52 Ancestors #31: Alice (Muir) Jennings (1906-1993): Grandma Jennings

Ancestor: Alice (Muir) Jennings, grandmother

Alice Muir was born on 16 March 1906 in Novinger, Missouri, to Robert Muir and Ida Mae Riggin. She was their second and last child as her mother died of tuberculosis in 1909. Alice was born blind in her left eye, having a detached retina. In 1910 newly widowed Robert Muir lived in Nineveh, Missouri, with his two young children -- Henry and Alice. The children's paternal grandmother, Margaret (Semple) Muir and her youngest daughter, lived next door.

Alice's father remarried in 1911 and Alice and Henry were sent to live with their grandmother, Margaret Muir, while their father raised a new family in East St. Louis, Illinois, and he worked in nearby coal mines. Robert Muir moved his family to West Virginia some time before 1920 as one of his daughters was born there that year.

When the 1920 census was enumerated, Alice continued to live with her grandmother in Nineveh, but her brother had left and joined his father in West Virginia. Grandmother Muir died on 31 May 1920 three days after an operation. At the age of 14 Alice Muir was on her own. She lived for brief periods of time with various Muir aunts and uncles.

According to an article in the Troy Call, she attended the fifth annual Riggin family reunion held at her maternal grandmother, Clementine (Wells) Riggin Collins' home on 19 August 1921 in Troy, Illinois. Eventually, she made her way to West Virginia, and worked with a family as a maid/governess in War. There she met Marvin Edward Jennings, a clerk with the Norfolk & Western Railroad. They met at a silent movie. Alice was reading the movie to her employer's young son and Marvin and his friends sat behind Alice and mimicked her during the movie.

Marvin and Alice dated for a few months but eventually Alice moved back to East St. Louis. When she discovered she was pregnant, Marvin quit his job with the railroad, traveled to Illinois, and married her on 13 May 1924 in East St. Louis.

Alice Muir standing on the station platform of the East St. and Suburban
Railway, which was an electric commuter train, circa 1925; personal
collection

Their daughter Pearl was born on 19 September 1924 but died a few months later on 30 December 1924. The coupled lived at 870 North 80th Street in East St. Louis, just a few houses away from a house her father owned. Her husband worked for the Illinois Central Railroad Company.

Marvin and Alice's oldest son was born in 1927. Alice, my grandmother, used to say after Uncle Marvin was born, she was unable to get pregnant and went to a doctor in St. Louis. He told her that her womb was twisted. So she went every week for 26 treatments, which apparently consisted of untwisting her womb a little bit at a time. Two months after her last treatment, she was pregnant. Their youngest son was born in 1931.

Marvin and Alice (Muir) Jennings with their sons; personal
collection

When the Depression struck, Marvin Jennings lost his job with the railroad. He did odd jobs to make a little money but the family was on Relief for a period of time. In 1941, Marvin took a job with the federal government and the family moved to Washington, DC, where they lived for a year before buying a house in Arlington County, Virginia.

Marvin Jennings died in 1961. Alice was left with a mortgage and a $1,000 in the bank. She got a job as an accounting clerk with the U.S. Navy and worked on expense reports submitted by Naval officers. However, to get to work, she had to buy a car and learn to drive. My father, her youngest son, always said teaching her was quite an experience.

Alice sold the family home and lived in a series of apartments until she retired. She and Marvin had bought a fishing shack on a tidal creek of the Chesapeake Bay in Deale Beach, Maryland, just before his death. Her youngest son, winterized it and built an addition, and she retired there.  She also began wintering in Saint Petersburg, Florida. When her sons moved to North Carolina, building homes next door to each other, Alice bought a mobile home and had it placed on their property, living there until her death.

Alice (Muir) Jennings died on 14 December 1993 of a cerebrovascular accident in Pamilco County at Britt Haven Nursing Home, where she had been treated for two months prior to her death. She was interred beside her husband at National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Virginia.

Alice and her husband were active in the Odd Fellows and the Daughters of Rebekah lodge organizations and both held offices in their local chapters. After her retirement, Alice indulged her love of travel visiting Europe several times, the Middle East, Hawaii, and took several cruises.

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. The theme for this week was "Oldest," which I did not follow.

Using the Ancestral Reference Numbering System, Alice (Muir) Jennings, is Ancestor number 5 on my family tree:

5 Alice Muir was born on 16 March 1906 in Novinger, Missouri, to Robert Muir and Ida Mae Riggin; died on 14 December 1993 in Alliance, North Carolina; married Marvin Edward Jennings on 13 May 1924 in East St. Louis, Illinois.

5.1 Pearl Marie Jennings born 19 September 1924 in East St. Louis, Missouri; died 30 December 1924 in East St. Louis.

5.2 Marvin Edward Jennings, Jr. born 23 July 1927 in East St. Louis, Missouri; married Rachel Mildred Lange, daughter of Gustav Lange and Wilhelmina Schalin, on 5 April 1952 in Arlington County, Virginia.

2 Charles Theodore Jennings born 14 December 1931 in Centreville, Illinois; married Dorothy Ailein Lange, daughter of Gustav Lange and Wilhelmina Schalin, on 15 November 1957 in Arlington County, Virginia.

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'Alice Muir at train station,' personal collection
1910 Federal Census, Census Place: O'Fallon, Saint Clair, Illinois; Roll: T624_323; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 0155; Image: 641; FHL microfilm: 1374336
1920 Federal Census, Census Place: Nineveh, Adair, Missouri; Roll: T-625_902; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 17; Image: 330
1930 Federal Census, Census Place: East St Louis, St Clair, Illinois; Roll: 557; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 61; Image: 55.0; FHL microfilm: 2340292
1940 Federal Census, Census Place: Signal Hill, St Clair, Illinois; Roll: T627_879; Page: 19B; Enumeration District: 82-35
Global, Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, 1993 Alice Jennings
Riggin Family Reunion, Troy Weekly Call, 25 August 1929
Riggin Family Reunion, Edwardsville Intelligencer, 8 August 1948
Social News Notes, Troy Call, 19 August 1921
US, City Directories, 1822-1939, 1926 East St Louis, Illinois (Alice Jennings)
US, City Directories, 1822-1939, 1928 East St Louis, Illinois (Alice Jennings)
US, City Directories, 1822-1939, 1930 East St Louis, Illinois (Alice Jennings)
US, Illinois Marriage License,  No. H-11915
US, Illinois Marriage License 1924 Jennings, Marvin - Muir, Alice
US, Missouri Delayed or Special Certificate of Birth, No. 524307
US, North Carolina, Certificate of Death 060-482
US, North Carolina, Certificate of Death, Book 26, Page 181
US, North Carolina Death Index, 1908-2004, Deaths: 1993-96
US, Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume I, 1993 Arapahoe, North Carolina (Alice M Jennings)
US, Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume II, Alice M Jennings (St Petersburg, Florida)
US, Virginia, Find A Grave Index, 1607-2012, 1993 Alice M Jennings

52 Ancestors #30: Robert Muir (1875-1956): Union Mine Organizer?

Ancestor: Robert Muir, Great Grandfather
Haplogroup: Unknown

Robert Muir was born on 16 March 1875 in Swinhill in the parish of Dalserf, Scotland to James and Margaret (Semple) Muir. He was the couple's second child together but their oldest son had died the previous year. When the 1881 census was enumerated Robert lived with his mother at the farm of his maternal grandparents, Peter and Janet (Torrance) Semple. His father was not at the home when the census was taken.

Remains of Robert Muir's Sottish birth registration; personal collection

In June of 1887 James Muir immigrated to the United States. Margaret followed later that year with their living children.  They arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 30 September 1887 aboard the Allen Line's S/S Manitoban. The ship had sailed from Glasgow, Scotland, and made a brief stop in Ireland before reaching Philadelphia. Margaret, Robert, and his siblings likely took the train to Streator, Illinois, where James worked as a coal miner. Robert Muir became a naturalized United citizen on 10 October 1896 at the Livingston County Courthourse.

