Honoring his service: James O'Farrell 1842-1914

 

 

The name of James O'Farrell inscribed on the War Memorial
across from the Morgan County (West Virginia) Court House.
Notice that it's spelled "O'Ferrall."

While working on the Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA project I wrote about their son James a couple of times which you can see here and here. Must admit that I was so impressed by his life and the way he survived the Civil War that I had to blog about it a couple of times, and probably spent a bit too much time on him. But there is a moment when it's past time to move on, and so I did. However on my recent trip to see Mom (who is an avid genealogist and just turned 96) we swung by Berkeley Springs and checked out the War Memorial to see if we could find his name inscribed on the Civil War side of it.

Guess I should mention that James' parents were Thomas and Judah Farrell who came to the United States from Ireland about 1840. Most likely fleeing unfortunate economic times in their native land, the couple left with their two oldest daughters, Mary Elizabeth (Farrell) House 1835 - 1919, and Catherine (Farrell) Boxwell 1838-1910. Once here, they had two sons and four more daughters and the line up for their children born here looks like this:

    James O'Farrell (1842-1914), who used the O' convention for the rest of his life
    Thomas Farrell (1843 - ?), who just disappears from the records
    Ann Farrell (1845 - ?), she also has disappeared as far as we can tell
    Ellen Farrell (1846 - ), she disappears as well
    Bridget Farrell (1849 - ?), and she disappears from view too,
    Sarah "Sallie" (Farrell) Wageley, who married John W.

Strangely, just before I set off on my trip, I heard from one of Mom's DNA matches who mentioned the War Memorial! I found out what I could and tried to google a good photo of it to see if it was worth the trip but the images weren't what I needed. Well, it was located right on the way after lunch, so Mom, Brother and sis-in-law all went in search of the memorial and hopefully to find Thomas' name.

We pulled up and all piled out when we saw it. It's an large imposing affair with a big bronze spread eagle atop. Mom waited in the car as it was on a small incline and surrounded by a couple of steps. "Not on this side. It's for WWII." "Not over here either. Wrong war." Then: I found it! Just happened to be on the right side for me. Everyone swarmed the good side and looked for names. James Snider and his brother William Hutchison Snider were found under those who returned and survived the war, which we found very curious as James died early on in the war.

So there's his name in the image up top. It was a thrill to see it there. He earned the right to be included on this war memorial roll over 150 years ago. And here we stood looking and paying respects.

Worth the trip? Oh, yes!

The War Memorial in front of the Court House in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

 

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/08/honoring-his-service-james-ofarrell.html

The Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project: A sidetrack I had to take and a timeline for James O'Farrell

Focus, focus, focus! That's what I say to myself often. Human behavior is fascinating and if I'm going to wander off track it will be because some shiny object connected to that fascinating stuff my ancestors and relatives did. In working with the Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project, both Cousin Rich and I have wandered from time to time. To his credit, he has wandered less - if at all - and his so-called wandering has had wonderful results that are relevant. But me, I'm a bad girl when it comes to wandering. And here's how I found myself so far afield of our primary objective just this week.

Our primary objective is, using DNA test results, establish which DNA chromosomal segments come from which of four prime families who were occupants of the area around the town of Magnolia, Morgan County, Virginia then West Virginia in the time period around 1850. The connected surnames are: Farrell, House, Hartley and Biggerstaff.

To be candid, Rich and I don't even know if this is possible. But we're trying. As we go, we take time to fill our genealogical baskets with even more records and enjoy interesting side trips filling out the picture we have of our ancestor's time and place. For example, Rich just went to the National Archive to dig up a Civil War Pension file for James Farrell/ O'Farrell. It was positively scrumptious!

I won't go into lots of detail about the pension file here because I'm seriously making an effort to stay on task (who me?) But I do want to take a moment to revisit the life of James O'Farrell, as he called himself as an adult. (See previous post about him here.) Timelines are often very helpful in getting a feeling for the arc of a subject's life. I use them, not for every ancestor, but whenever there's a lot of twists and turns in a life, when the subject and family moved and maybe disappeared, or to aid thinking and inspiration when facing a problem. So I thought to do one for James O'Farrell for a different reason. It simply looked interesting.

In it I saw that his story of time in the Civil War is the stuff of Hollywood, and not because it's extraordinary but because it was probably typical of many who served in that war. So now I'll post part of it here and I think that you'll see what I mean. Let's pick up the timeline at the point when James' father, Thomas Farrell dies. As you might remember, both Thomas and Judah Farrell were born in Ireland, had two daughters there, and immigrated to the US.

