Our Family's Civil War Veterans

This weekend, we celebrated Memorial Day, when we take a moment to remember those killed while engaging in military service. Memorial Day's origins date from the years following the Civil War, when people remembered war dead by cleaning and decorating their graves.

My family has a number of ancestors who served in the Civil War, all on the Union side. Since I have not yet individually profiled these men and their families, I'd like to honor them here, as a group.

Andrew Ross Campbell

Andrew was my fourth great-grandfather, the husband of Cindrilla Greene and father of my third great-grandmother, Angeline Campbell. He was born July 29, 1824 in Chester County, South Carolina, the descendant of Scotch-Irish immigrants. In the mid-1840s, his family moved to Perry County, Illinois. There, Andrew married, had three children, and worked a large farm.

Andrew enlisted in the Union Army on August 15, 1861 at Pickneyville, Illinois, at the age of 37. He became a sergeant in Company A, Illinois 31st Infantry Regiment, which mustered into service on September 18, 1861 in Cairo, Illinois. In February 1862, he participated in the Battle of Fort Donelson, in Tennessee, but he was sick by the time the fighting started. Disease ran rampant in Civil War encampments, and Andrew had come down with an illness from which he would not recover. He stayed with the Army through the battle, which turned out to be a great victory for the Union, but was then sent by boat to a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. After evaluation there, he was sent home to Illinois, still sick, but not discharged from service. He arrived home in Pickneyville on April 11, 1862 and died there on April 25, 1862. His cause of death was noted as Smallpox, although this was likely not the original ailment which had sent him home from the war. Andrew was thirty-seven at the time of his death.

Andrew's brother, John M. Campbell, Jr., also died during the Civil War. Like Andrew, John served as an officer in the Illinois 31st Infantry Regiment. Sadly, John was wounded at the battle at Fort Donelson, and he perished from those injuries on February 15. He was forty-two years old.

Thomas Benton Greene

Thomas Benton Greene was the son of Elizabeth Elen Short and Levi Greene, my fifth great grandparents. He was the brother of Cindrilla Greene, my fourth great-grandmother. As mentioned above, Cindrilla lost her husband, Andrew Ross Campbell, to illness contracted while he was serving in the Civil War. Thomas was born in 1842 in Perry County, Illinois. He was just nineteen years old when he enlisted in the Union Army on August 15, 1861. He joined Company A, Illinois 31st Infantry Regiment, the same unit that his brother-in-law, Andrew Campbell, had joined as an officer.

Like Andrew, Thomas mustered into service on September 18, 1861 in Cairo, Illinois. He fought in the Battle of Fort Donelson and survived. His company spent much of 1862 and 1863 in Tennessee before heading to Mississippi, where they engaged in several battles at Vicksburg. Thomas was mustered out in late 1863 and reenlisted on January 5, 1864. 1864 found the Illinois 31st Infantry in Georgia, where they participated in General Sherman's March to the Sea. Thomas survived until the end of the war and mustered out for the final time on July 19, 1865 in Louisville, Kentucky. He returned home to Perry County, where he married Margaret Keller and had four children. The family moved to Kansas, where Thomas worked as a farmer until his death at 91 years of age.

Michael O'Hare

Michael was my third great-grandfather, the father of Nellie O'Hare Barrett and husband of Temperance Burns. He was born in County Down, Northern Ireland, in about 1827. He emigrated to New York in the 1840s, where he married his first wife and had two sons. The family moved to Illinois just as the Civil War started, and Michael enlisted in the Union Army on September 26, 1861. He was a private in Company D, 4th Cavalry Regiment Illinois. At the time of his enlistment, he was thirty-four years old.

