The Zophial Mystery

The following was written by Don Wentworth, my brother and Jackson County historian. The Zophial by Don Wentworth The Zophial Found One day in 2002, a gentleman, (whose name I will omit) came into the Jackson Co. Historical Society museum with a copy of a small tabloid newspaper. He asked if anyone knew anything about the Rev. Wm. E. Reed. Due to the creation of the North Bend Community Center & Assoc. the year previous, much about the Rev. Reed was known. His biography will be found else where in this work. The small tabloid newspaper the gentleman held was very old and had the title of, The Zophial. It had been published in Andrew, Iowa, in Oct. of 1878 and was Vol. I., No. I. and the publisher was Rev. Reed. It was stated on the front page that the paper would, “be published as occasion requires and the interest of the people demand.” Up until that time The Zophial was unknown, as, apparently there was never another issue published. After some discussion of the paper, the gentleman related the tale of how the newspaper came to be in his possession. About 20 years earlier his sister had gone on vacation in upper Wisconsin. She and her family had stayed in a rented log cabin, and, as many people will do, she checked out every nook and cranny of the cabin. In one of the bedrooms, there was an old trunk, which she opened, to find it empty, except for a newspaper covering the bottom. For some reason she decided to lift up the newspaper to see what was beneath it. Under that newspaper was The Zophial. She, of course, knew nothing about the paper nor its publisher, but knowing about the town of Andrew, picked it up on a whim and brought it home, to Jackson Co., with her. Nothing further was done with it until that day. On the top of the original copy of The Zophial was inscribed with pencil the name, Wm. Hockley. Mr. Hockley was a member my family and of the Rev. Reed’s congregation at the North Bend Baptist Church. The building which this congregation built in 1861-1864 was sold to the Fairfield #2 school district in 1866. In November, 2001, the structure became the home of the North Bend Community Center & Assoc. This rare piece of early Jackson Co. history had traveled from North Bend, to upper Wisconsin, and back “home” to the people who now cherish it. What mysterious hand guided its journey? Wm. Hockley? Rev. Reed? Or was it just pure luck and coincidence? You decide. This article was published in the Zophial, a religious themed newspaper edited by Rev. Wm. E. Reed. The article was a personal reminiscence of Rev. Reed. At the time of the event described, Rev. Reed would have been 18 years old, and a resident of Fairfield Township for about 2 years. All Gone. “It is now thirty-six years, since I settled in Fairfield Township, Jackson County, Iowa. The Indians were then quite numerous, so they frequented our house for the purpose of begging and trading. One morning in June, 1844, before I had breakfasted: a big, stalwart Indian made his appearance, and I saw at once that he was up for a trade: but as he had nothing with him but his gun, I was at a loss to know what he wanted to trade: but an Indian is never at a loss to know how to convey his ideas. He snatched up a piece of board that had a hole in it, and began running his finger to and from the hole, and the same time going oo-oo-oo: trying to make a noise resembling bees. He had found a bee tree, it was a large one, (and he was too lazy to cut it down.) extending his arms out wide to show the size and shape of the tree, he said, “big, heaps, heaps, ommo (honey) and he wanted to trade it for connabin and souah, (corn meal and flour) As I had not seen the tree, and knowing the “Ingins” to be a little trickey; it took us a long time to make the trade. But finally we agreed; and he took his connabin and souah on his back, and started to show me the tree. The trail followed the ridge from the mouth of Rock Creek where I was then living, to *Hillyard’s ferry: near where the “Iron Bridge” is now. As we walked along, I was before, and looking back I discovered a look of sadness, and I thought also of revenge on the redman’s face; that caused me to feel a little suspicious; so I kept watching him closely. Every now and then, he would cast a glance across the hills on Rock Creek and mutter something I did not understand. But as I had my gun and butcher knife along, (as it was customary for every on to carry such weapons then.), I felt but little fear, as my gun never missed fire, and I was a dead shot. Finally he suddenly stopped, and squaring himself around with his face to the south, and pointing towards the head waters of Rock Creek, said; with deep emotion; **”Mocoman; Waungsheegra pocheeta; heaps, heaps, pchucks. Waungsheegra heaps big; ALL GONE! Mocoman oah tschoosqunee noh.” A tear started from the redman’s eye, but returned to its fount. His sorrow was too deep for tears. It is said that nothing is forgotten: it is only laid by, to be called up by circumstances in after life; and verily it is true. Paul says, “The things that are seen are temporal, but the things not seen are eternal.” The mind is not seen; and therefore is eternal. And all the impressions made upon it, is for eternity: if they are never called up by circumstances in this life, they will sure to be in the next and doubtless give us pain or pleasure. All gone. Yes, ALL GONE! Coming past the same spot the other day, (which I have past thousands of times,) my mind reverted back to the scene just related: and it came up before me as vividly, as though it was the day it happened and I began to recount the: ‘ALL GONES.’ As I had just come up a hill, as the road does not follow the ridge; I found my youthful vigor and elasticity, was: “All gone.” And then remembering my old comrades, with whom I used to hunt and fish; and have such great enjoyment. “All gone. Alas! ALL gone.” And then my scholars, whom I tried to train up for useful lives; and they were ‘All gone.’ Those I tried to teach to sing the songs of Zion. “All gone.” Those with whom I met to worship God. Alas! Alas! ALL G-O-N-E-¬ Where is the Sainted Rowley, that officiated at the first funeral, (outside of our own family,) that I was at in Iowa? Gone to Glory. Where is Butler, the Faithful? Gone to Kansas, soon to pass on to Glory. These two, old, veterans of the Cross were ever ready with a Prayer, or, Exortation, whenever such services were needed: and were the seeds of all the piety North Bend ever possessed. Where are all the others that frequented the house of God, and confessed the Lord Jesus Christ to be their Saviour, and took part in the divine worship of God. ALL GONE. Some to their reward: many moved away; and some are gone a fishing; and some, alas! have returned to the flesh-pots of Egypt. Where is the prayer-meetings, sabbath assemblies, and churches, that flourished in their day? “All gone.” The piety? All gone! Wanngsheegra old. (tears.) The poor Indian was driven to leave the country of his birth, because of the approaching white man had destroyed his only means of support. (the game) Little did he think, when with joy he returned from the chase, with the spoil, to his beloved.” *More commonly known as Mann’s Ferry. **Whiteman, when I was young, deer was plenty on those hills; but now when I am old, they are all gone. (There is more, but it cannot be read.) Photos are of Rev. Wm. E. Reed, and the front page of the Zophial.

