Page created 10 October 2005. Last updated 3 Sept. 2008.
Please email additions and/or corrections to Martha Grenzeback 
Family OutlineLinks
|
Elizabeth Huey lived the life of many pioneering women: hard, punctuated by loss, and ultimately short, though perhaps with its compensations. She was born to Thomas Huey and Vesta Stewart in rural Indiana, sometime between 1828 and 1834--probably in 1828, which is the year indicated by all censuses. This would be consistent with her parents' marriage in 1827 and the presence of a a single child, a female under age 5, in the Thomas Huey household as listed on the 1830 census in Greene County, Indiana.1 Elizabeth's parents were uneducated farmers (they could not sign their names), and when she grew up she married a farmer herself: Bernard Exline, the son of Adam and Susannah (Harclerode) Exline, who lived nearby. The marriage took place on 26 November 1849 in Greene Co., Indiana; the name of the officiator is hard to make out on the marriage certificate.
Apparently Elizabeth and her new husband started west not long after their marriage, together with her parents Thomas and Vesta and her brothers James and William, for they appear all together in one household on the census enumerated in Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa, on 13 August 1850. Thomas "Hewey" was listed as the head of the household.2 It was not long before Elizabeth was pregnant; Sarah Ann Exline was born in August 1851, either in Oskaloosa or Newton Township, Jasper County, Iowa, where the family was living by 1852. Little Sarah was soon taken from her parents, however, passing away on 10 Jan 1852. Hers was one of the first burials in the Newton cemetery.3 It must have been a wrench for the young mother to leave her baby behind--for before long Elizabeth and Bernard and the Hueys were on the move again. The family story is that they went to California by wagon train sometime in the 1850s. Thomas Huey does appear on the tax assessment rolls for 1853 in El Dorado Co., California; B. "Axline" appears on the assessment in that county in 1855. In 1856 an announcement appeared in The Mountain Democrat that "Elisabeth" Exline had legally declared her intention of carrying on a dairy business and mining, teaming, and working for hire on her account--a requirement at the time, since a woman had to have her husband's permission to keep property in her own name or to run a business of her own.4 At any rate, both the Exline and Huey families were in El Dorado Co. by the time of the 1860 census. Elizabeth and Bernard Exline were enumerated on 18 September 1860 in Mountain Township (Grizzly Flat post office), El Dorado County, California. At the time, Bernard was a 39-year-old farmer born in Pennsylvania, owning real estate worth $5,000 and personal property worth $450. Elizabeth was 32, born in Indiana. By then they had four more children: Isabel (6), William (4), Thomas (3), and "Lincoln" (8 months), all born in California; so the Exlines had probably moved out there in 1853 or 1854. Thomas and Vesta were living in the same township; Thomas "Hewey" was a 54-year-old teamster, born in Indiana, with $1000 worth of personal property. Vesta was 45, born in Kentucky. Enumerated with them was son William, a 23-year-old miner born in Indiana. James had disappeared--explicably, if he was the J.N. Huey buried in the Old Diamond Springs Cemetery in Diamond Springs, El Dorado County. That Huey had died 17 September 1852--another indication that the Hueys might have moved to California around the summer of 1852.5 For some years Bernard was engaged in mining, but around 1868 the family moved to San Luis Obispo County, where they took up a homestead on 160 acres. Elizabeth and Bernard Lincoln Exline appeared on the 1870 census, enumerated 1 August 1870, in Salinas Township (Hot Springs post office), San Luis Obispo County, California. Bernard was listed as a 49-year-old farmer born in Pennsylvania, with $1500 in real estate and $565 in personal property. Elizabeth was 42, born in Indiana; and Wm H. (15), Thos. S. (14), Isabel (17) and Bernard L. (10), all born in California, were described as "at home." Bernard L. could not write. Living with them was Mary J. Broner (14), born in California, also "at home," although she had attended school that year.6 By then Elizabeth had been ill for many years, struggling to raise her children while confined to bed. The family story is that, incapacitated by "milk leg" (today known as thrombophlebitis, a postpartum blood clot in the leg), she used to tie her toddler to the bedpost since she could not chase after him. Dormant tuberculosis may also be activated after delivery, and that may have happened in her case, for she died of "consumption" on Sunday, 12 March 1871 in San Luis Obispo, and was buried in Lot 14, Block 30, of the IOOF Cemetery in San Luis Obispo. An obituary for her was published in The Democratic Standard on 18 March 1871 in San Luis Obispo.7
|
1 All censuses indicate a birth year of around 1828: Thomas Hewey household, 1850 US Census, Iowa, Mahaska Co., page 155B, Oskaloosa, dwelling 15, family 15, National Archives micropublication M432, roll 187 (Ancestry.com images), in which age is given as 22; Bernard Exline household, 1860 US Federal Census, California, El Dorado Co., page 1178, Grizzly Flat P.O., dwelling 4426, family 4426, National Archives micropublication M653, roll 58 (Ancestry.com images), in which age is given as 32; Bernard Exline household, 1870 US Federal Census, population schedule, California, San Luis Obispo Co., page 292B, Hot Springs P.O., dwelling 111, family 111, National Archives micropublication M593, roll 87 (Ancestry.com images), in which age is given as 42.
