James Calvin “Calvin” GILES - Spring City Cemetery, Spring City, Rhea Co, TN
Dica Ann “Dicy” GILES - New Hope United Methodist Church Cemetery, Loudon Co, TN
Paint Rock, Roane Co, TN (image courtesy of US Library of Congress)
Photo collage copyright 2006 D Giles Loiselle. Personal, noncommercial use only.

Preface: FINDING DICY

UPDATED notes (Analysis section rethinking: 17 May 2007)
My research: In the 1960s, my first cousin Jerry DENNEY conducted the earliest known family research for our GILES line. Though she knew that our great-grandmother Dicy GILES had been married twice and that she had several children when she married our great-grandfather James Calvin “Calvin” GILES, she did not know Dicy’s maiden name or the name of her first husband. My own questioning of family members over several years had uncovered very little more about Dicy than Jerry had discovered. I refused to give up, however, and now I can happily report that my research was the first to uncover documentation that definitively links Dicy GILES of Paint Rock, Tennessee to Dicy ENGLAND of Morganton, North Carolina . I am sad that others who have used my research and analyses do not always cite my hard work, but I am happy that the information is now out there and available to others so that we can continue to learn about our family.

Here’s how my research on Dicy unfolded:

I had found Dicy and Calvin on the 1880 Roane County, Tennessee census. That is the entry which enumerates Amanda, whose surname was ENGLAND, as Calvin’s step-daughter. The census entry, however, does not mention ENGLAND and lists her with the GILES/JILES surname. I also had difficulty in definitively locating the couple on the 1870 census. I didn’t have Dicy’s middle name or the names of all of her daughters by her first marriage. It didn’t help, either, that in the 1870 census, the couple is enumerated as J.C. GILES and Annie GILES and that “Annie” is listed as having been born in Tennessee.

I had hit a brick wall where Dicy was concerned.

Then in early Spring 2004, on the last day of a research trip to Roane County, Tennessee, in the Rockwood City Library, I found the following line in Edna Wierfering’s Roane County, Tennessee Vital Statistics 1914 Through 1925: “Patterson, Dicy C. age 57 b. TN fa J.C. Giles (TN) mo Dicy Smith (TN) d. 1925 #391.” The good - great - news was that, based on Jerry Denney’s earlier research, I knew that I had found the first contemporary lead to my great-grandmother’s maiden name! I knew that Calvin and Dicy’s daughter Dicy had married a PATTERSON. The bad news, of course, was that Dicy’s surname had turned out to be the ubiquitous SMITH.

On our return to home, I started what I was certain would be a fruitless online search for my female SMITH ancestor. Calvin’s Civil War Questionnaire says that he married in Morganton, NC at war’s end. The first day home, then, I half-heartedly Googled smith giles burke nc marriage , and, continuing a stroke of good luck, I uncovered Bill Floyd’s early Burke Co, NC marriage database . Although a search of smith on the page did not uncover a SMITH to GILES marriage, it did uncover the following:

England, Jacob   	///	Smith, Dica Ann   Jan 11, 1848   John Bradshaw   JD Ferree

I had already learned that Dicy/Dicie/Dicey was usually a nickname for Dica, so I was off like a shot!

The ENGLAND to SMITH marriage index entry was all I needed to quickly unearth a page by ENGLAND family researcher Jerry Bryan , a direct descendant of Dica and Jacob ENGLAND’s daughter Margaret Ann “Maggie” (nee ENGLAND) WILLIAMSON. Bryan that said he had lost Dica SMITH after the Civil War and was seeking information about her later life and that of Maggie’s siblings. Several of the names of Dicy ENGLAND’s children - including Maggie WILLIAMSON - matched names that Jerry DENNEY had written about in her research and/or which appear in Dicy’s published obituary, a tiny, crumbling piece of newpaper which had been in our family files (see its text below). For a little over a year, Bryan and I collaborated in locating and transcribing later census data for the family and many of its descendants. Since then, I have uncovered more data on my own, and I have located and photographed not only many of the family graves but also many marriage, and birth records. Finding Dicy has absolutely been one of my most rewarding research results to date. If you know more about her; either of her husbands; her children; or other descendants, please contact me.

Sorting out the children of Dica Ann “Dicy” SMITH who married (1) Jacob ENGLAND in 1848 (He died during his Civl War service with Co B, 54th NC Inf, CSA); and (2) James Calvin “Calvin” GILES abt 1865 - both in Burke County, North Carolina

My cousin, GILES family researcher Jerry DENNEY once indicated that Dicy had several daughters when she and Calvin married, and the records certainly bear her out. Sarah GILES’ age on the 1880 census indicates that Sarah was likely the first child born to Dicy and Calvin.

