Napoleon Spragens....a man born 7 years before the county would break out into Civil War. A man whose name could be recorded next to the names of black children whose father's were not identified, only the names of their owners. A man who would marry three times, raise three boys on his own, farm the land he would only rent for years, and eventually be laid to rest in the same county he lived out his years in.
I have learned more about Napoleon that I ever thought I would. In some ways, I am better able to track his life than I am that of his sons. His eldest son being my great grandfather, Chester.
Napoleon was born June 7, 1856 in Henry county, Kentucky. A census record 4 years later shows he was the third child of Joel and Mary Spragens. His father, Joel, is a merchant who has $200 in valuable real estate to claim. I have to assume this was doing pretty well for the time. He has a 17 year old eldest brother named Alonzo who is listed as a laborer. A 7 year old sister named Victoria and a younger brother recorded as A.W. Spragens who is 1 year old. I have to wonder if Napoleon named his own youngest son John A.W. in honor or memory of his brother A.W.
The next census record catches up to the family in 1870. Napoleon is 14 years old and living in Rolling Fork, Casey, Kentucky with his mother, sister Victoria who is now 18, and a younger sister, Letha who is 11. There is no longer reference of brother Alonzo who we must assume move out to start his life, nor of his younger sibling A.W. I later find that A.W stands for Aletha W, which is why A.W. no longer shows on record.
8 years later on August 22, 1878, Napoleon is 22 years old and is getting married in Hancock county to a 16 year old girl who goes by S._.A. Bowles. My best guess for what the initials stand for is her name is Sallie. I found a Sallie Bowles who lived in Kentucky for this time frame. It is a first marriage for both of them. No parents are identified in these records.
Two years later we catch up to Napoleon at age 24 and it would appear that his life has taken a tragic turn. He is still living in Hancock County, but he is a boarder. Sometime in the past two years, Napoleon has lost his wife as he is listed as a widower. He is also listed as a farmer; a profession that will follow him the rest of his life.
But while it would appear Napoleon's life has become very sad, a brief marriage clue shows that on January 27, 1881, Napoleon remarries Mahala Ford. There are no further details given.
The next time that we find Napoleon in the records, it is 21 years later. He is in his early 40's and is still listed as a widow, but now he is living in Spencer County, with this three sons, Chester, Ralpha, and John A.W. Sometime between 1896 and 1900, Napoleon lost his second wife, Mahala, to unknown circumstances. Mahala will turn up many time later on marriage license records as Chester's deceased mother however.
Napoleon will not be without comfort of a family in his later years. In the years to follow, Napoleon will marry again to Hallie Sutt. Per a 1910 census, they had been married 6 years which means they were married in 1904. Napoleon and Hallie's marriage was one of youth and experience. Napoleon is 51 years Hallie's senior! The record shows they have two living children from the married. However, there are three children listed; two sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Dick, is 13 years old and thus can not be a child from their marriage. I do not know what to make of this. Dick is also short for Richard and I have found no Richard's in any census records relating to Napoleon. Could this be a young boy from Hallie's past who took Napoleon's name? Or even perhaps a relative that Napoloeon saw as a son? The two children who are more likely from the marriage are Flosie, 6, and Ray, 3. It is also note worthy that Napoleon is going by "Pole" and he is continuing to do what he does best, farm on rented property in Little Mountain, Kentucky.
Forward 10 years to 1920, Pole and his family show up again. This time, there is no record of Dick. Pole is 60, Hallie is 29, and their children, Flosie and Roy are 16 and 14. There is a third name on the list. A Taylor Sutt who is listed as Pole's father in law. This is certainly Hallie's father. It is interesting to note, that Pole says he can read and write, but Hallie and her father can not do either. Fortunately, their children are able to. By this time, Pole has left the farming life. He is now working as a laborer in a warehouse. His daughter, Flosie, is a waiter at a boarding house.
Death will find Napoleon 9 years later at the age of 73. Per his death certificate, he passes on Aug, 29, 1929 at 11 p.m. He is still married to his young bride, Hallie.
