Harley and Black Families, Western Pioneers

In the twenty years from 1845 to 1865 the United States underwent a period of change that still resonates over 150 years later. The annexation of Texas by the U.S. in 1845 set in motion the Mexican-American War resulting in a total land acquisition of the entire states of Texas, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona; and part of Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. In 1846 Great Britain and the U.S. signed the Oregon Treaty which added the territory which became Oregon, Washington, Idaho, parts of Montana and Wyoming into the growing U.S. nation. By 1860 this new nation was wrestling with pivoting from an economy fortified by slave labor to seemingly unlimited wealth which could be acquired by suppressing the native population on it’s western horizon.

The excitement of all this new land coupled with rumors of wealth available to pioneers seeking gold drove a rush westward that surely had an affect on our ancestors. The focus of this post are two sets of great great grandparents: William Harley (1822-1894) and America Leadley (1831-1914); and James Black (1833-1919) and Eliza Mullen (1839-1900); all of whom were just coming of age at the start of this period. Here’s an 1839 map made prior to the U.S. land acquisitions of 1845-1850 with notes and highlights describing these ancestors’ westward migration:

William Harley was born eleven years before James Black which seems a minor difference but his birth is prior to an important change in US census data collection. For the first six censuses (1790–1840), the surveyors only recorded the names of the heads of household and a general demographic accounting of the remaining members of the household. Beginning in 1850, all members of the household were named on the census. The first slave schedules were also completed in 1850, with the second (and last) in 1860. The practical result is that, because the younger 3 of the 4 of these ancestors were still living with their parents in 1850, we know who their parents were and where they were living when they were born. William Harley, born in 1822, was already out of his parents house by 1850 so we need to rely on other sources for his birth location and parents.

In 1898 the Owyhee Avalanche newspaper based in Silver City published a historical directory of Owyhee County, Idaho. It included a history of the county and a commercial directory with resident listings of all the cities in the county. It also included “Biographical Sketches of Pioneers” which has the following short bio for William Harley.

Since William had died four years prior to the publication of this bio, the information must have come from family or friends. Since it’s unlikely that any of these sources knew William before 1850 the first three sentences would be hearsay. Even his birth year was 1822 according to available records, not 1821. I’ve researched the possibility that he actually did oversee 1,000 slaves between 1842 until 1851 in Missouri but can’t find any records of a plantation owned by a William Hunt in Missouri. The largest slaveholder in the United States is reputed to be Joshua Ward of South Carolina and he held 1,092 slaves in 1850. Perhaps this claim just tells us that William Harley, his community and the Owyhee Avalanche publisher held large scale human oppression as a highly valued management skill and that William was known for these abilities. Tall tales often have an element of truth. There is a William Hunt slaveholder that shows up on the 1850 US Census slave schedules in Bellevue Township, Missouri that owns nine slaves. And possessing the skills of a “plantation physician” might help explain how a family of twelve can survive, including several childbirths, through wilderness journeys of the west without a single death.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to locate William on any 1850 US Census, so the first record we have of William is on March 23, 1851 when at the age of 28 he married America Leadley, aged 20, in Henry County, Illinois.

America Leadley is found in the 1850 US Census for Henry County, Illinois living with her parents Thomas and Elizabeth (Hubbell) Leadley, four brothers and one younger sister. America was born on March 13, 1831, the second of four children in her family to be born in Ohio. After America was born the family moved to Illinois around 1840 where the two younger children were born. America’s father, Thomas Leadley, was born in England and her mother, Elizabeth Hubbell, in Pennsylvania.

After William and America were married, their first child, Mary, was born in March of 1852. And that summer they began a 2,500 mile journey from Illinois to southern Oregon with their infant daughter, most of which would be by wagon train. We don’t know what could possibly have created the compulsion at this time to undertake this perilous journey with an infant daughter. One possible factor was that in September of 1850 congress enacted the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 which granted 320 acres of land to every married couple arriving in Oregon before 1854. The Act had a cut-off date of the end of 1854 which may have influenced the family’s urgency. America’s two younger brothers, Lawrence and Harrison, also migrated west. Lawrence crossed the plains in 1852 and most likely accompanied the family. Harrison doesn’t show up until at least ten years later and then appears as a mine worker in Elko County, Nevada. The two brothers never married and spent their lives working gold and silver mines in Idaho and Nevada. Lawrence was living with my great grandparents Andrew and Maggie (Black) Harley when Lawrence died in 1912.

The Harley family arrived by wagon train in southern Oregon on August 16, 1852 and immediately filed an application at the Roseburg land office to claim their 320 acres under the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act. Here are images of their application and land survey:

William and America began developing their land into a dairy farm and had three more children bringing a total of four daughters into the family. The farm was located about ten miles northeast of Eugene just outside of a town called Mohawk. Here’s the farm location shown on a current map:

The 1860 census shows that the Harley family moved once again to the Slate Creek Precinct of Josephine County south of Grants Pass. Later records indicate that the family relocated to a new gold mining town that came into existence in 1855 called Kerby. They seemed to be prospering, in addition to their four daughters, they also have three farm laborers and a cook born in China.

