FROM MAINE TO MISSOURI: MY JOHN LIBBY FAMILY LINE

The St. Louis Gateway Arch

In the 1850s, St. Louis, Missouri stood as the nation’s Gateway to the West. From this port city on the Mississippi River near its confluence with the westbound Missouri River, pioneers converged from north and south to seek their destiny, and commerce boomed.

Ferries shuttled passengers across the river into the city where they could make their arrangements for travel into the Great Plains, the Mountains or to Oregon. St. Louis became so synonymous with the movement, its most famous landmark today is a 630-foot arch acknowledging the city’s legacy as the Gateway to the West. Completed in 1965, it ranks as the tallest memorial in the country and the tallest stainless-steel monument in the world.

While many traveled on, some sought their fortune instead in the city. One of those was my 2nd Great-Grandfather Joseph Clement Libby (1831-1902). He came from Maine in 1853 to open a general store with his wife, my 2nd Great-Grandmother Abbie Jane Ripley (1833-1873?). Their infant son—my Great-Grandfather Henry Augustus Libby (1852-1913)—remained behind in Maine where he would live with his grandparents until 1865 when he would join his parents in St. Louis.

With this migration south from New England in 1853, one of the primary family lines of my tree would shift location and lay the foundation for merging my New England Puritan and Mayflower ancestral line with lines from Virginia—including Jamestown—through Tennessee and Kentucky. That move to St. Louis by 2GG Joseph Libby ultimately would have significant ramifications for me, born 94 years later in St. Louis. And my research into Joseph’s life in 2019 would create a mystery about his death that took me a year to solve.

But Joseph’s Libby family story begins much earlier and descends through numerous male Libbys who left their marks on Maine before he shifted focus to Missouri. This post is part of my series to document and provide context for all the research I have completed in identifying the numerous limbs on my family tree.

In previous posts, I’ve detailed the travels and challenges faced by my Mayflower ancestors arriving in 1620 in Massachusetts as well as my Puritan ancestors who followed them a decade later.

Now I will share the stories I have learned about another primary family line from New England, stories that begin with the arrival of my 8th Great-Grandfather John Libby (1602-1682), also known reverently in Libby family circles as “The Immigrant” and “The Patriarch.”

AMERICA’S FIRST INDUSTRY: A “COD FISH ARISTOCRACY”

This 1738 engraving depicts the cod fishing industry of the era.

Unlike my other immigrant ancestors who arrived in New England uncertain of what they might find in Massachusetts, my 8GG John Libby and his companions aboard the Hercules in 1636 knew exactly what they would find. They were commercial fishermen from England well aware of the bounty available along North America’s Atlantic coast. Long before colonists had arrived to farm the lands, European fishing boats had spread out around the Grand Banks to the north and returned home with tales of the fishing bonanza they had sampled.

Thanks to the confluence of the warm Gulf Stream arriving from the south to merge with the cold waters of the Labrador Current, the North Atlantic offers a vital, nutrient-rich environment for a wide variety of sea life. Indeed, the explorer John Cabot reported in 1497 he found the cod so plentiful he could scoop them into baskets.

Located to the east, the Grand Banks allowed Europeans the chance to fish those waters closer to their homes. As colonists pushed further west, however, they quickly discovered another arm of the Atlantic benefitting from that same environment in the Gulf of Maine, which stretches from Cape Cod to Canada.

Boasting a surface area of 36,000 square miles, the Gulf of Maine covers a seabed bounded to the south and east by underwater banks. More than 16 freshwater rivers drain into the Gulf of Maine where the cold waters, extreme tidal mixing and diverse seabed create one of the most productive marine environments in the North Atlantic with a habitat for more than 3,000 species of marine life and birds.

French expeditions first sought to establish outposts on the Gulf of Maine followed by an English effort as early as 1607—the same year the English founded Jamestown in Virginia. Once the Pilgrims established a successful colony in 1620 at Plymouth and the Puritan Great Migration began, commercial fishing interests in England quickly assessed their opportunities in the region.

Fishing stations popped up along the coast of Maine on the islands of Monhegan, Damariscove, Southport and Matinicus, writes Capt. Jeff Werner in a 2016 article about the history of Maine’s cod fishing industry for the Marine Life web site.

“Initially, the British colonists fished in small boats that took to sea in the morning to find the cod that swam close to shore to spawn,” the article continues. “The fishermen used hooks, lines and sinkers to land their catch, and they returned home each night. Once ashore this cod was salted and preserved, and as with any foodstuff, they produced differing grades of quality for sale.”

This engraving was published in a newspaper in 1865.

As the region grew, a triangular trade developed with salted cod shipped to Europe and exchanged for wine and other goods desired in the West Indies. In turn, shippers traded those goods for sugar, molasses (for making rum), cotton, tobacco and salt needed in New England. Then the trading triangle started all over again, according to Werner.

“The importance to Great Britain of the cod fisheries in their New England colonies was summed up by William Pitt the Elder in a speech before Parliament, in 1763, when he pronounced that cod was ‘British gold.’ In the Massachusetts Colony, families that were enriched from the trade of cod were called the ‘cod fish aristocracy’ and they expressed their wealth by building mansions in their harbor towns,” Werner notes.

He continues: “In the days of schooners, the Maine fishermen started processing the cod aboard their vessel. After the head, entrails and backbone were removed, they were salted and stowed down below. Once the schooner returned to its home port, the cod were salted again, then laid out to air dry on wooden slats called flakes. When dried, they were packed in heavy wooden boxes for export.”

One ambitious cod fish entrepreneur was Robert Trelawny (1598-1643), who secured a land grant in 1631 from the Plymouth Company with his partner Moses Goodyeare for what became the Trelawny Plantation along the coast of Maine.

