An Apple for Irene

In genealogy searches, I spend significant portions of my research on those darn men. Why? Not because they're more interesting. It's because there's usually more information about them in official records. Occasionally, a rare apple emerges from a barrel of pears and a woman's history ripens.

You've heard me talk about Irene before, the wife of John Hansford Callaway. While trying to answer questions in "Oh, Where Art Thou?" I came to learn more about Irene and her Baker family. Irene was raised by a widowed mother who never remarried. (I followed Amelia Baker all the way to Texas where she died.) Amelia also bought property over the course of several years and established a fairly large estate and farm in Coffee County. The finances from the farm allowed her to turn the day-to-day operations to her two older sons while she and her two daughters and two younger sons lived in Summerfield, Dallas County, Alabama. Amelia seems like a pretty independent and intelligent woman and I wonder how that affected her youngest daughter, Irene. 

The only fact I have is from the 1860 cencus which states that Irene was a teacher in Summerfield, Alabama. Everything else I come up with are suppositions and educated guesses.  I started by trying to learn more about the town of Summerfield. Why would Amelia decide to take her family there in the late 1850s? 

Summerfield, was originally a town named Valley Creek which was just a few miles north of Selma, Alabama (which served as the county seat). Another interesting tidbit is that 30 years prior another nearby town called Cahaba was the county seat and briefly the state capitol. Therefore, this whole area appears to be an urban center of commerce and administration. I soon found out that Summerfield was an area of ministry and education as well. Before Valley Creek was renamed in 1845, the town had charted the county's first academy in 1829. Later in 1841, the Alabama Conference of Methodist Church opened the Methodist Centenary Institute, a co-educational university. 

For a mother like Amelia, this must of seemed like the ideal place to take her daughters. Her oldest daughter Dulcenia married a teacher and her younger one was teacher, maybe at the Centenary Institute. At least, I like to think so. I can't find much information about the town on the web; however, there is a wonderful account of the college is preserved in A History of Methodism in Alabama (1893) which you can download for free.

Oh, Where art thou?

1860 was a turbulent year. People were split on slavery, the cotton market hadn't fully recovered from its 1850 crash, and John Hansford Callaway was nowhere to be found in the official records. His father, Jonathan Hosea Callaway, was in Arkansas but not John Hansford. In a fit of fustration, I decided to search for Irene Baker. This is usually a worst deadend because women were not considered 'valuable' (and I know that's open to debate, but for the sake of simplicity lets just move on). 

Surpisingly, Irene was in the records... just not where I thought she should be according to the family bible (read "Confusion is Good"). Once I found Irene's 1860 census, I then found the marriage license which just goes to show that you have to branch out into different search avenues.

Despite this fist-pumping moment, I was still confronted and confounded by the question, "Why did John go to Dallas County, Alabama to get married?" and "How did they meet?" The previous years records showed him well established in the areas of Dale, Coffee and Geneva County, Alabama. 

How did they meet?

After doing some land records search I found that Amelia Baker, Irene's mother, owned a good parcel of land in Coffee County. She had about 8 tracts of land all right together, two tracts were bought in 1853 and another six in 1858. However, the census shows her in Coffee County as early as 1850 then in Dallas County in 1860. Turns out, Jonathan Hosea Callaway bought some land less than a mile from them in 1858 and we know he was in Coffee County according to the Alabama State Census. Using the information available, here's what I think happened.

1845 - First tracts of land bought in Coffee County by Jonathan Hosea Callaway.
1850 - Both the Baker Family and Callaway Family are in Coffee County, Alabama according to census.
1853 - Amelia Baker buys land in Coffee County. 
1857 - Baker Family has probably moved to Dallas County, Alabama. Irene's sister, Dulcenia, gets married to Joseph Callaway (no relation that I can find at this time). In the 1860 census their daughter is 2 years old, putting their marriage about 1857. Irene would have been old enough to start teaching and her 2 older brothers remained in Coffee Co. on the census. Presumably, they are running the farm.
1858 - The Baker farm expands and Johnathan Hosea Callaway buys land less than a mile away. It was not an uncommon practice to send the oldest son out to get the land started. Therefore, John Hansford would have likely become friends with his neighbors, the Baker boys. It's also possible that John Hansford would have met Irene when her family came home to visit the farm. Courtship through letters was also common during this time. 
1860 - Jonathan Hosea Callaway packs up his family and sets out for Arkansas. Meanwhile, John Hansford travels to Dallas County where his future wife is finishing up teaching her school term. They get married, set off for Arkansas and made a family.

That's what I think happened.

Callaway Family (L-R) : Eli Elisha, John Hansford, William, Irene P., and John Hosea