Jenny Holden Browne

1850 Federal Census, Will County, IL

I’ve been looking at the census records and there seems to be a mystery afoot. In 1850 Jenny is living in her father’s household. That would be Phineas and Betsy Parker Holden. She is listed as Jane Holden. My first mystery is her age. I know this is the correct family because Jenny mentions David, George, and Parker Holden as her brothers. She also tells Sarah Cummings in her letter, that “father took a girl by the name of Ellen Blaisdel into the house and raised her like a daughter”. I can’t but help think Jenny was comparing her father to Sarah’s uncle Adams Holden, since he adopted and raised Sarah.

So this is the correct family. Next I look at the family group. Notice how the children are listed from oldest to youngest, with the exception of Jenny. She should have been 17 years old in this census. If she were 17, you would have a nice grouping of children meeting the ‘every other year’ rhythm that so often is seen in families. So I think I’ll chalk this mystery up as solved – the census taker recorded the wrong age for Jane.

1860 Federal Census, Cook County, IL

Next mystery pops up in the 1860 census. Again, based on the things she tells Sarah Cummings in her letter, this has to be the correct person. The age matches and she mentions Malcolm and George as her children (and their ages are correct, too). This census has two mysteries. The game is afoot, one more time. The first mystery revolves around Jane’s husband. In her letter, she referred to her husband as J. M. B. Notice the head of household in this census is named Isaiah. Clearly Isaiah does not start with a “J”. This mystery is solved as the census taker records his name correctly in the 1870 census. He was named Josiah M. Browne. I guess the census taker in 1860 was in a hurry, or perhaps he misunderstood the name Josiah as the name Isaiah. Either way, I’ll chalk this mystery up to census taker error – again. See; never assume a census record is correct until you compare what is listed to what you know to be correct.

The other mystery in this census record is the oldest child in the household, Merritt Browne, ten years old. Who is he? Jenny does not mention him at all to Sarah Cummings, yet there he is. This is another thing that I just love about census records. Every page has surprises to help make the research process exciting! Merritt is also in the 1870 and 1880 census, with Jenny and Josiah Browne. The 1880 census is really interesting (more about that later). So, the question is, is Malcolm a son of Josiah and Jane? Or, possibly, he could be a son of Josiah by a first wife. This would make him a step-son to Jenny.

1870 Federal Census, Cook County, IL

1870 finds our family still together. Notice Merritt is still living in the house. We know that George dies on 28 Oct 1865, and as expected, he doesn’t appear in the census record. Josiah is listed, correctly, as the head of household for this family. He also has become quite a prosperous businessman, too. My handy inflation calculator tells me his net worth is equivalent to more than $300,000! Not bad, but I still don’t know who Merritt C. Browne is.

The 1880 census really is an amazing piece of work. In 1880 the census taker was required to ask the relationship to the head of household, for all of the individuals living in the household. So if Merritt is still living in the household, his relationship to the head of household should be listed. Well it is, sort of. This is the household of Josiah Browne in 1880. I’m still scratching my head over this one. It appears that Josiah has a boarding house. It also appears like there are quite a few individuals living there that work in the boarding house. You have boarders, maids, laundry girls, a cook, etc. 

1880 Federal Census, Cook County, IL

Merritt is listed further down.  His relationship is son.  I am assuming he is the son of Josiah.  Jenny Holden Browne was born in Vermont, and Merritt lists his mother's birth place as New Hampshire.  For now, I think I'll pencil Merritt in as a child of Josiah Browne and an as of yet unknown first wife.

The last document I found is the death notice for Merritt Browne.  It lists his brother Willis W. Browne as his only surviving sibling.  This Obituary comes from the Chicago Tribune for 17 Dec 1919.  So there is Nellie Holden Browne's family. 

All of this from a letter written over a hundred years ago...

Black Hawk and 1832

I'll confess I had little knowledge of the, to quote Josiah Holden, "season of the Black Hawk War." So I thought I'd try and find out a little more about this event in the westward expansion of the United States. This is probably obvious to most, which explains why I figured it out so late in life, that our ancestors did not exist in a vacuum. They lived in communities and had the same worries we do today, a roof over their heads, food in their bellies, and clothes on their backs. Political and economic factors had profound affects upon our ancestors, which reminds me of the old saw, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."



Josiah mentions he started for Illinois in 1834. What is significant about this, is the United States was experiencing an unprecedented round of economic expansion. The future looked bright for the United States. Rarely do things always go as they seem like they should, however. 1836 saw huge immigration to the west. A great example of this is Michigan. It has been estimated that the population of Michigan quadrupled in 1836 alone! Then 1837 arrived. The image above comes from the Library of Congress and sums up the mood of the country.

