Joshua John Hendrixson

As I stated in my previous post for William Henry Hendrix, this lineage is a probable lineage for Will. Until I can cite it as absolute fact, please do not take it as absolute fact. At this time, there is no factual direct link between Will and the parents mentioned in this post, and previous posts - yet.

Joshua John Hendrixson (sometimes referred in the records as Joshua J or John) married Charlotte "Charity" Redmon in 1856 in Dekalb, Tennessee. Together, they had two children - William Henry, born in 1859 in Dekalb County, and Sarah Jane, born about 1861/62, most likely, also in Dekalb County.
Joshua was born in Dekalb County to Wiley Hendrixson and his mother, Maranda. Maranda's maiden name remains unknown at the time of this posting. Both his parents were born in Tennessee, most likely Dekalb County.
Joshua had 4 known siblings - William C, Sarah/Susanna, Abraham H, and Nancy.
Joshua joined up with the Confederacy during the Civil War, shortly before or after the birth of his daughter, Sarah Jane. 
He enlisted with the 84th Regiment of the  Tennessee Infantry, Company E, along with his brothers, William and Abraham. 
All three brothers enlisted on the same day, 25 November 1862, in Smithville, Tennessee. Each of them agreed to a term of three years.
But on the 10 January 1863, while the regiment was camped near Shelbyville, Tennessee, Joshua, William, and Abraham deserted their regiment. 
Wherever they were going (probably home), Joshua and William were taken prisoner by the Union Forces. Abraham's file does not contain papers that state he was also taken prisoner. 
Did the two older brothers sacrifice themselves as prisoners so that the youngest brother could escape? One wonders.
Joshua and William's Civil War records do not say which Prisoner of War Camps they were sent to, but both brothers ended up in Union Hospitals in Nashville.
Joshua died there on 21 Mar 1863 of Rubiola. William died there on 14 Feb 1863 of Pneumonia. 
Younger brother, Abraham, must have made it home as he appears in the 1870 Fed Census in Dekalb County, married with two children. In later Census', he has several more children, and moves, first, to Illinois, then on to Texas.

 Abraham's record reporting his desertion on the same day and place as his brother's.

 William's records reporting his desertion and death.
















Joshua's records reporting his desertion and death.

Kete E Curtiss Will

I know I said I would write a post about Tryphena and Tryphosa Spencer. I have not forgotten. 
I also said my next post will be about Will Hendrix' father, Joshua. I will post that one immediately after this one.
But, first, I want to post a few key pages from Kate Curtiss' probate records. I found them on Ancestry yesterday.
A little refresher on background. Kate was the daughter of Kelsey Curtiss and Eliza Sutliffe. She was, also, Emma Curtiss' sister. Emma was the second wife of Rodolph Spencer, and mother of Lilla. 
I believe Emma was close to her sister, Lilla, and named her only child after her. I believe that Emma's daughter grew close to her Aunt Kate when she was sent to Minnesota after her mother died - and named one of her daughters, Kate (my grandmother), in honor of her Aunt. Lilla also named another daughter in honor of her Aunt Lilla (and, probably, herself). 
The Waseca Historical Society had this file that they would send for a fee. I, at one time years ago, was going to send for it, but never did. Well, I finally have it. The file has approximately 43 or so pages in it. Most are court orders for appointing administrator of the will, bondsmen, etc. I am only posting the key pages.

 

The Final Decree of Distribution

Estate Hearing Notice published in the Janesville Argus.

Order of Appointing Appraisers.

I found this interesting as one of the names of the court appointed appraisers was a Comstock. Kate's maternal grandmother was a Comstock.

Receipts of some of the expenses involving Aunt Kate's funeral and such. I couldn't help thinking how great it would be if we had those kinds of costs today.

A page from one of the court documents that records Aunt Kate's father as an heir. His age is 86.

This last page I'm posting is the Petition for Administration filed in court by Aunt Kate's sister, Lilla. It clearly states that Aunt Lilla is Kate's sister.

At the time of Aunt Kate's passing in 1910, Grandfather Kelsey and Aunt Lilla were the only family members still residing in Waseca County with Kate. Grandma Emma and Aunt Lucy, along with Uncle William, had predeceased Aunt Kate. I believe Uncle Frank was in Arizona at the time, and Uncle Edgar was in California. 

For the next seven years, Aunt Lilla took care of her father, Kelsey, until he passed away in 1917. Aunt Lilla passed away in 1926. Uncle Edgar passed away in California in 1938. 

