Staggs Family History

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    Charlotte F Dillon (1811-1880)

    BIRTH: Abt 1811, Madison County, Missouri, USA
    DEATH: Bef. 1880, Crawford County, Missouri, USA
    FATHER: Unknown
    MOTHER: Unknown
    SPOUSE: William Coner Edgar Jr (1804–1880)

    Charlotte F Dillon was born in 1811 in Madison, Missouri. She married William Coner Edgar on June 10, 1827, in Madison, Missouri. They had 12 children in 25 years. She died in 1880 in Crawford, Missouri, at the age of 69.

    The Life of Charlotte F Dillon

    Charlotte F. Dillon was born in 1811, almost certainly in Kentucky, at a time when the state was still a gateway to the West. Her childhood would have been shaped by the same forces that shaped so many frontier families: hard work, close‑knit kinship networks, and the constant pull of new land opening beyond the horizon.

    Her parents — not yet fully identified in surviving records — were part of the great migration stream that carried families from Virginia and the Carolinas into Kentucky, and then onward into Missouri. Charlotte grew up in a world where women learned early how to keep a household running: spinning, weaving, tending gardens, raising children, and managing the domestic economy that made frontier life possible.

    A Marriage That Set a Course West

    On 10 June 1827, at about sixteen years old, Charlotte married William Coner Edgar Jr., a young Kentuckian born in 1804. Their marriage record survives, a small but powerful artifact: the moment two families joined and began a new branch of the Edgar line.

    Within a few years, Charlotte and William joined the westward movement into Crawford County, Missouri, settling in Osage Township. The journey itself would have been long and difficult — wagons, river crossings, and the uncertainty of a new land — but Charlotte stepped into it with the same resolve that would define her life.

    Building a Home in the Missouri Hills

    By the early 1830s, the Edgars were firmly rooted in Missouri. Charlotte’s life became the life of a frontier matriarch:

    • tending a cabin built from local timber,
    • raising children in a land still thick with forest,
    • preserving food for winters that could be harsh and isolating,
    • and supporting a husband whose work depended on the land.

    Between 1827 and 1852, Charlotte gave birth to twelve children — a staggering number by modern standards, but not unusual for a frontier family. She buried some of them, married others off, and watched the older ones build farms of their own. Her children’s names — John, Permeley, Henley, Azel, Benjamin, William, Margaret, Amanda, Lucy, Sarah, James, and Preston — read like a roll call of early Crawford County.

    Charlotte’s household appears in the 1850 and 1860 censuses, each time surrounded by a growing cluster of Edgar relatives. Her children married into the Eatons, Hewitts, Martins, and other pioneer families, weaving the Dillons and Edgars into the social fabric of the county.

    A Life of Work, Faith, and Family

    Women like Charlotte rarely appear in official records, but their work was the backbone of frontier society. She would have:

    • managed the household economy,
    • raised and educated her children,
    • tended livestock and gardens,
    • preserved food,
    • made clothing,
    • nursed the sick,
    • and kept the family together through droughts, epidemics, and the Civil War.

    During the war years, Missouri was a divided and dangerous place. Bushwhackers, shortages, and shifting loyalties made life precarious. Charlotte’s sons were of fighting age, and the family lived in a region where neighbor could turn against neighbor. Yet the Edgars endured, and Charlotte kept her household intact.

    The Final Years

    By the 1870s, Charlotte and William were aging. Their children had scattered into their own homes, some staying close, others moving into neighboring counties. The 1870 census shows them still together in Osage Township, still working the land they had carved out decades earlier.

    Charlotte died around 1880, likely just before or shortly after William. Her absence from the 1880 census, combined with the probate proceedings for William’s estate later that year, suggests she passed away before the summer enumeration.

    She left no will, no written memoir, no letters that survive. But she left something far more enduring: a family that multiplied across Missouri, a lineage that carried her name and her strength into the next century.

    Legacy of Charlotte F Dillon

    Charlotte Dillon’s life is the story of countless frontier women whose names appear only in marriage records, census lines, and the memories of descendants. Yet her impact is unmistakable. She raised twelve children who helped settle Crawford County. She built a home in a wilderness. She endured hardship with quiet resilience.

    And through her descendants her story continues.

    Parents

    FATHER: Unknown
    MOTHER: Unknown

    Married

    William Coner Edgar Jr (1804–1880) on 10 Jun 1827, Madison, Missouri, USA

    Children

    • John Danley Edgar (1827–1878) married Drucella Denison (1828–1903)
    • Henley Russell Edgar (1829–1921) married Lavinia Spahr (1839–1904)
    • Permeley Jane Edgar (1829–1868) married Charles M Peters (1820–1880)
    • Azel Dillon Edgar (1830–1873) married Mary Mariah Eaton (1835–1886)
    • Benjamin Franklin Edgar (1831–1907) married Eliza Shey (1833–1906)
    • William Russell Edgar 1834–?)
    • Margaret E Edgar (1835–1881)
    • Amanda Catherine Edgar (1837–1922) married William Butts (1834–1915)
    • Lucy Olive Edgar (1842–1903) married John T Key (1837–1907)
    • Sarah Louisa Edgar 1844–?) married Hiram Hewit
    • James C Edgar (1848–1934)
    • Preston P Edgar (1852–1935) married Louise M Beery (1861–1937)

    Documents

    • Birth Records
      • None
      • Census suggest a birth year of 1810 or 1811
    • Wedding records
      • Missouri, U.S., Marriage Records, 1805-2002 > Madison > Record images for Madison > 1821-1835 > Name: Charlotte Dillen; Marriage Date: 10 Jun 1827; Marriage Place: Madison, Missouri, USA; Spouse: William C Edgar
      • Missouri, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1754-1850 > Name: Charlotte Dillen; Spouse: William C. Edgar; Marriage Date: 10 Jun 1827; Marriage County: Madison
    • Death records
      • None
    • Census Records
      • 1850 United States Federal Census, Page 2 >Missouri > Crawford > District 24 > C Edgar (F 40, birthplace Missouri) husband William Edgar (46, farmer, birthplace Kentucky) Children B F Edgar (M 18); R Edgar (M 16); M Edgar (F 15); M Edgar (F 13); L Edgar (F 11); P Edgar (F 8); T Edgar (F 6); M Edgar (M 3)
      • 1860 United States Federal Census > Missouri > Crawford > Osage > C P Edgar (49, birthplace Missouri), W C Edgar (56, farmer, real estate value $3000, personal estate $1238), W R Edgar (26, farmer), S L Edgar (16), J C Edgar (12), P P Edgar (8) Amanda Butt (22) J W Butt (1)
    • Other

    Relation of Charlotte F Dillon to Karen Edgar: 3rd great-grandmother

    Page last updated May 17, 2026

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