Meet John Fourth born child of Alexander and Elizabeth
Before moving forward on this vast McIntyre journey, there were several of Andrew’s siblings that should be remembered. Abigail has already been discussed in a previous post here https://macintyrejourneys.com/meet-the-family-of-abigail-and-robert-lisle/ however Andrew also had four younger brothers whose stories require telling. All of Alexander and Elizabeth’s children were born in the new country, the children of immigrants from a starkly different land. They experienced relocation, rebuilding, death of siblings and later the sudden death of their father. Andrew, as the oldest surviving male child, stepped up to manage his mother’s affairs, and guide his younger siblings in finding their way. The boys were John, Richard, Alexander and Isaac and sisters, Rebecca and Edith.
John and Henrietta
John was born in Pennsylvania, before the family moved further west to Ohio. Born a few days before Christmas on Dec 22, 1801, he joined his two older siblings, Abigail and Andrew. His eldest brother, also named Andrew had passed away in 1792. A little sister, Rebecca was born soon after John, sometime in 1802. As Jane described in her second letter to Martin, Rebecca “died in her chair age 15. She screamed and said someone had hit her on the head with a hammer”. What a frightening experience to witness! In 1804, a third daughter, Edith was born. Again, from the same letter of our “super family historian” Jane McIntire, she states “Edith never married, was a cripple, died at her home at Thorntown, Ind. (with) Alex at the old home in Ohio where him and Edith had always lived”. More on Edith under the discussion of Alexander below. Isaac, John’s youngest sibling was born in 1812, and according to family history including Jane’s second letter, he suffered from epilepsy. Sadly he fell into the fireplace and succumbed to his injuries when he was quite young. How horrifying that must have been.
Henrietta was the third child born to a family of eleven children. Her father Elijah (spelled Eligah on his tombstone) served in the Revolutionary War, receiving a pension and Bounty Land Warrant for his service. He was born in West Virginia but according to Ancestry, he received a military pension from the U.S. government between 1820 and 1842, with payments processed through the Ohio pension office. The pension ledger records his residence in Ohio during this period. This record appears in the Ledgers of Payments maintained by the Office of the Third Auditor of the Treasury, documenting pensioners under acts passed between 1818 and 1858″. The United States Census of 1830 shows him and his family of 13 living in Clear Creek, Ohio. Henrietta appears to be the only child of Elijah and Mary Baxter Hedges born in West Virginia. The rest of her siblings were born in Ohio.
After John’s traumatic childhood, he found and married the love of his life, Henrietta Hedges. The couple married on December 22, 1831. From this union they had four children, Jemima born in 1832, Truman in 1834, John in 1835 and Rachel Ann in 1837. John was a farmer in the same area where his parents Alexander and Elizabeth settled in Clear Creek, Fairfield, Ohio. John passed away in 1843 leaving Henrietta to manage to family and the farm. According to the United States 1850 Census, their son Truman, age 16 is indicated as “Farmer” under the occupation. Apparently he was capable of taking on that responsibility! Their eldest daughter Jemima was 17, brother John 14 and Rachel 13. Henrietta also had her late husband’s brother Alexander living in the adjacent property with his wife Edith and their two daughters Nancy, age 16 and Elizabeth, age 12. All of these children were no doubt busy with chores on their respective farms, taking some of the burden off of Henrietta. She was a strong woman of character and vitality, facing the many challenges of raising her children, managing the farm and then relocating to Seven Hickory, Coles County, Illinois before the 1860’s census. Her sons Truman and John were also living on the farm. Rachel and her husband Jacob Linder, married in 1860 were living nearby.
The following biographical entry in a book titled Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, History of Coles County, edited by Charles Edward Wilson, Chapter XI” and published in 1906 describes Henrietta and her family after the death of John:
LINDER, Mrs. Rachel A., Charleston, Ill., was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, July 7, 1837, the daughter of John and Henrietta McIntyre, natives of Pennsylvania and Virginia. John McIntyre, the father, now deceased, was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1800, the son of Alexander and Elizabeth (McBride) Mclntyre, being the fifth in a family of seven children. He received a good education for that day, and then moved to Ohio and began farming. He was married in Lancaster, Fairfield County, to Henrietta Hedges, and there died in 1843. His widow came to Coles County in 1857, and with her children settled on a farm in Seven Hickory Township. Mrs. McIntyre, who was born in 1810, is yet living (1905) at the age of ninety-five years. She is the owner of an eighty-acre farm, but since 1877 has made her home with a daughter, moving in 1882 to Charleston. In 1882, leaving a tenant upon the farm they removed to Charleston. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Of her children. Jemima (deceased in 1864) became the wife of George Whitsel; Truman (deceased in 1873) was a farmer; John (deceased in 1864) was likewise an agriculturist; and Rachel Ann is now the widow of Jacob Linder.
Jacob Linder, the husband of the subject of this sketch, was born January 6, 1836, and died June 7, 1887. Mr. and Mrs. Linder were married in Charleston Township, May 31, 1860, and five children were born in this home, four of whom died in infancy, the surviving child being Minnie, wife of J. F. Clark, of Danville, Ill. Mrs. Rachel Linder owns two farms in Coles County, but resides in Charleston, where the aged mother, Mrs. Mclntyre, makes her home with her.
The above article only mentions that her children, Jemima, Truman and John had passed away. What was likely the most difficult battle she encountered was the relentless effort to acquire justice and compensation for her son John’s death and suffering from the Civil War. John was a Sergeant in Company A, 143rd Regiment, Illinois Infantry. John became sick and was hospitalized in Helena, Arkansas while still a Private, Company B with intermittent fever in January, 1864. By September he entered into Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri with intermittent fever. He was discharged from service on September 25th. The records from Helena, Arkansas from April 28 to September 2, 1864 furnished no evidence in the case and no records of the Regiment on file. These documents may be found in the Documents Section of this website marked John McIntyre, Civil War Pension by clicking the link below.
