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Other Seward, Slayback, and Coudy
Settlers of Early Butler/Hillsboro, IL
By Ted Hine (March 2005, Updated March 2007)
Israel and Margaret Seward are credited with being the
second settlers in what is now Butler Grove Township, Montgomery County,
Illinois. After they arrived in 1819 records show
that many of their close relatives followed them to the Butler/Hillsboro area and
it thus became a place where many of my distant Seward, Slayback, and Coudy
"cousins" settled.
Sewards:
Israel's parents, Col. John and Mary-Butler Seward
either arrived with Israel or followed him from Hamilton County, Ohio and
settled in the Butler/Hillsboro area shortly after their son as they are well
documented as living in the area starting in about 1821. Israel had at
least 3 siblings in the area early on: His sister Harriet Seward
apparently came with Col. John and Mary Seward and married William Brown in
Butler Grove in 1822 (and later moved to Chicago). Israel's brother, John Butler Seward, also arrived with the elder Sewards
and may have had Butler Grove named for him. He owned land in the area, and raised a
large family there before moving to the Chicago area. Israel's sister Martha Maria and her husband George Burnap also settled in the Butler/Hillsboro area and are also believed to
have come from Hamilton County, Ohio (where George and Israel Seward had
first met). George and Martha Burnap are buried in the Oak Grove
Cemetery in Hillsboro not far from the old Seward plot and an number of
generations of their descendents stayed in the area.
Israel's sister Nancy and her second husband Daniel
Seward (her 1st cousin once removed and also a descendent of Obadiah Seward
from a different branch of the family) moved to Hillsboro in the late
1830's. Nancy and Daniel are buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery adjacent
to the Old Seward Plot. Finally, Israel's sister Jane and her second husband James Glenn also lived in
or near Hillsboro but when they may have come to the area is unknown.
It is known that they were there in 1846 when William H. Seward, Israel's
famous 1st cousin, visited Hillsboro and wrote about his numerous cousins
there. Thus 5 of Israel's siblings also would come to live in the
Butler/Hillsboro area.
As I write this in 2005 I have a cousin, Jack A.
Seward, who still lives in Butler Grove Township and directly descends from
Israel Seward through Israel's son George Carson Seward. We've never
met but I drove by his mail box as I entered the Wares Grove Cemetery near
Butler this past June (where his grandparents Jesse James and Frances
Jeannette Seward are buried). Jack's son Jeffrey W. Seward, who
I've also never met, also lives nearby in Butler Grove Township and is my
4th cousin.
Slaybacks:
Several close relatives of Israel's wife, Margaret
Slayback-Seward, also show up in Hillsboro records in it's early history.
Her niece, Sarah "Sally" Slayback (a daughter of Margaret's brother David
Slayback's first marriage to Catherine) lived with Israel and Margaret Seward in Butler for about 6
years starting in the early 1820's. In 1828 she married another early
settler of the Hillsboro area, Benjamin Ware, Jr. Anna Slayback-Wikoff,
another of David Slaybacks daughter's from his first marriage (and a sister
of Sarah) also settled in the Butler/Hillsboro area prior to 1844 when she
and her husband, Benjamin Wikoff obtained a farm 3 miles west of Butler.
In June of 2005 I accidentally ran into Anna's grave in the Ware's Grove
Cemetery several miles north-east of Butler while looking for Coudy
ancestors. A number of generations of Wikoff descendents remained in
the Butler/Hillsboro area and are buried in the Ware's Grove Cemetery.
Also, 3 of Margaret Seward's brothers settled nearby.
Records show that Solomon, David, and John Slayback arrived in the area
early on but exactly when is not known. They likely also relocated
from Hamilton County, Ohio where their parents lived and where Israel Seward
married Margaret. Solomon and David raised families in the Hillsboro
area and John is said to have been a bachelor farmer. After some years
near Hillsboro Solomon Slayback and his family moved to another
Illinois county but David and his family remained in the area.
Apparently David kept a "public house" for travelers which competed with
that of Israel Seward (and therefore also with David's sister Margaret). For
a time there was apparently a "Seward Route" to Springfield and a "Slayback
Route". An 1874
landholding map of Butler Grove Township shows land owned by Crosier
Slayback not far from Seward holdings. Crosier was a son of David Slayback's second marriage to Sarah Peck. Crosier would have been a
half brother of the above mentioned Sarah "Sally" Slayback-Ware.
