Ohio to Missouri Part 2

Ohio to Missouri Part 2

This entry is a follow-up on a previous post regarding the Woods family resettlement from southwestern Ohio to Platte Co., Missouri. 
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Our conjectural Jeremiah Woods married either Virginia Soward about 1821, or Virginia Lowers on 10 May 1821, possibly at Batavia or Milford, Ohio.[1] He was age 23 and Virginia Lowers was 16. There is no hint that he was widowed. No available source records his trade, but it is likely that Jeremiah was a carpenter, possibly a contractor. It was the trade he was known to have followed in Weston, one followed by descendants, and one always in demand during the national expansion. Jeremiah and Virginia remained in Ohio for a decade, until the late 1830s. In the 1820s a similarly named family lived in Milford on the northeast edge of Cincinnati today.[2] A Jeremiah Woods purchased land in nearby Dearborn County, Indiana, in 1837,[3] but there’s no certainty that it was the person considered here or indication that he moved there. Within the next two years our Jeremiah moved his family to Missouri.

Jeremiah and Virginia Woods had nine children, born 1822-1840. All but the last were born in Ohio, according to later census. There was a gap in Virginia’s two-year births between 1833 and 1837 that suggests a failed pregnancy or birth. The gap between the birth of Louisa born in 1837 in Ohio and Samuel in Missouri in 1840 marks the move west.

The prevalence of large families in this study is somewhat notable today. The values of the culture at large proscribed artificial birth control generally until the late 1950s, though it was forbidden mostly only to Roman Catholics. Note that before the twentieth century, a young wife typically gave birth on a cycle of about two years, as long as she was physically up to it, usually into her late forties. A large family was of notable value on a farm or other family enterprise.

Families of fewer than perhaps five children, however widely spaced, often were considered unfortunate until mid-twentieth century. Childhood death by disease or accident claimed many more children than in current times.[4] Americans also typically saw family size as a legacy of name, a measure of influence, and a labor force for the family enterprise. Over-population in newly settled areas was not a serious concern, and most cities encouraged population growth to serve economic interests. Statistically, households included at least four persons until 1940, or two children or parents per couple, averaged across the population. The number dropped below three in 1975, and just 2.57 persons per household in 2004, or one resident child or parent for every two couples of all ages. While not exactly comparable, the figure suggests a birthrate that risks stagnating economic growth without immigration....[5] 

Weston Missouri in 18960

Whether Jeremiah Woods moved his family by land or river, it was seven hundred land miles to Weston, Missouri, from southwest Ohio. They likely took little with them, but necessary family goods. With three teenaged sons, the move could be managed reasonably if they took only what they thought they would require. It would take a month or more by land, two to three weeks by river.

 It was common to move accompanied by a few extended family members, who also may have arrived sooner or later, but no other Woods, Soward or Lower families have been found yet in Platte Co. at the time they arrived. In fact, sources indicate that Jeremiah was the first permanent resident in town. There may have been another Ohio family, not yet identified, who migrated with them. What is certain here is that the Woods family was in Ohio in 1837 for the birth of Louisa. In 1840 they were in Platte County when Weston was incorporated.
Jeremiah Woods was in his forties when he signed the petition to establish Weston township in Platte Co. in 1840. Virginia, sometimes called Jane, died in 1841, shortly after the move to Missouri and the birth of 11. Samuel.[16] She was 37 years old, having married at age 17 and borne nine children.
The following year Jeremiah was a trustee for the town of Weston when it was incorporated in 1842. He was described as a wealthy business leader when he purchased a home in 1847. Jeremiah was elected Justice of the Peace successively throughout his life. He was a carpenter and joiner, businessman, merchant, a Masonic Lodge founder and Knights Templar member. Jeremiah was elected mayor of Weston in 1855 and lost election to Justice of County Court in 1858. He was “universally esteemed for good natural sense and stern justice.”[17] In 1860 he was living with his daughter 10. Louisa and her new husband Henry Roney, a lawyer and later a circuit clerk and judge. Jeremiah died in 1866 at age 69, and is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Weston.[18]

