Collins Mix and the Tioga County Poor House - Part 2

Welcome back to the saga of Collins Mix!  In the last post (Part 1), we ended with my trip to the Tioga County Historical Society in 2009.

So now, we fast forward to 2019.  I know I know, how did 10 years go by?  I don't know!  As far as I know I'm still 15 and forgetting my locker combination in my dreams.  Don't ask me what the hell is going on. :-D

AnyWAY, back to Collins and his family - we discovered him in the 1850 census in the Poor House in Owego, Tioga County, that he was listed as intemperate on the index card, and he died in 1852.

Sure would like to know how Leafe pronounced her name!! "Leaf?" "Leaf-ee?" "Leave?" Who knows?

He came up in conversation during a visit with my cousin Kimberly in New York.  We both do genealogy for the Mix side of our family and we decided to have a visit where we could review and verify our overlaps, etc.  During the visit we decided to take a trip over the the Tioga County Historical Society to see what might come up - maybe we'd find that Keeper's book and find out more about Collins!

The volunteer at the desk at the historical society was incredibly helpful and friendly, but was unable to locate the Tioga County Poorhouse Keeper's Book.  We looked at some microfilms of old newspapers in case we might find Collins mentioned, but no luck.  The volunteer (I'm sorry I don't have his name!!) even called another lady who wasn't there that day to ask if she knew anything about it.  Can you believe, she popped in on her day off and was rummaging around back in their storage area, but no luck.  Librarians and historians and volunteers are the BEST PEOPLE!

They suggested we head over to the local library just a few streets away because they had a mostly un-cataloged family history section filled with donations and maybe we would find something there.  So off we went to the library, with a quick stop for refreshments on the way.

We'd just made it through the door when the librarian behind the desk yelled over to us (yes! the librarian YELLED to two complete strangers): "OH, the historical society called!  They found your book!  They said to come back!"

OMG, how'd she know it was us?  Because she's a LIBRARIAN, THAT'S WHY!

Don't mess with librarians!

So we raced back to the historical society taking corners on 2 wheels and slid sideways into a spot and ran inside and........

TADAHHHHHH

Oddly enough it looks like 3 year old me already saw it and "wrote" on it...

Never was there a more beautiful sight than this little book on the table!

The volunteer historian was so nervous about letting us handle it but we swore on our ancestors we would gently hold it open by hand and just take photos.

You see - it survived a massive flood there a few years back - the whole basement of the Historical Society was under several feet of water and guess where all their records are stored?  Yep, of course!  Apparently they had a company come up from Texas I think it was, they do freeze-drying of records to try and make them usable again after floods.  I can't imagine trying to pick up the pieces after that!  But our book made it - so we quickly looked under the date I'd seen on the index card a decade ago and sure enough, there he is, Collins Mix, admitted 12 Nov. 1850.  But no one is listed under having dropped him there, no info under "Discharged".  POO!

"Colins Mix", male, born NY, 72 yrs old, Intemperate, resides Owego County

But finally after a decade, I've seen the source record, I know the index card was correct.  Awesome feeling!

So my cousin and I bask in the awesomeness for a moment and then she's like, so, let's look and see if he's anywhere else in this book!

Coming soon!  Part 3!!

Collins Mix and the Tioga County Poor House - Part 1

So I've got this problematic 4th Great Grandfather, Collins Mix.  He's problematic because when I first applied to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), my application had to be rejected as the father/son relationship between Collins Mix and his son Jonathan Collins Mix is assumed but not proven.  The slightly unusual first name of "Collins" comes from his mother's maiden name.

I know that somewhere, there's got to be a small item in a local newspaper, or a bible page, but so far, no one has found them.  So, when I can, I come back to him to see what I can find.

Collins was born on 20 January 1777 in Wallingford, CT, to Thomas Mix and Lois Collins.  I know of one brother to Collins, an older brother named Joel.

