America 250 Part Three: the 1800s

[This is an ongoing Facebook project that I've decided to share here as well,

slightly revised and expanded, with additional photos and links.

Check back for updates through 4 July 2026.]

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, it gives me a chance to share some stories of my family's history and how it intersects with our country's. Once a week until Independence Day, I'll add to this dual timeline.

The Early 1800s A new century! 

Our Nation was growing. In 1803 the Louisiana Purchase doubled our Nation’s size. That same year, Ohio was the first of six additional states admitted to the Union during the century’s first two decades. (We live in Ohio now, moving here from Southern California several years ago, contrary to the traditional American impulse of “Westward, Ho!”)

What else was going on?  I don't know a lot about the War of 1812, but it's got a catchy Overture. I do recall it was another battle with the British, and was the only other time in our history so many of our Nation’s capital’s buildings were razed and defiled….

Some quick Googling reveals the war came out of several ongoing conflicts, including trade restrictions, possibly annexing Canada, and more. Plus ça change…. Whatever it was about, it ended in a more-or-less stalemate, with the Treaty of Ghent in 1814.

One of my ancestors, John Wallace Cherry, 4x gg, fought in that war as a private. Coincidentally, he was one of my earliest ancestors to settle in Ohio. He is also geographically the closest of my forebears to where I live now; he lived for many years (and is buried) about two hours from us. You can read more about him here.

John Wallace Cherry's "Graves Registration Card."
It provides details of his service in the War of 1812 and
his burial at Oak Grove Cemetery

Next was Louisiana (1812), my only family connection to that state being that one of my great-grandfathers, Clarence Edgar Brown died there in 1937. That fact was long contested, the assumption being that it must be another CEB, as Grandpa Clarence lived his entire adult life in Fargo, ND and Minneapolis MN. But just like a single clue can solve a mystery, I discovered a letter he had written to his wife just a few weeks before his death: he was in Louisiana, for business. It’s interesting to me how just one otherwise insignificant bit of evidence can add or confirm a fact. Of course, sometimes a discovery opens up an entirely new puzzle, part of the fun--and frustration--of research.

Grandpa Clarence's letter, dated 30 Jun 1937. 
He died less than two months later, age 58, and was given a pauper's burial.

Anyway. Mississippi attained statehood in 1817, and I have absolutely no connections there. But on either side of Mississippi--chronologically, not geographically--were Indiana and Illinois, established in 1816 and 1818 respectively. My clannish Conley and Maxwell ancestors, along with their allied families, Toliver and Isom, were early pioneers in both locales, moving en masse from North Carolina just in time for the statehoods of Indiana and Illinois.

According to the History of Lawrence and Monroe Counties Indiana (1914):

The first years of the nineteenth century saw very little settlement in the county by white men. The Indians were hostile and the perils of making a home were great.… The advance was slow made so by the necessity for large numbers to keep together in order to repel the Indian attacks. Not until the year 1811, the year of the Battle of Tippecanoe, did Lawrence County receive any numbers of white families.

Perhaps my ancestors’ mass migration was not just Scotch-Irish clannishness, but for protection. At any rate, John Conley Jr and Catherine Miller, 5x ggs, moved to Lawrence County in 1817, following John’s brothers Joel and Josiah. Josiah was the first constable of the newly formed Spice Valley Township. By 1818 Grandpa John was appointed Supervisor of the Spice Valley Road, and a few years after that he was named Overseer of the Poor. My favorite bit of trivia–and one that gives insight into what southern Indiana was like at that time–is that a few years later Grandpa John was paid a five dollar bounty by the county treasury for nine wolf scalps. 

Another Conley brother, Elijah, was the first deacon of the Spice Valley Baptist Church, established in 1822. Before the church proper was built a few years later, the congregation met in the barn of another 5x gg and NC transplant, William Maxwell (married to Lucy Toliver; remember that surname). It is not surprising that children of John Conley and William Maxwell, 4x ggs Constantine Conley and Elizabeth "Betsy" Maxwell, married in Spice Valley in 1822, presumably in the Baptist barn.

About that same time, 6x gg Sarah Conley (née Sarah Wilson), John Conley’s widowed mother, made the move from NC to Spice Valley. Remarkably, she was in her seventies, and it is recorded that she brought her possessions in a two-wheeled ox cart!