Also in 1860 our great grandfather Andrew Jackson Harley, shortened to Jack informally, is born. While still in Josephine County a fifth daughter, Martha, is born in 1862.

America’s brother Lawrence was working as a miner in Josephine County in 1860 and may have influenced the family to relocate to Idaho in 1864 to follow rumors of gold and silver. In the 1860s, Idaho City was one of the Old West’s largest gold rush mining towns and that’s where the Harley family first settled in Idaho. Within a year William was elected as a representative to the Idaho Territory’s first legislature. While in Idaho City three more daughters and a son are born bringing the family a total of ten children. Lawrence Leadley also shows up on the 1870 census as living with the family along with a Greek laborer. The family states that they are engaged in dairy farming on the census.

Mining seems to have influenced another of the family moves from Idaho City to Silver City in 1875. Silver was discovered in Owyhee County at War Eagle Mountain just outside of Silver City in 1864. The area grew so quickly that Silver City became the county seat and one of the major cities of the Idaho Territory. Shortly after the Harley’s arrival William was elected annually to the position of Owyhee County Assessor from 1879 through 1886.

Here’s a simplified family tree that tracks the family births and spouses. It continues through the marriage and children of my great grandparents Andrew Jackson Harley and Mary Margaret Black.

The photo below is a gathering for the wedding of Mary Harley’s daughter Ruby Peyton and James Sommercamp in March of 1900. My second cousin, and fellow genealogist, Linda (Morrow) Eastaugh helped me identify the relatives in the photo, she thinks it was taken at the home of William and Alice (Harley) Sommercamp in Weiser, Idaho. Linda is also the great grandchild of Jack and Maggie (Black) Harley. There are a lot of Sommercamps in the photo but also four Harley children and America. William had died six years previous but America lived another fourteen years after this photo. Some of the people in the photo are: Oldest daughter Mary Harley and the bride and groom Ruby Peyton and James Sommercamp. Mary Slack is the mother of the groom. Martha “Alice” Harley is married to the older brother of the groom, William Sommercamp. Mary Sommercamp is the older sister of the groom, Albert Cordelle is her husband and Howard is her son. Henry Sommercamp is another older brother of the groom and Gertrude is his wife. William Harley is the youngest of the two Harley sons, unfortunately my great grandfather Jack Harley isn’t in the photo. Anna Harley and her husband Jefferson Whitson. Youngest daughter Ida Harley is not in the photo but Roscoe Smith, the man she will marry in two years, is. It looks like Roscoe is saving her place in the photo.

We’ll continue with Harley history after we catch up with another set of ancestors that made their way west.

I’ve included our great great grandparents James and Eliza Black in this post because their westward migration experience takes place in the same time period and some of the same locales as William Solomon Harley and America Leadley’s western migration. Great great grandfather James Black was born in 1833, the seventh of eight children born to Ralph Black and Nancy Eakin in Cambridge, Ohio. Ralph and Nancy were married in 1822 in Cambridge and continued to live there while raising their eight children. In 1839 Ralph died suddenly leaving Nancy with eight children under the age of 16, the youngest still an infant. It appears that most of the children, including six year old James, were then raised by aunts and uncles in the Ohio area.

Great great grandmother Eliza Jane Mullen was also born in Cambridge in 1839, six years younger than James. Eliza was the middle of three daughters born to Isaac Mullen and Sarah Deets. Isaac and Sarah were married in Pennsylvania but moved to Cambridge, Ohio before their first child was born in 1835. Remarkably, Isaac also suddenly died shortly after their youngest daughter was born in 1842, Eliza was four years old.

Cambridge, Ohio has always been a small town, in 1840 it’s population was less than 800 people so we can assume the Black and Mullen families knew each other, especially since both families suffered such similar losses.

In 1858 James was 25 and Eliza was 19 when they married in Cambridge and between 1859 and 1866 they had four children. My great grandmother Mary Margaret Black was their second child born in 1862, she was never actually called Mary, always Madge or Maggie, I’ll use Maggie. Four years after James and Eliza were married Eliza’s younger sister Margaret married Ohio native Ben Hawes. 1862 was also the year congress passed the first Homestead Act granting any citizen 160 acres of the public domain for a $10 filing fee. Within months after marrying Margaret, Ben joined a wagon train headed to the territory of Idaho to establish a homestead where his wife would join him six years later in 1868. Correspondence from her sister soon convinced Eliza that her growing family’s future would be brighter out west. By 1870 James and Eliza had made it 550 miles west to Prairie, Missouri which was as far as the railroads could bring the family at that time. After staying in Missouri for six years, and two more children, the family continued west in 1876 by train to Utah where they were met by Ben Hawes and transported by wagon to the Bruneau Valley.

