Many thanks to Esther Rancier for sharing her information on the Ingersoll 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] 
 

        There were three major Ingersoll families who came early to New England.  Two resided in Massachusetts; the other at Huntington, L.I., NY.  The Long Island family settled later at Stamford, CT before they moved into Westchester Co., NY.  This portion of the family history was recorded by various genealogists, particularly Lillian Drake Avery in her book, A Genealogy of Ingersoll Family in America.  
         Her record included the branch of the Ingersoll tree headed by John Ingersoll, born 11 October 1758 in Bedford, NY.  After his service in the Revolutionary War, John lived in New Milford, CT.  Then he settled sucessively in Saratoga, Hoosick, Susquehanna and Floyd, NY.   From Floyd they removed to Richland, Oswego Co., NY in 1804.  There his family lived on a farm, but some of their time was spent as fishermen.  In Richland that meant they went salmon fishing in the Salmon River.  At the time there were annual runs of Atlantic salmon to be easily caught.  
         John Ingersoll was a Methodist whose home alternated with Pliny Jones’ tavern as a meeting place for the congregation in the earliest years.  Their home sat on Rt. 13 near Lehigh Road.  
         John had 6 children with his wife, Martha Jane (Patty) Bull.  John died 30 May 1840.  He was buried in the Riverside Cemetery according to Avery.
        In the 1850 Richland census John’s sons Daniel, Johnson, and Benjamin Briggs still remained in the town with their families.  By 1843 son Abram had removed to Bombay, Franklin Co., NY.  Son John B. and his wife Nancy Goit traveled to Wisconsin to settle.  Daughter Abigail married Erastus Lyman Jones. She and her husband migrated to Grant Co., WI where he died in 1854.  She had 5 Jones children.
        Son Daniel Ingersoll married Betsey Filkins.  Daniel’s children were all born in Richland.  Daniel died 3 July 1874.  Johnson’s family lived primarily in Scriba, NY.  He died 21 November 1864 in Port Ontario, NY.  
        Avery covered most of the Richland Ingersoll family, but her material on Benjamin Briggs Ingersoll was incomplete. Benjamin B. was the first white male child born in Richland.  His birth on 8 November 1805 was noted in the town’s history.  He married in 1825 at Pulaski, NY Hannah Wolcott, according to Avery.  Hannah was dead between 1845/50.  The couple had 9 children.  Only 8 survived.  LeRoy, born in 1832, died soon after birth.  Lucy Eldula, born in 1834, never married.  She died 2 July 1853 in Richland. One family researcher said she died in Ohio, but she was only 16 in 1850.  It is doubtful she went alone to Ohio.  
       Benjamin B.’s oldest daughter, Nancy Alzina Ingersoll, born 19 March 1826 in Richland, married William Henry Filkins on 7 January 1846 in Albion, NY.   She became the mother of 7 children, many of whom were buried later in the Daysville Cemetery in Richland.  
 The next daughter Henrietta, born 8 May 1828 at Richland, according to Avery, married in December 1850 to Alexander H. Meacham.  She had 8 Meacham children.  She died 25 January 1899 in Belmond, Iowa.  Her tombstone there gave her date of birth as 8 May 1830.  According to the 1850 Richland census Henrietta was 22 or born in 1828.  Because of her mother’s early death Henrietta was the oldest female in the household for her father and likely was the person who talked with the census taker.  
        The other daughter, Margaret, born 17 May 1838 in Richland, married Nelson Hooper, an Albion farmer.  In the 1860 Albion census she and Wm. Nelson Hooper were age 20 each with a 2 year old daughter Emily Hooper and 6 month old Charles A. Hooper.  They lived with Benjamin Ingersoll, her father, age 60. On 17 May 1864 in Albion Benjamin B. died at his daughter’s home. By the 1880 Richland census Nelson and Margaret were the parents of 3 more sons: Lyman Hooper, born ca. 1861; William Hooper, born ca. 1864; and Henry Hooper, born ca. 1876.  
