Yikes!

Well, it certainly has been a good long while since I blogged.  I fell off the horse so to speak.  It isn't that I don't have any ideas, I just can't seem to get my fingers to the keyboard.

Way back in May I made a trip to Salt Lake City on the hunt for my great grand father on the Smith side. I took my Mom and Dad.  Mom has an amazing memory and Dad is a good researcher.

The Temple in Salt Lake City, UT

We have been caught up in the search about who are the parents for my grandfather, George E. Smith.  We were confident that his father's name is James A. Smith.  For over a year we believed, perhaps because we wanted to, that his mother's name was Margaret Allen Smith.  Oh, that would have been sweet indeed!

Not a mention of George E. Smith

We had a cemetery in Wisconsin that had both of the above buried there along with many of the Smith family.  It made sense if you were willing to not look at the glaring missteps and failure of the facts to add up.  I could trace that group of Smiths for generations.  All the way back to Scotland.  And then it happened...I read his death certificate again.

Death Certificate

I believe that there is a difference between looking at a document and reading that document.  There it was, Mother's name, drum roll please, Louise unknown.  Louise, not Margaret with all those lovely connections.  Maybe the person giving the information didn't know and made it up or got confused oh well, you get the picture.  I am sure that George's daughter, Regina knew what she was talking about.  For all I know she had met the woman.  I will never know as Regina is gone as is most of my mother's family on the Smith side.

I must admit that at first we were disappointed. Then it dawned on us that we had indeed made a great find.  Stop looking up that dead horses ass.  Move on, put those strangers away and start looking in new and different places.  I admit that I will miss them and all their delightful stories.  But they are NOT my Smiths.  If they are yours then you truly have a wonderful group of ancestors.

~Cindy

The Surname is Smith

George E. Smith

I must admit that I am fascinated and frustrated with the Smith branch of the family.  I just can not figure out who my great grandfather is!  There are times that I think that my grandfather was in the Witness Protection Program.  He is like smoke.

George Elbert Smith was born 14 June 1875 in Viroqua, Wisconsin.  Died 5 Dec 1955 in Winner, South Dakota.

I am able to find nuggets of information, but they only beg more questions.  I believe that I have found him in several Federal Census, but when your name is George Smith and I believe that his fathers name is James A. Smith it is hard to be sure.

To complicate the issue there are several Public Trees on Ancestry.com which list a James A. Smith as the father of George E. Smith.  Great!  As you dig deeper you find that some trees list the James as James Andrew Smith and some as James Arthur Smith.  Most have James Married to Margaret Allen.  But the Death Certificate for George lists his mother as Louise, not Margaret.

Some have George's mother and spouse as Margaret Mae Fox.  That would be difficult.  Siblings abound.

• Armilda Smith born about 1867 WI
• Caroline E Smith born about 1869 WI
• Charles S Smith born about 1870 WI

If (and that is a big IF)  Armilda Smith is George's sister then I can trace her easily.  I know who she married and have several sources.  I also have in my possession a complete list of all the Smith's buried in the Viola Cemetery which is close to where George was born.

I should be happy right?  No, I can not prove that this is George's father and mother.  NO birth certificate, not baptismal certificate, not newspaper article, nada.  I do have his marriage license for his second marriage.

George and Sarah

George is a complicated man. I know that he was married twice at least.  I know that he was the same age as my mother's grandfather!  Talk about an age difference.  He had in essence two families.  I believe that his first wife's name was Amelia.  I have a census that lists George, Amelia and their two children.  I have a census that lists George with his new wife and children.  I even have a census that shows the first wife, Amelia living and their son living in the same house in 1920.  (The son disappears after that.  Go figure)

My plan now is to go to Salt Lake City to the Family Search Library to look at a book that they have on Wisconsin and hope that there is something that will help me separate the strands.

Wish me Luck!

1940 Census and George E. Smith

I am thrilled to announce that George E. Smith and family are in the 1940 census.

There they are at the bottom.  They are living in a rural area.  Mary Lou is deceased at this time so it is only George, Sarah, George Jr, Robert, Leona (my Mom) and Thomas at home.  It is a snapshot of life.

George E is a carpenter and owns a shop.  I can only assume that Sarah is a homemaker.  Nothing is listed.  George Jr is an attendant in a Lumberyard and Robert is in the CCC.  Leona is in school and Thomas only being 2 years of age is a toddler.

George E. is 64 years old and Sarah is 39.  I bring this up as I know that my grandfather, George E. was the same age as my Mother's Grandfather!

Little did any of them know that on April 4, 1940 when Harold J. Harford knocked on the door that I would with such anticipation wait for the 1940 Census to be released. 

