| HISTORICAL ANCESTRY OF JAMES & SOPHRONIA HARTSELL | PAGE 62 |
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HARTSELL - 1860's See "The Life of David Hartzell 1805-1865" for the latest (and corrected) information on David. 1860 is a very interesting year. We have reconstructed a great deal on what happened in this year. It is very lucky that the Hartsell family was still in Indiana when the Census taker came calling. This is the year of the family's move to Shelby County, Illinois. We don't know why they decided to move - we can only guess. One possible reason was that the Civil War was imminent. Another is that close family friend Joseph Walker had already settled permanently in Shelby County the year before, and may have recommended it. He had come back with his two children ages 9 and 11. The new location was 235 miles away, a long distance in those days. It had to be painful for David & Barbara Hartzell to leave behind their daughter Barbara (now married to Samuel Walker). It is also curious that David Hartzell did not sell his 20 acres until 1863. They certainly could have used the money. Perhaps he thought he'd be coming back. Moving in order to obtain land could not have been the reason because James Alexander Hartsell did not buy land until 1872. The Illinois central railroad, eager to bring farmers into the east-central area, had been advertising heavily, and this area had opened up for the first time to the grain markets of the north and east. Still, it still seems most likely it was because of the impending Civil War - perhaps Joseph Walker, who was an avid reader and was well informed, saw what was coming and talked the Hartsells into moving. At the time of the Census taker's visit, David Hartzell was 54 years old (but shown as 52 in the Census), and still listed as living in Jennings township, and owner of $1250 worth of land. Curiously, he was now listed as a farmer, not a shoemaker. Also very curious, as will be explained below, they were not on their land, but 3 miles to the south in the area of the town of Alquina. Here is the verbatim 1860 Fayette County Indiana Census report on David Hartzell and James A. Hartsell:
Jennings Township, page 613, taken June 16, 1860
Head of household: David Hartsell, occupation farmer
in household:
David Hartsell age 52 born in Virginia, $1250 real estate, $350 personal
Barbara Hartsell age 43 born in Virginia
Margaret Hartsell age 22 born in Indiana
William Hartsell age 12 born in Indiana attending school
Celestia Hartsell age 8 born in Indiana attending school
Elizabeth Hartsell age 5 born in Indiana
Joseph Walker age 43 born in Ohio,$8000 real estate, $1400 personal
Sophronia Walker age 11 born in Indiana attending school
Amos Walker age 9 born in Indiana attending school
Dwelling-place listed immediately after David Hartsell:
Head of household: James Hartsell, occupation farm laborer
James Hartsell age 23 born in Indiana $300 personal estate
Elizabeth Hartsell age 23
Phoebe Sutton age 13
Adonijah Sutton age 8
Notes:
David Hartsell is now listed as a farmer instead of shoemaker.
David's age should be 54.
Barbara Hartsell's age should be 44.
Unlisted daughter Rebecca, age 20, is now married to Timothy Small.
Unlisted daughter Barbara, age 16, is now married to Samuel Walker.
Joseph Walker and his family happened to be in the household
of David Hartsell. It seems he had come back for them, or
to help them move.
Sophronia, age 11, was the future wife of James Alexander Hartsell.
Joseph's wife Sarah Dorsey had died June 11, 1851 at the age of 26.
Edward Walker (born 1846) is not listed; he was not Joseph's son.
Elizabeth Hartsell was James's first wife.
Phoebe and Adonijah Sutton were probably children of neighbor
Abram Sutton.
The handwriting on the 1860 census is very hard to read, but it supplies an interesting implication that David Hartzell, James A. Hartsell, and Joseph Walker were not on David's land, but south on farm road 450E, in or very near the town of Alquina. Without the 1856 platt map, we would have assumed he was still living on his land. (Remember that David Hartzell didn't sell his land until 1863). To target where they were when they were enumerated, here are some clues. The 1860 Census, along with the 1856 platt map, shows certain people listed after David & James Hartsell who are also on the platt map south of Alquina: Isacc Loudenback, ? Hull, and Leonidis Ross. People listed before David & James Hartsell, with land north of Alquina, are Jacob Scholl, Jacob Reibsomer, George Lyons, and James Abernathy. This puts our family in the immediate area of Alquina. Maybe they were in a staging area for the move to Illinois. Fascinating! Shortly after the census was taken, the families headed west. This included at least 4 heads of households, and there were probably more: David & Barbara Hartzell and children Margaret, William, Celestia and Elizabeth. James A. Hartsell and his wife Mary Elizabeth, and probably Phoebe & Adonijah Sutton. Joseph Walker and his children Sophronia and Amos. Rebecca and husband Timothy Small. David's daughter Barbara is the only one we know of who stayed behind. She was now married. The families had packed their belongings into wagons and were leaving Connersville for a new future in Shelby County, Illinois. Try to imagine what this caravan looked like. It must have been in July. Eight adults (counting Margaret), and seven children ages 5 to 13. Joseph Walker was probably traveling light, having already being settled in Illinois, but there must have been 3 household's worth of furniture. Think what they must have taken with them. Foodstuffs, tables, chairs, cupboards, heating woodstoves, dishes, pots & pans, bedding, clothes, tools and maybe a plow, the children's toys, and even family heirlooms (like the old Bible). There had to be at least 4 wagons. Plus, the usual mode of travel in those days was to tie a spare team of horses to the back of the wagon, and switch horses periodically to give the pulling horses a rest. This was a major event in our family history. From Connersville