My Old Ohio Home - Billups

1869 Letter from Henry and Maria Boswell to Emily Hall

2026-01-23T00:00:00-05:00

Included in the Gratton family files collected by Wilfred Harrison (1905 - 1992), of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, a descendant of James Gratton, was the following letter written in 1869 from Henry and Maria Boswell to Emily Hall. Following the letter is a transcription and some notes regarding the people mentioned.

Transcription

Boyds Mill Street
Attercliff Road
Jan 14th 1869

My Dear Sister,
I should have answered yours sooner but thought I would wait and see if Maria got any better. But I am sorry to tell you she is no better and little Harry is very poorly. We have tried all over to get a woman but cannot. We should feel vary grateful if you could come and stay with us, as I should then know the house was left in honest hands. I think of sending Maria to Buxton to see if that will do her any good, as she had been recommended to go. I hope your mistress will let you come and I will pay all expenses. Be sure to write by return of post.

In haste from your affectionate brother and sister, H & M Boswell

P.S. Mr H Billops called to ask for your address. His mother is dead.

Notes

I corrected or modernized the spelling and added some punctuation. "Little Harry" is their son, born in the 2nd Quarter of 1868 and died 2 years later in the 1st Quarter of 1871. They also had an earlier son Joseph, born in the 1st Quarter of 1866 and died in the 2nd Quarter of 1869.

I don't know who little Maria was. She is not with the Boswells on the 1871 census. There are no matching birth records for a Maria Boswell or Gratton from 1861 to 1869, unless she was born pretty far from Derbyshire. Maria Boswell probably wanted to send little Maria to Buxton because of the thermal mineral waters found there.

Mr H Billops is Henry Billups who married Maria and Emily's sister Agnes on 31 October 1869 in Sheffield. His mother, Jane (Davison) Billups Golding, died 8 November 1868 in Attercliffe.

Possibly a Letter from Emily Hall to Jane Billups

2026-01-15T00:00:00-05:00

Included in the Gratton family files collected by Wilfred Harrison (1905 - 1992), of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, a descendant of James Gratton, was the following letter, probably from Emily Hall to Jane Billups. Following the letter is a transcription and some notes regarding the people mentioned.

Transcription

My dear Niece, This your dear mother history. I thought you and John would like it.

Agness Gratton 4 daughter of James and Ann Gratton, born April 4th 1845 and was married Oct -- 1869. She came to America in 1873 and brought John Henry with her. Jennie was born June 15, 1874 and James William August 11, 1876, Tom September 1878, and dear mother passed away March 13, 1880 and entered Episcopal Church or the Church of England Cemetery Lewistown, Mifflin County, PA.

Do you know when James William died or where?

Notes

This looks to me like a letter that Emily (Gratton) Hall intended to send to her sister Agnes (Gratton) Billups' daughter Jane, or Jennie, some time after Agnes' death. Agnes and her husband Henry "Harry" Billups kept in touch with Emily after they moved to Pennsylvania, and their letters included the exact birth dates of their three children born in America. See Harry and Agnes (Gratton) Billups, Letters on this site. Of course it could have been one of Jennie's other aunts--perhaps Harry and Agnes had written other people besides Emily--but I'm guessing it was Emily since the letter was found with her papers.

It must have been written after April 27, 1882, since that is when James William Billups died.

The letter raises a few questions:

1) How did the writer know James had died?

2) Did Harry continue to write his in-laws in England after his wife died? How else would anyone in England know about James' death? If Harry was still writing as late as 1882, why aren't those letters with the other 35 in Emily's collection? Or did he write someone else, maybe the Boswells?

3) Does it tell us that Jennie and John were still together? If so, were they still with their father, Harry? Tom had been with his paternal aunt Naomi (Billups) Jackson in Pittsburgh since at least the date of the 1880 census.

4) But the biggest question to me is: Why was the letter never sent? Had the family in England lost touch with Harry? Had he, perhaps, written to tell them he was moving and then never wrote to tell them where?

1873 Letter from Agnes Billups, probably to Emily Hall

2025-04-10T00:00:00-04:00

Included in the Gratton family files collected by Wilfred Harrison (1905 - 1992), of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, a descendant of James Gratton, was the following letter from Agnes Billups, probably to her sister Emily Hall. Following the letter is a transcription and some notes regarding the people mentioned.

Transcription

Dronfield June 11, 1873

My Dear Sister,

I want you to get my black waist finished for Saturday and Harry shall come for it if you can. For we are out on Sunday and I should like it and if you can't, do write by return of post. We all come home on Tuesday and all is well at present. With love to all from your loving sister, Agnes Billups

Notes

A waist is "A garment, or part of a garment, which covers the body from the neck or shoulders to the waist line" according to Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913).

