Re: John [ Jaybird] Collier b.1815 Ohio
-
In reply to:
John [ Jaybird] Collier b.1815 Ohio
7/25/01
I have alittle new data on John W. "jaybird" Collier born 1815 lawrence County Ohio- circaCo., Ohio
he married Mary Polly Jenkins in 1840 and seems to have had nine children with her (William Henry, James, Rebecca, Nancy, Polly, Naomi, John, Phebe, and Polly A.
in 1864 Polly Jenkins passes away (perhaps due to the birth of her last child Polly A.).In this year her brother Jonas Jenkins also dies, and the survivng spouses John Collier and Asenith Martin-Jenkins (brother in law and sister in law) remarry each other in 1866 and in 1868 they have one child named Isaac who we believe is born handicapped (blind) and John deserts mother and childand disappears with his youngest 3 children from his first wife. (Asenith proceeds to divorce John in 1871 declaring his "willful absence of three years". Though later they apparently reconcile and set up housekeeping again in Scioto County Oh(brush Creek).
The mystery has always been where did John and the children disappear to? and yesterday i believe i found them all..He (i suspect) is living under an alias in Scioto Co Oh with his three young children. I found a Thomas Collier age 56 with children John 13, Pheobe age 9 and Polly A. age 7 living in "Micklinsburg"(?) Ohio outside Portsmouth. The ages all match up perfectly. why he chose to go to Scioto and why he chose the name Thomas I dont know...Now the question is when did John W. "jaybird" Collier die?