John D. Lee's Birth and Ralph Lee

This is still a work in progress. John D. Lee gave information about himself and his family that was printed in Mormonism Unveiled. At first I had all the information in one blog, but it got WAY too long, so I have split it up into several (8) shorter blogs. John D. Lee's information will be printed in bold additional information will be in regular font.

In Mormonism Unveiled, John D. Lee states the following:

(p. 36) "I was born on the 6th day of September, A.D. 1812, in the town of Kaskaskia, Randolph County, Illinois.

John D. Lee's birth is verified by baptism records from the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Kaskaskia Island. The church is one of the few remaining buildings on Kaskaskia Island, although it is not the building he was baptized in. The new building has been moved from the old city of Kaskaskia which has been washed away by the Mississippi River to the new site since John D. Lee was there.

Copies of the baptism index are on microfiche and are available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. They are non-circulating and are not available at Family History Centers. The original handwritten index does not give his birth date, but states that he is 3 months old when he was baptized on December 20, 1812 with parents Raphael [Lee] and Elizabeth Doyle.
(Add scan)

Microfilm of the original records are available at the Belleville Library in Belleville, Illinois. The original records are available in the Archives of the Diocese in Belleville. Digital copies can also be seen at http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=3;c=1388122;w=403 this will take you to the 1759-1815 Births, Marriages and Deaths of the Church of the Immaculate Conception from Kaskaskia Island in Randolph County, Illlinois. Go to image 216 (p. 280) and John D. Lee's record is in the lower left corner.

The original record, written in French, stated that he was born on September 6, 1812.

Picture of Jean Lie/John Lee's baptism record from Book A, p. 280 of the
Church of the Immaculate Conception in Kaskaskia, Illinois.
Click on the picture to make it bigger.

Another verification of his birth date is probate records for Elizabeth or Eliza Doyle or Lee dated 3 March 1836, stating in the last three lines that John Lee "is twenty one years on the 6th day of September 1833.

Note: You can click on this image to enlarge it

Probate records found in Randolph County, Circuit Court.

My father, Ralph Lee, was born in the State of Virginia.

This has neither been verified nor disproved.

He was of the family of Lees of Revolutionary fame, and was a relative of General Robert E. Lee, of the late war;

Through DNA testing we have discovered that John D. Lee is not related to Robert E. Lee on the paternal side of his family.

In the limited sampling of Lee DNA housed at Ancestry.com, there are currently no good matches between John D. Lee's descendants and any other Lees in the study. We have not given up finding matches with Ralph Lee's DNA. There are other possibilities, for instance Ralph's mother may have been a Lee and he took her name, or Ralph was raised by a Lee family and took their name.

he served his time as an apprentice and learned the carpenter's trade in the city of Baltimore.

Apprenticeship papers for Ralph Lee/Loe were found in December 1785 Orphan Court records in Baltimore, Maryland, stating that he was 17 years old and an orphan. (Click to enlarge)

The legal definition of "orphan" according to Black's Law Dictionary is: "Any person (but particularly a minor or infant) who has lost both (or one) of his or her parents. More particularly a fatherless child" (Black 1252)

Ralph's mother may have still been living, but his father or male guardian was probably dead.

Elizabeth Doyle and John Doyle

My mother was born in Nashville, Tennessee.

This has neither been verified nor disproved. Elizabeth was probably born in Randolph County, Illinois. Elizabeth needed to be old enough to marry Reed by 1805 and have Eliza Virginia in 1806. If Elizabeth were minimally 14 years old when she got married, she would have to be born before 1791. If she got married as early as 1799, as John D. Lee says, she would definitely be born in Randolph County, Illinois, where her parents lived from the time they were married until 1789.

John D. Lee probably got the information for his mother's birth from Charlotte. Charlotte probably was not born in Illinois, but was probably born where ever the Doyles were living after they left Illinois in 1789 and before they returned in 1796. It could have been Nashville, Tennessee, but no proof has been found of the Doyles living there.

She was the daughter of John Doyle,

Joseph Page's deposition states the relationship between John Doyle and his daughter, Eliza or Betsey. See below.

who for many years held the position of Indian Agent over the roving tribes of Indians in southeastern Illinois.

