Jeremiah Crews, Possible Children, Part Five: Mary Amelia Crews Nelson

Another possible daughter of Jeremiah Crews and Elizabeth Harlan is Mary Amelia "Milly" Crews. Previously, I have written of Susannah Crews Nelson, Nancy Crews Adams, and Elizabeth Crews Boon.

Mary Amelia "Milly" Crews is given as Mary in the 1850 and 1870 Sullivan County, Indiana censuses, but as Amelia in the 1860 Sullivan County, Indiana census. She is apparently given the name of "Milly" on her marriage certificate.

According to the 1850, 1860, and 1870 Sullivan County, Indiana censuses, Mary Amelia was born in Kentucky in 1801. If this date is correct, she may well have been born in Madison County, Kentucky, and possibly in the Muddy Creek area as her father had not yet left there at this date. 

Amelia's father, Jeremiah Crews, subsequently left Madison County when she was a young girl not more than ten years old. He made brief stops in Jefferson and Henry Counties, Kentucky, but then likely moved on to Daviess County, Kentucky, where he is believed to have been found in the census that year. At the age of 26, she married John J. Nelson in Daviess County, Kentucky, and the marriage is found in Dodd, Jordan, Kentucky Marriages, 1802-1850.  Amelia's sister, Susannah Crews, married James Nelson two years previous in 1820 in Daviess County, Kentucky. I have not been able to determine if James and John were brothers or not. John J. Nelson was also born in Kentucky but was a year older than Amelia, having been born on 1 October 1799 according to his tombstone. The birthyear is further supported in the 1850 and 1860 Sullivan County, Indiana censuses. His family may well have left Madison County at around the same time as the Crews family. 

Grave of John J. Nelson
Picture from www.findagrave.com.

Not long after their marriage, John and Amelia left Kentucky and moved to Indiana with the families of Crews, Nelson, Adams, and Boone, and James is enumerated in the 1830 Vigo County, Indiana census along with several of these families, including Amelia's father, Jeremiah Crews. By 1840, they had moved south to Sullivan County, Indiana, where they were enumerated in the census that year, and by 1850 the Sullivan County, Indiana census enumerates them in the Curry Township. James and Amelia are still found here in the 1860 census.

On 22 July 1864, as the Civil War was winding to a close, James died. He was buried in the Friendship Baptist Church Cemetery in Farmersburg in Sullivan County, Indiana.  By the time the 1870 census was taken, 69 year old Amelia was living with her youngest daughter, 29 year old Margaret Nelson.

Amelia is not found in the 1880 census, so it is likely she had died by that date. There are indications on Ancestry that Margaret subsequently married Franklin Hanger/Hauger, but that he had died by 1880 and she was living with her brother-in-law John Booth, husband of her older sister Susan Crews who had died by this date, in the 1880 Sedgewick County, Kansas census. Amelia is not seen.

According to census records, John and Amelia had the following children: An unnamed daughter, b abt 1825, James J. Nelson, b abt 1827, Susan Nelson, b abt 1830, William A. Nelson, b abt 1834, Eliza Jane Nelson, b abt 1839, and Margaret Nelson, b abt 1841.

(The above information, unless noted otherwise, was given to me courtesy of Marian Kay Cruse Abbott, a descendant of Jeremiah Cruse and Elizabeth Harland).

Jeremiah Crews, Possible Children, Part Four: Nancy Crews Adams

Unlike her sisters Susanna Crews Nelson who I wrote of here and Elizabeth Crews Boone who I wrote about here, little information is available on Nancy Crews, possible daughter of Jeremiah Crews and Elizabeth Harlan. 

The best source for Nancy Crews' parents is her marriage bond to Noah Adams and filed on 16 May 1816 in Shelby County, Kentucky. The bond documents Nancy as the daughter of Elizabeth Crews. While Jeremiah is not listed on the bond, Nancy's sister, Susanna Crews, is mentioned as the daughter of Jeremiah on her bond of marriage to James Nelson in Shelby County five years previous in 1813, and the bondsman for Susanna and James was Zachariah Crews. The two bonds within three years of each other in the same county suggests a strong link between Nancy and Susanna and further connects them both to Jeremiah and Elizabeth.