What follows are notes (UPDATED 17 May 2007) I’ve made in my efforts to sort out and place all of the children born to Dica Ann (SMITH) ENGLAND GILES - those by her first marriage to Jacob ENGLAND, and those to my great-grandfather, James Calvin “Calvin” GILES.

Here is evidence I have gleaned about the children’s early life - when Dicy was living - from census reports:

…..in the 1850 census
Anderson Co, TN - hh Jacob ENGLAND; Dicy is present; she is 18 and listed as born in NC):

ENGLAND surname daughter: Elizabeth, 4 months

[James Calvin “Calvin” GILES & his family have not yet been located in the 1850 census; Calvin would have been 6 years old.]

…..in the 1860 census
Burke Co, NC - hh Jacob ENGLAND; Dicy, now 29, is present as Disy b NC:
27 Jun 1860

All daughters listed with ENGLAND surname: Elizabeth 10 f NC Mary 9 f NC Margaret 6 f NC J.E. 4 f NC [Jenny Eliza] Amanda 2 f NC Harriet 1 mo old [1/12], f NC (twin) [conflicts w/ later census birth month and year] Myra 1 mo old, f NC (twin)

[James Calvin “Calvin” GILES is the 1850 Knox Co, TN census with his parents in the 1860 census; he is 16 years old.They are recorded in a community, Concord, which is just over the Roane County line in Knox County.]

…..in the 1870 census

Roane Co, TN - hh of J.C. GILES - James Calvin “Calvin” GILES; Dicy is present. Calvin is 25. Dicy is said to be 35; she is enumerated as Annie, b TN: All the children are listed with GILES surname, which they likely had adopted for “everyday use”: Mary [England//], 17 Margaret [England], 15 [ “Maggie”] Eliza [England], 13 [This is the JE of 1860.] Amanda [England] 11 Harriet [England], 9 [ her twin Myra is not present] Alice [England], 7, f …. Sarah [Giles], 4 Dicie [Giles], 2, f William [Giles], 4/12 (4 months old), b Feb

…..in the 1880 census

Roane Co, TN - hh of Calvin JILES - James Calvin “Calvin” GILES; Dicy is present. Calvin is reported to be 35 and Dicy 46: All listed with JILES [GILES] surname: Amanda JILES [whose actual surname was England], SDau, S, Female, W, 19, b NC of parents b NC Sarah JILES,Dau, S, Female, W, 14 , b TN, mo b NC, fa b NC Dice JILES,Dau, S, Female, W, 11 , b TN, mo b NC, fa b NC William JILES,Son, S, Male, W, 9, b TN, mo b NC, fa b NC Nancy JILES Dau, S, Female, W, 7 , b TN, mo b NC, fa b NC

Notes: Calvin’s birthplace of North Carolina for this census (in his and Dicy’s children’s listings) is an error. He was born in TN. Also: there is an age discrepancy for Amanda [ENGLAND] in this census. According to the 1860 and 1870 censuses, she would have been about 21. Hattie (ENGLAND) would have been about 20. Both the 1860 and 1870 censuses clearly indicate that Amanda is about two years older than Hattie. Has the family confused the ages of Harriet “Hattie” and Amanda; or was there a bad informant or a slip of the tongue? My earliest guess was that the data referred to Hattie and that Mandy had left home. However, further research indicates that Hattie is in Roane Co, TN, District 17 with her husband John CARROLL for this 1880 census. She is recorded as being 20 years old. The entry, then, is for Mandy, and her age in it is an error.

Where is Alice (ENGLAND) for this census? She would have been about 17. She was old enough to have married by then. Despite age and birth location problems in the entry, she is likely the Alice ENGLAND listed as a servant in another household in the same district as her mother and step-father in the 1880 census. Where is Mary (ENGLAND) for this census? Analysis of census records and her mother’s obituary lead me to conclude that Mary died sometime between the 1870 and 1880 censuses; she had accompanied her mother and sisters when they migrated from Burke Co, NC to Roane Co, TN.

Also: On the 1880 microfilm, the initial letter of the GILES surname is likely recorded as the letter “J,” just as it is transcribed by the LDS; but a visual look at the entry shows that it might be a “G” instead. If it is a “J,” this is the only real instance I’ve seen of Calvin’s family members using the JILES spelling although Calvin’s brother Samuel and most - if not all - of Samuel’s descendants did use that variant spelling and continue to do so.

Currently, I have broken Dicy’s children down like this:

Children born to Dicy and Jacob ENGLAND:

1. Elizabeth C. ENGLAND, b abt 1850

2. Mary ENGLAND, b abt 1851 — What happened to her? She disappears for me after the 1870 census.

3. Margaret Ann “Maggie” ENGLAND b abt 5 Mar 1852 (census reckonings would put her b abt 1854)

4. Eliza = J.E. = Jennie = Jennie Eliza ENGLAND[my analysis - based in part on Dicy’s obituary] b. abt 1856

5. Amanda “Mandy” ENGLAND b. abt 1859

6. Harriet “Hattie ENGLAND,” b. abt 1861

7. Myra ENGLAND [b. abt 1861; Hattie’s twin - d. before 1870 ? She’s not in 1870 census when she would have been about 9 and in no other censuses we’ve located to date. Myra likely died as a child, and her mother’s obituary bears out this supposition (see below).

