Some Family History

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Some Family History

Michael McManus. Knowledge of our branch of the McManus family begins with Michael McManus. The earliest certain record of him is the 1850 Ohio census. It gives his age as 24 and his place of birth as New York. The 1860 census gives his age as 34 and his place of birth as Pennsylvania. Regardless of these census data, his correct place of birth seems to have been Ireland, as will become obvious below.

Mary Spears. Michael's wife was Mary Spears, daughter of Salathael Spears and his wife Deborah Jewell. The 1850 census gives Mary's age as 32, and the 1860 census says that she was 44. Her father had moved his family to Salem Township, Washington County, Ohio, in 1816, but Mary had been born at Litchfield, Maine (while Maine was part of Massachusetts prior to 1820), so a birth date about 1816 seems most accurate. That would make her some ten years older than Michael. Published information on this Spears (more commonly spelled "Spear") family and many generations of ancestors is abundant. It might eventually be presented here. Meanwhile, please feel welcome to contact the author/geneologist via the e-mail link at the bottom of this page.

1850-1860. Michael and Mary were living in what was then Harmar (now part of Marietta), Washington County, Ohio, in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. Until 1857, Michael owned a house on Gilman Avenue that was on the second lot north of the current Washington Street Bridge over the Muskingum River. Living with them in 1850 was a 21-year-old stonecutter named Ebenezer Spears, probably the son of Mary's uncle by the same name. Michael and Mary appear to have moved across the Muskingum River to Marietta after the census in the year 1860. An 1860 city directory of Marietta shows them living on Post Street between Butler and Ohio Streets. Michael was an ironmolder employed by A. T. Nye & Son of Harmar. The company was located at Gilman Avenue and Lancaster Streets and made cast iron products, primarily stoves.

The Civil War. On July 22, 1861, Michael enlisted in Company B, 39th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He served as a private for the duration of the Civil War. His military service carried him to northwestern and then southeastern Missouri, western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, northern Alabama, western and then south-central Tennessee, Georgia (including the Siege of Atlanta, Sherman's March, and the Siege of Savannah), and thence northward through the Carolinas. He was in North Carolina when the war ended, and his unit went from there to Washington to participate in the Grand Review. The unit was mustered out on July 9, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky. His honorable discharge is recorded in the Washington County Courthouse. Family tradition says that his wife Mary died soon after the war. She was alive on September 24, 1865, when she was named in her father's will, but she must have died before 1867, when Washington County began to record deaths. Her grave has not been found.

Four Children. Michael and Mary McManus had four children:

Early evidence regarding their names and ages is confusing because the 1860 census data seem to have been supplied by neighbors or others outside the family. That census lists their names and ages thus: Mary 9, Elizabeth 9, Elizabeth 6, and Michael 3. The 1870 census shows Elizabeth McManus, age 16, living in the household of Jacob and Sarah Flanders in Fearing Township, Washington County, Ohio. She is described as "orphan living with uncle." (Sarah Spears Flanders was a sister to Mary Spears McManus.) This same 1870 census shows "Limean McMannis," 13, as a "farm boy" in the household of James and Elvira Furgeson in Muskingham Township, Washington County, Ohio. (No relationship to the Furgesons is known.) It would appear that Michael had placed the children with other families after Mary's death and had left the Marietta area. He was not there in the 1870 census.

Mysterious Period. Family tradition says that Michael remarried after Mary's death. There is no record of such marriage in Washington County nor across the Ohio River in Wood County, West Virginia. Michael's whereabouts between 1865 and 1879 remain a mystery. From 1879 until 1889, he is found in city directories of Trenton, New Jersey, living in various boarding houses in the foundry district of the city, his occupation listed as laborer. He is not found in the 1880 census in Trenton.

Soldiers' Homes. On April 5, 1889, Michael was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Southern Branch, at Hampton, Virginia. Records of the home show him as a 58-year-old widower with chronic rheumatism. His occupation is listed as ironmolder and his birthplace as New Jersey. On July 2, 1890, Michael filed an application for a military pension under an act passed five days earlier. The application gives his age as 61; his height as 5 feet, 3 1/2 inches; his complexion as light; and his eyes as blue. Pursuant to his pension application, a medical examination was conducted on December 30, 1890. It gives his height as 5 feet, 2 inches, and his weight as 145 pounds. It documents his rheumatism and states that "by an accident in a foundry some dozen or more years ago his right hand was crippled so he cannot hold a tool in it to work." On October 2, 1891, he transferred to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Central Branch, at Dayton, Ohio. Records of this home show his age as 58, and his place of birth as Ireland. They also list Trenton, New Jersey, as his "residence subsequent to [military] discharge."

