Tarlton Hughes' Will

Since the photo of Tarlton's will in the last post was a small file and therefore would not enlarge when clicked, I am posting the transcription below.

TARLTON HUGHES’ WILL
Smith County, Tennessee

In the name of God Amen. I Tarlton Hughes of the State of Tennessee and the County of Smith, being ill in health, but possessed of a sound & disposing mind, do make this my last will and testament in the manner and form following,, 1st. It is my desire that all my just debts shall be paid out of such property as my Executors see proper to sell, 2nd. I lend to my wife Lydia Hughes the whole of my estate both real and personal during her natural life or widowhood.. That she may aid my children in all things she may be able to do. 3rd. It is my will and desire that after the death of my wife, an equal division be made of my estate, between the whole of my children, To wit: Wm F Hughes, Sarah Rucks, John Hughes, David Hughes, and Mary Hughes, and I hereby constitute, ordain and appoint my wife, Lydia Hughes, Howell T. Rucks, William F Hughes Executors of this my last will and testament,, Disannuling [sic] Revoking & Rejecting any and all others, heretofore made by me, as witnefs my hand and seal, this 29th day of June 1849.

his

Tarlton X Hughes {seal)

mark

Witnefes

James Hibbitt
James B. Jeffreys

Smith County, Tennessee
Recorded 12 July 1850
C 133

transcribed by Barry Mahorney
July 1, 2008

It's All In A Name

If I have learned anything in doing family history, it is to be very careful with assumptions. Don't be too quick to accept all family traditions as fact. In seeking David G. Hughes' parents, we began with a family tradition which actually delayed our finding the right answer. What was the tradition? Early Hughes research on this line said that David's father had settled in or near Nashville, Tennessee and that his name was William. In fact, he did settle just to the east of Nashville in Smith County, but his name was not William, unless it was a part of his name.

Joy discovered some information that caused us to wonder. She found there was Lydia Hughes buried in Smith County, Tennessee though her grave stone said she was the wife of Tarlton Hughes. Since Joy's great-grandmother's middle name was Lydia, we wondered. However, the name Tarlton was troubling. That is, it was until a phone call gave us another clue.

I had been given the name and phone number of Louis T. Hughes, grandson of Warner T. Hughes. In a phone conversation, I asked if he knew what Warner's middle name was. He knew because it was his middle name and his father, Guy T. Hughes', middle name - Tarlton. The name wasn't William, but was it possible that Tarlton was actually David G.'s father and Lydia, his mother?

Joy made contact with a gentleman in Smith County who had taken pictures of the Rucks Family Cemetery, where Lydia is buried. Did he know anything about the Hughes family in Smith County? It turned out that John is a volunteer who assists in the preservation of old documents of Smith County. He found and photographed a will for Tarlton Hughes who had died in 1850. The will lists Lydia, his wife, and children: William F., Sarah, John, David, and Mary.



Is this "our" David? A search for the names of the children in Smith County, beginning with 1850, found William and Mary, but no Sarah, David, or John. Where did they go? We knew that David G. was in Hot Spring County, Arkansas in 1850. We had begun to suspicion that Sarah had married Edmund Rucks. The Rucks family, including Edmund, had lived in Smith County, but in 1850, Edmund Rucks was living in Dallas County, Arkansas. His wife was Sarah. And there is more. They had a boarder whose name was John Hughes (1850 census has it Jno Huse - in 1860, John S Hughes). Sometime in the early 1850s, David and Cynthia purchased land in Dallas County and even in the same township as Edmund. Were these three siblings, David, John and Sarah, now neighbors? (There were some land transactions which also led to this suspicion.)

The weight of evidence was rather compelling, but this was not yet proof. We were convinced we had the right family, but needed that one last piece of evidence to seal the deal. Where was it? How could we find it?

On Monday, June 30, Sharryn and I made a brief stop in Smith County, Tennessee. Our first visit was to the Rucks Cemetery, made possible by our new friend, John. There, we were able to photograph Lydia Hughes' grave stone. After our visit there and a few other stops, John led us to the Carthage Library where there is a small genealogy room. Here, Sharryn and I began combing the Smith County books, not quite sure we would or could find that missing piece. But we did! I could have shouted, but was afraid I would be kicked out the shhh! zone. The index led us to the court couse annex and the Register of Deeds for Smith County. Below is a transcription of what we found.

