So for me, March was not the month for writing a blog or participating in the #52Ancestors blog challenge. So much is happening in the United States and globally with the Coronavirus 19, I found it difficult to find the words to write. Fortunately as I write this all members of my family and extended family are doing well. But then the prompt for this week came out, Nearly Forgotten and I realized it was time to write, especially as a point of history for all of us.
At the time of the 1850, 1860 and 1870 census, besides counting the number of people that were alive, there was a mortality schedule created. This schedule listed all of the people that had passed in the year before 1 June 1860 (for example). The questions may have included: Name, Age at last birthday, sex, race, marital status, profession or occupation, state, territory or country of birth of person and parents, length of residence in county, month in which the person died, disease or cause of death, place where disease contracted and name of attending physician. In the 1860 mortality schedule for Tippah County Mississippi there were 159 individuals reported in the Northern Division and 149 individuals reported in the Southern Division of Tippah County Why so many? The answer is offered by Jno. Siddell the Assistant Marshall for the Southern Division in two additional pages of information he offered at the end of the county mortality schedule. He writes: “The hog cholera first made its appearance in Tippah county in 1858 and killed an immense number of hogs in that year and continued without abatements until in the Spring of the present year. Since which time I have heard nothing of it. . . . . It effects closely resembled the disease (Cholera) in the humane species to wits: Violents, Vomiting, ad Purging which terminates life frequently in a few hours. . . . .There is no remedy yet known, many preventatives have been encouraged but none have proven effectual.” Approximately 150 were children younger than 10, meaning they would never have been listed on a census report and in some cases their births might not have been registered. Without the mortality schedule we might not find them as part of our research. Some are listed as having died with croup or pneumonia, whooping cough or fever. One family, in the Southern Division lost 3 children in that previous year one in January and two in December all to Scarlet Fever, all under the age of 6. I was researching this schedule looking for the death of a man who seems to have disappeared from the census after 1850. I didn’t find him. What I found was a story of the Nearly Forgotten. Children that would be missed from our genealogy research if not for these mortality schedules. I wonder if the 2020 census should have a special census dedicated to those that pass due to the Coronavirus. However, Jno. Siddell didn’t stop with the explanation of the deaths. He went on two provide two sketches of the land in the Southern Subdivision and a description of the area as he describes three specific regions: the Sand, the Pine and the Marl. He described in detail the types of crops and timber that can be found in each area. He was more than a census taker, he was a historian helping us all understand life in 1860 in Tippah County, Mississippi. The mortality schedules that are available by state and year are listed on the United States Census page: https://www.census.gov/history/www/genealogy/other_resources/mortality_schedules.html. The ones for Mississippi were found on FamilySearch. A moment in time in 1860. I wonder what the moment in time in 2020 will look like 160 years from now?
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There is no question that the theme for this week evoked the need to write about Clara Coleman, the grandmother of my husband. Clara’s move to eastern Montana in 1916 to become a schoolteacher, is just one of the elements that speak to her strength. Let the story begin! Clara Alice Coleman was born on 23 January 1896 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Halbert Armine Coleman and Lulu Barney. She was the oldest of two sisters, the other being Zillah Louise. The pictures of her as a young girl growing up in Milwaukee, showed her smiling and well-dressed whether she was playing in the yard, or in the hands of her mother. Clara’s life changed at the age of 11 when her parents divorced. She moved with her mother and her sister to Clear Lake, Wisconsin where she was found living in the 1910 census. A later postcard dated 1924 and sent with a note to her son showed the State Normal School in Superior Wisconsin, where she attended school for certification. At the age of 20, Clara moved to Carter County, Montana to find work as a teacher. Her diary was later found and transcribed and here are just three of the comments from that time period. January. 7, 1917 I gave my Christmas program Sat. afternoon Dec. 23. Just the parents were present, but all enjoyed the tree etc. I got handkerchiefs from all the pupils and a crocheted chamois skin from Clara W. Not much excitement all week. I had only 6 pupils. All I’ll have the rest of the winter, I think. Wednesday Eve. February 14 Valentine’s Day. I hope I won’t hear that word again for another year. I had the White twins all day today. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to manage them next year or not. Mrs. White came over in the afternoon. We played games, etc. all afternoon and ended up with a picnic lunch. The diary also provides the reader a look into the life of a young woman in Montana. Her diary is full of notes about Ezekiel Lee Richardson, who she calls Lee, some of them quite telling. Sunday, January 14, 1917 After dinner it was all aboard for Five Mile Again. Lee and I were all along (All Alone) coming down. Between the schoolhouse and Zimmerman’s just ahead of us, a coyote crossed the road. IT being the first one I had ever seen, Lee stopped the car so that I could get a good look at it, but before we went on, coyotes were note the topic of the conversation. Things were becoming sentimental. I don’t know just how it came about, but before I knew what was happening Lee was telling me he was tired of living in a house and that he wanted a home and someone to take care of it for him etc. Sunday night. May 6, 1917 At last we’ve decided to settle people’s curiosity and do as they expect us too. Lee and I decided Friday night that it would be best for us to be married right away. I’m letting Lee do all the planning. Even now I can’t realize that another week may see me a married woman. It’s impossible. I had never imagined that I would be married this way