Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Ramblings of Uncle Paul about family History

You will find five different characters or stories. Comfort Carr, George Row I, Smith Family Burial Ground , and the Ohio Valley History and William Henry Shickel. You can click on my favorite links "Photo Gallery of Dan Shickle" to get to the pictures relating to these stories.

Comfort Carr

This is the grave of one of my 2-great grandmothers.
Comfort Carr b. 15 Nov 1824 Harrison Co, IN, d. 20 Nov 1895 Harrison
Co, IN buried Musselman Cemetery near New Middleton, Harrison Co, IN.

Comfort was the daughter of Caleb Carr and Rachel Lemmon. Comfort Carr was the second wife of William Wright(son of Robert and Ginnet Cathcart Wright) William and Comfort married 6 Oct 1844 Harrison Co . William had first married Mary Biggs 15 June 1831 Harrison County, Indiana. Mary is buried on William's right and Comfort, on his left. These three open the doorway to another example of how we intermarried

Mary Biggs Wright was the daughter of Robert Biggs and Rececca Sands. Rebecca Sands and Caleb Carr were step-siblings. Rebecca Sands was the daughter of William Sands and his first wife Mary Elizabeth Albin. Mary Elizabeth Albin was a sister to our ancestor George Henry Albin who married Margaret Bruce. After Mary Elizabeth died William Sands married second the widow Elizabeth Bowman Carr( Caleb's mother).
Rachel Lemmon Carr was the daughter of of John Lemmon,Jr. and Millison Foster.
Rachel's brother Elias Clay Lemmon,Sr. married Mary Sands(sister to Rebecca Sands Biggs and step-sibling to Caleb Carr). Isaac Lemmon, brother to Elias and Rachel m. Lavina Biggs, sister to Mary Biggs Wright; another Lemmon brother Wilson Lemmon m. Julia Ann Gwartney, da of Robert Gwartney and Malinda Albin( da of George Henry Albin and Margaret Bruce and like wise a sister to Sarah Albin Smith)
Mary Biggs Wright and Lavina Biggs Lemmon's sister Matilda Biggs married Charles I. Smith(brother to Henry Smith, the husband of Sarah Albin)

This is of course just the tip of the iceberg. e.g. the Biggs sisters had another sister, Lucinda Biggs m. Henry Davis. Lucinda married Henry Davis and their daughter Emily Catherine Davis m. David Cotner. son of Robert Davis Cotner and Elizabeth Jane Keller and grandson of David Cotner who married Rachel Denbo. I DO BELIEVE THAT THIS INCLUDES RELATIVES OF ALMOST EVERYONE GETTING THESE PICTURES.
O Caleb Carr's Aunt Sarah Carr, who took him after her brother died, married James Lemmon(no known relative to my set of Lemmon's above) Sarah and James are ancestors of Samuel Pfrimmer Hays

George Row, I

George Row, I is one of my first ancestors to come to the colonies.
The family name may be found spelled Rau; Row; Rowe but should always be pronounced to rhyme with how now brown cow NOT to rhyme with what you do to navigate a boat on a body of water, though many with the name do so. The English pronunciation in England rhymes with how now brown cow. This information was given to me by one of my former colleagues who was born and bred in England and has been an English teacher for many years.

George Row above came to the Pennsylvania colony from Baden, Baden. This we know from the ship passenger list.
It does not say that he and his wife Mary Magdalene were born there. People who lived near the Rhine River moved up and down, back and forth, not unlike the American colonists did along our seaboard or our closer ancestors did along the Ohio River. When George I set out they had one son and when they stepped off the boat they had two. It may seem strange that the couple would start out on that long ocean voyage when expecting a child. It is not all that strange in that particular family. Down my line my great grandfather John Wesley Rowe decided he want to spend Christmas in Posey County, Indiana so they went Sarah was pregnant with her sixth child. They went and my great uncle George was born in Posey County. Uncle George was premature and so small they put him in a shoe box. They weren't sure he was going to live, but live he did, had three wives and eight children. On top of that they named him George Washington Benjamin Harrison Hays Rowe. Some essay in the family said his name alone was long enough to kill him.

You see the son born on the ocean was the one we descend from - George Row II. The information of George II's birth comes from Daughter of the American Revolution papers.
Our cousin Ellen Rowe Zschau did much search on the family and she told me that there are errors in the papers confusing the Revolutionary War service of George I and his son George II.

