In the Census...Week 5

This week's post is for the 2018 challenge called , 52 Ancestors In 52 Weeks, by Amy Johnson Crow.  Theme for this week: In the Census.  

A United States Population Census is taken every ten years in this country.  The first census occurred in 1790, and they have continued every ten years since this time.  Before 1850, the census data displayed the name of the head of household and showed only the number of other people living in the household.  In 1850, however, every name in the household was recorded, as well as some other information that is vital in learning about our family history.  

I thought I'd write about the first time John Wood shows up in the census in Indiana.  The year is 1850 and the date is November 9th. The census enumerator, Sam Dunning, went around to rural Owen County, Indiana and surveyed all the people living in Clay Township around this time.  

John Wood Family - 1850 US Census, Owen County, Indiana

John Wood is listed as 37 years old and born in North Carolina.  It also states that he is a farmer by trade and the value of real estate owned is $400.  His family is listed as well.  Martha Wood, born in North Carolina as well, and age 27.  (I am going to interject here and say that I think this is a mistake and she was actually 37, but that's for another blog post.)  Lastly, three sons are listed as Nathan, age 13, Hardin T, age 12, and Hiram, age 2.  All born in North Carolina, except the baby, is listed as being born here in Indiana.  

There is also an entry in the Agricultural Census of 1850 for John Wood as well.  I love reading these!  Recorded on the same day as the population census, we get a glimpse of what the John Wood family farm was like.  

John Wood Family - 1850 US Agriculture Census, Owen County, Indiana

Acres of Land
Improved – 15 
Unimproved – 65

Cash Value of Farm – 400
Value of Farming Implements and Machinery – 12

Live Stock as of June 1, 1850 
Horses – 1
Asses and Mules – 0
Milch Cows – 2
Working Oxen – 2
Other Cattle – 1
Sheep – 12
Swine – 14
Value of Live Stock – 76

Produce during the year ending June 1, 1850
Wheat, bushels of – 0
Rye, bushels of – 0
Indian Corn, bushels of – 150
Oats, bushels of – 0
Rice, lbs. of – 0
Tobacco, lbs. of – 1,000
Ginned Cotton, bales of 400 lbs. each – 0
Wool, lbs. of – 20
Peas and Beans, bushels of  – 1
Irish Potatoes, bushels of – 10 
Sweet Potatoes, bushels of – 0
Barley, bushels of – 0
Buckwheat, bushels of – 0
Value of Orchard Produce in dollars – 0
Wine, gallons of – 0
Value of Market Gardens – 0
Butter, lbs. of – 104
Cheese, lbs. of  – 0
Hay, tons of  – 0
Clover Seed, bushels of  – 0
Other Grass Seeds, bushels of  – 0
Hops, lbs. of  – 0
Hemp, Dew Rotted, tons of  – 0
Hemp, Water rotted, tons of   – 0
Flax, lbs. of  – 0
Flaxseed, bushels of   – 0
Silk Cocoons, lbs. of  – 0
Maple Sugar, lbs. of – 20
Cane Sugar, hhds. Of 1,000 lbs. – 0
Molasses, gallons of – 3
Beeswax and Honey, lbs. of – 0
Value of Homemade Manufactures – 15
Value of Animals Slaughtered – 25


Being that he was from North Carolina, I am not surprised he raised tobacco.  One thousand pounds of tobacco all grown by the sweat of his brow.  Not something you see in Indiana today.  I decided to dig up some old photos of farming tobacco and found these at the Library of Congress.  

Tobacco Farm circa 1916

Tobacco drying on a farm

The chart below shows where tobacco was being grown in the United States in 1859.  There are just a couple dots around the Spencer, Owen County, Indiana area.  Our ancestors worked to make up that little dot on the map!  

The other item I found interesting was the 104 pounds of butter.  So how many times a year does Martha have to turn cream to butter in a butter churn to get 100 pounds?  Now I realize when we buy four sticks of butter, this is a pound.  But 100 pounds? Again, all by the sweat of their brow.  Not like us going to the local Kroger and buying our four sticks in a box.  

He also had quite a few cows, pigs and sheep and one horse!  

In closing, the land he worked to grow his crops was south of Spencer, Indiana.  According to land records, I believe John secured land in Owen County around 1846-1848.  I will write more about this in a later post.  



Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Census

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.

1850, Owen County Indiana Agriculture Census, Clay Township, Owen County, Indiana, USA, Agriculture Schedule, Clay Township, Owen County, Indiana, USA, pg. 246, entry for John Woods.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/nclc.00531/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017757214/

http://etc.usf.edu/maps/pages/200/227/227.htm 

Invite to Dinner...Week 4

This week's post is for the 2018 challenge called , 52 Ancestors In 52 Weeks, by Amy Johnson Crow.  Theme for this week: Invite to Dinner.

When I asked my husband about which ancestor he'd invite for dinner, he said, "That's easy. I'd ask my great grandfather to dinner so we could talk about the 's' added to the end of our name."    I thought about what he said and agreed.  Knowing the full story of how your name was changed and morphed into something different would make me feel more complete. I would love to tell you we know the full story, but alas, we do not. Here's what I do know. 

You may have seen my previous posts about our Civil War Veteran, Nathan WOOD, and his dad, John WOOD.  One of Nathan's sons was, William Estil WOOD, and one of his sons was Cecil Dale WOOD.  No "s".  No plural form.  The single form.  Just the material that forms the trunk of a tree or bush.  The matter you use to burn a fire. The substance a woodworker uses to create furniture.  However, I have always felt that adding an "s" gives you a different meaning.  I picture a vast forest or a piece of land full of trees of all kinds---elm, walnut, tulip tree, maple, oak and pine---and a stream running through the middle.  I love our name, by the way, but I digress....

The name change was initiated with Cecil Dale Wood, born December 7, 1904 in Owen County, Indiana.  Below you can see his birth record I retrieved from the Owen County Health Department.  

Cecil Dale Wood entry, Owen County, Indiana, Birth Records

He was born with the name Wood, but somewhere around 1926, he simply added the "s" at the end of his name.  He didn't do this legally (or at least I don't think he did.)

Cecil Dale's family moved to Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana somewhere around 1916 when Cecil Dale would have been about 12 years old.  Cecil Dale appears in the 1920-1922 Bloomington City Directory for the first time and listed with his father and his brother, Dewey.  All with the last name of WOOD.  Cecil Dale stops appearing in the Bloomington City Directories around 1939.  

Wood Entries for Caron's Directory of the City
Bloomington, Indiana for 1920-1921-1922

When Cecil Dale marries Julia Antionette Richardson on May 1, 1926, his name is listed as Woods and he signs his name with an "s". He is 21 years old at the time of his marriage.  This is the first time we see his name with an "s" at the end.  

Cecil Dale Dale and Julia Richardson, Monroe County Indiana Marriage Record

Signature as Dale Woods, signed twice on the Marriage Record

However, there are some inconsistencies with the "s" at the end of the name. In the next census of 1930, he is listed as Dale Wood and living with Julia's parents.  

1930 US Census - Listing for Dale Wood

Up until the 1936-1937, he is listed as Cecil D Wood, no "s", in the Bloomington, Indiana City Directories; however, in the 1938-1939 directory, he is listed with the "s" at the end.  

Wood Entries for Caron's Directory of the City
Bloomington, Indiana for 1938-1939

This is a few years prior to the family moving to Indianapolis, Indiana.  And, it seems after they move to Indianapolis, the name is consistently, Woods.  

Wood Entries for Polk's Indianapolis City Directory - Vol. 1942

I feel like I have to write about this topic so generations after ours know that the name change occurred.  We know some bits and pieces, and I have gathered some facts surrounding the name change.  There is also family lore that suggests that Cecil Dale and his brother did not get along or had a squabble, and Cecil Dale added the "s" so he would not be associated with his brother.  I had heard that he did this when he moved to Indianapolis, but given the facts I found, I don't think this is necessarily the case.  Below you see a picture of Cecil Dale and his brother.  They don't really look like they hate each other, but who knows?  This is just one photograph and one glimmer in time. 

So, back to the original intent of the blog post. If you could invite someone to dinner and have a conversation about your family history, Brian and I would love to know more about why someone would choose to change their name.  Back then, I guess you just decided to do it, and then just start writing your name differently and tell people your name has an "s" on the end of it. We couldn't imagine doing this today!  I guess we may never know the full reason why Cecil Dale Wood wanted to be Cecil Dale Woods. But, we do know he changed his name, and it still lives on today in our names.  

