Susan Wilmoth Farthing was born on her parents' farmstead in Logan County, Kentucky. She was born during the short U.S. Presidential term of President Zachary Taylor. When she was born, there were just 30 stars on the American flag, representing the 30 states that were part of the United States at the time of her birth.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's ancestors were originally from Pittsylvania County, Virginia. One of her direct ancestors, Richard Farthing, has been officially recognized as an American patriot during the Revolutionary War. Susan Wilmoth Farthing's own paternal grandfather, Abner Farthing, had served in the War of 1812 in the years before Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birth.
Her father and both of her grandfathers were farmers, and her life's pathway during the 1800s centered upon rural agricultural life.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing was the daughter of John V. Farthing and his wife, Martha Ann (Farthing) Farthing.
Her father and mother were actually distant cousins to each other. Her parents had been married on 27 January 1842, in Robertson County, Tennessee, just a short distance away from Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace over the state boundary line in Logan County, Kentucky.
At the time of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birth, her parents' farmland was located in the western sector of Logan County, Kentucky. Early land records of Logan County, Kentucky, reveal that Big Whippoorwill Creek meandered through their farm property in Logan County. Her family's farmland was described as being "On The Waters of Big Whippoorwill Creek" in the land deed records of Logan County, Kentucky.
Big Whippoorwill Creek still flows through Logan County to this very day. Big Whippoorwill Creek is an important tributary to the Red River, which flows through Tennessee and Kentucky. Just a few miles to the south of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace in Kentucky was the northern border of Tennessee.
The farmland that her parents owned in Logan County, Kentucky, included a water spring, as well as trees growing along the banks of Big Whippoorwill Creek. Early land records reveal that the trees growing on their farm property "On the Waters of Big Whippoorwill Creek" included sycamore, white oak, red oak, elm, beech, black oak, post oak, black jack, dogwood, water oak, Spanish oak, and hornbeam trees.
Some of the farmland that her parents owned had once been owned by Susan Wilmoth Farthing's great-grandfather, William Watson. At various times, both sets of her grandparents had also lived and farmed in Logan County, Kentucky, so her family's connection to Logan County went back into the earlier generations of her family.
Historically, Logan County, Kentucky, was famous for its tobacco production. A description of Logan County, Kentucky, written for the 1854 UNITED STATES GAZETTEER states that Logan County, Kentucky, is "beautifully diversified by ranges of hills, covered with timber. The soil is fertile, and well watered. Indian corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, and livestock are the staples."
This description very fittingly matches the scene at Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace in Logan County, Kentucky. On the farm where she was born, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's father raised primarily tobacco, corn, and oats, as did many of their neighbors.
The 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky, taken just months after the birth of Susan Wilmoth Farthing, reveals specific details about her birthplace in rural Kentucky.
At the time of the 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky, her parents owned a farm consisting of 77 acres. Her father had 40 of the acres improved and under cultivation, with 37 acres that were still yet to be cleared and improved for farming. In 1850, her family's farm was assessed at a value of $385.00, with an additional $10.00 worth of farming implements owned at that time.
At the time of her birth, her family owned livestock consisting of two milk cows, two other cattle, and a litter of 40 pigs. Fifty dollars' worth of livestock animals had been slaughtered for butchering and the family also reported $5.00 worth of home-made manufactures been produced. From their milk cows, 100 pounds of butter had been produced, all within the course of the past year.
The 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky states that her father's crop production from the past year had been 300 bushels of corn and 100 bushels of oats. Her father was also shown to be a tobacco farmer in the census report, raising tobacco as a cash crop on his Kentucky farmland, as were many of the farmers in Logan County during that time period.
In terms of garden produce, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's parents had raised 15 bushels of Irish potatoes, 12 bushels of sweet potatoes, and 1 bushel of peas & beans over the course of the past year. These documents give us a richly detailed sense of the farmstead where Susan Wilmoth Farthing was born in rural Logan County, Kentucky.
While primarily a farmer, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's father, John V. Farthing, was also appointed a road overseer in Logan County, Kentucky. Records of March 1852 show that her father held this position of responsibility in Logan County, Kentucky.
The first known record of Susan Wilmoth Farthing shows her as an eight-month-old infant living in the household of her parents in rural Logan County, Kentucky, in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT can be found in the following federal & state census records, living in these rural localities:
1850: Logan County, Kentucky
1855: Centralia Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1860: Centralia Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1870: Salem Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1880: Salem Twp., Marion County, Illinois
As a young girl in the very early 1850s, Susan Wilmoth Farthing migrated with her parents from her early childhood home near Big Whippoorwill Creek in rural Logan County, Kentucky, to Marion County, Illinois.
Their north-western overland journey of 170 miles from their home in Kentucky to their new home in Illinois would have included the crossing of the mighty Ohio River. Marion County, Illinois, became her home for the last forty years of her life.
Making the journey from Logan County, Kentucky, with John V. Farthing and his wife, Martha Ann (Farthing) Farthing, were their four young children named Abner Preston Farthing, Susan Wilmoth Farthing, Francis America Farthing, and H.T. Farthing. T
These four young siblings were aged five years and younger at the time of their journey. One can envision this pioneer couple from Kentucky packing their most treasured possessions, supplies, and provisions and traveling with their two young sons and two young daughters to their new home in Illinois.
Based on the discovery of historic land deeds from this time period, Susan Wilmoth Farthing would have been about four years old when she journeyed with her family from her birthplace in Kentucky to her family's new home in Illinois.
By 1853, her parents had accumulated almost 100 acres of farmland in rural Logan County, Kentucky. Land deed records indicate that her parents sold the last of their Kentucky farm property in October of 1853, during the U.S. Presidency of Franklin Pierce. It appears that their journey from Kentucky to Illinois occurred in late October 1853, when the colors of the autumn leaves are in full splendor.
The migration of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family from Kentucky to Illinois was multi-generational. Her paternal grandparents, her maternal grandparents, as well as several of her aunts, uncles, and cousins, also migrated from Kentucky to Marion County, Illinois, during this same period of time. Previous to this, other relatives and neighbors from Logan County, Kentucky, had already migrated to Marion County, Illinois.
Early land records of Marion County, Illinois, show that her father, John V. Farthing, purchased two 40 acre farms on 4 November 1853, at a cost of $2.50 per acre. He purchased the land from the United States Federal Government. The total purchase price for the 80 acres of land totaled $200.00.
A description of Illinois, written for the 1854 UNITED STATES GAZETTEER describes what Illinois looked like at the time they settled there:
"Her wide-spread prairies, decked with flowers of every hue that can gratify the eye, and covered with waving grass, convey, besides their quiet landscape beauty, a feeling of sublimity from their vastness, similar to that created by viewing the ocean."
Marion County, Illinois, was specifically described in this way in 1854:
"The county includes a part of the Grand Prairie, and is partly covered with forests. The general surface (of Marion County, Illinois) is generally undulating; the soil is excellent. Indian corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, castor beans, white beans, and fine fruits flourish, and the prairies produce excellent pasturage for cattle."
The farmstead that became her new childhood home was located in Section 13 of rural Centralia Township, Marion County, Illinois. Centralia Township is in the southwestern corner of Marion County, Illinois. Her family's new farm was located about 5 miles east of Centralia, Illinois.
This branch of the Farthing family and other Farthing family members were among the early settlers noted in the pioneer settlement of Marion County, Illinois. The special 1855 State Census of Illinois shows that Susan Wilmoth Farthing, her parents, and both sets of her grandparents were established on farms in rural Marion County, Illinois. It is evident that three living generations of this Farthing family line migrated to Marion County, Illinois, during this time of pioneer migration in the early 1850s.
The 1855 State Census of Illinois shows John V. Farthing as the head of the household and reflects the presence of his wife, Martha Ann Farthing, with their four young children. The census report shows that a total of six family members living in this rural household. Furthermore, this 1855 state census reveals that they owned $150.00 worth of livestock animals at that time.
A treasured household inventory taken in in 1856 during her childhood years in Illinois gives us a glimpse inside Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood home in rural Marion County, Illinois.
The furnishings of her childhood home in the 1850s included tables, six sitting chairs, beds, bedsteads, a rocking cradle, a chest, a trunk, a few books, a "looking glass" mirror, and one clock.
The cooking area of her childhood home included one stove and stovepipe. Along with cupboard ware there was also an assortment of pots, pans, skillets, stone jars, jugs, buckets, tubs, a fireplace tool set, 400 pounds of bacon, a jar of lard, a teakettle, and a pile of firewood.
The domestic household items from the 1856 household inventory give us a glimpse into the household chores and handicrafts that were part of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood experiences. These items include a butter churn, a washboard, two wash tubs, buckets, two smoothing irons for ironing clothes, baskets, a weaving loom, a spinning wheel, and a set of carding combs for combing fibers in preparation for spinning.
Farming and gardening implements included a shovel plow, horse-drawn plow accessories,as well as weeding and grubbing hoes. Carpentry tools included a hatchet, a felling axe, two iron wedges, a hammer, a hand-saw, an auger, and wood-working tools such as a drawing knife, a frow, and an adze. The inventory also indicates bushels of corn, indicating that corn was a primary crop on their Illinois farmstead.
The 1856 inventory also reveals that Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family owned one mare, a white spotted sow, six piglets, eight sheep, one milk cow, a baby calf, one yearling steer, and two additional cows. The inventory reveals that the family owned bee stands, indicating that the family kept honeybees on their Illinois farm.
Livery and tack items found on the farm during her childhood days included a bridle, a martingale, a man's horse saddle, and a woman's horse saddle & bridle.
These items from the 1856 inventory give us a richly-detailed sense of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood home where she grew up in rural Marion County, Illinois.
From the 1856 household inventory, we know that domestic work such as washing, laundry, and ironing were part of the household tasks. Cooking, baking, butter churning, and food preservation were part of the domestic tasks in her childhood home. The carding, spinning, and weaving of wool is also evident from the listing of the spinning wheel, loom, and carding combs.
The inventory of farming implements reveals that outdoor farm chores for her family included plowing, planting, gardening, weeding, field work, harvesting and other agricultural chores. The inventory of tools indicates evidence of carpentry work, wood-chopping, and land-clearing on the Farthing family farmland.
The livestock inventory reveals that livestock chores such as livestock feeding, sheep shearing, the milking of cows, the care and grooming of horses, and the gathering of honey was also part of her family's chores on their farmstead in rural Marion County, Illinois.
A series of losses marked the childhood years of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's life. Within a short period of time, her little brother H.T. Farthing, both of her grandfathers, and her father died. Susan Wilmoth Farthing was only 6 years old when her father passed away on 14 March 1856. Following her father's death, her mother was left a widow with young children to raise.
To settle the estate of her late father, an auction was held on Friday, 18 April 1856. Susan Wilmoth Farthing's widowed mother was able to retain many of the personal possessions, household furnishings, farming implements, and livestock animals during the estate and auction proceedings, thereby keeping their rural farmstead life intact. The ownership of their 80 acre farm also remained intact.
Three years later, on 24 May 1859, her widowed mother remarried to widower Crispen Dickerson Farthing, who became Susan Wilmoth Farthing's new step-father. Her step-father was another Farthing family cousin. Her step-father rented the farmland that had been owned by Susan Wilmoth Farthing's late father.
The 1860 Agricultural Census of Illinois shows that on the farm where she was growing up, the primary crops of corn and tobacco were being raised. The livestock on the farm from her childhood years in rural Centralia Township included two horses, a milk cow, and a litter of pigs.
The value of her family's 80 acre farm was assessed at a value of $1,600.00 in 1860, with an additional $30.00 worth of farming implements. The 1860 Agricultural Census also reveals that on her family's 80 acre farm, 30 of the acres had been improved for farming purposes, while 50 of the acres were still yet to be improved for crop production. The farm where she was growing up during her girlhood years had produced 750 bushels of corn and 400 pounds of tobacco in one year's time.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family during this period in her childhood now consisted of a combination of step-siblings, her own siblings, and a newborn half-brother. A short time after this, her mother also died. The loss of their father in 1856 and the loss of their mother just a few years later left Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her older brother, Abner Preston Farthing, and her younger sister, Francis America Farthing, legal orphans.