when I thot of it at all. I haven’t got a thing ready and I won’t even have a wedding dress. I wonder what Mother and the folks will think when they get my letter. I hope they don’t disown me! I ought to write Dad, but I won’t. I’ll just send him a telegram after its all over with. I’m so glad Lee is going to settle up my debit scores right away. I couldn’t marry him was a clear conscience otherwise. Clara Alice Coleman married Ezekiel Lee Richardson sometime after the last diary note, on 12 May 1917 in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. They had their first son James Louis on 29 AUG 1918 and Willis Barney “Bill” on 4 December 1919. Lee continued as a merchant in Alzada and Clara ran a confectionery store. In the 1920 census of School District 56 in Carter County, Montana, Lee, Clara and their two sons are listed. Lee’s position is listed as a “freighter.” His brother Lewis is living with them. His parents are listed nearby (George and Nancy) with 6 of their 13 children still at home. His brother William Joseph is listed as Joe, a boarder in the 84th place on the census. Prior to the beginning of the school year in 1923, Clara and her two sons left Lee behind and moved to Hysham, approximately 200 miles away. In 1924 she moved into Rosebud, 40 miles from Hysham to teach seventh and eighth grade. According to an interview with Bill Richardson, the son of Clara and Ezekiel, in 1990, prior to his death, he stated that his mother told him that there was to be paid $300 in alimony, but it was never paid. Clara is shown in the 1930 census with just her two sons, living in Rosebud Montana and working as a schoolteacher. On 25 August 1930, Clara married Joe Barley, a child of Mathias Barley and Gertrude Yenko. They moved to his homestead filed for in 1907, and herded sheep on what was called the Barley Brothers Ranch, along with two of his brothers John and Frank. The ranch was fifteen miles northeast of Rosebud, and six miles from the nearest neighbor. On 14 December 1932, Valeria Clara Barley was born and became an additional mouth to feed and care for by Clara Alice, in addition to the growing boys, James and Bill. On 13 October 1936, Clara A. Barley, formerly Clara A. Richardson secured a homestead of 640 acres reading “Section twenty-eight in Township eight north of Range forty-three east of the Principal meridian, Montana.” This land was directly next to the land owned by the Barley brothers. This was during the time that the sheep herding was doing well, and thus there must have been the need for additional land at that point in time. Her daughter, Valeria Clara makes the following description about her mother’s life: The house was kept clean, the meals tasty, the garden painstakingly cultivated by hand; but still there was time for books, and games, and music and embroidery. The Needlework Departments of the Fairs in Forsyth, Miles City, Billings and Great Falls can all attest to her Blue-Ribbon entries in ‘cut work,’ white and colored embroidery, knitting, crocheting, etc. No one ever enjoyed a challenge at the Bridge Table more. And how many games of Monopoly, Rummy, Scrabble, etc. were enjoyed by her family and friends? As a Rebekah she participated wholeheartedly in the local Mary May Lodge in Rosebud; and she served as State President in 1954, visiting all the Lodges in the state and attending national and international meeting with honor. Quietly she took an interest in politics and served as Democratic Committee Woman in Rosebud County. A lifelong Episcopalian, she was a member of the Daughters of the King and worked with Guild Projects.” Sometime between 1958 and 1960 Joe and Clara divorced. The Barley Brothers Ranch was sold in 1961, and Joe moved in with his youngest brother, Martin, to the ranch originally owned by his parents. Just prior to the ranch sale, at the age of 60, Clara took a freighter across the Atlantic Ocean visiting multiple ports of calls and friends that she had corresponded with through postcards. She died on 24 December 1969 at the age of 73. Her strength was demonstrated in multiple ways. Moving to the unknown, marrying and divorcing twice were things not many women did in the beginning of the 20th century. She demonstrated warmth and love to her children and grandchildren, something that withstood the test of time. References: Wisconsin, Department of Health Services, birth certificate, 469-01169 (1896), Coleman, Vital Records Office, Madison. Montana, Department of Public Health and Human Services, death certificate, 69-6527 (1969), Clara Alice Barley, Office of Vital Statistics, Helena. South Dakota, Butte County, County Judge, dated 12 May 1917, marriage certificate, Ezekiel L. Richardson and Clara Alice Coleman, Department of History, Division of Census and Vital Statistics, Belle Fouche, South Dakota. Montana, County Marriages, 1865 – 1950”, FamilySearch.com (https://familysearch.org/ark:61903/1:1:F3Q2-XWB:7, accessed 7 December 2014), Joe Barley and Clara A. Richardson, 25 AUG 1930, citing marriage, Billings, Yellowstone, Montana, county courthouses, Montana. Clara and Louise Barney Coleman Photograph, ca. 1896; Clara Alice Coleman Photograph, ca. 1898; Clara Alice Coleman Photograph, ca. 1899, Coleman Family Collection, Privately held “Diary of a Young Teacher – 1917: Clara Alice Coleman,” (transcribed in 1985), privately held. 1920 U.S. Census, Carter County, Montana, population schedule, School District 56, Enumeration district (ED) 31, p. 5, dwelling 82, family 82, Lee Richardson, NARA microfilm publication T625, Roll 967. 1930 U.S. Census, Rosebud County, Montana, population schedule, School District #12, Enumeration district (ED) 44-15, p. 4, dwelling $78, Family #80, Clara A. Richardson, NARA microfilm publication T626. State of Montana, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certified Copy of Birth Certificate, #7099, Valeria Clara Barley, 14 DEC 1932, Custer County, Miles City.. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, “Land Patent Search,” digital images, General Land Office Records (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov, accessed 28 AUG 2016), Clara A. Barley, formerly Clara A. Richardson (Billings, Montana) document no. 032457. Rosebud County Bi-centennial Committee, They Came and Stayed, p. 12. |
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January 2022
About this BlogThis blog has been designed to serve two purposes. The first is to leave the written histories of my ancestors.
The second purpose is to offer some of my own stories, so that my children and grandchildren can learn more about my direct family and my childhood. Categories |