When
I wrote about the migration of my ancestors across the United States last, on 14 July 2015, I left off
with my grandmother and her father and sister just leaving Virginia for
Missouri. That was in 1894. Many of her sisters and brothers, with their
families, had already migrated west. The rest of her siblings but one would
follow within a few years.
Asa
Harvey McDaniel, my great-grandfather, along his two youngest daughters, Martha
Alwilda Jane (my grandmother) and Sarah Carnelia, left their Virginia home for
the last time just before Easter 1894. We have a copy of a letter written to
Asa by another daughter, Mary Saphronica (Molly) Davis, dated 18 April 1894 that
acknowledged a letter from him sent from Missouri. Asa and the girls had
travelled to Tarkio, MO, near where daughters Virginia (Jennie), Elizabeth and
Rebecca – all of whom had married men of the Slemp family in Virginia – and son
George McDaniel lived. Two other of Asa’s children, with their families, had
also moved west by then: Eliza Bundy to Savonburg, KS in 1885; and John
McDaniel to Norman, OK in 1892. Other brothers were to join their siblings
later: James McDaniel to Norman in 1896; William McDaniel to Neosho, MO in
1899; and Isaac to Savonburg about 1906.
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Map
showing the probable routes taken by Asa McDaniel and his children in their
move west
Asa
and his daughters likely travelled by wagon from Virginia, possibly to
Louisville where they might have boarded a train for the remainder of their
journey. There was no easy route across the Cumberland Mountains at that time. When
McDaniel families had moved west in the 1880s, the trains were just beginning
to branch into Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Land was opening up in the region
which spurred migration of people seeking to start over or acquire new lands to
farm. The McDaniels were part of that great push into the plains in the latter
half of the 19th century and their moves appear to be directly tied
to the development of the railroads.
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(Map
acquired 6 June 2016 from Central Pacific Railroad
Photographic History Museum website)
Maps
showing the railway lines as they developed offer a great perspective on how,
when and why families moved to certain areas of the country. Prior to their
arrival in the plains, it was an arduous task for people, especially those with
children, to travel and the only way was in a wagon train.
Other
information that has allowed me to put together the times of the moves are the
research done by my aunt in the 1960s and ‘70s, correspondence between
relatives and the various censuses taken in the regions. From these I found out
when and where Asa’s grandchildren were born. This narrowed down the places
where the families resided and the dates they lived there.
By
the time Asa arrived in 1894, his children were well established in Missouri
and Kansas. New land was opening up in Oklahoma which prompted the move of John
from Virginia and Rebecca and her family from Missouri. Both settled near
Oklahoma City. Rebecca apparently took her newly-arrived younger sisters,
Martha and Sarah, with her when she moved from Tarkio, MO, to Yukon, OK.
Yukon
is where my grandmother met my grandfather, Edwin Miller, and where they were
married in 1895. (I will detail how the Miller family arrived in the area in a
subsequent post.)
Asa
moved south to live with his son, John, within a year or so of his move west.
He remained there until his death in 1901.
By
the turn of the 20th century all but one member of the Asa McDaniel
family, Mary Saphronica Davis, were living in the Great Plains and a new era in
our history was under way.
Wayne
Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in
England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has
published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past
Editor of Chinook, the quarterly
journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides
genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated
