Well, yesterday saw no research, though I did do other kinds of family history work. For those who don’t know, I’m the current president of the Frederick County Genealogical Society (FRECOGS) in Maryland. I and the rest of the board were elected in June to pretty much pick up the pieces and try to rebuild the society. We had our second board meeting on Friday, and even though it was a short meeting (it only lasted an hour because I and another member had to leave), we made some good progress on some of the tasks we have at hand. The biggest task we have right now is adopting new by-laws, but I’m hopeful we’ll have that taken care of at our next meeting.
Today did bring more research. I spent the evening and tonight continuing my research into the religious beliefs of the Michaels. Something I found interesting was a new connection to the Christian church. My ancestor Samuel Michael was buried in Newark, Indiana at the Newark Cemetery, located alongside the Newark Church. Tonight I found a small newspaper article from the 22 February 1889 edition of the Bloomfield Democrat that states:
“The Baptist church at Newark burned about 9 o’clock Saturday night, caused by a defective flue. It was built 19 or 20 years ago. Last fall the Baptist brethren leased it to the Christian brethren and they, the Christians, had just reroofed and repainted it.”
I found numerous other mentions of the “Christian church at Newark” throughout the 1890’s and early 1900’s, but no more mentions of a Baptist church there through 1922, so it appears the Christian church maintained the church for a while after it burned down. This means that the church was also maintained by the Christian congregation and not the Baptists at the time of Samuel’s death in 1897. I’m not sure if this necessarily means Samuel was also a member of the Christian congregation, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
It’s also really interesting info to have for my One-Place Study. For those who don’t know, I also manage the Beech Creek Township, Greene County, Indiana OPS. All of my direct ancestors who descend from Samuel Michael are buried at the Newark Cemetery, so I’m especially interested in the cemetery, church, and just the town and general area of Newark itself. I’m admittedly more interested in Newark than I am the other towns in Beech Creek Township, but my ancestors inhabited numerous towns and villages in BCT, so BCT got the OPS instead of just Newark.
Anyway, continuing with the second connection to the Christian church, we have Samuel’s 1st cousin Daniel Mikel, son of Samuel’s uncle Joseph Mikel. According to his obituary in the 15 August 1889 edition of the Goshen Times, Daniel’s funeral was officiated by Rev. J. J. Copeland of Goshen, Indiana, with assistance by Elder Daniel Shively. Elder Shively was a German Baptist, but Rev. Copeland was associated with the Christian church.
The cousin I’ve been in contact with mentioned something that needs some follow-up research. She mentioned that some of the German Baptists held a revival in the 1830’s and decided to rebrand themselves as Christians, and so now I’m wondering if those “Christians” are the same “Christians” from the Newark church and Rev. Copeland’s church? I’m not sure if it’ll lead anywhere, but it’s definitely something I’m going to look into soon.
I do believe I read earlier that one branch of the Christian church is the Church of Christ, which there are a lot of around the area in Indiana my ancestors lived. In fact, I know some of my non-Michael paternal ancestors were members of the Liberty Church of Christ at Hendricksville in Beech Creek Township and Richland Church of Christ at White Hall in neighboring Richland Township, Monroe County, Indiana. With those two churches being so close to Newark, it seems logical that Newark Church was a Church of Christ as well at one point. I’ll have to search the Bloomfield papers again to see what mentions of “Church of Christ” I can find, if any. I’ll also check to see if the Liberty Church was ever called a “Christian church.” Those two things will (hopefully) give me some necessary clues to figuring this out.
I’ve gotta say, as far removed as I’ve made myself from organized religion and a belief in a supreme being, it’s been pretty fun learning about this aspect of the Michael family. It’s all a part of learning my family history, though, so that makes it a lot more interesting that it might otherwise be.
Another aspect of the Michael family that I’m tracking is something else mentioned in Daniel Mikel’s obituary: politics. In it, it’s stated that Daniel “was the first man in the township who voted the Republican ticket, and he has voted it at every election since.” In other newspaper entries, Daniel’s support for the Whig Party, the predecessor of the Republicans, is noted.
A consistent support for the Whig Party, it’s predecessor the Anti-Jacksonian Party, and it’s successor the Republican Party is seen across several branches of the Henry Michael/Mikel I family, this support mostly exhibited through the naming of children for politicians. Members of the family were named for Anti-Jacksonian Rep. Martin Beaty, Whig Rep. Sherrod Williams, Whig Rep. Henry Clay, Whig Rep. Davy Crockett, Whig Gen. Winfield Scott, Whig Pres. Zachary Taylor, former Whig Rep. and Republican Pres. Abraham Lincoln, and Republican Pres. Ulysses S. Grant, including 9 descendants of Henry Mikel II and 2 descendants of William Michael/Mikel. This, alongside Daniel Mikel’s support, demonstrates a political connection across the families of 3 of the 4 brothers known to have descendants alive today (Solomon Mikel’s family being the odd one out).
Speaking of Solomon Mikel’s family, a bit of research I did a couple nights ago that I forgot to mention was on his son Andrew Mikel. I had previously come across a marriage record for Biddy Michael to Edward Norwood in Elkhart County, Indiana in 1849 and had done some investigating into that family, but I wasn’t able to figure out how exactly Biddy fit in. Well, I took another look into Biddy the other night and finally connected her to Andrew Mikel when I found his marriage to Biddy Curtis in neighboring St. Joseph County, Indiana in 1836!
What’s more, in 1850, living with Biddy and Edward in Penn Township, St. Joseph County are two elder children, a male named Solomon and a female named S. H. They’re listed with the surname Norwood, but there’s no indication that I found that Edward was married before he married Biddy, so my hunch was that they were instead Biddy’s children with Andrew, with the male being named Solomon as my biggest clue. Well, I looked ahead to 1860 and, sure enough, I found a Solomon Michael of a similar age residing in Penn Township! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything for Solomon after 1860, and I couldn’t locate S. H. at all, but I was happy to at least make the connection I did. 🙂
Anyway, that’s all for now. It’s pretty late, so I’m going to head to bed. As always, if there’s a name you recognize, I’d love for you to reach out to me below!
