The Burton Free School

These photos, from the application packet for the 2013 historic site designation for the public schools in Burton, Texas, show Burton students ca. 1910.  Of those identified, I have spotted several names familiar to me from my research of this area.  The child identified as Bill Bryan in the photo on the left and the bottom photo on the right is my great-grandfather, and the others with the same surname are his siblings.  Additional relatives in these photos are the Watts, McCains, and Burkes, who were their cousins.

The associated historical marker reads:

Burton Public Schools opened in 1874, and by 1926 nine grades were offered. In 1938, construction on Burton’s first high school began. Funded through the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), the building was completed in 1940. Designed by architect Travis Broesche and built by local contractor Will Weeren, the school exhibits international and rustic architectural style. Features include abutting two-story rectangular blocks, a curved wall near the entrance, and a native field stone veneer.

Source:
Texas Historical Commission. [Historic Marker Application: Burton Public School]. The Portal to Texas History. http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth491853/. Accessed July 5, 2015.

Revolutionary War Patriot Ancestors

Happy 4th of July!  Today I'm sharing a list I've compiled of my DAR-eligible patriot ancestors.  The numbers and abbreviations following the names are the numbers as indicated by the DAR Patriot Index and the state served.  Lineage through my paternal or maternal line is indicated by a (P) or (M).

1. Baker, Thomas - #A005106 VA (P)
2. Bell, William - #A008824 SC (M)
3. Buchanan, Alexander - #A016383 NJ (P)
4. Bullock, Micajah - #A016885 NC (P)
5. Cheatham, William - #A202873 VA (P)
6. Clay, Charles, Sr. - #A022833 VA (P)
7. Clay, Jesse - #A022850 VA (M)
8. Dalby, John - #A029356 VA (P)
9. Ford, Nathaniel - #A040933 SC (M)
10. Guyton, Joseph -  #A048677 SC (P)
11. Hickerson, John - #A111186 VA (P)
12. Hurt, Moses - #A088208 VA (P)
13. Kelsey, Samuel, Jr. - #A064394 SC (P)
14. Kelsey, Samuel, Sr. - #A064398 SC (P)
15. Lemoine, Charles – not in patriot index but was in Natchitoches Militia LA (M)
16. Montgomery, Charles - #A078960 SC (M)
17. Morgan, Nathaniel - #A034848 VA (P)
18. Rachal, Julien - #A200189 LA (M)
19. Stone, Micajah - #A109702 VA (P)
20. Thaxton, William - #A113929 VA (P)
21. Turner, James - #A117084 VA (P)
22. Waters, Joseph (Watters) - #A122240 NJ (M)
23. Wright, Robert - #A130983 VA (M)
24. Young, Hugh (Yongue) - #A015655 SC (M)
25. Young, James (Yongue) - #A015654 SC (M)

My grandmother was a member under #10 in this list, Joseph Guyton, which means if I didn't want to compile all the documentation for a full application under another ancestor, I could apply using a short form and my grandmother's info.  This would piggyback my application onto hers, and the only documentation I would need to provide would be documents proving my relationship to her.  Finding a relative you can short form apply from is an avenue well worth exploring if you find the documentation of a full application a bit daunting!

Sources:
DAR Patriot Index - go on, have a look for your ancestors!
SAR Membership Project for Creole Families - source for Charles Lemoine

Watts in Steele Creek Cemetery

Back when I wrote up a short biography of my 4th-great grandfather, Rev. James Bell Watt, I had cited as one of my sources a history of the Steele Creek church where he was pastor.  What didn't make it into my earlier post was that along with a history of the church, the book also contains a full listing of the burials in the Steele Creek cemetery alongside the church, up to 1976.  The listing is actually very helpful, because the compilers provided a chart showing the layout of the cemetery and grave locations via a grid division of the chart.  The number and first letter correspond to the grid location, while the W or E that follow indicates whether the grave is on the west or east side of the cemetery.  I have broken up the listing of Watt burials located in Steele Creek and grouped them by their locations as provided in the book rather than by the straight alphabetical listing it provides.  In doing this I hope to give a clearer picture of the specific groupings within the family as a whole for reasons I will clarify below.

7FW - immediate family of Rev. J. B. Watt
Watt, Fannie - d. 12 Jun 1851 (aged 18 months) "Daughter of Rev. J. B. Watt"
Watt infants - "Two nameless babes, children of Rev. and Mrs. J. Bell Watt"
Watt, Reverend James Bell - 4 Apr 1820 - 16 Sep 1860 - "Pastor of Steele Creek"*
Watt, Louisa Angelina - 6 Dec 1835* - 8 May 1917 - "Wife of Rev. James Bell Watt"
Watt, Mary Caroline - d. 20 Aug 1838 (age 4 months) - "Daughter of J. B. Watt"
Watt, Mrs. Nancy M. - d. 10 Apr 1854 - "Wife of Reverend J. B. Watt"
Watt, William J. - d. 4 Feb 1857 (age 34 years)
(*I have corrected Louisa Watt's birth year from the book's printed date of 1865, which would be impossible as her husband died in 1860, to the correct year of 1835.  Rev. Watt appears in the full alphabetical list in 11DE, clear across the cemetery.  but a list of pastors buried at Steele Creek that precedes the full list places him in 7FW, with the rest of his family.  I have chosen to use that location for my list, but note the discrepancy.)

8GW - immediate family of Rev. Watt's youngest son, Walter
Watt, Elizabeth Reed - 4 Jun 1870 - 7 Jul 1937 "Wife of Walter W. Watt"
Watt, Walter W. - 27 Sep 1860 - 5 Nov 1941

11AE - family of William Franklin Watt, son of James Bell Watt Jr and grandson of Rev. Watt
Watt infant - 8 Jan 1917 - 8 Jan 1917 "Son of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Watt"
Watt infant - 18 Dec 1918 - 15 Feb 1919 "Son of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Watt"
Watt, William Franklin - 17 Jun 1886 - 23 Jun 1964
Watt, William Franklin Jr. - 13 Feb 1914 - 11 Jan 1973

11BE - family of James Bell Watt Jr
Watt, Emma Wilson 2 Jul 1859 - 25 Apr 1935
Watt, James Bell 25 Jan 1859 - 15 Apr 1925

The one burial in the list that really caught my attention was the one I couldn't immediately identify as a member of Rev. Watt's immediate family or as a descendant - William J. Watt, who was 34 years old when he died in 1857.  This would make him about two years younger than Rev. Watt, and born in either 1822 or 1823.  The biography of Rev. Watt's youngest son, Walter, that appears on page 25 of the History of North Carolina, vol VI, mentions that Rev. Watt was the elder of two brothers.  Might this William J. Watt be his younger brother?  I have as yet found no other biographical sources of Rev. Watt that mention a brother by name, but the age and grave location suggest that William J. Watt was a close member of the Reverend's family.

Happy Flag Day!

This photo probably dates from mid-1920s and depicts my grandfather, Robert Fagan of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

Deaths at Cloutierville - Ancestors in Neighboring Newspapers

Today's post highlights one of my favorite tips for searching for ancestors among old sources - in this case, newspapers.  What I like to remind everyone is not to assume that just because your ancestors lived in one particular location, that information on them will be limited to that location!  Since newspapers were one of the best ways to spread information about ones' friends and neighbors, newspapers located outside of the actual hometown of an ancestor may provide you with better information, since they're meant for the people who didn't keep up with that person on a daily basis.  Check surrounding towns' newspapers for mentions of your ancestors, or even the papers of the towns where their families lived in other counties or states.

Today's news clipping comes from the Opelousas Courier, a weekly paper in both French and English editions published in Opelousas, Louisiana from 1852 to 1910.  Opelousas is the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, which is located three parishes away from Natchitoches, where the people it mentions were from.  The notice is of a list of recent deaths at Cloutierville, located along the Cane River in Natchitoches Parish, and states that among the deceased are also "names who are well-known in our Parish".

• The Opelousas courier. (Opelousas, La.), 05 Nov. 1853. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83026389/1853-11-05/ed-1/seq-1/>

Of particular interest to this blogger are the names Eusèbe Deslouches, Hyppolite Rachal, and Mmes. P. S. Compère and Julien Rachal, which match names in my own family tree.  The Eusèbe Deslouches in my records was the son of Appoline Rachal and Landry Deslouches, and the nephew of Hyppolite Rachal, who also appears in the list.  Hyppolite was, like Appoline and my ancestor Cyriaque, a child of Sylvestre Rachal and Marie Rose Michel-Zoriche.  If they are the same people as mine, Eusèbe Deslouches was about 9 years old and his uncle Hyppolite was about 28 years of age at the time of their deaths.  As neither of them could be found on the 1860 census, I think it likely but not 100% confirmed.  Also here in this list is an additional corroboration for the death of my 5th-great grandmother, Mme. P. S. Compère (née Lolette Rachal, daughter of Julien Rachal and Marie Louise Brevel) who died September of 1853, according to my records, which cited her succession filed with the Natchitoches clerk of court as the source for that date.  The Compères' elder son Joseph Maximin had married Clara Dejean of Opelousas, and so their name would indeed have been familiar in Opelousas.  The name in this list that precedes Lolette's, Mme. Julien Rachal, is not her mother, who died in 1815, but is probably instead her sister-in-law, Marie Melanie Lavespere, the widow of Mme. Compère's brother, Julien Jr.  Two of their sons were also married to Dejean sisters, so the Rachals would have been known in Opelousas as well.

