Person:Prudence Cook (1)

According to the bio of Jesse Manlove's son Alfred on page 70 of the Biographical & Genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union & Franklin Counties, Indiana, pub. 1899: "Our subject is a representative of one of the pioneer families of the county, being a grandson of William and Prudence (Cook) Manlove, natives of South Carolina, who, with their two children, took up their residence in what is now Posey Township, about 1812. After a short residence here the grandfather went to Cincinnati, with a team, for supplies, and while there contracted the cholera, from which he died on the way home. His widow and six children were thus left almost destitute in a new and wild country, but the former managed to keep her family together. She made a desperate effort to secure a home for them by taking up a tract of government land, on which she erected a cabin and cleared three or four acres. She hoped soon to get the money to enter the land, but one of her neighbors, John Hueston, a money-loaner, entered it and took it from her. She afterward married James McKonkey, of Irish descent, who entered land and improved a farm. He was a very stern man and the Manlove children, not being able to stand his tyranny, soon left home. They were Cynthia, who became the wife of John Miller; Phoebe, wife of John Stevens; Jesse, father of our subject, who was the second white child born in Fayette County; Absalom, who located near Jesse; Alfred, who died young; and William, a resident of Fayette County. By her second marriage the mother had three children: Eli, Sophrona, wife of Reuben Allen, and Thomas."

Len Kling submitted this material about Prudence Cook and William Manlove on line: "Theycame west about 1812, I think living in Kentrucky a while first, possible with William's father George Manlove who was then living at Crab Orchard, then were in Fayette Co IN by 1815 where their son Jesse was born. William died in 1819 and Prudence remarried to James McConkey in 1824. The last date I have for Prudence is 1856 when she signed a deed but she may well have outlived her second husband ames as well. There is a cabinet photo of prudence taken in her old age and these types of photos didn't become popular till 1865. James McConkey's tombstone is in Lick Creek cemetery but his wife prudence is named only on the nearby tombstone of her son Absalom Manlove where she is named only as the wife of William Manlove. It's said the Manlove children did not like McConkey at all and perhaps carried this resentment even to the grave?"

1. ↑ 1785 Gene Pool rec. Ancestry/also #267