That grant included Richmond’s Island, off the coast of Cumberland County, where the partners established a trading post designed to launch their fishery business in the Gulf of Maine, according to The Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, published in 1909. They recruited fishermen and managers from their home area of Devonshire in England. Among those recruits came my 34-year-old 8GG John Libby in 1636.

THE IMMIGRANT: JOHN LIBBY IN MAINE

The Libby family likely ranks among the best researched lines in America. There is an active Facebook entry for “Friends of the John Libby Association,” an entity that once distributed newsletters and organized national reunions. The Libbys even use their own unique numbering system for identifying descendants based on birth order from “The Immigrant.” This system was devised and explained in an 1882 book chronicling the Libby family. Researched and written by descendant Charles Thornton Libby and entitled The Libby Family in America 1602-1881, it ranks among the most influential genealogical works ever compiled. 

The book became a primary source in 1909 for The Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine when profiling the Libby family. “Concerning this great family, one of the most numerous in Maine, it was recently stated by one best qualified to know, that he had never known of a criminal or a pauper in it,” the book’s authors note in their introduction to their section on the Libbys.

“Strongly domestic in their nature, the Libbys have been builders and owners of homes where in many instances the same family has resided for generations,” the book continues, noting that the family sent 175 members to fight in the American Revolution and another 256 for the Union during the Civil War.

Despite all this research, however, the identity of the father of The Immigrant John Libby remains a subject for debate. While it’s clear he had two wives, their maiden surnames also remain uncertain. On WikiTree, my 8th Great-Grandmother is listed only as his first wife “Judith (Unknown) Libby,” born about 1615 in Plymouth, Cornwall, England and deceased in 1661 in Scarborough, Maine. Researchers agree they married 27 April 1635 in Cornwall, England, and he did bring her quickly to Maine after immigrating alone for his job with Trelawny & Goodyeare at their trading post on Richmond’s Island. John and Judith would have 12 children, all born in Maine—including my 7th Great-Grandfather Henry Libby (1647-1732).

Reviewing old business and payment records from Trelawny & Goodyeare, historian Charles Thornton Libby concluded that The Immigrant John Libby had worked for the company four years, from the summer of 1635 through the summer of 1639. John was receiving five British pounds per year in cash, wine, brandy and beaver pelts with another sum paid to his wife in England.

 “At Richmond Island off Cape Elizabeth, Robert Trelawny established a fishing and trading post in 1632, and for the next 10 years his son-in-law John Winter managed around 60 Devonshire fishermen working on three-year contracts, along with several farmers, swineherds, traders, artisans, and women domestics,” notes an article on Early Europeans and Fishing posted online at the Maine Historical Society web site. 

Libby and his coworkers at the post took advantage of new technology for preserving fish. Called “dry curing,” the process involved sun-drying on land with periodic applications of salt as opposed to storing the fish in barrels of brine aboard a ship. As a result, the article records, they could establish homes in Maine processing fish for trade instead of constantly moving between the fishing grounds and Europe.

On another genealogical web site, Maryland writer Boyce Thompson included a lengthy profile on The Immigrant John Libby sharing his research of historical documents. After three years of managing Trelawny’s outpost on Richmond’s Island, Thompson writes that Libby sent for his wife and two sons then settled in the village of Scarborough, Maine, where they went on to have 14 more children.

“By 1640, Libby lived as a tenant on land alongside what has since been called the Libby River,” Thompson records. “He did a lot of fishing while waiting to receive his acreage. In 1663, he formally received a grant of land in Scarborough on the banks of the Libby River. Described by history books as a man of energy, he built a house there and divided his time between fishing and agriculture.”

Described as one of Scarborough’s “principal planters,” Libby became the town’s constable in 1664 and his name stands first among the town’s four selectmen in 1669, basically running the place.

Prominently established as a citizen by this time, however, Libby and his family stood on the cusp of dramatic disaster. He was about to become my New England ancestor most seriously affected by the first major war between English colonists and Native Americans.

KING PHILIP’S WAR IN MAINE

Artistic view of an attack in King Philip's War.

Although my Puritan and Pilgrim ancestors in Massachusetts suffered milder consequences from King Philip’s War, John Libby in Maine would lose two sons and most of his property to this conflict that ravaged New England between 1675 and 1678. While colonists had enjoyed relatively peaceful relations with Native Americans during the years of the Puritan Great Migration from 1620 into the middle of the century, there had occurred small conflicts like the Pequot War of 1635. As the English population grew, however, the native tribes in the east experienced competitive pressure that resulted in the outbreak of war in 1675 with the tribes allied under the leadership of a chief named Metacom—known also by his English baptismal name of King Philip.

The war ranked as the Eastern tribes’ last stand against the colonial invasion of New England and included some of the most savage fighting to occur between Americans and natives until the western expansion of the 19th Century. The war destroyed nearly half of New England’s towns and stands as the greatest calamity to hit the Puritans’ New England empire.

It displaced more than 2,300 colonists who fled their farms and homes for sanctuary in urban areas such as Boston. In proportion to New England’s population of about 65,000 at the time, King Philip’s War ranks as history’s bloodiest per capita conflict between Americans and natives. At least 600 colonial fighters died plus thousands of natives. Fighting without aid from any European troops, the New England colonists used this war to develop a military identity that would bolster the tradition of their militias into the days of the American Revolution.

The Black Point garrison in Scarborough, Maine, had served as a key rendezvous point for colonial troops during the war, according to a 2003 article by Sumner Hunnewell published in The Maine Genealogist and reprinted in 2017 on the web site of the Scarborough Historical Society under the title “A Doleful Slaughter Near Black Point.” 

