Making Good Trouble in 1860s Kentucky: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Troublemaker”

 

The Troubled Troublemaker: Edward Rumsey Weir

Edward Rumsey Weir: 1816-1891 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.” Rep. John Lewis, speaking on March 1, 2020 at a ceremony at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, commemorating the Bloody Sunday attack on civil rights marchers on March 7, 1965.

I believe Edward Rumsey Weir would have understood and supported John Lewis’ call to “get in good trouble.” Weir got in considerable trouble himself, supporting abolition in pre-war and Civil War era Kentucky. He believed that as a slaveowner himself, his calls for abolition would be more persuasive. He supported abolition despite the potential cost to his own businesses. Many of his fellow Kentuckians did not agree with him, and his views and actions made him a veritable pariah.

In addition to Edward Weir’s business interests, he was involved in politics, serving as a representative in the Kentucky House during two separate periods. His first term ran from 1841 to 1842. He was re-elected to the Kentucky House in 1862, serving through 1865. 

Edward was also a candidate for the Kentucky State Convention called in 1848 to prepare a new state constitution. In his memoir, Edward recalled,

“I took to the stump as an opponent of slavery.  After a heated and dangerous campaign, I was defeated by some 200 or 300 votes.  My opponent was a Democrat.  Nothing but the fact that I was one of the largest slave owners in Muhlenberg County and a born Kentuckian made it possible for me to discuss slavery.   More than once did I hear the pistol click in the pockets of my pro-slavery listeners as I spoke about the issue plainly before them.”

As the country became more divided over the issue of slavery heading into the election of 1860, Edward entered the political fray again.

 During the campaigns of 1860, I again took to the stump.  I ran up and down my County in support of the Unionists.  My speech came from the heart and was strong against those who favored succession and a disbanding of the Union.    In some circles, the opposition had become so strong to my position that a price had been placed upon my head.  I went few places without my trusty side arm at my side.”

Edward's ancestor said the "trusty side arm" was a "six-shooter minie ball revolver" that remained in the family into the 1900s. There is some question as to whether a revolver could fire a minie ball, but the Remington Army Revolver may have been able to use minie ammo.

Edward also travelled Washington D.C. to listen to the debates on the admission of the state of Kansas as a free state. He was assessing the mood of the federal government, and returned home fearing the country was headed for war. He travelled to the Kentucky state government and tried to rally Republicans to the Union cause and persuade the southern supporters to stay in the Union.

1861 drawing of the Kentucky capital building

He returned home prepared for the worst, recalling:

“I came home and held family council - a solemn one, and we decided not to abandon our home and state, but to fight it out "on our native hearth" though we all expected to lose our home and property. “

Edward started raising a militia group, arming them at his own expense and insisting they swear an oath that “demanded allegiance to the United States Government, ‘against all enemies, domestic or foreign’".

Eventually, Edward had 9,300 men under his command. This came at enormous personal cost. He wrote that,

“Guns and ammunition cost me $245 each.  Each man in my companies gave me his note for that amount which of course I never called and never received.  To me, it was the least that I could do to repay my Country for the opportunities it had given me.” (pg 14)

Edward continued to procure munitions once the militia units were replaced by federal infantry units. He was given a letter of credit for $10,000 to get supplies. He ended up using his own money, never tapping the federal credit. As it was unsafe for him to remain in Greenville, he ended up living in a Union Army camp for months. He noted that he was “tired of being afraid to sleep in my own bed.” (pg 22)

His wife and children were also forced to flee to safety in Illinois. Their neighbors were Confederate supporters and were a danger to the family. Edward’s wife and daughter were incredibly brave and stood up to raiding parties and mobs searching for Edward, but eventually they decided to wait out the war in a more secure environment.

                               

In 1863 he won election to the Kentucky House again. He recalled that:

“While serving in the legislature, by voice and vote, I supported the government at every turn.  On the floor of the House, I denounced the positions taken by the "weak kneed" Republicans of KY.  I gave such a stirring speech, that I was called upon by the Republicans of both Houses to furnish them a copy to be used as a campaign document.”

Residence of Kentucky State Rep Edward R Weir during 1864-65 legislative session, printed in the Courier Journal, Jan 31, 1865.

He ended up leaving the legislature when his family came down with smallpox. He went home to nurse them. His eldest son, now a Captain in the Union army, also spent months ill, sent back to Kentucky to recuperate before returning to battle. He was mustered out in 1864 as the war drew towards an inevitable end.

Even after the war’s conclusion, Edward continued to serve. He reported that:

“After my wife returned from Illinois after the fall of Ft's. Henry and Donalson (she had fled to Jacksonville to escape the dangers of the War), we kept an open house for all Union soldiers calling.  Often our floors were covered with weary Union soldiers, unknown to me except by their blue.  My wife and servants made our old kitchen hot with constant cooking.  Many a unit in need of supplies was willingly furnished for Union script [Figure 12] which I did not collect at War's end.” (pg 41)

Edward summed up his war years in a ridiculously modest fashion:

“Reflections upon our life at home during the War, considering how close to the enemy we were at times, it was rather mild.  At the beginning of the War, I owned a large farm near Greenville, KY (over 1,000 acres under cultivation).  It was well stocked with horses, mules and cattle.  Confederates during the early part of the War often visited the farm.  Their defiance forced me to remove all of my livestock behind Union lines after I lost five or six horses.” 

