Henry David South

Married Mary Jane Duncan in 1856 in Warren County, Indiana. He and his family moved to St. Clair County, Missouri in the early 1870s after Mary Jane died in 1868 in Kansas. He was reported to be buried in Macedonia Cemetery in Vista, St. Clair, Missouri. According to my grandmother, he moved to California for the years of 1876-1878. I found him on a Kansas census in 1875 with his 2nd wife and her two daughters. I found their marriage record in Missouri. He was a busy person and moved a lot between Indiana, Kansas, and Missouri. Though his one son, Charles Harvey South (whom I am descended from) remained in Missouri and had 12 children and many grandchildren born there, Missouri was NOT Henry David South's 'home state'. He spent most of his time in Indiana and some time in Missouri and Kansas before settling in at Knight's Ferry, California by 1880. How his oldest granddaughter's children ended up living in the same area of Modesto, California 50 years later is a mystery to me still. According to family history, after Orpha South Gipson died in Missouri in 1922, Charles Gipson moved his daughters from Missouri because the South aunts (Orpha's sisters) wanted to split the daughters up and raise them. Instead he moved the girls to California and ended up in Modesto...the same place where their great-grandfather South lived and died so many decades previously. Did he know this? I'm not sure as it was never mentioned by anyone other than my grandmother that Henry South had been to California at some point but that he most definitely returned to Missouri. We now know that part of our family history had been "mis-remembered" in the retelling through the years. Henry David South remarried to Elizabeth Ann McDonald Kempton and had one son with her. The son, John Henry South, married Grace Rachel Wrider and went on to live in the same places the rest of the family lived only we never knew it until now. Henry David South's last grandchild from his 2nd marriage died in 2013 not 2 miles from where his great-great grandson from the 1st marriage lives today. The great-great grandson lived near, and passed by, the Knights Ferry Cemetery many times over the years and never knew that his great-great grandfather was buried there until now. This has been an amazing discovery for our family and again a huge THANK YOU everyone who works so hard to create these memorials that help connect our families. Kudos to Ed Smith who has created very many memorials for both my family and my husband's family over the years. His hard work and dedication has helped resolve quite a few family mysteries and this is a great example. Thank you Ed!* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 12 2022, 19:16:57 UTC