It's all relative…
Tombstone Tuesday is a GeneaBloggers Prompt
I have a lot of “brick walls”. Don’t we all? I have a handful of ones that are driving me to the point of insanity and I keep revisiting them, over and over and over and over…
My 4th great-grandfather, Silas Myers, and his wife, Catherine Eades, are one of those brick walls that I keep banging my head against. There just has to be a way to positively document who their children were and to move back in time beyond this couple. There are plenty of researchers that have been looking into these two for years. So…it’s not from a lack of interest from the descendants nor a lack of determination that the particulars of this family have been so elusive. Thanks, in part, to DNA testing, many of us have found each other and are puzzling this out together. This gives me hope that one of us will have a break-through in this line sometime soon.
For this post, I’d like to lay out a lot of everything that I think that I know about these two in the hope that there are others out there, somewhere, to make connections to. If you think this is a part of your family, please, comment and let’s compare notes. You Myers researchers that are out there, don’t hesitate to correct me if I’ve got something wrong here. After 30 years of looking at these two, my notes are, quite frankly, a mess!
What we do know for sure, is that Silas Myers and Catherine Eades were married 06 March 1806 in Columbiana County, Ohio. We don’t know who the parents of Silas or Catherine are and there are no obvious candidates in the Columbiana County, Ohio area appearing about the same time as Silas and Catherine do. We’re looking at Silas being born about 1788 in Virginia and Catherine being born about 1790, also in Virginia.
Acting on a hint from a fellow Myers researcher, I looked at two names of Eades persons who were married in Columbiana County near to the timeframe when Silas and Catherine married.
Nancy Eades married Thomas Cross 15 Feb 1810.
James Eades married Phebe Whitacre 12 February 1812.
I found that it was difficult to trace Nancy and Thomas Cross, only finding that they had at least one son, James, born about 1820 and that he married (at age 70) to one Mary Oesberger on 21 August 1890 in Van Buren County, Michigan, and that’s about it.
James Eades also proved difficult to find, at first, until I realized that he was appearing on censuses as James “Ades”. Consistently. That gave me pause because I had always pronounced Eades (in my head) with a long “e” sound, not a long “a” sound, but I can see quite clearly how that might also be a pronunciation of Eades. Or we could just be dealing with the whim of whoever was writing the names both on the census and in the marriage register. I haven’t found any documents that James might have signed, yet. James and Phebe had at least seven children that I have identified and I noticed that they had a daughter named Nancy, and a daughter named Catherine, and, possibly, a son named James.
The most interesting thing about James is that he had a sister by the name of Linna (very important) and that she married, yes, Phebe’s brother, Cornelius Whitacre on 20 Dec 1811 in Columbiana County. Her last name is spelled as Ades in the record. Both Cornelius and Linna Whitacre are buried in the Cool Springs Cemetery in Columbiana County. It is associated with the West Fairfield Friends Meeting. Both of these families have been identified as living in Virginia previously, Loudoun and Frederick counties, and the Whitacres seem to be associated with several Quaker Meetings. Because I didn’t find Catherine Eades as a sibling to James (nor Miss Nancy, who married Thomas Cross), I’m looking to see if I can find a cousin connection by pouring through Quaker Meeting records. I think this is going to take a bit of a while. I am not familiar, at all, with looking at these records.
I found another item of interest in a family genealogy booklet by the name of History of Cornelius Whitacre and Linna Ades Whitacre & Their Descendants, July, 1916; written by M. Jeanette Haley.
Another clue! Perhaps. At present, I am looking into trying to find some Baptist church records in the vicinity of Loudoun County, Virginia. If this Ades family turns out to not be connected to my Eades family, it won’t be the first time that I’ve taken a wrong turn in trying to flush a family out. The things that I keep in mind are that, for one thing, it gives me experience in researching other types of records that I might not have explored. And for another, at least I’ll know what I’m not looking for and I can close that avenue for that line. I’ve found family in stranger ways.
So back to Silas, we know that he bought land in Columbiana County 27 Oct 1804 because we have Ohio Land Grant records. Notice that he is listed as being from Columbiana County (CB).
