Josephus Bingaman, Kansas Farmer & Inventor

According to his hometown newspaper, my 2nd great-grandfather, Josephus Bingaman of Kansas, had achieved “signal success as an inventor”

We all know that physical traits run through a family, but what about aptitudes or things like creativity or mechanical ability?

My father often talks about his father (my grandfather Bingaman) as being a life-long tinkerer with mechanical things. He claims that when in the service in WWII, his father was one of the inventors of the early turbo engine but got no credit because he worked on this when employed by the United States government. I do not know whether there is any truth to this assertion, but it is a story that my father has relayed to me on numerous occasions and certainly believes to be true.

It is not surprising, then, to learn that my grandfather’s grandfather was also a tinkerer. Josephus Bingaman (also called Joseph or Joe) created mechanical things as well. He successfully patented several of his inventions, so that is how we know of them today.

The following article appeared in the Garnett Journal newspaper on 17 Jan 1908 and tells of his improvement for a plow attachment.

[transcription begins]

A New Invention

  Joseph Bingaman, of Garnett, was up today to interest the Ottawa parties in his latest patented invention, an attachment to the rear of a lister, which puts the ground in better condition[.] The attachment consists of a wheel suspended from a long axle, which packs the ground and breaks up clods. A patent was received by Mr. Bingaman for his article December 31st of last year. “With the patent came a huge pack of letters from eastern parties, wanting terms of sale for the patent right of the invention,” said Mr. Bingaman, “but I have not disposed of it yet.” In the past few years, Mr. Bingaman, who formerly lived in Franklin county, has had signal success as an inventor. In 1892 he invented a pruning hook or tree trimmer, for which he received a neat sum. In February 1907 he received a patent on a much better and handier tree trimmer. Off the sale of one-half of the patent right to this Mr. Bingaman received $4,100. “My latest idea is a modern manure spreader. The machine for which I have a model,” says Mr. Bingaman, “will lift 500 pounds of manure seven feet high and dump.” A model will be sent of this machine to the patent office at Washington soon. —Ottawa Herald.1

[transcription ends]

Another news item in another newspaper in an adjacent county tells a bit more of the story:

[transcription begins]

Has a New Patent

Joseph Bingaman Hopes to Interest Kansas City Implement Men.

  Joseph Bingaman of Garnett, was here over Sunday visiting his sons, Frank and Fred Bingaman. He was enroute to Kansas City, where he goes to consult with representatives of an implement concern with reference to a recent invention of Mr. Bingaman. He has invented a rolling packer attachment for listers that is attracting the attention of manufacturers. Mr. Bingaman has evolved a number of practical implements of value. In 1892 he patented a tree trimmer, which was put on the market by George W. Lawrence and sold readily. An improved cutter was brought out by Mr. Bingaman in February last.2

[transcription ends]

With the information from these historic news articles, it was easy to find the patent using the Google Patents search engine. My search resulted in an image submitted in support of the patent application and the text of the application itself. For his efforts, he was awarded United States patent number 875,407.3

US patent 875407
Detail of the invention of a plow attachment by Josephus Bingaman, U.S. patent 875,407.


“A New Invention,” Garnett Journal (Garnett, Kans.), Fri., 17 Jan 1908, p. 4, col. 2; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com), accessed 12 Jan 2019.

“Has a New Patent,” The Ottawa Daily Republic (Ottawa, Kans.), Mon., 13 Jan 1908, p. 1, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com), accessed 12 Jan 2019.

3 U.S. Patent No. 875,407, issued 31 Dec 1907 to Josephus Bingaman; digital image, Google Patents (https://patents.google.com), accessed 30 Jan 2019.

Caroline Carson: A Contented Old Woman

A 1914 newspaper account of the life of 84-year-old Mrs. Caroline Carson, a  resident of Chambersburg, New Jersey for fifty years

As genealogists, we search tirelessly for records for our ancestors that we then piece together in an attempt to create a narrative about their lives.

