Martha Rhodes Calhoun was born July 24, 1831 and died in 1873.
Martha Rhodes Calhoun was the mother of Arsula Calhoun Amos and grandmother of Bessie Lura Amos. She was born in Williamson, Tennessee; she married William C. Calhoun on October 17, 1850 in Marshall, Tennessee. He was 24 and she was 19 years old. William and Martha had eight children, the youngest of whom was Arsula (sometimes spelled Ursula) Calhoun Amos, who married William Wilburn Amos.
Martha and William moved to Illinois after their second child was born in the mid 1850s; the lived in the southern corner of the state in-between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
In the 1870 federal census, William was 44 and Martha was 38. Both were listed as illiterate, likewise all of their children, of which Elizabeth was the oldest, at 18, born in Tennessee. The oldest boy was Thomas, age 17, also born in Tennessee, already a farmer. The rest of their children were born in Illinois: Amanda was 14, James was 9, Susan was 7, Samuel was 4, and Robert was 2. Martha’s mother, the widowed Elizabeth Rhodes, age 69, also lived with the family; she was listed as an illiterate farmer. William farmed, and Martha kept house. The value of their real estate was $800, and the value of their personal estate was $600. In 1870, the Calhoun family lived in Township 11, Range 21, Johnson Co., Illinois; the post office is at Goreville (southern corner of Illinois north of Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River).
William and Martha had two more children, Alphus, in 1871, and Arsula, in 1873. Martha apparently died in childbirth or soon after. She was 42 years old.
William soon removed his family to Arkansas and remarried.
William Calhoun was born in May, 1826, in Williamson, Tennessee, to Jacob (Jack) Julian Calhoun (1802-1856) and Rebecca McCall (1797-1869).
William and Martha Rhodes, who was also from Tennessee, were married Oct 17, 1850 in Tennessee; he was 24, she was 19.
In 1852 their daughter Elizabeth was born, followed by William Thomas in 1853. After his birth the family moved to southern Illinois, Johnson County, in the corner of the state between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. There their daughter Amanda F. was born in 1856, James A. in 1862, Susan in 1863, Samuel H. in 1866, Robert M. in 1868, son Alphus in 1871, and daughter Arsula Jane in 1873. Martha apparently died in childbirth or soon after the birth of Arsula.
In the 1860 federal census, William listed himself as a carpenter. He registered for the draft in 1863. In the 1870 census William listed himself as a farmer. He and Martha were both listed as illiterate. The value of their real estate was $800, personal estate $600.
After Martha’s death, William took his family of eight children to western Arkansas, Bates Township, south of Fort Smith, just east of the Oklahoma border, where he farmed and worked as a carpenter. By this time William, as well as all of the children, were listed as literate. His oldest daughter Elizabeth kept house for William.
Ten years after Martha’s death, in 1883, William married Eunice Rebecca Davis in Sebastian Co.
In the 1900 census, William and Rebecca lived with son Samuel in Eagle Township, Sebastian Arkansas, in the Ouachita forest. Samuel was head of the family, born in 1866; he was 33 years old, married to Effie, who was 29. William was listed as a farmer.
William’s youngest daughter Arsula married William Wilburn Amos Christmas, 1890. His granddaughter Bessie Lura Amos married Claude Largent in 1911.
William died soon after, in 1900. His widow Rebecca died in Stigler in 1920.
Ephraim Deal Sorrels, an Arkansas and Oklahoma woodsman and farmer, was born Jan. 5, 1847 in Ashville, Buncombe Co., North Carolina, and died April 4, 1928, in Sparks, Lincoln Co., Oklahoma, aged 81. His father was Thomas M. Sorrels and mother Mary Drucella Lonon Sorrels, both born in 1827 in North Carolina. Ephraim’s father was a Confederate soldier during the Civil War who died in 1863 when Ephraim was sixteen years old.
The family had moved from North Carolina to Arkansas during the 1850s so that in 1860 they lived in Whiteville, in northern Arkansas, near the White River, and also near the town of Mountain Home.