A Maine chieftain named Mogg Hegon led his Wabanaki tribesmen in besieging Scarborough in October of 1676, according to a 2022 article on the web site of The New England Historical Society, Mogg allowed the town’s militia to surrender. The militia then led the townspeople in a flight to Boston, abandoning Scarborough to the natives.

That flight of refugees included my 74-year-old 8GG John Libby and his entire clan, who had lived prosperously near one another in multiple houses on a family compound. Within weeks, however, a group of the refugees decided to return and reclaim the town as the natives dispersed. That group included four of John Libby’s sons, among them my 7th Great-Grandfather Henry Libby.

On 29 June 1677, the four Libby brothers found themselves huddled in the Scarborough garrison at Black Point with about 100 comrades anticipating an attack by the natives while reinforcements arrived in ships offshore.

It was then that the garrison’s leaders made an impulsive decision generally cited as one of the war’s major colonial fiascos. They ordered the men to leave the garrison in an attempt to attack natives in the woods. The result was an ambush that left half of them dead, including Libby brothers 39-year-old James and 38-year-old Samuel.

On 10 July 1677, John Libby petitioned the council in Boston to allow 30-year-old Henry and his 28-year-old brother Anthony to leave the Black Point garrison and join him in reclaiming their land once the natives had left again. The council agreed.

Although Libby had lost eight or nine houses in his compound, he still owned the land. The Libbys chose to rebuild. His 1681 will listed holdings of 209 acres at Black Point in upland, salt marsh and fresh meadow. In 1932, the Libby Association erected a plaque at the Libby Homestead in Scarborough:

John Libby

First Libby Settler on this continent and progenitor of the American Libby Family

Sailed from Plymouth England in Dec 1635, Arrived at Richmond's Island Feb 13, 1636, where he faithfully served his time, three years at the Trelawny Plantation.

He then settled on the Cammock Patent near his public landing place at Anthony's Cove at the outer end of the Old Neck whence after 1663, he removed half a mile N. East and twice built upon this spot where he died in the winter of 1682-83

In King Philip's War he lost all but his plantation, his cattle were killed, his house was burned, and the inhabitants forced to flee. Four of his sons fought in defense; two lost their lives

Erected by the Libby Association, 1932

This chart illustrates my lineage from John Libby:

 

Gn	Name	Spouse	comments
1	John Libby (1602-1682)	Judith (Unknown) (1615-1662)	The Libby family immigrant arrived in 1637.
2	Henry Libby (1647-1732)	Honor Hinkson (1664-1724)
3	Captain John Libby (1700-1767)	Anna Fogg (1718-1755)	He was a land surveyor and militia captain.
4	Stephen Libby (1743-1820)	Margaret Miller (1744-1794)
5	Abner Libby (1766-1843)	Anna Harding (1767-1857)	Anna was a Mayflower descendant.
6	Abner Libby Jr. (1796-1881)	Almira Allen (1805-1862)
7	Joseph Clement Libby (1831-1902)	Abbie Jane Ripley (1833-1870)	Joseph moved the family to Missouri in 1860.
8	Henry Augustus Libby (1852-1913)	Mary Lamburth (1861-1939)	Henry was a baseball player in St. Louis, then a prominent farmer in Pike County, Missouri.
9	Della Libby (1891-1969)	Leslie Wright (1891-1972)
10	Rheva Wright (1918-1981)	Dale Taylor (1921-1984)
11	Gary Dale Taylor (1947-)

 

CREATING A LEGACY IN NEW ENGLAND

My Libby ancestors would continue to live in Maine and Massachusetts for another 171 years after John’s death. Several would enjoy local prominence as officials and businessmen.

After surviving the massacre at Black Point in 1677, my 7GG Henry Libby (1647-1732) was elected selectman in 1686 but then had to flee Scarborough a second time in 1690. From 1688 until 1763, the French formed several alliances with native tribes in a bid to challenge the English for control of New England.

Striking from their stronghold in Canada, French and native forces sparked a series of small wars, known to history as the Frenchand Indian Wars. The last decade of that period (1754-1763) is known as a more formal period called the Seven Years’ War in Europe.

With the French and native allies approaching Scarborough in 1690, Henry fled with my 7th Great-Grandmother Honor Hinkson (1664-1724) and her family to Lynn, Massachusetts, where they stayed until 1702. According to a 1955 history of Scarborough by Dorothy Shaw Libbey, Henry returned in a sloop with a group of refugees. Using the boat for shelter at night, they retrieved tools buried 12 years earlier and built a fort destined to launch another resettlement of Scarborough.

A year later, an army of 500 French and natives laid siege to the fort and tried unsuccessfully to tunnel into the garrison, according to an article posted in 2016 by the Scarborough Historical Society. Despite continued threats from the French and their native allies, Scarborough managed to grow and Henry’s family along with it.

Henry had literally married the girl next door in 1687 with Honor Hinkson living on the plantation adjacent to Immigrant John Libby’s property. Her father, my 8GG Peter Hinkson, had immigrated and joined his brother Phillip in Scarborough a couple of years before Honor’s birth. Henry and Honor had seven children, including my 6th Great-Grandfather Captain John Libby (1700-1767?). 

Born in Lynn while the family lived as refugees from the 1690 flight, this John Libby came to Scarborough as a child when his father returned in 1702, according to The Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine published in 1909. The book describes Captain John as “unusually able and energetic, and repeatedly filled the most important offices in town.”

He received the title captain for his militia service in 1758 when he spent nine months in the last of five expeditions designed to seize the Crown Point fortress from the French at its crucial location on the New York-Vermont border of Lake Champlain. He also worked as a land surveyor.

