Tag: Preston Thomas

52W Mark IV – Week 38: Card B12 Thomas Preston

Preston Thomas (1814-1877)

TL;DR: My Gx3 Grandfather Preston Thomas was first a slave owner and later a polygamist. I don’t like him.

Of course, that comes with the bias of my point in time. The longer story is that in his time Preston was well-respected by his community, his church, and his family. He was acting on the norms of his time and his community. In addition to many different occupational pursuits during his life, Preston a leader, a teacher, a politician, and a judge.

Preston’s story begins in Rockingham, North Carolina, where he was born on February 15, 1814 to Daniel Thomas and Nancy Ann Morehead. Daniel was the son of a Baptist minister and was an affluent slaveowner with a 3000 acre plantation with a carpenter shop, blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, and a shad fishery. Daniel owned about 30 slaves, many of whom were passed onto his sons.

Needless to say, with the stature of his father, Preston was well-educated. Apparently he spent some time in New Jersey as part of his schooling, although I do not know what kind of school he attended or when. Preston was 16 when his father passed away on November 7, 1830. By the time he was 21, Preston’s endeavours included operating a sawmill he owned in Covington, North Carolina.

Sometime after Daniel died, Preston, his mother Nancy, and his older brother Joseph, and younger sister Elizabeth (“Betsy”) all relocated to Tipton, Tennessee. Joseph was married at the time; Preston and Betsy were not. Needless to say, the family brought their slaves with them. It seems Joseph bought some land that he farmed. Preston’s pursuits included the study of law, but I don’t know if he actually practiced. By 1838, Preston also owned a mill in Tipton.

In Tipton, Preston married Sarah Ann Jane Morehead on May 10, 1838. Sarah – who went by Jane – was a cousin of Preston’s to some degree, but I haven’t researched their exact relationship. From 1839 to 1860, over four states, Preston and Jane had nine children.

Sarah Ann Jane Morehead and Preston Thomas

Sometime in mid-1835, Preston’s brother Joseph had relocated to Somerville, Mississippi. Years later, Joseph returned to Tennessee and persuaded his mother and siblings Betsy and Daniel to join him in Mississippi. Preston remained in Tipton. However, after Preston’s mother died on November 7, 1843, he moved to Somerville. Part of the move was to help settle his mother’s estate. Preston build a mill upon moving to Somerville; presumably a sawmill as he had done in North Carolina.

It was in Mississippi that Preston and his family first encountered some Mormon missionaries. Eventually, Preston and all his siblings joined the church; in fact, years later on a mission to Texas, Preston converted his brother Daniel. Preston was baptised into the church January 13, 1844 and became one of its most ardent evangelists. He served on six major missions, primarily to Texas. Preston travelled the Mississippi river nearly thirty times as part of his missionary work. Thomas sold his slaves to his uncle, Benjamin Thomas, and moved his family to Nauvoo, Illinois, settling there by 1845.

When the Mormons were driven out of Nauvoo in 1846, Preston initially moved his family to Memphis, Tennessee. In part, it was because they still had family in Tennessee; as well, Preston was serving another mission. They remained there for at least a year. By 1848, Preston and family had joined the Mormon migration in Winter Quarters in Nebraska, which the Saints had set up as a temporary community on their way to Utah.

However, before proceeding to Utah, Preston was called to another mission to Texas. As well, in 1850, the family briefly lived in Freemont, Iowa, where Preston carried out farming. While residing there, Preston and Sarah Jane took in two of Preston’s nephews, whose parents had passed away. By 1851, Preston and his family had settled in Lehi, Utah, where they remained for the next nine years.

Sometime in 1949, during one of his missions to Texas, Preston met John Smith and Maria Amanda Foscue (1822-1885), a couple with seven children. John was originally from Alabama, Maria was from Florida. During this mission, Preston converted the couple, who undertook the trek to Utah. John did not survive. Maria ultimately ended up in Salt Lake City and came back into contact with Preston, who she married on November 17, 1851. Bear in mind that Preston was still married to Sarah Jane at the time, and he remained so until he died. With Maria, Preston had four children, all of whom were born in Lehi.

