Inheritance Left to Lost Son: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Lost Contact”

 

What Happened to Lost Son Thomas Vanlandingham?

Richard Vanlandingham: 1740?-1811 (Maternal Fourth Granduncle)
Thomas Vanlandingham: 1791-? (Maternal First Cousin 5x Removed)

While trying to track down the individuals named in the 1774 will of George Vanlandingham of Northumberland, Virginia (my husband’s fifth-great-grandfather on his mother’s side), I got sidetracked by his son Richard Vanlandingham and Richard’s own unique will.

Richard was first mentioned in his father George’s 1774 will as follows:

“To son Richard Vanlandingham 40 shillings in lieu of a mare that his grandfather Richard Brown let me hold for him.”

Of course, I wondered immediately what happened to the mare. Did the horse die? Did George sell the beast despite his father-in-law’s instructions? And is a mere forty shillings really adequate compensation for a horse?

The will also specified that six of George’s children—George Adams Vanlandingham, Mandley Brown Vanlandingham, Winney Vanlandingham, Elizabeth Vanlandingham, Thomas Vanlandingham, and Ezekiel Vanlandingham--  were to receive equal shares in his land and property once his wife and sister were dead—the wife, Mary, and sister Elizabeth had life-rights to it. This share of land was the key to my finding out what happened to son Richard.

The only problem with this instruction in the will: George had eight children. Two were left out of the list of six, although both were mentioned elsewhere in the will: Richard and Henry. Was this oversight intentional or a mere error on the part of the attorney writing up the will? It appears to have been intentional. The will went on to state that if, when the estate was divided, each of the six children received at least six pounds, that son Henry receive a portion of the remainder. Nothing for poor Richard.

Richard and Henry were George’s two eldest sons, and both had established households before their father’s death. I hypothesize that they were left out of the initial will division because they had already received some sort of settlement from their father. Either that, or George was really angry with Richard and Henry.

Richard left Virginia, moving to Rockingham, North Carolina. There are no records that show whether he left following his father’s death, or before. At some point, he married. Several trees list his wife’s name as Hattie Hartley, but I have as of yet found no verifying records. The couple had children, although their names and birth dates are as yet unconfirmed.

1811 Map of North Carolina

Richard appears on the 1790 census in Rockingham with seven people in his household: himself, three males under 16, and three females, ages unspecified. I hypothesize that this indicates Richard and his wife had three young sons and two daughters. By the 1800 census, the household included one male child under 10, one female child between 10 and 15, and one woman between the ages of 16 and 25, plus Richard and his wife, a male and female over 45. This could be explained by two sons growing up and leaving the home or dying during the intervening years, while the remaining three children were among the five included on the 1790 census.

The 1810 census finds Richard’s household further reduced. There is just Richard, a male over 45 (by this time he was probably in his sixties as his birth date is supposedly 1846.), a male child between 10 and 15, and a female between 26 and 44. My hypothesis? Richard’s wife has died—the female over 45 is now gone. So who is the younger woman? Rather than a second wife, I suspect it is either a widowed daughter or daughter-in-law and her son. Of course it could be a housekeeper along with her child. There is a remote possibility the woman is a second wife; records in Warren County, NC, a distant 144 miles from Richard’s home, show a Richard Vanlandingham marrying a woman named Jeane Rigon in 1803. However, I suspect that marriage referred to another man named Richard Vanlandingham, a member of a completely separate Vanlandingham family who resided in Warren County.

So how do I know that the Richard Vanlandingham who appears on the Rockingham censuses is the son of George Vanlandingham of Northumberland, Virginia? Richard’s will provided the evidence.

Part one of Richard's 1811 Will 

Richard made a will on October 5, 1811. The will was probated in November of that year, so we can assume Richard died shortly after making the will. He leaves all his property and estate that remains after debts are settled to “my youngest son Thomas Vanlandingham”. No mention is made of other children, male or female, although “youngest son” implies there was at least one older son still living.

Part 2 of Richard's 1811 Will

The will states that the property includes “both real and person in the State of Virginia and NorthCarolina (sic), the estate to which I laid a claim in Virginia being an interest in a tract of land lying in the County of Northumberland and is the share of which my Father George Vanlandingham late of said county and state did seized and possessed and contains about two hundred acres…”

Richard quite clearly states George Vanlandingham of Northumberland Virginia was his father, and he owns a share in lands given to him by his father. This two hundred acres seems to be a separate property from the land included in George Vanlandingham’s will, so it appears Richard had already received what his father considered Richard’s portion of his estate.

But Richard’s will held an additional and quite extraordinary bit of information. Just after Richard makes his bequest to his “youngest son Thomas” there is a notation in parentheses stating:

“(Now from information) resident of Woodford County ana State of Kentucky.”

It appears that on his deathbed, Richard wasn’t sure where to find his youngest son—he believed Thomas lived in Woodford County, Kentucky, but had no verification that the information was correct.

Imagine losing contact with your child to such an extent that you can only guess in what state and county he might be found! Of course, modern communications make this a less common occurrence than in Richard’s day. In 1811, mail was delivered by horse, and was erratic and slow. Thomas seems to have been born in 1791, so at the time of Richard’s death in 1811, he was only twenty, not the most responsible age. Perhaps he never bothered to write his poor father.

And why did Thomas move away? Was there some sort of conflict between father and son, or was Thomas just eager to make his own way in the world and decided to follow other extended family to Kentucky? (Some of Richard’s brothers moved to Kentucky). What happened to Richard’s other children—the two other sons and two daughters? Had they, like Richard had, already received a portion of Richard’s property when they reached their majority, and thus were not entitled to a further inheritance?

I wonder if Thomas ever returned to North Carolina to claim his inheritance. Did the probate court track him down? It is unclear. There are other trees on Ancestry that include a Thomas Vanlandingham who lived in Warren County, North Carolina, and they identify our Richard as his father. However, I doubt it is the same man. I found a separate Warren County will for a totally different Richard Vanlandingham with a son Thomas—I think others are conflating the two Richards and the two Thomases.

I also found no record of Thomas in Woodford County, Kentucky around the time of Richard’s death. Did Thomas stay in Woodford County, or did he move on to some other location in the state? I hope Thomas returned to North Carolina or even Northumberland, Virginia to take ownership of his father’s lands, but he may have lost contact with his father and family forever. All that I know for sure is that without further records, he remains lost to my family tree as well.

Sources:

Wills; Author: North Carolina. County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions (Rockingham County); Probate Place: Rockingham, North Carolina. https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/81812584/person/262471515291/facts

Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1900 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2021. Original data:Virginia County, District, and Probate Courts. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/62347/images/007645552_00457?pId=1636172

 

Echoes of Gone with the Wind: Post-Civil War Crime Riles Louisiana

 

Cordelia Vanlandingham Cheatham: 1841-1924 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

While reading Gone with the Wind recently for my book club, I was struck by Mitchell’s use of two attacks on white women by black men as a sort of justification for the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. I questioned whether such type of attacks actually took place. Did women truly fear black-on-white crime during Reconstruction and the following decades, or was it all a pretext to make the Klan seem like a necessary instrument of vigilante justice? While researching the Vanlandingham family, I ran across news articles from May 1907 describing an attack on the elderly Cordelia Vanlandingham Cheatham by a black man apparently intending to rob her family. I was surprised by the event itself, by some of the ugly references in the news articles, and also by the realization that I may have misjudged Margaret Mitchell.

Cordelia Vanlandingham, born in 1841 to Oliver Cromwell Vanlandingham and his wife Mary Drake, had married an editor and clerk named Edward Cheatham in 1860. They settled in the Baton Rouge area where they raised four daughters and a son. Following Edward’s death in 1899, Cordelia lived with her unmarried daughters Elizabeth and Clara (known as Cheappie and Tal for some reason) in a rather rural area of Baton Rouge’s Third Ward. According to the news account, the home “was on the Bayou Sara road, and is in a sparsely and somewhat isolated section” ten miles north of the city.  

On May 18, 1907, a black man came to the Cheatham door at 10:30 p.m., claiming to be an employee of Cordelia’s son Ed who needed to deliver packages to her. When Cordelia stepped outside, the man attacked her, saying, “If you holler or make any noise, I’ll kill you.”

Cordelia struggled with the man and called to her daughter Cheappie, who came running with an ax. According to one news account, she threatened to “split his head open if he did not let her mother go, and made an effort to brain him with the ax.” The other newspaper said she swung at the man several times and managed to get him out of the house so she could lock the door. The man, “still bent on his murderous design” according to one newspaper, shot a gun through a window at the women and then ran. The newspaper said that only his poor aim kept him from killing the women.

One news article had an interesting detail:

“The screams of Mrs. Cheatham by this time had attracted the attention of an old negro woman, who, with her husband, lived in the yard. She yelled out to ask what was the matter and said that the old man would be there in a few minutes.”

I found it interesting that both the perpetrator and some of the rescuers were black. I was also intrigued to not that one newspaper failed to include the black woman’s intervention.

The article noted that:

“Mrs. Cheatham can give no description of her assailant, owing to the intense darkness surrounding the scene of her struggle. She remembers that the negro was very black.”

Ed Cheatham’s employee named Robert Pigeon was grilled by the local sheriff and a whole posse of angry neighbors the next day, but luckily was able to prove his innocence—someone had impersonated him to get Cordelia to open the door. The other news report stated that the sheriff had actually arrested the employee, and only released him when Cordelia Cheatham denied he was the perpetrator.

Poor Mr. Pigeon had a lucky escape. It appears lynching the robber was a real possibility. There was a chilling line in the New Orleans article:

 “It is probable that if the perpetrator of the deed is captured by the residents of that section before the sheriff’s officers can secure his arrest and identification, there will be some public demonstration.”

Lovely euphemism: public demonstration. The Shreveport newspaper was more forthright, and called it a “lynching”.

I found no articles relating to an arrest. Three days later, a posse was still searching. Another hapless man had been arrested but eventually released when they could find no evidence against him.

So how did this crime compare to those in Mitchell’s novel? Gone With the Wind featured two crimes. The first instance involved Tony Fontaine killing a former slave for verbally harassing his widowed sister-in-law in a sexual manner. The second instance was a physical attack on Scarlett as she returned from her sawmill. The perpetrators intended to rob her, but also probably intended to rape her as well. In that instance, the perpetrators included a white man as well as a black man, and Scarlett was rescued by one of her former slaves, also black. This paralleled the Cheatham incident, as black neighbors helped rescue Cordelia. In the novel, Scarlett’s husband Frank, a Klansman, gathered the Atlanta Klan members and sought to avenge her attack. The perpetrators were killed, but so was Frank.

I found it interesting that several of the articles relating to Cordelia Cheatham’s attack specifically stated that they believed the motive and intent of the criminal was robbery, not “a criminal assault” which must have been a delicate way of referring to rape. They were trying to calm the citizens of Baton Rouge, probably hoping to avoid the murder of a suspected perpetrator, where in Mitchell’s book, murder was the accepted fate of the perpetrators.

Still, the existence of these articles and the attention the attack on Mrs. Cheatham drew statewide shows that Mitchell was probably basing her novel’s crimes on real attacks that occurred in Georgia—crimes that would have been extremely rare, but would have inspired great fear and anger among white residents during Reconstruction and the decades that followed.  

 

Sources:

Newspapers.com - The Shreveport Journal - 21 May 1907 - Page 4 1907 Attack on Cordelia Cheatham

Newspapers.com. The Shreveport Journal. 21 May 1907, Tue · Page 4

Newspapers.com. Mrs Edward Cheatham assaulted, the Shreveport Times 20 May 1907.

