A Few Facts On Dick Childers

I have little proof that my ancestor, Richard "Dick" Childers, once existed. No birth or death records are known. The cemetery where he was buried has been repeatedly vandalized, and his tombstone long gone. There is no one alive today who knows his parents' history. When I was five years old I saw his son, the only person I've met who actually knew Dick Childers. But his son, Henry Sam, was orphaned at age nine when his father died in February 1891. I am told Henry Sam was asked many times about his parents over the years. He remembered little. No known letter about Dick's family tree exists by anyone who talked with him. There are a few recorded memories from family who talked with those who once knew him. 

My Great Aunt Lois, our Childers' family historian, once showed me a copy of a marriage record for Lucy Ackley and Richard Childers. A marriage performed by Robert McGill Loughridge on June 18, 1879 in Creek Nation, Indian Territory at the Tallahassee Mission, several miles from what is now Muskogee, Oklahoma. Sometimes called "Tullahassee," this mission served as a Creek Nation boarding school. Dr. Loughridge was both school superintendent and a popular ordained minister who performed many marriages.

The mission building later burned. Here is a photograph:


Lucy and Richard do not appear in the Federal Census for 1880 because they were not living in the USA, but instead living in what was then called Indian Territory. Neither do their names appear on any of the 30+ tribal censuses or rolls.

Their first-known child, Henry Samuel Childers, was born May 19, 1881 near Fort Gibson, Creek Nation--now in Muskogee County, Oklahoma.

Daughter Sara Anna was born July 2, 1883 near Fort Gibson, Sara lived but two years, dying in nearby Catoosa, Cherokee Nation, on July 19th. Her mother died nearly five years later in Catoosa, in February 1888. I've spent many hours reading archived newspapers for a mention of their passing. Death notices were not a paper's regular feature as is found today. Nor do I know in whose home they were living shortly before their deaths. One might assume it was Lucy and Richard's home. However, I was told by my Great-Aunt Lois Childers that the young couple had separated a short time before Lucy became ill. Perhaps she was living with a brother's family?

I next find a "Dick Childers" in an 1890 census for Cherokee Nation residents. He is not listed with tribal members, but is shown with other white people who are "living under permit" in the Cooweescoowee District. His home is near his wife's brother's family, Henry Wilson Ackley, in what I believe to be present-day Mayes County, specifically the Hogan Township.

Assuming this is my ancestor, the second person in Childers' household would have been his young son, Henry Sam. The 1890 Cherokee Nation shows cousin Henry and his brother-in-law Dick as:

1.  H.W. ACKLEY, age 31, five (5) in household, arrived in I.T. in 1878, --census page 119

2.  Dick CHILDERS, age 33, two (2) in household, arrived in I.T. in 1874, --census page 120


I was thrilled to find this record in both a book and on microfilm in the Bartlesville (Oklahoma) Library. This was a memorable day for me as it was also the occasion of Robert Plant's appearing in Tulsa that evening at the legendary Cains Ballroom. March 11, 2005. Perhaps you heard me hollering for joy? Please see several pictures from the book here, and yes, that is my thumb:


Some family researchers have guessed Richard Childers' birth date to be a few years later. I'm going with 1857 based on the Bartlesville Library find. I can be persuaded otherwise if any Kind Reader cares to share a birth record. A census record?

Territory newspapers are slowly going online. I was happy to find this clipping of the February 2, 1891 death of Dick's brother-in-law, Henry Wilson Ackley. Family historian Lois Childers told me the two men had died within days of each other in the same locale. 

 Source:  The Indian Chieftain newspaper located in Vinita, Indian Territory, published February 5, 1891.


I am told Dick and his young son, Henry Sam, had lived near Dick's own family at that time. Were they his parents or siblings, I don't know. Lois Childers told me her father-in-law (Henry Sam Childers) couldn't recall their names, as he was a young boy when he last saw them. 

