The Death of Silas Runyon??

On the Left is Asa Runyon, On the Right is his brother Silas Runyon.  They are older brothers to my Great Great Grandfather Gilford Runyon.  Asa was named after his father and his life is well documented from beginning to end.  Silas on the other hand presents the same mystery as his sister Sarah Jane from my last post.  A death date of 1890 is prevalent on the net with no source for its origin and no evidence for its accuracy.  When did he die?

I have been in contact with descendants of Silas and the family story is that he and his wife both died at about the same time and his kids were watched over by their eldest siblings and by other relatives in the area.  It seems a likely explanation but there are a few kinks in it.

The grave of Silas' widow Clara Beuter Runyon exists in Solon, Johnson County, Iowa and her death on Apr 5th 1890 is present.  If Silas died at about the same time, why did she receive a grave and he did not?  Is he buried there but for some reason the family never got around to adding his name to the grave?  It is a Catholic cemetery.  Was she Catholic and allowed burial there and he was not?  If so, where is he buried?  He shows up in no Iowa indexes of burials that I have seen.  Of course, that raises another question.  How were these widely available indexes compiled?  by reading Headstones or by the actual burial records for the cemetery?  If the former, perhaps he is buried with his wife, but as he is not on the headstone he never made it into the indexes.

I can also find no probate or guardianship records in Johnson or Linn for the underage children they left behind.  Yet I found tons of similar records when a direct ancestor of mine died in Johnson County in 1855 leaving 10 underage children and a wife. Silas and his wife left behind 6 children under 18.  Is one possibility that Silas was not dead?

When Silas fought in the Civil War he was recorded as having deserted his unit 3 times.  Did he carry that habit into his family life?  There is no evidence at all for that possibility, but it could explain the lack of a grave, probate, and death record.

1.  SILAS REID RUNYON was born 31 Jul 1843 in Knox, KY.  He married CLARA BEUTER 12 Feb 1866 in Johnson, IA, daughter of JOSEPH BEUTER and ANASTASIA HEIM.  She was born 26 Oct 1844 in Taylorsville, Montgomery, OH, and died 05 Apr 1890 in Solon, Johnson, IA.

       

Children of SILAS RUNYON and CLARA BEUTER are:

i.    HARRY M RUNYON, b. Nov 1866, Solon, Johnson, IA.

ii.   MARTIN ROSS RUNYON, b. Jul 1868, Springdale, Cedar, IA.

iii.   ANASTASIA S RUNYON, b. 28 Feb 1870, Johnson, IA; d. 07 Jun 1906, Sterling, Whiteside, IL.

iv.  NICHOLAS L RUNYON, b. Abt. 1873, Johnson, IA.

v.   MARY GENEVIEVE RUNYON, b. 19 Jan 1874, North Liberty, Johnson, IA; d. 19 Apr 1970, Glendale, Los Angeles, CA.

vi.  ESTELLE M RUNYON, b. 09 Dec 1876, Johnson, IA; d. 25 Feb 1954, Los Angeles, CA.

vii. WILLIAM A RUNYON, b. Abt. 1878, Johnson, IA.

viii.AUGUSTA M RUNYON, b. 23 Jun 1881, Johnson, IA; d. 08 Jun 1963, Los Angeles, CA; m. GEORGE FINLAYSON, Bet. 1910 - 1920; b. 09 Mar 1879, Canada; d. Bef. 1930.

ix. LEONARD REID RUNYON, b. 30 Oct 1882, Solon, Johnson, IA; d. 23 May 1968, Los Angeles, CA.

Inspired by Fenwick Tatum

The inspiration for this Blog came after I posted the entry below about the sister of my Great Great Grandfather on a Runyon Family Website.  The presence of the rather unique name Fenwick Runyon led a cousin to the post through a Google search...my first personal experience with the power of Google in genealogy.  I thought I would repost it as it also addresses another problem common in Genealogy.  Once an incorrect piece of information gets out there it is hard to combat its prevalence.  I have made a few edits from the original as the mystery has now been solved and a few points of clarification were needed.

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An Error seems to have proliferated on the net regarding the death date of Sarah Jane Runyon Tatum. Many many online second hand sources note that she died "Abt 1857" which happens to be the same year her father died. I don't know the original source for this date, but it is certainly incorrect.

