I'M IN!

 

Late last year I wrote about the FUTURE and that it might include my membership into DAR through my 5x great grandfather, Ashbel Waller.  You can read about it HERE.  

And now, just two short months later, it is OFFICIAL - I am a member of Daughters of the American Revolution!  

Wendy made it happen and kept me informed along the way.  She notified me on February 10 that my application had been verified and that I would receive my national number on March 5.  And just like that, yesterday I received the golden number confirming without a doubt that I'M IN! Which means HE'S IN!

Ashbel is a newly recognized patriot and I am honored to have had a part in recognizing him.  And just to make it completely official, here is Ashbel's entry.

 

A very belated thank you to, Ashbel Waller, my 5x great grandfather, for his service.  And a special thank you to Wendy for helping me to honor Ashbel.

52 Ancestors: Map - Ashbel Waller's Grave

This week's blog prompt immediately brought to mind a map I received years ago from the Butler County Historical Society.

In my inquiry to them about the location of Ashbel Waller's grave (Ashbel is my 5th great grandfather), they forwarded this map to me.  But what does it mean?

In 1985, there was an encroaching sub-division to this area of town so some studies were performed to learn more about the property.  "D.E.M.", a member of the National Genealogical Society, sent a letter to the Butler County Commissioner with the subject "Gravestones with the partial name ELIZABETH WALLE? and the surname CONGER in Knottingwood subdivision, Section 6 of Union Township on Hamilton-Mason Road."  D.E.M. explained to me that Union Township is now known as West Chester Township.

There is a lot of information in the letter but the most important when it comes to Ashbel is the first bullet point:

As you knew yesterday, last fall in the 1840 census I noted that ASHABEL WALLER was listed as having performed revolutionary or military services and then an ASHBEL WALLER was shown on the 1830 cadastral map that you copied to have been the owner of about 101 acres in the northeast corner of Section 6 adjoining Liberty Township.  Later, I visited the graveyard and believe that its site is at or near the b in the name Ashbel Waller as printed on the map.  Today it can be described as about 0.4 miles eastward from Route 747 along Hamilton-Mason Road thence about 0.2 miles southward parallel to the meridional section line.

So in order to understand this better, I zoomed in on the b in the name Ashbel Waller.

Does that mean he is buried on the land he owned in Butler County?  Looks like it to me.  Interesting to note that Cyrus Osborn was his son-in-law, married to Ashbel's daughter Ruth, and the Executor of Ashbel's will.

I've sent inquiries to other organizations and have been unable to find a definitive grave site or any photos.  I need to spend some time learning more about maps so I can understand exactly what this means.  One more thing to add to my to-do list.

In other news, stay tuned for more information about Ashbel and his service in the Revolution.

52 Ancestors: Future - Daughters of the American Revolution

 

I've written before about my desire to join the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).  I'm not really someone to participate in clubs but I really wanted to honor my patriot 5x great grandfather, Ashbel Waller.  I've written about him several times - here's a sample. HERE'S MY TICKET. 

Earlier this week my blogging friend, Wendy, posted on her blog related to this prompt and stated that she might close down her blog.  I LOVE her blog so I was very sorry to hear this but completely understood because she is the registrar for her DAR chapter and I know that keeps her very busy.  You can read her blog post HERE.  I commented about how much I enjoy her blog and casually said in my comment If you ever feel the need to get involved in one more thing, you can always help me (and my patriot) get admitted to DAR.

And then things started moving very, very quickly.  Within one hour Wendy replied Debi, I found a patriot for you.  You can thank your grandfather Earle Martin for his lineage.  Most of your ancestors arrived after the Revolution.

WHAT?  My track to Ashbel Waller is through my maternal grandmother and Earle Martin was my maternal grandfather.  Just like that she found another Revolutionary War patriot?

Turns out that this new (to me) patriot is Archibald McDaniel, my 4x great grandfather.  I really don't know much about Archibald other than a name and some dates that I have on my tree.  He was already verified through DAR so my path would be relatively easy but......I wanted to honor Ashbel Waller which Wendy said I could still do and she would help me.