After their formation, the 4th Cavalry was sent to Tennessee, where they saw a lot of action over the next several years. They participated in battles at Fort Donelson, Shiloh (under the command of General Sherman) and Corinth. Sent west, toward Mississippi and Arkansas, they engaged in a number of conflicts along the way, including skirmishes near Holly Springs and Memphis. Michael was captured and taken prisoner on February 29, 1864, near a fort on the Boeuf River in Arkansas. He was taken to Camp Ford, a prisoner of war camp in Tyler, Texas, where he was held for a period of several months. The prison was just bare ground surrounded by 16-foot high stakes. Prisoners were left outside in the elements and given nothing beyond meager rations of corn, beans and occasional meat. While there were slightly better conditions at this prison than at some others, it was still a grim and dangerous environment. Michael was released from Camp Ford before the end of that year, because his records show that he was discharged from the military with the rest of his company on November 16, 1864 in Springfield, Illinois. He had served three years. Michael was lucky. Of about 1,100 men in the 4th Calvalry, only about 350 were mustered out in 1864, suggesting great losses in this company. Michael's first wife died after his return home, and he married again in 1870, to my 3rd great-grandmother Temperance Burns. They had two children together, including my second great-grandmother, Nellie.

John Daly 

John Daly was my third great-grandfather. He was the husband of Mary Carey and the father of my second great-grandmother, Catherine Daly Murray. John was born in Ireland in 1824 and came to America in 1847. He married Mary Carey, also an Irish immigrant, and settled in Massachusetts. When the war began, John was living in Lawrence, Massachusetts with his wife and four young daughters, and working as a stonecutter.

On August 12, 1862 he joined Company B, Massachusetts 3rd Cavalry Regiment. There appear to have been twelve companies in the Massachusetts 3rd Cavalry, and being such a large group, it's been difficult for me to determine the exact movements of John Daly's company. It appears that the 3rd Cavalry was affiliated with the 41st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, recruited in the summer and fall of 1862. This regiment departed Massachusetts for New York on November 5, 1862, and then sailed to New Orleans. They seem to have spent most of the war in Louisiana, engaging in various skirmishes there. After serving over a year, John was mustered out on January 18, 1864. He returned home to Massachusetts, where he resumed his work and had at least one more child. While the details of his service are scarce, we know that John was involved with a veteran's group in Massachusetts after the war. In the best photo we have of him, he can be seen wearing a GAR hat. GAR ("Grand Army of the Republic") was a fraternal organization made up of Civil War veterans. John lived until the age of ninety, dying in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1914.

Michael J. Murray

Michael was the brother of my second great-grandfather, John Bernard Murray. John was the husband of Catherine Daly, and the son-in-law of John Daly, profiled above. The Murray brothers were born in County Down, Northern Ireland, and emigrated to Massachusetts in the 1840s. In the fall of 1861, Michael enlisted in the 25th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 2nd Brigade. Information about the 2nd Brigade's activities from Wikipedia:

On July 8, the regiment left for Maryland where it joined the forces under General Robert Patterson. In 1861, the regiment served guarding the upper Potomac River and Frederick, Maryland, and in the spring of 1862, the regiment served under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, unsuccessfully opposing Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. In June, the regiment was transferred to the Union Army of Virginia and participated in General Pope's Northern Virginia Campaign.

Over the next two years, Michael's company participated in the following well-known battles:

• Battle of Antietam
• Battle of Chancellorsville
• Battle of Gettysburg

It is perhaps a miracle that Michael survived these conflicts, given the high number of casualties at each. However, his luck was about to run out. In 1864, the 2nd Brigade headed to Georgia to participate in General Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. In August 1864, Michael was killed near Atlanta, behind a breastworks in what seems to have been a minor skirmish, not a major engagement. He was twenty-six years old at the time of his death. Michael wrote a letter home to his family the day before he died, and a copy of that letter survives.

Samuel G. Smith 

Samuel was my third great-grandfather, husband of Ellen Henrietta Partridge and father of my second great-grandfather, Walter Samuel Smith. He was born June 9, 1937 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, but moved to Bunker Hill, Illinois, prior to the start of the Civil War. On July 11, 1861, Samuel enlisted in the 7th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

I do not know the specifics of Samuel's war service, but his regiment saw action at the Battle of Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Corinth, the Battle of Allatoona Pass, the March to the Sea (under command of General Sherman) and the Carolinas Campaign. Samuel survived the war and returned to Illinois in 1864, where he was discharged on July 29. In December of that year he married Ellen Partridge. Together, they had four children. In his later years, after Ellen's death, Samuel lived in a home for elderly veterans in Togus, Maine. He died there in 1922, at the age of eighty-four.

