A History of the Bess FamilySynopsis of Chapters I and II
The Bast families were peasants, living in the lower Palatinate of Germany. The first of which we have any history was Wilhelm Bast, a farmer in the area. He was married to Anna Michael, a daughter of John Michael, a neighboring farmer. Reportedly these farms were on a plain lying between two of the Bavarian Alps. Near the end of the 17th century, the family emigrated into Switzerland in order to escape the armies of King Louis XIV of France, who invaded the land of the peace-loving people of the Palatinate who were unarmed and without means of defending themselves and their families. They received news that the invading army was coming to their valley, destroying property and livestock, taking grain and horses, burning homes and crops. Because he could not control the Palatinate, King Louis, in 1700, decided to destroy it by fire and sword. He gave the citizens of the region three days to leave if they wanted to escape death. Our ancestors had no recourse but to flee, leaving all their possessions behind them. They crossed the Upper Rhine into northern Switzerland where they found refuge and work in a valley in the Alps. Wilhelm and his wife, Anna, are said to have had seven sons, four of whom were probably born before they left for Switzerland. All were very large men, 6’2” and over. Our ancestor, Wilhelm Bast, Jr., named for his father, was born in Switzerland in 1713. The family returned to the Palatinate, when Wilhelm Jr. was very young, after peace had been restored and news of the death of Louis XIV reached them. They again started from scratch as their home and possessions had been destroyed by the French army. All had to work for the bare necessities of life and there was no opportunity for the children to get an education. All of the Bast sons were eager to emigrate to the New World, having had a relative who had previously come to the New World and written back glowing letters of the good life he was living. The English Quaker, William Penn, of German descent, sympathized with the troubles of the German people of the Palatinate. Because of a royal debt owed to Penn’s father, the English King granted Penn a huge tract of wilderness in the New World. Impressed with the Palatinate people’s knowledge of agriculture and husbandry, as well as their religious and moral views, he extended invitations to potential settlers, selling them land at ten cents an acre, He envisioned his piece of the New World as providing a tolerant haven for all religions. His vision became a reality as Pennsylvania became the only colony with a diversity of religious beliefs, with each respecting the rights of its neighbors. Many Palatinate Germans emigrated to Pennsylvania, living simply and working hard. They faced the hardships and suffering of pioneer life in the wilderness with the same courage they had faced in their difficult lives in the Palatinate and in Switzerland. Known for their industry, they prospered in the New World, though they lived quietly and clung to their native language and customs for several generations, only slowly integrating with their English and Scotch-Irish neighbors. They became known as Pennsylvania Dutch, although they were not Dutch. Besides the Palatinate Germans, German speaking Swiss and some French Huguenots were among the settlers. Wilhelm and Anna agreed that their sons should leave the Palatinate but that they themselves were too old to begin a new life again and asked that one son remain behind to care for them in their old age. None of the boys volunteered to stay but they agreed to draw lots to decide, as their father had taught them they should do when they failed to agree upon a course of action. Their son, John Michael, drew the deciding lot and remained in Germany until both parents had died, coming to America in 1749. Wilhelm, Jr. had planned from boyhood to emigrate to the New World as soon as it was possible. He had already begun to save when he learned that the parents of the girl he planned to marry, Anna Susanna Schaeffer, born about 1717, were about to emigrate themselves. Although Wilhelm had not planned to marry so soon, Anna Susanna would have been obliged to go with her parents and, although she wished to emigrate, she did not want to leave Wilhelm. To prevent this from happening, they moved up the date of their marriage and were married in 1732, the year Anna’s parents emigrated to the New World. Wilhelm was 19 and Anna was about 15. Born to them in 1733 was a son, also named Wilhelm (III). In 1735 their daughter, Susanna, was born. Wilhelm Jr is said to have given Anna’s father the money he had saved, asking him to buy extra land for them when Mr. Schaeffer found where he wished to settle, plus the necessities to see them through the first year until they could clear land and raise a crop. Mr. Schaeffer eventually arrived in America and purchased land in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. By 1738, Wilhelm Bast, then 26, and his wife Anna Susanna had finally saved enough to emigrate to America. They came on the ship Winter Galley with their two children. A third child, Anna Elizabeth, was born during the voyage. The Commander of the ship was Edward Paynter, the voyage began in Rotterdam, with a stop at the English port of Deal, before eventually debarking in Philadelphia on September 5, 1738. . Reportedly the fare was 5# sterling and the trip took over six weeks. Although the passengers were allowed to take few possessions, they had to take their own food. During this voyage, Wilhelm became known as William Best. Although there is no record of where Wilhelm and his family lived during the first few years, it is probable that they lived in Bucks County, where the Schaeffer’s had bought land. Eventually he secured 157 acres of land near Walnutport, in Northampton County on the east bank of the Lehigh River, in 1748. William paid 24# sterling, 6 shillings, and 8 pence, plus a yearly quit-rent of ½ penny sterling per acre. At this time there were less than 100 people living in Lehigh Township. The land was unbroken wilderness with many wild animals with which to contend. The land had to be cleared before it could be planted. Because immigrants could not bring many tools, they had to use those they could make, ax, saw, hoe, grubbing mattock. William and his wife both had to work very hard. It took some time to clear the land, fell trees, and prepare logs for building, then construct a log house and crude furniture. In the meantime they had to make brush fires upon which to prepare food, and keep them going all night to keep wolves away, until their shelter was ready. Packs of wolves could be heard howling at night and when the log house was built, they sometimes crawled on the roof. Later William turned his attention to building a shelter for the cows and sheep. Game was plentiful in the forest but until they had rifles, the game had to be trapped and the trapped animals provided meat and furs. It is said that William taught his son, William III, to shoot a squirrel in the head using only one shot, so as not to waste ammunition. This son was only five years old when the family settled on the frontier but he had to work, also. With both parents busy at the farm work, the child had to watch the cows, keeping them away from the planted area, and grazing from the brush around the edge of the cleared area. The cows were belled to keep wolves and other wild animals from attacking and also to aid in finding them to be milked and stabled at night. In addition to watching the cows, young William gathered sticks to replenish the fire. William’s land was near an old Indian trail from the North Branch of the Susquehanna River, not far from the Lehigh Gap. It was part of the ”Walking Purchase” made in 1737, the year before William’s arrival in America. The Unami Delawares were said to have sold a hunting tract to William Penn, to be measured by the distance a man walks in a day and a half. By Indian custom, a day’s walk meant a walk as Indians traveled, with time to hunt, prepare meals, make a campsite and rest. It would cover about 20 miles. A walk of a day and a half would extend 30 miles. The white man had a different idea. They advertised for fast walkers and promised a prize of 25 pounds and 50 acres to the winner. Riders were hired to carry provisions, including rum, sugar, and lime juice to fortify the ‘walkers.’ They arranged not a walk but a race. It took place on September 19, 1737 and by noon of the second day, the walk ended at a point not of the 30 miles meant by the Indians but of 60 miles. The Walking Purchase further embittered the feelings of the Delaware toward the settlers. The French were able to take advantage of the Indians’ discontent, eventually bringing on the French and Indian Wars of 1753-1763. The Indian war parties began to harass the frontier, striking isolated farms, murdering the inhabitants, taking captives, killing livestock, burning crops and buildings. By the end of October of 1755, the whole frontier, including our William, was in flight. There is a family tradition that the Best family was warned when the Indian raids were imminent, by an Indian whom they had befriended earlier. Supposedly, little William was lost in the woods, found by an Indian boy and led home. The grateful Best family showered the Indian with gifts, became friends and often visited. It is this Indian who is said to have come and warned them of danger prior to raids in their