Week #12 Theme is Membership

John McCool's Church Membership I have collected much information about my husband's, Great Grandfather, John McCool. As we followed the timeline of his family, we find the church as a constant in his life. John was the grandson of Irish immigrants, John Calvin McCool and Mary Cunningham, who arrived in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. Their first association with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Deer Creek in that county, was about 1811. The minister of that congregation, James McConnell, was also an Irish immigrant. They may have come to America from the same part of Northern Ireland. The following are some quotes from various essays I've found about that congregation. In 1802, Robert Porter and others organized the Deer Creek Associate Reformed Church and began the long tradition of service to our Lord Jesus Christ. In the early 1800s, services were held outside or in homes . People came from miles around to worship at the open-air pulpit, sitting on logs or on the ground, with worship services often lasting all day. In 1811, the Rev. James McConnell, fresh from Ireland, was called as the first pastor. During Rev. McConnell's tenure, a log church was built in 1817. The first brick structure was erected in the middle of the cemetery in 1834. Two sons of the immigrant, John Calvin McCool, were James Robert and William. They were members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. James R. and his family followed brother, William, to Iowa. The towns of Le Claire and Princeton were on the Mississippi, just above Davenport, Iowa, ferryboat ride from Rockport, IL. The following is quoted from the church history in Le Claire, Iowa. “When the pioneers came to this area, family and friends tended to travel together and settle near each other. So it was in 1840's a little band of Associate Reformed Church members left their homes at Deer Creek, near Butler, PA., and arrived in Berlin, now a part of Le Claire, Iowa. {We believe their route was on a steamboat on the Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers.} They homesteaded on the open prairie west of Le Claire near what we know as Argo. The first church services were in the log cabins of James McConnell, about 1 3/4 miles straight east of our present church. They later met in other cabins and the Parkhurst and Campbell schoolhouses in Le Claire township. They brought their own benches for sitting through the long services, because you see, there were 12 adults and all their children and that would tax any cabin. The meetings were called "The Society" and were held on the Sabbath Day. The services consisted of singing a Psalm (no musical instruments were permitted in the church until 1906), reading God's word, and prayers. These services were very lengthy. After the Psalm’s explanation, there was a sermon, then a thirty-minute intermission and another service containing a sermon. If any member left during intermission, they were classified as "lukewarm Christians". The Sabbath ended by the study of the catechism in their homes.” In 1849 James McConnell built a new barn where on May 21, 1849, nine adults met and were formally organized as an Associated Reformed Congregation under the Presbyterian Church. These members were William Jamison and his wife Martha, their daughter Martha Ann Jamison, James McConnell and his wife Mary, William McCool and his wife Lydia, William Stark and his wife Sarah. On May 26, 1849, three members were added: Andrew Jackson Jamison, his wife Elizabeth, and his brother John Jamison. These comprised the 12 charter members." Eloise Kiedrich, 2001 Most of the above named members were related in some way and had traveled together from Pennsylvania. Some may have come together all the way from Ireland. Gerry's Gt Grandfather, John McCool, son of James R., was born in Pennsylvania in 1843, and would have been a small child when the group traveled west. He grew up as an active member of the church described above. In 1861 he and many young men of that congregation joined the Union Army, and were involved in major battles, mainly in Tennessee and Mississippi. He returned home in 1864 and volunteered to "run the mail" to the areas near Deadwood, South Dakota... a dangerous area. But by 1868, he came back to Iowa and married Anna Rosalie Powell. At that time the railroad had been opened to Nebraska and land was there to claim. So by 1872, the McCools and several other church families traveled together to the area near Kearney and claimed their homesteads. The first official church organized in the area of Cedar Township, Nebraska, was the United Presbyterian. It was organized in John McCool's sod house by Rev. David Inches of North Bend, Neb., on December 20, 1882. The charter members were: John McCool, Mrs. Rose Ann McCool, James E. Miller, Mrs. Ann J. Miller and George W. Duncan." - Buffalo County History Book (Photo below is a sod house in Nebraska, not that of John McCool.) The concept of membership was the "glue" that caused these believers to bond together even as they crossed the new country at least twice (possibly even from the homeland in Ireland.) Membership in the body of Christ. Membership of an extended family. Membership in a traveling group. And Membership as citizens of a new land.

