52 Ancestors 2020 – 7 – Favorite Discovery – Deborah (Hockett) Blair

I wasn't sure how this topic would work for this great-grandaunt of mine, Deborah (Hockett) Blair, an older sister of my Great-grandmother Mary Magdalene (Hockett) Albertson. They were daughters of Francis and Rebecca (Hartley) Hockett. They had 9 other brothers and sisters. I had a bare minimum about Deborah on my genealogy website – joanne skelton.com. It does show Deborah was born 18 Feb 1849 in Henry County, Iowa. She married Albert Dillon about 1868 and they had two children: Ella Kay and Allie May. After Albert died she married Joseph Blair and they had four children: Lawrence Edwin, Henrietta M, Howard and Gale E. She was listed as surviving in her sister Lydia's obituary in Nov 1922.

But when I began researching to discover what more I could learn about her, I did make 3 interesting discoveries.

First was her death certificate which was listed as a source for her death at familysearch Family Tree. I was glad to find documentation for her death, which was 12 June 1925 in Hardin County, Iowa. But I was surprised at the maiden name given for Deborah's mother. It shows her maiden name as Rebecca Larr. It was Rebecca's mother who probably had the maiden name Larr. So this does give me evidence that the Larr name is in the family.

Secondly I found her Find a Grave entry as Deborah Ann Hockett Blair. It shows that she was buried in Honey Creek Cemetery in New Providence, Hardin County, Iowa. There are links to her parents, 8 of her siblings, her first husband and 6 children.

The third discovery is a mystery. Looking at the familysearch Family Tree it showed one more child than I had already entered on my website, Archie Artell Blair. I am not convinced that he is a child of Deborah. His birthdate is shown as 29 Mar 1899. Since Deborah was born in 1849 she would have been 50 years old, which would be possible but not probable. There was a nine year gap from the previous known child. In the information about Archie or Artell, there is a document showing his mother as Deborah, but there is another which shows Etta. Deborah had a daughter Henrietta aka Etta who was born in Oct 1878, so would have been old enough to be his mother.

I decided to check for Archie on the census of 1900 and try to find who he was living with as a baby. I have not yet found him. Deborah was living in Hardin County, Iowa with her husband Joseph and their two sons, Edwin and Gale. The census taker marked that she had had 4 children, 3 living. The Dillon girls seem to be left out but it does account for the Blair children I have on my website. Henrietta was also living in Hardin County in the household of Seth Hammer, marked as a servant and single. But it does list her as having 1 child, who was living.

Since the 1910 census also asks the question about number of children and number living, I checked both Deborah and Henrietta in 1910. Deborah and Joseph and their son Gale were living with Edwin in neighboring Marshall County, Iowa. There her number

of children is 6, with 5 living. So this matches what I have entered on my website, including both Dillon and Blair children. But what about Henrietta? She was married in Marshall County in 1902 to John Mohler as Etta Blair. She and John are in the 1910 census back in Hardin County with a baby daughter Garnet age 9/12. On the number of children question the census taker wrote down 2, with 2 living. So again I searched for Archie or Artell in the 1910 census. I looked for anyone named Blair, born in 1899 plus/minus 5 years, first in Hardin County, Iowa and then in Marshall County. He does not show up in either of those searches.

He does appear on the 1920 census in the household of John and Etta in Hardin County, as Artell Blair, along with 3 Mohler children and Deborah. With John as the head of household, Deborah is marked as mother-in-law and Artell as brother-in-law. So I still have not solved the mystery. Is there anyone who has further information?

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Remembering boxes of candy my husband gave me for Valentine's Day years ago. 

Some are now on exhibit at the Cottage Grove Museum.

52 Ancestors 2020 – 6 – Same Name – Nancy (Hemphill) Hamilton

I realized that during January I had written about “uncles” in my family, so in February I will attempt to write about some of the “aunts.”

Nancy Jane (Hemphill) Hamilton was one of my 2^nd great-grandaunts. She fits in the “Same Name” category because her first name is the same as her grandmother, Nancy (Patton) Milligan, her maiden name is the same as her father as expected, and her married name is the same as her mother's second husband. This happened because Nancy married her step-brother, John C. Hamilton.

But, let's go back to the beginning. Nancy Jane Hemphill was born on 11 Feb 1837 in Adams County, Ohio. She was the oldest child of John and Elizabeth (Milligan) Hemphill. Her father had been married before, so she had step-brothers. Nancy had 5 more siblings before her father died in 1847. So in the 1850 census in Wayne township in Adams County, her mother Elizabeth was the head of household. Nancy's step-brother David, age 25, was in the household and Nancy, who was now 13, and her 5 siblings, Rachel (who was my ancestor), Mary, John, Elizabeth and William.

