William Brumley 2020

William Brumley, my third great uncle was born around 1819 in Missouri to James Brumley and Eleanor (Nellie) Chrisman. William married Ruth Jane Kerley on February 18, 1847, in Gasconade County, Missouri. The 1850 Census puts them still in Gasconade County, he was thirty and Ruth was twenty years old. They had eight children and Nancy Ann was their first child in August of 1850 in Maries County, Missouri. Nancy Ann married William Marion Hensley and their children were Irven Isaac, James Marion, Albert Benjamin, Frances, Alphus Monroe, and Henry W Hensley.

William and Ruth had Isaac in 1853, Albert in 1855, Sarah Ellen in 1857, Henry in 1860, Emma/Emily Jane in 1865, William in 1868, and Edy Mary Louise Brumley in 1870. Isaac married Sarah Hensley and their children were Nancy E, James Walter, Edward Benton, and Isaac Martin Brumley. Sarah Ellen first married Mr. Lance and they had one daughter Rosetta Lance. On the 1880 Census, it lists they were living with William and Jane and that Sarah Ellen was a young widow. In 1880 Sarah Ellen married for the second time to William Carmen 1880 and to this union were six children, Isabelle who married Oscar Bodansky, Ben married Florence Simmons, Grace married Oran C Teague, and Florence Carman never married. Sarah Ellen married for the third time to Richard Brown and there were no children born to this union.

William Brumley enlisted in the Union Army on March 1, 1862, as a private Company K, 6th Regiment of the Missouri Cavalry. William fought in the Battle of Big Black River Bridge or Big Black in Hinds County, Mississippi on May 17, 1863. It was part of the Vicksburg Campaign. He was shot in his right arm which caused him to have his arm amputated four inches below his elbow. William was certified as disabled from the loss of his right arm from the gunshot wound. Discharged on September 21, 1863, he was released from Lawson General Hospital in St. Louis to Fredericksburg, Gasconade, Missouri on September 13, 1863, three-fourths disabled.

I discovered documents from Phelps County, Missouri said on October 23, 1866, William asked to have an increase in his pension. He was forty-eight years old and now living in Johnson Township, Maries County, Missouri. He was receiving $8.00 monthly and a new Pension Act had just been passed so he was looking for an increase in his pension at the time of his death.

William lost his pension due to death. In a notarized statement by Burl Singleton (his son-in-law) who was married to Emma Brumley, he swears he has known Jane Kerley Brumley (his widow) for eleven years. Burl said he helped to “lay William out” after William died. He was sitting in a chair smoking his pipe, he had not been sick or complained. Burl says the definite death date is February 8, 1891, and that he was seventy-three years old.

Burl also states for the record that Jane Brumley had been living with them (which means he and Emma) since William’s death. She had mortgaged her team of horses in anticipation of receiving widow pension money and had lost the team. Ethel Phillips said that Jane lived with Burl and Emma, and she used to visit them. Jane was her grandmother. Ruth Jane Kerley Brumley died August 4, 1892, and was buried alongside her husband in Eufaula Indian Territory in McIntosh County, Oklahoma.

As with all family genealogy, it is always a work in progress. I continue to search for my brick walls and all my unknowns as I continue my work on these family members. Any information is welcome concerning any of these people. Thank you for reading Brumley Family Branches.

Thank you.