This past weekend I was doing some research on various lines of my dad’s family. Monday we got a day off from school due to weather so I continued my search and focused on my SULLINS line. Specifically, I was looking at my paternal 6th great grandparents, Nathan and Winefred MAYS SULLINS. In order to give you some idea of how we fit into the SULLINS family, the line of ascent goes from my great grandpa Mark DRAKE to his dad Ervin to Ervin’s mom Hester MITCHELL to Hester’s dad Mordica to Mordica’s parents (John and Winnie SULLINS MITCHELL and Mordica’s grandparents Nathan and Winefred MAYS SULLINS.
During my search, I came across a website I want to share with you. The Cole Family website includes a page with a handwritten letter from Nathan and Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS (Nathan was the son of Nathan and Winefred). I loved the letter and would like to share it with you here but I also encourage you to go look at the Cole Family website and see what you can find for yourself.
This particular photo is a screenshot of a portion of the Nathan and Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS letter that I found on Ancestry. However, the entire original, handwritten letter is on The Cole Family website at the link above.
Here’s the transcription below. You can find more details about the letter and view the original handwritten letter at the link above.
Athens Tenn Apr. 19 1848
Dear Son & Daughter I now send you a letter to let you know we are all alive. According to our age we enjoy as good health as could be expected. Morris got home yesterday about 12 o’clock. We was glad to hear you was all well, but sorry to hear you expected to go so far off. I once was young but now I am old, by the help of providence we have raised 12 children, there is 11 yet alive so far as we know, they are now scattered in 4 states. My children are near to me. When I was young and able to labor with and for my children I then had pleasure. I now am not able to labor much nor to travel and when I think of a child leaving me so far that I never expect to see its face again in the flesh its as much as I want to bear. Mary has always been a good obedient child.
[page 2] Oh children let us think on eternity that there is a God to serve and a heaven to obtain that is more sacred to us than all this world’s goods. We want you to write to us when you locate and tell us where you are and where to direct our letters. Annis lives in Green Co. Mo. direct your letters to Springfield to John Murray.
[page 3] Family Record (NOTE FROM LISA: On page 3 there is a list of names and dates, as if it were copied from a family Bible to pass on to the receiver of the letter. I won’t transcribe that here. You can find that information at the link above.)
No more at present but remain your affectionate parents Nathan and Rebecca Sullins
I love this letter so much. I can feel every pain of this momma’s heart as she worries about her children moving far away and never being able to see them again. I can imagine that she’s thinking about grandbabies she will never meet as well. If she’s anything like me, she’s thinking about all the bad that could happen and how much she would like to spare her children from experiencing the bad things. More than that, she’s worrying about their spiritual well-being. Oh how I can relate to this momma as she pours out her heart in a letter to her daughter!
I Once Was Young But Now I Am Old
Like Rebecca, I can remember being young once, too. I can remember when Bart and I decided to move to Idaho and I remember receiving a letter from my mom. A letter where she poured out her heart to me and wished me not to move so far away. Things sure do cycle back around, don’t they? And when we saw my son off to his eternal home, nothing was more important in that moment than his spiritual well-being and whether I would see him again in eternity or be separated from him forever. Yes, I sure can relate to my 6th great aunt Rebecca as she poured out her heart to her daughter in a farewell letter.
So Fades the Summer Cloud Away
So fades the Summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o’er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies the wave along the shore.
I want to leave you with one last thing about Rebecca – her obituary.
Obituary of Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS. Found on Ancestry.
Sweet Rebecca. I hope you are spending eternity with your children whom you loved so much and so well.
This post has been updated as of 2 August 2022. I’ve been able to decipher some more of the content of the second newspaper article and have updated the text portions that I’ve figured out. Additionally, if you’ll scroll to the bottom you will find Update, Final Thoughts, & Resources sections with new information.
I hope you read part 1 because we’re jumping right into part 2, no introduction!
