Genealogy -- What A Tangled Web You Weave

A series of obituaries has a branch of my tree turned all sorts of backwards and upside down.

This blog post will be my attempt at unravelling the information.

Edith HUBBARD DRAKE was the daughter of Alfred Allen HUBBARD and Laura BUTLER.

Laura BUTLER was the eldest daughter of Nancy CAUDILL and James BUTLER. 

Laura's headstone gives her birth date as 23 Jul 1877, but considering her parents weren't married until 26 August of that same year, I'm going to venture to say the year was most likely 1878. And one such newspaper clipping announcing her death, would agree with me. 

Springfield Leader and Press 31 Dec 1957

In 1880 we can find baby Laura (age given as 1) living in Taney County, Missouri, with her parents James P (age 26) and Nancy J (age 19). Laura is the only child at that time. Considering the fact that we rarely have an 1890 census and both Nancy and James (and all of their children) are obsolete by the 1900 census, finding Laura's siblings can be a bit tricky. But as you can see from the death announcement above, we know she at least has a sister, Mrs. Tellefer ROBERTS, from Springfield. 

Research reveals Mrs. ROBERTS to be Estella BUTLER, wife of Toliver Jefferson ROBERTS. Estella was born 11 March 1886 somewhere in Missouri. The two married in Christian County, MO in 1904

Searching the digital Missouri birth records prior to 1910 reveals that James and Nancy CAUDELL BUTLER had a son named Charles who was  born in Christian County, Missouri 3 Aug 1883. 

Researching Newspapers leads me to his obituary, that also references their sister, Mrs. TJ ROBERTS. His obituary also gives us two more siblings, Bessie STIPES and Henry, and they will open up a can of worms that really start to weave a tangled web.



 

Springfield Leader and Press 15 March 1965

I begin searching Newspapers for Mrs. Bessie STIPES and it leads me to two more obituaries, one for an Emma Belle HENDERSON and one for a James Henry HENDERSON. 

The Pryor Jeffersonian 13 June 1963

The Wheaton Journal 20 July 1967

 

Now is the time to get out your pencil and paper because it's gets confusing quickly. From the obituary of Emma HENDERSON we see that she as two daughters, Bessie STIPES and Roxie KIRBY and four sons, Harry, Bonnie, Andrew and Henry HENDERSON. And then two siblings, Charley BUTLER (from above) and Stella ROBERTS (also from above). 

Wait. So is Bessie STIPES the sister or niece of Charles BUTLER? Looking at census records I find a Bessie and William Avery STIPES living in various places in the area: 1910 McDonald County, MO, 1920 Delaware County, OK, 1930 & 1940 Mayes County, OK and in all of these records her birth is given as 1890 in Arkansas. How could Emma HENDERSON be her mother. That would make her only 10 at the time of Bessie's birth. Bessie is also missing from the 1900 census.

The newspaper clipping below shows that Bessie's maiden name was definitely HENDERSON.

Pineville Herald 3 March 1905

So then, let's look at the obituary of James Henry HENDERSON. His siblings are listed as brothers: Harry, Andrew and Bonnie, and sisters: Roxie KIRBY, Bessie STIPES, and Stella ROBERTS 

James Henry HENDERSON is also missing from the 1900 census but we can find him in 1910 at age 15 living in McDonald County, MO, with a Roe HENDERSON family. His relationship is given as "son". Other family members are Emma (age 31) (wife) Harry (age 10) (son) Roxie (age 7) (daughter) and Bonnie (age 4) (son). This is Roe's second marriage. Emma's first. They have been married 13 years giving an approximate marriage date of 1897. Emma is most likely not James Henry's mother as he is 15. And definitely not Bessie's mother either as she would be 20.

So that means in order for Henry to be Charley BUTLER's brother and for Bessie to be his sister, they most likely share a mother, Nancy J Caudell and I suspect that Bessie is Henry's only full sibling. 

