Now that I’ve written nearly as much as I know at this
point about my grandmother Mary Waggoner’s family, it’s time to move on to
Grandpa Clint Troutman and his family.
Clint’s birth date is somewhat frustrating to establish for
certain. The birth record at the Smyth County Court House in Marion, says he
was born 16 December 1887,[1] but
every other record says 1886.[2] If I
had looked only at the transcribed record of Smyth County Births, 1885-96,
database on Ancestry.com, I might
think the transcriber had made a mistake and recorded the wrong year, but I’ve
stood in the Court House at Marion, Virginia, with the huge birth records book
open before me and run my finger down a list of names of babies born in 1887,
and there it is: Clinton Troutman. Did the family forget the year? Oh well, I
give up. Despite the courthouse record, I’ll have to concede that Clint was
born in 1886. Other glitches lurk in that courthouse record, as well, like
thieves ready to steal the sanity of researchers, but I’ll get to them later.
Clint was the ninth of ten children born to Daniel Absolum
and America Pratt Troutman. He was named Walter Clinton, but he preferred
Clint, which is the only given name on his tombstone—plus he gave Clint as his
first name on his WW1 draft registration.[3]
Several tragedies happened in his family before he was
born, which he knew only as stories. One was the burning of their house, a
story he told to his children. According to his son Verne, Clint told this
story: Daniel was away from home when the house burned, but America managed to
get the children out safely, and no one was hurt. She was the practical one in
the family, and Daniel was more sentimental. He asked America whether she saved
the photo albums. This didn’t set well with her, and she reportedly said,
“There you stand with your behind as bare as a bird and you’re worried about
photo albums!”
I’m not sure what year the house burned, but the family
first lived in Long Hollow where at least one of the older siblings was born,[4] and I
think it may have been that house.[5] When
Clint was 16 months old (if you accept the 1886 date or before he was born if 1887), his grandfather, Nicholas Pratt, deeded to his
daughter America the property on Walker Mountain where Clint grew up.[6]
The little anecdote about the fire reveals a lot about
Clint’s parents’ personalities. Daniel seems to have been laid back,
sentimental, and soft-spoken, while America was high strung, practical, and
out-spoken. The story of Clint can hardly be told without the story of his
parents first. Next week: Daniel’s story.
[1] Smyth
County, Virginia, Register of Births, Book 2, p. 19, Clinton Troutman, 16
December 1887.
[2] 1900
U. S. census, Smyth County, Virginia, population schedule, Broadford Precinct,
enumeration district [ED] 84, sheet 1-B, dwelling 13, family 13, Dan Troutman
family; digital image Ancestry.com
(http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 August 2014); NARA microfilm publication
T623, roll 1728. Also “U. S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,”
images Ancestry.com (http://www.
Ancestry.com, accessed 4 August 2014), card for Clint Walter Troutman, serial
number 261-61-A, Local Draft Board, Brenna Precinct, Wayne County, Nebraska. Also,
Pleasant View Cemetery (Wayne
County, Nebraska); Troutman, Clint, marker; photographed August 2008 by the
researcher.
[3] “U. S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,”
card for Clint Walter Troutman.
[4] Smyth County, Virginia, Register of
Births, Book 1: 158, entry for James H. Troutman; County Clerk’s Office,
Marion. Long Hollow appears as place of birth on this record.
[5] In
April 2014, a Pratt third cousin of the author pointed out the location of the
D. A. and America Troutman house in Long Hollow.
[6] Smyth
County, Virginia, Deed Book 17: 202, Nicholas H. and Sarah Pratt to America
Troutman, 25 April 1887; County Clerk’s Office, Marion.
© 2014, Z. T. Noble
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