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.

Clan William: Amos Munson from Trumbull County

Glen Haven, Grant County, Wisconsin

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson >  Amos Munson m Mary Ann Kearney 

Amos is my 3rd great grandfather.

Samuel Munson, son of William Munson and Rebecca Curtis, came to Brookfield, Trumbull County, Ohio from New Haven County, Connecticut with his family in about 1806. Son, Freeman, born near Waterbury, Connecticut in 1878  lived as an adult in Vienna Township and farmed. You can read a little about Freeman here and here.

Freeman's son Amos, born 31 Jan 1809 in Trumbull County, married Mary Ann Kearney on 20 Aug 1831, in Vienna. The 1850 Census shows that by 1850, the Munson's were living in the Eastern District of Grant County, Wisconsin, Since their final child of eight, Charles Fremont Munson, is shown to have been born in Ohio in 1849, I would surmise that their trip took place sometime between 1849-1850.

Their first child, Margaret was born on 05 Sep 1831 in Trumbull County, according to her Iowa Burial record (this is less than a month after their marriage, so this birth date might have been inaccurately reported - or not!). She would marry Giles Weaks on 05 Oct 1851 in Grant County, Wisconsin. Amos' fourth child, Caroline Amanda, was born in about 1838 in Trumbull County, and would marry Uri Clark Newcomb, Jr. on 01 Sep 1860 in Grant Count, Wisconsin. "U.C" or "Clark" was the son of Colonel Uri Clark Newcomb, Sr. and Emily Tyler, originally of Montrose, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania.

Amos Munson & Mary Ann Kearney
20 Aug 1831, Trumbull County

Amos is shown in 1860 as living in Glen Haven in Grant County.

In 1880, Amos and Mary Ann were living in Perry in Tama County, Iowa with son Charles and his wife Stella and their son. Daughter Caroline, now Caroline Newcomb, and her family living nearby. Caroline died in 1893. In 1873 "U. C." Newcomb was the owner of the first harness shop in Traer which he sold to his nephew A. G. Newcomb in 1883.

Amos's burial record indicates that he died 05 Aug 1885 and was buried in Hawkeye. His daughter Margaret Weaks, lived in Bethel Township in 1880, which is right next door to the Hawkeye cemetery where Amos was buried. Margaret died in 1896. Margaret's husband Giles P. Weaks, died in 1900 in Hawkeye, which he stated in his will was his residence. I theorize that in Amos' waning years, they lived with Margaret and her family.

Hawkeye Cemetery

Mary Ann left Fayette County sometime after her daughter Margaret's death. She is found in Howard County living with whom with double-son-in-law U.C. Newcomb and his former sister-in-law/now wife (her daughter) Julia. Her daughter, U.C.'s wife had died in 1893.  Mary Ann died in Howard on 12 Oct 1901. She was buried in Hawkeye with her husband Amos. Her daughter Julia died in 1911.

Of interest is that Amos' sister, Henrietta Vaughn, lived very close by in Randalia, Fayette County, Iowa and clears up some of the mystery of what happened to the Freeman Munson children who left Trumbull County.