DNA Reunites an Adoptee with Her Biological Family

4 June 2017 – It was an amazing week! By using DNA along with genealogy, I was able to reunite an adopted woman with her long-lost biological family!
[To protect people's privacy, I have not used their real names.]
This woman, whom I will call Nan, longed to know who her "blood relatives" were. Since I am an experienced genealogist, she asked me to help her. Always begin with what is known. Nan told me what she knew of her biological mother's family and where they lived. She also gave me her mother's obituary. As usual, I started searching for actual records to verify the details.
Frustratingly, I couldn't find a single record. But experience has taught me that if the direct route is not working, to try another angle. The obituary mentioned the mother's stepfather, so I searched for him. Bingo! The floodgates opened and records began falling into my lap. By the way, if you haven't tried uploading your tree to Ancestry.com and allowing it to search for records for you, I highly recommend it. It allowed me to quickly and reliably expand Nan's tree.
Nan was born to a young unwed teenager in the 1940's. At that time, such girls went to Iowa City to have their babies. Right after her birth, Nan was adopted by a Jackson County couple who knew of her mother's situation and offered to adopt Nan. But the adoption was very informal with no documentation of any kind. Therefore, no information there on her biological father. And both her adoptive parents had passed years ago.
Nan's biological mother kept track of her daughter but never chose to reconnect with her. Nan also had a full-brother, Ted. Unfortunately, he was killed in the Vietnam War and their mother died just a month later. Which left Nan with no blood relatives.
Nan was able to attend her mother's funeral where her mother's step-brother told Nan that her biological father was a man named Bob. Nan tried to reach out to Bob's family, but they were not interested in Nan or her story.
So she set her quest aside for years, raising her children and grandchildren. But the longing to know her blood relatives did not go away.
She decided to have her DNA tested on Ancestry. Then, turned to me to help her interpret and use the results. I had helped several family members get their DNA tested, but their interest was mostly in our shared ethnic ancestry.
To my amazement, Nan's DNA results matched her with a man classified as a "first cousin," a person who was very likely to be a first or second cousin to her. I'll call him Sam. We reached out to him, but he had also been adopted as a child. He had reconnected with his biological family, but we couldn't find his connection to Nan.
I sorted through the family trees of other people matched to Nan, but none had Bob or his family in their genealogy. This was going to be much more difficult than we had hoped.
Then, Nan received another DNA match! This woman, Lee, was even more closely related, classified as "close family." She and Sam were also related, but neither of them were related to Bob.
It had become very clear that Bob was not Nan's biological father. I called to give her the news, knowing that it would be a shock and it took her a few days to adjust to that information.
But the good news was that we now knew who her "blood relatives" actually were – Lee and Sam.
I sent a message to Lee and she was surprised, since the family had no idea that Nan existed, but willing to help. Sam was actually her nephew, the son of her deceased sister who had put him up for adoption at birth. There was still no paper trail.
Lee and I started exchanging photos. I thought Nan bore a strong resemblance to the pictures of Lee's father and her sister, Sam's mother. Nan was not so sure but her best friend agreed with me.
After more research, Lee and I were certain that Nan's biological father was either Lee's father or one of his brothers. Perhaps we would never know which one for sure.
I dug deeper into the DNA results. On each match, there was a small "i" button. Clicking on that gave me a message similar to this: "Amount of Shared DNA: 751 centimorgans shared across 29 DNA segments." What are centimorgans? And why are they important?
It turns out that centimorgans (cMs) were the key to solving the mystery. This chart shows a range of how many cMs someone will share with a relative. Shared Centimorgans (cMs) chart.
For example, someone will share between 3266-3720 cMs with a parent, but only 1301-2193 with an aunt or uncle. I checked the figures with my own relatives' DNA tests until I understood how the chart worked. Then I went back to Nan's DNA matches.
With Sam, she shared 751 cMs. Per the chart, that would make Sam her first cousin (1C), a first cousin once removed (1C1R), or a half-nephew (the son of a half-sibling). I learned that nieces and nephews are now referred to as niblings, or, in this case, a half-nibling. My mother giggles every time I say that.
If one of Lee's uncles was Nan's biological father, that would make the two of them first cousins. Per the chart, they would share 533-1379 cMs. But they shared more than that, a full 1491 cMs. According to the chart, that would make Lee a grandmother, aunt, niece or a half-sister to Nan. Lee is too young to be Nan's grandmother or aunt which left her as either a niece or a half-sister. The clincher was Sam's DNA match as a possible half-nephew.
Lee is Nan's half-sister! Without a doubt! That connection not only gives Nan a half-sister but a half-brother and a number of half-niblings! DNA and genealogy helped Nan's dream come true!
Incredible! I had no idea that the DNA could be that powerful here. But it ultimately reunited Nan with her blood relatives. Amazing!

