Ruth Alice Stone

On the 24th of August 2019 a generation closed, but more importantly, a beautiful life ended. Aunt Ruthie was the youngest and last surviving of Dad's siblings. She was always cheerful, smiling, and seemed to live a life full of joy. Below is a copy of Aunt Ruthie's obituary.

     Ruth Alice Stone, 90, of Sullivan, passed away 2:11 a.m. Saturday, August 24, 2019, at Mason Point, Sullivan.
     Funeral services will be held 11:00 a.m. Thursday, August 29, 2019, McMullin-Young Funeral Home, Sullivan. Visitation will be held an hour prior to the service Thursday at the funeral home. Burial will be in Greenhill Cemetery, Sullivan. Memorials may be made to the Okaw Valley Ag Complex: 709 S. St. John Street, Bethany, IL 61914
     Ruth was born July 17, 1929; the daughter of O.B. and Gladys (Gilbreth) Bragg. She married Lloyd “Tiny” Stone on September 5, 1948 in Bruce; he survives. Grandma Ruthie was loved by so many people, especially her family, grandchildren and her husband of 71 years, Papa Tiny.
Ruth is survived by her husband, Lloyd “Tiny” of Sullivan; son, Chris (Brenda) Stone of Lerna; daughter, Connie (John) Wise of Bethany; grandchildren, Stacey (Matt) Ellegood, Jeremy (Melissa) Stone, Matt Jerod (Jennifer) Stone, Curtis (Lindsey) Wise, Jennifer (Eric) Thoele and Wesley (Christina) Wise. She is also survived by 8, great-grandchildren.
     She was preceded in death by her parents, 3 brothers and 1 sister.

Find A Grave

Many of our family member's grave-sites are listed on the Find A Grave website. However, even though this website provides the opportunity of linking together these various pages into a sort of pictorial family tree, most of our family member's pages were not connected. So I set out a few months ago to correct this situation by contacting the owners of the various pages and providing the proper edit information. Recently I have received the final notice that these edits have been completed.

By visiting the Find A Grave website pages for Mom, Dad, or any of their sibling's pages, you can go back through the family and trace the family line. Some of these pages will have pictures or obituaries that are pretty interesting. I have made all the connections of family members I could find who have grave sites listed on Find A Grave. If you know of someone not listed, send me their Find A Grave page address and I will try to add them.

Regarding the Bragg family of central Illinois. Many of these families descend from Hugh Lewis and Francis Bragg, including our Great-Great-Grandfather William Bragg. However, since the graves of Hugh and Francis are unknown and not listed on Find A Grave, that part of the family line stops there. This is also the case for all the known children of Hugh and Francis Bragg. Below is the link to the pages of each of their children:

Children of Hugh Lewis and Francis Sutherland Bragg

Martha Ann Bragg Yoakum
Birth 5 May 1817
Death 7 Mar 1850 (aged 32)
Burial - Shoults Cemetery, Ross County, Ohio, USA
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11064026
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James Bragg
Birth 10 Jan 1820, Pickaway County, Ohio, USA
Death 30 Sep 1912 (aged 92), Moultrie County, Illinois, USA
Burial - Unknown
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/155052603
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John Bragg

Birth 1822
Death 1864 (aged 41–42)
Burial - Unknown
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173022411
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Anna Mariah Bragg Hull
Birth 21 Jul 1831, Ross County, Ohio, USA
Death 21 May 1869 (aged 37), Moultrie County, Illinois, USA
Burial - Pea Cemetery, Sullivan, Moultrie County, Illinois, USA
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43415189
*************************************
William Bragg
Birth 14 Jun 1834, Ross County, Ohio, USA
Death 4 Dec 1900 (aged 66), Moultrie County, Illinois, USA
Burial - Pea Cemetery, Sullivan, Moultrie County, Illinois, USA
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28035756

Did You Know #51

    She was described as New York City's first supermodel, the embodiment of the "classical ideal" of beauty, and as "the world's most perfectly formed woman." Discovered by a photographer at the age of 15, she was soon introduced to famous sculptors and posing for monuments throughout the city of New York (she is said to have posed for more public monuments and memorials than anyone). The following pictures represent just a partial list of sculptures of Audrey Marie Munson that can still be seen by pedestrians in the Big Apple.