Coudys: Mathew Coudy and his brother Oliver arrived in Hillsboro about 1835 and apparently built the locally famous Hillsboro Academy building as contractors. Mathew would marry Israel's daughter Mary Seward in 1848 and move to St. Louis shortly thereafter. Oliver married a Hillsboro area woman named Susan Allen in 1839 and the couple had one child, Isabella, born in 1847. Oliver served one term in the Illinois State Senate (1846-1848) before he passed away prior to the 1849 re-marriage of his wife to Judge Edward Y. Rice. (Edward and Susan Rice are buried in Hillsboro's Oak Grove cemetery not far from the old Seward plot.) I've run into an internet genealogy message board message which indicates that Oliver Coudy signed marriage licenses as the Montgomery County, Ill clerk (or perhaps the Hillsboro city clerk) in 1840. Local records show that Oliver Coudy was the postmaster of Hillsboro from 1845 till perhaps 1847. I've attempted to find Oliver Coudy's grave site but have so far been unsuccessful. Hillsboro's Oak Grove Cemetery would be the most likely place to look but cemetery interment records are sketchy. I've checked with both the Oak Grove Cemetery Association, which doesn't amount to much, and the Hillsboro Public Library but neither has been able to provide any records which would indicate that Oliver is or is not buried there. I've walked the older area of Oak Grove most likely to contain his grave (if it is there) near the old Seward plot and a nearby Coudy monument (see below) with no luck though there are numerous gravestones in the area which are no longer readable. The gravestone of Oliver's re-married wife Susan Rice and her second husband Edward Rice is also nearby. In June of 2005 I obtained an index to the graves in Ware's Grove Cemetery which is located a few miles northeast of Butler but there are no Coudys listed on it. As I write this I still suspect that Oliver is buried in the area and that I just haven't found the gravestones yet. Also, it's possible that Oliver's mother, Isabella Coudy, may be buried with or near him. She is not buried with her husband John Coudy in Hancock, MD and Oliver's 1840 Hillsboro area census record suggests that she may have been living with him (by showing a woman of Isabella's age in the household). Other Coudys settled in the area in the mid-to-late 1850's (20 or more years after Mathew and Oliver Coudy arrived). There is a Coudy grave monument in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Hillsboro containing inscriptions for Catharina Coudy (abt. 1801-1863), wife of John Coudy (son of John and Isabella Coudy), and John and Catharina's son Alexander (1823-1864). (John Coudy was the older brother of Mathew and Oliver Coudy.) Catharina, apparently a widow when she arrived in Butler in the mid-to-late 1850's, shows up there in 1860 census records living with her married daughter, Isabella Coudy-Elliott along with some grandchildren. Catharina's son Alexander is also shown living in Butler in 1860 with children from his first marriage and with his second wife, Cornelia Seward-Coudy, a daughter of Israel Seward (who would re-marry shortly after Alexander passed away in 1864). Another of Catharina's sons, Charles B. Coudy appears that year living next door to his uncle Mathew Coudy in St. Louis about 60 miles away.) A 1878 publication titled "Semi-Centenarians of Butler Grove Township, Montgomery County, Ill" shows several Coudys including "Alexander Coudy, Coudy & Mehagen" under the category of "Dry Goods, Grocery, Boot & Shoe merchants". On another page an Alexander Coudy is shown under "Postmasters". A Charles Coudy is listed as a "Grain Merchant" and on another page as a "Carpenter". Unfortunately no dates are given for any of these entries so the listings could have been for anytime prior to 1878. I suspect that the Alexander mentioned was the son of Catharina and that Charles was another of her sons who may have lived in the area for a time (but who shows up in 1860 census records living next door to Mathew Coudy in St. Louis.) 1874 landholding maps of Butler Grove Township show
land parcels separately owned by "Jas. Coudy" (James) and "Alex Coudy" not far from Seward landholdings.
I can't be sure but I suspect that these were sons of Charles B. Coudy (and thus
grandsons of Catharina Coudy) since these are the only Coudys with these first
names that my research shows were alive anywhere in the Butler and/or St. Louis
areas at the time. In 1874 James would have been about 15 years old
and Alexander about 22, perhaps a little young to own land, but they possibly
could have inherited it after their father's 1871 death (who in tern may have
inherited it from his mother, Catharina, when she passed away in 1863).
It's possible that James and Alex may also have been absentee owners as they are
known to have had strong, connections to St. Louis. What with two generations of Sewards, a number of Slaybacks, and the Coudys who all settled in Butler/Hillsboro, Illinois in the early and mid 1800's, I suspect that I likely have many distant cousins still living in the area that descend from these early pioneer families. According the an internet national phone directory in June of 2005, there are currently two Sewards living in the Butler/Hillsboro area, Jack A. Seward (my 3C1R) and his son Jeffery W. Seward (my 4C), both of Butler. No Slaybacks or Coudys are listed. I have, however, run into references to other descendents still in the area with other surnames due to marriage. For additional information on these and other individuals:
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