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JAMES AND HANNAH COURSEY
I wish I had more information on James Coursey and his wife Hannah. There are many more questions about these two than there are answers. The only written record we have, to date, of James, the husband of Hannah, is the mention of his name in an article written while his son, James William DeCoursey I, was alive [Genealogy and Biography, 1899]. Information on Hannah is almost as scarce. She shows up in a few census reports 1 and there is information on her tombstone in Leavenworth, Kansas. With over three hundred and fifty descendants of James and Hannah Coursey, my hope is someone will do further research.
I am amazed at the amount of traveling people did in the 19th century. At the time James and Hannah were living traveling conditions were extremely poor. One relative told me the story she heard from her father was that Hannah and James split up while traveling. James took a few children and Hannah took James and Elizabeth; they were to meet at a certain destination. James never showed up. Hannah waited and waited. Finally, she left some money with the local priest asking him to tell her husband that she had gone on to Leavenworth. James never returned home. Who knows what happened to James and the other children, or how accurate the story is, but it sure makes for a good movie script!
1 In the 1860 and 1865 Kansas census a person presumed to be Hannah is living with the Courseys listed as A. Harris and Hannah Harris. Census reords indicate that she remarried to a George Harris at some point before 1850.
