The Challenging Family

 This week's #52 Ancestors blog prompt is Challenging. While I have many challenging families that I'm working on, the one that came first to mind was my POGUE family.

Olive Isabelle "Belle" Pogue, born 9 September 1892 in Franklin County, Illinois, was married at least three times. (1) She had four children with her first husband, George Elmus Edwards, including my grandmother (and another son with her second husband Joseph Kehder). I don't remember her, but I do remember that when she died in 1959, my grandmother went to southern Illinois for the funeral.(2) (Not sure why that memory sticks in my mind - I was pretty young at the time.)

Olive's father was Josiah Pogue. Josiah was born in March 1848, likely in Franklin or Williamson County (or possibly Saline or Gallatin). He is listed throughout his life as Josiah, Si, Cy, Cyrus, Silas, Josirus, and Joe. Josiah was married to Mahala Jane McClerren in 1886, and they had four children. He was only 52 when he died in 1900 in Franklin County Illinois. 

Here's where things start to get really murky. Josiah's father is James Pogue, born about 1807, somewhere in Kentucky. He appears to have been married three times - to Nancy Taylor, Lydia Medlin and Nancy Plaster - I've only found records for his marriage in 1831 to Lydia and in 1839 to Nancy Plaster. But Josiah's 1886 marriage record lists his mother as Nancy Taylor. So I'm not sure who his mother really was because it seems it should be either Lydia Medlin or Nancy Plaster. No death record has been found for Josiah - there are a couple of missing years on the Franklin County death register, including most of 1900 and all of 1901. It's like the registrar stopped entering records for a couple of years and no one knows why.

James Pogue served in the Black Hawk War briefly (as did many others from the area). He was in Captain Archilaus Coffey's Company of the 1st Regiment, 1st Brigade of Illinois Volunteers. A large group from Gallatin County Illinois enlisted in June of 1832.

In 1850, James "Pouge" and his wife Nancy lived in Franklin County, along with 10-year-old Wm. R, 7 year old Geo. W, L.E., aged 3 (a female), and Josiah, aged 2. The page is faint and hard to read. But they lived next door to John Foster and his family. 

In 1851, James bought land in Franklin County using the Bounty land scrip he received from his Black Hawk War service. He sold the land one year later. Things really get confusing after that.

In a book of abstracts of Early Franklin County Court records, in December of 1851, there is a record that I believe belongs to this family. (3) I have not been able to locate the original record. The abstract says 

"William Foster represents that James Page, father of George W., 9, Lyenin, 7 and Josiah Page 4, has for six months past wilfully neglected to provide for his minor children. A jury was called and found James Page guilty. It is ordered by the court that Joseph Swafford be appointed guardian of George Washington Page, aged 9 years on 9 April 1851, Lyain Page, aged 7 years and Josiah, aged 4 years, minor children of James Page."

 Is this James Pogue? I believe it is and was either mis-abstracted or written incorrectly in the original. I suspect the name may have been written as POGE. The last name is often misspelled for some reason. The ages closely match. The names match. It's always been unclear what L.E.'s name was - my assumption was it may have been Lydia since Josiah named a daughter Lydia. But maybe not. I'm also unclear about Joseph Swafford - there doesn't appear to be a Joseph Swafford in Franklin County, but there are many others, so perhaps it's one of those. There is no mention of William R. Pogue, who would have been around 11 or 12 - was he already living with someone else? 

So the mystery -- is the above a court record for my family? I don't know, but James disappears after this. There's no sign of his wife Nancy. In 1860, Josiah Pogue, aged 13, lived with John M. Foster and his family. John and his wife had been next-door neighbors to the then-intact Pogue family.

So my hypothesis, which still needs proving, is that James Pogue lost his wife right after that 1850 census. She likely died, but it's possible she ran off or they got a divorce. He could not, or would not care for his family and was taken to court because of his actions. He gave up the guardianship of his family to others, sold his land, and then just seemed to disappear. 

It's also unclear as to who the parents of James were - possibly James and Maran Pogue - but maybe not.  James may also have had two earlier children, David and James - but maybe not. He may have been married before he married Lydia Medlin -- but maybe not. There are still so many mysteries to be investigated. The work is impacted by the lack of records and the various spellings of the Pogue name.

So what about the rest of the family? They led challenging and sometimes troubled lives and they deserve their own posts which will follow in the future.

_________________________

(1) Olive's death certificate lists her birth date as 9 September 1893. The 1900 census gives her birth date as September 1892, and her Social Security Claims Index lists her birth date as 9 September 1892. Marriage records have been found for her first and second marriages but not for her third. 

(2) Death Certificate and obituary. It does list her name as Belle Hedges, that of her last husband.

(3)Pulliam, Carla, comp. Early Court Records, Franklin County, Illinois (Self-published, 1995) V. 1 1836-1876, V 2, 1877-1900. FHL library has vols 1-2 into 1 volume.