Notes for: Jacob ("Jake") P. Bodine
Jacob Bodine's children who were still alive in 1880, Margaret Wickliffe and Robert W. Bodine, both say their father and mother were born in Kentucky. I think this must be a mistake since I don't have proof of Jacob being in Kentucky before the early 1790's. At this point, I believe Jacob was born in Virginia.
Much of the information about this family comes from three family Bibles. One was the Bible that belonged to Jacob's father, Isaac A. Bodine. This Bible still exists. Information below marked with a "*" comes from this Bible. I believe the other Bibles first belonged to Jacob himself and to Jacob's brother-in-law, Robert Wickliffe, Jr. I have copies of the original pages from these two Bibles. I got these from copies at the Harbin Memorial Library in Greenville, Kentucky in Muhlenberg County. The original Bibles are gone, with only the records remaining. As of 1989, the original pages were in the possession of Mrs. Emily Wickliffe Walker who was a resident of Maple Manor Nursing Home. The pages from the Jacob P. Bodine and the Robert Wickliffe, Jr. Bibles look exactly alike with even the page numbers from marriages, births, and deaths being the same. I imagine that Robert Wickliffe, Sr. gave his children a gift of a family Bible when they were married. At least one of these went to his son, Robert Wickliffe, Jr., when he married Agnes Young. And at least one other one went to his daughter, Jane Wickliffe, when she married Jacob P. Bodine. That is my theory anyway. I have marked information below from the Jacob P. Bodine family Bible with "**".
Jacob P. Bodine was born on July 24, 1788* in Loudoun County, Virginia. (Information from the Jacob P. Bodine family Bible gives his birth date as July 24, 1787.) He was married to Jane Wickliffe on March 5, 1812** in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky [Muhlenberg County Marriages, Book 1, p. 17 (Certificate #203 is probably in Muhlenberg.) Married by Rev. LeRoy Jackson.]. He was twenty-three and she was twenty-six. Jane Wickliffe was born on August 18, 1785 in Prince William County, Virginia.** The date comes from the Jacob P. Bodine family Bible, but the source for the location is not known. She was the daughter of Robert Wickliffe, Sr. and Sarah Kincheloe. (Info from the Jacob P. Bodine family Bible says Robert was born January 17, 1756 and he died February 24, 1820. Sarah was born about 1756 or 1763.) Jane was eleven years old when she came from Virginia with her father to Kentucky in 1897 or 1898 (Wickliffe, p. 89).
Jacob is first found in Muhlenberg County in the 1810 Federal Census. He would have been twenty-two at that time. He is also found on the 1811 Muhlenberg County tax roll. He had no land and one horse. By 1812, he had settled on 200 acres that had originally been surveyed in the name of Lewis Kincheloe. This land was sold from one person to another until Jacob ended up buying it. [See the original survey of this land on Cypress Creek. It was surveyed for Lewis Kincheloe (survey #11831), the assignee of Robert Milton on August 13, 1800 (State of KY, South of the Green River Surveys and Grants, v. 34, pp. 108-109.] It appears that he was sharing the land with a man named Fentress. (This is probably John Fentress who founded South Carrollton.) Fentress had the 100 acres to the north and Jacob had the southern 100 acres of this survey. (To determine this, plot the original survey. Next, plot the land sold to R.W. Bodine. Then, overlapping them, one can see that Jacob sold the bottom 100 acres of the original survey to his son.) Jacob was probably the first person to actually settle on this land and improve it. By 1813, Jacob had 100 acres, plus six slaves and two horses. The land was officially granted to Jacob Bodine and Fentress by the Revolutionary War hero, Governor Isaac Shelby, on August 2, 1816 (Muhlenberg County Deeds, Book 19, pp. 186-187). However, by the time Jacob was granted the land, he had already disappeared off the Muhlenberg tax rolls and had moved to Woodford County near Lexington.
