JAMES H. AND THOMAS P. Elledge, brothers, sons of Boone Elledge and Rebecca Bell (Beall), on February 11, 1847,
married sisters, Mary and Margaret Jane Simpson, daughters of Matthew Simpson and Susanna Orr. The Rev. Charles
Harrington, early day Baptist clergyman at Perry, performed the ceremony, a double one, at the Simpson home in
Griggsville township.
Mary and Margaret Jane Simpson were of a family of seven children, others including Isabella, Thomas John, and
twin sons, James and Alexander. The father, Matthew Simpson, was born in Harrison county, Ohio, November 13, 1807,
and settled in Pike county, in Griggsville township, in 1837, enduring many pioneer hardships. He had married Susanna
Orr on April 19, 1827. She died August 6, 1860, at the age of 52, and is buried in Hinman cemetery.
Matthew Simpson, following the death of his first wife, again married, his second wife being Mrs. Susan (Ward)
Pryor, widow of Nathaniel P. Pryor, whom she had married November 18, 1854 and who died the same year. She was
born in Knox county, Ohio, April 22, 1828, a daughter of Samuel Ward, who came to Pike county in 1844. She and
Mr. Simpson were married March 30, 1862. By this marriage there were two children, Edward and Llewella M. Simpson.
Eddie died March 1, 1864 when but twelve days old. He is buried at Hinman.
Matthew Simpson died January 4, 1877, aged 69.
His second wife, Susan, died April 21, 1904, aged 75 years, 11 months and 29 days. Mr. Simpson and both of his
wives are buried in Hinman cemetery.
Thomas Patterson Elledge and his wife, Margaret Jane Simpson, following their marriage in 1847, began housekeeping
on the old Boone Elledge quarter section on Hinman Prairie, where the pioneer Elledges had settled in 1836. On
this place, in Section 6, Griggsville, is one of the natural wonders of the county, a deep, narrow pass, bounded
with imposing mossy cliffs on either side, a section of rugged beauty through which flows the south branch of McGee.
Long known as "The Canon," it was later christened "Elledge Canon" by reason of the Elledge
settlement there. At this place in early times, rattlesnakes abounded and settlers in the spring of the year sometimes
assembled and killed the reptiles in great numbers.
Thomas P. Elledge was a resident of the county for 64 years, being eleven years of age when his father brought
him to Griggsville township in 1836. He was born in Harrison county, Indiana, April 27, 1825. After coming to Illinois
he lived continuously in Griggsville and Perry townships.
Following the death of his father, Boone Elledge, in 1841, Thomas P. secured sole title to the homestead by virtue
of various quitclaims given by the Boone Elledge heirs, including Adam Douglas, Francis, William Boone, Benjamin
F., and James H. Elledge, Lewis H. Baldwin and his wife, Maria Jane Elledge, William Boone and French Elledge (the
heirs of Alexander Elledge), and Rebecca F. Elledge (the heir of Joel Elledge). Beginning with the quitclaim of
Adam D. Elledge in 1849, the final transfer of title to Thomas P. was made in 1866 by Joel Elledge's daughter Rebecca,
Joel Elledge being then deceased.
Thomas P. Elledge and his wife were long active in the affairs of old Hinman Chapel, a log edifice in the wildwood,
a short distance west of the Elledge house. The church's pulpit, fashioned from a native walnut, was made by Elledge.
Thomas P. Elledge and Margaret J. Simpson had six children, namely, Rebecca Jane, James Samuel, Hattie Ann, Matthew
Boone, Mary Catherine, and a son who died in infancy.
Rebecca Jane Elledge was born on Hinman Prairie June 15, 1848. On September 22, 1880 she married Leander R. Leach,
the Rev. A. O. Stover officiating. They resided on the old Leach farm east of Shady Dell. They had one child, a
daughter, Margaret C. Leach, born September 9, 1889. She died at Griggsville June 11, 1911, unmarried. The father,
Leander (Lee) Leach, born October 16, 1848, died on the Leach farm near Shady Dell September 14, 1895. Mrs. Leach
lived for a time at Perry, then moved to Griggsville, and there she died on January 27, 1922. Mr. and Mrs. Leach
and their daughter Margaret are all buried in Hinman cemetery.
