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THE LETTERS
Of
HENRY C. OGLE, SR.
Transcribed and submitted by Sherida Dougherty
Thank you so much Sherida, what a wonderful contribution
and a special thank you to Millie Belew for sharing this wonderful information!
Henry C. Ogle, Sr. was the son of Jesse and Elizabeth Conway Ogle. Elizabeth was the daughter of John and Anna Sutton Conway, Jr. and John, Jr. the son of John and Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway. These letters have proven to be an invaluable resource for genealogists and historians. Most of the letters were written to George Pohlman, Jr. who was married to another Conway descendant. There is, however, a letter written to Dr. Samuel Conway, another great-grandson of John and Elizabeth Conway. Also included, is a letter written by George Pohlman to the Wisconsin State Library summarizing information he had collected from various sources but referring to the letters of Mr. Ogle.
The reader is encouraged to read all of the letters in their entirety. Although some of the information may seem repetitive, new facts are frequently added in the different writings. Also, there are some inconsistencies among the letters so a complete reading is necessary to avoid erroneous conclusions. The letters presented were written between 1903 to 1917. Researchers have since been able to clarify facts and add new information.
The letters were originally handwritten by Mr. Ogle and have been transcribed here from typed copies that were generously passed along by Mrs. Millie Belew; who, in turn, received them from a Conway family researcher. Although spelling and typing errors have been corrected, proper names remain as they appeared. The grammar and content has not been changed. The reader will also note that terms which are considered “politically incorrect” now but which were acceptable in the early 1900s have not been altered. To change the grammar and language of these letters would negate the original tone of the writers. Sherida Dougherty
LETTER TO DR. SAMUEL CONWAY
Of LAMONTE, MO.
Paris, Ky.
Jan. 2, 1903
Dear Sir:
The history of the Conway family as related to me by my mother and my Uncle Nathaniel Conway begins as far as I can trace it with out Great grandfather John Conway, who came to Virginia when a young man from near Dublin, Ireland. This was probably about 1730 to 1735. He had a good education and devoted all his early life to teaching. His wife, Elizabeth, whom he married in Virginia, was a lady of English birth, whose maiden name was Bridgewater. They were the parents of ten children – four sons and six daughters. The sons were Samuel – the eldest – next Jesse – John and Joseph, he being the youngest of the boys. Of the daughters I can now remember the names of only three of them, Elizabeth, Dulcenea and Sally, she was the youngest of all the children. John was born in 1758, was my grandfather and Joseph was yours. Joseph, from incidents which I will hereafter relate, was born about 1765 (1763) and Sallie in 1774. I do not know the ages of the others. Of the daughters, two of them whose names I have forgotten, married brothers named Long. Elizabeth married William Daugherty, another whose name I have forgotten married John Daugherty, brother of William (this name is pronounced as if spelled Dority). Dulcinea married Basil Wells. Sallie, ----- Underwood. The first five sisters married in Virginia. Sallie married in Kentucky. Samuel’s wife was a Miss Clemons. John’s a Miss Sutton (Anna). Joseph’s a Miss Caldwell. The last two brothers were married in Kentucky, but I do not know whether Samuel was married in Virginia or Kentucky. Of Jesse I know but little, except that he was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was in the Battle of Eutaw Springs, The Cowpens, besides other minor engagements, and after the war left Virginia moving to Indiana or Illinois, I have forgotten which state.
I leaned this some ten years ago from a letter written me by a cousin, T.J. Underwood of Sangamon Co. Ill. Mr. Underwood is a grandson of our great aunt Sally. I do not remember whether my mother or my uncle every told me about our great grandfather having any brothers besides himself coming with him to Va. But I am under the belief that he had. I met with an old gentleman of this name in Knox Co. Mo. Some 27 years ago – John Conway. He said that he was born in Eastern Ohio, but his father died when he was a small child, but his mother always told him his father came from Va. He had a married daughter living in the neighborhood with whom I became acquainted and she bore a striking resemblance to a Mrs. Bates whom I met in St. Louis Co, Mo. in 1875. I have now forgotten whether she was your sister or your cousin. I think it quite likely that this old gentleman must have been a grandson of a brother to your great grandfather. But I have strayed from my story.
I will now take up the history of Samuel. He too was in the Revolutionary Service, but not as a soldier. He manufactured gunpowder for the army. Prior to the Revolution he was a soldier procured by Virginia against the Indians, commonly known as Dunmore’s War, and was in the sanguinary battle of Point Pleasant, where the whites were commanded by Col. Lewis and the Indians by Cornplanter (see Colonial History). After the Revolution he came to Kentucky, first settling in Bourbon Co. but after a few years, when wild game became scarce, he moved and settled on Main Licking River, about 40 miles south of Cincinnati, in what is now Pendleton Co. That portion of Ky. was at that time and for many years afterwards a veritable “Hunters Paradise”. The land with the exception of the wide river bottoms, is very broken and for many years after the settling of Ky. remained a dense almost impenetrable wilderness. Again in 1818, he sold out and moved to northeast Mo. settling in Marion Co. I don’t think he ever had but two sons, one named Ben and the other Sineon (Simeon) who died some 35 years ago in Lewis Co. Mo. And Benjamin died without children. I have met with a son of Sineon’s, Prof. D.M. Conway, at this time in chare of a high school in Shelbyville, Mo. but afterwards went down, I think to some school in southwest Mo. There were several daughters, the descendants of three of them now living in Pendleton Co. Ky. Husband of one of the daughters was Smith (so you see we have the honor to be related to the great Smith family.) Another to Mr. Beckett, another to Mr. Brownfield – this name in olden times was called Brumfield.
John Daugherty and his family also moved to Ky. settling near Paris about 1810, but afterwards sold out and moved to Mo., I don’t know where.
Of the two sisters who married the two Long brothers, I know nothing more of their history, nor of Dulcinea and her Husband Basil Wells.
