Thursday, September 30, 2010

Children of William Haden (ca 1741-1819) Part I - Sally, James, and Joseph

The next few posts will be about the children of William Haden, son of John, grandson of Anthony of Goochland and Hanover Counties.  As there are eleven children, I will not cite sources in these posts listing the children and grandchildren, but feel free to email me if you want additional information, or visit my website linked on the right-hand side of the Blog.  My purpose is not to provide here everything I have found, but to alert the unsuspecting to many of the errors that have been perpetuated regarding the family.

1. Sarah "Sally" Haden, b. perhaps 1774, died prior to October of 1808, Logan Co, KY.

William Haden's first child was probably Sarah "Sally the elder" born perhaps about 1772-74 in Goochland, if she was a child of his first wife Judith Moorman.  This is a marriage record not found, but is a tradition in both the Moorman and Haden families.  However, there is also a possibility that Sally was not the eldest and was therefore a child of William Haden's wife, Ann Johnson, whose mother's name was Sarah.  Apparently the first two sons were born quite close together, and the first born a years after the marriage  - if Sally wasn't the eldest, she was likely the third child.  Sally married Thomas Proctor as his second wife, probably in Fayette Co KY, circa 1796-1798 - a place where the marriage records for this time period were lost in a fire.  There is a great deal of mis-information about Thomas Proctor and their children, but I will deal with that in another post.  Thomas married Rebecca Maxwell on 27 Oct 1808, Logan Co KY, so Sally had died after the birth of her third daughter, also named Sally, born circa 1806 and before this marriage to Rebecca Maxwell.  Thomas Proctor died in June of 1841, leaving his will which by its construction, indicates his children from three different marriages.  Thomas and Sally Haden Proctor had three daughters and had only three daughters as proved by several documents during the settlement of Sally's father's estate in the 1820's.   The daughters were:
...Mary "Polly" Proctor who married Benjamin Porter, 23 Sep 1819.  They had one child, Clark Thomas Porter, b. in May of 1822.  Polly died before Oct 1823; perhaps she had died in childbirth. 
...Aurora Proctor, born 11 Sep 1804 according to descendants, married William Hoy, 2 Jan 1822 in Madison Co, Mississippi.  They had at least eight children.  Aurora died sometime after the 1860 census in Madison Co MS.
...Sally J. Proctor, born Jan 1806, married William Whitsitt Ewing. 11 Jun 1825, Logan Co KY and they had a daughter Mary Ellen, named in the settlement of her grandfather's [Reuben Ewing's] estate.  William died prior to May of 1827 and Sally married a second time, to William Palmer, 26 Nov 1828, Logan Co KY.  Sally died 10 Mar 1849, Warren Co KY.