Transcription of the first newspaper article:
From Texas County. Still Another Spurious Delegate at Marshfield – A Fugitive from Justice turns up in a Representative Capacity. Houston, Texas Co., Aug. 4. To the Editor of the Daily Leader: Springfield papers, containing an account of the Marshfield convention, have just been received here. From them we learn that one Q. A. Bell was in that convention as a delegate from Texas County. No Radical convention has been held in this county to appoint delegates to the Marshfield convention, nor for any other purpose. Mr. Q. A. Bell got into a scrape here, and left the county to avoid being arrested by the officers of the law. He ran away from Texas county- a fugitive from justice- went into Webster county and stayed with some relatives until the Marshfield convention came off. He has just got back, and I understand he says he is ashamed of what he did, and would not have gone into the convention but that some of Havens’ friends at Marshfield “fixed up his papers,” and insisted that he act as a delegate – that they assured him “it was all right enough, and nobody would ever find it out. Suffrage Radical
It was alright enough. You ever told yourself that about something? Maybe next time, just say no! I wish I could tell you that I understand everything that happened but I don’t. I’ve sat on this story for about a year, maybe a little longer, because I was trying to figure out the whole story. I’m not going to hold out any longer. In trying to figure it all out there is another article we need to read but it is in such poor shape that it’s nearly impossible to read. I’ve transcribed as much of the article as possible, and as well as possible, below.
Daily Leader Thursday, August 11, 1870 Was the nomination of the ten dollar, hundred day hero* by the Marshfield convention a cut-and-dried affair or was it not? Was the convention which made the nomination a body representative of the real contingent of the Radical party in the district, or did it represent only that Eternal Hateite(?)** “ring” in that party? It now appears that the two individuals admitted to the convention as delegates authorized to cast the vote of Ozark county, were not only spurious and self-constituted, but in no manner reflected the sentiment or wishes of the majority of the party in that ???. One of them, in fact, had not been in the county or the State three months, and was not therefore a qualified voter. It appears that McDonald county, which no primary convention was held and no expression whatever of choice as to candidates was had, was in like manner misrepresented in the person of W. H. Goody ????. And now it further appears that Texas county, failing to send a delegation found herself honored in the convention by being accredited in that body with a fugitive from justice, Q. A. Bell, who was picked up in the streets of Marshfield and clothed with representative honors by an agent of the Havens clique. Here, then, we have three ??? casting their votes at Marshfield for a candidate and the representative of principles notoriously ignored by a large majority of the party whose views they assumed to represent. Add to these Christian county, in which the friends of the amendment outnumber the malignants(?) two to one, and also add Greene, the ac??? to ??? from hold(?) of suffrage, and does not the question become one worthy of the party whether they have not been imposed on, their real sentiments misrepresented, and their wishes overridden in the action of the Marshfield meeting! Does it not become even a more serious question whether they will abide by and submit to the usurpations of a mere clique, bent upon carrying out the will and the wishes, not of the majority, but the barest minority of the party?
That’s where the article ends. I can hardly make heads or tails of it other than Quincy wasn’t alone in this mess and there was a clique known as the Havens clique that was a minority in the Radical Party of 1870. So I Googled it, of course! Apparently, in the five years following the Civil War, Missouri was deeply divided. The conservatives had split into several factions over a variety of issues and they couldn’t seem to agree on anything. In this void rose up the Radical Union Party (aka Radical Republican Party)***. They wanted to get rid of slavery as well as Missouri’s reputation of being a state overcome with guerilla warfare. The party was progressive in their thinking. You can learn more here.
Suffice it to say, Quincy got sucked into all this- whether willingly or through cajoling- and it didn’t end well for him. I really can’t tell you much more than that right now but there is at least one more article I need to transcribe. Unfortunately, it’s taking a lot longer than I thought it would. So, over the next week or two I’m going to be transcribing and reporting to you about the Marshfield Convention and the craziness that went on there and maybe when I’m done we’ll have this all figured out. So enjoy your stay right here in the middle of a big old political, legal mess for Quincy. I’ll catch up with you soon with the rest of the story.
Until then, Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog Clippings are from Newspapers.com
UPDATE:
*”Ten dollar hundred day hero” refers to Captain Harrison HAVENS. The Hundred-Day portion is sort of explained with this political cartoon:
Political Cartoon from the Springfield Leader and Press, 26 July 1870.6
The Ten-Dollar portion is explained in this short article:
Springfield Leader Press, 31 July 1870. Newspapers.com.7
**Eternal Hateites was a name given to the Radical Republicans by the mainstream media of the day and by their political opponents. Interchangeable terms include “eternal haters”, “eternal hate-ring”, and “eternal hateism”.1, 4 This sect apparently included supporters of Captain HAVENS and Governor McCLURG.2 I’m not knowledgeable enough on the subject to say this was undeserved but from what I’ve read up to this point, it certainly seems like the Radical Republicans’ opponents were using the media as an arm of destruction to do their bidding against the Radicals.3 In fact, at this point, I’m not even certain I believe that Quincy was a “fugitive from justice”. The Radical Republicans were being called “anti-constitutional” and I certainly don’t see anything in their platform or in the newspapers that leans toward anti-constitutional. It seems their opponents had no problem conducting an effective smear campaign. Again, after the last few years I can certainly see that going on today in politics and in the media.