Notice, also, that listed just above Silas is the name, Lambert Myers. Lambert is also the name of Silas and Catherine’s firstborn son (that we know of) and is my line, my 3rd great-grandfather. This Lambert Myers who bought land in 1811 in Columbiana County has been giving me fits for more than 30 years. In my head, I felt that there was surely going to be something linking him and Silas together, but so far, there has not been. Note that the record lists him as being from Loudoun County, Virginia (LO). This Lambert married Mary Eveland in Loudoun County, Virginia and, among other children, had a son Lambert about 1812.
Lambert (from Virginia) had a brother Jonathan, who paid the taxes on the land that Lambert bought in Ohio, but unlike Lambert, actually lived there also. Right down the road from our Myers’. Jonathan also had a son named Lambert, born about 1811. People confuse Jonathan’s Lambert and Silas’ Lambert a lot. And sometimes, even manage to give (Virginia) Lambert the death date and place of Jonathan’s Lambert. But…I digress, and we’ve not even touched on the Mahlons in Virginia or how a bunch of these families are related to the Schooley family. So, no connection has been made to these Myers families yet that might say that they’re kin. But I’m hanging on to my notes because these are Quaker families also.
Another thing we know about Silas, for sure, is that he served in the War of 1812, 2nd Regiment Hindman’s Ohio Militia. The above is the only paper that I’ve found relating to his military service.
It, also, appears that Silas did not leave a will because one has not been found yet. So we are left to try to piece together who the children of Silas and Catherine are. When I first started this family history journey, I knew of my third great-grandfather, Lambert, and that he had a brother, Mahlon. After coming into contact with others researching the same family, I’ve been trying to come up with likely candidates to be Lambert’s siblings using census records, proximity, migration, and naming patterns. Now, we also have the added information that we can deduce from looking at DNA matches. While most of this DNA information won’t tell us with certainty who the child of who is, what it can tell us is that we are related, and can help us to verify the paper trail.
Following is a list of who I think that those children are. I think that my list might differ some from others’ in some ways, but I feel comfortable with this one (birth dates may be approximate):
1. Lambert (1811-1895) married Susannah Crawford 1830.
2. David (1812- ) married Margaret Crawford 1828.
3. Mahlon (1813-1869) married Rebecca Hackathorn 1837, married Elizabeth Partlow 1856.
4. *Elizabeth (1815-1848) married Lewis W. Clark 1839.
5. Linnea (1816-1900) married John Heston 1837, Married Henry Criss 1852.
6. Sarah “Sally” (1820-1898) married Ebenezer (Eber or Eben) Clark 1839.
7. Nancy M. (1823-1920) married Emmor (Emmar) Clark 1844.
8. Mordecai (1828-1913) married Miriam Emmons 1851.
9. **James Andrew (1832-1919) married Clarissa Spencer 1858.
* Elizabeth marrying Lewis Clark is the newest bit of information that I’ve stumbled upon. I have had the name Eliza listed as a child of Silas and Catherine for years, but never made the connection to this marriage until last week. Please keep in mind throughout this post that, in the absence of proof of these relationships, what is being done is to try to reconstruct likely scenarios. I have a book of Carroll County, Ohio Early Marriages from 1833 to 1849 and have skipped over this piece of information for years. After learning of Nancy and Sally Clark’s husbands, it jumped right off of the page at me. It makes total sense since Lewis is a brother to Eber and Emmar.
The Clark family lived right next door to Christian Hackathorn and Catherine Phillis, parents of Rebecca Hackathorn who married Mahlon Myers. If this relationship doesn’t prove out, I will be greatly surprised. Elizabeth and Lewis had two children. A daughter, Nancy, born in 1844 and a son, Eber, born in 1847. Elizabeth died 11 June 1848 and her daughter, Nancy, 5 days later. They are both buried in Upper Glade Run Cemetery. The 1850 census finds Lewis living in his brother Emmar’s household in East Township, Carroll County and his son, Eber, living down the road in the household of one Elizabeth Reed, along with her children, Amos and Hannah. Who was Elizabeth Reed? It turns out that she was Elizabeth Edwards, daughter of John Edwards and Hannah Whitacre. Yes. She’s the sister of Cornelius and Phebe, who married into the Ades family.
