Tombstone Tuesday: Jane Alen Reed Garriott (1805-1874)

Last week, I wrote about a photo of the gravestone of my 4th great grandfather, John Newton Garriott, that a generous volunteer, Frank Murphy, took and posted up at FindAGrave.com. Well, Mr. Murphy must have been a busy photographer at the Barnes Cemetery in Mercer County, Missouri, because he posted photos of several Garriott gravestones as well as the stones of some of my Brittain relatives. One of the Garriott graves that Frank documented was that of John Newton Garriott's wife, Jane Alen Reed Garriott. Here it is:

JANE A.
Wife of
JOHN GARRIOTT
BORN
July 10, 1805
DIED
 Aug. 31, 1874
AGED
67 Y's. 1M. 21D's

The stone clearly says she's 67 years old (and change), but the math says she died at the age of just over 69 years old. Oops!

I hadn't noticed Jane's photo on Find A Grave when I went to see the picture of John's grave. Fortunately, my cousin, Jennifer, who writes the Climbing My Family Tree blog, pointed out that Jane and several of our other relatives were now nicely documented on the site. 

Once again, thanks to Frank and all the FindAGrave.com volunteer photographers!

Here's how I'm related to John and Jane Garriott:

1. John Newton Garriott (1806-1882) married Jane Alen Reed (1805-1874) on Apr. 7, 1827 >
2. Nancy Garriott (1828-1912) married Milton Price Brittain (1822-1898) on Jan. 25, 1843 >
3. Frederick Harmon Brittain (1859-1921) married Mary Jane Rooks (1862-1904) on Sep. 4, 1879 >
4. Andrew Lee Brittain (1888-1954) married Jessie Luetta Halstead (1898-1974) on Sep. 24, 1919 >
5. Woodie Leroy Brittain (living) married Edith Vivian Hunt (1920-1993) on Aug. 18, 1938 >
6. William Lee Brittain (1942-2003) married Rebecca Elizabeth Bartram (living) on Sep. 12, 1964 >
7. Me!

Tombstone Tuesday: John Newton Garriott (1806-1882)

A lot of people ask me where I find my ancestral photos and documents. While it's true that most genealogical documentation isn't yet online, there's still a treasure trove of great information (and supporting documentation) that can be found on the World Wide Web via family trees and websites that are published by other family history enthusiasts, as well as websites such as Ancestry, Footnote, GenealogyBank, FamilySearch.org and many, many other online repositories.

One of my favorite go-to websites for burial information is FindAGrave.com. According to the website, Find A Grave now boasts more than 66 million grave records from all over the world. All of these records are volunteer supplied, and many have photos and biographical information attached to them. Of course, not every burial record is contained on Find A Grave, and many that are there don't have photos of the tombstones -- YET.

That's where the volunteers come in. You can log a request via the website to ask someone who lives near the cemetery where your ancestor is buried to go and take a picture of the tombstone and post it on the Find A Grave record of that ancestor. I've put in a few requests for volunteers to take photos of my ancestors' tombstones that I can't already find on the website, and I haven't been disappointed. In fact, just last week, I was surprised by Frank Murphy, a Find A Grave volunteer who went out to the Barnes Cemetery in Mercer County, Missouri, to snap a picture of the grave of my 4th great grandfather, John Newton Garriott, who was buried there in January 1882. Here's the photo that Frank uploaded onto John Garriott's Find A Grave record.

 

John Garriott
DIED
Jan 15 1882
AGED
75y 1m 26d 

John's wife, Jane Alen Reed Garriott, is also buried in the Barnes Cemetery, and I'm kicking myself for not asking Mr. Murphy to get a photo of her gravestone, too. Perhaps, I'll ask him if he plans to be out at that cemetery again one of these days. Meanwhile, I appreciate the generosity of Frank and all of the other volunteer photographers who schlep out to the cemeteries (often out of their way, and in uncomfortable weather) to document our ancestors' burials and share this precious information with us. 

Thanks, Frank!

Ps. I live in San Francisco and, while I don't have a car to get to cemeteries outside of the city, I can take a bus to the National Cemetery in the Presidio. If anyone needs photos of graves in that cemetery, drop me a line. I'd be happy to pay it forward!

