[CARR] A puzzle - can you help me? Primary people involved are all deceased
by Susan Hildinger Hoerner
Transcription of document typed by my Grandmother, Effie Collins Hildinger.
This is a 1947 interview between Effie M. Collins Hildinger and her aunt,
Minnie Duncan Collins in Burbank, CA
My great great grandparents (paternal) came to Missouri on the first train
to the continent [?]. Great great grandfather died of cholera on the train.
They stopped the train long enough to bury him along the track. They had
two boys; one was my great grandfather. Dont know what happened to his
brother. (Dont know where they came from!)
My great grandfather, William Jackson Collins was born in Tennessee [1].
After the Civil War, he left Tennessee and went to Missouri where he married
Nancy Adelaide Duncan. She was of Scotch descent. Her parents crossed the
plains to Missouri when she was 14 years of age; she rode horseback part of
the way; took them 3 months. (I dont know where they started.) Her parents
were wealthy; Her father and his brother owned a distillery. Her father was
born in Alabama and her mother was born in Tennessee. [2] To get back to
William and Nancy they left Missouri and went to Oregon and from Oregon to
California. Their children were two boys and one girl; Lee, Albert and
Minnie. Albert was born in Gilroy, California. He was the father of Effie
M. Collins Hildinger.
[1] abt 1833 shh and in Indiana per 1860 MO, 1870 CA Censuses shh
[2] Nancy Adeline Duncan was born in Platte Co., MO her father, born in SC
was a farmer so was his father, b NC - I wonder if this is gg grandmother
Collins she is talking about? - shh
>From Duncan Surname Association:
1850 Platte Co, MO Census: Xury Duncan, 45 SC m. Mary 33, TN with John P.
7, Adaline 11, Elizh (f) 3 MO.
Genealogical Material in Oregon Donation Land Claims
by Gen. Forum of Portland, OR (FHL Book 979.5 R2g; SLC 8/25/1982)
Vol. III (MAD Has copies of pages)
#1343 DUNCAN, Hury O. (sic), Lane Co.; b. 1806 Greenville Dist., S.C.; Arr.
Ore. 30 Aug. 1852; settled claim 15 Apr. 1853; m. Polly Blevans 26 Dec.
1833, Pulaski Co. MO. Sent fee to L.O. for his cert 9 Apr. 1869 & requested
cert be mailed to Joel Ware. Aff. Jefferson J. Blevans, Caleb Woodward.
Pat del 13 July 1874.
1860 Lane Co. OR Census
(Sacramento FHC 6/4/1998 & 1/8/1999, 1st filming; rechecked CA State
Library, Sutro branch, 1/21/1999)
Pg.260, #190-190 X.O. DUNKEN (m) 53 SC farmer $2600-$1000 Eugene City
Prct
Polly 48 TN housewife
John W. 23, Mary 18 MO
Adaline COLLINS 21 MO
Wm. 27 IN farmer $0-$650
X.O. (m) 1 OR
1870 CA Santa Clara Co, Gilroy Census shows Wm J Collins, per Ancestry.coms
CA Census database.
My Questions are: Can any of you support the idea of this being
three-generation story, not two Minnies father and grandfather both being
Wm J Collins?
[?] Does anyone have a clue which train she is talking about?
Some of the first wagon trains across the continent went west from
Independence, MO around 1850. I think I remember from my history lessons
that the first wagon train went through the Cumberland Gap about 1795.
Railroad was much later, and Wm J was in Oregon in 1852 or 1853.
To cross the plains to Missouri would mean what in the context of the Gap
crossing? shh
Does anyone have a MO or TN or IN, or ? Collins, Wm J age 17, son of ? or Wm
J on a 1850 Census?