The Murder of Isaac B. McCollum

Or was it a "killing?"  The answer to that question may depend upon whether you were a family member, and whether you were on the Union or Confederate side during the Civil War.

Isaac B. McCollum was probably not yet a teenager when his family moved from Greene Co., Tennesseee to Harrison Co., Missouri in the 1850s.^[1]   Missouri was a border state which sent men to fight on both sides.  Although Tennessee voted to secede from the Union in 1861, there were many in Greene County who remained loyal to the Union, including Isaac's uncle, William S. McCollum, and several of Isaac's cousins.

Family tradition maintains that during the war, Isaac's father Alexander was taken by northern soldiers to St. Louis and tried "three times as a southern sympathizer, but was never convicted."   Isaac is said to have fought as a Confederate while his brother, William, was a Union soldier.  On 23 Jul 1864, Isaac was "plowing in a field when two Northern men shot and killed him. Neighbors offered to lynch the murderers but his father... said 'No, it would just cause more bloodshed.' On Isaac's tombstone in Harrison Co. it states that he was murdered and lists the names of his murderers."^[2]

 An 1888 Harrison County history paints a somewhat different picture:

 "Killing of McCollum. - In July, 1864, George Williams, a returned Federal soldier, attempted to disarm Isaac B. McCollum, a Southern sympathizer, and in the quarrel which ensued the latter was shot and killed.  Williams received a shot in the leg, but was not otherwise injured.  He was indicted for the killing only a few years ago, and after quite an extended and exciting trial, was cleared." ^[3]

How can we resolve the conflicting elements in this story?  What else do we need to know?  What do we need to confirm?

While it may seem elementary, one must first confirm the date of death.  Death certificates or registers do not exist for this time period in Harrison Co., Missouri, so the best source will be tombstones.  Does Isaac's tombstone really name the people who shot him?  The answer seems to be "Yes."  Multiple transcriptions of Phillebaum Cemetery near Bethany, Missouri provide a death date of 23 Jul 1864 and state "Murdered by G. Williams & T. L. Sullivan." ^[4]

Next Steps (Research Plan):

1. Confirm the gravestone inscription, if possible. [In late July, 2011, I attempted to photograph the tombstone, but the cemetery was too overgrown to proceed].
2. Newspapers are not known to exist for  Harrison Co. for the time of Isaac's death, but it is possible the story may have been reported in other localities such as Daviess Co. or Kansas City.  
3. Another avenue for verifying the story and determining more details may be Harrison Co. court records.

This simple family story also raises other questions.  Was Isaac a Confederate soldier or sympathizer?  What about his father Alexander?  Did brother William serve in the Union army?  I'll try to deal with these issues in a subsequent post.

Sources:

^[1] Walter Williams, ed, History of Northwest Missouri (Chicago/New York:  Lewis Publishing Co., 1915), Vol 2, p. 698.

^[2]  Debby Strong Taylor, "McCollum Family History (1724-1984)" (typescript, Gate City, Virginia:  December, 1984), p. 19.

^[3]History of Harrison and Mercer Counties Missouri from the Earliest Time to the Present, (St. Louis and Chicago:  Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1888), pp. 285-286.

^[4] Maxine Taraba, Harrison County Missouri Cemetery Records (to 1984), (Decorah, Iowa: Anundsen Publishing Co., 1985).  See also FindAGrave.com and USGenWeb Project’s “Harrison Co., MO Cemeteries” at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~moharris/hccem.html, last viewed 9 Jun 2011.

End of the Line Descendants: Sarah Ann (Harrison) Sellers (1850-1921)

We all have "end of the line" ancestors, those great+ grandparents of how-ever-many-generations that we either have not yet traced, or who seem to be our brick walls.  They are the pot of gold we so often seek.

But what about the "end of the line descendants" - the people on our family trees who never married, or if they did, had no children?  They may be identified with a name, birth date, and death date on a family group sheet, but like Rodney Dangerfield used to say, they otherwise seem to "get no respect."  But they were real people, with real lives, real joys, and real sorrows, and they deserve to have their story told.

