Document #75 Transcribed by Andy Miller

The following is a copy of notes, statements taken by Sarah J. Smith of Leavenworth, Kansas, together with her conclusions.  She says March 23 rd 1877 as follows:

            The enclosed letter is to show first how I was puzzled when I was in Ireland to decide the exact spot my grandparents went from so as to decide which branch of the Marshalls she came from, or rather which of the Henrys was my grandmother’s father.  The story of Black Harry and his daughters and the simple boy and the child dying with its head hanging out of bed, and the stairway being closed up; their flitting to Blackwatertown and back again and having three more that lived, and the protestant bishop and the rector’s daughter a Miss Harris were all so familiar to me as being the history of my Grandmother’s family that I could not reconcile it with the statement that my grandmother’s father Henry Marshall married Mattie Chambers & that her parents would not at first consent to the marriage unless he (Henry Marshall) could show that he was of honorable descent.

            He had to show his title to lands and that he was of honorable birth.  My grandfather (Alexander McCracken) was a great singer.  He used to amuse us children from dark til bedtime after he was 70 years old, singing the songs he sang to his wife, and one that he sang to the old lady at the kitchen door to keep her interested & take up her attention while his Margaret made good her escape.  The whole story of the runwatch seemed so like my grandfather that I could not at that time see how it could be otherwise than that my grandmother went from out that house and that these were the old traditions of the family as I had heard them so often

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in my childhood.  However, there was one thing they left out that my grandfather used to dwell on, that was this: “Henry Marshall,” I understood him to mean one of the old ones who was of such great renown & in such high position, had immense estates.  He built him a town and he called it Bohard.  When I told Mrs. Garvin that I had heard him say that, she looked at her husband, and he said that is Blackwatertown, and I can show it to you.  He got a jaunting car & took his wife & me to visit at Mrs. Atkinsons or Atcheson who lived near Bohard.  Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Garvin living at Glenkeen will tell you the same.  Also John Marshall living near.

            These things bewildered me when I was there, but since I have been closely comparing notes and my mind dwelling on the past, I remember on one occasion my grandfather was rocking my brother Henry, my father was down south at my uncle Arthur’s who is still living there, and my grandfather rocked the cradle he insisted that the child be called “Henry Marshall” for said he may not live to return and the name must be kept in the family.  My mother said to him, “I thought you said your wife’s mother’s name was Mattie Chambers?”  He grew angry because she seemed to distrust him on his story.  Oh, said he, I told you these were both Marshalls, Black Harry was a man that lived not far away and was called so to distinguish him from two others of the same name.  Then he told the story of the two wives and the names of the children & about their flitting & flitting back again.  Only they leave out one part of the story as he used to tell it.  Something had happened in the house or place that made them think that

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some bad luck was attached to the place.  Some woman who had charge of orphans had ensealed a will & could not die in peace on that account, and my impression is it was mixed up with those lands.

            The following is a statement concerning facts in the Marshall estates in Ireland and the Alexander McCracken family who claim an interest in said Marshall estates through Margaret Marshall who married said Alexander McCracken & who was a daughter of Henry Marshall of Derrycantone, County Armagh, Ireland (should be Derrykintone, County Tyrone), which statement was compiled by Mrs. Sarah J. Smith and to which she has subscribed her oath.  It is as follows, to wit:

Leavenworth, March 19^th 1877

            My grandparents Alex. McCracken and Margaret his wife, came to this country, the U.S. of America, and landed at Baltimore, state of Maryland.  They sailed from Belfast, Ireland, in the first vessel that ever carried the Stars and Stripes of the American flag.  The vessel, I think, was called the “Ranger”.  Captain John Paul Jones was the commander at the time the stars and stripes were first carried.  I believe he captured several English ships with the Ranger, and afterwards gave the ship in command to Captain Simpson who sailed to America on the “Ranger” sometime during the year 1778 and I suppose for sometime after as there seems to be no doubt about that being the vessel that first carried the stars and stripes

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and no doubt as to the same vessel carrying my grandparents.  They came to this country, I believe (and I think I make no mistake) in July of 1784.  They left Ireland in April.  The first child was born September 8^th 1783.  Different ones of my grandmother’s children still living say he was a few months old when they sailed.  He died on shipboard and the only child not born in this country.  I think probably he was baptized in the Seceder Church at or near Monaghan, Ireland, as my grandfather’s father lived there. My grandfather was married at his father’s house near Monaghan by the first Presbyterian minister that ever had charge of a congregation there.  His name was Quinn or Queen.  I applied to old Dr. Bleekly of Monaghan for a copy of the marriage certificate.  He informed me that Mr. Quinn or Queen had had charge of the congregation ten years before and ten years after the date I gave the year of my grandmother’s marriage, but that someone had borrowed the book to get copies of records and never returned it.  One of grandfather McCracken’s maiden sisters nursed my grandmother during her first confinement and a relative of her own during her first in America.  I have forgotten the name of the relative but my impression is that it was either her sister that married McEnespie, or her aunt Mrs. Cooper.  I know that some of her children say that one of her father’s sisters married Cooper and came to Mercer County, Pennsylvania.

            The vessel in which my grandparents crossed the ocean, stopped first at Philadelphia, then run down the bay to Baltimore, where they landed.  They remained a while in Maryland.  I do not know where they went next, but know they lived at or near Carlisle for a while,

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and then on the Juniata River River for a while, and then on Gov. St. Clair’s farm, my grandfather renting a part of the farm.  I remember having heard him speak of circumstances which occurred while they had lived there, but can not recall them distinctly.  My Aunt Martha Harbison said there was a great intimacy between the St. Clair’s and my grandmother.  They were Episcopalians and she thinks my grandmother went to the same church with them.  I know she adhered to her own church for a long time after she was married.  I remember myself hearing my grandfather say that her church was four miles from where they lived in the old country, and on Sabbath day he would take her first on horseback to her church and then go back to his own meeting folk.

            He was exceedingly firm in his religious views and that was one thing her friends had against him, and one reason they came to America.  She had been baptized in the Episcopal Church, or as it was called the Church of England.  There was considerable ceremony connected with her baptism for some reason.  I have had the impression from my earliest childhood that it was because she was to be a great heiress.  When I was a very small child there was a prayer book in the house, that I was taught to handle with great care.  She and Grandfather had made their home at our house for some time previous to her death, and at her death this book was left there.  It contained a copy of the record of her baptism, and although I know I often handled it I only remember once of spelling out the words written as they were between the printed lines of the title page.  I stood by my mother as

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she was ironing.  The record was torn so that a part of one name was missing.  That name was Harris.  I often feel as though I could almost dare be positive that it read as follows:

Margaret Marshall

Was baptized by

Henry Marshall

Har (here it was torn)

            There was something before the word Harris.  My mother told me who the name stood for.  The Godfather and Mother were named and Mother told me as near as I can recollect that she was held either on her Great or Great-Greatgrandfather’s knee.  At any rate they laid her during the baptism on the knee of one of her ancestors who was exceedingly old and feeble, so much so that he was unable to stand.

            I will not say that the above is in every particular correct for I have nothing to guide me in this but a very early childhood recollection, and I may not have understood my mother correctly, but I believe the records of the Church of England will sometime show that I am not far wrong.  For some reason whenever I think of the scene above mentioned, the names Lowry Galbraith and Lord Balmore loom up in my memory, but why I cannot tell.  If my memory serves me right, the baptism was not administered in a church, but at the residence of some of her father’s or grandfather’s, and they had invited guests of honor.  I once knew all the particulars but have forgotten.  I know nothing of the customs of that day in that church, or even at the present day, but think Mother mentioned some particular reason for not taking her to the church.

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Whatever the reason was, it had been told her by my father’s parents, Alex. And Margaret McCracken.  My impression is that the record is either at Eglish Parish or at or near Caledon.  I remember hearing my grandfather talk of Eglish Parish but cannot say in what connection, but I think it was where they went to worship at one time after they were married and that he took Grandmother there to meet her people.

            When I was in Ireland I looked for directions in letters my Grandmother’s children had written me before I started to Ireland, from different parts of the Unites States.  I knew the old stories of my Grandmother and Grandfather’s crossing the Blackwater (River) on what was called a wier.  I thought then it was something like a milldam.  I also knew well the old, old stories about the “castle” that he always called Alexander’s Castle, where it was said Henry Marshall and his wife lived so near and boarded the officers at the time they were building the castle, and that Michael, my grandmother’s oldest brother had studied astronomy under the man that had charge of the building, and of the great intimacy that existed between old Lord Caledon or Alexander, and my great-grandfather Henry Marshall, but that did not tell me where to find the castle.  It was true that I knew it was said their estates lay in counties Tyrone and Armagh, but I could not remember so as to be sure what estates to claim as I had forgotten the names, and when I wrote to my friends in this country before I left they could not tell me.  I did not know what part of these counties the castle was in, but one letter said they, the Marshalls, went first to Caledon

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then to Armagh, and the estates lay in those two counties.

