Tombstone Tuesday, or Why I Should Stay Away From Cars

At right is the tombstone of Joseph Browning, my g-g-grandfather. Joseph was one of the sons of James Browning and Jane Nevitt (See "The Browning Series: Pt. 1 - James and Jane" in my sidebar for his parents.) I've written about Joseph before; I wrote about his Civil War heroics in this post. I own his original discharge papers and his original National Guard papers as well as a picture taken of him around 1864 when he was in the war. I have all his pension papers and even the pocket watch he used to carry.

Tonight, though, I've chosen not to speak of his interesting life. I'm sure I'll get around to that at some point since he was such a fascinating man and there's always more to say than I have room to! No, tonight I speak of his equally interesting death and how it eerily parallels another of my ancestor's deaths, the death of Robert Elbert Garrard. My grandparents were Virgil Joseph Browning and Beulah Ethel Garrard. Joseph is my grandfather Virgil's grandfather. Robert was my grandma Beulah's father.

The year was 1916. Joseph was 74 years old and living in Palestine, Illinois with his third wife, Francis "Fanny" (Daugherty) Higgins Seaney Browning. According to family tradition he had decided that afternoon to go pick up some things at the local grocery. Palestine is a tiny town now, so I can only imagine its size then. Joseph hopped on his bicycle and began to pedal into downtown. Now I don't know exactly how many cars there were on the road in 1916, but I can't imagine there were enough to put a body in too much danger in a place my dad calls a 'poke and plumb' town -- poke your head out the window and you're plumb out of town. So what were the odds that on this afternoon, Joseph would climb on his bike and get himself struck down in the street by a passing car?

Apparently pretty good. He did exactly that. A young man of 18 named Miles Hughes ran him over but it doesn't appear to have been the young man's fault. It appears that my aged g-g-grandfather turned himself into the path of the vehicle and was struck, breaking his leg and doing enough internal damage that he died 5 hours later of a cerebral hemorrhage. The article about his death was given to me by a cousin whose great-grandfather had saved it all these years. It is shown to the left; click to read!

Fast forward. The year is now 1938. We move to the town of Robinson, about 10 miles west of Palestine. After a leisurely afternoon meal over at her parent's house, my grandma Beulah begins to help her 78-yr old mother Louisa Adaline (Eagleton) Garrard clean up in preparation for a night of visiting. Her 85-year old father Robert Elbert steps out of the house and crosses his front yard to attend to his business in the outhouse.

He is on his way back when tragedy strikes. Across the street a little girl about five or six years old is sitting in the front seat of her father's car, waiting for her daddy to 'wind up' the car. Back then, grandma said, many cars had a crank that you had to wind to get it to go. Her father was cranking up the car and somehow that little girl pushed or pulled or knocked the car out of whatever the old term for 'park' was. It shot out across the street and over the curb and hit Robert as he was re-crossing his lawn to go back inside. He didn't die instantly but he was as internally damaged as Joseph had been. He lasted a few hours before finally passing away.

Now what are the odds of THAT?

Oh, it gets better. When I was 13 I was riding my bicycle home from school. You see where this is going, don't you......?

Yes, I got hit. A man driving a pickup hit me in the middle of the road. I looked both ways that day -- I remember doing so very well, because that was what I always did on that corner. The police said later that he was going about 45 mph and it was lucky I saw him in time to leap off my bike or I might've met the same fate as my two grandfathers. As it was, I suffered a broken wrist and a broken leg. My bike was mush of course. And oh yes, the guy who hit me? His name was Elvis.....

You can't make this stuff up.

Was She Sweet on Him?

A few weeks ago I sent a letter containing three letters written in World War I to the son of the man who wrote them. These letters were stashed away in my grandma Beulah's (whose picture, taken around 1921, is to the right) cedar chest for years and from the first time I read them about ten years ago, I was curious about the letter writer. I'd wondered to myself if I'd ever be able to find any of his descendants.

I have to admit I also wondered about the reasons my grandma kept them. When I began looking at all the letters I noticed that other than the ones written by direct family members and dear girlfriends, the others appeared to be from boys she was sweet on! She had a number of letters from the early 20's from her first love and beau, Cecil Buchanan, and many, many letters written from my grandfather, Virgil Browning.

She had cause to have many of their letters. My grandparents weren't common for the times. Instead of marrying early as so many others did, they were an 'older' couple; they didn't begin dating until 1927 (when Grandma was 26) and didn't marry until 1934. The Depression began and my grandfather was the sole means of support for his grandma and great auntie. Times were tough all over. They decided to "wait it out." Wait it out they did, though by 1933 Grandpa's idea of waiting was apparently much different than Grandma's! Grandma told me she said to Grandpa one evening, "Virgil, I reckon if I let you, you'll wait forever, and I don't aim to wait much longer. I'm not a young woman and if we don't get on and get married, I'll have to be moving along."

