Bird Seymour: 1808 - 1878

Yesterday I posted a blog about my great-grandfather Dale Seymour. Today's post is going to be about his grandfather, Bird (or Byrd) Seymour.

As mentioned in the previous post, a young Englishman by the name of John Granderson Seymour had sailed across the Atlantic and eventually settled in North Carolina. This couple had thirteen children (seven boys, six girls). All were born in North Carolina (Person County). One of these boys was Bird, born August 28, 1808. When the family moved to Illinois in 1831, Bird would have been in his early twenties (Note: the Seymour family history listed below states the family moved to Morgan County in 1829 but the Old Settler's of Morgan County documents state 1831).

If the family did arrive in Illinois in 1831, then Bird was a young married man. He took as his bride Sarah Austin (born 13 February 1809) of Person County, NC. Her parents were John and Elizabeth (Barrett) Austin. They were married 28 July 1830. I imagine the trip to Illinois was very arduous. We complain of sitting too long and our butts hurting after riding for hours in a car that speeds along on a modern highway on rubber tires and a strong suspension. Can you imagine walking for hours a day along a rough road, or if you rode in the wagon, how much your butt would hurt after sitting for hours on wooden planks?! Twenty miles in a day would have been exceptional; today we usually drive that distance in less than twenty minutes! And instead of checking into a hotel room where you flick a light switch or turn a faucet handle, you would have to light lanterns and gather water from a stream in a bucket! I can hardly imagine.

When Bird and Sarah arrives in Illinois they established a farm and started to raise a family. The family records we have list William Seymour as the first born (1838), although that could be incorrect. The couple had a total of nine children. Below are scans of photos shared by another descendant of Bird and Sarah.

It was normal for families to have their own burial plots and there are numerous family cemeteries all over Morgan County. The final resting places of Bird and Sarah Seymour is the Seymour Cemetery out towards Nortonville (NE 1/4 SW 1/4, Section 11, Twp. 13N, Range 9W, Morgan County, Ill.). There are also many Austin's buried in this cemetery, again demonstrating how it was family groups that moved rather than individuals or small families. This cemetery is fairly well preserved, mainly through the efforts of dedicated genealogists and family historians. Here is a link to a website with some photos (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilmaga/morgan/cemetery/seymour.html ). Some of my own photos are posted below I took in 2006 during a visit to Morgan County. Cousin Jay Toler was the guide to this cemetery and so many others. That was a fun visit and I hope to do it again soon.

Sources:

The Descendants of John Granderson and Agnes Allen (Pulliam) Seymour, also A Short History of James Pulliam by Esther (Seymour) Atwood, 1960.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilmaga/photoalbm/pa_seymour_byrd.html

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilmaga/photoalbm/pa_seymour_sarah.html

Dale Taylor Seymour 1881 - 1963

In 1792, a young man by the name of John Granderson Seymour set foot in the young nation of the United States of America. It is unclear exactly where he landed, but it is likely the port of Norfolk because he settled in nearby Person County, North Carolina. He also married into an established Virginia family, the Pulliams. John and Agnes Seymour lives in North Carolina until the early 1830s, then emigrated with their adult children to the newly opened territory of Illinois. They settled in Morgan County and many people across the United States claim kinship to the large Seymour clan. But this post is not about John or Agnes, or even any of their children or grandchildren. This post is about their great-grandson, Dale Taylor Seymour.

Dale was born on 27 August 1881 in Morgan County, Ill. He was the youngest of six sons of William “Gid” (born  26 March 1838) and Lucy Ann Seymour (born 18 Feb 1843 in Morgan County) (Note: these two were the other pair of cousins I was referring to in the previous post, although they were first cousins, once removed). He married Ollie Anne Miner (born 22 Jan 1882) on 30 August 1905 in Morgan County, probably at the home of the bride. (Note: a previous post discussed Ollie and her famous baking).

Sometime shortly after they were married they moved to Colorado. They settled in Englewood and Dale worked as a conductor on a Denver streetcar line.

Their daughter (and my paternal grandmother) Glenna was born in Englewood on 20 November 1906. They moved back to Illinois sometime before 1913 when their next child, Taylor, was born on 12 November 1913. Almost three years later, George Nelson, was born on 19 May 1916.

 Between farming, construction work, and railroad work Dale and Ollie raised their sons. Sadly, Ollie died fairly young at the age of 55. He had a second female "friend" later in life, but he never did remarry.

            

                                               

Dale was a strong influence on my father, Burt Whitlock. Although I was too young to remember when he died (I had not turned two), my sister said that the only time she ever saw Dad cry was when he learned the "Papa" Dale had died. I truly wish I had learned more about him before all the storytellers of the family had passed away (Grandma Glenna and her cousin Evelyn Seymour). Hopefully some family members can recall some stories and post them in the comments. At least I know that I was able to be held by him for a while as the photo below shows.

Mary Polly (Richardson Wilson) Scott: 1825 - 1906

It has been a long time since I posted to this genealogy blog I built a few years ago. After the serendipitous contact from another genealogist yesterday (who turns out to be a cousin!!), I felt the muse calling to me to write about family. I thought that the information uncovered yesterday would be a good place to start. After looking at the family tree, I noticed that Mary Polly Richardson Scott's birthday is today -- 16 August. So I will provide some family history about here and plan to continue to post about family in the months to come on the birthday of ancestors.

