Searching for the family of Angeline EVANS

Angeline (EVANS) WADE, surrounded by her husband and children

She was part Injun, see. Us kids was close to Grandma. And when she’d get through eating, she had a clay pipe and a little sack of tobacco. And she’d get up and go out in the backyard under a big old oak tree... 

-Ormond Brosius, Aug 1979

That is the only oral history about Angeline (EVANS) WADE that has been passed down to my generation. I have heard it all my life, but have yet to see any documentation to support the idea that my great-great grandmother had any Native American heritage.

After years of vain search, I finally stumbled upon a clue that led to the probable discovery of her antecedents.

Up to that point, I had a half-dozen census records, a marriage record, a xeroxed page from the Family Bible (which has, unfortunately, since been misplaced), and a family group sheet from a cousin. The only clue to her parents contained in these records was the recording of her maiden name: EVANS. Her birth was variously given as Kentucky, Indiana, or Illinois. In one place, her first name was recorded as Evangeline, and in another simply as Anna. She also appeared as Angelina or just A. Given all those possibilities—and the commonness of the names—searching for her by name in the three possible states of her birth was not very effective. I was at a dead end.

Here I must pause and give thanks to the good people at GenealogyBank, for scanning the Sedan, Kansas newspapers and putting them online, and to my local library, for having a subscription to said service. For it was in the Sedan Times-Star that I found the article that gave me the first clue. On page four of the 6 Jan 1910 edition, to be precise:

Dr. and Mrs. M.T. Evans gave a very enjoyable Christmas dinner entertaining Mrs. Angeline Wade, D.K. Wade, Miss Artie Evans and Mr. and Mrs. A. Evans. All are relatives and the occasion was a very pleasant one.

I almost hate to admit it, but this was the first time it had occurred to me that Angeline might have some relatives of her own nearby. I knew that the area was full of her husband Allen’s relations, so I had figured they went with his family to Kansas, leaving hers behind. But here was proof that some of hers had come, too!

The question, of course, was how they were related to one another. D.K. Wade, I knew, was Angeline’s son, and a very little research showed that Dr. M.T. Evans and Artie Evans were siblings, their parents being Mr. and Mrs. A. Evans, who turned out to be Alfred and Matilda EVANS.

I found an obituary for Alfred EVANS on page four of the 3 Nov 1910 Sedan Lance:

Obituary of Mr. Evans

A Long and Useful Life Was Ended Here Last Week.

Alfred Evans, one of the pioneers of Sedan, died October 26, 1910, at his home in Sedan, after an illness of several weeks, the cause of his death being old age and heart trouble.

He was one of the good men of Sedan, having no enemies and esteemed by all who knew him. Quiet, unassuming, always attending strictly to his own concerns, and never interfering with others in matters in which he was not concerned, his whole life was an exemplary one. He was a devoted member of the Christian church, and when not prevented by sickness, or some unavoidable occurrence was always in his place at the church services.

He was born in Indiana, principally raised in Kentucky, and when 18 years of age moved with his parents to Illinois, and in 1865, he moved to Nebraska. He removed to Kansas and to Sedan in 1873, where he lived till the date of his death.

He had been a member of the church for forty-two years, and was one of the most consistent and faithful members of the congregation.

At the time of his death he was 77 years, 5 months and 22 days old. He had always been a hard working man, industrious, sober and a peaceable citizen.

The funeral services were held at the residence in Sedan Oct. 28 at 10 o'clock, conducted by the Rev. J.D. McBrian, and the funeral sermon was delivered from second Timothy, 4th chapters, 6th, 7th and 8th verses. A large number of the people of the community accompanied the remains to Greenwood cemetery where the body was buried.

He leaves a widow and three children surviving him: the children being Dr. M.T. Evans of Sedan, Mrs. Laura Waters of Elk City, and Miss Artie Evans of Macon, Missouri.

Although this obituary does not explicitly state the relationship between Alfred and Angeline, it is a valuable document. I already had Angeline’s birth date: 8 Sept 1834; and with a little math, I arrived at a birth date of 4 May 1833 for Alfred. The two are clearly around the same age. Perhaps they were brother and sister? The movements described in the article align with Angeline’s three claimed birth places and would explain the confusion of whoever reported her place of birth to the census in the various years. Furthermore, according to the obit, Alfred moved to Nebraska in 1865 and Kansas in 1873. This also roughly coincides with Angeline’s movements. I continued combing the newspapers for clues.

Alfred EVANS appeared in another obituary, surprisingly not belonging to one of his immediate family. Rather, it belonged to a Mrs. Henrietta DAVIS:

Mrs. Davis Dead.

Mrs. Henrietta Davis, wife of M. V. Davis, died at the home of the family at Leeds Sunday, August 2. Her death followed a sudden attack of sickness lasting three or four days. The funeral was held Monday, short service being held at the grave by Rev. J. I. Smallwood. The remains were buried in Greenwood cemetery.

Mrs Davis was well know in Sedan where the family has lived for many years, Mr. Davis, during most of the time being engaged in the blacksmith business. Several months ago he took charge of the blacksmith shop at Leeds and moved to that place.

Mrs. Davis was a half sister of Alfred Evans of Sedan and had other distant relatives here. Two sons and a daughter are left to mourn the loss of a kind and loving mother, namely Mrs. Clayton McGill and Nelson and Ben Davis, all of Sedan.

Here was an explicit statement of relationship between Henrietta DAVIS and Alfred EVANS! If Alfred EVANS was Angeline’s brother and Henrietta was his half-sister, then clearly Henrietta was also Angeline’s half-sister. (One of the times when the mathematical property of transitivity applies to human relations!) However, Angeline also was living in Sedan, and Henrietta’s obituary, apart from her immediate family, mentions only Alfred and “other distant relatives.” If she had more than one sibling in the town, it seems odd that her obituary would mention only one by name.

Another previously unknown relative popped up in two brief items in the Sedan Times-Star, both in June of 1910:

Mrs. A.C. Wade went to Niotaze Monday to visit her niece, Mrs. Anna Kilpatrick.

and

Mrs. A.C. Wade of Sedan is visiting her niece, Mrs. Kilpatrick.

