“A” versus “The” . . . Poll Lists . . . Mary Ann Baldwin Potpourri . . .

Poll lists. Two elections held in 1855 and 1856 record a George Mathews voting for seats on the Kansas Territorial House of Representatives in Lawrence, District 1. On the 1855 list, a William Mathews is registered immediately prior to George on line item 226. Two guys named Mathews registered to vote and by coincidence they are listed consecutively on a non-alphabetized poll list? Coincidence? Maybe. At the very least, William Mathews is another lead to pursue. For now all it confirms is that a George Mathews was in Lawrence in 1855 and 1856. Still, I cannot yet prove if he is the George Mathews, the same George Mathews who was husband to Charlotte, and the father of George W. Mathews. No way to link the poll list with the marriage record, birth dates, or the widow’s pension certificate. Changing A’s to The’s; confirming, excluding, tracing, documenting . . . that is the purpose here.

Mary Ann B. Potpourri. I’ve written to the Colorado State Archives requesting the death certificate of Mary Ann Baldwin. Colorado death certificates sometimes include the names of the deceased’s mother and father, and their birthplace. If that information is included on the certificate, I’d have George’s parents’ names. Wouldn’t that be too easy?

 
Following up on her obituary and the mention of the, "first battle among the whites," led me to consult Alice Nichols' Bleeding Kansas. The Battle of the Wakarusa is the first battle noted in that book, but neither she nor the governor is mentioned. I then found an 1895 book authored by Richard Cordley, A History of Lawrence, Kansas: From the First Settlement to the Close of the Rebellion. Nothing specific in there either. I did find an illustration of Lawrence which notes a ferry service run by the Baldwin Brothers. I remembered the 1860 census which records William and Mary Ann living in Lawrence; he claims his occupation as, “Ferryman.” 

So they were in Lawrence, or what would be Lawrence, very early; and although I don’t have that one document that proves, alone, that George was with them, I can feel satisfied knowing that a number of other documents suggest he was there: poll lists, sworn affidavits, ad hoc marriage certificates, a wife, and child.