Henry and Mary Marsh: Coomandook and retirement

The last post left Henry and Mary in Adelaide as a well-established family touched by some tragedy but with Henry’s business growing.

Edith, Henry’s eldest daughter described him as an immaculately presented and confident man.

Her son Bob Clark knew a very different man two decades later; ‘non-descript, down at the heel and poorly dressed’, with limited income, whose views ‘no one listened to’. His ‘grown-up family revolved around their radiant mother’ Mary.

Everyone seems to have admired Mary and many remembered her support and advice to her children. 

So, how did the change in Henry’s fortunes occur? Was he entirely to blame for his fate?

His ‘descent’ commenced in 1905. Overconfidence, hasty decisions, and unwise investments all contributed, but it was also external factors in particular Federation of the Australian States in 1901 that ruined him. 

Prior to that, South Australia, with its enclave dependency of Broken Hill, had been an island protected from competition by the moat of tariff and customs barriers at the border. That was the reason why in the 1890s Kitchens started an independent business in South Australia with Henry Marsh as an equal partner. The need for such a business collapsed with Federation.

It was not until 1905, with a new generation of the Kitchen family on the Board of Directors, knowing they could now supply South Australia and Broken Hill from the factory in Melbourne, that it proposed the soap and candle business of H Marsh and Co be merged into the Kitchen business.

William Essex, Marsh’s partner and friend was not only willing but eager. Marsh refused. Kitchen thereupon dismissed him as Managing Director. Essex soon returned to England and Henry was left to face the competition of Kitchen and other businesses such as Burford’s alone. Although flourishing, Marsh’s business was still smaller than either Kitchen's or Burford's.

Without the energetic Essex at the head of his department, Henry was stretched too far. Marsh and Co fell into trouble and the inevitable happened. Kitchen's eventually purchased the business, now much reduced, at their own price. Henry was left with only The Imperial Preserving Co and an inadequate amount of money.

Quorn Mercury, Tuesday 9 August 1904.

Imperial Preserving mounted a steady newspaper advertising campaign between about 1897-1904, but after that smaller advertisements appear aiming to sell horses and drays and vinegar containers and purchase farming equipment and 100 redgum fence posts as the business declined and Henry looked to the bush.

Advertiser, Monday 26 December 1910, page 9.

James Thomas Brown was a successful building contractor in Adelaide and a business acquaintance of Henry. Brown had built or would build the Public Library and Museum buildings on North Terrance, the Nurses Home and the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Education Building on Flinders Street and St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral. His elder son Leslie would marry Henry and Mary’s daughter Alice in 1918.

In 1909 Henry was persuaded by Brown to take an interest in the new Murray Mallee land being opened for settlement at Coomandook on the Ninety Mile Desert. Henry bought the sections on either side of the road to Peak where it branched from the track to Melbourne along the railway line and, eventually selling out what remained of his reduced fortunes in Adelaide, went there to live and become a farmer.

It was his final mistake. He was no farmer and, no fault of Henry’s, the land itself turned out to be unproductive – it was in need of trace elements of copper and zinc and without that apparently good for one crop only.

It would be 50 years before that particular issue would be resolved through a scheme of mass clearing and scientific development, which transformed over a quarter of a million acres of mallee scrub in South Australia into rich pasture holdings. The project, recorded in the film Desert Conquest was focused on Coonalypn to the southwest of Coomandook.

Henry and his family were, however, enthusiastic members of their community and at least two of his sons, Fred and Wally, as well as several other locals, were involved in building the Parkin Memorial Congregational Hall which became a meeting house for the Congregational Church and a School.  

The Hall was named after William Parkin (1801–1889) a benefactor of the South Australian Congregational Church. He founded the Parkin Trust for training Congregational ministers, building churches and schools, and supporting widows of ministers.

The opening of the Parkin Memorial Hall 1911. Members of the Marsh family were in attendance though cannot be identified in this blurry photo. Doreen Marsh attended school there.

Wednesday 15 February 1911 - Opening of “Parkin Memorial Congregational Hall” (named after William Parkin). Senator Joseph Vardon, an active member of the Congregational Church, officiated and Parkin's widow was in attendance.

Two days later Fred Marsh was appointed a deacon of the Congregational Church along with A S Chapman and W W Brown. The following month, a ‘Christian Endeavour Society’ was formed and the teenage Frank Marsh was named as one of the young men from the Society who ‘conducted services‘ at nearby Ki Ki under the guidance of Rev J E Creswell minister of the Congregational Church in Flinders Street, Adelaide. 

Creswell led a remarkable life, travelling across the globe as a missionary as well as a humanitarian relief worker focusing on the children of the Armenian genocide of World War I.

Frank would return 50 years later on 19 February 1961 as Rev Frank Marsh, President General of the Baptist Union of Australia, to preach at the memorial service and speak at the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon as part of the Parkin Hall’s jubilee celebration service.

On 17 April 1911, a branch of the - Liberal Union was formed at Coomandook.  Rev J McIntyre, the pastor of the Congregational Church, addressed the group, A S Chapman was elected President and FGM as Secretary. The Liberal Union was a South Australian political party formed as a response to Labor's success in South Australia's 1910 election. The Liberal Union lasted until 1923 when it became the Liberal Federation.

The commitment to service exemplified by the Marsh children is a tribute, in part, to the example of their parents. And while Mary is credited with supporting and developing them overtly, Henry's example, however reserved, did the same.

Mary Marsh, third from left, looks bright with the other ladies at Coomandook.

