John Powell

From: Gayle
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 08:03:54 -0500
Subject: John/Ruben POWELL

John/Ruben POWELL was reported as going to CA to the mines in 1849 and dying there as a result of a mining accident in 1852, according to his widow's pension application (from her second husband) . Lucretia (probably RILEY) married John/Ruben POWELL, a sailor, in the early 1840's in Illinois, and had three children Mary E., James C., and Charles Henry POWELL all born in the 1840's in WI. Lucretia, the children, and possibly her mother, Elizabeth RILEY appear in Manitowoc Co WI in the 1850 census. In 1880, the three children list their father, John/Ruben POWELL was born in NJ. This is all the information we have, except two statements in the pension papers made by Lucretia and son, James C. POWELL who described his father as a small man, with dark, curly hair, pension papers; AND that POWELL was to have "drank himself blind" while in CA.

 

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