Chapter 11: Was Never Married to Another

In her short family history, Ida K. Fawkner, identified her father's three brothers and sisters: John E., Cyrus W., George S., and Elizabeth A. K. Fawkner. The three brother were living with their mother in Hendricks County, Indiana, in 1850.  Elizabeth was not with them because she had married Eli Morgason 5 April 1849.

The Morgason's lived near the Fawkner-Sears family in Marion Township in 1850 and 1860, but by 1870 they (indexed "Morgison") lived in Bowdre Township of Douglas County, Illinois (where James C. Fawkner's family lived in the 1880s). In just over 20 years of marriage, Eli and Elizabeth had at least 10 children.

Little is known of Eli and Elizabeth after 1880, but Elizabeth was still living in 1892 when she made a statement in support of Julia Fawkner's application for a widow's pension. Identifying herself as a sister of James C. Fawkner, she stated that "the first wife of said Fawkner died on or about the 20th of March 1855 that her means of knowing is that she was present and attended the funeral she further declares that said Fawkner never was married to another except the claimant and surviving widow."

If you've been following the store in earlier posts, you might recognize two problems.  First, Elizabeth said that James' first wife died about March 1855. We know that it was probably March 1854 because James married Elizabeth Stephens in September 1854. In fact, a transcription of gravestones (no longer visible above ground) in the tiny Sears cemetery states James' first wife died in March 1854. It is not surprising that, recalling the event nearly 40 years later, Elizabeth Morgason's memory was off by a year.

More problematic is the statement that James "never was married to another."  Well, or course he was. He married Elizabeth Turner, took her to Iowa, and abandoned her and two daughters. Even though the Fawkner-Stephens marriage ended before James' enlistment in the Civil War, it was obviously thought best not to bring it up in Julia's pension application.

If she could be cross-examined today, Elizabeth Morgason might say she didn't know about the Fawkner-Stephens marriage.  She must have. The Morgason's were living in the same township as the Fawkners when James remarried in 1854 -- only three months after the funeral that Elizabeth Morgason attended. After the 1860 Iowa divorce, James returned to Hendricks County, where Eli and Elizabeth were still living in 1860, to enlist in the Indiana 7th Regiment. Surely, James visited his sister while he was home. Surely, Elizabeth knew something of her brother's life between 1854 and 1861.

Then, there was Ida, one of the children abandoned in Iowa. In her family history, she told of the Fawkner-Stephens marriage, and daughters Ida and Josephine, but made absolutely no mention of her father's family with Julia Angell. Again, she almost certainly knew.

This is the tip of an iceberg. It will take a while for the story to completely unfold, but children from James' second and third marriages will cross again several chapters from now.  In the meantime, to set the scene, the next few chapters will follow the children of James C. Fawkner and Julia Ann Angell.

LESSON: Every piece of information in historical documents depends on facts conveyed by an informant. Some know the facts. Some don't remember the facts clearly. Some have reasons to change the story or leave out important information. Always think about who the informant was and whether she or he had good reason to know the facts, remember them clearly, and relate them honestly.
 

Chapter 10: The Rest of James' Story

James C. Fawkner left his second wife, Elizabeth, behind in Iowa, where she remarried to Oliver Dresser. As the story unfolds, it seems unlikely he never saw Elizabeth again.

James' whereabouts in 1860 remain uncertain.  He might have been the 31 year-old James Faulkner working as a farmhand in the Pendleton County, Kentucky, household of John R. Hand. (If so, I want to know if he was related to the adopted Mary Faulkner in the next-door household of Alexander Henson).

In any event, James was soon back north of the Ohio River in Hendricks County, Indiana, where he enlisted in the Indiana 7th Regiment at Danville 20 April 1861.  As a genealogist, I am grateful that he served in the Civil War, because most of what is known about the rest of his life comes from his pension file and his consolidated military service record (CMSR).

We first picked up James's trail in the 1880 U.S. Census in Coles County, Illinois, where he farmed with his third wife, Julia, and seven children aged 3 to 16: Grant, Julia, Cyrus, Elizabeth, Mattie, Attie, and Henry (see Chapter 1). Working back, we traced him to Missouri and Indiana, before tracking him forward to Iowa. 

The military records  are especially important in this case because most of the 1890 U.S. Census was lost in a fire and by the next census in 1900, none of the Fawkner family remained in east-central Illinois in 1900. Various declarations, affidavits, and correspondence in the pension file give an outline of the last 30 years of James' life.

