Miller, Faber b. 1905

John & Frances Partridge b. 1578

/ Kirstin Miller

John and Frances Partridge 11th great grandparents on RootsMagic tree.

John Partridge was born in 1578 in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England. Olney is in central England, 30 miles north of London, on the River Great Ouse. John Newton, who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace, was from Olney too. The town is also famous on Pancake Day, which falls on Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, the day before Lent. On this day since 1445, in Olney there’s a pancake race. “The Olney pancake race is now world famous. Competitors have to be local housewives and they must wear an apron and a hat or scarf.”

Olney Pancake Race and Photo Author: Robin Myerscough

The Partridge family lived there in Olney. John and Frances had 2 children: William and Jane. Not much is known of their lives until 1647 the year John wrote his will. “John Partridge of Olney, laborer, now deceased, did give grant and dispose of all and singular his goods, cattle, chattels and debts unto William Geynes, Richard Kent, and Roger Tayre of Olney upon this trust that they maintain Frances Partridge, widow, the then wife of the aforesaid John, so long as she should live after his decease, and also pay the debts of the said John.”

When Frances died the remainder of their possessions was left to son William and son in law Henry Gaines husband of Jane Partridge. “The residue was to be divided between the children of William Partridge and of Henry Geynes who now or late were in New England.” This Gaines family through descendants would travel from Olney, England all the way to Iowa where Mary Gaines married James Miller in 1878 and their first grandbaby Faber Miller was born in 1905.

John died in 1647 or 48, Frances probably soon after. Both are buried at St Peter and St Paul Churchyard. Their headstones don’t survive. Newton, of Amazing Grace is in this same cemetery. The St Peter and St Paul church at the cemetery is known for its spire 185 feet high.

Sources

Elizabeth Bowman b. 1769

/ Kirstin Miller

Elizabeth Bowman 6th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Elizabeth was born on October 5, 1769 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She was the 2nd of 8 kids of Abraham and Christina Bowman. Abraham was in the Revolutionary War and the family lived on a farm. Around 1790 Elizabeth married George John Harter. By 1800 the Harters were living in Stark County, Ohio. Also in Stark County were the Bair, Druckenbrod, Fryberger, Kreider and Miller families, all traveled from Pennsylvania to Ohio. Elizabeth and George Harter had 9 children: 5 daughters and 4 sons. The Harter kids stayed in the area, in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The Harter grandkids, great grandkids went to Iowa and further west to the coast. Elizabeth’s 3rd daughter, also Elizabeth, had at least 10 kids, great granddaughter Fianna Druckenbrod married William Miller in Ohio, then went to Iowa.

Elizabeth was a widow in 1833, age 64. She stayed in Ohio and would have lived with her grown children, her grandkids. On the 1860 US census she was 93 years old and lived with daughter Christina, married to Joel Rhodes with 4 kids. The census was taken on July 3, 1860. News at the time included the Covode Committee investigating alleged corruption of President Buchanan, an Andrew Jackson Democrat; and Abraham Lincoln the Republican nominee, his strange appearance. Yes, scandal and smallness have always been in politics- all parties. Elizabeth probably lived to see Lincoln elected in November, the start of the Civil war in April 1861 and her grandsons signing up for the war through 1865.

Sources

Ezekiel and Elizabeth Tubbs b. 1727

/ Kirstin Miller

Ezekiel and Elizabeth Tubbs, 6th great grandparents on RootsMagic tree

Ezekiel Tubbs was born on July 13, 1727 in New London, Connecticut. He was the youngest of nine kids of Isaac and Martha Smith Tubbs. His family was troubled and his mom had to go to court to get control of lands, or money and support the family because husband Isaac wasn’t. Ezekiel was the 3rd generation of his family born in America, great grandpa William Tubbs left England for America around 1634.

When Ezekiel was about 19 he married Elizabeth. She was from the same area and the same age, that’s all that’s known of her. Ezekiel and Elizabeth had 6 kids, 3 sons and 3 daughters.

Collections of the Connecticut historical society

Ezekiel was a soldier in the French Indian Wars in 1755 to 1759 from about age 28 to age 32. The French and Indian War had 2 sides: colonists from British America against New France (Canada) with American Indian allies on both sides. The War ended with the Treaty of Paris, then more wars followed. In 1778 records show an Ezekiel Tubbs fighting in the Revolutionary War, maybe it was this Ezekiel at age 51 or it could have been a son or nephew, it’s unsure.