[1] (FamilySearch Clermont, Marriage records 1821-1834 vol 2 img 34 of 318) [2] The 1830 Census in Milford includes a Jeremiah Woods family whose ages are a difficult match. (1830 United States Federal Census 1830; Milford, Clermont, Ohio; series M19, roll 128, pg 266, FHL film 0337939) [3] (US Federal Land Sales Records , Doc. #: 5037 Serial #: OH1480__.005) [4] Overall comparison figures are difficult to find. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century six to nine mothers and 100 infants died per 1000 live births. The 2015 infant mortality rate in US is 7 deaths per 1000 population. UK rate is 5, Europe is 3-4. (www.cdc.gov) This does not include other childhood death. Note that two of six Mordie Woods’ children died. [5] (Pearson Education, Inc. , U.S. Households by Size, 1790–2006 (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0884238.html) [16] (Platte County Historical Society p. 47) [17] (Paxton p. 46) [18] (Paxton p. 422)

Early California Settlement

The early Woods family joined the national expansion even as it had barely settled in Ohio in Dayton. Perhaps the earliest in the family to lead the movement west was Jonas, son of Jeremiah and Virginia, as many did following their participation in the Mexican-American War. 

 Jonas Stansbury Woods

5. Jonas Stansbury Woods is notable as a pioneer as much as his father. He was born as third son of Virginia and Jeremiah on 1 Dec 1825 in Ohio. The middle name Stansbury has been a matter of some mystery. It is possible Stansbury was 2. Jeremiah or Virginia’s mother’s birth name, but it is somewhat unlikely. Jonas’ birth predates most known historical Stansbury names in America. In the 1700s there were Stansbury families in New Jersey and Maryland, and at least one in Kentucky about 1800. One Baltimore family of some note dates to the time period. Their connection to the Woods or Soward or Lowers family has not yet been shown.

5. Jonas Woods helped his father move from Ohio to Missouri in 1840 at age fifteen, married Emily Hawn in 1845 in Platte Co. Missouri. She was age 15, possibly born in New York in 1829, and he was 20. Her family is unknown here. Emily died at Sacramento at age 87 in September, 1916.[1] Censuses show her birthplace variously also as Germany and Ohio.

Within the year after marrying, Jonas enlisted at Fort Leavenworth in June, 1846. He became a second lieutenant and then a captain during the Mexican-American War in 1847 that acquired the southwestern states. Jonas led a Weston, Missouri, infantry company to defeat a superior force.[2]

The war lasted from early 1846 to late 1847 after the United States annexed west Texas and parts of neighboring states, claiming ground to the Rio Grande. American ground forces advanced into today’s northern Mexico, while other forces blockaded Pacific ports and captured Mexico City. Resulting treaties recognized the Rio Grande River as the border and Mexico ceded Texas, New Mexico and southern California in 1848.^[3] Jonas returned home and within a decade, gathered up his family and moved to the West.

Before the war, Mexico claimed all of present day Texas to the southern border of Oregon. In 1830 Mexican citizen John Sutter won approval from the Mexican state to establish a new settlement, an “empire of civilization,” at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers in California. Discovery of gold at Sutter’s mill in 1848 set off the gold stampede, destroying Sutter’s plans for his commune of Helvetia. Sacramento development began with trade at Sutter’s wharf at the join of the two rivers on the west side of modern day Sacramento.

