William and Fannie Knauss McWilliams - Chapter 3

 William McWilliams and Fannie Knauss were my maternal great-great-grandparents. William was the son and grandson of John and William McWilliams whose family histories are also posted here. William and Fannie spent most of their lives in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, but traveled west a few times. Their oldest son, Benjamin, wrote a memoir in his eighties and left behind many stories about his family and his imprisonment in Confederate prison camps, including Andersonville, during the Civil War. 

(Note - Click on the photos to open them in a new larger window.)

                 The Enterprise Colliery Coal Breaker in 1874

SETBACKS AND SORROWS

After William’s father, John, died in the summer of 1849, William was documented in Chillisquaque Township in the 1850 census on September 7 as the head of household on John’s property. The McWilliams had four children at this enumeration and a fourteen-year-old neighbor girl also lived with them. William’s sister, Sarah, was listed as the head of household on the next line in the census and Williams’ younger siblings lived with her. It is almost certain that both houses were on John’s land. William’s real estate was valued at $8400 in the census, but he probably did not legally own the property because John’s estate had not yet been settled. 

William bought his father’s land at public auction in 1852 but sold it to his brother-in-law and executor of John’s estate, William Follmer, the next day.  Perhaps he financed the land with cash given to him by Mr. Follmer and then transferred the purchase back to him. William’s place of residence in the property deed was stated as Liberty Township in Montour County. His ill-fated trip to Iowa was made almost immediately after the sale. 

On June 22, 1860, the federal census taker for Chillisquaque Township recorded William as a laborer with a personal estate valued at $300, but owning no real estate. The family may have fallen upon hard times. William was a farmer, and it was probably difficult to provide for the family without land of his own. In addition, they may have endured illness. Three McWilliams infants perished between April 1858 and May 1860. The older children were not marked as attending school. It is possible that William may have worked for the Follmer family, most likely for his sister Eleanor’s husband, William Follmer. At this time, the McWilliams had five living sons; Ben 17, John 14, Francis Marion 9, James 7, and William Jr. 5. 

Ben, the McWilliams’ eldest son, enlisted in the Union Army in 1863. According to the memoirs he wrote late in his life, William opposed Ben going to war, even though he and almost everyone in their part of Pennsylvania were in favor of the downfall of slavery. William was a Republican and both his and Fannie’s families were old Whigs. It is likely that William and Fannie feared terribly for their oldest son’s safety in the brutal Civil War and had suffered greatly after the deaths of their other children. Fannie was quoted as lamenting to her father, Ben Knauss, “Poor Ben had gone to war and would be killed.” He replied, “Tut, tut, don’t come around here crying. I am glad I have a grandson in the war. My father fought in the Revolution and I in the War of 1812; and now I am glad Ben has gone.” 

Fortunately for Fannie, Ben survived the Civil War but spent months in deplorable conditions in Confederate prisons. Waiting for word from him must have been unbearable for the whole family. They heard nothing from Ben for more than a year while he was confined. How Fannie and William must have rejoiced when their firstborn son reappeared at their threshold! 

Slate pickers at work in the late 1800s before child labor laws were instated. 

WORKIN’ IN THE COAL MINES

William moved to Shamokin in Coal Township sometime between 1863 and 1865, while Ben was away in the Union Army. He probably relocated to obtain work connected with the newly opened anthracite coal mines in the area. The family resided about one-half mile from the train station, and they lived close to the “meeting house” (the Excelsior Methodist Episcopal Church.) William and one of his sons worked for the railroad, and two other sons worked in the coal breakers. When Ben returned from service in the Civil War in 1865, he took a job as a rail car loader at the Enterprise Colliery four miles east of Shamokin. 

William moved to another location in the Shamokin area in the spring of 1866 and was hired as a slate picker boss at the Enterprise Colliery where he was probably paid about $6.48 for working a sixty-hour week.  The village occupied by the coal miners was divided by the Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The area north of the tracks was known as Excelsior and the settlement on the south side was Enterprise.  The family lived in housing in Excelsior, a “patch town” owned by the colliery. The coal mining companies provided housing for their workers and entire little towns sprang up around the residences. There were company stores in the village that supplied the workers with essentials and often charged prices that took advantage of the families that labored for them. 

Enterprise Coal Company Patch Town circa 1960

William, age 60, and four of his sons were working in the coal mines when the 1870 census was taken in Coal Township (Post Office in Shamokin) on August 24. His oldest son, Ben, had bought land in Missouri and had settled there. Sons John 20, Francis Marion 18, James 17, and William Jr. 15 had joined their father as employees in the Enterprise Colliery. Wife Fannie, age 55, was “keeping house” and daughters Mary 10 and Margaret 5 were “at home.” None of the children were marked as “attended school” in the past year. The family lived among a sea of immigrants from European countries—primarily Ireland, Scotland, Germany, England, Deutschland, and Wales. Everyone who worked in the mines lived in company housing and almost none of the men were documented as owning personal property.   

