Jesse McPherson > William Alexander McPherson >
Elizabeth Rebecca McPherson > Amy Phares > Cecil Lloyd Walters >
Charles Lloyd Walters
I haven’t been able to find out much about the origins of
Jesse C McPherson. Based on census records, he was born between 1780 and 1790.
He married Jennie Atkinson in Roane, Tennessee on August 1, 1808. Jennie
probably died before 1822 when Jesse married Barbara (Ely) Dougherty, also in
Roane, TN. (Barbara and her first husband, Joseph Dougherty were divorced, a
rarity for the day).
The 1830 census lists Jesse in Lee County, Virginia. The
household includes 11 children and was probably a combined family which would
have included children from the union of Jesse and Barbara as well as from both
of their first marriages.
Jesse was a Methodist circuit rider preacher as well as a
doctor. He served in the War of 1812 and participated in the Battle of New
Orleans.
In 1837, Jesse sold 117 acres of his land in Lee County.
It is assumed this was around the time he and his family moved to DeWitt
County, Illinois. While in DeWitt, Jesse became the first treasurer of the
county, however he only held the position for a short time as there was only
$25 in the treasury. Jesse also served as Justice of the Peace for the precinct
of Mt. Pleasant (present day Farmer City).
It is believed the family is of Scotch and Irish descent
and they left the South because of their opposition to slavery. According to
family history, Jesse is buried in the “Old Mills Cemetery” located to the west
of Clinton and is possibly the same as the Mills/Cackley-Hickman Cemetery although
there doesn’t appear to be an existing marker for Jesse.
Sources: Robert
Phares, Patriarch by William Marshall Phares; Ely Family from http://bow1.tripod.com/ely/Ely_Family.pdf;
Marriage and census records from Ancestry.com
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