In 1900 he lived with his mother and two younger brothers in Reading, Illinois, where he worked as a coal miner beside his brother Peter. Each had been unemployed for six months during the previous year.

He and Ida Mae Riggin applied for a marriage license on 12 October 1902 in Collinsville, Illinois, and were married shortly thereafter. They lived in Troy for about a year after their marriage; then moved to Novinger, Missouri, where they were living when Robert's cousin, Peter Muir, listed him as his contact when he arrived in the United States in 1903. They moved to O'Fallon, Illinois, just before Ida Mae (Riggin) Muir died in 1909. The couple had two children, Henry and Alice.

In 1910 Robert and his two young children lived in O'Fallon, Illinois, next door to his mother. I imagine she helped care for his children as they were not yet school aged.

On 26 September 1911 Robert married Elizabeth "Liz" Fausz in St. Louis. They both claimed to be over 18 years old and that was certainly the case with Robert, but Liz was only 17 and pregnant. When Robert was required to register for the World War I draft in 1918, the family lived in the Edgemont Station area of East St. Louis, Illinois. Robert's appearance was described as being of medium height and stout build with blue eyes and partially gray hair. He and Liz had four children together. All but Henrietta was born in Illinois.

Robert was not enumerated in the 1920, 1930, and 1940 U.S. federal census. However, he was listed in the East St. Louis city directories between 1924 and 1930. He owned a home on 436 North 80th Street.

His daughter, Alice, my grandmother, always said her father was a union organizer and traveled frequently to coal mines across the country trying to get the workers to unionize. She said he'd been blackballed from several mines, threatened and even shot at. I always thought these stories were fantasies of a young girl who didn't know her father very well. However, not finding him in so many census records makes me wonder.

Robert Muir applied for the new Social Security insurance program on 4 December 1936. At the time he submitted his application he lived in Iaeger, West Virginia, and worked for the Pocahontas Red Bird Mining Co.

Social Security application with Robert Muir's signature; personal
collection

He divorced Liz some time before 1940. When he retired from mining, some time after 1942, he bought a small piece of property along a river in Van Buren County, Tennessee. On that property he lived in an abandoned bus.

Robert Muir's Coal Miner's Certificate from the West Virginia
Department of Mines; personal collection

He was hospitalized in September 1956 while in southwest Virginia visiting his family. He died on 23 September 1956 at the Clinch Valley Clinic Hospital in Richlands, Virginia, of a cerebral hemorrhage due to hypertensive cardiovascular disease. He was 81 years old at the time of his death and was interred at Iaeger Memorial Cemetery in Roderfield, West Virginia.

Robert Muir died without a will. His real and personal property was auctioned off in two separate sales on 11 October and 15 November 1956. When his estate was settled in 1957, each of his six children received $310.52.

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. The theme for this week was "Colorful," which I did not follow.

Using the Ancestral Reference Numbering System, Robert Muir, is Ancestor number 10 on my family tree:

10 Robert Muir born 16 March 1875 in Swinhill, Dalserf, Lanarkshire, Scotland, to James Muir and Margaret Semple; died on 23 September 1956 in Richlands, Virginia; married 1) Ida Mae Riggin, daughter of John Wesley Riggin and Clementine Wells, on 12 October 1902 in Collinsville, Illinois, and 2) Elizabeth "Liz" Fausz, daughter of Peter Fausz and Margaret Dietrich, on 26 September 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri (divorced)

10.1 Henry "Jack" Muir born 29 May 1903 in Adair County, Missouri, to Robert Muir and Ida Mae Riggin; died 24 May 1986 in Gretna, Louisiana; married 1) Mary Frances Canterberry, daughter of Howard Canterberry and Nancy Robertson on 3 July 1921 in Walls Creek, West Virginia, (divorced) 2) Armitar Ormmueth Alleman, daughter of Arrestide Alleman and Alice Istre, on 24 February 1930 in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, (divorced) 3) Eppa "Eppie" (Swan) Childs Swafford, daughter of William Henry Swan and Edna Sarah Norvell, before 1953, likely in Louisiana, and 4) Edith Mary (Davenport) Samples in May 1979 in St. Bernard Parish.

5 Alice Muir born 16 March 1906 in Novinger, Missouri, to Robert Muir and Ida Mae Riggin; died 14 December 1993 in Pamlico County, North Carolina; married Marvin Edward Jennings, son of Charles Edward Jennings and Effie Beard, on 13 May 1924.

10.3 Robert Muir, Jr. born 7 January 1912 in O'Fallon, Illinois, to Robert Muir and Elizabeth Fausz; died 22 February 1959 in Welch, West Virginia; married 1) Sadie Viola Cline, daughter of John Estil Cline and Maude Rasnake, on 1 November 1930 in Russell County, Virginia, (divorced) and 2) a woman named Carrie after 1949.

10.4 Verna Muir born 3 July 1917 in Illinois to Robert Muir and Elizabeth Fausz; died 18 April 2010 in Ravenswood, West Virginia; married Franz "Frank" Burglechner, son of Unknown Burglechner and Maria "Mary" Miller, before 1935.

10.5 Henrietta Muir born 14 January 1920 in Tralee, West Virginia to Robert Muir and Elizabeth Fausz; died 23 February 2008 in Eglin, Illinois.

10.6 Margaret Elizabeth Muir born 26 September 1924 in East St. Louis, Illinois, to Robert Muir and Elizabeth Fausz; died 14 June 1988 in Richlands, Virginia; married Cecil Roy Hess, son of Charles Robert Hess and Jessie Mae Fitzgerald, on 24 October 1942 in Buchanan County, Virginia (divorced).

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'Remains of Robert Muir's Scottish Birth Registration,' personal collection
'Robert Muir's Coal Miner's Certificate,' personal collection
'Social Security Application,' personal collection
1881 Scotland Census, 03/04/1881 Semple, Peter (Census 1881 638/02 002/00 018)
1900 US Federal Census, Census Place: Reading, Livingston, Illinois; Roll: 318; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0114; FHL microfilm number: 1240318
1910 US Federal Census, Census Place: O'Fallon, St Clair, Illinois; Roll: T624_323; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 0155; Image: 641; FHL microfilm: 1374336
Alice (Muir) Jennings' Genealogy Notebook, page 4, 8
Scotland, Statutory Registrations, 1855-2013, 1875 Muir, Robert (Statutory Births 638/02 0037)
US, City Directories, 1821-1989, 1924 East St. Louis, IL (Muir, Robert)
US, City Directories, 1821-1989, 1926 East St. Louis, IL (Muir, Robert)
US, City Directories, 1821-1989, 1928 East St. Louis, IL (Muir, Robert)
US, City Directories, 1821-1989, 1930 East St. Louis, IL (Muir, Robert)
US, Illinois, Livingston County Court, Naturalization Application, 10 Oct 1896
US, Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002, 1911 Muir, Robert - Fausz, Elizabeth
US, Pennsylvania, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1963, 1887 Muir, Robert
US, Social Security Application, Number: 235-10-9644
US, Social Security Card, Number 235-10-9644, State: West Virginia
US, Tennessee, Van Buren County Court Administrator, Settlement of and with C. C. Greer, Administrator, 27 Jun 1957
US, Tennessee, Van Buren County Court Administrator, Goods and Chattels Sale, 11 Oct 1956
US, Tennessee, Van Buren County Court Administrator Estate Sale, 11 Nov 1956
US, Virginia, Death Certificate 1956, Muir, Robert, No. 22810
US, West Virginia, Department of Mines, Coal Miner's Certificate No. 93665
US, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, State: Illinois; County: St. Clair; Roll: 1614579; Draft Board: 1

What Happened to Sophia, Widow of Terresha "Terry" Jewell?

A case in Virginia Circuit Superior Court and Chancery revealed Sophia Jewell was the widow of Terresha Jewell, known as Terry, often transcribed and indexed as Jerry, with three minor daughters -- Sarah Ellen, Frances Ann, and Mary Elizabeth. We know Terry Jewell died sometime before 14 May 1838 as that was the date Sophia appeared before the Kanawha County court requesting guardianship of her children who were described as the "orphan children of Terry Jewell, deceased..." Her motion was granted the same day.

