This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Lawrence, Epperson, Showalter, Brooks, Jones, Stone, Boles/Bowles, Matney, Cardwell, Moore, Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Zl.2ADI/159 Message Board Post: Seeking info on the family of Joseph Kronk Lawrence b. 22 Feb 1826 Dearborn Co, IN and d. 11 Jan 1867 in Big Springs, Douglas Co, KS - m. 1853 IN to Nancy Ellen Epperson b. 26 June 1836 Morgantown, IN and d. 30 Dec 1909 in Big Springs, Douglas Co, KS. Nancy m/2 to Jacob Showalter ca 1870 (need a marriage lookup) who d. 1874? Nancy m/3 to Edmund/Edward Brooks ca 1874 (need marriage lookup) and he d. after the 1880 census but before 1909. I need burial location of Joseph, Nancy, Jacob and Edmund/Edward. It may be possible that they are buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Lecompton, Douglas Co, Kansas. Nancy had a daughter Cora Evangeline Brooks b. 16 May 1875 who may have married a W M Jones, and Nancy also had a son Elam J Showalter b. ca 1870. Need info on daughter Margaret Virginia Lawrence who m. William E Stone and resided in Lecompton. Also need info on sons Jeremiah Vaughter "Jerry" Lawrence and John James Lawrence who supposedly also resided in Lecompton. Also need info on family of Peter Epperson b. 1810 KY and d. aft 1880 census in Lecompton? His wife was Mary Boles/Bowles also b. KY 1810 and d. after 1880 census in Lecompton? They had another dau (besides Nancy) named Mary I Epperson who m. a Matney and both were deceased before 1880. They left at least one son named Solomon E Matney b. ca 1860. And another daughter Sarah C Epperson b. ca 1843 IN and sons Robert J Epperson b. 1837 IN, & Elam J Epperson b. ca 1855 Douglas Co, KS. This family was of the United Brethern faith and arrived in Douglas Co, KS on June 20, 1855 with a group that came from Bartholomew Co, Indiana area. Any info on the family will be gratefully appreciated. Below is a letter written by Joseph K Lawrence to his family back in Indiana which may be of interest to those researching early Douglas Co, KS: A letter Joseph Kronk Lawrence wrote from Kansas to his mother in Indiana: The following from the Hoosier Listening Post of the Indianapolis Sunday Star on Feb 23, 1936 - sent to them by Mrs Eugene Lawrence in 1936. She was the sister-in-law of Helen Throckmorton. The undated letter which Mrs Lawrence has sent proved it was written before 1858 and is as follows, with the original spelling: Dear Brother JWL - sisters and cousins: May you take pleasure in reading this epistle: after stating that we are well and hoping you are enjoying the same like blessing. I shall proceed to give a full description of Kansas as far as my knowledge extends. Kansas is about 150 miles wide and about three hundred long, abounding in prairies, timber, beautiful streams with high banks and rockbottoms; rock in general very plentiful for common use, stone cole so far has been plenty to supply the wants of the territory. Two mines are within seven miles of us. The soil is very rich, producing fine grass, as to grain in general we can tell but little about it, for this is the first year that any grain has been in the neighborhood, but so far corn appears very good for sod corn. The prairies here are not very wide but tolerable long. As far as I have been they are from one to eight miles wide; on the streams is very good timber, white oak, black walmut, elm sycamore, cottonwood, used here for weather boarding, oake of various kinds and a great deal of mulberry. Streams are very clear and timber on both sides, and nearly on every hollow or ravene put in to them, rock is obtainable on the slope of nearly every hill but none on upland or bottoms. The various kinds are sand lime, soap and blue slate stone. We have plowed several days and I have not heard the sound of but one rock or gravel, I picked it up and weighed it, 60 oz. Health. We have not lived here long enough to know much about the health or to know how healthy it is, but from the appearance of streams, excellent taste of well and spring water, high and dryness of the climate and country, we would suppose it a healthy country __________ come from the various states what were unhealthy for years say their health has greatly improved since they came to this country. Such as have been afflicted with coughs for many years and dyspepsy and other chronic complaints. Mother and Samuel ought to come here and many more of them. Weather and climate: This summer has been the finest I ever saw. Yesterday and the day before were the two hottest days we had this season. There is constant air in motion coming in from the Gulf of Mexico in general. We have had plenty of rain except last week it was tolerable dry, but we had two good showers today. Settlement. There appears to be an enterprising spirit among the people in this neighborhood. Business is nearly all kinds common to states is going on. Steam mills, blacksmithing, merchandise, agriculture and society. Sabbath schoool meeting of various denominations, celebration, territorial conventions, etc. The settlers in this neighborhood are mostly from Indiana, Iowa, Pennsylvania and a few from Virginia and Oregon. Animals: in this neighborhood we get to see some deer, prairie chicken, wolves and turkeys. Fish in abundance. Concerning claims; Any person twenty-one not holding 160 acres of land or any one with a family not twenty-one can hold a claim of 150 acres. It is supposed that land will come in market in 1858, not before. There are good many claims here yet. Some timber but mostly prairies......would make A or could make a fortune here. Some grist mills and blacksmiths we need here yet! Blacksmiths we have but few and they are