ABRAM SONGER, retired farmer, P. O. Xenia, was born in Virginia December 25, 1806, to Abram and Catherine (Sawyers) Songer. The father was a native of Pennsylvania, but had moved with his parents to Virginia when small. The mother was born in Maryland, but was also reared in Virginia. They were married in Virginia, and in about 1817 moved to Indiana, where he died. In about 1830, she and her family moved to this, Clay, county, where some years later she died. She was the mother of nine children, of whom our subject is the only surviving one. Our subject came to Clay County in 1828, and has made Xenia Township his home ever since. He is one of the few remaining soldiers of the Black Hawk war of 1832. In 1834, he was married, in this county, to Miss Mary McGrew, who was born in Kentucky, but reared in Indiana, and a daughter of James McGrew. After marriage they settled on their present farm, which contains 210 acres of land, all of which Mr. Songer entered from the Government. Besides being a farmer, Mr. Songer is also a mechanic, and has done considerable blacksmith and carpenter work. During the civil war, while the settlers were raising cotton in Illinois, he made a cotton-gin and ran it with profit. Mr. and Mrs. Songer have been connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church for about fifty years. Their connection, however, for some years has been with the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He has always voted the Democratic ticket. For some time Mrs. Songer has been seriously afflicted with blindness. She is the mother of nine children, six of whom lived to be grown, viz.: Cynthia A., Rebecca J., Abigail, Moses, Aaron and Mary. Cynthia died without having a family. Abigail and Mary both left families at their death. Of the living, Aaron is a resident of Kansas; Moses is a farmer in this township; Rebecca J. and her husband, William Bradley, are living on the old homestead, and lightening Mr. and Mrs. Songer's burden in their declining years.
Extracted 28 Dec 2017 by Norma Hass from 1884 History of Wayne and Clay Counties, Illinois, Part IV, pages 168-169.
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