BCGHS Journal Vol IV, No 2, Apr-Jun 2022, by LeAnne McCamey, BCGHS Newsletter/Quarterly Editor

If there was ever a poster child that demonstrates the importance of the BCGS 1890 Project, it would be John Hamilton Clubb. Bosque County tax lists place him here in 1890, but he didn’t stay long. The fact of the matter is he didn’t stay any place very long. He is also a good demonstration of how important census records are in finding your ancestors and tracking their movements.

There is a Clubb Family Tree on Ancestry.com that contains a great deal of information on John. The tree gives his date of birth as 28 Nov 1840 (confirmed in his obituary), Kaskaskia, Randolph Co, IL. It indicates that his parents are Philip “Jackson” Clubb and Jane Evans. The tree doesn’t source his parentage, but census records provide evidence of the same, though John never actually appears on a census with his father. The author of the tree provides a note that she obtained the military record of Philip Jackson Clubb that contains a widow’s pension application filed by Jane claiming that she had three children fathered by Philip; Frank -b. 1859, Levi -b. 1861, Caroline – b. 1863. Notably, it doesn’t mention John. At the time Jane applied for the pension, she states that she was sixty-six years old, living in Colinas, Cherokee, KS, with her daughter. Her sons were living in Granby, MO; all three were under the age of sixteen. She applied several times and was rejected on grounds of desertion.

There is a marriage record for Philip and Jane dated 9 Oct 1939, Pope Co, IL (FHL 0964534). There is also a marriage record for Philip and his second wife (Aggie L Ashley) dated 9 Apr 1845, Pope Co, IL (Ancestry Compiled Marriages, IL). A quick search of Ancestry.com didn’t turn up any divorce records, but Philip was married to both women. The veracity of Jane’s statements has not been proven in my limited research for this article, but if what she states is true, she was having children with Philip at the same time his second wife was.

In any case, census records indicate that John was parted from his immediate family at a pretty early age. The first census I find him on is the 1850 census at the age of nine living in Pope Co, IL, in the household with Elizabeth Clubb (age 58), Levi Clubb (age 30), and what appears to be his mother Jane (age 20). Neighboring them are Eli Clubb (age 19) and George Clubb (age 28). In George’s household was Isaac Clubb (age 76). The Clubb Ancestry Tree indicates that Isaac Clubb and Elizabeth Clubb are the parents of Philip Clubb and that Eli and George are his brothers. By all indications, John spent his formative years in the home of his grandmother. Both of his grandparents appear to have died after this census was taken.

John [Hamilton] appeared next in nearby Clear Creek, Alexandria, IL, on the 1860 census at age twenty-one; a laborer in the household of D McClure. He still lived there when he enlisted in the 29th Illinois Volunteers during the Civil War.

29th Illinois Infantry Regiment History website provides a complete history of John’s regiment. Of the more notable events was the Battle of Shiloh in which his regiment is said to have borne a most honorable part. They were constantly engaged during the siege of Corinth in May 1862, and served with distinction during the Battle of Vicksburg. According to his obituary, John was wounded three times during his service in the Union Army.

The Clubb Ancestry Tree indicates that John married Loretta Ann Callison on 30 May 1867 in Marshfield, Webster, MO, at the age of twenty-six. His obituary supports this. John and Loretta are on the 1870 census in Jackson, Greene, MO, where he worked as a laborer. There was a two-year-old Emma Clubb in the household.

By 1880, John and his family had relocated to Patosie, Linn, KS. He was a laborer and his status was given as crippled at the age of thirty-nine. Listed in his household are his five children; Anna (age 11 – Emma from the 1870 census?), William (age 9), Colbert B (age 8), David C (age 6), John W O (age 3). The census indicates that Colbert and David were born in Arkansas and John in Missouri.

John’s obituary states that he came to Texas in 1844, which is a typo that should have read 1884. By 1890, he is found in the Bosque County tax records. He first shows up on the Bosque County Tax Assessment List in 1887 and remains there until 1891. The 1890 Veteran’s Schedule states that he lived in Clifton. It notes that he is “presently recuperating” and that he was working as a section hand. This is an indication that he was following the railroad.

Laying track and living in and among the railroad construction camps was often very difficult. Railroad construction crews were not only subjected to extreme weather conditions, they had to lay tracks across and through many natural geographical features, including rivers, canyons, mountains, and desert. Like other large economic opportunity situations in the expanding nation, the railroad construction camps attracted all types of characters, almost all of whom were looking for ways to turn a quick profit, legally or illegally. Life in the camps was often very crude and rough.

John arrived in Bosque County about the time that the Whipple Truss Bridge was being constructed. The bridge was being built in Clifton to accommodate the linking of the “New Town of Clifton” that was built around the newly contstructed Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe (GC&SF) railroad tracks to the “Old Town of Clifton” west of the Bosque River, where the Santa Fe Depot was built in 1881.

In March 1886, the Santa Fe Railroad Co. purchased the smaller GC&SF. Part of the agreement required GC&SF to construct a 171-mile line from Fort Worth to Indian Territory. John turned up on the 1900 census with his wife and son, David, in Mulhall, Logan, OK; evidence further supporting that his transience was due to following railroad construction. That census indicates that John rented a farm and that David worked as a laborer with him on the farm.

In the interim census years, John returned to Texas. The 1910 census lists him in Coke, Robert Lee Co. It indicates that he owned a farm and worked as a veterinarian surgeon and that he was a veteran of the Union Army. He and his wife were still there in 1920. They had four grandchildren that lived with them; Grace Clubb (age 17), Earnest Clubb (age 18), Earl Blystone (age 22), widowed Ethel Peck (age 21), and a great-grandson, Edward Peck (age 2 months).
According to John’s obituary, he grew so feeble shortly after this that he and his wife were forced to relocate to Maysville, OK, to be near their children. A few months before his death, gangrene developed in an injury in his right foot that more than likely was an underlying cause of his eventual death.

Census records provide an outline of what must have been a very interesting life; something that merits more research into all of the records he must have left behind in his travels. Those records would likely reveal the life of a man who was a hard worker and willing to undertake any task to make a living for his family.

John lived to the old age of eighty-one, despite enduring what must have been incredible hardship. His was, by no means an easy life by any standards. His obituary paints a picture of one who was eternally optimistic; one who established a reputation honorable enough that the last words said about him was that “he was a good man.” A noble enough goal for any one of us to strive to attain.

SOURCES

U.S. Federal Census Records, Ancestry

29th Illinois Infantry Regiment History, https://civilwar.illinoisgenweb.org/history/029.html

Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1846-1910 – FHL 2282105

Railroads in the Late 19th Century, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/rise-of-industrial-america-1876-1900/railroads-in-late-19th-century/

History of Clifton, TX, http://www.liveinclifton.org/page/history.aspx

“Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway” , TSHA Online Handbook, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/gulf-colorado-and-santa-fe-railway

The Maysville News (Maysville, OK) 2 Feb 1922