The Browning Series -- Part Ten, or Susannah Browning and Isaac Fordyce Crago

With this post I continue what I call "The Browning Series." Samuel and Margaret Browning had thirteen children between them and after Margaret's death, Samuel chose a widow named Sarah Ann (Bell) Gaddis for his second wife. The two of them had two more children together. My plan has been to feature each one of the fifteen children in a separate post and finally tie the family together with a discussion of their parents.

This post is about Susannah Browning, the tenth child of Samuel Browning and Margaret Markee. She was born in 1833 in Harrison County, Ohio and lived in the county until she moved to Crawford County, Illinois with the rest of her family around the year 1851.

Prior to the Browning's move to Illinois from Ohio, two of Susannah's older brothers (Elias and Absalom) had married daughters of James Crago and Sarah Jennings Fordyce. The James Crago family had moved into Harrison County in the mid-1830's but had moved on to Defiance County, Ohio by 1850.

(For more information on the Crago family and descendants, refer to the Crago Connections website maintained by Brian Smith. The Crago family is of interest to me because three of James Crago's children -- Isaac F., Elizabeth and Susannah -- married into my Browning family.)

Absalom and his wife Susannah Crago decided to move to Defiance County, Ohio to join the Crago's. It's less certain what Elias Browning and his wife Elizabeth Crago chose to do but I have some evidence (their sons, born 1848-1853, claim OH as their birthplace) that indicates they chose to remain in Ohio. Though they're not on the 1850 census there, they may have also lived in Defiance County for a while. It's certain that Elias and Elizabeth were in Crawford County by 1855, though; Elias died and is buried there.

A couple of years later, in late 1853 or early 1854, Isaac Fordyce Crago (born 22 Feb 1825 in PA) journeyed to Crawford County from Defiance County. Isaac was Elizabeth and Susannah Crago's brother. Did Isaac travel to Illinois alone or did he come with his sister Elizabeth and her husband Elias Browning? I don't know. It's entirely possible he traveled with them but perhaps he came alone and stayed on to court and to marry Susannah. Whatever the circumstances of his arrival, Isaac and Susannah married in Crawford County on 9 November 1854. Their marriage license is to the left.

By October of 1855 Isaac and Susannah had moved back to Defiance County. I surmise this because Isaac isn't enumerated in the Illinois state census that year and their first child, son James T., was born in Defiance County in 1856. I'm fairly certain I can narrow it down to between June and October, though. I can't prove it but I've got circumstantial evidence that suggests that Isaac and Susannah lived in Crawford County until at least June of 1855. Isaac's sister Elizabeth lost her husband Elias that month. Elizabeth took her sons and moved back to Defiance County, Ohio almost immediately following Elias’s death since she and her four boys aren't found on the IL state census in October either. A single woman traveling with four boys might've been a trial at best, so it's my theory that Isaac and Susannah chose to accompany Elizabeth and her boys back to Defiance County.

Isaac and Susannah lived in Defiance County from about 1855 until around 1865. They jumped around a little during that decade -- perhaps they moved near the Defiance/Williams County line or might have actually lived in Williams County for a brief period. During their time in Defiance County they had three more children born there -- Emma Jane (b. 1857), Luella Clementine (b. 16 July 1859) and Mary Elizabeth Adeline (b. 5 Jul 1864.) Emma Jane's obituary says that she'd lived in Williams County and had moved from there to Noble County at the age of one, but unless the family lived in Defiance County in 1857, moved to both Williams County and Noble County, Indiana in 1858, and then moved back to Defiance County by 1859, this seems rather improbable. If the family did make a move to Williams County at any time it would most likely have been between 1860 and 1870 but besides this one mention of a probable Williams County tie, there's no other evidence I have to support the idea that the family ever lived in the county.

