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.

Three Sheets of Paper

Sometimes, you bring home a stack of papers with details on the lives of your ancestors. Sometimes, you bring home lost family photographs gifted from a distant relative. Sometimes, you bring home three sheets of paper…

That’s all I got. Three sheets. But, this is the best lead I’ve had on William G. Bender in years. 

My three pages are all from a guardianship of estate record dated 1875. For twelve hundred dollars of a deceased man by the name of Henry Bender’s money. The guardian was Lavina Bender of Mercer County. Henry’s children were named Charles J. Bender (19), John H. Bender (16), William Bender (13), and Eliza A. Bender (9).

Of course, William is my primary interest. When looking at his name on the record it appears to say “William B McC Bender” but what is that little thing between his first name and the letter “B”?

This page states that Lavina Bender was in charge of the money and that she is the guardian of Charles J. Bender, John H. Bender, William B. McClellin/McClellan Bender, and Eliza A. Bender. William’s other middle name peaked my interest because Martha M. Fast Bender’s second husband, James Couts whom she married after divorcing William, shared that middle name. Couts was born in 1863 and this particular William Bender was probably born between 1862-1865. So, I did a simple Google search for “McClellan Civil War” and I found George Brinton McClellan. So, if William was named after this Union General turned Democratic President Nominee in 1864, his name would be William George Brinton McClellan Bender. It’s a long name, but I think it is a possibility. It also would explain those little marks between William’s name and the middle initial “B”. It kind of looks like someone attempted to stick in a “G”.

I’ve already begun looking into this family but I don’t have enough to share yet, when I do I will post more about them!