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Abraham Ward and his descendants
Ohio and Iowa |
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From BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY: A Portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert Counties, Ohio : containing biographical sketches of many prominent and representative citizens : together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States, and biographies of the governors of Ohio.
Chicago: A.W. Bowen & Co., 1896 |
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 One of the most distinguished families of Allen county, Ohio, is that of which the history is here presented. Abraham Ward, in 1833, removed from Jackson township, Pickaway county, Ohio, to Allen county, but was born in what is now West Virginia. His ancestry were among those who settled early at Plymouth, Mass., and who came originally from England; and the descendants of those early emigrants may now be found in all parts of the United States. Abraham Ward was a son of Joseph Ward, a soldier in the Revolutionary war, who after the close of that war settled in Norfolk, Va. Later he removed to Moorefield, in Hardy county, now in West Virginia, where he died. Abraham, following the example of his father, became a soldier in the war of 1812, in an Ohio regiment. He married Miss Christiana Johnson, by whom he had two children, Joseph and John. After the death of Mrs. Ward, Mr. Ward married again, but the maiden name of his second wife is not now known. By this second marriage he had four children--two sons and two daughters, and in the fullness of time he died in Jackson township, Allen county.
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From Historical Atlas of Paulding Co., Oh. 1892
Biography of Samuel H. Ward |
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| Courtesy of Kathleen Ruhlen |
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Samuel Ward, farmer, the subject of this sketch, on the paternal side is a descendent of the
Wards of the Jamestown, Va., colony, and a great-grandson of Gen. Ward, of colonial times; on
the material side he descends from the Harpers, of Harper's Ferry, Va. Our subject was born in
Champaign county, Ohio, May 2, 1827, and is a son of John and Rose A. (Harper) Ward, natives
of Virginia.
The paternal grandfather was Abraham Ward, who emigrated from Berkeley county,
Va., in 1804, and made his first settlement in Pickaway county, Ohio. He subsequently removed
to Champaign county, and later settled in Allen county, where he died. Abraham was twice
married and had a family of four sons and two daughters.
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The census proves pretty conclusively that Abraham Ward had more than six children. There were girls from his first marriage who have not been found; and there may have been another son from the second marriage. It is not known at this point whether the girls married and moved, or whether they died young.
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Joseph Ward, the elder son of Abraham Ward and his first wife, was born in Moorefield, Va., in 1793, and settled in Champaign county, Ohio, in 1812, where he lived until 1827, when he removed to Allen county, locating on what is now known as the Felter Farm. He erected the first grist-mill in Allen county, and upon this farm he died in 1839, leaving a family of four sons and two daughters.
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John Ward, the second son of Abraham and Christiana Ward, was born in Moorefield, Va., in 1795, and removed to Champaign county, Ohio, in 1812, locating in Union township. In January, 1830, he removed to Allen county, having in 1828 entered eighty acres of land in Bath township. Upon arriving in Allen county and getting settled, he engaged in teaching a select school in the winter time, and in farming in the summer season. He took a very active part in the organization of Allen county, and was appointed the first clerk of the county court, under the old constitution, in which capacity he served until his death, December 25, 1842. He also filled the office of recorder several terms. Beside being active and prominent in these local ways, he was also prominent in the military affairs of the state, holding commissions as captain, colonel and brigadier-general. Politically he was a democrat and religiously he was a Presbyterian, assisting to organize the Presbyterian church at Lima, and serving therein as an elder for many years.
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John Ward the father of our subject was the eldest son; his early life was spent in Champaign county. He had but few opportunities for an education. He was reared a farmer and when a young man engaged in transporting by team (the only means in those days) the products of the farms to the Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky., markets. About 1830 he went to what is now Allen county, and purchased 80 acres of land in Bath township. When Allen county was organized in 1830, he was appointed clerk of the court, and was elected the second recorder, which position he filled until his death, which occurred in 1842. At the breaking out of the war of 1812, he offered himself for enlistment, but being under size, he was not accepted. His evident disappointment attracted the notice of Gov. Vance, who commissioned him a captain in the state militia, and at his death he held a commission in the state militia of brigadier-general of the Twelfth division. Politically he was a democrat and was a power in his party, and one of the leading democrats of the county. In his religious belief he was a Presbyterian, in which church he was an elder for many years.
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John Ward married Miss Rosamond Harper, daughter of Samuel Harper, who was a member of the family after whom Harper's Ferry was named. She died June 24, 1873, at the age of seventy years. She and her husband were the parents of six children, viz: Margaret, who died unmarried; Samuel H., of Paulding county, Ohio; Joseph, of Lima, Ohio; Rebecca, deceased; Simon, of Toledo, Ohio, and Elizabeth.