I was only captured by the enemy once.  It was for a very short time, as my captors did not know who I was.  I escaped from the semi-guerrilla band at the risk of my life.  Many a time I had to sneak away from my farm just ahead of an approaching enemy force.” (pg. 40)

In the next post, I will report on the financial cost of Edward’s support of the Union. He remained convinced that his political positions and his personal support of the Union were correct—merely what was required of him as a loyal citizen of the United States.

Sources:

1.       The Recollections of Edward R. Weir, Sr. Written 1888. Douglas B. Brockhouse, Ed. MSS 651, Manuscripts & Folklife Archives, Library Special Collections , Western Kentucky University. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=2&article=5534&context=dlsc_mss_fin_aid&type=additional

2.         "Edward Rumsey Weir, Sr." in the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/N00009772, (accessed September 19, 2023).

The Anti-Slavery Slaveowner: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “This Ancestor Went to Market”

 

Edward Rumsey Weir: Civil War Era Man of Contradictions

Edward Rumsey Weir:  1816-1891 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

Edward Rumsey Weir was a conflicted man, full of moral contradictions. Although he was a slaveowner in Kentucky, owning forty human beings at the time of the 1860 census, he proclaimed himself to be anti-slavery. He worked to keep Kentucky in the Union during the Civil War, and even personally funded Home Guard units and the formation of Union companies in Kentucky. Did he undergo some sort of transformation in the years leading to the Civil War? But if so, why did he continue to own slaves?

Edward Rumsey Weir

Edward Rumsey Weir was born November 29, 1816 to parents James Weir and Anna Cowman Rumsey Weir. He was the oldest of their five surviving children, and grew up in Greenville, a town in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. His father was a successful merchant, and was able to send his two sons, Edward and James, to college and on to study law at Transylvania University.

In 1838, Edward married his first cousin, Harriet Rumsey Miller. She was the daughter of Samuel Miller and Harriet Rumsey. Harriet Rumsey was Edward’s aunt, as she was James Weir’s sister-in-law. Edward was 22, and Harriet was only sixteen when they married. The couple settled in Greenville where Edward had a legal practice. They had ten children, five of whom survived to adulthood.

Edward seemed to share his father’s business acumen. According to Otto Rothert’s A History of Muhlenberg County, Edward continued his father’s mercantile businesses following his death, although he sold some of the more distant properties. He also started a grist mill in the 1840s.

Edward also ran a large plantation. I don’t know what crop they were producing—perhaps tobacco? Edward owned 1000 acres of land, and he built a large ‘plantation home” on the portion of the property nearest to Greenville.

Despite relying on slavery to run the plantation, Edward believed slavery was wrong. As described in the next post, he became active politically as an abolitionist, risking his safety and his finances. And yet he didn’t free his slaves. His ancestor and editor noted that it may have been difficult to free his slaves in the 1850s and 1860s as the slaves would have faced a precarious future if they remained in slaveholding Kentucky. In addition, they would have been ill-equipped to relocate to a safer place in the north, and without their labor Edward would have lacked the resources to help them. I suppose Edward may have felt he was making the best choice among many terrible options.

In his memoir, Edward’s conflicted feelings about slave-owning are apparent. He wrote:

“Though slaves, they did live well and all were educated to read and write. A few received even better education. Yet, they had lived with us so long that they became part of the family. After the War, when they were free to leave, they remained in my employ and continued to live with us. There is no justification for slavery. In the South in the first half of the 19^th century, it was only through the use of slaves that one could economically operate a plantation and effectively compete with his neighbors.”

He seems to be trying to justify his ownership of these people, or at least he is trying to defend himself as a more enlightened and decent slaveowner than his neighbors. Following the war, he expressed gratitude for his slaves’ actions protecting him, his family and his property.

Edward’s anti-slavery sentiment seems to have come from his father, James Weir. The editor of Edward’s memoirs wrote that in the 1820s when Liberia became a destination for former slaves to resettle in Africa, James Weir “made the offer to his slaves to pay the passage of anyone wishing to relocate in Liberia. Several of them accepted his offer…” Edward Weir later called Liberia a “failed” experiment. Family papers that were donated to Western Kentucky University contain letters from two former Weir family slaves—probably Edward’s rather than his father’s former slaves—who had moved to Liberia. The archivist describes the letters as follows:

“Folder 17 contains two letters written to Edward R. Weir, Sr. by Lewis Ware [Weir] and E. Weir, emancipated slaves recolonized to Liberia. Lewis recounts his struggle with illness and his difficulties providing for his family because of drought, limited agriculture, lack of markets for crops, and expensive foreign imports. He asks to be sent aid in the form of clothing, shoes and foodstuffs. E. Weir’s letter is shorter but more cheerful, as he reports building a house and an “edifice,” perhaps for business.”