area. This warning gave them time to load their most prized and necessary possessions on a wagon and flee towards Easton, driving their livestock before them. Some descendants claim to have pewterware and a prized Frankfort chest brought from Germany by William and carried to safety during the Indian raids. After all their hard work, the Best family was once again reduced to poverty. Both William Jr and his son William III were soldiers in the French and Indian War. After the families had fled, the men returned to try and prevent further damage by the Indians. Much of their work consisted of keeping a close watch on Indian trails and reporting to one of the forts any signs of Indian approach. During the cold winter they suffered greatly from exposure and hunger. Because buildings along the trail had been burned, they had no shelter and it was risky to build even small fires to cook food or warm themselves as it could reveal their locations to the Indians. Some of the men had no weapons and ammunition was scarce. It is said that William Jr.’s health was seriously undermined by the hardships suffered during this period. After several peace treaties were made, petitions were written to the Governor and General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, asking for help in protecting themselves and several block houses were built and troops sent to garrison them until the cessation of hostilities in 1758. William’s mark can be seen on several of these petitions. William Best Jr. died at age 49, on November 24, 1762, in Lehigh Township, and is reportedly buried in the St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery in Indianland, Lehigh Township, in Northampton County, PA. He and Anna Susanna had 10 children as far as is known. They followed the German custom of double naming the children, with John being a favorite for the sons, Maria and Anna for the daughters. Reportedly our Best families used John as the first name of all the sons for several generations although they were generally referred to by the second name. His health undermined by hardships during the French and Indian Wars, William Jr died of complications following a severe cold. He left a wife and children, with the youngest, John Michael, only a year old. His tombstone inscription in German is translated as: “Here rests Wilhelm Best. He was on this world born in 1713 and died the 24th of November 1762.” The funeral text was, “I have the good fight fought.” (2 Timothy 4:7&8). William Jr. died intestate, without leaving a will. In 1769 his estate was appraised and it was decided the land could not be justly divided among the children ‘without prejudice’ and without spoiling the whole, and so William III was permitted to buy the land and pay his brothers and sisters their share within a year. William Jr’s widow, Anna Susanna, later supposedly married a man named Peter Lobaugh and moved to the mid-west. Because Mr. Lobaugh was “a stern stepfather,” William III had guardians appointed for the minor children of his father in 1769. Anna Susanna’s date and place of death are not yet known at this time. Later, leaving the homestead to his brother, Henry, William III moved to western Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County, where he cleared and cultivated a large farm and had a grist and saw-mill on the north branch of the Sewickley River. He was Captain and Court Marshall of a Westmoreland County military company to defend the frontier settlements against raids of the British and Indians during the Revolution. He was a member of the Harrold Lutheran community, and later a deacon and elder of the Lutheran Church in Greensburg. He lived in Greensburg, Westmoreland County until he was quite old and then, about 1821, he went to Clarion County where most of his children had already settled. The Clarion County Bests were the nucleus of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church near Knox, Beaver Township, which was at one time called “Best’s Church.” There is some controversy about the women to whom William III was married. Historically he was married twice, first in 1763 to Anna Catherine (perhaps nee Kuster, daughter of Ludwig Kuster, or perhaps Anna Catherine Haag, or Hawk). She died about 1776 and William remarried about 1778 to his much younger cousin, Anna Catherine Dorn. Five children are known of the first marriage, seven by the second. However, a son who is our direct ancestor, Cornelius Best, is known in none of the histories or records left in Pennsylvania. He was supposedly born in 1762, but all church birth and marriage records from around this time were burned in a fire in 1812. It is possible there was another wife, presently unknown, who would have been the mother of