No matter how deftly woven, we know their stories are more than just a composite of various facts culled from easily obtainable records: birth, marriage, census, death and burial records. Lacking oral interviews, diaries or letters written in their own hand, how are we to truly get to know the individual as a person, when they lived and died long before we walked on this earth? Since time travel isn’t really a thing yet, I would argue that one way to pick up traces of our ancestor’s lives is to immerse ourselves in their world by reading the newspaper from their hometown. Beginning in the mid-1800s, often even small towns had at least one newspaper that reported on hyperlocal news items. Even seemingly mundane events or activities may have been reported, such as who was visiting whom, who was conducting business in the county seat, who was ailing or admitted to the hospital, who bought or sold real estate, who got an increase in their pension and such. The smallest bit of information can be the one clue that breaks open your research. All of these news items can either be plotted as data points in your genealogy software of choice or on a timeline. The information from these news items can also be used as pointers for research in other record groups.

Sometimes diligent newspaper research will be rewarded with something more than a snippet; you may get lucky and find a longer piece published about an ancestor. I was delighted to have found this 1914 article in an online historical newspaper archive about my 3rd great-grandmother, Mrs. Caroline Carson, of Chambersburg, New Jersey, in south Trenton. Certainly, she was interviewed by the reporter, so this is a first-hand account of her life in her own words, with additional observations made by someone who was in direct contact with her. It was fortuitous that she was interviewed and her story published when it was, as she died the following year.

I shared this news item years ago with several close cousins who are also direct descendants of Mrs. Caroline Carson. Today, I share it with you here as well.

The Chambersburg Page

[transcription begins]

MRS. CARSON, AT 84, IS UP DAILY AT 5

  “One of the most contented old women in Trenton today is Mrs. Caroline Carson, a widow, who is in her eighty-fifth year and who resides with her daughter, Mrs. Amanda Hart, at 100 William Street, in the Eleventh Ward.

  Mrs. Carson is a helpless invalid and has been such for the past five years. Her husband, Charles Carson, who was a sawyer at the old Hutchinson Bow Factory, was killed in 1866, when he fell on the large circular saw and his body was nearly cut in half.

  The old lady was born on a farm near Allentown January 17, 1830. She says that she worked on a farm in her younger days and, from force of habit, she cannot sleep after 5 o’clock in the morning and she invariably retires at 8 o’clock. She has lived in the old borough for the past fifty years and says that when she first became a resident the borough was a vast commons, corn fields and apple and peach orchards. She has never ridden in an automobile, nor has she ever been inside of a moving picture theatre. She passes her time in sewing and in reading the Bible.

  Her eyesight is remarkably good and her hearing is still acute. She says that since the old borough has grown into a city the noise is somewhat disturbing to her. She says that although she had her residence in the old borough for the past fifty years, yet during the most of that time she practically lived in the country, walking home every day after work and leaving early for work the next day.”1

[transcription ends]

The article is chock full of details one would never normally learn, and that I would not know without having read her newspaper. I am curious whether she ever did get to see a movie or ride in an automobile before she died.

A summary of facts stated or suggested in the newspaper article, in timeline format:

1914 article events timeline

Notes:

  1. This birth date conflicts with other sources, and it is unclear which is likeliest to be correct. Other dates given for her birth are 02 Jan 1829 (family record, plus her age in at least three Federal census entries suggest a birth year of 1829), 01 Jan 1830 (death certificate). A May 1835 date of birth from her 1900 census entry is an outlier and probably was not supplied by her.
  2. The place of birth stated in this article is new information. From prior research it was clear she married in Monmouth County, New Jersey, thus my inference is that she likely lived in Monmouth County at least for a time prior to her marriage. First marriages often occur in the brides’ hometown in this era.
  3. Residence of Chambersburg tracks with other records.
  4. The year of her husband’s death is incorrect in this account. Charles Carson actually died three years earlier, in 1863. Other blog posts that I have written on the subject of his death are here and here. The circumstances of his death as described are likely to be accurate and align with information discovered previously in other news articles.