Serving as her legal guardians through the years following the death of her parents were her father's brother, Linville Farthing, and later her mother's brother, James Farthing. Both of these uncles also resided in Marion County, Illinois, and took care of business and legal matters for Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her brother and sister.
In 1857, from their paternal grandfather Abner Farthing's estate, the 3 orphans received some inheiritance money, which was used to help financially support Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her brother and sister. The 3 children also received some inheiritance money through the years from the farm property that had belonged to their parents.
Census reports from later years reveal that Susan Wilmoth Farthing could not read and could not write, indicating that she did not have the opportunity to attend school during her childhood years. When Susan Wilmoth Farthing was a girl, Abraham Lincoln, a candidate from Illinois, won the U.S. Presidential Election in November 1860.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing grew up in Marion County, Illinois, during the American pioneer period of the 1850s and the Civil War era of the 1860s. During the time that she was growing up, the population of Illinois doubled in number, due to the arrival of thousands of pioneers who settled in Illinois.
Following the Civil War era, as a young woman, Susan Wilmoth Farthing married John William Albert, Sr. (1845-1929). They were married in the autumn season when the annual harvest would be drawing to a close. They were married on Sunday, 7 November 1869, in Marion County, Illinois, by Samuel Fowler Phillips, Justice of the Peace.
A record of their marriage stating that "Miss Susan W. Farthing" was married to "Mr. John Albert" is preserved at the Marion County Courthouse located in Salem, Illinois. At the time of their marriage, President Ulysses S. Grant had just been inaugurated as the new United States President earlier that same year.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's husband, John William ALBERT, Sr., had also grown up in Marion County, Illinois. His great-grandfather, Captain Samuel Young, a Revolutionary War patriot, was the very FIRST white settler in the history of Marion County, Illinois. His ancestors from the Young, Albert, Tate, and Malcom families were among the very first settlers of Marion County, Illinois.
As newlyweds at the time the 1870 U.S. Federal Census was taken, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT and her husband John William Albert, Sr., set up housekeeping in rural Salem Township, Marion County, Illinois, where they farmed and began raising a family. His occupation is listed as a "farmer" while her occupation is listed as "keeping house" on the census record of 1870. The census record also reveals that they had $200.00 worth of personal property.
As recent newlyweds, the 1870 Agricultural Census reveals that Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert and her husband John William Albert, Sr. lived as tenants on a small farm consisting of 52 acres of farmland with 11 additional acres of woodland. The 1870 Agricultural Census also reveals that John and Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert owned livestock consisting of 2 horses and 3 pigs and that they had raised 200 bushels of corn and 300 bushels of oats.
Rich in detail, the 1880 Agricultural Census taken ten years later reveals many fascinating aspects of the farm life that Mr. and Mrs. Albert led as they began raising their children in rural Marion County, Illinois.
The Agricultural Census reports reveal that Mr. and Mrs. Albert had a crop - share rental agreement on the tenant farm on which they lived, whereby a portion of the crops that they raised would be used as payment for their lease of the owner's land each year.
At the time of the 1880 Agricultural Census, Mr. and Mrs. Albert rented a 40 acre farmstead. The cash value of their rented farm was listed at $550.00. Mr. and Mrs. Albert owned $20.00 worth of farming implements & machinery.
On this 40 acre farmstead, 27 acres were tilled farmland acres. The remaining 13 acres were uncleared farmland acres, still designated as natural woodland acres, not yet cleared or tilled for agriculture. The census reveals that 7 cords of firewood were cut in the past year from this wooded area, the 7 cords of firewood having a total market value of seven dollars.
Mr. and Mrs. Albert primarily raised the cereal crops of corn, oats, and wheat. The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that 15 acres of the 40 acre farm were devoted to the raising of corn. Their yield in the past year had been 120 bushels of corn. Six acres were devoted to the raising of oats, with a yield of 100 bushels of oats in the course of the past year. Three acres of the farm were devoted to the raising of wheat, with a yield of 29 bushels of wheat over the course of the past year.
In 1880, a special feature on the farm where they lived with their young children was a two-acre apple orchard. The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that 60 apple trees grew in this two-acre orchard. Furthermore, the 60 apple trees had produced 120 bushels of apples in the past year, with a total market value of $30.00.
Their livestock in 1880 consisted of two horses, a milk cow, a newborn calf, a litter of five pigs, and a flock of eighteen chickens. The value of their livestock at this time was shown to be worth $125.00.
With the milk cow on their farm, they had produced 100 pounds of freshly churned butter over the past year. From their flock of chickens, 144 dozen eggs had been gathered.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert and her husband, John William Albert, Sr., were the parents of nine children, all born in rural Marion County, Illinois:
Lewis Allen ALBERT (1871 - 1953)
Mary "Ella" ALBERT (1874 - 1963)
John "William" ALBERT (1879 - 1953)
Jesse E. ALBERT (1882 - 1925)
Frank E. ALBERT (1884 - 1949)
Fred Walter ALBERT (1888 - 1977)
Vercie May ALBERT - died in infancy
(Infant Son) - died in infancy
(Infant Son) - died in infancy
An early historian of life in Marion County, Illinois, was Professor J.H.G. Brinkerhoff. In regard to the experiences of women living in Marion County during this time period, he wrote:
"Here also the women attended to those never neglected duties of the time ~~~ knitting, spinning, and weaving ~~~ duties which have since almost lost their places among the household arts."
From details discovered in historical agricultural census reports that survive from the 1800s, her role as a farmwife and mother is revealed. Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert would have been involved in the care and feeding of farm livestock, tending to her flock of chickens, the gathering of thousands of chicken eggs, apple picking from the orchard area of their tenant farm, separating cow's milk from the cream, and producing hundreds of pounds of homemade butter with her churn. The livestock on their farm would have provided freshly butchered meat for family meals. The chopped firewood from the wooded areas of the tenant farm would have provided heating for the Albert family home, as well as fuel for the baking and cooking needs of her family.
The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that John Albert and his wife Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's 40 acre tenant farm had produced 120 bushels of corn, 100 bushels of oats, 29 bushels of wheat, 120 bushels of apples, 7 cords of chopped firewood, 144 dozen chicken eggs, and 100 pounds of churned butter, all in one year's time.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert lived in a time in which her days would have been filled with gardening, cooking, baking, housekeeping, soap-making, sewing, mending, butter churning, livestock chores, laundry washing, ironing, and tending to the motherly duties of nursing and childcare for her growing family. Three of her children passed away in early childhood, while six of her children eventually reached maturity.
The harvest season arrived in Marion County in the fall of 1892. In October, the citizens of Marion County hosted the Marion County Fair. The Marion County newspapers reported the first heavy frosts of the season in October, and the first snowfall in early November of 1892. A sudden hailstorm struck Marion County on Thursday, 17 November 1892.
The very next day after the hailstorm, just a few days after her twenty-third wedding anniversary, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT died on Friday, 18 November 1892, south of Salem, Illinois, in rural Marion County, Illinois.
When she passed away in her early 40s, Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert left behind her husband and their family of young children.
At the time of her death in the autumn season of 1892, her surviving children ranged in age from 21 years of age down to the age of 3 years old.
Her widowed husband, John William Albert, Sr., continued to farm in Marion County, Illinois. He continued on, raising the children left behind from his wife's early death.
The death of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT occurred just a few days after the historic U.S. Presidential Election of November 1892, in which incumbent U.S. President Benjamin Harrison was defeated by Grover Cleveland. Her death & burial occurred just days before Thanksgiving Day in 1892. During her lifetime, 12 U.S. Presidents had lived in the White House.
The passing of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT was noted on the front page of the Friday, 25 November 1892 edition of THE MARION COUNTY DEMOCRAT newspaper, published in Salem, Illinois, which stated:
"Mrs. John ALBERT, (who was living) south of town (Salem, Illinois), who had been sick but a few days, died unexpectedly last Friday morning (Date of Death: Friday, 18 November 1892)."
Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT was buried in historic Mount Moriah Cemetery in rural Raccoon Township, Marion County, Illinois, where a gray column-style tombstone set upon a double gray stone pedestal from the Victorian era has marked her final resting place since the 1890s. The inscription on her tombstone is dedicated to the memory of "Susan W. ALBERT, wife of John W. ALBERT, Sr."
Mount Moriah Christian Church is the oldest organized church congregation in the history of Marion County, Illinois. Fittingly, the Mount Moriah Cemetery, located in the rural churchyard of the Mount Moriah Christian Church, is just a few miles to the east of the original farm where she and her parents first settled when they journeyed to Marion County, Illinois, when she was just a young girl from Kentucky back in the early 1850s.
A few years after her passing, Professor J.H.G. Brinkerhoff wrote the well-known HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY, ILLINOIS, which was published in 1909. An excerpt from his book seems a fitting tribute that captures the legacy of Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's life in these words:
"They are gone. They sleep on the hilltop or in the valley where loving hands laid them, and the world moves on, and they who labored and loved and suffered and departed in the early days of Marion County, are only a fast disappearing vision of the past."
Her burial in the country churchyard cemetery of Mount Moriah Christian Church would have been on a November day, just before Thanksgiving time, with autumn leaves covering the ground. With her coffin borne to the country cemetery by horses, her burial signaled the final journey in the life of this pioneer woman, wife, and mother. Her widowed husband, just in his 40s, and her family of young children would have gathered at her gravesite on that November day, along with other relatives and friends who would have arrived at the country cemetery in horse-drawn wagons, carriages, and buggies to honor her.
The countryside setting of this historic cemetery, where many Marion County pioneers have been buried since the early 1800s, matches the rural experiences of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT's life. Her life began on a farmstead in rural Logan County, Kentucky, and ended on a farmstead in rural Marion County, Illinois.
From the BIBLE comes this verse from the BOOK OF REVELATIONS (Chapter 14 ~ Verse 13):
"Blessed are the dead ... that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them."
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's life would have been filled with the experiences of pioneer living in the 1800s, first as a young girl from Kentucky, growing up on the banks of Whippoorwill Creek at her birthplace in Logan County, Kentucky, and then settling on the prairie lands and wooded timber areas of the farms where she grew up and later raised her children in rural Marion County, Illinois.
She lived during a by-gone era when traveling was done in covered wagons, with farm fields plowed by horses, with her family's laundry scrubbed by hand on a washboard ~~~ with patchwork quilts covering feather beds ~~~ with long dresses & clothing stitched with needle and thread ~~~ with supplies purchased from the general store ~~~ with socks to darn with her needle and thread for her husband and children ~~~ with gathering baskets filled with fresh eggs from her flock of chickens ~~~ with firewood chopped for heating the home ~~~ with buckets brimming with fresh milk from the family's milk cow ~~~ with her churn filled with fresh cream for churning into butter ~~~ with garden produce gathered during the summer season for her family's table ~~~ with bushel baskets filled with apples during apple picking season ~~~ with homemade loaves of bread baking in a farmhouse kitchen ~~~ with home-cooked meals prepared from scratch ~~~ with thin wisps of smoke rising from the chimney of her family's home ~~~ with eight plates set around the kitchen table for meals with her husband and children ~~~ with a pile of dishes to wash with lye soap each day ~~~ with babies rocked peacefully to sleep in their cradle ~~~ and with kerosene lamps lit for evenings at home with her family. Her entire life's path would have centered upon the cycle of spring planting and fall harvest in a countryside setting.
As the years went by, 23 grandchildren were eventually born to the children that Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT left behind when she passed away in the autumn of 1892.
Marion County, Illinois, is still home to several relatives and descendants of this branch of the Farthing family that first settled on the prairie lands and timber lands of Marion County in the 1850s.
Today, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT has hundreds of living descendants, residing across the United States from coast to coast. They are her living legacy.