I will now take up the history of John, Joseph, Elizabeth, Sally and their parents and their removal to Ky. John first came in 1777 as one of a company of soldiers sent out by the garrison of Va. To guard the settlers about Boone’s Fort, or as it was commonly known as Boonesboro. This is in the present Co. of Madison on the Ky. River. He remained a year during which the fort was twice attacked by Indians and during on of these attacks besieged eight or ten days. In fact partied of Indians were frequently skulking about the country adjacent to the fort, watching for a chance to kill the whites, and many were waylaid and murdered. He returned to Va. in 1778 and in a short time afterward, probably 1779 he came to Ky. accompanied by his father and mother, his sister Elizabeth and her husband, Wm. Daugherty and one child, Joseph, and Sally. Also several other families. They settled about ten miles north of Paris, in the neighborhood of what was called Riddle’s Station. It was really a stockade or fort, built for the purpose of sheltering the settlers from attack by the Indians. Early in the spring of 1780 a number of the families in the neighborhood moved into the fort, also into another called Martin’s six or eight miles south of Riddle’s. The men would go out during the day to work, clearing land, breaking and preparing for planting their crops, and while some of them would be at this work others would be on guard around them with their guns to protect them against the Indians. Oh! but the early settlers of Ky. had terrible times. I enclose rough pencil sketch of fort and surroundings. In June 1780, one Sunday morning, three boys, Joseph Conway being one of them, were sent out early to drive in the cows for milking, they were found on the west side of the river, they started them back, but on crossing the river, which was a shallow ripple, they caught a large Logger head turtle and carried it back to the sandy beach on the west side and began to tease it with willow twigs, watching it snap at them. Some men from the fort were down at the edge of the water on the east side washing their hands and faces for breakfast. An Indian lying concealed in the bushes fired on Joseph, wounding him in the side, then rushed out on him, knocked him down, and tore off his scalp, then vanished from sight in the thick bushes. It was done so quickly that the men on the other side could give no assistance. The alarm was given at the fort, the men rushed out with their guns and scoured the woods, but could find no trace of the Indian or any of his comrades. They carried the wounded boy into the fort. The wound from his head bled alarmingly. Finally an old lady named Wiseman succeeded, by using cobwebs, in stanching the blood. The wound in his side was a slight one, the bullet glancing off from his ribs. His head was bandaged the best they could. Two or three days afterwards the inmates of the fort were terribly alarmed one morning by hearing the report of a cannon near them, and were soon surprised by the appearance of a large force of British and Indians, several hundred. All were under the command of Col. Byrd of the British Army. They had come from Detroit which was then a British possession. They brought cannon with the, cutting a road through the forest and hauling them. They demanded the surrender of the fort, promising in the name of the English King to protect the inmates against the cruelty of the Indians. The walls of the fort, while proof against the common rifle balls, were not sufficient to resist cannon. Col. John Hinkston, the commander of the fort, agreed to surrender. The gates were opened, the Indians rushed in and at once commenced pillaging the fort of everything they could find in cooking utensils, bed clothing and the like. It was with the utmost difficulty that the British soldiers could prevent the Indians from wreaking their fury on the women and children. They would jerk the feather and straw ticks off the beds, empty them to get the ticking. While at their work they came to the bed where the wounded boy lay, and it happened to be the very Indian, as was learned afterwards, who had wounded him. He instantly raised his tomahawk to complete his work, but the English soldiers jerked him away. After robbing the fort of everything of value, they next put their prisoners under guard and then went on and capture Martin’s Fort. It was the intention, it was said, to go to all the other forts to capture them in the same manner, with their cannon, but the British commander was so shocked by the terrible barbarities of the Indians that he refused to go any farther, and started back toward Detroit. Many shocking cruelties were enacted by the Indians. A number of very old men and women, too feeble to travel as fast as their captors wanted, were tomahawked and scalped. My grandfather says that one of the men named Riddle had a stone bruise on his foot and limped badly, said he saw him lie down to drink at a spring, and while down an Indian drove his tomahawk into his brain and jerk off his scalp. A few minutes later the Indian passed him and the other prisoners and shook his poor victim’s bloody scalp at them as a warning of what would be their fate unless they hurried along. Many of the little boys would be so tired, when they came to a log they would climb up and roll over. One woman had a sick baby which kept crying. In passing along the bank of the river, an Indian jerked the baby from her arms and threw it far out into deep water. She tried to rush after in after it, but they caught and held her and she was compelled to witness the dying struggles of her child. At night the men prisoners were confined by driving stakes cross wise over their arms and legs, first extending them their full length, then passing a thong around their necks and tying this to another stake. The night after their capture a very heavy rain fell. Grandfather says they had not protection, the their faces and while bodies were thoroughly drenched. The rains raised the river very high. In crossing Main Licking in canoes two old ladies, a Mrs. Spears and Mrs. Eustin and a little child were drowned. During the confusion and trouble of the march, no effort could be made to dress the scalp wound on Joseph’s head, and the weather being hot, green flies made their appearance, and afterwards creepers. The same old lad Wiseman – who first stanched the blood, now again came in as a good Samaritan and picked the loathsome insects and dressed the boy’s head and continued to wait on him until the wound finally healed. Let the memory of this old woman never be forgotten by the descendants of Joseph Conway. One other incident I remember – Sally, then a little girl of six years, wore a nice little sunbonnet when capture, of which she was very proud. In crossing the river, one of the Indians jerked it off and threw it into the river. Another incident, some Indian squaws accompanied their husbands. On the first night during the heavy rains, these squaws came to our great grandmother and threw some blankets over her and the other women to try to shield them from the storm. When they reached Detroit, the prisoners were divided out among their captors, several small children separated from their parents and scattered out among the different tribes of Indians. Sally was adopted by an old Indian and his wife who had no children. All of the family four years after their capture were released and got back to Kentucky except Sally. Nine years after, a white man who had been among the prisoners, (a half grown boy when captured) managed to get away from them and returned to Ky. and told my grandfather where his sister was. He went back and found her about forty miles west of Detroit. At this time peace had been made with the Indians. He bought his sister from the old Indian by the payment of forty silver brooches. I have the story of her ransom in minutely written account from my kinsman, Mr. Underwood. It is a very affecting story.
The men prisoners, after a while, were allowed to liberty of the town and to work for any of the citizens who would employ them. Detroit was quite a trading place then, the whites were a mixed race of French and English. The country all south of it was a very heavy forest, and in winter next to the town for some half mile or so covered with water some three or four feet deep. This was crossed by a causeway. My grandfather, Mr. Daugherty and Joseph would frequently go out in the forest during the winter to chop wood for the citizens – would also go out and kill hogs for them, they fattened on acorns and hickory nuts and would soon become wild and had to be hunted with dogs and shot. On one occasion, while returning at night on the causeway, they met a drunken Indian whom they gathered in their arms and pitched out onto the thin ice and left him breaking through and floundering in the water. In what manner they traveled to get home I do not remember that my uncle ever told me. William Daugherty after his return to Ky. remained a few years in Bourbon Co. then went to Pendleton Co. in the same neighborhood where Samuel Conway settled, and remained there until his death. One of his sons, Jesse, born while he and his wife were prisoners in Detroit, was a gallant soldier in the war of 1812, and others of his sons and daughters have in the past been people of the best standing in the community where they lived, also grand children and great grand children. Our great grandfather died shortly after his return to Ky. but his wife lived a long time after, dying about 1808 at my grandfather’s from a cancer on her forehead. Aunt Sally after her return, also make her home with my grandfather until her marriage with Mr. Underwood. My mother says he was a worthless kind of man and after about two years of marriage went off and left his wife and infant son, Rueben. She then returned to my grandfather’s house, where she made her home until Reuben was grown and married. She then lived with him. He moved to Illinois about 1830 and settled in Sangamon Co. He died about 1840 but his mother lived five years longer.