Figure 14. Sacramento in 1850. (California State Library)

The rivers separate Sacramento from West Sacramento and Yolo Co. today. Flooding was a problem, requiring construction adaptations as the city developed. A cholera epidemic and conflicts with squatters characterized early years. In 1852 a fire burned over three-fourths of the city, followed by another in 1854. Sacramento was made the California State Capital in 1854. The San Francisco Valley Railroad was begun in 1855.[4] By 1860 Sacramento Co. held fifteen percent of the state’s population with 24,000 people, of which 14,000 were in Sacramento City. Total California population at that time was 380,000.[5]

Jonas and Emily Woods moved from Weston to Sacramento sometime in the 1850s, perhaps seeing opportunities as a builder following the 1852 fire. Their first child born there was in 1854. By 1860 Sacramento was the 67th largest urban place in the country. Jonas was living with Emily and five children in American, a township district with six hundred people on the north side of Sacramento along the American River. He was a brick mason.^[6] By 1870 Jonas’ five-year-younger brother Jeremiah Marion Woods was a deputy sheriff in Sacramento, and Jonas and Jeremiah were proprietors of Dexter Saloon and Stables on K Street.^[7]

One might muse that drinking and driving - horses - didn’t seem to be a problem at the time. Stables were as important in cities as parking lots today, and hired drivers likely needed a place to await a call. In Sacramento the saloon probably resembled an urban bar today where tradesmen, clerks and businessmen gather during the working day. In a city with over sixteen -thousand people by 1870, there must have been several stables and certainly more saloons.

5. Jonas Woods and Emily had six children. Rosella, born in Missouri in 1847 before the move to California, married Amos Mathews of Missouri in Sacramento in 1868, and they had a daughter Carrie. Alfred Stansbury Woods, born in Missouri in 1849, married Philomena Hess in 1874 in Sacramento and they had a daughter Emma. Anna Florence, born in Missouri in 1851, married William Cary in 1870 in Sacramento and they had four sons. Emeline W., born in 1854, married Joseph Augustus Martin in Sacramento in 1873 and they had a son. Mary Louise, born Christmas Eve, 1860, became a school teacher and lived with her parents until they died. She died in Sacramento in 1932.  Alice, born in May, 1862, possibly married William Sharkey. [8]

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[1] (Old City Cemetery Committee, Inc. Woods, Emily, Vo. A, pg 19, lot 1378)

[2] (Paxton p. 84)

[3] (Mexican–American War)

[4] (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sacramento,_California)

[5] (Gibson)

[6] (1860 United States Federal Census , American, Sacramento, California; roll M653_63, img 163, FHL film 803063; pg 160-161; fam 1366, ln 38-40, 1-4 [Woods])

[7] (City Directory Sacramento CA, 1873; pp. 486-7, ln 24, ln 4,7,9,10 Woods)

[8] (Old City Cemetery Committee, Inc. Lot 1378 Rosa Mathews), (California Marriages 1850-1945 FHL film 1302107, Sacramento,, 3 May 1903, Hood William and Woods, Emma), (1910 United States Federal Census Franklin Twp, Sacramento, California, ED 92, roll 92, part 1, page 115B)

Living in a War-Torn America

The Westerfield Massacre.

The predations and complications of moving around and settling America during the Revolutionary War were immense but commerce and life continued throughout. This passage of the text I've been working through suggests those difficulties.
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In 1780 the Revolutionary War was being fought. Charlestown, South Carolina, had fallen to the British in 1779. The French entered the war in 1780 on the side the revolution. American rebels defeated loyalist forces and natives who had been terrorizing settlers near Elmira in south-central New York, and retaliated by destroying over thirty native villages. The Battle of Charlestown in South Carolina was lost for the revolutionaries in January, while the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina was won in October. In 1780 Pennsylvania freed children of slaves.

Fig. 19. Low Dutch Station  marker. The station was one of six 

forts established on Beargrass Creek in 1780, now part of 

Louisviille.

As the Colonial wars intervened, the native conflict with settlers was co-opted first by the French and then by the English. The deadly attacks on colonists often came from natives who were guided, supported and rewarded by French handlers before 1765 through the French and Indian War. By 1770 or so, natives again were exploited as surrogate guerillas and raiders, this time by British handlers throughout the Revolutionary War. The natives themselves were from northern British or French-controlled areas beyond the treaty line and in Canada. Kentucky, in fact, was not residential territory for any organized native population in the late eighteenth century, though there were hunting ground claims.