A calendar might be helpful in understanding the rest of this letter:

This letter was most likely written to Agnes' sister Emily Hall, since the collection of letters and documents are in the possession of her descendants. It was written on Wednesday, June 11, 1873. On Monday, June 9, Agnes had been a witness at the marriage of her sister Frances Gratton and John Birley in Sheffield. The other witness was her sister Maria's husband, Henry Boswell. Emily and William Hall were living in Newbold, Derbyshire, in 1871.

Since this is written from Dronfield, I think Agnes might have left her two year old son, John, in Dronfield with her parents when she went to the wedding, and has now returned there to retrieve him. While in Dronfield she asks Emily to have her garment ready by Saturday so "Harry", likely Henry Boswell, can go and get it. Then on the following Tuesday Agnes, John, and the Boswells plan to return home to Attercliffe.

Agnes' husband, Harry Billups, had already left for America in March, so she can't be referring to him when she says "Harry shall come for it."

For more details on the Hall and Billups families, see the Pennsylvania Families tree on this website.

Henry "Harry" Billups, Pittsburgh, 1890

2018-10-08T00:00:00-04:00

Note: This article has been updated over the years, as I found more information. The current list of places I have looked for Henry "Harry" Billups' death is at the end of the article.

Introduction

First of all, I have good reason to believe that Harry died by September 1892. Our family had a note written by Harry's son-in-law which said that Harry died at age 46. He was born in September 1845, so he would have turned 47 in September 1892. All the other information in that note was accurate, so I think the information about Harry is correct also.

Separate from that note, we were told by older family members that Henry and his wife died in a carriage accident. Agnes, we have come to learn, died of breast cancer. But did Henry die in a carriage accident himself?

Last seen alive

Henry Billups was last known to be alive in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in January and February 1890. According to the Pittsburgh Dispatch of January 8, Harry was accused of "alienating the affection" of a Mrs. Acor. Harry was said to have left Pittsburgh for an unknown destination.

On February 1, the Dispatch carried an article in which Mr. Acor said he had located Harry Billups in Youngstown, Ohio. Harry denied knowing the whereabouts of Mrs. Acor, but her husband said he believed she was still in Youngstown.

September 2018

In September 2018, I posted a request on the United States forum at rootschat.com, hoping that someone could find a reference to either Henry Billups or James Acor in Youngstown in the years 1890 to 1892. That thread is at Newspaper lookup, Youngstown, Ohio, 1890 - 1892.

One of the replies pointed out that Henry is not found on the Mahoning County Coroners Inquests, 1883-1908, which are online. So the good news is that he didn't die under suspicious circumstances in Youngstown, and probably didn't die there at all.

Mrs Acor

The response to the rootschat post also turned up this interesting information about Mrs Acor:

The Pittsburgh Press - 30 September 1893 Applications for divorce. Alice Amelia Acor charges her husband James Acor with cruelty.

and

Pittsburgh Daily Post - 20 March 1895 - page 4 - Divorce was granted to Amelia Alice Acor from James Acor. Testimony related to a horrible story of the life of an unhappily married couple. Married 23 January 1873 and lived a miserable existence until July 19 1893. When married the libellant lived on South Diamond Street but at the time of the suit was entered she lived with her children in the rear of 25 Goodrich Street Allegheny. The last heard of Acor was when he worked in the workhouse in September 1893. Several witness corroborated Mrs Acor's testimony.

Another rootschatter pointed me to the Youngstown Examiner of 1891 to 1893, at Google News archives. A search for Henry Billups, with various spellings of his surname, found nothing.

So, did Henry Billups return to Pittsburgh from Youngstown? If so, did he die there? His brother Thomas didn't move to Jeannette Borough until about 1899, so there is no reason to think Henry went to Jeanette from Youngstown.

Did he remarry in Logan, PA?

March 2019

Further research turned up this marriage record in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, where Henry had lived with his wife Agnes until her death in March 1880:

Marriage
December 5, 1886
Henry Billups of Logan
Martha Thompson of Mifflin County

That came from the United Methodist Records, Burnham Charge, Burnham (Freedom Forge), Pennsylvania.

There were no other Billups families in the Logan, Pa., area in the 1880s–at least I haven't seen one. So that groom looks an awful lot like "our" Henry.

