This was sent
to the Quaker list by Kim Townsend Spangrude<kimspangrude@mac.com>:
My John and Elvira Cain Townsend left South Carolina and moved
to Warren County Ohio, and later, Wayne County, Indiana.
Obituary:
Townsend, Mrs, Elvira died March 11, 1870
of paralysis at the home of her son-in-law in West Elkton, age
102 years 4 days.
Born in North Carolina, March 7, 1768 and moved to South
Carolina when about 8 or 10. At the close of the Revolution
she formed acquaintance with and married John
Townsend, a soldier, May 6, 1783. Joined Friends.
In 1803 moved to Warren County, Ohio near where Waynesville
now is and stayed a few years, moving to Wayne County,
Indiana. staying until August 25, 1853 when her husband died.
She then came to live with her son-in-law, Elisha and
Elizabeth Stubbs in West Elkton. She retained her
mental and physical faculties quite well until some 18 months
ago when she had a light attack of paralysis.
She raised 12 children, all dead but 2.
In the fall of 1815 or 1816, in company with others she rode
horseback from Wayne County, Indiana to Mt. Pleasant,
Jefferson County, 0hio, a distance of over 200 miles to attend
Friends Yearly Meeting.
(From the Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives,
IUPUI University Library 755 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis, IN
46202(317) 274-0464)
***********************
More about John Townsend:
From an article "Old One-Room Schools" written by Dick
Tiernan, Staff writer for 'Senior Life" July 1995,
Richmond,Wayne Co., Indiana:" When Richmond decided to
build the C.R. Richardson school they uncovered the old
JOHN TOWNSEND cabin. Wise administrators made the
decision to move the cabin to the grounds of the P.C.
Garrison School just north of Boston (Wayne Co. Indiana).
Following the location of the cabin and during the
bicentennial (1776-1976), a teacher's group headed by Supt.
John Egger and Bob Rehmel, a crew
of volunteers decided to turn the cabin into a school. A smoke
house, well pit and rail fence was added to the grounds.
Today's children at Garrison school have the unique advantage
of re-living history. Principal Tom Catlett says that every
fall they have what is know as Cabin Days. A festival runs for
five to eight days and each year a different theme is used.
Indians, Pioneer Life and Americans All are some of the
themes. Other elementary schools are free to use the
cabin-school for field trips and day long visits. So the
former Townsend two-story cabin is now serving as a school.
John Townsend was a Revolutionary War veteran whose
family came to Indiana in 1803." John Townsend,
though raised Quaker, joined up with the Army during the
Revolution. He later came back to the Society of Friends, and
he and his wife Elvira refused the military pension due
him, on grounds of conscience. Some of the Townsends -
Quaker cousins and other relatives of my John
Townsend - later assisted in the Underground Railroad. It
is amazing to me how much of the history of America was formed
by the Quakers, but you don't hear about it too often. |
Source: Cincinnati Ohio Gazette
Dated: Sept. 1, 1870
Mr. Josiah Wright, an
estimable citizen of Springboro, Warren County, Ohio, died on
Tuesday. Mr. Wright has been a merchant for many
years in that place. He was a consistant member of the
Society of Friends, and a man whose loss will be felt hardly
less by the community with which he has been so long
identified that by his own immediate friends. |
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