THE TRIUMPHANT TRAILS, TOILS, AND TRIBUTIONS OF REVOLUTIONARY PIONEER MOTHER, ELIZABETH CONWAY – A BIOGRAPHY TO SHOW THE HUMAN PORTRAIT OF THIS HEROINE OF THE WESTERN FRONTIER.
(Paper given by Virginia Walton Brooks (Mrs. Berry B. Brooks, Jr.) at the April meeting of the Memphis Genealogical Society.
(Transcribed by Sherida Dougherty from a typed transcription of the article from “Ansearchin News”, Vol. X, January 1963)
Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway was native Virginian of English parentage. About 1750-52, she became the wife of John Conway, Sr., a Latin scholar and teacher, who had emigrated from his Dublin, Ireland home to Virginia. His teaching profession caused them to establish several homes in Virginia and Kentucky. Their family Bible owned by Mrs. Berry B. Brooks, a descendent records the names and births of nine of their children. Family tradition tells us that they lived in Spotsylvania County, Va. From the war and pension records of their sons we learn that each of them was born, or enlisted for military service in a different Virginia county. The birth dates of their five daughters and four sons ranged from January 11, 1753 to June 25, 1775, a span of 22 years of childbearing. Yet this sturdy mother lived an additional 34 years, dying July 30, 1809.
Being the mother of nine children involved a busy life of domesticity, plus the fact they made frequent changes in home and locale. It can be assumed the income of a Latin teacher was not a lucrative one, and was inadequate for such a large and growing family. Thus adding extra burdens upon the mother to clothe and feed her family properly.
John Conway, Jr. stated on his pension application, that he was born in Henrico County, Virginia on August 10, 1758. Joseph Conway, the fourth son and ancestor of Mrs. Brooks, was born in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia) December 14, 1763. Jesse Conway enlisted from Red Island, in Montgomery Co. Virginia and Samuel the eldest son, also enlisted from southwest Virginia. John Conway, Jr. was the first of his family to become a “Pioneer of the West”. He served under Capt. William Harrod’s Company in the western country (later Kentucky) in 1777. He returned to Virginia to induce his family to move into the undeveloped frontier of the west. The Conways had moved from Henrico County into western Virginia, beyond the Allegheny Mountains, then onward to reside in the vast wilderness of what we know as Kentucky in 1779.
These freedom-loving Virginians were weary, weary, worn pioneers as they trudged the long and uninhabited trails of the buffalo into the fertile valley of the Ohio River. They moved under the constant threat of surprise attack by stealthy savages as they followed the buffalo tracks, on their exploration of the wilds of the aboriginal terrain to Bourbon County, Kentucky, the far western country. This perilous, arduous trek was hardest on the younger children and courageous mother, who was responsible for their well being along the long trail through the wilderness. They had to provide their own food and shelter along the extended journey into the unknown. The youngest children were four-year-old Sarah and nine year old Nancy. Joseph was sixteen, Jesse was eighteen, John, Jr. was twenty-one and Samuel was twenty-three. The sons had been brought up on the use of arms and the pursuit of game. There were militia posted at different garrisons to guard the frontier settlements. The Conways’ destination was Ruddle’s Station on the upper waters of Licking River, in the present county of Bourbon, in Kentucky. A crude log cabin was engaged while soldiery as a militiaman of frontier western country. He broke the land, planted the crops and protected the fort. These frontiersmen and women came in their strength and determination with ax and rifle to conquer a wilderness. In that early settlement the pioneers were harassed by the Indians who robbed the settlers of their peltry, furs, horses and crops. The Conways were in the wilds, far beyond succor or relief. With frontier-pushing energy they were brought into contact with the savage Indians who represented a figure of terror and possible sudden death. The hard-pressed settlement and outpost was under constant threat of annihilation.
Ruddle’s Station was known as Hinkson’s Station, located on the east bank of South Licking on the buffalo trace, which ran to the Blue Licks.