James Samuel Elledge, fifth of the Elledge children, born on Hinman Prairie in 1854, on October 19, 1881 married
Jennie Louise Clark, a daughter of Job Clark and Hester Eliza Gilham of Perry. Her mother was a descendant of Revolutionary
forebears, a daughter of Mary (Whiteside) Gilham (buried at Elizabeth, Illinois, near Galena), who was a granddaughter
of the Revolutionary patriot, William Bolin Whiteside. Whiteside county, Illinois, bears the name of Hester E.
Gilham's family, being named especially for Samuel Whiteside, colonel of Illinois Territorial Militia, representative
in the First Illinois General Assembly, and Brigadier General of Militia during the Black Hawk War. Whiteside Station,
near East St. Louis, was also named for this family, some of whose members once abided there.
Job Clark was a son of John Clark and Christiana Reed, the father a native of Greene county, Pennsylvania, and
the mother of Hamilton county, Ohio. He married Hester Eliza Gilham in 1853 and came to Pike county in May, 1857.
By occupation he was a millwright but, attracted by the quality of the Illinois land, he turned to farming at which
he was successful.
Job Clark and Hester Gilham had six children: Annie was born at Eagle Point, Ogle county, Illinois, December 13,
1853 and died while yet a child; John Harvey, born December 28, 1855 at Elizabeth, Jo Daviess county, also died
young; Carrie, born at Perry, Illinois, on September 17, 1859, married Asa Dorsey May 15, 1879; Jennie Louise,
born at Perry October 3, 1862, married James S. Elledge in 1881; Mary Etta, born at Perry October 12, 1865, married
Virden C. Peckenpaugh December 5, 1888; and Bertha, born at Perry, October 2, 1869, married Dr. Benton B. Dunn
October 5, 1892. Mrs. Dunn, who resides at Perry, is the only child of Job and Hester Clark now living in Pike
county.
Job Clark died November 19, 1908 and his wife Hester on November 19, 1917. Both are buried at Perry.
James S. Elledge, following his marriage in 1881, continued farming on the old Elledge homestead near Hinman cemetery.
His father, Thomas P., had moved from the farm to the city of Griggsville, after transferring title in the Boone
Elledge homestead to his son. On October 25, 1906, James S. transferred title in the Elledge quarter section to
Samuel Curfman and in February, 1907, the James S. Elledge family removed to Oklahoma and settled on a farm near
Blackwell, in or near which place most of their children still reside.
James S. Elledge and Jennie Louise Clark had five children, namely: Edith, Nellie, Matthew Clark, Ray Patterson
and Louise Elledge.
Edith Elledge, born in Pike county July 23, 1882, married her second cousin, Marshall L. Baldwin, at Perry November
26, 1902. Her husband was a son of James Lewis Baldwin and Ella Williams, he a son of Lewis H. Baldwin and Maria
Jane Elledge, who was a daughter of Boone Elledge and a sister of Thomas Patterson Elledge. Marshall Baldwin and
his wife also located at Blackwell, Oklahoma, following her parents to that place in 1910, when their first child,
Bertha Louise Baldwin, was nine months of age.
Marshall Baldwin and Edith Elledge have three children, Bertha Louise, Clark Frederick and Mary Frances. Bertha
Louise, born in Pike county November 3, 1909, was for some time employed in the Shop of India in Topeka, Kansas,
and is now in charge of a department in the largest drygoods store in Topeka. She is unmarried. Clark Frederick
married in 1937 Mildred Smith of Ponca City, Oklahoma. The youngest child, Mary Frances, is at home. Clark Frederick
and Mary Frances were both born in Oklahoma. The family resides in Blackwell.