The Spice Valley farm is still in the family. I met a distant Conley cousin online who lives there, and she invited me to visit. It was extremely moving, walking land that had been in the family for almost two hundred years. Sarah Wilson Conley and other family members are buried there.

Sarah Wilson Conley's gravestone, in a photo from the mid-'80s (courtesy of findagrave)
 and how I saw it when I visited in 2016. 

3x gg, David Conley, son of Constantine and Betsy, was born in Spice Valley in 1823. In 1846 he married his second cousin, Rebecca Toliver, her paternal grandfather Jesse and his maternal grandmother Lucy (remember her?) were siblings. I said they were clannish! David and Rebecca's marriage was held, not in Indiana, but in Clay County IL. For some reason, by 1840 many of the Maxwell-Isom-Conley-Tolliver cohort, including all of my ancestors named above, left Spice Valley and--surprise!--headed west, this time for Illinois. Some, including Joel Conley stayed; his land is the site of the current farm.

Part of the Conley Farm and Indiana's Homestead Recognition plaque.

Why did they move? We haven't been able to find out. But maybe someday we'll come across a letter that explains it.

1820s & 1830s The Westward Expansion continued. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825, and the first passenger railroad began service in 1829. The Oregon Trail was being blazed, with the first wagon train lighting out to the territories in 1836.

In 1821, the long-running Mexican War for Independence finally ended, with Spain ceding its North American territories to Mexico. Part of that land would become the Republic–then State–of Texas. Were my ancestors there? Not a one. But Stephen’s were. 

Among the first settlers in Texas were Stephen’s 4x ggs, John Jackson Tumlinson and Elizabeth [Plemmons] Tumlinson and their seven children. The Tumlinsons were peripatetic folks, moving from North Carolina to Tennessee, then to Illinois, Arkansas (where they founded the township of Tumlinson, now Boothe), and finally landed in Texas in 1821. They joined the colony established by Stephen Austin, who had arranged for three hundred families to settle there. Each family would receive four thousand acres, with an agreement to become a Mexican citizen, build a home within two years, and convert to Catholicism. These pioneer families became what is known as “The Old Three Hundred,” which has a better ring to it than their actual number: 297.

An 1833 map of Texas.
Stephen Austin's Colony can be found in the center.

Anyway. John Jackson Tumlinson and family acquired land along the Colorado River. He was elected the first Alcalde of the Colorado District, serving as a sort-of combination mayor and judge. Just two years later, while en route to San Antonio to meet with the Governor, he was killed by Indians.

His family’s sense of duty lived on. Sons Peter Tumlinson, 3x gg, and John Jackson Tumlinson Jr were members of the Texas Rangers. Their cousin, George Washington Tumlinson was one of the “Immortal 32,” killed at twenty-two while defending the Alamo. 

Due to their impact on early Texas history, there are several historical markers about the Tumlinsons throughout Texas. You can read more about Peter Tumlinson and his parents here.

Located at Courthouse Square, Columbus TX.
photo courtesy of HMdb.org

Another pair of Stephen’s 3xggs, Abraham Roberts and Cynthia [Jeffrey] Roberts came to Texas as well, arriving in 1838 from Alabama. They were among the founders of Walnut Springs, now Seguin. Roberts also became a Texas Ranger, and also received an historic marker, noting his petition to form a new county and even establishing a cemetery. In true Texas fashion, there are many tall tales of the Roberts clan in Texas. At least one is true: Roberts and his third wife adopted a “crippled” Comanche orphan, Rufus.

The Cemetery is located in Caldwell County TX.

Two generations later, grandchildren of Peter Tumlinson and Abraham Roberts met and married; they are Stephen’s great-grandparents. Maybe that’s why he's always had a thing about cowboys. 

America 250 Part Two: the 1700s

 

[This is an ongoing Facebook project that I've decided to share here as well,

 slightly revised and expanded, with additional photos and links.

Check back for updates through 4 July 2026.]

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, it gives me a chance to share some stories of my family's history and how it intersects with our country's. Once a week until Independence Day, I'll add to this dual timeline.

1718 In my last post I mentioned my only purely Irish ancestors, the first arrivals in this country on my mother's side. Next to emigrate on that side of my tree were Scotch-Irish (also called by some Scots-Irish, a contentious fight typical of these pugnacious northerners, as evinced in the title of a terrific book by Jim Webb, "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America"). They are sometimes referred to as Ulster Scots as well.

