Spargur Family in Highland & Adams Co., Ohio and Iowa
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Spargur Family in Highland & Adams Co., Ohio and Iowa
 MariannaMoran
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Posted: 19 Sep 2002 3:13PM GMT |
Classification: Query
Surnames: Spargur, Moore, Wade, Lightbody, Carlisle, Penwell, Overman
Excerpt from "The Review", Villisca, Iowa, Friday, October 10, 1930
EXPLAINS FAMILY TIES OF PIONEER DAYS IN VILLISCA
"W. M. Moore of Pacific Junction, Iowa, a pioneer resident of Villisca who has contributed to "The Review" several interesting stories of pioneer days in The Forks, as Villisca was known when it was first settled, has written another story which the readers of this paper, especially the older ones, will enjoy.
There is probably nobody living who is better qualified to write of the early history of Villisca and vicinity than is Mr. Moore and his remarkable memory has given to Review readers much of value in his chronicles. This week he untangles some intricate matrimonial alliances of early days here, as follows:
An article written as neither historical or reminiscent, but verging closely to both.
By The Forks, we mean that locality and settlement that clustered around a point where the West and Middle Nodaways mingled their waters and journeyed on to the Missouri as one family or "hand in hand" as we might say. This story is of the time before they had the kinks taken out of them and were compelled to give up their "crooked ways" and go straight, and before the young and growing town of Villisca had acquired population and dignity sufficient to obliterate old landmarks and old names and become the "Queen of the Valley". With the above mentioned point as a center and with a radius of three miles, the circle would include the major part of the people concerned in this story.
The foundation of the story is laid in Adams and Highland counties, Ohio and begins with the marriage in America of James Moore II and Margaret (Peggy) Wade on the 7th day of February, 1805, and includes one hundred twenty-five years to the present time. To this union there were born twelve children, eleven of whom lived to "ripe old ages", varying from 56 to 94 years. Following are the names in order of birth and the number of children in the family of each. Daughters are given with their names after marriage. They are Sarah McCutchen, 13 children; John Moore, 11; Edmund Moore, 0; Thomas Moore, 9; Abigail Spargur, 8; Margaret Matheney, 0; Mary Anderson, 10; Anderson Moore, 12; Lydia Spargur, 4, William Moore, 12; James Moore, 11. Total 90 grandchildren of James Moore and Margaret Wade.
Of these nineth grandchildren, sixteen died in infancy or youth, four were never married, eighteen are still living and at latest reports the next generation consists of 360.
The migration. Early in the decade known as the fifties this family began moving westward, and The Forks became the destination of many of them. This article is written for the sole purpose of clearing up a matrimonial tangle that was very perplexing or mysterious to the newcomers that came later with the arrival of the railroad. Why or how did it happen that so many of the Moores, Spargurs, Beavers, Carlisles, Wallaces, Overmans, Greenfields, Winters, etc, etc, were all or nearly all in the same manner related, either by birth or marriage? That was the puzzle.
James, or "Uncle Jimmy" Carlisle, generally considered as the patriarch of the community, was perhaps the main instigator of this westward migration of the Adams county Moore family. His wife, Abigail, and her sister, Marilla Lightbody, were Wade sisters, related to the Margaret Wade, wife of James Moore. They were very early, perhaps the earliest, settlers in the immediate vicinity of The Forks. Influenced by the glowing reports from the Nodaway valley and induced by their western relatives, the six Moore brothers, John, Wm., Edmund, Jas., Thomas and Anderson loaded their families and such personal effects as they could bring with them into covered wagons, came west and settled within the circle described as The Forks. One of these brothers, Edmund, had no children, but in the other five families there were fifty-four children, of whom nine died in childhood, leaving forty-five who, already were or soon would become of marriageable age, all of whom were added to the population of The Forks.
In addition to these six families, their nephew, John McCutchson, oldest son of their sister, Sarah McCutcheon, also followed his uncles to this locality, with a family that grew to the number of eleven in time and were second cousins to all of the Moore children. And as he and his uncle, Anderson Moore, were also brothers-in-law, having married the two Hiatt sisters, Sarah Ann and Ruth, their children were also first cousins by their mothers, as well as second cousins by their fathers.
This article is continued in the October 17, 1930 edition of "The Review"
The next step in this matrimonial confusion was when Abigail Moore, second daughter of James and Margaret Wade, became the wife of Joseph W. Spargur of Highland Co., Ohio, and at the same time the stepmother of ten children and later the mother of eight of her own. It is here that we find the key to much of this puzzle.
