A Tale of Two Grandpas, Part One
Folks, I have been on a wild and crazy ride through the countrysides of Tennessee, Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas these past few months. I have “visited” Shiloh, Vicksburg, and the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville. I’ve been to Amish country, hung around the western-most county of Illinois with a quick foray into Missouri, and I’ve all but packed my things and moved into early twentieth century Great Bend, Kansas.
What sparked this adventure was the discovery of the obituary of a great-great-grandfather who claimed to have joined Quantrill’s Band after serving in the Confederate Army! As I researched this ancestor, it struck me that my maternal grandmother, Alice Mae Thomason, had grandfathers who were on opposing sides during the Civil War, and I couldn’t help but think, what were family get-togethers like? Did Union Grandpa good-naturedly needle Confederate Grandpa about sitting on the southern side of the table? Or, did the families avoid each other? Did it have any effect on Alice Mae’s parents and their marriage, which ended in divorce?
One thing’s for sure, Alice Mae’s Union-side grandfather, my great-great-grandfather, James Knox Polk Sloniger (I call him “JKP”), was very proud of his service in the Civil War. JKP was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic (“GAR”), serving as an officer for several years at local posts, including Post Commander of Great’s Bend’s post (#52, “Pap Thomas,” named after Union General George Henry Thomas).
For those who aren’t familiar with this organization, the GAR was formed after the Civil War, its membership limited to honorably discharged Union veterans. Its original purpose was to offer a place of camaraderie and support to veterans of the “War of the Rebellion,” but it soon became a powerful political body and, among other things, was responsible for establishing Memorial Day, which began as “Decoration Day,” set for every May 30th to remember fallen soldiers. Maybe you’d like to read about it, as presented by JKP himself:
What sparked this adventure was the discovery of the obituary of a great-great-grandfather who claimed to have joined Quantrill’s Band after serving in the Confederate Army! As I researched this ancestor, it struck me that my maternal grandmother, Alice Mae Thomason, had grandfathers who were on opposing sides during the Civil War, and I couldn’t help but think, what were family get-togethers like? Did Union Grandpa good-naturedly needle Confederate Grandpa about sitting on the southern side of the table? Or, did the families avoid each other? Did it have any effect on Alice Mae’s parents and their marriage, which ended in divorce?
One thing’s for sure, Alice Mae’s Union-side grandfather, my great-great-grandfather, James Knox Polk Sloniger (I call him “JKP”), was very proud of his service in the Civil War. JKP was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic (“GAR”), serving as an officer for several years at local posts, including Post Commander of Great’s Bend’s post (#52, “Pap Thomas,” named after Union General George Henry Thomas).
For those who aren’t familiar with this organization, the GAR was formed after the Civil War, its membership limited to honorably discharged Union veterans. Its original purpose was to offer a place of camaraderie and support to veterans of the “War of the Rebellion,” but it soon became a powerful political body and, among other things, was responsible for establishing Memorial Day, which began as “Decoration Day,” set for every May 30th to remember fallen soldiers. Maybe you’d like to read about it, as presented by JKP himself:
From The Great Bend Weekly Tribune (Great Bend, Kansas)
Friday, May 22, 1896
There are two parts to this blog post, the first one dedicated to JKP, Union Grandpa. Part two will remember Confederate Grandpa, William Cass Thomason (who I call “WC”).
Union Grandpa's Beginnings
James Knox Polk Sloniger was born May 17, 1844, in picturesque Holmes County, Ohio, currently home to one of the largest Amish communities in the world. As I scrolled through online photos of the luscious green pastures, crisp white fences, and nostalgic red barns of this gorgeous countryside, I wondered how JKP ended up in Great Bend, Kansas, of all places (no offense to Great Bend)!
A look at the first census record on which JKP appears, at age five, spilled a bunch of puzzle pieces onto my table, and I’ve been working ever since to put them together.
Year: 1850; Census Place: Prairie, Holmes, Ohio; Roll: M432_696; Page: 143B; Image: 127
Note that James Sloniger is the only one with the Sloniger surname in this household, which means that he wasn’t living with his parents. So, how did JKP fit into this household, and who were his parents?
One reason I love genealogy is that I get to play detective, which I proceeded to do, but I also love the collaborative aspect of it. I reached out to people with Parkinson and Mary Grant, Elizabeth Mattock (also known as Mattocks and Maddox; I use the Mattocks spelling), and John Flack in their family trees. These families were obviously connected.