In addition to offering slaves the opportunity to emigrate to Liberia, Edward also gave at least three of his slaves permission to enlist in the Union Army (the Army required permission from slaveowners before accepting slave recruits). One of the three soldiers is pictured below.

Corp. Wilson Weir, Company F, 108th U.S. Colored Infantry

Edward Rumsey Weir was an interesting man, dependent upon a system of chattel slavery that he abhorred. In the next two blog posts, I will describe his political efforts to abolish slavery and to support the Union in the Civil War, and how these efforts devastated him financially.

 

Sources:

1.       "Edward Rumsey Weir, Sr." in the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/N00009772, (accessed September 19, 2023).

2.       Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Muhlenberg County, Subdivision 2, p. 144-145.

3.       Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Muhlenberg County, District 2, p. 98A-B.

4.       Lewis Collins and Richard H. Collins, Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky, vol. X (Covington, KY: Collins & Co., 1874), 640.

5.       "Edward Rumsey Weir, Sr. (1816-1891)," Find A Grave, Memorial #71435457.

6.       Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Muhlenberg County Marriages.

7.       Otto A. Rothert, A History of Muhlenberg County (Louisville, KY: John P. Morton & Company, 1913), 56-62.

8.       The Recollections of Edward R. Weir, Sr. Written 1888. Douglas B. Brockhouse, Ed. MSS 651, Manuscripts & Folklife Archives, Library Special Collections , Western Kentucky University. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=2&article=5534&context=dlsc_mss_fin_aid&type=additional

9.       Source: “An old homestead sold.” The Record [Greenville, KY], 9 June 1910, page 3. Image provided by Muhlenberg County Kentucky History Group.

10.   Muhlenberg County Heritage Volume 14, Number 1. “Old Buildings” by Martha Beth Shelton.

Brothers in Blue and Gray: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “War and Peace”

 

A Fraternal Civil War: Smith Brothers Fought on Opposite Sides

Samuel E. Smith: 1840-1882 (Maternal Great-Granduncle)
Elias Guess Smith: 1842-1862 (Maternal Great-Granduncle)

When people discuss the Civil War, they often use the phrase “brother-fighting-brother” to emphasize how the war tore apart families and friends, and how people from the same communities ended up fighting on opposite sides. In the case of Elijah Smith’s two eldest sons, the Civil War truly was a brother-against-brother conflict. Samuel fought for the Union, while Elias fought for the Confederacy.

Samuel E. Smith was the oldest son of Elijah F. Smith and Nancy Vanlandingham Weir Smith. He was born January 1, 1840. Samuel’s brother Elias Guess Smith was born two years later. The boys grew up in Greenville, Kentucky where their father Elijah worked as a blacksmith.

At the time of the 1860 census, twenty-year-old Samuel was listed as a “student”—I believe he was a law student, preparing for his post-war career as a lawyer. Eighteen-year-old Elias was working as a schoolteacher.

1860 census

When war broke out on April 12, 1861, Elias quickly volunteered, travelling to nearby Hopkinsville to enlist as a private in the Confederate 9^th Infantry just ten days later on April 22, 1861. He was in Muster Company C.

Less than a year later, Elias fought in the battle of Shiloh and was wounded on April 6, 1862. He died of his wounds on April 29, and was apparently buried somewhere in Tennessee near the battlefield.

Elias Smith's Civil War Record from Ancestry Databases

Samuel made a very different choice, enlisting in the Union Army. Did Samuel’s legal studies lead him to a different conclusion about the war’s rationale than his younger brother? Did he disagree with secession? Was he an abolitionist like others in his mother’s extended Weir family?

I wonder how his parents and siblings reacted to his choice. Was Samuel alone in his beliefs? And how did the family react when Elias was killed in battle? Was there resentment that Samuel supported and was part of the Union Army that was responsible for Elias’ death? The year 1862 was one of great heartbreak for the family. In addition to Elias’ death, Elijah and Nancy lost two other children, three-year-old Edward and infant Esther. So much loss.

I have not been able to identify Samuel’s military records on Fold 3 or other Civil War databases, so I don’t know exactly when he either enlisted or was drafted. I know that he survived the war, and following the war he was referred to as “Captain Samuel E. Smith”, so I hypothesize that he must have been promoted to the rank of captain before the war’s end. I found one record for a Samuel W Smith (W for Weir, his mother’s maiden name?), listed as a 1^st Lieutenant on “D.S.” to another officer. D.S. stands for Detached Service, which is a temporary duty assignment to another unit. As 1^st Lieutenant is only one grade below captain, I suspect the Samuel Smith in this record might be the correct one, but I cannot verify it as yet.

Samuel seems to have returned to Kentucky by January 23, 1864, which is when he married Emma C. Milligan. Had he already left the Union army, or was he on leave? I can find no records that shed light on the date he mustered out.

Following the war, Samuel continued to support the Union. He ran for Congress in the second district of Kentucky as a Republican candidate—an unpopular choice in that part of Kentucky. 

