Descendants said Wollery was a veteran of the War of 1812 but that isd oubtful as he was only 7 years old then.
He gave a speech which said:
"Good Day to ye! I'm Woolery Coonrod. I come to speak to yuh but I'mno t much fer public speakin' so I wrote it out, here, what I have tosay. J us to not fergit sumthing important. I come from a long line o'Coonrod s. My grandfather, anotehr Woolery, he come over from theRotterdam on t he ship Isaac, in 1749, him and his brother John.Brother Jacob he come t he next year on the ship Patience. John waslater killed by Injins on t he south branch of the P'tomac Valley inAugusta County, Veginya. That' d be March nineteen, eight years later.Back in 1758. Jacob's family se ttled in Veginya. All his familycalled themselves Conrads. Well they'r e still there, in and around FtSivert, Veginya.
Anyhow I am Woolery Coonrod, come to jaw with you here today. Ain't sos trong as 'a was in 1856, when I first come ta stake land here. Well,bu t I c'n talk awhile.
I 'as born Febr'y 14, 18 ought 5 in Harrison Township, PickawayCounty, O hia. I grew through my childhood there and went on ta MorganCounty, Il l'nois where I married Martha Jane Prewitt October 6, 1825.We dwelt th ere when Add was born. Jane named him Adam and I justcalled 'im Add. J anes father, he stayed with us, his declinin' years.He died at near se mdy. Add and Little Martha and Mary Ann was rearedwhile we lived there - --and John, born May 5, 1831.
I went to the Army for it was hard country with the Injins and all;but w e was young and tough; Jane kep up the farmin'. Injins was aproblem... I'd say. I fought in the Black Hawk war --and we'd beatthat savage in ' 32. His band wasn't easy to beat. We lost some goodmen. We made the fr ontier safer. Scott was a hard general that year,newly become General o f the Army in Washinton. Young fer thatresponsibility. The young infan trymen, they started to call him OldFuss and Feathers. He was 46 when P resident Arthur appointed him. Iadmired the mane. He fought to win. Bu t then he was a fair man.
In 1834 we was farmin' in Coles County, Ill'noi among a few newsettler s. Good folks, and by the Add was about eight year old, andcould ease J ane's work, so she's inclined ta help me more. We'd builda cabin with h elp from the neighbors.
In 1836 we bought two pieces of fed'ral land, a total of 80 acres.Paid d ollar-twenty-five an acre. Elisha was born that year. And Francin 1840 . We was in Missouri then. Tom came along in '41, Emma in '47,Will in ' 49 years of age. I was 46. Add was full grown by then. Hewas stout, an d a pow'ful help to me..I'd say...
In 1856 we moved on to Kansas--Settled on Drywood about a mile fromwhe re Cato now stands. By then the chirrn was most grown and laterthe gra nchirren commenced to callin me and Jone Old Daddy and OldMammy. We ha d called each other Mammy and Daddy to the chirrengrowin' up so the gr andchirren arready had their names for us.
Tom and Will near broke Jane's heart when they went over to theConfede racy; but a family sees lots of heartbreak in the wars. I'dseen some w ars. Add took his family into the Ingin Territory. (Hecouldn't possibl y have written the following.) I lived to be 83. Wasburied in 1888, i n a piece of ground the now call The CoonrodCemetery. Jane, sweet Jane , followed me a year later. You can findour markers there. Sure I left a l ot out, for my story is long, andrequires lots of tales; but that'll b e all I got for ye now. Thank yefor listenin'. Woolery Coonrod
Grandson, Nathan, was a mail carrier in Jacksonville, IL.
Residences & events:
Pickaway Co, OH where he was born.
1818 Morgan Co, IL, 12 miles west of Jacksonville according todescend ant, John Woolery Coonrod, who said his greatfather moved inearly boyh ood (he would have been 13 at that time)
1830 Morgan Co, IL. At census time Woolery had living in his house 1m ale 50-60, possibly his father-in-law, himself at 20-30, 1 maleunder 5 ( Adam), his wife at 20-30, and 2 females under 5 (Martha andMary).
From the Standard Atlas of Scott Co, IL his name was among thesoldiers o f the following as a Private:
CAPTAIN WILLIAM GORDON'S COMPANY of Mounted Volunteers of Illinoismili tia, ordered into the service of the United States by thegovernor of t he state, on the requisition of Gen. Atkinson, of U. S.Army. Attached t o 1st regiment, 3d brigade, in the year 1832.Mustered out of service J uly 29, 1832, 212 miles from place ofenrollment. Mustered into service J une 2, 1832.
1832 He "saw service in the old Black Hawk War."
1833 Jasper Co, MO. Descendant John Woolery Coonrod said hisgrandfat her moved there that year, probably with other Coonrodfamilies, then b ack to IL. The HISTORY OF JASPER COUNTY, MISSOURI,1876 Atlas Pages 10 -11, says "Woolery Coonrod in 1839, or 1840,settled on section twenty. H e was from Illinois.
