HESTER ANN McDOWELL in TANEY COUNTY, Missouri in 1850

Here is some data gathered from census records of Campbell Township, Taney County, Missouri in 1850.

Family 633. Date November 2, 1850
N Bozorth.....36...M...Farmer...150...Tennessee
N Bozorth.....24...F...........................Tennessee
H McDail.......36...F...*......................Tennessee
E McDail.......12...F............................Tennessee
O McDail........7...M...........................Tennessee
J McDail.........3...M...........................Tennessee
N McDail...10/12...F..........................Missouri
T Thompson.11...F.............................Tennessee

* There is a letter in the column for race. The options are W, B, or M. The letter after Hester's name appears to an a capital M or a W. I read the census for four townships in Taney County to ascertain if this was a capital M or a W, because to my husband and I it looked more like an M.

The census taker only marked race for an occasional family. I thought maybe he only marked those families who were new in the area. In three townships, he always marked the W for white with a rounded lower case letter, except for Hester. After Hester's name the letter is tall and pointed. As I kept searching, I found that in Cass Township the same census taker used capital W's that resembled the one after Hester's name. Also, the transcriber for Ancestry read the letter as being a W, so I'm going to go along with Hester being white. In later census records Hester is listed as being white. I have never seen a photograph of Hester, but I bet a descendant of her son Owen has one since she lived near/with Owen at the end of her life.

I have a copy of the email in front of me from a lovely man named Bob Miley who helped me with the names of the persons in the 1850 census. It's dated 5/28/98 and Bob says the names were added by a woman who had made a study of the early families of Taney County. In this family she had the notation of "1840 DeKalb Co. Tenn." That last phrase was a HUGE help to me. Thank you genealogy genies!

These are the first names the lady had deduced:
Nathan Bozarth...36...Male...TN
Hester McDowell...36...Fem...TN
Owen McDowell...7...Male...TN
James McDowell...3...Male...TN
Nancy McDowell...10/12...Fem...MO

I believe I found Nancy Bozarth's name by corresponding with Bozarth researchers, and taking their periodical for a year. That was a well organized group of researchers! They were very interested in helping me. Nathan Bozarth was a son of Levi Bozarth/Bozart of White/DeKalb County, Tennessee. At first I had a hunch that the woman of the house was named Nancy because Hester's baby seemed to be named after her. I had a even stronger hunch that Nancy and Hester were sisters, but it wasn't until finding Nancy in the 1880 census after another marriage, that my sister, Kathy, and I had proof that Nancy was Hester's sister. That story will come later.

The names of Emmeline McDowell and Tersie Thompson were not found by the researcher in Missouri, but Tercie or Tierce shows up in 1860. (It is a nickname for Teresa.) I knew about Emmeline McDowell because I had connected with Judy Young of Missouri, who is a descendant of Emmeline and Levi Bozarth. Judy has a photo on her website that shows Nancy Ann and Emmeline at similar ages, and you can see the resemblance.