The grave is in the Salem Chapel Church Cemetery in what is now Snyder County, Pennsylvania. The original name of the church was Row's Chapel since he built the church. You will notice that he was killed by Indians who were loyal to the English.
I do not have at this time a list of the rest of his children. George II Row married Margaret Weaver and they produced 16 children from Pennsylvania through Kentucky. I am aware of only two who came to Harrison County - Daniel and Samuel.
When George Row II hit Logan County, Kentucky, his son Daniel met a young girl whom he had known back in Pennsylvania - Mary Appel Server. They married 14 Nov 1805 in Logan County, Kentucky and had 12 children. My nieces, nephews and I come down from their third child Jesse Server Rowe. Dave Reed comes down from their oldest child Rosanna Rowe Lopp through his great grandmother Ardelia Elliot Reed. (Dave's grandfather Herman Reed and grandmother Agnes Bean Reed were each blood kin to both of my parents) Daniel Rowe and his wife Mary Appel Server came up the river to HC to manage her uncle's mill. Mary's uncle Christopher Shuck was the husband of Mary's aunt Mary Catherine Appel Shuck sister to Dorothea Appel Server.

This picture was taken and sent to me by either Tom Stonecipher or Ellen Rowe Zschau, both of whom attended an anniversery celebration at the church. It was here that Ellen met a lady down one of the other lines - the kind with a hot temper who knows everything. She insisted that George II and his wife were buried in an unmarked grave in Salem Cemetery. By that time Ellen had been to their grave on a farm in Posey County, Indiana plus all governmental show records show that they are buried in Posey County. In fact, Ellen wanted to find enough of us who would bear the expense of exhuming their bodies and reburying them in Salem Chapel Cemetery. I have a whole other set of comments to make about the possible origins in Europe of the Row family, but this is too long for both you all and me. I now have TB.



Smith Family Burial Grounds

Eureka!!!!!
This picture was taken by Creston Eckart just a week or so ago. This is the site of the Smith burying ground. Creston had the help of his brother Bob Eckart in locating this. Otto Smith ran a store at Iris. I heard by mother as well as her aunts and uncles speak of Iris. There is not longer a town there. When I was at the cemetery many years ago there were a few monuments standing - Charles I. Smith and his wife Matilda Biggs and one of their daughters. These have been toppled and only the bases appear to be intact. There is one marker standing(I'll send you a picture,Creston took later.) The marker reads Sarah J. Albin b. 1818 died 1859.
There are countless graves all over HC that have vanished. As I said recently, you have to understand what life was like in those days and not judge the people for burying in these plots on their farms, I personally think opprobrium should be directed to more recent inhabitants of HC who have no care or concern for the dead. The first I heard about this type of disrespect was in 1945 when I visites my great uncle Obe Reed at Central who told me that he was using some big old tombstones in the field he was planting as a prop for some machinery.

The Kentuckians are even worse that HC. If they need to run a road and the best way for it to go was by running it over a cemetery - no problem it was done. This was done many years ago in the cemetery where my ancestors.
Johannes Martin Shuck was buried September 1804 in a cemetery in Washington County, Kentucky that was destroyed by road construction.
(This information was received from Sharon Welch at welch@sginet.com) John Martin shuck arrived in Philadelphia, PA. on 9/2/1749 on board the ship "Albany", Robert Brown, Master, from Rotterdam, last of Cowes, England. John was one of 285 passengers, all Wirtenbergers from Erbach, Germany. He settled in Pennsylvania and he and two sons served in the Revolutionary War from Northumberland County, PA.. Around 1792 he sold his land in PA and moved with his family to near Springfield, KY, the county seat of Washington County. His wife Mary Margaret Wagner, died a few years later and John died in 1804. Both were buried in a cemetery that was destroyed by road building. (This information was taken from the record of "The Lopps of Harrison County, Indiana by Walter and Florence Beanblossom)
In my own lifetime the city of Louisville did that to a cemetery in the West End. This was not a small cemetery. Yes the person has gone to a better life,but I have enough Native American blood to resent this.
Creston - give Bob our thanks. Several of us are deeply in debt to him and also to you for making this available to us.


