Family lore has it that the Floods were from South Carolina, and that Malinda Flood was a cousin of General Beauregard of Fort Sumter fame. So when I started looking for her parents, South Carolina is where I thought I would find them. Malinda's connections to Beauregard and South Carolina may uncovered some day, but today they remain obscure.
In a signed statement, Malinda Flood says she was born 27 May 1840 at Fort Montgomery, Orange County, New York. She was the wife of John Wesley Bassett (born 1833 or 1834, died 1892), a 3-month veteran of War Between the States. He served from 20 Apr 1861 to 2 Aug 1861 in Company H, 8th New York State Militia. In 1892, immediately following her husband's death, Malinda began the application process for a widow's pension. The pension file, preserved by the National Archives, lead me not to South Carolina, but to New York and New Jersey.
The file includes depositions from her brother, Wallace D Flood (age 62 in 1894), her brother-in-law, Joseph Rose (age 50 in 1894), and a childhood friend, Jasper M Odell (age 57 in 1895), among others. Japser, who in a signed statement says that "Malinda Flood has been well know to deponent since childhood," can be found, age 11, in the 1850 Census in Cornwall, Orange County, New York, about 10 miles north of Fort Montgomery on the Hudson River. At the same time, there is a Malinda Flood living in Cornwall in 1850, enumerated only five pages before. She is 10 years old, living in the household of Martha Flood (age 47), who is presumably her mother.
[Skip the next paragraph if you don't want your brain to hurt.]
I think the location and age match is really enough to feel confident 10-year-old Malinda is the future Mrs Bassett, but there is additional evidence linking widow Malinda and mother Martha and brother Wallace. Follow me here, because the trail is long and snaking. In the 1860 Census, Martha (age 57) is living in Cornwall in a household headed by what appears to be her son, Walter (with wife Charlotte and four children). Also in the household is what appears to be her other son, Wallace, with his wife Louisa and two children, John (age 3) and Erastus (age 5 months). I lose Wallace in the 1870 Census...just haven't been able to find him. In the 1880 Census, he appears to be living in Elizabeth, New Jersey, with a new wife and four children, the oldest two being John B (age 21) and William E (age 21). I'm thinking the "E" stands for "Erastus." The 1883-84 city directory for Elizabeth shows Wallace D Flood and William E Flood both living at 154 Third Street. In his pension file deposition, Wallace D Flood says that he is Malinda Flood's brother and that he lives at 154 Third Street.
[Moving on.]
Feeling confident that Martha Flood of Cornwall was Malinda's mother, I began to look further backward in time. I had never used pre-1850 censuses much before this. Fortunately, there appears to be only one Flood family in this township during this period.
Martha Flood is listed as head of household in the 1840 Census. There are nine people total in the household, including Martha. Martha's age is between 30 and 40. No other member of the household is older than 20. There are four boys and four girls. Since we know Malinda was born 27 May 1840, and the official date for the 1840 Census was June 1st, Martha's husband is presumed to have died at some point during the preceding 9 months.
The 1830 Census for Cornwall has two Flood heads of household, enumerated in succession, Elizabeth and Alexander. The ages for members of Alexander's family line up perfectly with the 1840 entries for Martha, indicating that Martha's husband (and Malinda's father) was Alexander Flood. Elizabeth has no members of her household other than herself. One is inclined to guess she is Alexander's mother.
The 1820 Census for Cornwall has only one Flood family, that of Alexander Flood, with a female 45 or over (wife Elizabeth) and a male 16-26 (son Alexander). This family appears in the 1810 Census for Cornwall and in the 1800 Census for Cheesecocks.
Given that this Alexander Flood was old enough to have fought in the Revolutionary War, I looked for a pension file, and indeed found one. From the file, we learn Alexander Flood was born in 1753/54. He enlisted in New York City in May 1775, and fought until "the close of the war." He was with Captain Gershom Mott in Colonel Alexander McDougall's 1st New York Regiment, Continental Line. He fought in the battles of "St Johns, Brandywine, Monmouth, Jamestown, and in many skirmishes." He lived in Cornwall at the time of sworn testimony in September 1820, with an unnamed wife (age 59) and an unnamed son (age 21), who he says, "works at days labor for himself." He swears to the following inventory: "twenty acres of mountain lands worth two dollars and fifty cents ($2.50) an acre, two and ½ acres he tills, a log hut worth five dollars, one cow, three pigs, three sheep, three old chairs, an ax, and some old things not worth anything." The pension records he died on 10 May 1829.
Not mentioned in the file, he appears to have received 200 acres bounty land in what is now Maine. I am going to pursue this lead during my next visit to the National Archives.
I'm pretty happy about going back two more generations. I've got a lot of Flood descendants identified, and even exchanged email with another researcher. I've got more to do on Wallace D Flood and his two wives. I need to follow up on a lead on Bible records in the Rutgers University Library that is supposed to have a marriage record for Wallace D Flood (1832-1902) and Mary L Tompkins (1838-1899). Alexander and Martha's children appear to have been: Warren, Walter C, a female, Wallace D, a male, Temperance, Mary Ann (wife of Joseph Rose), and Malinda. I have theory that Wallace D's son, William Erastus, married Theresa Stutzlen, but that's a guess that needs some research.
Went to the Archives today and examined and photocopied the pension files for Daniel and Robert McMurray. The best thing in the files was the original marriage certificate for Daniel McMurray and Johanah Pettit. It was in pieces. I had to assemble it like a jigsaw puzzle. The writing was very faint. It said:
