The Harrison County marriage index, and Eli Fleming's 1955 veteran's form

One sheet, two halves, and both matter. The top is his abstract of the Harrison County marriage index; the bottom transcribes a 1955 veteran’s questionnaire for Eli B. Fleming.

Written at the very top is a research address: Joy Gilchrist, 22406 SR 751, West Lafayette, Ohio — the author of The Squires Family, and the origin of the “Edward Fleming” this archive followed for years before the consent note corrected it. He had her address.

The marriage index

Couple	Book–page	Year
James Fleming / Polly Whitehair	2–91	1820
Lewis Fleming / Sintha Bailey	3–36	1827 ✓
John Jr. Fleming / Mary Ann Fleming	3–120	1838
Patrick Fleming / Harriet Lake	3–120	1838 ✓
Edward Fleming / Mary Turner	3–123	1838
Daniel Fleming / Amelia Wood	3–130	1839
William Fleming / Mary Morris	5–61	1869

Three of these are John Fleming IV’s children, and the index confirms the typescript’s spouses exactly — Patrick with Harriet Lake, Edward with Mary Turner, and John marrying a Mary Ann Fleming, a Fleming wedding a Fleming. Lewis and “Sintha Bailey,” 1827, sits at book 3 page 36 with a tick beside it.

Also on the sheet, separately: Edward J. Flemming / Nancy Prunty, 12 November 1810 — a second Prunty marriage into the Flemings, decades before John IV’s own, and a second Edward.

And another James Fleming record: his 1820 marriage to Polly Whitehair, who appears in the 1860 census as “Mary M. (Polly Whitehair) Fleming, 60, second wife of James Fleming.” A sixth sighting on the James Fleming trail — and this one has a book and page.

A research contact is noted too: the Hackett’s Creek Pioneers Descendants, Jane Lew, West Virginia.

Eli B. Fleming’s questionnaire — and the mother’s name again

The Harrison County Veteran’s Historical Project form of 23 April 1955. Its service half is already filed; this is the family half:

Field	Answer
Veteran’s name	Fleming, Eli B. — present address: deceased
War / rank / race	Civil War · Sergeant · White
Place and date of birth	Doddridge County, (West) Virginia — 1831
Father’s name	JOHN FLEMING — deceased
Mother’s maiden name	SUSAN ? — deceased
Wife’s maiden name	Hannah Swiger — married 17 March 1903
Children	No record

The father is John Fleming. Third independent statement of that, after the 1853 death register and the Arnold’s Creek church history.

I closed the “Susan” question too firmly

Earlier this session the archive recorded Robert Earl’s reversal on Eli’s mother: he searched the Doddridge marriage books, found that a Susanna Bee married David Jacobs in 1847 and stayed married to him, and concluded “I cannot support a John Fleming/Susanna Bee marriage” — putting Clarissa Roe back as Eli’s mother. That reasoning still stands.

But the name “Susan” is better attested than the archive implied. It appears in two places:

• Eli’s own 1903 marriage certificate, which Charlotte Fleming held — parents John F. Fleming and Susan Fleming
• This 1955 form — mother’s maiden name “Susan?”, question mark and all

The two are probably not independent — a 1955 compiler may well have worked from that same 1903 record — so this is one claim attested twice rather than two witnesses. And the question mark shows the 1955 compiler was no more certain than anyone since.

What it changes: Robert Earl disproved a Susanna Bee. He did not disprove a Susan. The distinction is real, and the archive should hold it open rather than treating Clarissa as settled. A mother named Susan, surname unknown, remains possible.

One point in his favour, though. The form gives Eli’s birthplace as Doddridge County, 1831 — and Doddridge County did not exist until 1845, so that is a retrospective description of western Harrison County. Robert Earl’s objection was geographic, not nominal: he held the 1838 land-sale record showing John still farming in eastern Harrison until 1838, which puts an 1831 birth on the eastern side, not the western. That objection survives the form.

And a small closed loop: the form’s Hannah Swiger, married 17 March 1903 matches Charlotte’s marriage certificate to the day — the same document, reached from two directions fifty years apart.

Source: handwritten abstracts of the Harrison County marriage index and of a Harrison County Veteran’s Historical Project form of 23 April 1955, from Robert Earl Wildermuth’s research papers; in Chuck’s keeping. Photographed 2026.