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

Fresh Starts

Hello again, for anyone that's still reading my sparce little blog. I noticed over the course of three years, I've only written 86 blog posts. I was most consistent in 2015 when I, along with my SIL, tried to blog along with No Story Too Small by writing a blog post each week after being given a prompt. That year I wrote a total of 38 posts. I feel a little burned out, or researched out, as far as my own line is concerned and this year I thought I might use the 52 Ancestors prompts to blog about my step-parents and their lines. I have two siblings from my step-mom and one from my step-dad, and maybe they would like to know a little about the lines we don't share.

This week the prompt is fresh starts and I figured this new focus could give me a fresh start on my blog starting with my brother, Tyler's 3rd great grandparents, Joseph Jackson Gossett and Lillie Belle Childers.

Joseph Jackson Gossett was the 8th of at least 12 children born to Levi Jackson Gossett and Harriet Meranda Couch. He was born in 1872 in Coleman County Texas.

Lillie Belle Childers was the daughter of Willis William Childers (sometimes misspelled as Childress) and Lottie Windham. Lille was born 16 April 1887 in Mississippi, most likely in or near Kemper County where the family was enumerated in 1880.

By 1900, three year old Lillie, along with her family were living in Rains County, Texas while her soon to be husband Joe was living with his family some 200 miles away in Throckmorton County, Texas.

On 03 March 1907 they somehow came together in Montague County, Texas and were joined in holy matrimony.

The next thirty years would be spent in Texas. Montague and Garza Counties, respectively. They would have at least 7 children, and bury at least two. The 1910 Montague census only lists Joe, Lillie and six month old Daisy (Tyler's great grandmother). But Lillie is marked as the mother of two children, only one living. And in April 1933 their son Willis Hugh Gossett, at the young age of  17 died from kidney failure; specifically acute parenchymatous nephritis. He is buried at Terrace Cemetery in Post, Garza County, Texas.

I wonder if this is what prompted for them to leave Texas to make a fresh start in California. As a mother I couldn't imagine leaving my buried children behind so soon after burying them. Just a few short years later this older couple with their two youngest children, Edward Arnold  (18) and William Carl (15), along with their married daughter Nell and her husband Acie Forston, can be found living in Ontario, San Bernardino, California in the 1940 census, stating that they lived in Pomona California in 1935.

Acie Forston is found twice in the 1940 census. Once living with his in-laws and the other living as a boarder in the home of Fred and Helen Chance also of Ontario. His age is listed  a good 10 years older and he says he lived in Garza, Texas in 1935.

Joseph and Lillie can indeed be found in the Pomona directory for the year 1937. He is listed as a laborer and they live at 678 E State Street. They can be found in the directory living at that same place for the following two years.




Then living on Washington Street in Ontario, California for the year 1940. As you will see below in voter registration records.

The next record found is Lillie's obituary. From The San Bernardino County Sun, Saturday, 17 April 1942.

1942

Newspaper articles would suggest that Joseph soon remarried to a Sarah Stewart Lee but by July of 1944 he charged cruelty and asked for a divorce.

After this I find very little mentioned, aside from the obituaries of Joseph's siblings listing him as a survivor.

Joseph Gossett would live 26 years after the death of his wife and alone bury at least two more children, Daisy Bird Gossett Moore in 1949 and Edward Arnold Gossett in 1955 who died from injuries sustained in a wreck.

At the time of Daisy's death she had two children. Marian Marie who was 20 and Jimmy Dale who was only 10.

Here is the city directory for Elmer and Daisy the year she died.

Joseph Gossett registered as a Democrat in the years 1938, 1940, 1950, 1952, and 1950. Most likely voting for Truman in '48. His address changed with each registration. Here, in 1950, he lived on Cucamonga Ave, in '52 1035 E A St, and in '54 1033 East A Street.

I did find one record where his wife, Lillie, registered as a Republican in '38 but she was a Democrat again come '40 when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected over Wendell Willkie

As you saw from the obituary for Lillie, she was taken home to Texas to be buried where her son Willis and other family were buried. Joseph, on the other hand, at the age of 84, was buried in Bellevue Memorial Park in Ontario, San Bernardino County, California where at least two of his sons are buried, also.

Until next time,
Becky