Week 9 - Multiples

 Week 9 - Multiples

The prompt for this week is Multiples. The first thing that came to my mind was multiple births, as in twins, etc.  The second thing that came to my mind was multiple marriages. There are about three people who come to mind for multiple marriages, and I will be featuring them in later entries, so I’m going to go with twins for this week. 

George Osborn Carlock is my 3rd great grandfather. His father’s name was Abraham, as was his twin brother Abraham Willard Carlock. The Carlock twins were born April 7th, 1800 in Augusta, Hampshire County, Virginia. 

 Marion Pomeroy Carlock, a descendant of Abraham Willard Carlock, wrote a book titled History of the Carlock family and adventures of pioneer Americans in 1929.  Unfortunately it is out of print and expensive to purchase.  However, it is also available digitally, which is where most of this information comes from. 

According to Marion Carlock, George was born first and is therefore the “elder.” At some point in his first 20 years, George moved to Illinois where he married Elizabeth Cox in 1820, and they had Susannah in 1821 and Henry Carlock (my great, great grandfather) in 1823.   George served with his brother Reuben in the Company of Capt. Merritt L Covell’s Mounted Volunteer Rangers during the Black Hawk War.  This was a brief war that took place in 1832 when Black Hawk led the Sauk, Meskwakis, and Kickapoo Indians from Indian Territory in Iowa to Illinois.  Why Black Hawk did this isn’t explained, but the settlers of the area interpreted it as a hostile action, and the Illinois Militia was sent to put down any threat.  It was a short war, with the Indians losing and Black Hawk being imprisoned.  Famous people who were involved with this war include Zachary Taylor (the 12 President of the United States), Winfield Scott, and Abraham Lincoln. (It was Lincoln’s only military experience prior to his presidency, and he didn’t see combat during the Black Hawk War.) 

In the 1840’s, George moved his family to Gentry County, Missouri. Then, when the California Gold Rush began, George and his brother Reuben left for the goldfields.  (I’ll have to do more research on this Reuben character; he seems to have a hand in everything.)  Apparently these brothers were ‘49ers, because they headed out in a “prairie schooner” in 1849.  According to Marion Carlock, “they mined out a small fortune in Yuba City, California.  He and Reuben then took passage on a sailing ship to Central America, where they trekked from the Pacific to the Atlantic, fighting their way once more through Indians, wild animals and disease, reaching Bluefields, Nicaragua, where they again sailed for New Orleans and home.” (Carlock 321)  Apparently the prairie schooner trip was unpleasant enough that they felt the long way home was a better option.  George died in 1881 in Albany, Gentry County, Missouri.

In this time of divisive political parties and their antics, it is comforting to know that this is nothing new. George’s twin brother Abraham is a prime example of someone who was ruled by his loyalty to one party and deeply opposed to the other. Abraham’s claim-to-fame was that he was an early settler to McLean and Woodford counties in Illinois.  Like all Carlock's of the time, he was a big fan of Andrew Jackson and was a staunch Democrat.  He accumulated a lot of land, and at one point, donated some land for a cemetery – on the condition that only Democrats could be buried there.  This information was posted by Debra8118 on Ancestry, and she also references an excerpt from roadtripamerica.com.  When you search for Carlock, Illinois, you will get the details of the story:

CARLOCK, ILLINOIS—

Carlock, home of the community-owned Countryside Family Restaurant, has another claim to fame. If you drive down Church Street about a mile, past the point where houses have given way to cornfields, you'll find the town cemetery on the right-hand side of the road. A few hundred feet farther, on the other side of the road, you'll see the second one.

Why does a tiny town like Carlock have two cemeteries? The reason goes back more than a century, when Abraham Carlock, a staunch Democrat, was one of the leading citizens. His nemesis in town was Philip Benson, a Republican of equally strong convictions. When Carlock established a cemetery and announced that only Democrats were welcome, Benson created one for Republicans nearby.

We visited the two cemeteries, and were surprised to find markers for members of the opposing families in both. Carlock's seem to be lying peacefully next to Benson's, all differences forgotten. Did the rivalry die with the two men who started it, or did other family members defect to the opposing party?

 

Abraham Willard Carlock died in 1884.  The inscription on his tombstone reads, “Here lies the Old Democrat.”