Why Kansas–Wrong Timeline

In an earlier Blog Post MyHeritage Record Hint–Newspaper Article I was talking about the marriage of Samuel Worthington and Sarah Catherine Reeve, 23 February 1872.

For a long time, I have asked myself, Why would this Quaker Family from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, move to Kansas in the mid-1800s? That question was raise again from my brother who wrote:

Saw your blog abt our GGF Samuel. Thought this plaque could provide some clue as to why he left Philadelphia.. perhaps in search of land (160 acres) that the government may have offered for homesteading. As noted on the plaque, maybe the local historical society could shed more light on the movement West by Quakers . His homestead was not too far from the Springdale Friends Meeting house.

I had to respond, as I have had this why Pennsylvania to Kansas move.

Great theory, but not sure that it works, based on the information that I have, and don’t have.

I do think that move to Kansas was as you suggested, the land, but I have not found any records to back that up. As I mentioned, other family members, specifically several of the children, did have Land Grants. I have those records.

Samuel was in Philadelphia for the 1850 Federal Census, but was in Kansas for the Kansas 1855 Census. That Quaker movement was the year before. So, yes, he may have been part of that.

He as in the 1860 Federal Census, also in Kansas, but on 27 August 1862 he enlisted in Company A, Kansas 11th Cavalry Regiment and served until 21 Jun 1865. His mother was not a happy camper about that.

More information on why I haven’t found Land records, is because after he married Sarah Catherine Reeve, 15 Feb 1872, they returned to Philadelphia going via Adrain Michigan.

After Ulysses Grant Worthington died, October 1880, at the age of 5 months, they all, Willits Reeve, Samuel Whitall, Mark Reeve Worthington, and Sarah Catherine moved to Michigan. They also had lost Henry Wilson Worthington in 1875 at the age of 1.

They would return to Kansas about 1885, as they were in the Kansas Census that year.

I do have a note about the move for Samuel

October 1857
Age 14

Family moved to Levenworth County, Kansas and all lived in a one room cabin. That would have been Henry Wilson Worthington and Elizabeth Willits Worthington and 4 children. Henry Wilson Worthington had left Philadelphia, wife and children staying, to “go to Kansas to prepare for their move west “to be out of the way of the war zone, in anticipation of the Civil War”. He found a farm with a cabin about 12 miles west of Leavenworth.. They weren’t good farmers, apparently.

Having done research on the Bureau of Land Management website and have pulled some BLM Records from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C., I had not seen any records for Samuel Worthington (the GGF). I have records for his mother, and a number of his (and Sarah Catherine) children.

That commented made me go back to the BLM website to search again.

What I did find, was the “homesteading” act that he referred to, to make sure I had been looking at the right place.

Kansaspedia, the Kansas Historical Society website has an article on the Kansas-Nebraska Act which was established 30 May 1854.

The key word in that article was Slavery. Having another ancestor, move from East Jersey to the Shenandoah Valley, possibly due to Slavery, and that family also being Quaker, I followed that hint to see what might be going on in Kansas.

There was also an article English Quakers Tour Kansas in 1858.

Quaker, Slavery, and the pending Civil War seem to be in common. So, I see the “Push” factor, the reason to leave Pennsylvania, but was there a pull factor.

I reviewed the TIMELINE for my Great Grandfather to see what I might have been missing. Samuel’s timeline was what I was looking at in my response to my brother. So, I added the Family Events to his timeline, still everything was in order, no surprises. In the time line, that I looked at, it shows his AGE with the event.

I was looking at the WRONG TIMELINE, he was only 14 when the move would have been Westward. That is when I found the notes about his Father, Henry Wilson Worthington. He is the one who moved to Kansas, to prepare for the family move to Kansas.

From the notes that I have and research to date, I do not know if one or both the Kansas-Nebraska Act, nor the Quaker movement in Kansas was part of the reason, but the pending Civil War was a factor, which to me was the Quaker stance on Slavery.

I mentioned in my notes about a One Room Log Cabin, That is not documented in the article about the English Quaker Tour Kansas link.

Dined at Benajah Hyatt’s [Hiatt] whose wife is Sarah Coffin’s sister. In the evening rode a few miles to the habitation of Henry Worthington, a log cabin of one room 12 feet square. This friend who has a wife & 5 children came here from Philadelphia about 6 Mo. ago. They had been used to the comforts & refinements of good society; but being unfortunate in business, they had taken land come out here. We were much interested in seeing them all trying to do what they could in their humble cot; a little corner was shielded off where we slept, the rest of the family sleeping in beds in the same room.