At the time of this post, it is still unknown when Uncle Frank passed on.

Probable Lineage of William Henry Hendrix

This is, so far, only a PROBABLE lineage for William. I do have a couple of emails out to Hendrix researchers that I am hoping can verify this lineage. Until then, I will post what I have so far.
William has been most difficult. There are quite a few William Hendrix' that were born in Tennessee within a five year plus/minus birth year as our William. Each one had to be researched both forward and backward in time to rule them out. I finally came up with the most probable. Probable because I cannot connect him specifically between the time William leaves Sacramento and the time he arrives back in Tennessee. But all the records on this William fit no other William in Tennessee. So, here it is. Do not take this for FACT just yet that this is our William.

The first record I ever found for Will (as he was known in his family) was the marriage record between he and Susan C. Spencer. The marriage occurred in Poinsett, Arkansas on the 3rd of August, 1890. According to the marriage bond (posted by a Thomas Humphries whom I still have found no connection to Susan), Will resided in Hydrick, Arkansas while Susan resided in Bay Village, Arkansas. 
The first record that states that Will was born in Tennessee would be the 1910 Fed Census (I could not find either of them in the 1900 Fed Census) for Sacramento where he, Susan, and their children were residing. It records Will as being 52 years old, and born about 1858 in Tennessee. 
It was told to me by descendents of William that he left Sacramento and went back to Tennessee. I traced William in Sacramento through 1915 in the City Directory, so I believe, he left after 1915. 
Now we come to the probable part of Will.
Everyone I've researched with Will's name did not pan out. People were wrong, dates were wrong, places didn't match up. Except one.
I found a Will H Hendrix in the 1920 Fed Census residing in Chester County, Tennessee born abt 1861 (this is within acceptable guidelines for Census error) in Tennessee, and both parents born in Tennessee (this matches the 1910 Fed Census). It reports Will as a farmer, married to a Margrette V. In the home is Margrette's daughter, Eva J Riley, from a previous marriage, and Margrette's niece, Zeri Naylor. Naylor is Margrette's maiden name.
In the 1930 Fed Census, he is now listed as William H Hendrix born abt 1860 in Tennessee, residing in Bethel Springs, McNairy County. His wife is listed as Maggie V, and his occupation is that of a Fireman in the Saw Mill Industry. No one else is recorded in the home.
The 1940 Fed Census has him as W. H. Hendrix, born about 1858 in Tennessee, still living in Bethel Springs with his wife, Margaret, and a "usual" occupation of Fireman in the Saw Mill Industry (obviously retired as his age is reported as 82). No one else is reported in the home.
In 1946, William passes away - and I found his death certificate. His birth date is reported on the certificate as 9 Sep 1859 born in Dekalb County, Tennessee, widowed (his wife, Margaret Viola Hendrix, daughter of John Naylor, died the previous year), and parents are Joshua Hendrix and Charlotte Redman. Will is buried in the same cemetery (Hurst Cemetery) in Chester County, Tennessee.
My next post will be on Joshua and Charlotte.

 Will Hendrix grave stone from his "findagrave" memorial. Photo courtesy of Ramey Wilson, Jr.

Will's Death Certificate

Susan Spencer's Lineage

I'm afraid I do not have any photo's of Susan's family beyond what I've included thus far. All I have are names, dates and places. If I do come across any in the future, I will post them. 
So, let's trace Susan's lineage.
First off, I will cover her paternal lineage in future posts. For now, I will just say that her father was Rodolph Ambrose Spencer, son of Ambrose Spencer and Mercy Ann Russell.
Susan's mother, Telitha Humphries, was born to James Humphries and Sarah Morgan in St. Clair, Alabama. 
Telitha had two half siblings from her father's first marriage to Susannah Watkins - Martha and Pinckney. She had two older brothers - John and Uriah - and one younger sister - Louisa Catherine.
There are several databases on Ancestry that confirm the marriage date of 19 May 1841 in St. Clair County, Alabama for James and Sarah. The 1850 U.S. Federal Census has the couple living in St. Clair with children Martha, Pinckney, John, Uriah, and Telitha. 

