Rosanna Wise Hale

Rosanna Wise Hale, possible daughter of Peter and Christina Wise, was born about 1827 in Ohio, she could be one of the three females aged 10-14 listed with Peter Wise in the 1840 census of Wayne County, Ohio (Perry Township page 25).

Rosanna is not listed with Peter and Christina in the 1850 census of Wayne County, Ohio. There is a Rosanna Wise who married Jacob Hale on March 20, 1851 in Wayne County, Ohio (Wayne County, Ohio Marriage Index 1813-1898, Wooster, Ohio, 1997 page 559). And then, in 1860, there is a Jacob and Rosanna Hale residing in Seward Township, Kosciusko County, Indiana which is just a few miles north of Gilead, Miami County. Based on the 1860 census she was born about 1827 - Rosanna Hale is listed as 33 years old and born in Ohio.

Rosanna Hate [probably Hale ?] is one of the four claimants in the October 25, 1887 final report of the estate of Christina Wise. Rosanna received $80 on July 10, 1884 and $80 again on November 11, 1884. There is probably additional information in the estate packet and the court books referenced in that journal entry, but the packet and referenced books have not been located yet.

Rosanna married Jacob Hale on 20 Mar 1851 in Wayne County, Ohio. According to the 1860 census, Jacob was born in 1828 in Ohio.

1860 Kosciusko County, Indiana (Seward Township, PO Beaver Dam page 60)
Jacob Hale, 32, male, farmer, Real Estate valued at $700, Personal Estate valued at $300, born Pennsylvania
Rosana Hale, 33, female, born Ohio
May A. Hale, 5, female, born Indiana
Luther Wade, 7, male, born Indiana

Jacob and Rosanna Hale have not been found in any other census records. I did "all kinds" of searches in the census indexes but haven't come up with anything yet that even comes close to being them. If we assume that she was living in 1887 when she was listed as a claimant in the estate of Christina Wise, the question arises - where was she living?

Research was continued with the assumption that May A. Hale, age 5 in 1860 was the daughter of Rosanna and Jacob Hale.

* * * UPDATE *** March 12, 2008 * * *
The May Hale who married George Armstrong is NOT the daughter of Jacob and Rosanna Hale. According to the Death Record for May L. Armstrong (Miami County Health Dept. Book C-5 page 5, December 18, 1899) her parents are Albert Hale and Elizabeth Foutz.

Jacob and Rosanna Wise Hale may have moved to Dauphin County, Pennsylvania after 1860 but before 1870. See this post for additional information.

May Hale was born in 1855 in Indiana. She married George W. Armstrong on 20 Sep 1888 in Miami County, Indiana (WPA Index to Marriage Records, Miami County, Indiana citing Book C 8 page 192).

May Armstrong died on 18 Dec 1899 in Miami County, Indiana at age 44 (WPA Index to Death Records, Miami County 1850-1920 citing Book C-5 page 5). No obituary for May Armstrong was found in the index at the Peru Library. I need to get a copy of her death record to see if the names of her parents were included.

George W. Armstrong was born on 15 Aug 1861 in Indiana or Ohio and died on 16 Feb 1934 in Miami County, Indiana at age 72. (The Peru Republican, Miami County, Indiana dated Friday, February 23, 1934 p1c2-3). His obituary stated that he was born in Ohio but all of the census records in which he was found show that he was born in Indiana.

The obituary of George W. Armstrong was published in The Peru Republican, Miami County, Indiana on Friday, February 23, 1934 p1 c2-3. His is a long obituary, a full column and a partial column on the front page. George was a well-known and apparently popular man in Deer Creek township. For now, I'm only pulling out a few paragraphs, midway through the article, that contain family information.

George W. Armstrong, son of John and Louisa Armstrong, was born in Ohio, Aug. 15, 1861 and departed this life, Feb. 16, 1934. When he was two years old, the family, consisting of the parents, five boys and one girl moved to Indiana. They moved to Miami County where Mr. Armstrong lived the rest of his life.

On Sept. 20, 1888, he was united in marriage to May Hale who preceded him to the grave thirty-four years ago. To this union two children were born, a son, Luther, who died in infancy and Mrs. Hazel Armstrong Busby who has always resided with her father. He took into his home a niece, Jessie Hale Pfleger, when but a young girl, to whom he was as a father. Surviving besides those mentioned, he leaves one brother, T. D. Armstrong, of Kokomo, several nieces and nephews and many friends.

