My pioneer ancestor Martha Bundy and maternal 3rd gr grandmother has always held a special place in my heart, why I don't know, and often wonder if I could have been her in another life time.  During a time when it certainly wasn't very easy to get around, she did more than her fair share of moving.  I often speculate about her, and her life and the things she saw and experienced in this country when is was so young, wild and empty.

Martha was born in February 29, 1811, in Pasquotank County, North Carolina (on the east coast of North Carolina).  By the time Martha was born in 1811, her family, the Bundys' had already been in this country for over 150 years.  Her gr gr gr gr grandfather William Bundy and grandmother Elizabeth had come to this country in the mid 1600's.  They came from the Wiltshire County, England area (very near Stonehenge).

The Bundy's were Quakers in England and probably immigrated because they wanted to be free from religious persecution.  The original Bundy couple, William and Elizabeth, were in the Rhode Island area first and then migrated to North Carolina as many Quakers did at the time.  The environment in eastern North Carolina was not very hospitable, i.e., it was swampy and filled with mosquitoes that carried yellow fever everywhere, but the Quakers thought they'd be left alone here because of these conditions.

The Bundys were members of the Quakers Pasquotank Monthly Meeting.(The Quakers called their churches "Meetings".
 

Martha's father was Benjamin Bundy, son of Joseph Bundy and Elizabeth Henley.  On 26 Apr 1810 when Benjamin was 21, he married Penninah DELON, daughter of Mark DELON & Ann TAYLOR, in Symons Creek, North Carolina. Born on 27 Jan 1792 in Pasquotank Co., North Carolina. Penninah died on 16 Oct 1872, she was 80.

Martha was their first child born eleven months after their marriage on February 11, 1811. 

In 1823, when Martha was 11 years old, her younger brother, John, born in 1817, who was three years old at the time, died. In 1825 when Martha's father, Benjamin was only 36 years old he died, Martha was 14 at the time.  In that same year, 1825, her younger sister, Ann, who was one year old at the time, died too.  Whether her father and sister both died as a result of an epidemic or their deaths were separate incidents is not known.  So at a tender age Martha experienced three deaths in her family.  No record of her mother ever remarrying can be found.

In 1832, when Martha would have been 21 years old, she was disbanded (kicked out) from the Quakers for having an illegitimate son.  I can hardly imagine the stigma surrounding this in that time period.  Martha named her son Samuel F. Pike which was a mystery to us until my mother, Barbara Smith, discovered through research that in those days if a man did not claim a child as his, then the woman would go ahead and name it for him so people would know who the father was anyway.  There was a Samuel F. Pike in the same Meeting as Martha, married to another woman with children, and we strongly suspect this was the father of Martha's illegitimate son, Samuel.

In 1837, according to Quaker records, Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy, Volume I, North Carolina, page 138, twelve years after the death of her husband, Benjamin, Martha's mother, Penninah Delon (1792-1872) (Martha's mother outlived her) moved the family West to Guildford County, North Carolina, a distance of approximately _____ miles.  A great number of Quakers were migrating west during this time, and there is a good chance that they already had family in Guildford County.  Martha would have been 26 years old and her son, Samuel F. Pike would have been five years old.  Source:  In 1837 Penninah Delon Bundy, Martha's mother, requested a certificate to Deep River Meeting which was in Guilford County, North Carolina, west of Pasquotank on the east coast.  ("requesting a certificate is what the Quakers did when they wanted to move to another location and become part of another "Meeting").

It is assumed that Martha met and married William Lewis Monticue before she moved to Guilford County in 1837, as Martha's second son, William, (named for her husband William Monticue) was born in 1838.

Martha and William Lewis Monticue had the following boys:

William, born in 1838; Benjamin Franklin, (our line) born in 1840; David, born in 1841; Jesse, born in 1843; and Solomon, born in 1845.  Samuel her first son, born illegitimately, was born in 1832.

Sometime around 1845, William Lewis Monticue died leaving Martha to raise six boys alone.  His will was proved in Guilford County in December of 1845.

In the 1850 Guilford County Census Martha is listed as head of household and her sons, Solomon, Jesse and Samuel (Pike) are with her.  Her sons Benjamin Franklin and David are listed in the household of Job and Margaret Elliot.  It is assumed since these two sons were in another household, that Martha needed help raising her boys. Perhaps they were "apprenticed out".  William, Martha's second born son, was not in the 1850 Guilford County Census, and was later found in the 1850 census for Henry County, Indiana (where Martha moved eventually) in the home of Caleb Wickersham and Miriam Delon (his great Aunt and Uncle who was a well known abolitionist in Henry County, IN), and a farmer born in North Carolina.  William must have gone to Indiana with a friend or family member sometime before his mother, Martha, eventually moved there.  Research uncovered who this Caleb Wickersham was.  Caleb Wickersham was married to Miriam Delon, (his third wife) Martha's mother's sister, (Martha's Aunt).

Sometime in 1850 or shortly thereafter, Martha took her boys from North Carolina and moved north to Knightstown, Indiana.  Approximately _____ North.  "Click" the map to enlarge.

In 1852, when Martha was 41 years old, she married Andrew Wilson in Henry County, Indiana.  Here is the marriage certificate.  ("Click" on it to enlarge)

Until July 2000, this is where our story about our pioneer ancestor Martha Bundy ended, we didn't know what had happened to her, (family tradition speculated that she had gone west with her sons, Samuel and David) but a new contact and discovery has since been made.

I was able to contact and subsequently communicate via the Internet with Red Monticue, Great Grandson of Jesse Monticue, brother to our Benjamin Franklin, (two of Martha Bundy's sons).  He had in his possession a two page synopsis of Jesse's life story, written by Jesse around 1921.  In the synopsis, he tells what became of his mother and where she is buried, a very exciting discovery for me.

So Martha was on her way West as family tradition suggested, but she was only going as far as Illinois, Coles county.  On her way to this new location, she became ill and died.  Jesse, as per his story, visited her before she died.  She is buried in the Mound Cemetery, Coles County, IL.  It is this author's intention to put a tombstone on her grave.

Martha was only around 51 years old when she died, a rather short life, but my imagination runs wild thinking about the things she saw and did.  I think she must have had a of spunk and I'm eternally grateful and curious about her and her life, my pioneer gr gr gr gr gr grandmother.