The Hornbacks

 

McDonalds and Hornbacks Unite in 1848

            When William Power McDonald and Martha Ann Hornback married on 28 December 1848 in Menard County, Illinois, Martha could trace her family roots back five generations, while William could only trace his roots back to his grandfather, McDaniel McDonald. Ironically, Martha may not have been interested in talking too much about her background, as her mother had never married — a situation not very common at the time.

            The Hornback name was spelled Hoornbeeck or Van Hoornbeeck in Belgium and Holland; in New York records, the variations are Horenbeeck, Hoornbeeck, Hoornbeek, or Hornbeek. In Pennsylvania, the name has a variation Hornback and possibly Horback. It is spelled Hornback in the records of Hampshire County, Virginia.

            Martha’s descendants are discussed on this page.


Warnaar Hoornbeeck (1645-1715) and Margriet Ten Eyck (1658-1710)

           
It is believed that Warnaar Hoornbeeck — Martha’s great-great-great grandfather — was the first in the Hornback line, that he was born in Holland in about 1645, and that he came to America in 1660 aboard the ship de Vergulden Otter, from Amsterdam to Wiltwyck (now Kingston), New York. It is most likely that he came from either North or South Holland (the yellow areas in the map at the left), not from the present-day Netherlands. (Map courtesy of Wikipedia.)

            There are several explanations for why the details of his early life cannot be pinned down: (1) Some Dutch records were destroyed during World War II; (2) Warnaar may have been an orphan or very young and therefore not listed on the ship’s manifest; (3) He could have been a servant or apprentice with another couple. Warnaar is mentioned, for instance, in a New York court action on 18 April 1662, when he admitted "honestly the indebtedness for a pair of shoes to Pieter van Alen, shoemaker." Payment was ordered to be made in wheat. Pieter van Alen had come to America in the Guilded Beaver on 17 May 1658; the ship’s manifest lists him, his wife, two children "and boy, full fare.” Could that “boy” have been Warnaar?

            Another court action — recorded 14 Nov 1662 — in which Warrener Hoorenbeeck is the plaintiff and Jansen Stoutenberg is the defendant proves that he was in America by 1660. Warrener demanded "two hundred guilders heavy money, a couple of shirts, a pair of stockings and a pair of shoes as payment for wages earned." Jansen Stoutenberg admitted owing Warrener 80 guilders but said he had paid 30 guilders already. Warrener said he had received 30 guilders but that payment had not been made in accordance with the contract, and two years had already passed. It was ordered that Jansen pay Warrener the 80 guilders, as originally agreed, "unless the plaintiff [was] able to adduce proof of the agreement between them."

             
By 1662, at the time of this case, Warnaar was obviously settled at Wiltwyck (now Kingston) in Ulster County, New York. (Map at right courtesy of Wikipedia.) Wiltwyck was in a part of the territory called "New Amsterdam" and was a colony established near the Hudson River by Dutch "free farmers" in 1652. The name was changed to Kingston in 1669 after the British conquered the area. In 1662 Warnaar is found in a list of Hurley soldiers at Marbleton. Eight years later, in April of 1670, a proclamation was issued to "raise and exercise the Inhabitants of Hurley and Marbleton according to the disciplines of Warr; Whereupon Among the names listed for the town of Hurley was: Wardener Hornbeck."

                In 1664, the Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British without firing a shot and New Amsterdam was re-named New York. Warnaar dropped the "Van" from his name at this time and he is found in the records as a member of the Dutch Reform Church at Kingston. Between 1668 and 1670, Warnaar married his first wife, Anna de Hooges, probably at Kingston, Ulster County, New York. Anna was the daughter of Anthony de Hooges and his wife, Eva Bratt.  

                Warnaar and his first wife, Anna, had nine children:

  1. •Antoni (aka Anthony) b. ABT 1669-1671 at Hurley, Ulster, NY. d. Mar 1710 at Minisink, Orange, NY

  2. •Evaatie (aka Eva) b. 1671 at Hurley, Ulster, NY. Married Cornelius Bogard 16 Jul 1696 at Kingston, Ulster, NY. d. AFT 1712 at Ulster County, NY.