Ephraim married Sarah Amelia Lane on March 22, 1867 when he was 20 years old. The bride was born in Black Swamps, Woodriff, Arkansas, on Aug. 4, 1852—she was 14 ½ years old when married (although the marriage certificate says 16.) She lived in Lawrence Arkansas, where they were married March 14, 1867. Her parents were James A. Lane and Malinda Coe, both born in 1830.
According to the 1870 census, Ephraim and Sarah lived in Independence, Arkansas, the township that included Whiteville, along with another man, perhaps a border or hand, named Charles Bostick, age 29.
According to the 1880 census, they lived in Mountain Home (which is the same as Big Flat; both were near Whiteville, so whether or not they had relocated is not clear). He was 33, she was 30 (which is slightly inaccurate; she was 5-6 years younger). Van, their oldest, was 5; Mary was age 2. Ephraim farmed; Sarah kept house. All were born in Arkansas save Ephraim, born in North Carolina.
In the 1900 census, Ephraim and Sarah had relocated to western Arkansas, living at Lees Creek, Washington Ark. This census indicates that there was a 4 ½ year difference in age between husband and wife. They have had 8 children, 7 were still living. Those at home were Thomas H., born Sep. 1882, Cora E, daughter, born Oct 1887, son Jessie E. born Sept. 1899. Thomas, like his father, was listed as a farmer on the census. They rented a house.
Ten years later, in the 1910 census, Ephraim and Sarah had relocated to North Seminole Township, Oklahoma. In a recollection told by a descendant, Mabell Sorrels Tucker, she said:
“In 1902, Ephraim Deal worked as a rail splitter for the Ft. Smith and Western Railroad. He cut railroad ties from Ft. Smith, Ark. to Central Oklahoma. The railroad was to build a “round house” at Sparks, but due to local opposition to the project, the “round house” was built at Shawnee instead. Ephraim left the railroad at Sparks, Ok. He heard of a “dugout” on a school lease about 1/2 mile East of Sparks that was available. They lived in the “dugout” until Ephraim built a two room log house where they lived for a number of years.” Sparks was in North Seminole Township, Lincoln County.
Ephraim and Sarah had relocated to Oklahoma before statehood, as their youngest son, Jesse Albert (born Sept. 27, 1899), died in Sparks on Jan 11, 1907, when he was 7. He was buried in the White Dove Cemetery in Sparks.
In the 1910 census, Ephraim listed both of his parents having been born in North Carolina. Sarah simply said, vaguely, “United States” as the birthplace of her parents. Ephraim’s occupations were farming and and fencing. He listed himself as self-employed. Both were literate. They owned their farm. The census indicates that Sarah was the mother of 8 children, four now living. Ephraim and Sarah’s ages are listed as 63 and 56, which was more accurate.
By the time of the 1920 census she listed her parents’ birthplace as unknown; he listed his father as Georgia and mother as North Carolina. He was 73, she was 69. He told the census worker he was self-employed, “working on [his] own account.” They continued to live in North Seminole Township.
Ephraim Sorrels died on April 4, 1928, at age 81. The cause of death on the death certificate was “asthma and dropsy”. Sarah died two months later, June 19, 1928.
Lucenda Beach Largent lived from July 12, 1808 to Nov. 26, 1875.
Lucenda A. Beach married Archibald Largent (Thomas Largent’s father, George Washington Largent’s grandfather, Claude Christopher Largent’s great-grandfather) in North Carolina in April, 1825, when she was 17. Before Archibalds’s death in 1838, she bore five children: Thomas W., Idella Eveline, Mahala Caroline, Archibald, and John. Lucenda was born in North Carolina, and died in 1875 in Illinois, living in Bond County. The Bond County federal census for 1830 lists Archibald and Lucenda with one child, the firstborn Thomas. As Thomas was born in Tennessee in 1828, we can assume that Lucenda and Archibald had lived in Tennessee until recently, moving to Bond County, Illinois. Nothing is known of her parents.