And just like that, she sent me a draft of my application and had nearly all of the information I would need.  I'd contacted a local chapter in 2010 and after some frustrating e-mails back and forth, I put Ashbel on the back burner and told myself "I'll get back to it".  And as you might suspect, I told myself that for the next 11 years.  Yes, 11 years.  And then yesterday arrived and I'm so close to sending in my application - hang on, Ashbel, I'm coming for you!

I can't thank Wendy enough for guiding me through this.  Okay, let's be real - she's doing more than guiding!  And because of her, my FUTURE just might involve being an official DAR.

Here's how I descend from Ashbel - Clara Fitzgerald was my maternal grandmother.

52 Ancestors: Large Family

This week’s blog prompt doesn’t seem like it would be difficult but for someone with a VERY small immediate family (one uncle, one cousin, plus my two siblings), this was a bit challenging for me.  I’d always longed for a big family – in fact, when I was about 10 I even made up an older brother who, I told people, was away in the Army.  Ahhh, the imagination of a child.

I’ve written a lot about my Waller family so I decided I’d focus my attention there and see what I could find out.  When I first started on this journey I was ecstatic when I would find a shaking leaf and boy, those Wallers produced a lot of those!  But I’ve since learned that these aren’t always correct so I need to research and research and research some more.

I wrote about Phineas Waller, my 6x great grandfather, HERE when the unusual name prompt came up.  While Phineas seems like an unusual name, it actually is somewhat common in my tree. 

Phineas and his wife, Rhoda Taylor, were married 19 Apr 1749 in Cornwall, Connecticut and had 10 (or 11) children.  What I’ve learned today is that not only were women hard to find from 250 years ago, I still have A LOT of research to do here.  And here are the children of Phineas and Rhoda:

Rhoda, b. 21 Jul 1750, Cornwall, Connecticut.

Mercy, b. 9 Oct 1751, Cornwall, Connecticut.

Nathan, b 7 Mar 1753, Cornwall, Connecticut.  Married Elizabeth Weeks 4 May 1773.  Died 11 Jul 1831 Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne, Pennsylvania.

Lydia (per Starr copy of the Barbour Collection) or Gideon (per the Arnold copy of the Barbour Collection), b. 10 May 1756 in Cornwall, Connecticut.

Levi, b. 10 May 2758, Cornwall, Connecticut.  Or maybe 17 Mar 1758?  Died 1778, Princeton, New Jersey.  He was in the Revolutionary War – did he die in service?

Ashbel, my 5x great grandfather.  b. 18 Oct 1759, Cornwall, Connecticut.  Died 20 Sep 1848, Butler County, Ohio.  Married Sarah Abbott 1 Nove 1781, Cornwall, Connecticut.  Married Elizabeth Blackleach 5 Sep 1820, Butler County, Ohio.  Married Jane Turner, 12 Apr 1842, Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio.  MY TICKET TO DAR!  [get on it you big loafer].  I wrote about Ashbel's inclusion in the first United States census HERE. 

Hannah, b. 6 Jan 1762, Cornwall, Connecticut. 

Joseph, b. 4 Feb 1764, Cornwall, Connecticut.  Died 19 Mar 1849, Elba, Genesee, New York.  Married to Mary Polly McDaniel and Hannah Force.

Daniel, b 17 Mar 1760, Cornwall, Connecticut.  Died in Elba, New York? 

Esther, b. 21 Mar 1768, Cornwall, Connecticut.  Died 27 Feb 1822, Elba, Genesee, New York.  Married John Howe Jr., 21 Dec 1787.

Bonus child – Joseph.  This can’t be true.  Joseph born in 1764 didn’t die until 1849 so why would they have named their 11th child Joseph?  This has got to be an error in one of those Ancestry trees I was so happy to find.

Mercy (pun intended), that’s a lot of kids.  And two of whom were born on the same day (TODAY!) and, thus, share a birthday with my first grandchild who turned 17 years old today. 

And there’s the big family I always longed for!  Who knew?

