Charles G. Miller, one of the pioneer settlers of La Salle county, and for some years engaged in the mercantile business in Ottawa, died at the residence of his son in Chicago on the 3d inst., in the 72d year of his age. He was a native of Lancaster, Pa., and had come to this county in about 1837, opening a tailoring establishment in the village of Dayton, then buying and working a farm in Dayton township for several years, and then opening a dry goods store in Ottawa.

In 1862 he closed out his business here and returned to Pennsylvania, going into business in Pittsburg, but gave that up in about 1872, and since then had lived in Chicago. He was a man of more than average education, fond of books, a wide reader, and a ready and fluent speaker. Though active in his earlier days as a democratic politician, generous and big hearted, he never sought office and, except the postmastership at Dayton, we believe never held any. Two brothers, John and Uriah Miller, who survive him, are well known prominent citizens of this county; and a third brother, Reuben, who accompanied the Mormon exodus to Utah, we believe is still living there.¹

1. The Ottawa Free Trader, September 17, 1881, p. 1, col. 2.

In 1870, in addition to the US population census, there is also a mortality census, which lists everyone who died in the 12 months prior to the census. The official census day for 1870 was June 1 and therefore any deaths that occurred between June 1, 1869, and May 31, 1870 should be included. The first line of this list of Dayton residents includes Bridget Gardner, age 15, who died in June, killed by lightning. This implies  a death date of June 1869.

A death by lightning was unusual enough to warrant a mention in the newspaper, and the Ottawa Free Trader printed the following notice on the front page. Clearly this refers to the same young girl listed in the mortality census, whose father was farming some of Mr. Reddick’s land,

HOWEVER, this notice appeared in the Ottawa Free Trader on Saturday, July 2, not in 1869, but in 1870.

It seems most unlikely that the newspaper would save such a notice for a year before publishing it. It is much more likely that Bridget actually died on June 30, 1870. Why, then, does she appear in the mortality census?

When the census taker arrived at the Gardner household on July 21, 1870 and asked his questions, the answers were supposed to be true as of June 1, the official census date. It is very easy, though, to imagine the following interchange:
“Has anyone in your family died in the past year?”
“Yes, my daughter Bridget”
“How old was she and how did she die?
“She was 15 and was struck by lightning.”
“What month did she die in?”
“June”

Actually, Bridget, alive on June 1, should have been listed as a 15-year-old daughter in the family census entry, but adherence to the official census day for information was often overlooked.

Among all the people buried in the Dayton cemetery there are 22 who appear to have no other family members buried there. One such is Willie Kibler, a baby who died before his first birthday.

The A. J. and C. Kibler listed on little Willie’s gravestone in the Dayton cemetery were Andrew Jackson and Caroline Kibler, residents of Rutland township when Willie died, on Sept 11, 1867. They lived in the Dayton area for only a short while. A, J, grew up in Virginia and married Caroline there in 1865. They must have left for Illinois very soon thereafter, as they were on a farm in Rutland when Willie died.  Andrew, a farmer, was listed as head of household in 1870, although he owned no land. However, George W. Lamb, listed as a boarder in the household, was a 20-year old who had inherited a large farm from his father. It is likely that Andrew Kibler was farming George’s land.

When Andrew died his obituary (included below) appeared in the Wellsville, Kansas, Globe on December 12,1913.

Andrew Jackson Kibler

Bloomington Pantagraph 16 May 1878

Thomas J. Parr was born in Ohio, March 13, 1814. He came to La Salle county in 1834 and the following year bought 160 acres of land in Dayton township. He married John Green’s niece, Sarah Ann Pitzer on May 26, 1836. Sarah was the daughter of John’s sister, Anna. For Thomas and Sarah’s memories of early Dayton, see here and here.

