This month, I am making a final copy of my research on our Powell family. I would be thrilled to hear from other relatives before I finish it. My history starts with a John Ruben Powell born in NJ, and of Welsh ancestry. He was married to Lucretia Hallowbaugh (varied spellings) supposedly in Chicago IL in the early 1840's. Lucretia states in later documents that he was a sailor. From that point John Ruben Powell disappears, but his widows Civil War pension for her next husband states that Powell went to the mines in CA and died there in 1852. We have no idea if any of this is accurate. I found in the 1880 census Pioneer City, Deer Lodge, MT a John Powel age 72 born in NJ both parents born in Wales a miner who lists himself as single. I have not found a similar John Powel or Powell in any census prior to this. Did our John hide from the census takers? His age indicates he would have been born about 1808. This man surely had a life before and after Lucretia (if he is indeed her husband) and I would like to learn more about him. The children listed for John Ruben Powell and Lucretia Ann are Mary Elizabeth, James C, Charles Henry, and Lewis born between 1845 and 1853. This family was in Manitowoc Co WI in 1850 and 1855 census, and then in Stark and Henry Counties IL until moving to Ellsworth County, Kansas and Cleveland Co OK Gayle in Kansas