Wallace Partridge 

Wallace was the brother of Ellen Partridge, wife of Samuel G. Smith. Like his future brother-in-law, Wallace enlisted in the 7th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1861.

As I wrote in my previous post about Wallace, he was born on September 14, 1843 in Brooklyn, New York. His family moved to Bunker Hill, Illinois in the 1850s. Wallace registered for military service at Springfield, Illinois on April 17, 1861, just five days after war was declared. He was 17 years old. The Army had a requirement that soldiers be 18 years of age at enlistment, but they appear to have allowed Wallace to join when he was five months shy of that milestone. Like Samuel G. Smith, Wallace was involved in the battles at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, and Altoona. He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, or perhaps immediately afterward in a skirmish on the Corinth Road, and had to leave military service for some time to recover. On December 22, 1962, Wallace re-enlisted and served until the end of the war. After the war, Wallace married Isabella Eddington and fathered nine children in Bunker Hill. He died in 1929, at the age of eighty-five.

Rufus Partridge

Rufus was the brother of Wallace Partridge, and another brother-in-law of Samuel G. Smith. He was just a year and a half younger than Wallace, born November 26, 1844 in Brooklyn, New York. Like his brother and future brother-in-law, he was living in Bunker Hill, Illinois when the Civil War began, but unlike them, he enlisted in a different company. Rufus' military records say that he was in Company K of the 144th Illinois Infantry, and that he served from January 4, 1865 to July 14, 1865. This was at the very end of the war. In fact, the 144th was not even created until the end of 1864, which begs the question of whether Rufus was attached to another company prior to his involvement with the 144th.

Rufus was just 15 when his brother Wallace enlisted in 1861. Rules at that time required that men be 18 years old before they joined the Army, so it is likely that Rufus simply wasn't old enough to enlist prior to 1864. After its creation, the 144th was sent to the St. Louis, Missouri area, where they remained until the end of the war. They appear to have lost more men to illness than armed conflict, and luckily, young Rufus returned home unharmed. After the war, Rufus married Elizabeth Palmer, and they raised six children in Kansas. Rufus died in 1914, at the age of seventy.

Nelson Hodge

Nelson Hodge was the nephew of my fourth great-grandmother, Amelia Brown Bellangee. Amelia's sister, Mercy Brown, married Loton Samuel Hodge. Nelson was their second son. The Brown and Hodge families were from Mendon, New York, east of Buffalo. This is where Nelson was born on July 5, 1842.

Nelson joined the 108th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment shortly after its creation, on July 25, 1862. He was twenty years old. His regiment appears to have headed directly to the area near Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, which was a recurring flash point between northern and southern troops. The Battle of Bolivar Heights took place there on August 27 and 28, 1862, and it's possible that Nelson's regiment may have arrived in time to see action. The Union Army was soundly defeated in this battle, resulting in the largest surrender of Union troops during the entire war. The surviving Union soldiers remained in the area and continued to skirmish with Confederate units in the months and years that followed. The U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865 database says that Nelson was mustered out on November 3, 1862 at Bolivar Heights, West Virginia. I believe that this was actually his date of death, since multiple other records indicate that he died during the war, and give his separation date as November 3, 1862. We don't know whether he was killed in combat or taken by illness. Nelson was twenty years old at the time of his death.

The Children of Dr. William Brown

Dr. William Brown of Mendon and Pembroke, New York, had five children.  He had four daughters with his first wife, Bridget Palmer, and one son with his second wife, Sarah Loomis.  His youngest daughter, Amelia Brown, was my fourth great-grandmother.  I've been researching the lives of William's other children, in hopes that this will shed some light on the family and eventually provide proof of the connection to Joseph Brown and Elizabeth Gary, William Brown's presumed parents.

