"A
Favored Land"
by
Howard
Sherfick
October 27, 1993
(Additional notes by Mary Lou Doty 'mld')
According to family legend,
one of our ancestors, Samuel J. Green, my great-grandfather, as a young man was
a Forty-Niner in the gold rush to California.
Many colorful stories of that venture have been told; but if Old Sam kept a journal of his
experiences, it has escaped us.
By Mom's account, he went
out by land and returned by sea to Panama, crossed by land, by sea again to New
Orleans, and on home by river and overland.
He returned with a trunk, or chest, as she called it. He told of the Indians' fascination with
moving wagon wheels. They walked close
by, observing the wheels of the moving wagon.
It dawned on the travelers that they had never seen a wheel in motion,
and were simply amazed at the wonder of it all.
He didn't strike it rich, but he didn't come home empty-handed
either. That's all, no tales of
marauding Indians or animals, burning deserts, killing blizzards, or anything
else.
In January of 1848, gold
was discovered in the tail race of John Sutter's sawmill on the South Fork of
the American River at a place called Sutter's Fort, now Sacramento,
California. The following year, the rush
was on. The California Trail carried the
vast majority of the Forty-Niners who went west in search of gold.
The era was before the
railroads spanned the nation. The first
to do so was on May 10, 1869, at a point called Promontory Point in the
Promontory Mountains north of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, when the Union Pacific and the Central
Pacific were joined. It roughly followed
the California Trail through Nebraska along the Platte River, on through
Wyoming (through South Pass), then Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and on to
California. The Pony Express operated
near the same route between April 1860 and October 1861 when the first
telegraph was completed from sea to sea in that year, putting the Pony Express
out of business.
The trip then overland
would have been long and arduous, by paddle wheel steamer on major streams and
by wagon train from Southern Indiana in 1849, well over two thousand
miles. It was particularly hard over
deserts in western Nevada and the Sierra Nevada Mountains just beyond. The history lesson is free. Now back to the Greens.
George Green was my
grandfather and the son of Samuel J. Green.
He said Samuel's father was James Green, born in Kentucky 1795 and lived
about fifty years.
On September 25, 1839, in
Deed Record No. 2, page 412, is recorded: Nelson Watson, and Nancy, his wife,
to James Green, convey and warrant, September 4, 1839, for the sum of $75.00,
the SE 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of Sec. 35, Twp. 2 North, Range 4 West, containing 40
acres. Deed acknowledged before Monarc
Sullivan, J.P. of Martin County, Indiana.
In the land records of Martin County, Indiana, on December 25, 1847, is
recorded: James Green, single, to Samuel
Jones Green and David Rice Green, convey and warrant for the sum of $1.00, the
same land described above, acknowledged by Thomas Tredway, J.P. of Martin
County, Indiana, on December 25, 1847.
It is also recorded that
James Green conveyed land to Samuel Wininger on January 5, 1847, and land again
to the same person on January 26, 1847.
Samuel Wininger was a brother of Catherine Wininger whom Samuel, James
Green's son, would marry April 14, 1853.
I understand James Green is not listed in the 1850 census. We assume he died between 1847 and 1850. We do not know where he is buried. Kentucky would have been a frontier in 1775;
and records, if kept, may have been lost to posterity. As far as I know, research has not
established his lineage beyond this point.
An Irishman of this era by
the name of Green should have been Catholic; and indeed he was, according to
George Green. Of James Green's wife we
know even less, not even her name, when, or where she was born. She bore her husband three sons whom she
refused to raise in his faith. She died
before December 24, 1847, as noted in James Green's land transaction of that
date. Besides Samuel, they had William
G. and David Green.
Grandfather George Green
spoke to me of many things and people.
He surely knew his grandfather's name, but I didn't have the presence of
mind to ask. I never heard him speak of
his father's trip west. Odd. In fact, he spoke little of his father's
family, probably because his mother died
when he was six years old, when he came
largely under the care and influence of his mother's family, the Winingers, of whom he spoke often and with high
regard.
Pa, as we called him, did relate one incident of his father's
life. During the Civil War, there were
secret orders for various purposes. Just
before the election of Lincoln's second term,
one such group seized Samuel Green and others of his political
persuasion, charged them of being
Southern sympathizers, and held them by
force in railway boxcars until the polls closed, then released them. It was their scheme to deny them their
franchise, Pa claimed.
