FATHER

Ichabod Church

MOTHER

Hannah Palmer

WIFE

Lydia Lewis

CHILDREN

1. Wesley Church
    b. 13 Feb 1807 Vermont
    m. 9 Oct 1828 Amy Chipman,  Ohio
    m. 1849 Jane Hayes Cummins
    d. 2 Sep 1867  Carroll   Co., IL

2. Aurilla Church
    b. 08 June 1809 Vermont
    m. 12 Jul 1827 John Jaggers,  OH
    m. 7 Dec 1840 John Gilmore, IN
    d. 8 Apr 1863 Vermillion, IN

3. Edward Lewis Church
    b 05 Sept 1811Vermont
    m. 6 May 1830 Kitturah Belt, OH
    m. 28 Aug 1849 Leah Fecky, Carroll, IL
    d. 22 Feb 1886 Fontanelle, Adair, IA

4. Abyah Church |
    b 11 April 1813 Vermont
    d. 09 May 1844

5. Truman Church
    b. 13 Nov 1815 Ohio
    m. 22 Dec 1836 Elizabeth Ghomley
    m. 7 Jul 1864 Margaret Arno
    d. 8 Jul 1893 Hillsboro, Vernon, Wisconsin

6. Harvey Church
    b. 13 March 1818 Ohio
    m. 29 Dec 1840 Jane Hendrickson, Vermillion, IN
    d. 6 Mar 1906 Parkston, Hutchinson, SD

7. John McKinley Church
    b. 16 Sept 1819 Ohio
    m. 6 Aug 1841 Sarah A Delap, Green Co., Wisconson
    d. 20 Sep 1906, South Sioux City, Dakota, NE

8. Anson Church
    b. 10 Sept 1821 Ohio
    m. 21 Jan 1841 Rhoda Hendrickson, Vermillion, IN
    m. 12 Dec 1867 Frances Gans, Green Co., Wisconsin
    d. 5 MAr 1901 Milford, Seward, Nebraska

Asa Church
by Susan Brooke
Aug 2017

Asa Church was born in Lebanon, Grafton, New Hampshire on 4 Sep 1788 (1) , but moved to Vermont by the age of five (his sister Abiah was born in VT in 1893).  On 18 May1806 when he was seventeen  he married Lydia Lewis listing his residence as "Berlin," a city just to the south of Montpelier, VT. (2) Lydia was twenty years old.  Four years after their marriage Asa and Lydia were living in Chittenden Co Middlesex, VT with their two children, Wesley and Aurilla..  Lydia's parents and brothers were living close by.

By the 1820 census  Asa and Lydia had moved again to Licking Co., OH. On Feb 5, 1825 he obtained 60 acres of land in Licking County for $220. (3)  Asa was a licensed minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and officiated at many weddings. (4)   He performed the marriage of  his daughter Aurilla Church to her first husband, John Jaggers, in Licking Co., OH Jul 12, 1827.  Then two years later on Apr 18, 1829 he and Lydia, his wife, sold his land in Licking county to John Jaggers (his son-in-law) for $250. (3)

We cannot find Asa in the 1830 census.  However Wesley, his oldest son, does show up in the 1830 census in McKean, Licking, Ohio.  Also, his son Edward Lewis Church married in Licking County on May 6, 1830.  However most of the family was in Indiana by Jun 1, 1831 when Asa was obtaining 80 acres of land in Parke county, Indiana. (3) Aurilla's daughter, Ann Eliza, was born in Indiana Apr 1, 1832 and Edward's second daughter, Fidelia, was born in Indiana Aug 16, 1832. Wesley, however, may have stayed behind for a couple of years since his son Asa was born in Ohio Aug 23, 1834. Aurilla and John Jaggers, also, may have stayed in Ohio for a short time.

By 1840 they were all together again in Vermillion County, Indiana. (5)  Asa's father, Ichabod Church, who had "gone to Indiana," (6) was with them. He is most likely the elderly man, 70-80 living with Asa Church in the 1840 census.  Living nearby are his son Truman, Aurilla Jaggers, and his son Edward L Church as they are all listed next to each other. Wesley is on a different page of the census, but also in Vermillion County. Aurilla's husband, John Jaggers, had died in 1837.  Her children Lucinda and Silas also seem to have died as in the 1840 census only Harrison aged 12 and Ann Eliza aged 8 are recorded. So, Aurilla was a widow with two children living with or near her father. 

About this time John Gilmore came to their cabin suffering from milksickness.  This was a common sickness at the time.  Cows eating the white snakeroot in the fields became sick and anyone drinking their milk became seriously ill.  Asa Church was a doctor as well as a minister.(7)  As he helped John Gilmore regain his health, he also persuaded him to study medicine under his tutorage.  As a result John Gilmore became a very successful land owner and doctor.  He married the widow, Aurilla Church Jaggers, on Dec 17, 1840.  John Gilmore and Aurilla stayed on in Vermillion County, Indiana, but Asa Church and the rest of the family moved on to Green County, WI.

Asa is listed there in Wisconsin in the 1842 tax list.  On Nov 14, 1846 he and Lydia "of Green County, Wisconsin" were selling land in Vermillion County, IN to a Thomas Hood for $650. (3)  Asa's son John McKinley Church was about 30 in 1848 when Asa "and his son John" purchased 40 acres in Green County, WI. They appear to have all but Aurilla stayed in Wisconsin until the late 1840's.

Wesley moved to Carroll County, IL by 1850 and remained there until his death.  Edward married Leah Fickes in Carroll County, IL on Aug 28, 1849. He stayed there until after the death of his mother in 1873 and then he moved on to Iowa.  Truman enlisted in the Civil War in 1861 after his wife died.  He married Margaret Arno in Carroll County on Jul 7, 1864.  He then went to Iowa, but returned to Wisconsin where his children resided and he died there.  Harvey Church, John McKinley Church and Anson Church also served in the Civil War.  After the war Harvey went to South Dakota.  John McKinley went to Nebraska and Anson whose wife also died just before the war in 1862, went to Carroll County, Ill after the war where his mother was living.

Asa is recorded as buying 40 acres in Dixon IL on March 1, 1855. (3)  He wrote his will in Carroll County on Aug 11, 1857  (8) and died there Sep 4, 1857. (9)  He is buried in Brick Cemetery aka Elkhorn Cemetery in Polo, Ogle County, IL. (10)  The estate of Asa Church was probated in Carroll Co., IL Oct 8, 1857.  He left half of his estate to his "beloved wife Lydia Church." (11)  The other half he left to his son Edward L Church.  Lydia continued to live in Carroll County, IL with her son Edward Lewis Church.  She died there Nov 8, 1873.

In an interview Asa's son, John McKinley Church, gave to a newspaper circa 1902, he said his middle name was McKinley because his father, Asa, had been an intimate friend of the grandfather of President McKinley.

Sources

(1) Birth of Asa Church

From the Town Records of Lebanon, NH Asa Church born to Ichabod Church 4 Sep 1788

This date corresponds with the date of birth found in the bible record,  pictured above.

Transcriptions in Bible Asa Church was born in the year of our Lord 1789 September the 4 Day Lydia Church was born in the year of our Lord 1785 August the 14 Day Asa and Lydia Church Was married on May the 18 Day Ad 1806 Wesley Church Was born February the 13 Day Ad 1807 Aurila Church Was born June the 8 Day Ad 1809 Edward L. Church Was born September the 5 Day Ad 1811 Abyah Church Was born April the 11 Day Ad 1813 Fallson? Church Was born November the 13 Day 1815 Harvey Church was born March the 15? Day Ad 1818 John M? Church was born September the 16 Day Ad 1819 Anson? Church was born September the 10 Day Ad 1821

(3) Land Transactions

Licking County, Ohio

1825 Feb 5  Asa Church purchased 60 acres for $220 from Joseph and Mary Scott

1829 Apr 18  Asa Church sold those 60 acres to his new son-in-law, John Jaggers, for $250. Licking Deed BK P 428-429.

 

