on a Roll with Sheets

Once upon a time Samuel Roll and wife Mary (nee Sheets) , who was born on January 31, 1867, lived in one of the Brushfield houses on Park Avenue and they had one child, named Samuel. There isn’t much else I know about the Roll family at this point, except that  in the 1890-91 city directory there is a listing for “Roll Samuel, carriage painter, res 1016 Park ave.” After the elder Samuel Roll died his widow did live with her son awhile. The Rolls show up at 1030 and 1016 Park Avenue.

The Sheets family has a little more to go on right now, though. Mary Sheets was the daughter of Jacob Sheets and Amanda Chandler. Jacob Sheets was born in 1845. In the Sheets family records at the Madison Jefferson County Public Library is a death notice that states, that when Jacob Sheets died, his funeral was held in his daughter’s home on Park Avenue, that being the 1030 address. I will probably need to do a separate post on Jacob at some point. According to the obituary he was as soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Anyway…Jacob’s parents were John and Mary Sheets. His father, well-known John Sheets, was born in 1821 and died April 13, 1881. The union of hisparents, John Sheets and Elizabeth Leishman, brought forth the following children: Unknown Sheets, Hannah Sheets, John Sheets, Jacob Scheitz Sheets, Francis Frank Sheets, and Michael Sheets. The elder John Sheets was born in Prussia, Germany, in 1797.

 Members of the Sheets family occupied more than one house east of Ferry. The name John Sheets is probably familiar to many in Madison. On page 52, of Donald Thomas Zimmer’s, Madison, Indiana, 1811-1860: A Study in the Process of City Building, I read, “In 1836 John Sheets platted the area aound Ferry Street extending from Sering Street to the river. The Sheets addition marked the earliest development of any part of Madison east of East Street.” (This being about John Sheets, of the Sheets Add, as it is called…the expansion to the east of the original town of Madison, Indiana. )

The census checks shows John Sheets listed in 1820, so they have been around a while. Members of the Sheets family were just one family who called this a family neighborhood. It will take me a while to decipher who lived where. There are so many in this family just the thought of all the research gave me a headache, but I will get through it at some point. One on-line Madison City Directory,( the 1890-91 edition) available through the history rescue project online shows the following Sheets listings for addresses that I know are east of Ferry:

Sheets Frank R, lab, res 1023 Park ave

Sheets Harry H, wks brewery, res 1023 Park ave

Sheets Jacob, lab, res s s Fulton e of corporation

Sheets John, lab, res 1023 Park ave

Sheets John H, lab, res 1023 Park ave

 There are more but this is all I am doing in this post for now.

I’ll get the connections at a later date. Soon I hope.

John Sheets’ children (the one who was born around 1821) were John Sheets , Jacob Sheets, Peter Sheets , Nicholas Sheets, and Margaret Sheets. Picking one of them out of a hat for info, Peter Sheets was married to Helen Amanda Roll Sheets, b. October 3, 1842 (also went by the name Ellen). Peter died in 1939 at the age of 88, at least according to one newspaper obituary…another says he was 91. Peter died at the home of his daughter, according to the paper, Wednesday, September 6, 1939. He had been employed at the nieghborhood button factory at one point. 

Peter’s wife died 12 years before him, the obituary saying that at the time of death she was living at an EAST Filmore address. I will have to look into the exact addresses in the neighborhood as I see more deeds. I have already made one connection. I recall seeing the Sheets name in a city directory, at 1017 Park Avenue, as late as the 1940’s, so obviously the family has been in Madison a long while, some in the immediate vicinity. I’ll add to the Sheets listings as I get to them.