Here Elizabeth Conway labored under the most harrowing, uncertain, and trying conditions in her new home in the far wilderness, away from family, friends and adequate protection from the Indians and without the necessities of life. To all this was added the constant threat of swift and deadly attack by Indians and crop failure, with its resulting starvation. It was necessary for her to uphold the spirit of her entire family and make the best of her hazardous lot in life on the frontier. Elizabeth and John gave their children the elements of a plain English education, plus a knowledge of Latin. Thus the Kentuckian Conways became Indian fighters and frontiersmen. These brave frontierswomen, Elizabeth and her young daughters were ever alert to the dangers of the wrath of the red men on the warpath, devastating frontier settlements. They must bear their share of the responsibility to defend their home and lives from Indian raids and attacks. The father and four sons had enlisted in the militia to help fight the bloodthirsty Indians who preyed on the settlements.
Early in the spring of 1780, the danger of marauding Indians became so great that these migratory families were obligated to leave their own roughhewn log homes to move into the fort for protection. While the women-folk and children remained within the fort, the men went out daily to work, clearing the land and planting the crops. Alternating this work with acting in the capacity of guards, having their guns read to protect the workers against an Indian attack.
Ruddle’s Station and the Conway family, had escaped the terror of a devastating Indian raid until a peaceful Sunday morning, on that fateful day, June 19, 1780, when Elizabeth and John Conway’s youngest son was scalped by marauding Indians sent by the British. There was no forewarning that this was not to be like any other Sunday at the fort.
Early in the morning Joseph Conway and two of his young boy companions left the fort early to drive in the cows for milking. The cows were found grazing on the opposite side of the nearby river, which was but a shallow stream at this point. The boys started driving the cows back toward the fort, but when they reached the river, they caught a large loggerhead turtle, and carried it back to the sandy beach to entertain themselves by teasing it with a willow twig to make it snap at them. Some of the men from the fort were down at the edge of the water on the near side of the stream washing their hands and faces for breakfast. An Indian, lying concealed in the bushes near where the boys were playing with the turtle, fired on Joseph Conway, wounding him in the side and then rushed out on him and tore off his scalp, broke his skull with his deadly tomahawk, and left the defenseless youngster for dead. His two young teenage friends managed to escape a similar fate and saved themselves. It was done so quickly that the men on the opposite bank of the shallow stream were unable to give any assistance. The alarm was given at the fort; the men hurried out with their guns and scoured the woods, but found no trace of the Indian or his comrades. Swiftly, suddenly and without warning the stealthy red men had attacked 16 year old Joseph with agile and cruel blows in all his native savagery.
After the ravaging disaster of this inhumane attack, young Joseph was rescued, revived and in time recovered from the point of death. Joseph’s head bled alarmingly. The wound in his side was slight compared with the scalping of the head. Back at the fort, Joseph’s mutilated scalp wounds were treated with an application of wads of cobwebs made into a poultice to stanch the blood. Eve though considered unhygienic now; it saved the youngster’s life. Of necessity Elizabeth Conway was well-versed in and heavily dependent upon homemade remedies. In this emergency the life of her youngest son was at stake. Anxiety, grief and fear were coupled with terror as her son’s life lingered at death’s door. He required constant care and attention as he began consciousness and strength. The fort was thus alerted to further attack to follow this display of brutal brazen and barbaric attack upon a defenseless lad. They were aware that the heathen Indian had been a scout for the British and was furnished with firearms and ammunition by the British to raid and attack the frontier settlers.
The frontiersmen and women had not recovered from the shock of the scalping of Joseph, when on June 22, 1780 Captain Henry Bird, Englishman, attacked Ruddle's Station with British, Canadian and Indian army troops with deadly assault. Bravely the men fought to hold back the assault of British soldiers and red hordes sent down upon them by Lord Henry Hamilton at Detroit, the French-Canadian city far to the north. They were equipped with cannon, having cut a road through the wilderness forest for hauling the cannon. The fort was proof only against cannon rifle balls and quite inadequate against cannon attack. Surrender was inevitable. The British commander, Captain Henry Bird, promised protection and safe transport to Detroit to all the dwellers in the fort at Ruddle’s Station on condition that the British would take complete command of the prisoners, which comprised the men of the garrison, their courageous wives and helpless children, including Joseph who was scalped three day previous. It will ever by a blot on the record and integrity of Captain Bird, that he broke his solemn word and turned the prisoners over to the frenzied red men, who proceeded to march the helpless victims over 160 miles to Detroit, with vengeful inhumanity and cruelty. British indifference had amounted to connivance to the capture and handling of the prisoners of Ruddle’s Station.
