JESSE ELLEDGE ALCORN died at Griggsville September 28, 1907, at the age of 88 years, three months and seven days.
His brother, Benjamin Franklin Alcorn, had died at new Canton in 1900 at at age of 85; another brother, William
Riley Alcorn, great hunter of early county days, died near Winterset, Iowa, when well past 90. There is record
of his having gone to California on a bear hunt when he was 93. Fanny Alcorn Rogers, sister of the three Alcorn
brothers, died at New Hartford in 1873 in her 70th year. All were grandchildren of Charity Boone and great grandchildren
of Neddie Boone, brother of Daniel.
The Boone family was noted for longevity. Daniel died lacking less than a month of 86; George Boone, a brother,
died in Shelby county, Kentucky, in November, 1820, at the age of 83; Samuel, another brother, died at 88; Jonathan,
the brother whose daughter (Dinah Boone Allen) is buried in the French cemetery at Milton, was 86; Mrs. Sarah Wilcoxen
(or Wilcox), a sister, died according to one record at 91, according to another in her 100thyear; Mrs. Elizabeth
Grant, another sister, died at 84; and a third sister, Mrs. Mary Bryan, died at 83. Edward (Neddie) Boone, ancestor
of hundreds of Pike countians, was only 40 when he was killed by the Indians in 1780.
Probably the record for longevity in the Boone family is held by Hiram Boone of Mound City, Missouri, a grandnephew
of Daniel Boone. Hiram Boone was 105 when interviewed in March, 1935, and he then predicted he would live to be
110. He at that time read without glasses, walked about his farm in good weather, cracked jokes and got a great
kick out of playing with his great great grandchildren. He told on that occasion of having made a four months'
journey by ox-team at the age of 19 from the site of Monmouth, Illinois, to California in search of gold, fighting
Indians on the way. He returned by ship around Cape Horn to New York and by rail and stage to Illinois. Returning
to California in 1854, he fell into the hands of hostile Indians but escaped; his companions, captured with him,
were scalped. He reached Monmouth again at the opening of the Civil War, enlisted with the 1st Illinois Cavalry,
then with the 102nd Illinois Infantry, had his clothing pierced by bullets at Gettysburg, saw Lincoln in camp once,
and said "hello" to General Grant and Sherman. His grandmother lived to be 102, his mother to 98, but
she was killed in a runaway. His children also were maintaining the family record, a daughter, Mrs. Ida Carter,
being then 83; another daughter, Mrs. Emma Mesmore, 78; a son, Arthur Boone, 70; E. H. Boone, 65; and "Baby
Frank" was 61.
Jesse E. Alcorn was born in Kentucky June 22, 1819. He was the last born of the seven children of Robert Alcorn
and Mary Elledge, she the eldest daughter of Francis Elledge and Charity Boone. Jesse Alcorn was six years old
when his father brought him to the Illinois country from Kentucky in 1825. His mother, Mary Elledge, had died in
1824, and his father had married again, coming immediately thereafter to Illinois.
It appears likely that the Alcorns came in the same wagon and pack train with Jesse Elledge, the noted Baptist
minister of early days, and Edward Boone Scholl, grandson of Neddie Boone, and his wife and family, together with
his wife's people, the Joseph Bentleys, that all settled at the site of early Williamsport, pioneer river port
opposite present Montezuma. Joseph Bentley was the proprietor of this early river town and Edward Boone Scholl
also acquired town lots therein from Bentley, as did Robert Alcorn. Later, in 1826, came Bartlett Rogers to this
town, he also buying a lot therein, and in 1828 came to the same place Bartlett Rogers' son, David Redmon Rogers,
with his wife, Fanny Alcorn, daughter of Robert Alcorn and Mary Elledge. All of these people were inter- related,
Edward Boone Scholl being a cousin of the Elledges, his mother, Mary Boone, being a younger sister of Charity Boone,
mother of the Elledges.
That Robert Alcorn first settled in Williamsport in Old Morgan (now Scott) county is indicated in a deed in the
possession of his great grandson, W. R. Willsey of Maysville. This deed, written in longhand on a faded scrap of
paper, is dated July 1, 1829, and is a conveyance by Robert Alcorn and his wife Frances (Alcorn's second wife)
of Lot No. 12 in the town of Williamsport in the county of Morgan and State of Illinois, for a consideration of
$21. The Alcorns in this deed subscribe themselves as of the county of Pike and State of Illinois. The deed was
acknowledged before Joel Meacham, founder of Meacham's Ferry, now Montezuma.