Michael's Death. Michael died at the Dayton home on October 20, 1892. His death record in Montgomery County, Ohio, shows his age as 61, his marital status as widowed, his place of birth as Ireland, his occupation as molder, and his cause of death as pneumonia. His remains were buried in section I, row 11, grave 21 of the soldiers' home's own cemetery, which was designated in 1973 as the Dayton National Cemetery. It is located at 4100 West Third Street. The standard white marble veteran's monument on his grave reads "MICH'L McMANNUS, CO. B, 39TH OHIO INF." Regardless of the spelling of the surname on the monument, the home's records spell it "McManus," as he himself did in every example of his signature yet found.

Mary and Eliza. The daughter Mary married Peter E. Bechtel, Sr. of Louisiana. The 1900 census has them in New Orleans. Her birthplace is given as Ohio and her birth date was given then as February 1853. They had no children, though Bechtel had a grown son by an earlier marriage. Eliza married Edward Collins, also of Louisiana. The 1900 census has them in New Orleans and shows her as an Ohio native born in February 1850. They, likewise, were childless. Neither Orleans nor Jefferson Parishes, Louisiana, have records of the Bechtel or Collins marriages, but the 1900 census shows the Bechtel and Collins couples to have been in their then-current marriages for 20 and 19 years respectively. Orleans Parish did, however, record the deaths of both sisters. "Mary McManus Bechtel," native of Marietta, Ohio, died August 18, 1905, aged 55 years 6 months, resident of New Orleans for 28 years. "Lizzie McManus Collins," native of Cincinnati, Ohio, died December 8, 1906, aged 57 years, resident of New Orleans for 30 years. This is the only known reference to Cincinnati in the family history and is perhaps erroneous.

Elizabeth. Elizabeth married Charles W. Fenn on June 13, 1872, in Fearing Township, Washington County, Ohio. The marriage record gives her name as "Elizabeth B. McMannus." The 1880 census shows them living there with three children: Orris 7, Florence 3, and Elmer 10 months. Descendants of Orris Fenn (who married Glenna B. Johnson) have been located in Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, and Ontario. Descendants of Florence Fenn (who married John W. Chandler) have been located in Ohio. Elmer Fenn died young, never having married.

Lyman. During his late teens, Lyman settled with his family for $50 of his deceased mother's estate and left Ohio, going to work as a teamster for a circus. When it went broke in Selma, Alabama, he received several horses in lieu of back pay and determined to go to Texas. He got as far as Vernon Parish in western Louisiana, where he settled to farm. He soon earned enough money to buy land and came to own a small sawmill. In October 1882, he married Rosa Ella O'Banion, a Mississippi native and daughter of a Confederate veteran. They had the following children:

Lyman was killed on April 14, 1904, by a man who shot him off his horse from ambush. He was buried in the family cemetery on his land. The location is off the Section Line Road south of New Llano, Louisiana.

Another Daughter? Michael McManus's records at both the Hampton and Dayton soldiers' homes in 1889 and 1891 list his nearest relative as "Daughter, Mrs. John McGee, Jonesville, Ohio." There are the following possible explanations for the mysterious Mrs. John McGee as a daughter:

• Michael and Mary could have had another daughter after the 1860 census. This is unlikely, however, because Lyman McManus told his descendants that he had three sisters, and because Mary would have been in her late forties by the time Michael returned from the war.

• Michael could have married a younger woman and fathered a daughter during the mysterious period 1865-1879.

• She could have been his stepdaughter, the daughter of a wife that he married during the mysterious period.

• This daughter could be fictitious.

Reference has been found to the historic existence of a community named "Jonesville" in Monroe County. This is the next county up the Ohio River northeast of Washington County. Searches of censuses and public records in Monroe County have proved fruitless. If the purported daughter ever lived there, she and McGee must have soon moved on. The mysterious period remains as mysterious as ever.

Religion. Nothing is certain about the religious affiliation of the family of Michael and Mary McManus. The McManus surname is found in both the Catholic and Protestant regions of Ireland. Since the Spears family came out of New England, some form of Protestantism would have been likely for them. There was a Mary Spears who was a member of the Good Hope Baptist Church in Salem Township, Washington County, Ohio, in 1835. Elizabeth married Charles W. Fenn in a civil ceremony. The marriages of their children Orris and Florence were performed by Methodist and Congregationalist ministers respectively. Lyman McManus was a Southern Baptist after his arrival in Louisiana.

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© 1999-2002, 2005, 2006 Lowell G. McManus. MIDI sequence © Barry Taylor.
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