Since I already had a pretty extensive family tree drawn up for her husband, Allen WADE, I knew that this was not a niece by marriage. It had to be a niece from Angeline’s side of the family. Figuring that she must, therefore, have been born an EVANS, I was quickly able to discover a marriage record for an Anna J. EVANS and a William K. KILPATRICK, who were married on 24 Nov 1902.

Anna KILPATRICK was residing in the 1905 Kansas state census in the home of Dick M. and Henrietta DAVIS. This census unfortunately does not identify relationships within a household, but the evidence tying together the various members of the EVANS family was mounting.

Even more exciting, on the line just below Anna KILPATRICK was an Ella EVANS. Looking at other census records of the DAVIS household, Ella also appeared (as Ella B. DAVIS) in 1900, listed as a “neice,” and in 1895 as Ella IVANS. I also found a newpaper article announcing her marriage in 1909:

Ziegler—Evans.

William Ziegler of Dewey, Okla., and Miss Allie B. Evans of Niotaze were married here Saturday at the home of Alfred Evans. Rev. Cummings officiated and only relatives were present. The young couple will make their home at Dewey.

Their marriage license is reported on the same page:

William Ziegler, Dewey........25

Ollie B. Evans, Niotaze........18

When I looked up their marriage record, her name was recorded, probably more accurately, as Ella B. EVANS. The marriage record I found was a secondary source: a list of all the marriages listed in Book J of the county clerk’s marriage certificate books. Often I am able to use the transcribed record books at this Kansas Trails website as a starting point, and look up the original document on FamilySearch, but in this case, the marriage record books at FamilySearch only go up through 1906. So until I am able to view the original, this secondary source will have to suffice.

Ella and her husband William ZIEGLER appear in the 1920 census living in Neodesha Twp, Wilson, Kansas. What is most enlightening about this census record is that the household also contains a father-in-law. Alva EVANS, we learn from this, is Ella’s father. Since Ella is Henrietta DAVIS’ and Alfred EVANS’ niece, and her father shares the EVANS surname, Alva EVANS must be a brother to Henrietta and Alfred. But I still didn’t know if I could extend that relationship to Angeline (EVANS) WADE.

I found the answer when I found Alva EVANS in the 1885 Kansas census. He appears with his wife, Lottie, and daughters Myrtle and Annie. The circumstances all added up to this Annie EVANS being Anna J. (EVANS) KILPATRICK. Therefore, she and Ella were sisters. Plus, since she had been explicitly identified as Angeline’s niece, her father must have been Angeline’s brother. I doubt if this line of reasoning would quite stand up to the Genealogical Proof Standard (I haven’t managed to get my hands on the BCC GenealogicalStandards Manual yet), but it is reasonably satisfactory for the time being.

So I now had a list of four siblings to look for in a household. Henrietta had been identified as a half-sister, but was she a daughter of the same father, therefore having the surname EVANS, or by the same mother, therefore with an unknown surname? That question was easy to solve. The “Nebraska, Marriages, 1855-1995” index at FamilySearch included a marriage for Martin V. DAVIS and Henrietta E. EVANS on 5 Jan 1868. She was an EVANS.

Finding the proper family in a census turned out to be much more challenging than I had anticipated. When all was said and done, I had come up with only two good possibilities, neither of which contained all four children. The first was the 1850 household of James EVANS in Wayne, Clinton, Ohio, and the second was the 1860 household of David P. EVANS in Mt. Auburn, Christian, Illinois.

The James EVANS household caught my attention first, because it contained an Alfred, an Angeline, and a Henryetta. Their ages didn’t match up perfectly with the ages I had, but they were fairly close. Comparison with Alfred’s obituary created problem, though. This family was in Ohio, while his obituary placed them in Kentucky at this point in time. The birth places for the children, when compared to the birth places I had on record, also didn’t seem quite right.

Tracing the James EVANS family farther forward in time revealed more inconsistencies, and eventually proved that this was not my EVANS family.

I moved on to the David P. EVANS household. By the time of this census, Angeline and Alfred were both married, so of the four known children, this household contained only Henrietta and Alva. But their ages and birth places did make sense. Moreover, this family was living in Christian county, Illinois, and both Angeline and Alfred had married in Christian county just a few years before.

However, I could not trace this family in the census records in either direction. It seemed that David P. WADE had somehow managed to be enumerated in only a single census in his entire life. I knew, though, that Angeline, Alfred, and Henrietta had all made their way to Richardson county, Nebraska by 1870, so I focused my search there. Richardson county genealogy has only a small presence on the internet, which rather hampered my efforts, and continues to hamper them, but I was able to make some discoveries.

The David P. EVANS household of 1860 included, in addition to Henrietta and Alva, three other children: Polly A, Bluford, and one that is indexed as Aurinda J, but on personal inspection, the “Aurinda” might also be read “Amanda.”

In the 1880 census I found an Amanda J. EVANS, identified as a sister-in-law, residing with the family of Joshua KINSEY in Falls City, Richardson county. Joshua’s wife is Mary A. KINSEY. Amanda and Mary’s ages and birthplaces fit perfectly to make the Amanda J. EVANS of 1880 coincide with the Aurinda F. EVANS of 1860 and the Mary A. KINSEY of 1880 coincide with the Polly A. EVANS of 1860. (Most genealogists know that “Polly” was a common nickname for “Mary.”)

Returning to the “Nebraska, Marriages, 1855-1995” index at FamilySearch, I found a record for the marriage of Joshua KINSEY and Mary Ann EVANS on 25 Sept 1870. The 1880 household also contained a stepson named Townley B. RAMSEY, which would seem to imply that Mary had previously been married to a RAMSEY, but I was unable to find a record for such a marriage in Nebraska. In the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, however, I found an 1865 marriage for a Mary EVANS and a William RAMEY in Piatt county, which is not immediately adjacent to, but not far from, Christian county. The date fits Mary’s age and Townley’s birth well. It’s not conclusive, but it is a possibility.

