The John and Edith McClenny Family Home - 60 Years Apart

Edith Davis and John McClenny
Wedding day, November 9, 1890

      John McClenny married Edith Lorraine Davis on November 9, 1890 at the home of the Edith's parents according to the Farmer's Vindicator. It could have been the home of her mother, but her father, James Young Davis, had died in 1884. John and Edith, who grew up 300 miles apart, may have known each other because their families were somewhat intertwined. John's father, WC, grew up in Bond County, Illinois where Edith's family, the Davises also lived. John's aunt, Mary Melissa, married Edith's father's half-brother, Amos Huntington Davis. As a sidelight, Amos, spent the Civil War as a member of the 20th Illinois Infantry band.

     Their first child, Curtis, was born in August 1891 in Jefferson County, but their next two children, Otis and Valla, were born in Bond County, Illinois. At the beginning of 1898, they returned to Jefferson County. In January 1899 they took out a mortgage on 10 acres near present day 150th St and Marion St in Jefferson County.

From the left, John holding Goldie or Helen as we knew her; Otis, Curtis, either Edith's mother, Mrs. Davis
or her sister, Sada Davis; Valla and Edith outside their home in 1901.
Both Helen and Vala started with two l's, but they both dropped the second l at some point.

McClenny Home from a different view from the back after an addition. This photo was dated 1914.

     The McClennys lived there until about 1917 or 1918, perhaps, five years after John's death in 1913. Below is a home movie from 1965 when Helen and Vala revisited their home, nearly fifty years after they last lived there. John & Edith's home on Google maps The description of their land is 10 acres of the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 35 in township 8 of range 18 east of the 6th meridian. It's close to the intersection of 150th St and Marion Road in Jefferson County.