Cecil Dale Woods and his brother, Dewey Wood

Cecil Dale Woods

Sources
(No First Name Listed) Wood entry, Owen County, Indiana, Birth Records, H-6, Book H-6, 1904-1907: Page 9, Entry No. 6, Owen County Health Department, 86 East Market Street, Spencer, Indiana.

Caron's Directory of the City of Bloomington, Indiana for 1916-1917-1918: And Taxpayers of Monroe County (Louisville, Kentucky, Indiana: Caron Directory Co., 1918), 314 & 356, entry for Wood Estil W. (Martha); digital image, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://interactive.ancestry.com/2469/11569542/637300787?backurl=http://person.ancestry.com/tree/5907916/person/-1373818511/facts/citation/323805103860/edit/record : Downloaded 26 November 2016), lab r 726 S Rogers.

Caron's Directory of the City Bloomington, Indiana for 1920-1921-1922: And Taxpayers of Monroe County (Louisville, Kentucky, USA: Caron Directory Co., 1922), 284 & 307, entry for Wood W Estil (Martha); digital image, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://interactive.ancestry.com/2469/10520751/528929146?backurl=http://person.ancestry.com/tree/5907916/person/-1373825559/facts/citation/660119774871/edit/record#?imageId=11621166 : Downloaded 29 November 2016), farmer r 1003 Howe.

Woods, Dale and Julia Richardson, (1 May 1926), Monroe County Indiana Marriage Records: Book 20, Page 231; Monroe County History Center, Bloomington, Indiana.

Ancestry.com, 1930 United States Federal Census (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2002.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626), Year: 1930; Census Place: Bloomington, Monroe, Indiana; Roll: 619; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 4; Image: 9.0.

Caron's Bloomington, Indiana City Directory 1936-1937 (Louisville, Kentucky, USA: Caron Directory Company, 1937), 399, entry for Wood C Dale (Julia); [Format:lower], [Creator], [WebsiteTitle] ([URL] : [AccessType] [AccessDate]), formn r 922 W. 7th.

Caron's Bloomington, Indiana City Directory 1938-1939 (Louisville, Kentucky, USA: Caron Directory Company, 1939), page 405, entry for Woods Cecil D (Julia); [Format:lower], [Creator], [WebsiteTitle] ([URL] : [AccessType] [AccessDate]), r 1000 W 7th.

Polk's Indianapolis City Directory - Vol. 1942 (Indianapolis, Indiana: R.L. Polk & CO., Publishers, 1942), 1441, entry for Woods, Cecil D; digital image, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (Downloaded 29 November 2016), mach NYCSys r204 N Walcott.

Rub Some Water On It!

I can't believe I did it!  I got my husband to get up on a Saturday and head to a county an hour and a half away to see what we could see about his ancestors.  You see, he doesn't like to have things sprung on him at the last minute, and I figured there was no way he would go.  However, to my happiness, he went without a fight, and we had a great day! 

Let me give you a little background.  My husband and I just discovered that we like genealogy. After almost 18 years of marriage, it's so neat to find something new that we can do together and enjoy!  We have been working on his Wood/Woods family for a month or so, and it was time to head to the nearest county where his relatives had settled.  We had done tons of Ancestry and internet searches and had some questions that just couldn't be answered without actually going there and seeing things with our own eyes.  We want to go to the Owen County, Indiana courthouse as well, but they aren't open on weekends.  Our goal today was to 1) visit the Owen County Library in Spencer, IN and check out the Genealogy section, 2) Visit the known graves of some relatives in this area: Nathan and Sarah Wood, 3) View the property of John Wood (Nathan's dad) in which he obtained a land patent in 1848. 

The library was very nice and we poked around some books and, to our enjoyment, they had a Wood Family File chocked full of papers.  Of course not all the pieces pertained to our family, but it was so nice to see a hefty file to look through and enjoy.  We didn't find anything earth-shattering at the library, but it's nice to know where it is and what it has to offer. 

