The family of Zachariah Eddy 1638-1718

 Zachariah Eddy was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (possibly Savory) Eddy, born in 1638 in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts.  He married Alice Paddock, daughter of Robert and Mary Holmes Paddock, in 1663 in East Bridgewater, Plymouth Colony.  After Alice died, he married Abigail Montgomery, the widow Smith, but had no children with her.  Zachariah lived most of his life in Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts and acquired considerable land holdings there.  

Zechariah was their first born son, in 1664, in Plymouth Colony.  He was married twice, first to Mercy Baker, the daughter of Samuel and Eleanor Winslow Baker.  They had 5 children: Alice, who died young, Eleanor, who also died young, Jemima, Zachariah, and Alice again.  His second wife was Amphillis (various spellings) Smith, the daughter of Edward and Amphillis Angell Smith.  Their children are Anna, Elisha, Joseph, and Samuel..  I'll write more of this family in my next post.

John is left off many lists, but I did find a birth date for John that lists Sachariah (as spelled in record of Plymouth Colony) as his father, so we know there was a son John, born in 1666.  John first married Mary Hatch, the daughter of Jeremiah and Mary Hewes Hatch.  They are said to have had six children although I've identified only 5: Jeremiah, Thomas, Seth, Jean and Samuel.  He married secondly Hopestill Butterworth, the daughter of John and Sarah Butterworth.  Their children are Oliver, Charles, and Joseph.  

There is then a gap of about four years, when there may have been another child or at least another pregnancy.  Elizabeth was the first daughter born to the couple, in 1670.  She married Samuel Whipple Jr., the son of Samuel and Mary Harris Whipple.  Their children are Zachariah, Hope, Samuel, Zephaniah, Nathan, Daniel, Alice, Elizabeth, and Samuel. again.  

Samuel Eddy was born in 1673 and died young.

The next son, Ebenezer, was born in 1675.  He married Sarah Harding, whom I have so far been unable to trace.  Their children were Lydia, Ebenezer, Nathan, Phoebe, Mary, Benjamin, Sarah, and Stephen.  

Caleb was born in 1678.  He married Bethiah Smith, the daughter of David and Abigail Montgomery Smith.  Their children are Edward, Abigail, Elisha, Amy, Michael, Elizabeth, Bethiah and Ann. 

Next was Joshua, born in 1680.  He married Hannah Stevens, the daughter of Benjamin and Hannah Barnard Stevens.  They had 11 children, but only one girl to help with the chores for this large family.  The children are Benjamin, Jonathan, David, Nathaniel, Hannah, Zechariah, Thomas, James, Peter, William and John.  

Zachariah and Alice's last son was Obadiah.  He was born in 1683 and married Abigail Devotion, the daughter of John and Hannah Pond Devotion.  Their children are Constant, Ichabod, Alice, Mary, Abigail, Hannah, Job, and Azariah.  

Finally, there were two daughters, Alice who was born in 1684 and died in 1692, and Elinor who was born in 1686 and died the following year.  

This list gives Zachariah and Alice at least 58 grand children, although a few died young.  The Eddy family kept growing, along with the colony turned country that was their home. 

 

The family of Samuel Eddy 1608-1687

 Samuel Eddy, the immigrant, came to Plymouth in 1630 with his brother John, but likely not with his wife Elizabeth, who may or may not have been a Savory prior to her marriage.  Samuel and John were children of Rev. John and Mary Fosten Eddy(e), and had been raised mostly in Cranbrook, Kent, England.  Samuel and Elizabeth were Puritans and likely Separatists, also, given that they went to Plymouth and not further north.  With Samuel arriving in 1630 and the first child not being born until 1637, he may have married here, or he may have returned to England to bring a wife back to New England. 

I have seen anywhere from 5 to 9 children listed as being the children of Samuel and Elizabeth. Part of the confusion may be that Samuel's brother John, plus another John Eddy of Taunton, used many of the same names for their children.  I am listing 5 children here, which may not be a complete list, Tese birthdates range from 1637 to 1645.

John was the first born son.  He married Alice Brotherton, the daughter of Thomas and Ellen Brotherton.  Their children were Alice, Sarah, Hepzibah, Amy, Hannah, Beulah, and Abigail.  This family lived at Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard.  

Zachariah was born in 1639 at Plymouth.  He first married Alice Paddock, the daughter of Robert and Mary Holmes Paddock.  They had eight children together, and lived in Swansea, Massachusetts.  The children are Zachariah, Samuel, Elizabeth, Ebenezer, Caleb, Joshua, Obadiah, and Alice.  His wife Alice died prior to September 1692, when Zachariah married Abigail Montgomery, the widow Smith.  There are no known children from this marriage.  I will write more of this family in my next post.

Caleb was born in 1643 and died in 1713, still in Swansea.  He married Elizabeth Bullock, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Ingraham Bullock.  Their children are Samuel, Elizabeth, Hannah, Zachariah, and Mary.  This is another Swansea family.

Obadiah was the last born son, in 1645.  He married Bennett Ellis, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Freeman Ellis.  Their children are John, Hazadiah, Benjamin, Mary, Samuel, Jabez, Joel, Bennet, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Zachariah.   This family stayed in Plymouth.

Elizabeth was their only daughter, born in 1649.  She married Jonathan Lombard, the son of Joshua and Abigail Linnell Lombard.  Their children were Alice, Ebenezer, Abigail, Samuel, Hannah, and Beulah.  This family lived primarily in Swansea, Massachusetts.

There are two time periods here of four years when no children were born to Samuel and Elizabeth.  It is possible that there were unsuccessful pregnancies or that infants died at a very young age during each of these times.  I've seen Hannah suggested as a child of theirs but I can find no documentation for that name.  

If this list is accurate and complete, Samuel and Elizabeth had 37 grandchildren.  The Eddy name was well known in the area for many generations, and we can be grateful for their lives.

 

 

 

Edward Allen and his family

I can't believe that I've not written a blog post about my grandfather, but it is not coming up on searches.  So this will be a brief sketch of him, and will also discuss briefly his children.  

Edward Franklin Allen was the son of George and Nancy McCoy Allen.  He was born January 17, 1868 in Gallatin, Daviess County, Missouri, where his parents had moved shortly before.  They had intended to live there permanently, but George had either sold his land or rented it out, and the farmer who took it over didn't keep his financial commitment.  The family moved back to Pulaski County, Indiana, where they had lived for about 20 years, and Ed spent much of his boyhood there.  

Sadly, Nancy died in 1880.  His father remarried very quickly, and the whole family went to Missouri.  Apparently his land was really sold this time.  This would have been the first time that Ed really got to know his grandfather, Archibald Allen, as Arch, a widower, had remarried and moved to Daviess County before Ed was born.  

We lost track of him for a few years, and then he is found in Montana, where his younger brother lived near Virginia City.  The younger George was a school teacher who studied nights to become an attorney, and Ed carefully noted that opportunity.  Ed himself became a school teacher, at least for a short period of time, near Soda Springs, Idaho.  That's where he met Edith Knott, and the rest is history. 

 Ed was 28 and Edith, the daughter of John Wilson and Harriet Starr Knott, was 18 when they married.  They first made their home in Idaho but moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they lived the rest of their lives and raised their families.  Ed worked for the post office for a few years, and studied at night to become an attorney, as his brother had.  He was admitted to the bar in 1913, or possibly sooner-the 1913 date gives him authority to practice in federal court.  

Ed was an elder of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Salt Lake City, and of the Sons of the Veterans of the Civil War, Knights of Pythias, and Eagle lodge.  He was an assistant prosecuting attorney and then city attorney during the 1930s, which the family referred to as "the rich years".  They weren't rich, but one thing Ed did was buy his wife a fur coat or jacket during that time.  

After returning to private practice, the family income was greatly diminished because Ed refused to charge anything like the going price for legal services, especially for members of his church and the other organizations he belonged to.  Ed died July 10, 1940, after a battle with cancer.  Edith had serious health issues at the same time, so the nearby children were quite busy caring for two patients at the same time. Edith lived until 1954, but never fully recovered her health. 

