Hello
Regardless which line of the Cave/Caves you research, please, read this.
The Kentucky Cave/Caves from Adair and Monroe Counties in the early
1800's. During anyone's research, have you noticed that Merit H. Cave
married Catherine (Kitty) Rush? The story goes that this Merit Cave went off
to the California Gold Rush and was never heard from again.
What I am on the trail of is his parents and descendants. Within several
counties in Missouri I find the name of Merit Cave/Merrit Cave/Merot Cave,
and found two wifes with the name of Catherine residing with Cave children,
but no husband on the Census. There are a couple of marriages in Missouri by
individuals named Merit Cave. But nobody knows anything about this line, or
is not talking. Records of that area are very elusive which makes matters
even worse.
In the 1860 Census of Missouri and again in the 1880 Census of Missouri
in Butler and St. Clair Counties, I find my great grandfather Merit Cave, who
I suspect is a child of Merit Cave and Catherine (Kitty) Rush. Merit Cave
is residing with his older sister Josphine, and Charles Ashworth in 1860. By
1880 Merit Cave is residing with his wife Jenny and his son Charles A. Caves
(named after Charles Ashworth the man who raised his father Merit), age 2,
born in Illinois, living in St. Clair County or Butler Co., Missouri. Where
Merit and Jenny are buried is a mystery. I've looked in Missouri, Kentucky,
Illinois and Iowa, then, even going to California since some descendants
ended up in California. But nothing can be found.
I believe that the Caves name came in when Merit Cave and Jenny gave
their children the added "S" to their names. I also believe that there were
Caves in Rock Island Illinois, Knox County, Illinois, Adams County Illinois,
Burlington Iowa, Brown County, Illinois and in St. Louis that all are
related. Within these individuals I am finding that the Caves name was
mispelled as Carr, misleading birthdates were given to clerks and names
middle names were used on documents. It is a real mess.
The one man who could help me, Ernest Caves of Galesburg Illinois,
appears entirely unwilling to share his 40 years of genealogy efforts with
what he considers is a non Caves individual, namely me. Even though my mom
is his sister, but he won't even give the information to my mother, his own
sister, because she is now a Rogers, no longer a Caves. He won't tell his
sister where their grandparents are buried, even though he knows a great deal
more than that, and is said to even have photo's of them, which we don't due
to a fire in the childhood home of my mother.
I'm on disability, on limited income, and working diligently to learn
something about these Caves for my mother, as well as myself. I only
recently, finally found out where my own grandfather grew up, and the grave
of his grandmother, but I have yet to find anything at all about my
grandfather's parents, Merit Cave and Jenny. The story goes that Merit Cave
died in the Mark Twain National Forrest, and for what ever reason, Jenny left
my grandfather Martie W. Caves with her father Absolum S. Swisher in Adams
County Illinois, on their farm near Kellerville Illinois. Where Jenny went
after that, I have not found even a clue.
All I am asking is that if you are at a Court House, you might watch for
the name of Merit Cave, and Jenny Swisher as being parents of children,
marriages or death records. I believe that somewhere in Missouri, Kentucky,
Iowa, or Illinois, in some elusive file, this information must exist.
Possibly in Havanna, Quincy, Timewell, Camp Point, Kellerville or Mt.
Sterling, Illinois, Burlington Iowa, Adams or Brown County Illinois, St.
Clair Missouri, Butler County, Missouri, Adair Co., or Monroe County
Kentucky,
some record is buried that might be found to help us. I've been trying to
make phone calls to living Cave/Caves individuals in many areas, hoping to
stumble blindly into a tid bit of information, but it is expensive this
genealogy, and being on disability it is difficult financially.
Well, now that I have bent your ear, this frustrated researcher will see
if I can get my day started.
Thomas W. Rogers