Family Narrative: Chloe Boswell Prentiss/Brown

Chloe Boswell Prentiss/Brown and daughter Jessie Brown Miller

By Frank D. Myers 

Chloe T. Boswell, my great-grandmother,  was the eldest of Peachy Gilmer and Caroline (McDaniel) Boswell's children, born 23 August 1833 near the Ohio River town of Point Pleasant, Mason County, (West) Virginia, in the second year after her parents' 1831 marriage. 

We have no idea who, if anyone specifically, Chloe was named after. "Chloe" is of Greek origin (reportedly meaning "blooming" or "green shoot"), but Chloe Boswell probably could, if she cared to, trace her given name to the Bible. Apparently a prominent woman in Corinth, that early Chloe, and her household, informed St. Paul of divisions in the church there as reported in his first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 1, Verse 11: "For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you."

A signature is the only source for her middle initial, "T," but we have no idea what the full name was or where it came from. Chloe's only known signatures are found on two documents within the Appanoose County, Iowa, probate file (No. 1156) of her uncle, Creed M. Boswell, who died intestate on 17 July 1880. On the 23rd of July 1881, she signed "Chloe Brown" to a receipt acknowledging that she had received notice that in order to settled Creed's estate a friendly lawsuit had been filed against all his heirs by the executor, W.S. Johnson. On the 26th of April 1883, she signed as "C T Brown" to acknowledge receipt of $10 "in full of my claim against the said estate." The "T" is clear and unmistakable. 

In both instances, the handwriting is elegant and natural, suggesting that Chloe was accustomed to corresponding. This apparent ease with a pen may tell us something about a childhood we know next to nothing about. Her parents apparently saw to it that she was well educated although they were not affluent people. 

When writing her mother's obituary during 1914, daughter Jessie told us that Chloe "was converted in early youth and united with the M.E. church at Corydon (Iowa)." Her father, Peachy G. Boswell, was a founding member and early leader of that Corydon church, suggesting that Methodism was an expression of faith the family brought with it from Virginia.

Only one incident from Chloe's Virginia childhood survives. A portrait of her sister, Jane (Boswell) Ratcliffe, found in the family photo album, shows clearly that the middle finger on Jane's right hand ended at the knuckle. A good many years ago, I asked Chloe's granddaughter and Jane's grandniece, Verna Brown, if she knew how that had happened. She told me that Chloe and Jane had gone out to cut wood at their Virginia home when both were girls, Chloe wielding the ax and Jane steadying a chunk of wood that was to be split. Jane's middle finger ended up in the path of the ax with painful and permanent consequences.

Jane Boswell and husband, Thomas Ratcliffe

Sadly, I did not ask Verna enough questions about her grandmother's childhood --- and the opportunity to do so is long past. But I do know, with my mother as the source, that Chloe's memories of West Virginia were warm and that she missed it, even though she last saw Mason County's hills and the broad Ohio River that flows below them when she was 16.

Chloe was 16 going on 17 in the spring of 1850 when her parents moved their family of seven from their home near the Ohio River and Point Pleasant to landlocked Iowa, most likely traveling down the Ohio to the Mississippi, upstream to Keokuk and then by ox-drawn wagon across southeast Iowa, paralleling the Des Moines River, until they reached Village Township, Van Buren County, and settled on a farm between the historic villages of Leando and Iowaville. That was where the 1850 census-taker found them on 22 October (1850 Census, Village Township, Van Buren County, Iowa, Page 317, Household/House Nos. 24/24).

Their neighbor in Village Township that fall --- only three cabins away --- was Robert Prentice (Prentiss), age 60, a widower born in New Hampshire, whose household included among others an unmarried son named Moses Warren. Priscilla (Warren) Prentiss, wife and mother, had died three years earlier, on 1 August 1847, and was buried in Leando Cemetery. Moses had been named for her father, Moses Warren.

According to Linus Joseph Dewald Jr., author of a 1997 update of C.J.F. Binney’s 1883 “The History and Genealogy of the Prentice Families of New England,” Robert Prentiss, born about 1790, probably was a son of James (Hogg) Prentiss and either Pauline or Julia Warren. Robert married Priscilla Warren 25 January 1816 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and had the following children, all born in Cuyahoga County: Sophronia,, born 29 March 1817; Warren, September 1818; Almira, 24 September 1820; Alphonso, 23 April 1822; Mary Lovica, about 1824; Alonzo Robert, 19 April 1825; Moses Warren, 2 February 1827; and Margaret Warren, 7 February 1830.

The Robert Prentiss family had arrived in Van Buren County prior to 15 May 1845, when county marriage records show that daughter Margaret Warren Prentiss married Benona Freel.

