The following is a copy of the history, traditions, statements, and lineage of the Marshall family and the McCracken family as arranged by Mrs. Sarah Jane Smith.
Document #72
Leavenworth 425 Spruce Street, April 29th 1879.
I, Sarah Jane Smith, am the daughter of Henry McCracken and his first wife Harriet Louise Gillespie. She was the daughter of Thomas Gillespie and Mary his wife; who both died in Bucyrus, Crawford County, state of Ohio. My father Henry McCracken was the son of Alexander McCracken and Margaret his wife, who was the daughter of Henry Marshall and Margaret or Mattie Chambers his wife, of Derrycantone <sic>, County Tyrone, Ireland.
My great-grandfather Henry or (Harry) Marshall, died on Derrycantone Hill in Caledon, County Tyrone, Ireland. His wife (Mattie Chambers Marshall) died at Linnargo <sic>, half a mile from Caledon. Their daughter Margaret Marshall married Alexander McCracken in or about the year 1782.
They absconded from County Tyrone in the night, crossed the Blackwater on a wear <sic> to meet the boat that was being brought by the servants from the castle called Alexander’s, or Caledon’s Castle. After crossing the Blackwater at or close by Caledon they rode on horseback around by the bridge and crossed over and went to his father’s house, rested there until morning, then got out license from Monaghan and was married by the first Presbyterian minister who had ever preached or been placed there. His name was Queen or Quinn. After their marriage they lived somewhere near
p.2
his father’s house until after their first child was born, which I believe was 11 months after marriage, September in the year 1783. They called him Henry for her father, Henry Marshall. When her (father) heard of the birth of her child, and that she had given him her father’s name, his heart relented, and he being reconciled, sent and brought them to his own house, where they remained till they left to go to Belfast, where they took the vessel and sailed for America. The vessel touched at Philadelphia, then sailed down to Baltimore, Maryland, where they landed. They first lived there or near there for some time, then moved to Westmoreland Co. Pennsylvania. They lived at Ligonier Valley, worshipped at Donegal, was under the preaching of old Rev. James Anderson, removed to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Their youngest child was baptized in that county. They lived for a while on a farm somewhere not far from Pittsburgh.
My grandfather, Alexander McCracken, owned a farm near Pittsburgh at one time. He also owned a brewery and at one time worked in an iron foundry. They moved from Allegheny County PA from a congregation called Mountain’s Run. Rev. William Wilson was their pastor and gave them their letter of dismissal. They came westward to the state of Ohio, and finally my grandmother Margaret died in Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, at my father’s house and was buried in Xenia.
After her death (1827) my grandfather visited different ones of his children and was about for some time, then returned to Xenia, and remained with us ‘til
p.3
my mother’s death which occurred in 1836. Feb. 20th. He then went to Cambridge, Guernsey County, Ohio, to live with his eldest son William McCracken, where he died from being hurt by falling into the cellar. He was over 100 years old when he died.
After the death of my mother, my father married Ann Law, and moved from Xenia, Ohio, with his entire family to Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois, and died at Sugar Tree Grove in the forks of Henderson and Cedar Creek. He was a member of Rev. James Bruce’s congregation called Henderson congregation. Gilbert Trumbull was the executor of his estate as the county records will show.
After my father’s death my grandfather, Thomas Gillespie, went from Bucyrus, Ohio, to Illinois, and took all my father’s family to Bucyrus, Crawford County, Ohio, except my oldest sister Cinthia, who was married to Dr. Brison Bruce, and living in Monmouth, Illinois. Her husband and only child died a few months afterwards, when she also went back to Ohio to Bucyrus to be with the rest of her brothers and sisters.
My sister Anna Maria McCracken went to live with my aunt Mrs. Dr. Merriman in Bucyrus, and afterwards married Patterson S. Marshall, a merchant of Bucyrus. My grandfather’s health failed and my uncle William McCracken of Cambridge, Ohio, took my two brothers Henry Marshall and Jesse Mitchell to raise or rear. I and my sister Harriet Louisa remained at grandfather’s, and sister, Mrs. Cinthia Ann Bruce, went to Cambridge and was there married to Dr. William McFarren Robinson. Two years after I with sister
p.4
Harriet went to Cambridge, she to live with sister Robinson, who then lived in the same County at a village Birmingham, I to visit with her and my friends in Cambridge. After visiting ten months I returned to Bucyrus, and was married there at the house of Dr. Merriman and his wife who was my mother’s sister Cinthia (Gillespie) Merriman.
