Surname Saturday: SCOTT in Kentucky

I recently created a scrapbook page featuring the known Scotts in my ancestry. My great grandmother was a Scott. Her father died young and his widow remarried. The second marriage produced no children. Fortunately the grandfather left a detailed will so that I know the makeup of the generation of his children. They lived in Harrison County, Kentucky, on Indian Creek.

His name was the very common John Scott. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1778. One of his neighbors, another of my ancestors, was also born that year in German Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. As there were Scotts in that vicinity at the time, I hope studying them will produce a relationship. I had hoped the fact that one of John Scott's oldest sons was named Francis might mean that was his father's name - and there was one in that PA location in 1790. I just got the bond and permission of what I think is John's marriage to a Sarah McDaniel in Clark County, Kentucky. It is HER father who was named Francis. Back to the drawing board on that one!

Starting with my great grandmother, here is my Scott surname list (place Harrison County except where noted):

Nancy Isabelle Scott, b. 13 April 1843, d. 31 December 1921 in Lakewood, OH, m. 3 May 1866
     John James McClintock, b. 7 July 1826 in Bourbon Co., KY; d. 18 September 1892

Thomas Scott, b. 22 December 1810; d. 22 October 1844; m. 22 December 1840
     Elizabeth McShane, b. 2 October 1823; d. 16 October 1907, m (2) 5 February 1846
          Caleb S. Whaley, b. 19 March 1818, d. 17 May 1887

John Scott, b. 16 October 1778 in PA; d. 3 March 1857; m. 21 July 1803 in Clark Co., KY
     Sarah (Sallie) McDaniel, b. ca. 1784; d. after 1860 census

Tombstone Tuesday: Commemorative Markers

The Indian Creek Baptist Churchyard is an old cemetery in rural Harrison County, Kentucky. A number of my ancestors are buried there, but three of them have more recent commemorative stones. I don't know if there were originals or if they were in poor condition, but I have mixed emotions about the markers there today. I wish I could see originals but really appreciate the efforts put into the new ones. Two are for Revolutionary War soldiers, the reason they were of special interest.

Edward McShane of New Jersey

Henry Talbert/Talbot had service in Maryland

The third stone is for an ancestor of mine and also of another genealogist who did a lot of research on the family in the 1970s and 80s. He is named on the stone as the presenter, Emmett Moore Waits.

Sarah, Wife of John Scott of Harrison County, Kentucky

John Scott of Harrison County, Kentucky, was born in Pennsylvania according to all census data. Date of birth of 16 October 1778 came from his gravestone in the Old East Broadwell Cemetery. He died 3 March 1857 leaving a will naming his children and grandchildren. His wife's name was Sarah, also called Sallie. The oldest child with known birthdate is Thomas born 22 Dec 1810. John and Francis appear to be older brothers, however. John Scott is a common name and another of similar age lived parts of his life nearby. Fortunately that John did not have a wife named Sarah.

Descendant Elizabeth (McClintock) Nickell (1902-1991) created a pedigree chart with Sarah's maiden name as McDaniel, no source indicated. As a child Mrs. Nickell had known Sarah's daughter-in-law, Elizabeth (McShane) Scott Whaley (1823-1907) who lived in the McClintock household. The widowed Sarah Scott, born about 1784, was enumerated on the 1860 census with son-in-law Harrison Cummins, daughter Mary (Scott) Cummins and unmarried daughter Elizabeth. She does not appear in later census years.

A Sarah McDaniel married a John Scott in nearby Clark County, Kentucky, on 21 July 1803. Indexes to the register list her name as McDonal and McDannel. There is a marriage bond signed by John Scott and Samuel McDonnal along with a permission from her father Francis McDaniel. If this is the marriage of the couple later living in Harrison County, it is likely that their son, Francis Scott, was named for his maternal grandfather. The permission is very hard to read and a portion of it seems to be cut off. Be sure to click on the following images to see larger versions. Land and tax records and probate in both counties should be searched next.

Military Monday: Charles Eckles & War of 1812

I'm still not clear on the role of Charles Eckles (Eccles) in the War of 1812. He has a Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR) for the war, but it only indicates that he had a substitute named Daniel Nape. There is just one card, a muster roll on 8 Feb. 1815, in the file for Charles. He was listed as a private in the 17th Regiment (Francesco's) of Kentucky Militia. The file also identifies the unit as "Capt. Stephen Ritchey's Co. of Infantry, 17th Regiment Kentucky Drafted Militia." Here is the complete file sent from the National Archives:

Daniel Nape and not Charles Eckles appears in the list of soldiers in the book of Kentucky units. (Kentucky Adjutant General's Office. Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky: Soldiers of the War of 1812. Frankfort, KY: E. Polk Johnson, 1891.) This seems to mean that Charles never served, but then why does he have a CMSR?

Sunday's Obituary: Charles Eckles, 1867

Rather than searching Kentucky newspapers at GenealogyBank.com, one day a search for surname Eckles with a keyword of Kentucky provided a surpising item in a newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the exact date of death for Charles Eckles.

The DAR Library in Washington, DC, has a book* of transcribed funeral invitations from Scott and Fayette counties in Kentucky, where Charles lived. It includes one for him, ones for his two daughters and ones attributed to his four wives. The one for Charles indicates that he was buried on 02 Aug 1867 following services conducted by Rev. Wm. R. Brown at the Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky. The newspaper notice gives his date of death as the previous day. A man aged seventy-nine seems young to be the oldest person in that community, but certainly he was elderly. That he rated notice in Ohio might reflect his widow's Ohio origins.

The invitation to the funeral of Nancy Eckles who died in 1839 is said to be for his first wife. I think it more likely to have been his mother whose name may also have been Nancy. His first wife may have died much earlier after the births of two daughters about 1817 and in 1819. This will be the subject of another post.
________________________
* Dickore, Marie. Copies of Names on Invitations to Funerals and Burials In Scott County and Fayette County, Kentucky, 1821 - 1898. Cincinnati, Ohio: n.pub., 1942.

Surname Saturday: ECKLES. Who was Charles Eckles, wagonmaker of Georgetown, Kentucky?

My father's middle name was Eckles, the maiden name of his great grandmother. Working back from him leads to the seemingly enigmatic Charles:

James Eckles McClintock
Annie Tarlton Nichols
Moses Eckles Nichols
Nancy Boyd Eckles
Charles Eckles, ca. 1788 - 1867

Many genealogists researching Eckles lines have encountered Charles Eckles, a wagonmaker in Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky. None seem to have identified his origins or other connections. He had four wives and two daughters. He does not seem to have any other children. His mother lived with him in Georgetown into an old age. They were very involved in the Presbyterian Church there. He was interviewed by John Dabney Shane, a Presbyterian minister from Cincinnati. The interview is now in the Draper Manuscripts (Charles Eccles, CC Kentucky Papers, Vol. 17, Shane Papers, Vol. 14, p. 5).

Charles first married in neighboring Fayette County and there are a number of tantalizing records there for him and others of this surname (and spelling variations.) It seems likely that they are his relatives.


Scrapbook page by scrap-genie