The children of Ed and Edith Allen are:

Forest Wilson, born in 1898 and died in 1900

Vernon, born in 1901 in Salt Lake City.  He married Ruby Rachel Allen, the daughter of Lyman and Winona Guthrie Allen.  They adopted a son, who may be living.  

Tessora (Tessie to the family) was born in 1904.  She married Thomas McCall, the son of George and Harriet Jarret McCall, in 1922.  Their children are Thomas. Josephine, Barbara, Betty Lou, and Shirley. Tessie had rheumatic fever as a child which affected her heart, and she died apparently of complications in 1939.  

Nancy Corinne, known as Rene, was born in 1907.  She first married Guy C. Campbell.  They had one son, known as Courtney but apparently his first name was George.  Her first husband died in 1959 and she then married J. Hugh Hamilton in 1963. (The two men had known each other as professors in electrical engineering.)  Rene died in 1984.

Edith was born 9 years after Rene, so there may have been unsuccessful pregnancies that we don't know about.  Edith married Owen Carlyle Anderton, son of John and Ellen Taylor Anderton.  They are the parents of three children, two of whom are yet living.  Edith died in 1992.

Richard was the last child.  He was born in 1919, and married Gladys Holbrook, daughter of Loren and Etta Stanard Holbrook.  They had four daughters, two of who are living.  

Finally, there was a stillborn child in 1922.  As far as is known, he was not given a name.  

This is little enough information about my grandfather, who from all accounts was a good man, a loving husband, and a credit to his community.  I'd love to hear more about him.

 

The family of George Robert Allen 1837-1916

 I've learned a good bit in researching the family of George Allen.  I thought I knew this family reasonably well, but there were some surprises along the way.  George and Nancy are my great grandparents so it seems that I would know at least the main things about them.  Wrong!  

George is the son of Archibald and Margaret Dunn Allen, born in 1837 in either Putnam, Porter, or Pulaski county-take your pick.  He lived for the first half of his life in Pulaski County (except for a brief time in the Union Army during the Civil War) and the second half of his life in Daviess County, Missouri.  His first wife, the mother of all but one of his children, was Nancy McCoy, the daughter of Vincent and Eleanor Jackson McCoy.  Nancy died in 1880 and he soon married Sarah Powell Nance, who was a widow, and moved to Daviess County, Missouri, where his father had gone soon after the death of his first wife.  George and Sarah and one child, a daughter.

George and Nancy's children are:

Emma, who was born in 1861 and married Elisha Frost, the son of Elisha and Elizabeth Bourne Frost.  I located only one child for them, a son named Clyde.  There may have been others who were born early in the marriage since the 1890 census is missing.  

Andrew A Allen, who is very much still a mystery.  He was born in 1863 and is shown on both the 1870 and 1880 census records, living with his parents and in 1880, working on the farm.  Then he disappears from history, as far as I can tell.  The only additional information I have about him is from my grandmother's "At the Portal" book, in which she notes his birthdate, that he was the oldest brother of my grandfather, and calls him, in quotation marks "Major".  I have looked through some Army records, not exhaustively, and have been unable to locate him.  "Major" may be a family nick name.  Her book records family births and deaths up until late 1949, and there is no death entry for him.  It may be that they never knew what became of him, or it may be that his death occurred prior to 1909, when she started writing in the book.

Edward was the next son.  He was born in 1868 in Missouri, where his parents had hoped to settle.  They had to return to Indiana because the sale of their land, apparently on contract, fell through.  He married Edith Knott, the daughter of John Wilson and Harriet Starr Knott, and they had six children: Forest, Vernon, Tessora, Nancy Corrinne, Edith, and Richard.  I will write more of this family in my next post.

Edwin was born in 1869 and is seen in the 1870 census but is not in the 1880 census.  I don't know how long he lived, but it was apparently an early death.  

George R (I have seen both Robert and Roswell given as his middle name, but the book gives his name as Robert) was born in 1873.  He married Margaret Lurana (or Lurana Margaret) Black, the daughter of William and Ebeline Henderson Black.  They had two known children, Lois and Robert.  This was the last of the known children of George and Nancy.

