If you are a descendant of Edith (ROBERTS) [McMURRAY] LUCK, or of Mary Magdalene “Polly” HONTS or her father, Henry HONTS/JOHNS, then you are related to Matthew. Matthew was the half-brother of Mary, who was the great-grandmother of Edith on the side of her father, George A. ROBERTS.
Matthew was the second known child of Henry Honts/Johns and his mistress, Elizabeth FIRESTONE LAMPERT. Henry and Elizabeth did eventually marry and have more children, but theirs is another story that is soon to come on this blog. In the meantime, we know that Matthew lived a good, respectable life as a blacksmith and farmer, and raised 10 children with his wife Elizabeth MAGGART/MAGGARD.
The obituary tells us a few things we did not know. Only one son and four daughters survived him- just half of his children. Additionally, we did not know of a second marriage- the obituary states his second wife survived him. We do know that first wife Elizabeth died in 1886, so a second marriage is very possible, however we have not found a record of that marriage or her name. The name of his second wife would have been listed on the 1890 US Federal Census, but that did not survive for us to view today. There are a number of women with the surname Johns listed in Hancock County, Indiana, in the 1900 US Federal Census, and at least 1 is listed as a widow, but that research is for another cousin who is more closely related to complete.
One very interesting part of the obituary is that his memorial service was held at the Friends Church in Wilkinson, Indiana. That tells us that Matthew had become a Quaker. Was that something that happened after he married his second wife, or was Elizabeth also a Quaker and they practiced the faith throughout their married life? Or had Matthew become a Quaker on his own as an adult, or possibly as a child? We have seen nothing about Matthew’s parents being Quakers, but that would be very interesting, due to their past “indiscretions” and flaunting of society’s morals. The Quakers were forgiving people, however, so it might be possible.
This obituary provides us with one more avenue of research, important since Matthew’s father, Henry Honts/Johns, is one of our direct ancestors. The Quakers kept very good records and although there is no longer a Friends church in Wilkinson, there are two Friends churches within about 10 miles today, and they may have the records of Matthew’s family. One more item for the To-Do List now…
More to come on the Honts/Johns family…
Notes, Sources, and References:
Matthew JOHNS, obituary. Indianapolis Journal, March 5, 1899, part 1, page 7, column 5, via ChroniclingAmerica.LOC.gov.
Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.
This very hard-to-read headstone is in Old Hopewell Cemetery, a Baptist cemetery in Ripley County, Indiana. From the picture, it seems the marker reads:
SARAH
wife of Dr. J. Roberts
DIED
Feb. 26 1872
AGE(D?)
24 (remaining is illegible from photo, but is likely “yrs, 3 mos., 8 days”)
Sarah (McClure) Roberts **may** be the daughter of Samuel B. McClure (1810-1898) and Kesiah “Cassy” Rees (1812-1883) per many Ancestry trees, but this does need to be verified. Census entries through 1870 exist for this couple showing a Sarah McClure as a child and about the correct age and in the expected place, however no marriage record has been found, nor mention of her parents in a biography of her husband.
If this is the correct family, it suggests that Sarah and “Doc” (Jeremiah “Jerry” Roberts) married sometime after the 1870 US Federal Census was taken (the date on the census page is 16 July 1870) and Sarah’s young death on 26 Feb 1872.
More research on this family is needed.
Notes, Sources, and References:
Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 10 January 2018), memorial page for Sarah Roberts (18 Nov 1847–26 Feb 1872), Find A Grave Memorial no. 45207748, citing Old Hopewell Cemetery, Ripley County, Indiana, USA ; Maintained by Mike Porter (contributor 46953542) . Mike gave us his generous permission to use this photo and others from Old Hopewell.
Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.
One way to help determine when a family migrated is to look at where they were located in the US Federal or a state census. Those censuses only show us a snapshot every 10 years, with sometimes a state census (or the 1940 Federal) showing us a year halfway through the decade. To narrow the date of migration further, we can use newspaper articles. Sometimes there will be short articles posted about a good-bye party, or a note about a store closing or a farmer selling at auction and moving on. One other type of newspaper article can help us pinpoint a date- and advertisement for “dead letters” sitting at the post office, awaiting pickup.