Jesse E. Alcorn, on November 26, 1848, married in Pike county Mary Easter Gratton, daughter of John Gratton, a
native of Virginia. Her mother was one of the Kentucky Scotts, a relative of John Scott for whom Scott county,
Illinois, was named. Mary Gratton Alcorn was known among the Alcorn kindred families as "Aunt Easter."
Her husband was a house carpenter and florist and gardener. He resided many years on the north side of Quincy Avenue,
two blocks east of the business section in Griggsville. Here he owned Lots 6 and 7 in Block 27 in Jones and Purkett's
Addition.
Jesse Alcorn died at Griggsville September 28, 1907, leaving two children, William G. Alcorn of 7001 Union Avenue,
Chicago, and Mrs. Mary E. Carlock of Browning, Illinois. The Carlocks, parents of one son, later bought a farm
near beverly, Adams county. A deceased daughter, Lola A. Alcorn, at the age of 16 married on June 22, 1878, John
S. Brothers of Griggsville, a son of Wilson Brothers and Harriet E. Benton, with Henry Lynde, J. P., officiating.
Jesse Alcorn left a will dated June 9, 1904, witnessed by E. S. Hoyt and T. F. Napier, of which he made his wife
executrix.
Mary E. Alcorn, widow of Jesse, died at Griggsville September 6, 1910, aged 82 years, nine months and 20 days.
She was born in Illinois November 17, 1828, in what is now Scott county. Her parents had followed the John Scotts
who had come to the Illinois country in the Kentucky migration of 1819-20. Jesse E. and Mary E. Alcott are buried
in Griggsville cemetery.
Frances (Fanny) Rogers, third child and daughter of Robert Alcorn and Mary Elledge, was born in Kentucky August
25, 1803, married David Redmon Rogers February 26, 1824, came with her husband and three children to early Williamsport
in what is now Scott county late in 1828, and settled with her family near New Hartford in the early 1830s.
First born of the numerous family of David R. Rogers and Fanny Alcorn was a daughter, Mary (Polly) Ann, born in
Kentucky January 4, 1825. In Pike county on July 26, 1842, Mary Ann became the wife of William L. Hadley, a native
of Williamsburg, Ohio. Jesse Elledge, pioneer Baptist preacher and great uncle of the bride, officiated, the wedding
being in the David R. Rogers home near New Hartford.
William L. Hadley and Mary Ann Rogers had two children, David and Elizabeth. Mary Ann, the mother, died when the
children were young and they were raised in the home of their grandparents, David R. and Fanny Rogers, at New Hartford.
David Hadley married Jennie (Jane) Miles, in Pike county, October 20, 1869, with R. M. Atkinson, county judge,
performing the ceremony. David and Jennie had one son, Lewis Hadley, born at New Hartford in 1870. At the age of
20, Lewis married Merida B. Sitton of New Hartford, a native of Missouri, a daughter of John R. Sitton and Mary
Richards. They were married by William W. Green, J. P., at Summer Hill, August 6, 1890, with Delia and Tille Green
witnessing. Lewis moved to Hannibal and died there, leaving his wife, four sons and one daughter. The widow now
resides on Fulton Avenue, South Hannibal, with one of her sons.
Elizabeth, daughter of William L. Hadley and Mary Ann Rogers, and a great great granddaughter of Charity Boone,
married C. L. (Barney) Moore, at the David R. Rogers home, March 28, 1861, with the bride's grandfather, Justice
D. R. Rogers, officiating. Mr. and Mrs. Moore were long beloved residents of the city of Pittsfield, where Mrs.
Moore lived up to the time of her death in a Quincy hospital on January 5, 1928, her husband having died a number
of years previously.
C. L. and Elizabeth Moore had one daughter, Fannie Moore, born in 1877, who in Pittsfield on April 20, 1901, married
Frank Pennington, son of Goyne S. Pennington and Annette Stout, he the Wabash ticket and station agent at Pittsfield
for many years following his appointment in 1869, in which year he married Miss Stout, who died leaving the one
son, Frank. Fannie Pennington, a telegraph operator, resides in Oak Lawn, Chicago. She has a son and a daughter,
Leland and Lucille, seventh generation descendants of Edward (Neddie) Boone.