The saga of a native attack on the Westervelt families travelling to safety is remarkable. The “Westerfield Massacre” occurred about twenty miles south of Louisville. On June 27, 1780, at 3:00 AM, a travelling party of settlers was trying to reach safer ground when they were attacked by natives, several were slaughtered, and two women were taken to French Canada and sold as servants/slaves. The group included several ancestral family members, including grandparents of Cornelius Westefield.

The British army was advancing into Kentucky by May, 1880, supported by Indian raids. The. English Captain Henry Bird and his 8^th Regiment of Foot moved down from Detroit with 150 white troops and a thousand natives spreading annihilation along their path.

12. Jacobus Westervelt purchased four hundred acres near Harrod’s Town, and by the summer in 1780 the Westerfields and other families were moving on to safer territory, ninety miles farther south and east. The caravan set out on June 26, 1780, and included forty-one settlers from ten families, led by Jacobus Westervelt. At 3:00 AM on June 27th they were attacked by natives in service to the British. Ten of the seventeen settlers who died were Westerfield family members.[1]

Testimony of survivors was taken in depositions and appears in court records and legislative hearing documents. Those accounts substantiate the horrifying summary by Hiram Stafford in his 1865 testimony to his knowledge of the attack seventy-five years earlier. Hiram was a grandson of James Westerfield, Sr., son of Leah Westerfield who escaped during the attack. His account pulls together the substance of the testimony of several witnesses whose depositions were taken at the time. The return of Mary from British Canada and some minor sequences of events vary slightly with contemporary accounts, but there appears to have been relatively little embellishment:

Fig. 20. Mural in the Missouri State Capitol marking the 1780 

native attacks on St. Louis, the same year as the British-sup-

ported native raid on the Westerfields in Kentucky.

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…My Grandfather, James Westerfield [James Westervelt, Sr.] was a large man weighing 333 pounds, himself and family left Berkeley County, Virginia, about 1780 and emigrated to Kentucky by way of Pittsburgh to Louisville intending to go to Harrod’s Station in now Mercer Co. Ky.[2] Him and company (of) about thirty persons started from Louisville to the station. (They) camped for the night on the waters of bargrass [Beargrass Creek] about twelve miles out and sometime in the night was attacked by a party of Indians while asleep, and but few escaped death.

The old man [James Westervelt, Sr.] and two of his daughters (were) among the number killed. The old lady [Maria Demarest Westervelt] saved three children [Catharine, Leah or another child, and Rebecca, a baby] by hiding in a sinkhole. One child (was) in her arms and two (were) under her clothes to keep them from crying. My Mother [Leah, then age 13] then single also escaped to a fort not far off…

Those that were prisoners was separated a little way from each other until they could find out which was capable to travel and those unfit to travel was tomahawked and scalped. One woman (was) sitting by and seeing all of her children one after another slain…they went to her to take her infant out of her arms, her fortitude gave way…(She) held on to the child screaming for its safety (and she ) was killed on the spot by the hatchet and scalped. (The indians) then took the infant by the heels and beat out its brains against a tree. They then took each of the others as they intended to take with them and ripped open the beds scattering the feathers gathered their plunder and left. After killing the old man [Jacobus Westervelt, Sr.] they seemed to think they had killed a giant, three buttoned themselves in his big coat and danced.

Deborah Westerfield and her cousin Polley (were) taken off prisoners to Detroit, then sold to the French as servants, (They) was badly treated…(and later) sold into another family. They remained (with them) until exchanged and finally got home…(two years later).