This information is very consistent with my database. Samuel was the oldest of the 5 children.

Henry Wilson Worthington’s wife, Elizabeth Willits was mentioned in a number of the Land Records for Samuel and Sarah Catherine’s children. But that is another story.

As an aside, the mention of Adrian, Michigan in my response to my brother, because of a Quaker School that was there, as well as other family members. including where Elizabeth Willits Worthington would marry after Henry Wilson Worthington died in 1866. Another story for another time.

Elizabeth Willits Timeline

The 27th Regiment, New Jersey Infantry

A couple of days ago, I posted Soon to be Expert ( ??? ) on a project I was starting on. Being the 4th of July, I was drawn to take a look at the Civil War record of William H Ort, the Great Great grandfather of my daughter’s boss.

The Soldier and Sailors website has information on the Regiments in the Civil War so I wanted to look a little more into this regiment to see if there were any battles what other Civil War units that I have looked at before.

So, why am I posting this today. Well, I missed an anniversary, by two days. On 02 July 1863, the 27th Regiment was mustered out back in New Jersey. Guess I spent too my time in Cemeteries over the past couple of days.

Here is a quick map that I created to show the 27th Regiment during the Civil War (03 September 1862 – 02 July 1863)

A Timeline Report is here if you care to look at it.

Russ Worthington photograph; privately held by Russ Worthington, Hackettstown, New Jersey 07840, 2016.  Headstone Photograph for William H Ort in the Pleasant Grove Presbyterian Churchyard, Pleasant Grove, Morris County, New Jersey.

Preparation for Veterans Day

For a little over a week now, I have focusing my research on Military Records, seeing which individuals have military records. My research is based on shaky leaf hints that appear in my Ancestry Member Tree and in Family Tree Maker program. I have blogged about this process on my Family Tree Maker Blog

I thought I would share some numbers so far, as the result of this research should provide me with blog material. Not that I need some material, just want to focus on those who served our county.

At the moment, I have 362 Shaky Leaf Hints to follow in 22 Record Groups on Ancestry.com. I have completed 105 Citations based on my work to date.

For example, I just finished looking at 11 Sons of the American Revolutionary War Application files (SAR). With those 11 Records, I recorded 577 Facts and have 25 media files (digital images of those applications). That is a lot of information and time consuming. I only have 297 more hints in that record group to go. (much later)

But I am focusing on 14 specific record groups with hints, about 83 hints. Those are the ones I hope to finish before Tuesday.

I have changed my research routine, go look at specific record hint. I have found that the work goes much quicker when I am working with one record group at a time. I know what to look for, what information I want to capture, how this information is to be Cited, and have added a Research Log for each person who I find in these record groups.

I don’t have to remember what to look for, how did I do that, so I can focus on the information that these records provide.

I have a couple of candidates that I will run though the Evidentia program to help resolve some conflicting information. Yes, I’ll do a blog post HERE when I do that.

Didn’t realize, how many people in my file have Military Records and some of them are very interesting.

DearMYRTLE’s DocuChallenge

DocuChallenge: Phillips, William D

We were presented with an image from Fold3.com to do the following:

NOW FOR THE CHALLENGE
Let’s answer these questions:

1. What is this document?
2. How would you describe the physical appearance of this document?
3. What does this document say about Ol’ Myrt’s ancestor?
4. What other people are mentioned in this document?
5. What information items do you find most reliable in this document?
6. What information items do you find less reliable in this document?
7. What value is this document without a citation indicating provenance?
8. Can you craft a citation for this document?
9. What would you do with this digital document?
10. What other record groups should Ol’ Myrt consider after analyzing this document?

This is a Civil War Pension card. We are looking at a digital image of that card.

I transcribed it:

Dead
Name of Soldier: Phillips, William H
Service: Last Rank P, Co K, 19 Reg, Ind Inf
Term of Service: Enlisted [ no date ] Discharged [ no date ]
Date of Filing 1880 June 7
Class: Invalid, Application number 376,996, Certificate No 243,464

Date of Filing 1921 Mar 12
Widow 1,171,114, 8-1-20, 907389

Additional Service A 17 V.R.C.
Died Fed 21 1921, Knoxville, Iowa

“Civil War Pensions; Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900”, digital image, The National Archives (http://www.fold3.com : accessed 31 October 2014); entry for William H Phillips (Co K, 19 Reg, Ind Inf); citing: Civil War Pensions, Pension applications for service in the US Army between 1861 and 1900, grouped according to the units in which the veterans served; NARA T289. no roll number cited.

