52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 8 theme - Courting

SHE SUED HER MOTHER AND LOST...

Court Case - Anna Rosalie Powell McCool vs. Martha Bowley et al

In 1875, Gerry's great grandmother, Rose, a 22 year old wife and mother of 4 (and expecting a fifth),  evidently tried to take claim of what she felt was her rightful inheritance.  We find the following articles in the Davenport Iowa Gazette of Dec. 4, 1875. 

“The trial of the case entitled Anna R. McCool vs. Martha Bowley and Simeon Bowley commenced this afternoon. The case has some interesting features as well as  singular ones.  According to the position of the plaintiff, it appears that she is the daughter of one Joseph Powell, a resident of Cleveland Ohio, who died in 1854, leaving a widow, two daughters and two sons as sole heirs at law. At the time of his death, Powell was in possession of $1,500 in gold and some other property, the value of which is not stated, as no administration was ever laid upon the estate. The widow immediately took possession of the gold and in 1855 married Simeon Bowley;  and in the same year, Mr. and Mrs. Bowley purchased 80 acres of land in Princeton Township, in this county, with part of the $1500 in gold, expended the balance in improving the property and have been in possession of it ever since.  The petition states that she has been reared from childhood without expense to the defendants that she has been married and that her brothers and sister have attained their majority and claim that the Bowleys have simply held the property purchased with the $1,500 in trust for herself and fellow heirs , that she is justly entitled to one fourth part of it, together with a fourth of rents and profits thereof during each year of occupation by the defendants, that the real estate is reasonably worth $4,000, that the rents and profits amount to a large sum, the amount of which she is unable to state; but at any rate, she asks the court that the defendants may be decreed to account to her for  the one fourth she claims, and for such other relief as the court may deem just, and the costs of suit.  The defendants deny that they ever got $1,500 that belonged to Joseph Powell, that they never expended any sum that belonged to said Powell for the property they now own, and declare they have nothing to which the plaintiff can legally lay claim.   D.B. Nash is the attorney for plaintiff and Davison and Lane for the defendants.  The testimony is all by deposition. The case will be submitted this fore noon, probably.” 

 

Davenport Gazette (Davenport, Iowa) December 6, 1875

“District Court - The case of Anna R. McCool vs. Martha Bowley, et al, the chief points of which were stated in Saturday's Gazette was submitted to the court Saturday forenoon.  The court found that the plaintiff is not entitled to the relief prayed and judgment was rendered against the plaintiff for costs.”

 

My notes:   As Rose was expecting her  fifth child in one month from the above case date, I’m sure she couldn’t travel to Iowa from their homestead in Nebraska to plead the case, and we will never know if the charges were true.  The Bowleys had two children together,  who would be half siblings to Rose Anna.   We don’t know if she ever kept in contact with them, or with her own siblings. The name of Simeon Bowley appears on 1886 Princeton Directory as Trustee of the town of Princeton. His son, Joseph (half brother of Rose),  later held offices in farming organizations in Scott County, Iowa.   Anna Rosalie had become mother of eleven children and died at age 39 in 1892.  

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.  Week #7 Theme - LANDED. 

In 1848, my Gt Gt Grandparents, William Terry and wife, Charlotte Ann Clark Terry, sold their wagon and carriage shop in Deal, County of Kent, England. They set out for the United States, with their 7 children. Family letters say that Charlotte’s marriage to a “tradesman” was frowned upon by her father who was superintendent of the Royal Navy Hospital.  She may have even been disowned.  

The  ship they took was the American Eagle.  It was an American sailing ship that traveled between New York and London from 1846 to 1867, during which period her westbound passages averaged 35 days, her shortest passage being 22 days, her longest 57. 

They sailed from Liverpool and were out 4 or 5 weeks when the captain feared they had yellow fever or smallpox aboard.   The captain turned back to Liverpool, and they were quarantined until given a clean bill of health by port authorities.  One of the children, Amelia, who was about 8 years old at the time, remembered it was a sailing ship and that the voyage took six weeks. She wrote that she saw a man being buried at sea during the voyage. 

They reached New York in 1849, and went first to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Charlotte was traveling for two… as my great grandmother Elizabeth (Lizzie) Terry was born when they reached the town of Milwaukee. William was again in the carriage making business, and they lived next to a livery stable. 

Later they farmed in Illinois, where William and three Terry children died. The widowed Charlotte followed family members to Kansas and then on to Oregon.

In  Kansas, our Lizzie married Samuel Griffin, who had fought as a Union Soldier in the Civil War. In 1891, after Samuel Griffin died, Lizzie and her six children, ages 3 to 17, moved from Kansas to Oklahoma Territory, where she homesteaded a quarter section of land.

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week #5 Theme - BRANCHING OUT, which could include branches going up or down.

Over the years we have tracked Gerry's elusive Burris/ Burrows ancestors. Through census records and some old letters we found his 2 Gt. Grandfather, Josiah Burrows (Burris, Burroughs, etc.) who was born in Tennessee 1825, and lived in Arkansas, and Missouri. He died in 1889 having been married at least 4 times and fathering 23 children. So Josiah could fulfill the theme of Branching Out, right there.