Elizabeth Brown 

Elizabeth was the eldest child of William Brown and Bridget Palmer.  She was born in 1812 in Mendon, New York, and grew nearly to adulthood there.  She was sixteen when her mother died, in 1828, and her father moved to Pembroke and remarried.  At that time, Elizabeth must have been heavily involved in running the household and caring for her younger sisters.  In 1832, at the age of twenty, Elizabeth married John W. King, a native of Homer, New York and a recent graduate of Fairfield Medical School.  After marrying in Mendon, Elizabeth and John moved together to Grand Blanc, Michigan, where John began a career as a noted physician and surgeon.  The book "History of Northern Michigan" by Perry F. Powers says that, "Dr. John W. King was an abolitionist, and before the Civil War became a terrible reality did all in his power to create a sentiment for the freeing of the Negro. He was prominent in the many-sided life of the community and was the kindly friend and doctor of hundreds of families." Together, John and Elizabeth had six daughters and two sons:

• Elizabeth L. King (b. 1838 in Grand Blanc, MI; d. 1876 in Tawas City, MI; m. Herbert Schram; children: Leola Schram, Arthur Schram)
• Laura Susan King (b. 1840 in Grand Blanc, MI; d. 1902 in Los Angeles, CA; m. John Montgomery; children: Jay R. Montgomery)
• Sophia King (b. 1842 in Grand Blanc, MI; d. 1919 in Manistee, MI; m. Edwin E. Benedict; children: Elbert Benedict, Glen Ellis Benedict)
• John King (b. abt 1846 in Grand Blanc, MI)
• Martha King (b. abt 1848 in Grand Blanc, MI)
• Sarah Amelia King (b. abt 1850 in Grand Blanc, MI; d. 1889 in Manistee, MI; m. Henry S. Hilton; children: Blanche L. Hilton)
• Alice King (b. 1852 in Grand Blanc, MI)
• James Asabel King (b. abt 1857; d. 1923 in Manistee, MI; m. Minnie Billington)

Elizabeth died in 1883 in Manistee, Michigan.


Mercy Brown

Mercy was the second daughter of William and Bridget Brown, and the only one of William's children who would spend her adult life in Mendon.  She was born in 1815.  In 1835, at the age of twenty, she married Loton Samuel Hodge.  He was older than her, about 35 at the time of the marriage, and an established farmer in Mendon.  They raised seven children in Mendon and provided a support system for Mercy's father and stepmother as they grew old.

• Maria Hodge (b. 1837 in Mendon, NY; d. 1917; m. William Dailey)
• Israel Hodge (b. 1840 in Mendon, NY; d. 1840 in Mendon, NY)
• Nelson Hodge (b. 1842 in Mendon, NY; d. 1862 in the Civil War, Battle of Bolivar Heights, West Virginia)
• George Palmer Hodge (b. 1845 in Mendon, NY; d. 1916 in Grand Ledge, MI; m. Adelaide Kinyon; children: Nelson Hodge, Eugene Hodge, Charles Loton Hodge)
• Amelia Hodge (b. 1847 in Mendon, NY; d. unknown; m. Charles E. Peachey; children: Elmer Peachey)
• Ella Hodge (b. 1850 in Mendon, NY; d. 1927 in Shortsville, NY; m. Frank Peer; children: Bert Hodge Peer, Estella Peer, Ralph J. Peer)
• William Hodge (b. 1854 in Mendon, NY; d. 1926; m. Mary Parmelee; children: Addison Parmelee Hodge)

Mercy died in 1879.  She is buried in Mendon Cemetery, in the same plot as her mother, father, husband and several of her children.

The Hodge graves in Mendon Cemetery (photo courtesy of Cheri Branca)

Maria Brown

Maria was born in 1817 in Mendon, New York.  She was the third daughter of William Brown and Bridget Palmer. In about 1840, around the age of twenty-two, Maria married John Walker Davock and settled in Buffalo, New York.  John died in 1853, at the young age of 42, leaving Maria a widow in her thirties.  She did not remarry.  Before his death, John and Maria had four children together:

• Ella Davock (b. 1842 in Buffalo, NY; d. 1925; she did not marry)
• William B. Davock (b. 1847 in Buffalo, NY)
• Harlow Palmer Davock (b. 1848 in Buffalo, NY; d. 1910 in New Hampshire; m. Sarah Whiting; children: Clarence Whiting Davock, Harlow Noble Davock, Henry Davock)
• Harriet "Hattie" Davock (b. 1852 in Buffalo, NY; d. 1926 in Buffalo, NY; she did not marry)

Maria died in 1901.  She outlived her three sisters by many years.

