July 6,
2013
Dave and
I took a trip 45 minutes north to Waterville, KS yesterday. I wanted to find
some more information about Jane Jarrett Carnes and her sons that moved there
in the late 1860’s. From records that I found earlier Isaac and Clark Carnes each
purchased 160 acres of land located in Marshall County Kansas near Waterville
in August 1868. Isaac and Catherine registered and sold the land 16 March
1877, this is a bit later than I thought and it also means that Alonzo Carnes was
probably born in KS as I expected. Isaac bought a total of 160 acres of land
but it was two ‘sections’ of 80 acres and this is how he sold the land. Eighty
acres was sold to a John Peters for $450.00 and the remaining 80 acres was sold
to a John Seih, also for $450.00. Both transactions took place on 16 March 1877
and were witnessed by Wm C Park and Charles Torly or Throly. The lady at the
courthouse said that it was common to register and sale land on the same day. She
showed us on the map where his property was likely located and Dave and I rode
out to the location. The land is out a unpaved road (little tricky on a
motorcycle) named Unicorn Road just outside of Waterville and backs up to the
Washington County line. His brother Squire bought land in Washington and I am
fairly sure that it was close to Isaac’s land. The area is beautiful and is still all farm
land.
We were surprised
to find a small cemetery, Kenyon
Cemetery, along the road. The graves were quite old but the grass was mowed
so someone takes care of the property. We did not find any Carnes graves but we
did find the grave of John Sieh, one of the two buyers of the land. A grave for a William Lowell Park was also
there but following a Find a Grave link leads to a William
Chester Park buried in another cemetery in nearby Waterville. Not sure if
there is any connection to my Carnes but it was an interesting find and makes
me feel that we were in the right place.
I need to take the time to look more closely at some of the other names
to see if they were possibly neighbors. I’d also like to find a record of who
all is buried in that cemetery because there were some obvious graves with no
markers or markers that were in such bad condition that they could not be
read.
I plan
on going back to the courthouse to get the records for Clark Carnes property
and to Washington County to get Squires. I also want to go to the Marshall
County Historic courthouse that is now the county’s history museum. Although it
is supposed to be open from 1-4 Monday – Friday it was closed when we were
there yesterday. It was open when we drove by around 1:30 but after we had
lunch it was closed. Frustrating, but it is run by volunteers and sometimes
that is just how things go!