I have scoured the Cherokee and Creek Nation censuses, and have become quite familiar with the ancestry of several Childers' families. Those who are tribal members have well documented family trees going back to the early 1800s, long before President Andy Jackson sent them packing. Some of these Childers fought for the Confederacy under Stand Watie, a Cherokee general. A colorful family, some later became lawmen, judges, ran ferries on the Arkansas River, owned thousands of cattle in what is now Tulsa County, and sent their children to be educated in Pennsylvania.

One family in particular descends from a Scotsman, William Childers, a trusted employee of famed Cherokee leader Major Ridge. This William married Maria Shoe Boots, a Cherokee daughter of a former enslaved woman. After the Civil War when Indian Territory was in tumult, several of their sons asked to leave the Cherokee tribe and join Creek Nation. These Childers were accepted, and their descendants are Creek Nation members still today. 

If my Childers connect with any of the many other Childers living in Indian Territory 125 years ago, I've not yet found Dick's family. Nor any connection. 

Adding to the challenge are the varying birthplaces listed on the censuses for Dick's son, Henry Sam. U.S. federal censuses for decades have asked the birth location of each citizen's parents--father first, then a mother's birth state. Sounds great, huh? It isn't. Very often someone other than the person who knew correct information might answer the door to speak with the census taker. Men were often out working and their wives or mother-in-laws answered census questions. Or worse, the neighbors sometimes gave answers about a family living nearby who were unavailable to the census person. 

Here is what census records show for the birth locations of the parents of Henry Sam Childers: 

1900 Federal Census: Teenager Sam is living with his Ackley grandparents in Pawnee, Oklahoma Territory. His parents' birthplaces are listed as North Carolina and West Virginia. Mom Lucy WAS born in Marshall County, West Virginia. Bingo! (Lucy's info is correct).

1910 Federal Census: Sam is living in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, with his young wife, Evie, and two young children. His parents' birthplace are shown as:  West Virginia and Pennsylvania. 

1920 Federal Census: Sam and Evie are in Tulsa County, with Virginia and Kansas as his parents' birth states. 

1930 Federal Census: Still in Tulsa County, Sam's parents are shown as having been born in West Virginia and Kansas. (really!)

1940 Federal Census: Sam is in Weslaco, Texas, but that census broke rank and didn't ask about parents that year.


NOTE: West Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1863. If his parents HAD been born there, surely he would recall it as "Virginia"--not West Virginia. We know his mom Lucy was born in 1864 in the state whose college football team soundly beat the Oklahoma Sooners at the Fiesta Bowl on January 2, 2008. What's that? The score was 48 to 28, thanks for asking!

Henry Sam, WHO's your daddy?

Not My Richard Childers

One of the brick walls in my research has been with my Childers ancestry. My family knows very little of our oldest-known Childers ancestor.

Richard died in early 1891 outside of Pryor Creek, Oklahoma. We know nothing of his parents or siblings. My long hunt over the years has taught me quite a bit about the other Childers families in Indian Territory. (See posts elsewhere on this blog). 

It would be easy to merge MY ancestor into one of these other families, as the name Richard is common. Ancestry daily waves its green leafy hints urging me to click and add. 

But it would be incorrect, as I've no proof. No sources to substantiate such a claim.

My ancestor's name appears on two Indian Territory censuses--both listed on pages for whites living in Cherokee Nation "by permission" of the tribe. He was a neighbor to his wife's family, the Ackleys, who also appear on the same censuses. The term used for non-natives then was "intruders." Intruders were outsiders who had moved into a sovereign nation. Indian Territory had several tribal nations. Those nations exist today--in Oklahoma. 

The 1890 Indian Territory Census specifically asked whites what year they had first moved into Indian Territory. "Dick Childers" answered and it is recorded as: 1874. 

Recently widowed and with a small child, Dick became ill with typhoid. He died within days of his brother-in-law Henry. My Great-Aunt Lois Childers told me this, as she had questioned her father-in-law, Sam, who was the only son of Dick and his wife, Lucy Ackley Childers. 