Thomas and Sarah had eight children, six of whom lived to adulthood :

Jesse N. born January 24, 1839; married January 31, 1867, to Anna Cain; died November 28, 1886

Elizabeth Amanda, born August 5, 1841; married September 24, 1857 to Noah Brunk; died March 14, 1921, in Peabody, Kansas

Joseph Brumbach, born January 8, 1843; married December 28, 1865 to Sarah Knickerbocker; died October 1, 1900, La Salle county, IL.

Francis Marion, born June 10, 1845; married Julia Curyea December 31, 1868; died July 12, 1928

Martha A., born August 1848; married May 26, 1867, to Lyman N. Cole; died November 2, 1902, in Le Mars, Iowa

William Howard, born December 12, 1853; married December 31, 1874 to Mary Ruger; died June 24,1923, in Ottawa; bur  W. Serena

Thomas J. Parr lived another 20 years and died February 19, 1898. Sarah died the next year, August 5, 1899. They are buried in the West Serena Cemetery, near Serena, La Salle County.

Maria was the fifth child and third daughter of William Stadden and Judah Daniels. There is some uncertainty as to the year of her birth. Her tombstone says that she died November 2, 1874, at age 32 years, 7 months and 10 days, which implies a calculated birth date of March 23, 1842. 

From the censuses, we get the following implied birth years:
1850 census: born about 1839
1860 census: born about 1841
1870 census: born about 1845
(She appears to have aged more slowly the older she got.)

However, when her father died in 1848 his younger children had to have a guardian appointed for them as they inherited from their father. In the guardianship file the ages of all the children are given. “Mariah Stadden age 10 on 22nd March 1849”, therefore she was born March 22, 1839.

She lived with her widowed mother until, at age 32, she married Chauncey Hollenbeck, November 6, 1871.

Chauncey was born in New York in December of 1840 and grew up on a farm in Will county, near Naperville, Illinois. In August 1861 he enlisted in Company I of the 15th Illinois Cavalry in Aurora, Illinois. He was mustered out in August 1864, Company A, 36th Illinois Infantry. He probably returned to the northern Illinois area, although he has not been located in the 1870 census. However, he was certainly in the area in November 1871, when he and Maria were married

Unfortunately their married life was cut short when Maria died on November 2, 1874 at age 35. She is buried in the Dayton cemetery, near her parents and other members of the Stadden family.

Chauncey moved west to a farm in Franklin County, Nebraska. He married again, September 4, 1878, to Katie Perrine.  They had four children. By 1920 they had moved from the farm into town in Franklin, Nebraska, where Chauncey died April 12, 1925.

Peter W. Ainsley was born November 11, 1839, in England. He arrived in the United States in October of 1857, at the age of 17. In 1870 he appears in East Liverpool, Columbiana County, Ohio, working in a pottery. The pottery industry was well established in West Liverpool and had attracted many English workers. It is possible that Peter went there because he knew someone working there.

In 1869 he met and married Mary Graften. She was born in England in March 1850, the daughter of James and Mary Graften. Peter and Mary’s first child, James, was born in 1870.

By 1874 the family had moved to Jefferson County, Ohio, where Peter applied for citizenship at the probate court. He was accompanied by Joseph Robertson, who attested to his character and his  residence in Ohio. Peter then renounced his allegiance to Queen Victoria and became a citizen of the United States.

The family moved to Illinois by 1884 and Peter was employed in Dayton as a brick burner in 1900. He probably worked for the Chicago and Dayton Brick Company, newly established in the old woolen  mill building.

Peter and Mary had four children –

1. James Henry Ainsley was born July 7, 1870, in East Liverpool, Ohio; he died September 16, 1946, in Ottawa, Illinois. He was married June 24, 1896, in La Salle County, to Jane “Jennie” Doyle. She was born in March 1872 in Pennsylvania and died May 26, 1953 in Ottawa.

2. Alice Ainsley was born about 1873 in Ohio; she died March 18, 1895, in Dayton and is buried in the Millington-Newark Cemetery in Millington, Illinois.

