This person

Benjamin Swain b. 1813

/ Kirstin Miller

Benjamin Paul Swain 4th great grandfather

Benjamin Swain on RoostMagic tree

Benjamin Swain was born about 1813 and married Polly Ann Howard about 1833 maybe in Indiana. By 1835 they were pioneer residents in Lake, Illinois and lived south of Pettibone’s Creek (which some say should have been named Swain Creek). In 1840 Benjamin was appointed Collector (of taxes). In 1844 he purchased land, 61 acres at about $1.25 per acre.

He and Polly had at least 4 children. Benjamin died at age 34 not sure of the cause, he had a will ready. Polly was the executor. She married 2nd Jacob Montgomery, then moved from Illinois to Floyd County, Iowa where daughter Sarah Ann Swain met then married William Newcomb Gaines.

About Benjamin P Swain: “This man was one of the few Americans among the pioneers, and was known to his neighbors as “Yankee” Swain. He was a big, powerful man, of commanding personality, and was respected by the whole community.” Page 463 A History of Lake County, Illinois at HathiTrust bottom of the page .

Hilka Frerichs b. 1875

/ Kirstin Miller

Hilka Frerichs, 3rd great aunt on RootsMagic tree.

Hilka Frerichs was born March 24, 1875 in Germany, the youngest child of Casjen and Kunna Janssen Frerichs. At age 9 in 1883, she and her family sailed on the ship America to Baltimore, Maryland. The Frerichs family journeyed straight to Iowa, on train then maybe in a carriage or wagon, with horses? no idea. In 1855 trains went as far as Cedar Falls, by 1902 they criss-crossed most of Iowa. Historical maps at the Iowa DOT.

In 1890 Hilka, 15, and her sister Entje, 19, were confirmed at the Parkersburg Bethel Lutheran Church. March 14, 1894 Hilka married Ernest Hahn, they had children including a daughter: Delight. I don’t have a photo of Hilka and Ernest’s farm but it probably looked something like the ‘Modern 1920s Iowa Farm’ at the Library of Congress. Hilka was a widow at 82 and died 5 years later age 87 in 1962. She and her husband are buried at Lynwood Cemetery in Clarksville, Iowa.

A modern Iowa farm 1920 Library of Congress

A modern Iowa farm ca 1920

Pleasant Miller b. 1835

/ Kirstin Miller

Pleasant Miller, 2nd great uncle on RootsMagic tree

Pleasant was born December 7, 1835 in Indiana, the second child of Jacob and Sarah Davis Miller probably both of Virginia. Pleasant was named after his mom’s dad: Pleasant Davis. In 1850 Pleasant was 15 and attended school with his 4 brothers and 2 sisters. By 1860, age 25 Pleasant was in northern California and almost surely part of the Gold Rush. By 1870 he was in Montana. He mined in Cedar Junction, Deer Lodge, then finally in Butte, Silver Bow, Montana. Butte was a boom town and long ago known as ‘the richest hill in the world’ because of it’s minerals, especially copper in the 1880s. Pleasant worked at the Dakota, Colorado and Ophir Mines.He lived the longest stretch in a cabin south of the city in Butte. Pleasant lived to age 75 and stayed single. Red Leggat, friend, probably also a miner, is the informant on Pleasant’s death record of September 19, 1910. Pleasant is buried at Moriah Cemetery in Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana.

An 1884 map at Library of Congress shows Butte  on one of the cutest maps ever created, Bird’s eye view of Butte-City, Montana, county seat of Silver Bow Co..

screenshot 2

Sources

  • Montana county births and deaths 1840 – 2004 at FamilySearch
  • Bird’s eye view of Butte-City, Montana, county seat of Silver Bow Co., 1884 at Library of Congress
  • U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 at Ancestry
  • 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900 US Census at Ancestry

William Flood b. 1829

/ Kirstin Miller

William Flood 3rd great grandfather .

William was born in Vermont, 1829, no information on his parents. He was in Iowa by 1852 and in Butler County, Iowa by 1856 when he married Delia Angell. The 1880 census shows the Flood and Stewart families as neighbors. In 1916 the families were connected when Philippa (Flood) Mockford and Harve (Stewart) Speedy married.

The 1880 Agricultural Census shows some of the Flood family’s farm property and production

  • The farm had 10 acres of mown grasslands, 20 acres of hay, 95 acres of tilled land, 25 acres of meadow and 5 acres of woodland.
  • Total farm value $2400, machinery value $200, livestock value $726.
  • Livestock included 7 horses, 4 cows, 32 pigs and 40 chickens.
  • The farm produced 200 lbs of butter and 100 eggs.
  • Crops included 80 acres of Indian corn producing 200 bushels, 4 acres of oats producing 60 bushels, 7 acres of wheat producing 80 bushels, 2 acres of apple trees, 20 bearing trees producing 15 bushels of apples.
  • Forest products were 15 cords of wood cut.