I am older than my Grandma, Sarah and younger than my Grandfather, George.  I can only imagine what it must have been like for them living on the plains of South Dakota during the depression.  I have heard stories and still it is hard to imagine.

Now Grandpa I just need to figure out who your parents are, that is still a mystery.

Elias Babcock My 3rd Great Grandfather

Elias Babcock 1817 - 1880

 Elias is on my Maternal side.

Elias moved to Kansas in 1861 and filed a claim in Chetopa Township, Wilson County, Kansas. He built a fort of sand rock and timbers on the southern edge of Chetopa Township to ward off the Osage Indians, but did not succeed. He returned to Illinois and enlisted in the Union Army, Company K 1st Brigade Illinois 107th light artillery. While in the army, fighting in Kentucky, Elais became seriously ill. He wrote a personal letter to President Lincoln asking to be discharged. The President turned the letter over to the Surgeon General of the U.S. He reviewed the case and examined Elias and determined he was not fit to fighting; but was fit for ambulance corp. work. Consequently Elias was not discharged until the end of the war in 1865.

After he was discharged, Elias and his family returned to the original claim in Chetopa Township. They arrived on November 30, 1865, but were again run out by Indians. They returned in the fall of 1866. Elias was the first homesteader to stake claim in Chetopa Township, Kansas. He was a farmer and carpenter by trade.

Elias and Laura were the parents of 6 children; William, Ezra, Samuel, Sarah, Mary, & Joseph. Five of his children homesteaded next to his property. William and Samuel to the north, Sarah (Babcock) Osburn and Mary K. (Babcock) Kilgore across the road west and Ezra one-half mile west, where the Babcock fort was constructed. Part of the fort remains to this day.

Elias died March 26, 1880 and wife Laura Keziah died October 19, 1894. Both are buried in Harrison Cemetery, one mile north of their original homestead location. The cemetery is located on land donated by Elias' son William Henry Babcock. Five of the six children are also buried at Harrison Cemetery in Wilson County, Kansas.

 Transcription of: (Spelling not corrected)

Letter to the President Lincoln of the United States from Elias Babcock, Jan 7, 1864
Dear sir-

I volunteered in the 107th Illinois some where about between the 10th or 15th of August 1862. Thomas Snell was our Col. C. McComas our Leut. Col. They picked often with Snell for some minor offence at Louisville, Kentucky, who was very good to his men but no military man. J.J. Kelly then became our Col. Some time in last June they put us on a force march for some two weeks which has destroyed my health. Had chronic diareah before I started. I was then transfered to the 7th Illinois Battery under John H. CAlvin as Captain, then put in the Munfordville Hospital 3 weeks for medicical attention. Then we was taken to Glasgow, Kentucky from Glasgow to KNoxville, Tennessee. Got there the first day of September (1863). Took medicine nearly all the time, but was forced to go with the battery. Some time in the ambulance and sometimes on horse back. The Captain went home to recruit, left us with little ammunition. Shot that all away at rebels at Bean Station, then was ordered to Knoxville, Tennessee. Whether for winter quarters or not I don't know. Sent to General Hospital No. 4 Ward 7. I have lost the use of myself, so that I can rarely get about. Taken so much medicine that I am so absent minded that I hardly know what I am about. Have been a dead expense to the government about ever since I was 46 years old, the 4th of last September (1863). Supposing that if I was fit for the service that it was my duty to serve my country and if I could not stand it at all would discharge me, but it seems as if that discharging is played out here to die here in the absence of my family is a great deal to bare. I have no disposition for anything more than the wellfare of my country. If this letter does no good, surley it will do no harm. I have lived where Piatt County is ever since December 6th of 1835. I have a wife and five children at home 3 and a half miles east of Monticello. It seems as if this is a rather rash step, but a drowning man will catch a straw. I hardley ever expect I will hear from this again, no doubt, but I have forever lost my health here in the Army. Besides my poor family is to be supported I ________ afraid that they will come to want. I will say that (General) Burnsides gave the rebels a good grubbing here. Certain the rebels are some where 25 or 30 miles east of here. They fitting every day probably without much advantage to either side. Food and forage hard to get. Hardly a half supply can't be had. General Grant came here the 31st of December and started to the front the first of January. I will say that while we was in Kentucky, that rations was twice ot thrice as large as now in this hospital and that many times as good we have neither bunks, hospital blankets. Breakfasts at 1 o'clock and with scarcely any fair, this seems strange but never the less it is and the half is told.

Direct your letter to Elias Babcock, Knoxville General Hospital No 4 Ward 7. E. Babcock to Abraham Lincoln of USA. I am your cencere friend and ever will be and was in 1860. If I should get a line from you I shall be very thankful indeed.

Just a little something for President's Day.