Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2020
Genealogists
build the life story of their ancestors utilizing family stories, court records
and more. The children of the household
may be counted in the family census records or even a guardianship. But they rarely show up in other court
records until they attain the age of consent.
Did our ancestorial children have happy childhoods? Were they well fed
and properly clothed? Genealogists can
assume religious upbringing and possible wealth through their parents records
but personality and other factors in life may be harder to ascertain.
Julina
McCormack was born on Christmas Day, 1836 in Lawrence County, Kentucky. By
looking at calendars we know that day was also the Sabbath, Sunday. In early December, prior to her birth, Martin
Van Buren was elected the 8th President of the United States.
Julina McCormack
Julina
was the daughter of Lorenzo Dow and Emily “Emma” Brumfield McCormack. Her father was born 11 October 1804 in Bedford
County, Virginia and named for itinerant preacher, Lorenzo Dow. An article, while Lorenzo’s mother, Mary, was
pregnant, gives a clue as to why so many in Bedford county were named Lorenzo.
“A brief account of the remarkable work of God, in Virginia, Bedford County,
which originated at a Camp Meeting, held by the Rev’d Lorenzo Dow, in
conjunction with eighteen Methodist Preachers … souls were …converted – with
innumerable awakenings… …June 5, 1804[i].
Julina’s
parents married 2 March 1826 in Giles County, Virginia. Lorenzo Dow McCormack’s father-in-law to be,
Micager Brumfield witnessed the marriage bond.
Lorenzo Dow and Emma Brumfield McCormack were married by Landon Duncan,
a Baptist minister who the next year united with the Disciples of Christ
Church. Their first child, Ellen was
born 25 December 1827, their first Christmas baby, in Giles County, Virginia.
There
are several family stories handed down about Julina’s mother, Emma. Some family members were told that Emma and
sister Lucinda were Cherokee and either adopted or raised by the Brumfield
Family. This is a fallacy, disproved by DNA.
This compiler’s husband has no native blood and over 100 dna matches
showing that Micager Brumfield is the father of Emma.
Another
family story told this compiler says Emma was killed in a corn crib by Creek
Indians in North Carolina and her husband (Lorenzo Dow McCormack) then brought
the children to Kentucky after her death.
This also is a fallacy.
Emma/Emily is accounted for on her husband’s census in Giles County in
1830 along with a female child under five (Ellen) and a new son Micajah (named
for his grandfather Micajah and called Cager).
There is a published story in the History of Tazewell County
about the capture of the Andrew Davidson family along with a bound boy and girl
“orphans whose parents were Broomfields.”
However, this incident occurred in the Spring of 1791 and both Lorenzo
and his wife were not born until the early 1800’s. While this story may be
connected to the Brumfield family it does not directly involve Julina’s mother.
Lorenzo
and Emma did not own property and they may have been in financial trouble when
an indenture was drawn up to Charles and Daniel Hale in September 1831, in
Giles County, Virginia. The other
possibility is the McCormack’s were preparing to migrate to Kentucky and needed
money, not material items. The indenture involved a debt of $45.75, Lorenzo,
signing by mark. McCormack put up 44 shocks of hemp, one cow and calf, a two
year old heifer, 12 hogs, two beds, furniture and all household and kitchen
furniture. Charles Hale was infirm and
exempted from working the public roads the same year.
What
is clear is that early in 1832 Emma had another baby boy James Madison McCormack
born in Giles County, Virginia and Lorenzo’s father also had a debt. Father
Dennit McCormack signed an agreement, in September, with David and Andrew
Johnston for $30.00. Among the articles
in the debt indenture was a “little wheel” (spinning).
Lorenzo’s
father, Dennit McCormack, died sometime before August 26, 1833 in Giles County.
Among his inventory is a flax wheel, one loom and one set of spools. Lorenzo’s mother, Mary/Polly retained the
spinning wheel from the sale. Lorenzo,
Emma and the children had already begun their roughly 218 mile trek to
Kentucky. Lorenzo Dow McCormack appears
on the 1833 tax list in Lawrence County, Kentucky, where they have another baby
boy in March 1833, named Lorenzo Dow McCormack Jr.
Settled
in Lawrence County, Kentucky, after three years, 25 December 1836, Julina McCormack
was born. The second Christmas baby born
to the family. There is no further
record for Emma/Emily Brumfield McCormack after the birth of Julina.
Emma’s
parents had also migrated from Tazewell County, Virginia to Lawrence County,
Kentucky. Julina’s grandfather, Micajah
Brumfield, died just a month short of Julina’s first birthday, 28 November
1837. This is also the last appearance
of her father, Lorenzo Dow McCormack, on Lawrence County tax rolls.
