Biography
of Walker Dada,
Hannibal,
NY
Many thanks to Esther Rancier
for sharing her information on the Butterfield family. Esther is
researching in Richland and Mexico the Soul/Soule, Brace
and Daniel P. Smith families, and would appreciate hearing from
anyone researching these surnames. Esther Rancier at: [email protected]
For more information on the Butterfield Family,
please contact the
Historians
and Historical Societies.
The Dady/Dada family immigrated into
Massachusetts in the seventeenth century where several generations later
William Dada, born in 1742, and his wife Jerusha Burt/Bert, born in September
1748, were the parents of Noah Dada, born on 27 June 1775 at the beginning
of the Revolutionary War. William died soon after on 10 April 1776.
Noah’s family was enumerated in the
1810 census at Southampton, Hampshire Co., MA. He had married Elizabeth
Rust on 1 November 1795 at the same place. The census listed five
children, who were according to the Cowles family records:
1. Jerusha Dada b.
17 September 1798 at Otisco, Onondaga Co., NY; m. 30 July 1820 Horace Cowles;
d. 12 December 1871 Hannibal, Oswego Co., NY. Issue: 8 children all
born in Otisco.
2. Lydia Dada b. 11 Feb.
1801; m. (1) 30 July 1820 in Otisco Amos Churchill Cowles who d. before
1841; (2) Nathan Rice of Hannibal, NY; d. 18 May 1864 and was buried in
Hannibal Village Cemetery. Issue: 4 Cowles children – Betsey Ann
Cowles who d. in Pontiac, MI; George Washington Cowles of Clyde, NY who
helped train his half-brother Arvin Rice as a lawyer; Marinda V. Cowles;
Philomelia Cowles who died at age 21 and was buried in the Hannibal Village
Cemetery in 1848; and Arvin Rice, Jr. b. Hannibal (1845-1914).
3. Cynthia Dada b. 30 October
1802; m. (1) Sumner Atkins; (2) Rev. Elisha Cowles; d. 30 March 1871 in
Otisco. Issue: 8 children.
4. Walker Dada b. 6 May 1805;
m. 14 September 1820 Nancy Maria Bardwell; d. 5 August 1885 Hannibal.
(More information follows.)
5. Elizabeth Dada b. 3 April
1807; m. John Post Storms, a Justice of Peace; d. 24 November 1880.
Issue: 9 children.
The above record which gives Jerusha
(Dada) Cowles place of birth at Otisco may be in error. The 1810
census still places the family in Massachusetts. The date of arrival
at Otisco is not certain, but Noah Dady [sic] was found in the 1820 Otisco
census. Dada/Dady, Rust and Cowles family members began to settle
in Otisco soon after 1800. Noah’s children were there well established
by 1826 when his mother Jerusha died on 26 March 1826, age 77. She
was buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery.
In the same cemetery there are two
early stones which suggest Noah married a young second wife named Sarah
who died on 14 November 1822 along with an infant who died also in 1822.
The name on these stones was spelled Dady [sic].
Two Dada daughters who married Cowles
men had relevant stones at Oak Hill also. Cynthia Dada was buried
with her husband, Rev. Elisha Cowles who died 17 May 1826, age 27.
Their daughter Virena Cowles died 18 April 1875, age 86, was buried near
her parents. Lydia Dada who married Amos C. Cowles as his second wife buried
him at Oak Hill on 27 February 1830, age 33. She then removed to
Hannibal where she spent the rest of her life.
Walker Dada and his wife Nancy who
was addressed usually as Maria, began their family in Otisco, but resided
in Hannibal in the 1850 census under the name of Dady [sic]. W. Dada
& Son owned a steam cheese-box factory which by 1895 had “gone-down”
according to Historian John Churchill.
According to the Bardwell family
recorders, Walker’s children were:
1. Henry Augustus Dada b.
Otisco 27 September 1832.
2. George Williston Dada b. Otisco
22 March 1834; m. 7 June 1856 Louisa Smith; d. 21 November 1879.
3. Lemuel Verona Dada m. (1) Phebe
Galloway; (2) Mary Ann Albring.
4. Emerette Elizaabeth Dada b. Hannibal
25 February 1841; m. 17 January 1868[63] Daniel Vedder of Cicero, NY, a
farmer.
The 1850 Hannibal census said the
following:
Dady, Walker
45 farmer $1000 MA
Henry
18 son
NY
Verona
12 son
NY
Maria
43 wife
MA
Emmett[sic]
9 daughter NY
The 1870 Hannibal census recorded:
Dada, Walker
65 cheese box maker $1800 MA
Marie[sic]
62 wife
MA
Henry
38 son
NY
Laury
6 ?
NY
Dada, Verona
32 cheese box maker $200
NY
Mary
28 wife
NY
Alice L.
1 daughter
NY
The 1880 Hannibal census showed
little change:
Dada, Walker
75 farmer
MA
Marian [sic]
72 wife
MA
Henry
48 farmer
NY
Dada, Verona
42 Cheese box maker NY
Mary
39 wife
NY
Alice
11 daughter
NY
Soon after the 1880 census Maria, Walker’s
wife died on 3 December 1880 at Hannibal. Walker lived to 5 August
1885.
