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CONVERSE Family History, Part II

John CONVERSE³ (1830-1909)

121. John Converse³ was born in Pennsylvania, probably in or around Rockdale, Crawford County, on October 14, 1830 or 1829. When a child, his family moved to Iowa, where he grew up and, in 1851, set out across the plains to California following the Gold Rush. Soon after arriving in California, he homesteaded in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County. There he married Susan Maria Poole⁴, a native of Fall River, Bristol County, Massachusetts, who arrived in Mariposa County on October 19, 1859, the day of the Coulterville Fire. They were married on October 1, 1860, in Coulterville. He was about 30 years old, she was only 17. They had 13 children:

121A.	Jacob "Jake" Henry Converse	10 Oct 1861	24 Dec 1938	(77)
121B.	William Converse	22 Nov 1863	28 Apr 1884	(20)
121C.	George Leonard Converse (Sr.)Δ	28 Aug 1865	21 May 1954	(88)
121D.	Franklin "Frank" ConverseΔ	26 July 1867	6 Nov 1946	(79)
121E.	Daisy J. Converse	23 Dec 1869	3 Jul 1874	(4)
121F.	Caroline "Carrie" Maria Converse	17 Jun 1871	10 Feb 1963	(92)
121G.	Charles Albert Converse	24 Sep 1873	4 Jul 1925	(51)
121H.	Ida Mae ConverseΔ	17 Aug 1875	2 Jun 1963	(87)
121I.	Elizabeth "Lizzie" Ann ConverseΔ	3 Jul 1877	25 Feb 1958	(80)
121J.	Alice Lucretia Converse4	19 Aug 1879	10 Feb 1951	(71)
121K.	"Infant"	1881	Infancy	(0)
121L.	Charlotte "Lottie" Converse	5 Oct 1883	21 Nov 1908	(25)
121M.	John Lyman ConverseΔ	21 Feb 1887	16 Aug 1980	(93)

John Converse set out for California on a wagon train. It is said that the group stopped every Sunday to observe the Sabbath, but John, seeing that such a schedule would place them in the Rockies during Winter, broke away from the main group with several other wagons and beat Winter to the Rockies. The remainder of the pious group ended up bogged down in snow. John is believed to have come in on the Hangtown (Placerville) route.

When John rolled into Mariposa County in 1851, Mariposa County was much larger. It contained all the territory of modern day Tulare (estab. 1852), Merced (estab. 1855), and Fresno (estab. 1856) counties. He first mined around Bear Valley and Horseshoe Bend and then settled in the Red Cloud area, now known as Greeley Hill. He was one of the first seven families to homestead in Greeley Hill overlooking Coulterville. He named his ranch "Hawkeye Ranch" after his family's ranch back in Iowa.

John and Susan were married by Justice of the Peace George Counts on October 1, 1860, at City Hotel in Coulterville, which Counts operated. John attested to being 28 years old, but was more likely two weeks short of his 30th birthday. Susan was 17.^{[Mar 1860]}

During the Civil War, John's three youngest brothers went off to war but only one came home. Henry died at about the age of 27 in 1862 and George died at about the age of 22 in 1864.

John was a rough and rugged, self-styled mountain man. He made his own buckskin clothes and never shaved. His long beard was kept out of the way by rolling it up and clipping it with a clothespin. One election year proved fatal for his beard. John wagered that if his candidate didn't win he would shave his beard! He lost.

John Converse died March 16, 1909, and was buried March 18 at the Dudley Cemetery in Greeley Hill. He was 78 years old.

Susan Marie (Poole) Converse lived on another 22 years and died on June 24, 1931. She was 88 years old.