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A year and a half after the 1850 census was taken, on 18 March 1852, Chloe and Moses Prentiss were married in Van Buren County. She was 19 at the time and he was 25.

The couple established their first home in Van Buren County, but two years later, in 1854 according to Chloe’s obituary, moved three counties west into Wayne county where they settled in Corydon Township, just northeast of the county seat, Corydon.

Moses’s first purchase in Wayne County, by original entry, was made on 10 November 1853. This was the NE¼ of the SW¼ of Section 8, Corydon township, about a mile and a half northeast of Corydon. In all likelihood Moses and Chloe as well as Peachy and Caroline and their unmarried children moved to Wayne County the following spring. They all are enumerated as Corydon Township residents in a special 1854 census of Wayne County.

When the 1856 census of Wayne County was taken, Moses “Prentice,” 29, his wife, Chloe, 22, and their daughter E(va) L., 1, were recorded again as Corydon Township residents. 

In October of 1857, according to Wayne County land records, Moses purchased the west half of the northwest quaarter of section 17 and 5 acres in section 8, Corydon Township. This land joined land purchased the previous year by his father-in-law, Peachy Boswell.

There are indications that Moses occasionally found himself in financial hot water. On the 12th of October 1857, Moses mortgaged “a yoke of oxen described as 4 years old, one red and the other brown” to Johnson, Davis & Co. of Keokuk in order to secure an account due of $54.31. The mortgage was paid in full on 9 March 1858.

And on 19 October 1857, Moses issued a mortgage to Jeremiah Brower for a “certain 2-horse wagon and a calf now about 6 months old” on condition “I pay said Brower $5 and interest which by a judgment Sarah Brower recovered against me before S.E. Biddle, justice of the peace.” 

Four daughters were born to Chloe and Moses in Wayne County — Eva L., on 25 February 1855; Laura Rozella, on 2 July 1857; Sarah Olive, on 9 March 1862; and Emma Caroline, on 12 September 1864. The Moses Prentiss family, which included Chloe, age 27, as well as Eva L., 5, and Laura R., 3, were recorded as residents of Corydon Township, Wayne County, when the 1860 census was taken.

Shortly after arrival in Wayne County, Chloe and Moses bought second-hand this now somewhat battered cherrywood bureau, which remains a family member.

Although it is now impossible to say when, the Prentiss familly left Wayne County for a time and settled in Nebraska, according to a family story told by Verna Brown. Perhaps they joined Moses’s sister and brother-in-law, Margaret and Benona Freel, who had lived briefly in Wayne County before settling near Barada in extreme southeast Nebraska’s Richardson County prior to 1860.

In any case, according to the story, Chloe became extremely ill while living in Nebraska, apparently in the spring, and her father, Peachy Boswell, set out to visit her. Because his family’s only horse was needed for plowing, he walked. The reunited family returned to Corydon by wagon.

Daughter Emma was about 10 months old and Chloe, almost 32, when tragedy struck the young family. Moses, according to a story passed down through several generations, was working at a saw mill in the summer on 1865. On July 6, a steam boiler used to power the saw exploded, killing him.

Moses Prentiss tombstone, Corydon Cemetery

He was buried in the Boswell plot in the Corydon cemetery and a stone was erected on his grave with the following inscription:

"Remember friends, as you pass by,

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now so must you be.

Prepare for death and follow me."

Following her husband’s death, Chloe and her four daughters moved across the fields to her parents’ home. Her father, Peachy, died there during August of 1868, and was buried near Moses in Corydon. 

When the 1870 census of Corydon Township was taken the Boswell household consisted of Carolyn Boswell, age 59; Chloe’s sister, America E. Boswell, age 22; Chloe, 36; and the four Prentiss daughters, ages 15, 13, 9 and 5.

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Joseph Brown

During the summer of 1870, according to another family story, Chloe visited Boswell aunts, uncles and cousins who had moved from Van Buren County to Pleasant Township, Appanoose Couonty, at about the same time Chloe and Moses moved to Wayne County. These Boswell relatives lived south of the small town of Cincinnati in the south central portion of the county, quite near the Missouri state line. 

Chloe’s aunt, Mary Boswell, had married Archibald S. Brown Sr. during January of 1859. Archibald had a brother, Joseph Brown, 60 during 1870, whose second wife had died in Washington County, Iowa, during July of that year. 

Joseph apparently had moved to Appanoose County soon after her death to live near his children, Archibald Brown Jr. and Mary (Brown) DeMack, and brother, Archibald Brown Sr., all of whom lived in or near Cincinnati. 

Joseph and Chloe were introduced, and on 17 November 1870 were married in Wayne County. Joseph’s children were by this time all grown and married, but by marrying Chloe he acquired a second, ready-made family. 