Coal miners faced constant danger as they toiled at tedious and mindless labors. William’s job as a slate picker boss required working ten-hour days during the week and eight hours on Saturday.  He supervised the labors of the boys who separated slag rock from the coal. Older youths like William’s sons worked inside the mine shafts. All the boys in the patch town worked as slate pickers in the coal mines when they attained the age of about ten years old. Some as young as six to nine years old were identified as slate pickers in the 1870 census of Coal Township. The process of the cleaning of slate from the coal was described by William’s son Ben in his memoirs.

“The coal as it came from the mines, went through rollers and was broken up and run through screens which sorted it out into different sizes and dropped out into chutes which run down past the boy “Slatepickers,” who picked out the slate as the coal passed in front of them.” 

Slate pickers at work in the late 1800s before child labor laws were instated. 

Slate picking was dirty, hazardous work. The breakers were freezing cold in the winter and sweltering hot in the summer. The boys’ hands continually bled from cuts sustained on the sharp slate. Accidental falls into the machinery often resulted in or maiming, crushing, or death in the gears and rapidly moving conveyor belts, or in suffocation in a coal chute.  Many suffered from asthma or black lung disease from the ever-present coal dust. 

William and Fannie in the Excelsior Methodist Church Records

KEEPING THE SABBATH

The McWilliams family attended Excelsior Methodist Episcopal Church while they lived in the Enterprise Coal Company patch town. Fannie’s obituary states that she “was converted at Excelsior about 1869.” The Excelsior church was formed from a division of the Centralia Methodist Episcopal Church in Columbia County. Worship was held in the public school building in the village. William, Fannie and their younger children were listed from 1870 until 1881 on the Sunday school class rolls that met on “Sunday forenoon” in the church. Their residence was stated as Excelsior. The McWilliam’s children John, James and Mary were married in this church and at least four of their grandchildren were baptized there. Son John was listed as a leader, class leader and exhorter (lay speaker) in the church records. 

Wm McWilliams

 Born at Chillisquaque, Northumberland Co. Pa.

                          March 17, 1821

 Died at Verdella, Barton Co. Mo. Feb. 28, 1883

                           OUR FATHER

 

THE FINAL JOURNEY 

Fannie visited their son Ben in Missouri for three weeks in 1870. She took along her two youngest daughters Mary and Margaret and her son James. James stayed with Ben for three years, helping him cut timber and dig coal that they sold in Lamar.

William went to visit his son Ben in Verdella, Missouri, for the summer in 1880. Life on the farm may have brought up pleasant memories from his youth and he enjoyed working with the livestock. He returned to Pennsylvania in the fall, but was dissatisfied and returned to Missouri where he remained until his death on February 28, 1883. Fannie joined him in Missouri in 1882.  Ben planned to build a house for his parents on his property, but William died before construction began. He passed away less than one month short of his 62th birthday. William was buried in Barton City Cemetery near Liberal in Barton County, Missouri. 

Fannie was stricken with paralysis before her death. She spent the last ten years of her life dividing her time living with her sons John, James, Francis Marion and Ben. In the 1900 census taken on June 25, she was enumerated in James’ household in Moundville Township in Vernon County, Missouri. She was 77 years old and notated as able to read and write. She had borne twelve children with six still living. She died two weeks later on July 8. Brother W. J. Wilson presided over her funeral service held in the Barton City School house. He quoted 1st Corinthians, 15th chapter, scripture for the message. She was buried next to William in Barton City Cemetery.

Her obituary states that Fannie “lived a consistent Christian life. Her Bible was her most constant companion. She was given to hospitality and did all in her power to alleviate the sufferings and wants of the poor and sick. She was loved by all, —to know her was to love her.”

A TRIBUTE published in the pages of YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER July 8 1900

FANNIE KNAUSS McWILLIAMS

Memorial Obituary

Entered Into Eternal Rest

Sunday, July 8, 1900

At Rest.

Fannie McWilliams was born in Northumberland Co., Penn., on Dec. 12, 1822, and passed away July 8, 1900, being 77 years, 6 months and 26 days of age. 

She came to Barton Co., Mo., in 1883, at which place she has since resided most of the time. She was the mother of twelve children. Six have passed on before and six survive her. B.C., John, F.M., J.A., W.H., and Mrs. Maggie Vickrey. 

Sister McWilliams was converted at Excelsior, Northumberland Co., Penn., about 1869. She lived a consistent Christian life. Her Bible was her most constant companion. She was given to hospitality, and did all in her power to alleviate the sufferings and wants of the poor and sick. She was loved by all, to know her was but to love her. 

She was stricken by paralysis. She bore her sufferings with Christian patience and endurance; was never heard to murmur. During her last illness kind and loving hands did all in their power to cheer and help her, but Father saw fit to call her home. She would often ask her friends and children to pray and sit with her, and she seemed to wonderfully enjoy this, and would frequently raise her hand heavenward and say she could hear angels singing. She always attended meetings when she was able, and never failed to testify to the saving power of God, and rejoiced in His salvation, and of being ready to go when called. “How precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

The funeral was preached at Barton City school house to a large concourse of sorrowing neighbors, friends and relatives, which showed the esteem and great respect they held for her. The funeral services were conducted by Bro. W.J. Wilson from 1 Cor. 15th chapter, after which the remains were interred in the Barton City Cemetery.

William and Fannie's Headstone in Barton City Cemetery
Barton County, Missouri

Sources:

1850 U.S. census, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Chillisquaque Township, population schedule, page 101B, William McWilliams; NARA microfilm publication M432, roll M432-804; accessed www.ancestry.com, image 30

Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Recorder of Deeds, Deed Book Volume JJ 1829-1853, p. 440, William McWilliams (1853), Land Deed, March 5, 1853, Register and Recorder’s Office, Northumberland County Courthouse, Sunbury; accessed www.familysearch.org, Deeds 1772-1914, Deed Book, vol. JJ, 1829-1853, p. 440, microfilm 961211, DGS 8086003, image248

1860 U.S. census, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Chillisquaque Township, population schedule, p. 165, William McWilliams; NARA microfilm publication M653-1149, roll 1149, image 169, Family History Library Film 805149; accessed www.ancestry.com, image 33 

McWilliams, Benjamin Cruiser, B.C. McWilliams Prison Diary, Copied from the original by Georgia Mathews Wood and Walter H. Wood, Son of Lena Query Wood, Granddaughter of B.C. McWilliams, Distributed at the Annual Reunion at the Buck Run Community Center, Ft. Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas, August 1995, War History, page 2-3; accessed copy owned by Cynthia L. Cruz

McWilliams, page 24

Wolfgang, Thomas A. Jr., Northumberland County and Shamokin Region 1615-2000, Northumberland County Historical Society, Sunbury, PA, page 107; accessed Northumberland Genealogical Society, Sunbury, PA

Bell, Herbert C., History of Northumberland County..., Chicago, IL., Brown, Runk & Co., Chicago, 1891, page 750, Villages, Enterprise and Excelsior, page 750; accessed https://play.google.com/books 

1870 U.S. census, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Coal Township, population schedule, p. 81A, William McWilliams; NARA microfilm publication M593-1384, roll 1384, Family History Library Film 552883; accessed www.ancestry.com, image 55 

Library of Congress, Boys picking slate in coal breaker at anthracite mine in Pennsylvania, 1913; explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-1796

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell, Kids on Strike, Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1999, no page noted, Wyoming Historical and Geological Society photo, The breaker boss often found it difficult to manage the spirited breaker boys, Archaeolibris Blog; accessed: archaeolibris.blogspot.com/2009/04/kids-on-strike.html

McWilliams, The Spring, page 25

Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Methodist Church Records, Valley Forge PA, Eastern Pennsylvania United Methodist Church Commission on Archives and History; Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013, Columbia County, Centralia Methodist Episcopal Church; accessed www.ancestry.com,  images 14, 15, 21, 27,  32, 37, 54, 79, 80, 81, 112, 163 

McWilliams, front material, Fannie McWilliams Obituary

William and Fannie Knauss McWilliams - Chapter 2

William McWilliams and Fannie Knauss were my maternal great-great-grandparents. William was the son and grandson of John and William McWilliams whose family histories are also posted here. William and Fannie spent most of their lives in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, but traveled west a few times. Their oldest son, Benjamin, wrote a memoir in his eighties and left behind many stories about his family and his imprisonment in Confederate prison camps, including Andersonville, during the Civil War. 

(Note - Click on the photos to open them in a new larger window.)

Chillisquaque Presbyterian Cemetery near Mexico, Montour County, Pennsylvania
Photo taken 16 July 2018 by Cynthia Cruz 

THE FIRSTBORN SON

William was the fifth of eight children born to John and Mariah Cruiser McWilliams. His arrival was undoubtably a joyous occasion for his parents, as he was the firstborn son in the family. He entered the world in Chillisquaque Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, March 17, 1821. As he grew up on the family farm, he was surely welcomed as an additional hand and was trained to help cultivate crops and care for the livestock which provided food and income for the McWilliams. His father planted and harvested corn, wheat, buckwheat, oats and hay by walking behind primitive farm equipment pulled by horses. A few cattle and swine provided milk and meat for the family. In addition, firewood had to be cut, split and carried into the house, and water for washing and cooking had to be hauled from a nearby spring or creek.

 

It was interesting that William was born on St. Patrick’s Day because his grandfather William, after whom he was named, emigrated from Ireland in the mid-1700s. The McWilliams were originally from Scotland, but most likely moved to Ireland as part of the “Plantation of Ulster” in the prior century. Grandfather William was a Scots-Irish Presbyterian who purchased land in Northumberland County in 1774. He helped establish the Chillisquaque Presbyterian Church in the same year. Grandson William’s paternal grandparents and parents attended services and were buried in the graveyard that surrounds the site of the original church.

Portrait of William McWilliams
from Son Benjamin McWilliams Published Diary

Only one photograph of William has been located. He appeared to be in the prime of his life, perhaps in his fifties, when the image was made. He had dark hair and strong, well-proportioned features. There was no hint of a smile behind his solemn facial expression and he was dressed in his Sunday best. 

