I have info on Arthur A Thralls who married Lydia James:
Jacob and Rachael Johns:
Jacob Johns was born in 1776 in Pennsylvania. His wife Rachael was born in 1780, also in Pennsylvania. Nothing else about their parents or siblings is known at this time, but there are other Johns families living in Estill County, Kentucky who may be related.
Jacob Johns and his family moved to Clay County, Kentucky between 1798 and 1804. On the 1810 US Census, he and Rachael have 2 sons and 4 daughters. Clay County became Estill County in 1815, and Jacob Johns is shown on the tax lists for 1818 – 1829. One curious thing about the tax information on Jacob is that he didn’t own land, but had many horses. Jacob Johns, on the other hand, never had slaves, but in 1818 had 18 horses, and in 1819 he had 10.
The next mention of Jacob Johns is when he was appointed an Estill county commissioner in Feb. 1819. Jacob’s family is on the 1820 Census for Ravenna, Estill, Kentucky with 3 sons and 7 daughters. Three of their older daughters married in Kentucky. Mary Johns married John W. McIntosh in about 1821, Sarah Johns married Martin Lewis in 1823, and Hannah Johns married William Couch in 1825. In 1825, Jacob Johns was one of 10 Justices of the Peace who served in Estill until 1828.
By the 1830 Census, the Johns had moved north to Jackson Township, Boone, Indiana. Jacob got two 80 acres parcels of land in the southwest part of Boone county in 1830. On the census, Jacob and Rachel have 2 sons and 5 daughters living at home. Their daughter, Sarah Lewis and her family are living nearby. Jacob Johns was elected to an associate judgeship in April of 1832. He acquired two more pieces of land in 1831 and 1835. There is another Jacob Johns living in Boone County at this time. He lived on the other side of the county (Union township), was about 20 years younger than our Jacob. He had many children and could possibly be a distant cousin.
Several of the Johns children married in the 1830’s. Benjamin married Mary Fowler in 1833, Anna married Jacob Andrews in 1837, Rachel married Uriah Groves in 1837, and Elizabeth married Hiram Andrews in 1839.
On the 1840 census of Boone county, Jacob Johns and Rachael have a teenaged daughter (either Rebecca or Lydia) living with them, and two grandchildren – possibly John and Rachael Lewis, children of Sarah Lewis, now deceased. Living nearby is Martin Lewis, Jacob Andrews, and John McIntosh. Rebecca Johns married John Clements and Lydia Johns married Arthur Thrall in 1848.
On the 1850 census of Jackson Township, Boone County, the same families are living together, with some interesting additions. Jacob, now 74, is farming; Rachael is now 70; their son Benjamin is 32 and helping run the farm; Jacob J. James, Lydia’s son from her first marriage, is 7; and Rachael Lewis, Sarah’s daughter, is 15 and also living with her grandparents. Living next door is Joseph B. Johns, who married Rachel Younger in 1850. The next dwelling is George Burke, a physician, and his student, John Couch, Hannah’s son. The next dwelling is Arthur and Lydia Johns Thrall.
Jacob Johns died sometime in December in 1850. He left no will, but his case was probated in February of 1851. His executors were Benjamin Johns and John McIntosh. It is unknown when Rachael died, but she and Jacob are both buried in the family cemetery in Jamestown, at 1st and Four Winds Drive.
There are several unknown children in this family. They had two sons and one daughter born between 1800- 1810. They all appear to have lived to maturity, but no further information is known at this time.
John W. McIntosh and Mary Johns:
John W. McIntosh was born in 1794, in Virginia. Nothing about his parents or siblings is known at this time.
Mary Johns was born 8 Feb 1798, in Pennsylvania. Her parents were Jacob and Rachel Johns, and she was the eldest of eleven known children. The family moved to Clay County, Kentucky, between 1798 and 1804. The place they lived became Estill County when boundaries changed in 1815.
John and Mary presumably met and married in Estill County in about 1821, although no record of their marriage has been found. Their first four children were born in Kentucky, either in Estill County or Franklin County, where they are found on the 1830 Census. That census shows that they have a boy, born between 1820 and 1825, and a girl, born between 1825 and 1830, that are later missing from the family and are presumed to have died during childhood. The census also shows a female 20-30 in the household, possibly one of John or Mary’s sisters.
They had two more children in Kentucky: Jacob B. McIntosh, born in 1827; and Andrew Jackson McIntosh, born 26 April 1830. The family had moved to Hendricks County, Indiana by 1833, when John W. (Wood) McIntosh was born. Rebecca McIntosh was born in 1834, and died in 1850. Rachel Elizabeth was born on 3 July 1835.
The McIntosh and Johns families came to Indiana at about the same time. John McIntosh bought land in Eel River Township, in Hendricks County on 8 Feb 1831. He bought 80 acres only a few miles from Jacob John’s farm. Mary’s sister, Sarah Johns Lewis also lived nearby. John bought 80 more acres with a Johns from James McIntosh in 1835 in Hendricks. This James McIntosh likely to be a relative of John, but nothing further has been found on him yet.
