Amos L. Hamm part 7, 1890s

• 1890 Census Substitute, Salisbury NH
• 1890 Historical Insight -- Establishment of County Poorhouses
• 1897 Historical Insight -- Dr Barnum Brown, Fossil Hunter

1890 Census Substitute Index

No image.  Amos Ham, NH, Merrimack County, Salisbury, 1890, page 002 of the NH 1890 Veterans Schedule

Amos L. Ham II on Ancestry.com

1890 Census Substitute

Amos Ham 1890 Veterans Schedule

There are very very few censuses available for 1890.  That's because, in 1921, there was a fire in the Commerce Department Building, in which most of the population schedules were badly damaged.  Only fragments are available.  The list is found on this website.  

A newspaper photograph captured the scene after a
devastating fire and pointed out the need for safe
storage of national records.
Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

The Hollerith tabulator was used to tabulate the 1890 census—the first time a census was tabulated by machine. The illustration is of a Hollerith tabulator that has been modified for the first 1890 tabulation, the family, or rough, count -- the punched card reader has been removed, replaced by a simple keyboard. See: Truesdell, 1965, The Development of Punched Card Tabulation ..., US GPO, p.61
from Wikipedia, here

1895 Salisbury Town Report

In this town report for Salisbury for 1895, we find Amos Ham's name listed.  I'm not sure what this is for, exactly.

1897 Historical Insight -- Dr Barnum Brown, Fossil Hunter

Ancestry.com Historical Insight -- Dr Barnum Brown, Fossil Hunter

Credit: Getty Images

Dr. Barnum Brown came from humble beginnings, but his interest in archaeology would lead him to world-renowned success. After his outstanding work as a student at University of Kansas, Dr. Brown was offered a spot on a fossil dig that was operated by the American Museum of Natural History. He was soon hired as a field assistant for the museum, and eventually became the curator over a massive collection of dinosaur fossils that he had found himself. While participating in a dig in Hell Creek, Montana, in 1902, he located “bones of a large Carnivorous Dinosaur. . . .[He had] never seen anything like it from the Cretaceous." Dr. Brown had, in fact, discovered the first skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex. Over the next few decades he made several more significant discoveries. Dr. Brown’s work made him a kind of scientific celebrity, and people flocked to see both him and the fossils he had unearthed.

Resources

• 1890 Census information
• https://www.census.gov/history/www/genealogy/decennial_census_records/availability_of_1890_census.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890_United_States_Census
• 
  

Amos L. Hamm part 6, 1880s

• 1880 Census, Salisbury NH
• 1884 Civil War Pension Filed
• 1888 Historical Insight -- Great Blizzard

1880 Census

1880 Census Salisbury, Merrimack NH
Amos L. Ham

Amos L Ham is 45 years old, living in Salisbury, Merrimack NH, no street nor house number. He is a farmer, and, according to this, he was born in Vermont, yet both parents were born in New Hampshire.

1884 Civil War Pension Index

1884 Civil War Pension Index

Amos Ham, soldier for Company E, 6th Vermont infantry.  Filed 21 February 1884, application number 506.664, certificate number 312.685.  I am unsure if this belongs to our Amos, as this one fights for Vermont, although he files from New Hampshrie.  It could be him, but both of these Pension indices cannot be the same person, right?

1888 Historical Insight -- Great Blizzard

1888 Ancestry.com Historical Insight -- Great Blizzard of 1888
Credit: Buyenlarge/Archive Photos/Getty Images

New England was buried under arctic drifts of snow during the “Great White Hurricane” in the spring of 1888.

March 11, 1888 began as a spring day with rain along the Eastern seaboard, but in a short time temperatures plummeted, three to five feet of snow fell, and gale-force winds up to 80 mph created 20- to 30-foot snowdrifts from New Jersey to Vermont, isolating nearly every city.

Telegraph, telephone, and electrical lines went down, stranded passenger trains littered railroad tracks, and people remained trapped in their homes or businesses without access to food or heat. More than 400 people died, including U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York, who died of exposure when he lost his way home.

In addition to the snow and freezing temperatures, citizens had to contend with fires that burned out of control and the floods that came when the snow melted. In the wake of “The Great White Hurricane,” Boston and New York City officials resolved to bury their cables and wires and run trains underground to prevent future disasters.

from Ancestry.com Historical Insight 

Amos L. Hamm part 5, 1870s

• 1870 Historical Insight -- 15th Amendment to the US Constitution
• 1870 Residence Salisbury NH age 36
• 1872 Civil War Pension Filed
• 1873 Daughter Mertie born, NH

1870 Census

1870 Census, Salisbury, Merrimack NH
Amos and Mary J. Ham

age 36, born 1834 in Vermont.  He is a farmer with $1850 personal estate value and $600 Real Estate Value.  His "inferred" spouse (as Ancestry.com calls it) is Mary J. Ham, and his daughter is age 13, Nellie, from a previous marriage.

of note is the Scribner family in close proximity, including George age 21 and Morrell K. age 14.  Morrell would later go on to marry Adella G. Scott.  Looks like they were childhood pals.

