Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary to my wonderful husband!

Matrilineal Monday - Frances Wall

Frances Wall is a 3rd great grandmother on my maternal side. I know quite a bit about her and her family thanks to my great aunt Bruna and her book: Pioneer Families.

Frances was born February 15, 1842 near Morton in Ray County, Missouri. She was the third of 15 children born to Wade Wall and Luvicia Pritchard. I have seen varying accounts of the number and names of their children. The following list comes from Larry James' book The Pritchard and Wall Families of Ray County, Missouri.

That is a lot of children and all but two lived to adulthood. Frances must have spent a lot of time babysitting. Frances, sometimes listed as Franny, was born and raised in Ray County and lived her entire life there. She married Samuel Oscar McGuire on December 22, 1871.

Samuel and Frances had four children, three living until adulthood. I have to wonder if having 14 siblings made Frances want to keep her own family small.

Samuel was a farmer and Frances was a housewife. She was very involved in the Methodist church and was in several church clubs. She lived in the country near Morton, Missouri until her later years when she moved to Hardin, Missouri.

Frances died in Hardin, Missouri on November 3, 1931 and is buried with her husband in Lavelock Cemetery, just north of Hardin.

Based on the above information, I have the following due-outs for Frances:

1. Try to definitively list her siblings.

2. Find an obituary.

Sources:

• McGuire, Bruna. Pioneer Families: McGuire, Berry, Hughes. Hardin, Mo. 1954.
• James, Larry. The Pritchard and Wall Families of Ray County, Missouri. The Mid-Continent Public Library, Neosho, Mo. 1984.
• Ancestry.com. Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002 [database on-line]. Samuel McGuire and Frances Wall marriage record, December 22, 1871. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Missouri Marriage Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives. Microfilm.

This post is part of my on-going goal of 2013 to research each of my 32 3rd great-grandparents more in-depth. Frances is #30 on my list.

Surname Saturday - Samuel Oscar McGuire

Samuel Oscar McGuire, often called S. O., is a 3rd great grandparent on my maternal side. I'm blessed to know quite a bit about Samuel, thanks in most part to my great aunt Bruna McGuire. She was Samuel's daughter, a family historian and a journalist who wrote a book about the McGuire clan.


Samuel was born January 22, 1843 in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. He was the second son born to Samuel McGuire and Elizabeth Berry.

Elizabeth Berry was Samuel McGuire's second wife. He had two children with his first wife, Mary Ann Buckley: Francis Ann McGuire (1825-1897) and Mary Jane McGuire (1828-1910). Despite the twenty year difference in ages it appears that Samuel remained close to his two half sisters. I have found no death information about Mary Ann Buckley, but she died sometime prior to Samuel's marriage to Elizabeth in 1837. Samuel McGuire Sr. died in 1847 and Elizabeth remarried Edwin Hawkins a year later. And Edwin was dead by 1850. Elizabeth is not listed with an occupation on the 1850 census so I'm not sure how she was able to care for her boys. It's possible she took in boarders.

By 1860, Eliza and her boys moved to Ray County, Missouri. I have not been able to determine the cause for that migration. Samuel enlisted as a confederate in the Missouri 1st Cavalry on December 17, 1861. He was captured at the Big Black Bridge during the battle of Vicksburg on May 17, 1863 and sent as a prisoner of war to Fort Delaware and then Point Lookout, Maryland. He was released on March 14, 1864 after taking the oath to not return to the Confederate forces. Of course, he did. I was able to find record of him assigned to the 11th Missouri Infantry and it appears he was assigned here until the end of the war, paroled on June 7, 1865 in Alexandria, Louisiana.

The location where S. O. McGuire was captured during the Civil War. (1864) Big Black River, Miss. Battlefield of May 17, 1863. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division. Reproduction Number LC-B8171-1056 DLC (b&w film neg.)

According to a biography written in the History of Ray County, Missouri (1881) after the war Samuel traveled to Nebraska and the Dakotas and engaged in teaming for four years. He was also allegedly in a battle with some Native Americans while in the Dakota territory where several of his companions were killed. I have not been able to verify this.

After much adventure, Samuel returned to Missouri and married Frances Wall December 22, 1870 in Ray County, Missouri. The couple had four children, three surviving to adulthood. Garnett McGuire died in infancy.



Samuel and Frances were farmers and owned land to the east and northeast of Morton, Missouri. They lived in a home they called "Woodland Echo." They spent their entire married life in Ray County, Missouri, living in the country near Morton, Missouri and then moving to the city of Hardin when they got older.

Samuel died January 25, 1910 in Hardin, Missouri. Frances died in 1931 and both are buried in Lavelock Cemetery, just north of Hardin, Missouri in Ray County.

According to his headstone, S. O. McGuire was a mason, but I know nothing of his activities with the organization.
Based on the above, here are my due-outs for Samuel:

1. Try to determine why they moved from Kentucky to Ray County, Missouri.
2. Write a post about his military service.
3. Research his travels through Nebraska and Dakota territory.
4. Research his time as a Freemason.
5. Locate a print version of his obituary.

