Abraham MACOMB & Margaret COX

#40 -Abraham Marion MACOMB s/o #80 Andrew MACOMB & #81 ? HILL	#41 -Mary Margaret COX d/o #82 Christopher COX & # 83 Margaret POPE
nickname-unknown	nickname-Margaret
Probable Ethnicity: Scottish	Probable Ethnicity: possibly Quaker, probably English

Married
24 Aug 1848
Knoxville, Marion Co. IA

b ca 1823	Natural Bridge, Rockbridge Co. VA	b ca 1827	IN, probably Crawford Co.
d 4 May 1898-22 Aug 1898	Baxter, Stone Co. MO	d bet 1891-1898	Baxter, Stone Co. MO
bur	woods near home, according to family story	bur	woods near home, according to family story
Hair: light brown	Eyes: blue?	Hair: unknown/blonde?	Eyes: light
Height:	Weight	Height:	Weight:

Abraham MACOMB and Margaret COX,
ca 1865

Known Children

Name, Date of birth	Place of birth/death	Possible/Probable/Definite Marriage
Christopher Columbus b Oct 1849 d 6 June 1864	. Knoxville, Marion Co. IA near Spadra Bluff, Johnson Co. AR (Civil War Casualty)	.
Martha M. b 1851 d ca 1893	. Knoxville, Marion Co. IA Stone Co. MO	Levi PHENIX
#40 Nathaniel Jefferson "Than" b 24 Mar 1853 d 18 Feb 1940	. Knoxville, Marion Co. IA Shawnee, Pottawatomie Co. OK	#41 Martha Ella PHENIX
Mary Margaret b 1861 d possibly 1888	. IA Stone or Barry Co. MO	Enoch RIDER
Marion Scott "Scott" b 4 June 1862 d 13 Mar 1917	. Knoxville, Marion Co. IA Porter, Wagoner Co. OK	Mary R. A. GRAY Barbara Ellen HIGH
Jacob Grant b ca 1866 d 1946	. IA Wagoner Co. OK	Rhoda Lorinda HIGH
S. B. b 1868 d bet 1870-1876 .	. IA either Montgomery Co. KS or Christian Co. MO	.
Minnie Belle b 29 June 1873 d 29 Sep 1937	. Montgomery Co. KS AR	Martin Fisher CLINKENBEARD James H. FELKINS

Appears in Census:

Year	Location
1850	#556, Knoxville, Marion Co. IA
1860	unknown--somewhere in IA?
1870	Fawn Creek Twp, Montgomery Co. KS
1880	Porter Twp, Christian Co. MO
1890 (Special Veteran's Census)	Baxter, Stone Co. MO

What We Know:

The more I find out about Abraham, the more mystified I am.
First of all, it is well-established he was prejudiced. (See "The Macomb/Phenix Story") But after disowning both Nathaniel and daughter Martha for marrying the Phenix sister and brother, he then followed Nathaniel almost into AR and settled right across the road from his oldest living son--their argument was at least, a bit more temporary than whatever argument Abraham had with son-in-law Levi Phenix. He listed Nathaniel on his military pension application in 1891 as one of his children, but did not list Martha--Mary was apparently dead, and Minnie Belle the only daughter listed. But the same story crossed many branches about how he refused to see his half-Phenix grandchildren.
So with prejudice, you would think, would go chauvinism. Take a close look at the picture above. What do you see? A man and a woman, both middle-aged, both standing, and a blanket on the chair in front of them. The man is dressed in what appears to be a Civil War-era coat, hence the date I've put.
How many pictures from the 1800s do you see in which the man is not only not sitting, but the woman is standing beside him as an equal? Do you see a chauvinistic man in this picture?
You don't.
Our best guess is that the picture was taken shortly before leaving IA in 1868-1869; it might also have been taken as soon as Abraham returned home from the war in 1865. The only significance we can attach to the fact that a blanket was in the picture, and not a Bible or some other precious belonging, is that the blanket may have been Christopher's. We haven't yet run across more pictures taken of the family during this time, which is even more significant. So there was at least sorrow involved.
Abraham enlisted as a private in Co. F, 40th IA Vols 29 Sep 1862. He was promoted to corporal Sep 1863; this was just months before Margaret signed permission for Christopher to join his father's unit, in Dec 1863. Christopher claimed to be 15, but according to the 1850 census, he was just 14.
Christopher joined his father in Mar 1864, after the regiment had joined the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, Arkansas Expedition. The father and son fought in what is known as Steele's Expedition, including the Battle of Harper's Ferry. By June, the unit was northeast of Little Rock, on the Arkansas River, in Johnson County. The family story passed down says that Christopher fell between 2 ships and was drowned. That is backed up by Christopher's military records, to an extent. He did drown, but the papers say that he fell off the boat Ad Hine, while being transported. His body was never found. I can't find a record of that ship, but the military record is quite clear. It must have been a crushing blow to Abraham and Margaret.
Abraham's life seems to have been marred by death involving ships from almost the beginning. While the story is that he was raised in Macomb, McDonough Co. IL, we haven't been able to find a record of him in IL at all. Cousin Sue COCHRAN FLODBERG says that she was told the Macombs were connected to General Alexander Macomb, of War of 1812 fame, but we've not been able to connect. Various branches also have Abraham being raised by an uncle named Nathaniel HILL. This uncle was the brother of Abraham's mother, whose given name we don't know; she died, according to the story, when Abraham was 2, in a steamboat explosion. Abraham's father was supposed to be in the military, and was unable to raise his son, so Nathaniel did.
Nathaniel HILL is in the 1847 Special Census in IA, in Marion Co. The people in the households were not named, but there is a male the same age Abraham would've been in Nathaniel's household. The earliest record we have of Abraham is his marriage to Margaret.
Margaret came from a pioneering family. Her parents were one of the first couples to marry in Bartholomew Co. IN; her brother was a wagon master/guide on trains to OR. A cousin has the Pope line researched back to the 1600s; but I don't have a lot of information on them. While she apparently didn't use the first name of Mary--she's always listed as Margaret--the name was passed down several generations. The name Abraham only appears once--in a grandson.
Daughter Martha M. married Levi Phenix.
Son Nathaniel Jefferson married Martha Ella Phenix.
Daughter Mary Margaret apparently married Enoch Rider in Stone Co. MO 19 Apr 1882. I've not found a divorce for them, but she is not in the 1900 Stone household of Enoch--it's a different wife. There is a Mary McComb 1856-1888 buried in Farwell Cemetery in Barry Co. MO. While that seems to be fairly distant for a family to travel to bury someone, Abraham's military pension application was notarized in Barry Co. The year of birth is also wrong by the 1870 and 1880 census records, but tombstones have been wrong before. There were no other Macomb/McComb families in the area in that time frame. So we need to find a divorce between Enoch and our Mary before we can really be sure that Mary is the same.
Scott married 1st to Mary R. A. GRAY, 4 Feb 1883. Both were under the age of consent. A daughter was born 23 Nov 1883, Cora Louise. Mary and Scott were divorced shortly after the birth of Cora, and Scott remarried to Barbara Ellen HIGH 27 Feb 1887. She was the daughter of Lorinda and Elisha HIGH, of Carroll Co. AR. Scott was known to have an extremely violent temper, and it was said that Barbara must have been an angel to stay married to him. The family moved to Wagoner Co. OK about 1908 to stay, after several visits down there. Scott committed suicide in 1917.
Jake was married to Rhoda Lorinda HIGH, the daughter of Elizabeth and George HIGH. (George was Barbara's brother.) They, too, moved to OK between 1900-1910. Jake was also said to be "high-tempered", but not nearly as bad as his brother. Cousin Sue COCHRAN FLODBERG met him a few times before his death. He told her the story about the Macombs being related to General Alexander.
Minnie Belle was married 1st to Martin Fisher CLINKENBEARD, the son of Henry C. and Elizabeth Louisa BILYEU CLINKENBEARD, 26 Mar 1887. After his death in 1904 in AR, their daughter Lenora married John FELKINS. Minnie later married her son-in-law's father, James H. FELKINS.

To Abraham's Parents

To Margaret's Parents

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