Daniel RANBARGER, the son of Henry RANBARGER and Barbara , married Margaret SMITH on 4 Feb 1810 in Jefferson, Powhatan, Virginia. Daniel and Margaret were both born before 1796 and probably both died in Lawrence County, Illinois before 23 Mar 1836 when the inheritors began selling portions of their farm.
| i. | George RANBARGER was born 30 Sep 1814 in Kentucky. He married Artemissa LILLY on 23 Mar 1837 in Lawrence County, Illinois. Artemissa was born in 1819 in Indiana and died in 1867 in Greene Co., Iowa. They adopted one son. George died on 5 Feb 1885 in Greene Co., Iowa. George and Artemissa are buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Grant Township, Greene County, Iowa. |
| ii. | Nathaniel (Nathan) RANBARGER was born before 1819, probably in Kentucky, and married Elizabeth CHESHIRE 19 Feb 1840 in Lawrence Co, Illinois. Nathan and wife were both listed in the 1840 Lawrence Co. Census (p. 183) as between 20 and 30. He was deceased when his three brothers and his wife, Elizabeth, sold the land inherited from his father, Daniel, on 27 May 1841. |
| iii. | Jeremiah RANBARGER was born in 1819 in Kentucky. On March 13, 1834, when Jeremiah was 15, he married Lorinda LILLY in Lawrence County, Illinois. Lorinda was born ca. 1814 in either Kentucky or Indiana. They had seven children. Jeremiah died after 1841, probably in Lawrence Co., Illinois, and Lorinda died after 1895 probably in Greene Co., Iowa. |
| iv. | Henry RANBARGER was born in 1825. When Henry was 14, he married Margaret TILERY in Lawrence Co, Illinois. A marriage license was issued to Henry and Margaret TILERY on 7 Mar 1839 but it was not returned. However, they were man and wife when they sold the land inherited from his father, Daniel, on 27 May 1841. It was not unusual for the paperwork to get lost before being filed at the courthouse or, before being properly recorded. Margaret was born before 1827. They had at least one daughter. |
We have found several variations of the spelling of Daniel's surname. RANBARGER, RANBERGER, RANBURGER, RANSBURGER, RENBARGER, RYANBARGER, and others. We don't believe that the spelling of the name is important as long as we are sure that we are in fact tracking the right people. We know that many of our ancestors could not tell you how to spell their name and it was often left up to the census takers or county court recorders to spell it the best way they could. The most important thing for us is finding the correct people when searching the old records. We have had the most success by searching for RANBARGER and keeping in mind that the variant spellings may be found as well. In Crawford County, Illinois (just north of Lawrence County) we find a RANSBARGER family that came to Illinois from Ohio. Our RANBARGER family came to Illinois from Virginia by way of Kentucky, and possibly Indiana.
Daniel RANBARGER apparently moved his family from Virginia, where he was married, 4 Feb 1810, to Kentucky, where their first son, of which we have record, was born, 30 Sep 1814. They settled in Kentucky for awhile as Jeremiah was born there in 1819. We have some data which seems to indicate that there were two more sons, possibly born between 1810 and 1814. The RANBARGER family might have been neighbors of the Howard LILLY family who moved from Kentucky about the same time. Two of the first three RANBARGER sons married LILLY sisters later, in Illinois.
The land records for Lawrence County, Illinois show that Daniel purchased 80 acres of farm land, 9 Aug 1831. It was described as "the west half of the northeast quarter of section number nineteen, town four north, range ten west". He paid $1.25 per acre for a total of $100. This land was later purchased by John RANBARGER, Sr. We cannot prove, at this time, exactly who this John RANBARGER, Sr. was. I believe that he was Daniel's brother, John William, but there may have been more than one pair of John RANBARGER, Sr. and Jr. in Lawrence County at the same time. On 23 March 1836, John RANBARGER, Junior and Sally his wife sold some land to John RANBARGER, Senior, for the sum of seventeen dollars and fifty cents. John RANBARGER, Jr. was "claiming one sixth part thereof as one of the heirs of Daniel RANBERGER, deceased". At this time, I can't find a way for John RANBARGER, Junior to be an heir of Daniel RANBARGER. However, we know from other research that a man named Junior was not necessarily the son of a man named Senior. The titles were frequently used to simply distinguish an elder from a younger man that were not even necessarily related. We also know that George RANBARGER, son of Daniel, had a grandson who was identified as George RANBARGER, Jr. He was the son of George's adopted son Joel RANBARGER.
I first thought that John RANBARGER, Jr. might be a son of Daniel's son, Nathaniel RANBARGER, and that Nathaniel had predeased Daniel. However, I believe, that would mean that John and his mother would split one fourth and he would therefore have a one eighth part claim to Daniel's estate. However, I am not too sure of the laws in effect at that time. Of course another possibility is that Daniel had two more children that we don't have record of, and the estate would then be split into six parts. One of these children could be named John and called junior because he had an older uncle named John. We found a Robert RANBARGER who purchased 40 acres of Lawrence County farm land on 27 Feb 1834. It was described as "the NW1/4 of the SE1/4 of section number nineteen, town four north, range ten west". Daniel, John, and George, all owned land in this same section. We don't know, at this time, who this Robert was.
We do know that Daniel RANBARGER was deceased on 23 Mar 1836 and that he had sons named George, Nathan, Jeremiah, and Henry. Further, we know that these sons, with the exception of Nathan, who was deceased, with their wifes, in an indenture, dated 27 May 1841, sold the 80 acres, described above, to John RANBARGER, Sr., believed to be Daniel's brother, John William.
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