2.  James H. Haden, b. 13 Nov 1776, Goochland Co, VA, d. bef December 1822, Logan Co, KY.

James is seen with the middle initial, but there is no known record of his middle name; possibly it was Harris, since his maternal grandmother was Sarah Harris.  His birth date has been passed down in family papers, but the original source lost.  James married Rebecca S. [probably Smith] Morton, daughter of William Morton and Elizabeth Hite Smith, probably in Fayette Co KY, as both the Mortons and Hadens were living there.  Both families moved to Logan Co, although some of the Morton offspring remained in Lexington.  There are found two Morton families in Logan Co - that of this William Morton and the family of William Jordan Morton.  These two men and their rather large families of children have been confused although there are deeds of property division after the deaths of both men that clearly state their heirs.  James and Rebecca had eight children and their eldest son Jefferson actually married one of the younger daughters of William Jordan Morton.   The children of James H. Haden, named in guardianship records, property divisions and estate disputes, were:
...Jefferson Haden, b. ca 1803, Logan Co KY, d. before March of 1857; married Elizabeth Morton, daughter of William Jordan Morton Sr. and Martha Pryor, on 21 Oct 1824, Logan Co.  They had six children.
...Nancy F. Haden, born before 1805, died before 1835; married Josiah Newman 2 Aug 1824, Logan Co and they moved to Madison Co MS prior to her death .  They had five children.
...William Morton Haden was born about 1808.  He married Eliza R. Newman [her kinship to Josiah not known, but likely there is one].  They married 28 Apr 1828, Jefferson Co, MS.  Possibly he had gone to visit his sister Nancy...  They lived in Mississippi for a few years, but returned to Logan Co where the family can be found in the 1860 and 1870 censuses.  William and Eliza had seven known children.
...Emily J. Haden, born 27 Nov 1809, died 17 Apr 1892, Logan Co KY, married Joseph Rogers, son of Reuben Rogers and his wife Hannah or Harriet Price, on 2 Sep 1828, Logan Co.  They had thirteen children.  Emily and Joseph are both buried in Price-Rogers Cemetery in Logan Co.
...Elizabeth H. Haden, born circa 1810, died 9 Jul 1840, married Nathaniel H. Felts, son of Augustine Felts & Phebe Rose, May of 1825, Logan Co.  They had at least seven children.
...Mary Morton Haden, b. perhaps 1813, died before March of 1843, married James M. Devlin on 14 Jan 1840, Attala Co, Mississippi.  He apparently died soon after the marriage.  Mary M. Devlin wrote her will, 25 Feb 1841, leaving all her possessions to her mother; her brother Jefferson to be her executor.
...Harriet S. R. Haden, born 1817, married Richard H. Cook, 30 May 1832, in Logan Co KY.  In 1850 they were living in Logan Co and had five children.
...James Haden, born about 1820, married Maria T. Wilson, daughter of Samuel Wilson, 7 Dec 1837, Logan Co.  The Ancestral File of the LDS church has perpetuated a date of death for James in 1834, but that is an error.  By 1841, James and wife were living in Madison Co, MS, and are in the Koscisuko, Attala Co MS, census in 1850.  In 1859, he was listed as a party to ongoing disputes concerning the inheritance of his parents.  No children known.

3.  Joseph Haden was born perhaps about 1777; a date of 10 Jan 1777 exists, but like the date of James's birth, no documentation for that date can now be found.  The births of most of William's children are reasonable estimates, based on marriage dates, their appearance on tax rolls, etc. - the date in 1777 is a reasonable one.  Joseph died prior to October of 1824 in Washington County, MD, where his wife's family lived.  However, his property was in Logan Co KY.  Joseph married Eleanor "Ellen/ Nelly" Thomas, daughter of John Thomas and Eleanor Breathed.  Eleanor Breathed was a sister to William Breathitt who settled in Logan Co, father of Gov. John Breathitt.  The surname remained as "Breathed" in Maryland, although it became "Breathitt" in Kentucky.  Since the marriage took place in Logan County, 13 Jan 1813, Ellen must have been visiting her cousins when the couple met and married.  They traveled back and forth between Hagerstown, MD and Logan Co, KY several times during their relatively short marriage.  In the 1820 census, they were living in neighboring Todd Co, KY but the settlement of Joseph's estate took place in Logan Co.  Joseph accepted guardianship of two of his younger brother John's orphaned sons in 1820, guardianship of a young widowed niece in 1822, and administration of his brother James's estate in April 1823, but then his own estate was appraised in October of 1824.   Years later, a newspaper article would refer to Joseph's wife as a "Breathitt" confusing the identification of Joseph's wife; Ellen's mother was the Breathitt.  Ellen did not remarry after Joseph's death, but made her home with her sons; she died 1856 in Muhlenburg Co KY and is buried on what was the property of her eldest son.  Two sons were born to Joseph and Ellen:
...George W. Haden, was born 4 Dec 1813, Hagerstown, Washington Co, MD, and died 10 Nov 1904, Greenville, Muhlenberg Co, KY.  George was born at his grandparents home in Hagerstown and later related the oft-told story that he was brought to Kentucky on horseback at six months of age.  He married Lucy Slaughter, daughter of James Clayton Slaugter and Amanda Pocahontas Morton [a granddaughter of William Jordan Morton, Sr], 28 Apr 1851, in Logan Co KY.  Goerge and Lucy and eight children.  He was living in Muhlenberg Co before 1840 and that is where the couple remained for the rest of their lives.  They are buried in what is now called Haden Cemetery, Muhlenberg County, on what was George's farm, along with some of their children who died young, his mother and his younger brother.
...Ranney B. Haden, was born 17 Mar 1816, most likely in Logan County as the family is said to have moved over to Todd Co in 1818.  Ranney, also seen as Rainey, Ranny, and even more peculiar spellings, is a given name found in the Breathed family back in Maryland; possible it was derived from a surname.  There was born in Logan Co in the same year a John M. Haden, or more likely his name was Hadden, who later married Nancy C. Neel - several researchers have assumed this was the second son of Joseph and Ellen, but they were wrong.  There was an extensive Hadden family, no relation, also living in Logan Co on the Red River, and on the Butler County line - most became residents of Butler Co when it was formed from Logan.  The Neels were neighbors of the Haddens.  The various clerks in Logan Co had difficulty with the Haden/Hadden spelling.  In the documents of the long-drawn out settlement of Ranney's Haden grandfather, the sons of Joseph, who was by then deceased, are named as George and Ranney.  In 1850, Ranney, still a single man, and his mother were living with George in Muhlenberg County.  Ranney died in 1855:
Muhlenberg Co KY 1855 Deaths.
Rumsey [sic] Haden 38 Male, Born: Logan Co., KY Father: Joseph Haden; Place of Death: Pond Creek; died May 4 of a Fever ; Occupation: Farmer
Both Ranney and his mother Ellen are buried in the Haden graveyard along with George's family.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

