Abraham L. Casteel (1861 - 1938)

Born 31 Jul 1861 in Alabama

Ancestors

Husband of Nancy Jane (Goode) Casteel — married 27 Feb 1881 in Limestone County, Alabama

Descendants

Died 8 May 1938 at age 76 in Alabama

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Greg Casteel [send private message]

Biography

Abraham L. (Lincoln?) "Bud" Casteel (1861-1938)

[No documentary evidence has yet been found establishing his middle name with any certainty. Many people have simply assumed that his nickname, Bud, was his actual middle name. In fact, many documents refer to him as Abraham Bud Casteel, Abraham (or Abe ) B. Casteel, or A.B. Casteel. But there is some documentary evidence that his actual middle initial was L. Given his year of birth and the fact that his family were staunch Unionists, this contributor suspects that his middle name may have been Lincoln, but as of yet there is no documentary evidence to support this hypothesis. However, he did have a nephew — the son of his sister Janie (Casteel) Looney — who was apparently named after him. His full name was Abraham Lincoln Looney and, just like his uncle, he went by the nickname Bud.]

Abraham L. Casteel was born in the summer of 1861 to Henry Montgomery Casteel and Elizabeth "Betty" Jane (Hicks) Casteel in the Lentzville/Temperance Oak/Pleasant Grove area of western Limestone County, Alabama. He spent most of his life there, or just across the county line in neighboring Lauderdale County.

He was born just a couple of months after the start of the Civil War. Like many of the poor white farmers of northern Alabama — folks who couldn't afford slaves of their own and couldn't compete with larger farms that employed slave labor — the Casteels were opposed to secession and remained loyal to the Union throughout the turbulent events of the next few years. With the election of Abraham Lincoln, an outspoken opponent of slavery, to the presidency later that year, the die was cast, and the secession of Southern slave-holding states became inevitable. Yet the debates over secession raged in many parts of the South, including in the northern counties of Alabama, where those opposed to secession were almost as numerous and as vocal as those in favor of it. In fact, opposition to secession was so strong in Winston County, Alabama (about 30 miles to the south of Limestone County), that many county leaders threatened that if Alabama seceded from the Union, Winston County would secede from the State of Alabama! There was even some talk of uniting the northern half of Alabama with the eastern half of Tennessee (where anti-secession sentiment also ran high) to create a new free state called Nickajack that would either remain neutral in the coming war or else would actively side with the Union. Although it's hard to know for certain what the debates over secession were like in Limestone County in the months leading up to the Civil War, it's clear that Unionist sentiment ran high, at least in certain parts of the county.

And the Casteels appear to have been staunch Unionists. Less than a year after Abraham Casteel was born, his oldest brother, James Henson Casteel, would go to Huntsville, Alabama, to enlist in the 1st Alabama Cavalry, USV — a volunteer unit of soldiers from Alabama (and surrounding states) who chose to wear Union blue and fight against the Confederacy. Abraham L. Casteel was born into this Unionist family just after the start of the war, so it's very tempting to suspect that he may have been named after President Abraham Lincoln. Unfortunately, we lack any documentary evidence about his middle name, so we just can't be sure.

Regardless of what his actual name might have been, at some point Abraham picked up the nickname "Bud", which is what he was called for most of his life.

Bud's childhood is a bit of a mystery. His name has yet to be found in either the 1870 or 1880 censuses. However, there is a William Casteel listed as part of the Casteel household in the 1870 census who doesn't appear in any other census records and who no one in the family seems to remember. While it is possible that this William was a younger brother of Abraham who died in childhood, this contributor is of the opinion that "William" is actually Abraham — that the census taker wrote down the wrong name for some reason. (Given the sheer number of errors this contributor has encountered in census records in the course of this research, this hypothesis seems quite plausible indeed.) But even if the "William" Casteel in the 1870 census is actually Bud, that still leaves open the question of where Bud Casteel is to be found in the 1880 census. It is a mystery that thus far remains unsolved.

Bud's father died in 1865 when Bud was less than 5 years old, and his mother died in 1872 when he was less than 10. In 1873, Bud's oldest brother, James Henson Casteel, was appointed guardian of Bud and his younger brother John. Yet, in the 1880 census, neither Bud nor John is living with the James Henson Casteel family. John is living with his sister, Hannah Evelyn (Casteel) Goode and her family, and Bud is nowhere to be found. Of course, Bud would be 19 years old in 1880 — old enough to live on his own — yet his apparent absence from the 1880 census is still hard to explain.

Other than the 1873 document appointing James H. Casteel guardian over Bud and his brother John, the first real documentary evidence we have concerning the life of Abraham L. "Bud" Casteel comes from 1881. In that year, But would get married, and his name would appear on a deed as one of the sellers of a piece of land.

Bud Casteel married Nancy Jane Goode on 27 February 1881 in Limestone County, Alabama. The marriage license, issued on 26 February 1881, is on file at the Limestone County Archives. (Note that the groom's name is listed as Abe Casteal and the bride's name is listed as Jane Goode.)

