Sarah Jane Cline married in Will County, Illinois

Sarah Jane Cline

1847 - 1937

on  

July 04, 1872,

Married  

Cyrus N. Curtis

1831 - 1906

Sarah Cline Curtis was the third child of William Cline and Nancy Cox Cline.

The two things I believe to be true from Family Lore about Sarah Cline Curtis is that my father, Curtis Henry Cline, was named after his Aunt Sarah Cline Curtis.  I also believe that Cyrus Curtis was a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service until his hands drew up and he could no longer work.  Finally, I read on Ancestry that one of Sarah's granddaughters remembers seeing the above marriage certificate in her grandparent's living room for many years.

I obtained the pension records of Sarah Cline Curtis, filed against her husband Cyrus' American Civil War service in the Union Army.  It tells that Cyrus grew up in Vermont on his family's farm.  Unfortunately, no 1870 Census record has been located for Cyrus or Sarah.  However, in the early 1880s, Cyrus Curtis had his fingers drawn up, making using his hands almost impossible.  By the time he was in his early fifties, the lack of using his hand had caused him to lose his job with the US Postal System, and he and Sarah fell on hard financial times.  By 1898 he was frail, feeble, and showed signs of depression.  He was admitted to the Chicago Mental Hospital that year and died there in 1906.  The couple had two sons and two daughters.  After Cyrus was admitted to the hospital, Sarah moved in with her daughter Mary and her family.  She remained with them until she died in 1937.

I remember my father talking about his Aunt Sarah Curtis visiting the family every summer from Chicago.  He never said if they came by car or by train.  He enjoyed their visits.  I wish there was written information about why she moved from New Madrid to Chicago after the Civil War.  Did she meet Cyrus during the Civil War?  Was she bored with small-town New Madrid and long for the big city?  Or, did her parents feel she would be safer in a northern state, away from the one-on-one combat and constant bombardment from Union ships in the town of New Madrid.  We shall likely never know.

The couple had the following children, and I found three grandchildren.  But unfortunately, Frances married late in life and had no children, and Charles had no marriage record. 

William Theodore Curtis

BIRTH April 17, 1873, in Channahon, Will, Illinois, USA

DEATH May 04, 1930, in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA

Mary Kathryn Curtis

BIRTH February 05, 1876, in Channahon, Will, Illinois, USA

DEATH June 06, 1946, in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA

Frances W Curtis

BIRTH Nov 1876  in Channahon, Will, Illinois, USA

DEATH August 03, 1952, in Indiana, USA

Charles Clement Curtis

BIRTH September 30, 1881, in Channahon, Will, Illinois, USA

DEATH January 09, 1940 

If you have additional information on this family, please contact me at mcharmon1@gmail.com.

To See A Family, is Better Than to Hear about a Family

I have been asked by several people if I could show a Family Group Sheet or Pedigree of the families I write about.  Shown below is William and Nancy (Cox) C/Kline.  This is the family I have written about in the past six Blogs.  We learned about:

• where William was born and grew up in Germany
• the town of New Madrid where he lived
• Civil War Era New Madrid and its effects  
• how he buried his gold when he sold his farm
• that his daughter Elizabeth Cline Verlague and her family were one of the first prominent families of San Diego County
• his son Gazwell was a grocery and saloon keeper

This chart should make it easier to follow the Family History of this family.  If you ever have questions, please put them in the comments below.  I am resubmitting the last two for your use with this chart.

Let me know if you found this Family Group Sheet helpful in better understanding the family relationship in reading the family stories.  You may put your comments below.  Have a great week-end.

Gazwell Kline was Grocery and Saloon Keeper

New Madrid Record

March 24, 1886

Funeral Notice:

                               Died in this city at one o'clock p.m. Wednesday, March 24, 1886.

Mr. Gazwell Klein

Aged 42 years, 11 months, and 15 days.  Friends of the deceased are respectfully notified that the funeral will take place from the residence of Mrs. Mosier in this city at 2 o'clock Thursday, March 25, 1886, to the Klein graveyard.  Services will be conducted by Rev. Webster Full.

(The Kline/Cline graveyard is now in the middle of the Mississippi River.  Gazwell Kline was the husband of Anna Eliza Blount Kline, and the above newspaper clipping was pasted in her Bible.)        ___  ___  ___ ___ ___ ___ ____ 

                                       

The funeral was held at Elizabeth "Tickell" Jones-Moore-Blount-Mosier.

.

