My Genealogy Hound

WARD, JONAS. Nearly sixty years ago, when not a railroad ran through the State and not a steamboat plowed the waters of the far west, Jonas Ward, who is well remembered by the older residents of Greene County, accompanied his parents, Richard and Elizabeth Ward, in the year 1821, to the then far western State of Illinois. This trip to the west was made principally down the Ohio, on a flat boat. The other emigrants forming the party were the Morfoot family. The Wards reaching the Mississippi, they crossed the river on the ice. The winter and spring proving unusually serene, making their way over the vast tract known as the American Bottom, the Ward family located on the farm now owned by Charles Ward. Here the family raised their first crop in Illinois; In Greene County were passed the last days of Richard and Elizabeth Ward. Of Jonas, whose fortunes we now follow, it may be said that he, from his earliest years, followed agricultural pursuits from a period of time when the reap hook was the instrument principally in use up to the time when reapers, mowers, and other modern instruments came into general use. There are many interesting passages in the life career of Jonas Ward, could they now be brought to mind. Carrollton was not then laid out for even a hamlet, but one log cabin marking the spot. Flouring mills unknown, he frequently found occasion to go to St. Louis or Alton to lay in his supply of family provisions. As the years rolled by, however, a different state of affairs became manifest, and Mr. Ward was soon on the high road to prosperity. The date of his marriage probably occurred in 1828, to Miss Hester Fry, by whom he had four children: John, who married Miss Emma Davis; Julia, who married Captain William Fry; Alice (deceased), and Richard E., from whom this sketch is obtained. After a long life of usefulness, distinguished by no ordinary energy, the head of the family, an affectionate husband and father, after a life of almost unexampled activity, passed to his reward on the 13th of November, 1877. Mrs. Ward is still living, a resident of Greene County, a most estimable lady, who contributed very materially toward her husband’s prosperity. Richard, who owns the home place, consisting of 240 acres, including the substantial farm residence, married Miss Elizabeth G. Hobson, a daughter of Thomas Hobson, one of the most prominent farmers of Greene County. One child born of this marriage, Alice.