Amanuensis Monday: The Story of Harmon Parks Brittain

Amanuensis Monday is a blogging prompt used by many of my fellow geneabloggers. An Amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

Today, I've copied down for your enjoyment the story of my first cousin, four times removed, Harmon Parks Brittain. I typically write about my direct ancestors, or at least collateral relatives that I actually knew, but when I read Harmon's story, I knew I had to share it. He was an interesting guy who lived through interesting times. I don't know who wrote this story. I found it, typewritten, in my Grandma Edith's genealogy records. She must have thought he was pretty interesting, too.

Harmon Parks Brittain was born in Clark County, Indiana, February 6th, 1832. He was a farmer at Halfrock (not on modern maps), MO (on the Iowa border), in the years immediately prior to and at the outbreak of the Civil War. During this period, pro-slavery forces and abolitionist forces were each feverishly loading the territories of Kansas and Missouri with their own adherents because Congress had decreed that when these territories became states, they would be slave or free depending on a majority vote of the citizens  at the time of statehood, and if they both went the same way, it would tip the balance of power in the Senate. The result was that the war was truly a Civil War in these territories because of many situations where radical partisans for one side lived next door to radical partisans for the other side.

Harmon Brittain was a fighter, a man who had strong pro-Union convictions. Leaving his wife (Zilpha Theresa Hill Brittain) and three-year-old daughter, Emma, to live with Zilpha's parents, he joined the 13th Missouri Cavalry. (His brother James also joined up, was taken prisoner at the Battle of Shiloh and died in the infamous southern prison camp at Andersonville.) Emma Brittain Chastain said that one of her very earliest memories as a child, was hiding behind her mother's skirt when someone knocked at the door, and watching big-eyed as her mother opened the door with one hand while the other held a pistol concealed under her apron.

Harmon Brittain survived the formal hostilities without injury. However, after Lee surrendered and the army began to disband, he was faced with another problem. The extreme bitterness in Missouri made returning soldiers from both armies targets for vengeance. Many of them who had survived years of war were murdered as they returned home. Warned by his wife that he would be safer in the army than in his own community, he enlisted for another two years in the cavalry.

His wife and later his daughter Emma saved the letters he wrote home during that time, but unfortunately they have since been lost or destroyed. Included in his letters were a number of poems. They were not literary masterpieces by present-day standards, but were impressive when you realize they were written by a man who did not learn to read and write until after he was married (to a school teacher). One of these letters gave a graphic account of how he was sent out one day on a scouting mission and spied a huge cloud of dust moving toward him,which he was sure could only be generated by the largest army of Indians ever assembled on the Western plains. After nearly killing his horse getting back to camp to warn the small company, he was very embarrassed, but greatly relieved when his Indian army turned out to be a herd of buffalo. He titled the account, "The Cowardly Sergeant".

He returned home in 1866, moved his family to Kansas, then back to Missouri and finally, in 1875 joined a wagon train headed for Oregon. A significant commentary about the kind of man he was is made by an incident that happened on that trail. Being a careful man who was well acquainted with the harsh, unforgiving country he was to pass through, he had his animals and equipment in top shape. (He used oxen because of their superior survivability). Only a short way out on the trail, they came upon a family that had started poorly prepared. Their wagon was broken down and beyond repair. Unloading some of his not-so-essential items, he loaded up the family's essential items in of of his wagons and hauled them clear to Oregon. In the process, his daughter, Emma, who was sixteen and healthy, was obliged to walk the whole way -- all but the first two weeks without shoes.

He first settled in the Willamette Valley. But after losing most of his livestock to a mysterious ailment, and the family suffering from "ague" (malaria?), both of which they associated with dampness, they packed up and went looking for a drier place. They headed back over the Cascade Mountains to Wamic, where Emma met her husband-to-be, William Chastain. In 1882, his wife Theresa traveled to southern Oregon to visit family members who were living there, contracted Typhoid fever and died.

Harmon Brittain never remarried. He built himself a house near Wamic and spent the rest of his days there, with his children settling in the near vicinity. Being a man of small stature, he saw no reason for 6' 8" doors in his house. He made them tall enough for him, and if a tall man came to visit, he had to stoop to get through the door.

At some time in his life, Harmon's feet were so severely frostbitten that some of the flesh dropped off and bared some of the bone in the first joint. This gave him no end of pain. One day, while plowing, he decided he had had enough. He took his pocket knife and separated the first joints and removed the offending bone. Why didn't he pass out during the operation or die from infection? Too tough, maybe?