Although the life of Joseph Conway was held in the balance following his brush with death only three days previously, no consideration was shown for his desperate condition. During the confusion and trouble of this perilous journey to Detroit, no effort could be made to dress Joseph’s scalp wounds, and the weather being hot, green flies and creepers made their appearance. A kind old lady, Mrs. Weisman, among the captives, picked out the loathsome insects and dressed the boy’s scalp and continued to help wait on him until the wound healed. On this long march there were many terrible incidents of cruelty and ruthlessness by the conquerors. History tells us more of Joseph Conway on this merciless march – “He was forced to march barefooted, his feet bleeding at almost every step, with the Indians, from the Ohio River to Detroit. The blood flowed down his back from the raw and unhealed wound in the head. From which the scalp was taken. Still he was able to trudge on amidst pain and suffering by his barbarous captors. A white women, who was also a captive, with the characteristic sympathy and kindness which belongs to her sec, gave Captain Conway a handkerchief, which she tied with womanly tenderness around his bleeding head to protect the gaping wounds from the weather. It was a most humane act and relieved his sufferings greatly during that long, tiresome and tedious march.” (From Darby’s “Personal Recollections”)
An aunt of the author, Miss Gladys Walton, attorney at law, of St. Louis, Missouri, writes, “one of my earliest recollections is that my mother, Louisa Conway Walton, showing me a picture of her grandfather, Joseph Conway, and pointing out particularly the wig that he wore because of his bald and scarred head from the scalping”. (Excerpts from an address she gave July 11, 1934 to the members of the St. Louis Round Table.) I quote further from Gladys Walton, “Between this pioneering Joseph Conway of Virginia and Kentucky, believe it are but two links – my mother and her father”.
Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway, her husband John, her sons, John, Jr. and Joseph, and their three youngest daughters, Elizabeth Conway Daugherty, young bride of William Daugherty, she age twenty, Nancy age ten and Sarah aged 5 years were brutally forced to march along the tortuous journey northward as British captives under Indian command for the British, as prisoners of war, defenders of the fort at Ruddle’s Station. Never were defenseless human beings treated with less humanity consideration, courtesy, nor less protection to their lives' safety as prisoners of war than these pioneers, especially the women and children captives.
By intent and malice the British placed these savages in complete charge of marching the white prisoners to deliver them to the British authority in Detroit at a distance that challenged the durability and stamina of every person on the march. These captives were miserable to the last degree. The old, the ill, the weak and the very young were required to keep the same pace as the men in the conquered party. Some were wantonly massacred by the Indian guards when they grew faint and weary and fell by the wayside. There were no facilities for feeding the captives and no shelter for the many night stops along the way.
Every member of the Conway family, mother, father, two sons, even scalped Joseph and the three daughters, not only survived the march but also survived the four years of cruel and miserable captivity in the cold north country. After this death march to Detroit, the city of the bitter cold weathers, began their long ordeal of suffering and waiting, before finally being released. Here they were confined for four years of agony, privation, hardships and without adequate shelter, food or clothing or consideration.
Five year old Sarah was separated from her parents and “adopted” by an Indian and his squaw as their own child. They never saw her during their captivity. This added heavily to the heartaches and hardships of their confinement. Nine years after their march to Detroit, after the Conways had returned to Kentucky, they were able to get a trace of the whereabouts of their baby girl. John Conway searched and finally found her, now a girl of fourteen, who had endured nine years of life as an Indian. By paying a heavy ransom to her captors, or foster parents of the red race, he was able to return his youngest child to her home in Kentucky, thus the long search and suspense was ended happily.