Virginia Chancery case 1841-009, page 74; courtesy of the Library of Virginia

Those three little girls were my first cousins three times removed, nieces of my great great grandmother, Catherine B. (Jewell) Jennings.

Terry died when Kanawha County was still part of Virginia. Virginia did not require counties to record deaths until 1853 and West Virginia did not require statewide registration until 1917. Currently, this court case is the best evidence we have of his death until some other substitute record may be found, such as an obituary or funeral record. However, I did learn that Terry and Sophia were married in 31 March 1832 in Kanawha County by James C. Taylor. Sophia's name was listed as Sophia Ann Mahone, so I surmised that was her maiden name and her three daughters were born between 1832 and 1838.

Sophia married again to Hiram Harbour on 16 June 1839, according to the return sent to the Kanawha County clerk by Francis A. Timmous. Sophia was listed as Mrs. Sophia Juel. In 1840 Hiram was enumerated in the federal census as the head of a household comprised of seven people in Kanawha County:

1840 Household of Hiram Harber (Harbour); created with Microsoft Excel

We may assume Hiram was the male between 20-29 years of age, making the range of his birth between 1811 and 1820. Sophia was the female between 30-39 years of age. The three young girls are surely Sarah Ellen, Frances Ann and Mary Elizabeth Jewell. The mystery is the male between 10-14 years of age. Who was he?

By 1850 Hiram and his family had moved to Howard County, Missouri, and for the first time all the names of members of his household were enumerated. The mystery boy from the 1840 census was likely John Mahone, who was 23 years of age in 1850. My current theory is he was Sophia's son born out of wedlock and before her marriage to Terry Jewell. Terry's three daughters are also listed in the 1850 census as being 16, 14, and 12 years of age, respectively.

Sarah Ellen (16) and Frances Ann (14) disappeared from the records thereafter. I have not found a trace of Sarah Ellen, but believe Frances Ann died on 1 September 1851 and was interred in the Clarks Chapel Cemetery in New Franklin, Missouri.

Sophia's son John Mahone married Catherine Foster Rhoads in September 1852 in Sacramento County, California, which was my first clue the family had settled there after their sojourn in Missouri.

In 1855 Hiram was charged with assault with the intent to kill due to an incident where he shot Andrew Bates over some horses. Over the next few years he was in and out of court frequently on various matters.

By 10 March 1857 Hiram Harbour lived in Sacramento County and was placing advertisements, likely required by law, in the Sacramento Daily Union that his wife had "abandoned his bed and board" in December 1855 and he wasn't going to pay any debt she may have incurred.

One of five identical advertisements placed by Hiram Harbour in the Sacramento
Daily Union; courtesy of the California Digital Archives

An article in the same newspaper reported Hiram and Sophia were granted a divorce on 7 March 1859 in Sacramento County.

Mary Elizabeth Jewell married Benjamin H. Hereford on 13 January 1859 in Sacramento County. Benjamin was a city-county councilmen and the son of an attorney; his brother would become a U.S. Senator from West Virginia in the 1870s. They had two sons before Mary died on 27 August 1866 in Virginia City, Nevada.

In 1860 Sophia lived with Mary Elizabeth and her new husband, Benjamin, on their extensive ranch in Lee Township. A notice in the Sacremento Daily Union informed readers that Sophia died on 2 February 1862 in Virginia City, Nevada, where Mary and Benjamin had moved shortly after their second son was born in 1861.

View of Virginia City from a nearby hillside ca. 1867; courtesy Wikipedia

Virginia City was booming when the Hereford family arrived soon after the discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1859. It was once heralded as the most important city between Denver and San Francisco. Samuel Clemens began reporting for the city's newspaper, Territorial Enterprise, under the name Mark Twain in 1862.

NOTE: The Find A Grave memorial for Mary Elizabeth (Jewell) Hereford lists her birth year as 1839. A California mortuary and cemetery card listed her death date as 27 August 1866 and stated her age was 27 years, 3 months and 14 days, making her date of birth 14 May 1839. This cannot be true because she was listed on the request for guardianship, which was filed in Kanawha County court on 14 May 1838. I believe she was actually born in 1838.

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Discovering Henry Downs, Another 4X Great Grandfather
DNA Discoveries: Jewell Progress

Janet (Semple/Muir) Hutchison (1871-1942)

This is one in a series of posts about the family of my great great grandparents James and Margaret (Semple) Muir. Janet (Semple) Hutchison, Margaret's eldest child, was an aunt of my grandmother, Alice (Muir) Jennings.

Janet Semple was born on 25 November 1871 in Dalserf Scotland to Margaret Semple, who was unmarried at the time of her birth and worked as a dairy maid away from her parents' home. She returned to Dalserf for the birth of her daughter. A father was not listed on Janet's birth registration and Janet was known as Jessie throughout her life. She frequently used Muir as her surname before her marriage and she was raised as part of James and Margaret (Semple) Muir's household.

British Ordnance Survey of Dalserf, including the farm
Margaret's father leased

When Jessie was almost two years old her mother married James Muir. In 1881 Margaret, Jessie, and Robert Muir, were living with Margaret's parents, Peter and Janet (Torrance) Semple, at Swinhill Farm in Dalserf. Jessie's step-father was not enumerated with the rest of the family. From 1877 until 1886, Jessie's mother had six children. However, only the two youngest, Margaret and Peter (the fourth son so named) lived to adulthood.

When Jessie was 15 years old, she, her mother, and half siblings, boarded the Allen Line's S/S Manitoban in Glasgow. After stopping in Ireland, they arrived in Philadelphia on 30 September 1887. Jessie was included on the passenger manifest as Jessie Muir, but she was listed on a different page than her mother and half siblings. Her occupation was listed as a domestic.

Margaret and the children settled in Streator, Illinois. The town was the second fastest growing town in Illinois, besides Chicago. The coal mines attracted workers from every part of the globe. Two years after immigrating to the United States, Jessie married a fellow Scot, Alexander Hutchison on 2 January 1889 in Streator. Her step-father, James Muir, was listed as her father on the marriage certificate and acted as one of the witnesses to the marriage.

They had three children in Illinois before moving back to Scotland, but only two were living when they made the trip. On 14 February 1894, the young family arrived in Glasgow aboard the Anchor Line's S/S Ethiopia. They had traveled to New York City to board the ship.

In 1895 the family lived at 20 Swinhill Colliery, which was housing for the miners and owned by the colliery. There were just over 50 one- and two-room apartments in the complex. In 1910 the housing was described as fair in size, with five privy middens for residents living in all the apartments. There was no ground for private gardens, no sinks in the homes, and water had to be drawn from wells. By 1910 most of the complex had been demolished.

When the 1901 census was enumerated in Scotland, Alex and Jessie lived at 31 New Street in Stonehouse. Alex worked as a coal miner and the couple had five children. Interestingly, Jessie's mother and her family lived at the same address in 1861. I do not know if it was still being rented by the family or if this is merely a coincidence.

Jessie had a daughter in 1903. The family decided to return to the United States. They boarded the Anchor Line's S/S Furnessia in Glasgow on 21 July 1904 and arrived in New York City on 1 August. Traveling with Alex and Jessie were their six children. Everyone in the family was a United States citizen and their physical description was listed as good. The family's destination was Kirksville, Missouri.

Jessie had her last child, a daughter, in 1905. When the 1910 census was enumerated the family, including their seven children lived in Nineveh, Missouri, next door to Jessie's half sister, Margaret (Muir) Caswell. Alex and his brother-in-law were coal miners.

