Leah Goldman Powell's death left her children in hard situations. She and her son Henry had entered into an agreement to purchase land. She had paid two horses down on this purchase. At the time of her death Henry was probably living on this land.
Lewis Powell was also placed in distress by Leah's death. When his brother, Charles Jr., died in 1819, Lewis signed a bond for Leah Powell to purchase a considerable portion of her dead husband's estate. Lewis was now going to pay for this kind act.
Charles Hart, Jr., son of Charles Hart, Sr., was administrator of Leah's husband's estate. He had not collected the money from Leah on the bond with which she purchased her husband's property, but now that Leah was dead he was going after Lewis Powell for the money.
Lewis, anticipating Charles Hart, Jr.'s next move, seized Leah's property and held a public sale, keeping the money for himself. His intention was to protect himself from Charles Hart, Jr. By 1828 Lewis Powell and Charles Hart, Jr. are deeply involved in lawsuits against each other. Henry Powell is called on again and again to testify in the courts.
In June of this year Henry is asked if his Uncle Lewis did not intend for him and his brothers to purchase his mother's effects at the sale. He answers, "They selected me and my brothers to purchase the property and become paymasters to Hart." Leah's children, falling back on their mother's strong spirit, do not take the bait. They will remain free and strong and poor and their mother's property goes to the neighbors at the sale. Lewis Powell walks away with the money from the sale, but still battling with Charles Hart, Jr. in the courts.
On May 13, 1830 Henry is again called on to testify. This time they ask about the land he and his mother purchased. They ask "Did you or your mother pay for the land." He answers "She paid part." They asked "Did you or not sell said land." "The land was to be hers when paid for and further saith not" came the reply.
By September, 1829 Henry had finished paying for this land. The purchase price was recorded as $195. Two months later he sold the land for $370. He made $175 profit above the recorded purchase price.
Now, Henry knows Lewis Powell has the money from his mothers things and surly either Lewis or Charles Hart, Jr. is going to get the money from her land. He is Leah's son, and vows this will not be.
Henry gathers up his wife, not yet twenty years old, and their three young sons, the oldest not yet five. He shakes the dust of Kentucky from his heals and heads for the wilds of Illinois. Barely hesitating in Illinois he heads on to Iowa Territory. Here on the wild plains of frontier America he starts a new life, follows his mother's example, and raises many strong sons.
Those sons spread their descendants from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the borders of Canada to the edge of Mexico. Today, I am numbered among those descendants, sons of the sons of the sons of Henry Powell.
Copyright © 1996 Fleta Aday
This story written for our Powell family website has been lost to us. Today it was found and placed here for safekeeping. Henry Powell was our 3rd Great Grandfather, born 1802 in Mercer County, Kentucky, a son of Charles Powell, Jr. and Leah Goldman Powell.
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