This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: BENTON, SMITH, WEAVER, PIERCE, GARREL, DOOLEY Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/xg.2ADI/2849 Message Board Post: (Counties involved are Fulton, Schuyler, Hancock, Sangamon) Need some help PLEASE. History of Fulton County (1879) has a short biography for H. J. Benton (Horatio John Benton). It stated he was a native of Philadelphia PA and was born in 1819. Also that he is the son of John Benton, a sea captain, who died in 1822 (b. MA). The subject of this sketch came to this State with his widowed mother in 1835 (b. in Ireland) and settled in Warsaw, Hancock County, being among the early pioneers of that county. In 1836 he entered Jackson College at Jacksonville, and 3 years afterward commenced teaching and has devoted 26 years of his life to his professional calling. Was County Superintendent of Schools since 1869. Early in his career he taught in a house in Bader and in 1845 was teaching at Ridgeville school. More about Horatio is that he married 3 times. First to Harriet Pierce in 12 May 1842 in Rushville, Schuyler County. I found marriage record, but have found nothing about her. Do not know if divorced or widowed. Second marriage was in Jul 1845 to Eliza Garrel Dooley (Schuyler Co.) with whom he had children George W Benton and John Henry Benton. They divorced and in May of 1853 he married Mariam/Marian/Mary Lee Smith Weaver, (Lewistown, Fulton), who was a widow. Her husband had been Phillip Weaver who died during the epidemic of 1851. I could not find them on 1850 census in Fulton County. In the History of Fulton County it stated that Miss Smith was daughter of Gen. Smith of Hancock county. She is a native of Sangamon County IL, (census shows father from PA, and mother from Ireland) H. J. and Mariam had three children Charles, Mary (Hair, Davidson) and Alice (Deems). Horatio appears in (Nov 1850) census in Browning Twp, Schuyler Co. and also the same census year (Oct 1850) he appears as a boarder in the Town of Pleasant in Fulton Co . I suppose he is teaching in Fulton County by this time, while family still in Browning. In no census do I find Horatio’s mother with him. Perhaps she remarried. Would like to find her. Mariam’s obituary stated she moved from Sangamon County to Canton with her parents in 1836, and later to Vermont where she married Philip Weaver. They had son George F. Weaver of Ipava. Obituary said she had a brother Stephen P. Smith who also was a former resident of Canton. No other siblings were mentioned. 1. Need information or suggestions that will help me find out who Horatio’s mother was. Perhaps someone could check Warsaw, Hancock Co. for a Widow Benton marriage. 2. Need information or suggestions that will help me discover who the parents of Mariam Lee Smith Weaver Benton were. I did not find the Weavers or the Smith’s on 1850 census . Perhaps some land records in Fulton County for Smith, or perhaps a will somewhere in the area for a Smith that lists daughter Mariam. I live in Oklahoma and would love to get some help with these problems