It isn't unusual for me to find myself piecing together the life of a distant cousin, aunt, or uncle only to have it finally click in my brain:  that person left no descendants.  Who will remember them and tell their story?  Perhaps I'm subconsciously drawn to them because some day, I will join their ranks.

One such distant shirttail relative of mine was Sarah Ann Harrison. While at least ten public trees at Ancestry name Sarah's father, Henry Brooks Harrison, only six record her name.  Of those, only one person (who has two at least partially duplicate trees) has attached any census records, and he identified just three of the six censuses on which she should appear.  One tree names her husband as John Sellers, and none include a source citation for her marriage to Hiram Sellers.  No single Ancestry public tree included her complete date and place of birth, the date and place of her marriage, the name of her husband, and the dates and places of her death and burial, even though most of the information is readily available online.^[1]

Although this level of incompleteness is not unusual for many online family trees, it may be especially common for "end of the line" people like Sarah.  So, to set the record straight, Sarah Ann Harrison, the only child of Henry B. Harrison and his first wife Euseba Evans, was born probably on 10 Oct 1850 in Greene Co., Tennessee.^[2]  Her parents had married nine months earlier on 19 Jan 1850 in Greene County.^[3]  Sarah married at the age of 35, on 1 Nov 1885 in Harrison Co., Missouri, the widower Hiram C. Sellers.^[4]  She died on 29 Jun 1921 in Ridgeway, Harrison Co., Missouri and was buried the next day in the Ridgeway Cemetery.^[5]

I can't tell Sarah's full story without research in records not available online, but I can easily develop a basic timeline that tells me where geographically to look.  If you have access to Ancestry.com, you can see the rest of that outline here.^[6]  If you don't, here is what it more or less looks like (you can read this chart, at least on my set-up, by clicking on the image, then right click, View Image, then enlarge):

Unfortunately, when a public tree profile is printed, the links to websites outside Ancestry, like Sarah's burial information at FindAGrave and the Harrison County, Missouri USGenWeb page, are not included.

From the online databases and images that formed the basis of this outline, the bits and pieces of a story for Sarah begin to emerge.  As is often the case, there is conflicting evidence to be resolved, such as whether she was born in 1849 or 1850.  I will demonstrate how to begin to tell a more complete story for Sarah and resolve the conflicts in a subsequent post.

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[1] Data based upon a search completed 31 Dec 2011 using the Recent Member Connect and Family Tree Hints feature at Ancestry.com.

[2] "Missouri Death Certificates," digital images, Missouri State Archives, Missouri Digital Heritage (http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/ : accessed 31 December 2011), death certificate 14635 (1921), Sarah A. Sellers.

[3] "Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002," database and images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 December 2011), for Henry B Harrison and Eusebia Evens (1850); citing Tennessee State Library and Archives microfilm, not further identified; from unspecified Greene Co. marriage register, p. 332, marriage 1759.

[4] Harrison Co. Genealogical Society, Harrison County, Missouri Marriage Records (1881-1899) (Bethany, Missouri: n.p., 1988), p. 49; citing Book 1, p. 416.

[5] "Missouri Death Certificates," death certificate 14635 (1921), Sarah A. Sellers.  Also, Phil Stewart, cemetery surveyor, "Henry or Ridgeway Cemetery, Harrison County, MO," database, Harrison County, MO Cemeteries (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~moharris/hccem.html : accessed 31 December 2011), for Sarah A. Sellers and FindAGrave.com (www.findagrave.com : accessed 31 December 2011), Find A Grave Memorial# 21747604 for Sarah A. Sellers.

[6] Connie Sheets, "Milligan-McCollum Families of Greene Co. TN and Harrison Co. MO," database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 Dec 2011), for Sarah Ann Harrison.

Did Thomas McCollum (1751-1806) Have a Middle Name?

Probably not.

More than 80 trees on Ancestry.com record Thomas McCollum's name as "Thomas I. McCollum."  Yet I've never seen him referred to as anything other than Thomas McCollum in original records, or in family records dating from 1915, 1953, and 1984.

Did someone dig up a new clue? I wonder in what document, since no sources are cited that I haven't seen?

