THE

CANNON      BOOK

by

Clarence Cannon

(1958)

 

Revised by Dennis Fogleman

 A fifth great grandson of Samuel Cannon

(2004)

 

 

 

This is a work in progress, the first three generations are complete and I am working on the fourth generation.
Table of Contents

 

American Genealogy                                      5

Human Pedigrees                                           7

Forward                                                       10

The Cannon Name                                          11

The Cannon Family in America                        13

The Cannon Family                                        15

First Generation                                           15

Second Generation                                        22

Third Generation                                          45 

 

 

Revision note:

The 2004 revision was accomplished by scanning the original Cannon Book into my computer. There have been a few changes made in the original document. Where obvious spelling or typing errors are present, they have been corrected. The manner in which Clarence indicated birth, death and marriage dates was dependant on the placement of the item on the page. I have chosen to specify the specific words, birth, death and marriage with the indicated date. An example of the above:

 

James Cannon-------------------------------------------------------Rachel Stark

                                                      (cir 1785)                                    cir 1768

                                                                                                          cir 1831

 

The birth and death date for James Cannon is listed in the original text on the page with James’ parents. The position of the dates for his wife Rachel indicate birth and death.

 

I have opted for a more specific format:

 

II-4 James Cannon Born: about 1785

Died: April 30, 1842

Wife: Rachel Stark

Born: about 1768

Died: about 1831

 

 

Clarence also indicated the birth and death date of a person on the page of that individuals parents. I have opted to repeat that bit of information on the page reserved for that person.

 

I have retained the original page numbers, but I have not retained the original pagination and of course the font is not the same as was on the typewriter available in Clarence’s day. For example the original page number for page eight is shown below.

 

……………………………….. of Virginia; (New England Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. VII91904, page 109)

 

                                                                                                                        8.

James Cannon served as private in the 2nd Infantry commanded by

Brigadier …………………………………………..

 

There are a few places in the text that I have added notes based on further research that has been done since 1958 when Clarence wrote the book, or explanation of the original text these are indicated by ‘Revision Note’. 

 

In the original text, members of the first generation which included only Samuel Cannon were identified with the Roman numeral I. Samuels children are then identified as 2 through 9. Members of the second generation are identified by the Roman numeral II plus the sequential Arabic number assigned to them. As an illustration, I-1 is Samuel Cannon. Samuel’s children are numbered 2-John, 3-Issac, 4-James, 5-William, 6-Mary, 7-Keziah, 8-Lydia, and 9-Elizabeth.

 

Since James Cannon (the son of Samuel) is of the second generation, he is identified as II-4, or second generation, fourth child of his father. 

 

And finally, I have added an index and a table of contents.

 

Some background on Clarence Cannon:

CANNON, Clarence Andrew, a Representative from Missouri; born in Elsberry, Lincoln County, Mo., April 11, 1879; was graduated from La Grange Junior College, Hannibal, Mo., in 1901, from William Jewell College, Liberty, Mo., in 1903, and from the law department of the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1908; professor of history, Stephens College, Columbia, Mo., 1904-1908; was admitted to the bar in 1908 and commenced practice in Troy, Mo.; in 1911 became a clerk in the office of the Speaker of the House;  parliamentarian of the House of Representatives in the Sixty-fourth, Sixty-fifth, and Sixty-sixth Congresses, 1915-1920; parliamentarian of the Democratic National Conventions 1920-1960; author of “A Synopsis of the Procedure of the House (1918),” “Procedure in the House of Representatives (1920),” and “Cannon’s Procedure (1928),” subsequent editions of the latter being published periodically by resolutions of the House until 1963; editor and compiler of “Precedents of the House of Representatives” by act of Congress; regent of the Smithsonian Institution 1935-1964; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth and to the twenty succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1923, until his death in Washington, D.C., May 12, 1964; chairman, Committee on Appropriations (Seventy-seventh through Seventy-ninth Congresses, Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses, and Eighty-fourth through Eighty-eighth Congresses); interment in Elsberry City Cemetery, Elsberry, Mo.

 

 

1

AMERICAN GENEALOGY

Comparatively few are able to trace their ancestry back to the Revolution.  And still fewer of these know the country from which they migrated, the date of migration, the name of the ship in which they came or the port at which they arrived.

It seems Incredible that less than a dozen generations from this epochal event every family would not have handed down and carefully preserved these elemental facts in family history.

So, unpalatable as it may be, we are forced to the conclusion that they did not want to remember; that they deliberately withheld from their children the knowledge of the conditions and circumstances under which they left the mother country and came to the New World.

It must be remembered that only the destitute and the unfortunate, the most desperate, would leave home and relatives and friends they knew they would never see again and risk hardship and starvation in a wilderness Inhabited by savages and wild beasts.  The almshouses and the jails were opened to those who would volunteer to go as colonists.

Consequently, while there were those who came for conscience sake and in order to worship according to the dictates of their own spiritual convictions, the great majority of early colonists had no memories or traditions which they cared to pass along to their children and what little was known was soon forgotten.  So, most of us and most American families are descended from yeomen and undistinguished forebears their descendants were glad to forget.

Of course, all of us have royal blood in our veins.  All of us have ancestors who participated in great historical events.  All are descended from the proudest mediaeval families.  We had two parents, four grandparents and eight great-grandparents, a total of fourteen forebears In a mere hundred years.  At that rate we should each have had something like 1,020 since the Mayflower docked.  Since William the Conqueror each has had about 60,000,000 (sixty million) ancestors — not allowing for the lines which meet.

 

Every man and woman living today has inherited not only the blood but the genes and characteristics of both noble and plebian, the great and the obscure of ancient and mediaeval history and many of them the blood of many notables of modern history.

Practically anyone who has lived in America 100 years is descended from Revolutionary stock and entitled to membership in the D.A.R., the S.A.R. and the most exclusive colonial organizations, if the lines could be traced.

 

And all  have in them the good and the bad of a thousand pious and exemplary men and women and a thousand rogues, rascals and profligates.

 

"There is so much good in the worst of us,

And so much bad in the best of us,

That it hardly behooves any of us

To talk about the rest of us."

2

HUMAN PEDIGREES

The farmers of Iowa have doubtless spent one hundred times I as much energy on keeping the pedigrees of their livestock straight as the pedigrees of their own families. There has been a tendency for many of us to think that under our democratic system of government there is a feeling of false pride Involved in any effort to keep up the family history. And of course there has been a lot of foolish energy expended by some people in an effort to become linked up with such organizations as the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames.

Family histories, properly kept, mean a lot even to those members of the family who pretend to despise such things. We are talking now about a family record such as almost anyone can start. The first thing to do is to put down the names of the father and mother, together with the dates and places of the birth and marriage, and the names of the children. Then go back and see if you can do the same thing for each of the four grandparents. In addition, secure a brief history of the life of each, the different places where they lived, the occupation of the men, etc. In many cases, it will also be possible to list at least a few of the eight great-grandparents. There is not much reason in going back of this. In every case, so far as possible, find out a little something about the physical and mental characteristics. Incidentally, this may tell you a little something about the diseases and weaknesses to which the family is peculiarly susceptible.

Usually there is no financial gain whatsoever in this kind of thing, although occasionally there are families of people who keep records of this .sort who find themselves in line for bequests which they would not otherwise have secured. The really important results are not financial at all. The children become better acquainted with the people from whom they sprang, and thus become possessed of a feeling of responsibility and a more accurate idea as to their place in the world, than would otherwise be possible.

In doing this kind of work, it is important to get at it as soon as possible, for the reason that the members of the family who can furnish the best information are usually well along in years, and when they die, the information they can furnish is often totally lost. From a purely cultural point of view, we do not know of any way in which time can be more profitably spent during winter evenings than working up a family book of this sort. It may involve considerable letter writing to distant members of the

family, but that should be worthwhile even though there is no such thing as a family book involved. While we believe that by far the greatest emphasis should be laid on getting complete Information concerning the parents, grandparents, and possibly great-grandparents, it is occasionally interesting to those who are historically minded to follow the thing back further, and in that case, those" of our readers who are interested in this sort of thing will be glad to know that in the Historical Library, at Des Moines, there is one of the best collections of genealogical reference works to be found anywhere in the United States.

 

Wallaces’ Farmer February 9, 1923

3

THE   DESCENDANTS

0 F

James    Cannon

 

 

 

"The roots of the present lie deep In the past,

and nothing in the past is dead to the man who would

learn how the present came to be what it is."

--Stubbs

4

FOREWARD

 

"No man is fit to be entrusted with control of the present who is ignorant of the past;  and no people who are indifferent to their past need hope to make their future great.  A people who have not the pride to record their history, will not long have the virtue to make history that is worth recording."

--North Carolina Historical Commission.

 

The early Cannons who came as pioneers to Missouri were a part of that vast caravan which poured through Allegheny mountain passes at the close of the 18th Century, traversing the pathless wilderness of the Mississippi Basin, the domain of Indian and wild beast, to clear the forests and establish there the first permanent homes of the Central West.

 

These pioneers have become already dim figures of the past and unless perpetuated in some permanent record must soon be as completely forgotten as are their immigrant fathers who crossed the seas to establish homes in the new world a generation or two before them.

 

The names and deeds of forefathers when handed down from father to son by word of mouth are soon forgotten, and even the most vital facts in family history, such as the European sources of the family or service in epoch-making wars, become merest tradition.  Only by being enrolled in a permanent record can they be preserved and transmitted with certainty or accuracy.  For such a purpose; as a tribute to fathers whose virtues we revere; as a fulfillment of duty to posterity; and as an indifferent contribution to a notable chapter in American history; this fragmentary record has been hastily compiled.

 

 

June 21, 1911

5

THE CANNON NAME

 

In ancient times there were no surnames.  Men were known by given names only.  It was not until about the Eleventh Century that surnames were introduced, and it was as late as the Thirteenth Century before they attained common usage. (Beardsley's English. Surnames, Chapter III, page 172; Barber's British Family Names, Chapter I, page 3)   Perhaps the earliest record of a general introduction of the surname is found in the history of the petty Irish, monarch, Brian Boru, who about the year A.D. 1001 promulgated an ordinance, providing that every family should adopt a surname. (0'Hart's Pedigree or Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, page xviii)  William the Conqueror (1066-1097) during the latter part of his reign, in order to better maintain surveillance over the subjected Saxons, and perfect his system of taxation, encouraged the introduction and use of surnames in both his English and French dominions. (Freeman's Norman Conquest, Volume V, pages 560-571; Taswell-Langmead's Constitutional History of England, Section 2) Practically all modern surnames date from these or nearly contemporary periods.

 

Few, if any, of these names have come down to the present day in the form originally conferred.  Practically all surnames have suffered numerous modifications in form and spelling, a process which still continues as evidenced by the average docket of the courts in any jurisdiction.  In the first census of the United States taken in 1790 the following modifications appear: Cannon, Cannan, Cannen, Cannine, Canon, and Kannon.  This is typical of variations to be noted in practically all surnames, and is to be accounted for by the illiteracy of earlier times and the tendency to adaptation of later

days.

 

Aside from these modifications, modern names have been derived from many sources.  Some came from the calendar of the Saints, as March, Sunday and Valentine; some from the occupations, as Carpenter, Smith, Weaver and Farmer; some were derived from the Christian name of the father by adding the suffix "son", as Davidson, Peterson, Wilkinson and Dawson; some from environments of habitation, as Stone, Forest, Waters and Redpath; some from incidental happenings; others from personal peculiarities or characteristics, as Long, Black, Savage, Christian and Armstrong. (Beardsley, Chapter III, page 172; Barber, Chapter I, Page 13)

 

The primitive Scotch and Irish clans usually adopted the name of some distinguished chief of the family with the prefix "Mac" (Celtic for son) or "0" (an abbreviation of the Latin Phrase "a quo" – from which, a descendent of).  Every name bearing the prefix "Mac", "Mc" or "0" is of Scotch, or Irish origin.

 

Among these was the Kinel Connel (Clan Connel) a possible mythical clan which in the tenth century is said to have taken the name of one of its chieftains, O'Canannain or Canadhnain, Anglicized, Cananan, and modernized. Canning or Cannon,  (0'Hart's Pedigree or Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, Page 2o2)  The name is from the early Celtic word "Canadh" (to utter, to sing, one who sings, the singer) (Ibid, Page 148)

i

 

6.

Of course no evidence exists in any way connecting any of the

American branches of the Cannon Family with this ancient and perhaps

apocryphal Cannon family of the British Islands.  But all the Cannons

of whose emigration there is any record came to America from England,

Ireland or Scotland, and such traditions serve to indicate the nature

of the many versions which purport to reveal the prehistoric sources

of any family.

 

Another version of the origin of the Cannon name is given by

Barber in his British Family Names as follows: "Cannon-French,

Cannone.  A place name.  Norman-French, a canon."  That is, he

considers the name of Norman-French origin, and as being immediately

derived from location and referring to a canon, prelate or saint,

and implies descent of the family from a Norse people of Northern

France.   (Barber's British Family Names, page 110)

 

7.

 

 

 

THE CANNON FAMILY IN AMERICA

 

None of the many American branches of the Cannon family are able with any certainty, to trace their line of descent back beyond the later periods of Colonial America to their source in Europe. That the emigration took place at  a very early date, and probably included a number of families of the name, possibly from different

sources and no doubt at different periods, is indicated by the returns of the First Census of the United States which report 148 Cannon families with a total enumeration of 829 persons living in the thirteen original states in 1790. (A Century of Population Growth (1909) U.S.-Census, Page 233) They were even at that time widely distributed, being found in all of the states except Vermont, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The largest number was found in South Carolina which reported 34 families; North Carolina followed

with 29 families; and Pennsylvania was third with 26 families. The smallest number was reported from Maine which returned but three families. The latest census reports families of the name in every state and territory of the Union.

 

The earliest mention of the arrival in America of a person of the Cannon name is found in the passenger list of the ship Fortune. On the 11th day of November, 1621, the Fortune anchored at New Plymouth, her passengers "Being parts of families, with others left in England by the Mayflower the year before". (Original List of Emigrants Who Went To America, Int., Page xxvii) By this arrival the Plymouth colonists received a charter procured for them by the adventurers in London, who had been originally connected with the enterprise. Among the Thirty-five persons booked on this passage was one, "John Cannon". (New England Historical and Genealogical Register,

Vol. I, page 1214.) No further mention of this "First Cannon in America" has been found, and as his name does not occur at the division of the cattle in 1627, it is probable that he either died, returned to England, or emigrated to some other colony. (Savage's Genealogical Dictionary of New England, Vol. I, page 332)

 

Records of the early colonial period mention several other emigrants of the  Cannon name. Among those arriving in the New England colonies from England, June 10, 1635, was Richard Cannon and Usor (his wife) Elizabeth Cannon. (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. XIV, page 354) Nothing is known of their later history. "One Cannon was of Sandwich, England, 1650, who may have been that Robert, of New London, America in 1678, who was chosen a town officer in 1680." (Savage's Genealogical Dictionary of New England, Vol. I, page 332) "April 8, 1652 -- Robert Cannon, of London, sells to Charles Yoe and Benjamin Gillum, of Boston, Massachusetts, a ship of which he is master and commander." (Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. XIX, page 52) "Robert Cannon and his wife, Sarah, settled in Essex and Old Norfolk about the year 1680." (Ibid, Vol. VI, page 246)

 

The names of many Cannons are found in the archives of the Revolutionary Period. Luke Cannon was mustered out in the State of Virginia; (New England Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. VII91904, page 109)

 

                                                                                                          8.

James   Cannon  served as private in the 2nd Infantry commanded by

Brigadier  Count Pulaski, Continental Troops, March, 1779, and deserted April 1779; (Archives of "united States War Department – Adjutant General)  John Cannon was mustered in from the State of Massachusetts Bay under  Captain Burnam, commanded by  Colonel Jackson, December 21, 1777; ( New England Genealogical and Historical Register, Vol. I, page 479)  James Cannon served as private in the 7th Virginia Regiment commanded by  Colonel Alexander McClenachan until his death on the 12^th of September, 1777; (Archives of United States War Department – Adjutant General)  James Cannon enlisted from Norfolk, New York, and served as Captain in Willett's Corps; (South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. page 298)  Roger Cannon of South Carolina, was Corporal in  Captain Edmund Hyrne's .Company of the 1st Regiment, Provincial Troops under  Col. Christopher Gadsen; (Ibid, Vol. I, pages 54, 59) and John and  Robert Cannon enlisted in  Captain Andrew Commin's company in South Carolina, October 9, 1775.  (Ibid, Vol. Ill, page 127) The most prominent of the name of that period was probably Daniel Cannon, of Charleston, South Carolina, who is referred to by McGrady as one of the leaders of the Revolution. (McGrady's South Carolina under the Royal Government, pages 457, 591, 651) Born in England, July 10,

1726, he emigrated to America about 1740; (Charleston Gazette, October-7, 1802) was one of the signers of the protest against the Stamp Act; a charter member of the  Liberty Tree Party; (Gibb's "Documentary History  1764-1776, page 10) a member of the General Committee of the Non-Importation Association; Captain of "Cannon's Volunteers"; (Ancestral Records and Portraits by Grafton Press (1910) Vol. I, page 372) and elected to the first Provincial Congress of South Carolina,

1775- (South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine Vol. 7, 1906, page 103)

 

Little else is known of the history of any of these men beyond what is given here, and nothing has been published giving any information either as to  heir antecedents or their descendants. No relation ship is known to exist  between any of them and their contemporary,  James Cannon (11-4) of Newberry County, South Carolina, the records of whose descendants comprise this genealogy.

