SARAH JANE ELLEDGE, the second child and first daughter of Preacher Jesse Elledge and Elizabeth Philips, was born
in the Sangamo county, in what is now Scott county, in 1822. On March 13, 1849, Sarah Jane married John Lewis of
Perry, thereby united the family of Elledge with one of the most colorful families in American history.
John Lewis was the son of an elder John, who was a son of Samuel, who was a son of Captain John Lewis, who was
with his great soldier father at Grant's Defeat. Captain John was a son of the mighty warrior, General Andrew Lewis,
who was rated by Washington at the beginning of the Revolution as the foremost soldier in America. John Lewis was
therefore the great great grandson of General Andrew Lewis, who at the Battle of the Point, October 10, 1774, marshalled
the whites against the mightiest array of Indian warriors ever assembled upon the American continent.
The Lewises at Perry were cousins of the early Lewises at Pleasant Hill. They had come up out of Kentucky in very
early times (having originated in Virginia) along with those stalwart pioneers who bore the names of Chenoweth,
Hobbs and Reed. Some of them came from famous Reed's Fort in Kentucky; others from the Severns Valley where now
is Elizabethtown. Great pioneers were they all, men of extreme hardihood and daring who put iron in the blood of
Pike county's early civilization.
Captain John Lewis was the oldest son of General Andrew and was an officer in his father's command at Grant's Defeat,
where he was taken prisoner and carried to Quebec, thence to France. When finally liberated, he went to London
and procured a commission in the British Army, but later resigned, returned to Virginia and married Patsy Love
of Alexandria. Their children were Andrew, Samuel, Charles and Elizabeth. Samuel, the second son, married Sarah
Whitley and located in Kentucky, among the Hobbses and Chenoweths, coming thence in the 1830s to Pike county, Illinois.
Samuel's father, Captain John, after the wars, settled in the western part of Virginia and was there killed on
his plantation by his own Negroes. Samuel's great uncle, Colonel Charles Lewis, commanded a regiment at the Point,
where he was killed. He had once been captured by the Indians and would have been put to death but succeeded in
outrunning them.
Among the children of Samuel Lewis was John Lewis who, in Kentucky, married Mahala (last name missing) and they
became the parents of John Lewis, Jr., who married Sarah Jane Elledge, daughter of the pioneer Old Baptist, Jesse
Elledge, and granddaughter of the pioneer ferryman, Nimrod Philips.
Samuel Lewis, the son of Captain John of the old Indian wars, died at Perry June 11, 1850. He died intestate. Sarah
Lewis, his widow, administered his estate, her bondsmen being Samuel H. Chenoweth and Solomon Hobbs, who had come
from Kentucky at the same time as the Lewises. Appraisers of Samuel's estate were Samuel H. Chenoweth, Isaac Davis
and John B. Matthews, the latter the father of Captain Benjamin H. Matthews and grandfather of Colonel A. C. Matthews.
Records of the estate show that Joseph McCord and Hugh L. Sutphin of Perry were Samuel's physicians in his last
sickness and that the Lewis family were customers of Cleveland & Parmelee, early business house at Perry. Joel
W. Smith made Samuel Lewis's coffin for which he billed Sarah Lewis, the administratrix, as follows: "Mrs.
Lewis Detter to Joel W. Smith to 1 coffin $9.00." The notice to claimants was published by Mrs. Lewis in the
Pike County Free Press at Pittsfield, of which John Parkes was then editor.
John Lewis, Jr. and his wife, Sarah Jane Elledge, resided at Perry for less than a year following their marriage.
In the latter part of 1850 they moved to the state of Iowa and settled near Winterset in Madison county in the
southern part of that state. William Alcorn, a son of Mary Elledge and a grandson of Charity Boone, had previously
settled near Winterset with his family.
