Mariah Ordway and her Hubby, Joel P. Ross

Aaron and Susannah Ordway’s  daughter and my ggg - grandfather Harrison’s sister, Mariah Ordway, was born on 13 August 1805 in Strafford, Orange County, Vermont.  She was the middle daughter between Tamar (born in 1800) and a younger sister, Lydia (born 1807).  Mariah was not yet sixteen when she married Joel P. Ross on 3 March 1821 in New York.  She and Joel led a long married life and both died at advanced ages, after having many children together and living out their days in Lorain County, Ohio

Thanks to some descendants of Mariah and Joel, I have these photos  and more information to share.   Here's Mariah (also called Maria in some records) ~

Mariah’s obituary was printed in The Norwalk Daily Reflector on Friday, December 21, 1894.  She had died a week early on December 15^th.

“Mrs. Maria Ross, an old pioneer of this place, died December 15, at the age of over 89 years.  The deceased lived in the place over 47 years, moving from Vermont to Ohio in 1821.  She was the mother of 15 children, 47 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren and 5 great-great grandchildren.  Five of her children live to mourn her loss.  She was a true and devoted member of the Methodist church for 47 years, and she will be missed by her many friends and relatives.  She survived her husband 14 years.”

 Another source, Walter Gunn’s letter to Lewis Hayes:

“Mrs. Maria Ross, my great grandmother, was born in Vermont, 13 Aug. 1805 and died at her home in Brighton, Dec. 15, 1894, at the advanced age of 89 years, 4 months and 1 day.  She was married to Joel Ross, March 3, 1821.  They moved from New York state to Ohio about 65 years ago.  They moved to Brighton 47 years ago, where she lived ever since until death relieved her suffering.  She, with her husband, united with the M. E. church about 47 years ago, where she has been a faithful and devoted Christian, ever since her husband precedingher to his future home some thirteen and one half years ago.  She was the mother of 15 children, eleven that became grown up.  Mrs. Anna Jeffrey of Hartland, Joel Ross of Wakeman, Mrs. Fannie Fletcher of Wakeman, Mrs. Angeline Moon, and Mrs. Charity Gunn of Brighton and a large circle of grandchildren.  She was a faithful wife and a kind and loving mother.  They children wises to return their sincere thanks to the friends and neighbors for their kind assistance during sickness and death of our dear mother.”



Joel P. Ross, Mariah’s husband,  was born on 5 March 1799 in Groveland in Livingston County, New York.  The Biographical Record of the Counties of Huron and Lorain, Ohio has a sketch about Joel P. and Mariah’s son, Joel II  that really gives a good historical account of his father’s life, as well.

It first speaks of the son, Joel Ross II:
“This well-known influential farmer and stock raiser of Wakeman township first saw the light March 12, 1828, the locality of his birth being the same farm where his father was born March 5, 1799 in Groveland township, Livingston County, New York.

Joel P. and Maria (Ordaway) Ross, parents of the subject of this sketch, had a family of thirteen children; of whom are living the following: Anna (Mrs. William Jeffries), a widow, living in Hartland; Fannie Jane, wife of William Harrison Fletcher, living in Wakeman, Ohio; Angeline, wife of John Moon, and Charity, wife of Melvin Gunn, both residents of Brighton, Lorain County; and William, a farmer of Michigan.  When our subject was about eighteen months old, he came down the Ohio river on a raft with his parents, and his father moved to Scioto county, Ohio, afterward coming to Lorain county, dying in Brighton, March 9, 1881, at the age of eighty-two years; for some time prior to his death, he had resided in Florence township, Erie county.  He was a lifelong farmer, politically, he was a Republican, and he was a member of the Methodist church, as is also his widow, who is yet living in Brighton, Ohio, now in her eighty-eighth year.