As a result of this collaboration, I learned that Mary Grant was a Mattocks, Elizabeth was her mother, and Joseph was likely Mary’s older brother. If John Flack is the same as John Van Buren Flack, Jr. (1840-1906), the founder of Excelsior Springs, Missouri, then his mother was also a Mattocks, who died in 1849, leaving him in the care of a childless aunt and uncle. Skipping ahead a bit, I’ll mention that JKP’s grandmother was also a Mattocks, and that a paternal uncle of JKP married Evaline Flack, a paternal aunt of John Van Buren Flack, Jr. Like I said, the families were connected!
This 1850 census record remains a bit of a mystery for me, because I’m still not sure how the Mattocks family members of this household relate to JKP’s Mattocks grandmother, but here’s what I do know of JKP and his family after much digging.
JKP’s grandfather (my 4th great-grandfather), Christopher Sloniger, emigrated from Germany (where he was born circa 1770). It was theorized in “A History of and Genealogy of the Slonaker Descendants in America, since Early 1700” (written by James Rollin Slonaker and published in 1941) that Christopher was related to a family of Lutheran immigrants who settled in Ohio in the late eighteenth century. Christopher married Mary Mattocks (1788-1860), and the couple had six known children: John (dates unknown); Mary (1809-1864); Joel (1818-1892); Oliver (1821-1905); Joshua (1824-1900); and Jacob (1833-1917) (some people include a daughter named Margaret (1835-1899), but so far I have found nothing to prove that she was Christopher and Mary’s). Notice the gaps in years between some of the births, which are likely due to miscarriages/infant mortality, sadly. Of the children, all but the youngest list Pennsylvania as their place of birth, so I believe Christopher settled first in Pennsylvania, then Ohio. The family was in Holmes County in the 1830 federal census. (See 1830; Census Place: Washington, Holmes, Ohio; Series: M19; Roll: 133; Page: 316; Family History Library Film: 0337944.)
According to a biography of a grandson of Christopher and Mary Sloniger (see here for John A. Bever), the couple moved in 1849 to Adams County, Illinois. I have found civil court records in Holmes County indicating that Christopher and Mary may have been in some financial difficulties, leading me to think that Illinois was a new start for them. Children Mary, Joel, and Jacob and their families appear to have accompanied their parents on this journey, followed later by Joshua and his family.
Joshua interests me most because on JKP’s death certificate, he is named as JKP’s father. In 1850, Joshua is in Prairie (Holmes County), Ohio, married to Elizabeth Garwood, with a three-year-old son, Samuel. Why would JKP be in a different household in Holmes County than his father? No mother is named on JKP’s death certificate, so I believe JKP was born to someone other than Elizabeth Garwood. Perhaps JKP was the result of an indiscretion and/or his mother died during or shortly after his birth. Whatever the case, JKP was raised by Parkinson (also known as Parkeson) and Mary Grant, a childless couple. In the next federal census (1860), JKP is listed in their household in Honey Creek (Adams County), Illinois.
Year: 1860; Census Place: Honey Creek, Adams, Illinois; Roll: M653_155; Page: 1046; Family History Library Film: 803155
Union Grandpa Goes to War
In 1862, JKP traveled to Edina, Missouri, to enlist in the Union Army. When I first accessed JKP’s Civil War service records, I wondered why he was part of the 27th Missouri Infantry and not an Illinois unit. Then, I looked at a map. Edina is fewer than 70 miles from Honey Creek. It makes sense that he would join the first nearby regiment to be organized after his 18th birthday.JKP’s regiment was ordered to Rolla, Missouri, in January 1863. JKP was assigned “escort duty” to Springfield, Missouri, after which he followed his regiment to Vicksburg, Mississippi. The 27th Missouri Infantry had joined the Army of the Tennessee and would be present for the assault on Vicksburg, the advance on Jackson, and the battle at Big Black before moving back towards Memphis.
Side note: a few months ago, I took a road trip with my niece, Stephanie, and we got to catch up. She told me about her recent visit to the Vicksburg National Military Park. She was particularly moved by the monuments commemorating the thousands of men who had traveled from distant states like Illinois to, as she put it, “answer the call of their President (remembering Lincoln was from Illinois), to potentially give their lives” for the Union cause. Knowing that my great-great-grandfather was among the men who made that journey and fought for that cause, I would love to make a trip to this park to pay my respects. During the same road trip with Stephanie, we met cousins from Waterproof, Louisiana, not too far down the road from Vicksburg. I can’t wait to take them up on their offer to show us the antebellum homes nearby, too. I hope Stephanie’s up for a Louisiana/Mississippi road trip soon!
Back to JKP. He was taken sick at Big Black, and before being able to fully recover, he was on the move again, becoming even more ill in late October, until he was finally ordered by a surgeon to the General Hospital in Nashville in December of 1863, having been “much exposed during the march on Jackson, MS” (see record for Slonegar, James K. P., U.S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865). JKP was diagnosed with everything from chronic diarrhea and lumbar myalgia (lower back pain) to acute bronchitis and tuberculosis. He would remain in the hospital until June of 1864, with a transfer to the General Hospital in Albany, Indiana, in April. He was discharged in Indianapolis on July 11, 1865.