 

9.

THE CANNON FAMILY

First Generation

I-1. Samuel Cannon Born: unknown

Died: unknown

Wife: Lydia Pennington (See revision note below)

Born: about 1730

Died: about 1790

Children:

2- John Cannon                Born: unknown             Died: 1828

3- Isaac Cannon               Born: unknown             Died: about 1790

4- James Cannon              Born: Dec. 11, 1762     Died: Apr. 30, 1842

5- William Cannon            Born: unknown             Died: 1815

6- Mary Cannon               Born: unknown             Died: Unknown

7- Keziah Cannon             Born: unknown             Died: Unknown

8- Lydia Cannon               Born: unknown             Died: unknown

9- Elizabeth Cannon         Born: unknown             Died: Unknown

 

Revision note

There is no evidence to show that Lydia’s name was Davis and an ancestor of Jefferson Davis as Clarence had in his original text. It is generally accepted that Lydia was a Pennington and of no aloof political standing.

 

Samuel Cannon is the first of his line of whom we have any documentary information. He was born sometime between 1700 and 1725, either in County Antrim, Ireland, emigrating to America by way of Philadelphia about 1750, or in one of the northern colonies, emigrating southward in the van of that colonial tide deflected from the West by the Indian hostilities attending the Colonial and Indian Wars. The personnel of his family is listed in his will and enumerated in the census of 1790 but no records bearing upon either his own nativity or ancestry are to be found. The carefully preserved tradition in the South Carolina branch of the family (Henry Cannon, New, Newberry County, South Carolina) that their people came direct from Ireland to Newberry County, coupled with the statement of O'Neal (O'Neal's Annals of Newberry, Page 674) that "the elements of Cannon's Creek Church came from County Antrim, Ireland" seems to lend credence to the former theory. In further corroboration of this version is the statement often made by one of his relatives (David Cannon, Ibid.) that the Cannons were of mingled Irish and French descent. This claim to French descent was decidedly puzzling until a search of local history brought to light the fact (O'Neal's Annals of Newberry, Page 199)  that some of the earliest Immigrants to this locality were of Huguenot extraction, their ancestors having fled from France in 1685, upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, part of them settling in Scotland, and part of them just across the North Channel in County Antrim, Ireland.

 

Ulster (North Ireland) is one of the four provinces of Ireland. County Antrim is one of the nine counties of Ulster and is a maritime county -- on the sea -- and its county seat is Belfast -- noted for shipbuilding and lace manufacture – the industrial section of Ireland -- the Protestant section of Ireland - and loyal to English Government and represented in the English

Parliament. The rest of Ireland is largely agricultural and Catholic and constitutes the Irish Republic and is governed by the Irish Parliament at Dublin.

 

The Cannons apparently came from Antrim at an early date and landed at Philadelphia -- moving from there to Virginia and on down to North Carolina  and settling finally in  Newberry County,

 

10

South Carolina, where they fought in the Revolution and later emigrated to Tennessee, thence to Kentucky and finally to Missouri The Cannons were Scotch-Irish. That is they were Scotch living in Ireland. In the Sixteenth Century (1550-1600) Elizabeth drove out the Irish and colonized it with Scotch and English. They were red-haired. Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were red-haired, Scotch-Irish and of this breed.

 

Certain it is, however, that  Samuel Cannon was among the earliest, if not the first to settle in  Newberry County. The royal grant of the first hundred acres preempted by him and surveyed upon his application on November 25, 1754, antedates any in that section of the State, and as some time must have elapsed prior to his application and its platting by the surveyor-general, 0’Neal's  statement that "the county first began to be settled about 1752

(O'Neal's Annals of Newberry, page 9) must refer very closely to the time of his arrival. This grant, which seems to have been confirmed prior to the establishment of the three counties originally comprising the State, and which was located in what was subsequently included in Craven County, still later to become a part of  Ninety Six District, and ultimately  Newberry County, is as follows;

 

SOUTH    CAROLINA

George the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth, To  all to whom THESE PRESENTS shall come Greeting; KNOW YE, THAT WE of our special Grace, certain Knowledge and mere Motion, have given and granted, and by these Presents, for us, our heirs and successors, DO GIVE AND GRANT unto

 

 SAMUEL CANNON

 

his heirs and assigns, a Plantation or tract of Land containing One hundred acres on a branch of  Broad River called  Cannon's Creek bounded to the East part on John Cannon's land and part vacant, the other three sides vacant, And hath such shape, form and marks, as appears by a plat thereof, hereunto annexed: Together with all woods, under-wood, timber and timber trees, lakes, ponds, fishings, waters, water-courses, profits commodities, appurtenances and hereditaments whatsoever, saving an reserving, nevertheless, to us, our heirs and successors, all white pine-trees, if any there should be found growing thereon: and also saving and reserving, to us our heirs and successors, one tenth-part of mines of silver and gold only:

 

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD, the said tract of One hundred acres of land and all and singular other premises hereby granted, with the appurtenances, unto the said Samuel Cannon, his heirs and assigns for ever in free and common  socage, he the said  Samuel Cannon, his heirs, or assigns yielding and paying therefore, unto us, our heir and successors, or to our Receiver-General for the time being, or

 

11.

to his Deputy or Deputies for the time being, yearly, that is to say, on every twenty-fifth day of March, at the rate of three shillings sterling, or four shillings proclamation money, for every hundred acres, and for in proportion according to the quantity of acres, contained herein; the same to grow due and to be accounted for from the date hereof. Provided always, and this present Grant is upon condition, nevertheless, that the said Samuel Cannon, his heirs and assigns, shall and do within three years next after the date of these presents, clear and cultivate at the rate of one acre for every five hundred acres of land, and so in proportion according to the quantity of acres herein contained, or build a dwelling house thereon, and keep a flock of five head cattle for every five hundred acres, upon the same, and in proportion for a greater or lesser quantity; And upon condition, that if the said rent, hereby reserved, shall happen to be in arrear and unpaid for space of three years from the time it became due, and no distress can be found on the said lands, tenements and hereditaments hereby granted, that then and in such case, the said lands, tenements and hereditaments hereby granted, and every part and parcel thereof, shall revert to us, our heirs and successors, as fully and absolutely, as if the same had never been granted. Provided also, if the said lands hereby mentioned to be granted, shall happen to be within the bounds or limits of any of the townships, or of the lands reserved for the use of the townships now laid out in our said Province, in

pursuance of our Royal Instructions, but then this Grant shall be void, any thing herein to the contrary contained notwithstanding.

 

Given under the Great Seal of our said Province.

WITNESS His Excellency William Henry Lyttleton,

Esqr., Capt. Gen'l.,

Governor and Commander in chief in and over our said

Province of South Carolina, this

Thirteenth Day of August, Anno. Dom. 1756 & in the

Thirtieth Year of our Reign.

(Signed) William Henry Lyttleton (L.M.S.)

Signed by his Excellency, the Governor in Council

(Signed) William Simpson, CC.

And hath. hereunto a plat there-

of annexed, representing the

fame, certified by

George Hunter, Esqr., Surveyor-General

the 25th of November 1754.

 

12

The John Cannon mentioned in the metes and bounds description was his eldest son, who seems to have applied for land contemporaneously but who did not perfect his title until December 1, 1772. (Land Books of South Carolina)

 

 Samuel Cannon's will was probated in 1792, but the Census of 1790 does not include him in the list of heads of families.  His youngest son, James spoke of his mother, Lydia Cannon, as a widow at the time of his migration from North Carolina.  (James Knox by Dr. J. A. Knox, Auburn, Lincoln County, Mo.5  The census schedules enumerate her as a widow and indicate a number of daughters, but apart from their father's will no further record of them has survived.  (First Census of U.S., Heads of Families, South Carolina page 76)

 

His name is perpetuated in the name of Cannon's Creek (Map of Newberry County, South Carolina), a small stream which rises near the center of the county and flows eastward until it empties into Broad River.  It is so designated on the first map of the state ever published (French Map of U.S. by LaVille, Date 1800, published 1802, Congressional Library) and is mentioned in various histories as the most important stream in the county, and as having received its name from the Cannon Family which settled there at a very early date.  (O'Neal's Annals of Newberry, page 107) While Cannon's Creek Church, a congregation of the Associate Reformed  Presbyterians (Seceders) and the mother church of Presbyterianism in Newberry County, was established near his home and during his life time, we have no evidence as to whether he was a communicant. No traditions as to his personal traits have come down to us, but the respect and affection in which he was held by his own family are reflected in the fact that each of the three children whose family records have been preserved, bestowed upon his eldest son the name of Samuel.

 

He is buried in the ancient cemetery adjoining  Cannon's Creek Church in Newberry County, South Carolina.  If the stone which marked his resting place ever bore any inscription, it has long since been obliterated by the hand of time.  The meager records of that crude age and the long lapse of years make it improbable that any further sources of information will be discovered.  The race from which he sprang, the country from which he came, the hundred years of family history which is the heritage of each generation, are buried with him if his unmarked place of sepulture, and beyond him his fathers sleep shrouded in the same impenetrable obscurity.

His will is recorded:

                                                                   13

WILL OF SAMUEL CANNON

In the name of God Amen I samuel Cannon of South Carolina and Newberry County, Planter, Calling to mind the Mortality of my body and Knowing that it is appointed Once for all Men to die do therefore make & Constitute this my last Will in Manner & form following that is to say first & foremost & before all things I give my soul to the Almighty God that gave it to me & my body I

Recommend to the Earth from Whine it Came to be Decently Interred at the Discretion of my Executors hereafter Mention & appointed first of all my Desire is that all my Lawful Debts & funeral Charges shall be paid. Item. I give & bequeath to my three Eldest Sons John Isaac James & my Eldest Daughter Mary a Negro a Piece which they have now in their Possession said Negroes & there Issues to fall to said Children and there Issues forever Item. I give & bequeath to my son William a Negro Girl Named Sail & One hundred Acres of land the Original Grant in Lawrence Re card Name Item. I give & bequeath to my two Daughters Kislah & Lydia thirty pounds & a feather Bed a piece to be paid to them in property at their marriage Item. I give & bequeath to my youngest Daughter Elizabeth One Negro Named Emela & also One feather Bed Item. I give & bequeath to my Wife Lyda One hundred Acres of Land the Original Grant in Clement Davises Name & also the Whole of my Mooveable Estate &; I do make Constitute & appoint my two

Sons John & Isaac to be my sole Executors of this my last Will & Testament & I do hereby utterly Revoke Disannul & make Void all other former Wills by me heretofore Ratifying & Confirming this & no other to be my last Will & Testament & in Testimony hereof have hereunto set my hand & Seal

Samuel Cannon (SEAL)

Pronounced to be Samuel Cannons

Last Will & Testament in the Presence

of us________________________

(Will Book "A", page 109, Records of Newberry County, South Carolina)

 

14.

 Lydia apparently was born early in the eighteenth century and nothing is known of her early life or lineage.   She may have been the daughter of  Clement Davis, as a tract bequeathed her in her husband's will is designated as "the original grant in Clement Davis' name." A grandson told his daughter (Correspondence of  Mary Ann Griffeth, IV-108) at the beginning of the Civil War that his grandmother was a great-aunt of  Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy. This may be corroborated by the fact that Jefferson Davis was born in Christian County, Kentucky, to which her family emigrated.  Samuel Davis, father of  Jefferson Davis, settled in eastern part of  Christian County. (Now just across the line in Todd County) about 1800 and Jefferson Davis was born in eastern part of the Village of Fairview, June 3, 1808.  (History of Christian County Kentucky, by Perrin, Page 116)

 

Revision Note:

I am afraid that Clarence has fallen victim to the perennial genealogy sin of trying to get connected to a famous person in history. Lydia’s maiden name was Pennington, not Davis.

 

She is enumerated in the First Census of the United States (First Census of the United States, Heads of Families, South Carolina, Page 76) as "Lidea Cannon", living in Newberry County in Ninety-Six District in 1790, the head of a family consisting of four white females and four slaves, but no white males. This data would Indicate a widow of some means, as evidenced by her freehold and the number of slaves, living alone with three daughters or grand daughters. Immediately preceding her name is that of John Cannon,

the head of a family of seven persons; and following is the name of Isaac Cannon, the head of a family of six persons. As the list is given in the order in which the enumerator took the schedules it is evident that the two sons were living on adjoining homesteads (Dr. J. A. Knox says (letter of June 8, 1910) that James (11-4) was the youngest of five sons and that his mother was a widow at the end of the Revolutionary War and that James was 18 years old at the time of his escape from the British)

 

Second Generation

 

II-2  John Cannon Born: unknown

Died: unknown

Father: Samuel Cannon I-1

Wife: unknown

 

Reported by the First Census of the United States as living in Newberry County, Ninety-Six District, South Carolina, in 1790, the head of a family consisting of himself, his wife, four children under sixteen years of age, and one slave.

 

He was granted one hundred acres of land in Craven County, South Carolina, on Broad River, December 1, 1772, which was probably about the time of his marriage.

His eldest son. Colonel Samuel Cannon, was born 1773; brevetted

Major in Colonel Tucker's regiment in the War of 1812; elected Representative in 1816 and 1818; died, July 22, 1849.

 

(Can this be the "Colonel John Cannon" mentioned with "John

Furman" in Chain's History of Christian County, Kentucky, as Revolutionary soldiers?) He left no will but the record of the administration of his estate is filed in Package 159, in Box 64, Estate 1660

in the Office of the Probate Court of Newberry County, South Carolina

 

15.

II-3 Isaac Cannon Born: unknown

Died: unknown

Father: Samuel Cannon I-1

Wife: unknown

 

Reported in the First Census of the United States as living in Newberry County, Ninety-Six District, South Carolina, in 1790, the head of a family consisting of himself, his wife, three children, all under the age of sixteen, and one slave.

 

II-4 James Cannon Born: about 1785

Died: April 30, 1842

Father: Samuel Cannon I-1

Wife: Rachel Stark

Born: about 1768

Died: about 1831

Children:

10-Samuel Cannon            Born: 0ct. 2, 1786            Died: Dec. 8, 1857

11-John Cannon                Born: Mar. 16, 1790         Died: Jun. 13, 1871

12-Lydia Cannon               Born: Nov. 4, 1791           Died: Sep. 12, 1869

13-Isaac Cannon               Born: Nov. 4 1793            Died: May 3, 1862

14-Willlam Cannon           Born: Sep. 12, 1795          Died: Mar. 7, 1861

15-Elizabeth Cannon         Born: about 1798             Died: about 1839

16-Nancy Cannon             Born: Apr. 29, 1800         Died: Sep. 15, 1875

17-Ephraim Cannon           Born: Dec. 16, 1801          Died: Apr. 11, 1867

18-Mary Cannon               Born: Feb. 28, 1803         Died: about 1826

19-Rachel Cannon             Born: Dec. 4, 1804           Died: Jul. 4, 1876

20-Keziah Cannon            Born: about 1806             Died: about 1828

21-Rebecca Cannon          Born: about 1808             Died: May 9, 1837

22-Margarette Cannon     Born: about 1812              Died: Dec. 1, 1879

23-Jane Cannon               Born: Apr. 17, 1815          Died: Jan. 21, 1860

 

James Cannon was born, December 11, 1762 (Headstone in family cemetery. U.S. Pension List of 1840 says he was 82 at the time the census was taken June 1, 1840, but both his declaration for a pension and his grave stone fix the date of his birth as 1762) in the State of South Carolina in that section of the District of Ninety-Six later to be known as Newberry County. It was at the time the furthest outpost of civilization, the extreme frontier, the line marking the inhabited portions of the United States in 1790 barely

including the District of Ninety-Six (Century of Population Growth in the United States, Page 18). Immigration was rapid, however, and before James had attained his majority the county possessed a population of more than nine thousand people.