Know all men by these presents that I David G Hughes of Hot Spring County of state of Arkansas do by these presents constitute ordain and appoint my Brotherinlaw Edmund T Rucks of Dallas County in said state to be my [?] and lawful attorney to act for me and in my behalf to draw or receive that portion of the estate of Tarlton Hughes decd that lawfully belongs to me as an heir of said Tarlton Hughes decd, and to receive and receipt for or give such other discharges or acquaintances for all moneys of other property which he may draw in my name from said estate as may be lawfully required and I hearby [sic] further give said Edmund T Rucks generally all such other powers as may be nessary [sic] in the transaction of any and all other businefs wherein my name may be [?] and the acts and doings of the said Edmund T Rucks touching the businefs of said estate the receiving and receipting for money or other property and any and all other matters and things specifically or generally set forth hearin [sic] shall have the same force, [virtue ?] and effect and be as binding upon me and my heirs [?tho] I were personally present and doing the same in my own right and behalf and testimony whereof I have hearunto [sic] set my hand and affixed my seal this 17th day of September AD 1851 signed and sealed in the presents of

Samuel Bender DG Hughes {seal}
Rufus Mc?

Deed Book U, p 262
Smith County, Tennessee

Another wall comes crashing down!

Sharryn's Hughes Family Line

Since this blog began as a journal for our Hughes research trip to Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, the emphasis was on the daily progression of the trip rather than the chronology of the Hughes family line, therefore the ancestral lines may be somewhat confusing. So, before I go any further with more family information, I want to list the Hughes line we are tracking, beginning with David G and continuing through Alton Eugene Hughes, the subject of the very first entry.

David G. (Garland) Hughes 1826 - 1858
John Linnaeus Hughes 1851 - 1919
William David Hughes 1871 - 1948
Alton Eugene Hughes 1898 - 1991

Our second trip to Arkansas (see the last entry) yielded a few small bits of interesting family information, but gave no clues to the next big question - Who were David G. Hughes' parents? The only information we had was what we found in the brief biographical sketch of John L. Hughes. David's father came from Virginia and settled in Tennessee. Where did he settle and what was his name?

In our search for the answers to these questions, Sharryn and I have been greatly assisted by Joy, a great granddaughter of Catherine Lydia Hughes Hancock Eades. Catherine was a daughter of David G. and Cynthia and a twin to James Edwin Hughes. The other siblings were Warner Tarlton Hughes and an adopted son, William Callison. Joy has been a great help and encourager in this process. It turned out to be information regarding Warner that led us to the right location and the proof we needed to answer the big question. And what is the answer?

That will be the subject of my next blog entry.

Back to Arkansas

Sharryn and I made a decision to go back to Arkansas to see if we could uncover any more information regarding David G. and Cynthia Henson Hughes. While the two-day search didn't yield much new information, we did have some great experiences. Once again, we found the workers in the County Clerk's office, both in Hot Spring County and Dallas County, willing to assist and give directions. We did ferret out some information on Cynthia's family, John C. and Catherine Murray Henson. Cynthia had several siblings living in the area and it seems they all named their children the same names: William, George, Mary, Catherine, Abner, etc., so keeping these families separated is a trick.

According to the 1850 Mortality Schedule (part of the US Census), John Henson died in April of that same year of ague and fever. He was 69 years old. Webster's first definition for ague is: a fever, usually malarial, marked by regularly recurring chills. Catherine died June 3, 1863.

This time, using a land description website, MapQuest and our GPS, we were able to drive to the sites of land once owned by David and Cynthia. Our first stop was in Hot Spring County, where I was able to talk with the present owner of a significant portion of what David owned and sold to Edwin C. Jones (Cynthia's brother-in-law) in 1855. The most interesting, however, was our stop at Section 24, Township 9 South, Range 17 West, located in Dallas County. According to the 1860 Census, this is where Cynthia was living. Driving up the driveway to a brick home, we were met by a Mr. Butler. He currently owns what has been in his family for around a hundred years and it is about half of what David owned in 1858, when he died. Mr. Butler told us there were a large number of Hugheses who had been or were living in the area. They are, however, black. If you read the earliest posts to this blog, you may remember that David and Cynthia owned several slaves, for which she petitioned the court after David's death that they not be sold. It is common knowledge that after their freedom was given, many slaves took on the surname of their master. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Mr. Butler and his son were a joy to talk with and were very interested in the earlier history of their land. Mr. Butler told me that G. W. Hughes, a black gentleman, had lived near him for many years.

