William Hockett
photo from shirleyw55 at Find a Grave
Again
in 2020 I am attempting to write about family using the themes from
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks by Amy Johnson Crow. In 2019, I did write
about 2 months about my ancestor's siblings connecting to the
suggested topics. So I will try again to write about an ancestor's
sibling whose birthday was during the week and who I could connect to
the theme for the week.
The
first theme is Fresh Start. I
chose William Hockett, my 3rd
great-granduncle, since his birthday was January 1. He was born in
1787, in North Carolina, the oldest child of Stephen and Margaret
(Thornburgh) Hoggatt. The family name became known as Hockett after
the family moved to Ohio in the early 1800s. It was the 12th
of June 1806 when William was received on certificate at the Quaker
Miami Monthly Meeting in Warren County, Ohio from the New Garden
Monthly Meeting in Guilford County, North Carolina. Although he was
now 19 years old, he didn't come alone, since his parents and 8 of
his siblings were also included on that certificate.
It
is probable that the family attended the Fairfield Monthly Meeting in
Highland County, Ohio, which had been set off from Miami in 1807. On
the 24th
of November in 1810 William was granted a certificate to Center
Monthly Meeting, also in Highland County, in order to marry. The
Center Meeting minutes notes that on December 11th,
1810, Rachel Hodgson married Wm. Hoggatt. Then on the 2nd
of February 1811, Rachel Hoggatt was received at the Fairfield
Meeting. William and Rachel were living in Ohio when the Quakers
seemed to be expanding as it appears they were in the group when Lees
Creek Monthly Meeting was set off from Fairfield in March of 1817. It
was still in Highland County.
But the Hockett family did not stay in Ohio as many of
them were moving to Indiana. By October of 1817, William and Rachel
with their 2 sons, Nathan and Isaac, and 2 daughters, Ruth and
Margaret, followed his parents and other siblings and were granted a
certificate from Lees Creek to the New Garden Monthly Meeting in
Wayne County, Indiana. They were received there in February of 1818.
Many of the Hocketts were those who became a part of the Cherry Grove
Monthly Meeting when it was set off from New Garden in 1821,
including William's family which now numbered 7, since Thomas was
born in 1820.
The family stayed there for a little over 15 years, but
I guess they were looking for another “Fresh Start” since William
and Rachel and their 6 children still at home were received on
certificate at the Vermilion Monthly Meeting in Illinois in August of
1837, which was like a holding place until the first Monthly Meeting
west of the Mississippi River was organized in 1838 at Salem in Henry
County, Iowa Territory. William and Rachel were charter members of
that Salem Meeting.
It appears that William had been successful at farming
because taking advantage of the cash entry law, he received a patent
dated December 1, 1841 from the U.S. Government for 400 acres of land
in Tippecanoe Township in Henry County. The agricultural section of
the 1856 Iowa State Census showed that he had harvested 200 bushels
of wheat from 20 acres, 450 bushels of oats from 15 acres and 1000
bushels of corn from 20 acres. He also had sold 15 hogs worth $182
and 2 cattle worth $400, plus 110 pounds of wool.
I
was sad to see that this 1856 census listed William's wife Rachel as
insane and the U.S. Census for 1860 listed her as idiotic. As she was
in her late 60's, it was probably some sort of dementia. She outlived
William by almost a year as she died the 22nd
of September 1865 and William died the 9th
of October 1864. They both are buried at Cedar Creek Cemetery in
Salem, Henry County, Iowa.
No comments:
Post a Comment