8. Alice ENGLAND, b. abt 1863 [same year as her father Jacob’s death. Where did she go after the 1870 census? She is not with Dicy and Calvin in the 1880 census where she would have been about 17 years old. She married H.E. BALL in 1885, but no other records of them together have been uncovered to this point in my research (22 Sep 2006).

Children born to Dicy and Calvin GILES:

9. Sarah GILES, b. abt 1866

10. Dicy C. GILES, b. abt 1869

11. William Jacob Morgan GILES, b 1870

12. Nannie Hall Lillie Mae GILES b abt 1873

DEATHS of Dicy’s children before Sep 1895:
Apparently, at least three of Dicy’s children had died before 2 Sep 1895, the day of Dicy’s death. Her obituary says that she leaves nine children but that one was unable to attend her funeral. Since I have “lost” both Mary and Myra, Hattie’s twin, before 1880 I assume they are two of the three who have died . My current best guess, clearly propped up by Dicy’s obituary and further shored up by census data, then, is that both Mary and Myra ENGLAND predeceased their mother.

(1) Myra ENGLAND, it seems likely, died before Dicy married Calvin who brought Dicy and her girls back to Roane County following the Civil War .

(2) Mary ENGLAND made the trip, as the 1870 census shows, but then she disappears. Her mother Dicy’s obituary leads me to suspect that Mary had died between 1880 and 1895.

(3) Could this be ?? Alice GILES (Alice GILES BALL) ??

(a) Dicy and Calvin’s daughter Sarah GILES has currently “disappeared” for me after the 1880 census. In trying to determine which three of Dicy’s children predeceased her, as her obituary indicates, my third candidate, then, was originally Sarah GILES. I had to consider, however, that because I have not yet uncovered a marriage for her, she may have been “hidden” in public records under an unknown husband’s surname. She may also, of course, have been living under her the GILES surname distant from her parents at the time her mother died. There are numerous other possibilities to explain her absence from her mother’s funeral, as well: She may have been ill; she may have lived just far enough away that she couldn’t afford transportation to attend the funeral; she may have been estranged from the family; and so forth.

ANALYSIS:
To help family researchers follow this current analysis (MAJOR UPDATE on 17 May 2007) about which children were living in September 1895 and which weren’t, I have broken my data down into several lists:

First, I considered the MARRIAGEs of both Dicy’s ENGLAND surname and GILES surname children. I culled the information from Jerry Denney’s research from the early 1960s; from ENGLAND family researcher Jerry Bryan’s research; marriages deduced after I analyzed Dicy’s obituary; bits garnered from Margaret Abbey (GILES) BENNECKER in 2004; U.S. census records; published obituaries and/or death certificate information; and marriage records.

Here are the marriages for Dicy’s ENGLAND and GILES children uncovered in my research to this point (17 May 2007):

1. Elizabeth ENGLAND m. William BROCK est 1866 [from Jerry Denney’s research; census records; Dicy’s obituary]

2. Maggie ENGLAND m. Alexander L. “Alex” WILLIAMSON [from Dicy’s obituary; census; marriage record research of ENGLAND descendant Jerry Bryan]

3. Jennie Eliza ENGLAND m. William L. BLAIR est 1891-92 (Here, I assume that Jennie ENGLAND is Jennie Eliza, the Eliza in Dicy and Calvin’s 1870 household). [from Jerry Denney’s research; Dicy’s obituary; census records]

4. Amanda “Mandy” ENGLAND m. Richard F. BALL [from Jerry Denney’s research; marriage record]

5. Harriet “Hattie” ENGLAND m. John C. CARROLL [Jerry Denney’s research; marriage record; census;research of CARROLL descendant Bruce Burnam.]

6. Alice ENGLAND m. H.E. BALL [from Jerry Denney’s research; (partial) extrapolation from Dicy’s obituary; marriage record of 2 April 1885, Roane Co, TN]

7. Dicy GILES m. Elbert PATTERSON [from Dicy’s obituary; 1886 Roane Co, TN marriage record; census]

8. Will GILES m. Cora Pickens ELLIS [from family and personal knowledge (marriage record likely burned in 1898 Meigs County courthouse fire); census; Harriman directory listings; etc]

9. Nannie GILES m Isaac “Ike” MILLER [from Jerry Denney’s research; marriage record;census. (Ike was born with the LOCKMILLER surname.)] Note: I do not know if the BALL men that Alice and Mandy married are related to one another [as of 17 May 2007.]. Neither do I presently know the given name(s) of H.E. BALL, Alice ENGLAND’s husband, but circumstantial evidence indicates that it was Harry E.