They got married a few months later!

That sort of scene was typical of my grandparent's relationship and typical of grandma all the way around. She didn't really enter into my permanent memory until she was already well into her 70's. She was a soft-spoken lady who didn't even stand 5 feet tall. Her patience was long and her disposition was welcoming and loving. She never raised her voice and she pretty much let my grandpa run the day to day doings of their lives. She believed in the biblical idea that the man was the head of the family. I know that Grandpa appreciated this about her and valued her wisdom, though, because on the rare occasions that she would put her foot down -- like the way she said he needed to marry her, or the time they moved to Texas in their 80s and five years later Grandpa wanted to go back home to IL and Grandma said he could feel free to do so but she wouldn't be coming along! -- well, Grandpa always let her have her way. He knew when she meant it.

We all say our grandma is the best cook in the world but I know that mine really was! I'd pester her for her Lemon Cake Pie recipe and she'd write it down for me -- I'd try it and it wouldn't come out right. She'd chuckle and say, "Oh well, that's because you left out the zest!" or "Oops, there is some salt in there, too," when nothing of the sort was written on the card she'd given me! She and I bantered back and forth about her pie. Sly devil. I suspect she enjoyed watching me squirm and I know I enjoyed trying to squeeze her secrets out of her. When she died I found the real recipe in the cedar chest she left me. I tried it and it's like I remember Grandma made it. Every time I take a bite she's there in the taste of it for me. She taught me the only way to eat oatmeal was to put it in the center like an island and float the milk on top of it, not stir it all together into a gushy lump like these silly Texans do. Grandma could make the best gravy in the world and when Grandpa and I would go fishing for bluegill and bass, we'd come in and give her the fish. She'd always fry up my favorite part -- the fish eggs, dipped in cornmeal batter. Oh, and her fried morel mushrooms picked from the woods next door -- heaven. And her sassafras tea was to die for!

But back to her letters. Cecil was her first love and she kept letters from him. The second set of letters I have, from Sgt. Thomas Malone, seem to have a slight air of flirtiness about them from his side. She kept Grandpa's. And then there were Arthur's. Was she sweet on him, possibly? He was a friend of her older brother Raymond, an older boy. She was only 18. It was war time. She kept them because they meant something to her. It could have been a young girl's unrequited crush.

Whatever it was, I'm fairly certain Arthur didn't reciprocate. I have corresponded briefly with Harold, Arthur's son. Harold told me that Arthur's 'Annie' was Millie Anna Shimer, the daughter of John Shimer and Alice Neal. They married very soon after returning home and I doubt that would have happened had he been interested in my grandmother. Harold also informed me that the man in the picture with my great-uncle Raymond in this post is not his father. Rats! Win some, lose some. But on the bright side, he did fill in some more details about Arthur's life. Arthur's mother, Rilla B., was a Bratton. His father was James Wilson (Wilson J.) Creswell.

I recently found a picture of my grandma at 18 wearing her brother's World War I uniform stashed into a gaggle of other photographs. The picture was taken in 1919. I thought it would be apropos to post it here.

We'll never know whether my grandma was sweet on Arthur. I'm just glad that for whatever reason, she kept his letters and I was able to send them to his descendants. I like to think she was. My grandma was an amazing person and thinking about her life being filled with adventures and loves as well as trials and tribulations gives me great peace.

In Memorium - Patricia Ann (Wickcliffe) O'Connor (1934-2009)

I was writing a post for inclusion here today and I will publish that post tomorrow, though that hadn't been my plan when this day began -- but first things first. I had to take the time today to make a separate post to commemorate a cousin of mine, Patricia Ann (Wickcliffe) O'Connor.

Sometime in 1993 I ran across Pat. She was convinced that her Browning ancestor, John Wesley Francis Browning, was connected to mine. Knowing next to nothing about the Brownings at that time (I wasn't even sure who the "S & M" Browning on my ancestor James' tombstone was!) I replied to her inquiries politely and let her know I didn't have any conclusive proof that she and I were related.

Fast forward to 1995-6. She contacted me again. By this time I'd learned about Samuel and Margaret (the S & M!) and begun to discover more about the women and men their children had married. I'd learned that one of their children was named John Wesley and that he'd married a Corderman girl. In the course of our conversations, Pat mentioned that her ancestor John Wes had married a girl named Matilda Corderman. I sat up and took notice.

Comparisons flew back and forth. Censuses compared. Families connected. After everything was said and done I had one of those Happy Dances that day. I think Pat and I both did.

