George
What a guy! Thank you for following up on this mystery. Maybe we can find
her birth info in VA. No, I'm not asking you to take off for VA! Thanks
again for adding a little more spin to the mystery of Elizabeth.
Jo
you 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