A Kennedy Family History
Ebelhars and Kennedys Are Descended
From David Jones
Double Relationships Traced To Illustrious Ancestors
Of Days Before The Revolutionary War
Hundreds of persons now living trace their ancestry back to David Jones,
born in Wales in 1709, but few in this locality are aware of the relationship
of certain local families to each other, all of them descended from the
same Welsh ancestor who settled in the Conestoga Valley about 1735. This
is largely because many of these families are descended, not from the
sons, but from the daughters and granddaughters of the pioneer.
It was
only recently that we discovered that our local Ebelhar and Kennedy families
are descended from David Jones, as well as from other illustrious men
who were contemporary with him; early settlers in this part of Pennsylvania.
No doubt members of these families have known of their ancestry while
we have but lately learned of it.
Intensive studies have been made in
past years so that today the descendants of David Jones are nearly all
known and can be located. One descendant, the late Mrs. Horace Beale,
of Parkersburg, published a book of Jones genealogy. In this book are
listed many branches of the families, with notations of marriages, so
that it is established that many persons now living here are distantly
related to each other, come in frequent contact with each other, and are
unaware of that they are cousinsoftimes quite remote.
Double Ancestry. The Ebelhar and Kennedy families of Honey Brook
are doubly descended from the “House of David Jones.” To use the term
of Mrs. Beale, they are children of both the “Fifth Scion” and the “Sixth
Scion” of their ancestor. The “Fifth Scion” are the descendants of Elizabeth
Jones, daughter of David, who married Nathan Evans; the “Sixth Scion,”
the children of Mary Jones, daughter of David, who married Evan Evans.
Elizabeth Jones, David’s daughter, was born August 19, 1755, and married
Nathan Evans in 1774. They were the parents of eight children, seven of
whom married and had children; so many children in fact that Elizabeth
had thirty-six grandchildren. Back in the days when America was “young,”
before the Revolutionary War, there were many marriages between cousins,
and three of the children of Nathan and Elizabeth Evans married cousins
by the name of Evans.
It is from two of the Evans-Evans marriages that our Ebelhar and Kennedy
families are descended. James Evans, third child of Nathan and Elizabeth
Evans, married Elizabeth Evans. She was daughter of Evan Evans and his
wife, Mary Jones. Elizabeth, the mother of James, and Mary, the mother
of Elizabeth, were sisters, while the fathers, Nathan and Evan Evans were
uncle and nephew. Therein lies the base of the “double descendency” of
the Ebelhars and the Kennedys from that illustrious Welsh pioneer of the
Conestoga Valley David Jones.
James Evans who married Elizabeth Evans
in 1801 lived in the vicinity of Churchtown. They were the parents of
eight children. James Evans, the father, fought in the Mexican War, and
died while returning home from the Army, it is thought about 1831. Their
first born child, a son, died in infancy. Next came a daughter, Elizabeth
Evans, and she married John “Ebilhar” on March 3, 1824. They were the
parents of thirteen children, among them the Ebelhars we knew in recent
years who belonged to the past generation Robert Ebelhar, the tailor;
Mrs. William Kennedy and George Ebelhar, who lived about a mile west of
town; and Mrs. John L. Trester, of North Wales.
Ebelhar Spelling Varies. Mrs. William Kennedy was Sarah Ann Ebelhar,
born February 7, 1836, and married October 15, 1863. William Kennedy was
a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War, and was probably serving
when he was married in 1863. Robert Ebelhar married Susan Ammon, of near
Honey Brook, on April 3, 1863.
Returning to the “House of David Jones”
and tracing the Ebelhar-Kennedy ancestry through the “Sixth Scion,” it
was David Jones’s daughter, Mary, who married Evan Evans. They had six
children. Elizabeth, their fourth child, married her first cousin, James
Evans. It was their daughter, Elizabeth Evans, who married John Ebelhar
in 1824. Thus, in tracing their ancestry, the Ebelhars and Kennedys will
encounter David Jones in two lines.
The name “Ebelhar” has apparently had several variations in spelling in
the past. Some early records use “Ebilhar.” In the marriage record book
of the Rev. John Wallace, pastor of the Pequea Presbyterian Church, who
married them, it is recorded: “Thursday, January 9th, 1851, 12M, married
by me, James Evilheart to Hannah Buchanan. Both of Honey Brook, Chester
County.” There were no children to this Ebelhar-Buchanan marriage. In
the same book it is recorded: “Thursday, October 15th, 1863. 5½ P. M.,
married by me, William M. Kennedy to Sarah Ann Evilhart, Sadsbury and
Honey Brook, Chester County.” There were nine children by this marriage:
George Davis Kennedy, now living west of Honey Brook, married to Elizabeth
Trego (deceased); John Leonard Trester Kennedy, living in Honey Brook,
married to Emma Lewis; William Sloan Kennedy, (deceased), married to first,
Mary Griese, and second, Mabel Wilson; Flora Elizabeth Kennedy, living
in Narberth, and married to Edwin A. White; Bena F. Kennedy, (deceased),
and married to her cousin, John Kennedy; Lorenzo, died single; Miss Lillian
May Kennedy, living in Philadelphia; Mary, died single; and Laura Belle
Kennedy, living in Honey Brook, and married to Dr. Peter Joel Mertz.
Robert
Ebelhar (tailor) married Susan Ammon, April 3, 1863. There were twelve
children: Elizabeth, (deceased), married to Lem Davidson, deceased; John,
Clarence, Ellen, Dora, all deceased, single. Ida married to James Seymour
(deceased), and living in Reading. James married to Elizabeth Loomis,
and living in Glen Moore. Levi married to Elizabeth Zollers and living
in Coatesville. Celia married to George Glenn, both deceased. Francis
married to Benjamin Griffith, and living in Coatesville. Edmund married
to Edna Eppihimer, and living in Cambridge. Viola married to George Neizel,
West Reading.
David Jones, a wealthy old pioneer iron-master of Caernarvon
(Jones’ Mines belongs to him) who lies buried in Old Bangor churchyard
in Churchtown, where he was one of the first Vestrymen, has representatives
today in many states. Others have not wandered far from the spot where
he settled two hundred years ago and among these latter are the Ebelhar
and Kennedy families of Honey Brook.
David Jones was born in the Parish
of Llang-wch-y-llyn, Merionethshire, in Western Wales in August 1709;
and died in Caernarvon township, Lancaster County, in September, 1784.
[Source: Photocopy of an article from the Honey Brook
Herald, Chester County, Pennsylvania, January 14, 1937; obtained from
the Chester County Historical Society Library clippings files]
Posted February 22, 2004 |