 

Only one incident of his boyhood has come down to us, an incident of the early days of the American Revolution. His older brothers were serving with the army and he as the youngest son was left at home as caretaker. One afternoon a band of marauding Tories descended on the place and finding a fine stallion owned by the family asked James to whom the animal belonged. "It is mine," responded James. "Then get on and ride him," they commanded. James

 

16.

obeyed and was firmly tied to the horse, but on the march to camp suddenly wheeled his mount into the dense underbrush and, in the late dusk, out rode his pursuers and escaped. (James Knox, through his son. Dr. J. A. Knox) The boy must have enlisted soon after this, (History of Missouri, by Louis Houck, Vol. Ill, Page 85) and served until the close of the war.

 

It was at the beginning of the darkest chapter in the history of the Revolution. General Clinton had taken charge In person of the British campaign in the South, and in a short time had reduced the whole of South Carolina to subjection to the British. Only Marion with about 25 men remained in the field in the entire province. It was in this hour of despair that American valor shone brightest. "Left mainly to her own resources," says Bancroft, "It was through the depths of wretchedness that her sons were to bring her back to her place in the Republic, after suffering more and daring more and achieving more than the men of any other state" (Bancroft's History of the United States, 1852-1883). A purely volunteer system sprang up after the loss of Charleston and the destruction of the Continental Army. The patriots who would not take the oath of allegiance retreated to the swamps and mountains and, maintained under Pickens, Marion and Sumpter that partisan warfare which became so famous, (American Campaigns by M. P, Steele, Page 44) and the redemption of the State was accomplished by volunteers, serving without pay, supplying their own horse and other equipment, and finding their own subsistence (McCrady's South Carolina in the Revolution, Pages 13, 138).

 

Among these was the young James Cannon, not yet sixteen years of age at the time of his enlistment. General Pickens commissioned Colonel Casey to organize the Militia in "Ninety-Six" and James was among those who volunteered. The story of his service is best told by himself in his pension declaration; (Bureau of Pensions, Washington, D.C., Vol. I, Page 62, Pile No. 16, 684)

 

"On this 4th day of February, A.D., 1833, personally appeared before the Justices of the County Court of Lincoln County, Missouri now sitting, James Cannon, a resident of the county and state aforesaid, aged 70 years, who being duly sworn according to the law, doth on his oath make the following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7, 1832, in That he entered service of the United States in the year 1778 or 1779, in the State of South Carolina, in the company commanded by

Captain Matthew Gillaspie as a volunteer, and went to guard a small station called Edgile Station, and afterwards removed to Duggan's Station. After the death of Captain Gillaspie, he served under a Capt. William Gray, and was engaged in scouting parties against the lories—that he went with several hundred men under Col. Levi Casey after a large number of Tories called Cunningham's Men, and followed these men several days, and until they were dispersed in a swamp in the lower part of S. Carolina and took from them horses, coats and, etc. He thinks he served nearly two years principally

 

17.

against the Tories, and was then drafted in a company commanded by Capt. John Virgin, and crossed the Tennessee River after Indians and Tories and killed some of each. There were several hundred of our men in this expedition, all mounted and commanded by General Pickens, and was out this time about three months, which was in the winter season—and he volunteered under Capt. Thomas Starke, and was engaged two years and more under Said Starke in scouting parties against the Tories—that he was born in Newberry County in the State of South Carolina, the year 1762— that he did not bring any record of his birth from his father's house which he left soon after the war—_that he moved soon after the revolutionary war to Robinson County in the State of Tennessee—and in the year 1797 or 1798 he moved to Christian County, and in the year 1817 he came to Lincoln County, Mo. where he now lives—he does not recollect that he ever received any discharge from the service."

 

"Be It remembered that on the twenty-seventh day of June A.D., Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-three, personally appeared before me undersigned, a Justice of the Peace within and for said County of Lincoln, James Cannon, whose name is signed to the within and foregoing Declaration for a pension, who being duly sworn, deposeth and he cannot swear positively as to the precise length of his service; but according to the best of his recollection, he served not less than the periods mentioned below, and in the following

grades: For two years I served as a private, and volunteer, and mounted, under Captains Galaspie and Gray; for three months I served as a drafted soldier, and mounted, under Captain John Virgin, and for two years I served as a private, a volunteer, and mounted, under Capt. Thomas Starke, making in all four years and three months. All of this time I was under the command of Colonel Levi Casey, as a Colonel, and according to the best of my recollection I entered the service of the United States sometime in the year A.D. 1778, and continued in the service until peace was made.

His

James X Cannon."

mark.

 

"Personally appeared in open court William Coats of Galloway County, Missouri, aged sixty-two years last December, who being duly sworn according to law, says that immediately after the close of the revolutionary war he became acquainted with James Cannon, whose name is subscribed to the foregoing Declaration, and that he has lived many years as a neighbor to said Cannon, and that he has often heard said Cannon, and he thinks others

tell of his serving in the revolutionary war, that he heard this immediately at the close of the war, and that he has no doubt that said Cannon served in the war as he has stated, and he never heard this doubted by any person

 

Sworn and subscribed to

this 4th day of February,                William Coats."

1633, in open court.

 

18.

"We, William Coats, residing in Galloway County, Missouri, a clergyman, and David Hubbard, a clergyman, residing in Lincoln County, Missouri, and James Knox, of the county last aforesaid, here certify that we are well acquainted with James Cannon, who has subscribed and sworn to the foregoing declaration; that he is reputed and believed in the neighborhood where be resides to have been a soldier in the Revolution, and that we concur In that opinion.

William Coats,

David Hubbard,

James Knox."

 

Next to the will of Samuel Cannon, his father, this is the earliest authenticated fragment of family history available.  Here Is the ancestor speaking for himself.  A single sentence might have given his ancestry and the European source of the family. But his was a utilitarian age, that dealt with. the practical only, and with that lack of garrulousness and brevity of speech characteristic of his clan, he passes by the history of his people in the bare statement required by law, with no mention of their past.

 

Although this account is written almost half a century after the close of the Revolution, and in the absence of any data which might have served to refresh his memory, there are apparently few discrepancies and the persons, places and events to which he refers may usually be identified without difficulty.

 

"Edgils," the post at which he was stationed immediately upon his enlistment, was Edge Hill, so named in honor of the field where the Cavaliers and Roundheads first met in battle.  It was the scene of one of the memorable tragedies of the war.  McCrady speaks of the fort as "A small American post across the Saluda River, in what Is now Laurens County, about three miles from the Newberry line." (McCrady's South Carolina in the Revolution, Page 473) The name was later changed to Hayes' Station in honor of Colonel

Joseph Haves who was placed in command.  Here he was attacked in August 1782 by Major William Cunningham.  "After a vigorous resistance lasting for hours, the British succeeded in setting fire to the fort by means of ramrods wrapped around with tow dipped in pitch and thrown burning upon the roof.  Hayes surrendered and was promptly hanged, but the rope breaking, Cunningham drew his sword and slew the American with his own hand."  (Ibid., Page 474)

 

The company of Captain Gillespie seems to have remained at Edge Hill for a short time after being recruited and was then transferred to Duggan's Station, another of the chain of forts guarding the rivers of Western South Carolina.

 

The precise location of this fort has not been definitely determined, but as Colonel Thomas Duggan, who commanded the Elnore Regiment, and for whom it was named, "lived at the confluence of

 

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Indians and Gilder's Creek (O'Neal's Annals of Newberry, Page 53), and his residence appears on McMiller's Map of 1820 in the northern edge of Newberry County, this post was undoubtedly located in that vicinity guarding the Einore River as Edge Hill commanded the Saluda.

 

The officers under whom- the young private served are less easily identified.  His regimental officer. Colonel Levi Casey, represented Little Broad River, the district between the Broad and Saluda River, in the state legislature of 1782 (McCrady's South Carolina in the Revolution, Page 742) and was a member of the 8th and 9th United States Congresses from South Carolina, serving from October 17, 1803, until his death in Washington,

D.C., February 1, 1807 (The Charleston Courier, Monday, February 16, 1807).  While his services in the Revolution were distinguished and notable, winning for him a commission as brigadier-general (Biographical Congressional Directory ((1903)) Page 443), the records of the period are so meager and Incomplete that his place in history is due to the records of his official

service rather than his military exploits.

 

With the exception of General Andrew Pickens, whose fame is national, and who as Johnson says "literally fought with a halter around his neck, having violated his parole for good cause," (Johnson*s Life of Green, Vol. I, Page 375) no historical reference to the other officers mentioned by James Cannon in his Declaration has been found.  The entire military organization of South Caroline having been swept away by the British occupation of the State, the officers served on the election of their companies without commissions; operated frequently without orders; and few departmental files of any kind were practicable.  Captain Thomas Stark, his last captain and his kinsman by marriage, was still a resident of Newberry County in 1790, and his name, preceded by his military title, heads the list of the inhabitants of that county.(Heads of Families, South Carolina, Page 76)  Captain William Gray moved to Christian County, Kentucky, about the same time and perhaps in the same party with James Cannon.  He was one of the pioneer settlers in Christian County and Perrin speaks of him as an officer in the revolutionary War and says of him, "Little is known but that little is creditable alike to his courage and patriotism".  (Perrin's History of Christian County, Kentucky, Page 116)  No reference to the other captains he mentions has been found.

 

Little is said of the first two years service though it must have at times been strenuous, as the partisan warfare in the District of Ninety-Six during those years was incessant and merciless.  A grandson (Isaac Cannon, Iil-36) remembers hearing him relate an incident which occurred during this time.  A British detachment had been ambushed and routed with considerable loss. James with others was detailed to take them in the flank and cut off the fugitives.  As they neared the line of retreat a soldier broke through the underbrush wearing the red coat and gold braid of a British officer.  "Who comes there?" challenged James' companion  (Joseph Sitton, October 15, 1745-February 8, 1832, North Carolina Regimental Line.  Bryant's Creek Cemetery)  The Englishman

 

20.

confused by their, position and mistaking them for Tory camp  followers, shouted "Captain Hossey (The spelling is phonetic. There was no other means of identification), and a friend to King George," and an instant later fell dying with an American bullet through his body.

 

The most active service came in 1782 toward the close of the war. As their hope of success waned, the English resorted to desperate measures, adding the terrors of Indian warfare to the already savage conflict (Ramsey's History of South Carolina, Vol. II, Page 274). The operations of the Loyalists and Indians along the frontier in the fall of 1781 were so successful that plans were laid for a general invasion the following spring. In anticipation of this,. General Pickens mobilized a regiment of American militia numbering 394 horsemen (Ibid.), one of whom was James Cannon (Bureau of Pensions, file No. 16684). Each man supplied his own mount and was armed with a rifle, and a hatchet hung at his belt. About the first of January 1782 , the column

made a rapid but cautious march into the Cherokee Nation. Although it was in the depth of winter, a fact mentioned both by the historian and by James,  the command carried neither tent nor any other description of camp equipage, and but few supplies. After the small portion of bread which they could carry in their saddle-bags was exhausted, the men lived upon parched corn, potatoes, peas and venison -which they collected in the Indian towns; salt they had none. The campaign lasted for three months and was most successful. According to McCrady, the Indians and their white allies were repeatedly defeated with heavy loss and every town, village and settlement east of the mountains was laid in ashes (McCrady South Carolina in the Revolution, Pages 624, 625 and 626). James Cannon says they crossed the Tennessee River, which necessarily includes a march of several hundred miles across the Great Smoky Mountains, an Intervening branch of the Appalachian system, since the nearest point of the Tennessee River is two hundred miles distant on a direct line from the Initial point of expedition. It

was on this campaign that James, having lost or disposed of the regulation  hatchet, substituted a tomahawk taken from the body of a fallen Indian. This tomahawk he carried with him the rest of his life, in the earlier years because precaution had made it a custom among frontiersmen, and in later years through force of habit. This peculiarity of the old frontiersman is remembered by all who knew him. The weapon was carried by a short thong of buckskin and was used in lieu of a pocket knife. After his death it was sold at the sale of the estate to his son-in-law, Isaac L. Thurman, for

371/2 and appears on the sale bill filed by the administrator in probate court.

 

His last Important service was against the notorious command of Major William Cunningham, of the British Loyal Militia, known on account of his atrocities as "Bloody Bill" Cunningham.  (Johnson's Traditions of the Revolution, Page 426; Cunningham's forces had terrorized the country for years end rendered invaluable service to the King, (McCrady's South Carolina in the Revolution) as in the capture of Hayes' Station. The following order from General Pickens, then at Long Cane in Abbeville County, to Captain William Butler, opened the campaign;  (Gibb’s Documentary History of South Carolina  Vol. I;, Page 220)

 

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"Long Cane, September 6, 1782.

Sir:

Your favor with the cattle by Mr. DeLoach came safely, for which I am much obliged to you. I am glad to hear you have got your company. * * * * I would recommend to you to send spies down Edisto, and if possible find out where

Cunningham keeps, and what his intention is, and if possible drive him from these parts, though I would much rather you could destroy him and his party. I send you six swords which you will have taken care of, and when you have done with them you will have them returned. I have likewise sent you a few sheets of paper to make your returns. You have my best  wishes, and am sir,

Your most humble servant,

Andrew Pickens.

 

The choice of Captain Butler to lead the expedition was well made as he was animated by strong motives of personal revenge, Cunningham having murdered his father in cold blood after surrendering at the battle of loud's Creek a short time before. The number of men in the command is not given and McCrady thinks it could not have exceeded fifty men, but the number of swords sent by General Piekens indicates the presence of several officers,

among whom was doubtless Included Captain Stark in whose company James at the time was serving as a private.

 

Cunningham had resolved on a second incursion into the District of Ninety-Six, and was concentrating his forces at Corradine's Ford on the Saluda River near its juncture with the Little Saluda between Newberry and Edgefield counties (Memoirs of General William Butler, Page 20). The Americans by a night march through the rain fell upon Cunningham before he was aware of their presence. "The Tories had unsaddled and were drying their blankets by their camp fires when attacked," says McCrady (South Carolina in the Revolution, Edward McCrady, Page 630). "We took from

them horses, coats and blankets," says James in his brief account. The enemy was taken completely by surprise and before they could recover were being driven into the swamps and dispersed in all directions. Captain Butler singled out Cunningham and pursued him for miles but his pistol flashed in the pan and Cunningham escaped by the fleetness of his horse (Memoirs of General William Butler, Page 20).

 

This engagement permanently dispersed the last of the Tory Militia, and practically ended partisan warfare in South Carolina. The company of Captain Stark was probably finally discharged about October of 1782, although James says that no papers of discharge were issued.

 

The service of these volunteer militia units in the Revolution should not be undervalued.  "It was this incessant warfare,” says McCrady, ''breaking up the enemy's communication, destroying

 

                                                                                                          22.

his posts, and carrying war into his rear, which compelled the abandonment of the country by the British."  (McCrady's South Carolina in the Revolution, Page 545)  And again, "The value of their uprising was not confined to South Carolina or even to the South.  It is not presumptuous to say that they had done much to save Washington's army from destruction in the time of its weakness and to render Yorktown possible."  (Ibid, Page 138)

 

The one or two discrepancies in the declaration of the soldier may be  accounted for both by the lapse of time and by transcription of the  statement by the attorney.  James emerged from the war a veteran at the age of nineteen, and this account was given after having passed his allotted three score and ten.

 

The only authentic relic of the soldier, aside from the declaration, his will and a pension receipt, is the rifle which he carried in the Revolution, and which is said to have been the property of his father.  Dr. J. A. Knox (Affidavit of Dr. J. A. Knox, 1911) vouches for the history of this ancient firearm.  The rifle of the type known among the early frontiersmen as the "long rife  with a barrel originally 46 inches long and .45 caliber.  It

is evidently of native manufacture and was probably hand made.  The colonists early became expert in this industry and the output of their forges was vastly superior to the clumsy weapons from the British factories, and were so pronounced by Napoleon who considered them the most accurate in  the world.  The Cannon rifle was in the possession of the family in 17?8 and was carried by James at the time of his enlistment.  He carried It with him on his emigration westward and it supplied the emigrant train with fresh meat in his successive trips from South Carolina to Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri.  In the hazardous experiences of frontier days, menaced alternately by hostile Indians, savage beasts and winter famine, the rifle was preeminently the most important factor in the domestic economy of the pioneer, and this weapon undoubtedly brought down many a deer and wild turkey, and no doubt claimed its nobler prey in the numerous forays of Revolutionary and Indian warfare.  Sometime after coming to Missouri James gave the rifle to his favorite son, Isaac, who held it until about 1850 when he traded it to Henry Knox.  About 1852 the gun was restocked from a walnut rail by James Beard, a gunsmith who had a shop at New Hope near where the present tollgate stands.  At the time the barrel was cut off some three inches at the breech where badly burned, and a percussion cap ignition substituted for the old flint lock.  During the Civil War Dr. Knox hid it in a hollow hickory tree, which was "hollow from the ground up, facing the east .  He then filled the opening with chunks to indicate a rabbit close, and used the, gun when needed.  Among those who came to search for the gun was a squad under the command of Captain Thomas K. Reid, but all failed to find it.  At the administrator's sale of the Knox estate in 1886, the rifle was bought by Martin Thompson and came into the possession of his Charles in 1906.  Charles held it until 1907 when by purchase it again came into the possession

of the Cannon family.