William L. Hadley, some time after the death of his first wife, Mary Ann Rogers, again married, his second wife
being Sarah Ann Smith, a native of Cynthia, Ohio. Several children were born of this second marriage: Archibald
Elliott Hadley, born in 1859, who married, first, Miss Della Green of New Hartford, daughter of Isaac Green and
Nancy Cook, October 20, 1880, and second, Cenith Camp of Pittsfield, daughter of Henry Camp, September 25, 1886;
Amanda, who married Loren G. Craft, son of James S. and Harriet A. (Hyskill) Craft, at New Hartford, October 21,
1880; James Hadley (who was living in Pittsfield with his half-sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Moore, at the time of her
death), who married first, Idella Billings, daughter of Samuel Billings and Fannie Bowman, at Summer Hill, September
2, 1897; Hawley Hadley, who married Mary A. Cavender, daughter of Joseph Browning, at Pittsfield, January 25, 1896;
and John Harvey Hadley, born April 7, 1866, who died in Flint township, January 29, 1929, aged 62. A. E. Hadley,
Harvey and James Hadley were coopers by trade.
Idella Billings Hadley died June 16, 1914, at Pittsfield and is buried in the West cemetery. She was born May 2,
1868. Her husband, James Hadley, married again, at Pittsfield, December 28, 1926, his second wife being Martha
White, a native of Versaille, daughter of William White and Mary Fanchum. They live north of Pittsfield.
Jennie Miles Hadley, wife of David Hadley, died in Pittsfield township July 29, 1907, at the age of 61. She was
born in Missouri. Her grave is in Prairie Mound cemetery.
William L. Hadley died September 15, 1894, aged 75, being a widower at the time of his death. He died at New Hartford
and burial was in Prairie Mound.
Of Bartlett Rogers, second child of David R. Rogers and Fanny Alcorn, born in Kentucky November 3, 1826, there
is no further record. W. R. Willsey, a grandson of D. R. Rogers, thinks that Bartlett was drowned in Dutch Church
Creek when he was yet a small boy, but he is not certain as to the circumstances.
Nancy Jane, the third child of Mr. and Mrs. D. R. Rogers, was born in Kentucky February 15, 1828, the year in which
the Rogers family migrated from Kentucky to Illinois. She was only a few months old when the western journey was
begun.
In Pike county, on October 17, 1850, Nancy Jane was married to Ephraim Cram by James Ward, then county judge. They
had four children, namely, Mary, Charles, Leonard and Carson E. Mary Cram married George Tye and died at Havelock,
Nebraska, and is buried there. Charles Cram also married in Nebraska, and died there, leaving two daughters. Leonard
Cram, when last heard of by relatives, was in northwestern Canada, with the Canadian Mounted Police. What later
became of him is unknown. Carson E. Cram died September 10, 1859, an infant of ten months, and is buried in Prairie
Mound.
Ephraim Cram and his wife, Nancy Jane Rogers, are both buried in the cemetery of the Boones at Prairie Mound. An
iron fence surrounds their burial plot. Ephraim Cram, born in Pennsylvania in 1829, died April 2, 1881, aged 52.
He was a soldier in the Mexican War and in the War of the Rebellion. His wife died April 12, 1886, aged 58.
First of the Rogers children born in Illinois was the girl, Malinda, born in the now vanished town of Williamsport
in Old Morgan (now Scott) county, on Big Sandy, opposite early Meacham's Ferry, now Montezuma. This town was founded
by Joseph Bentley, the father of Susannah Bentley, who married Edward Boone's noted Pike county grandson, Edward
Boone Scholl. She was born August 14, 1830.
On June 19, 1831, Malinda Rogers married, in Pike county, James Gallett Willsey, a native of Tompkins county, New
York, where he was born February 28, 1830, a son of Barnett and Cornelia (Kiser) Willsey, both natives of the Empire
state. In 1837, Barnett and Cornelia Willsey removed from New York to Ohio, and in 1840 to Illinois, to Griggsville
township in Pike county. There Barnett Willsey began husking corn on the Griggsville prairies, receiving every
fifth load as his wage. Obtaining employment on several farms, he soon saved a little money with which he purchased
a cow. Later he traded a team for 80 acres of land in Pittsfield township in the (now) Fairview neighborhood, southwest
of Pittsfield.
There were no settlers then in that region. There was timber on the land, and deer and wolves were numerous. Mr.
