After I wrote about my great-grandfather Daniel A.
Troutman’s brothers’ activities during the Civil War, I looked at his sisters’
names on the family tree and wondered what was happening in their lives at that
time, as well. Women are not as easily researched as men. D. A. had four known
sisters born to Henry Troutman and Margaret Elizabeth Leonard Troutman: Ester,
Margaret, Anne, and Sarah. Today, Ester gets the spotlight.
Ester L. Troutman
About twelve years older than Daniel A., his sister Ester
(or Easter) L. Troutman was born 7 September 1823.[1] She
was most likely a typical little girl who learned to cook and sew and spin and
weave and make soap and wash clothes and sweep the house and kiss the bruised
knees and scraped elbows of younger brothers and sisters, so her mother could
get the housework done. I don’t know what she dreamed or enjoyed. Did she learn
to read? How did she fare being the only girl among three brothers until, at
the age of 6 ¾, a baby sister arrived in 1830? Was she allowed to run and play
outside with the boys? Did she climb trees? I can only imagine.
About 1844 at the age of 21, she first married John Thomas
from Iredell County. [2] Was
he a neighbor boy she had known a long time? Or did she meet him as a young
adult? In 1840, ten families named Thomas lived in Iredell County of which four
had sons in the age range of a possible husband for Ester. However, his life
was too short for us to know for certain which family was his. A daughter, Barbara
Elizabeth, was born to them on 22 March 1845,[3] and
five years later, John was gone.
By 1850, Ester had remarried a man named Fielding
Kyles; they lived together in Iredell County with little
Barbara.[4] Soon, they added two more known children, Octavia,
born 23 September 1851,[5] and
Austin Alexander, born 9 April 1853.[6] Barbara
is not listed with the family at this time, and her whereabouts is undiscovered
at this point. In 1860, Fielding was farming land worth $500.00, his personal
property worth $60.00.[7]
 |
| 1850 census, Iredell County, Fielding Kyles family. |
 |
| 1860 census, Iredell County, NC; Fielding Kyles family. |
Then the Civil War broke out.
At age 42, Fielding enlisted in Co. E, NC 11th
Infantry Regiment on 26 February 1862 for “three years or the war.”[8] How
difficult that must have been for Ester and her children when Fielding left for war!
When their father left, Octavia was twelve years old and Austin was ten.
According to Confederate Muster Rolls,
Fielding seems to have suffered several months with illness, as did many Civil
War soldiers. He was reported sick at hospital, Staunton, Virginia, May-June,
July-Aug., Sept.-Oct. and Nov-Dec 1863;[9]
again sick at Brigade hospital, May-June 1864;[10]
on sick furlough, July-Aug 1864, Statesville. [11]
 |
| Fielding Kyles, Hospital Muster Roll. Note that this one says, "Kyles is improving." |
Fielding was first reported missing in
action September through December 1864,[12]
but in January his status changed to prisoner of war.[13]
Captured near Petersburg on 27 October, he arrived at City Point on 31 October
and was sent to Point Lookout[14]
where his brother-in-law, Daniel
A. Troutman, was also a prisoner. Fielding was
released after taking the Oath of Allegiance on 28 June 1865. According to the
record, he had light complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, and stood 5'11
3/4" tall.[15]
 |
| F. Kyles, Oath of Allegiance. |
Back home in North Carolina, Ester,
Octavia, and Austin probably heard from Fielding only sporadically. How did
they learn that he had been captured and imprisoned? Did he write letters? We
do not know. Sadly, for Fielding and the children, Ester died in 1865 at age 42
while her husband was in prison.[16]
At ages 15 and 13, Octavia and Austin were left motherless, as was 20-year-old Barbara,
and at the time of Ester’s death, they were also uncertain about their father’s
fate. Fielding’s return home must have been mixed with joy and sadness. Later,
he remarried and raised a second family. In 1880, he was farming.[17]
He died in Iredell County in 1905 at the age of 81.[18]
 |
| Ester's tombstone in the Troutman Cemetery, Troutman, NC. Photo courtesy of Find A Grave contributor, Kathi Shuler. |
 |
| Fielding Kyles tombstone, Saint Martins Cemetery, Troutman, NC. Photo courtesy of Find A Grave contributor, Kathi Shuler. |
[1] Find A Grave, database and images
(http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 15 October 2014), photograph, memorial
page for Ester Levina Troutman Kyles (1823-1865), Find A Grave memorial no. #
77676936, citing Troutman Family Cemetery, Statesville, North Carolina;
photograph contributed by Kathi Shuler. Name on tombstone is Ester Thomas
Kyles. Also, Thomas L. Troutman, ed., Descending
Jacob’s Ladder (Unknown place: Unknown publisher, 1993), 51, 62. This text
gives her name as Easter Levina and provides day and month for her birth.