1851: Thomas Farrell (father) died in Morgan County, Virginia

1855, 20 AUG: Mary Elizabeth (sister) marriage to Samuel Albert House, Morgan County, Virginia

1856, 16 SEP: Catherine Farrell (sister) marriage to James Edward Boxwell, Morgan County, Virginia

1857: Judah Farrell (mother) died in Morgan County, West Virginia

1857, 12 NOV: Sale of Judah Farrell’s estate

1861: Civil War began

1861, 17 APR: West Virginia seceded from Virginia

1861, 24 NOV: James Farrell enlisted in the Union 1st Virginia Volunteer Infantry, Company B, Capt. Zeller's Co., in Williamsport, Virginia.  

1861, DEC: contracted mumps, "affecting his testicles", Williamsport, Maryland

1862, JAN: James Farrell’s unit is absorbed into Union Company H of the 1st Regiment of the Maryland Cavalry

1862, JUL & AUG: company took leave

1862, SEP: back with company

1862, DEC: contracted rheumatism from exposure

(The Company Description Book gives us a picture of him. He was, at age 20, five feet seven and a half inches tall. His hair was light as was his complexion, and his eyes were blue. He was a farmer.)

1863, MAR: contracted small pox affecting his head and hearing, Arlington Heights, Virginia

1863, end: enlistment time up, reenlists and received $100 bonus, becomes a Union Veteran Volunteer

1864, JAN: contracted diseases of the eyes from exposure, Brandy Station, Virginia

No Date: Near Brandy Station in the state of Virginia: contracted scurvy in the mouth from use of Army food

1864, 29 SEP: disappeared from line of fire at Chapin Falls, Virginia, near Dutch Gap

1864, 30 SEP: deemed "missing" by company

1864, 1 OCT: at a prison camp at Richmond, Virginia

1864, 2 OCT: company records show "Missing from picket lines near Newmarket Road - Oct 2nd

1864, OCT: company records, "Nothing heard of him since."

1864, OCT: moved to POW camp at Salisbury, North Carolina

1864, OCT - DEC: population at Salisbury increased from 5,000 to 10,000 crisis level overcrowding, inmates begin die in great numbers

1864, Fall: fearing starvation, James enlisted in the 8th Confederate Infantry

Date unknown: while in service of Confederacy, captured by Union General Stoneman’s troops.

1865, 5 JUL: “Confined at Nashville Tenn. And was released on taking the oath of allegiance July 5 / 65”. ( Source: MEMORANDUM FROM PRISONER OF WAR RECORDS)

1865, 23 JUL: returned to his original Union unit

1865, 8 AUG: mustered out. Owed $290 for back pay and bonus

1867, 14 MAR: marriage to Henrietta Michael, Hattie, Morgan County, West Virginia

1880: US Census, Flat Creek, Pettis County, Missouri.


See, right away I spot that we haven't found James in the 1870 US Census. He was married to Hattie in March of 1867 and they had their first child, William Clem in December of that year still in West Virginia. They had their second child, Margaret or Maggie in 1872 and they lived in Pettis County Missouri then. Arthur came along in 1874 and Elmer in 1981. So where were they in 1870? Wherever they were, they are still to be found by us.

I'm chuckling just a bit as I look at the names of James and Hattie's kids. William Clem, Margaret, Arthur, and Elmer. Whatever the inspiration for those names, it was not the father's Irish family... or Hattie's brother, Isaac Newton! Do you ever wonder about the ancestors and how they named the offspring?

James O'Farrell's land in Missouri.

The URL for this post is:  http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-dna_17.html

The Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project: Oh, Thomas Farrell, where are you?

  

Cherry Orchard Cemetery in Old Magnolia, West Virginia.

 

Thomas Farrell, where are you hiding?

Is there no record of your life to be found except the 1850 census? There you are, all of seven years old, with your family in District 42, Morgan County, Virginia (now West Virginia). If we didn't have that census we wouldn't know about you at all. But then you disappear from all the records that many Farrell / O'Farrell searchers have hungrily looked through. Where are you??

