Mary OLIN 1809-1872, Canton NY to Norris ILL

After a rather long hiatus from blogging, here is Mary OLIN, born in NY state, married, had 7 children, and died in Norris city in Illinois. Mary is in the RICE line of my children's father's mother, and is their 3rd great-grandmother. I was caught by her surname, thinking it seemed a Scandinavian surname perhaps. The earliest OLIN ancestor I've found in the New England states is John OLIN born about 1675, who at about 14 left his ship at harbour in Rhode Island. He later married Susannah SPENCER, a daughter of one of the original Spencer brother immigrants. Some information came from a useful book titled:

"A Complete Record of the JOHN OLIN FAMILY, the first of that name who came to America in the year A.D. 1678. Containing an account of their settlement and genealogy up to the present time -- 1893. By C.C. OLIN, Historian."

Mary was the second child of Joseph Mitchell OLIN and his first wife, Huldah SMITH [d. 1831]. Joseph and Huldah had been living and married Dec 25, 1806 in Addison Vermont, but moved to Canton New York state shortly after, where their first child, Joseph, was born in 1807. All 11 children appear to have been born in Canton NY. 

In about 1828, Canton NY, Mary OLIN aged about 19 years, married 27 year old farmer, Calvin HEALY, [b.1801], another person whose family had moved from Vermont to northern New York in very early 1800s. Calvin's parents were Jabez HEALY and Grace BAILY. 

Children of Mary OLIN & Calvin HEALY, all born White County, ILL: 
   1.  Arlette M, b 9 Mar 1830 Potsdam NY, d 5 Jan 1890 White Co ILL;
           m. Henry C Rice 30 Jan 1850 White Co ILL; 4 children
   2.  Charlotte Lovina [ancestor] b 18 Mar 1835 OH; m. Joel RICE jr. [bro
           Henry above] 19 Aug 1854 White Co ILL; 5 children known survived.
   3.  George Calvin, b 10 Mar 1836 poss. OH, d. 10 Apr 1887 Iron, White, ILL;
            m. Mary Bryant est 1861; 7 known children
   4.  James Harvey, b 15 Aug 1840 White Co ILL, d 14 Jul 1920 Norris, ILL;
           m. Frances "Fanny" A Veach 26 Dec 1867 White Co ILL; 12 children
   5.  Jerusha Ann "Jenny", b 1844 White Co ILL, d. 3 Feb 1889; m Newton
            Bryant [bro to Mary B above] est 1860; 9 children
   6.  Joseph "Joe" Mitchell, b 26 Nov 1846 White Co ILL, d 7 Nov 1912
            Saline Co, ILL;  m 1867 to Mary R Steele; 6 children
   7.  Henry Gilbert aka Gilbert, b 4 Mar 1849 White Co ILL, d 13 Mar 1881
            Pope Co., ILL; m 1870 to Sarah Ann Crank; 6 children
   8.  Francis E, b 5 Nov 1852, White Co ILL, d 3 Aug 1890 White Co ILL;
           m 1 Mar 1874 ILL to Sarah A Bryant; 9 children.

All eight children were born in White County ILL, likely settling in Norris City - actually a small village, currently under 1400 persons. I have no church details for this family; there are three existing churches at present. 

Mary OLIN died18 Aug 1872 aged 63 years in Norris, White Co., Ill, before her husband, Calvin. She is buried in the Rice Cemetery, in White Co., Ill.  She and Calvin had 8 living children, and in total, 58 grandchildren. However, as is usual, I have no particular personal information about Mary. Hopefully I might find more about her with more specific future research, eg., church records, newspapers, societies, and so on. 

Calvin HEALY, Mary's husband, died aged 80 years, 2 Mar 1881, in Sacramento, White Co., Ill, possibly living with one of his children or grandchildren. He is also buried in the Rice Cemetery, in White Co., Ill, his details on the other side of Mary's stone.

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If these are your ancestors, I am happy to share what little I have on these ancestors. And if there are errors, please do let me know, via calewis at telus dot net, or in the Comments below and I will get back to you either by email or in the Comments. I appreciate the opportunity to correct any issues in these family trees.

Blogger - or my computer - is not letting me "reply" to your comments. If I don't reply to your Comment, please know that I'm totally thrilled you came to read my post and commented! You truly make my day!! 