• The Civic Fame statue that stands atop the Municipal Building, Manhattan’s largest statue, second only to the Statue of Liberty (top left)
• The Firemen's Memorial to "New York's Bravest" (lower left)
• Above the door of the Frick Museum (top right)
• Beauty, outside New York Public Library's main branch (center right)
• Pomona, the Roman goddess of abundance, on the Pulitzer Fountain at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue (lower right)

• “Columbia Triumphant” that adorns the USS Maine National Monument in Columbus Circle (top left)
• "Memory" on the Straus Memorial, honoring the co-founder of Macy's department store, Isidor Straus, and his wife, Ida, they died on the Titanic (lower left)
• Miss Brooklyn, originally on the Brooklyn side of the Manhannan Bridge, now on display outside the Brooklyn Museum (top right)
• Miss Manhattan and Miss Brooklyn, now on display outside the Brooklyn Museumnow on display outside the Brooklyn Museum (center right)
• 'Spirit of Commerce' angel at the northern base of the Manhattan Bridge (lower right)

(clockwise from top left)

• Sculpture at New York's Customs House
• On the Walking Liberty Half Dollar (1916)
• Grave marker placed on the grave of her father and step-father
• The Mercury Dime

In addition to these public monuments, she was also the model for the angel decorating the mausoleums of wealthy New Yorkers and other private and public sculptures across the country. At the peak of her career in the 1910s, it was proclaimed of Audrey that "All New York Bows to the Real Miss Manhattan." Then she went to Hollywood. Here she achieved the infamous place in history as the first person to appear nude in a non-pornographic film, "Inspiration" (1915). She was likewise unclad for the 1916 film, "Purity".

Her movie career hit a huge bump when, in 1919, she became embroiled in a sensational murder trial involving her former landlord, Dr Walter Keene Wilkins (arrested for killing his wife, Julia, after it emerged that he had become obsessed with Audrey and was desperate to marry her). In 1921 she appeared as herself in her final film, "Heedless Moths." The next year she attempted to commit suicide and her life continued to spiral until in 1931 she was committed to the Saint Lawrence Psychiatric Center in Ogdensburg, New York where she would spend the next 65 years until her death on February 20, 1996 at the age of 105.

Audrey Munson and Grandma Bragg were 6th cousins. Their 4th-great-grandfathers were brothers. Here is the family connection:

Samuel and Martha Farnes Munson
Solomon Munson b.1689	Waitstill Munson b.1697
Samuel Munson III b.1717	Solomon Munson b.1727
Samuel Munson Jr. b.1763	Jairus Munson b.1767
Isaac Munson b.1802	Leverett Munson b.1790
Joel Munson b.1846	Leverett Munson b.1824
Elvira Belle Munson b.1871	Edgar Munson b.1857
Gladys Gilbreath Bragg b.1898	Audrey Marie Munson b.1891

Sources:
Alexandra Genova, NYC's First Supermodel; 6 March 2016
Audrey Munson: “Miss Manhattan” Died in Obscurity in 1996, October 25, 2012
James Bone, She inspired monuments and died in obscurity, CNN, June 9, 2016

Did You Know #50

    The following post is in a way an update of a much earlier post, Did You Know? #24 (June 20, 2010). In that post we looked at two families, one famous (Boone) and the other infamous (James). I have hesitated to post it at all because there is an inconsistency in one section of the dating. However, it seems to me that this is a case of inaccurate records repeated in a number of family trees. The account is interesting, so I thought I'd share it with any interested readers.