Peace to her memory.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's ancestors were originally from Pittsylvania County, Virginia. One of her direct ancestors, Richard Farthing, has been officially recognized as an American patriot during the Revolutionary War. Susan Wilmoth Farthing's own paternal grandfather, Abner Farthing, had served in the War of 1812 in the years before Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birth.
Her father and both of her grandfathers were farmers, and her life's pathway during the 1800s centered upon rural agricultural life.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing was the daughter of John V. Farthing and his wife, Martha Ann (Farthing) Farthing.
Her father and mother were actually distant cousins to each other. Her parents had been married on 27 January 1842, in Robertson County, Tennessee, just a short distance away from Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace over the state boundary line in Logan County, Kentucky.
At the time of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birth, her parents' farmland was located in the western sector of Logan County, Kentucky. Early land records of Logan County, Kentucky, reveal that Big Whippoorwill Creek meandered through their farm property in Logan County. Her family's farmland was described as being "On The Waters of Big Whippoorwill Creek" in the land deed records of Logan County, Kentucky.
Big Whippoorwill Creek still flows through Logan County to this very day. Big Whippoorwill Creek is an important tributary to the Red River, which flows through Tennessee and Kentucky. Just a few miles to the south of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace in Kentucky was the northern border of Tennessee.
The farmland that her parents owned in Logan County, Kentucky, included a water spring, as well as trees growing along the banks of Big Whippoorwill Creek. Early land records reveal that the trees growing on their farm property "On the Waters of Big Whippoorwill Creek" included sycamore, white oak, red oak, elm, beech, black oak, post oak, black jack, dogwood, water oak, Spanish oak, and hornbeam trees.
Some of the farmland that her parents owned had once been owned by Susan Wilmoth Farthing's great-grandfather, William Watson. At various times, both sets of her grandparents had also lived and farmed in Logan County, Kentucky, so her family's connection to Logan County went back into the earlier generations of her family.
Historically, Logan County, Kentucky, was famous for its tobacco production. A description of Logan County, Kentucky, written for the 1854 UNITED STATES GAZETTEER states that Logan County, Kentucky, is "beautifully diversified by ranges of hills, covered with timber. The soil is fertile, and well watered. Indian corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, and livestock are the staples."
This description very fittingly matches the scene at Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace in Logan County, Kentucky. On the farm where she was born, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's father raised primarily tobacco, corn, and oats, as did many of their neighbors.
The 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky, taken just months after the birth of Susan Wilmoth Farthing, reveals specific details about her birthplace in rural Kentucky.
At the time of the 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky, her parents owned a farm consisting of 77 acres. Her father had 40 of the acres improved and under cultivation, with 37 acres that were still yet to be cleared and improved for farming. In 1850, her family's farm was assessed at a value of $385.00, with an additional $10.00 worth of farming implements owned at that time.
At the time of her birth, her family owned livestock consisting of two milk cows, two other cattle, and a litter of 40 pigs. Fifty dollars' worth of livestock animals had been slaughtered for butchering and the family also reported $5.00 worth of home-made manufactures been produced. From their milk cows, 100 pounds of butter had been produced, all within the course of the past year.
The 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky states that her father's crop production from the past year had been 300 bushels of corn and 100 bushels of oats. Her father was also shown to be a tobacco farmer in the census report, raising tobacco as a cash crop on his Kentucky farmland, as were many of the farmers in Logan County during that time period.
In terms of garden produce, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's parents had raised 15 bushels of Irish potatoes, 12 bushels of sweet potatoes, and 1 bushel of peas & beans over the course of the past year. These documents give us a richly detailed sense of the farmstead where Susan Wilmoth Farthing was born in rural Logan County, Kentucky.
While primarily a farmer, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's father, John V. Farthing, was also appointed a road overseer in Logan County, Kentucky. Records of March 1852 show that her father held this position of responsibility in Logan County, Kentucky.
The first known record of Susan Wilmoth Farthing shows her as an eight-month-old infant living in the household of her parents in rural Logan County, Kentucky, in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT can be found in the following federal & state census records, living in these rural localities:
1850: Logan County, Kentucky
1855: Centralia Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1860: Centralia Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1870: Salem Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1880: Salem Twp., Marion County, Illinois
As a young girl in the very early 1850s, Susan Wilmoth Farthing migrated with her parents from her early childhood home near Big Whippoorwill Creek in rural Logan County, Kentucky, to Marion County, Illinois.
Their north-western overland journey of 170 miles from their home in Kentucky to their new home in Illinois would have included the crossing of the mighty Ohio River. Marion County, Illinois, became her home for the last forty years of her life.
Making the journey from Logan County, Kentucky, with John V. Farthing and his wife, Martha Ann (Farthing) Farthing, were their four young children named Abner Preston Farthing, Susan Wilmoth Farthing, Francis America Farthing, and H.T. Farthing. T
These four young siblings were aged five years and younger at the time of their journey. One can envision this pioneer couple from Kentucky packing their most treasured possessions, supplies, and provisions and traveling with their two young sons and two young daughters to their new home in Illinois.
Based on the discovery of historic land deeds from this time period, Susan Wilmoth Farthing would have been about four years old when she journeyed with her family from her birthplace in Kentucky to her family's new home in Illinois.
By 1853, her parents had accumulated almost 100 acres of farmland in rural Logan County, Kentucky. Land deed records indicate that her parents sold the last of their Kentucky farm property in October of 1853, during the U.S. Presidency of Franklin Pierce. It appears that their journey from Kentucky to Illinois occurred in late October 1853, when the colors of the autumn leaves are in full splendor.
The migration of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family from Kentucky to Illinois was multi-generational. Her paternal grandparents, her maternal grandparents, as well as several of her aunts, uncles, and cousins, also migrated from Kentucky to Marion County, Illinois, during this same period of time. Previous to this, other relatives and neighbors from Logan County, Kentucky, had already migrated to Marion County, Illinois.
Early land records of Marion County, Illinois, show that her father, John V. Farthing, purchased two 40 acre farms on 4 November 1853, at a cost of $2.50 per acre. He purchased the land from the United States Federal Government. The total purchase price for the 80 acres of land totaled $200.00.
A description of Illinois, written for the 1854 UNITED STATES GAZETTEER describes what Illinois looked like at the time they settled there:
"Her wide-spread prairies, decked with flowers of every hue that can gratify the eye, and covered with waving grass, convey, besides their quiet landscape beauty, a feeling of sublimity from their vastness, similar to that created by viewing the ocean."
Marion County, Illinois, was specifically described in this way in 1854:
"The county includes a part of the Grand Prairie, and is partly covered with forests. The general surface (of Marion County, Illinois) is generally undulating; the soil is excellent. Indian corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, castor beans, white beans, and fine fruits flourish, and the prairies produce excellent pasturage for cattle."
The farmstead that became her new childhood home was located in Section 13 of rural Centralia Township, Marion County, Illinois. Centralia Township is in the southwestern corner of Marion County, Illinois. Her family's new farm was located about 5 miles east of Centralia, Illinois.
This branch of the Farthing family and other Farthing family members were among the early settlers noted in the pioneer settlement of Marion County, Illinois. The special 1855 State Census of Illinois shows that Susan Wilmoth Farthing, her parents, and both sets of her grandparents were established on farms in rural Marion County, Illinois. It is evident that three living generations of this Farthing family line migrated to Marion County, Illinois, during this time of pioneer migration in the early 1850s.
The 1855 State Census of Illinois shows John V. Farthing as the head of the household and reflects the presence of his wife, Martha Ann Farthing, with their four young children. The census report shows that a total of six family members living in this rural household. Furthermore, this 1855 state census reveals that they owned $150.00 worth of livestock animals at that time.
A treasured household inventory taken in in 1856 during her childhood years in Illinois gives us a glimpse inside Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood home in rural Marion County, Illinois.
The furnishings of her childhood home in the 1850s included tables, six sitting chairs, beds, bedsteads, a rocking cradle, a chest, a trunk, a few books, a "looking glass" mirror, and one clock.
The cooking area of her childhood home included one stove and stovepipe. Along with cupboard ware there was also an assortment of pots, pans, skillets, stone jars, jugs, buckets, tubs, a fireplace tool set, 400 pounds of bacon, a jar of lard, a teakettle, and a pile of firewood.
The domestic household items from the 1856 household inventory give us a glimpse into the household chores and handicrafts that were part of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood experiences. These items include a butter churn, a washboard, two wash tubs, buckets, two smoothing irons for ironing clothes, baskets, a weaving loom, a spinning wheel, and a set of carding combs for combing fibers in preparation for spinning.
Farming and gardening implements included a shovel plow, horse-drawn plow accessories,as well as weeding and grubbing hoes. Carpentry tools included a hatchet, a felling axe, two iron wedges, a hammer, a hand-saw, an auger, and wood-working tools such as a drawing knife, a frow, and an adze. The inventory also indicates bushels of corn, indicating that corn was a primary crop on their Illinois farmstead.
The 1856 inventory also reveals that Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family owned one mare, a white spotted sow, six piglets, eight sheep, one milk cow, a baby calf, one yearling steer, and two additional cows. The inventory reveals that the family owned bee stands, indicating that the family kept honeybees on their Illinois farm.
Livery and tack items found on the farm during her childhood days included a bridle, a martingale, a man's horse saddle, and a woman's horse saddle & bridle.
These items from the 1856 inventory give us a richly-detailed sense of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood home where she grew up in rural Marion County, Illinois.
From the 1856 household inventory, we know that domestic work such as washing, laundry, and ironing were part of the household tasks. Cooking, baking, butter churning, and food preservation were part of the domestic tasks in her childhood home. The carding, spinning, and weaving of wool is also evident from the listing of the spinning wheel, loom, and carding combs.
The inventory of farming implements reveals that outdoor farm chores for her family included plowing, planting, gardening, weeding, field work, harvesting and other agricultural chores. The inventory of tools indicates evidence of carpentry work, wood-chopping, and land-clearing on the Farthing family farmland.
The livestock inventory reveals that livestock chores such as livestock feeding, sheep shearing, the milking of cows, the care and grooming of horses, and the gathering of honey was also part of her family's chores on their farmstead in rural Marion County, Illinois.
A series of losses marked the childhood years of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's life. Within a short period of time, her little brother H.T. Farthing, both of her grandfathers, and her father died. Susan Wilmoth Farthing was only 6 years old when her father passed away on 14 March 1856. Following her father's death, her mother was left a widow with young children to raise.
To settle the estate of her late father, an auction was held on Friday, 18 April 1856. Susan Wilmoth Farthing's widowed mother was able to retain many of the personal possessions, household furnishings, farming implements, and livestock animals during the estate and auction proceedings, thereby keeping their rural farmstead life intact. The ownership of their 80 acre farm also remained intact.
Three years later, on 24 May 1859, her widowed mother remarried to widower Crispen Dickerson Farthing, who became Susan Wilmoth Farthing's new step-father. Her step-father was another Farthing family cousin. Her step-father rented the farmland that had been owned by Susan Wilmoth Farthing's late father.
The 1860 Agricultural Census of Illinois shows that on the farm where she was growing up, the primary crops of corn and tobacco were being raised. The livestock on the farm from her childhood years in rural Centralia Township included two horses, a milk cow, and a litter of pigs.
The value of her family's 80 acre farm was assessed at a value of $1,600.00 in 1860, with an additional $30.00 worth of farming implements. The 1860 Agricultural Census also reveals that on her family's 80 acre farm, 30 of the acres had been improved for farming purposes, while 50 of the acres were still yet to be improved for crop production. The farm where she was growing up during her girlhood years had produced 750 bushels of corn and 400 pounds of tobacco in one year's time.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family during this period in her childhood now consisted of a combination of step-siblings, her own siblings, and a newborn half-brother. A short time after this, her mother also died. The loss of their father in 1856 and the loss of their mother just a few years later left Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her older brother, Abner Preston Farthing, and her younger sister, Francis America Farthing, legal orphans.
