Mysterious Tilda Nelson

Tilda Nelson

In the 1885 Nebraska state census of Burt county, the household of my great-grandfather, August Anderson, there appears a nine-year-old girl, Tilda Nelson, whom the census records as August’s “nephew” (presumably actually “niece”). Minnie Cunanan, one of August’s daughters, told me in a 1974 interview: “Dad’s mother’s sister came to this country and had two children. Or was it three? Anyway, she decided she couldn’t take care of them, so she gave them away. And the oldest girl, Tilda, was then, oh, twelve, thirteen years old. And Dad said no, he didn’t want her given away, he’d take Tilda. So Tilda stayed at home until they left Nebraska. I used to write to her. She wrote, but pretty soon I didn’t get any answer. Tilda Nilsson was her name before she was married. I don’t remember what her married name was.”

August Anderson’s mother was Sara Maria Persdotter. Swedish parish records show that she was one of at least eight children. One brother was Franz Otto, known in America as Otto Peterson; the sister to whom Minnie referred was Johanna Charlotta Persdotter, b. in Ulrika, Östergötland, Sweden 4 Mar 1841. Swedish records indicate that she was married to Nils Gustaf Svensson in Ulrika 27 Dec 1867, and that they had at least five children: Anders Petter Oskar Nilsson (b. 31 Jul 1868), a stillborn daughter (25 Nov. 1871), Tilda Karolina (b. 22 Aug. 1876), Carl Axel Emil (b. 18 Feb 1880), and Sofia Kristina (b. 23 Oct 1882). These children were all born in Malexander, Östergötland, Sweden. Nils Svensson died 21 Jan 1883; apparently his widow came to the United States some time not long thereafter. She has not been located in the 1885 Nebraska state census.

The question is: what became of Johanna, her daughter Tilda, and the one or two other children that Minnie remembered?

The brother of Johanna and Sara, Otto Peterson, died in Cuming co. NE 8 Jan 1916. In his obituary in Oakland Independent (21 Jan 1916), he is said to be survived (besides his wife and children) by sister, Mrs. Hannah Nelson, of DeKalb, Illinois. In the DeKalb Daily Chronicle there appears, on 1 Feb 1919, an obituary for Mrs. Hannah Nelson. It says that the “nearly 78” year old woman “spent her early life in Sweden, being born there in 1841. She was married at her home in the foreign country, her husband having passed away a few years after her marriage. A few years later she came to this country and for the last 15 years has made her home here with her daughter [Mrs. William Murray].” The obituary indicates that she died “last night”—i.e., 31 January 1919.

The DeKalb county death certificate for Johanna Nelson, on the other hand, indicates that she died 4 Feb. 1919—clearly (and oddly) wrong, since her obituary had appeared three days earlier. It gives her birthdate as 4 Mar 1844—again apparently not correct, since the Swedish records indicate 1841. However, it should be noted that the informant on the death certificate is William Murray, her son-in-law, who may simply not have known accurately her date of birth. Her father’s name is not listed, but her mother’s maiden name is listed as “A. Anderson”—again, incorrect, though Anderson was her married name. But both of Johanna’s parents died many years before Murray married Johanna, and he likely never knew them. 

Johanna’s obituary lists her survivors as her daughters, Mrs. William Murray of DeKalb, and Mrs. Althea Geisler of Nebraska, and a son, F. E. Nelson of Macon, Missouri. Mrs. William Murray seems clearly to be the “Tilda Nelson” who lived with the August Anderson family. Her obituary in the DeKalb Daily Chronicle 14 Oct. 1957 states that she was born in Linkoping, Sweden 22 Aug. 1876, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nels Swensen. The date and parents’ names are a match; she was actually born in Malexander parish, but Linkoping is the closest city of any size. The obituary names her children, as well as a sister, Mrs. Althea Geistler [sic] of Nebraska.

