Plymouth County, Iowa

My maternal grandfather Victor Valentine Wilkins was born in 1893 in Plymouth County, Iowa , where he lived his early years there.   His parents,  Ed Wilkins and Katie Sitzman lived much of their young adult life there as well.   Katie’s brother Valentine Sitzman in a family document called “The Oral History of Valentine Sitzman” narrates the trip that his family made in 1875 by wagon from Springfield, Wisconsin to Plymouth County.  One of the most compelling parts of the story is when he says describes what happened when they arrived.

“That Spring father and I started to farm 12 miles south of Le Mars.  The grasshoppers ate the crops the first four years after we came here.  We were so hard up that we had to wear wooden shoes, and burned hay in the winter to keep warm. My father died when I was nineteen years of age and from then on I had to rely strictly upon myself.”

It is always exciting to have actual family documents about personal experience, but it can also be satisfying to find  outside sources that corroborate those stories.  I’ve just come across a book called History of the Counties of Woodbury and Plymouth, Iowa  published in 1890.  This means that it was written at a time not long after the arrival of the Sitzman family. Valentine’s father Adam Sitzman  would have died about 6 years before.  The book corroborates Valentine’s story.

 “The grasshopper years, as the residents who lived here from 1874-79 term them, were indeed plague years and caused times that verily tried men’s souls.  Many had to borrow money and pay excessive interest on the same for the purposed of procuring seed grain, and then, the day before the harvest was to begin, see the broad and beautiful acres totally destroyed by these pests.  Not alone for one year but for four or five years in succession did this misfortune befall the settlers of this county. “

Much of the book lists names and dates, and the establishment of first churches, schools, banks and other institutions.  Despite the arrival of the Sitzman family in those pioneers, their names are not listed.  There is another section of the book, though, that caught my interest because it described the surroundings in which they lived.

My great-grandfather Ed Wilkins arrived in the county at age 13, probably as an orphan.  In 1890, the year that the book was published two important things happened to Ed. In February, he married Katie Sitzman and in October, he began working for the Wm. Beleau Company in Kingsley, Iowa located in Plymouth County.  Eventually Ed would buy the store he was working for and set up his own farm implements business, but in 1890, that was a long way off.  The History of the Counties…. gives us a sense of what it was like to live in Kingsley at that time.

“In 1885 the population was 400 of which 300 were American born and 100 foreign  mostly German and English. Kingsley is the chief town in the south half of Plymouth county, and furnishes a grain and stock market for an immense territory, and hence is one of the most thoroughly prosperous towns in the county. Its streets are daily filled with farm teams and its merchants are usually busy. It has a population of about 800 people, nearly all of whom are Americans. Kingsley has the merited name far and near of possessing the most enterprising and best merchants to be found in this section of Iowa.“

As those following this website know, Ed not only became one of those merchants but was eventually elected to be the town supervisor.

A Shameful Legacy

When studying family history, it is always tempting to look back to ancestors that you hope took part in the positive shaping of the United States, but it also means looking at those actions which it is difficult to be proud of.  For me, perhaps the most embarrassing and subsequently disastrous  one took place in 1662.  As previous blogs have documented, several of our ancestors were elected to  the Virginia House of Burgesses, one of the first democratic governing bodies in the American Colonies. The laws they enacted subsequently helped to shape the course of American history.

As has been mentioned, the first African slaves to come to the colonies arrived in Virginia in 1619.  In addition to these slaves many white colonists also came from England as indentured servants.  At the time that Virginia was colonized,  English law said that the family line followed that of the father.  Initially, the actual conditions of servitude for whites and blacks were relatively similar, but as tobacco became the chief crop and there was not enough labor to keep up with the demand, more African slaves were imported and laws were passed saying that the children of African slaves were also slaves.  Slaves became regarded as chattel, i.e., as property. 

As abhorrent as this was, the situation became even worse when a child was the result of parents of different races.  According to the English laws of the time that ruled the colonies,  the child of a black father and a white mother would have been a slave, but the child of a white father and a black mother would have been free, since the child should follow the status of the father.  The problem this created from the plantation owners’  point of view was that this would deprive them of what would have been potential labor.  To remedy this situation in 1662 the Virginia House of Burgesses passed the following statute (original spelling retained):

   Whereas some doubts have arrisen whether children got by an Englishman upon a negro woman       should be slave or free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly  that all children borne in this country shalbe held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother.