Sarah Jane Runyon was the eldest daughter of Asa Runyon and Mary Arthur who are my 3G Grandparents.  She married Thomas Tatum and initially lived in Garrard County KY among the rest of her family.

I have spent the last several years trying to build a database of descendants of Asa Runyon and one mystery always lingered. What happened to the Tatums? Initial searches only uncovered their marriage record and the birth record of their first child, Mary Thomas Tatum. After that they seemed to disappear, which lent legitimacy to the idea that Sarah died in 1857. However it didn't explain what happened to the rest of the family and many searches in the past lead to only dead ends.

I made a breakthrough when searching the exhaustive 1925 Iowa State Census. It includes parents names for each person and a Mary Crain was listed with Thomas Tatum and Sarah Jane Runyon as parents. A further search on just the parents names lead me to a surprise. Iva Wilson is also listed as the child of Thomas and Sarah, but she was only 56, so born about 1869. If Sarah had died around 1857 that would be impossible. I have since located the entire family including Sarah in Anderson county KY in the 1860 Census and in Johnson County IA in 1870. I think I have found them in 1880 in Penn Township in Osborne County Kansas. Only Thomas J Tatum, Charles Tatum and Fenwick Tatum are listed though. The 1885 Kansas State Census shows Thomas and Fenwick and indicates they came to Kansas from Iowa. It seems possible that Sarah Jane died sometime between 1870 and 1880. Further research is needed to prove the Kansas Connection.

Some mysteries other than the Kansas connection remain:

What happened to Iva in 1880? She was only 11 and it appears she was not living with her father in Kansas or her eldest sister in Iowa.

Why is Mary Tatum Crain listed as having no children in the 1900 and 1910 census column pertaining to that question, yet just below her is Eva G Crain who is listed as the daughter of Mary's husband? Mary and Andrew Crain had been married for 20 years with no children when Eva was born. Was she Adopted? Perhaps the child of one of Andrew's siblings?

What happened to Charles and Nellie/Hellie Tatum? 
 

1.  THOMAS J TATUM was born 17 Aug 1827 in Garrard, KY, and died 10 Dec 1898.  He married SARAH JANE RUNYON 12 Jan 1852 in Garrard, KY, daughter of ASA RUNYON and MARY ARTHUR.  She was born 10 Jan 1837 in Garrard, KY, and died 20 Jan 1875 in IA.

               

Children of THOMAS TATUM and SARAH RUNYON are:

i.    MARY THOMAS TATUM, b. 11 Jul 1853, Garrard, KY; d. 1933.

ii.   SILAS WILLIAM TATUM, b. Apr 1856, KY; d. 1937.

iii.  NELLIE TATUM, b. Abt. 1861, KY.

iv.  CHARLES TATUM, b. Abt. 1864, KY.

v.   FENWICK TATUM, b. Abt. 1866, KY; d. 26 Jul 1947.

vi.  IVA LEORA TATUM, b. 12 Jul 1869, IA; d. 25 Dec 1956.

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The answer to the mystery about Sarah Jane Runyon's death was ultimately solved when I discovered a listing for her Grave on an Iowa Gravestones website.  She died in 1875.  I still don't know the origin of the 1857 date. 

If you are related to the Tatums and have any info to share, I would love to hear from you.

Why start a Genealogy Blog?

I really only have two things in mind.  First, I want to get my thoughts down somewhere that I can easily look back over and, second, I wanted to create something that could easily be found via a Google Search.

I want to focus on unsolved mysteries in my family tree and also those nagging unanswered questions that don't really rise to the level of a mystery.  It really helps to look back over ground already covered and the nature of genealogy is that as your tree grows you can find yourself climbing different branches, meaning you may neglect one branch for months at a time as another catches your interest.  Mentally processing back through thought process about a family months after the fact means a lot of lost ideas.  In keeping a blog it will be easier to retrieve them.

I have been an Ancestry user for a decade.  I love their member connect as it leads you to so many other people who are researching the same lines and who might have information or pictures that you could access in no other way.  However, Ancestry is just a drop in the internet ocean that is blocked from searches by a membership firewall.  In keeping a blog I hope to open access to solving various mysteries and connecting with family on a wider scale that search engines offer.