Great Book: Roots & Patchwork

 I had a wonderful visit to Chase County, Kansas, in September of 2023. One highlight was visiting the Chase County Historical Museum and Research Library. Their wonderful staff pointed me to Roots & Patchwork: An Historical View of Chase County, Kansas USA, which the society first published in 2002; the copy I purchased is from the second printing in 2018. It's 91 pages are a potpourri of photos and vignettes; it is available through their website.

After getting back home from the long trip, I was incredibly surprised to find this photo on p. 65. It is not dated.

While they are not my direct line, one of these men married married a daughter of my great-great-grandparents, Carl Benjamin Hegwer and Maria Ilgner. The Frey brothers also have Hegwer relations.  It is a treat to have images of them!

Kasimer John Fink was born about 15 Mar 1830 in Veringstadt, Hohenzollern, Germany (or perhaps, Prussia?). He arrived in Kansas about 1858. He married Medora Hegwer 27 Mar 1860 in Americus, Lyon, Kansas. He died 3 January 1912 in Cottonwood Falls.

Frank Frey and Julius Frey were Hegwer in-laws. Their sisters, Wilhemina and Maria Charlotte, married Carl Traugott Hegwer and Ernest Gothelf Hegwer, respectively.  There are several other Hegwer-Frey connections over decades. 

Forgotten Settlers of Kansas: To Register or Not?

This group has publications, a nice webpage, and more, both for societies and individuals.  One of their projects is, in essence, a lineage society for direct descendants of so-called "Forgotten Settlers of Kansas."  Certificates are available in the following categories of Kansas residency:

• Territorial  --   before 29 Jan 1861
• Pioneer  --  between 29 Jan 1861 and 31 Dec 1880
• Early Settler  --  between 1 Jan 1881 and 31 Dec 1900

It appears that great-great-grandparents Carl Benjamin Hegwer and Maria Rosina Ilgner, great-grandfather Charles Hegwer, and most of his siblings are eligible for the Territorial category and I could receive a certificate(s) by completing the application, supplying documentation, and paying $12. per individual.  Part of the application and documentation would be published in a book; names would be on their website.

I know Carl, Maria, Charles, and the other Hegwers are NOT forgotten!  While it's still a bit sad to me that all the Hegwer/Ilgner names do not appear on the lists at the website, I don't think I'll join the program.  What do you think?

Two Different Ideas from One Blog Post

I follow Arlene Eakle's blogs since she has a lot of interest in the MidWest, Kentucky, and good research in general.  Her new blog post, "American Mobility Declines in the 21st Century," gave me two new ideas!  

First, she talked about mobility in this country, citing a 2008 statistic from USA Today: 57% of Americans reported that they have never lived outside the state in which they were born.  Very interesting!

If I look at my pedigree chart from me back through my great-great-grandparents, I have a total of 25 individuals.  Only 8 of them lived solely in one state (or county of England): me, Mom, and 6 of my great-great-grandparents: one in Missouri, 2 who spent their lives in Vermont, and 3 who stayed in Yorkshire.  That's only 32%.  If I'd stopped calculating at the great-grandparent level, it's only 13%! And, that's assuming I never move out-of-state....

Secondly, Arlene finished the post with links to 3 new state memory websites:  Virginia, West Virginia, & Kansas.  Of course, I quickly linked to Kansas Memory, which was created by the Kansas State Historical Society.  There are lots and lots of goodies there, including a blog for the site.

Clicking on Chase County on the state map, led me to 71 items, all of which were interesting in one way or another.  Most of it was too recent to directly pertain to my direct line, but one of the items is a copy of the 1901 ten-page plat book for Chase County!  Each page is fully viewable/savable.  Here is a part of Twp 18S Range 7E:

I didn't see any HEGWERs in the book, but here are some closely related FINKs and BOENITZ/BENNETTs.  Other pages have FREYs, DRUMMONDS, and UMBERGERs.  All in all, it is super interesting to see where these cousins were living in relationship to each other.

A great big 'Thank You!' to the Kansas Historical Society for such a great website!  Thank you, Arlene, for such a thought-provoking blog post.

New Kansas Farm Data from 1870

Ancestry.com has begun posting some of the USA non-population census images from the late 1800s.  The only state they've done so far that interests me is Kansas, but that was enough to keep me busy for the whole afternoon!

A search for 'HEGWER' in the agriculture schedule database brought up three names: 2 in 1870 and 1 in 1880.  The 1870 names were great-great-grandmother Maria Hegwer and her son, Ernest, in adjacent entries on the first of 2 pages for Diamond Creek, Chase, Kansas:

Now, you ask how that kept me busy for the afternoon?  Well, the rest of the 2 Diamond Creek pages also had 8 other Hegwer or Hegwer-in-laws, including my great-grandfather Charles:

Charles' farm entry is adjacent to the entry for his brother-in-law Kasimer J. FINK, who had married Medora Hegwer.  Charles and 2 other brothers had been wrongly transcribed in the index.  So, I spent the afternoon entering alternative names into ancestry.com's database for this census schedule.  I also added annotations for all the in-laws, giving their relationships & spouses.  Altogether, I annotated 12 of the 48 names on these 2 pages: a great afternoon's work, I think!

The first 4 columns after the names are number of improved acres, woodland acres, other unimproved acres, and cash value of the land.  Maria still had a total of 160 acres and Charles had 80.  Subsequent columns show livestock and crops.  Great-great-grandmother Maria died just 3 years after this census, and Charles had left Chase County by 1876.

Conclusions

This info gives me interesting details of their lives at this time, but nothing earth-shatteringly new.  I'm not going to play around in 1880 or the other categories in this new database for fear of spending too much more time here!  Maybe later?!

It does remind me that I should look at the Chase County land records and see if I can find the origin of Charles' land and the circumstances of his selling it.  I know where he is in 1880, but I'm hoping to someday find something to explain how he meets Margaret Lavina Richardson of Morgan County, Missouri.

Source and Disclaimer

Images are cropped from those at ancestry.com.  I am a subscriber but I receive no other consideration from them.