I poked around on Ancestry, doing several different searches, but wasn't coming up with anything helpful in terms of a marriage or births of children. I also did a quick survey backwards from the DNA matches, but ran into roadblocks when it came to actually matching the children to Ester. We're talking 1818-1822 and birth records are hit or miss at best. Trees mentioning Call didn't provide any useful documentation to prove the relationship either.
I was perplexed. But, the next day, I decided to do a full-text search at FamilySearch. I used the name of Ester Call (instead of her maiden name Ester Shelly) and then included the keyword Shelly in my search. I also limited the search to Pennsylvania where Ester was born, even though she ultimately ended up in Ohio. All the known documentation I've seen for her is focused in Ohio, but since the supposed children had birth dates prior to those she had with David Alleman, I figured it would be a likely bet, any previous marriage might have been before she moved. And I struck paydirt!
In the Cumberland. Appearance Dockets 1826–1828, I found where she had appeared before the court, seeking to disentangle herself from her husband Nicholas Call. In part the record reads:
"November 15th 1826 came into Court Ester Call by her father...Jacob Shelly and prefered [sic] a petition therein stating, that in the month of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, this libellent [sic] was intermarried with Nicholas Call with whom she resided and cohabited until the month of January in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty three..."
Long story short, it appeared Ester married at just 16. By the time she was 23, she had at least 3 children with Nicholas. He abandoned his family, and she appears to have waited 3 years before filing to divorce him. This was about the same time as her father was in the process of relocating to Wayne County, Ohio. Several of his children made the trip with him to establish new roots there. I suspect Ester wanted to do the same (although I haven't come across any concrete records showing her in Ohio until the 1850 census.)
By June 1850, she was married to David Alleman and had 2 grown sons with him, as well as one child who passed away. They did have some younger children enumerated in their household in 1850, but I've yet to determine just where they may fit in my tree. At the time of this Census, David Alleman was shown as having property valued at $5000 in Clinton, Wayne, Ohio.
Then, I found another interesting twist (thank you again full-text search!) In the Wayne. Deed Books 1850–1852, by 1851 Nicholas Call had passed away, leaving 160 acres of land to his son Michael Call. Not terribly unusual for a father to leave property to the eldest son, except the land was in....wait for it!...Clinton, Wayne, Ohio. And to make it a little more strange, his will further specified:
"...the above conveyance is made on the express condition that Hester Alamon [sic] wife of the late Nicholas Call and the Mother of the said Michael Call shall have the use and occupation of said land during her natural life..."
There has always been some confusion if her given name was Ester, Esther, or Hester. I've seen records for all 3 different given names. And the misspelling of Alleman, as Alamon, doesn't give me any pause at all. I'm very confident we're talking about the same person.
Ester filed her initial petition to the courts in late 1826, Her children with David Alleman were born in 1827 and 1828. It's pretty clear she moved on quickly. But given Ester and David Alleman presumably already had property in 1850, it seems very unusual Nicholas specified she should have use of his land. Is it possible the property detailed for David was actually the land owned by Nicholas? I suppose it could be. Census enumerators asked questions and recorded responses. It wasn't their job to make sure the information provided was correct. Or did Nicholas also move, purchasing a separate property to be closer to his children? Equally as possible. For now, it's a mystery.
Ester probably struggled with social stigma in her home state of Pennsylvania. Even though Nicholas left them, being essentially a single mother of 3 young children wasn't the ideal situation for her. Moving to Ohio may have been the fresh start she needed. It's nice to know she found stability with David. I hope in the future, I can tease out more details of her story. In any case, I'm excited to work towards placing the Call DNA descendants in my tree.
Image by wal_172619 from Pixabay
This is way more than a bud. What a fabulous find!
ReplyDelete