William was also a blacksmith and passed the trade on to his son George. And he was in the Civil War Union Army 32nd Regiment Iowa Infantry Company E, a soldier promoted to Private, then Corporal.

Of the Iowa 32nd, ‘There was probably not another infantry command subjected to such an experience as the Thirty-second Iowa Infantry. They marched and kept up with a cavalry division for over four hundred miles. No troops displayed greater heroism during the War of the Rebellion.’ http://bit.ly/2DFBpJy Volume 5 page 57 of Roster And Record of Iowa Soldiers In the War of the Rebellion.

William Flood b.1829, father of Matilda Flood b.1858, mother of Philippa Flood Mockford b.1891, mother of Elizabeth Speedy b.1917 m. Stanley Roose b.1915

Jonathan Cable b. 1807

/ Kirstin Miller

Jonathan Cable, my 2nd great grandfather on RootsMagic tree.

Jonathan Cable was born in Pennsylvania around 1807 and married Eliza Frey around 1840 in Somerset, Pennsylvania. By 1850 Jonathan, Eliza and their sons John and Chancey lived in southeast Wisconsin. Jonathan was a millwright. He and Eliza had another son, William and 2 daughters Sarah and Violet. When Eliza died in 1857, Jonathan married Charlotte Knapp.

By 1865 the Cable family lived and farmed in Pleasant Grove, Iowa where records show Jonathan paid taxes on a watch and a melodeon- like an accordion. In 1867 Jonathan and his family were part of the first Methodist congregation in Pleasant Grove, with a pastor visiting the town every 2 weeks or so. Jonathan built the second blacksmith shop in Pleasant Grove, still standing but not used in 1882.

Jonathan and son William’s land is in the 1895 Floyd County Plat Book: Jonathan owned 80 acres and William owned 160 acres of farmland. The 1870 agricultural census shows Jonathan’s farm with 69 acres of improved land, 16 acres of woodland, 2 horses, 5 milch cows, 4 working oxen, 12 swine. The farm produced 436 bushels of spring wheat, 200 bushels of Indian corn 354 bushels of oats, 20 bushels of Irish potatoes, 700 pounds of butter, and 17 tons of hay.

In 1885 Jonathan, Charlotte and William Cable lived on their Pleasant Grove farm with Charlotte’s dad William Knapp, a soldier in the Civil War. Jonathan’s death date and place are unknown. 

Sources:

  • Volume 2 pages 840 and 843, History of Floyd County, Iowa: Chicago: Inter-state publishing co., 1882, at HathiTrust.
  • 1870 Pleasant Grove, Floyd County Iowa, Iowa Non-Population Census Schedules, 1850-1880 at FamilySearch.
  • 1885 Pleasant Grove, Floyd County Iowa State Census at Ancestry
  • 1895 Pleasant Grove Township in Plat Book of Floyd County, Iowa at Iowa Digital Library, U of I Libraries.

Lena Wisbar b. 1871

/ Kirstin Miller

Lena Wisbar, my 2nd great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Lena Wisbar was born in Germany on May 27, 1871, the 2nd daughter of Martin and Mary Walters Wisbar. In 1872 her family sailed from Bremen, Germany to New York, USA. They were in NY on August 17, 1872, then went on to Ela, Lake County, Illinois where on the 1880 census Lena was 9 years old and lived on a farm. By 1885 Lena and family farmed in Parkersburg, Iowa.

On March 14, 1888 Lena married John Roose. Lena and John farmed in Butler County, Iowa. They had seven children and many grandchildren. After farming for 37 years, Lena and John moved to town in 1925. They lived in Allison, Iowa with their youngest daughter Lela, age 18. John died in 1926.

In 1938 and probably other years too, Lena entered her crochet in the Butler County Fair and won ribbons for dining room and bedroom linens. 

Lena died on January 19, 1948, she was 76. Her funeral was at St James Lutheran Church in Allison. She is buried in the Allison cemetery.

Sources

  • 1938 Sep 14 Iowa Recorder, Greene Public Library Digital Resources
  • 1948 Feb 16 Lena’s obituary, Waterloo Daily Courier at Ancestry.com
  • US census at FamilySearch
  • New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891 at FamilySearch.org

Thomas Tracy b. 1610

/ Kirstin Miller

Thomas Tracy 10th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree.

