Week 45: War and Peace

 

Samuel S. Scott

The Civil War was the first war in American history in which a substantial proportion of the adult male population participated. Almost every American would have known friends, family members, or neighbors who marched off to war, many never to return.         --The National Park Service

My 2x great-grandfather, Samuel Scott, was one of the nearly 2.5 million men who volunteered to fight for the preservation of the Union.  Samuel was a widowed father with a 7-year old daughter when he made the decision to leave her with relatives and join the Union Army.  Once he had made the decision, Samuel  traveled to nearby Ft. Wayne on 22 Aug 1862 to join Company B of the Indiana 30th Infantry Regiment.  His rank in was Private, just like his brothers Caleb and Isaac who had joined Company B a year earlier.

According to historian Bell Wiley, who has studied the common Civil War soldier, the average Northerner was “white, native-born, farmer, Protestant, single, between 18 and 29. His height would have been about 5' 8" and would have weighed about 143 pounds.  Most soldiers were between the ages of 18 and 39, with an average age of 26.”  Samuel checked most of those boxes.  He was a white Protestant farmer who was single, but not by choice.  I wish I knew his height and weight but I'm clueless as to either of them.  Union soldiers initially earned $11 a month but in June 1864 the Union raised the soldiers' monthly wage to $16.

On 5 Apr 1863 Samuel wrote a letter home to his parents Caleb and Mary Scott from the Hospital Department of the 2nd Battalion, Pioneer Brigade, Army of the Cumberland in Murfreesboro, TN.  The letter doesn't say he was there because of wounds but it's likely that he had been wounded fighting with the 30th Indiana at the Battle of Stones River, which took place between 30 Dec 1862 and 3 Jan 1863 in Murfreesboro.  In that battle the Union army lost 1,700 men who were killed, 7,800 who were wounded and 3,700 who were missing or captured--a total of 13,200 casualties from an army estimated to count 41,400 in the battle that took place there. 

From his words, it's easy to tell that he's lonely for everyone back home:

Respected parents I find mi self out more seated with pen and ink tring to scribe a fu lins to let you no that I am well at present and hop that ma find you the sam.  I hav not had any letrs from you for mor than a month what is the reson I cant tel I am geten tird of riting and not getting one ansers from you but anuf of this I am seting up with the sick and riting betwen spels and if I mak som blundrs you ma just pas them bi for what that wil fetch for I hav run out of nut to rit.

Samuel's handwriting was beautiful, but his spelling was weak.  Here’s an edited version by my cousin John Scott, who discovered the letter in the Indiana State Library:

Respected parents, I find myself out more, seated with pen and ink, trying to scribble a few lines to let you know that I am well at present and hope that I may find you the same.  I have not had any letters from you for more than a month.  What is the reason, I can't tell.  I am getting tired of writing and not getting one answer from you.  But enough of this.  I am setting up with the sick, and writing between spells, and if I make some blunders, you may just pass them by, for what they will fetch, for I have run out of news to write.

A portion of the letter home

Samuel mustered out of the 30th Indiana on 29 Jul 1864 and transferred into the 1st Regiment, Company C, of the U.S. Veteran Volunteer Engineers.  This regiment was organized in the Dept. of the Cumberland from the Pioneer Brigade.  Duty with the Veteran Volunteers Engineers consisted of repairing railroads, building block houses and bridges, destroying and building transportation networks, erecting defensive and offensive emplacements, providing situational intelligence, and general engineering duties.  Samuel mustered out of the VVE on 26 Jun 1865 holding the rank of Artificer (skilled craftsman) and headed back home to Indiana when the war ended.

He was 33 years old by then and luckier than thousands of his fellow Union soldiers.  Of his five brothers who also joined the cause, only Caleb didn't return home.  Many families weren't as fortunate. Samuel must have been so happy to be reunited with his 10-year old daughter Julia and to begin a peaceful life away from the war.  

On 12 Nov 1867 Samuel married Nancy Elizabeth "Lizzie" Cretcher.  At just 23 years old, she was twelve years younger than Samuel, but the family of three set up housekeeping.  Samuel bought 70 acres of land in Section 16 of Harrison County the next year.  The skills Samuel learned in the Veteran Volunteer Engineers must have transferred to his civilian life because in the 1870 census his occupation was listed as "carpenter".  The family home might have been a modest one at first but this picture shows a large home with the front section of made of brick.  The inscription on the back says the brick home was built in 1888 so maybe it was added on to an earlier structure. 

