Rev. Elijah Lacey

Moved to Kerr Co, Texas from Indiana. In 1880 after his wife's death, he moved to Gonzales, TX next door to his son John B. He may have remarried as census shows older woman in home with him.

GEDCOM Note

Elijah was the youngest son and child of Lionel Lacey an d A nn Rankin, was born in Livingston Co., Ky. in 1804. Th e ex act date and locale of his birth is not known, since w e d o not know what part of Livingston County his parents w er eresiding at the time. They did not own property there , s o they may have been residing near LionelOs two brother s, N athaniel Lacy and Kaner Lacey, or near his sister, Mar yELac ey Baldwin, who resided in a part of Livingston Count y whic h waslater Caldwell. In 1807, Lionel and Ann move d from Li vingston County to the Goshen Settlements in Illi nois, nea r the present town of Edwardsville in Madison Cou nty, late r moving to St. Clair County, near the present to wn of Mill stadt. HereLionel settled on a tract of land c onsisting o f 320 acres, and on the OLacey PlantationO, El ijah grew t o manhood. Lionel died in 1816, when Elijah wa s only twelv e years of age. The farm was operated by hi s elder brother s, John andStephen. LionelOs will states : Oto my sons Jos hua Lacey, Thomas Lacey, James Lacey, an d Elijah Lacey I Be queath after all my just debts are paid , all of my horses , cattle and sheep. All household furni ture and all othe r such propertywhatsoever kind or natur e which by right o r law appertains unto me. This is to re main in the hands o f and under the direction of my lovin g wife Ann Lacey durin g the period of her widowhood-- O . Ann never remarried an d lived until 1837.There is n o record of what, if anythin g, the four brothers receive d at that time. At the age of 2 4 years, on 21 August 1828 , Elijah married a young widow, R uthEMcDonald Locke, who w as with child by her first husband , Gerald Locke. A son ,WilliamEJackson Locke, was born o n 21 November 1828. Ru th was born in Tennessee in 1809, Th e names of her parent s are not known, nor is the date of th eir arrival in Illin ois. A McDonald family moved from sou thern Illinois to G illespieCounty, Texas, where, later, th eir son WilliamEAu gustus McDonald would marry LouannaEEliza beth Lacey, a gra nddaughter of Elijah and Ruth. It is like ly that this i s the same McDonald family. Elijah and RuthO s first child , Aciel (Asa)Phelps, was born in St. Clair Co unty on 18 M ay 1830. There is some confusion as to their e xact count y of residence during this period as they appea r in the 18 30 census in Jefferson County, with nochildren . So, i t must be that Asa wasnot born and William Jeffers on Lock e was with someone else. Of course, these old retur ns ar e not always reliable or complete. He was a 2nd Lt. i n th e 1st Reg., Ill. Militia (Executive Record 1832-37, Vol . 2 , p. 241). Elijah is shownliving in Jefferson County i n 1 840, by the census of that year, but we have been unabl e t o locate him for the twofollowing census reports for t h e years 1850 and 1860, although all of his children wer e bo rn in Illinois before 1850, and hehad moved to Texa s befor e 1860.. Around, 1854 he moved his familyto Te xas, bu t he is not found on the 1860 census in any count y in the s tate. However, they seem to have first arrived i n Goliad Co unty since his son, AsaEPhelps Laceyand his wi fe Rosanna E ngland, and his daughter, MahalaEElizabeth La cey, and he r husband, JohnEHardin Lacey, are all found the re on the 18 60 census. He is found on the 1870 census fo r Gillespie Co unty, together with the families of several of his children . The 1870 Gillespie County census is th e last known censu s record for Elijah Lacey. There are re ports that he move d to Indiana after the death of Ruth i n 1877, but searche s there have proved fruitless. Exactl y how theymoved to Te xas is not known. In the 1850Os the re were established tra ils to Texas. One wagon road stret ched from Memphis, Tenn. , to Little Rock, Ark., to Fulton , Ark., and on into Texa s across the Red River with a bran ch from there tothe Sa n Antonio area. They could have al so crossed the Sabine fr om Louisana, but that would have p robably meant that they c ame part way by steamship. Of co