Wright and McKenrick Families: July 2016

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Finding Mary McCorkle Cushman-or at Least a Couple of Her Siblings

My original intent was to alternate between the Wright and McKenrick sides but last week, I wrote a To be continued entry on Andrew McKenrick. So, I have been torn between the two families; however, I have decided to stick to my original plan and present a Grandmother from the Wright side and the next entry will then be about Andrew McKenrick's parents or lack thereof.
So, Mary McCorkle Cushman (1811-1895) [ Mary McCorkle Cushman (1), Josephine Cushman Pattison(2), Kate Pattison Wright (3),Robert Burns Wright (4), Robert Wayne Wright (5)Angeline Wright Meyer (6) ], a Great Great Great Grandmother. on my Dad's side...she married into the Cushman line which gives us several Mayflower passenger Grandparents. After her husband, Ira Harvey Cushman died, she married a man 20 years her junior and became something of a wheeler/dealer in Real Estate. She was another Brick Wall that I inherited from Grandpa Wright. I have managed to knock down a brick or two but have yet to discover her parents or where they come from. Mary was the Mother of Josephine Cushman Pattison, our Great Great Grandmother.

I do believe that she was of Scot-Irish heritage, given her surname and the Calvinist tendency of this line. However, her surname is the first issue: The name I inherited from Grandpa was McCorkle...many of the Southern branch of this family say her surname was McCorde. This was the name used by Henry Wyles Cushman who compiled much information on the descendants of Robert Cushman, agent for the Pilgrims. Henry Wyles Cushman did not source his information, so it is all in question.

Ira Harvey Cushman(1799-1849) , Mary's husband, was born in Vermont-his family had been in New England since the Mayflower landed in 1620. The Cushmans actually were not on the Mayflower but on the second ship...Robert was the Separatists' (Pilgrims')agent who made arrangements for the passage and handled the financial affairs of the Separatists both in Leiden, Holland, before sailing and in the New Colony of Plymouth. When the Mayflower set sail from England, it was accompanied by another passenger ship, The Speedwell. This ship had problems and was unable to make the trip across the Atlantic; some of its passengers were transferred to the Mayflower, some opted to stay in England and come on a later ship. The Cushmans, Robert and his son Thomas, opted for the latter, arriving almost a year after the Mayflower, in the Autumn of 1621, on the Fortune. Son Thomas married Mayflower passenger Mary Allerton and their children married into other Mayflower families giving us eight Grandparents on the Mayflower. Ira Harvey Cushman's line was Robert (1), Thomas (2), Thomas (3), Robert (4), Joshua (5), Paul (6),Clark (7), Ira Harvey (8).

Ira Harvey Cushman married Mary McCorde or McCorkle on 26 April 1830, according to Henry Wyles Cushman in his A Historical and Biographical Genealogy of the Cushmans: The Descendants of Robert Cushman the Puritan from the Year 1617 to 1855. (I do have some issues with this book as a source...First of all, Robert Cushman was not a Puritan, he was a Separatist-that is to say He did not want to purify the Church of England but rather wanted to separate from it. And secondly. as previously mentioned, Wyles Cushman gives no sources for his information. Like many early Genealogist, he most likely sent out letters to everyone named Cushman that he could find and took their information as Truth.) We see Ira on the 1830 Census for Early County, Georgia. He has one Female 15-19 living with him; I would assume this is Mary and one Female 10-14. I am thinking that this may have been Mary's sister Martha who was born in 1819, so she would have been 11 years old. I have been unable to find a primary Marriage Record for Ira and Mary but their first child Carter Braxton Cushman was born in 1831 so 1830 seems reasonable..

So, that is a bit of background information regarding Mary and Ira-back to the issue at hand: her name.