Jane Goode was the daughter of James Washington Goode and Malinda Caroline (Lentz) Goode. Jane Goode's mother, Caroline, died in 1873. Four years later, in 1877, Jane's father, James, remarried. His new bride was none other than Bud Casteel's older sister, Hannah Evelyn Casteel. So, four years later, when Bud and Jane got married, Bud became his own sister's stepson-in-law and Jane became her stepmother's sister-in-law.

The second event in 1881 involving Bud Casteel for which we have documentary evidence is the sale of the Casteel family farm. Bud's father, Henry Montgomery Casteel, acquired a 160 acre farm (in four 40 acre plots) by land patent between the years 1852 and 1860. After the deaths of Henry in 1865 and his wife Betty in 1872, their children inherited the land. It is unclear who was living on the farm between 1872 and 1881. Presumably, the eldest brother, James Henson Casteel, continued to live there with his family (including Bud and John, since he was now their guardian) for some time at least. But by the time of the 1880 census, James and his family (which no longer included Bud and John), were living in a different part of the county. When and why they moved is unknown. John Samuel Casteel is living with his sister Jane Looney and her family in 1881. Their sisters Rebecca and Elvira Casteel are living next door with their other sister, Evelyn Goode, and her family. Their other brother Jake is living with his own family in another part of the county. And Bud Casteel is nowhere to be found in the 1880 census. So, maybe no one was living on the Casteel farm in 1880. It's really not possible to tell based on census information alone.

Regardless of who may or may not have been living there at the time, in late 1881 the family apparently decided to sell the land. Or at least most members of the family did. For some unexplained reason, James Henson Casteel is not listed as one of the sellers on the deed. (Neither is John Samuel Casteel, but he was a minor at the time. Nor is Jane Looney listed as a seller, but that's because she and her husband were the buyers!) The land was sold for the paltry sum of $83 — hardly a fair price for 160 acres of farmland even in 1881. ($83 in 1881 would be roughly equivalent to $2,000 in today's money — less than what a single acre of farmland would sell for in Alabama today.) Presumably, the low selling price was due, at least in part, to the fact that the buyers were part of the family.

Bud worked for most of his adult life as a sharecropper. Although his father, Henry, and his two older brothers, James and Jake, all worked as blacksmiths (in addition to farming, of course), there is no evidence that Bud ever worked as a professional blacksmith. According to some accounts, in his later years (c.1930), Bud ran a ferry across the Elk River.

Bud and Jane had eleven children (two of whom died in infancy):

• Elizabeth "Lizzie" C. Casteel (b. 1881) — her married name was Elrod
  
• Ida Louella Casteel (b. 1884) — her married name was Graham
  
• Flora Vianna Casteel (b. 1886) — her married name was Rose
  
• James Henry Casteel (b. 1887)
  
• John Fred Casteel (b. 1889)
  
• Lorene "Rena" Casteel (b. 1891) — her married name was Brooks
  
• Mary Viola Casteel (b. 1893) — her married name was Graham
  
• Lenard Casteel (b. 1895, d. 1896) who died in infancy
  
• Marvin Alburn (or Albert) Casteel (b. 1897)
  
• Litha Mae Casteel (b. 1900) — her married name was Cunningham
  
• twin of Litha Mae Casteel (b./d. 1900) who died in infancy
  

[Note that many documentary sources — including his death record — give Marvin's middle name as Albert, but the family remembers him as Alburn, which was the name he went by. It is unclear if Alburn was his actual name (and the sources that have his name as Albert simply got it wrong) or if his actual name was Albert, and Alburn was just a nickname.]

By all accounts, Bud was a gentle and kind man who was well liked. He lived into his late 70s. His wife Jane died in November of 1936 and Bud died less than two years later in May of 1938. Both are buried in the Temperance Oak Cemetery in western Limestone County, Alabama.

Sources

James Lynn Parham, An Alabama Rose Garden (1998) — a useful source on the history of the Casteel family of Limestone County, Alabama; though much of the information in it has been either disproved or cast into serious doubt by discoveries made since its publication.

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Marriage record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5ZW-G2S
(Image is available at the Limestone County Archives: http://limestonearchives.com/ )

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-1870 census record (for "William" Casteel): https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHKF-RDT

-1880 census record: (not yet found)

[Note that virtually all of the 1890 census records were destroyed in a fire before they could be saved on microfilm, so no record is available for that year.]

-1900 census record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9D7-58G

-1910 census record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MK7Z-M88

-1920 census record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MX8N-TJT

-1930 census record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:3LLD-T6Z

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Death record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDTG-FL8

His Find-a-Grave entry: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51332442

His wife’s Find-a-Grave entry: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51332511

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Death records of his children:

-Lizzie Casteel Elrod: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDT3-K58

-Ida Graham: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J6J4-3Y3

-Flora Rose: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JK31-5MB

-James Henry Casteel: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JKS9-9P8

-John Fred Casteel, Sr.: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JXZ6-DCH

-Mary Viola Graham: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JK9R-WZ7

-Marvin Albert Casteel: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JK9P-YFX