Not only did this act completely counteract prevailing English law, but it set up the notorious condition whereby white plantation owners forced themselves upon Black female slaves not only simply for sexual gratification but with the specific purpose of producing children that, as property, could either be used for labor or sold.  This statue was quickly imitated in other slave-holding colonies and its ripple effect is a legacy still very much felt today.     It is not a legacy to be proud of.

Soloman Northen

I recently came across a note in a page labeled Northumbrea Collectanea that read the following:

Northumbria, Soloman of Northumberland Co. “Being a poore Orphant of 16 years and very small and week of body at that age”  bound to John Ingram.  17 Oct 1711.

I don’t know if Soloman Northen is a direct connection to our family, but I suspect that he must have been related since Northen is not a common last name and it is in the area where our earliest Northen ancestors settled.   If Soloman were 16 years old in 1711, he would have been born in about 1694. Though short, I find this note interesting for several reasons.  The first is that it contains some physical description, which is rare in notes this old.  The other is that it adds to some of the other posts about how indentures came about. In this case it was because  apparently both of his parents were dead and they needed to be provided for in some way.  The note also provides a counterpoint to what was going on with some of the other members of the of our family may have been faring. While some such as Edmund Northen and his son William were achieving land and position, others were struggling. It is these latter people who are less often recorded in official documents. John Ingram, for example, was wealthy and appears to have left quite a paper trail.  What became of Soloman, however, is unknown. In 1780, a will turns up for an individual named Soloman Northan in Craven, North Carolina who appeared to own several acres of land.  Perhaps this was him.

There one other aspect of Soloman Northen notes that is interesting because of a personal parallel.  My father, James Northen, also lived in Northumberland and he, too, was orphaned . When he was eleven both of his parents died. While he was able to live with his older brother John for a short while, John was married and there were too many other brothers and sisters.  Therefore, Dad was taken in by a couple who had no children.  While not indentured or apprenticed since he was allowed to attend school, he did have to work for these foster parents to help with his keep.  It was only at 18 when he graduated from high school that he was legally adopted.  

First Settler

The part of Virginia where my father was born is called the Northern Neck.  It is situated on the Chesapeake Bay, at the corner where the Potomac River begins and borders it on one side. The other side is bordered by the Rappahannock River.

As everyone knows Captain John Smith established Jamestown in 1607.  In 1619 the first ship carrying African slaves, the White Lion, arrived in Virginia.  Smith traveled along the Northern Neck on many occasions, but it was not until about 1640 any Europeans actually settled there.  The first that we know about was a man named John Mottrom. When Mottrom arrived, the area was called Chicacoan. Mottrom had probably been a trader, working out of St. Mary’s across the river in Maryland, but settled in Chicacoan to begin farming and, likely to grow and sell tobacco, which was become popular in England.  The house that he built there was called Coan Hall. 

We know that one of our ancestors, William Presley arrived not long after Mottrom.  He was one of Mottrom’s neighbors and, appears to have been a frequent visitor to Coan Hall according to records that record him as the godfather of one of Mottrom’s children and various presents that he gave to the Mottrom children. While there do not appear to have been any African slaves in the Northern Neck at this point, according to Miriam Haynie in The Stronghold: A Story of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia and its People, Presley “employed” Indians to take care of his stock. Haynie reports that it was common practice in those days to “take Indian children as apprentices to learn a trade and to teach them to read and write…The relationship between the Indian boy and his master was about the same as that of the English servant.”

John Mottrom became the first person to represent the area in the Virginia House of Burgesses and in 1658, the area’s name was officially designated “The Plantation of Northumberland.”  (Northumberland is now the name of the country in which my father was born.)

While Mottrom has no actual blood relationship to our family, there is something of a family connection.  As mentioned in a previous post, the first of our relatives to arrive in North America was Richard Thompson. Thomson’s second wife was a woman named Ursula Bysshe.  When Thomson was kicked out of Kent Island in Maryland, he ended up as a neighbor of John Mottrom. Less than a decade later, Thompson died and Ursula married Mottrom, who at about the same time, became a widow himself. As Haynie remarks, Ursula probably brought up her children in Mottrom’s house.

If you see Reedville, you can locate Wicomoco Church where my father was both and the Wicomico River where his family caught crabs and his mother drowned.  Coan Hall would have been on the Potomac River.

