Talk:C. C. Vaughn

Historical Writings vs Historical Records A Question of Facts

I am doing ancestral research, and CC Vaughn is a major point in my tree. I've combed through documents (via Ancestry.com) and through text works. There are contradictions on CC Vaughn's life. I am wondering if the older biographies are more prone to exaggeration, and what's the Kentucky Encyclopedia source material.

Texts in Question:

Men of Mark by Rev William J Simons (1887) Afro-American encyclopaedia (1885) The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky (2015) p509

Military Service

The only enlistment slip I found for Cornelius C Vaughn shows him enlisting on April 13, 1965. His biographies say he enlisted in 1964. U.S., Colored Troops Military Service Records, 1863-1865 (National Archives)

Is there another slip I should be looking for, or was this an exaggeration? Perhaps he initially enlisted in Ohio?

Marriage

The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia says he married Jan 1 1879, and this is what's written on the wikipedia page. However, the Logan County (KY) marriage records has CC Vaughn marrying Ms Ella Slaughter Sept 15th 1881 with witnesses. This is of particular interest to me because their (supposed) first born - Cornelius Elmo Vaughn was born in 1879.

Is this a quirk of post-slavery legality? As in, they weren't legally married until 1881 but were married in the eyes of god in 1879. Or, is it that they (or one of them) had a child out of wedlock and agreed to marry each other later?

Alma Mater

In the Kentucky African American Encyclopedia, Vaughn is said to have been "expelled and excommunicated from Berea College after being implicated in a fornication scandal."

This would be before he joined the Baptist Church, so take that as you will. But, it's hard for me to not draw a dotted line between the fornication and the mystery of his actual marriage date.

---

EllaElmo

I'm changing the article to remove the enlistment date of 1864. It isn't clear in any secondary sources presented that historians agree that he enlisted in 1865, so I hesitate to jump to that conclusion. But as EllaElmo suggests, there is good evidence that he didn't enlist until 1864 (Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served the United States Colored Troops: Miscellaneous Personal Papers, RG94-USCT-MISCPP-Bx216 [1]). Smmurphy^(Talk) 15:38, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

Regarding his marriage and expulsion from Berea, it sounds to me that he may have thought he was married or claimed to be married in 1879, and we don't have anything definitive which decides between that and the 1881 date. I'll add mention of the 1881 date in the article. If you have a good way of wording his expulsion form Berea, feel free to add it! Smmurphy^(Talk) 15:57, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

References