The 1850 census states that John was a farmer, and he and Mary could not read or write. At that time, they lived near Mary’s aging parents, her brother Benjamin, another brother Joseph and his family, and her sister Lydia Johns James Thrall. Mary and John’s son, Andrew Jackson appears on the 1850 census twice – once at home, and once in neighboring Montgomery County, Indiana, where he was studying to become a physician.
Mary’s father, Jacob Johns died in December of 1850. Benjamin Johns, Mary’s brother, and John W. McIntosh were his executors. Jacob left no will.
The children married during the 1850’s in Indiana. Rachel married Thomas Henry on 5 Dec 1854. Andrew J. married Sarah M. about 1855. Jacob B. married Catherine Jane Gamble in about 1856. John W. McIntosh married Elizabeth Gamble 26 Jan 1858.
We have tax records for several years from Hendricks County, and John’s worth was valued at $840 at its peak in 1852. However, in 1846, he was delinquent $3.32 on the $4.26 he owed, so times were hard, and cash was in short supply. John McIntosh continued to buy and sell land in Hendricks and Boone counties until about 1858, when the family moved west.
The extended Johns and McIntosh families moved together to Olathe, Johnson County, Kansas. The Thomas and Rachel (McIntosh) Henrys and her brother A.J. McIntosh are in Olathe on the 1860 US Census. John W. (Wood) McIntosh’s son John was born in Nov. 1860 in Kansas.
They moved again to the Page County, Iowa area in about 1862, when John bought a farm in Amity twp. His farm on Sec. 23 & 24 of Township 67N and Range 37 W was adjacent to property belonging to Thomas & Rachel (McIntosh) Henry, Andrew J. McIntosh, and Arthur & Lydia (Johns James) Thrall.
John W. McIntosh died on 28 Mar 1869, in Braddyville, Page, Iowa, at the age of 75, and is buried in the Braddyville Cemetery. Mary died 13 years later on 16 Feb 1882, at the age of 84 years and 8 days, and was buried next to her husband.
Hannah Johns Couch:
Very little is known about Hannah Johns. She was born in about 1803, probably in Pennsylvania. She married William Couch in Estill County, Kentucky on 16 March 1825. They may have gone to Perry County, Kentucky, where there is a William Couch on the census in 1840. In Boone County, Indiana, there is an Austin Couch who buys land in 1834, and in the county Guardianship records, his heirs in 1844 are William and Jonathan Couch.
John Couch, who lived next to Jacob Johns on the 1850 census, with another physician, is thought to be the son of Hannah and William. John Couch stayed in Boone County, marrying Maria Bush on 15 Feb 1846. He had seven children.
Sarah Johns Lewis:
Sarah Johns was born about 1805 in Pennsylvania and moved to Kentucky soon thereafter. She married Martin Lewis on 12 April 1823 in Estill County. Martin Lewis was born 23 Nov 1794 in Ashe County, North Carolina to James Theopilus Lewis and Sallie Couch. They had two children while they lived in Kentucky: Lucinda, born in 1825, and John, born in 1827.
The Lewis family went with the Johns to Indiana by the 1830 census of Boone County, where the family is living next to Jacob Johns. Sarah had two more children here: Sarah Ann in 1833, and Rachael Jane in 1834. Shortly after the birth of Rachael, Sarah Johns died.
Martin Lewis then married Drusilla Dent 18 April 1835. They had five children. Martin died before August 1848. His widow, Drusilla, and all the children, except Lucinda, appeared in court to decide guardianship. Carter Cox was appointed guardian of Sarah and Rachael on 14 Aug 1848. On the 1850 census of Boone County, Rachael is living with her grandparents, and John is living with William Hays.
Elizabeth Johns Andrews:
Elizabeth Johns was born about 1814 in Estill County, Kentucky. She was married about 10 years after the family moved to Boone County, Indiana, on 20 Sep 1839 to Hiram Andrews. They had two sons, Jacob in 1844 and John in 1846. By 1850, they had moved to Jefferson Township, Green, Wisconsin. In 1850, Hiram is apparently deceased, and Elizabeth and the two boys live next door to her sister and brother-in-law, Jacob and Anna Johns Andrews.
On the 1860 Census of Green County, Elizabeth has married William Carter, who was born in England, and Elizabeth’s son John is living with them. They had two children, Elizabeth in 1853 and Thomas in 1859. John married Minerva in about 1870. Nothing further is known at this time about Jacob.
Joseph B. Johns:
Joseph B. Johns was born in 1816, in Estill County, Kentucky. He married Nancy Vowel on 7 Oct 1838 in Hendricks County, Indiana. They had four children: Mary Ann in 1839, Jacob in 1841, Benjamin Franklin in 1842, and Rachel M. in 1846. Nancy died soon thereafter, and Joseph married Rachel Younger on 12 Mar 1850 in Boone County. They had one child, Anna, who died in infancy.
