Anna Josephine Withrow Cromwell would be my great, great, great aunt. She was born at Farmersville, Ohio on Friday, January 16, 1857, and died in her home in Scranton, Iowa on Friday, July 16, 1920. I wrote about her in the post Anna Josephine and Ginevra.
According to her obituary, she moved as a small child with her parents to Indiana before moving to Jasper County, Iowa. In the spring of 1876, they came to Greene County, Iowa, settling on a farm southwest of Scranton, where she resided until her marriage to William J. Cromwell on October 3, 1876.
I have some problems with this obituary. I corrected the date when the family moved to Greene County. The obituary said 1875. It was February 1876. I had never heard or found anything about the family moving to Indiana from Ohio. However, this is very logical, and I accept it as the case. Then, there is the matter of the wedding date. Was it October 3 or was it October 2? Look carefully at the Marriage Certificate at the end of this page.
I encourage you to read all of Anna Josephine's obituary at http://www.jefferson.advantage-preservation.com. It can be found in The Jefferson Bee, July 20, 1920. I especially found the listing of her pall bearers interesting. It states that they were all soldier boys to whom she had written during the late war.
The issue for July 14 tells of two daughters coming to assist in her care and that her condition was causing much anxiety among her relatives and many friends.
She sounds like she was a wonderful woman.
Unlike five of the seven children born to Sarah and Joseph, two of their daughters lived long lives. Anna Josephine and Ginevra both lived into their 60's. They married, raised families, and shared the care of their aged mother, Sarah. I have read in some of the Jefferson historical papers about visits Sarah made to her granddaughters in Jefferson. These are strangers to me. The mother of those granddaughters was Anna Josephine.
Anna Josephine married Willam Cromwell and raised seven children just like her parents. I have not done much research on this branch of the family. In time, I will turn my attention to this branch if one of my third or fourth cousins or anyone else is interested.
What I have discovered is that the youngest daughter of Anna and William was born in 1899 and was named Beatrice Ruth. She married Norval Pound and they had three children.
Alan (1917)
Victor (1921)
Mignon (1922)
Oh, have my third and fourth cousins perked up their ears?
When I was a kid, one of my best friends was Margo Pound. We knew we were distantly related but no one seemed to know exactly how. Now I know! Sarah Jane is her 2nd great grandmother and my 3rd great grandmother. We share a common ancestor. We are third cousins once removed. I am one generation farther removed from our common ancestors, Sarah and Joseph Withrow.
Everyone with me? What is this illusive once removed term? We are not of the same generation. How can this be? We are only one month apart in age. Let me explain.
Anna's daughter, Beatrice, was the youngest of Anna's children. While the daughter of her sister, Ginevra, was the oldest of Ginevra's children. Ginevra's daughter, Estella, and Beatrice, first cousin to Estella, were almost 20 years apart in age. Already the generations are off.
I tried explaining descendants in paragraph form but it became a little confusing. So, here is a chart which might help.
Sarah( mother)
Anna Josephine (sisters) Ginevra
Beatrice (first cousins) Estella
Alan/Victor (second cousins) Nina&siblings
Jane/Margo/Vic/etc. (3rd cousins) Mary&siblings
Michelle, Mike, Todd, Jane's girls (4th) Margie
Because I am one more generation removed from Sarah Jane, I am a third cousin once removed of my friend, Margo, her siblings, and her first cousins.
Here is my paragraph. You might want to skip it or muddle through to see if your head spins or you might find it clarifying.
Beatrice and Estella were the grandchildren of Sarah Jane and Joseph. They were first cousins. Beatrice's children and Estella's children were great-grandchildren to Sarah Jane and Joseph. So, Sarah was great grandmother to Alan Pound, Victor Pound, my grandmother Nina Smith Grisso, and many others. Alan and Victor were second cousins to my grandmother, Nina, and her siblings. The children of Alan and his brother, Victor, are third cousins to Nina's children one of whom is my mother, Mary. The generations are not aligned. So this is where the once, twice, etc. times removed comes in. Margo is my mother's third cousin and my third cousin once removed. Her children are my fourth cousins. (Got that Michelle, Mike, and Todd)
So, there you have it. My third and fourth cousins share a common ancestor with me. We have all descended from Sarah Jane Swartzel Withrow and her husband, Joseph.
My first and second cousins branch off with Ginevra and John Mac Vorhies. There is much more to come with them.
In November of 1875, John Mac and his father-in-law, Joseph Withrow, went to Greene County, Iowa, and made a purchase of 160 acres of land. In February of 1876, the family all moved to the new homestead leaving Mary Kate behind buried somewhere I have yet to discover. Sarah, Joseph, 5 children, and married daughter Ginevra, now eight months pregnant with her first child, and son-in-law, J.M. Vorhies, undoubtedly traveled together.
Estella Mae Vorhies was the first born child of Ginevra and John Mac Vorhies, and the first grandchild of Sarah and Joseph Withrow. She was the first of our family born in Greene County, Iowa, and she was my great grandmother. Can you imagine the trek in 1876? Did they move then because rivers would be frozen? Can you imagine being pregnant on the trip? Was great grandma born in the wagon when they got there? There couldn't have been time to build a house or was there? Did they even have a wagon?
I will have more to say on the land when I write about the grandfathers. For now, I want to introduce Sarah and Joseph's children.
As is the case in large families, the older children of the second generation might be older than the youngest children of the first generation. Such was the situation with the Withrow and Vorhies family, Estella (1876) and her brother, Eugene (1877), were actually older than the last child of their grandparents. Joseph and Sarah's youngest child named Sarah Jane (26 Aug 1879) was born just a month or so before Ginevra and John Mac Vorhies's last child, Leroy (2 Oct 1879).
So, Sarah and daughter, Ginevra, were busy having babies those first few years in Greene County. What were the other kids doing?
Anna Josephine was about 19 when the family moved to Greene County and Aurilla was 17. Wedding bells were probably in their futures. Yes, Anna Josephine married William Cromwell 3 October 1876 according to her obituary. Anna Josephine will have her own post later.
The 1880 census shows Joseph to now be 49 and his wife, Sarah Jane, to be 46. The only children still at home were Viola Emma age 12, Joseph Jr. age 5 and baby Sarah Jane. Joseph's occupation is listed as farmer. Viola Emma and Joseph Jr. are list as "going to school". Their school was in the southeast corner of Section 16 in Greene County.
Their oldest living daughter, Ginvera, is now 25 and John Mac, her husband, is 29. Their children, Estella, Eugene, and Leroy are ages 4, 3, and 6 months old.
Anna is now married to William Cromwell but their first child has not yet been born.
Aurilla at age 20 is married to Mat Frederick.
