Tuesday, March 27, 2018

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - The Old Homestead

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of March 26, 2018, is The Old Homestead. I thought I’d write about the old plantation for this topic instead, because I’ve always wondered about the exact location of the land that belonged to my maternal 2nd great grandfather Remer Young, and I received some photos of some of  the people Remer owned before the Civil War.

Remer Young owned a plantation in north Lowndes County Georgia in an area called Mineola. According to a post on findagrave.com about the "Old Young Plantation" (author unknown), a portion of the land was originally part of the estate of Francis Rountree. In 1841, Michael Brady Jones bought Lots 36, 56, 82, and 83 in Land District 12 from Rountree’s estate. The following year, in 1842, Jones sold the land to Matthew Young. Young sold these lots plus two others (Lots 36, 56, 57, 81, 82, and 83) to Remer Young in 1857 (see the map below). By 1860, Remer had acquired more land, totaling 6,000 acres: Lots 36, 37, 56, 57, 81, 82, 83, 102, 103, 128, 129, and 149 (see map below). 


I don't have a citation for this map. I saw it at the South Georgia Regional Library in Valdosta laid out on a table in the genealogy room. There's no information on the map or date. I've marked the Remer Young property: yellow for the lots he bought in 1857, red for what he owned as of 1860.

The land includes a slave cemetery, noted in Church and Family Cemeteries in Lowndes County, Georgia 1825-2005 Part 2 as “Northwest of Valdosta: Approximately 1/2 mile northeast of junction of N. Valdosta Road and I-75, on what was formerly the ‘Young Plantation.’ No Markers.” The findagrave posting adds that the cemetery is about 300 yards northeast of the intersection of N. Valdosta Road and I-75 in a stand of trees, but sometime in the 2000s, the trees were cut down and a subdivision established. I wonder what happened to the cemetery?

The 1860 U.S. Slave Schedule for Lowndes County, Georgia, Districts 663 and 1200 (ancestry.com), shows that Remer Young had a total of 88 slaves in 17 “slave houses.” That's about five people per small cabin. The oldest person was 56 years old and the youngest was only two months.

In the winter of 1904 to 1905, my 2nd great aunt, Lawson Young Pendleton, came down to Valdosta from Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, to visit relatives in the Valdosta/Lowndes County area, including her sister Catherine Young Roberts (my maternal great grandmother). (Lawson and Catherine are two of Remer Young’s and Mary Wyche’s children.) Lawson brought three of her daughters, Amena, Constance, and Freda Pendleton. 

The day after Christmas in 1904, Freda and Constance visited the Young plantation in Mineola with their uncle John Young, who owned the property at the time. In Confederate Memoirs, Constance Pendleton (1958) describes the visit to Mineola:
The family house was gone, and the place was not being cultivated, but timber was being cut, and there was a sawmill, a small group of houses, and a commissary or store near the railroad station. The overseer’s old house was a little distance away, and the site of the family house at least a mile beyond…A number of old family servants [slaves], too old to work, were living on the place in small houses here and there, and were permitted to draw rations from the commissary, free of charge.
Constance and Freda met several of the people who had been owned by their grandfather, Remer Young: Judy, Easter Johnson, Mose (former foreman of the plantation), Emily Johnson (former dairy maid), William (Wilts) Johnson (Remer’s former body servant), and Nancy (who ran off to the circus after the Civil War but returned). 

Near the end of 2016, my Pendleton/Young cousins from Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, Erik Odhner and Alan Pendleton, began the laborious task of scanning old family photographs. These included some of the former Young plantation slaves taken during the 1904/1905 trip to Valdosta: 


Judy

Easter Johnson


Mose, Emily Johnson, and William (Wilts) Johnson

"Mineola hands" (former slaves)

I'm grateful to my Bryn Athyn Pendleton/Young cousins Erik and Alan for scanning and sharing these photographs (among others) and to Constance for writing about her visit to the former Young plantation. As much as I love maps, seeing photographs and reading written accounts bring the past to life, however painful. 

Catherine

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References:

Clifton, Geraldine McLeod and Dorothy Peterson Neisen, Church and Family Cemeteries in Lowndes County, Georgia 1825-2005 Part 2. Reprinted 2007 by Genealogy Unlimited Society, Inc., Valdosta, Georgia. 


Constance Pendleton, ed., Confederate Memoirs: Early Life and Family History, William Frederic Pendleton and Mary Lawson Young Pendleton. (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, 1958)

Friday, March 23, 2018

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Misfortune

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of March 19, 2018, is Misfortune.