We know Henry Ackley died in early February 1891. Both men were buried at the Alberty Cemetery in what is today Mayes County., Oklahoma. At that time Mayes County was a part of the Cooweescoowee District of Cherokee Nation. I believe Henry and Sam lived in the Hogan Township of Cooweescoowee. 

Among the many Childers living in Indian Territory 130 years ago is a family whose home was just over the border from Fort Smith, Arkansas, then known as the gateway to the wild frontier. In what is now Sequoyah County. You've seen both of the True Grit movies, right? 

These Childers had a son named Richard. I've been asked many times if my family descends from that Richard Childers from the Sequoyah District, Cherokee Nation. After much research into his family, I do not find similar names or event dates. No connection. That Richard Childers died in 1893--two years after my ancestor--Dick Childers. The two men had wives and children with different names. Again, I find no connection. 

As proof, please see the attached pages from a 1905 application for the Dawes allotment regarding this Richard, plus a page from the 1880 Cherokee Census. Click the images within this gallery:


Free links to Cherokee rolls:

https://accessgenealogy.com/native/cherokee-indian-research.htm

and 

https://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/rolls/wallace.html

and 

https://www.allthingscherokee.com/articles/

and

http://www.okgenweb.net/~itgenweb/


Ancestry has digitized the applications for the Dawes rolls, both with names of those who were accepted and denied. I enjoy reading these applications as I now live in Creek Nation (Tulsa) and see familiar surnames. The questions and answers in these applications are often wonderfully detailed. 

There are others named Richard Childers living in both western Arkansas and Indian Territory in the late 19th century. I've not found any who lived in the Cooweescoowee District of Cherokee Nation, I.T. or whose children associated with relatives of my Dick Childers' in-laws--Sam and Sarah Ackley. 

There is a well-known outlaw from Cherokee Nation who has the distinction of being the first man Judge Parker sentenced to hanging in Fort Smith. John Childers' Cherokee mother and sister lived in what is now eastern Oklahoma. Another Richard Childers was a member of Creek Nation and lived in what is today Tulsa County. His ancestors were William Childers (a Scotsman) and Maria Shoe Boots (mixed Cherokee). William Childers was a trusted clerk to Cherokee leader Major Ridge, and moved from Georgia to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) with the Ridge family in 1837. 


When Women Were Chattel

I'm reading old Missouri newspapers this afternoon while someone hoots and hollers in the other room over West Virginia's first touchdown within two minutes of the game against Oklahoma State University's Cowboy football team. Three items of interest:

The third clipping from a September 1836 paper finds poor Mrs. Metcalf and her five children in a bind. I can't imagine what limited choices she faced, and the feelings of panic felt. 

Chattel:  

Most American treated married women according to the concept of coverture, a concept inherited from English common law. Under the doctrine of coverture, a woman was legally considered the chattel of her husband, his possession. Any property she might hold before her marriage became her husband's on her wedding day, and she had no legal right to appear in court, to sign contracts or to do business. Although these formal provisions of the law were sometimes ignored—the wives of tradesmen, for example, might assist in running the family business—married women technically had almost no legal identity.

Who Is Virgil Wantland? -- Part I

(This was posted in October of 2014, long before I knew much about Virgil Wantland's family. That has since changed)

This family photo was shared on Facebook last week by a cousin (Thanks, Loi!) who snapped the photo from an album that once belonged to our Great-Grandmother Evie (Baker) Childers. The three men are identified as Sam Childers, Sam Baker and Virgil Wantland. Was Virgil a cousin by marriage or blood? A family friend? As of this date, no one has put names to faces in this undated photograph. A few of us think it is the two Sams who stand behind Virgil, each with a hand on Virgil's shoulder. 