Week #7 Theme is "Outcast"

Although our family tree doesn't show anyone who was shunned or cast out. We have several cases where a parent disapproved of a child’s choice of a mate. We also have a few cases where a child left the home on his own due to a dispute. Every family probably has these stories. I’ll just mention a few here. Charlotte Clark of Kent, England was daughter of a man of military position. John Clark was Steward of Royal Ordnance Hospital, in Woolwich. When Charlotte was in her early 20s, in 1836, she married William Terry, a wheelwright / carriage maker. He was also from Kent, but further east near Dover. I always wondered how they met, as their classes would not have associated (think of Jane Austen novels of the era.) They went to live in Deal, and later sold their carriage making business and migrated to America in 1848. An early letter we have found written by Charlotte's daughter, Amelia, says that Charlotte married against her parents' wishes, and was disinherited by her father, for marrying beneath her station. William and Charlotte had 10 children, 7 of whom lived to marry and have children. They were such an adventuresome family, with descendants pursuing education and business ventures all across our country. We have met (in person and online) cousins from each of those family lines, and are thankful that Charlotte met and married William, our Great Great Grandparents. In my husband's family, we have Rose Marguerite McCool, Gerry's grandmother. Her mother, Anna Roselee Powell McCool, had died in 1893, when Rose was only 14. The next year, her father, John, married a second wife. The older children had left home, but there were 5 children under 10 in the family. Story has it that Rose did not get along with her step mother. She probably had to help keep house and be a nanny to the babies. After about a year, Rose met Jordon Burris, a southerner who worked on the railroad, which didn't set well with her father, a staunch Union veteran. John was also a very strict Presbyterian, and Jordon may not have lived up to the standards John had set for his daughters. After their marriage, Rose was estranged from her father for 30 years, although she remained close to all her siblings who had scattered through several western states. She was able to see him again before his death in 1933. A sad story that is repeated in too many families. But as I am writing this on Valentine's Day, I think that both the young women above married for love, and their marriages stood the test of time.

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week #22 Theme - Conflict

My husband is a history buff.  While I research the history of both our families, he catches me up on what was happening in those years and locations.  Often we then take trips to the areas where family lived and learn more about them at history centers and libraries.  When we traveled through Alabama and Mississippi, we found that his paternal 3Gt. Grandfather, John Oliver Davis, a merchant from Tallapoosa Co, Alabama, had fought with the 37th Infantry at the second Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, Oct. 3-4 1862.  He had been elected First Lieutenant following the organization of the 37th Regiment, but had been promoted to Captain in the ensuing months.  At the 2nd Battle of Corinth, Captain Davis, age 40,  was wounded, seriously enough that he returned home and then resigned from service.  His daughter, Martha Lavonia (Vonie) Davis married Alonzo C. Bosworth, a young Confederate soldier,  who came home from the war after battles in Virginia and at Gettysburg. He was a sergeant with Company D of the Alabama 14th Infantry.  I will write more about this couple in the future.

Meanwhile in service to the Union was another of Gerry's ancestors, Gt Grandfather John McCool, born in Pennsylvania. His family had migrated to the frontier of Iowa, where John signed on as a private, with the Iowa Second Infantry, Co. B of Scott County.  McCool's regiment fought  alongside about 50,000 men under General U.S. Grant at Ft. Donelson, on the Cumberland River,  not far from Nashville, TN. The victory made Grant a national hero, and allowed the Union to push deeper into the heart of the Confederacy.  The 2nd Iowa was then involved at Shiloh (Pittsburgh Landing) and advanced on to the town of Corinth, Mississippi. Two railroads intersected in the downtown of Corinth... the Memphis / Charleston Railroad, running east and west, and the Mobile / Ohio Railroad, running north and south. These were necessary for moving supplies and had been under control of the Confederacy.  A Union victory there assured that the North could use Corinth and her railroads in relative safety for much of the remainder of the war.  However, there were thousands of dead and wounded on each side.   

I have found a map which shows the locations of regiments from both armies.  Within a few blocks of each other, in downtown Corinth, were McCool's 2nd Iowa Regiment of the Union, and Captain John O. Davis' 37th Alabama Regiment of the Confederacy. Blue is Union, Red is Confederate. I have marked these two in gold.   These men didn't hate each other, but they loved their homes and families, and stood to defend them.  Generations later, after the conflict of that battle was forgotten by descendants, the men are remembered as showing courage and loyalty, each to his own cause.