Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

When I created a calendar as Randy Seaver suggested, I decided I had to post, even a day late. Several birthdays of note happened in January, including my paternal grandmother, Della May (West) Patch Russell, who was born 131 years ago. And with all the research I've done on Luther Kallam this past year, including applying for D.A.R. membership because of his military service, you'd think I would have noticed that 3 January was the 250 anniversary of his birth! Another January birthday was Betsey (Kallam) Newcomb, daughter of Luther and mother of Enos Newcomb, who was born on 30 January. Here's his story that I have so far...

On 30 June 1815, Enos Newcomb was born to John and Betsey (Kallam) Newcomb, in Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. He was 12 years old when his father died. It doesn't appear that his mother remarried, although I haven't done an exhaustive search for this. He was a farmer. He was 30 years old on 12 Feb 1845 when he married Susan Ann Westervelt in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. They had seven children, Edgar Enos, Rachel Ann "Minnie", Salina Madaline, Elida May, John, Susan Emily and Edwin Marlin. John and Susan died in childhood. I am descended from Elida May, who married Henry Hunter Russell 22 Oct 1872 in Manchester, Delaware, Iowa.

On 2 April 1863, Susan Newcomb died. She was 40 years old. On 14 March 1866 Enos married Margaret (Hutton) Creedy or McCredie. They had one son, Charles Leon Newcomb who lived from 14 Dec 1866 to 20 May 1878.



In 1888 it appears they moved to Kansas. I spent quite a bit of time looking for a death record for him in Kansas, but then just last summer I checked the USGenWeb, Iowa, Delaware County site and saw a listing for Enos "Newsome" on the Death Register Index. I sent an email and received an email reply that this Enos died in Greeley, Delaware County, Iowa. The record says he died 11 April 1891 at 2 p.m. of heart failure of 20 minutes duration, apparently a sudden heart attack. The date of birth matched so I am fairly confident this is my ancestor. It also says he was a 25 year resident of the state of Iowa. Did the plans in Kansas fall through? Had he moved back to Iowa from Kansas already? Was he back in the state visiting family when he died? I hope to follow up some day with newspaper research to find out more. I also hope to receive an image or paper copy of this record so I can double check the spelling of the last name to see if it was transcribed wrong.

I don't have a photograph of Enos although it is very likely one or several were taken.

His wife, Susan, is an end-of-line ancestor and is one I want to focus on this year, trying to find out more about her and to discover who her parents were.

Newspaper source: Manchester Press, Manchester, Delaware, Iowa, 8 Jun 1888, page unknown, column 2