Whichever name you prefer, here is their background, in a nutshell. In the early 1600s, the English, led by King James I, the first king of both England and Scotland, wished to quell further Irish rebellions from that neighboring isle. They established the Ulster Plantation in what is now Northern Ireland. By issuing land grants there to thousands of Protestant lowland Scots (another occasionally troublesome group, thus killing two birds with one stone), they could dilute the threat from the native, Catholic Gaels to whom the land originally belonged. Gaining stability and loyalty–and all that additional tax revenue–from the region was essential. For the next hundred years or so, the two groups did not mix, the clannish Scots doing nothing to assimilate, growing more prosperous while the native Irish grew poorer, pushed further out of the area as growing Scots families and continued arrivals took more of their land. Those tensions never really resolved. The conflict has continued almost to this day as “The Troubles.” 

photo courtesy discoverulsterscots.com

At any rate, after several generations, by the early 1700s, many of those Scots wished to move on again, this time to the new world; Scotch-Irish is the name for that group. Among the earliest of these émigrés were families from Aghadowey Parish, in County Londonderry, led by their Presbyterian minister, James McGregor. In five ships, they set sail in 1718. Thomas Steele and Martha Morrison, 7x ggs, were part of that congregation. (I was delighted to learn that the ship the Steeles were aboard was called Robert.) Landing in Boston, the group found they were not welcome. There had been an influx of ships that summer already, so they were directed to look further north, in part to establish towns that would act as a buffer from still-hostile indigenous people. The ships dispersed, Robert and its passengers spending a harrowing winter in Casco Bay ME, the ship icebound, smallpox raging. Come spring, the group sailed south, finally staking claim to land in modern-day New Hampshire. They called their town Nutfield, later renamed Londonderry.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Thomas and Martha. When I began my genealogical journey in earnest, they were the first ancestors whose arrival in America I discovered. They are fairly well-documented, which was made things easy. They can even lay claim to being part of the group that planted the first potato patch in the Colonies. You’re welcome.

Londonderry NH 2019. Please note my Ulster Scot t-shirt.
photo courtesy your humble blogger

In 2019, on the 300th anniversary of the founding of Nutfield/Londonderry, there was quite a hoopla, a grand addition to their annual Old Home Day celebration. We made the trip out, and even got to ride in the parade, on a float for descendants of the original sixteen families. Alas, somehow we two were the only ones on the float (my husband given honorary founder descendant-by-marriage status), but waved and smiled to the baffled spectators along the route. We were followed by a wonderful group of marching bagpipers (Scotch-Irish, remember), and were later told that somewhere behind them the actual Ben & Jerry rode on a–dare I say–ice cream float. It was a delightful day of Americana. 

A Parade in Town. Londonderry NH 2019
collage courtesy of your humble blogger

Anyway. By the time of the War of Independence, it is thought that almost a quarter of a million Scotch-Irish made the journey here, ultimately representing almost fifteen percent of the Colonies’ population. Many of them settled in Appalachia, and their cultural influence can still be seen there today in everything from fiddle music to moonshine. But their influence is broader: the Scotch-Irish were heavily represented in the Revolutionary War; nine Ulster Scots signed the Declaration of Independence, and nearly one third of our Presidents have Scotch-Irish ancestors. Here in the 21st century, other descendants and I of those original Aghadowey parish voyagers have a yearly Zoom call with descendants of those that stayed at home. It is always delightful, full of shared song and storytelling, uniting us across the sea–and years.

With the arrival of the Steeles and Morrisons in 1718, it would be almost one hundred and fifty years before additional ancestors of mine arrived on our shores, coming not from Great Britain, but for the first time throughout northern Europe. But we’ve got plenty of years to cover before then….

For more information on the Ulster Scots, visit here. They also have a terrific YouTube channel. 1730s Of course, not everything was on the historic, grand scale of town foundings and Indian wars, privation and persecution, log cabins, wolves, witch-hunts.... Daily life went on, and one hundred years or so after Plymouth Rock, most folks were preoccupied with necessities, like farming, raising children, and other quotidian pursuits. But they were also beginning to create our own distinct American culture and customs, particularly in the larger, established cities and towns. Even before developments in architecture, music, or literature, however, came American furniture. Adapted from English designs, these earliest pieces quickly began to evolve in both form and material, including our native hardwoods.