*** The Radical Union Party is synonymous with the Radical Republican Party. There were many, many small and very short-lived political parties that sprang up between the midterms in 1870 and the presidential election of 1870. This included the Liberal Republican Party (which was not the same as the Radical Republicans or State Republicans (which would become what we know as the Republican Party of today). The Liberal Republicans would later be known as Rockefeller Republicans and would eventually merge with the Democrat Party as we know it today. Quincy was not affiliated with this party. The Radical Republicans would eventually merge with the Republican Party. This is, in part, why it has been so difficult to parse out what really happened. Despite the Radical Republican Party affiliating as Republican, they could expect no help at all from the mainstream Republicans. In fact, the Radical Republicans received the name-calling, etc. from all sides including the “friendlies”. The last third party president was President Millard Fillmore in 1850-1853. By 1870, I’m sure it was much like today where people were harassed and discouraged from voting third party.
You know how I always say that everything “comes back around full circle”? While researching all the players and events connected to the Marshfield Convention, I came across this article that was written a little over one year ago referencing the 1870 Missouri events stemming from the Marshfield Convention. The headline and sub-headline read, “Missouri Democrats Brace for Electoral Disaster Not Seen in 150+ Years: Republicans will be favored to hold all statewide offices in Missouri after the 2022 midterms for the first time since 1870”.5 Like I always say, it all comes back around eventually. This is, in part, why I write this blog – so my grandsons can see how cyclical life is and how resilient their ancestors were (and maybe so they’ll see where bad decisions will take them in life).
Final Thoughts
Keep in mind that, just like today, the newspaper articles seem to be very slanted toward one side or the other. The most neutral paper I found (in regard to their reporting on the Radical Republican Party) was the Buffalo Reflex, a small paper out of Buffalo, Missouri. In 1870, Buffalo had a population of 278 people. Like today, the majority of newspaper articles about politics included name-calling and libelous-sounding statements. Just like today, emotions were high, opinions were plentiful, and everyone believed they were right. Tensions were so high and the articles were biased enough that at this point I’m even questioning whether Quincy really did anything wrong. I’m wondering if the people in control of media just didn’t like the side he chose. This tactic is so prevalent today and it gives me a whole new perspective on the situation for Quincy. I do wonder if he was doing a favor for an old military friend (John PHELPS, from part 1 of this story) or if a group of people perhaps coerced Quincy to do this. I say this because I’ve never found any other stories of Quincy being in legal or criminal trouble. In any case, I may never know the truth but I keep searching. To my boys (and my new granddaughter that will arrive in the Spring!) I say, be careful with whom you associate. Your friends matter. Be careful when making decisions in haste. Always try to take time to think through the consequences of your decisions and actions. And, always keep your behavior above board so no one can coerce you to do something by saying they’re going to tell things about you that you don’t want others to know.
One more note: I used a political cartoon as the new featured image for this post. It’s the only derogatory cartoon I found on the Liberal Republican candidate while researching this post. (I didn’t look too hard but most of the newspapers were left-leaning and were attacking HAVENS and MCCLURG rather than SCHURZ. This cartoon didn’t come out until 1872, the year of the presidential election. I found the image at Wikipedia.8 It’s a public domain image and originally appeared in Harper’s Weekly. The artist/creator was Thomas NAST.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the update. Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives
Resources
Newspapers.com. Warrenton Banner, 6 September 1870, Vol. 6, #3, Page 4; Warrenton, Missouri. Accessed on 1 August 2022.
Newspapers.com. Nodaway Democrat, 12 October 1870, Vol. 1, #48, Page 2; Maryville, Missouri. Accessed on 1 August 2022.
Newspapers.com. Buffalo Reflex, 24 September 1870, Vol. 2, #4, Page 4; Buffalo, Missouri. Accessed on 1 August 2022.
Newspapers.com. Buffalo Reflex, 8 October 1870, Vol. 2, #6, Page 5; Buffalo, Missouri. Accessed on 1 August 2022.