Then there is this death information for Martha Thompson, from findagrave:

Martha M Thompson
Birth 1850
Death 28 Mar 1892
Burial Maitland Brethren Cemetery, Maitland, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, USA
Gravesite Details 42y 2m 12d Wife of Wm Thompson

Note that Mrs Thompson died in 1892, the year that we think Henry died.

So did Henry remarry? Did he then leave his second wife and go to Pittsburgh, and Youngstown? Did he return to Logan, Mifflin County, and die in a carriage accident with his wife? Then did her family bury her as "Thompson" with her first husband? And did the county bury Henry? The search goes on.

A lookup request for Henry Billups in Cemeteries of Mifflin County, volumes 1 and 2, by Bob and Mary Closson, returned no listing for him. The two Billups in Mifflin County were:

Church Hill Cemetery, Section B reads "M12 Mary E. Billups 1887-1955"
St Mark's Episcopal Cemetery, Oldest Section Lot 97 1
(2 graves) Billups, Agnes 1846-1880
2 Lake, William Civil War Veteran

William Lake doesn't seem to have any connection to the Billups, other than living in Mifflin County. One question though is: his wife Elizabeth is a widow in 1880, so he died before Agnes. Maybe Henry only purchased one plot. But at least we know Henry is not buried in the same lot as his wife.

A Brief Timeline

March 3, 1880, Agnes (Gratton) Billups dies in Logan.
June 1, 1880, Henry and sons John and James William, on census of Derry, Mifflin County.
April 27, 1882, son James William dies in Philadelphia.
December 5, 1886, Henry weds Mrs Martha Thompson, in Logan, Pennsylvania?
before 1890: Henry's nose is broken in a fight with a policeman in Philadelphia, according to Mr James Acor of Pittsburgh.
January and February 1890, Henry is charged with alienating the affection of Amelia (Mrs James) Acor, in Pittsburgh.
?? 1892 Henry returns to Logan and dies in a carriage accident with his second wife ??

The Records

Here is where I have looked for Harry so far, without success:

I'm almost certain I asked St Mark's Episcopal Church in Lewistown if Henry was buried in their cemetery. Agnes is, but Henry's name is not on the stone
Philadelphia City Directories for 1881, 1887, 1889, 1891.
Death records for Mifflin county
Death records for Montgomery County, including Norristown, which begin in 1893
The City Directories of Norristown for 1888, 1890, or 1892
1891-92 Youngstown City Directory at ancestry.com
Allegheny County Deaths. A letter dated July 18, 2005 from the Office of the Register of Wills, said they were unable to find any records of Henry Billups. Prior to 1905 immediate registration of deaths was not required, so many pre-1905 deaths are not officially recorded.
the Knights of Pythias (Greenwood) Cemetery in Philadelphia. In an email of Feb 21, 2009, the Friends of Greenwood Director said that Henry was not found. His son James was.
There doesn't seem to be a Knights of Pythias cemetery in Pittsburgh. Henry's sister, Naomi Jackson, was a Daughter of Pythias.
Deaths in Salem, New Jersey from Jul 1891 to Jun 1893. A letter from the State of New Jersey received by a relative in 2010 said Henry's death was not on the records of Salem City/County for that time period.
New Jersey Deaths online, through 1885, searched in December 2009 at: https://wwwnet1.state.nj.us/DOS/Admin/ArchivesDBPortal/DeathIndex.aspx.
An online search of cemeteries in Philadelphia, Delaware, and Montgomery counties, searched in February 2009 at http://usgwarchives.net/nj/salem.
The Records of Homewood Cemetery, Pittsburgh
the extant death records of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Westmoreland County Death Records begin in 1893. I did not request a search.
Youngstown Examiner, 1891 to 1893.
"The St. John’s [Episcopal Church] record does not include an mention of a Henry or Harry Billups, or any other Billups for that matter." -- reply from Administrator for Property and Archivist, Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh
"Please note that I could not find any information regarding deaths from 1892 in the following church records deposited in our holdings ... Eleventh United Presbyterian Church (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Register, 1847-1925 (2 vols.)" -- reply from Reference Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society
The death records and the Mahoning County Coroners Inquests, 1883-1908, which were once available at Ohio Genealogical Society - Mahoning Chapter, but no longer. An incomplete transcription is available at Ohio Genealogy Express as of April 2024.
The Allegheny County, Pa. Coroner's Office Records, 1884-1976.
He was not found in Obituaries of Mifflin County Vol. 2 1880-1896, by Dan McClenahan.
He was not found in Cemeteries of Mifflin County, volumes 1 and 2, by by Bob and Mary Closson.
There are no Billups on the Membership records or Baptism records of the United Methodist Records, Burnham Charge, Burnham (Freedom Forge), Pennsylvania. Database found at ancestry.com as part of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records.

