More on Christian...

In further correspondence with Mike Merritt I've learned a bit more about the slave woman, Christian. She was originally owned by Joseph Nichols of Campbell Co VA, the father of Nancy (Nichols) Magann. He gifted her to Nancy and her husband Pleasant in a deed dated 16 October 1813 in Bedford Co., VA. I don't have the entire transcription but I do have the following:

"...a negro girl named Christian about fifteen years of age with her increase and after my said Daughter Nancy Magann's death then the said Negro girl Christian to descend with her Issue to my said Daughter Nancy Magann's six children above named and equally divided among them..."

So Christian was born c1798.

It also appears that Pleasant Magann died in early 1821. A document dated 19 Feb 1821 between Lewis Magann of the County of Bedford and a few other men whose names are difficult to read (it appears to be John Board Jr, Brooker Preston and Samuel Agnor???) mentions Christian again. The document appears to be disposing of Pleasant Magann's property and possessions. Pleasant's son Lewis Magann received the majority of it. The mention of Christian is right at the end of all that. Lewis sold everything, as well as Christian, to the new owners.

If this is correct then Joseph Nichols' wish for Christiann (then about 23 years old) and her increase to stay within the Magann family was carried out, but only barely. Joseph Nichols' will stated he wanted Christian and her children to be inherited by Nancy's six children equally. Lewis inherited Christian at least. However, Joseph's will did NOT state that Lewis had to keep them! He certainly didn't hang on to her long but disposed of her rather rapidly, adding insult to injury by splitting up the family she had (if she had any children at all by that time) as he did so.

I am wondering if the rest of Joseph's last wishes were carried out. Christian and her increase were supposed to be all kept by the Maganns. If Christian had any children did the other Magann family members keep them? I just don't know right now.

I am curious, however....Joseph was intent on having Christian stay in the family. She was 15 at the time of his death and had no children but he provided for such eventualities by giving her a special mention in his will and, it seems, special directives for her AND her children. As mentioned in WDYTYA and in many other places, does this seem to suggest that Joseph Nichols or one of his sons was Christian's father? If that's the case, then if this Joseph ends up being the grandfather of my Joseph Nichols (and therefore my 5th g-grandfather) -- then I have African American cousins. I sure would like to find out what happened to all of them!

So in the course of a week or two I've went from discovering that most likely I have ancestors that owned slaves (if this Joseph is, indeed, my John's father), to learning that these owners might very well have left African-American descendants that I have blood ties to. The discovery is both disturbing and thrilling all in one breath. I feel sad at the very human tragedies that unfolded, and indignant at them, while also resigned to the fact that human history has been and, even though we know better, will still be full of such things. The cruelties that human beings are capable of committing upon each other is simply astounding, isn't it? Yet through all those sad and mad feelings, the fact that I might have new cousins? Well, I can never be unhappy about that.

Civil War: It Was 145 Years Ago Today, And A Sobering Discovery

Today marks the 145th anniverary of the end of the Civil War. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.

Most of us have ancestors or brothers of our ancestors that were involved in the Civil War in some way or another. I certainly do. Without access to my TMG database I can't recall all of them, but off the top of my head I can think of a few: David Eagleton and Joseph Browning, two of my direct grandfathers. Asbury Taylor Browning, Samuel D. Hoy, William Hoy, and Thomas N. Browning are some other relatives of mine that were involved. All these men fought for the Union.

I've spent so much time on so few lines -- 10 years dedicated to just one family -- that a lot of the rest of my ancestral lines are poorly researched and recorded. I've tried on occasion, and been interested in particular branches for short periods of time, but I always come back to my Brownings. It's definitely lack of research that made me believe that my ancestry was both firmly Union and firmly anti-slavery.

Well, I was wrong.