The local Owensboro newspaper was scathing, saying he was a “radical”, not a Republican.

“Capt. Samuel E. Smith, a young lawyer of Greenville, appeared as the champion of radicalism. His address was principally a rehash and repetition of the radical literature of the day, interspersed with the usual hosannas to the spread-eagle bird of America, and peons of praise to the so-called loyal and progressive element of the country. He informed the audience that he favored and endorsed nearly all the tyrannical actions of Stevens and Sumner, and their satelites (sic)  towards the South, except negro suffrage—presuming, we suppose, that that pill would prove a little too nauseous for Kentucky to swallow just now….”

The editor continued:

“We exceedingly regret to see any one bearing the proud title of Kentuckian enlisting himself in the ranks of a party who have imposed such degradation and tyranny upon the white race of the country as has the party of…Mr. S…..[H]e found but few disciples here ready to throw themselves before the black jugurnaut (sic) car of radicalism—a fact we are proud to record. As it was the first public speech ever uttered in this community in advocacy of the principles of a party whose mission is the white man’s degradation, so we hope it be the last.”

He ended his 3-column long piece encouraging Owensboro residents to vote, asking:

“Are the people of our State willing to ratify the action of the vindictive, radical and destructive body of Jacobins at Washington, and raise their voices in chorus with these infidel dervishes, and proclaim this shall be no longer a white man’s government, but a miserable, loathsome, semi-negro oligarchy?...Let your watchword be that the color of your own race is thicker than the cowardly cringing subserviency to a wild, frenzied and despotic power…”

The article also exhorted “foreigners”—those we now refer to as immigrants—to vote Democrat and oppose the Republican Party.

“Foreigners, remember the present vindictive and radical party will proscribe and disfranchise you as readily, and give your rights to the negro, as they have done in the South…They hate foreigners just in proportion as they love the negro.”

The brazen racism in this article is horrifying, and demonstrates the difficulties Samuel Smith faced as a Republican candidate in Kentucky. He is quoted as telling supporters that the Democratic candidate Brown and his supporters:

 “…talk about the Reconstruction Bill, the Civil Rights Bill and the Tenure of Office Bill with derision and contempt. The same sentiments which actuated them at the beginning of the war are still lurking in their venomous and malicious bosoms this day as bitter and proscriptive as ever before. I am led to believe from the manifestations of treason and the spirit of revenge that has come under my observation in several portions of this district, if a little reconstruction was done in our own old noble commonwealth it would be better for her people.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Samuel Smith was soundly trounced in the election, with the Democrat John Young Brown receiving over 8000 votes to Smith’s 2000. Smith surprised the district by contesting the election, arguing that Brown had provided aid and comfort to the Confederacy, making him ineligible to run for office under the post-war law.

 Congress ended up deciding the election, concluding as follows:

“Resolved, That John Young Brown, having voluntarily given aid, countenance and encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility to the United States, is not entitled to take the oath of office as a representative in this House from the Second Congressional District of Kentucky, or to hold a seat.

Resolved, That Samuel E Smith, not having received a majority of the votes cast for a Representative in this House from the Second District of Kentucky, is not entitled to a seat.

Resolved, that the Speaker be directed to notify the Governor of Kentucky that a vacancy exists in the representation in this House from the Second Congressional District.”

Samuel and his wife stuck it out in Greenville after the election, even though community feelings probably ran against them. They appear on the 1870 census, below. Samuel is still working as a lawyer, but I suspect his business fell off dramatically among the Democratic party supporters.

Samuel and his wife also lost two infants during these difficult years. Their third child, Clarence M. Smith, who survived to adulthood, was born November 15, 1871. Four years later, Samuel moved his family to Evansville, Indiana. Indiana had supported the Union during the war, and the Republican Party had strength in the state. He probably felt he would fit into the community better than in his hometown.

From articles in the Evansville newspaper, it appears he built a successful legal practice and became a valuable community member. He also travelled back to his hometown of Greenville, Kentucky in August of 1876 to give a speech at a “Republican Flag and Pole Raising” event held at the courthouse. The Evansville newspaper printed a letter about the event, which said, “Mr. Samuel E. Smith of Evansville, formerly of this place, delivered a most effective and able speech, in fact one of the happiest of his life.”

Tragically, Samuel Smith died on April 20, 1882 at only 42 years of age. Evansville city death records attribute his death to pneumonia. The newspaper coverage was amazing and touching. His Presbyterian Church leadership issued resolutions honoring him, saying in part that Samuel “was ripe in judgment and discretion…and had by his gentle nature and manly qualities won the esteem and affection of all who came in contact with him.” It noted that he was the respected Superintendent of the Sunday School.