Maria Brown Davock's grave in Buffalo, New York (courtesy Jay Boone)

Amelia Brown

Amelia was the youngest of William's children with Bridget Palmer.  My fourth great-grandmother was born in 1823 in Mendon, New York.  Her mother died when she was five, so Amelia was primarily raised by her stepmother, Sarah Loomis.  In 1843, at the age of twenty, Amelia married John Gustavus Bellangee, Jr.  He was the son of John Gustavus Bellangee, Sr. and Mary Ann Trout of New Jersey.  They moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where their four children were born.

• Mary Elizabeth Bellangee (b. 1844 in Milwaukee, WI; d. 1929 in Los Angeles, CA; m. George William Dickson; children: Mary Dickson, Elizabeth Davock Dickson, Anne Amelia Dickson, George William Dickson, Jr., Wilfred Bellangee Dickson)
• Anne Amelia Bellangee (b. 1846 in Milwaukee, WI; d. 1932 in Milan, Ohio)
• William Palmer Bellangee (b. 1846 in Milwaukee, WI; d. 1882 in Ohio; he did not marry)
• John Gustavus Bellangee III (b. 1857 in Milwaukee, WI; d. 1936 in Los Angeles, CA; m. Marie Holmes Klingner; children: John Gustavus Bellangee IV, Catharine Bellangee; Helena Bellangee)

Amelia's husband, John Bellangee is often described in records as a mason, but he was actually an architect and land developer who was responsible for the construction of a number of buildings in downtown Milwaukee during the city's early years.  He was also the defendant in a court case that went to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The court ruled in John Bellangee's favor in the landmark fraudulent conveyance suit, Crocker vs. Bellangee, but the Bellangee family endured years of litigation and appeals before that decision.

The Ballengee children excelled in artistic pursuits.  Two of the children, Anne and William, became music teachers.  My third great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth, loved poetry and literature, and she later encouraged this interest in her grandson, George Rutherfurd.  Sometime between 1860 and 1870, John and Amelia moved from Milwaukee to Ohio.  Amelia died there in 1876 at the age of 47. Her body was taken to Buffalo, New York, and buried in the family plot at Forest Lawn Cemetery, near her sister Maria.  When John Bellangee died in 1889, he was buried beside Amelia.

Amelia Brown Bellangee's grave in Buffalo, New York (courtesy Jay Boone)

Loomis Palmer Brown

Loomis was born in 1831 in Pembroke, New York.  He was the only child of Dr. William Brown and his second wife, Sarah Loomis.  He seems to have gone mainly by the name Palmer, although records vary.  In about 1857, Loomis married a woman named Mary.  In the 1860 census, he is listed as a farmer in Pembroke, New York.  He and Mary had two children at that time.  Sometime between 1864 and 1870, Loomis and Mary moved to Flint, Michigan, where they had another child.  I lose track of Loomis after this time, and have not been able to find any further records for him and his family.  The children of Loomis and Mary were as follows:

• Albert Brown (b. 1858 in Pembroke, NY)
• Alma Brown (b. 1864 in Pembroke, NY)
• Hattie Brown (b. 1870 in Flint, MI)

Dr. William Brown & Bridget Palmer Brown of Mendon, New York

Fields near Mendon, New York (photo: Andy Arthur)

Last year, I wrote about the breakthrough I'd made on my Brown ancestors. After many years of searching, I had finally proven the parents of my fourth great-grandmother, Amelia Brown. Her parents were Dr. William Brown and Bridget Palmer of Mendon, New York. I'd also determined that William's parents were Joseph Brown, a Revolutionary War veteran, and Elizabeth Gary.

