Jane Flint: A Bell Child Identified

By Jean M. Hoffman, CG^SM

Samuel and Mary (Lyons) Bell of Newport Township, Washington County, Ohio, had one son still living in Newport at the time of an 1881 county history. That son, Nathan, is undoubtedly the source of the information in the book. It states that there were twelve children in the family.¹ Early census records support that number.²

Five surviving sons were named in the county history. All appear in the 1880 census. Their names and locations in 1880 are: Nathan, Newport, Washington County, Ohio; Samuel, Jr., Meigs County, Ohio; Joseph, Gallia County, Ohio; Hiram, Hillsdale County, Michigan; and William H. Bell in Fillmore County, Nebraska, and soon after in Salt Lake City.³ Three daughters have been identified as Mary, wife of Presley Tuel and later Nelson Wallace; Charlotte, wife of Nathan Bell of Barlow Township, Washington County; and Amanda, wife of Bartlett Jackson.⁴

Viola and Thomas J. Bell were children of Nathan Bell of Newport Township. Nathan’s first wife, Adaline (née Reckard,) died in January 1849, shortly after their house burned down, leaving the children motherless and homeless.⁵ Their father was enumerated with his brother, Joseph Bell, in Newport Township in the 1850 census.⁶ The children were recorded with Porter and Jane Flint.⁷ A third child in the Flint household was David Delos Flint. He was the son of the late Asa Flint, Porter’s relative.⁸ Finding the Bell children with her was the first step in identifying Jane Flint as a member of the Bell family.

Jane was the wife of Porter Flint of Ludlow Township, Washington County, Ohio. They were married 18 February 1836. While there is no civil record, the marriage is noted in the newspaper giving Jane Bell’s home as Newport Township.⁹

In April 1860, Porter Flint drowned leaving Jane alone on their property.¹⁰ She was issued Letters of Administration for the estate of her late husband on 8 Aug 1860. She gave bond of $3,000 with Joseph Bell, undoubtedly her brother, and Richard Scott as her sureties.¹¹ A few days earlier, the census enumerator listed her alone at age fifty-six. Her real estate was valued at $3,500 and personal property at $800. William H. Bell and family were listed two households later.¹² He was the youngest of the Bell children identified to date. Jane wrote her will 11 August 1865. In it she left many bequests including to her “beloved brother William H. Bell” her spotted horse, five sheep, and a clock. To his daughter, Jane Bell, she left her bureau. Her will was presented to probate in Washington County on 29 January 1866.¹³

A resident of Newport Township before marriage, Jane was associated with the children of Nathan Bell in her home, with Joseph Bell as her surety, and with William H. Bell by proximity and specifically as her brother. She is clearly their sister, probably the oldest girl, and a ninth of an apparent twelve Bell children. She was born about 1803-04 in Ohio and died in 1865-66 as a resident of Ludlow Township, Washington County, Ohio. She had no children.

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Endnotes

1. H. Z. Williams Bro. Pub., 1788–1881, History of Washington County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (1881; reprint Knightstown, Ind: Bookmark, 1976), 568.

2. 1820 U.S. census, population schedule, Washington County, Ohio, Newport Township, page 222 (stamped), line 9, Samuel Bell; NARA microfilm M33, roll 95.

3. 1880 U.S. census, population schedules. For Nathan see Washington County (Newport Township,) Ohio, ED 235, page 350D, dwelling 211, family 231, Nathan Bell household; NARA microfilm T9, roll 1076. For Samuel, Jr. Meigs County (Racine Village, Sutton Township,) Ohio, ED 120, page 307A, dwelling 78, family 82, Samuel Bell household; NARA microfilm T9, roll 1048. For Joseph see Gallia County (Clay Township,) ED 21, page 277B, dwelling 231, family 237, Joseph Bell household; NARA microfilm T9, roll 1018. For Hiram see Hillsdale County (Camden Township,) Michigan, ED 83, page 77B, dwelling 201, family 207, Hiram Bell household; NARA microfilm T9, roll 580. For William H. see Fillmore County (Fairmont Village,) Nebraska, ED 323, page 455D, dwelling 128, family 132, William H. Bell household; NARA microfilm T9, roll 748. Also for William H. see “Report of Coroner’s Inquest, Death of William H. Bell, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, 14 June 1887,”Emeline Bell, widow's pension application no. 380,677, certificate no. 255,011; service of William H. Bell (Pvt., Co. F, 116th Ohio Vol. Inf., Civil War), Case Files of Approved Pension Applications…, 1861–1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Department of Veteran Affairs, Record Group 15, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