While (the girls were) in captivity…the old lady [Mrs. Westervelt] was taken (by Indians) on her return from a friend’s house (in Shelby County.) (She) had her horse shot (out from) under her and (was) taken not far from Ketcham’s Station in now Shelby Co. Ky. (She was) Taken a few miles off secreted for the night, until they could steal horses for their journey [They] came back before day with the horses, (and) gave (her) choice (of horses to ride). She took a favorite one which she knew well… (She) put on her saddle...mounted and off was taken to Detroit in great hope of meeting with her daughter and cousin, (Polley – Mary Westerfield) but to her disappointment they…(had been) released and (had) gone home around Easter. She remained there about one year and finally got back
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[1782-83].( H.R. Stafford, Carroll County, Mar 28th, 1865).^[3]

The Westerfields did settle in the Bardstown area, a few miles south of the massacre site, and in nearby Mercer County communities, about thirty miles southwest of Lexington. Several Westerfield family members later moved back and forth between Mercer County and Platte Co., Missouri, about six hundred miles apart by land, or about three weeks wagon or carriage travel, but perhaps ten days to two weeks by steamboat, before the 1870s when rail travel became popular.

Jacobus (1755) and Phoebe Westerfield had not joined the 1780 party to Kentucky, but had remained in northern Virginia near Winchester, before returning to York Co., Pennsylvania, and later moving to Kentucky. Cornelius Westerfield, the ancestor of interest, was born at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in February, 1782.[4]

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[1] (West , indiv rec Westerfield, Cornelius)

[2] This route differs slightly from the one outlined here.

[3] (Draper Manuscripts, Boone Papers Series C, Vol. 24, pp145, 145-1, 145-2, 28 March 1865)

[4] (Belcher 30-37)
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Arthur Dirks
24 August 2015

Moving to Missouri

The writing project, a history of my grandparents' families, is finally complete - almost. It's in the hands of a researcher cousin who is comparing her notes. It was a challenging project, but I did manage to knit together a number of extended families. The approach is a little different from accepted NEHGS standards since it has a bit different intent. Some passages will follow, sans notes and family tables.

From Chapter 2: Ohio to Missouri
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In 1830, Missouri had less than 150,000 people over all its territory. Settlement was the fever of the period. Within ten years that number more than doubled to 380,000, and the state gained a million additional people by 1860.

The 1830s were marked by an economic panic, Irish riots in Boston, settlement of Chicago, and the removal of the Cherokee nation from Georgia to Oklahoma. In 1837, real estate prices and the price of farm produce collapsed, ruining many farmers. A wheat crop failed, cotton prices and land speculation collapsed. The recession lasted seven years to the mid-1840s. It was a time when people were willing to break with the known and seek opportunities in the expanding settlement of the west.
In 1837 the Platte Purchase secured the lands on the east side of the Missouri River north of Westport, giving the state its westward point, and including the territory of Weston. On 4 May 1840 Jeremiah Woods was among the 72 voters advancing a petition to establish Weston Township in Platte Co.  Shortly thereafter, two other towns in the Platte Purchase also established. St. Joseph incorporated in 1843 and Maryville in 1845.

The first people to settle in what would soon become Weston were two young soldiers from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1837. Rowing up the Missouri River in a canoe, they found a natural bay at the foot of what would later become Weston's Main Street. The bay appeared to be appropriate for a steamboat landing or ferry, and the soldiers purchased land there. One of the two soldiers, Joseph Moore, built the first cabin. In time, Weston became a thriving river port until a flood changed the course of the river in the 1860s.
.....
Jeremiah and Virginia were moving with eight children, ages 1 to 15. It is quite likely that the Woods family traveled entirely by water, perhaps with others, and perhaps in more than one trip. The costs of such travel for the family are unknown here, but steamboats were the closest thing to intercity mass transportation at the time and they opened up distant commerce. Wagon travel was limited to twenty miles or less a day, and carriages to thirty, while steamboats covered fifty winding river miles a day with enormous loads and relative comfort.

Yellowstone Steamboat in 1819.