Newspapers.com The Times-Democrat, New Orleans, Louisiana · Monday, May 20, 1907.

Confederate POW Brothers Escape Union Custody: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Flew the Coop”

 

Vanlandingham Brothers Among Mass Escape from Union Press Prison in New Orleans

Oliver Cromwell Vanlandingham: 1826-1905 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)
Ezekiel Posey Vanlandingham: 1827-1895 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

The Vanlandingham brothers did nearly everything together, from running the cotton plantation their father bought near Baton Rouge, to enlisting in the Confederate Cavalry when the Civil War broke out. They served together, and both were captured by Union troops in 1864, and were sent to the same prison in New Orleans. But perhaps their most interesting and exciting shared adventure was breaking out of that prison along with nearly forty other Confederate POWs.

Oliver Cromwell “O.C.II” and Ezekiel “E.P.” Vanlandingham joined the 14^th Confederate Cavalry Regiment in 1862. They were privates in Company G under the command of Captain John B. Cage. The researchonline website describes the unit as follows:

“This unit was comprised of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama companies. It appears that this regiment did not serve together, but each company saw separate service….However, Co. A of Miles' Louisiana Legion refused to recognize its assignment to the new regiment as Co. E and maintained its independence; in fact, all the companies from Miles’ Legion tended to act separately from the rest of the new regiment."

Another site explained the Regiment was part of a group called Miles’ Legion, and was one of three cavalry regiments combined with six or seven infantry companies that served independently from the rest of the Confederate army. John Cage seems to have assumed command of the regiment in 1863, and at that time the Regiment was comprised of 250 cavalrymen.

It appears from the records that Company G spent most of the war in Louisiana and Mississippi, skirmishing with Union Troops led by Sheridan and Grant. In spring 1863, they were patrolling near Port Hudson north of Baton Rouge along the Mississippi River, and then moved into Mississippi to fight in the battle of Champion Hill and Big Black in mid-May, which the Confederates lost. The 14^th Regiment helped cover the Confederate retreat.

Louisiana 3rd Cavalry Regiment members--gives an idea of uniforms the brothers wore

Following that campaign, Company G and other Miles’ Legion cavalry companies apparently moved back and forth between the Meridian area and the site of the Big Black River Bridge battle just to the east of Vicksburg. In February 1864, Company G was patrolling along the Comite River as Sherman’s troops headed towards Meridian, Mississippi. Oliver Vanlandingham was captured during that campaign. His muster record cards contain two conflicting capture dates: February 1, 1864 and March 24. Both cards state “Comite River” as the location of his capture.

Just weeks afterwards, Ezekiel was also captured. Like O.C., Ezekiel’s muster cards show two conflicting dates of capture: March 30 and April 14, 1864. His location of capture was “Baker Farm”, which probably refers to the area near Baker, Louisiana. This area is not far from the Comite River, so obviously Company G was skirmishing slightly northeast of Baton Rouge. 

Comite River and Baker area where brothers were captured in 1864

The brothers were probably fortunate to have been captured when they were, as their unit went further east to fight in the Battle of Harrisburg near Tupelo in July 1864. The regiment suffered heavy losses, and commanding officer Lt. Col. John Cage was killed in battle.

The two brothers were sent to New Orleans and were imprisoned in one of the city’s several POW facilities run by the Union Army. Some soldiers were held at the old Parish Prison, while others were held at various warehouse-type facilities, including a “cotton press” and a Customs House where many Confederate officers were held. An illustration of that facility was published in Harpers’ Weekly. The reporter found the conditions to be reasonable if not comfortable, noting that the nearly 250 officers were decently fed and had plenty of space to move around and socialize. I expect conditions for privates like the Vanlandingham brothers were not as decent, especially during the hot, muggy summer days in New Orleans. The enlisted men’s prisons were more crowded.

Customs House Prison for Confederate Officers; Illustration from Harpers' Bazaar

 Oliver and Ezekiel’s service records include a quite extraordinary muster card. The cards read as follows:

“Roll of Prisoners of War who escaped from military prison, New Orleans, La., Aug. 14, 1864.

Roll dated N. Orleans La. Aug. 15, 1864.”

Below was another passage with some incredible details:

“REMARK: ‘The prisoners borne on this Roll escaped from one of the prisons in this City on the night of the 14 inst. Their escape was effected through a vault in the room where they were confined.”

I immediately noticed that the information on the form was printed rather than handwritten. Typesetting in the 19^th century was done by hand, making it an expensive, time-intensive proposition. So to have printed these cards, there had to have been a large number of soldiers to whom the card would apply—a large prison break, in other words.

I tried to find mention of the event in historical records, but information on smaller Union prisons is difficult to find. However, I was able to find reports written by the Union Commissary of Prisons in New Orleans, and found a lengthy letter to his superiors that includes his report of escapes during the month of August 1864. I have transcribed the letter as best as I could as follows:

 “I ____ to report that of the 68 Prisoners of War who escaped during the month of August, 40 of the number escaped from the Camdelot (or Earndelot or Rampart?) St Prison and before I entered upon the duties of Commissary of Prisoners. The Majority of the others escaped from the Union Press by cutting through one of the brick walls.

At the time of their escape I had made repeated applications for the Guards at that Prison to be relieved as they had been on duty for eight (?) consecutive days and nights and although I attributed their escape to the negligence of the Guard I could not expect men to be as vigilant and watchful whose labors had been so severe as the nature of the service demanded.”

I am unsure which of these two prison breaks involved the Vanlandingham brothers. I have determined that the “Union Press” was a Cotton Press building (sort of a cotton warehouse) that was pressed into service as a temporary prison. The detail in the letter about cutting through the wall sounds similar to the Confederate Army record that referred to escaping through a “vault”. Either way, the brothers were among the boldest and bravest prisoners who were willing to risk death to escape.