************************************************

     One of Daniel Boone's close friends was John Van Bibber. John distinguished himself as a courageous "Indian fighter," although an unpopular (not "politically correct") distinction in our modern world. Emerging from what would become, during the American Civil War, the state of West Virginia, John and his siblings, Isaac, Peter, and Brigetta, settled just west of what would become Winchester, WV. 
     In 1760 or 61 John was married to Chloe Standiford, described as "tall and fair to look upon."[1] The couple settled in modern-day Botetourt County, VA.
    While exploring the vast wilderness of Mississippi and Tennessee, John became lost for months until he finally stumbled upon the cabin near what today is the Virginia-Tennessee border, northeast of what would become the town of Bristol. The event has been described in this manner:
"Just about to give up in despair, Van Bibber spotted smoke curling skyward from what could only have been a chimney. Charging through the underbrush, he found a pioneer cabin which was little more than a lean-to. Whooping & hollering, he greeted the inhabitant, who welcomed him only as a lonely, hospitable man could do. The man introduced himself as Dan Boone, who fed & boarded Van Bibber, beginning a friendship lasting for decades."[2]
Welcomed into the Boone family circle a lifelong bond of friendship was forged between Daniel Boone and John Van Bibber.The bond was strengthened in the eventual marriage of their children, Jesse Bryan Boone and Chloe Van Bibber.
    Then tragedy struck the family as their sister, Brigetta, and her husband Isaac Robinson, who were living in Point Pleasant (near the Ohio River), were attacked by Indians. Their eight year old son, Isaac was fishing when he heard gunshots. He rushed to the homestead only to find his father dead and Indians killing his two year old brother. Brigetta, Isaac, and his four year old brother John where taken as prisoners. The homestead was looted then burned. John Van Bibber pursued the Indian band but was only successful in finding the body of young John Robinson lying in the road. He was forced to return home empty-handed.
    Isaac Robinson was adopted into an Indian family and his mother was eventually sold to a fur trader after five years of forced servanthood. Two years after Brigetta Robinson's return a treaty was signed with the Indians. This permitted Brigetta to set out on a search for her son Isaac. After a very long search she located him, but he refused to leave his adopted family and return home with his mother. She was eventually successful in persuading him to return to Point Pleasant where, four years later, he died.
    Shortly after the attack that resulted in death and capture of Brigetta and her family, John Van Bibber's nineteen year old daughter Rhoda was captured by Indians as she and her brother, Jacob, twelve, were rowing across the Ohio River to visit her father. Rhoda was killed and Jacob taken prisoner. John gave chase but was only successful in killing five Indians. Jacob was taken to Detroit where he eventually became an interpreter between the French and the Indians. Seven years after his capture the treaty with the Indians was signed. Jacob's cousin located him and brought him home to his mother. A year after his return Jacob died.
    John Van Bibber's wife, Chloe Standiford, was our sixth great-grand aunt. If we go back nine generations to Mom's sixth great-grandparents, James and Martha Watkins Standiford, Mom's fifth great-grandfather Israel was the brother of Chloe Standiford who became the wife of John Van Bibber. Chloe was born on April 23, 1737 in Baltimore, Maryland. She and John had seven children. It is presumed that she died before her husband because she was not mentioned in her husband's will following his death in 1820. James Standiford and his sons, Israel (Mom's fourth great-grandfather) and Luke "were instrumental in bringing the sport of racing fine horses to America." [3]

Here is the connection:

James (1715) & Martha Watkins Standiford
Chloe Standiford (1737)	Israel Standifer (1740)
	Archibald Standifer (1795)
	Franklin H. Standerfer (1820)
	William Standerfer (1847)
	Zacharious I. Standerfer (1871)
	Mercedes Ruth Standerfer (1892)
	Mary Jean Ethington (1928)

[1] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Van_Bibber-65
[2] https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=112780190
[3] James Standifer find a grave; https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=113599200
* According to this website, the mystery of our Standerfer ancestors seems to be solved. Here someone has corrected a longstanding mistake in recognizing Archibald Standifer as the son of Israel, not Skelton Daniel Standifer. 
   

Did You Know #49

Way back in 2009 I posted an entry with this blog about our family's connection with Aaron Burr, a Vice President of the United States that fell into a feud with his former friend, Alexander Hamilton. That affair ultimately led to a duel that left Hamilton dead and Burr disgraced [1].

I have just finished listening to Ron Chernow's biography, Alexander Hamilton, on loan from the North Carolina Digital Library. As I listened to this audiobook I heard a name that caught my attention.

In 1791-2 Alexander Hamilton came under suspicion for possible misuse of his office of Secretary of the Treasury because of rumors circulated by a man named James Reynolds, who had been arrested for his part in a "scheme involving unpaid back wages intended for Revolutionary War veterans." [2] Hamilton was then confronted by a trio of politicians thinking they were on the trail of an embezzler only to encounter a very frank and shocking confession from Hamilton. Secretary Hamilton revealed that he had been engaged in an adulterous relationship with James Reynolds' wife Maria and that James Reynolds had been blackmailing him. Information gained from Hamilton's confession would later be used against him leading to Hamilton's public confession of the affair.

