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Note: N97 Excerpted from
Roger Mourning. His Book., page 20
by Kenneth Mourning Waddell
Washington D.C., 1969
John Mourning, oldest child of Roger Mourning and his first wife whose name we do not know, was born in Down County, Ulster Province, Northern Ireland April 14 1774, and presumably came to America with his father as a very small child. We have never heard mention of his mother and do not know if she was alive and accompanied John or if he was a motherless child. John was 22 years of age when the family arrived in Kentucky and was still with his father but about this time acquired some lands of his own. On Aug. 3 1802 when John had reached the age of 28 he married Hannah Ball, daughter of Benjamin Ball Sr. Some say that Benjamin's father was Lewis Ball and was a brother of Mary Washington but I have not seen the proof. The spelling Lewis obviously comes from the equally famous Lewis family of Virginia with whom the Balls intermarried. It is interesting to note that the 1840 Census shows a Lewis Ball and family living in Hire township Mcdonough County, Ill. Hannah Ball was born in 1778.
John Mourning is said to have served in the War of 1812-4 altho I have not seen the record. Most likely this service would have been under General Harrison in Ohio and Michigan. I believe that he also served in other of the troublesome Indian campaigns of the time.
In 1838, John and Hannah set out for Illinois and reached their destination in Tennessee Township in May. They settled near the present Friendship Church but Hannah did not long survive the rigors of the trip and passed away July 25th according to the L. B. Mourning Bible. John died Feb. 27, 1846. They are buried in what is known as the Mourning Cemetery which lies on the opposite side of the church building from the main Friendship Cemetery. The McDonough County History states that Hannah was the first to be buried in the little Cemetery where all but two were Mournings and one of those was a ward of William Mourning.
Note that the disparity between the birth and death dates reported for Hannah in the above biography and the dates inscribed on her tombstone.
The Mourning children were all born in Adair County, Kentucky. They were:
i.
Margaret Mourning, born November 3, 1803, died April 18, 1870, in Tennessee Township, McDonough County, Illinois. Burial at Friendship-Mourning Cemetery.
ii.
William Mourning, born in 1805, died in 1870 in Tennessee Township, burial at Friendship-Mourning Cemetery.
iii.
Lewis Mourning, born February 14, 1807 (date calculated from his tombstone inscription - it's an ambiguous date). After the Civil War he moved to Bourbon County, Kansas, where he died January 1, 1873, according to author Kenneth Mourning Waddell, but the date on his tombstone is January 1, 1874. He is buried at Walnut Hill Cemetery, Bourbon County, Kansas. Find A Grave
iv.
Benjamin Mourning, born June 28, 1809. He married (first) Margaret Davis, who died in Hendricks County, Indiana. He married (second) the former Nancy Tout. Benjamin and Nancy migrated to Bourbon County, Kansas, sometime after the birth of a son, Harvey, in 1865. Benjamin died August 16, 1871. He and Nancy are buried in Bourbon County at Walnut Hill Cemetery. Find A Grave
v.
Samuel Mourning, born November 25, 1811. Said to have died November 11, 1879, near Basco in Bear Creek Township, Hancock County, burial at West Cemetery, Basco. He was not listed on the mortality schedule prepared with the 1880 Federal Census of Bear Creek Township.
vi.
Jane Mourning, born November 17, 1813. She married in Kentucky and did not come to Illinois. She died at Campbellsville, Kentucky, in 1885.
vii.
Mary Mourning, born May 19, 1816, in Adair County, Kentucky. She died December 16, 1887, in Tennessee Township, McDonough County, burial at Friendship Cemetery.
viii.
John Daniel Mourning, born November 9, 1821. He died March 20, 1890, in Columbia, Kentucky.
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