William’s hair and eye color, height, and other physical traits were not disclosed in any records, but his oldest son, Ben, resembled William in several photographs. Ben was five feet, ten inches tall with blue eyes, dark hair, and a “florid” complexion.  It was likely Ben was similar to his father in height, build and coloring. His granddaughter Lena English described Grandpa William "as a great 'cut-up' in notes she wrote in 1922."

William’s middle name was listed as Henry on his son Francis Marion’s death certificate and obituary. 

THE INN KEEPER’S DAUGHTER

Fannie made her appearance on Thursday, December 12, 1822, in Northumberland County to Benjamin and Margaret Billmeyer Knauss.  She was the second of seven children born in the Knauss household. Her given name was Frances, but she was nearly always called Fannie (or Fanny) in written records. The Knauss and Billmeyer families were of German heritage. The Knauss family came to Pennsylvania in 1723 from Düdelsheim, Hesse, where births of Fannie's ancestors were documented in church records as early as 1633. Men from both families were patriots in the Revolutionary War. The Billmeyer men were praised in the obituary of Phillip Billmeyer printed in 1885.

Great stalwart men were those of the Billmeyer race, well known in the active life of their day, hunters and fishers, supreme in the athletic sports on gala days, and taking their equal part in the civil occupations of men. “Magnificent, stately, broad-shouldered giants, with flaxen hair,” one said who remembered them and whose poetic fire blazed as he recalled them, “fulfilled my ideal of our ancient Saxon forefathers. 

Benjamin and Margaret were married around 1820 and resided in Northumberland County near the McWilliams. Her family were wealthy and influential farmers in the adjoining county of Montour. Benjamin’s occupation before 1850 was not recorded. Margaret died in 1842 and Benjamin was enumerated as a “Landlord” in the 1850 census in Liberty Township in Montour County where Margaret’s family lived.  He may have stayed near his in-laws in order to have help raising his four youngest children after Margaret died. Benjamin bought a tavern and hotel in the coal mining boom town of Trevorton in Zerbe Township in 1852 and successfully operated that business for many years.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

William and Fannie celebrated the beginning of a new year and a new life together when they were married on New Year’s Day, 1843, by the Rev. Daniel Gring, a German Reformed Church minister. Both were identified as residents of Chillisquaque Township. William was twenty-one years old and his bride had just turned twenty the month before they exchanged vows. Their wedding announcement appeared in the Sunbury American and Shamokin Journal newspaper on January 7.

“Married, by the Rev. D. Gring, on the 1^st inst., Mr. Wm. McWilliams to Miss Fanny Knauss, both of Chillisquaque.”

It appears that William and Fannie lived on William’s father’s farm after they were married. It was not uncommon in the nineteenth century for newly married children of farm families to live with their parents or in a “honeymoon house” on their parent’s property until they could afford to live independently. The young couple had little time to adjust to married life before their first child arrived only ten months after their wedding. Their brood would increase to twelve children over the course of the next quarter century.

AN EVEN DOZEN

Fannie’s childbearing years were filled with numerous trials and sorrows. William and Fannie’s union brought twelve children into the world, but tragically, five of them died in childhood and another daughter died at age 21.   Sarah Ellen, the oldest daughter and second child of the McWilliams family passed away in the fall of 1850. Three of the McWilliams children were baptized at the Follmer Evangelical Lutheran Church on November 17, 1850, two days after Sarah Ellen died. This may have been on the day of their sister’s funeral. Four other children would perish between birth and the age of seventeen months. Two of the babies died in 1858 and another passed in 1860. The loss of three precious, innocent infants in such quick succession undoubtedly resulted in profound sorrow for the whole family. The burial place of the four infant children has not been located. 

The McWilliams household must have mixed chores with music and merriment. Son, Benjamin, wrote that he remembered singing “Old Life Coon” and “Big Black Bear” as a child. There is some evidence that William’s children attended school. His oldest son Ben was marked as “attended school” in the 1850 census and Ben also wrote that he ran into several of his school chums while in the Civil War and upon his return home afterward. All of the family was literate.

Sons Benjamin Cruiser, James Anthony, 
Francis Marion and John McWilliams

This is the only photograph of all four McWilliams brothers, who came to the Midwest, that has been found. The date and place are unknown, but it predates 1922 when Ben died. A caption written on the back of the photo says, “Back L to R Ben & Jim Front L to R General & John McWilliams”

The McWilliams Children:

Benjamin Cruiser – born October 13, 1843; died February 27, 1922, at age 78; Ben was a courageous and adventurous young man who enlisted in the Union Army in July 1863. He was captured by the Confederates in October and spent eleven months in Southern prisoner of war camps. Only he and one other man, out of twenty-seven soldiers imprisoned from his company, survived captivity. His physical strength, youth, and sly ingenuity enabled him to avoid death from wounds, starvation, and disease in the deplorable conditions he faced in prison. After the war he ventured to Barton County, Missouri, in 1866 and purchased a homestead there. He became a successful farmer in Barton County and later in the Ft. Scott, Kansas, area. Three of his four brothers, his parents, and one sister followed him to the central plains. Ben married Mary Ann Cloud in Danforth, Iowa, on Christmas Eve in 1867. They had nine children, including a set of twin boys. One son, Harry, died at age eight. After Mary Ann’s death in 1907, Ben married Mrs. Mary A. Carter in Hamilton, Illinois, in 1908. He died in Kansas City, Missouri, while visiting one of his sons. He, Mary Ann, and some of their children were buried in the Barton City Cemetery in Barton County, Missouri, near the town of Liberal.

Sarah Ellen – born August 17, 1845; died November 15, 1850, at age 5 years, 3 months; Sarah was buried near her grandparents in Billmeyer Cemetery near Washingtonville in Montour County, PA.

John – born October 7, 1847; died April 7, 1928, at age 80; John followed his brother Ben to Missouri and later moved to the Iola, Kansas, area in Allen County. He married Katherine Fisher Adams on February 5, 1871, in Excelsior in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. They were the parents of three children. Like his brothers, he worked in the coal mines in Pennsylvania as a young man and later became a self-employed farmer. He and Katherine were buried in Highland Cemetery in Iola.

Francis Marion – born December 31, 1849; died November 6, 1941, at age 91; Francis led an interesting life working as a farmer, coal miner, and railroad section boss. He carried a pistol as protection from the Irish “Mollies,” a mafia-like organization of criminals who often ambushed mine and railroad officials in the Shamokin area of Pennsylvania in the 1870s. The pistol has been passed down to his great-great-grandchildren. He was named after Col. Francis Marion, a famous military officer from the Revolutionary War, and answered to the nickname “General,” or by his initials, F.M. He and Catherine Ellen “Kate” Lieb were married on January 23, 1976, in Milton, Pennsylvania.[vi] They were the parents of nine children. Francis followed his brother Ben to Missouri and purchased a farm in Barton County in 1883 where he and Kate resided until their deaths. They were buried in Barton City Cemetery near Liberal in Barton County. 

James Anthony – born January 22, 1852; died December 23, 1927, at age 85; James married Amanda Maria Anderson on May 17, 1874, in Excelsior, Pennsylvania. They had seven children, but only two sons lived to adulthood. He, too, moved to Missouri in the 1880s, settling on a farm in Vernon County. Before moving to Missouri, he worked as a coal miner. He and his wife were buried in Sheldon Cemetery in Vernon County.

William Henry – born January 31, 1854; died April 3, 1927, at age 73; William was the only one of William and Fannie’s five sons, who lived to adulthood, that remained in Pennsylvania. He married Catherine Christian in about 1878. He was employed as a miner, stonemason and watchman. No record of any children has been found. He was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Mt. Carmel in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. 

Daniel K. - born November 16, 1856; died April 23, 1858, at age seventeen months. 

Ida Elizabeth – born June 9, 1858; died July 27, 1858, at age one month and eighteen days.

Jesse Follmer – born July 11, 1859; died May 20, 1860, at age ten months and nine days; The cause of death was “inflammation in heart.” He was 10 months old and had been ill for 14 days.

Mary Nora - born April 8, 1861; died March 3, 1883, at age 21. Mary married William L. Olley on April 20, 1882 in Excelsior. They were married by R.L. Armstrong for a fee of $5.00. William listed his occupation as “engineer.”  Mary died less than a year following her marriage. She was buried in Shamokin Cemetery in Shamokin, Pennsylvania.

Clara – born June 21, 1864; died June 21, 1865; Tragically, Clara died on her first birthday. 

Margaret “Maggie” C. - born April 8, 1865; died February 16, 1948, at age 82; Maggie moved to Missouri with her parents in 1882 where she attended school in Ft. Scott. She married Charles Vickrey in Bourbon County, Kansas on June 13, 1889. They lived in Ft. Scott and later moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where Charles was employed as a real estate agent and insurance salesman. Both she and Charles were well educated with college degrees. The Vickreys had four children. She was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas.

NEXT: Chapter 3 - SETBACKS AND SORROWS

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Sources

Sunbury American, Sunbury, Northumberland County, PA, Saturday, 7 December 1850, page 3, column 7, Sarah Ellen McWilliams; accessed https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

Lontz, Mary Belle, History of Follmer Lutheran Church and Church Records, M.B. Lontz, 1966, Christening, Benjamin McWilliams, Frances Merien [sic] McWilliams, John McWilliams; accessed Midwest Genealogy Center, Independence, Missouri

McWilliams, Benjamin Cruiser, B.C. McWilliams Prison Diary, Copied from the original by Georgia Mathews Wood and Walter H. Wood, Son of Lena Query Wood, Granddaughter of B.C. McWilliams, Distributed at the Annual Reunion at the Buck Run Community Center, Ft. Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas, August 1995, War History, poem written Oct 13, 1909, and page 11-12; accessed copy owned by Cynthia L. Cruz

McWilliams, front material, Obituaries

Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Methodist Church Records, Valley Forge PA, Eastern Pennsylvania United Methodist Church Commission on Archives and History; Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013, Columbia County, Centralia Methodist Episcopal Church, Marriages, John McWilliams & Mrs. Kate Adams; accessed www.ancestry.com, image 80 

Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Methodist Church Records, Valley Forge PA, Eastern Pennsylvania United Methodist Church Commission on Archives and History; Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013, Northumberland County, McEwensville, Lutheran, Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church Records, Marriages, Francis McWilliams & Kate E. Lieb, page 142; accessed www.ancestry.com, image198

Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Methodist Church Records, Valley Forge PA, Eastern Pennsylvania United Methodist Church Commission on Archives and History; Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013, Columbia County, Centralia Methodist Episcopal Church, Marriages, James A. McWilliams & Amanda M. Anderson; accessed www.ancestry.com, image 81

Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission, Pennsylvania, USA, Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1944, Certificate Number Range: 039001-042000; Ancestry.com Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1966, #41581, William H. McWilliams, 1927; accessed www.ancestry.com, image 2790

1860 U.S. census, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Chillisquaque Township, mortality schedule, p. 7, Follmer McWilliams; NARA microfilm publication M1838, roll 1, image 169, U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1885; accessed www.ancestry.com, image 6

Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Methodist Church Records, Valley Forge PA, Eastern Pennsylvania United Methodist Church Commission on Archives and History; Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013, Columbia County, Centralia Methodist Episcopal Church, Marriages, Wm L. Olley & Mary N. McWilliams; accessed www.ancestry.com, image 163

Kansas County Marriages, 1855-1911; Bourbon County, Marriage Licenses, Index, 1887-1893, Marriage Records, 1855-1919; Charles Vickrey & Maggie McWilliams, 1889, volume F, page 72; accessed www.familysearch.org, image 72

Sunbury American and Shamokin Journal, Sunbury, Northumberland County, PA, Saturday, 7 January 1843, page 3, column 2, McWilliams/Knauss Marriage; accessed https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

Cruz, Cynthia, personal photograph, William McWilliams’ Headstone, Barton City Cemetery, Liberal, Barton County, MO, September 9, 2018

Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Recorder of Deeds, Estate Inventory, File Mc 97, 1849, John McWilliams, Northumberland County Courthouse, Sunbury, PA 

Pennsylvania, Land Warrants and Applications, 1733-1952, Harrisburg, PA, Pennsylvania State Archives, Land Warrants, Northumberland County, William McWilliams (1774), 24 January 1774; accessed www.ancestry.com, images 574-575

 

 

 

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William and Fannie Knauss McWilliams - Chapter 1

William McWilliams and Fannie Knauss were my maternal great-great-grandparents. William was the son and grandson of John and William McWilliams whose family histories are also posted here. William and Fannie spent most of their lives in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, but traveled west a few times. Their oldest son, Benjamin, wrote a memoir in his eighties and left behind many stories about his family and his imprisonment in Confederate prison camps, including Andersonville, during the Civil War. 

(Note - Click on the photos to open them in a new larger window.)

William and Fannie McWilliams' Headstone in Barton City Cemetery 
Barton County, Missouri

WESTWARD HO!

In the spring of 1852, William and Fannie McWilliams loaded a horse-drawn wagon with all their worldly goods and joined tens of thousands of other pioneers heading westward to Iowa. It was highly unlikely that either of them had been more than a few miles from their birthplace in Pennsylvania when they began their trek toward the prairies of the Midwest. Their destination was Dubuque, located on the Mississippi River in northeast Iowa at the juncture of three states; Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. The lure of cheap, fertile farmland tempted them to venture forth halfway across the continent from their Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, home with their four young children. The trip would be long, difficult and dangerous for Ben aged 8½, John 4½, Francis Marion 2½, and James, only four months old. 

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Golden Triangle in 1850

Their wagon carried them over land for the first 200 miles to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they continued their journey by river.  Entering the huge, bustling Ohio River port was likely a bewildering experience for them as they boarded a steamboat bound for Dubuque. Over 46,000 people lived in the city, and steamboat trade and travel on the river was at its peak.  Pittsburgh was located at the magnificent source of the Ohio River, formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, known as the Golden Triangle.  They probably left the harbor as the rising sun erased the usual light, morning fog enveloping the river.

Morning Fog Over the Ohio River on the Pennsylvania and Ohio Border on July 19, 2018

The McWilliams family traveled a distance of 981 miles westward down the broad, blue waters of the Ohio River to reach the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois. There the Ohio River was wider than the Mississippi and its clear water gradually mingled with the muddy-brown color of the Mississippi. They turned upstream and traveled an additional 581 miles to reach Dubuque around June 15.  Their steamboat floated past the cities of Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and scores of smaller towns on the riverbanks of nine states. The trip must have been an epic experience for the family!

Ohio River at Cincinnati in 1848

There is no record of how long it took their vessel to travel from Pittsburgh to Dubuque. Steamboats typically averaged a speed of about five miles per hour and might cover twenty-five to fifty miles in a day. Factors such as weather, the craft’s size, cargo weight, river current and depth affected its rate of speed. The frequency of stops for passengers and fuel (coal or wood) added unpredictable amounts of time to the journey.

St. Louis Levee 1852

It was likely the McWilliams traveled “economy class” as deck passengers. Wealthy patrons’ more expensive cabin fares provided a berth and meals, but deck passengers paid one-sixth to one-quarter cent per mile and made their own beds on the lower cargo deck of the boat. These accommodations offered little protection from the elements. Deck passengers usually brought their own food on board and could cook on community stoves available for passengers’ use. They slept in their clothes and used toilet facilities which emptied into the river. Both rich and poor steamboat travelers faced potential danger and disaster as they floated to their destination.

Steamboat Deck Passengers 

“Deck passengers usually outnumbered cabin passengers three or four to one. The fares were cheap but the comforts few: without beds or shelter, they found room among the cargo crates. Diseases spread in such close quarters. The deck passengers in this image are suffering from cholera.”

From John M. Woodworth, The Cholera Epidemic of 1873 in the United States, 1875. - Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Louisville, Kentucky Wharf

Boiler explosions, grounding on sand bars, collisions with floating tree trunks or other debris, thieves on board, and epidemics of diseases such as cholera were common on the crowded waterways. 

Keokuk, Iowa Landing 1853

At long last the weary family reached their destination when the boat docked in Dubuque, Iowa. Their first impression may have been similar to this 1849 account by another traveler.

“Creeping into the crooked harbor of Dubuque like a burster going late to bed. Sun-rise. Dubuque is washing her face for Sunday. She is a fair town, and in our opinion will never be less. The buildings are generally brick, the streets are regular and dry. Dubuque, we must say, looks slightly slack about the feet and ancles [sic]. There is about many of the houses a margin of “clutter” where all should be clear. One street, well built for a new town, extends, apparently, three-fourths of a mile, leaving room for an extension on the same level beyond. We saw no hogs about town. The houses are underpinned, so we infer, the hogs are kept for service and not for society."

Map of the Ohio and Mississippi River route traveled by the McWilliams family in 1852

ABOUT-FACE

Apparently, something went awry almost as soon as they arrived in Dubuque. After completing the perilous voyage to Iowa, the McWilliams stayed there for only two weeks before they again loaded their wagon to return to Pennsylvania! For some unknown reason they reversed their decision to relocate on the Midwest prairie.  

Perhaps William was discouraged from settling in the area simply because it was so crowded and expensive, with too many other folks seeking to relocate there at the same time. Dubuque grew very rapidly in 1852; thousands of homeseekers and capitalists landed from the steamers.  The city had a population of over 5000 in February 1852 and one hundred new buildings were erected in the town during that year. 414 boats arrived in the Dubuque harbor in 1852 and 351 docked the year before. The boats not only carried passengers and cargo, but also a dreaded outbreak of cholera in the summer of 1852. Other factors which may have contributed to the family’s quick departure were described in the town’s newspaper, “Daily Miners’ Express.”

“Why is it that property has advanced some 30 or 50 per cent in the last year in this city and that so many married men are flocking to the place anxious to invest their means among us? (May 20, 1852) Never did a spring open in Dubuque with more flattering prospects of a healthy and lucrative trade. Our hotels are crowded beyond their capacity to accommodate; our merchants, builders and mechanics are active; our smelting mills and foundries, etc., are enjoying a season of the highest prosperity; our streets are crowded with immigrant wagons; the demand for dwellings and business houses is beyond the capacity of our property holders to meet; the best and fastest steam ferry boat on the Mississippi is actively engaged; the harbor improvement is progressing rapidly; and everywhere is seen growth and prosperity.” (April 9, 1852) 

The family may have suddenly been overwhelmed by their lack of financial resources and manpower, as they faced the reality of life on an isolated homestead. William’s father died in 1849 and his estate was settled in 1852, so perhaps he hoped to use inherited money to purchase land in Iowa. Life was primitive on the recently opened territory in the Midwest, however, and he may have had second thoughts upon arrival. Establishing a home on the available land required building a shelter and breaking the prairie soil to plant crops. They may have brought little food or equipment with them and supplies were scarce in the remote areas where families were settling. The tasks may have been too daunting for 31-year-old William without the support of his extended family, especially in a region with vastly different resources from the mountains and valleys of Pennsylvania. 

It is likely that William spent most of his inheritance and savings on his ill-fated trip west. He was paid $77.83 for services rendered to his father and $1184.31 as an heir in the account of administrators in his father’s probate file documents.  The journey to Iowa and back probably depleted those funds. There is no record of him owning land during the remainder of his lifetime.

The McWilliams’ journey back to Northumberland County was a leisurely trip including stops to visit with relatives. They traveled overland about one hundred miles and stayed three days in Dixon, Illinois, with friends who had moved west the year before. From there they boarded a train bound for Detroit, by way of Chicago. After the four-hundred-mile trip to Detroit, they once again boarded a boat, which crossed Lake Erie and docked in Sandusky, Ohio. Back on land, they travelled about fifteen miles to the home of Fannie’s uncle, Solomon Knauss.  

Solomon owned a large farm two miles north of Bellevue, Ohio, where they stayed for nine weeks before covering the last four hundred miles to their old home by wagon. It was probably late summer by the time the McWilliams arrived in Bellevue.  Perhaps William decided to help Solomon with his farm chores and harvest before returning to Pennsylvania. In 1850, Solomon and his elder sons had raised 1400 bushels of wheat, 1200 bushels of Indian corn, 500 bushels of oats, 200 bushels of potatoes, 24 bushels of clover seed, and 56 tons of hay. He owned eight horses, seven milch cows, ten other cattle, thirty-three sheep and forty swine. Their sheep yielded 50 pounds of wool and the women of the household churned 626 pounds of butter.  There was surely plenty of work to occupy both families. 

Sandusky Docks on Lake Erie 1854

The McWilliams may have taken the Chicago and Fulton Railroad and the Michigan Central Railroad, shown on this 1855 map, on their return trip to Pennsylvania.  The route from Dubuque to Sandusky is marked by dots and shading on the map. Their path down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers is also traced. 

The family faced many challenges in the years following their return to Pennsylvania. Sickness, the Civil War and dreary work in coal mines would challenge the McWilliams family's future destiny.  

Sources: 

  McWilliams, Benjamin Cruiser, B.C. McWilliams Prison Diary, Copied from the original by Georgia Mathews Wood and Walter H. Wood, Son of Lena Query Wood, Granddaughter of B.C. McWilliams, Distributed at the Annual Reunion at the Buck Run Community Center, Ft. Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas, August 1995, War History, page 1; accessed copy owned by Cynthia L. Cruz

  Image from Brookline PA website, Brookline Connection, Historical Facts and Photos, Brookline and Pittsburgh – The First 260 Years and Counting (1754 – present), Pittsburg History, The Golden Triangle, The Point – 1850, no documentation of image;  www.brooklineconnection.com/history/Facts/Point1850.html

  Ripley, George and Dana Charles A., The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge, volume 13, New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1879, page 554; accessed https://archive.org 

  Cruz, Cynthia, personal photograph, Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia/Ohio state line, July 19, 2018

  Ohio and Mississippi River Maps; accessed https://www.riverlorian.com/rivermaps.htm  

  Fontayne, Charles and Porter, William, Daguerreotype View of Cincinnati, Taken from Newport, KY, September 24, 1848, housed in the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County; https://1848.cincinnatilibrary.org/;

accessed https://www.wired.com/2010/07/ff_daguerrotype_panorama/2/

 

  Easterly, Thomas, Daguerreotype, St. Louis Levee, 1852, St. Louis MO; accessed stlouis_levee1852thomas_easterly1600x1224; accessed https://steamboattimes.com/levee_scenes.html

  Explorations in Iowa History Project, Frontier Life in Iowa (1833-1870), Transportation in Frontier Iowa, Helpful Hints for Steamboat Passengers, PDF, accessed https://iowahist.uni.ed 

  Billings, John S., Woodworth, John M., The Cholera Epidemic of 1873 in the United States, 1875, Washington D.C., Government Printing Office, 1875, page 52A, Smithsonian Institution Libraries; accessed https://archive.org

  Tim Talbott, “Louisville’s Steamboat Era,” ExploreKYHistory; accessed https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/461

  Easterly, Thomas, Daguerreotype, Keokuk Landing, Iowa, 1852, Keokuk, Iowa; keokuk_landing1853thomas_easterly1600x1002; accessed https://steamboattimes.com/levee_scenes.html 

  Babcock, Willoughby M., Steamboat Travel on the Upper Mississippi in 1849, Minnesota History Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 1, March 1926, page 57-58, Minnesota Historical Society; accessed collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/7/v07i01p054-061.pdf  

  Map of Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; accessed www.captainjohn.org/River_MissUP.html

  Oldt, Franklin T. and Quigley, P.J., History of Dubuque County Iowa; being a general survey of Dubuque County history, including a history of the city of Dubuque and special accounts of districts throughout the county, from the earliest settlement to the present time, Chicago, Goodspeed Historical Association, 1911, page 211, Library of Congress; accessed https://archive.org

 Oldt, page 94-95

  Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Orphan’s Court Docket, Administrators Accounts, Volume 1, p. 184-185, John McWilliams (1852), Account, 3 August 1852, Register and Recorder’s Office, Northumberland County Courthouse, Sunbury

  McWilliams, page 1

  King, Wilbur Lewis, Knauss Genealogy, Lukas Knauss (1633-1713), of Dudelsheim, Germany and his American Descendants, Bethlehem, PA, Privately Printed, 1930, page 68-69; accessed https://archive.org  

  1850 U.S. Census, Erie County, Ohio, Groton Township, Agriculture Schedule, page 101B, William McWilliams; NARA microfilm publication T1159, Roll 3, line 27; U.S., Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880; accessed www.ancestry.com, image 1

  Sachse, E. and Company, View of the City of Sandusky, O, Baltimore, Maryland, 1854, Sandusky Library Archives Research Center; Ohio History Connection, Ohio Memory Collection; accessed https://ohiomemory.org  

  Bradford, L.H. & Co., Railway Map Shewing the Connections Between Muscatine, Iowa and Eastern Cities, Boston, 1857; Railroad Maps, 1828 to 1900, Library of Congress; accessed https://www.loc.gov

Next Time - THE FIRSTBORN SON