General Notes

SARAH CATHERINE DICKEY was born 14 April 1855 in Noble Township, Richland County, Illinois, USA.  She was the eldest surviving daughter of James M. Dickey and Mary Maglone.  Sarah's father James, born about 1819 in North Carolina, was a blacksmith.  Sarah's mother Mary was born in Indiana on Christmas Day 1831, the daughter of James Maglone of County Monaghan, Ireland and Mary Landers of Poughkeepsie, New York.  On 25 December 1851, when Mary Maglone was exactly 20 years old, she married James Dickey in Olney, Richland County, Illinois.

The couple settled in Noble Township, Richland County, Illinois. James and Mary may have had children that died in infancy, but they had three surviving children —  Sarah Catherine Dickey, the eldest, born in 1855; Clara O. Caroline "Carrie" Dickey, born in 1857; and Henry Clay Dickey, born in 1860.  Sarah's maternal grandparents had both died before she was even born, and she lost her mother at a very young age, too.  Sarah was barely 6 years old when Mary died on 03 July 1861 in Noble Township, Richland County, Illinois.  James Dickey the blacksmith was left with 3 young children to raise —  Sarah, 6; Carrie, 4; and little Henry, only 14 months old.  Fortunately, even though Mary and her parents were dead, there were lots of Maglone relatives that also lived in Noble.

James Dickey never re-married, so Sarah surely grew up with a lot of responsibility on her young shoulders.  It is not known when her father James M. Dickey died, but it was sometime between the 1880 and 1900 census enumerations.

On 14 Sep 1873, when Sarah was 18 years old, she married her husband James Tower Prather in Richland County, Illinois.  James was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky, the son of George Washington Prather and Hester Branson or Reynolds.  James (who sometimes went by his middle name "Tower") was a farmer, and then later a drayman.  The couple settled in Flora, Clay County, Illinois, and raised 8 children, 2 girls and 6 boys:  Stella Electa Prather, Frederick Wesley Prather, William Clarence Prather, Altha Ophelia Prather, Bishop Claude Prather, Lloyd Elmer Prather, James Albert Prather (who died when only 3 years old), and Henry Clayson Prather, who died as a soldier in World War I.  Other than their sons James and Henry, who both died young, their other children lived to marry and have children of their own (Sarah and James even helped to raise some of their grandchildren). 

James died in 1934, so Sarah was left a widow for 9 years.  But there was plenty of family that lived nearby. She was a grandmother and great-grandmother many times over when she died on 13 July 1943 in a hospital in Clay City.  Sarah was buried next to her husband James in Elmwood Cemetery in her hometown of Flora on the 15^th of July, 1943.

—  bio written by me for FindAGrave, 27 March 2012, kmh.

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  Burial Notes

Elmwood Cemetery

  Recorded Events in Her Life

• She appeared on the 1860 US Federal Census on 13 August 1860 in Noble Township, Richland County, Illinois, USA. ⁵
  

Jas M Dickey     40   M   Blacksmith   N C    real estate value 1,500; personal property value 100
Mary             25   F                Ills
Sarah             5   F                 "
Caroline          3   F                 "
H Clay         1/12   M                 "

• She appeared on the census in 1880 in Stanford Township, Clay County, Illinois, USA.

• She appeared on the census in 1900 in Clay City Township, Clay County, Illinois, USA.

• She appeared on the census in 1920 in Flora, Harter Township, Clay County, Illinois, USA.

• She appeared on the census in 1930 in Clay City, Clay County, Illinois, USA.

• She had a residence in 1931 in Clay City, Clay County, Illinois, USA.

• She had a residence before 13 July 1943 in Clay City, Clay County, Illinois, USA. ³