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Lincoln Elected!!!
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States, defeating John C. Breckinridge, Stephen A. Douglas, and John Bell. He was the first Republican to hold the office of President. Just four months into his first term, the nation fell apart. Lincoln successfully led the United States through one of its greatest crises, the American Civil War, and was assassinated just days after the war ended.
See more Abraham Lincoln documents:
1860 Chicago Tribune Election results
Lincoln and his Family in 1860 US Census
Mathew Brady photo of Lincoln
Where was your family 150 years ago?
Search the Civil War Collection
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Friday, November 5, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
"Your Vote Does Count!"
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This came off of FaceBook today as posted by Vanderburgh County Sheriff Eric Williams (unopposed in today's election). It tells how just one vote can really make a difference. I wanted to post this earlier to encourage everyone to vote, but even though the polls just closed, this information is interesting!
In 1844, in the backwoods area of Switzerland County, Indiana on election day, a farmer named Freeman Clark lay seriously ill in bed. He begged his sons to carry him to the county seat so he could vote for David Kelso to become a state senator. David Kelso had defended old Freeman Clark on a murder charge and obtained his acquittal. The old farmer Freeman Clark got to vote for Kelso, but Clark died on his way back home. Kelso won the election by one vote. Both Freeman Clark and David Kelso were long-time Andrew Jackson supporters.
In 1844, when the new Indiana senate convened, Democrats had a majority of one counting David Kelso. At that time, state senates had the task of electing the state's United States Senator. The Indiana Senate Democrats held a caucus where it developed a majority of the party delegation favored a man who would vote against the annexation of Texas if elected to the U.S. Senate. David Kelso refused to vote for the Democratic Party choice and a deadlock resulted between the Democratic and Whig candidates. This continued for days. Finally, Kelso made his move. He proposed a new candidate: Edward A. Hannigan. In his party caucus, Kelso notified his Democratic associates he would bolt and vote with the Whigs thus electing a Whig to the Senate — unless the Democrats supported Hannigan. The Democrats felt constrained to accept Hannigan who was then elected as Indiana's U.S. Senator by one vote — that of David Kelso.
In 1845, Texas was admitted to the union as a state by one vote — that of Edward A. Hannigan from Indiana. The 1844 and 1845 excerpts on the series of single votes leading to Texas statehood are from the book Magnificent Destiny.
See more at Florida's Elections Division: Every Vote Counts
This came off of FaceBook today as posted by Vanderburgh County Sheriff Eric Williams (unopposed in today's election). It tells how just one vote can really make a difference. I wanted to post this earlier to encourage everyone to vote, but even though the polls just closed, this information is interesting!
In 1844, in the backwoods area of Switzerland County, Indiana on election day, a farmer named Freeman Clark lay seriously ill in bed. He begged his sons to carry him to the county seat so he could vote for David Kelso to become a state senator. David Kelso had defended old Freeman Clark on a murder charge and obtained his acquittal. The old farmer Freeman Clark got to vote for Kelso, but Clark died on his way back home. Kelso won the election by one vote. Both Freeman Clark and David Kelso were long-time Andrew Jackson supporters.
In 1844, when the new Indiana senate convened, Democrats had a majority of one counting David Kelso. At that time, state senates had the task of electing the state's United States Senator. The Indiana Senate Democrats held a caucus where it developed a majority of the party delegation favored a man who would vote against the annexation of Texas if elected to the U.S. Senate. David Kelso refused to vote for the Democratic Party choice and a deadlock resulted between the Democratic and Whig candidates. This continued for days. Finally, Kelso made his move. He proposed a new candidate: Edward A. Hannigan. In his party caucus, Kelso notified his Democratic associates he would bolt and vote with the Whigs thus electing a Whig to the Senate — unless the Democrats supported Hannigan. The Democrats felt constrained to accept Hannigan who was then elected as Indiana's U.S. Senator by one vote — that of David Kelso.
In 1845, Texas was admitted to the union as a state by one vote — that of Edward A. Hannigan from Indiana. The 1844 and 1845 excerpts on the series of single votes leading to Texas statehood are from the book Magnificent Destiny.