Joseph grew up to full manhood and for a number of years engaged as a spy to watch the Indians. Altho peace was made wit England in 1783, the Indians would still make raids into Ky. stealing horses and murdering settlers. The house of a settler named Shanks, living in Bourbon Co. was attacked in Feb. 1787, and the house was burned to the ground and all the family killed except on daughter, a widow Gillespie and her son. Your grandfather was at the house in the early part of the night, but he left shortly after dark. The attack was made about 10 o’clock. If you could manage to get hold of any of the histories of Ky. you will find a full account of this tragedy under the History of Bourbon Co. A party was hastily organized the next day to pursue them, a light snow fell and they had no trouble following them, your grandfather was one of the party. The over took them on the Licking Hills. Two of the Indians dropped behind and showed themselves and kept jumping from tree to tree, it was supposed to make the whites think there was a number of them. Your grandfather rushed up within shooting distance of them and got behind a tree. Putting his hat on a stick he slowly and cautiously poked it around the tree. The Indians thinking it was his head fired. He then rushed them and succeeded in killing one of the Indians. The other, with the rest escaped, he was a little too fast. When the Indians attacked the house, which was a double cabin, they managed to break into one of the rooms where a couple of grown sisters were weaving, and tried to carry them off. One of them defended herself with a knife which she used about her work on the loom, and killed one of the Indians. They then killed her and took the other girl captive. When they found the whites on their pursuit and about to overtake them, they sank their tomahawk into her head.
Your grandfather, after his marriage, I don’t know what year he was married, settled on a fine farm on Cooper’s Run in Bourbon Co. but afterwards, about 1797 or 1798 removed to Mo. then called Louisiana Territory in 1803, the government made arrangements to send out two exploring companies to go across the great plain, the Rocky Mts. to the Pacific Ocean. These companies fitted up at St. Louis, and began the trip in 1804. The command of one of these companies was tendered by President Jefferson to your grandfather, but he declined to take it because of his limited education. Captain Clark commanded one of the companies and Capt. Lewis the other. The latter was a nephew of Jefferson. Some time when you are in a bookstore get a copy of the book called “The Lewis-Clark Expedition”. No more interesting book was ever published. I have heard my mother speak of seeing you grandfather once when she was a girl. He was on a visit to my grandfather’s. She said he took her on his lap and put her hand on his head to feel the place where the Indians scalped him. I have also heard her speak of one of your uncles coming on a visit to Ky. when she was about grown – Walter Conway. He spent some time at the home of my grandfather, and on his return one of my uncles accompanied him to his home in Mo. Your father told me when I was at his house in 1875 that he had a very vivid recollection of my uncle’s visit. Your father and my Uncle Nat Conway very much resembled each other, and seemed a good deal alike in disposition. I had two other uncles besides Uncle Nat, William and John, or as he was commonly called Jack. Both of them died before I was born. Uncle Jack was killed in his own home by lightening in 1833 while upstairs trying to close a window in a heavy storm. He was the grandfather of young Mr. Conway whom you met in Kansas City.
I have given you a long and rambling sketch of the family history and could tell you much more, but wont just now. I am so nervous that I never use a pen in writing. You can perhaps decipher my letter. At you leisure you can get some one to give you a typewritten copy. I will write you again and give you names of younger branches of the family.
Yours truly, Henry C. Ogle, Sr.
Chicago, Ill.
July 2, 1912
Mr. Geo. Pohlman Jr.
Macon, Missouri
My friend and kinsman Mr. Charles Conway of this city handed me the enclosed letter with the request that I answer it. I am perhaps more familiar with the genealogy of the Conway Family from whom I am a descendant on my mother’s side than any of the other kin. In fact I undertook some 20 years ago to get up a History of the family and have it published in Book Form, but had to abandon it, partly from want of mean together with such poor encouragement on the part of other descendants from my ancestors.
The first of the name came to America from whom I am descendant and of whom I have many accurate accounts listing was John Conway. He came from near Dublin, Ireland when a young man, and located in Virginia. I have not been able to learn what county, but think not far from Richmond. He was well educated and devoted all the early part of his life to the business of teaching.
His wife, Elizabeth, whom he married in Virginia was a lady of English birth whose maiden name was Bridgewater. They were the parents of 10 children, 4 sons and 6 daughters. The sons were Samuel, Jesse, John and Joseph. Samuel was the oldest son Joseph the youngest. Of the daughters 2 of them married brothers named Long, 2 others married brothers named Daugherty. One of them married a Wells and the youngest, Sarah (or as she was always called, Sally) married Underwood.
The first five of them married in Virginia, the last (Sally) married in Ky. She was the youngest of all the family. Samuel was married in Virginia to a Miss Clemmon. Jesse also married in Virginia but do not know the name of the family into whom he married. John and Joseph both married in Ky. The former to Miss Sutton and the latter to Miss Caldwell. I am descendant from John.
I don’t know anything of the two Long brothers or there subsequent history. I have it that Jesse Conway moved direct from Virginia to Ill. and settled in Green Co.
John was the first to come to Ky. This was in 1777. He came here as one of a company of soldiers sent out by the Governor of Virginia to the defense of the Fort of Boonesborough, but in 1778 he returned to Virginia. In 1779 he, together with his father, mother, his brother Joseph, sister Elizabeth, then the wife of Joseph Daugherty and his youngest sister Dally together with a number of other emigrants all moved to Ky. The Indians becoming so troublesome the settler moved into the fort for protection. In June 1780, this fort was besieged by a force of British soldiers, some 200 in number and 5 to 600 Indians and compelled to surrender. All the inmates taken to Detroit then a British Post.
They were held 4 years and then released. One of these, Sallie, became separated from the others and remained prisoner among the Indians till she was fifteen years old. None of the family knew where she was until after Wayne’s Defeat of the Indians. A white man coming back to Ky. from captivity among the Indians told her father where she was and he went and brought her home, but he had to buy her from them. I enclose letter giving you account of this story, written to me in 1888 by her grandson Tho. J. Underwood. Be sure to return it to me as I value it highly. You can however have a copy of it taken and return. It is a very affecting story and I can hardly keep from crying whenever I read it. After her return home she married Mr. Underwood, but he proved to be a man of worthless character, who after the marriage, deserted her, leaving an infant boy whom she named Reuben.
She lived with my grandfather. After the death of her father, until her son was grown and married. My mother always spoke in such endearing language of her. She said her mother’s health broke down after the birth of her last child and was never to do any housework. Aunt Sally Underwood took charge of the family and was second mother to her and all her brothers and sisters.