            I went first to Armagh City and expected to find copies of wills and deeds.  I found a will, I think of a Joseph Marshall, and I think perhaps one of Henry, but it was so insignificant I felt certain it had nothing to do with our family.  I did not know then the town of Caledon and Lord Caledon or Caledon Castle were at the same place, as they had gone, as I thought, from the town of Caledon to the City of Armagh.  It must be that I would find familiar names on the tombstones, but I went first to the rector’s house on the north side of the square.  I had started from the Recorder’s Office where I had been looking for wills.  After I left the office, there was a young man (who) left the office and rapidly passed me, and went into the rector’s...was in but a moment, then ran past me across the street across the public square, then up the market square.

            I watched him because I though his running was on account of my having been in the recorder’s office and inquiring for wills, but I thought afterwards it was owning to the fact that that I had inquired for the descendants of Henry Marshall, and among other things said he had a daughter that had married a man that was very wealthy by the name of Irwin.  I gave different names of the family but could find out nothing.  After I passed the running man, I rapped at the rector’s door, on the north side of the square, but no one answered.  I inquired of a woman on the street where I should find the rector.  She told me he was at the chapel some distance beyond, at the end of a beautiful avenue

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shaded with trees.  I found him polite and kind, but he could give me no information.  I then went back to market square were I had taken lodging with a humble but good couple, John Lee and wife.  It was recommended as a place where I would not be annoyed by liquor drinkers.  They told me where to find the cemetery.  I went up Market square to the old chapel and from there to the old rector’s.  He was a Mr. Irwin.  He received me with politeness, but I thought great coldness.  He could give me no information.  I found one or two Marshalls, but no trace of our family.  As I knew the Blackwater to be intimately associated with my grandmother’s history and the Marshall family.  I imagined the remains of an old mill, in a valley back of the town, might be the old mill of which I had heard in my childhood that was not far from the river of the Blackwater, but if so, I thought the channel must have been changed.  There was the valley and what seemed to have been the stream, but it was dry.

            I wandered for days among the tombstones to see if I could find a trace of anything that looked familiar, but could find nothing.  I had a terrible dread of Lord Caledon’s family, not from anything I had heard in Ireland, but something I had heard in childhood of the wrongs and hardships inflicted on the descendants of Henry Marshall.  In his lifetime there was a great intimacy and some think the Alexanders and Mattie Chambers were related.  After his death the family were said to have been kept in great dread so they dare not speak, but had to yield to Alexander’s

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will.  He had in some way treated them badly in regard to their estates, but I could not tell how, as there had been no correspondence with our Irish friends since I was very small. 

            In my trouble at Mr. Lee’s request, I told him the story I had learned of my grandfather.  He had run away and married his wife against her parents wishes.  She was the daughter of Henry Marshall, whose wife’s name was Mattie or Margaret Chambers.  He had carried her across the Blackwater when it was very high on what I called a wier.  I did not know what that was, but it was near a castle that was called Alexander’s or Caledon.

            They could have gone to Monaghan, or the place they wanted to go to get married, without crossing the water at all, but if they attempted that, they would have been taken by the way.  As it was they had to go about 20 miles (if they had gone direct it would have been 16) to escape being caught by her parents, and then took horses that were waiting for them on the other side attended by some of the castle servants and went round by the bridge to get on the right side of the Blackwater.

            As Henry Marshall, with his company of servants came to the Blackwater and saw the boat on the other side, the old man said they would be married by a bucklebeggar before they could get around by the bridge to catch them.  When her mother was coming down the hill to the water, she cried out in despair, “oh my Peggy, my Peggy…she’s gone.”  It was in the darkness and the water very high.  He had sent a man around by the bridge to get the boat that was on the other side, but before he had time to get it across they heard the cry, so he immediately picked her up and carried her on his back, stepping on the stones, with the water above them, to meet

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the boat.  When I told this story, Mr. Lee said he knew the place where the wier still stood, and the oldest inhabitants could not tell hot it came there, and it would be three or four miles farther to go so they did & cross the water and around by the bridge to Monaghan than to go direct.  They were not married in the manner her father supposed they would be.  They went to his father’s house and in the morning were married by his father’s minister, a Seceder by the name of Quinn.

            There was no bridge at Caledon for many years after that.  I went immediately to Caledon, expecting to find the tombstones of some of the family.  I did not find the names of Henry Marshall, his son Michael, Joseph, or James, as I expected, nor did I find the name of Margaret or Mattie his wife, but I found some names that were familiar, and copied from the tombstones as follows:

            Matthew Burns died Sept. 1827, age 59 years

            His wife Mary died 22 March 1859, age 86 years

Also four of their children, Margaret, James, Joseph, and Betty Ann Burns; also Matthew Burns, late of Curlough, who died in 1860, age 65 years; also Samuel Pringle.

            This struck me forcibly; I had only heard them spoken of, and now I wish you to remember that when my eyes fell upon these names, it was the first time I had ever seen them.  There had been no communication between our family and the old country since I was twelve years old.  My mother died when I was that age, my father two years after.  Other names are as follows:

            “To the memory of Galbraith Lowry, Esq. died 1769”.  Here is a large monument, a large walled enclosure has the name John Pringle, 1778.  I know that my grandmother had an Uncle Pringle.

            William Smaller, 1842, aged 74 years

            Mrs. Leslie Donnelly told me the Pringles of Tiladon and Baletins Walls <sic> were supposed to be descendants.  These names were familiar to me because I had heard them at my grandfather’s knees in childhood.

            The next item of importance I got in Ireland was from an old man who lived near the castle.  He said, “There were two old maids died here at Caledon several years ago called Alice and Jane Marshall who kept a cloth or tailor shop” but (as I thought) they could not be our friends, as two of the girls went to America and sent money back to their father, he being very poor.  “Henry Marshall was a cousin of theirs and he had one or two daughters who went to America.”  Old Dick Marshall lived near the castle and I went to see him.  He said his father’s name was Ben Marshall, and he thinks his grandfather’s also.  The neighbors told me he had a very rich brother who comes from England to see him.  He is a tea merchant.  My grandmother’s people had wealthy relatives in England.  He also said, “There was a Tony Marshall, or attorney at law that was a brother of Henry’s.”  He was speaking of Henry of Derrycantone, the only one he seemed to know.  I know that my Great-grandfather Henry had a brother that was called the same way, for I had heard my grandfather say the same thing, and more than that, he said his name was Huggins Marshall and he married a Miss Huggins, and they were cousins.  This Tony or Huggins Marshall was commodore of the seas, and had an indigo plantation.  I heard that story when my father was getting ready to go over to claim the estates.  I was a small child and knew that indigo was the article my grandmother Gillespie used for dying wool.

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but I could not understand hot it could grow like a corn or sugar plantation, as they had been described to me by my father after he came home from the South.  Our black washwoman had worked on such a plantation and she explained the process to me so that often through life when I would be using starch I would be reminded of what old Rose said.

            She said it was ground up and put in tubs and water poured over it, then strained and made like my mother made starch out of wheat bran, only what settled to the bottom was blue instead of white.  Afterwards my father took me on a visit to the north of Ohio in a carriage across the Sandusky Plains.  There the wild indigo grows plentifully, and my father, Henry McCracken, pointed it out to me and I have known it ever since from that circumstance.

            You will now see why I noted down what he said, and you will after a while see how important it proved to me.  I will now quote the balance of what he said as I noted it down at the time.  Speaking of a son of Tony or Huggins, he says, “his son now lives near the place.  He had one uncle by his mother that left him a large fortune lately.  His name was Huggan.  He has an indigo plantation.”  I think there may be a mistake about it coming through his mother, or if it did there was an old marriage between the Huggans and Marshalls.  Please notice this particularly.  My grandfather McCracken was telling my father how he should know that he had found the right family.  His wife’s father, Henry Marshall, had a brother they called Toney or attorney at law.  His name was Huggans or as it is in another place William Huggan.  He was commodore of the seas.  He said also at the same time that he had a brother Cornelius.

