“THANK YOU” TO OUR FOREMOTHERS
By Shirley M. De Boer CG
How often do you find a source that contains
nearly a thousand pages of information that is written about women, by
women, and dates back to the early 1800’s? Memorial to the Pioneer Women
of the Western Reserve edited by Mrs. Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham is
such a source! This work was originally printed in five parts, each for
sale for forty cents. Reprinted as books, Parts 1 & 2 made up Vol. 1 in
1896; Parts 3 & 4 contained in Vol. 2 were published in 1897; and Part 5
& the Name Index finished the series in Vol. 3 in 1924.
[Mrs. Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham, editor,
Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve, 3 volumes
(Cleveland: 1896-1924), originally published in smaller parts on
different dates.]
This three-volume set of books is especially helpful because it
provides both maiden and married surnames for women, as well as personal
information that is not available anywhere else. It is laden with
interesting stories, and seldom does a page go by without thirty or more
names on it, along with many locations and dates. It is common to find a
married couple and their entire list of children along with the
children’s marriage partners. This is an important source for Michigan
research because many of our families migrated from Ohio.
There is an every name index, which makes Memorial to the Pioneer
Women handy for quick reference; however, additional finding aids will
benefit a serious researcher. Because the information was submitted at
various times, material on a given town or township is found in
different places in the volumes. The finding aid following remedies this
problem. When a surname of interest is found in this source, it is
important that the researcher read all the submissions about that town
or township for clues to origins and migrations.
Additionally, when consulting the name index a guide that shows the
towns and townships by chronological pagination allows a searcher to
pinpoint the surname location which may be near a key place already
occupied by known relatives. In addition to the finding aid that follows
this article, the author has prepared a four-page guide that begins with
page one and follows through chronologically to page 1140. Identifying
surnames when seen by page in the county and township may give a
perspective otherwise unnoticed.
Although there are occasional errors, as one might find in any
secondary source, this series is a valuable genealogical treasure. It
will lead a researcher to various primary records, as well as it will
enhance the family record with a woman’s perspective. How did this
source come to be written?
In the preface to volume one, Mrs. Wickham writes: “When in August
1895, the women of Cleveland organized to assist in the proposed
celebration of the city’s centennial year, local history was selected as
one of the important features of the work which they were best qualified
to do. It was decided that in addition to resumes of the industrial and
philanthropic work engaged in by women during the century of Cleveland’s
existence, efforts should be made to enrich the history of the Western
Reserve by securing and recording new facts in regard to it.
Accordingly the Woman’s Department of the Cleveland Centennial
Commission created the office of ‘Historian’ and appointed one of its
members (Mrs. Wickham) to fill the position, leaving the subject in her
hands with which to devise or plan as she thought would best ensure the
object desired.
Upon investigation, it was found that every county of the Reserve had
its published history, and that in each was included that of townships
composing it, so that apparently everything worth mentioning already had
been told.
One thing noticed, however, was the prominence given to biographies
of men, living or dead, who had been identified with the settlement and
growth of the Reserve, with little or no mention of their wives, who,
doubtless, had performed as equal though different part in laying the
foundations of future civilization and prosperity. The following
anecdote, verbally related, served to stimulate the dawning thought that
a fitting time had come in which to treat—not of the services, as usual,
or our forefathers—but, if the term be admissible, of our foremothers.
Twelve men, composing the jury in a criminal case on trial in a
Northern Ohio town, found a verdict difficult to attain, and were weary
from their long-continued effort to agree. It was night, and as the
hours passed, one after another was overcome with a desire for sleep,
which was thwarted by those best able to keep awake and most anxious for
release.
Finally, some one suggested that every member of the jury who could
tell the names of his two grandmothers should be allowed to rest awhile.
Every sleepy eye brightened at the prospect, but when the roll was
called, only three men of the twelve could swear to adequate knowledge,
in both cases.
Some could give the maiden name of one grandmother—the one who had
lived the longest, or with whom they had been most associated—but, until
the present moment, they had never possessed any laudable curiosity
concerning the early life and environment of the other.
In view of this, a circular letter was prepared embodying the idea
that a history of the pioneer women could be written by women, and
asking for co-operation in preparing it. This was mailed, as fast as
names and addresses could be secured, and the result was that with
comparatively few exceptions, in townships all over the Western Reserve,
women have been and are yet diligently working on this memorial to our
mothers and grandmothers, the first chapters of which are given now, in
order that they may be collectively submitted to the public at the
opening of the Cleveland Centennial Celebration.”