William CONVERSE^Δ (1832-1916)

122. William Converse^Δ was born in Rockdale, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, on October 20, 1832. He was likely named for his uncle William. As a boy, he moved with his family of five brothers to Iowa around 1842. After his father died and his older brother, John, left for California, William apparently inherited the family homestead and the care of his mother, Elizabeth. William married Jane C. Henry, a native of Pickaway County, Ohio, on May 3, 1851, and raised a family of six children:

1221.	John ConverseΔ	11 Feb 1852	20 Nov 1896	(44)
1222.	Mary Jane ConverseΔ	23 Nov 1853	29 Apr 1930	(76)
1223.	Charles Henry ConverseΔ	Feb 1856	4 May 1912	(56)
1224.	Laura Ellen Converse	18 Jan 1858	5 Jan 1945	(86)
1225.	Emma May ConverseΔ	May 1863	27 Jun 1910	(47)
1226.	Clara Belle ConverseΔ	Aug 1868	19 Jul 1945	(76)

As a boy, he moved with his family of five brothers to Greene Township, Iowa County, Iowa, around 1842. About 1847, his father, Erastus Sr. died of exhaustion. At the age of 17, he drove teams in the winter and cooked in the summer while Fort Gaines (later renamed Fort Ripley and now Camp Ripley) was being built up the Mississippi River along the western shore in Mahkato/Mankahto County (now Morrison County) in central Minnesota Territory.

William took receipt of a deed from his uncle William on August 6, 1850, when he was 17 years old. The property was located in the southeast corner of Greene Township, north of the English River (Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, West half of Southeast ¼ of Southeast ¼).^{[Deed 1850]}

William's elder brother, John, left for California in search of gold about 1851, leaving the care of the family homestead and their mother, Elizabeth (Van Wermer) Converse, to William.

William married Jane C. Henry of Pickaway County, Ohio, on May 3, 1851. Her father, William Henry had served during the Black Hawk War in 1832 as a sergeant in Captain Obadiah West's company under the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Brigade, which mustered in Franklin County, Illinois.

An 1852 tax record for "Wm. Convers Jr." [sic] identifies two plots, and a third is noted deeded to William from Jacob Ricord on May 5, 1852. All three lie along the north of the English River:

• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 31, Southeast ¼ of Southeast ¼
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, Southeast ¼ of Southeast ¼
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, Southeast ¼ of Northeast ¼^{[Deed 1852]}

These plots lie just north of the North English River, the first just east of the former Hinklestown and south-southwest of Holbrook; the second lies due west of the first and approaching the town of Amish.

William acquired lands to the north from Mary Lekin on June 30, 1862, near where his mother and younger brothers had settled along Old Man Creek:^{[Deed 1862]}

• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 36, Portion of the Southeast ¼ of Southwest ¼^{[Deed 1862]}

During the Civil War, William's three younger brothers went off to serve the Union Army. Henry and George died of illness during the campaigns in Mississippi, and Erastus came home after quelling the Sioux in the Dakota Territory. It was also during this time that William and many other men in Greene Township and neighboring Fillmore Township formed the Freemasons' Farmers Lodge #168 in the town of Foote, in 1863. William was named as the first Junior Deacon, one of the eight officers, of the lodge. By 1866 he had attained the third rank of Junior Warden only to return to Junior Deacon by 1868.

William deeded plots to William H. Manl(e)y on January 11, 1864, and A. Kierwan on February 23, 1865:

• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, Southeast ¼ of Southeast ¼, to Manley (William's mother also deeded the northeast quarter to Manley the following year)^{[Deed 1864]}
• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, Southeast ¼ of Southeast ¼, to Kierwan^{[Deed 1865]}
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 3, Southeast ¼ of Northeast ¼, to Kierwan^{[Deed 1865]}
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 2, West ½ of Northwest ¼ of Northwest ¼, to Kierwan (William's mother also deeded the east half of this quarter to Kierwan)^{[Deed 1865]}

Two months later William took receipt of five plots from John Converse, presumably his brother who had moved west to California some 15 years earlier during the Gold Rush:^{[Deed 1865]}

• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, Southeast ¼ of Northwest ¼ (noted in 1860 as having a mill)
• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, West ½ of Southeast ¼
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 2, Southwest ¼ of Northwest ¼
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 2, East ½ of Northwest ¼ of Northwest ¼
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 3, East ½ of Southeast ¼

Later William expanded his holdings west into Section 3 and south into Section 11 with purchase from I. F. Packard and O. Crisman in 1865 and 1868:^{[Deed 1865, 1868]}

• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 3, Northwest ¼ of Northwest ¼
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 11, Northwest ¼, 160 acres
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 11, Part of North ½ of Southwest ¼, 80 acres

William sold off three plots in Section 36 to Mary Donahue and C. D. Yoder in 1866 and 1868:

• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 36, Part of Northwest ¼ of Southwest ¼
• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 36, Part of Northeast ¼ of Southwest ¼, 2 acres
• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 36, Part of Southeast ¼ of Southwest ¼, 2 acres

William sold off remaining holdings in Iowa County in the second half of 1870 and moved west to Pottawattamie County. These he sold to John Berk (north of Old Man Creek), John Cash (Section 11), and W. Rutherford (Section 3):^{[Deed 1870]}

• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, Southeast ¼ of Northwest ¼
• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, East ½ of (Southeast) ¼
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 2, Southwest ¼ of Northwest ¼
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 3, Northwest ¼ of Northwest ¼. 5 acres
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 11, Part of South ½ of Northwest ¼, 80 acres
• Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 11, Part of North ½ of Southwest ¼, 80 acres

Having sold off the old Greene Township estate, the Converse family resettled in Pottawattamie County in western Iowa in 1871. The area would later become Valley Township in 1879, west of modern-day Hancock, in the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Township 76 North, Range 39 West, Section 10. He is also believed to have owned another plot 3 miles west of this in Township 76 North, Range 38 West, Section 7.

William became a founding member of Valley Lodge 439, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, on December 1, 1881, and served as its first treasurer.

By 1885 William's mother joined William's family in Valley Township until her death at the age of 87 in 1899.

William's wife Jane C. (Henry) Converse died on November 30, 1904, at the age of 68. She is buried at the Oak Hill Cemetery east of Hancock, Pottawattomie County, Iowa.

After Jane's death, William remarried to Caroline (Myers) Archer, the widow of Benjamin Frankin Archer (1837-1888) and Samuel B. Holloway (1837-1905), on October 21, 1908, in Avoca, Pottawattamie County.^{[Mar 1908]} The Archers had been enumerated nearby the Converses in Green Township in 1870^{[Cen 1870]} and again in Valley Township in 1880.^{[Cen 1880]} William was 75 years old when they married and Caroline was 60. Caroline had been married twice and had three of six children surviving as of 1910.^{[Cen 1910]}

William Converse died on May 13, 1916, at the age of 83 and is buried with wife Jane, mother, and son John at the Oak Hill Cemetery.

After William died, Caroline lived with daughter Goldie (Archer) Lammers in Eastland County, Texas^{[Cen 1920]}, and after that with son John O. Archer in Safford, Graham County, Arizona.^{[Dth 1922]}

Caroline (Meyers) Archer died of influenza on March 26, 1922, in Safford, Graham County, Arizona. She was either 74 or 75 years old.^{[Dth 1922]}

Henry B. CONVERSE (~1836-1862)

123. Henry B. Converse was born around 1835 or 1836 in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, probably in the Rockdale area. Around 1842, the family left Pennsylvania and homesteaded in Greene Township, Iowa County, Iowa. He fought during the Civil War with the "Western Sharpshooters" and died of illness seven months into his service.

Henry acquired five plots of land from George Stewart on July 7, 1857. The plots appear to have been deeded to Stewart from "J. K. Converse," perhaps Henry's eldest brother John, three months earlier on April 9:^{[Deed 1857]}

• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, SE¼ of NW¼, mill site
• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, W½ of SE¼
• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 2, SW¼ of NW¼
• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 2, E½ of NW¼ of NW¼
• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 3, E½ of SE¼

Three years later, George Converse, perhaps Henry's uncle, deeded three of the same plots over to Henry, plus:

• Township 79 North, Range 9 West, Section 25, W½ of SE¼^{[Deed 1860]}

J.W. Birge's regiment of "Western Sharpshooters" was formed in September and October, 1861 in Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, and Ohio. Private Henry Converse enlisted with Captain Ensign Conklin's company on September 26, 1861 in Iowa City, Iowa for a term of three years. His enlistment papers state that he was 26 years old and born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania (as were his two elder brothers). He is described as 5'-5  tall, fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He was a farmer prior to enlisting.

