Michael Stanton

~1804 - ~1850
Co Mayo, Ireland - Warrick Co, Indiana

Until recently, almost everything "known" about this man was an assumption. We assumed that the (deceased) Michael Stanton mentioned in a court document in Warrick County was the father of our group of Stantons, but there was nothing in the document itself to prove it. It was s a pretty fair assumption, given that (1) there was no other family of Stantons in the entire county at the time, and (2) his son Thomas said his (Thomas's) father's name was Michael.
     Actually, there was another family in Warrick County in 1850 - in Campbell Twp - William 25 and Lena 21 both from Germany.  And another unknown pair, Bert and Lena (1899-1959) are buried in Maple Grove Cemetery.  I have no idea who they are.

Another assumption was that he was born about 1810.  That was a pure guess.  His (presumed) wife was born in about 1813, his (presumed) oldest son was born in the mid-1830s, so the date was not wildly unlikely.

A third assumption was that  he was born in County Mayo.  His son Patrick's pension application papers give this location, and Mayo is the county in which Stantons are thickest on the ground.  My Great-Grandfather always said that his family came from Dublin, but he was a generation removed from Ireland, so I think Patrick's testimony is probably more reliable.  Perhaps they sailed from Dublin??? [That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, though.  Perhaps Dublin was the only Irish place-name Grandpa Rufus could think of???]

However, thanks to a stroke of genealogical luck, we found the passenger list for the ship in which he sailed to America - and his entire family was traveling with him. (This is more rare than you might think. I have looked at hundreds of ship lists, and most Stantons traveled singly or by twos.) The list also gives his age and place of birth - hurrah! So now we can say that his name was Michael, and that he was born in about 1804 in County Mayo. [The passenger list might contain errors, of course, but since it supports the other evidence available, it is probably as accurate as we're going to get.]

Michael married Mary - last name unknown.  From census documents and her obit., it appears that she was born in about 1813, so they probably married sometime in the 1830s.  They had six children that we know of:

Thomas, born May 1835, (according to the 1900 census)
Mary Ann, born 1836 (according to the inscription on her gravestone)(1838 according to the ship list)
Patrick, called Patsy when young, born 1839
John born 1842 (ship list -> 1844)
Michael born 1845 (or August 1841, according to the 1900 census)(ship list ->1846)
Austin born 1847.

Although most Irish are Catholics, it is possible that our Stantons were not.  If they were, they were not very good ones: their children all married Protestants, with apparently no fuss made.

They landed in the US on 4 Jan 1848, in New Orleans.

Viceroy - Liverpool to New Orleans - arrival date 4 Jan 1848:
     Michael Stanton 44 born County Mayo laborer
     Mary 36 wife / Thomas 13 / Mary 10 / Patrick 9 / John 4 / Michael 2 / Austin ?Sept? infant

For some reason our Stantons settled in or near Boonville, Warrick County, Indiana. It is beautiful country - hills and trees. There are (or were) mines, mostly coal mines I think, so it has a mountain-y feel to it. Boonville is not far from the Ohio River. [Boonville, by the way, is NOT named for Daniel Boone, but at the moment I can't remember who it is named after. Warrick County is named after a Captain Jacob Warrick, revolutionary war soldier.] This seems an odd place to end up in - most Irish immigrants settle in cities, often their port of entry.  Since our people landed in New Orleans, I've been wondering if they followed the Mississippi up to the Ohio, and the Ohio up to Warrick County. It's possible. Another possibility is that they had relatives who had come over earlier and who lived in Indiana or Kentucky.

I found a lot of Stantons in Indiana, mostly in the northern counties - they were mostly Quakers. None of them seem to be related to ours, or, if they are, it is much further back than 1850. The only other Stanton I have found in Warrick county (before ours arrived) was a Thomas Stanton in 1820. [He had 4 children under 10 at that time. I believe he was the Thomas Stanton who married Comfort Conway; he came to Indiana by way of Kentucky and he died in 1823.]

There were also Stantons in Kentucky, and some of them might be related to ours. Mary Ann Stanton eventually married a Thomas Baker - and there are Stantons in Kentucky also marrying Bakers. Our Thomas Stanton eventually fought in the Civil War - all the Stanton boys did - as a member of the Kentucky cavalry. There is nothing conclusive in any of this, but it is suggestive.

Back to Michael -

After having left Ireland at the height of the potato famine, and after having safely established his family in the odd-but-beautiful Warrick County, Michael promptly died.

(Warrick County Probate Court - the record was in the County Clerk's Office.)
Vacation March 4, 185
Be it known that it being made known to me that Michael Stanton late of Warrick County in the State of Indiana died intestate and that the goods, & chattels lands and tenements of which said Decedent died possessed was not of a greater value than two hundred dollars the following appointment was made to wit
                I J Wait Belivore Clerk of the Probate Court of Warrick county do hereby
                appoint Garret C. Heath and Withe Briscoe appraisers of the Estate of Michael Stanton late of said county Deceased and make report to this office In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal on this the 4th day of March 1850
J Wait B. Moore Clerk
(there was a State of Indiana seal-type thingie in the blank space)

I never found any report by Heath and Briscoe, or any other record concerning this Michael.

And that's it.

Back to Stanton Home
Back to Home
Onward to Wife Mary's page
To children: Thomas, Mary Ann, Patrick, John, Michael, Austin

Comments, questions, additions, corrections?
Contact me at: lee@leesgenes.com

Page last updated 30 Sept 2010