Weston Wagons West - Ep. J17 - Arly Weston also moved west with the Triplett family to western Illinois

Meanwhile, back in Ohio, the Weston family continued to serve their communities. Karl had decided to continue this farrier and blacksmith businesses in the Morristown area. The traffic now coming through on the improved National Road was sufficient that his business with the locals as well as the visitors met their family needs. Once Arly had completed his apprenticeships and worked for his father for awhile, he was ready for a move, as well.

Arly believed that there was sufficient business for him to set up his own shop in Batesville. He had already met a young lady there, Flora Alexander, who probably played a key role in his decision, as well. They were married in her parents' home in April of 1849. Their first son was born in March of 1850. They named him Ben (not Benjamin). A sister joined the family in June of 1852, followed by a second sister in October of 1854.

Over at the combined Triplett family farms, Professor James Triplett had died in November of 1848 at the age of 64. His older sons now led the family along with his second wife, Mary, who had raised them all. Mortimer Triplett, James' 37-year-old son by his first wife, Ruth, in 1850, had his own nearby family and farm. He had married Nancy Montgomery in 1835 and they had four children. They added another son, Malcom, in February 1852. As 1856 approached, led by Mortimer, Mary and several of the other children had decided it was time to move west for them, as well. James and Mary's sons, Walter and John, and the rest of his children by Ruth, decided to stay in Ohio. Arly Weston and his wife decided to move to Illinois with the group as well.

Before they were ready to leave by wagon train, in the spring of 1856, Lott, Mary's oldest son, married Mary Melissa Meighan, in late February of 1856. Also making the trip would be Minnie, 24, Simeon, 15, Rebecca, 13, and Sarah Jane, 11. The National Road had been completed through Zanesville, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio, in 1833. It was extended to Springfield, Ohio, in 1838. Congress ran out of money for completion of the road through Indiana and Illinois, but state and local efforts continued along the route, and people continued to use it, more and more. Vandalia, Illinois, was the western terminus of the "National Road," in Fayette County in the south central part of the state. Their destination was Warren County and the county seat there, Monmouth. It was about two hundred miles to the northwest of Vandalia, the second county in from the Mississippi River, across from the southeast corner of Iowa. It was just south of Mercer County (see Episode T7 - Charles Weston moved to Mercer County, Illinois).

As they hoped and expected, land was available. Lott and Mary and the children were happy to settle there. Mortimer, however, wanted to move on into Iowa. Nonetheless, he agreed to stay for two years to help Mary and her family get settled in. Then, he said, he and his family would move on to eastern Iowa. Nancy presented Mortimer with another son, Cary J., born during 1857. About the same time, Lott and Mary had a daughter, they named her Emma.

When Mortimer and Nancy Triplett were preparing to leave for Iowa, it was decided that 16-year-old Sarah Jane, Mary's daughter, would travel with them and stay for some time to help out Nancy and her daughters with the family. They went to Marion County, Iowa, in the spring of 1856. (In 1862. they moved permanently to Mahaska County, and by then, Sarah Jane had returned to Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois.)

1860 found 28-year-old Minnie marrying a neighbor, George W. Turner, and moving to his farm. Family tradition had it that he was born on the ship, at sea, as his family was moving to the United States from Scotland, in 1838. In March, 1860, Lott and Mary had their second child, a son. They named him James Lorin, but then called him Lorin rather than James. In the August U.S. Census, his mother, Mary, was living with Lott, Mary, Emma, and Lorin on their farm near Cameron, Floyd Township, Warren County, Illinois. Sarah Jane was still in Iowa with Mortimer and his family. Simeon and Rebecca were working out with other nearby farm families.

George and Minnie had their first child, a girl they named Ella, in January of 1861. A second daughter, born in April of 1862, was named Mary. Over at the Weston family home, and shop, their son, Ben, entered his apprenticeship as a farrier in March of 1862. With business being very good, Ben had been helping his father around the shop for a couple of years already, so he was anxious to get on with his formal training. Both he and his two sisters were becoming actively involved with their family horse breeding business. Arly had begun to buy the versatile Morgan horses, and found, frankly, that they were more profitable than his earlier horses. They were also, to be sure, beautiful animals.

Meanwhile, Sarah Jane had returned from Iowa. She and Rebecca became acquainted with two brothers from a nearby, rather affluent, German family. In September of 1863 Sarah Jane married Frederick Christopher Krohn at the Krohn family home. Near the end of the following February, 1864, Rebecca married Heindrich (Henry) Krohn, also at their family home. Frederick and Sarah Jane had their first child, a daughter they named Ethel, in late 1864. Henry and Rebecca also began their family with a daughter, Carrie Evaline, born in January 1865. Frederick and Sarah Jane next had a son, born in March of 1866, that they named after his father. In November of 1866, in Monmouth, Simeon Triplett married Hester Vincent. Their first child was named Leonard William, born in August of 1867. (He later married Viola (Dollie) Houser, in 1895. It was from this family that much of the family history information on this family was obtained. Thanks for sharing!).

All members of the Weston family are fictional, of course, including Flora Alexander. All Triplett, Turner and Krohn family members were historical figures, but were used here fictitiously, as were Nancy Montgomery, Mary Melissa Meighan, and Viola (Dollie) Houser. The relationship between the Kinnick and Weston families therefore were created fictionally for this story. These families (and the families related by marriage) were historical, but the details of their birth dates and early lives are filled in fictionally. They each played key roles in the life of Walter W. Kinnick, a 3rd great-grandfather of the author, and Walter Watson Kinnick, a 2nd great-grandfather. Each of the relationships within which these historical figures appear in these episodes is totally consistent with known historical facts for each such person in the official records of Ohio and Illinois.

National Road information was based in the episode on Wikepedia articles.

One useful source for this story was the author's early research available at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kinnick/kbk5/wwkinn.html Information related to Princeton, Illinois, came from the Wikipedia article.

Also relied on was continuing family history research as this is a direct line ancestry of the author, of course.