© 2017 LuAnn Goeke

William and Mary Stanton = Mass Confusion

This search started with the following post: "I am looking for William Stanton. He was born in 1824 in Ohio, and died in 1864 in Jackson Iowa. He was married to Mary Self. His parents were William Harrison and Rebecca Miller. Any help would be appreciated."
This was followed by one reply: "William and Mary may be buried in the North Garryowen Cemetery in Jackson Co. Search here. Also, 20 miles from this cemetery, in Jones Co. in the 1856 census, is another William and Mary Stanton, but their birthplaces don't match yours. Still worth checking on."
In the 1856 Iowa census for Scotch Grove in Jones Co. (near the N.Garryowen Cem.), is the following entry:
William Stanton, male, age 41, b.Ireland, Married, Farmer, in Iowa 17 years
Mary Stanton, female, age 37, b.France, Married, in Iowa 18 years
Richard Stanton, male, age 10, b.Iowa.
Ellen Stanton, female, age 9, b.Iowa.
Mary Stanton, female, age 7, b.Iowa.
Johanna Stanton, female, age 5, b.Iowa.
Julia Stanton, female, age 3, b.Iowa.
Hanna[sic] Stanton, female, age 1, b.Iowa.
Charles Barrett, male, age 20, b.Wisconsin, Single, Laborer, in Iowa 18 years.
Harriet Barrett, female, age 18, b.Iowa, Single.
Margaret Barrett, female, age 16, b.Iowa.
Catherine Barrett, female, age 14, b.Iowa.
Thomas Barrett, male, age 13, b.Iowa.

There was another William Stanton in the 1856 census, in Decorah Twp., Winneshiek Co. In this entry, his wife is listed as May, but his age and birthplace match the original information.
Wm. F. Stanton, male, age 31, b.Ohio, Married, Laborer[?], Native voter, Militia, in Iowa 2 years.
May[sic] J.[?] Stanton, female, age 30, b.Ohio, Married, in Iowa 2 years.
R.A. Stanton, female, age 11, b.Ohio, in Iowa 2 years.
W.H. Stanton, male, age 9, b.Ohio, in Iowa 2 years.
John Stanton, male, age 6, b.Ill., in Iowa 2 years.
M.E. Stanton, female, age 4, b.Ill., in Iowa 2 years.
David Stanton, male, age 2, b.Ill., in Iowa 2 years.

