How she traveled around!

That's a bit rhetorical, because I figure she traveled on horseback or in wagons...though possibly she did walk much of her travels through the frontier of the early 19th century.  From Kentucky to Missouri, then Indiana, Illinois and finally Texas, this was a hardy pioneer woman.

Conestoga Wagon

April 13, 1818, Hannah Leak Conn Booth was born in Elks Creek, Shelby County, KY. I number her ancestor (10) back from my grandchildren, so she would be my 4x great grandmother.  Her father was John Thomas Conn, who I spoke about on his birthday April 6, HERE.    

Notice the man on the lazy board, Conestoga Wagons didn't have seats in the front of the wagon as usually thought. The lazy board was where the driver would sit if he didn't want to ride one of the horses or walk.

A farmer's daughter probably, but her father who had been born in VA,  migrated to Kentucky, then Missouri, and finally to Texas where he was buried in Gonzalez County, TX.   Her mother also was born in VA, moved to KY, then MO where she was buried in St. Charles MO. (See Polly Conn's birthday HERE)  

Hannah moved with her parents to MO when she was 8-12 years old (between 1826-30.)  Her mom died in 1833 when Hannah was 14, with 2 older brothers ages 17 and 19, and 5 younger siblings ages 1 to 12.  Hannah as the oldest daughter (at 14) would have suddenly had to take her mother's place in running the family.

Records show her father remarried in 1836 in Salem, Ralls County, MO...but they didn't settle for long there.  The Normans had another child in 1837 born in Gonzalez County, Texas.  So they probably were on the trail while Hannah's step mom was expecting that child.  She had 2 more Norman children in Texas also.


Sometime when Hannah's family moved, either from St. Charles, MO, or from Ralls, MO, she probably moved to live with her mother's older brother, Lemuel Norman, in Indiana.  I don't know if any of the other children moved at the same time, and I'm just guessing about this connection at this time.  She did marry in Indiana, so this might be the link to that geography.  This was my first question about her life, and I don't know that she lived with her uncle as a fact yet.

Uncle Lemuel Norman and his wife, Catherine, lived on one of two headrights of 80 acres each that the US government sold to Lemuel.  This property was in Terre Haute, IN and Crawfordsville, IN in Vigo and Parkes Counties. 

Hannah somehow met William Lewis Booth, an attorney and a widower with 2 small children. They married in Jackson County, Indiana when she was 25, in 1843.  This is a hand written record which even includes the minister's name (available at Ancestry DOT com.)

Not the Booth wedding, but another one in 1850

So we can follow some of her travels with the Booth brothers from there on out.
  
William Booth and his brother Charles M. had   migrated first from western New York state (Farmington, Ontario County) to Indiana and (then in 1849) to Genesee Township, Whiteside, Illinois, to Hempstead, Waller County, Texas, and Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas.  

Present day photos of farm now on Booth homestead, 
"2nd farmhouse north of SW corner of section 22
 on Coleta Rd," Genesee Twp, Whiteside, Illinois

By 1855 William Booth had purchased the land for his home and was living in Hillsboro,Texas. At one point or another he served as a county Judge, and has that title on some of the records.  His obituary actually gives him the title of Colonel, probably an honorific as he was too old to have active duty during the Civil War.

The Booth Family Home, 208 Waco Street, Hillsboro, TX

Hannah and William had 6 children, 4 of whom lived to adulthood.  William and his first wife had had 3 children, 2 of whom lived to adulthood.

Not the Booth family, but one in 1860

Hannah's son, Richard R. Booth was born 23 Sept 1846, in Jackson, Indiana. (He was my great x3 grandfather.  I talk about him HERE.)  

Her second child, Frank, was born in 1848 in Illinois, and died at 19 in Texas.  

The third child, Elizabeth was born in 1850 in Illinois, and died at 15 in Texas.  

Lucinda, "Cinnie" Booth was born in 1854 in Groesbeck, Limestone County, TX and lived to 1920.  

Connie Booth was born next, 1856 in Hillsboro TX, and died there at age 7.  

Annie Booth was born in in the home that still stands in Hillsboro TX, in 1859 and lived until 1948.

Many of the family members seemed to die in January, including Hannah herself, and Frank and Connie and Hannah's mother, Polly.  This was before the days of penicillin.

I think William's family was living in Hempstead, Texas prior to 1880, though he had returned to Hillsboro when he died in 1893. 

Hannah Conn Booth lived until age 64 and died on January 26, 1884 in Hillsboro, TX.

Not Hannah Booth, but an old woman in the 1880s

I am still perusing various grandmother's and relations names to find how she obtained her middle name, Leak. 

I did discover another Hannah Leak Conn who married someone in Texas earlier than when this one moved there, and died before she even lived in Texas.  I wonder if she and my great grand were named after some famous Hannah Leak of the  nineteenth century! 

I am always willing to change my stories as I find original source documents.  Since I can see the hand written marriage certificate in Indiana, I know my great grandmother wasn't the one who married in Texas.  At least I am 99% sure.