Jacob and his family moved to Woodford County (Mortonsville District) about 1815. This is when he first appears on Woodford County tax lists. However, he only had two slaves with him. (He might have left some behind to help with his land in Muhlenberg County.) His son, Robert Wickliffe Bodine, was born in Woodford County in 1817 (see note under R.W. Bodine). Jacob also appears on the 1820 Federal Census as a resident of Woodford County. He continues to be listed on Woodford County tax lists all the way through 1823. Altogether, he spent about ten years in that area. It seems he never did own any land in Woodford County. [No proof could ever be found in the Woodford County deed books that he bought any land. However, Robert Wickliffe (Jane's brother?) owned land there (See Woodford County Deeds, Book L, 216; M, 492; and R, 2.).] So what was he doing there? Several sources say Jacob was a physician. [The 1850 Census of Muhlenberg County, KY lists his profession as a physician. In John Wickliffe's book (p. 90), he says Jane married "Doctor Bodine."] The only medical school in Kentucky at that time was nearby at Transylvania University in Lexington. However, there is no record of Jacob having attended there. It was common practice in those days to be apprenticed to a doctor to learn the profession that way. This may be what Jacob did.
There is information in the Bible Record of Charles Bryant Wickliffe, dated 1830, that deals with the children of Jacob and Jane. I believe this Bible may have once been owned by Jacob P. Bodine himself. Or else it first belonged to his daughter Margaret Elizabeth Bodine. She married Charles Bryant Wickliffe. This is the Bible that eventually came into the hands of Margaret Wickliffe LaRue, Charles' granddaughter. It is believed that this Bible has now disappeared; however, the original genealogical pages may still exist. As of 1989, the originals were in the hands of Emily Wickliffe Walker, the sister of Margaret LaRue. A copy of these records can be found in "The Muhlenberg County Heritage Quarterly," v. 11, no. 3, pages 31-32. This information was also copied by Amber Bodine from this Bible. (Letter to Amber Bodine, 323 Neil Drive, Yuba City, California, from Mrs. Margaret Wickliffe LaRue, 202 N. Main Street, Greenville, Kentucky.) A Paul Reynolds Wickliffe, of New Jersey, has given the Harbin Memorial Library photocopies of records from a "Sam WICKLIFFE and BODINE family Bible." This must be the same Bible as the Margaret LaRue one since the records seem to match. I will paste those below:
JACOB BODINE'S BOOK, January 7, 1912
Jacob Bodine was born July 24th 1787
Jane Bodine was born August 18th 1785
Sarah J. Wickliffe Bodine was born March 14th 1813
Elizabeth Pullen Bodine was born April 8th 1815
Robert Wickliffe Bodine was born June 19th 1817
Frances Maria Bodine was born May 1st 1819
Isaac Newton Bodine was born June 23rd 1822
Charles Asher Bodine was born 13th May 1824
Margaret Elizabeth Bodine was born April 19th 1828
Robert A. Wickliffe, son of Wm & S.J.W. was born Apr 30, 1838
Charles Asher Wickliffe, son of WM. & S.J.W. Wickliffe was born 25th Apr 1840
Nancy Wickliffe was born 28th March 1862
Jane Wickliffe was born March 18, 1864
Charles Bodine Wickliffe was born Feb 15, 1866
Robert Wickliffe was born Feb 18, 1868
Robert Wickliffe, father of Jane Bodine was born Jan 17 1756, d. Feb 24, 1820
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Jacob Bodine & Jane, his wife, were married march 5th 1812 A.D.