These ten stepchildren being related to the Moores only by the marriage of their father to the brother's sister, they were at liberty to marry these brothers or into their families. So Thomas Moore married Betty Spargur and Elijah Overman married Rebecca Spargur, two sisters and stepdaughters of Agibail Spargur, and the eighteen children of the Moore and Overman families were first cousins. Phillip Spargur, or "Uncle Dock" as he was called, had been twice married when he came to The Forks and his two sets of children, seven or eight in number, were first cousins of the Thomas Moore and Overman children. He then took for his third wife, Abigail Moore, William Moore's oldest daughter, and their three children became William Moore's grandchildren, first cousins of William Moore's other grandchildren, first cousins of the Overman and Thos. Moore children and second cousins of all the Moore and McCutchen children. Is it any wonder that people were perplexed?
But the end is not yet. There came to The Forks three Beavers brothers, John, Thomas and Allen, the sons of Teeney Beavers, another one of stepdaughters, and they were first cousins of the Thomas Moore, the Overman and the Dock Spargur children. And John Beavers strengthened his claim to relationship with the Moores and McCutchens by marrying Margaret Moore, daughter of John Moore.
The Abigail Spargur children began moving wetward and her oldest daughter, Rachel, whose husband was Seldon Beavers, and their family of seven, another daughter, Lydia Bull-Delaney with one son, Davis Bull, another daughter, Mary Greenfield, and another Sarah Beavers, wife of Jackson Beavers, and all with good sized families before enumerated, joined The Forks neighborhood.
Next came Lydia Spargur, sister of the Moore brothers, bringing with her or following soon, four children and a score of grandchildren to increase the Spargur, Moore, Overman, McCutchen multitude of relations.
We will now take a look into a few more family alliances that added to our puzzle. First, the Carlisle, Lightbody, Moore, Wallace and Davis combine.
Joseph Carlisle and Lydiann Lghtbody, Joseph Moore and Patty Carlisle, James Carlisle and Rachel Moore, Jasper Wallace and Mary Jane Lightbody, Eliu Davis and Caroline Lightbody all joined hands and hearts in a five family alliance in which two brothers and a sister, three sisters, a brother and a sister, and two outsiders were concerned.
The next group marriage was a Moore-Penwell affair, Henry Penwell and his sister Harriett marrying two Moore cousins, Helena, daughter of Anderson Moore, and David Moore, son of James Moore III, and as there were eighteen children in the two families it increased the fifth generation of Moores materially and also the sixth later on.
The John Moore twins; Austin and Eliza, united with the Dock Spargur first family when Austin took as his first wife, Hester "Queen" Spargur and Eliza married Alexander Spargur. We are now approaching the time when the coming of the railroad gave Villica and vicinity the first boom and people began flocking in. There came the Erkenbrack family with two sons and three daughters, all of marriagable age. And John Moore, son of John Moore and generally known as "General", James Penwell, verging onto bachelorhood and Henry iggins, younger than he is now, went wooing and won the three Erkenbrack daughters, Alice, Elizabeth and Dilly, as wifes and their brother "Shab" married Abigail Moore, youngest daughter of Thomas Moore and thus completed the Moore, Penwell, Erkenbrack, Higgins, matrimonial comples.
Another strain of Spargurs appeared. Phillip Spargur's wife was Harriet, daughter of Boarter Spargur. She had married without changing her name. Her son, Newton, being well-satisfied with the name, also chose a Spargur for his wife, Ida, daughter of John Spargur, Charley and John Spargur, brothers, married two Overman sisters and their children are the first instance, so far discovered in this confusion, where the fathers are brothers and the mothers sisters. Amelia Moore, daughter of John Moore, was the mother of the Winter boys and girls and Lucinda Moore and Ella Moore, daughters of James Moore, by marrying two brothers, Henry and Douglas Neal contributed another instance of double cousins.
But here we must stop. This could be continued on through three younger generations, and it would grow tiresome. It is enough to say in conclusion that many of the younger set departed from the clanish marriages and have brought other families into this tangle--the McCoys, McIntyres, Harrises, Delaneys, Halls, Gourleys, Kings, Ridenours, Haleys, etc., etc.,
While this article may not entirely clear up this family tangle, it may probably throw some light upon it. It is a product principally of memory and association and may contain a few discrepancies, but none intentionally or maliciously. Times and customs have changed since the beginning of this story. The large family is a thing of the past.
"Courting" or "sparking" as indulged in in summertime in the hammock beneath the old apple tree or hanging over the front gate, and in winter by the heat and light of the old fire place has changed to "necking" or "petting" in the Ford or closed car by the roadside the year round and the marrying and giving in marriage goes on just the same, only now it is not so binding.