I saved the post above as a draft, because I ran into a few "head scratching" contradictions for some of Telitha's family members. A few databases claim that James had several children with Susannah. For now, though, I will leave Martha and Pickney as is because they are the only ones I can verify.
However, the 1840 Federal Census does report that their were 5 males and 3 females under the age of nineteen living in the home of James. This was one year before he married Telitha's mother, Sarah Morgan, so it is probable that he had more than two children with Susannah.
I have not progressed beyond Sarah Morgan's parents, Thomas Morgan and Nancy Reynolds. Sarah was born in South Carolina and died in St. Clair County, Alabama. She appears to have at least three brothers - Thomas, David and Benjamin - and at least two sisters - Martha and Talitha Jane. Other than that, I have no other information for Sarah.
James was born in South Carolina to John Humphries and Julia Frances Ellis. He had eight brothers - William, Pelham, John, Ellis, Jesse, Berryman, Drury, and William Bryant - and three sisters - Elizabeth, Sarah, and Mary.
His father, John, had married a second time to Mary Jane Clary. This union produced two half-siblings for James - Thompson and Langdon.
I found a short bio about John on Ancestry.com written by a J. C. Coleman Humphries in 1932. He says that John suffered from outbursts of anger citing one such incident whereas he took a shoe knife and carved on his son's arm as punishment. 
This might explain why only three granddaughters and his son, Berryman, are the only family members to inherit in his will. Mr. Humphries does mention that John's father's name was William. Some researchers name his mother as Marianne Walker.
Likewise, I do not know anything about Julia Frances Ellis. Some researchers have her father as Benjamin, while one researcher claims that Julia and Mary Clary are one in the same person.
I will have to do more research for this line.
As a side note, it appears that Humphries had originated from Humphreys and Humphrey.

The Will of John Humphries

Death Certificate for Telitha, left
Marriage record to Andrew Duke, bottom left
Marriage record to Rodolph Spencer, bottom right

A Year in the Life of Wally Hewitt, as told by Wally Hewitt

With my new computer, I have a brand new disc drive that actually works now. Anyone who has ever owned a laptop knows that the disc drives don't last long. So, I wanted to see if I could figure out a way to get some files off of some cd's that I had used to backup an external hard drive years ago. Lo and behold, I had found the story of Grandpa Hewitt that he wrote about himself that my Aunt Gail had sent me years ago. 
I found it a fascinating read. I hope you do, too.
The pages run from left to right. Click on each page to bring up in another view. Right click and choose "Open in a new tab" for easier reading.

John Spencer and Nancy Warner - Ambrose' Parents

I have a draft going for Telitha Humphries lineage, but it still needs more work to put it together. So, I thought I would continue on with Susan (and Lilla's) paternal lineage - that being the grandfather of Rodolph and parents of Ambrose.

John Spencer and Nancy Warriner (also spelled Warner and Wariner) had 11, possibly 12, children. The following children have been verified - Sidney, Tryphosa, Hannah, Ambrose, John Otis, Alonzo, Jason, Urbane, Tryphena, Persis, and Aurilla. There is one unverified (and, most likely, is not a child of John and Nancy) and that is Albert. He appears on the One World Tree, which is not exactly a good research source, but I include him anyhow just in case something comes up in the future.

John Spencer's Estate Record Left side
of the page.

John Spencer was born Granville, New York to Jeremiah Spencer and Hannah Hinckley. His wife, Nancy, was born in Wilbraham, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Warriner and Diadema Hancock. It is unknown at this time when John and Nancy married, but since Nancy's father died in Clayton, New York, and her first child, Sidney, was born in Granville, New York, it is safe to assume they married in New York, in either Washington County or Jefferson County.  
John was a farmer, as was his son, Sidney. Sidney married Asenath Davis, probably in New York where their children were born, most likely Jefferson County. The couple had five documented children - Melissa, Charles, Romela, William Wallace, and Mary. There is a possible sixth child - Rosaman - but I can find no documentation on her. She appeared in another person's family tree. They had no documentation for her either. 

Sidney and Asenath, along with their children, Charles, Romela, William, and Mary show up in the 1850 Fed Census in Berrien County, Michigan. It is here - in Bainbridge - that Sidney passes away in 1890. Asenath preceded him in death, also in Bainbridge, in 1883.
On my next post about this family, I will blog about the two daughters of John and Nancy - Tryphosa and Tryphena.

Turn Back the Blog Page

I got hit with an illness that had me down for a few days, so I have to back track a bit. Please go back to Susan Spencer Hendrix blog post of photo's for proper labeling that I did not do on the original post. I have edited.