The three men who initially confronted Hamilton were James Monroe, Frederick Muhlenberg and Abraham B. Venable. It was the last name that caught my attention because I recalled that our 4th great-grandmother was Elizabeth Venable. Elizabeth was born on December 8, 1764 and on January 25, 1814 became the wife of Richard Bragg. Elizabeth Venable Bragg's grandfather was named Abraham Bedford Venable, However, this is not the same Abraham B. Venable who confronted Alexander Hamilton.

Abraham Bedford Venable, our 6th great-grandfather, was born on March 22, 1700 in Louisa County, Virginia and married Martha Hannah Davis in 1723. Two of their ten children were brothers Hugh Lewis Venable (born 1727) and Nathaniel Venable (born 1733). Nathaniel served as a Captain in the Revolutionary War and was eulogized at his funeral as "the best mathematician in Prince Edward County."[3] Hugh Lewis Venable would become the father of our Elizabeth while his brother Nathaniel Venable would become the father of Abraham Bedford Venable. It

would be that Abraham B. Venable who would become a friend of Thomas Jefferson and would confront Alexander Hamilton. This Abraham B. Venable, first cousin of our 4th great-grandmother Elizabeth Venable Bragg, would serve as United States Senator from Virginia in 1803-1804 (he had previously served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and the U.S. House of Representatives).

After his brief time as a Senator (he was filling a vacancy left by John Taylor who had resigned his seat), Abraham B. Venable resigned his Senatorial office to become president of Bank of Virginia.

Just seven years later, on December 26, 1811, the 53-year-old Venable attended a benefit at The Richmond Theatre. It was a packed house that night with 598 in attendance (including 80 children). There were two shows. At the close of the first act of the second show the still lit chandelier was lifted toward the auditorium ceiling when it's cords became entangled and it touched part of the scenery above the stage setting it on fire. When he saw the flames the boy who had been raising the chandelier

ran from the theater in fear. The fire quickly spread through the extensive scenery pieces. Unfortunately, because the curtains had been lowered, the audience was at first unaware of the fire rapidly spreading above the stage on the other side of the curtain. When the gravity of the situation became apparent, panic ensued. Some were trampled in the rush to the exits while others were jumping from second floor windows to escape.

Described as "the worst urban disaster in American history at the time" [4], the fire claimed the lives of 72 people (54 women and 18 men). Among the victims of the fire were George William Smith, who was at that time the governor of Virginia, and Abraham B. Venable.

Once the area where the theater once stood had been cleared the Monumental Church was built on the site. As its name suggests, the church was to be a monument to those who died in the theater fire. Each of the victim's names are inscribed on a monument standing over the spot where their remains are buried. As a reminder of the era and culture of the age, below the listing of the 66 white victims of the fire are the names of the six African American's who died in the fire.

Abraham Bedford Venable (1700) and Martha Hannah Davis
Hugh Lewis Venable (1727)	Nathaniel Venable (1733)
Elizabeth Venable (1764)	Sen. Abraham Bedford Venable (1758)
Hugh Lewis Bragg (1795)
William Bragg (1834)
Franklin Martin Bragg (1867)
Orval Bishop Bragg (1895)
Don Cicero Bragg (1920)
David Bragg

Notes on Sources:
[1] Did You Know? #11
[2] The Hamilton–Reynolds Affair
[3] Nathaniel Venable, Geni.com
[4] Richmond Theatre Fire

The Waggoner Family Connection (Part 2)

In The Waggoner Family, A History of the Emigrant Hans Waggoner and His Descendants, cited in Part 1 (the previous post), the following comments are quoted in an item from The Shelbyville Democrat dated September 2, 1886 reporting on the Waggoner family reunion:

"There was probably the largest crowd ever present at one of these gatherings and it was an occasion of appropriate respect to the oldest family in the oldest settled township in the county. ... the Waggoners were the first permanent settlers of the township and they came before any settlements were made in other parts of the county. The first members of the family arrived in March 1828 ... It being the oldest family in the county and very few of its members having moved away, while it is related by marriage with all the other old families, make these reunions very large affairs. There is said to be about four hundred descendants of Isaac Waggoner now living, most of whom reside in the county." (pages 18-19)

Reading through the listed descendants of Isaac Waggoner reveals many familiar surnames to any who grew up in Sullivan, IL. One particular name caught my attention. On page 27 is the listing for Hugh Lane (he and his wife Gertrude raised their family on the farm next to where Dad grew up). I discovered from this entry that Hugh Lane was half-brothers with Earl and Dale Lane. This would make Hugh, Earl, Dale and Dad 4th cousins. I knew growing up that Dad and Earl Lane, of whom Dad spoke often and fondly in his last few years, were good friends from way back.

