A midwife in 19th century rural Illinois
Lucy Peterson, 1837-1882
(Mrs. Roderick & Mrs. Doyle)
- by Alice Marie Beard

Lucy died at 45 or 46, the mother of at least eight children, the local midwife, married to an illiterate miner who had survived the Civil War. She probably never knew she was a Mayflower descendant. She was motherless at 12 and married at 18 to a man 15 years her senior. It's likely that her first child died leaving no record since Lucy's first known child was born more than four years after she married. Three more children from her first marriage lived long enough to have recorded lives. Before Lucy was 36, her first husband was dead.

When Lucy married again in 1873, she had children 14, 10, 8, and 3.

Lucy's second husband was Tom Doyle who had been born Frank Reed. There is no indication Lucy ever knew this man's secrets. She was the 36-year-old widow with four children; he was probably about 38, not legally divorced, sad because he'd lost his sons when his wife left and took them. He was poor, illiterate, and by then had spent at least ten years lying about who he was. When she married Tom, he was firmly established under the false name Tom Doyle. His first wife had taken their two sons, and he grieved the rest of his life not knowing where they were.

Within two years of marrying Tom, Lucy bore a set of twins: a son and a daughter. She and Tom had two more daughters who reached adulthood, and she may have lost some children along the way.

In 1881, when Lucy was 44, her oldest daughter married. That was the only child Lucy lived to see married.

Lucy served as the local midwife in her area of Vermilion Co., IL. When a woman was having a baby, it was often Lucy who got a knock at the door at odd hours of the day or night with a husband or family member asking her to come to the aid of the woman giving birth. In February 1883, when snow was covering the ground in Vermilion Co., Lucy got a knock at her door. A man wanted Lucy to come to help his wife. Lucy followed and helped to deliver the baby. As she walked home through the snow, she tripped over a low barbed wire farm fence that she couldn't see because it was covered with snow. When she fell, her old hernia protruded once more. She did what she had done before: She pushed the hernia back. This time, when she pushed the hernia back, she twisted it. Lucy died of a strangulated hernia on 21 Feb 1883, in Bixby, Vermilion Co., IL. In those days, there was no surgery available to fix a hernia.

Lucy died at 45 or 46, leaving behind a son 24, a married daughter 20, a daughter 18, a son 13, a son 9, and daughters 9, 5, and 3. Her nine-year-old twins never really recovered from her death. The daughter never married and spent some years in an instution for the insane as an adult. The son spent the rest of his life blaming his father for not having paid for an operation to save his mom. The son never understood that such surgery was not yet performed when she died in 1883.

Lucy was buried at the Potomac Cemetery in Marysville, Vermilion Co., IL, in an unmarked grave. The records for unmarked graves were lost in the 1930s. Supposedly, she was buried in a row of unmarked graves, near where William O. Payne was buried five years later (1888). There is a small roadway that goes thru the cemetery. When you are on that driveway, nearest William Payne's stone, there are unmarked graves between the roadway and William Payne's grave stone. Supposedly, she was buried in one of those unmarked graves. When Lucy died in 1883, the only official relationship she had with William Payne was that Payne had been the brother-in-law of Lucy's husband Tom during Tom's first marriage. Seventeen years after she died, and 12 years after he died, Lucy Peterson and William Payne developed a new relationship: Lucy's son married William's daughter.

Seven hundred years before Lucy's time, one of Lucy's distant ancestral grandmothers was making history. Check out a paper I wrote about the distant ancestor while I was in law school: Eleanor of Aquitaine, in transition.

Lucy with her first husband:

HUSBAND: Solomon RODERICK
BORN: Abt 1822, Ohio
DIED: Bef 1873
MARR: 24 Apr 1855, Vermilion Co., IL
FATHER: Samuel RODERICK
====================================
WIFE: Lucy PETERSON
BORN: 1837, Dayton, Montgomery Co., OH
DIED: 21 Feb 1883, Bixby, Vermilion Co., IL
BUR.: Marysville, Vermilion Co., IL
FATHER: Cornelius Andrew PETERSON (1806-1877)
MOTHER: Cilinda LANE LANE (1810-1849)
[There is a lengthy pedigree for Lucy's mom Cilinda Lane.]
====================================
CHILDREN from first husband
====================================
1) Eli RODERICK
BORN: 1859, Vermilion Co., IL
DIED: 20 Nov 1930, Potomac, Vermilion Co., IL
BUR.: Potomac, Vermilion Co., IL
SPOUSE: Mary BURNS
MARR: 6 Jun 1903, Champaign, IL
---------------------------------------------------
2) Mary J. RODERICK
BORN: 1863, Vermilion Co., IL
SPOUSE: William ANDERSON
MARR: 6 Aug 1881, Danville, Vermilion Co., IL
---------------------------------------------------
3) Susannah RODERICK
BORN: 6 May 1865, Vermilion Co., IL
DIED: 18 Feb 1891, Vermilion Co., IL
BUR.: Potomac Cemetery, Vermilion Co., IL
SPOUSE: John HENDERS
MARR: 15 Oct 1886, Danville, Vermilion Co., IL
---------------------------------------------------
4) Solomon A. RODERICK
BORN: 1870, Vermilion Co., IL

Lucy with her second husband:

HUSBAND: Thomas Reed DOYLE (born Francis REED)
BORN: Abt Nov 1835, at sea?, Quebec, Canada
DIED: 8 Feb 1916, Kankakee, Kankakee Co., IL
BUR.: 15 Feb 1916, St. Patrick Cem. (now Resurection Cem.), Danville, Vermilion Co., IL
MARR: 11 Jan 1873, Vermilion Co., IL
FATHER: Robert REED
MOTHER: Agnes BELDON/MONK
====================================
WIFE: Lucy PETERSON
BORN: 1837, Dayton, Montgomery Co., OH
DIED: 21 Feb 1883, Bixby, Vermilion Co., IL
BUR.: Marysville, Vermilion Co., IL
FATHER: Cornelius Andrew PETERSON (1806-1877)
MOTHER: Cilinda LANE (1810-1849)
====================================
CHILDREN from second husband
====================================
1) Itha Elmer DOYLE (twin)
BORN: 1874, Bixby, Vermilion Co., IL
DIED: 22 Jan 1958, Niles, Berrien Co., MI
BUR.: Potomac Cemetery, Vermilion Co., IL
SPOUSE: Mary Louise PAYNE
MARR: 19 Dec 1900, Vermilion Co., IL
----------------------------------------------------
2) Ida Ellen DOYLE (twin)
BORN: 1874, Bixby, Vermilion Co., IL
DIED: 21 Sep 1943, Catlin, Vermilion Co., IL
BUR.: Oak Hill Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion Co., IL
----------------------------------------------------
3) Amanda E. DOYLE
BORN: 13 Jul 1878, Vermilion Co., IL
DIED: 15 Nov 1927, Vermilion Co., IL
BUR.: Bethel Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion Co., IL
SPOUSE: George W. PHIPPS
MARR: 9 Mar 1892, Fountain Co., IN
SPOUSE #2: John L. SMITH
MARR #2: 26 Sep 1914
---------------------------------------------------
4) Minnie DOYLE
BORN: 1 May 1880, Vermilion Co., IL
DIED: 10 Nov 1949, Marion, MI
BUR.: Grand Blanc, MI
SPOUSE: Charles PATTEN
MARR: 4 Mar 1900, Vermilion Co., IL
SPOUSE #2: Owen B. MEEK
MARR #2: 1908
====================================
12 GRANDCHILDREN from 2nd husband:
from Itha Elmer: Lucy, Lester, Hettie, Ralph, Elizabeth Ann
from Amanda: Mary, Wesley, Myrtle, Dolly
from Minnie: Murray, Tillman Mark, Edward Samuel

Lucy's full siblings:
Lydia Peterson: b. 1827; m. PHIPPS
John Peterson: 1828-1894); m. PHIPPS
Elmira Peterson: 1832-1907; m. GAW
Sarah Peterson: b. 1834; m. RODERICK
Benjamin Peterson: 1836-1916; 1st m. PILKINGTON; 2nd m. GARLAND
Eli Peterson: 1840-1887; m. WRIGHT
Mary Jane Peterson: b. 1842; 1st m. GEARHARD; 2nd m. GAW
Charlotte Peterson: 1844-1873; m. WILLIAMS
Selinda Peterson: 1847-1882; m. BAKER

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