The Joke
Dad always joked that Mom was related to everyone east of the Frisco Railroad. She wasn’t actually related to everyone. It just seemed that way. They probably aren’t even my most populous family, but with so many of them concentrated in one area it felt that way. Back when I started taking photos for for Find-A-Grave, I started by taking photos of relative’s graves. However, Clarksburg Cemetery (east of the Frisco) changed that. My sister and I kept discussing each grave and so many of them were related that I gave up figuring out who was related and who wasn’t. I just started photographing all the graves as it was quicker that way.
Mom’s Paternal Side
Pellett
The Pellett family arrived in southeast Kansas before Henry, my great-grandfather was born in 1871. However, it wasn’t just Seth and his wife Aseneth Crawford that immigrated to the area. Seth’s parents and six of his siblings lived part or all of their adult lives in the area. Seth, alone fathered eleven grandchildren for his parents, Abel John and Eunity Harrison. Combining this with those of his siblings, Abel John and Eunity had many grandchildren (and great-grandchildren) in the area (plus others in Ohio and Illinois).
It is definitely a good thing that Abel John’s 10 siblings, Eunity’s 14 siblings, and Aseneth’s (Seth’s wife) 9 siblings didn’t also locate in southeast Kansas. And, it may explain, in part, why the family left Ohio. After all, who do you marry if everyone is a first cousin?
Conner & Portwood
Around the same time that the Pellett family arrived in the area east of the Frisco, the Conner and Portwood families also arrived. Again, multiple generations of the families moved to the area. Several of Thomas and Martha (Whitworth) Conner’s eleven children settled in the area with their parents. Meanwhile, only Simpson Portwood, his son Woodson, and Woodson’s family moved to the area with the rest of his children remaining primarily in Illinois.
The two families intermarried. Hugh Portwood married Emma Conner. Then he married Emma’s sister Margaret Conner after Emma died. Willis Conner (brother to Emma and Margaret) married Mary I. Portwood (Hugh’s sister).
Della Conner, one of eight children of Willis and Mary (Portwood) Conner married Henry Pellett, connecting two large families that resided within relatively close proximity to one another.
Mom’s Maternal Side
Thomas
When they moved to the area sometime between 1873 and 1877, George and Louisa (Carson) Thomas didn’t bring their parents and siblings. Still, George was one of thirteen siblings and their children had well over fifty first cousins just on his side.
George and Louisa had four children and they all remained in the local area.
Ashby
George Thomas’ son James WIlliam “Will” married Sadie (Ella) Ashby, daughter of Grant and Lizzie Ashby. Ella gave birth to 9 children before she died in childbirth.
Ella’s family was both large and complicated. She was one of twelve children, but her parents were first cousins.
Grant and Lizzie moved to southeast Kansas sometime between 1895 and 1897. Being the oldest, Ella married and stayed behind when the family moved on westward. However, the connection to this family remained strong and Ella’s siblings and their descendants remained in the conversation of my Mom’s generation.
The talk
What probably made this family seem so huge was simply the talk. My grandmother, my mom, her siblings, and others in the family would talk about all these people without explanation. The conversation was so intertwined that no one could de-tangle it no matter how hard we tried. We often speculated that they couldn’t even follow the conversation. But in good news, they loved every minute of it and were dedicated to keeping every piece of information on all of these people, including their friends and other connections. I will be going through all those newspaper clippings and other items for years trying to figure out who east of the Frisco really is related to me!