Nancy most likely died not long after the birth of James Henry, and her unmarried daughter, Emma, married the widowed step-father, becoming the mother of his four other children and helping to raise her two youngest half-siblings. 

Another sibling's obituary I found searching names already found in this family, belongs to that of a Mrs. Cora BARNES who died in November of 1957. It would appear she only listed her full siblings. 

The Springfield News Leader 02 Nov 1957

What I have found for the children of Emma BUTLER HENDERSON and Roan Mcgee (Mack) HENDERSON are as follows:

1. Harry Arthur HENDERSON b. 8 Sept 1899 Jasper, Missouri, m. 27 April 1925 in Delaware County, OK, to Bertha BALLOU d. 6 Jan 1974, Mayes County, OK (gender on DC is mistaken as female on the OK2Explore site)
2. Roxie Viola HENDERSON KIRBY b.24 Nov 1902, Wagoner, OK, m. 24 Aug 1919 in McDonald County, MO, to Rollie S. KIRBY d. 23 April 1996, Delaware County, OK. 
3. Bonnie Zeno HENDERSON B. 2 April 1906, Barry County, Missouri, m. 28 Feb 1943, Delaware County, OK to Thelma Jenkins d. 15 May 2003 Mayes County, OK
4. Andrew Virgil HENDERSON b. 16 March 1911, McDonald County, MO m. 12 May 1935, Delaware County, OK to Clara Atkins d. 30 January 1993 -- The Andrew V Henderson on the OK2Explore site gives a death date of 30 April 1993 in Rogers County, OK
   
   
   

So to recap: It is my belief that James BUTLER and Nancy CAUDELL (m. 26 Aug 1877, Christian County, MO) were the parents of :

1. Laura Adeline BUTLER b 23 July 1878, Christian County, Missouri, m. 20 Sept 1900, Webster County, MO to Alfred Allen HUBBARD d. 29 Dec 1957, Delaware County, OK
2. Emma Belle BUTLER b. 28 Feb 1880, Christian County, Missouri, m. 1896/7 Arkansas to Roan McGee "Mack" HENDERSON d. 2 June 1963, Mayes County, Oklahoma
3. Charles BUTLER b. 3 Aug 1883, Christian County, Missouri m.? d. 13 March 1965, Benton County, AR
4. Cora BUTLER BARNES b. 21 Jan 1884, Douglas County, Missouri m. 29 March 1903 in Taney County, MO to Marion Foster BARNES d. 01 Nov 1957, Webster County, MO
5. Estella BUTLER ROBERTS b. 11 March 1886 in Missouri, m. 20 March 1904 in Christian County, MO, to Toliver Jefferson ROBERTS d. 14 Sept 1971, Missouri

Nancy CAUDELL BUTLER and Roan Mcgee (Mack) HENDERSON were the parents of:

1. Bessie HENDERSON STIPES b 02 January 1890 in Arkansas m. 26 Feb 1905, in McDonald County, Missouri, to William Avery STIPES d. 27 August 1977 in Mayes County, OK
2. James Henry HENDERSON b. 28 April 1895 Searcy, AR m. 06 June 1916 in Barry County, Missouri d. 16 July 1967, Newton, Missouri

And as stated above the children of Emma BUTLER HENDERSON and Roan Mcgee (Mack) HENDERSON are:

1. Harry Arthur HENDERSON b. 8 Sept 1899 Jasper, Missouri, m. 27 April 1925 in Delaware County, OK, to Bertha BALLOU d. 6 Jan 1974, Mayes County, OK (gender on DC is mistaken as female on the OK2Explore site)
2. Roxie Viola HENDERSON KIRBY b.24 Nov 1902, Wagoner, OK, m. 24 Aug 1919 in McDonald County, MO, to Rollie S. KIRBY d. 23 April 1996, Delaware County, OK. 
3. Bonnie Zeno HENDERSON B. 2 April 1906, Barry County, Missouri, m. 28 Feb 1943, Delaware County, OK to Thelma Jenkins d. 15 May 2003 Mayes County, OK
4. Andrew Virgil HENDERSON b. 16 March 1911, McDonald County, MO m. 12 May 1935, Delaware County, OK to Clara Atkins d. 30 January 1993 -- The Andrew V Henderson on the OK2Explore site gives a death date of 30 April 1993 in Rogers County, OK
   
