Amor

Photo by Patrick Jones. Robert Indiana's Amor. Washington DC.

The sculpture above is by Robert Indiana at the National Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. This is a Spanish language version of his iconic "Love" sculpture, which we have also seen in New York. I thought it was a fitting photo to take given the uneasy times for the immigrant community.

I had a bit of time last Friday to walk around the garden before meeting my sister at the Hirschhorn Museum for the Yayoi Kusama exhibition. I will have more photos from this exhibition in a separate post.

Morning at Dulles

Photo by Patrick Jones. IAD Terminal A, 13 Feb 2017.

This photo is from last Monday morning at Dulles Terminal A. This is a continuation of my airports series of photos. See last year at Miami and Madrid.

Istanbul at night

Photo by Patrick Jones. Street musicians on Istiklal. 16 Feb 2017.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Istiklal. 16 Feb 2017.

More photos from last week in Istanbul. Even in the cooler winter temperatures it is a beautiful place, with a great vibe at night.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Bosphorus Bridge, Besiktas. 15 Feb 2017.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Paste-up near Istiklal. 16 Feb 2017.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Cat & bird mural in Istanbul.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Ottoman-style mural.

Cats in Istanbul

Photo by Patrick Jones. Cats in Besiktas, Istanbul. 16 Feb 2017.

I am in Istanbul for an event, beginning the flights back this afternoon. On Thursday I went walking from the hotel to dinner and spotted a pair of street cats. Seeing the cats reminded me there is a movie coming soon called Kedi, about the lives of street cats in Istanbul (see also the official website here). Cats are very common here, I spotted another one perched on the wall of an Armenian Church in Kadiköy last night (see below).

Photo by Patrick Jones. Kadiköy, Istanbul. 17 Feb 2017.

Alien Registration

The latest news on Immigration & Customs Enforcement raids, the deportation of a Phoenix mother who has been in the US since she was 14 and overall negative developments over the past three weeks have me thinking once again about my own immigrant family and the challenges they faced living in the US as resident aliens. I have written before about my great-grandparents, Plutarco Campuzano and Manuela Portillo. They came to the US at a young age, Plutarco at 14, Manuela at 18. Back in May 2013, I wrote about the contents of Manuela's alien case file. I do not think I have shared images from this file since that post.

US National Archives. Alien Registration, 25 Oct 1940.

I am still struck by the fact that Manuela arrived on foot with her mother Teresa and just $20 in 1922, that they made their way to Tucson, with the help of family and community and settled into a long and productive life in Arizona. Like other resident aliens, Manuela had to check in periodically with the Immigration and Naturalization Service after the passage of the Alien Registration Act of 1940. The form below shows the verification of her arrival in 1922. I am leaving out other images that include her thumb print and a signature page.

US National Archives. 15 Sept 1952.

The Alien Registration file included a photo, probably taken in 1952 with the verification. My Granny looked a lot like Manuela in her later years.

US National Archives. Manuela Portillo.

Manuela had nine children, all born in the US as first generation Americans. It is heartbreaking to think about what might have happened if Manuela had been deported on one of those check-ins with INS.

The deportation of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos from Phoenix this week also makes me think of another woman connected to the Campuzano family who was deported, Jesus Anaya. Jesus was able to eventually visit family in the US, but she remained in Mexico. It is still early in Lupita Garcia's case, and maybe her situation will be resolved soon. In the meantime there are ways to provide some support through the Puente Movement in Arizona.

In the Upside Down

Photo by Patrick Jones. Glenn Ligon's Double America 2. 3 Jan 2016.

As currents events continue to be incredibly frustrating, I thought it was worth sharing a photo of art, taken while visiting The Broad museum in Los Angeles last year. Glenn Ligon's Double America is representative of this current feeling, showing the word America on top and inverted below, with alternating lights. It certainly feels like we're living in an alternate reality.

Friends of Emancipation

In looking back at Newspapers.com for references to the Holsclaw family, I stumbled on this gem from 19 April 1849. Enoch Holsclaw and his father Benjamin appear on a list of delegates to a constitutional convention in support of removing slavery from the Kentucky Constitution. The article is titled Emancipation Meeting at Taylorsville, and appeared in the Louisville Courier.

Louisville Courier, 19 Apr 1849

An early Kentucky pioneer

Charles-François Daubigny, Harvest. 1851.

Working backward from Benjamin Holsclaw, his father was Jacob Holsclaw (also spelled Holtsclaw or Holtzclaw), my 6th-great-grandfather. Jacob was born in Virginia on 17 February 1738, and was the son of Hans Jacob Holtzclaw, the founder of the Holtzclaw family in America. The story of the family is well detailed in the book The Genealogy of the Holtzclaw Family, 1540-1935, by B.C. Holtzclaw, and this book can be viewed online via the Hathi Trust.

Jacob married Susanna Thomas in Culpeper County, Virginia about 1758. They had a very large family, and the family is documented in the Holtzclaw book. Jacob and Susanna lived together in Culpeper County up to about 1774 or 1775, when they sold their land and moved west to Kentucky. According to the book, Jacob served in the Revolutionary War in the Lincoln County Militia commanded by Captain Samuel Kirkham in 1782 as part of an expedition by General George Rogers Clark.

Jacob claimed preemption on a tract of land raising a crop of corn in 1776 on the north side of Dicks River adjoining land of James and Edmund Archer.

In February 1780, Jacob entered land for 400 acres on Dicks River in Lincoln County. In September 1780 he entered another 1000 acres with Jacob Fishback. In the following years, more settlers arrived in the area.

Source: Ancestry and Kentucky Secretary of State.