Mary... McCorkle or McCorde?? Solved!!: There is no longer any doubt in my mind that Mary's maiden name was not McCorde...it might not have exactly been McCorkle either but... A few years back, I decided to try to find out who Ira and Mary had named their son Montreal after. Carter Braxton (the eldest) was named after a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Henry Clay (their youngest son) obviously after the Statesman. There was an Ira Harvey, who died as a child: obviously named after his father. Who was Montreal named after? I tried searching for men with both the first or surname Montreal, both nationally and locally. I went back thru the Census in Georgia looking for a Montreal and could find no one historically. The only other Montreal listed in any early Census in any state, proved to be a boy 15 years younger than Ira and Mary's son and he just happened to live in Ft. Gaines where Mary and her husband Ira Cushman were raising their family AND he just happened to have the surname McCorkle!! The odds of 2 boys named Montreal being born in Ft. Gaines GA; one a Cushman, the other a McCorkle, pretty much made up my mind that the boys had to be related and therefore their parents related. Montreal McCorkle was the son of James Madison and Jane Snelling McCorkle. I proceeded on the theory that Mary McCorkle had to be the sister or cousin of James Madison McCorkle, and that the name Montreal was a family name on Mary's side. (I earlier had considered that he was named for the city which was not far from Ira's boyhood home in Northern Vermont).
As an aside, Montreal Cushman, our Josephine's younger brother, joined the Texas Cavalry in the Civil War and was killed in Battle in Mansfield, DeSoto Parrish, Louisiana in 1864. He left a new Bride, no children. He ranked in as a Quartermaster Sargent and ranked out as a Second Lieutenant.

Monument to the Texas Calvary in Mansfield, Louisiana.

Civil War Battlefields in Louisiana

Then recently, while searching the marriages in GA-especially in Early Co where Mary and Ira Cushman lived-I came across another McCorkle-Martha. She married David Hayes Keith in 1836-in Ft. Gaines Georgia. Could they be related? Possibly...so I proceeded to investigate Martha and found her on the 1850 Fed. Census in Geneva, Coffee Co Alabama. Mary was also living in Geneva in 1850-it was 2 years after the death of her husband. She had her married daughter Josephine and her granddaughter Emma living with her. Josephine is my Great Great Grandmother. She was with her mother because her husband, Henry Pattison was in the gold fields of California. I pulled up the Census page for Martha and David Keith and "thunder bolt and lightning, very very frightening!!" they were living next door to Mary and Josephine!! Mary went to be near her sister after Ira's death! And Martha had a son named James Madison Keith!! Named after their brother, James Madison McCorkle-the father of Montreal McCorkle who started all this!!! (and possibly, maybe after their father?!) I also noticed, and this is not conclusive but Mary had a daughter Martha and Martha had a daughter Mary. Common names, but still....So I now have 3 siblings, James Madison, Mary and Martha-but still no parents.

Hmmmm... So as Martha was supposedly from Early Co GA,(now Clay County, GA) I decided to find the McCorkle families in Early County and go from there-unfortunately there were no McCorkles listed on the Census for 1830, or 1820 or 1810. Now, both Mary and Martha listed their Father as being from the Carolinas; on the 1880 Census-Mary said North Carolina and Martha said South-hmmph!
The DNA matches on Mary's mitochondrial DNA suggest Rowan Co NC. so that is where I will start. In the meantime, both girls married in Early Co, Ga in the 1830's-so there had to be McCorkles there! I pulled up 1830 Census and there were only 10 pages-so I did it the old fashion way and went thru one by one. No McCorkles...no McCordes. There were however McCorquodales! This is one of the possible alternate spellings, I assume closer to the Gaelic spelling and pronunciation. . I could not however, easily connect these 3 McCorkles to the McCorquodales in Early. So while I now am sure that the name is not McCorde-it may have been McCorquodale and was simplified by some family members and not by others. Further research is needed, but I am 2 siblings closer to uniting Mary's family!