Joel Ross II, whose name opens this sketch, received his education at the common schools of the vicinity of his home, at the same time assisting his parents in the work of cultivating and improving the farm.  When he was nineteen years old, he commenced working away from home by th emonth, and, saving his money, paid for fifty-three acres of land in Brighton township, Lorain county.  After five years, he went to California, where for four and one-half years, he was engaged in mining, driving team, etc., saving his money with judicious care.  Returning to Huron county, he bought 150 acres of wild land in Wakeman township, and leased the fifty-three acres in Brighton to his father, who lived thereon to the time of his death.  Clearing the land, our subject sold the timber, built himself a comfortable log house, barn, etc., and prospered.  He now owns 150 acres and successfully carries on general agriculture, including stock raising.”

The sketch goes on to tell of Joel Ross II’s marriage to Miss Ann Haines in 1859 and of their five children.  Joel II served as a school director and in other “offices of trust” in his township.

Mariah Ordway was my great-great-great aunt.  Quite a looker, don't you think?

Aaron Ordway and Susannah Johnson Ordway

Let’s keep going back in the family tree – (Fred, Lemuel, Richard, Harrison, and now Aaron) to my four greats grandfather, Aaron Ordway, born in Rumney, Grafton, New Hampshire, very close to the Vermont state line, on July 2, 1769.  He married Susannah Johnson, daughter of Willis Johnson and Jemima Smith Johnson, who was born in New Hampshire on May 11, 1774.  Just think… a few years before the Revolutionary War. 

When we visited in Strafford, Orange County, Vermont, we found quite a few of the birth records for the children of Aaron and Susannah, as this was where they settled after their marriage.  Many of these records are now online, but finding the records in the very old books was much more fun. 

So as far as I can determine, these are the children of Aaron and Susannah Ordway:

1.       William Ordway, born November 16, 1792 in Strafford

2.       Willis Johnson Ordway, born September 4, 1794

3.       Aaron Ordway born August 29, 1796

4.       Isaac Ordway born September 7, 1798

5.       Tamar Ordway (female) born April 18, 1800

6.       Abraham Ordway born April 11, 1803

7.       Mariah Ordway born August 13, 1805

8.       Lydia Ordway born October 7, 1807

9.       Harrison Ordway* born October 24, 1810

10.   Harvey S. Ordway born c 1819

11.   Benjamin, birthdate unknown

A sample page from a vital records book in Strafford.  This is really not original, but was copied from the original at some point a long time ago.  If you enlarge this, you will be able to spot some of the birth records for Aaron's children.

Most of the children of Aaron and Susannah were born in Vermont, except for perhaps the last three.  According to the censuses of 1800 and 1810 of Strafford, Vermont, the family resided there with their growing brood of children.  By 1820, the family had moved into New York, as the 1820 census for Genesee, Ontario County, New York showed Aaron there with wife and some of the children.

I have never been able to find Aaron in the 1830 census, but by 1840, the family was settled into Elk Township, Warren, Pennsylvania.  The census shows Aaron Ordiway as head of household, aged 70 – 80, with his wife,a ged 60-70 and one male, aged 20 – 25, probably Harvey.  Also some of the sons show up as neighbors as head of their own households: Harrison, Isaac, and Benjamin.  Up until 1850, only the head of household was named on the censuses, so we have to speculate, using the hash marks in various age groupings, which family members were living in the household at the time.

We visited Warren, Pennsylvania  on a research trip and, looking at  records in the archives there, we found the Ordways buying and selling land in Elk Township, sometimes as individuals and sometimes in partnership.



 

Some researchers have placed Aaron’s death in 1849.  I have found no record of his or Susannah’s deaths.  I’m sure that I just haven't looked in the right place yet.  Many of the children moved on to Lorain County, Ohio, but efforts to find the record there have not been successful.  Also no record of death was found in Warren, Pennsylvania.  In fact, I personally think Aaron might be listed in the 1850 census, living close to daughter, Mariah Ordway Ross and husband, Joel Ross.  If you have some proof of a burial place for Aaron and/or Susannah, I hope you will contact me.

We definitely had some New England determination and the quest for adventure in the Ordway family.  To leave Strafford, Vermont, Aaron’s childhood home, and travel with a large extended family around the Great Lakes from New York, to Pennsylvania, to Ohio and eventually, some went to Michigan and a few to Missouri, was quite a feat in those early days.  It was a poor, rough pioneer life for these folks.