(Duane, Don and Earl Bragg in front of Earl Lane)

A little further research from leads drawn from this book, along with some fairly recent obituaries, soon turned to an interesting direction. Specifically it relates to Hugh Lane's great-grandfather, Archibald Lane (he is the patriarch of many of the Lane families reared in and around Sullivan, IL). [Note: to help you (and me) keep this straight I have added a number of tables in an effort to help clarify the various marriages between the Waggoner, Martin and Lane families]


The story begins with a couple named James Scott Martin (1779-1865) and his wife, Mary Jane Figley (1781-1845). Both were born in North Carolina (James S. was born not far from where I currently live) and both died in Coles County, IL. This couple raised a large family of ten children.

After all of their children had grown up, married and left the home, James and Mary Jane Martin decided to take a trip back to their old home in Kentucky. Along the way they would spend their nights in public houses, or inns. At one of these stops they noticed a "lively six-year-old boy" sitting on a stack of pallets. They learned that he was an orphan (his mother died when he was born around 1835 and nothing was known about his father) and that he was being raised by a family named Webster who, it seems, ran the inn.

The couple went on their way the next morning but Mary just couldn't get the boy out of her mind. So it was agreed that, upon their return trip, they would stop again at the same inn and if the boy was still there they would talk with the innkeeper about taking the boy with them back to central Illinois. They stopped. The boy was still there. The innkeeper's wife, who confessed that she didn't think the inn was a proper place for the child to grow up, was happy to turn him over to the Martins and Archibald Lane become the unofficially adopted son of James and Mary Martin.

Archibald was a loyal caregiver for James Martin (it appears that Mary died when Archibald was about ten years old). It was said that when James Martin died in 1865 at the age of 86, he gave his home and farm to Archibald.

The years passed as Archibald grew up with the Martin's own grandchildren. For one of these grandchildren the relationship grew far more significant that a childhood playmate. She became his wife. Some sources assert that Esther Jane Lewis granddaughter of James and Mary Jane Figley Martin. However, it seems the best evidence indicates that Archibald Lane actually married the granddaughter of James Martin's sister, Jane. She married Charles Neeley in Kentucky (1797). Their daughter, Margaret, married Abram Lewis in 1834 and their daughter, Esther Jane Lewis, married Archibald Lane in 1852.

John Martin (1755-1821) and Sarah Scott (1753)
James Scott Martin (1779-1865)	Jane Martin (1781-1834) married Charles Neeley
Archibald Lane (1835-1905) married	Margaret Neeley married Abram Lewis
	Esther Jane Lewis (1835-1872)

The second of Archibald and Esther Lane's five children (oldest son, the oldest daughter was named Lucinda but went by Lucy), James Lewis Lane (1858-1919), married Mary Elvina Martin (1866-1934) who just happened to be the great-granddaughter of James Scott and Mary Jane Figley Martin. Mary Elvina Martin Lane's mother was Jane Waggoner, the great-granddaughter of Jacob (Hans) Waggoner.

						Johann Jacob Waggoner  (1717)
						Isaac Waggoner (1761)
James Scott Martin (1779-1865) and Mary Jane Figley (1781-1845)						John Garland Waggoner (1790)
Archibald Lane (1835-1905) and Esther Jane Lewis (1835-1872)			John Martin (1803) and Ann Neeley			William Waggoner (1826)
James Lewis Lane (1858-1919)			William Thomas Martin (1835)		married	Jane Waggoner (1835)
		married	Mary Elvina Martin (1866-1934)

James and Mary Elvina Lane's second child (oldest son), Claude F. Lane (1887-1955) was 17 years old when his grandfather, the orphaned Archibald Lane, passed away on July 24, 1905. Claude would have been 24 years old when his oldest son, Hugh Francis Lane, was born in 1912.

