Agnes Craig Clark,
great-granddaughter (311)
Joseph Huston Craig,
great-grandson (312)
Agnes and Joseph shared
more than being the two oldest children of John Smilie Craig (31). Agnes was married to Samuel M. Clark. Samuel and Joseph were both carpenters.
The first U.S. Census to
record the names of all the residences of a household was 1850 and Joseph and
Samuel were found boarding at a home in East Birmingham, Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania. Birmingham, East
Birmingham, South Pittsburgh and Ormsby, all small municipalities on the south
side of the Monongahela River, were merged in 1872 into the City of Pittsburgh;
it is the area now known as Pittsburgh’s South Side. If you have seen pictures of or even ridden
on the Pittsburgh Inclines, that is the area we are dealing with.
September 4, 1850, the census enumerator recorded
Joseph and brother-in-law, Samuel, living in the
residence of John Jackson.[ii]
There are two 1850 census
records for Samuel Clark in East Birmingham.
One on September 4 boarding at the Jackson residence with Joseph
Craig. A second record on September 9
records a family of four people.
The only census record of Agnes[iii]
This second census record
is one of those pieces of history to really muck things up. The person who gave the information to the
census enumerator either was not a member of the household or it is not our
family. I believe it is the former
rather than the latter for several reasons.
· I have not been able to find this 1850 family –
Samuel, Agnes, Amelia, John - in the 1860 census.
o Agnes dies in 1854, so she is not going to be in the
1860 census
o I can not find a 1860 family with a Samuel Clark
having children Amelia and John.
o I do find a 1860 family with a Samuel Clark having
children Rebecca and John (plus a new wife and an additional two children).
· If the adult male or female of the household were
giving the information they would most likely know where the male was born.
· If its someone outside of the household giving the
information, what information are they most likely to get correct?; the names
and the birth of the baby male child
· If it is our family, the informant does not know the
correct name of the three year old female child. And there would be a reason for that, because
the three year old female child is often living with Agnes’s parents in Union
Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
If the 1850 East Birmingham census had a 3 year old female named Rebecca
instead of Amelia, the names would match.
· The seven/twelfth year old male child, John, would be
John Huston Clark, born 24 September 1849. The age in the 1850 census is
supposed to be given as the person’s age on 1 June 1850.
o A neighbor who is the informant for the census
enumerator would know that the child was born in Pennsylvania, but the non-exactness
of the age is understandable.
o I can not find another John Clark born in Pennsylvania
in 1849 +/- with a parent named Samuel or Agnes that appears in the 1860 census
other than our John with his father, step-mother and correct siblings.
John and Jane Craig household 1850 Census
Children Agnes and Joseph not listed
Rebecca Jane Clark enumerated at the home of her
Grandfather[iv]
Agnes Craig Clark died 25
April 1854. She was the oldest child of
John and Jane Springer Craig, born 13 November 1822. Agnes had four sisters, none of whom
married. She was the mother to three
children:
Rebecca Jane Clark (3111) born
John Huston Clark (3112)
William Ormsby Clark (3113)
Agnes is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery
South Union, Fayette, Pennsylvania[v]
Pittsburgh City Directories
The University of
Pittsburgh and a large number of western Pennsylvania historical organizations
maintain a website “Historic Pittsburgh” http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/ which includes a number of city
directories. Beginning in 1856 the
directories start including information about residents of the south side
municipalities.
1856-1857 Pittsburgh and vicinity City Directory, page
250[vi]
The city directories only
show the names of the men unless the head of household is a woman. Agnes would have been deceased when the
1856-1857 City Directory would have been published. Samuel’s second wife, Harriet Semans, would
have been a part of the household about the time of the 1856-1857 city
directory; their first son Thomas was born 30 May 1858. Joseph was married in 1852.
Year
|
Samuel M. Clark
|
Joseph Huston Craig
|
1850 census
|
East Birmingham
|
East Birmingham
|
1856 Pgh CD
|
es Ormsby bt Water and
Vingin ay, B
|
ws Harmony, bt Neville
& Bingham
|
1857 Pgh CD
|
cor Bingham and Craig, B
|
h Harmony n Bingham
|
1858 Pgh CD
|
-
|
h and s Harmony, EB
|
1859 Pgh CD
|
-
|
of Snyder & Co.,
Harmony bel Carson, B
|
1860 census
|
Uniontown
|
Birmingham
|
1861 Pgh CD
|
Bingham n Craig, B
|
-
|
1862 Pgh CD
|
Bingham n McKee, B
|
-
|
1863 Pgh CD
|
Bingham n McKee, B
|
-
|
1863 Draft Registration
|
Uniontown
|
North Union
|
1864 Pgh CD
|
Bingham n McKee, B
|
-
|
1865 Pgh CD
|
McKee, B
|
-
|
1866 Pgh CD
|
Bingham n Craig, B
|
-
|
1870 census
|
Uniontown
|
North Union
|
It
is difficult to tell where the more permanent residence was located, but
depending on the year it would appear from the data available that Samuel Clark
and Joseph Craig maintained some semblance of a residence in both locations.
1872 Map of Birmingham, Allegheny County, PA[vii]
I
don’t know where Samuel’s Uniontown home was located. Joseph Craig built a brick home on present
day Craig Lane in North Union Township off of Coolspring Street.
Joseph Huston Craig’s House
Craig Lane, North Union Township
Catherine Craig (31232) standing in doorway
1968[viii]
In
2013 I was contacted by a collector of antique tools inquiring about Joseph
Huston Craig. He had found Joseph’s
carpenter’s tools at White Horse Mill Antiques, White Horse, Lancaster County,
PA and has since restored them. There
was a tag on the chest identifying that the chest came from a sale of Buck
Craig’s [Walter Tennehill Craig (312314)] things and had belonged to Joseph
Craig; “ a stamp "J H Craig" which he applied liberally to both the
chest and his tools.” I very much
appreciate the photos of the restored chest and tools that have been provided.[ix]
Joseph Huston Craig's carpenter's tool chest
[i] photo of original taken by Edward Black
[ii] Seventh Census of the United States, 1850, East
Birmingham, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, page 39(a) stamped 27 penned; (National
Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the
Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Retrieved from Ancestry 28 June 2014
[iii] ibid, page (44b stamped) 38 penned Retrieved from
Ancestry 28 June 2014
[iv] ibid, Union Township, Fayette, Pennsylvania, page 139
stamped, retrieved from Ancestry 12 Dec 2011
[v] headstone photo © 2009 Jack McNees, all rights
reserved, used with permission
[vi] Thurston, George H., Directory of Pittsburgh &
vicinity for 1856-1857
Pittsburgh, Pa:
1856-1857, Historic Pittsburgh City
Directories,http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/text-idx?c=pitttextdir;page=browse;key=date
[vii] G. M. Hopkins & Co., 1872 Atlas of the cities of
Pittsburgh, Allegheny : and the adjoining boroughs, from actual surveys &
official records, Plate 104, Historic Pittsburgh Map Collection,
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/maps/
[viii] photo by Edward Black
[ix] photo of chest and tools, by JE, 2014, used with
permission