 

23.

Mr. Albert E. Holmes tells of "Uncle" Isaac Cannon’s having this rifle at the home of his father, Oliver Holmes, when a deer passing by the house was seen by the family through the cracks between the logs. Albert E. Holmes relates that the house had Just been constructed of new logs and the spaces between the logs had not yet been "chinked" with the usual chips and clay. Uncle Isaac said he couldn't "let so good a chance get away," and pushing the barrel through the interstice fired and brought down the stag.

 

Soon after the close of the war, subsequent to 1786 and prior to 1790, (United States Census of 1790, South Carolina) James joined the tide of emigration flowing towards the valley of the Tennessee, the upper stretches of which he had viewed on his expedition with Pickens. About the same time he was married to Rachel Stark, who is supposed to have been born about 1768 and who died about 1831, a sister of his old commander, Captain Thomas Stark and a relative of Colonel John Stark, of Bennington fame. (Biographical Record of St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren Counties, Page 565) Her headstone in the family cemetery has crumbled and the inscription which was the sole remaining record long since ceased to be legible. He was married in South Carolina and his first child was born there. The date of the marriage has not been established. No record of the marriage has been found. It may have been as early as 1783 and could not have been later than 1785.

 

The five hundred mile trek into the wilderness, through mountain forests and across river gorges, ended on the borderland of Northern Tennessee in  what was later to become Robertson County. "Beyond an occasional migratory and venturesome hunter, trapper or scout who passed through the vast forests and canebrakes in quest of the abundant game, or in pursuit of marauding bands of Indians, the presence of white men was at this time almost unknown," says the historian. The land was covered with vast forests and cane brakes, and game of every species from the bear, panther and deer down to squirrel and wild turkey existed in abundance. (History of Tennessee ((1886)), Goodspeed Publishing Company, Pages 840-842) A history of Wilson County places the name of James Cannon at the head of its list of the twenty-nine families first settling in that region. (History of Wilson County, Tennessee ((1880)) Page 841) The place of settlement is given as Spring Creek, one of the important streams emptying into the Cumberland River. Whether this is our James Cannon is uncertain, but as Robertson County, which was not established until 1796, and Wilson County, established in 1799, were both formerly a part of Tennessee County, established in 1788, and as Spring Creek threads both, it is possible that the reference is another link in the biography of the South Carolinian. If so, he was the leader of a party of more than a hundred colonists.

 

James remained in Tennessee until 1799 or 1800 and four of his children, John, Lydia, Isaac and William were born here. Then the country settling rapidly, he again changed states

 

24.

moving about sixty miles to the northwest into Christian County, Kentucky, where he established himself near the present site of Hopkinsville. Here several of his children-were married, and here the last of his children was born in 1815. His name is found for the first time on the census books in 1810, the 1790 census for Tennessee and the 1800 census for Kentucky having been destroyed when the British burned the Capitol at Washington in

1814. The names of the children have been added from the family register;

James Cannon, Christian County Kentucky:

Free White Male:      Under 10 years--1---—Ephraim

From 10 to 16--—1—— --William

From 16 to 26----2--John and Isaac

From 26 to 45----O

Over 45 years----1---James

Free White Females Under 10 years---4---Mary, Rachel,

Keziah and Rebecca

From 10 to 16---—2—-Elizabeth, and Nancy

From 16 to 26-----1-----Lydia

From 26 to 45——-1—— Rachel

Over 45 years------0

Others including Indians not taxed-------0

Slaves—— —————— —————- ————2-Sarah and George

 

The oldest son, Samuel is enumerated separately with his wife, evidently having been married a short time previously.

 

Soon after settling in Kentucky he registered himself as a charter member of what was then known as the Republican party later to become the present Democratic Party, by voting for Thomas Jefferson at Hopkinsvllle in 1800. Through the remainder of his life he kept the faith, voting the last time for Martin Van Buren at New Hope, Missouri, in 1840. His sons, with the  exception of John, who was a Whig, inherited the political connections of their father were life-long Democrats.

 

In 1817 the call of the west came for the last time. Isaac, one of his favorite sons, had left Kentucky soon after the close of the War of 1812, and found his way  eventually to the territory of Missouri. In response his suggestion, James, already a

 

25.

patriarch with children's children about his knee, gathered his clan and pushed once more towards the western forests. The trip was made overland on horseback. It is possible that some kind of vehicles carried women and children and the few articles of clothing and furniture, but no one  remembers having heard them mentioned.

 

An incident (M. A. Cannon V-166 from his father) of the trip illustrates the promptness of decision and firmness of purpose which were characteristic of the old man. James and his oldest son, Samuel, took with them a small flock of sheep, a valuable addition to the resources of the pioneer and particularly useful in clearing new land. At the first stream of consequence the sheep, dreading the water, caused much trouble, whereupon James announced that he would sell the flock to the first purchaser they might encounter. Samuel realized that it was useless to remonstrate with his father, and yielding to the Inevitable, began to look for a buyer and bartered the flock to a native for a shotgun and a small amount of money.

 

They arrived on the soil of Missouri in the spring of 1817 and camped near the home of Isaac on "Turkey Creek near Muddy Fork" in that part of Saint Charles County which was later to become the southwestern corner of what is now Lincoln County. The entire colony, which included not only James and his children, but the Collards, Stuarts, Hunters and other related families who had accompanied them from Kentucky, took claims in Township Forty-

Nine, Range Two West. The following year they formally entered their land at the government land office, making the journey of more than 150 miles to Palmyra, Missouri, for that purpose, on horseback. Theirs were the first entries made under the jurisdiction of the United States in Lincoln County, The receipts of Isaac and Samuel are dated August 27 and October 13 respectively in the year 1818, (Land Office, Washington, D.C.; Palmyra and

St. Louis, Vol. 6, Page 1457) and Ephraim's, January 15, 1819, (Ibid, Page 1437) while the receipt of Zadock Woods who entered the present site of Troy was not issued until September 14, 1819.

 

Later, however, they became dissatisfied with. the location and following the lead of Ephraim, moved to the northeastern part of the county near Stout's Settlement later to be known as New Hope and soon to become the busy metropolis of eastern Lincoln County, through which passed the bulk of the commerce arriving by boat at Falmouth. James, with his sons, Ephraim, William and John, and his sons-in-law, Rollins Trail, Thomas McCoy, Jacob Stinebaugh and probably John J. Collard, took land in Township Fifty-One,

Range One east, and Samuel in Township Fifty-One Range Two East, while Isaac and Jehu Pyle chose to remain on their original claims. James entered eighty acres, the east half of the southwest quarter of Section Twenty-Two, December 13, 1830, at the rate of $1.25 per acre. His certificate. No. 2755, acknowledges his deposit of $100.00 at that time, and his patent bears the date of April 24, 1833.  (Land Office, Washington, D.C., Special Palmyra, Vol. 6, Page 1.39) He later bought from his son, Ephraim,

                                                                                                          26.

the eighty acres comprising the west half of the same quarter and made the 160 acres his permanent homestead. On this quarter section he lived for more than twenty years, a veteran of prestige and Influence in the community.

 

Another soldier of the Revolution, William Butler, by name, also resided in the New Hope precinct. On election morning the two would be early at the polls, and were invariably accorded the privilege of voting first, a precedence at that time highly esteemed as a mark of honor. Sometimes one voted first and sometimes the other, but always remained at the saloons for a "lection day" carouse, but James after he had voted and exchanged the compliments of the day with the older neighbors present would walk at once to his horse and ride home.

 

The schedules of the Census of 1820 are not available, though the tax lists show he was a resident of Hurricane Township that year, (Lincoln County Atlas ((1879)) page 14) but the Census of 1830 gives the following data, the names being added as before:

 

James Cannon, Lincoln County, Missouri:

Free White Male:            60 to 70 years----1-----James

Free White Female:          Under 5 years----1-----Rebecca McCoy

From 5 to 10------1—---Julia McCoy

Prom 15 to 20——--1—---Jane

Prom 60 to 70—---1-----Rachel

Slaves -- Male:                From 10 to 24-----1-----George

Female:                           From 36 to 55-----1-----Sarah

 

Julia and Rebecca McCoy were his granddaughters whom he had taken on the death of their mother, and Jane was his youngest daughter. Rachel must have died soon after this census as she was not living at the time James made his declaration, February 4, 1833.

 

Notwithstanding his early military service, James Cannon may have enjoyed the advantage of some primitive educational facilities although this is not clear. The only specimen of his penmanship even when he had reached an advanced age was regular and legible, and the diction of the two fragments which have come down to us is good. But the two receipts in the Probate Records at Troy were probably signed by his attorney, and he subscribed to his declaration in 1833 with his mark, so it is possible he could not write.

However, his receipt bearing date of January 14, 1829 and attested by the county clerk, and his will executed June 30, 1836, bear his sign-manual in full.

 

27.

James Cannon is described by those who saw him as being a man of large frame, about six feet two inches tall, spare, erect and smooth shaven. So far as is known, he belonged to no fraternal orders and was a member of no church, but was temperate and of scrupulous integrity. A stranger making inquiry at West Port on one occasion was told, "His word is as good as his oath, and his promise will go as far as his bond".

 

A grandson (Ephraim Cannon, IV-41) described him as the most graceful man he ever saw sit a horse, and characterized him as "a handsome man of strong build and goodly proportions". As the same grandson quite as frankly spoke of his grandmother, Rachel Cannon, as the homeliest woman he ever saw in his life, though a woman of unusual intelligence," he can hardly be charged with bias due to family pride.

 

The love of a Cannon for his horse is proverbial. It seems to have been a family trait inherent in James himself, whose concern for his horses amounted to a passion. The only threat he ever made of whipping a slave (George) was for galloping his horses, a practice to which George was addicted when out of sight and hearing of his master,

 

James owned two Negro slaves at the time of his death, Sarah Brown and her son, George, later called Free George. He traded land left him in his father's will for "Aunt Sallie" who was given to his brother in his father's will. "Aunt Sallie" had been in his possession since his marriage, and nursed the children from Samuel to Jane. She and her son were singularly faithful, and were loved as members of the family. Many stories of their honesty, thrift and quaint humility are handed down through the various branches of the family. There were no banks and currency had to be concealed about the house. A grand-daughter (Susan Dameron Black -IV-149) relates that when a man came to borrow money, lent only in the smallest amounts in that time of meager exchange, James would ask the amount wanted and direct him to

return at a certain time, when the money would be ready having been procured from Aunt Sallie who kept it hidden in a wide mouthed earthen jug. She and George were freed by their master in his will, and after his death lived on a small farm which he had enabled them to buy, now a part of the Lilly Place, and through their thrift accumulated a competence. Free George was born in 1805 and died May 31, 1863. His mother was then taken by Rachel Trail who cared for her until her death, August 7, 1870, at the age of ninety-eight. Both were buried in the Cannon Cemetery on the old Stinebaugh Place where their graves are marked by the most pretentious monuments to be obtained at that time.

 

James Cannon's will probated May 14, 1842, is recorded at page 113 of Book I in the probate office of Lincoln County.

 

28.

THE LAST TESTAMENT OP JAMES CANNON

OF THE COUNTY OF LINCOLN AND THE STATE OF MISSOURI

 

I, James Cannon, considering the uncertainty of this mortal life and being of sound mind and memory, do make and publish this my last will and testament in manner and form following, towit:

 

First, my will and desire is that my two servants, Sarah and George, who are slaves, shall after my decease have their freedom, and that my executor shall cause the necessary papers of emancipation to be made out, properly certified and delivered to each of said slaves as soon as can conveniently

be done.

 

Second, I wish all my personal estate (except the slaves above mentioned) that I may die possessed of, to be appraised and sold according to law, and also I will and ordain that the executor of this my last will and testament shall as soon as convenient sell and convey in fee simple, at public

or private sale, all of my lands that I may die seized and possessed of. And for the doing executing and perfect finishing whereof I do by these presents give to my said executor full power and authority to grant, bargain, sell and convey all of said lands to any person or persons and

their heirs and assigns forever in fee simple, and a conveyance or  conveyances to make execute and deliver for the same agreeably to this my last will and testament. And after all my debts and the expenses of administering my estate are paid, I wish all the proceeds arising from the sale of my personal and real estate to be equally divided among my

children who are now living, as I consider that I gave them in their life time of those deceased, their full share of my estate.

 

And lastly, I hereby appoint my son, Isaac Cannon, sole executor of this my last will and testament, hereby revoking all former wills by me made.

 

In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and fixed my seal the thirtieth day of June in the year of our Lord one Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Six.

 

James Cannon (Seal)

Signed, sealed, published

and declared by the above named

James Cannon to be his last will

and testament in the presence of:

Brice W. Hammack (From Tennessee about 1820, lived near

New Hope, moved to Texas about 1850,

died Tatesville, Texas, 60; Brother

in Missouri, Richard Hammack)

Thomas Buchanan

David Wilson

 

29.

Isaac Cannon, named as administrator in the will, filed a written 22waiver in which, "in consequence of Indisposition" he relinquished his right in favor of his elder brother, Samuel. Notice of administration was given in "The Daily Missouri Republican", later the "Saint Louis Republic", May 20, 1842.  In the same column with the notice appears an advertisement of the Missouri State Lottery for the benefit of the St. Louis Hospital, announcing prizes ranging from $15,000.00 to $5.OO on tickets selling at Five dollars each, and an editorial advocating Henry Clay for the Presidency.

 

In the Inventory and sale bill of the estate on file on the probate office, the following items are indicative of the times:

 

Amount due from the Government of the United States on pension  certificate from the 4th of March, 1842, up to April the 20th, 1842—-$12.50

One shot gun with apparatus--------------------------   6.50

Two noggins------------------------------------------    .37 1/2

One Piggin——---------------------------------    .18 3/4

One jar of brown sugar-------------------------------    .62 1/2

One cotton wheel-------------------------------------   2.12 1/2

Five pewter plates-----------------------------------    .50

Candlestick and salt cellar-------------------------    ,12 1/2

One pair of andirons---------------------------------   1.50

Check reel and part of flax wheel--------------------   1.00

One weaver's loom and gear---------------------------  10.18 3/4

One pair of pot hooks--------------------------------    .26

Pail and two piggins—----------------------------    .67 1/2

One gourd of lard------------------------------------    .37 1/2-

Sheepskin and deer skins-----------------------------   1.68 3/4

Tomahawk---------------------------------------------    .37 1/2

One pair of cotton cards-----------------------------    .27 1/2

One pair of saddle bags------------------------------   1.50

 

30.

Among the expenses of the sale was one dollar to J. Winston Sitton, Justice of the Peace, who acted as crier, and four gallons of whiskey at 37 1/2 per gallon.  This last item was a proper and necessary accompaniment of all public gatherings of the time, including house raisings, log rollings and harvests.  It is interesting to note the prices of the various commodities at this sale held in May, 18142.

 

One lot of corn containing about 70 bushels----------         12 cents per bu.

One lot of corn containing about 10$ bushels---------        18 cents per bu.

One bureau----------------------------------------------     $14.OO

One fancy bedstead------------------------------------       8.37 1/2

Two books---—------------------------------------------     .43 3/4

Two books-----------------------------------------------     .25

Five meal bags------------------------------------------      1.50

One large eight gallon kettle---------------------------       2.12 1/2

One white and spotted cow----------------------------        9.12 1/2

One pied heifer-----------------------------------------      4.OO

One large blue sow--------------------------------------      2.37 1/2

Eight shoats---------------------------------------------      5.25

One two horse Dearborn and harness------------------        50.00

One small wagon-----------------------------------------     55.00

One bay horse-------------------------------------------     66.25

One lot of chickens (about one dozen)----------------         .50

One tract of land containing 160 acres---------------         391.00

* * * * * * * * * * *

 

In accordance with the provisions of the will, the estate was to be divided among the children living at the time of the testator's death.  The following children are named as beneficiaries in the accounts of the administrator;  Samuel Cannon, John Cannon, Lydia Thurman, Isaac Cannon, William Cannon, Elizabeth Pyle, Nancy Stinebaugh, Ephraim Cannon, Rachel Trail, Rebecca Barnett, Margarette Hubbard and Jane Dameron.  At the time of the final settlement, Elizabeth was living in Randolph County, Missouri; Lydia, William,

 

31.

