52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 21 - Tombstone

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 17 June 2020), memorial page for Addie Ferguson (unknown–24 Sep 1902), Find a Grave Memorial no. 16051129, citing Mound Cemetery, Hunt City, Jasper County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Bonnie Woods Martin (contributor 46826275) .

In the fall of 2004, my husband and I made a trip to the area of Southern Illinois where his ancestors had farmed since the 1850s. Jasper County, Illinois home to places named Willow Hill, Liberty, and Hunt City. One of the places we went to was Mound Cemetery where his maternal grandparents are buried.

As we wandered the cemetery looking for their graves, we came upon one which yielded information we never expected to find, My husband’s great-grandmother, Addie Chapman Ferguson, died on 24 Sep 1902, just four days shy of her twenty-fourth birthday. She was survived by her husband John and children Edna, 6 and Murl 4. This information was well known but her tombstone revealed the births and deaths of two other children, Clifford and Raymond, each having lived only four months.Because these babies were born and died between the census years, there would be no record to tell us of their existence.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - The Old Homestead

Thinking about this topic, I considered all my ancestors and the length of time they lived in any one location.

My German ancestors immigrated in the 1850s to settle in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While they remained in Milwaukee until my grandmother married and moved to Chicago in 1907, they lived at several different addresses mostly on Walnut Ave.[i]

My Irish ancestors came to the United States in the 1880s/1890s and made their home in Chicago for the rest of their lives. About 1905 they built a large home on Washington Boulevard where they remained until my grandfather’s death in 1953. [ii]

When my Norwegian grandfather immigrated in 1894, he first lived in Chicago with a maternal aunt and her family since he was only 12 years at the time. After his marriage to my grandmother, the couple traveled for some time before settling in Oak Park, Illinois.

While none of these people could be considered nomadic by any means, I don’t feel that any of their residences could be considered “the old Homestead” for that I will defer to my husband’s Ferguson ancestors.

Figure 1John Ferguson Indiana Land Purchase 10 August 1837[iii]

Our Ferguson branch first settled in Virginia in 1640. Just before the Revolutionary War, they migrated to North Carolina.  My husband’s fifth great-grandfather, John Ferguson (1754-1842) was a Revolutionary War soldier and as such received a land grant in 1795 for a parcel in Robson County, North Carolina.[iv]

As time marched on, so did John and his family, moving from North Carolina, to Kentucky, Indiana, and finally to Jasper County, Illinois.  Land records in Indiana and Illinois show the migration pattern. Most likely the family improved the land they purchased and used the profits from the sale to buy land in the next location.

John remained in Indiana, where he died in Boone County in 1842 leaving his second wife and two children. His son Benjamin, according to the 1850 census. remained in Indiana and his son, Jeremiah  moved on to Jasper County, Illinois where he appears in the 1850 census. Jeremiah has 280 acres of which 60 are classed as improved and 220 unimproved with the cash value estimated to be $1000.00[v]

In 1860 the census shows that Jeremiah’s 240 acres had increased In value to $5000.00.[vi]

Upon Jeremiah’s death in 1882, his youngest son David took over the stewardship of the farm which remained in the family until sometime in the 1940s. Gradually family members left the farm for work in the city but there are still Fergusons in the area.

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[i]  Milwaukee City Directories, 1860-1896

[ii] Chicago City Directories, 1910-1923

[iii] ttps://glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=IN3010__.056&docClass=STA&sid=waskqnlw.iyw

[iv] Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Land Grant Files, 1693-1960 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

[v] Census Year: 1850; Census Place: Newton District 18, Jasper, Illinois; Archive Collection Number: T1133; Roll: 2; PCensus Year: 1860; Census Place: Willow Hill, Jasper, Illinois; Archive Collection Number: T1133; Roll: 7; Page: 61; Line: 24; Schedule Type: Agricultureage: 529; Line: 37; Schedule Type: Agriculture

[vi]

Family History Writing Challenge - Surname Saturday - Sempsrott, Semscott, Semperoth and Other Variations

The Sempsrott/ Sempsroth family has been traced back as far as Hartman Samesroot born before 1630 in Samen in Northern Germany not far from Kampsheide, Hanover, Prussia, Germany.  Other areas of the Kingdom of Hanover associated with the Sempsroth/ Sempsrott family are  Asendorf, Brebber, Essen, Graue, Haendorf, Kampsheide, Kuhlenkamp. The family moved around Germany but basically stayed in the northern parts.  In 1842, brothers Frederich Albert and Johan Heinrich left Hanover to emigrate to the United States.  The accepted story within the family is that they were stowaways at their mother’s request to avoid conscription into the German army. This may be true as no immigration records have surfaced for the brothers.

According to the story, the brothers arrived in Cincinnatti, Ohio.  It may have been there that Frederich met and married Anna Margaret Steinforth about 1846 in Cincinnatti.  The couple and their children turned to farming to make a living.  They lived in Ripley, Adams, Indiana for a while where several of their children were born.  Charles was born in Indiana in 1857, Henry was born in Cincinnati, in 1860 and Carrie was born in 1861 in Indiana.  Lizzie’s birth in Jasper County, Illinois in 1863  along with the draft registration for Fily Sampsroth on 13 Sep 1863 helps to pinpoint when they made their way to Jasper County, Illinois.[i]

In 1880 Charles Sempsrott is shown to be farming 80 acres of tillable land and also having 80 acres of woodland. The value of the farm including land and buildings was $2500.00 and the value of the farm equipment was $50.00 including livery.  The livestock was valued at $130.00.  The estimated value of the farm products sold in 1879 was $200.00 and at the time the Sempsrotts owned two horses.  They also owned 4 pigs and six chickens.  It appears from the record that Charles was renting the land from James Johnson.  Crops being grown in 1880 include Indian corn, irish potatoes, and fifteen apple trees yielding fifteen bushels of apples worth $5.00.  Charles also sold fifteen cords of wood from his land which produced an income of $30.00.[ii]

In 1910 Charles was still farming in Hunt, Jasper, Illinois with his son Fred A Sempsrott but now Charles owned the farm and Fred was renting from him.[iii]

In 1920 Charles was still farming along with his sons Glenneth and Cleo.[iv]

Although, with time, some of the family moved on, the name Sempsrott can still be found in the Robinson Illinois city directory.  Robinson is in Crawford County, just next to Jasper County.