The number of families increases as the population increases, but the size of the families has been greatly reduced. In too many instances it has become as the hen and one chicken family, or a lonesome couple with no children, if perchance the divorce court, has not severed the "ties that bind".
EXPLAINS FAMILY TIES OF PIONEER DAYS IN VILLISCA
"W. M. Moore of Pacific Junction, Iowa, a pioneer resident of Villisca who has contributed to "The Review" several interesting stories of pioneer days in The Forks, as Villisca was known when it was first settled, has written another story which the readers of this paper, especially the older ones, will enjoy.
There is probably nobody living who is better qualified to write of the early history of Villisca and vicinity than is Mr. Moore and his remarkable memory has given to Review readers much of value in his chronicles. This week he untangles some intricate matrimonial alliances of early days here, as follows:
An article written as neither historical or reminiscent, but verging closely to both.
By The Forks, we mean that locality and settlement that clustered around a point where the West and Middle Nodaways mingled their waters and journeyed on to the Missouri as one family or "hand in hand" as we might say. This story is of the time before they had the kinks taken out of them and were compelled to give up their "crooked ways" and go straight, and before the young and growing town of Villisca had acquired population and dignity sufficient to obliterate old landmarks and old names and become the "Queen of the Valley". With the above mentioned point as a center and with a radius of three miles, the circle would include the major part of the people concerned in this story.
The foundation of the story is laid in Adams and Highland counties, Ohio and begins with the marriage in America of James Moore II and Margaret (Peggy) Wade on the 7th day of February, 1805, and includes one hundred twenty-five years to the present time. To this union there were born twelve children, eleven of whom lived to "ripe old ages", varying from 56 to 94 years. Following are the names in order of birth and the number of children in the family of each. Daughters are given with their names after marriage. They are Sarah McCutchen, 13 children; John Moore, 11; Edmund Moore, 0; Thomas Moore, 9; Abigail Spargur, 8; Margaret Matheney, 0; Mary Anderson, 10; Anderson Moore, 12; Lydia Spargur, 4, William Moore, 12; James Moore, 11. Total 90 grandchildren of James Moore and Margaret Wade.
Of these nineth grandchildren, sixteen died in infancy or youth, four were never married, eighteen are still living and at latest reports the next generation consists of 360.
The migration. Early in the decade known as the fifties this family began moving westward, and The Forks became the destination of many of them. This article is written for the sole purpose of clearing up a matrimonial tangle that was very perplexing or mysterious to the newcomers that came later with the arrival of the railroad. Why or how did it happen that so many of the Moores, Spargurs, Beavers, Carlisles, Wallaces, Overmans, Greenfields, Winters, etc, etc, were all or nearly all in the same manner related, either by birth or marriage? That was the puzzle.
James, or "Uncle Jimmy" Carlisle, generally considered as the patriarch of the community, was perhaps the main instigator of this westward migration of the Adams county Moore family. His wife, Abigail, and her sister, Marilla Lightbody, were Wade sisters, related to the Margaret Wade, wife of James Moore. They were very early, perhaps the earliest, settlers in the immediate vicinity of The Forks. Influenced by the glowing reports from the Nodaway valley and induced by their western relatives, the six Moore brothers, John, Wm., Edmund, Jas., Thomas and Anderson loaded their families and such personal effects as they could bring with them into covered wagons, came west and settled within the circle described as The Forks. One of these brothers, Edmund, had no children, but in the other five families there were fifty-four children, of whom nine died in childhood, leaving forty-five who, already were or soon would become of marriageable age, all of whom were added to the population of The Forks.
In addition to these six families, their nephew, John McCutchson, oldest son of their sister, Sarah McCutcheon, also followed his uncles to this locality, with a family that grew to the number of eleven in time and were second cousins to all of the Moore children. And as he and his uncle, Anderson Moore, were also brothers-in-law, having married the two Hiatt sisters, Sarah Ann and Ruth, their children were also first cousins by their mothers, as well as second cousins by their fathers.
This article is continued in the October 17, 1930 edition of "The Review"
The next step in this matrimonial confusion was when Abigail Moore, second daughter of James and Margaret Wade, became the wife of Joseph W. Spargur of Highland Co., Ohio, and at the same time the stepmother of ten children and later the mother of eight of her own. It is here that we find the key to much of this puzzle.