Serving as her legal guardians through the years following the death of her parents were her father's brother, Linville Farthing, and later her mother's brother, James Farthing. Both of these uncles also resided in Marion County, Illinois, and took care of business and legal matters for Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her brother and sister.
In 1857, from their paternal grandfather Abner Farthing's estate, the 3 orphans received some inheiritance money, which was used to help financially support Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her brother and sister. The 3 children also received some inheiritance money through the years from the farm property that had belonged to their parents.
Census reports from later years reveal that Susan Wilmoth Farthing could not read and could not write, indicating that she did not have the opportunity to attend school during her childhood years. When Susan Wilmoth Farthing was a girl, Abraham Lincoln, a candidate from Illinois, won the U.S. Presidential Election in November 1860.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing grew up in Marion County, Illinois, during the American pioneer period of the 1850s and the Civil War era of the 1860s. During the time that she was growing up, the population of Illinois doubled in number, due to the arrival of thousands of pioneers who settled in Illinois.
Following the Civil War era, as a young woman, Susan Wilmoth Farthing married John William Albert, Sr. (1845-1929). They were married in the autumn season when the annual harvest would be drawing to a close. They were married on Sunday, 7 November 1869, in Marion County, Illinois, by Samuel Fowler Phillips, Justice of the Peace.
A record of their marriage stating that "Miss Susan W. Farthing" was married to "Mr. John Albert" is preserved at the Marion County Courthouse located in Salem, Illinois. At the time of their marriage, President Ulysses S. Grant had just been inaugurated as the new United States President earlier that same year.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's husband, John William ALBERT, Sr., had also grown up in Marion County, Illinois. His great-grandfather, Captain Samuel Young, a Revolutionary War patriot, was the very FIRST white settler in the history of Marion County, Illinois. His ancestors from the Young, Albert, Tate, and Malcom families were among the very first settlers of Marion County, Illinois.
As newlyweds at the time the 1870 U.S. Federal Census was taken, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT and her husband John William Albert, Sr., set up housekeeping in rural Salem Township, Marion County, Illinois, where they farmed and began raising a family. His occupation is listed as a "farmer" while her occupation is listed as "keeping house" on the census record of 1870. The census record also reveals that they had $200.00 worth of personal property.
As recent newlyweds, the 1870 Agricultural Census reveals that Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert and her husband John William Albert, Sr. lived as tenants on a small farm consisting of 52 acres of farmland with 11 additional acres of woodland. The 1870 Agricultural Census also reveals that John and Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert owned livestock consisting of 2 horses and 3 pigs and that they had raised 200 bushels of corn and 300 bushels of oats.
Rich in detail, the 1880 Agricultural Census taken ten years later reveals many fascinating aspects of the farm life that Mr. and Mrs. Albert led as they began raising their children in rural Marion County, Illinois.
The Agricultural Census reports reveal that Mr. and Mrs. Albert had a crop - share rental agreement on the tenant farm on which they lived, whereby a portion of the crops that they raised would be used as payment for their lease of the owner's land each year.
At the time of the 1880 Agricultural Census, Mr. and Mrs. Albert rented a 40 acre farmstead. The cash value of their rented farm was listed at $550.00. Mr. and Mrs. Albert owned $20.00 worth of farming implements & machinery.
On this 40 acre farmstead, 27 acres were tilled farmland acres. The remaining 13 acres were uncleared farmland acres, still designated as natural woodland acres, not yet cleared or tilled for agriculture. The census reveals that 7 cords of firewood were cut in the past year from this wooded area, the 7 cords of firewood having a total market value of seven dollars.
Mr. and Mrs. Albert primarily raised the cereal crops of corn, oats, and wheat. The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that 15 acres of the 40 acre farm were devoted to the raising of corn. Their yield in the past year had been 120 bushels of corn. Six acres were devoted to the raising of oats, with a yield of 100 bushels of oats in the course of the past year. Three acres of the farm were devoted to the raising of wheat, with a yield of 29 bushels of wheat over the course of the past year.
In 1880, a special feature on the farm where they lived with their young children was a two-acre apple orchard. The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that 60 apple trees grew in this two-acre orchard. Furthermore, the 60 apple trees had produced 120 bushels of apples in the past year, with a total market value of $30.00.
Their livestock in 1880 consisted of two horses, a milk cow, a newborn calf, a litter of five pigs, and a flock of eighteen chickens. The value of their livestock at this time was shown to be worth $125.00.
With the milk cow on their farm, they had produced 100 pounds of freshly churned butter over the past year. From their flock of chickens, 144 dozen eggs had been gathered.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert and her husband, John William Albert, Sr., were the parents of nine children, all born in rural Marion County, Illinois:
Lewis Allen ALBERT (1871 - 1953)
Mary "Ella" ALBERT (1874 - 1963)
John "William" ALBERT (1879 - 1953)
Jesse E. ALBERT (1882 - 1925)
Frank E. ALBERT (1884 - 1949)
Fred Walter ALBERT (1888 - 1977)
Vercie May ALBERT - died in infancy
(Infant Son) - died in infancy
(Infant Son) - died in infancy
An early historian of life in Marion County, Illinois, was Professor J.H.G. Brinkerhoff. In regard to the experiences of women living in Marion County during this time period, he wrote:
"Here also the women attended to those never neglected duties of the time ~~~ knitting, spinning, and weaving ~~~ duties which have since almost lost their places among the household arts."
From details discovered in historical agricultural census reports that survive from the 1800s, her role as a farmwife and mother is revealed. Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert would have been involved in the care and feeding of farm livestock, tending to her flock of chickens, the gathering of thousands of chicken eggs, apple picking from the orchard area of their tenant farm, separating cow's milk from the cream, and producing hundreds of pounds of homemade butter with her churn. The livestock on their farm would have provided freshly butchered meat for family meals. The chopped firewood from the wooded areas of the tenant farm would have provided heating for the Albert family home, as well as fuel for the baking and cooking needs of her family.
The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that John Albert and his wife Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's 40 acre tenant farm had produced 120 bushels of corn, 100 bushels of oats, 29 bushels of wheat, 120 bushels of apples, 7 cords of chopped firewood, 144 dozen chicken eggs, and 100 pounds of churned butter, all in one year's time.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert lived in a time in which her days would have been filled with gardening, cooking, baking, housekeeping, soap-making, sewing, mending, butter churning, livestock chores, laundry washing, ironing, and tending to the motherly duties of nursing and childcare for her growing family. Three of her children passed away in early childhood, while six of her children eventually reached maturity.
The harvest season arrived in Marion County in the fall of 1892. In October, the citizens of Marion County hosted the Marion County Fair. The Marion County newspapers reported the first heavy frosts of the season in October, and the first snowfall in early November of 1892. A sudden hailstorm struck Marion County on Thursday, 17 November 1892.
The very next day after the hailstorm, just a few days after her twenty-third wedding anniversary, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT died on Friday, 18 November 1892, south of Salem, Illinois, in rural Marion County, Illinois.
When she passed away in her early 40s, Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert left behind her husband and their family of young children.
At the time of her death in the autumn season of 1892, her surviving children ranged in age from 21 years of age down to the age of 3 years old.
Her widowed husband, John William Albert, Sr., continued to farm in Marion County, Illinois. He continued on, raising the children left behind from his wife's early death.
The death of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT occurred just a few days after the historic U.S. Presidential Election of November 1892, in which incumbent U.S. President Benjamin Harrison was defeated by Grover Cleveland. Her death & burial occurred just days before Thanksgiving Day in 1892. During her lifetime, 12 U.S. Presidents had lived in the White House.
The passing of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT was noted on the front page of the Friday, 25 November 1892 edition of THE MARION COUNTY DEMOCRAT newspaper, published in Salem, Illinois, which stated:
"Mrs. John ALBERT, (who was living) south of town (Salem, Illinois), who had been sick but a few days, died unexpectedly last Friday morning (Date of Death: Friday, 18 November 1892)."
Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT was buried in historic Mount Moriah Cemetery in rural Raccoon Township, Marion County, Illinois, where a gray column-style tombstone set upon a double gray stone pedestal from the Victorian era has marked her final resting place since the 1890s. The inscription on her tombstone is dedicated to the memory of "Susan W. ALBERT, wife of John W. ALBERT, Sr."
Mount Moriah Christian Church is the oldest organized church congregation in the history of Marion County, Illinois. Fittingly, the Mount Moriah Cemetery, located in the rural churchyard of the Mount Moriah Christian Church, is just a few miles to the east of the original farm where she and her parents first settled when they journeyed to Marion County, Illinois, when she was just a young girl from Kentucky back in the early 1850s.
A few years after her passing, Professor J.H.G. Brinkerhoff wrote the well-known HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY, ILLINOIS, which was published in 1909. An excerpt from his book seems a fitting tribute that captures the legacy of Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's life in these words:
"They are gone. They sleep on the hilltop or in the valley where loving hands laid them, and the world moves on, and they who labored and loved and suffered and departed in the early days of Marion County, are only a fast disappearing vision of the past."
Her burial in the country churchyard cemetery of Mount Moriah Christian Church would have been on a November day, just before Thanksgiving time, with autumn leaves covering the ground. With her coffin borne to the country cemetery by horses, her burial signaled the final journey in the life of this pioneer woman, wife, and mother. Her widowed husband, just in his 40s, and her family of young children would have gathered at her gravesite on that November day, along with other relatives and friends who would have arrived at the country cemetery in horse-drawn wagons, carriages, and buggies to honor her.
The countryside setting of this historic cemetery, where many Marion County pioneers have been buried since the early 1800s, matches the rural experiences of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT's life. Her life began on a farmstead in rural Logan County, Kentucky, and ended on a farmstead in rural Marion County, Illinois.
From the BIBLE comes this verse from the BOOK OF REVELATIONS (Chapter 14 ~ Verse 13):
"Blessed are the dead ... that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them."
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's life would have been filled with the experiences of pioneer living in the 1800s, first as a young girl from Kentucky, growing up on the banks of Whippoorwill Creek at her birthplace in Logan County, Kentucky, and then settling on the prairie lands and wooded timber areas of the farms where she grew up and later raised her children in rural Marion County, Illinois.
She lived during a by-gone era when traveling was done in covered wagons, with farm fields plowed by horses, with her family's laundry scrubbed by hand on a washboard ~~~ with patchwork quilts covering feather beds ~~~ with long dresses & clothing stitched with needle and thread ~~~ with supplies purchased from the general store ~~~ with socks to darn with her needle and thread for her husband and children ~~~ with gathering baskets filled with fresh eggs from her flock of chickens ~~~ with firewood chopped for heating the home ~~~ with buckets brimming with fresh milk from the family's milk cow ~~~ with her churn filled with fresh cream for churning into butter ~~~ with garden produce gathered during the summer season for her family's table ~~~ with bushel baskets filled with apples during apple picking season ~~~ with homemade loaves of bread baking in a farmhouse kitchen ~~~ with home-cooked meals prepared from scratch ~~~ with thin wisps of smoke rising from the chimney of her family's home ~~~ with eight plates set around the kitchen table for meals with her husband and children ~~~ with a pile of dishes to wash with lye soap each day ~~~ with babies rocked peacefully to sleep in their cradle ~~~ and with kerosene lamps lit for evenings at home with her family. Her entire life's path would have centered upon the cycle of spring planting and fall harvest in a countryside setting.
As the years went by, 23 grandchildren were eventually born to the children that Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT left behind when she passed away in the autumn of 1892.
Marion County, Illinois, is still home to several relatives and descendants of this branch of the Farthing family that first settled on the prairie lands and timber lands of Marion County in the 1850s.
Today, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT has hundreds of living descendants, residing across the United States from coast to coast. They are her living legacy.
