Clearing the wilderness was too heavy...

At the Edge of the Orchard
by Tracy Chevalier, 2016

"After his marriage¹ he left Washington for the Ohio county. He built a cabin and made his home in Delaware County about 80 miles south of the present city of Cleveland, Ohio. But he was sick much of the time, for one thing the water did not agree with him, another, the labor of clearing the wilderness was too heavy for him. So they drove back to Connecticut, the wife driving with the two babies² and the sick husband on a mattress in the wagon."

The above quote provides a brief glimpse into the lives of my fourth great-grandparents, William Ferris Calhoun (1811-1881) and his wife Lemira Esther Tracy (1815-1893). William and Lemira left their Connecticut home — and their extended families — and headed west where they were enumerated in the 1840 census.³ Unlike other settlers who sacrificed everything to forge a new home in the wilderness, the Calhouns returned to the relative comfort of Connecticut.

In Tracy Chevalier's At the Edge of the Orchard, Sadie and James Goodenough also leave Connecticut in search of opportunity. The novel begins in 1838 as the couple and their five surviving children are attempting to eke out a living in the Great Black Swamp in the northwestern corner of Ohio. One of the conditions for proving up on their land is an orchard of fifty producing fruit trees.

James has a deep nostalgia for sweet apples — a Pitmaston Pineapple to be exact — while Sadie has developed a taste for the apple jack alcohol made from tart apples as a way to cope with their harsh hardscrabble life. Their differing views on what to plant has James and Sadie locked in a bitter power struggle which leads to disastrous consequences for the entire Goodenough family. Real-life character Johnny 'Appleseed' Chapman provides the catalytic foil in the battle between James and Sadie. 

Years later the story picks up with their youngest son, Robert, as he meanders across the country as far west as he can go: California. While there he hears tell of some giant trees and eventually sets out to see them... the Calaveras Grove of Sequoias and in the process begins to reconcile his tragic past and rekindles his own love of trees.

Chevalier captures brilliantly the bone-crushing hardship, isolation and embittered struggle that I imagine my own ancestors might have faced as they attempted to carve out a new life for themselves. Unlike the Goodenoughs, the Calhouns succumbed to their disillusionment and returned to Connecticut. At the Edge of the Orchard is an essential read for anyone interested in immersing themselves in frontier life and the tenacity, forebearance and, ultimately, hope necessary for survival.

                                                     

1. Washington Vital Records, 1779-1854. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records, Vol 1-55. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994-2002. William F. Calhoun and Lemira E. Tracey, 29 Sep 1839, Washington Connecticut. 
2. The story of the Calhouns of Judea, Connecticut (in 1779 renamed Washington, Connecticut) by Mildred Ida Brannon Calhoun, 1956. Mary Clarissa Calhoun, born 18 Feb 1841 and Esther Lemira Tracy, born 15 Aug 1842, in Delaware County, Ohio. 
3. "United States Census, 1840," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHYV-HZF : accessed 23 April 2016), William Colhoun, Brown Township, Delaware, Ohio, United States; citing p. 211, NARA microfilm publication M704, roll 391. 

Slaves in the Family

I recently had the opportunity to attend -- and speak at -- the joint Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association annual conference, which was held in Seattle. For the first time the conference included a track dedicated to genealogy. The presentations were fascinating and diverse; ranging from analyzing popular family history-related television to personal experiences researching ancestors. My co-presenter, Jill Morelli, and I presented on four hundred years of genealogy in America and the motives and impetus behind several key peaks in interest.

As the day progressed an interesting sub-theme emerged regarding slaveholders and the people they enslaved, particularly in light of actor Ben Affleck's request to leave out mention of his own slaveholding ancestors in an episode of Finding Your Roots. The story infamously came to light during the Sony email hack in late 2014. The presentations and ensuing discussion got me thinking again about my own slaveholding ancestors.

Sometimes the universe provides grace in preparation for something unexpected and unwelcome. That's exactly what happened to me when I was inexplicably drawn to read Edward Ball's Slaves in the Family. I thought there was good chance I might have slave owners on my paternal side, which goes back ten generations in North Carolina. Not soon after reading Ball's book, however, I learned of a slaveholding family on my maternal side when it was revealed in a probate record that my ancestor, Sarah Smith, went court to retain ownership of several slaves as part of her dower right following the death of her husband in 1849. I found this discovery far more devastating than if it had been the expected North Carolina branch.*

As requested, Ned (Edward) and Laura were set aside as Sarah's dower right.  At the time, the Smith family slaves included Jane and child Caroline, Mary, Edward (aka Ned), Mary, Joanne (d. 1851) and Lorra/Laura.