1870 Historical Insight -- 15th Amendment to the US Constitution

When the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in early February 1870, celebrations erupted in African American communities and abolitionist societies disbanded thinking their work was done. The amendment prohibited government at all levels from denying voting rights to men based on race.

The Republican Party gained an African American voting bloc in the North. However, African Americans who wanted to vote in the South were met with poll taxes they could not afford, literacy tests they could not pass, and threats of violence from the Ku Klux Klan they could not ignore. Voter registration among African American men in Mississippi decreased from 67 percent in 1867 to 4 percent in 1892.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1876 that poll taxes and literacy tests were legal, effectively nullifying the intent of the 15th Amendment and leading to the entrenchment of Jim Crow laws for another 90 years.

from Ancestry.com Historical Insight 

1872? Civil War Pension Index filing date

1872 Civil War Pension index

Amos L. Ham, soldier for Company B, 18th New Hampshire infantry.  filed 22 August 1872, invalid, application number 177317.  Does this belong to our Amos?

1873 Mertie born

Daughter Mertie is born 22 March 1873 in Salisbury, Merrimack NH.  The only source for this birth is the 1880 Census when she is age 7, and her Christmas marriage record of 1893 when she is documented as 21 years old.  These are both considered secondary sources.

Amos L. Hamm part 4, 1860s

• 1861 Historical Insight -- Medicine during the Civil War
• 1861 Historical Insight -- American Civil War -- Military Advancements
• 1864 Civil War Enlistment, NH, age 30
• 1868 Marriage to Mary Jane Bacon Scott age 34

Amos Ham must have farmed during most of the Civil War.  Must have been very stressful.  He volunteered late in the war.

1861 Medicine During the Civil War

Ancestry.com Historical Insight -- Medicine During the Civil War
Credit: Buyenlarge/Archive Photos/Getty Image

During the American Civil War, the sheer volume of wounded soldiers forced doctors and nurses to develop life-saving medical techniques.

The vast majority of deaths during the American Civil War were not on the battlefield; they were caused by disease. In 1861 germ theory did not exist, the root of infection remained a mystery, and medical training was crude. Little advancements had been made in the field since the American Revolution; some physicians still championed medieval methods of bloodletting, purging, and blistering to rebalance the body’s humors. However, development in weaponry, namely faster, more accurate rifles and shells killed hundreds of thousands and left many more badly wounded. Thus the war forced doctors and nurses to rethink medical treatments, as tens of thousands of soldiers flooded the ill-equipped field hospitals. The sheer volume of injured men prompted rapid amputations. By 1865, a surgeon could remove a limb in six minutes flat. Anesthetics were common—chloroform and ether were given to patients, along with morphine for the pain. Ambulance service also was born during the Civil War. The fallen were gathered from the field, their wounds wrapped up, and they were shuttled to battle-side hospitals. But for many, these advancements in techniques and sanitation came too little too late—upwards of 500,000 Americans died from disease and infection before the war’s end. from Ancestry.com

1861 Military Advancements

Ancestry.com Historical Insight -- Civil War, Military Advancements
Credit: Buyenlarge/Archive Photos/Getty Image

Advancements in military weapons made the American Civil War a conflict of unparalleled carnage.

During the American Civil War, new weaponry revolutionized battle. The repeating rifle with Minié balls that allowed soldiers to fire seven rounds in 30 seconds without reloading replaced the musket. The repeating rifle increased accuracy, extending the firing range from 80 yards to 1,000. Thus forces were spaced further apart on the battlefield and to protect themselves built extensive fortifications and trenches.

Hand grenades and land mines also came into use during the war. However, the new explosives were finicky—sometimes Confederate soldiers used blankets to catch the incoming explosives and simply tossed them back to Union lines, where they exploded.

From the skies, passenger balloons spied on enemy lines and from below, Confederate submarines attacked ironclad ships enforcing the Union blockade. Unfortunately, technological advancements outpaced medical innovation.

The wounds caused by these new weapons were often deadly. In battle, modernized weapons proved harrowing. The sheer scale of fatalities and injuries was unmatched and, today, the Civil War remains the deadliest conflict in American history.

from Ancestry.com

1864 Military

Amos Ham 1864 Military Service

This document is entitled "Dispersments in Aid of Families of Volunteers by the Town of __________________"  The town name is left blank.  More than halfway down, we have Amos L. Ham, 18th NH Regiment, Company B.  He started September 17 1864.  He has a wife Mary A and a Child under 10 (this would be the child Nellie).  This aid was from September 30 1864 through April 30 1865, seven months.  The family was paid 56$.  The notation says "supposed to be with Regiment" whatever that means.

WAIT a minute!  His wife is Amelia, not Mary.  What gives here?

1864 Civil War enlistment

I don't have an image of this information.  I found it on Ancestry.com here.  His name is Amos L. Ham, enlisted at age 29 on 13 September 1864.  He was a private when he enlisted in Company B, New Hamspire 18th Infantry Regiment.  He mustered out on 10 June 1865.  It says he was born about 1835.