The Libby family history book provides no date for his death, but it must have occurred after 1766 when his youngest child was born. The Libby book does provide details of Captain John’s death, however, noting that he drowned while fishing in the Nonesuch River despite his reputation as a strong swimmer. His death aroused suspicions of foul play because two companions escaped but nothing was proven.

Captain John married my 6th Great-Grandmother Anna Fogg (1718-1755) in 1738 after the death of his first wife, Mary Goodwin (1707-1738). He had 10 children with Anna, including my 5th Great-Grandfather Stephen Libby (1743-1820), who married my 5th Great-Grandmother Margaret Miller (1744-1794) in 1765. After her death, he moved to Limington, Maine, about 1814 with his son, John Adams Libby (1790-1871). Stephen and Margaret had 11 children including a set of triplets they named George Washington, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.

Stephen apparently moved to Limington to join his eldest son, my 4th Great-Grandfather Abner Libby (1766-1843) who had moved there in 1792. Abner ranks as a significant Libby ancestor for me in more ways than one so he deserves more space in this post. 

SAILOR, BLACKSMITH, MERCHANT, TAVERNKEEPER

Abner Libby was an “all-around man; turned his hand to anything that required his attention and for many years he filled a larger place in the community.”

That’s how The Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine summarized my 4GG’s life in 1909.  After learning more, I conclude he is definitely one of my ancestors who should have passed down a memoir—a good example of the value of writing memoirs for descendants to read. If he did, I haven’t found it. If anyone knows of a diary or a journal of some sort, please share.

Beyond his personal exploits, Abner also provides me with another crucial link to my heritage through his marriage 15 November 1789 to Anna Harding (1767-1757), a descendant of Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins.

Thanks to that union, descendants of Abner and Anna—including me and my children—can claim Mayflower lineage. In 2019 I verified my Mayflower lineage through the Texas branch of the Mayflower Society and received a society identification number. I’m not that impressed with society membership. But I wanted to verify my research. The process took me a year collecting documents and records on the Libbys between Abner and my mother.

As a young man, Abner traveled the world aboard sailing vessels, likely trading everything from lumber and furs in Europe, then down to the Caribbean and back. It seems clear that Abner made his home base in Scarborough where most of his family lived and where he married Anna Harding in 1789. Perhaps his sailing days ended with their marriage.

I can only speculate about his decision fours years later to relocate 25 miles inland to the new village of Limington. But I find it more than coincidental that the village incorporated in 1792—when Abner moved his family there. Limington had been the site of a small trading post from 1668. But the location attracted more attention after the 1773 construction of a mill at the mouth of the Little Ossipee River. The water power there created new industrial opportunities for turning timber into lumber and wood products. But Abner did not move there to work in a mill.

Limington was located in the Ossipee Tract purchased by Maine pioneer Francis Small in 1668 from the natives for two large English blankets, two pounds of powder, four pounds of musket balls, twenty strings of Indian beads and two gallons of rum. A century later, Small’s descendants began reviewing their ancestral lands and became interested in development there, according to the 1984 book Early Families of Limington, Maine by Robert L. Taylor.

Besides creating the village of Limington, Small’s descendants encouraged relatives and neighbors to buy tracts there. By Limington’s 1792 incorporation, one-third of the residents represented Small descendants. At least three of Abner’s uncles preceded him to Limington about 15 years before he arrived. So, it’s not much of a stretch to speculate that Abner merely joined a family migration.

His uncle Aaron Libby (1745-1798) was rumored to have opened the first shop in Limington as a shoemaker. Aaron boasted a reputation as an athlete who performed stunts like standing on his head on the ridgepole of a barn while drinking from a bottle. His family was stricken with fever in 1798 leading to the death of him and his wife.

Another example was Abner’s uncle Philemon Libby (1749-1811) who received a gift of 100 acres in Limington from the grandfather of his wife, Martha Small. Philemon became one of Limington’s first settlers, running an inn there until his death. Another uncle, Jesse Libby (1747-1822) also received land from his wife’s family and became a tavernkeeper. Abner’s brother Henry Libby (1774-1847) moved in 1809 to Limington.

Abner settled in a neighborhood known as Limington Corner on a farm owned by his uncle John Libby and opened a blacksmith shop there, according to family historian Donald Libby in posts on Ancestry.com. In that era, blacksmiths ranked as vital community members and smiths usually spent years in apprenticeships before starting their own businesses. I have found no record of Abner apprenticing as a blacksmith, but he must have done that in Scarborough before moving to Limington.

A colonial blacksmith at work.

He appears to have been one busy fellow. He also opened a general store and ran a tavern in his home, where he also taught the community’s first school. Abner served as Limington’s town clerk from 1798-1800 and selectman from 1794-1802. From 1804-1809 Abner served as town treasurer. In addition, he served as a justice of the peace for 40 years and practiced law, filling a vacuum in that profession.

I’ve found no record of Abner attending college or apprenticing as a lawyer. He must have learned enough from someone. In those days before bar associations regulated the profession, anyone intelligent or articulate enough to impress prospective clients could make a living at it. Abner likely needed more skill to succeed as a blacksmith than he did as a lawyer. But he appears to have mastered both.

Blacksmiths served their communities in a variety of essential ways, making and repairing a range of iron and steel tools. They played a crucial role in providing and maintaining farm equipment like plows, hoes, horseshoes, pots, pans, locks, nails, hammers, axes, chisels, and hardware for carts and carriages as well as military equipment such as swords and musket parts. Taylor’s Limington history book lists the town as home to several blacksmiths so there must have been solid demand for the services.

Abner and my 4GG Anna Harding had nine children, including my 3rd Great-Grandfather Abner Libby Jr. (1796-1881), who followed his father into the blacksmith trade in Limington. Taylor’s Limington history research notes that Abner owned a plot of land known as Libby’s Mountain, rising 875-feet in elevation. He left it to one of his sons, John Billy.