We next headed to the cemetery.  Adel Cemetery is south of Spencer and it was very close to the land owned by John Wood.  In fact, it was directly across the road from the cemetery.  The cemetery sits nicely up a large hill overlooking the road and woods across the road.  We immediately found our Nathan and Sarah Wood.  We had seen the graves online, but it so much better to see the place your loved ones were laid to rest with your own eyes and heart.  Realizing this grave holds my husband's great-great-great grandfather is amazing.  He was a Civil War veteran and his grave is marked as such. 

We began to walk around near the grave and take notice of other graves and other names.  Near Nathan's grave (ten feet or so to the right) was a tilted grave and barely legible.  We brushed it with our hands but just couldn't make it out.  Brian said, "If we had some water, we could pour some on it to see if that helped."  I said, "I do have water in the car on the driver's side door for just these types of emergencies."  We retrieved the water and returned to the tilted limestone grave.  We poured the water on the grave and a name started to appear....Martha Wood.  Now while this seems like a very ordinary name, we both looked at each other and realized we had found something good---  Something that made our trip worth the drive!!  You see, we had been trying to locate Nathan's mother and father's death dates for quite a while and were hitting some brick walls.  And guess what? Her name was Martha Wood.  We had thought she died before 1860, and with some head tilting and some good ole deciphering, we think we can make out the date.  It appears to say, DIED JULY 11 1859.  Eureka!

While on an "Ancestry High", we began to look around at the other graves.  If Martha is here, could John be here too?  We starting noticing just small stones in the same line as the Wood area but no writing on the stones.  All the other graves seemed eligible or another name besides Wood.  We walked around a few minutes and just concluded that John must be buried here but his grave is not able to be seen. Darn it!  Seeing that would have made our day even more meaningful.  Seeing the grave of your fourth great grandfather would be so much cooler than seeing the third, right?  We started walking about the cemetery in the same general area but ventured out.  I came back to Martha's graver and kept walking in a straight line directly to the right of her.  I found a stone buried in the ground about six by eight inches or so. No writing and buried almost completely.  We looked it over pretty well, but decided it was just a footer stone.  We continued perusing the ground and found a limestone marker lying face up but only showing about a six by six square.  This one had fallen over and was almost completely covered with moss and dirt. I used my shoe to move some moss and some letters started to appear.  Brian and I both removed the moss and dirt with our hands and, low and behold, the word WOOD started to show itself to us. 

Now let me interject here that I think our ancestors still talk to us.  Not in the weird ghostly way, but in something we carry with us.  I believe that God is a God who wants us to remember our history, after all, He gave us his Bible which is His history.  I think it's important to learn about the history of our families and preserve that for generations to come.  Sometimes I think the the scrapbooker in me documents too much of our family history, but then I go to the local public library and open a picture file with one picture for the Wood family for the entire county.  Imagine generations from now someone walks into the local library and there is an entire shelf dedicated to the Brian, Deidre and Griffin Woods family and their entire life story is documented with journaling and pictures! Someday the future Woods genealogist in the family will leap with joy when they find all those scrapbooks. 

OK.....now back to the story......we continue to clear the stone with water and rub away dirt and moss.  Imagine our shock when the name, JOHN, started to show itself.  It's very weathered, but it's definitely there in the stone.  We believe that the stone says, 1857 JOHN WOOD DIED SEPT.  It appears there are other letters under this, but we couldn't make them out.  We couldn't do much but just shake our heads.  This was very unexpected and did not count on finding this today!  We had thought that John died before 1860 as well, and was fairly sure he would be buried here, but Find-A-Grave and other cemetery listings for Adel Cemetery never listed him here.  He was one of our stumpers. 

When we were heading out of the area, we took some time to look around the area where John Wood's land was located and see what was on the land.  We could see a church right on the corner, Adel Church of Christ, and a house tucked back down a lane.  We noticed the mailboxes say, "WOOD".  Wouldn't that be amazing if our family still lives on the original land purchased by John???  Now we have another reason to return to Owen County to research the land records in detail. 

What a great day!  We had beautiful weather to be out walking around a graveyard and finding some old relatives.  Thank you, John and Martha, for talking to us today!  Just when you are ready to give up on finding additional facts, one of them shows up! Then, you get the ancestry bug again to keep searching.  Now if Thomas and Elizabeth (John's parents) would do the same, we would be greatly appreciative!  They lived in Surry County, North Carolina, so I think we will have to do a little planning for that trip. No last minute jaunt for that!