McAfee
The following
document has been re-typed by
David Arthur Jones
Jr. 8-28-’38 and Kathleen Larsen Jones
5-28-‘40
in June 2012, as it
appears, and without corrections.
A very special thanks
to
Jeannie Griffith
for
finding this document.
MCAFEE MEMORIES
By
Mary Miller McAfee
Ramsey
80 years old 1905
(Note: The following account was
written by Mary Miller McAfee Ramsey, wife
of Robert Love Ramsey, as stated
in 1905. She was the Great-Grandmother of
my wife, Jean Louise Ramsey Funk.
A copy of this document was sent to me
by one of Mary M. Ramsey’s Grandsons, Mr. Roy
Carson, son of Lizzie M.
Ramsey Carson. It will be noted
that several dates have been added since it
was originally written. I may add
explanatory notes along the way..JCF.)
* *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
My Grand father, George McAfee, was born in Scotland and my
Grandmother’s name was Katy Morehead. I cannot remember the date of removal
from Scotland to Ireland but it was before my father, James McAfee, was born,
1777, and he died at the age of 84 years, or in 1861, in Illinois. Grandfather,
George McAfee, moved from Scotland to Derry, County Derry, Ireland, where there
was a settlement of the Scotch Covenanters. My father, James, had several of
his father’s Scotch books in his library. There were two that I remember well;
“Sermons by Jeremiah Burgess of Edinburg” and “An Ark for all God’s Noahs in
the Gloomy Stormy Day”. They were never sold, and I may have taken them with me
to my daughter, Lizzie’s, house where they were no doubt destroyed when their
home burned. They were printed and published in the Sixteenth Century, and
aside from being a valuable family relic would now be a curiosity in any
library. Even the binding would be a curiosity in any Publishing House these
days.
My father emigrated to America when he was 19 years old,
about in the year 1796, but returned to Ireland when the War of 1812 broke
out. There he married Margaret Todd and
they were compelled to remain there for seven years until the embargo was
lifted. During this time my three older
brothers, George, James and John McAfee were born. In 1817 he removed with his wife and three
children to America again and settled in “Scotland”, 16 miles from
Philadelphia, and here the next son, Robert McAfee, was born in 1818.
My father, James McAfee was
married about the year 1812 to Margaret Todd and they had children as follows:
George, born about 1814, who
married Margaret Aiken.
James, born about 1815, who married Esther
Montgomery.
John, born about 1817, who married Ann J.
McClay
Robert, born about
1818, married Isabel Steele, died 19 Feb. 1909, 91 years.Daniel, born about 1816, married Lizzie Dennis.
Nancy K., born? , married Josiah P. Hibbard.
Mary M., born 1825, married Robert L. Ramsey 1844, died 5 Nov. 1906.
Arthur, born 1825, twin brother of Mary. Killed in accident 1832.
Samuel, born 1829, killed age 5 in same accident in 1832.
David, born ? died when an infant.
About the year 1832 my father went to Utica, Ohio, and
bought a tract of land about one mile
from the then village, all heavily timbered, paying therefore $2.50 per acre
for it, and moved his family from Philadelphia the following year to this tract
of 180 acres. Two of my older brothers,
George and James, remained in the city of Philadelphia. The rest of the family moved back to the city
the following year due to an accident which happened on that wooded tract near
Utica, Ohio.
The older sons of the family had no experience in clearing
the timber land and had chopped through the Sap-wood only as they thought to
deaden a tree, not knowing it was hollow.
I and my twin brother Arthur and Samuel, 5, were playing near the root
of the tree when a gale arose and the tree cracked. Brother John, at some distance from the tree,
seeing the danger called to us to run to him.
I did go, but Arthur and Samuel ran the other way in the direction the
tree was falling and were caught in the top branches and were instantly
killed. That sad scene will be impressed
upon my memory as long as I live.
Father could never go into that field again to work and was
completely broken down by the accident to his children, but Mother wanted to
stay on the farm for the sake of her boys.
She was a strong minded woman and equal to any emergency, even when
father would lose heart and give up.
