Thank you to everybody who replied, here or privately, to my question about Jonas HILL, which also asked specifically about his daughter Elizabeth. Nobody I heard from seems to know what happened to her. I'm not sure that I know, either, but I have written below what I do know about one of my ancestors who just may be this same daughter of Jonas Hill. You can decide what you think about it. I would like to hear any thoughts you might have. The evidence isn't totally convincing, but maybe somebody out there will know something that never seemed important before, but now makes sense in connection with the details about my Elizabeth, that connects the two for sure. John FINCH was born about 1827 in Washington Co, Tennessee, (east TN) and grew up there. Most of his family was still there for the 1850 census, but John was not. Nothing is known for sure about his doings until December 1854 when he bought land in Carroll Co, Missouri, (central MO, along the Missouri River) in the same section where his older brother had earlier bought land. It appears others in the family made the move from TN to MO in the early 1850s as well, and by the 1860 census the whole family had moved there. That census shows John with his wife Elizabeth and three children. Their first child was born in July 1855, while their last came in Dec 1862. This Elizabeth was shown in 1860 as age 26 (so born 1834), and born in TN. Their first child born in 1855 suggests a marriage date of 1854, but there is no record of their marriage in Carroll Co MO or in Washington Co TN. John died in the War in 1865. On the 1870 census Elizabeth is listed as 34 and born in TN. For a number of reasons, I believe that the 1870 age is more accurate than the 1860 one, making her born about 1836. In 1872, Elizabeth died, which orphaned their children. Their guardian applied for a pension from the government for them, both in 1866 (which was rejected) and in 1872. The National Archives sent me nothing about the rejected 1866 application (perhaps those records were thrown away after rejection), but comments in the 1872 one make it seem as if it was rejected because they could not prove that Elizabeth was truly the wife of John (there should have been no doubt about him being eligible for a pension). The 1872 pension application states that John and Elizabeth were married in 1853 in Van Buren Co, Arkansas, and that the guardian had written to Arkansas for a proof of their marriage but was unable to get it because the records had been destroyed by fire. Also, Carroll MO Probate Court records show receipts of charges against the estate for letters written to Arkansas requesting records for proof of marriage. For the 1872 application the family hired a lawyer, who obtained affidavits from various neighbors in Carroll Co asserting that John and Elizabeth had lived together as man and wife and claimed that this was the best proof available of their marriage. Presumably, the rest of the Finches there knew nothing about Elizabeth's family, otherwise they might have requested affidavits from her Arkansas people that could have attested to her marriage. A family tree of the Finches written down in 1932 by a granddaughter of Elizabeth stated that John FINCH had married Elizabeth HILL. In the whole 1850 census, the only Elizabeth Hill, born about 1836 in TN, was the one living with Mary CASTLEBERRY in Van Buren Co, AR. On top of that, the only John Finch in the whole 1850 census, born about 1827 in TN, was (presumably) a hired hand on a farm belonging to John and Marylun Pickrum in Fulton Co, Arkansas. This all makes it very tempting to conclude a connection but, unfortunately, there are a bunch of unanswered questions behind a lot of the information above. The main problem is that each of the critical facts above is mentioned only by one source, and each of those sources is different. Moreover, none of the important sources are original records, but instead are only secondary (hearsay) sources. Nevertheless, if it is all to be believed, it does point to the Elizabeth Hill, daughter of Jonas and Mary (Barnes) Hill, as John Finch's wife. If somebody knows anything that might verify or contradict this idea, I hope they will let me know. Thank you! --- Steve Gillispie <gillisp@earthlink.net>

The Van Buren county probate records describe a road committee formed to oversee building a road leading from the widow Castleberrys toward Illinios Bayou from Aldin Spgs to the Pope County line. Illinois Bayou is in eastern Pope County (west of Van Buren Co), but I don't know where any of the other three things (the widow Castleberry's place, Aldin Springs, or the road itself) were or would have been today. Does anybody else know?