   
   
   

I don't have any death records for James or Nancy CAUDELL BUTLER but these new discoveries give me some dates and places to start looking. I believe James died sometime around 1889/90  before Nancy's daughter Bessie was born and Nancy sometime around 1895/96/97 probably around Searcy, Arkansas when her son James Henry HENDERSON was born. What I don't know is if the Searcy given as his birth place is Searcy County, Arkansas or Searcy, White County, Arkansas.

I think this could be the grave site of Nancy. 



Until next time, 
Becky

PS. I'll leave you with a few more miscellaneous articles with various family members.

The Delaware County Journal 3 Feb 1955

 

The Delaware County Journal 06 Oct 1955

The Pryor Jeffersonian 9 Jan 1958

Tarripin "Tuxie" HOLT - Trail of Tears Ancestor

 Today's prompt once again comes from Amy Johnson Crow and her #52Ancestors challenge for the year 2021. For the week of March 1-7 the prompt is: Multiples

I'm still working on filling out the Native American branches of my half siblings tree. I last blogged about their line a few weeks ago making it back to their 2nd great grandfather Mose HOLT.

This time I'm going to use the applications of multiple people to piece together more branches in this line. 

The first thing to notice is the cover image for each of the HOLT sisters applications. Information given on these pages is:

Application number
Action
Name
Residence
Reason

Below I will post images of each of the sisters' cover images. These applications can be found on Fold3. 

The HOLT sisters' applications all contain the same information and even appear to have been filled out by the same person. They're almost exact duplicates in certain sections. If you notice on their cover pages, they also all mention being a 1st cousin of applicant # 10278 which belongs to Minerva WOOLEY.

Now, this has the potential to get confusing so try to keep up 😏 (wink-y face).  On page two of Minerva's application file it mentions the following application numbers as "grouped herewith" 

These applications belong to:

William HOLT (10280) - Brother of Minerva WOOLEY

Frances HOLT (12905) - Half sibling of Sarah, Lizzie, Nancy, and Jennie HOLT
Minerva WOOLLY (16787) duplicate file (different spelling) of the above Minerva WOOLEY #10278
Mary E. HOLT (12904) appears to be a grouped application of siblings Mary, Theodora, & Jacob HOLT - nieces and nephew of Minerva WOOLEY
Mary KING (18060) duplicate (10279) sister of Minerva WOOLEY 

From the above applications, I know that William HOLT, Minerva WOOLEY and Mary KING are siblings and 1st cousins of my siblings' ancestor Sarah HOLT SMITH. Therefore they will share grandparents. 

William, Minerva and Mary all list their parents as William HOLT and Nelly FOOL with the exception of Mary who says Nelly was her step-mother and she doesn't know her mother's name. So we know their father William HOLT was the brother of  Sarah HOLT SMITH's father Mose HOLT. 

The "grouped" application (#12904) of Mary, Theodora & Jaccob - nieces and nephew of Minerva WOOLEY, state their father's name was Daniel HOLT. So now we have siblings William, Mose and Daniel HOLT. 

Then we get to the application of Frances HOLT and things get a little tricky -- and maybe tie into the prompt of  multiple  in a different way and it's something I picked up on briefly while researching this line last time. 

Frances says her parents are: Mose HOLT and Annie MOLE. And gives the death date for Mose as 1895. Frances was born about a year after my siblings' ancestor Sarah HOLT SMITH. 

Did Mose divorce Sarah's mother Polly and marry Annie. Did the Cherokee have divorces? Or does their culture allow for multiple partners without official separation? 

I have a couple different census records for Mose with each of these family units so they obviously didn't cohabitate in the same household with multiple spouses.

