Addie May Clark (b. 1911), Eugene Vernon Clark (1913–1985), and Doris Clark (1916–1999). Amos died 25 February 1962 in Pierce County, Washington.

9. Jennie Clark Smith (1878–1975) was born 29 September 1878 in Chinnville, Greenup, Kentucky. On 26 March 1899, she married William Thomas Smith (1876–1953) in Lawrence County, Ohio. They had seven children: Goldie A Smith (1900–1989), Myrl Raymond Smith (1901–1978), Roy Clark Smith (1904–1984), Dwight Avery Smith (1908–1978), Xelia Smith (1911–2000), Orville Edwin Smith (1912–2000), and Rebecca Jane Smith (1916–1995). Jennie died 15 December 1975 in Ashland, Boyd, Kentucky.

My Sixteen No. 9: Joel Clark

My Sixteen refers to my great-great grandparents. Or, to put it another way, the sixteen grandparents of my four grandparents.

Joel Clark was born on 13 December 1828 in Ohio and died in Oakview, Boyd County, Kentucky, on 8 May 1915 at the age of 86 years, 4 months, and 25 days. His parents were named on his death certificate in the Kentucky, Death Records, 1852-1965 database as Amos Clark (place of birth unknown) and Sarah Stumbo (born in Virginia).

According to this record in Ohio, County Marriages, (1789-2013), Amos Clark and Sally (which is a common nickname for Sarah) Stumbough were married on 8 April 1824 in Lawrence County, Ohio. Amos appears as head of his household on the U.S. Census, recorded in Perry Township in 1830 and 1840.

This map shows modern day Perry Township—one of twenty-six townships of that name in Ohio!—which lies in the central point at the bottom of Ohio.





As you can see, Perry Township sits across the Ohio River from Ashland, Kentucky.

I have also found 1850 and 1860 Census records for an Amos Clark from Perry Township, Montgomery County, Ohio, but Montgomery and Lawrence Counties are about 160 miles apart, and this Amos's wife's name is given as "Mary," so I am reasonably sure these records do not match our Amos. (I've marked those Ancestry hints as "Maybe" for now.)

There is also evidence of more than one Amos Clark living in the Boyd County/Lawrence County area: the local newspaper in Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio, ran several notices in the spring of 1853 advising potential heirs and creditors of the death of Amos Clark, and later had to run an additional notice reassuring everyone of the vitality of Amos B. Clark:

Amos Clark - still alive and kicking. Tue, May 31, 1853 – Page 2 · Spirit of the Times (Ironton, Ohio) · Newspapers.com

Unfortunately, I do not have enough definite information about Amos and Sally/Sarah to figure out where they were born or what happened to them after 1840. There is a Joel Clark listed in the 1850 Census; he and three others are listed as living in Upper Township, Lawrence County, Ohio. The head of the household is a Sarah Clark (age 28), and two other boys, Jackson (age 12) and George W. (age 4) are there--all born in Ohio. It's possible that this is our Joel and three of his siblings, but I don't say that with high confidence.

[Update: after a close examination of the image of the census record, and comparing notes with other researchers, I think that this 1850 record does show our Joel, two brothers, and his mother, Sarah; I think the first digit in her age was too faded for the transcriber to read correctly; she might have been "38" and not "28".]

Joel Clark married Penina E. Baywell on 14 April 1853 in Lawrence County, Ohio (see this record). Other than this marriage, I have not found any other records that name her. My assumption, for now, is that she died not long after their son (Jackson, named for his brother) was born.

Joel then married Sarah Jane Bellamy (1836–1920) on 17 October 1859 in Greenup County, Kentucky. Joel and Sarah appear in the 1860 Census living in Boyd County, Kentucky, near the Catlettsburg post office. The record includes two children, Jackson S. (age 6, born in Ohio) and Hannah E. (age 4/12, born in Kentucky).

On 14 July 1863 Joel enlisted for twelve months in the Union Army at Ashland. He served as a private in the 45th Regiment, Kentucky Infantry. First organized as a Battalion for service in the Eastern Counties of Kentucky and on the Virginia border, the 45th served until October 1863. They went to Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, and covered the front from Cumberland Gap to Louisa until March 1864. They saw action at Salyersville, Kentucky. They moved to Flemmingsburg in March 1864, and then to Irvine, Kentucky, operating south of that point until July. Joel seems to have re-enlisted at some point, as he was discharged in December 1865, after 2 1/2 years.

The 1870 Census showed the Clark family living near the Bellefonte (written on the census as "Belle Fonte") Furnace post office in Greenup County. Joel's occupation was listed as teamster; he and Sarah had four more children: John (8), Julia (6), Joseph (4), and James (2). There is a big gap in our story where the 1880 Census should be; I don't know why the family doesn't show up in any of the searches I've done, but we don't see them in online records for thirty years. In 1890, Joel appears on the Census Veterans' schedules, listed in Cannonsburg, Princess Township, Boyd County, but that database only lists the head of household.

In 1900, Joel and Sarah were living in Oakview, and operating a grocery. Their eldest daughter, Hannah (Fraley), was living with them in 1910; Joel was working as a real estate broker. He died on 8 May 1915 in Ashland and was buried in Ashland Cemetery. In 1920, Sarah was living in the Ashland, Kentucky, home of her son, Amos, with his wife, Effie, and their children; she died on 22 May 1920.

According to the 1910 Census, Sarah had a total of 12 children, 11 of whom were still living in 1910. I've only identified nine of them in the records mentioned here. One of those 12 children was very likely David Ulysses Clark Sr (1873–1948). Because I haven't been able to find the Clark family in the 1880 Census, I don't have any direct evidence confirming that he was the son of Joel and Sarah; I do have some indirect clues, though.

David married Mary Ann Viceroy "Vicie" Reynolds (1879–1957) on 4 September 1898 in Boyd County. According to their marriage record, their wedding took place "at the home of John Clark in Oakview" and was witnessed by John and Joel Clark. This John Clark appeared in Oakview in the 1900 Census and has a Kentucky death record which names his parents as Joel Clark and Sarah Bellomy.

David, Vicie, and Opal (their eldest child) appeared in the 1900 Census living in Oakview—and on the same page as an Amos Clark (age 23; wife, Effie, and daughter) and James Clark (age 30; wife, Mary). Amos and Effie May were married in 1899 in Lawrence County, Ohio, and their marriage record names his parents: Joel Clark and Sarah Bellamy.

None of this is concrete proof, but that much evidence is very persuasive. Unless I find some reason not to, I will conclude that David is the son of Joel, and grandson of Amos. My grandfather, Russell Hudson Clark (1920-2002), was the youngest son of David and Vicie.