For many years he lived frugally in his house in Wamic, drawing his Civil War veteran's pension. He died January 18, 1916, at the age of 84 in Tygh Valley, Oregon. Some time after the funeral, his family began to try to find his money, knowing that he had been very saving and did not trust it to banks. The money was never found. Too late, it was remembered that he had a habit of putting money in the lining of his coat and that nobody had thought to check that when they buried him. The presumption is that he took it with him.

Children born to Harmon Parks Brittain and Zilpha Theresa Hill Brittain were: Emma Nancy, Aug 23, 1959 at Halfrock, Mercer Co., Missouri; Orange Colman, Mar 4, 1864 at Halfrock, Mercer Co., Missouri; Flora E. at Halfrock July 6, 1865; Myrtle Pleasant, Feb 4, 1871 at New Albany, Wilson Co., Kansas; Hattie E., Nov 21, 1873 in Taney Co., Missouri.

Harmon's story tells us a lot about the man, but also about the times he lived in. For example, when we think about the Civil War, we don't often consider the severe partisan differences between citizens who may have lived just next door to each other. We tend to assume that, once the war was over, everyone just went home to carry on with their lives. I can't imagine what it must have been like for Harmon to be afraid to to back into his own home, for fear of being murdered by neighbors who might not agree with what he fought for.

I'm also in awe of the story of his family traveling to Oregon via wagon train. Can you imagine what it must have been like to walk from Missouri to Oregon, over mountains and rivers and who knows what else, with NO SHOES? I keep imagining something out of "Little House on the Prairie" and thinking about how amazingly tough these folks were.

I'd love to thank the person who wrote this account of Harmon Parks Brittain's life, but I have no idea who that was. If there are any other Brittain cousins out there who can tell me, please drop me a line!

OH! Here's how I'm related to Harmon: his paternal grandfather, Parks Brittain, was my 4th great grandfather. Therefore we are first cousins, four times removed!

Talented Tuesday: How Young James Brittain Died

Harmon Parks Brittain
1832-1916

A few weeks back, a distant relative reached out to me on Ancestry.com with some questions regarding the family of Harmon Parks Brittain, who was a first cousin of my great great grandfather, Frederick Harmon Brittain (and, therefore, my first cousin, four times removed). Surprisingly, I remembered that I have quite a bit of information regarding Harmon Parks Brittain from my Grandma Edith's genealogy files. This weekend, I finally dug up his file and found that he was quite an interesting man, and a talented poet, to boot.

Harmon and his younger brother, James, both fought for the Union in the Civil War. Harmon was a Quartermaster Sergeant in Company B, 13th Missouri Cavalry, and James was a Private in the 23rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment. While Harmon survived the war without injury, his younger brother did not. James fought in the Battle of Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862) and was taken prisoner. He died a P.O.W. (I'm not yet sure in which prison) on May 23, 1862, at the tender age of 16 years.

James' death obviously weighed hard on Harmon, who wrote this poem about his little brother's bravery:

How Young James Brittain Died
By Harmon Parks Brittain (date unknown)

When Davis and his rebel crew
First armed the fatal blow,
At Anderson the brave and true,
At Sumter as you know.

The north awakened, then well knew,
That war was close at hand.
And then the noble, brave and true,
Soon rallied to a man.

They rallied round the stars and stripes,
The red, the white, and blue.
And through the long and dreary night,
They kept the flag in view.

The 28 men, well I know,
Then answered to the call.
To meet the then invading foe
And face his cannon balls.

At Shilo then, they met that foe,
He'd overwhelming powers.
Contendants swaying to and fro,
For many, many hours.

And there they stood for many hours,
Combatting five to one.
The Rebels using all their powers,
With cannon, sword, and gun.

The battle raged, the cannon roared,
And still the foe pressed on.
And men while weltering in their gore,
All o'er the ground were strewn.

Brave Tindal was an officer,
The regiment did command,
His voice raising loud and clear,
While cheering on his men.

For hours they checked the monstrous foe,
Upon the battlefield.
The regiment swaying to and fro,
And yet they would not yield.

There stood a boy on that ridge,
And a noble boy too.
Was scarcely sixteen years of age,
Whose heart was brave and true.

James Brittain was this young man's name,
He'd by his comrades stood.
The rebel bullets as they came,
Was spilling half their blood.

Undaunted, still young Jimmie stood,
His comrades round him fell.
He lent them all the aid he could,
And used his musket well.

While standin' all this shock of arms,
There came no helping aid,
The rebels round the regiment ran,
And they were prisoners made.

Farewell my country, I must go,
Down in the south to dwell.
In pens of misery and woe,
It's like a living hell.