        Benjamin B.’s oldest son Lyman, born 4 April 1830 in Richland, married in 1855 Rosette/Rosetta Litts, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Litts.  In the 1860 Richland census Rosette Ingersoll was living with her parents and 3 daughters named Laysette [sic], age 4; Ann G., age 3; and Mary, age 8 months.  This record said Lasette and Ann G. were born in Wisconsin.  In the 1880 Scriba census Lyman and Rosette were enumerated with Lasette, age 24; Mary, age 20; and Rosa, age 16.  All of these daughters were listed as born in New York State. By 1910 Rosette/Rosetta was deceased.  Lyman at age 81 lived as a boarder in Boyleston, NY.  His daughter Rose B. [sic] married (1) Frederick M. Smith on 24 December 1888.  On 29 September 1893 she married (2) Joseph Kelso.  She had no known issue.  Lyman died in Mexico on 19 July 1912.
        The next son Isaac Newton Ingersoll, born 10 May 1837 in Richland, served in the Civil War as a private in Co. E, 189th NY Regiment.  He married on 1 January 1866 in Pulaski Marietta Damon, born in Adams, NY.  After the marriage they moved to Waupaca, WI where they had 3 children: Calista Estelle, born 4 November 1866; died 22 February 1932 in Goldendale, WA; William, DeWitt, born 23 November 1868; died 12 May 1897; and Mabel, born 17 March 1874.  In 1880 the family lived in District 2, Goldendale, WA.  His wife, called Mary, worked as a milliner.  Isaac N. died 8 August 1894 in Salem, Oregon.  
       John Briggs Ingersoll was born May 1840, according to Avery.  Only 1 documented source for this child has been located.  That source was the 1850 Richland census for the household of Benjamin Briggs Ingersoll.  In the enumeration this person called Briggs was 8 years old.  Nowhere does this name appear as John Briggs or John B. with certainty.  He had an uncle known as John Briggs Ingersoll born in 1783 plus a first cousin John Briggs Ingersoll, Jr., born in 1816.  The cousin went to Wisconsin and most records refer to him. Going back to Briggs, age 8, several assertions say he had a Civil War plaque on his grave or he was last heard from in Bay City, MI.  Neither claim can be verified.  The National Archives list two John B. Ingersoll’s in New York State units in the Rebellion.  One at age 21 in 1861 was 2 years too young.  The other had too little identifying data to be of much value.  The Oswego County lists of Civil War men do not include this name.  And nowhere is there a location of any gravesite.  Another possibility is that Briggs died young before 1860, since there is only the one certain reference to him.  His father died intestate, so there is no will to consult.
        The youngest son, William Oscar, called Oscar, was born in 1845 in Richland.  He married twice.  In 1870 he wed Florence Fitch.  Living in Albion they had a daughter Jessie R., born 12 January 1874.  Circa 1895 he married again to Alice C. Westcott.  They lived in Boyleston by 1910. In the census W. Oscar was age 63, working as a farm hand, married 15 years to Alice C., age 46 who never had a child.  Jessie R., age 36, still single lived in the household.  Both Oscar and Alice were enumerated in the 1920 Sandy Creek census with the name spelled as Ingersol [sic]. 
        With so many Ingersoll families in the Richland area, the annals of the rich agricultural history of the town were augmented.  These Ingersolls created no industry, but they were like the family of Grant Wood’s  American Gothic painting – plain, ordinary, proud farmers.  They truly made America and Oswego County!

 SOURCES:

 Avery, Lillian Drake.  Genealogy of Ingersoll Family in America.  New York: Hitchcock, 1926.
 Churchill, John C. Landmarks of Oswego County, New York. Syracuse: Mason, 1895.
 Daysville Cemetery, Pulaski, N.Y.  Available [online] https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nyoswego/cemeteries/daysvillecempt.3.html [4 June 2003]
 International Genealogy Index.  Available [online] http://www.familysearch.org [5 June 2003]
 U.S. Census Albion, Oswego Co., NY 1860 & 1880.
 U.S. Census Boyleston, Oswego Co., NY 1870 and 1910.
 U.S. Census Richland, Oswego Co., NY 1830, 1850, 1860 & 1880.
 U.S. Census Sandy Creek, Oswego Co., NY 1920.
 U.S. Census Scriba, Oswego Co., NY 1880.
 U.S. Census Goldendale, Klickitat Co., WA 1880.
 WorldConnect Project. Available [online] http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com [5 June 2003]