Joseph Conway the youngest brother, in 1798 left Ky. and went to Missouri, settling in St. Louis Co. some 20 miles west of the city. His was a remarkable history indeed. My cousin Thomas Underwood has gotten hold of the right story about the scalping Joseph. After the surrender of the Fort the captors all started with their prisoners toward Detroit. One of them whose name was Riddle could not keep up in the march because of lameness from a stone bruise and he was the man tomahawked and scalped by the Indians and left for dead. Several days before the fort was attacked, Joseph, then a boy of 15 or 16 together with 2 other boys about the same age went out early in the morning to drive in the cows to be milked.
The crossed to the west side of the river, found the cows and started them across the river (South Licking) but spied on the ripple a large logger head turtle, caught it, carried it back to the sandy beach on the other side and were having sport with it by poking willow twigs toward its head watching it snap at them. An Indian lying concealed in the thick fringe of willow bushes along the bank shot at Joseph giving him a slight wound in the side, but instantly rushed out and with his tomahawk knocked him senseless and then cut and tore off his scalp. It was done in full view of several men of the Fort who were down at the river washing their hands and faces for breakfast, but done so quickly that the Indian got away before they could get to the scene. The alarm was given at the Fort and the men rushed out with their guns and scoured the woods for the Indian but he escaped all pursuit. The poor boy was carried back to the fort but still breathing. The wound on his head bled dreadfully but finally an old lady Wiseman succeeded in stopping the flow of blood by the application of cobwebs to the wound. The wounds were bandaged and the boy put to bed. In this wounded condition he was captured and taken to Detroit. While on the march the weather was very hot and the wound neglected and fly blown. This same old woman dressed the wounds, picking out the “creepers” and finally bot him well. He lived to a very old age. I heard my mother tell of her Uncle Joseph visiting my grandfather once from Missouri and his taking her on his lap and having her feel the top of his head where the scalp was taken.
Samuel Conway, William Daugherty and Wells the last tow of his brothers-in-law came to Ky. after the Revolution and first settled in Bourbon Co. but moved from there shortly afterward and settled in Pendleton Co.
Get a pocket map of Ky. where all counties are laid off. Look first for Bourbon Co. You will see on the map a stream running through Paris called Stoner. Another through Millersburg marked Hinkston and where the two streams join you will see Riddle’s Mills. 3 Miles below this junction on the East Bank of the stream, which takes the name of South Licking was the site of Riddle’s Fort. In the olden times it was called Riddle’s Fort. At the time of its capture Capt. Isaac Riddle was in command of the soldiers in the Fort assisted by Capt. John Hinkston. 5 miles below this is Cynthiana was the county seat of Harrison County. 18 miles further down where South Licking forms a junction with Main Licking you will find Falmouth the County seat of Pendleton County. 10 miles further down you will find a town marked Butler and near this at the mouth of a creek which comes from the west and empties into the River called Grassy Creek is where Uncle Samuel Conway lived together with his brothers-in-law Joseph and William Daugherty, Wells and his wife’s family, the Clemons and several families who came from Virginia. Of his history from 1818 you know what this is. I have often heard my mother and Uncle Nat Conway visiting at my grandfather’s house in Bourbon Co. and what a jolly old man he was. In fact I could write many pages telling of the varied experiences and incidents connected with his life and others of the old pioneers as often related by my mother and my uncle around the fireside during the long winter nights.
I remember of my mother speaking of seeing 2 of the children of her Uncle Samuel who visited by gr. father. One a son named Benjamin and a sister, a widow then, Polly Brownfield. She also said there was one son named Simeon and 2 daughters that she remembered one of whom married a Smith, another a Becket, both of whom lived in Pendleton County. I have Samuel C. Smith, gr. son of the old man. Also a Mrs. -----, I have forgotten her name, a daughter of Mrs. Becket.
My grandfather had 6 children, 3 daughters and 3 sons William, John and Nathaniel S., Polly, Anna, and Elizabeth. Polly was the oldest child of the family. Nathaniel S. the youngest. He was always called Nat, (Uncle Nat). He died in 1878. Uncle William died in 1832, Uncle Jack in 1833, Aunt Polly some time about 1824. My mother died in 1872. She remained a widow a long time. My father, Jesse Ogle, died in Harrison Co. Ky. in Dec. 1839 when I was only 11 months old. He was twice married. One of his sons by his first wife (Jesse) named for his father born in 1820, moved to Ralls Co. Missouri in 1846. He died there in 1870. His youngest son, Robert A. Ogle, was born in 1863, now lives there and is a member of a manufacturing firm, “The Ogle Construction Co.” He is president of the firm.
My home is Paris, Ky. Bourbon County. I came here the 19th day of June on a visit to him and 2 of my cousins, Thomas and Charles Conway. They are the grandsons of my Uncle William Conway. Thomas and Charles are first cousins, Henry R. & James W. Conway being brothers and my first cousins. Of all the children of my grandfather that is the first generation of grandchildren, 29 in all, only 2 of us living, myself born in 1839 and my cousin James M. Conway born in 1843. He lives in the old house built by my grandfather in 1825 and my Uncle Nat in 1878.
My cousin James M. Conway (as fine a man as ever lived) says he will never leave it until carried out to be buried and says he wants it to always remain in the hands of his children and grandchildren. I am writing this week to him asking him to send me his photograph, copy of a photograph of his house which he had taken many years ago. Will send it to you.
I am a widower, my wife died the 4th April, 1911. We were married September 1st 1864. I have 2 children, a son, Henry Conway Ogle and a daughter Virginia Ogle.
Harry has one child only, a boy, Thornton Buckner Ogle, 9 years old or will be day after tomorrow (Independence Day).
My daughter is the wife of Gilbert M. Thompson. They have three children. Virginia 9, Paul Stuart 7 and a dear little granddaughter 5 years old. Both my children live in Paris. My son is a traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery in Lexington. My son-in-law travels for sale of wire fencing, manufactured at Pittsburgh by the American Fence Co.
Would be pleased to have you write me often and when you first write me ask your wife’s father to give me a full list of the names of this great gr. father Samuel Conway, his grandchildren and all the other descendants as far as he knows, their names and Post Office addresses. If I should get all the names of the descendants of the first Conway who came from Ireland together with their P.O. addresses it would fill a big book. To give you some idea of how the descendants multiply here’s one example. My Aunt Polly in 1806 married Henry Overby. They had 7 sons and one daughter. John Overby her first son had one son names Henry T. He had one son named John. John’s daughter, Idelia, married a Mr. Kane and they had 3 children. These are the gr.-gr.-gr.-grandchldren of Polly and Polly herself the gr. daughter of John my gr.-father and the gr.-gr.-gr.-gr.-grand children of John the first immigrant to America.