Jacob appears on the Mercer County, Kentucky tax list in 1789.

According to the Holtzclaw book, Jacob died on 21 October 1812 in Mercer County, Kentucky. Susanna died on 10 October 1821 in Mercer County.

They had at least the following children:
- Leeanah Holsclaw (1759-
- Elijah Holsclaw (1764-
- Jacob Holsclaw (1767-
- Elizabeth Holsclaw (1769-
- Nellee Holsclaw (1772-
- Susanna Holsclaw (1775-1827)
- Benjamin Holsclaw (1777-1859)
- Ruth Holsclaw (1779-
- Jesse Holsclaw (1782-
- Mary Ann Holsclaw (1785-
- Sarah Holsclaw (1791-
- James Holsclaw (1797-

Jacob's signature appears on a letter he signed on 19 November 1792 giving his daughter Leeanah consent to marry John Collier.

Source: Ancestry. Kentucky Marriages.

Benjamin's inventory

An inventory of the estate of Benjamin Holsclaw was filed with the Spencer County, Kentucky Court on 7 November 1839. His most expensive possession was a bay horse. Benjamin's son Stephen bought the horse in the estate sale.

Source: FamilySearch. Kentucky Probate Records.

Source: FamilySearch. Kentucky Probate Records. Image 407.

Source: FamilySearch. Kentucky Probate Records.

From the estate sale, we can also see Benjamin owned 106 acres of land, likely in Spencer County. Proceeds from the estate sale were distributed in September 1866. The estate sale generated almost $6600. The heirs received $525.44 each.

FamilySearch. Will Book G, p 323.

Benjamin was 82 when he died. His wife, Sarah Sally Kemper Holsclaw, had preceded him in 1828. Benjamin and Sarah are my connection to German immigrants who moved to Colonial Virginia in 1714, the Germanna Colony. Both of their parents were descended from these immigrants, and several of their siblings intermarried in the Holsclaw and Kemper families. The Germanna Colony is on our list of places to visit over Spring Break. I will have much more on this in the near future.

Will of Benjamin Holsclaw

FamilySearch. Kentucky Probate Records. Image 270 of 712.

FamilySearch. Image 270 of 712.

My 5th-great-grandfather Benjamin Holsclaw executed a will in Spencer County, Kentucky on 13 August 1859, providing for his children and several of his grandchildren. The will was proven in Court on 1 October 1859. He likely died in September 1859.

Benjamin Holsclaw married Sarah Sally Kemper in Garrard County, Kentucky on 26 November 1799. They had a very large family. The children listed in the will included:
- Jacob Holsclaw (born about 1800, died 1848)
- Enoch K. Holsclaw (born 6 January 1804, died 28 August 1889)
- Narcissa Holsclaw (born 1805, died 2 April 1864), married Harmon A. Stidger
- Sarah A. Holsclaw (born 1806, died 1886), married Henry Terrell
- Charles K. Holsclaw (born 1809, died 28 February 1853)
- Elizabeth Holsclaw (born 1816, died 26 April 1859), married John Hopewell
- Jesse Holsclaw (born 8 March 1818, died 20 May 1872)
- Stephen K. Holsclaw (born 1820)
- Mary Nevil Holsclaw (born 26 December 1821, died 14 August 1880), married Soloman Froman
- Isaac N. Holsclaw (born 12 April 1823, died 21 February 1914)
- Martha Ann Holsclaw (born 24 September 1826, died 12 February 1857), married Joseph Watson

Children not listed in the will but known included:
- Dewilton Holsclaw (born 1811, died 1812)
- Samuel K. Holsclaw (born 17 November 1814, died 22 July 1834)
- Benjamin Holsclaw Jr. (born 1821, died 17 September 1851)

More connections between the Holsclaws and Stidgers

Ancestry. Kentucky Wills & Probate Records.

Last week I wrote about the administration of the estate of Harmon A. Stidger, husband of Narcissa Holsclaw. Narcissa was a sister of my 4th-great-grandfather Enoch Holsclaw. In looking at the Kentucky Wills and Probates files on Ancestry and FamilySearch, I find another connection between the Holsclaw and Stidger families. In September 1837, Harmon Stidger joined with Benjamin Holsclaw to put up a bond in the estate of Samuel K. Holslcaw. Benjamin was my 5th-great-grandfather.

According to Findagrave, Samuel K. Holsclaw was born on 17 November 1814, a son of Benjamin Holsclaw Sr and Sarah Kemper Holsclaw. He died on 22 July 1834 in Spencer County, Kentucky. The inventory of Samuel's small estate shows he had a horse, saddle bag, carpenter's tools, lot of tobacco, books and shaving tools. His father Benjamin served as administrator of the estate.

FamilySearch, Image 357 of 652. Will Book B, p. 40.

Benjamin left a will in Spencer County, listing his children and grandchildren. I will have more on that document and estate in the next post.

Civil War Hero

Indianapolis News, 15 May 1908.

Indianapolis News, 15 May 1908.

Felix Grundy Stidger died on 12 May 1908 in Chicago. His death was reported in newspapers around the country. Stidger's autobiography recalls in fascinating detail how he quickly made the acquaintance of the leaders in the Sons of Liberty and exposed their plots against the US Government as part of the Secret Service in 1864. It looks like he spent years trying to get a pension from the government, and still did not have it in 1904. There is probably a large file on him at the US National Archives.

Ancestry. Civil War pension card for Felix Stidger.

I could spend quite a long time going through Stidger's book and sharing news clippings of testimony in the case that brought down the Sons of Liberty, but I am going to return to the Holsclaw family soon, leaving behind Stidger's fascinating story for another researcher to pick up.