Samuel Day and Family

Samuel Day was the son of Mary "Polly" Matthews and her husband Thomas Day. They were married May 5, 1821, in Ohio and he died in a flood four months later in August. Samuel was born March 6, 1822. Mary's sister Margaret was married to Samuel Downing. They had six children before she died in 1836. Mary and Samuel wed 16 months later and had two children, William Nelson and John Clark. The whole group migrated to Logan County and settled along the south side of Salt Creek on the Chester/Mt. Pulaski Township border. Also in the group were various Matthews, sometimes spelled Mathews. Mary died in 1847 and was buried in Downing Cemetery.

In 1850 Samuel is living four farms from Samuel, his uncle and stepfather, with his wife Sarah. In 1855 he is living next to Samuel. There are eight in his household. In 1860 there is a Samuel Day living in Lincoln. In the 1862 Military Census he is in Madison Precinct. In 1870 this Samuel Day is living in Aetna Township with wife Sarah, sons Thomas, 19, and John, 13, and daughters Lydia, 5, and Axey, 1/2 year. Neither he nor Sarah are in the 1880 census in Logan County or anywhere else that I could find.

Thomas is the only child who could have been counted in 1855. That leaves a total of eight children unaccounted for. What happened to this family?

A Happy Group in Mt. Pulaski

This group of people happily posing for the camera raises so many questions. The people I can identify, which is only a handful, are all residents of Mt. Pulaski, all related in the same line and all members of the Christian Church. Since there are so few that can be identified none of those connections is necessarily the correct one. Several items, including the ages of the known people, indicate the picture was taken about 1930.

A couple years two of those I can identify were still living. Although side by side [they were cousins] in this picture they didn't have the same story about the picture.

If you see this picture and can identify any of the people please let me know.

Where is Amanda Allender Beidler?

Henry M. Beidler was the brother of Samuel “Linn” Lindamuth Beidler of Mt. Pulaski and Dr. Jacob Hoke Beidler of Lincoln. Descendants of S. Linn Beidler owned the newspaper in Mt. Pulaski for decades.

Henry married Amanda J. Allender and they had one child, Henry Roy Biedler. Amanda died in August 1888. They were divorced at the time but Henry handled her estate. Apparently Henry thought one Frank Spears, who apparently played a part in their divorce, murdered his former wife. He put a notice in the paper saying he was having her body exhumed and an autopsy performed to find the actual cause of death.

Within days of this notice in December 1888 Frank Spears' son shot and killed Henry Beidler. Amanda's body disappeared before the autopsy could be done. Apparently Henry had feared someone would try to snatch the body as he had hired guards to watch over her for two days.

Henry ended up in the mausoleum but what happened to Amanda? That's what the descendant wants to know. Research has not located any newspaper accounts saying her body was ever located. Remember, his family owned the local newspaper. That may or may not be related to the silence. Was she located and quietly buried in the mausoleum? Was the break-in at the mausoleum an attempt to steal her body again?

Can you help solve this mystery?