It was the start of something beautiful. For the next decade the two of us researched the Brownings together. I could never have done some of the work I did without her patience and help and most of all, her perseverance. After all, she'd pursued me, hadn't she? We took a trip back to Crawford County together in the summer of 2001. It was the first time we'd met face to face but it seemed we'd known each other for years.

She brought two remarkable things with her. She brought original vellum patent papers that John Wesley Browning had filed with the government in 1864. John Wes was an engineer and an inventor! She also brought the only other thing she had about him, a picture of him from about the same time period. (I'll feature Pat's ancestor John Wesley in my Browning series -- he was Samuel and Margaret's 11th child -- and at that time I'll delve into the details of these papers and the mystery that surrounds him to this day.) Pat and I spent a week as roommates in our hotel room and although there was over 30 year's difference in our ages we felt like sisters and never ran out of things to say. I had a wonderful time discovering Browning history with her.

I was working on my Browning book at the time while she was busy building a great Browning webpage using our research as a base. (It is listed on the sidebar to my blog as Pat's site.) She gave me encouragement when I felt like throwing in the towel and her independent research on the Markee side gave me excitement of a different sort when she'd locate something fantastic. She was retired and I was a mother with a young daughter. She gave me advice, listened to my worries, absorbed my stresses. She was a sounding board and an astute observer and a fantastic friend as well as a cousin.

In December she emailed me and said she'd been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. We emailed a couple of times after that, but she'd moved to her son's home and she was growing weaker and it was harder for her to communicate. I told her everything I wanted to say to her the last time we spoke in January. She let me know that one of her greatest regrets was that we hadn't been able to prove (though we just "know" it, if you know what I mean) that our Samuel Browning was the son of John Browning (b. 1771-5) who lived in Harrison County in 1820-1830 within six households of our Samuel.

I scheduled a trip back to OH when I heard this from Pat. This is the trip I'm going to take in three more weeks. I wanted to go back and find that proof and give it to her as my last gift to her. I made the trip dates as soon as I could because I was worried that it wouldn't be in time.

I wasn't.

Pat passed away the 17th of March. I received her memorial notice from my ex-husband today (where it had been mailed) since the address Pat had written down next to my name in her address book was my old address from a few years ago.

I'm still going on my trip. I still hope to find that proof. I'll still enjoy the trip but now it's tempered not with the urgency it once had but with sadness and loss. It'll give me one of the biggest Happy Dances of my genealogical life if I do find proof that John and Samuel are father and son but as I dance I'll feel a deep regret that I'm not going to be able to do what I wanted, which was give Pat one of her last wishes. But I do hope that if I find something that wherever she may be now.......she'll know.

I loved you, Pat -- friend, cousin, mentor. Rest In Peace.

The Browning Series -- Part One, or James Browning and Jane Nevitt

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

My opening salvo is the family of my direct ancestor James Browning, Samuel and Margaret's first born child. James was born on 31 Oct 1815 in Harrison County, OH. I've always suspected that Margaret was pregnant with James before she and Samuel married on 9 Feb 1815 but if not, the poor girl only had a week or so of grace before conceiving!

When James was 14, in 1829, a young girl of 9 named Jane Nevitt became his mother's step-niece. Margaret's brother James Markee had just married Rhoda (Johnson) Nevitt, a widow with two young girls, Mary and Jane. No doubt the two families spent time together and over the years a closeness developed between James and Jane for the couple decided to marry. They were wed on 23 Jun 1839 in neighboring Tuscarawas County, OH by William C. Kennedy, JP. James was 23 and Jane was 19. James had been training to be a cooper before he and Jane married and no doubt his training gave him confidence that he could support a wife and a child. A recording of their marriage license is shown to the left.

Did the couple "have" to get married? Perhaps. Their first born son, Elias, was either born on 18 Apr 1839 or 18 Apr 1840. Lacking a birth certificate, the evidence swings both ways. The date on his tombstone says 1839. The 1850 census, taken in December of that year, lists him as 10 years of age. I can't ever prove it of course, but my own intuition about it all tells me that he was born in 1839 and that's why James and Jane went over to Tuscarawas County to get married. Their families weren't known as well and they could leave the baby behind!

James and Jane lived for a decade in Washington Township near Tippecanoe in Harrison County. The couple had five children there (Elias, Joseph, Thomas N., Sarah Ann and Mary Jane) before becoming the first of the Brownings to move to Crawford County, Illinois. They packed their belongings and arrived there sometime in late 1849 before the birth of their last child, Margaret Ann. They didn't blindly move to a random part of the country -- no, most probably they moved to join Jane’s mother Rhoda and her husband James M. Markee. The elder Markees had made the trip to IL around 1846 to join James’s cousins Samuel, William and John Minard Markee.