According to the 1860 Vigo County, Indiana census, Nancy was born in 1800 in Kentucky. She was probably born in Jefferson County for her father disappears from Madison County, Kentucky tax records by 1799, and on 3 December 1800 he purchased 100 acres on Floyd's Fork for 60 pounds (see Porter, Metes & Bounds II: David Crews, Ancestors & Descendants, 2nd ed, pg 195). In determining her birthdate, it should be noted that the three census records, 1850, 1860, and 1870 are not in agreement. The 1850 census has her birthyear as 1808, which would make her only ten years old at the time of her marriage. The 1870 census gives her age as 73, but that is actually thirteen years older than the census in 1860 ten years previously. Since she was older by this time, and someone else may well have have given the birthyear, the birthyear of 1800 from the 1860 census is likely the more accurate.

Despite the fact that Noah Adams is not found in the 1820 census in Vigo County, Indiana, he and Nancy no doubt moved shortly after their marriage to that county with the families of Cruse, Nelson, and Boone. That year, these families are located in that county, including Nancy's father, Jeremiah Cruse, and her sister and brother-in-law James J. and Susanna (Crews) Nelson. They could have been perhaps living with either her family or his.

Noah is found in the 1840 Vigo County, Indiana census in Linton Towship, but by 1850 he must have died for Nancy is the head of the household in the 1850 Vigo County, Indiana census. She was still living in the Linton Township. In 1850, living with her, were Izah Adams, 23, Joziah Adams, 20, David Adams, 17, Jeremiah Adams, 14, Nancy Adams, 13, and Noah E. Adams, 12. These are likely Nancy's children, but the birthdate of Izah, in 1827, suggests these are not all of the children. Since Nancy and Noah were married in 1826, it is likely there were several other children older than Izah who were no longer living at home. Noah's age of 12 also suggests that Noah may have died shortly after the 1850 census since twelve year old Noah is the last child. 

In 1860, Nancy is still living in Linton Township as the head of the household, with son Jeremiah Adams, now 23 years of age, Elizabeth Adams, 22, probably the wife of  Jeremiah, and likely their children David Adams, 4, Mary Adams, 2, and Thomas Adams, 7 months. The only other person in the household that year was Joshua Adams aged 26. He may have been the Joziah Adams listed as being only 20 in the 1850 census.

By 1870 Nancy, now enumerated as being 73 years of age, was living in the household of Elijah and Mary York in Honey Creek Township still in Vigo County, Indiana. The Yorks were living close to the households of James Cruse and William Cruse, sons of Nancy's deceased brother David Cruse and his wife Jane Jewell. However, there is no information as to who the Yorks were in relation to Nancy. Mary York was 23 years old that year and was thus born in 1847. As such, she would have been three years old in 1850, but there is no three year old female in the household with Nancy in the 1850 census. It is possible either Noah or Mary were Nancy's grandchildren or a niece / nephew, but more research must be done in order to determine that.

Nancy must have died between the 1870 and 1880 censuses, for she is not seen again. 

SOURCES: Unless otherwise noted, research is courtesy of Marian Kay Cruse Abbott.

Jeremiah Crews, Possible Chidren, Part Three: Elizabeth Crews Boon

This is the third installment in a continuing series detailing the possible children of Jeremiah Crews and Elizabeth Harland/Harlan. This research is courtesy of Marian Kay Abbott who is diligently searching for a link proving the Jeremiah Crews of Vigo County, Indiana, was the son of David Milton Crews and Annie Magee of Madison County, Kentucky.

Elizabeth Crews, who married Josiah Boon (spelling of cemetery marker, see below) in Shelby County, Kentucky on 31 July 1813, is named in the marriage record as a daughter of Jeremiah Crews. The bondsman for the marriage was Zachariah Crews. If she is a daughter of Jeremiah and a granddaughter of David and Annie (Magee) Crews, she was likely born in Madison County, Kentucky, about the year 1792 and probably on Otter Creek, as that was where her father was living at the time (see Metes & Bounds II: David Crews, Ancestors & Descendants). 