Wherever they lived prior to moving to Indiana, Isaac and Susannah and their children did move to Noble County, Indiana before 1870. They're enumerated in the 1870 census there and their last child, daughter Susannah Olliezona, was born in Noble County in 1871. Isaac and Susannah joined a number of family members in the move to Indiana. Isaac's sister Elizabeth had married William Pollock in Defiance County in October of 1856; by 1860 the Pollocks had moved to Noble County and by 1870 had settled in Elkhart County, Indiana. Susannah’s brother Absalom Browning and his wife (Isaac's sister Susannah) had also moved to Indiana around 1868, settling slightly northeast of the Cragos in neighboring Steuben County. In the 1870 census Isaac and Susannah were living in Sparta Township in Noble County. Living with them that year was their 18-yr. old nephew, John W. McConnell. John was from Harrison County Ohio and was Susannah’s sister Rachel (Browning) McConnell’s son.

Sometime between the years 1878 and 1880 the Crago family moved again, this time to Labette County, Kansas. While their two eldest daughters, Emma Jane and Luella Clementine, had married and decided to stay behind in Noble County, accompanying them to Kansas was their eldest son, James, his first wife Lorinda, and Isaac and Susannah’s two youngest daughters. The two families settled in Fairview Township in Labette County.

Isaac and Susannah lived in Labette County for the remainder of their lives. Their youngest daughter Susannah Olliezona died in the latter part of 1880 and Susannah herself followed shortly thereafter in 1881. Both were buried in the Labette City Cemetery.

These two deaths may have been the basis for Isaac and Susannah’s youngest surviving daughter’s move back to Noble County, where her elder sisters were. The couple’s eldest son James stayed in Labette County and Isaac himself lived alone for some time before he died in 1893. Isaac was buried beside his wife in the Labette City Cemetery in Labette County, Kansas. Isaac and Susannah's tombstones are shown above and to the right.

The Browning Series -- Part Nine, or Asbury Taylor Browning and Minerva Corderman

With this post I continue what I call "The Browning Series." Samuel and Margaret Browning had thirteen children between them and after Margaret's death, Samuel chose a widow named Sarah Ann (Bell) Gaddis for his second wife. The two of them had two more children together. My plan has been to feature each one of the fifteen children in a separate post and finally tie the family together with a discussion of their parents.

This post is about Asbury Taylor Browning, the ninth child of Samuel Browning and Margaret Markee. Asbury was born around the year 1831 in Harrison County, Ohio. Asbury lived with his family until at least the age of sixteen. I've never been able to locate him on the 1850 census.

There is some evidence to suggest that in his youth he may have visited relatives in Licking County, Ohio. Asbury's wife, Minerva Corderman, stated in her Civil War widow’s pension application that she “always knew him since he was a small boy.” As a child, Minerva had lived in Licking County. There were Browning families in Licking County as well (one of the Licking county Brownings, Van Browning, later also moved to Crawford County IL) so there is some circumstantial evidence to argue that these Brownings may have been some relation to Asbury’s father, Samuel.

Taylor, as he was commonly known, moved to Crawford County with the rest of his family around the year 1851. He married Minerva Corderman in Robinson on 23 May 1852. Minerva was the daughter of David Corderman and Sarah Viola Barron and was born in 1837 in Ohio. For more information on the Corderman family, please go here to get the scoop. That was the research that my cousin Pat (descendant of John Wesley Browning and Matilda Corderman, who were Taylor's brother and Minerva's sister) worked on.

Taylor and Minerva lived in Crawford County after they were first married and Minerva gave birth there to Olen Barron Browning on 21 Sept 1853. On 6 Apr 1856, when their second child (son Charles Otho) was born, Minerva’s sister Matilda (who married Taylor’s brother John Wesley Francis Browning) was their assistant midwife. Five months later, in September 1856, their son Olen died. The little boy was buried next to his paternal grandmother Margaret (Markee) Browning in the Wilkin Cemetery in Licking Township, Crawford County. The couple's third child, Manerva, was born in November of 1858.

