I have, I hope, just finished moving the contents of my hosted blog onto my own site (as soon as I wrote this I realized the imported photos and scanned images look terrible – so I will have to rebuild those and that will take a bit longer.) The McLeland-Wieser Family is the place for “finished” articles about the family as well as a larger collection of family photos. But this blog – Relay- A Family History Blog is still my spot for research notes, speculations, articles in progress and digressions about knitting, the weather, family and travel.
Starting Over – Well Sort Of
June 10, 2009
The pension file of my dreams!
March 8, 2009
John McLeland, father of Thomas Asher McLeland, took the unusual step of applying for a Civil War Service Pension based on the service of his deceased son James R. McLeland. J.R. McLeland (the first in a long string of J.R. McLelands in this family culminating with my father) died, unmarried, of disease at Fort Scott Kansas, in 1861, before he had the chance to fire a single shot. His rank at his death was 2nd Lt., Company F, 3rd Kansas Infantry Volunteers.
J.R. was John McLeland’s second son. But John was far from running out of sons with James R.’s death. At the time of J.R.’s death there were 3 other sons in the household and another on the way. However, at the time John McLeland applied for his son’s pension, the family had lost 2 sons and 3 daughters and John McLeland had outlived 3 wives.
I wasn’t sure, when I wrote away for this pension file, exactly what I’d receive. I’d never seen a pension application of this type before. When the thick packet arrived I but it aside for a few days. I was busy with other things. Then, in the quiet of a Sunday evening I opened the envelope and almost immediately started cheering. I hit the biggest jackpot of my 20 years in Genealogy. (Confession – I was a newbie and the pink highlighting is mine – Arrgh! and thank heaven for good scanners.)
Not only does this affidavit give me the names of all of John McLeland’s wives and the dates of their marriages, it also gives me the dates and places of their deaths. And if that wasn’t enough, the affidavit names each of John’s surviving children and gives their complete birth dates! What more could I possibly ask?
Well, in the packet there are affidavits signed by John’s oldest daughter Caroline McLeland Gallaher Livesey and documents signed by his oldest daughter by his second marriage Mathilda McLeland Hill and by her husband John Hill. In addition there is a date and place of death for John McLeland and a record of the guardianship procceding undertaken by John and Matilda Hill shortly before her father’s death that detail his extremely poor physical and mental health.
I guess you could say, not only did James R McLeland give his name to my father, but he gave his family to me!
In 1847 two families immigrated from Bavaria to Iowa. They were closely related – a sister and brother and their families. Both families had relatively high education levels, they both came with some skills and a moderate amount of money and both families settled in Dubuque County, Iowa. But they had very different lives in America. First let’s look at the Lattner Family. Joseph and Veronica Wieser Lattner brought their three sons to the U.S. in 1847. After some initial roving the family settled in Dubuque County, Iowa. Here is a biographical sketch of their eldest son.
Paul Lattner
Extracted from Portrait and Biographical Record of Dubuque, Jones and Clayton Counties, Iowa, 1894. Reprinted by Higginson Book Co., Salem, Massachusetts, p. 212PAUL LATTNER, now deceased, was for many years one of the most prosperous and influential businessmen of Worthington. He was a native of Germany, having been born in Volketshousen, June 29,1832, and was the eldest of three sons born to Joseph and Veronica Lattner. The father of our subject was likewise a native of the Fatherland and was born February 4, 1803, while his good wife was born the same day and month but in the year 1810.
Joseph Lattner was a mechanic and upon emigrating to the New World with his family in 1847 located at Port Jarvis, N.Y., where he was employed with the railroad force in the construction of the New York & Erie Road. Three years later he moved to Zanesville, Ohio, and while there was contractor for the Lake Shore Road. He departed this life in 1852, and after his decease his widow and children spent a year in Hamilton, Ontario, after which they moved to Niagara Falls, N.Y.
The subject of this sketch, in company with his brothers Jacob and Wendelin, also followed contracting, building many roads in the west, among the last work of the kind being a three-mile track for the Dubuque & Pacific, now the Illinois Central Road, in this county. R. B. Moran, who let the contract, failed in business and the brothers were obliged to accept a large amount of land in payment for their services. In 1860 they laid out the now thriving town of Lattner’s and opened up in the mercantile business. The following year the Lattner brothers erected a steam sawmill in the place and in 1864 completed the construction of the woolen mill. The firm was a most prosperous one; the brothers amassed a considerable fortune and continued together until 1872, when the connection was dissolved.