As noted, Samuel J. Green
had two brothers, David R. and William G.
The "G" in William's name was for Gollen, which was later
corrupted to Golden; so he was "Uncle Golden" to the family. He owned and operated a store at a place
called Sitka near, we think, where the Green Cemetery is. Before the railroad came through in 1856, he
hauled his merchandise from the river (the falls of the Ohio, New
Albany/Louisville) by team and wagon a distance of some sixty-five miles. According to Holt's History of Martin County,
there have been over forty post offices in Martin County. The position of postmaster was often a
political plum in the olden days. July
15, 1869, a post office was established at Sitka, and the first postmaster was
William G. Green. It figures. "Uncle Golden's" politics were
correct as Andrew Johnson was President of the United States.
The land of the sand hills
and the river bottoms at the juncture of the Lost River and the East Fork of
White River in Martin County may not flow with milk and honey; but it was, and
is, a productive land. It is rich in our
heritage. On a knoll overlooking White
River is the Green Cemetery, the final resting place of Greens, Winingers,
Bells, Waggoners, and McNannys. The
Green Schoolhouse stood about one and one-half miles northeast of the cemetery.
George Waggoner, a
great-grandfather of mine, owned land and resided there in the 1840s. His first and second wives are buried in
Green Cemetery, along with four of their young children. George's father was Phillip Waggoner, an
emigrant from Germany about 1770. George
was a millwright, and in the early 1850s built a dam a good ways upstream on
Lost River. He constructed and operated a mill that withstood the test of time
for sixty years. The vestiges of that
structure remain to this day. George
Waggoner was a community leader; and people valued his counsel, we have been
told. A church and cemetery north of
Windom bear his name. (Waggoner's Chapel
- mld) His third wife and he are buried
there.
George Waggoner's third
wife, Kezziah (the daughter of John and Rachel Smith McNanny), was the widow of
Frank Abel. I am descended from this
union. Their youngest daughter, Elzora
Z. Waggoner, married George Green, son of the Samuel Green who went to
California in the Gold Rush. Anna Bryan
Green, one of their daughters, married
Everett Sherfick; and they were my parents.
Rachel Smith McNanny's
husband, John McNanny, died and was buried in Washington County, Indiana. Rachel, with at least four young children,
moved to Martin County. She was destitute,
it was said. For instance, she picked
and sold blackberries for five cents a gallon.
She is buried in Green Cemetery.
Daniel Sherfick, my
great-grandfather, lived two miles north of Windom. He had four sons who married daughters or
granddaughters of George Waggoner. John
H. Sherfick married Rachel J. Waggoner, daughter of George Waggoner and Kezziah
(McNanny) Abel. William E. Sherfick
married Ora Ellen Waggoner, daughter of Thomas Waggoner who was the son of
George Waggoner. Charles H. Sherfick and
Samuel S. Sherfick married sisters, the daughters of Thomas H. Tredway and
Sarah Waggoner. Sarah was a daughter of
George Waggoner. Charles H. Sherfick's
first marriage was to Dicy Tredway, and Samuel S. Sherfick's second marriage
was to her sister, Becky Ann. Samuel S.
Sherfick's first wife was Susan Wininger, daughter of Samuel Wininger and Mary
Ann Bell. I am descended through their
son, Everett Sherfick.
Samuel Wininger and wife,
Mary Ann Bell, were another set of great-grandparents. They are buried at Green Cemetery. Samuel served with the Army of the North in
the War Between the States from September 1864 to July 1865. He was farming four hundred acres and had
seven children between one and twelve years old. He joined Sherman at Atlanta and made the
trip to Savannah through Georgia.
Mary Ann Bell's parents
were John J. Bell and wife, Margaret Noble.
They were great-great-grandparents, also buried in Green Cemetery. Dad says the Bells were emotional, musically
inclined, and given to hospitality.
Anyone, friend, neighbor, or stranger, was welcome to eat at their table
or sleep in a bed at their house.
Catherine and Samuel
Wininger were brother and sister. Samuel
and Mary Ann Bell Wininger were parents of Susan Wininger, first wife of Samuel
S. Sherfick. Susan was the mother of
Everett Sherfick, my father. Samuel and
Catherine Wininger Green (our ancestors - mld) were the parents of George
Green, who was father of my mother. It's
not like I'm my own grandpa, as the song goes.