Besides providing for his large and growing family, Preston was a busy man in Lehi. The town established a school in 1851. Preston and his sister Betsy were its first teachers. Preston taught the boys on one side of the school room; Betsy taught the girls on the other side. A school board was established on February 20, 1854. Preston was one of three men elected as the first trustees. Another was William Burgess. My grandfather, Leo Burgess, is a direct descendant of William and Preston – William on his father’s side and Preston on his mother’s. A month after becoming a member of the school board, Preston was elected as an alderman of Lehi.

Two of Lehi’s first school board trustees, and great grandfathers of Leo Burgess, my maternal grandfather

On top of all that, Preston was one of the first Probate Judges in Utah. He was appointed when the court was created and was the first judge for Utah County (Salt Lake City). Preston’s appointment was approved by an Act of the territorial legislature on February 7, 1852 (Laws of the Territory of Utah, Chapter XLV).

At the time of its creation, the Probate Court in Utah had a much broader jurisdiction than simply the estates of the deceased and those under guardianship. In addition, the territorial legislature granted the court jurisdiction over civil, criminal, chancery, and divorce matters. As well, the Probate Court heard appeals from the county Justice of the Peace courts. In 1874, the federal government revoked the Probate Court’s jurisdiction over all matters except for divorce and probate matters and in 1877, it revoked the court’s authority in divorce matters. When Utah became a state in 1896, the Probate Court was abolished.

Docket and Journal of the Probate Court, 1852, showing Judge Preston Thomas swearing in the Clerk of the Court.

It appears that Preston’s tenure was a short one, as he was succeeded by Isaac Higbee on December 27, 1852. Not surprising, since Preston was called to serve yet another mission in Texas, from August 1852 to November 1853. Preston served yet another mission in Texas from September 1854 to September 1856.

During that latter mission, Preston made his way to Texas through St. Louis, Missouri. There he met Rachel Hadlond (née Franklin), an English immigrant who had joined the Mormon church. When Rachel learned Preston was arranging for a company of Texan converts to migrate to Utah, Rachel “begged” him to take her three oldest children, Charlotte, Maria (“Molly”), and Edward with him. The children were ages 18, 16, and 14 at the time. While Molly remained in Utah, Charlotte and Edward ultimately returned to St. Louis.

Two years later, on October 8, 1856, Preston married Molly. Apparently Brigham Young himself was the officiant, and conducted the ceremony in his office in Salt Lake City. Preston was 42, Molly was 18. Preston fathered 9 children with Molly. All together, Preston fathered 22 children with his three wives. Preston and Molly’s first child was a daughter, who they named Sarah Ann Jane, after Preston’s first – and still – wife.

During his final years in Lehi, Preston was elected to the Utah Territorial House of Representatives, serving for three sessions from 1857 to 1859. Preston was first elected as one of three representatives of Utah and Cedar Counties, along with Aaron Johnson and James C. Snow. During his first term, he served on two Select Standing Committees: Elections, as well as Agriculture, Trade, and Manufacture. The first session took place in Fillmore, which was originally the territorial capital. The next two took place in Salt Lake City.

Some of Preston’s legislative and judicial positions

In June 1860, Preston accompanied Brigham Young as part of a team exploring a site in northern Utah. Young planned for a settlement at the site. During the trip, Young told Preston that he wanted him to be the Bishop of the new settlement and directed Preston to go home and get his family. It was a two-week trip to make the move. Maria and her children remained behind in Lehi, as she was about to give birth to her youngest child.

By September, a settlement was established at the location, which became Franklin, Idaho. When it was established, the founders believed the site was in Utah. Long afterwards they discovered that it was inside Idaho, about a mile north of the border. In the meantime, Franklin was administered as if it was in Utah. Preston served as bishop in Franklin for three years. In 1863, Preston was reappointed to the Probate Court of Utah, where he served until 1865.

In 1863, Brigham Young directed a team of 12 to 15 men to explore the Bear Lake Valley in Idaho, not too far from Franklin. This group included Preston. The team completed its survey and by September 1863 a settlement had been erected where Paris, Idaho now stands. Preston built a log cabin at the time and then returned to Franklin for the winter. He then moved to Bear Valley with his family the following spring.

After living in Paris for a while, Preston moved the family about 20 kilometers south, to Fish Haven. During the time he lived in Bear Valley, Preston was called to serve another mission in 1869 and 1870, which included Alabama and Tennessee.