Never the less, not being constitutionally strong, this accident
certainly shortened her days. She later
died of Dropsy of the Heart at the age of 63 years.
So, in 1833, the family moved back to Philadelphia to the
same street and next door to where we had formerly lived, and went to the
Church, The Cherry Street Church, Dr. Wylie, Pastor. About that time, 1833, occurred the division
of the Covenanter Church over the matter of voting. Father remained with the “Old School” faction,
but Brother James and his wife went with the “New School”, but later united
again with the Old Covenanter Church at Elkhorn, Illinois.
We had sold the 180 acres at Utica, Ohio, in less than a
year for $5.00 per acre to the Patton Brothers of Philadelphia. James Stevenson of St. Louis told me about 20
years ago that it could be bought then for less than $75.00 per acre. I forgot to say that we younger children,
Daniel, Nancy and myself, went back to the same school on Locust Street when we
moved back to the City. In the fall of
1837 we moved west again to southern Illinois, and in all that I have related
we can see the overruling Providence of God in the circumstances which led us
from one location to another.
Father thought he would never go west again, but George’s
wife died in the City three months after they were married and he, not knowing
what to do, wrote to Rev. McKinney, a young licentiate for the ministry with
whom he was acquainted, and whom he knew had gone west somewhere near Sparta,
Illinois. Rev. McKinney replied and
encouraged him to come and he went, and through his influence and Mother
favoring it, we moved again as I have told you in 1837 to Elkhorn Prairie in
Illinois.
The Church there was organized about that time and Brother
George was elected Elder but declined as he was then only 24 years old. Although Father held no office in the
Congregation, he was an honored member until his death, which occurred in the
year 1869.
But I digress to say something about my Mother’s
family. Her name was Margaret Todd, and
her Uncle, Anthony Todd, was a soldier in the Battle of Waterloo. In that memorable Battle he was shot through
the leg and his companion by his side was instantly killed. He tied up his wound with his handkerchief
and, making a crutch of his gun, tried to get back to camp but thought he would
bleed to death before reaching there.
Soon he met one of the Regimental Doctors who examined his wound and
only said, “A fine wound Sir. Go on to
camp.” But he felt very weak and thought
he must die when a woman came up and he said to her, “If you will bandage my
leg and take care of me, I have property and will repay you well, and not only
that, if you will nurse me until I get well, I will marry you and take you home
with me.” She took care of him, and not
doubt saved his life, and he married her and took her to his home but she was
ostracized by his family and was never invited out with them because she was
not of as good “Blood” as they were.
My mother’s own brother, an only son, James Todd, enlisted
when he was only 16 years old in the War with Mexico. The last letter we had from him was dated at
the City of Mexico and in it he regretted ever entering the War. It was a beautiful letter throughout and in
it he said, “They have to obey the sound
of Drum who never obeyed either Father of Mother.” They say that this soldier, James Todd, was a
fine scholar and I think that Norman must inherit his Military Spirit from away
back on both sides of the house.
Although I am opposed to War, I am proud of the record that Norman has
made both in the Army and since he has come home. May God Bless him and direct his future
course in Life. (**NOTE: The reference to “Norman” is to her Grandson,
Brig. Gen. Norman F. Ramsey, U.S. Army, Ret., first son of her 2nd
son, James Arthur Ramsey, and an Uncle of my wife, Jean…JCF)
But to return to my story:
When father moved back to the City of Philadelphia in 1833, I went back
to the same school, The Locust Street School, and had the same teacher, Miss
Eastburn. The school was taught on the
Lancasterian, or “Monitorial” Plan. Over
100 girls in the lower room and a like number of boys taught by Mr. Clevenger
up-stairs. I must describe my Teacher,
for to my mind then she was perfection.
She was about 40 years old, tall and dignified in appearance, but kind
and considerate of her pupils, and had their love and respect in return. When I think back over it now, after seventy
years, I feel I must have been her favorite.
