 |
|
Born in Pepperell, Middlesex County, MA, on November 30, 1809, Roxalana moved with her family to Ohio, first to Huron, and then by 1830, to Milan. I do not know the full history of Huron and Milan Townships; they seem to have been changed from Huron County to Erie County at some point. They are, however, in the same general area, and this is where she probably met Mathew Lewis, whom she married on May 19, 1834. |
|
The census records show that Roxalana and Mathew moved back and forth between Ohio and Michigan for the first few years, with children born in Ohio in 1835, 1841 and 1842, and in Michigan in 1838 and 1845. By 1847, however, they are in Wisconsin, and there they stay for some time. When their daughter Roxy and her husband Oscar Paddock moved to California, however, Mathew and Roxalana went with them. Their daughter Eunice May and her husband William Alonzo Noble also formed part of the group. |
|
Edwin, the son of Roxalana and Mathew, moved from Wisconsin to Iowa between 1860 and 1870. Frank, Edwin's son, went to Nebraska after 1880, was married there and had two daughters there in 1893 and 1894, returned to Iowa for the 1900 census, and returned to Nebraska by 1910. |
|
Elisha is a bit more complicated. He was born in Michigan; in 1860, he was 16, and living with his parents in Lancaster, Grant County, Wisconsin. In the neighboring town of Patch Grove lived Hugh and Sarah Garside with a daughter Elizabeth Hanna, born August 25, 1842. Somehow Elisha and Elizabeth met, and they were married on September 25, 1867. Their son, William Garside Lewis, was born a year later, on August 21, 1868, and he was born in Iowa. Apparently the Lewis couple was visiting Iowa, for there is no indication that they moved. One month later, Elizabeth died, on September 25, 1868. Elisha was left with a newborn. He seems to have brought the baby to Hugh and Sarah Garside, and then Elisha left. In 1870, William was with his grandparents. In 1880, he remained with the Garsides, although Hugh himself was gone.
|
|
William remained in Wisconsin, marrying in 1890, and raising his family there.
|
|
And Elisha? Once the baby was provided for, Elisha seemed to have turned his back on his old life and started a new. As far as I can tell, William's family never heard from or of him. Elisha travelled from Wisconsin to Nelson, Nuckolls County, Nebraska, where he is reported on the census of 1880 as "E.J." He was a civil engineer, and would have no trouble in finding employment. He married again, a woman named Ellen May, who was born in 1860 in Michigan. Together they had one child, Estelle Lewis.
|
|
By 1910, "E Jay" and "E May" had travelled to California. In the 1920 census, he used his full name Elisha J. Lewis again. Their daughter Estelle, who had married and divorced, had joined them again by 1920. |
|
The following list of descendants is based primarily on the census records for this family. Some information was also found in books; some in the vital records, especially those of Wisconsin and California. Beginnings were found in trees posted on the net in a few cases, and in one or two cases, the name of a spouse was suggested by LDS, and proved then to be accurate.
|
|
|
