March to the Sea: 52 Ancestors

War changes the world.

If there had been no Civil War, how would life have differed for the Maddox family of Scott County, Illinois? What would have happened if David Maddox had not died and Lewis Maddox had not served?

David Maddox was the eldest son of William Maddox and Nancy Jane Webb. He was born about 1843, making him about 18 at the start of the war in 1861. There had been an older brother, John, who died before his second birthday. Therefore David was the oldest and, no doubt, the leader of his younger siblings.

David was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, moving with his family to Scott County, Illinois, when he was about 10 years old. He enlisted for three years on August 13, 1862, in Company F, 129th Illinois Infantry. The company muster roll tells us that he was 19 years old, 5 foot 7 inches tall, dark complected, with dark hair and blue eyes. He was a farmer and supposedly married, though no marriage record has been found.

The Illinois Adjutant General's Report gives a brief history of the regiment, which spent the early years of the war first in Kentucky and then in Tennessee. In May of 1864, the regiment joined Sherman's army and began the march to Atlanta.

David was wounded in the side at the Battle of Resaca, Georgia, on May 15, 1864. He recovered and stayed with the regiment as they fought the Atlanta campaign and occupied the city. On November 15, Sherman's army began the famous march to the sea. The army was large and the soldiers had to scour the countryside for food. It was probably on one of these expeditions that David was captured near Madison, Georgia, by some Confederate soldiers on November 20, 1864.

His captors took his weapons and then turned him loose with an agreement known as parole. David had to agree to not resume fighting. His absence was noted as desertion in the company records. However, the final notation in the muster roll was that he had been a prisoner since that date. It also states that no discharge was furnished.

There is no further record of David. By the time of his father's death in 1869, he was not living. It is probable that he died trying to make his way home from Georgia to Illinois.

The loss of David as the eldest brother and leader forever changed the dynamics of the Maddox family.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #49 Joseph Allen Maddox

My great-great-grandfather, Al, was just a boy of twelve when his father, William Maddox, was killed by Al's older brother. His life was forever changed on that day in November of 1869. With his two older brothers in jail, the responsibility of a 270-acre farm rested on the shoulders of 16-year-old George and 12-year-old Joseph Allen Maddox, along with their mother, Nancy Jane Webb. Previously, Al and George had attended school, but no doubt the spring planting season of 1870 put an end to their schooling.

Joseph Allen Maddox was born on October 24, 1857, in Scott County, Illinois. He went by the name Al later in life, though all the records found through 1878 show his name as Joseph. His escapades as an adult indicate that he was a bit of a rascal. The image I have in my mind is of a prankster who tried to bring some levity to a stressful family life.

His first documented adventure was his marriage on June 13, 1876. Under the age of 21, he needed permission to marry from his mother. His bride, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Estella Lake, barely 15, also needed parental permission. The couple went to the Scott County courthouse with this single permission note, written in pencil:

"Mr Marten please let Joseph Maddox have his licence and it will be all right we are perfectly willing for them to get married. (signed) Mr Aaron Lake and Mrs Sarrah Lake"

The marriage license itself stated that Lizzie was 18 years old and that the mother of the 20-year-old groom had given her permission. The couple was married in the little community of Merritt by the minister George W Simpson, likely a lay minster of the M.E. Church.

This combination of marriage documents implies an elopement, with Lizzie lying about her age when they found out that Al needed a permission note. The couple must have lied and said that the note was from Al's mother. Additionally, it appears that Lizzie wrote the note herself. The signature of Aaron Lake is too neat and does not match his signature in the chancery case he filed against his father's probate. The misspelled name of Lizzie's mother and the use of pencil rather than ink also lead me to think that Lizzie wrote the note.

The young couple lost a pregnancy early in their marriage and the next child, Daisy Myrtle Maddox, was born in Morgan County, Illinois, on February 16, 1878. Between the birth of Daisy and the 1880 census, Al's mother remarried and died. Lizzie's grandfather's estate was resolved in chancery court about 1877.