Abner Jr. practiced the trade with his two brothers, Elias Libby (1790-1871) and Stephen Libby (1793-1869). Abner Jr. eventually bought the family blacksmith business and ran it himself until blindness forced retirement in 1871.

Young Abner married my 3rd Great-Grandmother Almira Allen (1805-1862) in 1828 after the death of his first wife, Salome Jackson (1801-1827). Abner Jr. and Almira had seven children, including my 2nd Great-Grandfather Joseph Clement Libby (1831-1902)—the ancestor who would relocate my Libby line from Maine to Missouri.

GATEWAY TO THE WEST AND A CIVIL WAR

St. Louis in 1854

Thanks to a Missouri history book published in 1913, I’ve had access to biographical details about Joseph Clement Libby and his son—my Great-Grandfather Henry Augustus Libby—compiled while both men were still alive. A History of Northeast Missouri in three volumes was part of an ambitious effort by Missouri journalist and educator Walter Williams to record the state’s history by different regions. 

Williams served as editor for reporters who interviewed residents for profiles in the books which covered every aspect of each region from its geology and ancient history to prominent citizens of the late 19th Century. One of those profiles in the section on Pike County covered my Great-Grandfather Augustus Libby and, of course, included background on his dad, my 2GG Joseph Clement Libby.

The book records: “Joseph C. Libby, the father of Henry Augustus, was born in York County, Maine, and was there married to Abbie Jane Ripley, of Saco, Maine, a descendant on both her father's and mother's (Lane) sides of Revolutionary ancestors. Mr. Libby was engaged in a general merchandise business in his native place until 1853, in which year he left for St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife, the children being left in the East.

“In St. Louis he opened a general store, which he conducted up to the outbreak of the Civil War, at which time he became forage inspector for the government and continued as such until the close of hostilities. He subsequently became city weigher of St. Louis, but in 1873 removed to Macoupin County, Illinois.

“He and his wife had a family of six children, as follows: Henry Augustus; Clara. the wife of Joseph Boyer, of Detroit; Joseph, who has been twice married and lives in St. Augustine, Florida; Wallace, a resident of Vandalia, Missouri; Anna Belle, who married Rohert Thompson, and has three children, Quitman, Clara and Abbie; and William, who makes his home at Pine Bluff, Missouri.

“Joseph C. Libby was a Democrat until the nomination of William MeKinley for president, and from that time on voted the Republican ticket. He took a great deal of interest in fraternal work, and was a valued member of the Masonic blue lodge in St. Louis,” according to the book.

Seeking more information about Joseph’s motivation for relocating from Maine to Missouri, I noticed he had an uncle who had died in St. Louis in 1868, John Libby (1803-1868)—a son of Abner Libby and Anna Harding. I can only speculate, but after learning more about my 3rd Great-Granduncle John Libby I must consider the likelihood John helped influence Joseph’s decision to move.

Another John Libby? Fortunately for this post, I can refer to this John Libby as the Reverend John Libby. The Libby book records that this John became a Methodist at the age of 21 and would work as a Methodist preacher the next 15 years. He also lectured on temperance in Maine. Moving to Philadelphia, the Reverend John Libby became a publisher of periodicals titled “The Farmer’s Cabinet” and “The Ladies’ Garland” while also operating a large agricultural warehouse.

After that warehouse burned in 1840, the Reverend John moved to Iowa City, Iowa, to become pastor of a Methodist church. But shortly thereafter, he experienced a new conversion to Christian Universalism, which adopts a view that all believers will receive salvation.

He moved to St. Louis in 1842 and began preaching again while publishing periodicals like “The Mississippi Valley Farmer.” He also embraced the temperance and prohibition movement, producing other periodicals titled “The Gospel of Temperance” and “Youth’s Temperance Educator.”

When he died at age 65 in 1868, The Universalist Register published an obituary noting he had preached with “zeal and efficiency.” The obituary also described him as a “zealous anti-slavery advocate” whose life was animated by the ideas of freedom, temperance and religion.

The Reverend John Libby would have been well-established in St. Louis by 1853 when his nephew, my 2GG Joseph Clement Libby sought to seek his fortune in the dry goods business as that city’s population started to boom. Born 1 March 1831, Joseph married my 2nd Great-Grandmother Abbie Jane Ripley (1833-1880) in the early 1850s. Abbie was the granddaughter of my 4GG Francis Lane (1756-1829), who fought at Bunker Hill and sailed as a privateer in the American Revolution. I wrote about him in an earlier post about my Puritan ancestors.

Before moving to St. Louis, Joseph and Abbie had two children in Maine, including my Great-Grandfather Henry Augustus Libby (1852-1913) and his sister, Clara (1853-1913). They left those two children with their grandfather Abner Jr. while establishing their new home in St. Louis. It is unclear how long they actually remained behind. The 1860 U.S. census lists an 8-year-old Henry living both in the home of Abner Jr. in Maine and with Joseph in St. Louis.

When the Civil War began, Joseph found work in the quartermaster’s department in St. Louis. Not even listed among the nation’s ten largest cities in 1840, St. Louis ranked number eight by 1850 with 77,860 residents and became the first city west of the Mississippi River to crack the top ten.

By 1860 the population had grown to 160,773, still at number eight but larger than Chicago at nine with 112,172. By 1870, St. Louis had climbed to number four with a population of 310,864. It would bounce around in the U.S. rankings between four and five during the rest of the 19th Century and eventually fall from the top ten in 1970.

With Missouri declining to secede and join the confederacy, St. Louis emerged as a crucial hub for union military supply activities. It was home to the St. Louis Arsenal, built in 1827 for the assembly and manufacture of weapons, including the ironclad warships used by the union. While the union blockade of Mississippi River traffic south of the city hurt it economically, Joseph must have been busy in the quartermaster office.