I found no further muster cards indicating the two brothers had returned to service following the prison break. Records from the Louisiana Soldiers Military Index show that both Oliver and Ezekiel were paroled in Gainesville, Ala., May 12, 1865, which means that following the final surrender of the Confederate armies, the Vanlandinghams, like all other Confederate troops, were required to sign a parole slip that read:

“May ________, 1865. In accordance with the terms of the Military Convention, entered into the twenty-sixth day of April, 1865, between General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate army, and Major-General W. T. Sherman, commanding the United States Army in North Carolina, [soldier's name] has given his solemn obligation not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly released from this obligation, and is permitted to return to his home, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities so long as he observes this obligation and obeys the laws in force where he may reside.”

It is unclear if the Vanlandinghams actually travelled to Gainesville to sign these documents, or if the paperwork was signed in Baton Rouge and sent to Gainesville for Union signatures.

What we do know is that once the paroles were signed, Oliver and Ezekiel were free to go home and try to pick up their lives.

After so many years of working and living side by side, the brothers elected to part ways. Oliver collected his family and moved to Vanlandingham land in Kentucky. Ezekiel moved his family west to Rains, Texas. I have no idea if the two brothers ever saw each after they parted, or if they ever visited their two sisters who remained in Louisiana with their husbands and children. However, I am sure that Oliver and Ezekiel shared one last thing:  regaling their families with the tale about the day they flew the coop from a Union prison in New Orleans—the one victory they could claim against the Union.

Sources:

Miles’ Legion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles%27_Legion#Organization

Letter from Capt. Duffy, Commissary of Prisons. https://archive.org/details/selectedrecordso0104unit/page/n162/mode/1up?view=theater

Conditions at the Customs House where POW officers were held. Picture/drawing in file Harpers Weekly, Aug 29 1863. Pg 551. THE REBEL PRISON IN NEW ORLEANS.

https://laahgp.genealogyvillage.com/MilitaryIndex/louisianasoldiersv1.html

Selected records of the War Department relating to Confederate prisoners of war, 1861-1865 [microform] (Volume Reel 0001 -SELECTED RECORDS OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT RELATING TO CONFEDERATE PRISONERS OF WAR 1861-65 -Registers of Prisoners, Compiled by the Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners: 1 OCGP 1 1863-65) -United States. National Archives and Records Service. Accessed via https://www.ahgp.org/military/confederate-prisoners-of-war.html

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/louisiana.htm

Rich Men, Poor Men: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Adversity”

The Vanlandinghams Meet Adversity Head-On:

Pioneer Poverty to Antebellum Wealth to Post-War Struggles

Oliver Cromwell Vanlandingham: 1785-1856 (Maternal Third-Great-Uncle)
Oliver Cromwell Vanlandingham: 1826-1905 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)
Ezekiel Posey Vanlandingham: 1827-1895 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

Oliver Cromwell “O.C.” Vanlandingham arrived in Kentucky under desperate circumstances. His parents, Ezekiel Vanlandingham (1762-1796) and Elizabeth Brumley Vanlandingham (1765-1833) had set out from their home in Northumberland County, Virginia in 1796 with a party of settlers bound for new land in Kentucky. The Wilderness Road had just been opened that year, enabling wagons to travel to the new state; Kentucky had achieved statehood just four years earlier.

Tragically, Ezekiel died during the long wagon journey, so Elizabeth arrived in Kentucky a widow with three children: eleven-year-old Oliver, 14-year-old Easter, and eight-year-old daughter Elizabeth or“Betsey”. According to a county history,

“After burying her husband Mrs. Vanlandingham and the other members of the party resumed their trip and finally arrived near Paradise where she procured some land. There she and her…children worked hard and soon placed themselves in comfortable circumstances. She was a well-educated woman, and up to about the time her children were married devoted practically all her evenings to their education.”

What isn’t mentioned in this account is that Elizabeth Vanlandingham very prudently remarried shortly after her arrival in Kentucky. Her new husband, Samuel Fulton, doubtless helped her build up her farm. The couple may have also used slave labor, as by 1820, O.C. was farming in Gallatin County, Illinois and had two slaves, both of whom were older than O.C. was, so they may have accompanied O.C.’s parents from Virginia.

Still, even though the Vanlandinghams may have had the help of two slaves and a new husband, the family had to work extremely hard to establish their farm. I expect they had to clear land to make fields for planting, and they had to build a home and outbuildings. Harvests and getting their produce or grain to market would have required more effort. It would have taken years to achieve the “comfortable circumstances” alluded to in the book passage.

Easter and Elizabeth both married in 1813—Easter, 30, married farmer Francis Kimbley, and Elizabeth, 25, married farmer Samuel Miller Weir. Samuel Weir had a brother, James Weir, a successful area businessman. The county history stated,

“O.C….was for a few years associated in the mercantile business with pioneer James Weir. After he and Weir dissolved partnership, he made a number of trips to New Orleans, where he sold the hides and produce he bought in the eastern part of the county.”

Oliver Cromwell Vanlandingham

This trade helped consolidate his finances, enabling him to marry in 1825. His bride, Mary Drake, was a southern belle nearly 20 years his junior. The newlyweds moved to his Illinois property, which was about 80 miles from the family’s Muhlenberg County property. The county history noted:

“In the meantime, he retained the property he owned in Muhlenberg, including the place on which he had erected a large log dwelling. His wife, during one of their many visits to Muhlenberg, died on their farm near Paradise, December 22, 1844.”

The following year, O.C. moved his five children to Baton Rouge, where he’d bought a cotton plantation. The plantation was listed on the 1850 census as having a value of $27,500; today’s equivalent would be $1.1 million.

O. C. Sr. had his son Ezekiel running the plantation, while O.C. II was in Kentucky managing the farm and property there. The 1850 census shows the Kentucky property was also sizable, with a value of $5,900, far higher than the value of any of the neighboring properties on the census.

