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The Pekin Hometown Voice

In Search of History…

Land deed dated 11 August 1857 transferring land from William & Catherine Seelye to Thomas Conant.

The next meeting of the Tazewell County Genealogical and Historical Society will be Tuesday, January 14th at 7pm. January is our annual Show & Tell program. Bring a story, artifact, or research problem to share. This is always an interesting night as often very unusual items are featured.

Stop by TCGHS and pick up a bag of Terri Lynn nuts or candies while there are still a few left as they won’t last much longer.

All history is local until it is woven together with other stories to become part of the National fabric and there is no aspect of National history that doesn’t touch Tazewell County. How about a genealogical primer? 

Beginners should start with themselves and work from the known to the unknown. Interview family members and locate family photos, records, and other memorabilia so as to discuss with older relatives. Start by filling out an Ancestor chart beginning with yourself then move on to parents, grandparents, et al. Once you have basic vital statistics you are ready to move on to verifying the facts you have gathered.

You might find a published biography in one of the many centennial histories from a century or more ago. An experienced genealogist learns to take every story with a bit of skepticism. We know we have to prove the facts as in the case study below:

Sorting Out the Seelye Family
A couple of years ago, I met one of my cousins in Manito as she was from out of town and wanted to visit the Seelye sites around the area and we had a great time, it was a beautiful autumn day.

When I returned home I decided to review my Seelye binder as I hadn’t really worked that family for years and wanted to see if the riddle could finally be solved. We’d never known anything about Jonathan’s wife and boy did that all change in a flash!  I found an old letter from Jud Sealey who lived in Arizona in 1995 that had suggested her name was Katherine based on land records from Ohio and he also mentioned some marriage records.

The 1927 “History of Illinois and Her People” holds a biography submitted by my Great-Granduncle, Joseph Seelye, that lists the names of Jonathan’s children. Using that and other research as a guide, it was off to the races through New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois census, land, marriage, and tax records. This is what I found:

Jonathan Seelye and Katherine Washer were married 30 June 1805 in Sussex Co., NJ.

Their children married in Meigs Co., Ohio were: Orrin married 11 Jul 1827 to Sarah Pickens,  Elizabeth married 8 Mar 1827 to Bartholomew Fleming, Evaline married 2 Oct 1827 to William Lane and  Orrilla married John Sleeth 12 Dec 1830.

The children married in Tazewell Co., IL were:  Emily 28 October 1835 to Eleazor Hibbard, Julius 26 Nov 1836 to Mary Budd, Jonathan Jr. 13 Jul 1839 to Mary Titus, Abner 9 May 1844 to Lucretia Joy and Bartholomew 17 Feb 1851 to Sarah Shearer.

Finally, William D. married 17 Aug 1848 in Mason Co., to Catherine Shearer.

I’m still not sure where Jonathan, Sr. was born or to whom. However, we know that Katherine was born in New Jersey to George Washer (1765NJ-1830KY) and Mary Bale (1765NJ-1860KY).

The 1810 census of Beaver Co., PA listed Jonathan with his wife and three children. Shortly after that census, the family moved to Meigs Co., Ohio, where the rest of the children were born and some married. The family remained in Meigs County through the 1820 and 1830 census records. A land deed dated 9 March 1835 in Meigs Co., Ohio, names Jonathan and Katherine, which helps us date just when they left Ohio for Illinois as there is no record of them in Meigs Co. after 1835. The Ohio land sale combined with Emily’s Illinois marriage, tells us the family arrived in Tazewell in late Spring 1835.

There is a Tazewell Co. land deed dated 6 February 1837 naming Jonathan and Katherine, signed by both, sellers of land in NE Spring Lake Twp. which was recorded 18 June 1838. Sometime after that and before the 1840 census, Katherine passed away. There is no record of precisely when she died.

The 1840 census of Tazewell (which included what would soon become Mason) lists the three youngest boys living with their father Jonathan. The oldest children, Orrin & Elizabeth, stayed out East and never lived in Illinois. Only Emily Hibbard lived near Pekin. The other five were all on land around their Dad. Jonathan (Sr & Jr) had land on Sections 4 & 5 of Quiver Twp. Sons-in-law J. Sleeth and W. Lane had land in Sections 30, 31, 32 & 33 of Quiver. Later, Wm. D had land in Sections 13 & 18 of South Spring Lake Twp. and Bartholomew eventually ended up with land in Section 23 of Manito Twp. (Next door to his in-laws). William also had land in the town of Spring Lake. 

Orrilla Seelye Sleeth Gasaway (1812-1888) died in Pekin and is buried at Lakeside cemetery.

Abner Seelye (1821-1888) also died in Pekin.

Bartholomew Seelye (1828-1884) died in Manito Twp. and is buried in Coon Grove cemetery, Mason County. I have not found death dates or places for the other children.

The 1927 History, like many of its kind, contains a few errors. The biographer wrote that the family arrived in Tazewell in 1833 when Bartholomew was five when, in fact, they arrived in 1835 when he was seven. (Proven by land & marriage records.) It says the parents married in Ohio when, in fact, they married in New Jersey. (Proven by marriage record.) It says they settled on land in Topeka twp., when, in fact, they settled in Quiver twp., near Topeka. (Proven by land records and there was no Topeka Twp.) Finally, it states that Bartholomew married in Mason when, in fact, he married in Tazewell. (Proven by marriage records.)  These types of errors are common in the county and state histories as it’s human nature to “fill-in” what one doesn’t know. Joseph named the Aunts and Uncles that he knew personally, all of whom lived in this area.

A bit of trivia about Aunt Orrilla Seelye Sleeth Gasaway is that her daughter, Filena (1843-1926) married William H. Bates, the official historian of his era who passed away in 1930. A lot of what we know about the early history of Pekin and Tazewell county was originally printed in a Bates publication.

The Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society is an award-winning 501c3, all-volunteer organization that has been in continuous service to our members and the public for over 46 years. TCGHS operates an archive, library, and research facility at 719 N. 11th St., Pekin. Visit our website at www.tcghs.org to learn more about us. If you have any point of interest that you would like to know more about, stop in at TCGHS or drop us a line.