The 1885 Nebraska census finds this family still in Falls City. Amanda is no longer living with them, and, as one would expect, the oldest child has moved out and a younger one has been born. Most interesting to me, though, is that the stepson is now named as Bluford RANEY. Presumably the B in Townley B. RAMSEY stood for Bluford. This is more circumstantial evidence for this family being the family of the Polly EVANS in David P. EVANS’ 1860 household. The coincidence of the name Bluford helps to suggest a family relationship. Incidentally, I have been unable to trace with any certainty Mary’s brother, the Bluford EVANS who appeared in 1860.

I could not trace Mary (EVANS) KINSEY any farther forward. I have seen some assertions that she next married an Ephraim STANDIFORD, but have found no evidence to prove the two Marys to be the same person.

Likewise, Amanda disappears after 1880, Bluford disappears after 1860, and the later records I have found for Henrietta, Alva, Alfred, and Angeline have shed no light on the matter of their parents. Therefore, it was time to again try to work my way backwards. I had already searched the census indices and discovered nil. In the “Indiana, Marriage Collection, 1800-1941” on Ancestry I found a marriage record for a David P. EVANS and Rosana PENNELL in Harrison county, Indiana. If this were the right couple, the date of marriage—30 July 1840—matched up correctly to make Angeline and Alfred children from an earlier marriage and Henrietta and Alva their stepsiblings. (You can view the original document here.)

For a while, this was as far as I got. I included my findings in my Ancestry tree, and then moved on to another branch of the family. A few months ago I revisited this branch and found that another Ancestry member had been able to take it farther. Janine Eller Porter had pulled together and compiled a large number of sources. Her compiled research pointed me to a number of primary records, some of which can be viewed on FamilySearch. I am still in the process of accessing and evaluating these records, so I am not yet ready to lay it all before you. The research is still greatly circumstantial, but the circumstances are piling atop one another so neatly that it is rather convincing.

I will not go into much detail, but I will tell you that it seems that David P. EVANS’ first wife, Alfred and Angeline’s mother, was Rosana PENNELL’s older sister Elizabeth. Their parents were John PENNELL and Amelia HUNTER, and it may be possible to trace even farther back. The parents of David P. EVANS remain a mystery.

Citations and Selected Sources:

1850 U.S. census, Clinton, Ohio, population schedule, p. 394B, dwelling 1065, family 1065, Household of James Evans; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Mar 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M432, roll M432_668.

1860 U.S. census, Bates, Missouri, population schedule, Spruce Township, p. 158 or 206, dwelling 1090, family 1100, Household of Alen C. Wade; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Oct 2007); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M653, roll M653_607.

1860 U.S. census, Christian, Illinois, population schedule, Mount Auburn, p. 244, dwelling 1862, family 1755, Household of David P. Evans; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Jul 2013); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M653, roll M653_161.

1870 U.S. census, Richardson, Nebraska, population schedule, Salem, p. 5 (handwritten) or 113 (stamped), dwelling 35, family 36, Household of Allen C. Wade; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Dec 2006); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M593, roll M593_832.

1880 U.S. census, Chautauqua, Kansas, population schedule, Summit, enumeration district (ED) 076, p. 3 (handwritten) or 400 (stamped), dwelling 42, family 42, Household of Allen S. Wade; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 11 Nov 2006); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T9, roll 375.

1880 U.S. census, Richardson, Nebraska, population schedule, Falls City, enumeration district (ED) 314, p. 12 (handritten) and 430 (stamped), dwelling 117, family 119, Family of Joshua Kinsey residing in the George W. Battreall household; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 Jul 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T9, roll 754.

1885 Kansas state census, Elk, Kansas, population schedule, Elk Falls, p. 15, dwelling 1, family 1, line 1-4, Household of Alva R. Evans; digital images, Ancestry, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Feb 2014); citing Roll KS1885_43; Microfilm reels K-1 – K-146, Kansas State Historical Society.

1895 Kansas state census, Chautauqua, Kansas, population schedule, Sedan, p. 3 (handwritten), dwelling 5, family 5, line 18-19, Household of A. C. Wade; digital images, Ancestry, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Mar 2012); citing Roll v115_17; Microfilm reels K-1 – K-169, Kansas State Historical Society.

1895 Kansas state census, Chautauqua, Kansas, population schedule, Sedan, p. 6, dwelling 4, family 4, line 18-23, Household of D. M. Davis; digital images, Ancestry, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Feb 2014); citing Microfilm reels K-1 – K-169, Kansas State Historical Society.

1900 U.S. census, Chautauqua, Kansas, population schedule, Sedan, enumeration district (ED) 11, sheet 6B, p. 292 (handwritten), dwelling 115, family 116, Household of Dick M. Davis; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Feb 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T623, roll 473.

1900 U.S. census, Chautauqua, Kansas, population schedule, Sedan, enumeration district (ED) 0011, sheet 14, p. 108 (stamped), dwelling 295, family 298, Household of John S. Brosius; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Oct 2006); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T623, roll 473.

1905 Kansas state census, Chautauqua, Kansas, population schedule, Sedan, p. 55, dwelling 2, family 2, line 6-10, Household of Buchanan Wade; digital images, Ancestry, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Feb 2014); citing Microfilm reels K-1 - K-181, Kansas State Historical Society.

1905 Kansas state census, Chautauqua, Kansas, population schedule, Sedan, p. 66, dwelling 8, family 8, line 22-26, Household of Dick M. Davis; digital images, Ancestry, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Mar 2012); citing Microfilm reels K-1 - K-181, Kansas State Historical Society.

1910 U.S. census, Chautauqua, Kansas, population schedule, Sedan, enumeration district (ED) 10, sheet 8A, p. 223 (stamped), dwelling 124, family 125, Angeline Wade; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Feb 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll T624_433.

1920 U.S. census, Wilson, Kansas, population schedule, Neodesha, enumeration district (ED) 235, sheet 3A, p. 220 (stamped), dwelling 53, family 55, Household of W. M. Ziegler; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Feb 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T625, roll T625_554.

“Billie and Smoke”: a recording of family reminiscing during the visit of Ormond “Smoke” Brosius and Billie Gardner to Portland, Oregon, in Aug 1979; recorded by “Sugar” Brosius at the home of Vinis and Aileen Brosius, cassette tape and partial transcription in the possession of Amber Brosius.

