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There were three questions I wanted to answer when I became the caretaker of my mother’s genealogy research from the 1970s. Certainly my subsequent research has generated far more questions than the original three, but these puzzles were significant impediments. All involved women who seemed to not exist before their wedding days in the 1800s. They were the portals to further generations of knowledge--19th century barriers, when other branches of my tree were filled in to at least the 18th century, and often beyond. As a genealogist, I considered the sparse branches of my tree a challenge. As a woman, I felt I owed these foremothers the effort to learn more about them than just the names of their husbands and children.
I had been able to solve two of the mysteries long ago. The remaining unfinished story was Rebecca Shultz Arment (see an earlier post). Not only had the story of her early life disappeared from our family history--no other descendants knew anything about Rebecca's parents either. I had searched what felt like the entire Midwest--and much of Virginia--for her, and I had nothing more than theories. A few times a year, I would review the information I had gathered and logged for her. And then I would put it aside in favor of lines on which I could make progress.
The marriage record of Rebecca E. Shultz and Martin Arment is dated June 1849 in Vermilion County, Illinois. Martin’s family had come from North Carolina by way of Indiana. Census records agree that Rebecca was born in Virginia around 1828 or 1829. Rebecca and Martin are missing from the 1850 federal census, but they were in Vermilion County on the 1855 state census. By the 1860 federal census they were further west in Christian County, Illinois, with members of Martin's family and the George Shultz I believed to be Rebecca's brother. In 1866, Martin Arment purchased land in Knox County, Missouri. Other residents of Knox County were Amos and Catharine Steidley, who had been there since at least 1859. The Steidley family's previous location was Vermilion County, Illinois around 1850. George Shultz was also on the 1850 census of Vermilion. He was aged 17, was born in Virginia, and was living with another family (who appears to be unrelated).
The marriage bond of Catharine Hott and Amos Steidley is dated October 9, 1837, in Berkeley County, [West] Virginia. They lived in Berkeley at the time of the 1840 census and had moved to Illinois around 1845. I had considered present-day West Virginia as Rebecca's birthplace, but I found no leads in which I could have confidence. My first theory was that Catharine could have been Rebecca's mother; Catharine would have been roughly 17 or 18 around the time of Rebecca's birth. Furthermore, Amos Steidley's 1840 household includes one female and one male, both born before his marriage to Catharine and who would be the ages of Rebecca and George. However, other documents confirm that Catharine's maiden name was indeed Hott.
My theory about the interconnectedness of the Steidleys and Arments stood for some time. This spring, my periodic review of Rebecca's information aligned with the top spot on my genealogical budget priority list. I vowed that this would be the summer I would figure it out.
I ordered Catharine Steidley's widow's pension record from the National Archives. Amos had served in the Missouri Cavalry in the Civil War and had died in 1864 from the effects of a cold he contracted in the service. Perhaps one of these documents could clarify Catharine's relationship to Rebecca, if any, beyond geographic.
I'd had my own DNA information but recently received the results of a key family member a generation older than I am. We are related to handfuls of people who are descended from George Hott and Eve Rebecca Steidley--Catharine Hott Steidley's paternal grandparents.
In mid September, I received Catharine's pension application packet. She stated in an 1867 document that Amos had died with two minor children [the youngest of the six they were parents to] and that her maiden name had been Hott. One of the two affidavits supporting Catharine's claim was signed by John M. Steidley in 1867. His relationship to Catharine is not noted and he swore that he had no interest in the result of this claim...though he was the eldest son of Amos and Catharine Steidley, born in 1843 before the family's move to Illinois. John M. Steidley was also the neighbor of Martin and Rebecca Arment on the 1870 census of Salt River, Knox County, Missouri.
The second affiants among Catharine's claim were Martin and Rebecca Arment. Their 1871 affidavit states that they are aged 57 and 56, respectively. They “have been all their lives, previous to his death, acquainted with Amos Steidley…and that they were for a like term acquainted with his wife—now widow—Catharine Steidley. Amos Steidley and Catharine Steidley were married at Martinsburg VA on the 10th day of October 1837…. They had born to unto them a family of children, that affiants know all the foregoing facts from the fact that they resided in the same neighborhood where the said Amos and Catharine resided at the time of said marriage and were personally present at said marriage and saw them married. That since said marriage, they have resided either in the same neighborhood with said Amos Steidley and wife, or so near them as to have personal knowledge…” The Arments believed their affidavits are the best evidence of said marriage, as they are informed that said marriage was never recorded or that the record was destroyed in the late war. The deponents further state that they reside near Novelty and have no interest whatever in this claim--a statement similar to that of Catharine's son John M. Steidley.
