Catherine Whaley Drake -- Who Your Daddy?

So if Catherine Whaley and Amos Stout Drake did not live in the same community, how did they hook up?

It's important that we remind ourselves how different things were back in 1820.  There were no cars and no trains.  If you wanted to go anywhere, you walked.  The average man walked 3 mph.  During a 10 hour day, maximum mileage would have been 30 miles.  I think it would be safer to figure 20 miles.  These people weren't walking on track, sidewalk or road.

If you were a farmer, you might have access to a horse.  The average horse walks around 4 mph, but the trot around 8 mph and canter at 10-17 mph.  There's a good chance that a rider would trot and canter the horse periodically, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that someone could travel 30-40 miles in a 10 hour day.  But would a person travel all that way on horseback just to court?  Maybe someone was taking a wagon full of wheat to be milled or hides to trade.  A horse pulling a wagon is good for 15-25 miles a day.

So what was in Cato or Spafford or Marcellus that wasn't available in Lyons?  I haven't tangled with that part of the research yet.  I'm hoping there will be a clue.

So I've already gone of the whys and wherefores concerning John P Whaley and why I'm ruling him out as a potential father for Catherine Whaley?  Just a reminder, in 1820 he's living in an 8 person household with 3 boys under 10 and 3 girls under 10.  I am betting that the mom -- the female in the right age bracket is the mom and Katherine wouldn't have been old enough to have all those kids.  She was about 21 in 1820.

I'm getting frustrated.  Maybe Catherine isn't even real.  But wait, my information from a county history of Hillsdale, Michigan, tell of Amos Stout Drake and his wife, Catherine... she was real.  But who was she?  Back to the drawing board.

There is a Charles Whaley who is living in Spafford, Onondaga, New York at the right time.  I've tracked him down in other family trees and he has a Thankful Whaley as a daughter -- who is in my Mallison Line, but no Catherine.

In the 1820 United States Federal Census, I've found a gentleman named Joseph Whaley.  Actually he's listed as Joseph Wherry of Marcellus, Onondaga, New York.  Going all the way in to review the actual document, I find that "Wherry" is actually "Whaley."  There was a serious problem with transcribing it, I guess.  Let that be a lesson and a reminder -- don't always take the "printer friendly" or the transcription determine where your research goes.  Further research shows that Joseph (Wherry) Whaley and a female living in the house who would be of the right age, with 2 people being old enough to be her parents.  Marcellus, New York is 42.86 miles from Lyons.

Something else to consider, the 1830 US Census has Amos Stout Drake living with a wife and family in Rose, New York.  Rose is 12.5 miles from Lyons.  I need to see how Amos's neighbors were.  Could they have settled nearer her family?  There was one son and one daughter in the household as well, both under 10 in 1820.  Even ten years later, a young teenage boy and teenage girl probably wouldn't have bee much help on a farm.

More later.  Right now I'm managing to confuse myself.