Doctor Grandma

Story of James and Carrie Agnew  (my great-grandfather)

 

b. July 10, 1841 in Ohio

d. 27 June 1906, New Albany, IN, from a fall off a ladder

 

[His 2^nd wife, my great grandmother, Carrie (Clara, Clara E., Clerry) was born somewhere in Indiana, April 1860. Her parents were: William R. Bybee and Anna Easum. She always reports William was born in Indiana; Anna was born in Kentucky.]

 

There is a lot to the story of James Agnew and many mysteries yet to be solved. His birth date is validated in a letter sent to me years ago by Norma, who was the daughter of John Wesley Agnew’s twin Gertrude Myrtle. Norma was raised by John Wesley and Mary Agnew when her mother Gertrude died at a very young age. His birth date is also validated on his grave stone.

 

One question is who James’ parents were. It remains unresolved. However, his death record from the cemetery had his father’s name as also James. This becomes important in locating James with his parents and family in Ohio.

 

James sometimes changes the story of where his parents were born. These stories will be included below. He never wavers on his own birth place as Ohio, however.

 

In looking for James, I find one who matches his birth date being from the Cincinnati area. This makes sense for him to eventually go down the Ohio river and settle in New Albany, Indiana which is where he lives out most of his adult life.

 

In the 1850 census in Hamilton County, Ohio, an 8-yr-old James is listed as a child at the bottom of the census page, away from his family, almost as an afterthought. The Agnew family on this page is the father James, with a much younger wife, Mary, and a baby, Alfred age 1 (b. 1849-50). Importantly, there is also an elder Samuel Agnew, who is very likely to be James’ father, living with them. Samuel, age 72, says he is born in PA. (This would make Samuel’s birth date about 1778 in PA.) The father James, here, is 38, born about 1812 in Ohio. His wife, Mary A. Agnew, says she was born also in PA. However, she is James’ junior by 16 years, 22 years old in 1850 and born about 1828.

 

Significantly, this makes Mary too young to be the younger James’ mother. She would have had James when she was 13. I don’t think so. — which begs the question: Who is the 8-yr old James’ mother??  This is the eternal question. Was she Indian? Black? Is he adopted from another family? Was the older James married once before? (He is old enough.) Why is little James at the bottom of the page, as if an afterthought? This is the unsolved mystery, especially curious since our James (the 8-9 yr old here) continually changes the story as to where his parents were from. If SAMUEL here is his real grandfather, then why would our James later keep changing the story of where his own parents were born? Did he just think it was none of the govt’s business? (He never says his own father was born in OH, as this older James states he was.) The father James Agnew, here is a “ship carpenter”. They live on the Ohio river. The name is mistakenly transcribed as: AGNEWE.

1860. Another mystery.

The only James Agnew, age 18, showing up in Ohio in 1860 lives with WILLIAM AGNEW family, in the same Cincinnati area. (Is William a brother to the older James we met in 1850? What happened to James and Mary? Is this the same James as the one from 1850?)

 

William has no wife. He is 54 (b.1806). He has 2 daughters, ANN and JENNETT, younger than James, ages 15 & 13.

 

William here gives his birth place as PA. (another clue he MAY be a brother to the older James, with father Samuel?)

 

William’s occupation is “cooper”.

 

Ann’s birth place is for some weird reason LOUISIANA. (She surely is not the wife, here?)

Jennett and James’ birth place is OHIO.

 

In 1861 there is a 19-yr-old James from the Cincinnati area who signs up into the UNION ARMY (military registration card).

 

By Aug. 3^rd, 1863, James A. Agnew marries Mary Caroline Gross (or Gorp?) in New Albany, Indiana. The marriage online record says Gross. The hand written record looks like she wrote: Gorp. 

 

In 1870, in New Albany, they have 2 girls, Annie age 5 and Olith age 3.

This child, Annie, becomes significant to tell us this is our James! A “sister” Annie, shows up in an obituary later, for William Robert Agnew, who is the first child and son of our James Agnew and his (second) wife, my great-grandmother, Carrie Bybee.

 

James and Carrie have no daughter Annie. So the sister surviving William Robert, has to be the above family sister. No record yet of the death of Mary Caroline or a marker for her.

 

* What we DO know is OUR James Agnew marries Carrie Bybee, Aug. 11, 1879, in New Albany. From this marriage 6 children are born:

William Robert 1880-1943,

James Garfield, 1882, dies same year as a baby

Frederick Louis 1883-1951,

Alfred Edward, 1886-1948,

And the twins: John Wesley and Gertrude Myrtle, b. 17 Aug. 1892,

Gertrude dies at age 43 in 1935; John Wesley dies in 1952 at age 60 (1 yr before I was born).

 

They live in New Albany their entire married life. James becomes a painter of houses. It is while high up on a ladder painting a house that he falls and dies within a few minutes, shortly before his 65^th birthday.

 

One of his sons was with him when he died. (Wm.) Robert was also listed as a “painter” in the 1900 census, so it could be he is the one who was with him. He fractured his skull & many ribs after falling 20 feet.

 

In the 1880 census, James says both his parents were born in England. He always says he was born in Ohio. Carrie says the same thing she says in the 1900 census, father Indiana, mother KY.

 

In the 1888-89 city directory, they lived at 117 East 4^th St., near Spring.

There is an “Ollie Agnew” working as a domestic in that same directory. It could be his daughter from the 1^st marriage, “Olith”.

 

In the 1900 census, James says his father was born in Virginia, his mother in Germany. That is just so random weird, he can’t even lie good! Why would he say that??

 

In this census, “Clerry” again says her father was born in Indiana, her mother in KY.

 

Carrie lives another 10 years after James. In 1910 she is living with ALL the adult kids, plus a 4-yr-old grandson named James F., son of William Robert. It seems strange none of the kids seem to have a spouse living there. William Robert (going by Robert), the oldest, is 30 years old. Did his wife already die?

 

In the next few years, something happened to Carrie and she was admitted to a hospital for the insane, in Madison. She died there of some sort of brain hemmorage (by cemetary records) and was brought back to New Albany to be buried.

 

Obit:

Mrs. Carrie Agnew, widow of James Agnew, died Thursday night at the Southeastern hospital for the Insane in Madison, and the body arrived Friday. Mrs. Agnew was 56 years old. She is survived by 4 sons, Robert, Fred and Edward Agnew, of this city, and John Agnew of Bloomington, and a daughter, Mrs. Beulah Warley, of Bloomington. She also is survived by 3 brothers, William Bybee of Indianapolis; the Rev. J.H. Bybee of Jeffersonville, and Robert Bybee of Louisville.

Detail Obituary “Public Press” p4c3, New Albany library

Date 05-09-1916 date published

 

(Beulah is Gertrude Myrtle, my grandpa’s twin.)

 

 They are buried together in Fairview cemetery, New Albany.

 

This entry was posted on June 28, 2011 at 11:14 pm and is filed under family tree research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.