Sometimes inheritance accounts for large jumps in net worth. > [Original Message] > From: Nadine Holder <nadineholder72@ssvecnet.com> > To: <PA-OLD-CHESTER-L@rootsweb.com> > Date: 5/21/06 1:06:08 PM > Subject: Paschall Woodward of Chester County and points west > > The list seems a bit quiet so thought I would ask a question that has bugged me for some time. > > "In 1850, an Act of Assembly was passed, creating the office of District Attorney and making the officer elective by the people. The first choice of the electors fell upon Paschall Woodward, who acted in that capacity until 1853, when he resigned and removed to the West." Tells of a murder case tried by Paschall in Jan 1851. From Side Lights on the Bench and Bar of Chester County, by Wilmer W. MacElree 1918 > > Then I find Paschall in the 1850 census in Chester County: > 1850 #362 West Chester Chester Co, Pa > Paschall Woodward, 25, lawyer, $2500, Pa; Elizabeth J., 22, Pa; Anna Mary Woodward, 17, Pa; Margaret Mills, 19, Pa. They are next door to a girls' school run by Palmer Evans and thus probably the two girls staying with them. Anna Mary is Paschall's sister. > > Then he did indeed remove to the west and is found in 1860: > 1860 New Lenox Will Co Ill > 1119 Paschall Woodward, 35, farmer, Pa, 72,000 real estate 20,000 personal property > Elizabeth J., 34, Pa; Harry Woodward, 9, Pa; Emma J, 4, Il; John Yertze 60, farm hand, Pa; John Conwell, 30, carppenter, NY; Wm Edwards, 24, farm hand, Pa; James Brenan, 30, farm hand, Ire; Henry Law, 25, farm hand, NY; Angus McFadden, 25, farm hand, Scotland; Charlotte Weston, 56, servant, England; Lydia Cramer, 14, servant, NY > > My question is how did this guy go from a net worth of $2500 in 1850 to nearly $100,000 in 1860. That is an enormous amount of money in that day and time. A currency comparison site online using comparative cost of living gives the value in 2004 of $100,000 from 1860 as over two million dollars. > > Paschall is only distantly related to me - second cousin, four times removed and it is mainly prurient curiosity on my part. He descends from William and Eliza Marshall Woodward and I have his family information. Didn't find much on him by Googling and wonder if anyone out there knows his story , i. e. anything about the murder trial and how Paschall may have come into his wealth? > Nadine Holder