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52 Ancestors: Week 5, Isaac and Nancy (Smith) Waggoner

Orginal post: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

In 1922, The Waggoner Family: A History of the Emigrant Hans Waggoner and his Descendants was published. It includes detailed accounts of several generations of the Waggoner family based on primary sources and family stories especially for the first two generations of the family. Accounts of later generations such as my 5th great-grandfather, Isaac Waggoner Jr., were largely provided by descendants and lack primary sources. This post seeks to supplement the following excerpt taken from the book.1

ISAAC, JR., the third son of Isaac, Sr., was reared in the Carolinas, and married Miss Nancy Smith. He, his wife, and their eight children, Eda, Arina, Patsy, Liza, Dolphus, Hazel, Anonymous, and James S. came to Illinois in 1828 with the second Caravan of Waggoners. Isaac, Jr. was a Baptist and worshipped at the Lynn Creek church. He made his home about three miles south of Sullivan. As was the case with all his brothers, except George, Isaac, Jr., was a Democrat in politics. He died July 18, 1854, and was buried in the Lynn Creek graveyard.

The abovementioned marriage occurred in Rutherford County, North Carolina 21 December 1815.2 We next find Isaac Waggoner in Shelby County in the 1830 and 1840 censuses.3,4 Moultrie County was formed from Shelby County in 1843, and the 1850 census for Moultrie County helps provide more details about the children listed. A few errors should be addressed first. Arina is probably Adrah while Anonymous may refer to Menema (who is sometimes called Menemeus in family records, though primary sources are lacking for this spelling). Additionally, James S. was not born at the time of the 1828 caravan. Isaac's youngest children are also omitted.

Isaac Waggoner remarried in Moultrie County, Illinois 9 June 1850, Mary Ellen Martin.5 In the 1850 census, Isaac was living with his newly wed wife, Mary E., his children from his first marriage William S., James, Henry, and Dallas, and her children from her first marriage Cecilia A. and Thomas W. Yates.6 Eady (Waggoner) Smith and her children are recorded directly above while Jesse and Patsy (Waggoner) Crouch's family are listed directly below. Hazel Waggoner is living with the Mills family a few pages later, and a few families below them is Franklin and Adrah (Waggoner) Terry with their children. Another few pages later is Noah and Menema (Waggoner) Crouch. Adolphus had died in 1846.1 His widow, Druccila, remarried earlier in the year and is found with her husband William B. Ethridge. The only child unaccounted for is Liza.

On 16 August 1858, William Smith of Rutherford County, North Carolina made the following bequest in his will: ". . . and as my daughter Nancy Waggoner is dead an [sic] her children lives at a vast distance so that it would be uncertain whether they ever could come into this County therefore I give them five dollars . . ."7 This undoubtedly Isaac Waggoner's first wife.

Genealogical Summary

Isaac Waggoner, son of Isaac and Emsey (Holeyfield) Waggoner, was probably born in North Carolina about 1794 and died in Whitley Township, Moultrie County, Illinois 18 July 1854. He married first in Rutherford County, North Carolina 21 December 1815, Nancy Smith, daughter of William and Edna (_____) Smith. She was born in North Carolina about 1800 and probably died in what is now Whitley Township, Moultrie County, Illinois between 8 October 1844, the birth date of her last child, and when her husband remarried in Moultrie County, Illinois 9 June 1850, Mary Ellen Martin.

Children of Isaac and Nancy (Smith) Waggoner, first six born in Rutherford County, North Carolina, remainder in what is now Moultrie County, Illinois:

  1. Eady Waggoner, b. about 1816; m. Toliver Smith.
  2. Patsy Waggoner, b. about 1816; m. Jesse Crouch.
  3. Liza Waggoner, b. say 1819.
  4. Adolphus Waggoner, b. say 1822; m. Drucilla Womack.
  5. Adrah Waggoner, b. Dec. 1825; m. (1) Benjamin Franklin Terry, (2) William H. Babcock.
  6. Hazel Waggoner, b. about 1826.
  7. Menema Waggoner, b. 9 March 1831; m. (1) Noah Crouch, (2) Isaac Easley.
  8. William S. Waggoner, b. about 1834.
  9. James S. Waggoner, b. about 1837; m. Amanda Meredith.
  10. Henry Waggoner, b. Sept. 1840; m. Sarah Ann Provolt.
  11. Dallas Waggoner, b. 8 Oct. 1844; m. Julia Turney.

Child of Isaac and Mary Ellen (Martin) Waggoner, born in Moultrie County, Illinois:

  1. John Amos Waggoner, b. April 1851; m. Geneva Elmina Whitford.

  1. John Garland Waggoner and Clem Morton Boling, The Waggoner Family: A History of the Emigrant Hans Waggoner and his Descendants (n.p: n.p, 1922), 34; digital images, HathiTrust.↩

  2. Rutherford County, North Carolina, Marriage Bonds, entries by letter group, Isaac Wagner-Nancy Smith, 21 December 1815; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 102504830 > image 31; citing North Carolina Department of Archives and History (Raleigh).↩

  3. 1830 U.S. census, Shelby County, Illinois, population schedule, p. 298 (penned), sheet 150 (stamped), Precinct 4, entry for Isaac Wagner; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 5155871 > image 294.↩

  4. 1840 U.S. census, Shelby County, Illinois, population schedule, sheet 205 (stamped), entry for Isaac Waggoner; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 5154530 > image 421.↩

  5. Moultrie County, Illinois, Old Marriage Register, chronological entries by letter, Isaac Waggoner-Mary Ellen Martin, 9 June 1850; FamilySearch, DGS 5204667 > image 277.↩

  6. 1850 U.S. census, Moultrie County, Illinois, population schedule, sheet 369 (stamped), dwelling 76, family 76; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 4191988 > image 403.↩

  7. Rutherford County, North Carolina, Will Book E:352-354; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 4779261 > images 616-617.↩