Tombstone Tuesday & The Browning Series Pt 10(e) - Susannah Olliezona Crago

With this post I combine two different sorts of genealogy 'prompts.' 

The first is Tombstone Tuesday, so today I feature the stone of little Susannah Olliezona Crago. This simple stone is at the Labette City Cemetery in Labette County, Kansas.

The second 'prompt' is one more of my own making.   I've been doing a series now for the last couple of years that I call "The Browning Series."

Samuel and Margaret Browning had thirteen children and after Margaret's death, Samuel chose a widow named Sarah Ann (Bell) Gaddis as his second wife.  Samuel and Sarah had two more children together.   My plan has been to feature each one of the fifteen children in a separate post (and often, their children as well!) and finally tie the family together with a discussion of their parents.

Susannah Olliezona Crago was the fifth child of Isaac Fordyce Crago and Susannah Browning.   Susannah Olliezona was born in 1871 in Noble County, Indiana.  She lived in Noble County for a few years after her birth but moved with her parents to Labette County, Kansas at some point around the year 1879. She was found in the census in June of 1880 living with her parents in Fairview Township in Labette County.

Olliezona is such a unique name, isn't it?  Ever since the first time I saw it I've liked it.  It rolls off the tongue.  Because of the sound of her name I always pictured her as a sweet little blonde child, her two pig-tails bouncing as she played in the Kansas sunshine.  Silly old sentimental me.

But she got sick one day......maybe.  Maybe she got injured somehow, or maybe she had a congenital problem.  Who knows.  But at some point between the time of the 1880 census in June and December of 1880, this sweet little girl died, and most likely in Fairview Township.   We'll never know for sure what killed her but as her mother Susannah's date of death was 1881, is it possible that the two were victims of some sort of illness?

Little Olliezona was buried at the Labette City Cemetery in Labette County, Kansas.  Rest in peace, sweetheart.

The Browning Series -- Part Five, pt. 2, or The Mystery Effie

I mentioned in my last post that I would talk about a little girl named Effie Spangle who was buried in the Hamilton Cemetery in Otsego Township in Steuben County, Indiana.  She is buried next to Susannah (Crago) Browning, wife of Absalom Browning.  A few stones over are buried Susannah's daughter Sarah Margaret Spangle and two of the three children that Sarah Margaret's had (Franklin and little Belle) with her husband Lafayette Spangle.

Effie intrigues me.  She's a question mark.  No matter how hard I try I can't put her in this family.  Follow along with me and I think you'll see what I mean.

Take a look at the picture to the right.   It shows the burial locations of all the people I'm discussing here; I've labeled them for easy reference.

Sarah Margaret Browning married Lafayette Spangle on 24 Jul 1869 in Steuben County.   The couple had three known children (Franklin b. Aug 1870, Sarah M. b. Aug 1871, and Belle b. Nov 1872) before Sarah died a week after she gave birth to Belle.

Sarah was buried first and when little Belle died in early 1873 she was buried to the left of her mother's stone. When Franklin died four years later (in 1877) he was buried on his mother's other side.

Then there was a lapse in burials until Susannah (Crago) Browning died in 1890.  Hers is the largest stone in the background of the picture.  But as you can see, there's a small stone to the right of Susannah's stone....that's Effie.  But who was she?

The stone itself is nearly impossible to read.  I've included a picture that I've cobbled together of two views of Effie's stone -- the original on the right and a version that I've tried to alter to bring out some sort of relief on the stone.  The kind person who went to the cemetery to read the stones and take pictures for me tried to read it for me and said it was too far gone to do so.

However, there was a cemetery transcription book available that was read some years ago and in it, the inscription is said to read,

"Effie L Spangle D. May 28, 1867 Age 1y. 10m. 9d. Dau of S. M. Spangle"

I don't know about that at all.  To me it looks more like:

"Effie L., dau of LJ & S Spangle died May 28, 1867 aged 1y. 10m. 19d."

I'm not at all sure that it's LJ & S.  Maybe it's LJ & SM.  Or L & M.  Or none of those!  Argh!!