James and Jane settled in Montgomery Township in Crawford County and probably wrote home about the land and and its bounty, for they were soon joined by James' parents Samuel and Margaret and nine of their remaining twelve children. Their bliss didn't last long, however; as I mentioned in the last post, an outbreak of yellow fever swept through the country and many people died in those years. It's entirely probable James Browning was one of its victims. He died on 8 August 1852 and was buried in the Browning family plot in the Wesley Chapel Cemetery in Montgomery Township.

After James’s death Jane and her children were left to fend for themselves. Accounts of their life vary. According to their son Thomas Browning’s biographical sketch in Paul Selby’s Crawford County – Biographical, Thomas was “put out among strangers” after his father’s death. It's indicated by their son (and my direct ancestor) Joseph Browning’s obituary, printed in the Palestine Register in 1916, that the family moved to Bristol Landing around the year 1854. Bristol Landing is almost two miles southeast of Palestine IL and is a stretch of land very close to where the Sugar Creek flows into the Wabash River.

The two sons of James and Jane mentioned above, Elias and Joseph, have been featured in my blog before. Remember the civil war mementos my cousin had, here? Elias and Joseph were two parts of that triumvirate that included Jacob Johnson who served together in the Civil War out of a volunteer regiment from Missouri. If you're interested in how their lives meshed in a different way other than that war you should go read that post.

On 21 Jan 1860 Jane married a native of England many years her senior named William Jennings. William and Jane had one son, Richard, in 1861. I found the family in the 1865 IL state census but that's the last time I find Jane anywhere. I can't seem to find her in the 1870 or the 1880 census, which frustrates me to no end! I found her son Richard as a servant in the 1880 census but Jane's nowhere to be found.

The next time I find her is in the Kirk Cemetery in Robinson Township! She died on 3 Feb 1894. I've made a note (one of sooo many in my task list!) to research the local papers to see if I can find her obituary. Perhaps that'll help me add some more color to the last 30 years of her life. Who knows -- maybe I can't find her because she'd married again and moved to Timbuktu? Ahhhhh, supposition! Isn't it lovely?

You can see a list of James and Jane's Browning children on the footer to my blog. I'm sure I'll tell stories about them in future posts, but for now I will supply a small rundown of their marriages. Elias Browning married Sarah Ellen Kent. Joseph Browning -- my direct ancestor -- married Almarena Mathewson. Thomas Newton Browning married Sarah Ann Huls. Sarah Elizabeth married Samuel Selwyn Plummer. Mary Jane married Amos K. Huls, and Margaret Ann married Charles Francis Huls. Five of the six children that James and Jane had took a family photo around 1911 and I have placed a copy of that photo here to the left.

I'll take a moment, though, to list what I know about Richard, Jane's only child with William Jennings. Richard was born 26 Mar 1861 and married Mary Lackey, the daughter of Thomas Lackey and Ann Eliza Boatright, on 26 Nov 1895 in Hardinsville in Crawford County. The couple had no known living children. Richard died on 17 Jun 1938 and Mary died on 3 Jul 1948. They're buried in the Palestine Cemetery in Crawford County.

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Other posts featuring this family:

• (Not At All) Wordless Wednesday -- Civil War Mementos (feat. Joseph Browning)
• ...Why I Should Stay Away From Cars (feat. Joseph Browning)
• Thomas Newton Browning, Jack of All Trades (feat. T.N. Browning)
  

(Not At All) Wordless Wednesday -- Browning vs. Beck (1837)

The trial I've mentioned in a couple of recent postings (see the post below about my first trip to OH!) will be my focus this evening. This trial was recorded in two parts of the October AD 1837 term of the Harrison County OH Common Pleas court -- on Saturday, October 28th (Vol. D, pg. 131) and Monday, October 30th (Vol. D, pg. 132.) . It was officially called "Samuel Browning vs. James Beck" on page 131.

This case was originally located by a researcher I'd hired years ago.

A transcription of the case (which is at left) follows:

OCTOBER TERM AD 1837
Saturday, October 28th, AD 1837

SAMUEL BROWNING vs. JAMES BECK:

CASE: This day came the parties by their counsel, and being at issue the following jury was called and came to wit; Zadoc Bliss, James D. Anderson, George Baker, Silvanus Lamb, Elzy Chansy, Peter Barger, Samuel Boland, Alexander Beall, John Layport, Robert Guinea, Ephraim Johnson, William Barrett, who were duly impannelled, tried, sworn and affirmed to try the aforesaid issue between the said Samuel Browning Plaintiff and James Beck Defendant, and after hearing the evidence adduced and arguments of counsel, as well on part of the plaintiff as the defendant do on their respective oaths & affirmations, say that the said James Beck is guilty in manner & form as the said Samuel Browning above in his declarations hath complained against him, and that they assess the damages the plaintiff hath sustained by reason of the promises at the sum of one hundred dollars.

