This is a brief history of the family of Elizabeth French, wife of John Clark Myers, written by her youngest son, Madison Dero Myers.

     The names given here were copied from the family record of the century old Bible of Grandfather French, which I found in the possession of my Aunt Lucinda Nichols in Carlyle, Illinois, on my last visit to her home in the month of March 1913. She was the youngest and last surviving member of the large family of Grandfather French, being 78 years old at that time. The family history herein recorded was given by Aunt Cinda (as we called her) on my visit with her at that time, that is, the accounts given outside the names copied from the family Bible.

     Great Grandfather French emigrated from Germany to North Carolina, U.S.A. in the latter part of the 18th century, where our grandfather French was born and grew to manhood. He emigrated to Tennessee about the first part of the 19th century (*1), settling near Dandridge, Jefferson County, where he married a young woman by the name of Bassna, to whom were born nine children as follows:

1st: Simon French born February 26, 1804 (*2)

2nd: Joseph French born April 11, 1805

3rd: Didana French born December 28, 1806

4th: Catherine French born September 18, 1808

5th: Ruth French (twin) born October 18, 1810

6th: Mary French (twin) born October 18, 1810

7th: William French born July 5, 1814 (*3)

8th: Augustus French born March 1, 1816 (*4)

9th: Moses J. French born May 18, 1819 (*5)

Soon after his wife died, he married Miss Cassna Cantrel (*6), a nurse in the home at the time of the death of his first wife. She was of Irish descent. To this marriage were born eleven children, as follows:

1st: James French born July 20, 1820 (*7)

2nd: Sarah French born February 12, 1822 (*8)

3rd: John French born March 13, 1823

4th: Anna French born April 11, 1824

5th: Carr French born November 25, 1825 (*9)

6th: Delila French born March 10, 1827

7th: Eli Sampson French born December 10, 1828

8th: Elizabeth French born February 18, 1830

9th: Nancy Jane French born June 12, 1831

10th: Lanford French born February 24, 1833

11th: Cassinda (Lucinda) French born February 24, 1835

* (See Supplement following Madison's history).

Most of these children were converted and became Christians in early youth. All Married and had families of their own. William entered the ministry and preached for many years in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

     In the month of October 1843, Grandfather French emigrated to Clinton County, Illinois, settling near Carlyle, the county seat. One child of his first wife and nine of his second wife went with them. Two of these children were married and brought their families with them. Two sons and two daughters had preceded the family to Illinois, and their letters home had brought practically the entire family to the new promised land. Only six of the twenty children remained in Tennessee, five married and one single; Mary, August, and Sarah being three of the married ones.

     The day they left Tennessee for Illinois, a number of the neighbors went with them several miles, camping with them the first night. Anna, being very much undecided about going with the family, packed her things separately, so when the neighbors started back early the next morning, she slipped out with her clothes and went back with them, to stay with her sister Sarah Hudson. However, she and Sarah came the next year. Aunt Cindy said that Anna was very beautiful and neat as a pin. She married a man of the name of Cooley, bearing three children, and then died while her husband was in the Army.

     The trip from Tennessee was made in covered wagons, drawn by ox teams, and it took six weeks time, arriving at Carlyle, Clinton County, Illinois the latter part of November 1843. Grandfather only lived about three years after reaching the new country, and Grandmother lived about five years. Both are buried in the Nichols Cemetery, seven miles northeast of Carlyle, Clinton County, Illinois.

WHAT BECAME OF THIS LARGE FAMILY OF CHILDREN

Simon lived and died in Tennessee(*10), the land of his birth.

Joseph settled near Carlyle, Illinois, where he died and is buried.(*12)

Didana married a man by the name of Elder, and settled near Sullivan, Illinois.

Ruth married a man by the name of Thompson, settling in Washington County, Illinois where she died and is buried.

Mary married a man by the name of Stimson, moving from Tennessee into the new Indian Purchase, where she lived and died in the south.

William, the Methodist preacher, died in Moultrie County, Illinois.

Augustus lived and died in the south.

Moses J. settled in Missouri and is buried there.

