Tag Archives: Iowa

Matilda Fowler Smith

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2016-11-05-23-44-26

Matilda Fowler Smith taken about 1852. Possibly just before or after moving to California .

Family history writing prompt 3 – think of  an ancestor as character in a novel and describe their life in a few paragraphs. For this prompt, I have chosen Matilda Fowler, my third great grandmother from my Father’s maternal line. Her real life story reads like a great historical the one without a happy ending.

Matilda Fowler Smith

 Matilda walked him to the door, “Thank you for coming. I don’t know if I will ever be able to pay you.”

The doctor stepped onto the porch. “Don’t worry about it. I just wish there was more I could do. It shouldn’t be long now.”

She nodded and watched until he reached his horse and buggy. She closed the door and walked across the room to where a chest stood. Bending down she slipped her hands into the bottom drawer and rummaged under the linens until she found what she wanted – a frame and an old knotted handkerchief. 

With slumped shoulders she walked over to the rocker next to her sleeping husband. She sighed as she lowered herself onto the seat and began to undo the knot. The pulled back edges of fabric revealed three tiny gold nuggets, the frame an image taken just after they married. They’d been so young, so full of hope for their future, now this was all that remained.

“Oh, Isaac, she whispered.  “What happened to our dreams.” 

Tears leaked from her eyes, instead of rich they were penniless, and soon Isaac would join the five babies she’d already buried.

 She closed her eyes, “What’s to become of us?” she murmured. How will the  boys and I go on without you?”

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Born a twin, Matilda and her brother William, were the 8th and 9th children of Phoebe Hockett and John Fowler. At age four her family moved from Ohio to Henry County, Iowa. In 1845, at the age of ten, her father died. The family moved to Tama County, Iowa in 1850.

Matilda matured fast, at the tender age of 15 she and Isaac Smith eloped. The following spring the pair set off to “see the elephant” having caught gold fever. They had big dreams of becoming rich in California.

The trip couldn’t have been easy. Cholera and other diseases loomed across the trail and although they caused no problems the Native Americans always watching, frightened Matilda.

By October the couple had only made it as far as the area of Salt Lake City. There Matilda gave birth to their first child, a boy they named William. Two days later they buried him and had to move on. How hard it it must have been for them to face this loss alone without the help of extended family they’d left back home. The hardest part of the journey still lay ahead. Exhausted the couple finally arrived in the gold fields in December of 1852.

In the next few years Matilda gave birth to 5 more children. Twins who died shortly after birth and two others who died of childhood diseases. Only the oldest my great great grandfather, William R. Smith, survived.

By 1860 she was pregnant again and longed to be back in the safety of her mother’s arms. So she set off alone, to sail home, while her husband and son traveled back by wagon train. That summer she gave birth to a healthy baby boy in her mother’s home. They named him James Wesley Addison Smith.

The couple moved to Benton County, Iowa, where Isaac rented a farm, and they struggled to make ends meet. Isaac’s health was already suffering when he joined the Civil War effort, enlisting in 28th Iowa Regiment, in December of 1863. Most likely he joined to get a bounty to help support his family. That summer he lay ill in a Washington D.C. hospital. Discharged in 1864, due to disability, he died at home in April of 1865.

Matilda was left with their two young sons to raise alone. Penniless she was able to collect a small pension but it wasn’t much.

In 1866 she married Amos Werner and they had 3 more children. I wish I could say her marriage to Amos had a happy ending but he turned out to be a drunk and she divorced him.

In 1881 Matilda married for the third time to James Small. One can hope this union was happier. In 1895 James passed away and Matilda moved in with her son, Samuel Werner.

Her family said her hard life had made her thrifty and honest with a strong sense of right and wrong. She spent her last years enjoying her corncob pipe, quilting and piecing braided hairpieces for extra money. She was 82 at the time of her death in 1917 and is buried in the Reading cemetery, Farmhamville, Calhoun County, Iowa.

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Matilda at age 76

THE WILL OF SAMUEL CAPLE

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2016-03-13 20.18.23

 

I held the will for Samuel Caples in my hand and struggled to read the writing.  The will was recorded before a probate judge  on May 17, 1869.

The synopsis follows:

I give and bequeath to my wife in lieu of her dower 800 dollars. I device and bequeath to my son Jacob Caples, one dollar, my son Nimrod Caples, one dollar, my son Samuel Caples, 800 dollars, my son Andrew Caples, 800 dollars, my son Robert Caples, 800 dollars, to my daughter Rebecca married to David Grimes, 400 dollars, to my daughter Elizabeth married to Joseph Evans, 400 dollars, to my daughter Ruth married to Abraham Linnard, 400 dollars, to Keisa married to Henry Crabbs, 400 dollars, to Amy Church, James Church and Ann Church one dollar each, Emeline Caples, daughter of William Caples one dollar.