In November, 1861 the unit mustered in as the 14th Regiment Missouri Infantry and Pvt. Henry Converse mustered in on November 9, 1861 at Benton Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri. He was released for the Christmas holiday (December 25-30) in the area between Centralia and Sturgeon, Missouri, northwest of St. Louis. He reported back for duty on December 31 and was issued a blanket, knapsack, haversack, two shirts, a pair of drawers, pair of shoes, a hat, and a cap.

The regiment deployed to Missouri under General Grant's Army of the Tennessee and fought at Shiloh, Tennessee, (April 18, 1862) and Corinth, Mississippi (May 1862). Henry was present for duty until May-June 1862 when he was hospitalized for sickness. He had been suffering from chronic dysentery and diarrhea for nearly three months toward the end of which he had an attack of typhoid fever that rendered him unfit for duty for 50 days. On July 14 the brigade surgeon of the 2nd Division of the Army of the Tennessee set about discharging him for disability. He died 11 days later, July 25, 1862, at the Regiment Hospital in Corinth, Alcorn County, Mississippi. One account also adds sun stroke to the causes of his death. Pvt. Henry Converse was about 27 years old at the time of his agonizing death.

George W. CONVERSE (~1843-1864)

124. George W(illiam) Converse was born around 1842 or 1843 in Iowa County, Iowa, probably in Greene Township, just after the Converse family moved there from Pennsylvania. He appears to have been name for his paternal uncles. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War and died of illness following the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Private George W. Converse enlisted for three years in Iowa City on August 13, 1862, two weeks after his elder brother Henry died of illness serving with the Union Army at Corinth, Mississippi. George is described as 5'-8½" tall, dark complexion, blue eyes, and dark hair. He is recorded as being 20 years old, born in Iowa County, and had been a farmer prior to enlisting.

George mustered in four weeks later with the 22nd Regiment Iowa Infantry, Company "F" under Captain Alfred B. Cree on September 9, 1862. He received a $25 advance on his $100 bounty and a $2 premium.

The 22nd Iowa saw battle in Grant's Vicksburg Campaign (December 1862 - July 1863). During this campaign, one battle that was singled out in George's muster records was the Battle of Port Gibson, Mississippi (May 1, 1863). This battle secured Grant's successful establishment of a beachhead at Bruinsburg on the Mississippi River and opened the way to Vicksburg.

Following the successful siege and capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, George fell ill and was hospitalized at Vicksburg on July 20, 1863. He remained bedridden there through about February 1864. He was apparently transferred to University Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was noted as having been hospitalized from either April 28 or May 4, 1864. George was transferred again to the hospital at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri on June 24 and died a month later of chronic diarrhea on July 29, 1864. He was about 22 years old and was buried at the Jefferson Barracks Cemetery.

George's mother Elizabeth signed for his personal effects, which included a cap, two flannel shirts, a pair of boots, a woolen blanket, a pocket book, and $9.50.

Erastus Taylor CONVERS (~1845->1930)

125. Erastus T(aylor) Convers or Taylor E(rastus) Convers was born around 1845 in Iowa County, Iowa, probably in Greene Township. He served with the Union cavalry during the Civil War. After the war he married Margaret "Maggie" Jane Berger on June 22, 1868, at her parents' home in Western, Linn County, Iowa. They had two children before she died at the young age of 28:

1251.	Erastus Bird Convers	21 Apr 1873	29 Dec 1889	(16)
1252.	Marguerite "Maggie" F. Convers	14 Aug 1875	3 Jul 1954	(78)

Erastus' elder brother Henry died serving with the Union Army on July 25, 1862, which likely prompted his next elder brother George to enlist four weeks later on August 13. Erastus enlisted another month afterward on September 19 in Iowa City. He claimed to be 18 years of age, however, his mother later stated in an affidavit that he was only 17 at the time. His enlistment papers note that he was born in Iowa County, Iowa, was 5'-7" tall, with a fair complexion, gray eyes, and light hair. He had been a farmer prior to enlisting.