The plantation seems to have done well. An item in the August 4, 1853 Baton Rouge Advertiser newspaper compliments Ezekiel on the fine cotton he was growing on “Peru Farm”, noting:

“The bolls are large and the texture and appearance of the cotton excellent. Vanlandingham ranks among the ‘model farmers of our parish’—and is always able to ‘up cotton’. May he prosper beyond his expectations.”

The family also owned land in New Orleans. An 1860 ad listed “valuable land” for sale owned by the Vanlandinghams, bounded by Levee, Philip, Water and Jackson Streets. I have been able to locate Philip and Levee on old maps; they intersect quite near the river. Levee Street is now Decatur, but Water and Jackson have proved elusive, although modern day’s Jackson Square is nearby, so Jackson Street was probably near there and Water Street probably ran along the riverfront. This land would have truly been valuable today, lying right on the banks of the Mississippi.

O.C. Sr. died in October 2, 1856 at the age of 72. His body was carried back to Kentucky for burial.

Following his death, O.C. II moved down to Baton Rouge to help Ezekiel with the plantation. By 1860, he was listed as the head of the household, in charge of the majority of the property. His land was valued at $16,500, while Ezekiel’s property was valued at $5,000. The personal property, which would have included slaves, showed an even greater disparity in value. OC’s personal property had a value of $75,500, which Ezekiel’s was worth only $7,000, ten times less. The slave schedules for 1860 show O.C. owning 78 human beings, ranging in age from 70 years to two months. Most of the slaves—55 of the 78-- were under 30 years of age. 

Part of the 1860 Census Slave Schedule for O.P. Vanlandingham's plantation

Ezekiel, in contrast, owned only five slaves, a man, woman, child and two young teens.  

1860 Slave Schedule showing Ezekiel's five slaves below O.C.'s 78 slaves

The brothers’ three younger sisters, Mary, Elizabeth and Cordelia, were living with OC II, his wife and children in 1860. Perhaps OC’s huge share of the family wealth included provisions for his sisters that were paid out at the time of their marriages in 1860 and 1861.

When the Civil War broke out, both brothers enlisted in the Confederate Cavalry. As Baton Rouge was captured by the Union early in the war, I suspect their wives and children evacuated to other holdings in Louisiana or back north to Kentucky.

Ezekiel and OC II’s war experiences will be covered in a separate post. Following the war, the family basically had to start over. The plantation’s buildings had been destroyed during the war, and the nearly 100 enslaved people had quite understandably fled, leaving the family with fields returning to scrubland, and no labor for the labor-intensive cotton crop. Apparently the family simply abandoned the land, probably unable or unwilling to pay the tax bills the victorious Union imposed.

Two of O.C.’s three surviving daughters, married to Louisiana men, chose to stay in Louisiana. Mary’s husband James Elam returned to his political life, struggling to hold the office of mayor of Baton Rouge during a contentious Reconstruction period, described in an earlier post. Cordelia and her husband, E.D. Cheatham, were living near the Elams in Baton Rouge, where E.D worked as an editor in 1870, and a clerk by 1880. Sadly, both women ended up widowed. James Elam died in 1873, and E.D. Cheatham in 1899.

O.C.’s third daughter, Elizabeth, had married her first cousin, Samuel Miller Weir Jr., who owned land back in Kentucky. They settled in Muhlenberg County before the war, and remained there. While Samuel registered for the Union draft, it appears he never fought in the war, so never had to take arms against his brothers-in-law.

O.C. II left Louisiana, and moved his family back to the farmland in Kentucky that he had managed before his father’s death. Both he and his wife, Samuel Miller Weir’s sister Margaret, had family in Muhlenberg County, and built their life there—a more modest life than in Baton Rouge, but still quite comfortable.  The county history noted that, “He owned a large library and was regarded as one of the best-read men in the county.” OC II and his wife had eight children who spent most of their adult lives on the family’s Paradise area farm.

Following the war, Ezekiel, like his brother O.C., chose to leave Louisiana. He didn’t follow O.C. back to family lands in Kentucky, however. He headed northwest, ending up in Rains County, Texas, where he took up farming near the county seat of Emory, Texas. I’m not sure what led him to the area. His wife’s family was from Alabama; they had no obvious Texas ties. He and his wife Amelia Blount had six children, four of whom survived to adulthood, and three of whom remained in the Rains area lifelong.

Ezekiel and Amelia Blount Vanlandingham

The Vanlandinghams faced adversity several times over two generations. Patriarch Oliver Cromwell Vanlandingham built up a sizable fortune in land over the course of fifty years. However, war destroyed much of that wealth, probably rightly so since it was built on the forced labor of dozens of men, women and children. The next generation of Vanlandinghams faced this disaster with the same grit as their father and grandmother had in 1796.  One son, Ezekiel, chose to start fresh in a totally new state, and Oliver Cromwell’s namesake son returned to the first farm Oliver Cromwell and his mother had acquired and developed: a literal piece of Paradise—Paradise, Kentucky, that is.

 

 Sources:

A History of Muhlenberg County by Otto A. Rothert. John P. Morton & Company. Louisville, KY 1913. Accessed through Google Books.

Vanlandingham plantation sale notice. Baton Rouge Tri-Weekly Gazette and Comet, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 05 Jan 1861, Sat  •  Page 8. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116154246/sale-of-vanlandingham-plantation/#

Ezekiel Posey Vanlandingham grows excellent cotton on Peru Farm Concordia Intelligencer 13 Aug 1853, quoting Baton Rouge Advertiser of 4 Aug 1853. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116154616/ezekiel-posey-vanlandingham-grows/#

Census data, birth, death and other records accessed from Ancestry.com.

For All the Worst Reasons: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “In the News”

Suicide or Murder? Tragic Death of Essex Elam Leads to Speculation and Accusations

Essex Mason Elam: 1873 or 74-1909 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)

 

Essex Elam shared his father’s name, and his father’s short life. Like his father, he also made headlines, but for all the wrong reasons.