The court adjourned until 8 o'clock on Monday morning.

At this point in the case, the only reason given for the assessment of $100 against James Beck is "damages" of unknown origin and the details of his guilt are not explained. It appears that this issue was brought up before the 28th, though -- something I intend to look up in the Common Pleas Journal again on my next trip to see if it was!

A page later, on 132, we find the Court re-adjourning. Now the case is entitled "State of Ohio on complaint of Samuel (Samuel is crossed out) Julia Ann Browning vs. James Beck."

Julia? In October of 1837, Samuel's daughter Julia was a single girl, 17 years old. She was Samuel and Margaret's firstborn daughter and was not married until 1843, a full six years after the date of the trial. Why would she be involved? I read the first words of the case and everything suddenly made sense.

OCTOBER TERM AD 1837
Monday morning, 8 o'clock, October 30th, AD 1837
Court met pursuant to adjournment present the same judges as on Saturday the 28th of October instant.

STATE OF OHIO on complaint of (SAMUEL) JULIA ANN BROWNING , vs. JAMES BECK:
BASTARDY: This day came the parties by their attorneys, and the motion for a new trial in this case having been submitted to the court, and the court being duly advised in the premises, do overrule said motion. And the court do thereupon adjudge the said James Beck the Defendant to be the reputed Father of said bastard child and do order that the said James Beck stand charged with the maintenance thereof as follows to wit: that he pay to the clerk of this court for the time being for the use of the mother of said child or other person having the care or maintenance thereof the sum of fifty-four dollars. And also that he pay weekly into the hands of the clerk of this court for the time being for the use aforesaid the sum of seventy-five cents for the period of five years from the expiration of the term of this court, provided the said weekly payments shall cease in case of the death of the said child, and it is further considered and ordered by the court that the said James Beck pay the costs of this prosecution. And that the said James Beck give Bonds to the Clerk of this court with security to be by him approved conditioned for the performance of the aforesaid orders, and that he stand committed to the Jail of the County until such security be given.
The Defendant by his counsel thereupon gave notice of his intention to appeal to the Supreme Court.

A child support case! Ah ha!!!! A tumbler clicked into place and the identity of a mystery grandson named Washington living with Samuel and Margaret in the 1850 census of Harrison County was finally solved. I'd first thought he was another child of Samuel and Margaret's, possibly a twin brother of Ezra C. 'Zera' Browning. Later -- when I found Washington's gravestone with the inscription, "Grandson of S&M Browning" -- I wondered which child of Samuel and Margaret was his parent. At first I assumed (yes, I know, silly me!) that Wash was a son of one of the elder sons of Samuel and Margaret because his last name was Browning! I calculated Wash's age and looked at all the marriage dates of the boys but found nothing that would match or make any sense as to why Wash was with Samuel and Margaret and not his parents. I recall considering Julia briefly but without any seriousness.

I learned my lesson when this case was located.

I have been told that in the 1830's, the state of Ohio encouraged mothers of illegitimate children to come forth and prosecute the fathers of their children. Apparently the state provided some form of support for these children but if -- and only if -- the fathers could not be found and made to support their offspring themselves. I do not know how accurate this information is, but it certainly makes the reason for this prosecution a little bit clearer.

I began to do some research on the defendant in the case, James Beck -- the man accused and found guilty of being Washington's father (though how they determined this back then I have no idea!) James had to pay an upfront fee of $54 plus a sum to the court of $.75 a week for support for either five years or until Washington died. He also had to pay court costs. Added up, this amounts to well over $154 for the trial and for the judgement! That was a lot of money in 1837.

Note the last sentence: "The Defendant by his counsel thereupon gave notice of his intention to appeal to the Supreme Court." It is this sentence which interests me so much and is a focus of my further research during my upcoming trip. I'd like to know if James pursued it.

I located a James Beck living four doors down from Samuel and Margaret in Moorefield Township in Harrison County in 1830. This James had one male under 5, one male 20-29, one male 70-79, one female 15-19 and one female 20-29. I'm not sure if this is the correct James Beck family and of course we can't determine from this list whether or not this is a 20-something James with a wife, son, father and sister or sister-in-law living with him or not. No James Beck is found in 1840.

Washington's mother Julia was an...interesting....woman in her own right. She was obviously sneaking off as a teenager and whatever the circumstances were, she became pregnant while still unmarried. She either gave Washington to her parents or they required her to leave him with them (though to date, no adoption/guardianship papers have been found) for in 1850 when Washington is enumerated with Samuel and Margaret, Julia is in neighboring Tuscarawas County living with her husband John Hoy, their two children Samuel and William, and is pregnant with her fourth child, Josephine. Julia and John were rooming with Julia's sister Margaret and her husband, John's younger brother James Hoy.