Cornelius. Two children have never been located by name in the Best research, one was possibly our ancestor, Cornelius. William Best III died in 1823 at the age of 90 and was buried in St. Paul’s Lutheran Cemetery, Beaver Township. A History of the Bess Family, Part II According to family history, Cornelius Best (1763-1835) was the son of Wilhelm and Anna Catherine Dorr Best. Although he reportedly served in the Revolutionary War with his father, no verification of this has been found. He would have been only about 13 years of age at the time, but this probably would not have been unusual under the circumstances. As mentioned earlier, Westmoreland County had its own militia and so few of its citizens served in the Regular army. There is mention of a Cornelius Best in the Westmoreland County PA Supply Tax index of 1788. He is listed as living in Rostraver Township and owning 2 horses and 2 cows. So far, this seems to be the only verifiable link to the William Best family. Again, according to family history, Cornelius married Elizabeth (no other information known at this time) and, after the War, they moved to Kentucky. Kentucky Tax records of 1790, also called the “First Census” after the loss by fire and flood of most official Federal Census records, show Cornelius as living in Nelson County, KY. Kentucky Census records for 1810 list Cornelius in Bullitt County, in the “45 years of age and over” column, with three sons between the ages of 10 and 16 and one son between 16 and 26. In 1820 he has one son, age 16-18 and 2 sons between 16-26. Besides his wife, there were 2 females between the ages of 27 and 45.
In the year 1818, the Illinois territory had achieved statehood, despite having less than the required 60,000 inhabitants needed for statehood. One of the earliest settlements in Central Illinois was Stout’s Grove. The community of Stout’s Grove was founded in 1825 by Ephraim Stout. The Stouts lived on their farm for many years, building a mill in about 1830, “which was for many years a favorite resort of the settlers every Saturday…to tell the news to each other and talk over the affairs of the neighborhood.” Reportedly, he and his family later moved to Oregon. His brother, Hosea Stout, was the second school teacher in the area. He later converted to Mormonism, moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, and later Salt Lake City, Utah, and became one of Brigham Young’s 12 Apostles. In 1830 the Old Northwest Territory was comprised of the three states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, as well as the Wisconsin and Michigan Territoriesm and had a combined population of 1,470,081. It was the timber groves, not the prairie, which attracted early settlers to the McLean County area. The grove acted like an oasis in the desert of prairie grass that the pioneers had been traveling through. The timber areas provided the settlers with materials to make tools, construct homes, and erect churches and businesses. The most important timber in McLean County was Stout’s Grove and it attracted early settlers who located along the south and east sides of the Grove. Until 1831 the settlers had a variety of game. Prairie chickens and wild turkeys were plentiful and wildcats and wolves were so common that they were often seen during the daytime, within fifty yards of the houses. A widely used trail was originally called the Old Indian Trail, later Old State Road. Most of the people who lived along the Indian Trail were of Scotch, Irish or English descent. There were few settlers of German descent at this time. This road later was called the Peoria Road and connected Bloomington and Peoria. In September of 1832, an order came down from Washington for all Indians in the area to move to their lands west of the city of St. Louis. Most of the Indians at that time were of the Kickapoo and Potawatomi tribes. It was during this time that Cornelius and his family settled in McLean County, Illinois, where they began farming near Lexington, Illinois, and had nine children. According to family history, they also ran an inn and tavern for the accommodation of the stagecoach travelers on the Old State Road (Old Indian Trail) between Bloomington and Peoria but as of yet, there is no verification of this report. The only inn/tavern on a stagecoach line that can yet be verified, the Wayside Inn, belongs to Alvin Goodenough, a settler from Massachusetts. In September of 1836, just southeast of Stout’s Grove in Dry Grove Township, the towns of Concord (later renamed Danvers) and Wilkesborough were established as speculative ventures. Less than a mile apart from each other, these two towns spent the next two decades battling for inhabitants and commerce. Wilkesborough flourished for a while and had 70 lots, including a village common or square, a post office, blacksmith shop, and a store. In 1837, there was a national depression and many McLean County communities collapsed. Those towns which managed to survive grew slowly, attracting few residents or businesses. Cornelius is listed on the IL McLean County 1840 Federal Census, for the first time, as Cornelius Bess. According to the Census, he was between 40 and 49 years of age, with a male under the age of 5, two females under 5, two females between 5 and 9, and one female between the ages of 40 - 49. His occupation is listed as ‘agriculture.’ According to a descendent of theirs, the Best surname changed to Bess after ‘some kind of scandal back in Kentucky’, but there is no verifiable information on this as yet. Within 30 years, between 1830 and 1860, the population of the Northwest Territory had grown to nearly 7 million. Immigration was responsible for this increase, with most people coming from the South or the eastern United States, but large numbers also appearing from Ireland and the Germanic states. About 1850, according to family history, Cornelius and Mary Barbara cleared and farmed land purchased from the Government in the NE corner of Section 18, in Danvers Township, later known as the Robert Kaufman farm. According to the 1850 Federal Census of Dry Grove Township, McLean County, Cornelius and Mary Barbara are listed as farmers, with seven children. Their son, Jackson, our great-grandfather, was 7. Other children included Margaret, 21, who had been born in Indiana, George W, age 19, Sarah J, age 18, Elizabeth 9, , Catherine 6, Allan 5,Marion 3, and Moses 1.
In 1860 the family is listed in the Census as living in Danvers Township, with the post office being at Stouts’ Grove. They have seven children, a real estate value of $600, and personal estate value of $300. The innkeeper, Alvin Goodenough, appears listed directly after the Bess family in this Census where both he and Cornelius are listed as Farmers. The Census reports Cornelius and Mary as both being 53 years of age (ages listed in Census Reports seem to be notoriously inaccurate). George is now 27, Elizabeth is 20, Jackson is 19, Catherine is 17, Allen is 16, Marion is 13, and Moses is 10. Soon, Andrew Jackson and his brother, Allen, will be recruits in Co. D, 3 IL Cavalry and fighting in the Civil War. Sarah has probably married Mr. Jacob Irons and is living in Congerville. In those days of no doctors, Mary’s medical remedies and nursing skills were known and appreciated by many of her neighbors, it is reported.
In 1861, Cornelius and Mary Barbara’s daughter Elizabeth married Winchester Lott. In 1865, their daughter Catherine married Peter Lawrence. In 1866 their son, Andrew Jackson, later to be our great-grandfather, married Jane Ann Lane. On August 15, 1868, Cornelius died at age 64 in the log cabin they had built. In the battle for dominance between Concord and Wilkesborough, the town of Concord eventually emerged victorious after a series of unsuccessful internal improvements in Wilkesborough. The relocation of the post office from Wilkesborough to Concord in 1848 further diminished Wilkesborough’s importance and it was finally finished in 1869 when the Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Western Railroad was routed through Concord, newly renamed Danvers. In 1873, Francis, a daughter of Cornelius and Mary Barbara, married Mathena Carica. In 1876, the youngest Bess son, Moses, married Jennie Swesey. In 1882 his older brother, Monroe, married Mariette Hudson. Moses Soloman Bess b. abt. 1849 and married Elizabeth Jane Swesey (or Sweazy?) They moved to Kansas and then to Washington State where they lived in King Co. in an area called Sunnydale. They raised 6 children: William Walter Bess, Charles O. Bess, Lewis R. Bess, Blanch Bess, Lillie Bess, Lula Bess and Freddie Bess. William Walter married Bessie Eithel Attebery (various spellings exist) and they had 2 children; Dorothy Avalon Bess b. 1911 d. 1975; and Pauline Vivian Bess b. abt. 1913 Mary continued on the farm for many years before moving to live with her daughter, Sarah (born 1836) and son-in-law Jacob Irons (born 1832) in Congerville. Her last three years of life were spent with her son, Andrew, in Danvers. She died on April 1, 1900 at age ’89 y. 10 m. and 11 d.’ and is buried next to her husband in the Gilston Cemetery near the Old State Road in Dry Grove Township. This was originally called the Christian Church Cemetery and a church was located there until about 1900 when it was put on logs and rolled several miles away where it eventually fell into disrepair, was used as a storage shed, and finally destroyed. The oldest stone is 1850 and the latest is 1900, Mary’s stone. In the cemetery are reportedly 