John Cockerill, Indentured Apprentice

In the Nov. 13, 2023 post “The Ball Family Connection,”   I mentioned that the Ball name came in through Sally Ball Cockerill a direct ancestor of my grandmother Mattie Lewis. Sally’s father was named Presley Cockerill and his family leads back to a man named John Cockerill, my 8^th great-grandfather who came Virginia in about 1650.

What is interesting about John Cockerill (whose father is known as John “The Coachman” Cockerill in the family tree) is that he came over as an indentured apprentice.  This was one of the most common ways that new people made it over to colonial Virginia in the 1600’s.  There is actually an old written document that was recovered describing this apprenticeship.  I’m reprinting a verbatim version of the document transcribed in 1991 together with notes.   I think that the description of the apprenticeship is interesting in itself but so is getting a glimpse of the language and spelling that was used in those times.  Note that there is no punctuation.  I think it is worth the experience to read it, though, and have included the transcribers introduction.

JOHN COCKRELL & Hannah of Northumberland County, VIRGINIA

A record dated May 1, 1650 in Northumberland County’s oldest record book – Book 1650-1652
Page 39 says that a John COCKARELL, son of John COCKARELL who worked as a coachman, late of London apprenticed himself to Lt Edward COLES for thirteen years, and Lt. COLES gave him land, livestock, pots and pans in return. The indenture states the particulars on John’s father, as given above.
The indenture also sets the beginning of the 13 year contract at 25 Nov 1649, which may have been the
time Edward sent funds for John’s passage, or the time John sailed from London, or the time he arrived and actually began work for Edward Coles.

Deed and Orders 1650-1652 Northumberland County, Virginia

This Indenture Witnesseth that John COCKRILL
Sonn to John COCKERILL Latt of London Coachman
deceased hath put him selfe apprentice to Edward
Coles of (Northumberland in) Virginia planter ( )
him to dwell and serve for and duringe
the time and spate of thirteen years fully 
to be compleat and ended, to commence and 
begin from the five and twenty day of 
November last untill the said thirteen
years shall fully expired during (said) terms
the said Apprentice shall doe all such service
and imployment as his said master shall 
command and appoynt and it is hereby (consented)
and agreed upon between the said parties that
the said Edward Coles nor his wife there
Executors or Administrators shall not turne over
his apprentice to any other person whatsoever
and the said Apprentice is to be free att the
death of the longest liver off the said Edward
Coles or his wife and the said Edward Coles
doth hereby bind himselfe his Executors and 
Administrators to give and deliver unto his 
said apprentice att the end off, the said first
(twelfe) part one cow with calfe, and att the
end of his tyme one sow with pigges one gun
one pott one frying pan one Axe one hoe one
flockbead bolster and rugge together with
do (u) bleapparill and three barrille of corne
and to the true performance hereof the parties NOTE: Page 39 is the first page now existing of above said doe bind themselfes each to other the record volume, for which the index still exists firmly by these presents in wittness whereof showing entries for pages 1-38. The page is faded the parties above said Interchangably have in spots and is written in a very unusual style of here put there hands and seales the writing; questionable words, hardest to decipher, 20th (da) y of may 1650. are set in parentheses. W. Lombus 8/6/91 
        ( )
        John COCKERILL
sealed (. . . .)
in presence of
ThoKingwell
JOHN COCKRELL & HANNAH (COLES?)

John Cockerill headed for Virginia when he was fifteen years old. Though he came over as an indentured apprentice, he must have taken advantage of what he was given upon release from  the apprenticeship.  He eventually marries a woman named Hannah Cole and their son, also John Cockerill marries Elizabeth  Presley.  Elizabeth was the orphaned daughter of Peter Presley and Elizabeth Thompson,  from two of Northumberland County’s  oldest and formerly wealthiest families.   So while Elizabeth Presley’s family had fallen into hard times and was on the decline, John Cockerill’s  family was making its way in the world. As anyone reading this has probably noticed, the name Cockerill has been spelled in a variety of ways, but they all lead back to a man born in St. Stephen Walbrook parish in London in 1600.

First Names in the Family

In A Short History of the Northen Family published around 1900, its author, E. E. Northen lists the given names (what he calls Christian names) of all the members of from 1635 to 1900, and how frequently those names occur.   I thought that it would be fun to see how the names of our family members today came up in E. E. Northen’s list.    