JKP listed his address in hospital records as the Mendon Post Office, Adams County, Illinois, with his nearest relative being P.M. (Parkeson) Grant.
Union Grandpa's Next Moves
Why would JKP go to Marshall County? Well, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Adams County, for one, but also, since at least 1860, it’s where his uncle, Oliver Sloniger, lived. I bet he met Mary during a visit to his uncle, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In February 1873, JKP and Mary were married in the newly established town of Varna, Illinois.
JKP and Mary had 11 children, nine surviving past infancy: William Marcus (1873-1911); George Burton (1879-1966); Raymond Jay (1884-1920); Bessie May (1886-1941); Grace (1889-1969); Daisy Ethel (1891-1973); Rossa (1893-1962); Charles Theodore (1896-1914); and James Brittain (1898-1968).
Between the births of Raymond and Bessie (my great-grandmother), the family moved from Livingston County, Illinois, to Kendall, Kansas. By 1892, JKP and family had made the move to Great Bend, Kansas, the place they would finally call home.
Postcard from my collection
In Great Bend, JKP established his stone masonry business and ran for Street Commissioner. Here, too, JKP became a member of the Owl Lodge, continued his activities in the GAR, and was a “good citizen and friend” (from his obituary, Sloniger, The Great Bend Weekly Tribune). As examples, JKP once threw a party with about 40 neighbors in attendance for his friend, Tobias McGill (see Party for T. McGill, Great Bend Tribune), and he tended to a sick neighbor (see Sick neighbor, Great Bend Tribune). Visits from family in Illinois occurred, including a visit from his uncle, Jacob Sloniger, who was quite a colorful character as shown by this article (see Visit from Jacob Sloniger, 1912). JKP and Mary also went back themselves several times to see family.
In December of 1900, JKP returned to Illinois for his father’s funeral (see Return from father's funeral, The Great Bend Weekly Tribune). Joshua Sloniger had passed away on November 27th.
To support the idea that Joshua Sloniger was JKP's father, I have JKP's death certificate, a newspaper article's reference to JKP as Jacob Sloniger's nephew, and another newspaper article's mention of JKP's trip to Illinois for Joshua's funeral. Even if Joshua Sloniger did not raise him, JKP obviously had a personal relationship with the Sloniger family in Illinois.
In December of 1900, JKP returned to Illinois for his father’s funeral (see Return from father's funeral, The Great Bend Weekly Tribune). Joshua Sloniger had passed away on November 27th.
The "Question" of Union Grandpa's Identity
To support the idea that Joshua Sloniger was JKP's father, I have JKP's death certificate, a newspaper article's reference to JKP as Jacob Sloniger's nephew, and another newspaper article's mention of JKP's trip to Illinois for Joshua's funeral. Even if Joshua Sloniger did not raise him, JKP obviously had a personal relationship with the Sloniger family in Illinois.
Also, I’m just going to put it out there, AncestryDNA test results link my mom, my sister, my mom’s maternal first cousin, and me to Christopher Sloniger and Mary Mattocks. I believe JKP knew who his father was. However, just to keep things straight, here's more about Joshua.
Joshua’s young son, Samuel, died in 1855. His wife, Elizabeth, had also died by 1865. Joshua promptly remarried to a widow with children named Georgiana (Robinson) Anderson. By this point, Joshua was living in Adams County, Illinois. He had no biological children with Georgiana, and a newspaper article I discovered about a debt owed by his estate in 1907 pointed out that he had died without issue (see Foreclosure suit, 1907).
Also living in Adams County, Illinois, were Joshua’s brothers, Joel and Jacob, as I mentioned before. However, Joel Sloniger had done something completely unselfish and honorable prior to 1850, something that complicated things a bit for me and other Sloniger genealogists: he had adopted a little orphan boy born in Ohio in 1844 and named him James Knox Polk Sloniger. Yep, there were two JKPs.
Lots of times in genealogical research, you come across someone in your tree who shares not only the same name, but also the same year and place of birth as someone else’s ancestor. It gets super easy to confuse the two. I’ve run into it with James Keener, born in Tennessee in 1817. My James Keener was a brick mason by trade who moved to Georgia, raised his family, and then late in life moved with his adult son and family to Yell County, Arkansas. There is another James Keener who was also born in Tennessee in 1817, but this James Keener was a physician who settled in Indiana. Not the same dude at all, but you’d be surprised how many people attach records and information for my James Keener to this Indiana physician in their family trees.