3. William Ainsley was born about 1876 in Ohio; he died July 26, 1894, in Dayton and is also buried in Millington.

4. Albert Joseph Ainsley was born February 7, 1884, in Illinois; he died September 19, 1937. On April 19, 1911, in La Salle County,  he was married to Helen Caroline Jacobs. She was born February 7, 1887, in Jerauld County, South Dakota and died August 31, 1976, in Ottawa.

Peter’s wife, Mary, died in 1908 and was buried in St. Columba Cemetery in Ottawa. Peter died in Dayton October 12, 1913 and was also buried in St. Columba Cemetery. On his death certificate, his occupation was listed as kiln-burner and janitor, as he had been janitor for the local school in his later years.

This post started out to be a celebration of  Barbara Green’s death on May 3, 137 years ago today. Her death date is clear on her tombstone and has been generally accepted. However, when I came to include the newspaper accounts of her death (see below), I found a different story.  On May 8th, 1886 (which was a Saturday) the Free Trader item said that she died on Wednesday (therefore the  5th of the month).

Also, on May 22, 1886, the Free Trader published a column of Dayton news which stated that she died on May 5th. The writer, known as Occasional, clearly knew her well. I suspect he was her son Jesse.

It just proves that you can’t believe everything you read, even (or especially) when it is carved in stone.

Barbara Grove Green (1792-1886)

GREEN, BARBARA

Granma Green, the oldest settler in the county, died Wednesday morning, at the age of 84 year. She was of a kind, benevolent disposition and was well beloved by her wide circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances by whom she will be greatly missed.¹

From Dayton
Barbara Grove Green

Died May 5^th, 1886, at the age of ninety three years, five and a half months. She had been confined to bed for about two months, and gradually and gladly passed away like an infant going to sleep. It was her desire to cast off this earthly tabernacle and be present with her Lord.

She retained her faculties to the last, with the exception of her sight, of which she had been deprived for the past seven or eight years. She was never heard to murmur or complain of her misfortune, but on the contrary seemed cheerful and happy.

She was born in Shenandoah county, Virginia, November 15^th, 1792. At the age of thirteen she, with her parents, removed to Licking county, Ohio, being in the year 1805, and lived there until the fall of 1829, when she and her companion, John Green and family, removed to this county. A few incidents of their journey will show the hardships and privations of those early pioneer days. We quote her own words from statements made by her to one of her grand daughters, who has recorded them:

“We started from Licking county, Ohio, on the first of November, 1829, for the state of Illinois. There were 24 in the company. Father had gone to Illinois the September before we started and bought land. He and three other men rode on horseback around by Cleveland and along the lakes. When they reached Chicago, where there were only two families besides the garrison, father bought some provisions and in paying for them pulled out quite a roll of bills. That night his brother, Wm. Green, dreamed there were robbers coming and woke the others up, but they refused to start out in the night just for a dream, and he went to sleep again only to dream the same thing again, and when he had dreamed it three times he told them they could stay there if they wanted to, he was going to leave; so they all started and soon after they saw three men following for the purpose of stealing they [sic] money.

“When we reached the ‘Wilderness,’ in Indiana, a man who lived on the edge of the woods told us it was impossible to go on, as the mud was so deep, unless we could travel on the wagons already stuck in the mud; but if we were foolish enough to try it, we must leave ‘those two smart little boys’ (Jesse and David), for we would surely freeze to death. But we did go on and the men cut a new road through the woods for sixty miles, about ten miles a day.

“Then, when we got to Cicero river, we had to take the wagons over with bed cords. One wagon, loaded with mill irons and blacksmith tools, was so heavy it tipped over, and we lost a good many things.

“Then the next place we came to was Sugar creek, and it was so high we had to pull the wagons over with ropes again and cut trees for us to walk on. Then there was a swamp next to the creek that the men had to carry the women over on their backs. Between Iroquois and Nettle creek there were five days the horses had nothing to eat, as the prairie was burnt, and they became so weak they got stuck in a ravine and could hardly pull the empty carriage out.

