INTERLUDE FOUR: THE WILDERSON-LEWIS CONNECTIONS

Six of our direct line ancestors are buried in this peaceful little cemetery on Bush-Selkirk Road in Newton Township, Trumbull County, Ohio. Gravestones are here for Charles and Christene Wilderson, our great, great, great grandparents. Their son, Henry Wilderson and his wife, Rachel  Barnhisel are also buried here. And so are John and Mary Lewis. John Lewis and Henry Wilderson set aside this land for their families and their neighbors to use to bury their loved ones. Out of the 40 or more gravesites here, 32 of them are our relatives! 

John and Henry's families lived on adjoining properties from about 1843 until the early 1900s. And here they all lie together in their graveyard. But, John and Henry were connected in another way, too, because John's son, David Lewis, married Henry's daughter, Mary Ann Wilderson, our great grandparents!

MARY BROKAW

Today's introduction to the Brokaw surname is a thrill for me because our Brokaw ancestry has been traced back to the 1500s!! I purchased the book, "OUR BROKAW-BRAGAW HERITAGE" compiled by Mrs. Elsie Foster,  sometime around 1985. Some of our Mary Brokaw's family history is entered on pages 98 and 99 in this huge volume of 829 pages and includes our great grandgrandparents, Emma Morrison and David Spitzer's family. And, of course, the beginning pages are about the history of the emigrant ancestor of the Brokaw name which I will reveal to you in my future stories about the Brokaws.

Mary was born in Cadiz, Harrison County, Ohio in 1815. Her parents were early arrivals to this area, locating in Flushing, Belmont County, Ohio for a number of years,

Mary's family moved to Jackson Twp., Crawford, Ohio after Mary's father, Abram, bought several acres there in 1831.  Soon after this move, Mary married John Morrison on the 21st day of February in 1833. Here is a list of their children:
James, born abt. 1834
Margaret, 1835
George, 1837
David, 1839
Andrew, 1841
Matthew, 1844
Martha, 1847
William, 1849
Mary E., 1853
Sarah Emeline ("Emma", 1855, our great grandmother)

Mary Brokaw Morrison
Born:    1815 in Cadiz, Harrison, OH
Married: 21 Feb 1833 in Jackson, Crawford, OH
Died: 13 Apr 1880 in Jackson, Crawford, OH
Buried: Fairview Cemetery in Galion, Crawford, OH
Sources: Census of 1850; 1860; 1870; and 1880; Abram Brokaw's BLM land patent; Book: "Cemeteries of Crawford County, Ohio Vol. 2A"; Book: "Our Brokaw-Bragaw Heritage" compiled by Elsie Foster.

JOHN MORRISON

Washington, Indiana County, Pennsylvania was John's birthplace, in 1809, on the western side of the state. He had four brothers and two sisters at their family farm.

 John's father, Robert Morrison, purchased about 33 acres of land in Jackson Township, Crawford County, Ohio, in 1826, to make sure that all of his children would have a good inheritance. This new location, along the Whetstone Creek, was probably an ideal place to have a farm. Soon after the family settled in, however, the head of the household died at the age of 74, during the winter of 1828.

John and his siblings continued to work the family farm but they were also finding mates and building their own homes and farming their inherited acres. John married his sweetheart, a neigbour girl, Mary Brokaw, as soon as she turned 18, in February 1833.

John and Mary had ten fine, healthy children filling them with love and pride.  When Mary's parents retired from farming, John invited them to live with his family. All in all, I feel certain that John Morrison was a kind, loving family man and a successful farmer.

John Morrison
Born: 22 Feb 1809 in Washington, Indiana, PA
Married: 21 Feb 1833 in Jackson, Crawford, OH
Died: 7 Nov 1885 in Galion, Crawford, OH

Sources: Censuses from 1810 to 1880; Morrison family's Land deeds; Robert Morrison's will of 1828; Cemeteries of Crawford Co.,Vol.II,compiled and published by Crawford Co; Marriage Record from Bucyrus Courthouse, Crawford, OH; Book: "Our Brokaw/Brocaw Heritage"compiled by Mrs. Elsie E. Foster.

Magdalena Haas

A portrait of a Bavarian girl wearing a dirndl dress by Carl Kricheldorf (1863-1934)
Great great grandmother, Magdalena Haas, was born in Bavaria in 1833, a state in southeastern Germany bordering Liechtenstein, Austria and the Czech Republic. She married Joseph Maus c. 1856 in Oshkosh, Winnebago County, Wisconsin. They had two daughters, Anna and Louise, and lived on Winnebago Street in Oshkosh in 1860. She moved to Ohio sometime after the Civil War. This is all that I know about this lady thus far.


Magdalena Haas Maus
Born: 1833 in , Bavaria, Germany
Married: c. 1856 in Oshkosh, Winnebago, WI
Died: ? Unkown
Sources: 1860 Census; Death Certificate of Louise E. (Maus) Charlton stating that Magdalena Hass [sic] and Joseph Maus were her parents