I mentioned Mary's DNA. I have had the Maternal (Mitochondrial) DNA of this line tested. I was fortunate to have my Dad's cousin still living. He graciously agreed to be a DNA donor. He was the son of our Great Aunt Marian Wright Jarman, Grandpa Wright's sister who was the daughter of Kate Pattison Wright, daughter of Josephine Cushman Pattison, daughter of Mary McCorkle Cushman. MtDNA is passed to both sons and daughters but is only passed on by daughters unlike the male DNA which is passed only father to son; it follows the man's last name. Mitochondrial DNA, the maternal line is not as easy to trace as the male Y-DNA. This is mainly because of the name changes in each generation. Thus far I have had several matches, mainly from Rowan County North Carolina so have been looking there. If interested, here is a link to a wonderful Blog written by Elizabeth Wilson Ballard Diggin' up Graves 2014-2015 concerning one of these mtDNA women who share the DNA that Mary received from her mother. Any of these women could be a sister, a maternal cousin, a maternal Aunt or her mother. https://digginupgraves.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/finding-mary-whitaker-part-1-of-mtdna-u5a1i1a1-52-ancestors/

2 sons of James Madison McCorkle taken in 1905 at Ft. Gaines, Clay County, Georgia Francis M. (Frank) 2nd from Left and James Madison McCorkle Jr, 6th from Left. This is a group of Confederate Veterans. Photo is from the "Vanishing Georgia Collection", the Digital Library of Georgia.

To continue Mary's story...Interesting fact from the Census, in 1850, when Mary, a widow and her sister, Martha were living next door to each other, in Geneva, Alabama, Martha had a boarder, who was a student; he was 20 years old, William J. Allen. Mary was 39. On the 1860 Census William J. Allen, now 30 years old, is living in Milton, Santa Rosa County, Florida with a wife, Mary Allen who is 49. Also living in the Household is Henry "Patterson", J "Patterson" and 3 Patterson"children. This is undoubtedly our Great Great Grandparents Henry and Josephine Pattison. I do not find William J. and Mary on the 1870 Census, but by 1880, Mary's age had a few years shaved off it and William J gained a few years so that they were now only 10 years apart instead of 20.
Another interesting trail to try to follow is that Martha McCorkle Keith's mother-in-law married, after her first husband's death, a second husband by the surname of Allen. Was this man related to William J. Allen, Mary's second husband?? And to further muck it up-Montreal Cushman is on the 1860 Census living in Texas, with, I think, his sister Martha and her husband and a large family of Allens. Again, related?? I may never know how or if the Allens are related, except for William J., to the McCorkles, Cushmans and Keiths.
There are multiple Court documents of Mary and William J. Allen buying and selling real estate in Milton, FL. Mary died in August 1895 and William J. Allen in January of 1896, they are buried together in the Milton Cemetery, Berryhill in Milton, Florida.

1 year ago

Friday, July 1, 2016

Andrew McKenrick ....And You thought the Wright/Watson Tale was Confusing!!

Because so much of the Genealogy of my Dad's side of the Family was done for me by my Grandpa Wright...the most Genealogical fun I have had has been researching my Mom's lines. This is, on her Mother's side, a line of relatively recent immigration. Dad's family has been here since the Mayflower; they are clichéd White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, Stiff-upper-lipped Brits with a Huguenot and Scot-Irish or two thrown in. Many were Puritans, Calvinists although the direct line seems to have been Episcopalian until marrying into the Mayflower line. On the other hand, Mom's Mother's family came from Bohemia, Alsace and Hanover Germany in the 1800's. I thought they were all Catholic but it turns out, there were several "mixed marriages", that is German Evangelical Lutheran and Roman Catholic! (I didn't think they did that back then!) The Schieberls were German-Bohemian-they ran taverns, had German Oompa Bands and died from drinking ice cold beer while at a picnic with said Band on a hot summer day. The Hanoverian Dickmeyers helped found an Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cincinnati, then saw a daughter married to a Catholic Bavarian Schultz. These Schultz Grandparents had a young son who my Mom always claimed was run over by a beer truck. (The story turned out to be true! it was in the Rock Island Argus!!) A Schultz daughter married into the German-Alsatian Gross Family and claimed she saw Abraham Lincoln walking down 20th St in Rock Island, IL. These families have been fun!!

