Has anyone ever heard of St.Clair Elkins?

Question

St. Clair Elkins may have been a Native American. He married a woman named Elizabeth. They had a daughter named Margaret born in June 1852.

Margaret Elkins married James K. Polk Davis in 1870.

Answer 1

1860 census has him born Virginia, no race indicated. (Source Citation Year: 1860; Census Place:  ,  Cabell,  Virginia; Roll:  M653_1338; Page:  130; Image:  137; Family History Library Film:  805338.)

Note: he's living in Cabell county, VA which later appears to be part of Kentucky. Or West VA?

Looks like he died during Civil War from inflammation of the lungs in Kentucky in 1864.  (Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, compiled 1861–1865. [ARC: 656639.] Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's–1917. Record Group 94. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.)

 

And his wife filed for a pension the following year. (National Archives and Records Administration. Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.)

 

Her pension request approcal (1868) lists the names and birth dates of all their children.  Margaret is not listed but the other children from the 1860 census are, including one born after 1860. She's probably not listed because she was over 16 by this time.  (She was 10 in the 1860 census; the June 1852 birth listed in the query above is probably inaccurate.). Note: Margaret is on another list of children on a page that was submitted earlier.  

 

Love love love pension records.  In a deposition widow Elizabeth Elkins provided the date and place of their marriage-- nov. 23 1848 in Boone Co., va. ( on a different page the year is 1841 )  Oh! And Elizabeth's maiden name was Clark! The pension was provided until she died on 24 march 1909 apparently in Nestlow, WV.

 

The file includes the original hand written note from the hospital chaplain to Elizabeth informing her of her husband's death. There is also a deposition in which Elizabeth states that since marriage they lived in the mountains away from town or church and none of the births of her children were recorded. 

 

(Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and Other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, ca. 1861 - ca. 1910 accessed 14 November 2012 on fold3.com)

 

can't find him before 1860. 

 

Id hoped to find his enlistment papers which might describe his appearance. 

Comments

Found an unsourced web page about him with a claimed long Anglo line back many generations on the paternal side.

 

http://www.angelfire.com/ia/5arrows/elkins.html

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Thank-you very much. I never expected to learn so much.

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Yep! Pension records can be really rich in family history information. It was a fun little research project. Glad to help.

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P.S. with the above information, you should be able to work backwards up his line at least a few more generations.