One of George , Jr., and Nancy Silver’s 10 children was
George Silver III, born on 18 Jul 1787 in Georgetown ,
Frederick , Maryland North
Carolina . They had 11 children, three of whom died
before 1822.
In George III’s household in the 1810 Census there is an
older couple. Because his father George Jr is living nearby this older couple
may be Martha’s parents. There were also two slaves in their household. When
the War of 1812 came about, George enlisted in the North Carolina Militia at Hickory , North
Carolina Indiana
for about 20 years, in Illinois for about 7
years and about 10 years in Missouri .
(Information gathered by Karyl Hubbard and posted at the Silver Genealogy
Website)
After the war George, Martha, moved to Lawrence
County in Indiana with
his in-laws, the Moores
“ Many Quakers from North Carolina
were Orange County
[Indiana ]
Pioneers. In 1809 Jonathan Lindley visited Indiana Territory North
Carolina , and arrived in Indiana Territory
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/in/county/orange/quaker.htm
George was not a Quaker. His grandfather was a Lutheran and
his father had been christened in the Lutheran church in Trappe , Pennsylvania Moores
had arrived in America
as “dissenters.” The term refers to anyone who disagreed with the Church of
England or the government of the British Isles .
Later many of the dissenters became Quakers. Martha may have been a
Quaker—until she married George. Her meeting would then have declared her “Out
of Unity” for marrying a non-Quaker.
There were several groups of Quakers that moved to Indiana during this time
One of the wagon trains had 30-40 wagons. According the US Census George and
Martha have moved by 1820 and the Moores
by 1830. About 10 Moore
households are there in 1830.
Following is a digest of a diary regarding travel from North Carolina to Indiana .
The Silvers experience would have been very similar.
“ With all of their possessions loaded into their
tarpaulin-covered farm wagons pulled by oxen or horses, the trip took the Coxes
and their large group about a month. The travelers covered between 10 and 20
miles each day, stopping near settlements or with acquaintances for the night.
The route through the Blue Ridge Mountains and over the Cumberland Gap was the
most frequented trail to Louisville , where
travelers crossed the Ohio River into southern Indiana
or boarded rafts or flatboats bound for Illinois
and the west. Although the trip was rigorous travelers paused for sight-seeing
at well-known features such as caves or iron furnaces. Time also was spent in
small settlements having horses shod and wagon wheels fixed. Each traveler had
to have cash available, for tolls were charged for some roads, turnpikes,
bridges and ferries. A typical charge on the Cumberland Turnpike was $2.87. At Louisville the cost was $2 for each wagon to cross the Ohio River and it took one group two hours. Total cost
for one trip from North Carolina to southern Indiana was $81
including ferriage, bridge tolls, turnpike fees, etc.
A Cox Family History__, c1989, p61; In the __Illiana
Genealogist,__ vol.12, no. 4, (Fall 1976) p. 121- 124 in an article from a
diary entitled "Journey from N. Carolina to Indiana in 34 days in the Year
1815." Judy W
Eleven families of freed slaves traveled under the Quakers’
protection in the first wagon train to this new territory where slavery was
forbidden. More former slaves joined them later. Were the two slaves in George
III’s household in 1810 in North Carolina were
among the 96 freed slaves counted in 1820 in Indiana ? It is not unreasonable to believe
they were.
“These free men were deeded 200 acres of land in the heart
of a dense forest [near the first building the Quakers built—their Meeting
House]. Word of mouth soon spread the news, and this land became part of the
"underground railroad" for runaway slaves.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/docs/history/lick_creek.htm
Amy [Thompson] Moore [wife of Joshua Moore] mentioned in the
account below may have been a relative of Martha Moore, George’s wife.
“A number of widely known women preachers among the Quakers
of early days came from this congregation. Among them was Amy Moore, who was
known throughout southern Indiana
for her missionary zeal. Another woman, praised for her evangelistic work in
early times, was Eleanor Chambers, who grew up in this church and began her
work here.“
HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY
CHAPTER
http://www.us-data.org/in/orange/history/his1884chapter3.txt
The group which researches the Silver Genealogy has found
the following letter from George III to his father and mother. Some parts of
the letter are illegible but George reveals much about his life in Indiana . Since George or
Martha probably did not read and write someone else wrote the letter for them.
