The Barron Side Part One

Arthur G. Barron

April 4, 1889 to September 6, 1970

My mother’s maiden name is Mabel L. Barron. Her father is Arthur G. Barron. I recently read in a book about genealogical research that we do not research names, we research persons. Arthur Barron was a living person in my Barron family line. More real for me than his father, William A Barron, and his father Samuel Sylvester, and his father Augustin, and his father Samuel Cooksey Barron, his father Thomas, and his father John who were mere names on a sets of documents. I hope to portray his progeny as breathing, believing,  cryingm, laughing, earning, failing, thriving human beings. The Barrons are, without doubt, an interesting bunch.

While I have added some flesh on my ancestors' bones, still, unlike those who preceded him I heard my Grandpa speak and felt his hand in my hand, I experienced his wit, his delightful personality, his gruffly expressed displeasure at “those damn fools” driving badly. I saw him, from that same front seat, countless times, gently placing his hand on his dear bride’s knee, who cuddled next to him as we took our Sunday drives. “Do you know why they put walls around cemeteries?” he would ask my sister and me. Without waiting to hear our reply he would say, “Because folks are dying to get in.” Although we had heard this lame joke twenty times, my sister and I still gave him a courtesy chuckle.

He was born in 1889, the third youngest of fourteen. His father William Augustin Barron died when Arthur was eight years old. At some point he goes to work in a "buggy whip factory" to help the family put food on the table. Family lore says that William lost his farm and left Union county to live in the city of Henderson. I think his poor health forced him to divide the farm and sell it off. I need to do some more spade work on that question, and that requires a trip to Union county courthouse. William dies in 1897 and the 1900 Census lists Art's mother's (Mary Ann Ruark) as a "weaver." She is 54 years old. Authur is 11 and still in school. 

Most of his life Art Barron cooked in one of several local kitchens. He was a professional cook, a chef, and a friend to his customers. This was what he did. Cooking was how he earned a living since he was a teenager until shortly before he died at age 80. I had the pleasure of cooking with him during busy lunch rushes and watched him manage a grill filled with hamburger patties. Flipping them at a remarkable speed using both bare hands. He could remember every order without writing them down. He could tell the customer what they owed, even on take-out orders with six or more checks. I don’t think he finished the grade school. He once explained to me that a cook must educate his fingers to know just how done a steak was. “You thump it in the middle” he explained. “The harder it feels the doner <sic> it is.” He had a talent for ordering the correct amount of food so as not to waste any.

I watched him, time and again, asking complete stranger, with a wink and a smile, “How old do you think I am?” They always guessed way too young. He personified the word “gregarious.” It was always a pleasure to see him walk in a room. “How many kids do you have, Art?” “I have three” he would quip. “As soon as I learned what caused it, I put a stop to it damn quick.“ He would sometimes take me to Mass and on the way out he and the young priest (Father Temple who later became a personal mentor to me) would have the same exchange, “Father you had a damn good sermon today. It was so good, I put a hundred dollars in the offering.” Father Temple would smile knowingly and reply, “The hell you did, Arthur.” My grandfather displayed a very real and human brand of Christian piety and devotion. He would sing hymns while he drove down the road only to cuss out rude drivers under his breath. Yet, I knew he was a man with a deep and real love for the grace of Jesus.

Researching his life I discovered where, perhaps, some of his trust in God derived. It was from heartache coupled with a struggle to stay sound of mind and body. I unearthed two facts that dismayed me and still bring sorrow to my heart. One was that he married a woman named Katy Meahl on February 11, 1907 at the Courthouse in Evansville, Indiana, but in the 1910 census he and she are no longer married but he is listed as “divorced.” The Kentucky Death Records show that on January 30, 1918 Katy dies from Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a TB hospital. Her reported age on their marriage license is 22, in fact she was 17 and he was 19.

It was not until the early 1880’s that TB was understood to be a highly contagious disease. The treatment always included years of social isolation. Kate perhaps was diagnosed with the disease shortly after they married and was sent to a sanitarium for rest and fresh air. She was living in such an institution when she died. I don’t know why they chose to divorce. Surely it was a painful decision.  

On Art’s World War I draft registration form, I found another reason for sadness. My joyous grandfather suffered with a “nervous condition” for ten years. The notation on the card says, “Hospitalized for a nervous condition for ten years.” That document was dated June 5, 1917. Ten years earlier was when he married Katy Meahl. Now, he was not continuously in the hospital for those ten years. He does appear in his mother’s household in Henderson in the 1910 Census. It is indicated that he worked for 52 weeks that year in a restaurant. His age in 1910 is twenty one.

On Christmas Eve of 1924 he marries Ruth Worman, my grandmother. A year later, Dec 30, 1925, my mother is born. Ruth is eleven years younger than Art. She lives a few doors down from Art’s brother. She, herself, had suffered a disappointment when her fiancé was sent to prison for manslaughter. He was defending her from a rowdy man who was stabbed by a pen knife. When my grandmother told the story she said the man and her fiancé ended the fight by shaking hands.  Apparently the victim dies later. Perhaps the mutual sorrow help to form a bond between them.

My family research is not for mere curiosity or to find high and noble family connections – though there are many of those. I want to know the people who came before me. Real, flesh and blood, children, teens, young adults, old and dying persons. Who lived as the Bible says of many Old Testament saints – “full of years.” 

