The sons of William Roberts and Sarah Christie Roberts, from the William Roberts Family Photo Album.
George was eleven years older than his brother John, and fourteen years older than Isaac.
More to come on these Roberts families.
Notes, Sources, and References:
William Roberts Family Photo Album.
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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 of our blog material.
Ancestry.com, Find A Grave, and DNA matches are now wonderful ways to find cousins, and recently we had a new cousin connection in the Roberts line. Our common ancestors, John S. Roberts (1805-1875) and his wife Jane Salyers (1806-1880), were both born in Kentucky, and later moved to Indiana. They had eleven children, one of them being John Roberts (1832-1922) who has been the line written about to date on this blog. In the next few posts, however, we will explore John’s oldest brother William Roberts (1827-1891) and his descendants. Our new cousin provided lots of family photos, so let’s get started with them today. It will be interesting to see if there is any family resemblance to the John Roberts line.
William Roberts, above, was born on 2 February 1827 near Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana. In his early years, he was a teacher, but after a few years took up farming. William married Sarah L. Christie (1829-1912), daughter of Isaac Christie (1797-1865) and Susanna Cline (1798-1880). Sarah was also born in Jefferson County, on 10 March 1829, so it is quite likely they knew each other as children.
Sarah (Christie) Roberts, from the William Roberts Family Photo Album.
Sarah and William were married 16 March 1848 in Ripley County, Indiana, the county just northeast of Jefferson.
Their son John W. Roberts was born 1 January 1849, in Indiana, likely Jefferson or Decatur County. The young family was enumerated just after that of Sarah’s parents in the 1850 US Federal Census. Sarah’s father was a clergyman and her oldest brother was listed as a farmer too. Clergymen frequently had to farm to provide for their family, especially in rural areas. William and Sarah had no value of real estate listed, so could possibly have been renting from her father or farming on shares, since Rev. Christie owned $1800 worth of land. (Or the census-taker just missed it.)
John W. Roberts, about 1891, cropped from a family photo; from the William Roberts Family Photo Album.
The Roberts family had moved to Adams, Decatur County, Indiana, shortly after the 1850 US Federal Census enumeration. The 1860 census was not taken until 28 July, and found William farming and now with real estate worth $200. Young John W. Roberts lived in the household and was 11 years old. Sarah was listed as well, although there was another member of the household not listed but expected soon- George Lucas Roberts, who was born on 19 November 1860.
George Lucas Roberts , from the William Roberts Family Photo Album.
A third son, Isaac Henry Roberts, joined the family on 15 March 1863 in Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana.
Issac H Roberts, c1893, from the William Roberts Family Photo Album.
An infant girl who did not survive long was also born to the family.
June of 1863 brought the war home to the family when William Roberts was required to register for the Civil War Draft. At age 36, he was considered Class II, which was above the conscriptable ages of 20-35. Since he was also married, he additionally fit the requirements for Class II. (Unmarried men 35-45 were considered Class I and could be required to serve active duty.)
In 1870, the census recorded the family as owning $500 in real estate. William was still farming, Sarah L. was still keeping house, and the three sons were living in the home as well, ages 21, 9, and 7. Ten years later, by 1880, son John W. had married and moved out, but George, 19, and a schoolteacher, and Isaac, who was 17 and attending school, were still in the household.
William was initially a Baptist like his father, but in his later years, decided to become “connected with the Christian church.” He was a Democrat politically. It was said of William:
“He was a man of quiet disposition, and although positive in his political and religious views never intruded his opinions in an offensive manner.”
William died on 5 September 1891, and was buried in South Park Cemetery, Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana.
Sarah was 71 at the time of the 1900 US Federal Census for Washington, Decatur County, Indiana, where she owned a home at 67 Michigan Avenue. Her son George L, his wife Olive (Lynch) Roberts, and their children Paul Roberts and Miriam Roberts lived with her.
The multi-generational family moved to West Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, by 1908. Sarah died there on 16 December 1912, having been a widow for 21 years. She was buried with William in South Park Cemetery.
The William Roberts Family Photo Album. Thanks for sharing!
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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 of our blog material.
The family story that has been passed down is that “General Proctor” and his daughter Mary Proctor came to America from England at “the close of the war.” (See “Mystery Monday- The McMurrays in America“) For years we had thought that they were speaking of the Revolutionary War, so these index listings, found when researching Henry Horn, another McMurray ancestor, were intriguing. Could General Proctor have fought in the American Revolution? If so, which side was he on?
And what was his first name?? Since these officers are from Pennsylvania, and Mary Proctor and her husband settled in Pennsylvania, could one of them be her father, ‘our’ General Proctor?