Clinton Theological Seminary

In previous postings, I have made reference to the Clinton Theological Seminary in Clinton, Henry County, Missouri. During the early part of the 20th century, the Seventh-day Adventist Church felt it necessary to provide Christian education to those recently immigrated to this county, in their native languages. One of the resulting institutions was a German seminary located in Clinton. It opened in 1910 on the campus of what had been the Baird College and later, Clinton College for Young Ladies . At first, it was named the Clinton German Seminary, but with the outbreak of WWI, the word German was dropped from the name. The seminary in Clinton closed its doors in 1925 and merged with the Swedish seminary at Broadview, Illinois.

Our journey home from our Hughes-Ortner family research trip brought us through the town of Clinton, so we stopped in at the local public library for an hour or so to see what information we could find. We did find some interesting material including a two-volume set of books, Henry County Scrapbook, The Years Between the Wars. These volumes were newspaper clippings of the people and events of the early days of Henry County, Missouri. There I found a few items regarding the Clinton Seminary.

The reference librarian shared with me that he had just discovered the University of Missouri had digitized the Sanborn Maps (early fire insurance maps) of Missouri and they were online at: http://digital.library.umystem.edu/. We were able to find the maps of Clinton and the location of the Clinton Seminary (early maps showed Baird College).

Why is this seminary important to this family research? Because there were several of the Ortner family who attended school here or were on staff. While I have not been able to verify the information as yet, it is believed that Emma Ortner Hughes, one of the main subjects of this blog attended CTS. I do know that her sister, Ellen Ortner Curran, attended this school.

I am on a search for old school records, though they are most likely in German and therefore would be unreadable to me, but I am searching anyway. The buildings are no longer standing, though I was told the old laundry has been converted to some apartments.

The seminary is an important part of the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Hughes-Ortner family.

Russia To Kansas To Oklahoma

One last stop on our Hughes-Ortner family research vacation. Because of the direction of our trip, we have taken the Ortner family in reverse. Our last stop, Marion County, Kansas, was George Ortner's first stop. George, Maria and baby Jacob came from Russia in 1879 with Christian and Katharina and more of George's siblings arriving in 1881. Property deeds show the Ortners eventually owned land a few miles southwest of Hillsboro, Kansas after having lived with other families they had known in Russia.

George and Maria were the first to arrive in Kansas and the last to leave for Christian and Christian C. (one of George's brothers) were a part of the land run across the Cimmaron River into newly opened land in Oklahoma Territory on April 19, 1892. George and Maria came a year later.

Notice the date on the deed of property from Christian and Katharina to George - just one month before the land run.

In order to homestead on federal land, one of the qualifications was that the individual either had to be a citizen of the US or have filed the first papers, the Declaration of Intention. In March of 1892, Christian had received his Certificate of Citizenship. During this time period, Katharina automatically became a citizen when her husband became a citizen.

There is so much more to tell about the Hughes and Ortner families, and as time allows, more will be posted. So, drop back by periodically and learn more about these wonderful folks.

School Days

Let's go back to Greer County, Oklahoma and take a brief look at the school for the Hughes children shortly after they arrived to the area. I apologize the images are not clearer, but are copies of copies and maybe copies of copies. If you look at the school district map, you can see the outline of District #19, the Wheatland District. W. D. and Lena Belle Hughes lived in the NE4 of Section 4 and John L. and Sarah K. lived in the NE4 of Section 33. I don't know where the school was for this district, since Section 16 was generally set aside for public education. As you can see, there is no section 16 in this district, but we can be fairly sure the school was central to the district.

In Sarah's interview in the Indian Pioneer Papers she makes one short comment about the school which is very interesting. "The children walked four miles to school and it was taught in a dugout the same as we all lived in."

Ora Holt was the school teacher for the 1901-1902 school year and end of year report is interesting, indeed. There were 60 students, 30 males and 30 females. The average daily attendance was 33. The number of days taught was 100 and Miss (Mrs.) Holt earned $40 per month.

Notice students #23 and 24, two daughters of John and Sarah - Alga and Nina. Check out their attendance record!

In the same year, William D. Hughes, an older brother of Alga and Nina was one of the three school trustees.