Abt 1834 Coles Co, IL. He was listed among the early settlers of thec ounty.
7/20/1836 Coles Co, IL. Woolery bought 2 pieces of Federal lands,eac h containing 40 acres, for $1.25/acre in S17 R07E T13N. His placeof r esidence was also Coles Co at that time.
8/30/1838 Is this a duplicate record of the previous item? The Burof L and Mgt has the following land grants of 80 acres for Woolery:
SESE 17/ 13-N 7-E No 3rd PM IL Coles
NWNW 17/ 13-N 7-E No 3rd PM IL Coles
1838 Jasper Co, MO, where several of the children were born.
10/16/1850 Dist 41, Jasper Co, MO. At census time Wolery Conrad, 45,f armer, lived with Jane, 40; Mary, 20; John, 18, G hunter (?);Elisha, 1 4; Francis, 10; Thomas J, 8; James P, 6; Emeline, 3; andWilliam, 1. Ne xt door was daughter Martha and Edward Black.
Don Coonrod at GenForum wrote:
"Woolery and Jane later lived for some time in the Neutral Land thatse parated whites and Indians in the west (OK) to which the Indianshad be en marched from the eastern states. Jane is believed to havehad signif icant native American heritage (publications in KA and MOwhere Woolery a nd Jane lived attest to this), but was otherwiseindistinguishable from o ther frontier wives in the area. It's unclearwhether her native Americ an heritage was from her father, Field, ormother, Mary Powell, but I h ave concluded it was the latter--probablyan Indian ancestor in VA on t he Powell side."
1856 Drywood, Crawford Co, KS, according to his bio above.
Local history recorded:
"Woolery Coonrod, Sr., was about the earliest settler, coming in 1856,E lisha Black, Sr., coming about the same time. E. B. Black, his son,was t he first white child born in Lincoln township. E. B. Black stilllives a t Cato." Descendants said they moved to "Neutral Land" there.
8/3/1860 PO Ft Scott, Bourbon Twp, KS Territory, according to thecens us that year. Woolery was a 56 year old farmer with a largeestate wor th $12,511. Wife Jane was 51. Living with them werechildren: Franci s M, 19; Thomas J, 17; Lydia E, 13; William B, 11;and George G, 9. Ne xt door was widowed daughter Martha Black,followed by son Adam.
Wollery's family was like many of the time, split by the Civil War.
6/23/1880 Lincoln Twp, Crawrford Co, KS. That year the censusrecorde d Woolery at 75 years of age, Jane at 71. Living with themwere son Fr ance (Francis), 40, and the family of son George, 29:Yarra, 22, Dollie , 6, Jemima, 4, and Charles, 7, as well as TobiasUnderwood, 46.
Woolery's bio in the 1905 History of Crawford Co, KS said:
"WOOLERY COONROD, Sr., was one of the very first settlers in what isno w Lincoln township. He settled on Drywood about a mile south ofwhere C ato now stands, about 1856. He had quite a family and he andhis wife, w ho were familiarly known as Old Daddy and Old Mammy, livedtogether six ty-three years, when he died. His wife followed him abouta year later. H is children were: Add, John, Franc, Jeff, William B.,George, the sons, a nd Martha, Mary and Emily, the daughters—some ofwhom live in the towns hip, others have moved away. Add Coonrod diedseveral years ago, leavin g a family who now live in the IndianTerritory."
And from the bio of son John:
"Mr. (John H) Coonrod was born in Scott county, Illinois, in 1831,bein g a son of Woolery and Jane (Pruett) Coonrod. His father, anative of V irginia and a member of an old family of thatcommonwealth, was one of t he early settlers of Scott county,Illinois. The mother was born in Bro wn county, Illinois, her familyalso being first settlers of that local ity, and coming originallyfrom Kentucky, one member of the Pruett fami ly having been a soldierin the war of 1812. When John H. Coonrod was a b aby his parents movedto Jasper county, locating on a farm seven miles f rom Carthage,Missouri, and thence in 1855 they moved to the territory o f Kansas,being pioneers in settling along the rich land on Drywood cre ek, atthe time the Osage Indians were still here. They built a log cab infor their first home, and in time had made a nice farm. They both died in this county, the father at eighty-five and the mother ateighty-f our. They were members of the Christian church, and theformer was in p olitics a Democrat. Fourteen children were born tothem, several of the m dying in infancy or childhood, and those whogrew up being named as f ollows Adam, Martha, Mary, John H., Elisha,Emeline, Francis, Jefferson , William and George.
The following was included in the bio of son John:
"His father, a native of Virginia and a member of an old family ofthat c ommonwealth, was one of the early settlers of Scott county,Illinois."
The cemetery is 2 miles SW of Cato, KS.