It is probable that Sarah Lewis, widow of Samuel, accompanied John Lewis and Sarah Elledge on their removal to
Iowa. In the records there is the following letter addressed to Judge James Ward, Esquire, then judge of probate,
under date of August 13, 1850:
"Dear Sir - The widow Sarah Lewis who has undertaken to administrate upon the estate of her husband is about
to remove to a distance and makes it very inconvenient for her to attend court. If in your opinion the administration
can be suspended, or wound up without proceeding farther in said office, we the securities will obligate ourselves
to see that all the debts are paid including costs of Court already made, we should be happy on her account for
her to be released for which we pray, Respectfully your obedient servants
SOLOMON HOBBS
SAMUEL CHENOWETH."
John Lewis and his wife, Sarah Elledge, had a son and a daughter, Sherman and Catherine Lewis; there were also
other daughters whose names have been lost. The parents died in Iowa and are believed to be buried somewhere in
the vicinity of Winterset. It is probable that Sarah (Whitley) Lewis and others of the Lewis family who lived in
early days at Perry are buried in that region. Samuel Lewis and his descendants of the General Andrew line have
been completely lost to the genealogists of the Lewis family.
Among the Perry Lewises was Zachary Lewis, who married Catherine Miller in Pike county March 11, 1849, their wedding
being just two days before the wedding of John Lewis and Sarah Jane Elledge. Zachary was a kinsman of John Lewis
and of the Lewis family at Pleasant Hill; a kinsman also of the Woolfolk family and of the Burrus and Pollard families,
prominent in the history of this region.
The first Zachary Lewis on the old Virginia shore, known there as early as 1692, had two sons, Zachary and John
Lewis. Zachary married Mary Waller and they had a son, Dr. Waller Lewis, who married Sarah, a daughter of Colonel
Robert Lewis of Belvoir (of the Warner Hall Lewises, being the youngest son of John Lewis and Isabella Warner),
and their daughter, Elizabeth Lewis, in 1791 in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, married John Woolfolk, whence sprang
the great Woolfolk line in Christian county, Kentucky, in Missouri and in Pike county, Illinois.
John Lewis, brother of the second Zachary, married Sarah Iverson and among their children were Ann Iverson Lewis,
Dr. Iverson Lewis and Sarah Iverson Lewis. Ann Iverson and Sarah Iverson Lewis married brothers, Aquilla and John
Rogers of Virginia, who were brothers of Bartlett Rogers, two of whose sons, David Redmon and Robert Rogers, married
in Kentucky Fannie and Cynthia Alcorn, daughters of Robert Alcorn and Mary Elledge, the latter a daughter of Francis
Elledge and Charity Boone, and a sister of Preacher Jesse Elledge. Another of Bartlett Rogers' sons, Thomas Jefferson
Rogers, married Phoebe, daughter of pioneer Daniel Shinn and Mary Hackett, becoming the father of Hannah Rogers
who married Harvey Elledge, a son of Benjamin Elledge who was a brother of the early Baptist preacher.
The Zachary Lewis line was further crossed with the Pike county Lewis and Rogers line by the marriage in Oregon
of Isaac Newton Collard, son of Felix Alver Collard (Pleasant Hill pioneer) and Martha Damaris Lewis, a daughter
of Samuel Hardin Lewis who died at Pleasant Hill in 1832.
It will thus be seen how intricately and inextricably the Lewis and Elledge and kindred lines are intermingled
in the story of Pike county.
Third child and second son of Preacher Jesse Elledge and Elizabeth Philips was Joseph Addison Elledge, who was
born in what is now Scott county, Illinois, September 26, 1824. On September 28, 1843 he married in Pike county
Miss Marica Williams, the ceremony being performed by the Reverend Levi Kinman, into whose family another daughter
of Jesse Elledge had been married a few months previously.
Joseph A. Elledge and Marica Williams began housekeeping on the old Joseph Elledge homestead, embracing 80 acres
in the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 32, Detroit township, about two miles north of Milton. Elledge
purchased this 80 from John Anderson Williams, his father-in-law, September 10, 1858.