Henry exerted some leadership in Coomandook with regard to seeking Government support in 1914 following a disastrous drought. However, his appeals on behalf of the local ‘Vigilance Committee’ fell on deaf ministerial ears which would have further weakened his damaged self-esteem. In his previous Adelaide life, he may well have been able to get the ear of such a person when he needed to.

In 1920, Henry leased the farm to his son-in-law, Les Brown, and sank what ready money he could find in the house at 42 South Terrace, Adelaide.

His eldest grandson, Bob Clark, felt that Henry’s mistake was in concentrating on business and money to the exclusion of almost all else and having failed there he had nothing left. Bob wrote; 'He was in mute contrast with my other grandfather, Stanley Clark, who had never aspired at any time in his life to earn more than a steady income as an employee and whose horizons were limited to his work, his family and his religion. Yet he remained in old age a rich though narrow personality which no one could ignore and which held the respect of his children and caught the interest of all who met him.’

This seemed to be a common impression of Henry with a universally admiring view of Mary. However, with further hindsight, it may be an unduly unsympathetic view. Henry may well have limited his focus to business but would probably have been severely tested by the death of two of his sons and the failure of his business and farm due to what may have seemed to him to be circumstances beyond his control. He clearly worked very hard and apart from the competition also had some responsibilities to his staff.

Henry Marsh with his daughter-in-law Evelyn and granddaughters Margaret and Joan in 1924.
Joan takes note of Mary's black cat.

On 26 February 1935, Henry passed away. He was 77. Six months later to the day, on 26 August 1935, Mary died. She was 77. They were buried in Adelaide West Terrace Cemetery with their son Dick who had been buried there 36 years before. Their major legacy was a large family who benefitted their communities in a variety of ways including, nursing, the military, missionary work and tea planting. 

Another was velvet soap.

Henry and Mary Marsh establish themselves in Adelaide

After Henry and Mary arrived in Adelaide from Melbourne, they settled in Sturt Street, which was then a residential area. It was not far from 42 South Terrace, where they would end their lives fifty years later.

Business is good

Henry remained with W. H. Burford and Son, whose offer of a job had enticed him to Adelaide, for only three years.

Burford’s soap and candle-making had been founded in Adelaide in 1840 by William Henville Burford (1807–1895), an English butcher who arrived in the new colony in 1838. It was one of Australia's earliest soap makers and expanded in the late 1800s and early 20th century, under son William Burford (1845 – 1925) accompanied by a number of takeovers. 

Much later, it would become the dominant soap manufacturer in South Australia and Western Australia (WA). Later again, W. H. Burford and Son would, in turn, be taken over by J. Kitchen & Sons, Marsh’s original employer.  

In 1890, Henry Marsh started out in the same line of business with two other Burford employees – William Essex and a Mr Schram, under the name of H. Marsh and Co. Their factory was in Winwood Street, Southwark, and Henry moved with his growing family (Henry was born in 1888 and Philippa in 1889) to a house in nearby Phillip Street.

But back in Melbourne, Kitchens had not forgotten him nor his value to their business and during the nineties, he joined Kitchens again, but this time on equal terms as a proprietor. By the end of the century, he was managing director of the new business of J H Kitchen & Son and Marsh and Co Ltd. He dictated his own terms, continuing his own partnership business of H Marsh and Co at Winwood Street, though by this 1900 Essex was his only partner.

Henry’s fortunes flourished through the 1890s and into the first years of the twentieth century. The Broken Hill mines appetite for candles seemed insatiable. Chartered sailing ketches took loads of candle across the Gulf of St Vincent around the foot of Yorke Peninsula and to the Spencer Gulf to Port Pirie, where the candles were railed in Broken Hill. On the return trip, the ketches were laden with mallee roots, the only fuel available for the factories. 

Henry opened a branch of J H Kitchen Son Marsh and Co Ltd in WA, travelling to Albany by ship and then to Perth by train, to supply candles for the new Kalgoorlie mines.

The reference to the branch in WA is worth highlighting because it’s easily forgotten given that the focus of his life and business was Adelaide. Marsh’s business covered the same territory as his old and larger employer Buford’s; South Australia and WA. 

The following is the only picture I can find which shows the Marsh name on a business – pity it’s slightly obscured.

The Marsh Candle Factory, Hilton, City of Freemantle.

H. Marsh and Company began operations in Russell Street, Fremantle in 1896. A factory was established in 1898 on the south side of South Street on an allotment surrounded by dense dryandra thicket. ‘Marsh's extract of soap’ was a detergent of the period. Towards the end of 1901, the firm name in WA changed to Kitchen & Sons and Marsh and various types of soap were produced until the factory closed in 1908.

Operations were resumed after Marsh was bought out of the company a new factory opened in Napier Street, North Fremantle; Kitchen and Sons held a large portion of the WA market with ‘Velvet’ and ‘Witch’ soaps and ‘Electrine’ candles which they were producing in Melbourne when Marsh had worked for them. Kitchen’s also became local agents for MacRobertsons Confectionery and after 1928 operations combined with W.H. Burford and Sons

In addition to the business interests already mentioned, Henry had a flourishing sideline in the Imperial Preserving Company with premises in Winwood Street opposite H Marsh and Co where, as a distiller, he made almost anything out of anything – tomato sauce out of pumpkins, citrus juice out of apples, cordials, vinegar and other consumables out of cheap but ‘excellent quality’ raw materials.

