George W. Coleman
SUMMARY
2/22/1844 – 10/29/1926
GG Grandpa George Washington Coleman was born in February 22, 1844 in Pike County, Kentucky. He was the son of Daniel Coleman and Bethena Adkins Coleman, who are part of the line of Old Peter Coleman of Wolfpit, Pike County Kentucky.
His siblings (my Grandma Lee’s
great Aunts and Uncles on her mother’s side) were Henderson, David, William,
Julina, Louisa, Harrison, Susan.
GG Grandpa George W. Coleman married Frances
Powell when he was only 17 years old. They married on 15 Jul 1861, Pike Co.,
KY. The census in
1870 shows that Great Grandpa, George W. Coleman (26, b. KY, farmer) headed a
Pike County, KY household with Frances A. Coleman (27, b. KY), and their
children at the time: William J. Coleman (8, b. KY), James D. Coleman (5, b.
KY), Ellen Coleman (3, b. KY), and Miles A. Coleman (9/12, b. KY).
However,
ten years later, in the 1880 census, Frances A. Powell Coleman, 37, was listed
as a female farmer “farmeress” (head of a working farm). The census shows that she is married, that both
her parents were born in KY) and GG Grandpa Frances Powell headed the Pike
County, KY household with her son William Coleman (now 17), son James David
Coleman (15), both of whom are listed as working on the family farm. Also living with her is her daughter Ella
Coleman (13), son Miles Coleman (9) and daughter Mary Coleman (7). It may be that she had just given birth to
our great grandmother, Louisa Ann Coleman, as great grandma Louisa was born in
1879/1880, but if so, why is GG Grandma Louisa not listed with Frances on the 1880
census as she would have been a young baby and surely would have been residing
with her mother. On the other hand,
could Louisa have actually been the first child of GG Grandpa George W.
Coleman’s liaison and later marriage to Mary Ball Coleman? Might my grandmother Louisa be Mary Ball’s
child and not the child of Frances Powell?
It seems plausible as I can think of no reason that the baby would not
have been listed on the census in Frances Powell’s house in 1880 if she was,
indeed, the child of Frances. It is
possible that the census takers just failed to list my great grandmother but
that seems highly unlikely. It is, at present, still a conundrum.
As
has been mentioned, GG Grandma Louisa Coleman is not listed on the 1880 census
as living with Frances Powell, when she would have still been an infant and
surely with her mother, making it is plausible that our great grandmother is in
fact, the first child of GG Grandpa George W Coleman and Mary Ball Coleman who
he later married after he and Frances Powell Coleman divorced. I have found Louisa
Ann Coleman’s mother named as Frances Powell in some lists and as Mary Ball
Coleman in other lists. Honestly, with
only what I have found so far either might be true.
Also
noted in the 1880 census, the next two neighboring households of Frances Powell
were headed by one William Coleman (23) and one Harvey Coleman (26) (which may
or may not have been Francis and George’s children also). Her
former/current Husband George Coleman is apparently living
elsewhere in the community with a servant that he would later marry and with
whom he would raise another large family.
It is my belief based on my own research and that of fellow genealogist and blog commenter, Marsha Hylton Rice, that Mary Ball is Louisa's mother and my great, great grandmother. Whichever
is my true grandmother, we do know that Frances
A. Powell was born in Pike County, KY in 1843. She died in 1926 in Pike County,
KY. Francis is buried in the Mullins Family Cemetery with her daughter Mary
Coleman and granddaughter Lily. Her grave is marked only by a square stone with
her name scratched in it.
________________
Mary Ball Coleman was the
daughter of Alfred Ball – see Ball line which I will post in a separate blog post, for more on her genealogy).
At the time of his remarriage,
GG Grandpa George Coleman was about 38 years old. Between the two marriages, GG George had at
least 14 living children, and apparently several more.
GG Grandpa Coleman’s second wife
passed before he did, as Mary Ball Coleman is listed as his wife in both the
1900 and 1910 census, but records show that she passed away in 1912, which
means some of her children were still quite young, being no more than 9, 6, and
3, at the time of her passing according to her death certificate which I have
included at the end of this passage.
This would mean that my great
grandmother, Louisa Coleman, was around 23 years old when Mary passed, and
although Louisa may have already been married at that time (I will research to
ascertain if this is true) she appears to have still been living in her
father’s house just two years prior to Mary’s death and may have still been
there at the time of and after Mary’s passing. This is another reason I feel
that Mary Ball Coleman may have been her actual mother, because even at age 21,
Louisa was living with her dad and Mary and not with Frances Powell.
Although, if it be true that
Mary Ball and not Francis was Grandma Louisa’s mother, then according to the
census records, Mary Ball may would have only been 17 when Grandma Louisa was
born. However, at the time, this would
not have been all that unusual. However, the census of 1860 shows a Mary Ball,
age 1, so I have listed Mary’s alternative birthdate as 1859. This would have made her age 44 when she
passed and made her 21 when GG Grandma Louisa Coleman was born.
The 1860 census that shows Mary
Ball as a baby in Russell Virginia, post office being Rosedale, showed the
following in the household #724:
Alford Ball 36
(born circa 1824)
Anna Ball 34
James Ball 11
Wilson Ball 8
Catharine Ball 6
Ansley Ball 4
Mary Ball 1
Some records only show Mary as
having had six (6) children but whether that is accurate or due to omissions is
unknown to me at present.
Additionally, if I find that GG
Grandpa Coleman married a third time, perhaps to someone who helped raise his
youngest children (which I suspect he may have done), I will include
information on that marriage as a postscript to this document).
Grandpa Coleman was apparently a
consistent worker with the census never showing him as out of work and his
having first rented a farm in Pike County, KY, and then purchased a farm in
Lincoln County, KY.
Regardless of whether Mary or Frances is our grandmother, one thing is certain, Louisa Ann Coleman, who grew up teaching school and serve as a midwife and who married Solomon King Smith, was my great grandmother. I have in my possession and will try to find and include in an edit of this post, at a later date, a Photograph of Great Grandma Louisa Coleman with her husband, Solomon King Smith of the Smiths from Dusemond, Germany and the O’Dochartaigh family of Donegal, Ireland. Louisa Ann’s and Solomon’s oldest child, a daughter named Mary Ethel Smith, who later married Charles Compton Lee, was my mother’s mother and the only grandmother I ever knew personally.
Louisa’s father, Grandpa George died on October 29, also in the year 1926 (the same year that his first wife, Francis Powell passed), in Kings Mountain, Lincoln County, Kentucky, at the age of 82, and is buried in Kings Mountain, Kentucky. Mom would never have met her great grandfather George Coleman, as died the same year she was born, about six months after her birth. I have included with this blog, a copy of both George W. Coleman's and Mary Ball Coleman's death certificate.