  3. •Lodewyck  b. July 1676 at Hurley, Ulster, NY. Married Maritie (aka Marie) Vernoy 9 Jul 1696 at Kingston, Ulster, NY. d. AFT 1728

  4. •Saartie (aka Sarah)  b. at Hurley, Ulster, NY. Married Stephanus Willems Titsoortr on 18 Oct 1702 at Kingston, Ulster, NY. d. AFT 1737.

  5. •Joost (aka Joseph) b. ABT 1682 at Hurley, Ulster, NY. Married Aagje (aka Achie) Van Valiet on 28 Oct 1707 at Hurley, Ulster, NY. d. AFT 1716 at Minisink, Orange, NY.

  6. •Johannes b. 1683 in Hurley, Ulster, NY. d. in infancy, Ulster, NY.

  7. •Johannes (aka John) b. 20 Apr 1683 in Hurley, Ulster, NY. Married Orseltien “Urselje” “Husselty” Westbroek on 12 Aug 1716 at Kingston, Ulster, NY. d. in 1767-1778 at Hampshire County, VA.

  8. •Marietie (aka Maria) b. 1688 at Ulster County, NY. Married Nicolaus Blanshan on 10 Jun 1710 at Kingston, Ulster, NY. D. AFT 1724.

  9. •Annetien (probable) b. ABT 1690 at Wawarsing, Ulster, NY. Married Jacobus van der Willigen on 10 Mar 1717 at Kingston, Ulster, NY. 

            Warnaar and Anna’s  marriage lasted for eighteen years until Anna's death between 1688 and 1693. There is a description of the house which Warnaar and Anna must have occupied for a short time before Anna's death:  "...Warner Hoornbeek [is] to occupy said tract and put it into sufficient fences, to build a sufficient dwelling house 30 foot long and 24 foot wide with breastwork or ye easing; that shod complete as it ought to be with two door cozens and one window middell of the said house and a barn 40 foot long and 28 wide with three leantos on each side and on the one end, the barn must be thatched; also a stack or borgh with six rods of poles according as they are commonly made. Warner Hoornbeek to pay 4 bushells of good winter wheat yearly. At the end of 10 years he is to have 30 sch. winter wheat sowed, and to leave land in good fence with house, barne and stack aforesaid...."

             Warnaar married again in 1690, at about the age of 47, to Margriet "Grriete" Ten Eyck. Margriet had been baptized on 22 October 1758/59 in New Amsterdam, Ulster County, New York, so  she was about 33 years old, and at least fourteen years younger than Warnaar, when she married him. Margriet’s parents were Matthys Ten Eyck and Jannetje Roosa. 

            Warnaar and Margriet are known to have had at least eight children:

  1. •Mathys b. ABT 1693 (baptized 14 Nov 1693)

  2. •Tobias b. 1 Sep 1695 (baptized 1 Sep 1695)

  3. •Evert  b. 15 May 1698 in Kingston, Orange, NY (baptized 15 May 1698)

  4. •Jacobus (James) b. 9 Jun 1700 (baptized 9 Jun 1700)

  5. •Marritjen b. Jul 1702 (baptized 12 Jul 1702)

  6. •Lea b. 22 Sep 1705 in Rochester, Ulster, New York (baptized 22 Sep 1705)

  7. •Rachel b. Jun 1708 in Rochester, Ulster, New York (baptized 20 Jun 1708)

  8. •Catrina b. 1710 in Rochester, Ulster, New York

            In the court records of the time, Warnaar is involved in numerous violations and requests for payment. They prove his existence and reveal that he was a family man, honest but often in debt, and perhaps a bit outspoken. At one point in his life, he apparently learned the trade of wagonmaker.

            Margreit, Warnaar's second wife, died after 1710, probably in New York. It is known that Warnaar Hornback died about five years later — outliving both of his wives and several of his children — in approximately 1715 in Rochester, Ulster County, New York.  He would have been 75 years of age. At that time he was a farmhand of Geertrude Andriessen Bratt, daughter of Andires Bratt, apparently a working man until the last of his days.