Martin’s and Rebecca’s ages in this affidavit are 10 years off for Martin and about 14 for Rebecca. Additionally, There’s no evidence that Martin was ever in [West] Virginia, as his own family was in Indiana in 1830 and 1840, so it could only be Rebecca who is swearing that she has known Catharine and Amos Steidley her whole life. Rebecca also swore that she attended their wedding, at which time she would have been about 8 or 9 years old. Finally, the statement reads that Amos Steidley and Catharine Steidley were married in 1837; Catharine’s name at the time of her marriage isn’t mentioned in this document but is in Catharine’s application. It’s obviously unknown whether these details, in addition to any others, are honestly confused or rather were crafted to be vague in order to bolster Catharine’s claim.
Meanwhile, a very helpful staff member at the Knox County courthouse was able to find and send me the will of Catharine Steidley. Dated August 3, 1875, it names her “three children namely Rachel, Abigail, and David W. Steidley,” who are to receive all her livestock and household furniture. She names her “three children Elizabeth Higgens, John M. Steidley, and William M. Steidley,” who are to receive $5 each. Her son William is also named the executor of the will.
Catharine's will includes no mention of any other children. Martin Arment and T.C. Whiteman were the securities for William M. Steidley’s execution of Catharine’s will. Thomas C. Whiteman was also living in close proximity in to Catharine on the 1870 census, and his relationship to her seems solely geographic. Catharine had several outstanding notes due her at the time of her death, including Martin Arment (Rebecca's husband) and John Arment (Rebecca and Martin's son). Martin Arment and John Arment were also among the most frequent purchasers on the sale bill of Catharine’s estate.
Rebecca Shultz Arment died a dozen years after Catharine Hott Steidley. Like Catharine, Rebecca is buried in Novelty Cemetery.
It was all more circumstantial evidence that Rebecca Shultz Arment and Catharine Hott Steidley were somehow and significantly connected. But it didn't confirm anything. In fact, it raised more questions. The days of summer were dwindling, as was my hopefulness that this was The Summer I Would Figure This Out.
I'd read the will of Rebecca Hott Ankrum some time ago. She was the younger sister of Catharine Hott Steidley. This Rebecca had been living in Berkeley County, West Virginia, on the 1850 census. In 1858 at the age of about 42, Rebecca Hott married a widower in Vermilion County, Illinois, where her sister Catharine had been living at least a decade. After Rebecca's husband's death, she moved back to West Virginia, where she was living by 1900 and where she died in 1901. Rebecca's will names no children but instead names her siblings, most of whom were deceased. Catharine herself was long dead, and so was her daughter Rebecca Shultz Arment. So I filed this information away...until realizing that I didn't have a copy of the estate disbursement of Rebecca Hott Ankrum. Catharine's heirs might be named as her representatives.
Rebecca Ankrum's estate was settled in Berkeley County, West Virginia, in 1902. The heirs of Catharine Steidley are indeed listed: Rebecca Shaultz, George Shaultz, Anna Steidley, and John Steidley. Rebecca Shultz Arment was born around 1828/9. The George Shultz I posited was her brother was born in 1831. Anna and John would be the two eldest of Catharine and Amos's six children, born around 1838 and 1843. At the time of Rebecca Ankrum's death, Rebecca Shultz Arment had been deceased for about 15 years. Anna Steidley had been deceased for about 18 years. She had married a Higgins over 40 years earlier, at which time she began sometimes using her middle name, Elizabeth. The last child on that list, John M., was born in 1843--around the time that Amos and Catharine moved to Illinois. Only about two of the siblings of Rebecca Hott Ankrum and Catharine Hott Steidley were still alive in 1902. It appears that the people back in West Virginia had a pretty dated account of Catharine's children. But these must be her children.
Just like every puzzle, it has more pieces then I originally thought. Who was Rebecca and George's father? Was Catharine never married to him? Did he die when the children were young? Did he abandon them? Was Amos the candidate to marry Catharine--his slightly older, likely second-ish cousin--because she needed someone to care for her and her young children? I will continue to search for more evidence, every once in a while.
Until then, I am happy to know more about where Rebecca Shultz Arment belongs. I've been to the Novelty Cemetery where she and Catharine Hott Steidley are buried, but that was 24 years ago, before my interest in the depth of my family's history. It was to bury my great-grandmother, whose own great-grandmother would have been Catharine Hott Steidley. In the last days of summer, the library in Edina, Missouri, confirmed for me the exact locations of Rebecca Arment's and Catharine Steidley's graves--two spaces apart in Novelty Cemetery.
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