Covering a period of thirty years, the final volume of Memorial of
the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve was published with an index in
1924. It seems appropriate to include here a few random examples of the
information contained in the books.
“Ascenath Biddlecomb was married in 1822 to Alonzo Hosmer. He was
twenty-two years old and probably Ascenath was much younger; sixteen
years seemed to be the usual age of a pioneer bride. Alonzo was a
fourteen-year-old lad when he came to Parkman with his uncle, Lewis
Smith, from Middlesex County Ct., in 1812. The couple became the
parents of ten children who arrived at the age of maturity. This fact
enables one to gauge pretty accurately the amount of housework and
home cares which devolved upon the mother of such a family. They lived
in Parkman sixty-four years. Both were highly esteemed in the
community for their fine traits of character. Two of their sons, Perry
and Alonzo were veterans of the Civil War.” (Parkman, Geauga County,
page 942)
“Mary Marsden eloped from a comfortable home near Pittsburgh with
John McLaughlin, a Roman Catholic. Because of his faith her father
disinherited her. Later, they sought a home on the Reserve in 1806,
and she swam her horse across the Mahoning River with a child in her
arms, afterwards known as Aunt Jane McKinnie. She was a woman of
spirit and to this source is traced the peculiar vein of wit
characterizing her descendants.” (Kinsman, Trumbull County, page 398)
“Mr. and Mrs. Crispin Mennel, nee Elizabeth Melburn, formerly from
Yorkshire, Eng., came to Grafton in 1826, where they bought a farm on
which they resided during their lives. She kept a dairy many years,
and excelled in cheese and butter making. Other English women who came
about the same time from Yorkshire were as follows: Mrs. William
Richardson, Mary Dalton, Mrs. John Coleman, Sarah Strattler, Mrs. John
Langdale, Hepsibah Clark, Mrs. Moses Dafter (Ellen Alexander), Mrs.
Joseph Johnson (Ann Brown), Mrs. William Rosindale (Jane Brown), Mrs.
Samuel Alexander (Sarah Francom), Mrs. Robert Wilson (Mary Toney),
Mrs. Thomas Scrage (Elizabeth Burdette), Mrs. Joseph Salsbury (Mary
Grasby), Mrs Robert Blantern (Elizabeth Turner), Mrs. Urias (Elizabeth
Spence) Noble. All these were remarkably tidy and thrifty housewives.
They walked erect and wore white caps which gave them a very neat
appearance in any costume.” (Grafton, Lorain County, page 258)
Have you ever said, “Oh! If grandmother had only written it down?”
Well, here is a source in which our foremothers did write it down! The
volumes are available at the Library of Michigan and also at the Allen
County-Ft. Wayne Public Library. When we find a piece that fits into our
genealogical puzzle, it’s good to say “Thank You.” Memorial to the
Pioneer Women is indeed a source for which we are thankful! The
following page shows the geographical area covered in the Reserve, and
the next four pages are a finding aid that will be helpful in
correlating places and relationships within the three volumes of this
women’s history.
A BRIEF HISTORY
Months prior to the end of the Revolutionary War the British and
Tories invaded Connecticut and destroyed by fire the towns of New
London, Greenville, Fairfield, Danbury, Ridgefield, Norwalk, New Haven,
East Haven and Groton. Benedict Arnold, then a British General,
personally oversaw the destruction of New London. More than 1800
supporters of the American Revolution suffered because of the
devastation of these nine towns.
As our new government took shape after the war, the states that owned
land in the west relinquished their claims to the United States. In 1786
Connecticut ceded its western lands with the exception of one area that
they “reserved” for themselves. In 1792 Connecticut gave ½ million acres
of this reserved land to the sufferers of the 1781 war invasion and
called this area the “Fire Lands.”
Three years later the State of Connecticut sold the balance of the
land to the Connecticut Land Company. In 1796 one of its directors,
Moses Cleveland, established the first permanent settlement. In 1800
this area was incorporated into the Northwest Territory as Trumbull
County, and came under the jurisdiction of the United States. Records
prior to this time were under the jurisdiction of the State of
Connecticut.
The “Fire Lands” are located in Erie and Huron counties; Ruggles
Township in Ashland County; and Danbury Township in Ottawa County. The
balance of the “Western Reserve” includes the counties of Ashtabula,
Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, and Trumbull, and parts
of Mahoning and Summit.
This summary contains excerpts from the 8th edition of Ohio Lands
written by T.A. Burke (Ohio: Auditor of State, 1996). The publication is
available at no cost from the Auditor.
