Lewis FIELDS

  General Notes:

Photo: This photograph of Lewis Fields and his wife, Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields, was copied from an original tin-type. The photo was a gift to DeeAnna Allum Granston from their granddaughter, Grace (Brunson) Tedrow, 1894-1965.



1812 BIRTH of Lewis Fields

1820 CENSUS

1830 CENSUS, Pennsylvania, Greene County, Richhill Township (with parents)

1840 CENSUS, Pennsylvania, Greene County, Richhill Township (with parents)

1840 MARRIAGE (approximate) of Lewis Fields and Mary Ann Teagarden (perhaps called "Polly")

1850 CENSUS, Pennsylvania, Washington County, East Finley Township ("Lewis," age 38, "Carpenter")

1855 DEATH (approximate) of father, John Fields

1860 CENSUS, Iowa, Iowa County, Honey Creek Township, Koszta ("Louis," age 48, "Farmer")

1865 DEATH (approximate) of mother, Rachel (Phippen) Fields

1870 CENSUS, Iowa, Iowa County, Honey Creek Township, Koszta ("Lewis," age 58, "Farmer")

1878 DEATH of wife, Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields, at 65 years 6 months 2 days

1880 CENSUS, Iowa, Iowa County, Honey Creek Township ("Lewis," age 68, widower, is in the household of Jonas and Dorothea Montz)

1900 CENSUS, Iowa, Polk County, Beaver Township, Mitchellville ("Lewis," age 88, widower, born "January, 1812," with son Alexander, wife Margaret, Alex's daughters Nellie, Bonnie and Bessie)

1902 DEATH, Lewis Fields, at approximately 90 years of age



SIGNATURE (Lewis): On volunteer enlistment form (Civil War) for son F. M. Fields signed at Koszta, Iowa, dated August 20, 1862 ("Lewis Fields")

DESCRIPTION (Lewis): "Grandpa was a very good looking old man." --Bonnie Darr Fields, granddaughter

MILITARY SERVICE (Lewis): None documented

LOCATIONS in addition to those above: Ladora, Iowa County, Iowa; Booneville, Dallas County, Iowa (1886); Stuart, Guthrie County, Iowa

CHURCH AFFILIATION: Carmelite (Lewis); Catholic (Mary Ann)

BURIAL: Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields, Koszta Cemetery, Koszta, Iowa County, Iowa, Lot 52. Lewis Fields is believed to be buried on Lot 52 at the Koszta Cemetery also, but there is no stone


BOOK: GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM TEAGARDEN, From Arrival in America, Including European Background, by Helen Elizabeth Vogt, published 1967, page 339, regarding Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields and Lewis Fields:

"In 1858 Mary Ann & Lou Fields sold their Richhill Township land near the old Field Mill (formerly Clouse) built ca. 1832 to John Field adjacent to Aaron Cummings on the east & Isaac & Geo. Teagarden on the west (Maryann [sic] signed with a beautiful signature). Most of the Fields, listed as carpenters, in Caldwell 1876, lived in Good Intent and W. Finley.

"The Fields lived in southwestern Pennsylvania before moving to Mitchellville. Mary Ann was delicately built and resembled the McGuires in appearance. Lou was a strong, vigorous man with a deep sense of humor; he farmed and was a bridge contractor. In 1955 his granddaughter Bonnie recalled the tale that one day Lou looked down at his sleepy twin grandchildren, Bonnie and Bessie, who were so fat and lazy they could hardly masticate their own food and said, "Just loaded with sin!" On another occasion when Bessie, age 12, was practicing the piano he tapped her on the shoulder with his cane and said, "Well, Sis, you don't mind when the tune leaves, do you?" Mary and Lou had seven children."