In the 1850 federal census for Fayette County, Illinois, Lucenda (spelled Lucinda) was a 41-year-old widow owning real estate valued at $600. She had living in her family the following: Eveline Merryman, age 20, Caroline, age 17, Archibald, age 15, John, age 13, and James, age 1. Archibald is listed as a farmer. Caroline, Archibald and John attend school. Several interesting items about this census: First, Eveline is called Merryman, and there were two families living next to the Largents with the last name Merryman. Eveline was a widow, her first husband was Cayson Harris Merriman, who was born between 1825 and 1828 and died in his twenties in 1850. James, their son, was 1 year old, and living with Lucenda. Thomas, first born son of Archibald and Lucenda, and his wife Narcissa and child Nancy lived nearby on their own farm worth $150.
In the 1860 federal census, Lucenda lived in Vandalia, Fayette County Illinois, with Eveline and her new husband, James Thomas Davis. Eveline and Thomas were married Dec 18, 1852. Eveline was to die soon after, in 1861. Lucenda’s son Thomas would lived until 1887. Lucenda’s other daughter, Mahala Caroline, married William Stokes on Dec 12, 1855.
Lucenda was a significant landowner. The year that her husband died, 1838, the land office of Fayette. Illinois, issued her “the South half of Lott number two of the South west quarter of Section eighteen in Township Six North of the base line of Range one West of the third principal Meridian, in the District of Lands Subject to sale at Vandalia, Illinois, containing forty acres.”
Andrew McCrillis was born on August 21, 1775, Meredith, NH. He died on Feb. 27, 1856, in Maine.
Andrew McCrillis was Maria Antoinette Nettie McCrillis’s grandfather, and since Maria was Lida Jane Collamore’s mother, hence Roland Newcomb’s grandmother, then Andrew McCrillis was Roland Newcomb’s great-great grandfather, Shirley Newcomb Phillips’ great-great-great grandfather, and Linda Phillips Lawson, Craig Phillips, and Joy Phillips Bonitz’s great-great-great-great grandfather.
He was born in Meredith, New Hampshire, near Lake Winnipesaukee, when this region of New Hampshire was being settled by newcomers, especially from Massachusetts, in the years before the American Revolution. The economy at the time he was born was farming and lumbering. Andrew would have been an infant during the war, but since there was little action in New Hampshire, especially around Lake Winnipesaukee, he doubtless only experienced the economic privation brought to New Hampshire by the war. His father was James McCrillis, a Massachusetts immigrant, and his mother was Deborah Whitcher McCrillis. His son, Maria’s father, was Randall Phineas McCrillis, born June 5, 1821 in Maine.
Andrew married Betsey Webb from Maine at an indeterminable point; they lived in Maine for many years, living in old age with their son Randall in Palmyra, Somerset Co., Maine, in 1850 when Andrew was 75 years old and Betsey was 72 years old. After Andrew’s death, Betsey lived with her son until her death in 1868 at age 90.
For New England, and the biographical portrait of a descendant of Andrew McCrillis who kept extensive diaries and other writings to tell their story see The Memories of Lida Newcomb | Ash Hill Publishing
Robert King Newcomb was born August 23, 1836, in Charlotte, Washington Co., Maine, to Robert B. Newcomb and Lydia Beals Lishness Newcomb, daughter of Lewis and Sophia Lishness of Maine. Robert’s father was a mechanic, perhaps a carpenter, and farmer living in a well-watered, forested part of Maine near the St. Croix River and Passamaquoddy Bay. Robert had eleven siblings, seven brothers and four sisters. After he left home his parents had four more children. Two of his brothers died in 1862 while he was in California.
What Robert did during the Civil War is unclear, though there exists a California voter record of him living in 1867 in Nevada City, California, working as a miner. Family records indicate he left Maine for California in 1859.
Upon returning to Maine before 1870 he married and purchased a farm in Perry Maine. He and his newlywed Alvira Nancy Damon were living in Perry, Maine, when the 1870 federal census was taken. Perry was a town on Passamaquoddy Bay, which separated Maine from New Brunswick. Robert and Alvira owned $2500 worth of real estate. Their child Robert Eugene Newcomb was six years old, in 1875, when Alvira died. Robert King remarried Laura Ann Leach, who was sixteen years his junior. In the 1900 federal census Robert and Laura owned their land without mortgage; both were literate, as were their children. In the 1910 federal census, Robert and Laura were living with their son, Oscar, though the census made clear that they had their “own income,” hence were not financially dependent upon their son. Robert was 74 years old. In the 1920 census, Robert, now 84, once again owned his own farm, and lived there with Laura.