In 1873, Preston moved his family back to Franklin. Upon his return, Preston oversaw the construction of a canal, which was nicknamed Thomas Ditch. The name was probably an apt one as it seems calling it a canal might have overstated its stature. Regardless, it remained in use for 60 years and was subsequently expanded. Preston settled on a homestead of 160 acres, alongside the canal.

In 1876, Preston once again stood for election to a territorial legislature. However, by that time, it had been discovered that Franklin was inside Idaho, so Preston was nominated to run for the Territorial Council of Idaho for Franklin County. It does not appear that he was successful.

A year later, on July 10, 1877 Preston was killed as a result of an accident while working with his son Preston Pinkney, who was 16 at the time. Preston had felled a pine tree that he intended to mill into lumber for a house he was building on his property. Preston was cutting the tree into lengths when it began to roll downhill. While trying to move out of the way, Preston’s feet became entangled in the brush, and he fell. While he was rolling down the hill, the tree rolled over him and killed him instantly. Preston was interred at the Franklin Cemetery.

I acknowledge that my dislike for Preston might smack of presentism, which involves applying modern values and perspectives to historical analysis. As someone who majored in history, I am well-aware of the viewpoints for and against presentism. It is also a question debated by genealogists in writing about our ancestors.

However, we are also allowed our feelings about past norms that are now seen as historic wrongs. Moreover, while it is important remember our ancestors in the context of their time and what might have been considered right or wrong, I am not convinced that absolves the slaveholders and bigamists of my past. Avoiding presentism does not mean avoiding the application of a critical mind.

While it might not be appropriate to judge Preston, especially by modern standards, it does not mean I have to like him.

One thing that researching Preston has instilled in me is understanding the responsibility I have in doing something positive with the knowledge that Preston was a slaveowner. For example, researching slaveowners can help the descendants of the enslaved learn more about their ancestors. That’s an area of genealogical research I haven’t done much of and involves a steep learning curve. Time, distance, access to records, and resources are also hurdles. Nevertheless, I have started investigating what tools and techniques I can employ in that research.

52W Mark III – Week 15: School Days

I typically consider myself as a descendant of many, many farmers. However, I am always surprised to remember that I am also descended from many individuals for whom education was important. There are also several educators in my extended family, including a high school principal. One of my sisters was a school teacher before becoming a medical doctor. As well, my maternal grandmother, Helen Lerner, originally intended to become a school teacher until a nun steered her in another direction.

In particular, several of my direct ancestors were school board trustees. The earliest were my Gx3 grandfathers, William Burgess (1822-1904) and Preston Thomas (1814-1877). They served together on the first school board for the Lehi, Utah school district. The school district was created by the city of Lehi by resolution dated February 17, 1854. An election was held three days later, on February 20, 1854. Three school trustees were elected: William, Preston, and Daniel Collett.

My Grandpa Burgess also had several other school trustees on his maternal line, the Nelson family. According to the 1880 US Census, his great grandfather (another of my Gx3 grandfathers), Robert Nelson (1818-1902) was a school trustee in Smithfield, Utah. Twenty-seven years later Robert’s son, John Alexander Nelson (my Gx2 grandfather) held the same office in Woolford, Alberta. John was one of the founders of the Woolford school board and was one of its first board members.

John’s son (my grandfather’s uncle), Seth Henry Nelson Q.C. (1891-1975), also served as a school board trustee in Cardston, Alberta. Seth was a school trustee for 15 years, from 1924 to 1939. Seth served as the Board’s Secretary for the last 10 years of his time in office. Following his last term as a school trustee, Seth made an unsuccessful run for a seat in the Alberta provincial legislature during the 1940 general election. Seth ran as an independent against the incumbent Social Credit candidate, Nathan Tanner. Tanner was a former Speaker of the legislature who was appointed to Cabinet in 1937. Despite running as an independent, it was a close race. Tanner defeated Seth in a two-way race, 2,160 votes to 1,808 (54.4% of the vote).

Education was also a facet of my wife’s side of the family, one of whom also served as a school trustee. Frank Eden (1839-1907), our children’s Gx3 grandfather, was a prominent Halifax, Nova Scotia merchant whose primary business was shoe manufacturing and sales. Frank served two non-consecutive terms as an alderman on the Halifax city council (1892-1893 and 1895-1896). Concurrent with both terms of office on city council, Frank served on the Halifax Board of School Commissioners.

