© Kathy Duncan, 2025
James S. Piper was still imprisoned in the old Capitol Building at the beginning of 1864. He was also still writing letters proclaiming his innocence.
Finally, on 2 April 1864, he took another Oath of Allegiance:
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Then, also on 2 April 1864, the order was given for Piper to be freed:
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© Kathy Duncan, 2025
My intent was to post James S. Piper's life in chronological order, but I am going to jump from 1863 to 1876. I will get back on track with an 1864 post soonish.
James S. Piper is my cousins' Mexican War veteran ancestor, whom I started tracking in mid-2024. He went from being a mysterious man who left his medal and papers in a trunk and about whom not much else was known to being a man who left an interesting paper trail that includes almost every year of his life. In fact, his file on my computer is full of subfiles dated by year. None of my ancestors or my husband's have produced that much information.
This weekend, I opened two new subfiles for James S. Piper that are dated 1876 and 1888.
My first blog post about James S. Piper was about his Mexican War medal, which was the post that triggered my research into his life. Piper's Mexican War medal was not issued by the U.S. government. Instead, it was issued by the National Association of Mexican War Veterans. The bar pin for it only says "National Association of Veterans." That medal was either given or sold to the veterans in 1876, and now, with the help of J. S. Piper, I have a better understanding of why that was significant.
By 1876, the Mexican War veterans had been lobbying unsuccessfully for decades for pensions. However, they did not form the National Association of Mexican War Veterans until 1874. If they had formed a National Association at the close of the Mexican War, they probably would have received pensions much earlier.
In 1876, our nation was celebrating its Centennial, and the place to be was Philadelphia. Large numbers of veterans, all wearing the same medal, would help garner attention for their cause, which is what they desperately needed. With that in mind, Mexican War Associations began preparing well in advance to send veterans from every state to Philadelphia. It's estimated that veterans from thirty-three states and territories went to Philadelphia.
The first step in that process was to fund transportation to Philadelphia. By 12 April 1876, Col. Thomas A. Scott, President of the Texas and Pacific Railway, had promised to issue certificates of transportation to veterans of the Mexican War and of the Texas Revolution so that they could travel to Philadelphia for the Centennial. Most states seem to have found a way to provide transportation for their veterans.
On 9 June 1876, a letter from General N. G. Shelby, President of the Mexican War veterans residing in Texas, was published in the Dallas Daily Herald to the effect that there were 600 members residing in Texas, but only about 160 had taken the necessary steps to obtain their certificates of transportation. He was using the newspaper as a means of getting word out to the veterans. They were to convene in Marshall, Texas, on 28 June 1876 and then continue as a group to Philadelphia. Apparently, anyone who had not obtained their certificate needed to do so as quickly as possible.
J. S. Piper was among the Texas veterans who arrived in Marshall, Texas, on the 28th of June. The Marshall newspaper published a list of the veterans going to Philadelphia. Piper's name is near the bottom of the list with the notation that he was from Collin County, Texas. This places his arrival in Texas by 1876, and in a county where I did not know that he lived.
A second newspaper report on 1 July 1876, confirmed that J. S. Piper was among those headed to Philadelphia, where he would wear his Association medal with pride and further the campaign for veterans' pensions. After all, he had begun working in 1847 for benefits to be awarded to the survivors of his men who had been wounded or killed in action.
The Mexican War Veterans were in Philadelphia for the 4th of July events. Cannons fired, church bells rang, and a parade marched through the center of Philadelphia to a stage decorated with flags and where a German band played "Hail to Columbia."
The highlight for the Mexican War Veterans happened on 5 July 1876, when the third annual reunion of the National Association of the Mexican War Veterans was held.
Records were kept of attendees at the National Association reunion meetings, and it would be worth examining them. The 1877 meeting was held in Washington, DC. I wonder if James S. Piper went back to his old stomping grounds for that one.