Research notes by Claudine (Riley) Shuey, deceased, in my possession, cite records of the IOOF Cemetery in San Luis Obispo, California, which give Elizabeth's age as 37 at her death on 12 March 1871 (meaning a birth year of 1833 or 1834). Her obituary, which appeared on 18 March 1871 in The Democratic Standard (San Luis Obispo, California, p. 2, col. 5), gave her age at death as 40 years, 3 months, and 12 days, which would imply a birth date of 30 November 1830. However, if she was the female under five enumerated in the Huey household in the 1830 census (Thomas Hewey household, 1830 US Federal Census, population schedule, Indiana, Greene Co., p. 158, National Archives micropublication M19, roll 31),she would have to have been born before 1 June 1830.
2 Thomas Hewey household, 1850 US Census, Iowa, Mahaska Co., page 155B, Oskaloosa, dwelling 15, family 15, National Archives micropublication M432, roll 187 (Ancestry.com images).
3 Bernard Exiline [sic] household, 1852 Iowa State Census, Jasper Co., IA, page 1, Newton Twp. National Archives micropublication V221, roll 3 (Heritage Quest). For Sarah Exline's death and age at death, see Jasper County Genealogical Society, compiler, Jasper County, Iowa, Cemeteries: Newton Union Cemetery, Blocks 1, 2, and 3, Veterans Block 1 and 2 (Des Moines: Iowa Genealogical Society, 1994), p. 362, or the Newton Union Cemetery online database.
4 California, El Dorado County Assessment Rolls (1853), p. 60. El Dorado County Historical Museum, Placerville, CA. El Dorado County Assessment Rolls (1855), p. 9. El Dorado County Historical Museum, Placerville, CA. "Sole Trader," The Mountain Democrat, 28 June 1856.
5 Bernard Exline household, 1860 US Federal Census, California, El Dorado Co., page 1178, Grizzly Flat P.O., dwelling 4426, family 4426, National Archives micropublication M653, roll 58 (Ancestry.com images); Thomas Hewey household, 1860 US Federal Census, California, El Dorado Co., page 1187, Grizzly Flat P.O., dwelling 4505, family 4505, National Archives micropublication M653, roll 58 (Ancestry.com images). DAR, El Dorado County Cemetery and Courthouse Records (n.p.: DAR, 1987), III:1 (California State Library).
6 Annie L. Morrison and John H. Haydon, Pioneers of San Luis Obispo County and Environs (reprint of 1917 edition; San Miguel, CA: The Friends of the Adobes, Inc., 2002), pp. 33-34. Bernard Exline household, 1870 US Federal Census, population schedule, California, San Luis Obispo Co., page 292B, Hot Springs P.O., dwelling 111, family 111, National Archives micropublication M593, roll 87 (Ancestry.com images).
7 Information provided by Adeline Exline Riley, now deceased. Research notes by Claudine (Riley) Shuey, deceased, citing records of the IOOF Cemetery in San Luis Obispo, California. "Died,"The Democratic Standard (San Luis Obispo, CA), p. 2, col. 5.
Return to Grenzeback-Riley Family Pages