The local bar association also passed resolutions honoring him. They read in part:

“The kindness of a man’s nature, his acts of charity, his good words for his neighbors, together with unflinching integrity, constitute the elements of character that make the best citizen, the kindest neighbor and the truest friend. And when with these elements of character we find a mind educated and logical to a marked degree, coupled with an unconquerable will and never-ending devotion to principle, we have one of whom nature might stand up and say to all the world, this is a man! Captain Smith possessed all these qualities. He was a friend whose friendship no man doubted. His charity was larger than his purse. His kind acts and words have incited to a better life many men and taken comfort to many homes. As a lawyer he was also faithful, honest and capable, true to the interests of his clients... “

The article concluded with the notation that “owing to the incapacity of the residence of the late Captain S.E. Smith to accommodate the attendance of the many friends of the deceased, it has been decided to hold the funeral services at Evans Hall….The great edifice will no doubt be filled to the doors on the occasioin.” The Knights of Honor, the Red Ribbon Club, and the Grand Army of the Republic gathered to march to the funeral.

Surprisingly and sadly, I found no mention of his death in the Greenville, Kentucky newspaper despite the fact that his relatives continued to live there. I wonder if Willis Smith (Lorene’s father) attended his brother’s funeral. I hope the family rift wasn’t so great that his siblings had cut him off.

Photo of base of monument. Oak Hill Cemetery, Evansville, Indiana. Photo from Findagrave. Photographer Vicki Sakel Sprengel.

Samuel E. Smith must have been an extraordinary man to have merited such an outpouring of grief and respect after living in Evansville for a mere seven years. He lived a life of principle, supporting the Union in the war despite his own brother and probably other family members supporting the Confederacy. He acquitted himself well in war, rising to the rank of Captain.

Photo from Findagrave. Vicki Sakel Sprengel photographer.

His peacetime life showed equal courage and principle. He stood up for unpopular political positions. He contributed to his community through his legal practice and in his personal life. I wonder what he could have accomplished had he lived to a ripe old age.

 

Sources:

Elias G Smith in the U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865. Historical Data Systems, Inc.; Duxbury, MA 02331; American Civil War Research Database.

National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, online <a href="http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/" target="_blank"http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss//a>, acquired 2007.

Returns From U.S. Military Posts, 1800-1916; Microfilm Publication M617, 1550 rolls; NAID: 561324; Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1762 - 1984, Record Group 94; The National Archives in Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1571/images/32169_126579-00126?pId=4867444

“Friends of Liberty to the Breach”. Article on Congressional Race in Owensboro Monitor, May 1, 1867. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Contested”. Louisville Daily Courier, June 24, 1867. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

“Congress voids 2d District contested election.” Louisville Daily Courier, January 22, 1868. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

Evansville Journal articles: “Republican Flag and Pole Raising”, Aug. 5, 1876. “Mr. Samuel E. Smith opens law office”. Sept. 2, 1875. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

Evansville Courier and Press. April 22, 1882. “Samuel E Smith:.Action of the Evansville Bar Yesterday Afternoon.” Accessed on Newspapers.com.

Evansville Journal. Evansville Indiana. April 24, 1882. “The Last of Earth. The Remains of Capt. S. E. Smith Consigned to Their Final Resting Place.” Accessed on Newspapers.com.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80763130/samuel-e-smith

 

Tragic Gunshot: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Disaster”

Shot with his Own Gun: Robert Weir’s Tragic Death at 14

Robert Barkley Weir: 1851-1865 (Maternal 2^nd Cousin 3x Removed)

 

I ran across a beautiful headstone in the James Weir cemetery plot in Daviess County Kentucky, and decided to learn about the young man buried there. I discovered a truly tragic story—a family disaster for the Weirs.

Robert Barkley Weir was the fourth child born to James Weir and his wife Susan Charlotte Green. Robert was born June 9, 1851 at the family home in Owensboro, Kentucky. There are few records of his brief life. He appears on the 1860 census as R.B. Weir, age 10, who was attending school.

According to the news article I found in the June 21, 1865 issue of the Owensboro Monitor, young Robert had gone out hunting, or “gunning” as the newspaper put it, with his two dogs on the morning of Thursday, June 15. He never returned home.

A search was mounted, and friends found his body the following morning, about two miles from his home. The news article stated that based “on the locality of the wound, [Robert] is presumed to have been blowing into one barrel of the gun when the other discharged, tearing away a portion of his under lip, entering his _____ (portion of article is missing), lodging in or about the brain.”

His headstone reads:

“Killed instantly by the accidental discharge of his gun whilst hunting. His two dogs remained by their dead Master during the night, faithfully guarding his body until discovered by friends.”

Photo from Findagrave, CAWatkins photographer

The stone features the stump of a tree, symbolizing a life cut short, with a gun and ammunition bag leaning against the stump, and two mourning dogs sitting faithfully in front of the stump. It is a beautiful, moving headstone.

The article noted that Robert’s mother was distraught following his death, and that his father and youngest sister Belle were absent on an out of state trip when he died.

I admit to wondering if this tragedy truly was accidental, or if the poor boy intended to take his life. After all, he went out alone, and the gunshot apparently entered in the mouth upward into the brain, which is a common position of a gun in a suicide. However, I admit that I know nothing about hunting, particularly with the sort of weapon he would have used in 1865. I tried to do research regarding blowing down the barrel of a double-barrel gun, and found some references to it. The newspaper seemed convinced it was an accident, which is persuasive. However, I am intrigued by his parents choosing to inscribe “accidental discharge of his gun” on the headstone. It seems as if they were trying to squash any potential gossip by emphasizing the accidental nature of the death.