By 1855, Julia had moved to Crawford County, Illinois. She was living with her parents and her husband John is nowhere to be found. Her sons Samuel and William Hoy are with her, but her daughter Josephine and husband John were dead. By 1860 Julia had married again in Crawford County to James E. Melton Legg and they are living with Melton's four children, but Julia's two older sons William and Samuel Hoy are once again living with their grandparents.

In 1869, Julia dies. She is buried in the Wesley Chapel Cemetery in Montgomery Township, Crawford County, Illinois. Her tombstone is to the left. She rests next to her parents, siblings, and one other; her illegitimate son, Washington.

The subject of the case -- Washington -- was born on 24 March 1837. Julia was 16. Washington lived with his grandparents his whole life as far as I have been able to ascertain.

Washington moved to Crawford County, Illinois with Samuel and Margaret and died on 4 June 1854 at the age of 18, less than a month before his aunt Sarah Ann Browning. Sarah died on 1 July 1854. There was an outbreak of yellow fever between the years of 1852-1854 in Crawford County. Perhaps Washington and his aunt Sarah were two of its victims.

A Handy Mapping Tool -- Historical Aerials!

Here's a short post to highlight something I found today that might be of interest to some of you. There is a great little mapping tool here at http://www.historicaerials.com/default.aspx that features historical aerials of many areas all across the United States. They only seem to go back to to mid-40's and 50's in most of the areas I poked around in but it appears that other, older parts of the country may see images as early as 1931! This might be helpful to you folks who have addresses for your parents and grandparents and you'd like to see what their surroundings looked like at the time they resided there.

You can even order prints!

Tombstone Tuesday - The McConnells (And My First Trip Back to Their Home)

The tombstone(s) featured for tonight's edition of Tombstone Tuesday really aren't tombstones at all. There aren't any of John Coleman McConnell and his wife Rachel Browning. Their burial location -- in the tiny, mostly-hidden McConnell cemetery right outside of Tippecanoe, Harrison County, OH -- lies directly behind that of their son Theodore McConnell, the stone that is seen in the picture. We know this because Theodore directed that he "be laid at the feet of his sainted mother," and Rachel's will dictated that she be laid beside her husband.

Rachel's husband John Coleman McConnell was the son of Robert MConnell and Prudence Coleman. John was born 1 January 1807 in Belmont Co., OH and died 18 July 1873 in Harrison Co., OH. Rachel was the sixth child of Samuel Browning and Margaret Markee and was born 25 January 1825 in Athens Twn in Harrison County, OH. She died in November of 1902 in Washington Twn. in Harrison County. John and Rachel were married by R. K. Price, JP in the county on 9 April 1848.

I located the McConnell Cemetery and took this picture during my first trip to Harrison County last August. It was one of the two highlights of the trip for me. Of the thirteen children of Samuel and Margaret, one of Rachel's sisters moved to Kansas and a brother to Indiana but Rachel was the only one to choose to stay in Ohio with her husband. The other ten moved to Crawford County, IL, with their parents and cousins.

I imagine sometimes how hard that must've been, to watch your entire family ride away. I know they kept in touch -- one of Rachel's sons went to Kansas to work a summer on his aunt's farm and one of Rachel's Illinois nieces came to stay a while with her and her husband John -- but for the most part, Rachel was alone; bereft of her Browning kindred. She did, however, have nine children and a husband to keep her busy!

The story of finding the cemetery is what I'm here to tell today, though. I'd done the research to ascertain its location before going to OH. My parents and daughter and I drove around the backroads for a few hours and during one go-round I happened to see a farm with a sign that said "McConnell" on it. We got out and knocked on the farm door but no one answered; it looked abandoned. Adjacent to the farmhouse was a ramshackle building made of hand-hewn wooden beams that looked like it might've once been an old home. I walked around to the back and took a picture of the building before heading back to the car.

We drove around another hour up and down the road the cemetery was supposed to be on without any luck. Finally, as we again passed the farm with the building, my father said, "Let's just go up the hill here and stop and ask at the first house we see." It sounded like a plan. We pulled in to the first house on the hill and I got out, knocked on the door, introduced myself and explained that we were looking for the old McConnell cemetery. The lady looked surprised and asked me to tell her who we were looking for. I told her Rachel Browning and her husband John McConnell. The lady just shook her head. "Well, I reckon I know them. John and Rachel were my husband's great-great-grandparents."