I have written you a long and I fear a tiresome letter, but I could tell you much more if you wanted to hear it. If there is any part of it you want to preserve I suggest that you have a typewritten copy taken from it. I have a full list of all the children and grand children of my gr. father and many of the names of their gr. children and gr. grand children. Also the names of all the children of my great Uncle Joseph of St. Louis Co. Also several of his gr. children. I have several cousins of the same generation as Charles J. in Clay Co. Mo. Salina and Pettus. Some in Kansas City. I expect to visit some of them before returning to Ky.
I am enclosing you my photograph.
Yours very truly
Henry C. Ogle, Sr.
Paris, Ky.
Sept. 5, 1912
Dear Mr. Pohlman:
I will now after so long a time write in answer to your letters of July and August. This I ought to have done at an earlier date. I had to give over my intended trip to see my nephew, W.H. Tyler, in Topeka, Kansas. I wanted on my return to stop at Kansas City to see my cousin Galen L.Conway and Joseph T. Conway – also to stop both at Marshall, Lamonte and Liberty to see other Conway kin. I have another cousin on my father’s side, Thos. H. Jones in Lucerne, Putnam County, who I had purposed to visit, then to come to your house in Macon, thence to Hannibal, Mo., to see some more nephews, Jesse and Will Ogden.
Macon is not an unknown city to me. I have been there perhaps a half dozen times from 1876 to 80, I was acquainted with some people who had gone there from Hanover County, Ky., the same county where I was raised. Among them I remember a lawyer, Judge John Henry. Have also been in Moberly and in “Old Bloomington” the ancient County Seat of Macon.
I returned from Chicago on the 30th July. Since this I have been spending most of my time with my nephews and nieces in Robertson County, Ky. and about ten days with my first cousin, James M. Conway, near Millersburg, and twelve miles N.E. of Paris. He is the only one of my first cousins now living, and the youngest one – is 69 years old. He owns part of the old home of my grandfather, John Conway. The house is one of the oldest in Nickalas [sic] County built in a period between 1790 and 1800. The main part is a two story hewed log structure 20 ft. square and 20 ft. high, with a one story log room on each end; one of these rooms – 12 x 20 – built for a bedroom. The other 20 x 20 for a kitchen. Between the kitchen and the central room is a huge stone chimney 6 ft. thick, 10 ft. wide, with double fire places – one in the family room 4 ft wide and in the kitchen 6 ft. wide. From this description you may know that the people in olden time wanted plenty of room.
The farm upon which the house stands is a part of a 400 acre tract that was patented by my gr. father by the state of Virginia in 1786. I am sending you a copy of the old patent deed. I wish you could see the original – it is written on parchment and has attached to it the signature of the Governor of Virginia, signed by himself, the justly celebrated Patrick Henry.
In this house your wife’s ancestor, Samuel Conway, has often been a guest also his daughter Polly Brumfield and one of his sons, Benjamin. I have often heard both my mother and Uncle Nat Conway speak of his visiting at my gr father’s. Both of them said he was a jolly old man, fond of joking. His brother Joseph, too, visited there once after his removal to Mo. My mother says she will remember him taking her on his lap and telling her to put her hand on the top of his head and to feel the bald place where the Indian scalped him.
This house has also had an honored guest, the celebrated Simon Kenton, the last time in 1827. If you are in any manner familiar with the history of Kentucky in her first settlement you will know at once the part he filled in the first settlement of the state.
Now I will take up another subject. (In one of the letters you wrote Charles J. Conway. You gave him the names of the different brothers and sisters as copied from the old Bible of Samuel Conway, now in the possession Mr. Miller. You give the names of four sons and five daughters.) Both my mother and Uncle Nat Conway always told me there were six daughters. My mother has often told me their names as well as the names of their husbands – but I can just now remember the names of only three of them. The youngest daughter as well as the youngest child was Sara (but always called Sally), Elizabeth and Dulcinea. Two of the daughters married brothers in Virginia named Long. Two others brothers named Daugherty. Elizabeth was the wife of Joseph Daugherty, and ------ the wife of John Daugherty. Another of the daughters married Basil Well. Am under the impression, but not sure that this was Dulcinea. All these marriages were formed in Virginia. Sally married in Kentucky to Mr. Underwood. Samuel and Jesse were both married in Virginia, or at last I think this was the case.
Joseph and John married in Kentucky. John’s wife was Anna Sutton, born in Culpepper County, Virginia 1766. They were married in Bourbon County, Ky. 1790. Joseph Conway’s wife was Elizabeth Caldwell born in Virginia 1773. They were married in Bourbon County – 1791.
Now I suppose you have the names of all of Samuel Conway’s children as well as most of his gr. and great grandchildren. It has been my good fortune to meet with and become acquainted with two of his grandsons, one of them Samuel Conway Smith whom I saw at the house of his son Jay smith in McKinneysburg, Pendleton County, Ky. in 1872. The old gentleman was then 65 years old, and a firm old man. The other gr son was Marion Conway, who from 1876 to 77 was living in Shelbyville, Missouri, as superintendent of the High School. If I mistake not he signed his name D.M. Conway. I took dinner with him one day. He was raised in Marion County. Told me his father’s name, but I have now forgotten it. He had in his possession and which he showed me his grandfather’s old Deer Gun, a Rifle of Large bore.
Samuel was a soldier in the War of the Revolution, also a soldier under Col. Lewis in what was known as Dunmore’s War against the Indians. Was in the noted Battle of Point Pleasant, a sanguinary affair fought in 1774. A part of the time during the Revolution he was in the Service of the Government manufacturing powder for the army. After the war closed he moved to Kentucky, and first settled in Bourbon County. He was very fond of deer and turkey hunting and when these disappeared from Bourbon as a consequence of the thick settlement of this section, he went further North, and took up land in Pendleton County about 50 miles North of where he first settled. The land in this part of Kentucky was more broken and hilly and not so fertile as Bourbon, and for many years was thinly settled, - most of it a vast forest, and for this reason a “Hunter’s Paradise”. The old man was the owner of a very large bottom farm on Main Licking River. If you will examine any large map of Kentucky where the counties are shown see Grassy Creek marked in Pendleton County, right where it empties into Licking is where Samuel Conway lived. I have heard Uncle Nat tell of many happenings in that neighborhood as related to him by Uncle Sam as he always called him. One of them was quite amusing. A nephew of his, a young Daugherty, when about 19 went from Bourbon Co. to Pendleton to visit him and hunt deer. The day following his arrival Uncle Sam gave him his Deer gun and to go out in the edge of his bottom cornfield next to the timber and watch for deer. In about an hour he came funning back to the house, almost breathless and said he had shot at some kind of a wild animal, he did not know what it was, only it looked like an old “Nigger” running along trying to pull up his “britches”. Said it jumped on a log and he shot at it but then dropped his bun and took to his heels. His uncle and one of his boys went back with him and found the gun also the strange animal that he had shot, which proved to be a large Black Bear, he had killed it.
