If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. George Bernard Shaw

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Orphans: Julia Cruse Whitesides and Amelia Cruse Dawson

A continuing series on the possible children and grandchildren of Jeremiah Crews & Elizabeth Harland. Jeremiah was the son of David Crews & Annie Magee of Madison County, Kentucky. Most of the information, as usual, comes to me courtesy of Marian Kay Abbott. 


When James Cruse, son of David Cruse and Jane Jewell, died on 22 April 1874 (go here for more on his life and his death) he left behind his wife, Edith Moore Cruse, and their two small daughters - four year old Julia Cruse and 2 year old Amelia Cruse. A year and a month later, on 31 May 1875, Edith passed away. The two Cruse girls, now aged five and 3, were orphans. Amelia did not remember her parents' death nor her sister, but she did remember her mother's body being laid out for the funeral (2).

On 12 February 1877, two years after Edith's date, William Carpenter requested of the Vigo County court that he be made guardian of both Julia and Amelia. The total real estate of the Cruse holdings was only valued at $72, but that was enough to require oversight by someone. A guardian's bond that day was filed in the court by William Carpenter and the girls' uncle, Alexander Moore, for $150. It is interesting that the bond was more than the value of the estate (1).

The girls were separated after Edith's death. In 1880 Julia is living in Vigo County, Indiana, in the Honey Creek Township in the home of eighty year old Jeremiah Blackson and his seventy-nine year old wife Gertrude. Permelia is not listed with her. Julia, only ten years old, is listed as a servant. Next door was the household of Henry and Laeticia (Cruse) Loveall (3). Laeticia was the daughter of James Nelson and Susannah Cruse, and Susannah was a daughter of Jeremiah Cruse and Elizabeth Harland. Julia's grandfather, David Cruse (who married Jane Jewell) was Susannah's brother. So while it does not appear Julia was living with relatives, she was living next door to her great-aunt.

I cannot locate Amelia in the census records for 1880, and of course there is no 1890 census. She states in depositions many years later that she was unaware she had a sister until 1902. By this time she was thirty years old. She also states in those depositions that after her parents died she was taken to Illinois (2).  I perused Illinois and Indiana census records for 1880 but could not find her. She later married while living in Indiana, so if she moved to Illinois she may have come back.

On 3 September 1883, the Vigo Court ordered their guardian, William Carpenter, to appear in order to show why he had not made a regular report in regard to the girls' affairs. He did so five days later, on 8 September 1883, and at that time requested that he be released from his duties. He claims he "never had any property or money in his hands for said wards, that he expects nothing, and there is no source from which they can devise any property or money." The girls, by this time, were nine years old and seven years old. A month later, on 5 October 1883, he did pay the court $10.25, although the reason is not stated on the receipt (1).

Keep in mind, that just because Carpenter was the guardian the girls did not necessarily live with him at any time. Sometimes courts appointed one guardian to orphans to manage their financial affairs, while the children sometimes lived with another guardian. Interestingly, courts were not nearly as interested in those days in where the children were living day-to-day as they were in keeping their financial affairs in order - especially if they had money and property of value. Keeping that intact for them seemed to be the court's top priority.






SOURCES: 

(1)  Records from the Vigo County court, courtesy of Marian Kay Abbott.
(2) Civil War Pension records for Julia Whitesides and Amelia Dawson, courtesy of Marian Kay Abbott.
(3) 1880 U. S. Federal Census, Indiana, Vigo County, Honey Creek Township.








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