In 1902, there was an attempt to persuade Frank, who was still in the shoe industry, to run for Mayor of Halifax. As stated on page nine of the Halifax Herald, on January 1, 1902: “There is a movement on foot…to get ex-Alderman Frank Eden to consent to run for mayor.” As far as I’m concerned, all puns are intended.

52W Mark II – Week 8: I Can Identify

Can we identify James Turner’s parents?

Heck, are we even related to James Turner?

There are branches of my family tree in which I am keenly interested, and others that just haven’t caught my fancy. Maybe it is because I identify with some branches more than others. I suspect many genealogists might be like that. However, in recent years I now have someone to prompt me about those ignored or forgotten family lines.

Like me, my eldest son developed an interest in genealogy when he was about eight years old – without any prompting by me, I’d like to add. He has been invaluable to my own research, as he often asks very good questions that set me off on a new line of inquiry. In addition, there are times he’ll look through our pedigree on my database and ask about ancestors who I literally haven’t looked at in thirty years. It always results in the two of us working together to learn more about that individual and their branch of the family. Perhaps the one he has been most interested in was his great x8 grandfather on his mother’s side of the family, Francis Lecain. He is fascinated with the fact he has an ancestor from the Bailiwick of Jersey.

One branch that my son asked about very recently, who I haven’t thought much about since my early days of research, is that of my great x4 grandmother, Nancy Ann Morehead. She is the mother of Preston Thomas, someone who I actually have spent quite a bit of time researching. However, I have little more on Nancy other than her date of birth (April 18, 1779, in Virginia) and date of marriage (December 3, 1795, in Richmond County, North Carolina, to Daniel Thomas). Pretty much the only “research” I’ve done in relation to Nancy was through Ancestral File (am I dating myself?) in 1995 and 1997. Needless to say, that was well before the development of the Genealogical Proof Standard. Other than that, my research notes show that I looked her up on FamilySearch in 2014, almost 10 years ago.

Looking at Nancy’s paternal line, I see that the last time I touched it was when I transitioned from using Cumberland Family Tree to RootsMagic in 2008. That information also probably dates back to 1995 and Ancestral File.

However, I have taken occasional passing interest in Nancy’s maternal line, although not too seriously and without any real research into it in decades. What has caught my eye about that branch was the surname of the person said to be Nancy’s great grandmother, Martha Taliaferro, who was also from Virginia. Martha was the mother of James Turner, Nancy’s maternal grandfather. I think what piqued my interest was that “Taliaferro” looks Italian to me. In later years, I learned that the Virginia Taliaferros were of British origin, although they most likely came to England from Venice centuries before. I also learned, either through Who Do You Think You Are or Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was that the name is actually pronounced “tolliver”.

About two weeks ago my son asked if we could do some genealogy together. The request usually results in him going through our pedigree and choosing someone who catches his eye. That day it was Martha Taliaferro. If I recall correctly, we ended up trying to find better information about her parentage. However, as I often do, I remind him that we need to ensure that the links between our generation and that of the person we’re researching are sufficiently proven. That’s when the loose threads began to unravel.

Looking at the information I had and the information we found, it seemed that Martha and her husband Thomas Turner could not be James’s parents. First of all, the most likely date of their marriage is inconsistent with the likely date of Jame’s birth.

Most of the sources linking James to this couple are centuries old compendiums with little or no notation of the sources. More recent research I found indicates that this connection is likely incorrect. Among other things, Thomas Turner’s will makes no mention of a son named James, nor do there appear to be other records, such as deeds, suggesting any connection. As one person posted on an Ancestry message board, “It is unfortunate so many people continue to ‘input’ this erroneous family relationship into their ‘databases’. All they have to do is a little bit of actual research to discover this simple fact.“

While it remains to be confirmed with more certainty, James’s parents might be Edward Turner Sr. and Sarah Meredith, or Edward Turner and Sarah Palmer.

I haven’t done any further or significant research into this conundrum. Before doing so, I first want to prove the lineage I have from Nancy to James. I would then dig into James’s parentage. I have created a research log for this problem, complete with some of the possible sources I have identified. However, I have only rated it as being of middling urgency. Until then, the mystery remains.

52 Weeks – Week 37: High and Low

Highs and lows bring to mind the Guinness Book of World Records. So for this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge, I thought I’d consider some of the superlatives in my family tree. Bear in mind that this is for entertainment purposes only, because some of these superlatives have not been sufficiently researched or verified such that they can be taken as fact.

