Forgetful Vampires and Ancestors

   Numerous unnamed members of my family have been telling me for a few years about the magnificance of a certain vampire.  So, it was a surprise today when I was browsing the the digital images of Petitions for Naturalization and Petition Evidence 1840-1856 from Hudson County, New Jersey that I found that Edward Cullen was a forgetful vampire.
    An Hudson County Index of Petitions for Naturalizations had pointed me toward some information for James Armstrong on Oct. 18, 1852.  I didn't find anything regarding my ancestor's naturalization (yet) but I did find an Affidavit of Edward Cullen as to loss of Certificate of Naturalization  on the same date.  It appears that this vampire must have lost his certificate and needed another.  So he appeared in court to obtain a new certificate.  I am sure that I will be corrected within a few days regarding this Edward Cullen.  Is he the well known vampire that appeared in a recent movie?  Was he a forgetful vampire?  Was he even a vampire at this time or did that transformation happen later?  

"New Jersey, County Naturalization Records, 1749-1986." Images. FamilySearch. https://familysearch.org : accessed 2013.

   A significant number of men appeared before the court on Oct 18, 1852, probably because of the upcoming election between Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire (Democrat) and Winfield Scott (Whig) of New Jersey.  It was written in my great-great-grandfather's obituary that he had voted for Winfield Scott.  I am hoping to find James David Armstrong's naturalization and I widened my search to counties neighboring Mercer County.  I wonder if my ancestor met the vampire, Edward Cullen at the courthouse on that date.  

The Old Armstrong Farm

Picture of Armstrong Farmhouse 

     A 1906 Obituary¹ for James David Armstrong states
     "In 1858 ... He arrived here with an introductory letter to Rev. Samuel Miller and in a few days contracted with John Nichols the the eldest for whom and his son he superintended a 900-acre tract 6 miles east for a year. He then worked the land of William Mikel 2 years, Judge Rayburn 2 years, and Harvey Bishop three years. Tiring of hiring and renting he bought 80 acres in the northwest quarter of section thirty-four in Bloomington township where he lived 40 years."
    By the time James David Armstrong arrived in McLean County, the population was in excess of 20,000 (28,000+ in 1860).  The railroad had arrived and there wasn't the opportunity to buy open land.  He had come to this area because of relatives of his step-father.  So James Armstrong started working for others. 
     The Nichols land must have been spread out because The largest parcel of land that I could locate was about 500 acres. The largest portion seemed to be in the region of red arrow #1. Some of the land was in 'Old Town' Township but much of it was one township north in 'Towanda' Township.
    My best guess for the William Mikel land was red arrow #2.   The land for Judge Rayburn was approximately at red arrow #3. Harvey Bishop's land was in 'Downs' Township at red arrow #4.  
     The eighty acre parcel that he eventually purchased and the location of the Armstrong farm was at the yellow arrow.

Atlas of McLean County²

Detail of Section 34 - J. Armstrong 80 Acres

1.  “Passing of a Nestor” Pantograph, Bloomington, Illinois March 30, 1906

2.  J. L. Spaulding. Atlas of McLean County Illinois, 1966 Chicago

Did James David Armstrong Vote Illegally?

     The obituary of James David Armstrong¹ states that he was a lifelong Republican. The obituary also states that he had cast his first vote for the Whig candidate, General Winfield Scott.  General Scott ran for president in 1852.  We can forgive the two somewhat contradictory statement because the Whig Party collapsed after the 1852 election and was supplanted by the Republican Party.  
    But James Armstrong had only arrived three years earlier.  After arriving at Castle Garden - the precursor to Ellis Island- on Oct 22, 1949. he settled in Mercer County, New Jersey.  The naturalization law at that time allowed an immigrant to file a 'declaration of intent' after two years in the country and then three years later he could file a 'petition for naturalization'.  He became a citizen at that time.  This process could be completed in any federal court, state court, or county court.  The two steps did not have to take place in the same court.  Based solely on this law it would not have been legal for James to have voted in 1852.  Although it would have been perfectly legal for a non-citizen to support a presidential candidate. 
     Knowing exactly when and where an immigrant was naturalized is tricky.  Not all of the records are indexed so a search engine doesn't work.  I spent an hour yesterday going image by image in the Mercer County Records.  I looked at records from 1849 through 1852.  But that doesn't mean he wasn't a citizen.  I may be looking in the wrong court.  I may be in the wrong county.  I could be in the wrong state.  It was late so I may have missed the image.  It is possible that not all records were digitized yet.  (Back on August 16, I wrote about another ancestor who declaration of intent was found in the Harrison County Genealogical Society's files.)  But I am not giving up.
     So was James David Armstrong an illegal voter?  The jury is still out.  I will keep looking and I will let you know if I find anything. .    


