This is the
1870 Federal U.S. Census for Tom Township, Benton, Missouri. This is one of my favorite census records, because three of my Wickliffe ancestors are enumerated in a row. My third great-grandfather Charles Wickliffe is enumerated first, just under him is his son, my second great-grandfather William H. Wickliffe, and next is William's sister, Eliza Ann Wickliffe enumerated with her first husband William Harrison Wright.
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| Figure 1: The 1870 U.S. Census page for Tom Township, Benton County, Missouri, for William Wright household. |
Eliza Ann Wickliffe and William Harrison Wright married on 14 Jan 1858 in Benton, Missouri. I found them in the 1860 census as a young couple without any children. A decade later, they are listed with three children.
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| Figure 2: Close-up snippet of the William Wright family census entry on lines 18–22. |
This is an
extraction of the information:
William Wright: Head, 35, farmer, personal estate value $500, born in Virginia.Eliza Wright: female, 30, keeping house, born in Indiana.Ellen Wright: female, 11, at home, born in Missouri, attended school, cannot write.Alfred L. Wright: male, 4, at home, born in Missouri.Laura Wright: female, 1, at home, born in Missouri.
By the 1880 Census, William Wright is not listed. According to Find-a-grave, he died in 1876. Eliza married Alfred F. Wight on 17 Dec 1876 and is enumerated with him in the 1880 census. It lists another child, Celeste, 6 years old, as being Alfred's step-daughter. So it appears that Eliza and William Wright had at least 4 children before his death. The 1880 census also lists two more children in the home: Ruffian, male, 2 years, and Daisy D., female, age 4 months. These are Eliza's children by Alfred. I have not discovered any other children as of yet. Eliza Ann Wright died in 1899 according to Find-a-grave.
The source citation for this census is as follows:
Benton, Missouri, population schedule, Tom Township, sheet 283B, page 20 (handwritten), line 18, dwelling #139, family #150, William Wright household; digital image; Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 May 2013); citing NARA microfilm publication M593, roll 759.
