The following describes what I know of my Monroe County forebears. Hopefully someone will recognize the family, and offer additional information. Monroe County land records include an 1848 town lot purchase by Thomas Davis. He presumably was a newcomer to the county, as he was not enumberated in Monroe County at the time of the 1845 Illinois census. The federal census of 1850 shows Davis living in Columbia with his wife, Mary. He was listed as age fifty, born in Illinois, a carpenter. His wife, Mary, was sixteen. Thomas M. Davis, a widower, and Mary Duvall had been married earlier in the year by Reverend William Cliff, a Methodist minister at Waterloo. During the following four years Davis bought several pieces of property near Columbia, and in January of 1854 leased 100 acres of land. The couple's only child was born on March 26, and named James Bissell Davis. Thomas died during the summer of 1854. His father-in-law, Washington Duvall, also of Columbia, was named administrator of the estate, which for some reason did not include the property purchased and/or leased in the previous six years, nor does county records reflect disposal of the property. Thomas may have been the child of either James Davis, or Richard Davis, as they were the only Davis' enumerated in the Illinois Territory, at the time of the 1807 census. His widow, Mary Duvall Davis, remarried, and is listed with the Davis child, her new husband, William Stone, and their one-month old child, Julia, in the 1860 census for Columbia. As in 1850, her family lived a few doors from her parents, Washington and Ann Duvall. By the census of 1870, the family had grown, and included William Stone, age 38, born in Tennessee; Mary, age 36, born in Virginia; James Bissell Davis, age 16; Julia, age 10, George, age 7; Mary, age 5, and a new-born. Mary's mother, Ann, had died, however, and Washington Duvall had in 1866 married Melvina (Patterson) Agneu, also of Monroe County. Mary (Duvall/Davis) Stone died ca 1872, presumably at Columbia. Her father shortly thereafter moved to St. Francois County, Missouri. He died there in 1882, and is buried at Salem Methodist Cemetery, Ste. Genevieve. Mary's husband, William Stone, raised their children, and joined by his younger sister, Mary Anne, remained at Columbia, dying there ca 1902. William and Mary's daughter, Julia, also died ca 1902. Separately, the 1850 census shows William Montgomery, age 31, born in Ohio, living at Centerville, St. Clair County. The following year, William married Matilda Jane Smith, at Mounds Methodist Episcopal Church - South, at St. Louis, Missouri. In 1860, the census for Monroe County shows William and Matilda at Waterloo, where William was employed as constable. Their family then included John , age 7 (born at Waterloo), and Martha, age 3. The Stone and Montgomery families come together in 1897 with the marriage of John Montgomery and Julia Stone. Any additional nformation relating to the Davis, Stone, or Montgomery families would be very much appreciated. Tom Davis