Rufus Clemens was head of household in Richland Twp, Fulton Co., IN during the 1880 Census. He was born in Ohio and was 45. His wife was Nancy who was 43 and born in Indiana. Their children were Alfrette (F), 23, born in IN, Mary, 21, OH, Jacob, 9, IN, and Katherine, 5, IN. It is likely that both Jacob and Katherine were born in Fulton County.

Note that the 1880 Census for Rufus and the 1900 Census for Sylvester Johnston have the following points of agreement and no points of disagreement on Cassie: Both give her name as Katherine with a 'K'. Both agree on her age. Both agree on her state of birth, her mother's state of birth, and her father's state of birth. Also her last name in the 1880 Census is spelled Clemens which is the spelling of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) who she proudly claimed to be a relative.

In the Aug 1856 session of the Indiana Superior Court at Rochester, Fulton Co., IN, Rufus Clemens was indicted for larceny and plead not guilty. At the next court session on Feb 1857, he was tried before a jury and was acquitted.

I don't have a marriage date for Rufus and Nancy but their first child, Alfrette, was born in 1857. Nancy was born 20 years earlier so they couldn't have been married very long, and possibly not yet married, when the alleged larceny occurred.

It is interesting to note that the family moved to Ohio, the state where Rufus was born, shortly after the trial, as shown by Mary's birth there in 1859. I don't know how long they stayed in Ohio but 12 years later they were back in Indiana for Jacob's birth. That 12 year lull between children is odd.

I ran across this larceny etc. situation in the Superior Court Records of Fulton Co., IN on my last day at the Family History Library in SLC. Things were made even more stressful by the fact that the indexing kept changing from Clemens to Clemmens to Clemans to Clemmons with each year. My hair stood up when I noted that a cluster of 3 Clemens were on the docket for the Feb 1863 session. The prosecutor was asking for the indictment of Rufus and Isaac for larceny and was charging Jackson with murder. . No indictments were found. The same thing happened in the Aug 1863 session. Note that the efforts to indict Rufus and Isaac for larceny in the 1860's had to be for an event other than the one for which Rufus was acquited in Feb. 1857. The only Isaac I could find that might reasonably have been involved is Rufus's uncle, Isaac Jr. It may be relevant that Isaac Clemans Jr., age 42, and his sons Nicholas, age 22, and Robert, age 18, all enlisted in the cavalry of the MO State Militia on March 13, 1863 at Rockport, Mo. (An interesting sidelight is that the cavalry horses were stabled in the basement of the Rockport courthouse.)

The effort to indict Rufus and Isaac were nol-prossed (dropped) in Feb 1864 session but was repeated against Jackson every 6 month session until Aug 1867 when the court decided to dismiss him. However, they tried again to get an indictment against him on the next, Feb 1868 session. At this point I decided to track the affair back in time to see when it all started because it looked like it was never going to end and I was just about out of time. I stopped taking notes except for my last note which simply states, "Aug 1853 Jackson Clemmons" I think I would have noted if Rufus and Isaac were included in that reference but I can't recall when their names first appeared. The "nol pros" on Rufus and Isaac may have been due to the statute of limitations but the statute doesn't apply to murder, so the district attorneys of Fulton Co., IN may still be trying to get an indictment against poor old Jackson Clemens.

It appears the district attorneys of Fulton Co., IN had much animosity against the Clemens boys and it appears that Rufus headed for Ohio to let things cool down and returned to Indiana when it appeared reasonably safe.

Subsequent to the above entry, I have found more information on Jackson Clemens, the son of John B. Clemens and the 1st cousin of Rufus. This very interesting story will be continued in the Notes for Jackson.