Mr. Armstrong owned and operated the general store in Miami for forty-three years. In this capacity he proved himself honest and upright in all his dealings.

Hazel B. Armstrong, daughter of George W. Armstrong and May A. Hale, was born in Feb 1890 in Indiana. She married Russell Bugbee about 1925. Russell was born in 1896 in Indiana.

The Armstrong/Bugbee families were found in the following census records:

1900 Miami County, Indiana (Deer Creek Township page 11b)
George W. Armstrong, head of household, white, male, Aug 1861, 38, widowed, born Indiana, parents born Ohio, Clerk - general retail
Hazel B., daughter, Feb 1890, 10, born Indiana, parents born Indiana, at school
Jessie Hale, servant, Dec 1880, 19, single, born Indiana, parents born Indiana, House servant

1910 Miami County, Indiana (Deer Creek Township page 208)
George W. Armstrong, 48, married once, first married at age 21, born Indiana, parents born Ohio, Salesman, Gen Store
Hazel B., daughter, 20, single, born Indiana, parents born Indiana, no occupation

1920 Miami County, Indiana (Deer Creek Township page 4a)
George W. Armstrong, head, 58, widowed, born Indiana, merchant gen store
Hazel B., daughter, 29, born Indiana

1930 Miami County, Indiana (Deer Creek Township page 8b)
Russell Bugbee, head, owns home valued at $800, 34, first married at age 29, born Indiana, fireman on Rail Road, veteran of WWI
Hazel, wife, 40, first married at age 36, born Indiana
George W. Armstrong, Father-in-law, 68, first married at age 27, born Indiana, Merchant General Store

That is all the information that I've found so far on the Hale, Armstrong and Bugbee families. If anyone reading this is related to these people or has any information on them, please contact me! kinexxions "at" gmail "dot" com

* * * UPDATE *** March 12, 2008 * * *
The May Hale who married George Armstrong is NOT the daughter of Jacob and Rosanna Hale. According to the Death Record for May L. Armstrong (Miami County Health Dept. Book C-5 page 5, December 18, 1899) her parents are Albert Hale and Elizabeth Foutz.

Jacob and Rosanna Wise Hale may have moved to Dauphin County, Pennsylvania after 1860 but before 1870. See this post for additional information.

Wise Family - Index to Posts

Roadblock - Abigail Price Goodrich

In previous posts I wrote about two other troublesome female ancestors, Ruth Dyer and Sally Church. A third Roadblock in my research is Abigail Price, the wife of John Goodrich. They are my 6th great grandparents. A future post will provide more information about John but for now I'll just give his basic information. John was born August 21, 1754 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut Colony and was the son of Sarah Dewey and Benjamin Goodrich. While living in Hartford County, this John Goodrich was known as John Goodrich 3rd because he was the youngest of three men with the same name in the same area. When one of the older John's died, this John then became John Jr.

When I first started researching my Goodrich line I was told that the wife of John Goodrich was Abigail Price. And I have no reason to doubt that since one of their children, Bela Goodrich, named one of his children Price and another (my 4th great grandmother) was named Abigail. Obviously named after Bela's mother. Also, on October 1, 1776 (according to Records of Wethersfield as published in the New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Vol 18, p 53-59) John Goodrich and Abigail Price were married. But none of the other Goodrich family researchers I was in contact with knew any maore about Abigail or her parents.

The earliest record that I have found of Abigail was in August 1776 when the town of Newington, Connecticut as well as other towns in New England, recorded all the persons living in the town as recommended by the Continental Congress on December 26, 1775 so that taxes could be levied based upon population. This would be the forerunner of the United States Federal Population Census.

The 1776 Newington Census can be found online at Jane Devlin's website. It shows Abigail Price living in the household of Benjamin and Sarah (Dewey) Goodrich. Also in the household is their son John Goodrich, as well as their daughter Rhoda and other son David. In addition, there is a Mary, Elizur and Hannah Goodrich. I have no idea who they are and for now, it doesn't matter. The point is that Abigail Price was living in their household. Was she just living with them or was she a servant, or what?