Thomas Davenport, 8x gg, was one such early “cabinet-maker,” the general name for wood-workers who designed and constructed not just cabinets, but chairs, tables, bedsteads, and the like. He was known for his “distinctive pierced splat” and “scrolled ears.” (I had to look it up too. Who says family history isn't educational?)

Side chair, one of a pair believed to be Davenport's work.
Walnut and maple, with modern cushion.

Sometime after Thomas' first wife, 8x gg Catherine Woodworth (a fitting surname for a carpenter's spouse) died in 1727, he moved across the Sakonnet River from Newport to Little Compton RI. (Her grandfather, 10x gg Walter Woodworth, owned many plots in Little Compton, although he never lived there.) Both locales were known for their outstanding joiners and cabinet-makers. Perhaps that is how Thomas got to know his second wife, Mary Pitman, whom he married in 1737; the men in her family were nearly all noted craftsmen. Thomas continued to craft chairs and tables until his death in 1745.

Walter Woodworth's Little Compton RI properties are highlighted.
The Southworths and Howlands whose names appear are distant relations.

Almost one hundred and fifty years later, a resurgence of interest in Colonial and Early American furniture began, both in home décor and as an area of academic research, bringing to light names–like Thomas Davenport’s–that might otherwise have been lost. It persists today. Just in the last few years, chairs by Grandpa Davenport have shown up in Yale University Press books, at Bonham’s Auction House, and on display at the Little Compton Historical Society. You can view one of his chairs and other selections from their exhibit online here. (Scroll down to find the Davenport chair. It’s between the ”Cow Vomit Rope”  and the “Sheep Treadmill.” Really.)

Memorials, monuments and plaques are all well and good, commendable reminders of remarkable people and notable achievements. But while very few people can achieve that lofty recognition, all of us can enjoy a nice chair. You can read more about Davenports and design, including a surprising link to Savannah GA here.

1754 It’s interesting to see certain occupations recur in a family tree. Like Thomas Davenport, the subject of this segment was also a chairmaker, among other things. John Grindle, 6x gg, was a fascinating man of many  accomplishments–and a few contradictions.

 

Born in 1714 in Portsmouth NH, just across the Piscataqua River from Maine, John Grindle relocated there by 1740, where he was one of the pioneers of Brooksville. During his lifetime he had three wives, and at least nine children.

In 1754 Grindle first took part in what is now known as the French & Indian War. In actuality, it was a war between the French and British and their respective colonists and indigenous allies, part of a larger conflict between the two countries over land and commerce in the new world that lasted for almost a decade. The British controlled what we think of as the Thirteen Colonies, while the French occupied much of eastern Canada and the Great Lakes region. (This was the war that first brought George Washington to prominence, as the Commander of the Virginia Regiment.)

Grindle’s exact participation is not documented, but he was considered a respected veteran. A staunch Loyalist, by the time of the War of Independence he was commonly known as “Old Tory Grindle.” In The Grindle Family of Hancock County, Maine, Walter A Snow wrote:

John Grindle had seen the atrocities of the Indians in the families into which he married. He had soldiered long and faithfully for King and Queen. No longer exactly a young man he had found a new life in the frontier wilderness. He was accustomed to finding his security in the trained and seasoned regulars in their red coats. He had exulted in the fall of Quebec. Now in his sixties to witness the hazardous venture of severing ties with the parent country of which his family still carried, perhaps, some fond memories? No wonder his sentiments.

Ironically, four of John’s sons (and two sons-in-law) fought on the American side of the Revolutionary War.

In his sixties, still farming and making chairs, John Grindle took on another role, as the region’s first postmaster (another frequently recurring occupation in my family history, down to my own grandfather, 4x great-grandson of John). From Connee Jellison’s Hancock County, a Rock-Bound Paradise:

The sea was Surry's lifeline. As early as 1775, John Grindle carried the mail in a boat along the shore [of the Bagaduce River] with the letters and papers tied up in a handkerchief….

John Grindle lived to be 80, patriarch of a noted early family in Maine. John Grindle’s grandson, Francis Grindle, is the namesake of Grindle Point, where an eponymous lighthouse has stood since 1849, while great-grandson Samuel Perkins Grindle’s house is–appropriately enough–the home of the Castine Historical Society.

