Nancy Bounds Howerton is our Gran

Revisiting the Howertons. Prompted in large part by a note from a gentleman on Ancestry. who is a DNA match.  a man who is also on the journey of family finding. This inquiry caused me to check in with our DNA match Howerton cousin, Jo Huggins. She confirmed that she was also his match... and in fact, she had been talking with him for months and was helping him along.

Stella and I are certain at this point, the Howertons are ours.  While we are little fuzzy on the specifics, we can claim Ira Howerton as our 3rd Great Grandfather.  William Howerton and Nancy Bounds Howerton, his parents are our lineage.

Back reading this blog about our search, I had forgotten how much history we had pieced together.

In the review,  I discovered Nancy Bounds Howerton residing with her son Jesse Bounds Howerton on the 1880 census. Nancy was 87 years old at the time and living with her son's family in Liberty, Missouri. I was struck by how far this elder had traveled in her life.  She was born in Virginia in 1796, just twenty years after the Declaration of Independence was signed. Records show she lived in Tennessee then migrated west to Arkansas then later Missouri on what could have only been horses and wagons. Along the way she married William Howerton and produced a passel of kids.

Then it dawned on me that this Nancy Bounds Howerton was my grandmother.. my 4th great grandmother. How could I have forgotten this?

I recalled that for a couple of years the Howerton's were on probation as kin.  Stella and I built a separate tree, called Tenneesee Howertons, because we just were not sure the Howertons were our relatives.  Susan Laird, our great great grandmother has no record of ever been married, though she gave her children the Howerton surname in the census. 

Pro genealogical researchers rely on what is called the "Genealogical Proof Standard."
It has five elements:

• a reasonably exhaustive search;
• complete and accurate source citations;
• analysis and correlation of the collected information;
• resolution of any conflicting evidence; and
• a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion.^[1]

source wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogical_Proof_Standard

The Board of Certified Genealogists, the professional organization spells out 81 standards that build on the above ideas. ** They are stringent.  Even then, many folks say that there can never be absolute genealogical certainty... rather than a good case for relativity. In genealogy, like the criminal court you can convict on a preponderance of evidence.  And when push comes to shove, the jury adds up all the facts, and uses it's intuition.

Name matches, geographical proximity, and DNA matches all support our claim to the Howertons.  The Search Sister's rely on Stella's genealogical intuition. She is flat out convinced that these Howertons are ours.

Virginia born Nancy Bounds is our gran.

** http://www.bcgcertification.org/resources/standard.html

Second Guessing: Howertons

Every once in a while somebody asks a question that forces a review of the work you have done in creating the family tree.  Recently another subscriber at Ancestry.com inquired about the Howertons. He made me question our work so far on this civil war soldier that we have assigned  grandfather status to.  I went back and checked.  Geography, dates, surname records, and DNA.  Yep, I concluded our research is solid.  The helpers Stella and I call geneological angels.  I suppose we could call this Howerton researcher a genealogical devil's advocate.  

Along the way I read "Rookie mistakes" at family search.org. I consider this group the bible of genalogical information. These Latter Day Saints do family research as a spiritual practice, not for profit. Their wiki tells me that I am not doing  this Howerton search right. 

1. I need a clear goal.
2. Search every member of the family for a complete build of the tree.
3. Use multiple spellings.
4. Ask: what kind of record can answer your question?
5. Ask: why?

Why are you even doing this search? What do you really want to know? Are you problem solving or scratching an itch you created by scratching?    Do you want the distraction of lineage fishing at this moment in your life... and why.

Reading the FamilySearch.org wiki  led me to DAR search. I learned that Daughters of the American Revolution applications were not vetted well in past times.   Some lines have been closed. According to them two william Howertons served in the Revolutionary War. One from Essex Virginia and another from Morgan Kentucky.  

Are either of them related?
Time and more looking will tell.

reference:
http://www.learnwebskills.com/patriot/worldpractice01.html . 

The Hogs of Madison County

Thomas Bewick: Engraving

What was life like Madison County Arkansas in 1870 and 1880, the Laird and Howerton home county?  Occasionally if you look hard you run across a scrap of information that can do a lot of talking.  This is Madison County as the assessor saw it.

