William and Sidney K. Conner

What in the world possessed William and Sidney Conner to leave their home in Greenup County, Kentucky and move to Livingston County? In Greenup County William was a prominent lawyer and a member of the House of Representatives and Senate for a number of years. It is said Conner was well educated and had a brilliant mind.[1] What drew him to Livingston County?

William and Sidney Conner and children, Mary, William, Amanda, Thomas, Samuel, Lydda and Rebecca, are enumerated on the 1850 Greenup County census. William is listed as an attorney  born in Pennsylvania and the rest of his family was born in Kentucky.[2] By early 1852, William and Sidney had left Greenup County and settled in Livingston County. The 1852 Livingston tax list shows he had 10 slaves, two horses, nine cattle and four children between the ages of 5 and 16. It must have been quite an ordeal moving the family and property from one end of Kentucky to the other.

William and Sidney did not live long enough to establish deep roots in Livingston County.  Sidney passed away on the 14th of March 1852 and William died just a few months later.[3] On 2 January 1854, their son, George D. Conner, was appointed administrator of William's estate[4] and settled the estate four years later.[5]

Several children of William and Sidney Conner married in Livingston County. George Daniel, probably the oldest son, married Sarah J. Welch 21 Nov 1853.[6] By 1860, George D. had moved with relatives of his wife to Sacramento County, California.  He died in Fresno, California 22 Oct 1891.[7]

Amanda B. Conner, daughter of William and Sidney,  was born 17 Aug 1835 and died 10 May 1895 McCracken County, Kentucky. [8]She is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Paducah.

Lydia Conner was born ca 1844 and died 18 Jan 1866; buried Smithland Cemetery. She married David L. Sanders 15 Feb 1865 in Smithland.[9]

Other children were Mary Elizabeth, born ca 1831, married Henry Clay Bruce, who was in the steamboat business and represented Lewis and Mason Counties, Kentucky in the state senate in 1882 and 1884.[10] William H. Conner, another child of William and Sidney Conner, was born 26 Feb 1834 in Greenup County, moved to California in 1852 and then to Missouri in 1867.[11] He was in the dry good business in Plattsburg, Missouri.

Mrs. Sidney K. Conner

Born

Dec. 20, 1809

Died

Mar. 14, 1852

Major Wm. Conner

Born

Dec. 19, 1796

Died 

[remainder under ground in 2015]

Smithland Cemetery, Smithland, Kentucky

Sidney and William Conner lived in Livingston County long enough to leave a few records, but we don't know why they lived there.

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[1] E. Polk Johnson, A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians, Vol. III, (Chicago-New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1912.), 1317-1318, digital image. Google Books, accessed 8 October 2015.

[2] 1850 U.S. census, Greenup County, Kentucky,  population schedule, Dist. 1, p. 437 (penned), p. 219 (stamped), dwelling 12, family 12, William Conner:  digital images. Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 8 October 2015); From National Archives microfilm publication M432, roll 202.

[3] Tombstone recordings September 2008 and 30 September 2015 by Brenda Joyce Jerome.

[4] County Court Order Book L:174, 2 January 1854.

[5] County Court Order Book L:429, 1 February 1858.

[6] Joyce McCandless Woodyard. Livingston County, Kentucky Marriage Records Including Marriages of Freedmen Vol. II (August 1839-December 1871), Evansville, IN: Evansville Bindery), 1994: 78.

[7] "California, Death & Burial Records 1873-1987." Database.  Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com: 2015.

[8]" Oak Grove Cemetery," database, (http://paducahky.gov/paducah/oak-grove-cemetery: accessed 8 Oct 2015).

[9] Woodyard. Livingston County, Kentucky Marriage Records: 147.

[10] Johnson. A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians, Vol. III:1317.

[11] National Historical Company. The History of Clinton County, Missouri, 1881: 42. 

Published 27 January 2016, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/