Elizabeth Mosier, who died February 20, 1892, was a sister of Madison Tickell and Gazwell Kline's mother-in-law.  Elizabeth Tickell, the wife of Daniel Mosier, is buried in the Sikeston City Cemetery along with her daughter, Eliza Anna Blount Kline, her son-in-law, W. Henry Cline (his wife and Elizabeth's granddaughter Nancy Lena Kline), a grandson Webster, and a great-granddaughter Vera Cline Johnson.  Elizabeth has her maiden name on her headstone, which shows her date of birth as March 9, 1811.

NOTE:  William "Wilheim" Cline was born in  Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany, and his American family originally spelled their name Cline.  However, after the marriage of his granddaughter Nancy Lena Cline to her first cousin Henry Cline, Anna Eliza Blount Cline changed the spelling of her and her daughter's name to Kline.

William's only son, Gazwell, was born in or near New Madrid, Missouri, on April 8, 1843.  Some seventy-four years and fifteen days later, his great-great-granddaughter Tina Louise Harmon Havard was born on his birthday on April 8, 1960.  Even odder, six years later, on April 8, 1966, a second great-great-granddaughter Jeanelle Renee' Cline Shaw, was born.  Both these baby girls were the granddaughters of Curtis Henry Cline and Marie Ruth Price Cline.  Unfortunately, family tradition says that Gazwell died from either gallstones or appendicitis.

I found the 1863 Tax Assessment Report for New Madrid County, Missouri, listing non-serving men of eligible age who were not fighting in the War Between the States.  I then found Missouri taxed a $30 fee for non-service in 1863 on Gazwell Cline for not serving in the War.   I was surprised by this as Gazwell's father was a German-born immigrant to the USA.  In general, German-born immigrants firmly backed the Union cause.  It is also odd that this family had three or more slaves.  But, again, most German-born citizens were staunch abolitionists.  From these documents, he apparently declined to take sides in the American Civil War and continued to run the family grocery store.

We have little information on Gazwell Cline; however, I have a videotape of granddaughter Vera Cline Johnson telling the camera about her memories of hearing her Grandma Kline talk about her husband.  My Aunt Vera recalled her Grandma saying, "My husband Gazwell was a kind man and a gentleman.  He was good to me.  I could go into the store and take money out of the cash register, tell him how much I took, and he would just say, 'fine dear, have a pleasant day.' That was the way he was, even-tempered." Unfortunately, family traditions state he died of appendicitis.  Today, a simple operation would take care of that issue; however, in 1886, doctors had little knowledge of the surgery needed to remove his appendix.  He did just fifteen days short of his 43rd birthday.

Gazwell Cline (later changed to Kline) and Anna Eliza Blount married on January 23, 1868, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in New Madrid.  He was educated in private schooling in New Madrid and worked in his Father's Grocery and Dram store in downtown New Madrid.  His wife, Anna, was educated at the Nashville Ladies College in Nashville, Tennessee.  Gazwell and his wife had two children, Nancy Lena Cline and Robert Edward Cline.  Both were well-educated in private educational institutes in New Madrid.  Lena was fluent in English, German, and French and was an accomplished musician.  She played the pianist for the local Methodist Church.  Their son, Edward, graduated from the Kentucky University and Business College in Lexington, Kentucky, and was employed with N. W. Marshall and Company as a bookkeeper.  He died in 1894, just one year after graduating from college.  

Gazwell's daughter Lena married his wife's cousin, Henry Cline.  Family tradition says that it was at this time they changed the spelling of the last name from Cline to Kline.  So Anna Eliza Blount Kline's mother (Elizabeth Tickell Jones-Moore-Blount-Mosier) and her new son-in-law Henry Cline's mother (Sophronia Tickell Cline) were sisters.  This made my grandparents William Henry Cline and his wife, Lena Kline Cline, second cousins.  It also makes my family tree interesting.

Elizabeth Cline Verlague was a Pioneer Woman

Elizabeth Cline, the eldest daughter of William Cline and Nancy Cox Cline, married Theophilus Verlaque in 1856 at New Madrid, Missouri.  From land records I found in the New Madrid Court House, we know that they owned land there between 1856 and 1870, before moving to San Diego, California.  They are recognized as early pioneers of that county. 

