Tombstone Tuesday - John SCOTT

Center Grove Cemetery

Lincolnville, Wabash, Indiana

John SCOTT was born 26 Jan 1816 in Fayette County, Indiana.  On the 21 April 1833, in Fayette County, he married Abigail Harrell.  They were the parents of nine children:

Moses SCOTT (1834-1865) Died in the Civil War

Phebe Jane SCOTT (1836-1878)

Mehala SCOTT (1839-1881)

Jesse D. SCOTT (1841-1862) Died in the Civil War

Charles SCOTT (1842-1905)

Jacob SCOTT (1845-1864) Died in the Civil War

Matilda SCOTT (1846-1886)

John SCOTT (1848-)

Abigail SCOTT (1850-)

John died on 3 December 1886.  His Find A Grave memorial can be found here.

Military Monday - Private John A. SCOTT

(Photo courtesy of VF-Find a Grave Volunteer)

John Andrew SCOTT, is the son of CR SCOTT and Mary Ann Chumney SCOTT.  

He was born 22 Dec 1843 in Wabash County, Indiana.  He enlisted 21 Aug 1861 into I Company 8th Indiana Infantry.  He mustered out on 4 Sep 1864.

On the 2nd of  March 1865 in Wabash County, he married Susan Jane Frazier.  On the 5th of October 1872, at the age of 28, he died in Wabash County.  He is buried in Old La Fontaine Cemetery, La Fontaine, Indiana.  Sadly, just three years later at the age of 31 Susan also passed away.

John's Find A Grave memorial can be found here.

Tombstone Tuesday - Jonathan SCOTT

Born:  26 Jan 1816, Fayette County, Indiana

Died:  3 Feb 1903, Wabash County, Indiana

Emery Cemetery, La Fontaine, Indiana

Jonathan Scott was born January 26, 1816 in Fayette County, Indiana. On the 4th of January, 1845, he came to the than new and undeveloped wilds of Wabash County, and settled in Liberty Township, where he has since resided.

On the first of November 1840, he was married to Mary Pearson, who was born in Granger County, Tennessee, August 18, 1824. Her father, Mahlon Pearson, is still living in the township, and has already reached advanced years, having been born January 10, 1797.

His father moved to Jefferson County, Tennessee, when he was nine years of age. He himself moved to Wabash County November 9, 1834. He entered the first forty acres of land in Liberty Township, and served on the first grand jury ever impanelled in Wabash County. He was the father of eleven children. 

Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Scott raised a family of three children, two sons, and one daughter. Both sons served in the war of the Rebellion, and the older one died in the service of his country at Otterville, Missouri, December 16, 1861.

Mr. Scott has already passed the prime of life, but is still in the vigorous enjoyment of his faculties, both bodily and mental. He is one of the leading citizens of the township, and is distinguished for his many acts of public spirit.

Source: 1875 Atlas of Wabash County, Indiana page 56

Jonathan's Find A Grave memorial can be found here.

Military Monday - Private William R. SCOTT

(photo courtesy of Sixdogteam)

William R. SCOTT

12 Feb 1842 - 16 Dec 1861

Harper Cemetery, La Fontaine, Indiana

Son of Jonathan and Mary Pearson SCOTT

I COMPANY, 8TH INDIANA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY REGIMENT

WILLIAM R. SCOTT--Jonathan Scott was born January 26, 1816 in Fayette County, Indiana. On the 4th of January, 1845, he came to the then new and undeveloped wilds of Wabash County, and settled in Liberty Township. On the first of November 1840, he was married to Mary Pearson, daughter of Mahlon Pearson who was born in Granger County, Tennessee, August 18, 1824. Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Scott raised a family of three children, two sons, and one daughter. Both sons served in the war of the Rebellion, and the older one, William, died in the service of his country at Otterville, Missouri, December 16, 1861.

(From the History of Wabash County, Indiana)

William was 19 years old when he died.  His Find a Grave memorial can be found here.

Tombstone Tuesday - CR SCOTT

This is the stone for my G-G-G grandfather, Charles Leonard Lewis Dewise SCOTT, better known as CR Scott or Right Scott.

He was born 16 Jun 1813 in Fayette County, Indiana and died on 11 Feb 1888.  On 26 Jan 1833 in Fayette County he married Mary Ann Chumney and together they had 12 children.

CR is buried in the Old La Fontaine Cemetery in La Fontaine, Wabash, Indiana.  The cemetery is in horrible condition.  The town of La Fontaine should be ashamed.....

Tombstone Tuesday - Jacob SCOTT

(Photo courtesy of  Judy Mayberry Belford)

Jacob SCOTT, born in 1845 in Indiana, is the fourth son of John SCOTT and Abigail HARRELL.  

