Friday Find - Unnamed Batchelder Comes Home

A few years ago I traded a friend of mine some maple syrup for a box of Walton's Vermont Register books from the late 1800s. The original owner of the registers kept daily notes in the front of them. It was obvious that he was a farmer, and that he lived near where I grew up, based on some of his entries. There were mentions of "Went to S. Derry", "Went to Weston", "Went to Landgrove". I always thought it would be neat if he had been from Peru (where I grew up), but I never really thought much more about it.

Tonight, I started reading through the entries of the 1898 edition. In addition to place names, the names "S. Stiles" and "Simmonds" were frequently mentioned. Stiles and Simmonds were families in Peru way back when. I kept looking through the entries, till I got to October 31st. The entry was "Edmond Batchelder died." Edmund Batchelder was my great-grandfather's name, though he didn't die until the 1930s. I flipped the page. November 2nd, "Edmond Batchelder buried." November 3rd, "Fannie Cross buried."

Fannie Cross was my great-grandfather's first wife. I'd never found a death date for her. I checked FamilySearch for the date and place, and sure enough, there she was. Fannie Cross, wife of Edmund Batchelder died from "Shock after child birth" on 1 November, 1898. I checked my database. I had an unnamed baby girl, stillborn to Edmund and Fannie on 1 November, 1898. It appears that the unnamed baby girl may actually have been a boy, named after his father, and born late on October 31st or early on November 1st. Unfortunately mother and child didn't survive.

I've heard of ancestors finding us instead of us finding them, but I've never had it happen before. Not only did the writer of the daily entries live in Peru, he knew my great-grandfather's family. Weird how a penciled entry by someone who knew my great-grandfather found it's way out of Vermont, down to Connecticut to a friend of mine, then to me, taking 100+ years to travel.

Military Monday – Civil War Challenge

Grave site of Charles Wesley Jenkins

Bill West of West in New England offered a Civil War Challenge the other day that caught my eye.  Basically the challenge is to research and write about an ancestor that fought in the Civil War.

The reason this caught my eye is that I have one ancestor, Charles Wesley Jenkins, who has been a bit of a mystery to me.  He fought in the Civil War, but some of the details that I’ve found about him leave me scratching my head.

Here’s what I have documented about him so far:

He was born 3 November, 1839 to Amos and Rhoda Jenkins.¹

Puzzle #1: Was he born in Vermont² or Indiana³?  I have secondary documentation for both places.  If he was born in Indiana, why was the family (or at least his mother) there?  The rest of the family, both his ancestors and descendants, are in the Landgrove and Peru areas of Vermont.

On 2 August, 1862, Charles enlisted in Company L of the 33^rd Massachusetts Infantry.⁴

Puzzle #2: Why did he enlist in Massachusetts instead of Vermont?  Again, all of the family that I’ve documented so far was in Vermont.  It also appears that his brother and father may have enlisted in Vermont.⁵

On 4 May, 1865 he married Laura Ann Derby.⁶

In September of that same year, he was discharged from the military.⁷

Puzzle #3: Where did he travel while in the military?  What battles was he in?  This isn’t so much as a puzzle as it is an opportunity for more research.  I know that he was transferred from the Infantry to the Veteran Reserve Corps (also known as the Invalid Corps).  I’m not sure what he did while there though.  This needs more research.

He had two daughters, Ida Abbie⁸ and Minnie Laura Jenkins.⁹

He died 17 April, 1883, and was buried in Landgrove, Vermont in the New Cemetery.¹⁰

My mission, which I’ve chosen to accept, is to look into the life of Charles Jenkins some more, and to write a blog post about him after April 30^th.  If I’m successful, a link to that post and others will be placed on the West in New England blog on May 6^th.

¹ The Weston Historical Society, Genealogies of The Early Settlers of Weston, Vermont, Second Edition (Weston, VT: The Weston Historical Society, 2006), 224.

² Minnie Laura Davis, Death Record Londonderry, VT (1918), Ancestry.com

³ Charles W. Jenkins household, 1870 U.S. census, Bennington County, Vermont, population schedule, town of Peru, sheet 10, dwelling 79, family 69 ; digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 24 Dec 2012).

⁴ Laura A. Jenkins, 1890 U.S. census, Windham County, Vermont,  veterans schedule, town of Londonderry, enumeration district [ED] 233 (penned), supervisor's district [SD] Vt. (penned), sheet 3 (penned), dwelling 137, family 143 line 33; digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 25 Dec 2012).

⁵ I have some information that mentions both Charles’s father and brother enlisting.  I have not analyzed and documented this information at this time.  This will be part of my research over the next few weeks.

⁶ Charles Jenkins household, 1880 U.S. census, Bennington County, Vermont, population schedule, town of Peru, enumeration district [ED] 31 (penned), supervisor's district [SD] "of Vt" (penned), sheet 2 (penned), dwelling 15, family 16 ; digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 30 Mar 2012).

⁷ Laura A. Jenkins, 1890 U.S. census, Windham County, Vermont,  veterans schedule, town of Londonderry, enumeration district [ED] 233 (penned), supervisor's district [SD] Vt. (penned), sheet 3 (penned), dwelling 137, family 143 line 33; digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 25 Dec 2012).

⁸ Charles Jenkins household, 1880 U.S. census, Bennington County, Vermont, population schedule, town of Peru, enumeration district [ED] 31 (penned), supervisor's district [SD] "of Vt" (penned), sheet 2 (penned), dwelling 15, family 16 ; digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 30 Mar 2012).

⁹ Minnie Laura Davis, Death Record Londonderry, VT (1918), Ancestry.com

¹⁰ The Weston Historical Society, Genealogies of The Early Settlers of Weston, Vermont, Second Edition (Weston, VT: The Weston Historical Society, 2006), 224.