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History of Belle Rive and Dahlgren, Illinois And Surrounding Territory

Prepared by Continental Historical Bureau of Mt. Vernon, Illinois
December, 1960

Page B-17

Aldine Boudinot Kemp Reporting......

John (Quincy) Boudinot was born April 27, 1831, in Athens County, Ohio.  On August 3, 1856, he was married to Levina A. Tinker, also of Athens County, Ohio.

While still in Athens County, their first child, Florence A. Boudinot, was born; and shortly after her birth, John and Levina Boudinot with the young baby left their home in Ohio and emigrated to Illinois.  They settled in Moores Prairie Township in the old Fair Play School District, Jefferson County, Illinois.  The abstract of his farm stated that the greater part of the land was purchased directly from the Federal Government.  It was on this farm that he spent the rest of his life (with the exception of his period of service during the Civil War) and reared his children.

A friendship almost like blood kinship existed between the families who migrated for Ohio to Jefferson County, Illinois.  Among those settlers were the following families besides the Boudinots: the Hughes, the Irvins, the Orams, the Woodworths, and the Martins.  Even unto the second and third generations the friendships among these families has flourished.

John and Levina Boudinot were the parents of the following children: Florence A., born April 12, 1857, who married William N. Roberson; Charles Tinker, born February 14, 1859, who married Emma Leake; Effie May, born February 21, 1862, who married Charles C. Parkes; Austin (Ott) Fuller, born September 10, 1866, who married Mary Louise Mecord, and William Walter, born October 3, 1870, who died in 1873.

From his home in Moores Prairie Township, John Quincy Boudinot walked to Salem, Illinois, to volunteer for service in the Union Army during the Civil War.  When he refused to let his small son, Charles, accompany him to Salem, the child was so frustrated that he threw a stone at his father.  John Boudinot served three years with Company D of the Sixth Regiment of Illinois Cavalry Volunteers, and received the rank of Quartermaster.  The cheerful and encouraging letters which he wrote to his wife and three children during his three years of Army service in the South are prized by his grandchildren.

Mr. Boudinot's occupations before and after his service for his country was that of farmer and livestock producer.  He was a member of the New Hope Methodist Church and also was a member of the Masonic Lodge for forty years.

Mr. Boudinot died on March 6, 1898, and was laid to rest beside his wife and infant son in New Hope Cemetery.

On the home farm, later called Maple Hurst, his son "Ott" lived and reared his daughters, Aldine, Glennys and Louise.  Mr. Boudinot's sons, grandsons Boudinot and Parkes, and great grandsons Kemp have followed in his footsteps in their love for animals and farm life. 

The present day thirteenth generation of Boudinots trace the ancestors of the family to Jean (John) and Marie Suire Boudinot who lived and died in France in the middle 1600s.  Their eldest son, Elie (or Elias) Boudinot I, migrated to New York with his motherless children to take his place in the New World.  Three generations later Dr. John Boudinot (direct ancestor of John Quincy Boudinot) was a surgeon in the young American Army of the Revolution, and his Brother Elias IV was a statesman and President of the Continental Congress when George Washington became President of the United States.  This family has had sons in every war in which the United States participated except the Spanish American War (Charles T. Boudinot and Austin "Ott", sons of John Q. Boudinot, were preparing to enter service, but the Spanish American War was over before they could be accepted.  They had had considerable arranging to make, inasmuch as they had buried their father on March 6, 1898).  John Boudinot (1791-1891) was a veteran of the War of 1812.  His son, John Q. Boudinot (the principal character of this sketch) served for three years in the Civil War.  John L. Boudinot (son of Charles T. Boudinot) and Frank Parkes (son of Effie May Boudinot Parkes) represented the family in World War I.  William T. (Bill) Fuller, Jr., son of Louise Boudinot Fuller, volunteered for Naval duty during World War II, and was wounded many times; Bill Fuller's younger brother, Donald Vaughn Fuller I, volunteered for duty and was wounded in an Engineer Battalion during the Korean Conflict.

The last descendant of this branch of the family who bears the family name is William Hillery Boudinot (born in 1903) of Belle Rive, the son of Charles T. Boudinot, ten generations removed form John and Marie Suire Boudinot of France.

John Q. Boudinot's descendants today may be found in many fields of activity: homemakers, educators, lawyers, nurses, business men, railroad officials, real estate, plant and animal husbandry and various branches of government service.



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