Not long after that post, my local genealogical society hosted a meeting about using the DAR's records. I did some digging in the DAR database and discovered that they've deemed the records used to connect Joseph Brown with his children are not adequate. I decided I would compile records that would meet the DAR's standards, but have since plunged into a data black hole. There is much circumstantial evidence for this lineage, but insubstantial documentation. As a result, I've been spending a lot of time digging for any little tidbit about the Brown family that would confirm their relationships. I reached out to a genealogist in Rochester, New York, who has been incredibly helpful in searching local archives for information that might not be digitized.  Thank you, Bob! I've also been working on the indirect Brown lines, hoping there will be clues in those families. After all, that's how I found William Brown and Bridget Palmer, by researching the descendants of their other children. For now, I'd like to share what I've learned about the Brown family in Mendon, and hope that I'll soon be able to provide additional proof linking William to his parents.

William Brown was born March 24, 1780 in Connecticut. I believe he was born in Killingly, Connecticut, where his parents were living in 1775, when Joseph Brown volunteered to fight for the rebel colonists. He was the fourth of ten children born to Joseph and Elizabeth, and the first to survive infancy. According to the book "Migrations to Mendon 1791-1821" by Diane Hamm, William moved from Connecticut to Mendon, New York in 1809.  He was 29 years old. I haven't found a marriage date and location for William Brown and Bridget Palmer, but my guess is that they were married in Mendon sometime between 1809 and 1811. Their first child was born in Mendon in 1812.

Bridget Palmer was born about 1793 in Connecticut.  I have not yet been able to determine her parents or exact place of birth. She was young when she met and married William Brown.  She was just eighteen when their first child was born. The children of William Brown and Bridget Palmer were as follows:

• Elizabeth Brown (b. 1812 in Mendon, NY; d. 1883 in Manistee, MI; m. John W. King)
• Mercy Brown (b. 1815 in Mendon, NY; d. 1879 in Mendon, NY; m. Loton Samuel Hodge)
• Maria Brown (b. 1817 in Mendon, NY; d. 1901 in Buffalo, NY; m. John Walker Davock)
• Amelia Brown (b. 1823 in Mendon, NY; d. 1876 in Cincinnati, OH; m. John Gustavus Bellangee)

During the years when his daughters were born, William Brown was the town doctor in Mendon. He and Bridget lived in East Mendon, in the Eleven Thousand Acre Tract, with their children and seem to have been involved in local affairs. In 1813, William Brown served as the Commissioner of the First School Fund in Mendon.

Bridget Palmer died in 1828 at the young age of 35. My fourth great-grandmother, Amelia, was just five years old when she lost her mother. William was 48 years old when his wife died. At this time, he gave up his career as a doctor and moved to nearby Pembroke, New York with his daughters. He set himself up as a farmer in Pembroke, and a year later he married Sarah R. Loomis. She was the daughter of Jacob Loomis and Selina Holmes of Salem, Connecticut. Sarah appears to have been 42 at the time of their marriage, and bore William a son at the age of 44.

Loomis Palmer Brown was born in Pembroke in 1831. Loomis was much younger than his half-siblings.  His eldest sister, Elizabeth, was nineteen at the time of his birth. My fourth great-grandmother, Amelia, was eight. The fact that Loomis bore the names of both his father's wives is very interesting. Purely speculating, but this indicates to me that William must have deeply grieved the loss of his first wife, Bridget. I also wonder if Sarah had known Bridget. She might have been honoring a friend by giving her son Bridget's name.

William Brown died in Mendon on May 2, 1868, at the home of his daughter, Mercy Brown Hodge. He was 88 years old. He is buried in Mendon Cemetery in a plot with his first wife, Bridget Palmer. It is not known when Sarah died. She was still living at the time of the 1860 census, but I can find no record of her after that. I suspect she may have died before William, which is why Mercy was tending to her father in his infirmity.

A death notice for William Brown was published in the Buffalo Courier Journal on May 7, 1868. It read: "Died at East Mendon, NY at residence of son-in-law Loton Hodges, esq, Dr. William Brown, age 88 yr, 1 month and 7 days, father of Mrs. Maria Davock of this city."

