Making Ends Meet -- Probert Style

Credit: McCord Museum

Thomas was an entrepreneur. In my mind's eye I can see him in a parlor similar to the one pictured trying to figure out a way to increase his income. Never mind if some of his ideas were not quite legal - a small consideration.

It was January, 1862. The Civil War was really gearing up. His income from the "confectioner" shop may have been suffering with so many breadwinners consumed by the war. But Thomas found a way.

A visit to the Kentucky Archives quickly uncovered multiple indictments for Thomas. His home was frequently the venue for illegal card games, gambling, and serving liquor without a license. In the case below, Thomas was indicted for "issuing unlawful money,"

Both Thomas and his wife were cited. The Plaintiff alleged that "through the fraud of the Defendant, he was induced to sign the note." Initially, the Proberts were found guilty. However, on appeal, the original decision was overtuned and the judgment was set aside.

As we will see, this was not the first or the last time that Thomas would find favor from the courts.

Young Parents -- Thomas and Mary Elizabeth

Thomas and Mary Elizabeth were married on December 23, 1846. By 1848, they were parents of a little girl. Although early records list her name as "Atlanta" (I'd love to know the story behind that), later records use the nickname "Addie." Within two years, Lucy was born to the family. She is of particular interest to me because she is my great-grandmother. What I wouldn't give for a baby picture.

Lucy Probert

I can only imagine the joy followed soon after by sorrow, when their first-born son, Thomas, was born. I don't know how long Thomas lived, but their must have been complications. Little Thomas was buried in the Lexington Cemetery on November 21, 1854 followed a week later by the burial of his mother on November 28, 1854. I assume she died from the complications of childbirth.

Lexington Cemetery Record

Records like this always break my heart. Of the eleven family members buried here, two are children and two are infants. Baby Thomas is buried at the feet of his mother.

Grave of Mary Elizabeth Probert and Infant Son, Thomas

Thomas was 30 and a widower with two young daughters. Mary Elizabeth died at the age of 29.

A couple of months earlier, Thomas also lost his mother. She was only 51 years old and was living in Louisville with one of her daughters at the time of her death from cancer.

Kentucky Death Records, 1852-1953, Louisville, Jefferson Co., p. 3.

As any parent of two young children knows, you need a support system. Where was Thomas' support?

Next Up: The move to Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky.

Sometimes there are surprises . . .

On August 31st I blogged about my trip to the Kentucky Archives in Frankfort and my trip to Mt. Sterling. I really felt like my trip to the archives gave me very little new information. As so often happens with genealogy, I was looking through my notes trying to make sense of the Mt. Sterling Proberts, Cronins and Daileys. I have a lot of information on the Proberts. Before Thomas was the town jailor, he had been a "confectioner". At that time, confectioners ran shops that sold sweets of all kinds including bake goods. In the History of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, 1792-1918 by Carl B. Boyd, Jr. and Hazel Mason Boyd, it states:

". . . the earliest baker to build a significant reputation in the community was Thomas Probert, who was in Mt. Sterling by 1859. By 1871 he was listed as a confection and liquor dealer, and apparently went completely in the liquor business after that." p. 184 According to the 1870 Census, Thomas had transitioned to his job as jailer. In fact, the same book says on p. 107 that:

The jailor at this time was T.H. Probert, who was paid 75 cents a day for "dieting" prisoners. The county also assumed the costs of fuel, medicine and doctor's visits for inmates. City prisoners in this period were used as labor at a rock quarry on Queen St., working out their fines at $1.50 a day, or were used by the jailor in cleaning streets."

The 1870 Census lists Albert Storey and his wife, living at the jail in the same household as the rest of the Probert clan. Albert has transitioned to taking over the bakery business as evidenced by property deeds that I possess. Although the Census lists the name of Albert's wife as "Atlanta", I have other documents that list his wife as Addie, the oldest daughter of Thomas Probert.

Near the end of Thomas' life, things must have become extremely difficult financially. In December of 1875 a lien was placed on a billiard table and fixtures owned by Catherine. Thomas died in 1876 of cirrhosis.