1.  “Passing of a Nestor” Pantograph, Bloomington, Illinois March 30, 1906

James David Armstrong - Part V: Masons

     Prior to leaving Ireland, James David Armstrong joined the Masons. He attained the highest rank in the masonic Order. 
In part the obituary of James David Armstrong¹ reads as follows:

    “But the boy [James David Armstrong] obtained a good common school education.  His father’s companions held him in high esteem and as a mark of their special favor chose him to fill his father’s place among them.  He was made a master mason June 23, 1847 at Belfast and in the succeeding two years was inducted through the degrees of the Scottish rite to the thirty-third.
   . . . During this period [while living in New Jersey] he was an honored visitor of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, A. F. & A. M.
. . .     For a number of years he neglected to communicate with any Masonic body here but finally made himself known to the late Judge Stillwell at one time mayor of Bloomington.  No. 43 was then meeting over the old Gridley bank and the late J. D. Harford was its worshipful master.  The night he visited them an officer mistaking him for an intruder, inquired whom he wished to see.  Armstrong, jestingly replied “No one in particular”.  The announcement of Judge Stillwell shortly after mollified the earnest guardian and Mr. Armstrong was welcomed into fellowship.   He was associated with the establishment of  DeMolay Commandery No. 24, Knights Templar, and a bosom friend of the late G. M. Jameson, well known in older Masonic circles.”

An image of the Masonic Certificate of James David Armstrong is shown below.  The certificate is in the possession of my second cousin, Julie Armstrong Zollner.

Masonic Certificate of James David Armstrong

GRAND LODGE OF IRELAND
We Chiefs of the Enlightened Men
Of the most Ancient & Right
Worshipful Lodge of St. John
Do hereby Certify that Brother
James D Armstrong
Of Lodge 186 has been initiated
In all the degrees of our Mysteries
And has performed all his Works
Amongst us to the entire satisfaction
Of all the Brethern. Therefore
We desire all the Right Worshipful
Lodges of the Universe and all
True Accepted Masons to
 Recognize & admit him as such.
In Testimony whereof we have
Delivered him this present Certificate
Sealed by our Secretary with the
Seal of our LODGE and that it
May not be of use to any one
Else but unto the said Brother
 James D Armstrong
He has signed his name in the
Margin. Given in the GRAND LODGE
at DUBLIN the Metropolis of
IRELAND this 16th day of
         August
In the Year of Masonry
                  5866      
Master Registered Mason
23 day of June 1847

     Below is an image from Google Maps of where Masonic Lodge 186 (St. James' Lodge) meets.  James David Armstrong was a member of Lodge 186,  The lodge is on the outskirts of Carryduff (where he was married) along Mealough Road. The church and the lodge are about two miles apart.  On his marriage records he is recorded as living in Mealough. 
Mealough Masonic Hall

View Larger Map

     Lodge 43 in Bloomington, Illinois was in the Old Gridley Bank Building and the northwest corner of Main Street and Front Street in Bloomington, Illinois.


View Larger Map

1. “Passing of a Nestor” Pantograph, Bloomington, Illinois March 30, 1906

2.   "Google Maps." 2005. 5 Sep. 2013 <http://maps.google.com/>

James David Armstrong - Part IV: Luggage Handlers

     A few weeks ago as I was claiming my suitcase at the carousel at the airport, someone else's suitcase came by all busted up with the items spilling out.  Someone had tried to tape it back together.  It made me think of the horror stories that you see every once in awhile on news programs.  I am glad it wasn't mine.
     The suitcase reminded me of a story in the Obituary of James David Armstrong¹.   
     "In 1858 he came to Illinois, reaching Bloomington by way of Chicago, where he recalls an incident to prove that the roughness of the baggage handlers of those days was not the fiction of  a paper joke but an unpleasant reality.  Mr. Armstrong had to borrow a hammer and nail up the pieces of his oaken 'kit' which the railroaders had wrecked."  
    Seems like the more things change the more they stay the same.  
 
1.   “Passing of a Nestor” Pantograph, Bloomington, Illinois March 30, 1906  

James David Armstrong - Part III: Family

Sorry this blog post got unpublished.  I thought I was reverting to what was published earlier but instead I unpublished it.

     Interestingly enough one obituary of James David Armstrong doesn't mention his family at all.  A second obituary mentioned his wife, although not by name.  The same obituary mentions three of his six children. The 1870 Census gives us the names of all children.  There is agreement with the 1860 Census with the exception of son, John.
Name                    Age       Birthplace          Occupation
James Armstrong     49        Ireland               Farmer
Margaret    "           49        Ireland               keeping house
Sarah        "           21        Ireland               At Home
Hannah      "           19        New Jersey         At Home
Nancy        "           16        New Jersey         At Home
James        "           14        New Jersey
Margaret    "           11        Illinois
John          "            9         Illinois               


     Sarah, Hannah, and John were not named in the second obituary probably because they were gone years before their father   Nancy married 'Dice' Teter and died in 1888 in Oregon.   Margaret passed away at the age of 15 in 1874.  James went to Nebraska but after a few years the family lost contact with him.
     James' wife, Margaret died in 1876.  James David Armstrong had married Margaret McClure on Aug 4, 1847 at Carryduff in the Parish of Drumbro in County Down.  

The Carryduff Parish was formed in 1838.  The church, which was built in 1841, is still in use.  A current picture of the Carryduff Presbyterian Church.  The building on the right minus the front portion was probably the part built in 1841.  

