Oh, why didn't I think of that? Nice work. You usually think outside the box a lot better than I do!

The 1860 census of Pike County Illinois bears out three possibilities for "J. M'Coy" who may have enlisted in the fledgling 19th Missouri Infantry at the county seat of Pittsfield in 1861. These three individuals are from two very mobile families who happened to be living in Pike County in 1860 after they had lived many other places in just a short period of time.

In Martinsburg Township of south-central Pike County (a very few miles south of Pittsfield) is the large, low income family of 37-year-old, Kentucky-born farmer J. McCoy that contains also 15-year-old, Illinois-born J. W. McCoy, and 14-year-old J. J. McCoy born Illinois. The McCoy children were born in Illinois down to age 7, in Missouri below age 7 down to age 4, and in Kansas for the 2-year-old. That places this family in probably eastern Kansas during 1857-1858 toward the end of the Bleeding Kansas struggle. Either the father or conceivably the 15-year-old could have joined the 19th, if J. W. McCoy stretched his actual age a bit.

In Chambersburg Township of the northeast corner of Pike County was the poor family of 34-year-old, Ohio-born cabinet maker J. A. McCoy. Of his seven children, the oldest one (a girl) was born in Ohio, the second in Iowa, the next few age 12 down to 8 born back in Ohio, the 6-year-old born in Missouri, and the baby age 3 born in Illinois. The cabinet maker J. A. McCoy could have joined, but he had no sons anywhere close enough in age to join in 1861.

I'm not saying we have any proof any of these Pike County J. McCoy's are the "J. M'Coy" buried at Griffin, Georgia, but Pike County was only a few miles up the Mississippi River from Alton.

Bruce Nichols