His skill as a chemist is demonstrated by the fact that Velvet Soap, originally marketed by Kitchen’s, and now by Pental, was his basic formula. As an employee, he had no further legal claim on the formula or the name but nonetheless remains his lasting contribution. I remember my mother many years later recommended it to everyone!

South Australian Register, 31 May 1898 Page 5

The family: growth and tragedy

Meanwhile, the family continued to grow, Fred my grandfather was born in 1891, Walter in 1893, Alice in 1894, Frank in 1897 and the last Doreen would be born in November 1899. 

Perhaps Henry was hoping that one of his sons would follow him into the business, but that was not to be.

On Friday 23 June 1899, tragedy struck again when their eldest son Henry William, known as ‘Dick’, died. He was probably named after his father with his middle name the same as their first son William who had died in Melbourne some 12 years before.

My grandfather mentioned to me that his older brother had ‘drowned’ but didn’t give any details. I imagined it was an accident at the beach. In fact, Henry suffered from epilepsy. At about 6:30 am that morning he left the house to walk the short distance to the factory with the intention of joining the factory’s delivery dray for the day. The ground was wet after rain and Henry suffered an epileptic seizure. He fell to the ground face down in a puddle and suffocated as the result of breathing water and mud into his lungs. He was found at 7:20 am lying in James Street just outside the side gate of his home which faced Phillip Street.

His seizures had begun about 18 months before and in March 1899 his parents had taken him to Sydney for treatment. 

His last sight may have been the Southwark Baptist Church which was opposite his home and in the direction he was headed.

He was buried the following afternoon at Adelaide’s West Terrace cemetery. In the press, the ‘elder scholars’ of the Southwark Baptist Sunday School were invited to follow the cortege from the Marsh home to the burial service.

The loss of a second son may have encouraged Henry to throw himself ever more fully into his business activities. Did he also have conflicting thoughts about the enervating routine of the business? His expanding business also meant responsibilities for employees and defending himself in a number of legal disputes and a coroner's inquest after the death, by misadventure, of an employee.

Whatever his thoughts may have been, Henry was certainly at the peak of his career, a notable, highly respected businessman, self-made. His eldest daughter Edith later remembered him at this period as immaculately dressed and erect with a silver-topped cane, proudly leading his handsome wife and brood of eight children down the aisle of the Southwark Baptist Church to his private pew.

Henry and Mary Marsh and their children at home in Phillip Street, Thebarton, Adelaide early 1900s. 
Standing (l to r): Edith, Phillipa, Elsie.
Seated (l to r): Walter, Alice, Henry, Fred (my grandfather), Doreen, Mary & Frank

 The next item will cover Henry and Mary's move to Coomandook.

Henry and Mary Marsh: Melbourne pioneers

Henry Marsh was born on New Year’s Day 1858 ‘within the sound of bow bells’, at Wandsworth, south-west of London.

Tradition dictates that only those born within earshot of the 'Bow Bells' can claim to be true Londoners - Cockneys.

 The bells of St Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside,
not in Bow, about three miles away.

Henry’s father William was said to be a ‘master osier’ – meaning basket weaver - with a willow farm in Wiltshire. This is the family story, but exactly how this worked is not clear given the distance between Wiltshire and Wandsworth is 127 kilometres as the crow flies. Nonetheless, the 19th century brought immense popularity for wicker so business was presumably good for William.

William died when Henry was young, most likely in about 1860.  By the age of twelve, he was apprenticed to Prices Patent Candle Co, a large London manufacturer of soap and candles, where he eventually qualified as a ‘distiller’. 

No, he didn’t produce gin or the like - he was a manufacturing chemist.

Prices owned a half interest in J Kitchen and Son Ltd, their counterpart in Melbourne, who were in trouble with a large contract for the supply of candles to the mines at Broken Hill, New South Wales, where silver deposits had recently been discovered.  

Well, at least that’s the way the story has been told. The timing of this description may not be entirely correct and probably mixes two separate issues. 

Broken Hill was founded in 1883 by boundary rider Charles Rasp, who discovered what he thought was tin, but the samples proved to be silver and lead. The orebody they came from proved to be the largest and richest of its kind in the world. Rasp and six associates founded the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP), later BHP Billiton, in 1885 as the Syndicate of Seven. 

The demand for candles would have been underway in 1885 and Marsh certainly benefitted from it but it was not the reason for his move to Melbourne in 1880.

Kitchens had apparently been unable to extract the glycerine from the fats from which the candles were made and the candles wilted and collapsed as soon as they were subjected to the heat of their own flame.

In 1880 the 22-year-old Marsh was asked to go to Melbourne on a five-year contract. He accepted and three colleagues from Prices went with him – John Cron, an engineer, Tom Testro, an accountant, and a young man (whose name has been lost) with managerial training who later managed the catering service at Spencer Street Railway Station.

Before Henry left England, he was engaged to Mary Ann Hitchcock (or Hiscock) who was born 2 May 1858 at Lechlade Gloucestershire to John a farmer and his wife Catherine. 

Mary was an attractive young woman who, thinking there must be better ways of earning a living than living on a farm, went to London at the age of eighteen and apprenticed herself to a firm of dressmakers and milliners.

Among the firm’s customers were ladies of the ladies at Court, the most notable being the then Duchess of Gloucester. Mary was often required to go with another apprentice of her own age to the Court to deliver parcels, show the ladies samples and execute other commissions. Mary told the story of one of her companions who met Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), within the palace walls. He tried to kiss her and received a slap on the face to ‘teach him manners’.

The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII)
taught a lesson by one of Mary's co-workers.
Courtesy of National Portrait Gallery, London.

