I'm always SO happy to find photos of ancestors. Please meet Reese Morgan. Born 25 October 1808 in Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania to William M. Morgan and Nancy (Rees) Morgan--both from Pennsylvania, his family moved to Illinois in the late 1820s. They were among the first settlers of La Salle County. 

Reese served in the Black Hawk War in 1831, enlisting as a private under J. Adams' Company, 5th Regiment, Whiteside Brigade. He enrolled at Pekin, (then Livingston County), Illinois. One family historian writes that he was "in Stillman's defeat and remained in the service until hostilities ceased," being discharged in 1832. 

An account of Stillman's Run: https://fromthehistoryroom.wordpress.com/2015/07/25/eyewitness-accounts-of-stillmans-defeat/

He married Rebecca Reeder and operated a sawmill business in La Salle County, Illinois. He served as county treasurer and assessor from 1848 to 1852. Rebecca and Reese had nine children.

In 1852 he and 16 year old son Philander  "crossed the plains to California with ox teams and spent three years prospecting and mining, returning to Illinois in 1855." Oh, what stories they might have told! Young Philander also returned and later fought for the Union Army, 76th Regiment, Illinois Infantry. One record I found indicates he served as a "teamster" in the Civil War against the rebels.

Reese continued to farm, and died in Strawn, Illinois in 1878. FYI to family: Our Aunt Helen was Reese's great-grand niece. She descended through her mom's McCormick line.

Source:  I'm grateful to "harveyg2" who  originally shared Reese's photo to Ancestry in 2014. 

          I love a good naturalization record. Sworn to and signed by the petitioner herself. How often have YOU seen your second-grandparents' signatures? Or their handwritten "X."  Declarations Of Intent help fill in the blanks on a family's dates of birth. Often but not always, full legal names are shown. A researcher's dream! Names of ports of entry and departure from countries. Passenger ships identified that can easily be googled to locate photos of now-destroyed vessels. 

          And birth places. Just when you think your ancestors hailed from one country, you discover no, it was from another place. A surprise ethnicity! A DNA analysis might SUGGEST where your ancestor lived, but the all- important paper trail, baby. That's what tells you WHO came from WHERE and WHEN. I'm still reeling from a 1759 document bearing my maternal 6xG-Grandfather's name with his birthplace as Stockholm--not in Germany.

          Yesterday my sisters and I wondered if homes once lived in by long-ago family friends and neighbors had suffered property loss due to California's wretched fires. Old city directories on Ancestry provided their addresses to then plug into maps on news media websites now showing evacuated areas. Curious about some of these old friends--peers of my parents with whom we've lost contact, I continued to run their names through census and vital records. 

          I was surprised to learn of one friend's husband who has a burial record indicating service in three wars. Three! WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. 

          Another friend's family was once forcibly moved to a concentration camp in Wyoming in 1942. The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center was a "barbed-wire-surrounded enclave with unpartitioned toilets, cots for beds, and a budget of 45 cents daily per capita for food rations." This same 16 year old American citizen, born in California, spent a year in a hell-hole dump of a camp with 10,000+ others--many who were also citizens. Their homes and businesses forfeited, they left home with only a few suitcases. Their new camp was poorly insulated, offering little warmth against a Wyoming winter. While it may have interrupted our friend's education, she went on to pursue a medical degree and became a well-respected physician. I wish I could hug her, and apologize for the racism shown to her family by our government. 

          Another family friend's grandfather, I learned, immigrated from the Netherlands to the U.S. in 1888. It is his record which prompted this post for those unfamiliar with naturalizations. See Mr. M. De Groot's 1917 Declaration of Intention and Petition for Naturalization from the US District Court, Southern District of California, County of Los Angeles. 

          Difficult to read? Here's a short extraction, beginning with the Declaration of Intention:

Martin DeGroot, age 45, painter by occupation, 142 lbs, brown hair, brown eyes, was born in Nieve Nildrop, Netherlands on 9 November 1869. I now reside at 1648 West 55th St., Los Angeles, CA. I emigrated to USA from Liverpool, England on a White Star Line ship. My last foreign residence was Amsterdam, Holland.

I renounce forever all allegiance to Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands. I arrived at the port of New York on the 10th day of March 1888. I am not an anarchist or polygamist. 

/s/  (his signature)

Declaration of Intention No. 1980 filed this 11 Jan 1917.

          And, The Petition for Naturalization:

I declared my intention to become a citizen on 1 Dec 1914 in Los Angeles. I am married to Anna DeGroot, born 22 Dec 1874 in Hargs (sp?) Sweden, and our three children are:

     Lillian, born 3 Apr 1894, Grand Rapids, Michigan;

     Mabel, 16 Nov 1895, Sparta,  "; and

     Ethel, 10 Dec 1897, Grand Rapids, " .

I have resided continuously in USA since 20 Mar 1888, and in the State of California since 15 Sep 1906.

