Having exhausted the available information in Clay Co, IL, I’m moving forward to the neighboring county of Effingham where William Lane Babbs spent his final years. Checking the local paper an interesting tidbit appears in The Effingham Democrat on 28 Sep 1883, page 8.

On the surface it doesn’t seem to be that interesting. It’s just an old man that went on a 30-mile trip to a beach town. However, I could tell that just from his location in Limington, Maine that John is a Lion of the Sea.

Here is his record in the Big Tree.

I found it curious to locate this record in Illinois and at first, I thought there was some connection. But as you look at the section it is just clips that were taken from other newspapers that the editor thought to be of interest. The source is listed as the Boston Post. I wasn’t able to track the source newspaper entry to see if there was more to the story. However, the bit about him having served in the War of 1812 was news to me.

There was nothing in John’s tree record about it, so I looked the record up and found a healthy 15-page record regarding his pension. This was the real treat! Most records from the War of 1812 remain unscanned and have only begun to be made available in the last couple of years.

Now we have a new story to tell about his life!

Enjoy!