         

Jacobus James Hornbeck (1700-1757) and Margaret Helm (1713-1745)

                By the time Jacobus Hoornbeeck (Hornbeck) was baptized on 9 June 1700, at the Dutch Reform Church in Kingston, New York (Ulster County), this area was considerably different than even when his father, Warnaar, had arrived some forty years before. Located in the southeastern part of the state, the English now ran the country and presumably the estates of wealthy patroons were no more. (Map courtesy of Wikipedia.) Jacobus was Martha Hornback’s great-great grandfather.

                  Jacobus apparently grew up in the area. He met and eventually married (Anna) Margaret Helm on 16 Sept 1733, in Rochester, New York. Jacobus was 33; it was Margaret’s 20th birthday. Margaret was the daughter of Peter Helm, born in about 1679 in Holland. She was born in 1713, in Dutchess County, New York.

              The couple had possibly eight children, six sons and two daughters. They were:

  1. •Simon (aka Zimon) b. 1735 at Ulster, New York.

  2. •Anna Margrita “Margaret”    b. 1738 at Kingston, Ulster, New York. Married John Erman (or Artman) ABT 1762 in VA or PA. d. ABT 1830 at Grayon, KY.

  3. •Anthony    b. 1741 in Ulster, NY. Married Margaret. d. 1787 in Hardy, WV.

  4. •James    b. 1742 in Kingston, Ulster, New York. Married Ann and/or Nancy Holland BEF 1785.   d. ABT 1787 in Mercer, KY.

  5. •John b. ABT 1743 in Kingston, Ulster, New York

  6. •Samuel b. 1743 in Hampshire, Virginia

  7. •Michael    b. ABT 1744 in Hampshire, VA. Married Clemncy Amos BEF 1772. d. AFT 1800 at Bourbon, KY.

  8. •Barbara Sue b. Unknown

             
Jacobus was living at Wawxarsing, New York, in 1742, according to some records. Sometime after that it is assumed that some of the family moved to Hampshire County, Virginia (Map courtesy of Wikipedia) as their fifth child, Michael, was born in that county in 1744. This was before the county was officially designated in 1757. Even in 1753, when the county was created, it was considered “too dangerous” because of the French and Indian War. But Jacobus, like other Hornbacks to follow, was apparently not concerned about the dangers. This area, of course, would eventually become West Virginia, not Virgina. 

                Margaret died in 1745 in Hampshire County, Virginia about one year after the birth of her son, perhaps while giving birth to her last child, Barbara Sue; she was only 32 years old. Thirteen years later, Jacobus died in about 1757— also in Hampshire County, West Virginia; he was about 57 years old. 


Simon Hornback (1735-1800) and Margaret Alkire (1740-1801)

              Simon Hornback — the oldest child of Jacobus Hornback and Margaret Helm — was baptized on 2 February 1735, probably at Ulster County, New York. He was Martha Hornback’s great grandfather.

              Sometime before 1744, when Simon was about nine years old and before his youngest brother Michael was born, Simon went with his parents to Hampshire County, Virginia. (See map above.) This would not have been an easy trip and it was a considerable distance for a family to take with young children. Fur traders first entered western Virginia in the mid-1600's with expeditions across the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains occurring in 1671. By 1712, Baron de Graffenreid, looking for places for Swiss families to settle, had visited the eastern side of the state. The first settlements in the early 1740's (when the Hornbacks arrived) were made by Welsh, German, and Scotch-Irish, many from Pennsylvania; Simon was a part of that migration, although not a member of those particular groups.

            The best agricultural land was in the Bluegrass region, and this was the first area to be settled. The Hornbacks probably migrated southwest to Virginia simply to find a "better life." They were not to know then that eventually the area they settled in would become part of West Virginia, after that portion of the state did not wish to secede from the Union in 1861.

            It was in Hampshire County, West Virginia, that Simon married Margaret Alkire in 1759. Margaret had been born in Hampshire County, Virginia, in about 1740.  At the time of their marriage, Simon was 24 years old; Margaret was 19.