Holy cow, I was flabbergasted! Talk about serendipity! She invited us in and she showed me a xeroxed copy of an old picture of John Mcconnell. She said the original was in the hands of another McConnell and it was in an oval frame and couldn't be removed for fear of damaging it. She gave me his name and number as well as the name and number of yet another McConnell researcher. Then she told me her husband was the caretaker of the McConnell cemetery and she'd direct us to its location.

When we got there we saw why we hadn't seen it and would've never seen it if we'd never taken a chance and stopped and asked. The cemetery was tucked way back in the woods and practically invisible from the road. A 'fence' made of blocks ringed its boundaries. My daughter and I climbed the hill. It was too steep for my parents so they rested in the car while I took pictures and sat amongst the leaves for a while. I was thrilled beyond belief to be at the resting place of another of Samuel and Margaret's children.

Counting Rachel I've now stood in front of seven of them (James, Elias, Julia, Rachel, Sarah, Ezra and Edward.) I have pictures of one other (Susannah) and I know where two others (Absalom, Samuel J.) are possibly buried. The resting places of the last three (Margaret, Asbury T. and John Wesley) are currently unknown.

Before I left my cousin's home to go in search of the cemetery she said one more thing to me. She told me to go back down to the McConnell farm and take a look at the old building. I said I had, and she said, "Good. That's where John and Rachel lived. John built it with his own hands." I was so glad I'd taken that picture! The picture above and to the left is the house.

To think.....what if we'd never went and knocked on that door? I wouldn't have found Rachel's resting place. Wouldn't have known I was looking at her home. Wouldn't have been able to see a picture of her husband. And on my next trip next month....I wouldn't have new cousins to meet!

Serendipity.

Coincidence?

I'm preparing to go to northwestern OH in the next three weeks for a well-deserved respite. I'm sooooo excited! It's a dual purpose trip -- half is a visit with family, the other half a research trip. For the next couple of weeks my posts will be lighter here since I'll have to use the two precious hours I have in the evening after work to pour over my decades' worth of notes/papers/clutter, etc., and decide what things are most important for me to research while I'm there.

Before I do, though, I simply must say something about serendipity.

When I began research on my Browning family back in the early 1990's my immediate family was only partially interested. My grandmother was quite interested, my parents were somewhat interested, and my younger brother not at all. He was a world traveller who at first never intended to settle down. He eventually married but his wife was cut from the same cloth that he was. They established a company that could travel with them and traveled all over, living in poorer countries and in remote locations for months on end.

A few years ago they finally decided to put down roots and when they did, they decided to focus on an area of the country within a few hours drive of a city that they did a lot of business in every year. They did a search on the Net and eventually chose a place that had one of the lowest crime statistics and median home prices they could find in the area. They moved there and searched for a house, finally finding a lovely turn of the century home for a very good price. Soon thereafter he and I were talking about his choice and he asked me if I'd ever heard of the city he chose. When he told me the name, my heart skipped a beat.

Heard of it? HEARD OF IT? Had I ever! By a fluke of fate he'd chosen a place in OH about an hour away from the ancestral home of the Browning family! Our Brownings had settled in and around Tippecanoe and Deersville in Harrison County, OH in the early 1800's and had lived there until around 1851 when they moved on to Crawford County, IL.

I was struck then by the sense that a circle had semi-closed and I still think about it now. My own desire to return to Crawford County pulls at me all the time. I wonder about the choice my brother made and if it had been simple coincidence or something more. Synchronicity, perhaps? He didn't know his ancestors had lived there; he just chose it out of a hat. Or did it choose him?

Regardless, I'm thrilled to have a family member live so close to the area where our Brownings lived. I'm able to stay with him and visit while I do research. I'm so looking forward to this second trip there because I intend to tie up many loose ends that I didn't get a chance to try to tie up on my first trip there. That first trip -- last August -- was with my parents and my daughter and it was more a 'vacation' than a research trip. I couldn't simply take off all day doing research because there were other people to consider. Not so on this trip! That's why I need to do some proper preparation.

On this upcoming trip I have two things on the agenda for sure. One, I'll get to meet one of Samuel Browning's other descendants -- our ancestors were brother and sister -- and I look forward to being able to take a picture of the oval-framed old picture he has of my Samuel's son-in-law. Two, I intend to stop off at the State Archives in Columbus and try to find out if a court case that Samuel and his daughter Julia filed against a man named James Beck in 1837 actually did go to the Ohio Supreme Court. At the conclusion of the Harrison County trial, Beck mentioned his intent to take it there. I'd like to see if he did.

I should write about the trial and my last trip to OH back in August before I go on this one because that one had a few coincidental moments, genealogically speaking, as well. I'll do that this evening if I can find the time.

Saturday Night Fun - Your Paternal Grandmother's Patrilineal Line

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings puts together Saturday Night Fun every Saturday and this week's looked like fun:

Provide a list of your paternal grandmother's patrilineal line.
Answer these questions:

* What was your father's mother's maiden name?