Ostermeier, Dr. Eric. “Missouri Democrats Brace for Electoral Disaster Not Seen in 150+ Years”. 7 June 2021. Smart Politics, University of Minnesota. Accessed 1 August 2022.
Newspapers.com. Springfield Leader and Press, Vol. 1, #73, Page 4; Springfield, Missouri. Accessed on 2 August 2022.
Newspapers.com. Springfield Leader and Press, Vol. 1, #77, Page 2; Springfield, Missouri. Accessed on 2 August 2022.
We can all be different people at different times. No one is static. So can someone be both a hero and a thug in different circumstances? I’m going to explore that question today in the life of my paternal 3rd great-grandfather, Quincy Adam BELL. He was married to Elizabeth Emoline STEPHENSON (possibly spelled STEVESON, STEPHESON or STEVENSON). The line of descent is from Quincy through his daughter Eliza, and Eliza’s daughter Bess WILLIAMS who was my great grandmother. Quincy was born on this date (13 March) in 1825. I have not written about Quincy before. Normally I would take the time to introduce him to you but today I have a story to tell you that my sister-in-law has been asking me to tell for over a year. (By the way, you should visit her blog over at Down in the Root Cellar.) I will give you an abbreviated introduction but mostly I want to get right into his story.
Quincy was born in Tennessee but he lived the majority of his life in Missouri. He came to Missouri with his parents and siblings sometime around 1836. I want to skip ahead, though, to Quincy at age 36. The year was 1861 and America was barreling toward a civil war. Quincy volunteered to serve for the Union. On 28 August 1861, Quincy enrolled as a Private in Captain Coleman’s Company, Missouri Infantry for a period of 6 months. One of his fellow Privates was John Smith PHELPS who had served both in the Missouri House of Representatives and in Congress (including serving on the House Ways and Means Committee) since 1840. (I think it was this connection with PHELPS that caused Quincy to end up in a situation that got him in trouble later in his life.) They fought in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek after which the company retreated to Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri (which was named after John Smith Phelps when it was created).
It was during this time that, in a special arrangement with President Abraham LINCOLN, John Smith PHELPS organized an infantry regiment – Phelps’ Infantry Regiment. By November of 1861, Quincy had enrolled as a Private in Company A, Phelps’ Infantry Regiment in Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri. They spent most of the winter of 1861-1862 at Fort Wyman in Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri. In March of 1862, the Company fought a fierce battle at Pea Ridge, Benton County, Arkansas. The battle lasted two days. Pea Ridge Battlefield maps found on Wikipedia. Sketch of the Last Hour of the Battle of Pea Ridge found on Wikipedia.
Quincy’s muster-out date from Company A, Phelps’ Infantry was 11 April 1862. He mustered out in Springfield, Greene County, Missouri and was given $26.62 for “clothing in kind or money advanced”. He was marked as Present. I don’t know the succession of events but I have found an index card showing that Quincy mustered in to Company M of the 16th Missouri Cavalry as a Private and before he mustered out he had been promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant. A Quartermaster Sergeant is in charge of supplies, as I understand it. I know that he was in this company in 1863 but that’s as close as I’ve gotten so far.
You can read a short couple of paragraphs about the 16th Missouri at NPS.gov. One thing I know this company was doing in 1863 other than fighting in skirmishes was fighting Confederate Guerillas in the Springfield, Greene County, Missouri area. You can read a short snippet about Phelps’ Regiment also at NPS.gov.
Other researchers have listed him as being in Berry’s Battalion Cavalry, Cass County Home Guards Cavalry, Stewart’s Battalion Cavalry, and Van Horn’s Battalion Cavalry during 1863. I have not found documentation to support these claims yet.
Now, I want to skip ahead a little. The year is 1870 and very politically charged- much like the current political climate. It’s 11 August in Missouri- hot, humid, nearly unbearable. Quincy is 45 years old. I’m going to leave you right here for the night and finish the story tomorrow. Be sure you come back because this is where he runs into trouble!