Until yesterday I'd never found any solid proof that any of my ancestors were slave owners. Then, in some correspondence with Mike Merritt, who found me via this blog! -- and who is a descendant of Thomas Merritt (father of Susanna Merritt, who married my John Nichols c1804 in Bedford Co., VA) he sent me the following notation in the deed records of either Amherst, Bedford, or Campbell Co., VA (I will find out which very soon):

10/16/1813 - Children of Pleasant Magann and Nancy Nichols. Nancy’s 6 children are mentioned in a 10/16/1813 deed giving Nancy a slave by her father Joseph Nichols. Lewis Merritt was a witness. – source??

This deed reference clearly indicates that Joseph Nichols -- whom we believe to be the father of John Nichols and the grandfather of my Joseph Nichols -- gifting a slave to his daughter Nancy and her husband. I am going to find that deed reference and when I do, I'll get the entire deed and see if the slave's name is mentioned. If it is, I'll put it here in my blog and do my small part in giving more names to those who had none.

In the meantime, remember those who fought in the Civil War today. My own thoughts today are now not only of the ancestors that I have that fought in this war, but of the new ancestry I've found and contemplating how I feel about finding out that I, too, have slave owners in my ancestry. I know that I shouldn't feel surprised at all -- goodness, as genealogists we should know better than anyone how vast the networks of ancestry really are! -- but when you find it, it hits home. You tease your teenagers about their inability to think past the "this'll never happen to me" idea.....and you find, after all, that you can do it too.

The Hair Book Families pt 3 - The Nichols Family

We continue my series of posts about the families whose names are in my Hair Book with the Nichols family.

Joseph Nichols was born in Greenbrier Co., VA (now WV) on 20 October 1823 and died in Crawford Co., IL on 12 Jan 1912. According to his death certificate he was the son of John Nichols and Susan Merritt.

According to an article printed in the Robinson (IL) Daily News on 4 Sept 1973, "The great-grandfather Nichols (John) had migrated from Natural Bridge, Va. He was one of the few migrants in the overland party left from the ravage en route of that year's Spotted Fever epidemic."

Natural Bridge now lies on the border of Botetourt County and Rockbridge County in Virginia. If this account is an accurate one -- and I'm not sure how accurate it actually is -- John Nichols must have lived in Botetourt County prior to the 1830 census. His son Joseph was born in Greenbrier County in 1823, though, so if this is accurate John must've moved back and forth. It's not beyond the realm of possibility, of course.

I haven't done much research in regards to John's life before he moved to Crawford County yet. He is found living in Greenbrier County VA in 1830 and by 1840 he is residing in Crawford County, IL. I located a marriage between a John Nichols and a Susanna Merritt in Bedford Co., VA on 12 Dec 1804. I'm not at all certain this is the correct couple. Bedford County does border Botetourt Co, though. Hm....

Joseph came to Crawford County with his parents by 1831, when his father John purchased land from Wilson and Nancy Lagow. As I've posted on this blog before, on 7 Nov 1831 John Nichols purchased 40 acres (the SW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Sec 2, T6N, R12W) in Robinson Township in Crawford County. By the April term of 1849, though, John had died. His lands were due to be divvied up in 1/7 increments to his heirs -- his daughters Lucinda (the wife of John Guinn), Mary (the wife of Wiley Emmons), Levisa (the wife of Abel Mann), and Eliza Jane (the wife of George Hartwell); his granddaughter Eliza Ann (infant daughter of Reuben Nichols, deceased), and his sons Merritt and Joseph. This division never happened, though, because the court's commissioners decided that the lands were "so circumstanced that a division thereof cannot be made without manifest prejudice to the proprietors thereof."

It was decided by the Court that the land would be sold at public venue by James H. Steel as commissioner, the sale being at the courthouse door in the town of Robinson. This was done on 9 June 1849 and Joseph purchased the entire 40 acres at the sale for $249, with an initial $88 up front at the time of sale. The rest was to be paid by June 1850.