* What was your father's mother's father's name?

* What is your father's mother's father's patrilineal line? That is, his father's father's father's ... back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?

* Can you identify male sibling(s) of your father's mother, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)? If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further.

Let's see....here's mine!

* My father's mother was Beulah Ethel Garrard (1900-2002), born in Robinson, Crawford Co., IL.

* My father's mother's father's name was Robert Elbert Garrard (1853-1938), born in Honey Creek Twn., Crawford Co., IL.

* His father was William A. Garrard (1822-1864), born in Hardinville, Crawford Co., IL

* His father was William Garrard (ca 1793-??), born in KY.

* Beulah Ethel Garrard had two brothers -
** Ralph Earl Garrard (1891-1970), who had two sons, one b. 1939, one b. 1942.
** Raymond Orlond Garrard (1892-1987), who had one son b. 1925.

From this, I can see at least two and possibly three living male relatives on the Garrard side who could contribute samples of their Y-DNA markers. I am not sure if Ralph or Raymond's sons had any sons because my database shows only daughters.

I am interested in getting my father tested for our Browning line. Since my father is a direct male descendant of Samuel Browning, and is the only one I know of other than my own brother, I'd best get on this fast! I think a Christmas present idea just occurred to me, though I'm not sure if it's for my dad or for me! Ha!

Thanks for the fun, Randy!

(Not At All) Wordless Wednesday -- Civil War Mementos

The three items featured in this picture belong to my cousin Linda and are from three men -- all from Crawford County, Illinois -- that served together in the same company in the Civil War: Company H in the 11th Regt of Missouri Infantry.  These three men were boyhood friends and brothers and their lives would become entangled in many other ways other than their shared service.

The first item -- a Civil War era bible -- belonged to Elias Browning, a Corporal in Company H. Elias was my cousin Linda's great-great-grandfather. According to her family tradition, Elias carried this bible with him during his service. The bible was most likely given to him by his sweetheart, Sarah Ellen Kent. Sarah and Elias married in 1866 soon after the war was over.

The second item is a bowtie worn by a man named Jacob Cyrus Johnson, who also served as a Private in Company H. Jacob and Elias had been best friends since boyhood.

The third and last item is the handkerchief that the bible and the bowtie are sitting on. It was worn around the neck of Joseph Browning, Elias Browning's younger brother by two years. Joseph was a Sergeant in Company H.

The three men fought together in the siege of Vicksburg.  According to Jacob Johnson's testimony in his pension records and information in his obituary, Elias and Joseph were on the field when Jacob fell, seriously wounded through the neck which caused paralysis in his left arm.  Elias and Joseph carried Jacob off the field and as they did so Joseph pulled off his handkerchief and held it to Jacob’s neck to staunch the bleeding. This quick thinking helped save Jacob’s life.  Jacob was treated at Overton Hospital in Memphis, TN from 28 May 1862 to 17 Aug 1863.

Family lore says the handkerchief shown in the picture is the one Joseph used to save Jacob. You can't really see it in the picture but it is stained in places, a bit to the right under the bowtie and around the bible but elsewhere as well.

But this battle wasn't the end to the connection between the Browning boys and Jacob Johnson. In 1869 Elias died from complications from the dysentery he'd contracted during his service. He left his wife Sarah with two young children, Thomas Marion and Eliza Jane, to raise on her own. Jacob, meanwhile, had married Harriet Norton in 1869 but their marriage was a short one for Harriet died in 1871. Jacob was then also left with two young children to raise on his own. Jacob went and asked for Sarah's hand and -- best friends with Elias 'til the end -- he married Sarah in 1872 and raised Elias' children as his own. Jacob and Sarah never had any children of their own but they raised their four combined children together -- Thomas M. and Eliza Jane Browning, and Orren and Ida Johnson. They had a long marriage. Jacob died in 1916 and Sarah followed in 1931.

Joseph married Almarena Mathewson in 1866 and they were married until her death in 1886. Joseph married twice more -- to Harriet Berlin and then to Frances Daugherty -- and died in a bicycle accident in 1916. He was run over by a car. Yes, you heard right. 1916.

Joseph was my great-great-grandfather on my paternal side. I find it quite ironic that he was killed by an automobile, as my paternal great-grandfather Robert Elbert Garrard was also struck and killed by a vehicle in 1938. To make matters worse I seem to have "inherited" this quality, though unlike both my ancestors, it didn't result in my death. I was hit by a car on my bicycle when I was a young teen and broke my wrist and my leg. I was lucky, they said. I'd say so!

Joseph and Elias Browning were the sons of James Browning and Jane Nevitt. I'll be blogging about them soon!