52 Ancestors: First

I’m so happy to have another year of blog prompts from Amy Johnson Crow.  The good news is that these prompts get my juices flowing – the bad news is that each week gives me more questions and additions to my “to do” list.

This week’s prompt is First.  I reflected on this for a few days – who was the first ancestor I researched?  Whose was the first grave I saw?  Who was the first….. And then it came to me – which of my ancestors were listed in the First United States Census in 1790?

Without looking I knew that of my direct ancestors, one would be Ashbel Waller, my 5x great grandfather.  My maternal ancestors go back a LONG way in the United States while my paternal ancestors didn’t arrive until the mid 1800’s.  So I could skip that side of the family and focus on my maternal side.

First, I wanted to learn more about the first census, which had an official enumeration date of 2 August 1790.  That census showed a population of 3,929,214 in, of course, 13 states.  The cost of the census was $44,000 or a cost per capita of 1.1 cents.  There were 56 pages with the data from an estimated 650 enumerators.  All of this was directed by the Census Bureau Director, Thomas Jefferson.  1790 Census Fast Facts

Sure enough, there was Ashbel in Luzerne, Pennsylvania – along with his brothers Daniel, Joseph, and Nathan.

First Census of the United States, 1790 (NARA microfilm publication M637, 12 rolls).

There it shows that there were five household members – 1 Free White Male, 16 and over, 2 Free White Males, under 16, and 2 Free White Females.  So the one white male over 16 would be Ashbel, the two white males under 16 would be Salmon (my 4x great grandfather!), and, and, and…. who?  I can only guess at the females in the house – wife Sarah (Abbot) Waller and a daughter.  But I’m not 100% sure of the birth dates for the children so will need to do more research to be sure.  Add it to my “to do” list.

I know that Ashbel’s father, Phineas, died in 1787 so he wouldn’t be there.  And I don’t know when his mother died but since she was born in 1717, it’s very probable that she was also dead.  Add it to my “to do” list.

Here’s how I descend from Ashbel – Clara Fitzgerald was my mother’s mother.



Next up was another branch of my tree, my mother’s paternal side of the family.  And there is my 4x great grandfather, Daniel Martin. 

Year: 1790; Census Place: Laurens, South Carolina; Series: M637; Roll: 11; Page: 448; Image: 267; Family History Library Film: 0568151

He is listed with three Free White Males, 16 and over; 4 Free White Males, under 16; and 4 Free White Females.  My guess is that along with Daniel, the other two white males age 16 and over were two sons.  The 4 white males under 16 could have been other sons, although I don’t have too much information on them.  And I only know of two females – wife Mary (Saxon) and daughter Mary.  Add that to my “to do” list.

Daniel’s parents were dead by 1790 and my 3x great grandfather, George Asbury Martin, was not born until 1798 so it looks like it was just Daniel enumerated in 1790.

And here’s how I descend from Daniel.  Earle Martin was my mother’s father.



I think that’s all I’ve got unless I go into siblings and their children.  Something I will not add to my “to do” list.  Yet.

52 Ancestors: Where There’s a Will

Probably the first will of an ancestor that I reviewed was that of my 5th great grandfather, Ashbel Waller.  In fact, as I was preparing to add the information for this post I’d forgotten that I’d actually written about it before.  Man, this getting old SUCKS!  HERE is the original post.




Thankfully, someone was kind enough to transcribe this for me and it’s confirmed some things that I’ve learned through my research.  I have A LOT of information about Ashbel and this reminds me, again, that I need to actually DO something with it.

Ashbel, the son of Phineas and Rhoda (Taylor) Waller was born 18 October 1759 in Cornwall, Connecticut. ¹    He was baptized 11 November 1759.



Ashbel was married to Sarah Abbott of Sharon on 1 November 1781 by Judah Kellogg JP. ²



The first definitive time I can place him after this marriage is in the 1790 Census in Luzerne, Pennsylvania in a household of 5 members – 1 free white male over age 16, 2 free white females over the age of 16, and 2 free white males under age 16.  Also on the census was Nathan, Daniel and Joseph Waller – most likely his brothers.

