Saturday, January 20, 2018

Longevity....Week 3

This week's post is for the 2018 challenge called , 52 Ancestors In 52 Weeks, by Amy Johnson Crow.  Theme for this week: Longevity.  
Nathan Wood, Grave site, Adel Cemetery,
Owen County, Indiana

The life of Nathan Wood and his father, John Wood, were not destined to have longevity.  Both died too young.  John Wood died around the age of 46 in about 1857 (still haven't proved the exact date on him yet), and Nathan died at the age of 47 on July 1st, 1886.  Both had children and left young mothers to raise babies and teens.  The cruelty of the homesteader life was a reality in these times.  

John Wood was Brian's 4x's great grandfather making his son, Nathan, Brian's 3x's  great grandfather.  This post will focus on Nathan Wood and his death.  When I went to the National Archives in Washington DC, I took pictures of the Civil War pension file for Nathan Wood.  I had just started back into genealogy when my cousin asked if I would like to go on a week-long genealogy road trip with one destination being the National Archives. I was super excited and when I got his file, I didn't even really know the gold I had in my possession until I got home.  

The file itself is more than 40 pages and contains Nathan's discharge papers, a marriage certificate to his wife, Sarah Amanda May, and many pages of requests to be granted a pension because of his sickness contracted during the Civil War.    His file contains 2 attempts at applying for an Invalid Pension by himself.  The first time in February 1882 and again right before his death in January 1886.  


Nathan Wood, Original Invalid Claim - Feb 11, 1882
Nathan's claim is below as he reports under oath in his second attempt to secure the pension in January 1886.   

"He says on his oath that he contracted Camp Diarrhea in line of duty at Decatur Alabama about the 1st of May 1865 and about the same time he contracted Rheumatism which affected him all over to such an extent that he was unable to walk, and he was sent to the hospital at Decatur and from there to the hospital at Huntsville Alabama and remained there until discharged.  That piles and fistula resulted from said Camp Diarrhea and that said Diarrhea continued and became chronic and that he has constantly suffered from chronic diarrhea, alternating with constipation and resulting disease of stomach and digestive organs, and resulting piles and fistula in anus and Rheumatism and he says has been disabled for performance of manual labor each year since date of discharge at least one half by reason of said disease. In his original declaration his Attorney left out his disease Rheumatism and upon his insisting that it should be alleged, Atty said to prove up Diarrhea, piles and Fistula, and then put in claim for Rheumatism, he also put in declaration total disability when affidavit wanted to say one half disability as he now says, he does not claim for total disability, as he has not been totally disabled for manual labor, only at times."


Nathan Wood, Original Invalid Claim - Feb 11, 1882

OK, so when I read all about his chronic diarrhea, piles and fistula for YEARS, I was thinking, how awful would this be?  Lordy, Lordy!  Could you imagine dealing with this with no Imodium AD,  Preparation H, and no way to fix this?  I had to look up the fistula and find out more.  According to WebMD, "An anal fistula is a small channel that can develop between the end of the bowel and the skin near the anus. Possible symptoms include: pain, which is usually constant, throbbing and worse when sitting down, skin irritation around the anus, including swelling, redness and tenderness, discharge of pus or blood, constipation or pain associated with bowel movements, fever."  Eeeeeew!  Any one of these things would be awful for years, but all three!  Poor Nathan Wood.  

He was rejected for the claim the first time and then died before ruling on his second attempt.  His widow, Sarah, applies then six days after his death.  I think about how sad she must have been at her husband's death and surely felt destitute.  Nathan explains that he is a farmer and how is she going to make it by herself without some help?  She is 47 years old at the time of his death and they had three children under the age of 18.  

Stay tuned for future blog posts about his Civil War Pension file.  There are so many juicy things in there!  Oh, Lord, I can't believe I just wrote that!


Sources
"Civil War Pension Application File,'" Discharge Certificate, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Soldiers Who Served in Both the Mexican War and the Civil War, ca. 1847 - ca. 1888, Record Group 15, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs,National Archives,Washington, D.C., United States.Certificate Included with Original Invalid Claim,15 May 1865,Application No. 439.771,Certificate No. 345.827.

https://www.webmd.boots.com/digestive-disorders/anal-fistula

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Favorite Photo...Week 2

Nathan Wood, circa 1865
Since I am a scrapbooker, I LOVE PHOTOS!  I love studying them. I love the feelings they bring. I love the memories they conjure.  I love the history captured in an instant.  The oldest picture I have in my picture collection is one of Nathan Wood, and the picture fascinates me.  The picture is in his Civil War uniform circa 1865. 

Interestingly enough, I received the picture from a long lost relative half way across the country! I had been searching Google for any information about the Wood family from Surry County, North Carolina in the late 1800’s and saw a post on a message board from 2001. I did some sleuthing and found the cousin through Facebook and started conversing about the Wood family. Through our conversation she sent me this most treasured photo in my collection for the Woods family! 