© Kathy Duncan, 2025
After sorting through newspaper clippings, I have come to the conclusion that when Elizabeth Jane (Johnson) Selvy and her sister Nancy (Johnson) Brown were reunited in 1895, after 34 years, they must have been corresponding with each other on a regular basis during all of those years. In 1894, Nancy Brown of Weldon, Illinois, knew that her sister Elizabeth Selvy and her sons were living in Gallup, New Mexico. Here's how I connected the dots.
The first dot includes Nancy Brown's sons, Joel Herbert Brown and Isaac Sherman Brown, had gone to California to seek adventure and new opportunities in the late 1880s. Sherman and Herbert Brown were mostly loggers or woodmen. Herbert, aka J. H. Brown, wrote long letters describing California and the loggers' camps. Those letters were mostly published in the Dewitt County, Illinois newspapers, but at least two were published in the newspaper at Selma, California.
After several years, J. H. Brown had his fill of roughing it in California and headed east. He wrote a letter from Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 26 October 1894 that was published by the Weldon, Illinois, newspaper. In that letter, he detailed his arrival at his first stop in Gallup, New Mexico. He described it as a division of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad and as a mining town. He noted that even though the sky was clear, the odor of coal burning and the sight of its black smoke were the first things he noticed. Then he visited the "Sunshine" mine, which he described this way:
"Arriving at the base of a sand stone mountain we entered the opening of the slope and descended gradually, walking along side of a steel laid track. I had been furnished with miners caps and lamps, and in company with an old miner friend we soon left the light of day and plunged into darkness; so dense that I begin to feel that I was lost to all the world except my cousin. I think I appreciated his company more than any one I ever knew at that moment. Our little lamps only penetrated the gloomy tunnel with its ribs of staunch timbers, for a few feet ahead we would hear the rumble of a train of coal cars coming down the slope, and I would flatten myself like a flap jack against the cool walls of the tunnel. I guess my cousin laughed, but it was too dark for me to appreciate the initiative joke of taking a man from the 'fruit vine, and alfalfa belt, down into the abdomen of New Mexico and hugging a wall while a train of coal cars had passed you in the dark at the rate of a thousand miles an hour' so it sounded to a man in the dark." - The Weldon Record, Weldon, Illinois; 2 November 1894.
J. H. Brown's cousin was probably either George W. Selvy Jr. or his brother Lee Selvy. Both of them worked as coal miners before working for railroads.
Obviously, J. H. Brown knew he had an aunt and cousins in Gallup when he headed there. In a time when staying at hotels and eating out were expensive, people headed to where they knew they had family. Often, they just turned up on a relative's doorstep, where they were offered a place to stay and a meal. It's impossible to know if Herbert Brown surprised the Selvys or if he was expected.
The second dot - A little over a month after J.H. Brown's letter was published, his cousin Cabe Selvy and wife visited John DeLoss and Nancy (Johnson) Brown in Weldon, DeWitt County, Illinois. Albuquerque was such a foreign place that the newspaper spelled it phonetically: "Abbey Kirk."
The arrival of Cade Selvy and his wife, Mary Bailey, was probably a welcome diversion for the Brown family as they ending a difficult year. Their beloved daughter, Catherine E. "Kate" Brown died on 18 April 1894 after a long illness and a valiant fight to save her life.
On 5 January, 1895, the Weekly Citizen of Albuquerque, New Mexico, noted that Cade and Mary Selvy had returned from DeWitt County, Illinois.
The third dot - On 12 April 1895, Nancy Brown departed for a trip to California by way of New Mexico. John Deloss Brown accompanied her as far as Chicago. All of their daughters were married by this time, so it is doubtful that any of them accompanied her.
The sixth dot - One last tantalizing newspaper clipping turned up in my search. On 27 October 1895, George Selvy, the thirteen-year-old son of Cade, was at the depot to meet his grandmother, who was coming in from the west.
© Kathy Duncan, 2025
While tracking Elizabeth Jane (Johnson) Selvy, I took another stab at finding her brother, the elusive Peter Johnson. The only record of him has been the 1850 Pike County, Illinois census, when he was 16 years old and living at home with his parents, Samuel and Esther A. (Bryant) Johnson.
