Delila Ann ALLUM

  General Notes:

Photo: "Our Delila" eluded us for almost 50 years. Now it is known she migrated westward from Pennsylvania to Illinois with her husband and children between 1860--when she is in the census in Washington County, PA--and 1868 when she died in Livingston County, IL. Buried at Graceland Cemetery in Indian Grove Township, Delila's monument--shared with her husband Solomon, who died much later--is in an overgrowth of trees that had to be parted for this photo to be taken. Trees will be trimmed in the spring for easier photographic access. Even so, Delila's 138-year-old inscription is barely legible.

At Graceland, Delila is in the company of relatives near and extended, including those with her married surname of Cumpston but others, too, with the surname of Worrick.

Photo taken for ALLUM in February, 2006

There is work to be done regarding the extended Cumpston and Worrick families--dates to be verified and relationships to be definitively determined. Discrepancies are numerous among census records - cemetery records - engravings on gravestones.




1823 BIRTH of Delila Ann Allum (her name is "Delia Ann" on her gravestone but "Delila" in her father's will)

Graceland Cemetery records provide November 29, 1823 as Delila's date of birth

(In 1823, President James Monroe introducted the "Monroe Doctrine" during his annual message to Congress.)

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

10 people are in the household in 1830:

1 male 30-40 (father Charles, born 1796)
2 males 10-15 (sons William and Thomas, born 1817 and 1818)
2 males 5-10 (sons John and James, born 1820 and 1822)
1 male under 5 (son Isaac, born 1828)
1 female 30-40 (mother Jemima, born 1795)
1 female 5-10 (daughter Delila, born 1823)
2 females under 5 (daughters Peninah and Hannah, born 1825 and 1827)

1840 DEATH of grandfather William Allum

1840 CENSUS, Pennsylvania, Greene County, Richhill Township (Delila was one of two females 15-20 years of age in the household of which her father Charles was designated head)

11 people are in the household in 1840:

1 male 40-50 (father Charles)
1 male 20-30 (son John) (sons William, born 1817, and Thomas, born 1818, are documented in their own households in Richhill Township in 1840)
1 male 15-20 (son James "Jimmy," born 1822)
1 male 10-15 (son Isaac, born 1828)
1 male under 5 (son Porter, born 1840)
1 female 40-50 (mother Jemima, born 1795)
2 females 15-20 (daughters Delila, born 1823, and Peninah, born 1825)
1 female 10-15 (daughter Hannah, born 1827)
2 females under 5 (Should the census category have really been "2 females 5-10"? If so, they would have been daughters Pamelia and Eliza)

1846 MARRIAGE of Delila Ann Allum and Solomon Cumpston

1850 CENSUS, Pennsylvania, Washington County, East Finley Township, P. O. East Finley (October 26) ("Solomon" age 34, "Blacksmith") (wife "Delilah," age 25) ("Compson" on census page)

1859 DEATH of mother, Jemima (Barnhart) Allum

1860 CENSUS, Pennsylvania, Washington County, East Finley Township, P. O. East Finley (June 28) ("Soloman," age 41, "Blacksmith") (wife "Delila," age 32) ("Cuppaton" in census indexes)

1868 DEATH, Delila Ann (Allum) Cumpston at 44 years 2 months 1 day, in Livingston County, Illinois (in January)

Livingston County death records were begun in 1878, ten years after Delila's death.

Because a fire destroyed early records for Graceland Cemetery (where Delila is buried) some current records have been created from existing stones.

While deaths later than Delila's might be corroborated with other types of records, we rely on the transcription of Delila's stone for her years of birth and death.

(Prior to her death in January, 1868, Delilah would have known that Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant had been elected President of the United States in November '67, but she did not live until March '68 when Grant took office. In 1867, however, important events occurred on the national scene: The U. S. purchased Alaska for $7 million; Nebraska became the 37th state; and reconstruction was enforced in the South. Morehouse College in Augusta, Georgia and Howard University in Washington, D. C. offered ex-slaves a college education. In Wyoming, the first white settlers arrived in the village of Cheyenne.)

****

1868 DEATH of Delila's father, Charles W. Allum (in April); Delila, named in her father's will, had predeceased him

1870 MARRIAGE of Solomon Cumpston and Manerva Donaldson on March 30 in Livingston County, Illinois

1870 CENSUS, Illinois, Livingston County, Indian Grove Township, P. O. Fairbury (August 4) ("Solomon," age 50, "Farmer") (2nd wife "Manerva," age 45) ("Compton" on census page)

1872 MARRIAGE of Solomon Cumpston and Martha Ann Reinhart on December 25 in Livingston County, Illinois

1880 CENSUS, Illinois, Livingston County, Indian Grove Township (June 1) ("Solomon," age 65, "Farmer," born in Pennsylvania) (3rd wife "Martha A.," age 47, born in Pennsylvania) ("Compston" on census page)

1880 CENSUS, U. S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedule, Illinois, Livingston County, Indian Grove Township (August 3) (Solomon "Compston," Manufacturing)

1882 DEATH of Solomon Cumpston at approximately 64 years 4 months 27 days (based upon a January 12, 1882 date of death)

Death Record No. 713, Livingston County, Illinois Courthouse

Solomon's date of death is "February 12, 1881" on his gravestone at Graceland Cemetery but "January 12, 1882" within the signed Physician's Death Certificate at the Livingston County, Illinois courthouse. A death announcement for Solomon actually appears in the Waynesburg Republican in Greene County, Pennsylvania in March, 1882 referring to his death, "January last," i.e., 1882. (See below)

****

1900 CENSUS, Illinois, Whiteside County, Tampico Township, Tampico (June 7) ("Martha Cumpston," age 68, widow, born in "December, 1831," is "cousin" in the household of a person surnamed "Craddock")

1910 CENSUS, Illinois, Henry County, Kewanee Township, Kewanee (April 28) ("Martha A. Cumpston," age 78, widow, is a patient at St. Francis Hospital)




DEATH ANNOUNCEMENT from WAYNESBURG REPUBLICAN, Waynesburg, Greene County, Pennsylvania, March 14, 1882:

DIED

CUMPSTON. - Mr. Solomon Cumpston, formerly of this county, died near Fairbury, Illinois, January last, of dropsy. Aged 65 years.




