Gone with the Whittingtons, Part 1

In 1910 when 19-year-old Lloyd Read wanted to marry Miss Lillie Belle Munro of Arkansas, lately come to Oregon, his family told him no, that she came from “poor white trash.” However, although Lillie’s Southern ancestors, the Whittingtons, were not quite the aristocracy of Gone with the Wind, they had been relatively wealthy slave-holders in North Carolina and Tennessee. They had so many children in their family, though, that they did not maintain their same standard of wealth in the next generation, which included Lillie’s grandfather Solomon, and Solomon’s family became poorer still after the Civil War.

James and Frances (Maynard) Whittington

Beginning with the generation born during the Revolutionary War, our ancestor James Whittington¹ was born 23 June 1776 in Johnston County, North Carolina to Richard and Olive (Stephenson) Whittington. Richard owned property in Johnston County and had sold property before the 1770s in Edgecombe County. He and Olive had four children before James and five after. The children’s names were Lucretia, who married Asa Austin; Peggy, who married Allen Johnson; Allen Whittington; Mary, who married William Wilder; James Whittington; Sally, who married George Mainord; Richard Whittington, who married Sarah Dupree; Solomon Whittington, who married Sarah Lassiter; William Whittington, who married Sally Eason; and Jonathan Whittington, who married Clary Green 1st and Sally Allen 2nd. James’s father, Richard, had been born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina on 18 December 1748 and died in Johnston County, North Carolina on 20 October 1820, at the age of 72.

¹The surname was spelled Whittington, Witington, Whittenton, or Whitenton, depending on who was writing it in the various documents. Different branches of the family began to standardize the name using whichever spelling they preferred after about 1810. I will use the spelling for adults preferred by each family member if I can determine it.)

The 1790 census shows that Richard held no slaves, nor did any of his Whittington relatives living in his immediate neighborhood, nor did his in-laws’ families, the Stephensons. In his immediate neighborhood were 195 free white men over the age of sixteen, 317 free white boys under sixteen, 625 free white women and girls, 24 other free persons, and 422 slaves.

James and Frances up to 1820

James, as a young man in Wake County, North Carolina, married Miss Frances Maynard (also spelled Mainard and Mainord), who went by the name of “Frankie,” on 9 April 1798. Frances was the daughter of William Maynard and his wife Agatha (possibly surnamed Davron); Frances was born on 15 February 1780 in Wake County. In the 1790 Census, a William “Mainyard” lived in Wake County with three males over 16, five males under sixteen, three females, and seven slaves. This was probably Frankie’s family. Nearby lived the family of Gibson Maynard, who could easily be Frankie’s uncle. Together James and Frankie had 13 known children, born probably in Johnston County:

• William Maynard Whittington, b. 9 February 1799.
• Richard Merritt Whittington, b. 16 September 1800.

The 1800 Census shows James and Frankie living in Johnston County, North Carolina, with those two little boys. Next door to their family lived James’ father with his family of eight. James and Frankie next had:

• Agatha Bless Whittington, b. 27 October 1802.
• Talitha Cumi Whittington, b. 13 March 1805.
• Gibson Whittington, b. 29 June 1807.

The next child was known to have been born in Wake County:

• Weston Whittington, b. 8 July 1809.

and the list for Wake County is missing, so probably they lived in Wake County. They had the following children:

• George Arthur Whittington, b. 1 June 1811.
• Solomon Yancy Whittington, b. 20 July 1813.
• Othaniel Whittington, b. 10 January 1816.
• Cason Coley Whittington, b. 18 February 1818.
• James Henderson Whittington, born 8 June 1820.

Frankie’s father, William Maynard, died about 1817 and the probate took about two years to be settled. In May 1817 her brother George and others petitioned for a division of the real estate, and in November 1818 James and Frances Whittington and others petitioned for division of the real estate. Apparently William Maynard had been a relatively prosperous man; his heirs appear to have fought over exactly how his estate would be divided. His will is a mass of contradictions. After the will was settled, James Whittington appeared to have moved into the slave-holding class of society. Frankie and James inherited a slave named Dolly from the estate of William Maynard.

It is interesting to note that in 1804 the last of the northern states to abolish slavery, New Jersey, effectively created the North-South dividing line along the old Mason-Dixon line that divided Pennsylvania from Virginia and Maryland. The United States then passed its first abolition-oriented law, the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which outlawed importing slaves from overseas. Sadly, this law was widely ignored in the South. It is evident that the Whittington family obeyed the law, though probably due to economics rather than to moral conviction. They identified with their Southern compatriots.

The Family in the 1820s

The 1820 Census listed James Whittington among the heads of families of Johnston County, North Carolina. With him was a woman aged 25–45, which was his wife Frankie. There were two girls in the 10–16 category, Agatha and Talitha at the ages of 17 and 15 actually; and there were nine boys and young men. The four under age ten were Solomon (7), Othaniel (5), Cason Coley (2), and James Henderson. The youngest boy, James Henderson Whittington, was two months old when the census taker came that summer and lived only until the next May. The three between 10 and 16 must have been Gibson (13), Weston (11), and George (George was 9, but perhaps they rounded up his age—they definitely had Agatha in the wrong category). The young men aged 18–26 must have been William and Richard, who were 21 and 19, respectively.

There were two slaves in this family. One was a woman aged 26–45 who must be Dolly, and the other a young man aged 14–25. Considering that Frances was in charge of a household consisting of three men and nine children under age 16, and one of the two girls she could expect to help her with housework may have had some problems, and she was expecting another baby within a month, perhaps Dolly was a household worker. The young slave man perhaps was helping James and the older young men with the farm work. The price of slaves in the 1820s was between $300 and $400, depending on age and sex, so we can see that the James Whittingtons were now on the wealthier side of society. Most slave-holders in the Carolinas at this time were owners of small or medium-sized farms, and they had one to just a few slaves. Only the wealthy plantation owners could afford to have many slaves, as was the case with Frankie Mainard Whittington’s father.

The next children to be born to James and Frankie were:

• Quince Tillian Whittington, b. in 1822.
• Frances Ann Whittington, b. 14 January 1829.

On 16 February 1823 daughter Agatha Bless Whittington married Alexander S. Collins in Johnston County, North Carolina. Her eldest brother, William, signed the bond for the marriage license. Perhaps her groom was too poor to afford it.

According to Diane Bollert’s research, the Whittingtons were members of the Primitive Baptist Church of Johnston County.

The Family in the 1830s

The 1830 Census showed James and Frankie living in Johnston County, North Carolina, with nine children, two of whom are a mystery. Talitha was a young woman now, possibly helping her mother in the house. Solomon and George were between 15 and 20 and surely would be helping with the farm work, as would Cason and Othnell, between 10 and 15. Even 8-year-old Quince would do his share of chores. The girl under 5 was baby Frances Ann, but there were two other small boys, one under 5 and one between 5 and 10 who are unknown to us. It could be that these were two children born in that seven-year period between Quince and Frances Ann, and perhaps they died as children and their names were lost to posterity. Another possibility is that they were children of William, who was said to have been married quite young, but no record of his family has yet turned up. If this were the case, there was no woman in the household who could be William’s wife, so either William’s wife had died, or the scenario was something entirely different.