Joseph married Delinda Jane Plymell -- born 21 Jul 1822, the daughter of James Plymell and Margaret (rumored to be half Wyandot, a Native American tribe) -- on 24 Dec 1844 in Crawford County, Illinois. I've featured this family a couple of times on my blog already. Joseph and Delinda -- along with a picture of their tombstone -- can be found HERE. Above is my favorite picture of Joseph. I've cropped it; it is actually a 5x7 sheet. It's completely striking. Everyone must've stayed incredibly still to get such precise detailing!

Joseph and Delinda had the following children:

1) Eliza Ursula (b. 6 Jul 1847, m. James Madison Swan 4 Aug 1873, d. 16 Feb 1931)
2) Missouri Ann (b. 30 Apr 1849, d. 11 Sep 1933)
3) Jane (b. 4 May 1859, d. 11 May 1859, bur New Hebron Cem., Crawford Co IL)


Eliza Ursula was the first author of the Hair Book and was my 2nd great-grandmother. Her daughter Estella Jane was the second author of the Hair Book and was my great-grandmother.

Only one other Nichols family member other than Delinda, Joseph, Eliza Ursula and Missouri is mentioned in the Hair Book. This family member is Ann Nichol. I'm not certain who she is but I believe she may be the "Eliza Ann, infant daughter of Reuben Nichols (deceased)" that is mentioned in the original deed between John Nichols and Wilson Lagow. At the time of her inclusion in the Hair Book she would have been around 11 or 12 years old and would have been Eliza Ursula's first cousin.

Next time, the Plymell family itself (though I've covered them already in some detail and will be highlighting those older posts as well)!

Treasure Chest Thursday - My Hair Book (c1859)

(Hmm, my posts are making a habit of becoming a day late and a dollar short....)

The family heirloom I've been mentioning lately (and posted a picture of in my last entry) is a small black book that belonged to my great-great grandmother Eliza Ursula Nichols, the daughter of Joseph Nichols and Delinda Jane Plymell. Eliza was born in 1847 in Crawford Co., IL, and it is there that the book has its origins.

This book is made of some sort of stock lined with something resembling a thin piece of fabric that gives it some amount of flexibilty. Though the picture of the front cover that I posted yesterday might give the impression that it's made of leather, it's not. It's on the small side and can fit in the palm of your hand with just a little bit hanging out over each side.

There are a total of 61 pages, each page lined like today's notebook paper. Not all the pages are filled in and some of the pages are sewn together. Names are written on the bottom of many of the pages, some with dates beside them and some without. The earliest date in the book is 1859 and the latest is 1861. Although it's obvious there are later entries, none of those are dated. There are 41 different names in the book and some are repeated more than once. It's quite apparent that two people wrote the names in the book; there are two vastly different writing styles represented. The first style is written in dark brown or black ink that has faded to brown and was almost certainly written with a quill pen. The handwriting is spidery and rather severe. The second style is in pencil and the handwriting is larger, more open and loopy.

The first writer I can definitively identify because I have samples of her writing -- she was Eliza Ursula (Nichols) Swan, born 1847. If I were to hazard a guess as to the identity of the other, later writer, I'd say she was Eliza's daughter Estella Jane (Swan) Browning. Though I can't say for sure I feel very safe in assuming she's the second writer because one of the entries refers to "My Gramma DJ Nichols" and Estella was Delinda's only surviving grandchild. Estella died young and her mother Eliza moved in with her spinster sister Missouri. Both women lived in the same house together for the majority of their lives and helped raise Stella's boys -- my grandfather and his two brothers -- after their mother's untimely death. That second author (Estella, in my estimation) filled some of the pages in with names of friends and relatives.

What makes this book truly unique, though, is WHY the pages are sewn together. Dotted throughout the book are samples of hair sewn onto the pages, mostly with thread but every so often with ribbon. The hair samples belong to the person whose name is listed under the sample. My grandmother always called it a Hair Book and told me she remembered people making such things when she was small (in the early 1900's.)