Children of Alexander and Janet "Jessie" (Semple) Hutchison

1. Jessie Hutchison born about 1889; died about 1891 (this information was according to my grandmother)
2. Alexander Hutchison born 1891-Illinois; died 1959; never married
3. James Hutchison born 1893-Illinois; died 1970-Illinois; married Emma Frances Hanlin
4. Maggie Hutchison born 1895-Scotland; died 1994-Missouri; married William Bruce Melching
5. Lily Hutchison born 1898-Scotland; died 1989-Missouri; married Andrew Jackson McDaniel
6. Joseph Hutchison born 1901-Scotland; died 1966-Georgia; married Ruth Anna Richardson*
7. Jane "Janie" Hutchison born 1903-Scotland; died 1959-Missouri; never married
8. Ruth Hutchison born 1905-Missouri; died 1993-Missouri; married David Connel Combs

In 1920 Jessie and Alex remained in Nineveh. Alex worked as a coal miner. All the children lived at home except for their daughter Maggie, who lived and worked in Kansas City, Missouri. Jessie's mother had moved from O'Fallon, Illinois, to Nineveh, sometime between 1912 and 1920. She lived nearby with her youngest daughter and granddaughter, Alice Muir, likely to be near her daughters, Jessie and Margaret.

Plat map of Novinger, which indicates it was at the junction of two
railroad lines; image courtesy of Plat Book of Adair County, Missouri

Jessie lost her husband 19 May 1927. She continued to live in Nineveh with a daughter. The John Blacksmith family boarded in their home. By 1935 Jessie had moved to nearby Novinger to a house she owned, which was valued at $400. Two of her children lived with her.

Jessie died on 23 February 1942 of pernicious anemia from which she had suffered for four years. She was buried in the Novinger City Cemetery beside her husband.

Mrs. Alexander Hutchinson of Novinger Dies

Succumbs at age of 70 after ten-year illness

Mrs. Jessie Hutchinson, 70 years old, died at her home in Novinger this morning at 10:30 o'clock after a ten-year illness.

The body is at the Dee Riley Funeral Home here and will remain there until Tuesday evening when it will be taken to the Hutchinson home. Funeral services will be held at Novinger Wednesday afternoon.

She is survived by her husband, Alexander Hutchinson, four daughters, and three sons, Mrs. Ruth Camles and Mrs. Margaret Melcher, of Kansas City, Mrs. Lillian McDaniels of Memphis, Mo., Miss Janie and Alex Hutchinson at home, Joe Hutchinson of Springfield, Ill., and Jimmie Hutchinson of Taylorville, Ill. One child preceded her in death.**

As published in the Kirksville Daily Express on 23 February 1942.

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*Joseph Hutchison may have also been married to Edna L. Ridgeway but I have been unable to definitively prove it.

**There are several inaccuracies in this obituary. The Hutchison surname is not spelled with two 'n's. Jessie's husband died in 1927 and did not survive her. All of the daughters' surnames are incorrect. Camles should be Combs; McDaniels should be McDaniel; and Melcher should be Melching.

Children of James and Margaret (Semple) Muir

Margaret Semple had eleven children over the course of her life but only six lived to adulthood. Like many young Scottish women of her class, she had a daughter out of wedlock in 1871. No father was included on the civil birth registration, which was not unusual as the father had to be present in order to be identified as the father of an illegitimate child. However, to this day, we do not know who the father was. She named her Janet after her mother, Janet (Torrance) Semple, which was the custom at the time. Her daughter was called Jessie throughout her life and my grandmother called her Aunt Jessie. Margaret left her job as a dairymaid before she delivered Jessie and returned to Dalserf to live with her parents.

Dalserf countryside; photograph used with the permission of Andrew
Scorgie

After she married James Muir in 1873, Margaret had ten more children, the youngest two being born in Illinois. These are Margaret's children who did not survive their infancy:

Robert Muir (1873-1874)
Robert Muir was born on 4 October 1873, three months after his parents married. He was born at Swinhill, home of his maternal grandparents, Peter and Janet (Torrance) Semple. Swinhill is in Dalserf, Scotland. His mother registered his birth by marking her mark. Little Robert died on 25 January 1874 at Swinhill of hydrocephalus and convulsions, which is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. His father registered his death. Robert Muir was three months old when he died.

Peter Semple Muir (1877-1877)
Peter Semple Muir was born on 14 February 1877 at Swinhill in Dalserf, Scotland. He was James and Margaret (Semple) Muir's third child. He was named for his maternal grandfather. Peter died at the age of 5 weeks in his grandparents' home of coryza, from which he had suffered for one month, and bronchitis with which he was afflicted two days before his death. Coryza is an acute inflammation of the mucous membrane in the nose.

Peter Semple Muir (1878-1878)
Peter Semple Muir was born on 5 July 1878 at Swinhill in Dalserf, Scotland. He was James and Margaret (Semple) Muir's fourth child and the second son they named for Margaret's father, Peter Semple. He died on 8 September 1878 at the age of two months in Coalburn, which was a small railway and coal mining village in Lesmahagow parish. Peter died of enteritis, a disease most commonly contracted by eating or drinking things contaminated by bacteria.

Peter Muir (1879-1879)
Peter Muir was born on 12 July 1879 in Coalburn in Lesmahagow parish. He was James and Margaret (Semple) Muir's fifth child and the third son they named for Margaret's father, Peter Semple. He died 10 days after his birth on 23 July 1879 of marasma, which is severe malnutrition. It may be caused by a extreme deficiency in one's diet of calories and protein or by diseases such as dysentery.

Henrietta Brown Muir (1882-1884)
Henrietta Brown Muir was born on 29 July 1882 at Birkenshaw in Dalserf. She was the sixth child of James and Margaret (Semple) Muir and was named after her paternal grandmother. She, her mother and living siblings moved to her maternal grandparents farm at Swinhill some time before her death, which was on 9 January 1884. She died of measles and bronchitis and was a year and five months old.

***
The lives six children -- Janet ("Jessie"), Robert, Margaret ("Maggie"), Peter, Alexander, and Jane ("Janie") -- who lived to adulthood will be covered in the coming weeks.

James Muir (1848-1926)

James Muir was likely the twelfth child of Robert and Henrietta (Brown) Muir. No parish church record exists for his birth. His birth date, 13 June, is listed on his death certificate and in my Grandmother's genealogy notebook. The birth year is more confusing. My Grandmother believed it was 1847. James' second wife believed it was 1845. I have settled on 1848. The closest record to his birth is the 1851 Scotland Census. That census was enumerated on the night of 30-31 March, which would make James Muir 2 years old, and that is his age as recorded on the census. He would turn three in June, hence 1848 as his year of birth.

When the 1851 Scotland census was enumerated, he was living with several siblings in Kirkton village, but his parents were not at home the night the census was taken. It is likely his mother had died by this time. We know she died before 1856.

Ten years later, James was living at 2 Birkenshaw in Larkhall with his father and several siblings. He was 13 and already working full-time in the coal mines. His father was no longer working in the mines but his older brothers still living at home were also miners. I have been unable to definitively locate James Muir in the 1871 census.

He married Margaret Semple on 4 Jul 1873 in Swinhill, Dalserf, Lanarkshire. She was the single mother of a young girl named Janet "Jessie" Semple. Margaret was pregnant with their first child at the time of their marriage, and that child was born on 4 October 1873. Their first son was named Robert Muir, after his paternal grandfather. Sadly, little Robert died on 25 January 1874 of hydrocephalus, which is the build up of too much cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. It is commonly called "water on the brain."

Parish church in Dalserf; photograph commissioned by me and taken by
Andrew Scorgie in 2013

My great grandfather also named Robert Muir was born on 16 March 1875. After my great grandfather, six more children were born in Scotland:

• Peter Semple Muir (14 February 1877 -- 23 March 1877)
• Peter Semple Muir (5 July 1878 -- 8 September 1878)
• Peter Muir (12 July 1879 -- 23 July 1879)
• Henrietta Brown Muir (29 July 1882 -- 9 January 1884)
• Margaret "Maggie" Muir (6 May 1884 -- 29 August 1966)
• Peter Semple Muir (3 February 1886 -- 30 October 1947)

Peter Semple was Margaret's father's name and naming a child in his honor was obviously important to her.