Sources:

• McGuire, Bruna. Pioneer Families: McGuire, Berry, Hughes. Hardin, Mo. 1954.
• Big Black River, Miss. Battlefield of May 17, 1863. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division. Reproduction Number LC-B8171-1056 DLC (b&w film neg.) 1864.
• History of Ray County, Missouri. Samuel McGuire biography, p. 785. Missouri Historical Company. St. Louis, Mo. 1881
• Ancestry.com. Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002 [database on-line]. Samuel McGuire and Frances Wall marriage, December 22, 1870, Ray County, Missouri. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Missouri Marriage Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives. Microfilm.

This post is part of my on-going goal of 2013 to research each of my 32 3rd great-grandparents more in-depth. Samuel is #29 on my list.

Follow Friday - Favorites for April 26, 2013

Favorites is my weekly list of favorite genealogy, history and random finds from across the Net.

An interesting tax treasure from John at Filiopietism Prism

Lost identities of slaves uncovered in Virginia

The Legal Genealogist discusses the new DPLA and copyright

Two Nerdy History Girls share Kitty from Kansas City

Lost World War II battlefield found

The Horse Soldiers (my parents favorite movie) inspired this blogger to research family

A wonderful tribute at Are My Roots Showing

Janet at Genealogy Addiction admits she is a Genealogy Junkie

Yvette at The Ancestors Have Spoken wonders: What do I do with all this stuff?

An interesting post about a popular Evanston, Illinois photographer

Using Civil War unit histories to fill you research gaps
Woman travels to historic times with the aid of Photoshop
UK man resigns by cake

Thankful Thursday - Daniel D. Lightner, The Abolitionist Part III

Daniel Dinkle Lightner and Polly Seward (sitting). Elvira (Lightner) Hull Allen and her daughter Mary Florence Hull Johnson. Taken 1879. Courtesy Bertha F. Johnson Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.

Over the past few weeks I have shared the adventures of the Lightner family in the 1850s and 1860s as they ran a station on the Underground railroad. I've shared some of the ways they secreted slaves and their close calls. Today, I'll share why Daniel Lightner was so passionate about saving slaves.

According to a story written by Alfaretta Niver as told by her mother Elvira L. (Lightner) Hull Allen, Daniel had every reason to hate the concept of slavery. Elvira, was Daniel's daughter and was also a witness to the family's role in saving slaves. She relates that Daniel's hatred of slavery began when he was only 12 years old in Virginia while visiting his uncle, William Baker. Baker was a plantation owner who had a large number of slaves.

I warn you that the following stories are of a horrific nature and the language used is of that of the original author and may be offensive to some readers.

"Daniel visited a neighboring plantation where the owner was much excited because a black woman had run away after being whipped, leaving her little baby. She was thought to be hiding in a rocky canyon. Her owner went there and called through a speaking trumpet, 'Malinda Flowers, unless you come back to Massa, I will beat your black brat's brains out on this rock in the morning.'"

Sadly, the slave owner carried through with his threat. Daniel was horrified.

"Daniel fell to the ground in a faint. When he came to, he looked up to Heaven and said, 'If I live to be a man, I'll give my life to help free the niggers.'"

Ten years later, William Baker called his slaves together and set them free. Some left, but many wanted to stay and Baker divided his land and hired the now free persons to work it. This infuriated the local populous and they began to threaten Baker, burned down his property and tried to frighten the African Americans any way they could. Sadly, the angry mob came and took two former slave boys named John and Edward, that Baker had adopted and educated as if they were his own children. The boys were murdered and Baker was forced to watch. According to Elvira's tale, he died from the shock.

I have yet to prove the above accounts. Unfortunately, William Baker is a very common name and to date I do not know where in Virginia he had a plantation. However, it is no stretch of the imagination to think that there could be some truth in these stories.

These horrible events clearly made an impact on Daniel Lightner. He was willing to risk the lives of himself and his family to support a cause he dearly believed in. Elvira best sums up the reason behind their drive in her own words.

"You ask how we felt while going through such scenes. I presume we felt much as people have always felt, who risked life, liberty, health, property and friends for a cause that was unpopular. There seemed to be a sanctity about it. I can remember hearing father and mother say, "God has called us to this work and he shant find us shirking."

Source:

The photo and letter excerpts featured here are courtesy The Bertha F. Johnson Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.

Wordless Wednesday - Home Sweet Home

My mother with me and my brother in front of our home in Kansas City, Missouri, circa 1977.

Tuesday's Tip - Make reading your blog easy...Link Back!

Last week I came across a great post on one of my favorite blogs (name withheld to protect anonymity!). The post was the second part of a three part series, and I wanted to read the series from the beginning, but I couldn't find the link. I had to go back to the home page and conduct a search to find the first installment. I was really interested in the story, so I was willing to do the work, but if I wasn't I would have moved on and left the blog.

Bloggers must make reading our blog easy! It's a rule of thumb that blog posts must stay fairly short to maintain the interest of the reader (I like to stay less than 500 words...or try to). Most folks have enough reading to do for work or school that in their free time they prefer small snippets. As the storytellers it is important for us to not only break up the story, but to set up our blogs so that our readers can find the different parts. Hence the need for the wonderful link back.

Note in my example above, that I included the idea that there was a part I to my story in the very first sentence and I created a link back to the first installment. Once I publish the third installment I will create a link back on all pages that relate to the story so my readers can easily locate each part. I have seen other bloggers create a list of the installments at the very beginning of their post.

Adding links back to previous or related posts is such a simple concept, but it is one that can easily be forgotten. Take a moment to do it and make reading your blog easy for your readers!