Friday, February 17, 2012

Cowboy Legacy -- Neva Plympton (1870-1939) Montana pioneer


Geneva 'Neva' Plympton (photo above) was born June 2, 1870 in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio.  She was the daughter of Charles Henry Plympton (1845-1925)(a Civil War veteran) and Nancy Ellis (1842-1881).  Almost nothing is known about her mother (Nancy Ellis) including her birth date and place.


The marriage of Neva's parents ended in a disagreeable divorce (photo above) in October 1872.  Her father claimed his wife had beat him with a poker, and threatened to kill both him and their child.  After the divorce Charles Plympton won custody of his daughter, and moved to Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio.  Nancy Ellis remarried a couple of years later, and died in a house fire in 1881.

In July of 1881, Charles Plympton married Jeanette Armstrong, and by 1886, they homesteaded in Roswell, Miner County, South Dakota.  Neva Plimpton met and married Abraham Lincoln Brown in Roswell on March 1, 1888, when she was just 17 years old.  Charles Plympton removed to Howell County, Missouri before 1900.


Abraham and Neva eventually homesteaded in Creston, Montana about 1904.  They celebrated more than 51 years of marriage before Neva passed away on April 8, 1939 in Brown's Gulch, Montana.  The photo above is Neva's family about 1908-10.  Lydia Brown (grandma) is third from the left-standing.

More about Charles Henry Plympton


In an earlier post I described how I identified Charles Plympton's mother (Charity Plympton) in an old photo by discovering the photographer had only been at the address on the photo between 1860-1861 (photo right above).  I still had not learned Charity's maiden name. 


Then a couple of years ago I found a 1925 state census record for Charles Plympton (who by then was 79 years-old).  It gave us Charity Winegard (1820-1874) as the name of his mother.  That's why genealogists keep searching for new sources and records :-)  Charity Winegard married Calvin Plympton (1815-1874) before 1840 in Seneca, Ontario, New York.

Charles Henry Plympton enlisted in the union army on December 8, 1862.  He was a private in Company k, Ohio 97th Infantry Regiment.  He mustered on on June 10, 1865 at Nashville, Tennessee.

Battles he fought include:

Stones River, Tennessee; Pelham, Tennessee; Missionary Ridge, Tennessee; Rocky Face Ridge, Georgia; Resaca, Georgia; Adairsville, Georgia; Dallas, Georgia; New Hope Church, Georgia; Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia; Peach Tree Creek, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; Jonesboro, Georgia; Lovejoy Station, Georgia; Franklin, Tennessee; and Nashville, Tennessee.





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