Paul Lattner conducted the mercantile trade in the above place until 1886, when he disposed of his interest, and a year later we find him located in Worthington, where his younger brother, the Hon. Wendelin Lattner, was engaged in the mercantile business. Our subject followed farming near the city for three years after coming here, and in 1880 opened up a hotel, which he carried on in the most profitable manner until his decease, which occurred January 14, 1891.
Our subject served for many years as Justice of the Peace at Lattner’s, and was consequently known as Squire Lattner. He also held the position of Postmaster of the above place, and in 1884 was appointed to the same position at Worthington by President Cleveland. He was Notary Public for some time, and in 1875 was brought prominently before the public as a candidate for the Legislature and was defeated by a very small majority. He had filled the position of Township, Clerk eight years. He was a citizen always on the side of every social and moral reform and none knew him but to respect and love him. As a friend he was stanch and true, and the poor and distressed found in him a cheerful helper, to whom no appeal was made in vain.
Paul Lattner was married in Independence, Iowa, November 15, 1857, to Miss Amanda Lesher, a native of Ohio, and of Dutch ancestry. At his death our subject left a family of fifteen children, nine sons and six daughters. The eldest, Jacob F. is editor of the Cedar Rapids Journal. Wendline H. is one of the proprietors of the Kansas City Star. Samuel B. is engaged in the hardware business in Worthington. Joseph is a tinsmith in the employ of his brother Samuel. Paul is an engineer at Kansas City; John, George, Peter and Raymond are at home with their widowed mother. The eldest daughter, Mary Amanda, is now Sister Mary Boniface, of the Franciscan Order of Dubuque. Susan is the wife of P. Vandever, of Dyersville; Clara is Mrs. John Klassen, residing in Granville, this state, where her husband is engaged in the hardware business; Ella, Rosa and Anna are at home. The family occupies a pleasant home in Worthington, which was built by Mrs. Lattner after the decease of our subject.
Samuel B. Lattner, the third son of our subject, was born at Lattner’s, February 5, 1862, where he was given a good education. When only twenty years of age he engaged in the livery business in Worthington, and continued thus to operate for three years when he disposed of his stables and opened up a hardware establishment and has built up a large and profitable trade. He also handles agricultural implements and owns a large warehouse stocked with all kinds of carriages and buggies, to which branch of business he gives his personal attention. On the death of his honored father he was appointed Notary Public in his place, and is still the incumbent of the position he has been Village Clerk since the incorporation of the place, and also has been Treasurer of the School Board for the past five years. Like all of his ancestors he is a Democrat in politics and a devout member of the Catholic Church.
Samuel Lattner was married in 1885 to Miss Mary, daughter of Daniel Gerhart, a retired farmer of Hopkinton, and this state. To them have been born three daughters, Emma, Laura and Rebecca. This gentleman occupies one of the finest residences in the place. It is pleasantly located on an elevation just south of the business portion of Worthington and commands a good view of the surrounding country. Samuel Lattner has ever borne his part in the development and upbuilding of his community and is a prominent and influential citizen, highly respected throughout this section, where he has a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
Next up the story of Veronica Wieser Lattner’s brother Anton Wieser and his family’s life in Iowa.
The parents of John Herman Anstoetter
January 4, 2009
I was sent this information by a very kind researcher from Salzbergen, Germany. I am, regretably, very late in sending her information in reply. Sorry Karin – it will come.
The information comes from the parish records of St. Cyriakus, Salzbergen, Hannover, Germany. These records are not on microfilm at the LDS Family History Library. Anstoeter in German is usually spelled Anstoter with an umlate over the o.
Johannes Theodorus Anstoeter was a farmer in Hummeldorf, born 10 May 1809, died 26 November 1871 in Hummeldorf Jungehusling.
father – Bernhard Anstoeter
mother Adelheid Berning
Johannes married, 24 September 1844, as his first wife Maria Aleid Husling of Holsten, born 25 September 1820 and died 28 July 1849 in Hummeldorf.
Maria Aleid Husling’s parents were:
father – Jan Berend Jundge Husling
mother – Susanna Niemery
Johannes married second, on 21 November 1849, Anna Catherine Dusing of Hesselte who died 7 August 1868 in Hummeldorf
Anna Catherine Dusing’s parents were:
father – Heinrich Dusing
mother – Margaretha Evers.