•  After his three-month stint in the Indiana 7th, James went to Missouri, where he enlisted 14 September 1861 in Company A of the 2nd Missouri Cavalry. There remains the question: why Missouri? (The Sears family might be the answer).
• Before his 14 June 1865 discharge, James was treated at Burton Barracks (St. Louis) for rheumatism he blamed on 10 months as a prisoner of war at Camp Ford, Texas, after being taken captive near Camden, Arkansas.
• James' affidavits recount a short visit home in Indiana after the war, followed by a few years in Missouri (see 1870 census), before moving to Coles County, Illinois (see 1880 census).
• James apparently gave up farming soon after 1880 and moved just a few miles north to the town of Arcola in Douglas County. In his pension application, James stated that he was unable to do farmwork due to war-related disability.
• Various pension documents document that James C. Fawkner died 29 November 1889 in Arcola, Douglas County; his widow, Julia, died 14 May 1894.
• At least one additional child was born after the 1880 census. The very first page in the pension file is an 1896 affidavit from guardian George Klink stating that he had lost the pension certificate (no. 411873) for Fred P. Fawkner, described as deaf and mute. In her December 1889 application for a widow's pension, Julia said she had two children still under age 16 -- James Henry, born 28 May 1877, and Freddie P., born 14 November 1880. This suggests that Hattie and Attie, who were 6 in 1880, might have died before their father died in 1889.
• In an 1891 letter to President Benjamin Harrison asking for her widow's pension, Julia mentioned that, shortly before his death, James contracted pneumonia while the couple was living in Indianapolis. This mention of time in Indianapolis will become important as we trace their children forward.

James contested the Pension Office's rejection of his application for a pension increase; the dispute generated affidavits and physician's reports that give a picture of his condition. Among the more poignant is a statement from William McClung stating that, upon parole from Camp Ford, James could hardly walk. "I think nothing but the thought of home would have induced him to try. the Reble [sic] guards allowed him to ride their horses occasionally or I think he would have failed." By summer of 1889, James claimed that his rheumatism had progressed "to such an extant that I have partial paralysis of lower limbs, and heart trouble."

Oh yes, the pension file also contains one more hint regarding "girl at the top of the stairs" story (Chapter 2). A Hendricks County friend service colleague, William B. McClung, gave an affidavit that "sometime in the winter of 1862 and 1863, while the Regiment was in camp in the state of Mo -- James C. Fawkner formed the acquaintance of one Miss Julia A. Angel and they were married some time during that winter by our Regimental Chaplain." This is probably the closest we can ever get to be to backing up the story of James promising to come back and marry that beautiful girl at the top of the stairs.

The pension file holds one more provocative piece of information about James' marriage history.  I will hold this surprise back until next week, because it was help bring the story back to Indiana and James C. Fawkner's siblings.

LESSON: Be grateful if your ancestor was the right age to serve in a military conflict. Get the service and pension records.  Get the complete pension record! It will fill gaps unfilled by other records.

Preview of Fawkner Chapter 10

Chapter 10 -- The Rest of James' Story -- is almost finished, and will burst upon the Internet early Thursday morning. This episode will take us back to east-central Illinois where we first picked up the Fawkner trail.

In the meantime, I'd like to remind readers of why I am using a blog to tell the Fawkner story. One motivation is simply to make the story available in easy-to-digest doses to my wife's extended family and to any other  Fawkner descendants out there who might stumble upon the blog. However, I have a second purpose: to demonstrate the one-piece-of-evidence-leads-to-another-question nature of genealogical and family history research. Proving parent-child relationships back in time is hard enough, but describing an ancestor's life requires following every lead and pursuing every possible record. Thus, I hope that the blog is both interesting for family members and of also of some educational value for unrelated genealogists and family history enthusiasts.

This is also a chance to remind readers that these posts are not intended as research reports. To enhance readability (and to keep production on a weekly schedule), I am loosely identifying sources in the narrative, but am not offering full source citations. If you want a full source citation for any statement of fact, please feel free to contact me. In fact, if all things go as planned (do they ever?), I will be publishing a more detailed, unified Fawkner family history with full source citations in the next year or two.

Chapter 9: Abandoned in Montrose

Let's review what we know so far about James C. Fawkner?

• He looked to the top of the stairs and told the young southern woman that he'd be back to marry her.  And, he did return.  He married Julia Ann Angell in Missouri in 1862.
• Julia Ann was not his first wife.  James married Elizabeth Turner Stephens in 1854 in Indiana, and soon settled in Montrose, Iowa, across the Mississippi from Nauvoo.
• Not surprisingly, Elizabeth Turner was not his first wife. In 1848, he had married Elizabeth Jane Sears -- probably his stepfather's daughter.

James's life had not been easy.  He was the first of five children, and James was only 10 when his father died.  His first wife died only five or six years into the marriage (no known children). On the trip west after his second marriage, a baby boy died.

