Jonathan Bozarth

I, Jonathon Bozarth, of the county of Howard, State of Missouri, being in feeble health but of sound mine considering the uncertainty of life and having a desire to exprefs my views and purposes in relation to my businefs matters after my death, do make and ordain this instrument of writing as my last will, hereby re-voking all other made previously, if any, on this 16th day of March in the year 1853 -- -- FIRST -- It is my will that all my just deebts be paid first out of my estate with as little delay as practicable. SECOND -- I give to my wife during her life or widowhood 80 acres of land to in-clude the domicile where we now reside described as follows: 40 acres off the south end of 120 acres I own in section 16, being 2/3 of the southwest one quarter of said section in twp 50, Range 15 and also the northeast one quarter of the northwest one quarter of section 21, same range and twp., also during her natural life or widowhood, a negro woman named Winney and her child, a boy named Ben about 8 years of age. I also request and direct that Winney's four other children be kept with her, with any other she may have until such time as my daughter Elizabeth shall arrive at the age of 21 years, when they may be divided by general consent of my heirs which are herein after named.

Jonathan Bozorth, born February 20th, 1780 in Virginia, was the next to youngest child of Joseph and Elizabeth Borden Bozorth of Monongalia County, Virginia. It is not exactly clear where Joseph and his family were in February of 1780. His mother Elizabeth was seven months pregnant with him when they sold their land in what was then Monongalia County in December of 1779. It is unlikely that they traveled to Kentucky during the winter months while she was heavy with child, but by July of 1780 Joseph Bozer (Bozier / Bozorth) was serving as a "Lieutenant in Captain William McCluer's Company of Militia in the County of Jefferson and State of Virginia in Colonel William Linn's Batalion under the command of Colonel George Rogers Clark against the Shawnee Indians." By 1785 this area was then known as Nelson County, Virginia. By 1787 the area where they lived on the Nolin River became Hardin County, Kentucky in 1792.

When Jonathan was ten years old, his father Joseph Bozorth died in "Nelson County, Virginia, District of Kentucky" about June of 1790. Joseph left a will naming: his wife Elizabeth; his three oldest sons: John, David and Joseph; his married daughters (not numbered or named) and his seven youngest children (also not named). It is believed Jonathan was the sixth of the seven youngest children. On April 2, 1791 Jonathan's mother Elizabeth married (Robert) Veasy Alexander, who also had a young family. Seven years later on August 7, 1798, the eighteen and a half year old Jonathan married his stepsister Lucy Alexander in Hardin County, Kentucky. Their marriage was performed by Baptist Minister Josiah Dodge and was recorded on page 2 of Hardin County Marriage Book "A." The witnesses were Mahetable Bozreth, Jonathan's sister, and his brother Joseph, whose name was shown by the county clerk as Boozorth, Borth and Bozreth in the Bond and Consent records.

Over the years in Howard County, Missouri the spelling of the Bozorth name changed to Bozarth. Jonathan Bozarth died at the age of 74 years, 2 months and 26 days on May 16, 1854 in Bonne Femme Township, Howard County, Missouri. He was buried in the Mount Gilead Cemetery in Fayette, Howard County, Missouri. About 1866 his widow Cynthia Bozarth went with daughter Nancy and husband Walter Smoot when they moved to Collin County, Texas. Walter died there on July 4, 1867. Cynthia Gross Bozarth died there on February 15, 1882 at the age of 81 years, 11 months and 24 days.