Johannes and Maria Aleid had the following children baptised at St. Cyriakus Salzbergen
1. Johan Bernard born 26 July 1845 Hummeldorf died 7 March, 1903 in Hummeldorf
2. Herman Bernard Dirck born 4 September, 1847 Hummeldorf (whom we knew as John Herman, but who named one of his sons Bernard!)
Johannes and Anna Catherine had the following children baptised at St. Cyriakus, Salzbergen:
3. Gerhard Heinrich born 15 December, 1851 Hummeldorf
Herman andd Gerhard emigrated to Iowa in about 1869. According to Karin they were probably draft dodgers. Gerhardt and Herman emigrated with two of their Dusling cousins from Salzbergen. They took ship from Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
“John” Herman Berhard Ansoteter, married first Elizabeth Erdman and after her death he married her youngest sister Gertrude. John Herman died 8 FEB 1915 in Dubuque County, Iowa.
Gerhard Heinrich Anstoeter died 24 April 1896 in Templeton, Carrol County, Iowa. He married Catherine Schlichte.
According to Karin the surname Anstoeter means a person or family which lives at the borderline of two countries (from the german word anstossen “to border at”). The Anstoeter family lived, in the middle of the 19th century, at the borderline between the Kingdom of Hanover and the Kingdom of Prussia. The farm still exists at the same place, now is is on the borderline between two German states Lower-Saxony and Northrhine-Westphalia. This is a rare surname. All of the Anstoet[t]ers in the United States descend from Herman or Gerhardt.
The only other Anstoetter I know to have emigrated to the U.S. was Anna Adelheid Anstoetter, who was of a previous generation. She was born in 1800 and married Gerhardt Ovel in 1829 in Salzebergen. She and Gerhardt emigrated in the 1850s and she died in Delaware County, Iowa in 1878. She was the younger sister of Johannes Theodorus and therefore the aunt of Herman and Gerhard. It is quite probably that the Antoetter young men lived with she and Gerhardt Ovel when they emigrated.
(thanks to my cousin Darrell for catching several typos in the post – they have been fixed. Any existing errors are my own, sadly) This photo of Thomas Asher ( T.A.) McLeland is one of a pair (much large and with the details painted in) that hang in my front hall. The other is my great great grandmother Caroline Decker McLeland. Thomas and Caroline led ordinary lives. I’m going to spend the next few posts talking about Thomas’ life as I’ve put together the pieces so far. I’m not going to include sources – at this point. Once I’ve posted the whole thing, I plan on moving it to my website The McLeland-Wieser Family with sources etc. I already have many photos of T.A. and Caroline’s family on the site. Check them out.
Thomas Asher McLeland was born, 1835, in either Wayne or Clinton Counties, Indiana to John McLeland and his wife Matilda Asher. Thomas, or T.A. as he was known most of his life, was the third child and first son for John and Matilda. Shortly after the birth of their second son, James R. McLeland, Matilda Asher McLeland died. John wasn’t the kind to raise a young hopeful family on his own. He remarried almost immediately to Martha Jane Koonz a young widow with one son. John and Mathilda had several children so T.A.’s adolescence must have been full of the chaos of younger brothers and sister.
Many of T.A’s mother’s family lived nearby, including 2 Uncles and an Aunt. By the time T.A. was 20 his father had been once more widowed and had remarried again. Now he again had a household full of young half siblings. John had also moved his continuously growing family to Boone County, Indiana where he was running a general store and becoming very active in the local Christian Church. Perhaps the household was just too full, perhaps he saw economic possibilities, perhaps he felt a closer kinship with his Asher relatives. Whatever, the reason, at the age of 22 T.A. and his only full blood brother, J.R. moved with their Asher Uncles to Allen County, Kansas.
They arrived at the height of the terrorism and political skullduggery called “Bleeding Kansas.” Although Allen County wasn’t at the heart of the troubles, the massacre at Marais des Cynes was only about 60 miles away. The area around Iola had been heavily settled by Free Staters, making it a prime target of the raiders from Missouri. T.A. and Thomas Asher, William Asher and Alvin Asher settled in the area of Deer Creek Township well away from the majority of the trouble.
Living nearby was a household of 2 families newly arrived from Illinois. William Decker, his second wife Catherine, his daughter Caroline and his younger brother Alfred and family had migrated from Pennsylvania to Illinois. There William and Catherine’s 3 young sons were born. The families arrived in this tense and volatile part of the territory just a few months before the Asher and McLeland families. Shortly after their arrival William Decker died. His widow, left alone with 3 very young children remarried almost immediately. And almost immediately William’s estate became mired in controversy. Alfred Decker and the former Catherine Decker tangled in court several times. Among the deponents in one episode was Thomas Asher McLeland.