Nellie Elledge, second child of James S. and Jennie Elledge, was born in Pike county October 23, 1884. She died
August 10, 1885 and is buried in the T. P. Elledge family plot in Hinman cemetery.
Matthew Clark Elledge, born in Pike county June 1, 1886, resides on he half-section originally settled by his father
in 1907, lying three miles southwest of Blackwell, said to be one of the best farms in Kay county, Oklahoma. Natural
gas flows on this farm. Clark and his wife Ella have one son, Clark Elledge, Jr.
Ray Patterson Elledge, born in Pike county September 13, 1891, also resides at Blackwell. He married Ruth Payne
in Oklahoma and they have three children, namely, Arthur Raymond, John Harland and Wilma Marie Elledge. Arthur
is married; Harland and Wilma are at home.
Louise Elledge, born in Pike county April 8, 1893, married Leo Helm in Blackwell, Oklahoma, February 27, 1926.
They moved first to Kansas City and then to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he is district manager for the Bell Telephone
Company. They have no children of their own but have one adopted son, David Helm. Another boy, Robert Helm, whom
they first adopted, was killed when he fell from a pony he was riding while the family was on a vacation visit
to the Marshall Baldwins in Blackwell.
James S. Elledge, living retired in the city of Blackwell, died there of a sudden heart attack December 11, 1934.
He had moved into Blackwell in 1918 from the nearby farm where he had first settled. He and his wife celebrated
their golden wedding anniversary in Blackwell in 1931. He is buried in the mausoleum there. His wife still lives
in the home place in Blackwell.
Harriett (Hattie) Ann Elledge, sixth and last child of Thomas P. Elledge and Margaret Jane Simpson, born October
4, 1863, at the age of 19 married Charles Ellison Stead of Griggsville, a son of Matthias Stead, who married a
Miss Maud. They were married March 22, 1883. They had two children, namely, Catherine and Matthew Boone Stead.
Catherine Stead resides in the old home of the Steads in Griggsville with her brother, Boone Stead. She is unmarried.
Matthew Boone Stead, a great great great grandson of Edward (Neddie) Boone, is a telegrapher and has long been
connected with the Wabash station at Griggsville. He has twice married, both wives being now dead. His first marriage
was to Anna Marie Napier of Griggsville, October 12, 1913, with the Rev. J. D. Dabney officiating and Katherine
M. Stead and Mrs. Ernest Evans witnessing. She was a daughter of Thomas F. Napier and Sarah C. Morgan. They had
one child, a son, Wesley Napier Stead, born June 3, 1916. He is employed on the WPA office staff in Pittsfield.
Mrs. Stead, born February 17, 1890, died January 31, 1920 at Griggsville; she is buried at Griggsville. Mr. Stead
was again married in 1922, his second wife being Hazel Frances Antrobus, born at Arnold, Illinois, August 29, 1893,
a daughter of E. D. Antrobus, a native of Bethel, and Clara Egan, a native of Virden, Illinois. By this marriage
there is also one son, Wendall Allan Stead, born in December, 1923. The second Mrs. Stead died at Griggsville January
15, 1924; she is buried in Jordan cemetery.
Hattie Ann (Elledge) Stead died in Griggsville October 29, 1924, aged 61. Her husband, Charles Ellison Stead, born
at Griggsville June 15, 1860, died at Griggsville February 14, 1934, aged 73. For 18 years he had been a school
custodian at Griggsville. Mr. and Mrs. Stead are both buried in Griggsville cemetery, Hattie Ann being the only
one of the Thomas P. Elledge family who is buried there.
Matthew Boone Elledge, third child (and first son to live) of Thomas P. and Margaret J. Elledge, was born on Hinman
Prairie November 18, 1850 and died there September 17, 1879 at the age of 28. He was a victim of typhoid fever,
his sister, Hattie Ann, also a victim of the disease, being in the valley of the shadow at the time of his death.