In the early years of our country, the mail carrier did not come to a person’s home, especially if they lived in a rural area. People would make a trip to their post office, which might be in the General Store of the small town nearby. They would go to the counter, or a Post Office window, and ask for their mail. This area was often a gathering place, where one could meet neighbors and townsfolk, exchange stories, gossip, and argue politics. (George A. Roberts of Jasper County, Iowa was one who did the latter regularly, according to his daughter Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck.)
When someone moved on and no one picked up their mail to forward it, the Post Office would publish their names in the local newspaper in hope of someone seeing the notice and helping to get the letters sent on. The addressee had three months in which to pick up their letter; after that time, it would be sent to the General Post Office as an official dead letter.
In 1831, the New Castle, Kentucky P.O. published a list in the newspaper that included the name “Edward Roberts.” Finding “our” Edward is challenging due to his common name and lack of middle initial, and we are not sure where he was in Kentucky at various times. What makes this listing of interest is that a “Charles Stewart” (again, a somewhat common name) also is noted as having a letter sitting at the New Castle P.O. in 1831.
You may remember that “Charles Steward” signed a marriage bond on 25 February 1800, along with “Edward Robbards,” guaranteeing the marriage of Edward to Rosy Steward. We do not know if Charles was Rosy’s father, brother, or uncle, but of course, back then a woman had few legal rights so could not sign the bond for herself and a male family member or friend would have to represent her. In a way this discrimination does help us, however, since it gives us another related name to search for in the area.
The marriage bond was signed in Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky, about 80 miles from New Castle. That would be a 3-4 day ride on horseback- a bit far to be courting- but the family may have moved in the ensuing 30 years within Kentucky and closer to New Castle, and then on to Indiana. Some families, especially if they rented farmland, would move frequently to better quality land. Also, if they had decided to migrate, they might travel part of the way, work for a while, and then move on to another destination that might be more lucrative than their original migration plan. It has been suggested that the government gave Revolutionary War veterans land in Kentucky, but then they had to move on to Indiana for some reason- we do need to learn more about this, but our Roberts ancestors did move in that direction.
One Ancestry.com tree has the youngest child of Edward and Rosy, Mary Ann, born in Jessamine, Kentucky, in 1817. (No source listed for that birthplace.) So the family may have left after then for Indiana, or even been traveling when Mary Ann was born!
There is an 1820 US Federal Census for Ripley County, Indiana, that lists Edward Roberts as being 45 and there being 3 members of the household working in agriculture. We cannot prove this is “our” Edward Roberts but it most likely is. In 1840, in Switzerland, Indiana, John S. Roberts is listed, as is a Charles Stewart and other Roberts heads of households. Biographies state that John S. Roberts lived in Switzerland Co., so we can be more sure about this being “our” ancestor.
The above data suggests that the family migrated sometime after 1817 and before 1820. So why might there be letters for men of that name back in Kentucky?
Maybe they still held land there thus letters were sent to KY.
Military pension information may have been sent to them at their address in KY- back then the government didn’t always keep up, either.
Family or friends back in Maryland or wherever may not have known about their move. The Post Office could not always deliver to or from the frontier.
They could just be different men and this is another genealogical wild goose chase. (I prefer to say it is a “reasonably exhaustive search.”)
As already stated, just because these common names are found in the same place at the same time does not mean they are related to each other or even to us. The next step would be to learn more about these men, and the 1810 census for an Edward Roberts in Franklin, Kentucky does contribute to the story. Sadly the early censuses do not list other members of the household (that started in 1850, but no relationship was given then) but each piece of information is another piece of a puzzle that might end up being “our” Edward Roberts- or maybe one from a completely different line. (Negative findings are important too.) We just need more research to separate out these men, and this “Mystery Monday” post may help us with locations in which to search for more detailed information.
Here are some other ‘dead letter’ notices that include an Edward Roberts, Stewarts, and other names similar to our ancestors:
John Roberts and William Stewart, Weekly Messenger, page 4, Russellville [KY], 15 April 1826.
Edward Roberts and David Stewart, Reporter, page 3, Lexington [KY], 17 January 1827.
Edward Roberts and David Stewart, Reporter, page 3, Lexington [KY], 20 January 1827.
Edward Roberts in Reporter, page 3, Lexington [KY], 24 January 1827.
Edward Roberts in Commentator, page 3, Frankfort [KY], 19 April 1828.