Robert King Newcomb died on Feb. 6, 1927, in Perry Maine, at age 90, and is buried in Leland Cemetery.
Read the account of Robert King’s daughter in law Lida Newcomb, Robert Eugene’s wife, and the biographical portraits of Lida who kept extensive diaries and other writings to tell their story see The Memories of Lida Newcomb | Ash Hill Publishing
William Lennox Perkins, July 12, 1868-August 25, 1946.
William Perkins, brother of Hattie Perkins Brown, who was the mother of Florence Brown Phillips and the grandmother of Milton Arnold Phillips, was the Perkins and Crawford family historian as well as a local historian of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Uncle Will on several occasions penned extensive accounts of his family and his own life for the sake of local historical associations, especially the Rhode Island chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.
William Lennox was born July 12, 1868 to George H. Perkins and Margaret R. Crawford. Margaret was George’s second wife, as his first, Mary Ann Tourgee, died in 1865. Margaret immigrated from Glasgow, Scotland, in 1853. George and Margaret lived in the Pleasant View section of Pawtucket; Will spent his whole life there. Although George was born in western Rhode Island, in the town of Exeter, where the Perkins had for centuries owned land, he apparently moved to Pawtucket because of Margaret (or, he was living there when he met Margaret). Will recalled that “my father was a Baptist Deacon until about the time I was born. At that time, he became interested in a newly formed Episcopal Mission near our home, and when it was really organized as the Church of the Good Shepherd, he became its first treasurer and senior warden.” He “was a clerk, vestryman, junior and senior warden for a period of more than fifty-seven years.”
Will graduated from Pawtucket High School in 1886 with a focus on English studies. He wrote that when he “was a young man I used to spend a vacation every summer in Exeter, Rhode Island, on the farms of my aunt, Mahala Perkins Reynolds; my grandfather, John Prosser Perkins; and my uncle John Riley Perkins. I used to sit down with a notebook and write down different statements which were given me by Aunt Mahala. Aunt Mahala was born September 13, 1827. What she did not know about the family history was not worth knowing.”
Will wrote further: “The various Perkins families owned a number of adjoining farms near Escoheag Hill, Exeter, Rhode Island. Exeter, on the west, adjoins Voluntown, Connecticut, which is only a short distance from where my ancestors’ farms were located. These farms were several miles from where my people lived when I spent my boyhood vacations, and so I had no early personal knowledge of them. A number of years ago my father showed me the different farms where his folks lived when he was a boy. Of course, these farms have been sold and resold, and to find, in most cases, where different people were buried is almost impossible. . . . The town of Exeter is about fifteen miles long and three miles wide. From where the Perkins families lived, it was a long distance to the Town Clerk’s Office, so not all of these births and deaths were recorded. Prior to the advent of the automobile, the town of Exeter was nothing but country roads and very high hills; the country roads have disappeared but the hills are still there; so that it was difficult for people living in this remote district to go to the Town Clerk’s Office and to other places like Providence, which was about forty miles away, in order to record various events.”
Will recalled that “there is quite a large cemetery on top of Escoheag Hill. It runs back to somewhere around 1700. With my father, I visited this cemetery on Memorial Day, 1897. I have good reason to remember the date. Most of the stones were common field stones with simply initials and dates, in most cases, scratched on.”
Will was extremely proud of the Perkins’s family history. The first Perkins in America, John Perkins, “came over in the Ship Lyon with Roger Williams in 1631 and settled in Ipswich.” Indeed, “from the time of Roger Williams down to the date of my birth,” Will wrote, his family “were all very good Baptists.
Will was a bookkeeper: from 1900 to 1920 he was Head Bookkeeper, Greene and Daniels Manufacturing Co., which when taken over by Fisk Rubber Co., Will became Purchasing Agent in the textile division until 1927, when he retired. He was active in all sorts of civic associations. He was a member of the RI Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Odd Fellows Association, and the Masons.