            Simon and Margaret had eleven children, which Margaret gave birth to over 22 years.  She was twenty years old when her first was born, and 42 when her last was born. These children were:

  1. •John  b. 17 Dec 1760 in Virginia. Married Elizabeth Phebus on 10 Dec 1789 at Paris, Bourbon, KY. Second marriage to Marion Thomas.  d. 19 Jan 1846

  2. •Abraham  b. 21 Oct 1761 in Hampshire, West Virginia

  3. •Mary “Polly”  b. ABT 1763 in Hampshire, West Virginia

  4. •Susannah “Sussey”  b. 27 Nov 1768 in Hampshire, West Virginia. Married Isaac Newston Conyers on 20 Aug 1793 in Bourbon, Kentucky.

  5. •Isaac  b. 19 Apr 1772 in Hampshire, West virginia. Married Margaret Funk on 1 Apr 1793 in Paris, Bourbon, KY.  d. 11 Jul 1856 near Monticello, IN.

  6. •Michael “Professor”  b. ABT 1774 in Romney, Hampshire, West Virginia. Married Sarah Phillips on 25 Apr 1804 in Bourbon, KY.  d. 8 Sep 1835 in Pickaway, OH.

  7. •Jacob  b. 16 Oct 1774 at Hampshire, West Virginia. Married L. Ann Conyers on 8 Jul 1797 at Bourbon, KY. Also married Nancy Braden.   d. 4 Feb 1838 at Macon, IL.

  8. •Simon  b. 26 Oct 1777 at Romney, Hampshire, West Virginia. Married Sarah “Sally” Alkire on 8 May 1811. D. 13 Oct 1857 at Williamsport, Pickaway, OH.

  9. •Barbara Sue  b. ABT 1779 in Hampshire, West Virginia. Married Aaron Cherry after 1801. Second marriage to Adam Alkire.

  10. •Margaret “Peggy”  b. 24 Sep 1781 in Bourbon, KY. Married Jacob Funk on 8 July 1797 at Bourbon, KY. d. 4 Dec 1848 in Fountain, IN.

  11. •George H.  b. 18 Oct 1782 at Romney, Hampshire, Virginia2. Married Mary “Polly” after 1813.  d. 20 Dec 1848.

              Family legend has it — and there is evidence to support it — that Simon was an associate of Daniel Boone. Daniel Boone was born on 2 November 1734 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and became an American frontiersman and hero who helped blaze a trail through the Cumberland Gap, a notch in the Appalachian Mountains near the juncture of Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. As a youth he moved with his English Quaker family to the North Carolina frontier, and for most of his life he was a wandering hunter and trapper.

                From approximately 1744 to 1784, Simon Hornback lived with his wife and growing family in Hampshire County, Virginia. It is not known if Simon knew Daniel Boone at this time, but he certainly would have known of him. After Daniel Boone moved his wife, Rebecca, and their child to Boonesborough in 1775, more people undoubtedly felt it was safe to take their families there.

           
Along with many others who were following Daniel Boone, Simon moved his wife and family to Bourbon County, Kentucky in 1784 (nine years after Daniel's wife, Rebecca, had gone there) and they settled with Daniel Boone and his family and others. (Map courtesy of Wikipedia.) They say that at that time the place was "full of Indians." To be more secure from the attacks, settlers often came down the Ohio River from Virginia on a flat boat, then down the Licking River (which empties into the Ohio at Cincinnati) to Slate Creek. It is more likely, however, that Simon and his family would have travelled the Wilderness Road which Daniel Boone had carved through the Cumberland Gap. Since Boone left Boonesborough in 1799, it would appear that Simon and Daniel would have associated with each other for about fifteen years (from 1784 to 1799).

                Following the 1774 defeat of the Shawnees in Lord Dunsmore's War, the Cherokees remained a formidable enemy. One time while working at the salt works near where Simon worked, so family legend goes, they were attacked, presumably by Cherokees, who outnumbered them. The whites retreated from tree-to-tree, fighting as they went home. They obtained reinforcements and returned to their salt works. Another time Boone was taken prisoner by the Indians and was gone so long that his wife thought him dead and packed her few goods on mules and set out through the wilderness for Virginia. (Perhaps this is in reference to the five-month capture in 1778.)