 Thanks to draft registrations from World War I, we have a brief description of the three men. Childers has brown hair, Baker has black hair, and Virgil's hair is "auburn." See their three cards in the gallery below. Click to enlarge for easy reading. Remember to click again to return to this page:


Virgil Elwood Wantland's draft card shows he was born January 25, 1890 in Gallatin, Daviess County, Missouri. Did you see the reference to his having spinal problems? A horrific accident occurred in October of 1907 while Virgil, a teenaged riveter, was on the job. Read what the local newspaper wrote about Virgil's accident on page 6 of The Weekly Examiner newspaper in Bartlesville, Indian Territory, Saturday, November 2, 1907:


Virgil was lucky not to have suffered permanent paralysis. He sued, and his employer later appealed Virgil's lawsuit:

Source: PETROLEUM IRON WORKS CO. v. WANTLAND, 1911 OK 104, decided March 21, 1911 by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma at URL: http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/deliverdocument.asp?id=4108&hits=6627+3553+3547+3270+3245+274+268+6+


Let me back up and lay groundwork as to the possible history between these three men. First, Sam Baker is my Great-Grand Uncle, the younger brother to my Great-Grandmother, Ora Evaline. His full name: Samuel Oscar Baker, born February 14, 1890, in Gallatin, Daviess County, Missouri--two years after the birth of his sister "Evie." And Sam was born three weeks after Virgil in early 1890-- also in the town of Gallatin. Might they have been boyhood friends? Schoolmates? Kin? 

By 1900, Sam and Evie Baker's mom, born Matilda Anna Lee, is widowed, having lost her second husband, William Henry Ward. This census page below is from the 1900 Fed. Census for Daviess County, Missouri, showing their race, gender, birth month and year, age and marital status:



Virgil's parents were John Woodson Wantland and Lennie Mae (Roach) Wantland, married in Daviess County, Missouri in 1886. They appear in rural Daviess County in the 1900 census. Here's the whole census page for Jackson township. See the Wantlands near the top? Also in the gallery is a cropped photo which may be easier to read. The Wantland family starts on line 2 in this 1900 Federal census page:


KANSAS BOUND: Both the Bakers and the Wantlands are next found in 1905 in Cherry township, Montgomery County, Kansas, along the Oklahoma border. The Wantland family first shows up on Kansas State Census page 63, and continues with the remaining children on the next page. What prompted both families to move from Missouri to Kansas? 




The Wantland kids are at the top, and the Baker family appears at the bottom of this next page:


Source: Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925


NEIGHBORS: Sam Baker's mother, previously referred to as Matilda Anna Lee, is seen here as Annie Price, age 40. She had married her third husband, James Allen Price, on November 29, 1900 in Daviess County, Missouri. This was her last marriage, as Mr. Price did not die prematurely as did her first two husbands. Together they had three daughters (see Baby "Zela," their first child) along with their children from prior marriages. You will see Harry Baker, Evie Baker (soon to marry Henry Childers), and Sam Baker, age 15. All are neighbors to the Wantlands.

Did these two families move together from upstate Missouri to the Kansas/Oklahoma border? Why move in the first place? I've one idea. You might recall what was happening then in Indian Territory. Thousands of white people were moving into land previously promised to the Five Civilized Tribes. A promise made in perpetuity 70 years earlier to Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Tribal nations--but only if they relocated from southeastern United States. Those tribal members that did not move by the mid-1830s were forcibly evicted. Their land and possessions taken. Hence the Trail of Tears. In late 1907, land was again taken from the tribes as Oklahoma became a state. White westward expansion was in full swing on the prairie.

Just south of the Kansas border where our Wantlands and Bakers would later live, a pivotal event occurred. The Nellie Johnstone No.1 blew in as a gusher, producing up to 75 barrels of oil a day before it was capped in early 1897. Bartlesville in Indian Territory was "the place you ought to be." 