Here’s a simplified family tree describing the relationships within the Black, Mullen and Hawes families:

Our understanding of our ancestors life in the Bruneau Valley has been enhanced by a bit of extraordinary luck. In 1950 Adelaide Turner published “The Valley of Tall Grass”, a book dedicated to her parents, John and Emma Turner, and their settlement in the Bruneau Valley. The currently out of print book is a collection of stories passed down from her parents, aunts, uncles and other colorful pioneers in the valley. Our luck is that Adelaide was married to Joseph Hawes, who was Margaret Mullen and Ben Hawes’ son and James and Eliza’s nephew. Which means the family has an anecdotal record unavailable from census and other typical genealogical sources. Here is a section describing the arrival of James and Eliza’s family to the valley:

The following picture is also from the book and presents a number of family members. It was taken about 1904, a few years after great great grandmother Eliza died at the age of 61. Albert Harley is my great grandparents Jack and Maggie (Black) Harley’s oldest child. Grandpa Black is James Black who would live another 15 years to the age of 85. Fet Black is James and Eliza’s fourth child. Fay is Fet and Sylvia’s daughter. Jennie is Joe Black’s (James and Eliza’s youngest child) wife, Bessie is their daughter. Pearl is the author’s sister-in-law. Dollie is James and Eliza’s fifth child, Wanda is her daughter with her first husband Wilhelm Christianson who died four years before this photo was taken. Three of Dollie’s husbands died while married to her and her father died while visiting her home in Albany, Oregon. Ruth is Fet and Sylvia’s second daughter.

The Valley of Tall Grass is a series of recollections told to the author about a time period from prior to when Adelaide was born and ending when she was still a small child. Although Adelaide is dependent on others for accuracy, the colloquialisms, prejudices and descriptions convey a vivid snapshot of Bruneau in the late 1800s. Adelaide’s introduction to the following letter describes a relationship between Maggie Black, my great grandmother, and Fletcher Hawes, a man 18 years older than 16 year old Maggie. Fletcher was Maggie’s uncle Ben Hawes’ brother and, if Adelaide’s information is correct, their relationship could have resulted in an entirely different family tree. Fletcher was killed during an attack by the Bannock tribe at Big Springs, one of the headwaters for the Henrys Fork tributary to the Snake River. Maggie married my great grandfather Jack Harley four years later in 1882.

The book also has a story about Maggie Black and Jack Harley’s wedding:

After their marriage Jack and Maggie quickly expanded their family at their home in Bruneau having five children, the last was my grandfather Joseph Harley in 1892. Jack’s parents, William and America Harley followed the young couple to Bruneau in 1884 along with their four youngest children, all the rest having married and left home.

On October 12, 1891 Jack Harley purchased 120 acres in Bruneau under the 1862 Homestead Act from the U.S. land office in Boise City. After his father William Harley died in 1894, America received a transfer of 120 acres that William must have purchased under the same Act. Here’s both of their applications and land survey:

Here’s where this acreage is located on a current map:

It appears that Jack and Maggie’s youngest child, Joe Harley (my grandfather), inherited his dad’s claim along with another 40 acres that may have been purchased from the sale of America’s claim. Here’s his 160 acres shown on a map from 1940:

In 1920 a biographical record of Idaho published by the S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. included a bio of Jack Harley. It’s interesting to note that it lists the time the family resided in Mohawk as twelve years, ignoring that census records and the births of Susan, Jack and Martha indicate that half that time the family resided in the mining town of Kerby, 175 miles south of Eugene. I think this is due to the fact that William must have held the 320 acres in Mohawk and possibly leased or managed it from Kerby and didn’t sell it until they moved to Idaho.

The following photo is the only Jack and Maggie Harley family shot that I’ve come across. It appears to be from around 1894 with Albert, Edith and James “Franklin” in the back, Rose and Joe in the front. Franklin died in 1899 but I haven’t found the cause.

And one more from the same period of Jack and his daughter Rose.

William Harley, being the oldest of the four ancestors followed in this post, died in 1894 at the age of 71 in Mountain Home. William’s wife was about 70 years old when the following picture was taken at the start of the twentieth century:

Eliza (Mullen) Black was also in Mountain Home in 1900 when she passed at the age of 61. Her husband James was visiting their daughter Dollie in Albany, Oregon when he died in 1919 at the age of 85. America (Leadley) Harley was 83 in 1914 when she passed. All four are buried in Mountain Home.

Here’s America’s obituary that appeared in the Saturday, December 26, 1914 Elmore County Republican:

One of the wonderful results of posting this family history blog is connecting with family members! Here’s a photograph that I received from Judith (Wegman) Lethin after she found this post. Judith is my second cousin and also a great grandchild of Jack and Maggie (Black) Harley. She is a first cousin to Linda (Morrow) Eastaugh mentioned earlier in this post. This photo taken in 1933 is the last that I’ve seen of William and America Harley’s son, Jack Harley, my great grandfather, and his wife, Maggie (Black) Harley, James and Eliza Black’s daughter, my great grandmother:

Jack Harley died five years after this photo in Bruneau on May 19, 1938 at the age of 78:

Jack’s wife Maggie, had been living in Bruneau until a year before her death when she moved to Nampa to be with my grandfather, Joe Harley. Maggie was 84 when she passed on March 8, 1946:

I’m looking forward to a road trip this summer to Mohawk and Kerby to explore some ancestral stomping grounds.