Hallie's life with continue after her husband's death, although in 1940 at age 59, Hallie list herself as a widow which shows she never married again. She is living with her 35 year old son, Roy, who apparently in his life was not rich in love and is listed as single. Even earlier at age 23, Roy is shown as living with Hallie.
Monday, January 20, 2014
A humbling reminder on Martin Luther King Day
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in America and as I sat down at my computer to work on family history, I was reminded by a simple column in a birth registry how far we have come.
Under a birth record for Kentucky in 1856, I was looking into an alternate spelling of a name for my great, great grandfather Napoleon who would have been born in this time frame. As I scanned across the columns looking for father's name, I came across a column that make me stop dead in my search. The column read, "Name of Father or Owner of Child." Owner of child....can any of us really, truly imagine living in a time where a man had no right to be named as the father of this own child? Instead, he was forced to concede that his child was just another piece of property to be bought and sold by a man he had to call master. HIS own child! Here was a world where it was nothing for a man with slaves to record the name of a child in a birth record and list himself as the owner of that child.
I am humbled today knowing that for this time, such a column and recording of such data was normal practice and there was nothing strange about it. It was common place.
Under a birth record for Kentucky in 1856, I was looking into an alternate spelling of a name for my great, great grandfather Napoleon who would have been born in this time frame. As I scanned across the columns looking for father's name, I came across a column that make me stop dead in my search. The column read, "Name of Father or Owner of Child." Owner of child....can any of us really, truly imagine living in a time where a man had no right to be named as the father of this own child? Instead, he was forced to concede that his child was just another piece of property to be bought and sold by a man he had to call master. HIS own child! Here was a world where it was nothing for a man with slaves to record the name of a child in a birth record and list himself as the owner of that child.
I am humbled today knowing that for this time, such a column and recording of such data was normal practice and there was nothing strange about it. It was common place.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
John A.W. Spragens: Man of Mystery
What is known about John A. W. Spragens at the moment is even less than I know about Ralpha.
I know that in 1920 he is boarding in a close county to where he was born and raised. He is 22 years old, single, and still working the profession he grew up with, farming.
As a result of a hard life on a farm, John is not able to read or write which is confirmed by an "X" as his signature on his WWI draft card.
I can find no records after this of where he was living, if he married or had children. There is a possibility that he started going by the "A" or "W" in his name and this is something I must be prepared to work with.
I know that in 1920 he is boarding in a close county to where he was born and raised. He is 22 years old, single, and still working the profession he grew up with, farming.
As a result of a hard life on a farm, John is not able to read or write which is confirmed by an "X" as his signature on his WWI draft card.
I can find no records after this of where he was living, if he married or had children. There is a possibility that he started going by the "A" or "W" in his name and this is something I must be prepared to work with.
Ralpha B. Spragens (Spraggin): A Simple Farmer and Family Man
What I know about Chester's brother, Ralpha, is pretty short. He seems to be a man who lived a pretty uneventful life in Kentucky.
He was the second in the family and life the others, grew up without a mother and doing hard labor on a rented farm. In fact, later census records show he only received as high as a 3rd grade education.
It would appear Ralph would farm his entire life. A census at age 20 shows him boarding at a home in the same county he was raised with 7 people who are not his relatives and he is still farming. He is able to read, but not able to write.
Eventually he will marry Mattie Reynolds, another born and raised Kentucky girl from Spencer county. They will have three children, two daughters and a son, Christine, Everett, and Lula.
In a sad turn for the family, baby Everett will live only two days due to a premature birth.
His daughters, at least, appear to have been given at least a decent education. Christine attends school until 8th grade and Lula at least until grade 6. Christine at age 24 is single and still living at home.
He was the second in the family and life the others, grew up without a mother and doing hard labor on a rented farm. In fact, later census records show he only received as high as a 3rd grade education.
It would appear Ralph would farm his entire life. A census at age 20 shows him boarding at a home in the same county he was raised with 7 people who are not his relatives and he is still farming. He is able to read, but not able to write.
Eventually he will marry Mattie Reynolds, another born and raised Kentucky girl from Spencer county. They will have three children, two daughters and a son, Christine, Everett, and Lula.
In a sad turn for the family, baby Everett will live only two days due to a premature birth.