Shortly after giving his testimony in 1861, T.A. married the orphaned Caroline Decker. Like many young married men in the early 1860’s, T.A. left his bride and joined his brother in the the Kansas volunteers, both in the cavalry. T.A. saw limited “frontier” duty, guarding rail lines etc. Many years later his pension file would relate that most of his service was away from the main battlefields but was just as muddy, tiring, disease ridden and nearly as bloody as the more “glamorous” service of his cousins. His younger brother never saw combat. James R. died of disease at Fort Scott , KS before his training was completed. Many years later T.A.’s elderly father applied for a Civil War pension based on the service of his deceased son James.
By the time T.A. came home from the war, his Asher relatives had nearly all migrated across the bloody Kansas border into Missouri, leaving Caroline and her step family waiting for T.A. to return. I have no idea if William Asher was pro Confederacy but the timing of his move seems odd. Alvin and Thomas Asher served in the Union army. And T.A. and his children kept in regular touch with Thomas Asher and his family. Whatever wounds may have been given during the Civil War appear to have been mended fairly quickly at least among some of the family.
This lovely photo shows Bernard Joseph Anstoetter and Lidwina Kramer just after their wedding in Dyersville, Iowa, December 1919. My mother in law, child of Ben and Lydia had one of the rarest surnames I’ve ever researched. Every person in the United States with the surname Anstoetter/Anstoeter was directly related to her within 3 generations. All of them descend from 2 brothers who arrived in the US about 1868. This also appears to be a very rare surname in Germany. It’s always a bit of a shock to search for a name and have almost nothing turn up! However this has its good points. Anything I post or write about the family is sure to be found and read. As a result I’ve just been blessed with wonderful instance of Genealogical Serendipity.
The Anstoetter men hailed from Hummeldorf near Salzbergen Germany. Neither Hummeldorf or Salzbergen are large towns even today. So you can imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from an official of the Historical Society for Salzbergen. She was interested in finding out more about these former citizens of her town. And it turned out she had access to the unmicrofilmed church records of St. Cyriakus in Salzbergen. So a gift from heaven!!! Read More
Lumberjacks – the cowboys of early Maine
December 19, 2007
Following up on the legend of the death of Moses Gould in 1816, I had some questions. Would a logger’s death have been so commonplace it wasn’t recorded in a local newspaper? Was it likely that Moses was working as a logger? The rest of his family appear to have been primarily ship carpenters and farmers. What was the life of a logger like in this very raw period of Maine life?
Being a librarian I turned to print sources first 
The University of Maine Bulletin, (series 2 #37, 1935, pages 13+) published an entire issue, over 150 pages on “A History of Lumbering in Maine 1820-1861″ The following snapshot of the dangers and rewards of a lumbermans life is taken primarily from that bulletin.
In the 1820’s, a lumberman worked 4 months a year during the dead of winter. He could earn, on average, 75 cents per day at a time when a bushel of corn cost 60 cents. The men boarded in a lumber camp at a cost of 25 cents per day. If he was careful with his money, he could come out of the woods at the end of the winter with close to $60 in his pockets. Of course that assumed that he hadn’t spent anything at the camp store. And over a long winter it seems likely that he would need to purchase some items, a new shirt, perhaps or some tobacco. Still, that was a lot of money for the early 1800s. And the work was theoretically seasonal. Young farmers, working hard in Maine’s thin soil and short growing season to provide for their families, may have been lured by seemingly big money. The newspapers and government reports of the 1830’s and 40’s are full of gloom and doom scenarios about lumbering killing agriculture in Maine. They asserted, probably with much truth, that loggers made poor farmers. They planted late and since their oxen had spent the winter in the woods with the logging teams, they had poorly manured fields. So naturally they had poor crop yields and the cycle was perpetuated.
Camp life was brutish. Sabbath was rarely celebrated. The lumber camp consisted of 10-50 men, from several lumber teams. They lived in rough log structures with open central fires. The central fire was used for cooking as well as warming the bunkhouse and was never allowed to go out. Death from fire or smoke inhalation was a constant fear. Meals typically consisted of bread, pork and beans. Consumption of strong liquor was commonplace. It was believed that alcohol would keep off colds and fevers. The men worked as long as there was light with which to see. Fatigue and cold undoubtedly played a major role in the constant danger of the work.
