Individual Details

An entry from the family of Ruth Christian Chenoweth who married Charles Oscar Turner, spurred me to re-look at this family. Ruth was a granddaughter of William Chenoweth of Nelson Co., KY, a daughter of James Hackley Chenoweth and Artemisia Catherine Birkhead. She and her family were listed in Harris and we had found them in 1880 naturally living in Pike Co., IL. But the database had ended here. There were 2 sons and 5 daughters with no marriages given. An entry from Dorothy Walsh Schallia gave her parents as Anna Mabel Turner and George Francis Walsh who died in Sacramento, CA. I was able to find Anna in the California death listings. We had not previous identified this listing as her first and middle names had been reversed. Then I found George and Anna with their daughter Dorothy in the 1920 Census of Sacramento. Dorothy was 17, but I could not find her yet in any SSA or CA death listing. Next I looked for Dorothy in the 1930 Census and found her as a boarder with a Nellie Rinchler in Sacramento. Her name was spelled Schallig. I had not turned up a single Schallia in the SSA listings but there were 4 Schalligs, one a D. Schallia born 17 Feb 1903 and who had lived in Sacramento. I tried Schallig in the CA death register and came up with her as Dorothy Walsh Schallig. I had found her. But wait, the Nellie looked very much like Dorothy’s Aunt Nellie Wanda. And there, living with them, was Ruth herself at age 84. Having her married name I looked for Nellie in the CA death register and found her. Rinchler was spelled Renschler. In the case of both she and her sister Anna, the mother’s maiden name was spelled Chenowet. I then notice other entries with thePage 20 same spelling matching two more sisters, Mary Elizabeth who had the married name of Seelye and Artie Christian (who I had mistaken in the database as a son) had married a Hughes. I struck out with the Seelyes, but then with Hughes, I found Artie with her husband William and 2 children in Nodaway Co., MO in the 1910 Census. It wasn’t long before I found Ruth and her husband Charles in the same county in 1900. Ruth said all of her 7 children were living and the oldest son James was living in the household with Nellie, called Maud in the Census. This spurred me to look for Charles, and I found him with a wife Laura in Tacoma, WA in 1900. Charles and Laura had only been married 8 months. Living with them was the sister Anna. She would shortly thereafter marry George Walsh. In 1910 Charles had moved back to Nodaway Co., MO and he and his wife with three children were living with Charles and Ruth and his brother James. In a Census error, the Census taker had confused the names of the youngest son of Charles, Edgar, with his Uncle James on the next line, listing Edgar as William (the middle name of James) and listing James as Eddie, I suppose for Edgar. I did not sort this out until 1930 when I found Charles and Laura in Nebraska with a new son, James Leroy, as well as Marjorie and Edgar from the 1920 Census. Nellie, the oldest daughter was gone and maybe married. The next step in all this would be to find a living descendant, but we sure know a good deal more now. My thanks to Joyce for this and a good deal more. The information I gathered on the Turner family, proved pivotal a few weeks later when I received a mailing from Ruth Chenoweth Young of Modesto, CA. I had called Ruth in early February. She was a daughter of Merle Chenoweth. Dot had sent me a few days earlier an obit that had led me to Ruth. This was part of the family of Simeon Chenoweth, the son of Hezikiah Chenoweth of Madison Co., OH. This is an Elijah line, son of Thomas(2). Simeon, with his brothers Zenis and Zendorf, had come to California, with Simeon and Zenis settling in Shasta Co. before the 20th century. Many descendants live today in the Sacramento area. In her mailing Ruth included a 1996 article from the Modesto Bee about Thelma Osborne Pugh, then aged 99. In the article Thelma mentioned cryptically that her grandmother was Ruth Chenoweth, whose picture sat on her mantle. But Thelma did not mention her parents nor Ruth’s husband, only that the family had come from Illinois and Missouri. But Osborne matched nothing in my file. As I looked through Ruths in the 1850 Census, I hit upon Ruth Christian. By the material above, I knew that this was an Illinois family that had been in Missouri and come to the Sacramento area. I began to suspect that maybe this was an unknown marriage of one of the Turner daughters to an Osborne. The article had said that Thelma was born in Tacoma, WA in 1897 and sure enough, the 1900 Census turned up the family of Thelma with a father Sebastian Osborne and a mother Mary born Sept 1872 in Illinois. This was indeed Mary Elizabeth Turner and an unknown marriage before her marriage to a Seelye. This is why I had not found her before. The Census info dovetailed with Mary’s brother Charles Turner being in Tacoma in 1900. Without the details I had recently acquired on the Turners, I would still be wondering who Thelma was. She died the following year after the article, at the age of 100.

Birth	27 Nov 1845	Pike, Illinois, United States
Marriage	24 Dec 1865	Perry, Pike, Illinois, United States - Charles Oscar Turner
Census (family)	1880	Perry, Pike, Illinois, United States - Charles Oscar Turner
Census (family)	1900	Polk Township, Nodaway, Missouri, United States - Charles Oscar Turner
Census (family)	1910	Maryville, Nodaway, Missouri, United States - Charles Oscar Turner
Census	1920	Sacramento, Sacramento, California, United States
Census	1930	Sacramento, Sacramento, California, United States
Death	13 Dec 1930	Sacramento, Sacramento, California, United States

Spouse	Charles Oscar Turner (1841 - 1919)
Child	James William Turner (1866 - )
Child	Sue Edna Turner (1868 - )
Child	Charles Edgar or Edward Turner (1870 - )
Child	Mary Elizabeth Turner (1872 - 1968)
Child	Artie Christian Turner (1872 - 1966)
Child	Anna Mabel Turner (1875 - 1960)
Child	Nellie Wanda Turner (1880 - 1961)

Father	James Hackley Chenoweth (1801 - 1882)
Mother	Artemisia Catherine Birkhead (1811 - 1874)
Sibling	Abraham Birkhead Chenoweth (1832 - 1920)
Sibling	James Harrison Chenoweth (1834 - 1915)
Sibling	Joseph S. Chenoweth (1836 - 1840)
Sibling	Mary Elizabeth Chenoweth (1838 - 1913)
Sibling	Joseph Steaven Chenoweth (1840 - 1925)
Sibling	Robert Atkinson Chenoweth (1843 - 1922)
Sibling	David Johnston Chenoweth (1848 - 1912)
Sibling	Jacob Van Meter Chenoweth (1850 - 1885)
Sibling	Susannah Reid Chenoweth (1854 - 1861)

Notes