This Althea Geisler is apparently the Sofia Kristina listed in the Swedish records as the youngest daughter of Nils and Johanna. She was born in 1882, shortly before her father’s death, and so was just an infant when her mother brought her to the United States. Her obituary in the Fremont (Nebraska) Tribune appeared 10 Oct. 1966. It states that “she was born Oct. 23, 1882 in Sweden but came to live in the Oakland vicinity one year after birth.” In the 1885 Nebraska state census, there is an Althea Nelson listed as a daughter in the household of John N. and Ingrid Nelson; she is three years old (i.e., b. ca. 1882). In the Social Security Applications and Claims Index, her name is given as Althea Nel[son?] Geistler, and her parents are listed as Nels Nelson and Johanna Peterson—again, not quite right (her father was Nils Svensson), but an understandable confusion if the family all went by Nelson in America. In the 1900 census of DeKalb county IL, there is an Althea S. K. Hubbill, age 17, b. Oct. 1882 in Sweden, listed as the daughter of Lusina C. [?] Hubbill (b. 1820 in New York). This Althea Hubbill married Wallace Geisler in DeKalb county 6 Mar 1901 (according to Geisler’s obituary). The Geislers appear in the 1910 census of DeKalb county, and Lucina C. Hubil is in their household, age 88, listed as “mother-in-law” of Wallace. Note the initials in the 1900 census—S. K. for Sofia Kristina? Was Sofia “adopted” by another family and given the name “Althea”? Were the John and Ingrid Nelson in 1885 related in some way to this family? Who were the Hubbills? (Lucina Hubbell [sic] died 27 Apr 1910 “at the home of her daughter” in DeKalb, according to her obituary.)

Who is the F. E. Nelson, named as a son of Johanna in her obituary? I have not been able to find him in Macon MO or elsewhere. The two known sons of Johanna and Nils are Anders Petter Oskar, b. 1868, and Carl Axel Emil, b. 1880; but how do either of those names translate to “F. E.”? Or did they have another son who has not been found in the Swedish records? There is an F. E. Nelson in DeKalb co. IL in the 1910 census, just two households away from the Geislers. He is 30 years old, born in Sweden—so could conceivably be the son born Carl Axel Emil. In his household is his mother Anna, age 70—could she be an “adoptive” mother, or could that actually be Johanna? 

Why was Johanna known as Johanna Nelson? The only explanation that occurs to me is that, since her children were surnamed Nelson (because their father was Nils), it was just simpler for her to take that name as well—but why would that be important if she had “given them away”? Or is it possible that she married again in America to a Nelson (though no such marriage is hinted at in her obituary)?

 

Has DNA solved a mystery?

Perhaps my biggest brick wall has been the paternity of my great-grandfather (Gustaf), who was brought to America from Sweden as a ten-year-old by his maternal grandparents. The family story (which I always found a tad clichéd) was that his mother became pregnant by the “son of the landowner,” and as Gustaf grew he so resembled his biological father that the paternal grandfather paid the maternal grandparents to take the boy to America. I’ve searched Swedish records trying to find some clue about his biological father, but to no avail.

Recently I was perusing my ancestry.com DNA matches, and I came upon a man (identified in the “third cousin” range) who had only a minimal tree posted. But in looking more closely, I discovered that his grandfather came from the same small parish in Sweden as my great-grandfather.  No one else in his tree came from that area, or from any area where my family lived. His grandfather (Johan) was born a year or two before my great-grandfather, so cannot be my direct ancestor, but of course Johan’s father (Carl) could be. I then searched for other DNA matches to me who might also be related to Johan and Carl, and I found three or four who are also descended from Carl through various of his in-wedlock children.

I then went looking in the Swedish records for other male relatives of Carl who could conceivably have fathered my great-grandfather, but there aren’t many (the family mostly ran to daughters); he had one brother (Jonas)  who could conceivably have fathered Gustaf, and Jonas had two sons who would be possible candidates, and that’s about it. But in looking at the DNA shared with the descendants of Carl and comparing it with what I might expect to share with hypothetical descendants of Jonas, it appears to me very much more likely that Carl is my ancestor.

This would have still been scandalous, of course—maybe more so, since Carl was a married man with three children when Gustaf was born—so the part about “paying the maternal grandparents to bring Gustaf to America” could well have some truth to it.

I’ve tried contacting the DNA matches through ancestry.com, but no response as yet. Has this shared DNA finally solved this longstanding mystery? I guess I need to bone up a bit more on DNA genealogy to see where I go from here.

