Review and Collaboration

Reviewed some unarchived documents on my desk and discovered two battery muster roll cards and a muster out roll card for George Mathews. I’d ordered these from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) early last year and had forgotten about them. 

 
Examining the new records confirms that George enrolled and mustered in Lawrence, Kansas on 2 January 1862. The muster roll card for January and February lists him as a private in Captain Allen’s Battery, Light Artillery, attached to the Third Kansas Volunteer Regiment. The roll card for March and April of that year show him again in Captain Allen’s Battery, Kansas Volunteers (aka 1^st Independent Battery, Kansas Light Artillery). The muster out roll card, dated 17 July 1865, Leavenworth, Kansas, shows him due $100; as a private in  the 1^st Independent Battery, Kansas Light Artillery; and gives his age as 38 years which confirms his birth year as 1824. The remarks on this card note that he died at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on May 8, 1862. This date was changed by hand to May 18, 1862 on March 25, 1895. Review!

 I spent several hours reading, Bleeding Kansas, by Alice Nichols (Bleeding Kansas).

 
It is about the settlement of Kansas Territory and the political and para-military events determining its entry into the union as a free or slave state. The narrative can be shocking as it explains the terrible violence, and mob law which prevailed along the Kansas/Missouri border through the second half of the 1850s through the conclusion of the Civil War. It is a good feeling to place my ancestors into this historic period, but disturbing to think about how they may have suffered through the violent and rickety social and political context. Throughout the book, I’ve hoped to find some clue about George or his in-laws, the Shuler’s that would provide a new trail to follow. Nothing so far.

Lastly, I had a great conversation with some new friends from the Washington County History and Genealogy page on Facebook (Washington County, Ohio History & Genealogy). I posted a short paragraph describing my research, and received some new information and new sources to consider. First the new information. According to page administrator, Cheryl Enyart, there was a group of Shuler’s who lived in Meigs County and in Cheshire Township in adjacent Gallia County. This might be important because I can place the Shuler's in neighboring Hocking County in 1835; and the 1850 census indicates that George’s wife, Charlotte, was born in Ohio in 1837. While this may not directly contribute to my research on George, it makes me further consider that the Mathews knew the Shuler's in Ohio, and perhaps migrated with them as they moved through Illinois, Missouri, and finally to Kansas Territory. Perhaps a closer look at the Shuler migration will yield clues about the Mathews family.

Another member suggested that I try the widow’s pension from US archives (www.archives.gov). I have the pension application filed by Charlotte in 1863.

 

This is where I’ll be focusing my re-energized research immediately. I’m told that these records are expensive but can yield a, “goldmine,” of information. So be it, I’ve come too far to stop now. Collaboration!

Check out the Facebook Page (Kohler et al. Family Genealogy) for more photos, and come back again to read about my research, and share your own research adventures.