On 16 Oct 1862 at the age of 17 he married Mary JONES.  

On 25 Mar 1864 at age 19 he enlisted in the 47th Indiana Infantry, Company I.  Just 3 months later he died in St. Louis, MO.

He is buried in Jefferson National Barracks Cemetery in St. Louis.  His name is also on a monument at Center Grove Cemetery in LaFontaine, IN.  His two brothers Moses and Jesse D. are also listed on the monument.  All three brothers lost their lives in the Civil War.

Jacob's Find A Grave memorial can be found here.

On This Day - January 13th

Who says that the 13th is a bad day?  Four couples in my family tree chose the 13 January as their wedding day!

13 Jan 1826 James BOTKIN married Lucinda Cox in Indiana, USA.  They were the parents of five children, three girls and two boys.

13 Jan 1839 Allen C. SCOTT married Matilda JOHNSON in Grant County, Indiana. 

13 Jan 1876 Theodore Alonzo SUTTON married Addie L. STRAUGHN in Wabash County, Indiana. 

13 Jan 1908 Maude Helen HANLEY married William Leroy CARSON in Newark, Licking, OHIO.  They were the parents of two.

Tombstone Tuesday - Back to America Cemetery

Back in June I blogged about meeting two new cousins, Jean and Dee Dee, as a result of this blog.  During our meeting in Kokomo we talked about the trip mom and I made to America Cemetery.  I expressed my desire to return in the fall after the poison ivy had died back to do more research and some clean up.  Jean and Dee Dee volunteered to join us and in October we returned to America and did a tremendous amount of work.

Dee Dee had also visited the cemetery in the summer time and both of us expressed surprise at how large it appeared in the fall.  With the leaves off the trees, and all the bushes and underbrush dying off we were able to see more stones then either of us realized were there!

We first had to rake all the leaves to the perimeter of the cemetery and then began work brushing off and photographing the stones.  We used water to clean some stones off and were able to read names that we previously could not read. 

By then end of a very long day we had found and photographed most of the cemetery.  We even uncovered a couple that were not listed in the cemetery records as being buried there!  Sadly, among the stones not found were some of my relatives.  I had such strong hopes of finding them but now I realize we most likely never will.  If the stones are there they are buried or sunken under the ground. 


However, I am excited to say that of the 77 interments listed for the cemetery only 14 stones were not found.  That is amazing considering the last burial in the cemetery took place in 1877, over 133 years ago!
The entire cemetery can be found on Find A Grave.

There are some stories to be told among those buried there and I'm going to post some of those in the coming days.  My family or not, they are someone's family and I would like to see them connected to them somehow. 

First up will be the story of the four little boys....but where are their parents?


T

Meeting New Branches of My Family Tree!

When I returned from my research trip back in May, I wrote a post about relatives I had never met who found me through my blog.  Well, yesterday I finally got a chance to meet them!

Mom and I left South Bend around 8:30 am and headed two hours south to meet up with Jean and DeeDee in a Panera's in Kokomo, Indiana.  With Jean traveling from West of Indy and Deedee living in downtown Indy, Kokomo was a central location for us to meet.  Although until today our only contact with each other had been through emails, I immediately felt a kinship with both of them!  We fell into a comfortable conversation (as only family researchers can) and the three hours we spent together just flew by!

                                                           Jean, Mom, DeeDee and I

We spent the time sharing notes and our favorite research sites.  DeeDee and I talked about our desire to learn more about cemetery preservation and are hoping to take a class together in August in Indy!  Jean is eager to join mom and I in conducting research in the Wabash, Indiana courthouse this fall.  How awesome this day turned out to be! 

This is what I love about genealogy....the people, the stories, the relationships......the families.  I'm so happy I got this chance to meet more of mine!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Here's Randy Seaver's challenge from Genea-Musings:


"Hey genea-funsters, it's Saturday Night! Time for more Genealogy Fun.
Your mission for Father's Day, if you decide to accept it, is to:
1) Determine who is one of the most prolific fathers in your genealogy database or in your ancestry. By prolific, I mean the one who fathered the most children.
2) Tell us about him in your own blog post, in comments to this blog post, or in comments on Facebook.

This is my first time participating in one of Randy's challenges but when I saw the topic I just couldn't resist!  When I began searching my database I realized many of my male ancestors fathered 10, 11 or even 12 children!  To find the most prolific I would need to do some digging.  After searching and searching I have found my winner:

Charles Leonard Lewis DeWise Wright SCOTT (1813-1888) my great-great-great grandfather.  Charles R., as he was known, was the father of 15 children!

Charles R. was first married to Mary Ann CHUMNEY (1815-1854) and they had 12 children, 6 girls and 6 boys.  9 lived to adulthood while 3 died in childhood.

