Willis Ordway Was Warned

One of Aaron’s sons, Willis Johnson Ordway, must have found himself in a predicament in August 1817, in Pomfret, Vermont.

 In early New England, many towns abided by “warning out” laws.  Vermont abandoned those laws in 1787, but revived them from 1801 – 1818.  Warning Out laws gave the town authorities the power to ask folks who might not be able to support themselves or who might be troublemakers or transients to leave town.  When a newcomer moved into town, he was given one year to establish himself and meet the criteria set up by each town.  If a person could last a year without being warned out, time was up and the town had to accept him.  Warrants were required to be served within the first year the person was there. 

In Alden M. Rollins’ book, Vermont Warnings Out, Volume 2, Southern Vermont (Picton Press, Camden, Maine), Willis J. Ordway appears as having been served a warning out in the town of Pomfret, Vermont on August 12, 1817.  Willis Johnson Ordway was the second son of Aaron and Susannah Johnson Ordway, born  4 September 1794 in Strafford, Vermont.  He would have been 23 when this warrant was served, probably by the local constable.  The constable’s task was to serve the warrant within a particular time frame (usually about a week) by delivering it in person or by leaving it at the dwelling place of the person.  The town clerk would record the warrant in the town books and because of that, many records still exist for genealogists.  I would need to order the microfilm of those records to find out if any additional information was recorded about Willis’s situation.

According to Rollins, few people were actually expelled from towns in Vermont.  As long as the person settled in there and earned his keep or held a public office, which were hard to fill otherwise, he would be allowed to stay.  Even if he did go on the poor rolls of the town, that town had the right to send him back to the place from which he came, making the town of origin responsible for the person’s keep.

S = Strafford, P = Pomfret, N =Northfield

Looking ahead in the census, Willis made his way up to Northfield, northwest of Strafford by 1820 and by 1830, he was back in his hometown of Strafford, Vermont, living with his family. After 1840 sometime,he moved down with his father and brothers to Elk Township, Pennsylvania.

 So was he causing trouble in Pomfret or did they just think he was lazy and not contributing to his own keep?  Wish I knew.

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.