Newspaper Clippings - List of Letters

For anyone who may be interested, the Canton (Illinois) Weekly Register in the mid 1800’s was not a “newsy” newspaper as far as genealogy is concerned. There isn’t much social news. I did an inter-library loan from the Abraham Lincoln Library in Springfield and for $5.00 I received 3 rolls of microfilm, all of the Canton Weekly Register from 1850 through about 1872.  I did my best to look at all of it, but so much of the ink was so faded the pages could hardly be read at all. 

I was hoping to find a mention of the marriage of John McGrath and Rachel Jane Simmons, telling where they went to get hitched.  I was also hoping to find mentions of the deaths of Ruth Webb, her daughter Mary Rosilla Davee, and possibly Rosilla Mills or Lebius Simmons.  ANY mention of any of those people or their families would have been great to find.  What did I get?

One name in a List of Letters.

From the Canton Weekly Register, December 21, 1863 (as near as I can decipher):

LIST OF LETTERS

REMAINING in the Post Office at Canton, Ill., on 21st of December, 1863, which, if not called for by the 28th of December, 1863, will be sent to the Dead Letter Office:

Alletal, Isaac                                         Ferrer, E A Mrs
Akin, E M Hutton, Henderson
Burton, A Kent, Geo N
Black, Anson                                        Krifflas, J F
Bailey, B B                                           Kline, J
Copple, David                                      Laurt, Saline Miss
Copple, Syntha Laman, Seman
Clawson, J A                                        Murphy, Wm H
Campbell, N                                         Myres, Mary Miss
Case, Ambrose Mallait, Ralitino
Connelly, Geo                                      Oakley, Daniel
Cantlon, Mary Miss Powell, Jos
Chaffin, Wm                                        Rowe, Ferrington
Dempsey, James Simlet, Alex R
Davee, James 2                   Shaworose, Edward A
Dwell, Wm Smith, Evaline Miss
Davee, Mary R Mrs Schmitt, Anna
Estell, Andrew B Webster, James
Eichelberger, Harry Weaver, Thomas L
Fage, Dwight                                      Wind, Margaret Miss
Francis, T H                                         J P C 2

Persons calling for the above letters, will please say they are advertised.  C. BIDAMON, P. M.

It was nearly Christmas - were they all Christmas cards? Sure wish I knew who the mail was from.  I need to find a death date for Mary R Davee, and this would have helped if it was from a paper after November of 1864, when I know that Mary had a son. But this does tell me that they still lived in Canton in 1863. James, her husband who also has a letter to pick up, remarried in July of 1865 in Jasper county. So I wasn't sure where they had lived, this tells me that they were in Canton not Jasper county, at least in 1863. Mary Rosilla Davee possibly died and is buried there in Canton.

After spending as much time at the library as I could in the three weeks the films were there, this list of letters doesn't do much for me. Maybe it will be of more use to someone else. 

My Relationship to:

Ruth Smith Simmons Webb: Third Great Grandmother

The lineage:
1. My Third Great Great Grandparents Ruth Smith & Lebius Simmons
2. My Great Great Grandmother Rachel Jane Simmons, her sister is Mary Rosilla Simmons
3. My Great Grandpa Arthur McGrath
4. My Grandma
5. My Mom
6. Me