Sitting by a Warm Fire

     While sitting by the fire in our room at the Timber Lodge and watching the snow come down I started to think of our ancestors who couldn't get out of the weather and probably didn't enjoy the snow as much as we enjoy it.
     The Mannen family was visited by tragedy with two weather related deaths about a year apart.  In March, 1863 Henry Harrison Mannen was serving with the 94th Illinois Volunteers in Missouri.  He was sent out to forage for food for his company near Mountain Store, Missouri.  He accidentally fell into a stream and as a result  got pneumonia and died.  [This is an example of the hard times that the Civil War soldiers went through. Twice as many soldiers died from illness and disease as from battle wounds.  It is also a shame that the soldiers had to forage for their own food.]
     News of this reached his sister, Annetta Rebecca Mannen Baylor back in Downs, McLean County, Illinois and must have affected her terribly. Another brother, Thomas M Mannen was serving in the 12th Kansas Volunteer Infantry. A year after Henry died, Annetta was traveling to town to get word of Thomas and got caught in a sudden spring storm, took ill and died.  Henry left a widow and young son, while Annetta left her husband with two very young children.  Annetta was my 2nd great-grandmother.
    Below is an image of a letter from the army surgeon verifying his death.  This document is in the widow's pension file.  Henry's widow, Sylvia was attempting to get help from the government to help raise Henry's son.

Letter from army surgeon verifying Henry's death^1,

Link to image of Henry's Tombstone

Link to Annetta Baylor's Tombstone

1.   "Mannen, Henry H (WC80217) › Page 8 - Fold3.com." 2012. 9 Oct. 2013 <http://www.fold3.com/document/287474497/>

What A Marriage Date Might Tell Us About Abolitionists?

     On April 12, 1859 David F. Baylor and Annetta Rebecca Mannen were married in McLean County, Illinois.  The marriage was blessed with two children: son, Cory Oscar and daughter, Isabelle Maria (Marie Isabell on death certificate).  Isabelle was born on Nov. 25, 1862.  It is unlikely that Isabelle remembered her mother because Annetta passed away on April 27, 1864  when Isabelle was less than two years old.  
     But why did the young couple choose April 12, 1859 as a wedding date?

     A census record might shed a little light on the reason.  An 1859 Kansas Census shows that Rebecca's parents arrived in Lykins County, Kansas in May, 1859.  So it would seem that the date of the marriage was chosen as a result of her parents plan to leave Illinois.  But why the rush?

Ancestry.com.. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925.
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.

     In the late 1850s Kansas was a battleground between pro- and anti-slavery forces.  Many abolitionists came from other states to live in the area and ensure Kansas' entry as a free or anti-slavery state.  The Mannens settled on a farm about 8 miles from where John Brown, famed abolitionist, lived. Lykins County had been named after a Baptist missionary, Dr. David Lykins.  Lykins County was renamed as Miami county in 1861 because of the pro-slavery views of Dr. Lykins.  

     Did Rebecca's parents, William R. and Mariah Mannen go to Kansas to help the anti-slavery forces?  Rebecca's brother fought with the Union Army but other than that I haven't found any other clues.