============================================================
Dear Father and Mother,
I embrace the oppurtunity of writing you that we are all in
a reasonable state of health at the present, thanks be rendered to Omnipotence
for the same. Hoping when these lines come to hand will find you and yours
enjoying the like health. This may inform you that through the mercie of the
Lord we have embraced religion for about three years. We are both members of
_______Baptist Society. We have had seven children and have burried three of
them. My oldest child I have living has had fits for about three years which we
call William. The other names as followeth Nancy, Edward, George are the
children we have living. The children we lost one died with choking ______, one
with a sore mouth, _____other _____to death.
This may inform you that I have never regretted moving from
that country to this country for I have lived plintiful. I have farmed ______
for provision. I have lived on land of my own for about six years. I expect to
rase 700 bushels of corn for this year. Corn is selling now for 50 cents ______
barrel.... This neighbor has ____ the present crop.
This may inform you that I have sold my place I now live on,
and I am going to move to my father-in-laws to take care of the old people
while they live. That is by their request. I should be very happy to see you
all come to see me and take a good look at this country, for I think it is a
far better country for a man to make a living in than that country is, for we
can rase our grain – our pork much easier here than you can there.
We can make our own sugar very handy if we try, and we can
buy plenty of our country-made sugar at six or seven per pound. We can buy
coffy at 25 cents per pound. This is a very fine country for sault. We can buy
plenty for one dollar a bushel. Pork is worth from $1.50 to _____dollars per
hundred. We can buy cotten here at sixteen cents per pound.
This is a very fine country to raise sheep. (They) yeald a
heep more wool here that they do there and the women have no trouble here in
carding wool for ____ we have carding machines to card wool into rolls in this
country.
It is a fine time to buy land in this country. Congress land
is worth $1.25 per acre. That is, you can buy 80 acres for $100 and any number
of acres above that quantity at the same price but you can’t buy no less than
80 acres of Congress land.
A man can settle here on Congress land _____ and do very
well. I think if you all would move to this country you never would regret it.
This may inform you that all kinds of property sells very low.
So I must conclude my letter. I want you to write me and let
me know how you all are doing and where my brothers and sisters lives. I heard
last_____that sister Elizabeth was dead. I want you to direct your letter to
Peola, Orange Co (unty) for my father –in-law lives six miles (and) a half from
there. I don’t know when _____ the oppurtunity of comin to see you & if
_____ see each other in this world I hope we w_____ to enjoy the Ble____
cricified redeem(er)____. Give _____ to all enquiring friends.
So I remain your dutiful son until death.
George Silver, Martha Silver
==================================================
George was 35 years old when he had this letter written. He
mentions the price of hogs. This indicates that he has discovered that feeding
corn to hogs and then shipping them to Cincinnati
is more profitable than shipping the corn. Others have discovered that making
corn liquor is also more profitable. Since we want to think the best of our
ancestors we assume that George did not contribute to the 7 gallon per person
annual consumption of alcohol. (Today’s annual consumption is 2 gallons.)
Reaction to this excessive drunkenness and the associated spousal abuse led to
the development of the Temperance movement and Prohibition.
A Homestead Act deed recording the joint purchase by Andrew
Wakefield and George Silver of one of three parcels purchased jointly in Illinois .
George’s and Martha’s travels began in an area near Abingdon
in the lover right of the map above. Following the Wildernness Road and then took the left
fork to the current site of Louisville then
crossed the Ohio River into Indiana
where they lived about 20 years.
They moved to Shelby County, Illinois, in the 1830s, perhaps
as early as 1830 when George purchased three different parcels of land with
Andrew Wakefield, a descendant of the original settler in the area, Charles
Wakefield. George may have farmed the land for a few years and then sold his
share back to Andrew.
Among the events that may have pushed the Silvers on to Missouri : . Panic of
1837 during which many banks closed: Either Andrew or George Silver needed to
cash out their half of the property
. Poor harvests: The Silvers moved in less than seven years.
If a farmer leaves within 7 to 10 years it may mean that the enterprise failed.
George and Martha lived here for seven years. After their
son, Edward, married Martha Elizabeth Hansen in 1838 they moved with Edward to Missouri . They followed
the National Pike to St Louis and Boone’s Lick Road to Rocky Fork Township in Boone
County in Missouri .