Thomas Tracy was born in 1610 in England.  Thomas sailed for New England and arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1636.  Thomas was a carpenter and ship builder. He held many community posts including leader of the Train Band (militia company of early America), member of the Colonial Assembly and Lieutenant of the New London County Dragoons.

The Tracy family was one of the first to settle in Norwich CT where Thomas died Nov. 7, 1685, age 76. His estate included 5000 acres of Norwich land, he left this to his children. 

Some Tracy family history books state that “No family can claim armorial bearings more ancient than the Tracys, for they were handed down from the middle of the twelfth century”. This may or may not be proven.  Thomas Tracy has a memorial at Find A Grave with more information and a huge headstone erected by ancestors after his death. Find a Grave is generally completely unverified but still has good information.  Thomas Tracy Find a grave memorial 21945755

Philippa Johns b. 1828

/ Kirstin Miller

Philippa Johns 3rd great grandmother on RootsMagic tree.

MylorParishChurchCornwallPhilippa Johns was born in Cornwall England, September 1828 and was baptized November 2, 1828 in the Mylor parish church. In 1851 Philippa was a servant in the home of Richard and Elizabeth Green Mockford. Richard and his son Henry were millers or flour makers: Richard a foreman, Henry a journeyman. Philippa married Henry Mockford in 1853 in the same Mylor church.

Henry sailed to America in 1854 on his own as husbands did, to set up a home, then once established send for Philippa. In the summer 1855 census Henry was a border in Clarkson, New York. On November 19, 1855 Philippa and oldest son 2 year old William arrived. The family lived in northern and northwestern New York: Batavia and Clarkson. When Philippa died in 1903 her husband, four sons and three daughters lived on. Philippa’s name like her granddaughter’s name is spelled different ways.

Philippa Johns (1828 – 1903) > Richard John Mockford (1856 – 1910) > Philippa Flood Mockford (1891 – 1979) > Elizabeth Matilda Speedy (1917 – 2005) m. > Stanley Roose Sr. (1915-2004)

Sources

  • England births and christenings 1538-1975 database at FamilySearch

  • Newspapers.com, Democrat and Chronicle, 1903 Feb 6, Rochester, New York

  • Cornwall online parish clerks OPC, click MORE on the bottom right to see the rest of the record.

John Henrichs b. 1864

/ Kirstin Miller

John G. Henrichs on RootsMagic tree

John Gerhard Henrichs was born October 9, 1864 in Germany. He sailed to America in 1882 at age 18. His sister Annie married Enno Frerichs, John married Enno’s sister Entje. John and Entje had a family and farmed. In 1917 John owned about 125 acres of farm land in Butler County, Iowa. On the 1930 US Census he was 65 and living on Main Street in Allison, Butler County, Iowa. He owned his home but didn’t have a radio set.

Henrich, John 1930On March 26, 1930 John celebrated Entje’s birthday with a party at their home for family and friends. This is in the Iowa Recorder, April 2, 1930 and directly below is grandniece Viola Roose entertaining 16 high school friends on March 29.

John was a widow in 1936 and lived with his daughter Flora and her family on the 1940 US Census. John’s obituary is in the Mason City Globe Gazette of December 22, 1943. John and Entje are buried in the Butler Center Cemetery. There are 21 Henrichs and 12 Frerichs memorials in this cemetery.

Sources

Violetta Cable b. 1857

/ Kirstin Miller

Cable, Violet obituary 1942Violetta Cable, great grand aunt on RootsMagic tree

Violetta was born April 11, 1857 in Wisconsin to Jonathan Cable, her mom was probably Eliza Frey. Violetta was the youngest of 5 kids with 3 brothers and a sister. By 1870 Violetta was 13 and living with her family in Pleasant Grove, Iowa. She lived on a farm in Pleasant Grove until about 1884 when she was a postmaster in Cable, Minnesota. This is noted on Wikipedia and also in a book: Minnesota Place Names by Upham.

Violetta took in her niece and nephews: Ethel Towslee, Chauncey and Leonard Cable all lived with her at different times in Chicago, Minnesota and Seattle. Violetta married Charles Anderson in 1908 in Seattle. She was 51 he was 39, Charles died in 1927, they didn’t have children. As a widow Violetta lived with her brother William’s widow, Mary Fries Cable in Des Moines, Iowa. Violetta died in Des Moines April 6, 1942 and is buried in the Pleasant Grove, Iowa cemetery, headstone not yet located, probably near her brother William.

Sources