        

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Sarah Rockenfeld in her book Our Boone Families: Daniel Boone's Kinfolk (Whipporwill Publications, Evansville: 1987, pgs 71-72, extracted and shared by Marian Kay Abbott), gives Josiah's name as  Josiah Boon III.  At the time of his marriage to Elizabeth, he was a veteran of the War of 1812, having served as a private in the 1st Rifle Regiment (Allen's), Kentucky Volunteers. According to Rockenfeld, Elizabeth later received 80 acres of bounty land on Josiah's service.

Josiah and Elizabeth moved with the families of Nelson, Adams, and Crews, in the 1820s, into Vigo and Sullivan Counties, Indiana. Here, Josiah owned 80 acres in Haddon Township in Sullivan County, Indiana (NE N FR, Sec. 3, T6N, R9W, Rockenfeld does not indicate this 80 acres was part of his bounty warrant.)  Sullivan County was directly south of Vigo County. The Wabash River borders the county on the west, with the state of Illinois across the river.

Picture from www.findagrave.com.

Josiah is enumerated  in the 1830 Sullivan County, Indiana,  census as having 1 male 40-49, 1 male 15-19, 1 male 10-14, 4 males 5-9, and 2 males under 5. Females in the household included 1 between the ages of 30-39, 1 female 10-14, 2 females 5-9, and 1 female under 5. Obviously the oldest male is Josiah and the oldest female is Elizabeth.  This is the only census available for Josiah, for he died on 4 September 1836 in Sullivan County, Indiana. He was buried in the Boone Cemetery in that county, and a War of 1812 monument marks his grave.

Elizabeth is subsequently enumerated in the 1840 and 1850 Sullivan County, Indiana, censuses in Haddon Township, but with son David Boon, aged 34, as the head of the household in the 1850 census.  Others enumerated with her and who were likely her children were: Joseph Boon, 24, Pearcus Boon, 22, Nancy Boon, 19, Thomas Boon,  17, and William Boon, 14. William must have been born shortly before or after his father's death. Six year old Elizabeth Boon was probably a granddaughter, and carpenter  Willis Milam, 34, was living with them as well.

According to Rockenfeld, Elizabeth (Crews) Boon, five of her children,  and two small grandchildren died in August of 1851 of the "flux," which was caused by eating meat that had been undercooked and thus the parasites had not been killed. Rockenfeld states this was probably wild meat, and that the meat was probably eaten on a Sunday while the family was at Elizabeth's house visiting. Those who died were Elizabeth (Crews) Boon, George Boon, David Boon, Mary E."Polly" Boon Boatman and her baby, Levi Boatman, Nancy Boon, William Boon, and a grandson Columbus W. Lowdermilk, the baby of Leah Boon Lowdermilk. 

They were all buried in the  the Boone Cemetery in Paxton, Sullivan County, Indiana, and all have entries on www.findagrave.com. 

Bringing the Past Into the Present - One Recipe at a Time

One of the adventures I have been wanting to take on has been the cooking of colonial recipes. Well, I decided  this year I am going to do just that. Never one to bite off more than I can chew (that pun was totally intended), I am going to make one Colonial recipe a month. To make it more fun (after a friend said she would join me), I decided to ask my readers to join me as well.

At the beginning of each month, I will post the recipe on my website blog here and on my Facebook page here. Readers are being asked to post a picture of the results of their adventure in colonial cooking on my Facebook page. I have asked that something be in the picture, yourself or a 21st century object, so everyone will know it is current.  

If I get at least 20 pictures posted between now and the end of the year (not including my own), I will hold a drawing in December. For every picture posted, a name will be entered, to a maximum of twelve for twelve recipes, one for each of the twelve months. The winner will receive a $25 Starbucks gift card and a signed coy of one of my books - their choice. Even genealogy books are acceptable to choose if you are the winner, which is why I have posted my invitation here.

If you are interested in participating, you can read more about it at my blog here. I encourage you to follow my blog and/or join my Facebook author page here. Each month's recipes will be put on both the blog, my main author website, and my Facebook page. 

Jeremiah Crews, Possible Children, Part Two

Another possible child for Jeremiah Cruse (Crews) is a daughter by the name of Susannah. The website www.findagrave.com shows a burial for a Susannah Crews Nelson in Hull Cemetery in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. She was born in 1795, so if she was the daughter of Jeremiah she would have been born in Madison County, Kentucky, before her father's removal from there about 1799. Her deathdate is given as 1865, the last year of the Civil War. There is no picture of a headstone, so I am uncertain if one exists. She was, according to the page, the wife of James Nelson, and he does have a headstone in the same cemetery, although it is crude and the engraving is wearing away. James was born in 1796, and he died in 1871.  