Next to each family members names I listed the total number of occurrences that Northen found including women who married into the family and women who changed their names when they married.   I also listed two other columns just for fun.  The second columns is the number of people with that first name that also had the last name Northen.  The second is the number of people surnamed Northen who were direct descendents of my 4^th great grandfather, George Northen (1748-95), meaning that he is also a direct ancestor of everyone on the list.

Parents:
James – 28 11 4
Elvera – 0 0 0

Sibblings:
Michael – 1 1 1
Stephen – 2 2 0
David – 0 0 0
Judith -0 0 0
Edward – 17 9 5
Mary -52 20 7
Patrick – 2 2 0

Children:
Patrick -2 2 0
Maura – 0 0 0
Melissa – 0 0 0
Maya – 0 0 0
Elijah – 0 0 0

Grandchildren:
Amelia – 0 0 0
Connor – 0 0 0
John (Jack) – 24 14 2
Andrew – 4 1 0
Liam – 0 0 0
Owen – 1 0 0
Margaret (Maggie)-13 6 2
Jackson (Daisie) – 0 0 0

In looking the results, it is easy to see how insular the Northern Neck of Virginia where these people lived was until about 1900. They were by-in-large, all descendents of English settlers who were Protestant, and the names reflect this.  The most common women’s names were Mary and Margaret.  For men on our branch of the family, the most common are James Edward and John.  I’ll add that Maggie as a name in itself (rather than a nickname) occurs twice and Daisy once. 

 I find it interesting that names we might think of as common today such as David, Judith or Melissa do not show up at all. More over two of the most common names on my mother’s side of the family, Catherine and Ann, are not in the list at all.  But they came from a German tradition.  I’ll add that Maggie does show up twice as an actual first name and Daisie once. By the way, spouses names follow a similar pattern, Mary and John were both common, Daniel is listed twice (though not in the direct lineage) and Lora, Brian, and Rita, common as they are now, do not occur at all.

The Ball Family Connection

It is interesting how a name can sometimes make it way down through family history. My father’s maternal grandfather was John Ball Lewis. He had inherited his middle name “Ball” through his mother’s side of the family and it can be traced back seven generations to when his immigrant forebearer first came to Virginia.

John Ball Lewis (1821-1893)

↓

Sally Ball Cockerill (1785-1854)

↓

Presley Cockerill   (1754-1809)

↓

Sarah Ball (1736-1783)

↓

John Ball (1714-1754)

↓

George Ball (1683-1734)

↓

Capt. William Ball (1641-1694)

↓

Col. William Ball (1615-1680)

The original immigrant to come to North America was William Ball, who arrived in Virginia in 1650. Though we can’t be sure why he came left England, it appears that it may have partly been for religious/political reasons.  He was a supporter of Charles I and may have served in the English army.  However, when Oliver Cromwell forced Charles off of the throne and subsequently had him beheaded in 1649, William’s life was probably in danger.   When he arrived in Virginia, William bought land and became a firm supporter of the Anglican Church.  He served as a major in the militia of Lancaster County, Virginia, and as a member of the House of Burgesses from 1668 until 1676 and again from 1676 to 1677.

It is clear that for the first few generations, the name was passed along simply because it was the family’s last name in a culture that preserved family names through patriarchy.  However, it was actually Sarah Cockerill who kept the name in our family.  She married a man named Charles Lewis but named one of her sons after her great grandfather John Ball, so that her son became John Ball Lewis. This keeping of an ancestor’s name in the family to establish lineage was common in the American colonies.  In fact, Sarah Ball’s husband, Presley Cockerill could trace his first name back to another immigrant, William Presley, who came to Virginia in 1649 – around the same time as William Ball.

One other interesting note about the Ball family name.  Our ancestor George Ball had a brother named Joseph; Joseph had a daughter named Mary.  Mary Ball married and became Mary Ball Washington – the mother of George Washington.

The Scottish Connection

Ancestry.com insists that 19% of my DNA comes from Scotland.  This is despite the fact that according to the DNA results reported  by 23 and Me, none of my ancestry comes from Scotland.  Since Ancestry.com basis their results on those who have signed up for their website and have family trees to share, I decided to try to look back to see where that Scottish ancestry may have come in.  And I think I have found it. 