Mary followed Henry in the Chimbarazo arriving in Melbourne by 21 December 1882 when they were married. They lived in Emerald Hill, now South Melbourne. Mary also had relatives in the Colony at Ballarat and maintained some contact with them. 

Emerald Hill was a favoured place for Melbourne’s middle class, with fashionable terraced housing. The grand South Melbourne Town Hall was brand new when Mary arrived. Their first three children were born there, Edith, William and Elsie in 1884, 1885 and 1886 respectively.

William sadly died in 1887 of unknown causes and was buried in what is now the car park Queen Victoria Market.

Henry saw out his contract with Kitchens and two more years. His services were in demand, and in 1887 he left Kitchen’s and Melbourne to join W H Burford and Son Ltd in a similar capacity in Adelaide.

The broad-gauge railway linking Adelaide and Melbourne had just been completed and the family travelled to Adelaide in the first or second train to go through.

Before the Federation of the Australian colonies, Victoria and South Australia were sovereign independent entities. Customs clearance was required at the then border town of Serviceton. The station also provided for engine maintenance, refreshments and overnight accommodation: the journey took two days.

Henry and Mary Marsh in the mid-1880s.
Painting by the author.

The next post will take up their story in Adelaide.

Grandfather Poe and the King of Chinese Cinema

When I started asking about my grandfather, Alexander Marion Poe, and his work in vaudeville, my father told me he went to the United Kingdom (UK) and that his theatrical agent was Ramos and Ramos.

This occurred during the second time he ‘went missing’ from Australia, roughly 1908-1912.

He had first arrived in Australian in 1902 at the age of 17 and was back in California, the place of his birth, in early 1906 though returned to Australia before October that year.

I could find nothing about Ramos and Ramos in the UK. People I wrote to there just said ‘there is no record’ of such an agent.

The other stories about this period included one that grandfather Poe’s vaudeville stage act was performed after a film about Edgar Allan Poe was shown. Grandfather Poe would then be introduced as a ‘direct descendant’ and perform his act which may have included magic, mind reading, flamenco guitar or singing.

Part of the story was that he returned to Australia with two English friends he had met in the UK and on the way, they worked in ‘China’.  It all sounded a bit farfetched but I kept an eye out for ‘Ramos and Ramos’ checking the internet from time to time. 

Eventually, they popped up on The Australian Variety Theatre Archive which began in 2011 as a research website devoted to popular culture entertainment between 1850 and 1930. The item was written by Juan Ignacio Toro Escudero as part of his PhD research.

All of a sudden one short paragraph on Ramos and Ramos gave some credibility to the stories. So, who were Ramos and Ramos?

One of the most important pioneers of Chinese cinema and a significant presence in the ‘Far East’ as a vaudeville entrepreneur was Antonio Ramos Espejo. He operated the firm Ramos and Ramos with Ramón Ramos (no relation) from the early 1900s, initially out of the Philippines. Antonio became so successful with his film theatres that he was known as ‘The Spanish King of Chinese Cinema’.

By 1906 they had established themselves in China and within another three years were running live shows and films in Manila, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tianjin (in north-east China), Macao and Beijing.

Australian vaudeville acts toured for Ramos and Ramos and were signed up by the firm’s Australian representative, Amaro Lopez, for a six-month tour of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tianjin, Macao and Beijing. Lopez was based in Sydney. 

The path to China was well trodden by artists of the time. Lopez placed an advertisement in the Sydney press in October 1909 seeking vaudeville artists for Ramos and Ramos to work in Hongkong and Shanghai. At least 40 applicants responded – more than he was looking for.

However, the story I had was that Poe was linked with Ramos and Ramos in the UK and headed back to Australia via China with them.

I asked Juan Ignacio Toro Escudero for advice as he is the only person dedicated to studying Ramos & Ramos. Much of his research was derived from newspapers, but he didn’t find any reference to grandfather Poe, though one of his stage names, Abdul Khan, did ring a bell. Acts did change their names often following suggestions from local entrepreneurs. Sounded like grandfather’s kind of people.

Juan was especially interested that his agent in England was Ramos and Ramos. Ramón Ramos was the first agent for Chinese vaudeville artists in Europe that he has knowledge of. So the story of Poe being engaged from the UK fits with what is known, though it certainly is an area for further study.

Juan's thesis is now completed though it is in Spanish and his focus is on Ramos' film enterprises. For a fascinating introduction to his work please see his video ‘Antonio Ramos Espejo, el emperador Española del cine Chino’ [The Spanish Emperor of Chinese cinema]

One of the features of the Ramos shows was to combine a film show with a stage act. Grandfather Poe's time with Ramos and Ramos in China may be the origin of a story that he did his stage act after the showing of a silent film about Edgar Allan Poe.

The basis of this speculation is that the only film which fits the story would be D.W. Griffith's film 'Edgar Allen [sic] Poe' made in 1909. 

This would fit the time he was away from Australia (1908-1912). In some cases, these films were shown a year or two after their release in the USA, so if it played in China in 1910 or 1911 this is consistent with it happening just before his return to Australia. Although there is apparently no record of this particular film being shown in China, Griffith’s films were popular and widely distributed in China, so it is highly likely to have been shown there.

As an aside, the story that he was related to the poet would have some credibility given that grandfather Poe was of a similar complexion. Whether the relationship is actually true is, of course, another story.