His daughters, at least, appear to have been given at least a decent education. Christine attends school until 8th grade and Lula at least until grade 6. Christine at age 24 is single and still living at home.
A continuation of Chester Arthur Spragens: His Father, Mother, and Siblings
I have written a lot about Chester's life from a standpoint of his marriages. Perhaps I felt it important to start there since it was after all his third unofficial marriage that produced my grandfather. What I can say about him so far is this. He was a ladies man. How could a man with three wives over the course of his life and apparently only one of those marriages produce children not be seen as a bit of a ladies man. At 43 years old he landed a woman in her 20's to be the mother of his children after all.
But what do we know of Chester in the childhood of his life? My research has found census records of Chester and his family during the younger years of his life in Kentucky. The first record is from June 1, 1900 taken from Spencer County, Kentucky in the Mt. Eden area. A 14 year old Chester is listed as the eldest son of a man named Napoleon Spragens. Note the "s" at the end of the name. At this time, Chester and his family were still going under the name Spragens. The head of the household is Napoleon. He is 43 years old, a farmer who can read and write, renting a farm that per the census he and his three sons are running. It is important to note that he is listed as a widow. With this information, a lightning bolt seems to strike! This explains why on Chester's marriage record to Esther it lists his mother's name, but states her currently residence is Dead.
I suddenly have a new respect for these Spragens men. One man at 43 is raising three sons on a rented piece of land that they are undoubtedly are slaving to maintain. Chester is listed as the eldest son at 14 years old. The second in the family is Ralpha who is only 10, but is also listed as a farm laborer along with Chester. The youngest, John A.W. is only 4 years old. Could it be that Mahala died in childbirth? Did she die of some disease or illness? Whatever the cause, she left a family of men and boys behind to fend for themselves.
I can only imagine how Napoleon leaned on Chester to help him support and maintain their family during this time. He must have grown up feeling a lot of responsibility to his family. Whether this drove him to do well is unknown. Only digging deeper will tell.
As I continue to dig, I find that Ralpha seems to have lived a fairly unexciting life. At 20 he is listed on a census boarding in the same county he was raised and still working as a farmer. Later, he will marry and have three children. He will live out his days in Kentucky. But we will dig more into Ralpha later.
John A.W., the baby of the family, remains something more of a mystery. A census from 1920 shows him boarding in Shelby County, Kentucky, close to where he was born and raised. He is still farming, but is unable to read or write. My opinion is that John never had the chance to attend school. With a farm to be run and only a family of men to do it, he probably was expected to start working as soon as he was able. The only other piece of information I have at the moment is a WWI Draft card that shows John's nearest relative is his father, Pole Spragens, living in Shelbyville, KY.
I can imagine growing up the eldest of three children with no mother and a father who is renting a farm that required he and his sons to work it instead of attending school must have been hard on Chester. I'm sure he learned trade skills in hard labor and relied on these things to get him through in life. His brothers seem to have led fairly uneventful lived in Kentucky. While we will talk a bit more about them later, lets explore Chester's adult years and the life of his father, Napoleon.
But what do we know of Chester in the childhood of his life? My research has found census records of Chester and his family during the younger years of his life in Kentucky. The first record is from June 1, 1900 taken from Spencer County, Kentucky in the Mt. Eden area. A 14 year old Chester is listed as the eldest son of a man named Napoleon Spragens. Note the "s" at the end of the name. At this time, Chester and his family were still going under the name Spragens. The head of the household is Napoleon. He is 43 years old, a farmer who can read and write, renting a farm that per the census he and his three sons are running. It is important to note that he is listed as a widow. With this information, a lightning bolt seems to strike! This explains why on Chester's marriage record to Esther it lists his mother's name, but states her currently residence is Dead.
I suddenly have a new respect for these Spragens men. One man at 43 is raising three sons on a rented piece of land that they are undoubtedly are slaving to maintain. Chester is listed as the eldest son at 14 years old. The second in the family is Ralpha who is only 10, but is also listed as a farm laborer along with Chester. The youngest, John A.W. is only 4 years old. Could it be that Mahala died in childbirth? Did she die of some disease or illness? Whatever the cause, she left a family of men and boys behind to fend for themselves.