the family most likely headed north for 12 miles to connect with the National Road which would take them to Illinois. This road was formerly unhewn trunks of trees laid side by side and held together by slips nailed across the ends. By 1860 the road was considerably improved with a macadamized surface. Along the way, the only "big" towns they saw were Indianapolis and Terre Haute, with populations less than 20,000. It is hard to imagine what this 235 mile trip by horse and wagon was really like. It must have taken at least 6 days (at 40 miles per day). All their possessions in their wagons, their food & water, probably cooking over a campfire, and sleeping out in the open or in tents. They had to contend with rain and who knows what else. Here is something related by Edith Neal, daughter of Elizabeth Hartsell Walden (Aunt Sade): The family came to Illinois in wagons. Two of James A. Hartsell's younger sisters, one of them "Aunt Sade" - about 6 years old, were yelling "Hurrah for Lincoln" while going through a town in Indiana on the way to Illinois in 1860. Their mother (Barbara Hartsell) admonished them with "Don't make trouble". The other sister must have been Celestia. You can read all kinds of things into this. The children must have heard the parents talking, and they must have been in an area of Southern sympathizers. Lincoln wasn't President yet but they knew about him. Joseph Walker probably talked a lot about Lincoln and the slavery situation. The children must have been high-spirited and not suffering much so far on the trip. The National Road brought them into the small town of Effingham, Illinois. The route north from here to the Windsor area (16 miles) was probably a dirt road along the railroad tracks established by the railroad crews about 5 years before. There were no telephone poles along the tracks at that time, of course. The townsite of Windsor at this time may have been just a water tank with a windmill to pump the water, put down by the railroad company. Pioneer farmers bought the land first near these stations where the trains would stop. The area around Mattoon and Windsor was brand new country where most of the land had not yet been turned by a plow. In these early days, the area had low stagnant marshes and many mosquitoes. Quinine sat on the table like the sugar. There were fights and gunplay in town. The nearest "large" town was Champaign-Urbana with a population of 5,000. Chicago had a population of 100,000 people and was actively involved in the shipping industry. Thus here it began, the longtime Hartsell family home, started in 1860 when James A. Hartsell was 23 years old. Here in Richland Township he rented land for the next 12 years. In 1861, when the Civil War began, James A. Hartsell was 24 years old. There is some evidence that after the 1860 move to Indiana, David & Barbara Hartsell along with their younger children lived with Joseph Walker (see 1870 Joseph Walker census record). On September 15, 1863, David Hartzell sold the "1853" 20 acres in Fayette County to Richard Sithens for $500. The land record said David and Barbara were "of Shelby County, Illinois". No record of the other land, if there was any, has been found. On March 5, 1865, the year that President Lincoln was assassinated, David Hartzell died at the age of 59 years, 3 months, and 13 days. He was buried at Ash Grove Cemetery in Ash Grove Township, Shelby County, where the first burial had taken place 7 years before in 1858. The ages of his sons and daughters at the time of his death were: James - 28, Margaret - 27, Rebecca Ann - 25, Barbara - 22, William - 17, Celeste - about 14, and Elizabeth - 10. A year later, on February 25, 1866, Mary Elizabeth (Palmer) Hartsell died at the age of 29, 8 years after marriage. She is also buried at Ash Grove Cemetery. There were no surviving children by this marriage. On December 23, 1868, James A. Hartsell, age 31, married Sophronia Walker, age 20. A month before their marriage, baby Mary Elizabeth Hartsell was born Nov. 29, 1868 (derived from gravestone). One would think that in those days this was a great family embarrassment, but TJP's mother remembers clearly a family story that the baby was lying on a quilt on the bed during the marriage ceremony, so it wasn't something they tried to hide. On August 21, 1870, Mary Elizabeth Hartsell died at the age of 1 year, 8 months and 22 days. She was buried in the Ash Grove Cemetery. Think of the grief James A. Hartsell went through during this five year period. First his father in 1865, his first wife in 1866, and then his first child by his second wife in 1870.
As a side note, there was a marriage in Rush County Indiana (next to Fayette County)
between William Hartzell and Catherine Vickey on Jan. 1, 1862, and a burial of Nellie
Hartzell, daughter of William & M. Hartzell who died May 12, 1865, age 7 mo. 2 days,
in the Raleigh (Zion) Cemetery, Washington Township (Rush County).
Abraham Lincoln was nominated by the Republican Party in 1860 and he was inaugurated on March 4, 1861. Although slavery became illegal in Illinois in 1848, it was not until the outbreak of the Civil War that Illinois was recognized as a "Northern" state. Illinois supplied 250,000 Union solders and became a major weapons manufacturing center. In 1861, Abraham Lincoln became President of the United States. This same year the Civil War began. Trainloads of soldiers from Chicago passed through Mattoon and Windsor on their way to the south. Injured and dead soldiers were going north. Immigration of new settlers virtually stopped during the war. The 123rd Illinois Regiment was armed and awaiting orders in Mattoon in September 1862. These were men from the Mattoon/Charleston area. They were later camped at Louisville, Kentucky and were commanded by Colonel James Monroe. Buffalo were still plentiful on the plains west of the Mississippi River in 1868. Ulysses Grant became President in 1869 and was in office until 1877. In 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad provided the first railroad link to the west coast. |