Re: FAUBION CONNECTION
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In reply to:
FAUBION CONNECTION
9/02/01
I am descended from John Faubion, through his son, James Henry Rickman.
I have the following notes on William & Nancy (Faubion) Meredith:
1854-55 - settlement, Plum Grove, Osklaloosa twp., Jefferson co., KS : “The original settlers of Plum Grove had arrived in the new territory of the flowery prairies full of hope, determination and in the prime of their bodily vigor.The oldest of them, William Meredith and John Faubion were in their forty-seventh year.All the other fathers and mothers wre from ten to twenty years younger. All of their Missouri-born children were under eighteen.James Rickman and John Horner, the youngest of the men were each barely twenty-seven.The youngest of the wives were not yet twenty-five.”
1859 Kansas state voter list, Oskaloosa Twp., Jefferson co., p. 5 William Meredith, settlement made in June 1854, 2 adults and five children in family.
"He was of robust frame, five feet nine or ten, 'never inclined to portliness,' square-built, dark-haired, one eye 'Virginia blue,' the other brown, weighing about one hundred ninety-five pounds, a noticeable man in any assembly.Of positive though unassuming demeanor, somewhat intolerant of compromise in matters of strict probity, he held the respect and liking of all who knew him during a long and active life in the affairs of his community.He had the character of a patriarch of his tribe.Detesting servility as much as he condemned any pretense of aristocracy, he was democratic to the core."("The Old Plum Grove Colony in Jefferson County, 1854-1855," printed in The Kansas Historical quarterly, Vol. VII (1938), pp 372-373.)
Was one of the founder of Plum Grove, Kansas.Named justice for Slough Creek Township in January 1856.Was known as "'Uncle Billy."He was described as "a fine scholar" and it was said "his word was as good as his bond, and his citizenship was marked by public spirit all too modest for his services."Was appointed one of the "viewers" for a road project to connect Osawakee with Alexandria in Leavenworth county.(Id.)
Due to poor crops, a security debt for a friend and changing economic conditions, William, though among the most prosperous in the early years of the settlement, relinquished his homestead and ended his days on a rented farm, in the spring of 1888.(Id. at p. 372.)He had been delinquent on his taxes in 1873 on 480 acres in sections 11, 14, 15, 22 and 23 in township 9, range 19 (Plum Grove area).(Oskaloosa Independent, Sat., Mar. 20, 1873, p. 2, col. 3.)
William & Nancy died in the home of their daughter in law, Nancy (Jeffries) Meredith.(“Old Plum Grove Colony,” p. 374.)
I have the following notes on Mary Faubion, daughter of John Faubion (born on August 2, 1836 in Lawrence co., Indiana; died in June 1870, Plum Grove, Jefferson co., KS and was buried there):
Mary Faubion and James Henry "Jim" Meredith were the first couple to be married in Plum Grove in the year of the great drought of 1860 on December 28."[T]hey had been playmates, school mates throughout their childhood and sweethearts through their teens."Their first home was rented from a young friend who had lost his wife and baby.They purchased it in the Spring of 1870."He was leaving the territory disheartened and couldn't sell his land, his two-roomed log and lumber cabin with a twenty-acre field of corn."The farm was just outside the Plum Grove school district, two or three miles south of Hickory Point.Later they bought a home Big Slough creek halfway between Oskaloosa and Oskawee and about eight miles from Plum Grove.(Meredith, William John, "The Old Plum Grove Colony in Jefferson County, 1854-1855," publishedin The Kansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. VII (1938), pp. 354, 361.)
Jefferson county marriage index - notes Mary Faubion and James H. Meredith were married at the house of John Faubion by Henry H. Hedypath?,Minister of the Methodist church.
I have the following notes for her husband, James Henry Meredith (born 30 Nov 1837, Clay co., MO, died Aug 1885 near Lecompton, Jefferson co., KS):
1859 Kansas state voter list, Oskaloosa Twp., Jefferson co., Ks, p. 5 - J.H. Meredith, settlement made in June 1854, one adult in family.
"It used to be said that a sick man in the community couldn't make up his mind to get well without the care and encouragement of Nancy [Meredith]'s eldest son Jim, who "'could sew up a gash as well as any surgeon, bully a discouraged convalescent out of his hypo, or pull an aching jawtooth when nobody else could do anything for the suffereer.'""The Old Plum Grove Colony in Jefferson County, 1854-1855," printed in The Kansas Historical quarterly, Vol. VII (1938)
"[James Henry Meredith] was a 'man without an enemy, naturally quick-tempered, but"just and placable always," too much so for his own good, for people took advantage of his generosity.'Slender, dark-haired, blue eyed and sandy bearded, wiry and agile, he was not so robust as some of his brothers, for 'he had worked too hard before he was fully grown, the first years in Kansas." (Id. at 370-371.)