(Part of the letter is missing here)
in readiness for the Tories”. He is mistaken in the name, it should have been Jesse. I know but little of his history except what I learned through this letter of Mr. Underwood. Mention is also made of him in a letter which I am enclosing you, written by my grandfather Conway to his nephew Joe Conway of St. Louis, letter dated 1834.
Now as to the history of the other members of the family, this is so closely connected that it is a hard matter to tell them separately. To begin, however, John Conway, my gr father was the first to come to Kentucky. This was in 1777. He was one of a company sent out by the Governor of Virginia to help garrison the fort at Boonesborough. He stayed here a year and then returned to Virginia. The next year (1779) he returned to Kentucky with a number of emigrants, among whom was my great gr father and his wife, his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Joseph Daugherty, his son Joseph – then a boy of 14 – and his daughter Sallie a little girl of 5 years. The Indians being so troublesome then, all the settlers would stay in one body in stations or forts for mutual protection. The Conway family went to Riddle’s Station. This was located on the East bank of South Licking River – about 9 miles North of Paris. – See map of Kentucky. While the able bodied men and boys would be at work clearing the land and cutting it in crops of corn and vegetables during the day – another body would stay outside of these with their guns to guard the workers against the Indians. At night all of them wold return to the fort for safety. About the 10th of June 1780 – Joseph Conway the youngest son, and two other boys about his age were sent out early in the morning (it was on Sunday) to drive in the cows to be milked. They had gone over to the West side of the river, where was a large densely timbered bottom, they found them, and started them back across the stream. The water was low and on the ripple in crossing they caught sight of a large logger head turtle in the shallow water. They grabbed it and carried it back to a sandy beach near the bank on the west side, and boys like commenced to tease it by poking willow twigs at it, and watch it snap them. An Indian lying in ambush among the thick bushes on the bank fired on them, the bullet striking Joseph in the side, slightly wounding him but instantly rushed down on him struck him with tomahawk and scalped him and immediately disappeared in the bushes. The deed was done in full view of a number of men who were down on the river on the side opposite washing their hands and faces getting ready for breakfast. The alarm was given at the fort, and the men rushed out with their guns and scoured the woods, but could see no more Indians. They carried the boy to the fort. He was unconscious but still breathing. The wound on his head where he had been scalped bled dreadfully, but finally an old lady named Wiseman stopped the bleeding by applying cob-webs. The wounds were all bandaged and the boy put to bed, and by evening recovered conscious. About ten days after, a large force of British and Indians, some 6 or 700 in all mostly Indians, surprised the Fort one morning about daybreak, and commenced an attack on it. The men inside returned fire, and kept them at bay until they brought into action a cannon. They then displayed a white flag. The British officers, Col. Bird and McKee who were in command of the force, promised Capt. Riddle and Hinkston the officers in command of the fort that if they surrendered the fort without further resistance that he would promise them in the name of the British Government that the lives of all the inmates would be spared, and that they should be protected against vengeance of his Indian Allies – Said that unless they did surrender they would batter down the wooden walls of their fort with his cannon (He had three of these with him) and then turn them over to the fury of the Indians. On the solemn pledge of the British Officers that all their lives should be spared – they agreed to surrender. As soon as the gates were opened the Indians rushed in, and in spite of all the British soldiers could do to restrain them, they murdered a number of the wounded men, also commenced taking anything they could see in the shape of wearing apparel and bed clothing. They would grab the feather beds, rip them open and empty the feathers to get the ticking. They came to the bed where the wounded boy Joseph Conway la with his head bandaged, and an Indian raised the tomahawk to kill him, but one of the British soldiers forced him away. They would grab the little children and take them away from their parents, many of them never again to be seen. Among them was little Sallie, their youngest child, then 6 years old – but enough of this frightful story.
In all there was some 200 persons captured and carried off as possessions from this fort, and on the day following they captured another fort – Martins about 7 miles S.E. of this, in which were some 100 persons. All were taken to Detroit then a British Post, and kept prisoners for four years. Joseph was taken along with the others. During the march the wound on his head was neglected, the weather being hot, the “creepers” got in the wounds, but the same old lady Mrs. Wiseman picked them out and washed the wound till finally cured and healed up. On the march when any of the prisoners would become exhausted so that they could not travel fast enough to suit their guards they would tomahawk and scalp them. The incident related by Mr. Underwood about the man with the stone bruise being tomahawked and scalped because he could not keep up was true, but he was mistaken in the name. He says it was Joseph Conway, instead of this his name was Riddle. My grandfather says he saw Riddle kneel down at a spring to get a drink, and while he was down he saw an Indian in the act of striking him with his murderous weapon. A few minutes after, the Indian passed him and others with Riddle’s bloody scalp, and shook it in their faces, warning them that would be their fate unless they kept up. I never heard that Riddle recovered, but it is possible that he did.
I am preparing for the press in my rude way the full story of the British invasion of Ky. in June 1780 – and when I can get the story ready, will have it published. I could tell you of many such scenes as here related. Mr. Underwood is again mistaken as to the age of his grandmother when captured – He says 3 years.
I don’t know whether he is now living. I shall write this week to him or some member of his family. His mother lived at my grandfather’s from the time of her return after her ransom, till her marriage. Her husband proved to be a worthless man, and deserted her shortly after the birth of her first and only child, a son, Reuben Underwood. She continued to live with my grandfather till her son was grown and married. My grandmother Conway had very feeble health after the birth of her last child, Uncle Nat and Aunt Sally Underwood was a mother and housekeeper to her nephews and nieces while small. My mother and my Uncle always spoke of her in endearing terms.
Joseph Daugherty and his wife Elizabeth, after their return from captivity stayed a short time in Bourbon county, but when Uncle Sam moved to Pendleton County he went with him and settled in the same neighborhood, where he remained till his death. I have seen and formed the acquaintance of two or three of his grandsons. He has numerous descendants living in that county today, all of them people of thrift and honesty. Some of them Doctors, Lawyers and Politicians.
Joseph Conway the youngest brother after his removal to Missouri became a man of note there when in 1803 or 04 the expedition was formed to explore the Louisiana Purchase, commonly known as the Lewis & Clark Expedition. President Jefferson offered the command of one of these companies to Uncle Joe, but he had to decline from want of sufficient education for the purpose. Two of his sons, Samuel and Joseph, for many years served as Sheriff of St. Louis County, and in 1857 Joseph was County Judge. I visited him in the summer of 187_. His brother, Samuel, was not then living. One of Samuel’s sons, E. Virgil Conway, is a man of fine education, and when Missouri held her last Constitutional Convention in 1874, he was one of the delegates representing St. Francios County.