I can only imagine how Napoleon leaned on Chester to help him support and maintain their family during this time. He must have grown up feeling a lot of responsibility to his family. Whether this drove him to do well is unknown. Only digging deeper will tell.
As I continue to dig, I find that Ralpha seems to have lived a fairly unexciting life. At 20 he is listed on a census boarding in the same county he was raised and still working as a farmer. Later, he will marry and have three children. He will live out his days in Kentucky. But we will dig more into Ralpha later.
John A.W., the baby of the family, remains something more of a mystery. A census from 1920 shows him boarding in Shelby County, Kentucky, close to where he was born and raised. He is still farming, but is unable to read or write. My opinion is that John never had the chance to attend school. With a farm to be run and only a family of men to do it, he probably was expected to start working as soon as he was able. The only other piece of information I have at the moment is a WWI Draft card that shows John's nearest relative is his father, Pole Spragens, living in Shelbyville, KY.
I can imagine growing up the eldest of three children with no mother and a father who is renting a farm that required he and his sons to work it instead of attending school must have been hard on Chester. I'm sure he learned trade skills in hard labor and relied on these things to get him through in life. His brothers seem to have led fairly uneventful lived in Kentucky. While we will talk a bit more about them later, lets explore Chester's adult years and the life of his father, Napoleon.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Logie Johnsey: The Woman With Four Husbands
While my research continues into the life of Logie Johnsey, the second wife of Chester, the details I have learned so far are more than enough to make me shake my head and question the woman.
Per records, Logie married Chester on September 20, 1920. There is great significance in this year. This is the year that Chester's first marriage to Esther will end, the same year that Esther will remarry, and also the same year that Chester apparently remarries as well. Talk about question marks. Chester goes from being married to Esther for 11 years to getting divorced and remarried the very same year.
While I question his reasons, I am even more interested to find out Logie's reasons. She married Chester as Logie McHugh, the last name taken from her previous husband. Whether this was by death or divorce, I am still researching, but my research so far has led me on a treasure hunts of dates of marriages to multiple men in a short amount of time.
So far, I have found the following marriages and dates:
1905 Robert James Corum
-->Based on her marriage record to Charles, she is listed as widowed which means she and Robert did not divorce. When she married Charles, her last name was still Corum. She and Robert had one child on record, a daughter, named Alva who shows up later in a census record during her marriage to John as a step daughter.
1914 Charles H. Brown
1919 John P. McHugh
-->based on census records, on January of 1920 she was still married to John and renting a house with him and her daughter Olivia Corum, from her first marriage, in Louisville, Kentucky.
1920 Chester Arthur Spragens
Here is an interesting fact, per the same census in January showing her married to John, she is listed as a machine operator. Is this how she met Chester? Chester had a history of working on machines. This could very well be the connection between how they met.
I am still researching further to find if these men died at some point before her marriage to the next name on the list which would prove she was not simply divorcing and remarrying. Perhaps she was an unlucky widow who married and then soon after lost her husband in some unfortunate manner. I know for sure her marriage to Chester did not lead to his death, so I can not say with reason that all three men before Chester simply died.
Per records, Logie married Chester on September 20, 1920. There is great significance in this year. This is the year that Chester's first marriage to Esther will end, the same year that Esther will remarry, and also the same year that Chester apparently remarries as well. Talk about question marks. Chester goes from being married to Esther for 11 years to getting divorced and remarried the very same year.
While I question his reasons, I am even more interested to find out Logie's reasons. She married Chester as Logie McHugh, the last name taken from her previous husband. Whether this was by death or divorce, I am still researching, but my research so far has led me on a treasure hunts of dates of marriages to multiple men in a short amount of time.
So far, I have found the following marriages and dates:
1905 Robert James Corum
-->Based on her marriage record to Charles, she is listed as widowed which means she and Robert did not divorce. When she married Charles, her last name was still Corum. She and Robert had one child on record, a daughter, named Alva who shows up later in a census record during her marriage to John as a step daughter.
