Three NEWMAN Sisters And A Mystery.

Today is Wednesday, December 16, 2020. It's currently 32° and I'm looking out my dinning room window at a blanket of snow that fell three days ago! It's been six years since we've had a significant snowfall and I'm loving it.

But enough about that.

The reason for this post goes back to the fabulous dresser I wrote about last.

I've continued corresponding with my new cousin, Mr. SHUPE. I've had a few questions to ask regarding lineage and documentation.

I had traced his line back to our common ancestor, Jonathan NEWMAN. As I pointed out in my last post, he descends from Jonathan's daughter Delilah Jane, and I from Jonathan's daughter, Arminta. But while emailing back and forth with Mr. SHUPE he kept refrencing his father's maternal line, while my research showed that it was his father's paternal line that connected to Jonathan Newman.

I had asked him who had written the letter he sent with the dresser and who exactly it was written to. He said it was written to his father. He remembered two aunts but he felt it had to have been from his Aunt Susie Dunlap; his father's mother's sister. His exact repsonse was:

The Aunts I remember are Pete Dowsett and Susan (Susie) Dunlap. Guessing I would say Susie, since she relocated to a smaller house at some point and was very fond of my Dad. He was her first nephew. The letter was written to my Dad.

I began to research a little more. I was just about to give up when I finally looked at his great Aunt Susie's husband, Mr. Dunlap. As it turns out Mr. Dunlap was the son of Francis DUNLAP and Bessie Fair LYDA. Bessie Fair LYDA was the daughter of William Washington LYDA and Elizabeth NEWMAN. You guessed it. Elizabeth was also a daughter of Jonathan NEWMAN. If the dresser was made for Delilah Jane, we may never know why a descendant of her sister, Elizabeth, had it, but it's nice to know I can at least connect the dots. Below is a picture of four of the NEMAN sisters. My Arminta is not one of them. The order is not known but the sisters are Amanda, Elizabeth, Jane and Susan.

BUT...

There is still one more mystery as far as this dresser is concerned. It arrived at my house late at night, about half an hour past my bedtime. The next morning, I woke up eager to take it all in. I began washing it with Murphy's Oil Soap,

and then polished it with Pledge Furniture Oil.

I glued in the few pieces of trim that had fallen off

and while doing all of this, I noticed on the inside back panel of the bottome drawer in old style cursive was the name Ellen Shepherd, Henderson-ville, North Carolina

I've researched this woman and have only discovered that she at some point lived in the same community (Mud Creek) as our ancestor Jonathan NEWMAN. Ellen SHEPHERD was born 25 July 1847, the daughter of Abner SHEPHERD and Susannah BARNETT. She died 25 April 1917. Her estate records state that she was an "incompetent person" and was under the guardianship of a Mr. J. D. DAVIS. But why is her name written on the inside of one of the drawers? Also written in pencil are numbers on the side panels of each of the drawers. I assume they're measurements but I'm not certain. I'm putting this mystery out there in hopes that someone may have a clue to offer. Until then, I'll keep researching a little here and a little there. I may never get answers but the thrill is in the chase.



I am distantly related to Ellen SHEPHERD. Her father's mother was Penelope MERRILL. Penelope was the daughter of Benjamin MERRILL who was the brother of my 5th great grandfather, Jonathan MERRILL. Until next time, Becky

Oh! And Merry Christmas

A Dying Miser's Secret

 

 

This, I think, will be the most interesting post of the year. I just can't imagine it getting any better than this one. This week the 52 Ancestors theme is 'Prosper'... and as we will find out, someway or another my 4th great grandfather, Jonathan  Newman, did just that.

Jonathan Newman was born March 9, 1824 in Rutherford County, NC. At this point in time I do not know for certain who his parents were, but others have them to be William Newman III and Delilah Ellison. The mother for sure seems plausible as Jonathan named one of his daughters Delilah.

Jonathan married Susan Ann Lankford, daughter of Nathan and Elizabeth Lankford, sometime before 1848, the birth year of their oldest, my 3rd great grandmother, Arminta Newman. Other children born to this union, listed in birth order are, Amanda, William, (possibly a Nathan), Elizabeth, Jacob (called Jake), Delilah Jane, Thomas, Johnson (or Johnston), (possibly a Babe), Susan Ann, and George W.

