Ancestors of Jonathan Webb Deiss
2 June 2001 –
I have scanned several images from the town of Ellsinore, Carter County and from
Dent County, Missouri. They are in the Hiltergallery. I
have added some info about the Civil War service of Ruggles cousins. Research
on Missouri families has occupied me recently, and a brief search uncovered a
little information about someone who may be America Upton Hilterbrand’s
brother – Lewis E. Upton.
3 June 2001 –
I have scanned almost all my photos of the Town of Ellsinore. They are
formatted and in the Hilterbrand Gallery.
12 June 2001 – More scans and photos available in
the various galleries Webb, Geller, Hilterbrand, Pennie, Deiss.
Each gallery has been indexed and each photo or image has some
description, however inadequate. I am most proud of the Hilterbrand Gallery and
the Webb Gallery, although the Geller Gallery ain’t so bad either – but the
Pennie and Deiss Galleries are both woefully empty. I don’t have enough
material to put up photos of the other families, like the Skelly’s, Drummond’s,
Ellis’, and many more.
15 June 2001 – The Compiled Service Record
of Private Martin Luther Webb I (1861–1866) has been scanned and posted. Thank
the National Archives, thank my scanner, Photoshop 6.0, and alkem.org.
18 June 2001 – I have constructed a nice gallery for
Martin Luther Webb’s Compiled Service Record
cards. Today I received a copy of
photos of Oliver Webb and Martin Luther Webb I from the Civil war era. They are posted in the Webb gallery.
19 June 2001 – I have found evidence which pretty
conclusively shows that Samuel Hilterbrand
was a Rebel before seeing the light. I
also dug a little into the Confederate Uptons of
Missouri. On the Northern side of the
Mason-Dixon line, I looked at the service records of James Getty and William
Britt of the 9th Regiment Illinois Infantry.
26 June 2001 – I hit the jackpot. The Firelands Historical Society in Norwalk,
Huron County, Ohio has a collection of records which have helped greatly to
increase my knowledge. Many helpful
folks in Huron County deserve my thanks.
Check the Webb Gallery for
new photos.
5 July 2001 – America is 225 years old. What a young country we are. Anyhow, I transcribed one of the letters of Loren
Webb written to his cousin, Emily Ruggles.
I found out that a man named Dwight Ruggles, brother of West Ruggles,
died while in service during the Civil War at Fort Ward, in Alexandria,
Virginia. I uncovered more info about
William C. Hawley, and transcribed a lot of info from the Giles Genealogical
Memoir and significantly added to my knowledge of David, Sr. and his kids by reading
copies of articles from the Firelands Pioneer and the History of the Firelands.
9 July 2001 – I went to the archives on Saturday morning and transcribed farm enumeration records. All I can say is that those people made a lot of butter. They will show up on the appropriate individual’s page in due course. Right now I have entered the farm data for Oliver Webb, his sister Fidelia Ruggles and brother David F. Webb. I have additional data for Herricks, Ruggles and Hesters, primarily for 1850 in Huron County, Ohio.
16 July 2001 – I have been doing a bit less research than normal due to a
larger workload at the office. On
Saturday, 14 July, I went to the archives and perused some Revolutionary war
pension files for Ebenezer Webb again.
I didn’t find a file for old Ebenezer, Sr., but I did find pretty
complete pension files for two of his sons, Christopher and Ebenezer, Jr., which I
have compiled here. Some updates to these pages – mostly the
addition of farm and tax records and some factual updates and a few new pages – Ebenezer Webb, Sr., new Christopher Webb, Darius Webb, David Webb, Sr., Lydia Parmele, Oliver Webb, new Mabelle L. Webb,
and new Finlay Hester.
I went to Fort Ward Park in
Alexandria, Virginia and confirmed that Corporal Dwight Ruggles of Huron
County, Ohio died there when a wave of illness swept through his company and
killed about a dozen men of the 166th Regiment Ohio National
Guard. They were stationed
there to man the rifle pits and provide support to the artillery positioned
around the fortifications. From the
Fort’s vantage point, the cannons could be directed to place a cannon ball
along both Little River Turnpike (Rt236, Duke Street) and Leesburg Pike (Rt7)
at the point where the roads enter the City of Alexandria, Virginia. The fort is situated on a slight rise about
four miles south-east of Washington, DC (at present the cannons could lob a
cannon ball right into the HOV lane of Rt395/Shirley-Highway).
The Pennie research has taken a big leap forward. Contact was initiated by a Pennie cousin in Minnesota who spotted
the site while surfing – and she sent me
dozens of photos including one of the patriarch Thomas Pennie. If I can obtain permission to post them all,
then I will double-click double-quick.
