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The early records of St. Lawrence County indicate that there were 155
citizens living there in 1802, including two Erwins, named Henry and Joseph.
We do not know whether John Spears was related to these individuals, or
whether he came from elsewhere, but there are numerous records of Erwins living
in the Louisville area during the years which followed, some of whom are buried
in the Louisville Cemetery. Unfortunately,
I have as yet been unable to establish a direct link
between John Spears and any of them, with one possible exception.
Land records from the St. Lawrence County History Center in Canton, N.Y.,
show a Hannah Erwin in Louisville in 1837.
It is conceivable that this might be John's mother.
One other detail is worth mentioning.
The St. Lawrence County Historian in 1965, a Mrs. Mary H. Biondi,
remembers an inquiry into the Erwin name coming from Tin Cap Schoolhouse,
Canada. This might indicate that
there are or were some Erwins in this part of Canada at some time.
I have not as yet had the opportunity to research this.
John married twice, first to Minerva Wright, who was born on the 5th of
September, 1808, in New York. It is
not known exactly when they married, but their first child was born in Oct.,
1831. They came to Boone
County, Illinois, in 1838, where they settled on a farm in Caledonia Township,
and raised 7 children. The first
three of these were born in New York, but it is interesting to note that the
fourth child, Henry, was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
This is further evidence that John may have had relatives there.
Minerva lived until about 1847, when she died from unknown causes.
John married again, in 1852, this time to Cynthia Depuy.
John and Cynthia had 5 children, the first being born in 1853, and the
last in 1862, in Boone County. Naturally,
John's other children from his first marriage lived with them, although
Cynthia's child from her first marriage apparently did not.
John and Cynthia moved from Boone County sometime after 1862, and he
apparently died in Minnesota on April 9, 1868, although his body was brought
back to Illinois, and he is buried in the cemetery which lies adjacent to the
intersection of Illinois Highways 76 and 173 in that part of the state.
However, his second wife Cynthia outlived him by more than 40 years,
passing away on the 30th of March, 1909.
Cynthia Depuy was born on the 4th of June, in 1829 or 1830, in Livingston
Co., New York. According to an old
family bible in the possession of Jane Gunderson, the year was 1830, and her
parents, Amos Depuy and Mary Harvey, were
traveling between Owasco and Nunda in Livingston Co, when the birth took place.
But the hospital records in Rochester, Minnesota, where Cynthia died in
1909, give her birth year as 1829, and so there remains some question about
which is correct, although I am inclined to think that the bible may be more
likely to be accurate.