That the sister might not know, the body of Matthew Boone was taken out of the home through a window and carried
to nearby Hinman cemetery. For days after he was buried, the sick sister shared her flowers and other gifts from
the kind neighbors on Hinman Prairie, having them taken to the room of her brother whom she supposed to be still
living.
Each succeeding generation of Elledges perpetuates the Boone name in the naming of its sons. This custom prevails
among all of the Elledge families. Thus did Thomas Patterson Elledge maintain the Boone tradition in his family
by naming one of his sons Matthew Boone Elledge, whose name is borne in turn by his nephew, Matthew Boone Stead
of Griggsville.
The Boone ancestor of the Elledges was Edward (Neddie) Boone, Daniel's younger brother and a son of the first Squire
Boone in America, and his wife, Sarah Morgan. Edward's eldest daughter was Charity Boone, who married Francis Elledge,
and one of their sons was Pike county Boone Elledge, who was the father of Thomas P. Elledge, who was the father
of Matthew Boone Elledge and Hattie A. Elledge, the latter of whom named her son Matthew Boone Stead.
Mary Catherine Elledge, fourth child of the Thomas P. Elledges, was born on Hinman Prairie October 20, 1853, and
died January 26, 1857, aged three years, four months and six days.
The Elledges had also another son, their second born, who died in infancy, his death occurring June 15, 1849. This
infant son and the baby daughter, Mary Catherine, are buried in Hinman Chapel cemetery.
Margaret Jane (Simpson) Elledge, the first wife of Thomas P., was born February 14, 1828 and died at the Elledge
homestead on Hinman Prairie July 2, 1886, aged 58. She is buried in old Hinman Chapel cemetery.
Thomas P. Elledge, some two years after the death of his first wife, again married, his second wife being Mrs.
Manora (Test) Rounds, a native of Ohio and a daughter of O. V. Test and Lucy Snyder. They were married at Griggsville
October 4, 1888. Fred M. Abbott was the minister and Emma Rounds and Fred Farrand witnessed the ceremony.
Mrs. Manora Elledge later located at Mt. Sterling, and Thomas P., who on leaving the old Elledge place on Hinman
had moved to Griggsville, went to live with his daughter, Rebecca Leach, at Perry, and at her home he died on October
19, 1900, aged 75. A beautiful monument in Hinman cemetery marks the plot wherein lie the bodies of Thomas P. Elledge
and his first wife, Margaret Jane Simpson. The stone also marks the burials of the son, Matthew Boone, and of an
infant granddaughter, Nellie, the child of James S. Elledge and Jennie L. Clark.
Boone Elledge died at his settlement on Hinman Prairie June 4, 1841, lacking three days of having lived five years
in the Illinois country. He was 57 years, five months and 10 days old. He had been born in Kentucky on Christmas
Day, 1783. On Christmas Day, four years before his birth, his parents, Francis Elledge and Charity Boone, who had
been married in North Carolina, arrived at Daniel Boone's fort (Fort Boonesborough) on the bank of the Kentucky
river, in the wild land that was called by the early settlers the "land of Kaintuke." They had come over
the Wilderness Trail with her father, Edward Boone, and her mother, Martha Bryan, and her brothers and sisters,
the whole party coming out to the wild land under the guidance and protection of Daniel Boone. The game that fell
before the rifles of Daniel and Edward supplied them with meat on the long and perilous journey. Sometimes the
ground trembled beneath the tread of countless buffaloes.
In the year that Boone Elledge was born there was a brief respite from Indian outrage. The preceding year had been
the bloodiest in Kentucky history. The shadow of the Blue Licks defeat hung like a pall over the Kentucky land.
The terrible fate of Colonel Crawford, who had perished at the stake, the circle of fire being just large enough
to blister his flesh, his agonies being prolonged for an hour as his body roasted while yet life remained, had
brought fear to every fireside in Kentucky. It was amid such terrible disasters as these that the elder Elledges
had been cradled.