Farewell Father, you'll ne'er see me,
Your young and cherished son.
Do not let it grieve thee,
Although you know that I am gone.

Farewell brothers, farewell sisters,
Oh do not weep and cry,
How proudly would I now have kissed thee,
Oh e'er I here must die.

My food it is the coarsest bran,
Made up with slop and brine.
The pen is worse that most of men,
would keep around their swine.

Farewell Father, farewell brothers,
A mother I have none.
Farewell sisters, farewell country,
The fever coming on.

And now my brother I would ask thee,
whatever may betide.
You write a verse in memory,
HOW YOUNG JAMES BRITTAIN DIED.

Just heartbreaking!! I love to read about the Civil War, and I watch a lot of Civil War documentaries, but it really hits home to read about my own relatives' experiences in that horror.

I was also quite impressed to find out that this poem was written by a man who did not even learn how to read and write until he was married (to a school teacher, of course!).

I have several poems and letters that were written by Harmon Parks Brittain, as well as a story that was written (by someone else) about his life. While he's not one of my direct ancestors, he's still part of my Brittain heritage, and I look forward to sharing more about this very interesting man with you all in the future.

Those Places Thursday: Joseph Rooks in Grundy Co., Missouri

Joseph and Elizabeth Rooks

I have a lot of pioneer ancestors in my family tree, and I admire their spunk and adventurousness. Joseph Rooks, my 5th great grandfather, was one such hearty soul who forged his way through the American wilderness, likely in search of good land and a better life for himself and his family.

Joseph was born in Kentucky in 1772. By 1807, he was in Highland County, Ohio, where he married Elizabeth Jackson (1790-1880). While Joseph and Elizabeth were adding to their family of 14 kids, they migrated to Randolph, Indiana, where they can be found on the 1820 US census. According to the 1881 book, "The History of Grundy County, Missouri: An Encylopedia of Useful Information, And A Compendium of Actual Facts," Joseph and his brothers, Samuel and Uriah, had finally settled in Marion township by the Fall of 1838, and were some of the very first white settlers of Grundy County, Missouri. At around the same time, other names in my family tree, including two more of my 5th great grandfathers, Robert Ishmael and John Holloway, arrived in Marion township. The Brittain family started showing up in area by the 1850s, and my 3rd great grand uncle, Francis McGuire Brittain, is also featured in "The History of Grundy County, Missouri."

The Rooks, Ishmael and Holloway family ended up being somewhat intertwined as the generations progressed. Joseph and Elizabeth Rooks' grandson, Thomas J. Rooks, married Robert and Polly Ishmael's granddaughter, Serena Jane Ishmael -- they were my 3rd great grandparents.

Within a few years of settling in Missouri, Joseph Rooks was granted two land patents of just over 137 acres acres in Marion, Grundy County, Missouri. Below is one of two documents detailing the land granted to him on April 1, 1843. I found these with a very simple search on the Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office website. The document refers to Livingston County: Grundy County was organized from part of Livingston County in the 1840s.

Click on image for larger view

I was able to enter coordinates from the land patents onto a site called Earth Point which then helped me to translate the information into longitude/latitude. From there, and with just one click of a button, I was able to view the exact location of the Rooks land via the wonders of Google Earth.

Section 18, Township 60, Range 22. The Rooks land was in the
NW 1/4 section, where the arrow is pointing. Theirs were Lots 3 & 4, but I
haven't yet found a map that breaks down the lots. The town of Laredo is just to the west
of this land, and that's where Joseph passed away on May 25, 1868.

Here's a close-up of what may have been the land belonging to
Joseph and Elizabeth Rooks in 1843 Grundy County, MO. I wonder if
that's their farm house up near the top?

Isn't it just gorgeous? Being a farm girl, myself, I appreciate the beauty of this land where my ancestors settled. One day, I'm going to win the lottery and take a road trip to visit all of the homesteads that were settled by my folks.

Finally, here's a map that shows the general migration path of Joseph Rooks: from Kentucky to Ohio to Indiana and then to Marion township, Grundy County, Missouri.

That last stretch, from Randolph County, Indiana (C), to Marion, Missouri (D), is roughly 500 miles. According to Google Maps, that would take about nine hours to drive by today's standards. It makes me wonder how long the journey took for the intrepid Rooks family in their wagons, and it makes me admire them all the more for their adventurous spirit!

