Week 1: I'd Like to Meet

Week 1:  I'd Like to Meet

I’d like to meet Caleb Scott, my third great grandfather.  Caleb was born in Gloucester County, New Jersey, on 27 Sep 1799, a twin to Margaretta Rockhill Scott.  The twins were the second and third children born to Quakers Abraham Scott Jr. and Mercy Rockhill Scott and would later have eight younger siblings. At some point before Caleb was of marrying age he emigrated from New Jersey to Stark County, OH.  When he was 24 Caleb married Rebecca Garwood but they were married a tragically short time.  Within four years of their marriage they had a two-year old daughter and a newborn.  Only a month after the second birth, Rebecca died. Caleb was a widower for a little over five years before marrying Mary Ivins, my third great grandmother. At some point after 1850, Caleb and Mary moved their family of 11 surviving children several hundred miles west to Kosciusko County, IN, where he bought 200 acres of land for $4.50/acre. By the time of the Civil War, six of Caleb’s sons enlisted in the Union Army: Samuel, Isaac, Joseph, Joshua, William and Caleb Shreve Scott.  Five returned home but Caleb Shreve, his namesake, died of disease as a prisoner of war in a Confederate hospital.

I’d like to meet Caleb to tell him that I gave birth to twin girls 178 years after he was born.  Twins aren’t common in my family research so I think he’d be proud to know about them.

I’d also like to tell him how sorry I am about Caleb Shreve’s death in the dreadful conditions of that prison camp where he contracted smallpox and to promise him that I’ll visit Caleb Shreve’s grave someday in Danville National Cemetery to pay my respects.

 

 

 

Me at Caleb and Mary Scott’s graves at

Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Warsaw, IN.