Through prayer and the will of God, Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway, her husband John and their captive children survived the rigors and exposure and indignities of prison life for four years of severe Michigan winters as prisoners of war. The entire family was help captive for four years except Sarah until June 1, 1784, when they were released to find their way back to Kentucky, on their own power, as best they might, dependent upon their own resourceful guidance to survive the long journey back to the western country, far to the south.
During their four years confinement Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway had suffered the same privations as the soldiers who were actually enlisted in the militia. These persons were regarded as prisoners of war, both by the civil and military authorities. The fact that she was able and capable of giving material aid in the protection of the fort is evidenced by the fact that she was strong enough to withstand all the hardships of the journey to Detroit, caring for her young ones, her loved ones, and along the trail to see that they did not fall by the way and get tomahawked by their wild savage captors in charge of the march north. Those who had not kept pace were slaughtered brutally. Besides being a patriot, defender of the fort, and prisoner of war for four years, she rendered material aid for the cause of independence by furnishing clothing and food to her menfolk and those within the Ruddle’s Station settlement. She had urged her husband and four sons to give service in the militia to protect their freedom and win independence from England and King George III. As she could give when Ruddle’s Station was attacked by the British and Indians. She and her family had pledged their strength, support and allegiance to the rebellious colonies against the British. During the four years of brutal captivity in Detroit she had resisted and repulsed the proffered alternative of siding with the captors, the British and fighting on their side. Truly she was a loyal heroine, revolutionary mother, pioneer of the west, who contributed her strength and endurance toward the development, protection and conquest of the new western frontier. For this service the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution gave service to Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway, a patriot, defender of the fort and prisoner of war.
Again, I quote from Darby’s “Personal Recollections”, Captain Joseph Conway, his suffering at the hands of the Indians, Page 81-82:
“The incredible sufferings, privations, hardships and exposure which Captain Joseph Conway was made to endure during his captivity are beyond precedent, and can hardly be described and but for his vigorous constitution he must have sunk under them. On the bleak shores of the Canadian frontier he was detained four years as a prisoner, with no human habitation to protect him from the severity of the weather, and made to endure and to bear all the privations incident to that barbarous condition of life.”
Without their beloved Sarah, the six Conways trekked on foot back to the Licking River, Kentucky, after their release from Detroit. They covered the tiresome journey south by August 1784. What rejoicing and thanksgiving greeted their return as hopes of their survival had vanished with the passing years of the war. Wit the encouragement and aid of friends and comports, the Conways set out once again to build a home and make a new life on the frontier, now won form the British, even though not entirely free from Indian threats and the wilderness itself.
Upon Joseph Conway’s return to Licking River he went out on Harmer’s campaigns against the Indians. I quote further from Darby’s “Personal Recollections”. “He fought under General Harmer, and was in the battle which marked his defeat. Once when the Indians were in hot pursuit he dodged behind a tree and turned and fired and again loaded his gun as he ran, and in this manner killed seven Indians. He also fought under Gen. Wayne, and shared in his victories. The horrors of the border war he witnesses in common with his associated, but he was shot three times. He was tomahawked by the savages and scalped three times.”
Thus a few hundred bold hunters, woodsmen and fighters had held on to western outposts of the great western regions to preserve the Mississippi River basin from the continued British rule. Otherwise this Canadian line would have been established on the Appalachian crest. Before George Rogers Clark’s great victory of the Revolution, in his conquest, the southern border of Canada was the Ohio River.
The land he conquered was settled by Canadian governed from Detroit. It had been conquered from the French only fifteen years before. Clark added this territory to the new nation. From the British empire and hostile Indian hordes, Clark took over a quarter of a million square miles of the most fertile and habitable land on the North American continent; the Ohio Valley to the father of waters, the mighty Mississippi, he gas us Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and the northeast tip of Minnesota, 245,000 square miles. He stretched the United States to the Mississippi River for the victorious thirteen original colonies.