By the time Collins was in his early 20s in the 1800 US Census, he was in Clarendon, Rutland County, VT, married to Leafe Ide.

By the 1810 Census, the family was south of there, in Northumberland, Saratoga County, NY.  Finally, by the 1820 and 1830 censuses they stopped their wandering in Candor, Tioga County, NY.  I have yet to locate him in the 1840 census.

From what I can tell so far, they had 4 living children, Olive, Jonathan Collins, Squire Ide, and Sevinah.  Interesting names to be sure, and genealogists LOVE interesting and unusual names!!!!  As a little girl I was frustrated with my own name, always having to pronounce it and spell it for people, but boy did my perspective change once I started researching genealogy!  Thomas Mix, son of Thomas Mix, son of Thomas Mix, son of Thomas Mix, and every female named Elizabeth or Sarah, UGH!!!!!  LOL, but I digress....

Now, on to the 1850 census, the first that really gives us some good details on our people.  I found Collins Mix, but he was not only alone, he was listed as a "pauper" in the Tioga County Poorhouse.

There's lots of reasons a person might end up in a "Poorhouse" in the 1800s - you could of course, be poor, but you might also have a disability like blindness or deafness, some kind of congenital disease, you might be an alcoholic, or have mental illness.  And despite the best intentions that might have gone into creating a poorhouse, it was a place best avoided if  possible.  So how is Collins there, alone?  He had adult kids, he had a wife.  Leafe shows up in the 1865 New York State census, living with her daughter Sevinah and her family so she was alive - unfortunately, despite her lovely unusual name, she remains elusive - I have not yet been able to find her whereabouts in 1850.

But now, Jonathan Collins Mix is findable in 1850 - I found him living in the same county as his dad Collins, in the Candor NY 1850 census.  He's listed with his wife and 4 kids.  So why isn't Collins living with his son if he's so close by?

So that's a clue that perhaps there was something going on with Collins where either he didn't want to be with family members or they weren't in a position to take him in.  Could have been mental illness, alcoholism, but all I know for sure is he's listed as a "pauper" in the 1850 census.  Could be he was just a jerk!  Or maybe his family were the jerks!  We'll never know for sure.

So armed with this information, back in 2009 I traveled up to the Tioga County Historical Society.  It's on a serene tree-lined street right up on the river in Owego NY.

There I found an index card in their files during a search for Collins Mix. The index card said the following information was from the "Tioga County Keeper's Book":

     Mix, Collins
     D. 17 Jan. 1852 ae 73 at the Poor House
     12 Nov. 1850 admitted ae 72, intemperate
     Residence Tioga County

AHA!  So there we go - "intemperate".  In this case, the word intemperate was often used to denote alcoholism.  So if that is truly what's going on, that would explain why his family, though nearby, didn't have Collins living with them.  Of course, he could have had a terrible temper......

Perhaps he was prone to rits of fealous jage

Anyhoo, with that information, I was then able to locate, on microfilm at the Historical Society, the following, which proved the death information on the index card:

     Mortality at the Poor House
     Names of persons who have died at the Poor House during the year 
     ending on the 1st Day of Dec. 1852 
     (Furnished by Col. Daniel Bacon, Keeper).
     ...
     Collins Mix, formerly of Candor, Jan 17th 1852, 73
     ...
     Average number of inmates, about 75
     Proportion of Deaths about as 1 to 5
     Of the whole number received, the proportion is as 1 - 17

This was from "The Owego Gazette", Number 21, 15 January 1853, page 2.

While there at the historical society in 2009, I asked about that Tioga County Keeper's Book mentioned on the index card, but was told at the time that they did not have it, though if I reached out to other historians in the area I might be able to locate it.

And so there for many years, was the end of my information about my 4th Great Grandfather, Collins Mix.

Up next, Part 2!!!!  No, I didn't prove the father-son relationship (I WISH!), but I did find out more cool stuff along with my cousin!