Ezekiel and Elizabeth probably died around 1790, probably in New London, Connecticut. Their 3 sons Ananias, Lemuel and Ezekiel fought in the Revolutionary War then married, had families. Daughter Experience married Samuel Cooley. Daughters Elizabeth and Abigail married Gaines brothers. Elizabeth married David, Abigail married Joseph Gaines. Abigail and Joseph, 3rd great grandparents of Faber Miller had a son Obed. Obed traveled to Iowa with his older sons who farmed, started families in Bremer & Butler Counties.

Sources

John Connable b. 1749

/ Kirstin Miller

John Connable 5th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree.

John Connable was born in 1749 in Bernardston, Massachusetts, the 3rd of 7 kids of Samuel & Mary English Connable. John grew up in Bernardston on the northern edge of Massachusetts and stayed there for most of his life with a short time in Guilford, Vermont a town 10 miles north.

John farmed and owned a sawmill. He was a deer reeve- decided hunting quotas for the community. He was on inspection committees, a surveyor of highways and also built, engineered bridges like his dad Samuel. John was the executor for his dad’s estate and inherited the family home which he passed on to his oldest son Joseph Connable.

Genealogical memoir of the Cunnabell, Conable or Connable family

John and was a private in the Revolutionary War with Colonel Elisha Parker who kept a diary noting orders from General George Washington and from Colonel Benedict Arnold in an expedition to Canada with 1000+ men.

John married 3 times, was a widow twice. He and 2nd wife Sarah Dewey were parents of Leydia Connable who with her husband Obed Gaines went west to Black Hawk County, Iowa in 1854. Leydia and Obed’s son William had a daughter Mary Ella Gaines who married James Miller in Waverly, Iowa. Their son William married Lola and they were the parents of Faber Miller born 1905.

John Connable is buried at Old Cemetery in Bernardston, Massachusetts. His headstone still stands, it’s faded, with this inscription ‘Death is a sweet sonorous sound To those who have salvation found, It wafts them to the courts of bliss, Where all is joy and happiness’.

Sources

Phebe McNeil b. 1789

/ Kirstin Miller

Phebe McNeil, my 5th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Phebe was born March 12, 1789 to Jonathan and Jane McCord McNeil. Phebe’s mom and dad married in Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains, then moved to the “Western Colony of Virginia”- where they raised their family in current day Knox County, Kentucky. Kentucky became a state in 1792, a few years after Phebe’s birth.

Eight miles south of Knox County is a national park, Dr. Thomas Walker State Historic Site. Thomas Walker was a doctor, farmer, served in the Virginia General Assembly and explored the “Western Colony of Virginia”. At the park there’s “a replica of the first Kentucky home” a cabin, similar to Phebe’s family home.

Original 1790s log house

In Knox County, Phebe married Elbert Howard on October 24, 1811. Phebe and Elbert had 1 daughter and 5 sons. By 1820 they’d moved 250 miles southwest and settled in Lawrence County, Indiana where Phebe’s older sister Elizabeth and Elbert’s older sister Elizabeth lived with their husbands and families.

Phoebe died in June 1826 she was about 40 years old. She’s buried at Old Shiloh Cemetery in Lawrence, Indiana. After Phebe’s death Elbert moved to Lake, Illinois with his 4 younger sons, aged 10, 6, 4 and 2 years old. He married again and was in Floyd County, Iowa by 1855.

Sources

Pleasant Davis b. 1844

/ Kirstin Miller

Pleasant Davis: 1st cousin 4 times removed on RootsMagic tree.