We will never know what really happened that summer day. However, we do know that his dogs loved young Robert Barkley Weir and loyally stayed by his side even in death—a touching tribute forever memorialized on his headstone.

Photo from Findagrave, photographer The Necro Tourist

According to Robert’s entry on Findagrave, his headstone and story were featured in the 2011 “Voices of Elmwood” cemetery tour, where local historians and actors enact the stories of people buried in the Elmwood Cemetery. I would have loved to have heard Robert’s story brought to life in this way.

Sources:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/63841063/robert-barkley-weir

Photos of the headstone by The Necro Tourist and CAWatkins, posted on Findagrave.

The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M653; Residence Date: 1860; Home in 1860: District 2, Daviess, Kentucky; Roll: M653_364; Page: 825; Family History Library

Beautiful Home and Interesting Housekeeping: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “This Ancestor Stayed Home”

 

James Weir’s Waveland: A Truly Artistic Home

James Weir: 1821-1906 (First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

While researching James Weir for another blog post, I discovered some fascinating information about his lovely home in Owensboro, Waveland. I also found an entertaining newspaper piece that implied he sowed a few wild oats when he was young and first living on his own. I decided these items deserved more research and a post of their own.

As I wrote in my previous post, James Weir was the son of James Weir and the nephew of my husband’s third great-grandfather Samuel Miller Weir. James Weir attended college—quite rare in the 1840s—and earned his law degree. He practiced law and then branched out into banking. He was also renowned as a novelist, writing three novels in the 1850s. James married Susan C. Green in 1842, and they had ten children, eight of whom survived to adulthood.

The rather amusing and suggestive news item about James Weir’s younger days was found in the Owensboro Examiner’s September 10, 1875 edition, in a column entitled “Scraps of Local History”. The writer was recalling prominent city residents of thirty years earlier, so in the early to mid-1840’s. One paragraph caught my eye. It reads as follows:

“About the same time of which we are now speaking, James Weir, Jr., began house-keeping, first in and then outside the town. Of this, family delicacy forbids us to say anything, as all are still living, except to say that the mother of Mrs. Weir was among the best women of her day, or any day, and that her father was among the grandest men upon whom Christianity ever put her shining crown…”

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding this paragraph, but it seems to imply that James Weir was sowing some wild oats once he had moved out on his own, and that he had perhaps compromised his future wife. Otherwise, why would his wife Susan Green’s parents need to exercise their Christian charity and be among the “best” people of their day? It sounds as if the young man was causing concern among his sweetheart’s family. Since James and Susan were, by 1875, important, influential people in the community, I wonder how they reacted to this news item and the suggestion that their long ago conduct (or at least James’) was too risqué to discuss openly.

The information on the home James built in 1858 was also fascinating. Prior to 1858, James and Susan and their children lived in a house at Third and Daviess Street, just blocks from the Ohio River. Now this section of Owensboro is the central business district; the Chamber of Commerce Office is nearby.

Area of James and Susan Weir's first home in Owensboro

As their family grew, they needed a larger home. James bought a 400 acre parcel from John Howard, described in “Some Historic Landmarks of Owensboro” (see citation below) as stretching from “McFarland Street south to the old McHenry farm about one mile out Frederic Street. It extended west about one-half mile.”

Waveland location marked in blue--note that neighboring property is listed as Weir Park

James sold off much of the acreage to other well-heeled Owensboro residents. The article noted that “many of the principal residences of Owensboro are standing on” the original Weir property. Weir kept about twenty acres around the homesite. The map above shows the area in 1878 when Weir owned 35 acres and had donated parkland next door. The parcel was located north of Griffith Street and between Walnut and Frederica, an area that now has businesses like CPAs and attorneys housed in the remaining large old homes.

According to the Historic Landmarks article, Waveland was:

“an unpretentious square brick house, which originally cost less than $20,000. The brick work was done by a contractor named James Wilhite, and the carpenter work by Bonnie Trible…All the lumber used was yellow poplar, then plentiful, but now so rare and valuable.”

“The house was out of the ordinary for architecture...” according to the article, which quoted a representative from the Carnegie Libraries, who toured Waveland while searching for a site for a new library, that no other house he’d ever toured “had come up to this one for completeness in every way.”

Waveland had 12 rooms, plus servants’ quarters. Outbuildings of brick and log housed Weir’s slaves before the Civil War. The 1860 census’ Slave Schedules show that James Weir owned 21 human beings, the youngest only a few months old. The Historic Landmarks articles claims that “after the emancipation, many of them (slaves) remained with him on account of his kindness towards them.”

I would like to believe that his kindness was the reason. The 1870 census does show that four black employees lived in the household: Elya Davis, 50; Mary Davis, 12; David Lewis, 29; and William Hunter, 15. The census indicates none of these workers could read, so apparently Weir’s kindness did not extend to educating his slaves. The family also had two live-in white employees, probably a nanny and a cook or housekeeper.