In 1886 Mose and Polly are found with their two children born at that time, Lizzie (Eliza) and Jennie in Sequoyah District.

But in 1893 in Sequoyah District Mose is with Annie and Francis and two other children, most likely Annie's with a previous spouse, if you see the remarks on the right: "Mose Holt stepfather of Binge children"

 
And in that same census year (1893) Polly is alone with the following children: Lizzie, Jennie, Nancy & Sarah



Later on in Frances HOLT's application she gives the names of her siblings as: Sarah HOLT, Jennie HOLT and Lizzie HOLT, so obviously the Mose HOLT listed is the same and these are her half siblings. Not sure why Nancy was left out.



So going through the information given in all these applications I know that Mose had the following brothers: William (married to Nelly FOOL) and Daniel (married to Sarah YOUNGBLOOD) as well as two sisters Lizzie (not married no children) and Sarah (Dawes #8303 who marries a WOLFE and possibly a GUINEAHEAD)

According to the application of William HOLT (10280) his father's parents were: "Duxie" Holt -- Also given as "Tuxie" Holt -- also given at times as William HOLT and Sarah HOLT. 

In the application of William Holt's sister, Minerva, we find a translated typed letter on behalf of her mother Nelly FOOL HOLT that again gives her husband William HOLT's father as "Tuxie" HOLT and even gives us the maiden name of his mother Sarah as FIVEKILLER as well as a lot of other information so I'm including an image of the letter:

I will also include a page from William and Minerva's older half-sister Mary that gives the same information:

This has been a lot to take in. But it has let me add a few more names to my tree and now I can research these names more in depth. 

As a recap: 

Mose HOLT was the son of "Tuxie" HOLT and Sarah FIVEKILLER

Tuxie HOLT was the son of William HOLT and Jennie LNU (Last name unknown) at this time.

The 1851 Drennen Rolls shows the family of "Tuxie" as entry 548 -- Notice here his name is Tarripin HOLT.

Another picture of the Drennen Rolls of 1852



I'm going to end this right here for now. I hope you've been able to follow along as I use the Eastern Cherokee applications of  multiple HOLT descendants to piece together a few more generations. 

Until next time, 
Becky

P.S. If anyone can translate the last name "Lah-Wah-Nah" for me, that's the only maiden name given for Mose's wife Polly. I would be very grateful. 

P.S.S. One more thing I forgot to mention. In the applications of Minerva and William - they list the birthplace of their father William Holt (born abt 1849) as "Skinbayou, IT". According to AccessGenealogy The name was changed from Skin Bayou District to Sequoyah District by an act of National Council on November 4, 1851. See page 227, Cherokee Laws of 1852.

P.S.S.S A little more research lead me to the application #281 belonging to Josephine BOYNTON, the daughter of Polly FIVEKILLER. In her application she says her mother's father lived on Johns Creek in Georgia in 1835. Which is probably where our Sarah FIVEKILLER HOLT was born.

England Born Pioneer and Linn County Iowa Miller.

The prompt for today comes again from Genealogy Girl on Instagram and the prompt is beard. This time I'm going to the other side of the tree to blog about an ancestor of my maternal sibling.

William Leach HILL is the third great grandfather of my half brother. I recently stumbled across a few new photographs of him that were uploaded by a fellow subscriber to Ancestry. And you guessed it, he has a beard!

I find it so neat that both my step parents had ancestors that immigrated to the United States from England much later in time than any of my own personal ancestors, or even those of my husband. 

According to his death certificate, William Leach HILL, was born 25 April 1835, in England. His parents were Abraham HILL and Mary LEACH. He was a miller by occupation and he died at the age of 90 on 20 March 1926 in Central City, Boulder Township, Linn County, Iowa. The informant was his son-in-law, Verner Conklin, who is the 2nd great grandfather of my half brother.

There's a record index on Family Search for his baptism, that took place 5 Oct 1836 at Bradford Yorkshire England, UK. 

