United States Federal Census taking began in 1790 a few years after the American Revolutionary War. The earliest record of a Hoodless to appear in a US Census is one Adaline Hoodless, a woman in her thirties with two teenage males in the residence aged between 15 and 20 years old. She resides in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
I would love to know more about Adaline. Were the two teenage males in the house also Hoodlesses? She was likely born around 1790-1800 but this is all I know. Unable to lock down anything further about Adaline. She does not appear again in the US Census.
Nothing further pops up until 1850 in the state of New York. There are two households:
- William J Hoodless and his wife Harriet residing in the 8th Ward of New York City and claiming to have been born in New York.
- Samuel and John Hoodless residing in the town of North Castle. Westchester County, New York were both born in England.
By 1860 those two households have multiplied to four households. William and Harriet remain in New York City and there are two households in Chicago and one in Stockton, New Jersey.
By 1870 the US Federal Census records nine households with Hoodless families in the states of New York, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. I’ve selected a couple of these households to investigate further and hopefully find out how and why they ended up in America and how their descendants faired.
Thomas Hoodless – Fulton County, Ohio
First up let’s take a closer look at Thomas Hoodless who in the 1870 US Federal Census is 30 years old and residing in Fulton Township, Fulton County, Ohio. Fulton County is on the northern boundary of Ohio where it meets Michigan and about 40 miles east of the city of Toledo. It is farming country still today. Back around 1870 farmers would be producing corn and wheat and raising hogs and beef.
From the 1870 Census we know Thomas is a farmer and owns land to the value of $1600. His personal estate – cash and investments – are valued at $450. Land is plentiful in America and these values with inflation translate to about NZ$50,000 today with the equivalent of about $14K of cash on hand. So he is making a go of it. He is married to 21 year old Emily and they have a one year old daughter Maria (named for his own mother).
I have traced Thomas back to to his family via the 1841 Census. He is one of our Lincolnshire Hoodlesses – born to John and Maria who were living near the tiny village of Kirkby Cum Osgodby near Market Rasen on the western edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds. The 1851 Census gives us a bit more insight into the family. It describes John, his 50 year old father, as being the proprietor of 11.5 acres and five tenements (these would be additional farm buildings housing farm labourers). This seems to be a prosperous family but we should bear in mind that the Irish Potato Famine (1846-1850) also affected the rest of the UK (to a lesser degree) and saw hundred of thousands of people die in the famine and millions more emigrated to the United States and Canada pulled by the promise of stronger economic growth and better prospects. Thomas was enticed to cross the Atlantic for a better option.
On 8th May 1868 a 29 year old Thomas Hoodless marries 20 year old Emily Brown. He may have entered the US after trying his luck in Canada to begin. There is no trace of him in the 1860 Census of either Canada or the US. What we do know is that Thomas and Emily carrying on farming in Fulton township and have three more children:
- John Edwin Hoodless born in 1870
- Louis Charles Hoodless born in 1871
- Settie A Hoodless born in 1872
In 1880 the family were still together farming in Fulton township in the state of Ohio. Sadly tragedy was about to strike. On 28th March 1882 thirteen year old Maria the oldest child died and three days later on 31st March, Thomas Hoodless, the Lincolnshire lad who was no doubt full of hopes for a better future in a new land, also died, aged 42 years.. Both father and daughter were buried at Fulton Union Cemetery in the town of Delta, Fulton County, Ohio.
Clearly this is an overwhelming sadness for the family left behind. I am only speculating, but outbreaks of diseases such as small pox were common in the region around this time. Emily was now a young widow of 33 with a farm and three young children to raise. But it appears that Emily was not about to crumble in the face of a crisis. The Census of 1900 records her as a widow of 50 years of age still farming in Fulton County assisted by her son Louis. And there the are again in the 1910 Census – they endured. Emily dies on 10th February 1913 and is buried with her husband Thomas and daughter Maria. She was 64 years old and never remarried.