James settled in Moultrie County, Illinois where he died and is buried.

John was married, but had no children. He lived and died in Clinton County, Illinois and is buried beside his parents in the Nichols Cemetery, seven miles northeast of Carlyle.

Anna died in Moultrie County, Illinois.

Carr married, lived, and died in Moultrie County, Illinois.

Delila married a man by the name of Jackson, who lived in Texas. They finally moved back to Pike County, Illinois where she died.

Eli Sampson married Miss Julia Ward and settled 12 miles north of Shelbyville, Shelby County, Illinois. There were born to them six children, namely: Adah, Mollie, Jennie, Maggie, Ellsworth, and Nevo. This was Uncle Sam, and I worked for him the summer and fall of 1880. He was considered a very wealthy farmer, with 600 acres of very rich black soil, a two story ten room house, with big barns and hundreds of head of cattle and other stock. I liked this uncle very much, as he was nice to me all the ten months I was there. I was 17 when I went to work for him in March 1880, and 18 the 16th day of July that year.

Adah, Uncle Sam's oldest daughter, married a merchant tailor in Shelbyville and had two lovely little children. Her husband's name was Bradford Deering. I bought my first suit of clothes at his store that summer, with hat, boots, and outfit complete, and felt like a millionaire when all dressed up. You see, I was the youngest of five, and usually had to take hand me downs of the other boys. We always wore boots in those days, and inasmuch as I am digressing here anyway, I will just go on to say that I had my first pair of shoes when I was 21 and had been preaching for about a year.

Elizabeth French, our own beloved mother, met and married a man by the name of John Clark Myers. He was born and raised in Bond County, Illinois just about four miles northeast of where I was born and raised in Clinton County. (Father took me to see his old home once when I was a small boy, and also to the graves of his father and mother. His home was a large two story log house).

Mother worked out when a girl, for farmers in that new country, for wages of $1.00 to $1.50 per week, but land was cheap and she saved up enough to buy the 40 acres where the one room log house was built after they were married. My father was born August 23, 1831 and died December 2, 1876. Our farm was eight miles north and one half miles west of Carlyle, the county seat of Clinton County, Illinois.

There were ten children born to father and mother as follows:

1st: Died in infancy born 1854

2nd: Thomas Lanford born September 7, 1855

3rd: William Jackson born October 20, 1858

4th: Joseph Warren born December 19, 1859

5th: John Clark born July 12, 1860

6th: Madison Dero born July 16, 1862

7th: Rosella born May 28, 1864

8th: Nettie Jane born February 23, 1866

9th: America Adaline born August 8, 1867

10th: Caroline Elizabeth born June 24, 1870

     Mother died in childbirth (twins) October 15, 1871. These twins were born prematurely. She was a loving and affectionate wife and mother.

     In the winter of 1844, Mother, with some other young people, went to her brother Joe's house, a mile or so from her home, to spend the evening and stay all night. After supper they gathered in the living room and were having what was called in those days a "play party". Mother, then a girl of 14, and of a religious turn of mind, did not seem to mix very much in the play, and finally went into a bedroom and laid down on the bed where she began to pray. In a little while she prayed through and was gloriously saved. Jumping up from the bed, she rushed out into the living room, shouting and praising the Lord. That broke up the play party and turned it into an old fashioned revival prayer meeting that lasted all night and part of the Lord's Day (Sunday). In the afternoon, they went back home to tell the joyful news.

     She ever lived an earnest Christian life, and I well remember seeing and hearing her testify one Sunday morning in a Methodist love feast in the old Round Church that stood on the corner of our farm. I will never forget that scene, though I was only a small boy of four or five years, sitting beside my father on the men's side of the church, as was the custom of those days. The great tears were rolling down her cheeks while she was telling how the Lord saved and kept her with all the care and burden of her large family. That scene and that testimony kept me from skepticism and infidelity many years later after I became a man, when many times I have said there was nothing in religion, but about that time that Sunday morning in that old Methodist Church, sitting beside my father, and Mother testifying over in the Amen corner of the women's side of the church, would loom up before me, spoiling all my efforts at unbelief.