And what does all of this prove? Nothing. These instances could all be huge coincidences, but I like to compare it to a bunch of jigsaw puzzle pieces that look pretty much the same and after trying diligently to make them fit – realize that the pieces might belong in another box.
** James Andrew. The general consensus amongst most of the Myers researchers that I am in contact with is that Mordecai is the youngest child of Silas and Catherine and that James is a grandson. But for me personally, I feel that I need to keep him on the list as belonging to Silas and Catherine. If our estimates of Catherine’s birth date are close to correct, she would have still been at childbearing age with James perhaps being a “menopause baby.” The parents on James’ death certificate are listed as “Unknown.”
In the above snippet from the 1850 census. We find James with Catherine and Silas and, also, a Mary, aged seven, which would make her date of birth about 1843. We pretty much all agree that Mary is a grandchild, but who did she spring from? In the above example, we also see Mahlon and Lambert and their families. Both of the Marys belonging to them are accounted for. Linnea had a Mary who was born about 1831, but she would have been a Heston. It seems as if Nancy had a Mary or Marianne, but I don’t have a date of birth for her and she would have been a Clark. It appears that Nancy’s firstborn was born in 1846- and was a son. Mordecai had a Mary born in 1852 and James had a Mary born in 1862. So who does this Mary belong to? I have had an uneasy feeling that we might be missing a child (or children) of Catherine and Silas only because of the fact that they were married in 1806 and the first child that we know of, Lambert, wasn’t born until around 1811. Realizing that infant mortality rates were high during the early 19th century, that fact didn’t bother me too much until I started trying to place Mary somewhere into a known family.
After the 1850 census, the Myers family started to spread out. Silas & Catherine and others of the family traveled down to Meigs County, Ohio to take up residence. Some went over to East Liverpool, Ohio, some went out west, and others didn’t stray too far from where they were born. I ran across a 1905 local history concerning the San Joaquin Valley out in California and found an entry for Mahlon’s daughter, Mary, where it was mentioned that her grandfather, Silas “was at one time a planter and owned slaves, but being opposed to the bondage of the negro he removed to Ohio, where he freed his slaves.” So far, I have not found Silas in a single document anywhere in Virginia, although I’m certain that there are possibilities that I have not researched yet.
There is other evidence that has surfaced from Linnea’s descendants, that Catherine Eades parents were Cyrus Eades and a Mary, or perhaps, Mary Sophia, or vice-versa. This comes in the form of handwritten notes in an old account book. This account also mentions that they came from Wales because they were being persecuted for their religion and that they arrived the same year as William Tell. I’m pretty sure that they meant William Penn. William Penn arrived at New Castle, Delaware on 27 October 1682. If the reference to William Penn is correct, and understand that I am a poor math student, then I’m figuring that Cyrus and Mary (or Sophia) are a few generations back from being the parents of Catherine, perhaps great-grandparents. Or that Cyrus and Mary could be Catherine’s parents, but that their families arrived around 1682.
I always take a family’s history, published or not, with a grain of salt unless there are documents to back information up. They usually provide good clues, but I have found many things mistakenly written about members that just didn’t prove out to be true. Sometimes, it’s difficult to separate the fact from the fiction. Which is, after all, what we’re trying to do here.
Silas and Catherine both passed away in Meigs County, Ohio in the year 1875. Catherine on January 15th and Silas on May 11th. I do not know where either one are buried, but I assume them to be in the Chester/Pomeroy area. I’m expecting that at some point, the stories of Silas and Catherine and their origins will come to light because we’re not really dealing with ancient history.
In the meantime, I’ll just keep trying to put this puzzle together…
This is my Week #19 post for Amy Johnson Crow’s
52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Challenge.
The optional theme for week 19 was “There’s a Way”.
Week #11’s 52 Ancestors post is more than a little late and I’m afraid that the only excuse that I have is that with the plethora of Irish research site links posted across the internet over the past week, I felt compelled to investigate many, many of them (and there is only so much free time).