Thanks for your kindness 150 years ago

I've been visiting my son in Houston over the holidays, and now have started the drive home to California. Since we were passing right through Henrietta, TX, I made a stop at Hope Cemetery to find the grave of my great-grandfather's uncle, William T. B. Johnson, and his wife, Callie (Dyer) Johnson. When my great-grandpa (Alfred J. Johnson) was just a boy of nine, his mother died. His father had died already on the way home from the Civil War. So now he and his two older brothers were orphaned. They were taken in by Callie Dyer, a neighbor, who cared for them for several months. Their uncle, W. T. B. Johnson, was notified; he had moved to California fifteen years earlier, but was now recently widowed himself. He came back to Arkansas, took custody of the boys, married Callie Dyer, and took them all back to California.

From there the story is a little convoluted. What my great-grandfather said (or so I was told) is that the uncle treated them harshly, and the oldest brother, who had already struck out on his own, came and "rescued" the other two boys, spiriting them away in the dead of night. Many years ago I met Uncle Williams's granddaughter, who reported that her grandfather had been known for his kindness and generosity, and that her grandmother had been heartbroken when these three boys she had cared for disappeared without a word. Who knows what the truth might have been?

At any rate, W. T. B. and Callie Johnson moved to Texas some years later, and both died and are buried in Henrietta. It was very moving to visit the graves of this couple who--whatever the real story may have been--were responsible for bringing my great-grandfather to California.

A skeleton in the closet

One ancestor who has always fascinated me is Oliver Perry Hastings, my great-great-grandfather (my paternal grandmother’s maternal grandfather). My grandmother had a large portrait of him, another of his wife; she also had their marriage certificate. He appeared in the portrait to be a man of rectitude, and this was confirmed by his glowing obituary (a copy of which my grandmother also had). He was active in his community, serving as justice of the peace for Hancock county, Indiana, for several years; his name appears in many records of Hancock county, often as a witness or executor of an estate. He and his wife were also apparently staunch members of the Methodist Church. He and his wife, Elizabeth E. (Whitaker), had four children—two boys who died in infancy, and two girls who lived to adulthood, Mariah (Hastings) Warren Clark and Nettie Belle (Hastings) Likins (my great-grandmother).

            And he had one of those proverbial skeletons in his closet! Several years ago I saw a claim on ancestry.com that a man named Perry C. Apple was a son of Oliver Perry Hastings of Hancock county. I contacted the person who had posted this information; she wasn’t very directly related, but gave me enough information that I was able to put together at least the outlines of the story.

            In the 1850 census of Marion county, Indiana, Oliver, age 18, was living in the household of his parents, John and Mary Ann (Wheeler) Hastings. Four households away I found the family of Solomon Apple, including his daughter Mary Jane, then age 15. In between was the family of Levi Bolander. All these families had come to Indiana from Clermont co., Ohio, in the 1830s and 40s.

            Apparently Oliver and Mary Jane Apple had a relationship and she became pregnant. She was 18, and he was 21. Their child, Perry Commodore Apple, was born 9 Dec. 1854, and he is listed in the household of his Apple grandparents in 1860. Eight months after his birth, Oliver married Elizabeth Whitaker; two years later, Mary Jane married James Badgley.

            One wonders why Oliver and Mary Jane did not marry. Was Oliver already engaged to Elizabeth at the time? Were there issues between the families that prevented the marriage? The previous two years had not been kind to the Hastings family; Oliver’s mother, Mary Ann, had died, leaving a large family of children of whom Oliver was the eldest. Mary Ann’s mother, who was living in the family in 1850, had also died. Oliver’s father John moved to Illinois not long after his wife’s death, and Oliver appears to have gone to Illinois as well (they both appear in the 1855 state census of Shelby county), though he was back in Indiana by 1860.

            Mary Jane had a child by James Badgley, but her young husband died soon thereafter and she married the much older widower next door, Levi Bolander, by whom she had several more children. When Oliver returned to Indiana, he settled in Hancock county—not far from his out-of-wedlock son’s home, though not next door. The young Perry Apple apparently knew that Oliver was his father. When he married a cousin, Jennetta Apple, in 1876, the name on the marriage license was Perry C. Hasting. When Perry Apple died in 1911, the death certificate lists his father as Oliver Hastings. Oliver’s obituary, however, does not mention this son, and I never heard anything in the “family lore” to suggest that my great-grandmother had a half-brother.

