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Peter
M. Boucher, Jr.
(February
11, 1770 —
November 1854)
Sarah
(Sally) Goodnight
(February
13, 1841 —
)
In
1770, the population of the American colonies was 2,210,000 people.
But they were divided people. Many
were unhappy with the British rule of the colonies.
It was in 1770 in the Colony of Massachusetts that the Boston Massacre
happened, in which an anti-Crown mob was fired on by a group of British
soldiers. John Adams, who would
later become the second United States
president represented the troops, most of whom were acquitted, but two of whom
were branded and released.
 |
In
Loudon
County, in the Colony of Virginia, Francis Lightfoot Lee, a younger brother of Richard
Henry Lee, was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. Richard
Henry Lee was member of the same House, for Westmoreland County.
Both agitated for independence from
Britain. Francis Lightfoot Lee was later
the member for
Virginia
of the committee that framed the Articles of Confederation. |
We
do not know where Peter Boucher, Sr. and his wife, Jane Waddell Boucher (both
Loudon
County
natives) stood on these issues. We
do know, however, they had another focus that year, the birth of Peter Boucher,
Jr. on February 11, 1770.
Over
seven years later, Peter’s future wife, Sarah (Sally) Goodnight, was born on
April 6, 1777
in Mecklenburg County,
North Carolina. They married on
May 27, 1795
in Mercer
County, a small central Kentucky
county.
Sometime
thereafter, the young family moved to what is now Allen County,
Kentucky.
He first appeared in the records there in 1797, when he appeared in the
tax records for Warren County,
Kentucky. Yes,
Warren
County. Allen
County
was formed in 1815 from parts of Barren
County
and Warren
County. Peter lived in the portion formed
from Warren
County. He also appeared on the 1800
Warren
County
tax rolls.
Peter
and Sally had ten children:
|
Name
|
Birth date and place
|
Death date and place
|
|
Nancy
Boucher
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth
(Betsy) Boucher
|
1796
|
|
|
Mary
(Polly) Boucher
|
March 6, 1798
Allen
County,
|
November 29,
1860
Lawrence County,
Missouri
|
|
Isaac
D. Boucher
|
January 29,
1800
Allen
County,
|
July 5, 1876
Allen
County,
|
|
Cary
Boucher
|
June 4, 1802
Allen County,
|
January
1827
Prob
Allen
County,
Kentucky
|
|
Jacob
A. Boucher
|
November 8,
1804
Allen
County,
|
August 20, 1832
|
|
John
Goodnight Boucher
|
January 22,
1809
Allen
County,
|
August 6, 1884
Washburn,
Missouri
|
|
Enoch
Boucher
|
August 20, 1832
|
1848
Edmonson County,
Kentucky
|
|
Harrison
Boucher
|
January 14,
1814
Allen
County,
|
February 14,
1899
Allen
County, Kentucky
|
|
Lemuel
Boucher
|
February 14,
1816
|
1861
|
|
In
an article in a vanity biography published of a grandson of Peter and Sally,
| . . . Peter came to Kentucky
with Daniel Boone on his second or third trip, and was in the battle of
Blue Licks, where the Indians defeated the whites, killing nearly all of
them. His horse was killed under him, but he managed to make his escape
by bounding upon a horse behind a soldier who was passing. He lived to
be ninety-three years of age, his death occurring in Allen County, Ky.,
in 1856. |
The
biography continued with Peter's wife:
| His wife, Sally (Goodnight)
Boucher, was born in 1777, and emigrated with her parents from Germany
to Virginia
when she was three years of age. They soon moved to Boone Station Ky., making the trip on ponies, but broke down when about a day's journey
from the station, and were obliged to leave a portion of their goods. |
Peter,
Sally and their family appeared in the 1820 census for Allen
County, the first for the new county. The
records showed that he had in his household two free white boys under the age of
ten, two boys and two girls between ten and sixteen, two between 18 and 26 and
one (Peter) 45 and older. He also
had one white female (Sally) 45 and older.
Allen
County, Kentucky deed records showed that Peter Boucher bought a 23-acre
property near the Bays fork from Isaac Lee on
August 11, 1827. He paid $500 for it.
The witnesses on the deed were Peter. Jr.’s son Jacob and his
son-in-law John Spilman. The deed
was recorded on November 19, 1827."
Peter
and Sally’s son, Cary, died in January 1827, leaving a daughter, Cary Ann
Boucher, who had been born the year before. An
abstract of an 1828 deed showed that Peter, Jr. decided to provide well for this
infant granddaughter. On
May 1, 1828, Peter, Jr.
| "for & in
consideration of the good will and affection I entertained for my son
Cary Boucher deceased.. hereby give . . . unto Caryann Boucher infant
heir of the aforesaid CARY decd a . . . parcel of land . . . being in
the aforesaid County on the waters of Baysfork and
Barren
River
it being a part of a tract of 2300 acres patented to PETER BOUCHER
Senior by the
commonwealth
of
Kentucky
. . . bounded . . . corner of JACOB TABERs 80 acre survey . . .
containing 70 1/2 acres. |
The
1840 Allen
County
census showed Peter as the head of a household consisting of a boy between 5
and 10, two young men between 20 and 30 and one man between 70 and 80 (Peter).
Also in the household was a young woman between 10 and 15, two young
women between 20 and 30 and an older woman between 60 and 70 (Sally).
There was also a female slave between 35 and 55 years old.
Sally
died the next year, on February 13, 1841.
The
1850 census showed Peter a final time, four years before his death.
This time the information is more detailed.
It showed he was an 80-year old millwright and farmer.
He lived alone. His place of
birth was listed as “unknown.”
The separate 1850 slave schedules showed that he had a fifty-year old
black female slave in the household.
Peter
died in November 1854, several years shy of the 93-years of age the biography
mentioned above later claimed. According
to one researcher, he died at his family's
Kentucky
home place.
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