Joshua McCants was born in 1821 [1] in Illinois. [2] On 30 January 1845 Joshua married Catherine Jane King in Greene Co. IL. [3] Katie was born in Illinois on 10 May 1822, the daughter of Alexander King and his wife Nancy.. She had joined the Baptist church in her early years and remained a faithful member for the rest of her life. [a]
Joshua and Katie made their new home not in Greene County, but joined up with the Peters Colony, a land settlement project originated by a group of men from England and Kentucky. They contracted, first with the Republic of Texas, later with the new state of Texas, to acquire land in several counties for settlement. Texas was anxious to increase its population in order to strengthen its defensive position, and welcomed the new settlers, mostly from Kentucky and Greene county in Illinois. Joshua was one of many from Greene county to resettle in Texas in search of land and opportunity. [4] , arriving in 1848 (Peters book) by July 1845 (ancestry Dallas book) Grand Prairie fight in November 1846.
Katie died on 1 May 1911 in Cherokee, Crawford Co. KS, of general debility. She was 89 years of age [5] and was buried in the Cherokee cemetery. [6] According to her obituary "she was a good woman unassuming in her ways, kind hearted, devoted to her husband and children." [b]
Joshua McCants and Catherine J. King had the following children:
| + | i. | Alexander K. McCants was born in Texas in August 1848. [7] He was probably born in Denton county, where his family was living in 1850. [8] Alex grew up in Texas, but his adult life was spent in Illinois, his parents' home state. The 1870 census found him, now a young man of 22, working as a farm laborer for his father in Greenfield, Green county. [9] By 1880 he had resettled in Pinckneyville in Perry county, where he kept a restaurant, and had acquired a wife, Mary. Mary was born in on 1 January 1850 [10] in Illinois of Prussian-born parents. Alex and Mary had a son, Walter. [11] Mary's baptismal name was probably Maria, as reflected on her tombstone in the Mueller Hill Cemetery in Pinckneyville, where she was buried after her death on 27 July 1883. [12] In c. 1894 Alex remarried to Mattie, born, according to the 1900 census, in August 1859 in Kentucky, the daughter of parents similarly born in Kentucky. Alex was now an insurance agent and apparently prospering, as he owned his own home, free of mortgage. Alex and Mattie had apparently lost a child, as she indicated that she was the mother of one child but had none living. [13] Mattie may be identifiable with Martha A. Ellington, born in Crittendon Co. KY, the daughter of David J. Ellington and Louisa Thompson. [14] Martha died on 20 January 1925 in Muhlenburg Co. KY, and is listed on her death certificate as Mrs. Mattie McCants. [15] There is a slight discrepancy in birthdates -- the 1900 census gives her birthdate as August 1859, the Kentucky birth record as 5 August 1857 -- but such discrepancies are not uncommon in census records. No census record has been found for Mattie or Martha McCants in Kentucky, and none in Illinois after 1910. No headstone has been found for Mattie in the Mueller Hill Cemetery in Pinckneyville, where Alex and other members of his family are buried. It would not be surprising that Mattie would have eventually returned to her home state of Kentucky, as her marriage to Alex had disintegrated by 1910. The census found Alex living alone in a rented home in Pinckneyville and working in a coal mine. [16] Mattie was living nearby, and owned her own home with a mortgage. She was supporting herself as a milliner and had an employee. [17] Alex described himself as a widower in the 1920 census, which recorded him as retired and living with his son, still in Pinckneyville. [18] Alex died in 1925 and is buried in the Mueller Hill Cemetery in Pinckneyville. [19] | |
| ii. | John M. H. McCants was born in September 1850 in Texas. [20] In 1870, when John was 19, and the family was back in Green Co. IL, John was living at home, working as a farm laborer, presumably for his father, and had attended school within the year. [21] He was still single in 1880 and living with his parents in Pinckneyville, where he worked as a coal miner. [22] He remained close to his parents, providing a home for his mother in 1900 in Cherokee, Cherokee Co. KS, where he was renting a farm, [23] a situation which continued in 1910. [24] | ||
| + | iii. | Irena Olive McCants | |
| + | iv. | James K. Polk McCants | |
| + | v. | Ann McCants | |
| + | vi. | Joshua McCants |