I was elated. I had found Jacob’s father. It wasn’t just that his name was listed as a son but also the mention of a son named Nimrod. Nimrod was the name my aunt had found while researching the family in  Monroe, Iowa. The same town where Jacob had lived. The name Rebecca Grimes was also listed which matched what Daisy Lee Grimes had said in her query in that old book in the used book store.

That Jacob and Nimrod had only received one dollar in inheritance suggest they might have had a falling out with their father, however I think it is more likely they had already received their share, perhaps in the sale of the land Jacob had handled for Samuel.

And there was another Samuel mentioned. No wonder my great-grandfather insisted on being called Samuel Hugh. He had an uncle and grandfather sharing his name.

The S on the end of Caple didn’t bother me. I’d learned in the 1800’s people weren’t as concerned about how things were spelled. Even within the land documents Jacob had sold his name appeared with and without the S in the same document.  Samuel Hugh’s pension files had him listed both as Caple and Caples.

Now it was time for me to see if this Ohio, Samuel Caple was connected to the revolutionary war Samuel Caple, from Maryland. Time to start looking at the early census records in  Maryland and connect to those who had more information about the Maryland Caple family via the internet.

IN SEARCH OF JACOB CAPLE’S Father

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Jacob Caple, born about 1816, Carroll County, Maryland

Synopsis:  Through family stories and my Great Grandfather, Samuel Hugh Caple’s Civil War pension records, I had discovered Samuel H. Caple was born in 1845 in Knox County, Ohio. His parents were Jacob Caple and Sarah Garey.  Jacob had been born in Maryland but married in Knox county, Ohio in 1841. Around 1857 Jacob had moved his family to Monroe, Jasper county, Iowa. Land documents there, led me to believe, he was connected to Samuel Caple of Richland County, Ohio. Census records in Ohio revealed that a Samuel Caple had lived there and had also been born in Maryland. He was the right age to be Jacob’s father.  Now I needed a will or other document to prove a connection

 

IN SEARCH FOR JACOB CAPLE’S FATHER

Shortly after mailing my request for a will for Samuel Caple of Ohio, my husband and I visited a used bookstore. As I gazed at a shelf of fiction, my husband rounded the corner.

“I found something for you to look at.” he said.

He handed me a thick book of  genealogical queries. He pointed to an entry –  “CAPLE, SAMUEL.”  A Daisy Lee Grimes was looking for more information about her great-grandfather, Samuel Caple, born in Maryland and who had lived in Ohio. I was fairly certain this was the same Samuel Caple I was looking for.  I would have called her right then and there except the book was from the 1940’s, it was unlikely that now in the 1990’s, Daisy was still alive.

The following week I perused the shelf containing family genealogies at my local library. I knew there was no way I was going to find a Caple genealogy, still I looked. My eyes scanned the titles for surnames beginning with C – “History And Genealogy Of The Caples Family And Allied Families Of Maryland.” Surprised, I pulled the book off the shelf.  Could this be my family, Jacob was from Maryland.

I opened the thin, hand bound book. It had been written in the 1960’s. The Caple’s in this book were from the earliest days of colonial Maryland. I still had a lot of work to do before I could discover if we connected to this family. But how had this hand typed copy from Maryland ended up in a Tacoma, WA library?

The following week I went to the Seattle National Regional Archives to work on another branch of my family tree. I was re-winding a microfilm when the archives announced it would be closed in 30 minutes. I gathered my things and went to slip the film back into its place in a file cabinet. Bent over, I glanced sideways, the words – CAPLE, SAMUEL – jumped out at me.  It was the first entry for a drawer full of Revolutionary War pension files.  Why was I suddenly finding the name Caple everywhere?

Never mind the archive was about to close, I had to see what was on it. I hastily threaded the microfilm onto the machine. I scrolled forward, the file was long. Quickly I skimmed, the old, difficult to read, cursive writing. Fortunately the pages deemed to be the best source of genealogical facts had been placed at the beginning of the file. This Samuel Caple had been born in Maryland. He hadn’t mentioned children by name but did say he had sons. And since he was born in 1752, he could easily be Samuel Caple of Ohio’s father. But it was too soon to jump to such conclusions.  I left hoping someday I would have reason to return and inspect this film in detail, in the meantime I had to prove or disprove Jacob was the son of Samuel Caple in Ohio. Only then could I begin to look for a link for someone in Maryland. Now more than ever I was anxious to find Jacob’s father.