Marica Williams was a daughter of one of the pioneer families of Pike county. Her father was John Anderson Williams,
who came with his family to Illinois in the fall of 1834 and settled in a log abode on the bank of a natural pond
a short distance south and west of present Toll Gate school house in Detroit township, and near the old Tucker
place. In the spring of 1835, he moved from this first settlement onto Section 30, Detroit township, south of the
village of Detroit and on the Detroit-Milton road. Here he cleared the wild land, made a home and reared his family
of ten children.
Marica Williams was a direct lineal descendant of the Williams family of Virginia, who came from England long prior
to the Revolution. She was a granddaughter of Dory Williams, a native of North Carolina and a soldier in the War
of 1812, and a great granddaughter of William Williams, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
Marica Williams was born in Davidson county, North Carolina, September 11, 1825, being the second child of John
Anderson Williams and Elizabeth Walk. Note: The given name of this Williams daughter is variously spelled in the
records. Her nephew, Judge A. Clay Williams of the Pike county circuit bench, has always assumed that her name
was "America," and she has been known in the family as "Aunt America." However, on a legal
document of record, which she unmistakably signed herself, she signed the name "Marica." Her recorded
signature to various deeds is also "Marica." On her tombstone in Blue River cemetery the spelling is
"Merrica." She is remembered as a highly intelligent woman. She was thrice married, into three of Pike
county's notable families.
The Williams family, of which Marica Williams Elledge was a member, has contributed vastly to the history of this
section. Only brief reference to its various notables will be made here, the detailed history of the family being
reserved for another chapter. Marica's brothers and sisters (sons and daughters of John Anderson Williams) included
William, Margaret Emmaline, Sarah, Lucinda Jane, David A., Samuel M., Richmond, John M. (Dock), and Robert, the
last a son of John A. Williams' second marriage.
John Anderson Williams' first wife was Elizabeth Walk, who was reared in the Boone country of the Yadkin, in North
Carolina. The Williams and Walk families had resided near Lexington in Davidson county, North Carolina. Others
of the Carolina Walks, brothers of Elizabeth, followed John A. Williams and their sister to this western country.
In 1836 came Teter and Mahala Walk, settling here in the wild land and enduring many hardships. He died in the
winter of 1839-40. The younger Walks, Birrel and Jasper, grappling with the hard conditions, knew all about picking
brush, grubbing, rolling logs, and driving oxen. Birrel was born in Davidson county, North Carolina, in 1832; Jasper
in Pike county in 1839. His mother, Mahala Walk, died in Pike county December 31, 1882. She was born in Davidson
county, North Carolina, and her father owned the Horseshoe Neck on the Yadkin river. Jasper Walk lived to an old
age, dying in Pike county January 6, 1922, in his eighty-third year. He long lived in a hewed log house on Section
36, Detroit, which was built by Thomas Clemmons, the original settler there, in the early 1840s.
Jonathan Walk, who came with the John A. Williams family, died in the new land November 30, 1835, about a year
after his arrival. He left his widow, Catherine Sarah Walk, and a number of children, among them David, Catherine,
Teter Kingsberry, Angeline, Isabel, Mahala, Wily, John F., Samuel and Barbara, the wife of Absalom Kepley, John
A. Williams and Samuel Walk were administrators of his estate and John A. Williams made a trip back to North Carolina
in 1837 to collect moneys owed there to the deceased. Thomas Tucker made the coffin for Jonathan Walk, charging
the estate $6 therefor. On August 16, 1847. John A. Williams bought from certain of the heirs, namely, Catherine,
Isabel and John F. Walk and the latter's wife Cena, the 80 acres in Section 32, Detroit township, which afterwards
became the home of Joseph Addison Elledge and his wife Marica.
John A. Williams, on April 19, 1859, again married, his first wife, Elizabeth Walk, having died. His second wife
was Caroline Clemmons of a family that also came from the Boone country on the Yadkin in North Carolina. First
of the family to settle here were Ezekiel and Phoebe (Reed) Clemmons, natives of Rowan county, across the Yadkin
from Davidson county, North Carolina. Coming westward, they settled first in Lawrence county, Illinois, in 1823,
coming in 1825 to Pike county and settling in Detroit township, moving three years later into what is now Montezuma
township, where Ezekiel and Phoebe Clemmons died.