Along with the gushing black gold came even more "intruders" to Indian Territory. Intruders = the term applied by the U.S. Government to uninvited squatters on tribal land. Plenty of jobs became available as new communities popped up. With new employment came families, and young people who later tied the knot. I've copied/pasted the transcription of Virgil's marriage to Mayme Saunders, with spelling errors intact:


The Childers/Baker ceremony took place in Basin, a small community in Pawnee County, Oklahoma Territory. Here is Evie Baker and Sam Childers' marriage license in January of 1907. Oklahoma would become a state later that year:


A newspaper editor commented on the upcoming nuptials of my Great-Grandparents in a local paper: The Appalachia Out-Look. (Pawnee County, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 47, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 1907. See Sam's name highlighted here on page 5. 

https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc173546/m1/5/zoom/?q=Childers%20%22Appalachia%20Out-Look%22&resolution=3&lat=3623&lon=3246 


Another time I'll continue with the marriage of Sam Baker to Virgil's younger sister, Della Wantland:


     (To Be Continued)


-- This was updated with minor corrections in August 2017.



A Few CSA Records From The Civil War

          FIRST: On Fold3, a popular military site, I found some records of family who had fought for the Confederacy. Attached are two images George Freeman Hurley's military file. My mother's great-grandfather, G. F. Hurley, of Company K, 34th North Carolina Regiment, was captured April 2, 1865 in Virginia and sent to a prison in New York Harbor. After swearing an oath of allegiance to the United States, he was released from Hart's Island on June 17, 1865. Researchers are happy to learn physical descriptions of ancestors, as shown here on the second page of my red-headed ancestor's record:

HART's ISLAND: In 1865, as the Civil War was ending, the Federal government used the Island as a prison camp for Confederate soldiers. Hart Island was a prisoner of war camp for four months in 1865. 3,413 captured Confederate soldiers were housed. 235 died. Their remains were relocated to Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn in 1941. It was the final prison established by the Union...and  it quickly evolved into the city's most horrible site. Located in Long Island Sound about twenty miles north of the city and just a few miles south of David's Island, Hart Island wasn't even used until April 1865, the month the Civil War came to an end. Within three weeks of its opening, 3,413 POWs are crammed into the post's tiny enclosed area Hart does not become completely cleared of prisoners until July. Within the four months of its operation, nearly 7 percent of all the camp's POWs died, mostly from illnesses brought with them, such as chronic diarrhea and pneumonia.


Green beef shoes? 2d Lt. T. D. Lattimore wrote:  "During this winter, which was so rigorous, even to those in comfort, many of the soldiers, for want of shoes for their frost-bitten feet, covered their feet with green beef hides."  From The Histories Of The Several Regiments And Battalions From North Carolina, In The Great War 1861-'65, wonderfully shared online at URL:  https://archive.org/details/01300611.3315.emory.edu


          SECOND:  My 2nd Great-Grandfather Welk Wilhelm saw many battles with and a few captures by the Union Army. This image shows Welcome "took the oath" so as to save his hide from having to spend further time in some hellish POW camp. Soldiers who signed the oath were then released, and very often rejoined their regiments to continue the fight elsewhere. I have no idea if this is his actual signature. If so, it is yet another variation of what I believe to be his legal name: William Welcome Wilhelm. Cousins might want to see the 18 images from Welk's military file that I shared back in April 2014. (Type the name  Wilhelm in this blog's Search menu on the left). May I also suggest you google the Battle of Vicksburg and its siege? Nasty business, that. 



          THIRD: Who are these Wiser-named gents? Might we be related? This is all I found on them from one collection. Clerks often hastily spelled surnames by HOW names sounded. Weisser, Weyser? Among the many variations of my surname, I will now add WEYSER to my search. Perhaps someone reading this post from a google search might know more?



          FOURTH:  Richard Childers, a 29 year old farmer, who claims Native American ethnicity, fought for Arkansas in this undated and FADED document. I thought I knew all the many Dick Childers in a four-state area. 



          FIFTH:  TOBIAS WILHELM: Another maternal ancestor, a first cousin--five times removed, born February 26, 1827, and now interred in Scottsboro, Alabama. He fought with Wade's Cavalry, and is the grandson of our earliest known Wilhelm, also named Tobias:


See his lovely tombstone: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=23386801&PIpi=51494568  (I haven't permission so I will not be posting the tombstone photo here.) 