Even with all those boys to help with the farm work, one of the two slave women on the 1830 census, one age 10–23 and the other age 24–35, was probably working with them in the fields. By this time, landowners with many slaves were discovering that they could make a lot of money by hiring their slaves out to other farms. The Whittingtons may very well have had hired slave labor to work in the fields as well as using their own slave and the sons of the family. It seems likely their other slave was working in the house, helping Frances with the children and the enormous amount of work all these people would generate. The older of the two slave women could be Dolly, if she was 26 in 1820 and was 35 at this census, taken a different time of the year.

Frances had borne 13–15 children in thirty years and was probably worn down with all the work. In 1830 she was 50 years old; she had 11 boys and men, four women, and a baby to feed at least three times every day. The laundry must have taken two full days a week, and the ironing a full day, and sewing or mending would have to be done every day, not to mention the daily cleaning and regular heavy scrubbing, carrying water, etc. Their culture and circumstances would have led them to believe the slave women were necessary, especially since James was obviously wealthy enough to afford them.

This evidence shows that James had become prosperous. The slaves’ cost was around $600 then, which would be about $15,400 in 2012 dollars. James probably sold the young slave man he had owned in 1820 and bought another woman, unless these two slave women were a mother and her 10-year-old daughter, born just after the last census. Slave women and girls were worth more than slave boys or young men, until the men were about 25 years old, and then the cost became about equal. Various studies have shown that it was actually less expensive to employ farm workers than to own slave workers until the farms were turned to cotton, but at this time they were planted in various crops including tobacco, but cotton was not yet king. The economics and politics and the culture of the time were somewhat complicated, to say the least.

During the mid-to-late 1830s, James Whittington and most of his grown sons moved their families to Tennessee, settling near Jackson in District 17 of Madison County. Tennessee historically had belonged to North Carolina, but it was made a separate territory in 1790 and then a state in 1796. Madison County lies in the west part of the state on the Gulf Coastal Plain, the 10-mile wide eastern border to the Mississippi River.

James’ son Richard did not move with the family. He had married Martha Helen Peebles in North Carolina on 16 March 1826 and had a farm there into the 1860s. On October 3, 1837, son William acquired land in Victoria County, Texas, so perhaps he moved from North Carolina all the way down there. Son Weston had married Lucy Ann Williams about 1831 and had a son born in North Carolina in 1832. Weston’s next son was born in Tennessee in 1836; he had bought property in Madison County on 26 December 1835, the first of the family to do so. James had bought property in Johnston County, North Carolina, in the summer of 1836, and then two years later he bought land in Madison County, Tennessee, on September 13, 1838.

Tennessee was being settled at a faster rate in those days than it had before—the wilderness seemed just about tame there. The Indian Removal Act had been passed in 1830, and in 1838 and 1839 President Martin Van Buren’s administration forced more than 17,000 Cherokee Native Americans, along with their approximately 2,000 black slaves, off the land and sent them west. In came the white settlers with their own black slaves.

After moving to Tennessee, helped or not, Frankie died early in 1839 at age 59, probably worn out by childbearing and the heavy work of those days. The family name began to change. Back in North Carolina, it was mostly spelled Whittington. In Tennessee it began to be spelled Whittenton, and some branches of the family would adopt Whitenton later on.

During the 1830s the Whittington family would have been interested in and partial concerning the various political changes that affected the Southern way of life. The Nullification Crisis in South Carolina established the precedent of a state rebelling against the Federal government over the issue of states’ rights, and President Andrew Jackson himself stated that the next crisis between the states and the federal government would be over the issue of slavery.

The Family in the 1840s

The 1840 U.S. Census lists Father James and his family in Madison County, Tennessee with two of his sons living very close by. In his household, James had one boy age 15–20 which was Quince. He had three boys age 20–30 which were Othnell, Solomon, and George. He was between 60–70 years of age. On the female side he had a girl between 10–15 which was Frances Ann. He also had a young woman in the family between 20–30 who must have been Talitha, although she was 35 years old at this point. But she seemed to always shave years off her age in later census records, so this is not too surprising. The total in the household was 10; there were three slaves with the family. Two female slaves were in the 24–36 and the 20–24 age categories. These women could be the same two slaves listed in this household in 1830, but if so, the older woman cannot be the same one as in 1820 unless the ages assigned her are way off in one census or another, which of course is possible, given that Talitha had lost a good ten years off her age and could have been the one giving the information to the census taker. The slave boy was 10–24; he could easily be a son of one of the women.

The number of persons engaged in agriculture in this household was four, and since Othnell, Solomon, and George were all farmers as soon as they were on their own, they must have been three of the workers. It seems likely that James himself was the fourth, which leads to the rather surprising conclusion that probably none of the slaves was helping with the farm work. But with Frankie recently dead and a little girl still to rear, perhaps one of the slaves was devoted to little Frances Ann as a nurse-governess. Talitha may have had some mild mental disability—perhaps that was why the family seemed to consider her younger than she really was. One of the slaves was certainly in charge of the household work.

With thirteen children in James and Frankie’s family, this gets a little complicated, but we will try to say where each of the children was during the 1840s.

Son William didn’t appear in the 1840 Census because he was in Texas, and at that time Texas had declared independence from Mexico, winning its war officially in 1836 but continually being attacked by Mexican forces, particularly those under Santa Anna, until the United States intervened in 1846 and annexed Texas after beating Mexico in 1848. A tax assessment exists for W.M. Wittenton in 1846 in Victoria County, where he eventually died.

In the 1840 Census, son Richard M. Whittenton lived in Panther Branch, Wake County, North Carolina. He had a wife and two boys under ten and two girls ages 10–15 listed with him. These children were Mazy Helen, Eliza Jane, James Thadeus, and John Peebles.

On August 20, 1840, son Gibson married Elizabeth Williams in Madison County, Tennessee, and the two of them appeared in the Census four households above his father’s family. Gibson was recorded as working in agriculture.

Next door to Gibson was Weston’s family in the 1840 Census listing. Weston had a wife age 20–30, same age as he; they had three children listed. They had a son under age 5 who was James, age 3. They had two daughters listed on the census, the elder age 5–10 who should have been a male, John Rufus, age 8; and the other a girl under 5 who corresponds to baby Sarah. Curiously, the total number for this family was listed as 6 although only five tick marks were present on the census. Sometimes census takers got things wrong. Perhaps when he came around, all the children, along with their cousins, maybe three dogs and four cats and the family pig were all around him making noise and he couldn’t hear the mother right. Sometimes it simply was because the family was not at home and the census taker asked a neighbor to describe the family. Weston was recorded as working in agriculture.

Son Solomon got into trouble in 1841 in the Madison County Court for having fathered an illegitimate child with a woman named “Louvisey Manor” in McNairy County (south of Madison) two years before and failing to pay its support, but the Court decided it had no jurisdiction over the case since the mother and child had lived two years in McNairy County from the time of the birth, so Solomon was apparently off the hook. There is no evidence that he ever recognized this child as his own, and perhaps it was not.

Son Cason Coley did not appear in the 1840 census, and we have to wonder whether he had gone to Texas or where he was. He was 22 at the time of the Census. He later appeared to have acquired land near where William lived, but William died all alone, so Cason Coley could not have been with him. Maybe Cason Coley went wandering around the west until he felt like returning to Texas.

On February 5, 1844, Father James married Mrs. Kettura (Katherine) Lester Betts, a 57-year-old widow, in Madison County, Tennessee. She owned 300 acres in Madison and Haywood counties, a single plot left to her by her husband William Betts, who had died September 7, 1835.

Son Gibson and his wife Elizabeth probably moved over to Dyer County, northwest of Madison County, by 1844. Their daughter Martha was born there, and then they moved back to Madison County.

On February 5, 1846, son George Arthur married Martha Elizabeth Bledsoe in Madison County. He was 35, she was 19.

During the 1840s, son Weston moved to Texas, first living in Victoria County near where his brother William had acquired land several years before. He eventually settled in Goliad County.

The baby sister of the family, Frances Ann Whittington, married Christopher C. Harris on 14 February 1848 and moved to Arkansas; nothing further is known about them.

Down in Texas William died at the age of 49 or just 50, before 12 March 1849 in Victoria County. I have not been able to trace whether he ever married or what became of his children if he had any. His death records show no heirs at all, not even his brothers. Dates for the distribution of his land by deeds are on 4 June 1850, 25 June 1850, 12 February 1853, and 26 November 1853. His personal estate was auctioned in May 1849 and the rest of his estate settled by October 1851.

Politically, the 1840s affected the Whittington family chiefly by the United States having acquired Texas and several territories at the end of the Mexican War. Many Southerners were moving to Texas as cotton gained in economic importance and farmers depleted their soil by overplanting it with cotton. They looked to the southwest for new lands and were glad when Texas was added to the U.S. as a slave state, giving them the rights and freedoms they had been used to and also helping to balance power between the North and South in the U.S. Congress. However, this led to a four-year struggle between political forces over the issue of slavery that ended short of war when the Compromise of 1850 was signed, allowing California to join the Union as a free state in return for the Territories of New Mexico and Utah (which encompassed the present-day states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada) to allow slavery.

The Family in the 1850s

In 1850 Father James, with his wife Kettura, had a farm worth $1000, which in 2012 value would be approximately $60,000. He had four slaves, and his sons Quince and Othnell, ages 23 and 30, were working as farmers for him. His daughter Talitha also lived there (it says she was 40, but she was really 45—and the census shows that she was illiterate as well. With all the rest of the family being literate, including her sisters, this seems to indicate that Talitha might have had some sort of disability, though she was not listed in the “insane” or “idiot” columns).

The slaves were two women ages 60 and 25, a young man age 23, and a boy age 9. The older woman, born about 1790, could have been Dolly, with them from 1817, if her age in the 1840 census was off by about 9 years (which could easily have been the case). The younger woman could be her daughter or the man her son; or they could have been a married couple. No doubt the younger slaves were working the land with the sons.

In 1850 daughter Agatha had split with Alexander Collins and was keeping house for her brother Solomon, who was not married. (Alexander Collins died in 1860 in North Carolina; he apparently never remarried.) With Agatha and Solomon Whittington was a 13-year-old girl named Catherine Collins who might be Agatha’s daughter, but we have no way of knowing. She could be another relative of Agatha’s former husband. Agatha was going by the name of Whittington again and married a Mr. Crabtree the next year. Also in 1851 Agatha joined the Baptist Church in Madison, Tennessee. That is the last we know of her until she died in 1889 at the age of 86.

In 1850 son Gibson and his wife Elizabeth had moved back to Madison County from Dyer County, Tennessee. Their farm was worth $250, and they had four children: Sarah James Frances, age 9; Elender, age 8; Martha L, age 6; and David Williams Whittington, age 3. They had no slaves; instead, they had an 18-year-old hired man named George Smith

In 1850 son Weston was in Victoria County, Texas with his wife, Lucy Ann, and their four children: John R, age 18; James William, age 13; Sarah C, age 10; and George Maynard, age 7. Their farm was about 140 acres and they were doing well. Weston had no slaves; he and his elder son had cultivated a part of their land and they were raising pigs. They had oxen to plow their land.

Son George and his wife, Martha, lived in Madison County, Tennessee, with their three children when they were recorded in the 1850 Census: James Maynard, age 3; Mary Frances, age 2; and Thadeus, 8 months. George had no slaves, although he had a farm worth $300; he had only a part of it under cultivation. In 1853 George and his family joined the Baptist Church of Madison, Tennessee, the same one his sister Agnes had joined two years earlier.

Solomon in 1850 was farming, but he had no property worth anything and lived next door to his father, so he was probably still helping with his father’s farm; however, his fortunes were about to change.

The farm work was probably too much for Father James. He was 74 years old in 1850. At the end of the next year he gave his sons Solomon and “Otel” (Othnell) gifts of parcels of land. First he gave Othnell 110 acres on November 28, 1851, and a month later he gave Solomon 50 acres on December 20th.

Certainly James Whittington must have been slowing down at the end of 1851. Just two and a half years after dividing the bulk of his land between his sons, he died on May 20, 1853. It is interesting to speculate on the family dynamics that led to this curious division of land. Othnell, it seems, was the heir to the bulk of his father’s property. The older sons—William, Richard, Gibson, Weston, and George—all seemed to have acquired property without their father’s giving it to them, but perhaps he had helped with money. William of course died before his father. The rest of the older sons were married before their father passed away.

Solomon appeared to have been the black sheep here. Until he married in 1851, his father appeared not to have helped him, and then only at the very end of the year, and with less than half what the younger, single brother was given a month earlier. Presumably Cason Coley had been helped to acquire land in Texas in the same way his older brothers had been.

The daughters were not given land by their father, but perhaps they were given dowry money. After Agatha’s marriage ended, she moved into a house with her brother Solomon and kept house for him. Perhaps they were two “black sheep” together.

Father James may have provided for his other children, if the action of Othnell ten years later in granting his sister Talitha and his brother Quince jointly fifty acres can be construed as complying with James’s wish that Othnell take care of them.

After James’s Death

James Whittington had such a large family to provide for that it seems to have somewhat depleted his resources. Certainly none of his children attained the wealth that their father had acquired, and several of the children had very large families themselves. It was probably economics that encouraged four of the five brothers who relocated from Tennessee to Texas. The eldest son, William, went there first, perhaps as early as 1837, and maybe Cason Coley went about the same time. Next Weston migrated in the mid-to-late 1840s, and Gibson joined them after Father James’ death, probably about 1854. Finally, after the Civil War ended, Quince went to Texas, probably to escape the consequences of not finishing his military service during the War. George, Solomon, and Othnell stayed in Tennessee, and of course Richard never left North Carolina. Of the daughters, Talitha stayed in Tennessee with her brother Othnell’s family. We don’t know where Agatha went after marrying Mr. Crabtree. Frances Ann ended up in Arkansas, her husband obviously one of those who took advantage of the opening up of the southwest, although they didn’t go as far as Texas. Of all the family, only Othnell had the kind of wealth approaching that of their father. He was the only slave owner of them all as well.

