Making the Case for Peter Horr's Parents

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This page is about documenting the discovery process to find Peter Horr's ancestry, which we knew nothing about when we started. To see a better description of his story after marrying Elizabeth ))McKee((, see the Horr McKee page. It can especially be useful to use the Page History feature on any page to see how our knowledge came about incrementally.

Quickly after finding Jesse with his parents in a census, we also found Jesse's grandparents as the families all spent the majority of the 1800's in the same area in Illinois. We spent many years blindly searching for the paternal grandparents ancestry with no real progress. Like with Jesse, Roz Edson has had the best intuition and ideas of whom to search for. But, in general, we have still been at a roadblock of finding real documents to refine our ideas for a long time.

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Early effort

Early, general background information used to start the search is captured on the Hoar Surname page. It represents casting out a wide net into the open sea with the hope of sifting through and finding something of possible interest. From there, possible clues specific to Peter are brought into refinement and clarity on this page.

What we know about Peter going in is from records since his marriage and family.

• Born before 1 March 1819 but after 11 Oct 1818 (State Population Census 1875; US Pop Census 1850, 1860). US Population Census of 1870 has him 2 years older on 13 July 1870 (born 1817).
• Peter born in Ohio (US Pop Census 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, State Pop Census 1875, 1865)
• Father was born in Massachusetts and mother in Connecticut (Population census 1880).
• Married Elizabeth ))McKeeon 2 Feb 1842 inMcLean(( County, IL (note: ))McLean(( was carved out of Tazewell and Champaign counties in December, 1830)
• Surname written as Harr in some documents (Illinois Pop Census 1865, Population Census 1850) and even Hor (Marriage Record 1842).
• 1850 Farm census in Vermilion County that lists him with 180 acre farm, horses, cows, cattle, pigs, and 120 acres farmed; in addition to the 1850 population census from Tazewell with Family.
• Peter is appointed a postmaster of Little Valley, McPherson, Kansas in 1874. Appears in 1875 McPherson County Kansas State census with family.
• Family lore from grandson Jesse and other of his cousins state some in the family were Stage Coach and Pony Express riders in the mid-late-1800's.
• Elizabeth dies in Aug 1879 after they had relocated to Kansas sometime ~1872 (1880 Fed Census Mortality Sched)
• June 1880 pop census is with new wife Sarah, sons Owen (25) and Jasper (20).
• June 1880 farm schedule shows Peter and Owen with 50 and 40 acres; respectively
• Peter dies at age 75 in Butler, Bates, Missouri while visiting his youngest son Jasper on 19 Apr 1894 and is buried there (cemetery report). Consistent with earlier birth date prediction.

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Y-DNA (surname line) Testing

The first big break came after performing a Y-DNA test and almost immediately getting a strong match with Gordon Hoard. Gordon has done extensive work and linked himself into the Hezekiah Hoar (puritan) line from Taunton, MA. The same one Norton Horr had published about in his treatise of 1907. This greatly helped refine the search into possible family lines that seemed well researched as well as possible different surnames as maybe Peter, like Jesse, changed the name.

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Roz's refinement

At this point we still only had basic information from Population Census declarations by Peter and later his children. That he was born in Ohio around 1819. That his father was likely born in Massachusetts and mother likely in Connecticut. And that he married in ))McLean(( County, Illinois in 1842. Based on this alone, Roz and I researched her database and felt there was one of two brothers that could likely be Peter's father. Jacob or Robert Horr, both sons of Robert Hoar. Roz thinking Jacob and I maybe Robert. But both as probable. Below is our analysis from Summer 2011. (Updated Fall 2013.)

Jacob Horr and Hannah Pierce

• Peter could be a yet undocumented youngest child
• Most kids were born in New York though (not Ohio); two oldest in Massachusetts
• One of their sons (Josiah) was bouncing between Champaign County, Ohio and McLean County, Illinois while Peter would have been a pre-teen
• The mother (Hannah) died in McLean County Illinois while visiting from Ohio (Cheney's)
• Josiah's siblings moved to Ohio around 1820+ with Jacob remarrying there in 1843. But his son Josiah's story indicates Josiah did not move to Ohio until 1828 and then on his own; then going on to Illinois in 1836.
• Josiah's story from 1875 says Jacob had eleven children (only 9 are shown in Roz's database) of whom ten lived to be grown. So Peter could be this missing tenth surviving kid. (But also says only 3 surviving in 1875; all boys, and lists their names — Peter is not one of them. Some of Josiah's kids are in Kansas; where Peter was in 1876.)