Ephraim, Margarette and the heirs of Rebecca were in the State of Illinois; and the remainder were presumably in Lincoln County. Rebecca Barnett and her husband,. Joseph, were dead, but Ephraim. Cannon received their share as the "lawful guardian of the heirs of Joseph Barnett", probably by general consent.

 

The accounts of his administrator show that James was buried in a "Raised led coffin maid of Cherry" Tree" fashioned by his son-in-law, Jacob Stinebaugh, the cabinet, maker. He was buried beside his wife, whose death preceded his by several years. The two were laid between their daughter, Rachel Trail, and their grandson, Robert Cannon, in the old family burying ground on the Stinebaugh Place and were re interred in the Elsberry Cemetery in December 1941.The original headstone of heavy slate, symmetrically carved, and evidently the work of an experienced engraver, was three inches thick,, twenty inches in width and extended about thirty inches above the ground. In the course of time it became shattered into

numerous fragments and, either through neglect or intentionally with the hope of preserving it, had been buried several inches below the surface, where long decay had reduced it to the consistency of chalk. It was with difficulty deciphered, but the full inscription, with the exception of the days of the month which had become-illegible was:

 

JAMES   CAN-

N0N  WAS  B0

RN  DECEMBER

THE 11, 1762

DIED  APRIL

THE 30, 1842

AGED 79

 

This stone gave place in 1910 to the plain marble slab erected in accordance with the provisions of a general Act of Congress, by the United States, in commemoration of his services in the War of the American Revolution.

 

II-5 William Cannon  Born: unknown

Died: unknown

Father: Samuel Cannon I-1

Wife: unknown

Born: unknown

Died: unknown

 

Children:

24-Samuel Cannon       Born: unknown        Died: unknown

25- Daughter              Born: unknown        Died: unknown

 

 

William emigrated with his family from South Carolina to Tennessee and possibly from Tennessee to Kentucky where he and his

 

32.

son were killed by the Indians, although he may have remained in

Tennessee and the tragedy have taken place there.  The massacre occurred during a period of merciless border warfare.  From April 1, 1780, to the English Treaty of 1783, the Indians were incited by British agents.  From the Treaty of 1783 to the cession of the Northwest Territory in 1790, they were instigated by Spain who, having determined to seize the Mississippi Basin, engaged Alexander McGillivray in 1784 to form an alliance of the Indian tribes for the destruction of the western settlements, especially those of Tennessee and Kentucky.  Following 1790 the Washington government, anxious to complete the navigation treaty with Spain, unwittingly played into their hands.  There followed fourteen years of carnage. Raids upon settlers were of daily occurrence.  Workmen went armed

to the fields and blockhouses of refuge were guarded day and night. From March 9 to September 6 of the year 1794, 67 whites were killed, 10 were wounded and 25 were captured and carried into captivity.  Among the victims were William and Samuel Cannon. They were engaged in clearing land, and while felling a tree were suddenly attacked by a small war party.  The father stood his ground and fought with his ax until killed.  The boy ran and was outdistancing his pursuers when he came to a small stream which was frozen over.  He leaped upon the ice which broke and tripped him and before he could rise they were upon him and dispatched him with their tomahawks.  The Indians then surrounded the log cabin, took prisoners the wife and daughter and son-in-law named Stark, and began the retreat to their village with the captives. It was a long and strenuous march in the dead of winter, and Stark frequently carried his mother-in-law on his back fearing she would

become exhausted and be killed by the savages.  After being held for a time as prisoners, they were finally exchanged and allowed to return to their home.

 

Revision note: This next phrase is entered here exactly as it appears in the original text. There is obviously something missing, but I am not going to attempt to determine what that might be.

 

 (Account had by Isaac Cannon ((III-36)) from

Nothing further is known of them.  Records of the adminlstration(fathe:

of his estate are on file in Package 83, Box 38, Estate 918, in

the Probate Court of Newberry County, South Carolina.

 

Revision Note:

At this point in the original text, the Roman numerals used to identify the generations slipped. Mary, Keziah, Lydia and Elizabeth are second generation,

 the children of Samuel and siblings of James. In the original text, they are identified with a Roman numeral III indicating they are of the third generation. The typing error has been corrected in this text.

 

II-6 Mary Cannon

Father: Samuel Cannon I-1

 

II-7 Keziah Cannon

Father: Samuel Cannon I-1

 

33.

II-8 Lydia Cannon

Father: Samuel Cannon I-1

 

II-9 Elizabeth Cannon

Father: Samuel Cannon I-1

 

Third Generation

 

III-10 Samuel Cannon Born: Oct 2, 1786

Died: Dec 8, 1857

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married Jul 28, 1810 Kentucky State Historical Society Register, Vol.  24 (1926) Page 243

Wife: Temperance Stewart

Born: Mar 15, 1793

Died: Sept 6, 1855

Children:

26-Mary Cannon                Born: Aug. 23, 1811        Died: May 15, 1829

27-Bluford Cannon             Born: Dec. 19, 1813        Died: Sep. 6, 1871

28-James Stuart Cannon     Born: April 25, 1816      Died: Sep. 7, 1898

29-Jane Cannon                 Born: Dec. 31, 1817        Died: Jun. 24, 1875

30-John Cannon                 Born: Nov. 29, 1819       Died: May   6, 1888

31-Robert Cannon               Born: Jan. 5, 1822         Died: Jul. 24, 1844

32-Elizabeth Cannon          Born: Nov. 4, 1824        Died: Aug. 23, 1870

33-Samuel Perry Cannon     Born: Jan. 13, 1827       Died: Jun. 5, 1900

34-Lydia Cannon                Born: Feb. 13, 1829       Died: Jan. 15, 1911

35-William Coates Cannon   Born: Jan. 9, 1831         Died: Apr. 19, 1888

36-Isaac Newton Cannon    Born: Aug. 26, 1833       Died: Apr. 9, 1910

37-Rachel Cannon               Born: May 23, 1836       Died: Sep. 5, 1855

2^nd Wife: Hannah Allen

Married: Jun. 17. 1856

Born: Aug. 18, 1816

Died: Oct. 22, 1864

Samuel Cannon was born in South Carolina, reared in Tennessee, married in Christian County, Kentucky, and passed the major portion of his life in Missouri. The Census of 1850 gives North Carolina as the state of his birth, but this is undoubtedly an error on the part of the enumerator, although it is possible that his father sojourned in North Carolina while migrating South.

 

His schedule appears for the first time in the Third Census which was completed in his county in November of 1810;

 

Samuel Cannon, Christian County, Kentucky:

 

Free White Male:      From 16 to 26 Years -- I—Samuel

Free White Female:    Prom 16 to 26 Years -- I—Temperance

 

In 1817 he came with his father to Missouri and settled west of the present town of Hawk Point on land adjoining that, of his

 

34.

 

brother, Isaac. The two farms bordered on the stream known as "Turkey Creek," and were in Section Twenty-nine of Township Forty- nine Two West. Samuel entered the south-west quarter at the land office in Palmyra, October 13, 1819, and the northwest quarter, December 9 of the same year, and the patent was issued September 20, 1891. The earliest tax list available catalogues him as a resident of Bedford Township in 1820.  (Atlas of Lincoln County, (1879), Page 11)

 

Later, again following his father, he abandoned this land at a date not definitely determined and August 12, 1827 entered Lot No. 2 of the southwest quarter of Section Thirty, Township Fifty- One, Range Two East. To this he added Lot No. 1, of the same quarter on February 15, 1831, making a total of 221.36 acres. (Land Office, Washington, D.C., Special Record, Palmyra, Missouri, Vol.1) Here he was living at the time of the Census of 1830. The names are added from the family register;

 

Samuel Cannon, Lincoln County, Missouri;

Free White Male; Under 5 years———1—-—Samuel

From 5 to 10-—--—2——-John and Robert

From 10 to 15--——1—-—James

From 15 to 20———1———Bluford

From 40 to 50-—---1-----Samuel

Free White Female; Under 5 years———3———Elizabeth, Lydia and Margaret Stubblefleld

From 10 to 15--——1-——Jane

From 30 to 40—--—1-—--Temperance

 

Margaret Hubbard Stubblefield was his grand-daughter whom he had taken after the death of her mother, Mary.

 

Two decades later the Census of 1850 reported him as a farmer, born in North Carolina, with $1840 worth of taxable property, and a family consisting of himself and wife and five children, Samuel, Lydia, William, Isaac and Rachel.

 

In 1851 he traded this farm to Thompson Cox for another in the Pierre Chouteau Grant just north of the present town of Elsberry, where he spent the remainder of his life.

 

In 1837 he was elected a member of the first board of education of what is now the Elsberry Public School. (History of Lincoln County (1888) Page 462) At that time the district comprised all of Townships Fifty-one, of Ranges Two and Three East, and the building erected at the time was a log structure and located on the southern bank of Lost Creek on the land of Raleigh Mayes, who was also a member of the Board.

 

Samuel Cannon is described as a man of heavy build, below medium height and of erect carriage. In physique he much resembled his father though of shorter stature, and like him wore no beard,

 

35.

On one occasion when he and his sons were being weighed, John, the heaviest of the boys tipped the beam at 180 pounds. His father then stepped on the scales and weighed 185 pounds, whereupon John jocularly asked, "What have you got in your hunting shirt. Pa?", and his father replied, "A big fat man."

 

Samuel inherited his father's political preferences and his mother's religious convictions. He was a lifelong Democrat, and was a member of the old Union Baptist Church before the division between the Primitive and Missionary branches of the denomination.

 

He was buried in the old family cemetery between his wife, Temperance, and his son, Robert, and re-interred in the Elsberry Cemetery, December 30, 1941.

 

Temperance Stewart, daughter of Grosvenor Stewart and Jane Fields was born in the State of Georgia. Her father later moved to Christian County, Kentucky, where his family consisted of one son and nine daughters in 1810 (Third Census, Christian County, Kentucky), of whom Temperance was probably the eldest. Her only brother, Robert Stewart, was a member of the party of Kentuckians which accompanied James Cannon to Missouri in 1817. He settled with them in the southwestern border of the county but later moved across the eastern side and at one time owned the present site of the Town of Winfleld. He reared a large family there and was killed by a rolling log while engaged in erecting a mill. Two of Temperance's sisters married brothers by the name of Brewer. The son of one of these was an officer in the Confederate Army. While on a visit home he was surprised and captured by the Federal troops, and was court-martialed and sentenced to be shot. He protested and showed his papers commissioning him as an officer, but without avail. A squad was detailed and he was marched out and shot the next morning at sunrise. His father, Joseph Brewer, on learning of the young man's death procured a revolver and secured admittance to the tent of the commander who had ordered the execution and shot him down. In the excitement which followed, he succeeded in escaping and was never apprehended. The Union commander, though severely wounded, recovered.

 

Temperance Stuart, DAUGHTER OF GROSVENOR STUART (born in 1756 in Berke County Pennsylvania or in Virginia in route to North Carolina; married Jane Fields at Wrightsboro, Columbia County, Georgia, May 3, 1788; died in Christian County, Kentucky, December 2, 1831) — GRAND- DAUGHTER of ROBERT STUART (born in Kennett Square, Chester County, Pennsylvania, November 25, 1710; married in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1732 to Martha Richardson, born March 23, 1717, in Cheshire County, England; died in Wilkes County, Georgia, in 1793 – daughter of Isaac Richardson and Katherine Gandy, born on Gandy Estate, called seven Oaks in Cheshire, England, Chester County, Pennsylvania, Monthly Meeting Records of Quaker Church, page 128 — died in Wilkes County, Georgia, in 1783) -- GREAT GRAND DAUGHTER of ALEXANDER STEWART (born in Glasgow, Scotland, about 1680-1685; emigrated to America 1697, settled at Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, Gilbert Cope's Genealogy of Bailey Family of

 

36.

Bromham, Wilkshire, England, — married in Chester County, Pennsylvania, to Mary Baily, born September 10, 1688, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, died in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1741 — daughter of Joel Baily and Ann Short -- about 1707-1708;) (died in Chester County, Pennsylvania, November 5, 1714.

 

The family name is spelled "Stuart" in the Quaker Church records of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Stuart and Allied Families, Page 23), in the 1810 Census returns from Christian County, Kentucky (Vol. 2, Page 472) and in the Probate Court land records of  Lincoln County, Missouri. The name is spelled "Stewart" in the probate Records of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Vol. I, Pages 5,115,198); in the 1820 Census returns from Christian County,

Kentucky, (Kentucky State Historical Society Register, Vol. 24 Page 243) and in the Roster of the Revolutionary Soldiers in Georgia (Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers in Georgia, Page 205). The name is spelled "Steward" in the apprentice court proceedings of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Stuart and Allied Families, Page 14).

 

The name "Grosvenor" is spelled "Grovenor" in the Stuart Genealogy; is spelled "Gravener" in the 1810 Kentucky census; and is spelled Graviner" in the 1820 Kentucky census.

 

Grosvenor Stewart served in the Revolutionary War, (Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers in Georgia, by Mrs. Howard H. McCall, Page 205; Georgia and Georgia's People by G. G. Smith, Page 638; History of Rockingham County, Va. by John W. Wayland, Page 450; History of Christian County, Kentucky, by William Werrin, Page 348; Stuarts of Cane Creek, North Carolina, by Hinshaw, Page 105; D.A.R. Records No. 336347) received a bounty grant of 287 1/2 acres of land in Washington County (now Greene County) Georgia,- and a grant of 400 acres in Wilkes County, Georgia, from the State of Georgia, December 9, 1784, for his services as a Revolutionary

soldier. (Stuart Clan Magazine, Vol. 12, Page 71; Vol. 15, Page 75; Tax Digest of Wilkes County, Georgia, Vol. 1, Pages 312, 327; Vol. 2, Page 62; Meachem's History of Christian County, Kentucky, Page 90; Will Records of Christian County, Kentucky, Book G, Page 13. He may have been a relative of General Daniel Stewart, the maternal great grandfather of President Theodore

Roosevelt and the great great grandfather of Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers in Georgia, Page 159) as General Stewart is recorded as moving to Georgia from South Carolina, and the Grosvenor Stewart family moved to Georgia from Bush River near Newberry, South Carolina.

 

"Much effort has been expended in vain to trace Alexander's family in Scotland. He was a boy when he came to Pennsylvania about 1692, and aside from the fact that his ship passage had not been paid in advance, there seems to be no means of ascertaining where he came from. In his will he gave some of his clothing to John Stewart, who was probably a brother," (George Edson, Stewart Society of America, April 19, 1948)

 

37.

Temperance is buried in the old cemetery in the same grave with her daughter, Rachel, who died on the same day and of the same contagion. Re-interred in Elsberry Cemetery; Elsberry, Missouri, December 30, 1941.

 

Hannah Allen was the daughter of Benjamin Allen and Sarah Woods, and was a spinster at the time of her marriage to Samuel Cannon. She was the second time married to James C. Mussan, September 21, 1858, (Marriage Records of Lincoln County, Missouri, Vol. 3, Page 38) with whom she lived but a short time. She died in Lincoln County and was buried in the old Alien Cemetery on the bluff immediately southwest of the Village of Apex. The will of Samuel Cannon was probated at Troy, Missouri, in 1857.

 

WILL OF SAMUEL CANNON

 

"Know all men by these presents, that I, Samuel Cannon, of the County of Lincoln and State of Missouri, of sound mind and memory knowing the certainty and uncertainty of life, and being desirous of disposing of the effects of which I am in possession according to my will and desire,

do make, publish and declare this my last will and testament.

 

First, I will that all of my just debts be paid out of any of my personal property that my executor may deem most fit and proper.

 

Second, I will that my wife, Hannah Cannon, retain and be in possession of all my real estate during her natural life, and in lieu of dower in my personal property or perishable estate, she have and retain an amount equal to

two hundred and twenty dollars worth.

 

Third, I will to my daughter, Lydia Cannon, such articles and property as I gave Jane and Elizabeth, my two daughters that are married, to be paid her whenever circumstances require it.