Since he was not with the Johnsons or around them in 1860, it seemed likely that he died young or moved to another location. However, the U.S. census won't give up his location.
In a newspaper database, I tried to search for him one more time. I entered "Peter Johnson" and "Pike County, Illinois" in hopes that I would find an obituary that stated where he had come from. I have started entering my terms in the keyword search instead of the last name and first name fields because it helps with narrowing my search. I did not designate a state or dates for my search since I wanted to catch Peter Johnson living anywhere in the U.S. and anytime after 1850. However, I sorted my results by the oldest publication. I was prepared to follow that search up with variations in abbreviating the words Illinois and county. However, I got lucky with my first set of search results.
I found a newspaper clipping that related the death of Peter Johnson in Sutter County, California, on 30 June 1866.
This Peter Johnson was the right age to be the Peter Johnson I was seeking, and he was certainly from the right location. All the other Peter Johnsons with Pike County, Illinois, connections that I have ever tracked down were either too old, too young, or Swedish immigrants.
Besides telling me that this Peter Johnson was 31 years old and from Pike County, Illinois, this clipping tells me who he was working for, the events leading up to his death, where he died, and that he had served Co. G, 2nd Cavalry, California volunteers.
The next step was to locate Peter Johnson's service records on Fold3.
He is records confirmed his age and added that he was born in Pike County, Illinois.
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© Kathy Duncan, 2025
Since locating Nancy (Johnson) Brown's missing sister, Elizabeth Jane (Johnson) Selvy, I have been researching the Selvy family in earnest. I hope that they will eventually uncover other Johnson or Bryant relatives. So far, that has not happened. However, Elizabeth J. Selvy has provided me with several clues and a lot of questions.
Here is what I know about her so far - in chronological order.
Elizabeth Jane Johnson was born on 27 May 1836 in Illinois, probably Pike County. She was the daughter of Samuel Johnson and his wife, Esther A. Bryant. On the 1850 Pike County, Illinois census, Elizabeth was still living at home with her mother and step-father, Robert Lacy. She had at least three surviving Johnson siblings still living in the household: Peter, Nancy, and Richard M. Plus, one Lacy half-sibling, named Lenna or Senna Lacy.
Elizabeth Johnson married George Washington Selvy in Peoria County, Illinois on 24 June 1851. That's about 100 miles from Pike County. Why was she so far from home? Did the Lacy family move there temporarily? Were there extended family members there?
I have not been able to locate Elizabeth (Johnson) and George W. Selvy on the 1860 census. They should have at least three children living with them in 1860: George W. Selvy Jr., born 1853; Cade Selvy, born 1857; and Esther Ann Selvy, born c. 1857/8. While George Jr. was born in Illinois, Cade was supposedly born at Stevens Point, Portage County, Wisconsin. I have not been able to pick up any clues about the family in Wisconsin. It's worth noting that in 1860, Elizabeth's mother Esther, step-father Robert ,and their children were living in Pike County, Illinois.
Along came the Civil War and George W. Selvy enlisted in Louisiana, Missouri (is that a place?) on 4 April 1862. He was wounded in the chest at the Battle of Moore's Mill in Missouri and died later in the hospital in Calloway, Missouri on 25 July 1862. Were they in Missouri by 1861?
Elizabeth J. (Johnson) Selvy applied for a widow's pension on 21 January 1863 from Milton, Pike County, Illinois. That indicates to me that she had returned to her family support network. Her application names her four children with George W. Selvy: George Selvy, nine years old on 4 July 1862; Cade Selvy, seven years old on 5 January 1862; Hester Ann Selvy, five years old on 16 December 1862; and Sarah A. Selvy, born 19 March 1862. Other documents in the pension file reveal that Sarah's full name was Sarah Augusta Selvy.