Comments by DeeAnna Allum Granston:


In the 1860 census--Claysville, Washington County, Pennsylvania--is an Osee "Campson," age 77, born about 1782 in Virginia. In the household of Osee "Campson" in 1860 is William "Campson," age 33, born about 1827 in Pennsylvania. William is known to be Cumpston from a previous (1850) census and from subsequent census records. (At Ackley Cemetery, East Finley Township, Washington County, PA is "Osee Cumpston, consort * of Henry Cumpston, died March 16, 1867, aged 80 years"; despite her age difference between the 1860 census and that cited at her time of death, this is the same Osee Cumpston.) ( * "Consort" is a wife who died leaving her husband a widower.)

The given name of Osee Ann Wallace (born 1846), daughter of Malinda (Cumpston) Wallace--and the given name of Osee Jane "Jennie" Cumpston (born 1847), daughter of Solomon and Delila Ann (Allum) Cumpston--and the given name Osa Jane Allum (born 1851), daughter of John and Nancy (Cumpston) Allum--originated with the elder Osee Cumpston, who died in 1867.

(Nancy Cumpston was the wife of Delila's elder brother, John Allum, born 1820, died 1854.)

(Note that Delila Allum Cumpston also had a daughter Penina, 'same given name as one of Delilah's younger sisters.)

The Cumpstons born in Pennsylvania who migrated to Livingston County, Illinois and who appear in Illinois as early as the 1860 census were siblings to Delila's husband Solomon. Siblings, children of Jacob and Mary Cumpston, who also migrated to Illinois, were as follows:

John Cumpston, born 1808 in PA (likely in Greene County) (see "John Cumpston" for additional information)
Eliza Cumpston, born 1815 in PA (in Greene County, documented) (wife of George Worrick) (see "Eliza Cumpston" for additional information)
Solomon Cumpston, born 1817 in PA (likely in Greene County) (husband of Delila Ann Allum)
Jacob J. Cumpston, born 1820-1821 PA (in Greene County, documented) (see "Jacob J. Cumpston" for additional information)
*Nancy Cumpston, born about 1824 in PA (likely in Greene County) (wife of John Allum) (see "John Allum's" notes for additional information)
*Malinda Cumpston, born about 1825 in PA (likely in Greene County) (wife of Alexander Wallace) (see "Malinda Cumpston" for additional information)
William Cumpston, born about 1827 in PA (likely in Greene County) (see "William Cumpston" for additional information)

*At one time it was thought the maiden name of Nancy, wife of John Allum, 1820-1854, may have been WALLACE, but there was more circumstantial evidence that Nancy was a Cumpston. After the death of John Allum in 1854 in Greene County, Pennsylvania...and after the death of Nancy's second husband, Jacob Newland, in Washington County, Pennsylvania...widow Nancy Newland, is found in 1870 and 1880 census records in Livingston County, Illinois ("Cumpston territory") with some of her children by John Allum. (She did return to PA.) Nancy's 1904 obituary confirms that her maiden name was indeed CUMPSTON.

*Malinda (Cumpston) Wallace did not migrate from Pennsylvania to Illinois but seemingly lived her entire life in southwestern Pennsylvania.


Among taxpayers in the 1878 history of Livingston County we find the following:

Solomon Cumpston, farmer, P. O. Fairbury, Indian Grove Township (Delila's husband)

I. C. Cumpston, farmer, P. O. Fairbury, Indian Grove Township (Delila's and Solomon's son, Isaac C. Cumpston)

J. J. Cumpston, farmer, P. O. Fairbury, Indian Grove Township (Solomon's younger brother, Jacob J. Cumpston)

Benjamin Cumpston, farmer P. O. Fairbury, Indian Grove Township (husband of Delila and Solomon's daughter Osee Jane "Jennie"; 'Cousins?)

William Cumpston, teamster, village of Fairbury, Indian Grove Township (Solomon's and Jacob's younger brother)

S. Cumpston, grain buyer, in the village of Chatsworth, Chatsworth Township

S. T. Cumpston, farmer, P. O. Chatsworth, Chatsworth Township

Benjamin Cumpston

and John Allum, policeman, village of Fairbury (John Erwin Allum, son of John Allum, 1820-1854, and Nancy Cumpston Allum)



The Cumpston surname is found as Camson, Compson, Campston, Compston, etc.


This page was created in 2006 - Updated in 2011

Delila married Solomon CUMPSTON, son of Jacob CUMPSTON and Mary CUMPSTON, on February 26, 1846 in Greene County, Pennsylvania. (Solomon CUMPSTON was born on August 16, 1817 in Greene County, Pennsylvania, died on January 12, 1882 in Livingston County, Illinois and was buried on January 13, 1882 in Graceland Cemetery, Fairbury, Livingston County, Illinois.)