 

The Samuel Scott farmhouse

 In 1869 the family expanded with the birth of my great-grandfather William Oldfield Scott and again in 1872 when my great-granduncle Charles Neil Scott was born. Julia left home to be married in 1877. 

Samuel must have been a man who planned ahead.  In December of 1901 he wrote his will, naming Lizzie as the intended recipient of "all my personal property, household goods and kitchen furniture, and all property of a personal character which I may have at the time of my death", along with "the use, rents, profits, occupancy and control of all my real estate of which I may die seized".  

Nine years later, on 18 Dec 1910, Samuel passed away from chronic bronchitis and atheroma (degeneration of the arterial walls) a few weeks shy of his 79th birthday.  He had endured the loss of his first wife, Ann Clinger, only a year and a half after they were married; years of separation from his daughter Julia; the loss of his brother Caleb during the war; and Julia's death in 1886.  He had outlived eight of his eleven siblings and both his parents.  

 

Resting in Union Cemetery, Warsaw, IN

I love old obituaries--the multiple headlines always make me smile.  By the time you've read them, you already know the gist of the article.

 

Week 44: Spirits

 

Pleasant Grove/Bates Cemetery near Warsaw, Indiana

On a beautiful Fall day in September of 2021 I visited three old cemeteries on rural roads in northern Indiana.  During my genealogy research I had found that many of my Scott ancestors were buried in three cemeteries in Kosciusko County so I made a list of the known ancestors in each, my relationship to them, and mapped out the directions.  All the cemeteries were on quiet country roads surrounded by farms and corn fields and cemeteries are one of my favorite places to visit. I enjoy imagining the lives those spirits must have lived.  What were the joys they felt?  What tears did they shed?  What decisions did they make?  Who did they love?  What were the hardships they faced?  

To some it might seem morbid to walk among the weathered tombstones but I think their spirits know I'm there.  I like to think it makes them happy that they're thought about by a descendant. Some graves had crumbling headstones that seemed to say those spirits were forgotten.  I wanted my Scott kin to know that I was there and that I think about them and comb old records for clues about their lives.  I think about all the questions I'd ask them if we ever had the chance to meet.  

The spirits I visited in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery:

3x great-grandfather and great-grandmother Caleb Scott and Mary (Ivins) Scott

2x great-granduncles Abraham, Isaac, Joshua, Amara, and William

2x great-grandaunts Mary Jane and Nancy Ellen

Most of the great-granduncles and aunts also had spouses and children buried there.

The spirits I visited in Union Cemetery:

2x great-grandfather Samuel Scott and great-grandmother Lizzie (Cretcher) Scott

Samuel's first wife, Ann (Clinger) Scott

Samuel and Ann's daughter Julia Ann

The spirits I visited in Oakwood Cemetery:

2x great-granduncle Joseph Scott

2x great-grandaunt Emeline                                                           

Spouses and some children were also buried here.

The only two of Caleb and Mary's children who aren't buried in Kosciusko County are Thomas Edward who died as an infant before the family moved from Ohio to Indiana and Caleb Shreve Scott who died in a Confederate prison hospital.

Caleb, Mary, Samuel, and Lizzie~ know that your descendants are doing well.  Several of my cousins and I do family research to make sure those who come after us will know about you.  Your memory will live on.

From a poem by an unknown poet: 

You did not know that I exist;

You died and I was born.

Yet each of us are cells of you

in flesh, in blood, in bone.

Our blood contracts and beat sa pulse

entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled

so many years ago

spreads out among the ones you left

who would have loved you so.

I wonder if you lived and loved,

I wonder if you knew

that someday I would find this spot

and come to visit you.

Week 43: Dig a Little Deeper

A few months ago I found an email in my inbox from FamilySearch.org, the genealogical website of the Mormon Church, with this interesting statement.  Really?  According to their massive world-wide family tree, Pocahontas is my 12th great-grandaunt.  I'm descended from her sister, Matachanna.  That many generations of distance must have diluted any traces of Native American blood since none showed up in my DNA testing but it was interesting to see the family tree generations that connected me to Pocahontas.

All I knew about Pocahontas is the little I learned in grade school.  As I remembered the story, she was an Indian princess who fell in love with the Englishman John Smith and begged her father to save his life when he was about to be executed.  As it turns out, that was a legend according to historians who have researched and studied that time in history.

Pocahontas was born around 1596 in what is now the Tidewater area of Virginia.  Her father Powhatan was the paramount chief of an alliance of 30 Algonquin-speaking tribes and her mother Winganuske was his first wife.  Pocahontas was given the name Matoax at birth but that name was concealed from the English out of a belief that if her real name was known, they could hurt her in some way.  