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His family consisted of six children: Margaret who died in 1849, Samuel W. [sic; elsewhere, Samuel H.], Joseph of Van Wert county, Rebeca (deceased), Elizabeth, of Lima, Ohio, and Simeon. His wife survived him for some years.
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Joseph Ward, the second son of John, was born in Champaign county, February 16, 1829. He was, however, reared and educated in Lima, and learned the trade of carpenter. Upon the breaking out of the Rebellion he felt it his duty to assist in preserving the Union, and in September, 1861, enlisted in company D, Fifty-fourth Ohio volunteer infantry, in which company he served until July 22, 1862, when he was discharged because of a gun-shot wound received in the battle of Shiloh, Miss. The bullet entered the left leg, passed through the body and came out through the right hip. From this wound he at lenth recovered, and again enlisted in 1864, in company B, One Hundred and Eighty-first regiment, in whcih regiment he served one hundred days. After the war was over he purchased some land in Latty township, Paulding county, Ohio, and was there engaged in farming until 1876, when he removed to Labette county, Kans., where he remained until 1879, when, owing to the death of his wife, he returned to Ohio, and since then has lived a retired life at Lima. He and his wife were the parents of three children, viz: Rosie, deceased; Isaac W., of Van Wert, and Bruce of Fort Smith, Ark.
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Samuel W. Ward received such advantages as the schools of his time afforded; at
the age of sixteen he located one and a half miles from Lima, and engaged in farming, where he remained until April 16, 1865, when he located in Latty township, and purchased his farm of 160
acres. In early life Mr. Ward was a democrat, but at the formation of the republican party he connected himself with that party, and was one of five to sign the petition to organize the
republican party of Ohio. He has filled the offices of justice of the peace, township trustee, and was the republican candidate for county commissioner in 1887. In 1864 he was connected with
the national guard of Ohio, and was orderly sergeant of company F, Thirty-third regiment, which was consolidated with a regiment from Hocking county, which formed the One hundred and
fifty-first Ohio volunteer, he being attached to Company B, and served four months. Mr. Ward was married November 1, 1849, to Miss Effie, daughter of Eli Peterson, of Franklin county, Ohio,
and by the union they have had eleven children, eight of whom are living: William, John S., R.E., Mary, Clara, wife of Henry Leigh, Harry, Elizabeth, wife of O. Lewis of Van Wert county, and
B.G. Mr. Ward is a member of the P. of H. Latty grange, No. 621, of Grover Hill, and a member of the M.E. church of Latty township, of which he is a trustee. Mr. Ward is one of Paulding county's progressive citizens, and commands the respect of his neighbors and the citizens of the county.
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THE FIRST THREE GENERATIONS
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1 Abraham Ward 1770 - 1837..
+Christiana Johnson
....... 2 Joseph Ward 1793 -
........... +Catharine 1796
................ 3 Rebecca C. Ward [?1815 - ?1836]
................ 3 Mary Ann Ward 1818 - 1882
................ 3 Abraham J. Ward 1822 -
................ 3 John A. Ward 1825 -
................ 3 Thomas Robinson Ward 1827 - 1907
................ 3 Isabel Ward 1832 -
................ 3 George Harmer Ward 1836 - 1862
....... 2 John Ward 1795 - 1842
........... +Rosamond Harper 1803 - 1873
................ 3 Samuel H. Ward 1827 -
................ 3 Margaret Ward - 1849
................ 3 Joseph Ward 1829 -
................ 3 Rebecca Ward - before 1896
................ 3 Elizabeth Ward 1833 -
................ 3 Simeon Ward 1835 -
1 Abraham Ward 1770 - 1837
.. +unknown
....... 2 William Franklin Ward 1807 - 1864
........... +Nancy Cochran 1812 -
................ 3 Elizabeth Ward 1831 -
................ 3 Abraham Ward 1831 - 1887
................ 3 George Ward 1834 -
................ 3 Joseph Ward 1835 -
................ 3 Ronserd Ward 1838 -
................ 3 William Ward 1840 -
................ 3 Hannah Ward 1842 -
................ 3 Henry Ward 1844 - 1924
................ 3 Jacob C. Ward 1847 - 1908
................ 3 Alonzo Lon Ward 1849 -
................ 3 Nancy Mary Ward 1852 -
....... 2 Ranzewed Ward 1809 -
....... 2 Sarah Ward 1811 -
....... 2 Ruth Ward 1813 -
....... 2 Hannah Ward 1817 - |
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