New Madrid County, Missouri. Surveys, Concessions, Patents and Swamp Land Patents compiled by Jane Vann and Vera Ashley in 1992, show that Theopholis Verlaque received a Swamp Land Patent No. 118, for Sec. 36, Twp. 23, Range 13 in New Madrid County, Missouri, on October 6, 1857.  The couple bought land from W. W. Hunter, Admin. in 1860 as recorded in Book 20, Page 517, also sold property in the city of New Madrid to her father, William Cline, on 18 Jan. 1866, as recorded in Book 21, Page 288.  Family tradition says this is where William Cline’s Grocery and Dram Shop was located.  They again bought land from B. F. Boyce (by Sheriff Davis) in 1869 as recorded in Book 22, Page 226.

Theophilus and Elizabeth Verlaque family took several trips to France, where Theophilus still had family members. On an 1869 trip, both Elizabeth and her husband were listed in 2nd class cabins with their eldest two sons on this returning vessel.  Shortly after that, Theopholis and Elizabeth Verlaque sold land to her Uncle Matt Tickell in 1870 as recorded in Book 22, Page 429, before moving their family to San Diego, California.  Once in San Diego, the Verlaque family ran a restaurant, built a winery, and ran 2,000 sheep on the outskirts of San Diego.  Theophile and son Amos visited the Santa Maria Valley in the early 1880s.  The son Amos Verlaque purchased 2 acres near a good spring along the main wagon road to Julian.  In 1883, Amos built a general store and post office.  This was the first commercial venture in the new town first called Nuevo. 

 While the younger Verlaque lived and worked in the new town, his father continued to live in San Diego. A few years after the opening of the store, Theophile Verlaque decided to build a country house in Nuevo for outings from the city.

The country house, completed in 1886 and adjacent to Amos Verlaque's store, was said to be built in style reminiscent of his father's native Provence. The house had five rooms plus a basement with a 7-foot ceiling to serve as a wine cellar.  Verlaque family members operated the store until 1933. The building has housed many businesses since and is today the home of Catt Farm Supply.

Leona Ransom bought the house from Verlaque descendants with the intention of preserving it. Ransom's heirs donated it to the Ramona Pioneer Historical Society in 1984. The building, restored with period furniture, is now part of the society's Guy B. Woodward Museum."  The graves and headstones of the Amos Verlaque family are on the southwest corner of the property, immediately adjacent to the sidewalk.

The former Verlaque home also stands. Theophile Verlaque died in 1913, wife Elizabeth in 1926. Ownership of the Ramona house was passed down to three of Theophile's six children, remaining in the family until the early 1960s.  

The Theophile Verlaque country house, completed in 1886 and adjacent to Amos Verlaque's store, was said to be built in a style reminiscent of his father's native Provence. The house had five rooms plus a basement with a 7-foot ceiling to serve as a wine cellar.  The home is on display as a museum today.

Source:  

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080608/news_lz1mc8wewere.http

Street address:  645 Main Street Ramona, California  92065 County / Borough / Parish: San Diego County National Historic Landmark: Year listed: 1991 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1875-1899 Historic function: Agriculture/Subsistence, Domestic Current function: Recreation And Culture Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

Civil War Era New Madrid, Missouri

In 1862, New Madrid, Missouri, had 85
businesses and two hospitals.

When 1st Lt. Louis Boedicker, 2nd MO. Art., Army Engineer, drew this map in March 1862. The Confederates still controlled New Madrid and Island Number Ten. The town was the county seat of government, it had 85 active businesses, two hospitals, and a thriving Port of New Madrid, and its citizens enjoyed freedom from the Union troops. Few people understand that Missouri saw more than 1,200 engagements within its boundaries when you count minor actions and skirmishes. Only Virginia and Tennessee exceeded this total. The movie "Gone With the Wind" implies that the Civil War was only fought in the Deep South. Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee citizens suffered much throughout the war. In my opinion, the high action in these three states was primarily because of the intense loyalty of its people to both sides. Even those citizens who supported remaining in the Union resented the invasion of Union Troops into Missouri and other border states.

Missouri was essential to the Union and Confederacy because of its strategic location on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, natural resources, and manpower.

Missouri experienced some of the most violent conflicts of the Civil War, and its people came to symbolize the tragedy of the nation's divisive struggle. The fighting in Missouri was unique in the American Civil War. They experienced arson, murder, robbery, torture, and more from Bloomfield to Commerce, Cape Girardeau, and Jackson to Fredericktown, Benton, Bertrand, New Hamburg, and Sikeston. Citizens in Southern Missouri received more violence than other sections of the state, but the Kansas City area also suffered heavily. Often, local deaths were not among the numbers tallied as war deaths. All Missouri citizens experienced events from destructive guerrilla fighting, murders of neighbors, raids, and the pursuit of outlaws through their property, to the hunting down of Southern sympathizers. This was topped by citizens fearing Federal scouting parties across the state. Growing up in Southeast Missouri, I felt the recurring hatred of one generation to the next but failed to understand what I witnessed. Anger was prevalent toward the Germans in northern Scott County, above Benton Hill, who turned in Southern sympathizers, and Blacks just because of the color of their skin. Rebuilding and recovery were slow following the Civil War. After one hundred years, flames of passion still flared up from time to time. The divisiveness appears to be softening, but much healing is still needed.