These ten stepchildren being related to the Moores only by the marriage of their father to the brother's sister, they were at liberty to marry these brothers or into their families. So Thomas Moore married Betty Spargur and Elijah Overman married Rebecca Spargur, two sisters and stepdaughters of Agibail Spargur, and the eighteen children of the Moore and Overman families were first cousins. Phillip Spargur, or "Uncle Dock" as he was called, had been twice married when he came to The Forks and his two sets of children, seven or eight in number, were first cousins of the Thomas Moore and Overman children. He then took for his third wife, Abigail Moore, William Moore's oldest daughter, and their three children became William Moore's grandchildren, first cousins of William Moore's other grandchildren, first cousins of the Overman and Thos. Moore children and second cousins of all the Moore and McCutchen children. Is it any wonder that people were perplexed?
But the end is not yet. There came to The Forks three Beavers brothers, John, Thomas and Allen, the sons of Teeney Beavers, another one of stepdaughters, and they were first cousins of the Thomas Moore, the Overman and the Dock Spargur children. And John Beavers strengthened his claim to relationship with the Moores and McCutchens by marrying Margaret Moore, daughter of John Moore.
The Abigail Spargur children began moving wetward and her oldest daughter, Rachel, whose husband was Seldon Beavers, and their family of seven, another daughter, Lydia Bull-Delaney with one son, Davis Bull, another daughter, Mary Greenfield, and another Sarah Beavers, wife of Jackson Beavers, and all with good sized families before enumerated, joined The Forks neighborhood.
Next came Lydia Spargur, sister of the Moore brothers, bringing with her or following soon, four children and a score of grandchildren to increase the Spargur, Moore, Overman, McCutchen multitude of relations.
We will now take a look into a few more family alliances that added to our puzzle. First, the Carlisle, Lightbody, Moore, Wallace and Davis combine.
Joseph Carlisle and Lydiann Lghtbody, Joseph Moore and Patty Carlisle, James Carlisle and Rachel Moore, Jasper Wallace and Mary Jane Lightbody, Eliu Davis and Caroline Lightbody all joined hands and hearts in a five family alliance in which two brothers and a sister, three sisters, a brother and a sister, and two outsiders were concerned.
The next group marriage was a Moore-Penwell affair, Henry Penwell and his sister Harriett marrying two Moore cousins, Helena, daughter of Anderson Moore, and David Moore, son of James Moore III, and as there were eighteen children in the two families it increased the fifth generation of Moores materially and also the sixth later on.
The John Moore twins; Austin and Eliza, united with the Dock Spargur first family when Austin took as his first wife, Hester "Queen" Spargur and Eliza married Alexander Spargur. We are now approaching the time when the coming of the railroad gave Villica and vicinity the first boom and people began flocking in. There came the Erkenbrack family with two sons and three daughters, all of marriagable age. And John Moore, son of John Moore and generally known as "General", James Penwell, verging onto bachelorhood and Henry iggins, younger than he is now, went wooing and won the three Erkenbrack daughters, Alice, Elizabeth and Dilly, as wifes and their brother "Shab" married Abigail Moore, youngest daughter of Thomas Moore and thus completed the Moore, Penwell, Erkenbrack, Higgins, matrimonial comples.
Another strain of Spargurs appeared. Phillip Spargur's wife was Harriet, daughter of Boarter Spargur. She had married without changing her name. Her son, Newton, being well-satisfied with the name, also chose a Spargur for his wife, Ida, daughter of John Spargur, Charley and John Spargur, brothers, married two Overman sisters and their children are the first instance, so far discovered in this confusion, where the fathers are brothers and the mothers sisters. Amelia Moore, daughter of John Moore, was the mother of the Winter boys and girls and Lucinda Moore and Ella Moore, daughters of James Moore, by marrying two brothers, Henry and Douglas Neal contributed another instance of double cousins.
But here we must stop. This could be continued on through three younger generations, and it would grow tiresome. It is enough to say in conclusion that many of the younger set departed from the clanish marriages and have brought other families into this tangle--the McCoys, McIntyres, Harrises, Delaneys, Halls, Gourleys, Kings, Ridenours, Haleys, etc., etc.,
While this article may not entirely clear up this family tangle, it may probably throw some light upon it. It is a product principally of memory and association and may contain a few discrepancies, but none intentionally or maliciously. Times and customs have changed since the beginning of this story. The large family is a thing of the past.
"Courting" or "sparking" as indulged in in summertime in the hammock beneath the old apple tree or hanging over the front gate, and in winter by the heat and light of the old fire place has changed to "necking" or "petting" in the Ford or closed car by the roadside the year round and the marrying and giving in marriage goes on just the same, only now it is not so binding.
The number of families increases as the population increases, but the size of the families has been greatly reduced. In too many instances it has become as the hen and one chicken family, or a lonesome couple with no children, if perchance the divorce court, has not severed the "ties that bind".