Friday Photo - Old Cartagena

Patrick L Jones - 8 Dec 2010, Cartagena, Colombia

Will of Emily A.H. Ballard Read

The state probate image files on FamilySearch have become an untapped resource for new information. Last night's find was a copy of the last will and testament of my 4th-great-grandmother, Emily Ann Heslopp Ballard Read, in the Kentucky Probate Records, 1792-1977, for Barren County.

FamilySearch - Kentucky Probate Records 1792-1977, Images 4, 5

The wording is faint, but my best transcription is as follows:

I, Emily A.H. Read, of Barren County, Kentucky, do hereby make this my last will and testament. 1st, I will and desire that my mare, corn, sheep, and all my poultry, four large and six silver teaspoons, my twelve silver knives and six forks, and all my household and kitchen furniture, be sold after my death, and the proceeds of the sale be equally divided between my children, namely I. F. [Isaac Franklin] Read, Sarah Jewell, J. W. [James William] Read, Geo. W. Read, B. B. [Bland Ballard] Read, Emma Patten, and Laura Ettinger, daughter of my son Samuel Read, decd, one share, and Richard Tamblin and Ella Lackey, children of my daughter Angelina Tamblin, decd, one share, making eight shares in all.

2nd, I will and desire that my whole tract of land including all on East side of Stowball, except one acre, which I reserve for a burying ground, and about one hundred acres on West side of said road be sold, and the proceeds of the sale be equally divided between the above named heirs, except any interest that my son, G. D. [Guilford Dudley] Read may claim and prove, which I will and bequeath to his wife Ellen Read for the separate use and benefit of the said Ellen Read and her children.

Lastly, I [hard to read] and appoint S. J. Jordan Executor of this my last will and testament. Given and in my hand this July 31st, 1883.

Emily A. H. Read
--
Emily passed away on 19 December 1884. Below the will transcribed above, is a very faint entry recording the will with the Barren County Court in January 1885. The will appears in Will Records, 1884-1902, Vol. 5.

It's interesting that Emily didn't provide specifically for son Guilford Dudley Read (my third great-grandfather) in the shares to be divided among the children, but she directed interest be set aside for his wife Ellen "separate use and benefit". I hope more Barren County records help shed some light on this. Guilford ran a butcher shop in Glasgow, Barren County, Kentucky.

O'Brien Coal Mine

A year ago I wrote about my 2nd-great-grandfather, John J. O'Brien, who worked as a coal miner in Shelby County, Illinois. A recent publication by the Prairie Research Institute (which oversees the Illinois State Geological Survey) shows some interesting information about John O'Brien's mine activity. Thanks go to Cheri Chenoweth and her colleague Jennifer Obrad for their detailed work on the Shelbyville Quadrangle, part of the Directory of Coal Mines series (2012), located at http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/maps-data-pub/coal-maps/topo-mines/shelbyville.pdf.

In the report, it shows John O'Brien with M. R. Williams in the Shelbyville area between 1903-1908. He was probably working as the foreman for Williams in the photo dated from 1903 that I posted last year:

I had not noticed the details, but you can see two of the miners holding cats, and in the far right side, is the head of a pony. Earlier in the year, a cousin mentioned that John O'Brien was involved in shipping Shetland ponies to the US, where they were used to haul coal in the mines. I don't know if this was John J. O'Brien, or his father, John O'Brien, who was involved in pony shipping. I have a query in with the Shelby County Historical Society for some assistance in tracking this down.

Back to the report, it shows that O'Brien likely took over operation of the mine from Williams between 1908-1911, and the mine produced 3,168 tons of coal during this period. O'Brien also operated his own mine in Shelbyville between 1916-1917 before turning it over to a James O'Brien in 1918 (see page 24).

While there is no guarantee that this land is the location of the M. R. Williams mine, a 90 acre plot of land owned by Williams appears in 1895 in the US Indexed Land Ownership Maps on Ancestry in the Shelbyville Township. So it's possible that this is where John O'Brien was working in 1903 when he was photographed with the miners (although not confirmed).

This gives some new leads to track down in Shelby County, and I'll be looking at deed records, newspaper articles and court records in the hopes of learning more about John O'Brien's coal mining activity.

Curious Bounty Land Assignment in Illinois

In the early days of the blog, almost a year ago, I wrote about my third-great-grandfather John O'Brien, who may or may not have served in the US Navy during the War of 1812. While I have not gotten closer to resolving that mystery, I have taken a close look at an assignment of a bounty land warrant in LaSalle County, Illinois that I am hoping will shed some light on John O'Brien's arrival in Illinois.

40 acres bounty land
On 10 October 1853, James A Booth assigned his 40 acre bounty land warrant #66521 to John O'Brien. The land was located in LaSalle County, Township 036 North, Range 002E, SW 1/4 NE 1/4, Section 27. Booth had been a private in Captain Bush's Company, Georgia Militia. It's hard to read, but below that line are the words "Florida War". This is pretty interesting. The Florida War would have been the Seminole Wars. It would help to know who Captain Bush was, and more about the company that served in this war.

Three other bounty land warrants were executed for Section 27 in LaSalle County on 10 October 1853. All of them were to men who had served in the War of 1812, not the Florida War.

Additional information would help quite a bit. I cannot find John O'Brien in the census in LaSalle County in 1860, and I know that he and family had moved to Shelby County by about 1861. 

Military Monday - Widow's Pension of Anna Jones Henry

To better understand some of the family connections in early Jefferson County, I have been looking at friends and neighbors of the Jones family in the 1830s-1840s time period. Thomas Jones and Hugh Henry recorded a deed in 1833 for 100 acres on Dumplin Creek. Hugh's brother David Henry married Anna Jones (daughter of John Jones and Anna Layman). Anna Henry filed a widow's pension application for David Henry's service in the War of 1812.

Over the Christmas holiday, I teased a letter from the widow's pension file of Anna Jones Henry, showing that the records from Sevier County, Tennessee prior to 24 March 1856 were unavailable due to the courthouse fire. Anna states that she and David were married in Sevier County on 1 November 1819.  I thought it was worth looking at this pension file to see who wrote on Anna's behalf and if it might uncover other connections with my Jones line.

According to the file, David served between 13 November 1814 and 13 December 1815 in the company of Captain James Churchman, 4th Regiment of the Tennessee Militia commanded by Samuel Bayless. This regiment defended the lower Mississippi, near Mobile, Alabama (see http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/military/1812reg.htm).

Source: National Archives

Witnesses in support of Anna Jones Henry included Loftus P. Henry, Vineyard Brimmer, Jonathan Allison, James Gass and Isaac Allman. There is a discrepancy in the file, Anna states her marriage was 1 November 1819, Loftus Henry stated it was October 1816.

I'm sharing this as it may be of interest to others researching these families in early Jefferson & Sevier County.