Little Dixie
After 1820 emigrants of German descent came to Missouri in large
numbers. They had no interest in owning slaves and settled on smaller acreages
amidst the Southerners. They would gradually change the political balance from
slave to non-slave but now it was not safe to publicly denounce slavery. After
their marriage in 1838 Edward and Martha Elizabeth Silver along with Edward’s
mother and father, George and Martha Silver, moved into this community and
society of slave holders. Edward’s brother, George W, was with them also. What
did the Silvers, once fellow travelers with anti-slavery Quakers in Indiana , feel and think?
The consequences of publically opposing slavery were often threats, assaults,
arson, and murder.
Edward gradually purchased a total of 80 acres (#1 in map
left) George purchased 40 acres (#2). M. G. Singleton and William Yates were
two of their slave holding neighbors. Singleton purchased more than 1200 acres
over several years. That’s more than two sections or two square miles.
Edward and Martha soon had four children, Isaac, George,
Martha and John. Tragically Edward’s wife, Martha, died in 1845. Soon Edward
married Nancy Jennings. Sidney Maupin Silver was born in 1846. Two other
children would follow. Edward and George W Silver were among the first members
of the Pleasant Grove Missionary
Baptist Church
After meeting in other church buildings for eleven years they
worshipped for the first time in their own building in 1882. Having been
ordained in 1877 Rev Edward Silver certainly would have been one of the
participants at the dedication. Marriage records in Boone
County are not available yet but to
the east is Audrain
County
Since the Rev Edward Silver lived 1 ½ miles from the Battle
of Centralia it is relevant to our stories. We can not always bring about
heaven on earth. As President Lincoln and others before him suggested, the
American Civil War was divine punishment for being unable to solve the problem
of slavery in America
without armed conflict. In Missouri and Kansas the war seems to
have been more chaotic and savage. The Centralia Massacre and the Battle of
Centralia have “No parallel in the annals of the civil war”. They were “the
wildest and the most merciless, and in proportion to the number of the force
vanquished, the most destructive of human of life” The author of The History of
Boone County never shies away from hyperbole, but the brutality and the
savagery of these events are remarkable. Among the Confederate forces in Missouri were loosely organized “rangers,” who had been
instructed to “keep the Federal militia north of the [Missouri ] river actively employed.” Through
a series of reciprocally and increasingly savage encounters with Union troops
across the state, the rangers became “bushwhackers” and then “guerillas”. Union
savagery was covered by the uniform so it was not always called by its proper
name.
On the evening of September 26, 1864 four groups of the
rangers totaling about 300-350 had come together and were encamped on M. G.
Singleton’s farm in the brush and trees along Young’s Creek. (#4 on map). One
of the four leaders of this combined force was “Bloody Bill” Anderson . When the guerillas needed a meal
farmers in the area were forced to prepare food for the unwanted guests.
The next morning about 80 men went into Centralia ,
harassed, abused and robbed the citizens while waiting for the North Missouri train to arrive. The arrival of stage from
Hallsville provided more robbery victims. Ties stacked on the rails stopped the
speeding train. The passengers were searched and robbed and 22 unarmed Union
soldiers on furlough were brutally and savagely killed and mutilated. Before
leaving town a few citizens were also killed. These 80 guerillas returned to
their camp.
About 3pm Major Johnson arrived with 155 newly recruited
Union troops riding mostly brood-mares, mules, and plow-horses, armed with
muskets, muzzle-loading guns and bayonets. Believing the townspeople were
exaggerating and feeling that refusing to engage in battle was not acceptable
Major Johnson led these ragtag men into an ambush (#4 on map). Thinking that he
was facing 80 gunmen he ordered his men to dismount and form ranks. Before many
of the Union troops could fire a second shot, they were dead, shot by the
revolvers of the guerillas suddenly emerging on horseback from the bushes on three
sides. Eighty three men were killed, some mutilated and even scalped. Among the
attackers was Frank James brother of Jesse James. Jesse was elsewhere
recovering from wounds of an earlier battle.
The next morning residents began gathering the bodies and
bringing them to Centralia
where they were laid in a mass grave east of town. It is hard to imagine that
the Silvers were not involved in these events; that they did not have uninvited
guests, that they did not help clear away the bodies, and that they did not
pray for the families of those killed and wounded, for the country and,
perhaps, for the guerillas.
George Silver III died on February 22, 1870. Martha Moore
Silver died on November 27, 1881. They were buried in the Pleasant
Grove Cemetery ,
Boone County
37
Obituary: Reverend Edward Silver
One of the oldest and most respected of Missouri
citizens, and a faithful Baptist divine, died at the home of his son, Sidney
Maupin Silver, six miles east of Mexico , Thursday, May 7th 1896.