The families decided it was time to leave Illinois and move on, joining a wagon train to Kansas. Al had been working as a miner, as well as a farmer. The 1880 census of Wilson County, Kansas, finds Lizzie and Daisy living with her parents and siblings. The home also included her older sister Nellie and her husband, George Maddox, the older brother of Al. However, the whereabouts of Al in 1880 has not been determined. Was he off mining somewhere? Was he looking for farmland?

Daughter Dottie May was born in 1881; Della Mable in 1884; Deora Maud in 1887. The last child and only son was Archie Franklin Maddox, born in 1890. Al had turned to farming by 1885, as he suffered from tuberculosis or miner's lung. By the time of the 1885 Kansas state census, Al had leased a farm in Kingman County, Kansas. He reported his holdings to the state census taker:

• 160 acres of rented land
• 25 acres of corn
• 5 acres of oats
• 1/4 acre of Irish Potatoes
• 20 tons of prairie hay
• 100 pounds of butter made last year
• 5 horses
• 2 milk cows
• 3 other cattle

Lizzie's parents and family also settled in Kingman County, Kansas, by 1885. This single known tintype of Al was likely taken during the early Kansas years. The tintype is in the possession of my cousin Roger Wright. I've edited it to make it more visible than the original dark image.

Template and elements from Outdoor Dad kit by Brandy Murry for Digital Scrapper, 2014

Al wasn't satisfied with leasing a farm -- he wanted to own land for his son. When the opening of Oklahoma's Cherokee Strip was announced, Al knew he had the perfect opportunity. In 1893 he joined thousands of others on the Kansas/Oklahoma border and raced for his own piece of land. He was able to claim 160 acres in what is today Major County, Oklahoma, not far from the town of Enid.

Joseph Allen Maddox had another problem besides his lung problems. He was an alcoholic. On a trip to Kansas in 1895, he became sick and died in the wagon. My great-grandmother, Daisy, stated in an insurance application that her father had died of alcoholism, leading me to think that he was drinking on the trip and died directly or indirectly due to the drinking.

Al died on March 19, 1895, and was buried in a Kansas cemetery known as Hunt Cemetery. He, along with his brother George, was later moved to Walnut Hill Cemetery in Kingman, Kansas. Although Al and his family spelled their name Maddox, his brother and wife spelled their name Maddux. Al shares a plot with his brother and sister-in-law (Lizzie's sister) under the Maddux name.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #45 William W Maddox, The Victim at Mauvaisterre Creek

1869, near Merritt, Illinois

November 24, 1869, 2 PM

A gunshot rang out, echoing across the barren fields of Scott County. William Maddox, 49, was mortally wounded by his son, Lewis. Both men had been drinking.

Murder at Mauvaisterre Creek

How did an ordinary farmer come to kill his father, have his name splashed on newspapers all over the midwestern United States and fuel family legends that persist to this day? Did the jury make the right decision? There are no surviving transcripts of the trial, but we can read the evidence presented to the grand jury.

As each family member is introduced, bear in mind that there is a family history of alcoholism, especially in the 19th century. Our Native American heritage left our ancestors unable to metabolize alcohol. My great-grandmother, niece of Lewis, claimed to have one-eighth Native American blood. That would have made Lewis one-quarter and William, the victim, as much as one-half. There is no proof to date of these claims; however, the oral tradition lives on in several diverse branches of the Maddox family.

Meet the Victim

William W Maddox was born in Ohio, about 1820, to Lazarus Maddox and Elizabeth Greaton (Gratton) of Pickaway County. He was either the first or second son, with an older sister and a total of seven siblings. The family owned and worked small farms of 75 to 90 acres.

William married Nancy Jane Webb on February 21, 1840, in Pickaway County. He worked as a farm laborer, according to the 1850 census. They were the parents of at least seven children: John, David, Lewis, William H, George S, Joseph Allen and Margaret. John and Margaret died young, while David, a soldier, died near the end of the Civil War. Gaps in the birth years indicate a possibility of two other children who would have died young.

Image credits: GZitzmann custom sketch, Scrap Girls template, elements by Mommyish for Digital Scrapper

In about 1853, after the birth of George, the family moved to Scott County, Illinois. The Maddox family moved near the Greaton/Gratton family members of William's mother. They had settled in the area some 20 years before. William had been charged with assault in Pickaway County shortly before the move out of Ohio. Did he move as a way to avoid the consequences?