On a rainy day a few weeks later, I pulled a thin envelope postmarked Ohio out of my mailbox. It looked much too thin to contain the information I wanted. With shaking hands I ripped the envelope open and pulled out the  will for Samuel Caple of Richland County, Ohio.  I began to read the difficult to decipher writing ; fingers crossed it would contain Jacob’s name.

Who was Samuel?

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It’s been a while since I wrote about the discoveries I made with my Caple family history, so I am including a brief synopsis of what I have written thus far before moving onto the next chapter.

According to my Grandfather, his father Samuel Hugh Caple and had fought in the Civil War. From Samuel’s Civil War pension papers I learned he had been born in Ohio, his parents were Jacob and Sarah Geary Caple.  While in Monroe my aunt had copied some deed we assumed were for Samuel Hugh Caple. But on closer inspection I noticed the the facts didn’t jibe.  The deeds seemed to be for different Samuel, one who lived in Richland county, Ohio.

—————————————————————————————————————————–Family known so far: Grandfather-William Roy Caple b. 1885 -1971, Great Grandfather- Samuel Hugh Caple 1845-1920, GG Grandfather Jacob Caple 1816- after 1872?  2015-05-12 19.13.49

WHO WAS THIS SAMUEL CAPLE?

After discovering the possibilty another Samuel Caple might be connected to the family I paid a visit to the local “Family History Library” run by the LDS church. There I was met by a friendly volunteer who suggested I start my search with the IGI index.

I typed in Samuel Hugh Caple. Up popped his name along with his parent’s Jacob and Sarah Garey Caple, his first wife Polly Sumpter and their children Milo and Minnie. Information I already had.

Next the volunteer guided me to look in the 1860 census for a Jacob Caple in Iowa. Armed with a page number from the census index book, I soon was whirling through microfilm until I came listing I wanted.

Fairview township, Jasper county, Iowa, PO Monroe, 1860

  • Jacob -age 43, born in Maryland, occupation Carriage maker
  • Sarah – age 38, keeping house, born in Pennsylavania
  • William – age 18, born in Ohio
  • Samuel- age 15, born in Ohio
  • Mary E.- age 11-born in Ohio
  • Anna Bell,- age 8 born in Ohio
  • John W.- age 6 born in  Ohio
  • Ida -age 2 born in Iowa.

With the H. added to Samuel’s name and his age I was sure I had the right family. Ida’s birth in Iowa placed the family’s move to the state to be around 1857.  So far everything matched the info my aunt and Samuel’s pension file gave. It was time to look in Ohio.

Since the children’s births indicated the family was living in Ohio in 1850 the LDS volunteer suggested I next search for Jacob in that census. It didn’t take long to find him:

Liberty township, Knox county, Ohio -1850.

  • Jacob Caple, age 34  born in Maryland, carriage maker
  • Sarah born in Pennsylvania,
  • William age 9, born in Ohio
  • Samuel H. age 6, born in Ohio
  • Mary Etta, age 1, born in Ohio.

They had to be my family. But the mystery of the Samuel Caple on the Iowa deeds still remained. If Jacob had POA, there had to be a connection.

Next I searched for a marriage record for Jacob and Sarah in the microfilm copies the library had on file. I found them but the record gave no parents names.

Next she suggested I look for a Samuel Caple in the 1850 census of Richland county. I was thrilled when I found one and he had both a wife named Francis and was old enough to be Jacob’s father.

Butler Township, Richland County, 1850 census

  • Samuel, born about 1782 in Maryland, age 68
  • wife Francis, age 32
  • Samuel, age 15 b. in Ohio
  • James, age 6, b. in Ohio
  • William, age 3 b. in Ohio

There was that name Samuel again. Now I had three of them. I recalled my grandfather saying his Dad always insisted he was Samuel Hugh Caple not just Samuel Caple. I wondered, was it because their was more than one Samuel in his family tree?

Next I checked for this Samuel of Richland county in the 1860 census.  Would he still be alive?

1860 census, Butler township, PO Shenandoah, Ohio

  • Samuel, age 77 born in MD
  • Frances age 40, born in PA
  • Samuel age 22, born in Ohio
  • James age 16.  born in Ohio.

Okay, if he  he was still alive in 1860 maybe he was still alive in 1867 , too.  He was certainly old enough to be Jacob’s parent but his wife wasn’t. Did Samuel perhaps remarry after Jacob’s mother died?