On 27 May 1887 James boarded the Anchor Line steamship Ethiopia in Glasgow and sailed to the United States. He arrived in New York City on the 6th of June and traveled to Streator, Illinois. Because the 1890 census was destroyed by fire, I do not know if he had relatives or friends who had already immigrated and settled in Streator or if he saw advertisements for Streator at the train station. 

James' wife, Margaret, and the living children followed him to Illinois, arriving in the U.S. on 30 September 1887. Margaret's daughter, Jessie, also traveled with her mother and half-siblings.  Margaret and James had two more children in Illinois: Alexander Muir (13 May 1889 -- 6 May 1957) and Jane "Janie" Muir (29 November 1894 -- 23 January 1990).

In 1900 James was living in Mystic, Iowa, a lodger at the home of Mrs. Margaret Greenbank. Appanoose was described as "one continuous mining camp" when James arrived. He claimed he was divorced. His wife, Margaret (Semple) Muir, however, was living in Reading, Illinois. According to her census records, she still believed she was married.

James married Margaret (McIntosh) Greenbank on 9 January 1913 in Princeton, Missouri. Princeton is in Mercer County, Missouri, which borders Iowa. I am left wondering after looking at the map, if Mercer County was a "Gretna Green" county, meaning it was possible to get a quickie marriage. Or perhaps county officials didn't look too closely at your documentation. I've found no evidence that James Muir actually divorced his first wife, nor can I find any evidence that Margaret Greenbank was divorced from her husband, Thomas, who was still alive, though living in the Mount Pleasant Hospital for the Insane.

Proximity of Appanoose County to Mercer County; image courtesy of
FamilySearch.org

I have not found James in the 1910 census. When the 1915 Iowa state census was taken, James claimed he had lived in Iowa since 1895. If that is true, then he left his first wife when their youngest child was barely a year old. In 1920 he lived in Nineveh, Missouri, and was a boarder in the home of Mrs. Ida Logsdon. Her home was very close to the home James' first wife and the home of their daughter, Maggie, and her husband, Robert Caswell.

The 1925 Iowa state census indicated James was still married and back in Mystic, Iowa, and lived with his second wife. At the time two of Margaret's sons by her first husband also lived in the home as well as 11-year-old Robert H. Muir, who was listed as a grandson. I believe he was actually the son of Ethel Greenbank, one of Margaret's daughters by her first husband. James Muir did have a grandson named Robert Muir, Jr. He was born in 1912 so it is possible he was living with his grandfather in 1925 though I do not know why this would be.

James Muir died on 18 March 1926 at his home in Mystic of arteo-sclerosis and chronic bronchitis at the ripe old age of 81. He was miner, retired from the Egypt Coal Company. He was interred in Highland Cemetery in Mystic on 20 March 1926. His second wife was the informant listed on the death certificate. She is also buried in Highland Cemetery.

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James Muir was my great great grandfather.

Margaret (Semple) Muir (1850-1920)

Margaret Semple was born on 22 June likely in 1850 in Dalserf, Scotland, a small village on the banks of the Clyde river. No church parish record exists for her birth so her birth year is my best estimate. Her age was recorded as being nine months old when the 1851 census was enumerated on 30 March. Therefore, she would have turned one the following June, making her birth year 1850.

She was the fourth child of Peter and Janet (Torrance) Semple. Her father was a coal miner at the time of her birth. In 1851 the family lived in Canderdykehead, miners' housing owned by James Nimmo & Company, Ltd. They were described in a 1910 housing report and I imagine few improvements were made in the nearly 60 years between 1851 and 1910 with the exception of adding water closets inside each apartment:

"Two story, brick built -- erected under Building Bye-laws [sic] -- damp-proof course; walls hollow built; wood floors, ventilated; internal surface of walls and ceilings in good condition. Good sized apartments. No gardens. Wash houses and coal cellars provided."

In 1861 the family was living at 31 New Street in nearby Stonehouse, which is less than 5 miles from Dalserf. The family now consisted of eight children. Margaret's father, Peter, continued working as a coal miner. Margaret was 11 years old and worked as an apprentice weaver of mixed fabrics, along with her two older siblings.

Margaret was living in the Maryhill area of Glasgow and working as a dairy maid in 1871. She lived in a four-room house with four other young women. She was about a month along in her first pregnancy but likely did not know it yet. On 25 November 1871, Margaret had a daughter, who she named Janet Semple in honor of her mother and in accordance with Scottish naming conventions of the time. No father was listed on the birth registration. Janet was called "Jessie" throughout her life. She was born in Swinhill, which was the home of her maternal grandparents. My assumption is Margaret returned home upon learning she was pregnant or just before the birth.

Swinhill Farm on a British Ordnance Survey; image courtesy of
ScotlandsPlaces

Two years later she married James Muir, a 25-year-old coal miner, on 4 July 1873, at her parents' home in Swinhill according to the forms of the Church of Scotland. Three months later their first child Robert Muir, named for his paternal grandfather, was born on 4 October 1873. Little Robert died on 25 January 1874 of hydrocephalus and convulsions, which is more commonly known as water on the brain.

Four more children were born between 1873 and 1882 but only one survived infancy. When the 1881 census was enumerated, Margaret was living with her parents at Swinhill Farm in Dalserf. Her husband James was not at home. Margaret's father's occupation was listed as a coal miner so the farm must have been something he worked in what little spare time he had. The house was full of grandchildren, including Margaret's two children.

Margaret had three more children between 1882 and 1886. A daughter, Henrietta, died of measles at the age of one, but Margaret, known as Maggie, and Peter, survived to adulthood.

In June of 1887 Margaret's husband, James Muir, immigrated to the United States. Margaret, and her living children: Robert, Maggie and Peter, followed in September. They boarded the Allen Line's S/S Manitoban in Glasgow, Scotland, and arrived in Philadelphia on 30 September 1887. Margaret's daughter, Jessie, traveled on the same ship as Jessie Muir, but was listed separately from her mother, several pages later on the passenger manifest. I imagine Margaret and the children took a train to join James Muir.

On 13 May 1889 Margaret had her tenth child, who she named Alexander. If she had continued using the Scottish naming convention, which she did for her previous children, this child should have been named for her husband James.  Alexander was born in Streator, Illinois, in the area of town called Coalville, which was the area where the miners lived.

Margaret had her last child, Jane Muir, who was called "Janie" throughout her life on 29 November 1894 in Reading, Illinois. When the 1990 census was enumerated, Margaret was still living in Reading in a house she owned free and clear. She listed her marital status as married. Her husband, James, however, lived in Mystic, Iowa, as a boarder in the home of Mrs. Margaret Greenbank, his future wife, and listed his marital status as divorced. Living with Margaret in her home were her sons, Robert and Alexander and her youngest daughter Janie. Robert and Alexander worked as coal miners. Margaret's daughters Jessie and Maggie were no longer living at home.

In 1910 Margaret and her youngest daughter, Janie, were living in a rented home on Third North Street in O'Fallon, Illinois. Her recently widowed son, Robert, lived next door with his two young children. Margaret claimed she was widowed.

Jane "Janie" Muir and her mother, Margaret (Semple) Muir, who was my great great grandmother;
photograph courtesy of Abby Muir

In 1920 Margaret and her granddaughter, Alice Muir, lived in a home Margaret owned free and clear in Nineveh, Missouri. Alice was the daughter of Robert Muir and his first wife, Ida Mae Riggin. Ida had died in 1909. Margaret listed her marital status was divorced. Margaret's two married daughters, Jessie and Maggie, lived in Nineveh near their mother. Curiously, so did James Muir. He was a boarder in the home of Ida Logsden and worked as a coal miner. By 1925, he was back in Mystic, Iowa, with his second wife.

Margaret was admitted to a hospital in Kirksville, Missouri, in late May 1920 where she had an operation on the 28th. She died three days later on 31 May 1920 of uremia. Contributing to her death were "old age and hemorrhoids." Her daughter, Jessie, was the informant listed on the death certificate. Margaret was buried in Novinger Cemetery on 3 June 1920.