My family never leaned toward any cultural or ethnic traditions while I was growing up. I had lots of friends who had those type of family traditions, but we never did. We were just people who lived in Ohio. Because of my auburn hair, fair skin, blue eyes, and smattering of freckles across my nose, I had been asked many, many times in my life if I was Irish – usually around St. Patrick’s Day. I have usually replied that maybe I was, just a little. I really had no idea. Most of my lines, both maternal and paternal have been kicking around the U.S. for hundreds of years, so I think that would make me mostly an American with a heavy dose of European and Scandinavian roots. Now, thanks to DNA testing estimates, I found that indeed I am a bit Irish – approximately 12% worth. There are certainly surnames in my tree that have the appearance of being Irish, but I have always assumed that these people were probably Scotch-Irish. The problem is that all of these Irish sounding ancestors have been here in America forever. Seemingly so, anyway, since I’m not having much luck tracking down the immigrant ancestor for these lines and the records in Ireland are sketchy, at best, pre-1843.
My maternal grandfather Moore’s death certificate stated that he was Irish/American Indian. But then, that’s what my grandmother told them as the informant and that’s the story that he told her. So far, the Native blood hasn’t surfaced, but he did have black hair, darker skin, and eyes that were so brown that they looked black. Moore’s can be Irish. I did a lot of reading seeking information about what exactly the term “Black Irish” means, but it seems that there is no definitive answer on that. It also seems that there is really no answer about what “Luck of the Irish” means, either. Is that bad luck? Is that good luck? So many questions.
After all of my fruitless searching this week, I decided to put Susannah Crawford out here as blatant “cousin bait”. This is one of my huge brick walls that has a bunch of circumstantial evidence, so let me tell you what I know and don’t know. Susannah is my 3rd great-grandmother. She is the mother of Mary Amna Myers, who married Jacob Hackathorn. According to the 1900 census, Susannah was born in February of 1815. This is very consistent with ages given in all other censuses since 1850. In fact, the very consistency with Susannah’s information is why I’m writing about her this week. In giving information to the census enumerator, she always states that both of her parents were born in Ireland (and that fact has also been part of family tradition) and her age is always consistent with the progression of the census years. There is a researcher in Augusta, Ohio who states that Susannah is daughter of Matthew Crawford and a Susannah. As of this writing, no proof of that exists. I had always taken Susannah to be a daughter of one of Matthew’s sons, either William, Matthew, John, or James. My initial reasoning was circumstantial, at best. All of these people lived relatively nearby each other between Augusta and Norristown in Carroll County. These families also lived nearby the family of Silas Myers and all had settled in Columbiana County early on (this part of Columbiana County became Carroll County in 1832 on December 25).
![Donegal Bay. Kelisi at the English language Wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons](https://hollieannhenke.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/donegalbaycloseup.jpg)
Matthew Crawford, Susannah’s suspected father, was born about 1750 in County Donegal, Ireland. County histories all seem to agree that he immigrated to America in 1803 or 1804 and settled in Washington County, Pennsylvania accompanied by his four sons William, Matthew, John, and James and their families. James’ birth has been stated to be in Drumhome Parrish, County Donegal. A diligent search of ship’s passenger lists from Ireland from 1802 until 1805 have, so far, failed to produce these Crawford families. While son William remained in Pennsylvania, between 1810 and 1820 Matthew and sons Matthew, John, and James removed to the Augusta Township area and the three boys entered 160 acres of land each.
It appears that Matthew, the father, did not purchase land. Although, apparently, he was living in Augusta Township and “spent his last days on this land”. Matthew has sometimes been associated with two younger daughters – Rebecca, born in 1787 and Mary, born in 1791. The mother of the boys is probably named Margaret Letta Brown (or Lettie). Indeed, in the 1810 census where we find him in Washington County, Pennsylvania, the household would appear to reflect this. I have not found Matthew in the 1820 census in Ohio. The Matthew that is attributed to being Matthew, the father, in several trees for the 1820 census I believe to be Matthew the son because of ages of the males. Information for if, and when, Matthew married a Susannah – who would be my Susannah’s mother – has not been found and neither has what happened to her after Matthew died, assuming that he passed before her. I even put out an S.O.S. to the Carroll County Facebook page to see if anyone there might be related to the Crawford or Myers family and still hanging out in the area. No luck.