Rachael Johns Groves:
Rachael was born in 1817 in Estill County, Kentucky. She married Uriah Groves on 18 July 1837 in Boone County, Indiana. Uriah bought three pieces of land in Jackson Township from 1837 to 1840. They were next to Joseph B. Johns and near the rest of Rachael’s family. The Groves also bought 80 acres in nearby Clinton County in 1837.
At this point, it is unknown what happened to this family. Uriah may have died and our Rachael could be the Rachael Groves who married John Randel in Boone County in 1847. Perhaps the Uriah Graves who lived in Nodaway County, Missouri in 1860 is our guy. More research should be done here.
Benjamin Johns:
Benjamin Johns was born in 1818, in Estill County Kentucky. We don’t have much information about his life. He was living with his parents in 1850 and working the farm. He became his father’s executor when Jacob died in December of 1850. There is a marriage record of a Benjamin Johns who married Mary Fowler in 1833. Our Benjamin is a bit too young to have married in 1833, if the 1850 census gives his correct age. Another clue is from the Johns family cemetery, where one of the graves is: “Sarah R. Johns, daughter of Benjamin and ? Johns died in 1851â€. There is no further record of Benjamin at this time.
Anna Johns Andrews:
Anna Johns was born in 1820 in Ravenna, Estill, Kentucky. She married about eight years after the family moved to Indiana, on 1 June 1837 to Jacob Andrews. (Jacob is presumably the brother of Hiram Andrews, Elizabeth Johns’ husband.) They are living next to Jacob Johns and Martin Lewis in 1840. They moved to Jefferson, Green County, Wisconsin for a few years from about 1848 – 1855, and lived next to Anna’s sister, Elizabeth. The Andrews are back in Boone County, Indiana for the 1860 census. They had eight children: Lydia J., Fames F., Rachel, Mary E., Estella F., Jacob A., Joseph L., and George W.
Rebecca Johns Clements:
Rebecca Johns was born in 1828 in Estill County, Kentucky. She came to Indiana with her family while still an infant. She married John Clements, a Baptist Minister who was widowed on 13 Feb 1848. John Clements moved to Boone County, Indiana in about 1837 and bought many tracts of land in Boone and Hendricks Counties. In 1850, John Clements and Rebecca have three Clements children in the household, John’s with his late wife, and three Combs, which could have been Rebecca’s children from a previous marriage. In 1860, he and Rebecca are living in Brown, Hendricks County, with their daughter Mary and two Cooms boys in their teens.
Lydia Johns James Thrall:
Lydia was born 15 Dec 1822 in Ravenna, Estill, Kentucky to Jacob and Rachel Johns. She was their youngest child. Lydia married Enoch James on 13 Mar 1842 in Boone County, Indiana. They had one child, Jacob J. James in 1842. Enoch James died in about 1847 in Boone County.
Lydia married again, on 13 July 1848 to Arthur A. Thrall (or Thralls), a widower with 2 daughters. They took up residence next to Jacob and Joseph Johns, and lived there in the 1850 census, but Lydia’s son Jacob James was living with his grandparents, Jacob and Rachel. When the Henrys and McIntoshes moved from Indiana to Kansas and then Page County, Iowa, the Thrall family moved with them. Lydia was known in the family as “Aunt Libâ€.
On the 1870 census of Page County, Iowa, Arthur and Lydia Thrall are living in Amity twp, next to Thomas and Rachel Henry. They had four children: George W., Rachel A., Arthur A., and Sarah J. Lydia died on 3 Nov 1882 and was buried at the Braddyville Cemetery. Arthur died at the home of his son Arthur on 16 June 1901, and is buried next to his wife.
Jacob J. James also moved to Page County, where he enlisted in the Union Army in March 1862. He was in the 11th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, and saw action at Jacksonport, Augusta and New Orleans. He was discharged in August 1865. He returned home to Iowa and married Caroline Willets in 1868 and they had seven children. He bought two 50-acre sections of his stepfather’s farm in 1866 and 1868. Jacob James died on 30 May 1913 and is buried in the Braddyville cemetery near his wife and mother.
Bibliography:
Thorpe, Norwood. “Be It Remembered: Estill County Court Orders and Minutes from 1808-1858â€. Beattyville, KY: 1987.
“Kentucky Marriages to 1850â..
Thorpe
Boone County Historical Society, Inc. "Tract Book, Boone County, Indiana". Lebanon, IN: 1992.
Crist, L.M. "History of Boone County, Indiana: with biographical sketches of representative citizens...". Arizona: 1974.
Lebanon, Indiana: 1989.
L.M. Crist.
1850 US Census Eel River twp. Hendricks, Indiana
1850 US Census Eel River twp. Hendricks, Indiana
1830 US Census Franklin Co, Kentucky
1850 Mortality Schedule Hendricks, Indiana