Asiatic Cholera devastates pioneers in Coles County, Indiana in 1851

In 1851, Asiatic Cholera devastated Coles County, Illinois. According to an article written in the Charleston Courier on July 31, 1851 , over 250 people were stricken with the disease, and according to physicians of the day, "In nearly every fatal case, if not all, the predisposing cause has been traced to imprudence in diet, and more especially the eating of young potatoes, beans, cucumbers and other like matter." This is as good a reason as any my five-year-old can come up with for not eating his vegetables. I have provided the link for the full article below.

The Cholera and its Ravages at genealogy trails

The Cholera epidemic does explain the absence of so many of the settlers found in the 1850 census, including Elizabeth Ann Minis and the two elder children. Since I have had such difficulty in tracking Edward and Emily, I decided to focus on the other African-American settlers within this small community of New Albany. It appears that the majority of the elders within the community were born in Virginia, the second generation born in Kentucky, and George Manuel and Elizabeth (unknown maiden) Peyton were born in North Carolina.

I focused today's search on George W. Manuel, since he appears to be a leader in the community and he is also married to Lucy Minnis. I was hoping to find some trace of her paternity; however, I made a interesting discovery. In the 1910 census, George W. had listed his mother as being born in Ireland. As stated before, family legend has Edward as being of Irish decent and I wondered if perhaps Edward and George were related.

That's when the ick factor kicked in. Since I had decided last night (no, sleep has not made me change my mind only hard evidence will do) that Lucy and Edward were siblings, I am emphatically hopeful the "kissin' cousins" scenario does not apply in this situation. Sure my reaction stems from modern day bias but admit it, kinda yucky right!

I have listed the names of some of the settlers for those of you who are interested: Lucy Dupree, Isom Briant (Bryant), George W. Manuel, Zachariah Bowen, Sophia and J. Fuller, Joseph and Sarah Martin, Lewis, Sophia, and Andrew James, Melissa Olmstead, Edward and Emily Minis (Minnis), William and Keziah Stern, H.B. Owens, and H. Brown.

Several of these surnames were listed in Paul Heinegg's book Free African Americans of Virginia and North Carolina. However, thus far I have been unable to trace these individuals to anyone listed in his online book. I have placed an order to buy his book, but it was out of print and they said they would notify me when it is in. I eagerly await the day.

So I was thinkin' about Emily?

I decided to search the other residence for an Emily or Permelia in the 1850 census. I found Elily Olmstead (pretty close to get one wondering, huh) who may be the daughter of Melissa and William Olmstead. I could not find her in later census. Problem is that she is ten in 1850, making her birth circ 1839/1840. This is a five to ten year age difference depending on which census you're looking at for Emily.

My mom got pretty excited and woke up at 7 a.m. this morning to copy a bunch of records she and her sister had located back in the early 90's, when the sole method of research meant getting into your car and driving to the source, ie Libraries, County records offices. Luckily she was living in Kansas at the time. I happened to call as she was getting ready to go to Post Office and she was pretty happy to be reminded that its Sunday. So, in about four days I should have scads of new material to play with, whoopee!