Rev. Silver was a native of Indiana and was born May 5th, 1816, which
made him 80 years and 2 days old. He came to Missouri in 1838 and located in
Boone County on a farm 4 miles south of the present town of Centralia, where he
lived up to the latter part of 1890 when he made his home with his son, S.M.
Silver, with whom he lived up to his death. He leaves 8 children, 6 sons and 2
daughters. Besides S.M. of this vicinity there are Mrs. McKensie of Moberly,
Mrs. Mat Turner of Saling Township, J.H. of Centralia, George H. and Lock W. of
Oklahoma, Isaac in Kansas and Martin in Charles County.
Reverend Silver was ordained in 1877 and faithfully
consecrated himself to the cause of the church. The funeral services were
conducted at Centralia by Reverend Hardy and the
burial took place on the farm which he first purchased when he came to Missouri .
Silver Threads
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~silver/south/archive/2005-03.html
[Editor’s note: The headline on an obituary I have not been
able to read refers to Rev. Dr. Edward Silver. If this title is accurate Edward
returned to college for a Doctor of Divinity degree]
PLACES – CHASE COUNTY
KANSAS
Isaac Silver and Nancy Ellen Sullivan
In 1860 Isaac, 21, is working on a large farm owned by James
Jenkins near Uncle George’s and his father Edward’s farms in Rocky Fork Township Jennings ,
or Jenkins, all neighbors of the Silvers. They had one daughter, Martha Ella,
born in 1863. After his wife died or disappeared Isaac married Nancy Ellen
Sullivan in 1871, in Saline County ,
Kansas Winfield ,
Kansas , remembers that when she was a small
child they moved to Salina .
(About 1878) [Her family] lived in homes that ranged from dugouts, sod houses,
and rock. When Emma was about 10 years old Isaac bought a farm in the southwest
part of Chase County
in the Pleasant Valley
Dugouts, sod houses and rock houses—residences of someone
trying to find the right place and a successful livelihood. Like his father and
grandfather, Rev Edward Silver and George Silver III, Isaac had high standards
for himself and kept trying, moving from one place to another until settling
down in Chase County, Kansas.
Pleasant Valley
School
By Myrtle E. Riggs Cox
It must have seemed a pleasant valley to the earliest comers
to that little community located near the southwest corner of Chase County ,
joining Butler County
on the south and Marion
County Pleasant Valley
Much of the land was still owned by the United States
government. The Atchison , Topeka
and Santa Fe
had purchased some tracts. The nearest trading center was St. Francis, now
known as Burns, which is ten miles west, in Marion County, following the
Chase-Butler county road. St. Francis at that time consisted of a box car as
the depot for the A. T. and S. F. railroad, one dwelling house and a general
merchandise store owned by Funke and Bueke, who had come there in 1879.
By 1884 the settlers in Pleasant Valley Pleasant Valley
In 1882 Isaac and Nancy Ellen Sullivan Silver moved on the
S. E. 1/4 of section 35. There were not enough children in the vicinity to
justify a school district. It was through the efforts of Isaac Silver, who had
no children of school age, [Isaac and Nancy had four school age children.] that
Nicholas E. Sidener was influenced to move to section 26. [Two Silver daughters
married Sideners.s]
When a school census was taken, it lacked one pupil of
required number. So Isaac Silver included his married daughter living on
section 36, but not yet 21 years of age. Now enough pupils were in the district
to organize a school district. [Isaac Silver’s married daughter is Martha Ella
of his first marriage who was born in 1863. Her mother is unknown and probably
died about 1870.] Isaac Silver's married daughter, Ella, did not attend school.
Her husband, Andrew A. Siefert, was the first board member elected for district
No. 45. Another daughter of Isaac Silver, Emma, ten years of age, was a pupil
in the first year of the Pleasant
Valley School
Figure 13 Nancy Ellen Sullivan
Isaac Silver
I just keep putting one foot in front of the other
“… after the death of his wife, Nancy Sullivan Silver, in
1916, [Isaac] got the urge to visit his children and other relatives who had
managed to scatter themselves all over the western United States. At age 78 and
after a lifetime of hard work as a farmer and carpenter he really looked
forward to the trip. He had visited his brother George in Oklahoma
and a brother-in-law, Amos Patterson, in Colorado
and had been fascinated and amazed [by] the mountains. When he arrived in San Diego for a visit
with his son Ira, one of the top things on his list was to go up a mountain. Mount Lowe
And there was steep trail to the summit. So Ira and Gertrude
(presumably Ira’s wife?) took Isaac up the mountain for lunch. After the meal,
Isaac decided to stroll on up the mountain. A young newspaperman for a Chicago paper saw him and
asked if he could walk along. The path was very steep and soon the young
reporter was huffing and puffing and asked Isaac if it wasn’t time for a break.