There is not enough information of grandfather Poe’s two English companions to identify where they were exactly at this time. One of his companions was certainly Jack Wright. Jack had apparently learned martial arts in Japan but was also an entertainer. He certainly arrived in Australia at about the same time as grandfather Poe did so the timing fits. 

Wright's family does not know anything about his time in ‘the Far East’. However, within a few years of arriving in Sydney, he made a short film called Yellow Fang set in China which he combined with a demonstration of Jujitsu.

Ramón Ramos, who may have signed up Poe
to work in China. Via 
The Theatre, December 1909.

The other part of his China story is that he supplemented his interest/skills as a herbalist during his time in China. As yet there is no way to verify this, except that he only began working as a herbalist after he arrived back in Australia in about 1912. He was apparently able to communicate in 'Chinese' with Chinese herbalists back in Australia. This would be consistent with him having spent some time in China and most likely in Hong Kong if it was Cantonese he was familiar with.

In spite of many gaps in the record, the story of his time in China is at least consistent with some verifiable facts. There are many stories which (as yet) are not.

Postscript 13 August 2018

Interesting to read about historical links between Indian and Western stage magicians as described by John Zubrzycki in his latest book. In 1917, grandfather Poe billed himself as Abdul Khan ‘The Hindoo Mystic’ with feats of strength and mind reading, appearing 'with other comedians'.

The Northern Champion, Taree NSW,
Wed 13 Jun 1917  Page 5 

What do we know about William R. Powe? Part 3

William and Margaret moved to Missouri in the 1820s. They were not alone. Many settlers moved from Kentucky to areas further west.

In 1816 a small army of settlers began moving from Kentucky to Indiana, then on to Illinois. In the following years, many more people migrated westward with more than half moving to Missouri and most of the rest going to Indiana and Illinois.

On 9 August 1824, William R Poe (WRP) was possibly the party to a bond signed by Joseph Casteel binding his daughter Mary, as an apprentice to ’William Powe’ until 27 Feb 1827, to ‘learn to knit, sew, etc’. If this is him it would have been soon after his arrival in Missouri and may be an illustration of his enterprise. But there was one other William Powe in Clay County at this time. He had also come from Garrard County Kentucky and the two are often confused.

By 1830 William was using the middle name Romulus, possibly to distinguish himself from the other William. ‘Powe’ at this time a more common usage than ‘Poe’ which they would all later adopt. Whether he was related through his Powe ancestors to the other William is not known. There were family connections through his wife’s family – the Browns. You can imagine that sorting out the Browns is even more difficult!

The use of Romulus or the middle initial ‘R’ helps identify him clearly in land records and various court proceeding. It is safe to assume that any references to William Powe without the ‘R’ after about 1830 are to the other fellow.

Perhaps he adopted the name himself though it is not clear what its significance may be. Romulus was a co-founder of Rome and regarded as an example of tyranny. Powe is associated with Whigs who supported Alexander Hamilton the popular federalist, remembered on the US five-dollar note. Hamilton had wished to ensure limitations on presidential power. So perhaps WRP was having a joke on himself if he was regarded as autocratic.

WRP made several land purchases in Missouri. A number of these pieces of land were purchased from the government, with funds to be used for schools and payment of teachers. So, he had real wealth with which to buy the land. It would be interesting to know exactly how he made his money.  

In October 1848 WRP was certainly a founding member, though never an officer, of the Plattsburg Masonic Lodge. The Masonic records of Kentucky for the earlier period do not show anyone with the surname Powe, Poe, or Pow in any records, so it appears it was not the family custom at this time.

WRP was convicted for gaming during this period and also of selling liquor to the Indians.

Census and court records show he and Margaret had four children, though it is possible and consistent with the time that one or two others may have died at a young age, perhaps in Kentucky before their move to Missouri.

Those who there are records for are Agnes Roster (1823) born in Kentucky and three boys all born in Missouri; Alonzo Marion (1826), Americus Napoleon (1827) and Alexander Hamilton (1832).

Who came up with those names? Agnes may have been a family name and Royster may be the surname of his or his wife’s family – though as yet none have been found. Alonzo may have been named as part of a plan to distinguish his Powe family from the others who filled their families with a confusing array of Williams and Johns. 

Third in the ‘A team’ was Americus Napoleon. Americus was a pen name of popular politician Alexander Hamilton, but Napoleon – the tyrant. Perhaps this is more family humour. His youngest son was named, perhaps more respectfully as Alexander Hamilton, clearly in honour of the Federalist. 

Naming children after founding fathers was a common practice, with many George Washingtons and Benjamin Franklins appearing.  But there were few Alexander Hamiltons and even fewer Americuses - again, WRP was being unique.

The interesting thing about the census record is that I can find no entry for William in the 1830 census, but he is there as 'Wm R Pow' in the 1840 census as is the person he is often confused with 'Wm Pow'.  

His eldest son, Alonzo, decided to ‘go west’ at the age of 18. He signed up for a job with Lemmon‐Walden party who left Missouri in April 1845 arriving in the Washington Territory in October. Young Alonzo Poe was a naive lad getting himself into a bit of trouble with Indians whom he assumed (perhaps based on his life experience to that point) would always be friendly.

There is no indication about what made him go west at such a young age. He seems to have been often bored on the journey and wasted bullets shooting at small creatures to pass the time. Perhaps this shows a comfortable upbringing as well as a restless spirit - and perhaps his leaving followed tension in the family. Alonzo claimed land and built a small home but complained of loneliness to his friend Issac Ebey. His younger brother, Americus joined him within a few years after he settled in the Washington Territory.

Back in Missouri, the family was not in good shape.