Essex Mason Elam was born following his father’s unexpected death in August 1873. He was the baby of the family, and grew up in a household headed by his mother, Lorene Smith’s cousin Mary Vanlandingham Elam, and his older brothers, William Day Elam and James O. Elam, who were over a decade older than Essex.  

In 1897, Essex married Eugenie Labadie. He was 23, while she was 19. By the 1900 census, he was working as an insurance agent, and the couple had a son, James Essex Elam, who was born August 18, 1898.

Just after little James’ ninth birthday in 1907, Eugenie died, leaving Essex a 33-year-old widower. Since he was working full-time at his insurance business, James went to live with Essex’s mother.

Essex began seeing a widow living in the area, a Mrs. Marguerite Landry. On October 8, 1909, he married Marguerite. Unfortunately, his family members did not approve of his new wife. We can get hints as to the family’s objections from the manner in which the newspapers described her. One reporter called her “a dashing young widow”. Another one wrote:

“Mrs. Elam is a handsome young woman. She is of the Spanish brunette type, with beautiful black hair and brown eyes…She came to Baton Rouge eight or nine years ago, but up to within a little over a year ago had not lived here. She was originally from New Orleans.”

An article in a New Orlean’s paper noted that she was the “niece and adopted daughter of the late Severin Sanchez of this city and is a beautiful woman of the Spanish type.”

The newspaper went on to describe Essex, subtly contrasting his background with the wild widow’s:

“Mr. Elam came from one of the best families in Baton Rouge. A little over a year ago his first wife died.” Another article noted, “Elam had been in the insurance business, was regarded as a model of sobriety, and almost as a ‘working machine’.”

Obviously the family suspected Marguerite was a fortune hunter, leaving the wilder city of New Orleans and turning up in Baton Rouge just after Eugenie’s death to entice the lonely widower. “Dashing” is probably a euphemism for sexy and provocative. In addition, in post-war Baton Rouge, marrying a woman with dark hair and eyes and possibly a “Spanish” complexion would have been considered quite risqué. Marrying someone of a different skin tone and culture was “beyond the pale”, so to speak. Essex had taken his new bride over to his mother’s house after the ceremony, apparently intent on introducing her to his son and making arrangements to move the boy to the rented rooms where they planned to live. An argument apparently ensued. The newspaper describes the situation as follows:

“Mr. Elam was married shortly after 6 o’clock yesterday evening by Father Solignac. After the marriage he went to the home of his family. They declined to receive in their home the woman whom he had married. Mr. Elam wanted to take his boy home with him, but the little fellow cried to stay with his grandmother.”   

It is all too easy to imagine this ugly scene. Mary Vanlandingham Elam had once been at the top of the social ladder in Baton Rouge, wife of the mayor and friends with the richest and most influential people in the state. And here was her son, married to an upstart of dubious origins. Even though Mary’s social standing and wealth had diminished following her husband’s death, she probably still considered herself superior to the average Baton Rouge resident. She must have been livid.

Essex apparently took the rejection poorly. The headline the following morning read “Twelve Hour Groom Suicides—No Cause Given for Rash Act”.

According to the new Mrs. Elam, Essex woke fretting over not being able to see his son. He asked her to make him coffee, and while she was in the kitchen he shot himself with a handgun.

Sounds straightforward, right?

The family pointed out some curious elements of Marguerite’s story, which were backed up by evidence at the inquest.

“No pistol was found by Mr. Elam’s side when neighbors came over to render assistance. L. S. Harrell, who was the first outside party called in, said the body was nearly cold when he got in the room and that the man had no pulse at all.”

The new wife had an interesting explanation for the missing gun. She testified, “Mr. Elam had always said that he was going to kill himself and that he would take me with him. It was for this reason that I took the pistol away from him and put it in the armour. ..As I got near the room (after hearing the shot) I saw Mr. Elam falling, with a pistol in his hand. He had always said that we would die together. I thought that after shooting himself he was going to try to shoot me, and I attempted to take the ‘gun’ away from him.”

She was asked where the gun had come from, and she claimed, “It belonged to the house. I had it in the top of the wardrobe. I don’t know how he ever found it.”

I certainly understand why his family was suspicious. Why in the world would you hide the gun? Her excuse is pathetic. She claimed to have gone for help immediately, within five minutes of the shot, so how was the body already cold when the help arrived? She claimed that Essex spoke to her before she sought help, yet he had no pulse and seemed to have been dead for a while when neighbors arrived. And why would the rented rooms come with a gun? And why was she in charge of it?

And the biggest question of all: why had she married a man who repeatedly threatened to kill both her and himself? It makes no sense whatsoever.

The Elam family also told the press the angle of the shot made the suicide claim shaky. “The fact that he was shot in the stomach, and that the bullet ranged upward toward the left shoulder, is regarded as the most suspicious. It is claimed that a suicide would never shoot himself in the position that Elam did, and if he did it would be almost a physical impossibility for him to fire a shot himself that would range upward to the heart.”

Brought before a grand jury, the widow stated that “Mr. Elam had threatened often to take his own life, and had told his family that he was going to kill himself.” The news report stated “there are a number of persons who say that they have heard him declared that he intended to commit suicide.”

However, there was also some suspicion cast against the rental home’s owners, a Mr. and Mrs. Turnley. According to Mrs. Turnley, “her husband had come home at midnight, but had left shortly afterward on a hunt, and she declared that he was not at the house at the time of the tragedy…The pistol with which Elam is supposed to have killed himself did not belong to him, but belonged to ‘the house’. “ To further complicate things, Mr. Turnley abandoned his wife following the Elam suicide. Is it possible the two men fought and Elam was shot in the struggle?

Despite all the red flags, the grand jury agreed with the authorities and returned a verdict of suicide. Perhaps they were as taken with the young widow as poor Essex had been.