Source:  U.S., Naturalization Records, 1840-1957 via National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Naturalization Records of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division (Los Angeles), 1887-1940; Microfilm Roll: 64; Microfilm Serial: M152

          Ancestry.com has this reminder for those searching for their family's petitions:

                 However, from the time the first naturalization act was passed in 1790 until 1906, 

                 there were no uniform standards. As a consequence, before September 1906, various 

                 federal, state, county, and local courts generated a wide variety of citizenship records that 

                 are stored in sundry courts, archives, warehouses, libraries, and private collections. After 

                1906 the vast majority of naturalizations took place in federal courts.

          After 1906, Petitions required signed Oaths of Allegiance. In this instance, Mr. De Groot swore he was not an anarchist nor a practicing polygamist. Now. Isn't THAT interesting. To my knowledge none of my anarchist friends have plural marriages. While these alleged travesties of 1917 may not have been practiced in common, either one or the other ideology might easily tempt an unwitting citizen. Best to stop 'em at the border, is the familiar cry. Perhaps one or two in your family slipped through? [insert silly face emoji here] Send me your immigrant ancestors' names, and let's see.

     “The past is never dead. It's not even past.”

--  William Faulkner, Requiem For A Nun

I'm guessing this was taken on a Thanksgiving Day in the mid-1990s because I recognize Helen's green shirt from when she once visited us on the prairie about that same time. I think they are at Nancy and Larry's home.

My paternal third great-uncle, Abraham Lincoln Ackley, was mentioned in a San Francisco newspaper one summer in 1891. I was happy to find this article on GenealogyBank this morning. 

Abe and his brothers, along with their dad, Sam Ackley, operated ferries that carried people, animals, and supplies across both the Cimarron and Arkansas Rivers in what is today eastern Oklahoma. 

ONE SMALL QUIBBLE:  Tulsa was then (and is now) in Creek Nation. The "mouth of the Cimarron" River may have been near Keystone, which was in Pawnee Nation, Oklahoma Territory.  (My Ackleys lived in O.T. until Oklahoma became a state in 1907). So I will forgive a reporter from a Fort Smith, Arkansas paper who may have considered anything west of the Arkansas River part of that wild and woolly frontier, "Cherokee Nation." This murder may very well have occurred in Osage Nation, as I find a "Salt Creek" listed near Grainola, Oklahoma.  

Source:  The Morning Call (newspaper), San Francisco, Calif., Friday, June 26, 1891, Vol. 70, page 8

          Finding proof that supports a family mystery? That's what I call a great day! But learning that your ancestor murdered a man? It's a sobering feeling.

          Read what The Galveston Daily News reported on June 2, 1893 about Welcome Wilhelm:

          In her Willhelm Family Record, my Great-Aunt Beatrice Willhelm Steeves wrote this about Welcome's flight from Texas:

My grandfather, William Welcome Willhelm, at about the age of 18 joined the war between the States in Co. C, 15th Northwest Arkansas Infantry.  In one of the battles the flag bearer was shot and grandfather rescued the flag before it hit the ground and carried it through the battle.  A bullet aimed at him, hit a coin in his pocket and made it look like a thimble.  He was captured in the battle of Vicksburg, when on July 3, 1865, General John C. Pemberton, commanding the 50,000 Confederate troops around Vicksburg forced to surrender 37,000 men and 172 cannons to U.S. Grant Commander of the Union Army.  After the war, grandfather went to Texas, married and had a family of 3 boys and 5 girls.  Just before the birth of his youngest child in 1883, some trouble came up and grandfather's life was threatened.  Due to the lack of law and order on the Texas frontier, grandfather was advised, for his sake and the sake of the family, to move his family.  He left to look for a place to move to and then returned to await the birth of his daughter.  When the baby was born, he left again and went to Arkansas to his father's place.  In December of that year he sent grandmother some money.  That was the last the family ever heard of him.

           Welk's parents, Pleasant and Jane (Lockmiller) Willhelm, were living in the Boston Mountains in Madison County, Arkansas. (near Fayetteville)  A pretty but rugged place. I would think it a good place to hide. But it would also be the first choice of the Williamson County Sheriff should he care to send in "the law."

          I saw True Grit. Did any Texas Rangers try tracking my ancestor?


WHAT WILHELM LEFT BEHIND:

          William Welcome Wilhelm married Mary Elizabeth Cowan in Florence, Williamson County, Texas just before Christmas in 1866. Having grown up in Arkansas, Mary and Welk were new Texas residents. Both had many relatives living in the same counties in Texas and Arkansas. Did they know each other as children or meet after Welk's service in the War? Perhaps their families knew each other from Tennessee before the Wilhelms had moved to Arkansas in the late 1840s?

          Mary had eight children with Welk in Texas:  

                    Addie Martha "Mattie" born 19 Oct 1867 in Bell County, 

                    William Edgar born  28 Aug 1869 in Bell County, 

                    James Arthur born 15 Oct 1872 in Granger, Williamson County, 

                    Mary Virginia "Jennie" born 26 Feb 1875 in Bell County, 

                    Grace Idena born 8 July 1877 Circleville, Williamson County, 

                    Joseph Flemon born 4 Jan 1879 Williamson County, 

                    Ollie Josephine born 30 March 1881 Williamson County, 

                    and Alice Emily born 20 April 1883 in Williamson County.