Madison County counted its wealth in horses, mules, and cattle.   The big winner in sheer numbers is hogs. In 1887 the hogs of Madison County number 27,000 plus, outnumbering people by a factor of about three to one.  

Tax Assessor list Madison County from Goodspeeds History (see source below.)

Goodspeed's History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, 

Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and 

Sebastian Counties, Arkansas *

Add up all the money and outstanding credit in this rural county, and you see that livestock outweigh it by a factor of five.   Fine italian linens,  silver table service and fine art are ignored on the assessor's survey.  Perhaps this column would get more use in a more sophisticated city like Little Rock.

Still, some fancy goods are indeed represented: 43 silver and gold watches exist in Madison County... or at least are counted by the tax assessor in 1877. Ten years later the number of watches explodes to 219.   Four pianos are resident in 1882.  Economic times seem to be good in the 70’s and 80’s as the population of watches and pianos explode thru the decade. Perhaps these statistics describe the recovery after the Civil War. 

Driving seems to be as desirable then as now, carriages being on the increase.  It is likely that carriage sales increased as the county installed more drivable roads.  

If you consider hogs the 1887 currency , hogs are worth about $1.25 each. That would be around $30 in today's dollars. Using this measure a gold watch would cost about $12 (1887 dollars) or 10 hogs. But the real luxury item is not a carriage or a pianola. A mule would set you back around $50. How much is that in hogs? That would  be about 40 hogs to equal the price of a single long eared luxury item, a mule.   

Source: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford..Counties

Howerton and Laird Migrations: Arkansas Travelers

It is still a mystery why Susan Laird named her three offspring Howerton... then later reverted to the surname Laird. We do know Howertons and Lairds lived near each other in Madison County and that these families had a number of things in common. 

Both families were new comers to Arkansas, arriving after the Arkansas Territory was declared a state in 1836.  Both families migrated west by way of Tennessee.   Both families came with kids.  Both acquired Arkansas land in Madison County and made their living by farming, as did most folks in the area. 

Howerton Migration Path: Virginia, Grainger Tennessee, Pike County Arkansas, Madison County Arkansas.

The elder William Howerton was born in Virginia in 1789. His son Ira Howerton 1813 also claimed Virginia as his birth state.  Ira and his wife Betsy Baker were residing Grainger County, Tennessee in 1840.   The 1850 census finds Ira's extended family had moved west to the town of Missouri, in Pike County, Arkansas.  Father, William Howerton 61 and six other Howerton adults live in the household, as well as eleven Howerton and Baker kids under the age of 14.

1850 Census of Pike County records no one in the Howerton clan as deaf, dumb, blind insane,
idiotic, pauper or convict. 

The next decade's census shows the Howerton gang has moved again and the family is established in Bowen Township Madison County in the north west part of the state. Documents show William Howerton bought land in this area around 1860. Ira fathered eleven kids, four kids with Betsy Baker… seven more with second wife Elizabeth Sarah Davis.  He lived to 66 and made Arkansas his last stop.

Laird Migration Path: Hardin County Tennessee, Marion County Arkansas, Madison County Arkansas.

The Lairds migrated to Arkansas about fifteen years before the Howertons. Temperance Dubose, later Laird,  married in Hardin County Tennessee in 1826, though not to Jacob Laird.  Census records say that Jacob Laird was the father of her children and that the first child was born in 1833 in Tennessee.    

Laird 1850 Census, Marion County Arkansas. Temperance recorded as person over 20 who cannot
read or write. 

We can piece together their path west by tracking the births of their kids. In the 1850 census the oldest boy William Laird 17 is listed and Nelson Laird 15 are both born in Tennessee. The next child,  Susan Laird 10 is born in Arkansas.  The census evidence tells that the Laird family migration west  happened between 1835 and 1840.  They first lived In Marion County, Arkansas.  A later record of 1860 finds them settled a few counties west in Madison county.  Jacob had Temperance had six kids together and lived the rest of their lives in Arkansas.  

Not From Around Here: War Eagle Arkansas 1850

Census 1850 War Eagle Township Arkansas

A close look at the War Eagle Township Census pages of 1860 shows the neighbors surrounding the Howertons  and the Lairds are people from from everywhere else.  Migrants all, excepting the youngest children. It appears that kids are generally the only folks born in the State of Arkansas.  The fact that Arkansas first called itself a state in 1836 could help account for this.