Waveland’s most striking feature was its art. The Historic Landmarks article states:

“The frescoing of this house, which was considered the finest in this part of the country, was done in 1870 by Captain Buler, a Prussian army officer who had fought through the Civil War as a Confederate officer. The cost of frescoing was $12,000, and the designs were magnificent, such as are now rarely seen.”

I have found no images of the frescos or any record of a Confederate officer with the surname Buler. If he completed any other artworks, I find no record of them.

A description from Collins’ Historical Sketches (see citation below) said that Waveland, set “on a gentle knoll south of the city, is one of the most magnificently frescoed buildings on the American continent.” The writer noted that the fresco painter “is at once artist and scholar; the elegant historic paintings on the ceiling of the library, in their groupings and combinations, are a constant source of study and pleasure”

Another article provides some descriptions of the frescos: “The broad halls and large airy rooms were beautifully frescoed and the library with the picture of ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware’ on the ceiling, [contained] well-filled bookshelves, for Mr. Weir was a great reader…”

James Weir continued to live in the home for the rest of his life. He died at Waveland on January 31, 1906 at the age of 84. 

His son, Dr. James Weir, died the same year in August. Following the son’s death, the home was put up for sale, and the buyer chose to tear it down just two years later so the property could be subdivided into numerous home lots. It is a pity that such a richly decorated home did not survive. As a result, the frescos have been lost, and their artist left unnamed and forgotten.

Sources:

“Some Historic Landmarks of Owensboro”. https://wckyhistory-genealogy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Historic-Landmarks-of-Owensboro.pdf

Map of Owensboro, Ky. by McDonough, Leo & Co.; Chamberlain, E.J., 1878.

Description of Weir House. Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky: History of Kentucky, Volume 2, By Lewis Collins. Collins & Co., Covington KY. https://books.google.com/books?id=FjE_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA153&lpg=PA153&dq=james+weir+house,+owensboro&source=bl&ots=Pk2An5-zW5&sig=ACfU3U2RajZmLR0_JuAs6wt87OodjbCfXw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj84_TIlrCBAxWNk2oFHaTiCpg4FBDoAXoECAgQAw#v=onepage&q=james%20weir%20house%2C%20owensboro&f=false

Articles about Weir’s life and Waveland. https://wckyhistory-genealogy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Jerry20Long20-20Weir2C20James20281821-190629.pdf

Owensboro Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky., Sunday, 2 August 1908, p.1:.OLD WEIR HOME THING Of PAST

 

The Novels of James Weir Jr.: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Newest Discovery”

The Author/Businessman: Nineteenth Century Kentucky Novelist

James Weir: 1821-1906 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)
 

While researching James Weir’s father, also named James Weir, I ran across a reference to his son writing and publishing three novels in the 1800s. I was fascinated—I had to research these novels. Was he a good writer? What did he write about? I couldn’t wait to investigate this newest discovery.

James Weir was born June 16, 1821 in Greenville, Kentucky to parents James Weir and Anna Cowman Rumsey Weir. He was the third of their five children, and the second son. Unlike many young men of the era, James and his brother Edward were fortunate enough to attend college, both matriculating at the twenty-year-old campus of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. They went on to study law at Transylvania University.

Law degree in hand, James moved from Greenville to Owensboro, Kentucky. He married Susan Charlotte Green in 1842. She was the daughter of a judge who was one of James’ legal mentors.

In addition to his legal practice, James became involved in banking and railroads. He helped to found and later became the president of the Deposit Bank of Owensboro, and was the president of the Owensboro and Nashville Railroad, even financing the purchase of the railroad’s rolling stock. He also invested in the Ohio River Telegraph Company and helped found the Owensboro Wheel Company. He became a well-respected and wealthy member of the Owensboro community, and was known for his charitable works. He and Susan had ten children, seven of whom reached adulthood. 

While you might assume James’ business and family endeavors would have kept him busy, he somehow found time to write and publish three novels. He apparently was writing during the early years of his marriage and the birth of his first three children. I wonder if he ever had time to sleep? Of course, he was a slaveowner, so perhaps his duties at home were taken care of by servants.

His first book, Lonz Powers or The Regulators, was published in 1850. With its publication, Weir became “Kentucky’s first historical novelist.” See Taylor citation below.

The book is based on the real-life exploits of Kentucky outlaw Alonzo Pennington, who led a band of criminals from 1830-1845. Local people eventually formed a vigilante group to combat the outlaws, and Pennington was captured and tried in 1846. Weir’s character Lonz Powers, like Pennington, is the leader of a group of outlaws. However, Powers attempts to hide his identity by joining the vigilante group pursuing him, known as the Regulators. Despite his dual identity, Powers is eventually caught and brought to justice. 

Lonz Powers was serialized in newspapers, including the Owensboro newspaper—it was a long book, so was published in an astonishing 81 segments!