John Smith arrived in present day Virginia in a group of 100 settlers in April of 1607.  Eleven-year old Pocahontas first saw John Smith when he was captured by her uncle Opechancanough and brought to Chief Powhatan. What happened next--as Smith told it years later--was that he was placed on the ground with his head on a rock as a warrior stood ready to bash his head with a club.  Before this could happen, Smith said, Pocahontas rushed to him and placed her head on his, stopping the messy execution.  

Historians, on the other hand, doubt that this ever happened.  When John Smith first wrote about his capture in 1608 he didn't mention any threat to his life.  In fact, he wrote about a feast and a meeting and never mentioned Pocahontas.  It wasn't until 1616 in a letter he wrote to the Queen of Denmark that he told the tale of his near-death experience and rescue.

After Smith returned to Jamestown, Chief Powhatan sent food to the starving English on several occasions.  Pocahontas usually accompanied the food deliveries as a sign of peace to the English.  Friendly relations began to deteriorate in the winter of 1608-1609 after a drought the previous summer had greatly reduced the native's corn crop, leaving them little food to share with the English.  The settlers demanded more food and began to threaten the tribes.  Over the next few years, the relationship deteriorated.

English accounts between 1610 and 1613 don't mention Pocahontas.  But in 1613 a Captain Samuel Argall decided that capturing her would give him leverage to improve the English position.  With the help of native American Iopassus and his wife, a plan was hatched. Iopassus and his wife asked Pocahontas to accompany them to see Captain Argall's ship where they convinced her to go onboard to accompany Iopassus's wife.  Once onboard, Argall refused to let Pocahontas leave and declared that she was being held as ransom for the return of English prisoners and weapons held by her father.

Pocahontas was brought to Jamestown and put under the charge of a minister where she was schooled in the English language, religion, and customs. She was baptized and renamed Rebecca.  During the time she being schooled she met and fell in love with an English tobacco planter named John Rolfe.  In April of 1614 she and John Rolfe married and relations between the English and the natives calmed in a period sometimes called "The Peace of Pocahontas".  Soon after she and Rolfe had a son they named Thomas.

The Virginia Company of London, who had funded the settlement of Jamestown, decided to send Rolfe and Pocahontas to England.  The thought was that the young Christian convert who had married an Englishman could encourage interest and investment in the Virginia settlement.  The Virginia Company paid all expenses for the Rolfes to travel to England, even allowing about a dozen Powhatan men and women to accompany them.  In England, Pocahontas was referred to as Lady Rebecca Rolfe as they toured the country.

In March of 1617 when the Rolfe party was set to return back to Virginia, Pocahontas became seriously ill as they sailed on the Thames.  After being taken off the ship she died in a short time.  Historians aren't sure what illness took her but some theories are pneumonia and dysentary.  Pocahontas, who was just about 21-years old, was buried in England at St. George's Church on 21 Mar 1617.  John Rolfe returned to Virginia alone, leaving his young son with relatives and his young wife in her grave.

A year later Pocahontas's father Powhatan died.  Relationships between the English and the natives deteriorated and the "Peace of Pocahontas" was over.

The real story had none of the songs or romance of the Disney movie.

                                        A depiction of what Pocahontas may have looked like 

An image of Lady Rebecca Rolfe done during her time in England

                                                    A romanticized depiction of the legend

Week 42: Friends

 

Two of my favorite grandaunts were these two ladies, Aunt Kate and Aunt Bill.  Kate and Bill were the 8th and 7th children born to Owen and Minnie Williams and were lifelong best friends.

Aunt Bill--sometimes called Aunt Billie--was born Alfreda Eliza Williams on 18 Aug 1912 in Fairbury, Illinois.  The Williams family moved to Indiana soon after she was born.  In the 1920 Census Billie was an 7-year old with four brothers and four sisters. For some reason her name was recorded as "Lena" when the enumerator wrote it down (maybe Alfreda was misheard as Lena???).  When the 1920 Census was taken, 17-year old Billie was no longer living with the family but wasn't yet married.  On 8 Mar 1937 Billie married for the first time to a man named Teddy Miller but the marriage was short and not mentioned later in her life. In 1939 Billie married Clarence Bernhardt Keehn.  Billie's last marriage took place in 1954 when she tied the knot with Gerald "Whitey" White.  She and Uncle Whitey were married until he passed away in 1979.  Aunt Bill retired from the Kingsbury Furniture Company after working for 23 years of work as a sewing machine operator.

