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Wilmer Clark
born in St Marie, Jasper County, Illinois on 17 June 1905 (parents unknown). He died in Los Angeles, Ca on 27 August 1964 and is buried in the US Navy Cemetery at Point Loma, San Diego. Information submitted by his daughter Sharon (Source #72)
Contributed by Linda Kirkham Walton (Source#21)
Trexler 1901 Reunion
Jackson Trexler, Johnson Trexler, Polly Trexler Foster, Rachel Trexler Toland
children of Jonathan Trexler and Rachel Martin
Used with permission of Linda Kirkham Walton
Used with permission of Linda Kirkham Walton
Jonathan Trexler was born in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on
14 Nov 1791. He died 29 Jan 1880 in Wheeler, Illinois. The same grave stone shares information about his wife Rachel
Martin who was born 16 Jun 1794, and died in Dec 1959 or Jan 1860 in North Muddy Township in Jasper County.
Jonathan Trexler moved with his parents Emanuel Trexler and Catherine Camerer (sometimes erroneously read as Cameron),
leaving Pennsylvania to go to Ohio in 1796. In Ohio, Jonathan is listed in 1850 census for Franklin Twp., Jackson
Co. Ohio as a farmer, with real estate valued at $3600. When he moved to Illinois his entire family came, except
for his daughter Catherine who had married Dr. J.B. Johnson of Jackson, Ohio. The Trexlers left Ohio on Oct. 10th
and arrived in Jasper County on Oct. 24th, 1853. Excerpt from a family history written in 1924 by Jonathan's daughter,
Rachel Trexler Toland when she was 84 years old, wrote that at the time of her arrival in Illinois with her parents
and siblings, there were only 2 houses between Thomas Foster's house (near Wheeler) and Newton. Thomas Foster had
arrived in 1852. Foster's land is where Central Illinois Electric's Newton Substation power plant now sits. Thomas
Foster was Jonathan Trexler's son-in-law, being married to his daughter Mary "Polly" Trexler.
Jonathan Trexler served in the War of 1812, in Cpt. John Lindsay's Compnay, 2nd Regiment, Ohio Militia. He enlisted
at Jackson and was discharged at Chillicothe, Ohio (Pension cert. # 23665). He was allowed 40 acres of land (warrant
#8316) and 120 acres (warrent #66324).
Rachel Trexler Toland described her father Jonathan as a small man, always smooth shaven, and in later years had
beautiful snow-white hair. He was quick and light on his feet, and was known around Chillicothe, Jackson and Portsmouth
as an expert in fancy dancing, "cutting the pigeon's wing", etc. After moving to Illinois he raised saddle
horses. He always rode a fast horse. At 84 years of age, "He would put his foot in the stirrup and light in
the saddle, lifting his horse into a gallop and be on his way home."
He is listed in DAR application #334664, F832.5, D238l, v.2; in "Counties of Cumberland, Jasper and Richland,
Illinois."
Rachel Martin's birth place is listed in various records as:
... PENNSYLVANIA - Birth place listed as Pennsylvania on 1850 census of Franklin Twp., Jackson
Co. OH. She
was 56 years old, and may not have been the one who answered the census questions.
... OHIO, DAR application #334664, F832.5, D238L, v. 2 states Rachel was born in Jackson Co. Ohio
... KENTUCKY - "History of Counties of Effingham, Jasper and Richland, Illinois" states she was born
in Kentucky
Kentucky had become a state just 2 years before Rachel's birth. Before then, it was part of Virginia.
... WEST VIRGINIA - was formerly a part of Virginia. However, West Virginia wasn't formed until the time of the
Civil
War, and Rachel was already in middle age before the beginning of the war.
...VIRGINIA
It's possible for several of these places to be the same place, depending
on the frame of reference of the researcher. However, it is extremely unlikely that she was born in Ohio. The Martins
and Everly's (Rachel's mother's family) were iron-working families and are placed geographically in Hampshire County,
Virginia (WV) before her birth where there were iron furnaces. It is likely that she was born near Morgantown --
a place that is now in West Virginia that is a stone's throw away from Maryland, Pennsylvania, old Virginia, and
Ohio.
Rachel is mentioned as the wife of Jonathan Trexler, heir at law of his deceased father Emanuel Trexler in Mercer
Co., Ohio in 1840 in a quit claim for Emanuel's Chillicothe land in Jackson Co. Ohio, conveyed to John Jacobs.
She and her sisters-in-law Harriet Mercer Trexler, Hanna Trexler Mercer, and Catherine Trexler Johnson were questioned
separately from their husbands by Daniel Perry, Justice of the Peace for acknowledgement that their personal decisions
regarding the quit claim were made freely and voluntarily.
Family Bible shows Rachel's date of death as a January date and her gravestone has a December date. She is listed
as 64 years, 7 months and 13 days. She is reputed to have been the first person buried in the new burying ground
which was named the Trexler Cemetery. Across the front pedestrian entrance is a wrought-iron gate with the name
Trexler hung above it. Rachel's and Jonathan's graves are not far from this gate. The 1860 Mortality Schedules
for Jasper County, Illinois gives the cause of Rachel's death as "old age".
Per the US Bureau of Land Managment, Jonathan Trexler's Illinois land:
Name: JONATHAN TREXLER
Date: 10 May 1853
Location: Jasper County, Illinois
Document #: 18836
Serial #: IL2760-.160
Sale Type: CASH ENTRY SALE
Acres: 40.0
Meridian or Watershed: 3rd PM
Parcel: Township 6N, Range 8E, Section 14