I could look for an earlier census for this Samuel Caple and in fact I did find him but before 1850 no spouse or children were listed by name. The 1840 census  would not help me prove or disprove this Samuel was Jacob’s father. For that I will need a will or some other document that might show the names of his children.

That night I composed and sent a letter to Richland county clerk’s office asking if they might have will on file for this Samuel.

In the meantime I decided to follow my aunt’s suggestion and call a cousin, also named Samuel, who lived locally. I had a lovely chat with his wife. Yes, they too,had been trying to discover the origination of the family. Unfortunately she had no new information to add. But she did have a computer.

Now this was 1993 and the internet was new. On a genealogygroup page someone from a Caple family in Maryland had contacted her. They had compared trees but found no matches. However the Maryland person mentioned a Samuel who was the son of the Revolutionary Samuel I’d found in the library book.  According to her, this Samuel had a disagreement with his brother over slavery and had moved north to Ohio.

The story seemed similar to the one my grandfather told. The one where the family had been from the south but sold the plantation and moved North over slavery. Could the Samuel on the deeds and in the Richland county, Ohio be the person my grandfather spoke of?  And if he was, could he be the same Samuel the person from Maryland spoke of?

Hopefully I would have some answers when I heard back from Richland County, Ohio. For now all I could do was wait.

A Visit With My Aunt Or Who Was This Samuel?

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After pouring through my great grandfather Samuel Hugh’s pension file I hungered to know more.  Samuel hadn’t lived in Caple, Oklahoma until he was over the age of 45.  Clearly my Caple family hadn’t begun there.  But where were they from and when did they first come to this country?  (Note: later I would learn Caple was a post office station named for the first post master William Caple Samuel’s brother William.)

I made arrangements to meet with my Aunt Iva. After the usual hugs and greetings she walked me into the dining room where a big cardboard box sat. Inside were an accumulation of old photos and papers my grandfather had saved.  She had never seen Samuel Hugh’s pension papers so we began with those.

She was not surprised that her Grandfather had been living in Monroe, Iowa during the Civil War. In fact she’d traveled to Monroe and Oklahoma.  Unfortunately, she’d found little to add to the story we already knew.  No graves has been found matching Samuel’s family.  However she had found graves for   wives and children of a Nimrod Caple. While we ruminated, on how hard it must have been to lose so many loved ones, we wondered who he was?  Were we related and if so, how?

At the court house she found deeds for Nimrod plus some for a Samuel Caple with Jacob Caple having  power of attorney to sell the property. We assumed the Samuel was his son Samuel Hugh Caple.  At the end of my visit she lent me the deeds to make copies.2015-05-12 19.17.42

That evening I  sat at  my kitchen table and re-examined the documents. The first deed was for property sold in 1863, the others were for 1867.  Both my aunt and I had assumed Jacob was selling land for his son while he was serving in the Iowa infantry in the civil war. But Samuel was only 18. Would someone so young have property to sell?  And why didn’t he take care of it himself in 1867? Then I noticed something else. The deeds said Samuel lived in in Richland county, Ohio not Jasper county, Iowa. And the wife was named Francis not Polly. And besides Samuel hadn’t married until 1868. The place, names and dates didn’t add up, this Samuel had to be someone else, but who and how were we connected to him?

2015-05-12 19.13.49

 

Militiary and Pension File For Samuel Hugh Caple Examined

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2015-04-11 22.13.29

I loved hearing my Grandpa Caple reminisce about traveling the Oregon trail when he was a boy. He also told  stories of his dad’s civil war experiences especially his survival of Andersonville Prison. He said his Dad had enlisted at age 16 at the outbreak of the war. Since he was underage his father had fetched him home. When he turned 18 the war was still going and he enlisted again.  Apparently, he soon had second thoughts but this time he had to stay.

He told me his dad was wanderer always thinking the grass was greener somewhere else, never staying in one place long until his wife put her foot down and refused to move again.  Stories of how his Dad had worked with the likes of  Buffalo Bill Cody and Wyatt Earp in Dodge city fascinated me.  He told me we’d be rich if his dad hadn’t somehow lost his claim on most of what is downtown Spokane.

But when I asked where the Caple’s had come from; the only thing he recalled his dad saying was they had come from the south. Once slave owners they had sold the plantation moved north after deciding slavery was wrong.

Now I had his father’s, Samuel Hugh Caple’s, service records along with his and his wife’s pension files.  What would they tell me?

First there was a description of Samuel. At  5 ft. 7 inches he wasn’t a tall man but I bet his dark hair, fair complexion and blue eyes turned a few heads on the girls when he was a young.