Clerk of the District Court. Chautauqua County, Kansas. Marriage Records, Book J. 9 Jan 1909-12 Mar 1914. Chautauqua County Marriage Records. Kansas Trails, 2011. Web. 19 March 2012. <http://ksgennet.org/ks/cq/marr/cqmarrj.html>.

“County News: Niotaze.” Sedan Times-Star 16 June 1910:5. America’s GenealogyBank. NewsBank Inc. Web. Accessed 15 Aug 2011.

“General News.” Sedan Times-Star 9 June 1910:5. America’s GenealogyBank. NewsBank Inc. Web. Accessed 15 Aug 2011.

Illinois State Archives and the Illinois State Genealogical Society, “Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900,” database, Cyber Drive Illinois (http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com : accessed 13 Jul 2014), entry for the 1865 marriage of William Ramey and Mary Evans; citing original county clerks' marriage records.

Illinois State Archives and the Illinois State Genealogical Society, “Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900,” database, Cyber Drive Illinois (http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com : accessed 13 Jul 2014), entry for the 1857 marriage of Alfred Ivins and Matilda Hollingsworth; citing original county clerks' marriage records.

“Indiana, Marriages, 1811-1959,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XXLD-RZP : accessed 13 Jul 2014), David P Evans and Rosanna Pennell, 30 Jul 1840; citing Harrison County; FHL microfilm 001404750.

Jordan Dodd and Liahona Research, comp., “Illinois, Marriages, 1851-1900,” database, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 Feb 2014), entry for marriage of Alfred Ivins and Matilda Hollingsworth, 31 Dec 1856; Film # 0987611.

Jordan Dodd and Liahona Research, comp., “Illinois, Marriages, 1851-1900,” database, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 Feb 2014), entry for the marriage of Allen C. Wade and Angeline Evans, 22 Sept 1855; Film # 0987611.

“Kansas, County Marriages, 1855-1911.” Index and Images FamilySearch. [https://www.familysearch.org]: accessed 19 Nov 2011. Entry for William K. Kilpatrick and Anna J. Evans, married 24 Nov 1902; citing Marriage records, Chautauqua, Marriage licenses, 1902-1906, image 45.

“Marriage License.” Sedan Lance 19 Mar 1909:1. America’s GenealogyBank. NewsBank Inc. Web. Accessed 12 July 2014.

“Mrs. Davis Dead.” Sedan Lance 7 Aug 1908:1. America’s GenealogyBank. NewsBank Inc. Web. Accessed 20 Nov 2011.

“Nebraska, Marriages, 1855-1995,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X583-12B : accessed 13 Jul 2014), Joshua Kinsey and Mary Ann Evans, 25 Sep 1870; citing Richardson, Nebraska, reference cn448; FHL microfilm 1705172.

“Nebraska, Marriages, 1855-1995,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X583-B4T : accessed 12 Jul 2014), Martin V. Davis and Henrietta E. Evans, 05 Jan 1868; citing Richardson, Nebraska, reference cn252; FHL microfilm 1705172.

“Obituary of Mr. Evans.” Sedan Times-Star 3 Nov 1910:4. America’s GenealogyBank. NewsBank Inc. Web. Accessed 20 Nov 2011.

“Social Affairs.” Sedan Times-Star 6 Jan 1910:4. America’s GenealogyBank. NewsBank Inc. Web. Accessed 15 Aug 2011.

Works Progress Administration; Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research, "Indiana, Marriage Collection, 1800-1941," database, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Feb 2014), entry for David P. Evans and Rosanna Pennell, married 30 July 1840.

“Ziegler—Evans.” Sedan Lance 19 Mar 1909:1. America’s GenealogyBank. NewsBank Inc. Web. Accessed 12 July 2014.

A little pointless rambling

Well! I look at my previous post and realize that it has been almost five months since I last blogged. Life interfered in the form of work, remodeling, and vacation, and my literary energies have been directed elsewhere. I have spent a share of my time on Ancestry as well as combing through old newspapers and Luxembourgish vital records, as usual, but with perhaps less focus in my research. Yet it is high time that I shared something.

I only wish I knew what to share.

I have a smattering of transcribed newspaper articles relating to Rockaway Beach, Oregon, in chronological order. However, as I look through them, I think that some of them may require more explanation than I am prepared to give at this time. But, even without explanation, this one is an entertaining read:

(30 July 1911, Oregonian p. 10)

Woman Pilots Automobile.

FOREST GROVE, Or., July 29.--(Special.)--The first woman to drive an automobile to the coast and return by way of Sheridan is Mrs. John A. Thornburgh, of this city, wife of the Mayor and president of the Forest Grove National Bank. Mr. and Mrs. Thornburgh, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Burlingham, left this city at 6 o’clock in the morning, and arrived at Garibaldi by 1 o’clock in the afternoon, a distance of over a hundred miles. The party visited Bayocean, Rockaway Beach, Netarts, and Tillamook and found the roads in good condition.

Too bad it’s no longer considered newsworthy for a woman to drive to the beach, or I would practically be a celebrity. Plus I like the verb “pilot” applied to an automobile.

I have also amassed a pile of papers covered with notes on the EVANS family. If you read my post on The Capricious Credibility of Oral History, the EVANS family is the family of my supposedly “Indian” (meaning Native American, not from India) great-great grandmother Angeline (EVANS) WADE.

In that pile of papers are census abstracts, marriages, to-do lists, and a hand-drawn timeline so marked up that I can scarcely make sense of my own markings anymore. I would very much like to write it all up in a blog post, but first I will have to make sense of it. That will take a lot more time than I have to devote tonight.

I also have a few juicy plots that I am dying to share, but they fall within the purview of the Brosius family saga I have been gradually relating, and I need to wait until the proper time to recount them.

So there we are. Unless I simply post some transcribed and translated Luxembourgish records—which I have no intention of doing—I am at a loss. So if you read this post, I sincerely hope you are related to Mrs. John A. Thornburgh. Otherwise I have just wasted your good time.