Looking at this mystery again, though, makes a few lightbulbs go on- sometimes a bit more information or even time will help data make sense. We do know that Mary Proctor and her husband William McMurray were living in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, by 22 May 1819 when their son and our direct ancestor, Henderson McMurray, was born. Mary was 26 years old, and William 30.
Oops- we need to do the math. Since Mary was born in 1793 and William in 1789, “the close of the war” would have to be the War of 1812 if the letter from Aunt Ibe Raugh was speaking of an American war. Mary and William were not even born when the American Revolution was happening.
Doing the math and then looking at the timeline makes us realize that these officers are most likely not ‘our’ General Proctor.
The rambling mind of a genealogist, of course, wonders if any of these officers could be the brothers or cousins of Mary’s father, who induced them to immigrate…
The 1850 US Federal Census for Allegheny Twp., Blair County, Pennsylvania, states that William was born in Ireland, and Mary in Pennsylvania- NOT England, as in the family letter. The 1860 census for the same place states again that William was born in Ireland. Unfortunately Mary passed away in 1851, so we have no other census to note her birthplace. Was she born in England or Pennsylvania? Or in Ireland, as some unsourced Ancestry.com trees and her Find A Grave memorial state? This will need more research, though we have already looked for many years.
Keeping the math in mind and a timeline in view, it makes us realize that possibly we need to be looking at the War of 1812 records just in case General Proctor served in it, at the very end. If so, which side would he have been on? As an Englishman, did he come over to fight for the king and then decide to stay and become an American? Or did he fight in the war for the Brits and then, returning home, decide to bring his daughter back to America with him and start a new life? And was he really a General??
If we could find a marriage record for Mary and William, or names of any of her siblings, that might help us find out just who ‘General Proctor’ was, and we can go from there. Any other ideas?
1850 US Federal Census for William McMurray- Year: 1860; Census Place: Allegheny, Blair, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1078; Page: 14; Image: 18; Family History Library Film: 805078. Ancestry.com. 5. Find A Grave memorial #128118060 for Mary J. Proctor McMurray- http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=128118060&ref=acom
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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 of our blog material.
A Map of Philadelphia and Parts Adjacent, With A Perspective View of the State House. Philadelphia: Lawrence Hebert, 1752. Source: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3824p.ct000294 via Wikipedia. Public domain.
We last left Henrich Horn, our Hessian ancestor, hanging- thankfully, not literally, but that could have been the case had George Washington’s troops not protected their POWs from an angry mob.
After being marched victoriously by American troops through some of the streets of Philadelphia, the march had been cut short by an inflamed mob that the American escorts felt they could not control. They locked the ~850 Hessian prisoners of war in the American barracks for safety. The POWs, including our Henrich, would have worriedly awaited the next move by their escorts from Washington’s troops.
The first Battle of Trenton, where Henrich and his comrades had been captured, had increased the morale of the patriots so much that it turned the tide of the American Revolution. Little did the POWs know that while insults, rotten vegetables, and rocks were being thrown at them as they marched through Philadelphia, Washington had marched back to Trenton with his troops for another engagement. The Continental Army won that battle, then moved on to Princeton, New Jersey, where Washington was also victorious.
The British traveller Nicholas Cresswell, definitely a Tory, commented,
“The minds of the people are much altered. A few days ago they had given up the cause for lost. Their late successes have turned the scale and now they are all liberty mad again.”
He later wrote, after another British loss,
“It is the Damd Hessians that has caused this, curse the scoundrel that first thought of sending them here.”
(That ‘scoundrel’ would be good King George. Those would be treasonous words, had not the British had bigger fights to manage on the North American continent.)
The British and Hessian soldiers were in such a panic at their unexpected losses to the ragtag Americans that they thought they saw Washington and his troops everywhere. It was in this atmosphere of changing fortunes that the Trenton prisoners were marched from Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Washington wanted the POWs far away from the front, and Lancaster fit the bill.
Philadelphia is about 80 miles almost due west of Lancaster, and it would take over 20 hours to walk today. In January of 1777, however, it took four days, without snowplows and on roads that would have been icy and rough. The cold and tired prisoners arrived in Lancaster on 6 January 1777, probably around mid-day.
Lancaster was the largest interior American city, with 3,300 residents in 1775, and many German-Americans had lived in the area for some time. The Hessians were taken to a barracks “built of brick, with three wings, and surrounded by a stockade.” The stockade had log cabins on each corner, and walls twenty feet high. There were already some British POWs in the barracks, and the Hessians were given the center wing for themselves.
One Hessian recorded in his journal that everything was “peaceful and quiet.” Maybe now the captured Hessians would get a bit of recuperation after their travails of the last few months.
