|
On May 5, 1846, Priscilla and her husband sold her portion of her father's land to her brother, Benjamin for $300.
John Coleman
John(3) Coleman, the son of Jacob(1) and Mary (Polly) Bunnell (Bonnell) Coleman was born about 1812, according to the age he gave on the 1850 Census. At that time he was residing in Rush County, Indiana, possibly working on bridges, although his occupation is stated as, "farmer." His half-brothers, James and Jacob were also nearby.
John had married a woman named Mary sometime before 1837. His first two children were listed as Harriet (13) and Anna (11), both born in Ohio, probably Hamilton County. His three other children were all born in Indiana, John (8), James (5) and Mary (3), all born in Indiana.
John claimed he could not read or write. His wife had been born in Pennsylvania.
Hannah Coleman Davis
Hannah(2) Coleman was probably born between 1810-1820, the daughter of Jacob(1) and Mary (Polly) Bunnell (Bonnell) Coleman. Not much is know about her except that she married Samuel Davis on 19 Nov. 1835, in Hamilton County, Ohio. Her marriage is one of the few preserved after several courthouse fires.
She appears to have been with Samuel in Rushville, Rush County, Indiana on the 1840 Census, along with two children under age 5. She must have died rather early in her marriage, after which her husband and two children seemed to disappear. On Feb. 10, 1848, Benjamin named Mary and John Davis as heirs of Hannah's father's land, but they never claimed their land.
Edward Coleman
Edward Coleman was born about 1823, the son of Jacob(1) Coleman and his second wife, Nancy Taylor. His mother died when he was very young, and he was completely orphaned around age 15.
Edward sold his share of his father's land to his half-brother, Benjamin, on Aug. 28, 1845, for the sum of $136. He then seems to have disappeared.
Jacob(2) Coleman
Jacob(2) Coleman, was born in Miami Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, on 13 Dec. 1828, the son of Jacob(1) and his fourth wife, Nancy
By the time he was 10 years old, he was completely orphaned. His mother probably died around 1833, leaving his father enough time to marry twice more (and be widowed twice more) before he died in 1838.
Because the courthouse in Hamilton County, Ohio was burned several times, no records of adoption or guardianship exist today. Jacob could also have been raised by one of his older brothers, Benjamin or John.
By 1850, he was found in Rush County, Indiana, listed as a farmer, living with a man named John Wood and his family. The area was designated as #97. Nearby was the family of Purnell Dale.
Purnell Dale had a daughter they called Frances. Actually, her name was Barbara Frances. Jacob fell in love and married her on 11 Dec. 1852. The newlyweds promptly moved to Jasper County, Illinois, where, on June 11th and 17th of 1853, he purchased land. The 1860 Census finds him and his family in Willow Hills Township. His children were listed as Pernel D. (7), Elvira (5), John (3) and Nancy (1). (Apparently Jacob William, who would have been 6, had already died.) On 23 Apr. 1862 they bought more land in Jasper County.
Jacob's brother, James Coleman, and his new wife, the former Riller Wellman, had come to live next to Jacob in 1859. By the 1870 Census, Jacob had moved his family northward and was living in Union Township, P.O. Casey, Cumberland County, Illinois. (His son, John, later said they lived on the William Steers homestead in Clark County, 3 miles northwest of Casey.)
It was actually in Union Township of Cumberland County that his son, James Uriah, was born, while his previous children had been born in Jasper, where several of them had died. (Purnell, at age 14, and Jacob William and Nancy Ann, each before they were 6 years old.)
Jacob's great grandson, Roy Coleman, says, "In Illinois, before they moved to Missouri, he [James Uriah] said they lived kind of on the plains, and cyclones or tornadoes would come through there. He said they had a big cellar dug with a trap door on it and it had a cable on it and they'd pull it shut and they'd tie that cable down, wrap it around a deal there so the wind couldn't blow it. He said, 'Three or four times that's all that saved our lives.' He said they had an old house that was there on the ranch when they went there. And he said it just tore that house all to pieces until there was nothing left. And he said the furniture was scattered for two miles."
Clearing Land in Illinois
James Uriah remembered his family spending years clearing timber, rolling logs in huge piles for burning. They ended up with a nice farm and harvested good crops for several years. But then the rain kept coming earlier and lasting longer and increased to the point crops could not be grown. After three years of living in "a bog" Jacob decided to move his family on, perhaps to find land to homestead. Discouraged and blue, Jacob Coleman packed up his pregnant wife and five remaining children and loaded up on wagons and began moving westward. As heavy storms caught them, they rented a place to spend the winter at a farm belonging to Alice Appleby, in Polk County, Missouri. That February 17th, their last child, Perry Alonzo was born.
It is interesting here to note that the family of Holland Sweet took a similar path around the same time, leaving Illinois to move into Polk County, Missouri for several years, then down to Cowley County Kansas.
Jacob left his brother, James, behind in Illinois. In fact, descendants of James are still found in the area.
MORE
|