As soon as I saw the prompt for this week, I knew who I wanted to write about--my maternal 9th great grandparents William Shattuck and Hannah (maiden name unknown). (They are on my mother's paternal Redles line.) I've been planning for a while to write a blog post about the religious persecution they experienced because they were Quakers in a country where people supposedly had religious freedom.

Two years ago, while researching one of my other maternal ancestors, I stumbled across an interesting story about William Shattuck of Boston (not to be confused with William Shattuck of Watertown). (I no longer remember where I first saw it, but I give my references below.) William was born in England sometime around the late 1610s or early 1620s and came to America about 1650. He was a shoemaker in Boston. In 1654, he married Hannah, and they had three daughters: Hannah (b. 1654), Exercise (b. 1656, my 8th great grandmother), and Elizabeth (b. 1658). 

In 1658, William was persecuted for being a Quaker and was imprisoned, whipped, and banished from Boston. Lemuel Shattuck, in Memorials of the Descendants of William Shattuck [William of Watertown], quotes an account by Joseph Besse (from Collections of the Sufferings of Quakers) about my William Shattuck of Boston (I've paraphrased some parts below):

Because William of Boston was “found on the first day of the week at home in the time of public worship,” he was sent to jail where he was whipped and put at hard labor. In the meantime, while he was in prison, Hannah and the children were suffering from want. Deputy Governor Bellingham was “appropriating the proceeds of [William’s] labors to himself.” 

Bellingham had “terrified” Hannah with “threats of keeping [William] still in prison, because he was poor and not able to pay the fine of 5 shillings for his weekly absence from their places of public worship.” Bellingham tried to cause William and Hannah to separate by sending William away without her, with the promise that she and the children would be cared for. But Hannah “spurned and detested” this “proposition.” Eventually, William was released and given three days to leave Boston. 

William and his family went to Rhode Island and then to New Jersey where they lived in Shrewsbury in Monmouth County. In 1675, he was elected to the Shrewsbury assembly, but since he wouldn’t swear an oath, he didn’t serve. The family seems to have prospered after their banishment from Boston.

Philip Shaddock notes on his Shattuck family history website some information about William of Boston found in a family history dated 1905 by Mary Elizabeth Sinnott, titled Annals of the Sinnott, Rogers, Coffin, Corlies, Reeves, Bodine and Allied Families (the Corlies are also my ancestors). Sinnott wrote that William came to Massachusetts in 1650 and became a Quaker in 1658, after which he was cruelly persecuted. He was one of the first buyers of land in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and may have been one of the founders of the Shrewsbury Meeting of Friends. He was still living in 1693, as he witnessed a marriage on September 28 that year. Below are the birth dates and marriages of William and Hannah’s children from Sinnott’s book:
Hannah, born in Boston 8 July 1654, married Restore Lippincott
Exercise born in Boston 12 November 1656, married George Corlies (my 8th great grandparents)
Elizabeth (no birth date given), married Jacob Coale
Sinnott provides a copy of William’s signature in her book, which shows that he spelled his surname “Shattock.”

William Shattuck of Boston's signature from Annals of the Sinnott, Rogers, Coffin, Corlies, Reeves, Bodine and Allied Families by Mary Elizabeth Sinnott

Philip Shaddock speculates that since William could sign his name, he must have attended school as a boy. He notes that William may have been from Stogumber, Sumerset, England, and that there were three William Shattucks born there in the years 1616, 1621, and 1623. One of these could be my William (A huge "thank you" to Philip Shaddock for posting this information online! See his well-written and well-researched website "William Shattuck of Boston/New Jersey.")


I've labeled this Google map with the location of Stogumber, Sumerset, England, where William Shattuck of Boston may have lived before immigrating to America

I wish it was always this easy to find information about all of one’s ancestors in books and websites! 

You know how you start down these genealogy rabbit holes—"way leads on to way"—and you forget what you were looking for to start with? I wish I’d written a blog post when I first ran across this story about William, but I kept putting it off because I wasn’t yet willing to spend the time to compile the information. (Writing a genealogy blog post feels like writing a research paper.) I always felt like I should be doing other “more important” things besides genealogy. I'm glad I've joined the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks blog challenge for 2018! It has me writing and researching again.