The Army’s Quartermaster Department initially operated its primary procurement depots in Philadelphia, New York and Cincinnati, but quickly added St. Louis, Louisville and Washington D.C. The St. Louis City Directory for 1864 lists Joseph Libby as an employee of the U.S. Commissary. By the 1870 directory, he is listed as one of several public city weighers, working in a key position for a bustling river port.

Reflecting its population growth, St. Louis in the 1870s emerged as a major center for manufacturing and trade. Key industries included iron production, brewing, flour milling and tobacco processing. By 1880 the city would become the nation’s third largest raw cotton market with cotton arriving by rail as well as along the river. The value of goods made in the city increased from $58 million in 1870 to $104 million by 1880, according to the website OldSchoolAmerica.com  Public weighers would have played a crucial role in all that activity, particularly the delivery of raw cotton.

The U.S. Census for 1870 lists Joseph and Abbie living with six children aged from my 19-year-old Great-Grandfather Henry Augustus Libby to their five-year-old youngest child, William J. Libby (1865-1937). But the census fails to record that Abbie at the time was pregnant with twin boys who would be stillborn before the end of the year.

Delivering the bodies of his unnamed, stillborn sons to Bellefountaine Cemetery, Joseph could not predict the confusion that a clerical error would create for me nearly 150 years later. With no names to record on the twins’ grave, the cemetery listed its occupants instead as Joseph and Abbie—giving them both a death date of 1870 on some later genealogical reports and websites, such as Find-A-Grave.com.

While working to verify my Mayflower legacy in 2019, I realized I had to solve this discrepancy. I knew from the Missouri history book and the Libby family book that Joseph had been alive longer than 1870. The Missouri history book reported that Joseph had moved to Macoupin County, Illinois, in 1873, so I started digging.

I paid the St. Louis cemetery to search its records for the 1870 burial certificate of Joseph and Abbie. And, taking a shot in the dark, I requested a copy of Joseph’s death certificate from Macoupin County. I was about to learn how helpful strangers can be when asked to solve genealogical mysteries. While the cemetery bureaucrats were ignoring my letter, I quickly received a response from Macoupin County: A death certificate for Joseph C. Libby, age 71, accidental drowning on 16 September 1902 with burial in Bunker Hill Cemetery.

I now had proof of Joseph’s death in 1902. But, I wondered, who was buried in that grave for Joseph in St. Louis? Frustrated by the Bellefountaine Cemetery’s laggard response and noting that my check for research had cleared its account, I placed a phone call to its office one weekend to inquire on the status. Instead of an official, I reached a cemetery volunteer, a former librarian named Connie who immediately embraced her inner Sherlock Holmes and agreed to research the question: Who’s buried in Joseph’s tomb?

Before long, I had secured a copy of a fascinating cemetery certificate from 1870. It records the death of “twin males” on 29 March 1870 at 1427 North St. from miscarriage at six months gestation. Across the top, someone had written “Joseph C & Abbey J Libby.” Connie surmised that the parents’ names had been scanned when digitizing records in the modern era and listed as the occupants of their sons’ grave.

Efforts to find Abbie’s death certificate drew blanks in St. Louis and Macoupin County. Eager to learn more about Joseph’s move to Illinois and whether it involved Abbie, I returned to mining my research. Census records from 1880 and 1900 proved helpful. But I struck gold when I contacted Martha Lane from the Bunker Hill Cemetery Association in Bunker Hill, Illinois—Joseph’s last stop on his and my Libby family line’s long trek from Maine to Missouri (1636-1902).

The census records confirmed Joseph was living in Illinois with the family of his half-sister, Salome Libby Thomas in 1880 and 1900. Unfortunately, U.S. census records for 1890 remain notoriously unavailable due to a 1921 fire—a situation that has frustrated researchers for decades.

But Martha Lane from the Bunker Hill Cemetery Association answered some questions by telephone in 2019 and mailed me some documents that solved the mystery of Joseph. She explained that the construction of a railroad depot in Bunker Hill had made it possible for many residents to live there and work in St. Louis, just across the Mississippi River. Joseph Libby, however, was listed as a farmer on census records. She confirmed Joseph’s burial in the Bunker Hill Cemetery on 17 September 1902 and mailed an old newspaper article to add context.

“Joseph C. Libby, residing just south of town, was found dead in the creek on his farm Tuesday afternoon. The body was lying face downward in eight inches of water,” reported the Bunker Hill News of Friday, 12 September 1902.

The article said Joseph had gone out to repair a fence. It identified Joseph as a 71-year-old widower and noted: “He was highly respected in this community.” A coroner’s inquest had already delivered a verdict of accidental drowning.

I must speculate that Abbie had died before Joseph moved to Bunker Hill. Perhaps her death triggered his decision to join his sister in Illinois. So far, my efforts to find her death certificate have failed. They had six children including my Great-Grandfather Henry Augustus Libby.

Of Henry, the Missouri history book reported:

“Henry Augustus Libby was born in York county, Maine, January 29, 1852, and there received his education in the public schools. During the next year his parents removed to Missouri, and he went to live with his grandparents, Abner and Clara Elmira Libby, with whom he continued to reside until 1865. In that year he came to Missouri alone, and there became an orderly, although he was still but a lad, and continued to work for the government for seven years.

“During his connection with the United States he was thrown in contact with and personally knew Gen. U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman and Generals Harney, Sheridan and Thomas and he also knew Price, Marmaduke and Jeff Davis of the Confederacy. He was well acquainted with Frank Brownell, who killed Jackson who killed Ellsworth, which was the first legal bloodshed of the war between the states, 1861. 