[2]
Troutman, Descending Jacob’s Ladder,
62. Marriage year is estimated based on the date of birth of their first child
known child.
[3] Find A Grave, database and images
(http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 15 October 2014), photograph, memorial
page for Barbara Thomas Lippard (1845-1909), Find A Grave memorial no. # 24863684,
Troutman Family Cemetery, Statesville, North Carolina; photographs contributed
by Lotsagenealogy (inactive).
[4] 1850 U. S. census, Iredell County, North
Carolina, population schedule,p. 483 (stamped), dwelling 113, family 1173,
Felding Kiles; Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com
: accessed 15 October 2014); NARA microfilm publication, M436, roll 634.
[5] Find A Grave, database and images
(http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 15 October 2014), memorial page for Margaret
O. Plyler (1851-1899), Find A Grave memorial no. # 77676936, citing
Troutman Family Cemetery, Statesville, North Carolina; no photograph.
[6] Find A Grave, database and images
(http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 15 October 2014), photograph, memorial
page for Austin A. Kyles (1853-1948), Find A Grave memorial no. # 24863750, Troutman
Family Cemetery, Statesville, North Carolina; photographs contributed by
Lotsagenealogy (inactive).
[7] 1860
U. S. census, School District 66, Iredell County, North Carolina, population
schedule, p. 49 (penned), dwelling 352, family 354, Frolomy Kyle; digital
image, Ancestry.com
(http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 October 2014); citing National Archives
and Records Administration microfilm publication M653, roll 902.
[8] Fielding
Kyles, Muster Rolls of Co. E, 11th North Carolina Infantry, 1861-1865, database
Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com/image/271/49858308/ : accessed 15 October
2014); NARA M270, roll 0196.
[9]
Feling Kyles, Muster Rolls, http://www.fold3.com/image/32796039/ .
This is for May-June 1863. Also, see http://www.fold3.com/image/32796049/ for
July-August; http://www.fold3.com/image/32796057/ for Sept-Oct, 1863; and http://www.fold3.com/
image/32796064/ for Nov.-Dec., 1863.
[10]
Felding Kyles, Muster Rolls, http://www.fold3.com/image/32796101/ .
[11]
Fielding Kyles, Muster Rolls, http://www.fold3.com/image/32796108/ .
[12]
Fielding Kyles, Muster Rolls, http://www.fold3.com/image/32796116/ for
Sept-Oct, 1864; http://www.fold3.com/image/32796125/ for Nov-Dec, 1864.
[13]
Fielding Kyles, Muster Rolls, http://www.fold3.com/image/32796131/ .
[14] F.
Ryles, Muster Rolls, http://www.fold3.com/image/32796141/ ; and http://www.fold3.com/image/32796145/
.
[15] F.
Kyles, Muster Rolls, Oath of Allegiance, http://www.fold3.com/image/32796145/ .
[16]
Troutman, Descending Jacob’s Ladder,
62. Also Find A Grave, Ester Levina
Troutman Kyles, 77676936.
[17] 1880
U.S. census, Fallstown, Iredell County, North Carolina, population schedule,
enumeration district (ED) 142, p. 14 (penned), dwelling 127, family 127, Fielding
Kyles; digital image, Ancesrty.com
(http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 October 2014); citing National Archives
and Records Administration microfilm publication T9, roll 968.
[18] Find A Grave, database and images
(http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 15 October 2014), photograph, memorial
page for Fielding Kyles (1824-1905), Find A Grave memorial no. # 77677161,
citing St. Martin’s Cemetery, Troutman, North Carolina; photograph contributed
by Kathi Shuler.
No comments:
Post a Comment