The Other Montgomery Connection

Hello, cousins!

Last week, I announced the discovery of Sarah Callin and laid out my evidence that she is the last unknown child in the family of James (1779-1820) and Mary (1768-1846) Callin of Milton Township, Richland County, Ohio. Now that I've had a chance to dig in and research the family of Jonathan and Sarah (Callin) Montgomery, let's jump right in.

Olivesburg and Richland County
(See the modern map on Google Maps)

Olivesburg

After becoming a state in 1803, a steady flow of settlers from the east began pouring into Ohio. The Callin Family History of 1911 says that James and John Callin, sons of "James 1st" the Revolutionary War veteran, moved to the area between what is now Richland County and Ashland County, in Milton Township.

The Callin families lived together on a farm near the village of Olivesburg, which was founded by Benjamin Montgomery in 1816 and named for his daughter, Olive. After James died in 1820, Mary Callin was listed as a founding member of the Hopewell Presbyterian congregation along with neighbors like Abraham Doty and Olivesburg's blacksmith, Abel Montgomery, a son of Benjamin Montgomery.

Both of Mary's daughters married younger brothers of Abel: Elizabeth married Caleb Montgomery in 1822, and Sarah married Jonathan Montgomery in 1824.

Jonathan Montgomery was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, on 5 October 1801. He was fourteen years old in 1815 when the Montgomery family moved to Richland County and settled in the woods, five miles from any neighbor and sixteen miles from a mill and store.

Sarah (Callin) Montgomery
1807-1830

Jonathan grew up with the country and in 1824 married Sarah Callin. They had three daughters together before Sarah's death on 31 December 1830. She was buried in the Old Olivesburg Cemetery.

Jonathan remarried on 7 August 1834, this time with Eleanor "Ellen" Eichard (1802–1858). The family continued to reside in Ohio where Mr. Montgomery was engaged in sawmills and grist mills until some time in 1850 when he became a merchant and postmaster of the town of Olivesburg. In 1850 he was elected County Commissioner.

Ellen died on 38 June 1858, and Jonathan found himself alone, as his three daughters had married. He went to California for a few months in the 1860s and then moved to Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana, where he made his home with his daughter, Huldah Walker.

Jonathan died on 13 February 1898 at nearly 96 years of age and was buried in the Rochester I.O.O.F. Cemetery.

Jonathan and Sarah's three daughters were:

1. Elvina Montgomery (1826–1869)
2. Huldah Montgomery (1829–1918)
3. Mary "Polly" Montgomery (1830–1926)

       I. Elvina Montgomery was born on 16 May 1827 in Richland County, Ohio. She was three years old when her mother died, and five when her father remarried, and she was raised by her father and step-mother in Olivesburg.

Elvina married Philip Huffman (1822–1890) in Richland County on 16 October 1845. Philip was a farmer born on 2 October 1822 in Ohio. After they married, the couple established a farm in Weller Township, Richland County, where they had their first three children during the 1850s. At some point between 1855 and 1860, they moved to Indiana and were living near Rochester when their fourth child was born. Sadly, the baby died from a diphtheria infection - what the local newspaper referred to as "Black Canker."

Philip and Elvina had two more children, but Elvina died on 24 August 1869, when the youngest was only four years old. Philip moved his family from Rochester to Warsaw, Kosciusko County, Indiana, where they appeared on the 1870 Census. Philip hired a housekeeper named Mary (Goodwin) Woodward (1835–1920) and he married her on 24 December 1872.

Mary was the widow of a Union Army private named John Woodward; they had married in 1858 and had a daughter, Margaret, the following year. John enlisted in 1862 and while he was away, Margaret died in February 1863. John came home to Warsaw on a furlough, caught sick, and died that August.


Tragically, Philip had to watch each of his five surviving children succumb to tuberculosis, starting with 17-year-old Amelia in 1871 and 23-year-old Silas in 1872. They were buried with their mother in the Rochester I.O.O.F. cemetery. They were followed by 24-year-old Oliver in 1879 and 15-year-old Izora in 1880, both of whom were buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Warsaw.