(538)

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[i] National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General's Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865); Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau (Civil War); Collection Name: Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865 (Civil War Union Draft Records); ARC Identifier: 4213514; Archive Volume Number: 1 of 4.

[ii]  Census Year: 1880; Census Place: Willow Hill,  Jasper,  Illinois; Archive Collection Number: T1133; Roll: 41; Page: 25; Line: 02; Schedule Type: Agriculture.

[iii] Census Year: 1910; Census Place: Hunt, Jasper, Illinois; Roll: T624_293; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0082; ; FHL microfilm: 1374306.

[iv] Census Year: 1920; Census Place: Hunt, Jasper, Illinois; Roll: T625_372; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 103; Image: 340.

Sempsrott/Semsrott/Semsroth - Surname Saturday

My husband's grandmother Naomi's maiden name was Sempsrott.  At some point she had given my husband a family tree that covered the years from 1829, when his great great grandfather Frederich Albert Sempsrott was born in Germany, through 1947 when the trail ended.  After we retired to Florida in 1992, my husband came across the paperwork once more and we decided it was time to do something to document the family history.  It seems that their mother, Anna, feared they would be drafted into military service and so she put them on a ship bound for the United States.  Family legend reports that two brothers, Frederich Albert and Johann Heinrich were stowaways on a ship that left Berlin and they ended up in Cincinnati, Ohio.  From Cincinnati the two brothers traveled to southern Illinois settling in Jasper County.  At some point probably in the 1870s, Johann and his family moved to the Covington, Kentucky area while Frederich and his family remained to farm in Jasper County, Illinois.

This family is one of many which has variant spellings to challange the genealogist.  Some of the variations have included Simperoot, Samscrott, Samesroth, Sempsrote, Sompcrott, Semprote and Samsrott.  In Germany the name appears as Semsrott.  Some have traced the name back to Asendorf, Germany in 1583.  This is about the time Sweden invaded northern Germany.  If this is true could the Semsrotts be descendants of the Sammen (Swedes)?  Still working on this line as every spelling needs to be checked out.

Madness Monday - Leo the Liar

It all began with a birth certificate.  My husband's father, Harold Arthur Peterson,  was born Oct 3, 1916 to Edwin Peterson and Mable Gibney, in Chicago, Illinois.  I began trying to trace the family through the census, just like any other genealogist. Going backwards was fine.  I found Mable's family back as far as 1860 and Edwin's Peterson line back to the 1880 census in Illinois, although his name varied from Edwin to Edward. 
 
He was born Oct 23, 1883 in Chicago, Illinois to Caroline Neilson and Leopold Peterson.  Edwin (according to Chicago birth records) was the fourth of four children.  The 1900 census shows Edward Peterson living at home with his parents, Leopold and Caroline, in the Hyde Park area of Chicago.  I know Edward/Edwin married Mable Gibney about 1906/07 and they had a son Raymond, born in Chicago in 1908.  After the 1916 birth record of Harold Arthur, I could find no trace of Edward/Edwin and Mable and their family.  I tried everything I would think of.  What happened to them and where did they go?  Harold had married in Chicago in 1938,and the grandparents, Leopold and Caroline, were still in Chicago in the 1920 census, so I didn't think they had left the area.  After years of searching, on and off, I finally found the family in the 1920 census as Leo Peterson and wife Mabel!  Further research reveals that the name change occurred between Oct 3, 1916 ( the birth of Harold Arthur) and Sept 12, 1917 ( Leo Edwin Peterson registers for the draft).  Leo died in 1927 and his widow Mabel remarried which is why the family does not appear in the 1930 census.
Why did Edwin change his name to Leo?  Was it his middle name?  Was it an attempt to identify with his father Leopold?  These are questions that will probably remain unanswered.

Geneabloggers Wordless Wednesday - Ferguson Family

David Ferguson Family circa 1908
Willow Hill, Jasper County, Illinois

Madness Monday - 17 Mai Norwegian Independance Day

Living in the Midwest, we always waited until the last danger of frost was past before doing any gardening.  In our northern Illinois area that was usually mid-May.  My father would often utter the phrase "Happy Sit in the Mud Day" at this time of year.  Many years later I realized he was actually saying "Happy 17 Mai Day".  Referring to his Norwegian heritage, of which he was very proud.  Remembering this I had planned to add a mp3 player to this blog so I could let you hear some of my Great-grandfather's composition "Onkel Tom's Cake Walk".  Adolf Hansen (1852 - 1911) was a Norwegian Composer of Military music and conductor of the Oslo Brigade Band.  The madness comes in from my efforts to complete the task which remains undone.  We all know about good intentions.  Happy 17 Mai!!

Tombstone Tuesday - Burl Ives

Mound Cemetary, Hunt City Township, Jasper County, Illinois. The cemetary used by my husband's maternal ancestors, the Sempsrotts and the Fergusons.

Murl C Ferguson

These are images of the funeral card of Murl C Ferguson.  Murl was born in October 1898 to Adaline Chapman and John C Ferguson in Jasper County, Illinois.  Murl and his family moved to Chicago where he worked for the Beltway Railroad as a switchman.  He was killed in a train accident on June 10, 1956.