Susannah married James Nelson on 15 Feb 1820 in Daviess County, Kentucky (record is found on Ancestry.com). It has long been conjectured, again without proof, that a Cruse male found in the U. S. Federal Census for 1820 Daviess County, Kentucky is Jeremiah son of David of Madison County, Kentucky. This census records one male under the age of 10, 1 male aged 10 to 15, 1 male aged 16 to 25, 1 male 45 and/or older, 1 female aged 10-15, and 1 female aged 26-45. Clearly, Jeremiah and his wife, Elizabeth Harland (provided she had not died and this was a second wife) would be the older male and female. One of the irksome things about census records before 1850, of course, is that they do not give the other names of individuals in the household. It is worthy of note that Jeremiah, in the U. S. Federal Census for 1830 Vigo County, Indiana, ten years later, is living close to the household of John J. Nelson. There may or may not be a connection with this Nelson to Susannah's marriage. If there is, then the Nelsons and the Cruses obviously migrated from Daviess County, Kentucky, to Vigo County, Indiana, between the years 1820 and 1830.

In regards to Susannah's birth, proof does come in the U. S. Federal Census for 1850 Vigo County, Indiana, for the Honey Creek Township. James Nelson, aged 54, is the head of the household. He is enumerated with a birthplace of South Carolina. Wife Susannah's birthplace is given as Kentucky. This is more than likely the same J. Nelson that owned a joint survey with David Cruse on the map found here in last week's posting. 

The 1860 Vigo County census is changed little except for an aging of ten years for both James and Susannah. Their birthplaces are still given as South Carolina and Kentucky. 

Again, as I stated in my previous blog posting, more work will need to be done at the county level in order to find proof on the relationship of all these individuals. If anyone has more information they would like me to add to this blog on Susannah Cruse Nelson, or who would like to contact the researcher who is currently working on this line, free to contact me.

Jeremiah Crews, Possible Children, Part One

One of the long standing mysteries in the Crews family, if you define a mystery as "without proof," is what happened to Jeremiah Crews, son of David Crews and Annie Magee, after he left Madison County, Kentucky. I detailed up-to-date research on him in my latest edition of Metes & Bounds II: David Crews, Ancestors & Descendants, but unfortunately, I still was unable to find proof concerning his whereabouts.

It is generally believed that he is the Jeremiah Cruze that appears in the 1830 Vigo County, Indiana census. Notice the name change, although whether it was intentional on the census taker's part or an accident is not known. It is told that Jeremiah and Elijah, upset at being cut out of their father's will, changed their last names.

What I did not detail in my book were the children of Jeremiah Cruze. While I have found listings online, including on Ancestry, there was little proof as to how or why those children belonged in the family. Therefore, I chose to leave conjecture out of the 2nd edition.

I was contacted recently by an ancestor of Jeremiah's who was able to supply a bit more information in regards to two possible children born to him.  Although there is still a lack of proof, for those individuals trying to locate a proven link anything is valuable at this point. Some of what I will relate in this blog posting and the next is information from her, and some is what I have since added. 

While Jeremiah disappears after the 1830 Indiana census, and we will assume at this point he had died, a David Cruise is found in the 1840 Sullivan County, Indiana census. Sullivan County borders Vigo County. The 1830 census lists 3 males aged 30 to 39, 2 females aged 20 to 29, 3 males under 5 and 1 male aged 5 to 9. It is believed at the present this man is possibly linked to Jeremiah Cruse and is, therefore, a grandson of David Crews and Annie Magee.

David Crews (this spelling now used), the householder in the 1840 census, married Jane Jewel in Vigo County on 1 May 1833 (Indiana Marriage Records courtesy of a Jeremiah Cruse descendant). It is possible that David himself died by 1850, for the 1850, 1860, and 1870 U. S. Federal censuses for Vigo County, specifically Honey Creek Township, enumerate Jane Cruse as the head of the household and her children are living with her. Her son, Zachariah Crews, later indicated in his Civil War enlistment records that he was born in Sullivan County, Indiana in 1838.

