Deborah Hendryx was the daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Ann (McGrail) Hendryx. She was born 1786 near Albany, New York. Nathaniel and Mary Ann had six children; Deborah (1786), Abraham (1792), Lydia (1793), Olive (1795), Nancy (1797), Rachel (1799). Nathaniel served in the New York Militia during the Revolutionary War under two different commanders. After the war he returned to the Albany area to his family and his home. A short time later, his home was destroyed by a fire with all his worldly possessions lost. The family left New York and settled in the Susquehanna River Area of Pennsylvania for several years before returning to Albany. In the 1810 Federal Census, both Nathaniel Hendryx and Jonathan Leet are recorded in the Caneadea , New York.

Deborah Hendryx and Jonathan Leet /Leete married in 1807. Jonathan served in the War of 1812 with the New York Militia. Jonathan and Deborah had ten children. The first eight were born in New York. The ten children are; David (1808), Victor (1809), Nancy (1814), Daniel (1815), Amy (1819), Lucy (1820), Maynarsia (1821), Lydia (1823), William (1831), Polly (1834). Jonathan and Deborah left New York and moved to Michigan sometime after 1823 birth of Lydia. They are found in a Michigan Territorial Census record in 1833. The two youngest children, William and Polly were born in Oakland County, Michigan according to birth and death records. By the 1840 Federal Census, Jonathan and Deborah have left Michigan and moved on to Wabash County, Illinois where Deborah’s father, Nathaniel, had moved over twenty years before in 1819. Several of Jonathan and Deborah’s adult children remained in Michigan where they had married and started families by the time of their parents move. The remaining adult children followed Jonathan and Deborah to Illinois.

By the time of the 1850 Census, Jonathan and Deborah have two children who remain living with them; William and Polly. In the 1860 Federal Census, an eighty year old Jonathan and a sixty-nine year old Deborah are living in Lukin, Lawrence County, Illinois. Jonathan died in 1861 and Deborah petitioned the government for his pension.

One hundred and forty-nine years ago on July 7, 1871, Deborah Hendryx Leet died in Wabash, Illinois. She is buried next to her husband in Hallock Cemetery.

Rest in peace, Deborah,

Love Jan

Deborah Hendryx Leet is my fourth Great Grandmother.