 

Fourth, I will that my three daughters, Jane Sitton, Elizabeth Wells, and Lydia Cannon, receive forty dollars each more than I have given them heretofore. This I think will make all my children equal in the amount I have given them up to this time. After my three daughters are paid the

above amount out of my personal property, the remainder, if any, I desire shall be equally divided between my children.

 

Fifth, After my death, and after the death of my wife, Hannah Cannon, I will to my daughter, Lydia Cannon, and to the heirs of her body (if she ever have any) the tract of land on which I now reside. In the event she should die

 

 

38.

childless, then my said executor shall sell said land and divide the sale money equally between all my children.

 

Sixth, I hereby appoint John Cannon my executor to carry into effect the provisions of this will, waiving all forms of law, and empowering my said executor to sell any of my personal property either at public or private sale as he may think best, collect debts, make deeds, sue and defend, and make and give acquitance, and in fact, to do any and everything relative to my said estate that I might or could do were I present and living, hereby confirming and satisfying whatsoever my said executor may do by virtue of this will, and should anything prevent John Cannon from acting, then Samuel Cannon, Isaac Cannon, William, James or Bluford Cannon is appointed in his stead, so that any one of my sons above named is appointed my executor should anything prevent John Cannon from Acting I give and grant all power to which ever

of my sons may act that I have given to the first named executor.

 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this 25th day of October, A.D. 1857.

 

Signed, Sealed and delivered in the presence of

 

SAMUEL CANNON (Seal)

J. Winston Sitton,

William A. Zumwalt

 

This will is of particular interest in that it became the subject of litigation which was carried to the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri 1-n the case of Cannon Vs. Unknown Heirs of Henry B. Curtis, et al, and adjudicated in a decision by the Missouri Appeal Reports handed down June 3, 1913 (Missouri Appeal Reports, Vol. 175, Page 64)

 

III-11 John Cannon Born: Mar 16, 1790

Died: Jun 13, 1871

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married: Jane Knox Jan 27, 1813 (Kentucky State Historical Soc. Register, Vol. 24 (1926) Page 24)

Born: Mar. 16, 1794

Died: Sep 10, 1883

Children

38-Nancy Cannon             Born: Mar 20, 1814     Died: Nov. 4, 1900

39-Mary Cannon              Born: Nov. 12, 1816     Died: 0ct. 17, 1891

40-Rachel Cannon            Born: Jan. 22, 1819     Died: Dec. 13, 1886

41-Ephraim Cannon           Born: Mar 27, 1821     Died: Aug. 19, 1900

42-Jane Cannon               Born: Sep. 24, 1823    Died: unknown

43-Henry Clay Cannon      Born: Apr 17, 1826     Died: Mar. 20, 1849

44-James Knox Cannon     Born: Dec. 28, 1828    Died: Aug. 26, 1903

45-Elizabeth Cannon        Born: Mar 11, 1832      Died: 1916

46-John William Cannon   Born: Sep 16, 1834      Died: Dec. 16, 1836

47-Rebecca Cannon          Born: Jul, 4 1837        Died: unknown

 

 

38.1/2

John Cannon was born in Robertson County, Tennessee. Before he reached  the age of ten his father moved to Christian County, Kentucky and there John married in 1813. Four years later he came with his father to Missouri  and with the others took up land on Turkey Greek. He was enrolled as a resident of Bedford Township in 1820 on the first Lincoln County Tax list. Like his father and his brother, William, he failed to enter his land, and seems to have followed the same plan of delay when the family later moved to Hurricane Township. His first entry was recorded nearly twenty-five years after he reached Missouri when he entered the north fractional half of Section Thirty-Two in Township Fifty-One, Range One East, November 21, 1841.

 

John early departed from the political faith of his father, and was the only Whig in the family. It is said that when he visited or was visited by his brother, Isaac, they would indulge in heated but good natured political arguments lasting far into the night. Like all the old stock of Cannons, he was very fond of his horses and took much pride in their welfare and comfort. Nicholas Dameron, his brother-in-law told of meeting him on the road on a sultry day, walking up a hill leading his riding horse while he fanned her with his hat. John was a Baptist and was one of the constituent members of Mill Creek Baptist Church. (History of Salt River Baptist Association by Patrick; History of Lincoln county ((1888))  Page 476) He was a favorite in the family and was especially venerated by the younger generations. He is buried beside his wife, Jane, in the family cemetery on his home farm.

 

Jane Knox, daughter of James Knox. was born in South Carolina. (Census of 1850, Lincoln County, Missouri) Her father was born in one of the Atlantic coast states three weeks after his parents landed in America from Ireland. He lived for a time in the states of Tennessee and Kentucky, in the latter of which Jane was married, and came to Missouri in 1827, living with his daughter until his death in 1846. He was a Baptist and a Mason. Jane was reared in the state of Tennessee where her father lived in her early youth, and moved with him to Christian County, Kentucky, where she was married to John, whom she survived, living to the advanced age of 89. (History of Lincoln County ((1888)) Page 515) (Married In Christian County, Kentucky. Recorded in county records as Jenny". Vol. 24, (1926) Page 243.

 

III-12 Lydia Cannon Born: Nov 4, 1791

Died: Sept 12, 1869

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married: John Collard May 21, 1806

Born: Apr. 22, 1784

Died: Jun. 18, 1818

 

Children

48-Rachel Collard            Born: Unknown       Died: Unknown

49-Isaphena Collard        Born: about 1815    Died: Unknown

50-John James Collard    Born: Sep. 7, 1817  Died: Mar. 22, 1874

51-Felix Oliver Collard    Born: Jul. 20, 181O          Died: Aug. 7, 1864

 

39

Married: Isaac L. Thurman (second husband)

Born: about 1794

Died: before 1842

Children

52-Elijah Thurman           Born: about 1823   Died: unknown

53-Mary L. Thurman        Born: about 1825   Died: Unknown

54-Kezia Thurman            Born: about 1827   Died: Unknown

55-Granville Thurman      Born: Unknown       Died: Unknown

56-Ephraim Thurman        Born: about 1831    Died: unknown

57-Edward Thurman         Born: Unknown       Died: Unknown

58-George Thurman         Born: about 1835   Died: Unknown

 

Married: J. Sinclair (third husband)

 

Lydia Cannon, the eldest daughter of John Cannon and Jane Knox, was born in the State of Tennessee, The family moved to Christian County, Kentucky, while she was yet a child and there she grew to womanhood and was married

to John Collard. (Kentucky State Historical Society, Vol. 24, ((1926)) Page 245) Beyond this very little is known of her history and even the number and names of her children are dubious. She and her husband were no doubt included in the migrant train which followed James Cannon to Missouri in 1817, and settled on Turkey Creek. The James Collard who entered a part of Section 20, in Township 49, One West, February 3, 1819, was the brother of

her first husband, John Collard.

 

The first definite information we have is that her second husband, Isaac L. Thurman, was living in 1842 at the time of the distribution of her father's estate.  The census of 1850 reports her as living in Pike County, Illinois, with this husband and the two children, Ephraim and George. "Aunt Lyd" is well remembered by her niece, Jane Parker, who characterizes her as a charming

and comely woman even in her old age.  She is buried in Pike County, Illinois, near the town of Nebo.

 

John Collard, son of Joseph Collard and (unknown) Kennedy was born in Kentucky. His sister was the mother of John M, Hunter who came to Missouri with the Kentucky colony in 1817; another sister was married to Isaac Cannon, his brother-in-law.  Victor W. Jones, his great grandson says his brother married Mary Null. He also had a brother, James. He was killed by a runaway horse, about 1820, and his burial place, though somewhere in Lincoln County, has long since been forgotten.

 

Isaac L, Thurman was born in the State of Kentucky and was 56 years of age at the Census of 1850. His death occurred within the next few years during a cholera epidemic. He is buried beside Lydia in Pike County, Illinois.

 

J. Sinclair was a widower at the time of his marriage to Lydia. He had several grown children, one of whom married the oldest of the Thurman sons. He had been a resident of Missouri

                                                                                                          40

 and moved to Illinois late in life where he was married to Lydia sometime in the fifties.  He died prior to 1869 and is probably buried in Pike County, Illinois.

 

III-13 Isaac Cannon Born: Nov 4, 1793

Died: May 3, 1862

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married: Mary Collard Feb. 6, 1817

Born: Dec. 14, 1799

Nov. 27, 1872 (Marriage listed in "Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Vol. 24 ((1926)) Page 243, as February 4, 1817)

Children

59-James Lee Cannon            Born: Dec 19, 1817      Died: Jan   5, 1887

60-John Collard Cannon        Born: Mar   6, 1820    Died: Jul 17, 1884

61-Margaret Cannon             Born: Apr 24, 1822     Died: Jun 23, 1841

62-Seymour Davis Cannon     Born: Jul 24, 1824      Died: Apr 12, 1895

63-Lewis Williams Cannon     Born: Nov   2, 1826     Died: Aug   8, 1906

64-Kezia Cannon                   Born: Jan 19, 1829      Died: Feb 16, 1843

65-Rachel Cannon                 Born: Jun 28, 1831      Died: Sep 20, 1859

66-Mary Cannon                   Born: Oct 20, 1833     Died: Apr  7, 1908

67-David Hubbard Cannon    Born: Jan 16, 1836      Died: Oct   6, 1697

68-Esther Ann Cannon           Born: Jun 27, 1838     Died: Mar 10, 1895

69-Isaac Watts Cannon         Born: Aug   9, 1840     Died: Jun 10, 1890

 

Isaac Cannon was born in Robertson County, Tennessee, and moved to Christian County, Kentucky, with his father James in 1797 or 1798. In 1816 he enlisted in the Indian War and his company started for the Northwest, but the war closed and the company disbanded before reaching the scene of action. Isaac then crossed the Mississippi River near Saint Louis and traveled north on a prospecting tour through the eastern part of Missouri, at that time an unbroken wilderness. He decided to locate on a branch of

Cuivre river which, because of the abundance of wild turkey found there, he named Turkey Creek near Muddy Fork in the northwestern part of Saint Charles County, and returned to Kentucky for his bride. They were married February 6, 1817, and made their wedding trip to Missouri with the Kentucky colony. (Biographical Record of St. Charles, Warren and Lincoln Counties, Page 566) Pushing up an inviting branch of Cuivre River, he came to a great spring. Above it the land spread out into an inviting little valley of two or  three acres. Here on a small knoll on the margin of the "bottom", sheltered to the east and north by sloping limestone hills, he built his pioneer home. Isaac entered his land under Certificate No. 81 at the land office at Palmyra, as the South half of Section 29, Township 49, Range 2 West, August 27, 1818, and his patent was issued under date of August 10, 1824. (Land Office, Palmyra and St. Louis, Vol. 6, Page 1457) When the remainder of the family emigrated to the eastern side of the county, he chose to

 

                                                                                                          41

remain on Turkey Creek and spent the remainder of his life in the home he had first chosen from the primeval forests. He was a member of the first grand jury impaneled in Lincoln County. The  jury was convened at Wood's Fort, Monday, April 5, 1819, "at the house of Zadock Woods". He was also a member of the first petit jury summoned for the December Term in 1819.  (Records of Lincoln County, Book A, Page 6) On August 6, 1638, he was commissioned Justice of the Peace, an office at that time held in great esteem, and was one of the three judges appointed to preside in the election to establish Prairie Township, held August 17, 1848.  (History of Lincoln County ((1888)) Page 282) The Census of 1850 reports him as a farmer aged 57 and possessed of taxable property assessed at $2,000. By this time he seems to have become a prominent man in the county and a leader in his community. Mr. Albert Holmes, whose father, Olin Holmes, settled near Isaac speaks of him as a good man whose advice was sought and valued. When Albert considered making the trip to California in '49, he went to talk

it over with "Uncle" Isaac and recalls that among other things the "Judge" told him was, "You are a young man; always keep your own counsel".

 

Isaac was a man of strong character, independent and aggressive. While he was essentially a man of action, he was well tutored for the crude age in which he lived. He was the best scribe of his family, and his signatures have the clearness and grace of a copy. He was the last man in Lincoln County who wore a hunting shirt, retaining his favorite garment until his death, long after it had been generally discarded by the community in general. The hunting shirt came down over the outside of the pioneer "Breeches" and was

fringed at the bottom. It was originally made of buckskin but in later days sometimes of "homespun",

 

He was a staunch Democrat, but deplored the secession of the states in 1861. While he refused to vote the Republican ticket, he broke with his family on the question, all of whom, including John the Whig, were southern sympathizers, and threw the weight of his influence for Thomas Hart Benton in the latter's disastrous campaign of 1849. He owned a slave, a son of  Sarah, who belonged to his father, James, but freed him before the opening of the Civil War. Several of his sons entered the Union Army and at the close of the war affiliated with the Republican party, and most of his descendants have supported that party. Isaac was a Baptist and a member of old Cuivre Creek Church, now extinct. He is buried in a family cemetery which he had established on the hill above his home on his farm now northwest of the town of Hawk Point and with him sleep a company of his descendants.

 

Mary Collard, daughter of Joseph Collard and (unknown) Kennedy, was born and reared in Kentucky. She was known in the family as Polly, a nickname which she transmitted to several generations of Marys who were named for her. Her brother, John James Collard, married Lydia Cannon, her sister-in-law, and. a sister married a Hunter whose son, John M. Hunter, accompanied them from Kentucky

 

                                                                                                          42

 and was identified with the Cannon Family in many ways. She is buried  beside her husband whom she survived by several years.

 

 

  III-14 William Cannon Born: Sept 12, 1795

Died: Mar 7, 1861

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married: Nancy Byars  Mar. 15, 1814)

Born: 1796

Died: Jan. 27 1869

 

Children

70-Cornelius Cannon             Born: Dec. 14, 1814     Died: Aug. 25, 1894

71-Elizabeth Cannon             Born: Unknown            Died: 1839

72-David Cannon                  Born: Mar. 23, 1819    Died: Apr. 24, 1900

73-Alvin Byars Cannon          Born: 1822                 Died: Dec. 13. 1850

74-Sarah Cannon                  Born: Feb, 15, 1824     Died: 1865

75-William Duncan Cannon    Born: Oct. 20, 1825    Died: Nov. 11, 1900

76-Nancy Polly Cannon          Born: Aug. 24, 1827    Died: Mar. 6, 1900

77-Gideon Cannon                 Born: Feb. 6, 1830      Died: Mar. 1, 1893

78-Rachel Stark Cannon        Born: Dec. 9, 1831       Died: Unknown

79-James Stripling Cannon    Born: Nov. 2, 1834      Died: Unknown

80-Ephraim Lee Cannon         Born: Nov. 3, 1836      Died: Feb. 9, 1875

81-Louisa Marion Cannon       Born: Mar. 8, 1839      Died: Aug. 23, 1908

 

William Cannon was born in Robertson County, Tennessee. When he was about two years old his father moved to Christian County Kentucky, where he was reared and where he was married. (Kentucky State Historical Society Reg., Vol. 24 ((1926)) Page 243) He immigrated to Missouri with his father in 1817, and settled on Turkey Creek, originally a part of Bedford Township in 1820.  (History of Lincoln County ((1888)). Page 240 When his father and brothers moved to the eastern side of the county, he accompanied them and

entered the east half of the southeast quarter of Section 28, Township 51 Range One East, May 26, 1829, receiving his patent October 1 of the same year. He entered the other half of the quarter, December 9, 1830, increasing his holdings to 160 acres. In 1833 he immigrated to the State of Alabama and remained there until 1839 when he returned and settled in the State of Illinois near Nebo where he passed the remainder of his life. No explanation can be made of his solitary emigration south, but he was probably induced to settle in Illinois rather than Missouri on his return by the fact that his brother, Ephraim, had located in that state near Pittsfield during his absence and was well pleased with the country.

 

William is said to have been a Democrat, although this is disputed by some who think he at time? voted the Whig ticket. He was a member of the Primitive Baptist Church. William Cannon is buried in a location chosen by himself on his farm about two miles south of Nebo, Pike County, Illinois, now known as the Guthrie Cemetery.