“Mr. Libby resided at the home of his parents until 1873, when they moved to Macoupin County, Illinois, and he continued to reside in St. Louis for two more years. He then moved to Pike County, right on the Audrain County line, but in 1878 came to his present location, which he leased for five years. At the end of this period, he purchased 200 acres of prairie land for $16.25 per acre, and that he has succeeded in accumulating a handsome and valuable property is shown by the fact that he recently refused $20,000 for his land.

“General farming has occupied the greater part of his attention. But he has also had some success in the breeding of mules. He has made every improvement on the land himself, and has ample reason to take a pardonable degree of pride in what he has accomplished.

“In politics, Mr. Libby is a Republican, and has served as deputy sheriff of Pike County for two years. Fraternally, he is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America, and with his family he attends the Congregational church. Mr. Libby is known as a good farmer and a public-spirited citizen, and as such has the full respect and esteem of a wide circle of acquaintances and appreciative friends.

“He was one of the first ball players that went from St. Louis in a team to play ball in 1869. The Atlantics went to New Orleans and James Stensin of the Missouri Democrat, now Globe Democrat, was manager of the team. Mr. Libby has taken an interest in the national game from its infancy to the present time.

“In August, 1879, in Ralls County, Missouri, Mr. Libby was united in marriage with Miss Mary G. Lamberth. who was born December 14. 1861, the daughter of James and Mary (Irvine) Lamberth. Of their children, nine are living, namely: James A., residing at the home of his parents; Florence, who became the wife of Perry Wheeler and lives in Vandalia, Missouri, having three children; Grace, who became the wife of Ivan Woodson, living near Mr. Libby's home; and Della, Lena, William McKinley, Mark Hanna, Pearl and Minnie, all living at home.”

Curious about Henry’s baseball career, I contacted a St. Louis baseball historian in 2019 to ask if he had any more details about those 1870s ball teams. Jeff Kittel, who was producing a web site about old baseball teams titled “This Game of Games,” found a Libby playing the outfield and sometimes shortstop for the Atlantics in box scores for 1870. Another article listed Henry as the team’s treasurer.

In an email, Kittel told me: “I'd say that your great-grandfather was a hell of a ballplayer.  You weren't the shortstop for the Atlantics in the early-to-mid-1870s without being a good player.  He was good enough to start on a championship quality amateur club during the golden age of amateur baseball in St. Louis. And the fact that he was elected as one of the officers of the club shows that he was a respected member of the club."

A photo of the St. Louis Brown Stockings baseball team.

THE MIDWESTERN MELTING POT: NEW ENGLAND MEETS VIRGINIA

If my 2nd Great-Grandfather Joseph Libby engineered the relocation of my line from Maine to Missouri in 1853, then my Great-Grandfather Henry Augustus Libby would signal that line’s merger with pioneers from the Southern United States by moving from St. Louis to Pike County, Missouri some 20 years later.

All signs indicate he moved to the country as a bachelor in his twenties some time in 1875. Four years later at 27 on 31 August 1879 he married my Great-Grandmother Mary G. “Mollie” Lamburth (1861-1939)—then just 18 years old—in a ceremony at the home of her father, my 2nd Great-Grandfather James M. Lamburth (1833-1912). With that union, Henry merged his New England heritage to a pair of family lines that had come to Missouri in the 1820s from Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee: The Lamburths and the Irvines through Mollie’s mother Mary Ann Irvine (1831-1915).

In his three-volume History of Northeast Missouri, Walter Williams defines the region as the land north of the Missouri River and west of the Mississippi River. Comprised of fertile farm and pasturelands and lush wooded forests, that region would prove attractive to settlers from the upper south following the end of the War of 1812 in 1815.

The land that would become Pike County  borders the Mississippi and had seen limited development at a river town named Louisiana in 1816 as well as the inland towns of Bowling Green and Clarksville in 1819. Pike actually became a county before Missouri gained statehood in 1821, earning status from the territorial legislature in 1818. Over the years the legislature would carve it into other counties in the region where other members of my family lines would live—Ralls, Audrain, Boone and Montgomery.

Pike County in 1875.

Legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone (1734-1820) stimulated the first wave of southern settlement after 1799 when he moved his family to St. Charles, Missouri, for a fresh start after suffering financial and legal troubles in Kentucky. At that time owned by Spain, Missouri boasted the young city of St. Louis on the Mississippi River with St. Charles emerging a few miles west on the Missouri River.  After the United States purchased Missouri as part of Louisiana in 1804, Boone had to fight for recognition of his Spanish land grants. He died in 1820 in Missouri. But his iconic reputation shined a beacon on the place as pioneers from the upper south sought fresh opportunities and prime land to farm.

Early settlers grew wheat, potatoes, flax, cotton, tobacco and corn, which emerged as the primary crop in Northeastern Missouri. They built cabins from logs and hunted game in the woods. Confrontation with native Americans rarely occurred. The census of 1820 found Pike County with a population of 3,747 with that number growing each year until it peaked in 1880 with 26,715.

Mollie and Henry

I’ve found no diary records to explain why my Great-Grandfather Henry Augustus Libby would leave the city of St. Louis in 1875 to become a farmer in Pike County. How did he even learn to farm? And how did he meet the teenage girl who would become my Great-Grandmother Mary “Mollie” Lamburth? That rascal!

But I have found records about Mollie’s parents and particularly her Irvine lineage through profiles of William and Robert Irvine—her mother’s father and grandfather respectively—also included in the History of Northeast Missouri.

Mollie’s dad, James M. Lamburth had been born in Tennessee in 1833 to parents who had migrated from Virginia likely not long before. My best research has identified his father—my 3rd Great-Grandfather as Anderson Lamburth (1802-1878) born in Virginia and died in Pike County. The Lamburth line has proved difficult to trace.