In 1866, Elizabeth J. Selvy filed for an increase in her pension. Her four children by George W. Selvy. Sr. and their locations are named in this document. Elizabeth was living in Chandlersville [sic], Cass County, Illinois, nearly 60 miles from Milton, Pike County, Illinois. Her eldest sons George W. and Kader Selvy were living at Florence, Pike County, Illinois. Her daughter Esther Selvy was living at Chandlersville, Cass County, Illinois (probably with Elizabeth). Her youngest daughter Sarah A. Selvy was living at Milton, Pike County, Illinois. This may be during the time period when Cade Selvy lived in the home of T. N. Hall. Elizabeth stated that she was still financially responsible for her children, that she was still their guardian, and that they had not been given up for adoption. James J. Short and Nancy Short of Cass County, Illinois signed an affidavit vouching for her, so that's a clue that I need to investigate since I can not figure out why Elizabeth Selvy was living in Cass County at that point.
On 16 March 1868, Elizabeth Selvy filed for another increase in her pension. At this time, her residence was Roodhouse, Greene County, Illinois. Again, her four children were named. More importantly, her two Lacy half-sisters vouched for her: Amanda Lacy and Asena Lacy. This suggests to me that the Lacy family had moved from Pike County to Greene County, Illinois, before their move to Wilson County, Kansas. Both Amanda and Asena Lacy further stated that they were present at the births of the four Selvy children. I have my doubts about them being in Wisconsin when Cade Selvy was born.
In 1870, Elizabeth Selvy and her three eldest children were living at Exeter, Scott County, Illinois. Who else from the family might have been there?? Where was Sarah A. Selvy? She did not marry until the late 1870s. By 1870, Esther (Bryant), Robert Lacy, and their children were living in Wilson County, Kansas. Why didn't Elizabeth go with them? Her sister Nancy (Johnson) Brown was living in DeWitt County, Illinois. Meanwhile, younger brother Richard M. Johnson was living in Macon County, Illinois. Elder brother Peter Johnson has been persistently difficult to track.
By 1880, Elizabeth Selvy was in Salt Spring Township, Randolph County, Missouri, with three of her children: Sarah A. Stansberry, Hester Jones, and Lee Selvy. Lee was not born until nearly 1870, so he was not a son of George W. Selvy's. Three of Elizabeth J. (Johnson) Selvy's children married in Randolph County, Missouri:
Esther Ann Selvy married Henry C. Jones on 3 December 1876,
Cade Selvy married Mary Bailey on 25 December 1879, and
Sarah A. Selvy married Joshua Frank Stansberry on 22 April 1880.
By 1891, Cade Selvy was the Constable of Gallup, New Mexico. The other Selvy brothers seem to have moved to Gallup at about the same time. Both Lee Selvy and George Selvy are mentioned in the Gallup newspapers within the next few years. Elizabeth J. Selvy appears in The Gallup Gleaner as early as 1892:
By 1892, Cade Selvy was no longer living in Gallup, but his mother was. She was likely living with Lee or George Selvy.
The relationship between Elizabeth Selvy and Miss Jones was clarified in a clipping from The Gallup Gleaner in 1894:
By 1894, Cade Selvy was working for the A&P Railroad. Miss May Jones, who was the granddaughter of Elizabeth Selvy, was the daughter of Esther Ann (Selvy) Jones. By my estimate, May Jones was born in 1880 after the census was taken. The census day for 1880 was June 1, which means the census was to include everyone living in the household on June 1, 1880. May Jones was not in the household with her parents, but Esther Ann (Selvy) Jones would have been pregnant with her. The census taker arrived at the Frank Stansberry household, where Esther Ann and Henry C. Jones were living on 8 June 1880. It's impossible to know if Esther Ann was still living on the 8th. By the end of the year, Henry C. Jones had sold a piece of land that was witnessed on 25 October 1880. At the bottom of the document, where Henry C. Jones would have released her dower, is the notary's statement that "Henry C. Jones (widower)" appeared in his office on 25 October 1877. The notary signed this document on 6 December 1880. It's a preprinted form for documents that would have been used in 187_. I wonder if the notary neglected to correct the date. All the other dates on the document are for 1880. The 1877 date on the document certainly muddies the water. Otherwise, this seems to indicate that Esther Ann died between June 1 and October 25, and very likely that she died in childbirth or shortly after. That would make granddaughter May Jones about fourteen years old when she and Elizabeth Selvy travelled to Albuquerque to visit Cade Selvy.