There are currently 16 databases on WorldConnect that include Abigail Price with John Goodrich as her husband. Three of those have Abigail's parents as Rufus Price and Martha Grant and one just has her father as Rufus Price. Source information is pretty much non-existant. About three years ago I attempted to contact the submitters of those four databases but never received a reply.

A little over 2 years ago, a distant cousin and Goodrich researcher (whom I've never met but had worked with previously) and I decided to see what we could find out about old Rufus.

On September 17, 1750 Rufus Price and Martha Grant were married at Coventry, in Windham County, Connecticut Colony. And they did have a daughter, Abigail. Actually, they had two daughters named Abigail. The first Abigail was born June 21, 1753 and died March 29, 1755. The second Abigail was born August 29, 1757 at Coventry, which would put her at about the right age be the wife of John Goodrich.

We kind of got sidetracked for a week or so following the Grant lines. The Lathrops, Huntingtons, Rockwells, Minors, and Palmers. All early New England immigrant families. Impressive, indeed. But we came to our senses and realized we first needed to find out if Abigail, daughter of Rufus, was the Abigail Price that married John Goodrich.

We didn't really find out a lot about Rufus Price himself but through his sons, Rufus Jr. and Elijah we would find the evidence we needed. If nothing else, this provides a very good reason why siblings of ancestors (or siblings of supposed ancestors) should also be researcherd. Rufus Price Jr. served in the Revolutionary War from Tolland County, Connecticut and eventually attained the rank of Colonel in the New York militia. His pension record has been posted online by one of his descendant. It's detailed and interesting, but didn't really help us in our quest though it did put his family in the right place and time.

I had recently become a member of the Godfrey Library and at that time they still had remote access to HeritageQuest Online. For some reason, one late night, I decided to see if there was a pension record for Elijah Price, brother of Rufus. Still on dial-up internet access, it took forever to search and even longer to load the pages once they were found. Even though it didn't provide the information we'd hoped for, it was worth the wait.

What I found was an eight-page Pension File (R8462) for Elijah Price from Connecticut and New York with a widow Beulah. The second and third pages are the affidavit of Abagail Rose of the Town of Stephentown in the State of New York, Rensselaer County. It's rather lengthy and wordy so I'll just give a summary: Abagail Rose states that "she was well acquainted with Elijah Price late of Town of Owasco in the County of Cayuga & State of New York Deceased that she is Sister to the Said Elijah Price who was about two years and a half older than her self that on the commencement of the revolutionary War that they both resided at their fathers house in Tolland Ct.... That in 1778 this deponent moved from Tolland aforesaid to Stephentown aforesaid where she now resides that the year after 1779 their Father removed from Tolland to Stephentown & her Brother the Said Elijah Price came to Stephentown with her Father...." It continues on to the next page... dated the 21st day of June 1837 and it has the signature of Abigail Rose.

On another page in the file is the affidavit of Ruth Price that states "she was married to Rufus Price, brother of the said Elijah Price…." So, with that statement and that of Abagail Rose, I think it is pretty safe to say that Abigail, daughter of Rufus Price, Sr. did not marry John Goodrich.

John and Abigail Price left Wethersfield, Connecticut about 1805 and moved to Franklin County, Ohio. Along with them came their 9 children, 8-28 years of age. The three oldest children were already married and had started families of their own.

The only other record we have on Abigail is the St. John's Church Cemetery transcription found online at Worthington Memory. From what I've been told, the gravemarkers no longer exist.

Mrs. Goodrich born March 1754, died January 18, 1827. Cause of death was Dropsy.
Griswold burial list: Mrs Goodrich wife of Deacon John Goodrich died the 18th & was buried the 20th Jan. 1827 (of Dropsy) in tier next east of Dr Calvin H. Case & near it. age 72 years I believe.
There was also an entry for her husband:
Griswold burial list: Deacon John Goodrich died the 29th & was buried the 30th July 1834 in tier next east & near the foot of Calvin H. Case grave.

Research was pretty intense for several months back in '06. Nearly two years later, we're not any closer to finding the parents of "our" Abigail Price. We haven't given up. But we moved on to other research when we realized that the information we needed most likely wasn't going to be found on the internet or in any published books. It is probably going to require on-site research in Connecticut and Ohio.