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This post was republished from Descendants of Robert Muir (c1800-1869), Volume VII, Son James Muir (1848-1926), which has yet to be published but is available at The Robert Muir Family blog. Margaret (Semple) Muir was my great great grandmother.

The Wells Spinsters

Amy Florence and Carrie E. Wells were the third and fourth children of Alexander and Eliza (Fooshee) Wells. They were born in Illinois in 1867 and 1869, respectively. As small girls they lived in Morgan County, Illinois, where their father managed a store and farmed.

In the early 1880s Amy and Carrie's parents moved the family to Nebraska City, Nebraska. Their older siblings married in Nebraska and started families. By 1894 the Alexander, Eliza and their younger children moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where they lived at 1613 Vine Street. Alexander died in 1898 and his widow, and unmarried daughters daughters remained in Kansas City until their deaths.

In 1900 the younger boys, Henry and Frank had not yet married. Everyone lived at 414 East 31st Street. During the first decade of the 20th century, Amy, Carrie and their mother lived in a succession of rented homes at 209 Woodworth Street, which no longer exists, 4417 Forest Avenue, and finally to 4921 Park Avenue, which Eliza (Fooshee) Wells owned free and clear with no mortgage. None of the women worked, except Carrie who was occasionally listed on census forms and in city directories as a dressmaker.

4921 Park Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri; courtesy Google Maps

Amy and Carrie's mother died on 12 June 1915 of acute nephritis, which are severely inflamed kidneys. If untreated the kidneys stop functioning. The unmarried daughters remained in the house on Park Avenue for the rest of their lives.

Carrie E. Wells died on 1 March 1939 at the Kansas City General Hospital of hypertension, arthritis and cancer. Her older sister, Amy Florence Wells, died on 16 December 1956 at the same hospital of generalized arteriosclerosis. The sisters, along with their mother, are buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City with their father.

In the decades in which Amy and Carrie lived in Kansas City, they saw many changes. The sisters lived through the Prohibition era. Kansas City may have been the only city in the U.S. that never charged anyone with a felony related to the ban on alcohol.  I wonder what Wells sisters thought about it all and what they type of personalities they had.

Memories of Grandma Jennings

In honor of what would have been the 110th birthday of my grandmother, Alice (Muir) Jennings, I am crossing posting my memories of her from the soon-to-be-published book, The Descendants of Robert Muir (c1800-1869): Volume VII: James Muir (1848-1926) Descendants. It also appeared on the Robert Muir Family blog on 12 October 2015:

Alice was my paternal grandmother and the only grandparent who lived past my fifth year. She was a great grandmother and loved to spend time with her grandchildren of whom she was very proud. She took me on my first airplane trip when I was nine years old and we went on several trips together.

Alice (Muir) Jennings, "Grandma Jennings," personal
collection

I spent a lot of time at her home on Carr's Creek in Deale Beach, Maryland, after she retired. We used to go to Amish farmers' markets to buy fresh bread and other goodies. She would often take me to the local amusement parks at several Cheasapeake Bay towns. Once I decided I was brave enough to ride the small rollercoaster, which was made of wood. I was the only passenger. It was fun in the beginning, but after that first downhill, I wanted off. The ride operator was determined I would ride to the drop-off zone. Grandma was determined he would stop the ride immediately. She won and walked along those wooden tracks to the back of the ride to carry me back to safety.

Alice (Muir) Jennings at my first condo c1980; personal collection

Dad kept a small flat-bottomed row boat at Grandma's and we used to row all over the creek. Once when my cousin, Joyce, and I, took Grandma for a boat ride, I dumped her in the creek as we were tying up to the pier. Poor thing! She was covered in black, sticky mud. We would set out crab pots and crab all week, keeping our catch in a live box. Then when our parents came down on the weekend, Grandma would steam the crabs and we would have a picnic feast.

Grandma Jennings with my brother, Ted, at my wedding, 1988;
personal collection

Grandma loved to play cards. When she started wintering in Florida, she would bring a new card game back home every spring. Our family played that game until she returned from Florida the next year until she came back with a new game. Slot machines used to be legal in Maryland when I was a kid. The local restaurant we patronized had one or two machines. You had to be an adult to play. So Grandma fed the machine and I pulled the arm. We were so tickled when "we" won something.

Grandma Jennings with her first great grandson, 1984;
personal collection

Grandma took me to Williamsburg for several days when I was in elementary school. We toured through several of the buildings and had a fine time until we went to the Weatherby Tavern. I fainted in the tap room and Grandma's yelling brought me around. She had organized the entire tour group to carry me outside. We decided to return to her home after that and she drove halfway there with her left blinker on. No wonder so many cars pulled out in front of us!

She took Joyce and I on a Caribbean cruise when we were in our mid-20s. Grandma's half-sister, Henrietta Muir, joined us and we had a delightful time. Most of the time Grandma and Aunt Hen stayed aboard and gambled while Joyce and I took in the sights in Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Mexico. At our fist stop, however, Grandma and Aunt Hen joined us. We took a cab through Port au Prince, Haiti. At the time, there were few if any sidewalks and the streets extended from building to building. Drivers were completely blind as they approached intersections with no traffic lights. They would toot their horn and if there was no reply, they would proceed. If a return toot was heard, drivers stopped. Grandma was not a fan of this system!

Left to right: Henrietta Muir, Grandma Jennings, Joyce Jennings, and me
aboard the Boheme in 1984; personal collection

She also loved to dance! Unfortunately, only her oldest son did as well. She found her outlet at local senior centers where ever she lived.

She was a great Grandma and is still much missed today.

The Court Case Regarding the Slaves of Mary (Mitchell) Beard

Mary (Mitchell) Beard of Bedford County, Virginia, died 28 July 1843, twenty-nine years after the death of her husband, Samuel Beard. He had served on two separate occasions in the Revolutionary War and during his last term of service as a Captain. Mary had collected a military pension since 1839. Together Samuel and Mary had seven children who lived to adulthood and were heirs to their estate. Part of the property in the estate included four slaves held in dower by Mary (Mitchell) Beard.

The four named slaves were: HENNY, WALLACE, DICK, and RACHEL.

The children of Samuel and Mary (Mitchell) Beard and heirs to their estate, which included the above mentioned slaves, were:

• James Harvey Beard married 1) Mary McMullin or McMullen and 2) Rhoda Parker
• Elizabeth "Betsey" Beard married Rufus Thomas
• Robert Mitchell Beard married Nancy C. Webb
• Nancy A. Beard married Mitchell Ewing
• Frances G. Beard married William C. Mitchell
• John Beard
• Mary "Polly E. Beard married Bird S. Webb

Robert Mitchell Beard had moved from Bedford County and became a professor of religion in Franklin County, Virginia. There he married Nancy C. Webb. Robert died on 19 January 1837 at the age of 53 years. His widow was a native of Franklin County and she left with their children, likely the year after her husband's death, for Missouri in a wagon train. Bird S. Webb and Robert's widow were siblings and Bird's family joined the wagon train.

Conestoga wagon; image of painting courtesy of Wikipedia

Robert and Nancy (Webb) Beard's children were entitled to their father's portion of the estate of Samuel and Mary Beard since their father was alive at the time of Samuel's death. Polly (Beard) Webb was also entitled to a portion. That was a problem for the other siblings; they had no idea where those heirs were. The other issue they had was how to equitably distribute four slaves among the 13 heirs (children of Samuel and Mary Beard and children of Robert Mitchell Beard). The children of Robert Mitchell and Nancy C. (Webb) Beard were:

• Abner Beard married Martha Hale
• Samuel A. Beard
• Ferdinand Beard married Mary Wyatt Howell
• Sarah Ann Beard married Henry S. Howell
• John C. Beard married Mildred A. Allen
• Amanda Beard married Henry S. Howell after the death of her sister, Sarah Ann
• Robert H. Beard
• Harvey C. Beard married Tabitha M. (Jacobs) Howell, a widow

So the siblings who lived in Bedford County took the matter to Chancery Court and filed an initial bill of complaint soon after Mary (Mitchell) Beard died. In that bill, they asked the court allow the slaves to be sold so the proceeds could be distributed among the lawful heirs. They also wanted the heirs of Robert Mitchell Beard to be named as defendants so that a notice could be published which would seek their whereabouts. The requested notice was published in the Lynchburg Virginian on two successive months. The heirs for Robert M. Mitchell did not respond.