Peace to her memory.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing was born on her parents' farmstead in Logan County, Kentucky. She was born during the short U.S. Presidential term of President Zachary Taylor. When she was born, there were just 30 stars on the American flag, representing the 30 states that were part of the United States at the time of her birth.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's ancestors were originally from Pittsylvania County, Virginia. One of her direct ancestors, Richard Farthing, has been officially recognized as an American patriot during the Revolutionary War. Susan Wilmoth Farthing's own paternal grandfather, Abner Farthing, had served in the War of 1812 in the years before Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birth.
Her father and both of her grandfathers were farmers, and her life's pathway during the 1800s centered upon rural agricultural life.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing was the daughter of John V. Farthing and his wife, Martha Ann (Farthing) Farthing.
Her father and mother were actually distant cousins to each other. Her parents had been married on 27 January 1842, in Robertson County, Tennessee, just a short distance away from Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace over the state boundary line in Logan County, Kentucky.
At the time of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birth, her parents' farmland was located in the western sector of Logan County, Kentucky. Early land records of Logan County, Kentucky, reveal that Big Whippoorwill Creek meandered through their farm property in Logan County. Her family's farmland was described as being "On The Waters of Big Whippoorwill Creek" in the land deed records of Logan County, Kentucky.
Big Whippoorwill Creek still flows through Logan County to this very day. Big Whippoorwill Creek is an important tributary to the Red River, which flows through Tennessee and Kentucky. Just a few miles to the south of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace in Kentucky was the northern border of Tennessee.
The farmland that her parents owned in Logan County, Kentucky, included a water spring, as well as trees growing along the banks of Big Whippoorwill Creek. Early land records reveal that the trees growing on their farm property "On the Waters of Big Whippoorwill Creek" included sycamore, white oak, red oak, elm, beech, black oak, post oak, black jack, dogwood, water oak, Spanish oak, and hornbeam trees.
Some of the farmland that her parents owned had once been owned by Susan Wilmoth Farthing's great-grandfather, William Watson. At various times, both sets of her grandparents had also lived and farmed in Logan County, Kentucky, so her family's connection to Logan County went back into the earlier generations of her family.
Historically, Logan County, Kentucky, was famous for its tobacco production. A description of Logan County, Kentucky, written for the 1854 UNITED STATES GAZETTEER states that Logan County, Kentucky, is "beautifully diversified by ranges of hills, covered with timber. The soil is fertile, and well watered. Indian corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, and livestock are the staples."
This description very fittingly matches the scene at Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace in Logan County, Kentucky. On the farm where she was born, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's father raised primarily tobacco, corn, and oats, as did many of their neighbors.
The 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky, taken just months after the birth of Susan Wilmoth Farthing, reveals specific details about her birthplace in rural Kentucky.
At the time of the 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky, her parents owned a farm consisting of 77 acres. Her father had 40 of the acres improved and under cultivation, with 37 acres that were still yet to be cleared and improved for farming. In 1850, her family's farm was assessed at a value of $385.00, with an additional $10.00 worth of farming implements owned at that time.
At the time of her birth, her family owned livestock consisting of two milk cows, two other cattle, and a litter of 40 pigs. Fifty dollars' worth of livestock animals had been slaughtered for butchering and the family also reported $5.00 worth of home-made manufactures been produced. From their milk cows, 100 pounds of butter had been produced, all within the course of the past year.
The 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky states that her father's crop production from the past year had been 300 bushels of corn and 100 bushels of oats. Her father was also shown to be a tobacco farmer in the census report, raising tobacco as a cash crop on his Kentucky farmland, as were many of the farmers in Logan County during that time period.
In terms of garden produce, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's parents had raised 15 bushels of Irish potatoes, 12 bushels of sweet potatoes, and 1 bushel of peas & beans over the course of the past year. These documents give us a richly detailed sense of the farmstead where Susan Wilmoth Farthing was born in rural Logan County, Kentucky.
While primarily a farmer, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's father, John V. Farthing, was also appointed a road overseer in Logan County, Kentucky. Records of March 1852 show that her father held this position of responsibility in Logan County, Kentucky.
The first known record of Susan Wilmoth Farthing shows her as an eight-month-old infant living in the household of her parents in rural Logan County, Kentucky, in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT can be found in the following federal & state census records, living in these rural localities:
1850: Logan County, Kentucky
1855: Centralia Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1860: Centralia Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1870: Salem Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1880: Salem Twp., Marion County, Illinois
As a young girl in the very early 1850s, Susan Wilmoth Farthing migrated with her parents from her early childhood home near Big Whippoorwill Creek in rural Logan County, Kentucky, to Marion County, Illinois.
Their north-western overland journey of 170 miles from their home in Kentucky to their new home in Illinois would have included the crossing of the mighty Ohio River. Marion County, Illinois, became her home for the last forty years of her life.
Making the journey from Logan County, Kentucky, with John V. Farthing and his wife, Martha Ann (Farthing) Farthing, were their four young children named Abner Preston Farthing, Susan Wilmoth Farthing, Francis America Farthing, and H.T. Farthing. T
These four young siblings were aged five years and younger at the time of their journey. One can envision this pioneer couple from Kentucky packing their most treasured possessions, supplies, and provisions and traveling with their two young sons and two young daughters to their new home in Illinois.
Based on the discovery of historic land deeds from this time period, Susan Wilmoth Farthing would have been about four years old when she journeyed with her family from her birthplace in Kentucky to her family's new home in Illinois.
By 1853, her parents had accumulated almost 100 acres of farmland in rural Logan County, Kentucky. Land deed records indicate that her parents sold the last of their Kentucky farm property in October of 1853, during the U.S. Presidency of Franklin Pierce. It appears that their journey from Kentucky to Illinois occurred in late October 1853, when the colors of the autumn leaves are in full splendor.
The migration of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family from Kentucky to Illinois was multi-generational. Her paternal grandparents, her maternal grandparents, as well as several of her aunts, uncles, and cousins, also migrated from Kentucky to Marion County, Illinois, during this same period of time. Previous to this, other relatives and neighbors from Logan County, Kentucky, had already migrated to Marion County, Illinois.
Early land records of Marion County, Illinois, show that her father, John V. Farthing, purchased two 40 acre farms on 4 November 1853, at a cost of $2.50 per acre. He purchased the land from the United States Federal Government. The total purchase price for the 80 acres of land totaled $200.00.
A description of Illinois, written for the 1854 UNITED STATES GAZETTEER describes what Illinois looked like at the time they settled there:
"Her wide-spread prairies, decked with flowers of every hue that can gratify the eye, and covered with waving grass, convey, besides their quiet landscape beauty, a feeling of sublimity from their vastness, similar to that created by viewing the ocean."
Marion County, Illinois, was specifically described in this way in 1854:
"The county includes a part of the Grand Prairie, and is partly covered with forests. The general surface (of Marion County, Illinois) is generally undulating; the soil is excellent. Indian corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, castor beans, white beans, and fine fruits flourish, and the prairies produce excellent pasturage for cattle."
The farmstead that became her new childhood home was located in Section 13 of rural Centralia Township, Marion County, Illinois. Centralia Township is in the southwestern corner of Marion County, Illinois. Her family's new farm was located about 5 miles east of Centralia, Illinois.
This branch of the Farthing family and other Farthing family members were among the early settlers noted in the pioneer settlement of Marion County, Illinois. The special 1855 State Census of Illinois shows that Susan Wilmoth Farthing, her parents, and both sets of her grandparents were established on farms in rural Marion County, Illinois. It is evident that three living generations of this Farthing family line migrated to Marion County, Illinois, during this time of pioneer migration in the early 1850s.
The 1855 State Census of Illinois shows John V. Farthing as the head of the household and reflects the presence of his wife, Martha Ann Farthing, with their four young children. The census report shows that a total of six family members living in this rural household. Furthermore, this 1855 state census reveals that they owned $150.00 worth of livestock animals at that time.
A treasured household inventory taken in in 1856 during her childhood years in Illinois gives us a glimpse inside Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood home in rural Marion County, Illinois.
The furnishings of her childhood home in the 1850s included tables, six sitting chairs, beds, bedsteads, a rocking cradle, a chest, a trunk, a few books, a "looking glass" mirror, and one clock.
The cooking area of her childhood home included one stove and stovepipe. Along with cupboard ware there was also an assortment of pots, pans, skillets, stone jars, jugs, buckets, tubs, a fireplace tool set, 400 pounds of bacon, a jar of lard, a teakettle, and a pile of firewood.
The domestic household items from the 1856 household inventory give us a glimpse into the household chores and handicrafts that were part of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood experiences. These items include a butter churn, a washboard, two wash tubs, buckets, two smoothing irons for ironing clothes, baskets, a weaving loom, a spinning wheel, and a set of carding combs for combing fibers in preparation for spinning.
Farming and gardening implements included a shovel plow, horse-drawn plow accessories,as well as weeding and grubbing hoes. Carpentry tools included a hatchet, a felling axe, two iron wedges, a hammer, a hand-saw, an auger, and wood-working tools such as a drawing knife, a frow, and an adze. The inventory also indicates bushels of corn, indicating that corn was a primary crop on their Illinois farmstead.
The 1856 inventory also reveals that Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family owned one mare, a white spotted sow, six piglets, eight sheep, one milk cow, a baby calf, one yearling steer, and two additional cows. The inventory reveals that the family owned bee stands, indicating that the family kept honeybees on their Illinois farm.
Livery and tack items found on the farm during her childhood days included a bridle, a martingale, a man's horse saddle, and a woman's horse saddle & bridle.
These items from the 1856 inventory give us a richly-detailed sense of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood home where she grew up in rural Marion County, Illinois.
From the 1856 household inventory, we know that domestic work such as washing, laundry, and ironing were part of the household tasks. Cooking, baking, butter churning, and food preservation were part of the domestic tasks in her childhood home. The carding, spinning, and weaving of wool is also evident from the listing of the spinning wheel, loom, and carding combs.
The inventory of farming implements reveals that outdoor farm chores for her family included plowing, planting, gardening, weeding, field work, harvesting and other agricultural chores. The inventory of tools indicates evidence of carpentry work, wood-chopping, and land-clearing on the Farthing family farmland.
The livestock inventory reveals that livestock chores such as livestock feeding, sheep shearing, the milking of cows, the care and grooming of horses, and the gathering of honey was also part of her family's chores on their farmstead in rural Marion County, Illinois.
A series of losses marked the childhood years of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's life. Within a short period of time, her little brother H.T. Farthing, both of her grandfathers, and her father died. Susan Wilmoth Farthing was only 6 years old when her father passed away on 14 March 1856. Following her father's death, her mother was left a widow with young children to raise.
To settle the estate of her late father, an auction was held on Friday, 18 April 1856. Susan Wilmoth Farthing's widowed mother was able to retain many of the personal possessions, household furnishings, farming implements, and livestock animals during the estate and auction proceedings, thereby keeping their rural farmstead life intact. The ownership of their 80 acre farm also remained intact.
Three years later, on 24 May 1859, her widowed mother remarried to widower Crispen Dickerson Farthing, who became Susan Wilmoth Farthing's new step-father. Her step-father was another Farthing family cousin. Her step-father rented the farmland that had been owned by Susan Wilmoth Farthing's late father.
The 1860 Agricultural Census of Illinois shows that on the farm where she was growing up, the primary crops of corn and tobacco were being raised. The livestock on the farm from her childhood years in rural Centralia Township included two horses, a milk cow, and a litter of pigs.
The value of her family's 80 acre farm was assessed at a value of $1,600.00 in 1860, with an additional $30.00 worth of farming implements. The 1860 Agricultural Census also reveals that on her family's 80 acre farm, 30 of the acres had been improved for farming purposes, while 50 of the acres were still yet to be improved for crop production. The farm where she was growing up during her girlhood years had produced 750 bushels of corn and 400 pounds of tobacco in one year's time.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family during this period in her childhood now consisted of a combination of step-siblings, her own siblings, and a newborn half-brother. A short time after this, her mother also died. The loss of their father in 1856 and the loss of their mother just a few years later left Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her older brother, Abner Preston Farthing, and her younger sister, Francis America Farthing, legal orphans.
