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:
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| Detail from 1820 Census of Milton Twp (Note the two Burget men here) |
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:
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| Detail from 1830 Census of Milton Twp. (Note the surname "Montgomery" here) |
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!
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