Hello
There was a Ellen Spicer in Versaille Illinois (sometime in 1900's) who
was somehow related to the Swishers and Caves family of Adams County,
Illinois. This Ellen had three children: Leo Spicer, Violet Spicer and Loyd
Spicer.
In my continued effort to find out information for my mother, on my
mother's grandparents, Merit Cave and Jenny Swisher, I am having to search in
many locations. This is the result of the Caves family moving back and forth,
between several states. My mother's own brother James Martin Caves, better
known as Martin Cave, has moved back and forth between Illinois and
California repeatedly. Because of the fact the entire family appears to go
by both first and middle names, moving many times, it is extremely difficult
to follow the information.
My grandfather, Martie Caves had a sister, (possibly named Mattie) who
resided in Ottomwa Iowa in or about 1951. Martie Caves had a brother Bert
Caves who resided in Havanna Illinois, as well as Ottomwa Iowa and Quincy
Illinoiswho was a reknowned gambler, and who lived in Pekin Illinois in a
travel trailor on Mechanic Street at one time. Martie Caves married Beulah
Estella Simmons in 1915 in Knox County, and raised their family in Greenbush,
Warren County, Illinois. Later in life, in or around the late 1940's, Martie
Caves was residing with a woman in Burlington Iowa, at the time of his death
in 1954 from blood clots in his legs while on a train ride back from outwest.
I was born in 1954, so I never knew him at all. Just as my mother before me,
we never knew our grandfather's., so I know what it will mean to my mom to
find out where her grandparents, Merit Cave and Jenny, are buried.
Sarah E. Spicer, daughter of Sirilda Spicer, married Absolum S. Swisher
(A. S. Swisher) and resided on a farm near Kellerville, Adams County,
Illinois. My grandmother Jenny is Absolum S. Swisher's daughter, and it is
believed Jenny is daughter of Sarah E. Spicer due to when Sarah E. Spicer
died. Sarah E. Spicer died in 1872 and is buried on the farm of Absolum S.
Swisher, in what is now the Amen Cemetery, just outside Kellerville, Adams
County, Illinois.
Merit Cave and Jenny Swisher raised a son Charles A. Caves (named after
Charles F. Ashworth), age 2, born in Illinois, but raised in Butler
County/St. Clair County Missouri as in the 1880. Merit Cave, age 8, is in
the 1860 Census with a sister Josephine age 13, being raised by 22 year old
Charles F. Ashworth. Merit Cave is said to have been killed in a forrest
fire in the Mark Twain National Forest. This Charles F. Ashworth had married
a Caves, who I believe is the daughter of Merritt H. Cave who married
Catherine (Kitty) Rush in Monroe County in 1835.
Now, on June 23, 1872, I find a marriage between Meritt Cave and Fannie
Geary in Pettis County, Missouri, but have been unable to find out which
Merit Cave this is.
In the Rock Island Cemetery, there is a Charles Cave, L. E. 374 C ; a
Lucian Cave B 1860 Macoupin Co
that I would be interested in learning more about, since my mother's brother
Ernest (who won't share his genealogy on the family) had years ago told my
mother he went to a Cemetery in Rock Island.
Merit Cave, born abt 1852 and Jenny Swisher gave their children the added
(s) to their last name according to family stories.
Several of the Cave descendants are spread out in California, Kentucky,
Arizona, Illinois, Iowa and elsewhere. Many continue this moving to and fro
between several states. The Cave line that I am working on is one that I
personally believe holds the key to many Cave ancestry lines that are
fragmented and unknown. Because of the areas of Missouri and Southern
Illinois being so back country within those late 1800's and early 1900's that
it is difficult to locate records. Also, in Missouri, from what I am told of
several areas, Cemeteries are even now underwater. So to help many in the
family, besides my mother, I am attempting to communicate and work with as
many surnames as related, to attempt to find evidence of this family history.
I am on disability, making travel and genealogy very expensive for my low
income. But I have and continue to find bits and pieces of the information,
sharing it all here, hoping to find something that leads to finding where
Merit Cave and Jenny are buried.
Thomas W. Rogers