Elizabeth McNabb Pring

Eliza McNabb Pring, daughter of Mary Ann KEAR and Richard PRING, was born on 9 April /May 1844 in Van Wert, Van Wert County, Ohio, and died in Polk County, Iowa, on 19 July 1919. She married Benjamin Thompson JOHNSON, son of Abel JOHNSON and Elizabeth GILLESPIE, on 3 June 1865 in Polk County, Iowa.

Eliza moved from Van Wert County, Ohio, to Polk County, Iowa, in 1857, when she was 13 years old. With many of her married brothers and sisters living nearby, she "worked out" for 50 cents a month, presumably helping the mothers when they had new babies.

When Eliza and Benjamin (Thomps) were married, they first lived at her father's farm. (Richard was a widower at the time.) On 1 March 1867, they moved to the J.Y. McClay farm where thomps presumably was a farm hand. Over the next nine years they lived on various farms; 1868-9 on the Jeremiah Pring farm, 1870-2 the Jordan farm, 1873 the the Decatur County, Iowa farm, 1874 again on the Jeremiah Pring farm, and 1874 on the Chris Wood farm (Polk County?). However, in 1876 the family moved to Story County, Iowa, on the Foeppinger farm south of Nevada, Iowa, where they farmed for themselves.

Apparently the arrangement with Abel did not work out. In any case, the family returned to Iowa, where in October 1882 Thomps and Eliza bought a farm in Polk County northeast of Bondurant. It was pretty much surrounded by farms owned by close relatives, and not very far from the farm where Mary Ann and Richard PRING had settled. This farm had been settled by Joel JOHNSON, Abel's cousin (Joel?), when he came to Iowa in 1855. Joel sold the farm to Wesley PRING, who then sold the 80 acres to Thomps and Eliza for $2,700 [note].
Eliza was a woman with a great passion for children, and for the unfortunate. She was apparently the one who always was available to help out in family troubles and nursing care. When the wife of her nephew died, one of their sons, Harry lived with Eliza and Thomps, until his death

Moreover, when her sister, Eleanor, died, Eliza took in Eleanor's retarded daughter, Mary Elizabeth McQUEEN. Mary was 29-years old at the time, and quite intractable. . . . The U.S. Department of the Interior . . . allotted to him (Thomps) the pension coming to Lib as the disabled daughter of a Union (Civil War) veteran, amounting to $54 per year. This and the crops from her farm were to constitute the only compensation that Thomps and Eliza ever had from the work of mercy which they were to fulfill for the rest of their lives. This, of course, made it all but impossible for Eliza to go about socially, owing to the temperament of her charge and the prevailing ideas of that day and age of the general public. . . . She came to live with Eiza and Thomps on 24 February 1893."
    In 1903, Eliza and Thomps took two grandchildren to care for, after their Mother died. For two years Leila Fay JOHNSON and Grace Evelyn JOHNSON remained with the family until their father remarried.
Benjamin's father, Abel JOHNSON, born 9 February 1812 in Virginia died 1888 in Van Wert County, Ohio. His mother probably died in Van Wert County between 1843 and 1845. Abel remarried to Margaret (?), who died in, and is buried in, Iowa in May 1866 at the age of 59 years, 11 Months, 4 days"
    Benjamin was the second of three children born to Abel and Elizabeth; Joseph Harrison and John Wallace being the other two. Abel and Margaret had six children; Evan Davis, James Harvey, William A., Adam Jenkins, Elias Finley, and Jane. All of the children grew to adulthood, except Jane who died young.
    Elizabeth was said to have been related to James Gillespie BLAINE, statesman and U.S. Senator.
    "When he (Thomps] was 19 years old, at a time when numbers of people were migrating to the new State of Iowa, he drove a flock of sheep from Van Wert County, Ohio, to Polk County, Iowa. He always claimed that he walked from Ohio to Polk County, but of course in all probability there were horses or some form of transportation for supplies, as the herd of sheep numbered 464, and there had to be more than the one young man tending the flock.
    ". . . In the summer of 1862, Thomps and Doc [his brother, Joseph] decided to join the Union Army and on the llth of August they were sworn in the 39th Regiment of Iowa Infantry, and they were stationed at Camp Heron, in Illinois. . . . Thomps went with his regiment to the South where the Union troops were fighting. His outfit took part in the battle of Shiloh, but this was the only action that he took part in, because he had so much trouble with his foot that was frozen when he was on guard duty in Camp Heron, and I have his discharge paper which was issued at Corinth, Mississippi on Feb. 19, 1863."

Note:

1. Letter, family data, Pauline Pring to Donald L. Kear, 6 December 1980. [Return to text]

Copyright

Information on this site related to the Kear family is from The John Cears Kear Family compiled, written and edited by Donald L. Kear, copyright © 1984. Copyright © 2000 - 2006 by Donald L. Kear. All rights reserved. Portions of the pages on this site may be reproduced for nonprofit use only. Credit shall be given to the source.