Faded into the Mist of Time
Mariann Musgrave Brownson
Rawls Family page 8
Canady
and Sarah had six children:
William, James, Isham, John Phillips, and Christina Catherine “Katy”.
In 1863, Canady and his
brother James appeared on the Civil Ward draft registration, but were
not called to serve.
By 1870 all the children
except Christina lived at home in Belle Prairie township. Canady and
Sarah had also taken in widower Albert Eiswine and his two sons.
Albert was one of the German immigrants who had voted at Canady's
father Reddick's home in 1832.
Over 140 years passed
with no evidence of what happened to Canady after 1870.
Memories faded, and soon rumors were all that kept his name
alive. Some said he had
“gone to Texas” after his father's death and that he had married a woman
named Ann Wahl, but Canady remained in Hamilton County until the day he
died, still married to Sarah Warfield. The many variation of his names,
and a missing will entry account for the failure of past researchers to
trace him. But further
researches by this writer have found Canady in the probate records of
Hamilton County, IL.
Canady, known to people
as Canna, Carma, Cannon and Kennedy, died at home as Kenneth Rawls on
Dec. 18, 1876. Sarah and her
children asked Sarah's brother-in-law William C. Davis to serve as
administrator of the estate.
W.C. Davis gave his administrator's bond on Mar. 5, 1877; his
witnesses were Canady's children Isham and John P.
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Credit: Hamilton
County Clerk, Hamilton County, IL
The land parcels he owned
were worth $800 and $400 (115 acres total).
Everything else from his two horses to his shaving tools and
clothes was inventoried and found to be worth $277.45.
The family had no cash in the house, but George Hendershott,
treasurer of the local bank, held $11 belonging to Canady.
The “Notes and Accounts” section of the estate appraisal has some
interesting categories describing debtors' credit worthiness with
columns for “good”, “doubtful” and “desperate”.
Truly, people lived a hardscrabble existence.
As Canady's widow, Sarah
was allotted a share of the estate.
Only three categories and amounts were preset by the State of
Illinois: $100 for school
books and family library; $100 for household and kitchen furniture; and
$100 for “Other.” If there
was no “stove and pipe”, the widow was allotted $50.
Everything else, including “Provisions for widow and family for
one year” and “Fuel for the widow and family for three months”, was
determined by the appraisers.
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The balance of the estate
was “released” on Mar. 18, 1879 by Sarah (a legal maneuver that
prevented the sale of the land and belongings), and probate was
completed. Either Canady did
not write a will, or it remains misfiled in the Hamilton County
Courthouse.
In 1880 widow Sarah Rawls
lived with her children John P. and Catherine.
John P. was 27 years old and worked as a laborer to support his
mother and sister. Most of
the United States 1890 Census was
destroyed in a fire, so we don't know if Sarah
was still alive then; but it is likely she died around 1887.
She was not found in the 1900 census.
She and Canady are buried in the Rawls Cemetery, but no markers
remain.