John Anderson Williams, having cleared and brought under cultivation the wild acreage south of Detroit, now owned
by his grandson, Judge A. Clay Williams, in 1849 purchased a farm adjoining the village of Detroit and resided
there until after the Civil War, removing in 1866 to Tupelo, Mississippi, and a few years later to Sedalia, Missouri,
where some of his children had settled before him. He died at Sedalia in March, 1876 and is buried there.
William Williams and Dock Williams, brothers of Marica, both went to Sedalia, Missouri, and died and are buried
there. Margaret Emmaline, a sister, married John M. Hutsonpiller in Pike county November 19, 1859, and they also
went to Sedalia and later to the state of Montana, where Emmaline died. Sarah, another sister, married William
A. Clemmons (or Clemens) in Pike county December 30, 1847, he a relative of Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain). A third
sister, Lucinda Jane Williams, married William Sanderson of Detroit in Pike county September 17, 1857.
Although the Clemmons family in Pike county has usually spelled the family name differently than that of Mark Twain
branch, yet the branches are related and it appears from the records that William A. Clemmons was wont, sometimes
at least, to use the "Clemens" spelling. Clarence A. Williams of Newburg, a great grandson of John Anderson
Williams, has a memorandum of agreement entered into on December 11, 1851, between John A. Williams and William
A. Clemens (the latter John A. Williams' son-in-law), parties of the first part, and W. Ross (Colonel William Ross),
president of the Pittsfield & Florence Plank Road Company, of the second part, wherein Williams and Clemens
agree to place their saw-mill on the Taylor land and to cut, haul and saw all timber fit for saw logs by April
1, 1852, the planks to be two and a half inches thick and eight feet long. These were to be the planks for the
famous plank road from Pittsfield to the Illinois river (a distance of eleven miles), built by Colonel Ross and
his company in 1852. Mr. Williams' copy of this remarkable contract is signed by "John A. Williams" and
"A Clemens" and is attested by Colonel William Ross as a true copy.
David A. Williams, a brother of Marica, was born in Davidson county, North Carolina, July 22, 1832. He was two
years old when the family settled near Toll Gate in the fall of 1834. On May 10, 1854 he married Emily Adeline
Hayden, a daughter of Lewis Hayden and Elizabeth Bellamy, who had come to Illinois from Kentucky in 1835, settling
among the pioneers of Newburg township. To them were born eleven children, three of whom died in infancy. The others
were Cammie, William Elza, Flora, A. Clay, David Lawson, Hugh T., Lillian E., and Blanche.
Cammie Williams on August 22, 1872 married Harvey D. Williams, who was born in Carroll county, Virginia, November
10, 1847, a son of Nicholas Williams, who came to Hancock county, Illinois, about the year 1852. Harvey D., educated
in Quincy College, began teaching school in Hancock in 1868 and in 1870 came to Detroit township, Pike county,
and began teaching school, boarding at David Shuler's in the John A. Williams neighborhood. He later became principal
of the Detroit schools. Both Harvey D. and his wife are deceased.
William Elza, born in Detroit township May 5, 1857, became a brilliant member of the Pike County Bar, associated
himself with his brother, A. Clay, in the law firm of Williams & Williams, achieved prominence in Democratic
politics, sat in the Congress of the United States as representative from the 20th Illinois District, and served
as Congressman-at-Large from the state of Illinois. On August 24, 1879 he married Margaret C. Gallaher, a native
of New York City and a daughter of the brilliant James Gallaher, who was city librarian of Quincy, Illinois, and
for many years editor of the old Quincy Whig and of the Old Flag, predecessor of the Pike County Republican at
Pittsfield. They had one daughter, Mabel E., who became the wife of Irving W. Wheeler of Lockport, New York. The
daughter resides with her mother in Pittsfield. Mr. Williams died in Pittsfield September 13, 1921.