James and Elizabeth were in Montrose before the 1856 Iowa Census, which enumerated them next door to the William Owen family -- a name that will come up in future posts.  Montrose was an opportunity for a fresh start. By 1860 James and Elizabeth (indexed "Fowker") had two daughters, Ida, 4, and Josephine, 2. James was not at home; Elizabeth was a seamstress.

Nearly sixty years later (see Chapter 6), Ida told part of the story. "In winter of 1857 parents took Ida to see Aunt Mary Sears, Lucas Co., Iowa. Returning home in Feb. 1858, all suffered from severe, snowy weather. As a result, Ida, a mere baby, lost her hearing, not to be restored." Ida said nothing more about her father. In fact, she made no mention of either his first or third marriage.

Something obviously happened to the Fawkner-Stephens marriage between about 1858 and 1862, when James married Julia Ann Angell. Iowa marriage and court records tell what happened. First, the marriage record, because it is easy to find -- sort of. A wildcard search for an Elizabeth "F*k*r" marriage in Lee County turns up one hit in Ancestry.com's All Iowa, Select Marriages, 1809-1992: Elizabeth Farokner and Oliver Dresser, 24 June 1861. The marriage can also be found in FamilySearch's Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934 index.

If this was, in fact, Elizabeth Fawkner, was she free to marry Oliver Dresser?  Lee County court records say yes. The Fawkner-Dresser marriage was a month after a decree granting Elizabeth a divorce from James C. Fawkner. The court papers include allegations that James deserted Elizabeth in 1858; he returned to Montrose briefly, but never lived with her or provided financial support after the desertion. When Elizabeth petitioned for divorce, James' whereabouts were unknown.

James did, however, come back from wherever he had been. In an affidavit to the court, George W. Oman (possibly George Omen) said about James: "... I saw him on his return home he had the appearance of being diseased in some way. He told me that he had the pox at that time, and that he was going home to give it [to] his wife and then leave and never live with her again."

James had not had an easy life, but as we might say today, he had issues.

We will pick up the trail of Elizabeth, Ida, and Josephine in due time, but Chapter 10 will first close out the book on James.

LESSON: When it appears a marriage has been disrupted, find the court records and look for a remarriage.

Legal notice from Lee County case file no. 289 (1861), E. T. Faulkner v. James C. Faulkner; legal notice published in Fort Madison Plain Dealer 12 April 1861.

Chapter 8: The View from Montrose

In this SCGS Jamboree week, I bring you a shorter than usual progress report on the Fawkner family.

The 1856 Iowa state census found James and Elizabeth Fawkner in Montrose, Iowa, tight on the bank of mid-America's great river. As the sun set, the ruins of the Mormon temple at Nauvoo (abandoned in 1846) glistened in the sun across the river in Illinois. Iowa did not become a state until December 1846 after the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo was underway, but business on the west bank of the Mississippi was brisk that year as  the Mormons provisioned themselves for their long trek west.

Indiana-born Elizabeth T. Falkner was 20; back in Indiana, the 1850 U.S. Census said she was 15). James C. Falkner, 27, was a teamster -- likely work related to river commerce. The Falkners lived next door to William Owens, a steamboat captain. Ida Fawkner, who told us in her family history that she was born in Montrose in 1856, had not yet born. But, Ida also recorded that a first child, a baby boy, died enroute to Iowa.


Why Montrose? The obvious answer would seem to be opportunity.  But James could have chosen any number of places up and down the bustling river. The answer is that someone had gone there before him. That someone was Cornelius Fawkner, a 27-year old "boatsman" who was living in the household of William Owens six years earlier in 1850. According to the census, Cornelius was born in Indiana. Hinting at part of the story yet to come, Cornelius and James were half-brothers. Stay tuned.

The 1860 U.S. Census enumerated "E. Fowkner" in Montrose; she had two apparent daughters: Ida, 4, and Josephine, 2.  Ida was "deaf and dumb." The census said Elizabeth was 50, an obvious error. That's all folks.  That's right, James was not at home when the census-taker visited.

Two questions arise.  Why was James absent? Where was he. We suspect that something went awry with the marriage because we know that by 1862 James was promising to return to marry the girl at the top of the stairs in Boone County, Missouri (see Chapter 2).  You might have the feeling that something not so good is about to happen in Montrose.

Let's leave it at that for now. The next part of the story will unfold back in Montrose. And, it's not so pretty.

LESSON: Just a little lesson this week -- Always look at every available census and, if someone is missing, ask why.

Photo:  Bird’s eye view from Montrose, Iowa, across Mississippi River to Nauvoo, Illinois; digital copy of print from steel engraving, 1855; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, reproduction number LC-USZ62-77636.