Some might say that Kentucky Bend is a little piece of Americana that time almost forgot.  It’s a seventeen square mile enclave of Fulton County, Kentucky and is completely separated from the Kentucky “mainland” by the states of Tennessee and Missouri.  It was formed from an oxbow turn in the Mississippi River created by a shift in course of the big river after the famous New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812. 

    Since you can’t access the Kentucky mainland from the Bend without going through the state of Tennessee, the area was claimed by Tennessee and it became part of Obion County, Tennessee until at least 1848, but Tennessee eventually dropped its claim.  Some have argued that neither state really wanted the secluded area.  It’s tiny footprint contains fertile farmland, but not much else. It’s primary crop is cotton. The Bend once sported a grocery store but the meager population apparently couldn’t support it. Instead, the 300 or so residents of the Bend in the 1880’s and 1890’s travelled about 12 miles by horseback or wagon to Tiptonville, Tennessee to purchase supplies.  The mailing address for Bend residents was (and still is) Tiptonville, Tennessee.  Other than modern farm equipment, the area remains pretty much the same today.  According to the 2000 Census, the population has dwindled to 17.

    By all accounts, John Franklin Champion loved farming. That may have been the allure of the Bend when he settled there sometime in the 1880’s or 1890’s.  I’m not sure how he met his future wife, Ida Bell Grooms, but they married in 1898 according to the marriage license on file in Tiptonville, Tennessee. They raised ten children in Kentucky Bend, one of them being my Dad who was born in 1910.  The first child, Nell, was born there in 1901 and the youngest, Clifford, was born there in 1925.  John Franklin and Ida still resided in the Bend in 1930 when Ida died.  She was buried in Crockett Chapel Cemetery near Tiptonville.

    At some point after Ida’s death, John Franklin moved across the river to the New Madrid, Missouri area where three of his children, Albert, Josephine and my Dad lived. At his death on July 13, 1942, he lived 9 miles north of New Madrid according to his death certificate (most likely around the LaForge, Kewanee or Matthews area).  He was buried beside Ida in Crocket Chapel Cemetery.

    John Franklin’s years prior to his move to Kentucky Bend is a major mystery in our family. Some of us wish to trace back the Champion surname but we are thwarted by the lack of information. All we know for sure is that John Franklin was born in Perry County, Indiana.  Our only source of information is stories passed by word of mouth from John Franklin to other family members. 

    My Dad’s account of John Franklin’s early years always intrigued me.  Dad believed that his father was in fact born in Perry County, Indiana. John Franklin’s parents died in Indiana from typhoid fever when he was young, probably around age 6 or 7.  John Franklin and his younger brother, William, were placed in an Indiana orphanage and stayed there for several years.  Eventually, John Franklin and William ran away from the orphanage and caught a ride on a riverboat, disembarking near Bells, Tennessee.  John Franklin lost track of William at that point, never to find him again. 

    A more detailed account of this story was told to me by my cousin, Louise Decker Jones, in a telephone interview in August, 2009. Louise at age 83 is probably my oldest cousin.  She was 16 when John Franklin died.  Before his death, he told Louise what he could remember about his youth.  He said that his father, whose name was also John Franklin Champion, was originally from some eastern state, probably Massachusetts. His father moved westward (how far she wasn’t sure) and somewhere along the line married a  Cherokee Indian girl. John Franklin’s father wanted to take his new wife back to Massachusetts but the family had disowned him for marrying the Indian girl. Instead, he and his bride headed farther west through Indiana where John Franklin and his little brother were both born.  While in Indiana, John Franklin’s father died from typhoid fever, then his mother (the Indian girl) from the same disease.  Both of the boys were placed in an orphanage in or near Ft. Wayne, Indiana and someone adopted the younger boy. John Franklin never saw him again.

    According to my cousin, the orphanage began taking John Franklin to different farms to work when he was about 10 or 11.  John Franklin always loved farming so, at about age 15, he walked off one of the farms at the end of the day and headed to Tennessee so he could farm on his own.  He eventually settled on Chaney Hill in Kentucky Bend where he raised his family.

    Both of these accounts of John Franklin’s early life beg the question of the identity of his parents. With so many historical records now available on the web, I’ve undertaken a search in an attempt to learn the true identity of John Franklin’s parents and their ancestors. 

    Since most of the 1890 Census was destroyed by fire when the Department of Commerce building in Washington D.C. burned in 1921, I’ve started with the 1880 Census. Actually, there is an entry in the 1880 Census for Little Prairie Township, Pemiscot County, Missouri that is very interesting when considered in conjunction with an entry in the 1870 Census for Tobin Township, Perry County, Indiana. Little Prairie Township is near present day Caruthersville, Missouri and only about 20 miles “as the crow flies” from Kentucky Bend.  This 1880 entry reflects Delilah Champion, age 36 and a widow, as head of the household, and five children, Fredrick A., age 15, Elisabeth J., age 12, Ella M., age 10, John, age 8, and William B., age 6. I believe that the John in this household is our John Franklin Champion notwithstanding the discrepancy in age (our John would have been 7, not 8, at the time of the Census in the summer of 1880).  The existence of older siblings obviously conflicts with family accounts that John Franklin was the oldest. 