For the next twenty-five years Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway led a less hazardous though active and useful life from 1784 until her death, July 10, 1809. Her husband, John Conway, St. had died May 3, 1801 in Campbell County, Kentucky. Thus we have followed the trails, tribulations, service and the sufferings of the Conway family in their share of winning freedom for the colonies from the yoke of Great Britain, and in the opening up and developing of the frontier. Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway, John Conway, Sr. and Joseph Conway have been accredited by the DAR for their service as patriots, defenders of the fort and as prisoners of war for four years. The war records of the other three sons have been recognized as well. Samuel, the eldest son, was engaged in the manufacture of gunpowder for the army. All five of the Conway men served as militiamen in fighting and protecting the frontier western country, in the service of their country.
We leave Elizabeth and John to their reward, and take up the life of their youngest son, Joseph. Ripley’s “Believe It or Not” gave an illustrated account of his Indian tortures: “Captain Joseph Conway, St. Louis, Missouri, Scalped three times, tomahawked three times, shot three times, left for dead three time, recovered and died at the age of 70”. From Darby’s “Personal Recollections” we gleam, “Captain Joseph Conway was one of the pioneers of the west. He came to Louisiana during the Spanish times, and settled in Bonhomme, St. Louis district, in the year 1796, on the piece of land granted to him that same year by Zenon Trudeau, at the time lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana. Capt. Conway came to Kentucky in early youth and as soon as he was able to bear arms he took an active and distinguished part in the Indian wars which accompanied the early settlements of that state. Young, brave, and daring, he was associated with Daniel Boone and many of the bold spirits of that time in almost all of their hazardous and dangerous enterprises. Boone came to this country and got his grant of land about the same time that Capt. Conway obtained his. He improved his farm, and cultivated and lived on it for more than thirty years, and up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 27th of December, 1830. “Often when I was a boy, when he would come into the house, would I in my boyish curiosity creep around his chair to get a good look at the back of his head, to see where the Indians had taken off the scalps from his head. Capt. Conway was, in fact, one of the bravest and noblest men that ever lived in the State of Missouri, and of the strictest integrity. He left a name and a fame that commanded the respect and affectionate regard of all who knew him during life. He raised a large family, several of his sons having been honored with positions of public trust, such as judge of the county court, sheriff of St. Louis County, and member of the Legislature, discharging the duties of the various offices they filled with honor and credit to themselves and to the entire satisfaction of the public.”
In 1776 Kentucky was organized as a separate county of Virginia. In 1780 it was divided into three counties. In 1787 John Conway is witness to a deed in Bourbon County, Virginia (later Kentucky). On Jun 1, 1792, Kentucky was admitted as the 15th state of the union. Since these recollections were written at a later date than their occurrence, the reference is made to their location identification at the time of the account given. In fact these so-called peregrinating pioneers may have lived in the various counties of Virginia, yet never left home! Let us consider the formation of counties. York County, Virginia, of 1634 was the parent of all the counties in which the John Conway, St. family lived, from York down to Greenbrier, erected thus: King William, 1801; Spotsylvania, 1720; Shenandoah, 1722; Caroline, 1727; August, 1738; Montgomery, 1776; Greenbrier 1777. In reality since Joseph Conway was born December 14, 1763, he was born in Augusta County, that became Montgomery County in 1776 and Greenbrier County in 1777. Now Greenbrier is in West Virginia. Since John Conway is said to have lived in Henrico, according to records, in 1758, 1763-4, perhaps his land extended into Henrico. From the August 3, 1779, Montgomery County, Virginia Court: “Thomas Conway, sum 100 lbs. And his securities in sum of 50 each. John Conway, 50 lbs. Engaged in late Insurrection of this country”. Thomas and John Conway signed. Then John Conway and family leave for Kentucky, joining a party of migrators who left Virginia, and journeyed toward the western country.