Robert Fulton's New Orleans sailed from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in 1811 on the Ohio River. Thereafter, steamboats developed rapidly, plying the inland waterways as the intercity and distance trucks, trains and buses of their era. Commercial steamboat operation on the Missouri River began before the 1820s. A listing of Missouri River steamboats shows several boats going upriver from St. Louis as far as North Dakota and the Yellowstone River in Montana as early as 1838.  In Nebraska they followed the Platte River perhaps to Grand Island.

Listings show that from 1836 to 1838, the steamboat Rhine ran from St. Louis to Weston and Iatan, a week-long trip each way.  There were early settlements of some years at Weston, and sufficient trade and produce traffic to put in at landings there. These dates coincide with the years leading to Weston's charter, and it is likely if not certain that Woods traveled on the Rhine. Other towns may have had service as needed. Landings such as Iatan were similar to named rural rail sidings today, where produce and livestock can be taken on in season. Little was needed for a steamboat landing except sufficient water depth, a gangway to dry land, and transportation away. Weston lost its river port when the river moved in the 1858 flood.
......
Whether 2. Jeremiah Woods moved his family by land or river, it was seven hundred land miles to Weston, Missouri, from southwest Ohio. They likely took little with them, but necessary family goods. With three teenaged sons, the move could be managed if they took only what they thought they would require.

It was common to move accompanied by a few extended family members, who also may have arrived sooner or later, but no other Woods or Soward families have been found yet in Platte Co. at the time they arrived. In fact, sources indicate that Jeremiah was the first permanent resident in town. There may have been another Ohio family, not yet identified, who migrated with them. What is certain here is that the Woods family was in Ohio in 1837 for the birth of Louisa. In 1840 they were in Platte County when Jeremiah signed the petition for the incorporation of Weston.

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Arthur Dirks

14 August 2015

The End of a Family Project

The Woods family in 1935

There's that time when you finish a project that has consumed your life, your awake time in the early morning, and each reasonable mental opportunity throughout the day. My latest is a history of my mother's family, following one a year ago on my wife's family.

Two different experiences. Diane's family of great people have had only passing interest over time for their family history, but thankfully preserved enough to knit together a progress of family lines. I had the benefit of her uncle who had written out a history fifty or more years ago, typed in carbon copies, with names and dates and a few anecdotes. Fortunately, her parents had bundled it well enough to survive and be passed along. But for the most part, I had to follow up with census data, cemetery research and work by others in related lines, and place histories to construct the families in their times. The experience was generally positive, and completed in about a year of pretty focused work.

But I knew that was going to be a warm-up for tackling my own heritage. While Diane's family was pleased with the effort, they were not themselves caught up in family history beyond the stories and few artifacts that remained from their parents. My grandmother, however, kept a great deal of memorabilia and treasured her connections to a substantial population of ancestors and cousins. My grandfather frequently expressed pride in the principles and fortitude of his family line, though it was less fecund than my grandmother's. My mother inherited much of the family paper.

In such a family, one grows up with myths built from overheard conversation and fragments of information learned 3rd and 4th-hand. Sometimes the fragments lead to strange and flawed constructions of history. The the names are there and SOMETHING happened, or not, and it passes into lore. Part of the fun of family history is finding the truth behind the lore.

In my experience, the lives and times are rarely as grand or impoverished or sinister as the story. It every case it is much more complicated, and part of the fun is discovering how they negotiated the complications and their times. They were in given circumstances (as we say in the theater), and they negotiated them, exploited them, improved upon them, abandoned them, and made other choices.

The fun part for me was bringing my academic skills to the project. Familiarity with research methods and standards, good explository writing, sophistication in thinking, and support for assertions and conjecture are fundamental to good academic writing of any kind.

I think the project came out well. I posted the PDF to Google Drive and await the verdicts of a respected sibling and cousin before sending the 200 pages to a printer.

Now I'm thinking about what might be next. Perhaps I can write something that non-family members might read. I can get into this retirement thing.

Sunday, July 5, 2015