See more at Florida's Elections Division: Every Vote Counts
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Happy Halloween!
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Halloween at the West Home in 2009.
I just do not have the energy this year to set-up our large cemetery. Our Letter Carrier last year loved the tombstone on the upper right. It says: "BILL, the Letter Carrier... Too many Bills! 2004-2008"
Halloween at the West Home in 2009.
I just do not have the energy this year to set-up our large cemetery. Our Letter Carrier last year loved the tombstone on the upper right. It says: "BILL, the Letter Carrier... Too many Bills! 2004-2008"
[Click to enlarge image]
- Photo taken & submitted by JGWest
Friday, October 22, 2010
"Ancestry Marches On!"
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Footnote Sells Out to Ancestry.com
[Press Release via My Email - JGWest]
Several weeks ago Footnote.com (as part of iArchives) agreed to be acquired by Ancestry.com and that transaction has officially closed today. As we join forces with Ancestry.com there is a huge opportunity to leverage each other’s strengths and move even faster toward our goals. You may be curious about how this deal effects members of Footnote.com? The plan is to continue to run Footnote.com the way we have always run Footnote.com — continuing to do what we believe is best for our customers, our business and our brand.
Now that the deal is officially closed we are excited to leverage some of Ancestry.com’s resources and expertise to take Footnote.com to the next level. It has been exciting to see Footnote.com grow over the past 4 years. Footnote.com started with only 5 million historical documents and today we have nearly 70 million searchable documents, over 1 million members, nearly 100,000 Footnote Pages, and over half million annotations added. We couldn’t have done it without our members and the great team at Footnote.com and we are excited for Ancestry.com’s support in the next chapter.
Footnote Sells Out to Ancestry.com
[Press Release via My Email - JGWest]
Several weeks ago Footnote.com (as part of iArchives) agreed to be acquired by Ancestry.com and that transaction has officially closed today. As we join forces with Ancestry.com there is a huge opportunity to leverage each other’s strengths and move even faster toward our goals. You may be curious about how this deal effects members of Footnote.com? The plan is to continue to run Footnote.com the way we have always run Footnote.com — continuing to do what we believe is best for our customers, our business and our brand.
Now that the deal is officially closed we are excited to leverage some of Ancestry.com’s resources and expertise to take Footnote.com to the next level. It has been exciting to see Footnote.com grow over the past 4 years. Footnote.com started with only 5 million historical documents and today we have nearly 70 million searchable documents, over 1 million members, nearly 100,000 Footnote Pages, and over half million annotations added. We couldn’t have done it without our members and the great team at Footnote.com and we are excited for Ancestry.com’s support in the next chapter.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
"Early 1900's Diamond Coal Mine"
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Query:
I was wondering if you have any information or references on the old Diamond Coal mine that once stood near the intersection of Stringtown Road and Diamond Avenue? My grandfather worked there from about 1910 to 1922. I have checked Willard Library without success and an unsuccessful internet search. Also checked your general index but no references found. Are you aware of anything available? Tom Howell.
Can anyone help Tom with information about this coal mine. I am wondering if it would be mentioned in the city directories. Is there any histories about Indiana coal mines? - JGWest
Patty Frey found a photo of the Diamond Coal Mine (click on the name).
Query:
I was wondering if you have any information or references on the old Diamond Coal mine that once stood near the intersection of Stringtown Road and Diamond Avenue? My grandfather worked there from about 1910 to 1922. I have checked Willard Library without success and an unsuccessful internet search. Also checked your general index but no references found. Are you aware of anything available? Tom Howell.
Can anyone help Tom with information about this coal mine. I am wondering if it would be mentioned in the city directories. Is there any histories about Indiana coal mines? - JGWest
Patty Frey found a photo of the Diamond Coal Mine (click on the name).
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
"Looking for One Thing, But Found Another!"
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My Haynes Story!
This is the story of my accidental find on my Haynes family! My youngest son, James, was working on his Division Two of the 4-H Genealogy Project that required photos of tombstones for his ancestors and other relatives. Since most were buried in Kentucky in about 6 counties, it seemed wise to plan a route to go from cemetery to cemetery and to know who we wanted to get a photo of their grave marker. Best way to do that was to go to Willard Library and check the "Cemetery Inscription" books. These generally had the name of the cemetery with location and listed everyone's information on their personal little monument. I sent James back to get the Christian County books while I got out our charts & records of who we were looking for.