                During and after the American Revolutionary War, thousands of settlers poured  into the region which was to become Tennessee and Kentucky, the first states to be added to the original thirteen. Entry was via the Ohio River from the north and by Daniel Boone's Wilderness Road from the Cumberland Gap on the east. Many settlers who followed people like Simon Hornback and Daniel Boone were revolutionary veterans following the enticements of land speculators. It is entirely possible as many new people came into the area, Simon and Daniel began to feel it was too crowded!

                  Simon lived in Bath and Bourbon counties of Kentucky until his death in December of 1800, only a year after Boone left to go to the Louisiana Territory; Boone would live another 20 years (to 26 September 1820, dying at the age of 86), but Simon was only 65 at his death. In Simon's will (which was probated December 1800 - January 17, 1801), he named his wife and ten of his children.  Margaret's death was in Bourbon County, Kentucky in about 1801, a year after Simon.

                Based on the Kentucky court records for Bourbon County, 1801, some of Simon and Margaret's children were considered "infant orphans" after their deaths and required a legal designation of guardian. George, the youngest (born in 1782, age 18), chose his older brother, Abraham, as his guardian in the courts of Bourbon County in April, 1801, probably shortly after his mother's death. Barbara Hornback (born in 1779, 22 years, but unmarried) chose her older brother, Michael, to be her guardian; she would eventually marry.


Abraham Hornback (1761-1833) and Elizabeth Trumbo (1773-1810)

             Abraham Hornback — son of Simon Hornback and Margaret Alkire — was born on 21 October 1761 in Hampshire County, West Virginia. (See map above.) Abraham was Martha Hornback’s grandfather, and he would play an important role in her life.

              Abraham enlisted in the Army when he was about fifteen years of age, participating in the American Revolutionary War. He was a private in Captain Abel Westfall's company, 8th Virginia Regiment, commanded by Colonel Abraham Bowman. He enlisted on 6 Feb 1776 for two years. His name first appears on the company payroll covering the period from 25 May 1776 to 30 April 1777; he was detached in July, 1777, to Captain Knox's company, Colonel Daniel Morgan's Rifle Regiment, Continental Troops. His name last appears on an undated payroll of a part of that company covering the period for December 1777, January and part of February, 1778, showing time of service as two and one-half months as discharged. He was among the soldiers paid off at Romney, the county seat of Hampshire County, West Virginia.

             Sometime after the close of the war, probably around 1784, Abraham accompanied his father and mother, Simon and Margaret, to the new frontier — what would one day become Kentucky.

              Abraham Hornback and Elizabeth Trumbo were married in Bourbon County, Kentucky, on 16 August 1791. Abraham was 30 years old, Elizabeth was 18.  She had been born on 14 February 1773 in Moorefield, Hardy County, West Virginia, and was the daughter of Andrew Trumbo Sr. and Margaret Kate Harness.

            Abraham and Elizabeth were typical pioneers, moving from one county to another, raising tobacco and struggling for a living along the frontier. Their home was in the wilderness; the trip from Virginia to Kentucky was full of many dangers, and had to be made with oxen-drawn wagons and on horseback. The Hornbacks evidently drifted about for some time after arriving in Kentucky.

             Nine children were born to Abraham and Elizabeth in Kentucky. They were:

  1. •Margaret “Peggy”   b. 6 Feb 1791. Married Asa Canterbury in 1808 or 1809 in Aberdeen, Brown, Ohio.  d. 8 Jul 1857 in Cantrall, Sangamon, Illinois

  2. •Dorthy “Dollie”    b. 14 Feb 1794 in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Married Walter D. Bracken on 28 Oct 1812 in Bath, KY. d. ABT 1818 at Bath, KY

  3. •John   b. 3 Feb 1798 in Bourbon County, KY. Married Abigail Bracken in 1818 in Bath, KY. d. 2 Dec 1857 at Petersburg, Menard, Illinois

  4. •Jesse (aka Jefro)  b. 5 Dec 1799 at Montgomery, KY. Married Elizabeth Bracken on 9 Dec 1823 in Bath, KY. d. ABT 1835.