By the 1850s many slave-owners, excluding the very wealthy plantation owners, had realized that selling their slaves was more lucrative than keeping them to work the land. By those times in Tennessee it was definitely more economical to hire workers rather than to own them. Even Othnell with his greater acreage and personal property than his brothers in 1860 owned just three slaves, a woman and her two little sons, compared with their closest neighbor who had 18.

Each of James’s children has a fuller description of his or her own life as an adult. Click the links below to go to the rest of the posts.

Part 2: William and Richard
Part 3: Agnes and Telitha
Part 4: Gibson and Weston
Part 5: George, Solomon, and Othaneil
Part 6: Cason Coley, James Henderson, Quintillian, and Frances Ann


Note: If you would like to have a digital copy of the entire book, with updates, sources, and more, please send me a message.

The Whittingtons’ Slaves

I wrote once before on the subject of our slave-owning ancestor James Whittington of Johnston and Wake Counties, North Carolina, and Madison County, Tennessee, but I want to focus a little closer on the descriptions of the people he held as slaves to speculate upon their roles in the Whittington family, their relationships with each other, continuity with the Whittingtons, and other implications.

Caveat: I cannot state how strongly I abhor the idea that anybody “owned” anybody. This is utterly and implacably wrong. However, it happened in my ancestry and I want to examine the facts more closely.

The census records show that James, who married Frances Maynard in 1798, had no slaves in 1800 or 1810. However, her father had seven in 1790, and when he died in 1817, it apparently took years to settle his estate as the children were filing petition after petition for at least two years. It looks as if James Whittington acquired two slaves from his father-in-law’s estate.

Here is a table showing the people James held as slaves at the time of each census, with their ages. He died in 1853 and his son Othnell inherited the bulk of his estate; the 1860 list is for Othnell.

1820	1830	1840	1850	1860
Female 26-45	Female 24-35	Female 24-36	Female  60	Female 38
Male 14-25	Female 10-23	Female 20-24	Female 25	Male 6
		Male 10-24	Male 23	Male 3
			Male 9

Working Roles
In 1820 the census reveals that James had two slaves, along with himself, his wife, two teenage daughters and eight sons, with one other boy 10–16 years old who could have been a cousin or other relative. Of these people, seven were agricultural workers. If the slaves were working in the fields, who were the others working with them? We can definitely include James and his two elder sons, and to make up the seven we must include either the sons ages 10–16 or the girls, ages 17 and 15. Four of the sons were under ten, probably too young to work in the fields. At this time Frances was about 40 years old and had ten children, so she would have had her hands very full in the house. Her daughters were probably helping her; it seems reasonable to assume she had the woman slave helping her with the household tasks and that the seventh agricultural worker was the extra young man in the household.
Frances would have had to supervise or do these chores herself: chopping wood for the fire, preparing and cooking food three times a day, cleaning, washing, weaving, sewing and mending, making candles and soap, rugs and quilts, and other household necessities, teaching and watching the little children, carrying water, emptying chamber pots, and so on. Some of these things even the little boys could do and probably did, but it is likely that one of the slaves did the heavy household work.

The 1830 census reveals the growing household with James and Frances at 54 and 50 years old; the boys at home ages 19, 17, 15, 12, 8, 6, and 4; the daughters ages 1 and 25. The two female slaves could have been household workers, though it is equally likely at least one of them was working in the fields alongside the men. The 1830 census form does not include tick marks for what work the people were doing.

The 1840 census shows the family had moved from Johnston County, North Carolina, to Madison County, Tennessee.  James was now 64 and Frances had died. The sons at home were 29, 25, 22, and 18; the daughters were 35 and 11. With all those sons and with three other grown sons living very close and also engaged in agriculture, James must have had plenty of help with the farm work; the male slave age 10–24 could have been working with James outdoors even if he were young. Probably the two slave women did the bulk of the household work, although one of them could have been working in the fields and one in the house.

In 1850 the census does not tell what work slaves did, but it does tell what the members of James’s family were doing. James and the two sons living with him were farmers. Another son next door had no land but was a farmer, so he probably worked for his father too. The young male slave was probably helping them, while at least one of the two slave women probably worked in the house with James’s second wife and the middle-aged daughter who is listed as “illiterate” on this census, the only one of the family to be so. Perhaps she was mentally disabled in some way, in which case it would make sense that in the earlier censuses help would have been needed in the house rather than out in the fields.

It strikes me that because the Whittington men were reared to do hard physical labor, and because only one of the nine sons of James Whittington grew up to eventually have slaves, the probability is high that the Whittington sons worked alongside the slaves and just maybe had enough respect for their workers that most declined to become slave owners. It is, of course, impossible to say this with certainty, but if that were the case, good for them.

Relationships among Slaves

It is hard to tell from the ages of the slaves whether they could have been related or not in the 1820 listing, where the woman is 26–45 and the male 14–25. They may have been a mother and son, or if they were nearly the same age, they could have been spouses or siblings. In 1830 where the females are 24–35 and 10–23 the younger female could just have been the daughter of the older woman, supposing that the younger one was 10 or close to it rather than close to 24. Otherwise they could have been sisters or cousins if related at all. In 1840 there is again the possibility of mother-child relationships, where the women are 24–36 and 20–24 and the male is 10–24. If the eldest slave is at the upper end of the scale, she could have been the mother of both the others if they were at the lower ends of their respective scales. Another mother-child possibility exists in 1850 where the eldest woman is 60, the other woman is 25, and the males 23 and 9. The eldest woman could have been the mother of all of them; or the woman age 25 and the man age 23 were spouses, although if so, it becomes harder to imagine that the 9-year-old boy is theirs. Certainly in 1860 the probability is high that the little boys ages 6 and 3 are sons of the woman, who is 38. In all these possibilities, only the 1860 census listing has a very high probability of a familial relationship.

Studies lately have suggested that family life among slaves was much more common than not. Even monogamous conjugal relationships were maintained through years under incredibly hard conditions. However, the reality still is that spouses were separated, children taken from at least one of their parents and sometimes from both, and siblings could not stay together. This is evident in the Whittington’s slaves.

Continuity with the Whittingtons

In 1830 the woman may have been the same one as in 1820; if she had been 26 in 1820, she could have been 35 in the first part of the year of 1830. Obviously in 1830 the man who was there in 1820 had been sold, or had died, possibly was set free (unlikely though), or even escaped.

