Republic of Connacht

On 31 August 1798, General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert proclaimed the Republic of Connacht (also spelled Connaught), a French client republic. It was established by French Revolutionary Army and the United Irishmen during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The United Irishmen wanted Ireland to separate from Great Britain. Humbert appointed John Moore as President of the Republic of Connacht.

A Collection of State Papers Relative to the War Against France Now Carrying on by Great Britain and the Several Other European Powers. J. Debritt, 1799. Pages 361-362. Available from Google Books.

The Republic of Connacht only lasted until 8 September 1798, when the French and the United Irishmen were defeated by Great Britain at the Battle of Ballinamuck in County Longford.

Connacht consists of five counties: Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo. My 3rd-great-grandfather Michael Dyer was from County Roscommon. Although he had not yet been born at the time the Republic of Connacht was established (he was born about 1829), his family may have been in the area.

References
A Collection of State Papers Relative to the War Against France Now Carrying on by Great Britain and the Several Other European Powers. J. Debritt, 1799. Available from Google Books.
Connacht
Irish Rebellion of 1798 
Jean Joseph Amable Humbert 
John Moore (Irish politician)
Republic of Connacht | World Public Library

Travel Tuesday: Wilderness Road Completed

Kentucky Gazette, 29 October 1796, page 5. Kentucky Digital Library.

In 1796, the Kentucky Gazette published a notice that the Wilderness Road had been completed:

   THE WILDERNESS ROAD From the Cumberland Gap to the settlements in Kentucky, is now compleated. Waggons loaded with a ton weight, may pass with ease, with four good horses. –– Travellers will find no difficulty in procuring such necessaries as they may stand in need of on the road ; and the abundant crop now growing in Kentucky, will afford the emigrants a certainty of being supplied with every necessary of life on the most reasonable terms.
                                                                            Joseph Crockett, } Commissioners
                                                                            James Knox        }
   The Printers in the different States are requested to re-publish this notice.

Military Monday: Kentucky in the War of 1812

During the War of 1812, my 5th-great-grandfather Andrew Russell was a private in Tunstall Quarles' Company of Infantry, 2nd Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Militia. Although he is not mentioned by name in the clippings below, they provide more information about his experiences.

 Kentucky Gazette, 8 September 1812, page 3. Kentucky Digital Library.

Captain Quarles' regiment is specifically mentioned in this report of army movements.

Kentucky Gazette, 15 September 1812, page 13. Kentucky Digital Library. 

Andrew was one of the 600 men in Col. Jennings' regiment.

Hornets' Nest (Murfreesboro, NC), 5 November 1812, page 2

Andrew's regiment built Fort Jennings.

Sunday's Obituary: Alice P. (Taylor) Sawyer

Nashville Tennessean, 29 October 1923, page 10

SAWYER––Saturday evening, Oct. 27, 1923, at 8'30 o-clock, at the family residence, four miles from Franklin, on the Nashville pike, Mrs. Alice P., wife of John H. Sawyer, age 62 years. She is survived by her husband and the following children: Daughters, Misses Janie, Etta and Alice Sawyer; sons, Leslie, John Jr., and James H. Sawyer; two brothers, W. D. and A. D. Taylor; two sisters, Mrs. H. C. Whitehurst and Miss Mary Taylor. Funeral from the residence this (Monday) afternoon at one o'clock, services conducted by Rev. W. S. Marshall. The following friends will serve as pallbearers: J. D. Cook, R. P. Cook, W. B. Taylor, Jr., Ben Taylor, W. H. Murrey and D. L. Hawkins. Interment at Mt Hope cemetery, Franklin, Tenn. Crafton-Sweeney Co., funeral directors, 211 Eighth avenue, north.

Alice P. Taylor was born on 29 July 1861 or 1862 in Tennessee. She was the daughter of William Taylor and Sarah J. Little. She married my second cousin four times removed John Harvey Sawyer on 6 March 1889. Their children were William Leslie Sawyer, John Allen Sawyer, Jane Sawyer, James Henry Sawyer, Etta Sawyer, and Alice Sawyer.