 Mary Polly was born 16 August 1825 in Kentucky. Where exactly in Kentucky is not known, but I hope to find out. The family emigrated to Missouri, though exactly when is not known. Kentucky was a mature state and plenty of land was available still in Missouri. I hope to find out more about her background and a timeline of the family's movement to Missouri. Since families and kinship groups often traveled together, it is possible that she already knew the Scott's who had also emigrated from Kentucky.

 On 25 January 1853, she married Milton Scott at Saverton Township (near Hannibal), Missouri. This was MP's second marriage; her first husband whose last name was Wilson had died and she remarried. I don't have any information on this first husband of Mary Polly's. More interesting in terms of family and kinship is that there is a strong possibility that Mary Polly was the sister of Milton's first wife, Elizabeth. But more on that later.

 Back to what I was writing about the contact yesterday from my cousin and fellow genealogist, Jan. I subscribe to ancestry.com and one of the benefits of the subscription is that you can get in contact with other researchers. People upload their family tree information onto the website and the ancestry.com software searches for connections. Any hints or possible connections are emailed to the user. In addition, all the names are indexed so other researchers can find missing links and I benefit from the same service. I've found several direct ancestors that way. Jan emailed me regarding a great, great grandmother who I had listed as A. Margaret Thompson. She wrote,

"I believe this is my ancestor too, but her real name is Margaret Scott and she was born in Kentucky est 1813. Her 1st husband was named W. Collins. She was the mother of my GG Grandmother MaryJane Collins. Margaret married John T. James [my note, this should state Thomas W. James]after her husband Mr. Collins passed away and they moved to Illinois and are in the 1850 census in Jo Daviess County. If you are interested in more information I have a copy of Margarets obituary from a 1903 newspaper that is handwritten by an ancestor. Margaret lived with her oldest daughter (Pliny) & Maryjane Taylor late in life in Savanna, Illinois and died while visiting her son John T. James in Hannibal, Missouri. I'm trying to find information on where she is buried and I've also tried to locate her death certificate. I've been having to trace the Scotts and James to try and find out more on Margaret (who was referred to as Gramma James in her old age) Please contact me if you're interested in exchanging information."

 With her giving me the correct name and date of death of a great-great-grandmother I was able to match that information to some other information I had (see images). It turns out that Margaret Thompson was actually Margret (or Margaret) Scott as written in the pages of an old family bible that had belonged to the Scotts! So I was able to fill in some gaps in the family tree. GG-Grandma Margret Scott had first been married to a William Collins. According to a family tree I found on ancestry.com they had two children: MaryJane born in 16 July 1837(as mentioned) and a George (no date of birth). However, listed in the old Scott family bible are the following names and birthdates:

• Mary Jane Collins: 16 July 1838 
• Julie Ann Collins: 9 Nove 1839 
• Geo. W. Collins: 24 May 1841 

 So these three children were born to the first marriage of Margret Scott to William Collins. I don't have any information at this time about the death of Mr. Collins. Margret married a second time to Thomas W. James (born in Ohio 15 April 1816 and died 13 August 1989). They had the following children:

• John Thomson James: 15 February 1844 
• Joseph A. James: 17 November 1845 
• William Alfred James: 19 February 1847 
• Infant: 18 January 18?? 
• Elijah "Kelly" James: 11 January 1854 
• Infant: 31 January 1856 
• Manda Emma James: 2 May 1860 

 The oldest son (my great-great-grandfather) serves with the 134th Illinois Infantry (a post for another day). He was a blacksmith according to family lore and census records, and worked for the railroad. So now we can finally get to the SO WHAT about this post. It turns out that one of Mary Polly and Milton Scott's daughters married John T. James. After this second marriage for both of them, Milton and MP had seven children: five girls and two boys. The third child, Evaline (born 17 Dec 1858) and John T. James apparently met up and kind of liked each other. What is so interesting is that Margret Scott Collins James was the sister of Milton Scott, so John T. and Evaline were first cousins!!

 Apparently John T. James and Evaline Scott were a happy match. They had seven children:

• Emma Ida James: 15 August 1881 
• Mary Uva James: 30 October 1883 
• Kelly Alfred James: 2 March 1885 
• Thomas Milton James: 25 December 1890
• Paul Ulysses James: 30 May 1893 
• Orville Douglas James: 26 March 1894 (my maternal grandfather)
• Erie Scott James: 1 December 1898 

(Note: I have previously written about Orville and Paul on this blog)

Here is a photograph of John and Evaline. One of the two women in the back is identified as Emma. The other is not named but I would suppose it is Mary (who was always called Uva).

Now before you all queue up the "Deliverance" music and start gagging, keep in mind that in the mid- to late-1800s, marriage between cousins was not uncommon. People did not move around as much as we do in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I think it is very fascinating because it continues to show just how interrelated we all are to each other. So now in my genealogy collection I have a pair of kissing cousins on my mom's side to go with the kissing cousins on my dad's side. Wouldn't you say my collection's complete!! As cousin Tim Austiff's son Alex once said, "We will never speak of this again." Sorry, but we will!!!

Look for more posts about family in the months to come. Below are the images from the Scott family bible.