Credits

Image courtesy of digitalart at freedigitalphotos.net.

Harry and Agnes (Gratton) Billups, Letters

2018-10-11T00:00:00-04:00

The Documents section of this website has a transcription of thirty-five letters sent by Henry "Harry" Billups and his wife Agnes Gratton from Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, to Agnes' sister Emily Hall in Derbyshire, England. The first letter was actually written in England on Harry's behalf by Agnes' sister Maria Boswell. They are in a collection entitled Agnes and Harry Billups, Letters from America to Emily and William Hall, at the Derbyshire Record Office, with the Reference Number D2941/2/1/1-35.H.

The early letters reflect the Billups' enchantment with their new country, "all hills and holes where we are." They stayed with Henry's brother Thomas upon arrival, until they got their own home, "for the houses are all wood here and they're carried here." (Letter 6, Oct 20th, 1873).

Henry would send back coins and other "new world" curiosities to Agnes' younger brother. Once Henry sent back a lightning bug to England saying "this little fly is A curiosity for it lights Every time it Draws its breath. the Natives Call them littiningbugs And thay Sleep All Day And fly About All Nite time many A hundred of them" (Letter 3, Aug 4 1873).

Henry never identifies his actual place of employment, but it is some kind of factory. Work seems always to have been scarce, with much talk of half-shifts, weeks laid off and so forth. They had a garden and Henry hunted to supplement their income. The 1870's were difficult times everywhere.

Axe Works at Mann Narrows (ca. 1885)

His first letter home was sent from Freedom Forge, which is in Logan, Pennsylvania. Then in 1880 his place on the census puts him in company owned housing labeled Wm Mann Mfg. & Co. on an 1877 map of Yeagertown, copyright but viewable here: Mifflin County 1877 Pennsylvania Historical Atlas. So he might have changed employment from a factory in Logan to the Mann Axe Works in Yeagertown at point in some time.

There was a lot of discussion about returning to England, either for a visit or temporarily, but they never actually had the money to make the journey. They evidently decided to stick it out in a country where [if Henry went to Indiana with his brother] "i have been [in] this Country long Enuf So that i cood Get 1060 [or 10-60?] Aikers of land free. All it wood cost me is forteen Dollers for the rittens but i have not Got Enuff to Just Give Me A start. And that is More then England wood Do for A pore man."

All talk of returning, moving to Indiana, or improving their situation ended when Agnes was found to have breast cancer. In Letter 19, dated Jan 26, 1878, Henry says "[all is well here] At present Ondly for My Maggys brest And it is very bad And keep Gettin Wors, but i hope it will be better After a wile, for thire is A Old Docter 12 Miles from us that has Cured lotts of boath Men And Wimen of Cancers And i hop And trust in the man Above that he will Cure My Wife of hers for God Above knows best wot i Should Do withOut her for i Do not."

In Letter 24, Yeagertown August 17 1878, Agnes writes: "[we had] the Docter to see it and he sad that cud not be cut out for it is lo on the Brast but he thinks the stuf I ham usen will Cure it." Despite everything they tried, Agnes' condition worsened. They soon needed assistance to care for her and the children. She died in March 1880, a year and a half after her last child's birth.

In Letter 33, edged in black, dated Mar 29 1880, Henry says "now i Sit Down to right to you All with A hard foal of Sorrow And Grief" to inform them of his wife's death. In Letters 33 and 34 he tells them of the arrangements for the funeral and burial '[not] in Yeager but in Lewistown it was the Episcople Church Or the Church Of England Cemitery the best Around heair." And in Letter 35 he includes the inscription for Agnes' headstone.

There are no more letters. Within a few months Henry was forced to start breaking up the family, placing the youngest child, Thomas, with his sister Naomi (Billups )Jackson in Pittsburgh. Their daughter, Jane, was raised by Quakers, apparently in New Jersey. Harry and his two other sons moved to Philadelphia where a son James William died in 1882. Their daughter, Jane, may have stayed with them a while, but was eventually raised by Quakers, apparently in New Jersey. Harry The oldest son John remained in Philadelphia and Henry went to join his sister in Pittsburgh. The three surviving children were reunited as adults.

Harry's date of death and place of burial have not yet been determined. For what is known of Henry Billups later life, see Henry "Harry" Billups, Pittsburgh, 1890.

Credits

The image of the Mann Axe works comes from File:Mann's Narrows upstream.jpg at Wikipedia, and is said to be in the public domain.