          SIXTH: Meet Sam Coffee, a maternal 2nd great-uncle. His Irish grandfather fought with Daniel Boone at Fort Boonesborough and settled on Slate Creek in Montgomery County, Kentucky. By 1860 Sam's parents and nine siblings had moved to Morgan County, Missouri. After the War, Sam and Harriett moved to Sherman, Texas. His sons later settled in Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in southern Oklahoma. I've tracked this family for a couple of generations, and hope to meet their descendants one day. Please excuse my poor attempt to brighten these faded docs contained in the gallery below:



We have many Union Army ancestors whose military papers I hope to share, but I know better than to combine vets from two opposing armies in one post. They didn't all forgive and forget as did these two old veterans who met at one of the last Gettysburg reunions held in the early 20th century. Isn't this a marvelous picture:

Ackleys In The 1942 World War II Draft Registration

From 1940 to 1946 over ten million American men were called to register for military service in the second World War. As of September 2014, there is only one set of these draft cards made available to the public (due to privacy concerns). It is a WONDERFUL collection for family history buffs to view because of what each card details:

    • Name of registrant
    • Age
    • Birth date
    • Birthplace
    • Residence
    • Employer information
    • Name and address of person who would always know the registrant's whereabouts
    • Physical description (race, height, weight, eye and hair colors, complexion)
    • The handwritten signature of the registrant.
This indexed collection is called  Fourth Registration, often referred to as the "old man's registration," and was conducted on 27 April 1942 with men born on or between 28 April 1877 and 16 February 1897 - men who were between 45 and 64 years old. 

Cards from Samuel & Sarah (Rush) Ackley's Oklahoma born grandchildren include, Henry's two sons, Adolphus and Jess. Lucy's son, Henry Childers. Abe's son, Benjamine Franklin, and Sherman's son, Reed Ackley. 



Caswell Davis Hurley - Confederate Casualty

I'm not sure "casualty" is the correct word as young Hurley died of disease. But because he was in the service of the Confederate Army at the time of his death, I consider him a casualty of war. A hideous war in which more men died from illness than did by battle. You may recall nearly 620,000 men/women perished during the War Between the States. 

Caswell died March 8, 1862--just six months after enlisting with the 34th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, Company C, on September 9, 1861. Here's a copy from his military file downloaded from Fold3.com/ 

Caswell was the first of eight children of Daniel and Melissa (Gibson) Hurley of Montgomery County, North Carolina. Daniel had died in July of 1859, and missed seeing his first and his third sons go to war. Caswell didn't actually go far from home with his regiment, but trudged around nearby counties. Poor rations and miasma left many ill. I found a couple of paragraphs (below) describing his last couple of months. Due to critical health, several in their regiment were left at Williamston while the unit continued on towards Roanoke. It was in Williamston that Caswell died. Was he lying in a tent or shelter? Was this 18 year old exposed to the elements his last day in March? 

"This regiment was organized at Camp Fisher, near High Point, where it was mustered into state service on October 25th, 1861, for twelve months' service. The regiment was ordered to Camp Mangum, near Raleigh, and was transferred to Confederate service on January 1st, 1862. On January 14th the regiment arrived at Goldsboro, where it went into camp while awaiting the distribution of arms. It's strength was reported as thirty seven officers and seven hundred and nine men present out of an aggregate of nine hundred and ten. Arms were issued on January 22nd. At about the same time, the regiment was reported, without further elaboration, to be 'becoming more and more unhealthy daily.'

On February 8th, 1862, a Federal amphibious force under General Ambrose E. Burnside captured Roanoke Island, and a Federal fleet began moving up the nearby coastal rivers. The 34th Regiment was ordered to Halifax, where it arrived on February 13th; it was then sent, in succession, to Jamesville, Weldon and Tarboro. On March 1st the Regiment moved to Hamilton under orders to prevent the enemy from ascending the Roanoke River."