1800 shows him still in Luzerne, now with a 9 member household, all of which were free white people.  1 male over 45, 1 male 16 thru 25, 1 male 10 thru 15, 2 males under 10; 1 female 26 thru 44, 1 female 10 thru 15, 2 females under age 10.

In the Ohio, Compiled Census and Census Substitute Index I found Ashbel in Butler County, Ohio in 1807 and 1810.  I wonder what took him to Ohio.

I don’t know what happened to Sarah but Ashbel married again on 5 September 1820 to Elizabeth Blackleach in Butler County, Ohio.  They were married by Rev. James Hugh.  He was enumerated in the Federal Census on 7 August 1820 with a free white woman over the age of 45 – was this Elizabeth prior to their marriage?

By 1830, Ashbel was now a free white male age 70 thru 79 in Union, Butler County, Ohio.  With him were a free white female age 60 through 69 and a free white female 15 thru 19.  I don’t know who the young female might have been as the age doesn’t fit for any of Ashbel’s children.  Maybe a grandchild?

1840 found Ashbel still in Union, Butler County, Ohio.  He was a free white male age 80 thru 89 with a free white woman age 70 thru 79.  I received quite a bit of information from the Butler County Historical Society several years ago (note to self – GET BACK TO THIS!) and in a letter to the County Commissioner in 1985 documenting some grave stones, learned that Elizabeth Blackleach Waller died in approximately 1841. 

What’s interesting about the 1840 census is that not only did I find Ashbel, but on the page before his entry is Jane Turner, a free white female age 50 thru 60.  With Jane were two free white males – one age 10 thru 15, one age 20 thru 30.  Know why Jane Turner is interesting?  Because on 12 April 1842 Ashbel married Jane Turner in Butler, Ohio. ³

And that leads us to Ashbel’s death on 20 September 1848.  Again I am puzzled as to the date of his will – 18 September 1848.  What prompted him to write (or dictate) a will on that particular date?  At nearly 90 years of age, I’m sure he knew he might not have much time but two days before his death?  I can just imagine him lying there and realizing he needed to take care of his family.

I don’t know for sure where Ashbel is buried, but from the information I received from the Butler County Historical Society I learned it is likely he is buried on the property he owned of about 101 acres in the northeast corner of Section 6.  Today it is described as about 0.4 mile eastward from 747 along Hamilton-Mason Road thence about 0.2 mile southward parallel to the meidional section line.

Cyrus Osborne, Ashbel’s son-in-law and the Executor of the will, held a Sheriff’s Sale on 15 September 1849. ⁴ 

At $35 per acre, the sale would have brought $3,535 or about $108,000 in today’s dollars. 



Now that I’m looking again at Zodoc Turner (stated as Zadre W. Turner in the transcription of the will), I’m wondering if that could be Jane Turner’s son who was listed in the 1840 census.

So after all of this, I’m not sure I’m any farther along than I was before.  What I know is that I have so much more research to do, particularly since Ashbel is my Revolutionary War patriot and my potential ticket into the DAR.

One last look for Jane Turner to see if I could find her after Ashbel’s death and look what I found in 1850 in Union, Butler County, Ohio.



Jane Waller with Benjamin Burton (who is this?) and next door?  None other than Zadock Turner!  My guess is that Zadock (or Zodoc or Zadre) was Jane’s son. 

More clues to follow up on.  Zadock, I’m going to find you!

________________________________________________________________
¹ The Official Roster of the soldiers of the American Revolution buried in the state of Ohio.  Columbus, Ohio: Ohio Adjutant General's Dept., 1929-1959
² Connecticut, Town Marriage Records pre 1870 (Barbour Collection)
³ "Ohio Marriages, 1800-1958," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XDFW-852 : 10 February 2018), Ashbel Waller and Jane Turner, 12 Apr 1842; citing Butler, Ohio, reference ; FHL microfilm 0355779 V. 1-4.
⁴ Hamilton Telegraph, 06 Sep 1849, Thu, Page 3