WRP left his remaining family and Margaret was successful in obtaining a divorce in 1849 on the basis that he had abandoned her and a minor child, Alexander who was 17 years old at the time. Property listed as frozen during the dispute included land within Clinton County, ‘two sorrel horses, … nine head of cows and steers, and one waggon’ as well as kitchen utensils and farm implements.

Once we get to the 1850 census both WRP and Margaret appear in the census records living in separate states.

WRP was beyond the reach of the Clinton County authorities by 1850 and did not appear in his own defence in the property dispute. The court found against him and his land was subsequently sold on the courthouse steps to Americus in October 1851 who bought it for a token sum of $50 (it was valued in 1860 at $3,000).

Americus presumably had to come back from the Washington Territory which probably explains the delay in this action taking place. The time for mail to get to him and his journey back would have taken the best part of a year. 

Two years later he transferred the land to his youngest brother Alexander, who had by then turned 21. Alexander would support his mother for the rest of her life.  

Margaret herself bought at least two further plots of land after the divorce settlement. Later following Margaret’s death, the land was split three ways between his remaining children, Americus, Agnes who had married by then, and Alexander in the absence of Americus who was now in California.

In addition to various land transactions, there are other deed registrations which if examined closely may reveal family or business connections, but at present, I only have index references, not details.

What was WRP doing while this happened?

On 29 April 1849, WRP was married to Mary Jane Dale, some 35 years his junior, by a Justice of the Peace, Mr Saunders, in Buchanan County, Missouri. (It looks like the JP forgot to register the marriage in any courthouse, so we only have these details from Mary's later statement after she was widowed.) Soon after, they moved to Indiana where they had a son, named after him, in April the following year. In his second marriage, he abandoned the ‘A team’ idea.

After about 5 years WRP and Mary moved to Franklin County Illinois and in all had seven children, though only four survived to adulthood. They were William R (1850-1863), Lucy Jane (1852-1946), Edgar Adam (1855-1868), Winifred Scott (1857-1858), Sydney Allen (1859-1928), Pleasant Newton (1859-1928) and Robert Dale (1866-1943).

Winfield was presumably named after Winfield Scott, a popular United States Army general and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in the 1852 presidential election.

In 1850 William and his new family had moved to Indiana and in the census, he is described as a plasterer. Around 1855 they moved to Illinois and by 1860, the family was living in Perry County Illinois, where he is also described as a plasterer.

WRP died in 1866 at the age of 70, soon after his eldest son, Alonzo, died of tuberculosis on the other side of the country.  

A nineteenth-century plasterer, via Wikipedia.

William R Powe’s land bounty for 1812 service: part 2 of his story

The previous post summarised what we know about William in the early part of his life prior to moving to Missouri.

In summarising the elements of his service in the war of 1812 it seemed that if we could find that he took up the land available to him as a veteran this may confirm his correct identification in those war records.

It turns out that I already had the answer but had put it aside. 

Originally, I believed the stories that he had died in prison in Missouri after being convicted of grand larceny in the early 1850s. These stories were persistent. I managed to get a hard to read a copy of the court record of the conviction. However, that record refers to a William Powe – not a William R Powe. 

I was eventually able to get a copy of the prison record which confirmed details of the person in question. He was only 22 years old, a whopping 6’ 4” tall with auburn hair, grey eyes and a light complexion. Obviously, a different man, William R was an average height of 5’6” with dark hair and more than double the prisoner's age.

Long before that, someone had sent me a copy of a land patent which I now realise matches his 1812 war service. It dates to October 1860 and grants 160 acres to “William Powe, who served under the name of William Pow”, as a private in Captain Wood’s Company in the Kentucky Militia of the War of 1812.  This is exactly the person whose service enabled his widow to obtain a pension much later in her life.

It also matches his widow’s description of the land grant as being for 160 acres as a result of war service that included the battle of New Orleans. We know that Captain Wood’s company was part of Lieutenant Colonel Slaughter’s regiment. In her submission for a pension, Poe’s widow could not recall the name of the company her husband had served in but she had correctly remembered the substance of it. 

It’s worth noting that most people eligible for this land grant seem not to have taken it up.  In addition, as with the other land warrants granted so long after the event, the land itself was not taken up by the veteran but was ‘assigned’ by them to another person. In this case, one John H Rust ended up owning the land and he presumably paid Powe an agreed price. 

The land was in Kansas, far away from Illinois where William was living at that time. Poe’s then wife was presumably aware of the transaction which would have resulted in a substantial increase in their household income. Those who interviewed her for the pension would probably have been able to determine she was genuine even if she was not aware of some details.

I am now very confident that the identification of William R Powe as the William Powe in this warrant which was the basis of his widow's claim for a pension is correct. However, the identification of him as also Corporal William Poe of Virginia in the same war remains possible, but the only tie which is currently obvious is that he was known to have been born in Virginia. Other information available in the 1920s now seems to be lost. 

Neither set of records identifies his parents but certainly does suggest the focus for that search should be in Garrard County initially and then Virginia.  It may be a process of elimination rather than direct identification.

Below is a picture of the military land warrant. The next post will cover WRP's later life.

What do we know about William R. Powe? Part 1

(Revised 31 May 2017)

William Romulus Powe is my earliest known male ancestor. ‘Earliest’ doesn’t mean he lived in ancient times – he only died in 1866.

I don’t yet know enough about him to work out who his parents were. On the other hand, when I began researching family history I didn’t even know his name.

What do we currently know about him?