I was then only nine years old but was a pretty good reader and studied
Elementary Geography, Arithmetic and English Grammar. It was there that I laid the foundation of my
education, (such as it is). The
Monitor’s names were called from the Teacher’s desk to hear the recitations of
the lower classes. The classes always
stood in semi-circles around the sides of the room. I, with some others, was named to hear the
spelling lesson of the younger children.
The Monitor hearing the recitation took down a “Badge” suspended by a
Ribbon from a nail and put it on with all the dignity of a “School Marm” to hear
the recitation and on closing the recitation would hang it again on the
nail. Miss Eastburn would often call on
me to “Raise the Tune” when the school sang, something I have never done since. She read a Chapter in the morning, sang a
Hymn and offered a Prayer. I recollect a
verse of one Hymn, “Alas, and did my Savior Bleed, and did my Sovereign Die,”
etc. I was a young Precenter truly!!
Right after we returned to Philadelphia a neighbor girl
asked me to go to Church with her to her Church Fair. Mother consented and the first one there that
I recognized was my former teacher, Miss Eastburn! She left a group of ladies with whom she was
talking and came over to me and kissed me and asked me where I had been and
said that she had missed me. In a little
while she returned and brought a beautiful large pin-cushion and gave it to
me. She asked me to come to school
again, which I did for two years more, and that ended my school days in the
City of Philadelphia. When Father moved
us to Southern Illinois in 1837 I was never in a schoolhouse for several
years. One summer Rev. J. J. McClurkin
taught a three months school in a log cabin on John Hood’s farm, near the Brick
House, which I attended. Then a three
month term was taught by Father McClurkin in the Brick Church just after it was
completed. There was nothing but log
cabins then and Rev. McKinney preached in John McClurkin’s Cabin until they
made the brick and built a Church.
The first work that my brothers, George, James and John, did
after coming to Illinois from Philadelphia was to make and burn the brick for
the Church just a little east from where the Church stood. I was then only nine or ten years old and was
left to watch the “yard” where the bricks were drying while the men went to
dinner to the place where John Donnelley then lived. I was more interested in playing and did not
watch closely and a drove of hogs came up out of the woods nearby into the
“yard”. In trying to chase them out, the
hogs ran over the soft clay bricks marking many of them with their tracks. Years afterward, when the old Church was torn
down, many bricks were found with those tracks on them. Some of those bricks may yet be found around
Oakdale and vicinity. Brothers George
and James had cabins on their farms, but went to Sparta or Eden to make brick
to build houses on their farms.
Mr. Adam Wylie was teaching a Subscription School in Sparta,
or Eden rather, and brother James wanted me to come to Sparta and go to the
School there. He offered to pay my
tuition and I could help with the work in boarding the Brick-hands. I was too glad to accept the offer and, being
then 17 years old, applied myself as never before.
Margaret Hood Mitchell then came and boarded with me at
James”, and Benwick Sloane also attended a school in Sparta taught by Dr. Huber
and his wife about the same time. I must
have made rapid progress, for one day while Margaret Hood and I were waiting
for our “Goose-quill” pens to be sharpened, Mr. Wylie came to me and said, “Are you going home when School closes?” I said I was and he said, “If you would stay another term you could
then teach School up in Elkhorn Prairie for I understand that they have few
teachers there.” Margaret Hood heard
him, and it amused her so that I, Mary, could teach School! Never-the-less, I did teach a six-month term
of school after I was married and living on “The Hill” and just before you,
James, were born. Your father took sick
with liver trouble and for a year was not able to work on the farm, and the
Doctor said he would never be a strong man again. We had to keep a hired man on the farm that
year. Then Robert J., your brother just
older, died when he was six months old.
Emily Giddings, a girl just 14 years old, was living with us then, and
one day while you were balancing yourself on the edge of a large kettle full of
water and ashes to break the water, you tipped in head first and would have
surely drowned but she pulled you out and cleaned you up.