William Haden [ca 1751 - 1819]

William Haden, born in Goochland County, VA, circa 1751, to John Haden and Jean Moseley, was my husband's direct ancestor.  William was a grandson of Anthony & Margaret Haden and probably the fourth child, third son, of John and Jean.  He may have been named for his maternal grandmother's father - there is an old family letter by Socrates Haden, a great grand nephew, that refers to William as William Douglas Haden, although no other reference to a middle name, or initial, has been found by me.  The definitive book on the family of John Haden, John Haden of Virginia, by Dorothy K. Haden, did not have a lot to say about William and his family.  She concentrated instead on the Hadens that remained in Virginia.

William is thought to have had a brief first marriage to a Judith Moorman, probably a daughter of Achilles Moorman and Elizabeth Adams.  Both the Haden and Moorman families have the tradition of this marriage, but there is no formal proof.  The tradition is that Judith died, either in pregnancy, or childbirth, with her first child.  There is a possibility that the oldest of the children of William Haden, a daughter Sarah "Sally", may have been Judith's child that did indeed survive.

William Haden married Ann "Nancy" Johson, 31 Oct 1775, Goochland County as recorded in The Douglas Register.  Her birth, 21 Nov 1757, and baptism, 25 Mar 1758, were also recorded in The Douglas Register -  she was the daughter of Joseph Johnson and Sarah Harris.  William and Ann had at least nine recorded children, or ten - depending on whether or not the eldest child was born to Judith Moorman.  I will list them in a separate post.

William Haden served in the Revolution.
Historical Register of Virginias in the Revolution; John H. Gwathmey:
Haden, William, Fluvanna Militia, oath as Ensign 6 Nov 1777; oath as 1st Lt. 2 Apr 1779. 
He served along with his elder brothers, Anthony and John Moseley Haden, and younger brother Joseph. 
Haden, Anthony, Fluvanna Militia. Rec. as Ensign 4 Sep 1777; took oath as Captain 2 Apr 1779. 
Haden, John Moseley, Fluvanna Militia. rec. & qualified as Ensign 2 Apr 1779; oath as 1st Lt. 4 Sep 1777 [same day his brothers Anthony & Joseph were made Captains]Haden, Joseph, Fluvanna Militia. Took oath as Captain on 4 Sep 1777.