The first thing I noticed was William H vs William D. Wonder if +DearMYRTLE gave that to us as a hint.

The Soldier, William H Phillips had died:

What this told me was the soldier’s name was William H Phillips and that he was married and left a widow. He was a Private, in Company K, of the 19th Regiment, Indiana Infantry. He Died 1/21/1921 in Knoxville, Iowa, and his widow filed for the pension 3/12/1921.

So far, the information appears to be OK, but….

One thing that caught my eye was the Term of Service, there we no dates. So, I searched to see if there were any Civil War Service Records for William H Phillips that fit the information I had so far.

There was no indication in the Civil War Service Index – Union – Indiana for him, but there were 7 entries, none this William H. The question so far is, Did he serve and when did he serve? Not sure what the A 17 V.R.C. means, yet.

I have been looking at Civil War Records on Ancestry.com, and where I would normally go from what I have so far, would see IF I can find HER pension file. And I found her pension at: U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 for William H Phillips. The numbers matched exactly, as I have seen before. It’s a different card, but should have the same numbers and certificate number. It did. The widow’s name is Louisa Phillips. She filed for the pension in Iowa, where he had died.

That A 17 V.R.C. is also on this pension record. Two documents with the same information.

My next stop was to see IF I could find any more information on the 19th Indiana Infantry Regiment, as I had a hint something was coming. So I went to Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Indiana_Infantry_Regiment

Having been on a brief Civil War research trip with our spouses, I took this picture at Gettysburg in May.

The Iron Brigade. I knew there had to be a connection. BUT, I took my next step to see what else I could find out about the 19th.

Before I take my next step in research, I need to mention that the Iron Brigade was involved, in Gettysburg, on Culp’s Hill on 3 July. I also had a Confederate soldier, Ridgely Howard, in that SAME battle and he was wounded in the thigh at Culps Hill. Not in the same part of the battle, DearMYRTLE’s soldier was at the other end of that battle, as there are monuments placed where the units were fighting. Pieces of David Ridgely Howard’s story is in a PBS film on Gettysburg.

This is the monument for the 1st Maryland.

Back to my research I found this website:

http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unininf2.htm#19th

The kicker for this research, for this DocuChallenge is in the LAST Line on the 19th’s service information:

“Weldon R. R. August 18-21”

In William Henry Phillips Find-A-Grave memorial, Find A Greave Memorial #58768920, DearMYRTLE published the details of his pension files, that he served through 1864. So, Was HE, William Henry Phillips, at Weldron R.R. in that battle?

MY Ridgely Howard was wounded for the 2nd time at THAT battle. This time, “wounded in action – upper portion of right thigh, amputated.

David Ridgely Howard lived until 23 December 1927 and is buried in Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland.

Video of the Civil War

Facebook strikes again.

I had an invite to Friend someone on Facebook. I didn’t know the name, but one of the surnames I knew, Worthington. The location was Mt Airy, Maryland. I know that place and already have a Facebook friend there.

Of course, I friended. What I saw was awesome, a link to a Video

Heart of the Civil War

Last summer I visited Frederick, Maryland for the celebration of Special Order 191. While watching this video, those orders were shown as well as one of the speakers in the video. I had met on that visit.

What was interesting about this visit and the video was my question about why Fredrick was “Union Friendly” while Baltimore, a mere 30-40 miles east was “not so much”. The video helped clarify that issue, including why Maryland was a “border state” and didn’t decide which side they were on.

This past fall, I had the chance to visit Monocacy with another cousin, DearMYRTLE. I didn’t take any pictures on my camera on that visit. My bad.

A book was written by Judge Glenn Howard Worthington that told the story of the battle that took place on his “front lawn”.

Judge Glenn Howard Worthington’s grandson, David Reed and a National Park Service Ranger are in the place where the Judge watched that battle.

The front of the house in 1999 when a gathering of Worthington’s supported David Reed as he opened the Worthington Walking Trail in the National Battlefield.

Another visit, but with a little snow on the ground, but the porch had been reattached.

ca 1900

About 42 minutes  into the video, was the story of the Battle at Monocacy, the battle that “Saved Washington”. The video tells the story of Glenn Worthington. I have seen that basement. In fact the picture I have above, is that same place.

So cool to watch the story that has your “family” mentioned.

Oh, the new Facebook Friend, is a relative of Judge Glenn Howard Worthington as well.

Social Media at work (again). Thank you Paula