Heirs of Samuel and Mary (Mitchell) Beard and their relationship
to the decedents.

Some explanation is likely in order. Those people with a relationship to RMB are the children of Robert Mitchell Beard, a son of Samuel and Mary (Mitchell) Beard. Abner Beard remained in Franklin County and his location was known to his aunts and uncles. As a result he was a plaintiff in the case. Mary "Polly" (Beard) Webb moved to Franklin County when she married and she and her husband went to Missouri, thus while a daughter of the decedents, she became a defendant in the case as her whereabouts were also unknown to her siblings. Robert Mitchell and Nancy C. (Webb) Beard had a son named Harvey C. Beard in 1837. He was likely born shortly after his father's death. I believe he was not named in the case because his existence was unknown to the plaintiffs.

As a result of that non-response the court appointed two commissioners to oversee the sale of the slaves and conduct the sale at the best possible time and with the best publicity possible. Those commissioners conducted the sale on 20 February 1844 at the Bedford County Courthouse in Liberty.

Snippet from Chancery Cause No. 1852-049 (page 14), which was
the Commissioners report to the court regarding the sale; image
courtesy of the Library of Virginia

John Beard purchased HENNY for $58.

Richard D. Watts purchased WALLACE for $402.

Robert Allen purchased DICK for $475.

Rufus Thomas purchased RACHEL for $16.25.

There is no record of the proceeds being distributed to the heirs. The last page in the file was an affidavit from the administrators of the long-lost heirs, the children of Robert Mitchell Beard. In that affidavit they wanted to know how much money the heirs they represented would receive.

So while we learned who the new owners of the four slaves were, which may help their possible descendants, those descendants of the defendants have no idea whether their ancestors received a portion of the proceeds. Granted, a small loose end in the grand scheme of things.

The big thing for my research is that this court case proves James Harvey Beard is the son of Samuel and Mary (Mitchell) Beard, which is all I needed in order to submit Samuel to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) as a proven Patriot.

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Slave Name Roll Project
Proving James Harvey Beard's Father

Alternate Theories

I just hate loose ends. Sometimes, though, there is nothing you can do about them; and all you can do is hope a future genealogist will find the elusive record the proves or disproves the theory. Joseph Hutchison was my first cousin twice removed and he may have been married once or twice. The obituary for his known wife, Ruth Anna Richardson, indicated they were married in Missouri in 1938 and those records are available from several sources. However, no record of their marriage has been found.

A first marriage is the theory. Did he marry and divorce Edna L. Ridgeway? Was her son, Harold Lee Hutchison, the known son of Edna's, an illegitimate child by a man she met before Joseph Hutchison? Did did he assume the last name of his step-father? Or was Joseph his father?

Known Life Story

Joseph Hutchison was born on 12 February 1901 at the family home on New Street in Stonehouse, Scotland. His parents were Alexander and Janet "Jessie" (Semple) Hutchison. His father worked as a coal miner at the time of Joseph's birth. When the 1901 census was enumerated, the month after Joseph's birth, the family lived at 31 New Street in Stonehouse.

On 21 July 1904 Joseph, his parents and siblings boarded the Anchor Line's S/S Furnessia in Glasgow. They arrived in New York City on 1 August and stated their destination was Kirksville, Missouri, which was where Jessie's mother lived.

In 1910 the Joseph Was 9 years old and lived with his family in Novinger, Missouri, and continued to do so for at least the next twenty years. By 1920 Joseph was 19 years old and worked as a coal miner along side his father and two older brothers, Alexander and James. I have been unable to find Joseph in the 1930 census.

By 1935 Joseph had moved to Springfield, Illinois, though he continued to work as a miner. According to Ruth Anna (Richardson) Hutchison's obituary, they in married 1938 in Missouri, and then lived at 519 South Edwin in Springfield after their marriage. In 1948 the couple lived at 2441 South 5th Street in Springfield. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived a 6 Bel Air Drive. He had left the mines and was working as a state government employee, beginning as a clerk and later becoming an accountant for the State of Illinois, Department of Revenue. The couple had no children.

Illinois State Capitol; photograph courtesy of the Brookens Library

Joseph died in December 1966 in Macon, Georgia, and was buried at Rochester Cemetery in Rochester, Illinois.

Alternate Theory

It is entirely possible that Joseph was married and divorced once before he married Ruth Anna Richardson. If so, his first wife was Edna L. Ridgeway (1905-1976) and they likely married between 1925 and 1930. In 1925 Edna lived in Hannibal, Missouri, and worked at a shoe factory. By 1930 a Joseph and Edna Hutchison were living in Chicago. He worked as an assembler for Western Electric and she she worked as an assembler at a toy factory. They boarded at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Markl on 2153 Adams Street. This Joseph Hutchison was born in Scotland, his parents were born in Scotland, and he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1904, which would be correct for our Joseph Hutchison.

In 1932 Joseph and Edna lived in Taylorville, Illinois, and Joseph worked as a miner, which was an occupation more in keeping with his past history.  It should also be noted that James Hutchison, Joseph's brother, also lived in Taylorville. However, by 1935 Edna was back in Hannibal, Missouri, and worked for International Shoe Co. No husband was listed at the same address. In 1940 Edna lived with her parents and listed her marital status as divorced. So the time frame for the divorce was likely between 1932 and 1935, which would also make it possible for this Joseph Hutchison to be our Joseph.

What makes this theory interesting is that Edna had a son named Harold "Hank" Hutchison. In 1930 he lived with his maternal grandparents, Samuel and Sarah (Whitaker) Ridgeway, in Hannibal. He was listed as six years old on the 1930 census. It is possible the he was an illegitimate son of Edna's born before she married Joseph Hutchison or it could be his child. We just don't know because no birth record has been located. According to the Social Security Death Index record for Harold, he was born on 3 September 1923.

Edna (Ridgeway) Hutchison died in 14 December 1976 in San Francisco, California. Her son, and possibly Joseph's, married Virginia Martin on 25 March 1950 in San Francisco. They had one child named Jana. Harold died on 16 August 1991 in Sweet Grass, California.

In order to conclusively determine if Joseph Hutchison, son of Alexander and Janet (Semple) Hutchison, was the same Joseph Hutchison that was briefly married to Edna Ridgeway, a marriage record needs to be located. The date of the marriage would also indicate whether Harold Hutchison might be Joseph's child. What weighs against this theory is no child was mentioned in Joseph Hutchison or his wife Ruth Anna (Richardson) Hutchison's obituaries.

So what do you think? One wife or two?

An American's Experience During World War I

Alexander Hutchison was my first cousin twice removed and served as a private with the 314th Engineers Regiment, which was attached to the 89th Division during World War I. Among the Missouri State Archives holdings is a pamphlet entitled, From Camp Funston to the Rhineland with the 314 Engineers, 89th Division, Army of the United States, 1917-1918.

After reading this pamphlet, I learned the 89th Division was organized in 1917 and most of the men were drawn from Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Arizona, and New Mexico. Specifically, the men of the 314th Regiment came principally from Missouri. Alexander was inducted into the Army on 2 April 1918, left camp and traveled to Europe via Hoboken, New Jersey, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, for England aboard the S/S Carpathia. They arrived in Liverpool on 24 June and went by train the same day to Winchester Rest Camp. Four days later they entrained for Cherbourg, disembarking on 29 June and marched to an American rest camp in the vicinity of Cherbourg. On 30 June they entrained for the Training Area, arriving 2 July at Humberville and marched to quarters.