Indiana

1831 Jun 1 Section 12 township 14 (image 27)  and Ancestry.com    Asa Church of Parke County, Indiana acquires 80 acres. 1839 Jul 6 Asa Church and Lydia his wife of Vermillion County 20 acres to Ira McGuinnes for $150

1841 May 25 Vermillion Deed BK 8 page 427 Asa Church and Lydia his wife of Vermillion Co, IN to Henry Vanduryn , 20 acres, for $50

Wisconsin

Land transactions from Greenbay, Wisconsin in Vermillion Co Deed BK 1844 Jan 4 Asa Church and Lydia of Green Co WI appointed Elijah B James of Vermillion county, IN to sell tracts of land in Vermillion county. BK 10 pg 261

1846 Nov 14 Asa Church and Lydia his wife of Green Co., WI sold land in Vincennes, IN to Thomas Hood of Vermillion Co., IN for $650. Vermillion Co Deed BK 10 pg 402

1848 Sep 1 Asa Church and his son John obtained 40 acres in Green county, WI pg 1 of Land Purchase Pg 2 of Land Purchase in Wisconsin by Asa Church and his son John Church

Illinois

1855 Mar 1 Asa Church of Carroll County, IL  receiving 40 acres in Dixon, IL

(4) Marriages that Asa Church was officiating minister in Vermillion, IN
1832 Mar 10 George Aye to Eliza Gordan
1832 Mar 17 Alexander Hawkins to Margaret Dillo
1834 Dec 2 Enoch White to Lydia Hellenback
1834 Dec 25 William Wise to Priscilla Hines
1836 Jan 13 Daniel Ulery to Nancy Carr
1836 June 18 Nathaniel Barnes to Margaret Butcher
1837 Jan 28 John Stephenson to Nancy Rosedale
1839 Nov 11 William Jordan to Mary Morris
1840 Dec 7 John Gilmore to Aurilla Jaggers
1940 Dec 29 Henry Church to Jan Hendrickson
1841 Jan 21 Anson Church to Roda Hendrickson
1841 Jan 21 Jacob Hamman to Eliza Jane James

(5) 1840 census Vermillion County, IN

(6) Records of the Church Family from 1700-1888 by Truman T Church of Stow, VT, 1888 HisGen # G Chu-326
"Remarks - Asa Church was born at Mansfield, Connecticut.  Abiah Pease was born at Martha's Vineyard, the only daughter of Job Pease by his first marriage; he was a seafaring man.  Ichabod first went to Montpelier, then to Indiana." 

(7) Excerpt from obituary of John Gilmore in 1900
"While in the vicinity of Clinton, Mr. Gilmore contracted a disease known as milksickness, a disease very prevalent in the country.  In seeking relief from this ailment he visited old Dr. Church who had built a cabin on what in now known as the Hood farm; where for years he doctored the sick and preached to the well, being a Methodist minister as well as a doctor of medicine, Dr. Church persuaded young Gilmore to study medicine which he did under his tutorage.  He afterward married his widowed daughter."   (see full obituary on page for John Gilmore.)

(8) Will of Asa Church

Will of Asa Church pg 1 courtesy of Delores Christensen [email protected];

Will of Asa Church pg 2

Will of Asa Church pg 3

Will of Asa Church pg 4

Will of Asa Church pg 5

Typed transcript of Will with as much as we can decipher

(10) Asa Church buried Brick Church Cemetery aka Elkhorn Cemetery, 17022 W. Brick Church Road, Polo, Ogle County, IL 61064

Find A Grave photo. Information found by Dolores Christensen [email protected]

Courtesy of Carolyn and Mark Miller who managed to find this grave! [email protected]

Courtesy of Carolyn and Mark Miller who managed to uncover this grave!  [email protected]

Courtesy of Carolyn and Mark Miller who contributed to Find A Grave  [email protected]

(11) Will of Asa Church probated 08 Oct 1857 in Carroll Co., IL

Warrant to Appraisers.
In the list of items to be paid off, there is a mention of "Lydia Church widow of said deceased."