Friday, October 28, 2005

Today in Family History:
death of John H. Brown, Andersonville prisoner

On the 28th of October 1864, after 3 months of imprisonment at Andersonville, my ancestor John H. Brown died.


John H. Brown, memorandum Posted by Picasa

Several of his records say that he died at Andersonville Prison, but apparently he actually died while being transferred from Andersonville to the prison at Florence, SC. It is not known where he is buried.

He and several men from his unit, including his cousin Sgt. Oliver M. Brown, were captured at the Battle of Utoy Creek, Georgia on the 6th of August 1864. Another cousin, Sgt. Jotham Brown, was killed that day. They had all three mustered for service out of Greene County, Tennessee into Company D, 8th Tennessee Infantry Regiment on 15 May 1863.

The battle itself was not an important battle, just a small part of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign.
Battle of Utoy Creek, Georgia: After failing to envelop Hood’s left flank at Ezra Church, Sherman still wanted to extend his right flank to hit the railroad between East Point and Atlanta. He transferred John M. Schofield’ s Army of the Ohio from his left to his right flank and sent him to the north bank of Utoy Creek. Although Schofield’s troops were at Utoy Creek on August 2, they, along with the XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland, did not cross until the 4th. Schofield’s force began its movement to exploit this situation on the morning of the 5th, which was initially successful. Schofield then had to regroup his forces, which took the rest of the day. The delay allowed the Rebels to strengthen their defenses with abatis, which slowed the Union attack when it restarted on the morning of the 6th. The Federals were repulsed with heavy losses by Bate’s Division and failed in an attempt to break the railroad. On the 7th, the Union troops moved toward the Confederate main line and entrenched. Here they remained until late August.

Result(s): Inconclusive

[Emphasis mine. -tkp]

Oliver Brown is listed as having "survived Andersonville", but he, too, had simply been transferred to Florence, SC Prison and he died there.

To quote from the diary of Samuel Elliot who was also among the majority of prisoners being transferred out of Andersonville because of the proximity of General Sherman:
Monday [October] 31.-While at Andersonville I did not suppose the rebels had a worse prison in the South, but I have now found out that they have. This den is ten times worse than that at Andersonville. Our rations are smaller and of poorer quality, wood more scarce, lice plentier, shelters worn out, and cold weather coming on. I have stood my prison life wonderfully, but now I am commencing to feel it more sensibly, and am getting too weak to move about. To add to my misery I have the scurvy in the gums.

John H. Brown's first wife, Sarah W. Hendry, had passed away in 1861 and he had remarried Eliza Starnes. At his death he left 8 children, 5 of them minors (though the other 3 were just 13, 15 and 17, they were all over 16 when the pension was created).
children by Sarah W. Hendry:

Nancy C. Brown
Joseph Henry "Henry" Brown
William Amos Brown
Massey Jane Brown
Sarah Ann Brown
John Emerson Brown
Alfred Wilkerson Brown

child by Eliza Starnes:

James Leonard Brown


The pension received by John E. Hendry was $2.00 per child per month, ending when they turned 16. Eliza Brown, as widow, received $8.00 for herself as long as she remained a widow and $2.00 additional for James. Some of Eliza's documents give also a Dec. 1864/Jan. 1865 death date for her husband, but the rest of the documents say that he died the 28th of October.

You can search a database of 32,000 Andersonville prisoners at the Macon County, Georgia website. They can be quite detailed. John H. Brown's entry looks like this:
Andersonville Prisoner Profile
Code No: 37321
Grave No: NOT BURIED AT ANDERSONVILLE
Last Name: BROWN
First Name: JOHN H
Rank: PRIVATE
Company: D
Regiment: 8
State: TN
Branch of Service: INFANTRY
Date of Death: 10/28/1864
Cause of Death:
Remarks: REPORTED TO HAVE DIED AT ANDERSONVILLE. LISTED AS GEORGE H. BROWN, [105].
Reference*: PG145[105]
Place Captured: UTOY CREEK, GA
Date Captured: 8/6/1864
Alternate Names:
Status: REPORTED TO HAVE DIED AT ANDERSONVILLE
More Information
Available: YES

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Ghost Goas

I finally found the Andrew Goas family in the 1850 census:
Liverpool Township, County of Columbiana, State of Ohio, pg. 249/125A
11 July 1850 by Wm Gellundieck
line 2, 245/247 An'd GHOST 34 M Labourer " [Pennsylvania]
Mary 15 F " [Pennsylvania]
Lewis 14 M " [Pennsylvania] attended school
Joseph 8 M " [Pennsylvania] attended school
Milnor 2 M Ohio
Christian 19 F Pennsylvania

But, of course, it almost raises more questions than it answers.

It confirms my guess about the young man "Millener R" in the 1860 census being a brother and not someone named "R. Millener".

But Mary's name was supposed to be "Hannah", according to family tradition, and who is Christian?! A second wife? Not correctly placed, if so. A sister helping out with the family?

And the way I found it...

Goas is a horrible name to research. Even if the census person writes it down correctly (and it is Goos, Ghost, Goas in the records I have) the 'search engines' that are my bread and butter have the addition handicap of a secondary interpretation. So, and I swear I've tried this before, I typed in "Lewis" as a first name, said he was born 1837 +/-2 years in Pennsylvania. I got 871 hits. And then I started scanning.

Lewis Ghest came up, and bingo!

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Upgrade

I've upgraded my Experience's Children website and I'm really impressed with the improvements.

Darrin Lythgoe's Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding is completely fabulous. The new capability to differentiate between documents and histories is very helpful.

And it even has a new "Today in Family History" feature that I've been wanting very badly.

After a lot of annoying fiddling with my .css I finally got the links to look like I wanted them to. Always the little things are the big hassles...

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Elvira and Martha Taylor

I haven't had much luck with my Taylor family of Pulaski Co., MO until Ina Tipton found me and sent me, among other things, this lovely photograph of her ancestor Elvira May Taylor Mitschele and Elvira's sister Martha F. Taylor:


Elvira and Martha Taylor Posted by Picasa

She also sent me a scan of Elvira and Martha's parent's bible record:

Hayden and Mary Jane Boston Taylor Bible Record
transcribed 17 October 2005 by tkp

Hayden Taylor son of John and Nancy Taylor born
Hart Co Kentucky Feb. 8 1822
Mary Jane Boston Daughter of James + Biddy Boston was
born Green County Kentucky Jan 1829

BIRTHS

Hayden Taylor + Mary Jane Boston
were married at the home of her Fathers
by the Revd W.C. Privets? Feby 12 1851

Hayden Taylor born hart Co Ky Feb 8 1822
Mary Jane Taylor born green Co. Ky Jan 18 1829
James Washington Taylor born hart Co Ky Jn 27 1851
ransom Lane Taylor born hiart Co. Ky Dec 18. 1852
William Adair Taylor born heart Co Ky Feb 2, 1854
George Alexander Taylor born heart Co Ky April 5, 1855
Elvira May Taylor born heart Co. Ky Oct 14, 1856
John Franklin Taylor born pulaski Co mo March 1 1858
Benjamin smith Taylor born pulaski Co mo nov 16 1859
Zacariah harrison Taylor born pulaski Co mo Feb 14, 1861
Martha francis Taylor born pulaski Co mo Jan 23 1863
Mary Jane Taylor born pulaski Co mo Feb 4 1865
Hayden Jackson Taylor born pulaski Co mo Jan 24 1867
Willis Randall Taylor pulaksi Co mo Nov 22 1870

Fantastic stuff!

All my thanks to Ina.