Person:Kate Means (1)

I believe Kate was the daughter of George Means 1807-1875 and Betsy King, who had at least 6 children: Martha 'Mattie' Elton 1845-1904 (m. Robert Tilton Ishmael); Huldah A. (m. Oscar H. Kendrick); Elizabeth S. 1852- (m. Benjamin F. Crabb); Kate C. (m. David W. Shankland); Amos 1854- (m. Rosa G. Adams); and Mirabella E. /Meribah Erwin 1857-1953 (m. David E. Wooley).

 "His [Fred Shankland] parents were David Worth Shankland, who died March 19, 1935, having come to Illinois in 1853 from Nicholas County, Kentucky and settled in Lee Township, and Kate (Means) Shankland, who died in 1884, leaving two young sons, Fred and Earl, and a baby boy, John, who died September 11, 1884. Mrs. Shankland's father, George Means, was one of nine children of George and Elizabeth Elton Means. Grandfather Means was born in Pennsylvania and served as a soldier in the War of the Revolution, afterwards moving to Kentucky, where he died in 1833....
 "It makes us feel so sad to think and know that our esteemed friend, Miss Katie Shankland, (nee Means) wife of Mr. David Shankland, is, to us no more. Although it has been eleven years, we remember as distinctly as if it were but yesterday, the spring she was married and became our neighbor. She was such a pleasant and cheerful little woman that we soon learned to love and esteem her-not as a friend to-day and an enemy to-morrow, but as a constant friend. Her self-sacrifice and kindness was not manifested to the few only but the many, including old Mr. and Mrs. Shankland, through their declining years, sickness and death. We think it can be as truly said of her as any one - "None knew her but to love her." Although her good deeds live in the minds and hearts of her friends and neighbors, Katie is gone; but we believe she is saved, for we believe she lived a consistent Christian life-belonged to the United Brethren church for some years, was ever ready and willing to lend a helping hand in Sabbath school work, by her works and presence as long as her health would admit. After this we learn, she kept up a constant home reading and studying of the book of all books-the Bible. Her affliction being consumption, despairing of ever being benefitted by using medicine, and traveling being recommended by physicians, she went home with her sister, Huldah, to Bates county, Mo. where she died on the 4th of August, and where her remains rest. Out of a family of five sisters, she was the youngest save one, and the first taken, being near twenty-eight years of age, and had been married eleven years and three months. Besides a large concourse of friends and relatives, she leaves an almost disconsolate husband and two promising little boys, Freddie, near nine, and Earl, near three years of age to mourn their loss. Lee Twp. Sept. 18, 1884."  {'Descendants of William Shankland', by John N. Shankland, <www.shankland.name>, 1 Sept 2004, no sources cited}
 In the 1850 census for district 2, Mason Co., Kentucky, George Means is a blacksmith, age 43; Elizabeth (27?); Martha C. 4; Huldah A. 1 -- all born Kentucky; and [Elizabeth's mother?] Huldah King 60 born Virginia; Pamelia King 40 Kentucky; Joseph (Oftudinger?) 27 wagonmaker from Germany; and George Fox 18, blacksmith from Kentucky. {p. 124a, <http://www.rootsweb.com/~kymason/1850linkedindex.html>}
 In the 1860 census for Lee, Brown Co., Ilinois, George Means is a farmer, age 52 from Kentucky, with Mrs. E. S. 43; M .E. 14 ; H. A. 11 ; E. S. 8 -- all born Kentucky; Amos 6 Illinois; Kate 5; M. 3; and A. J. 24 male born Kentucky. {p. 871}
 In the 1870 census for Lee, Brown Co., Illinois, George Means is 62, farmer from Kentucky; Catherine 15; Martha 22 Kentucky; Amos 17; Mirabella 14 -- all born Illinois. {p. 56}

1.   John Bowen. Bowen WorldConnect Database. (<wc.rootsweb.com>, 1 Oct 2003).