Most Americans were farmers in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Kentucky was originally a Virginia county and included the lands west of the Appalachians. In 1780, it was divided into Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln counties. Kentucky officially became a state on June 1, 1792.
His wife was named Mary Nickell. Mary was born on September 21, 1805 in Augusta County, Virginia. Her parents were Robert Nickell and Eleanor Perry.
Eli and Mary's children included:
George Washington Oxley (1833, married Hannah Cotter)
William Prior Oxley (1834-1875, married Lydia Margaret Westcott).
Robert Fowler Oxley (1836, married Melcina Jane Butler),
Mary Ellen Oxley Cotter (1839, married William Eli Cotter),
Margaret Jane Oxley Robinson (1840, married Adoniram Robinson),
Martha Jane Oxley Neiswanger Bundy (1842, married William Taylor Neiswanger and Albert P. Bundy)
,
Eli Henry Oxley (1843), and
Elizabeth Oxley Byrnes (1849, married John Byrnes/Burns).
In 1840 Eli was in Dearborn County, Indiana. The household consisted of:
a boy under 5 (Will and George)
2 girls under 5 (Margaret & Mary Ellen)
2 boys between 5 and 9
a woman between 30 and 39 (Mary)
a man between 30 and 39 (Eli age 34)
In 1860 they were in Linneus, Linn County, Missouri. The household consisted of Eli H. Oxley age 51, Mary Oxley age 54, Robert Oxley age 24, Martha Oxley age 18, Eli Oxley age 14, and Elizabeth Oxley age 11. Eli was a farmer. Eli, Mary and Robert were born in Kentucky and the others in Indiana.
Their son Eli enlisted in the Civil war and served in the 12th Regiment, Company L of the Missouri Cavalry. He died in 1864 of pneumonia when he was 21 years old at Washington Hospital in Memphis Tennessee. He is buried in the Memphis National Cemetery.
Eli died on September 25, 1870 in Brookfield, Linn County, Missouri.
Mary died on February 9, 1882.
Eli and Mary were laid to rest together in Wesley Chapel Cemeter in Linn County.
Ohio County, Indiana was first created in 1844 from Dearborn County. The county seat is Rising Sun which is in Randolph Township. Ohio County is in southeast Indiana on the Kentucky border. In 1826, the Dearborn County Courthouse burned containing all records.
The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) was an organization of veterans of the Union Army who had served in the Civil War.
from The Elgin Daily News, December 29, 1910, p. 3.
Adoniram Robinson, for many years a printer on The Daily News, died at 6:20 o'clock last evening at the home of his daughter, Mrs. R. J. Brush, 815 Washburn street. Death was due to concussion of the brain, caused by an injury to his head which he sustained in a fall on October 21, when he suffered a slight stroke of apoplexy.
Robinson, who has been retired for a number of years, was at his sister's [sic] home when he was stricken. He had just started to go up stairs and in falling struck his head against a door jamb. Since being injured he had been only semi-conscious.
Adoniram Robinson was born October 27, 1835 in Ohio. He spent his boyhood in his native state, where he was married 53 years ago to Miss Margaret J. Oxley, who died three years ago. He served with an Ohio regiment during the Civil war, being honorably discharged. After returning from the war he lived in Ohio for a time, before going to Browning, Mo., from where he came to Elgin twenty-six years ago.
Religiously Mr. Robinson had been a devoted member of the First Methodist church of this city. Socially he belonged to Veteran Post No. 49, G.A.R., which organization will attend his funeral in a body.
Besides his daughter with whom he lived, Mr. Robinson is survived by four daughters and two sons. They are: William of Chicago, Mrs. Belle Carter of Browning, Mo., Mrs. Emma Switzer of Elgin, Mrs. Henry Caughey, Harvey, Ill., Robert of Houston, Texas, and Mrs. Jennie Fitzpatrick of Bailey, Ill. Three half sisters and a brother, Joseph live in Missouri.
The funeral will be held Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock from the residence of his daughter, Mrs. R.J. Brush, 815 Washburn street. Interment at Bluff City cemetery.
In the Civil War (1861 to 1865) eleven Southern states seceded from the U.S. and formed the Confederate States of America.