     A. Silas L Huffman (1849–1872)
     B. Amelia C Huffman (1854–1871)
     C. Oliver N Huffman (1855–1879)
     D. Martin Huffman (1860–1860)
     E. John Huffman (1861–1885)
     F. Izora Huffman (1865–1880)


John was the last to die, at 24 years of age. Philip followed on 27 February 1890. They, too, are buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

Mary remained in the home in Warsaw until she died on 1 November 1920. She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

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This was a sad one, but we'll continue with Elvina's sisters next week. Just be glad we have vaccines, now, and we have figured out how to combat wasting diseases like "consumption."

As always, if you've found one or more of your relatives mentioned in this blog, please get in touch. You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.

We have many ways to get in touch:

a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MightierAcorns/
a Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/MightierAcorns
a Ko-Fi cup - https://ko-fi.com/mightieracorns


...and if you prefer a private group, we still have the Callin Family History group on Facebook for "cousins only" (there will be a question about how you're related to the family before you can join).

Until next time... Happy Hunting!

Here We Go Again

Happy Valentine's Day, cousins!

Well, I have another breakthrough to announce -

If you've followed this blog for a while, you may have noticed some patterns emerging around the two Callin families who settled in Richland County, Ohio. I've noticed them, too. The same names keep popping up in the records and local histories, and while they never quite give me all of the details I would need to paint a complete picture, they give me an outline that I try to fill in.

The Callin brothers, James and John, settled in Milton Township, Ohio, in 1810 and 1816, respectively, and while neither man lived very long, their families became part of the growing community.

Their children and their neighbors probably attended the same church. The Hopewell Presbyterian congregation organized in 1817 and among several others, listed James's widow, Mary Callen, as a member. That church also elected Abraham Doty, who appeared on the same 1820 Census record as the Callin brothers, as an elder.

Benjamin Montgomery established the village of Olvesburg in 1816, naming it after his daughter. Benjamin and his wife, Nancy, later deeded the property to the village for building a school, a church, and a cemetery - the Old Olivesburg Cemetery, in which so many of our Callin descendants are buried.

Elections in 1817 made Benjamin Montgomery a township trustee and John Ferrell "an appraiser of property"; and by 1821, several businesses were established:

Benjamin Montgomery kept a tavern, Abel Montgomery [Benjamin's son], a blacksmith shop; John Gun, a tailor shop; Thomas Beach, a cabinet shop, and Joseph Burget, a tannery. The town is on the left bank of the Whetstone creek, about two miles north of its junction with the Blackfork of the Mohican. (from Baughman's History of Richland County, Ohio, page 417)

You should recall that Benjamin's son, Caleb, married Elizabeth Callin, who I believe to be the daughter of James and Mary Callin. I made my case for that assumption in 2018, and we just finished cataloging their descendants this month. Benjamin's daughter, Olive, for whom the village of Olivesburg was named, was married twice: first to a John Ferrell (possibly the "appraiser of property" mentioned above?), and later to a Boston Burget. Elizabeth's brother, Thomas Callin, married a Nancy Burget in 1823, and Elizabeth's daughter, Mary, married a James Ferrell in Fulton County, Indiana, in 1843.

Because of the implications of these relationships, I started digging to find out more about the Montgomery, Ferrell, and Burget families in Milton Township. While I was digging, I found an obituary for Jonathan Montgomery, another of Benjamin's sons, posted on Find-A-Grave:

Jonathan MONTGOMERY was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, October 5, 1801, when that now great and populous state was still a territory and when the public highways were only Indian paths. He lived with his parents in Jefferson county until he was fourteen years old when they moved to Richland county, Ohio, and settled in the woods, five miles from any neighbor and sixteen miles from a mill and store. There he grew up with the country and in 1824 married Miss Sarah CALLIN. Three daughters were born as a result of that union...