William bought land adjoining a deep bend of Mauvaisterre Creek. The agricultural supplement to the 1860 census shows that some 75 acres had been improved, with another 85 acres yet to be planted. By the time of his 1869 death, William owned 270 acres, much of it in fields of wheat, oats, rye, corn and barley. He also produced wool. As well as sheep, the family also kept pigs, cows and bees. There were likely chickens, though they are not shown in any record.

William and his sons had been industrious. He had tripled his father's peak of 90 acres and his sons wanted some of the land to start their own family farms. The boys wanted to receive their portion as a birthright, but William agreed only to lease half the tillable land to sons Lewis and William H. Witness statements reveal that Lewis and his father had been arguing about the land on the day of the murder.

After he was shot by Lewis, William needed someone to care for him. His treatment of his family had been abusive, based on the family stories. His assault charge adds weight to that legend. The family faced a problem. If William died, Lewis could be charged. Thus the family had every reason to keep him alive, though wanting him dead.

The hired hand, Samuel Coleman, must have been trusted by everyone, as he tended William throughout the agonizing days of his decline. William W Maddox died on December 1, 1869. His burial place is unknown, though it is likely on or near the family farm.

Be sure to follow the story at another blog, Murder at Mauvaisterre Creek, where the evidence will be explored.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #41 Lewis Maddox, The Killer at Mauvaisterre Creek

1874, Winchester, Illinois

In the Scott County Circuit Court, October Term, A.D. 1874
The People of Illinois vs 
Lewis Maddox and Wm Maddox etal
Indict. for Murder

Oct 30th. Jury sworn to try issue, against Lewis Maddox, defendant arraigned and pleads not guilty.

Murder at Mauvaisterre Creek

How did an ordinary farmer come to kill his father, have his name splashed on newspapers all over the midwestern United States and fuel family legends that persist to this day? Did the jury make the right decision? There are no surviving transcripts of the trial, but we can read the evidence presented to the grand jury.

As each family member is introduced, bear in mind that there is a family history of alcoholism, especially in the 19th century. Our Native American heritage left our ancestors unable to metabolize alcohol. My great-grandmother, niece of Lewis, claimed to have one-eighth Native American blood. That would have made Lewis one-quarter and his father, the victim, as much as one-half. There is no proof to date of these claims; however, the oral tradition lives on in several diverse branches of the Maddox family.

Meet the Killer

Lewis (Louis) Maddox was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, in December, 1846, to William Maddox and Nancy Jane Webb. His oldest brother, John, had died as a toddler. The next oldest brother was David and several siblings followed Lewis. This birth order made Lewis a middle child, while the death of John left behind the enduring promise of a perfect child that his living siblings could never achieve.

In about 1853, the family moved to Scott County, Illinois, living on a 270-acre farm adjoining a deep bend of Mauvaisterre Creek. Lewis worked on the farm and attended school, according to the 1860 census.

As a middle child, Lewis likely would have lived and died an obscure farmer, if not for the Civil War. When his older brother David enlisted at age 19, Lewis tagged along. He claimed his age as 18, though in the summer of 1862, he would have been only 15. If his birth was actually in 1845, which is possible, he would have been 16. Nonetheless, he was underage. Did he want the enlistment bounty money, the excitement of war or just to escape the drudgery of the farm?

The muster roll for Company F, 129th Illinois Infantry, shows that Lewis was 5 foot 6 inches, with black eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion. Later documentation shows him as taller, so he had not yet had his final growth spurt. No man is ever prepared for the horrors of war, but a 15-year-old is even less so.

The 129th served first in Kentucky and Tennessee, engaging in skirmishes and protecting the railroad. Lewis was medically discharged on July 22, 1863, having served less than one year. He had chronic diarrhea, likely dysentery, which was the most common disease suffered by troops on both sides of the conflict. He also claimed to have fallen from a railroad trestle onto rocks, injuring himself internally. He was sent to a hospital in Gallatin, Tennessee, where he was observed having convulsions on a daily basis. Did he suffer a concussion? He was discharged from the Army with a certificate of disability.