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In February of 1871, probably after spending December and January with Caroline, Chloe, Joseph and the four Prentiss girls moved from Wayne County across Lucas County to a small farm south of Columbia in southern Marion County. 

Among the reasons for a move to Columbia apparently was the fact that a Presbyterian congregation was located there, and Joseph was a devout Presbyterian. 

Title to this farm, which was located south of the Columbia Cemetery, could not be cleared, however, and the family moved soon to a small home located in Columbia itself.

This home was located on a small acreage, two-and-a-half acres at the time of Joseph’s death during 1893, which filled the southeast corner of the crossroads around which Columbia was built. Across the road to the north, Joseph purchased 40 acres of land. At the time of Joseph’s death, 38 acres remained. Two acres in the far southwest corner had been sold as business and residential lots, including the site of the legendary May Store. 

Existing photographs of the house in which Joseph and Chloe settled show it to be an attractive, but small, story-and-a-half cottage. 

Chloe’s granddaughter, Verna Brown, who was born and raised in the house, said that a sitting room was located in the northwest corner of the house, and a bedroom in the northeast corner. The kitchen was located south of the living room, and stairs to two large bedrooms ascended between the kitchen and the living room. The southeast corner of the house apparently contained a porch enclosed within the structure. A cellar under the kitchen provided storage space. The house no longer exists. It was torn down, or moved, when the property was sold to the Caruthers family in the early 1900s and a much larger house constructed to the east of its site and business buildings on the crossroads corner.

Joseph Ellis Brown

In this house, two children were born to Chloe and Joseph. The first was Joseph Ellis, born on 4 September 1871 and named for his father and Chloe’s brother, Ellis Boswell. Jessie Frances, the second child, was born 19 January 1875. Her middle name probably honored an aunt, Susan Frances (Boswell) Garnes. Jessie said years later that she could remember her father only as an old man. He was 65 at the time of her birth.

Jessie Brown Miller (left) and Cora Bingaman in Columbia

When Jessie was born, there probably were seven members of the Brown household. Chloe’s daughter, Laura Prentiss, had married Alpheus Elkahan Love on 7 July 1873, but Eva, Olive and Emma still would have been living with their mother and stepfather. 

The 1880s were a peaceful decade for the family. Jessie and Joseph attended the Columbia school and Joseph Sr. farmed until he no longer was able, then turned those duties over to his son, Joseph Jr., who also worked as a Columbia blacksmith. 

Eva married John Rush West on 1 September 1880 and Olive married Sam McCorkle on 23 February 1882, but Emma continued to make her home with the Browns until her death. 

At some point during this period, according to family lore, the Presbyterian church, among the factors that had brought Joseph and Chloe to Columbia in the first place, burned, and the family then attended the Methodist Church, which had been Chloe’s denomination originally. Jessie and her brother were raised as Methodists.

Chloe and her daughters provided additional income for the family by doing laundry for guests at a Columbia boarding house and Emma developed into a skilled seamstress.

These are members of the blended Brown-Prentiss family photographed (probably by Uncle Al Love) in 1888 or 1889 to the side of the family home in Columbia. Sam and Olive (Prentiss) McCorkle were visiting from their home in Superior, Nebraska, and their wagon is visible by the side of the house. Standing (from left) are Byron Love, Eugene Love, Sam McCorkle holding daughter Alma, Emma Prentiss and Laura Love. Seated (from left) are Ada McCorkle, Olive (Prentiss) McCorkle, Alma McCorkle, Joseph Brown, Chloe (Boswell/Prentiss) Brown and Jessie Brown holding Verna Prentiss/Brown.

Beginning in 1887, however, a period of difficulties began for the family.

Emma Prentiss

Emma, on 27 October 1887, gave birth to a daughter she named Verna Jones Prentiss, implying that the father’s surname was Jones. Family stories suggest Joseph Brown would not allow his stepdaughter to marry Verna’s father, and so mother and daughter remained within his household. As an infant, Verna developed polio, which left her physically handicapped throughout a long life. At some point, an effort was made to eradicate her middle name, "Jones," from the family Bible record of her birth by crossing it out with ink. It remained faintly visible, however.

Verna

In August of 1893, Emma and her half-brother, Joseph, were visiting the Jonathan Edward Brown family at Durham, a small community northeast of Columbia, also in Marion County. Jonathan was a son of Joseph Brown Sr. by his first marriage. 

The lane leading to the Brown home in Durham crossed railroad tacks, and as Emma and Joseph left for home in a buggy, a train spooked the horses, the team ran away and both were thrown. Emma landed on a pile of posts and suffered internal injuries that could not be dealt with in those days. She was brought home to recuperate. Joseph escaped uninjured. 