1850 Slave Schedule, Nodaway Township, Andrew County, Missouri

Five of the family's slaves were sold in August, 1853, and Ned and Laura were sold in March, 1857, because of the "family leaving for California". (After an intense debate California had been admitted to the union in 1850 as a free state.) At the time of the 1853 sale there was also a two-year-old named Charles and a 6-week-old child of Jane, both sold to S. L. Gant. Based on information in Andrew County records, I believe the seven individuals listed in the 1850 slave schedule¹ pictured above to be:

Name        Age   Gender    1850:         Sold to:      
Jane         22   Female    Sarah Smith   S. L. Gant
Mary         10   Female    Sarah Smith   V. B. Wood
Edward        8     Male    Sarah Smith   John P. Smith
Molly/Mary*   6   Female    Sarah Smith   Wm. Fulkerson
Laura*        5   Female    Sarah Smith   John P. Smith
Caroline*     3   Female    Sarah Smith   S. L. Gant
Joanne        1   Female    Sarah Smith   Died in 1851
     * = Mulatto

Aside from the Tar Heels, I had naively deluded myself into thinking my family was free of the taint of slavery because they were largely Midwesterners who'd migrated from the Northeast. Edward Ball's unvarnished look at his own family's history provided me with a useful road map for beginning to understand the legacy of slavery. While -- just like Ben Affleck -- I still wish I didn't have slaveholding ancestors it pretty much makes me a quintessential American.

This legacy, as much as my Quaker roots, or any of my other branches, when combined tells the complex, flawed story that is America. After the Affleck debacle If You Only Read One Book About the Legacy of Slavery: ‘Slaves in the Family’ was one of the many editorial pieces which appeared.  Like the writer, I found this book to be the first step towards confronting my complicated legacy. I am still searching for descendants of the Smith family slaves. Because they were sold out of the family in the 1850s I have to first find them in the 1860 slave schedule with another owner -- again unnamed with only an estimated age as a clue --  and then hopefully as freed people in 1870. The surname Smith only compounds an already challenging task, but it remains some of the most important family research I will ever do.

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1. 1850 U. S. census, Andrew County, Missouri, slave schedule, Nodaway Township, p. 212, Sarah Smith, head; NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 422.

*Curiously, I have yet to find a slaveholder among my North Carolina ancestors. 

Genealogy Goes to the Movies

I recently had the opportunity to see Brooklyn at a local theater and was struck by many thoughts and questions as I considered my own ancestors who left behind all that was familiar in order to make a new life for themselves in America.

The film follows Eilis Lacey, a young woman from County Wexford, Ireland, who immigrates to Brooklyn in 1952. Eilis is wracked with homesickness and grapples with all the nuances of assimilating to life in New York. When circumstances unexpectedly take her back to Ireland, just as she is gaining her footing in America, the question becomes where does her future lie?

Anyone with an interest in family history will appreciate this film for its exploration of what it means to be American and what you're giving up in the process. The social conventions she knows and her provincial experiences in Ireland leave Eilis ill-prepared to deal with a variety of situations she encounters in bustling New York. The film raised many questions for me about how much anyone knows what they are getting into when they undertake such a venture and what happens when you become disillusioned or worse off than where you came from.

The film got me thinking, as well, about what other films genealogists would feel an affinity for and I came up with a list of a dozen that fit the bill for me. Like Eilis' story, all tackle the isolation immigrants experience, the unsettling anxiety that comes from not knowing the norms and culture of the society you're entering and how your identity is forever changed as you assimilate.

One of the most iconic films on the list is The Emigrants, starring Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow, and its sequel, The New Land. This film depicts -- with grim detail -- the push-and-full factors influencing why people immigrated to America. The hardship doesn't end upon their arrival and the second movie follows the family as they begin to carve out a new life for themselves in Minnesota.

Miss Rose White, a Hallmark Hall of Fame production, tells the story of a young woman who immigrated as a child whose life -- and her careful American facade -- is disrupted when her older sister immigrates years later. It explores the attitudes of those who came before and some of the reasons they were so anxious to maintain a distance from newer immigrants. 

Avalon explores immigration and assimilation across three generations. Immigrant Sam is dismayed with his children and their attitudes towards their heritage -- including Americanizing their names -- as he struggles to bridge both the old country and the new; old traditions and new. Conversely his grandchildren, the next generation, become more interested in their heritage. These are just a few of the movies I have enjoyed that have led me to ponder what it was like for my immigrant ancestors. How did they feel about leaving their homeland? Joy? Sorrow? Fear? All of the above?

Now we're a nomadic, global population and rootless is a word that often describes people today, living far from the family and places where they grew up. Chances are many can't even point to a just a single place they call their hometown. Yet there is nothing new about this desire for adventure and seeking a better life elsewhere. Our doughty and intrepid ancestors did all that and more long before Skype and Facetime, and a myriad of other social media apps, were developed which help make the distances between loved ones seem small today.

Go my Pinterest board, Genealogy at the Movies, to see the complete list. Check it out and let me know if there are others you'd recommend!