THOMAS BOULDEN was born in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Ill., in
1823. His father, John Boulden, was a native of Bourbon County, Ky.,
having been born near Millersburgh in 1794. He was a son of Thomas
Boulden, also probably of the same county, and reared four sons and two
daughters. He was a mechanic and well-to-do for those times, and died in
Millersburgh, Bourbon County, Ky. The children of Grandfather Boulden were
Jesse, John, Ephraim, Nathan, Sarah and Cassandra.
John Boulden, the father of Thomas, was a tanner by trade, following
his trade during his life. When a young man he removed to Indiana, and
there he married Mary Benard, of Virginia, in which State she was born in
1788. She was the daughter of Frederic and Dorotha (Helms) Benard, who
removed to Indiana and thence to Pope County, Ill., in 1817. They were
prosperous farmers and reared two sons and five daughters. They died on
their own farm, two miles east of Eddyville. He died at about eighty
years of age, and she some ten years afterward, also at about eighty
years of age. Mr. Benard was born in Germany and came to the United
States at an early day, settling in Virginia, where he was married. The
parents of our subject and one daughter came from Indiana to Illinois in
1821, two years after their marriage, making the trip in teams. They
first lived at Elizabethtown until our subject was born, when they
removed to Ford's Ferry, near Cave in Rock, on the Ohio River, where the
father had a farm and a tannery. He died in October, 1830, leaving his
widow and six children, three sons and three daughters. Only two of these
six children are now living: Thomas and a sister, Sarah, widow of Harry
Morse, living near by and in her seventy-third year. ...