But, after Gerry had received DNA results on Ancestry, we found that many of his DNA "cousin matches" descended from one Anthony Burrows/ Burroughs who lived in Tennessee in the early 1800s. Not proving the father of Josiah, we could still track his ancestry to this Anthony by DNA. Anthony's will of 1822, Franklin County TN, has given us the information that his land was called Pear Place at the headwaters of the Elk River. With all the geographic info, we could locate this land two hundred years later. As we planned our trip and corresponded with a local gentleman, we were told of a spring which produced a pool called the Blue Hole at the headwaters of the Elk River. And what is the land still called? Burrows Cove. Accompanying photos show the only Pear Tree we could find in Burrows Cove and the beautiful Blue Hole.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks:  FAVORITE FINDS  

 I was born in Texas, raised in Oklahoma, and now live in GA. We discovered that our Griffin family roots reached back to West Virginia. Through land records and legal papers, we discovered that in about 1820, our 3Gt Grandfather, Jonathan Griffin, lived "near the headwaters of Stony Creek" in what became Pocahontas County, WV.   We traveled to West Virginia, one recent summer, and explored the one lane roads up and down Stony Creek (which has stones, but no water in the summer).  Just soaking up the atmosphere where our Jonathan Griffin family may have once lived was a surreal experience. When we stopped to take pictures of an interesting cabin, we found we were blocking a farmer's way. Apologizing, we told him why we were there, "looking for the Griffin land." He said "I live on the Griffin land."     

No Griffins had been there for over 100 years, but it was their (our) land. We were home.  There was more to discover on that trip but I have to say that was one of my favorite finds. 

Nepean Canada 1851 Census

1851 Canada West,   Ontario Province,   Carleton County, Nepean Twp.

McGill, Patrick   age at next bday 70 yrs.,   Farmer,   b.   Ireland,   Roman Catholic  
   "     , Mary     age 37, Farmer, B. Ireland, Roman Catholic  
   ",   John Sullivan, Laborer,   age   15   b.   Nepean
   ",   Bridget Jane, age 7   b. Nepean
   ", Patrick D., age 1 b. Nepean
 pg. 2
States that Patrick McGill (age 70) and Mary McGill ( age 37) were married.  They live in a one story "Log House".   Some others in the area live in "Log Shanty".     
[My note:    Since our gt grandpa Daniel Patrick was born that year, 1851, and listed as Patrick D. McGill,   I am going to accept Patrick McGill the elder as the father of this family.   He would have died in the next 3 - 4 yrs, as Mary and the children migrated to Iowa by 1855.   Many Irish Immigrant families came first to Ontario and to Iowa by 1855.]

Irish in Nepean Area, Canada

I have been reading about the Irish immigrants in that county, where Daniel Patrick McGill was born.   Nepean's first permanent settler came to the area in 1810. However, it was the building of the RIDEAU CANAL that boosted settlement in the township with many coming about 1825.  The first settlers farmed plots that were given them and worked on the lumber drives in the winter.  It was a heavily forested area but also swampy.  Among the many diseases that ravaged workers during the building of the Rideau Canal, three of the worst were dysentery, small pox and malaria.Not only the workers but their families suffered from these diseases. We do not know if one of these illnesses caused the deaths of Patrick and Mary McGill's two baby girls, or Patrick himself.  

 

Irish Roots - Mary McGill

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week 4 - CURIOUS.      For the descendants of Daniel Patrick McGill... an anecdote about his mother, Mary. We know very little about her as he only remembered being held to view her at her funeral when he was four or five.

Mary was born in Ireland and crossed the Atlantic to Canada when she was about 8 yrs. old. The new land was very desolate in the 1820s. Logging and working on a new canal was the work of the men. The Catholic church was the heart of the little community of Nepean, near Ottawa. She married Patrick McGill, a man 30 years her senior, also an Irish immigrant, and bore at least 5 children, losing two little baby girls in infancy. When her husband died in his 70s, the 42 year old mother took her 3 children, ages from 2 to 15, joined a group of pioneers and traveled nearly 1000 miles to the state of Iowa. How did she get the idea to start such an undertaking? Did she travel with a large group?  Relatives?  What means of transportation?  We are curious. 

When she arrived in Iowa City, she may have known that with her poor health she could not raise her children. We have found her will which sees to the care of the children.    The oldest boy, John, at age 15, went to work on a farm even further west, for the family of a prominent farmer (whose daughter he later married.) He became a citizen of the United States. Mary’s daughter, Bridget Jane, and youngest son, Daniel Patrick, were assigned to the guardianship of Daniel Shafer and Amelia Frost Shafer, by the terms of the will of their mother, Mary, in 1856. The Shafers were a childless couple also of pioneer stock. They had been  educated as a civil engineer and a teacher-- a strong Presbyterian family, who saw to the higher education and loving care, as well as the religious training of the children. Through the perseverance and plans for the care of her children, made by Mary McGill, our family’s destiny was changed, as we descend from Mary’s youngest son, Daniel Patrick McGill.