This is far from concrete proof, but I think I know who this Sarah Callin is!

detail from 1830 Census
Milton Township, Richland County, OH

Sarah Montgomery was buried in (where else?) Old Olivesburg Cemetery, and her headstone reports that her date of death is 31 December 1830, "aged 23 years, 8 months, 7 days." This puts her birth date on 24 April 1807 - which is precisely in the age range of the remaining unidentified female in James Callin's 1820 household.

Coincidentally, Jonathan Montgomery also happens to be one of the names listed as one of Milton Township heads-of-household in 1830 - on the same page as several Callin families: John (Sarah's uncle), Thomas (her brother), Mary (her widowed mother), and Hugh (another brother).

I have yet to uncover a marriage record or any documents from before 1830 that affirmatively tie Sarah to our Callin family, but if we accept that Elizabeth and Hugh are children of James and Mary, then that means that every record we have found and every Callin name mentioned in the local histories to this point has turned out to be someone related to one of the two Callin brothers. The fact that the only remaining "unknown daughter" has a convenient birth date suggests very strongly that Sarah is that person.

Just to sum up, this is all the evidence I have for this theory:

• one mention of her maiden name in her husband's obituary
• a birthdate calculated from her headstone
• the Indiana death certificate for Sarah's daughter (Mrs. Huldah Walker), which gives Huldah's mother's maiden name as "Sarah Callin" and birthplace as "Ohio."
• the circumstantial evidence of a girl of this age living in the household of James Callin in 1820.

I have a lot of work to do to, tracing the descendants of her three daughters, but if you come back next week, we'll get started on them!

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Yes, this discovery will delay the book, as adding one more person to that early generation will throw off the outline - but I think you'll agree, it's worth it to have a more complete picture in the end! The good news is that if my reasoning is sound, this should be the last child of James or John Callin left out there to find.

Time will tell.

As always, if you've found one or more of your relatives mentioned in this blog, please get in touch. You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.

We have many ways to get in touch:

a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MightierAcorns/
a Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/MightierAcorns
a Ko-Fi cup - https://ko-fi.com/mightieracorns


...and if you prefer a private group, we still have the Callin Family History group on Facebook for "cousins only" (there will be a question about how you're related to the family before you can join).

Until next time... Happy Hunting!

The Montgomery Brothers and the Gold Rush

Welcome back, cousins!

We spent the last year and a half (give or take) since The Montgomery Connection learning everything we could about the Montgomery family, but we still don't know a lot about these last two great uncles. In fact, when it comes to one of them, I feel like I haven't learned much more than what we saw in the biographical sketch about their brother, Theodore:

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.

(from the Fulton County, Indiana Handbook, published by Tombaugh House)

 When records can't be found, we have to make some guesses, and today's story starts with a lot of guesses.

Porter Montgomery (b. ca. 1828)

I have determined that Porter was born around 1828, because most biographies (like that attached to Theodore) list children or siblings in order of birth. We know that these two younger Montgomery boys had to be born before their mother's death in 1834, so they were almost certainly born in Richland County. Since we have a pretty good idea when his (we assume) younger brother Cal was born, and since we know how human biology works, 1828 is a good guess for Porter.

As for the rest of Porter's story, the line "deceased at Vicksburg, Miss." suggests that he might have died in the Civil War. The Siege of Vicksburg was considered a turning point in the war, taking place in the spring and summer of 1863. Porter would have been about 35 years old, so it's possible that he was there, but I haven't been able to place him there with any certainty. For one thing, there is only one record of a Porter Montgomery in the National Parks Service's Civil War Soldier database, and that person served in the 8th Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry (37th Volunteers) - which never saw service south of Virginia.

Also, the Civil War took place from April 1861 through April 1865, so if he was alive during that time, we should expect to see Porter appear somewhere in the 1850 and 1860 Census. Instead, we find no records of a Porter Montgomery who matches our boy in any of the databases.

It's possible that, like his older brother, Theodore, Porter might have served in the Mexican War in the 1840s - and if he died in that war, he would not appear in a later census - but that war wouldn't have placed him in Vicksburg. Of course, he could have gone to Vicksburg for any number of reasons at any other time, and we may have simply not found such a record, yet.

