Nathaniel Holcomb's Wife, Hanah?

© Kathy Duncan, 2018

Last night I continued scrolling backward on LDS film # 008114991 on FamilySearch, which are the Court  Records, 1815-1819 for Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri. It turns out that there are records in that group that are dated previous to 1815. Just something to keep in mind as you browse through the records in FamilySearch's catalog.

I was on a mission to find more records about Nathaniel Holcomb or his heirs after having found the guardianship for four of Nathaniel's children (Isaac, Nathaniel, Phebe, and Hannah) that was granted to Titus Strickland on 10 October 1817. I thought that I might find other references to this record or that I might find the older children (Enoch, Esther, Azariah) requesting their own guardians. It is important to remember that I knew Titus Strickland was a guardian to Nathaniel Holcomb's heirs because of this newspaper notice, which appeared in the National Intelligencer in Washington DC on Saturday, 3 January 1818:

It is likely that Titus Strickland became the children's guardian for the sole purpose of representing their land claim. 

Going backward on LDS film # 008114991, image 440,  I first found a reference to three lawsuits, which are repeated in image 437.

Thomas Maddin brought these three lawsuits--two against Hanah Holcomb and one against Robert Jamison, which were filed in the Court of Common Pleas on 16 July 1814. Thomas Maddin was a surveyor and one of the wealthiest men in Ste. Genevieve County. He frequently brought suits against those who could not afford to pay his surveyor fees. These lawsuits may be indicative of land that belonged to Nathaniel Holcomb's estate. Robert Jamison may have been married to Esther Holcomb by this time. The Hanah Holcomb in these suits is too old to be Nathaniel Holcomb's daughter Hannah, who would have only been a small child at this time. This Hanah Holcomb is probably Nathaniel Holcomb's widow. (Another Hannah!!) It may be that Nathaniel Holcomb had arranged to have his land surveyed, and then died before paying for it. That would mean that he was deceased by 1814.

The next record of interest that I found was for an Enoch Holcomb:

This suit filed by the United States against Enoch Holcomb in 1814 also involves Thomas Maddin. However, my best estimate is that Enoch Holcomb, born about 1799, would only have been 15 years old in 1814. Would a fifteen-year-old be sued in that time period? Or is this another Enoch Holcomb??

The last item that I found was apparently a summons for Enoch Holcomb to give evidence before the grand jury in 1813. I do not think there were any age limitations for testifying. There is no indication what this testimony was about.

The only conclusion I can come to at this point is that this Hanah Holcomb is likely the mother of  Phebe Holcomb, Hanah Holcomb, and James Brown. There is no way to know at this point if she is also the mother of the older Holcomb siblings.

Nathaniel Holcomb of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri

© Kathy Duncan, 2018

At long last, I've found documentation that Nathaniel Holcomb was the father of the Holcomb siblings. Early research revealed that Titus Strickland was acting as the guardian of the heirs of Nathaniel Holcomb, but those heirs were not named in any of the records to which I had access.

This evening, I was exploring Ste. Genevieve County in the FamilySearch catalog. Specifically, I went into the Court Records for 1815 - 1819. I knew that Strickland was acting as the guardian of Nathaniel Holcomb's children by 1818, so I located the end of 1818 and started scrolling backward. Since these records are not indexed, and I don't want to wait until they are indexed, there was no other option. I found the record in the October Term of 1817. Four of Nathaniel Holcomb's children were listed in the record: Isaac, Nathaniel, Phebe, Hannah. This is exactly what I needed--a configuration of some of the Holcomb sibling's names. All four of these names are a fit.

These four Holcomb children are Enoch Holcomb's siblings as are Azariah Holcomb and Esther Jamison. My conclusion is that all of these Holcomb siblings are the children of Nathaniel Holcomb.

Now I will have to start referring to them as Nathaniel Holcomb's children.

"On application the Court have and do hereby approved Titus Strickland Guardian for Isaac, Nathaniel, Phebe & Hannah Holcomb orphan children of Nathaniel Holcomb of the County of Ste Genevieve dec'd and the said children being under the age of fourteen years."

While this document refers to the children of Nathaniel Holcomb as orphans, that does not mean that they had lost both parents. In the legal sense, an orphan was a child who had lost at least one parent, usually the father. A guardian was appointed to oversee the child's inheritance not to assume custody. The appointment of a guardian might even signal the remarriage of the widow. Courts did not name step-fathers as guardians because they might not have the best interest of the child in mind. Titus Strickland is either a neighbor willing to take on the responsibility of looking after the Holcomb children's interests, or he is a relative of some sort.

This record can be found in LDS film #008114991, image 543. I stopped at this image, and I am looking forward to finding what else might be on this film.

Revised July 4, 2019.