“One evening we had only bread and tea for supper, but that night father came back with corn and beef that he had obtained at Holderman’s Grove, and we were the happiest people you ever saw. We spent the next night at the Grove and the next day home, at what is known as William Dunavan’s farm.”

She lived in the town of Rutland something over a year when she removed to Dayton, being at this place at the time of the Black Hawk war in 1832. Of this war she says: “On the 16^th of May, 1832, the girls and I were at the spring, near where the feeder bridge now stands, when Eliza came down on horseback and told us that the Indians were coming, and we would have to go to Ottawa immediately. Then we went to a place a couple of miles below Ottawa and stayed there all night, and the third day returned home again. This was Sunday, and the next day the men made a stockade around the house out of plank. After it was finished they tried it to see if a bullet would go through it, and as it did, they hung feather beds all around. There were about sixty people here at the time, and we were so crowded that they had to sleep on tables, under the beds and all over the house.”

Mr. Green had intended to remain in his improvised fort during the war, but at about twelve o’clock at night, hearing of the massacre on Indian creek, and fearing there might be too many Indians, all those in the fort went to Ottawa. “When we got to Ottawa, there was no fort there, only a log cabin on the south side of the river, but they soon built a fort on top of the hill. We went to the fort, but there was so much confusion there that we had the log house moved up on the hill and lived in it. The next day a company of soldiers from the southern part of the state passed through Ottawa on the way up the river.”

Grandma Green bore all the hardships and privations incident to the settlement of two new countries and lived to see the development of this vast prairie country far, very far beyond her anticipations. When she came here she supposed that in time she might see the country settled around the skirts of timber, but never in her early days did she anticipate seeing the prairies settled up.

Occasional²

1. Ottawa Free Trader, May 8, 1886, p. 8, col. 3.
2. Ottawa Free Trader, May 22, 1886, p. 5, col. 2

Today, April 26, is the birthday anniversary of two members of the Green family; Benjamin, born 1855, and his granddaughter Nancy, born 1816.

Benjamin is the progenitor of the Dayton branch of the Green family. He was born in New Jersey in 1755. During the Revolutionary War, he served in the Virginia militia from Loudoun County on three separate occasions. He entered the service about the last of June 1777 as a volunteer and marched to a place then called Bellhaven in the State of Virginia , now Alexandria in the District of Columbia and left the service about the last of August at the expiration of his two months service and returned home.

In September 1778 he was drafted into the service and served two months at Leesburg in Virginia guarding prisoners and again in the month of August 1781 he was drafted into the service and marched to the siege of Cornwallis, was at the taking of Cornwallis, and marched as a guard to prisoners to Nolens ferry on the Potomac river. There he was discharged in October 1781, having served two months in his last tour.

After the war he moved his family, first to western Maryland and then to Ohio. He was in Ohio by 1799, settling near Marietta for a year and then moving up to settle on the Licking river, near what is now Newark, Ohio. It was from this area that his son John in 1829 organized the expedition to Illinois that resulted in the settlement of Dayton. Benjamin’s wife, Catherine, died in 1821 and Benjamin moved to Moscow, Licking County, to live with his son Daniel. Benjamin remarried in 1823 to Mrs. Martha (Rees) Lewis. He died in 1833, at age 78. Both he and Catherine are buried in the Beard-Green Cemetery in the Dawes Arboretum near Newark, Ohio.

Nancy was born in 1816 in Ohio, the daughter of Benjamin’s son John and his wife, Barbara Grove. She was 13 when John brought his family to La Salle County, Illinois in 1829. She married Joseph Albert Dunavan on January 26, 1834, and they raised a family of twelve, only two of whom died as children. In 1889 they left Illinois to live in Missouri, near some of their children. Joseph died in 1892 and Nancy in 1905. They are both buried in the Highland Cemetery in Hamilton, Missouri.

A search for Nancy Green on this web site will turn up much more information.