Aunt Kate was born Florence Kathryn Williams on 13 Sep 1914 in Jasper County, Indiana. Five-year old Kate was recorded in the 1920 Census but was nowhere when the 1930 Census was taken.  Had she left home as a 15-year old?  On 23 Mar 1933 18-year old Kate married Sherman Walters in Cassopolis, Michigan.  Uncle Sherm died in 1956 and two years later Kate married Orville "Ope" O'Pelt.  In 1982 Kate was widowed when Uncle Ope passed away.  Aunt Kate retired from the Kingsbury Furniture Company after working for 22 years as a furniture inspector.

The Williams sisters found themselves widowed about the same time.  They had both been living in Kingsbury, Indiana for many years so it seemed logical for the two of them to move in together to share expenses and companionship.  They were both heavy smokers so that wouldn't be an issue. They could smoke and cough together.  Both women liked to spend their days in sensible house dresses and comfortable slippers.  As soon as breakfast was done they planned what lunch would be.  When lunch was cleaned up, it was time to plan what they'd cook for dinner.  Because they sat for so many hours every day Aunt Bill started cutting off the tops of tube socks to wear over her elbows as they rested on the table.  When any of their grandnieces or grandnephews came to visit there would be a silver dollar for them to take home as a prize. When their knee arthritis flared up the cure was to rub the knee with WD-40 "until I can taste it in my mouth".

Hmmm.  Sure, WD-40 is a popular product.  It has many house-hold uses and works wonders on squeaky hinges, rusted bolts and tools and stiff door locks.  But does it make stiff, sore, squeaking arthritic joints work better?  According to the makers of WD-40:

FALSE.  WD-40 Company does not recommend the use of WD-40® for medical purposes and knows no reason why WD-40 would be effective for arthritis pain relief.  WD-40 contains petroleum distillates and should be handled with the same precautions for any product containing this type of material.

Oops. 

These two best friend sisters had big and generous hearts. They loved to laugh and talk.  Neither had given birth but they dearly loved Billie's adopted daughter and their many nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews. 

Aunt Bill passed away on 10 Sep 1994 when she was 82.  Aunt Kate lived for sixteen months after Billie died, passing away on 24 Jan 1996.  

                                                                           Young Kate

                                            Aunt Bill, Aunt Kate, niece Peggy Williams Scott

                                               and an example of the tube sock on the elbow!

Week 41: Travel

 

"Rev. Emanuel Dubbs, minister of the Christian Church, rancher, ex-judge, old Indian fighter, has known and been closely identified with the Panhandle country for perhaps as long a period as any other living man and it has been his lot to witness the widely different phases of life which have successively passed over this country during the past quarter of a century..."  GenealogyMagazine.com

Emanuel Dubbs, my 2x great-granduncle, must have been a restless man.  Unlike most of his relatives, he wasn't content to settle down to be a farmer.  Instead, he moved from Ohio to Indiana to Kansas to Texas and back to Indiana, and engaged in an interesting variety of careers before answering his last call in 1932.

Emanuel was the youngest of six children born to Daniel and Elizabeth (Meckley) Dubbs near New Franklin, Stark County, Ohio, on 21 Mar 1843.  After receiving a common school education, he attended Mount Union College until the start of the Civil War.  In 1861, 18-year old Emanuel enlisted in Company I of the First Ohio volunteer infantry.  In the winter of 1863 he was wounded in the battle of Stone River when a bullet went through his right leg.  Later at the battle of Resaca in May of 1864 he had four toes shot off when Union troops under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman fought the Confederate Army of Tennessee.  In 1864 Corporal Emanuel Dubbs mustered out of the Union Army and headed to Elkhart County, Indiana where he and his brother John (my 2x great-grandfather) started a lumber and sawmill business.  A few years later in 1868 when he was 25 Emanuel married Evangeline Freed of Ohio.  The brothers' partnership came to an abrupt end in 1871 when a fire destroyed the sawmill.  Instead of staying to rebuild, Emanuel and Evangeline decided to head to Kansas.  That move was the start of their experiences in western "roughing it" life.

For a short time Emanuel worked in the construction department of the Santa Fe Railroad which was building through southwestern Kansas.  Several sources I've seen say that Emanuel built the first house in Dodge City, Kansas.  In 1873 he opened a dairy farm and beer garden on Duck Creek, about five miles from Dodge City.  He named his place "Buttermilk Ranch" and served beer and "milk punch" to travelers.  At the time, vast herds of bison roamed over the prairies there.  Emanuel made a business of killing the bison for their meat and hides.  He and other associates established bison camps to sugar-cure the meat and ship it to market.  