The 1851 England and Wales census finds 14 year old William living at home with his parents, four siblings and a servant on Wakefield Road, in Yorkshire, Yorkshire (West Riding), England

A picture even exists of William and two of his brothers when they were younger! Left to right is Thomas, Rowland, and then William according the FamilySearch user Stewart M. Marshall who shared it there. 




I'm not entirely certain when he immigrated. According to his obituary it was after the death of his father. 

Moday, March 22, 1926, Page 10, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA

I do however have his marriage record to Miss Catharine WILKINSON. There is a lot of information on this record so I'm going to include it and hope that it is large enough for you to see. Their information is in the middle column. They were married 10 Sept 1873 in Brantford, Brant, Ontario, Canada. His age was 38. He is a miller and a bachelor. Again, his parents are Abraham and Mary HILL. His current residence is Coralville, Johnson County, IA. Again, his birthplace is given as Yorkshire, England. The bride is Ms. Catharine WILKINSON, age 37, single, the daughter of Thomas and Nancy WILKINSON. She was born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England. William gives his religion as Baptist, and Catharine is Wesleyan. They were married by a minister named John ALEXANDER. 

The first US census he shows up in is the 1880, Boulder, Linn, IA census. In the course of 7 years he and Catharine have become to parents of three children, Alice age 5, William age 3, and Mary R. age 1. Alice is my half brother's ancestor. 

The same Family Search user also shared pictures of these children. 

William Wilkinson HILL, Mary Rhodes HILL, Alice Hannah, HILL

His occupation is always listed as miller in every record I've found. A little online searching and I came across this :

Linn County Civic Plus

Kansas-Nebraska Act in Iowa; page 23

When William died he left his son and eldest daughter, Alice as administrators of his estate. 




Only two months after the death of William, his bride, Catherine passed away 17 May 1926. 




The two of them, as well as two of their children, William and Alice, are buried in Prairieburg-Boulder Cemetery, in Prairieburg, IA. Their daughter Mary is buried in Jordans Grove. 

I wanted to leave you with one more bearded picture. This one is of William with his two daughters, Mary (L)  and Alice (R). 

And a link to a much more in depth biological sketch of William and his family that can be found on Google Books. 

Until next time,
Becky

Cherokee Indian Records And My Siblings' Lineage

 Amy Johnson Crow's prompt for the week of Feb 15-21 is Unusual Source. I'm not sure the sources I'm going to reference are necissarily unusual, but they're definitely unique to a certain subset of the population. I'm going to make sure to show my sources for all the information I provide while I blog about my my half siblings Native American Ancestry. 

Their maternal grandfather was Finis James SMITH, though his name has been shown to be Fine, Fines, Foundation and Finis in various records. 

According to his obiturary which can be found in the Northwest Arkansas Times FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS Monday, December 30, 1974, page two, Finis was born 1 Dec 1925 at Gore, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. He was the son of George Redbird SMITH and Sarah HOLT.  

Acording to census records for the years 1920, 1930  & 1940 this family resided in the Blackgum community.

Below is an image of the first census he shows up in, 1930, notice his name is Foundation. 



The next record is the 1940 census where his name is now Fine. 



His next record is his WW2 draft registration from 1943. Again his name is given as Fine with no middle name or initial.

Finis served in both World War II and the Korean Conflict.  My step-mom even said he had a bullet wound in his leg from the later. Finding a military record that I know for certain is him, has proven a bit difficult. You'd be surprised how many men had his same name. And most of the records I've found only give a name and rank but not much other identifiable information is included. 

Finis served as a city Marshal for the town of Prairie Grove, Washington County, Arkansas. 



And ran for Washington County Sherriff

Now moving up the tree focusing on his parents.... 

George Redbird SMITH and Sarah HOLT

From George's obituary we learn that he was born Feb 1885 in Muskogee County and that Sarah's maiden name was HOLT. We learn the name of several children and siblings.

 Muskogee Daily Phoenix MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA Monday, March 10, 1958, page 2.