Odd that someone had left a book on the table instead of placing it on the cart as requested by the library. Coincidentally, it was a cemetery inscription book for Ohio County, KY. I didn't know the library had this book... they only had one book for this county for years - a marriage record book. This marriage book listed the marriage of my ancestors William Allen Kimble to Hannah Haynes 25 Aug 1825. According to the census records, they lived in Grayson County, Ky adjoining Ohio Co. to the east. So, while I had this cemetery book in my hand, I checked for Kimble's in the index. To my amazement there were many listed! Quickly, I looked for Haynes... there were even more! I found the cemetery that William & Hannah were buried. This book is what some call "annotated" version which meant (to me) that it was a notable work (possibly blessed by a Priest or Rabbi) or that it contained notes appended thereof. I think the latter is correct! ;) The note for Hannah stated she was the daughter of John Barton Haynes & Rhoda Huff. RHODA?!!!? So, that is where the name "Rhoda" came from! The daughter of Hannah & William Kimble was Rhoda Kimble who married William Wood (my great-great grandparents).
Of course, I needed to prove all of this. I visited the graves of all those I just mentioned and the library in Fordsville. They suggested that I go to the Grayson Co. Library in Leitchfield where I found a booklet on the Haynes of Grayson, Ohio & Breckinridge Counties of Kentucky. Information from the census & the John Barton Haynes Bible listed all of his children including Hannah married to William Kimble. Now, this library suggested going to the one in Owensboro. There I came out with close to 300 pages of copied data documenting this Haynes/Huff family costing about $40! And it was worth every penny... I had discovered five new generations and eight new surnames of direct ancestors. Incredible find!
I remembered seeing in the TSGS 5-Generation Book that someone else had Haynes in Kentucky. It was Joan Parker (former Special Collections Librarian for Willard Library & currently at the Newburgh Public Library) and her ancestors were John Barton Haynes & Rhoda Huff, too!!! Later, I learned that the late Sam McDowell descended from this family of Haynes. Sam published a lot of genealogical books for Kentucky researchers and attended most of the TSGS Seminars as a vendor. We had become friends over the years through these seminars.
I want to add this little story to this. After I learned that Joan & I had the same ancestors, we exchanged information each had. And I was surprised at all that she had that was different than what I had found! I went by the old Newburgh Library by the river to give Joan copies of what I had. I was telling her that it just seemed like we could just pick up any file, folder or book and get more information. I reached out grabbing a book off of the shelf we happened to be near and stated: "I could pick up any book look in the index and find our Haynes family" (while turning to the index). To my surprise there was John Barton Haynes!!! Joan did not believe me when I said I just picked this book at random. Becky was there and said that I had not looked at any books, we were just standing there waiting for Joan to show up after she was called to meet us! And, that is the truth!
- Written by JGWest
My Haynes Story!
This is the story of my accidental find on my Haynes family! My youngest son, James, was working on his Division Two of the 4-H Genealogy Project that required photos of tombstones for his ancestors and other relatives. Since most were buried in Kentucky in about 6 counties, it seemed wise to plan a route to go from cemetery to cemetery and to know who we wanted to get a photo of their grave marker. Best way to do that was to go to Willard Library and check the "Cemetery Inscription" books. These generally had the name of the cemetery with location and listed everyone's information on their personal little monument. I sent James back to get the Christian County books while I got out our charts & records of who we were looking for.
Odd that someone had left a book on the table instead of placing it on the cart as requested by the library. Coincidentally, it was a cemetery inscription book for Ohio County, KY. I didn't know the library had this book... they only had one book for this county for years - a marriage record book. This marriage book listed the marriage of my ancestors William Allen Kimble to Hannah Haynes 25 Aug 1825. According to the census records, they lived in Grayson County, Ky adjoining Ohio Co. to the east. So, while I had this cemetery book in my hand, I checked for Kimble's in the index. To my amazement there were many listed! Quickly, I looked for Haynes... there were even more! I found the cemetery that William & Hannah were buried. This book is what some call "annotated" version which meant (to me) that it was a notable work (possibly blessed by a Priest or Rabbi) or that it contained notes appended thereof. I think the latter is correct! ;) The note for Hannah stated she was the daughter of John Barton Haynes & Rhoda Huff. RHODA?!!!? So, that is where the name "Rhoda" came from! The daughter of Hannah & William Kimble was Rhoda Kimble who married William Wood (my great-great grandparents).
