Country Roads, Take Me Home.

The Powell Family monument in Sherman Cemetery, Morganville, Clay County, Kansas, USA. Photo credit to RA Stancliffe, www.findagrave.com.

Benjamin Powell (1814-1894).

4th Great Grandfather.

You know the song. In fact, I’m willing to bet the lyrics are singing in your head right now.

The song has been a family favourite since the days we played it on vinyl on my dad’s old record player.

Turns out the bittersweet longing for the country roads of West Virginia might be genetic, because the story of my 4th great grandfather, Benjamin Powell (1814 - 1894) began on the country roads of West Virginia.

To The Place, I Belong. West Virginia.

My best guess on the location of Benjamin’s birth is in or near Harrison, West Virginia (and pretty far from the mountains mentioned in the song which inspired this post). Harrison is the location named on the marriage certificate of his parents, Benjamin Powell (1784-1813) and Mary Webb (1794-1853) when they were married on 24 July 1809. His birthdate, listed in his May 1894 obituary published by the Clifton (Kansas) News, is noted as 15 January 1814.

His life started on a sad note. His father, Benjamin Powell, Sr. (1784-1813), another West Virginian born and raised, had entered the army during the troubles of 1812 and died of measles in 1813. Both his maternal and paternal grandfathers, also West Virginians, were documented slaveholders, a fact that packs an ugly punch and will be the topic of deeper exploration in a future blog post.

His mom, Mary Polly Webb (1794-1853), moved with little Benjamin Jr. and his two older siblings to Perry Township, Hocking County, Ohio shortly after Benjamin Sr.’s death. We don’t yet have a date for the move, although it's possible that she moved to Ohio to be with her parents, who begin showing up in the Hocking County records in about 1820.

(Actually, It Wasn’t Quite Yet West Virginia).

For those uninitiated to the geo-political boundaries of the southern United States in the early eighteenth century, it's worth noting that West Virginia was not known as an official state until 1863, when it successfully ceded from Virginia due in part to its strong anti-slavery, pro-Union stance.

(And for those who live and breathe Civil War history, I apologize. This explanation doesn’t even crack the surface. If you want to learn more, I recommend Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia. Heck. Even the Wikipedia entry on West Virginia in the American Civil War can do better than I can).

But it was the general geographical region of West Virginia. So that counts, right?

Country Roads: Across Three States.

Ben Jr. - I feel like we can call him that, he is family after all – didn’t show up in any more records until his first marriage to Mary Scarff (1818-~1839) in September 1834. Ben’s biography notes that he was “first married to Mary A. Scarff, by whom he became the father of two children, both later deceased.” I have been unable to find any evidence of Mary Scarff’s birth or death, or anything relating to the two children mentioned in the biography.

Mary Scarff must have departed this life in 1839 at the latest, because a marriage certificate appears in the records announcing the marriage of Ben Jr. to Elizabeth Strait (nee Goodlive) (1819-1880) on 16 January 1840. Elizabeth brought with her a son, Jacob, from a previous marriage. Jacob appears in future census records as Jacob Powell, indicating he must have been adopted by Ben. The 1840 US census, while short on many of the rich details that make it easy to track families through the decades, mentions there are 2 adults and 2 children under the age of 5 living in Benjamin’s household. Its very possibly that the two adults were Benjamin and Elizabeth, and the two children were Elizabeth’s young son, Jacob and a child from Benjamin’s marriage to Mary - a child may have later died.

Ben and Liz went on to have 8 other children: Issac, Burrows, Sarah Jane, Harriet Amanda, Rachel E., Margaret Ellen, Benjamin, and John Wesley. Issac and Burrows were Union soldiers in the civil war, and while their lives need further research, it appears that at least one of them, Issac, died in the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863.

The family appears in Swan, New Plymouth, Vinton Ohio in the 1860 United States Federal Census, and then in Platte, Andrew County, Missouri in the 1870 United States Census. Benjamin’s biography notes that he settled in Clay County, Kansas, in 1873 and he shows up in Sherman, Clay County, Kansas on the 1880 federal census. His is listed on this census as a single man, having lost his wife earlier that same year.

Ben’s final marriage, to Mary Broughton, takes place in his twilight years, on March 18, 1881. Ben’s obituary mentions she was the only family member present at his death, and several notices in the local paper indicate she is the executor of his will.

Ben’s years spent in Kansas seemed idyllic, as documented in his biography:

“Mr. Powell has planted a large number of forest trees and has an apple orchard of about fifty trees. There have been added from time to time the other little embellishments and conveniences which have so much to do with the happiness and comforts of home. The whole premises presents a picture of peace and content which is pleasant to look upon.”

His tombstone, located in Sherman Cemetery, Clay County, Kansas, is shared with his wife, Elizabeth, three of his sons and a step grandson, James Wright, who died at 4 months old.

Country Roads: From West Virginia to the Canadian Prairies.

Ben’s legacy of travelling the country roads from West Virginia to Ohio to Missouri to Kansas deeply impacted the life of his descendants.

His eldest daughter, my 3rd great grandmother, married an Irishman named William Carlile, and amongst their 11 children was my 2nd grandmother, Sarah Augusta Carlile (1872-1940), who married William Ferguson Best (1871-1941) in 1892.

Sarah and William were, in turn, the couple who brought a line of the very large Best family from Kansas to yet another set of country roads near Elstow, Saskatchewan, in the heart of the Canadian prairies.

And There are Many More Country Roads Yet to Travel.

There is so much missing in my research about Benjamin Powell.

There is evidence that he had at least two older siblings that I know nothing about, as well as 2 children with his first wife who died either in infancy or early childhood. I haven’t yet looked for him or his family in state censuses, nor have I pinned down the birth and death dates for his first wife and first two children.

Lastly, and deeply important, learning more about the Powell family’s link to slavery will also require not just time, but a deeper understanding of what reconciliation and atonement efforts looks like for descendants of slave owners.

Ben’s obituary closes by stating that “those who knew him best knew nothing but good.” We can only hope this is true. At the very least, we need to thank Benjamin Powell: it was his travels that brought my ancestors just that much closer to the prairies.

Source: Page 1, The Clifton News, Friday, May 4, 1894

Sources:

Chapman Brothers. Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties, Kansas. Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890. http://www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/611903. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/127537313/ benjamin-f-powell:accessed 29 September 2023), memorial page for Benjamin F Powell (15 Jan 1814–28 Apr 1894), Find a Grave Memorial ID 127537313, citing Sherman Cemetery, Morganville, Clay County, Kansas, USA "Kansas County Marriages, 1855-1911." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 18 July 2022. Citing district clerk, court clerk, county clerk and register offices from various counties.

"Obituary-Benjamin Powell” Newspapers.com. Clifton News, May 4, 1894. https://www.newspapers.com/article/clifton-news-obituarybenjamin-powellcl/132619570/.

"Obituary - Benjamin Powell" Newspapers.com. The Kansan, May 4, 1894. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansan-obituary-benjamin-powell-f/132619296/.

"Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2016." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 22 July 2022. County courthouses, Ohio.

"United States Census, 1840." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 20 January 2023. Citing NARA microfilm publication M704. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. "United States Census, 1850." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 28 December 2022. Citing NARA microfilm publication M432. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. "United States Census, 1860." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 2 August 2023. From "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population." Database. Fold3.com. http://www.fold3.com : n.d. Citing NARA microfilm publication M653. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

"United States Census, 1870." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 25 October 2022. Citing NARA microfilm publication M593. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

"United States Census, 1880." Database with images. FamilySearch. https://FamilySearch.org : 3 August 2023. Citing NARA microfilm publication T9. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.