The older woman in 1840 (age 24–36) could not have continued to be the same woman as in 1820 and 1830 if the first two censuses show the same woman. To be the same woman, she would need to be 45 or more in 1840. However, if they are different women, then the 1830 woman could have been 24–26 and in 1840 she could have been 34–36. The younger woman could be her daughter if the daughter were age 10 in 1830 and 20 in 1840. In any case, the 1840 women could easily be the same women as were there in 1830, but if so, then in 1820 the woman was probably someone different.


In 1850 the census began to list every person by age, if not by name. In the case of slaves, the owner’s name appeared with a listing by description of each person he or she owned. Thus James Whittington had a 60-year-old black woman in his household, and a black woman who is 25 with a black man who is 23, and a 9-year-old black boy.

Slave woman of the 1850s with white children

There is one possibility for a continuous scenario: that is if the older woman was the same one through all four decades. If she were in her early 20s when she came to the family from the Maynard family, she could have had her age reported a few years over or under through the years. One supporting detail in favor of this idea is that the Whittington’s middle daughter, Talitha (the one who never married) was shown on the 1850 census to be illiterate and her age decreases by ten to fifteen years over the course of three decades, suggesting that she was not careful about her own age and she could similarly have reported the slave woman’s age as whatever she desired as she talked to the census taker. The mother, Frances, died in the 1830s, and if Talitha were the one to report the ages and got them very wrong, then it makes sense that the Whittingtons kept one woman in their household until James died. Perhaps this elder slave died too; there is no guarantee if her age had been stretched or shrunk in previous censuses that she was not much older than 60 in 1850.

The woman Othnell owned in 1860 could easily be the same as the younger woman in 1850—she was reported to be 25 in 1850 and 38 in 1860, and the discrepancy of three years is not much when Othnell’s sister Talitha’s age changed by a good fifteen years. The two little boys, ages 6 and 3, are undoubtedly her sons.

Whether the Whittingtons kept the older woman all those years or not, they definitely changed the other slaves over the years. It is just barely possible that some of the others were her children and were kept until they were grown up enough to sell for a good price. There is of course no “good” scenario for the changes that are evident in the listings in each census.

Other Implications

One thing that I saw with definite relief is that while the slaves of other families in the same neighborhood included mulattos (the term used back then for mixed-race people), the Whittingtons’ slaves were always labeled black. The implication is that if the younger slaves were children of the older slaves, none of the Whittington men were their fathers. I definitely did not want to find any evidence of my ancestor or his sons sexually abusing slaves.

The final point is that in 1870 there were no black Whittenton families in any locality where our Whittenton or Whittington relatives lived. Likely none of the James Whittington family’s former slaves took the Whittington name. Often people took the surname of their former masters as their own. If the women who had been Whittenton slaves were married to men on neighboring farms, that would explain the lack of those surnames among recently freed people. The implication is that this is additional evidence that these Whittingtons were not fathers of slave children.

In a look at history’s bleak realities, it is small comfort.

Memoirs of Mirinda Piper Andrews: Married Life 1858 - 1872

Mirinda Piper married John Andrews on September 21, 1858 in Lincoln, Logan County, Illinois. Her father was Beverly Bradley Piper and her mother Delia Deborah Norton Piper. Mirinda was their oldest living child; she had younger siblings Asa Almon Piper, Charles Beverly Piper, and Anne Eliza Piper. Her husband was also the oldest living child in his family; his siblings were Harriet and Seth. Previous chapters of Mirinda’s memoirs have been published on this blog; this one comprises the period of her marriage through the early 1870s.

[1858]

In June John Andrews came again, and on the 21st of September we were married. The ceremony was performed by Mr. Moore, an old Baptist preacher long since dead. We went to live at the old Andrews place with John’s mother and brother Seth. Grandpa Norton was visiting at Father’s at the same time and left when we did; he was to stop at Vincennes, Indiana, but concluded to go on to Evansville with us. It was the last time I saw him; he died the next year at the age of 78. We spent one day at Vincennes, arrived at Farmersville in the night and were met by Seth and James and Harriet Hinkley (they had been married two years before). They brought carriages to take us home in, so the next morning we started for a twenty-mile ride. The day was pleasant and everything lovely. We arrived in time for dinner.

Mother Andrews

The Andrews family consisted of Mother, Seth, and an adopted daughter named Ellen Hall, who was a very pretty young girl about 14 years old. Also there was a cousin of John’s, a maiden lady named Sophronia Phillips staying with the family temporarily^[i]. (Old Mr. Andrews had died in 1854).

From this time on, my life was entirely changed, and my memories will be more of the Andrews family than the Pipers. I met a few of my old acquaintances, but not many, as I was too happy at home to go around much, and the family I had married into were a hard-working, quiet, stay-at-home people, and I did as near like them as I could.

In October Mother Andrews and Seth went to Genesee, Wisconsin, to visit some relatives, and they were so delighted with the place that they bought a farm with the intention of going there to reside in the spring. Miss Phillips stayed with us through the winter. James and Harriet lived on an adjoining farm. They had a year-old son named Anson. During the winter John sold their old home to a Mr. Bois (I think his name was but I am not certain). Seth was very anxious to sell in order to move to Wisconsin. John did not want to sell, but as his Mother sided with Seth he could not resist the pressure. It was an epoch in their lives, as they had always lived there, and all the children were born in the same house.

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We had agreed to give possession March 1st. In February Mother Andrews and Ellen Hall were both taken very sick with typhoid fever. There was to be a sale, and they were removed to Harriet’s, and by the 1st of March [they] were able to sit up. As soon as the sale was over and things were straightened out, John and I left for a visit to Father’s, who still lived near Lincoln, Illinois. Two years before this, James Hinkley and John Andrews bought in partnership a farm of 160 acres in Washington County, Illinois, on the Illinois Central Railroad, and planted it out with apple trees. They had a tenant on the place, and we went around that way to see how things were getting along. We went down the Ohio River in a steamboat to Cairo, Illinois. We had a very rough trip; the wind blew so hard that the boat had to anchor for twelve hours. Some of the passengers, myself among the rest, were quite sea-sick, or river sick. We spent one night in Cairo, then went up the Illinois Central Railroad to Dubois, the station near our orchard, took dinner with the tenant, and arrived at Father’s the next evening. Found them all well and delighted to see us.

We had decided to live at the orchard a year or two before we settled down for good, so John stayed one week at Father’s and then went back to build us a house. Harriet and James were to live there, too. I was dreadfully unhappy to have him leave me, and although my relatives were so kind grew worse. I was to stay ‘til he finished the house, but at the end of three weeks was too homesick [and] would not stay any longer. Father was very much put out about it, and he said I had lived with them 18 years and got along very well but now could not stay six weeks. But he went to Bloomington with me, and John met me at Centralia, so I did not have to change cars alone. We had to board two weeks with Mrs. Finch, our tenant’s wife, but I did not care, I was with my husband and that was all I wanted.

As soon as the new house was fit to move into, James and Harriet came and they had two rooms and we had two. How I enjoyed my new home. There is nothing quite so delightful to a young married woman as her first housekeeping experience. My housework was light, and I did not get tired or lonesome. Sometime that summer James and Harriet went back to their old home in Indiana and were gone two weeks. When they came back they brought James’ niece Eliza Oatsman with them, a sixteen-year-old young lady who lived with them ‘til she married.