I am afraid, however, that even Grandma's Germanic side pales in comparison with Grandpa McKenrick's wild and wonderful Highland Scots clan in the Buchanan Valley of Pennsylvania and the humid climes of the mighty Mississippi River Valley around Clinton and Camanche,IA. These were hard-living, hard-working hill folk. They were quite clannish, often marrying into the same families generation after generation. Many, I'm sure, had stills and made moonshine. Cousins have mentioned going to the Family Reunion at the Church Picnic in Buchanan Valley and having Dad's jug in the car for an occasional nip by the adults. They lived off the land, hunting and fishing. There were too-numerous-to-count gun accidents where everything from minor to fatal gunshot injuries occurred. Our Great Grandfather Frank lived on the Mississippi and in his later years, he commercially fished for catfish. Another McKenrick made a living by foraging for medicinal herbs and mushrooms and selling them. Many of them, both in Pennsylvania and in Iowa, kept bees. In fact, the reason the brothers came to Iowa from Pennsylvania was to bring the bee culture to the farm fields of Iowa. Apparently, there was quite a booming McKenrick Bee business in Camanche, selling much honey to Distributors in Chicago. I remember Grandpa McKenrick, our Great Grandfather giving my family a gallon jug of honey from his bees at Christmas.

For this entry, I originally intended to talk about Andrew, our earliest known McKenrick Grandfather and Margaret Noel Sterner, the woman I believe to be his mother and at least look at some of the men that could have been the Father. I have decided, however, to split this entry into at least 2 entries. So we will start with the known, Andrew himself and the next entry will deal with the unknown-Andrew's parentage.

Andrew was our Great Great Great Grandfather; the Grandfather of our great Grandfather, Frank McKenrick. The date of Andrew's birth is 1794, we do not know day or month. We do not know where he was born but it seems he lived his entire life in Adams County PA. However, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia and DC are all within the realm of geographic possibility. We have no real idea who his Father was-I will discuss this in more detail when I blog about Margaret Noel Sterner-his Mother Presumptive. Most likely, it was an illegitimate birth; I am not even sure if McKenrick was the Father's name or whether it was his Mother's name. If Margaret Noel was his Mother and a McKenrick was the Father, the child still would not have the Father's surname unless they married ??? So many questions and "what ifs"!!

Another fact I do not know about Andrew is if he was Baptized and if so, why is there no record in the only Catholic Church in the area. If Margaret was his Mother, her family was Alsatian and Catholic. Her father was reportedly the 1st person buried in the St Ignatius Catholic Church yard. He also reportedly donated the land for said Church. So, one would assume she would have a child baptized, illegitimate or not. I read that there was a Travelling Priest prior to the building of St Ignatius in the area-he would have been out of the Conewago Basilica. There are no records of a baptism that I have found.

Anyway...what we do know about Andrew...

We have his service record for the War of 1812. He served as a Private in Cobean's Battalion of Pennsylvania Volunteers. He was 20 years old. He supposedly was present at the Battle of Baltimore where the "Star Spangled Banner" was penned. This Battle was fought September 12-15 1814. Andrew's Service dates are August 24-September 21, 1814 so the dates jive and it does say that the Company travelled from Baltimore where they were discharged to Gettysburg, their home town

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The Marriage of Andrew and Rachel Baxter is recorded (in Latin) in the records of the Catholic Sacred Heart Basilica in Conewago, PA. We are not certain who Rachel's family was...many have connected her to Samuel Baxter and his wife Sarah Chenowith of Maryland. There does not seem to be any evidence that this family had a daughter Rachael. Rachael disappears from the record in 1846, either the result of her death or of absconding from her husband and 8 children.

The Marriage Record reads "Maii 27 1817 Andreas McKenric matrimonia conjunctus cum Rachaela Beixter Testes Johannes Dillon et Nelly Timmens." (May 27 1817 Andrew McKenrick married together with Rachael Baxter Witnesses John Dillon and Nelly Timmens) The John Dillon mentioned as a witness was Andrew's best friend and he was also related to Margaret Noel Sterner, the Mother Presumptive.

