Who was William Tillinghast?

A through research has been done to find this William J. Tillinghast who was reported in a Newspaper as being killed during a military event at Santa Rosa in 1862.  Because no record of a soldier by this name was found, it was determined that it did not happen.

Although he was not found to have been a soldier, my own Great, Great Grandfather, by the same complete name, William J. Tillinghast, disappeared nearly this same, and I have no record of what happened to him.

Is there no way it can be determined, that a non military person was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it cost him his life?

Jerold McCartney    

The very last confirmation I have of this William J Tillinghast still being alive is on the 11 July 1860 Ridgeway Township, County of Osage, of Kansas, Schedule 1 Free Inhabitants Census. Page # 25?. Ink blotchy .

Jerold McCartney

Elliot, I can't comprehend how none of the soldiers listed as killed at santa rosa via the Oct.17 1861 issue of THE YORKVILLE ENQUIRER, even appear on the record you sent me.

Would you please attach information available on the 3 other William Tillinghast's  you considered could be the one I am trying to locate?

I could tell you a lot about the William J. Tillinghast, I am searching for.

I believe He was born in Rhode Island in 1827, to William I Tillinghast & Mary Updike of Providence RI.

He came to the area that became Kansas in 1854 with his wife Jane. M.

Among other things he was appointed by the President, to serve on a special committee to investigate and report on the troubles in Kansas.

His only son, William Monk Tillinghast, was born to Jane and himself there at Osage County Ks., in 1858.

As things began to grow worse, before the beginning of the Civil War sometime, His wife and son were moved back into the  safety of R.I.

The BUEAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT document #55037 lists the Authority as being March 3, 1855: .ScriptWarrent Act of 1855 (10 Stat. 701)

Militia: Captain Frys Company Rhode Island Militia.

Accession Nr:MW-0405-067

Document Type: MilitaryWarrant

State: Kansas

Issue date 6/1/1860

Names on the Document; Tillinghast, Wiliam J., ROUSMANIERE, ELIZABETH, ROUSMANIERE, LEWIS

The complete legal description, and map location are on this document.

The Original URL is listed as http;//glorecords.blm.gov/deta

I have  no idea if this document represents a Government Agreement with Soldiers to make previsions for the Purchase of land in Kansas or not but if that is the case William must have belonged to a Company in RI.

I have seen pension requests from about this time, from a Jane M. Tillinghast recording Pension Assistance for a John Tillinghast, (which was William John's middle name) but because they seemed unrelated I didn't know how to check them out.

Could some kind of a cross reference check be made between the William Tillinghast, killed at Santa Rosa, and the recipient of his pension payments?

Although the record I received, that was believed to be a list of those killed and injured at Santa Rosa, not one of those listed in the Newspaper Article appear among them.

I am going to try to send you a complete copy of this news article.

For some reason, I can't seem to copy this article and paste it in for you, however I will type the last part of this article so you can see what it is I'm seeking to resolve.

The Florida regiment reports as follows: Killed, Tom Bond, Jas. Hale, Wm. Tillinghast.  Wounded, William Deuham,  James Rekles, Thos. M. Sellier, and Sims.  Prisoners, Lieut  Farley,  Ben. Parkers.  Mark Sarvis, J. H. Holeyman Godlin.

Something is out of place with this information but I don,t know how to determine which is correct.mation

This Wm. Tillinghast is the only one I care about being correct.  I would like to know what happened to my Great, Great Grandfather, and where his grave is.

Maybe with this additional information you can come up with some leads on where additionally I can look.

Your help in this matter is greatly appreciated.

Jerold McCartney

NOTE: The original reported  birth date for this William J. Tillinghast has been corrected to be 1827 rather than 1810. I don't know how I made such an error, but the rest of the information about his connection with Kansas is documented via Census and other records.  The whole search effort began when my Grandfather had no record of where his own father was born, and used Rhode Island on his application for a birth certificate that he didn't have.  I spent hundreds of hours, searching for them in Rhode Island, when they no longer lived there when William Monk was born in 1858,

I'm so grateful  for all your efforts to help me locate where my GGGrandfather died and where his grave is, but I'll probably never know.

Thanks again, so much for such great effort,

Jerold McCartney