Abbie FARNSWORTH

  General Notes:

Note from Jeanine Ricketts - This child does not appear on any census. The only record I found for the existence of this child is from the bio of Marshall Farnsworth (from the History of Muscatine County, Iowa, p. 635, which indicates that by the publication date of 1879, two of Marshall's children were deceased: Abbie and Venora. This account does not mention another child for this couple who had died young: George A. Farnsworth. In the Harker Cemetery, this child is identified as the child of M. and R. Farnsworth (Marshall and Rebecca). Now I suppose that Abbie could have been the name they called George by, i.e. his name could have been George Abbott "Abbie" Farnsworth. If that is the case, then there is no female child by that name for this family; but on the chance that there was, since Abbie would more likely be a female name than a male name, I listed this child last, as Rebecca would still have been of child-bearing age in 1864, and the other children seem to have been born at regular intervals of about three years each. We may never know for sure. The bio also stated that this couple had 8 children in all, which might be another reason that son George is the "Abbie" written of in this article as he would be number 8.