Serving as her legal guardians through the years following the death of her parents were her father's brother, Linville Farthing, and later her mother's brother, James Farthing. Both of these uncles also resided in Marion County, Illinois, and took care of business and legal matters for Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her brother and sister.
In 1857, from their paternal grandfather Abner Farthing's estate, the 3 orphans received some inheiritance money, which was used to help financially support Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her brother and sister. The 3 children also received some inheiritance money through the years from the farm property that had belonged to their parents.
Census reports from later years reveal that Susan Wilmoth Farthing could not read and could not write, indicating that she did not have the opportunity to attend school during her childhood years. When Susan Wilmoth Farthing was a girl, Abraham Lincoln, a candidate from Illinois, won the U.S. Presidential Election in November 1860.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing grew up in Marion County, Illinois, during the American pioneer period of the 1850s and the Civil War era of the 1860s. During the time that she was growing up, the population of Illinois doubled in number, due to the arrival of thousands of pioneers who settled in Illinois.
Following the Civil War era, as a young woman, Susan Wilmoth Farthing married John William Albert, Sr. (1845-1929). They were married in the autumn season when the annual harvest would be drawing to a close. They were married on Sunday, 7 November 1869, in Marion County, Illinois, by Samuel Fowler Phillips, Justice of the Peace.
A record of their marriage stating that "Miss Susan W. Farthing" was married to "Mr. John Albert" is preserved at the Marion County Courthouse located in Salem, Illinois. At the time of their marriage, President Ulysses S. Grant had just been inaugurated as the new United States President earlier that same year.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's husband, John William ALBERT, Sr., had also grown up in Marion County, Illinois. His great-grandfather, Captain Samuel Young, a Revolutionary War patriot, was the very FIRST white settler in the history of Marion County, Illinois. His ancestors from the Young, Albert, Tate, and Malcom families were among the very first settlers of Marion County, Illinois.
As newlyweds at the time the 1870 U.S. Federal Census was taken, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT and her husband John William Albert, Sr., set up housekeeping in rural Salem Township, Marion County, Illinois, where they farmed and began raising a family. His occupation is listed as a "farmer" while her occupation is listed as "keeping house" on the census record of 1870. The census record also reveals that they had $200.00 worth of personal property.
As recent newlyweds, the 1870 Agricultural Census reveals that Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert and her husband John William Albert, Sr. lived as tenants on a small farm consisting of 52 acres of farmland with 11 additional acres of woodland. The 1870 Agricultural Census also reveals that John and Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert owned livestock consisting of 2 horses and 3 pigs and that they had raised 200 bushels of corn and 300 bushels of oats.
Rich in detail, the 1880 Agricultural Census taken ten years later reveals many fascinating aspects of the farm life that Mr. and Mrs. Albert led as they began raising their children in rural Marion County, Illinois.
The Agricultural Census reports reveal that Mr. and Mrs. Albert had a crop - share rental agreement on the tenant farm on which they lived, whereby a portion of the crops that they raised would be used as payment for their lease of the owner's land each year.
At the time of the 1880 Agricultural Census, Mr. and Mrs. Albert rented a 40 acre farmstead. The cash value of their rented farm was listed at $550.00. Mr. and Mrs. Albert owned $20.00 worth of farming implements & machinery.
On this 40 acre farmstead, 27 acres were tilled farmland acres. The remaining 13 acres were uncleared farmland acres, still designated as natural woodland acres, not yet cleared or tilled for agriculture. The census reveals that 7 cords of firewood were cut in the past year from this wooded area, the 7 cords of firewood having a total market value of seven dollars.
Mr. and Mrs. Albert primarily raised the cereal crops of corn, oats, and wheat. The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that 15 acres of the 40 acre farm were devoted to the raising of corn. Their yield in the past year had been 120 bushels of corn. Six acres were devoted to the raising of oats, with a yield of 100 bushels of oats in the course of the past year. Three acres of the farm were devoted to the raising of wheat, with a yield of 29 bushels of wheat over the course of the past year.
In 1880, a special feature on the farm where they lived with their young children was a two-acre apple orchard. The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that 60 apple trees grew in this two-acre orchard. Furthermore, the 60 apple trees had produced 120 bushels of apples in the past year, with a total market value of $30.00.
Their livestock in 1880 consisted of two horses, a milk cow, a newborn calf, a litter of five pigs, and a flock of eighteen chickens. The value of their livestock at this time was shown to be worth $125.00.
With the milk cow on their farm, they had produced 100 pounds of freshly churned butter over the past year. From their flock of chickens, 144 dozen eggs had been gathered.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert and her husband, John William Albert, Sr., were the parents of nine children, all born in rural Marion County, Illinois:
Lewis Allen ALBERT (1871 - 1953)
Mary "Ella" ALBERT (1874 - 1963)
John "William" ALBERT (1879 - 1953)
Jesse E. ALBERT (1882 - 1925)
Frank E. ALBERT (1884 - 1949)
Fred Walter ALBERT (1888 - 1977)
Vercie May ALBERT - died in infancy
(Infant Son) - died in infancy
(Infant Son) - died in infancy
An early historian of life in Marion County, Illinois, was Professor J.H.G. Brinkerhoff. In regard to the experiences of women living in Marion County during this time period, he wrote:
"Here also the women attended to those never neglected duties of the time ~~~ knitting, spinning, and weaving ~~~ duties which have since almost lost their places among the household arts."
From details discovered in historical agricultural census reports that survive from the 1800s, her role as a farmwife and mother is revealed. Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert would have been involved in the care and feeding of farm livestock, tending to her flock of chickens, the gathering of thousands of chicken eggs, apple picking from the orchard area of their tenant farm, separating cow's milk from the cream, and producing hundreds of pounds of homemade butter with her churn. The livestock on their farm would have provided freshly butchered meat for family meals. The chopped firewood from the wooded areas of the tenant farm would have provided heating for the Albert family home, as well as fuel for the baking and cooking needs of her family.
The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that John Albert and his wife Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's 40 acre tenant farm had produced 120 bushels of corn, 100 bushels of oats, 29 bushels of wheat, 120 bushels of apples, 7 cords of chopped firewood, 144 dozen chicken eggs, and 100 pounds of churned butter, all in one year's time.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert lived in a time in which her days would have been filled with gardening, cooking, baking, housekeeping, soap-making, sewing, mending, butter churning, livestock chores, laundry washing, ironing, and tending to the motherly duties of nursing and childcare for her growing family. Three of her children passed away in early childhood, while six of her children eventually reached maturity.
The harvest season arrived in Marion County in the fall of 1892. In October, the citizens of Marion County hosted the Marion County Fair. The Marion County newspapers reported the first heavy frosts of the season in October, and the first snowfall in early November of 1892. A sudden hailstorm struck Marion County on Thursday, 17 November 1892.
The very next day after the hailstorm, just a few days after her twenty-third wedding anniversary, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT died on Friday, 18 November 1892, south of Salem, Illinois, in rural Marion County, Illinois.
When she passed away in her early 40s, Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert left behind her husband and their family of young children.
At the time of her death in the autumn season of 1892, her surviving children ranged in age from 21 years of age down to the age of 3 years old.
Her widowed husband, John William Albert, Sr., continued to farm in Marion County, Illinois. He continued on, raising the children left behind from his wife's early death.
The death of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT occurred just a few days after the historic U.S. Presidential Election of November 1892, in which incumbent U.S. President Benjamin Harrison was defeated by Grover Cleveland. Her death & burial occurred just days before Thanksgiving Day in 1892. During her lifetime, 12 U.S. Presidents had lived in the White House.
The passing of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT was noted on the front page of the Friday, 25 November 1892 edition of THE MARION COUNTY DEMOCRAT newspaper, published in Salem, Illinois, which stated:
"Mrs. John ALBERT, (who was living) south of town (Salem, Illinois), who had been sick but a few days, died unexpectedly last Friday morning (Date of Death: Friday, 18 November 1892)."
Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT was buried in historic Mount Moriah Cemetery in rural Raccoon Township, Marion County, Illinois, where a gray column-style tombstone set upon a double gray stone pedestal from the Victorian era has marked her final resting place since the 1890s. The inscription on her tombstone is dedicated to the memory of "Susan W. ALBERT, wife of John W. ALBERT, Sr."
Mount Moriah Christian Church is the oldest organized church congregation in the history of Marion County, Illinois. Fittingly, the Mount Moriah Cemetery, located in the rural churchyard of the Mount Moriah Christian Church, is just a few miles to the east of the original farm where she and her parents first settled when they journeyed to Marion County, Illinois, when she was just a young girl from Kentucky back in the early 1850s.
A few years after her passing, Professor J.H.G. Brinkerhoff wrote the well-known HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY, ILLINOIS, which was published in 1909. An excerpt from his book seems a fitting tribute that captures the legacy of Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's life in these words:
"They are gone. They sleep on the hilltop or in the valley where loving hands laid them, and the world moves on, and they who labored and loved and suffered and departed in the early days of Marion County, are only a fast disappearing vision of the past."
Her burial in the country churchyard cemetery of Mount Moriah Christian Church would have been on a November day, just before Thanksgiving time, with autumn leaves covering the ground. With her coffin borne to the country cemetery by horses, her burial signaled the final journey in the life of this pioneer woman, wife, and mother. Her widowed husband, just in his 40s, and her family of young children would have gathered at her gravesite on that November day, along with other relatives and friends who would have arrived at the country cemetery in horse-drawn wagons, carriages, and buggies to honor her.
The countryside setting of this historic cemetery, where many Marion County pioneers have been buried since the early 1800s, matches the rural experiences of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT's life. Her life began on a farmstead in rural Logan County, Kentucky, and ended on a farmstead in rural Marion County, Illinois.
From the BIBLE comes this verse from the BOOK OF REVELATIONS (Chapter 14 ~ Verse 13):
"Blessed are the dead ... that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them."
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's life would have been filled with the experiences of pioneer living in the 1800s, first as a young girl from Kentucky, growing up on the banks of Whippoorwill Creek at her birthplace in Logan County, Kentucky, and then settling on the prairie lands and wooded timber areas of the farms where she grew up and later raised her children in rural Marion County, Illinois.
She lived during a by-gone era when traveling was done in covered wagons, with farm fields plowed by horses, with her family's laundry scrubbed by hand on a washboard ~~~ with patchwork quilts covering feather beds ~~~ with long dresses & clothing stitched with needle and thread ~~~ with supplies purchased from the general store ~~~ with socks to darn with her needle and thread for her husband and children ~~~ with gathering baskets filled with fresh eggs from her flock of chickens ~~~ with firewood chopped for heating the home ~~~ with buckets brimming with fresh milk from the family's milk cow ~~~ with her churn filled with fresh cream for churning into butter ~~~ with garden produce gathered during the summer season for her family's table ~~~ with bushel baskets filled with apples during apple picking season ~~~ with homemade loaves of bread baking in a farmhouse kitchen ~~~ with home-cooked meals prepared from scratch ~~~ with thin wisps of smoke rising from the chimney of her family's home ~~~ with eight plates set around the kitchen table for meals with her husband and children ~~~ with a pile of dishes to wash with lye soap each day ~~~ with babies rocked peacefully to sleep in their cradle ~~~ and with kerosene lamps lit for evenings at home with her family. Her entire life's path would have centered upon the cycle of spring planting and fall harvest in a countryside setting.
As the years went by, 23 grandchildren were eventually born to the children that Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT left behind when she passed away in the autumn of 1892.
Marion County, Illinois, is still home to several relatives and descendants of this branch of the Farthing family that first settled on the prairie lands and timber lands of Marion County in the 1850s.
Today, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT has hundreds of living descendants, residing across the United States from coast to coast. They are her living legacy.
