These markers for Ralph and Ann Ewing are in Cherry Valley cemetery, Boone County, Illinois. They are located in the center section of the cemetery, about half way between the two roads that border that section on the north and south.
Ralph Ewing -- father of William Alexander Ewing
Mortimer Levi Ewing, son of Jesse and Sarah Ewing
The marker for Jesse is in the same row as Ralph and Ann, but further south, near the road. This marker has been vandalized and is almost covered by dirt and grass. Between this marker and the road are the three small markers of William Alexander's children that died in Illinois. Those markers are almost completely covered by dirt.
Jesse and Sarah (Hapgood) Ewing
Ralph Ewing was born March 4, 1788, in West Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, the eighth child of William and Jean/Jane (McBride) Ewing. He grew to be a young man in the county of his birth and, along with learning to tend the land, Ralph got a good education and entered the teaching profession. He also learned something about the skills of land surveying. When his father, William Ewing, acquired land in Toboyne Township (in the northern part of the county), Ralph and his younger brother, James, entered into an agreement to buy the land from their father.
It is not known when Ralph and James moved to Toboyne Township, but a pocket journal which Ralph kept for the year of 1819 indicates that he is living there, farming and teaching. The journal, in the ornate quill script of Ralph's hand, doesn't contain a lot of information, but his brief entries do provide a few clues about his life and the history of that year.
By 1819, the northern half of Cumberland County was being reorganized into a new county. Toboyne Township where Ralph lived would officially become part of Perry County, Pennsylvania, in 1820. The new Perry County identity was beautifully inscribed on the inside covers of Ralph's journal, along with his name. Ralph's entry for January 1 shows him traveling to Carlisle, a town that must have been about 20 miles away. Then, on January 5, school began it's winter session with 21 students. Another Saturday trip to Carlisle on January 16 indicates that he wasn't hesitant to make a journey that must have been significant in a day when horseback or carriage was the mode of transportation and roads were pretty basic. On January 30, "Survey for John Myers" indicates that Ralph was doing a little survey work to supplement his meager teaching salary. And on January 31 he states, "Warm weather throughout the month of January."
February brought some winter weather, but it didn't keep him from another trip to Carlisle on February 27. March 21 finds Ralph in ill health, as he writes, "Rose unwell." His sickness continues for a few days, with school being cancelled on the 23rd. On the 24th, he finally took a treatment for his illness when he "Got bled." Blood-letting was a common treatment for many ailments in those times.
Entries are sparse after March, except for notes about his trips to Carlisle or Shippensburg, another town a little further away, and short listings of money he received or spent. A few times he mentions receiving something from J. Ewing (probably his brother, James). And on July 5 he was "At Wm. Boyd's harvest." October 12 was "Election, clerk" (looks like Ralph may have been working at the polling place), and on October 21 sold a number of items. Not much was entered in the journal after that date.
Ralph married Ann Reid in 1825 and they started their family two years later. They stayed in Perry County for the next 30 years but it is not known how much they moved around during that time. Those were formative years for Pennsylvania as well as for the rest of the rapidly growing nation. County and township boundaries changed as new areas became more densely populated, so people were often shifted from the records of one township to another without ever moving. Attempts to find Ralph and Ann in U.S. census records were sketchy, at best. The 1820 census index doesn't show any Ewings living in Perry County, but those early records are not known to be all-inclusive. 1830 census shows a Ralph Ewing as well as a William Ewing and a Jesse Ewing living in Perry County, Toboyne Township. But, since that census lists only the head of household with a count of family members, we can't tell if that is our Ralph Ewing or not. The 1840 census shows quite a few Ewings in Perry County, but no Ralph. By 1850, Toboyne Township, where Ralph and Ann lived earlier, had been divided into three township and Ralph and Ann are found in Jackson Township, along with six children (although, the two oldest boys were over 18 years old).
Around 1855 (the precise date is not known), Ralph and his family left Pennsylvania, moving to Boone County, Illinois, near Cherry Valley. It is not known why they chose to leave Pennsylvania, where his ancestors had lived for over 128 years. Perhaps it was the lure of new land... but they weren't moving to an area that was newly settled. Maybe it was the politics of the times that influenced his move. The entire country was embroiled in the ongoing argument over slavery. Perry County, in southern Pennsylvania was only about 60 miles from the Mason-Dixon line and only about 75 miles from Virginia, a southern stronghold. Perhaps Ralph and his family felt a need to distance themselves from the center of the controversy. When the Civil War started in 1861, Ralph's family was well established in Abraham Lincoln's home state.
While the date of Ralph's move to Illinois is not certain, land records at the Boone County courthouse in Belvidere show that he purchased land in Flora Township on January 26, 1856, for $1,800. His farm contained 77-1/2 acres and was situated in the northeast quarter of section 18, less than two miles southeast of the village of Cherry Valley. Some time later he acquired two lots a couple of miles further west in Winnebago County, five acres in one lot and 3-3/4 acres in the other.
It is not know if Ralph continued to teach in Illinois while his sons farmed. Early records for Flora Township are sparse, except for land, probate and some marriage records. No mention of the family was found in Belvidere and Rockford newspapers. Cherry Valley had no newspaper. Even the deaths went mostly unacknowledged. Fortunately, the library in Belvidere has cemetery information gathered by the local genealogy group that lead to the Ewing markers in the Cherry Valley cemetery just north of Cherry Valley. The weathered stones in the cemetery tell us that Ann died on August 21, 1864, three months and sixteen days past her 64th birthday.