Digitizing “Old School” - or - Where There’s a Will There’s a Way

I got a new laptop this last Christmas to replace my old dinosaur of a desktop, and the change has been marvelous. I love the increased speed and portability. There have been a few drawbacks as well, though. So many of the external devices that worked so well on my old computer just can’t be made to work on this one. First it was my scanner—a hardship for a genealogist, but one I rather expected because that scanner is close to twenty years old. It was a little more surprising that the printer wouldn’t work, but I’m still holding out hope for that one, having not yet tried everything.

Then this weekend came another big test. I located another cassette tape of an interview with Uncle Lowell. Somehow this one had been missed several years ago when I was digitizing all the family tapes. Would my analog converter work with my new computer? It was worth a try. After spending the day going back and forth between home and the library (because I currently am waiting for my new router to arrive in the mail, but in the meantime have no internet access at home), I was able to get the software working, and it said the device driver was properly installed, but I couldn’t get the program to recognize it in practicality.

And then I discovered there was yet another problem. My old trusty stereo system was turning on me. For some unfathomable reason, when I put it in “tape” mode—and only in “tape” mode—after about five minutes of perfect cooperation, it begins a loud, high-pitched humming. This goes on whether a tape is playing or not. So, even the idea of just putting my ipod next to the speakers and being really quiet while the tape was playing wouldn’t work.

But the idea wasn’t a bad one. After all, that’s how we recorded Grandpa’s records onto cassette tapes for me when I was a little kid. We had gone over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, picked out some records to play on their record player, set up Mom’s boom box to record them, and danced as quietly as we could around the living room while recording the likes of Perry Como singing “The Wang Dang Taffy Apple Tango” or the McGuire Sisters singing “Space in a Spaceship.” (I still know all the words to both of those songs.) But wait—I have that very boom box in my possession. It’s speakers aren’t as good as my stereo, but they might be good enough, or I might even be able to hook it up to the stereo. I decided to try it the simple way first. Now, this boom box is quite possibly older than I am, and was in its time known not as a boom box but as a ghetto blaster. The thing will play the radio, cassettes, or 8-tracks, which is really the main reason I still have it. You never know when you might suddenly need to play an 8-track. But when I put the cassette tape in, I observed that the machine was showing its age a little bit. There was a grinding noise at a certain point in each revolution of the heads, and no amount of head cleaning seemed to be able to put a stop to it. What was I to do now?

I had just one more chance: my truck. It has a tape deck. Sitting for a half-hour at a time in my truck in my driveway with the motor turned off wasn’t quite how I had envisioned my evening, but that was how I spent it (to the amusement of my neighbors, perhaps). I turned up the volume full-blast, perched my ipod (in voice memo record mode) on the dashboard equidistant between the two speakers, and proceeded to listen to and rerecord voices from the past.

The recordings turned out remarkably well considering how they were made. There is a little more background noise than if I had been able to feed it directly into the computer, but it will do quite nicely for the time being. Perhaps I should try a similar method with some of my favorite records!

Brosius family in Howard County, Kansas 1873ish-1875

(Continued from  “Rodgers-Brosius family in Bourbon county, 1869-1873ish.”)

Look at a map of Kansas and you will not see Howard county. It has no population and no area. Howard county, Kansas is one among the numerous ghost counties of the United States. It enjoyed only five years of turbulent life. At one time it contained over 13,600 people and 1,290 square miles, which are now in the divided possession of Elk and Chautauqua counties. At Howard county’s organization, the city of Elk Falls was designated as the county seat, but that designation was to prove the impetus behind much of the turbulence of the county’s short existence. As early as the fall of 1870, the County Commissioners received a petition requesting an election to decide on the relocation of the county seat. The vote took place in September of 1872, but showed such unmistakable signs of fraud that the Commissioners declared no election.

Thus, the family which had been headed by John Rodgers moved from one tense area (the Fort Scott area, where they had lived only a very short time, was beset with tensions between the railroad, assisted by United States soldiers, and squatters) to another. However, the new tension, being entirely political and not involving the armed forces, may have seemed innocuous in comparison.

It is not known at this time precisely when the family arrived; only that they arrived sometime between 1870 and 1873. They moved into Belleville Township, near the town of Peru, which had itself been established in 1870. Perhaps they were not among the earliest settlers; John Rodgers’ 1899 obituary refers to him only as “one of the old and highly respected citizens of this county”; but by 1920, when his stepson John S. Brosius died, he could be called a “pioneer resident” (“John Rodgers Dead”, “John Brosius Dead”).

The youngest member of the family, Samuel Elbert Rodgers, was born 22 May 1873, but it is unknown whether his birth took place in the family’s earlier home in Bourbon county or their new one in Howard county. His mother, however, perhaps succumbing to an infection or disease related to the childbirth, died on 11 July 1873 and was buried in Peru Cemetery under the name “Margrett A. Rodgers.” The cemetery, like the town, had been established in 1870, and its occupants bespoke the area’s roughness. “Of the first nine people buried in the cemetery,” wrote one historian, “seven died ‘with their boots on’” (Blackmar 468). Perhaps it speaks even more eloquently of this frontier that only ten days after this death, not far to the east (though a few hundred miles north) the famed James-Younger gang led by Jesse James committed their first train robbery, derailing a train on the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific Railroad near Adair, Iowa.

Margrett may not have been the only casualty in the family that year. Back in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, Margrett had a married daughter named Mary Ann Christy. She died on 31 Jan in either the year 1873 or 1874, at the young age of 26.

A few months after Margrett’s death, on 11 Nov 1873, Howard county held another election for the relocation of the county seat. This election resulted in a majority of 232 votes opting to keep the county seat in Elk Falls. However, the residents of the losing town, Boston, had no intention of permitting it to be so. On 19 Jan 1874, a posse of 150 armed men began what became known as the “Boston war.” They, along with twenty-four wagons, entered Elk Falls and, “amid the consternation, threats and tears of the inhabitants of the town,” seized the county records and property (Cutler). Perhaps the soldiers of Fort Scott were recalled by former residents of Bourbon county as Howard county raised three companies of militia to retrieve the records and apprehend the guilty parties. The purpose of the militias remained unfulfilled as the county seat, now resting in the beds of wagons, traveled through the hills and even spent some time in neighboring Cowley county. The situation was not resolved until the Judge of the district, unable to convene the District Court at the appointed time without the required records, placed several of the conspirators under arrest for contempt of court, and essentially held them for ransom, the price being the “unconditional surrender of the records and other county property” (Cutler). After the surrender was made, the county seat was allowed to remain at Elk Falls without contest for the duration of the existence of the county.