He had served as a private in the Iowa 5th volunteer Infantry, Company B and later in the Iowa 5th Cavalry.  He had enlisted for 3 years on 11 Sept. 1863 in Vicksburgh Mississippi receiving a 100 dollar bounty for enlisting.

His unit had taken part in the Battle of Mission Ridge on Nov 24th and 25th of 1863.  They had been furloughed to Davenport, Iowa from April 8th to May 7th 1864.

On Augut 8, 1864 he was transferred to Co. I, Iowa 5th Calvary at Long Pond, Georgia (the reason was the 5th infantry and 5th Calvary had suffered huge losses and thus were combined into the 5th Calvary.)

He was absent on detached service for Dec. of 1864 and January 1865 working as a teamster since 12/64 which meant he was most likely involved in carrying supplies for the troops.

He was mustered out of service on Aug. 11, 1865 in Nashville, TN.

2015-04-11 22.12.48I was told this photo of Samuel Hugh was taken right after the end of the Civil War. Supposedly he had a husky build when he enlisted but as a result of his imprisonment had returned home a much smaller person.

He had  applied for pension three times. His wife Margaret applied for a widow’s pension after is death.

He was born in  Mt. Vernon, Ohio on March 28, 1845 to Jacob Caple and Sarah Ann Garey. At the time of enlistment he had been living in Monroe, Iowa and lived there afterwards until 1876. He had also lived in Dodge City, Kansas, Puyallup, WA and Oklahoma.

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His first  application for a pension was made in March of 1894.  At that time he was living in Caple, Oklahoma. He stated that he was unable to support himself by reason of rheumatism and piles and also heart, spleen and liver complaints.  He wrote that he had first aquired spleen and liver complaints March of 1865 in Selma, Alabama, due to exposure.  The rheumatism had started in 1873 and he had been troubled by piles or 16 years. This application was witnessed by a W. M. Edwards and Richard B. Quinn. In another document both of these parties swore that they had known Samuel for 25 and 1/3 years as of March 1894.

There was a doctor’s avadavidit stating that he suffered from Rhuematism, Hemorroids and chronic endocarditis and enlarged spleen from June of 1895.

This application for pension was denied.  In 1898 he again applied.  In this application he stated that he had married Margaret (Maggie Ragsdale) in Brookline, MO, on Sept. 16, 1877 and had previously been married to Polly A. Caple who had died on June 10, 1876 in Monroe, Iowa.

He listed his living children as Milo age 23, Minnie age 30, Samuel age 19, Joe age 14, Roy age 12 and Richard age 8  ( Note: one more  child, Lida would be born in 1899). This application was also denied but when reapplied in 1912 it was accepted.

In Dec. of 1920 his widow Margaret applied for a widowers pension.  Among the papers in this application was a copy of his death certificate. His address was given as 510 16th st. S. E. in Puyallup, WA. His date of birth was verified as being March 28th 1845.   He was age 75 years, 8 months and 8 days. It confirmed his place of birth as Mt. Vernon, Ohio and his parents were listed as Joseph Caple b. in Maryland and his mother as Sarah Gery also born in Maryland.  The informant for this information was listed as his wife Margaret M. Caple.

He died on  Dec. 6th 1920 at 10 a. m. The cause of death was diabetic gangrene of
the foot and he was buried in the Orting Cemetery, Dec. 8 1820. Margaret also
gave their marriage date and place of marriage as previously stated.  She had had
been born, March 31st. 1858  near Brookline, Green County, Missouri.  Her
pension request was accepted.
 Now that I knew more about Samuel Hugh Caple  my appetite to know more was
whetted. He’s said his parents had been born in Maryland.  Was Maryland
considered a southern state? A quick look up told me it was. Had this been the
state of the old family plantation?  Had there ever been one? Or was the story of
moving north because of opposition to slavery just  been told to make the family
sound good.
 And who exactly were his parents? Why had they moved from Ohio to Iowa?
To answer these questions I would need help. The first two thing I did was buy a
book on researching your ancestry, next I talked to my Dad. He didn’t remember
much more. He suggested I call my Aunt Iva he was pretty sure she could tell me
more. I scheduled a time to meet with her as soon as I could spare time to travel
to Bremerton for a day. In the meantime I decided to see what resources my local
library held. While there I made two discoveries. Their collection included a book a
Caple family of Maryland.  Were these my ancestors? And I had found a Samuel
Caple who had served in the Revolutionary war. Surely I would have heard about
such an ancestor.  But he was named Samuel, could he be an ancestor?
To answer these questions I had a lot of work to do.  First I had to start with what
I did know and work my way backwards.  Time to do more research on my great
grandfather, Samuel Hugh Caple and his father Jacob.