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I had examined the rector’s books at or near Caledon.  The rector lives on or near a road that leads from Caledon past the old cemetery towards the Dyeing. <?>

He was very kind indeed but could not at that time find a record of any of the names I was anxious to find.  I then took the cars and went down to Monaghan to see if I could find the marriage certificate in Mr. Queen’s congregation, as he was said to have been the minister that married them.  Rev. Mr. Blackley said the record had been destroyed or lost, but that minister was the first of that denomination that had ever been there and that he was there ten years before and ten years after the probable date of the marriage.  As I was walking along the road, I asked a very old woman if she knew anything of the descendants of Henry Marshall that once lived near Alexander’s Castle in the north of Ireland.  I told her my grandmother had a sister married to a man called Jack or John Burns.  She showed me where a Mrs. Burns lived and I give the notes there: John Burn’s son’s wife says: “John Burn came from County Cavan, and her husband has a sister in Australia married to a surgeon _______Blair.  Her husband, William Burns was the only son of John Burns (I know that John Burns first wife was a daughter of Henry Marshall and Mattie Chambers).  He had several sisters beside the one in Australia.  One went to New York.  Her name was Mrs. Martyn.  Her husband William had a sister Letty, and a sister Sally, one Margaret, and one Jane.”  I noted all down.  I knew I had found one branch of the family because these were called after my grandmother’s sisters, or at least some of them.  I was told by my parents I was called after two of my grandmother’s

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sisters, Sarah and Jane, or Sally Jane.  I had a sister next to me called Margaret, and I have a cousin Letty, daughter of Aunt Lilly Reed, and I have a sister Ann.  Dick Irwin left one child.  His wife was a sister of Jack Burn’s wife, both sisters of my grandmother.

            Then I returned to Caledon and stopped at old Mr. Donelly’s.  Mrs. Donelly says, “Huggan Marshall, Cornelius Marshall, and Henry Marshall were brothers, and Huggans married his cousin Miss Huggan.  Harry’s wife died about forty years ago…perhaps not so long.  She died at Linnargo <sic> a half a mile from Caledon.  Henry died in Caledon, John Marshall at Glenkeen is a son of Huggan.  Francis Little was the agent of the man that sold Glenkeen into Chancery.  He lives at Aughnacloy.”

            After I had noted down the above, I went again to the rector’s to see if I could find out about something I had forgotten.  I think the rector’s name was Armstrong.  He told me that since I had been there he had found an old record that might throw some light on the subject.  In it I found that some four persons had died by the name of Henry Marshall.  I also found that Margaret Marshall had died at Derrycantone and been buried at Eglish Parish.  I also found the names of one or two Michaels.  I took a copy but I have lost it.  I sent back over a year ago for another but did not get it.

            Two of the Henrys were undoubtedly Henry of Curlough, and his first wife’s father who was called “Black Harry”.  A third one was undoubtedly the son of Henry of Curlough and his second wife, who was a Miss Harris, the daughter of the Rector of Co.

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Antrim, and granddaughter of the Bishop of Down and Connor (Here was where Henry of Derrcantone who died in 1810, traced his honorable descent when he wished to marry Mattie Chambers.)

            Henry Marshall of Curlough had sons by the names of Armor, Henry, and Harrison, and also Joseph.  They had sisters married to Sloan, Bailey, and McRea.  My notes say they were all of the second wife’s children.  These stories were all familiar farther back than my great-grandfather Henry of Derrycantone.  They claim there that I descend from the first wife, but I cannot reconcile it with the names of my grandmother’s family nor Mattie Chambers being my great-grandmother and her sons Michael, James, and Joseph that were my grandmother’s brothers and they were all the brothers she had.  These are stubborn facts that must not be overlooked, and although those stories and names are all as familiar as household words.  I can only pursue one course in tracing the family, and that must correspond with my convictions, that my grandmother was Margaret Marshall, that she was called after her grandmother Margaret.  Her mother was Mattie Chambers.  Her father was Henry Marshall.  They lived near the castle and boarded the officers at the time of the building, and his oldest son Michael studied Astronomy under the architect.  I have forgotten the name of the builder.  My grandmother had uncles by the names of Cooper, Ecels, and Pringle, that were supposed to be the husbands of her father’s sisters.  Cooper came to this country and settled in

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Mercer County, Pennsylvania.  His son visited at my grandmother’s in this country, with Francis Pringle who was some relative.  Cooper was a cousin.  A Mr. Ecels who was also a cousin visited at my aunt Reed’s, at or near Pittsburgh, Penn. at different times.  There was one living close by my Aunt Harbison in Huntsville, Logan County, Ohio.  His name was Hugh Ecels.

            One of my grandmother’s sisters married Jack Burns who father was called “Dummy Burns” because he was deaf and dumb.  It is said he took his first child and laid it on the counter in the store, and struck on the counter to see if the child could hear.  He himself died on the counter in Caledon.  Another of my grandmother’s sisters married Dick or Richard Lynn, and another _____Irwin, who was called “Caddy of the Crane”.  He lived at Caledon and gave out the meal to the poor.

            When I was at Caledon I went into James Wilson’s store and inquired for the descendants of Henry Marshall and told him he had a daughter who was married to a man they called “Caddy of the Crane”, named Irwin.  He took me into a room back of the store and showed me the bins, he said had held the meal.  I had not known before what “Caddy of the Crane” meant.  Mrs. Irwin was said to be a burden to herself, she was so fleshy.  My youngest aunt was so and some of my cousins are growing so.  My grandmother’s father was said to be so much so he could not get around.

            When I was a child there was a family lived across the street from us named Dunwiddie, which mother considered a distant relative of ours.  They were also connected with Professor Espie of Philadelphia.  There was a great deal said in the papers about this Prof. Espie advancing the idea that rain could be produced by raising a great smoke.  He set a forest on fire, thereby causing much damage.  This is my recollection of the matter, and that Espie was some relation to my grandmother.  I remember it because my mother used to laugh at the odd stories told by my grandfather concerning the family history that must up in connection with the estates.

            Away back we find a simple boy who could not write, signing away a whole townland for 20 guineaas.  He would tell of one Margaret running off with a man because he could sing so well.  Then also of a child who was not right in its mind and had spasms and died with its head hanging out of a bed.  He would tell of someone who died an old bachelor, who had an illegitimate child which he said would never get anything by law.  I do not say positively it was Michael, but that is my impression.  His son Henry, or one who claims to be his son, told me his father was a trifling fellow, never did anything but ride around with his gloves on and court the girls, and he never could get him to tell why it was they could not get Fernaloy.  They say, (the descendants in Ireland) it was a marriage gift to Mattie Chambers, and it was to be her and her heirs each one forever.  If they had not told me so I would feel certain that it was my grandmothers as I had always believed there was an estate that was hers of over two thousand acres, and that her father had charge of it.  It was that that her grandfather gave her she could probably not get it until she was of age.  If she was married at fifteen, she was in this country when

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she came of age.  If she had, as some think, some of her children, a lease of 99 years left by her father, it may be the Caledon estates, not yet run out.  I am satisfied there was a lease of 90 or 99 years that was given on some part of the Marshall estates.  I have been under the impression that it was either Bohard or Caledon, for this reason.  At the same time that my grandfather was talking about that circumstance of one of the Henrys who was so rich he built him a town and called it Bohard.  He talked a great deal about how they did about estates that were forever.  He said they were to be theirs and their heirs each one forever as long as grass grows and water runs, and they could not sell them only for their lifetime, or give a lease for 99 years.  When that time was up it would come back to the children.  He was, as I thought, talking of something in which my grandmother’s children was interested and he said no power on earth could keep us from getting it.  After he had been explaining it, Mother said, “Why Father we will be in our graves before that time.”  When she would talk that way, he would get impatient and sometimes say, “tut tut, the children will get it. 

When I was in Ireland one of James’ or Michael’s sons told me that one of Henry Marshall’s daughter married a man by the name of McEnespie and came to America when they changed their name, leaving off the Mc.  He said, “He went to Philadelphia and was a scientific man.”

Mrs. Margaret Thompson of Kenton, Ohio, whose maiden name was Espie, says that Prof. Espie of Philadelphia has a son or daughter at Columbus, Ohio.  I do not correspond with them, but think they are relatives.  My grandmother’s brother Joseph also came

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to America.  I am not sure but I think I have a trace of them at Mansfield, Ohio.  A gentleman in this city says his aunt married one of them and that they are related to the Pringles.

            I will now give a correct copy of the record of the births of my grandparents children just as they stand on the pages of their old family Bible.  The first child died on shipboard.

Henry McCracken was born                      September 8^th 1783

Sarah McCracken                              June 8^th 1785

X         Lilly McCracken                              November 20^th 1786

            William McCracken                              July 27^th 1788

X         Robert McCracken                              April 8^th 1790

James McCracken                              October 11^th 1791

Alexander McCracken                  October 11^th 1791

Henry McCracken                              July 20^th 1793

Martha McCracken                              April 18^th 1795

X            Margaret McCracken                          January 11^th 1797

John Murray McCracken                  April 1^st 1799

Jane McCracken                              January 22^nd 1801

X         Arthur McCracken                              February 9^th 1804

            Mary McCracken                              March 17^th 1807

Those marked are still living. X

I will here give a copy of a letter of Aunt Lilly’s daughter Margaret:

                                                                                    April 18^th 1876

This is to certify that the following is a true statement made by my mother Lilly Reed, who was the wife of John Reed deceased, and daughter of Alexander McCracken and his wife “Peggy” Marshall.  “My mother’s parents were Henry Marshall and Peggy or Mattie Chambers, his wife.  My mother had three brothers, Michael, James, and Joseph.  I have often heard her speak of Pringle, Cooper, and Ecels,

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as uncles which I think were married to her father’s sisters.  I also think Henry Marshall, my grandfather, had a brother Huggan.  There was another man called “Black Henry,” but I can not say what relation.  My grandparents lived near a castle called Alexander’s castle, but the name has been changed since.  They boarded some of the officers connected with the building for a short time.