A team consisted of 6-9 men who worked together all winter long and had sometimes worked together for years. The boss set the pace of the work, determined which trees would be felled next and when the felling portion of the season would end. The choppers selected, felled and cut the logs. The swampers cleared for the logs. The barker and leader hewed the bark off of the tree on the drag side of the log and got the logs ready for the teamsters. The teamster looked after and ran the “haul.” They were in charge of the teams of oxen (later horses) who pulled the logs to either the river or a designated storage site. The teamsters usually earned the most money and provided their own oxen and harness.
Once the weather began to break the log drive began. The drive, predecessor of the cattle drives of the 1880’s, was the laborious process of rafting the logs down river to the port of sale, usually Brunswick or Topsham for the Androscoggin River. This was the most dangerous part of the lumbering process. Breaking the landing – rolling the logs into the stream and maybe cutting into the ice to get the logs moving was very dangerous work, so was breaking a log jam which was hard wet work that required agility and good judgment even when very tired. Between 1831-1868 (in just 5 newspapers) there were 25 drownings reported during The Drive. And it is highly probable that the newspapers didn’t report every death.
Whether the unfortunate man was crushed by a tree he was felling or while breaking a landing or he drowned while breaking a jam “such accidents had to be charged up to the hazards of the industry. The victim of a logging accident was usually buried in two flour barrels, his grave was soon forgotten but occasionally his fate might inspire some crude poetic effusions [in the local newspaper].” page 102
Trying to tease Moses out of the shadows
December 18, 2007
My 4th great grandfather, Moses Gould died, reportedly at age 40, while lumbering in the Maine woods. He left a wife, Anne Adams Gould, and 7 young children. My 3rd great grandfather was his youngest son Joseph Gould. Joseph never knew his father. In fact if the various brag book entries for Joseph and his brother Elisha are any indication, Joseph and his siblings may have been “placed out” by the county authorities and have grown up with little knowledge of their family in general. There are no other family or brag book stories related to Moses aside from the legend of his untimely death. I say legend because I’ve been unable to find any confirmation of the family story. I have not found any newspaper articles and the family is represented by the barest of factual entries in the Lisbon, Maine town records
page 31 “The children of Moses Goold & his wife Anne were born as follows viz:
Thomas Adams Goold was born November the 8th AD 1799
Charlotte Coombes Goold was born January the 4th AD 1802
Sarah Goold was born May the 3rd AD 1803
Moses Goold Junior was born August the 18th AD 1808
Sarah Goold the 2nd was born March the 20th AD 1811
Elisha Doyle Goold was born September the 18th AD 1812
Samuel Adams Goold was born May the 4th AD 1814
Joseph Goold was born November the 8th AD 1815″
page 32
“Deaths in the family of Moses Goold
Sarah Goold Departed this life June the 30th AD 1806
Moses Goold Departed this life March the 26th AD 1816″
Anne Adams Gould may have remarried but her life after her husband’s death is obscure to say the least.
The legend of Moses’ death was handed down in at least two families, that of Joseph and of his older brother Elisha Doyle Gould. Elisha was a couple of years older than Joseph, so perhaps he would have been aware of the circumstances of his father’s death. Joseph and Elisha’s families were separated by thousands of miles when Joseph moved his very young family first to New York, then Pennsylvania, then Iowa and then finally Nebraska. But of course Elisha could be the source of the story that appears in the brag book entry of Joseph’s son Garvin H. Gould.
Whatever the source of the story, his marriage to Anne Adams and his early death are the only things I really know about Moses Gould. So I’ve been trying to roll the shadows aside, at least a bit. I’ve cast a wide net and the results are fascinating. I know much more now about the lives of Maine loggers and farmer in the early 1800’s than I did before I began this effort. And it seems completely possible that Moses Gould could have been killed while involved in some sort of timber activity, even if, as seems likely, he wasn’t a lumberman full time.
Asher research – resuming
December 4, 2007
I’m headed to Salt Lake City in a few weeks and I decided to pull together a county list for the Asher’s who appear on my timeline. Now I’m a bit depressed. There is no way I’ll be able to be thorough for all these counties in less than 7 days! But at least I can hit the most likely suspects and perhaps divide the rest of the work amongst my cousins.
Here are the counties, organized by state. As I pull stuff together I will come back and edit this list with annotation regarding most likely prospects due to frequency of Asher connections in the area.