    The entry in the 1870 Census for Tobin Township, Perry County, Indiana is for the same family in my opinion. The entry for the household lists the following people.  Franklin Champion, age 38, was the head of the household.  He is listed as a farm laborer and was born in Indiana.  Ann Champion, age 26, was listed as his wife and there were five children in the household: Mary B., age 9; Frederick A., age 6; Elizabeth, age 3; Elenora, age 2 months; and Joseph Johnson, age 10.

    Here are my reasons for believing that these two entries are of the same family and that John listed in the 1880 household entry is my grandfather, John Franklin Champion.  I’ll deal with each person individually.

    Franklin Champion.  My grandfather, John Franklin Champion, believed that he was the namesake of his father.  The Franklin Champion in the 1870 household is consistent with that belief.  Franklin is not listed in the 1880 Census for Pemiscot County, Missouri nor on any other location that I can find so it is reasonable to assume that he had died prior to the 1880 Census.  This is consistent with the typhoid fever story told by John Franklin.

    Ann/Delilah Champion.  I believe that Ann Champion in the 1870 Census is the same person as Delilah Champion in the 1880 Census.  Ann is listed as age 26 in 1870 and Delilah is listed as age 36 in 1880 so the age progression is right.  The 1880 Census shows Delilah as a widow.  I have speculated that her full name was actually Delilah Ann Champion and there is some family connection between her and the Joseph Johnson that appears in the household in the 1870 Census.  I’ll explain more about that in the Joseph Johnson paragraph below.

    Mary B. Champion.  Mary was the oldest child in the family.  She is shown as age 9 in the 1870 Census and does not appear in the entry on the 1880 Census.  I have speculated that she died (probably of typhoid) sometime between 1870 and 1880 or that she possibly married.  However, I have found no marriage record for her.

    Elizabeth (Elisabeth).  She is the second oldest child and appears in both the 1870 and 1880 Census entries.  The spelling is different but that wasn’t unusual.  Also, the age progression between the two entries is 9 years.  Again, this is generally considered close enough for Census records in those days.

    Elenora (Ella).  Ella, the name in the 1880 entry, is very likely a shortened version of Elenora, the name in the 1870 entry.  The age progression is about right.

    John & William B.  John and William were listed as ages 8 and 6 respectively on the 1880 Census.  Naturally, neither of them appear on the 1870 Census since they were both born later.  It shows that they were both born in Indiana.

    Joseph Johnson.  This is an interesting entry and, in my opinion, is the smoking gun that confirms that these two Census entries from 1870 and 1880 are the same family.  I have speculated that Joseph was somehow related to Ann/Delilah.  He is shown as age 10 in the 1870 Census and was born in Indiana.  He does not appear in the household in the 1880 Census.  However, he (or someone of the correct age progression and born in Indiana) lived in a different household in Little Prairie Township in Pemiscot County, Missouri.  Obviously, this has to be the same Joseph Johnson and it is obvious he moved with (or later followed) the family from Perry County, Indiana to Pemiscot County, Missouri. 

    May, 2010 Update.  I continue to work hard on this research and I may have broken through the brick wall I had encountered.  I found an entry for the 1860 Census in Perry County, Indiana for Frances Champeon of Iowa.  The “Champeon” spelling and the birth in Iowa was causing this household to not show up in my research.  However, a close look at the handwriting on the Census page itself reveals that the last name is Champion and the first name is Francis.  Additionally, the state abbreviation was transcribed incorrectly as Iowa when it should have been Indiana.  In the entry, Francis is age 22 and the only other person in the household, Delilah A. Champion, is 16.

    The 1850 Perry County Census reveals Frances at age 13, an older brother, William, at age 16, and what appears to be their mother, Elizabeth, at age 32.  Also in this household is Mary Langdon, age 48.  Four houses from this household is a large family of Langdons.  This causes me to speculate that Elizabeth Champion was possibly a Langdon but I have no further evidence of that yet.

    I have located a record where Francis Champion, of Derby, Indiana, enlisted as a Corporal in Company F, 26th Indiana Infantry Regiment (Union) on 30 Aug. 1861 and received a disability discharge on 15 Jan. 1862.  On 6 Jan. 1880, Delilah A. Champion applied for a Civil War Pension on behalf of Francis A. Champion.  I have believed that Francis (or Franklin as he was called on the 1870 Census for some reason) died between 1875 and 1880 since Delilah appears as a widow on the 1880 Census for Little Prairie Township, Pemiscot County, Missouri and the pension application appears to confirm that timeframe.  I’ve not determined why she moved the family from Perry County, Indiana to Pemiscot County, Missouri after her husband’s death.

    September, 2010 Update.  See “Anxious To Get Away From Here” for the solution to the mystery.