The date of death, however, is clear.  28 May.  The year?  I can't read it.  It "looks" like 186....something.  But here's the thing.  If it is 1867 then whose daughter is this little girl?  Lafayette and Sarah weren't married until 1869.  And if it's 1877 then that's equally bad, as Sarah was dead in 1872.  Perhaps it's 1871 and this little girl is Sarah's twin?  Or perhaps it is 1869 and Sarah Margaret Browning was pregnant before she and Lafayette got married?  Or perhaps the original reader was right and it's 1867 and wow, she was pregnant two years before she got married? 

*sigh*

You got me.  Effie's buried next to all the Spangles is all that I know for sure.  Someday, maybe, if I ever get to Steuben County, I can go see for myself.  I'd love to see what you all think.

The Browning Series -- Part Five, or Absalom 'Abner' Browning and Susannah 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 Absalom 'Abner' Browning, the fifth child of Samuel Browning and Margaret Markee. Absalom was born around the year 1823 in Harrison County, Ohio.

Absalom married Susannah Crago, the daughter of James Crago and Sarah Jennings Fordyce, on 20 Aug 1848 in Tuscarawas Co., OH.  His elder brother, Elias, had married Susannah's sister Elizabeth eleven months earlier in Harrison Co., OH; no doubt Absalom and Susannah met when Elias and Elizabeth married if not before.

I wish I knew more about Ab and Susannah's early life but I don't. I don't really know that much about them at all in comparison to most of his other Browning siblings.  Of all Samuel and Margaret's children, Absalom's descendents are the ones I know the least about. Half of what I think I know about this family is suspect as well.  I'd love to find any descendants of theirs but once you hear their story you might conclude, like I tentatively have, that there might not be any to find.

I do know that, unlike any of the other Browning family members save Ab's sister Rachel (who married John C. McConnell), Ab and Susannah decided to stay behind when the rest of the family moved to Illinois in the late 1840's/early 1850's. Indeed, Ab chose to remain closer to his wife's Crago family than his own and by early 1849 the couple had moved on to Defiance County., OH, where the Crago family lived.

Absalom wasn't completely cut off from his Browning family, however; his elder brother Elias may have lived in Defiance County for a while with his wife Elizabeth (Susannah Crago's sister) in the mid-1850's and his younger sister Susannah Browning definitely lived there in 1855-1865 with her husband Isaac F. Crago (Susannah Crago's brother.)  Isaac F. had made the trip from Defiance County to Crawford County, IL, in 1853-54 to visit relatives and when he returned in early 1855 he brought Susannah Browning home as his bride.  However, Elias and Elizabeth had moved to Crawford County by late 1853, and Isaac and Susannah moved on to Noble County, Indiana by 1865 and Labette County, Kansas by 1879.

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

Ab and Susannah settled in Washington Township in Defiance County and were living there when Susannah gave birth to their daughter Sarah Margaret on 22 Mar 1849.  In 1850 Absalom was working as a laborer two households away from a Ridenour family (George and Catherine) whose distant cousins, Matilda and Minerva Corderman, would later marry Absalom's younger brothers John Wesley Francis and Asbury Taylor.

Absalom and Susannah lived in Defiance County throughout the Civil War.  Absalom was listed as a farmer in the 1860 census as well as in the draft registration records in Washington township (see above) in June of 1863.  I feature this notation about him because it is one of only three records (other than census) that I have about the man!  Anyway, the couple lived in Defiance County until the spring of 1868, when they moved to Otsego Township in Steuben County, IN.  The first sign of their residency in Indiana was a record of their daughter Sarah Margaret’s marriage there to Lafayette Spangle in July of 1869. 

In 1870, Absalom and Susannah were enumerated in the census in Steuben County with a young girl named Priscilla Sewell.  Priscilla was born on 9 May 1860 in Defiance County and was the daughter of Andrew Sewell and Priscilla Crago, Susannah's sister.  The elder Priscilla had died thirteen days after her daughter was born and Absalom and Susannah took their young niece in to raise.

I've never been able to find out whether Absalom and Susannah had any other children but Sarah Margaret.  I suspect they did given the time period, and that if they did all their other children likely died. Despite this, Ab and Susannah spent much of their time raising children.  I've conducted a search but I've never located any gravestones for Browning children that would match up to the couple.  I've located tombstones, all right, but not too many Browning ones....