I am enclosing you a letter received from him in 1879, also letters from his cousin, Dr. Samuel Conway of Lamonte, Pettus County. I also enclose another letter – precious relic which I value very highly from my grandfather to his nephew, Joseph Conway, father of Dr. Sam Conway. You will see that the name of your wife’s ancestor has been kept alive in the families of his brothers and sisters. I had a first cousin died in Nickolas [sic] County, Ky. 12 years ago named Samuel F. Conway. He has a nephew at Liberty, Missouri, his brother’s son Samuel Conway, a man about 50 years of age and a bachelor I think.
Now my friend, I think I have told you the whole story. If there is anything more you would like to know, write me and I will tell you.
One thing has always been a source of anxiety with me to solve, and that was whether my great uncle had any brothers or sisters who came to this country with him. While in Chicago I went to one of her large libraries, Ewburry Library and spent nearly two days looking through the Books on Genealogy and found two large volumes on the Conways in America. Many of them settled in Virginia from 1610 to 1750. It told all their names and with whom they intermarried, but could find none who married with Bridgewater. Most of these families were from Ireland, some of them from England and many of them of titled birth. I find that the mother of President Madison was Nelly Conway.
When you write me in answer to this send me a copy of the names in that old Bible – not only of the name and date of the different ones of the Conways, but also if there are nay of the marriages recorded in your Uncle Sam’s family, I would like to have them. That is his own marriage as well as those of his children. Please return me the letter of Thomas J. Underwood, but keep a copy of it.
I suggest too, that such parts of this long letter as you want to preserve that you copy on a typewriter.
Yours very truly,
Henry C. Ogle, Sr.
Would be glad to have your wife’s photograph together with the Baby is you have one. Also Mr. & Mrs. Miller.
Paris, Ky. July 29th 1913
Dear Mr. Pohlman
After mailing letter to you yesterday I again went down to the Clerk’s office to make another Search of the records – I wanted to ascertain whether my Great Uncles Samuel, Jesse or Joseph Conway had ever owned land in Bourbon county. I have often heard the story from my mother and uncle Nat Conway that Uncle Samuel first lived in Bourbon Co. after he came from Virginia – but when game became scarce and as he was passionately fond of hunting he left the county and moved to Pendleton Co. which at this time and was for many years afterwards a dense unbroken forest – where Deer Elk Bear and Wild Turkeys were abundant. The land however in Pendleton County with the exception of the bottoms was poor and hilly and for many years the timbered lands could be bought at prices varying from 50 cents to $1.00 per acre.
I have gotten off my subject I could not find where either Samuel or Joseph had bought land but did find where Jesse in 1792 bought 40 acres. This located about 7 miles N West of Paris – The grantors being Craig and Johnson the same men from whom Miles W. Conway bought his land. Although the land he bought lay in another part of the county S.E. from Paris – I don’t know how long Jesse Conway remained here I could not find any record of when he sold the land, but will have the Clerk make another Search.
Now about Benjamin Conway – I remember of my mother telling me of seeing him and his sister Polly Brownfield on a visit at my Grandfathers when they were all young people. She also told me of Benjamin’s death which as she says was caused by being hurt with a pitchfork while working in his meadow.
I am writing to-day briefly to my cousins Dempsy Conway and Silas Dean Conway of Ill. asking them about their brothers, sisters, fathers and aunts. They are of the same generation as myself, that is great gr sons of John the first emigrant to America – Your wife’s father Mr. Miller is gr great grandson and your wife a gr gr gr granddaughter of the first Emigrant. Tell your wife that she is entitled to enrollment among the Daughters of the American Revolution and if she will only write me tracing back the names of her family to Samuel Conway I will take pleasure in writing to the President of the Mo. branch of the order. The history of Samuel Conway’s connection with the army – I have assisted 3 different ladies to obtain a place in this honored order. In a former letter you told me Mr. Miller’s descent from Samuel Conway but I have misplaced the letter. Will you please write it out again?
Tell me what additional facts you have learned from your search of Samuel Conway’s descendants – also from Jesse Conway’s people. I shall go down to-morrow to pay a visit to my esteemed cousin James M. Conway 12 miles N.E. of Paris in Nicholas Co. This originally was a part of Bourbon Co. He lives on the farm and in the old Log house occupied by my Grandfather and where my mother was born and raised. The same house in which my gr grandfather died in 1801 and also his wife in 1809. In this house from the time of his return from captivity till her son Reuben was grown and married Aunt Sally Underwood made her home. Yours Truly
H.C. Ogle Sr.
Paris, Ky. Feb. 9th. 1917
Dear Mr. Pohlman:-
Today I have received your letter written on the 12th. of January. From this reading I find that in the long letter mailed you yesterday, I failed to answer several inquiries you made in one of those letters. This I am returning you with these questions marked.
In answer to query in the 1st paragraph will say that gr. gr. father John Conway, his wife, his daughter, Elizabeth and her husband, William Daugherty, and his sons John and Joseph and youngest child Sarah, all came from Virginia to Ky. in 1779. My Uncle Nat Conway once told me that they came from near Richmond, Va. My grandfather was then about 21, Uncle Joe 14, Aunt Sallie 5 or 6. Don’t know the age of Elizabeth but her first born was less than a year old.
My grandfather John having then first come to Kentucky 2 years prior to this date as one of a company of soldiers sent out by the governor of Va. to help defend the Fort called Boonesboro. But after serving one year, he returned to Virginia and brought back his father, mother and such other of the family as I have named. There were a number of other emigrants with them. I suggest that you write to the County Clerk of Henrico, Virginia and ask him to examine the marriage records and ascertain whether there are any marriages on record there between John Conway and Elizabeth Bridgewater between 1725-1750. Also Conway to Daugherty, Conway to Clemons, Conway to Wells and Conway to Long. Of course you must include stamps for answer.
Find out also whether gr. grandfather owned land in Virginia at any time and if he did at what date the conveyance was made to him. Ascertain also whether John or William Daugherty were landowners. Or Basil Wells. The Daughertys must have been of Irish descent judging from the name. All the early Irish emigrants to Virginia and Pennsylvania were Protestants and most of whom were well educated for that period. Gr. grandfather all the early part of his life was a schoolteacher.
As to the query about the place of their burial I cannot tell you with any certainty, but it must have been not far from where my gr. father lived as both of them died at his house 4 0 miles north of Millersburg in this county.