This map shows a few of the battles
 fought around New Madrid, MO.

One minor battle in Southeast Missouri was near Belmont, across the Mississippi River from a Confederate stronghold at Columbus, Kentucky. November 6, 1961, Gen. Grant moved by riverboat from his base in Cairo, Illinois, to attack the small outpost near Belmont in Mississippi County, Missouri. (As information, Belmont is only 37 miles from Sikeston and 36 miles from New Madrid.)  Grant landed his men north of the camp and marched to Belmont. Grant's troops overran the surprised Confederate camp and destroyed it. However, the scattered Confederate forces quickly reorganized and were reinforced from Columbus, Kentucky. They were counterattacked, supported by heavy artillery fire from across the river. Grant retreated to his riverboats and took his men back to Paducah, Kentucky. Both sides declared victory. The battle was relatively unimportant, but with little happening elsewhere at the time, it received considerable attention in the press, and a Union General engaged the Confederates was well received in the North.

In mid-February 1862, some seventy miles south of Cario, Gen. Grant's Union troops captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. A week after winning Fort Henry, Grant marched his troupes twelve miles cross-country to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. After five days of fighting, the Confederates asked for terms of surrender. Grant demanded "Unconditional Surrender" from the commanding officer, and he got it. Both these forts were near the Kentucky-Tennessee border, only 135 miles overland to New Madrid, and about 45 miles less using a ferry to cross the Mississippi  River. The solid wins for Union forces led to the promotion of Big. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant went from an obscure officer to the rank of Major General.

Once these forts fell to the Union, the town of New Madrid and Island Number Ten, which stood about ten feet above the Mississippi River water line and just north of New Madrid, became the confederate solid point for defending the Mississippi River. It was a long battle turned siege, lasting from February 28 to April 8, 1862. Unfortunately, there is not enough space on this Blog to address the critical role Island Number Ten and New Madrid played in the war. However, many books are available on Island Number Ten and New Madrid during the Civil War. I encourage you to read one or two to better understand their pivotal role in the American Civil War.  

After the Confederates surrendered New Madrid, its citizens left the town for anywhere they could find a family to house them or work to support their families. Businesses were forced to close their doors until the war was over. I read in a statement from the General who took New Madrid that the only people found in the town were old men, women, and a few public officials running the County Courthouse.

To conclude this segment, we look at what happened to William Cline's children, starting with the marriage of Elizabeth to Theopholis Verlaque in 1856.  

William Cline's Life in New Madrid

In 1979, I began searching for the immigration document showing the ship that carried my great-great-grandfather Carl Wilhelm "William" Cline from Germany to the United States.  I have yet to locate the elusive record, but I am getting much closer to discovering his birthplace and the Port of Destination and Passenger List.

Meissen China Mark
on back of Cline China.

We don’t know what other items William Cline brought over from Germany; however, we know he brought some Meissen china with the mark shown here.  This manufacture mark was on the back of the Cline Meissen China.  Research shows that China with this mark was made between 1773 and 1814.  Dad’s grandmother, Anna Eliza Blount Kline, told him she inherited the china from her husband’s family.  Most of the china was destroyed in the 1926 Cline house fire in Morehouse.   

I had the pleasure of opening the tin box with all William Cline's probate records in the New Madrid County Court House in 1988.  I found the inventory of his household which included a safe.  I can only speculate that the safe was used in his grocery business.    Other documents included the receipt for his funeral and an interested deed outlined below in 1857.    

Carl Wilhelm "William" Cline (Klein) was born on May 27, 1807, in Schwelm, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.  His father, Peter, was 18 and his mother, Maria, was 20 at the time of his birth.  This information was obtained from one of the many databases at the Morman Family History Center at Little Rock in 1995.  I found it while searching in the book, Germany Selected Births, and Baptisms, 1558-1898.  He immigrated to America and settled in New Madrid at about the time the state of Missouri was admitted into the Union on August 10, 1821.  He married Nancy Cox in late 1834 or early 1835. They had five children in nineteen years.