In 1895, Elizabeth J. Selvy was reunited with her sister, Nancy (Johnson) Brown, in Albuquerque.
In 1897, Cade Selvy packed up his mother and moved her to Santa Monica, California.
© Kathy Duncan, 2025
Finding Esther (Bryant) Johnson Lacy's death notice a couple of weeks ago, after seeking it for years, was exciting. That success prompted me to lean into the Bryant-Johnson-Lacy family for my Halloween project.
My first step was to search Kansas newspapers for the Lacy siblings, who were the children of Esther Bryant and her second husband, Robert Lacy. That's where I found a "new" piece of information. C. Selby and his wife were visiting his uncle, A. C. Lacy, and his aunts, Mrs. Henry Pearmain and Mrs. S. C. Brown. Those aunts were Frances L. (Lacy) Pearmain and Amanda (Lacy) Brown.
Selby returned in 1916 and was still referred to as being a nephew of A. C. Lacy. This clipping from The Buffalo Blade added the given name Cade, but nothing turned up on Cade Selby.
Fortunately, a different newspaper provided different information. The Fredonia Weekly Herald reported that Cade Selvy (not Selby) was visiting his uncle A.C. Lacey and that Selvy was a special officer for the Santa Fe [railroad]. Selvy was the "correct" spelling. Plenty of information about Cade Selvy turned up. He seemed to be everywhere in newspapers.
Still, I had no clue exactly how he was connected to the Lacys. I turned to Family Search, where his mother was listed as Elizabeth Jane Johnson, married to George W. Selvy. Someone had added the information that she was born in Pike County, Illinois.
It took a hot minute to realize that Cade Selvy's mother was the Johnson sister I started searching for a few years ago. Specifically, she was the daughter of Esther Bryant by her first marriage to Samuel Johnson; she was a half-sister to the children Esther Bryant had from her second marriage to Robert Lacy. Everything pointed to Elizabeth Jane (Johnson) Selvy being a sister to Nancy (Johnson) Brown, wife of John DeLoss Brown, and a half-sister to the Lacy siblings.
However, I really wanted hard proof that there was a connection. The morning after Halloween brought this newspaper clipping from The Albuquerque Daily Citizen of 1895:
Mrs. J. D. Brown [Mrs. John DeLoss Brown/Nancy Johnson] had traveled from Wellington, Illinois [a misspelling of Weldon, Illinois] to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she met her sister E. J. Selvy [Elizabeth Jane], who had traveled in from Gallup, New Mexico. E. J. Selvy was the mother of Cade Selvy, who visited the Lacy family in Kansas. The two sisters had not seen each other since 1861. That's a post in and of itself. Mrs. J. D. Brown was also there to visit her son J.H. Brown [Joel Herbert Brown] who worked for the Atlantic & Pacific [railroad] shops in Albuquerque. From there Mrs. J.H. Brown planned to travel to Fresno, California to visit another son [probably Charles A. Brown].
I have to wonder how this reunion came about after 34 years. It is possible that the two sisters kept up a correspondence with each other over the years. It is also possible that their sons crossed paths in Albuquerque and realized that their mothers were sisters - Joel H Brown may have recognized the Selvy name and asked questions. Cade Selvy was also employed by the Atlantic & Pacific railroad at times, so it would have been natural for him to be in the yard and shops where he might run into J.H. Brown.
© Kathy Duncan, 2025
Esther (Bryant) Johnson married her second husband, Robert Lacy, 22 March 1848, in Pike County, Illinois. They had at least eight known children in addition to the four children that Esther had by her first husband, Samuel Johnson.
By 1868, Esther and Robert Lacy had moved to Kansas. After years of searching, I have finally found Esther's death notice in one of those "twenty-years-ago" newspaper columns. To be more precise, this column was news from twenty-two years ago. I have not yet found the original notice.