Will and Harriet L. Johnson were married on March 18, 1896; she died Feb. 8, 1897. On May 20, 1902, Will and Anna Elizabeth Ullrich were married. Their children included William Perkins, Jr., a schoolteacher who died in 1942, Henry C. Perkins, who was a Captain in the Coast Guard and eventually a Rear Admiral, and Miriam M., who died as an infant.
Will wrote proudly in 1945: “Earle A. Phillips, the husband of . . . Florence, is the Head of the Science Department in the Pawtucket West Senior High School, and Florence’s son, Milton Arnold Phillips, graduated with high honors from Brown University February 25, 1945, and is now an Ensign in the Navy.”
Will had a sense of humor. In a letter sent to his sister Hattie, he wrote:
“May 4, 1936
Rhode Island Tercentenary
Dear Sister Hattie:
Greetings! I have waited for 300 years to send you this message. Fearing I may not be here 300 years more am sending it to day.
Roger Williams wanted to be remembered to you all. He says Providence has changed some, since he saw it last.
We are going to have a fine dinner at the Biltmore with the S[ons of the] A[merican] R[evolution] and D[aughters of the] A[merican] R[evolution] in honor of the occasion.
Bessie Lura Amos Largent was born 129 years ago on Christmas Eve, 1891, in Sebastian County, Arkansas, to William Wilburn Amos and Ursula Calhoun Amos. Bessie was the first born to this farm family that rented land in the region south of the Arkansas River in eastern Arkansas. Ursula Jane Calhoun, her mother, was daughter to William C. Calhoun and Martha D. Rhodes; she was born in Illinois, and illiterate. William Wilburn, Bessie’s father, was son to George Washington Amos III and Mary Jane Carter; he was illiterate and born in Alabama. In the 1900 federal census, 8-year-old Bessie could neither read nor write. According to the 1910 census, Bessie was 18, attended school, could read but not write.
(Bessie Lura Amos and friends: Bessie is on the right)
Bessie married Claude Christopher Largent on December 3, 1911, in Booneville, Arkansas, where they made their residence during their early years of marriage. They had four children: Marie, born in 1913; George Amos, born in 1915; Joyce, born in 1919, and Wanda June, born in 1928.
According to the 1920 census, Bessie and Claude and their first three children lived in Center Haskell, Oklahoma, on Kinta Stigler Road. Claude was listed as a farmer who paid a mortgage on his own home. Claude and Bessie were both literate. According to the 1930 census, Claude and Bessie were living in Seminole County, Oklahoma, in the Econtuchka township. Claude was no longer a farmer, rather a teacher. Their three older children attended school. In the 1940 census, the family lived in Stigler, Oklahoma. Claude was a music teacher with the Works Progress Administration, a federal program of the New Deal. With the coming of the Second World War, the family moved to California for war work, but returned after the war to Oklahoma.
In Tulsa, Claude and Bessie lived in a small house in West Tulsa. Claude worked for Tulsa Public Schools in maintenance while Bess kept house. Every Christmas the entire extended family of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren filled the house and enjoyed Christmas cheer. Claude and Bess had their own easy chairs, from which they could sit and watch television. Claude enjoyed smoking his pipe and Bess enjoyed dipping tobacco. They were both quiet people. Bess, especially, was tough, no-nonsense. Claude predeceased Bess by three years. She lived for a brief time in a nursing home, and died on April 29, 1979.
Florence Beatrice Brown Phillips, August 1, 1899-December 3, 1973.
(Earl and Florence Brown Phillips)
Florence Beatrice was born on August 1, 1899, to Samuel Francis Brown and Hattie Tyler Perkins Brown. She was an only child. When Florence was born, Samuel and Hattie lived with Hattie’s parents, George and Margaret Perkins, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. In the 1910 census, Florence was 10 years old, her father was 35, and mother 31. They had a boarder living with them, named Mary King, who was 23. Samuel worked at a wireworks, and Hattie was a nurse. In the 1920 census, Florence, age 20, is unmarried, working as a stenographer in an office in Pawtucket. When Florence married Earle A. Phillips in 1921, he was a store manager; by 1930 he was a schoolteacher; she kept house and took care of Milton, their only child; her mother Hattie lived with them. Son Milton was born in 1922. They lived at 758 Newport Ave., in Pawtucket.