I am afraid that I have neglected the Pennie research as of late, and
have devoted most of the research to the Webb ‘family-association’ which has
fascinated me so much. In Loren Webb’s
diary, he writes about how much he misses the ‘family-asociation’ and all the
things that go with it and I have begun to uncover what this family association
is all about. But, now with the
infusion of new material (the photos) I am all fired up to go out and find some
more new Pennie info.
Some Upton updates on America Upton Hilterbrand’s
page (info about her brother Louis).
Also, images of the
Compiled Service Record and Pension Files of Confederate Soldier, Private Louis
Elbert Upton, brother to America. This
was making me somewhat uneasy, but what can I do? I’m just documenting what people did in the past and I plan on
telling the truth and telling it all – just like it is. I suppose I always harbored some hope that
I’d find a branch of Reb’s, it somewhat balances out the huge Yankee bias I
seem to have found in the majority of the family so far – especially on my
mother’s side.
21 September 2001 – I have not posted an update for a long time. I have tweaked many pages, fixed some links, always fixing some stupid typo or other annoying mistake I have made. Its been ten days since we were attacked and I am still rather stunned and have been exhibiting a lackluster sort of appearance. In any event, we will prevail – if our gloried history is any portent. My work here in Washington and across the continent, continues. Although, I have been idle and neglecting the actual web-space, my research agenda is growing. I am traveling to Missouri and Illinois next week; to St. Louis to visit grandma and plunder the family records and photos for new clues and data; and to Chicago to attend the Chicago Historical Society’s Civil War Symposium where there will be a lecture given on the role of the Ninth Illinois at the Battle of Shiloh. They also have a copy of the newspaper published by the Ninth Reg’t at the time they occupied Paducah, Kentucky. Flying doesn’t seem like the greatest thing in the world right now – but terrorist or no terrorist – I am going to get my work done and curses to anyone who tries to scare me out of it.
2 October 2001 - Great strides have been made in tracking down significant material on Loren Webb. During my recent visit to the mid-west, I stopped off at McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois and made an amazing discovery. Some amount of confusion surrounds Loren Webb’s role in the Sioux Uprising of 1862, but that was cleared up significantly when I discovered a four-page journal entry in Loren’s handwriting describing his role in the military actions. A transcription has been added to the Sioux Uprising page. At the Belleville Public Library they have copies of the Belleville Weekly Advocate newspaper and I was successful in searching it to find articles by and about Loren Webb or the Ninth Illinois Infantry. At my grandmother’s house I was able to secure copies of the majority of my grandfather’s 201 File ans some travel orders. Of course, I am completely overwhelmed and have way too much to work with. I am lucky if I can get it all sorted before Christmas – not to mention all of the Pennie stuff I have been neglecting. I feel like I have to make better efforts to keep up my correspondence and assist those who have assisted me.
5 October 2001 – I am slowly beginning to form a focus for all of the scattered research I am doing. It is rather obvious that I am concentrating on Loren Webb to the exclusion of most other individuals, although I am always collecting data on everyone and anyone within my scope of study. All of this concentration on individuals seems to yield awesome results – because I am finding a great deal of information on Loren Webb – so much that I am prepared to begin constructing a cohesive biographical narrative. Today I hope to accomplish the transcription of another article by Loren from the Belleville Weekly Advocate and another one of his letters to his cousin Emily Ruggles. Additionally, I will format and post a few images to the Pennie Gallery.
10 October 2001 – A trip to the Nat’l Archives last night yielded two great finds. I discovered that my great-great-grandfather Jacob Arthur Parfitt was living in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in 1900 – a census entry supplied lots of great details. I also found Martin L. Webb I and Peter Pennie on the 1890 Special Veterans Census in Minnesota. Not bad results for three hours spent reading microfilm. On Tuesday morning, I sent out a copy of Loren Webb’s diary to Dr. Mark Young, archivist and historian at McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois.
Ancestors of Jonathan Webb Deiss
Author’s Disclaimer : This is not to be considered
the ‘final word’ on the individuals, family members and relationships I am
describing. This web-page and others on this site act as my research journal
and should be viewed as such. Information presented here may be incorrect, or
improperly cited or may be here one day and gone the next, yet I strive to
always update the information and correct any inconsistencies or mistakes on an
almost daily basis. As a work in progress it represents the best information
about the subject available to me at the time. I welcome comments and criticism
- email : jondeiss@yahoo.com. How am I related to all of these dead
people? click here