Samuel and Catherine were brother and sister; George Wininger and Susan
(Wininger) Sherfick, later married to James A. Ragsdale, were first cousins;
Everett Sherfick and Anna Bryan Green were second cousins.
I must be a third cousin to
me since we have common great-great-grandparents, John Wininger and his wife,
Sarah Rutherford Wininger (also our ancestors - mld). We are short one set of great grandparents.
Samuel Wininger's parents
were John Wininger and Sarah Rutherford.
John was born ca. 1805 and died 1847.
He was a large landowner. He is thought
to have drowned fording Lost River during flood. It is not known where he is buried. His father was William Wininger of Hawkins
County, Tennessee, who moved to Dubois County, Indiana. William's father was John Alexander Wininger,
born ca. 1750 in Alsace, Germany, or Pennsylvania. The first record of him was in Rockbridge
County, Virginia, where he owned land; then to Hawkins County, Tennessee, where
he was listed as a landowner. He then
moved to Orange County, Indiana, and is thought to be buried in Cane Creek
Cemetery, southwest of French Lick. John
Alexander Wininger was a soldier in the War for American Independence.
Let us not forget the
Rutherfords on both sides of White River.
A civil township was named for them in Martin County, and why not? They owned a large part of it. Sarah Rutherford, who married John Wininger,
had a brother, Ezekiel Rutherford, who married John Wininger's sister, Sarah
Wininger. Brothers and sisters married
brothers and sisters.
We wish we had a good story to tell about
Samuel's trip to the gold fields. Since
we have but a few facts, we will speculate.
Mother claimed, and we believe, William, "Uncle Golden," made
the trip west with his brother for the following reasons: Sam was only seventeen years old in 1849, a
tender age for such adventure alone. His
monicker, "Golden," would give credence to the theory that the
precious metal had somehow touched his life.
William had no family commitment.
We don't know when he was married (5-10-1852 to Mary Hendrixson - mld),
but we know his first child was born in 1856, making his marriage about 1854,
giving him time to make the trip and be back by then; and the name Sitka has a
western flavor.
It was exciting times, the
populace was on the move. Martin County
had been settled hardly forty years.
Indiana had been a state only thirty-three years, but the new land was
being filled up and many folks were becoming restless. No doubt William and Samuel, being young bucks
full of vim and vigor, dreamed of high adventure and wealth in the newly discovered
gold fields.
We will treat this
expedition as a joint venture by the two brothers. Their grubstake was assured from their share
of their father's goods. They wouldn't
have to pick blackberries or snare rabbits to eat on the way. They surely left in early spring in order to
cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains before winter set in, usually by late
September. They may have taken a
stagecoach to St. Louis, a paddle wheeler up the Missouri River to about where
Kansas City now is, joined a wagon train to arrive late fall or early winter.
Did they pan for gold, work
underground, or do other work to support the miners? We don't know. About fifty thousand crowded the gold
fields. Many were killed by accident or
through strife. Some died from
sickness. Some prospered, and a few
became wealthy. Not a few engaged in
riotous living. The brothers probably
accumulated what wealth they could and took care of what came their way. Whatever the fortunes of the emigrants to the
gold fields, most of them stayed, enough for California to become a state in
1850.
Life would have been hard,
at best, in the gold fields. The Green
brothers didn't stay long. Samuel would
marry a neighbor girl back home, April 14, 1853, (Catherine Wininger - mld). With travel time taking up most of a year,
they couldn't have stayed long in California.
At some point, their wanderlust was cured and they realized easy gain of
great wealth was in doubt. Sam owned a
patch of ground far away. Perhaps
memories of childhood sweethearts influenced their thinking. Like the prodigal son of long ago, Uncle
Golden and Grandpappy Sam came to their senses, and return they would. Sam's treasure chest wasn't full, but they
wouldn't have to care for swine or eat their fare on the way home. With their inheritance intact and perhaps a
little added, they started home.
The wash of the waves on
the hull, and the slap of the wind in the sails, may have lulled them to sleep
as they sang "Home, Home on the Range," but their dreams were of more
favored land. Their father would be
dead; but if he had any way of knowing, he would have welcomed them back to the
hills and valleys of Martin County, Indiana.
P.S. William Green may have stayed longer in the
gold fields than Samuel.
October 27, 1993
Transcript Courtesy of Cathy Clark, Also Descended From Samuel Jones Green
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