Firstly, his surname. On different occasions, it is spelt Powe or Poe. He certainly preferred Powe himself during the middle part of his life in Garrard County Kentucky and Missouri though by 1850 he and his sons all used Poe - most of the time. 

The usage in the early part of his life is not clear, though some families changed from Poe to Powe at that time.

William was born 27 December 1794 in Virginia to as yet unknown parents. He may have been born in Richmond as some later descendants believed, but Virginia was widely believed by children of both his marriages. 

His second wife described him ‘from her best recollection’ (12 years after his death) as being 5’ 6” of fair complexion with grey eyes and dark hair. At least one of his sons had a similar appearance and another had a dark complexion with brown eyes and dark hair.

He took part in the War of 1812 as a member of a militia. There are two possible soldiers in the record.

It is possible (though I now consider it unlikely) that he was a Corporal in Ambler’s regiment in Virginia as claimed by one of his daughters, Mrs Lucy Blandy. This claim, made in 1921, allowed her to become a member of the National Society United States Daughters of 1812. It seems to have been specifically supported by the US Adjutant General’s office but this document has not survived so we can't tell what the specifics were. The period of service of this solider, named in the record as William Poe, was 23 August to 3 September 1814.

The other more likely possibility is the Kentucky militia. In 1878 his widow obtained a pension on the basis of the service of a William Powe who served in Captain William Wood’s Company which was part of Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Slaughter’s Kentucky Regiment. The period of this service was 14 November 1814 to 10 March 1815. 

It is possible that one man could have been involved in both periods of service. If so we can date his move from Virginia to Kentucky as about October 1814.

His move to Kentucky by 1814 may have been with his family. The fact that he is not a head of household in the 1820 census may mean that his father is one of the other Powe men who was listed. Also, Elizabeth, presumably a widow, is mentioned as a head of household also. If this was his mother this may also explain why he didn’t establish his own household.

There is no surviving direct documentary link of either to William Romulus Poe, so the question is one of probability. In addition, neither file gives any clue as to other family members.

Three specific items which his widow mentioned may help confirm his identity in the William Woods Company.

He was given 160 acres as the result of his war service: There is no evidence yet that this was actually taken up. Corporal Poe was apparently eligible for such a grant, and the widow's pension file indicates that Private Poe in Captain Wood’s militia has a related land bounty warrant, so both could be a match. A connection to land obtained by Poe himself as a result of war service would confirm at least one of these records as relating to him. 

He took part in the Battle of New Orleans: This was fought between 8-18 January 1815. It was the final major battle of the War of 1812 and a well-known because its outcome was decisive. American forces commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, prevented an overwhelming British force, under Admiral Alexander Cochrane and General Edward Pakenham, from seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the Louisiana Purchase. William Powe's service in William Wood's Company meets this requirement.

He was a substitute for a William Leusieur: This is a very specific reference, but her pension file isn't linked to another soldier. As a result of her pension claim, an index card for Leusieur was created but it only refers back to the widow’s pension file. My impression is that authorities felt that her claim was genuine even if they weren’t able to match all the details she gave at the time. The only mention of the surname as spelt is for a Charles who served in a Virginia regiment. However, was not substituted and was in a different militia from Corporal William Poe.

The nearest sounding name is a William Laysure who served in Slaughter’s Regiment, even though the company is not specified. The Regiment was organised 10 November 1814, specifically to support the New Orleans campaign. William Laysure is listed as a substitute for a William Powe: this is unlikely to be a mere coincidence. I now believe that Leusieur and Laysure are one and the same, even though the records are not linked. The William Powe in Wood's company, therefore, is an excellent match for the description which Poe's widow gave.

As an aside, the fact that none of Poe’s descendants claimed membership of organisations of the sons or daughters of revolutionary war may mean he did not have a male ancestor in the country at that time. There are a large number of possible Poe / Powe participants - too many to investigate without more details. Migration into Virginia was still taking place in the years before William's birth.

On 30 October 1817, William married Margaret Ann Brown in Garrard County, Kentucky. The bondsman for the marriage was Frederick Brown who is likely to be Margaret's father, though I can find no further details about him. William is in the marriage record as William Powe. He is constantly confused with the William Powe who married Sarah Harris in Garrard County in March 1816. One can imagine he may have had the problem in his own lifetime.

In the 1820s, William and Margaret Powe moved to Missouri, and the next post will take up the story there…

Garrard County, Kentucky

From the War of 1812 to eternity via the Y chromosome

One aim of researching family history is to discover the origins of the male line.

This is a popular objective for genealogists as it shows the geographical origins of the surname which a person carries. There are other possible choices of course. The female line would take a completely different path, or one could track all ancestral lines equally.

Pursuing the last option may quickly lead to an uncontrollable flood of ancestors, but it has the benefit that some lines are easier to research than others – and reminds us that our real roots spread far and wide.

It was easy to follow my mother’s female line which took me back to the kings of Scotland (they were males I know) and thence to Charlemagne from whom most Europeans are descended. See ‘Why do family history?’.

The Genographic Project takes things much further than any genealogy could. Around 100,000 years ago, an unnamed male ancestor developed a mutation named ‘P305’ in his Y chromosome. 70, 000 years before anyone invented surnames, one of his male descendants emerged from Africa. A later ancestor known as ‘M207’ was born in Central Asia around 30,000 years ago. His descendants went on to settle in Europe, South Asia and the Middle East over the following 20,000 years.

Today, most western European men belong to the R-M342 branch who descended from this lineage. It appears to have been one of the earliest lineages to settle in Europe more than 25,000 years ago. So even back then my ancestors were pioneers.