I was married to Josiah Patterson Smith by Rev. Hutchinson, pastor of the old school Presbyterian church of Bucyrus. Sister Anna accompanied us to Cambridge, my husband’s home, where he was a merchant in partnership with William Rainey, afterwards with his brother William Smith, and afterwards with James H. Eaton. My husband J.P.Smith died Nov. 8th 1865 and is buried in Cambridge, O. so also is my infant son Eben. Walter Lowrie, in his 14th year. My only remaining son and my only two daughters moved with me after my husband’s death, to Charleston, state of Illinois. We went in March 1867. I was there engaged in the millinery business on the northeast corner of the public square, in a room above James Miller’s store. My son Henry Willis was very active in the temperance cause and worked at the printing business and was secretary of both lodges of Good Templars. Our minister Rev. Robert Micthell and the above mentioned James Miller (an elder) were both members of the same lodge. In August of the same year that we moved to Charleston, Illinois, my son Willis had hemmorage from his lungs and went rapidly into a decline, and died December 29th 1867. I took his remains back to Cambridge, Ohio, and buried him on New Years
p.5
day beside his father and brothers, and erected a marble broken shaft over his remains, which can be seen with their names carved on the base and spaces left for the names of myself and my two daughters, Mary E. Smith and Mrs. Margaret Hill. The shaft stands on the South side on a high bluff overlooking the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Wills Creek Valley and bluffs beyond.
Being exhausted with fatigue and watching I remained a while with my brother Henry Marshall McCracken, who married Elizabeth Carlyle, and was then and is still living near Washington, Guernsey County, Ohio, nine miles east of Cambridge, and for some weeks I remained in Cambridge with my Uncle William McCracken & his son Alex., and only daughters Margaret Thompson and Jane Clark. Before I left Ohio and moved to Charleston, Illinois, it had been the subject of conversation between my cousin Alex. And myself that my grandmother Margaret McCracken did have an estate in Ireland, and I could remember distinctly that there was a great anxiety on the part of my grandfather in trying to send my father to attend to it. I also remembered that my father said the Power of Attorney that my grandmother had given him before she died was useless., and the lawyer Aaron Harlan said all her children must sign a new one to make it of any use.
My father’s relations were scattered far apart, one, my Uncle Arthur, the state of Mississippi; Uncle Robert in PA; Uncle William in eastern Ohio, he was the oldest, and as I have lately been informed, refused to sign a Power of Attorney for either father or anyone else to go to collect or settle the estate. My father died two years after my mother, in Warren County, Illinois, when I was fourteen years old. My grandfather, Thomas Gillespie, had moved from Xenia, Ohio, to Bucyrus, Ohio, and was register of the Land Office in that place. He came to Warren County, near Monmouth, Illinois, and took us orphan children to Bucyrus to live with him, consequently, we were cut off from my father’s people for some years, and the subject of there being an unsettled estate in Europe was apparently forgotten or looked upon as considered lost, and ceased to be the subject of conversation for so long that I had forgotten the names of the lands, but not the names of my great-grandparents or the names of my grandmother’s brothers and her uncles. I knew she had one brother Michael who my grandfather said was a bachelor and two little brothers that were little fellows when she came to this country in 1784. Their names I knew to be James and Joseph, from the fact that he said it was so, and from the fact that we had had so much discussion over the names of the family in Ireland when my brothers were named.
The oldest one is named Henry Marshall for his great grandfather Marshall, who was my father’s mother’s father, Henry Marshall, and grandfather wanted the next son called Joseph or James for one of those who were little fellows when grandmother left them, and they were old family names I believe on the Chambers side. During the time the question was discussed, my brother was called Jimmy, Josy, Sammy, Charley. William was talked of, but there was a prejudice for some reason in our minds against that, though it was liked as being the name of some of the anscestors of my grandparents. Michael was nt to be though of, first because we did not like the name, and in the next place because my grandmother’s brother Michael had been highly educated with the expectation that he would be an ornament to the family. He grew up to be a disappointment and reckless, wasting his estate and money. The family felt
p.6
disgraced so our brother could not have the name. It was finally decided, as Henry had got the name of my father’s mother’s father, the next one should be baptized Jessie Mitchell, called for my mother’s mother’s father. So it remained Jesse Mitchel.
My grandmother Margaret (Marshall) McCracken had an Uncle Pringle and Uncle Cooper, and an Uncle Ecels. They were married to her father’s sisters, and different ones of these families had visited among my grandmother’s family in this country. I had seen Hugh Ecels at my Aunt Martha Harbison’s house in Xenia, when I was a small child, so that although I had forgotten the names of the lands, I had not forgotten the relative’s names, nor I had not forgotten that their estates were large landed estates in County Tyrone and Armagh, and lay close to Caledon and the castle called Alexander’s castle which my grandfather had worked at when they were building some particular part which I remember as being the vault, or an underground passage from the kitchen to the castle. I also remembered that grandfather McCracken said Henry Marshall had a brother Tony Marshall (attorney at law). His name was William Huggins Marshall. He was commodore of the seas and he had an indigo plantation. I think he said in India or Jamaica. He married a Miss Huggins for they were cousins. He and Henry also had a brother Cornelius.
I also heard him say of one of his wife’s ancestors, “Henry Marshall, Gentleman, built him a town and he called it Bohard. The name is Blackwatertown.” I think he said that was the land or one piece of the land that was sold for 99 years, for in the conversation as I remember it my mother said, “why father we will all be in the graves by that time.” He grew impatient with her and said, “The children will get it.”
He spoke of so many different denominations of lands, telling how the Pettigrews had gotten mortgages on so much land by getting one of the name Henry Marshall drunk and while in that condition he got the son John and heir at law, who was a simple boy, to sign away a whole townland for a very small amount of gold, which was not legal. The boy was not fit to act for himself and grandfather said that could never stand in law, but he (Pettigrew) had it recorded so in Dublin, representing the amount as being very small. I also remembered hearing my grandfather say that when Lord Alexander wanted to build his castle he said to Henry Marshall, I would like to have Orrory Hill to build my castle on, and Henry Marshall said just take it, and that was all the bargain there seemed to have been in the transaction.
Some of our family think as I do, that the 40 acres of Derrycantone <sic> that Lord Caledon enclosed within his walls soon after the death of Henry Marshall, was the 40 acres that was a gift and that it was my mother Margaret McCracken’s.
It was said the homestead where her father died was hers in her own right and title, and Lord Caledon was walling it in after Henry Marshall’s death. (My grandfather wanted my father to go or write to the Lord Chancellor to stop it.)
I feel certain I understood my grandfather to say in speaking of his wife Margaret Marshall, that she was when he married her a great heiress, besides the 40 acres that was hers in her own right and title and what she owned in Fernaloy. There was an estate left her on account of her being called Margaret for her grandmother. I would suppose from the conversation it was an
p. 7
entailed estate, or the male line ran out on her mother’s side. My recollection of that land is that it was about 400 acres, and that Fernaloy was a marriage dower to either Margaret Marshall or her mother Mattie Chambers. The general impression is that it was the Marriage dower of Mattie Chambers. That is what Benjamin Marshall of County Tyrone, Ireland thought when I was there. He remembered the history of my Grandmother’s running away to get married as he learned it of his father James Marshall who was a son of Henry of Derrycantone and Martha Chambers, his wife.
He also remembered that she was at home reconciled to her father before she sailed for the U.S. America, and that her child was several months old when they left; that they lived near Monaghan and that they settled in PA U.S., had a large family near or about Pittsburgh and one of the Ecels family had come to America and gone back to Ireland at different times bringing reports of their welfare as he had seen them in Pennsylvania, and told them that the descendants of Margaret exceeded in numbers more than all the rest of her relatives that were left behind in Ireland.
They also knew that Rev. Francis Pringle had visited my grandmother in Pennsylvania, and the Coopers, and had written about it to their friends in Ireland, so that the Marshall family there seemed to have no hesitancy in claiming me as a relative. But I had no Power of Attorney to act, and my letters from my uncles and aunts were intended only to assist me in finding the family, and then if by my own recollection of the names of the relatives, and history of the family, I could find what I was certain I should. My cousin Alex, then of
p.8
Cambridge, Ohio, now 2008 Parish Street, Philadelphia __ to go to claim the estate.
He was involved and since failed to such an amount he never been able to go or attend to it. I wrote to my Uncle Arthur some time ago to know what it was that caused such an excitement in my father’s house in Xenia, Ohio, when I was so small I can not now remember all the particulars.
My grandfather McCracken was so determined my father should go to attend to it. I asked him if some lease was to run out or what it was. I knew Henry Marshall had died long before and I could remember that grandfather acted as though some recent occurrence had taken place that required immediate action. I suppose it was a lease that should be attended to.
I also knew my early impressions were that a large amount of money had been bequeathed or left to my grandmother in some way and I always believed she had an interest in estates in England, but my recollection of that matter was too faint to make a positive claim.
When my Uncle (Arthur) answered me he said in substance that he could not remember much about the lands of Henry Marshall; that his estates were supposed at that time to be very much involved in debt, but could not be sold for debt or for a longer term than from 20 to 99 years, then they would come back to the descendants of the former owners; but he thought that his grandmother Marshall (Mattie Chambers) had got a gift of 60,000 pounds from her friends in England and she made a present of it to his mother, and that was what Mother gave a Power of Attorney to Uncle Alexander to go for to divide among us all, and that had nothing to do with Henry Marshall’s estates. I wrote back again to my Uncle Arthur to
p.9
Houston, Texas to try to remember just as near as possible the date of the time or how long it was before Grandmother’s death in 1827 that he gave my father that Power of Attorney when he was taken sick and could not go there. Grandmother gave a Power of Attorney to Uncle Alex. In answer to that he says, “as to the (60,000.00) sixty thousand dollars, all the evidence I have of it is in 1823 when Father and Mother gave brother Alexander the Power to go and collect, they give him the bill for sixty thousand dollars.” (When he wrote me before he said 60,000 pounds.) It is my impression the records will show 60,000 Pounds, as I remember such an amount being mentioned in some way in connection with the excitement, but could not be certain in what way it was spoken of.
There is one more point I think I ought to speak of and in this I seem alone in my impression. I have often heard Grandfather speak of my Grandmother as I’ve understood him to say, “she was the only heir as though Michael being a bachelor, she must have been the only child of her mother who had heirs, and that she seemed in her history like one alone, as though the rest of her brothers James and Joseph and her sisters Sally, Jane, Betty, Mary Ann, Nelly, and so on, were half brothers and sisters. I remember when I was a child thinking, how can I reconcile the facts that I was called Sarah Jane, for Grandmother’s two oldest sisters, and Grandmother, as I thought had one brother, a bachelor, and she was the only heir. I believe I asked my mother, and I have an impression she said Joseph and James that were little fellows when she came, were half brothers.
p. 10
The impression she was the only heir may have referred to my grandmother’s Mother, Mattie or Margaret Chambers. I speak of her in this way because I have a silver teaspoon with the initials M.M. on it, which was one of my grandmother Margaret (Marshall) McCracken’s spoons and had been her mother’s before she got it, and I had believed my grandmother was called for both her mother and grandmother. The spoon always reminds me of the early impression.
If Henry Marshall of Derrycantone had two wives, I judge that Margaret Marshall that died on Derrycantone Hill and was buried at Eglish Parish was my Great-Grandmother, but if he, Henry Marshall, had but one wife, she was Martha Chambers and died at Linnargo, and Margaret, who died on Derrycantone Hill was Henry Marshall’s mother, and my grandmother’s grandmother Marshall.
I also think my grandfather said to my mother that Joseph was the name of my grandmother’s grandfather Marshall that gave her the land because she was called Margaret after his wife. That would make it seem as though Margaret Marshall who died on Derrycantone Hill and was buried at Eglish Parish in Armagh County was Henry Marshall of Derrycantone’s mother, and Martha, his wife, who died at Linnargo about 55 or 60 years ago, was my Grandmother’s mother Mattie (Chambers) Marshall.
p. 11
I have a letter written by my father and mother showing our residence in Xenia, Ohio, addressed to each when my father was absent from home. They are stamped with the Post Office stamp on the letter without envelope. Several written by my parents when they lived in Xenia, addressed to my grandfather Thomas Gillespie, Bucyrus, Ohio, and letters from Bucyrus with the Bucyrus P.O. stamp. One from my grandfather Gillespie to Mr. Gilbert Trumbull addressed from Bucyrus to Monmouth, Illinois. This letter refers to the death of my father Henry McCracken in Warren County, Illinois. My grandfather had seen the death announcement in the “Xenia Free Press” and wrote to Mr. Trumbull of Monmouth, Ill, making inquiry about the welfare of his grandchildren who were the children of his daughter Harriet Newell (?) Gillespie and her husband Henry McCracken who had recently died near Monmouth, Ill. This letter was written in 1838, the year that my father died.
Also letter written by Mr. Trumbull from Monmouth to Bucyrus referring to us and after our return to Bucyrus, Ohio, and a letter written to my husband J. T. Smith, Merchant. This letter written by my grandfather, Thomas Gillespie, shows that he addressed my husband as the guardian of my brothers and sisters, and he names each child except sister Anna, who was at the time living in Bucyrus. He also sends his regards to old Alex. McCracken who was at the time living with his son William in Cambridge, Guernsey County, Ohio, where my husband and I were living. This letter of advice as to which trades to put my brothers to learn, and recognized us as a family living in Cambridge, and shows the
p.12
fact that my grandfather McCracken was still living and had been a permanent acquaintance of my grandfather Gillespie when they both lived in Xenia, where Grandmother Margaret (Marshall) McCracken died. I also have letters of recognition and correspondence showing my residence in Charleston, Ill. And my removal from that place to this city of Leavenworth.
The following are the children and descendants of Alexander McCracken and Margaret, his wife:
1st child: Henry McCracken, was born September 8th 1783, and died on shipboard on the voyage to the U.S. and was the first child of Alexander and Margaret McCracken.
2nd child: Sarah, was the second child of Alexander and Margaret McCracken, and was born June 8th 1785. Sarah married _________ McHenry and had but one child, a son. He is Dr. William McHenry of Lima, Ohio. He has children viz. Junius, Martha Satterwaite, Teen, Frank, Mary, and William. Teen married and has one child. Frank, Mary, and William are not married.
3rd child: Lilly was born November 20th 1786, and was the third child of Alexander and Margaret McCracken. She married John Reed. She removed to West Salem, La Cross County, Wisconsin (and died there). Her eldest daughter, Polly married Ralston in Cambridge, Ohio now a widow. She has one son
p.13
a man grown, no other children. Polly lives near Winterset, Iowa. Dorcas married ______Marshall in Cambridge, Ohio, but is now a widow. Dorcas had but one child and is now a man grown. They lived in Allegheny City, PA.
Martha married Alex Grey, lived in Allegheny City, moved to West Salem, Wisconsin. Martha died in Allegheny City. Said Grey married his wife’s sister Belle Reed. She is now a widow living at West Salem, Wisconsin, as are also the children of her sister Martha Grey; William and Lilly, also her sisters Letta and Margaret Reed live at the same place with their mother who is my Aunt Lilly Reed. Moses Reed, the only living son of Lilly (McCracken) Reed, was at Helena, Arkansas, a few years ago. He was in the Arkansas Legislature. He has no children. Moses Reed’s twin brother (and only brother) John, married Ellen Broom and lived in Cambridge, Ohio. John was killed four years ago, near Cambridge by his horses running off. John left one son & one daughter now living at Cambridge, and no other children.
4th child: William McCracken was born July 27th 1788, and was the 4th child of Alexander and Margaret McCracken. William lived and died in Cambridge, Ohio. He left three children only. Alexander, Margaret, and Jane. Alexander, who lives now in Philadelphia, PA has but two living children, one daughter Ella; and one son James. Ella married Addison Taylor and is living in Cambridge, Ohio.
p.14
Ella has no children. James, his wife, and only son lives with his father.
Margaret, daughter of William the 4th child, married Matthew Thompson, and lives in Cambridge, Ohio and is now a widow. She has three children, viz. Sarah Jane, Benjamin, and Belle.
Sarah Jane married her second cousin Junius McHenry of Lima, Ohio. She has three children. Benjamin and Belle are at home with their mother.
Jane, daughter of William, the 4th child, married Dr. Stephen Clark, now livng in Cambridge or vicinity. She has several children, viz. William, John, Jones, Chalmers, Margaret, Mary, and Lute.
William and John are both married & live in Lincoln, Nebraska, and both have children. John is Surveyor General of the State of Nebraska. William is engaged in John’s store or bank in Lincoln, Neb. Jones lives close by his father near Cambridge, Ohio, and has several children. Chalmers, bachelor, lives with his father, Dr. Clark. Margaret Clark married lawyer ____Heade, and lives in Cambridge. She has one or two children. Mary Clark married William Burt and lives in Columbus, Ohio. Lute is at home with her parents.
5th Child: Robert Marshall McCracken, the 5th child of Alexander and Margaret McCracken, was born April 8th 1790. He died at Sunnydale, Sedgwick County, Kansas. He was married twice. He had several
p. 15
children by his first wife, and two by his second wife. By the first wife there were the following children, viz: William, Robert M., Sarah, Isabel, and Mrs. Cavitt. And by the second wife there were two, viz: Margaret and Martha.
William married, but has no children. Robert M. married and has several children: Sarah married John Fouts, and lives in Ellisville, Fulton County, Illinois and has several children. Isabel died leaving no heirs. Mary and Martha live at Sunnydale, Kansas as with their mother, the second wife of Robert Marshall McCracken. Mrs. Cavitt is a widow & has several children, most of them married.
6th and 7th children (twins): James and Alexander, twin sons of Alexander and Margaret McCracken, were born October 11th 1791.
Alexander went from Allegheny County, PA, near Pittsburgh, to Preble County, Ohio, where he died near Eaton, and left two sons and two daughters. The oldest son, John, has been living for many years near Oakland, California and has been married twice. He has a family. The second son, Alexander, lives near Kenekuk, Kansas. Alexander is a bachelor.
Mrs. Isabel (McCracken) Dooley lives near Eaton, Ohio. She has only one child, a daughter and is married. Isabel’s sister also married a Mr. Dooley. She is dead and left only one child.
p. 16
James, Alexander’s twin brother, was married and died in Preble County, Ohio, leaving two sons, viz: William and John. James wife married again and took her sons to the state of Iowa. I saw William in Cambridge, Ohio over 30 years ago. He was a man grown. Since then we have lost all knowledge of them, though we have earnestly tried to find them.
8th child: Henry McCracken, son of Alexander and Margaret McCracken, was born July 20th 1793. Said Henry died in Warren County, Illinois. He left six children, viz: Cinthiann, Sarah Jane, Anna Maria, Henry Marshall, Jesse Mitchell, and Harriet Louisa. They are all living but sister Cinthia. She died in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, many years ago. Said Cinthia first married very young to Dr. Brison Bruce on Monmouth, Illinois. After said Cinthia’s husband and child died in Monmouth, she went to Ohio to Bucyrus, Crawford County, to be with the balance of our family at my Grandfather Gillespie’s. From there, said Cinthia went to Cambridge, Ohio, and married at the age of 21, Dr. William McFarren Robinson. She died, as I said, in Tuscarawas County and left seven children. They are now situated as follows: the eldest Charles Henry Robinson is now serving the third as Co. auditor in Knoxville, Iowa. Thomas Gillespie Robinson is in the same place in the marble business. Both Charles and Thomas are married and have children.
p.17
James Robinson is married & living in Independence, Kansas & working in the wagon making business. Belle Robinson is married, living in or near Independence. Ella Robinson and William Robinson are at home near Independence with their father, Dr. William McF. Robinson.
Sarah Jane has but two children living, viz: Maria and Mary E. Smith.
Maria married Robert F. Hill who died of cancer in Morgantown, Virginia. Robert’s father left four children: Rebecca and Priscilla, of the first wife’s children, and Robert F. of the second wife, whose name was Henderson.
Robert’s father has considerable property when he died, and I give these particulars because it is my impression that he is one of the heirs of the name Hill who is called for; but he was so young when his father died he can not remember to trace the lineage back of his father’s family.
Sarah (Smith) Hill has four living daughters, viz: Julia Grace, Hattie or Harriet, Gertrude, and Sarah.
Mary E. Smith is not married and resides at Marion, Kansas.
Anna Maria resides at Carson City, Nevada, with her only two sons & one daughter, viz: James Henry, John P., and Ida May.
Anna Maria married Patterson S. Marshall and is now a widow, and none of her children are now married.
p. 18
Henry Marshall is now living near Washington, Guernsey County, Ohio. He married Elizabeth Carlyle in said county. They have six children, as follows, viz: William Rainey, John, Harriet, Ida, Harry or Henry, and Charles.
William Rainey is in the telegraph office in Muncie, Indiana. Harriet is married to Mr. Stockdale of Antrim, Ohio, and now lives near Springfield, Illinois. The rest of the children are with their father.
Jesse Mitchell is now living at Nevada, Wyandotte County, Ohio, near Bucyrus, Ohio. He married Mary Cook in that county. He has eight children, viz: Hattie Belle, Frank, Clara, William, Jay Cook, Mary, Grace, and Arthur Marshall.