During these past two weeks I have systematically gone through the 1850 through 1880 censuses noting the sons of Matthew and their families. First, to get them straight because they continue to repeatedly use the same names for their children (and occasionally, using the names again if a young child dies). And secondly, to make sure that Susannah, my 3rd great-grandmother, doesn’t turn up as one of their children. Excepting Matthew, the father, it has also been relatively easy to find the wills of these people through probate records and my Susannah has not turned up as being named as a child in any of these wills. So…speculatively, Matthew, born in County, Donegal, Ireland is going to be who I’m working with as Susannah’s father.
Susannah Crawford married Lambert Myers, son of Silas Myers and Catherine Eads, on 14 September 1830 in Columbiana County, Ohio.
Susannah gave birth to eleven children who survived to adulthood, 3 daughters and 8 sons.
Between the 1850 and 1860 censuses, Susannah and Lambert moved to the East Liverpool area from Carroll County and would live out the rest of their lives in that vicinity. Lambert passes away sometime after the 1880 census. No death certificate or burial site has been found, as of yet, for him. We find Susan living with her daughter, Margaret Elizabeth, 83 years old and widowed, in the 1900 census. This daughter had lived nearby Lambert and Susannah for many years. The 1904 East Liverpool City Directory lists Susannah living just around the corner from Martha Elizabeth in a room at 118 Jackson Square and then she passes away 24 July 1904 and is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in East Liverpool, Ohio.
I don’t have a positive identification on most of the women in the photograph of Susannah at the beginning of this post. We know that Susannah is sitting front center and standing behind her, slightly left is her daughter Margaret Elizabeth. Susannah had three daughters, and because of the similarities between the woman sitting on left and standing far right to Margaret, I have to believe that the one standing is daughter Katherine and the one sitting in front is daughter Mary. Katherine had two daughters, Minnie G., born 1868 and Mary Susan, born 1870, and it is possible that these two young girls pictured beside and in front of the supposed Katherine in the photo could be those daughters. Because of the clothing styles, it is not unreasonable to think that this photograph could have been taken somewhere between 1880 and 1887, but what the heck would Mary be doing in East Liverpool when she was living in Indiana at that time? One possibility might be that everyone was in town because of the death of Lambert. One might think that Susannah does not look the age of a woman who might be a couple of years either side of 70 in this photo, but some of the women in our family wear their age incredibly well. I really have no idea who the women standing on far left might be. Perhaps they are wives of Susannah’s sons? Perhaps more photographs of the family will surface in the future and we will be able to identify all of these women. Hopefully. So many questions…
This is my Week #11 post for Amy Johnson Crow’s
52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Challenge.
The optional theme for this week was “Luck of the Irish”.
In keeping with the optional themes in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Challenge, as soon as I read that this week’s suggestion was “Tough Woman”, I thought of my maternal 2nd great-grandmother Mary Amna MYERS. I have long been more than a little obsessed with pioneer women and have read scads of books and diaries of, and authored by, pioneer women. You can probably imagine my delight at having a copy of an oral history that was dictated by Elizabeth Jane (Jennie) HACKATHORN BROTHERS, daughter of Mary MYERS, to a third cousin of mine, Susan MORGAN ACERBI. Susan has graciously allowed me to quote from that history for this blog post.
Mary Amna MYERS was born 29 December 1831, first-born daughter to Lambert L. MYERS and Susannah CRAWFORD. Although no proof has been found to the place that she was born, it is reasonable to believe that she was born in or near what is now East Township of Carroll County, Ohio since both the MYERS and CRAWFORD families lived in this area during that time. At the time of her birth, this area would have been Columbiana County.
