by: Cathy M Dempsey
One of my earliest childhood memories is of meeting my great-grandmother Hazel, then in her late 70's. I remember her in a pink house nestled in the hills near Healdsburg, California on a sunny day, with her husband Charlie out in the vegetable garden.
As I was only 4 at the time, I wish that I had been able to ask her about her childhood and her family.
Fortunately, however, my mother took some notes. Hazel told my mother that her dad's name was Sam, and that he was born in Missouri. Sam had a brother Andrew, a sister Eliza, and a brother John that died young. Sam's mother's name was Hannah, and his father's name was James.
Years later, from those notes years, I was able to find records of Sam's family exactly where great-grandma Hazel had said he was as a child -- in Missouri.
In 1850, James and Hannah Englehart, along with their 2 eldest children were in Jasper County, Missouri, very near the current town of Carl Junction, and the Kansas state border.
Right next door to James and Hannah resided another Englehart family, headed by a Samuel Englehart and his wife Mary, both of whom were born in Pennsylvania in the 1790's (as they were in their early 50's).
And their likely children -- "likely"because in 1850 the relationships are not specifically listed -- were born in Ohio.
Could these people be Sam's paternal relatives?
I was able to quickly locate Samuel Englehart (or Inglehart) in Ohio -- Guernsey County -- in 1840 and in 1830.
In 1830, Samuel was living in Buffalo township, and the members of the household were as follows. (No names are listed in the 1830, except for head of house.)
1 M <5 (William), 1 M 5-9 (James), 1 M 30-39 (Samuel), 1 F < 5 (Eliza), 1 F 30-39 (Mary)
I also found a marriage record for Samuel Inglehart and Mary Adams. They were married in Guernsey County, Ohio, in 1826.
Perfect!
But maybe not... James, their supposed son, was born 5 years earlier, in 1821, in Pennsylvania (rather than Ohio), per later census records, California voting records, and his obituary.
James Englehart's obituary states he was born in Pennsylvania in 1821. (See the attached image.)
James almost certainly was part of the family of Samuel and Mary, but was Samuel his biological father, and Mary his stepmother? Or was it the other way around?
Mary (Adams) Englehart, a widow, died in Healdsburg in 1879. Her living children are listed in the obituary published in the Healdsburg Enterprise.
Edmond, the youngest of Samuel and Mary's sons, grew up to be a prosperous farmer, and therefore had a profile published in 1891 in A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California. He mentions James as his oldest brother, a member of Samuel and Mary's family.
At this time, I suspect Samuel Englehart and Mary (Adams) Englehart were the parental figures in James' life.
To find out more details of Samuel's and Mary's early life (and parents) , I am currently tracing some of their neighbors in the Senecaville, Guernsey, Ohio vicinity.
Most of their closest associates in Guernsey County, OH, came from Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Could that be where James was born?
Stay tuned!