  5. •Martha “Patsy”  b. 29 Nov 1801 in Montgomery, KY. Married Elisah Bradley on 2 Aug 1824 in Bath, KY.   d. 10 Dec 1894 in Menard, IL.

  6. •Mary Elizabeth “Polly”   b. 28 Mar 1803

  7. •Andrew Trumbo  b. 28 Apr 1807 in Montgomery, KY. Married Mahala Powell on 17 Feb 1829 in Sangamon, IL. Second wife was Jemima Cuckmore. d. 30 Jun 1895 in Petersburg, Menard, IL.

  8. •Tabitha  b. 26 Sep 1808 in Montgomery, KY. Married John S. Rentfor on 29 Oct 1829 in Sangamon, IL.  d. 27 Jan 1872 at Sigourney, Keokuk, IA.

  9. •Elizabeth    b. ABT 1810   d. at birth

              The hardships of frontier life and many pregnancies took its toll on Elizabeth, and she died at the age of 37 in September of 1810; it is possible that she died giving birth to a girl also named Elizabeth who also died. Abraham was left with eight children, ranging in age from two to nineteen. The oldest daughter, Peggy, had already married, but 15-year-old Dollie may have taken over some of her mother’s duties — at least until her father remarried. 

            About a year after Elizabeth’s death, Abraham Hornback married Elizabeth “Betsy” Mappen Bracken on 20 Sep 1811 in Bath Co, Kentucky.  Betsy Mappen was the widow of Robert Bracken, who had been a good friend of Abraham's and had died on 29 Aug 1806. The Brackens had accompanied the Hornbacks from Virginia to Kentucky. These two families remained close and three of Abraham's children from his first marriage would also marry into the Bracken family: His daughter, Dorothy, would marry Walter D. Bracken; his son John would marry Abigail "Abby" Bracken; and his son Jesse would marry Elizabeth Bracken.

              By 1825, Kentucky was becoming more settled and the new Illinois territory was being opened for settlement. No doubt stories of the possibilities of the new district reached Abraham and his wife, and certainly Kentucky was becoming busier as more and more came to the area following the end of the Revolutionary War. In the fall of 1825, the Hornback/Bracken clans were packed and on their way. Their destination was Hannah Johnson's cabin at Indian Point, Illinois.

              They went in four horse-wagons and were thirty days on the road, reaching Indian Point on 22 Oct 1825. They used the wagons to carry their supplies and household goods, but the men, women and children either walked behind the wagons or rode horseback. Three of the oxen yokes used in the move remained in the possession of the family for many years.     

             The caravan was large because Indians — “who would come to get food and stay until they got it” — were still numerous. “The traveling party killed deer and other wildlife for food, once sighting 57 deer at once. Turkeys and wild geese were plentiful, too. They fought mosquitoes, gad flies, horse flies, and rattlesnakes. Horse flies were sometimes so thick that the stock could not stay on the prairies in the day time. After a drizzly, cloudy day, when the sun came out warm, a person could not ride three miles without killing a horse. The horses had to feed at night and the pioneers hunted them in the morning. The men always carried a stick while hunting the horses, and sometimes killed four or five rattlesnakes during the morning.”

                “They had not a dollar with them, but would sometimes work for pay or for food. They husked corn and got two bushels for a day's work. At that time, a cow would sell for $7.00, a calf for a dollar. Pork was a cent a pound; corn was five cents a bushel.  Butter was five cents a pound and eggs were four cents a dozen.  Horses sold for $30 or $40, colts were $6.”

              The hardest year they experienced was 1830, the year of the deep snow. (See Past and present of Menard County, Illinois, page 24, for a description of this blizzard.)  It started snowing between Christmas and New Years and they "never saw the sun nor the moon shine for 40 days and nights." They brought their “cow, three eye sheep with lambs, a sow and eight pigs, into the house with them. The family subsisted on corn pounded in a mortar, or cooked in lye and mashed and made into bread. Their 18 x 20 cabin would have six inches of snow in it each morning and all the hickory wood they could burn would not melt it off.” Abraham was 69 years old, his youngest child, Tabitha, twenty-two years old and married the previous year. At this time, however, at least one of his daughters — his unmarried child Mary Elizabeth "Polly" — lived with him as well as her child, Martha (Abraham's granddaughter).

