Stovall Family in the Census Records

Well, I'm back in northern California again, visiting my sister and brother-in-law and my brand new niece, Violet. As some of you may remember, last year around this time, my sister had recently bought an old house that was built c. 1910. I did a post about the land records we found at the county courthouse in Colusa. According to town lore, Mary Eliza (Moore) Stovall built this house as a retirement home. There is a history of Colusa County online, which contains info on Jesse Curl and Mary Eliza (Moore) Stovall. It does not mention the house, but it does say that Mary Eliza (Moore) Stovall moved to the town of Williams after her husband died in 1902. According to the online history, Jesse and Mary married in 1859. In this post, I'm going to write about the Stovall family in the census records from 1860 to 1930.

1860 US Census, Colusa County, California, population schedule, township of Spring Valley, p. 15, dwelling 168, family 137, Jesse C. Stoval household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 57.

Jesse C. Stoval, age 31, male, stock raiser, b. Tennessee
Mary E. Stoval, age 20, female, b. Missouri
Cordelia Stoval, age 5/12, female, b. California
Leonidas Bugg, age 12, male, b. Missouri
Berry Swift, age 20, male, laborer, b. Missouri

1870 US Census, Colusa County, California, population schedule, township of Spring Valley, p. 21, dwelling 160, family 149, Jesse C. Stovall household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication M593, roll 71.

Jesse C. Stovall, age 48, male, white, stock raiser, value of real estate $89,920, value of personal estate $29,500, b. Tennessee, male citizen of U.S. at least 21 years of age

Mary E. Stovall, age 30, female, white, keeping house, b. Missouri

Cordelia Stovall, age 10, female, white, b. California

Mary Stovall, age 8, female, white, b. California

William P. Stovall, age 6, male, white, b. California

Jesse R. Stovall, age 4, male, white, b. California

Frank Lercan, age 35, male, white, sheep herder, b. New York, male citizen of U.S. at least 21 years of age

George H. Smith, age 40, male, white, sheep herder, b. Ohio, male citizen of U.S. at least 21 years of age

1880 U.S. Census, Colusa County, California, population schedule, township of Spring Valley, ED 15, p. 18, dwelling 118, family 119, Jesse C. Stovall household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 64.

Jesse C. Stovall, white, male, age 56, married, stock raiser, b. Tenn. f.b. Kentucky, m.b. Ala.

Mary E. Stovall, white, female, age 39, wife, married, keeping house, b. Missouri, f.b. Ky., m.b. Ky.

Cordelia Stovall, white, female, age 20, daughter, single, at home, b. California, f.b. Tenn., m.b. [blank]

Wm. Preston Stovall, white, male, age 16, son, single, at home, attended school, b. California, f.b. Tenn., m.b. Mo.

James M. Stovall, white, male, age 11, son, single, at home, attended school, b. California, f.b. Tenn., m.b. Mo.

Hiram Stovall, white, male, age 7, son, single, b. California, f.b. Tenn., m.b. Mo.

Charley Stovall, white, male, age 5, son, single, b. California, f.b. Tenn., m.b. Mo.

Alonzo W. Hannah, white, male, age 28, single, carpenter, b. Virginia, f.b. Va., m.b. Va.

John Carroll, white, male, age 50, single, farm laborer, b. Mass., f.b. Ireland, m.b. Ireland

William C. Ralston, white, male, age 28, single, farm laborer, b. Ohio, f.b. Penn., m.b. Penn.

Richard H. Lyons, white, male, age 26, single, laborer, b. Ill., f.b. N.Y., m.b. Ireland

Edward Ralston, white, male, age 22, single, farm laborer, b. Ohio, f.b. Penn., m.b. Penn.

Charley Barker, white, male, age 22, single, laborer, b. New York, f.b. N.Y., m.b. N.Y.

Leonard H. Jones, white, male, age 39, single, laborer, b. Illinois, f.b. Ala., m.b. Ky.

Sing, Chinese, male, age 36, married, cook, b. China, f.b. China, m.b. China

1900 U.S. Census, Colusa County, California, population schedule, precinct of Williams, ED 8, sheet 7A, dwelling 139, family 139, Jessie C. Stovall household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 85.

Jessie C. Stovall, head, white, male, b. Jany 1822, age 78, married for 41 years, b. Tennessee, f.b. Kentucky, m.b. Kentucky, capitalist, able to read/write/speak English, owns home free of mortgage

Mary E. Stovall, wife, white, female, b. July 1840, age 59, married for 41 years, mother of 8 children, 4 children still living, b. Missouri, f.b. Kentucky, m.b. Kentucky, able to read/write/speak English

Mabel Stovall, daughter, white, female, b. Sept. 1884, age 15, single, b. California, f.b. Tennessee, m.b. Missouri, attended school for 8 months, able to read/write/speak English

1910 U.S. Census, Colusa County, California, population schedule, township of Williams, ED 26, sheet 5B, dwelling 47, family 47, Mary E. Stovall household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 74.

