Joseph Henry Waggoner

Joseph Henry Waggoner was the 5th child of Amos Waggoner and Narcissa Jay (and so was the brother of Martha Jay (Waggoner) Scott, who has her own story elsewhere on this site). He was born 1 September 1832, in Shelby (later Moultrie) County, Illinois. He was co-owner of the Sullivan Express with his brother Elisha, elected Assessor and Treasurer of Moultrie County in 1861, then elected Circuit Clerk in 1864 and served in that capacity for 16 years. He was also proprietor of an abstract company in Sullivan (IL) for many years. Joseph moved to Fresno, California in 1885, then eventually moved to Santa Cruz, where he died in 1904 at age 72.

Joseph married Laura E. Henry 12 February 1858 and they had 7 children, among them Oliver Jay Waggoner and Beverly Walter Waggoner. I have in my possesion a letter written by Oliver to his Aunt "Patty" (Martha).The letter, dated 1909, is written on paper bearing the letterhead of the "California Title Guaranty Company, O.J. Waggoner, President and Manager, B. W. Waggoner, Secretary." In the letter, Oliver thanks his aunt for her recent letters telling about the family's trip from North Carolina to Illinois, and about the family. I will transcribe the letter for posting here later. Sure wish I had the letters Martha had written to him!

Francis Marion Waggoner

Francis Marion Waggoner was the 7th child of Amos Waggoner and Narcissa Jay. He was born 12 February 1837 and named by his eldest sister Martha, who was at the time reading a book about General Francis Marion of Revolutionary War fame.

***STORY UNDER CONSTRUCTION***

Picture undated; Martha died in 1915 at age 92

Martha Jay Waggoner
b. 8 January 1823 Rutherford County, North Carolina
m. 28 June 1839 Shelby County, Illinois
to Andrew Scott
d. 28 March 1915 Long Beach, California

Martha was the daugher of Amos Waggoner and Narcissa W. Jay. She moved with much of the rest of the Waggoner family--including her grandparents, Isaac Waggoner and Emsey Holyfield and numerous aunts & uncles--from North Carolina to Illinois in 1827/28. This Waggoner family were some of the earliest settlers in Shelby County, and in Moultrie County as well, which was separated from Shelby and Macon Counties in 1843.

Martha was married to Andrew Scott in 1839, and they had 9 children. Andrew died in Sullivan County, Missouri in 1857, when their youngest child was just over a year old; their eldest a young man of 16. Martha and the children moved back to Moultrie County for a time (her mother was still living; her father had died in 1854). Eventually almost all of the family made their way west; most of them went to California, including Martha herself. Some (including William Henry Harrison Scott, my great-great-grandfather) ended up in Oregon. One child, Louis Kossuth Scott, stayed in Moultrie County, where he was a Deputy County Clerk for 16 years, and then County Clerk.

In spite of this history of public service--another son was County Treasurer for a time before removing to California--there does seem to be something a little odd about this family. Nine children were born and survived to adulthood--fairly remarkable for the time. But of the nine, only four of them ever married; and of those four, three of them married members of the Gerking family! And two of them married the same Gerking--though at different times, of course. Margaret Jane Scott married James Gerking in Missouri in 1862. She unfortunately died a few years later in Oregon, after giving birth to twin girls. In 1884, Margaret's sister Susan Isabel Scott married the same James Gerking. And the Scott girls' brother, William Henry Harrison Scott, married the sister of James Gerking, Mary Margaret Gerking.

In the book "The Waggoner Family" it says of Martha: "She was one of the North Carolina emigrants and became the best historian of the early Waggoners. She was but 5 years of age when they made the long journey over the rivers and mountains from North Carolina to Illinois in 1828, yet she has given more incidents of the trip and the first years in Illinois, than any other of the family."

People interested in the History of Shelby and Moultrie Counties should check out this link:

http://www.edenmartin.com/

Here is some information from Willard's death
certificate, as passed on to me by cousin Penny Cole. (Penny is the granddaughter of Frank Jacob Britain's brother, Lawson.)
White male, widower (widower of Katherine Britain),
date of birth Aug 4, 1850, birthplace Glenwood, Iowa.
Occupation - Farmer (Retired). Father: William
Britain, place of birth England. Mother: Mary Baines,
place of birth England. Date of death: June 16, 1920
in Salt Creek, Reno County, Kansas. Buried in Alden,
Rice County, Kansas. "Cause of Death" is listed as
Heart Failure and contributory factors is Asthma. John
Britain is the one who filled out the information.

*************
Notes: John Britain was one of Willard's sons. A few things in this contradict information that I have. The first is the marital status as "widower." We have pictures in the family album of Ida Kinney, who is described as "stepmother" (of Frank and his brothers). She could have pre-decesased Willard (I have no idea when or where she was born or died) but if she did, he should properly be described as the widower of Ida Britain. I suspect, however, that he is described this way because it was one of his sons giving the information, and the sons really hated their stepmother. (I'm given to understand they weren't necessarily all that fond of the old man, either!) Likely John just didn't want to think about Ida, let alone mention her, whether living or dead.

I should also mention that Katherine was apparently Willard's second wife. Mills County, Iowa information records a marriage for "W. P. Briton" to an Alice R. Campbell in 1877. The Mormon familysearch site further records a child of this marriage, Mary. I have found no trace of either Alice or Mary through on-line resources; my assumption is that they both died sometime before Willard moved on to Nebraska. I am also uncertain of the date of that migration; a closer examination of Census records in the appropriate locales will shed light on that subject, as well as possibly on the subject of what became of the first wife and child.

There is also a discrepancy of birth dates. The information given above says 1850. His tombstone says 1856. Extrapolating from the 1860 Census, which gave his age as 2, would give a birth year of 1858 or 1857.

I think the 1850 date is way too early--there is also another child on that 1860 Census that was 10 years, and so would likely have been born in 1850 (or 1849). A definite date may be impossible to pin down.

There is a discrepancy with the death dates, also. The information above says 1920; the tombstone says 1921. In this case I am inclined to believe the death certificate information; it was presumably filled out at the time of his death and being "close" to the event should be most accurate. It would, however, be interesting to know when and by whom the stone was placed.

More information about Willard Benjamin Britain and his family can be found at:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamills/

There is a search engine for the site; remember to try all possible variant spellings on "Britain:" Brittain, Britton, Briton, etc. This information concerns a time when the spellings of names were not at all standardized.