Julina’s
sister, Ellen, nine years her senior, was bound out to learn the trade of
spinstress in February 1839. She was
bound out to uncle, James Brumfield. This hints that her mother was not around to
guide her.
Julina,
a toddler, was 2 ½ years old, when father, Lorenzo Dow McCormack married a
second time to Winna Bolling, across the river, in Lawrence County, Ohio, 26
September 1839. I do not locate L.D. in
1840. But this compiler believes that Ellen, Julina, and Lorenzo are among the
children listed in their grandmother Eleanor Clay Brumfield’s household during
the census in Lawrence County, Kentucky.
She was probably under Eleanor’s care since the death of her mother. The
family resided on the East Fork of Bolts Fork. A court order in March 1839 describes the
Widow Brumfield’s property in a county road order: “Widow Brumfield’s up the
fork to the Carter County line.” Other records indicate the property very near
Sandy Furnace. This is all beautiful
bottomland until it reaches the hill approaching Carter County.
Julina’s
grandmother, Eleanor Clay Brumfield, was
cited as owner of cattle that family herded to Wabash, Illinois in 1842[ii]. Among other family members involved in a suit
against Eleanor Brumfield was William McCormack, Julina’s uncle. While the suit does not mention Julina’s
father a lot of family was involved. I
usually think of cattle drives out west, but an excellent and informative read
appears in Agricultural History, April 1954 titled Cattle driving
from the Ohio Country, 1800-1850. I
now visualize them taking the cattle across to the Vincennes Trail, earlier
known as the Buffalo Trail, to Wabash where cattle were bringing top dollar
during this timeframe.
Sister
Ellen again appears in a court record citing Peres Randall as her guardian 26
January 1846 stating that father Lorenzo Dow McCormack is deceased. Ellen is 18
and can chose her own guardian. Randall was a well- known physician in Lawrence
and later Boyd County. Julina had lost both her parents by the time she turned nine
years old. Her life during this period
is a mystery. I have not located a guardianship or apprenticeship for her or
her other siblings.
Step-mother,
Winna Bolling McCormack, remarries 14 December 1845 to, German immigrant, Henry
Osendott, in Lawrence County, Ohio. This suggests that Julina’s father died
before December 1845. The Osendott’s are living in Vernon Township of Scioto
County, Ohio in 1850. Julina’s brother,
James Madison McCormack, is residing with Ellen now married to Harvey Slusher,
in Lawrence County, Kentucky. Brother,
Lorenzo Dow Jr. is residing with grandmother Eleanor Clay Brumfield along with
cousin Malinda McCormack[iii],
in Lawrence County, Kentucky. Neither Julina, now 14 years of age nor her
brother “Cager”, age 20, is accounted for in 1850. Either the census taker has slaughtered the
spelling of names or they were not counted as members in a household which presents
a conundrum.
The
Osendotts had son Pleasant Osendott in 1851, in Ohio. He moves to Twin Branch,
Lawrence County, Kentucky and dies in 1914 in Carter County, Kentucky. Winna also has a daughter, Nancy, in 1852 in
Kentucky. By 1870 she is back in
Lawrence County, Ohio.
Julina
married Henry Powell Sexton in Carter County, Kentucky 2 March 1854. She was 17 years old. She like other members of the family learned
and loved to spin.
Julina McCormack Sexton spinning, Sophia Francis Crum[iv]and Henry Powell Sexton carding wool.
She
would bare ten children all born in the portion of Carter that became Boyd
County. Her youngest child, a daughter,
Julina Leota Sexton Horton Klaiber gave me her mother’s old spinning wheel
which I cherish.
Julina
McCormack Sexton developed pneumonia and died January 14, 1914. She is buried
in Sexton Cemetery on Pigeon Roost, Boyd County, Kentucky.[v]
I
often think of Julina McCormack Sexton's childhood. Especially those years
between the age of 4 and 17. Formative years. She taught daughter Julina all the things
needed keep a household sufficiently. The
children of our ancestors had to be resilient, able to adapt to changes in
circumstances and self-sustaining.
[i]
Carlisle Weekly Herald, 20 Jun 1804
[ii] Phoebe Anne
Hale Webb, Lawrence County, Kentucky Annotates Abstracts Of Circuit Court
Records 1821-1873 (McDowell Publications: n.p., 1984), Page 17.
[iii]
d/o Wm and Lucinda Brumfield McCormack
[iv]
Sophia Francis Crum b c 1892 d/o Henry Wiser Crum and Maggie Klaiber. Sophia d c. 1894 and is buried in unm grave Klaiber
Cem.
[v]
KY, Boyd D Cert 311, 1914. Age 77.1.20