Major Breakthrough: How Searching for a Surname Solved Two Big Mysteries and Revealed an American Revolutionary

The March to Valley Forge (1883) by William B.T. Trego

I learned two important things this week.

1. In genealogy the answer is often right in front of you.
2. One small discovery can create a chain reaction of secondary discoveries.

Also, sometimes you go looking for an ancestor and unearth a connection to some of the most important events in American history.


DAVOCK

I was looking for a Davock family in Buffalo, New York. My second great-grandmother, Annie Dickson, had an older sister whose middle name has always puzzled me. Elizabeth Davock Dickson was clearly named for someone, but Davock wasn't a surname I recognized. It appears nowhere in my family tree. Earlier this year, I discovered a 1865 census record that showed Elizabeth Davock Dickson's parents, George W. Dickson and Mary Elizabeth Bellangee, living with a Maria Davock and her children in Buffalo, New York. I guessed that perhaps Maria and her family had been special to George and Mary for some reason, and they had named their daughter in this family's honor. Still, I had no proof of this or knowledge of their actual relationship.

BROWN

Concurrently, I was looking for the parents of my fourth great-grandmother, Amelia Brown Bellangee. Amelia was the mother of Mary Elizabeth Bellangee and grandmother of Elizabeth Davock Dickson. She has caused me no end of headaches over the years, as her lineage simply could not be uncovered. I knew that Amelia was born somewhere in the vicinity of Buffalo, New York and likely died in Cincinnati, Ohio, but searches in New York and Ohio turned up no credible leads for her parents.

DICKSON

I've been writing about my Dickson ancestors for most of this year. Recently, I profiled my fourth great grandfather, William Dickson, in a series of blog posts. While reading through a biography of William Dickson written by his son, William Dickson Young, one line stopped me in my tracks.

"He [George W. Dickson] married Mary Bellangee of Milwaukee, Wisc., a niece of Mrs. Davocks [sic] who lived on Delaware Avenue, in a house where the Westminster Parish House now stands."

I'd read this biography in the past, but for some reason, had never picked up on the mention of Mrs. Davocks. Why had I never recognized the significance of this surname? Immediately, I started researching. Who was Mrs. Davocks? Was she related to Maria Davock? How were they connected to the Dickson and Bellangee families?

THE SEARCH

My first step was to do some research on Maria Davock. I went back to the 1865 New York census and found Maria Davock living on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo with her five children, John, William, Ella, Harlow and Hattie. There were George Dickson and Mary Elizabeth Bellangee Dickson in her household, just as I remembered. Since no husband was listed with the family, I guessed that Maria had been widowed prior to 1865. Online family trees suggested her husband was John W. Davock, a tanner who had died in 1853. I made a note of this and continued to look around for proof of Maria's family relationships. Fortunately, this family is fairly well documented. I found multiple census records and city directory listings that confirmed their location and relationships, plus a cemetery photo showing John W. and Maria's shared headstone, complete with full names and dates. Everything was coming together. The record that finally made all the pieces snap into place was an unusual one, though. In the Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications 1889-1970 database, I found an application submitted by Maria's son, Harlow Palmer Davock. In paperwork requesting membership, Harlow listed the names of his parents, maternal grandparents and maternal great-grandparents.

Harlow Davock named his parents as Maria Brown Davock and John W. Davock. That's right, Brown! William Dickson Young had claimed that Mary Bellangee was a niece of Maria Davock. This means that Maria Brown Davock was the sister of Mary's mother, Amelia Brown. Suddenly, multiple branches of my family tree collided.  It makes sense that the Dicksons, Browns and Bellangees all knew one another, but I'd never been able to put it together until this moment.

Harlow Davock did me another favor by listing in his application the names of his maternal grandparents and great-grandparents. This allowed me to corroborate his claims using census records and published histories of Connecticut and the Brown family. Amelia and Maria Brown's parents were William Brown, M.D. and B. Palmer Brown.  I later determined that their mother's full name was likely Bridget Palmer. William Brown's parents were Joseph Brown and Elizabeth Gary. Joseph Brown was the ancestor that Harlow Davock knew would gain him membership in Sons of the American Revolution.