1  “Mrs. Carson, at 84, Is Up Daily at 5,” Trenton (New Jersey) Evening Times, 08 April 1914, p. 5., col. 3; digital image, NewspaperArchive (https://newspaperarchive.com : last accessed 15 Sep 2018).

1820 Cranberry, New Jersey Census Substitute

There are no extant United States Federal census population schedules for the state of New Jersey prior to 1830.1 Therefore, any surviving list of inhabitants before that time will be a welcome addition to the scholarship for genealogists and historians researching in the Garden State who are trying to pinpoint residents of a particular community. I recently discovered one such list for Middlesex County.

While reviewing early newspapers for any mention of my New Jersey Carson family, I ran across an entry for one General Charles Carson of Cranberry, New Jersey, nominated as a Representative to the 17th U.S. Congress.2 Despite the fact that my ancestor shares a name with this man, I am unaware of any relationship to him at this time. It is possible my ancestor was simply named for this officer in the War of 1812.3 The mention piqued my curiosity nonetheless because of the sheer number of names included in the article. It appears to be a comprehensive listing of adult male residents of the town of Cranberry, Middlesex County, New Jersey and can stand in as a census substitute.

Responding to an article dated 19 Sep 1820 in which Carson’s character had been allegedly impugned, sixty male petitioners of the town affixed their name to a letter sent to Messrs. Tuttle & Co., presumably the editors or printers of the newspaper. I have transcribed the complete article below.

From The Centinel of Freedom, published in Newark, New Jersey, dated 25 Sep 1820, p. 1, col. 4. Courtesy New Jersey State Archives.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.
Messrs. Tuttle &. Co.

   A publication has appeared in your paper of the 19th inst., wrote no doubt with an intent to injure me in public estimation. In justice to the feeling of my friends, my family and myself [illegible] following a place in your paper.

CHARLES CARSON.

  We the undersigned, inhabitants of the village of Cranberry, in the county of Middlesex, state of New Jersey, understanding that a publication has appeared in the Newark Centinel derogatory to the character of Gen. Charles Carson of this place, wherein the writer makes the following remark — “I trust his standing at home will be inquired into by the gentlemen who compose the Convention.” In justice to the individual whose character is thus publicly assailed, we have no hesitation in saying that we believe him to be a man of the strictest veracity, in whose honesty and integrity we have the fullest confidence.

Cranberry, 25th Sept. 1820.

  Nathaniel Hunt, Samuel Disbrow, George Barclay, Amos Shaw, Cajah Voorhies, John W. Perrine, William Jordan, Aaron Disbrow, John N. Lewis, Aaron D. Shaw, James Clarke, Elias Bayles, Joshua Edwards, Rescarrick Ayres, William H. Mershon, Cornelius Voorhies, Timothy Horner, Reuben Vanderbeak, Clement Hooper, Peter Sutphin, John Voorhies, Joseph M’Chesney, Charles R. Brindly, Andrew G. Vankirk, Henry Silcox, Daniel Ervin, Joseph Conover, Aaron Dewitt, jr., William Newton, jr., Lewis Carman, John Jordon, Ralph P. Lott, John Van Dyke, Matthew Gilland, William Logan, James Debow, William Newton, Aaron Lane, John Clark, Jacob Brown, Ezekiel Ervin, Joseph M’Chesney, jr., James Vanhart, Randolph Hunt, John Vankirk, Horatia Sansbury, Syrennes C. Henry, Aaron Dewitt, David Conover, Peter Conover, Joseph Mount, John Voorhies, jr., Amos Coriell, Geo. Naphey, Okey H. Vankirk, Anthony Appleget, George Shaw, Henry Perrine, James Stephenson, George Davis.

