Clan William: Those Munson Girls - Julia Anna Munson

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson > Amos Munson > Julia Anna Munson
 

Amos Munson, who I wrote about here, is my 3rd great grandfather. My 2nd great grandmother was his daughter Mary Ann who married William Custer Smith and resided in the Butler/Bremer/ Chickasaw counties area of Iowa after leaving Grant County, Wisconsin in the 1860s. Amos' daughter Henrietta Munson Woodington is well-chronicled here.

This is the last of the four posts about these remaining daughters.

JULIA ANNA MUNSON

Like her sister Caroline, I don't have a definitive birthdate for Julia, but it probably occurred between 1846-1849 and again, I like the earlier, rather than the later date for a number of reasons. A native of Trumbull County, Ohio, she traveled with her family to the Eastern District Grant County in Wisconsin in 1849/1850. She married her sister Caroline's husband's brother, Frederick Porter Newcomb on 22 Jan 1869 in Delaware County, Iowa.

In 1870, the young couple and their eldest daughter, Cora, were living in Perry Township in Tama County, Iowa. Like his brother U.C., F. P. Newcomb also plied his trade as a harness maker.

In 1880, F. P. is listed on two Census enumeration sheets. He is clearly counted as a duplicate in the one that has him living in Perry, Tama County with his wife and three children. In the second census, he is listed as a resident of the Iowa State Hospital for the Insane in Washington Township in Buchanan County (Independence, Iowa).  His business is listed as "harness maker" and he has epilepsy. The fact he had epilepsy didn't make him crazy, but as I've discussed before, people with conditions like epilepsy were highly likely to end up institutionalized.

The duplicate having FP Newcomb living in Tama County in 1880

The actual Census location at the State Hospital for the Insane, 1880

Frederick Porter Newcomb died while institutionalized on 27 Aug 1883. He was buried near his stepmother, Hannah Huntley Newcomb in Delaware County, Iowa. This is a case where I so wish there was an 1890 Census that would allow me to track Julia and solve the next mystery.

THE MOST INTERESTING 1900 CENSUS.
The 1900 Census has Julia living with a translated "Feril" Newcomb (this translation is nebulous at best and highly unreadable), age 66. The adults and the children line up with both Julia and U.C. Elma is where U.C. and Caroline were living (Caroline having died in 1893) until both of their deaths. 

Julia is listed as his wife, but the date of marriage is 1867, which is not possible. There is no 1900 Census available for Uri, so despite the many errors on this Census, I believe that this is Julia, living in the home with U.C., her mother Mary Ann Kearney Munson and a mixture of some of their children. There is no record of any "Feril" Newcomb in any other record available. It would totally been normal for Julia to assist U.C. after his wife's death in maintaining the home, especially in her widowhood.

But, she may have actually married him. The two pieces of evidence to support this are U.C.'s obituary, which refers to his "wife," and the 1900 Census which lists him as married and Julia is his spouse. I just don't have a marriage record or they may have been living in common law.

Julia had moved on at some point since brother-in-law/husband U.C. died in 1902. In 1910 she was living with U.C.'s daughter Nellie and her son Lewis in Woonsocket, South Dakota. Lewis and Nellie had no children. Julia passed away 31 Jul 1911 in Woonsocket.

UPDATE: Definitive proof of the marriage of U.C. and Julia exists in the probate records at Howard County, where Julia is listed as the wife and administrator of the estate.

Clan William: Those Munson Girls - Caroline Amanda Munson

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson >  Amos Munson > Caroline Amanda Munson m Uri Clark Newcomb

Amos Munson, who I wrote about here, is my 3rd great grandfather. My 2nd great grandmother was his daughter Mary Ann who married William Custer Smith and resided in the Butler/Bremer/ Chickasaw counties area of Iowa after leaving Grant County, Wisconsin in the 1860s. Amos' daughter Henrietta Munson Woodington is well-chronicled here.

These four daughters will be the basis for the next few posts.

CAROLINE AMANDA MUNSON

I still haven't pinned down a date of birth for Caroline - various census say anything from 1838-1842. I tend to like 1838 or 1839, but still need to prove it. She was born in Trumbull County, Ohio and came with her family to the Eastern District Grant County in 1849/1850 when a teenager. While living in Glen Haven in Grant County, she married Uri Clark Newcomb in on 01 Sep 1860 in Grant County.

"U. C." was part of the sprawling Colonel Uri C. Newcomb family of Montrose, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania.

In 1870, the Newcombs resided in Tama City, as it was then called, in Tama County, Iowa, In 1873 he had moved to Traer in Tama County and set up its first harness shop and built one of the town's first buildings in which to house the shop. He sold his interest in to his nephew A. G. Newcomb in 1883. In the Iowa State Census of 1885, they were living in Bradford (now part of Nashua) in Chickasaw county where, it appears as though he was keeping a restaurant. Quite a departure for a family of harness makers.

They soon after departed for the young town of Elma, in Howard County, just north of Chickasaw County. It is presumed, based on newspaper items, he plied his harness-making trade while there.
Caroline died at a relatively young 55 on 08 Apr 1893 in Elma. She was buried in the Howard Cemetery in Elma.

The U. C. Newcombs' had seven children in total: Lilla May (died at age 2 in Tama), Della Josephine Breckon, Edgar Clark (died at 22 in Tama), Orion Alburn, Nella Mae (who married Lewis Porter Newcomb, her first cousin and child of Frederick Porter and Julia Munson Newcomb), Effie Bell (died as infant), and Howard Clifford.

Another marriage of cousins

*In 1900, I believe he was living with his sister-in-law and later wife, Julia Munson, a mixture of some of their children, and his mother-in-law in Elma. Please see the discussion of this here.

We find U.C. still around in this amusing 1901 article from the Nashua Reporter:

A Former Nashuaite Skunked

UC Newcomb had about made up his mind to quit the harness business and "go trapping," so he commenced operations at home, setting a wire trap in the cellar for a rat that had been raising "hob" there. The next morning the trap was occupied, not by the rat but an animal that "Newc" pronounced to be a spotted mink. It was a beauty so he decided to tame it and he kept it in the cage trap for some time, fed it bread and butter, etc., and with considerable pride exhibited it to his neighbors. One of the neighbor's children, a little girl of six or eight years came over to see the "kitty" as she called it and proceeded to prod it with a stick. That was too much for the "kitty" and it resented the act in a  way that made the little girl's mother look cross. "Newc" killed the "spotted mink" and to visit the place now makes one think that fourteen drug stores had all used that spot as a place to dump their stock of perfumes. Mr Newcomb has given up the fur business and is again at the old reliable shop making harness. He got "skunked" in his first game of trapping. - Elma Vidette

Nashua Reporter November 28, 1901

=== 

U. C. continued on working in his shop every day until his own death on 24 Apr 1902 in Elma, when he died suddenly while on the way to work.