The Census records say the patriarch of the Laird family, Jacob Laird,  was born in Tennessee and Howerton patriarch, Ira Howerton was born in Virginia. These men were part of the wave of settlers coming west that swelled the population of Arkansas territory from about 1,000 to 200,000 in the span of fifty years.*  During the decade of the Laird / Howerton migration 1840-1850, the population of Arkansas approximately doubled from 97,000 to 200,000 plus people.  

Reading the birth place column of the 1850 census tells the origins of this flood of migrants into the Arkansas territory.  The Howertons and Lairds were surrounded by neighbors from everywhere else (but nobody born on foreign soil) including:

Tennessee

Alabama 

Arkansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Mississipi

Virginia

Georgia

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Missouri

North Carolina 
South Carolina

(*Note: Native americans don't seem to be accounted for in these numbers, however. The government policy appears to be to move them off their native lands, out of the way of the white settlers, and to push them west into the "indian territories.") 

Source: Wikipedia Arkansas Historical Population:   source

DNA Matching: It's all Relative

The "cousin" that Stella writes to first appeared as a solid green bar on Ancestry.com DNA match system when we did a Howerton search. There are more than thirty matches, but this is a very strong one. We click into this match's family tree then  check to see if and how this tree's Howertons match up with our Howertons.

 Here is where the finger crossing starts and the Search Sisters hope to get lucky.
1.We hope that there are common ancestors easily seen. 2.We hope the tree has some solid research behind it. Lots of trees on ancestry.com are slap dash affairs, or locked and private, or poorly documented with no hints to be found. 3. We hope the creator of the tree is an active, enthusiastic, saavy family history buff who is willing to share.

On the J.S. tree we find this beautiful portrait of Frank Milton Howerton, a good sign. Further inspection tells us that this Frank Milton was born in Oklahoma. Close, but not Arkansas. We look at his parents.... and find James A Howerton.

Frank Milton Howerton 1877-1941

You convince yourself that sending a message might be worth your time, then you put your questions together in a message and send it off. Then double cross your fingers. And wait. Sometimes you wait for months or even years for a response. Stella writes to AM Cooper, owner of this J.S. match:

"Jan 28, 2016: We have a high likelihood 4th? cousin DNA match. Looking at your tree it seems pretty likely that your James A Howerton, father of Frank Milton Howerton, is also our great great grandfather. The information we have about his family was hard won given that he and our great great grandmother never married or lived together."

After a few weeks AM Cooper, tree owner, writes back:

"Feb 13, 2016: My tree should be completely open and visible to you. Frank Milton Howerton is my great grandfather. His daughter is my grandmother who at 92 is still alive. She didn't really know her own mother. She was primarily raised by her aunt Florence."

While our new cousin doesn't have details that give us a definite link, the DNA connection tells us that Search Sisters and AM Cooper, their cousin, have a strong protein match with this Howerton line.  While we can't be sure James Nathan Howerton was Paralee's papa, we can be reasonably certain based on the DNA evidence we all descend from this line of people who call themselves Howertons. 

Finding Paralee's Papa: Now What?

Great grandma Armenta Paralee Howerton Laird was born in 1862 in War Eagle Township Arkansas, a year after the Civil War began. Susan Laird, her mama, would have been about 19 or 20 years old. Stella describes to a cousin where we are in the search for Paralee’s daddy as follows...  

“We were intrigued that both the 1870 and 1880 census listed these kids as being Howertons. After beating the bushes for the father of our great grandmother we discovered a Howerton family living "next door". This family included two young brothers, William born 1843 and James Nathan Howerton born 1845.

William died at the battle of Chickamauga in 1863. And if younger brother, James Nathan fought in the Civil War (at age 16) he appears to have lived through it. Our great grandmother's little brother, James Riley Howerton Laird was born in 1867.  Also the custom of naming first sons after their fathers points to James Nathan as the papa.

Now this might seem like a pretty sketchy info to conclude James Nathan Howerton is our great great grandfather. But once we DNA tested a whole lot of Howerton matches began to come our way.  From DNA testing we feel we have pretty much nailed the Howerton family from which great grandma Armenta Paralee Laird Howerton descended.  Circumstances point to James Nathan Howerton as her father."