Surname Saturday/Galloway

     

     George Galloway, my 4th great-grandfather, lost everything he owned.  The Sept. 28, 1810  edition of The American Citizen reported-- 
    By order of hon. Moss Kent, esq. first judge of the court of common pleas, in and for this county of Jefferson.  Notice is hereby given to all the creditors of George Galloway, of the town of Brownsville, in the county of Jefferson, an insolvent debtor, that they shew cause... 
 
      George was in a world of trouble with a wife and two sons to provide for.  The answer?  Get outta Dodge, or in this case Brownsville.  George was born in Massachusetts just as the Revolutionary War commenced (if the 1850 census is correct). 
I'm not sure who George's parents were.  The 1790 census contains two possibilities, Samuel Galloway in Salem and William Galloway in Ipswich.  George is still living with his parents or with an employer in 1790 and so not enumerated except as a tick mark.  I first find him enumerated by name in Shaftsbury, Vermont in the 1800 census with a wife and young son.
     The 1865 census of New York State, available at the Family Search website, asked individuals the county of their birth. George's son Russell indicated he was born about 1807 in Jefferson County in the far northern section of New York, and indeed, we find George Galloway in 1810 living in Brownsville, Jefferson Co.  After his financial woes, George and his family which now consisted of a wife and two sons, moved south and by 1820 had arrived in Lyons New York in Wayne County.  He may have had another relative living there as well, the local post office placed a newspaper ad informing an Erastus Galloway that  he had an unclaimed letter waiting for him.

     I cannot find George in 1830, since it is another head of household only census, he may have been living with another family, though probably not Erastus--I can't find him either.  George resurfaces in 1840 in Arcadia, very close to Lyons, and in 1850 he is residing in Phelps, New York, Ontario County about 11 miles from Arcadia. Here for the first time we are able to read his wife's name--Armenia, also born in Massachusetts.  His son Russell is nearby with his family.  George and Armenia both died sometime before the New York State census of 1860 was conducted, though an exhaustive search, of cemetery databases in both counties failed to turn up a headstone for either of them.

     The 1850 census holds another clue to this family.  In this census we find Milo Galloway living in Arcadia--born in Vermont around 1800!  We know George was in Vermont in 1800, Milo could very well be the missing brother of Russell. Better still, Milo named his first son George and his second William.  And wait, it gets better still!  Milo owned a woolen mill in Arcadia, his possible brother Russell operated mills also, one in Phelps and one in Wolcott.  Coincidence??

     After searching the NEHGS databases I've found no trace of a baptism or marriage for George Galloway in Massachusetts or any other New England state for that matter, and I still don't know Armenia's last name.  I have a hunch it may have been Russell since their son bore that uncommon name.  I believe the family was Scottish, and Russell is a common surname in Scotland.

     I'm off to start researching Milo, if anything turns up you'll be the first to know.