All three of Walker’s sons served
in the Civil War for Hannibal. Their names were inscribed on the
town monument. Henry A. Dada enlisted as a private on 30 July 1862
at the age of 30 in Co. F, 110th Inf. Regt. NY. He was mustered out
on 28 August 1865 in Albany, NY. Verona L. Dada enlisted as a private
on 7 August 1862 at the age of 24. He too joined Co. F alongside
his brother Henry A. Verona was discharged on 13 July 1865 in Elmira,
NY. George W. Dada, often called Willis, enlisted as a private on
30 November 1863 at the age of 28. He joined Co. 1, 24th Cav NY.
He was seriously wounded and received a disability discharge on 14 June
1865 in Washington, DC. Each brother had been cited for Distinguished
Service.
Henry A. never married. In
the 1920 census at Auburn, Cayuga Co., NY he was 88 years old living with
the family of Albert W. Pierce and his wife Marie. He was called
a great uncle.
George W. and his wife Louisa Smith
had four children. The 1870 census for Ward 2, Auburn, NY recorded:
Dada, George
37 laborer
Louisa
29 wife
Hattie
13 daughter
Libbie
10
Charles
8 son
Flora
5 daughter
Hattie was Harriet Emerette Dada born
in Hannibal on 27 September 1856. She later married James MacNichol.
Libbie was Elizabeth Dada born January
1858. She married Howard E. Rice. By 1880 in Auburn, NY they
had a son Duane Rice, age 4.
Charles Dada was born in Hannibal.
He died at age 15.
Flora Dada was born in Auburn 25
February 1865. She married Frederick Youngs. They lived with
Elizabeth at Auburn in 1880.
Verona Dada had no issue with his
first wife. With his second wife, Mary Albring, they had a daughter
Mary Alice Lillian, born on 3 August 1868.
Verona died in 1903 followed by wi8fe
Mary in 1913. They were buried in the Hannibal Village Cemetery.
Daughter Mary called Alice L. married in 1888 Eugene Chamberlain, a miller.
They had two children: Worden D. Chamberlain born on 20 February 1891 and
Nettie Arnell Chamberlain, born on 12 October 1894. Alice lived until 1958.
She was buried in the Hannibal Village Cemetery Chamberlain plot in section
6 near her parents.
Worden D. lived in district 119
in Syracuse in 1930. He had married Laura McIntyre, daughter of John
William and Nora (Van Patten) McIntyre. She was born 28 April 1897 in Sterling,
NY. They had one son Worden A. Chamberlain born ca. 1930. Worden
D. Served in WWI. He died 23 May 1980 in Phoenix, NY. He was
buried at Springbrook Cemetery at Fair Haven, NY.
Emerette Dada, born in Hannibal 25
February 1841, married Daniel Vedder on 17 January 1868. He was a
farmer living at Cicero, NY. In the 1870 census the family was
recorded thusly:
| Vedder, Daniel |
30 |
farmer |
NY |
| Emerette E |
29 |
wife |
NY |
| John F. |
7 |
son |
NY |
| Dana? |
62 |
mother? |
NY |
In the 1880 census the family had
grown:
| Vedder, Daniel |
41 |
farmer |
NY |
| Emmerett[sic] |
39 |
wife |
NY |
| John F. |
17 |
son |
NY |
| Frances H |
7 |
son |
NY |
| Jennie B |
2 |
daughter |
NY |
According to the Bardwell family
records only two children survived: Frances Henry Vedder born 21 August
1872 and Jennie Belle Stewart Vedder born 9 February 1878.
Only a few Dady lines changed the
spelling to Dada. Walker’s heirs “daughtered out”. The Dada
spelling continues in other lines from Southampton, MA. Some of them
also lived in Oswego County and nearby. Most of the remaining family spells
the name Dady.
SOURCES:
American Civil War Soldiers.
Available [online] http://ancestry.com
8 Nov. 2003.
Churchill, John C. Landmarks
of Oswego County, New York. Syracuse: Mason, 1895.
Cowles, Col. Calvin Duvall.
Genealogy of the Cowles Families in America. New Haven: Tuttle, 1929.
Descendants of Thomas Royce.
Available [online] https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nyoswego/towns/hannibal/hhsroycept2.html
9 Nov. 2003.
Hannibal Village Cemetery.
Available [online] https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nyoswego/towns/hannibal/hanvillecemindexpt2A.htm
10 Nov. 2003.
Oak Hill (Cowles or West) Cemetery.
Available [online] https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nyonondaga/CEMETERY/OAKHILL.HTM
9 Nov. 2003.
Obituary for Worden D. Chamberlain,
May 1980 Syracuse Herald-American.
Robert Bardwell Descendants’
American Ancestry Association. Bardwell/Bordwell Descendants.
1864.
U.S. Census Southampton,
Hampshire Co., MA 1810.
U.S. Census Auburn, Cayuga
Co., NY 1870, 1880 & 1920.
U.S. Census Cicero, Onondaga
Co., NY 1870 & 1880.
U.S. Census Otisco, Onondaga
Co., NY 1820 & 1830.
U.S. Census Syracuse, Onondaga
Co., NY 1930.
U.S. Census Hannibal, Oswego
Co., NY 1850, 1870 & 1880.
WorldConnect Project. Available
[online] http://worldconnect.rootsweb
7 Nov. 2003.