[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.]
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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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
3x great grandparents Phillipe Jacob Runser and Mary Anne [Brunner] Runser arrived in New York from Hégenheim, France with their six children, ranging in age from thirteen years old to the infant, also Phillip Jacob Runser, a 2xgg. They settled in Wisconsin in 1848, the year it achieved statehood.
The old world meets the new, and new arrivals cross paths with long-established families. Wisconsin’s statehood was determined in part by one of my 4xggs, Stephen Addison Davenport (grandson and 4x gg respectively of the previously mentioned Revolutionary War patriot Eliphalet Davenport, and chairmaker Thomas Davenport). He married Alma Holmes Doty (granddaughter of the previously mentioned Patriot Roswell Holmes, and 5x gg of Mayflower passenger Edward Doty). Family threads become intertwined.
Meanwhile the families of Peter Jean Drees and Catherine Petesch, 2xggs of Stephen’s also arrived in Wisconsin about the same time–from Luxembourg and Prussia. They met and married just 150 miles north of the Runsers’ home a few years later. (In fact, all four of the couples who comprise Stephen’s paternal 4x great-grandparents were Mitteleuropeans who settled in Wisconsin through the mid 1840s.)
But just as all those international future citizens arrived in Wisconsin, Grandpa Stephen Addison Davenport moved on. The California Gold Rush had begun in 1849, and early in 1850, Davenport left his farm and family to join a company heading by wagon train to California, which had joined the Union that year as our 31st state. We are lucky enough to have letters that he wrote from his journey detailing the experience. Alas, he died suddenly in December of that year. According to an obituary, “Friends buried him alongside the river and brought his gold home to his wife,” and six children, who did not receive the news until the following February. You can read more about him here.
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| Stephen Addison Davenport's obituary, from the Southport Telegraph (Kenosha WI) 28 Feb 1851. |
More immigrants will arrive, and the westward expansion will continue as family roots form and take hold. Some stick: Stephen and I both have distant cousins still living in Wisconsin, including Phillip Jacob Runser V.
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| An early version of the Wisconsin State Seal. I like to think the fella on the left is one of Stephen's ancestors. |
The War Between the States has been extensively documented; I recommend director Ken Burns’ miniseries or author Shelby Foote’s trilogy. Looking through the lens of my family, I take some solace that all of my ancestors were on the Union side, and that even before the war the few that had owned slaves had ended that practice. Of course, a lot of that is as much geography as ethics.
Two direct ancestors fought: Privates Dwight Eaton and Silas Brown, both 3x gg. Another 3x gg, David Conley, enlisted but did not serve. You can read more about their experiences here.
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| Dwight Eaton's Pension Record. This card is sometimes the only document we have for many who served. (Note the misspelling of his first name. In this case we know it is his because of his wife's name.) |
In my extended family, all six brothers of 3x gg Mary Ann Cherry contributed to the War effort in different ways. Three of these 3x grand-uncles registered but did not serve. Private George Washington Cherry was invalided out from the 145th Ohio Infantry, while 1st Lt William Hopkins Cherry was killed while on duty during a railway accident in Tennessee.
If you’ve only counted five, the last brother, Deacon Samuel Alonzo Cherry made his contribution on the home front: his house was a station on the Underground Railroad. You can learn more about him here.
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| Samuel Cherry mentioned in a resource from the National Park Service, Researching & Interpreting the Underground Railroad, 2017 |
Mary Ann married 3x gg Frederick Dillazone Ketchum. He was a ship-builder on the Great Lakes, about whom I have written here often. After the Battle of Cross Lanes in Aug 1861, in which many of the Ohio 7th were wounded, Grandpa Frederick paid for the dead and wounded to be attended to. One of his own of his sons was in that company, but captured in that battle: 2x grand-uncle George Cherry Ketchum. He had entered as a Sergeant earlier that year, was captured, then spent two years as a prisoner of war before he was released. In a letter home, he wrote, “I have the SCURVY BAD.” After his release in a prisoner swap, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and served another year as an adjutant with the Ohio 177th Infantry. He lived the rest of his life in ill health from his confinement.
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| Lieutenant George Cherry Ketchum's headstone. Protestant Cemetery, Mackinac Island, MI photo courtesy FindaGrave |
Another of Frederick and Mary’s sons, Frederick Augustus Cherry, was a Private with the Ohio 24th Infantry. He passed away on 28 May 1933 at age 88; a front-page article in The Newark [OH] Advocate about local Memorial Day celebrations ends:
A touch of sadness was added to the services at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home at Sandusky. There, Frederick Ketchum, one of the home’s oldest veterans, who died Saturday, was to be buried.
The Postbellum The Civil War ended. Accounts differ, but at a minimum over half a million Americans died, with nearly three times that amount wounded, disabled, or missing. As one of our country’s defining historical events, its impact is still felt, its meaning and symbols still evoking strong responses.
But–as it always must–life goes on. More émigrés came here searching for the American Dream, the most massive surge in our history. Native dwellers already here continued the pursuit of their Dreams as well–and it was the time for it! Nine new states were admitted–Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana and more; new homegrown faiths were established–like Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian Science; new jobs grew out of the Second Industrial Revolution; and a steady flow of innovations and advances in science all drove tremendous change as we headed toward our country’s Centennial.
Arriving just in time were 3x ggs, August Miller and Amelia LKU, and their three year old daughter, 2xgg Anna Miller. Despite being comparatively recent ancestors, I have learned very little about them. A number of issues cloud their story. Some documents are conflicting: are they from Prussia, Germany, Pomerania….? (Easy. Different names for the same region.) Miller or Müller? August or Auguste? Amelia, Emilia, or Emilie? Somehow there are at least two August & Amelia Millers in Blue Earth County MN during the same decades. Was there another child, born in the United States? (Doubtful. Our Amelia would have been 52 years old.) Other sources that might fill in the puzzle are missing.
These things I am confident about. The three Millers arrived as a family in New York from Szczecin, Poland in Dec 1867 on the ship Marco Polo. His occupation was a stone mason. Anna was their only child. She married at age fifteen, and had three children by her first husband, Frank Wagner. In the 1885 Minnesota Census, the Wagners appeared on a page opposite sixteen-year-old Dor Henry Eaton, her future second husband and my 2x gg. They married in 1890. And sadly, it appears that, in their eighties, the Millers spent their final years in the Blue Earth County Poor Farm. Not every dream comes true.
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| The Blue Earth County [MN] Poor Farm at the time the Millers lived there. circa 1920 |
The World’s Fair and Centennial Exposition opened–appropriately enough–in Philadelphia on May 10, 1876. It was a months-long hoopla, inspiring millions who attended--and selling lots of kitsch. Highlights of American invention and exceptionalism on display included Bell’s telephone, the Remington typewriter, and Heinz ketchup. It says something about us–although I’m not sure what–that although we’ve refined and improved telecommunications and keyboards since then, Heinz lives on. Anyway.
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| Sheet music sold to commemorate the Centennial. The Statue of Liberty is an interesting choice. It was not completed until ten years later, although the hand and torch were on display at the Exposition. |
A few months later, Colorado achieved statehood, and shortly after that the Colorado Silver Boom occurred, spurred on by the discovery of the Leadville lode in 1877. Peaking in the 1880s, it ended abruptly with the Panic of 1893. While not nearly on the scale (or value) of the Gold Rush in California, like that earlier event, it was enough to entice one of my ancestors.
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3xgg Silas W Brown, whom we last saw during the Civil War, uprooted his pregnant wife, Malinda J Carter, and their six children (including the infant Clarence Edgar Brown, aforementioned 2x gg), departed their farm in Chillicothe MO, and were settled in the newly incorporated town of Buena Vista CO by June 5, 1880. Daughter Lula Ethel Brown was born five months later. Silas’ occupation on that year’s Census is “prospector.” I have not been able to learn how they made out, but they were back in Missouri just a couple years later. We only know this because another daughter, Pearl Brown, was born there, and we only know that because her headstone, broken and worn, can be found at Oak Hill Cemetery in Carrollton MO, saying she died September 11 1886, aged three.
As America grew and celebrated, and the light of the American Dream continued to shine, we can’t forget that it was–and remains–a promise, not a guarantee. The reality is that some suffer and some mourn, as they always must.
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| Pearl Brown's headstone. photo courtesy of FindaGrave |
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