            My parents’ first child was born in Ireland.  It was a son, they named him Henry.  An unmarried sister of my father’s took care of my mother when the child was born.  I think the child was seven months old when they left Ireland.  My parents sailed in the first ship that carried the Stars and Stripes.  They landed in Baltimore in the year 1783 or 1784.  Their child died on the ocean.  I cannot give any account of the places where my parents lived til I was ten years old.  We then crossed the mountains and settled in Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland County, PA.  We remained there ten years, then moved to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where I was married.  In 1816 my parents went to Ohio where they remained until death.  My mother died in 1827.  My father in 1851.  My uncles James and Joseph were quite young when my parents came to this (country) but I don’t know their ages.

            The above I have written as the statement of my mother she being of sound mind but unable to write.

Margaret Reed

            A part of a letter of the same date says her mother’s mother was so fat she could not tie her shoes.  She goes on to say, “Mother thinks the name of the congregation where Alexander McCracken worshiped was

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Fairview, their minister was McCue, but I don’t know that was their first connection with the church in America for there were five children baptized there at the same time by old McClintock, yet neither mother nor aunt Sally were baptized at that time.  She thinks their first connection with the church was in Carlisle, Penn.  “Mother says she never heard her mother called Margaret they were all named by the short word Peggy, Mattie, Betsy, or whatever the name was.”

            I now copy from Robert’s statement.

Ellisville, Fulton County, Illinois, March 28^th 1876

            I can distinctly remember hearing my mother say she was married at the age of 15 and my father at 25.  She ran off with him in the night.  They crossed the Blackwater by means of a ferryboat and went to my father’s father’s house to be married.  My mother’s father with his company followed them to the Blackwater but finding that the boat was on the other side, her father said to his company that it was useless to follow them farther for they would be married by a buckle beggar before they would catch them.  They were married at father’s father’s residence but not until father went out and got his marriage license and were then married I think by father’s minister Mr. Queen a seceder.

            They were married in County Armagh.  I have stated the story of my mother’s marriage as nearly as I can remember as she told me it when a child.  I cannot remember her what year they were married.  I remember her having an Episcopal prayer book.  I presume she was brought up in that church.  I have no rememberance of any record in her prayer book. There may have been.  I don’t know.  They had one child born in Ireland, whether it was baptized or not I don’t know, nor how old it was when they left

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Ireland, but it died when an infant on shipboard, as they were sailing to America.  They sailed from Belfast on the first ship that carried the thirteen stripes, and landed at Baltimore in Maryland.  I cannot tell how long they lived in Baltimore, or how long in Maryland.  They had several children born in Maryland and several in Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland County, Penn, where I think they first settled after coming to Pennsylvania.  My sister Polly the youngest of the family was born in Allegheny Co. Penn. And was baptized in Clinton in the seceder church by the Rev. William Wilson.  This being the last baptism performed in my father’s family.  I can remember it quite clearly.  I think it was in the year 1816 or 1817.”

“Robert McCracken”

            He recommended a search for their marriage license at Monaghan.  I did not think it was there.  I now copy from my Aunt Gaff’s (Margaret or Peggy) letter.  She lives at Denver, Colorado with her daughter.  She is quite blind and her daughter writes for her.  She says speaking of her parents:

April 19^th 1876

            Any name that you want to find that the heirs cannot remember, you will find them recorded in the Church of England.  All the names of the family are recorded there.”  She has reference to her mother’s brothers and sisters.  In another letter dated March 26^th 1876 she says, “My parents came over on a sail vessel.  They landed at Philadelphia and went down the bay to Baltimore.  They went out in the country and remainded in Maryland until they had eight children, moved from Maryland to Ligonier Valley, Penn., lived there eleven years, went from there to

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Allegheny Co.  There were five of the children baptized there and eight in Maryland.  Grandmother’s maiden name was Martha Chambers.  Don’t know whether she had brothers and sisters or not.  Henry Marshall had one sister that I know of.  She married a Mr. Cooper and moved to Mercer County Pennsylvania.  I don’t know the name of their home.  There was one dower left her.  If there was anything left Grandmother she did not know it.  It was called an estate forever, but he had besides, one hundred acres leased for 99 years.  It was a short distance from Alexander’s Castle.”

“M.J. McCarty”

            My cousin says she wrote the above just as her mother told her.  The hundred acres was meant as a lease of Henry Marshall.  His wife had a dower of Fernaloy.  Henry lived and died on Derrycantone Hill, now a part of Lord Caledon’s estate.

            I have before me another of her letters dated March 11^th 1877.  She says she will try to answer my questions as near as her mother can give to them. 

“Mother says she saw Francis Pringle about or 60 years ago.  He came to father’s house in Allegheny Co., Penn.  He was some relation to her mother.  He was with some other students or ministers.  About the same time, there was a Joseph Cooper there who was a full cousin (of her mother).  His mother was a sister of her father (Henry Marshall).  “I think she means my Aunt’s grandmother, that would be Mattie who was Henry of Derrycantone’s wife.  She speaks as though her mother was dictating.  She goes on to say.  Grandmother had an uncle in Ireland, she called him uncle English.  He was very wealthy.  Grandmother had a sister that married a man by the name of Burns.

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His father was a deaf and dumb man.  They called him Dumby Burns.  When Grandfather came to America they stopped in Maryland on the Juniata River, went from there to Ligonier Valley, Penn.  They had no slated preacher, a Mr. McCree was their supply.  Grandfather was a member of the Seceder church in Ireland.  Grandmother was an Episcopalian.  Grandfather lived near Alexander’s castle.  Grandmother said she had been in it many times when he was building it.  Grandfather had another farm which he had leased for 99 years.  She says for you to go to the Church of England nearest the castle and you will find all the names of the relatives recorded there.  She has heard her mother say so often.”

M.J. McCarty

            Now I will give copy of a letter written by my uncle Arthur.  It is rather singular but in some respects it sounds like my grandfather’s way of telling the story.  You will se he thinks Michael was never married.  He says as to the family of Henry Marshall, “Michael was the oldest.  Robert and Henry were the sons of Henry Marshall, but Michael died an old bachelor.  Robert and young Henry I think married and raised families but were kept under from the time Grandfather died by this Lord Caledon.  They were afraid to speak after Michael’s death and always told that he had bought Grandfather’s estate in line.  Now this Lord Caledon, the one I speak of who was sometimes called Alexander was the grandfather of the present holder as far as I can recollect.  This Henry Marshall spoken of in Ireland was the same Henry Marshall, an Episcopal minister, my grandfather.  This Fernaloy family I think were of the Caledon family, and some distant relatives of my grandmother’s.  (He means his grandmother Marshall, Henry’s wife.)  I like the idea of going to England to hunt up the origin of Henry Marshall and his family.

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They will find he went to Ireland and _____ in Derrycantone within the county of Tyrone, and this same land and estate of Henry Marshall the Episcopal minister.

Dr. A. McCracken, Helena, Arkansas

            This sounds like my grandfather used to talk.  I always believed he was a minister, because I often heard it said.  You see that my uncle Arthur thinks there was a Robert and he speaks of a young Henry which he evidently is thinking of as a son of his grandfather Henry Marshall, but I think he is mistaken and has two stories mixed.  I think he is thinking of part of the history of the Marshall family farther back than his grandfather’s family, and it may be and I think it was so that there was a Michael in that family, though the descendants of the family as I found them at Glenkeen and Curlough did not mention it to me.  I think the church records at Caledon mention it.

            There is one thing I will mention here, and that is the fact that both in my grandfather’s family in this country and also among the descendants in Ireland it seems to be a practice among them to name three brothers or three sisters that had married, giving them the names of their husbands so as to show which branch of the family they belonged to, and if I would ask if there were any other brothers or sisters besides those they mentioned, they would say yes there were others.  Now I will tell you a traditional story as I remember hearing my grandfather tell it to my mother.  There was one Henry Marshall they called Black Harry who was fond of high living, fat sheep and fat cattle and plenty of whiskey, and he had but one daughter.  Here my mother interrupted him by asking, “did they have negroes in the family?”  He said, no, they called him that because

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he was dark complexioned and to distinguish him from two others of the same name that lived at the same time and not far distance.  One was Henry Marshall, Gentleman, who was a great landlord, and the other was his son, Young Henry.  They were distinguished as Black Harry, Henry Marshall, Gentleman, and Young Henry.