                
Abraham Hornback died in Menard County, Illinois, on 29 Jan 1833, just three years after that terrible winter; he was 72 years old. He was the first Hornback to be buried in the Hornback Cemetery. It is reported that Abraham had one time killed a deer in the timber where the Hornback Cemetery was eventually established and he stated that he wished to be buried there. He apparently laid out the area before he died. “Graham and Center made the coffin for Abraham for $18.00 and Dr. John Allen of New Salem was the attending physician; his fee amounted to $22.00.”

          “Betsy” Mappen, Abraham's second wife, died on 13 Aug 1856, twenty-three years later. She is buried beside him. They are in the far southeast corner where two monuments bear their names. Hornback Cemetery, if it can still be found, is about five miles east of Petersburg, Illinois, one-half mile off State Route 123.



Mary Elizabeth Hornback (1803-1884)

           Mary Elizabeth Hornback was born 28 March 1803 in Montgomery County, Kentucky, one of the daughters of Abraham Hornback and his first wife, Elizabeth Trumbo. There were eight children born to this couple before Elizabeth died and Abraham married for a second time. Mary’s older siblings were: Peggy, "Dollie", John, Jesse, and "Patsy". Her younger siblings were: Andrew, and Tabitha. Her mother, Elizabeth, died in 1810, when Mary was only seven years old. Mary remained in the care of her father and her new stepmother when he remarried. She migrated with her father and stepmother to Illinois in 1825 when she was 22 years old.

             Although she never married, Mary gave birth to two daughters. She was never banned from being a part of the Hornbacks, however, and as the census records indicate, she was almost always living with family. Mary’s first daughter was named Martha Ann, and she was born on 29 June 1828. Her second daughter was Mary Jane, born on 2 June 1833. There may have been a third child, Catherine, born in about 1834. All three daughters were born in Sangamon (later Menard) County, Illinois. Mary's two oldest daughters both married and both died in Menard County, Illinois.

         
It is not known for sure who the father or fathers of Mary's children were, but there were plenty of family rumours. Based on the oldest daughter's appearance (the only known photograph of Martha is at right, but there is no photograph of Mary), it was thought that she might have "had Indian blood with her dark eyes, straight hair, and high cheek bones." Another story was that Mary's daughters were the children of her brother-in-law, Elisha Bradley, who had married her older sister “Patsy”. The story goes that Mary lived with her sister and brother-in-law and gave birth to a first child without difficulty and even named the child after her sister, Martha. When it was discovered, however, that Mary was pregnant with a second child, and that both children were fathered by her brother-in-law, Elisha, it is said that a ‘council of war‘ was held in the Bradley cabin, and “Patsy” Hornback Bradley refused her sister further lodging in her home.

            However, there are irrefutable facts which may make this story impossible. First of all, the records indicate that Mary travelled with her father and stepmother to Illinois in 1825. Her sister, Martha “Patsy”, however, and her brother-in-law, Elisha Bradley, remained in Kentucky: Martha had eight children, all born in Kentucky between 1825 and 1839. Her husband, Elisha, died in Kentucky in 1841, and since “Patsy” and most of her children died in Illinois between 1887 and 1909, it is assumed that she left Kentucky with her children some time after the death of her husband. It seems unlikely, therefore, that Elisha fathered Mary's children since she was in Illinois and he was in Kentucky during the crucial years of 1828 and 1833.          

            Since the family rumour suggests that Mary had a relationship with a brother-in-law, and since Elisha Bradley's life doesn't seem to fit the facts, one naturally looks at the other brothers-in-law. There are only three: the husbands of Mary's two older sisters, Margaret and Dollie, and the husband of her younger sister, Tabitha. Margaret was 12 years older than Mary and married a man three years older than herself. Her husband, Asa Canterbury, and she had eleven children, six born in Kentucky and five in Illinois. Those born in Illinois were born in 1826 or later. Thus, it would appear that Margaret and Asa were with the family when they moved from Kentucky to Illinois. It also means that Mary and her brother-in-law (15 years older than her and the father of at least eight children) were certainly together in Illinois during the time of the births of Mary's children in 1828 and 1833; her sister was clearly married to Asa, living in Illinois, and giving birth to children as well. Could the family rumour have the wrong brother-in-law?