Robert Horr and Lavina Hamm

• Most kids born in Ohio (they moved there around 1808 it appears)
• Like with Jacob, Peter could be youngest, not yet documented, child
• Robert died in Vermilion County, Illinois in 1834; two years before Jacob would come there. At that time, Vermilion included what is now Champagne and even ))McLean(( county
• Kids moved out to Missouri and then Kansas; similar to Peter and his family later

Peter Horr and Matilda Graves

• Oldest son is Peter born in 1817
• In Lewis County, NY same time as Robert and Jacob above
• Not much known of their kids except many died around 1826-28 (TB?)
• Was Peter sent to distant cousins in Ohio as a result?
• Records indicate all/most kids born in Lewis, NY through 1830's
• Matilda listed as born NY but parents both born Connecticut

Norton Horr's Book

Norton Horr's book on Hezekiah Hoar and his descendants lists the family on page 14 (19. Robert Hoar and Sarah Reed) but does not really give any detail on son Robert's family. He does have more on son Jacob. Most others still continued with Norton's data that Robert died in 1829 in New York.Unfortunately most of Norton's book is not sourced or sources are hinted at such as "witness on land deed document".

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Refuting Norton Horr's Book

The next big break comes from finding a few online genealogical database, much like Roz's, by a Donna Jaster and Joyce Selix, that list Robert Hoar dying in Illinois in 1834. In their database, they break from Norton Horr's book that Robert Hoar died in New York in 1828 and instead, at that time, moved with his family and father Robert to the new Illinois territory. Specifically the Vermilion County area just across the boarder from Indiana.

There is much about this that just makes sense. So if this break from tradition can be proved with documentary evidence, then more than likely Peter is the last son of Robert that has never been documented yet. Key are two documents found, the History of Vermilion County being found by Roz.

• History of Vermilion County has 4 pages on Alvon Gilbert and wives Matilda and Nancy Horr. Gives description of how father Robert Horr was in Ohio and then moved to Illinois in 1828. He bought a large plot of land after selling his Ohio plot off to the State of Ohio to build the Ohio Penitentiary (what is now Columbus, Ohio). (pages 670-674)
• In 1850, Peter appears in two census. The Population Census in Tazewell County with wife Elizabeth and three young kids. And Production of Agriculture ))Non-Population(( Census in Vermilion County with 180 acres of a farm with horses, milk cows, cattle, pigs and many acres of produce.

Could Peter be the listed owner of his father Robert's old farm and managing it from afar? Makes more sense than if the nephew. But why would the youngest son have the property? Or was it so large as it was divided up among them all?

The commonly accepted 1820 Population Census for Robert Horr is from Goshen, Champaign, Ohio. But this is the location of his brother Jacob's kids later and not him and Columbus. A Jan 21, 1821 newspaper ad on page 3 of the Ohio Monitor Newspaper in Columbus, Ohio from the Postmaster lists Robert Horr as having a letter awaiting pick-up.

As for Jacob, Norton had much more detail about his family and his children's families and such. Page 18-19 lists Jacobs family with first Hannah Pierce and then Ruth Culver. More information about Josiah and some of his siblings can be found in a History of McLean County (pages 750-751) describing Josiah there.

There is extensive detailing of Jacobs kids in Norton's book on pages 28-30 and then further back in pages 39-43 and then even later generations further on. Key is the siblings tended to center around Urbana in Champaign County, Ohio mostly with only son Josiah seeming to make the trip to Illinois and some even staying back in New York. We leave it to the reader to go through all these pages of Norton's book or others online databases as the Jacob branch is well covered. Thus maybe pointing to the fact that a "later, unlisted" son by the name Peter could not exist because much is known about this branch scarcely 100 years later.

To understand some of this further, one must understand the dynamic nature of county lines at the time. The Illinois territory was being carved up and quickly populated from 1810 onwards with counties being formed every few months. See the Illinois County Boundary Changes and how Vermilion was carved out in 1826. And then Champaign from Vermilion in 1833. It is said Champaign County, Illinois was named after Champaign County, Ohio and the county seat of Urbana after Urbana, Ohio. Josiah, one of Jacob's sons, is seen bouncing back and forth from this area in Illinois and Ohio.