The Will of James Nichols 1762 -- 1834

 A copy of James Nichols Will as transcribed by me from a copy of the original

            I James Nichols of the county of Hendricks and state of Indiana being weak in body but of sane and perfect mind and memory do make and publish this my last will and testament hereby revoking and making said all former wills by me at anytime hereafter made.

            First it is my will that all my just debts and funeral expenses be in due time paid by my Executors thereafter named. And as to such Worldly Estate as it has pleased God to enable me to procure, I will and bequeath in the following manner, to wit, first it is my will that my sons Erasmus and Thomas and my daughters Sally, Betsey, and Jane have each one dollar over and above what they have already received from my hands to be paid by my Executors out of the proceeds of my personal Estate.

            Secondly, I will and bequeath unto my son Andrew the East half of the North East Quarter of section seven in Township fifteen North of Range and West in the district of Lands subject to sale at Crawfordsville, Indiana.  Also one horse beast, saddle and bridle to be taken out of my personal Estate, the horse beast to be worth thirty five dollars.  Thirdly I will and bequeath to my son James the West half of the North East quarter of section seven in Township fifteen North of range and West in the district of lands subject to sale at Crawfordsville, Indiana, with the exception of three acres lying in the North West corner of said half section which said three acres I did heretofore convey by deed to one Mareen Bonifield; I also will unto my sons James one horse beast to be taken out of my personal property to be worth thirty-five dollars also one saddle and bridle.

            Fourthly I will unto my daughter Harriett and Eleanor each, one feather bed furniture, a cow and calf, also one good side saddle and bridle each.  Fifthly, it is my will that whatever may remain of my personal Estate after paying off my debts and settling the expenses of my business and the legacies herein before bequeathed , remain in the hands of my beloved wife; It is also my will that my beloved wife remain in the possession of the house and farm in which I now live during her natural life.

            Lastly I do hereby make and ordain my sons Erasmus and Thomas Executors of this my last will and testament.

            In Witness whereof  I James Nichols the testator, have hereunto set my hand and  seal this 8^th day of September AD 1834.

                                                                                

                                                                     James  Nichols    Seal

                                                                     X his mark                                     

Signed sealed published and declared by the above named James Nichols as his last will and testament in presence of us who have hereunto subscribed our names in the presence of the said testator and in presence of each other, this 8^th day of September AD 1834

                                                                                                (J or S) T Hadley

                                                                                                Edward Strange

State of Indiana Hendricks County

            Be it remembered that on this 7^th day of February AD 1835 the within will of James Nichols deceased was produced by Erasmus Nichols one of the Executors therein named.                       


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Richardson Family Part Two

          On September 24, 1829,  Dorcus Barker daughter of Jeremiah and Mary Beeson Barker married Daniel Richardson,  son of Christian and Lovina Ingle Richardson, in Randolph County North Carolina.  The following is quoted from an article written in 1930 by a seventy year old grand-daughter of Dorcas and Daniel: Their honeymoon was a trip on horseback to  Indiana.  One horse carried them both with all their worldly possessions. It was a long and perilous journey through wilderness with only a blazed trail.  The dense forests were alive with wildcats, panthers and wolves.  One evening as they were riding late to find a shelter for the night, a piercing scream broke the stillness of the forest!  Looking up they saw a wildcat, ready to jump down on them. The horse seemed to sense the danger and lunged forward to safety, with only claw marks on his rump.  When they arrived in Indiana, they entered land near Center Valley in Hendricks County, where Dorcas sister Jane and her husband William Craven lived along with several of her brothers.   They put up a cabin, with help from the few neighbors.  One man came from White Lick, near Mooresville, another from Mill Creek, the others were nearer, seven in all.
     The following spring they sold this land at a profit and bought 80 acres a mile north of Hazelwood.  Here they lived in a rail pen and used a quilt for a door until they could get a house built.  The deed to this land is recorded in 1830.  Grandfather paid $1.25 an acre and earned much of the money by working on the National Road for 35 cents a day.  One evening as he was coming home through the forest a wildcat stalked him.  He built a fire and stayed by it all night.
     "When the cabin was first built it was one room, without floor or door.  Again the quilt was used until they could put up a door with leather hinges, then they felt rich indeed.  This cabin was in the woods, no clearing except as Daniel cut trees for use as wood, to split for rails, to make a puncheon floor for the cabin, to make crude farming implements, and make furniture,  Soon a second room was added with an attic. A brick chimney was built between the rooms with a stairs on one side and a pantry on the other side of the chimney."