Starting with my old favorite – Indiana
- Boone(3)
- Clinton(11)
- Delaware
- Fayette(3)
- Franklin
- Huntington
- Madison(5)
- Putnam(7)
- Rush(7)
- Shelby(2)
- Wayne(lots)
then to my next most visited state – Iowa
- Hardin(5)
- Jasper(5)
- Lucas(3)
- Marion(5)
- Marshall
- Muscatine
- Lucas(3)
- Tama(2)
On to Kansas
- Allen(13)
- Nehema
- Reno
And finally Missouri (predictable patterns all)
- Hickory
- Jackson
- McDonald
- Nodaway
- St. Clair
According to the War of 1812 pension file of Thomas Asher, who died in TX in 1885, he was drafted in Anderson County, Tennessee, in October 1814 and was discharged at Anderson County Tennessee in May 1815. He married Mary McGee in Anderson County on 6 May 1817. And he was a widower residing in Dewitt County, Texas on 10 January 1872. There are several Internet family trees that say this Thomas resided for a period in Indiana, married Polly Asher in Wayne County Indiana and perhaps sojourned in Illinois and/or Missouri on his way to Texas. In light of the sworn testimony of his pension file, let’s examine the Federal Census evidence working backwards from the 1880 census (with a small detour into tax and land records.)
1880 Kerr County, TX – Thomas Asher, age 83 born in TN, is residing in the household of his married son John H Asher, age 38 born TX. No other children of Thomas Asher are resident in the household.
1870 there is no discernible entry for this Thomas Asher in TX. Not with his son and not on his own. There is also no entry for John H Asher although several of their 1880 neighbors can be found in Kerr County. Perhaps they were missed by the census taker.
1860 Gonzales County, TX – Thos (sic) Asher born c. 1795 is living with a household that appears to include 2 adults sons, a married adult daughter and an unmarried daughter all of whom are either born in Tennessee or Texas. Their ages and places of birth – Frank age 22 and Nancy age 20 born TN and John age 19 and Lousa age 14 born TX – don’t appear to leave room for a sojourn in Indiana and Illinois.
1850 Dewitt County, TX – Thomas Asher (indexed as Ashen) age 53 born Tennessee. The household’s children are born in TN, IL and TX. The ages of the children indicate that the family was in TN until about 1820 and then in IL to about 1828.
So now we can be more confident in stating that Thomas Asher of Texas, resided in Tennessee from at least 1814 – about 1820, he then moved to Illinois until at least 1828 and probably later and he was resident in Texas by 1836 when son John was born there.
Backtracking to 1840 is impossible given the lack of 1840 TX census. However the DeWitt County 1846 tax list (on Ancestry.com) shows a Thomas Asher who is exactly where we would expect him to be. There is also no 1830 TX census and given the historical context it is unlikely that Thomas would have been in Texas in 1830.
1830 Green County, Illinois – There is only 1 Thomas Asher household in Illinois in 1830. He is of the correct age bracket. His household composition is what we would expect working from the 1850 census. In 1836, a Thomas Adams completed a purchase of Federal Land in Adams County, Illinois. He had begun the purchase in 1834. I have been unable to correlate this land purchaser with the Thomas Asher of interest. There is also a Thomas Asher purchasing federal land in 1818 but he is a different veteran of the War of 1812 who served in the 4th Rifle Regiment.
1820 Bond County, Illinois – Again there is only 1 Thomas Asher household in Illinois in 1820. Thomas Asher and a Robinson Asher are enumerated side by side. The ages and household composition are what we would expect for the household of the Thomas Asher who died in Texas.
These census migrations appear to leave little room for Thomas Asher to have spent time in Indiana. Being complete however, and checking Indiana census for 1820 and 1830 shows that – There is only 1 Thomas Asher in Indiana in 1820 and he is too old to be our man (not to mention the fact that this is the man whose family we are trying to connect with the Texas Thomas!) There are 3 Thomas Asher heads of household in the Indiana 1830 Federal Census, but none of them are old enough to be this Thomas Asher. In 1840 in Clinton County, a Thomas Asher is enumerated but he is too young to be our Thomas. In October 1834, a Thomas Asher completed his purchase of two pieces of Federal land in Clinton County, Indiana and he was listed as being a resident of Fayette County, Indiana.
Although stranger things have happened than someone moving back and forth between Illinois, Indiana and Texas within these tight timespans, my review of the evidence indicates that despite the Internet, his Tennessee birth and his birth year of 1797, this Thomas is not closely connected to the Indiana Asher families under consideration. The balance of the evidence indicates that this Thomas spent no or very little time in Indiana. The land purchases and the census listing in Indiana belong to a different as yet unidentified Thomas Asher.