Sometime between the time of Olen’s death in 1856 and the birth of their fourth child, Sarah Viola, on 2 August 1859, Taylor and Minerva moved from Crawford County to Cumberland County, Illinois. They originally settled in Prairie City. Prairie City was a small community that was located in Sumpter Township and was later renamed Toledo. By 1 March 1860 (when their daughter Manerva died) however, the couple were living in the town of Pleasantville in present-day Woodbury Township. Pleasantville was a small community annexed to the west of the town of Jewett and today no longer exists in the county. The road that presently goes south out of Jewett was the dividing line between Jewett and Pleasantville. Taylor and Minerva lived there next door to Minerva’s parents and may have moved to the township to be closer to the Corderman family. Taylor made his living as a carpenter.

In mid-April of 1861 the Civil War began. At the end of May the first Union casualty, Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, became a martyr to the cause when he was killed by the owner of an inn after tearing down a Confederate flag it was flying. The slogan “Remember Ellsworth” was popular in the North throughout the war and his death roused many a Northern man to enlist.

Likely Taylor was one of these men. He enrolled in the service of the Union and became a private in Company A, 5th Regt. Illinois Cavalry Volunteers. He enlisted in Prairie City, Illinois on 31 August 1861. Taylor is described in the company’s Muster And Descriptive Rolls as 5’10” with blue eyes, sandy hair, and a sandy complexion.

Taylor was stationed in Camp Butler IL until Feb 1862 and must have had at least one furlough back to visit Minerva as their fifth and last child, Emma Ellsworth, was born on 29 Sept 1862. The attending physician at Emma’s birth was Dr. John W. Lee. I feel fairly certain Taylor was honoring Elmer Ellsworth's memory and his strong feelings about the war by giving his daughter Emma the middle name of Ellsworth.

Taylor’s regiment served at the beginning of the war in and around Helena in Phillips County, Arkansas, and it was there that he came down with smallpox. His records state that he became ill on the 1st of April and died – accounts differ – on either the 19th or 20th of April, 1863. While both the company’s descriptive rolls and the adjutant general’s report state his death occurred on the 20th, his sergeant stated that it had occurred on the 19th. To me it seems most likely that Taylor had died on the 19th and his death went unreported until the following day. His burial location is unknown.

I don't know whether the entire family had moved from Pleasantville back into the Prairie City area at the time of Taylor’s enlistment in mid-1861, but certainly by the latter half of 1863 Minerva and her children had become residents. Minerva pursued a widow’s and a minor’s pension and claimed at the time of her pursuit that she was a resident of Prairie City. She received both pensions and was paid $14 a month until her last child, Emma, had reached the age of sixteen.

By July of 1865 Minerva and her children moved again and lived next door to her sister Matilda in Sumpter Township. I don't know how long Minerva remained near her sister but she remained in the county for the next couple of years before she married Matthew James Starbuck, the son of William Starbuck and Mary S. Hester, on 26 December 1867. Matthew was born on 11 April 1830 in Stokes County, NC and had served in Taylor’s company, Company A, 5th Regt. Illinois Cavalry Volunteers. He was first married to Jane Fulp, the daughter of Franklin Fulp, around the year 1848. Before Jane’s death in Cumberland County on 11 August 1866 the couple had nine children.

After their marriage Minerva, Matthew and the children moved to Greenup Township in Cumberland County. She filed for guardianship of her children with Asbury on 25 February 1868 under her married name, Minerva Starbuck, and her petition was granted on 29 June 1868. Minerva and Matthew may have one child that died around the year 1869 but they definitely had at least one known child, a son, David Clinton Starbuck, on 23 Sept 1871.

Minerva died in Cumberland County, Illinois on 7 May 1873. She may have been a victim of the national influenza outbreaks of the years 1873-1875. Her burial location is unknown. After her death Matthew and David moved to Benton Co., AR. Matthew died 18 May 1902 and was buried in the Gamble Cemetery in Centerton, Benton Co AR.

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For more about Asbury & Minerva's family:

1) Sarah Viola Browning and Emma Ellsworth Browning, their daughters

2) Charles Otho Browning, their only surviving son