BOOK: THE TENMILE COUNTRY AND ITS PIONEER FAMILIES, pages 7-11, pertain to the Teagarden family beginning with Abraham Teagarden 2nd, born in Germany about 1718, excerpt as follows:

The history of the Teagardens in America begins with the arrival of Abraham Teagarden I on the ship "Harle" in the year 1736. With him were the sons Abraham Teagarden II, William and George Teagarden, the latter two not old enough to take the Oath of Allegiance or to be listed among the ship's passengers. The family remained for a time in the vicinity of Philadelphia, but eventually, like so many of their Palatinate and German friends, drifted down into Maryland, where Abraham Teagarden II was living in Frederick County on December 12, 1757, when John Owens, the Indian trader at Fort Pitt, sold him land in the Tenmile Country, described as being between Enoch's Run and near the Mouth of Muddy Creek. (Washington County, Penna. Deed Book 1-A-214.) It is not certain just when this Abraham Teagarden first came into the Western Country, but it must have been shortly after this date, for General Boquet records that Teagarden passed Fort Littleton on his way to Fort Pitt, with four horses, on January 30, 1759, from which trip he returned from Fort Pitt, by way of Bedford, on February 28 of the same year. (Boquet Mss. 21644, Part 1, pp. 35 and 62.) Abraham Teagarden II was one of the sutlers employed by Boquet at the time Boquet lists John Owens as one of the men living in the Lower Town at Fort Pitt. We may assume that Abraham Teagarden II's duties took him over both the new Forbes Road and the older Braddock Road through Fort Burd, where Boquet had a post under Sergeant Angus McDonald. In this way, Teagarden became acquainted with the Redstone Country, where he finally settled at the present town of Brownsville. Here he built and operated a ferry over the Monongahela River, and lived for many years with other members of his family.



VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS, gifts to DeeAnna in 1965 from Bonnie Darr Fields:

Lewis and Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields (tin-type)

Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields (tin-type, measures 2" X 3 1/4")

House [rented] at Mitchellville, Polk County, Iowa with family gathered on the front porch, as follows:
Left to right, Margaret M. (Eckles) (Leighner) Fields (1848-1926), second wife of Alexander; Nellie Meacham Fields (1876-1960); Bessie Bricker (Fields) King (1882-1952); Bonnie Darr Fields (1882-1967); Cornellia Devotie; Lewis Fields (photo taken early 1900s) (photo measures 9 1/2" X 6 1/2")

Bonnie Darr Fields (1882-1967):

"One day Grandpa came home and Bessie and I were sitting in the hammock in the boiling hot sun. He looked at us and said, 'Pretty well loaded with sin.' We were so lazy, wouldn't do one thing. Papa didn't make us."

--January 30, 1966 letter to DeeAnna



PHOTOGRAPHS taken by DeeAnna in 1965:

Entrance to Koszta Cemetery, Koszta, Iowa County, Iowa

Gravestone of Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields, Koszta Cemetery, Koszta, Iowa County, Iowa, inscribed, as follows:

MARY A.
Wife of
L. FIELDS
DIED
Sept. 23, 1878
A. 65 Y. 6 M. 29 d.

"As the heart (?) paneteth (?) after the water (?) brooks (?) so panteth (?) my soul after thee, Oh God."


DeeAnna:

According to Bonnie Darr Fields, granddaughter of Lewis and Mary Ann, her grandfather Lewis "may buried at Koszta, Iowa or Ladora, Iowa" (both towns are in Iowa County). She also stated in her February 14, 1964 letter that her infant twin brothers were buried "near Grandma Fields."

Koszta Cemetery records do document a "very old stone" for infant children of A. T. and "L. L." Fields.

Lewis Fields would have passed on between 1900 and 1910, at (according to Bonnie) Mitchellville, Polk County, Iowa.

Records for the Koszta Cemtery at Koszta, Iowa indicate Lewis is buried there--without a stone.

Lewis married Mary Ann TEAGARDEN, daughter of Abraham TEAGARDEN and Anna "Nancy Ann" McGUIRE, about 1840 in Pennsylvania. (Mary Ann TEAGARDEN was born in 1813 in Finley, Washington County, Pennsylvania, died on September 23, 1878 in Koszta, Iowa County, Iowa and was buried in Koszta Cemetery, Iowa County, Iowa.)