Staggs Family History

My ancestors in the United States

recent posts

    William Coner Edgar Jr (1804-1880)

    BIRTH: 21 Apr 1804, Logan County, Kentucky, USA
    DEATH: 1 Mar 1880, Crawford County, Missouri, USA
    FATHER: William Coner Edgar Sr (1766–1846)
    MOTHER: Parmelia Jane Ewing (1770–1824)
    SPOUSE: Charlotte F Dillon (1804–1880)

    When William Coner Edgar was born on April 21, 1804, in Logan, Kentucky, his father, William, was 37 and his mother, Parmelia, was 33. He married Charlotte F Dillon on June 10, 1827, in Madison, Missouri. They had 12 children in 25 years. He died on March 1, 1880, in Crawford, Missouri, having lived a long life of 75 years.

    The Life of William Coner Edgar Jr

    William Coner Edgar Jr. was born on 21 April 1804 in the rolling farmland of Logan County, Kentucky, a place where cabins stood far apart and families relied on one another as much as on the soil beneath their feet. He was the son of William Coner Edgar Sr. and Permelia Jane Ewing, a couple whose roots reached back to Virginia and the early migrations westward. William grew up in a household where work began before sunrise, where boys learned to hunt, plow, and ride almost as soon as they could walk.

    By the time he reached manhood, the frontier had shifted again. Missouri — still young, still raw — was drawing families from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Sometime in the late 1820s, William joined that movement. He married Charlotte F. Dillon on 10 June 1827, a union that would anchor him for the rest of his life. Charlotte, born in Kentucky, was strong‑willed, practical, and accustomed to the hardships of frontier living. Together they began the long journey west, following wagon ruts and river valleys into Crawford County, Missouri.

    A Home in the Missouri Hills

    Crawford County in the 1830s was a land of dense timber, rocky ridges, and narrow valleys threaded with creeks. Settlers carved farms out of the wilderness, building cabins of oak and hickory, clearing fields one stump at a time. William and Charlotte settled in Osage Township, a place that would remain their home for the next half‑century.

    Their family grew quickly — twelve children, born between 1827 and 1852. The Edgars became one of the large, interconnected families that defined early Crawford County life. Their children married into the Eatons, Martins, Dillons, and other pioneer families, weaving the Edgars into the social fabric of the region.

    A Farmer, a Landowner, a Man of the Soil

    William was a farmer, but not merely a subsistence farmer. He was ambitious enough to seek land of his own, and in 1854, he made a defining step: he purchased 160 acres of federal land under President Franklin Pierce. The land patent — still preserved today — describes the east half of the northeast quarter and the north half of the southeast quarter of Section 19, Township 36 North, Range 9 West.

    This was not just acreage. It was a legacy. It was the ground on which his children grew, where his sons learned to plow and his daughters learned to tend the hearth. It was the land that would later appear in his probate records, the land that had to be sold to settle his debts after his death.

    The Middle Years

    By the 1850s and 1860s, the Edgar family was well established. William appears in county records as a landowner and farmer; his children appear in marriage records, census pages, and neighboring households. The Civil War years were difficult in Missouri — divided loyalties, bushwhackers, and shortages — but the Edgars endured, as most families did, by keeping their heads down and their farms running.

    William’s later life was quieter. His children married and moved into homes of their own. Some stayed close; others drifted into neighboring counties. His son Azel Dillon Edgar would become the ancestor of many modern descendants, carrying forward the Edgar name into the next century.

    The Final Years and the Estate He Left Behind

    William died in 1880, likely early in the year, before the census was taken. His death triggered a probate process that tells us much about his final circumstances. The Crawford County Probate Court appointed Preston Halbert, the Public Administrator, to settle his estate — a sign that William left no will, and that Charlotte had already passed or was unable to serve.

    The probate notice, published in The Crawford Sentinel on 5 November 1880, ordered the sale of his real estate to pay remaining debts. This was common for farmers of his era: land‑rich, cash‑poor, with estates tied up in acreage rather than money.

    But even in debt, William left something far more enduring than property — he left a family that had taken root in Missouri, a lineage that would spread across the Ozarks and beyond.

    Legacy of William Coner Edgar Jr

    William Coner Edgar Jr. lived through the transformation of the American frontier. Born when Kentucky was still young, he died in a Missouri that had grown from scattered cabins into a settled county with schools, churches, and towns. His life was not marked by fame or wealth, but by the steady work of building a home, raising a family, and carving a place in a new land.

    Today, his descendants carry forward the story he began. His land is gone, his cabin long vanished, but the records he left behind — the land patent, the probate notice, the census traces — allow us to reconstruct the life of a man who helped shape the early history of Crawford County.

    And in that reconstruction, his life becomes more than dates and documents. It becomes a story — one worth remembering.

    Parents

    FATHER: William Coner Edgar Sr (1766–1846)
    MOTHER: Parmelia Jane Ewing (1770–1824)

    Married

    Charlotte F Dillon (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
      • Find a Grave > Name: William Conor Edgar Jr; Birth Date: 21 Apr 1804; Birth Place: Logan County, Kentucky, United States of America
    • Wedding records
      • Missouri, U.S., Marriage Records, 1805-2002 > Madison > Record images for Madison > 1821-1835 > Name: William C Edgar; Marriage Date: 10 Jun 1827; Marriage Place: Madison, Missouri, USA; Spouse: Charlotte Dillen
      • Missouri, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1754-1850 > Name: William C. Edgar; Spouse: Charlotte Dillen; Marriage Date: 10 Jun 1827; Marriage County: Madison
    • Death records
      • Find a Grave > Name: William Conor Edgar Jr; Death Date: 1 Mar 1880; Death Place: Crawford County, Missouri, United States of America
    • Census Records
    • Other
      • U.S., General Land Office Records, 1776-2015 > 1854 federal land patent > Name: William C Edgar; Issue Date: 10 Jun 1856; Place: Crawford, Missouri, USA; Land Office: Jackson; Meridian: 5th PM; Township: 36-N; Range: 3-W; Section: 17; Accession Number: MO3720__.248; Document Number: 16639
      • The Crawford Sentinel Nov. 5, 1880 > Probate sale notice for the estate of William C. Edgar who died in 1880 in Crawford County, Missouri

    Relation of William Coner Edgar Jr to Karen Edgar: 3rd great-grandfather

    Page last updated May 17, 2026

    Search the Staggs Family History site