But I just got off track -- here was the major finding. When I was at the archives, I noted (and unfortunately did not copy) that Thomas Probert of Lexington married Mary E. Dimond on either December 23rd, or December 30th 1846. Upon searching records once back home, I discovered that the Kentucky Death Records noted that Mary Probert died at the age of 29 of consumption.

That solves several problems for me. I now believe that Addie and Lucy were daughters of Mary E. Dimond Probert and not daughters of Kate. I think Kate was his second wife. I had never understood how Kate could have given birth to Addie at age 11 and Lucy at age 15. Kate is 13 years younger than Thomas.

In addition, the 1880 Census lists Mary Lou and Maude, two of her daughters as living with her. She states that she had six children and that only two are now alive. I always thought that was strange because I knew Lucy was still alive. Now I know that she did, in fact, have six biological children. Three died at the age of three and under as evidenced by the August 31st posting of their graves. Lizzie, who was one year old and living at the jail in 1870 apparently also died by the time of the 1880 Census but is not buried with the rest of the children. Catherine was stepmother to both Addie and Lucy.

I can't imagine losing four children before they reached adulthood. One other piece of evidence for Addie being the wife of Albert Storey is that their daughter, Maggie, is living with her grandmother (Kate)and listed as a granddaughter in the Census. I've spent the morning updating all of my records. Another problem solved.

Where I've been . . .

August left me little time to blog. The first week of August I was involved in implementing a new course for teachers -- it was a great success. In addition to this, I didn't know what direction to take next. I'm to the generation of Joneses that includes my grandparents -- Jan and Pop as we knew them. I realized I just didn't know as much about them as I would have liked. I contacted Rosemary Kramer and Fred Breving and will post what I learn in a later post.

Meanwhile, I had the itch to get away and decided to go down to the Kentucky Archives in Frankfort, KY. I've been there before. It's an interesting place. You can pull up original documents, musty and moldy as they are, from Mt. Sterling, KY that were filed by T.H. Probert, Jan's grandfather (and our gg-grandfather). For years I've tried to research both William Dailey and John Cronin to determine who was Jan's father.





I was able to find some tax records from the 1880s, but no answers to my questions. I decided to drive over to Mt. Sterling and take some pictures. In an earlier visit to Mt. Sterling I had found the grave of T.H. (Thomas) Probert at the MacPhelah Cemetery on the outskirts of Mt. Sterling. I had a death record for him. He and his wife, Catherine Richardson, had lost three children as infants. The infants are buried on the same site.

There is one tall monument to the family. It is located in Section 9 and is near the top of a hillside that overlooks the entire town of Mt. Sterling. I always seem to be there just as the "golden hour" is upon us. I was touched by the quotation that was carved into the side of the marker.

My plan was to leave MacPhelah, take pictures in the heart of Mt. Sterling, photograph the grave of William Dailey in St. Thomas Cemetery and head back to Cincinnati. That's where things got really fun. I went to the center of town near the Court House and started taking pictures of the location where I know Thomas Probert had once served as the town jailer. In the 1870 Census, the Probert family is listed along with the names of the prisoners and a cook. Although I know the exact location of the jail, it is now the site of what is now the Historical Society for Mt. Sterling.

When I got there, there was a group of about 100 people attending a pot luck dinner. I found the door was open and went in to photograph a picture of the site when it was used as a fire station and then left. I was followed out by Miles Hoskins who is the president of the society and invited me in. They were having a speaker from the University of Kentucky, Becky Ryder, who was going to pick up originals of the Kentucky Sentinel, a weekly newspaper published in Mt. Sterling. She was going to take the originals, purchased by Miles in an estate sale, and have them digitized at the University of Kentucky. Once this process is completed, the papers will be posted on the web and be fully searchable. As someone who had just spent three hours at the library scanning microfilm of these historic papers, I can't imagine how helpful that will be.







Miles Hoskins is pictured with a copy of the Kentucky Sentinel, soon to be digitized and searchable online.

We all exchanged business cards and it was great fun sharing common history with Mt. Sterling residents. I know this will not be my last visit to Mt. Sterling. In fact I very much look forward to learning what I can and sharing what I have with the members of the Historical Society.