But which one is the couple requested in the original post?
Following the link above took me to William Stanton buried in St. Patrick's, aka the North Garryowen, cemetery. The entry said he died on 24 December 1864 and that he was the husband of Mary. I searched for other Stanton's in the same cemetery, hoping to find related individuals. I found five of them, including Mary A. (Mrs. Wm.) Stanton, who died on 29 January 1894 at age 75. There was also Johanna Stanton, daughter of W. & M., born about 1852, meaning she would have been about 4 years old in the 1856 census. There is no possible candidate for her in the Winneshiek Co. entry. But, in the Scotch Grove entry above, there is a Johanna, age 5. So this is probably the family buried at N. Garryowen cemetery. Is there any way to prove the maiden name of the Mary Stanton buried there?
On the Jackson County GenWeb site, I found an obituary for the Mary Stanton buried at St. Patrick's and her maiden name was clearly not Self:
"Mrs. Wm. Stanton, of Garry Owen, died at the family residence on Sunday last and the funeral took place from St. Patrick's church on Wednesday morning and she was interred in the cemetery adjoining the church. She was a native of Ireland and a pioneer settler of this section. She was a kind and generous hearted old lady and had hosts of friends. Her maiden name was Mary A. Gyneau. She was married twice, her first husband being John Barrett, of which marriage the following children survive her: Charles, Thomas and John Barrett and Mrs. Michael Reddin. Her second husband was Wm. Stanton and the following children survive her: Richard, David and William Stanton, Mrs. John Dunn, Mrs. Richard Noonan, Mrs. Michael Boyle. Mrs. Wm. Miller and Miss Hannah Stanton."
And the 1910 biography of her son, David Stanton, confirms both her death year and maiden name: "She was Miss Mary Gunand in her maidenhood." Her name here doesn't quite match the one given in her obituary, but, again, it's a far cry from Self.
So it's now clear that the Mary Stanton buried in N. Garryowen cemetery is not Mary (Self) Stanton. Which also means that the William Stanton buried there is not the one requested in the original post.
Does that mean that the William and Mary listed in the 1856 Winneshiek Co. entry are the ones requested in the original post? More evidence is needed to prove that.
In the 1800's, groups of related families often moved together from place to place. Did they have any relatives living in or near Winneshiek Co. in 1856?
A search for anyone named Stanton in Winneshiek Co. in that census produced only one entry, in Summit (now Frankville) Twp.:
Thomas E. Stanton [Sr.], male, age 45, b.Ohio, Married, Native voter, in Iowa 1 year, [more].
Sarah Stanton, female, age 43, b.Ohio, Married, in Iowa 1 year.
Lydia Stanton, female, age 19, b.Wis, in Iowa 1 year.
Drusilla Stanton, female, age 18, b.Ind., in Iowa 1 year.
Noah Stanton, male, age 14, b.Ind., in Iowa 1 year.
Joel Stanton, male, age 13, b.Ind., in Iowa 1 year.
Alfred Stanton, male, age 10, b.Ind., in Iowa 1 year.
Elnora Stanton, female, age 4, b.Ind., in Iowa 1 year.
Thomas E. Stanton [Jr.], male, age 2, b.Iowa., in Iowa 2 years.

However, I didn't find any relationship between William and Thomas. And there was no entry for anyone named Self.
But, when I did a general search for people named Self – I hit the jackpot!
There were dozens of entries for Winneshiek County, including a probate record for an elderly woman named Nancy Self.
According to several family trees, Mary Self was the daughter of John and Nancy (Arey) Self. Most of their family was born in Ohio. By 1850, they were living in Bureau Co., Illinois, where John died in 1859.
Their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, married William Painter. And in the 1856 census, this couple is listed next to William and Mary Stanton. This is only circumstantial proof, of course, but sifting through the other records shows clearly that most of John and Nancy Self's family lived in Winneshiek County for at least a short time.
I find this very compelling evidence that the William and Mary Stanton living in Winneshiek County in 1856 are the couple requested in the original post.
However, I can find no trace of either of them after the 1860 census. I can find some of their children in the 1870 census, but they are working out or farmed out with relatives. I can only assume that William died and Mary either died or remarried.
It is extremely frustrating to not know the final resting place of an ancestor. I have a few in my family tree, as well. The only thing to do is to make peace with it as you continue searching, hoping to someday find the answer.

Photos from 1940's and 1950's

I have scanned several 1940's-1950's photos of people I believe are from Jackson County that I would like help to identify.
The dates are unknown. I have identified and tagged only a few people: Cecil and Pearl Stoll and their daughter, Joan (Stoll) Wentworth.
Five of the photos were in binder from a Rockford, Illinois shop. Were these people from Maquoketa or from Chicago where Pearl and Cecil worked and got married in 1937. Just leave me a message. You can see these photos and two close-ups at this link: You can also find these photos at this link: photo. You do not have to belong to Facebook to see this picture.
Thank you!

