Makeevers

The tallest monument in Weston Cemetery is in the southeastern part of the cemetery. This impressive monument, topped with a statue of a woman and announcing to the world that beneath lies a very wealthy person, marks the grave of John Makeever (1819-1910) who was, according to a newspaper report of his death, the richest man in Jasper County. There are other Makeever graves in Weston Cemetery, but no one with that last name has lived in Jasper County for many years. Who were the Makeevers and what happened to them?

The report of John's death in The Rensselaer Republican noted that he had five brothers and four sisters, all of whom lived to adulthood. Three of those brothers and three sisters left Ohio and came with John to Jasper County in about 1845 and settled in Newton Township, as did John's parents. His parents, Patrick and Isabel, are buried in Old Settlers Cemetery, which is a couple miles northeast of the I-65/SR-114 intersection. According to their grave markers, Patrick was 102 or 103 years old when he died in 1856 and Isabel was 108 when she died in 1872. I do not believe these ages for two reason. First, living more than a century was exceedingly rare in the 19th Century when life was much more physically demanding than it is today. And second, if Isabel had been born in 1764 as the marker suggests, she would have been 55 years old when she gave birth to John in 1819 and even older when his brothers were born.

Much of John Makeever's wealth was in the form of real estate. Three years before his death he divided 2500 acres between his two daughters. The newspaper article reporting this notes that he retained for himself several hundred acres, enough to make four or five big farms, as well as his property holdings in Rensselaer. He built and owned the Makeever Hotel, though others managed it. He also for many years ran a private bank with his son-in-law, Jay Willliams.

John Makeever had three children. His only son died as an infant. His daughter Almira (1884-1931) was the second wife of William Sims Stockton (1835-1911). They had three children, two of whom died as infants. Their son Jay William (1876-1962) had two children who in turn had children, a son and a daughter who married a Phegley. There may be Phegleys living in the area who are descended from John Makeever. There are still some Stocktons alive, but I do not know of any who live in Jasper County.

The other daughter, Cordelia (1846-1932), married Jay Williams (1856-1908) who had a large furniture store in Rensselaer and who also worked with John Makeever in the banking business. They had one daughter, Mary Jane (1873-1938) who married Charles H Porter (1869-1949) and they had no children. Jay Williams committed suicide and after his death his furniture business was purchased by W.J.Wright.

There are descendants of John Makeever in Jasper County, but none of them have the last name of Makeever. The other graves with the name Makeever come from the brothers of John came also came to to Jasper County in about 1845.

I can only find one of the three sisters who is supposed to have come to Jasper County, Rebecca Mills, and I know nothing about her. However, all three brothers are fairly well documented.

The oldest of the three was Milton Makeever (1821-1899), who has a inconspicuous marker in Weston Cemetery across the road from John's large tombstone.

The newspaper report of his death noted that his permanent residence was on the same 40 acres he had built on 55 years previously. He was survived by wife Nancy (1826-1901), one daughter, and three sons. One daughter, Virginia Estella (1868-1889) predeceased him and is buried in the same cemetery lot but in an unmarked grave. She married William Lyons (1864-1936) and died a few days after giving birth to her daughter Virginia Estella Lyons (1889-1975). Miss Lyons married Claude Porter Seward (1883-1959) and both are buried in North Star Cemetery in Newton County as is their daughter Bethel (1912-1971). I have not been able to trace two other Seward children.

Son Isaac Newton Makeever (1853-1914) never married and is buried near his parents in an unmarked grave. Daughter Indiana (1860-1899) married Robert Yeoman (1847-1930) and had a son, Albertus Yeoman (1881-1932). However, she seems to have divorced her husband and taken back her maiden name as he remarried before she died. Son Jasper (1848-1917) moved to Newton County where he and several members of his family are buried in the North Star Cemetery. He and wife Mary Jane Kenton (1849-1937) had at least six children but neither of their two sons had children.

Milton's final son, Frank (1851-1929) had at least six children. Eldest son Bovee (1878-1948) moved to New York and is the only one of the children not buried in Weston Cemetery. Daughter Maud (1883-1972) married Charles Bengston (1887-1963), Grover (1884-1950) never married and Wade (1886-1974) married late and had one daughter. Jane Indiana Makeever (1890-1974) married Frank Brann (1898-1979) and the youngest child, Mary Gay (1895-1975) never married.