A century later, in 1878, a first cousin once removed, George Douglas Blakey, wrote a newspaper article about William Haden, referring to him as Captain - whether he actually obtained that rank is doubful.

On 7 August 1777, John Haden of Fluvanna Co, VA, had sold to his son William Haden, 400 acres on Cunngham Creek.  In May of 1784, William sold this property back to his parents.  This is likely the approximate time his family removed to Kentucky.   His father John divided his properties among his children living in the Virginia area in 1795, and did not include William.  An article in History of Kentucky,Illustrated by Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, states that William Haden left Virginia as early as 1778, settling near Lexington, but I believe that date to be an error - I believe 1788 would have been a closer estimate.

Finding William Haden in Kentucky prior to a tax list in Logan County in 1797 proved to be a bit of a challenge.  Lexington is located in Fayette County which lost most of its records in a fire in 1803 and there was a man of similar name - William Haydon, a descendant of Thomas Haydon of Spotsylvania Co VA, also living in the Lexington area.  Two of William Haden's oldest children married before the families' arrival in Logan County and both the families they married into also were said to have come to Logan County from Fayette.  One of these families, that of William Morton, had members of the family that remained in Lexington, adding credence to the traditions.  There are fragments of burnt records from Fayette Co that were filmed by LDS, #2111044-2111046.  These records are truly fragments of deeds, but from the fragments I was able to decipher a great deal.  Enough to prove that William Haydon actually lived in Lexington and owned considerable property and was a very different person.  William Haden, and Thomas Proctor who married William's eldest daughter, lived on land that bordered William Peaches' Military Survey, on or near the South Elkhorn River.  Other neighbors included Robert O'Neal, the father of Thomas Proctor's first wife, and Aquilla Gilbert and his son Charles who was married to Jenny Haden, William's first cousin.  Most of the deeds that had undamaged dates were from  1790-1795.


William and several of the other families - that of Thomas Proctor, Charles Gilbert, William Morton, father-in-law of William's son James - then moved to Logan County.
First evidence in Logan County is the Logan County Tax List revealing that William Haden had 1000 acres first entered by Jonathan Clark on the Gasper River in 1797. By 1800, he is being taxed on over 1600 acres on the Gasper, Red, and Barren rivers and son James has 400 acres on the Gasper. [This is Jonathan Clark, older brother of George Rogers Clark - there is a suit in the estate records of Logan Co filed 3 Jan 1824 by the children of Jonathan, who died Nov 1811, for division of his lands. Equity Box 11, #226. Several deeds of William's and his sons refer to land adjacent Jonathan Clark's Military Survey.]


Logan County records have survived in great shape - tax rolls, deeds, court records, marriage records - so it has been relatively easy to document the family after their move to that county.  The Genealogical Society of Logan County has published a number of abstracts of these records, but caution should be advised.  These are abstracts and quite a bit of essential data including names of some of the parties has been omitted, and there are some interpretive problems as well.  To get the rest of the story, the microfilm is available from LDS.

Sometime after the Hadens arrived in Logan County, William's wife Ann died.  He married again, to Mrs. Sarah "Sally" Johnston/Johnson, on 21 December 1807, in Logan County.  There were second cousins of William's with the surname Johnson in Logan County, and it is possible the widow was known to him from back in Virginia, but even a study of the year by year tax records has not revealed an earlier husband for Sarah Johnston.  There were a number of Johnston/Johnson families in Logan County and the spelling is virtually interchangeable.  William and Sarah had a single daughter born perhaps about 1810 - she was also named Sarah, called "Sally".  Records refer to the child of this last marriage as "Sally the younger".  Now, William's eldest daughter was also named Sally [often called Sally the elder in records of William's estate] and is the child that could have been born of the first wife Judith Moorman.  The elder Sally had died prior to October of 1808, leaving three young children.  One has to be extremely careful in dealing with the records of these three Sarah "Sally" Hadens and in many cases the abstracters of the records have erred - errors that have been picked up and perpetuated by those who did not read the original versions of the records.  William is often seen with only ten children and the younger Sally omitted entirely.