How to Come Home Safe

I found this story when I entered Amos' name into the Google search field.  Several books were written which included this inspirational story, I chose Incidents of the United States Christian Commission by Edward Parmelee Smith 1871.  Published by J.B. Lippincott & Company, United States.  The information for the book is found here, and the story is found here 

Amos L. Ham, of Co. B, 18th N.H., told us how he was arrested by a message from his little daughter [ed note:  this would be Nellie].  he labored under deep emotion as he spoke.  His wife had written him a letter.  Before sealing it, she turned to her little daughter and asked -- "What shall I write Father for you?"  "Tell him," said little Nellie, "to look to God and trust Him, and then he will come home safe."  The message went to the father's heart, humbling him at the foot of the cross, as a "little child."

1861 Amelia Hart Ham died

I don't have proof of the date of death, yet.  Perhaps never.  However, she had to have died somewhere before 1868 when he marries Mary Jane Bacon Scott, whose husband died a few weeks or days before the end of the war.  Perhaps these two men knew each other?

I have in my files that she died 26 August 1861.  This doesn't jive with the story above, where Nellie's mother was writing to Amos.  Something is wrong, probably my records, since I don't have proof.

1868 Marriage to Mary Jane Bacon Scott

They were married in Franklin, Merrimack NH on 1 May 1868.  She was 30 years old, her father is listed as Henry Bacon.  Her spouse is Amos L. Ham, also 30 years old.  New information!  His father is also Amos L. Ham!  From Ancestry.com. New Hampshire, Marriage Records Index, 1637-1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

I found another date of marriage as 20 May 1868, also from Ancestry.com.

But the definitive answer is 1 May as evidenced by the image of the actual marriage record.  

1868 Marriage record for Scott/Hamm front

1868 Marriage record for Scott/Hamm back

Both are aged 30, Amos is a Farmer, and he was born in St. Johnsbury Vermont.  This is a second marriage for both of them, as both spouses died leaving them both widowed.  

Well, here's another record only it is for 20 May.

So, there is evidence for both dates, however one of them is transcribed later and is written in error.  The second one is transcribed in 1906.  The first set has no transcription date.  I suspect the May 1st date is the correct one, and I think the one transcribed 38 years later is erroneous.  

These are just my thoughts on the subject of both dates, I am open to suggestions.  Is this your family?  If you have any clarifications or want to connect, I'm happy to entertain options.  Use the connextion form on the right.

Resources:

• Incidents of the Unites States Christian Commission book details

• https://books.google.com/books?id=cKk8AAAAYAAJ&dq=amos+L.+Ham&source=gbs_navlinks_s

• Story "How to Come Home Safely"

• https://books.google.com/books?id=cKk8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA345&dq=amos+L.+Ham&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj15rSU6tnYAhVH3mMKHVRUAfcQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=amos%20L.%20Ham&f=false

Amos L. Hamm part 3, 1850s

• 1850 Census age 16, Sheffield Vermont
• 1855 Marriage Amelia Hart

1850 Census

age 15, Sheffield, Caledonia Vermont, living with 33 year old Farmer and his wife, David and Clarissa Jenness, and their children Amos age 6, Chas age 4, Hiram D. age 1.  Is he an orphan by this time?  Or is Clarissa his sister?

Hmmm.  Where is that census image?  Why did I not include it here, and I cannot find it in my computer file?

Here it is.  I accessed the information, but failed to include the image.  Silly me!

Amos Ham age 15
1850 Census, Sheffield VT

1855 Marriage Amelia Hart

Amos Ham 1855 marriage Amelia Hart

Amos is 20 years old when he married Miss Amelia Hart in Manchester NH.  Again, notice the dearth of information.  No parents' names, no places of birth, no residences.  AHHHHHch!  That, dear readers, is the sound of frustration.  Ok.  Move it along.

How did they meet?  Why is Amos in New Hampshire?

Amos L. Hamm part 2, 1835 - 1849

• about 1835 -- birth, St. Johnsbury, Vermont

About 1835

I only have secondary sources of the birth of Amos Ham, born St. Johnsbury Vermont.  I also know that Amos' father was also Amos L. Ham Senior.

Vermont, with St Johnsbury in red

from WikiPedia, St. Johnsbury Vermont

Bird's eye view about 1910
from Wikipedia St Johnsbury Vermont

South Main Street about 1905
from Wikipedia St Johnsbury Vermont

"This monument, located in Courthouse Park, honours those volunteers who died in the Civil War.
From Wikipedia St Johnsbury Vermont

Resources

• St Johnsbury Vermont Wiki -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Johnsbury,_Vermont
• 
  

Amos L. Hamm part 1, husband of Mary Jane Bacon Scott Hamm

Amos Leroy Hamm was was the second husband to Mary Jane Bacon Scott, and helped raise the Scott children.  He fought in the Civil War, came back home alive.  He lost his wife, and his daughter Nellie was the same age as Marshall.  Starting with the next blog, we will explore this man's life.

Yes, I know, he isn't a direct ancestor.  yet, his life had an impact on future Scott descendants, since he was the Step Father.  I don't have a photo of him nor of the family.

Daniel Webster
from the book
History of the United States
by Ellis 1894

Quite frankly, I expected this to be just a single post synopsis, but it actually turned into a 9 part story.