The original lighthouse at Grindle Point. It has since been rebuilt, but is still active.
photo courtesy the National Archives

1760s By 1770 the population of the American Colonies was roughly two million people. I have mentioned fifty of my ancestors by name so far, not counting many of their wives, who did the same things as the men but backwards in an apron and bonnet…. I chose each of them, so far, for their connection to a notable event or movement in our nascent nation’s history.

But what about the immense majority of everyone’s kinfolk not connected to historic touchstones? Who were they, where were they, and what were they doing? Before we leap to our next milestone–the big one!–1776 and the War of Independence, chosen starting point of the America 250 celebration, here is a survey of a few of my forebears not previously mentioned:

William Perham & Hannah Pomery, 6x ggs. They married in 1764. He later was a founding member of the Derryfield (now Manchester NH) Social Library. Members paid an annual fee used to buy books they would share. The collection began with seventy-eight books, mostly on religious topics, then expanded to over 100 titles of all types. Their son Robert (!) was the librarian in 1814. It was disbanded in 1833, members taking which books they wanted.

From Miscellaneous Notes & Queries, Vol XV, 1897

Southworth Hamlin & Tabitha Atkins, 7xggs. He was a carpenter; she was his second wife. After his death in 1766, she inherited their home and land in Barnstable MA, as well as his carpentry tools, books, and a loom, among other things.

A detail from Southworth Hamlin's will.

Jonathan Stamper & Rachel Parks, 6xggs. By the 1760s they owned a considerable amount of land along Bugaboo Creek in Wilkes County NC. Perhaps not surprisingly, they also owned three slaves. He was appointed a constable, and later opened a tavern.

Wilkes Country NC, from an early map.
Bugaboo Creek is on the eastern side, near modern-day Ronda.

John Wallace & Janet Steele, 6xggs. They were among those founding families of Londonderry, NH in 1718 (about which I wrote previously). In 1762, still living in Londonderry, he signed his name on a petition to the Governor of the Province of New Hampshire asking that they be allowed to choose their own Representative.

A detail from the petition of Jan 25, 1762.
Other signers, including Gregg, Clark, and Lindsey, were in-laws of John Wallace.

                                   

This is as good a time as any to mention the Internet, that double-edged wonder of our Age. Crowded with junk, it also provides access to obscure and bygone documents and information that, if not lost entirely, would at least be nearly inaccessible. I cannot imagine being able to find such detailed information about so many things–even beyond family lore–without it.

Anyway. Speaking of age, this is also a good place to bring up life expectancy vs life span, two distinct things. It is often asserted how lucky we are to live now, because “in the olden days, most people only lived to be 30,” or some other dire approximation. In fact, in the 1760s in the Colonies, the life expectancy was about 34. Yet of my eight direct ancestors mentioned above, four lived into their 80s; their average age at death was 68. Were they lucky? Were they somehow healthier than their neighbors? Not necessarily. They lived the average life span of their time. Life expectancy takes into account things like infant mortality, widespread disease, and fatalities through violence and wars, all rampant during the Colonial era. Times were tough back then, indeed, and many lives were lost too early. Life span, however, is the age one could live to under normal circumstances. Lesson over.

Libraries, taverns, carpentry and such…. Nothing special or historic, just daily life. I hope my ancestors appreciated and enjoyed their mundane experiences. It was a calm before the storm, with ”the shot heard round the world” just a few years off.

1775 - 1783 I have at least eighteen direct ancestors across both sides of my family who fought in the Revolutionary War. While many did not see battle, others were there at defining events.

These men served as Privates:

Reuben Grindle 5x gg, (son of that “Old Tory Grindle” about whom I wrote previously) fought, among other places, at the Battle of Machias [ME] in 1775. It was the first naval battle of the war. You can read more about it here.

Samuel Squire 6x, Capt Emerson’s Company, NH

Aaron Colman 6x, Capt Jones’ Company, MA

John Lombard 6x, Capt Gills’ Company, ME

Eliphalet Davenport 6x, “responded to the Lexington Alarm [MA] in Capt Elias Buell’s Company, and served other enlistments” for three years. According to his Pension records, he served variously as a guard, teamster, and even as personal waiter to Col Thomas Brown, until his discharge in 1779. 

Amaziah Doty 6x, Capt Shaw’s Company, MA

Elijah Eaton 6x, Capt Beebe’s Company, NY

Joseph Rasey 5x, Capt Ellis’ Company NH

Thomas Connelly 7x, served under Col Pinckney at the Siege of Charleston [SC] in 1780. Then later that year, at the Battle of Kings Mountain [NC],

Thomas was shot through the body by a British musket ball. A Dr. Hicks, who was half Indian and had graduated from a French University treated the wound by passing a silk handkerchief through it. About three years later in 1783 Thomas died from the wounds.

(From 300 Years in America with the Connely Clan by Reginald D Conley.)

Musket balls. They varied in size from a half inch to an inch.
photo courtesy of the National Park Service

John Conley 6x, Thomas’ son, Col Armstrong’s Regiment NC

David Maxwell 6x, a Scottish emigre, he lived in North Carolina. The sole record of his service is a pay voucher. Also serving was his son,

William Maxwell 5x, Lamb’s Company NC

This digitized scrap is the only source we have to show that David Maxwell served.

Jesse Toliver 5x, was also at Kings Mountain, but in a far less dramatic capacity. You can read more about him elsewhere on my blog.

John Parks 7x, Col Mathews’ Regiment VA

John Isom 5x. Details of his service are unknown, but he received a pension for his service. VA

One reached the rank of Corporal:

Roswell Holmes 6x gg, Col Willet’s Regiment, NY. According to Enlistment Records, he was a shoemaker, and remarkably, stood 6’10! 

Two were promoted to the rank of Captain:

Stephen Hickox 6xgg, Col Simonds’ regiment, MA. Stephen fought in both the Battles of Ticonderoga and Saratoga [both NY]. The former is notable as the first offensive victory on the American side in the war, while the latter led to a crucial alliance with France.

Samuel Cherry 5x. The first of my Revolutionary ancestors I discovered, and the one who had the most remarkable career. He was a leader of the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, and among other things, on 19 Oct 1781 he was present when Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown [VA], heralding the end of the War for Independence. Capt Cherry is the subject of one of my earliest blog posts, where you can learn more about his career.

One of two flags of the New Hampshire 2nd Regiment.
It is said that Benjamin Franklin designed the intertwined circle motif.

Huzzah, we won! Now what?

1790 After eight grueling years, the War of Independence ended. We won! We were a brand new country! Now it was time for some nation building, so in true Yankee fashion, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.

In 1782, our nation’s motto–E Pluribus Unum–was coined, and began appearing on coins just four years later. The committee who chose that motto included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, none of whom I descend from.

In 1787 the Constitution was written, ratified in 1788, and went into effect in 1789. There is nary an author nor signer of the Constitution in my family tree. Moving on….

1789 was also the year of the first presidential election. Spoiler: George Washington won, and established the tradition of serving just two terms. I have no presidential ancestors either.

But in 1790 the first US Census was taken, and my ancestors were there–at least some of them. The Census was established in the Constitution to determine the number of representatives for each state in the House of Representatives. It was pretty bare bones: the name of the head of the household, and just five classifications: Free White Men under 16 years old, Free White Men over 16 years old, Free White Females, Free Persons, and Slaves. 

The categories give us insight into the time, into who was valued at that time. Native Americans weren’t counted at all, unless they lived in a white household. White men were divided into two age groups only to establish who might join a militia if needed, or able to participate in agriculture and commerce. What was a Free Person? Anyone neither white nor a slave. That number wasn’t very large, of course, at about 1.5% of the nearly four million who were recorded. Slaves, whatever age or gender, were tallied together in one grouping, but for purpose of representation were only considered ⅗ of a person.

Many people, including Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, believed the Census count was far too low, with no real way to verify the information. The population was scattered, transportation was often difficult, and people self-reported their family size, among other concerns. If not a snapshot, we can consider it at least a sketch.  A messy sketch.

One of the pages for Wilkes County NC in 1790.
Jonathan Stamper is in the upper right corner.

