Mary Eliza Carleton 1841-1919

Mary Eliza Carleton 1841-1919

A Thumbnail Biography by David C. Procuniar

Copyright 1997-1998-1999-2000-2001

Mary Eliza Carleton; daughter of John M Carleton (1800-1875) & Eliza Ann Magill; Mary married George Henry Bragonier 15 Nov 1849 in Allegany, Maryland.

Children:

Emma J. Bragonier 1850- Cumberland Allegany, MD

William Bragonier 1852-1879 Cumberland Allegany, MD; married Elsie Waldron

Mary A. Bragonier 1856 Cumberland Allegany, M Cumberland Allegany, MD.

George C. Bragonier 1866- Cumberland Allegany, MD

Horace A. Bragonier 1863- Cumberland Allegany, MD

Helen Virginia Bragonier 1869-1936 Mexico Audrain, Missouri; died in Decatur, Illinois; married Augustus Saner,

Charles J. Bragonier 1871- in Mexico Audrain, Missouri

Bell D. Bragonier 1873- Mexico Audrain, Missouri

Email

From: Miguel Kelley [mailto:mike_kelley@hotmail.com]

Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 6:53 AM

To: procuniar@ameritech.net

Subject: A small branch of the Procuniar family tree

I found your Procuniar family webpages while "googling" George H Brogunier (George Henry Brogunier, 1827-1919)

You list his wife as Mary Eliza Carleton; perhaps you, and some of her descendants, would be interested in her ancestry.

Mary Eliza Carleton is my first cousin, three times removed. She is probably the daughter of John M Carleton and Eliza Ann Magill. I have no direct evidence that she is the daughter of John M Carleton. Indirect evidence comes from the fact that she lives next door to John M in the 1850 Census in Cumberland, Allegany, Maryland, and that she fits the position of the daughter who was between 5 and 10 in the 1840 census. John M Carleton was the son of James Pierce Carleton (1779-1854) and his first wife Martha Murray (my great-great-great-grandparents). Eliza Ann Magill was the daughter of William Magill and Mary Slicer. Mary Eliza's name is possibly in honor of her mother, Eliza Ann, and her grandmother, Mary Slicer.

James Pierce Carleton, founder of the Cumberland Carleton family, had sons John M (1800-1875), Henry (1804-1886) and James P Jr (1812-1853, my great-great-grandfather).

Mary Eliza's only other possible Carleton parents:

James P Sr: His 2nd wife Mary Magill was born in 1784, and would be 47 when Mary Eliza was born; too old to be Mary Eliza's parents. Also, James P's 1840 census household does not have a daughter near Mary Eliza's age bracket.

Henry: Mary Eliza can't be the daughter of Henry. He married his first wife Mary Merryman on 5 Sep 1831 and their firstborn was James P, born Aug 1832.

James P, Jr was a student at Washington College in 1831, when Mary Eliza was born.

So, given her name (Mary Eliza), her next-door neighbor in 1850 (John M) and the lack of any other Carleton candidates, it is most likely that Mary Eliza Carleton was the daughter of John M Carleton.

By the way, my mother lives in Dayton. My parents moved to Dayton in 1963, while I was in college in Michigan. My father was one of the founders of Kettering Memorial Hospital, and I worked at Kettering in the summers from 1964 through 1967.

Regards, Mike Kelley

P.S. Here is some material on James P and John M Carleton.

In the records of Christ Church, Philadelphia, established 1695, we find the birth of James, son of Richard and Margaret Carleton, on 23 March 1779. We don't know much about James' youth; he grew up in Philadelphia as the son of a tailor, and could have learned the trade from his father. He moved to Cumberland before 1809, when he purchased land from his mother Margaret.

Quoting from the History of Allegany County:

James P. Carleton was Cumberland's leading tailor, and like all tailors of the time, a politician, for then the tailor shops were the political headquarters. Henry D., in accordance with the then custom learned his father's trade and was a lifelong tailor.

James P Carleton Sr married in Philadelphia on 1 January 1798 Martha Murray, who was born 3 September 1782 in Londonderry, Ireland. (This information is in the Carleton family Bible).

James P Carleton’s 1809 acquistion of land placed him on the Cumberland tax list in 1812. Besides being the leading tailor in Cumberland, James P was also Postmaster, a very important position that was essentially a Presidential appointment. In those days, the post office was also a savings bank, which indicates a high degree of respect and trust for the person appointed as Postmaster. James P was first appointed by “the second Adams” (John Quincy Adams) in 1827, and also served during the terms of Andrew Jackson and later on during the term of Martin Van Buren. Samuel Magill was also a very prominent citizen of Cumberland; he was appointed Postmaster in 1820 and served for 4 years. He was enrolled “Chief Burgess”; the burgesses were the town councilmen, and the Chief Burgess was like a mayor.