I found an 1862 North Carolina map along with a charming photo of General Burnside's chops. Click to open the gallery:

Caswell's younger brother, George Freeman Hurley, served in this same regiment. He fared better, but spent time at one of the harshest Yankee prisons: Hart's Island--just off New York City, from April 7, 1865 to June 17, 1865. Records indicate he was fair complected, red headed, 5'7" with gray eyes. He swore an oath of allegiance to the United States on June 17, 1865 prior to his release. --NC Regiments, Walter Clark, Vol Z, p 589.

"On April 1, 1865, the regiment with the brigade, occupied a position on the right, south of Hatcher's Run. We learned soon after daylight that the Confederate lines between us and Petersburg had been broken. After this saddening news the regiment repulsed a force of Federal cavalry and then retreated to Southerland's Station, where a portion of Heth's and Wilcox's divisions hastily constructed breastworks from a rail fence behind which we repulsed two desperate assaults of the enemy, killing and wounding a large number and capturing a stand of colors and many prisoners.  Discovering that we were vastly outnumbered we fell back to the Appomattox River. There was no way of crossing the river except in a small boat which was scarcely sufficient to carry the higher officers. The regiment marched all night and reached Amelia Court House the next day. At this time the ranking officer was LTC George Norment, of the 34th Rgt, from Mecklenbery County.  Here we joined the main army and General Lee provided for us the much needed rations."   T. C. Lattimore, Shelby, NC, April 9, 1901. 

Meet Caswell Hurley's younger brother and my 2xGGrandfather, George Freeman Hurley, in a photo taken in 1902. Texas has a bit of a political biography on my populist red-headed ancestor:
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhuae





Might Hannah Leeper's Maiden Name Have Been Woster?

Months ago I posted a dilemma concerning my earliest Wiser immigrant to Texas. Records and census images show the spelling of Hannah's four young sons to be WISER. Her maiden name has yet to be discovered. This 2nd Great-Grandmother remarried an aging San Jacinto veteran (GO TEXAS!) in 1853, and the handwriting on the marriage license indicates, oh, take a look for yourself, is it WOSTA or WOSTE or what-the?

http://treepig.posthaven.com/1853-marriage-of-hannah-wosta-to-samuel-leeper

Look on the left-hand sidebar where the Galveston Court Clerk wrote "Leeper" and "Wosta?"  See it? Many descendants have scratched their heads at this handwriting thankfully recorded for posterity. And many a researcher has run variations of Wosta through databases looking for immigration records, ship notes, earlier census records, etc. 

Phoey, it raises more questions than answers. Is Hannah's name on this marriage certificate that of her last husband or her maiden name? And could it be that our last name is NOT "Wiser" but another name? BTW, when you boarded a ship in Bremen or Hamburg long ago (in what later became Germany) you could not do so by just paying cash. You had to show papers validating your full name and residence. Captains were required to keep logs. Thousands of these logs are preserved. Many died when crossing the Atlantic. Their deaths were recorded, too. Both the originals and transcriptions of these records are available. And many cities' newspapers published the names of the first class arrivals. MORE: http://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/passenger-arrival.html

WHICH BRINGS ME TO TODAY: A wonderful new database is available of World War I prisoners of war. Two of Hannah's Texas grandsons fought in France and Germany in 1918. I've long found it curious that two sons of a native German immigrant fought "the Huns" in a war that was to end all wars. Did they know much about their dad's ancestry? Surely it crossed their minds that they might engage in hand to hand combat in a muddy trench with a cousin or two, no? If I ever asked Grandpa this, I've since forgotten his response. And goodness knows he LOVED to talk about his time in the War. Do you know more from conversations with Elton?

http://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/  Prisoners Of The First World War 

I ran a few surnames. Found several Wisers in the German Army. Found several of my husband's surnames in the French Army (let the teasing begin). But this result below REALLY interested me. Of all the combinations of WOSTE I've not thought of or seen this spelling: Woster. Do you see the similarity to the handwriting on the 1853 document? Click on both pictures:

I shall now be on the alert for all things WOSTER.