     Mother died as she lived, and last words she ever uttered were, "Meet me in Heaven".

     Lanford settled in Moultrie County, where he is buried.

     Casinda married Samuel Nichols in 1854 (*11), and settled in Clinton County, Illinois, on a farm across the road from our farm. Several children were born to them, all but two of whom died in infancy, and the boy Willie was drowned on his fourteenth birthday, leaving them only one child, a girl, named Malinda. She grew to womanhood, but was crippled in one leg because of an affliction called white swelling. She married a man by the name of William Night. A more detailed account of this family will be found in the story of my trip back to our old home in the Middle West in 1913.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE FRENCH HISTORY

This story was related to Madison by his Aunt Lucinda during a visit with her. Although the birthdates are correct the dates of moving from state to state are not. Also additional information has been found. Lucinda was 78 at the time.

*1. Probably moved to South Carolina at the turn of the century and then to Tennessee between March 1816 and May 1819. Children found on 1850 census listed their birth places as South Carolina until March 1816. From then on, their birth places are given as Tennessee.

Mrs. Van Seters' record indicate Basney instead of Bassna.

*2. Simon French married Hulda Lyles 19 August 1830, Jefferson County, Tennessee (Marriage Record).

*3. William French married Sally Franklin 22 December 1832, Jefferson County, Tennessee (Marriage Record). Apparently married second time to a woman by the name of Sarah, born in North Carolina, 1824. Children were listed as follows on the 1850 Census of Moultrie County, Illinois page 757 no. 266-266:

Augustus French 1834 Illinois William French 1845 Illinois

Simeon French 1836 Illinois James French 1847 Illinois

Martha J. French 1838 Illinois Mary French Feb 1850 Illinois

Deuadarnia French 1840 Illinois

*4. Augustus French married a woman by the name of Keziak who was born in 1817 in Tennessee. This information and children were listed on the Jefferson County Census of 1850 page 182 no. 1287-1332:

William French 1836 Tennessee Elizabeth French 1846 Tennessee

Albert French 1838 Tennessee Joseph O. French 1847 Tennessee

Ephraim French 1842 Tennessee Heartha French Jun 1850 Tennessee

Sarah French 1844 Tennessee

*5. Moses J. French born Tennessee married Sarah Carter 10 Jan 1839, Jefferson County, Tenn. (Marriage Record) She was born in 1822 in Tenn. Their children appear on the census of Clinton County, Illinois page __ no. 671-677:

Kendrick French 1842 Tennessee Margaret French 1846 Illinois

Mary Jane French 1843 Illinois

*6. Cassinbra Cantrell and William French were married 7 October 1819, Dandridge, Jefferson, Tennessee (Marriage Record).

*7. James French married Lucinda Sasseen 7 March 1837, Jefferson County, Tennessee.

*8. Sarah French married Eli Hudson who was born in 1812 in North Carolina. Their children appear on the census of Clinton County 1850 page 769 no. 800-806:

Caroline Hudson 1841 Tennessee William Hudson 1847 Illinois

Elizabeth Hudson 1846 Tennessee Thomas B. Hudson 1849 Illinois

*9. Carr French married Nancy Elder 23 July 1848 Moultrie County, Illinois. She was born 1830 in Tennessee. They and their one child, Deidanna born 1849 in Illinois, appear on the Census of Moultrie County, Illinois 1850 page 757 no. 269-269. Carr and Nancy died before 1860, children lived with Harriet Elder.

*10. Simon French born either North or South Carolina.

*11. Samuel Nichols appears on the Census of Clinton County, Illinois 1850 page 720 no. 429-433, as the son of William and Melinda Nichols, born 1833 in Illinois.

*12. Clinton County, Illinois page __ no. 514-519:

Joseph French 43 Farmer born South Carolina

Carlyle, Clinton County, Illinois page 671 no. 288-293:

Joseph French 54 Farmer born North Carolina

Jane 57 Tennessee

Joseph 20 Laborer Illinois

Oliver 18 Illinois

Leford 16 Illinois

Sarah 16 Illinois

J_?_fers m. 8 Illinois