The Mystery of John Miller

There are tens of thousands of people named John Miller but only one of them is my great, great grandfather. How to I identify John Miller from all the rest? I try to establish a firm connection between at least two events.

I first found John Miller in the 1860 census record index at the Willard Library way back in the early 1980’s. I ask the librarian for the microfilm roll for Warrick County and scrolled to the section listing folks living in Newburgh. This record was made on April of 1860. There I found John (26), his wife Rebecca (22), his mother in law Ann Holden (47), his sister or Rebecca’s sister, I assume, Mary (17) and my great grandfather Thomas Jefferson Miller (2). This record shows that John was a Cooper (wheel or barrow maker) and he had $25 in personal property. The record indicates that Rebecca and Ann were born in Maryland. That John, Mary, and Thomas J, were born in Ohio.

The next record I find is a marriage license, dated 23 Dec 1861, issued at the Rockport, Indiana courthouse to John Miller and Celia Ann Whitlock. What happened to Rebecca Holden and her mother Ann? I first thought this is a different John Miller but John, Celia, and Thomas Jefferson Miller appear in the 1870 Census record. They are a household. In April of 1860 John is married to Rebecca. In Dec of 1861 he is married to Celia. I can find no record of a divorce or a death. I did find a record of a marriage between John Miller and Rebecca Holden in Jefferson County Ohio – April 5, 1858. If this is correct, then Thomas Jefferson Miller was likely conceived before they were married. If you add this to the stress of moving from Ohio to Indiana and living with your mother in law, it is tempting to surmise that a divorce was likely. Why did Rebecca leave her son with John? How and when did John and Celia Ann meet? In the span of 18 months John and Rebecca end their marriage and Celia steps in.

I found Rebecca and her mother Ann in the 1850 Census for Belmont County (near Wheeling, WV and Martin’s Fairy, Ohio). The ages fit and they are from Maryland. I also found another Ann who is 64 years old. It is likely Ann’s mother and Rebecca’s grandmother. In the household is a “Mary” whose age fits Mary Miller’s age in the 1860 census. Could it be the census taker wrongly named Mary as a Miller when she was a Holden? Ann has a younger brother named William (24) and sister named Mary. This is definitely a matriarchal family. Both Grandmother Ann and Mother Ann are not married. Both are named “Holden.”  Is it possible that unwed children is a family tradition? I could be completely wrong and the simple explanation is that Ann took back her maiden name or that Ann senior is her mother in law and not her mother. (This seems unlikely given that others in the household are named Holden.)

John and Celia show up in the 1870 census, in Spencer County, Indiana. There post office address is Enterprise, Indiana. Enterprise no longer exists as a post office or even as a town. It was on the Ohio River and had a landing for offloading River boats. It was very close to Yankeetown in Warrick County. This is where Thomas Jefferson Miller spent most of his life. It is where he is buried and where my grandfather (William) and father (Marion) grew up – till age twelve when the family moved to Evansville. The census shows John, who has aged fourteen years since the last census, just ten years before. Either John was older than 27 in 1860 or younger than 41 in 1870. The Census taker did not ask for proof of age. They merely accepted as fact that they were told by the person who answered the door. In the household, in 1870, was John (41), Celia (32), Thomas J (11), Mary A (9), William D. (5), and Ellen L. (2 months). Notice that Mary A is nine years old. John and Celia were married for only 8 years. (Census was taken August of 1870)  Maybe now we see what ended John and Rebecca’s marriage. Just saying . . . We learn that John cannot read, that he was born in Pennsylvania (contrary to 1860 census which has him born in Ohio).  Celia is born in KY. Thomas J in Ohio. They rest are born in Indiana. John is listed as “farm labor.” Under “value of real and personal property” this family has none. The land owner nearest John is the Boyd family, whose land is valued at $1,500. It is likely that John worked his land.

The 1880 Census is the most tell of all of them. More about that in due course. John’s age is listed as 55. In 1870, it is was 41, and in 1860, 27. This guy is growing older faster than most folks. Celia (now Sealy) is just 40 years old. John aged 13 years, while Sealy is only 8 years older. Can you guess who gave the information to the Census Taker? Thomas Jefferson is now married to Lucinda and is living only their own. Just down the road. Mary A is now 16 years old. William D. is 11. Ellen is 9. Peter is 2. We find another daughter of John and Celia, Julia, who is 7 and living with Jefferson and Lucinda. We learn that John was born in Ohio, not PA, and that his parents were both born in Pennsylvania.

We find Jefferson living down the road. The Census wrongly states that his mother was born in KY. This is a common mistake with Jefferson and late with his son, my grandfather, William C. In both cases, their mother is the first wife but it later confused with the second wife. The census record indicates that John was born in Ohio. I suspect this is true. However, the 1870 census has him born in PA, while the 1860 census has him born in Ohio.

John and Celia Miller drop off the face of recorded history after the 1880 Census. There is no 1890 Census due to a fire at the national archives – all but a few pages were lost. The 1900 Census have no record for their household. I have found no death records for John Miller or Celia Whitlock Miller. Nor have found records for Rebecca Holden or her mother Ann Holden. It is all very frustrating

I learned that Celia A Whitlock married a man named Sutherland after 1885 about before her death on the 25^th of December 1907 in Warrick County, Indiana. Her death certificate indications that she married Andy Sutherland and it listed as a witness, Peter Miller, who was one of her and John’s children. I know that John was alive in 1884 because they had a child together that year.