THE REVOLUTIONARY

Joseph Brown, my newly-discovered sixth great-grandfather, was a farmer in Killingly, Connecticut. When tensions reached their peak between American colonists and the British in 1775, he fell firmly on the side of the rebels. After the opening shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in Lexington and Concord in April 1775, Brown joined a hastily-assembled Connecticut company that marched north to Massachusetts to support the colonists fighting there. Brown served in Elwell's regiment only a short time during the Lexington Alarm, but his participation in these early days of the American Revolution was an exciting revelation for me.

I'm a history buff who has been to Lexington and Concord and stood on the spot where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired. I still inexplicably remember nearly every word of "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, decades after being required to memorize it in elementary school. This is a period in time that has always captivated me. Discovering that my ancestor volunteered immediately after the skirmish at Lexington, and participated in the opening salvo of what was to be the Revolutionary War, was thrilling.

When the British troops, after a night of marching, reached the village of Lexington, they saw through the early morning mist a grim band of 50 minutemen-armed colonists-lined up across the common. There was a moment of hesitation, cries and orders from both sides and, in the midst of the noise, a shot. Firing broke out along both lines, and the Americans dispersed, leaving eight of their dead upon the green. The first blood of the war for American independence had been shed. 

The British pushed on to Concord, where the "embattled farmers" at North Bridge "fired the shot heard round the world." Their purpose partly accomplished, the British force began the return march. All along the road, behind stone walls, hillocks, and houses militiamen from village and farm made targets of the bright red coats of the British soldiers. By the time the weary column stumbled into Boston its losses totaled nearly three times those sustained by the colonists. 

The news of Lexington and Concord flew from one local community to another in the thirteen colonies. Within 20 days, it evoked a common spirit of American patriotism from Maine to Georgia. [source: The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut]

Joseph Brown was swept up in that spirit of American patriotism. After the Lexington Alarm, he reenlisted, serving in Captain Joseph Elliott's company.

In 1777-1779, Joseph Brown served as an ensign in the Fifth Regiment Connecticut Line Formation. He fought in the Battle of Germantown in October 1777, a devastating American loss which resulted in the city of Philadelphia temporarily remaining under British control. However, recognizing the American effort in this battle, the French resolved to more strongly support the colonial army.

That the battle had been fought unsuccessfully was of small importance when weighed against the fact that it been fought at all. Eminent generals, and statesmen of sagacity, in every European Court were profoundly impressed by learning that a new army, raised within the year, and undaunted by a series of recent disasters, had assailed a victorious enemy in his own quarters, and had only been repulsed after a sharp and dubious conflict. [source: History of the American Revolution Volume IV by Sir George Otto Trevelyan]

Having survived the Battle of Germantown, Joseph Brown was assigned to Huntington's Brigade and spent the winter of 1777-1778 in the infamous winter camp at Valley Forge.

That's right, my sixth great-grandfather was at Valley Forge. With George Washington.

This was the turning point of the American Revolution. When we think of Valley Forge, most of us think of those bloody footprints in the snow, the starving and freezing men passing a bitter winter without sufficient food, clothing and shelter. But of course, Valley Forge was also the place the colonial army regrouped and became better-trained soldiers.

The suffering and sacrifices of the American soldiers at Valley Forge are familiar, iconic images, but there is another side of the picture. Valley Forge was where a new, confident, professional American army was born. Three months of shortage and hardship were followed by three months of relative abundance that led to wonderful changes in the morale and fighting capabilities of the Continental Army. France would enter the war on the side of the new nation. Valuable foreign volunteers and fresh replacements would trickle into camp. Most important, it was at Valley Forge that a vigorous, systematic training regime transformed ragged amateur troops into a confident 18th century military organization capable of beating the Red Coats in the open field of battle. [source: ushistory.org]

My family tree gained several generations this week. I wish my grandmother was here to discuss this discovery with me, because I know she would have been thrilled with the breakthrough and the connection to some of the most important moments in American history. This makes all these years of fruitless research on Amelia Brown completely worth it. Rarely in genealogical research do you experience a breakthrough quite this rewarding. I'm savoring this one.