Levi Luallin and his "oncle Robert"
Billie Harris - Sep 9, 2009
I have two pages of the Sept. 1994 issue of Llewellyn Traces by Martha Abey. There's one article entitled "Levi Luallin and his "oncle Robert" which I'm copying:
"Often in the course of publishing Llewellyn Traces we write about an individual only to receive related material later that seems to expand the original item greatly.
"Such, we believe, is the case with Levi Luallin, about whom we wrote in 'Letters from Levi Luallin,' in Llewellyn Traces 2:3, page 46.
While we still are missing great chunks of information about this family, we have enough additional material, based upon the records of several of our readers, to begin to speculate about Levi's roots, gathering up unsuspecting families as we go along.
"By reading Levi Luallin's letters closely, we determine that he set off for the California gold rush from southern Missouri or northern Arkansas. Leaving his widowed mother and siblings behind in Arkansas. Levi traveled north, planning to meet his 'oncle Robert' at Springfield (Missouri). When he arrived his uncle Robert was not there. We must assume that Levi and his uncle didn't meet.
"Now, from Wesley Hogan, Elk City (Montgomery county) Kansas, we learn that Robert Lewallen (sic) (1802 ca 1850) started for California, only to become ill, recover a bit, go swimming in the Platte River, and drown because of his weakened condition.
"Wesley believes Robert Lewallen was Levi's 'oncle Robert.'
"If such was the case, this is just the beginning of an attempt to connect several 'unconnected' individuals, another exercise in what happens when several records are dovetailed.
"We'll continue the story in Llewellyn Traces 7:1, March 1995. Several of our subscribers will be very interested in where this story leads."