At some point, a lady applied for membership in the DAR, listing a completely different wife for William Haden and a residence in Bedford County, Virginia.  She was accepted for membership, although in the DAR database it now shows that additional proof is needed.  There was a man in Bedford County - his name is found as William Haiden/Hayden/Headen in various records, although Headen occurs most often.  He married a widowed lady named Mary Lemert in 1795, in Bedford County.  He had two sons named John and Joseph, apparently his only children by an earlier unknown wife, as they were grown and on tax lists by 1800 in Bedford County.  This William Headen wrote his will 20 Aug 1815, proved 25 May 1818, in Bedford County, which makes quite clear his only heirs were his present wife Mary who was to keep what she brought to the marriage, and two sons, John and Joseph.  The Bedford county records make quite plain that this family was residing continuously in Bedford county from 1795 through the distribution of the deceased William's property.  This is obviously a very different person - did he serve in the Revolution?  Possibly, but he is most certainly not the William Haden from Fluvanna Co, Virginia and Logan County, Kentucky.

My husband's ancestor William Haden died intestate in Logan County, Kentucky, probably late in the year 1819.  The property of the deceased was appraised, 20 Jan 1820, Logan Co Will Book B, p.280.  James Haden, the eldest son, was granted letters of administration on the estate of Wm Haden, Senr. at the February Term of the Logan County Court, 1820. The 1820 census of Logan County lists the "Exors. of Wm Haiden, dec'd" and 19 slaves. 

Not only did William Haden die without a will, but he owned a great deal of property, both land and slaves, to be divided among his heirs according to law.   Four of his eleven children had already died, all leaving minor heirs.  He had apparently deeded land to several individuals, but the proper documentation had not been completed before his death - there are deeds listing all the heirs and the guardians of the minor heirs.  He left a widow and the minor child, Sally the younger.  His widow Sally died in October of 1822, leaving the young daughter truly orphaned, requiring a guardian other than her mother.  The son James himself died late in 1822, also intestate, leaving much unsettled, from both the estates of his father and stepmother.  This situation required much legal documentation and several lawsuits that resulted in a wealth of detail concerning William Haden's heirs.  The next post will list those heirs.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

The Genealogy Happy Dance

This post has nothing to do with corrections or errors - it actually has nothing to do with anyone related to me. 

Here's the situation.  My immigrant ancestors came early, very early - before Ellis Island, before Castle Garden, before most recorded passenger lists.  So that has been an area of genealogy research that I've not really needed to deal with - there was nothing to find.  However, my mother remarried when I was age six and her new husband legally adopted me, changing my name - they went on to have two more daughters.  I have researched his families for my half-sisters  ...but he was adopted!   So all of this research is perhaps family history, but not true "gene"alogy.   Yes, we do know who he was prior to the adoption and I have also looked at those families.

My adopted Dad's mother had come with her family from Germany as a small child.  I knew the names of her parents, I thought, and at least one sister, possibly a second sister.  There was a brother born on this side of the water and I had found some information about him.   So here was someone I could actually look for on those passenger lists.

My adopted Dad's surname was McKim [his adopted name ...still with me?].  I called his mother "Kim" since she wasn't really my grandmother.  For all intents and purposes, I considered her a grandmother!  Her name was Mary Ida (Schniebs) McKim - I was told her parents were Otto and Emilie Schniebs.  Some old family letters suggested two sisters, Annie & Mattie - neither of their married surnames were very legible - and the younger brother was definitely Otto.

Through the years, I eventually discovered that Kim's sister Anna, or Annie, had married a man named August Priebe and was able to find them in the censuses, etc.  The brother Otto had married twice and had a son by each marriage - he was considerate enough to move to Texas and I found death certificates for him and his family courtesy of the FamilySearch Pilot.  However, Otto's death certificate contained a surprise - he listed his father as August Schniebs, not Otto.  I even discovered that sometime before 1900, Ida's father had died, and her mother Emilie had remarried to a Henry Waschow.  With that information, I located Emilie's grave - in the row just behind Ida McKim and her husband Paul McKim.  Emilie Waschow is on the stone, not Schniebs, and neither husband is there.