I can't adequately describe how I feel about this book. Awe, most certainly, and wonder too. It gives me such a feeling of connection to my ancestors when I can reach out and trace the contours of a braided piece of my 3rd great-grandmother Delinda Jane (Plymell) Nichol's hair. Her hair! It's not words on a page or my imagination working overtime. It's a solid fact and a true physical piece of her, a person born in 1822! Wow. It simply makes it all REAL, doesn't it?

I am so very lucky to have this book. Even if it didn't have the hair it would be a wonderful help to me, genealogically speaking. Many (indeed, most) of the names in the book are of relatives and in some cases this is the only documented way we have to link some of the family members together. No relationships are mentioned except the one I mentioned above. Most of the people in the book (28 out of 41) are people I recognize. There are many names without existing hair samples, though remnants of thread or empty holes where a needle once went through the paper tell me that they were there at one time.

---

The names in the book are as follows (with all spelling errors left as written, blank pages left out, asterisks by those who have hair samples, and capitalizations for those written by the second author):

Joseph Nichols*
Delinda J. Nichols*
Lorinda Emry
Missouri A Nichols
Alzina D. Emery 1859
Eliza U. Nichols
Elton Amos Emery 1860
Elmer F Emery
Joseph A Plymell
Nathan A Plymell 1861
James F Plymell
Rebecca Ann Plymell 1861
Arvine Plymell
William F Plymell
John Vane 1861
George Vane
Shanon Vane
Adline Vane 1861
Semantha Jane Vane 1861
Mary Emry 1861*
Thomas Emery*
Effie M. Steward 1861*
FLOSSIE HATCHETT*
NELLIE HATCHETT*
Wallace W Plymell
Jane Plymell
D.J. NICHOLS MY GRAMMA*
LUCY HILLS*
JULIA HILLS*
ANNIE WALKER*
Dovey Ann Gaddis
SARAH F COLINS*
ALVA AND GEORGE COLINS*
Olive A Plymell
Marget Plymell
Mary J McCarty*
HANNAH MINNICH
John Plymell*
Ann Nichol
Mary A McCarty*


---
The major players in this book are the Plymell family (specifically, the children of James Plymell and his wife Margaret, rumored to be half Wyandot) and the families they'd married into: the Nichols, the Emerys, and the Vanes. The Nichols and Plymell families had come together with the 1844 marriage of Joseph Nichols, son of John Nichols, and Delinda Jane Plymell, daughter of James and Margaret. The Plymell and Emery/Emory families had meshed with the 1838 marriage of Thomas Emery and Mary Plymell, daughter of James and Margaret. The Plymell and the Vanes blended together with the 1848 marriage of John Vane, son of Arthur Vane and Eleanor Blair, and Adaline Plymell, daughter of James and Margaret.

By 1859 (the earliest date in the book) all three of these couples had children. Eliza, my g-g-grandmother, was 12. Many of the other names written in the book are her cousins, the children of her aunt Adaline and her aunt Mary. Other names are those of her aunts and uncles. Still others are friends of the family, and a few I am completely unfamiliar with. I'd sure like to remedy that.

Next time I'll concentrate on the collateral families -- Plymell, Nichols, Vane and Emery.


Update: I'll keep a record of the other posts in this series here, as well as on my sidebar:

Pt 1 - The Thomas and Mary (Plymell) Emery Family

Pt 2 - The John and Adaline (Plymell) Vane Family

Pt 3 - The Joseph and Delinda Jane (Plymell) Nichols Family

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Show us your Genealogy Space!

Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings does his Saturday Night fun thing and though I'm late -- as usual -- I'm still coming to the party!

My cave is to the left -- you'll have to click on it to make it a bit bigger.

You can see the big oval picture of Delinda Jane (Plymell) Nichols suspended over my workspace. The smaller version, as well as a post I wrote about her, is here. There are a few random tombstone snapshots under my printer, Pat's memorial card that I have to scan (sitting on top of more old letters and pictures next up on the agenda) and the resource books that I turn to the most on my shelf. I'm a pretty organized soul, really.

