This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: robertljohnson1 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.borton/227.2.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi: Since you are interested in John Walter "JW" Borton, I feel that I should share as much information as I possibly can in addition to the basic demographic data avail through the US Census and the Betty Mann book. JW was the oldest of the eight children of Jesse & Margaret Brown Borton. He was 15 years old when the moved from Gurnsey County Ohio to Edgar Cty Ill in 1870. I have a photo of JW which is probably from his very late teen years. There is a record in the Edgar County records showing a married between a J. W. Borton and a Lucinda Robertson in 1867.As the Borton family did not settle in Illinois until 1870, this entry is questionable. Since I have found no other J. W. Borton living in Edgar County this could be a typo and it is possible that this marriage took place in 1877 when JW was 22 years old. There is no record of children and no record of whatever happened to Lucinda and my grandmother never mentioned a previous marriage other than to Emma Clark, her mother's aunt. According to my grandmother who was JW's third child (two from previous marriage did not survive), her father's farm was north of Borton (burned to the ground in 1941) and she had clear memory of living there and attending school at Catfish Creek where she said her father also taught school and of her father carrying her to school on his shoulders through the snow drifts. It seems as though JW, wife Della and two children--Gladys and Leah (b 1902) followed Della's mother Lydia L. Chandler Clark to Divernon, Sangamon Cty, Illinois after Lydia's husband Snowdon Clark died in 1905/6. They bought a new home--I have photos--and surprisingly lived there with Della's mother and Della's younger brother Fount and his wife Mabel Stackhouse. Five adults and two children (and, I am told, a "roomer") Between 1905 and 1915 there were four more children Everett Chilten, b. 1911, John Allen b/d1913, Erwin b.1914, Wilma, b 1915. In 1916 JW was injured in a fall from a hay wagon. The family moved to Springfield (execept for Gladys who married in 1914). JW was diagnosed with fatal colon cancer dying in September 1918. While bedridden, he wrote poetry. After he died the book of poetry was saved by Glady's husband family, specifically Frances Melissa Fry, and was lost when the Molohon homestead was sold after the death of Ruth Molohon in 1955. I found two of JW's! poems in the Illinois Register Journal newspaper after being told of their publication by JW's daugher my aunt Lead Borton Davis. I found the poems on microfilm and copied them. Both poems have patriotic themes as JW followed develoments of World War I through the newspaper. JW was also a huge admirer of Woodrow Wilson and so my grandmother named her first son Charles Woodrow Molohon. The Molohon family called him Charles after his father and the Borton's called him Woodrow. By searching through the annual City Directories for Springfield Illinois it is possible to locate the house/houses they lived in in Springfield. JW was my grandmother's hero and the only one of his five surviving children that had any real recollection of him. Less than 18 months after her father JW's death her husband Charles Molohon was killed in a coal mine accident in Divernon and six months after that her grandfather Jesse Borton died at age 87. JW was reported to have left $50,000,000 (alot of money at the time when annual income was in the range of $350 to $500) with $25,000 to his widow Della and $5,000 to each child. Gladys and Leah were married and received their inheritance. The minor children's inheritance was controlled by Della. Family history tells us that by the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929, all the money in Della's control was gone as a result of bad investments. Leah married at this time Guy Davis. With Leah's money they bought the house and lot to the east at 1617 West Lawrence Avenue and lived there until Guy died in 1988 (Lead died in 1978) and buried in Edinburg Illinois. JW's brothers were Edson Seymour, a Methodist minister with achurch in Champaign; William left home as a very young man and returned to Borton around the time of his father's death; and Emmett (only one born in Illinois) who inherited the farm and died in Terre Haute IN in 1968. Sister Eppa married Doctor English; she died in Isabel in 1949; sister Rhoda married Samuel Merkle and died, probably in child birth in the 1880's; Mary married James Bollen and moved to MMissouri; Margret married D. B. Lauher and lived out her life in the Peoria area. In 1970 I had a portrait of JW painted by a school friend as a gift to my grandmother Gladys on her 75th birthday. It was returned to me on her death in 1989. Before her mother Della died in 1962, Della and Gladys, regrettfully, sorted dozens of family photos and burned many. We do know that JW and family attended several Borton Reunions in Quaker City Ohio in late 1890's and early 1900's as well as the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and the St. Louis World's Fair in 1906. Your grandfather gave me a family photo (mostly of Clarks) but of JW, Della, toddler Gladys dated about 1903 when Leah was an infant. JW was a slightly built man of about 5"7' and 140#, well dressed and well educated(for the standards of the time). He was a farmer and stockraiser like his father and grandfather before him. He was a loyal Democrat--as were most rual Americans of the time. Very, very quiet spoken and by this time, more Methodist than Quaker though that influence was a strong cultural influence on family values for generations. Your grandfather Everett had a very close resemblance to his father JW. As JW is a family hero of mine and I gratified to know that someone besides myself has an interest in learning about this fine man. He deserves to be remembered. Bob Johnson Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.