            My mother asked, “what relation was Black Harry to your wife?”  He said he was no relation at all, then he went on to say, “There was a man by the name of Pettigrew, who kept Black Harry in fat sheep and fat cattle and plenty of whiskey.  He would get him drunk, then lend him money, and get him to mortgage his land, till he finally got it all, and not an inch did he get honestly.  At last he got him drunk and got him to sign over his land to him, but he, Black Harry, had a simple boy, John, who was his father’s heir at law.  And to make his claim good, while the father was drunk, he took the paper into another room where the boy was, and laid a small amount of money on the table before the boy and told him if he would sign that paper, or put his name there, showing him where to put it, he would give him all that money.  The boy was so much pleased with the sight of so much gold he did as he was told and signed away a whole townland.  My impression is that my grandfather said Pettigrew threw down a pound.  At any rate he said, 20 shillings make a pound.  I always have remembered this story in connection with the fact that I then learned for the first time that 20 shillings make a pound.

My grandfather said Black Harry Marshall was no relation at all to his wife, but Henry Marshall

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Gentleman married Black Harry’s daughter, and they went first to Glenkeen and they had three children born there.  They all took the smallpox and died, then they flitted to Blackwatertown, because for some reason they thought the death of their children was a judgment on them, or in some way connected with the place.  After they went to Blackwatertown they had three more.  They all took the smallpox and died; then they flitted back to Glenkeen and there they had three more.  One had spasms or epilepsy and died with its head hanging out of bed in an upstairs room.  Another one (I don’t know the name but think it was either Michael or Robert) died without heirs, and the oldest, a daughter, ran off and got married and came to America.  Previous to this time, Henry Marshall, Gentleman’s first wife died, and he married for his second wife a Miss Harris who was the daughter of the Rector of Co. Antrim and granddaughter of the Bishop of Down and Connor.  She had three sons, young Henry, Joseph, and Cornelius.  It may be that there were more, and I think they had sisters married to Sloan, Bailey, and McCree.  At any rate, there were three sisters that married three persons of those names as I remember often hearing my grandfather speak of that fact.  He said that his wife had 40 acres that were her own in her own right and title, and her interest whatever that was, is an estate that was over two thousand acres.  And besides that her grandfather gave her.  I think it was 400 or over acres, which I think was Glenkeen.

            My mother asked him if Henry Marshall, that great gentleman, was his wife’s grandfather. 

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He said no.  Her grandfather was Joseph, and he gave her that because she was called for his wife.  I have hesitated a great deal as to whether I should make this statement, as I have nothing to guide me except my own memory of a conversation that took place when I was very small, but the impression was left indelibly fixed, and I can only say what I believe to have heard, and I give it knowing that a close investigation may bring out the fact that I have made some mistake.  But dates of records, if they can be found ought to show.  I remember also that my mother asked if my grandfather’s father lived near where those other three lived.  He said no, but represented them as living close by the castle off in another direction.  In connection with this story I always think of the stream of water called the Cur and the Cur bridge, but cannot tell why.

            She asked him what relation that Henry was that was so rich and had built a town and called it Bohard.  It lay off some distance.  I think he said nine Irish miles, but he spoke of it in such a way that I thought the town had been disposed of in some way, at least for a while, and I have thought perhaps that was leased for 99 years.  I remember my mother asking him what relation was that Henry Marshall, the gentleman, to your wife?  He said he would be her great grandfather.  The Bishop would be her great-great-great-grandfather (being her great grandmother’s grandfather.)

            Mrs. Garvin living with her husband at Glenkeen and also her husband told me that Mrs. Garvin’s grandfather was Henry Marshall, and he had those two wives.  I think she makes a mistake, as I cannot see how her grandfather and my great-grandfather’s grandfather could be the same person.  I think her grandfather was the one that was called young Henry to distinguish him from Henry of Curlough, gentleman, and is father-in-law of Black Harry.

            They claim that Henry of Derrycantone, Huggan, or “Tony”, and one Cornelius Marshall were all sons of Joseph and Joseph was one of the sons of Henry of Curlough and that Mrs. Garvin’s grandfather Henry Marshall was another one.

            I found that they differed a little in their calculations, but from all I can learn from the friends in this country and my own recollections of the conversations about it, the only way to be guided in the search is to follow the shorter direction.  I give as a synopsis of the whole, and then by reading the longer statements to the descendants there.  See if it is correct.

            Mr. Mills’ report, a copy of transfers, shows evidence of an unusual transaction in the sale of Glendavaugh, where Black Harry is called Henry Marshall of Glendavaugh, who granted to Pettigrew some land, and it shows that his son John and heir at law gives away a whole townland for such a small amount, at least Mr. Mill’s clerk told me so.

            By looking at Mr. Mill’s copy, the first mention of Henry Marshall as Henry Marshall of Derrycantone, I believe the statement to be correct because I have heard my grandfather quote the same words in showing how the lands were held and yet it is firmly believed by myself and others, both in this country and that, that Fernaloy was a marriage dower to the wife of Henry Marshall on the day of her marriage.  It is also positively believed that his wife’s name was Mattie Chambers, that the estate was an estate to be hers and her heirs each one forever, as long

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as grass grows and water runs.

            You will notice that Michael has possessions before his father’s death, and Henry his father sold to Richard Lynn (he was married to Henry Marshall’s daughter) for 150 pounds, part of said lands of Fernaloy to hold to said Lynn for the residue of the term of 20 years granted by Dillon Pollard, Esq. to the said Henry Marshall and William English from the first of May 1799.

            I have thought that Dillon Pollard must have been the agent of Mr. Chambers or of Mattie Chambers.  It is said among my grandmother’s children that Henry Marshall had a great deal of trouble to get his wife’s father to consent to the marriage, as he was not supposed to be of noble birth.  He was obliged to show that he was of honorable descent and a landlord.  He did so, but still, the position was not so exalted as that of the Chambers family.  Finally, the wedding was consented to, and Fernaloy given as a dowry, but it never was intended that Henry Marshall should in any way dispose of the land.

            Joseph took possession of Derrycantone after his father’s death.  He was my grandmother’s youngest brother, and very small when she came to this country in 1784.  You will see in Mill’s report that Joseph granted to Richard Lynn his share of Fernaloy.  Dr. Lynn of Armagh City is a son of that Richard Lynn.  It is claimed that Fernaloy was illegally sold at private sale, and Richard Lynn bought it.  The Dr. told me it was sold when he was a child and his parents died when he was young, and he did not know anything about it.

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Miss Pringle, a granddaughter of Alexander Pringle who lives about five miles south of Caledon at a place I think called Tilladon.  It is the house of Alex. Pringle who was Henry Marshall’s brother-in-law, and one of the executors of the estate.  She told me that Fernaloy had been sold by Mrs. Lynn, and the money appropriated to the education of Dr. Lynn, but the illegal transaction was the selling of it from the heirs of Mattie Chambers.

            Mr. Simpson, a lawyer in Armagh, told me when I was there that he was brought up beside Fernaloy, and knew that it had always been expected that someone would come and claim that land, and for that reason, no one would bid on it when it was sold by Tinity College, except a widow lady who now holds it.

            I asked Henry Marshall who lives 3/12 miles north of Killilay to explain why Fernaloy was lost or sold.  He said he could never get his father to give him any satisfaction about it.  He was not willing to tell him.  The clerk who did writing for Mr. Mills told me that it was evident that Henry Marshall of Derrycantone held Fernaloy in charge for someone, for he had the had the collecting of the rents for the books at Dublin showed that fact, but it was not his own or he would not have sold a lease of a few acres in the way he did to Richard Lynn.

            I saw, when I was in Dublin, a will on record of a Mr. Chambers, leaving his wife, I think it was 4,000 pounds.  I think he had lived in Co. Down, but I could not tell whether he was related to my great grandmother or not.  I do not remember the date.

            Henry Marshall, son of Michael, had gotten an

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estate just before I was there, from a Chambers, but he said it was through his wife or his mother, and he did not think they were the same family that his grandfather Henry of Derrycantone was married into, but he did not know.

            My grandfather McCracken would often say she, his wife, was a great heiress, and speaking of some estate he would say, she was the only heir; and I thought he meant my grandmother, who was his wife, and I had an idea that the great estate to which she was an heir, was an estate of over two thousand acres, but I may be mistaken about it being her, where he said she was the only heir; he may have meant Mattie Chambers that married my grandmother’s father Henry Marshall.

            My grandmother had an Uncle English, or her mother had, I can’t be certain which, but I think William English mentioned in connection with Fernaloy was an uncle on the mother’s side.  If so, besides him, I have never heard any names mentioned of the Chambers family and I think Mattie Chambers may have come from England.  I remember once my grandfather was talking something about his wife’s friends when my mother asked him something, and my attention was attraced by him saying, “They were all English.”  I did not know at that time whether he meant that it was a family name, or that they were of English origin, but I had heard some of my friends say that my grandmother was heir to an estate in England, and they were of English origin.  Mattie Chambers may have been the only heir of her father’s estate, and they may be in England as well as in Ireland.