 

Revision note:

A chronology of the life of William Cannon

William Cannon  - September 12, 1795  --  March 7, 1861

Date  age

1795 -  0     Born September 12, 1795 in Spring Creek, Robertson County, Tennessee

1797 -  2     Moved with his father to Christian County, Kentucky near the town of Hopkinsville

1814 - 19      Married Nancy Byars in Christian County, Kentucky March 15, 1814

1814 - 20     Son Cornelius born December 14, 1814 in Christian County, Kentucky

1816 - 21      Daughter Elizabeth born (unknown day) in Christian County, Kentucky

1817 - 22     Moved with his father to Missouri

1819 - 24     Son David born March 23, 1819 in Hawk Point, Lincoln County, Missouri

1820 - 25    Settled on Turkey Creek, which was originally part of Bedford township

1822 - 27    Son Alvin Byars born (unknown day) in Hawk Point, Lincoln County, Missouri

1824 - 29    Daughter Sarah Lydia born February 15, 1824 in Hawk Point, Lincoln County, Missouri

1825 - 30    Son William Duncan born October 20, 1825 in Hawk Point, Lincoln County, Missouri

1827 - 32    Daughter Nancy Polly born August 24, 1827 in Hawk Point, Lincoln County, Missouri

1829 - 34    Moved across the county to the eastern part of Lincoln County, Missouri May 26, 1829

1829 - 34    Received land patent October 1, 1829 for the first half of a quarter section in Lincoln County, Missouri

1830 - 35    Son Gideon born February 6, 1830 in New Hope, Lincoln County, Missouri

1830 - 35    Received patent for the other half of the quarter section he already had in Lincoln County, Missouri

1831 - 36     Applied for land patents in Autauga and Lowndes Counties in Alabama August 1, 1831.

1831 - 36     Daughter Rachel Stark born September 9, 1831 in New Hope, Lincoln County, Missouri

1833 - 38    Immigrated to Alabama

1834 - 39    Daughter Jane Stripling born in Alabama

1836 - 41     Father-in-law Stripling Byars died in Jefferson County, Alabama aged about 68

1836 - 41     Son Ephraim Lee born November 3, 1836 in Alabama

1839 - 44    Daughter Louisa Marion born March 8, 1839 in Benton, Lowndes County, Alabama

1839 - 44    Immigrated to Pike County, Illinois

1861 - 66     Died March 7, 1861 Pike County, Illinois

 

It seems a logical assumption that William moved the family to Alabama are the request of his Wife Nancy who was needed to help care for her father Stripling Byars who was apparently ill by the time William and Nancy moved to Alabama since Stripling Byars died three years after William and Nancy moved. Fairly soon thereafter, William and Nancy returned to the territory where the rest of William’s family had settled in Missouri and Illinois.

 

Nancy Byars was born in the State of North Carolina. (Census of 1850, Pike County, Illinois) She was a member of the Baptist

 

                                                                                                          43

church with her husband, and after his death, resided in Logan County, Illinois, with her son, Gideon, near whose home she is buried. Her marriage was witnessed by Stripling Byars according to the Christian County records -- (evidently her father or her brother) -- who also witnessed the marriage of Sarah Byars, evidently a sister, to Cader Cooper, December 24, 1816.  (Kentucky State Historical Soc. Reg., Vol. 24, Page 247)

 

Revision note:

 

Nancy Byars was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina about 1796, died in Logan County, Illinois January 27, 1869.

 

III-15 Elizabeth Cannon Born: about 1798

Died: 1839

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married: Jehugh Pyle Nov. 8, 1812

(Kentucky State Historical Soc.

 Reg., Vol. 25 ((1927)) Page 84)

Born: 1854

Died: 1858?

 

Children

82-Cynthia Pyle                    Born: unknown             Died: about 1845

83-Mary Pyle                       Born: unknown             Died: unknown

84-Susan Pyle                      Born: 1822                 Died: 1878

85-Rachel Pyle                     Born: Dec 29, 1824     Died: Oct 30, 190_

86-Lucinda Jane Pyle            Born: Aug 26, 1827     Died: Jan 10, 189_

87-Lawson Pyle                     Born: unknown             Died: unknown

88-Margaret Elizabeth Pyle  Born: Jul 15, 1832      Died: Mar 8, 1884

89-Jeru Pyle                        Born: 1834                 Died: Aug 29, 1884

90-Surrilda Pyle                  Born: 1835                 Died: Oct 6, 1877

 

Elizabeth Cannon was born in Christian County, Kentucky, shortly after her father had moved there from the State of Tennessee and was married there. She immigrated to Missouri in 1817, and her husband made the second entry of the county at the land office at Palmyra, Missouri. His certificate registers land in Section 38 of Township 49, Range 2 West, and is dated September 21, 1818. When the Cannon family moved to the eastern side of the county he decided with Isaac to remain on his original entry. Sometime

later, however, Jehugh moved his family to Randolph County, Missouri, where some of his descendants still reside. As Samuel Cannon, the administrator of his father's estate, reported one of the heirs to be living in that county at the time of his final settlement, it is to be presumed that he moved prior to 1842. Little Information is to be had relating to Elizabeth as her family dispersed and all the children died without leaving family records. She is buried in the Sugar Creek Cemetery in Randolph County, Missouri.

 

Jehugh Pyle was probably born in the State of Virginia. At least it is recorded that he came West with his father's family from that State at an early date to Kentucky. Nothing is known of his political or religious affiliations. He survived his wife and is buried in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois.

44

 

III-16 Nancy Cannon Born: Apr 29, 1800

Died: Sept 15, 1875

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married: Jacob Stinebaugh Nov. 12, 1816 (Kentucky State Historical Soc. Register, Vol. 25 ((1927)) Page 164)

Born: Nov. 28, 1796

Died: Feb 4, 1882

 

Children

91-Polly Stinebaugh                   Born: May 11, 1820   Died: Unknown

92-Adam Stinebaugh                 Born: Nov. 1, 1821     Died: May 15, 1895

93-Elizabeth Stinebaugh           Born: Oct.18, 1823   Died: Unknown

94-Granville Stinebaugh            Born: Jun. 8, 1825    Died: Oct. 23, 1907

95 -Margaret Stinebaugh          Born: Apr.19, 1827   Died: Unknown

96-Jane Stinebaugh                  Born: Jul. 1, 1829     Died: Unknown

97-James Cannon Stinebaugh     Born: Aug. 12, 1831   Died: unknown

98-William Stinebaugh              Born: Jun. 6, 1833    Died: Jan. 16, 1908

99-Samuel Stinebaugh               Born: 0ct.13, 1835    Died: unknown

100-Rachel Stinebaugh              Born: Jan.19, 1838    Died: unknown

101-John Sylvester Stinebaugh  Born: Dec. 7, 1840    Died: unknown

102-Susannah Stinebaugh           Born: Oct. 1, 1842    Died: unknown

 

Nancy Cannon was born in Christian County, Kentucky, and married there. They came west with the family in 1817, and settled on Turkey Creek. Later she and her husband moved to the eastern side of the county with the other members of the family sometime in the twenties.

 

Jacob Stinebaugh was born in the State of Pennsylvania and came to Kentucky before he attained his majority and was one of the earliest settlers in Christian County. (Charles Mayfield Meacham's History of Christian County, Kentucky, Page 25) He is said to have been of Netherlands descent, and retained the dialect of his fathers. It is related that when he came to ask Nancy's father for his consent to the marriage, James Cannon

said, "Well, Jacob, I have never liked a Dutchman, but you are a pretty good sort of a Dutchman, Jacob, so I reckon it will be all right." Notwithstanding this jocular criticism, Jacob was popular with all members of the family, and had their affection and confidence. His name appears on the bond of Samuel Cannon as administrator of his father's estate; on the bond of Samuel Cannon as administrator of the estate of his brother-in-law, Thomas McCoy, and as witness of the will of several members of the family. He evidently possessed the education of his times and his signature and receipts are well written. He was a man of means and a financial factor in his community. He owned and operated a grist mill, driven alternately by water and horse

power, a smithy, and a turner's shop, besides e large and prosperous farm and his place was one of the busy commercial centers of the neighborhood. In his shops he manufactured all the spinning wheels and looms, and much of the furniture used in the section, and in some families his chairs, tables and quaint old fashioned dressers are still treasured as family relics. He owned the farm on which the Cannon Cemetery was established and in which James and Rachel Cannon are buried. The land lies in Survey 1743, Township 51, Range 1 East, and was purchased by

 

                                                                                                          45

him from Henry Chouteau to whom it had been granted by United States Patent and French Grant. When he left Lincoln County, Missouri, he sold the farm to Cyrus Thompson by whom the cemetery was deeded to Rachel Trail and relatives in 1860. (Book P, Page 525 Deed Records of Lincoln County, Missouri)

 

Jacob was a Democrat but took little active interest in political affairs. He and Nancy were both devout Baptists and the Stinebaugh home was a favorite lodging place for the itinerant preachers of the day who, in the absence of a church, were accustomed to hold their religious services at the Stinebaugh house.

 

About 1850. Jacob with his family emigrated to Dallas County Missouri, but were scattered by the Civil War, their homes being burned and the country devastated by historic Order No. 11. They and two of their children, Susan and John, returned to Lincoln County about 1862 and in 1866 or 1867 followed Granville who had moved to the State of Texas in 1861. Two of the sons settled in Arkansas and the remainder emigrated to Nevada, Collins County, Texas, where Jacob and his wife lived to a ripe old age-and near which they are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

 

 III-17 Ephraim Cannon Born: Dec 16, 1801

Died: Apr 11, 1867

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married: Dorothy Hunter Nov. 20, 1825

Born: Oct. 28, 1806

Died: Nov. 3, 1876

Children

103-Margaret Cannon                Born: Aug 24, 1826     Died: May 25, 1908

104-Susan Cannon                      Born: Jun 12, 1828      Died: unknown

105-James Austin Cannon           Born: Aug 12, 1830      Died: Jan. 20, 1897

106-Rachel Mary Cannon            Born: Jul 1, 1832        Died: Aug. 31, 1842

107-John Lee Cannon                 Born: Mar 31, 1834     Died: Nov. 3, 1877

108-Mary Ann Cannon                Born: Dec 30, 1836     Died: unknown

109-Eliza.Jane Cannon               Born: Mar 17, 1839     Died: unknown

110-Henry Stark Cannon            Born: Sep   7, 1843     Died:

111-Orville Montgomery Cannon  Born: Jan. 23, 1847    Died: Aug. 10, 1888

112-Lewis Linn Cannon                Born: Apr. 1, 1852       Died: Dec. 4, 1908

 

Ephraim Cannon was born in Christian County, Kentucky, and was still a member of his father's household at the time of the latter’s emigration to Missouri in 1817. Although single, he entered the Northeast Quarter of Section 19, Township 49, Range 2 West, at the land office in Palmyra, January 15. 1819, at two dollars per acre, and secured a patent September 20, 1821. His marriage is recorded on page one of the first volume of marriage records of Lincoln  County and was the third to be recorded in the county. (History of Lincoln County (1888)) Page 246).

 

46

Ephraim ranks with Isaac as one of the progressive and enterprising members of the family. It was he who took the initiative in the move to the eastern side of the county where his entry in Section 36 of Township 51 Range 1 East, December 1, 1925, antedates all others in that locality. He might well be termed the original real estate agent for his name appears on the Palmyra land books live times in a few years, entering a total of more than eight hundred acres, all of which he sold at a profit. In 1832 he emigrated to Pike County, Illinois, and settled near Pittsfield, where he passed the remainder of his life, becoming one of the leading businessmen of that section. He was elected sheriff of Pike County Illinois. In the Census of 1850 he is credited with $8,000 worth of taxable property, the largest amount assessed to any of the family and indicating a handsome competence as measured by the local tax lists of the time.

 

Ephraim was a Democrat but is not known to have been a member of any religious or fraternal organizations. He is buried in the Goodin Cemetery in Pike County, Illinois.

 

 Dorothy Hunter known to the family as Dolly, was born in the State of Maryland. (Census of 1850, Pike County, Illinois) Her people were closely identified with the Cannon family and her brother settled with them on Turkey Creek in 1817, and later came east with them to Hurricane Township. This brother was one of the grantees in the deed to the Cannon Cemetery, and a number of the hunters are buried there. Dorothy lies beside her husband. Her family moved from Maryland to Kentucky, thence to Missouri.

 

III-18 Mary Cannon Born: Feb 28, 1803

Died: about 1826

Married: Thomas McCoy about 1822

Birth: Unknown

Death: Jun.    1828

 

Children:

103-Margaret Cannon       Born: Aug 24, 1826          Died: May 25, 1908

113-Julia McCoy              Born: 1823                      Death: unknown

114-Rebecca McCoy         Born: 1825                      Death: Unknown

 

Mary Cannon was known in the family as Polly. She was born in Christian County, Kentucky, and was fourteen years old at the exodus to Missouri. She married in Lincoln County, Missouri, about 1821 or 1822, but as it was prior to the enactment of the license law, no record of her marriage appears in the county archives. She died before the establishment of the family cemetery on the Stinebaugh Place, and is buried somewhere in the western part of the county. The two little daughters were taken by their grand mother Cannon and after her death their care devolved on Aunt Sallie,

 

47

the old Negro slave.  The schedule of James Cannon for the Census of 1830 enumerates them as members of his household.  Jane Parker recalls having often seen them clambering up on the old man's chair to rumple his hair when he had returned from the fields. Both married before his death.

 

Nothing is known of the early history or the antecedents of Thomas McCoy.  In accordance with the provisions of his will, written May 11, 1628, and probated July 12 of the same year, his estate was converted into money and invested by Rev. David Hubbard, the executor, in government land at $1.25 per acre.  The west half of the northeast quarter of Section 34» Township 51 Range 1 East, and containing eighty acres, was entered at Palmyra, Missouri, in the names of Julia and Rebecca McCoy, January 6, 1832.  Thomas is no doubt buried beside his wife, whom he survived but one year.

 

Revision note:

I wrote to the library of congress for information on these manuscripts mentioned with several of the earlier ancestors. The library of congress has no record of such a manuscript.

 (For Information relative to subsequent generations of the family of Mary Cannon, consult manuscript genealogy of the Cannon family donated to the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C.)

 

III-19 Rachel Cannon Born: Dec 4, 1804

Died: Jul 4, 1876

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married: John Rollins Trail about (Circa. 1821)

Born: about  1797

Died: Oct. 31, 1849

Children:

115-John Collard Trail               Born: May 20, 1822    Died: Sep 16, 1859

116-James Washington Trail       Born: May 16, 1824     Died: 0ct 27, 1893

117-Kezia Jane Trail                 Born: Mar. 6, 1826      Died: Jan 27, 1903

116-Isaac Cannon Trail              Born: Feb. 21, 1828     Died: Apr 10, 1853

119-Wllllam Perry Trail             Born: Apr. 3, 1830      Died: Jun 3, 1887

120-Francis Marion Trail           Born: May 18, 1832     Died: Jun 5, 1855

121-Ephraim J. Trail                  Born: Apr. 18, 1834     Died: Jul 22, 1907

122-Samuel Louis Trail              Born: Sep. 19, 1836     Died: Apr 23, 1862

123-Thomas Benton Trail           Born: Feb. 15, 1839     Died: Aug 3, 1910

124-David Riley Trail                Born: Feb. 10, 1841     Died: Mar 17, 1871

125-Mary Elizabeth Trail          Born: Jul. 21, 1843      Died: Jun 19, 1875

126-Jacob Stinebaugh Trail       Born: Sep.16, 1846      Died: Jul 6, 1883

 

Rachel Cannon was born in Christian County, Kentucky, and came with the family to Missouri in the spring of 1817. She was married about four years after reaching Missouri, but as marriage licenses were not then required, the exact date has been lost with the family register. John Rollins Trail entered the west half of the northeast quarter of Section 28 in Township 51, Range 1 East, at the Palmyra land office, March 2, 1830, and his patent

was issued by President Andrew Jackson, October 1, 1831.

 

Rachel Cannon was a woman of strong personality. Despite the cares of a large family she took an interest in the affairs of the times and, after the death of her husband, managed her farm with success. She was an expert horsewoman and rode much.

 

48

She bought and sold many horses ordering them driven to her door where she judged them with unfailing accuracy. She secured from Cyrus Thompson, who had bought the Stinebaugh Farm, a deed to the family cemetery. Mary Harrison, who was at the time a slave belonging to Mr. Thompson and who was in the room at the time tells of the transfer: "Miss Rachel come riding up on horseback, with a little Negro boy, who always went to open the gates for her, riding another horse. It was a little before dinner time. Miss Rachel come in and sat for awhile and told Mr. Thompson she wanted to buy the graveyard -- that there would be a good many more who would be laid there, and maybe it would not be very long before she would take a place there herself. Mr. Thompson told her to come out to dinner and he would give her a deed to it when dinner was over. After dinner, Mr. Thompson wrote a deed

and give it to her, and Miss Rachel asked him how much she should pay for it. He told her he didn't think it was right to take money for a burying ground — that someday he might be asking somebody the same favor for himself. And Miss Rachel thanked him and she and the Negro boy rode away." The old Negro places this episode at the beginning of the Civil War, and the accuracy of her memory is corroborated by the deed recorded in Book P at page 525, dated September 20, 1860, by which Cyrus Thompson and Rhoda, his wife, convey 17/100 of an acre to Rachel Trail, John M. Hunter and John Cannon. She immediately built a low stone wall about the Trail portion of the ground enclosing also the graves of her father and mother, but excluding those of her brothers' and sisters' families. Doubtless the other branches of the family were asked to assist in enclosing the entire ground but failed

to cooperate. Rachel is buried here between her father and her husband.