The trail goes back to Abigail Minty the wife of William Northen who has figured so prominently in the Northen family history.  Abigail’s mother was Margaret Fleming and Margaret was the daughter of Alexander Fleming.  Alexander who lived from 1666-1720 was the son of John Fleming. John arrived in the Virginia in 1653.  He is recorded as being sponsored in the head right system by a Joseph Croshaw.  Some records say that he died in Charles County, Virginia, others in New Kent County in 1686. All seem to agree, though, that he was born in Cumbernauld, Lankarshire, Scotland, which is not far from Edinburgh.   There are some claims that his father was John the 2^nd Earl of Wigdon in Lankarshire, Scotland, but other accounts say there are no records that establish a direct connection and, if that were the case, it seems odd that he would have come over on the head right system.  There were actually several Flemings in the mix at this time including a John, Alexander and Thomas,  and most appeared to be landowners.  In all cases, though, they seem to have come from the same area in Scotland, so that seems to provide our Scottish link.

Family Genealogy Collage

Using myself as a starting point, I tried to create a collage that would portray family history and ancestry in a way that might be fun and interesting to look at.  Included in the collage are:

• my children and siblings
•  my children’s spouses, spouse’s parents and ancestors
• Northen, Schroeder and Ventura ancestors
• mailing addresses
• written documents
• books relating to family history

This has also been made into a jigsaw puzzle so that trying to fit the pieces together in some ways recapitulates the attempt to put together the family history. I hope it incites some curiosity.

Moving Out of Virginia – 3

There are some instances of Northerns turning up in states that cannot be directly related to our family line, even though they appear to be. One of the most obvious were were the Northerns of Jefferson County, Tennesee where they have been established for many generations.   In fact, in her book, Dorothy Gross shows a picture from 1986 of Mill Springs Cemetery on Northern Rd. in Jefferson County that show a number of Northern graves. 

The first evidence of the family in Jefferson County came when John Northern bought land there in on September 11, of 1811.  In 1814, he was recorded several times as appearing on a jury there.  John clearly came from Wilkes County, North Carolina where he is registered as being on the census in 1790.  There were also a number of other Northerns living in Wilkes County as well. He appears to have married his long time wife Rhoda Lassiter there as well.  Just where John was born is not certain.  While some families list his birthplace as North Carolina, most say that he was born in Virginia in 1766.  Some families list his father as Edmond, others as John or William.  Once even says that this parents were our ancestors George Northen and Margaret Jones, though there is no documentary evidenced of this.  It is quite likely, however, that he was connected to our family in some way.  John appears to have lived quite a long life.  While he may not have lived until 1870 as some families claim (that would have made him 104), he is listed in the 1850 census as being  84, and in 1861 he was on a list of “Free White Males” in Jefferson County.  Interestingly, the 1860 census says of both John and Rhoda, “can’t read or write.”  Rhoda, however, was reputed to have been a midwife.

Jefferson County, Tennessee has an interesting history that is not commonly known about. Tennessee was admitted to the United States in 1796, just 15 years before John Northern brought his first property there.  However, back in 1784, soon after the United States was formed, the people in this area were part of land that was supposed to go to North Carolina.  Instead, they broke away and organized their own government and called it the State of Franklin.  They established their own government and capital.  It applied for admittance to the United States, but Congress never formally accepted its application for admission.  As a result, Franklin only lasted for about four years and shortly after became part of the new state of Tennessee.  It is one of the rare examples, though, of a state that never became a state.

Another branch of the family that cannot be directly documented to trace back the original John the immigrant is responsible for the Northerns who moved into Arkansas.   As mentioned previously mentioned ,  a John Northen who is likely the son of the immigrant John moved to land near the Great Swamp in Currituck County, North Carolina in 1712.  His grandson, also named John was born in Currituck sometime between 1800-1810.  Sometime around 1840, he headed out for Mississippi but wound up in Arkansas.  Three of his sons served in the Arkansas Infantry for the Confederacy during the Civil War.  Though most of the family members appear to have moved on to other places, his youngest son, William Wesley Northern stayed and raised six children there.  Interestingly, in the 1880 census for Independence County in Arkansas, he is listed as Wesley Northen.

As the map shows, the migration was to the west. The family never moved further south than mid-Georgia and curiously never into South Carolina. One possible reason is that our family were primarily tobacco planters whereas South Carolina’s main plantation crop was rice. Also, Missouri is not colored in because no one stayed there for more than a generation but it was a place that many families visited for a while or passed through. Much of the migration was fueled by the Civil War and it is interesting to consider that another migration of families was fueled by World War II. That is how the Northen family ended up in California beginning in the 1940’s.