Without a written diary, it is impossible to know what the family life of William and Nancy Cline was in early Missouri.  Based on what we know from other historical documents written on the first half of the 1800s, most families lived in a small square log cabin, worked long hours hunting, fishing, and cultivating the land for a garden.  The women were responsible for helping her husband as he needed, made clothes for everyone in the family, tended to the cow and other farm animals, taught her children how to read and write, then cared for the family's spiritual needs as well. 

The 1840 Census of New Madrid County, Missouri, his name was "Clyne," and he was married with one son under the age of five (unnamed and died before 1850), and one daughter the age of five (Elizabeth).  

In 1850, he was still living in New Madrid County, he listed his occupation as a hunter, and was a landowner.  His family had added a second daughter (Mary Jane) in 1848.  This date for Mary Jane's birth is different than other sources, but as the Census is the closest primary source found, I deferred to this date of 1848.

Inside the tin box holding William Cline's probate records, I found a surprise.  There was a transfer deed inside where he sold two slaves to Shapley R. Phillips on 20 Oct. 1857, for sixteen hundred dollars.  One was a negro boy, fourteen years old, standing five feet two inches high, and called Shatrick.  The other, a female, was known by the name of Lilly, twenty-six years of age, and of a very dark complexion.  This was surprising because most German in Missouri were against slavery of any kind.  Perhaps the woman helped keep up the house and care for the children after William's wife died.  It is interesting that the sale occurred a year after his eldest daughter married and moved from his house.  The young boy could have been related to the woman and used to do odd jobs in the grocery store.  This deed and other legal documents show that the family had the means to live a good life.

In the 1860 Census of New Madrid, recorded William Cline as a widower with four children living at home.  It showed his occupation as a Grocer.  The trade listed confirms what family tradition always reported, that he owned and operated a grocery store and sold whiskey.  In reviewing the 1860 New Madrid Census Slave Schedule, I found William still owned one female slave, age twenty-eight.  Sadly, no names of the slaves are listed on Census Slave Schedules.
  
The 1870 Census of New Madrid County, Missouri records William Cline, age 61, a widower, living with his youngest child, Louisa Cline, age 15, in the town of New Madrid.  A lot happened between 1860 and 1870 in New Madrid.  We will look at just some of what happened next week.  Then, we will conclude this segment by looking at what happened to his children, starting with the marriage of Elizabeth to Theopholis Verlaque in 1856.  I believe you will find it interesting.

My Great-Great-grandfather's Hometown

Before looking at the Probate Record of William (Carl Wilheim) Cline, I want to cover his birthplace.  Trying to determine the hometown of our ancestors is not an exact science, or easy.  For example, in looking at five census records, representing over fifty years of William (Carl Wilhelm) Cline's life, his birthplace is listed as three different locations.  They all list Germany, but I want a more specific locality.  The 1840 and 1850 census records of New Madrid County, Missouri lists his place of birth as just "Germany."  The 1860 and 1870 census records show "Hesse, Germany," and the 1880 Census record of New Madrid County, Missouri shows "Rhine-Hessen."  This last census taker wrote "Darmstadt" in a blank space as well.  Ah ha, the actual place of his birth and youth was Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany, and is located along the Rhine River just north of Heidelberg.   

Hesse is one of the 16 Federal States of Germany.  It is located in western-central Germany, bordered by the German states of Lower Saxony, Thuringia, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.  I see it spelled as Hesse, Hessian, and Hessen but they are all the same location.

As background on the development of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is located in the heart of Europe. The nation-state now known as Germany was first unified in 1871 as a modern federal state and named the German Empire.  In the first half of the 20th century two devastating World Wars, of which Germany was responsible for, left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers. 

With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR).   The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the European Union (EC) and NATO, while the communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the fall of Communism enabled Germany's unification in 1990. 

In 1990, I remembered watching people from East Germany and other Communist countries fleeing in trains loaded to capacity into West Germany.  For days, I watched history unfold on the television screen.  People around the world viewed the event in amazement and excitement.  Knowing this was a significant event in history, I saved a magazine and newspaper highlighting this great moment in history.  It was a powerful moment in time that I will always remember.  It may have been more important to me because of my German-American heritage.

Of course, William Cline would not recognize either Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany, or New Madrid, Missouri today, but I am sure he would be amazed and impressed.  Sometime in the late 1980s, I visited the New Madrid Courthouse and located William Cline's probate records.  I copied everything, and it cost about $25 to have the Clerk of Court make the copies.  Holding those hundred-year-old pieces of papers in my hands was very special.  We will look at some of the personal documents next week.