Lewis returned home to heal, then enlisted in Company B, 133rd Illinois Infantry, for a period of 100 days in 1864. That time was spent guarding prisoners at Rock Island, Illinois. David, staying with the 129th, marched south with General Sherman's Army as it swept through the South, burning Atlanta and making the march to the sea and Savannah, Georgia.

David died during or shortly after the war. With David's death, Lewis moved from a middle child to become the eldest of four brothers. I think that he was uncomfortable with being in the leadership role. He seemed to be a follower, rather than a leader.

Lewis and his next youngest brother, William H. Maddox, together leased land from their father and began farming for themselves. Lewis applied for a marriage license with Melissa Boss on September 14, 1867. There is no indication that this license was used.

Lewis married Ellen Taylor on September 22, 1869, and their brief union was blessed with one son. John Alexander Maddox was born on July 18, 1870. His mother died while he was young.

Lewis and his father argued often about partitioning the farm. Lewis and young William wanted their birthright. William the elder did not agree. Fueled by alcohol, their arguments turned bitter on the day of the shooting.

The rest of Lewis' story will be told after the evidence is presented. Lewis Maddox died in 1915 and is buried in a remote cemetery in Brown County, Illinois, with a military marker.

Quick drop page from Recollection by Joanne Brisebois Designs for Digital Scrapper, 2011

Digging for Courthouse Treasure

Ever since I learned, though this newspaper clipping, that our Maddox family legend about a murder was true, I wanted to find out the story behind the legend. As I researched the story, I decided that I wanted to write a fictionalized account as a book.

Unfortunately, there's a gaping hole in the court records. The murder case dragged on for years, with each session of the circuit court continuing the case until the next session. Suddenly, at the end of 1874, the case file just stops without telling what happened.

One of the men had left the state. But were either of the two remaining men convicted of murder? Were they acquitted? Did the state drop the charges? Inquiring minds want to know.

In August, I returned for my third visit to the scene of the trial in Scott County, Illinois. The opportunity to do so was a big part of rescheduling my Illinois research trip to add three days. Priority number one was to find the missing puzzle piece in the courthouse.

Many of the old records are housed in a special vault. It's lined with brick, protected by a double metal door and is dark and musty. Disturbing the old books raised dust and mold, which made me sneeze and sent one allergic worker to an early lunch.

On previous visits, I thought that my cousin Lorna and I had covered everything of interest, but there just had to be more. I dug more deeply into the deed books and, when I was done, had found no new information pertinent to the murder. I had collected some other notes about family members, so it had been time well spent.

I walked the narrow aisles of the small vault, just looking at the record sets. What about mortgages? I knew I hadn't looked at them. I found where the family had signed multiple promissory notes to their lawyers, using the farm as collateral. I knew the lawyers had forced foreclosure, but now I saw the details of how the finances worked for the trial: who was owed how much and why.

But what else? I still needed to know the verdict or verdicts. I was tired and hungry, but I knew the answer had to be somewhere in this courthouse. There were some very narrow books at floor level near the back of the vault. What were they? In desperation I pulled my small flashlight from my purse and shone it on the spines.

Paydirt! 

The books were Court Dockets, labelled by year. I looked for 1874 and 1875, but couldn't find exactly what I wanted. Some books were even blocked by other shelves. But I did find a couple of books for the right time frame. I'm sorry to say that in my excitement, I don't recall exactly which book showed what, but I do believe the 1874 answer was written in a book labelled as either 1873 or 1875.

I've shown you a court docket entry before, so I won't show you this one. I do have to keep a little bit of mystery about the end of the story. But the point of this post is that obscure record sets can flesh out the stories of our ancestors. You have to be willing to dig deep and not just look online and in the library.

Court dockets aren't exciting or sexy. It's just names of plaintiffs and defendants, dates, case dispositions, court costs, etc. This docket gave me three lines: the date the jury was seated to try the main defendant, the date the jury returned and their verdict, and the disposition of the case against the remaining co-defendant.