Mary married Jacob A. HACKATHORN on 27 October 1849 in Norristown, Carroll County, Ohio. He was the son of Christian HACKATHORN and Catherine PHILLIS, early residents to this area from Beaver County, Pennsylvania. At the time of the 1850 census, Mary was enumerated twice. First, with her husband, Jacob, and six month old first born, Susannah F., on September 18th in Tallmadge, Summit County, living nearby Jacob’s brother James, and then in the home of her parents, Lambert and Susannah, in East Township of Carroll County on September 24th. Mary’s young daughter is not enumerated with her in the home of her parents. We know that Susannah died in infancy and although the death date has not been found as of yet, it is reasonable to assume that it could have been in this time period. Mary, herself, was pregnant again at the time of the census and due to give birth in December. These two things could have been a reason for her to show up in her parents’ household at the end of September. There would be 12 children born to Mary and Jacob. Besides Susannah, a son also died in infancy, and their youngest born son, George, died at the age of two. The other children were Christian Charles, Jacob P., James L., Silas Myers, William A., Thomas John, Crawford Matthew, Elizabeth Jane, and Katherine Amanda. Although I did find an entry on the 1900 census in Medina County, Ohio listing a Mary HACKATHORN living with her daughter, Amanda of the correct ages, I really have no information about Amanda and am not sure if these are my Hackathorns. I do know that she is not present in the following photograph of those siblings.
At the time of the next census in June of 1860, we can find Mary and Jacob living in Liverpool Township of Columbiana County with their four young sons; Christian, James, Jacob, and Silas. “Jacob seemed to be a jack-of-all-trades. He farmed, mined coal, did some blacksmithing and various other work. Jacob and Mary thought with their family of growing boys they could do better in the west. So in 1866 they travelled west.” The thought was probably on their minds because of The Homestead Act of 1862 that was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862. Because of their near proximity to The National Road and the areas where we find them along their journey, it’s safe to assume that this is the route that they took in their covered wagons.
We know that Crawford Matthew was born 21 May 1868 near Batavia, Jefferson County, Iowa and that Jane was also born in Iowa 29 November 1871 so they must have moved to Kansas sometime between the end of 1871 and 1873. “In ’73 and ’74 the hot winds and the grasshoppers took all of the crops, so they decided that was enough of the West and they started back East in covered wagons. They got as far as Indiana and met an old farmer who needed help on his farm. He made them a good proposition and Jacob, with his sons James, Jacob, and Silas; the three who were large enough to work (Christian having married and stayed in Kansas) decided to work for the farmer.”
Back in Kansas, Christian had married Harriet GLENN on 16 April 1874 in Greenwood County. On the 1875 State Census of Kansas, we find Christian and his young family living in Osage County, Kansas. I don’t know if this is the area in which the Hackathorn family originally settled in Kansas, but in all probability it was.
“Their big difficulty was no house to live in. With the help of the good neighbors, they built a two room house, one room up and one room down. They cut the logs and went to work on the house and in the meantime they lived in the two covered wagons. Luckily, it was summertime. This farm was in the Wabash bottom and they burned dry toadstools to smoke the mosquitos away. On their way back East, Jane being between three and four years old, has a vivid recollection of seeing a large herd of buffalo. She said they looked like a large body of waving water. They (the buffalo) were crossing the trail and the wagons had to wait until they had passed. Jane said they could not see either end of the herd. They did not see any Indians, but were always on the lookout for them. Water was very scarce, but when they came to the Mississippi River, Jane thought that was too much water. They had to cross on a ferry boat and the noise of the engines frightened the team of mules and the boys jumped from the wagons to hold the mules and, in doing so, had to pay extra fares. They got as far as Indiana where they built the log house. The crops were doing nicely and everything was going fine, when in August they had a torrential downpour. The levee broke and that lowland was soon flooded and everything was washed away. They had no time to rescue the animals so waded to the stable and loosened them so they could take care of themselves as best they could. The family moved everything to the second floor and waited to be rescued. They were taken out in a john boat and traveled at least seven miles before they hit dry land. Then they stayed in a blacksmith shop overnight and were chased from there before daylight as the water was still rising. Jane does not remember just how they got out of the predicament, but she does remember that after the water went down, the men folks went to look for the animals. They found the team of mules, one on each side of the river. They found the horses, one was dead, but they still had one team left. This seemed like the end of everything for they had lost three crops three years in succession and they were still destined for still more bad luck.”
The Hackathorns were probably living just west of Terre Haute, Indiana at the time of this flooding of the Wabash River in August of 1875. This area is convenient to The National Road and we find them in this area for a few years. The newspapers of that time are full of reports of the flooding and I did find this article that mentions a destructive tornado that went through a county just north of this area at that same time.
