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.