Erastus mustered into active service with the Iowa 6th Cavalry, Company "I" under Captain Wolfe at Davenport, Iowa on February 2, 1863, and was paid a $25 advance on his $100 bounty and a $2 premium.

In May 1863, Erastus' brother George was engaged in the heat of Grant's Vicksburg Campaign. Perhaps because one son had already fallen and another currently in the thick of battle, Erastus' widowed mother Elizabeth petitioned the State of Iowa to discharge her youngest son, citing that Erastus had enlisted without her consent at the age of 17 and that she had three sons serve but no one to support her in her feeble state of health. Elizabeth's plea was referred to the commanding officer of the Adjutant General's Office in Washington, DC in late May, but appears to have been unsuccessful.

Per Elizabeth's petition, Erastus and his company was still stationed at Sioux City on the western border of Iowa and under the command of Col. (David S.) Wilson. There the cavalry was holding the western frontier against possible Indian attacks since Regular Army troops had been pulled off the frontier and were embroiled with the Confederate Army in the South.

On December 6, 1863, Erastus was detached from his company and dispatched to Spirit Lake on the northern border of Iowa and remained there until about April 1864 when he was granted a furlough home. After his furlough he returned to Spirit Lake.

The unit remained at Spirit Lake through November, but at one point the unit, or perhaps a detachment thereof, made their way to Fort Rice (presumed to be the Fort Rice just south of Bismarck in south-central North Dakota) engaged in Brigadier General Sully's Expedition against the Sioux Indians. Erastus was noted as having been hospitalized for illness at the Fort Rice post hospital on September 22.

On November 10, 1864, Erastus was transferred to Bon Homme in the southeastern corner of the Dakota Territory (now South Dakota). The following year, and a month after Lee's surrender, by order of General Sully, Pvt. Converse was attached to Company "D" on May 31, 1865, and camped along Medicine Creek* in the (South) Dakota Territory, still engaged with the Sioux.

After the Medicine Creek deployment, Erastus returned to Fort Rice around July-August. The unit returned to Sioux City and mustered out on October 17, 1865. Pvt. Erastus Converse claimed the $75 balance due on his $100 bounty and returned to civilian life.

After the War

After the war, Erastus settled for a time in Western, Linn County, Iowa, south of Cedar Rapids. An 1866 tax assessment for an Erastus Convers, a livery stable keeper, is found in Western, presumably Linn County. There he met and married Margaret on June 22, 1868, at her parents' home in Western, Linn County, Iowa.^{[Mar 1868]}

Margaret "Maggie" Jane (Berger) Convers died ten years later on April 16, 1878, the morning of her 28th birthday, and was buried at Riverview (Riverside) Cemetery south of Rock Rapids, Lyon County, in the northwest corner of Iowa.^[Grave]

In 1880, Erastus, now recorded as Taylor E. Convers, was living in Doon, Lyon County, Iowa. He and his two young children were joined with his 22-year-old niece Ella L. Converse and a 25-year-old servant and farm laborer, John B. Gould.^{[Cen 1880]} The Iowa state census of 1885 located the Convers farm (under the name "Thos E. Convers") as in Township 98 North, Range 45 West, Section 7, SW¼, which is along Franklin Boulevard, about 3 miles northeast of Doon, and backing to the Rock River. Still with him was niece Ella and his two children.^{[Cen 1885]} That same year, Erastus was listed among the ex-soldiers living in Iowa and noted to be living in Pattersonville, modern-day Hull in Sioux County, about 10 miles southeast of Doon and Garfield Township. Later he filed for his military pension on February 12, 1897 and noted "Erastus" as an alias.

In the late 1890s, perhaps 1898, Taylor moved to Lacombe, Alberta, Canada, between Calgary and Edmonton, and took on Canadian citizenship, as noted in the 1906 census^{[Cen 1906]} and by a border crossing back into the U.S. at St. Albans, Vermont, in December 1917. On the alien manifest he claimed Canadian nationality and Dutch ethnicity, perhaps a reference to his mother's lineage.

Come 1930, Taylor, now 84 years old, had moved in with his daughter Marguerite in Blue Earth, Faribault County, Minnesota.^{[Cen 1930]}