          The 1880 Federal Census records Welcome and Mary's young family living in Precinct No. 6 in rural Williamson County, Texas. Welk is working as a blacksmith. Their oldest "Mattie" is 12, and little Joseph is two years old. 

          As of this writing I do not find a "W. Berry" in the 1880 Census for Williamson County or surrounding counties. There ARE several families with the surname Berry. But none named "Barry." Knowing names and dates are often incorrect in newspapers, I look for variations. Among the many archived newspapers from that time, I've not found any mention of Mr. Berry's untimely death. I will update here when I learn more of Mr. Berry at Donahue Creek.

          Imagine Mary's horror when Welk left her five months before the birth of their last child. My heart goes out to her!

          To the best of anyone's recollection from elders now long gone, Mary last heard from Welk a few months after he had fled to Arkansas in 1883. She had the support of her parents and siblings, but to our knowledge did not remarry.

          She died June 1, 1894 at the age of 51. She is buried in the Katemcy Cemetery in Mason County, Texas near her father, William Flemon Cowan. I've long wondered how her family coped after losing Welcome. My great-grandfather, Welk's son, grew to be a stern, exacting man who was later estranged from his brothers and sisters. He was but 13 when his dad had left home.

          How did that event shape Edgar's history--and ours? 


UPDATE:  Found a similar article in a Dallas, Texas newspaper. This account has a different year for the murder:

--  Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Precinct 6, Williamson, Texas; Roll: 1333; Family History Film: 1255333; Page: 541A; Enumeration District: 161.

--  Steeves, Beatrice Willhelm Reiswig, 1907-1995. Willhelm Family Record & Hurley Family Record. 1973. Raw data.fdfdrf St. Helena, Napa, California, USA.  A family history and genealogy of Tobias Willhelm (1760-1834) and Daniel Hurley (1817- 1859) and their descendants

--  The Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), published Sat., 27 May 1893, p. 5

          Big news. Descendants of enslaved people once owned by members of the Cherokee Tribe have had their citizenship rights restored by a federal judge. The Freedmen are again lawful and equal citizens of a sovereign nation. 

          In 1866, as part of a treaty with the U.S., the Cherokee Nation agreed to give its former slaves citizenship. You will recall that a war had just ended. A war where one side fought to preserve its right to enrich themselves from the labor of humans they bought and sold. That side lost. 

          Yet in 2007 Cherokee citizens voted to remove membership privileges from the Freedmen--its name for those who descended from enslaved Cherokees. 

          This from a tribe that itself has had numerous treaties broken by our U.S. government for 200+ years. 

          Freedmen fought in the courts to restore their citizenship. A ten year battle that ended this week. 

          Judge Thomas F. Hogan wrote in Cherokee Nation v. Raymond Nash: 

          "The Court finds it confounding that the Cherokee Nation historically had no qualms about regarding freedmen as Cherokee 'property' yet continues, even after 150 years, to balk when confronted with the legal imperative to treat them as Cherokee people. While the Cherokee Nation might persist in its design to perpetuate a moral injustice, this Court will not be complicit in the perpetuation of a legal injustice."

          On April 12, 1912, John H. Coffee of Kingston, Oklahoma, and Ina Hight of Denison, Texas, were married. A widower who had lost his wife Nancy (James) Coffee in 1895, this was John's second marriage. He was 60. It was the bride's third marriage. She was 40.

          Born Ina Marie Beasley, her second husband, James Robert Hight, had recently lost his wife, Ruth Ella (Beasley). Yes, Ruth was Ina's older sister.  James was left with the care of their six children. I imagine his concern as a father was a factor in his January 1, 1909 marriage to Ina Marie Greer. 

MEANWHILE BACK IN LITTLE DIXIE: (Yes, southeast Oklahoma is called that)  The next I find Ina Hight is in 1912 Marshall County after marrying my 2xGreat-Gramps. John has a grocery, a restaurant, and a candy store in Kingston. His obit later indicated "Mrs. Iona Hight" was from Denison, Texas. If accurate, then Ina somehow moved from Comanche County, Oklahoma to northeastern Texas. Would love to know how she met John Coffee. 

          Here are two images from the 1913 Polk City Directory for Kingston, Oklahoma showing John's restaurant and grocery:

         
          They came to Oklahoma for their dad's funeral. Upon learning of John's will leaving them $2 each, they promptly hired lawyers to contest the will. But after a few weeks, it ended well. John's children dismissed their claim. 

          Descendants may find these 19 pages interesting, as they are actual copies from the court's probate file. Woo hoo! Click on each page, and move the horizontal scroll bar to the right to see all 19. Errors and all! White Out wasn't yet invented.

A heart-breaking story, not for the squeamish. 

        Really, Florida? All able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 55 had to be employed or face arrest? In August of 1918 did Pensacola have a problem with vagrants? Was it a slam against itinerant or migrant workers? 

Source:  

• The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.), 31 Aug. 1918. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062268/1918-08-31/ed-1/seq-4/>