1914 Charles H. Brown
1919 John P. McHugh
-->based on census records, on January of 1920 she was still married to John and renting a house with him and her daughter Olivia Corum, from her first marriage, in Louisville, Kentucky.
1920 Chester Arthur Spragens
Here is an interesting fact, per the same census in January showing her married to John, she is listed as a machine operator. Is this how she met Chester? Chester had a history of working on machines. This could very well be the connection between how they met.
I am still researching further to find if these men died at some point before her marriage to the next name on the list which would prove she was not simply divorcing and remarrying. Perhaps she was an unlucky widow who married and then soon after lost her husband in some unfortunate manner. I know for sure her marriage to Chester did not lead to his death, so I can not say with reason that all three men before Chester simply died.
Esther Hill: The One Who Got Away
I have learned that if you are going to tell the story of your family, you have to tell the story of the people who were influential in their lives. To date, I have not been able to find proof that my great grandfather, Chester, was married to my grandfather's mother, Mary. I can not say for sure that this is because they were not married. After all, all the census records and even a draft record show Mary used the last name Spragen. This is even the name on her death certificate. However, based on family gossip, Mary did not live with Chester at the end of their lives. Divorce? Separation? Simply a desire to not live under the same roof? Who is to say.
But this blog post is not about Mary. At least not completely. In my research, I have found a trend of information that suggested if not outright proves that Mary was not Chester's first and only wife. I have in fact found two other records that show Chester's marriage to other women. The first of these, was Esther Taylor.
Based on my findings, Esther, was born April, 6, 1889 which made her three years younger than Chester at the time of their marriage. She was the daughter of John Taylor and Laura Foster, born in Frankfort, Kentucky. Based on a marriage record found in Indiana, she and Chester were married on December 15, 1909 in Jefferson, Clark, Indiana. Despite the listed name of the groom being Arthur Spragens, I am sure this is Chester because of the matching DOB and location of birth in Kentucky. Also, his parents are N.B. Spragens and Mahala Ford. I will elaborate more about this connection in another post.
Note, however, that this record shows the groom and his family as Spragens with an "s" on the end. This further proves that my great grandfather later in his life, dropped the "s" on his name to make the name Spragen.
At the time of their marriage, they are listed as single in which this is their first marriage. The groom is 23 and the bride, 20. Below is the actual page copy of their marriage record.
I have to wonder under what circumstances they wed. Were they deeply in love? Was it more of an arrangement between the families? Was it a love at first site? Or were they getting married out of some sort of duty?
Whatever the reason, 11 years later in 1920, they have gone their separate ways and divorced. Based on another Indiana marriage license record in 1920, Esther, who is still using her married name of Spragens, is marrying Carroll B. Hill. This is most definitely that same Esther as her parent's names and DOB are the same. In addition, the record shows that this is Esther's second marriage and the official divorce date is the same year that she is marrying Carroll.
How interesting...Esther is marrying a man in the same year as she is divorcing the man she was first married to for 11 years! What I wouldn't give to know the details behind their divorce! This does, however, explain why Esther never changed her name back to Taylor. She would not have had time to do some considering her quick turn around in husbands.
It would be easy to judge her and say that she may have been having an affair or that she simply didn't care who she was married to as long as she had someone to take care of her, but I think there were deeper things going on. I know for certain that Esther remained married to Carroll for the remainder of their lives which unfortunately was not long. Death records show that Carroll died at age 39 and was proceeded in death by Esther at age 43. During their marriage, they did leave Kentucky and lived for a time in New Mexico. However, Esther dead certificate shows that she moved back to Kentucky, possibly after Carroll's death.
This is where Esther's story will tragically end. According to her death certificate, Esther was killed in her home in Louisville on January 2, 1936 by a gunshot would to her chest. While the certificate does list a man's name who shot her, it is too smudged to make out, but I believe his first name may have been Frank.
The certificate states her death was homicide. For what reasons would this man have to shoot and kill her?
Was it a robbery gone wrong? Did something in her past come back to ultimately kill her? Did she even know her killer?
I wish I could find more details about Esther's murder, but my attempts to look through old newspapers have not revealed a story.
