Isaac's Neighbors and Acquaintances

George Tousley

Last week's blog identified the early settlers in Isaac Werner's township.  This week I will share more acquaintances mentioned in Isaac's journal.  As those of you who regularly follow the blog know, Isaac wrote in his journal every day from 1884-1891, and the journal was 480 pages in an oversized legal ledger. If you do the math to compute how many days of entries his journal contains, you have some idea of the number of people he mentioned.

I indexed all of the surnames mentioned in the journal, and my index has a column of eight pages, single spaced, listing each surname.  I have not indexed each page on which the surname is mentioned; however, I have noted each year that surname is mentioned.  The indexing does not include 1870-1871 when Isaac was in Illinois.

Dr. Isaac Dix

Several readers of the blog have expressed interest in knowing some of the names.  This blog will not include every name, but what I will do is include names mentioned in the journal during four years or more.  The surnames are alphabetized, so you can search quickly for names in which you are interested.  If you do not find the surname you had hoped to find, you can send me an e-mail at txfen@msn.com with the name(s) in which you are interested and I will reply to you.

Neelands & Spencers on porch of their house

There are a great many names mentioned during periods of 3 years or less, which are not included in this blog listing.  The number of years that a particular surname is mentioned does not necessarily indicate how often the name appeared in a given year.  Some names that appear in fewer years may have been mentioned more frequently during a specific time than names that are included in this blog.  Because early settlers moved on, while others arrived later, some acquaintances did not know Isaac for longer periods.  

The following names are given alphabetically, with the number of years in which that surname appears in the journal given in parenthesis:

Baker (4), Beck (7), Bentley (7), Blake (7), Blanch (6), Briggs (4), Brown (4), Capbell (8), Carnahan (6), Church (5), Clouse (6), Curtis (8), Davidson/Davison (4), Dix (8), Eggleston (8), Farwell (6), Ferguson (5), Frack (8), Garvin (6), Gereke (8), Gillmore (4), Gloyd (5), Goodman (4), Goodwin (7), Green (7), Gullet (5), Hacker (5), Hall (4), Harrison (4), Hart (4), Henn (8), Hicks (4), Hilmes (4), Holbrook (4), John (5), Jones (4), Lewis (6), Marten/Martin (4), Mayes/Maize (5), Moore (4), Naron (4), Neeland (6), Pelton (4), Ross, Mrs. (7), Rowe (4), Searls (4), Seeley (6), Shaler (6), Shattuc/Shattuck (8), Shoop (5), Smith (7), Stimatze (7), Stringfield (6), Swartz (4), Tanner (4), Thompson (4), Toland (6), Tousley (6), Vosburg (7), Webber (8), Wilson (4) 

As I explained, the above-listed names are only a small portion of the surnames mentioned in the journal.  I researched every name mentioned, using records at the courthouse, ancestry.com, gravestones, newspapers, and interviews.  If your ancestor lived in St. John, or claimed a homestead south of St. John or on the northern boundary of Pratt County, or was a merchant in St. John or Pratt, or was active in Farmers' organizations or the Stafford County People's Party, there is a strong chance that Isaac mentioned them in his journal.

Let me hear from you!