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I heard grandfather tell my mother how they used to do.  A man would have a lease, or he would lease a lease to the oldest son then he would buy an Episcopacy for the next, and educate another for a lawyer.  He was talking of Huggan or the one called “Tony” or attorney at law.  He said the father would buy an episcopacy and sometimes they would draw the salary from the government and hire another person to do the preaching, or take charge of the parish.  I have thought perhaps that was the reason I did not find a person in Ireland who knew anything in history about a Henry Marshall that had been an Episcopal minister, and yet I felt certain the prayer book to which I have referred before showed her as having been baptized by Henry Marshall, and I thought it had been her father.  On one occasion I remember my grandfather saying, “he had an episcopacy, but he never used it.”  I cannot be certain that he was referring to my great grandfather, but I thought he was; however I have no doubt prominent Episcopal clergyman refers to in his letter, was the Rector of Co. Antrim, a Mr. Harris, or the Bishop of Down and Connor, from whom Henry Marshall of Derrycantone descended in line, his father being Joseph Marshall of Glenkeen, who was the son of Henry of Curlough, which is a part of Glenkeen, and his second wife, who was a Miss Harris, Rector of Co. Antrim, and granddaughter of the Bishop of Down and Connor.

            I never heard it said either in this country or Ireland that the lands ever were forfeited.  I think they received them as bounty from the government for service

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done in those troubled times, and if there had ever been a forfeit I would know of it, for when I was a child I was quite familiar with the history of King William and King James, and the story of how the Marshalls finally got their lands, and that they were estates forever, and no power on earth could ever keep us from recovering them.  For that reason I went as I did alone, to find the family and the lands, believing that the church records and court records would show everything clear.

            I remember Dillon Pollard’s name being spoken of in connection with the lands but cannot remember what grandfather said about it.  I do not think he ever spoke of the fact attaching blame, but think he was either an agent employed by Henry Marshall, or his wife’s father for Fernaloy as a townland certainly was an estate forever, or the heirs believe it to be so, and it was supposed that Mr. Chambers was in position to enable him to give it in that way.

            Now I will copy statements as I noted them down at the houses of different ones of the descendants of the family, as I found them in the counties of Tyrone and Armagh.  These statements were written down just as each one told the traditions of the family.  They differ a little.  Mr. Joseph Garvin and wife went with me to see John Marshall.  She had told me that John’s father was Joseph.  You will see he corrected it.

Glenkeen, June 15^th 1868

            I am now at the house of Mr. Joseph Garvin, he and his wife are both descendants of the Marshall family.  He says the land from Aughnacloy to or beyond Caledon all belonged at one time to the family, and they could go from end to the other, which was over seven miles, without touching another

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person’s land.  The strip was three miles wide.  They had it in Lord Orrery’s time.  He was Eark of Cork.  The present Lord Caledon’s great grandfather purchased the estate or part of the estate now called Lord Caledon’s Estate or domain <sic> demesne from Lord Orrery, but a great deal of the land now taken into the demesne once belonged to Henry Marshall of Derrycantone, but is now nearly in the demesne.

            Mrs. Garvin goes on to say, her grandfather Henry Marshall who was born at Glenkeen and died at Curlough, had a daughter who went off and got married contrary her parent’s wishes.  Her name was Margaret Marshall and she thinks her husband’s name was Alexander McCracken.  At the time they ran off he was working at her father’s house at Curlough which is a part of Glenkeen.  He was a stonemason and had engaged to flag the floor in the hall and kitchen with stone.  When he got the hall done he left with the daughter and never finished it.  The job never was done until his granddaughter did it.  He grandfather was married twice.  She doesn’t know who his first wife was, but she had three children.  It was one of them that ran off.  One was found dead, hanging partly out of a bed.  It had epilepsy.  She does not know what became of the other one, perhaps it died.  This Henry is supposed to be the one that died Sept. 10^th 1804.  Glendavagh was a part of Glenkeen, and formerly belonged to Mrs. Garvin’s great-grandfather.  She thinks his name was Henry too.  At any rate, it was Marshall. (I presume she meant it was her great-grandfather Marshall held the land.)  Mrs. Garvin’s maiden name was Mary Ann Marshall.  Her father’s name was Armor Lowry Curry Marshall, called after the Honorable Lord Balmore.  (I remember my grandfather talking about this same thing when my father was getting ready to go to claim our estate

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but I cannot remember what way he was related.)  Mrs. Garvin goes on to say that Henry Marshall’s second wife was her grandmother, she was a Miss Harris, and was a daughter of the Rector of Co. Antrim and granddaughter of the Bishop of Down and Connor.  (I cannot reconcile her statement with John’s.  I think John is right, but we will see after a while what he says.)

            Mr. Garvin also a descendant of the Marshall family.  He says the first child of the first wife died, as well as the one that was hanging out of bed.  He also says that Mrs. Garvin’s grandfather Henry Marshall was born in Glenkeen and his first wife’s name was Marshall of Glendavagh.  His land was held as an estate forever.  Glendavagh  was Black Harry’s estate.

            John Marshall is a second cousin of Mrs. Garvin’s.  His father’s name was Huggan Marshall, and his grandfather’s name was Joseph Marshall.  John was called the heir of Glenkeen, but he had some trouble about the property and he lost it, but is now renting and living at Glenkeen.

            I have often heard my grandfather say, John is called the heir of Glenkeen, but he will never get it.  But I cannot remember so as to state the reason.  Mrs. John Marshall is also a second cousin of Mrs. Garvin.  She was a relative of her husband before marriage.  She says a bloody hand and dagger was the coat of arms of the Marshall family.  Her grandfather’s son’s names were Armor, Henry, and Harrison.  They had sisters married to Sloan, Bailey, and McCree.  They were all of the second wife’s children.

            She evidently has reference to the same persons that Mrs. Garvin refers to, that had the two wives, but she says

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in one place that the second wife had sons Joseph, Henry, and Cornelius.  (This Henry I think is the young Henry so called to distinguish him from his father and Black Harry of Glenkeen.)

            Now hear Mrs. Garvin again.  Mrs. Garvin says her great-grandfather Henry Marshall went first to Glenkeen.  Three of their children died there of the smallpox, then they went to Blackwatertown, Co. Armagh, and three more died; then came to Glenkeen and had three more, and they lived.  One was her grandfather Henry, one Joseph and one Cornelius.  Joseph was John’s father, and it was Henry that had three by his first wife at Curlaugh, part of Glenkeen.  One she supposed to be my grandmother Margaret that ran off, one found dead, and the other they thought died also.

            She is insisting that her grandfather and my great-grandfather were the same.  I wish you to remember I am now copying a letter written from Mrs. Garvin’s home in Glenkeen.

            Mr. Garvin says Alex. Pringle’s mother and my grandmother were first cousins and relations of his wife’s supposed to have been cousins.

            I am now at John Marshall’s house.  He lives at Glenkeen.  He says his father’s name was Huggan Marshall “tony” or attorney at law.  His father’s father’s name was Joseph.  He also says Glendavagh once belonged to a man that went by the name of Black Harry Marshall.  He was called so to distinguish him from others of the same name.  1713 was the date of the grant of Glenkeen, and he thinks that Black Harry got Glendavagh at about the same time.  He thinks some

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of his forefathers took out the original grant.  It passed into the hands of a man by the name of Pettigrew.  He got Bohard.  It had belonged to Mrs. Garvin’s grandfather, and Glendavagh (also her grandfather’s) and every piece of other land he could get, and never got any honestly.  This Black Harry was very fond of high living and Pettigrew kept him in fat cows and sheep and plenty of money to buy whiskey, getting him so much in debt to him that he finally got the land.

            Black Harry had a simple boy.  He was probably the oldest or only son for Pettigrew required his signature to make his title good, so when he went to get the deed, he laid down twenty guineas before the boy, and the sight of so much gold pleased him so well that he signed the deed and gave away a whole townland for that twenty guineas.

            That would not stand good in law, and if Henry’s wife and the simple boy were as it seems, the only heirs of Black Harry, then Margaret Marshall who ran off with Alex. McCracken from Curlough, a part of the Glenkeen, and her father would be the only heirs to her grandfather’s estate on the mother’s side.

            This all sounded all so much like my grandfather’s stories.  I thought when I was there it must be that we had all made a mistake about my grandmother’s having a brother Michael that was the oldest, and two little brothers when she came to this country by the name of James and Joseph, and the sisters names, but as I have traced it, I think I am still right.  However, I was so young when I heard the conversation about it.  I know I may be wrong, but still think that dates and other circumstances will show

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the truth.  I sometimes think that they have the stories mixed, as you see they evidently have about how they held the lands, as in one place it is said Glendavagh was Black Harry’s estate, and Mrs. Garvin closes by saying, grandfather had six townlands: Glenkeen, Glendavagh, Bohard, Armorall, Mullaghmussagh, Cyrlough, and one other she afterwards mentioned Derrycantone.

            My notes taken down at Ben Marshall’s house.  He lives at a place called Dian or Dyeing, not far from Caledon.  He is a son of James Marshall.  His grandfather’s name was Henry Marshall of Derrycantone, and his wife’s maiden name was Martha Chambers.  They had three sons: Michael, James, and Joseph.  Michael married Margaret Chambers (said not to be any relative of his grandmother.)  The three brothers all married.  Sally, they think, died not married.  Jane married Sam Brown and a Mr. Pollock.  Mary Ann married McEnespie.  They went to America.  Nellie married first Dunn, then afterwards to Dick Lynn.  Martha married Jack Burns.  Betty married Robert Broden_ (illegible last letter), and Ann or Nancy married Stringer.

            Mr. Ben Marshall remembered hearing his father often speak of a daughter of his grandfather’s (Henry Marshall) who went off and got married and afterwards went to Pennsylvania, America, and he thinks McCracken was the name of the man whom she married.  They heard from them by letter for a little while at first, and afterwards heard they had done well, but had not heard for a long time previous previous to his father’s death. 

Alex. Pringle of Tillden, son of a sister of Henry Marshall of

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Derrycantone, was one of the executors of the estate of Henry Marshall.  His brother Michael of the Grange was another.  Alexander Pringle resigned his position as executor on account of the course that was about to be taken in regard to the selling of the townland Fernaloy, but Michael retained his position and endeavored to prevent it.  He rode up from Dublin and read the proclamation at the time it was going to be auctioned, that any person who purchased that land would purchase a lawsuit to themselves, and that stopped the auction and the sale at that time; but they got it sold afterwards privately.  It is not known how, but it is thought the sale was not legal or lawful, as the land had been given to Martha Chambers, wife of Henry Marshall, and a contract entered into at the time of their marriage, that it should be hers and her heirs, each one forever, as long as grass grows and water runs.  It was the townland of Fernaloy in County Armagh.

            At Henry Marshall’s death he left the property he had got through his wife to his two oldest sons, Michael and James, and the land that he held in his own name, he left to Joseph.  That is where Lord Caledon’s castle and demesne stand.  He supposed the lease ran out and Lord Caledon gave them another place for it.  Fernaloy passed out of the hands of the proper heirs.    

            At the time of Henry Marshall’s death, two of his daughters were at his trunk and found the marriage contract that had been entered into between Henry Marshall and his wife’s father.  Mrs. Lynn got it and kept it.  Her husband held a mortgage against it.  It was Henry Marshall, Lynn’s father-in-law, that had mortgaged the land, but if you look at Mill’s report to my friends, you will see it was only for a small part.  He sold his lease of a few

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acres that would run out in a few years, I think twelve years.  But at the same time, as Mr. Mills clerk told me, he held Fernaloy for others, for he collected the rents and deposited them as the record showed.

            The same Benjamin Marshall says that after Henry’s (his grandfather) death, his father, James Marshall (who I have no doubt was my grandmother’s brother) put in a crop on the land his father left him.  Shortly before he was to move into the house, it was torn down in the night.  He did not say why, but I know that word came to America, but I cannot remember the particulars.  Henry Marshall was having a great deal of trouble about Fernaloy before he died I know, for he was living on Derrycantone Hill and was about to flit to Fernaloy to save it from going to destruction, and was just ready to move on the next day, and from some cause or other died suddenly in the night.  Soon after his death, Lord Caledon commenced enclosing the land Derrycantone within his walls.  The work was in progress when letters were sent to my father to go over and stop it, or that my belief at any rate.  The conversation in our family was that he, Lord Caledon, was walling in something, and my grandfather was anxious to have my father go without delay to attend to it.  When he could not go, he said for him to write to the Lord Chancellor, which I think he did, but I think never received an answer.

            My Aunt Martha Harbison and Margaret Gaff both lived at Xenia, Ohio at the time that my father was trying the second time to make his arrangements to go to attend to the estates.  At the same time there was so much excitement about some part of the estate being walled in and some lease being about to run out.  I asked my aunts what it was that made my

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grandfather so frantic over that matter at that time.  He said to my father, “you will let it get into chancery, then you will whistle when you get it out; and if you don’t go I will go and send Alex.”  They said it was because some lease was out.  (Please see Mills report where Joseph leased to Harrison a part of Glenkeen and the time it would run out.)  I have heard it said that one reason my father did not go was that Uncle William, being the oldest son, though he ought to go and would not sign the Power of Attorney to send any one of the rest.  I know I heard my father say that his lawyer, a Mr. Harlan, who lived at Xenia at that time, said the old Power of Attorney that my grandmother gave him previous to her death was of no use, that her children must all sign a new one.  My uncle Arthur was living in the far south where it took weeks at that time for letters to reach him, and as he was expected home the next spring, the matter was postponed.  He had not been in the north when my father died.  My uncle Alex. Died I think two or three years before my father.  I remember that he died first.  I remember seeing the Power of Attorney my grandmother gave in her lifetime.  It was sealed with the state seal of Ohio, at Columbus, Ohio.  I wrote to Monmouth, Illinois where my father Henry McCracken died, to see if it had been put on record by the executor of my father’s estate.

            Mr. John Rodgers, the person I requested to make the search, reported that he found the record of my father’s business papers but did not find any reference to the paper I asked for.  My father’s brother John and my stepmother looked over my father’s papers and some old letters.  I presume he got the correspondence

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and Power of Attorney.  I wrote to my uncle John’s only living child a few weeks ago, asking in reference to it.  She said she knew that her father died when she was quite small, but she remembered his having papers referring to the estates, and she had heard him say he had wanted to go to Ireland when he was quite young, to attend to it, but being so young, his mother was willing to trust him on the sea.

            I know there was another reason my grandmother and grandfather preferred having my father go, because he was called Henry after Henry Marshall, his grandfather.  And if he could not go, then the next preference was in favor of Alexander because he was called after his father Alex. McCracken who married Margaret Marshall.

            I will send you some letters written by my cousins who are children of my Uncle Alexander McCracken showing what a search we have made for the old Power of Attorney that was in their family after their father’s death.

            I have quite a lengthy correspondence on the subject, but will only send enough to show that we have made the search, that it was in existence, and considering that the persons to whom they were given were fathers of little children, and that at that time they must necessarily go in sail vessels, and be gone from their families for six months, attended with great risk in losses in business at home and risk of life at sea.  The conclusion would naturally be that my grandmother’s interests there were of great importance.  I remember that it was always said in our family that our grandparents were three months crossing over.  It was

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thought that six months was the shortest time they could possibly calculate on being away from home to go to attend to it.

            You will also see there was a man by the name of Falkenthal who had been employed by my uncle Robert, Uncle Arthur Arthur, and Aunt Gaff.  They wrote me afterwards that they would prefer my course and would not have thought of sending him if they had known I proposed going.  I did not like his proposition and refused to sign his Power of Attorney, as he depended on my statements as a guide for a lawyer after he would get to Ireland.  I thought that if I had to give the statement, I might as well give it to someone in Ireland that I knew personally, as to a stranger that I knew nothing about, one who had been selected by my uncle who is between eighty and ninety years of age, and whom I have not seen for nearly thirty years.  I will also send you a package of letters that I have in my possession that were written to me by persons by the name of McCracken.  The dates will show when I received them.  The first is from a man who I suppose had formed the acquaintance of my uncle Rob’s son William who is living in Southern Kansas. 

Our uncle John left home when he was young and the friends lost sight of him for many years until my father accidently found him in the state of Illinois, in Fulton County.  At that time, we lived near Monmouth, in Warren County.  Soon after he found him, my father was taken down with consumption.  While he lingered, my uncle John came to visit him and afterwards moved to that place with his family, consisting of three children and their stepmother.  Martha was the oldest, about 14 years, John next

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and Sarah F. the youngest (now Sarah F. McBurney of St. Louis.)  My grandfather Gillespie went from Bucyrus, Ohio, to Monmouth, Illinois, and took us all back to his house except my sister Cinthia Ann.  She had been married to Dr. Bruce and remained there until her husband died, then came to my grandfather’s in Ohio, where we were entirely among our mother’s friends, and remained for years.

            We never knew what became of our uncle John’s family for years after.  Then we had one letter from Sarah, and again in last sight of her , but knew from her letter that Uncle was dead, had died when she was a child.  That letter was written about thirty years ago.  Two years ago I learned she was in St. Louis.

