• General Notes

  Father: John Todd b: ABT. 1773
  Mother: Martha "Patsy" Collier
  
  Marriage 1 Nancy Ruth Lee
  Children
  Martha Ann Todd b: 16 FEB 1823
  Elizabeth "Betty" Todd b: 1824
  John Todd b: 1 JAN 1826
  
  Marriage 2 Nancy Mills
  Children
  Joel Todd b: ABT. 1828 note jhll error by Nancy Ruth Lee.
  
  1860 census show Joel Sr. with real estate value at 700 dollars and personal estate at $1300 . His age as 60, Nancy at 62 (this would be his second wife), Joel Jr. 21 personal estate at $85,. Also two females lived with them. Eliza Parker age 15 and Polly Foreman age 20 (perhaps the two black women that lived with them.) On the census the race is not marked. My uncle Lee told me that he remembers a black woman living with his grandfather Joel Jr., and that she reminded him of the lady on the Aunt Jemima syrup bottle. He also thought that she was a former slave that had belonged to the family and that when she was freed she stayed with the family. Joel was a member of John Gregg Fee's anti-slavery church. Cassius M Clay gave Fee a 10 acre homestead if he would take up residency and preach. He called this place Berea, after the town mentioned in Acts 17:10 where men were open minded and receptive to the gospel. This was the start of Berea College.
  In 1857-58 the mob spirit raged in Madison Co. Fee and others were threatened, but they conti nued to crusade for human rights. Hostility intensified by John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry. Two days before Christmas, 62 armed men rode into J.R. Rodger's yard (he was another leader and preacher) and told them their group had 10 days to leave the state. When the Govenor refused their protection, their exodus began to Ohio on the 7th day. the group numbering 34 carried only their necessary posessions confident of their return. They returned in 6 months.
  Joel was one of the men who donated to Berea College.
  
  James Todd (Jim) has a copy of the marriage bond for Joel Todd and Nancy Lee dated March 29
  , 1822 and signed by Joel Todd and Thomas Todd
  
  (from A Day of Small Things by Richard Sears - summarized by Thomas J. Todd)
  
  According to Richard D. Sears, historian and teacher at Berea College, Kentucky, Joel was a s upporter of the abolitionist "colony" near Berea under the leadership of John Gregg Fee. Fee was given a grant of land by Senator Marcius Cassius Clay to start just such an antislavery movement in Kentucky. Senator Clay felt that as long as Kentucky held slavery, its poor and middle class would be under employed. With all of the waterfalls, Clay felt the state had the same potential for industrial development as New England, but that "the stain of slavery" would keep capitol venture out. Fee made an impassioned speech against slavery at a Fourth of July celebration in Richmond in 1859.  Most of the influential men in the crowd were slave holders. Fee, rising to the occasion, pro claimed that any government that allowed the ownership of human beings was a government unworthy of obedience. This was too strong for Senator Clay to stomach and he removed his protective support for Fee's group.
  
  Local slave holders were further incensed by Fee bringing "Yankee" school teachers from Ohi o into Madison Co. to teach children of all races. A committee of slave owners gave Fee and his followers ten days to leave Kentucky.
  the 1850 census for Madison Co.
  
  Dwelling 390, family 392
  Joel Todd age 50 Farmer $1500 Real Estate born Madison Co.
  Nancy Todd age 53 born Madison Co.
  Irvin Todd age 22 born Madison Co.
  Newton Todd age 20 born Madison Co.
  Amanda Todd age 16, born Madison Co.
  Lucy Todd age 14 born Madison Co.
  Mary Todd age 13 born Madison Co.
  Joe Todd age 10, born Madison Co.
  
  Dwelling 391, family 393
  John Todd age 25, Farmer $417 Real Estate born Madison Co.
  Martha Todd age 23, born Madison Co.
  Lucinda Todd 2, born Madison Co.
  
  There is also a Madison Todd on this same page Dwelling 348, Family 390
  Madison age 42, Farmer $5970 Real Estate, born Madison Co.
  Sarah age 37
  John M age 14
  Mary E age 11
  George age 9
  James M age 7
  Nancy age 5
  Walter age 2
  William age 1/12
  James Fletcher age 24 Farmer
  all born in Madison Co.
  
  There was also a Baxter Todd on a previous page.
  

Details of John's family with Martha "Patsy" Collier