Susan, Delilah, Elizabeth, & Amanda. Actual order unknown.

Several of these children have been verified by listing their parents on their death certificates, such as Delilah Jane, Susan Ann and George W. others come from family groupings in the 1850, 1860, 1870 & 1880 census records. There is also a court dispute over Jonathan's land that ran in the Western North Carolina Times in March of 1903 those listed are as follows: A. J. Newman, G. W. Newman, Thomas Newman, Arminta Stepp and Wm. Stepp, Elizabeth Lyda and W.W. Lyda, Amanda Case and W. S. Case, S.A. Bagwell and W.W. Bagwell, D. J. Allen and Carrie Newman vs. John Newman, Coatsworth Newman, Dock Newman and Fisher Newman (minor), Fred Newman (minor), and Bertha Newman (minor).

*I found it interesting that Arminta and her sisters, Elizabeth, Amanda, and Susan all married men named William.*

It would also seem that Jonathan's son Jacob murdered a man by the last name of Hoots after becoming intoxicated and looking for a fight. The year of these articles was 1884.

The Roanoke News 27 March 1884

I'm not certain if this next article is the same Jacob or not, but if it was, it would seem that karma caught up to him... His father did reside in Blue Ridge, Henderson County, North Carolina. And if he had killed Mr. Hoots and fled, it would make sense that he was now living in Tennessee. Though it is odd that they didn't mention the Hoots murder. The date of the article is 17 Nov 1887.




Given Jonathan's birth year, it would've been very likely that he would've fought during the Civil War. When I searched Fold3, I found no records for him enlisting but in the files under the Southern Claims Commision, I found a file containing 38 pages of information on Jonathan. When asked during his deposition, 'What force, compulsion, or influence was used to make you do anything against the Union cause?' his reply was, 'I was compelled to go into the services of the Confederacy or into the saltpetre business, which is the business I engaged in.' *Saltpetre was used to make gunpowder* His claim, of course, was denied. Below is an image of the final statement.





In his claim to the Southern Claims Commission there is quite a bit of information. Question #36 asks if he had any near relatives that served in the Confederacy to which he replied he had three brothers. He goes on to list them as David, James, and Thomas. He referenced the year 1863 and gave their ages as 35, 33, and 30, respectively. Thomas died while in service.  One of the witnesses for Jonathan's claim is Minerva Cornwell. In her deposition she states that she is 42 years of age and is a sister-in-law. The same source I have for the parents of Jonathan Newman does list his wife Susan Ann Lankford as having a sister named Minerva. She was born about 1836. And I have found a marriage record for Minerva Lankford marrying John B. Cornwell. She is widowed by 1864.

Other interesting tidbits from his claim is that he stated he was once arrested in Hendersonville but was released without giving bond and during the war he was threatened, published and denounced in the Newspaper. ( I have found no article - so far ) What I did find during those years was an article from Sept of 1863 where he was appointed to a committee to draft resolutions for a meeting alongside an A.J. Gibbs and Thomas Blackwell in Blue Ridge.  In his deposition for his claim he states that his farm was in Henderson County about six miles east of Hendersonville. It consisted of about five hundred acres, about one hundred in cultivation, two acres in waste, and the remainder in woods.

And now for the part that has to do with being prosperous. Within the first few days after his death on 31 Aug 1901, Jonathan Newman made all the papers. The reason you ask? Here are a few of the articles where you can read for yourself what had the community all a stir.



Just to put things in perspective... $4,000 in 1901 is equal to $108,431.90 today. I've never been able to find out if they found the bucket of gold.

Jonathon Newman's home on Howard Gap Road, Henderson Co., NC (location-across from Fellowship Baptist Church and Kingwood Hill subdivision). Jonathon Newman's sister-in-law, Minerva  Lankford Cornwell & her husband, John Cornwell lived north of this location about 1/4-1/2 mile on Howard Gap Road - just across a bridge and to the left.

Until next week,
Becky

And as always don't forget to check out these other genealogy blogs: Days of Our Lives and Untangled Family Roots.