Willsey built a cabin, and a few years later a frame house, hauling the lumber on a cart drawn by oxen. He continued
to cultivate his fields, reaping golden harvests from the rich new land, remaining on his homestead up to the time
of his death, which occurred January 31, 1859, at which time he had acquired 400 acres of land and was considered
one of the county's most substantial citizens. His wife died January 10, 1889, at the age of 85.
James Gallett Willsey, the son, began earning his own living at the age of ten. He acquired sufficient capital
to purchase 160 acres of land, the beautiful place near Fairview, which he acquired about 1855, thereafter adding
materially to his acreage which he brought to a high state of cultivation. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity
and a Knight Templar.
A son, William Riley, was born to James Gallett Willsey and Malinda Rogers, July 29, 1853. He, a great great grandson
of the Boones, is still living at Maysville at the age of 83. He treasures many quaint and interesting records
of his Boone kin.
William Riley Willsey was married in 1880 to Miss Judith A. Brown, a native of Newburg township, born on Christmas
Day of 1854. She was a daughter of Francis and Mary A. (Thomas) Brown. Her father was born near Quincy, Massachusetts,
October 7, 1817; her mother in Greene county, Illinois, October 5, 1819. She was a daughter of Samuel Thomas, a
pioneer settler in Greene county. Mrs. Brown was married September 29, 1842, to William H. Boling, then (1838-43)
county clerk at Pittsfield, and they resided in the county seat for two years. They bought all the chinaware in
the Pittsfield stores, which consisted of only one large platter, still a treasured possession of family descendants.
Exhausting the possibilities at Pittsfield, they went to Atlas, but could buy only a few tin pie pans there. In
the fall of 1843 Mr. Boling and his wife's brother, L. H. Thomas, drove from Pittsfield to their farm in Newburg
to decide upon a site for a home. This was located three and a half miles southeast of Pittsfield. Near the center
of the 160 acres gushed a fine spring, near where the old log house stood, and there the Bolings resided while
a more modern building was being erected.
William H. Boling died in 1847 and Mrs. Boling then returned to Greene county where she remained three years. On
October 31, 1850, she became the wife of Francis Brown, a native of Quincy, Massachusetts, who had removed to Quincy,
Illinois. Four children were born of the marriage, namely, Mrs. Emma Westlake, Mrs. Willsey, Laura and Arthur Brown,
the latter of whom married Callie Saylor.
Francis Brown died January 10, 1870; his wife on March 13, 1903. They are buried in the South (Oakwood) cemetery.
Both were devoted members of the Congregational church.
To William Riley and Malinda Willsey were born four children, namely:
Grace Malinda, born June 2, 1881, married Clarence A. Fudge, son of Joseph Fudge and Sarah Pence, at Pittsfield,
March 11, 1903, with the Rev. J. M. Young officiating, and C. E. Fudge and Maude McDonald witnessing. They have
two children, Nellie Frances, a school teacher, and Marie, who married Allan Brown and resides in Hannibal Missouri.
Laura Edith, born October 31, 1885, married, first Charles A. Hubbard of Roodhouse, a native of Barrow, Illinois,
and a son of David Hubbard and Emaline Houghton, May 20, 1909, and second, Frank Westell Mills of Independence,
Missouri, son of Henry R. Mills and Barbara E. Hicks, the wedding being at Pittsfield June 9, 1920. They have one
son, Westell Mills. They reside in Independence, Missouri.
Francis Scott, born December 12, 1887, married Miss Emma Reinbold of Pittsfield, daughter of Charles Reinbold and
Louisa Shadel, November 5, 1910, and they had two children, James Gallett and Rosa Lee. Francis Scott Willsey died
May 27, 1934. His widow and children reside in Pittsfield.
James Gallett, born December 31, 1891, married Miss Sada F. Aber of Pittsfield, daughter of Charles L. Aber and
Anna Bradbury, December 27, 1917, and they have four children, Judith Anna, Charles William, Letty Lou and Francis
Scott.
Malinda Rogers Willsey died June 23, 1923, at the age of 92 years, ten months and nine days, her husband, James
Gallett Willsey, having preceded her. Judith Brown Willsey, wife of William Riley and mistress of the beautiful
home which he built at Fairview in 1880, died many years ago, and Mr. Willsey, who has spent much time in ferreting
out his Boone lineage and kin, now resides at Maysville, nearing the age of 84.