From his WWI draft registration we learn a more specific birth date of 26 Feb 1885, that he is an Indian Citizen and his closest living relative is Redbird SMITH.

From the Oklahoma and Indian Territory, U.S., Indian Censuses and Rolls, 1851-1959, George can be found living with the Redbird family in the year 1886, a year after his birth.

Then again in the Oklahoma and Indian Territory, U.S., Dawes Census Cards for Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914 it's stated that Redbird is indeed his father. His mother is Lucy and that Redbird's parents were Pig SMITH and Lizzie was his mother's name. AND there's even parentage information for George's mother Lucy giving us her maiden name of FIELDS.

There is no shortage of infromation that can be found on Redbird SMITH online. I'll provide a few links below:

http://www.keetoowahsociety.org/redbird.htm 
https://accessgenealogy.com/native/red-bird-smith.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbird_Smith

Now going back to Finis: it's time to trace his mother's lineage. His obituary gave us her maiden name of HOLT. The above census records give us her estimated birth year as 1889/90.

Using Fold3 I searched the Eastern Cherokee Applications for her using her married name, as these records weren't submitted until after June 1906. There are several applicants with that name. The correct one is application #13544 Notice her residence is Blackgum.




Looking through the pages of her applications reveals more information comfirming this is indeed the correct Sarah HOLT SMITH. Though I will say it's both aggravagting and neat to find scans of her ancestors Indian names laying on top of her application pages blocking a lot of the information, but keep clicking through and eventually you'll find uncovered pages. 

For example: Page 5



 Followed by page 7 which gives us so much information:



Sarah was born 28 Feb 1889 in Sequoyah District. She's married. Her husband's name is George (application #26335). He is 22.  Her father was Mose HOLT and her mother's name was Polly. Her father was also born in Sequoyah District while her mother was born in the Salina District. It even tells us the death dates of her parents, though further investigation reveals the father's death date is off by a year. 

Page 12 gives us the names of Sarah's siblings as well as the Indian names of her grandparents:



You can also look at her siblings applications: Eliza BIRD (#13673), Jennie VANN (#17012) and Nancy HOLT (#13681) George SMITH signs as a witness in Nancy's applciation (below) as well as Eliza's  



Again using the Oklahoma and Indian Territory, U.S., Dawes Census Cards for Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914 we can find a card for Pollie HOLT



Unfortunately, this card doesn't give us the name of Pollie's parents or the parents of her deceased husband, Mose HOLT, though their Indian names were given in the applications of Sarah and her sisters. 

I did find a couple Indian Census/Rolls of this family unit for the years 1883 & 1886

The 1886 census gives us ages, so after this I decided to look into the death of Mose HOLT, as he would've only been about 36. It appears as though he was accidentally shot during a dispute over the next cheif.

Friday, 26 July 1895, The Monticellonian, page 1

Saturday, 27 July, 1895, The Coffeyville Daily Journal

I've also found information for Pollie HOLT(#9285) in the Dawes Packets of 1898. It's composed of the affidavits of Runabout MINK, Johnson MANNING, John BIRD (her son-in-law) and Jesse VANN (her son-in-law) using the translator S.R. WALKINGSTICK. Not too much new information was gleaned about Sarah or Pollie -- it mainly had questions about Eliza BIRD and her son William BARK.

I've also found records for the lands allotted to Sarah and her family.



Sarah lived long enough to bury her husband and all of her children but two; her daughter Tissie and her son Gawexskey. She died at the age of 87 in Vian, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, Saturday, 19 Nov 1977. She's buried with her husband in Redbird Cemetery

*I do want to  make note that George's headstone seems to have the wrong death year. His obituary was ran in 1958 and the Oklahoma State Vitals Record Index shows a death certificate for him on file with his death date as 7 March 1958. I'm not sure why, but using that index, I cannot find a record for Sarah. I also can't find an obituary for her. 

I hope you've been able to keep up as I piece together the lineage of my half siblings.

Until next time, 
Becky