Edward Roberts in Commentator, page 11, Frankfort [KY], 26 April 1828.
Edward Roberts, John Roberts, and a Ralph Stewart listed, Commentator, page 3, Frankfort [KY], 07 July 1829. (“Our” John S. Roberts would have been 24 in 1829.)
Thomas Roberts, Edward Roberts, John Roberts, and a Ralph Stewart listed, Commentator, page 3, Frankfort [KY], 14 July 1829.
Thomas Roberts, John Roberts, and a Ralph Stewart listed, Commentator, page 3, Frankfort [KY], 21 July 1829.
Edward Roberts and Charles Stewart, Frankfort (Kentucky) Argus, 13 Apr 1831, Vol 25, No. 9, Page 4.
Edward Roberts and Charles Stewart, Frankfort (Kentucky) Argus, 20 Apr 1831, Vol 25, No. 19, Page 3. (seen above)
GenealogyBank.com is the source of the above articles- love that website!
Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.
Today’s post is a double “Those Places”- first, the cemetery in Ripley Co., Indiana, and secondly, RootsWeb.
Let’s start with RootsWeb. For those fairly new to genealogy, RootsWeb is a website that was one of the best places to find information back in the early days of computers and genealogy. It was a free site, with contributions by members that were lists of cemetery interments, boards for surnames and places, etc. Many people either do not know about it today, or forget that it is there, and search engines do not always find the posts or pages. Of course, the information there always needs to be verified, but sometimes there is old data on RootsWeb that cannot be found anywhere else, or info that is a great clue. Ancestry bought the website when it got too expensive to maintain by volunteers. It is still free for us to use, so please check RootsWeb.Ancestry.com in your research for people, places, and dates.
And I do so appreciate all the volunteer work that went into this site. Many of the folks are gone now but they were very dedicated to free dissemination of genealogical information. (Copyright is held by the person who contributed the information, but facts can be freely used in ways other than copying; make sure to cite your source.) Amazingly, some of the email addresses still work, so give it a try!
OK, now to our other place: Old Hopewell Cemetery in Ripley County, Indiana. The GPS coordinates for the cemetery are 390547N 0851751W, and it is 958 ft. above sea level.
Where this information came from is not noted on the webpage- was it from walking the cemetery and transcribing the stones, or from records kept by the cemetery, church, or other group? It is a secondary source, so errors may have crept in with transcription and publication. So, as always, this information needs to be verified with other sources. Find A Grave is a good resource to use in conjunction with the RootsWeb cemetery listings, but it too is not a primary source, and always needs verification. Of course, doing more research on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org for primary source records will help to place the interments in context.
Hopewell Baptist Church-Original Site near cemetery. Posted with kind permission of Find A Grave photographer.
The cemetery is by the original site of the Hopewell Baptist Church, and that is consistent with what we know about the Roberts family as being Baptist while in Indiana. (They may have been Baptist previous to their migration, but we have no evidence thus far to prove that.)
There are some RAYBURNs buried in Old Hopewell, and the Rayburn family married into the Roberts family in Iowa, but that is not a line I have researched.
Sarah (McClure) ROBERTS is the first person of interest in the cemetery listing. No date is given for birth, but her death was 26 Feb 1872. She was the wife of Dr. J. Roberts (Dr. Jeremiah Roberts), and was aged 24 years, 3 months, and 8 days at her death.
Some of the Salyers family is also “quietly resting” in this cemetery. These folks are of interest because our direct ancestor was Jane (SALYERS/SAYLOR) ROBERTS (1806-1880), wife of John S. ROBERTS. We still have not done much research on the Salyers line, and there is still a question as to whether her father’s name was Jeremiah Salyers or John B. Salyers. So we are not sure how these folks fit into the family, but this will be another line to research, and maybe we can verify the name of Jane’s parents if we know her siblings or nieces and nephews. (Of course, these folks may be entirely unrelated, but have the same name- always a possibility.)
William L. Salyers, born 02 Oct 1851, no death date or inscription, appears to be the father of the family interred here.
His wife was Elizabeth __ Salyers, born 04 May 1856 and died 5 Feb 1918.
William’s children were:
Mary Jane Salyers, born 18 Oct 1881 and died 28 Mar 1895, listed as daughter of William & Elizabeth. Mary Jane was not even 14 years old at her death, and note the name of “Jane” being used.