Below is an 1858 map of Honey Creek Township in Vigo County, Indiana. Just to the southeast of the number 29, which is about 3/4 of the way down the map on the left side, surveys are shown for D. Cruse and J. Nelson, as well as another survey to the right of that one for D. Cruse. 

Anyone wishing to connect with this descendant researching Jeremiah is free to contact me for her email. As I told her, and we both agreed, at this point it will likely take deep digging in courthouse records in several locations to connect the threads of Jeremiah Crews and his children. She plans to work further on his line in the near future.

Next week we will explore a possible connection with a daughter of Jeremiah's, and the week after that we will look further into Jane Jewel Cruse.

When, in the course of human events, did one nation infiltrate another and then seek to subvert the very culture of that country they were desperate to be a part of?

The answer?

Never, at least that I know of, until now.

America has long been called (unless it is no longer politically correct to do so) as the "great American melting pot." Anyone else remember the History Rock video of the same name (before videos were cool). A melting pot, of course, is a mish mash of different cultures coming together to form one. You could say it made us stronger and part of a whole, rather than weaker and separate.

Probably Dominick Hechler and Elizabeth Dietz

My great-grandparents, Dominick and Elizabeth (Dietz) Hechler came to America from Russia (although they were 100% German - another story for another day) in 1890. I was told several times in asking stories of my family how they were PROUD to be here. They first landed at Castle Garden in New York (the forerunner of Ellis Island), but eventually ended up in Plantersville, Texas, with other families who had come with them. (I have written about them in my book I Will Go With You: The Hechlers, From Germany to Russia to America.)

The story was often told, but was told to me by Tilly Gaetz Hechler, wife of August Hechler who came with his parents from Russia, of how the school teacher came to my great-grandparents and told them they needed to start speaking English at home for the sake of the children. They were now Americans and lived in America and people here spoke English.  My great-grandfather, who around this time was also naturalized and became a US citizen,  did so. He was proud to be an American. He was grateful to be here, and he had no qualms speaking like an American and becoming part of the "melting pot" of this country. He even did so as he pressed for his oldest grandchild to be named Wilhelm, a very German name.

It is worthy of note, that my grandmother refused to do so. Was it calculated on their part for one to learn to speak English and the other to not so the children would learn both languages? Or did my great-grandmother simply refuse to learn for some reason? I do not know, nor is anyone alive who remembers. It was one of those questions one never ponders as a child, and then later it is too late to ask when it is thought of.

Dominick Hechler and Elizabeth Dietz family about 1915. My grandfather, D.J. Hechler, is sitting to the left on his father's knee.

Culture is more than the language a person speaks. Its their favorite foods, the folk music, oftentimes their ideas and religion. This is what homes are for. This is what parents and grandparents are for - to imbue a sense of the past into their offspring. If they choose to speak their native language at home, that is fine. But to come into a country and insist that country become bilingual is nonsense. They are not becoming a part of the "great melting pot," but setting up their own pot on a side burner.

I oftentimes heard stories of how my grandfather, D. J. Hechler, would go next door to the Wagners, another family that came with them from Russia, and how he and the older man would speak in German. And yet, my grandfather spoke English fluently as well. In fact, my grandmother, his wife, Eleanora Ressler Hechler, spoke English, but with her sisters spoke Czech. Neither one of my grandparents graduated high school, but they were bilingual. I cannot even boast of such skills today.

I have often heard the argument that immigrants do not wish to lose their identity as a culture. But why should they expect to leave their native land, come to another, and not lose something in the assimilation process? Did my great-grandfather, in coming here, give up his German roots? Sure, some. A person cannot move halfway around the world, or into another continent, and not lose something of their former way of life. Did my great-grandparents know this and chose that fate any way? Yes, because to stay in Russia was to continue to endure persecutions and the loss of their way of life. A loss that was harsher than moving to another country and becoming, in a sense, a hybrid of that culture.

But the thing of it is, they expected to do nothing so, for they were desperate to improve their lot and America offered them that chance. If America offers such a chance now to others, then those people who come should expect to be Americans, and that means learning OUR language, just like all other immigrants before them have done for hundreds of years.

That is what makes the melting pot strong.