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The Richardson Family Part One

 My parents both had quite a lot of information about their families but I was especially interested in the Richardsons because my gggg grandfather's name was listed as Christopher Columbus Richardson and his wife Lovey English. These names intrigued me as well as the fact that supposedly Lovey English was German.   I also liked to hear about how Christopher and Lovey's son Daniel and his wife Dorcas rode together on horseback from North Carolina to Hendricks County Indiana.  In the mind of a young girl who was already enamored with the romanticism of early Americans and pioneers, this made for lots of daydreams.
     As I began researching this family the first thing I discovered was that there was no Christopher Columbus Richardson married to a Lovey English in North Carolina or anywhere else for that matter.  As I started checking marriage records I did find a Christian Richardson who married Lovina Ingle in Guilford County North Carolina.  I found and sent for information from the Randolph County NC Library and between that and other information I found I determined that I had a match, there was no Christopher Columbus but Christian, and Lovina's nickname was Lovey.  Somewhere along the line the German Ingle was anglicized to English but where Christopher Columbus came from is a mystery that only my ancestors know.  I do know that his son Daniel, my ancestor, had children named Christopher and Lovey.


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Francis (Frank) Edmondson

Francis Edmondson was born July 27, 1802 near Rheatown, Greene County, Tennessee to Samuel and Elizabeth Johnson Edmondson. Greene County is in the rolling foothills of eastern Tennessee in the shadow of the Appalachian Mountains.  Francis was the fifth of ten children.   Samuel moved to Tennessee about 1780 from North Carolina with his parents, Solomon and Susannah Wilkinson Edmondson.
He and Elizabeth Johnson were married in Greene County on September 25, 1791.


Samuel Edmondson bought 200 acres at the head of Sinking Creek. This was adjacent to Solomon Edmondson and Wm. Handley (Deed Book 2, p. 254.ns )   On May 13, 1792 Solomon Edmondson (Samuel’s brother)  bought 200 acres at the head of Sinking Creek, adjoining Samuel.   On Dec. 6, 1806 Samuel Edmondson sold 200 acres on Sinking Creek.   His father Solomon Edmondson, sold 200 acres on Sinking Creek on Sept. 30, 1807.   At this time the family must have moved to Knox County because on  October 10, 1807.  Solomon Edmondson bought 93 acres in Knox County on the south side of Beaver Creek, and the north side of Beaver Ridge. The same day he bought another 150 acres adjoining the first tract. This was witnessed by Samuel Edmondson.

Sometime before 1827 Francis's mother Elizabeth died in Knox County.  His father Samuel married Rebecca White on January 7, 1827.

Francis Edmondson married Jane Grayson on February 3, 1828.  Jane was born December 12, 1800 in Knox County, Tennessee to John and Jane (Nancy) Grayson.

John Grayson was referred to as Big Ben so I am thinking his middle name must have been Benjamin.   Apparently the Edmondson’s and Grayson’s lived very close to each other because Francis’s brother John married Jane’s sister Sarah Grayson. 

Francis and his brother Solomon went to Indiana and settled in the same area.  They filed for Sections 27 and 28, 3 miles northeast of the village of Mooresville on December 17 and 18, 1829.  . Both Francis and Solomon are listed in theMorgan County in the 1830 census.

“When Frank left Knox County, Tennessee, he came by wagon, probably pulled buy oxen, because it took six weeks to drive from Beaver Creek, Tennessee, to his land in Morgan County. His young wife and small daughter, Caroline, came along, so the whole family, together with all of their possessions, came in that one wagon. Somewhere we have been told that Frank rode a horse, and his wife drove that one wagon. Their arrival was safely made through the mountains over the Cumberland Gap, across Kentucky on the Wilderness Trail, and they probably crossed the Ohio River at Madison. The only road northward was through Vernon, Columbus, and Franklin, where they could intercept the Whetzel Trace. They probably went westward to the bluffs of White River at Waverly. From there only a few miles were through a dense forest, and they probably had to cut a trail to reach the farm by wagon.
A cabin was built and the next fall Benjamin Grayson was born in that little cabin. The neighborhood was not to Frank's liking, too much work on Sunday, as a place to raise a family, so he began looking around for a better location.
Francis found land on the newly located Terre Haute Trail, west of Belleville on Mud Creek, which he entered in the land office at Crawfordsville. This entry was for eighty acres in section 10, Township 14 North, Range 1 West, in Liberty Township, Hendricks County, and was dated November 23, 1831.