On February 22, 1792 in Bourbon County, Kentucky, Joseph Conway married Elizabeth Caldwell, with the consent of her father, Samuel. She was born September 1, 1773 in Virginia, died September 30, 1821 in St. Louis County, Missouri, and is buried in the family burial ground near their homestead. She lies at rest beside her husband and her family on a hilltop, beneath sheltering trees, north of their home, on part of the 400 acres of original land grant that Joseph received in 1798. This valuable land is now located on the city limits of the metropolis of St. Louis. This Creve Coeur Lake Settlement is now known as Chesterfield, Bonhomme Township, St. Louis County, Missouri. The old pioneer home still stands at what is now the corner of Conway and White Roads. On September 20, 1959, the Lucy Jefferson Lewis Chapter, N.S.A.R. of New Madrid, Missouri, marked the grave of Captain Joseph Conway as a Revolutionary soldier and patriot. The ceremony was attended by many of his proud descendants. April 6, 1813 Joseph Conway was again called into the service of his country. This time he was called into the active service of the United States, by His Excellency, Benjamin Howard, Governor of the Territory of Missouri. Again he was facing the British against his homeland. He served in the Infantry with the rank of Captain in the War of 1812. At the age of 49 years he had served in two wars against England, fighting for his young country with vigor and strength.
The challenge to explore the Pacific northwest followed after President Thomas Jefferson bought the huge Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803. President Jefferson tendered to Captain Joseph Conway the command of what we know as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but he declined the appointment, and the honor went to Lewis and Clark. Joseph Conway felt that his first responsibility was his family and their welfare, so he did not undertake the 1,600 miles exploration up the Missouri River to its source, across the Rockies, with the descents to the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. Joseph Conway was on hand to give his blessings and good wishes to the small army detachment of thirty-one men in the Lewis and Clark Expedition that afternoon of May 14, 1804. The “robust, healthy, hardy young men of the Corps of Discovery” set out in a keelboat and two pirogues, not to return until September 1806. For five months the party had outfitted at Wood River, fifteen miles north of St. Louis, where the shifting Mississippi River then received the Missouri River. Everyone was eager to learn the results of the exploration of the Louisiana Territory, but Joseph Conway felt he owed his first duty to his young family of five children, that was to increase to ten. Already he had had far more than his share of adventures.
The Conways were staunch Presbyterians. Joseph Conway gave the land, diagonally across the road from his home, and assisted in furnishing the funds, materials, and construction labor for the erection of Bonhomme Presbyterian Church, which stands to this day. It is said to be one of the oldest and may contend it is the oldest Protestant Church built west of the Mississippi River. Built of sturdy stone, it stands proudly today as a landmark and monument to the Christian principles of the founding Conway Family.
The fourth son of Joseph and Elizabeth Conway was Samuel Conway, born July 25, 1799 and died October 28, 1870, married October 28, 1824, Mourning Baxter, born January 17, 1804 in Madison County, Kentucky, died April 29, 1845 in Missouri. She was the daughter of Green Berry Baxter and Elizabeth Jones of Madison County, Ky. who came to the Territory of Missouri between 1810-1814. Samuel Conway and his brother, Joseph, Jr., both served as sheriff of St. Louis County Court; held a seat in the General Assembly of Missouri and were Deacons in Bonhomme Presbyterian Church, founded by his father and uncle [sic]. During the War between the States the following incident is related of him. The story goes that Samuel Conway had the keys to the Bonhomme Church and wouldn’t let the Yankee soldiers in when they wanted to have services. The soldiers had to threaten to shoot Mr. Conway before he would yield the keys. It delights the loyal Sourthern heart of the author to know her paternal great grandfather, Samuel Conway, was a “Southern Sympathizer”. Samuel Conway was twelve years old when the New Madrid, Missouri, earthquake of 1811 occurred in which houses in the vicinity of his home were knocked down and the whole country shook from the shock of the quivers that tore the earth asunder and formed Reelfoot Lake in western Tennessee. Samuel and Mourning Conway were parents of nine children.