urse, they could have take n a steamship to New Orleans an d then another around toCor pus Christi. Family traditio n says that they came by oxe n and wagon. In such a case , the trip would have been seve ral months long. Even in t he late 1800Os, it took a grands on, Tobe Lacey, and his fa mily, three months to travel fromGillespie County to Ne w Mexico by oxen and wagon. At som e point Elijah becam e a Methodist Minister and so referre d to himself on the c ensus. He performed the marriage cere mony for his daughter MahalaEElizabeth Lacey and JohnEHardi n Lacey,and in Gil lespie County he performed several marri ages for members o f his family and others. As ministers o f the time were wo nt to do, he also practiced a little medi cine. This was b ecause of the scarcity of qualified physic ians and thenec essity and desire of a minister to take car e of his flock . Of course, he could scarcely make a livin g doing that, s o he must have farmed and raised stock as hi s children did . He may have been closer to San Antonio at s ome point, i n theLocke Hill Community. This community wa s started b y oneGiruad Locke, from France, who purchased l and in th e area. There is no connection with WilliamEJacks on Locke , son of Ruth McDonald and William Locke, her firs t husban d. Elijah andRuthOs son, William Madison Lacey, ow ned lan d there and his children were born there. This is al so th e area that LewisECass Lacey refers to in his letter a bou t him and brother John trying to farm on 20 acres. Tod a y the Locke HillCommunity is inside the city of San Anto ni o, but at that time it was 10 miles from the city. Th e Loc ke Hill Cemetery, is still being used. Today it is a t th e corner ofFredricksburg and Hubner roads. When Rut h die d on 6 May 1877, she wasburied there. John Hardin L acey , LewisEMadison Lacey, and little CarrollEScott Vince nz,wh o died while visiting from Illinois, are also burie d there . Ruth is the only one of the family with as heads tone. Wh at was the attraction ofGillespie County to so ma ny of th e Laceys and other families? One large attractio n was Morr is Ranch, located in the southwestern part of t he county . In its heyday, it was the largest breeding an d trainin g facility for thoroughbred racehorses in the St ate of Tex as, and the second largest in the United States . Francis M orris, a wealthy breeder and trainer of thorou ghbreds in Ne w York and Maryland, purchased the original 3 5 sections o f the Ranch for 25 cents an acre fromDavid, J ohn and Rufu s Leavitt of New York on 18 February 1856. Th e Morris Ranc h was a self-contained community with a two-s tory frame hou se for the manager, a rock church-schoolhous e on a hillcres t, and the Hill Crest Cemetery next to it ,which is still b eing used. RosannaEEngland Lacey, wife o f AsaEPhelps Lacey , is buried there with her daughter Cynt hia Lacey Lee and h er family. It also had a large jocke y house and 17 hors e barns, a hotel and a general store, w ith a postoffice an d drug store in it. In the ensuing ye ars, he sold 9 sectio ns to various people. By the 1890Os , the antitrust racin g laws in the state had crippled th e race horse industry i n Texas. The large majority of th e ranch was put on thema rket and sold to individuals . A smaller portion continue d to operatted as a breedin g and training facility until 19 45. Elijah shows up in th e 1880 census in Gonzales County , Texas.. Why he went an d exactly where he went is unknown . Inan old Bible in th e possession of a descendant, Mrs . Grace E .Lacey McCandle ss, a great granddaughter, a notat ion appears to the effec t that Elijah died in 1885 in India na, after which comes t he word "India" or "Indio". A searc h was madeby HubertEW esley Lacey in the death records of I ndianapolis, to no av ail. At the time of his death, ther e was a small railroa d stop by the name of Indio in the Cou nty of Fountain, Ind ., and he checked there also, without s uccess.Descendan t of Magan Charta Surety 1215

GEDCOM Note

GEDCOM Source

Tim LaFaver LaFaver-Lacy Web Site <p>MyHeritage family tree</p><p>Family site: LaFaver-Lacy Web Site</p>Family tree: 12636431-11 Discovery 12636431-11 MH:S500246

GEDCOM Source

Elijah Rev de Lacey 3 24 APR 2016 Added via a Smart Match