73 graves of which about 29 markers are left. This cemetery has been neglected, vandalized and stolen from numerous times over the years but was restored and stones reset by the Dry Grove Township in which it is located. The Township now regularly maintains this small cemetery. According to a neighbor who lives nearby and often visited the cemetery as a child, the graveyard was once covered in lily-of-the-valley which he used to pick and present to his mother as bouquets, a memory he recounted as his eyes began to mist, remembering the past. The cemetery presently is surrounded by a soybean field. Along with Cornelius and Mary Barbara’s stones is a now illegible stone, probably one of their babies. It is most fortunate that the two Bess stones remain clearly legible. Although family history reported the Gilston Cemetery was originally known as the United Brethren Cemetery, this was apparently in error as the United Brethren Cemetery is abandoned, with no gravestones or markers remaining. This cemetery was also known as the Christian Church Cemetery. Andrew Jackson Bess (March 28, 1843-1926), son of Cornelius and Mary Barbara, was born in Lexington, McLean County, IL. He served in the Third Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, Consolidated Company D, during the Civil War as a recruit, along with his brother, Allen. Their names can be seen inscribed on the Civil War Monument in Miller Park in Bloomington. Andrew initially enlisted on June 9, 1862 to serve three months duty. He was honorably discharged on October 23, 1862 ‘by reason of Special order of E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War (No objection to his being re-enlisted is known to exist.)” At the time of his enlistment on December 28, 1863 in Company I,, Andrew was 5’9” with a light complexion, hazel eyes, and brown hair. He signed up for three years of service, was sent to a Memphis Tennessee hospital ‘sick’ with rheumatism on February 5, 1864, served in Germantown, Tennessee, and was listed absent from service at Nert, Kentucky “since July 19, 1864 as of Company D, similarly in November 1864, then served in Little Rock, Arkansas and was mustered out of Company D and on Christmas Day of 1864 was absent in Convalescent Camp Edgefield, Tennessee. He is listed as having deserted on June 29, 1865 until July 1, 1865. He was then discharged on November 10, 1865. In a June 18, 1887 Department of the Interior form for the Bureau of Pensions, petition for removal of charge of desertion was made and the charges of desertion of June 20 and July 10, 1865 were removed ‘under the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved July 5, 1884.’ He was then considered ‘absent without proper authority from Jun 29, 1865 to October 10, 1865.’ According to a statement made by Andrew later in his life, he was at Overton Hospital in Memphis from January 1864 for two months. He was treated at the Post Hospital at Paducah, Kentucky from the middle of October 1864 for about three weeks. Both hospitalizations were for rheumatism. This was later verified by the Surgeon General’s Office but neither report seems to cover the dates listed as desertions. According to the Adjutant General’s Report from that time, the Third Cavalry saw action in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Vicksburg, VA, and was active for fifty months. The Third Cavalry was organized at Camp Butler and ‘mustered in’ on August 27, 1861. It operated in Missouri until the next summer, on guard duty, then went ‘over into Arkansas and returned in December, and six of the companies went down to Vicksburg. It had lost, in an all-day engagement on March 7, ten men killed and forty wounded. One Captain and five men were drowned in crossing the White River on the 25th of May. On the 7th of June, Capt. Sparks, with sixty-six men, cut his way through a greatly superior number of the enemy, losing four wounded and four prisoners. The regiment did good service in Tennessee, around and below Vicksburg, participating in several engagements.” The regiment was mustered out of service on October 18, 1865. According to another section of the Adjunct General’s report, Andrew was “under arrest at M.O. [Mustering Out] of Regiment.” The Report concludes, “As will be seen, the Third Illinois Cavalry, during the fifty months of its service, did some quarrelling (sic), some fighting, some raiding and scouting, some ornamental work around headquarters – possibly too much of that – and it marched more thousands of miles than any one can tell. Some of the boys may have plucked ripe chickens from rebel roosts, and they may have been in at the untimely death of some of the rebel pigs, -- and they may have done other things not necessary to be mentioned in history, -- but in the aggregate of all that was done and accomplished by this military organization, by both officers and men, it may be said in all candor that as a body of patriotic men, as soldiers and citizens, they are deserving well of the State and the Nation.” Andrew was honorably discharged on [October]November 10, 1865 with a 3 month, 11 day deduction in service ‘on account of desertion,’ having a ‘length of pensionable service of 1 year, 10 months, and 22 days.’ Throughout much of the rest of his life, he applied for pension and pension increases due to rheumatism and hernia. Note: Not all Illinois troops were in favor of freeing the slaves of the South. In the 138th Illinois Cavalry unit, all but 35 soldiers deserted, reportedly saying they would “lie in the woods until moss grew on their backs rather than help free the slaves.” Jane Ann Lane (1846-1924) and Andrew were married on September 10, 1866 by Judge McClunn in McLean County. Jane Ann (“Jennie Ann” on their marriage license and Andrew uses the surname “Best” once again) was born in Gloucester, England, to John Stephen (1808-1904) and Jane Sophia Matthews Lane (March 21, 1807-March 29, 1880). (See Lane Family History) By the 1870 Danvers Township Federal Census, Andrew and Jane Ann had two children, John, perhaps 3, and Jemima, one year. Their real estate value is listed as $200, as was their personal estate value. Andrew is listed as a Farmer, while Jane Ann ‘keeps house.’ Family farms, actually extended-family farms, dotted the McLean County landscape in the 1870’s. Two, sometimes three, generations worked the land, shared the chores and lived on the same acreage. More often than not, they were helped by a hired man. Fences were put up everywhere to keep the grazing livestock out of the fields and the chickens out of the garden. Picket and rail fences had come first, then barbed wire in the 70’s. Osage hedges often served the same purpose, but the hedges took up too much valuable land and most of them were eventually pulled out. In the 1880 Federal Census, Andrew and Jane have two sons, John and Edward, and two daughters, Amelia and Mary Jane. There is no information from the 1890 Census as nearly all of this Census was destroyed or badly damaged in a fire in Washington in 1921. Less than one percent of the 1890 Census lists survived, none for McLean County. However a pension increase form states that Andrew and Jane were living in Woodruff in 1890. An 1894 McLean County History book reports that Danvers has “a bank with a capital of $25,000, a water-works that cost $11,000, an electric light plant, a town hall, a public library, three dry-goods and grocery stores, three physicians, three hardware stores, two implement houses, three blacksmith shops, three grain elevators, three restaurants, and two saloons. The town also has a weekly newspaper, ‘The Danvers Dispatch’. The Willow Bark Sanitarium, for the cure of drunkenness, the tobacco, cigarette and morphine habit, established in 1892, has an average attendance of some twenty patients and is doing much good.” The “Willow Bark’ treatment was based on a conditioned reflex, whereby a person was given a bitter liquid before he could have a shot of whiskey. Supposedly, after a while, the person was not anxious to have a drink of whiskey if he had to drink the bitter liquid first. However, once the patient left the sanitarium, there was little incentive to continue the bitters and a relapse soon occurred. This sanitarium remained open until finally closing down around June 1950. As early as 1887, Andrew was filing pension claims that he was unable to earn a support by reason of rheumatism of the left leg joint and ‘bursted veins with constant pain…can’t rest with it cannot do any work of any kind hardly.’ This was usually contested by the military physicians who were assigned to examine him until some years in the future, although his personal physicians verified his claims of being unable to do heavy work, even being excused from labor on roads about five years ago being unable to perform heavy work.’ Later applications contained a complaint of a ‘left inguinal hernia’ suffered when he was ‘thrown into pummel of my saddle in May or June 1864 resulting in rupture of left side’ of testicles. A refrain questioned and answered often about the hernia was that it was not due to ‘the result of any vicious habits’ and that Andrew was ‘not a drinking or quarrelsome man.’ He then had to provide affidavits from friends and acquaintances that he was sober and peaceable…without bad or vicious habits. Many other affidavits were filed by friends, neighbors, and family concerning the length of time he complained of rheumatism and how often he had to quit work because of it. Even his mother, Mary Barbara, now living in Wyoming, Illinois, in Stark County, offered an affidavit in 1883, signing with ‘her mark.’ It was difficult for him to prove when the hernia had occurred because ‘the hurt was of a private nature and I felt delicate about telling my comrades of it.’ In one letter, he tells Stoddart & Company attorney, Mr. Stoddart [who apparently asked him for proof of service-related cause of the hernia, “Concerning my rupture this I cannot do of any of my comrads (sic) as none of them knew any thing of it as I have told you time and again that the surrounding circumstances caused me to keep it to myself as a secret and suffer it all to myself and do duty all the time In a Bureau of Pensions form dated January 15, 1898, Andrew wrote that he and Jane Ann had eight children, J.T. Bess (9/22/1867), Amilia A. Bess (1/1/1869), Mary J. Bess (2/27/1872), Edward F. Bess (7/15/1878), Martha E. Bess (11/7/1880), Jessie C. Bess (5/21/1883), Hugh Bess (9/17/1887), and Myrtle Bess (1/1/1888).
In 1909, Andrew and Jane’s son, Hugh, a motorman for the Illinois Traction System, (I.T.S.) for two years, was killed on February 19, at ‘23 years, 5 months, and 2 days’ by ‘contact with a live wire while at Altic siding, four miles north of Lincoln.’ According to the Pantagraph article telling of his death, the family was living on ‘their family farm in Woodruff.” His mother and a sister accompanied his remains from Lincoln to Woodruff. In a 1915 pension questionnaire, Andrew noted that of 14 children ‘born to us,’ seven were dead. The daughters are now listed with their married names, Anna Smithhouser, Daisy Miller, Ella Owens (sic), and Myrtle Musselman. By the 1920 Census, again in Danvers, all of the children have moved out, and Andrew and Jane have two grandsons living with them; Forest, age 15, a son of Edward’s from his marriage to Myrtle Odom, and Phivens, age 17, both working as laborers on the farm. Andrew is apparently retired, age 76, Jane Ann is 73. In 1924, Jane Ann passed away at age 78. In a Soldier’s Affidavit for Pension, Andrew declared that he owned 17 ¾ acres of real estate valued at $2,500, with a house and lot valued at $800.00. He also declared a rental income of $200. His physician reported that his physical disability and age required the attendance of another person but that he was able to walk alone, at times bedfast. H. H. Argo was one of Andrew’s character witnesses at this time. Andrew died on January 9, 1926 at age 83. According to the family history, Jane Ann nursed ‘for years with doctors’ until her death. She was midwife for at least one grandchild, our mother Fay, and may have learned her nursing skills from her mother-in-law, Mary Barbara. Records from the National Archives and Records show Andrew’s Civil War pension ranging from what seems to be semi-annual payments of $2.00 in 1880, $6.00 in 1895, $8.00 in 1900, $12 in 1903, was raised from$16.50 in 1912 to $21.50 per month, to $27 in 1918. In 1918 he was receiving “the maximum rates to which he is entitled…for attained age and pensionable service.” In 1924, his pension was raised from $50.00 per month to $72.00 per month, at which it remained until the time of his death in 1926. Andrew occasionally displayed a frustration with the rate of increase, saying in a July 16, 1916 letter to the 17th Illinois District Congressman, Frank H. Funk, “…in return will try as best I can to answer it rite a way. I am much surprised to know that a man near 82 years old and so awfully afflected as I am that I would have to be almost dead before I could get a scant increase on my pension which I am lawfully entitled to. Of course I can git to bed and out of bed myself but am a punishing all the time. My doctor says he don’t see what kind of men you have there to [do] business for the poor men that served their country over a half century a go…now mr. funk I know that I am not long for this world and in a bad fix can’t do eny work - have six ailments working on me and still move a round but slow now mr funk do as best you can for me.” Both Andrew and Jane Ann are buried at Stout’s Grove Cemetery, outside of Danvers, along with 7 children, aged 1 day through several years of age and their adult son, Hugh. Jane Ann’s mother and father are also buried at this cemetery. A grandson of Mary Jane (Daisy) Bess recalls the Lanes, the Bess’s, and others having 4th of July reunions on the banks of the Mackinaw River. “Some went swimming, others fishing, playing ball, the older kids shooting off fire crackers and the older folks visiting together. And, of course, at noon there were tables laden with delicious food of all kinds.” Some of the Bess descendants who remained in the Danvers area included:
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