Here’s a high: Mount Baker, Washington

I cannot verify with certainty the longevity of the few centenarians in my database. According to my database, my longest-lived ancestor died at age 110. I don’t believe that for a second, so I won’t even name them. The person for whom I have at least a scintilla of information regarding their longevity is Joseph Metz, my first cousin three times removed. According to his headstone, as seen on Find a Grave, Joseph lived to be about 102 or 103. The longest-lived person in my database with the most reliable information regarding their lifespan is my fourth cousin three times removed, Fern Renner. She was better known to the world as Fern Welk, as she was married to the well-known band leader, Lawrence Welk.

My relative who was the oldest on their wedding day was my great great great uncle, Samuel Nelson, who married for the fourth time when he was 77. The bride, Cecilie Anderson, was 62. Samuel lived to be 93, making him one of my longer lived relatives.

The newlyweds, Hazel Nelson and Albert Beaves, about July 5, 1967.

My great grandmother, Hazel Nelson, married for a second time at age 67, not quite two months before she passed away. Her husband, Albert Beaves, was also a widower marrying for the second time. Albert was 85 years old at the time. He lived another nine years after Hazel’s death. Albert died when he was 94.

While Samuel Nelson had been married four times, the record for most marriages is my 7x great uncle, Archelaus Kenney, who apparently married five times. Not even any of the Mormon polygamists in my tree married that many times. However, I have not verified any of Archelaus’s marriages.

Otherwise, Samuel’s record was tied by his younger brother, my great great grandfather, John Alexander Nelson. However, while it appears that Samuel had been widowed each time he remarried, John was a polygamist. Another ancestor, my great x3 grandfather, Henry Lyman Cook, was also a polygamist who married four times. Other polygamist ancestors, including my great x3 grandfathers William Burgess, Jr. and Preston Thomas, only married three times.

A bunch of polygamists: John A. Nelson, Henry L. Cook, William Burgess Jr., Preston Thomas.

It probably comes as no surprise that the women in my family tree have had fewer multiple marriages than the men. I can find few examples of women who married more than twice. One of the exceptions is my great x4 grandmother, Louisa Thomas, who married three times. Her first husband, Lazarus Beakley, died a year or two after they married, when Louisa was around 24 or 25 years old. Louisa’s second husband, my great x4 grandfather Conrad Liggett, died 18 months after they married, when Louisa was 26. Louisa married again at age 29, to Aaron Cook. Unfortunately, that was another short-lived marriage, as Louisa died when she was 35.

Of course, with marriage there are often children. Of course, the person with the most children in my tree is a father. My great great grandfather, Horace Burgess, had nineteen children. He had nine children with his first wife, my great great grandmother Sarah Cook. Their eight child and youngest son was Milton Leo Burgess, my great grandfather. After Sarah died, Horace remarried, to Julia Josephine Lundquist, with whom he had ten children.

The woman in my family tree who appears to have had the most children is Horace’s paternal grandmother, Violate Stockwell. Violate and my great x 4 grandfather, William Burgess Sr., had 12 children, including my great x 3 grandfather William Jr, who had 12 children with three different wives.

Delving far from what I’ve established through the genealogical proof standard, the earliest occurrence of a surname in my direct lineage is de Fleg, which dates back to the 10th century, through my 9x great grandfather Thomas Flegg. My connection to Thomas is through Henry Lyman Cook. While I have done a pretty good job at demonstrating my connection to Henry, I have not really done much work on his ancestry beyond the basics.

Here’s a low: standing a meter below sea level in Waarland, Netherlands

I realize that in this examination of superlatives, I have only considered the highs. Of course, considering the people in my tree who are at the opposite end of most of the categories I have discussed are in the multiples. The one category that might lend itself to reasonable consideration of the low end is the surname that might be the opposite end of earliest occurrence. In other words, the surnames I have traced the least far back in time. I’ve identified all 32 of my great x3 grandparents. It is the next generation where I face my first brick walls. I am missing nine of my 64 great x4 grandparents, all on my maternal grandmother’s side of the family. They are all Germans from Russia, who are particularly difficult to research. These lines trace back to settlements in what is now Ukraine, when it was part of the Russian Empire.

Genealogy: all the highs and lows are fascinating!