William B.Wickliffe & S.J.W. Bodine was married 16th Feb 1837
Richard Jones & Frances M. Bodine was married Jan 1st 1839
Mr C.B. Wickliffe & Margaret E. Bodine was married Feb 3, 1861
Robert Wickliffe & Minnie (record shows Mimmie) Morehead was married Mar 23, 1898
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Elizabeth Pullen Bodine died Oct 30th 1820
Robert A. Wickliffe died May 14th 1839
Sarah J. W. Wickliffe died Feb 27th 1841
Charles A. Wicklliffe died Jan 10th 1843
Isaac Newton Bodine died Oct 22nd 1848
Jacob P. Bodine died Nov 4th 1855
Charles A. Bodine died Nov 15, 1860
Jane Bodine died Nov 11th 1861
Jennie Wickliffe died Feb 25, 1877
Charles B. Wickliffe (died) July 3, 1905
Margaret E. Wickliffe (died) Dec 17, 1911
Charles B. Wickliffe (died) July 8, 1941
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Jacob is first listed back on the Muhlenberg County tax lists in 1826. He is also listed on the 1830 and the 1840 Federal Censuses. In 1839, Jacob bought some more land. He purchased 80 acres from Lewis Reno on Cypress Creek of the Green River (Muhlenberg County Deeds, Book 9, p. 289). This was situated next to his original 100 acres. Not long afterwards, he mortgaged this 180 acres to J.W. L. Godman (Muhlenberg County Deeds, Book 9, p. 297). On November 3, 1855, he sold this same land to his son, Robert W. Bodine (Muhlenberg County Deeds, Book 18, p. 296). In the 1850 census, Jacob had a personal estate valued at $5800. He seemed to be quite a wealthy man. (Of the hundreds of families listed in the 1850 Federal Census of Muhlenberg County, only a dozen or so had personal estates worth more than $5800.)
Jacob P. Bodine died on November 4, 1855 (this date comes from the Bodine / Wickliffe Bible) in Bevier, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Info from Jack Snyder says Jacob and Jane died in Bevier. No reference available. He was sixty-six years old. It is unclear where he is buried; although, he may be in Crescent Cemetery near Cleaton, Kentucky (Muhlenberg County). At first, Jack and Sally (Bodine) Snyder were sure they had seen his grave in the cemetery. But when Jack and Dave Bodine went back in July 1997 and Sally and Dave went in November 1997, they could not find any trace of it. The cemetery is very overgrown, but they looked all over that area. Unless his marker is just a rock, he probably is not there. Jane died November 11, 1861. Her date of death is still readable on her tombstone. It is 1861 and not 1831 as was transcribed in the cemetery records for Muhlenberg County. November 11, 1861 is also the date in the Wickliffe Bible records. She was seventy-six years old. She is buried with many of her Wickliffe relatives and her son Charles in Crescent Cemetery. The cemetery is very overgrown today, but her tombstone, though well worn and broken into four pieces, is still readable. There are also a couple of rocks set up as gravestones near Jane. One is on one side of her and the other is on her other side, between her and Charles. These could be her children that died young. Less likely is that one of these rocks is Jacob, her husband. He had the money for a stone and there are stones in this cemetery that have dates earlier than 1855, his death date.
On August 19, 2017 Dave and Sammy Bodine, along with the help of their cousin Martha Shaver, repaired and reset Jane's tombstone in Crescent Hill Cemetery in Cleaton, KY. The slot in the base for the stone had become worn out over time and the stone could no longer stand in that slot. It had fallen over and had broken into several pieces. We cleaned the pieces (4 of them in total), pinned and glued them together, then put a metal frame around the sides to hold everything together. We then inserted the tombstone into the base and poured a new concrete base around and on top of the old one.
Here is a photo of the grave as it is fixed up now:
And here is her gravestone with flour poured into the inscriptions to make them stand out better (Sammy got this trick from YouTube). With some difficulty, one can even make out her birth date of Aug. 18, 1785 in the crack. We could not figure out what the long small inscription says. And the death date clearly says Nov. 11, 1861.
And here is a map of where Jane Bodine's stone is located in Crescent Hill Cemetery near Cleaton, KY. It's very possible Jacob's stone could be in this same area, but if so it has probably fallen down and gotten buried in the dirt. We need to root around in there some day with some hoes and try to find it.
* - This symbol means the information came from the Isaac A. Bodine Bible.
** - This symbol means the information came from the Jacob P. Bodine Bible.