But, as I said, these are all just guesses - at least for Porter.

Callin "Cal" Montgomery (1830–1912)

 Cal Montgomery was born in October 1829, according to the 1900 Census - which I have found can be off by a year in either direction as often as it is correct. His other appearances in the census records put his birth "abt 1831," so I suspect the correct birth date is October 1830.

(The 1900 Census was the first one to ask for a month and year of birth, but I suspect most census takers asked "how old are you?" and then did the math - which would explain why they would be a year off for people who were born in months after the one during which that census was been taken.)

We do not know much else about Cal's early life. He certainly lived in Rochester after his father remarried and moved there around 1837. Cal was not named as one of the members of his brother's party when Theodore traveled to the gold country around 1849; but Cal would have been 20 at the time, and since there is no 20-year-old Callin Montgomery listed in Rochester on the 1850 Census, it seems likely that he either accompanied his brother's party, or set out on his own soon after.

The earliest record we have for Cal is a "C Montgomery" listed in Coloma, El Dorado County, California, on the 1860 Census: born abt 1831 in Ohio, which most likely means he was born in Richland County, Ohio.

19th century placer miner (Wikipedia)

Military records suggest that he enlisted in the Union Army, serving in Company F of the 4th Regiment, California Infantry on 16 October 1861. He was stationed at Benicia Barracks in 1863, and he mustered out on 26 August 1864 at Drum Barracks.

After the war, he returned to Coloma, appearing in the 1870 Census as a saloon keeper with a wife, Laura S, age 18. While he gave the same birth date (abt. 1831), he gave his place of birth as Indiana. I'm inclined to think that one census taker probably asked that question as, "where were you born" and the other asked "where are you from" - and Cal would have been about 7 or 8 years old when his father moved the family to Rochester, Indiana.

1870 is the only time we see Cal married. Laura, who was recorded as being "3/4 white" and born in California, does not appear in any other records. By 1880, Cal was listed as single again, living in Gold Hill, El Dorado County, and working as a placer miner.

Numerous voter registration records and occasional mentions in The Record-Union of Sacramento over the years establish Cal as the kind of colorful side character you might see in an old western. He was the ol' prospector who passed word of a generous stranger in Coloma to a Wells Fargo official in Placerville, thus helping authorities solve a stage coach robbery. He was the grubby old timer who dealt with the remains of a Chinese man who was suffering from leprosy and committed suicide, leaving a corpse no one wanted to go near hanging in remote cabin. (Fair warning: that story was written to sell papers, not to pay respects to the dead.) 

Cal lived in El Dorado county until he was in his eighties, appearing on the 1910 census at a Pilot Hill address in Greenwood. The California, Death Index, 1905-1939 records his death on 3 October 1912 in Napa County, California. When he died, someone had him buried in Veterans Memorial Grove Cemetery in Yountville, Napa County, and I did find his Find-A-Grave memorial.

Callin Montgomery, on
Find-A-Grave

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So there you have it: unless we make another major breakthrough and open up another years' worth of research, I think we have tracked down as many of James Callin's descendants as is currently possible. I've already re-started the process of compiling all of the information in these blog posts into book form, and I expect it will probably take several months (if not a full year) to copy-edit and proofread all of it.

Though I'm not sure quite what to do next, I don't plan on abandoning this blog. I hope to turn my attention to puzzles and problems in other branches of my family, and I'd love to figure out a way to bridge the focus from the very specific "people I'm related" and the very general "here is how to do a genealogy" so this blog can be more useful to more people. I'm open to ideas!

As always, if you've found one or more of your relatives mentioned in this blog, please get in touch. You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.

We now have more ways to reach out:

a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MightierAcorns/
a Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/MightierAcorns
a Ko-Fi cup - https://ko-fi.com/mightieracorns


...and if you prefer a private group, we still have the Callin Family History group on Facebook for "cousins only" (there will be a question about how you're related to the family before you can join).

Until next time... Happy Hunting!