The widow took out her anger at the Elam family by initially refusing to release Essex’s body to them for burial. However, she eventually relented, probably because she didn’t want to pay for a funeral herself.

This tale leaves me with so many questions. Did Essex really tell his mother and family that he was going to kill himself if they wouldn’t let him see his son? If poor little James heard him make such a threat, no wonder he was crying and refused to leave his grandmother’s house. Did Marguerite decide to use Essex’s suicide threats to her advantage and murder him? What was really going on with the Turnleys, the home’s owners? What was the true nature of Essex’s emotional state—was he really a sober “working machine” or a wild, erratic depressive? What happened to his estate? Did Marguerite ever get any money? Where did she go after this horrible incident? Back to New Orleans?

Essex’s family was obviously ashamed of his tragic death and the adverse publicity that swirled around it. This was not how they wanted the family to be “in the news”. They buried him in an unmarked grave in Magnolia Cemetery in Baton Rouge.

Little James Essex came to be known as “Essex” in memory of his father. He attended boarding school in Pineville, and lived with his grandmother during school breaks. As an adult, he moved to Oklahoma where he worked as an engineer. He married an Oklahoma woman and had a daughter, and lived until 1972.

Sources:

“Twelve Hour Groom Suicides” The Town Talk, Alexandria, Louisiana · Saturday, October 09, 1909 https://www.newspapers.com/

“Funeral of Essex Elam” The Town Talk, Alexandria, Louisiana · Tuesday, October 12, 1909

“Elam’s Relatives Not Convinced” Weekly Town Talk, 23 Oct 1909, Sat · Page 4 https://www.newspapers.com/image/212972446/?terms=essex%20elam&match=1

“Tragic End of a Newly Wed Husband” St. Landry Clarion, Opelousas, Louisiana · Saturday, October 16, 1909. https://www.newspapers.com/image/174380518/?terms=essex%20elam&match=1

“Story of the Suicide: Full Account of Sad Death of Essex Elam.” Weekly Town Talk, Alexandria, Louisiana · Saturday, October 16, 1909 https://www.newspapers.com/image/212972431/?terms=essex%20elam&match=1

“Did Not Change Verdict”, The Town Talk, Alexandria, Louisiana · Friday, November 12, 1909. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213475233/?terms=essex%20elam&match=1

“Affidavit of Non-Support against T.B.Turnley” The Times, Shreveport, Louisiana. 04 Nov 1909, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116350880/turnley

“Bullet in His Heart: Sensational Suicide in Baton Rouge.” The Times Democrat, New Orleans La, Sunday October 10, 1909

Louisiana Politics During Reconstruction: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Outcast”

Mayor of Baton Rouge Before and After the Civil War: A Dangerous Political Landscape

James Essex Elam: 1829-1873 (Husband of Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)
Mary S. Vanlandingham Elam: 1838-1916 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

January 2023 turned out to be a serendipitous time to be researching O.C. Vanlandingham’s children. One of my book clubs chose Gone with the Wind as their January selection, and the Vanlandinghams’ journey had some parallels to Scarlett O’Hara’s. The end of Scarlett’s story takes place during Reconstruction, as the victorious North attempted to control and manipulate the breakaway states through martial law, brutal taxation and ballot box schemes. This same scenario played out in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Mary Vanlandingham’s husband was re-elected to the post of mayor that he’d held before the Civil War, and was then thrown out of office in a conflict between the white, Old South Democratic party and the Republican Party, controlled by Northern carpetbaggers, Southern scammers, and buoyed by the votes of newly freed and easily manipulated black residents.

Mary Vanlandingham was born to Oliver Cromwell Vanlandingham and his wife Margaret Drake on May 22, 1838. She was the sixth of their seven children. After her father bought a large cotton plantation about eight to ten miles from Baton Rouge some time before 1851, he also acquired a home in the city where Mary spent part of her childhood.

Mary met an ambitious young attorney by the name of James Essex Elam, the son of another prominent Baton Rouge attorney, James Mason Elam, who died in 1856. In addition to practicing law, James Essex was elected mayor of Baton Rouge in 1859. He and Mary were married on April 20, 1860. I am sure Mary’s family was pleased to have an able young politician in the family. Mary took on great responsibility at only 22, becoming the first lady of Louisiana’s capital city, which probably entailed serving as hostess to the city’s rich and politically powerful.

James Mason Elam, father of James Essex Elam

James’ first mayoral term ended in early 1862, just before the Civil War. His successor, Mayor Holt, had barely assumed office when he was forced to flee along with state government officials just ahead of the arrival of Union troops in April 1862.  The city remained in Union hands for the rest of the war.

It does not appear that James Essex Elam served in the Confederate Army—I have found no records to suggest he enlisted, even when the Confederates tried to retake the city in the summer of 1862. It is unclear if the Elam family, which by then included an infant son, James, also fled before Union occupation, or if they remained in the hope of protecting their home and James’ law practice. Much of the city was heavily damaged during the battle for the city, as seen below.

Andrew Lytle photo of rubble following Battle of Baton Rouge, 1862

The Union commander in charge of the occupation of Baton Rouge appointed a new mayor in the interim, who held office (but not much power) from 1862-1865. Once the war was over, however, that mayor resigned to serve in the state legislature.

James E. Elam was appointed mayor in 1865 by then-Governor Wells. James ran for re-election in 1867, but the election was cancelled by order of General Sheridan to comply with the terms of the new Reconstruction Act.  James remained in office as an appointee mayor until 1869.

This initial post-war period must have required careful maneuvering on James’ part to govern, caught between the demands of the occupying forces, the demands by newly freed slaves for their rights, and the desire of the beaten Confederates to regain their pre-war power and security. James and Mary added two more children to their family during this four year mayoral term, son William in 1863 and daughter Mary Rebecca in 1867.