My Elliott Family

One of my highest brick walls has been my great-great-grandmother, Frances Jane Elliott. Most of what is known of her family came originally from her son, Columbus Joseph Johnson, as recorded by his daughter Ila in the 1940s, and compiled by his son-in-law Elmer W. Thomas in the 1960s. According to Columbus, “Jane Elliott” (as he calls her; she is also listed in the Crawford co. tax records as “Mrs. Jane Johnson” so apparently was ordinarily known by her middle name) married John Johnson in Franklin co. AR 11 Dec. 1851 (and this is confirmed by Franklin co. marriage records, where she is named as Frances Jane Elliott). She was born 8 Apr. 1833 and died 27 Feb. 1868 in Arkansas, and her children were subsequently brought to California by their paternal uncle, William Johnson. Columbus also made the following remarks:

(1)  The Elliott family was of Welsh ancestry.

(2)  Frances J. Elliott’s mother’s maiden name was Booker; she (the mother) died in 1863 and is buried “on her father’s plantation.”

(3)  Frances J. Elliott’s grandfather Booker was a shoemaker, tanner and cotton farmer.

(4)  Frances J. Elliott’s father’s name is not known, but he apparently died early.

(5)  Frances J. Elliott had at least one brother, William Elliott [known to be William Thomas Cowan Elliott, b. ca 1829, settled in California ca. 1849 and is well known in records there].

Some additional information can be gleaned from U. S. census records, federal land patent records, and Franklin co. tax records. The 1840 census of Franklin co. shows an Elizabeth Elliott, age 30 to 40, with four young children in her household: a boy and a girl between 10 and 15, and a boy and a girl between 5 and 10.

In 1850 in Franklin co. AR we find:

Elizabeth Elliott           49        female              b. VA

Francis J. Elliott          16        female              b. TN

Francis Wright            13        female              b. AR

William J. Wright        9         male                 b. AR

Johnana Ragsdale        55        female              b. AR

And in 1860:

Eliz. Ellet                     62        female              b. VA

J. A. Ragsdale             14        female              b. AR

(adjacent household)

            Jn. Johnson                 31        male                 b. MO

            F. J. Johnson               27        female              b. TN

            William                          7        male                 b. AR

            Columbus                      4        male                 b. AR

            Alfred                            1        male                 b. AR

Certainly the F. J. Johnson in the 1860 census is my great-great-grandmother, and it seems clear that she is also the “Francis J. Elliott” in the 1850 census, and therefore quite probable that Elizabeth Elliott is her mother. The 1850 and 1860 censuses indicate that Elizabeth was born in Virginia (confirmed by the 1900 census entry for W. T. C. Elliott, which claims his mother was born in VA, father in SC). The ages differ by a few years, with the 1850 record saying Elizabeth was b. ca. 1800/01, the 1860 indicating ca. 1797/98. The 1800/01 date is more consistent with the range noted in 1840.

The four children listed in the 1840 census would include W. T. C. Elliott (b.  ca. 1829, so could plausibly be either the older boy, or the younger) and Frances Jane Elliott (the younger girl listed).

An Elizabeth Elliott received a federal land patent for land in Franklin co. (or possibly just over the border in Crawford co.) in 1843. This is likely she. An Elizabeth Elliott (variously spelled Eliott, Elliott, Elliot, Eliot) appears on Franklin co. tax records beginning in 1846; she last appears in 1861 (but that is the last extant record until 1866, when she does not appear). Columbus Johnson claimed she died in 1863; no contemporary records have been found to confirm this, but one whimsical record may support it: the Van Buren Press of 3 March 1866, which paper probably served the Franklin co. area (though located in neighboring Crawford co.), listed Elizabeth Elliott as among those for whom a letter was sitting unclaimed as of 28 Feb. at the Van Buren post office. [Evelyn Sue Williams, Abstracts from Crawford county, Ark., Newspapers (Nov. 1994)]

The hypothesis that emerges from all these records is that Elizabeth Booker, born in Virginia, married Mr. Elliott, and that they lived for the early part of their marriage in Tennessee (where the above records for Frances Jane, and consistent records for W. T. C.  Elliott, indicate they both were born, he ca. 1829 and she ca. 1833). This Mr. Elliott apparently died either before Elizabeth came to Arkansas, or shortly after, and in any event was apparently dead by the time of the 1840 census. Elizabeth Elliott does not appear in the census records after 1860, and of course Columbus said that she died in1863.