Records stating that John Doyle was an Indian agent have not been found. They are probably in Federal records.

He served in the war of the Revolution,

John Doyle was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. In Randolph County Probate Book A p. 47, is the following: "Joseph Page personally well knew John Doyle a private in the Illinois Regiment under the Command of Colonel George Rogers Clark during the revolutionary war - that his name is on the printed list of said Regiment - he died in this state about fifteen years ago leaving ifsue [issue], Charlotte wife of James Conner and Eliza or Betsey whose first husband was named (blank) Reed by whom she had one daughter Eliza, and whose second husband was Ralph Lee by whom she had one child John D. Lee who have survived her."




and was wounded in one of the many battles in which he took part with the Sons of Liberty against the English oppressors.

No record of John Doyle being wounded has been found. If it were a long-lasting, permanent injury, John D. Lee may have personally known and remembered that about his grandfather.

About (p. 37) the year 1796, he was appointed Indian Agent,

See above comment about Indian Agent.

and moved to Kaskaskia, Illinois.

In 1796 John Doyle and his family returned to Illinois, and moved to Kaskaskia. (See information in blog John Doyle married Chloe Smith.) John and Chloe may have settled on property left to Chloe by her father, Henry Smith, in his will.

Elizabeth Doyle and Oliver Reed

My mother was first married in 1799, to Oliver Reed,

No record of Elizabeth and Oliver Reed's marriage has been found. Their marriage was probably closer to 1805. According to the index record of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady Church, Eugenia Reed was baptized on August 10, 1806. Her parents were Henri Oliver [Reed] and Elizabeth Doyle. (add scan) I believe Eugenia was later called Eliza Virginia. In the 1850 Census of Fayette County, Illinois, Eliza Nichols is shown as being born about 1807.

and lived with him until he was assassinated by a man named Jones, who entered the house when the family were asleep, and striking Reed with a seat of a loom, knocked his brains out, at the same time severely wounding my half-sister, Eliza Virginia, then six months old. The blow and the screams of the child awakened my mother, who sprang from the bed, and recognizing the assassin, said, "For God's sake, Jones, spare my husband's life!" Jones said, "You know me, G-d--n you! you shall tell no tales." With this, he caught up a sugar trough and struck my mother on the head with it. The blow rendered her senseless. Jones, believing he had completed his work of death, then left the house. My mother soon revived, called upon the neighbors for assistance, and told who had committed the murder. Jones was arrested, convicted and afterwards hung for the crime.

I have not found "original" documents verifying this, but many of the early county histories report the murder of Oliver Reed by Emsley Jones. For this crime, Mr. Jones was the first white man hung in Randolph County. From court records it is apparent this was not the first time Mr. Jones was in trouble with the law.

The injuries received by my mother, from the blow struck by Jones, affected her all the rest of her life.

One possible result of head trauma is seizures. Could this be how Elizabeth was "affected" for the rest of her life?

Elizabeth Doyle's marriage to Ralph Lee and children

After the death of Reed, my mother went back to Kaskaskia and lived in her father's family until she married my father in the year 1808.

In the Indiana 1810 census, John Doyle is found in Kaskaskia. His wife is dead. With him are two women who fit the ages of Elizabeth and Charlotte. There are also two young children that fit the ages of Eliza and a male child between the ages of 0 and 5.

R. Lee (probably Ralph) is listed two lines below John Doyle in the same census, showing they were probably fairly close neighbors. Eliza married Ralph on 26 February 1811, not 1808.

Marriage certificate of Ralph Lee and Elizabeth Reed

They were married by the Justice of the Peace, Philip Fouke. The County Clerk in Randolph County has a copy of the original record. When asked where the original records were she said they were in Springfield.

My mother had two children by my father -- that is William Oliver and myself.

Since Ralph and Elizabeth were married on 26 February 1811, it is highly unlikely that John D. Lee had an older brother whose father was Ralph Lee. The earliest William Oliver could be born legitimately would be in December 1811 and Elizabeth would have to get pregnant immediately to have John D. on the 12th of September, 1812. In addition, no child of Ralph and Elizabeth was baptized near this time.