"He was a notable hunter always.The year before his death his oldtime hunting companion wanted to know if 'Jimmy still went deer-hunting the morning after the first "little skift of snow?"' -- recalling to mind how one evening at dusk he rode up to the door with a fat buck behind his saddle and a wild turkey at each knee.That was the winter of 1868-1869, when we had venison, turkey, wild goose or some other game, from the first snow till the Feburary thaw.Very often he used to lower a frozen carcass from the roof-tree and shave off steaks for breakfast. . . . He was always much interested in the improvement of farm crop varieties and livestock, a good practical veterinary whose services interfered often with his own interests."(Id at p. 371)
"Of independent mind, his opinion and judgment were much trusted, his religious ideas were more modern than usual among his kin, a source of some anxiety to his sectarian friends, though nowadays his beliefs would be mildly Unitarian.His education, beyond elementary schooling, was the result of his own wide reading and candid thinking."(Ibid.)
They bought their first home "with their savings 'of ten years living on rented places.'They had stripped themselves of their livestock capital 'down to a bare new start to make the part payment.'There was a nearly new hewn-log house neatly chinked with lime mortar,in which the tiny shells of creek sand mollusks showed to the great interest of the children.Log-heaped fires and burning stumps had lighted the new field at night for weeks during corn and garden planting.The great rocks in the face of the bluff were half concealed by wild shrubs and young hickory saplings.There was a fine spring in the limestone ravine a few steps from the kitchen door.the creek was full of fish and a set line at night seldom failed to provide fish for breakfast.The trail up the spring branch to the schoolhouse at the edge of the prarie wound in and out among wild flowers and the pools were alive with minnows, periwinkle shells and crawfish.Every week or oftener some of the young folks from Plum Grove rode down the creek to spend 'overnight with Jim and Mary at their new place.'It would be a sheltered home in winter time, their friends agreed, below the sweep of the Artic wind which scourged the praries.The livestock took to their new range as if they too had found a more congenial home."(Id at pp. 361-362.)
“James Henry Meredith, died in August, 1885, in the Kansas valley, opposite old Lecompton, of a recurrent disorder contracted during his military service.We brought him back to old Plum Grove for burial beside his Mary, and half a mile of farm wagons and lighter vehicles filled with old friends followed his coffin to its final resting place.
“He was a ‘man without an enemy, naturally quick-tempered, but “just and placable always,” too much so for his own good, for people took advantage of his generosity.”Slender, dark haired, blue eyed and sandy bearded, wiry and agile, he was not so robust as some of his brothers, for he had worked too hard before he was fully grown, the first years in Kansas.’
“He was a notable hunter always.The year before his death his oldtime hunting companion wanted to know if ‘Jimmy still went deer-hunting the morning after the first “little skift of snow?”’ -- recalling to mind how one evening at dusk he rode up to the door with a fat buck behind his saddle and a wild turkey at each knee.That was the winter of 1868-1869, when we had venison, turkey, wild goose or some other game, from the first snow till the February thraw.Very often he used to lower a frozen carcass from the rooftree and shave off steaks for breakfast.Bucksin ‘whangs,’ wild goose or turkey wings for dusters always hung curing by the kitchen stove or beside the chimney jamb those days, and Jim could cut as neat a quill pen as any old time schoolmaster.The spring he moved to the Shelt Britton place he tried hard to get Shelt to sell him a planting of Peachblow potatoes, new in that neighborhood, but Shelt refused--he wanted the crop for his own use.Then a few days after, Jim plowed up a gopher hill and found a peck or so of fine seed potatoes, so he had a good patch of Peachblows after all, much to Shelt’s disgust.That year, too, he raised the finest musk melons anybody in the country roundabout had ver seen.He took one to a campmeeting Sunday dinner at Plum Grove, ‘a monster, fourteen or fifteen inches long, ten inches t’other way, delicious beyond description, and all the old neighbors and relatives begged a few seeds of it.’‘What Jim couldn’t raise in the way of new kinds of truck there was no use in anybody else trying.’He was always much interested in the improvement of farm crop varieties and livestock, a good practical veterinary whose services interfered often with his own interests.
“Much broken in spirit by Mary’s death, he took over the burden of his his father’s homestead for ten years, devoting his all to the rearing of his five young children whom he lived to see grown men and women, dying before his time, worn out and very poor.Of independent mind, his opinion and judgment was much trusted, his religious ideas were more modern than usual among his kin, a source of some anxiety to his sectarian friends, though nowadays his beliefs would be mildly Unitarian.His education, beyond elementary schooling, was the result of his own wide reading and candid thinking.His love and knowledge of Shakespeare and American history often disconcerted people of greater cultural pretentions.‘Ask Jim about that, he’ll tell ou,’ was a common expression when political topics were under discussion.‘Now, if you’ll just read that as you hear us folks talk, maybe it won’t puzzle you,’ was the advice he gave an experienced school teacher who was debating a passage in Hamlet or Macbeth.For our people used as common speech the language they had brought to Virginia while yet Shakespeare was a living memory.And the generations had done little change it save in confusing past tense and particple, and suchlike homely locutions.”
1870 federal census, Oskaloosa Twp., Jefferson co., KS, p. 432, line 1 - James H. Meredith (age 34, farmer, real property worth $500), without Mary, with children, all born Kansas - William (7 years), Mary J. (6 years), Edward F. (5 years), Thomas A. (4 years), Nancy A. (1 year).
Burial: Plum Grove, Jefferson Co., KS
Do you happen to have any photographs that came down in your line?
Hope this information is helpful.
Patt