I am missing marriage data for the following children:

10. Mary ENGLAND

11. Myra ENGLAND

12. Sarah GILES

The obituary of Dica Ann (SMITH) ENGLAND GILES was published Sep 1895 in unknown paper - perhaps in The Sweetwater Telephone, but currently I honestly don’t know. I have been unable to trace the newspaper to this point. The date it would have appeared is based on Dicy’s date of death as recorded on her grave marker. The obituary - which appears below with editorial insertions - is my transcription from an original clipping, which I own:

We know now that Dicy was interred in the New Hope Methodist Church Cemetery a few miles from Paint Rock. Currently the cemetery is in Loudon County, Tennessee; but it is extremely close to the county borders for Roane, Loudon, and Monroe. In 2004, her cemetery listing was included in the cemetery volumes for Monroe County.

Mentioned in Dicy’s obituary as attending her funeral were the following: 1. Hattie 2. Dicy 3. Maggie 4. Elizabeth 5. Jennie 6. Mandy 7. Will 8. Nannie

The following names are missing from Dicy’s obituary:

from Dicy’s obituary:“nine children all of whom except one followed her to the place of burial”)
9. Sarah (the one I currently think must be the third child who predeceased her mother
10. Alice (not listed; only her husband H.E. BALL is; Alice is likely the living child who did not attend Dicy’s funeral
11. Myra (deceased - per census. Est d bet)
12. Mary (deceased - per census. Est d bet)

PROVISIONARY CONCLUSIONS about missing marriage data based on my current research (as of Oct 2006):

1.[10 above] Mary ENGLAND - likely died before marrying

2.[11 above] Myra ENGLAND - likely died in childhood

3.[12 above] Sarah GILES - no marriage data found to this point (Oct 2006); she may have died without ever marrying, or she may have married and her marriage data is out there, waiting to be uncovered.

PROVISIONARY YEARS OF BIRTH AND DEATH FOR THE CHILDREN OF DICA ANN “DICY” (nee SMITH) ENGLAND GILES, BASED ON MY CURRENT RESEARCH:

1. Elizabeth C. (ENGLAND) BROCK:birth abt 1850 in NC, based on census;death aft 2 Sep 1895 based census and on her presence at her mother’s funeral in Sep 1895 (Dicy’s obituary)

2. Mary ENGLAND:birth abt 1851in NC, based on census;death est bet 1870-1880 based on absence from census;also absence at her mother’s funeral in Sep 1895 (Dicy’s obituary)

3. Margaret Ann “Maggie” (ENGLAND):birth 1852 in NC, based on census and death certificate; death 1916 in TN based on death certificate; TN State Archives Death Index (1916); obituary

4. Jennie Eliza (ENGLAND) BLAIR: birth 1856 in NC based on census; death after 2 Sep 1895 based on presence at her mother’s funeral in Sep 1895 (Dicy’s obituary)

5. Amanda “Mandy” (ENGLAND) BALL: birth 1859 in NC based on census; death after 2 Sep 1895 based on presence at her mother’s funeral (Dicy’s obituary)

6. Harriet “Hattie” (ENGLAND) CARROLL: birth 1861 in NC based on census and death certificate abstract;death 1834 in TN based on death certificate abstract

7. Myra ENGLAND [twin to Hattie]:birth 1861 in NC based on census and twin’s death certificate abstract; death est bet 1860 and 1870, based on absence in census; absence at her mother’s funeral in Sep 1895.

8. Alice (ENGLAND) BALL:birth abt 1863 in NC based on census; death est bet 2 Sep 1895 and the 1900 census, based on marriage records; her absence at her mother’s funeral in 1895; and my inability to locate census data on her from 1900 forward

9. Sarah (GILES):birth 1866 in TN based on census;death before 2 Sep 1895 based on information extrapolated from her mother’s obituary.

10. Dicy C. (GILES) PATTERSON: birth 1868 in TN based on census records;death 1925 in TN based on death certificate abstract and published cemetery listings

11. William Jacob Morgan GILES: birth 1870 in TN based on compiler’s personal knowledge, obituary, census records, Bennecker family Bible, research of Jerry Denney;death 1953 in TN based on death certificate, obituary

12. Nannie Hall Lillie Mae (GILES): birth 1872 in TN based on cemetery records, grave marker, census;death 1947 in TN based on cemetery records, grave marker

| giles family index | (a link to the giles family index page at my rootsweb site)

file date 10.14.2006 images, research notes, trancriptions, and analysis © 2006 D Giles Loiselle

Update: minor editing and additional links added 04.07.2007
MAJOR update (Analysis section rethinking): 05.17.2007