Ohio Valley History

When we take an interest in the broader family, there four areas that should be considered.
We first collect data-births, deaths, marriage where and when. Then we come up with a data base. This is satisfying to a point. I like to compare this with working a jigsaw puzzle.
Secondly we wish we had visuals. What did or do these people look like. Do I look like any of them? etc.
We next long to have anecdotes or legends passed down in the family.
The fourth and a very important aspect of knowing a little more about the people is the understanding of the culture in which they lived. In my opinion one of the greatest errors is to judge them by our times. It is true that certain basic human characteristics have been much the same over a period of time. But if we each look at ourselves we can see that over the period of our lives we have changed. Examine yourselves. Why did I arrive where I am today, what influenced me? Then you have a better understanding of the development of our ancestors.
Decades ago the Filson Club was founded in Louisville, Kentucky to preserve the story of the people of the area on both sides of the river. It was the Filson Club when I joined but today it is the Filson Historical Society.
It is a good place to do research, you don't have to have a college degree, just brains. I shall not try to go into all that they have. Just a couple of things that happened to me.
While working there one time, I met a lady descended from Margaret Bruce and her husband David Cox. Margaret was a sister to my five greats grandfather James Bruce,II who was my first Bruce ancestor in Harrison County, Indiana. I was sent a short family on my Rhodes family of Nelson County, Kentucky. This Rhodes family was a Roman Catholic family who came in that group of Catholics from Maryland and parts of Virginia. The charts had been made by the Sisters of Loretto because the two founding Mothers Superior were first cousins to my three greats grandmother Eleanor(Ellen Ely) Rhodes who married Abraham Watson. The Adams family of Harrison County was a family who came into Nelson County

A few years ago The Filson joined with the Cincinnati Museum Center and the University of Cincinnati to publish jointly this new quarterly periodical Ohio Valley History. Like most magazines not every article may interest you, but many will give you a much deeper understanding of our people. The current issue vol 5 #2 Summer 2005 has an article that will interest you all, especially if you have a drop of McKim blood.
"Scared from Their Sins for a Season" The Religion Ramifications of the New Madrid Earthquakes, 1811-1812 - auther Tom Kanon
Our McKim ancestor and family were among the settlers at New Madrid(Missouri) during this time. William had land on a bluff over the Mississippi. His farm fell into the river.
This earthquake was felt all the way to the Atlantic coast. We have just experienced the hurricanes along the Gulf and one can not help comparing and contrasting the two natural calamities. All of you are interested in religion and that is the thrust of the article. You should be able to find this quarterly in a library near you live in a state bordering the Ohio River. All the libraries along the Ohio River counties should have a copy. I highly recommend it.
There was an article in a prior issue which dealt with the land speculator. Since we know that our Stephen Smith was one of them, the article adds a dimension to a motive in his life.


William Henry Shickel

William Henry Shickel b. 1 Jan 1867 Harrison County d. 7 Feb 1931 St. Joseph Hospital Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois buried Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Lexington, McLean County, Illinois. His name and date of birth are on the marker for his first wife Lucinda Reed in Bethel Cemetery. He is buried her with his second wife Minerva Brown b. Harrison County

Nerva was the daughter of James Brown and his second wife Nancy Getz (Gates). Nancy's mother was a Wiseman. I have among my papers those who were closely related, sent to me by one of the top Wiseman researchers. James and Nancy Getz Brown had the following children: John Brown, Addie Brown, Minerva Brown Shickel, Edward Brown, Preston Brown, Martha Brown Dean
Edward Brown married Adda Mae Shickel, his brother-in-law's daughter; Preston Brown was the first husband of Ella Gertrude McKim, daughter of Jim and Minnie McKim - Ella Mae Brown Walker was their only child. Marriage ended in divorce.
Martha married Obed Lee Dean son of Mason Dean(son of Dennis P. Dean and Nancy Watson - sister to Laura Jane Watson Reed and to Marshall Watson)
Nerva and William Henry Shickel ,Sr. had six children: Floyd Shickel -2 children by first wife; Monzell Shickel - never married;Ray Shickel m. Donna Morrison - had three children; Lewis Shickel m. Goldie Probus - had six children; baby boy who died; William Henry Shickel,Junior - never married
Since the above picture was taken Monzell and Junior are buried here. Ray's ashes are buried on his mother's grave.
This following story took a lot of sleuthing and help from many people. When Neva was young she worked on the farm of Christopher Columbus H. Kerns aka "Cub Kerns( husband of Elizabeth Huffman, daughter of Isabella Reed and Henry Huffmam. Isabella Reed's brother John Reed was the grandfather of Lucinda Reed, William Henry Shickel's first wife. This comes from the research of Roberta Reed) Nerva had a child by Cub. I had always heard my father and his sisters talk about this boy. My father told me who his natural father was. Beulah Watson pointed out to me the farm in Boone Township. Jerry
Brown sent me an old school picture of a Central School . he was there in a class picture with my uncle Floyd Shickel. Checked the 1910 census and found him live with Nancy Brown and listed as grandson with the name Kerns. In the household were also Nancy Brown's sons Edward and Preston. My mother told me from time to time he would visit his mother Nerva. My parents and my aunts always used the name Brown when they talked about him

Paul Shickle

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