Asenath & Dean Eichler

Dean Eichler, my 5x great grandfather, was born in February 1825 in Chenango County, New York to John Eichler and Ruth Warner. Asenath Elvina Nostrant, was born in August around 1825-28 in Onondaga County, New York to James Nostrant and Laine VanPetten. The two were married in about 1847-1850 in Onondaga County, NY.

In 1850, the Eichlers are living in Lafayette, Onondaga, New York with their daughter, 2 year old Ellen Eichler.

Between 1854 and 1856, the family moved to Michigan. In 1860 Dean, Asenath, Ellen, Rosette, William, Sarah, Ruth, and Platt (my 4x ggfather) were living in to Pokagon, Cass County, Michigan where Dean farmed. Asenath’s maternal uncle Arent “Aaron” Van Patten died in Millgrove (in Valley Twp.), Allegan, Michigan in 1857.

In 1870, the family was living in Keeler, Van Buren, Michigan and now included Matilda, Ida, George, and Mary. Dean was still farming and his son William helped on the farm.

In 1873-74 the family moved from Keeler to Lee, Allegan County. Youngest child Lana was born there, their second youngest David was born in Keeler. Dean was still farming and was ill on the day the enumerator came in 1880, but I can’t make out what it says specifically. Widowed daughter Rosette Eichler Houghton and her two children were living in the household as well. Rosette remarried later that year to a widower named Silas Randall of Pine Grove, Van Buren, MI.

In 1900 the couple was living with their daughter Mary J. Eichler Nightingale and her family in Hamilton, Van Buren, Michigan. In 1910, Dean and Asenath are living in Marcellus, Cass, Michigan with their daughter Ida Eichler Knoll and her family. 

Dean died in about 1911 (I haven’t located his death certificate on Seeking Michigan yet). Asenath died August 12, 1919 in Benton Harbor, Berrien, Michigan, according to her death certificate she was buried in the Grand Junction Cemetery.

Etta Lowe, the first wife of John Wm. King

Before marrying my great-great grandmother, Lillie Ann Coder, my great-great grandfather John William King was married to Etta Jane Lowe (daughter of Rosa Atwood and George Lowe) just after his 17th birthday on October 17, 1907 in Ross County, Ohio.

In April 1910, the couple was living in Marion, Fayette, Ohio along with their son John King Jr. who was born May 15, 1908. John was working as a farm laborer to support his son and pregnant wife. On September 19, 1910 they became the parents to Bessie H. King. Sadly, a little over one year later on September 28, 1911 their little daughter died of enterocolitis (an infection of the digestive system caused by bacteria) the contributing cause was listed as “filth and lack of care”. *NOTE: The death certificate for Bessie INCORRECTLY states that the mother was “Anna Lowe”*

Unfortunately, this would not be the last time tragedy touched the King’s lives: On February 28, 1913 the couple’s six month old son, Charles Albert King would die of broncho-pneumonia and pertussis (whooping cough). The marriage was dissolved about 10 months after Charles’ death.

On December 24, 1913 Etta married Isaac Wiles (the son of Anna Mullen and William Wiles) in Delaware County, Indiana. On the marriage certificate she claims her previous marriage to John King was dissolved that same month on December 13, 1913. (Working on getting the record for their divorce!)

On August 9, 1917 Etta married again to Randolph Grant Smullen (son of Milton Smullen and Anna Keglice) also in Delaware County. On that marriage record she claimed she had been married twice and that both marriages had been dissolved by divorce. The first divorce is incorrectly listed as occurring in 1910, ending the marriage with King. And the second divorce from Isaac Wiles taking place in 1916. Etta, her husband Randolph, her son John King, and her daughter Nannie Smullen lived in Muncie, Delaware, Indiana in 1920. 

By 1930, Etta was working as a dishwasher at a restaurant and had divorced Smullen who was now her neighbor, they also had become the parents to a son prior to divorcing. In 1940, he was also living next door with their daughter, Nannie Smullen Chesterman while Etta lived with their son Vernon Smullen.

John King Jr. married Dorothy M. Hundley who was the daughter of Harvey Hundley and Clara M. Shingledecker Hundley Baker sometime after 1930. I haven’t definitively located him on the 1930 US Census yet.

“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” – Benjamin Franklin

This Independance Day, I’d like to put the spotlight on to two brothers who fought for the Independence we are celebrating; Israel Bissell (1752-1823) and Justus Bissell (1759-1832) (my 7th great grandfather through my maternal grandmother). The Bissell brothers were born to Israel Bissell Sr. and Hannah Sackett Bissell in East Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut.

