| 3:58:32 PM - Wed, May 30th 2012 |
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| That would be wonderful! His name is Charles S. Dewey, the son of Abner and Cynthia Dewey. According to his obituary in the March 26, 1896 issue of the Kendall County News, he was born Oct. 22, 1845 at Turin, N.Y. He married my great-grandmother, Matilda Ledger at Turin Aug. 9, 1868. He died on a Wednesday morning, March 18, 1896. The March 25, 1896 Kendall County Record notes that he died at Elgin, where he was sent for insanity "several years ago". His body was shipped back to Plano on the March 19 evening train. He is buried at the Little Rock Township Cemetery in Kendall County, Illinois, which I assume is at or near Plano, Ill., because that is where he, his wife Matilda and children were living when she died on December l7, 1883 not long after she gave birth to my grandmother Grace Ruth Dewey. At the time of her death they also had two other young children, Milo C. and Harriet "Hattie" who both had been born at Turin, N.Y. According to the Kendall County Record of Dec. 27, 1883, Matilda died at the home of a D. C. Dewey. An inquest was held concerning her death because she had not yet been buried four days after she died. it was determined that she died of natural causes and Charles was exonerated from all blame. All of this information came to me as a total shock, as despite being close to my grandmother, I knew nothing about her father's mental illness. At the time Charles moved to Plano, he had a brother, Milo C. Dewey and sister, Mary A. Davis who were living there. Sometime after his death, Grandmother said she spent a brief time at an Auora orphanage, then lived with her aunt Mary Davis until she moved to Kansas to live on her own at about age 16. I will be so grateful if you can help me solving the mystery of this family. Thank you!
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