Davis, Pleasant son of HortonPleasant Davis was born in Ohio on November 30, 1844. He was one of 13 kids of Horton and Florida Russell Davis. Horton’s dad, Pleasant’s grandpa was Pleasant Davis married to Sarah Horton, both of Virginia. Names ‘Pleasant’ and ‘Horton’ were carried on through the generations as first or middle names for sons. One ‘Pleasant’ went by Plez. This Pleasant married Huldah England on February 17, 1868 in Ohio. Soon after Pleasant’s family and older sister Sarah Davis Martin and her family left Ohio for Illinois where Pleasant lived for a few years. Pleasant’s other siblings were in Iowa, North Dakota and sister Martha, in photo, went all the way to Oregon. By 1883 Pleasant was in Union, Iowa with his dad, mom and some siblings. Pleasant and Florina’s son Clement Pleasant Davis was born in Union and 4 Davis daughters Florina, Mary, Sarah and Victoria were all married in Iowa.

Florina died around 1888 and Pleasant with his younger kids, they all headed for the Cherokee Nation where the 1889 Indian (land) Appropriations Act gave up land for purchase and President Harrison proclaimed “unassigned lands were open for settlement under much less stringent rules”. Today the area is north eastern Oklahoma, it was called ‘Cherokee Nation’ on census forms from about 1840? until Oklahoma became a state in 1907.

1900 census Davis family in Cherokee Nation

Pleasant’s family lived in Bluejacket where he farmed. His sons Horton and Warren helped on the farm, the younger kids were in school. Bluejacket is 50 miles north east of Tulsa with a population of about 300 today. Pleasant’s daughters Florina and Victoria with their families joined their dad in Bluejacket, Oklahoma. Pleasant died at age 78 on April 3, 1924 and is buried at Bluejacket Cemetery.

Sources

  • Davis, Pleasant, Public Ancestry photo, “wrae7711 originally shared this on 25 Apr 2013”
  • This Land podcast on Cherokee Nation, how it began
  • Cherokee Nation, some history at Wikipedia
  • Iowa, Delayed Birth Records, 1850-1939 at FamilySearch
  • Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934 at FamilySearch
  • 1900 US census at FamilySearch

Franklin Pierce Miller b. 1855

/ Kirstin Miller

Franklin Pierce Miller, great uncle on RootsMagic tree.

Franklin was born September 1, 1855 in Stark, Ohio. He was the 2nd child of Peter and Esther Young Miller and the older brother of William L Miller, grandpa of Faber Miller.

Frank’s family moved from Stark County, Ohio to Bremer County, Iowa before 1870. Frank had 5 brothers and 1 sister, Lillie and all grew up on the family farm in In Lafayette Township, Bremer County. On Christmas Day 1888 Frank married Harriet ‘Hattie’ Finney, her family was also from Stark, Ohio. Frank and Hattie had one son John Cleveland Miller.

In August 1898 Frank and brother in law George Bailey, husband of Lillie Miller Bailey, went to Nebraska to look at farms. The Bailey and Miller families decided to move to Nebraska and in January 1899 a farewell surprise party was held, “Frank Miller of LaFayette leaves next week for Nebraska with a car of household goods, etc. and his family will go later. Their neighbors gave Mr. and Mrs. Miller a farewell surprise party one evening last week, enjoying a pleasant time socially and before bidding their host and hostess good bye presented them with a handsome center table.”

The Millers and Baileys stayed in Nebraska and for about 7 years. By 1910 both families had moved to Aurora County, South Dakota. Brother Sylvester Miller was already there with his family, the southeast . Frank and Hattie’s son John married Teresa Gales. The couple had 10 kids, stayed in South Dakota where John farmed, owned a lunch room in the 1930s.

Frank was a widow in 1913. In Aurora he was a produce merchant on the 1920 census. The 1930 census shows Frank was retired and lived with John Gelsen and family and other boarders. John Gelsen was 43, a retired police officer, his parents from Germany and New York. David Marsh was 21, a retail merchant at a general store his parents were from Russia. John Robinson was 27, he managed a lumberyard his parents were from South Dakota and the Netherlands. Peter McGooty was 74, same age as Frank, he owned a billiard hall and his parents were from Ireland. Narem Grueznor. was 31, she sold hardware, her parents were from Wisconsin. Frank lived to age 78. He and Hattie are buried at Silver Ridge Cemetery
in Stickney, Aurora, South Dakota.

Sources

Mary Magdalena [ ] Young b. 1787

/ Kirstin Miller

Mary 4th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Mary Magdalena was born in 1787 in Pennsylvania. Her last name, parents, nothing is known of her until she was married to Michael Young around 1807. They married in Pennsylvania and lived there until about 1820.