 

In 1874 Emanuel worked as a scout assisting federal troop under General Nelson Miles to put down an uprising of the Cheyenne people.  After this he moved south from Kansas to establish buffalo camps in what is now Beaver County, Oklahoma on the banks of the Cimarron River during the winter of 1874-1875.  In the latter part of 1875 Emanuel came further south into the Texas Panhandle where he continued bison hunting in what is now Donley County, near present day Clarendon and built a headquarters camp for his family. After his dairy cows all died of milk fever, Emanuel began to breed longhorn cattle and by 1877 he had a herd of 400 longhorns.  

Never one to stay in place for long, in 1878 he sold his ranch and moved Evangeline and their three small sons--Clarence, Charles, and Fredrick--to Sweetwater Creek in what is now Wheeler County, TX.  Near Mobeetie Emanuel built a rock house with a dirt floor and roof and made money by selling meat and vegetables to the troops at nearby Fort Elliot.  Later he built a home from cottonwood logs.  Two more sons--William and Sylvester-- joined the family by 1883.

In 1879 when Wheeler County was organized, Emanuel was elected as its first judge, despite having had no legal training or practical experience in law.  In the words of J. Evetts Haley in his 1947 book "Charles Goodnight, Cowman, and Plainsman":  

"...this motley citizenry chose an honest, if long-winded man, Emanuel Dubbs, as judge, and an educated, respectable gambler, Henry Fleming, as sheriff."

Because of his lack of legal training, I've read that Emanuel sometimes made decisions with little consideration for legal technicalities.  His first court sessions were held in a former saloon when he came to town to sell milk, butter, and vegetables to Fort Elliott and the town people of Mobeetie.  At one point he was compelled to resign and sent to Dallas to stand trial after he ruled that a series of arrests made by a deputy U.S. Marshall were illegal and released the prisoners.  Emanuel was acquitted and in January of 1880 he was unanimously elected to served again as Wheeler County judge.  He was reelected to the office in 1884, 1886, and 1888.

In 1890 the Dubbs family moved to a ranch northwest of Clarendon in Donley County near the former bison camp.  Emanuel had always been active in church work and in 1896 he took another career path to became a Disciples of Christ minister and was placed in charge of the denomination's work in the Panhandle.  In 1898 he became the pastor of Clarendon's Christian Church.  I like this quote from Emanuel, telling about his first sermon:

"Poorly as I was prepared for the great work, in the way of scripural (sic) and litterary (sic) training, God blessed me in my chosen Work.  My first sermon (if you can call it a sermon) resulted to my own surprise with 8 confessions. And in our following morning praise service, 3 more and the following night, when I told them all that I had ever learned from this grand old book, and possibly, a little more, the number had run up to 17 and I baptized them the next day."

In 1911 Evangeline Dubbs passed away, leaving Emanuel widowed.  Six years earlier Emanuel's brother John died, leaving his wife Matilda widowed.  In 1916 Emanuel and Matilda decided to marry each other.  I think I remember hearing from my dad that Matilda, who lived in Milford, Indiana, came to live in Clarendon for awhile but in both the 1920 and the 1930 Census the couple lived in Milford, Indiana.  Emanuel may have agreed to move to Milford because his brother George lived there.  During the Milford years Emanuel was active as a speaker and church member.  The colorful life he had led must have been fascinating to the citizens of Milford.

When Emanuel died on 23 Apr 1932 he was 89 years, 1 month, and 2 days old.  His remains were taken by train to Clarendon, Texas for funeral services and burial.  This quote comes from the lengthy obituary in the Milford News:

"Emanuel Dubbs, his namesake grandson, also a minister in the Christian Church, will officiate at his funeral in Clarendon. 

Reverend Dubbs wrote some very interesting books on his frontier adventures in the southwest, which are prized very highly by the Milford Public Library, and in which he relates his actual experiences that took place during his western conquests.  In many instances he and his family had very close calls from the Indians who roamed the wild plains, and they also witnessed many killings by the Indians.

To Milford it has been an honor to have a renowned personage such as Rev. Dubbs and his presence will be greatly missed."

This man who started out as my 2x great-granduncle and ended as my step 2x great-grandfather was a colorful and interesting man.  More than once I've heard him referred to as "long-winded" but I'd still love to have been able to sit next to him and hear the stories he could tell.

Emanuel and Matilda in Milford

Historical marker in Mobeetie, TX

Wheeler County Jail (now a museum) in Mobeetie, TX was built in 1886 from

 stone quarried from Emanuel's ranch.