I wanted Mother to come and visit us that summer, but she wrote she could not leave her family but we had better come to Lincoln, which we did about the 2^nd of August, and stayed about five weeks. The 8^th of September our little boy was born. We named him Charles Norton. Is there anything sweeter than the first baby? He was the first grandchild too in the Piper family. How they all did dote on him and hated to have us take him away, but when he was three weeks old we went home to Dubois. (This month Grandpa Norton died, aged about 78.)

James and Harriet met us at the depot and were glad to have us home again. Mother Andrews and Seth came down from Wisconsin and stayed a few weeks with us. We had quite an influx of visitors that fall. Clark Butler came, but I did not see him as he was there while we were at Lincoln. Anson Osborn and wife came from Indiana. There was an old Uncle and Aunt of John’s made us a short visit from Ohio, but I have forgotten their names, they died a few years after. The winter passed quickly and happily, my baby was very good and to my eyes beautiful. My housework was light, as there were only three of us in the family and two rooms to keep clean.

1860

This is an historical year, but there are plenty of accounts of it, so I won’t make the attempt. In March John, Baby and I went to Lincoln for a visit; we stayed at Father’s two weeks, then went up to Wisconsin to visit Mother Andrews. We had a very pleasant time as the neighbors invited us out to dinners and teas, so that we were going or entertaining company during our two weeks stay. Among others we met Miss Sylvia Van Camp, whom Seth married the next June. The 16 of May Harriet’s second child was born, George. The same day Abraham Lincoln was nominated for president by the Republicans.

The summer was very hot and we had a big crop of watermelons. The men used to stop work for two hours during the middle of the day and lie around and eat watermelons. Otis Hinkley spent a few weeks with his brother during the heated term, and he was then in college. Of course there were a great many political meetings held in the county, bur I did not attend but one, that was at Samarco, Perry County, and heard Richard Yates speak, who was afterwards Governor. After Seth and Miss Van Camp were married, Ellen Hall came to live with us and remained with us ‘til she was married nine years after. James’ family, with Eliza and Ellen, went over to Indiana in July for a visit of two weeks. Then I was lonesome, having been used to having so many in the house; it seemed dreary enough as John was out in the field at work early and late.

After they came home James went up to the north part of the state to look for a place to settle down, and he decided on Rockford and bought ten acres of land, made arrangements with a carpenter to build him a house, then came back and made preparations to leave Dubois with his family. They went in October. Mother Andrews came down to spend the winter with us and we had a hired man named Tom Brown. Ellen and I had plenty to do and were not lonesome.

In November Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Then there was mutterings of the great storm which broke on us the next April, but I did not heed it, there never had been a war since my recollection in this country, and I did not think there would be; it seemed impossible that Americans would begin to shoot each other, but you see they did.

About the middle of the month Father wrote me that Mother’s health was very poor, and he did not think she would live long, and they were very anxious that I should come and visit her. Oh how I dreaded to go, but I got ready and started in two days. I hated to leave my husband, dreaded the trip, and feared to find Mother sinking. It was a very miserable journey. I arrived at the station in Lincoln at three in the morning. Of course, there was no one to meet me as they did not know I was coming. I sat in the waiting room ‘til daylight, then took my fifteen-months-old boy in my arms and walked to an old acquaintances about a quarter of a mile away. Stayed there to breakfast, then they took me in a buggy out to Father’s. Much to my delight, I found Mother much better. Stayed two weeks and went home on Thanksgiving day. John met me at Centralia, and my troubles were over for that time.

1861

In January Mother’s health failed rapidly, and she died the 24^th. I received two letters from Father, one stating that she was worse, and one with the sad news of her death. They both came by the same mail. I was glad I had visited her so lately, even if it was a hard trip. Father urged us to come and spend the summer with him as he had no housekeeper, and sister Anne was only twelve years old. I disliked exceedingly the idea of going there to stay with my family, and the result proved that my intuitions were correct. But as we were unsettled we concluded to go.

Mother Andrews went to Seth’s. The orchard was rented to James Longfellow. In March Nellie Hall, baby Charlie and I went to Lincoln. John came several weeks later. May 30^th my second child came, we named him Henry Butler, but his name was soon abbreviated to Harry and remained that ever after. My Aunt Mirinda Parker was with me for several weeks. After that summer I never saw her again. There was a great deal of hard feeling that summer between friends on account of different views of the war, and our family was not exempt. It was the most exciting period the United States ever knew and came very near being the Disunited States.

In July John went up to Rockford to visit James and Harriet Hinkley. While there he bought seven acres of land adjoining James’ piece, located on School Street, and engaged a carpenter to build us a house. He came back to Lincoln, stayed a few days, then went down to Indiana, his old home, to settle up some business affairs. I was 21 the 25th of this month.

In August Father was married again, to Miss Elizabeth K. Landis, a lady we all liked very much, but, of course, we were sorry to have him bring any one to take Mother’s place. But it gave John and me a good excuse to go to Rockford, which we did, starting September 1^st or 2^nd. While in Indiana John had bought a nice horse and top buggy, so shipping our things by railroad, we drove up to Rockford, about 200 miles. The weather was fine, but the first day or two was quite tiresome, as I had to hold my three months old Harry in my arms all the way. We started Monday after dinner and arrived at Rockford Friday morning at 9 o’clock. The Hinkley family seemed very glad to see us, and we were delighted to get there, especially as we were to have a settled home at last. I remember that was the most pleasant idea of the whole trip, we would have a home of our own. But we had to board with the Hinkley family for three months, as our house was not ready to go into ‘til the last of November. From this time on my home has been Rockford, and we could not have struck a more beautiful or satisfactory place in the state.

In October Harriet was sent for to go to Genessee, as Seth’s wife had died and left a three months old babe. She took her two little boys, Anson and George, and left me with the care of the house. I got along very well as Ellen and Eliza helped me mornings and evenings, they both went to school. Harriet was gone a week, and when she came home she brought Mother Andrews and the little babe Sylvia. About that time James’ sister, Ellen Hinkley, came up from New Harmony, Indiana, to spend the winter, so we were pretty thick in the house, but we got along very well and had no quarrels. There were six rooms in the house, and twelve people including the babies. We were glad to get moved into our new house although it was not nearly finished.

Mother Andrews spent part of the time with us.

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In January Father’s wife Lizzie died, and he sold his farm and broke up housekeeping and the family boarded. My life ran along in a quiet manner, there was always plenty to do. Ellen Hall quit school and helped me with the housework. We did all our own sewing, without a machine, baked our bread, made butter, did the washing and ironing, and took care of the children. There was not time to be lonesome, although we were strangers here; the Hinkley family was all the company we seemed to need.