“Listen, my children, to my epistle
Of the long, long ride of Israel Bissell,
Who outrode Paul by miles and time
But didn’t rate a poet’s rhyme.
A postman was this Israel Bissell.
Who on his horse, sped like a missile”

                                                 I. Bissell’s Ride by Clay Perry

Israel Jr., a post rider, out rode the other freedom riders sent to warn of the British Attack at Lexington on April 19,1875 including Paul Revere, William Dawes, Samuel Prescott, and Sybil Ludington in both miles traveled and time. He rode for four days and six hours (345 miles) from Watertown, Massachusetts to Philadelphia along the Old Post Road. According to legend, his first horse died from having been ridden too hard.

After Israel returned home to Connecticut, he and his younger brother Justus enlisted in the continental army and served until the end of the war. Israel settled in Hinsdale, Berkshire, Massachusetts where he was buried with a modest marble headstone until the Daughter’s of the American Revolution gave him a plaque commemorating his ride. 

Justus returned home to East Windsor and married Ann Blodgett (1760-1839) December 20, 1779 they were the parents of at least 10 children. The Bissells first moved to Middlefield, Massachusetts around 1782, while living there Justus worked as a carpenter and served on the school board. In 1809, the family moved to Ohio where Justus is buried in Aurora, Portage, Ohio.

Benders in Mercer County, Ohio

When I was 15, I was almost too excitable to do genealogical research. I found the 1890 marriage record of my great-great grandparents Martha (Mattie) Magnora Fast and William G. Bender, and that lead to my first major mistake… I connected the first William Bender I found in Mercer County, Ohio to my family tree. I told myself “No one will see this, if I need to change it I can.” But, a lot of Fast Descendants must’ve seen it and soon it was all over the internet. The William I had tied to my family was the son of Jonathan Bender and Hannah A. Murlin in Mercer County in 1870. But, the entire family ended up moving to Iowa by 1880, where that William was married in 1888.

But, there was another William in the county in 1870, William G. B. McClellan Bender was born in 1865 in Mercer County, Ohio to Henry Bender and his wife Clementine Lavina Long (she seems to have gone by Clementine/a until her husbands death in 1875 at which time she switched to Lavina). Henry and Clementine Lavina moved to Mercer County, Ohio between 1860-1865 from Hempfield, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania.

By the time Henry and Clementine moved to Ohio, they had three children:
Elizabeth Mathilda (b. November 13 1854), Charles J., and William H. (They must’ve changed his name to John H. Bender in his early childhood) Below is the Bender family on the 1860 census in Hempfield, Pennsylvania.

In 1870, Clementine and Henry are living in Hopewell, Mercer County, Ohio with William, aged 5 and Eliza, aged 4. It is unclear where the other children are. I think it is likely that the older daughter, Elizabeth Mathilda had passed away due to the younger sister’s name and the fact that Elizabeth Mathilda was the only child not listed in Henry’s probate records from 1875.

Charles Bender had settled in Portland, Jay, Indiana by June 1887 when he married Mary Chapman there (she was remarried in 1895 to James McGill in Jay County). There in April 1898, he was married again to Sadie Hearn (divorced and remarried in Jay County 1899 to William Little). On census records he always listed his birthplace as Ohio and his parent’s as being born in Pennsylvania, his maternal grandfather died in Portland in 1893. Charles died May 4, 1939 in Portland, Indiana.

John H. Bender married Mary A. Crouch on August 15, 1897 in Mercer County. After she died in 1917, he married Donna Lawson Chapman. Together, they had two children John R. Bender born about 1926 and Mary Ann Bender born 1929. He died in Mercer County in 1946 and is buried in the Swamp College Cemetery.

William (G.?) B. Mclellan Bender is my possible link to these Bender’s. He is not living with his mother, stepfather, and sister on the 1880 Census. If this is my William G. Bender, he was married in Mercer County to Martha M. Fast on November 27, 1890. And had two children with her before he disappeared around 1896…

Eliza Ann Bender was born in 1865 in Mercer County. She applied for a marriage certificate to marry Henry Lehman in 1883, with her stepfather giving consent for her to marry, but the two never went through with the ceremony, they had an illegitimate daughter born in November 1883 named Nora E. (Elizabeth) Lehman. In July 1885 Eliza married Seth Adams in Mercer County. They moved to Auglaize County, Ohio where she died in 1944.