Elk Falls, once again in its lawful position, was to be the site of the next major step in young John S. Brosius’ life. He was growing, as all young men do, and had already passed the age of majority. It was only natural that he should wish to begin a new life for himself, and on 10 Oct 1874 he did just that. On that day he stood before Justice of the Peace Henry Welty and was married to a Miss Frances E. McClane.

Although little is known about John’s marriage to Frances, it is easy to guess how they met. In the 1875 Kansas state census, the couple appear directly below the household of Frances’ father, “Jarrett McLain,” or Jared McClane. John Rodgers appears only two households before that, so clearly the families were near neighbors.

John Rodgers filed his land patent on 20 Nov 1874, but it is likely that he had resided there prior to his filing, and perhaps since his arrival in the county. In any case, his new land was a significant step up from the land he had purchased in Bourbon county, as far as sheer size was concerned. He now owned over 158 acres, more than tripling his previous acreage. But the value of his real estate as recorded in the census records declined from $9,000 to a mere $300. He also was now the widowed father of three young children, the eldest only nine years old. Neither of his living stepchildren remained in his house to help out. We have already described the situation of John S. Brosius; now it is time to relate the little that is known of his sister Rebecca.

The 1875 census finds Rebecca Brosius still residing in Belleville Township, but evidently not anywhere near her brother or stepfather. Instead, she appears three pages earlier, in the household of P. N. Williams. Her status within the family is not stated, but the line above hers belongs to a W. Henderson, whose occupation is listed as “Farming.” Since neither of them share the Williams family name, it seems a good guess that he is a farmhand of some sort and she perhaps a domestic servant. She does appear five years later, in the 1880 Federal census, as a domestic servant to another household, so perhaps she began her career in the Williams home. Possibly, though, she was only a guest, as she was only 15 years old and is reported to have attended two months of school within the year.

The Kansas state census was enumerated on 1 Mar, when the Rodgers, McClane, Brosius, and Williams families all resided in Howard county. Three months later, without any need to move, they all would find themselves suddenly in the newly-formed Chautauqua county. Howard county had been divided, and the southern half became Chautauqua, the northern: Elk. Howard county with its too many square miles and its hotly contested county seat was no more.

(Continues with  “Brosius Family in Chautauqua County, 1875-1880.”)

Citations and Selected Sources:

1875 Kansas State Census, Howard, Kansas, population schedule, Belleville Twp, p. 10, dwelling 76, family 76, lines 3-9, Rebecca Brosius (in Household of P. N. Williams); digital images, Ancestry, Ancestry (ancestry.com).

1875 Kansas State Census, Howard, Kansas, population schedule, Belleville Twp, p. 14, dwelling 114, family 114, line 20-23, Household of John Rodgers; digital images, Ancestry, Ancestry (ancestry.com).

1875 Kansas State Census, Howard, Kansas, population schedule, Belleville Twp, p. 14, dwelling 116, family 116, line 25-29, Household of Jarrett McLain; digital images, Ancestry, Ancestry (ancestry.com).

1875 Kansas State Census, Howard, Kansas, population schedule, Belleville, p. 14, dwelling 117, family 117, lines 30-31, Household of John Brosius; digital images, Ancestry, Ancestry (ancestry.com).

1880 U.S. census, Chautauqua, Kansas, population schedule, Sedan, enumeration district (ED) 15, p. 31, dwelling 290, family 298; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T9, roll 375.

Blackmar, Frank W., ed. Kansas:a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions,industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc., vol. II. Chicago: Standard Pub. Co., 1912. 468. Transcribed by Carolyn Ward in KSGenWeb. Blue Skyways, July 2002. Web. Accessed 25 Jan 2014.

Cutler, William G. “ElkCounty.” History of the State of Kansas. Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1883. Page numbers not indicated in transcription. Transcribed by Bruce L. Garner and Carol Anderson in Kansas Collection Books. Kansas Collection, Aug 1997. Web. Accessed 7 Feb 2014.

Bureau of Land Management. Accession Nr: KS1230__.411; “Land Patents,” database and images, GeneralLand Office Records (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov : accessed 18 Dec 2013).

Bureau of Land Management. Accession Nr: KS1420__.033; “Land Patents,” database and images, GeneralLand Office Records (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov : accessed 18 Dec 2013).

“John Brosius Dead.” Sedan Times-Star 22 Apr 1920: 1. Xerox copy sent to the author by Gloria Brosius.

“John Rodgers Dead.” Sedan Lance 19 Oct 1899: 5. America's GenealogyBank. NewsBank Inc. Web. Accessed 14 Feb 2012.

“Kansas,County Marriages, 1855-1911,” images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-16087-50295-41?cc=1851040&wc=11692786 : accessed 02 Feb 2014), Chautauqua > Marriage records, 1870-1875, v. A > image 129 of 147.

Mayfield, Judy. “Margrett A. Rodgers (Memorial #19172677).” _Find A Grave_. Find A Grave, Inc., 1 May 2007. Web. Accessed 22 Nov 2009.

Rodgers-Brosius family in Bourbon county, 1869-1873ish

(Continued from “The Brosius Family: Margrette’s Second Marriage.”)

Travel and transportation could almost be called themes for the year. At least, they were increasingly at the forefront of the world’s consciousness. It was the year of the first bicycle race and the great international university boat race. The year brought the invention of the rickshaw, the opening of the Suez Canal, and the exploration of the Colorado River. It was the year that Sir Henry M. Stanley first was asked to mount an expedition in search of Dr. Livingstone. And on one spring day at Promontory Summit, Utah, Leland Stanford drove the golden spike to complete the first transcontinental railroad.

By Centpacrr at en.wikipedia [Public domain, Public domain or Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

The year was 1869, and in the U.S., trains had become a popular mode of travel. All over the nation thousands of men toiled daily, untold miles of shining steel track marking their progress. Most large cities already had the train, or were making plans to get it. Even many smaller communities, such as Meadville in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, had a line. Making connections along the way, people could travel almost anywhere in the country in the merest fraction of the time it would have taken by wagon or boat only a few years before.