Catherine

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References (I've made up my own style format below from memory to save time in looking up and figuring out the proper style for genealogy.):

Shaddock, Philip, "William Shattuck of Boston/New Jersey." Electronic document, www.shaddock.ca, accessed March 22, 2018. (I originally found this website in 2016 but looked it up again in 2018 to check the links.)

Shattuck, Lemuel, Memorials of the Descendants of William Shattuck, the Progenitor of the Families in America That Have Borne His Name. 1855, Dutton Wentworth, Boston.  Electronic document, https.archive.orgaccessed March 23, 2018. Pages 366-367. (I originally found this in Google books in 2016 but downloaded a complete copy from archive.org in 2018).

Sinnott, Mary Elizabeth, Annals of the Sinnott, Rogers, Coffin, Corlies, Reeves, Bodine and Allied Families. 1905. Printed for private circulation by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. Page 187. Electronic document, https.archive.org, accessed March 22, 2018.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Lucky

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of March 12, 2018, is Lucky. 

I racked my brain for something to write about for this prompt. I searched through my family tree. I looked up a few more ancestors, but I just couldn't come up with anything. Then my luck changed!

I consider myself very lucky that my dad, Albert S. Pendleton, Jr., loved history and family history, and he loved to write. He wrote the newsletter for the Lowndes County Historical Society for several decades and wrote a weekly column for The Valdosta Daily Times called “Way Back When.” These publications mostly centered on people from, and happenings in, Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia. (He was also good at staying in touch with cousins, both near and far.) He even wrote an article about my adventure at an archaeological field school in the Pribilof Islands in Alaska 

When I began cleaning up the paper explosion in my dad’s office after he died in 2006, I filed as many of his papers as I had cabinet space for, with a focus on our family history; his research for the articles and newsletters he wrote; and his stories, poems, short stories, and plays. There are still several boxes left of papers that need to be dealt with … one day.

My cousin, Gretchen Keith, contacted me yesterday and asked if my dad had written anything about her second great grandfather, Judge Richard Augustus Peeples. Gretchen and I share Philip Coleman Pendleton and Catharine Tebeau as second great grandparents. Their son, Charles Rittenhouse Pendleton, married Judge Peeples’ daughter Sally. Charles and Sally are Gretchen's great grandparents. 

I was typing a reply to Gretchen this morning when I suddenly remembered the file I’d started for my dad’s “Way Back When” articles. I had simply put the papers in the folder to read “one day.” Well, as luck would have it, because of Gretchen’s inquiry, I finally poked through this file. 


The file folder for my dad's "Way Back When" articles. I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg!

What fun I had going through the folder, reading the article titles (and even reading a few articles)! While I didn’t come across anything about Judge Peeples, I did find a write-up that my dad wrote in 1996 about Judge Peeples' daughter-in-law, Maude Jenkins Peeples. (Maude was the wife of Richard Alexander Peeples).

I was happy to have an opportunity to do a little genealogy research today, and in the meantime, have a topic drop in my lap for this week's prompt. How lucky!

Catherine

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Strong Woman

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of March 5, 2018, is Strong Woman.

For every female ancestor I considered for this prompt, Strong Woman, I discovered I’d already written about her in previous posts, so I had a hard time coming up with someone unless I went even further back in the generations. And the further back I go, the less information I have and the harder the women are to research. 

Any of my female ancestors who survived long enough to give birth to a healthy child who became my ancestor was a strong woman indeed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. In fact, any woman who survives to adulthood is a Strong Woman, whether she leaves behind children or not. 

So as I perused my family tree and looked up a few ladies, I settled on my maternal 6th great grandmother, Amy Goodwyn/Goodwin, for no other reason than I haven’t written about her before nor have I done any research. As soon as I began researching, I found that she’d been married twice and had children by each husband.

I don’t know if the dates of birth and death that I have for Amy are correct. I don’t even remember where I got them, probably from someone’s family tree on ancestry.com before I knew better than to just copy trees. She may have been born on August 31, 1732. A findagrave memorial says she married my 6th great grandfather, Thomas Mitchell, in 1747 and they had seven children: John, Henry, Thomas Goodwin (my 5th great grandfather), Tabitha, Winifred, James, and Richard. Amy’s first husband, Thomas, died about 1762 or maybe before, as she married her second husband, John Raines, that same year, on October 5, 1762. After marrying John, she gave birth to four more children: Thomas, Robert, Cadwallader, and Amy. 

Amy died February 14, 1773, in Sussex County, Virginia. 