A third brother who came to Indiana from Ohio was Madison Makeever (1825-1885). Although he died before his brothers, he had more children than the other three combined. His first wife was Harriet Ivers (1832-1873). They had nine children: Louisa (1852-1872), an infant (1854-1854), Martha Ellen Mahany (1855-1937) who moved to South Dakota, John (1857-?) who moved first to Nebraska and then to New York, Mary Gibbon (1859-1920) who first moved to South Dakota and then to what is now Alberta, Canada, where she and her husband are buried, Milton (1859-1940) who moved to Nebraska and then Mexico where he died, Sanford (1864-1928) who moved to Chicago and then New York, Ida May Robinson (1867-1945) who moved to Nebraska and then Los Angeles but is buried in Weston Cemetery, and Madison (1869-1957) who died in New Hampshire.

His second wife was Clara Healy (1846-1923) who bore him six children. Two infants died at birth. Bessie (1876-1967) married Korah Parker (1872-1906) and had two children and after his early death married Walter Lee Bragg (1883-1941). With her second husband she moved to Oklahoma. Marguerite Blanch (1878-1928) married Clarence Sigler (1874-1912) and had two children and moved to Oklahoma. After he died, she married Joe Fansler. Rosa Belle (1880-1885) died when only fifteen and is buried with her father. Finally, Jessie (1885-1950) married Lee Rardin and settled near Parr. She had two children and was the only one of Madison's children who remained in Jasper County after reaching adulthood. She is buried with her husband in Weston Cemetery.

After Madison's death his widow remarried and became Clara Coen.

Just to the south and east of John Makeever's impressive tombstone is the more modest grave marker of his brother, Daniel S Makeever (1828-1889). He was a farmer in the 1870 Census but the reports of his death said that he was living in Rensselaer. He married Catherine Cunningham and she and three children survived him. The newspaper reported after his death that a nephew, Isaac Newton Makeever, was appointed to administer his estate.

Son David (1854-1896) went west. In the 1880 Census he was working on the farm of an uncle in Missouri and in the same year he appears to have married his cousin, Mary Cunningham. They had one son, John David Makeever (1894-1963). While his wife and son remained in Missouri, David was preparing a new home in North Dakota where he died unexpectedly. His wife and son remained in Missouri and are buried there.

Daughter Mary (1856-1936) married Felix W Lester and moved to Nebraska where she died, but her body was shipped back to Rensselaer and she is buried in Weston Cemetery. Daniel Sweeney Makeever (1869-1947) is buried in Weston Cemetery with his wife, Emeline Randolph (1870-1954). In the same lot is their daughter, Ruth Makeever Poole Hickman (1894-1955) and her first husband, Bradford Poole (1891-1946).

The map below is from 1909 and shows the land owned in Newton Township by various members of the Makeever family, with John's holdings shaded red and other family members shaded green. What is now the Sherwood Forest subdivision was once owned by John Makeever. The Historical Society has a large wall map that shows ownership a few years before this map and much of the green was then shown as owned by Madison Makeever. When he died his will stipulated that the property be kept intact until his youngest child was 21 years old. That happened a few years before 1909.

I have a plat map from 1978 and I was curious to see how much of the land was still owned by the family. As you can see below, only a little was left. There are some Makeevers shown at the top but they lived in Missouri and were descended from the Daniel Makeever line. The Stocktons and Phegleys were descended from John Makeever.

Looking at the current owners on the GIS map, only 73 acres of the land owned by the Makeevers in 1908 is still owned by a descendant.

And now for some personal genealogy. March 24 is the centennial of the death of my paternal grandfather. I wonder how common it is for people to live long enough to be able to mark the centennial of a grandparent's death. I tried to get an answer on the Internet and found nothing. My first centennial of this sort, the centennial death of my paternal grandmother, happened a bit over four years ago and I was not aware of the event. I have a cousin who was only 53 at the time.
I will have to live to over a century in order to mark the centennial of another grandparent.