In September Father visited us, bringing a young gentleman friend of his. It was Fair time, and they stayed a few days. There were four regiments of soldiers in camp on the river, which were expecting marching orders at any time. While Father was here he united in marriage Edward Maynard and Eliza Oatsman. Edward belonged to the 74th Illinois Volunteers and wanted to be married before he left Rockford^[ii]. The newspapers were full of war news, and it was a general topic of conversation everywhere.

In October the soldiers left. I went to the depot to see them start, they marched through the streets with bands, but it was a sad sight to see them part with their friends, and when they boarded the cars, poor fellows, many of them never came home.

December 18th Harriet’s baby Arthur came. Seth was visiting here that winter, but I do not remember whether he stayed all winter or not. Mother Andrews spent the winter with us.

1863

Ellen Hall visited a few weeks in Wisconsin during the early part of the year. In March brother Asa and sister Annie came; he stayed two weeks, but she remained with us and commenced going to school in the city.

On June 27, my last child was born. We named him Ernest John. I wanted the latter name for fear his father would go to war and be killed. All that summer there was a haunting fear of the war in my mind, as things began to look very serious, and it seemed like all the able-bodied men in the country would be called on. Edward Maynard was paroled on account of sickness.

In October we went up to Seth’s on a visit. Mother Andrews was keeping house for him. We had a pleasant time socially, but the weather was cold and stormy part of the time.

While we were away James had received a letter from the tenant at Dubois saying he had left the place. Someone had to go down there immediately. We packed up and went November 10. When we started the weather was cold and dreary, and we wore our winter wraps, but when we arrived at Dubois the sun was shining warmly, and it was a lovely Indian summer day. There had been a terrible drought that summer and the fields and orchards were as bare as the dead of winter. I was lonesome there, and our nearest neighbor was a quarter of a mile away, and political feeling ran high on account of the war, more than half of the people down there sympathized with the South. I was uneasy whenever John was away from home.

Our cousin, Miss B. Phillips^[iii], came to make us a visit in December, and because the weather was quite stormy she stayed much longer than she first intended.

1864

January 1^st there came the worst storm I had ever seen up to that time, but I have witnessed as bad since then. There was a blizzard and such a snow storm. John went to the post office a mile away. I was very uneasy fearing he would not find his way home. The next day was very cold and continued so for several days. All the peach trees in the state were killed.

In February I took a severe cold which settled on my lungs. I had worked too hard and had not taken proper care of my health, and now it failed me. All the work for five in the family I had done and had not been accustomed to work so hard. My baby Ernest was sick considerable during the spring months and I felt rather blue.

We took a tri-weekly Chicago paper and an old gentleman neighbor used to come over to get me to read the war news to him, his eyesight was poor. I do not think he could read very well either. He had two sons in the army, and took great interest in all the war news.

One of the pleasant things of my life down there were my letters from Rockford. Sister Annie was boarding with the Hinkleys, Ellen Hall was living there too, and they all wrote me such delightful letters, mail day was anxiously looked for.

The three little Andrews boys: Charles Norton, Harry Butler, and Ernest John, about 1864.

July 3 I started home to Rockford with my three children. John remained to take care of the place during the summer, for we had found a family to move into the house and board the hands. The Democratic presidential convention was in session in Chicago. Father, brother Asa, and Uncle Louis Norton were there. Asa was attending a law school there, and had a room. He met us at the depot and took us to his boarding house, where we spent a very pleasant day with my relatives. I also visited a physician in the city, who told me my lungs were somewhat affected, and gave me some medicine.

The Democrats nominated George B. McClellan for president, and George H. Pendleton for vice president. But the Republicans were successful and elected Abraham Lincoln for president and Andrew Johnson for vice president.

How delighted I was to get back to my Rockford home. My health improved some by the change of climate. Annie had gone to Goshen, Indiana, to live with Uncle Almon Norton. Mother Andrews came to live with us and also Nellie Hall. John remained at Dubois until October.

In November cousin Harriet Osborn came from Brooklyn, New York, to spend the winter with the Hinkley family. We had a jol1y winter, spending about three evenings a week together, playing Huggins, or Old Maid with cards, as Miss Osborn had scruples about playing Euchre, our favorite game. But what I enjoyed most was the grand talks we had; she was very intelligent and interesting and having spent most of her life in a city, opened up a new world to my mind.

We spent Thanksgiving day at our house and Christmas at the Hinkleys. Miss Osborn stayed ‘til May.

l865

In April the war came to an end, much to my delight. I had been in better health and was much more cheerful and hopeful than I had been the spring and summer before. How well I remember one April evening (though I have forgotten the date) we were all over at Harriet’s, when the church bell began to ring out rapidly and joyously. There someone exclaimed, “Lee has surrendered, the war is over!” We had been expecting it, and we all jumped up and commenced shaking hands, and I am sure that one of us at least cried for joy. A few days later we heard the dreadful news of Lincoln’s assassination which cast a damper on our spirits for a time, but nothing could undo the grand fact that the cruel war was over.

In June Ella Hinkley was born, and we were all much pleased. As I had three boys and Harriet had three, we thought there ought to be more of the girl element in the neighborhood.

Everything passed quietly during the summer; we took no trips and had no visitors from a distance that I remember. In the fall our tenant at Dubois wanted to leave, and James Hinkley decided to take his family down there.

Seth, his Mother, and Sibbie [little Sylvia Andrews] moved into their Rockford house. Before that, there had been built a house on the west end of James’ land for Mother Andrews to live in, and she had resided there for some time.

Our little Charlie was now six and we started him to school, but he did not go all winter. I taught him at home; he was reading in a second reader.

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This spring Miss Zillah Douglas on Avon Street started a private school for primary scholars, in one room of the Douglas house. Charlie and Sibbie Andrews attended. This was a memorable summer to me. I was in a low nervous state of health and under a doctor’s care but able to work and be around all the time. In June I became terribly excited about religious matters, found that I had drifted away from the faith of my fathers, and had nothing to hold on to. But after a few months my mind grew clearer, and I realized that although the Bible contains truth it does not contain all truth, and what is set down as doctrine is merely the belief of the writer of the book. And a more extended knowledge of history and the sciences confirms me in the opinion.

Fortunately for me we were growing berries, and much of my time was spent out picking the fruit. The fresh air was good for me, and the constant communing with nature was still better. Nature said to me, God is good and merciful, creeds and dogmas to the contrary notwithstanding, I prayed constantly, and my prayer was “I can’t believe (the orthodox faith) God help my unbelief.” My prayer was answered, and I was led to see that God is the Father and Maker of us all. Or as Isaiah says “I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil, I the Lord do all things.” I became satisfied that God was all and the devil was a myth, imagined by priests to frighten their congregations into obedience. A good and merciful Father would never allow any of His creatures to be tortured through all eternity. I read a great deal of Whittier, that grand religious poet. How often I quoted

            I know not where his islands lift

            Their fronded palms in air,

            I only know I cannot drift

            Beyond his love and care.