Since I knew my JKP had married Mary Alice Scarborough in 1873 and ended up in Kansas, I was suspicious of the records I found of this other JKP Sloniger, which found him always in Adams County, in Joel Sloniger’s household, and married first to Mary Wright in 1865, and then to Lillie Roberson in 1886. Even if my JKP had first married in 1865, my great-great-grandmother was still alive in 1886. Had he left her for another woman? It seemed the only explanation.
Fortunately, I located many newspaper articles and records that allowed me to track my JKP’s movements, and I discovered that there were two guys named James Knox Polk Sloniger, crazy as that might seem. There is even a probate case in Illinois Supreme Court which mentions the adoption of James K. P. Sloniger by Joel Sloniger (see Sloniger v. Sloniger, 1896).
I might be a tiny bit defensive about my position that there were two different James K. P. Slonigers because not only am I the only person I’ve seen to make a distinction between the two in the family tree, but I was also challenged (for lack of a better word) by someone who insisted that the two JKPs were one and the same person, and that Joel was the father. I offered the probate case as proof to counter this idea, but the person argued that JKP, after inheriting the 80-acre farm in Illinois from Joel (see Joel Sloniger, The Quincy Whig, 1892), made off with the proceeds and settled in Great Bend. Hmm.
Well, my JKP passed from this life in Great Bend on March 6, 1914. He had been suffering from stomach and kidney ailments, according to his obituary, although his death certificate recorded heart failure as his cause of death. Just two months prior to his passing, JKP and Mary had tragically lost their son, Charles, to Bright’s disease at the age of 17. Charles had gone blind as a child, but was musically inclined and played many instruments (see Charles Sloniger obituary). It wouldn’t surprise me if the trauma of losing a son contributed to JKP’s decline.
JKP is buried in Great Bend Cemetery. His wife, Mary, was reimbursed $50 for burial expenses by Barton County on account of JKP’s military service, according to county commission proceedings dated April 6, 1914. To compare, see this news item I found about the funeral of the other James K. P. Sloniger, who died in Illinois in 1919:
I might be a tiny bit defensive about my position that there were two different James K. P. Slonigers because not only am I the only person I’ve seen to make a distinction between the two in the family tree, but I was also challenged (for lack of a better word) by someone who insisted that the two JKPs were one and the same person, and that Joel was the father. I offered the probate case as proof to counter this idea, but the person argued that JKP, after inheriting the 80-acre farm in Illinois from Joel (see Joel Sloniger, The Quincy Whig, 1892), made off with the proceeds and settled in Great Bend. Hmm.
Well, my JKP passed from this life in Great Bend on March 6, 1914. He had been suffering from stomach and kidney ailments, according to his obituary, although his death certificate recorded heart failure as his cause of death. Just two months prior to his passing, JKP and Mary had tragically lost their son, Charles, to Bright’s disease at the age of 17. Charles had gone blind as a child, but was musically inclined and played many instruments (see Charles Sloniger obituary). It wouldn’t surprise me if the trauma of losing a son contributed to JKP’s decline.
JKP is buried in Great Bend Cemetery. His wife, Mary, was reimbursed $50 for burial expenses by Barton County on account of JKP’s military service, according to county commission proceedings dated April 6, 1914. To compare, see this news item I found about the funeral of the other James K. P. Sloniger, who died in Illinois in 1919:
From The Quincy Daily Herald, Thursday, December 11, 1919
Impressive! ($2,000 in 1919 is roughly equivalent to $29,000 today … for a casket!) Still, not my JKP, and that’s perfectly okay with me.
By the way, I often wonder what compelled two Sloniger brothers to name their sons after the United States president, James K. Polk. Polk was a Scotts-Irish Presbyterian born in North Carolina who moved to Tennessee, where he became politically active with the Democratic Party and, after a stint as governor, eventually secured the Presidential nomination of his party (by most accounts because he was in favor of annexing Texas). I don’t see what the Sloniger connection to him was, but obviously Joshua and Joel held Polk in high regard.
I’ll end with this: I searched every corner of the internet without success for a photo of my great-great-grandfather, since I possess no family photographs of him. Many times, military records offer physical descriptions, and sure enough, I found two. The first was from his hospital stay during the Civil War: 5’8”, fair complexion, gray eyes, brown hair. The second was from his admission briefly to the U.S. National Home for Disabled Veterans in Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1913: 5’11”, dark complexion, blue eyes, gray hair. I was thrilled by the first find, but a little perplexed with the second one. I guess JKP hit a growth spurt after the War and spent some time in the sun! I can't take either record at face value! (Ha ha ... see what I did there?)
Comments
Post a Comment