The name of Simon Girty, dread scourge of the Kentucky settlements, who had laughed at Colonel Crawford's agonies
at the stake, was the most hated name in Kentucky when Charity Boone was mothering her brood. On the other hand,
the names of the Boones, and Simon Kenton, and Bland Ballard (afterwards Major Ballard), and other noted defenders
of Kentucky were held in highest reverence.
The Revolutionary War was over when Boone Elledge was born. Hostilities between the United States and Great Britain
had ceased. A speedy cession of British posts on the northwestern frontier was in prospect, which so discouraged
the Indians, whose powerful allies the British had been, that they ceased for a year or two their incursions into
Kentucky, thus giving the settlers opportunity to acquire and cultivate new tracts of land. It was in this period
of transition that Boone Elledge was born.
Dying in 1841, Boone Elledge did not live to see the land of his last choice delivered completely from the old
wilderness. Ways were still rude when he left the scene. The people still pursued a way of life with manners and
customs very different from those of today.
Compared with modern funerals, the funeral of Boone Elledge was plain indeed. He rested in a $10 coffin made from
the native timber by Jesse G. Crawford; but it was the finest casket of its day. "One raised-lid coffin, $10"
reads the bill presented by Crawford to Rebecca Elledge, the widow, who administered the estate. On June 6, 1841,
the settlers followed the body of the pioneer to nearby Hinman cemetery where it was interred. Bills rendered the
estate show that Hugh L. Sutphin and J. W. Hollowbush of Perry were the physicians who attended Boone Elledge in
his last sickness.
On September 25, 1841, at the Elledge homestead on Hinman, Rebecca Elledge as administratrix held a public sale
of Boone Elledge's property. James White was crier; Samuel G. Baldwin, who had married Benjamin Elledge's daughter
Sarah, was clerk. Buyers at this Hinman Prairie public sale of 1841, several of whom were descendants of the Boones
or relations of the Boone family, included Samuel W. Craig, Robert Walker, Joel Elledge, Henry Brown, James White,
Thomas Miller, C. A. Winegar, Isaac Askew, Richard Beall, Benjamin F. Elledge, David Baldwin, J. Husband and John
Davis. Francis Elledge bought a yoke of 4-year-old steers for $37.50; Tabitha Elledge, widow of Boone Elledge's
brother William, bought a "muly cow and calf" for $12.
George W. Hinman, John W. Rush and George Yates were appraisers of Boone Elledge's estate, their appointments being
authorized by Judge Parvin Paullin, then a probate justice of the peace. Rebecca Elledge's eldest son, William
Boone Elledge, was her bondsman as administratrix.
Around the grave of Boone Elledge in old Hinman Chapel cemetery lie the perished forms of those who in the early
community bore the names of Hinman, Yates and Rush. Here in this burial "clearing" that was cut out of
the ancient wildwood lie many others of the pioneer community of Boone Elledge's time, they and their descendants,
the families of Cole, McLaughlin, Medaris, Foote, Kinman, Simpson, Wilson, Baldwin, Reed, Kaylor and others.
Rebecca Elledge, Boone's widow, died October 7, 1859, aged 72 years, four months and 22 days. She was born May
15, 1787. She lies beside her husband in the Elledge burial row in Hinman cemetery, in the northwest corner of
Griggsville township. Beside her also in the same burial row, lies her noted pioneer kinswoman, Tabitha (Beall)
Elledge, who married Charity Boone's son William, a pioneer in the Scott county region. Rebecca and Tabitha were
both of the famed Kentucky Bealls, sisters of Alexander Beall of the Black Hawk War, whose grave is on the hills
above Exeter. Tabitha Beall Elledge died in Pike county on September 27, 1870, aged 73.
Among the many Boone descendants buried at Hinman is a daughter of that morning star of Christ's gospel in the
valley, old Jesse Elledge of blessed pioneer memory, whose voice was raised in Christian worship under a spreading
sugar tree on Big Sandy as early as the spring of 1825, and whose story will be related in a succeeding chapter.