A vigorous course of training was undertaken. The 89th Division was the first American division to move up to the line by truck transportation. They relieved the 82nd American Division in the Lucey Sector northwest of Toul. During their relief of the 82nd, central parts of the sector were subjected to a severe bombardment of mustard gas by the Germans. It was the 89th's baptism of fire.

The Engineers regiment was stationed at Lagney, near division headquarters, and spent most of its time working on construction of a second position, or main line of resistance, constructing strong points, building concrete pillboxes, dugouts, putting up entanglements and in gas-proofing dugouts and doing other engineer work in the front line position.

On the morning of 12 September 1918, the 89th Division commenced its first offensive, in company with three other divisions, they began the St. Mihiel Offensive. The division captured all of its objectives and established its record as a reliable fighting division. The Engineers were assigned to each infantry brigade for wire cutting, demolition, forward road work.

314th Engineers Regiment stringing barbed wire during the St. Mihiel
Offensive; photograph courtesy of Pinterest.com (original source unknown)

The general situation on 1 November 1918 was the the enemy was endeavoring to withdraw from France and Belgium and was using desperate efforts to stop the pressure coming up from the south and applied by the American Army. If the Americans were permitted to get to the Meuse, it was clear they could cut important southern railways the Germans needed for their retreat. The 89th Division jumped over the top of the trenches that morning; by afternoon the Heights of Barricourt were in their possession. It is said that Marshall Foch stated, when he received this news, "the war is over." The fighting continued day and night but the Germans were pushed across the Meuse.

During the battle the Engineers were on road construction and maintenance, doing emergency work necessary to ensure the advance of artillery and ammunition and rationing of the troops. Bridges were rebuilt, old roads repaired, new ones made and information secured in regard to Meuse river crossings. Foot bridges for the passage of the infantry were built at Stenay and near Pouilly, two pontoon rafts were constructed, ferrying two infantry regiments across the the Meuse the night of November 10-11. A floating balk and chess bridge was also built.

After Armistice Day, the 89th Division entered Germany on 4 December and became an occupation army stationed neard Kyllburg. The Engineers' work involved building construction, supervision of public utilities and repair and maintenance of roads.

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From Camp Funston to the Rhineland with the 314th ENgineers,: 89th Division, Army of the United States, 1917-1919, (Trier, Germany, 89th Division, 1919), 8 pages

52 Ancestors #34: James Muir, Scoundrel

Ancestor Name: James MUIR (1844-1926)

James Muir was one of my paternal great great grandfathers. The Muir family is the only "recent" immigrant family in Dad's tree. His other greats were all from families whose ancestors arrived in the American Colonies before the Revolutionary War. When Dad was actively researching his family history, he was unable to do much with the Muir family because most of his research was conducted before the Internet and he did not have access to Scottish records.

Genealogy and my research are one of the few topics that keeps Dad's attention for a long time and makes it easier to talk to him after he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in late 2012 and can no longer speak. My New Year's resolution was to concentrate on the Muir family after discovering the ScotlandsPeople website. Eight months later, I've learned James Muir had 78 known nieces and nephews!

James Muir was born on 2 August 1844 in East Kilbride parish in Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was baptized in the local parish church on the 22nd of the same month. When the 1851 Scotland census was enumerated, he was living with several siblings in Kirkton Village, but his parents were not at home the night the census was taken.

Ten years later, James was living at 2 Birkenshaw in Larkhall with his father and several siblings. He was 17 and already working full-time in the coal mines. His father was no longer working in the mines but his older brothers still living at home were also miners. His mother, Henrietta (Brown) Muir had died, likely before 1856.

In 1871 James Muir's father had been dead two years and his siblings had scattered in all directions. James was a lodger in the home of Daniel Lyle, another coal miner, on 39 Stewarton Street in Cambusnethan. Two years later he married Margaret Semple on 4 Jul 1873 in Swinhill, Dalserf, Lanarkshire. She was the single mother of a young girl named Janet "Jessie" Semple. Margaret was pregnant with their first child at the time of their marriage, who was born on 4 October 1873. Their first son was named Robert Muir, after his paternal grandfather. Sadly, little Robert died on 25 January 1874 of hydrocephalus, which is the build up of too much cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. It is commonly called "water on the brain."

Parish church in Dalserf; photograph commissioned by me

My great grandfather also named Robert Muir was born on 16 March 1875. After my great grandfather, five known children were born in Scotland:

• Peter Semple Muir (14 February 1877 -- 23 March 1877)
• Peter Semple Muir (5 July 1878 -- 8 September 1878)
• Henrietta Brown Muir (29 July 1882 -- 9 January 1884)
• Margaret "Maggie" Muir (6 May 1884 -- 29 August 1966)
• Peter Semple Muir (3 February 1886 -- 30 October 1947)

Peter Semple was Margaret's father and naming a child in his honor was obviously important to her.

On 27 May 1887 James boarded the Anchor Line steamship Ethiopia in Glasgow and sailed to the United States. He arrived in New York City on the 6th of June and traveled to Streator, Illinois. Because the 1890 census was destroyed by fire, I do not know if he had relatives or friends who had already immigrated and settled in Streator or if he saw advertisements for Streator at the train station. 

Anchor Line Steamship Ethiopia, built in Glasgow in 1873

James' wife, Margaret, and the living children followed him to Illinois, arriving in the U.S. on 30 September 1887. Margaret's daughter, Jessie, also traveled with her mother and half-siblings.  Margaret and James had two more children in Illinois: Alexander Muir (13 May 1889 -- 6 May 1957) and Jane "Janie" Muir (29 November 1894 -- 23 January 1990).

In 1900 James was living in Mystic, Iowa, a lodger at the home of Mrs. Margaret Greenbank. Appanoose was described as "one continuous mining camp" when James arrived. He claimed he was divorced. His wife, Margaret (Semple) Muir, however, was living in Reading, Illinois. According to her census records, she still believed she was married.

James married Margaret (McIntosh) Greenbank on 9 January 1913 in Princeton, Missouri. Princeton is in Mercer County, Missouri, which borders Iowa. I am left wondering after looking at the map, if Mercer County was a "Gretna Green" county, meaning it was possible to get a quickie marriage. Or perhaps county officials didn't look too closely at your documentation. I've found no evidence that James Muir actually divorced his first wife, nor can I find any evidence that Margaret Greenbank was divorced from her husband, Thomas, who was still alive, though living in the Mount Pleasant Hospital for the Insane.

Proximity of Appanoose County to Mercer County; image courtesy of
FamilySearch.org

When the 1915 Iowa state census was taken, James claimed he had lived in Iowa since 1895. If that is true, then he left his first wife when her youngest children was barely a year old, which makes him a scoundrel in my book.

James Muir died on 18 March 1926 at his home in Mystic of arteo-sclerosis and chronic bronchitis at the ripe old age of 81. He was miner, retired from the Egypt Coal Company. He was interred in Highland Cemetery in Mystic on 20 March 1926. His second wife was the informant listed on the death certificate. She is also buried in Highland Cemetery.

Margaret "McIntosh" Greenbank Muir as a young woman;
photograph courtesy of Ancestry.com member pattilee3

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge.

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James Muir was born on 2 August 1844 in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, Scotland, to Robert and Henrietta (Brown) Muir. He married Margaret Semple on 4 July 1873 in Swinehill (now Swinhill), Dalserf, Scotland. She had 11 children born alive and five lived past infancy. I have only discovered ten children and am still searching for the unknown child. She had an illegitimate daughter in 1871. Their living children born in Scotland were Robert, Margaret, and Peter Semple. Alexander and Jane were born in Illinois after the family immigrated in 1887. James Muir left his family between 1895 and 1900 and moved to Mystic, Iowa. On 9 January 1913 he married Margaret (McIntosh) Greenbank in Princeton, Missouri. Both of them had been married previously. James' first wife Margaret (Semple) Muir died on 31 May 1920 in Kirksville, Missouri, and is buried in Novinger Cemetery. James died on 18 March 1926 in Mystic and is buried in Highland Cemetery, which is located in the same city. His second wife died on 19 February 1936 and is also buried in Highland Cemetery.

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