It was just the next year when Nancy's mother married a widower William M. Hamilton on 14 Jan 1851. Now Nancy acquired 5 more step-siblings. Then as William and Nancy had children Nancy had some half-siblings. But just to make things a little more confusing Nancy married one of William's children from his first marriage, John Campbell Hamilton, on 29 Aug 1855. Then Nancy's youngest half-brother was born the next year, 1856, just 3 months before her first child was born. So Nancy and her mother, who were now both married to men named Hamilton, had been pregnant at the same time. I wonder if all those named Hamilton living there in Adams County ever got confused about their relationships.

 Nancy and John had 10 more children before they would celebrate their 20^th wedding anniversary, including one set of twins. On the 1860, 1870 and 1880 censuses Nancy and her family were living in Oliver Township in Adams County, Ohio. In 1860 three children were in the household. In 1870 the number of children had increased to nine. They were enumerated between their parents William and Elizabeth and Nancy's sister Mary who was married to David Rhodes. There were ten children in their household in 1880, so the census never shows all eleven at once.

It was 12 more years before Nancy died on 1 Nov 1892 at age 55. She was buried in

Locust Grove Cemetery in Franklin Township, Adams County. John was also buried there after his death in 1906

52 Ancestors 2020 – 5 – Far Away – Thomas Elder Patton

Thomas Elder Patton 1783 – 1840

Photo added to Find A Grave by Karen Winters

Thomas Elder Patton was born far away from me here in Oregon in 2020 in space and in time. He was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia on 29 Jan 1783, the son of John and Martha (Sharp) Patton. Thomas was one of eight children, all born in Rockbridge County. They all eventually moved west to Adams County, Ohio. All but Jane, who was listed as idiotic on the 1860 census, were married in Rockbridge County.

Thomas married Jenny or Jane Glasgow 18 Apr 1805. On her memorial page on Find A Grave, it is stated that they moved to Adams County by covered wagon in Oct 1806. I believe that it is this Thomas who was listed on the “Male Enumeration List” in 1807 in Wayne Township. He is also found on the lists there for 1811 and 1815. Scott Township was formed from the north part of Wayne in 1818, so it is reasonable that it is our Thomas who is listed in Scott Township on the lists for 1819, 1823 and 1827. I have always been thankful to the Adams County Genealogical Society for publishing these lists since Ohio does not have surviving census records until 1820. They also published voter lists for 1810, 1811 and 1812. There is a Thomas Patton for each of those years in Wayne Township.

A history of Adams County was published in 1900. I was able to obtain a reprint which had added an index. Thomas Patton has three entries in the index. In the Pioneer Character Sketches there is an entry for Thomas' father John and it says “Thomas Patton, a son, lived and died on West Fork.” (Page 608) In the Biographical Sketches there are two for Thomas' son-in-laws, which mention Thomas: “Thomas Patton, a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, who settled on the West Fork of Brush Creek.” (Page 682) and “Thomas Patton, a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, though he emigrated to Ohio, settled on West Fork and died there.” (Page 754) So I checked my reprint of the 1868 Atlas of Ohio and found that the West Fork of Brush Creek was in Scott Township not far from Meigs Township.

I believe that Thomas and his family are on the 1820 census in Meigs Township, as it is an adjoining county to Scott. Since no names other than the head of household are shown on these early censuses I used the children and their ages as shown on Find A Grave and they all match, Thomas and Jenny and the older 6 of their children (3 boys and 3 girls.) In 1830 they are listed in Scott Township with 4 of the older children plus 3 who had been born between 1820 and 1830. The 2 oldest were married and in households of their own by this time.

June 1^st was the official enumeration date for the 1840 census. Find A Grave lists Thomas' death date as 4 Jun 1840. I have not been able to find a census entry for Thomas in 1840, so I suspect the census taker came after his death so did not list him. The household was probably in a state of disorganization at that time so it may be that none of those still living there were counted. Without having the names listed, it would be hard to find them if they were counted.

As I previously stated, there is a memorial page for Thomas on Find A Grave which gives his death date as 4 Jun 1840. It shows his burial place as Tranquility Cemetery but there is no photo of a gravestone. I checked my cemetery booklets from the Adams County Genealogical Society and found that Tranquility Cemetery is located in Scott Township. But neither Thomas or his wife are listed in their book. However my ancestor, Elizabeth (Milligan) Hemphill Hamilton, is shown as buried in Tranquility Cemetery. She was the daughter of Thomas' sister Nancy. So it is likely that Thomas was buried at Tranquility and there was either no stone or it has not survived.