James Lewis Lane (1858-1919) and Mary Elvina Martin (1866-1934)

Claude F. Lane (1887-1955) married Georgia Hunter

Hugh Francis Lane (1912)

And to illustrate why family history research is so much fun, James and Mary Elvina Lane had eleven children. Their eighth child (and fourth son) was Walter Martin Lane (1906). He married Oleta Marie Waggoner, the third great-granddaugther of Hans Waggoner. She was also Dad's 3rd cousin. Walter M. and Marie Lane was the father of James Andrew and Gerald Leon Lane, very familiar names in Sullivan, Illinois' history.

							Johann Jacob Waggoner  (1717)
							Isaac Waggoner (1761)
			Johann Jacob Waggoner  (1717)		James Scott Martin (1779-1865) and Mary Jane Figley (1781-1845)		John Garland Waggoner (1790)
			Isaac Waggoner (1761)		John Martin (1803) and Ann Neeley		William Waggoner (1826)
James Scott Martin (1779-1865) and Mary Jane Figley (1781-1845)			Gilbert Waggoner		William Thomas Martin (1835)	married	Jane Waggoner (1835)
Archibald Lane (1835-1905) and Esther Jane Lewis (1835-1872)			Andrew J. Waggoner (1842)		John Dawson Martin (1861) [brother of Mary Elvina Martin]
James Lewis Lane (1858-1919) and Mary Elvina Martin (1866-1934)			Winfield "Scott" Waggoner	married	Rose Alice Martin (1887)
Walter Martin Lane (1906)		married	Oleta Marie Waggoner
James Andrew Lane Gerald Leon Lane

And to add to the confusion, the third child of Archibald Lane (1835-1905) and Esther Jane Lewis (1835-1872), Louisa J. Lane (1861), married Charles Pinkerton Martin (1851) who was the grandson of James Scott Martin (1779-1865) and Mary Jane Figley (1781-1845).

			James Scott Martin (1779-1865) and Mary Jane Figley (1781-1845)
Archibald Lane (1835-1905) and Esther Jane Lewis (1835-1872)			James Frost Martin (1815)
Louisa J. Lane (1861)		married	Charles Pinkerton Martin (1851)

The Waggoner Family Connection (Part 1)

Recently I found, downloaded, and read a very interesting book, interesting to anyone curious of genealogy, the history of Moultrie County and Sullivan, Illinois, or just history of life reaching back to the Revolutionary War era. Entitled The Waggoner Family, A History of the  Emigrant Hans Waggoner and His Descendants, the book was written by John Garland Waggoner (the nephew of my 3rd great-grandmother Matilda Waggoner, making him our first cousin a few times removed) and Clem Morton Boling in 1922. The revised version of which I am speaking was published in 1929 with updated information of descendants not included in the previous version. (If you would interested, the book is a free download at this web address: http://edenmartin.com/newsite2/books/Waggoner_History-1929-with-Additions.pdf)

I was so excited when I read a very familiar name on page 33 ... Don Cicero Bragg! I already knew that Johann Jacob Waggoner/Wagner, known to his family as Hans, was my 6th great-grandfather, it was just really neat to see Dad's name in print like that. Here is the line of descent from ...

Johann Jacob Waggoner/Wagner (1717-1799) [born in Germany]
Isaac Waggoner (1761-1838) [migrated to Shelby Co., IL (now Moultrie Co., IL) in 1827]
John Garland Waggoner (1790-1844)
Matilda Waggoner Phillips (1829-1876)
Louisa Jane Phillips Munson (1848-1913)
Elvira Belle Munson Gilbreath (1871-1939)
Gladys Gilbreath Bragg (1898-1977)
Don Cicero Bragg (1920-2013)

Then I discovered through the Find-A-Grave website that the original immigrant Jacob Waggoner/Wagner's grave is not only in North Carolina, but only a short 20 minute drive from where I live. So on September 15, 2016 Ann and I made a quick trip to Midway, NC where we visited the Bethany United Church of Christ Cemetery and my 6th great-grandfather's grave.

Through reading this book you will get a clearer idea of the hardships endured as the Waggoner family migrated from South Carolina to (then) Shelby County, IL. They played a key role in the formation and naming of both Moultrie County and the city of Sullivan (both named in honor of their homeland near Charleston, SC).