Returning to the Brown Family

 

1850 US Census, Warrick County, Indiana.

Earlier in the month, I posted an obituary for Daniel W. Brown, presumed father of Cora Belle Metcalf Halter. I'll now follow the family back another generation. Daniel was a son of Frances Asbury Brown and Minerva Ellison. The image above shows the family in the 1850 US Census in Boonville, Warrick County, Indiana, where Frances (listed as F. A. Brown) was managing a hotel known as Brown House. He later became a lawyer (or was already an attorney while owning the inn) and Justice of the Peace for Warrick County.

Frances and Minerva were married on 23 June 1830 in Warrick County, Indiana. They had the following children:

- Samuel H. Brown, 1832-1916

- James H. Brown, 1834-1875

- Daniel W. Brown, 1837-1925

- Lorinda M. Brown, 1842-1867

- Octavia Isabel Brown, 1848-1922

The 1860 US Census entry interestingly separates the family from those boarding at the hotel.

1860 US Census, Warrick County, Indiana.

By at least 1865, Frances was no longer managing the hotel, and was working full time as Justice of the Peace.

Minerva passed away sometime before 1876, and Frances remarried to Semira Cuttler on 19 August 1876.

Boonville Enquirer, 26 Aug 1876.

Frances died on 21 December 1885, while still serving as Justice of the Peace for the county.

Turkey Trot 2023

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Alexandria, 23 Nov 2023.

Yesterday I ran in the Alexandria Turkey Trot, an annual tradition in our neighborhood, completing the 5 mile run in the morning before the feast and visiting with family. About 6600 runners participated, making it one of the largest ever. I think this was also my first time running the Turkey Trot since COVID, as I sat out last year and 2021.

I unlike previous runs, I did not run for time, and just ran to finish.

Preparing for the Holidays

 

Photo by A. Jones. Macys NYC. 18 Nov 2023.

Festive in New York

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Bryant Park, NYC. 18 Nov 2023.

Sunday at The Garden

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. NYC, 19 Nov 2023.

Yesterday we took in the action at Madison Square Garden in New York City to fulfill a bucket list item to see my Indiana Hoosiers live as part of the Empire Classic doubleheader. Unfortunately, they lost to defending national champions UConn 77-57, but the game experience and quick visit to NYC was pretty cool. We had amazing seats along the rail in Section 109, on a corner where IU entered from the locker room and were close to the Indiana bench.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Pre-game warm-ups.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Xavier Johnson.

Allison was able to get a handshake with IU legend and fellow Evansville native Calbert Cheaney prior to the game. 

Earlier in the day, we walked the High Line and grabbed some excellent tacos at Chelsea Market. Saturday evening we enjoyed the super cool Fotografiska Museum. The Best in Show exhibition currently on display is well worth it.  

Mystery Adeline

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. New Orleans, 29 Oct 2023.

Wandering around the St. Vincent de Paul Cemetery #1 in New Orleans, while looking for a crypt or headstone for the Halter family, my eye caught this marker for Adeline Baker, who died at the age of 21 in New Orleans. There's little to go on connecting her back to New York, but she should appear in the either the 1850 or 1860 US Census.

Perhaps she made the journey from New York to New Orleans by ship, either with her parents or a sibling. She's not connected to my wife's family or my own. When I saw the marker, I was intrigued and thought I might be able to find out more about her. There's no obituary or reference to Adeline Baker in the New Orleans newspapers from October 1862.

Allison's 3rd-great-grandfather, Joseph Francois Halter, was also born in 1841, essentially the same age as Adeline. Perhaps they lived in the same neighborhood, or may have crossed paths at the French Market. I looked at all the Bakers in the New Orleans City Directory of 1861, in the hopes that might point me to a potential connection. There's a Helena Baker, born in New York in 1841, living in the 9th Ward of New Orleans in the 1860 US Census, but that isn't a perfect match.

1860 US Census. New Orleans.

Unfortunately, I do not have much more to go on. For now, I'll post this here and return to stories on our related branches.

Empty Beach

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Portugal, 13 Oct 2023.

Running Rabbit

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Lisbon, 17 Oct 2023.

A long running rabbit mural at Cais do Sodre train station in Lisbon. 

Alentejo Coast

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Porto Covo, PT. 12 Oct 2023.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Vila Nova de Milfontes. 14 Oct 2023.