   We do hereby certify, that Gen. Charles Carson, was born in the village of Cranberry, and has resided therein ever since, and that his recommendation is signed by all the free white male inhabitants of said place above the age of twenty one, with the exception of one young man who is from home at the time.  [Emphasis mine.]

NATHANIEL HUNT,
JOSEPH M’CHESNEY.


Sources:

1 Alice Eicholz, ed., Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources, 3rd. ed. (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, Inc., 1992): 448.

2 “A List,” Centinel of Freedom (Newark, New Jersey), 19 Sep 1820, p. [2?], col. 4.

3 Although called a General in this article, he was a Captain of the 15th U.S. Infantry in the War of 1812, a rank he held from March 1812-April 1813. It is unclear when or whether he may have attained the rank of General. See Francis B. Heitman, Historical Record and Dictionary of the United States Army, 1789-1903 (Washington, D.C. : Government Printing Office, 1903), 1: 286; digital image, HathiTrust Digital Library (http://www.hathitrust.org/ : accessed 25 Nov 2017).

New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project

In this installment of Web Sightings, we take a look at the New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project, one of the latest states to be brought into the fold of the larger National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

loc-ca-no-new-jersey-newspapers
There are no New Jersey digital newspapers included in the Chronicling America portal for the Library of Congress. That situation is about to change with the recent announcement.

I am excited to learn and share with you that New Jersey has been included in the latest round of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant winners as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).1 New Jersey is one of the states that I spend much of my time researching online, and the Chronicling America project of the Library of Congress is a topic that I have lectured on and written about in the past, on this blog and elsewhere, so this is a welcome announcement indeed.

According to the Rutgers University blog the New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project is a joint collaboration with Rutgers University and the New Jersey State Library, along with the New Jersey State Archives in Trenton, three big holders of historical collections in the Garden State.

nj-digital-newspaper-project

The $186,204 grant will allow for the inclusion of at least 100,000 digitized pages from New Jersey’s historic newspapers published between 1836-1922.2 The advisory board is already hard at work determining which of the 450 available microfilmed newspaper titles meet the criteria for inclusion.3 That list has now apparently been winnowed down to 29 titles.4 I sure hope the early Trenton newspapers make the cut, and that the Hightstown Gazette is among the selections as well.

Students, educators, historians and genealogists alike will benefit from their efforts. When complete, free access to the New Jersey content will be through the Chronicling America website, which will augment the 11.5 million plus pages already available online.

In addition to New Jersey, other new states added to the mix in 2016 are Alaska, Colorado and Maine, bringing the total number of project partners to 44.

States not yet represented are: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Wyoming. The long-term goal is for all states and U.S. territories to be represented, in roughly 30 million total page views.5

Sources:
1 “2016 NDNP Awards Announced – Alaska, Colorado, Maine and New Jersey Join the Program,” Program News, posted 17 Aug 2016, National Digital Newspaper Program (http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/news/ : accessed 28 Dec 2016).
2 “Rutgers University Libraries Receives Grant to Digitize Important Historical New Jersey Newspapers,” Press Release posted 18 Aug 2016, New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project (https://blogs.libraries.rutgers.edu/njdnp/2016/08/18/njdnp-press-release/ : accessed 28 Dec 2016).
3 “Advisory Board and Newspaper Selection,” posted 21 Sep 2016, New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project (https://blogs.libraries.rutgers.edu/njdnp/2016/09/21/advisory-board-and-newspaper-selection/ : accessed 08 Jan 2017).
4 “Project Update: December 1, 2016,” posted 1 Dec 2016, New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project (https://blogs.libraries.rutgers.edu/njdnp/2016/12/01/project-update-december-1-2016/: accessed 08 Jan 2017).
5 Barbara Quint, “Chronicling America Service Offers Comprehensive Directory of U.S. Newspapers,” posted 26 Mar 2007, Information Today (http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Chronicling-America-Service-Offers-Comprehensive-Directory-of-US-Newspapers-35756.asp : accessed 08 Jan 2017).