Florence was a collector of news-clippings, postcards, and Christmas cards. Her postcards and diaries that survive provide a historical account of her early adulthood. For instance, a brief surviving diary from January to March, 1916, provides some interesting insights into her late teen years.
“January 2, 1916 [1917]. School again. Broke typewriter. Nobody going skating. Wonder if Earle went. . . . Mrs. Duxbury brought perfume, box chocolate, and this book [the diary] for me. Skating spoiled; all thawed. Wednesday. Bookkeeping exam. Planned to go to Rumford. Miss Burke sick. Worked till 5:10. . . . No skating. Retired 12:00. Mouse interrupted my slumber. . . .
January 16, 1917. Saw the ‘Professor’ with a girl on Main St. Said ‘Hello” instead of ‘How do you do?’ Took her to Fisk’s. Like to know who she is. . . . Thursday. . . . Ray called up to go skating. Refused—because French exam to study for. Friday. Day of fate–‘French.’ Comfortably easy. Elizabeth Ingles and I went skating. Ice great. . . . Sunday. Got up at 9:40. Went back to bed with Dream Book for ¾ hr. Breakfast at 11:00. Dinner at 3:15. . . . Fudge!! Boys spent evening. Like old times. Everybody agreeable. 2 escorts!! . . . . Wednesday. School. Walk to Park suggested. . . . Boiled dinner. Palm read 10 cents apiece. Going to marry, 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys. Prosperity, money and happiness. . . . Feb. 25, 1917. I don’t know exactly what has happened since Feb. 2 but I do know that I have been too busy to write in this book. . . . Earle has the scholarship. Went to Borden’s two weeks ago to-night. . . . O! Forgot about my auto ride with Arthur. Brought me home from down street in his machine. Finest I have ever ridden in. Very slow driver. Very thoughtful of him. Enjoyed it immensely. . . .”
She worked for a time for Kirby-Smith Associates, a Christian fund-raising organization. Exactly when is unclear. After Earl died in 1955, for the last 18 years of her life she lived part of the time with her only child Milton and his family, both in Rye, NY, and Tulsa, OK. She died December 3, 1973.
John Calvin Lawson was born in Arkansas in 1864 to Calvin A. Lawson (1825-1907) and Jane Ann Fritts (1835-1902).
In the 1870 census John C. is 6-years-old; Calvin is 40 and a farmer, Jane is 36 and keeping house. They live in Texas: Precinct 2, Fannin, Texas [Goliad County]. Calvin was born in Tennessee, Jane in Indiana. Both were white. John Calvin’s siblings were William H, ten years older, Lucy A, eight years older, Mary E., six years older, James R., three years older, and Milton, four years younger.
In the 1880 census. John C. is listed as 14, which is a mistake, as he was born in 1864; he and his family live in Richland, Washington Co, Arkansas. He is listed as a laborer. John C cannot read and write.
In 1886, John Calvin married Josephine Robbins. He was 22 and she was 18. She was born in 1868 in Arkansas. She was the daughter of James and Esther Robbins.
In the 1900 federal census, John C. and Josephine live in Township 22, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory (T-22-N-R-25-E). John C., age 36, and Josephine, age 32, have 4 children: James, Denver, Clint, and Allie. He is a farmer; he and she can read and write English. They rent.
According to the 1900 Arkansas census, widowed Esther, Josephine’s mother, lives next door to Calvin and Jane Lawson, John Calvin’s parents: so perhaps John Calvin and Josephine met as next door neighbors.
In the 1910 federal census, John Calvin, aged 45, and Josephine, aged 41, live in Wedington, Washington Co., Arkansas. Their children are: Denver J., 19, Samuel Clint, 17, Allie May, 14, William Leverett, 9 and John C., 1. They own their own farm and house.
In the 1920 census, the only children living with John and Josephine (called Josa) is Will, who is 19 and a farmer, and 11-year-old John C. All can read and write.
By 1930, John Calvin and Josephine Lawson are living in Tulsa, perhaps because Will and his wife Martha Susan have also relocated to Tulsa.
Josephine died in 1949. John C. died six years later in 1955. They are both buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa.