            Another brother-in-law was Walter Bracken who was married to Mary's older sister, Dorothy (usually called "Dollie"). It is not known for sure but it is assumed that Walter Bracken was the son of Mary's stepmother, Elizabeth Betsy Mappin Bracken. Born in 1793, Walter would have been only ten years older than Mary and may have even been in the same home when their parents married. Walter and Dollie married in 1812 in Kentucky, but they had only three children: Eliza, Sarah, and Oliver. Nothing is known about Eliza, but both Sarah and Oliver were married in and later died in Menard County, Illinois. Dollie died in 1818, so it is very possible that the widowed Walter traveled with his two or three young children and the rest of the Hornback/Bracken clan to a new life in Illinois in 1825. He died in 1864 in Menard County, Illinois, with no record of a second marriage. Is it possible that he fathered the daughters born to Mary in 1828 and 1833? This would seem possible and, in fact, more possible than either of the other three brothers-in-law. As well, there was a strong connection between the Bracken and Hornback families with several of the children of Abraham Hornback marrying his second wife's children from her first marriage. Walter Bracken may very well have spent time in his mother's home and gotten to know his stepfather's daughter, Mary, and he had already married one of her sisters. If Walter was the father of Mary's children, the question still remains: Why didn't they marry?

            The fourth possibility is John Renfor, who married Mary’s youngest sister, Tabitha, in 1829 in Illinois. Is it possible he courted both sisters and fathered both of Mary’s children in 1828 and 1833? It’s definitely possible, as they were living in the same area and of a similar age.

              No one will ever know what happened, but it is clear that Mary was never ostracized by her family, as she moved to Illinois with her father and sometimes lived with her brother. Later in life she lived with her daughter and son-in-law.

            Mary cannot be found in the 1830 and 1840 censuses, though she was likely living with her father and stepmother, as her children were born during this time. In 1850, she is listed as living with her brother, John Hornback, and his wife, Abby (Abigail Bracken). With them are John and Abby’s children: Robert, 215; Abram, 18; Andrew, 12; William H, 10; and Artemisia, 8. Mary is 46 years old. Also living in the household is a young woman of 16 named Catherine. Also in the household (a total of ten people) are John and Mary’s mother, Elizabeth Trumbo Hornback who, at 74, was a widow.

            In 1860, Mary, age 58, is living with her daughter, Martha, and her husband William Power McDonald. They are in Township 18, Range 6, of Menard county. William, a farmer who values his property at $2400, and Martha, are also raising four children. Living with them is Jacob, age 22 a farm labourer. Living nearby is Mary’s younger brother, Andrew, and his wife, Mahala, and three children.

            Mary’s daughter, Martha, died on 1 June 1867, and in the 1870 Census, Mary is still living with her son-in-law, William Power McDonald, and his new wife, Mary D. Bracken Brady. Mary might very well have been helping with her grandchildren. Still living with their father were Mary Elizabeth, 19; Daniel, 17, George, 15; and William Thomas, 11; Mahala, 9; and Charles, 5.

            There is a Polly Hornback listed in an 1880 Census as being with a Howe family in Madison, Illinois. She is listed as 77 years old. This may or may not be Mary, but the name and age are appropriate.

            Mary outlived all of her siblings, as well as at least three of her brothers-in-law Elisha Bradley, Asa Canterbury, and Walter Bracken, and her two daughters, Martha and Mary Jane. She died in about 1884, at the age of 81, obviously an independent-minded woman to the last (apparently never giving up her secrets). She was buried in the Hornback Cemetery in Menard County, Illinois.


[This page researched and written by Susan Overturf Ingraham,

a descendant of the Hornbacks through Martha Hornback who married William Power McDonald.]


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