Phebe Lilly

If PHEBE LILLY is dau. of Chester Lillie and Sally Tracy, ChesterLillie has poss. Mayflower connection (to John Billington). Seefamilysearch.org Pedigree Resource file:http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/search/PRF/individual_record.asp?recid=160727231&lds=2®ion=-1®ionfriendly=&frompage=99=================== 1880 Census, Vernon, Humboldt, Iowa: Living withOrris French. States both parents born Scotland.=================== Mamie Smail's pedigree info athttp://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=:646005&id=I06015has a Chester Lillie b. 1788 in Scotland TOWNSHIP, Windham, CT fatherChester Lillie, mother Sally Tracy (w/12 children but no Phebe)=================== From French genealogy (Doan): The youngest ofa family of twelve, Phebe Lilly must have ever been possessed of theadventurous spirit of the pioneer, for we find her far from herVermont home, teaching school in the wilds of western New York whereshe met and married Samuel Hela French. She began her teachingcareer at the age of fifteen. She was a frugal and industrious woman.In the early days of her married life, she spun and wove the wool fromtheir own sheep for the homespun with which she clothed her children.She may be justly likened to the good woman lauded in Scriptures-"sheseeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. Whosecandle goeth out not by night. Whose husband did safely trust her.She was possessed of skillful knowledge in caring for the sick. Shegathered her own herbs and brewed healing concoctions, which in thosedays of far scattered medical aid, and no trained nursing, made her awelcome visitor at every sick bed for miles around. This worthycouple belonged to that pioneer age, that period of our nation'shistory, which contributed to the advancing life of settlement beyondthe revolutionary border. They were possessed of those qualities ofcharacter which seemed to make them peculiarly fitted for the rigorsof frontier life; sobriety, morality, rectitude, generosity,patriotism, and with a high regard for the religious and educationalqualities of life." We learn from the family history that theyestablished their first home in French Creek, Chatauqua County, NewYork, where they acquired land, the title to which was transferreddirectly to them from the Holland Land Grant. They lived here sixyears, cleared the forest, broke sod, planted crops, then sold it toSamuel's brother with an increase of price from a little less than adollar, to a little more than six dollars per acre, indicative of themonetary value of their six years of labor. After this sale, thefamily, now with two sons and a daughter, loaded their worldly goodsinto a covered wagon drawn by a team of oxen and started west. Throughforests, across unbridged streams, across prairies, around thesouthern tip of Lake Michigan they traveled, to finally halt in theembryo city of Chicago, than a trading post. Other settlers tried topersuade them to stay, even offering them a gift of land in the centerof the settlement. Samuel French's reply was "Do you think I wouldsettle my family in a town where my ox team gets stuck in the mire ofmain street?" and they moved on. They traveled west and north intoWisconsin, pausing for a time at Elkhorn, where a daughter, Caroline,was born. Again the ox team was hitched to the covered wagon and theydrove on to Meton, Fond du Lac County, where they lived for some tenyears. Here four children were born, the first of the four, FranklinFredus being the first white child born in that county. Here also theyburied their ninth child and shortly thereafter adopted a little girl,Susan Hester Fletcher, partially orphaned during the Civil War. Thepioneer spirit still prevailing, their next move was to Glendale,Monroe County. Here the same efforts were required to establish a homeas in New York, forest to be cleared, sod to be broken, crops to beplanted and buildings to be erected. They continued to live here andit would seem that their days were to end in this locality. They hadeducated their children as far as limited means and schools allowed.One son was sent to New York state for further education, other sonsand daughters attended various schools in the state, and one son,Marcus, who later came to South Dakota, attended the University atMadison. Their children scattered, married and established theirhomes. The day came, when these pioneer spirits were forced to closethe door to their Glendale home for the last time, and they went tospend their remaining days with a son and his family in Iowa. Herethe husband and father died. After the death of her husband, PhebeLilly French, reviving the old pioneer spirit, joined her son, Marcusin South Dakota. Here she filed on a homestead in Richvalley Township,Sully County, near Onida, in 1887, cheerfully enduring the lonelinessand the Ôdoing without' this entailed. One granddaughter rememberingthe summer she was sent to Onida to help relieve the loneliness, tellsof the friends she made among the neighbors, and of walking severalmiles to obtain milk in an empty syrup pail for her grandmother'scooking. Mrs. Walter Martin, Renwick, Iowa, has written,"Grandmother French must have longed greatly for a home of her own,once more, to have gone to South Dakota to file on a homestead at theage of 78." During those days of living on her claim Phebe LillyFrench wrote to her daughter, Harriet, "Please send me my Bible and mydictionary," also admonishing her, "Take care of my fan and myparasol," adding, "the fan was a present." Thus we learn of her desireto have close at hand the two books about which she ordered her life,and of the concern she felt for her small personal treasures. PhebeLilly French, the first generation to have lived in Sully County,South Dakota, was followed by her daughter, Caroline Cordelia Tyler,(Mrs. John Royal) in 1906 and 1907. Her granddaughter, Hattie RosalineTyler Hayes (Mrs. James H.) came in 1907, returned for a few years toIowa, then came again in 1918 to live the remainder of her life. Thegreat grand-daughter, Isadore Hayes Brooking (Mrs. Herbert A.) came in1907. The succeeding generations who call Onida "home" include ArdisBrooking Gatons (Mrs. Frank), Eunice Lucile Gatons Cavanaugh (Mrs.John), and the seventh generation, Deborah Susan Lucile Cavanaugh. Maythe descendants of our pioneer grandmother be ever true to thecourage, the faith and the Christian ideals she brought in 1887 toSully County, South Dakota!