Beals & Hinshaw: Buggies and Wagons: Westfield, Indiana

Source: Postoffice Directory of Hamilton County, Indiana; 1893-94; Ledger Book and Job Print, Noblesville, Indiana, page 49.

I found this advertisement listing the business venture of my maternal 3rd-great grandfather, Nathan Thomas BEALS (1856-1915).  It was nice to find a record of him during the 1890's in Hamilton County, Indiana.

Previously, in 1885 census he was living in Humboldt, Richardson County, Nebraska where his occupation was listed as school teacher.  The 1900 census in Jackson Township, Hamilton County, Indiana lists him as a dealer in hardware.

Earlier I had posted about his obituary and his death in Arkansas.  There are many mysteries about this man yet to be discovered.

I have not yet identified the relationship with A.S. HINSHAW.  However, there was a Beals-Hinshaw connection, as Nathan's sister, Elizabeth, married Solomon Hinshaw in Hamilton County, Indiana.  It was their sons, Ed and Luther, that Nathan was involved with in the sawmill business in Arkansas.

He was referred to often in the records as simply "N.T. Beals".  

Nathan Thomas BEALS was born February 17, 1856 in Westfield, Hamilton County, Indiana, the son of John T. and Mary (DAVIS) BEALS.  He married September 26, 1876 in Hamilton County, Indiana to Elizabeth Caroline POE, daughter of Isaac S. and Hannah (MILLS) POE.  Nathan died February 16, 1915 in Leola, Grant County, Arkansas and is buried in the Cicero Cemetery, Hamilton County, Indiana.

What Happened to Grandma's Babies?

Until I started digging more deeply into the census records, I was sure that I had written down everything about the family group that was my maternal 2nd-great grandparents, John William and Ellen (KING) WRIGHT.  I always knew that my great-grandfather, Virgil, had a younger brother named Chester Arthur, who went by the name "Mike".  End of story, right?


The census records tell a slightly different story, beginning with the 1900 census of Monroe Township, Madison County, Indiana.  Ellen WRIGHT is a wife, aged 31, married for 14 years and the mother of 3 children, 2 of them living.  So that means that one of her children was deceased by 1900.  In the 1910 census of the same township, Ellen is aged 41, married for 24 years and the mother of 4 children, 2 of them living.  So sometime between 1900-1910 there was another child that was born and died.


I'm now seeking two additional children for this family:

Unknown child # 1: born between 1888 (marriage date) and 1900 census; died before 1900 census

 Unknown child # 2: born between 1900 census and died before 1910 census.

Who are these additional children?  Are their names lost to time?  There are no headstones in the local cemetery.  No one has included them in any family group sheets I've ever seen for this family.  There is no known Bible record that shows who these babies might have been.


A search of the birth records indexed by the WPA has been negative for any WRIGHT that would match this family.  Likewise for the death records. Indiana law required the recording of births in 1882.  However, compliance with the law was sketchy up until around 1900.  These births probably took place at home during this time period.


My best bet would be to find a mention in a local newspaper, but alas, the local paper in Alexandria at the public library starts with 1905.


Any clues on where to begin to find these babies?

The first wife of Edmund G. Pierce (1837-1875)

My maternal 3rd-great grandfather, Edmund G. PIERCE, was married on October 17, 1858 in Preble County, Ohio to Lydia DUELL, daughter of Joshua and Abigail (BORTON) DUELL.  Lydia was born March 26, 1838 in Pilesgrove, New Jersey.

Edmund and Lydia's marriage was short-lived, as she died September 14, 1860, according to her tombstone, and is buried in the West Grove Cemetery, Centreville, Wayne County, Indiana.  The Borton/Duell family Bible record, however, records her death as "Lydia B. Pierce departed her life the fifteenth of the eight month 1860".

Lydia's family were Quakers, and I haven't found any evidence that Edmund was, though I do not know what faith the Pierce family was.

Ancestry user oregontrailgal has provided me with information from the Bible, and has posted the information online.

I have yet to find the family in the 1860 census.  They could be in either Preble County, Ohio or Wayne County, Indiana.  Edmund was living in Wayne County, Indiana in the 1850 census.  After Lydia's death, he married Catherine GROENENDYKE in 1864 in Madison County, Indiana - my line.

Preble County, Ohio and Wayne County, Indiana are both border counties, so I will have to continue to search for records in both places.