4. James Henry (Jim)2 MacFarlane (McFarland) (James1). Born, 12 Jul 1828, in Carnany, Ballymoney Parish, County Antrim, Ireland21. Christened, 27 Jul 1828, in the First Presbyterian Church, Ballymoney, County Antrim, Ireland23. Died, 23 Aug 1902, in Spearfish, Lawrence County, SD22. He was buried, 25 Aug 1902, in Rose Hill Cemetery, Spearfish, SD24. He immigrated in 1847 to the United States25.

He married26 Mary Mansfield, 11 Apr 1853, in Cornwall, Litchfield County, CT. Born, Apr 1828, in Ireland27. Died, 27 Aug 1903, in rural, Meade County, SD28. She was buried, 9 Sep 1903, in Rose Hill Cemetery, Spearfish, SD29.

Jim was nineteen when he emigrated from Ballymoney to the United States in 1847. He was a good looking young man with a medium build and brown hair. He was a laborer when he married Mary Mansfield in 1853 in the Congregational Church in Cornwall, Connecticut.

Mary was slightly older than Jim. Little is known about her ancestry. Her father was probably born in Ireland and her mother in England. Her father lived to be about 65 and her mother to be about 45. Possibly Mary's father's name was Herbert, as it was an important family name. One family tradition said that her grandmother was Lady Mansfield, of Scone Castle near Perth, Scotland. Interestingly, the Earls of Mansfield did have a castle near Perth called Scone Castle. Mary probably was not a granddaughter of the Earl of Mansfield though, as their surname was actually Murray.

Mary studied at a private girls school in Belfast and received a good education for a young lady of her time. She was probably a member of the Church of Ireland. It is comparable to the Episcopal Church in the United States. It is not known when Mary came to the United States, or if any of her family came with her.

Jim and Mary lived in West Stockbridge, Berkshire County, Massachusetts when their son, John Herbert, was born in 1854. They moved to Winnebago County, Illinois before Jane was born in January, 1857. The rest of their children, Hattie, Alice, Will, Frank, George, Libbie, and Maggie were born near Pecatonica, Winnebago County, Illinois.

Jim bought ten acres from Orlando and Martha Coolidge on 20 October 1858. Over the years he and Mary added several small holdings to enlarge their farms. By 1865 they had built up a good farm. He had livestock valued at $510 and crops at $250. In addition, his other agricultural products were valued at $60.

In about 1866, Jim's brother, John, came to stay the winter. John had been living out west. It was the first time most of the children had ever met their uncle.

The further expansion of the family's farm resulted in two separate farms. One portion of the farm was on the Pecatonica River. They lived at the other farm that was a couple of miles to the northwest. The river front property later caused Jim problems.

In August, 1867 Jim had a dispute with a neighbor when he harvested his oat crop along the river. James Dailey prevented Jim from taking twelve acres of shocked oats, five thousand shocks of oats in the straw, and sixty thousand bundles of oats in the straw. Jim took his gun and forcibly removed the harvest on 8 and 9 August 1867. Dailey tried to claim the oats in a suit made 4 September 1867 in the Winnebago Circuit Court. They tried the case on 7 October 1867, and many of their neighbors testified. The court found in Jim's favor and forced Dailey to pay Jim's court costs.

Jim had three other cases come before the Winnebago Circuit Court. The earliest was a fence dispute with Pee Hulse in April, 1867. In 1874 there was a sewing machine in question with E. H. Foy for $81.00. The last case was in 1876 with Katherine Sage, but it wasn't possible to locate that file.

In about 1869 Jim decided to go back to Ireland to visit his family. His mother, Margaret, had died a few years earlier. He had not seen his father, brother Daniel, or sisters, Jane and Margaret for many years.

By 1870 the family farm was very diversified. Jim raised horses, cattle, dairy cows, sheep, and swine. His crops included wheat, corn, and oats, plus he put up hay. Unlike some of his neighbors, he did not plant any rye or buckwheat that year though. There was more work than the family could handle themselves, and Jim hired Edward Padin to help him. The farm also included some woodland, on which Jim made money on the forestry products. Jim and Mary didn't sell the milk from the dairy, but they did sell about 600 pounds of butter that year.

Mary was an independent woman who most often ruled the family, according to her grandson, Clarence McFarland. He heard this story about his grandfather, Jim.

"The boys were pretty good sized and they didn't pay too much attention to what he told them to do. Grandad was over to some friend of his who told a couple of his boys to do something and when they didn't, he picked up a piece of stove wood and heaved it at them. The next morning, when Grandad told the boys to do something and they didn't move fast enough, he picked up a bootjack and threw it at one and got onto another one of them. They went a roaring out of the house wondering, `What got into Dad this morning?'"

Jim received a letter in January, 1878 from his brother, John. He had settled in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory in the spring of 1877. Mary read the letter to the entire family. John described the benefits of the Hills and told Jim it was a good country. He offered to come back to help Jim relocate. Jim's financial situation had become bad during the previous year. Jim decided to sell his two farms and take the family further west. He wrote to John and told him to come to Illinois to help them move. By the middle of May the situation had worsened. The sheriff had to sell one of Jim's teams in front of the hotel in Pecatonica. John came back to Pecatonica in early June, 1878 to aid in selling the land and property. In addition, John handled the financial affairs, as Jim was not "well in his mind" and illiterate. This later proved to be a terrible mistake.

Over the next days they sold 99,000 pounds of hogs, 13 steers, plus other goods. Jim and Mary quickly sold the two farms and signed the papers concluding the sale on 19 June 1878. Soon after, Jim, with sons, Will, Frank, and George took two railroad cars loaded with horses, Durham cattle, farm machinery, and household goods to Sioux City, Iowa on 26 June 1878. Mary stayed with a friend in Pecatonica until 29 June, when she took Hattie, Alice, Libbie, and Maggie on the train to Sioux City in company with her brother-in-law, John. Their son, John Herbert; daughter, Jane; and her husband, Monroe Ferguson, went to the Black Hills later.

The Journey to The Black Hills