Albright Family in Illinois

John Carpenter Albright and Eliza Jane White settled in Spring Township of Boone County, in northern Illinois. They traveled to Illinois from Albany, first to Buffalo by the Erie canal that was completed in 1827. A narration of such a trip in 1836 of a freighter to Chicago indicated they probably sailed with their belongings and a few other families. The ship stopped at all ports along the south side of Lake Erie. The difficult part of the trip through St. Clair Flats into Lake Huron, "The Flats" were very shallow and when the ship became stuck in the mud the captain would enlist the passengers to rock the ship by running from one side of the ship to the other and repeating this action until the ship was freed. In the case of this documented trip, it took about a week to navigate through these Flats. Once in Lake Huron they sailed to Milwaukee. A month after they started they at arrived at the Chicago River where soldiers greeted the ship in Chicago, a town of about 3,500 people in 1836. The final leg of the trip was completed overland by wagon to Kiskwaukee Valley and the town of Belvidere.1 The first train to Belvidere from Chicago was the "Galena & Chicago Union" on 3 December 1851 to late for the Albright's arrival.2 Illinois was still the frontier with a population of 157,445 in 1830 and 851,470 in 1850. After the railroad came to Illinois the population boomed to over 1.3 million by 1855.3 The last child to be born to the John Albright family in New York is Harrison in March 1845 and the next child was Mary born May 1849 in Illinois. This narrows down the time period John and Eliza Jane family journeyed to Illinois to a four year period. The first trains to Chicago from the east was the Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana and it was not completed until 1852.4 John originally settle in Boone County, Spring Township which was originaly known as Ohio District. 5 According to the cemetery records of the Belvidere Cemetery, John lived to be 72 years old and died of paralysis and nervous affliction.

Noble John Carpenter Albright, the son of John Carpenter Albright and Eliza Jane White, was born in Sherburn, Chenango County, New York and came with his parents as a teenager to Illinois. There is a variety of reports as to the location of his birth. A marriage certificate states he was born in Berkshire County Vermont.6 IGI States that he was born in Shelburne, Rutland County, Vermont.7 then from his marriage license that he was born in Sherburn, Rutland, County Vermont. Later in life the census records from 1850 indicated he was born in New York.8 There is no Rutland County, Vermont. Shelburne is actually in Chittenden County, and Berksire is a town on the northern border of Vermont in Franklin County. Berkshire is far removed from the area the Albright family had been living and is not probably the birth location but future research may prove otherwise. The IGI states that he was born in Shelburne, Rutland County but Shelburne is actually in Chittenden County. Since his father was in the 1840 census in Sherburn, Chenango County, New York9 and John was only 6 years old this seems to be the logical place of birth and confirming this he is on the Census records after 1850 as recorded as being born in New York. His first wife and mother of all his children is Adeliza Jayne Gleason. Adeliza is the daughter of one of the founding families of Belvidere, Ebenezer Learned Gleason, originally from Massachusetts.10 Their first child, Emma Eliza Albright was born April 1860. Delos Gleason Albright was born 4 May 1862, Jermera A. born 1867, Cora Belle born July 1871, Gertrude Maude born 21 February 1874, John Carpenter born on 24 November 1879, another son was born 22 April 1883. In 1876 John ran for the office of sheriff of Boone County. Out of 2371 votes; a total of 2 votes were for John, the winner received 2365 and the runner up got 4 votes. This does present an interesting situation. Maybe he forgot to tell anyone that he was running for the office.

John's second wife after the death of Adeliza, is Mary Jensen who he married 27 March 1888;11 and third wife, Josephine Flynn he married on 1 December 1898 in Rockford, Illinois.12 Both of these later marriages were without children. On 29 March 1905 Noble John died and is buried in Shattuck's Grove Cemetery, Spring Township, Boone County.13

Delos Gleason Albright is the father of Ray Winfield Albright. Delos was born 4 May 1862 in Spring township, Boone County, Illinois. He was named after his Uncle who was fighting in the War of the Rebellion. It wasn't until young Delos was 5 months old that his namesake Delos died of dysentery on a ship in St. Louis as a soldier of this war.

At the age of 18 the younger Delos is a transfer agent on the Chicago and Northeastern railroad.14 On 10 May 1888 he married Hittie Wilman Carpenter, the daughter of Charles and Deborah Corey Carpenter.15 The newly weds honeymooned in Emmetsburg, Iowa where his sister Emma was living with her husband Frank Wrate.16 Five years later after the death of his wife he married Nancy Roselle Clark the daughter of Timothy Goodwin Clark and Nancy Morse.17 At that time Delos was still working on the railroad but now as a switchman.18 By the time he was 47 years old, Delos became a general farmer.19

Nancy Clark, Delos's wife was born in Chicago where her father was a policeman. An attempt to get his records revealed that they were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. Timothy's parents were Timothy G. Clark and Alvira Van Orman/Norman who were married in New York,20 and moved to Summit County, Ohio.21 Timothy was reportedly born in Rockingham Windham County, Vermont. I have not verified this information. On 9 March 1931 Delos died of a stroke, he had been in ill heath since 1925.22

Both Ray and Clifford, the children of Delos, served in World War I: Clifford went overseas and Ray served as a truck driver and mechanic between El Paso, Texas and Deming New Mexico.23 It was during this duty that Ray suffered a ruptured appendix and laid under the truck in the shade until he was found the next day. The recovery was long and difficult and he never did regain the strength he had before the incident. After the war Ray was marching in a victory parade in Austin where he met Alva Mae Gould his future wife. She stated that she ran up and kissed this handsome soldier. Alva is a child of James Gould and Hannah Duffy who immigrated from Ashton under Lyne, Manchester, England.24 Alva was named after Alvan her brother who died before she was born.25 Alva was a small lady in stature but with a strong will. She kept the garden on the farm in Spring Township, Illinois, during the depression. During this time her husband Ray lost ownership of a gravel company and thirteen trucks. Farming seemed the logical method of survival which they did in Boone County. They had several milk cows and sold milk as well as crops. Alva remembered homeless hobo's traveling through that she would feed along with the family. By the time the depression was over they also lost the farm. Ray became a member of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). Ray and Alva and family eventually moved into Belvidere where Ray worked in a foundry. Every lunch time Ray would walk home where Alva would have lunch with a fresh pie. It was one of these lunches in 1943 when Ray suffered a massive fatal heart attack. Two of their children were already adults and out of the home, Marjorie was married and Donald was at West Point. Ray the youngest was a junior in high school and started to work in the meat market as a butcher while continuing school. After graduation Ray worked at Los Alamos in 1944 and 1945. Where he saved enough money to enter college at University of New Mexico with a major in mathematics. Alva lived with her son Ray and his wife for the last 18 years of her life in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was during this time she would tell the family stories of her life over the evening dinner. Alva died in Albuquerque and is buried next to her husband in Belvidere Cemetery, Belvidere, Illinois.

Donald graduated from West Point in 3 years and went into the airborne infantry as a paratrooper.. Marjorie married Richard Merrit Adams who was a scientist at the University of Chicago. He Worked on the Manhattan Project in Chicago and then at Los Alamos. This connection is how Ray got a job at Los Alamos, in procurement of supplies. After the war he stayed with the Los Alamos team in the Philippines on the experimental atomic bomb blasts. Ray graduated from University of New Mexico with a major in mathematics. His first employment was with the Lovelace Foundation where he developed a slide rule for determining blast effects.

Genealogical Summary