Barring any further information, I must assume that Chester and Esther were simply not meant to be. After all, if he had not met Mary than my grandfather would not have been born and thus so down the line. It was God's will that the two of them not live out their lives together
While Esther's life is still a mystery, here are the questions I am left with:
1. Since she and Chester were married for 11 years, one would think they had children. I wish I could find record of this.
2. Under what circumstances did they decide to divorce and then for Esther to remarry so quickly?
3. Why was Esther murdered? Was it by chance or did her life come with deadly conflict?
Whatever the truth is in the gaps of Esther's life, I have decided she shall be "The One Who Got Away." A first love is still a first love and someone you do not forget. Their marriage and then divorce impacted the decisions that my great grandfather made throughout the rest of his days.
But this blog post is not about Mary. At least not completely. In my research, I have found a trend of information that suggested if not outright proves that Mary was not Chester's first and only wife. I have in fact found two other records that show Chester's marriage to other women. The first of these, was Esther Taylor.
Based on my findings, Esther, was born April, 6, 1889 which made her three years younger than Chester at the time of their marriage. She was the daughter of John Taylor and Laura Foster, born in Frankfort, Kentucky. Based on a marriage record found in Indiana, she and Chester were married on December 15, 1909 in Jefferson, Clark, Indiana. Despite the listed name of the groom being Arthur Spragens, I am sure this is Chester because of the matching DOB and location of birth in Kentucky. Also, his parents are N.B. Spragens and Mahala Ford. I will elaborate more about this connection in another post.
Note, however, that this record shows the groom and his family as Spragens with an "s" on the end. This further proves that my great grandfather later in his life, dropped the "s" on his name to make the name Spragen.
At the time of their marriage, they are listed as single in which this is their first marriage. The groom is 23 and the bride, 20. Below is the actual page copy of their marriage record.
 |
| Indiana Marriage License Record |
Whatever the reason, 11 years later in 1920, they have gone their separate ways and divorced. Based on another Indiana marriage license record in 1920, Esther, who is still using her married name of Spragens, is marrying Carroll B. Hill. This is most definitely that same Esther as her parent's names and DOB are the same. In addition, the record shows that this is Esther's second marriage and the official divorce date is the same year that she is marrying Carroll.
How interesting...Esther is marrying a man in the same year as she is divorcing the man she was first married to for 11 years! What I wouldn't give to know the details behind their divorce! This does, however, explain why Esther never changed her name back to Taylor. She would not have had time to do some considering her quick turn around in husbands.
 |
| Carroll and Esther's Marriage License Record |
It would be easy to judge her and say that she may have been having an affair or that she simply didn't care who she was married to as long as she had someone to take care of her, but I think there were deeper things going on. I know for certain that Esther remained married to Carroll for the remainder of their lives which unfortunately was not long. Death records show that Carroll died at age 39 and was proceeded in death by Esther at age 43. During their marriage, they did leave Kentucky and lived for a time in New Mexico. However, Esther dead certificate shows that she moved back to Kentucky, possibly after Carroll's death.
This is where Esther's story will tragically end. According to her death certificate, Esther was killed in her home in Louisville on January 2, 1936 by a gunshot would to her chest. While the certificate does list a man's name who shot her, it is too smudged to make out, but I believe his first name may have been Frank.
The certificate states her death was homicide. For what reasons would this man have to shoot and kill her?
Was it a robbery gone wrong? Did something in her past come back to ultimately kill her? Did she even know her killer?
I wish I could find more details about Esther's murder, but my attempts to look through old newspapers have not revealed a story.
 |
| Esther's Death Certificate |
While Esther's life is still a mystery, here are the questions I am left with:
1. Since she and Chester were married for 11 years, one would think they had children. I wish I could find record of this.
2. Under what circumstances did they decide to divorce and then for Esther to remarry so quickly?
3. Why was Esther murdered? Was it by chance or did her life come with deadly conflict?
Whatever the truth is in the gaps of Esther's life, I have decided she shall be "The One Who Got Away." A first love is still a first love and someone you do not forget. Their marriage and then divorce impacted the decisions that my great grandfather made throughout the rest of his days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)