“They then found a place to live near Saline City and still kept the family together. Jacob and the boys worked at whatever they could find to do until June of 1876 when Jacob, the father, contracted smallpox and died.” Historic Note: This is the same month and year of Custer’s Last Stand. “They all had smallpox except for James who was working away from home. Mother Mary and the children were vaccinated as soon as they knew the father had the disease and, of course, it was not so severe with them. There was at this time a real epidemic of smallpox in that territory and no one would go near a house that had sickness, for everyone was afraid of the dreaded disease. This made a hardship on the family for no one would give them work even after the quarantine was lifted. Jane remembers that while they were sick they lived on tea and crackers which the county sent them. One family of good neighbors by the name of ICKES gave them milk but would not go near the house. One of the boys would set a pail out in a field and the neighbors would pour milk into the pail and then raise a flag to let them know it was there. The neighbors dug the grave for father Jacob and the casket was brought to the yard and left there. The boys then carried it into the house and Mother Mary and the boys placed him in it and took him to a county cemetery they called the Skee Cemetery and buried him. The daughter of the ICKES family afterward married James HACKATHORN. Her name was Lyde.”
In the 1880 census, we find Mary and her sons, Jacob and William, living in Sugar Creek, Vigo County, Indiana, west of Terre Haute. Not so far away, is the farm of James SKEE and family. I have not found a cemetery by the name of Skee Cemetery in searches and in letters written to historical societies in Indiana. It is reasonable to assume that Jacob was buried in a family cemetery on James SKEE’s farm. I have no idea where the younger children are on the 1880 census since they were not enumerated with Mary and the two boys and I have not found them living with known family members, nor could they be found with neighbors; however, the family eventually migrates down to and meet in Bergholz in Jefferson County, Ohio where the children marry and start families. This includes Christian, who left Kansas and brought his young son along with him after his wife died in 1887. This did not include James who remained in Indiana with his wife and daughter, Lillian. Mary died in Bergholz on 30 December 1896 at the age of 65 years old and is buried in the Bergholz Cemetery. A pioneer woman in every sense.
Sources:
Special thanks to Susan Acerbi who had the forethought to record this oral history of the Hackathorn journey to the west with Elizabeth Jane Hackathorn (Jennie Brothers) and for giving me permission to reproduce parts of it. Thanks, Susan!
Year: 1860; Census Place: Liverpool, Columbiana, Ohio; Roll: M653_948; Page: 161; Image: 326; Family History Library Film: 803948
Year: 1850; Census Place: Tallmadge, Summit, Ohio; Roll: M432_732; Page: 483B; Image: 439
Database online. Year: 1850; Census Place: East, Carroll, Ohio; Roll: M432_664; Page: 154B; Image: .
Year: 1880; Census Place: Sugar Creek, Vigo, Indiana; Roll: 318; Family History Film: 1254318; Page: 184A; Enumeration District: 199; Image: 0370
com, Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925, (Provo, Utah, USA)
“Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1997,” index and images,FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-18084-100791-52?cc=1614804 : accessed 18 January 2015), Jefferson > Marriage index and records 1896-1899 vol 14 > image 293 of 432; county courthouses, Ohio
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Conestoga_wagon_on_Oregon_Trail_-_NARA_-_286056_crop.jpgBy Conestoga_wagon_on_Oregon_Trail_-_NARA_-_286056.jpg: Department of the Interior. National Park Service. Scotts Bluffs National Monument. derivative work: Crisco 1492 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/settlement-in-kansas/14546
http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/homestead-act/15142
http://www.connerprairie.org/Learn-And-Do/Indiana-History/America-1800-1860/The-National-Road.aspx
http://www.historynet.com/1874-the-year-of-the-locust.htm
The Indiana State Sentinel., August 05, 1875, Page 6, Image 6
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Adventures in Genealogy
Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond
Our Journey in Decluttering the Stuff so we can Live a Decluttered Life
Making genealogy more intersectional and accessible to all
musings of a frequent flying scientist
Exploring Ohio History One Marker At A Time
Be Strong. Be Nourished. Be Mindful. Be Beautiful.
The Art and Craft of Blogging
Blogging about my life in Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia.
Author - Editor - Teacher
Sorting it out one load at a time
by Tim Nichols
About the Woods, Gaffney, Diggins and Marshall families
RELATIVITY 
