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 

Confusion is Good

The 1860 census for Irene Baker did cause some confusion. The census was "enumerated to me on the 29th day of August 1860." Yet, the scanned pages of the Callaway Family Bible state "John Hansford Callaway Marry Irene Baker Jan. 15th. 1860." Why was Irene still with her Baker family in August?

Well, the first thing I wanted to do was see if I could verify the marriage date. A quick search on Family Search (see link on right) clarified another facet: John and Irene were married on July 4, 1860. Not January 15 according to Dallas County court documents. And remember what I said about taking that extra click to view the document. Here it is:

Aside from the date, what does this document tell me? For one, it tells me that they were married in Dallas County where the Baker family was living and where Irene was working as a teacher, possibly at the Centenary Institute. I find it interesting that John went to Irene's home to get married and not the other way around. Why? That's a question I'll pursue next time.

Anyway, to get back to the original question. Why was Irene still recorded as living at home if she was already married by July 4, 1860? And since she was married, why wasn't John recorded in the August 29, 1860 census?

Here's where a little knowledge of American History and Public Administration come in handy. It's that darned red tape. The procedure for the 8th United States Census (the 1860 one) was to inquire as to those individuals who lived in the household as of June 1, 1860. Even if census takers collected information well beyond that date, all information was collected from the June 1, 1860 date. This explains why the August 29, 1860 census records Irene living at home. As of June 1, 1860 she was still living at home. John and Irene married in July 4, 1860 after the school session had ended. So even though Irene was not physically in the home in August, she was counted because she would have been there in June.

Where did John and Irene go? That's a question for another article.

Document, Document, Document

It's like "location, location, location," an all encompassing mantra for researching. Documents are essential. The closer your get to the primary source, the more information you crystallize from the raw stone of history.

My Aunt Susie is awesome. I love her. She took the initiative to start grinding away at the Callaway family jewels. Through perseverance she revealed some very clever facets but the overall form isn't quite defined. It may never be fully defined because we may never polish out all the facets of our history.

To form a more complete jewel, documents and documentation is necessary. Too often genealogical researchers encounter Ancestry.com and start with census records. Yay! They find the individual they're looking for on the summary transcript which highlights the vital statistics: birth, marriage, death, location, etc... (see example search: "Irene Baker" in 1860 census).

People get so excited when they find this information. They record it... then they stop. Don't do that! There's so much more information you can tease out by clicking the document image. For instance, we learned that Irene Baker was a teacher. Her brother-in-law was a teacher.

How cool is that?! Wait, it gets better. Now digitally flipping a few pages forward and backwards I can learn a great deal about the community Irene lived in. Since I know that census takers usually work their way from the center of town out to the rural areas, I can extrapolate a layout of the community. Several pages before Irene's listing are 3 farmers, an overseer, 3 Methodist Ministers and 1 Bishop, a student, a housewife who boards students, a clerk, a law student, a Professor of Math, 5 teachers, a saddler and a planter. After Irene's listing is a seamstress, 9 farmers, 2 brick-masons, 3 teachers, a clerk, 2 wheelwrights, a laborer and a Methodist Minister. Therefore, Irene lived on the edge of an urban community, one in which the primary employment was the Methodist denomination and a school. Additionally, the teachers' gender are split evenly. 

I don't know about you, but I'm curious about the school. Where did Irene teach? So I turned to Heritage Quest and Archive.org (see links on right) to find information. Spotlight! A History of Methodism in Alabama printed in 1893. There are several school listed, but the only one that fits in this time and place is the Centenary Institute. My 3 x Great-Grandmother was a teacher at a women's college.*

From all these details of information the facets of Irene's life grows. Isn't this more interesting than she was born in 1837 and was 22 at the time of the 1860 census?

*There are several other sources that were consulted, schools researched and eliminated. Through deductive reasoning, Centenary Institute was identified as the most logical choice. However, this may change if new evidence is discovered.