Category: Childers

J Is for…Justice of the Peace

Posted on by spuddled

Today we are examining one of the more familiar occupational titles, that of Justice of the Peace. I tend to think of this title in terms of 19th century weddings (surely you remember that episode of Little House on the Prairie where Nellie Oleson was married and un-married all in the same night), but as we shall see, Justices of the Peace have a much longer history than that.

I was able to locate a number of relatives in our family tree who held this position. We’ll take a look at four of them. Andrew J. Slatten, my third cousin four times removed, was born sometime between 1831-1833 in Illinois. He was the son of John and Nancy (Adams) Slatten and a descendant of our Sweeney line. In 1850 he was 17 years old and living with his parents and six younger siblings (Rebecca, Statirah, Margaret, Xantippe, Zarilda, and Benjamin) in Clinton, Illinois. Andrew was then a college student, and his father was a merchant. On 4 November 1858 Andrew married Clarinda S. Bassett in Warren County, Iowa. By 1860 Andrew and Clarinda had moved to Des Moines. He was then 38 years old, and Clarinda was 16. The census lists Andrew’s occupation as Attorney at Law. Clarinda and Andrew had two children: Douglas A., born between 1860-1861; and Shastebutte, born between 1862-1863. On 4 May 1861 Andrew enlisted in the 2nd Iowa Regiment. Less than a year later he was wounded in the right leg and left temple at Fort Donelson, and he died of his wounds on 18 April 1862 in St. Louis. Centennial History of Polk County, Iowa, by J. M. Dixon, has an account of his military service and death, and it is here that we learn that Andrew was “at one time Justice of the Peace in Lee Township.”1 We also learn that he was an “eccentric young lawyer,” for what that’s worth.

Amos Bee, my first cousin 5 times removed, was older than Andrew Slatten but outlived him by more than 40 years. Born 28 February 1828 in Harrison County in what would become West Virginia, he was part of our Seventh Day Baptist contingent of relatives, and his mother was one of the long line of SDB Davises. In 1850 he was still living at home with his parents Ephraim and Catharine and numerous siblings. He was then working as a tanner. On 20 March 1856 in West Union, (West) Virginia, Amos married Melissa Welch. Between 1860 and 1880 Amos and Melissa were enumerated in West Union along with their growing family. Amos was listed in 1860 and 1870 as a farmer, and in 1880 as a tanner once again. Their children were Genevra, Amos Alonzo, Anna B., James A., Clara Virginia, Ephraim E., Kate, and Mary. In 1900, still in West Union but now living with just his wife and daughters Clara and Mary, Amos’s occupation was listed as Justice of the Peace. Amos would die four years later and is buried in West Union’s Blockhouse Cemetery. He shares a headstone with his wife and sons James and Ephraim that I photographed there in 2010.

Robert C. Childers, second cousin five times removed, was also a Sweeney descendant. He was born 21 November 1815 in Grant County, Kentucky and was the son of Thomas Goolsberry and Mary Elizabeth (Thomas) Childers. By 1836 he had moved to Falls County, Texas, and in 1840 in Milam County, Texas, he married Sarah Adeline Moore. In 1850 Robert and “Adaline” were enumerated in Milam County, and Robert is listed as a hotel keeper, but according to Moses Sweeney Descendants, by J. Harvey Sweeney, Jr., in August 1850 Robert was Justice of the Peace in Bell County.2 From 1860 to 1880, the family is in Bell County, Texas, and Robert is engaged in farming. According to the obituary of Robert and Adeline’s son Joe, Robert’s farm was the first to operate in Bell County.3 Robert died on 20 June 1895 in Temple, Texas, and is buried in Temple’s Hillcrest Cemetery. The Childers family has one of the more amazing gravestones I’ve seen (though I’ve only seen this one virtually).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16024935/robert-childers: accessed August 23, 2025), memorial page for Robert “Bob” Childers (21 Nov 1815–20 Jun 1895), Find a Grave Memorial ID 16024935, citing Hillcrest Cemetery, Temple, Bell County, Texas, USA; Maintained by Imagraver (contributor 47349450).