From a genealogical standpoint as well, the 1790 Census was not that great. Many of the original records are lost, although we have some transcripts. Those that survive were handwritten and cluttered. Looking at the listing for 6x gg Jonathan Stamper (mentioned in a previous post), we see this:

    2 Free White Males 16 & Over: As head of household, we know that one of those is Jonathan Stamper, but who is the other?

    0 Free White Males under 16

    2 Free White Females: We can assume one is his wife. The other… ?

    1 Free Person: Who is this? 

    1 Slave: Another unknown.

Apart from the Head of Household, there are no names or relationships given. So a second Adult Male might be a son, brother, uncle, brother-in-law, servant or boarder! An Adult Female might be a wife, aunt, spinster daughter…. With luck and a little detective work, we might be able to figure out who those others are, although we cannot be sure, even of something as basic as his wife. It’s part of the fun–and frustration!--of genealogy.

Who is the other Adult Male over 16? Sons Joel and Jonathan appear on the next page, so that rules them out. Other sons, Joshua and John, are found in Kentucky and North Carolina. Which leaves son Jacob. Or possibly son Jesse. Or someone else entirely.

On the distaff side, we know Jonathan Stamper married Rachel Parks in 1749; we know she died in 1793; we know of no additional marriage records for her. Based on the information we have, it’s a solid assumption that one of those Free White Females was her, but we can’t be certain. As a wise National Park Ranger once told me: it takes three legs to make a stool. The other Free White Female? Daughters Mary and Martha are married and appear elsewhere on the Census with their husbands. Daughter Susannah and her husband, John Burton are not accounted for. Are they on one of the lost Censuses? Are they the two unnamed Free Whites?

(Each time I write “Free White,” I can’t help but be reminded of “Free, White, and 21,” a popular catchphrase of the 1930’s, and the title of a song from 1934 co-written by my grandfather and a fella named Don Rodricks.) 

Anyway. The one Free Person remains unknown, and we can only glean a single thing about the slave. In Jonathan Stamper’s will, written in 1793, he leaves “one negro boy by the name of Dave” to son Jesse Stamper. RIP Dave, you are not forgotten.

Ten years later, the US Federal Census of 1800 made one change, daringly adding age brackets for White Females, along with additional categories for Males' ages. So Nathaniel Eaton, 5x gg, and his family shake out like this:

Nathaniel Eaton in a detail from the 1800 US Federal Census,
Cherry Valley, Otsego County, New York.
His father Elijah's family appears on the next line

    3 Males under 10 sons (likely sons Elijah and Elisha and Eliakim)

    1 Male 26 - 44 is Nathaniel

    1 Female 10 -15 ?

    1 Female 26 - 44, probably wife Anna

The additional bracket doesn’t help much. Who is the female 10 - 15? If she is a daughter, she is not accounted for in any other records. Did she marry, or die young? (At any rate, based on the boys’ names, it’s almost a given her name would have begun with an E.) Perhaps she is not a daughter, but a live-in servant? It’s unlikely, but not impossible. (It’s nice to note the Eatons owned no slaves.) Nathaniel’s wife Anna is likely the older female. Sadly, no records give her last name, although it is sometimes seen in secondary sources as Cronk. Really.

The 1810 Census used the same format as the prior one, but in 1820 there were significant additions, including age brackets for both Free Colored and Slaves, and columns to indicate how many people participated in industry, commerce, and agriculture. You would think that additional categories would help, but instead they led to a great deal of confusion, as some people were counted in multiple columns. Remember, only the head of the household was named! In addition to the occupational categories, there was also an additional count of men ages 16 - 18 for military purposes, along with the category of men aged 16 to 25, leading to double counts in those cases.

Tweaks continued every decade, until finally in 1850 we got a Census where every person was given a name, age, race, and even occupation. Hurrah! It also recorded which of those people were literate, deaf, dumb, blind, insane, “idiotic,” a pauper, or a convict. Alas, many of the changes were driven by economic concerns, not representation.

1860 saw the inclusion of Chinese as a race, and Native Americans, but only if they “renounced tribal rules.” Then in 1870, all Black people were finally counted, names and all. In 1880, women were trusted to be enumerators for the first time. The 1890 Census has been completely lost, woe to genealogists; a lot can happen to a family in a twenty year span. We continued to tweak the Census in the 20th century and beyond, adding new categories as our country saw--and more importantly, recognized--more diversity; same-sex couples, for example, were not counted as such until 2010.

For privacy’s sake, the most recent Census available to view is 1950; barring changes, later counts will continue to be released seventy-two years after they are taken. Future generations looking to learn more about their Uncles Robert and Stephen will have to wait until 2072. Unless, of course, they find these posts first.