Daniel W. Brown Obituary

 

Boonville Standard, 17 July 1925

Picking up from last week, I am posting the obituary for Daniel W. Brown, presumed father of Cora Belle Medcalf. He was the son of Frances A. Brown and Minerva Ellison, born in Evansville on 7 February 1837. I'll have more on his service in the Civil War in another post, as well as following his parents back a generation.

Thomas Medcalf in the Civil War

 

Ancestry. US Civil War Pension Index.

During the Civil War, Thomas P. Medcalf served in the 12th Indiana Infantry and 59th Indiana Infantry. He was drafted into the Army in December 1864. He spent March and April 1865 in various military hospitals in North Carolina and New Jersey, before being discharged on 25 August 1865.

From the Civil War widow's pension file.

Photos by Patrick Jones. National Archives, 27 Dec 2012.

Thomas' third wife, Elizabeth, submitted a widow's pension application. The file includes verification of the death date for Thomas' second wife Julia Ann, and of the marriage date for Thomas and Elizabeth in Warrick County. The file also includes an affidavit signed by Louis Lockhart, husband of Elizabeth's daughter Margaret Roberts, verifying the death date for Moses Roberts as 12 December 1859.

The verification of Julia Ann's death date was provided by William Medcalf, keeper of the Medcalf family bible. He was a younger brother of Thomas Medcalf and served as a minister, and later as a doctor.

Multiple Families

 

FamilySearch. Dubois County, Ind. marriages, 1844.

In looking into the families of Thomas P. Medcalf, Allison's 4th-great-grandfather, there are several families to sort through. He was born in Kentucky in 1823, and first married Martha Main (or Maine) in Dubois County, Indiana on 13 May 1844. Martha was pregnant then, and had a daughter Mary E. Medcalf on 2 June 1844. Martha died on 11 April 1847 in Dale, Spencer County, Indiana, and Thomas promptly remarried to young widow Julia Ann Musgrave Coleden (or Colden). She became Allison's 4th-great-grandmother.

FamilySearch. Spencer County, Ind. marriages, 1847.

Julia was born about 1822 in Kentucky, and had previously married Edmund Coleden (or Colden) on 7 September 1842 in Dearborn County, Indiana. That marriage had produced a daughter, Melvina Colden, in 1846. Edmund likely died in late 1846 or early 1847. Julia and Melvina settled in Spencer County, Indiana, near her brother James and parents Moses and Lydia Musgrave. They appear in the 1850 Census in Spencer County (Moses is listed incorrectly as 15).

1850 US Census. Spencer County, Indiana.

Emma Medcalf was born about 1853 or 1854 in Spencer County. In the 1860 US Census, the family appears in Carter Township, Spencer County.

1860 US Census. Spencer County, Indiana.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Thomas joined the Union Army. According to a Civil War widow's pension application, Julia died in Spencer County on 25 March 1861. I'll have more on Thomas' Civil War service in another post.

Photo by Patrick Jones, taken 27 Dec 2012 at US National Archives.

Thomas moved the family down the Ohio River to Warrick County, and married another widow, Elizabeth Magoon Roberts, on 15 July 1862. She was born in Canada in 1823, and had six children of her own with first husband Moses Roberts. Elizabeth and Moses were married on 28 May 1838 in Geauga County, Ohio. They relocated to Warrick County, Indiana prior to 1850.

After the war, Thomas served as a justice of the peace in Warrick County. In the 1870 US Census, he was listed as a wagon maker.

1870 US Census. Warrick County, Indiana.

Thomas died on 3 January 1877. According to Elizabeth's widow's pension application, Thomas had been found dead in Evansville. A jury investigated the death, and determined he died of exposure to cold. The file states that he was 5 foot 10 inches, had a gray beard, and "was dressed in his ordinary wearing apparel." He had 25 cents in his pocket and some laundry papers.

Elizabeth remained in Newburgh, Warrick County and died on 22 January 1905.

Emma

Evansville Journal, 21 June 1892.

My previous post identified Daniel W. Brown as the likely father of Cora Belle Medcalf Halter. I now turn attention to Emma, Cora Belle's mother. From the record above, she died of consumption in Evansville, Indiana in June 1892. As the township trustee had to provide for her burial, she was without a family and living alone. Emma had previously lost her husband, George Walter, on 12 April 1890.

