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Four years later, Royal gained a brother who was named Napoleon Bonapart Erwin. Napoleon was born in Caledonia, Illinois, and apparently he married a woman named Ida. It seems he was also known as Lewis Manley, but I have so far uncovered no other information about him, except that he died about 1930. Someday I hope to trace this branch of the family.

John Spears' last son was my great-grandfather. Benjamin Franklin Erwin was born in Boone County, Illinois, on the 19th of March, 1861. He grew up on a farm with 2 brothers, 2 sisters, and 7 half-brothers and half-sisters from his father's first marriage. 'Great-grandpappy Frank', as he was always known in our family, was a character. There are many family stories about him which have come down through the years, some of which are reproduced in this work. Although I cannot vouch for the accuracy of all of these tales, I believe that there is a grain of truth in all of them, and perhaps most are pretty much correct. It would perhaps be unfair to term him 'The Black Sheep' of the family, but certainly some of his exploits were less than exemplary.

It seems that Frank did not get along too well with his half-brothers and half-sisters. He was the youngest boy and the second youngest child out of a total of 12, and it seems that his half-brothers and half-sisters were especially mean to him. Apparently the problem became serious enough to cause him to run away from home on at least one occasion. Whether or not he came back and left again later is not clear, but it seems that he was not very old when he left home for good.

Frank married Catherine Euphemia McKensie in 1880, and they moved to Olmsted County, Minnesota in 1882 with Catherine's brother Archie. He was 20, and she was 18. Catherine had a child named Chloa Mae who was born in 1879, but Frank was not the father, although Chloa took the Erwin name when she grew up. It seems that Chloa was quite surprised when she discovered her real father some years later. Frank and Catherine had sons named John and Benjamin who were born in Olmsted County in 1883 and 1885. Sometime after 1885, they left for the Kansas City area, where a number of McKensie relatives lived. It is not clear how long they stayed, but they had a daughter Christie in 1887, somewhere in Kansas.

Later, the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa. Their daughter Kathryn was born there in 1891, and Nancy in 1894. Eventually, they returned to Olmsted County. On this trip, as they traveled by covered wagon, they encountered heavy rains, and perhaps snow, and somewhere in Iowa one of their children died from the 'Black Measles'. There is no record of the boy's name, but he was very young, and my grandfather remembered missing his baby brother for years thereafter. Apparently the child was buried in an unmarked grave alongside the trail and they continued on into Minnesota.

It seems that Frank did not travel with his family on the entire trip. At least one family source mentions the fact that he disappeared for some time along

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