The first time Andrew is named on the Census was 1820 as he was a head of Household, married with children. Prior to 1850, only the Head of Household is named; the males and females are listed by age group not name-"Males under 10 years", "Females 26-44 years" etc. So, in 1820, We have Andrew, as a male 26-44, 2 males Under 10, 1 Female Under 10 and a female 26-44 whom one can assume is his wife Rachael. Son Charles was born in 1818 and daughter Margaret was born in 1820, so that accounts for 2 of the children. I am not sure who the other boy under 10 years is as their next son was not born until 1827. They may have had a child who died as a young child. Andrew shows up regularly on the Censii for Adams County, PA every 10 years through 1870. It is on the 1850 record that we see the older woman Margaret Noel Sterner, a widow, living with Andrew and his second wife. This is the woman I believe was his Mother; I know she was not his wife's Mother.

There is of course, the bugaboo of the spelling of McKenrick. On the 1st Census where Andrew is named-his surname is spelled McHenrick. 10 years later, on the 1830, he is Andrew McCandricks; on 1840 Mckendricks and 1850, the ever-present McKendrick. It is not until 1860 that we find the name spelled as it is today McKenrick (although the d is still added frequently by non-family members). I was told by one of my McKenrick 3rd cousins that "There is a "d" in damn, but no damn "d" in McKenrick!!" It is an ongoing problem.

Andrew and Rachael had 8 children born between 1818 and 1833; the penultimate child was Samuel Baxter McKenrick, our Great Great Grandfather. As I said above, in 1846, Rachael disappears from the record. I assume she passed away although some of the Genealogically minded cousins say she left Andrew-moved West to Ohio and lived there with her brother and his family. They moved on to Galesburg, Illinois where this Rachael died and was buried. I do not believe this was our Rachael. There was a Samuel Baxter family from Maryland who moved to Ohio, then on to Galesburg, where a single woman, Rachael Baxter of the approximate age as our Rachael did die and is buried. However women did not usually up and leave their husband and 8 children; nor did they usually resume using their maiden name in the 1800's-that is a modern phenomenon. I think Rachael just died and records being what they were back then, there is no Death Certificate or record of her death.

Andrew remarried in 1849, a widow with children, Anna Brady Bart. Her oldest daughter Susan Elizabeth Bart, married Andrew's son Samuel Baxter McKenrick, her step-brother, so Anna Brady, the 2nd wife becomes one of our Grandmothers also . Getting confused yet? According to Family legend, the McKenrick children were not especially favored by their new Step Mother. Surely by marrying her daughter, our Great Great Grandfather may have become the favored of Andrew's children.
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Samuel Baxter McKenrick, son of Andrew McKenrick and Rachael Baxter McKenrick

Andrew had a Lumber Mill in the Mountains around the Buchanan Valley...the stream which powered his mill is to this day known as McKenrick's Run.

Anna, Andrew's 2nd wife died in 1858. On the 1860 Census, he is 66 years old and living with his son Charles. Also in the household is an older woman, Catherine Van Dyke, age 52. I don't think she is Charles mother-in-law as his wife's mother was named Elizabeth. I do not know who this woman was and if she had any relationship to the widowed Andrew. Andrew died in 1870. He was living at that time with our Grandfather, his son Samuel Baxter. No one knows where Andrew is buried-his possible Grandfather Andrew Noel is buried in the St Ignatius Catholic Church graveyard. Many cousins have searched for his grave but can find no trace. It is possible he is buried at St. Ignatius but the stone is lost and the records are gone.

Susan E. Bart McKenrick, wife and step-sister of Samuel B. McKenrick. Daughter of Anna Brady Bart McKenrick, 2nd wife of of Andrew McKenrick and widow of Jeremy Bart

Blog Archive

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Finding Mary McCorkle Cushman-or at Least a Couple of Her Siblings

Friday, July 1, 2016

Andrew McKenrick ....And You thought the Wright/Watson Tale was Confusing!!