Charles remarried in 1856 to Hester HARRIS (1824-1881) and fathered three more children.  1 boy and 2 girls the oldest of which, Marilla Elma SCOTT was my great-great grandmother.

Mary Ann CHUMNEY SCOTT is buried in America Cemetery, Wabash County, Indiana. 
Charles R. SCOTT and Hester HARRIS SCOTT are buried in Old LaFontaine Cemetery, Wabash County, Indiana.

What I Learned from the Case of Freddie Driggs

Until yesterday I had no idea little Freddie Driggs existed or that he belonged in my family tree.

Yesterday morning I anticipated attending the meeting of the DAR down at the South Bend Public Library.  Upon arrival we discovered that the lady holding the meeting needed to cancel and reschedule.  Not wanting to waste the morning I asked Libby to direct me to the holdings for Wabash County Indiana.  I didn't anticpate finding much, after all the library is in St. Joseph County.  However, I was pleasantly surprised when Libby showed me a shelf of books pertaining to Wabash County.  Among them was a true gem "Wabash County Indiana Marriages 1835-1899".

I sat up my laptop and spent the next three hours entering marriage dates into my Family Tree Maker program.  For those marriages I couldn't yet connect to my family I entered the information into a word document knowing that down the road I may find the connections.  Among those I transcribed was one for:

Driggs, Asa  married Scott, Ida M. 31 Oct. 1889, Wabash County, Indiana

I am related through the Scott family and in my tree I did have an Ida M. Scott whose birth date may fit this marriage date but I was reluctant to make that connection just yet.

Later in the evening while watching a movie with my husband and baking chocolate chips cookies (I am the queen of multi-tasking!) I pulled out the old Brane Family bible intending to transcribe the births, marriages and deaths that my great-great Grandmother, Marilla Scott Brane, had glued and taped (yicks!) to the inside front of the bible.

This is one of the items I found cut out of the newspaper:

A large number of sympathizing relatives and friends attended the funeral of Frederick Earl Driggs at the M.E. chuch Friday torenoon. Rev. O.V.L. Harbour preached an excellent, comforting sermon from the words of David in 2 Samuel XII 23, "I shall go to him but he shall not return me." The choir feelingly sang "Rock of Ages," "Asleep in Jesus" and "Nearer My God to Thee." The pallbearers were classmates of Freddie and were preceded by six little girls in white, with arms full of beautiful flowers. Freddie' classmates, the Junior League, The Ladies Aid Society and my O.M. Bevington and family all sent beautiful flowers to the bereaved family. The stores were closed during the service. The remains were laid to rest in Park cemetery.

Then I found this cut from the paper:

Card of Thanks

Asa Driggs and family desire in this manner to express their thanks to the many friends and neighbors who assisted them so kindly during the sickness and death of little Freddie, also for the beautiful floral offerings given.

Now I felt I had enough evidence to connect Ida M. Scott (my G-G Grandmothers sister) to Asa Driggs. 
I also learned that Ida and Asa had a son Freddie who died young.  But how young and when did Freddie die?  The newspaper accounts didn't give me too much to go on besides the name of a cemetery, but no town in which it was located.

Next I turned to Ancestry.com and looked for a census with Asa and Ida.  Bingo, the 1900 census shows
Asa and Ida in Fairmount, Grant, Indiana with their children Nellie, Fred and Harry.  I now had an estimated date of birth for Fred of 1893.

My next resource was Find A Grave.  I entered Asa Driggs Indiana into the search terms believing that his name was unique enough to limit search results.  And I found it.  Asa Driggs buried in Park Cemetery, Fairmount, Grant, Indiana.  I clicked on "find all Driggs in Park Cemetery" and there was little Freddie.  God bless the volunteer who entered this information into FAG.  He included full birth and death dates for Freddie, 18 Feb 1893 - 13 Jun 1906, which would make him 13 at the time of his death.  I also learned that Freddie and I share a birthdate, February 18th. 

I've added Freddie to the list of graves I want to visit in May when I travel to Wabash County.  I now feel a connection to this little boy (my first cousin 3x removed) and want to pay my respects.

What I learned from Freddie?  You can't get all the information you need from Ancestry.com.  To get a full picture of Freddie it took a book off the shelf of my local public library, an old family bible, Ancestry.com and Find A Grave.  And a desire to learn the story of a little boys death.

Thank you for the lesson Freddie......

Tombstone Tuesday - Charles R. Scott

Charles R. Scott

16 Jun, 1813 Fayette County, Indiana

11 Feb, 1888 Fayette County, Indiana

Husband of Hester W., Father of Allen S. and Charles F.

Old LaFontaine Cemetery, LaFontaine, Wabash County, Indiana