Subsequent elections came fast and furious. After James stepped down as the Democratic mayor in 1869, another Democrat by the name of Skolfield took office for a one-year period, 1869-1870. Then James Elam was re-elected mayor in 1870, holding office for a year as well.

Then came the worst of the Reconstruction period’s conflict in Baton Rouge. The 1871 election was a contested one, with election fraud on both sides. James Elam ran as the Democratic candidate, but the winner of the election by a margin of just 15 votes was an African American business owner named Loyeau Berhel. The Wikipedia entry on Baton Rouge mayors provides some context:

“Multiple mayoral elections during the Reconstruction Era were disputed. After the 1871 election Gov. Henry Clay Warmoth did what he legally could from the temporary capitol in New Orleans to briefly prop up the new African American Republican mayor, who was facing an overwhelmingly Democratic-controlled board of selectmen: 254 —but in 1872 Warmoth himself was facing a mounting impeachment effort and forced to broaden what remained of his support by reaching out to Democrats who had a much more solid base in Louisiana than the Republicans did; he declared the disputed 1872 election results null and void, and awarded the state's commission to the Democratic candidate. Ultimately, the 1872–73 term essentially ended up with two separately-functioning city governments, one recognized primarily by African American and pro-Union white Republicans (including so-called "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags") and one recognized primarily by native white Democrats.”

The New Orleans Republic newspaper summarized the elections results as follows:

“The two candidates were of our most popular class of citizens. Hon. J. E. Elam is an old resident of Baton Rouge, a gentleman of excellent social qualities, and in point of competency is fitted for the position; indeed, he has held it for many years….

Mr. Berhel, the Mayor elect, is a colored gentleman of ability, and one of the few of that class who has the esteem of all who intimately know him.

The result of our municipal election is not exactly as we desired, but we can not complain. The council consists of men of business experience, who will no doubt control the affairs of the city with an eye to economy and prosperity.”

The newspaper, despite being the mouthpiece of the Republicans in New Orleans, made clear their lack of respect for the new mayor, complimenting him as “a colored man of ability”, subtly hinting that he was able among colored men, not men in general, and that his ability was a rarity: “one of the few of that class…” Contrast this faint praise to the way James Elam was described, as a “gentleman” of “excellent social qualities” and “competency”. In other words, he was the sort of man who should be in such a position, if only he hadn’t been a Confederate and thus in need of “reconstruction”.

The newspaper also points out that the city council is composed of “men of business experience”, i.e. wealthy white people, who will “control the affairs of the city”. In other words, the white residents of Baton Rouge have nothing to fear from a black mayor because the real control of the city will rest in the hands of the white council.

Poor Mayor Berhal barely lasted a year before James Elam returned to office. However, this didn’t bring peace to the city. The 1872 election was equally contentious, even though the Republican candidate was now a white man, Henry Schorten. As mentioned in the Wikipedia quote above, both Schorten and Elam claimed to have won, and two separate city administrations were set up. The official vote totals were 396 for Elam and 499 for Schorten, but the Democrats claimed there were voting irregularities. Elam was the incumbent and refused to vacate office.

While Mayor Elam was out of town in March 1873, Schorten and his supporters actually broke into City Hall. According to the New Orleans Republican news report,

“Schorten,…with a party of his adherents, took forcible possession of the City Hall, declared all the offices vacant and proceeded to fill them ad libitum. Their police, however, were disarmed and arrested by the regular force.”

Mayor Elam did not remain in office for long, however. Backroom negotiations were in progress. According to Wikipedia,

“African American state senator J. Henri Burch, a prominent area Republican, met with Elam, and they negotiated a compromise where Elam would resign his position and support new governor William Pitt Kellogg's appointment of the Republican incumbent to the mayor's seat—along with three Republicans and three Democrats to the city council (as selected by a conference committee). This compromise was largely acceptable to both sides (very rare for Reconstruction), although a rogue faction of the Democrats did attempt to hold their own election for the council (which failed to draw many to the polls and apparently quickly faded away).

James Elam resigned on March 27, 1873. The Republican newspaper started their report as follows:

“For some time past Baton Rouge has been in a state of ferment, owing to the contention between rival claimants—Republicans on the one side and Democrats on the other—for possession of the city government. Violence, in one or two instances, has been resorted to and the peace and safety of the city constantly kept in jeopardy…

We are happy to announce the desirable end has been reached in a definite and practical form, which is in the highest degree complimentary to the patriotism and sound sense of the Senator and those associated with him in the management of the delicate negotiations.”

James Elam’s political career had obviously placed him under immense pressure and strain. His health may have been damaged as a result of the stress. Just months after leaving office, he suddenly died on July 31, 1873. He was only 43 years old.

Despite his long political career, I can find no obituaries for him. Newspapers were under close military control during Reconstruction, so probably they were reluctant to laud him in death and risk offending Republican power brokers. The Times-Picayune notice was the most complimentary, stating that “Mr. Elam has held many positions of honor and trust in that city and was universally esteemed. He had enjoyed the respect of every individual in the community during his long public career.”  

Despite being cast out of office on more than one occasion, James Essex Elam was honored for his service in death. He left his widow, Mary Vanlandingham Essex, who lived another 43 years after his death, and five children, one of whom was born after his death. He was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Baton Rouge. If  his grave bears a stone, there are no photos of it online. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Baton_Rouge,_Louisiana

“Baton Rouge Election”. New Orleans Republican. April 14, 1871. Accessed on Newspapers.com

New Orleans Republican. New Orleans, LA. March 28, 1873. Accessed on Newspapers.com

Election results. The Opelousas Journal. Opalousas, LA April 20 1872.     https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

"Peace In Baton Rouge: The Lion and the Lamb Lie Down Together—Practical Compromise and Happy Results". New Orleans Republican (p. 1). April 3, 1873.

“Death of Hon. James E. Elam.” New Orleans Times-Picayune. New Orleans, LA. August 1, 1873.