Let me tell you a little bit of history on Nathan Wood. You may first notice his name does not contain an “s” at the end like our name. Rest assured we are directly related to him, and this will be another blog post altogether!  Also, in today's post I will tell you some basic facts about his life and will later dig into a lot of these facts in future blog posts. 

Nathan Wood is Brian’s great-great-great grandfather. He was born in North Carolina in 1839 to John and Martha (Bray) Wood. I believe John and Martha and their family moved to the Owen County, Indiana area around 1846. Nathan was the oldest son of the couple who had four other children. The other siblings were: Thomas Hardin, Hiram King, Martha E. and Henry F. Wood. 

Nathan married Sarah Amanda May in July of 1860.  In addition, according to his Civil War pension file I secured from the National Archives in Washington D.C., he was enlisted into the Civil War in February 1865 in Owen County, Indiana when he was 25 years of age. Nathan served in the Army of the 149th Regiment, Indiana Infantry, Company D.  He only served in the war for a few months and was honorably discharged on May 15th, 1865.  He died on July 1st, 1886 when he was 47 years old.  

Nathan Wood, Civil War Pension File, Discharge Certificate, May 1865 
If you look at the Discharge Certificate picture towards the end of the document, you will notice it gives some physical characteristics for Nathan. It states he was five feet six inches high, light complexion, blue eyes, light hair, and by occupation when enrolled a farmer.  

I have stared into those light eyes of the photo a thousand times and wished he could speak to me.  I dearly cherish this photo and hope to share more of his history in future blog posts.  





Sources:
Owen County, Indiana, United States, Owen County Deed Records, Bk. 8, 1843-1846, Page 484, Microfilm No. IND 1-060A4, 16 January 1846; Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.

Owen County, Indiana, Court of Common Pleas, Vol 2, 1856-1862: Page 203-204, John Wood Estate Petition to Sell Land; Ancestry.com. Indiana, Wills and Probate Records, 1798-1999 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Ancestry.com, 1850 United States Federal Census (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Seventh Census of the United States, 1850. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1850. M432,), Year: 1850; Census Place: Clay, Owen, Indiana; Roll: M432_164; Page: 71B; Image: 147.

"Civil War Pension Application File,'" Discharge Certificate, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Soldiers Who Served in Both the Mexican War and the Civil War, ca. 1847 - ca. 1888, Record Group 15, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs,National Archives,Washington, D.C., United States.Certificate Included with Original Invalid Claim,15 May 1865,Application No. 439.771,Certificate No. 345.827.

Nathan Wood and Sarah Amanda May, (19 July 1860), Owen County, Indiana, Marriage Record, Book D, 1854-1863: 450; Owen County Courthouse, 60 S Main St, Spencer, Indiana.


Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Start....Week 1

On the suggestion of my fellow genealogy-obsessed cousin, I decided to try the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  This challenge involves blogging about all the genealogy I have been researching and compiling the last two years.  If the research doesn't get out of my computer and to my family (or to people who care), why do all this research?  

I love the idea of publishing on a blog and sharing with my family new tidbits I discover. I did create one blog post a couple years ago and have not done it since.  Why you ask?  It's a personal thing. I like to do things linearly and in order; however, as I have discovered in genealogy, you don't always find everything about an ancestor in order.  You constantly feel as if you have exhausted all sources only to find a bunch of new information when you stumble across a new cousin or new website. I think I keep waiting to publish stuff after I am ready, organized and feel like I know EVERYTHING about an ancestor.  I NEED TO LET THAT GO!  I just need to start!  Start.  There I said it!  Just start!  Who knows where this will lead.  I don't have to know where I'm going with this thing.  Just start!  

As you do more and more research, you realize you would have loved to talked to each family member and get some first-hand knowledge from them before they passed away.  You start feeling like you know some of them personally, even though you didn't and there is so much more you could have understood if you could have just talked to them or read their journals.  This revelation reminds me that I need to just start getting down the stories and not be so obsessed about being ready.  If I had a diary to read that my great-great-grandmother wrote 100 years ago, I wouldn't be able to put it down. I would say I hit genealogy gold!  This inspires me to make 2018 year a year of writing down the stories.  If I don't write them down, who will?  If for no other reason, I need to do this so that my great-great-great grandchildren will be able to say they hit geology gold in 100 years!
I have high aspirations to start blogging about my research, and I want to stick with it.  I don't want to say it's a New Year's Resolution, but rather it's a start.  If I skip a week, I need to just pick up and blog the next week. Don't sweat it, just restart!  So get ready to learn about your ancestors, discover the stories I went through to find the facts, and hopefully fall in love with your family!