My current search aims are rather modest by comparison, I’m hoping to trace my male line back about 500 years, not 50,000. ‘M 207’ may have thought it was too hard to get to America but much later, some of his descendants ended up there.

The name of my nearest ancestor who arrived in America is something I’ve yet to work out. The DNA evidence does not show a certain connection to any relevant participating family in North America. In any case, the only way to build a certain link is from documentary evidence, but a DNA link could provide a clue if the right people take part.

Back to surnames… 

My father changed his surname from Poe to Lyell just before getting married. It was a logical move for him since he had been brought up by the Lyell family from about the age of 7.

 

As a young man, I announced my interest in family history. My father asked me what I’d like to know. The question top of my list was ‘Tell me about your father and his family’.  ‘Oh, he was William George Lyell and his father was William Ly…’  ‘No’, I said ‘your real father.’ ‘Well, he was my real father’.  I looked at him and said, ‘I have your birth certificate here…’ 

It was a tense moment.

‘OK’, he conceded, ‘See what you can find out and I’ll tell you if it’s true’.  ‘Would anyone like a cup of tea’ Mum interjected…

That was a challenge I took up; the ‘see what you can find’ I mean.  I had the cup of tea too.

I had noticed some of the family stories didn’t match up. Mum had told me what she knew of Dad’s actual parents. Though she swore me to secrecy, the documents allowed me to ask the question. That’s the first lesson: listen to the stories but get the documents!

Finding out about the Poes proved difficult as my father was not the first to change his name. My grandfather used many names and on other occasions seems to have obscured facts. He was not alone in this and when combined with earlier generations distrust of governments seeking information, illiteracy, the loss of records through fire or neglect, wishful thinking and faulty memories and the endeavour is quite a challenge.

It took a little time to track my grandfather’s birth details, he was born at Shasta Retreat in northern California. Once I could plug into the census records it was relatively straightforward to make leaps through the next three generations to my great great great grandfather, William Romulus Poe (WRP).

I thought the gallop back in time would continue, but here the trail quickly ran cold.

I was comforted by the likelihood that good records could probably be found somewhere and that they would take me back at least another three generations to perhaps indicate where the family were before they arrived in America. However, finding WRP’s birth and death details is a drawn-out task.

I knew that WRP married Margaret Brown in Garrard County, Kentucky in 1817. There were however too many possible Poe ancestors in the early census records that survive and these are not very helpful because only the head of the household (usually a male) is listed. Williams and Johns abounded as given names and there were natural variations of surname spellings due to assumptions of the census collector or the lack of literacy of the household member who answered the door.

For a long time, I couldn’t find a death record for WRP. I was pretty sure that he must have died and I knew he had divorced my great great great grandmother in 1850. Several people thought he’d gone to prison and died there, but the relevant prison records show the fellow concerned was 30 years too young. 

Others thought he was the same William Poe who married Sarah Harris, but this was impossible as the two Williams were living in the same area with different wives at the same time. Some material on the internet still confuses these two people and mixes up their families.

Eventually, I found what could have been him in Illinois in 1860 living with a much younger woman, Mary Poe, and a child. I eventually uncovered that WRP had married a second time and left Missouri via Indiana to settle in Illinois where he ended his days in 1866 – only seven months after the death of his eldest son, Alonzo Marion Poe, a Washington Territory pioneer.

After confirming that the two Williams were the same person, I then found that a daughter from his second marriage, Lucy Jane Blandy (nee Poe) had joined the National Society United States Daughters of 1812 in the 1920s. The Society is a women's service organisation for descendants of patriots who aided the American cause during the War of 1812 – the final battle for American independence.

Her application papers had some details of the man although nothing of his parents. Mrs Blandy was celebrated as the ‘last real daughter’ for some time before her death at the age of 94. Her application material was complete and had been confirmed by authorities at the time, though the specific letter of confirmation is no longer in the file. Her application was very specific about who her father was, listing the unit he served in specifically showing him as a corporal. This allowed me to obtain a copy of his file from the US National Archives. Sadly, it showed very little, simply confirming his period of service and that he joined in Virginia.

I then obtained a copy of Mrs Blandy’s mother’s pension records as the widow of WRP. Again, the US National Archives were obliging but again the file contained very little. It confirmed that Mrs Mary J Poe was eligible for a pension and had a physical description of WRP ‘from her best recollection’.

However…

Mary was illiterate and wasn’t born until about 15 years after the 1812 war ended. She couldn’t recall what unit her husband served in but nonetheless, her application was accepted. Her pension application was linked to a different William Poe than her daughter had later claimed for membership of the 1812 society. This fellow had joined in Kentucky. 

My inclination is to believe that the daughter’s research in the 1920s was more thorough; it was confirmed by military authorities at the time but the letter confirming this has been lost – it was no longer necessary. Nonetheless, I feel some obligation to also check out the second William Poe.

Nonetheless, to a large extent ancestor William Romulus Poe has been found but I've not found any clues about his parents.

As I mentioned, DNA evidence shows no certain connection to any other participating Poe family in North America. Hopefully, more people will participate and that may help uncover the next clue. 

But the DNA evidence does show a match for a family descended from a John Poe born in Dublin in about 1850. So far, I have not been able to trace the connection to him and my line. His parents are also not known. I am hopeful that a link can be found, eventually, to this family.

The interesting thing is that he also fought in the War of 1812 – for the British!

Uniforms of the Virginia militia during the 1812 War