In 1820 Mary and Michael had moved to Stark County, Ohio. They had 2 children in Pennsylvania, then 5 more were born in Ohio. The Young family owned land, farmed. In 1850 Mary was 63 years old and on the 1850 census she lived in Marlborough Township, Stark, Ohio with her husband and youngest son Israel. Her older kids were married and in homes of their own. Michael and Israel farmed, Mary kept house and probably had a spectacular garden. Mary’s daughter Esther had married Peter Miller and they moved near Waverly Iowa. Their son William Miller was the grandad of Faber Miller.

Mary died at age 70 and is buried at Union Cemetery in Hartville, Stark County, Ohio.

Sources

  • 1850 United States Federal Census at Ancestry
  • New map of Stark County, Ohio at Library of Congress
  • Trinity Lutheran Church, Canton, Ohio : births, baptisms, deaths, marriages at FamilySearch
  • Find a grave memorial 105743390

Sarah Dewey b. 1770

/ Kirstin Miller

Sarah Dewey 6th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Sarah Dewey was born on February 14, 1770 in Vermont, the 2nd of 7 kids of David and Sarah Witter Dewey. Sarah’s 4th great grandpa was Thomas Dewey, in colonial America in 1631, from England. Some say all American ‘Dewey’s’ are descended from this Thomas Dewey. No proof, just a rumor.

Connable-Dewey

Sarah Dewey married John Connable, a widow, on November 5, 1786. They lived in Franklin, Massachusetts, 10 miles north of Rhode Island. They had at least 10 children. At their home they farmed and John had a mill pond and mill yard. Sarah had her last child Samuel Connable in 1805. It’s stated in a family history book that Sarah, with her baby Samuel, her husband and her dad. they all went to Oneida County, New York to visit family. Sarah died there on October 25, 1806 and is probably buried in Bridgewater, New York. She was 37 years old.

Sarah’s children married, had families and stayed in the Massachusetts, New York area, except for 2: John Jr. went to Ohio. Daughter Leydia and husband Obed Gaines moved west, all the way to Iowa where their son, William’s daughter Mary Gaines, married James Miller, whose son William was the dad of Faber, husband to Gladys Cable.

Sources

 

Abraham Bair b. 1784

/ Kirstin Miller

Abraham Bair 5th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

Abraham Bair, born 1784, in Adams, Pennsylvania was the oldest son of Jacob and Barbara Bair who were probably 2nd generation German Americans. By 1810 Abraham was 22 years old and with his family had moved west to Ohio, a state for 7 years, since 1803. On March 31, 1812 Abraham married Elizabeth Harter. A family history book states this was the first marriage in Stark, Ohio. “Tradition says the marriage ceremony of the first couple was: You bromis to take te voman you holt by te hant to pe your vife, and tat you will shtick to her through hell-fire und dunder? Den I bronounce you man and voman, by Got!!,”

Abraham fought in the War of 1812, his pension records show he fought with the Ohio Militia in Captain James Downing’s Company. Abraham and Elizabeth had at least 7 children and lived on a farm. They grew clover, corn, hay, hemp, oats, wheat; produced butter, honey, milk; raised bees, bulls, cows, geese, hens, horses, pigs, sheep.

Bair, Abraham will

Abraham’s 1829 inventory, partial from his estate

Abraham died at age 45 in 1830. His will was dated September 5, 1829. Brother in law Jacob Harter was the administrator. Abraham’s inventory included 2 iron kettles and a Dutch oven, barrels, a weavers loom and gears, a spinning wheel, a plough, a wagon saddle and sheepskin, a black mare, a bay horse, walnut and poplar boards, Dresden ware and a wooden clock with case. The will is several handwritten pages. In 1833 Abraham’s town lot was offered for sale, his children who were still minors, had Abraham’s brothers and brother in laws as guardians, estate managers.
Sources

  • War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index, 1812-1815 at Ancestry
  • Ohio Repository, The (Canton, Ohio) 1833 May 17 at Ancestry
  • Ohio, Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998 at Ancestry
  • Ohio county marriages 1789-2013 database at FamilySearch
  • Notes on the Bowman, Harter and Sauer families at FamilySearch