John D. Lee gives three children for his mother, a girl and two boys. In Kaskaskia church records there are three baptisms for children of Elizabeth or Eliza Doyle, a girl and two boys.

In the archives of the Catholic church in Belleville, there was a baptism for a Benjamin Rode, on Jan 29, 1809, with parents Jean/John [Rode] and Elizabeth Daille/Doyle. The child was born the 27th of January.

Baptism record of Benjamin Rode
Digital image can be found at http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=3;c=1388122;w=403
Go to image 208 (p. 267) in the middle of the page.

This is after Oliver Reed is dead and before Elizabeth married Ralph. Of note, in the records of baptisms for her other children it states that she had a legitimate or legal marriage. In this record nothing is stated regarding a marriage. This child would be less than 5 in the 1810 census, which fits with the census information.

My brother, William Oliver, died when about two years old.

William Oliver (ne Benjamin Rode) could die at two years of age (1811) show up on the 1810 census and be dead even before Elizabeth and Ralph marry and definitely before John D. is born.

At the time of my birth my father was considered one of the leading men of that section of country;

Ralph associated with some of the prominent men in Kaskaskia. One of the people with whom he associated was the justice of the peace, Phillip Fouke. At a corner's inquest held June 1810, those listed as being at Phillip Fouke's house on the night of the 8th of June and giving depositions were: Francis Gardner (signed with a mark), Philip Rochblave, Ralph Lee, Isaac Postewaight, William Stringer, John Goings, Samuel Wells, Ju [Jr.], Samuel _____, John Young, Jonathan Sampson, Moses Wooden [Wooten] (signed with a mark), and Frederick Miller. Others attending were John Fleming and James Lee. Ralph Lee came to the Fouke home with Moses Wooden and Francis Gardner(Sapp 28-29).

he was a master workman, sober and attentive to business, prompt and punctual to his engagements.

He contracted largely and carried on a heavy business; he erected a magnificent mansion, for that age and country, on his land adjoining the town of Kaskaskia.

Ralph Lee did purchase property that was not Elizabeth's. This land was in Kaskaskia. It was land previously a part of John Edgar's orchard.

This tract of land was the property of my mother when she married my father.

John Doyle

My grandfather Doyle was a wealthy man.
John Doyle owned 1200 acres of land in the Randolph County area which he sold for $200 in August 1800. I believe the land they lived on was land previously claimed by Henry Smith. This land is now in the channel of the Mississippi River.

He [John Doyle] died in 1809 at Kaskaskia, Illinois, and left his whole fortune to my mother and her sister Charlotte, by will.
John Doyle died in October 1819 intestate according to a deposition by James Conner, his son-in-law.

They being his only children, he divided the property equally between them.

Most of the property Elizabeth and Charlotte owned was land they received from their grandfather, Henry Smith. Elizabeth had received some land as a pre-emption right that was in the American Bottom. John D. Lee sold his mother's American Bottom land before he left Illinois.

Religion and Parents

My father and mother were both Catholics, were raised in that faith;

Interesting that Ralph and Elizabeth didn't get married in the Catholic church but instead, by a Justice of the Peace. Maybe it was because Eliza(beth) had been married before. I'm not sure what the rules about marriage are for Catholics. Apparently Elizabeth and Oliver Reed were not married in the Catholic church and neither were Elizabeth and John Rode. Elizabeth did have all three of her children baptized in the Catholic church within three months of their birth.

We do not know Ralph's religious upbringing.

On Elizabeth's side, her father's family, the Doyles, were Catholic, and her mother's side, the Smiths, were Baptists. In some records, John Doyle is listed as being a prominent Baptist in New Design. I believe that John Doyle was Baptist while his wife was alive, but after she died, went back to being Catholic. Also, the Catholic religion was more prominent in the area since it is an area that was originally settled by the French.

I was christened in that Church. William Morrison and Louise Phillips stood as my representative god-father and god-mother.

John Doyle was baptized in the Catholic church. His god-father was Alexis Buat and his god-mother was Marie-Louise Morrison.

His brother's god father was Benjamin Buat, and there are Buatte decendants still in the area. The pastor during that era was Rev. Donatien Olivier from 1803-1818.