            When you read those letters, the first from Thomas W. McCracken, you will understand why I correspond with him, but I would ask question instead of answering them, till finally he said he was a son of John McCracken, who was a son of Alex McCracken that came to America; that they came first to South Carolina, and afterwards to Kentucky.  He said he had never seen all his uncles but he had seen his uncle Saml.  I wrote to him that it was impossible that he could belong to our family, as my grandfather McCracken never was south of Dixon’s Line and he never had a son Saml.  See the family record as I have copied it, also see letters from my aunt Reed and uncle Robert, and aunt Maragaret Gaff, also letters I will copy from Dr. Wilson, or his certififed statements.  Also inquire of Benjamin Marshall of the Dian or Dyeing, near Caledon.  Also of Henry, son of my grandmother’s brother Michael, who lives north of Killaloy station, County Armagh, not far from Eglish Parish.  They told me that they knew that letters had passed between the families

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when they were young the Ecels had carried them back and forth, and they, my grandparents, lived in Pennsylvania.

            When I went first to Glenkeen, Mrs. Garvin told me what I have already copied about Margaret running off to get married.  She said they ran off and got married and went to America, and was never heard from afterwards.  I asked her is she knew where they landed or stopped.  She said she thought it was in the south.  I think she said in Carolina.  You will also notice that in one of those letters he says they wrote to a lawyer in Armagh by the name of Simpson and asked me if he was right.  He said he did not get an answer.  That reminds me of something that occurred at Armagh when I was there.

            I think it was at the same time that Mr. Simpson handed me the copy of wills report.  At any rate, we were standing in the street of Armagh.  I think he will remember the circumstances.  He said he had been talking to Lord Caledon’s agent about it and he thought unless I had something in black and white as proof, I could do nothing.  I told him I had letters written by my grandmother’s children.  He said the evidence must be certified evidence.  He had been informed that the only reason that Fernaloy had never been recovered was because it had never been claimed, and he knew they who lived near it had always expected someone to come and claim it.  He said he remembered why Mrs. Lynn bought it.  No one bid against her because they did not think they could hold it, as they expected someone to come and claim it.  As we talked, he pointed with his finger at the clause where Mr. Mills reports the sale of one eighth part of the townlands of Bohard; said he “there is something.”

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I said, “What is it?”  He just repeated, “there is something.”  But unless you have certified evidence, it would hardly be worthwhile investigating it, but said he, looking me straight in the eye, “was there not one of your family looking after this estate before?”  I said no.  No never.  He said he thought there was.  I said no, I was confident there never had been a search made, and there never had been to my knowledge.  But there was one of my uncles whom we had not heard from for years who might have been looking after his own interest, but not to my knowledge.  I remember that he turned away as though he did not believe me and said he, “I know there was.”

            He gave me no more satisfaction about it and I never could understand, and do not yet, unless the letters I sent you will explain.  Perhaps if Mr. Simpson is living he will explain.  I know there has been no one in our family but myself that has ever made any inquiry since my father wrote to the Lord Chancellor of Dublin, as I remember that circumstance.  I wrote myself, directing a letter to the Lord Chancellor of Dublin, not knowing any name to direct it to.  I wrote from Cambridge, Ohio, but never had an answer.  After I came back to America, I wrote to Francis Little of Aughnacloy as I had understood he was agent of the man that threw Glenkeen into chancery, but I never heard from him.  The relatives both in this country and also in the old, say that for a long time previous to Henry Marshall’s death, there were no letters passed between the families, and I think the word of his death did not reach us until he had been dead ten years.  He died in 1810 and my grandmother in 1827.

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I do not know how long it was before her death that she gave my father the first Power of Attorney, nor do I know how long it was between the two different times that he got ready to go.  I remember an excitement over some letters that came that I think were carried by Ecels, as I can remember seeing him at my aunt’s about the same time, and I also remember that the estate was the subject of conversation at one time when the Rev. Francis Pringle, who was a relative of my grandmother was expected to be in Xenia, where we lived, and he was at our house, but I do not remember seeing him.  I was very small at the time and cannot be positive but think he had lately been over to Ireland, or some of his family had lately come from Ireland, and brought word from our relatives.

            I presume whatever papers or letters my father had went into the hands of my uncle John after my father’s death.  His daughter speaks of her father having papers and intending to go.  I know he never had heard from any of the heirs unless he got them in that way, for he could not have them without us knowing it.  I have now told you all that I can think of that will be needful to trace up our family connection in Ireland.  I have done it carefully, faithfully, keeping nothing back, giving it in truth and sincerity, as I expect to give an account hereafter.  If an investigation should bring out or prove anything different, all I can say is that I have done the best that I could.

            I will now add that after I came home from Ireland, Marshall Cooper of Pittsburgh, sent a man over to Ireland to make an investigation.  He is said to be a grandson of one of the sisters of Henry Marshall of Derrycantone, or, at least of my great-grandfather, Henry Marshall.  My cousin Alex. McCracken, now living at 2008 Parrish St., Philadelphia, PA, sent me a letter that he had received from Mr. Cooper in which Mr. Cooper said to my cousin that he had found out to a certainty that the man that he sent (he was his brother-in-law) had been paid 30,000 pounds of hush money, and all he could get out of him was that the homestead was untouchable.  That, it is claimed, was our grandmother McCracken’s.  One of my aunts says it is the spot he died on.  When Mr. Cooper’s man returned, he immediately moved to Wisconsin or Minnesota and promised Mr. Cooper he would write and give him all the particulars.

            He, Mr. Cooper, had never been able to get any word from him since, only he heard that he had bought large tracts of land, and Cooper knew that he had no money to do so before he sent him to Ireland.  My cousin wrote to me that he had written to Wisconsin or Minnesota asking about the search he had made, thinking our interest would also be shown in his investigation, but he could get no answer.  I returned the letters to my cousin Alex. In Philadelphia.  He no doubt would be willing to send copies of them, should they be wanted.  Mr. Cooper says he lived three years with his grandmother and heard her speak of the estates.

            I suppose that was in this country, as Henry Marshall’s sister married Cooper, and came to Mercer Co. Pennsylvania.  When I think of the above circumstances, and remember how Mr. Mills acted, I cannot help thinking it strange if the statutes of Limitations would throw us out, that they are not willing to give up copies of transactions connected with the estates, as they find them on record, as in that case it could

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no one any any harm.

            A lady by the name of Kennedy living in this city was a resident of Dublin.  She says they had in their family, one branch who owned an estate forever.  He became deeply involved and gave up his estate.  It happened that he died soon after, and the estate went immediately back to his heirs, as he could not legally sell anything but the life interest and as I understand it, such estates were not subject to tax, as other lands were, and if the Pettigrews now hold the lands, they hold them only by right of possession.  The lands not having been claimed.  My grandmother’s sister, who married Irwin, I believe has now no living heirs, she had considerable property in the town of Caledon.  She had one daughter that had one child.  The executor Alex. Pringle forced a marriage between his son and the daughter, and she died broken-hearted, leaving no heir.  Then, he sold her property and was away traveling with the money when I was there, or at least I heard it from some of the neighbors.

            It would perhaps be well to look after that.  I am keeping copies of statements if you wish to know more particularly on any one point, please give the page and ask any questions.  I will answer promptly.

                                                (Signed) Sarah Jane Smith

The following are copies of affidavits attached to the foregoing statement, to wit:

State of Kansas,

Leavenworth County

            Mrs. Sarah Jane Smith, of said county

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and state, being duly sworn, says she has compiled the foregoing statement, consisting of 52 pages.  That her knowledge of the facts therein stated are derived from statements made in her presence and hearing, by her grandfather Alexander McCracken, who was the husband of Margaret Marshall, daughter of Henry Marshall of Derycantone and Mattie Chambers his wife; and from letters and statements in writing made by the children of said Margaret Marshall, some of whom are yet living, and from certified statements of disinterested parties.  Deponent further says that the facts contained and statements made herein are true and correct to the best of deponents knowledge and belief.

                                                                                    (Signed) Sarah Jane Smith

Sworn and subscribed

Before me this 13^th day

Of June 1877

H.W. rice

Notary Public               (Seal)

State of Kansas

Leavenworth County

            J.H. Blythe of said County and State being duly sworn says he is an attorney and counselor at law practicing in said State of Kansas, that he is well acquainted with Mrs. Sarah J. Smith, that at her request he has read the foregoing statement prepared by her, and

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has compared the same with the letters, statements in writing certified statements, and other documentary evidence in her possession, and that the facts stated therein are in strict accordance with such letters, statements in writing, certified statements and other documentary evidence in her possession.  Deponent further says that he has compared the copies of letters contained in the within statement, with the originals thereof now in possession of Mrs. Sarah Jane Smith, and that same are true and correct copies thereof.

                                                                        (signed) J.H. Blythe

Sworn and subscribed

Before me this 13^th day of

June 1877

H.W. Rice, Notary Public