We’re now in week 3 of the 52 Ancestor Challenge with the theme “Out Of Place.” Patrick Marion Churchman is my 2x great-uncle on my mom’s side. He was born on Christmas Day in 1836 in Grainger County, Tennessee. He and his two brothers later journeyed to Oregon and settled in the Sheridan area. But before that, he definitely found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In the 1850 U.S. federal census, Patrick was a fourteen-year-old boy living with his parents, Joseph Blackburn Churchman and Harriet Mynatt Churchman, in Jefferson County, Tennessee…nothing out of the ordinary here. 1
By 1860, P. M. Churchman, a 23-year-old farmer, resided in Rapides Parish, Louisiana with $7500 worth of real estate.2 How did that happen? I searched the pages before and after his entry hoping to find a surname I recognized or at least someone else who listed their place of birth as Tennessee…nothing. Most of the people living around him were from Ireland, Scotland, and Germany.
Finding the reasons behind his home and wealth in Louisiana will need some digging, but I’ll save that tale for later. Patrick was the lone sibling who left Tennessee; everyone else stayed in Grainger County. It appeared Patrick sought adventure, but soon encountered more than he expected.
In a 1918 article in the Sheridan Sun newspaper, there was an obituary and quotes from Patrick during an interview he had given sometime earlier.3 He shared this story: It was the spring of 1862 in New Orleans when several men approached him and demanded he dismount his horse. They were drafting Patrick into the Confederate Army right then and there. He mentioned joining the 13th Louisiana Regiment to the writer, but Civil War records listed him as a private in Company H of the 16th Regiment Louisiana Infantry.4 His first major battle was in Corinth, Mississippi, where his duty was to collect bodies behind the lines. I just can’t imagine!
Patrick’s Civil War Service Records backed up the ongoing story he shared. His illness worsened, leading to his transfer to a hospital. While recovering, a doctor requested his help in completing furlough slips for soldiers. Patrick not only assisted but also included his name on the list while removing someone else’s. According to his records, he was marked absent in May/June of 1863 because he was hospitalized in Jackson, Mississippi.5
In the following months of July and August, he was “on sick furlough at home in Tennessee” where he stayed until April 1864.6 While he was close to family he got word to his father in Mossy Creek (now Jefferson City) that he was under arrest and in the hospital. His father came the next day, gave him money, and told him to take the oath of allegiance.
Apparently, it worked as he married Christina Metzger in September 1864 in Jefferson County, Tennessee.7 In the 1870 census, he was a grocer working in Jefferson County, but by 1880 he was a 44-year-old farmer living in Polk County, Oregon.8
Had Patrick stayed in Tennessee it’s likely he would have fought in the Civil War, but for the Union as men from East Tennessee did. Who knows if he would have survived that version of his life, but he did live to the age of 81 raising 8 children. He died during a visit to family in Tennessee and was buried in Oregon.
Patrick was undoubtedly strong and clever, as his life experiences clearly show. Yet, someone who survived the Civil War and then journeyed west to Oregon to begin a new life in the wilderness is undeniably brave in my opinion. His unique and “out of place” life was, at the very least, fascinating.
Genealogy tip: It’s important to research all of your ancestors, not just those in your direct line. There are too many wonderful stories out there not to.
Getting started with your genealogy research or don’t have the time to do it yourself? Let’s work together to find your ancestors.
1 1850 U.S. census, Jefferson County, Tennessee, population schedule, District 13, p. 385b (stamped), dwelling 787, family 814, Joseph B. Churchman household; digital image Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed 2 Feb 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 885.
2 1860 U.S, census, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, p. 188, dwelling 1337, family 1318, P. M. Churchman; digital image Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed 2 Feb 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication M653.
3 “Death of P. M. Churchman,” Sheridan Sun (Sheridan, Oregon), 5 December 1918.
4 National Park Service, “Soldiers,” database, Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System (www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm: accessed 15 Jan 2023), entry for P. M. Churchman, Pvt., Co. H, 16th Louisiana Inf., Confederacy.
5 “Civil War Service Records (CMSR) – Confederate – Louisiana,” Fold3.com (https://www.fold3.com/image/77835889: accessed 15 Jan 2023), P. M. Churchman, p. 4; citing Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Louisiana, National Archives microfilm publication M320, roll 274.
6 Ibid, P. M. Churchman, pp 5-8.
7 “Tennessee, U.S., Marriage Records, 1780-2002,” digital image, Ancestry.com (www. ancestry.com: accessed 2 Feb 2016), Patrick M. Churchman and Christiana E. Metzger, 5 Sep 1864, image 331; Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002, Jefferson County, Tennessee, 1792 – Dec 1881: Marriages, p. 217; citing Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, TN.
8 1870 U.S, census, Jefferson County, Tennessee, population schedule, District 9, p. 25, dwelling 181, family 178, Patrick Churchman household; digital image Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed 2 Feb 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication M595, roll 1540. And 1880 U.S. census, Polk County, Oregon, population schedule, Jackson Precinct, p. 8, dwelling 67, family 68, Patrick M. Churchman household; digital image Ancestry.com (www. ancestry.com: accessed 2 Feb 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 1083.
What a fabulous story and great representation of “out of place.” Thanks for sharing this story, Gray!
Thanks, Laura!
So interesting!!
Thank you, Ezra!