The next column on the newspaper page (link in the caption above) contains a letter from the bishop at Natchitoches which may be relevant to this list.  In it, he laments the devastation brought upon the communities at Cloutierville, Shreveport, and Alexandria by a recent outbreak of yellow fever.

The Bitterman House

This picture probably dates from the same time as the family portrait taken in/about 1903.  The members of the extended Bitterman family are gathered at the Nuecestown home belonging to Levi Bitterman, who can be seen seated on the front porch of the home in this photo.  The matriarch of the family, Esilla (Rachal) Bitterman, is dressed in black on the upstairs gallery, standing between two of her Wright granddaughters.  A photo of the same house belongs to the General Photograph Collection in the Special Archives and Collections of the Corpus Christi Public Library, corroborating the identification of the photo as another image of the Bitterman family.

James Thomas O'Reilly in Dublin and America

In addition to my great-great grandmother and some of her O'Reilly nephews, I've found evidence that another member of the same family also left Ireland to come to America.  This was my great-great grand uncle, James Thomas O'Reilly.

James Thomas O'Reilly was born 17 May 1854 and baptized the 24th of the same month at Bekan, Mayo.  The sponsors to his baptism were Francis Treston and Anne O'Reilly, presumably relatives of his parents, Laurence O'Reilly and Bridget Treston.  He was likely named for his maternal grandfather, James Treston of Cottage, Mayo, in accordance with the popular naming conventions of the time.

James appeared again in the records at the age of 19, when he married Margaret Rothery 2 November 1873 in Dundrum.  James's address is given as Bride Street, which is right in the Dublin city centre, though unfortunately no occupation is given.  Margaret's address is given as Dundrum, as are the addresses of both parents.  James's are given as Laurence and Bridget O'Reilly and Margaret's are Isaac and Sarah Rothery.  From the 1884 marriage record of Margaret's brother, Isaac, in Rathmines, we learn that their mother's name was Sarah Doyle.  The Thom's Directories list Isaac Rothery, their father, resident in the Churchtown area for many years as a cattle dealer.  This was also around the time Laurence O'Reilly and his family had moved from Mayo to Dublin following the death of James O'Reilly there in 1872, and the Rotherys lived very close by and certainly would have known them.  As the marriage record doesn't state James's mother's maiden name, we can only look to the evidence in additional documents, but I have since concluded that this was the same James from the Bekan parish baptism register.

The church records show three children born while James and Margaret lived in Dublin: Laurence, born 19 August 1874 in Churchtown; Isaac, born 10 Jan 1876 in Churchtown; and James, born 18 January 1877 in Roundtown.  At this point their trail went cold in Ireland.  I was able to find an obituary for Margaret's mother printed in Freeman's Journal in January 1884, with the request that American papers please copy (commonly requested when relatives have moved abroad).

Based on the request in Sarah Doyle Rothery's obituary, a check of American records under their names turned up Margaret's death certificate in 1920, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.  We had the right Margaret... but what about James?  As mentioned above, the marriage didn't conclusively state he was the son of Laurence O'Reilly and Bridget Treston.  I also didn't turn up a death certificate in Pennsylvania for him, and since he also doesn't appear with the family on the 1910 census he likely died sometime between 1900 and 1906, when the state officially started issuing death certificates.

However, two documents among the Pennsylvania records provide links back to the Bekan baptism.  The first is the 1900 census.  Included in the census data for that year are the month and birth year of the respondent.  James, listed here as James O'Riley, gives his birth date as May 1854, exactly matching the Bekan record.  The second is the Philadelphia death certificate of James and Margaret's son, James, the one whose baptism was recorded in St. Joseph's Dublin, in 1877.  The younger James died in 1908 of cancer at the age of 31.  His parents are recorded as James T.  O'Reilly (T as in Thomas) and Maggie Rothery (name transcribed incorrectly; see image).

So, to conclude: we know from the Pennsylvania records that the James O'Reilly who married Margaret Rothery in Dublin was named James T. O'Reilly and that he was born in May 1854.  The Dublin marriage tells us that James's parents were named Laurence and Bridget, and the Mayo baptism of Laurence O'Reilly and Bridget Treston's son shows that he was born in May 1854 and his middle name was Thomas.  Taken together, I think it is a reasonable conclusion to draw that the Pennsylvania, Dublin, and Mayo records are all referring to the same person: James Thomas O'Reilly.

(Additional fee-based church records I am unable to provide links to were found on RootsIreland.  Freeman's Journal can be accessed for a fee from either Find My Past or the British Newspaper Archive.  Thom's Directory is also available via Find My Past.)