Mary E. Stovall, head, female, white, age 69, married for 50 years [actually widowed], mother of 8 children, 3 children still living, b. Missouri, f.b. Kentucky, m.b. Kentucky, speaks English, able to read/write, owns home free of mortgage

H.F. Clark, grandson, male, white, age 24, married for 3 years, b. California, f.b. California, m.b. California, speaks English, clerk in hardware store, wage earner, not at work on April 15, 1910, able to read and write

1920 U.S. Census, Colusa County, California, township of Williams, precinct of Williams, ED 31, sheet 6B, dwelling 25, family 25, Mary E. Stovall household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 94.

Mary E. Stovall, head, female, white, age 79, widowed, able to read and write, b. Missouri, f.b. Kentucky, m.b. Kentucky, speaks English

According to the deed records we found at the courthouse, Mary E. Stovall died in 1930, which is probably why I can't find her in the 1930 census.

Stovall/Forsythe Home

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I have just returned from my sister's house in northern California. She just moved into an old home in August. The listing agent stated the house was built in 1910. At first, I thought it would be as easy as looking at the census records for 1910-1930. However, only the 1910 and 1930 census listed street names, but even then, there were no street addresses. Therefore, our goal while I was there was to go to the county courthouse and determine who was the first owner of the house.

Like any good genealogist (though my sister is not really a genealogist), she talked to people in the town right after she moved in. The mayor of the town told her that the home was known as the Forsythe home for the longest time, but she thought that the home was originally built for a man named Moore Stovall and his family. She also noticed that the initials M.E.S. were on the sidewalk outside the home. I found a Mary E. Stovall in the census records from 1900-1930 in the town. I did not find a Moore Stovall in census records, but I did find a biography online for a Jessie Curl Stovall, who married Mary Eliza Moore. The Mary E. Stovall in the census records was married to J.C. Stovall. So at least we had some leads before going to the courthouse.

At the courthouse, we went to the tax assessor's office, who gave us a printout of all people on record for owning the house. The farthest back the tax record went was Feb 1976, when the house was transferred to the estate of Lillian M. Forsythe. The tax record listed the location of the deed for the transfer, so we then went to the County Recorder/Clerk's office to find the deed. We found a deed which transferred the house from the estate of John Albert Forsythe, who died on 1 Mar 1963, leaving no heirs, to the estate of Lillian Margaret Forsythe, who died on 15 Jan 1970. Lillian Margaret was listed as John Albert's mother in the deed.

Going backward, we found that in Sep 1956, J.H. Forsythe and Lillian Margaret Forsythe had transferred the house to their son, John Albert Forsythe, with a right to live in the house for the remainder of their lives. J.H. Forsythe died three years later in 1959. Since John Albert died in 1963 with no heirs, and Lillian did not die until 1970, this is why the house reverted back to her estate in 1976. I'm assuming they deeded the house to their son, assuming he would outlive them.

We then became stuck and could not find when and from whom J.H. Forsythe and Lillian Margaret Forsythe had purchased the property in the first place. We had made a very common genealogical mistake: we did not realize at first that J.H. Forsythe was the same person as John Homer Forsythe. We then went back and found a deed from March 1976, which stated that the Dept of Veterans' Affairs of the State of California had sold the house to John Homer Forsythe in Oct 1951, and this deed was being recorded in 1976 to replace the destroyed or unrecorded deed from 1951. Aha!

We then found a memorandum (not an official deed) from April 1944, which stated that the VA Dept was selling the house to John Homer Forsythe. I'm not quite sure why one record stated 1951 and one stated 1944, but it can be safely said that he probably bought the house between 1944 and 1951.

We got stuck again at this point because we could not find when and from whom the VA Dept purchased the house. The VA Dept apparently purchased many homes in the county, and they had their own page in the grantee index. We could not find them purchasing any homes prior to 1946 in the index, however. But there was the memorandum from 1944, so this didn't make sense.

At this point, my sister decided to be a rogue genealogist and just start looking for Stovalls as grantors. I was hesitant because I was afraid that there could have been at least one other owner between the Stovalls and the VA Dept, so I was trying to come up with Plan B. And it was apparent from the index that the Stovalls owned LOTS of land. However, we got very lucky because she found that a Kathryn Stovall Mitchell had sold the house to the VA Dept in April 1944. We're still not sure why the grantee was not indexed in this sale.

In 1941, we found a deed in which Hiram Curl Stovall left the house to his wife, Kathryn Stovall, upon his death. Aha! Going back even further, we found a deed from 1930 in which Mary Eliza Stovall left the house to her son, Hiram, upon her death. Now I just think we have a little more research to do to find out if Mary Eliza Stovall was the original owner.

My sister said that she went to church today and found out that Dolores Forsythe, daughter of J.H. and Lillian Forsythe, committed suicide. Her tombstone says she died in 1951 at the age of 25. Her brother, John Albert, also died young. We're curious whether or not John Albert also committed suicide, or if it's even true that Dolores committed suicide. Time to order some death records!