I believe I have discovered the probable source:  in late 2008, someone first attached a page from "Tennessee Soldiers in the Revolution" to his Ancestry tree. That tree displays as "Thomas - I. McCOLLUM."

 "Tennessee Soldiers in the Revolution" is an index; the entry is McCOLLUM, THOMAS, I-13-2. The I refers to a volume number.

Corroborating evidence supporting my theory that more than 200 years after his death Thomas McCollum gained a middle initial that is a volume number can be found at RootsWeb WorldConnect and the IGI, where only a few of the 25 or so entries include the I. as a middle initial.  While I haven't reviewed all the entries, the ones I've checked that don't include an initial pre-date late 2008.

Can anyone provide a copy of or source citation to an original record that lists his name as Thomas I. McCollum?  What is the evidence supporting the notion that the Thomas McCollum listed in "Tennessee Soldiers in the Revolution" is the same Thomas McCollum who died in Greene Co., Tennessee in 1806?

The Trouble with Thomas

One of the reasons I complete so few "reasonably exhaustive searches" is because every time I think I'll be able to concentrate on just one ancestor, another turns up to distract me!  Usually, he (or she) arrives in the form of a distant cousin who contacts me out of the blue.  But in the case of Thomas McCollum and his wife Mary Veneman (Van Eman), it's all my fault. 

Yesterday, I just happened to check my Member Connect list at Ancestry, and saw that a cousin from my Jones line had saved a census record for Lucinda McCollum to his family tree.  What the heck?  The McCollums are on my mother's side, and have no connection to my father's Jones family.  Intrigued, I poked around on his public family tree, sent off an e-mail, and discovered he is also my cousin through the Van Eman line.  He is an experienced researcher, so it was a fun discovery.  

Of course, he wants access to my family tree. Which, well, doesn't exist in online form.  While I have a private tree at Ancestry, it is small, doesn't include any of the surnames we share, and is there only for the purpose of experimenting with Ancestry features.  (The little green leaf actually is pretty cool, as long as you use it mostly for Historical Records Hints not Family Tree Hints).

I've struggled for a long time trying to figure out the best way to "publish" my discoveries so  they will be available to future generations.  I still don't know the answer, but I spent all day yesterday creating a new family tree on Ancestry by uploading my Legacy database for 4 generations of descendants of Thomas and Mary McCollum, attaching census and other Ancestry records to it, and linking it to other online sources like Find-A-Grave.  I think it is a mess, and quite incomplete, but already it is probably more well-documented than most of the dreck one finds there.

Which brings me, finally, to the title of this post.  Poor Thomas McCollum.  He never gets the attention he deserves.  I've had a tendency to think of this family as "already done," but that clearly is not so.  Every few years, he arises from his 200 year old grave and reminds me he's there, just waiting for some one to correct his record.

What needs to be corrected?  For starters:

• Deeds in Greene Co., Tennessee prove he had only 8 children who survived him.   Most online trees list 10 or more.

•  I've never seen anything stating his middle initial is "I."  Where did that come from?

•  I've never seen any evidence, except family tradition, that his father was James McCollum, let alone that his mother was Elizabeth Parker.  

• People have joined the DAR claiming he served from Cumberland Co., PA.  Others claim he was paid for service from North Carolina.  There was a Thomas McColm (sic) in the 1790 census in Cumberland Co., PA, but some suggest our Thomas may have been in Greene Co., Tennessee (previously Washington Co., NC) by that date.  How do we know it was our Thomas who served from Cumberland Co., PA and not some other Thomas?

•  If he was from Cumberland Co., PA, how and when did he meet his wife?  It doesn't take much sleuthing to discover the most likely possibility:  Maryland, where her father, Nicholas Van Eman, lived before moving to Yohogania Co., VA (which later became Washington Co., PA) .  One only has to check the 1850 census for his daughters who lived until 1850 to discover that all three (enumerated in three different counties of Tennessee) were reported to have been born in Maryland between the years 1774 and 1789. 

 I wrote in more detail about some of these issues back in 2006 on the McCollum Mailing List.  Perhaps it's time I start working on this project in earnest.   I hereby declare publicly that Thomas McCollum is my primary target for the rest of 2011!