It is from that Church record that I could alone obtain the facts and date that referred to my birth.

It is a good thing John D. Lee knew French. Those records are written in French.

When about one year old, my mother being sick,

Could this be from complications from the blow to her head?

I was sent (p. 38) to a French nurse, a negro woman. At this time my sister Eliza was eleven years old, but young as she was she had to care for my mother and do all the work of the household.

This makes Eliza ten years older than John D., when in actuality, if she is Eugenie, she is only six years older.

To add to the misfortune, my father began to drink heavily and was soon very dissipated; drinking and gambling was his daily occupation.

Ralph may have begun his gambling and drinking before he married Elizabeth. There are two pieces of information that might confirm this. The first clue is from an inquest in 1810 and the second is the list of purchases Ralph Lee charged at Morrison's store in Kaskaskia.

The inquest held on the 8th of June 1810 was on a man who probably died of alcohol poisoning. Copied from the original. Bracketed information added by me for clarity.
Mrs. Fouke states: "This evening after the horse race was over, John Felming (sic) with James Lee and some others came in to her house and was drinking when some moments after[,] Lee Brought her Flemings hat and Sometime after he[,] Said Lee[,] had laid Fleming down along side the cupboard[,] he lifted Said Fleming up and took of[f] his Jacket and gave her the hat and Jacket to take care of and until he himself would call for it, Saying to Said Fleming it was a Shame for him to Drink so extravagantly and make such a Beast of himself and told this Deponent that was [if] Fleming [were] to goe home to night not to let him have his hat for he would Surely Loose it, That this Deponent Verily Believes Said John Fleming came by his Death from hard Drinking and further says she went to see him now and then[,] when she said Fleming Drew his Breath hard and groaned hard[,] to which [she] has subscribed her name.

Deposition of Ralph Lee: The Depositions of Moses Wooden, Ralph Lee and Francis Gardner who on Oath say that this evening, a little after Sun Set almost Dusk, in Coming into the House of Philip Fouke Esquire in Kaskaskia they found the Dead Body of John Fleming (now before them lying) near the cupboard in the entry of Said house and then found he was motionless called for a candle and upon examination found he was Dead -- Say they do not know how he came by Death but Suppose twas Liquor was the Cause of it which they subscribed their names. Ralph Lee signed his name. Moses Wooden and Francis Gardner made marks (Sapp 28-29).

So there is at least a possibility that Ralph Lee attended the horse race with the other participants, and apparently members of the party were imbibing.

Morrison's ledger was kept from 1805 to 1831.
Ralph began his credit at Morrison's store on September 19, 1809 and his last charge was on Sept 22, 1820. There are periods where he purchases more alcohol than others. To see his purchases go to http://digsrvr.shawls.lib.il.us/cht/, click on "Search Ledger" on the right side of the page, and enter Ralph's name in the proper boxes. Others of interest are James Conner-- Charlotte Doyle's husband, and John Doyle.

The interest and care of his family was no longer a duty with him; his presence was seldom seen to cheer and comfort his lonely, afflicted wife. The house was one mile from town, and we had no neighbors nearer than that.

The neglect and indifference on the part of my father towards my afflicted mother, served to increase her anguish and sorrow, until death came to her relief.

Records in the Circuit Court in Randolph County state that Eliza(beth) died November 1815. John D. Lee would have been 3 1/2 years old.

My mother's death left us miserable indeed; we were (my sister and I) thrown upon the wide world, helpless, and I might say, without father or mother. My father when free from the effects of intoxicating drink, was a kind-hearted, generous, noble man, but from that time forward he was a slave to drink--seldom sober.

My aunt Charlotte .. was married to a man by the name of James Conner, a Kentuckian by birth.

See note from Morrison's store stating that James Conner was Charlotte's husband.

They lived ten miles north of us.

James and Charlotte Conner lived in Williamsburg township in the Prairie du Rocher area.

My sister went to live with her aunt, but ... she was taken away from her aunt and bound out to Dr. Fisher, with whose family she lived until she became of age.

Dr. Fisher was Eliza's guardian.

In the meantime the Doctor moved to the city of Vandalia, Illinois.