As I mentioned before, Ab and Susannah had one daughter, Sarah Margaret.  Sarah Margaret married Lafayette Spangle, the son of Henry Spangle, on 24 Jul 1869.  Lafayette was born around 1844 in Ohio and had served in the Union forces in the Civil War in the 29th Rgt. of the IN Volunteer Infantry.

In 1870 Sarah Margaret and Lafayette were living in Otsego Township in Steuben County.  They had three children in very close succession -  Franklin 'Frankie' in Aug 1870, Sarah Margaret 'Margie' in Aug 1871, and Belle in Nov 1872.  Their marriage was only three years old and they had three beautiful children....and then tragedy struck.  Sarah Margaret died a week after little Belle was born.  She was buried in the Hamilton Cemetery in Otsego Township in Steuben County, Indiana.

What happened to the children directly after the death of their mother isn't known for sure but I can infer a little from a comment in Susannah (Crago) Browning's obituary that states she "raised...three grandchildren...and one niece." This tells me that soon after Sarah Margaret's death the children went to live with their grandparents.  Lafayette was surely reeling from the death of his wife and it wasn't easy for a man to take care of three children under the age of three.  Since Absalom and Sarah were available and already taking care of their young niece Priscilla, taking their grandchildren into their household seemed like the best solution under the circumstances.

But tragedy wasn't ever too far away. Little Belle followed her mother into death in July 1873 and Franklin died in Dec 1877.  This left only Margie in the house by 1880, as her cousin Priscilla had married.  Priscilla didn't live much longer (she died in 1885) and the landscape changed again before 1890 when Margie, the last child of Lafayette and Sarah Margaret, also died. They were all laid to rest in the Hamilton Cemetery next to their mother.   While in 1880 Lafayette was still in Indiana, by 1895 he had no children or family in Indiana to stay behind for and so followed his brother Edmund to Kansas.

Oh....before I forget.  There is one more tombstone in the Hamilton cemetery that rests next to Susannah (Crago) Browning -- that of a little girl named Effie Spangle.  This tombstone is a mystery to me because it doesn't seem to match up, date-wise, to any of the others.  The dates are nearly unreadable now, but the transciptions I have from readings taken years ago seem to suggest that this Effie is another daughter of Lafayette and Sarah Margaret.  I will take the time soon to explain this in more detail.

Anyway, back to the story at hand.
Absalom and Susannah's house, once full of children, was empty again.  I can't imagine how it must have felt to lose your only child and then outlive all your grandchildren as well.  Then, as if there hadn't been enough sadness, the final blow came on 24 May 1890 when at age 59, Susannah (Crago) Browning died and was also buried in the Hamilton Cemetery beside her daughter and her grandchildren.  If you'll take a moment to read her obituary you can feel the sadness running through it.  Absalom - Abner - was well and truly alone.

Speaking of the obituaries of Susannah and Absalom (his is seen to the left), I noticed the usage of the name Abner instead of Absalom.  He was called Absalom when a child on the 1850 census, Absalom on the 1860, 1870 and 1880 censuses, and he was called Absalom on his 1863 war draft registration papers.  Yet here, he is called Abner.  Add this to the list of unknowns I have about him.  Absalom Abner, perhaps?  I don't know.

Absalom lived almost nine more years before he died at his home in Hamilton in Steuben County on 15 Jan 1899.  He doesn't seem to have had anyone around that was related to him; his obituary is short and vague on the details.  Nothing personal is included.  "Aged about 80 years," it says.  "Respected by all who knew him."  "Unassuming." 

Sad, is what it seems to me. 

I don't even know where he is buried.  He isn't beside his wife.  Was he indigent?  Did the locals have to bury him?  Did they just bury him in an unmarked grave?  My only clue is the name of the man who conducted the services (Elder Fred A Thomas) and my hope that Ab was likely Methodist, since most of his other Browning kin were.

He doesn't seem to have left any descendants, does he?  For that reason alone I would like to find him and stand in front of his tombstone if there is one.  I'd like him to know that at least one person remembers his name.

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.