Children at Work

Dig Deeper
It often pays to look a little deeper into the lives of our ancestors. You never know what you might find there.
As I was doing research for a previous blog entry regarding Edwin Bradway, (See Telling the Truth) I did what I always do and looked to see where he came from. Not only geographically, but what his childhood might have been like. So I also researched his parents, Charles and Rachel Bradway. Both natives of New Jersey, they were married there in 1843. Charles was a blacksmith, and in the 1850 census, was listed with his young family in the town of Chester, New Jersey. However, by the 1860 census, he had apparently moved his family to the thriving mill town of Elysville, in Howard County, Maryland. Here, he was listed as a machinist who owned $500 worth of real estate and $300 of personal property. Not too shabby for 1860.
I have worked with the 1860 Federal census many times before. It provides the names of everyone in the household, their age, gender, race and where they were born. For every person over the age of 15, their occupation is given, along with the value of their real estate and personal property. There is a column titled “Attended School within the year” usually with a check mark for all the school-age children.
However, on this census page, that column was completely empty. To my shock, every child was listed as a “Factory Hand.” And there were several pages just like it, where most children over the age of 9 were not in school, but working in the mills.
You can see the census pages here. Think of the famous pictures of children working in the cotton mills taken by Lewis Hine in the early 1900’s. These photographs were taken to document the plight of the children laboring in the factories of the day. The pictures were used to push for laws banning child labor. See the famous photo of little Addie Card. Another excellent site is The History Place. (See more Child Labor links at the bottom of the page.)
The Bradway children were working in similar conditions in the Elysville mills. Only 6-year-old Charles and 3-year-old Albert were not in the mills.
Built in 1846 to manufacture cotton textiles, by 1860, the Elysville mill was owned by James S. Gary. His company operated the mill until the 1940s when the C.R. Daniels Company took control, and, today, Elysville, aka Alberton, is known as Daniels. In the 19th century, an industrial village existed in this sheltered, wooded valley, including stores, a railroad station, a school and several mill workers' houses. In 1973, the mill complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places. You can read their application here.
In 1860, the Elysville Mill was the only textile producing operation in Howard Co., Maryland. It employed 50 men and 120 women [and apparently children] to operate its 120 looms and 3000 spindles. It made twill, yarn and oznabrug fabric. Oznabrug was a coarse, plain fabric. In the American South, it was the fabric most often used for slave’s clothes.
Hiring children for factory work totally offends our modern sensibilities. However, in Gary’s defense, it is only fair to point out that, at that time, having the children working in the mills was socially acceptable. Their parents often encouraged it, since it brought more money into the household. Gary was as much a product of his time as we all are. In fact, his father’s early death had forced Gary into the textile mills at the tender age of 5, so he knew exactly what the children had to go through. He does appear to have been more humane than many of the mill owners we have all heard about. He is not employing any children younger than 9 years old, he paid his workers in cash and Elysville was not the classic “company town,” where the mill workers’ wages went straight back to the mill owners through the “company store.” You can read more about James Gary on page 54 of the book, Looking Beyond the Surface: History, Memory and Place in the Lost Cotton by Jaime M. Bradley. (See an excerpt below)
Gary actively recruited large families from rural areas to work for him, and that may well be how Charles Bradway found his way to Elysville. But he didn’t stay long. In the 1800’s, like today, the country was considered the healthiest place to live and, in the spring of 1862, Charles moved his family to Jackson County. It must have seemed like heaven to them after life in a mill town.
You can find the 1889 Biography of Charles Bradway and his obituary on Jackson County’s GenWeb site.