Who are the females named “Ragsdale” in these census records? The family tradition doesn’t mention this name, but Columbus mentioned several sisters of his father—a list which, while essentially correct, conflates some names and includes one who was not a sister but a cousin. Included in the list is one who cannot be identified in conjunction with the Johnson family, a “Mrs. Raglyn” who, he said, “lived and died in the East” (which presumably just means she didn’t come to California). Is it possible that he had the name and relationship slightly wrong, and that her name was Ragsdale and she was a sister of his mother? Whether that rather speculative idea is true or not, the presence in two different census years of a Ragsdale female in Elizabeth Elliott’s household suggests a close connection. But who were they?

My guess is that the 1850 census listing for “Johnana Ragsdale” is mistaken in the age; it is highly unlikely that she could have been born in Arkansas in 1795. If she was not 55, but 5, she would be the same person enumerated in Elizabeth’s household in 1860, J. A. Ragsdale age 14.

A biographical sketch of one Wesley Hinson [Henson], a resident of Crawford co., in the Goodspeed Publishing Company’s 1889 History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas states that he married a Johanna Ragsdale, daughter of George and Hester Ann Ragsdale. It also states that Johanna’s mother died when she was “but a girl.” My current theory is that Hester Ann Ragsdale was a daughter of Elizabeth Elliott, that she died not too long after the birth of her daughter Johanna/John Anna ca. 1846, and that the young girl then lived with Elizabeth. Her father, George Ragsdale, is apparently the man who appears in the 1850 census in the household of Luna and Susan Booth; Susan is apparently Susan Ragsdale, George’s sister. Their mother Matilda Ragsdale is also in the household. It is interesting to note that W. T. C. Elliott named one of his children Hester—perhaps after his deceased sister?

George Ragsdale then apparently married again, to a woman whose name is not known. In the 1860 census he appears again in Crawford county as an apparent widower, with two young sons, Peter and Enos (5 and 3 respectively). Some descendants of this family have assumed that these two were also the sons of Hester Ann, but that seems quite unlikely, since George appears unmarried in the 1850 census (and Hester Ann doesn’t appear at all). It is much more likely that she had died, leaving the one daughter, and that George subsequently married the mother of Peter and Enos. This wife apparently also died prior to 1860. In the 1870 census, George appears with a wife “N. C.,’ aged 19 (and he was then 48!), along with Enos (“E. B.”) and a young girl, “M. A.” In Peter’s household in 1880, the “N. C.” is named as “Nancy,” the “M. A.” is named as Martha, and there are two more children, George (age 9) and Maggie (age 2).

George Ragsdale apparently then moved to Cherokee co. KS, where he appears in the 1895 Kansas state census in the household of his son Peter. Apparently the third wife, Nancy, was dead by that time.

Wesley Henson died in Crawford co. AR in 1893, leaving a will in which he mentions “my wife John Anna Caroline Henson,” as his heir. He states that, following the death of his wife, his estate is to be divided between his brothers and sister “and my nephew James Wesley Ragsdale.” One would assume that this “nephew” was in fact his wife’s nephew (and apparently the son of her brother, Enos B. Ragsdale).

To summarize: It appears to me that the Hester Ann who was married to George Ragsdale was a daughter of Elizabeth (Booker) Elliott, one of the two young women in her household in 1840 (the other being my great-great-grandmother, Frances Jane). George and Hester had one daughter, Johanna/John Anna, who, after her mother’s death, went to live with her grandmother Elizabeth until her marriage to Wesley Henson. Her father, George Ragsdale, subsequently married an unknown woman, by whom he had two sons, Peter and Enos; and after their mother’s death, he married a third time a woman named Nancy, by whom he had three more children, Martha, George, and Maggie.