jeffery

THE BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN MILLIGAN II

Arkansas Genealogy Trails

THE JAMES AND JANE (MASON) JEFFERY FAMILY

We first encounter the James Jeffery Family on their life-long migration to Reeds Creek, in North Carolina with the birth of Jehoiada Jeffery, Aug. 10, 1790. When he was 8 or 9 years of age, James and Jane Jeffery picked up and crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains into Tennessee and settled for a time in the Knoxville, Tennessee area. This is where Eda Jeffery was born in 1799/1800. They lived here in Knoxville for a few years and moved on in 1808, where we find them in Christian County, Kentucky, Hopkinsville area. They didn't remain here for very long either and moved again to Union County, Illinois in 1811. They were living here on 11 Dec 1811 when the New Madrid Earthquake struck along the Mississippi River; 86 miles to the south of where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi. They don't stay in Illinois long after the earthquake and unfortunately we find them moving again. They crossed the Mississippi and traveled a few miles south and settled in the small river front town of Tywopity, Missouri. They actually moved closer to the epicenter of the earthquake. As earthquakes have the characteristics of doing, there were aftershocks that took place in the following years: two of significant note in 1812 and two more of significant note in 1813. The Jeffery family remained here though and after 1813 everyone in this area could live a more normal life. The aftershocks stopped and people didn't have to worry about the chimneys toppling over anymore. The springs in the area still had the foul taste of sulfur in them and occasionally there was still the release of sulfur into the air but on the whole, things were getting back to normal. Then in 1816 we find the James Jeffery family moving again. They pulled up stakes and traveled south and eventually settled in the Reeds Creek area of Old Lawrence County, Missouri Territory. James Jeffery set up his homestead here. Jehoiada Jeffery, being 10 years Eda's senior, moved on westward and set up his own homestead just north of Batesville about 5 miles or so. This would later become the community of Mt. Olive. As for the James Jeffery family however they would remain in Reeds Creek for the next 5 to 6 years. We don't know exactly why the Jeffery family moved so much from place to place. I personally believe the stories handed down within my own family by Goldie Bell Milligan that Jane Mason was a Country Doctor like her father. She had been studying "Doctorin" since she was 12 or 13 years old. Stories were also told that she was known to travel 40 to 50 miles to help someone in need or help a woman birth a child. I'll wager that her skills came in handy during the earthquake years in Missouri though.

The Ragsdales