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John purchased farm land around Bunker Hill. Tax records list three different sales. He married Frances Payne in 1850. The later portion of the decad
e records their move to Texas. John Rightmyre Newcomb (b 10 Mar 1814)Schoharie County, New York was the seventh child of Arnold and Mary/Polly Newcomb. When John moved to Illinois is not recorded. His name first appears in the 1847 tax records. The area of Illinois that he chose to settle was the future home of his brother's son, Lomen/Lumen Newcomb.
Maucopin County is one o
f the three counties south of Springfield the Capitol of Illinois. John settled in the area near Bunker Hill. The small community is located in the southern portion of the county. The 1850 census records John Rightmyre Newcomb's occupation as a farmer from New York. Maucopin County tax records in 1847 indicate that he owned two sections of land, 80 acres and 11 acres, valued at $4.00 and $3.00 per acre. The 1848 tax records verified that John paid taxes on the same parcels of land. The 1855 tax records showed the 80 acres valued at $8.00 with the 11 acres valued at $4.00 an acre. Tax records in 1858 and 1859 recorded an additional 40 acres in John's name with the land valued at $3.00 an acre with the 80 acres valued at $10.00 per acre and the 11 acres remaining at $4.00 per acre.
Illinois state census records listed John Rightmyre, 31, and Frances, 16, at their wedding on November 5, 1850. He was most likely older since is birth date is listed as 1814. The marriage certificate was recorded in Carlinville, Illinois was witnessed and officiated by Enoch Wall, County Clerk a minister of the M. E. Church. Since Frances was underage her brother wrote a consent note for the father giving permission for her to marry.
John and Frances had four children, Sanford (b. 1853), Charles (b. 1855), Sarah (b. 1858), and John (b. 1859). Family tradition believes that the Newcombs made two trips to east Texas to purchase land. Accepting this as correct then Ernest Newcomb, grandson of John and Fanny, memories would be accurate, that the family visited East Texas before the War of the States. During the second trip, Charley's father died. John Rightmyre's death may have occurred on the second return trip from Texas. Records give the place of burial as Brownville, Arkansas, November 10, 1859. Their fourth child, John was apparently born on the second trip to Texas. Fannin County census records of 1870 and 1880 list Texas as John’s birth place and the three older children as Illinois.
Little is known concerning the events during and following John's death. What we know was gleaned from bits and pieces found in census records in Macoupin County, Illinois and Fannin County, Texas. The story continues as Fanny Newcomb starts life anew with her four children. She remarries in 1869, to a gentleman, John Welch.
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