George and Sarah had one daughter after they moved to Missouri.  She was Fannie Olive Allen, and she married first Herbert "Earl" Petty.  This marriage ended in divorce or annulment, because six years after the first marriage she married William A Sweaney, the son of John and Elizabeth Miller Sweaney.  Thier children were Opal, Naoma, Hazel, Gerald, Robert, and Leland.  The thing that astounded me was that Fannie lived until 1970, when I was in my early adulthood.  I don't remember my father ever mentioning her.  My grandmother knew of her because "At the Portal" mentions her, but possibly because of the large difference in ages-Edward was 15 years older than Fannie-she apparently was not a topic of conversation in the house growing up.

New to me facts were "Major" in regards to Andrew, the existence, however brief, of Edwin, and most of the information about Fannie.  That's why we do the research, to rescue those who have been forgotten!

 

The family of Archibald Allen 1809-1885

 Archibald Allen is next in our Allen line.  I well remember how I finally learned the name of his wife.  At the time, I only "knew" that he had been married in Kentucky, but I didn't know what county, and I knew only the first name of his wife.  I was also a little hazy on what time period I should be looking for, although I knew it would be sometime before 1837.  My research solution is not one I would recommend.  I stood in the county stacks for Kentucky at The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library, and I pulled out every single marriage book that appeared to have records for that time period, starting with the "A" counties-Adair, etc. I was probably there for at least an hour before I got to Mercer County, and that's when I struck gold.  He'd married Margaret J. Dunn, daughter of Lemuel and Sarah or Sally Campbell Dunn, on March 12, 1834.  I had tears of joy running down my face.

With that information, it was a bit easier to find other key facts, including information about his children.  Margaret died in 1865 and Archibald married Elizabeth Ryerson Shields in 1868.  They moved to Jamison, Daviess County, Missouri, where Archibald died in 1885.

John C. (possibly for Campbell? speculation!) Allen was born about 1835 in Mercer County.  He married Mary Amanda Dukes, the daughter of Ephraim and Jane Eslinger Dukes.  Their known children are Charles, Riley, Mariah, Ida, and Mary E.  I have an unconfirmed death date of about 1894 for him, in Pulaski County, Indiana, where Archibald and Margaret had moved during the late 1830s.

George Allen was the next born, on July 16, 1837, possibly in Putnam County, Indiana.  He married first Nancy McCoy, daughter of Vincent and Eleanor Jackson McCoy.  Their children are Emma, Andrew, Edward, and George.  His second marriage was to Sarah Powell Nance, the widow of Peter Nance and the daughter of James and Mary Wilson Powell.  There was one child, Frances (Fannie) born to the second marriage.  I will write more of this family in my next post.

There may or may not be a son, Robert, born after George.  It is likely that he died as an infant or small child, as I can find nothing about him.  It's also possible that the "Robert" was actually George, whose middle name was Robert.

Harriet was born April 12, 1840.  She married Andrew John Hathaway, the son of Francis and Sarah Bourne Hathaway.  Their children were Meredith, Frances, William, Henry, Mary, Margaret, Hattie, Emery and Cora.  She died in 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri.  

Susan was born in 1843 and married John Hicks Wheatley, the son of Thomas and Agnes Holcombe Wheatley.  Their children are Margaret, Thomas, George, and Robert.  She died in 1872 in Fulton County, Indiana (likely very near her parents), just one week after the birth of her last son.  

Finally, there was Sarah Ellen, born in 1848.  She married Nathan L Agnew, the son of William and Eliza Harding Agnew in 1871.  Their children were Florence, Frances, Mabel, and Myrtle.  Sadly, this couple was divorced by 1883.  Her 1900 census in Monroe, Pulaski County, Indiana gives her birth date as 1856, but I think this is the same woman.   She is listed as a "capitalist" and two daughters are school teachers and one a music instructor.   I have not located a death date for her, although one clue I have may lead to an interesting story at some future point.

Archibald's story is an inspiring one because of his capacity for starting over, and finding information about his children has been fun.  As usual, now that I have some answers, there are more questions but that is the way genealogy works.