 He had learned that a nearby settler had also picked out this same tract, so he started to the Land Office at Crawfordsville on horse back and rode all night. When the office opened for business the next morning, Frank was sitting on the doorstep waiting to enter this land. After the entry was made and he was leaving the office, this other settler rode up on a badly spent horse and learned that he was too late.” (C. V. Edmondson, Family Historian 1963)
“On this land Francis Edmondson built a cabin, and here his second daughter, Elizabeth was born.  This cabin was his home until about 1879, when it was burned to the ground with nearly all its contents.  The new home he built on the old site is still standing  (and still standing in 2011).  The children attended school at Chapel School located in what is now the Clayton Cemetery, then nearby Kinderhook or Mitchell school just south of the crossroads of the old National Road and Clayton Hazelwood Roads.  They all later attended the Belleville Academy.

Frank Edmondson became a man of considerable means and occupied a high place in the community.  He was a charter member of the First Baptist Church at Clayton, which he helped organize and is said to have donated the land on which it is built.
He was tall in stature and rather austere in looks, but is said to have a dry sense of humor.  In his later years, he wore a beard.  He was frugal in his habits, cautious in business, and honest in his commitments. His rule of business was never to let the sun set, owing any man, even his hired help whom he paid at the close of each day.  He had little confidence in banks, so he kept his money at home where he stored it in a wooden maul which was hollowed out and used as a doorstop.  During the Civil War he would accept only gold, but after the war, when paper money was greatly depreciated, he saw a day when it would be worth face value, so then he bought all he could with his gold.” (C. V. Edmondson, Family Historian 1963)
 
Francis and  Jane Grayson Edmondson had three children:  Belinda Caroline  born February 2, 1829, in Knox County Tennessee,  died January 26, 1900 in Putnam County Indiana;  Benjamin Grayson born September 10, 1831 in Morgan County Indiana, died March 12,  1919 in Hendricks County Indiana and Elizabeth Jane Edmondson born June 24, 1837 in Hendricks County and died June 14, 1931 in Hendricks County Indiana.

Jane Grayson Edmondson died on July 26. 1882 and Francis Edmondson died soon after on November 19, 1885.  They are both buried at Clayton Cemetery just down the road from where they lived for 54 years.

Will of Francis Edmonson 

Know all men by these presents, that I, Francis Edmonson, of Clayton in the County of Hendricks and State of Indiana, being of sound and disposing mind and memory do make and publish this my last Will and Testament hereby revoking all former Wills by me at any time made heretofore.

First:

After the payment of my debts and funeral expenses I give to my son, Benjamin G. Edmondson one hundred and sixty acres of land described as follows: The North East Quarter of Section fifteen (15) Township fourteen (14) North of Range One (1) West in Hendricks County and State of Indiana.

Second:

I give to my daughter, Belinda C. Ader, the sum of Six Thousand Dollars in money.

Third:

I give to my daughter, Elizabeth J. Marley, One thousand Dollars in cash and all of the home farm on which I now live, containing one hundred acres be the same more or less, which lies in the South West corner of the South West Quarter of Section ten (10) Township Fourteen (14) North of Range one West in Hendricks County and State of Indiana.

Fourth:

I bequeath to my said three children, Benjamin G. Edmondson, Belinda C. Ader, and Elizabeth J. Marley all the balance of my estate to be divided equally among them.

Lastly:

I appoint my said son, Benjamin G. Edmondson, to be the executor of this my last will and testament.

In testimony whereof I hereunto set my hand and seal and declare this to be my last Will and Testament in the presence of the witnesses named below, this 10th day of November 1885. Signed Francis Edmonson ....Seal The above instrument of one sheet was at the date thereof declared to us by the testator, Francis Edmonson, to be his last Will and Testament and then acknowledged to each of us that he had subscribed the same and we at his request signed our names hereto as attesting Witnesses. Wm. A. Ragen, Clayton, Indiana, Wm. C. Mitchell, Clayton, Indiana. Probated: November 23, 1885

                                                                      

 

Pictures of two of 

Francis' Siblings

  

 

 

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