 

John Rollins Trail was a Democrat. He is not known to have belonged to any fraternal order but was a member of the old Union Baptist Church at Stout's Settlement. He is buried beside his wife in the Cannon Cemetery. Robert Brail says he was born in Kentucky -- and in Missouri he first settled on the Leonard Whiteside place north of Last Chance. There John, James and Kezia were born. Later he moved to the Claud Hall Place described above. "Jim" Cannon came from East to visit James Cannon(II-4) James said, "Tomorrow we will go over to see Rachel and Rollins. They live in the  barrens." The next day “Jim” said he would not give 160 of it for your whole 600 acres.

 

III-20 Kezia Cannon Born: about 1806

Died: about 1828

Father James Cannon

Note: Keziah is spelled and miss-spelled through out the text as Keziah and kezia

Married: Eli Hubbard Jul. 28, 1826

Born: about 1807

Died: Unknown

Child:

127-Rebecca Hubbard     Born: Apr. 18, 1827                   Died: unknown

 

49

Kezia Cannon was born in Christian County, Kentucky, and came with the family to Missouri in 1817. Her marriage, which is the ninth recorded in Lincoln County, was solemnized by Rev. David Hubbard, a Baptist Minister, who was later married to her niece. Kezia is said to have been a woman of unusual beauty. She was killed by her horse which ran with her through the forest while she was riding from the sugar camp near her father's home. Like all the Cannon women, she was an expert rider and was proud of her horsemanship. She was riding her favorite mare, which she had christened Polly. The animal was restless from standing in the cold and she was cautioned as she left the camp, but laughed and remarked that Poll could not throw her off. Galloping through the woods on her way back, the horse broke from her control and she was hurled against an overhanging oak and never spoke again, dying that night.

 

Eli Hubbard was born in Kentucky and came to Missouri shortly before his marriage. After the death of his wife he moved with their child to Montgomery County, Missouri. He was married the second time October 30, 1828, to Mary Myers of Lincoln County. She died September 23, 1830. He was the last time married to Elizabeth Buchanan May 4, 1836, and resided in the State of Illinois, where the Census of 1850 reports him as having a

large family. In 1853, he emigrated to the State of Oregon where his brother, Charles, had preceded him. Both he and his brother are said to have prospered and both probably are buried in Marion County, Oregon.

 

Revision note:

I wrote to the library of congress for information on these manuscripts mentioned with several of the earlier ancestors. The library of congress has no record of such a manuscript.

 (For Information relative to subsequent generations of the family

of Kezia Cannon, consult manuscript genealogy of the Cannon family

donated to the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C.)

 

 

III-21 Rebecca Cannon Born: about 1808

Died: May 9, 1837

Father James Cannon II-4

Married: Joseph Barnett about Jun. 28, 1827

Born: Feb. 4, 1799

Died: Oct. 15, 1838

 

128-Cordelia Barnett              Born: May 28, 1828  Died: Unknown

129-Mary Elizabeth Barnett    Born: Apr 3, 1830    Died: unknown

130-Orville Walker Barnett    Born: Aug. 14, 1831   Died: Aug. 22, 1868

131-Rachel Rebecca Barnett    Born: Jan. 26, 1833  Died: Unknown

132-James Elmore Barnett       Born: Apr. 30, 1837  Died: Unknown

 

Rebecca Cannon was born in Christian County, Kentucky, about 1808 and came with her father to Missouri in 1817. The first volume of marriage records of Lincoln County, Missouri, recites that "Rebecca Cannon, of Hurricane Township, was married to Joseph Barnett, of Union Township, by her father's approbation."   William Hammack officiated. Some time later, probably about 1832, they moved to Pike County, Illinois, where their descendants still reside. Rebecca is buried there near the town of Pleasant Hill.

 

50

Practically nothing is known of Joseph Barnett, beyond the dates given. His death occurred soon after that of his wife and the two are doubtless buried in the same cemetery. Samuel Cannon, administrator of the estate of his father, James, mentions in his final settlement that Ephraim Cannon, of Illinois, received one share, of the estate as "the lawful guardian of the heirs of Joseph Barnett." He was probably a son of Joseph Barnett who died in Christian County, Kentucky, March 1799. Will dated December 13,

1798, mentions wife Mary and unborn child. (Kentucky State Historical Society Register, Vol. 25, ((1927)) Page 174)

 

Revision note:

I wrote to the library of congress for information on these manuscripts mentioned with several of the earlier ancestors. The library of congress has no record of such a manuscript.

(For information relative to subsequent generations of the family of Rebecca Cannon, consult the manuscript genealogy of the Cannon

family donated to the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C.)

 

III-22 Margaret Cannon Born: about 1812

Died: Dec 1, 1879

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married: Charles Hubbard Dec. 20, 1829)

Born: Unknown

Died: Unknown

 

Children:

133-James Hubbard                Born: Unknown          Death: Unknown

134-Kezia Jane Hubbard         Born: Unknown          Death: Unknown

135-Rachel Hubbard               Born: Unknown          Death: Unknown

136-Wllliam Cannon Hubbard   Born: Nov. 8, 1836    Death: unknown

137-Julia Ann Hubbard           Born: Jan. 10, 1839   Death: Mar. 27, 1897

138-Celia B. Hubbard              Born: Unknown          Death: Unknown

139-Nancy Rebecca Hubbard  Born: May 23, 1843  Death: unknown

140-Lewellyn Hubbard            Born: Unknown          Death: Unknown

141-Charles Oscar Hubbard     Born: Dec. 20, 1848  Death: Dec. 9, 1899

142-Ephraim J. Hubbard         Born: Unknown          Death: Unknown

14.3-George W. Hubbard         Born: Unknown          Death: Unknown

 

Margaret Cannon, denominated as "Margarette" in the marriage records of Lincoln County, was born in Christian County, Kentucky, and came with the family to Missouri in 1817.' The family dubbed her Peggy, and she bequeathed that title to the generations of Margarets which came after her. She was married at the age of fifteen against the strenuous objections of her family. This opposition was due not only to her youth but to the fact that Charles Hubbard had been legally divorced from a former wife who was still living. Such marriages were as fully in accord with the civil law then as now, but a peculiar church code of the times conferred upon Margaret an historic role of epoch-making importance in the ecclesiastic history of her denomination. The Baptists had been for some time gradually approaching a crisis on the subject of missions. The situation was especially strained in the Old Union Church, and Margaret's marriage precipitated the division. The leaders of the anti-missionary faction introduced a resolution of dismissal, but the missionary wing of the church defeated it. The proponents promptly withdrew and formed the Siloam Baptist

51

Church, which remained for many years as one of the last of the Primitive Baptist Churches of that section of the State, and the members of the Union Church were henceforth known as Missionary Baptists, now constituting the New Hope Baptist Church of Cuivre Association. (History of the Baptists in Missouri, R. S. Duncan, Page 213; History of Salt River Association. W. J. Patrick; History of Lincoln County ((1888)) Page 474) Soon after their marriage they moved to Pike County, Illinois, and about 1844 or

1847 they emigrated to the State of Oregon and located near Salem in Marion County, where their descendants still reside.

 

Charles Hubbard was a brother of Eli Hubbard who married Kezia Cannon. He was born in the State of Kentucky and was perhaps two or three years the senior of Eli who was born about 1807. He is burled with his wife in Marion County, Oregon.

 

Revision note:

I wrote to the library of congress for information on these manuscripts mentioned with several of the earlier ancestors. The library of congress has no record of such a manuscript.

 (For information relative to subsequent generations of the family

of Margaret Cannon, consult the manuscript genealogy of the

Cannon family donated to the Library of Congress at Washington,

D.C.)

 

III-23 Jane Cannon Born: Apr 17, 1815

Died: Jan 21, 1860

Father: James Cannon II-4

Married: Nicholas Thomas Dameron Feb. 25, 1834

Born: Aug. 5, 1805

Died: Sep. 13, 1859

 

144-Elizabeth Dameron              Born: Jun. 11, 1835   Died: Apr. 11, 1869

145-James Littlepage Dameron Born: Nov 16,1837      Died: Unknown

146-Margaret Julina Dameron    Born: Jan 15, 1840   Died: Nov. 29, 1864

147-Martha Ann Dameron          Born: Jul 26,1642    Died: Apr. 6, 1928

146-John Nicholas Dameron       Born: Jul 3,1849      Died: Jul. 31, 1890

149-Susan Jane Dameron           Born: Apr 17, 1852   Died: Sep. 21, 1915

 

Jane Cannon was born near Hopkinsville in Christian County, Kentucky. She was the youngest child and a favorite daughter, and was just two years old when the family reached Missouri in the Spring of 1817. She was for several years the only daughter left at home and after her mother's death presided over her father's household until her marriage, although "Aunt Sallie" still drove the domestic machinery and exercised a maternal supervision over

"Miss Jane" herself.

 

Nicholas Thomas Dameron, the son of Littlepage Dameron and Susana Turner, was born in the State of Virginia. He came early to Missouri with his people and on December 9, 1830, entered the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 28 in Township 51, Range 1 East. This place is about four miles southwest of the Town of Paynesville. Here they reared their children and passed the remainder of their days. Nicholas was elected Justice of

Hurricane Township in 18_, an office of importance and responsibility

 

52

under the laws and usages of the times and, though he died in the early prime of life, he had already become a man of prominence and influence in the community. He and his wife are buried side by side in the family cemetery on his farm.

 

III-24 Samuel Cannon Born: unknown

Died: unknown

Father: William Cannon II-5

 

Killed with his father, William, by the Indians.

 

 

III-25 Daughter Cannon Born: unknown

Died: unknown

Father: William Cannon II-5

Married: unknown Stark

 

Was taken captive with her mother and husband by the Indians and after being held captive for a time was exchanged and returned home. Nothing further is known of this branch of the family.

 

Generation 4

IV-26 Mary Cannon Born: Aug 23, 1811

Died: May 15, 1829

Father: Samuel Cannon III-10

Married: Robert Stubblefield Apr. 3, 1828

Born: unknown

Died: unknown

Child:

150-Margaret Hubbard Stubblefield Born: Feb. 28, 1829  Died: Sep. 12, 1855

 

Mary Cannon, always known in the family as "Polly", (The name by which her Aunt Mary Cannon, for whom she was named had been called) died a little more than a year after her marriage leaving an infant daughter whom she named Margaret Hubbard Stubblefield for her aunt, Margaret Cannon, who was married to Charles Hubbard. The child was reared in the home of her grandfather, Samuel Cannon, and was always known as "Peggy", a name which she also inherited from her aunt, Margaret Cannon Hubbard.

 

The marriage of Mary Cannon to Robert Stubblefield is recorded in Vol. I, Page 11 of the Marriage Records of Lincoln County, Missouri, and was performed by Rev. David Hubbard. Robert Stubblefield was living in Township 49, 2 West, Lincoln County at the time of Mary's death.

 

IV-27

Blufford Cannon Born: Dec 19, 1813

Died: Sept 6, 1871

Father: Samuel Cannon III-10

Married: Margaret Kerr Dec. 13, 1839

Born: Apr. 7, 1819

Died: Feb. 12, 1858

Adam Stinebaugh, 62

Alvin Byars Cannon, 58

Blufford Cannon, 74

Bluford Cannon, 45, 52

Celia B. Hubbard, 71

Charles Hubbard, 71

Charles Oscar Hubbard, 71

Cordelia Barnett, 70

Cornelius Cannon, 58

Cynthia Pyle, 61

Daughter Cannon, 74

David Cannon, 58

David Hubbard Cannon, 56

David Riley Trail, 67

Dorothy Hunter, 64

Edward Thurman, 54

Eli Hubbard, 69

Elijah Thurman, 54

Eliza.Jane Cannon, 64

Elizabeth Cannon, 15, 23, 45, 53, 58, 61

Elizabeth Dameron, 73

Elizabeth Stinebaugh, 62

Ephraim Cannon, 23, 52, 64

Ephraim J. Hubbard, 71

Ephraim J. Trail, 67

Ephraim Lee Cannon, 59

Ephraim Thu, 54

Esther Ann Cannon, 56

Felix Oliver Collard, 54

Francis Marion Trail, 67

George Thurman, 54

George W. Hubbard, 71

Gideon Cannon, 58

Granville Stinebaugh, 62

Granville Thurman, 54

Hannah Allen, 45

Henry Clay Cannon, 53

Henry Stark Cannon, 64

Isaac Cannon, 15, 22, 23, 55

Isaac Cannon Trail, 67

Isaac L. Thurman, 54

Isaac Newton Cannon, 45

Isaac Watts Cannon, 56

Isaphena Collard, 54

Jacob Stinebaugh, 62

Jacob Stinebaugh Trail, 67

James    Cannon, 9

James Austin Cannon, 64

James Cannon, 15, 22

James Cannon Stinebaugh, 62

James Elmore Barnett, 70

James Hubbard, 71

James Lee Cannon, 56

James Littlepage Dameron, 73

James Stripling Cannon, 58

James Stuart Cannon, 45

James Washington Trail, 67

Jane Cannon, 23, 45, 52, 72

Jane Knox, 52

Jane Stinebaugh, 62

Jehugh Pyle, 61

Jeru Pyle, 61

John Cannon, 15, 22, 23, 45, 52

John Collard, 54

John Collard Cannon, 56

John Collard Trail, 67

John James Collard, 54

John Lee Cannon, 64

John Nicholas Dameron, 73

John Sylvester, 63

John William Cannon, 53

Joseph Barnett, 70

Julia Ann Hubbard, 71

Julia McCoy, 66

Kezia Cannon, 56, 68

Kezia Jane Hubbard, 71

Kezia Jane Trail, 67

Kezia Thurman, 54

Keziah Cannon, 15, 23, 45

Lawson Pyle, 61

Lewellyn Hubbard, 71

Lewis Linn Cannon, 64

Lewis Williams Cannon, 56

Louisa Marion Cannon, 59

Lucinda Jane Pyle, 61

Lydia Cannon, 15, 23, 45, 54

Margaret Cannon, 56, 64, 66, 71

Margaret Elizabeth Pyle, 61

Margaret Hubbard Stubblefield, 74

Margaret Julina Dameron, 73

Margaret Kerr, 75

Margaret Stinebaugh, 62

Margarette Cannon, 23

Martha Ann Dameron, 73

Mary Ann Cannon, 64

Mary Cannon, 15, 23, 45, 52, 56, 65, 74

Mary Collard, 56

Mary Elizabeth Barnett, 70

Mary Elizabeth Trail, 67

Mary L. Thurman, 54

Mary Pyle, 61

Nancy Byars, 59, 61

Nancy Cannon, 23, 52, 62

Nancy Polly Cannon, 58

Nancy Rebecca Hubbard, 71

Nicholas Thomas Dameron, 73

Orville Montgomery Cannon, 64

Orville Walker Barnett, 70

Polly Stinebaugh, 62

Rachel Cannon, 23, 45, 52, 56, 67

Rachel Collard, 54

Rachel Hubbard, 71

Rachel Mary Cannon, 64

Rachel Pyle, 61

Rachel Rebecca Barnett, 70

Rachel Stark, 23

Rachel Stark Cannon, 58

Rachel Stinebaugh, 63

Rebecca Ca, 70

Rebecca Cannon, 23, 53

Rebecca Hubbard, 69

Rebecca McCoy, 66

Robert Cannon, 45

Robert Stubblefield, 74

Rollins Trail, 67

Samuel Cannon, 15, 23, 43, 45, 73

Samuel Louis Trail, 67

Samuel Perry Cannon, 45

Samuel Stinebaugh, 63

Sarah Cannon, 58

Seymour Davis Cannon, 56

Surrilda Pyle, 61

Susan Cannon, 64

Susan Jane Dameron, 73

Susan Pyle, 61

Susannah Stinebaugh, 63

Temperance Stewart, 45

Thomas Benton Trail, 67

William Cannon, 15, 43, 58, 59

William Coates Cannon, 45

William Duncan Cannon, 58

William Stinebaugh, 63

Willlam Cannon, 23

Wllliam Cannon Hubbard, 71

Wllllam Perry Trail, 67