Jacob Clover of Monroe County, Illinois

        Jacob Clover is believed to be the son of the Jacob Clover who lived in Salem County, New Jersey, moved to Pennsylvania, on to Kentucky and then to the area in St. Clair County which later became Monroe County, Illinois.  There is a lot of information about that Jacob Clover on the Jacob Senior Page.

I have tried to include here all the information we have on this Jacob Clover.  The earliest record which appears to be him in Illinois is from 1795. John Clover and Adam Clover, his brothers, signed a 1805 petition which described them as Americans by birth.  

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.

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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