Flora Williams, daughter of David A. and a niece of Marica, married David F. (Dade) Allen, May 5, 1883. He became
sheriff of Pike county, and she a teacher in the Pittsfield schools. She died at her home in Pittsfield August
16, 1906. Her children are Bertha, wife of Walter Adkins of Ashland, Illinois; Nina, who resides with her sister
at Ashland; Stanley of Portland, Oregon, and Frances Rae, wife of Carl Stutzman of Peoria, Illinois.
A. Clay Williams was born on his father's farm in Detroit township September 22, 1868. Taking up the study of law
he was admitted to the bar in 1893, entered upon his practice and soon after was chosen city attorney. In 1896
he was elected state's attorney, holding that office two terms. He then joined his brother Elza, forming the law
firm of Williams & Williams. When the late Judge Harry Higbee retired from the bench in 1927, he was succeeded
by Judge A. Clay Williams, who since that time officiated as a judge of the circuit court for the eighth judicial
district of Illinois. On January 3, 1901, in Washington, D. C., he married Miss Blanche I. Proctor, a native of
Illinois and a daughter of Thaddeus H. Proctor. They have two children, David Clay and Wayne Proctor Williams,
constituting the present law firm of Williams & Williams of Pittsfield.
David Lawson Williams married Lulu Siebert of Detroit, a daughter of William C. Siebert. They were married in Pike
county August 24, 1892. They have two sons, Bourke and Victor. The parents reside in Pittsfield.
Dr. Hugh Thomas Williams became prominent in the medical profession, both here and in the west. His practice in
Pike and Brown counties covered a large territory. Dr. High married Laura McWane of Versailles, Illinois. Leaving
Illinois, he located in Los Angeles, California, and died there. He had two sons, Horace and Hugh Thomas Williams,
both of whom are married and residents of Los Angeles.
Two younger sisters in the Williams family were Lillian E. and Blanche. Lillian died in 1923, unmarried. Blanche
married W. E. Urick and resides at 2031 Drecena Drive, Los Angeles. She has one son, W. E. Urick, who is now in
his third year at Yale.
David A. Williams, father of the foregoing children, died in Pittsfield February 13, 1906; his wife had preceded
him, her death occurring in Pittsfield March 15, 1896.
Samuel M. Williams, a brother of Marica Williams Elledge, was born in North Carolina in 1829, coming to Pike county
when about five years of age. He married Mrs. Eunice (Hatch) Hosford May 1, 1864, she a native of Warren, Ohio,
and a daughter of John Hatch and Betsey Wing. Her first marriage was to John L. Hosford November 7, 1843. She lived
to a great age, dying at Detroit January 12, 1924, in her ninety-fifth year. Samuel Williams reared his family
and spent the greater part of his life in Pike county, where he died in 1897. In his family were three children:
Frances E. married Thomas Hall of Detroit, son of Calvin L. Hall and Melissa Thomas, November 17, 1897, she being
now deceased; Claiborne A. married Mary E. Foreman of newburg, daughter of N. B. and Mary (Russell) Foreman, July
10, 1889; and Samuel A. married Cora Jane Eagle, a native of Pike county and daughter of John Eagle and Marosity
Kiser, August 14, 1894. He died in Pittsfield August 12, 1926, from inhalation of flames and burns sustained while
trying to extinguish a fire in his Ford coupe. His widow lives in Pittsfield.
Richmond (Rit) Williams, a brother of Marica, married Susan J. Hayden December 23, 1852, she a sister of his brother
David's wife. They became the parents of Hardin E. (Ev) Williams, who married Corda A. Foreman, daughter of James
Wesley Foreman and Jane Norton, January 20, 1881. He died January 9, 1920, while serving a term as county treasurer
of Pike county being succeeded in that office by his daughter, Miss Phosa L. Williams, now a resident of El Cajon,
California.
Robert Williams, son of John Anderson Williams and his second wife, Caroline Clemmons, and a half-brother of Marica,
went to Montana and died there.