When I went to Nashville to get my Certificate from Zenas
Verner & John Leper, Examiners, they told me if I would keep a schedule of
attendance, a portion of the School Fund would be paid to me according to the
number of pupils enrolled. I had twenty
students subscribed before I began and taught six months and received $120.00
in Gold, as that was the common currency then during the Mexican War. Some months after I finished this school, you
were born and soon thereafter we took two New York boys to raise. Willie Lavall was a good trusty boy and
stayed until he was 21 years old, but James Anderson ran off to the Army when
he was sixteen and served as a drummer-boy.
Some of these years were our darkest on the new farm, but
after the clouds came the sunshine and we were favored by Providence with good
crops, and such things as failures on the Prairies of Illinois were not then
known.
I have forgotten to say how we got the land in Elkhorn
Prairie. After the “Money Panic” of 1847
the times were very hard and Mechanics could not get money for their work but
had to take orders on the Stores for shelf-good or take horses or cattle from
the farms. About that time my brother,
James, got your father to move up to Elkhorn Prairie to help him build a Hemp
Mill on this farm. The Hemp Mill would
have been a success had the farmers gone into raising Hemp, but they did not
want to risk it. So, when the building
was finished, it was converted into a barn, now one of the barns on the
“Hibbard Place”. We still used the house
and lot and shops in Eden, but did not care to go back there, so we bought 80
acres from Samuel Nimrock where the old house now stands about one mile south
of Oakdale, Illinois, paying $90.00 cash for it. There were no improvements on it except a ten
acre lot fenced. Then we sold our house
and lots in Eden to a Mr. John Kirkwood who was leaving his farm, taking from
him horses, cattle, sheep and farm implements in trade and no money at all.
Your father bought a log house twenty feet square from John
Hood and, tearing it down, moved it to his farm and enclosed it as a part of
the house which stands on the place now.
Your father also entered another 40 acre tract on the Prairie, and also
took up 80 acres of timber-land at 12 ½ cents an acre, called in that day
“Bit-Land”, lying some two miles south-east of his farm. This whole farm was sold to John Wylie and
family, who came from Ohio, for the sum of $5,500.00 about the year 1865 or
after the close of the Civil War. But in
the meantime there had been a great amount of hard work and economy while the
farm was being improved. But it was
unfortunate for us for we sold good land and bought the Hood Farm which was old
land partly worn out. But it was a more
desirable place to live, and a pleasant home for the family while they were
growing up. Here at one time the crops
failed three years in succession, but it was my home and I was happy in it with
my family around me, all working together for the good of each other. My whole anxiety was for my family; that they
might grow up to be good men and women and fitted to occupy any position to
which in the Providence of God they might be called.
But the clouds of adversity began to lower again, and your
father was stricken with paralysis at the early age of 57 years. Would to God a veil could be drawn over those
years of anxiety and care! Anxiety for
him, and care for my children, but the Lord carried me through it all, and I am
still living and have the satisfaction of knowing that all of my five living
children are in homes where “The Voice of Joy and Praise Ascends to Jacob’s
Mighty God!”
As a supplement, I believe that I did not tell you that
Grandfather George McAfee had one sister, Mary, who died young, and a
half-brother, John McAfee, who married in Easton, Pa., and came to Philadelphia
and lived on the same street with out family until his death. He left two sons, James and John, and his
wife, who went back to Easton where she too died. When we moved to Utica, Ohio, we lost all
track of these two boys and they were all the living relatives Grandfather
George McAfee ever had.
And now you have the story of my life. It will be somewhat disjointed for it has
been written during an hour or so every day in snatches and as I could stand
it. And may the God of Our Fathers be
Your God and the God of Your Children to the Latest Generation, is the Prayer
of your Mother;
Mary Miller McAfee Ramsey
The names of my Children are:
Margaret Anna Ramsey; Died when six months old.
Margaret Todd Ramsey (Dugan), Sterling, N.Y.
Nancy Jane Ramsey (Allen), Sterling, Kansas
Robert J. Ramsey; Died when six months old.
James Arthur Ramsey, Topeka, Kansas
Lizzie M. Ramsey (Carson), Oakdale, Ill.
Rev. Robert George Ramsey, D.D., Xenia, Ohio (Now in Erie, Pa.)