as independent as git-out. Prices very high, sharpening plough from 75 to $1.25 and other work in proportion, cash in hand already. Send us Samual Kiser and John Tealy and we will put them to good use as they both talked of coming when we left. As I stated in some of my other letters, I will state concerning our claims. I took my claim one and a half miles southwest of Spring City, two miles south of Washington, a town laid off by Pennsylvanians. Six miles southeast of Tecumseh, six miles southwest of Lacunta, eight miles northwest of Bloomington, 15 miles! west of Lawrence City on the Missouri River, and about 80 miles northwest of Fort Scott, 70 to 80 miles east of Ft Riley. Daniel's (Lawrence) claim gaining me on the east. Father (Peter) Epperson is east of north 2 1/2 miles. Mr (Wm A) Cardwell east of Mr Benjamin Moore, north of brother Cardwell, Brother Franklin north of Brother Moore. Daniel and I are south of the California road, the balance north of it. I received Brother Phillips letter yesterday, stating that you are all well and doing well. We were glad to hear of your health and prosperity. I will answer some of his requests now, another balance in a few weeks. One is whether this will be or what the prospect is of the territory being a free state or not. As to this we know but little more than any of you. I can state --- no slaves in this part of the territory yet, and so far as regards the prospect it is entirely in favor of a free state. But this will not be decided till the territory will be sufficiently populated for that election. We want all free men to come in between now and then that possibly can, so we have a free state. I stated above that as to grain raising here I could tell but little bout since this is the first year here that there has been any grain put out. I merely state that since I commenced this letter I have been informed that Capt Roberts of Pennsylvania, a "good farmer" has been to the! Indian Reserve 20 miles east of this, informs us that a white man settled some land of the Indians, that has been in cultivation some four or five years, to try what land would produce here. Roberts says that he firmly believes (he is a man of high renown here), that it will produce at least 150 bushels per acre. So much for that. Perhaps you would like to hear something of Jeramiah, he is growing fine like all other Kansas boys. He has four teeth and can talk and walk some (eleven months). I might state that the whole company got here safe and all well satisfied and if I am not mistaken I heard each of them say they would not go back to Indiana to live there if they had the best 160 acres of land given to them and their expenses born of moving thither. If any of them you write you would better direct to Lawrence City in place of Tecumseh. We will get them sooner. If any of you come by water, come to Kansas City on the Missouri River thence to Washington on the California Road. Joseph K Lawrence The following is information found for Peter Epperson and his migration to Douglas Co, Kansas Peter and Mary Boles Epperson resided in Morgantown, Morgan Co, Indiana near Robert Bowles (possibly Mary's father?) and James Epperson (Peter's father), who had both come to Indiana about the same time. They left Hartsville, Indiana on 3 May 1855 with a group of the United Brethern Church with ox-teams and prairie schooners. After a week's stop in Missouri, they arrived on 20 June 1855 in Lawrence, Kansas. Some of those in the group, beside Peter and Mary, were: Sarah Epperson, Joseph Kronk and Nancy Ellen (Epperson) Lawrence as well as Daniel Kronk Lawrence (Joseph's brother). Morgan Co, Indiana had not been good to them as most of their children died and are buried in a Morgan Co Cemetery, located on Road 252 at the west edge of Morgantown, Indiana. In Kansas they raised two of their grandchildren, Solomon E Matney, born ca 1860 in Kentucky, son of their daughter Mary I. The other grandchild was Elam Showalter, b. 21 April 1871 in Lecompton, Kansas, son of their daughter Nancy Ellen and her 2nd husband Jacob Showalter. >From "Passing of the Pioneers", from the Religious Telescope, an article by J H Snyder, Lecompton, Kansas, written in 1910: "On May 3, 1855, a colony of Christians belonging to the United Brethern Church, with ox-teams and prairie schooners, left Hartsville, Indiana, and on June 20 landed in Lawrence, Kansas. They traveled all the week days and camped over the Sabbath. They had preaching and prayer-meetings every Sunday in the woods or on the prairies where they encamped. At one of these Sunday services, a young man who was with them as the teamster of the missionary was happily converted. The missionary was Rev William Cardwell. The young man was Benjamin F Moore." "These meetings were filled with spiritual power, which as a divine legacy still obtains in the hearts of some of the children of those pioneers....One stop of a week was made in Missouri........Then the company came on to Lawrence, Kansas.........arriving on June 20, 1855............" "This band of pioneers secured claims in and around Big Springs, and pitched their tents and built their cabins. In 1856 they began erecting for themselves a house of worship, quarrying the stone and gathering the material, and on the third of October of that year laid the cornerstone of the First United Brethern church in the State of Kansas." "On June 15, 1856, the first class was organized, with the following members: Rev W A Cardwell, Pastor; Sarah A (Sparks) Cardwell, Mattie E Cardwell, Peter Epperson, Mary Epperson, Sarah Epperson, Joseph K Lawrence, Nancy Ellen (Epperson) Lawrence, Daniel K Lawrence ....." Thank you kindly for any help with this family!