John A. Pond Sr. family, 1892, left to right, front - John Albert and Nancy Jane (Mason) Pond; standing - Laura, Henry Edward, John A. Jr., Charles Arthur, Jeptha, and Arch E. standing directly between John and Nancy. --From "Laclede County, Missouri: History and Families"
There is some controversy of the father of John A. Pond Sr., a prominent figure in Pond family history. John Albert Pond was a Civil War soldier, and has quite a paper trail. However, nothing on paper directly mentions his parents. He just appears on the scene, so to speak. I am quite confident, though, that his father was actually Samuel B. Pond for a few reasons; location, age/timing, and the 1830 and 1840 Census of Samuel B. Pond of Barlow, Ohio. The number of children and their ages corresponds perfectly with the birth of John A Pond.
EXCEPT. I have copy of letter from Julia Ann Pond Tilton to John Albert Pond written during the Civil War stating that she was going to write to their mother. So it would seem that their mother was still alive at this point. So I don’t see that Samuel Pond could be the father as he and his wife had already been gone a long time by this date.
Hi, Linda. Great to get some feedback. I have a copy of the letter’s transcription as well. Honestly, I had forgotten about it entirely. However, I am more inclined to question the death date of Samuel B Pond’s spouse, Ethelinda Clark, being at age 41. As I said, I haven’t found many reliable records of the era, and I believe the date has just been copied between family trees online (I think that’s how I got it, as I have no references noted for it).
Of course, I could be wrong. I guess you can’t be too attached to your own speculations when doing genealogy research, someone or something will always let you know when you’re wrong. If you’ve got other information on this, I’d love to see it, (jhumphries97@gmail.com) especially if you have a photocopy of the hand written letter. I have transcriptions of several JA Pond letters, but no photocopies. I do have copies of his complete Civil War Military records on my family tree site if you’re interested.