4. For Mary see Josephine E. Phillips, compiler, Vital Records of Washington County (Cleveland, OH: Western Reserve Historical Society, 1942), 4, Mary Bell to Presley Tuell (1830.) Also Samuel Bell and wife Mary to Joseph Bell (1834,) Washington County, Ohio, Deed Book, 24: 318-19, reserving a tract “given to my daughter Mary Tuel,” County Recorder's Office, Marietta, Ohio. Also Nelson Wallis and wife Mary to Joseph Bell (1844,) Washington County, Ohio, Deed Book, 36: 61. For Charlotte see “Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994,” Washington County Probate Court, Marietta, Ohio, vol. 1: 423, Charlotte Bell (Newport) to Nathan Bell (Barlow), 1832; digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org: accessed 24 May 2013); from FHL microfilm 941,958. For Amanda see Phillips, Vital Records of Washington County, 4, Amanda Bell to Bartlett Jackson (1840.)

5. “House Burned,” Marietta (Ohio) Intelligencer, 1 Feb 1849, p. 2. Also 1850 U.S. census, Washington County, Ohio, mortality schedule, Newport Township, page 293, line 1, Adaline Bell entry; NARA microfilm T1159, roll 15, her death erroneously reported for 1850.

6. 1850 U.S. census, Washington County, Ohio, population schedule, Newport Township, page 465 (stamped), 929 (penned), dwelling/family 1, Joseph Bell household; NARA microfilm M432, roll 738.

7. 1850 U.S. census, Washington County, Ohio, population schedule, Ludlow Township, page 497-98 (stamped), 993 (penned), dwelling/family 73, Porter Flint household; digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org: accessed 15 October 2012); from NARA microfilm M432, roll 738.

8. David Delos Flint, guardianship, Administrators and Executors Docket, 1857–1865, Book C: 176, Washington County Probate Court, Marietta, Ohio.

9. “Hymeneal [marriages],” Marietta (Ohio) Gazette, 9 April 1836, p. 3.

10. “Drowned,” Marietta (Ohio) Republican, 13 April 1860, p. 3, col. 1. Also 1860 U.S. census, Washington County, Ohio, mortality schedule, Ludlow Township, line 10, Porter Flint entry; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 15 October 2012); from NARA microfilm T1159, roll 30.

11. Administrators and Executors Docket, 1857–1865 (Probate Court, Washington County, Marietta, Ohio), C: 455; “Ohio, Probate Records, 1789–1996,” digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 17 October 2012; imaged from FHL microfilm 946,228.

12. 1860 U.S. census, population schedule, Washington County, Ohio, post office Flintsmill, Ludlow Township, page 469 (stamped), dwelling/family 91, Jane Flint household and dwelling/family 93, William H. Bell; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 15 October 2012); from NARA microfilm M653, roll 1049, imaged from FHL microfilm 805,049.

13. Jane Flint will (1865), Washington County, Ohio, Will Book 1: 523-24, Washington County Probate Court, Marietta, Ohio; "Ohio, Probate Records, 1789 - 1996," digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 7 May 2013); imaged from FHL microfilm 946,216.

Moses Eckles Nichols: Naming Patterns To the Rescue

Jean M. Hoffman, CG^SM

Charles Nichols, born in 1817, arrived in Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky, as a young adult and soon married a daughter of the local wagon maker, Charles Eckles.¹ Charles Nichols and Nancy Boyd Eckles were married by H. J. Perry on 12 March 1840.² They probably were young adults in the 1840 household of her father.³

By 1850 Charles Nichols ran a blacksmith shop and was a Ruling Elder of the Georgetown Presbyterian Church with his father-in-law.⁴ The only information on his origins was a birthplace of New York in the 1850 and 1860 U.S. censuses.⁵ Nichols is a common surname and many lived in New York in 1820 when Charles was about three. Finding his birth family seemed a daunting task.

