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.

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.

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.