© 2012 LuAnn Goeke
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from: Looking Beyond the Surface: History, Memory and Place in the Lost Cotton ...By Jaime M. Bradley, Page 54-
“A Model Mill Village
“James Sullivan Gary appears to have taken careful steps in the molding of his mill village at Alberton. From his experiences working in the New England textile industry, beginning as early as 1813, he would have been an eyewitness to the development and evolution of early American mill systems and management strategies at different levels. As a child, his labors would have been on the earliest machines utilized for carding and spinning, followed by a coming-of-age coinciding with the introduction of power looms and the height of the American transition away from the putting-out system. As a young man, Gary would most likely have heard discussion and read trade publications extolling the advances mechanization and labor management in Massachusett's corporate mills, Southern New England's small-scale mills, and other mill sites beyond. His model at Alberton appears generally influenced by both the famous Waltham-Lowell system and the smaller scale Rhode Island family labor system. Dissimilar to the Lowell System, which initially employed young women in dormitory style housing, Gary instead recruited large families and workers from nearby farming communities and utilize the majority of the family -- men, women and children -- in the operations of the mill. In this model, just as in the smaller mills in Rhode Island in southern New England, child labor became critical. At Alberton, employees were paid in cash, similar to the Lowell system, and did not have accounts at the company store as was preferred in the Rhode Island system. Furthermore Gary may have experienced the effects of immigrant labor on his family and other local laborers, most likely in the form of lower wages, at the Lowell system transitions into larger scale manufacturing reliant on Irish immigrants, which perhaps explains the Gary's preference to employ mostly native-born workers, with only a very limited number of immigrant families. Both systems incorporated a paternalistic, controlling influence on the lives of mill workers through on site housing, prohibiting the sale of alcohol, encouraging the attendance of religious service and company supported churches, and company organized recreational activities, all methods which Gary's also employed. Albertson also took on the look of a New England mill; the factory entrants included a bell-tower cupola, Rosette window and picket fencing. Therefore, influenced by his childhood familiarity, early training and experiences in New England mills, Gary fashioned a village at Alberton that took different characteristics from both the Rhode Island and Waltham-Lowell models.”

The Luddite Rebellion:

Also see:
The History Place

Child Labor in the Cotton Mills

The Lives of Textile Workers

Telling the Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

Recently, I found online the 1888 obituary of a woman and her daughter who died in a house fire. Out of curiosity, I looked up a newspaper article on the fire. It turns out that the obituary was originally part of this same article. Why hadn’t the poster provided the entire article? I found that the article included some speculation as to why the mother did not heed the warnings and get her and her daughter out in time. It also included a graphic description of the condition of the bodies when recovered. I can easily understand why someone, especially a family member, would not want to post that information. I even hesitated before including it in this article. Was that ethical or would I just be sensationalizing these tragic deaths? There is no easy answer. The media grapples with this issue all the time, and in my humble opinion, they far too often choose to sensationalize over respecting people’s feelings and privacy. Is that truly wrong, or just not to our taste?
So I looked back to genealogy standards for guidance.
Deliberately modifying genealogical information to suit ourselves is as old as the hills. Babies’ birthdates are “adjusted” so they happen after the proper nine-month period following the wedding. Grandpa’s ornery second wife is conveniently “forgotten.” A small change allows someone to claim a famous ancestor for their own.
There are also well-intentioned, but misguided, changes made to “correct errors.” The spelling of a name is “corrected.” Abbreviations are expanded into words. Punctuation is “fixed.”
The difficulty here is that, to change anything, you must make an assumption. And we all learned in elementary school what that means, right? If you make a change, you are assuming that someone, somewhere, made a mistake. And you may change it with the best of intentions. But you may be wrong!
Since genealogists are almost always looking into the past, viewing that past through the imperfect lens of our own modern morals and beliefs can lead us far astray. See my post in this blog called “Watch Your Language” for a prime example of this. My brother, Don, recently tried to help a family locate information on their beloved grandmother. Don asked for her husband’s name. The reply: “Oh we don’t talk about him. He was a pedophile.” Don: “How do you know that?” Answer: “Because he married Grandma when she was only 15 years old.” Of course, in the 19th century, when this couple was married, fifteen was a very common age for girls to marry. Viewing the past through this family’s modern morals was giving Grandpa an undeserved black eye.
But I digress.
In genealogy, when copying an original document, called transcribing, the rule is to always copy it EXACTLY. Keep it as close to the original as humanly possible and keep an untouched copy of that forever. Don’t correct spelling, punctuation, abbreviations, capitalization or information. Don’t change, or fix, as much as a comma! Changing anything could completely alter the original meaning of the document, sending you, or someone else, on a wild goose chase. Even a “misspelled” name can give you a better idea of how the family pronounced it, possibly helping to find other records. If you can’t read something or want to add a comment for clarity, always put that information in square brackets like these: [ ] to show that it is your addition, not part of the original document.
Such exact transcriptions and details can also provide valuable “forensic” information. Modern scientists can sometimes solve crimes or mysteries that go back hundreds, or even thousands of years, just because someone recorded the exact details of the situation. In my family, we have the story of Willie Beck. He was a healthy, strapping young man when he went to Europe as a U.S. Army Private in World War I. But during the war, he became ill. His buddies helped him out by covering for him and carrying his pack when he couldn’t. He didn't want his superiors to know he was sick because he was afraid they would keep him in an Army hospital overseas and he wanted to go home. Willie finally did come home, but he did not get better. Weakness became paralysis, starting with his hands. Over the next 18 years, the paralysis spread to the rest of his body. His family could change his body position, but he could not move himself. This photo was taken in 1921, just a few years after the war. It is already clear that his right hand is affected.

