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JONATHAN R. SAUNDERS, was born February 17, 1802, in Fleming county, Kentucky; and the son of Gunnell Saunders, who was born July 27, 1783, in Louden county, Virginia, of English ancestry. His parents emigrated to the vicinity of Lexington, Kentucky, and a year or two later moved to Fleming county, in the same State. Mary Mauzy, his wife, was born April 15, 1784, in Fauquier county, Virginia; her parents were of French descent; moved to Bourbon county, Kentucky; they were married in 1801, and had a family of seven children. He was a soldier from Fleming county in the war of 1812, and afterwards moved his family to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving May 10, 1828, and settled four miles north of Springfield, where they resided for a number of years. Gunnell Saunders and his wife moved from Springfield, Illinois, to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, in the summer of 1846. Hon. E. D. Baker, of Ball's Bluff fatal memory, with whom Mr. Saunders was on terms of most intimate friendship, visited Mt. Pleasant, and made a speech in favor of the election of General Taylor. Mr. Saunders took Colonel Baker in his carriage to Ottumwa, and on the morning of October 26, 1848, bade him adieu and left for home. He was found about two miles from Ottumwa, in his carriage, dead, with the lines so adjusted as to bring the carriage on a cramp. Gunnell Saunders was about sixty miles from home, but his remains were taken to Mt. Pleasant for interment. His widow continued to live there until October 18, 1851, when she died from the effects of a dose of arsenic carelessly put up by a druggist in place of morphine. Jonathan R., who was the first son of the preceding, was married December 18, 1823, to Sarah McKinnie. They moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving November 28, 1824, at Springfield. He entered the land on which the Sangamon county fair is held, two miles north of Springfield, and moved there in 1828. His family consisted of six children, of the number, two living and four deceased.