View Larger Map

Links to images of the church
Church and Cemetery
Church Website

James David Armstrong - Part II: Living in New Jersey

     The Obituary¹ of James David Armstrong states the following;
“On August 20, 1849, Mr. Armstrong landed in New York, whence he proceeded to Trenton, N. J. in which vicinity he remained for several years busy ever as a farmer or laborer, at one time being a trusted employee of old Peter Cooper’s rolling mill ".
     As is sometimes the case not all information in obituaries is completely true.  The date of arrival was a couple months off. In the image below² the date of arrival is given as Oct 22, 1849.  
     Jas (shortened form of James) and Margaret Armstrong left Belfast with an infant daughter, Sarah.  They made passage on the Bark Warrior and were among 88 passengers on board.  They arrived in New York on Oct 22, 1849.  The Bark WARRIOR, 221 tons, was built in Granville, Nova Scotia, in 1844, and first registered in St. John, New Brunswick. The Bark Warrior made several transatlantic passages usually carrying about 90 passengers and carrying other cargo, sometimes iron.  The voyages took anywhere from 30 to 50 days. 

     The 1850 Census, which was taken about six months after they arrived in Castle Garden, New York shows they lived in Nottingham Township, Mercer County, New Jersey.  In 1856 Nottingham Township ceased existence with parts being merged into Hamilton Township and part into Trenton.  No  occupation is shown for James in 1850 and so they probably lived like most Irish immigrants of that time who typically lived in dirty tenement buildings.  No wonder the family left for the Midwest.  Birthdates and birthplaces listed in later census records indicate that the family moved on to McLean County, Illinois between 1856 and 1859.  This is consistent with his obituary which indicates they came to Illinois in 1858. 
     Who is 'old Peter Cooper'?  Peter Cooper³ was an industrialist who made his fortune in glue but then founded an iron mill in New York in order to make railroad tracks for the burgeoning railroad industry. He actually built the first steam powered locomotive built in America. He moved his mill to Trenton, New Jersey in 1846.   The first iron structural beam was made at that mill in 1854.  These structural iron beams would have been fabricated about the time that James David Armstrong was employed at that mill³.  


1.   “Passing of a Nestor” Pantograph, Bloomington, Illinois March 30, 1906

2.  "United States Famine Irish Passenger Index, 1846-1851," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KDXG-FKJ : accessed 30 Aug 2013), Jas. Armstrong, 1849.

3.   "Peter Cooper - The Robinson Library." 2011. 30 Aug. 2013 <http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/social/pathology/social/cooper.htm>

James David Armstrong - Part I: Getting Older

     The Obituary of James David Armstrong¹ starts:

     "The Passing of a Nestor

James Armstrong, Oldest Mason

Soome [sic] Interesting Facts About 

the Career of One of the County’s Oldest Residents

     Mr. Armstrong was born on December 26, 1820, at Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland, of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian parentage. His mother was Miss Hannah Scott, through whom he is akin to the widely extended family of that name in this county. His father, Robert Armstrong, died while James was in his early youth, leaving the son and wife with little of this world’s goods." 

     Nestor, an uncommon word in today's vernacular, means a patriarch; a wise old man; a sage.  
     It has been difficult pinning down the birthday of James David Armstrong. Using the recorded age together with the date of the recorded age, I calculated a year of birth.
Record                Recorded Age          Computed birth year
1847 Marriage            24                        1822
1849 Immigration       22                        1826
1850 Census              24                        1825
1860 Census              38                        1821
1870 Census              49                        1820
1880 Census              59                        1820
1900 Census              79                        1820
     His year of birth was consistently given as or around 1820 later in life.  It is possible that when he married or immigrated that it was advantageous to be slightly younger.  
     His mother's maiden name was Briggs.  After Robert Armstrong died, Hannah Briggs Armstrong married someone with the last name of Scott.
     The obituary hints at connections to extended family in McLean County but at this time I haven't determined any connections.


1.   “Passing of a Nestor” Pantograph, Bloomington, Illinois March 30, 1906

More New Books!

     As we know in order to understand our ancestors we must know the history of their times.  I received three new books in the mail yesterday.  I hope that these books help me better understand the lives of my ancestors.  I have a lot of reading to do but that won't be a problem.  I love to read.
     James David Armstrong left Ireland with his wife and infant daughter in 1849 during the Irish Potato Famine so I ordered the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine edited by Crowley, Smyth, and Murphy.  I am looking forward to this book. I will be reading this book off and on over months because it is a large heavy book.

     Samuel Stratton and his wife Alice arrived in Watertown, Massachusetts by 1647.  My branch of the Strattons stayed in the area for a few generations, so I want to understand this time period. The book that I hope will help with this part of history is Divided We Stand: Watertown, Massachusetts, 1630-1680 by Roger Thompson. I have already found a few references to Samuel, Alice and Richard Stratton.
     Railroad Depots of Central Ohio by Mark J. Camp is my third book.  It will give me a visual of where my grandfather, Lloyd V. Hugus worked.  I don't have any pictures of him working on the railroad. 
      If I miss a day of blogging, you'll know what I 'm doing.