Mary MIller McAfee Biography

The Mary Miller biography that I noted last year is chuck full of good information on the McAfee family. I have double checked the transcription by Dave and Kathy Jones and find it to be a complete and accurate transcription. I have included it here for the information of anyone interested in the southern Illinois McAfees.

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 2^nd 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.)