The old man in 1801 and his wife in 1809. There is on my grandfather’s farm, a graveyard where he and his wife are buried. His 3 sons and his wife, Nat, William and John Jr. and their wives, also several of his grand children. Possibly this is the burial place of gr. grandfather and mother.
Samuel Conway and his brother Jesse came to Kentucky after the close of the Revolutionary War. I am not able to tell you just when but he bought land in Bourbon Co. in 1791. As to the query whether I know of any member of the Conway family having been enrolled in the order of the D.A.R. Will say I know of one, Miss Hazel Overby of Paris, Ky. She is the Great great granddaughter of my grandfather John Conway. At her request a few years ago I wrote her lineage “Abstract of Title” as you Missouri people say about title to lands. She told me afterwards that she was enrolled.
I suggest that you write her. She is a sprightly young lady and good looking and finely educated. She will tell you about the order.
Address – Miss Hazel Overby – Stenographer
Paris, Ky.
Her great grandmother was my mother’s sister.
Yours truly
H.C. Ogle Sr.
Home of J.M. Conway near Millersburg, Ky.
August 18, 1917
Mr. George Pohlman, Jr.
Macon, Mo.
My Dear Sir:
I am here on a visit to my cousin James Conway who owns the old Conway home originally settled by my grandfather, John Conway over 100 years ago. The house built by him sometime between 1790 and 1800 is still in a fair state of preservation and if kept covered will last at least 100 years more. In this home your wife’s ancestor Samuel Conway has often been a guest. Also his brothers Jesse and Joseph & their sister Elizabeth, the wife of Wm. Daugherty. And in this house my great grandfather John Conway died in 1801 and my great grandmother in 1809. My mother had a very vivid recollection of her. She said she died from a cancer on her forehead.
At another time I will tell you more of the history of our ancestors.
I am planning to go on a visit next week to my nephews and nieces in Robertson Co. This is 12 miles N.E. of this place. I will remain there until after the 15th Sept.
Would be glad to hear from you. My address will be Piquia, Robertson Co. Ky.
I am enclosing herein part of a Cynthiana Ky. paper. In it you will find a very interesting article written by a Mr. McClintok who was raised in this neighborhood. Show it to the publisher of your county paper.
Yours truly
H.C. Ogle Sr.
Macon, Missouri
August 27, 1917
Wisconsin State Library
Madison, Wisconsin
Dear Sir:
I am enclosing certain letters and copies of records of the Conway family. I have been making inquiry about this family for some years and I have had the benefit of all these records and hundreds of letters, and I feel that I am in position to make some comment on these papers that I am mailing to you in order that you may be understood in case they are ever referred to by one who is not posed on the history of the family.
First the letter of Chas. J. Conway of Chicago, Ill. under the date of February 23rd, 1912, he was at that time Deputy County Clerk of Cook County, Illinois. He gives a short outlined history of his line of Conways. In the third paragraph of his letter he says that two of the sons were wounded at the Battle of Ruddle’s Mill and they left Kentucky and all trace of them was lost. That may have been so in part, but the two brothers that he refers to were Samuel Conway and his brother Jesse Conway.
Samuel Conway settled in Pendleton County, Kentucky at the close of the Revolutionary War and later came to Missouri and finally settled in Marion County, Missouri about the year 1825, about four miles from Hannibal, Missouri, where he died in 1830 and lies buried in the old Bush Family cemetery.
The other brother, Jesse Conway, settled in Madison County, Illinois and has left numerous descendants there. The Conways of Arkansas are in no way related to our line I have just explained what happened to the two missing brothers.
The John Conway that Chas. Conway mentions in the first paragraph of his letter as being the original emigrant, is the same on mentioned by Mrs. Rhoda Ground in Draper 29 J 18 as John Conoway.
The accompanying record taken from the old Conway Bible now in our possession gives names and dates and births of all the children of John Conway and his wife Elizabeth Bridgewater. You will note he had a son John Conway, who was also made a prisoner at the Battle of Ruddle’s Mill at the same time his brother Joseph was taken prisoner. The next list gives the names and dates of birth of the family of Samuel Conway that I mentioned as having lived in Marion County, Missouri. My wife being a great-great granddaughter of the mentioned Samuel Conway.
In this letter from Henry C. Ogle a Conway descendant through John Conway Jr., being a grandson, this letter dated July 2, 1912, he give a fuller history of the family, giving a good account of the capture of Ruddle’s Mill and the captivity of the Conway family, including Joseph Conway. At the bottom of page 1 and on page 2 he give an account of the life history of Joseph Conway.
He mentions the fact that two daughters of John Conway and his wife Elizabeth, married brothers named Long, but all trace of them was lost. I feel certain that the John Long referred to in Draper Mss. 29 J 18 was a son-in-law of John Conway Sr. and that Mrs. Rhoda Ground was a daughter of John Long and a granddaughter of John Conway. Ogle also refers to the captivity of Sarah Conway, the youngest daughter and was seven years old at the time that the fort was taken and her life among the Indians, her subsequent rescue as told by her grandson, Thos. J. Underwood in his letter dated September 17th, 1888 to Henry Ogle of Paris, Ky. In the letter of July 2nd, 1912 to me Ogle corrects and explains some misstatements in the letter of Thos. J. Underwood. In that letter Ogle also tells me about the two Conway sisters marrying men named Long. You can easily connect that with the visit of Reuben and Lawrence Long to Missouri with Joseph Conway in 1796 as told in Draper Mss. 19 J 18. I feel certain that they were relatives of Conway. There were also some of the Long and Underwood family in Pike County, Missouri in a very early day.
In the letter of September 5, 1912 to me, H.C. Ogle give a fuller history of the Conway family telling more about Joseph Conway and the capture of Ruddle’s Mill and also about Samuel Conway, the oldest son of the family and told about him and his family. He mentions “Polly Brumfield”, - this name should be “Polly or Mary Brownfield”. She was the oldest daughter of Samuel Conway and was the wife of John Brownfield, they lived near Urbana and Champaign, Illinois, and left numerous descendants there. She was born in April 1785.
Then you will find a copy of an old letter in 1843 from John Conway and his wife Anna Conway to his nephew in St. Louis County, Missouri. This John Conway was the son of the original emigrant, John Conway, and was born in 1758. Married to Anna Sutton. The Joseph Conway to whom the letter was directed was a son of Joseph Conway who came to Missouri in 1796, and was a brother of Samuel Conway who gave Dr. Draper the interview in Draper 24 S 169-176. On the last page you will find a record of the family of Joseph Conway who was scalped by the Indians and settled in Missouri in 1797.
Also have some more information about John Conway Jr. born in 1758 that I will send later as I cannot get it at the present time.
Respectfully,
George Pohlman Jr.
320 Lamb Ave.
Macon, Missouri
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