For his next two books, James Weir turned to another place and time he was familiar with: the North Carolina of his father’s youth, and the migration of North Carolinians to Kentucky. In the first of the two novels, Simon Kenton or The Scout’s Revenge, he follows the adventures of Indian fighter and Revolutionary War scout Simon Kenton, and his conflict with the evil Tory Simon Girty. In the novel, Kenton becomes involved with two North Carolina families, the Duffs and the Heads, who migrate to Kentucky. In the sequel, The Winter Lodge or The Vow Fulfilled, the Duffs and Heads are followed to Kentucky by renegades and natives out for revenge against them. Simon Kenton helps them fight off the villains.

Once again, Weir based his characters on real people. Simon Kenton and Simon Girty were both actual scouts and explorers, friends of Daniel Boone. However, the real Kenton and Girty were friends, not enemies. Also, the real Kenton ended up settling in Ohio rather than Kentucky.

Simon Kenton was published by Lippincott, Grambo and Co. in 1852, and The Winter Lodge was published by Lippincott in 1854. I found the novels are held by several university libraries, including the University of Chicago, and are also available online. Hathi Trust has the full text of all three on their website. Weir’s writing is very evocative. Here is a description of an abandoned house:

“That lonely cottage, with its dreary, moss-covered roof, its crumbling chimney, its glassless windows, its half-gone porch, its broken-down fences, and its weedy, briery yard, was a striking picture of gloomy desolation and decay and death; and no wonder the simple rustics believed it the home of ghosts and spirits, and never entered within its haunted precincts.” (pg. 68)

One of the characters in Simon Kenton was a black man named Titus. James’ father had a slave (referred to as a “body servant” in some accounts) named Titus who accompanied him on his travels as a merchant, so the novel’s character was probably based on that Titus. Other characters in his books were based on his friends and acquaintances. One of his schoolteachers appears as a character, for example.

As a modern reader, the dialect and treatment of the Titus character are jarring and repulsive. Here is an exchange between Titus and Simon Kenton:

            “O massa!” ejaculated the negro….”dis old boy can’t do dat; him be fraid of the ghosts, for dat house be haunted dis long time.”

            “Haunted, you old white-liver!” exclaimed Sharp-Eye. “Just do as I tell you, or cuss me if I don’t lift that wolly scalp of yours, and then we’ll have the ghost of a nigger to keep company with old Girty and his crew…And the ghosts, you know, don’t travel by daylight, for they’ve got eyes like owls, all them I’ve seen, and can’t see ‘cept at night…”

Obviously these books have not aged well. The writing is too florid for modern taste, and the treatment of Native Americans and black people would horrify most modern readers. However, they are a glimpse into the world of the 1850s and reflect the sensibilities of the time period. They were popular when published and sold out. In addition, they were translated into German and published in Germany, where stories of the American frontier were popular.

Print copies of the novels are now very hard to find. Since the original publication runs were fairly small, and most of the books were sold in the region of Kentucky and the surrounding states, few copies have survived.

Weir’s publisher wanted to reprint Lonz Powers, but Weir dragged his feet, claiming he wanted to make extensive edits before the book was reissued. He never completed the edits. He also had plans to write a third book in the Simon Kenton series, which would cover the period of the War of 1812. However, he never completed the project. Did his other responsibilities get in the way? Did he lose interest in writing?  

James Weir died in Owensboro January 31, 1906 at the age of 84. Some of James Weir’s children also authored stories and books, and kept well-stocked libraries, so his literary interests were passed to the next generation.  

 

photo by CAWatkins, from Findagrave

 

Sources:

Simon Kenton or The Scout’s Revenge. An Historical Novel by James Weir. Lippincott, Grambo and Co. Philadelphia. 1852.  https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081749974&seq=19

The Winter Lodge: or Vow Fulfilled. An Historical Novel. The Sequel to Simon Kenton. James Weir. Lippincott, Grambo, and Co., Philadelphia. 1854.  https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008617470

Lonz Powers: Or the Regulators. A Romance of Kentucky. James Weir. Lippincott, Grambo & Company, 1850. https://books.google.com/books?id=q6EcAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Taylor, R. Stephen. “JAMES WEIR, FIRST CITIZEN OF OWENSBORO.” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, vol. 72, no. 1, 1974, pp. 10–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23378279. Accessed 13 Sept. 2023.

“The Story of Lonz Powers.” Article on the Cousin Harriet website. https://cousinharriet.com/history/xiii.html

Description of Weir House. Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky: History of Kentucky, Volume 2, By Lewis Collins. Collins & Co., Covington KY. https://books.google.com/books?id=FjE_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA153&lpg=PA153&dq=james+weir+house,+owensboro&source=bl&ots=Pk2An5-zW5&sig=ACfU3U2RajZmLR0_JuAs6wt87OodjbCfXw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj84_TIlrCBAxWNk2oFHaTiCpg4FBDoAXoECAgQAw#v=onepage&q=james%20weir%20house%2C%20owensboro&f=false

https://wiki.historyofowensboro.com/index.php/James_Weir

Some Historic Landmarks of Owensboro. Jerry Long. Owensboro Messenger.11 Oct 1888. https://wckyhistory-genealogy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Historic-Landmarks-of-Owensboro.pdf