Ancestry. Evansville City Directory, 1891.

George and Emma were married in Evansville on 1 May 1887. The previous year, Emma had been living in the Evansville Home of the Friendless.

Ancestry. Evansville City Directory, 1886.

Emma seems to have lived a hard life, giving up her daughter or placing her in the care of family, then working on her own in low paying jobs or as a domestic servant in Evansville from the late 1870s into the 1880s. Her father died in 1877 (she was about 23), and she had previously lost her mother at the age of 7. While she had various half-siblings on both sides from her parents, the records do not show she had much connection with them in her later years.

To tell more of the story on Emma, I'll next step back another generation to her parents, Thomas P. Medcalf and Julia Ann Musgrave, before returning to Daniel Brown.   

Connections

 

Boonville Enquirer, 22 Feb 1879.

With this post, I'm shifting away from the Halter family in New Orleans, to another branch off my wife's tree, resolving a brick wall in the parentage of her 2nd-great-grandmother, Cora Belle Medcalf Halter. On her marriage record to Andrew J. Halter on 9 October 1895, her father was simply listed as "Brown", and her mother Emma Medcalf. I have dug into this mysterious Mr. Brown, and now with some assistance from AncestryDNA, I think we have an answer.

Cora Belle's mother was Emma Medcalf, who was born in Spencer County, Indiana in 1854 to parents Thomas P. Medcalf and Julia Ann Musgrave. Cora's inferred father is Daniel W. Brown, a Civil War veteran and former postmaster for Warrick County. Emma filed suit, apparently several times, against Daniel in Warrick County. The clipping above shows a bastardy suit filed in Warrick County Court likely in 1878, where Daniel was acquitted in February 1879 of the claims brought by Emma Medcalf.

Cora Belle was born on 17 December 1875 in Newburgh, Warrick County, Indiana. It is not clear where Cora Belle was living in the 1880 Census, but Emma is listed as a 24 year old single servant (she was closer to 26) in the household of Neely McGill in Newburgh, Warrick County, Indiana.

Emma took her case against Daniel Brown to the Indiana Supreme Court, where she lost in 1881. An article about the Supreme Court decision was published in the Evansville Courier in December 1881, shedding more light on the dispute. It appears Brown executed notes with Emma Medcalf, perhaps when she became pregnant with Cora Belle in early 1875. She later sued Brown, and lost in Warrick County Court, and it appears she signed a promissory note not to sue him.

Evansville Courier, 28 Dec 1881.

Brown was married and had three children with wife Sarah Catherine Morgan:

- Laura Belle Brown

- Mary Josephine Brown

- George Wilton Brown

Regardless of how the case turned out, AncestryDNA shows a clear connection to the Brown family from the results taken in Allison & her Mom's DNA tests. Allison's Mom has 38 matches to descendants of Daniel Brown's grandfather, which I think is a very solid indication that Daniel Brown was the father of Cora Belle Medcalf.

AncestryDNA Thrulines.

Halter Land

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. New Orleans, 29 Oct 2023.

During our recent trip to New Orleans, S & I took a walk through the Bywater & Faubourg-Marigny areas of the city, and located the land owned by Frank Halter in 1842. The plot is on the corner of Bartholomew & Rampart streets (also bounded by Burgundy & Mazant). The land later passed to his son John Halter. We went looking for a headstone for John Halter in St. Vincent de Paul Cemetery #1, also in the hopes of locating a grave for Frank and wife Mary. Unfortunately, we didn't find them, but we did find the Tudurys and a headstone for the family of H. Fellrath, which I think should belong to Sophia Halter and Hubert Fellrath.

Photo by Patrick Jones. New Orleans.

The colorful house above sits on the land once owned by the Halter family.

Dia de los Muertos

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. New Orleans. 27 Oct 2023.

It's been a while since I've had a Dia de los Muertos post. Above is a portion of a Modelo mural in New Orleans, taken a few days ago during our visit. The photo below is from St. Vincent de Paul Cemetery #1 in New Orleans, where members of the Tudury and extended Halter family are interred. We were able to make a visit there, and enjoy a very cool New Orleans history walk during our trip.

Photo by Patrick Jones. New Orleans, 29 Oct 2023.