Today’s blog post is about my paternal 4th great grandparents, John BELL and Sarah HARDIN who were married in January of 1822. I have never found a marriage certificate for them. The date given is one I have received from other researchers. I mentioned this couple in an earlier blog post. As I was writing this week I realized that in recent posts I’ve forgotten to tell you which line leads me to each of these ancestors. For John and Sarah, I descend through John and Sarah’s son Quincy, through Quincy’s daughter Eliza (whom I recently wrote about here), and Eliza’s daughter (and my great-grandmother) Bessie. I’ll try to remember to include an ancestral line in future posts. John BELL was born about 1795 possibly in North Carolina or Kentucky. I don’t know for sure who his parents were. There is much about John that I haven’t been able to figure out. I have yet to find a birth or marriage record. His burial location is on private property and in the 1970’s the then-owners of that land destroyed the headstones and the Bell family cemetery. This information comes from researcher Shirley Davis who visited with the people who owned the land at that time. Sarah HARDIN was born about 1806 in Rutherford County, North Carolina to Hardy and Tabitha (ROBERTS) HARDIN. Their last name is also commonly spelled HARDEN. Sarah has been easier to research than John but there is still much about Sarah that I don’t know. She is buried in the same location as John so there are the same difficulties with no one knowing exactly where that is. John and Sarah lived in Sweetwater, McMinn County, Tennessee at the beginning of their marriage between 1820-1830. In 1838 they moved to Greene County, Missouri with their children- Quincy, Calvin, Serena, Elvina, Catherine, Alexander, James, Sarah, and Hannah. After the family moved there, Phebe and Mary were born. John was the first Postmaster at the Dallas, Missouri, Post Office (Greene County). The first Postmaster appointment I can find for him was at the Dallas (Missouri) Post Office on 19 December 1844. He as there until 27 May 1846. The following day John SMITH replaced him at Dallas Post Office. On 15 January 1847, John was appointed Postmaster at the post office in St. Paul, Missouri. Another researcher (Shirley Davis) has said that the St. Paul Post Office was on John’s property. As I’ve said in previous blog posts, the postmaster often kept the post office in his own home. John’s property was Southwest of Marshfield, Missouri, on the James River. I believe it is that area that is known as Bell Ford, which you will see on several of the family records. There is also a place called Bell Spring that was named after our Bell family. Here is a map showing Bell Springs Road and Bell Ford Road.
Here is a zoomed-out map of the same area. #1 is Marshfield, Missouri. #2 is Fordland, Missouri. #3 is Seymour, Missouri.
This map will give you a better idea of location. Within this triangle of Marshfield-Fordland-Seymour is where John and Sarah HARDIN BELL lived and where Bell Springs and Bell Ford are located. My guess is they lived closest to where #4- High Prairie- is. When I looked for St. Paul (the name of the post office John ran out of his home) the Geographic Names Information System indicated that St. Paul Cemetery is located in a place now called High Prairie. So this is my best guess as to where they lived. St. Paul Post Office didn’t exist for very long and there is no longer a place in Webster or Greene County, Missouri going by the name St. Paul. The area shown in the map would, of course, also be the general area where the Bell family cemetery is located. These maps were found at Any Place America’s website. I’ve read that John ran the St. Paul Post Office until his death. Government records show that he was Postmaster there until 30 November 1848. However, the will transcription given by Shirley Davis shows that John died “on or about” 7 September 1848. The Postmaster records for this time period are difficult to read so it is very possible that John had no gap in employment as a Postmaster. In addition to being difficult to read, the records aren’t indexed. At this time though, these are the only records I’ve found of his employment as Postmaster. The census records for his era do not list types of employment so this may be all we ever learn of what John did for a living. After John’s death in 1848, Sarah remained in Greene County, Missouri. In 1855, Webster County, Missouri was created from part of Greene County, Missouri. This area included the place where Sarah BELL lived. As far as I can tell, Sarah remained there until her death. Her adult daughters lived with her for much of her life. At least one of the daughters never married. Sarah and John, along with some of their children and grandchildren, were buried in the Bell family cemetery which is on private property. (See above discussion.) Here is a teaser for the next time I post about Sarah. She had two little girls living with her in the 1870 census- Sarah C. DeSHZER and Cynthia A. BELL. I don’t know who these girls are but I suspect they are grandchildren. Notice that living close to Sarah was her daughter Elvina BELL JACK. I believe the woman living in between Sarah and Elvina was one of Sarah’s other daughters but I haven’t been able to prove or disprove that theory. Here is a screenshot of that census: (Screenshot from Ancestry.com) There is so much more to know about this family but I’m going to stop here for now. I plan to return to this family later in the year to finish their story.
