Chasing the Shadows

Simon Schama wrote, "Historians are left forever chasing shadows, painfully aware of their inability ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing their documentation. We are doomed to be forever hailing someone who has just gone around the corner and out of earshot."

Family historians can identify strongly with those words, and, yet, we continue the pursuit. And sometimes those shadows we are chasing take form and substance and we can at least sneak a peak into the lives of our ancestors. It's worth the chase.

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Thursday, October 7, 2010

AMANDA E. GROOM

The autograph book of Lovina Jane Record Carson




Amanda E. Groom (Amanda Ellen Groom) was the daughter of William Groom and Mary VanDorn Groom. Amanda was born 6 Apr 1859.  


Amanda's mother, Mary VanDorn Groom, died 15 Sep 1860.  The 1870 US Census shows that Amanda E. Groom was living with her aunt, Mary Groom Hutchison who was an older sister of Amanda’s father, William Groom, and Mary’s husband, John, in Chillicothe, Peoria County, IL.   Also living in this household were Adella, William and Julia Bernard, soon to be Amanda's step siblings by virtue of her father William’s second marriage to Laurilla Record Bernard   sometime after 1871.  Laurilla's first husband Andrew Bernard had died sometime before 1870.  Laurilla was an older sister of Lovina Jane Record Carson.


Amanda E. Groom signed Lovina's autograph book in 1875.  She was living Richland Township, Cowley County, KS by 1875, as evidenced by the date of the autograph and also the 1875 Kansas State Census.  


In 1885 Amanda married James Richard Mathews. (1900 US Census)  Amanda and her husband farmed in Richland Township, Cowley County, KS for at least 20 years.  I have not been able to locate them on the 1910 US census, the 1915 Kansas State Census or the 1930 US Census.  The 1920 census shows that the couple moved to 8th Street, Winfield, Cowley County, KS and lived with a cousin, Susan Miller.  Amanda’s husband, James Richard Mathews, was listed as a “meat cutter” under occupation.  The 1925 US Census shows the couple still living at East 8th Street.


A search at www.findagrave.com reveals that Amanda passed away in 1939. Her husband James Richard Mathews predeceased her by seven years.  The couple are buried in Wilmot Cemetery, Cowley County, KS.  There is a picture of the couple’s headstone posted at that website.  


This picture of William Groom was given to me by my paternal great aunt and is in my possession.




The headstone of William Groom and Laurilla Record Barnard Groom
Floral Cemetery, Cowley County, KS.  Taken by me in October 2007.
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