And as for the things you cannot see.......well, there is the old 50's Coca-Cola ice cooler that houses my collection of old photographs. I've been slowly scanning them all in but at least I've managed to make labels and groupings! It feels like such a monumental task when I look at it all as a whole. I try to think of it in small increments......

(And yes, the blanket you see to the left in the photo IS all those colors. Just thank your lucky stars you don't see my room. You'd think I stepped right out of the psychedelic 60's!)

Then there is my eyesore of a purple Browning file. It lives under my desk. It houses a LOT of files. It's over to the left.

My atlases of Ohio and Illinois are tucked under there too but you can't see them either

Anyway, that's my stuff. Thanks for the fun, Randy!

Tombstone Tuesday - Joseph and Delinda (Plymell) Nichols

It seems a lot of my time on this blog recently has been taken up with the Plymell family and their relations. I'm not exactly sure why that's been happening since the major focus of my research (as well as the impetus for beginning this blog!) has been my Brownings.

However, I'm a firm believer in the idea that you go where these things lead you and lately they've been pointing me towards Plymells. So be it!

The headstone to the left is the stone marking the final resting place of Joseph Nichols and his wife Delinda Jane Plymell. They are my third great-grandparents. This stone is in the New Hebron Cemetery in Honey Creek Twn., Crawford County, Illinois.

Joseph's already been featured on this blog with a post; you can find it here. Delinda has been mentioned a couple of times before as well -- if the Man With The Fiddle from the post below is indeed George Edward Vane, then he would have been Delinda's nephew.

I have spoken a few places about Delinda's as-yet-unproven Indian heritage. According to descendants of her brother James Fuller Plymell, Fuller's children and family members claimed Indian descent from the Wyandot tribe although they refused to make it "official" by going through the government. I heard something slightly different in my family. In mine, it was that Delinda's mother Margaret was half Iroquois. (I have since learned that the Wyandot tribe is of Iroquoian extraction.)

I remember going over to my grandparent's house when I was young -- the house that Joseph Nichols built with his own hands, though I didn't realize it at the time -- and being fascinated by two large oval-framed pictures hanging on the walls. One was of an old man holding a little boy in a dressing gown. I was sufficiently awed at being told that little boy was my grandfather. It paled in comparison, though, to the other person in the other oval frame, Joseph's wife Delinda. My grandfather would say, "That's my great-grandmother Delinda. She was a Plymell. She was also Indian. Iroquois Indian. Can't you see it in her face, Patti?"

I would stare for a long time looking at her. Something about her bearing fascinated me and even slightly scared and intimidated me. With my peaches and cream complexion and red hair, I simply couldn't believe she was related to me. Her coloring was dark; I pictured ramrod straight black hair pulled back into that bun at the nape of her neck. Though she looked very tired she still held her head up so proudly. Her cheekbones were sky high, and her eyes! Deep set and intense. Her eyes, I imagined in my youthful feverish way, were those of a hidden warrior princess imprisioned in the trappings of a gingham dress.

Yes, grandpa, I can see it! I would always say. It was our ritual. And as I write this post, all I have to do is look up over my computer desk and hanging on my wall, still in its same oval frame, is Delinda's picture. Those intense eyes look down on me still. The picture I've posted above and to my right is a smaller version of the photo in the oval frame and without the artist's inkings added to it.

She does look Indian. Doesn't she? Or is it just my still-youthful, feverish imagination?

Tombstone Tuesday - Sweet Sweet Jane (b. & d. 1859) and Olive (1834 -1858)

Today's stone is actually two. One (the small stone leaning over on the left of this picture) is a small, partially buried stone in the New Hebron Cemetery in Crawford County, Illinois. It is the final resting place of Jane, the first of the three girls born to Joseph Nichols and Delinda Jane Plymell.

Jane was born on 4 May 1859 and died a week later on 11 May 1859. Her stone is covered with the grime of age and it leans backward, as if it is tired. It feels like such a sad little stone to me.

It's not as sad as the stone that rests to Jane's right, though. Jane's aunt Olive Ann Plymell is buried there. Olive's stone sunk into the ground a long time ago and then the top part cracked and snapped off in the center. When I was there last August I managed to dig half of it up but the other half has sunken so deep that it would take more effort and tools than I had available to me at the time.

Luckily Burl Rich in Crawford County had transcribed this cemetery in 2002, seemingly prior to the damage that Olive's stone has undergone. According to this site, it says:

Plymell, Olive Ann
Dau. of J&M
died February 3, 1858
aged 23Y 6M 22D

That puts Olive born about 1834. Olive was Delinda Jane's sister and both were daughters of James Plymell and his wife Margaret. We don't know Margaret's last name or if she even had one -- I'd always been told that Margaret's father was Iroquois. Other Plymell researchers are looking into it but as it stands now, my family's lore appears fairly accurate. Other Plymell branches from James and Margaret have more direct avenues of information and say that she was actually half Wyandot. You can read more about the origins of the Wyandot people at Wikipedia, but basically they were of Iroquoian extraction, a blend of the Huron Confederacy peoples and their Petun (Tobacco People) neighbors. It's a very interesting read!

The James and Margaret Plymell family originally lived in Delaware County, Ohio, and then moved onward into Marion County. Delinda Jane was born in Delaware County in 1822. James and Margaret were buried in Marion County, Ohio. Soon thereafter their children came to Crawford County.

Sweet, sweet Jane. And Olive too.

(Not At All) Wordless Wednesday -- The Vane Children (c1869)

Wordless Wednesday again! Wordless? Riiiiiiight. Not happening!

The picture to the right is of Cemantha Jane Vane and her younger brother William James, called "Chimie" on the photo (which I believe is a phonetic rendering of the nickname 'Jimmy.') These two are the children of John Vane and Adaline Plymell. John and Adaline were married on 2 Nov 1848 in Crawford County, Illinois, and moved to Arcadia, Crawford Co., KS around 1872. The couple had five known children -- Martin Luther, William Shannon, George Edward, Cemantha Jane, and William James. John died in Arcadia in 1889 and Adaline followed shortly thereafter in 1890.

Adaline Plymell is my 3rd great aunt. Her sister Delinda Jane, who married Joseph Nichols, was my 3rd-g-grandmother.

This photo was taken in Decatur in Macon Co., Illinois. Originally I believed the time frame to be around 1865 because the style of photo (card stock, double bordered) looked familiar to me from others I also have. Sure enough, I have a set of pictures that look exactly like this from my Nichols family -- John Nichols, his wife Delinda Jane (mentioned above), and their daughters Eliza Ursula and Missouri Ann. That set of pictures is dated c1865 according to the writing on the back, which is in Ursula's hand.

There are two sets of handwriting on the back of this photo, however (see the back of the photo below.) One set -- listing the children's names -- is Ursula's. The other set is unknown but I think dates to a slightly later period since the "lives in Arcadia" notation could only have been mentioned after the Vanes moved on to Kansas in 1872.

Cemantha Vane looks about 8-10 years old in this photo so I'm guessing this photo is closer to 1869. I'm saying this because the little boy in the dressing gown in the photo is William James Vane and he wasn't born until late 1868/early 1869.

The back has a listing of a few Curnutts (Cemantha's children I presume, though to my admittedly limited knowledge I only show Oscar as her definite child.) Also listed are Cordova, Charley and Will Plymell. These three are nephews of Adaline and Delinda, sons of their brother Wallace William Plymell.

One of the most interesting things about this photo to me was the photographer. E. A. (Edward A.) Barnwell had a studio called the People's Ambrotype Gallery at 24 North Water Street in Decatur, Illinois. According to this site, it so happened that in May of 1860 Decatur was the location of Abraham Lincoln's endorsement for President at the Republican state convention. Lincoln got his picture taken after his speech on 9 May 1860 and E.A. Barnwell was the photographer!

