Conger, Tacy (Barr)

Tacy (Barr) Conger

BIRTH-DEATH: She died on 25 Dec 1881 at the age of 84 years, 4 months, 14 days according to her obituary. Birth date calculated, Abt. 11 Aug 1797.

CENSUS: Head of household in the 1856 census of Wapello Co., IA.

PENSION-CHILDREN: When Tacy Conger applied for her widow's pension in 1857 she claimed that her children were: Benjamin P., Enoch, John B., Zachariah S., and Samuel M. However, in the 1845 cenus there were 3 other Conger children, relationship not given. They may have been Benjamin's. He was 55 when he married Rebecca Blanchard in 1872.
(Source: The Conger Family of America, Vol. II, p. 238 - Maxine Crowell Leonard)

AKA: Tacey in her obituary

OBITUARY: Death of Mrs. Conger.
At her home near County Line, Dec. 25th, 1881, of paralysis, occurred the death of Mrs. Tacey Conger, aged eighty-four years, four months, and fourteen days. In the death of the subject of this sketch Jefferson County, [IA] loses another of its pioneers, so many of whom have departed within the past few years.

Mrs. Conger's maiden name was Tacey Barr. She was born in Philadelphia in 1797 and lived there until 1816, when she was married to Zacharia S. Conger, a young man of Morristown, NJ, who had been honorably discharged at Philadelphia after service in the recent War of 1812. Mr. Conger was five years her senior. The young couple married on the 3rd of July, and the following day they turned their faces westward.

They journeyed until they reached Indiana. Here they stopped in what is now Dearborn County, until 1842, when they removed to this state arriving soon after the Indian treaty was made permitting white settlers in this part of the country.

The fall of 1845 brought a sad bereavement to Mrs. Conger in the death of her husband. This event occurring before the land sales, it devolved upon Mrs. Conger to make the purchase of a claim, which she did with the means at her disposal, securing a tract of land in the eastern edge of Wapello County. In the fall of 1860 she met with another breavement in the death of three sons, all occurring within a period of three months.

During the latter years of Mrs. Conger's life she was much afflicted with ill health.

She is survived by two sons, one Benjamin, living here, the other Enoch, living in Oregon.

The funeral occurred December 26th, when her husband's remains were disinterred from the pioneers grave where they had rested for thirty-six years, and the remains of both were interred in the Dunn graveyard, in Des Moines township, where lie their sons and other members of the family.
[Note: It is not clear if Des Moines Twp. is in Wapello Co., or Jefferson Co., IA. REH]
(Source: The Fairfield Tribune, Fairfield, IA, Jan. 12, 1882, page 3, col. 4 - The Conger Family of America, Vol. II, p. 238 - Maxine Crowell Leonard)


PROBATE: Tacey's heirs were: Benjamin P., 64; Enoch, 61; and children of her son John B.: Joseph A., 1851, Sarah Graves, 1853, James Marshall, 1854, Louisa, 1858, John Isaac, 1861 and a Sarah Carver. Tacey, 1856, [daughter of John B.] had drowned at the age of 14 on 17 Jul 1870.
(Source: The Conger Family of America, Vol. II, p. 238 - Maxine Crowell Leonard)


PROBLEM: According to the obituary of Tacy (Barr) Conger she lost 3 sons within three months in the fall of 1860. CFA II, p,. 238 lists them as: Henry, 1841; Francis, 1845; John, 1847. Was Frances (Francis) a son of Zacharia Conger who died in Sep 1845? Who was the father of John Conger?


QUESTION: Where did Tacy Barr die? From the obituary it is not clear whether she died in Jefferson Co., IA where Fairfield lies or in Wapello Co., IA, to the west, where the Ottumwa lies. CFA II, p. 238 lists the death place as, Wapello Co., IA.