Someday dockets might be digitized and indexed, but don't hold your breath. I think they'll be near the bottom of the priority list. I'm sure that the Scott County record keepers thought they were useless, thus placing some in such a way as to be inaccessible. However, this is the third time I've found dockets to be informative: once for a divorce and twice for criminal cases.

What Next?

So now that I have the final piece of the murder mystery, I can write the book. But should I? As books disappear from shelves and stores, it seems I wouldn't want to publish in paper form. And I'm not much good at writing fiction. It's probably more challenge than I want to tackle.

My thinking now is to write a series of biographical sketches on the key players and their extended families. I can "publish" the sketches via Ancestry and/or Family Search and can compile them as a PDF book to share with family. This approach is more in keeping with the way we share and research today and yet can be the sort of research book that has helped me along my own journey to find the story behind the family legend.
 

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy, Week 7, Historical Documents

Who Killed William Maddox, Sr.?

As well as scrapbooking heritage photos, we can use documents on scrapbook pages. Scanning or photographing them lets us adjust the size, use copies, and also protect the original documents from further damage. The documents on my sample page were collected during an extended research trip.

My cousin's wife, Lorna, and I visited several states together to research the Maddox heritage. You met my great-grandmother, Daisy Myrtle Maddox, last week. The most dramatic family legend said that Daisy's father had killed her grandfather. Lorna and I wanted to prove or disprove the legend. Our research took us to Scott County, Illinois.

Here's the story of our findings as I told it on the scrapbook page:

Day 11 - Friday, September 27, 2002

When asked what the best part of the trip was, Lorna and I were in agreement — this was the day! The courthouse in Winchester welcomed us with friendly people and wonderful records. We collected more cemetery lists, photos of a Civil War memorial plaque, a probate file, a recorded deed to sell the family farm, and a marriage certificate with an attached permission note for a minor to marry. The probate file verified the date of death, but we still had no proof that the legendary murder had actually taken place. Down country back roads we drove, looking for the old farm. The fields were full of grain and the creek ran dark with silt. There was no sign of the old log cabin of legend, though none was expected. We did not attempt to speak with the current residents, since we had not called ahead.

We drove north from the farm, soon crossing into Morgan County, the home of the Lake family. The gravesite of Lindsay Lake turned out to be totally inaccessible, so we instead decided to visit the Jacksonville library. I wanted to view microfilm for the year Lindsay Lake died, but Lorna was most insistent that we should also look for information about the murder. I thought it would be time wasted, but conceded to make the effort. Amazingly, she was right. We found no obituary for old Lindsay, but did find our proof of murder in an article about a Circuit Court session. We wanted to scream and dance! At closing time, we floated to the van and headed to Lorna's home in [Northern Illinois].

Birth of a book: Murder at Mauvaisterre

This single small newspaper clipping from 1869 fired my imagination. Since that day Lorna and I have again visited Scott County and surrounding counties, collecting court files and other documents. We've also visited the family's previous place of residence in Pickaway County, Ohio. I've collected at least 18 inches of files on the Maddox family, from 1800 to the present. I've started a book about the murder, which was committed, not by my ancestor, but by his older brother, Lewis Maddox. His brother William Maddox, Jr., and cousin William Knowles (Knoles) were charged as accessories. I'll no doubt write a lot about the Maddox family in weeks to come.





Sample Scrapbook Page

Day 11 Page Closed

For each day of that research trip, I created a scrapbook page to remember the highlights. This page contains images of several documents we found on that exciting day.

• the newspaper clipping
• a landowner map with the farm highlighted
• a photo of the spine of the deed book with the sale of the dower portion of the farm (the rest was foreclosed)
• under the book image are photos of the deed (no copies were available that day)
• miniatures of our ancestors' marriage license with the permission note are tucked in a little clear envelope
• the miniature outside jacket of the inventory from the victim's probate file is also in the clear envelope

Part of Day 11 Page Expanded

This is an interactive page that requires the viewer to flip and pull to see everything. This is one way to pack a lot of information into a layout.

I'm sure you'll find ways to include your family's historical documents in your scrapbook pages.