Here's how I'm descended from Joseph Rooks:

Joseph Rooks (1772-1868) m. Elizabeth Jackson (1790-1880) in 1807 >
Samuel E. Rooks (1816-1876) m. Elizabeth Holloway (1820-1846) in 1835 >
Thomas J. Rooks (1837-1919) m. Serena Jane Ishmael (1845-1914) in1860 >
Mary Jane Rooks (1862-1904) m. Frederick Harmon Brittain (1859-1921) in 1879 >
Andrew Lee Brittain (1888-1954) m. Jessie Luetta Halstead (1898-1974) in 1919 >
Woodie Leroy Brittain (living) m. Edith Vivian Hunt (1920-1993) in 1938 >
William Lee Brittain (1942-2003) m. Rebecca Elizabeth Bartram (living) >
Me!

Sunday Obituary: Thomas J. Rooks 1837-1919

Here's the obituary for my paternal 3rd great grandfather, Thomas J. Rooks. He died on June 25, 1919, and this appeared in the July 3, 1919, edition of the Humansville Star-Leader newspaper in Humansville, Missouri. Thomas and his wife, Serena Jane Ishmael, were the parents of my great great grandmother, Mary Jane Rooks Brittain.

Humansville Star-Leader,
Thursday, July 3, 1919

Thomas J. Rooks was born in Indiana, August 12, 1837, died at the home of his youngest son, F.M. Rooks, near Humansville, June 25, 1919, at the age of 82 years, 10 months, and 13 days. He was married to Miss Serena Ishmael Jan. 19, 1860, to them was born ten boys and two girls of which seven sons and one daughter are still living. His wife preceded him to the grave Oct. 3, 1914. He joined the Baptist church in 1906 but he had professed religion and been a member of other churches since young manhood.

Funeral services were held at the home Wednesday conducted by Rev. B.A. Hensley. Interment was the Burchett cemetery.

The Burchett Cemetery is also known as the Molder Cemetery. Both Thomas and Serena are buried there.

Here's how I'm descended from Thomas and Serena:

Thomas J. Rooks/Serena Jane Ishmael >
Mary Jane Rooks/Frederick Harmon Brittain >
Andrew Lee Brittain/Jessie Luetta Halstead >
Woodie Leroy Brittain/Edith Vivian Hunt >
William Lee Brittain/Rebecca Elizabeth Bartram >
me!

Wedding Wednesday: John Newton Garriott & Jane Alen Reed, 1827

My cousin, Jennifer, over at Climbing My Family Tree sent this to me a few months ago. It's the 1827 marriage record for our 4th great grandparents, John Newton Garriott & Jane Alen Reed. They were married in Clark County, Indiana, on April 7, 1827. John was 20 years old, and Jane was 21.

The second page is pretty hard to make out, so here's what it says:

I hereby certify that the within named couple were joined together in marriage by me this 7th day of April 1827. Given under my hand + seal this 22nd day of May 1827. Thomas Allen.

John, Jane and their family moved to Keokuk County, Iowa, sometime between 1840 and 1850, where John was listed as a blacksmith in the 1850 US census, and a miller in the 1860 census. Sometime between 1860 and 1870, they moved to Mercer County, Missouri, where John was a merchant.

They had five children, including my 3rd great grandmother, Nancy Garriott Brittain. Jane died in Mercer County, Missouri, on July 31, 1874. John died there on January 15, 1882.

Wedding Wednesday: Frederick Harmon Brittain and Mary Jane Rooks

Here's a picture of my great great grandparents, Frederick Harmon Brittain and Mary Jane Rooks, as well as a copy of their marriage certificate. They were married on September 14, 1879 in Lowery City, Missouri.

Mary Jane Rooks Brittain and Frederick Harmon Brittain

Marriage Certificate - I love the decorative scroll work on it!

Witnesses to the marriage were Frederick's father, Milton Price Brittain, and Mary Jane's father, Thomas J. Rooks.

Frederick and Mary Jane had 12 children, including my great grandfather, Andrew Lee Brittain. Sadly, three of those children didn't make it past the age of three. At some point after their wedding, and possibly around the time of the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889, the family moved from Missouri to Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma). Frederick apparently ran into some trouble with the law around 1900 (he's in the US Jail at Muskogee in the 1900 US census, but I'm still working on the mystery of why he was there. Stay tuned!), and Mary Jane passed away in 1904. Frederick remarried, in 1906, to Sarah Frances Young, and they had three children together. They moved to Van Buren County, Arkansas, sometime after 1910, and he passed away there in 1921.