1837 saw the collapse of the banking system - sound familiar? This plunged the U. S. into a huge recession which lasted about five years. No one had money. More importantly for the developing frontiers, demand for raw products, like lumber, iron ore, and surplus agricultural goods literally evaporated over night. You may wonder why your ancestor moved in the late 1830s, it could be an economic reason. Perhaps they were escaping debt in one area, or perhaps they thought there might be more opportunities somewhere else. The same goes for those ancestors who may have gone west in 1836. You can't find them in 1840, try looking eastward. Quite a few of these early arrivals simply gave up and went back towards 'home'.

So just what was the Black Hawk War? It occurred in 1831-32 and ended up like most conflicts with Native Americans, loss of many lives and even more pain and suffering for the Indians. Black Hawk was an Indian leader, pictured at right in a McKinney and Hall lithograph done in the late 1830s. He, unfortunately, lived at a time when the Native Americans were being pushed ever westward by a sea of white settlers. Often the lands on which the white settlers located came from dubious land treaties procured with gallons of whiskey and granted by Indian leaders who may not have had the authority to cede all the lands included in the treaties. Such was the case for Black Hawk's people.



The land of Black Hawk and his people had been taken by such a method. Of course the white population didn't see it in the same light. So when Black Hawk and about 1000 other Indians returned to their ancestral home in northern Illinois, wide spread panic occurred on the part of the white settlers. The Governor of Illinois declared this an invasion of Illinois and he called up the militia. If you click on the link you can read all about the Black Hawk War. What I found amazing is all of the famous individuals who took part in the fighting, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Zachary Taylor, just to name a few.



I don't know about you, but whenever I look at my ancestors, I always think about the Native Americans who lived on the land before my ancestors arrived. It really must have been a cultural clash on a magnitude 9 scale. Obviously we cannot change the past - but we can learn from the past.

Westward Ho!

Josiah Holden writes to his niece on 22 Aug 1880. He apologizes to Sarah for his poor penmanship, it seems his eyesight is beginning to fail him. He almost sounds tired. At 83 years old, Josiah certainly could claim the right to spend the rest of his days on the front porch. However, Josiah and his wife had just returned from visiting their daughter up in Manistee, Michigan. What seems even more remarkable about this trip of over 100 miles, is that this elderly couple traveled by themselves. As Josiah succinctly states, "Two rather old chickens to make such a trip alone!" I like this guy!

As I go through more of these letters, I almost feel like an unseen visitor. I wonder if Josiah or Sarah would ever have dreamed that their correspondence would be read with such interest almost a 130 years after it was written. It obviously must have been important to Sarah Cummings, as she saved the letters. So did someone else, I would assume a descendant of Sarah's (most likely a grandchild).

Josiah relates his story of westward movement. He tells Sarah:

We left our native home (Hollis, New Hampshire) the first of June 1832 with four
bright and promising little boys, the oldest 7 years and the youngest, Charles
less than 2 months old. We started for Illinois but it was the season of
the Black Hawk War and we stopped in Ohio and stayed there 2 years and
Gregg was born in Cuyahoga Co. on the 18 day of February 1834 and the first of
June of that year we started for Illinois. Stayed there 8 years, from
thence we moved to New Albany, Indiana and stayed there for two years and from
there moved to Michigan in 1845.

I just marvel at the frugality of his words. He doesn't mention all of the tribulations this young couple must have gone through. Imagine travelling with four young children, including one infant during a time when the most common mode of transportation was your feet.

Josiah does not mention how they travelled. I wonder if they went via the Erie Canal? It certainly would seem logical. By 1832, the Erie Canal had exceeded the wildest expectations of the New York Canal Company. Many of our ancestors who came west traveled, at least some part of the journey, on a canal boat. If you click on the link it will take you to the Old Erie Canal State Park. It's a really neat website. I also found the photograph below in the Wikipedia Commons.

I also went looking for Josiah Holden in the 1840 Federal Census. I found him in Jackson, Will County, Illinois.

I will admit it is kind of difficult to read, but the entry above is for Mr. J. R. Holden. I skimmed by the census page on Ancestry three times before I realized it was him. Josiah's brother Phineas Hemmenway Holden (you gotta love that name) has a large family that stays in Will County for years. These must be the 'Illinois' relatives Josiah mentions every now and again.

Coming next - the Black Hawk War...