Marti, If you know your "disappeared" collaterals went to that general area, may I suggest you also look to nearby counties of Cherokee Co., KS which include: Crawford County, Kansas Labette County, Kansas Neosho County, Kansas Jasper County, Missouri Newton County, Missouri Craig County, Oklahoma Ottawa County, Oklahoma as most, if not all of the other counties were mining areas too. I am most familiar with Cherokee County, KS, Jasper & Newton Counties, MO and Ottawa County, OK because that is where my families (both sides of my tree) went from other locations. (My families came to California ... again, same reason ... for mining, and not the gold fields in Northern California. There were many mines in Southwestern Riverside County, California.) I don't know why, but I know quite a few people who had been early in Pawnee County, Nebraska also went to Cherokee Co., KS and Jasper Co., MO and engaged in the mining business in one phase or another.

To LRFArnold, It would be a mistake to reduce the western migration out of Macoupin to a mining exodus. Macoupin County's history is just as much agriculture as it is mining. In fact, Macoupin was farmed before it was mined. The earliest farmers started settling in the late 1820s and 1830s, many of them moving up from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. During the 1860s there was a large number of German farmers coming in from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana who bought up a lot of Macoupin land, especially in the northern townships of Virden, Girard, and North Otter. Many of these German farmers stayed, but others kept on moving, particularly around 1880, to Kansas and Nebraska and, yes, even eventually to California. Some of the Macoupin listers asking you to do lookups for them are related to farmers who moved to Kansas to buy cheap farm land. Dwayne Wrightsman Lee, NH ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 9:11 AM Subject: Re: [ILMacoupin] Cemetery Inscriptions, Cherokee County, Kansas Compiled by ... > Marti, > > If you know your "disappeared" collaterals went to that general area, may > I > suggest you also look to nearby counties of Cherokee Co., KS which > include: > > Crawford County, Kansas > Labette County, Kansas > Neosho County, Kansas > Jasper County, Missouri > Newton County, Missouri > Craig County, Oklahoma > Ottawa County, Oklahoma > > as most, if not all of the other counties were mining areas too. I am > most > familiar with Cherokee County, KS, Jasper & Newton Counties, MO and > Ottawa > County, OK because that is where my families (both sides of my tree) went > from > other locations. (My families came to California ... again, same reason > ... > for mining, and not the gold fields in Northern California. There were > many > mines in Southwestern Riverside County, California.) > > I don't know why, but I know quite a few people who had been early in > Pawnee > County, Nebraska also went to Cherokee Co., KS and Jasper Co., MO and > engaged in the mining business in one phase or another. > > > ==== ILMACOUP Mailing List ==== > Set a timer for 15 minutes and spend that time filing and organizing your > genealogy papers. Work as fast as you can and try not to get sidetracked > by reading everything. >