Christmas Miracle . . . .

Absolutely, positively . . . .

Delivering the Christmas miracle has left precious little time for researching these past two weeks. I'm looking forward to the end of the holiday season, and dedicating more time to the family tree. In the absence of any new research to share, let me restate and summarize what my goals are for this winter. Research focuses on George J. Mathews, my great great great grandfather. Thus far, research and oral history reveal that he was born about 1824, and claims his "nativity" as Meigs County, Ohio. He married Charlotte Shuler about 1855, most likely in Linn County, Kansas and they welcomed a son, George W. Mathews in 1856.

George volunteered for, and was assigned to, the 1st Kansas Battery - Light Artillery on January 2, 1862, but died at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on May 2, 1862. That's where it ends. Here is what I'm searching for:

1) Where is George buried - no online records of his interment at Ft. Leavenworth, or at various cemeteries around Linn County, Kansas.
2) George's Parents - thus far there has been no positive way to identify him through Federal Census records. Without his parents, his immediate ancestry remains unknown to me.

Doesn't seem like much, only two questions. But searching for answers has proven fruitless, and frustrating.
 
I've begun some indirect research through Jesse Woodson James, notorious outlaw, and Missouri guerrilla. George was on the eastern Kansas border during the "Bleeding Kansas" period of the 1850s leading up to the Civil War, as was Jesse James. Yesterday, I checked out a book from the Sheridan County Fulmer Library titled, The Lost Cause: The Trials of Frank and Jesse James, by James P. Muehlberger. While focused more on the misdeeds of the James boys, Muehlberger still sketches the intense political setting of western Missouri and eastern Kansas in the 1850s, as abolitionists and free soilers sought to bring Kansas into the Union as a free state, while pro-slavery people sought to extend slavery west into Kansas. George Mathews and his in-laws lived in eastern Kansas during this time, and they were surely impacted by both sides. For me, it is interesting to read of the schemes and ambitions of the pro-slavery and abolitionist factions, and place my ancestors in this historic context. So perhaps Muehlberger's work will provide a new lead to follow, as he will certainly provide me with a better understanding of regional political forces and the impact that it had on my own people.

"Endeavor to persevere."