It was probably by train that a certain John Rodgers took his family the thousand or so miles from their home in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, to Fort Scott, Kansas. The time frame is narrow enough to suggest speedy travel: his stepdaughter Mary Brosius was married in Crawford county on 10 May 1869 and the name John Rodgers appears on a land patent near Fort Scott on 20 July 1869. Of course, this time frame makes two assumptions: first, that John Rodgers was present at Mary Brosius’ wedding, which cannot be proved at this time, and second, that the entire family unit (except Mary, who stayed in Pennsylvania) traveled together to Kansas, which is equally uncertain. It is possible that John Rodgers left earlier for Kansas, missing Mary’s wedding, and it is possible that the rest of his family stayed behind in Pennsylvania, joining him in Kansas later. However, accepting the aforesaid assumptions gives an approximate travel date of June 1869. John Rodgers, his wife, children, and stepchildren had been residing in the township of South Shenango, not far from the city of Meadville. They could have caught a train at Meadville and made connections where necessary, bringing them well into eastern Kansas. Fort Scott is in Bourbon county, on the eastern border of the state, but far to the south. Tracks did not reach Fort Scott itself until December of that year, but the family could have taken the train to within a couple dozen miles of their destination, depending on the actual travel date. From there, they might have crowded into a stagecoach or purchased a wagon for the rest of the trip.

Where they lodged when they first arrived in the Fort Scott area is unknown. Perhaps they had friends in town with whom they could stay until they were able to build a house, or perhaps they stayed in a hotel or camped out. The only solid information is that John Rodgers purchased 40 acres to the west of town on 20 July 1869, and it is doubtful that they stayed there from the day of their arrival. One expects that John would have done a little looking around before he decided which land to buy. Additionally, the land office was in Humboldt, Kansas, a distance of about 40 miles, a distance which had not yet been shortened by train. It seems probable that John would have chosen his property before making the trip to the land office, a trip that would require at least a day’s ride if he went on horseback, and then another day to return.

Fort Scott was, at this time, a thriving and growing city. After the railroad arrived, the city would vie for years against Kansas City as the largest railroad center west of the Mississippi. But the railroad brought problems, as well. As the line pressed southward from town, it met with resistance from squatters who considered the land theirs. Legally the land, formerly known as the Cherokee Neutral Lands, and later sold by the Cherokee Nation to the Federal Government, had been bought up by the railroad. But squatters had been settling there even before the Cherokee Nation gave up its title in 1866. They did not want to lose the land they had already been working for a few years, and they saw the railroad’s coming as a threat to their own rights. As early as May of 1869, months before actual rails would arrive, they began assaults on the survey crews and graders who worked in advance of the track layers.

The troubles became so serious that the military brought in troops to protect the railroad workers. This infuriated the squatters, who had originally requested troops for their own protection and found it outrageous that a nation would take up arms against her own citizens in order to protect her commercial interests, but it did help to keep the violence down.

It is not known on which side the sentiments of the Rodgers family lay, but it is certain that they were present during this period of high tension. The entire family appears in Mill Creek Township, adjoining Fort Scott, in the 1870 U.S. census, enumerated 17 June of that year. John Rodgers, his real estate valued at $9,000 and his personal estate at $500, is the head of the household and a farmer. His wife (relationships are not recorded on this census, but we know the relationships of those in this family from other sources) Margaret’s occupation is identified as “Housekeeper,” and her place of birth is a ditto to her husband’s “Ireland.” Perhaps she really was Irish, or perhaps it is an assumption on the part of the informant. The next two lines give weight to the notion that the informant was not in possession of all the facts. They are the lines recording the children from Margaret’s previous marriage, John and Rebecca Brosius, however this census makes no mention of their alternate last name and includes them under the “Rodgers” umbrella. It is unlikely they were actually going by the name of Rodgers as this is the only document found which identifies them as such. It does manage to place their births in Pennsylvania, though. The other two children, Elizabeth and James, really are Rodgerses as recorded, but their birth places are identified as Kansas when research shows that they were likely born in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, as well.

Despite the purchase of the 40 acres outside Fort Scott, the family did not remain in Bourbon county for long. By 1873, and perhaps even sooner, they had moved to Howard county.

(Continues with  “Brosius family in Howard county, Kansas, 1873ish-1875.”)

 

Selected Sources:

1870 U.S. Federal Census, Schedule 1, Kansas, Bourbon County, Mill Creek Township, page 12, dwelling 88, family 88, lines 4-9, John Rodgers household. Digital images, Ancestry. Accessed 18 May 2011.

Bureau of Land Management. Accession Nr: KS1230__.411; “Land Patents,” database and images, General Land Office Records (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov : accessed 18 Dec 2013).

“Historical Events for Year 1869.” HistoryOrb. Web. Accessed 25 Jan 2014. 

“Soldier vs.Settler.” Fort Scott National Historic Site Kansas. National Park Service, Web. Accessed 25 Jan 2014.

Springirth, Ken. “Erie Railroad's Historic Journey.” The Meadville Tribune 5 Nov 2012: Web. Accessed 25 Jan 2014.

“Marriages.” Unknown newspaper article May 1869: unknown page. Print. Xerox copy sent to the author by Gloria Brosius, along with family group sheets recording the marriage date and place.

The WADEs in 1820

I have already written at length on my search to find the father of my 3g-grandfather Joseph WADE. In my post “The Hunt for Joseph WADE” I went back in census records as far as 1840. In this post I will skip backwards past 1830 and focus on the 1820 census. (As of yet I have been unable to locate them in 1830; I think they may have been among the early settlers in Indiana and been missed by the census.)

Josiah WADE, likely my 4g-grandfather, before settling in Jay County, Indiana, was one of the early settlers of Ohio. He signed with Nathaniel MASSIE’s party in 1790, and became one of the original pioneers of what would later become Adams County (Evans 52). Information about this venture is readily available in various places on the internet. I will explore the subject in more depth in another post at a future date. I mention it mainly to establish some basic background on the WADEs that will be featured in this post.

