Reiter and Davis Marriage
Nicholas REITER marries Sarah C. DAVIS
BACKGROUND: Nicholas REITER was born in 1825 in Germany. Sarah C. DAVIS was born in 1836 in Illinois. Together, they had seven known children- George, John, Rachel, Jennie, William (my ancestor), and a set of twins whose names I don’t know. Nicholas and Sarah are my great-great grandparents. Not much is known about Sarah Davis. She was born in Pike County, Illinois, and died there 34 years later. All the children were born there. She died about 6 years after the birth of her youngest known children (a set of twins who died as young children). There do not appear to be any disasters that happened in February, 1870, that might have taken Sarah’s life according to GenDisasters website, nor was I able to find information about there being any epidemics in that time period. There is no family oral tradition regarding the cause of her death either. After Sarah’s death, Nicholas moved to the panhandle of Oklahoma and finished raising his children with the help of family members. I have not found any evidence that he ever re-married after Sarah’s death. His grave is in Mooreland, Oklahoma.
DOCUMENTATION: A marriage record was located for Nicholas and Sarah. They were married in Pike County, Illinois on 16 August 1852 by Alphius Brown. The marriage license was acquired on 9 August 1852 and returned to the courthouse on 18 September 1852.
ON YOUR OWN: Now, you can have your own abstract copy of the marriage by clicking here. This is a PDF document. Once downloaded, you can skip down to page 38 of the document to find Nicholas and Sarah. Or you can do a name search after clicking here.
Alphius Brown (also spelled ‘Alpheus’) was a preacher for a while at the Christian Church in Perry, Illinois – the town where Sarah was born and died. A history of the Christian Church at Perry, Illinois, can be found at http://genealogytrails.com/ill/pike/churchperrychristian.html. The CHENOWETH family is mentioned. Sarah’s mother was a CHENOWETH. I’m fairly certain that the James H. CHENOWETH listed is a relative of Sarah’s and the William CHENOWETH listed in James’ entry is possibly Sarah’s (and my) direct ancestor. There are CHENOWETH’s listed in other entries as well so don’t overlook them if you are interested in that family. Unfortunately, Nicholas and Sarah are not mentioned in this history. There is a Mary DAVIS JOHNSTON mentioned but it is unknown whether this is one of Sarah’s relatives or not.
This link lists a man I believe to be Sarah’s father, John F. DAVIS, as a Corporal in Company F, 99th Illinois Infantry in the Civil War (Union).