For our final Justice of the Peace, we have to jump back in time by a couple of centuries. Joseph Clarke, my 11th-great-grandfather, was born 9 December 1618 in Westhorpe, Suffolk, England, which Mom and I visited in 2014. By 21 February 1639, he had immigrated to America, as on that date he was admitted as an inhabitant of Portsmouth, Rhode Island.4 He became a member of the First Baptist Church in Newport in 1644, married a woman named Margaret,5 and then on 22 March 1661 was one of the group of individuals who purchased Westerly, Rhode Island.6 In 1667 he is listed as being a Justice of the Peace.7 From 1668-1672 he was a deputy in Westerly, and then in February 1680 he moved to Newport. He died there on 1 June 1694.8

I still think my favorite Justice of the Peace story, however, is one told by Grandma Hoffmann. She relayed to me the story of a Justice of the Peace in Peoria, Illinois. Every time she would cross the bridge into Peoria, she would see the sign for his office: “Herman J. Bridegroom, Justice of the Peace.” For years Grandma had seen his sign and thought how neat it would be to be married by someone named Bridegroom. As Grandma said next, “And I was!” She believed many people must have felt the same way she did, as next to his office was a neat little parlor, fixed up with carpet and soft lighting. Herman J. Bridegroom’s fitting name even landed him in a humorous cartoon, as well as articles about his own wedding in 1947. Though apparently he wasn’t sold on the idea of a wedding by a Justice of the Peace himself. Was he thinking ahead about Little House on the Prairie?

The Orangeville [Illinois] Courier, 8 August 1941, p. 8
Journal Gazette and Times-Courier [Mattoon, Illinois], 14 June 1947, p. 4
  1. Ancestry.com. Centennial history of Polk County, Iowa [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.Original data: Dixon, J. M.. Centennial history of Polk County, Iowa. Des Moines: State Register, print., 1876. ↩︎
  2. J. Harvey Sweeney, Jr. Moses Sweeney Descendants. n.p: 2006, n.d. ↩︎
  3. The Waco [Texas] News-Tribune, 8 October 1940, pg. 1 ↩︎
  4. Cyrus Clarke Van Deventer, Henry Clarke–Catherine Pendleton: Ancestry & Descendants (n.p: 1902, n.d). ↩︎
  5. Earl P. Crandall, Crandall Web Pages. ↩︎
  6. Cyrus Clarke Van Deventer, Henry Clarke–Catherine Pendleton: Ancestry & Descendants (n.p: 1902, n.d). ↩︎
  7. Ibid. ↩︎
  8. Ibid. ↩︎

M Is for…Military

M Is for…Military

Posted on by spuddled

For today’s post, I had grandiose ideas of making a simple list of all the relatives in my database with military activity. Then I realized even just providing a complete list of names would result in an outrageously long post. So instead, here is just a sampling of what I found.

Thomas William Davis, my 7th great-grandfather: born 15 May 1719 in Westerly, Rhode Island, he served as a captain in the 3rd Regiment, Monmouth County (New Jersey) Militia in 1777 and also from 1780-1781. He later moved to Monongalia County in what would become West Virginia, where he died in 1791.

Thomas Goolsberry Childers, my 1st cousin 6 times removed: this Thomas was born 31 January 1790 in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Records I found make him sound like an early-day Forrest Gump, so I should probably do some more research to verify claims that he: took part in the Battle of Tippecanoe, then was captured by the British during the War of 1812 and held prisoner for two years, then in 1832 fought in the Black Hawk War before moving to Texas and taking part in the Battle of San Jacinto with Sam Houston. Thomas died in Coryell County, Texas in about 1851.

Andrew J. Slatten was my third cousin four times removed: he was born somewhere around 1831-1833 in Illinois. In 1860 he was living in Des Moines, Iowa, and was occupied as a lawyer. Shortly after the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in Company D, 2nd Reg. Iowa Volunteers, Infantry. Less than a year later he was wounded at the Battle of Fort Donelson in Nashville in February 1862. Two months later he died in Saint Louis as a result of the leg and temple wounds he had received. He is buried in Des Moines’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

Find a Grave Memorial ID 38394272

Ozro C. Taylor, third great-granduncle: born 21 January 1847 in New York State, he enlisted 29 August 1864 in the 1st Regiment of the New York Light Artillery in Malone, New York. He enlisted as a substitute for a Seymour Gibbons; he was later mustered out at Elmira. He later moved to West Union, Iowa, where he was occupied in the livery business. He died 8 December 1890 “after ailing all fall.”

Ozro Taylor’s gravestone, West Union Cemetery

While most of the relatives I found were men, not all of them were. Mary Alice Evans, third cousin four times removed: born 18 February 1889 in Nortonville, Kansas, she served in the Army Nurse Corps between 16 February 1918 and 28 July 1919. She had been a nurse before the war and would continue her occupation after her military role ended. She died in 1948 in San Joaquin County, California, and is buried in the Stockton Rural Cemetery.

And last but not least from this random selection we have Ernest E. Bauer, half first cousin twice removed: born 14 January in either 1894 or 1895 in Gridley, Illinois, he left from Watseka, Illinois on 21 June 1918 to serve for six months during World War I. After his return he married Mary Yergler in Cissna Park, Illinois, in February 1920, and he died there in October 1966.