Weak Links (and Brick Walls) - The parentage of these individuals is either speculative, from unsourced claims, or would be strengthened with more evidence. The ancestry of these speculative parents is, however, researched and sourced. They are included for the value of this research, and so that (hopefully) the links can be strengthened with evidence.
LEWIS Line - OLIVER - PRICE
•1. Col. John Lewis [ID 76], b. 1790. Parents Alexander Lewis and Mary Fife. History of Augusta County states that Alexander left one son, James Alexander Lewis. An Alexander Lewis is named in a tax list for Christian Co., Kentucky, 1800 (the same name also listed for Hardin and Harrison Counties Kentucky in 1800). Could this be James Alexander Lewis? Alexander Lewis also appears on an earlier tax list, this one in 1789 for Mercer Co. Kentucky. And there is a land grant in 1818 to Alexander Lewis for 200 acres along the Pond River in Christian Co. KY. In any event, History of Augusta County Virginia gives 1797 as the year that Alexander, son of Col. William Lewis, died (in Virginia or West Virginia). Any evidence that links Col. John Lewis to any ancestors would be welcome.
•2. Susannah Oliver [ID 77], b. 1793. Parents John Oliver and Nancy Reese. The record of her marriage to Col. John Lewis (1811 in Christian Co., Kentucky) confirms her surname. In the 1820 census for Posey County, Indiana, John Lewis and his family (remember, family members other than the head of household were only enumerated, not named, until 1850) are in Black Township, where John Oliver (at least 45 years old) and his family are also named.
A John Oliver was granted 100 acres on Blue Lick Creek in Christian Co. in 1807.
•3. Thompson Price [ID 3941], b. ca. 1780. Likely the son of Joseph Price and Elizabeth Ann Gillison, but no direct evidence discovered.
REED Line - JOHNSON - MORRIS - GREEN
•4. Mary Morris [ID 995], b. 1808. Certainly the wife of (1) John Harvey Reed and (2) Thomas S Green, but no evidence that her birth surname was Morris as given in many family trees. It is very unlikely that she was the daughter of John H Morris and Delia Hoagland - they were married in Kentucky in 1802, and (putative) daughter Mary was born in 1808 and is consistently noted in census records as having been born in Virginia. It's not impossible that the family move from Kentucky to Virginia and then back to Kentucky, but that would be very unusual, and Mary married her first husband, John Harvey Reed, in Virginia about 1827.
•5. John Harvey Reed [ID 1931], b. about 1800, d. about 1840. The name Reed is confirmed by his children's surname, but the records for his given names are scarce. The death record for his son Daniel gives his father's name as "Harvey Reed" (mother's name unknown).
•6. Jane Anne Johnson [ID 699], b. 1841. The JOHNSON line is documented back to 1635.
BRIDGES Line - HAEFNER - HESSON
•7. Silas B. Bridges [ID 68], b. about 1818. It appears probable that he is the son of Benjamin Bridges and Hannah, but the birth surname of Hannah does not have evidence.
•8. Hannah Haefner [ID 760], b. in PA about 1792. No evidence that she was born Haefner, but her Pennsylvania birthplace would agree with the Frederick Maryland baptism record as many of the members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church congregation of Frederick Maryland lived in the border county in Pennsylvania.
In the 1860 census, Hannah is listed in the household of Wilson Wired [Wire, Weir] and his wife Cynthia Goodman, while Benjamin is listed two families previously, with his granddaughter Hannah. After this, Benjamin can be found with the family of his daughter Rachel (in 1870) while no further record of Hannah Haefner Bridges has been found.
•9. John Benjamin Bridges [ID 770], b. 1745, and Hannah Garland [ID 771], b. about 1750. The record of John Benjamin Bridges after his removal to Ohio is well documented, but other than the fact that he was born in Massachusetts (of which Maine was a part of in 1745), there is no evidence that he was the son of Josiah Bridges and Mary Bowden. There is a York Co. Maine record of the marriage of John Bridges and Hannah Garland, but the link to this John and Hannah is not established.
10. John Hesson [ID 790], b. about 1761. Though the relationship of John Hesson, of Campbell Co. Kentucky and Spencer Co. Indiana, as a son of Wendel Hesson of Frederick Co. Maryland is reported, it apparently cannot be true based on the probate records of Frederick Co. The son of Wendel certainly died shortly after the will of his father was made in 1824, in Frederick Co.
11. Sarah Simpson [ID 791], b. in MD about 1781. She married John Hesson in Kentucky in 1807. Her ancestry (and of her probable brothers, Benjamin and Ignatius) is a "brick wall" rather than a missing link.
12. Nancy A Ward [ID 789], b. in Louisiana about 1814. As with Sarah Simpson, a brick wall. It is intriguing that she and her (probable) brother Benjamin (who married an Ann Simpson, parentage unknown)were born in Louisiana, perhaps suggesting that their father participated in the War of 1812 in that area.
TREMPER Line - RUSK - WILLIAMS - - KIMMEL - BAILEY
The Tremper line back through Ohio and New York is mostly well documented. Not so with the ancestors of Priscilla Tremper's mother, Rachel Williams.
13. Rachel E Williams [ID 71], b. 1852. Rachel was the daughter of Henry Williams and Priscilla Kimmel, according to They Came To Warrick (Phillips, Opal B., Boonville, Ind.: The Chapter of the D.A.R., 1976), which cites the death record of Rachel's sister Irena (or Arena). In looking for the parents of Priscilla, there are a few clues. The most intriguing (but still unlikely) is the census report of August 1820 for Lewisburg in Muhlenberg Co. Kentucky, numbered page 6/137/637, image 5/16 on Ancestry.com. This page has familiar Indiana names such as Shelton, Rhoads and Lynn. There are also, in consecutive order, John Tooley (16-25, with wife, no children); David Kimmel (26-44), with 3 sons and 2 daughters under the age of 10; Susanna Woods; Jacob Landers; and William Williams (16-25) and wife (16-25). Could David Kimmel be the father of Priscilla, who would have been three years old? And could William Williams (who marr. Lydia Baker in Muhlenberg Co., 9 Dec 1819) be the son of William from his first marriage? From the marriage license of Irena's son Philip, we know that she was born in Muhlenberg County.
Otherwise, the Williams ancestry of Rachel to her great-grandfather David Williams, immigrant from Wales, is given in History of Vanderburgh County Indiana (Madison, Wisconsin: Brant and Fuller, 1889) as well as They Came To Warrick.