Edward G. Mason, Early Illinois,
(Chicago: Fergus Print. Co., 1890)
This is an odd little book which lists the early militia in what was
St. Clair County before 1800. This is important because it is
the
only proof that I have seen that the Clovers were in Illinois by
1795. Note that John is not on the list. Perhaps he
was the
youngest of the set.
Page 79: First Militia Regiment, 26
April 1790:
Leonard Harness 14, David Guice 37 [The number after the name indicates
the position on the list. This number is included in the book
although the lists are alphabetized.]
Page 90: General return of St. Clair
Militia, 1
August 1790: Leonard Harness, David Guice (Guice received 100 acres of
land)
Page 93-94: Capt. Piggot’s
Company of First
Militia Regiment 1795: Settlers at New Design and Belle
Fountain: Jacob Clover, Wm Clover, Leonard
Harness.
Settlers at Whiteside
Station: Adam Clover, Solomon Guice.
Page 96: Names of persons entitled to donation of 100 acres of land for
militia service in Randolph and St. Clair Counties: Leonard Harness,
David Guice. They were marked as coming from St. Clair County, not
Randolph County.
I am not sure exactly what this is. The information was sent
to
me by Michael Clover who found it on Ancestry.com. It implies
that he was in the area in 1800.
Territorial
Papers of the US.
Volume Number: Vol 7. Page Number: 245. Family Number: 77.
Jacob Clover, male, Illinois, Indiana Territory, Randolph or
St
Clair County, residence year 1800.
Household Remarks: Name on memorial to Congress, referred 12 Dec 1804,
by inhabitants of Randolph & St. Clair Cos., some coming to
this
area because their families were captured by Indians & by
ransom
obtained them back
1804 Jacob Clover, Adam Clover and Wm Clover, Illinois, Indiana
Territory,
Randolph or St Clair County
Names on memorial to Congress, referred 12 Dec 1804, by inhabitants of
Randolph & St. Clair Cos., some coming to this area because their
families were captured by Indians & by ransom obtained them back
Source Citation: Document: Territorial Papers of the US; ; Volume
Number: Vol 7; Page Number: 246; Family Number: 6.
Ancestry.com. U.S. Census Reconstructed Records, 1660-1820 [database
on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Original data: Census Publishing. State Census Records. West Jordan,
Utah: Census Publishing, 2003-2009
An early Clover land record was
published in
The American State
Papers, Documents,
Legislative and Executive of the Congress of the United States, Volume
2, 1809-1815, (Washington:
Gales and Seaton, 1834), page 236.
This set of books is the reproduction of land claims from the records
of Congress. It has since been republished and is widely available in
large libraries because of the importance of the documents.
These
volumes are also available on microfilm. There is an accompanying
volume called Grassroots of America which is an index to the other
volumes. The following entry is the only one which contains the surname
Clover. As nearly as I can tell, this is the earliest land
purchase in the area by a Clover.
“Land Claims in the
district of Kaskaskias,” page 236: Pierre Lavassier was
confirmed
in claim number 822 for 100 acres which claim he had assigned to Jacob
Clover. The land was confirmed to Nicholas Jarrot.
This set
of claims was a list of militia donations granted by the governors of
the Northwest and Indiana Territories in pursuance of the act of the 3
March 1791. The land had been granted to Lavassier in exchange for his
previous military service. [Nicolas Jarrot assigned the claim of Pierre
Levasseur to
Jacob Clover
on 1 December 1803, for $100. The
land was in
what was then Randolph County, Illinois]
Jacob Clover married Catherine Harness, the daughter of
Leonard
Harness.
There does not appear to be a marriage record for them in the
area. The earliest marriage records for St. Clair County date from
1791. There was a marriage record for her sister
Sally in
1800 in St. Clair. They probably married by about
1800 in
the area. I have seen comments that they married in Virginia,
but
Harness had moved to Illinois while they were still living in Kentucky
so I don't think that can be true.
Jacob
left a will which was
probated in June 1821 so he died just before then. There is a
photocopy of this will on the
Jacob
Clover Will
page. Unfortunately, he did not list his children in this
will
so it has been necessary to prove them by other
means.
Illinois DAR
Genealogical Records
Committee Report, Series 2, volume
88: Will Book A and Probate
Book A to page 46, Monroe County,
Illinois,
2001. Copy at NSDAR. Page numbers refer to pages in probate
book.
page 330-331: Catharine Clover of Monroe County, died intestate, on or
about 15 September 1828. John Clover appointed administrator 11 August
1836. John Clover, James B. Needler and David Nowlin of Monroe County
bond $200. 11 August 1836.
Catherine did not leave a will and her exact death date is unknown.
The last actual record I can find for her is this one:
Monroe County, Illinois, Deed book B page 253: 26 July 1827 Catherine
Clover to John Clover, $30, horses, cattle, pigs, a plow, an axe and an
ox cart. She signed with a mark.
1815-1820
The following land was purchased from the state of Illinois. The
records are on the site for the Illinois State Archives. What is
interesting about this to me is that Jacob and John purchased land with
the same legal description. See the sale of land below in 1818.
I
had
thought that perhaps they inherited this land which was the reason both
were on the deed. However, it is clearly just a case of they
bought it
together. They were listed as residents of St. Clair County because
Monroe was
not formed until 1816. The land they purchased ended up in Monroe
County. They did well on this land because they paid about $240 for the
two pieces of land and sold it for $900 three years later.
CLOVER JACOB NEFR 29 02S 11W 3 02/07/1815 MONROE
CLOVER JACOB NWFR 29 02S 11W 3 02/07/1815 MONROE
CLOVER JACOB NWFR 01 02S 11W 3 02/07/1815 MONROE
CLOVER JOHN NWFR 29 02S 11W 3 02/07/1815 MONROE
CLOVER JOHN NEFR 29 02S 11W 3 02/07/1815 MONROE
Monroe County Deed Books, County Clerk, Waterloo, Illinois.
Copies of the following deeds were made from the Monroe County,
Illinois deed books A to E on FHL microfilms 1317836 and 1317837.
Unfortunately, the right ends of some lines were not legible because of
the way the book was microfilmed.
- Volume A page 277: 17 July
1818, Jacob Clover and Catharine, his
wife; John Clover and Tabitha, his wife; all of Monroe County,
Illinois, to Jacob Trout, $900, a tract of land being the North East
and North West fractional quarters of section Number 29 in Township
number two South Range Number 11 West consisting of 238 ½
acres.
All four persons signed with a mark. Witnesses: Cald’l
Cairns,
John Scott, Jesse W. Cooper.
Children
of Jacob Clover and
Catherine Harness
Henry
Clover Henry
married 1826, aged 20-30 in 1830 census, died 1847.
John
Clover born 1806, Illinois
Elias
Clover born 6 July 1808 died 30
July 1878, buried Whiteside Pond
Cemetery, Monroe County, Illinois.* See tombstone below.
Rebecca Clover married
James Nelson 1826. From Nelson
info, birth dates vary around 1807. She may have been older.
Ann Clover, died young without issue probably after 1820 census.
Jacob Clover, died young without issue, after 1821.
1820 Monroe County, IL page 66 Jacob
Clover 120101-10110-0400