As winter set in, Joseph Brown Sr., now in his 80s, became ill and bed-ridden. Jessie left school in order to help her mother take care of the two invalids. Emma, apparently recovering, went to the home of her sister, Eva West, to sew for the West children before the winter term of school began. While there, she became seriously ill and was brought home. 

Joseph died on 4 December 1893 and was buried in Columbia Cemetery. Emma followed on 14 January 1894 and was buried nearby.

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Happier times returned for the family in 1895, and on 15 March of that year “brother Joe” married Anna Stone. 

Joe, however, became ill soon after the marriage and the illness was diagnosed as consumption, or tuberculosis. Although the causes of tuberculosis now are known, his family felt that it had been brought on by his work as a blacksmith and in the limestone quarries around Durham. 

About 1897, seeking relief, he moved to Nebraska, near Superior where his half sister, Olive McCorkle, and her family had settled some years earlier. Joseph’s and Anna’s only child, Ronald Merle Brown, was born 27 October 1897 near Burr Oak, Kansas, a few miles south of Superior. 

By the fall of 1898, Joseph considered himself well enough to return to Columbia and to bring Chloe, Jessie and Verna back to Nebraska. During October of that year, Chloe, now 65, Jessie, 22, and Verna, 11, set out with Joe, Anna and Merle in a covered wagon for Nebraska. They arrived safely, despite snow and bad weather, but the trip apparently had aggravated Joe’s tuberculosis. His condition worsened, and on 25 September 1899 he died at Bostwick, Nebraska, also near Superior. His family returned to Iowa with the body by train, and he was buried a few days later in the Columbia Cemetery. 

Chloe, Jessie and Verna then returned to their old home at Columbia, where they lived for six more years. Jessie was hired to operate the Columbia switchboard, which was moved into the sitting room of the Brown home. Through her work she met William Ambrose Miller, treasurer of a rural Lucas County telephone line with "central" in his mother's parlor, and they were married in Corydon on 3 June 1905. 

A year later, in April of 1906, Chloe and Verna moved to English Township, Lucas County, to live with William and Jessie. 

Chloe died 15 June 1914 at the age of 80 years, 9 months and 22 days in her daughter’s home. She was buried a day later beside Joseph and Emma in the Columbia Cemetery. 

Chloe was described by her granddaughter, Verna, as a tall, fair, blue-eyed woman with a gentle manner. Apparently well-educated, Verna recalled that when she was not working she was reading. Of her children, Verna said, Joe was most like her in appearance. Jessie resembled her father in appearance but had her mother’s laid-back disposition. Here's the text of the obituary Jessie prepared for her mother:

CHLOE BOSWELL BROWN

Chloe Boswell, daughter of Peachy and Caroline Boswell, was born in Mason county, West Virginia, August 23rd, 1833, departed this life June 15th, 1914, from the home of her daughter, Mrs. Jessie Miller, age 80 years, 9 months and 22 days. Deceased came to Iowa with her parents in 1850, locating in Van Buren county. Four years later they moved to Wayne county, living near Corydon. 

On March 18, 1852, she was united in marriage to Moses W. Prentiss, who departed this life July 6th, 1865. To this union was born four daughters, Eva, Laura, Ollie and Emma. On November 17th, 1870, she was married to Joseph Brown of Appanoose county and came to Columbia, Marion county, in February 1871. To this union was born two children, Joseph E. and Jessie. She was again left a widow, December 5, 1893, but continued to reside at the old home until April, 1906, since which time she has made her home with her daughter, Jessie, in Lucas county. 

One daughter and son preceded their mother to the beyond, Emma, Jan. 14, 1894; Joseph E., Sept. 25, 1899. The deceased leaves four children, 23 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Also one brother and two sisters, Ellis G. Boswell and America E. Cox of Corydon, Frances S. Garnes of Leoti, Kansas. She was converted in early youth and united with the M.E. church at Corydon. Was a kind and loving mother, devoted to her home and family. Very patient in her daily trials and bore her affliction with christian fortitude and often expressed her abiding faith in her Savior. 

Gone home mother, where life's tempests beat upon thy path no more.\

With thy life barque safely anchored, hard by the Eternal shore. 

Gone home mother, and we miss thee and our hearts by grief are riven,

but we hope again to greet thee on the sunny plains of Heaven. 

Thy sweet life of love we cherish like perfume from Heaven blown

and we'll talk of thee in pleasure. Gone home mother, dear, gone home.

Funeral services were held at the Columbia church, Wednesday, June 17, conducted by Rev. Williamson of Des Moines, after which friends and neighbors bore the remains to the Columbia cemetery, where it awaits the final resurrection. (Chariton Herald-Patriot, 18 June 1914)