The 1900 Census revealed some interesting facts. Ida was born Jan 1878 in Germany. She immigrated in 1882 and had lived in this country for 18 years. 12 year old Otto, Ida's brother, was living with Ida and Paul, although his mother Emilie was still living.  Actually Emilie was counted twice in 1900 - with her daughter Annie & family in Pope Co, AR, and also in the same location with husband Henry Waschow.  The year of immigration varied a year or two as I checked censuses for the family - one time Annie even gave her year of immigration as the same as her husband's which had been several years earlier.  But 1882 was more or less the concensus.

Every now and then, I would research the various immigration websites and look for the name Schniebs with assorted spellings, in the early 1880's.  I would use Otto, and Emilie spelled different ways.  No luck.  I even wondered if they had come in at Galveston and the records lost in the hurricane - many German families did come in at that port.  And Ida and Paul McKim married in Ft. Smith, AR and lived in the northwest part of Arkansas the rest of their lives.

Last week, I tried again.  On Ancestry.com.  Someone had submitted a correction for the spelling Schniebs and up popped this family:

On the Passenger list of the "Salier" which arrived from Bremen, Germany, in New York, 11 Jun 1883. They were in Steerage.

Amalie Schniebs, age 39
Anna, age 10
Mathilde, age 8
Ida, age 5

No husband or father with them.  But I was inspired.  I still wasn't convinced whether or not I was looking for Otto Schniebs or August Schneibs - particularly since a second wife had given the information on that death certificate and I knew that Otto had a brother-in-law named August.  But I tried just the given name August.  Schniebs was not indexed as Schniebs - who knows what it might have been since I thought I'd tried every possible spelling.  And I found him.  He had come the year before.

August Schniebs is shown as arriving through Castle Garden, 13 Mar 1882. The ship was the "Oder" and he had come from Bremen, Germany, via Southhampton, England, also in steerage.  I believe his occupation is labourer.  He was age 41.

My inspiration kept leading me ...with the age of Mathilde, the fact that she was later called Mattie, and a guess at her husband's surname, I did indeed find Mattie, married to Israel B. Stevinson, living in Hallsville, Boone Co, MO, for many years.  The Missouri death certificates are online, too ...and Mattie's father was listed as August Schniebs.  So he wasn't Otto!

So although I don't know the whole story...  how ever did they get from New York to Arkansas, and why?...I know so much more than I did.  I still don't have the deaths of either the sister Annie or of the father August Schniebs.  Emilie married Waschow, 12 Oct 1890, in Fort Smith, AR.  Otto Schniebs, the youngest child, was born 2 Apr 1888, in Fort Smith.  So August Schniebs died sometime around 1888-1890 and is probably buried there in Fort Smith.   I know that Anna Schniebs Priebe was living in 1930 and I have found the death listing of her husband in 1950 and he died still in Pope Co, AR.

Naturalization papers?  Never thought I'd be looking for those.  Mattie Schniebs Stevinson states she was naturalized in the censuses, Ida and Anna and their mother never do.  In fact, Ida began to say she was born in "Oklahoma".  A place I've not found any of this family!  I suspect she was not too proud of being German, and I also think she was probably not ever naturalized.

I was having so much fun that I googled the ships.  Both were wrecked and sunk prior to 1900, but both had by then been removed from the Germany-USA route. The Oder went down in the Indian Ocean; the Salier, off the coast of South America. Both ships owned by North German Lloyd. They were both iron ships, two masted with a single funnel, with a speed of 13 knots - that's about 15 miles per hour.  I even found a picture of the S.S. Oder.

Perhaps I will do a few blogs about the rest of the information I have found on the Schniebs family ...there should be descendants out there somewhere.  Please email me direct if you are part of this family.

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