INDIANA GENEALOGIST Vol. 25 No. 2 June 2014 An Elusive Patriot Society of Civil War Families of Indiana Induction Indiana’s Veterans’ Homes Using Alternative Indexes Early Delaware County Schools Notices from Allen, Decatur, Dubois, Hendricks, Marion, Miami, Ohio, Putnam, Randolph, Switzerland, Vigo, and Whitley Counties INDIANA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY P. O. Box 10507 CONTENTS Ft. Wayne, IN 46852-0507 www.indgensoc.org 4 Editor’s Branch Indiana Genealogist (ISSN 1558-0458) is pub- lished electronically each quarter (March, 5 John Clem: The Elusive Patriot, by Katherine Kemnitz June, September, and December) and is avail- able exclusively to members of the Indiana Genealogical Society as a benefit of member- 8 Marriages of Indiana Residents Legalized by the ship. General Assembly, 1847 and 1850, extracted by Meredith Thompson EDITOR Rachel M. Popma E-mail: [email protected] 10 Society of Civil War Families of Indiana Inducts Seven New Members and Eleven New Soldiers, SUBMISSIONS by Ron Darrah Submissions concerning people who were in Indiana at one time are always welcome. 13 Caring for Indiana’s Veterans: State and Federal Material from copyright-free publications is preferred. For information on accepted file Soldiers’ Homes, by Meredith Thompson formats, please contact the editor. 22 IN-GENious! Have You Considered Alternative WRITING AWARD Indexes?, by Dawne Slater-Putt, cg The Indiana Genealogical Society may bestow the Elaine Spires Smith Family History Writ- ing Award (which includes $500) to the writer Northwest District of an outstanding article that is submitted to 23 Official Death Records from the 1830s?, either Indiana Genealogist or IGS Newsletter. by Harold Henderson, cg Submitters need not be members of IGS. To be eligible for consideration for the award, the article must be at least 1,000 words (or a series 24 Petition to Sell School Section, Monroe Township, of articles on the same topic that totals 1,000 Pulaski County (1854), transcribed by Janet Onken words). Abstracts, transcriptions, indexes, or other forms of genealogy data are not eligible for consideration. Articles must be submitted North Central District by 31 December of each year, and the winner 26 Notices from the Peru Evening Journal, 16 September will be recognized at the IGS annual confer- 1897, Part 3, submitted by Dawne Slater-Putt, cg ence in April. Multiple submissions are wel- come. The IGS Publications committee will judge all eligible entries and make a decision Northeast District about the winner. IGS reserves the right not 30 “Has Money in Belgium: Inmate of Poor House is Heir to bestow the award in a particular year. to a Great Estate” (Whitley County, 1905) DISCLAIMER While every precaution is taken to avoid 30 “Fell From Hay Wagon” (Allen County, 1905) errors, the publisher does not assume any liability to any party for any loss or damage West Central District caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, 31 Ending of an Elopement (Putnam County, 1897) accident or any other cause. 31 “Shelters Woman Who Fled Her Noisy Home” (Vigo County, 1908) PUBLICATION STATEMENT All works submitted to the Indiana Genealog- Central District ical Society (and its subsidiaries) for publica- tion become the property of the Society and 32 Civil War Veteran Never Legally Married all copyrights are assigned to the Society. The (Hendricks County, 1914), transcribed by Society retains the non-exclusive rights to Meredith Thompson publish all such works in any format includ- ing all types of print, electronic, and digital formats. All materials in IGS publications 33 “Plenty of Causes Assigned by Martha J. Nowland in are copyrighted to protect the Society and to Her Divorce Complaint” (Marion County, 1900) exclude others from republishing contributed works. All individual contributors retain the right to submit their own work for publica- 33 Obituaries from the Indianapolis Star, 15 June 1912, tion elsewhere and have the Society’s per- (Marion County) mission to do so. The Indiana Genealogical Society routinely grants permission for other East Central District societies and organizations to reprint mate- rials from our publications provided proper 34 Winchester Left Letters, 9 July 1862 (Randolph credit is given to the Society, the particular County) publication of the Society, and the contribu- tor. 35 Memorabilia of Early Delaware County Schools, submitted by Debbie Clawson Bowers MEMBERSHIP DISTRICTS Southwest District 39 Marriage Licenses Issued in Jasper, July 1879 (Dubois County) 39 Kraus-Friedman Wedding in Jasper, 1879 (Dubois County) South Central District 40 An Early History of Bloomington’s Postal Services, by Randi Richardson Southeast District 44 “Death of Rev. C. W. Ruter” (Switzerland County, 1859) 44 Kenney Dodd Injured (Ohio County, 1881) 44 “Blind Fourteen Years” (Decatur County, 1897) NW = Northwest NC = North Central NE = Northeast 45 Once a Hoosier... WC = West Central ...Always a Hoosier C = Central 45 