Though Dr. Fisher moved to Vandalia in Fayette County, the people of Randolph County held him in high regard and a monument has been erected near Chester, Illinois to his memory.

I remained with my nurse until I was eight years of age,

This would be about the time that John Doyle died.

when I was taken to my aunt Charlotte's, to be educated. I had been in a family which talked French so long that I had nearly lost all knowledge of my mother tongue. The children at school called me Gumbo, and teased me so much that I became disgusted with the French language and tried to forget it--which has been a disadvantage to me since that time.

He knew enough French to be able to read his baptism record and decipher the birth date there.

I lived in the [Conner] family eight years...

(p. 39) Aunt Charlotte had five children, four girls and one boy: i.e., Minerva C., Amanda, Eliza, Maria and John Edgar. ...

When I was sixteen years old, I concluded to leave my aunt's house.

Family information given to us by JDL

(p. 40) ...I got a letter from my sister, informing me of her marriage to Josiah Nichols, a nephew of Barker Berry, the sheriff of Fayette county, Illinois, and inviting me to visit them. Nichols was a wealthy man, and lived sixteen miles north of Vandalia.

Eliza Virginia married Isaiah Nichols, rather than Josiah Nichols. This could have been misinterpreted by the person who "co-authored" the book.

All I know of my father, after I was eight years of age, is, that he went to Texas in the year 1820, and I have never heard of him since. What his fate was I never knew.

If Ralph went to Texas in 1820, he returned in 1826. He is involved in a court case in Randolph County at that time. Mr. Archambeau owed Ralph money and Ralph won the case. His lawyer was Sidney Breese. John D. Lee would be fourteen at this point in time. It does not look like Ralph looked his son up at that time. Charlotte could have been ornery enough that he didn't dare visit his son.

The phrase, "went to Texas" frequently referred to a person who left town and was never heard from again.

When my mother died, my uncle and aunt Conner took all the property--a large tract of land, several slaves, household and kitchen furniture, and all; and, as I had no guardian, I never received any portion of the property...

The slaves were set free by an act of the Legislature; the land was sold for taxes, and was hardly worth redeeming when I came of age; so I sold my interest in all the land that had belonged to my mother, and made a quit-claim deed to it to Sidney (p.41) Breeze, a lawyer of Kaskaskia, in consideration of $200. My sister, by the kindness of Dr. Fisher, her guardian, received a much greater price for her interest in the land than I did.

I was born on the point of land lying between and above the mouth of the Okaw or Kaskaskia river and the Mississippi river, in what is known as the Great American Bottom--the particular point I refer to was then called Zeal-no-waw, the Island of Nuts. It was nineteen miles from the point of the bluffs to the mouth of the Okaw river; ten miles wide up at the bluffs and tapering to a point where the rivers united. ... This point of land is one of the finest on the globe; there I spent my early years;...

The course of the Mississippi River has changed since John D. Lee lived there. The Mississippi now uses the old Kaskaskia River channel. Where JDL lived is now on the western side of the Mississippi, part of what is now called Kaskaskia Island. It is only accessible from Missouri. The area where his home was is probably now in the Mississippi channel.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I know I have contradicted many things that John D. Lee said. There could be several reasons for the discrepancies. His family information was not from primary sources. His mother did not live long enough to pass family information on to him. The only relatives he had living were his Aunt Charlotte and his elder sister, Eliza. Charlotte's relationship with John D. Lee and his father, Ralph Lee, were not the best. Charlotte was also the younger sister and probably didn't know as much information as her older sister, Elizabeth, would have known. Charlotte may not have even known her mother's name if Chloe died in childbirth having her. I am actually amazed at how much information John D. Lee knew, considering the circumstances.


Sources:
(More will be added to this as I get time.)

Black, Henry Campbell, M.A. Black's Law Dictionary. West Publishing Co., St. Paul, Minn. 1968.

Lee, John Doyle. Mormonism Unveiled.

Randolph County Circuit Court. 1832-43 Probate Record.

Sapp, Peggy Lathrop. Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol XIX, No.1, Spring 1987. "Kaskaskia-Randolph County Manuscripts".