It's sort of a sad story, and has that Irish melancholy about it, I think. The missing Thomas' parents, left Ireland before 1841 and immigrated most likely under similar circumstances to those of the many other families leaving Ireland and seeking a safe life. There was Thomas Sr. and his wife Judah with their two daughters, Mary Elizabeth born in 1835 and her sister Catherine born in 1838, coming to America about 1841 and looking for land to farm. On 22 Feb 1845 at age 45, Thomas Sr. signed an indenture, a land lease, for the term of six years with Aaron Harlan and started farming on his own piece of heaven called the Widmeyer Tract. It sounds lovely, hard work but lovely, for this Irish family was finally able to work it's very own farm in peace, and two sons at the ready to work it.

But it wasn't all milk and honey for long. Thomas Sr. died in 1851 - just about the time the land lease expired - and his wife Judah died in 1857. Judah's estate settlement includes one black mare and a colt, a cow and calf, along with six hogs and household and farming items. A modest holding as compared to others I've seen. The return for the auction to settle the estate reports that Aaron Harlan, the land lessor, was there picking up quite a few items. So was Samuel Albert House who had married Mary Eliz the oldest daughter in 1855, just two years prior to Judah's death. There he was purchasing a few items from his wife's mother property: a skillet and a churn for Mary Eliz, and then useful items like potatoes, beets, and beans to plant, and 25 bushels of corn and a box of apples. He also got three of the best hogs, first choice.

Our big unanswered question is, where did the children go? Eliza and Catherine were married by then and we guessed that they took on some of the girls at least for a while. Here's a recap of what we find in the 1860 census, from a recent post.

* Sarah is 9 years old and serving in her sister Catherine Farrell Boxwell's house in the Magnolia area. We guess she married someone close by and find a Sally (common for Sarah) Farrell marrying in 1860 in Berkeley County, West Virginia to a man named John W. Wageley, working as a railroader, whose parents were William and Susan Wageley.

And now here are the three girls who remain a mystery:
* Ellen is 12 and serving in the household of John Coulhan (?), a merchant, and living in Cumberland, Allegany, Maryland. He too was born in Ireland. Then we lose her.
* Bridget is 13 and serving in the household of Patrick Connor in Clarysville, Allegany, Maryland. He was born in Ireland and is working in the coal mines near there. And then we lose her.
* Ann is 16 and serving in the household of a Mr. Cosgrove in Morgan County, West Virginia, who is a railroad watchman and was born in Ireland. Then we lose her.

But where did the boys go? James the older of the two brothers served in the Civil War and married at the end of the war when he came home to Magnolia and then went west to Missouri. You can read about him in the previous post. And now we're left with the younger son, Thomas Jr.

Mom has looked for Thomas, Cousin Rich has looked for him, and now I've looked and not found him. When I look at Mom's Big Tree on Ancestry and check out his page, the only hint (green shaky leaf) I see is two other public trees with about as much information as we all have, and that's not much, so no one is doing well finding him.

I also see one tree with a Thomas Patrick Farrell who died 15 December 1915 in Glenelg, South Australia, Australia. That's not him. I understand that some other trees on Ancestry have that death date and location plugged in for our Thomas, but really, that's not him.

Where all have I looked? All over the place in the 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900 census. And - enough to make me nuts - there are a pair of brothers with the same names and also about the same ages living in West Virginia in Sheridan, Calhoun County. But the family structure is all wrong for our guys. I got nuthin'.

So Mom and I were talking about the possibilities for the boys after mother Judah died, assuming that Thomas was still living then and hadn't succumbed to some illness or accident which is a real possibility. For the short term immediately after Judah died, they too might have stayed with the married sisters just as the young sisters did. But they aren't living with the married sisters for the 1860 census. James would have been 18 years old and Thomas 17 then. They were old enough to be out on their own and it sure looks like they were at that point.

James was off to the Civil War by 1861 so we have him on our radar. But what of Thomas? If he was still living and had been close to his older brother he might have followed on and joined the war effort. But we find no record in the usual places such that it is obviously him. He's not in the 1890 Veteran's Schedule. He's not to be found, at least by me, using Fold3 or Ancestry's Civil War files, either as a search or a browse. And I don't find a Thomas Farrell or O'Farrell (as his brother adapted his own surname) in the 1870 census that makes any sense. No where, no how. He's just gone.

So there you have it. Maybe he died. But we find no record of his death in West Virginia records.

Sometimes it's just like that. You try and try and come up empty. Despite your best thinking and the help of others also looking for your missing relative, you just can't find him. And the further back you go in places that are rough like West Virginia was back then, the fewer records are available for you to look through. I have to be honest, these searches that return nothing useful wear me out.

The road to Magnolia as it is now.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-dna_25.html