EC = East Central SW = Southwest SC = South Central SE = Southeast Editor’s Branch Military service forms a theme of this issue, appropriate for a year in which we continue to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and acknowledge the centennial of the start of World War I. Katherine Kemnitz examines a situation that may seem familiar: family records say an ancestor served, but the service and pension records we’ve been able to find seem to say the oppo- site. In this case, a faulty recollection and federal bureaucracy combined to prevent a Revolution- ary War veteran’s widow from receiving her due, but careful sleuthing in the twenty-first century uncovered the truth about her husband’s service. The Society of Civil War Families of Indiana held its annual induction at the IGS confer- ence in Fort Wayne in April, and this issue inclues Ron Darrah’s recap of the inductees and the soldiers they honor with their membership in the society. But what happened to those veterans after they returned home and as they aged? Military pension records tell part of the story, and Meredith Thompson’s article on federal and state soldiers’ homes works to fill in the gaps for some of our ancestors. In addition to explaining the history of the establishment of such institutions, the article describes how changes in legislation affected who was eligible for admission and what financial responsibility residents would bear, including how pensions helped fund the homes. The article closes with a list of resources for those seeking soldiers’ homes records. Other highlights in this issue include Randi Richardson’s brief history of postal services in Bloomington, Dawne Slater-Putt’s IN-GENious! reminder to not overlook those alternative indexes to sources we need, and Harold Henderson’s tale of locating information about 1830s deaths in an unlikely county source. Throughout the issue we also feature a selection of notices and brief items from around the state. If you’re attending Midwestern Roots 2014 in Indianapolis this August, be sure to drop by the IGS table in the exhibit hall and say hello! As always, I welcome your contributions, questions, and comments at quarterly@indgensoc. org. Thanks for reading and sharing your stories! Rachel On the cover: The old Gaston High School, Delaware County. From the collection of Debbie Clawson Bowers. 4 INDIANA GENEALOgiST John CLEM: THE ELUSIVE PatRIot Katherine Kemnitz In the fall of 2013, I was asked by a client to research the Revolutionary War service of her fifth great-grandfather, John (Johann/Johannust) Clem (Clemm, Klemm), as she believed he was a potential Patriot for a supplemental application for the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her research indicated that John Clem had moved his family circa 1805 from Fayette County, Kentucky, to Butler County, Ohio. This land had been part of the Indiana Territory until 1803. Her family records indicated that Clem was born circa 1756 (possibly in Germany), married a woman named Susannah in 1778, was the father of eleven children by 1804, and died 18 April 1827 in Butler County, Ohio. Family records also indicated that while the family believed he had fought with the Maryland Militia in the Revolutionary War, his widow’s application for a pension had been denied. John Clem was one of the signers of a petition to Congress, dated 19 November 1805. This document was signed by the “purchasers of lands of the United States in the now State of Ohio and in the Indiana Territory.”1 By virtue of this petition, John Clem and his family can be placed in the Indiana Territory circa 1805. The U.S. Census Reconstructed Records, 1660–1820, database shows John Clem living in Ohio in 1810.2 In The Clem Genealogy Work-Book, Walter Salts lists all of the children of John and Susannah Clem; namely, George, John Jr., Barbara, Henry, Jacob, Susannah, Samuel, David, Nancy, Michael and Peter.3 The birthplaces of these children all appear to be outside Ohio, as evidenced by their census records as adults, with most indicating that they were born in Virginia. Salts also states that, “After the death of John Clem, Sr. and the settlement of his estate, most of the family, includ- ing the widow, Susannah, moved to Indiana where they settled practically on the state line of Illi- nois and Indiana. They left many descendants who still live there.”4 On the Fold3 Web site, I located a digital copy of Susannah Clem’s original affidavit in support of the pension application with additional correspondence. The affidavit was prepared in Warren County, Indiana, on 16 November 1842, and states in part: that she is the widow of John Clem who was a private in the War of the Revolution…that she thinks he served in the State of Maryland and for a portion of the time at least under Colonel Stricker…she further declares that she was married to the said John Clem on the eleventh day of February in the year seventeen hundred and seventy eight about ten miles from Cumberland in Maryland.