9th child: Martha, daughter of Alexander and Margaret McCracken, was born April 18th 1795. She died about 1875. She left only one child and one grandchild. They now live in Kansas City, Missouri. Martha’s only child is Alexander Archibald Harbison, and his only child is Eddie or Edwin or Edward. Alexander is running a milk wagon or keeping a dairy.
10th child: Margaret, daughter of Alexander and Margaret McCracken, was born January 11th 1797. Her eldest was a son, John Gaff.
p. 19
He married, died and left two sons, who are now living in Denver, Colorado in the poultry business.
Martha Gaff married Louis Karnes. She is a widow. She has two sons and two daughters, viz: John, Scott, Orilla, and one other daughter now living in Denver, Col. Except that Orilla is dead.
Maria Gaff married ____Cameron in Winterset, Iowa. She died leaving only one child, a son. He is now living near Winterset, Iowa.
Mary Jane Gaff married McCarty in Winterset, Iowa. She is now in Denver, Colorado with her family. She has several children. Her husband is a hotel keeper.
Sarah Gaff married ________Walker in Winterset, Iowa. She now lives in Denver, Colorado. She has several children, some married.
11th child: John Murray, a son of Alexander and Margaret McCracken was born April 1st 1799. He went from Xenia when his father and mother were living, too long ago for me to remember the circumstance, but I remember the fact that my father, Henry McCracken, found him in Fulton County, Illinois, not long before my father’s death.
My father sent for him when he was dying and I firmly believe that my uncle John got the Power of Attorney that had been given to my father by his mother to go for sixty thousand pounds that her mother, Mattie Chambers Marshall, had left her, her Margaret McCracken, that came from Mattie Chambers Marshall’s relatives in England.
p.20
And I believe he, Henry McCracken, was also commissioned to look after my grandmother’s Margaret McCracken, interest in the land Fernaloy in County Armagh, and also her interest in her father’s estate, that were called estates forever.
The Marshall estates were the town and lands of Bohard in County Armagh, Glenkeen, Glendavaugh, Armorall, Mullaghmussagh, Curlaugh, and Derrycantone, and also property in Caledon.
Neither Mrs. Burns now Mrs. Irwin have left any heirs. I believe they left property in houses in the town of Caledon, which ought to be looked after. I am satisfied that my Uncle John got my father’s letters from the fact that I saw him and my stepmother and the executor, Mr. Trumbull, who was also my Guardian, sorting out the papers and burning old letters of my father’s and keeping some, and from the fact that my Uncle John’s only living child, Sarah McBurney, who now lives near Los Angeles, California, wrote me from St. Louis where she lived two years ago, that her father, she knew, did have papers and was getting ready to go or expected to go soon when he died. He died away from home when she was a child. John Murray McCracken left three children, viz: Sarah (McCracken) McBurney, John, who died very young, and Martha.
Martha married and died several years ago, leaving several children. She moved with her husband to Oregon.
p.21
12th child: Jane, a daughter of Alexander and Margaret McCracken was born January 22nd 1801. Jane married Adam McConnell and moved from Xenia, Ohio, to the Wabash Valley, and settled near Princeton, Indiana. Jane left three children viz, : Sarah or Jane, Margaret, and William Patterson. Sarah or Jane married Lawrence and she lives near Eaton, Ohio. Margaret married _______Beesley and was last heard from in Illinois. Isabelle Dooley has corresponded with the family since they left Xenia, Ohio. Letters sent to Jane or Sarah Lawrence, Eaton, Ohio, to the care of Mrs. Isabelle Dolley will reach them.
13th child: Arthur, a son of Alexander and Margaret McCracken was born February 9th 1804. He lived for many years at Houston, Texas. Is now dead. He has three sons living: William Henry, Washington, and John Marshall. William Henry is a son by Arthur’s first wife. Arthur’s Sister Jane brought William Henry up. William Henry lives near Isabelle Dooley and corresponds with her. Washington lives at Houston, Texas, and is married. John Marshall is not married.
14th child: Mary, the last child, a daughter of Alexander and Margaret McCracken was born March 17th 1807. She married Robert McClary. She left one daughter by her first husband. Her name was Martha. Martha married William Morrison and now she and her husband live near Lawrence, Kansas. Martha has three children, viz: Robert, Margaret, and Samuel and were living at home when last heard from.
Transcribed by Andy Miller July 2004