George McDonald’s books helped me, as did Robert Falconer and others. I thought at that time that I was entirely alone in my struggle, that no one else had suffered in the same way, but years afterward I learned that many others had, notably Dr. [John H.] Kerr, and the author of Robert Elsmere [Mrs. Humphrey Ward, published 1888]. For no one could have written the vivid picture of his (Elsmere’s) mind without it being a personal matter.

In July Ebenezer Ellis, his wife, and Mrs. Van Camp, Sibbie’s Grandmother, visited us from Genesee, Wisconsin. They staid several days, part of the time they were at Seth’s. In August the children and I went on a visit to Father’s who had married a widow lady^[iv] and was living a few miles from Mattoon. I did not wish to go, but John thought it would be good for me to have a change, and father’s folks were so urgent for me to come. Seth was going to be married, so I had his company through Chicago. We stayed two weeks, and my little three-year-old Ernie was very sick while there and had ague for several weeks after our return. Harry also. I was delighted to get home though they had been so glad to see me and kind while there. Some way the greatest pleasure I ever had visiting was the delight of getting home in those days.

Seth was married to Miss Flora Phillips in September; they spent a few days at our home and then went to Genesee, Wisconsin to live on his farm, and they took Sibbie with them. The fall was a very sad one to all of us. The children and I were sick for some time. In November my brother Asa died near Mattoon. In December little George Hinkley died, he had been sick all summer with malarial fever at Dubois, it was a terrible blow to his parents. He was six years old. Mother Andrews came down there with them, and after the funeral she came up to our house. She took cold on the trip which resulted in pneumonia and she died one week later. The old saying came true with us that “misfortunes never come singly.”

1867

March 1st James’ family came back to Rockford; it was a very sad homecoming for Harriet, as she had left one of her little ones behind her. Mrs. Alehin on Peoatonica Street started a private school and Charlie and Harry went. In June Anne came from Goshen, Indiana, to live with us. Cousin Howard Norton came with her and remained a few days. Anne had taken a severe cold and her health was poor, but she seemed to improve after she came to us. My stepmother had died during the winter, and Father spent the time traveling among his Baptist friends. I did not see him this year.

My health was improving. John was working hard farming our eighty acre piece and raising berries on our seven acre Rockford place.

1868

In April, Harriet had another baby, a boy whom she named Hargrove Otis, who in a measure filled the place of George that she lost. This month Annie’s health failed visibly. The Doctor said one lung was hepatized and we saw that she was going with consumption. I took the best care of her that I could, and as Nellie Hall was with me could devote most of my time to her, especially as there was plenty of sewing and mending to do and could work in her room. She was very patient and gentle, and gave as little trouble as possible. Father came in September, he had been talking of taking her to Kentucky for the winter, but when he saw her concluded it would do her more harm than good, as she was so far gone. She passed away October 13. She had suffered so much I could not grieve for her, but I grieved for myself. I missed her so, always, very near and dear to me being my only sister, she had grown doubly so during the many months I had cared for and waited on her. Sometime this fall Father went to Logan County, Kentucky, to live, and I never saw him afterwards. In a year or two he married a Kentucky lady^[v], and lived on her farm the rest of his life. He died in September 1880.

1869

This was a very quiet uneventful year to us; nothing happened of any moment ‘til September when Nellie Hall, who had lived with us nine years, was united in marriage to Henry Joslin^[vi]. For the first time in nine years we were alone with our little family. It seemed so good. Of course I had more work to do, but by hiring the washing, as my health improved, I really enjoyed my work. Harriet’s baby Ralph was born December 14, her last child.

1870

I remember nothing particular about this year ‘til August when Harriet, baby Ralph, and I went to visit Seth’s family. They were now living at Lodi, Wisconsin. We had a delightful trip to Madison on the cars. Seth and a neighbor, Mr. Hall, met us with a two-seated carriage, and I don’t think I ever had a more delightful drive. It was twenty miles to Lodi and we arrived tired and hungry and found a good supper awaiting us. We had a pleasant visit of a week. They all seemed glad to see us.

In September John took the children and me on a visit to Nellie Joslin in Durand. We went one day and came home the next. October 13, Eliza Maynard died with consumption, just two years after Annie’s death. James Hinkley’s two sisters, Miss Lydia Hinkley and Mrs. Ellen Brown, spent most of the summer with relatives here. They were from California.

1871

Nothing of importance happened, we went nowhere away from Rockford. We had no sickness, no deaths, or marriages in the family.

1872

This spring John rented the farm and went down to Dubois to take care of the orchard. There was a promise of a large crop of apples and peaches. In July he wrote for Charlie to come down, and as it was the long vacation, he was delighted to go. I was almost afraid to have him go alone on the cars, but he arrived safely. In a few weeks he was taken sick with malarial fever and I took the other children and went down to take care of him. Found him very sick but he soon grew better. We had a great many peaches on the place, and if he had not been sick we would have had a fine time. We only stayed two weeks as Harry was taken sick and I thought we would all be down and hurried home with my children. John remained ‘til October. After our return Charlie had a relapse and I feared he would die. He recovered but was delicate all winter, did not attend school till the spring term. This fall we bought our first coal stove; before we had always burned wood and allowed the fire to go out of nights, so I did not keep house plants.

Notes:

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[i] We have not been able to trace the Phillips relationship. Perhaps this was a relative of Anson Seeley Andrews’ mother, Elizabeth Butler, who had a sister named Sophronia. There was a Daphne Butler who married a Samuel Phillips and had a daughter Sophronia in 1823, and Elizabeth Butler did have an older sister Daphne born in 1782, but no connection has been proven.

[ii] Edward C. Maynard enlisted August 7, 1862 as a member of Company D, 74^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered August 28, 1862 and the Infantry began leaving Rockford September 4, 1862, so he must have been married within a few days. He was discharged with a disability May 20, 1863. (Brigadier General J. N. Reece, Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois, Vol VII, p. 586; online at http://www.archive.org/stream/reportofadjutant04illi1#page/582/mode/1up). After the war he became a policeman in Rockford. Sadly, Eliza and all three of their children died of consumption over the next twenty years. Edward married again and had a daughter who lived into old age.

[iii] We have not been able to trace what cousin this is. Perhaps she was a sibling of Sophronia Phillips.

[iv] Beverly Bradley Piper’s third wife was Mrs. Lucy W. Jones. They were married 2 November 1865 in Coles County, Illinois. She died in 1867.

[v] B.B. Piper’s fourth wife was Isabella Herndon. They were married 31 August 1870 and had a son, Robert Beverly Piper, in 1871; and a daughter, Ellen C. Piper, in 1873. Isabella died in 1914. Both Robert and Ellen married and had children.

[vi] Although we have been unable to trace Ellen Hall’s parents, her marriage was on 15 September 1869. She died 26 April 1879, and Henry Joslin married again. There were no children.
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Other Posts about Mirinda:

One-Room Schools, a Romance, an Earthquake

Mirinda and Slavery

The Further Adventures of Mirinda Piper (first part)
 
The Further Adventures of Mirinda Piper (second part)
 
Mirinda Piper's Adventures as a Young Lady of the 1850s