He and Nancy had eight children, six surviving when Charles died 2 November 1862.⁶ All the children had first and middle names that appear to honor family members. An exception was the youngest child, Daniel Y. Nichols. He was named for their minister, Daniel Young. The oldest son was Moses Eckles Nichols. As his mother’s father was Charles Eckles, his father’s father might be a Moses Nichols. When this finally occurred to me it changed the scope of the problem of the origins of Charles Nichols. Only two New York households in 1820 were headed by men named Moses Nichols. Both lived in New Windsor in Orange County. One had four males under age ten and could include Charles.⁷

I had not pursued this lead until a fellow club member mentioned an active Yahoo! Group run by the Orange County (New York) Genealogical Society. He also told me of a member who would look up probate records there. I joined the group and contacted Marty Irons, a kind and helpful researcher in New York.

Probate records include the estate of Moses Nichols, the will of his second wife Mary, and guardianship papers for their four orphaned sons, Aaron W., Robert J., Charles, and Moses Higby Nichols. Charles of Kentucky was indeed one of those sons. His guardian was his uncle Samuel Nichols.⁸ A genealogy focused on Humphrey Nichols of Newark, New Jersey, was published in 1917.⁹ Humphrey was the grandfather of Moses and Samuel of New Windsor. Charles isn’t named, but his ancestors in the Nichols line are covered. I later found a biography of the second son, Charles Boyd Nichols, in a Kentucky publication.¹⁰ He identified his father’s birthplace as Newburgh, a town near New Windsor in Orange County.

There is one problem still: Charles’s mother Mary. There is an unsourced online family tree that claims her maiden name is Mary Ann Wright, born 29 January 1780 in Orange County, New York.¹¹ Her oldest son’s middle initial is W., lending some support to the claim. I’m still working on this puzzle. It is amazing that my friend and I, here in Ohio, each have a brickwall involving members of one church in Little Britain, a portion of the Town of New Windsor, New York.

Endnotes

1. Georgetown Cemetery (Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky), Nichols marker, photograph by author, 27 August 2008 (years of birth and death, name of wife and a daughter).

2. Marriage Register 1837–1863: item 218 (unpaginated), Scott County Clerk's Office, Georgetown, KY.

3. 1840 U.S. census, Scott County, Kentucky, George Town, p. 93 (stamped), line 12, Charles Eckles household; NARA microfilm M704, roll 123.

4. 1850 U.S. Census, Scott County, Kentucky, population schedule, District No. 2, p. 448, dwelling/family 33, Charles Nichols household; NARA microfilm M432, roll 218. Also William Henry Perrin, History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky (1882; reprint Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1979), 197.

5. 1860 U.S. Census, Scott County, Kentucky, pop. sch., District No. 2, Georgetown, post office Georgetown, page 788, dwelling 48, family 49, Chas. Nichols household; NARA microfilm M653, roll 394.

6. Nichols/Eckles family members’ marriages, births, and deaths; typescript apparently of records in a family Bible but without annotation. It was in the possession of, undoubtedly transcribed by, Elizabeth (McClintock) Nickell. Since her death owned by her grandson (address available).

7. 1820 U.S. census, Orange County, New York, pop. sch., Town of New Windsor, p. 479 (handwritten), p. 194 (stamped), line 18, Moses Nichols; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed 17 August 2009); citing NARA microfilm M33, roll 64.

8. Orange County, New York, Letters of Administration, E: 212, Moses Nichols entry, (1822), and Wills, H: 302-04, Mary Nichols will, (1827), and Letters of Guardianship, B: 197, Charles Nichols entry, (1831), Surrogate Court Clerk's Office, Goshen.

9. Frederic C. Torrey The Ancestors and Descendants of Humphrey Nichols of Newark, New Jersey, and of his Brothers and Sisters (Lakehurst, NJ: author, 1917), Google Books digital images (http://www.google.com : accessed 18 August 2009).

10. E. Polk Johnson A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities, Vol. 3 (Chicago - New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1912), Google Books digital images (http://www.google.com : accessed 16 August 2009), 1593.

11. “Soher Iversen Gammon Beal Carson Spalding Bevan,” online family tree, RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com : accessed 25 August 2009.)

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originally published as a supplement to the December 2012 Bits & Bytes, newsletter of CAGG-CA, Volume 19.04-2.