The doctors at the University of Iowa Hospitals said he was shell-shocked. His Army buddies said that he had been vaccinated too close to his spinal cord by the Army doctors. To this day, the exact nature of his illness is unknown. Could it have been encephalitis lethargica? Portrayed in the 1990 movie “Awakenings,” this disease reached epidemic proportions in the aftermath of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918. Was his illness genetic? Should I worry about my children? Or was Willie sick with something else entirely? We may never know the exact disease he had. But I intend to record as much as I can find out about his symptoms, so that future medical advances may eventually solve the mystery. The same may be true of the mother in this story.
I am a firm believer in full disclosure and in telling the whole story. Our ancestors were only human, after all, subject to all the same failings and moral conflicts as we are. They, like us, did the best they could at the time. And their choices are no reflection on us. We must make our own choices. White-washing the story of our ancestors’ lives is first, not believable, and second, a dishonor to their genuine struggles and successes. I often take heart from what they accomplished when struggling with my own life. I refuse to take that same opportunity away from others.
So, on that note, here is my transcription of the entire article on the deadly fire. It could have happened to any one of us. God bless them all!
[Warning! Some graphic descriptions!]

Fire and Death
A Terrible Casualty Occurs in the Country on Saturday Evening
One of the saddest and most heart rending casualties that has occurred in Jackson County in years happened Saturday night four and a half miles north of this city. At 8:30 an alarm of fire was heard from the farm-house of Edwin Bradway, situated some little distance from the main road, by Hiram Stevenson and H. Miller who were passing by in a wagon. They immediately went to the house and there met a little girl twelve years of age who was crying and shouting for help. To their horror she informed them that her mother and little four-year-old sister were in the burning building. Mr. Stevenson attempted to rescue the unfortunate beings by making a bold dash into the house, but the stifling smoke and flame drove him back, after having scorched his face and nearly burned his beard off. He said he could see nothing of the inmates, nor hear any signal of distress. The girl pointed out the location of the room occupied by her mother, which was upon the first floor. Additional help had now arrived and efforts were put forth to extinguish the flames in that part of the house. Several hundred buckets of water were thrown upon the flames, but with little effect. In less than an hour the building was entirely consumed with the mother and the child, and all the contents.
Mr. Bradway, the husband and father, an industrious, worthy young farmer, was in town at the time trading at one of the hardware stores and did not reach home until after 9 o'clock. When he came upon the scene of his ruined home he seemed dazed and bewildered. When informed that his wife and child had perished in the flames, a shriek of despair escaped his lips that brought tears to the eyes of all who heard it. Water was continually thrown upon the bodies until 4 o'clock in the morning, when the heat had subsided sufficiently to permit the removal of the remains. They were scarcely recognizable. The flesh upon the little child was burned to a crisp and the larger bones were about all that remained. The hands, face, feet, and a portion of the skull of the mother were burned up and the flesh on the body black and roasted.
The little girl who escaped says they went to bed about 8 o'clock, and about half an hour after she smelt smoke. She got up partially suffocated from the smoke and discovered fire in a small clothes press.* Eulalia [the girl] tried to arouse her mother who was occupying the same bed with her clothes on temporarily with the youngest child. She told her the house was on fire, and wanted to take her little sister. Her mother objected and refused to get up saying, in seemingly a stupefied condition, "Get back to bed, everything is all right." The flames were making rapid headway and Eulalia again tried to warn her mother of the danger. She then beat a hasty retreat from the burning building, but not without severely burning her feet. She looked and waited in an agony of suspense, hoping her mother would escape before it was too late, but she never came.
Mrs. Bradway's apparent indifference to her own safety has created some suspicions in the minds of the people that perhaps she did not desire to escape. Her health had been quite poor for some time, and at times her mind seemed affected. It is thought she might have been suffering this way at the time. Others are of the opinion that she became asphyxiated by the smoke and was unconscious of the impending danger. The origin of the fire in clothes press is a mystery and cannot be satisfactorily accounted for by either the girl or the father. It is a very sad case and elicits the sympathy of the entire community in behalf of the grief-stricken father and daughter. Mr. Bradway says his pecuniary loss will be close to $2000. There was a small insurance on the house. The entire contents of the house were consumed, embracing all their clothing, except what was worn by Mr. Bradway and children, including furniture, a new $42 cook stove, tables, provisions, about 200 gallons of maple syrup and sorghum, besides grain, farm machinery, etc., also promissory notes, deeds and other valuable papers.