John WADE

We are looking specifically at two pages of the census of Fayette County, Ohio: pages 27 and 28, which cover most of the area known as Jackson. The last page, 29, of the area contains no WADE households. On page 27 we find three WADE households, which are clustered together on three consecutive lines. First is the household of John WADE, who is as yet unidentified in my WADE tree. The makeup of his household is:

1 M 0-10

1 M 16-26 = John

1 F 0-10

1 F 16-26 = probably John’s wife

Josiah WADE had a brother named John, but this John is far too young to be him. As you can see, this John is between the ages of 16 and 26, whereas Josiah’s brother would be about 40, if he were alive. One online tree reports that John died at the age of 18 and was buried with his parents (Stuart). Perhaps the John in this census is a son or a nephew of Josiah.

Edmund WADE

Moving on to the next household, we find an Edmund WADE. This Edmund probably is Josiah’s brother. He did have a brother Edmond, and the age bracket is right. According to the Pottenger Family Tree on Rootsweb, which appears to be fairly well researched, Josiah’s brother Edmond was born in 1767, which would make him about 53 at the time of this census. “Edmond raised his half-brother Jackson by his father’s second wife, Mary Campbell,” notes the Pottenger Family Tree, and further gives Jackson’s birth date as 1815, so we can tentatively identify him in this household (Pottenger). It is only tentative as we do not have a date of death for either of Jackson’s parents, which might give us an approximate date of his moving in with Edmond. We also do not have dates for Edmond’s wife Lucinda, nor do we have names or dates for any of their children, so I identify little farther within his household, which in this record is comprised of:

1 M 0-10 = Jackson (1815)?

2 M 16-26

1 M 26-45

1 M 45+ = Edmund (1767)

1 F 10-16

1 F 26-45 = Lucinda?

Joseph WADE

The third WADE on page 27 is a Joseph WADE, who could quite possibly be my 3g-grandfather. He and his wife are both the right ages, and they have a daughter of the right age bracket to possibly be the Susan who is suspected to be a sister of my 2g-grandfather Allen C. WADE. There is also an unexpected son:

1 M 0-10

1 M 16-26 = Joseph (1797)

1 F 0-10 = Susan (1820)

1 F 16-26 = Mary (1796)

I have never heard of another son in this family, but given the parents’ ages—23 and 24—it is certainly possible that they had an earlier child. Their marriage date is unknown, so there may even have been other unknown children.

The proximity of this Joseph WADE to the other WADEs on this census (I must judge solely by the census record, having been so far unable to find any land records) suggests the possibility that he is the son not of Josiah WADE but of his brother Edmond. Either way, though, he is still the grandson of their father, William Zethonia WADE, and I can continue my research upon that assumption.

Of course, there is always the possibility that this is not my Joseph WADE at all but rather one of his cousins.

Josiah WADE

Having completed our investigation into the WADE households on page 27, we now move on to page 28. There are two WADE households on this page, separated by only one line. Between Josiah WADE and a second Joseph WADE is a James McCOY. Although that surname does not appear anywhere in the WADE genealogies I have accessed, I wonder if he may have been an in-law of some sort.

Josiah WADE’s household is made up of him, a woman between the ages of 26 and 45 who may have been his wife, five younger females, and four younger males. Two of the males can be identified easily, but the other two leave a few possibilities. For now I will leave that section devoid of names:

2 M 0-10 = Jefferson (1812), William Harrison (1818)

2 M 16-26

1 M 45+ = Josiah (1765)

4 F 0-10

1 F 10-16

1 F 26-45 = Josiah’s wife?

As for those two mystery males, one of them may be that Robert WADE who appeared in the 1840 census of Jay County, Indiana. Under that assumption, given his age range here and his age range of 30-39 in 1840, we can calculate his birth date to be between 1801 and 1804.

The other mystery male may in fact be my 3g-grandfather Joseph. Perhaps he was not yet married to Mary, as no female of her age appears in the household. Or perhaps she was older than my information has led me to believe and she is the female between 26 and 45, not Josiah’s wife. In that case, one of those females between 0 and 10 may be Susan. Of course there is always the possibility that Susan was not one of their children.

Joseph WADE (Sr.)

I have identified this Joseph WADE as “Sr.” in the heading, though he is not identified as such in the document, merely to differentiate him from the other Joseph WADE (or Joseph WADEs). The title is not meant to imply any parental relationship with another Joseph.

He was almost certainly the brother of Josiah WADE, and all the members of his household can be easily identified with the aid of a certain posting on GenForum:

2 M 0-10 = Edmund (1814), James B. (1814)

2 M 10-16 = John (1808), William (1810)

1 M 45+ = Joseph (1776)

2 F 0-10 = Lydia (1812), Elizabeth Jane (1819)

2 F 10-16 = Marella (1804), Mary (1806)

1 F 16-26 = Abbie (1802)

1 F 26-45 = Mary (1782)

Edmund and James B.’s birth dates as given on the posting, 4 June 1814 and 4 Oct 1814, do not make logical sense, but I am not going to investigate that discrepancy at this time (Moore). Instead, I will assume that it is merely a slight typographical error, but that they would still both fall into this age bracket.

Sources:

Evans, Nelson Wiley, and Emmons B. Stivers. “Massie’s Settlement at Manchester.” A History of Adams County, Ohio: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Including Character Sketches of the Prominent Persons Identified with the First Century of the Country’s Growth. West Union, Ohio: E B. Stivers, 1900. 51-53. Google Books. 24 Jan 2008. Web. Accessed 28 Sept 2013. Original from Harvard University.

Moore, Dennis. “Re: Zephaniah Wade/Adams Cty, OH Connection.” Wade Family Genealogy Forum. GenForum, Presented by Genealogy.com, 19 May 2002. Web. Accessed 29 Sept 2013.

Pottenger, Thomas. “Pottenger Family Tree Inc. Amon,Trochelman, Copas and More.” RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project. Ancestry, 7 Aug 2013. Web. Accessed 28 Sept 2013.

Stuart, Gary Lee. “Information about John Wade.” The Gary L. Stuart of Ariel WA Home Page. Ancestry, 2009. Web. Accessed 28 Sept 2013.