Isaac kept replying, “Just a little way more.” Near the summit, Isaac did stop
to have his picture taken, and then went to the rest of the way to the top.
When they got back down to the restaurant, the young man, still panting, asked,
“How come you can climb a mountain so easily when I’m half your age and found
it so hard?” “Well, I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and I
get there.“
Silver Threads News Letter Old Man And The Mountain By Karyl
Silver
Figure 14 Isaac Silver, 82
Isaac Silver Pioneer Dies
Isaac Silver 94 year old Butler County El Dorado , having lived here from 1910 to
1918. he had been in poor health for several months but did not become
seriously ill until a few weeks ago. Because of his long residence in Butler County
Mr. Silver was born in Boone County ,
Mo. , on February 14, 1839, but came to Kansas when a young man.
He settled in Saline County and then removed to the Burns [Chase County Salina , on December 22, 1871. She died in
1916. Funeral services for Isaac Silver, Butler County Pioneer, who died at
Burns Thursday were held at the Methodist
Church
A quartet, composed of H. A. Bender, Ellis Manka, Ralph
Gfeller, and Mr. Miller sang “The Old Rugged Cross,” “No Night There,” and
“City Foursquare.” Pallbearers were sons and grandsons of Mr. Silver. Interment
was made in West Cemetery
The El Dorado Times, Thursday, June 15, 1933 (and another
newspaper’s obit combined)
PLACES – CHASE COUNTY
KANSAS
Charles Silver and Agnes Thompson
Charles worked on his father’s farm and in June 1, 1900 he
was working on his Uncle’s farm in Oklahoma .
He was single. After finishing school Agnes “played around” and became
pregnant. According to family oral history she had been dating two different
boys named Charles. She chose Charles Edward Silver. They were married sometime
after June 1 and before the birth of their first daughter Lillie on August 28,
1900. When Aggie saw her infant daughter she realized she had not married the
father of her child.
Charles and Agnes had two more children. Hope Silver was
born on October 15, 1904 and Sterling Silver was born on October 19, 1910.
Charles rented a farm next to his father’s according to the 1905 Kansas Census.
In 1910 the US Census shows that he had taken out a mortgage on a farm; and the
1915 Kansas
count records that he is a laborer and renting. This information, if correct,
may mean that the Silvers are having financial trouble.
Trouble struck about 1917 or 1918. World War I had broken
out and Charles registered for the draft in September 1918 but it was the
tragic death of Lillie Silver, who was full of the promise of youth, which
crushed the family, especially Agnes.
As Hope remembers it:
“In Aggies's view Lillie was so beautiful, so perfect, and I
was an ugly ducking in the family. My mother put all her attention on Lillie
and my father put all his attention on me. Mother felt that Lillie would never
live to wear her wedding clothes. She superstitiously believed that the blue
vein across the bridge of her nose indicated so.
Lillie was engaged to a beau before the war. One afternoon
Lillie was out driving with a boyfriend following a truck with a load of pipes.
The pipes fell off and one pierced Lillie who died instantly.
I never saw a mother grieve so. She was sure she was being
punished for playing around.
My sister and I did not look alike. My brother Sterling and I did. In
1919 the family moved to Roswell ,
Idaho
The Silvers arrived in 1919, 20 years after the Wolfes had
begun farming here. Much had changed.
. Electrical power—on at dusk off at midnight
. Two telephone companies
. Municipal waterworks
. Idaho ’s
first public park
. New county fairgrounds
. Flour mill
. Creamery
. New Hotel
. Several retail stores
. Plans for a sugar beet factory launched
. Construction of interurban trolley to Boise begun
Stores stayed open late on Saturdays for ranchers and
sheepherders
Hope Irene Silver married Paul Levine Wolfe on 29 Dec 1923
in Caldwell , Canyon, Idaho .
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