Sympathy Saturday: In the Apple Orchard

My 3rd-great-grandfather's brother Montgomery Binkley died in October 1891.  His body was found in his apple orchard in Pleasant View, Cheatham County, Tennessee by Will Cobbs, a schoolteacher who boarded with the Binkley family. Montgomery had taken a razor with him to the orchard and had committed suicide by cutting his throat.

No one knew why he had chosen to take his own life. He was apparently happily married, had a family, and was a successful farmer.  On the day of his death, he had said that he was sick and lay in bed for most of the day. It sounds like he was suffering from depression.

Daily Tobacco-Leaf Chronicle (Clarksville, Tennessee), 20 October 1891, page 4

Daily American (Nashville, Tennessee), 20 October 1891, page 5

Friend of Friends Friday: Abraham, Runaway Slave of Geo. Malone

Nashville Whig, 31 October 1825, page 1

$30 REWARD.

RANAWAY from the subscriber on the 22d July last, living in Giles county, in the state of Tennessee, 12 miles north of Pulaski, a negro man named ABRAHAM, aged about 30 years, five feet 3 or 4 inches high, with one stiff ancle, clothed in homespun when he went off. Any person apprehending the above described negro and confining him in jail so that I may get him, shall receive the above reward, if said negro is apprehended in any free state, or one adjoining a free state, or $20 if found in this state.
      ept. 17––––tf                                          GEO MALONE.

Anna Maria Gersbacher

Anna Maria "Ann" Gersbacher was born 130 years ago today, on 25 August 1886. She was the first American-born child of my 2nd-great-grandparents John Gersbacher and Kunigunde Dreier.

St. Louis, Missouri birth register, August 1886. Ancestry.com. Missouri, Birth Records, 1847-1910 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.

She was baptized on 10 September 1886  at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in St. Louis, Missouri.

SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church (St. Louis, Missouri). Baptisms, 1878-1900. Baptism of Annam Mariam Gerstbacher. Family History Library microfilm 1871462. https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS79-KCFT-D?i=436&cat=657997

After her mother died on 6 January 1893, her father abandoned the family. Her older sister Paulina (my great-grandmother) went to work as a servant, and hid Ann in her room. Eventually Ann was discovered, and Paulina was fired. After Paulina got another job as a servant, Ann went to live with a woman in a wheelchair. Ann told her niece Margaret (my maternal grandmother) that the woman had a cane and often hit her. Paulina visited Ann every week, but did not find out what was going on right away because the woman always stayed in the room with them during the visits. By 1900, Ann was living with her brother Joseph and his wife and son.

1900 United States census, St. Louis Ward 6, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district 85, sheet no. 2B, family 49. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

By 1908, she was living with her sister Gussie Glaser, and did laundry work.

Gould's St. Louis Directory for 1908. St. Louis, MO: Gould Directory Co. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Gussie ran a rooming house. Ann was still living with her in 1910.

1910 United States census, St. Louis City, Missouri, Ward 7, population schedule, enumeration district 111, sheet no. 5A, family 118. Available from Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. 

By 1930, Ann had met her husband, Fredrick Taschner, and was living with him and his mother. Although Ann and Fred were listed as married in the 1930 U.S. Census, a notation on Ann's baptismal record shows that they married on 19 May 1934, so they may not have actually been married at the time of the census enumeration. However, Ann was Catholic and Fred was divorced, so it is also possible that they had a civil ceremony and then had a church wedding after he obtained an annulment.

1930 United States census, St. Louis, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district 288, sheet no. 29A, family 479. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

1940 United States census, St. Louis, Missouri, population schedule, enumeration district 96-66, sheet no. 11A, family 210.Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Ann's husband Fred died on 26 January 1952.

Ann died on 2 March 1978. She was buried on 6 March 1978 in Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri, section 010K, lot 0024E.