To be continued…
Notes, Sources, and References:
Featured image: A Map of Philadelphia and Parts Adjacent, With A Perspective View of the State House. Philadelphia: Lawrence Hebert, 1752 source: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3824p.ct000294
Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett, 2004. Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for History, this tells the story of the crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton, mostly from the American point of view. This is an excellent book, and very well-written.
The Hessians and the other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War by Edward J. Lowell. Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York, 1884.
The Hessians. Mercenaries from Hessen-Kassel in the American Revolution, by Rodney Atwood, Cambridge University Press, 1980.
The Hessians and Other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War, by Edward J. Lowell, Harper & Brother, New York, 1884 Republished by Forgotten Books, 2012.
A Generous and Merciful Enemy. Life for German Prisoners of War during the American Revolution, by Daniel Krebs. University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.
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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 2013-2015 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 of our blog material.
As we discussed last Saturday in “Shopping Saturday: Abram Springsteen and His Civil War Drum, Part 1,” “Shopping Saturday” was any day of the week, and was actually ‘foraging.’ Our illustrious drummer boy, Abram Furman Springsteen wasn’t always looking for food- well, since he was a teenage boy, he probably WAS always looking for food, but he also took ‘foraging’ up a notch, like many other soldiers. Sometimes Abram took advantage of situations in order to make himself a little money and some additional friends, as well.
“Home Sweet Home” during the Civil War for our soldiers was missing a number of the comforts of home. Abram set out to rectify that. He recounted in his diary that after reaching Goldsboro, North Carolina, toward the end of the war,
“During our encampment there, I did considerable speculating. One morning I borrowed the Chaplain’s horse and started for a settlers tent situated about 2 miles from our camp at a R.R. [railroad] station.”
“Trading for Coffee and Tobacco” by Edwin Forbes. Courtesy Indiana Historical Society. See notes for details.
“Before reaching the place, I met a soldier with a box of cigars under his arm and inquired of him the distance to the settlers. He told me that the settler was no more, that the boys had made a raid on his shop and (?) had confiscated every thing in reach, at the same time holding up the box of cigars and saying this is what I got out of the concern. I asked him if he would sell them to me, he said yes for a 5 bill.”
(Company I, 63rd Indiana was in Goldsboro, NC from 21 March to 10 April 1865.)
US currency- a fifty cent note used during the Civil War (reverse). Note that Lincoln was then used on the 50 cent bill, vs. today’s five-dollar bill. Courtesy Indiana Historical Society. See notes for details.
Abram returned to camp and sold the cigars for double the price he had paid.
“On the following day, I bought an old pistol from a negro for two dollars and sold it to a soldier for $4.00.”
US currency- a fifty cent note used during the Civil War (reverse). Courtesy Indiana Historical Society. See notes for details.
“Soon after this, I borrowed the Chaplain’s horse again and went out on a hunt for something good to eat…”
There’s that growing boy’s big appetite again.
“… at a place about 5 miles from our camp, I found a man who had six plugs of navy tobacco which I purchased at $5.00? a plug and which I soon sold out after arriving at camp at $7.50? a plug.”
(The question marks are in the transcription.)
Abram’s wheeler-dealer talents would be useful in later years to help out the troops, too. He worked in the War Department and was active in the G.A.R. Abrams worked tirelessly for veterans rights, including pensions and paid time off to the last big G.A.R. encampment.
Notes, Sources, and References:
“Navy tobacco” was a twisted Burley leaf tobacco that could also be pressed into a compact plug and used in a pipe. It was small to carry and burned slowly, resulting in a long smoke- great for soldiers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_cut_tobacco
Images from the Indiana Historical Society are low resolution for uses such as in blogs. Higher resolution images can be found on their website, with links to each image provided below.
“Home Sweet Home” courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society. Description: In 1861 Edwin Forbes was hired as a staff artist by “Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper.” He covered the Army of the Potomac from 1862-1864, and was known for his ability to draw quickly. His primary interest was in recording the everyday activity of soldiers. “Home Sweet Home” plate 24, is from his publication Life Studies of the Great Army. http://images.indianahistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/dc008/id/568/rec/1026
“Trading for Coffee and Tobacco” by Edwin Forbes. Courtesy Indiana Historical Society. Description: In 1861 Edwin Forbes was hired as a staff artist by “Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper.” He covered the Army of the Potomac from 1862-1864, and was known for his ability to draw quickly. His primary interest was in recording the everyday activity of soldiers. “Trading for Coffee and Tobacco Between the Fortified Lines During a Truce” plate35, is from his publication “Life Studies of the Great Army.” http://images.indianahistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/dc008/id/576/rec/2379
“Diary of Abram F. Springsteen” transcription, done by family members. Thank you for sharing!
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Original content copyright 2013-2015 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 of our blog material.