We find out a bit more about the importance of the Post Office from the story of Samuel Magill. G P W Butler began publication of the first newspaper of Cumberland, the Imperialist, in January 1808. This effort gave way to his new publication, the American Eagle, but when he moved to Pennsylvania in July 1809 the county was temporarily without a newspaper. On 20 November 1813, Samuel Magill issued the first copy of the Allegany Freeman, a paper which ‘vigorously’ supported the presidential administration of James Madison. This paper was printed until 1818, when Magill was rewarded for his political loyalty to Madison’s successor, James Monroe, and appointed postmaster of Cumberland.

James P Carleton Sr was trusted by his fellow citizens. On 14 April 1833, a disastrous fire destroyed much of Cumberland. James P was one of seven "gentlemen" who served on the fire “reparations” committee; their mission was to collect funds from all over the nation and distribute them to those who had lost property in the fire. The losses were estimated at $272,000, a huge amount in those days. The History of Western Maryland, by J. Thomas Scharf, published in Philadelphia in 1882, has a detailed list of the communities who contributed to the relief of Cumberland, for a total of $20,000. In the list of those who lost property we find James P's son Henry D Carleton, whose loss was furniture. John M, another son, lost clothing in this fire, most likely stock in his tailor business.

James P's Postmaster history led to a Congressional vote for his relief after this fire:

Bills and Resolutions, House of Representatives, 24th Congress (1836):

Read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House to-morrow. Mr. Thomas, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported the following bill: A Bill For the relief of James P. Carlton. (H.R. 960)

James P Carleton Sr appears a number of times in the records of Indentures for Cumberland; between 1812 and 1823 he took on Indentures for two orphans, plus the son of a slave and a teenager “bound with his parents’ consent”.

After that period, it appears that his son John M. took the lead in the tailor business, since subsequent Indentures were to John M. On 4 April 1822 John M. married Eliza Ann Magill (born 1805), the daughter of William Magill, jr (she appears in a D.A.R. record ). By 1830, they had 2 daughters (one born before 1825, the other one after 1825). They also had John H (1832), Anna S (1838), Charles C (1841), Richard A (1843) and Louisa (1845). The 1840 census also includes a daughter whose age was between 5 and 10; this probably corresponds to Mary Eliza, born 1831.

The D.A.R. record for Edith Carleton Burlingame (DAR ID # 120248), born in Iowa Falls, daughter of Richard A. is our source of information on Eliza Magill's parents. From this record, the Census and Civil War Military service records, we know that John M and family moved to Iowa. [Note: the daughter born after 1825 may have been Jane M Carleton, who married Jacob Wickard on 8 November 1842 in Cumberland. Jacob (1820) and Jane (1826) were next-door neighbors to John M, James P and Henry D in the 1850 Census. Their children included Mary V (1842), Thompson (1846), Rollin (1848).] The Edith Carleton Burlingame DAR record is also another link that ties our James P Carleton (John's father) to Richard Carleton, since John M gave the name Richard to one of his sons.

John M was a volunteer fireman; he was an “engine-man” on the 1831 and 1832 rosters of the so-called “Canada” company. On the 15 December 1836 roster he had risen to the position of secretary of the recently formed Mountaineer Hose Company. In 1840, he was re-elected as secretary, thus continuing to be an officer of the fire company; he was still active as an “engine-man”.

John M. was appointed magistrate by the Governor, and the Council of Maryland for Allegany County. He was also a 2nd lieutenant in the militia. On New Years, 1838, the militia was called up by the governor to quell a serious disturbance, created by the workers who were digging the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. Was this an early sign of conflict between labor and management? Or just a crowd of drunken Irishmen causing a ruckus on New Year’s Eve? (Students of American history will recall that Irish immigrants composed the bulk of the labor force that built the Erie Canal and other early arteries that were crucial to the growth of the American economy in that time period).

Other Sources:

David C Procuniar 3598 Harry Truman Drive, Beavercreek, Ohio 45432

The Bragonier Family by Georgiana H. Randall 1969.

The Bragunier Family in America by Brittain Bragunier Robinson 1969.

First Reformed Church of Hagerstown Maryland church records on LDS micro-film.

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