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!
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| 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!
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