But Mollie’s mother, my 2nd Great-Grandmother Mary Ann Irvine (1834-1915) was the descendant of pioneer royalty in Pike County, if there can be such a thing. Descendants of an Irish couple who emigrated first to Philadelphia about 1730 then spread out to Virginia and Tennessee, Mary Ann Irvine’s father and grandfather moved to Missouri about the same time that Abner Libby Jr. was first learning the blacksmith trade in Limington, Maine.

“Prominent among the pioneers of Pike County was Robert Irvin,” records a History of Pike County written in 1883, dropping the letter “e” from the end of the surname. That profile continues: “He was a native of Kentucky, and was born August 21, 1781. At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Irvin moved to Duck River, Tennessee, where he lived for a number of years, and where he was married to Miss Rachel Hill.”

The History of Northeast Missouri Volume 3 notes Robert came to Pike County in 1818 traveling with my 4th Great-Grandmother Rachel Hill (1783-1818) and their son—my 3rd Great-Grandfather William Irvine then just 14—and three slaves. Their trip was “beset by many hardships” notes the book explaining that Rachel died from the rough trails on horseback just as they neared Pike County. Robert and William buried her in an “Indian fort” near what’s now the village of Troy, Missouri, and continued on.

Robert met an old trapper named Charles Wells who offered to guide the surviving party to a potential homestead near what was called “Sixteen Springs.” Robert found a second wife. The 1883 History of Pike County continues:

“Mr. Irvin bought the land shown him by Mr. Wells, at the first land sale held in the state, and at once commenced to improve it and to arrange conveniences for himself and neighbors. He had some money and much enterprise, and as soon as suitable houses for his family had been provided, he built a saw and grist-mill, a distillery, and a blacksmith shop. This mill is believed by many to have been the second one built in the county. The blacksmith shop was of untold benefit to the early settlers, and the distillery, which supplied the hardy settlers with good whisky at twenty-five cents a gallon, was by some regarded as a sign of the special favor of divine providence.

“Mr. Irvin was one of the first extensive farmers of the county and did much to stimulate others to efforts in the same direction. By his first wife Mr. Irvin had but one child, William Irvin, a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere in this work,” the Pike County History records.

Robert served as a justice of the peace for twenty years, bought and sold large quantities of land in the neighborhood where he resided, and did much to build up the material interests of the county. The History of Northeast Missouri described Robert as a “great hustler” who bought and sold tracts of land and operated a profitable distillery. He died in October 1863.

Meanwhile, despite a lack of formal education, his son William had spent the last 40 years making a name for himself. As a teenager, he gained renown for having killed four bears during their trip from Kentucky and after settlement in Missouri. He moved from Robert’s home in 1823 and settled a western section of Pike County through a government claim on “wild land.”

The History of Northeast Missouri Volume 3 described William as being among the wealthiest in Pike County by the time of his death in 1881, accumulated as a pig farmer. Built in 1836, William’s home was among the largest in the county.

“Although once robbed of thousands of dollars, he had a considerable fortune to leave at his death,” records the History of Northeast Missouri Volume 3—unfortunately without providing any more color about the robbery!

The 1883 History of Pike County notes: “He entered wild land from the government. He was at one time extensively engaged in raising swine, that he fattened on mast; he at one time, in 1820, sold 115 hogs to a Galena, Illinois man, that were driven through to that place on foot. Wolves destroyed for him several young pigs. The old hogs would generally fight for the protection of their young.”

William married Mollie’s mother—my 3rd Great-Grandmother Catherine “Kitty” House (1806-1888)—on 18 January 1827. Born in Kentucky, she had moved to Missouri in 1823 with her father—my 4th Great-Grandfather Nimrod House (1750-1829). Born in North Carolina, Nimrod appears descended from German ancestors who anglicized their name from Haus after immigrating to the American colonies.

The 1870 census finds William and Catherine House Irvine living next door to their daughter Mary Irvine Lamburth with husband James Lamburth in Pike County just a few years before Henry Augustus Libby would bring his New England accent to mingle with the southern drawls that likely distinguished those households when he arrived.

Nearly a century later—one day in April of 1969—I would be standing in a hospital room in Columbia, Missouri, where my 77-year-old grandmother lay dying from complications of diabetes and old age. Della May Libby Wright (1892-1969) had been one of nine children born to Henry Augustus Libby and Mollie Lamburth Libby. At the time of Della’s death, I was in my final semester at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, ready to graduate and begin what would become a 45-year career as a newspaper and magazine writer.

I hadn’t spent much time with my grandparents during my life. Della and her husband Leslie Riggs Wright (1891-1972) had lived on a small farm in Pike County while I was born and raised in St. Louis. We didn’t visit much. But I felt I should visit when I learned she was in the hospital near where I was attending school.

As I stood there in 1969, I had no knowledge of her heritage. My genealogical research efforts would not begin for another 20 years and take another 20 years to complete filling the blanks all the way back to Maine in 1636. I had no idea she represented the final life in my Libby line.

Or, the final life from my New England root system, since her father had been born there. Likely she had no idea or appreciation for that prominence as well.  Her husband, Leslie Riggs Wright (1891-1972) was a descendant of ancestors who emigrated from Scotland to Virginia just before the American Revolution. But the Wrights and other southern family lines will become the subject for another post at a later date.

This post marks the third and last describing my family’s journey from New England across 10 generations. From studying my ancestors aboard the Mayflower, to the Puritans who founded Hingham, Massachusetts, and the Libbys on their trek from Maine to Missouri, I have gained a great appreciation for the challenges and hardships of the past that allowed me to live as I do today. These posts are my way of saying thanks!