Samuel Conway died of typhoid fever in the only illness of his life. He lived in changing time in his young nation as is evidenced by the following calculations. Samuel Conway, born July 25, 1799, native born Missourian of Anglo-Saxon parentage, was born in a Kingdom -- Spain (in 1800 Spain returned the territory to France). He was reared in an Empire – France (France sold the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803). He was educated and spent his childhood in a Territory (in 1803 St. Louis became the capital of the Upper Louisiana Territory). He attained manhood in this Missouri Territory (became Missouri Territory in 1812). He became a citizen of a state, Missouri (Missouri, the 24th state, came into the Union as a slave state on August 10, 1821; Missouri did not secede from the Union in 1861). All of this, yet Samuel Conway never traveled more than 100 miles from where he was born. He lived out his life on his father’s original land grand farm in Bonhomme District, at Chesterfield, in the Creve Coeur Lake Settlement, St. Louis County, Missouri, where he first saw the light of day. Here he died on October 28, 1870 when typhoid fever took his sturdy life with the only illness he had ever experienced in his many years on earth. He was in his 68th year.
Samuel and Mourning Baxter Conway were the parents of Louisa Conway, born April 24, 1840 on the ancestral place of her father, Samuel Conway. She died June 30, 1895 in St. Louis, Missouri and is buried in Bellefontain. She attended Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Missouri, 1855-57. The Herbarium she created while a student there is preserved to this day by her descendant, the author. The Sibleys founded this “Female Academy” in 1827, situated on 138 acres of the highest elevation in the extreme western part of St. Charles, Missouri, then the capital of the new state. From this high vantage point above the Missouri River a beautiful view was commended of the rolling country side from the Linden shaded Campus. On September 3, 1861 Louisa Conway became the bride of Frederick Bates Walton, grandson of Governor Frederick Bates, of Missouri, for whom he was named. His mother, Emily Caroline Bates, wife of Robert Alfred Walton, had cone back to her ancestral home, “Thornhill”, in St. Louis County, Missouri, to have her first child, the eldest of eight children. To follow prideful tradition Louisa Conway Walton went to “Thornhill” to give birth to her eldest surviving son, Allen Walton, one of nine children. Allan Walton was born March 4, 1864 and died May 6, 1919 in Blytheville, Arkansas. He was a world traveler and adventurer. On October 21, 1903 he married the beauteous Virginia Warren Field, of Jonesboro, Arkansas, on her twenty-first birthday. From Jonesboro they went to Blytheville, Arkansas, to make their home. Here he was successfully established in the wholesale grocery business and was a leader in his community. Allan and Virginia Field Walton were the parents of Virginia Field Walton, Born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and reared in Blytheville, Arkansas. She attended the Alma Mater of her paternal grandmother, Louis Conway, Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Missouri. From these sturdy ancestors she derived the stamina to lead an adventurous life of world travel and jet circumnavigations. April 27, 1929 in Blytheville, Arkansas, Virginia Field Walton became the bride of Berry Boswell Brooks, Jr. of Memphis, Tennessee, a renowned sportsman, big game hunter, and world traveler. They were the parents of Virginia Walton Brooks, born June 4, 1933 in Memphis, Tennessee. June 29, 1957 Virginia Brooks became the wife of Allen Martin of Katonah, New York. They are the parents of Ann Field Martin, born April 1, 1959.
From Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway, Revolutionary Pioneer, Mother and Heroine, we trace through four generations of Conways down through four direct generations to complete eight generations to the youngest descendant, four year old Ann Field Martin, her great, great, great, great, greatgrandaughter.
References:
DRAPER MANUSCRIPTS, State Historical Society of Wisconsin
ENCYCLOPEDIA of HISTORY of St. Louis, Missouri
A HISTORY OF MISSOURI, by Louis Houck, 1908, Vols. 2&3
Letters of Henry Clay Ogle, Paris, Ky. 1903 & 1912
ANNALS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA (1929) L.P. Summers
LOST LINKS, Francis & Moore (12 Bible records & Wills)
Authors note: The Author (address: Epping Forest Manor, 3661 James Road, Memphis, Tenn.) welcomes additions or corrections to the first generation of Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway and her husband, John Conway, Sr. The proof of their parentage is lacking. In 1947 Julia S. Ardery (Mrs. Em. B.) of Paris, Kentucky questioned the authenticity of the Ogle’s letters statement that (continued on bottom of page 110) Not provided by contributor, mb.
(Some obvious typos were corrected during this transcription.)