We do not know the mother of these two children:
Ira Salyers, born 27 Jan 1884, died 16 Jan 1890, just before his sixth birthday. It is noted that he was the son of William.
R. L. Salyers has no birth date given but he died 06 Sep 1890 at just 1 month and 24 days.
Mary J. Salyers is noted as “Mother”, and was born 1858 and died in 1938. Noting her date of birth, she may have been William’s unmarried sister (was her name possibly Mary Jane?), or his second wife- we do not know when he died, but his first wife Elizabeth passed away in 1918- or even his sister-in-law.
How sad that all three children buried here died at such young ages!
And more clues for more research… Please let us know if you have more information about any of these families.
NOTE: The image of Sarah (Christie) Roberts was removed from this post on 8 Jan 2018 as Jeremiah’s first wife was actually Sarah (McClure) Roberts. A big thank you to cousin Jon Roberts for catching this mistake!
Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.
Schoolhouse, Marshall Co., Iowa, via Library of Cogress; Farm Security Administration. This is NOT the schoolhouse near the Roberts homestead, but is very similar. Note “the necessary” out back.
Edith ROBERTS continued her story of growing up on the farm in Jasper County, Iowa, and told about the actual trip from the farm to town. Together with her father, George A. ROBERTS, her mother, Ella V. (DANIEL) ROBERTS, her big brother Georgie A. ROBERTS and her older sister Ethel G. ROBERTS, the family made the (weather-permitting) weekly visit to Newton, Iowa into a lovingly remembered event.
“Brother would have driven the skittish team [of horses] to the kitchen door and was having a time holding them in check. We were all ready. Dad had carried out the hot bricks that had been heating in the oven. He wrapped them in many sheets of newspaper, and scattered them in the straw [of the wagon].
Now I had to submit to the indignity of lying on the sitting room floor and be wrapped up in a soft brown shawl. Mother would toss the top of the shawl over my head, and brother … [or] Dad would pick me up like a sack of flour and carry me to the waiting bobsled, If it was Brother, he would jump me unceremoniously into the soft straw. I was so bundled up I could hardly sit upright. I was still squealing; “I can’t see, I can’t see.” so as my mother settled herself into the wagon she took the cover off my face. Sister who was sitting opposite us was already shivering, as she had not put on the sweater mother had told her to. Dad had thrown a lap robe over us. It was from Sears, Roebuck. A plush-like material with a fancy design on one side. How good the warm bricks feel.”
As Edith told her stories, it was obvious that they took her back in time to where she could feel the warm bricks even 60 or 70 years later.
“Brother and dad would be standing up in front. Perhaps on this trip dad would hand the lines, or reins, to brother, and he would proudly turn us around and head straight northeast towards Newton. [They would pass a schoolhouse similar to the one pictured above.]
“If it had snowed enough so that the fences were covered and Skunk River had frozen over, by going directly across the river and fences, we would make better time, and of course the distance was much shorter. The sleigh bells were jangling merrily, as the horses, still feeling their mettle, were really making time. Brother would have to lean back, pulling on the reins to check their speed. Both dad and brother would be wearing fur coats, made from the hides of the beeves [beef cows] we had butchered. Their caps were fur-lined and their long high-cuffed mittens were warm, and make holding on to the reins easier.”
Again, in her writing, Edith seems transported back to that time, making it no longer just the past, but a part of her. She did miss her family, as she outlived her parents and siblings, and the ways of life on the farm were rapidly disappearing.
Edith finished her story:
“The sun was glistening on the hard crusted snow, making millions maybe zillions of flashing diamond like particles on the snow. By this time I was sleepy, and the last I would remember was the cheery sound of the sleigh bells. Mother was so warm and comforting beside me as I went to sleep, and I didn’t know anything until we drove up in front of the grocery store. Mother and sister and I got out while dad and brother took the team of horses to the livery stable to be fed and stabled until time to go home.
“A busy interesting day was ahead of us.”
And so Ellie (DANIEL) ROBERTS would barter her delicious butter, eggs, and other homemade delights at the Newton grocery, and “Shopping Saturday” would begin in earnest for the Roberts family in 1906.
Notes, Sources, and References:
“A Trip to Town, 1906–Wintertime” by Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck. Written in the 1960s-1970s for her grandchildren.
Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.
