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