Peace to her memory.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's ancestors were originally from Pittsylvania County, Virginia. One of her direct ancestors, Richard Farthing, has been officially recognized as an American patriot during the Revolutionary War. Susan Wilmoth Farthing's own paternal grandfather, Abner Farthing, had served in the War of 1812 in the years before Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birth.
Her father and both of her grandfathers were farmers, and her life's pathway during the 1800s centered upon rural agricultural life.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing was the daughter of John V. Farthing and his wife, Martha Ann (Farthing) Farthing.
Her father and mother were actually distant cousins to each other. Her parents had been married on 27 January 1842, in Robertson County, Tennessee, just a short distance away from Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace over the state boundary line in Logan County, Kentucky.
At the time of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birth, her parents' farmland was located in the western sector of Logan County, Kentucky. Early land records of Logan County, Kentucky, reveal that Big Whippoorwill Creek meandered through their farm property in Logan County. Her family's farmland was described as being "On The Waters of Big Whippoorwill Creek" in the land deed records of Logan County, Kentucky.
Big Whippoorwill Creek still flows through Logan County to this very day. Big Whippoorwill Creek is an important tributary to the Red River, which flows through Tennessee and Kentucky. Just a few miles to the south of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace in Kentucky was the northern border of Tennessee.
The farmland that her parents owned in Logan County, Kentucky, included a water spring, as well as trees growing along the banks of Big Whippoorwill Creek. Early land records reveal that the trees growing on their farm property "On the Waters of Big Whippoorwill Creek" included sycamore, white oak, red oak, elm, beech, black oak, post oak, black jack, dogwood, water oak, Spanish oak, and hornbeam trees.
Some of the farmland that her parents owned had once been owned by Susan Wilmoth Farthing's great-grandfather, William Watson. At various times, both sets of her grandparents had also lived and farmed in Logan County, Kentucky, so her family's connection to Logan County went back into the earlier generations of her family.
Historically, Logan County, Kentucky, was famous for its tobacco production. A description of Logan County, Kentucky, written for the 1854 UNITED STATES GAZETTEER states that Logan County, Kentucky, is "beautifully diversified by ranges of hills, covered with timber. The soil is fertile, and well watered. Indian corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, and livestock are the staples."
This description very fittingly matches the scene at Susan Wilmoth Farthing's birthplace in Logan County, Kentucky. On the farm where she was born, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's father raised primarily tobacco, corn, and oats, as did many of their neighbors.
The 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky, taken just months after the birth of Susan Wilmoth Farthing, reveals specific details about her birthplace in rural Kentucky.
At the time of the 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky, her parents owned a farm consisting of 77 acres. Her father had 40 of the acres improved and under cultivation, with 37 acres that were still yet to be cleared and improved for farming. In 1850, her family's farm was assessed at a value of $385.00, with an additional $10.00 worth of farming implements owned at that time.
At the time of her birth, her family owned livestock consisting of two milk cows, two other cattle, and a litter of 40 pigs. Fifty dollars' worth of livestock animals had been slaughtered for butchering and the family also reported $5.00 worth of home-made manufactures been produced. From their milk cows, 100 pounds of butter had been produced, all within the course of the past year.
The 1850 Agricultural Census of Kentucky states that her father's crop production from the past year had been 300 bushels of corn and 100 bushels of oats. Her father was also shown to be a tobacco farmer in the census report, raising tobacco as a cash crop on his Kentucky farmland, as were many of the farmers in Logan County during that time period.
In terms of garden produce, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's parents had raised 15 bushels of Irish potatoes, 12 bushels of sweet potatoes, and 1 bushel of peas & beans over the course of the past year. These documents give us a richly detailed sense of the farmstead where Susan Wilmoth Farthing was born in rural Logan County, Kentucky.
While primarily a farmer, Susan Wilmoth Farthing's father, John V. Farthing, was also appointed a road overseer in Logan County, Kentucky. Records of March 1852 show that her father held this position of responsibility in Logan County, Kentucky.
The first known record of Susan Wilmoth Farthing shows her as an eight-month-old infant living in the household of her parents in rural Logan County, Kentucky, in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT can be found in the following federal & state census records, living in these rural localities:
1850: Logan County, Kentucky
1855: Centralia Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1860: Centralia Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1870: Salem Twp., Marion County, Illinois
1880: Salem Twp., Marion County, Illinois
As a young girl in the very early 1850s, Susan Wilmoth Farthing migrated with her parents from her early childhood home near Big Whippoorwill Creek in rural Logan County, Kentucky, to Marion County, Illinois.
Their north-western overland journey of 170 miles from their home in Kentucky to their new home in Illinois would have included the crossing of the mighty Ohio River. Marion County, Illinois, became her home for the last forty years of her life.
Making the journey from Logan County, Kentucky, with John V. Farthing and his wife, Martha Ann (Farthing) Farthing, were their four young children named Abner Preston Farthing, Susan Wilmoth Farthing, Francis America Farthing, and H.T. Farthing. T
These four young siblings were aged five years and younger at the time of their journey. One can envision this pioneer couple from Kentucky packing their most treasured possessions, supplies, and provisions and traveling with their two young sons and two young daughters to their new home in Illinois.
Based on the discovery of historic land deeds from this time period, Susan Wilmoth Farthing would have been about four years old when she journeyed with her family from her birthplace in Kentucky to her family's new home in Illinois.
By 1853, her parents had accumulated almost 100 acres of farmland in rural Logan County, Kentucky. Land deed records indicate that her parents sold the last of their Kentucky farm property in October of 1853, during the U.S. Presidency of Franklin Pierce. It appears that their journey from Kentucky to Illinois occurred in late October 1853, when the colors of the autumn leaves are in full splendor.
The migration of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family from Kentucky to Illinois was multi-generational. Her paternal grandparents, her maternal grandparents, as well as several of her aunts, uncles, and cousins, also migrated from Kentucky to Marion County, Illinois, during this same period of time. Previous to this, other relatives and neighbors from Logan County, Kentucky, had already migrated to Marion County, Illinois.
Early land records of Marion County, Illinois, show that her father, John V. Farthing, purchased two 40 acre farms on 4 November 1853, at a cost of $2.50 per acre. He purchased the land from the United States Federal Government. The total purchase price for the 80 acres of land totaled $200.00.
A description of Illinois, written for the 1854 UNITED STATES GAZETTEER describes what Illinois looked like at the time they settled there:
"Her wide-spread prairies, decked with flowers of every hue that can gratify the eye, and covered with waving grass, convey, besides their quiet landscape beauty, a feeling of sublimity from their vastness, similar to that created by viewing the ocean."
Marion County, Illinois, was specifically described in this way in 1854:
"The county includes a part of the Grand Prairie, and is partly covered with forests. The general surface (of Marion County, Illinois) is generally undulating; the soil is excellent. Indian corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, castor beans, white beans, and fine fruits flourish, and the prairies produce excellent pasturage for cattle."
The farmstead that became her new childhood home was located in Section 13 of rural Centralia Township, Marion County, Illinois. Centralia Township is in the southwestern corner of Marion County, Illinois. Her family's new farm was located about 5 miles east of Centralia, Illinois.
This branch of the Farthing family and other Farthing family members were among the early settlers noted in the pioneer settlement of Marion County, Illinois. The special 1855 State Census of Illinois shows that Susan Wilmoth Farthing, her parents, and both sets of her grandparents were established on farms in rural Marion County, Illinois. It is evident that three living generations of this Farthing family line migrated to Marion County, Illinois, during this time of pioneer migration in the early 1850s.
The 1855 State Census of Illinois shows John V. Farthing as the head of the household and reflects the presence of his wife, Martha Ann Farthing, with their four young children. The census report shows that a total of six family members living in this rural household. Furthermore, this 1855 state census reveals that they owned $150.00 worth of livestock animals at that time.
A treasured household inventory taken in in 1856 during her childhood years in Illinois gives us a glimpse inside Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood home in rural Marion County, Illinois.
The furnishings of her childhood home in the 1850s included tables, six sitting chairs, beds, bedsteads, a rocking cradle, a chest, a trunk, a few books, a "looking glass" mirror, and one clock.
The cooking area of her childhood home included one stove and stovepipe. Along with cupboard ware there was also an assortment of pots, pans, skillets, stone jars, jugs, buckets, tubs, a fireplace tool set, 400 pounds of bacon, a jar of lard, a teakettle, and a pile of firewood.
The domestic household items from the 1856 household inventory give us a glimpse into the household chores and handicrafts that were part of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood experiences. These items include a butter churn, a washboard, two wash tubs, buckets, two smoothing irons for ironing clothes, baskets, a weaving loom, a spinning wheel, and a set of carding combs for combing fibers in preparation for spinning.
Farming and gardening implements included a shovel plow, horse-drawn plow accessories,as well as weeding and grubbing hoes. Carpentry tools included a hatchet, a felling axe, two iron wedges, a hammer, a hand-saw, an auger, and wood-working tools such as a drawing knife, a frow, and an adze. The inventory also indicates bushels of corn, indicating that corn was a primary crop on their Illinois farmstead.
The 1856 inventory also reveals that Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family owned one mare, a white spotted sow, six piglets, eight sheep, one milk cow, a baby calf, one yearling steer, and two additional cows. The inventory reveals that the family owned bee stands, indicating that the family kept honeybees on their Illinois farm.
Livery and tack items found on the farm during her childhood days included a bridle, a martingale, a man's horse saddle, and a woman's horse saddle & bridle.
These items from the 1856 inventory give us a richly-detailed sense of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's childhood home where she grew up in rural Marion County, Illinois.
From the 1856 household inventory, we know that domestic work such as washing, laundry, and ironing were part of the household tasks. Cooking, baking, butter churning, and food preservation were part of the domestic tasks in her childhood home. The carding, spinning, and weaving of wool is also evident from the listing of the spinning wheel, loom, and carding combs.
The inventory of farming implements reveals that outdoor farm chores for her family included plowing, planting, gardening, weeding, field work, harvesting and other agricultural chores. The inventory of tools indicates evidence of carpentry work, wood-chopping, and land-clearing on the Farthing family farmland.
The livestock inventory reveals that livestock chores such as livestock feeding, sheep shearing, the milking of cows, the care and grooming of horses, and the gathering of honey was also part of her family's chores on their farmstead in rural Marion County, Illinois.
A series of losses marked the childhood years of Susan Wilmoth Farthing's life. Within a short period of time, her little brother H.T. Farthing, both of her grandfathers, and her father died. Susan Wilmoth Farthing was only 6 years old when her father passed away on 14 March 1856. Following her father's death, her mother was left a widow with young children to raise.
To settle the estate of her late father, an auction was held on Friday, 18 April 1856. Susan Wilmoth Farthing's widowed mother was able to retain many of the personal possessions, household furnishings, farming implements, and livestock animals during the estate and auction proceedings, thereby keeping their rural farmstead life intact. The ownership of their 80 acre farm also remained intact.
Three years later, on 24 May 1859, her widowed mother remarried to widower Crispen Dickerson Farthing, who became Susan Wilmoth Farthing's new step-father. Her step-father was another Farthing family cousin. Her step-father rented the farmland that had been owned by Susan Wilmoth Farthing's late father.
The 1860 Agricultural Census of Illinois shows that on the farm where she was growing up, the primary crops of corn and tobacco were being raised. The livestock on the farm from her childhood years in rural Centralia Township included two horses, a milk cow, and a litter of pigs.
The value of her family's 80 acre farm was assessed at a value of $1,600.00 in 1860, with an additional $30.00 worth of farming implements. The 1860 Agricultural Census also reveals that on her family's 80 acre farm, 30 of the acres had been improved for farming purposes, while 50 of the acres were still yet to be improved for crop production. The farm where she was growing up during her girlhood years had produced 750 bushels of corn and 400 pounds of tobacco in one year's time.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's family during this period in her childhood now consisted of a combination of step-siblings, her own siblings, and a newborn half-brother. A short time after this, her mother also died. The loss of their father in 1856 and the loss of their mother just a few years later left Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her older brother, Abner Preston Farthing, and her younger sister, Francis America Farthing, legal orphans.
