We start my series of posts about the families whose names are in my Hair Book with the Emery family.Thomas Emery was born in 10 July 1814 in Ohio and married Mary Plymell -- born 13 May 1817, the daughter of James Plymell and Margaret (rumored to be half Wyandot, a Native American tribe) -- on 17 October 1838 in Marion County, Ohio. His parents are currently unknown.
To put this in perspective (and to better clarify her relationship to the two women who filled out the Hair Book) -- Mary Plymell was my 3rd-g-grandmother Delinda Jane Plymell's sister; hence, she was Eliza Ursula (Nichols) Swan's aunt and Estella Jane (Swan) Browning's great aunt. Mary is my 3rd great-grandaunt.
Thomas and Mary had the following children:
1) Elton Amos Emery (b. c1840 Marion Co., OH , never married, d. 22 Dec 1907 MT)
2) Alzina D. Emery (b. c1842 IL, m. John H. Hatchett 19 Dec 1867 in Macon Co., IL, d. 25 Sep 1898, bur El Paso Cemetery, Derby, Sedgwick Co KS)
3) Lorinda Emery (b. c1847 IL?)
4) Mary A.Z. Emery (b. c1849 IL?)
5) Elmer Francis Emery (b. 3 Jul 1855 IL, m. Fanny G. Parker 14 Aug 1881 in Sedgwick Co., KS, d.14 Jan 1933 bur El Paso Cemetery, Derby, Sedgwick Co KS)
Thomas Emery is found living in Marion Township in Marion Co., OH in 1840. He is listed as 20 -under 30. Living with him is Mary his wife (20 - under 30), a male under 5 (an unknown son who died before 1850 or most likely Elton Amos b. c1840), a female (5 - under 10), and a man listed as 50 - under 60. I don’t know who the older man is (perhaps Thomas’s father?) but the young female can only be Olive Ann Plymell, Mary’s youngest sister. By 1837 Mary’s parents had died. As Olive Ann Plymell (aged 7 in 1840) was found living with Thomas and Mary ten years later in the 1850 census, it stands to reason she’s the young female in the 1840.
By 1850 the couple and their children had settled in Crawford Co., IL, probably because Mary’s Plymell relatives were already there. They lived in Crawford County at least ten years (showing up on both the 1850 and the 1860 censuses) and during that time Mary’s sister Olive Ann Plymell died (on 2 Feb 1858) and was buried in the New Hebron Cemetery
in Crawford County. By 1870 the Emery’s had moved to Decatur in Macon Co., IL. In 1871 they moved again, going overland by wagon to Wichita, KS. They settled in Rockford Township in Sedgwick Co., KS and lived there until 1882, when they sold their farm and moved to the nearby city of Mulvane, KS to join their youngest son Elmer and his family. Mary died on 18 Jan 1889 and Thomas followed on 9 Mar 1893. Thomas and Mary are buried in the El Paso Cemetery in Derby, Sedgwick Co KS. (Their headstone picture at right was taken by Kyle on Find-A-Grave in 2004 -- he deserves all the credit I can give him for his volunteer efforts there.)There is some confusion about Thomas and Mary’s children -- meaning, how many did they actually have? 5…….or 4?
Mary A.Z. Emery and Lorinda Emery show up on two different censuses but neither girl shows up on a census with the other. The 1850 census shows a 1-yr old girl named Mary A. Z. born in IL. The 1860 census doesn't show a Mary A.Z. (who should be around 11 yrs old) but does list a Lorinda, aged 12 (the census says born in OH but it’s an obvious enumerator error; two of her siblings suffer the same error.) The confusion lies because Lorinda is NOT listed on the 1850, where she should be, but is on the 1860. There’s argument to be made that Lorinda Emery could have a year of birth c1847 and have a year of death after the 1860 census, and have a sister named Mary A. Z. Emery with a year of birth c1849 and a year of death prior to the 1860 census, but....is it possible that the 1-yr old “Mary A. Z.” on the 1850 is the “Lorinda” on the 1860?
I’ve looked for further information on either girl (marriages, deaths, etc, in the counties in which their family lived) to no avail. Perhaps I won’t ever know. What I DO know, though, is that Lorinda Emery DID exist. Her name is in the Hair Book and in a script that's a perfect match to another entry (that of Nathan A. Plymell) dated 1861. Elton’s and Elmer’s, dated 1860, are as well. But Mary’s? No. Does that mean she died too early and wasn’t old enough to have been included in the book? Perhaps. But for me, I’m inclined to think that Mary and Lorinda are one and the same. Call it a hunch.
Lastly, to address another few entries in the Hair Book that connect to the Emery family -- Flossie Hatchett and Nellie Hatchett. These two names were written in the hand of the Hair Book’s second author, whom I’m confident is Estella Jane (Swan) Browning, born 1874. Flossie (probably Florence) and Nellie Hatchett were Stella’s second cousins, granddaughters of Thomas and Mary (Plymell) Emery. Florence was born in IL in Nov 1870 and Nellie was born in KS in 1873. I don’t know when Stella got the hair samples from both girls that she sewed into the book, but Florence died in KS in 1880 at the age of 10 and Nellie went on to marry McEnsie Cockrell on 7 Jan 1894 in Sedgwick Co KS before she died in Dec 1958. Hmmm, perhaps it wasn’t Stella who sewed Flossie’s sample in; she was only 6 when Flossie died! That means there’s a third author and the writing styles are very similar…
Next time, the Vanes (though I've covered them already in some detail and will be highlighting those older posts as well)!
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