In a letter to his son, Jesse, written by his hand on August 3, 1865, Ralph states that he has not been feeling well and does not expect to live much longer. He died April 21, 1866. His will and the probate records for his estate are on file at Belvidere. In his will, witnessed by Sidney L. Grummon and H.B. Grummon, dated February 15, 1865, Ralph named his two oldest sons, William and Jesse, as executors. His land was left to them, with $250 being left to his other son, Cyrus, and $100 each being left to his two daughters, Mary Jane and Sarah Ann. Most of the personal goods were left to William, Jesse and Cyrus.
The children of Ralph and Ann (Reid) Ewing were:
William Alexander Ewing, born March 22, 1827, in Perry County, Pennsylvania. Information about William is found on the Home page of this website.
Jesse Ewing, the second son of Ralph and Ann, was born about December 12, 1830, also in Perry County. After the family moved to Illinois, Jesse married Sarah Sophia Hapgood on February 6, 1860, in Sycamore, DeKalb County, Illinois. Jesse sold his half of the land that he inherited from his father on June 18, 1867. He evidently became ill shortly after that, as his wife, Sarah, bought the land back on July 4 and Jesse died on July 31, 1867. He was buried in Cherry Valley cemetery, very close to his parents. Some time after Jesse's death, Sarah moved to Missouri where she died in 1876. Jesse and Sarah had four children: Clara Sophia, who married Enoch Graham in Humansville, MO, 1879, and died in Kansas City, 1946; Mortimer Levi, who married Mary Greenlee on Christmas Day, 1900, in Rockford, Washington, and died there in 1917; and not much is currently known about their last two children, Flora Eugenia and Jesse Alice.
Mary Jane Ewing, born about 1833 according to the 1850 Pennsylvania census, was listed as Mary Jane Culbertson in her father's will. No marriage record was found in Boone County, Illinois.
Sarah Ann Ewing was born about 1835, in Perry County, PA. The 1860 census for Boone County, IL, shows a Sarah Ewing, age 25, apparently living with Jesse and his wife. On March 5, 1863, Sarah married Jefferson M. Ernst in Boone County. After Sarah's father died, her husband sued the estate, charging $1.50 per week for his wife's services to the family from 1852 until her marriage in 1863, a total of $793.50. Probate records don't indicate the charge being paid.
Cyrus C. Ewing, born about 1837, moved to Illinois with the family in 1855 and is shown in the 1860 census as living with or very near William Alexander in Flora Township, and both very near their father, Ralph. But the same census also shows a Cyrus Ewing, about the same age, living with their brother, Jesse. Either Cyrus got counted twice, or he had a cousin, also named Cyrus, who was living in the area as well. Soon after the Civil War started, Cyrus enlisted on August 14, 1862. Before mustering into service, he married Lurana Grummon on August 26. Then on September 4, 1862, he mustered into Company E, 74th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry at Rockford, Illinois. But his military career would be very short. By January, 1863, Cyrus had been separated from his military unit and spent the next two months in a hospital, the victim of army food and living conditions. Dysentery, a common malady of many Civil War soldiers, had rendered Cyrus unfit for duty and would cause him problems the rest of his life. Discharged on March 5, 1863, Cyrus returned to Illinois, where his wife, Lurana, died sometime that same year. Over the next few years, Cyrus worked at farming with his brothers and their good friends, the Sabin family. Then, in 1869, when the Ewings and the Sabins decided to find new land in Kansas, Cyrus made the hardest part of the trip, leaving Illinois in wagons along with men from the Sabin family, slogging through the mud 700 miles to Pottawatomie County. The rest of both families arrived later on the train. Cyrus filed for a homestead on 160 acres (Civil War veterans were allowed more land) in Wells Township, Marshall County, that bordered William Alexander's homestead. He grew the same grain crops as everyone else, but also occasionally grew a little tobacco. He also bred and raised horses for sale in the area. On November 23, 1880, Cyrus married Amanda B. (Betty) Johnson at her father's home in Blue Rapids. Census records indicate that Betty was born in Sweden, November 13, 1859, and lived in Illinois before coming to Kansas. Cyrus and Betty started their family in 1881 with the birth of a daughter, Lurana. Another daughter, Zilda, born in 1884, and a set of twins, Ralph and Ruth were born in 1887. Then, in 1890, Eric was born into the family. In February, 1893, Cyrus sold his Wells Township farm for $3,200 and purchased 160 acres in Grant Township, Pottawatomie County, near Havensville, for $2,300 in March of that same year. Two more children were born into the family while they lived near Havensville, Lizzie in 1895 and Iris in 1898. By 1889, Cyrus' health had started to decline and continued to worsen over the next decade and a half. He was taken to the Soldier's Home in Leavenworth, KS, in November, 1906, where he died unexpectedly about two weeks later on November 30 and was buried immediately in the veteran's cemetery before his family even knew he had died. Betty died in 1909 and is buried in Onaga, KS, cemetery. Two of Cyrus and Betty's children are also buried there.
John Ewing, born about 1841, is shown as the last child of Ralph and Ann Ewing in the 1850 census. However, he is not shown in any later census records. John may have died before the family left Pennsylvania or shortly after they arrived in Illinois, although no record of him was found in Belvidere. It is also possible that he was not a child of Ralph and Ann, but, rather, a child of Ralph's brother, James, who died in 1849 and his children were distributed among other families. If that had been the case, John would have been old enough to stay in Pennsylvania with other family when Ralph's family moved to Illinois.