Of course, I needed to prove all of this. I visited the graves of all those I just mentioned and the library in Fordsville. They suggested that I go to the Grayson Co. Library in Leitchfield where I found a booklet on the Haynes of Grayson, Ohio & Breckinridge Counties of Kentucky. Information from the census & the John Barton Haynes Bible listed all of his children including Hannah married to William Kimble. Now, this library suggested going to the one in Owensboro. There I came out with close to 300 pages of copied data documenting this Haynes/Huff family costing about $40! And it was worth every penny... I had discovered five new generations and eight new surnames of direct ancestors. Incredible find!
I remembered seeing in the TSGS 5-Generation Book that someone else had Haynes in Kentucky. It was Joan Parker (former Special Collections Librarian for Willard Library & currently at the Newburgh Public Library) and her ancestors were John Barton Haynes & Rhoda Huff, too!!! Later, I learned that the late Sam McDowell descended from this family of Haynes. Sam published a lot of genealogical books for Kentucky researchers and attended most of the TSGS Seminars as a vendor. We had become friends over the years through these seminars.
I want to add this little story to this. After I learned that Joan & I had the same ancestors, we exchanged information each had. And I was surprised at all that she had that was different than what I had found! I went by the old Newburgh Library by the river to give Joan copies of what I had. I was telling her that it just seemed like we could just pick up any file, folder or book and get more information. I reached out grabbing a book off of the shelf we happened to be near and stated: "I could pick up any book look in the index and find our Haynes family" (while turning to the index). To my surprise there was John Barton Haynes!!! Joan did not believe me when I said I just picked this book at random. Becky was there and said that I had not looked at any books, we were just standing there waiting for Joan to show up after she was called to meet us! And, that is the truth!
- Written by JGWest
Sunday, October 17, 2010
"Evansville City Cemeteries - New Link"
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I just discovered that the link to the Evansville City Cemeteries has changed! I was making a list of links for a handout for an introductory program on Wednesday. Joan Elliott Parker asked me to make a short presentation to about 40 librarians at the Newburgh Public Library on 20 Oct 2010. I wanted to send this handout to Joan ASAP so she could get the copies made for everyone. I almost went into a panic, as I view the databases for the 2 cemeteries to be prime examples of excellent information that you can get on the Internet.
Luckily, Chris Cooke, Superintendent of the cemeteries is a friend on FaceBook... Isent him a private message from FaceBook and he responded quickly giving me the revised new URL for the cemeteries. Chris said that the city was making changes to their network of department web sites the last few weeks. It looks great and on the left hand column you can find various links including the link to the searchable database.
For our blog readers, here is the new URL for the Evansville City Cemeteries: http://www.evansvillegov.org/Index.aspx?page=1334
John G. West, TSGS President
I just discovered that the link to the Evansville City Cemeteries has changed! I was making a list of links for a handout for an introductory program on Wednesday. Joan Elliott Parker asked me to make a short presentation to about 40 librarians at the Newburgh Public Library on 20 Oct 2010. I wanted to send this handout to Joan ASAP so she could get the copies made for everyone. I almost went into a panic, as I view the databases for the 2 cemeteries to be prime examples of excellent information that you can get on the Internet.
Luckily, Chris Cooke, Superintendent of the cemeteries is a friend on FaceBook... Isent him a private message from FaceBook and he responded quickly giving me the revised new URL for the cemeteries. Chris said that the city was making changes to their network of department web sites the last few weeks. It looks great and on the left hand column you can find various links including the link to the searchable database.
For our blog readers, here is the new URL for the Evansville City Cemeteries: http://www.evansvillegov.org/Index.aspx?page=1334
John G. West, TSGS President
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