52 Ancestors #5: An Emotional Find in the Census

In 2002, I found my ggg grandparents Hiram and Jenetta Stewart Staats in the 1880 U.S. Census for Jefferson County, Colorado1. It was a mixed blessing.

On the one hand, it was thrilling, a huge breakthrough that would eventually connect the family to United Empire Loyalists in Upper Canada, now Ontario. On the other hand, it was quite sad. My great aunt, Edna Van Horn, had spent years trying to find out what had happened to Hiram and Jessie. Even though she was still alive in 2002, she was 103 and no longer able to really grasp and remember details. I'm not sure she really believed I had found the right people.

The last record of Hiram had been a delinquent tax list in Effingham County, Illinois for the year 1869. The 1860 U.S. Census for Ewington, Effingham, Illinois was the last for his wife Jenetta (Jessie). In 1967, Edna had sent a questionnaire to her then 83 year old cousin, Carrie Sibley Stearns, Hiram's granddaughter, and asked her what she knew of Hiram and Jessie. Her reply was interesting to say the least. "Hiram Staats went out west, married a squaw named Glass or Gloss and was shot by Indians.  Jessie Staats died in Olney, Illinois." Looking over her notes, Edna spent years trying to find a death record and burial place for Jessie in Olney, Illinois. She found two of Hiram's daughters and a son in Colorado, but she never found Hiram. 

Obituaries were later found for both Hiram in 18942 and Jessie in 18863. Hiram had indeed "gone out West." Jessie had not died in Olney, Illinois, but near Evergreen, Colorado where she and Hiram had homesteaded. Hiram didn't marry a squaw. He didn't remarry after Jessie died.  His daughter Martha married a man named Alexander Gloss4 who was shot and killed by a neighbor, not Indians.5

There's a lesson to be learned in all of this.

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1 1880 U.S. census, Jefferson County, Colorado, population schedule, Enumeration district (ED) 64, sheet 12-D, p. 294D (stamped), dwelling 109, family 111, Hiram Staats; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestrycom : accessed 2 February 2018), citing National Archives microfilm publication T9, roll19.

2 “Obituary.,” Colorado Transcript (Golden, Colorado), 21 March 1894, p. 8, for Hiram Staats; digital image, Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection (http://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org : accessed 2 February 2015).

3 “Died,” The Globe (Golden, Colorado), 13 March 1886, p.2, c. 3, for Mrs. Jennie Stewart Staats; copy from microfilm, Colorado Historical Society.


4 “Married.,” The Daily News: Denver (Colorado), 3 November 1880, p. 8, col. 4, Gloss-Staats; copy from microfilm, Denver Public Library.

5 “Evergreen Twigs, Evergreen Colo., Nov. 22, ‘87,” The Globe, Golden, Colorado, 26 November 1887, Saturday, p. 3, col. 3, Copy from microfilm, Colorado Historical Society.