* A clothes press is a trunk or cupboard where clothes were kept.
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The funeral services occurred at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, at the Esgate school house, Rev. Stevens, the evangelist, officiating. The remains of the mother and child were both placed in one coffin, and interred in Mt. Hope cemetery, in this city. They were followed to their last resting place by a very large number of sympathizing friends and relatives. The deceased, Mary Eulalia Bradway, was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H.W. McCarron. She was born December 15, 1851 at Berea, Ohio, and came to Maquoketa with her parents in December, 1855. She received her education at the academy in Maquoketa, and taught several terms of school. Was married to Edwin Bradway July 20, 1870, to whom five children were born. The oldest son and two daughters are now living, and beside them she leaves a husband, father, mother, one sister, one brother and many other relatives and friends who deeply mourn her very sudden and unnatural death. Little Anna, who met her untimely death in her mother's arms, had she lived would have been five years old in September. She was a bright, affectionate child, with a pleasant, unselfish disposition, and was dearly beloved by all who knew her. - Jackson Sentinel, 28 June 1888, Pg. 1.

© 2012 LuAnn Goeke

Look for your Early Jackson County Ancestors in Galena, Illinois

Why? Because the early history of the land that became Jackson County, Iowa, was actually centered in Galena, Illinois. This is not obvious to us in these modern times. Today, to drive from Bellevue to Galena is about 37 miles. But traveling by boat up the Mississippi River, then up the Galena River right into Galena’s main business district, would have been only 10-12 miles.
Here is a sampling of the early Jackson County names I have also found in the Galena area: Gear, Kirkpatrick, Moss, Hillyard, Hunt, Seamands, Cox, Neville, McKinley, Sutton, Harris, Bullock, Forbes, Lafayette, Rice, Armstrong, Barger, Noble, Bullerdick, Carpenter, Gordon, Reiling, Woolweever, Younker and Warren. There are bound to be more.
In the 1820’s and 1830’s, Galena was the main hub and marketplace for the area then known as the Upper Mississippi Lead Mining District (LMD), also known as the Fever River mines. This area roughly encompassed Grant, Iowa and Lafayette counties in Wisconsin; Dubuque, Clayton and Allamakee counties in Iowa; and Stephenson and Jo Daviess counties in Illinois. (See the map.)
The mass migration to these mines was similar to the California Gold Rush. In 1825, there were only 200 people in Galena. But its population exploded by more than 50 times in the following three years due to the mining boom. By 1828, Galena could boast of over 10,000 residents. The mining boom there lasted from about 1810 to 1846 when many of lead mines were playing out. Then, in 1849, the California gold rush drew away many of the remaining miners. Jo Daviess Co. GenWeb has a very nice site with an index to lots of Galena newspaper articles: http://jodaviess.ilgenweb.net/

On pages 126-127 of Volume I of the 1910 History of Jackson County Iowa is an excerpt entitled “Early Jackson County Settlers previously enrolled in Illinois Regiments,” taken from Harvey Reid’s The Military History of Jackson County. Not all these men were from the Galena area, but many were. The 1910 History can be found for free on Google Books at: http://books.google.com/books?id=HHwUAAAAYAAJ&lr=.

Here is a short review of the early political history of what is now Jackson County, Iowa.

1805 - 1836 – The county was part of Michigan Territory which included all of present day Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota and eastern areas of North and South Dakota. (follow the link for a map) - Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_territory

1832 - Jackson County was included as part of the Black Hawk Purchase.

1834 - Iowa, still as part of Michigan Territory, was divided into only two counties along a line running straight west from the present-day Scott-Muscatine county line. South of that line was Des Moines Co. North of that line was Dubuque County, which included what would become Jackson Co.

1836 - Dubuque Co. became part of Wisconsin Territory. In the 1836 census, Jackson Co. is listed as part of Dubuque Co., Wisconsin Territory.

1837 - Dubuque Co., Wisconsin Territory was divided into 14 counties, including present-day Jackson, Clinton and Jones Counties in Iowa.

1838 – On July 4th, Iowa Territory was created from Wisconsin Territory. (see map) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_territory (1838 However, in the 1838 census, Jackson Co. is still listed as part of Wisconsin Territory.

1840 – The 1840 Federal Census shows Jackson County as part of Iowa Territory.

1846 – On December 28th, Iowa became the 29th state in the Union.

*** Be sure to check out this fascinating site of county formation maps. http://www.genealogyinc.com/iowa/maps/ It will show you, by year and in maps, the step-by-step formation of the county.
Have Fun!

© 2011 LuAnn Goeke