I'm not sure when E.A. stopped taking photographs and sold his studio to W.C. Pitner, but the above link implies that he sold out around 1863 and moved to Cerro Gordo, IL, just a few miles east of Decatur. Perhaps Pitner continued to use Barnwell's name on the studio -- I'm not sure. Hopefully I can find out.

(Not At All) Wordless Wednesday -- Joseph Nichols (1823-1912)

I know this is supposed to be wordless but umm......I'm never wordless! Ask anyone who knows me and they're likely to say they wish I'd learn to be. Hah!

Look at the intensity on the face of the man to the right. He is my ancestor Joseph Nichols, born in what is now Greenbriar County, WV on 20 Oct 1823. By the age of 8 he'd made his way with his parents and siblings to Crawford County, IL. He eventually met and married Delinda Jane Plymell -- who is rumored to be half Wyandot, but that's another story! -- on 24 Dec 1844.

Now on 7 Nov 1831, Joseph's father John had purchased 40 acres (the SW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Sec 2, T6N, R12W) in Robinson Township in Crawford County. By the April term of 1849, though, John had died. His lands were due to be divvied up in 1/7 increments to his heirs -- his daughters Lucinda (the wife of John Guinn), Mary (the wife of Wiley Emmons), Levisa (the wife of Abel Mann), and Eliza Jane (the wife of George Hartwell); his granddaughter Eliza Ann (infant daughter of Reuben Nichols, deceased), and his sons Merritt and Joseph. This division never happened, though, because the court's commissioners decided that the lands were "so circumstanced that a division thereof cannot be made without manifest prejudice to the proprietors thereof."

It was decided by the Court that the land would be sold at public venue by James H. Steel as commissioner, the sale being at the courthouse door in the town of Robinson. This was done on 9 June 1849 and Joseph purchased the entire 40 acres at the sale for $249, with an initial $88 up front at the time of sale. The rest was to be paid by June 1850.

I know this because I have in my possession the original handwritten deeds of these sales, as well as an abstract that Joseph's daughter Missouri (my g-g-aunt) had drawn up in 1933.

Joseph and Delinda settled on the 40-acre spread in Robinson Township and built a house there. He and Delinda lived on the property the rest of their lives. The couple had three children: Eliza Ursula (who married James Swan,) Jane (who died at a week old) and Missouri Ann (who never married.)

Delinda died on 3 Jun 1889 and was buried at the New Hebron Cemetery in LaMotte Township in Crawford County. Joseph never remarried and lived with his daughter Missouri, his other surviving daughter Eliza Ursula -- who'd become a widow after losing her husband James Swan after less than three years of marriage -- and Eliza's daughter Estella Jane. Estella was my g-grandmother and eventually married Frederick Leone Browning.

Joseph died of pneumonia on 12 Jan 1912 and was buried beside his wife.

My family still owns this land today. My father has 5 acres of it and plans to deed it to me in the coming years. I played there when I was a child. We have an Illinois Sesquicentennial Farm sign on the property. I'm proud of that. Although I live in Texas, my heart belongs to the acres that Joseph Nichols bought, farmed, and nurtured. It's in my blood. Land can call to your soul and say, "Here is your home." For me, this is the land that calls.

Take a look at that face again. I cropped the photo -- the tintype that this snippet comes from is a 5x7 sheet. The detail is incredible. Every wrinkle on his eyelids and face can be seen, the hairs in his beard stand out clearly, and the expression in his eyes is both tired and intense. When I hold the tintype up I swear Joseph is about to step off the sheet. I found this tintype buried in a box in my grandmother's storage shed that we cleaned out a few years ago. It had been in the brutal Texas heat for over 5 years. I am amazed that it shows almost no damage whatsoever from the elements. Needless to say, I have it in archival quality storage now.

It's one of my most favorite shots.