This is my 7th year participating in the A to Z Challenge. In the 2015 challenge, I wrote about the Cleages formerly enslaved on the plantations of Samuel and his sons Alexander and David Cleage of Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Most of the people in these posts are not related to me by blood or DNA, however my ancestors were enslaved on the same plantations with them.
Late last year, I ordered the Civil War Pension files of the Cleage men who served in 1st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA), during that war. Through these files I learned that their lives were much richer and more complex than census, death and other records can show. I am using the information from pension files and records that I found through the pension files for this years challenge.
George Clegg (Cleage) had two children with his first wife Martha and seven children with his second wife, Hulda. Yorkanini was the sixth of the seven children George Clegg had with his wife Hulda. She died between 1900 when she appeared on the census and 1902, when she failed to appear on the form George filled out naming his living children. He actually had been married three times, but forgot to mention the first wife and the two children that stayed with his mother, Sallie Cleage Marsh when he left for Mississippi. He wrote a second letter to correct his omission. Unfortunately, he didn’t add their names to that letter.
Department of the Interior
Bureau of Pensions
Washington, D.C., March 1, 1902
So. Div
George Clegg
Co I. 1 Reg’t U.S.C. Vol. H.A.
Sir:
Will you kindly answer, at your earliest convenience, the questions enumerated blow? Th information is requested for future use, an it may be of great value to your family.
Very respectfully,
George Clegg
Hightown
Alcorn Co. Miss.
No. 1. Are you a married man? If so, please state your wife’s full name, and her maiden name. Answer: Yes. Miss Huldy Settle
No. 2. When where, and by whom were you married? Answer: July 6th 1899. Near Hightown Miss, Rev. John Dicky.
No. 3. What record of marriage exists” Answer: I have none – on record at Corinth, Miss.
No. 4. Were you previously married? Answer: Yes Rachel Garheart. Died Aug 16th 1895.
No. 5. Have you any children living? If so, please state their names and the dates of their birth. Answer: Yes. all by first wife no children by present wife. Marry Stovall born Aug 16th 1875, Corintha Willey born July 15th 1877 – George Clegg Nov. 16th 1879 Robert Clegg Dec 1st 1881 Clinton Clegg March 4th 1883 – Maudie Clegg born Nov 10, 1892.
Date of reply March 10, 1902
George (his X mark) Clegg
Witnessed H. Gammel
Dear Sir,
I mailed to you on the 10th of this month a blank executed by me in regard to my marriages, present wife and former wife. I did not execute the papers correctly. I omitted givig the name of my first wife, whom I married just after the close of the Rebellion at Athens Tenn. I only giv names of wives marriages contracted in this state – thinking that was all that was necessary. Please return said paper with another blank and oblige
yours truly
George Clegg
Her father didn’t mention Yorkanini by name either time, then? So you found her name on the Census, but the pension files don’t explicitly confirm her existence? I wonder (not for the first time) how you manage to keep track of all these people; Yorkanini’s own father didn’t keep track of her.
She is on the 1900 census and he didn’t mention her among his LIVING children. That means she died after the census in 1900 and before he filled out the form in 1902. That was before death records were kept in that area, so this is all we have to show she lived and died. She must have been about 14, as she’s 13 on the census record.
A name I’ve never encountered before. Sad that she did not make it to adulthood.
I’ve never encountered it before either. I wonder where they found it. Yes, she made it through that dangerous childhood and then died.
“. . . whom I married just after the close of the Rebellion at Athens Tenn. ” That’s the kind of information that makes genealogy research so much fun.
Love the name Yorkanini.
Yes, the personal touches give a feeling of time and place.
I’m in awe of your tracking methodology. So many names have come up in this series and you managed to get an in depth research about each one of them.
I only used names I could find something about. There are plenty that have little to nothing to comment on.
What a strange name, I have never heard it before! I wonder how they chose it…
The Multicolored Diary
Me too.
Never came across the name before. How does one forget a living child? Sad that she died so young. Sadder that the father didn’t remember her by name.
The father was only supposed to write the names of his living children so since he didn’t write her name, we can assume she had died.
Now there’s a name! I’d love to know the history behind it. How did they come up with that?
I should google it and find out if it’s a place or something.