Here’s my descent from Amy:

Amy Goodwyn/Goodwin and Thomas Mitchell (my 6th great grandparents)
Thomas Goodwin Mitchell and Ann Raines (my 5th great grandparents)
Susannah Mitchell and Littleton Wyche (my 4th great grandparents)
Thomas Clark Wyche and Catharine MacIntyre (my 3rd great grandparents)
Mary Barry Wyche and Remer Young (my 2nd great grandparents)
Catherine Young and John T. Roberts (my great grandparents)
Leona Roberts and William Redles (my grandparents)
Leona Redles and Albert Pendleton (my parents)

I also didn't find much online about Amy's first husband Thomas. Maybe one day I'll get back to this research.

Catherine

Monday, March 5, 2018

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Where There's A Will

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of February 26, 2018, is Where There's A Will.

I came across a letter in my dad’s papers from my paternal great grandfather, Alexander Shaw Pendleton, written to his children and executors. The letter is dated August 11, 1923, about a year and a half before he died in 1925 in Valdosta, Georgia. The letter begins with the following:


I have this day signed my will. In addition, I now wish to give you some advise regarding the management of the Estate, and particularly regarding The A. S. Pendleton Company, the policies of which you will probably control.


The next several paragraphs talk about running the company, etc. While that was interesting, what I read in the first paragraph on page 2 of this letter, sent me to the Internet to research:


I want you to see to it that the old negro Benjamin Franklin, who has been with me many years and who was owned by my family before the War, is not allowed to suffer for the necessities of life in his old age. Let him have the house in which he now lives free of charge. This house is owned by The Pendleton Company [sic], but you can arrange that, probably by letting the Company have use of the lot on the home place.
Page 2 of the letter Alexander Pendleton wrote to his children (this paragraph transcribed above)


I wondered if Alexander was saying "give" the house to Benjamin outright or let him live there rent-free, so I began researching online. 

I found a Ben F. Franklin, age 68, in the 1920 census at 203 Fry St. in Valdosta. His wife was Laura Jane, age 45, and their daughter was Bula Mae, age 15. 


Ben F. Franklin at 203 Fry Street, Valdosta, Georgia, in
the 1920 U.S. Census.

I looked up this address in the online Lowndes County Georgia property tax records database. A. R. Pendleton (Alexis Runette, one of Alexender's sons) is listed as grantee. There’s no date noted and no grantor, but the online records give Deed Book/page 3-X 146. Since my great uncle Alexis is listed as grantee on this property, I believe this is the correct Benjamin Franklin in the 1920 census. If the house was given to Benjamin, I wondered if it had reverted back to the Pendleton family for some reason. Maybe Benjamin Franklin had passed away.

There's a death record for a Benjamin Franklin in Valdosta, Georgia, dated November 19, 1928, but I don't know if this is the correct person. He’s not listed in the online Sunset Hill Cemetery database records, so he must be buried elsewhere in the county. Benjamin was still living at least in 1925, as I found him in the Valdosta City Directory (on ancestry.com) for that year at this same address. The notation beside his listing says “h,” which according to http://www.genealogyintime.com/dictionaries/city-directory-abbreviations.html, means “house, householder (owns the house).” But the 1921 and 1923 city directories (on ancestry.com) also say “h.” Benjamin wasn’t the owner at that time, because Alexander was still living. Maybe the “h” means “house” in this instance. I've not found Benjamin in the 1930 census.

I assume when Alexander wrote that Benjamin had been owned by his family, that he was referring to his father, Philip Coleman Pendleton, as the owner. There's an eight-year-old boy listed in the 1860 slave schedule for Philip, which indicates the child was born about 1852, the same year of birth indicated by the 1920 census for Ben F. Franklin (age 68 in 1920). 


The 1860 Ware County Georgia Slave Schedule for Philip Coleman Pendleton. Note the eight-year-old boy. (Click on the image for a larger view.) See Slaves of Philip Coleman Pendleton about my earlier search.

I wanted to go to the Lowndes County courthouse to look up the property records in person before I wrote this blog post, but the opportunity came with the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge to go ahead and publish this information for the week's topic, Where There's A Will. Plus, with being the primary care-giver of my 92-year-old mother, it’s not easy for me to get away so I can research. But one day, I’ll get to the courthouse!

Catherine

P.S. I plan to do a follow-up post about Benjamin F. Franklin as I continue my research about him.