Serving as her legal guardians through the years following the death of her parents were her father's brother, Linville Farthing, and later her mother's brother, James Farthing. Both of these uncles also resided in Marion County, Illinois, and took care of business and legal matters for Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her brother and sister.
In 1857, from their paternal grandfather Abner Farthing's estate, the 3 orphans received some inheiritance money, which was used to help financially support Susan Wilmoth Farthing and her brother and sister. The 3 children also received some inheiritance money through the years from the farm property that had belonged to their parents.
Census reports from later years reveal that Susan Wilmoth Farthing could not read and could not write, indicating that she did not have the opportunity to attend school during her childhood years. When Susan Wilmoth Farthing was a girl, Abraham Lincoln, a candidate from Illinois, won the U.S. Presidential Election in November 1860.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing grew up in Marion County, Illinois, during the American pioneer period of the 1850s and the Civil War era of the 1860s. During the time that she was growing up, the population of Illinois doubled in number, due to the arrival of thousands of pioneers who settled in Illinois.
Following the Civil War era, as a young woman, Susan Wilmoth Farthing married John William Albert, Sr. (1845-1929). They were married in the autumn season when the annual harvest would be drawing to a close. They were married on Sunday, 7 November 1869, in Marion County, Illinois, by Samuel Fowler Phillips, Justice of the Peace.
A record of their marriage stating that "Miss Susan W. Farthing" was married to "Mr. John Albert" is preserved at the Marion County Courthouse located in Salem, Illinois. At the time of their marriage, President Ulysses S. Grant had just been inaugurated as the new United States President earlier that same year.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing's husband, John William ALBERT, Sr., had also grown up in Marion County, Illinois. His great-grandfather, Captain Samuel Young, a Revolutionary War patriot, was the very FIRST white settler in the history of Marion County, Illinois. His ancestors from the Young, Albert, Tate, and Malcom families were among the very first settlers of Marion County, Illinois.
As newlyweds at the time the 1870 U.S. Federal Census was taken, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT and her husband John William Albert, Sr., set up housekeeping in rural Salem Township, Marion County, Illinois, where they farmed and began raising a family. His occupation is listed as a "farmer" while her occupation is listed as "keeping house" on the census record of 1870. The census record also reveals that they had $200.00 worth of personal property.
As recent newlyweds, the 1870 Agricultural Census reveals that Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert and her husband John William Albert, Sr. lived as tenants on a small farm consisting of 52 acres of farmland with 11 additional acres of woodland. The 1870 Agricultural Census also reveals that John and Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert owned livestock consisting of 2 horses and 3 pigs and that they had raised 200 bushels of corn and 300 bushels of oats.
Rich in detail, the 1880 Agricultural Census taken ten years later reveals many fascinating aspects of the farm life that Mr. and Mrs. Albert led as they began raising their children in rural Marion County, Illinois.
The Agricultural Census reports reveal that Mr. and Mrs. Albert had a crop - share rental agreement on the tenant farm on which they lived, whereby a portion of the crops that they raised would be used as payment for their lease of the owner's land each year.
At the time of the 1880 Agricultural Census, Mr. and Mrs. Albert rented a 40 acre farmstead. The cash value of their rented farm was listed at $550.00. Mr. and Mrs. Albert owned $20.00 worth of farming implements & machinery.
On this 40 acre farmstead, 27 acres were tilled farmland acres. The remaining 13 acres were uncleared farmland acres, still designated as natural woodland acres, not yet cleared or tilled for agriculture. The census reveals that 7 cords of firewood were cut in the past year from this wooded area, the 7 cords of firewood having a total market value of seven dollars.
Mr. and Mrs. Albert primarily raised the cereal crops of corn, oats, and wheat. The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that 15 acres of the 40 acre farm were devoted to the raising of corn. Their yield in the past year had been 120 bushels of corn. Six acres were devoted to the raising of oats, with a yield of 100 bushels of oats in the course of the past year. Three acres of the farm were devoted to the raising of wheat, with a yield of 29 bushels of wheat over the course of the past year.
In 1880, a special feature on the farm where they lived with their young children was a two-acre apple orchard. The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that 60 apple trees grew in this two-acre orchard. Furthermore, the 60 apple trees had produced 120 bushels of apples in the past year, with a total market value of $30.00.
Their livestock in 1880 consisted of two horses, a milk cow, a newborn calf, a litter of five pigs, and a flock of eighteen chickens. The value of their livestock at this time was shown to be worth $125.00.
With the milk cow on their farm, they had produced 100 pounds of freshly churned butter over the past year. From their flock of chickens, 144 dozen eggs had been gathered.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert and her husband, John William Albert, Sr., were the parents of nine children, all born in rural Marion County, Illinois:
Lewis Allen ALBERT (1871 - 1953)
Mary "Ella" ALBERT (1874 - 1963)
John "William" ALBERT (1879 - 1953)
Jesse E. ALBERT (1882 - 1925)
Frank E. ALBERT (1884 - 1949)
Fred Walter ALBERT (1888 - 1977)
Vercie May ALBERT - died in infancy
(Infant Son) - died in infancy
(Infant Son) - died in infancy
An early historian of life in Marion County, Illinois, was Professor J.H.G. Brinkerhoff. In regard to the experiences of women living in Marion County during this time period, he wrote:
"Here also the women attended to those never neglected duties of the time ~~~ knitting, spinning, and weaving ~~~ duties which have since almost lost their places among the household arts."
From details discovered in historical agricultural census reports that survive from the 1800s, her role as a farmwife and mother is revealed. Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert would have been involved in the care and feeding of farm livestock, tending to her flock of chickens, the gathering of thousands of chicken eggs, apple picking from the orchard area of their tenant farm, separating cow's milk from the cream, and producing hundreds of pounds of homemade butter with her churn. The livestock on their farm would have provided freshly butchered meat for family meals. The chopped firewood from the wooded areas of the tenant farm would have provided heating for the Albert family home, as well as fuel for the baking and cooking needs of her family.
The 1880 Agricultural Census reveals that John Albert and his wife Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's 40 acre tenant farm had produced 120 bushels of corn, 100 bushels of oats, 29 bushels of wheat, 120 bushels of apples, 7 cords of chopped firewood, 144 dozen chicken eggs, and 100 pounds of churned butter, all in one year's time.
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert lived in a time in which her days would have been filled with gardening, cooking, baking, housekeeping, soap-making, sewing, mending, butter churning, livestock chores, laundry washing, ironing, and tending to the motherly duties of nursing and childcare for her growing family. Three of her children passed away in early childhood, while six of her children eventually reached maturity.
The harvest season arrived in Marion County in the fall of 1892. In October, the citizens of Marion County hosted the Marion County Fair. The Marion County newspapers reported the first heavy frosts of the season in October, and the first snowfall in early November of 1892. A sudden hailstorm struck Marion County on Thursday, 17 November 1892.
The very next day after the hailstorm, just a few days after her twenty-third wedding anniversary, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT died on Friday, 18 November 1892, south of Salem, Illinois, in rural Marion County, Illinois.
When she passed away in her early 40s, Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert left behind her husband and their family of young children.
At the time of her death in the autumn season of 1892, her surviving children ranged in age from 21 years of age down to the age of 3 years old.
Her widowed husband, John William Albert, Sr., continued to farm in Marion County, Illinois. He continued on, raising the children left behind from his wife's early death.
The death of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT occurred just a few days after the historic U.S. Presidential Election of November 1892, in which incumbent U.S. President Benjamin Harrison was defeated by Grover Cleveland. Her death & burial occurred just days before Thanksgiving Day in 1892. During her lifetime, 12 U.S. Presidents had lived in the White House.
The passing of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT was noted on the front page of the Friday, 25 November 1892 edition of THE MARION COUNTY DEMOCRAT newspaper, published in Salem, Illinois, which stated:
"Mrs. John ALBERT, (who was living) south of town (Salem, Illinois), who had been sick but a few days, died unexpectedly last Friday morning (Date of Death: Friday, 18 November 1892)."
Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT was buried in historic Mount Moriah Cemetery in rural Raccoon Township, Marion County, Illinois, where a gray column-style tombstone set upon a double gray stone pedestal from the Victorian era has marked her final resting place since the 1890s. The inscription on her tombstone is dedicated to the memory of "Susan W. ALBERT, wife of John W. ALBERT, Sr."
Mount Moriah Christian Church is the oldest organized church congregation in the history of Marion County, Illinois. Fittingly, the Mount Moriah Cemetery, located in the rural churchyard of the Mount Moriah Christian Church, is just a few miles to the east of the original farm where she and her parents first settled when they journeyed to Marion County, Illinois, when she was just a young girl from Kentucky back in the early 1850s.
A few years after her passing, Professor J.H.G. Brinkerhoff wrote the well-known HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY, ILLINOIS, which was published in 1909. An excerpt from his book seems a fitting tribute that captures the legacy of Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's life in these words:
"They are gone. They sleep on the hilltop or in the valley where loving hands laid them, and the world moves on, and they who labored and loved and suffered and departed in the early days of Marion County, are only a fast disappearing vision of the past."
Her burial in the country churchyard cemetery of Mount Moriah Christian Church would have been on a November day, just before Thanksgiving time, with autumn leaves covering the ground. With her coffin borne to the country cemetery by horses, her burial signaled the final journey in the life of this pioneer woman, wife, and mother. Her widowed husband, just in his 40s, and her family of young children would have gathered at her gravesite on that November day, along with other relatives and friends who would have arrived at the country cemetery in horse-drawn wagons, carriages, and buggies to honor her.
The countryside setting of this historic cemetery, where many Marion County pioneers have been buried since the early 1800s, matches the rural experiences of Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT's life. Her life began on a farmstead in rural Logan County, Kentucky, and ended on a farmstead in rural Marion County, Illinois.
From the BIBLE comes this verse from the BOOK OF REVELATIONS (Chapter 14 ~ Verse 13):
"Blessed are the dead ... that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them."
Susan Wilmoth Farthing Albert's life would have been filled with the experiences of pioneer living in the 1800s, first as a young girl from Kentucky, growing up on the banks of Whippoorwill Creek at her birthplace in Logan County, Kentucky, and then settling on the prairie lands and wooded timber areas of the farms where she grew up and later raised her children in rural Marion County, Illinois.
She lived during a by-gone era when traveling was done in covered wagons, with farm fields plowed by horses, with her family's laundry scrubbed by hand on a washboard ~~~ with patchwork quilts covering feather beds ~~~ with long dresses & clothing stitched with needle and thread ~~~ with supplies purchased from the general store ~~~ with socks to darn with her needle and thread for her husband and children ~~~ with gathering baskets filled with fresh eggs from her flock of chickens ~~~ with firewood chopped for heating the home ~~~ with buckets brimming with fresh milk from the family's milk cow ~~~ with her churn filled with fresh cream for churning into butter ~~~ with garden produce gathered during the summer season for her family's table ~~~ with bushel baskets filled with apples during apple picking season ~~~ with homemade loaves of bread baking in a farmhouse kitchen ~~~ with home-cooked meals prepared from scratch ~~~ with thin wisps of smoke rising from the chimney of her family's home ~~~ with eight plates set around the kitchen table for meals with her husband and children ~~~ with a pile of dishes to wash with lye soap each day ~~~ with babies rocked peacefully to sleep in their cradle ~~~ and with kerosene lamps lit for evenings at home with her family. Her entire life's path would have centered upon the cycle of spring planting and fall harvest in a countryside setting.
As the years went by, 23 grandchildren were eventually born to the children that Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT left behind when she passed away in the autumn of 1892.
Marion County, Illinois, is still home to several relatives and descendants of this branch of the Farthing family that first settled on the prairie lands and timber lands of Marion County in the 1850s.
Today, Susan Wilmoth Farthing ALBERT has hundreds of living descendants, residing across the United States from coast to coast. They are her living legacy.
Peace to her memory.
Family Members
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