Hi Patricia,
Don't you think it is kind of strange that they would put her maiden name on
her headstone? Do your records have a daughter named Rebecca among the five
children?
George
-----Original Message-----
From: Patricia Caster [mailto:maverik@cwnet.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2000 9:08 PM
To: CASTOR-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: [CASTOR] Elizabeth Custer in Central Indiana
Hi George,
I did a search on the CAOA Archives and found that Elizabeth Custer is a
descendant of Paulus Kusters.
Her lineage is:
Paulus Kusters 1644-1708
Arnold Kuster 1669-1739
Conrad Custer 1695-1772
Arnold Custer 1718-1759
Elizabeth Custer 1788-1885
She married first to Miller then second to Custard first
names unknown. We show 5 children.
Patricia
George Davis wrote:
Well, I went down to the Fowler-Mundy cemetery anticipating that I'd
figure
out who this Elizabeth Custer was. She died in 1885 at the age of 97
as I
said previously. Her headstone reads: "Grandma at Rest - Sacred to the
Memory of - Elizabeth Custer - Died March 7, 1885 in the 97th Year of her
age." Her side of the stone faces more or less east. On the south side
of
the stone it reads: "Our Baby - Samuel W. - son of Hezekiah and
Rebecca
Hinkson - Born Nov. 6, 1850. Died May 18, 1851, aged 6 Mos. and 12 Dy's".
>From that, I figured that Elizabeth Custer was probably Rebecca's mother.
I then went to the Indiana State Library on the way home. The 1860 Census
for Marion County IN (Perry township) has Hezekiah Hinkson, age 32,
farmer;
"Rebeca" Hinkson, age 32; Francis, female, age 7;
Catharine, female, age
3;
Camefort, female, age 1; and a Wm. Nash (or Nashe?), male, age 19
listed
as
a farm laborer. All the Hinksons are listed as being born in
Indiana.
Rebecca's mother would therefore have to have been in Indiana in 1828. So
far I have not found Elizabeth Custer of the right age in Indiana. She
does
show up in the Marion County Indiana, Perry Township census of 1870,
where
it lists her as age 78, born in Virginia. I then looked for marriage
records for Hezekiah Hinkson and a Rebecca Custer. What I found was
Hezekiah Hinkson marrying a Rebecca Anne Woodfill in Marion County, IN on
Jan 22, 1850, which seems to fit well with Samuel's date of birth,
assuming
he was their first child. So, now I don't know if Rebecca was
previously
married, and was Rebecca Custer or if Elizabeth Custer was previously
married to a Woodfill.
In the 1870 census, Elizabeth Custer shows up with a female named Jones,
whose first name I am unable to read(starts with an M though) who is
listed
as 50 years old, housekeeper. She has a 27 year old son Hezekiah and
a 24
year old son named John M. Jones. In the same dwelling and family are
what
I read as Chas. Smith and Susan Smith, aged 28 and 19, another 10
year old
female whose name I can not read, but looks like Emma Tacey, and Elizabeth
Custer, aged 78. The males are all listed as farm hands, and the women
are
listed as either housekeeper or "one of family"(Elizabeth
and "Emma").
I can't remember if I looked in an index of the 1870 census for the
Hinksons
or not. I expected to find them with Elizabeth and when I didn't
I was
pretty surprized. The library was fixing to close, and I didn't get a
chance to think that I should go back to the indexes. I also got
distracted
looking for Kisters in the out of state indexes. Next time I guess.
Hey,
if it was easy, it wouldn't be so much fun, would it?
Most of the other graves around seem to be Fowler's and Mundy's. The
cemetery is undergoing restoration, and many of the headstones are damaged
or missing. Hopefully we'll know more in the future. Somewhere there is
supposed to be a survey of this cemetery done around 1940. I'll try to
find
a copy.
I did take a few photo's, both digital and film, if anyone connects to
this
Elizabeth.
Later,
George