This week's #52Ancestors/52Weeks: Huldah B. SMITH, 1783-1831, New York

For this week's post, I've chosen Huldah B. SMITH, the 3rd great-grandmother of my ex-husband's lines, 4th for our children, 5th great-grandmother for our grandchildren.

Huldah SMITH was born 15 August 1783, in Addison Vermont, of unknown parents. This information was found in several online family trees, as well as on headstones in Olin Cemetery, Canton NY.

As is common with women ancestors, Huldah left very little trace during her rather short life. The marriage card for Vermont marriages lists the bride, groom, date and place, plus the Justice of the Peace, Henry Smith. That makes me wonder if Huldah is a relative of the JP. More clues to use in researching her family in Vermont.


On December 25th, 1806, Huldah married [Deacon] Joseph Mitchell OLIN, son of Caleb OLIN & Freelove MITCHELL. The couple moved shortly afterwards to Canton, St Lawrence county in New York state, where all their 9 children were born. Apparently Joseph was very active in the Canton First Baptist church [see on right], and I would assume his wife would have a supporting role. Many women were quite active in Church events and activities, but not likely to be mentioned by name back in the early 1800s.

Huldah and Joseph had the following children, all born in Canton NY - note the surnames showing marriages to brothers/sisters or cousins:
   1.  Joseph Mitchell [jr.], b. 6 Oct, 1807, d. 11 Oct 1855, bur. Olin Cemetery, Canton NY; m. Jan 1, 1832 to Mary Barrett, 1813-1883
   2.  Mary, ancestor, b. 20 Jan 1809, d. 18 Aug 1872 Norris IL; m. Dec 25,
            1825 to Calvin HEALY, 1807-1881; 7 known children
   3.  George Smith, b. 11 Apr 1811, d. 22 Jun 1906; m. Jan 1, 1833 to Fanny
             M. Barrett, 1815-1893
   4.  Charlotte, b. 18 Jan 1815, d. 22 Oct 1844 Morley, NY; m. Aug 14, 1837
             to Charles E. Barrett, 1811-1892
   5.  Asa W., b. 1 Jan 1818, d. 16 Jan 1865; m. Feb 6, 1838 to Harriet Hila Day,
             1817-1842
   6.  James M., b. 1 Oct 1820; m. Oct 10, 1848 in Hopkinton, NY to Elizabeth
             Abbott
   7.  Elmina, b. 20 May 1822, d. 16 Dec 1887 Minneapolis MN; m. Dec 8, 1840
             to Martin Smith, 1813-1872 Wisconsin
   8.  Sarah, b. 25 Jul 1824, d. Wisconsin; m. Nov 17, 1844 to Edward R. Smith
             1819-1874 Wisconsin
   9.  Daniel Alpheus, b. 3 Jun 1826; m. Jul 5, 1850 in Madrid NY to Sarah S.
             Sweet, 1829-1851 Wisconsin.

As the Territories opened up for land, a number of the younger OLIN married children moved to Illinois and Wisconsin, as seen above. They would have had family moving and settling with them, as the Smiths and Barretts were related. There are several unusual names in this family, such as #7 Elmina, and #9 Daniel Alpheus. I still need to do more research on name patterns in the OLIN family, and I do so wish I could research the SMITH family as well!

Another oddity is that all the boys appear to have middle names, but none of the girls do. Middle names were not particularly common until a bit later in the 1800s.

Huldah died fairly young, aged 48, on Feb 7, 1831, and her headstone slab can still be seen in the OLIN Cemetery in Canton, NY. Next to her slab is a small obelisk marking Joseph's burial place. I have  not seen any records indicating what caused her death.

Joseph married soon after Huldah's death, to Hebsibah "Seba" B. Andrews, [1817-1868]. Again, I have not researched thoroughly for her parents or other family members. Censuses show her born in Vermont, which is where the OLIN family lived.

Hebsibah and Joseph had at least two children:
  10.  Huldah, b. abt 1834 [common to name after deceased]
  11.  Edwin, b. abt 1835

The OLIN/SMITH ancestral couple descend down to early New England immigrant families HEALY [bef 1640] and RICE [1632] families by the 1900s.

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If these are your ancestors, I am happy to share what little I have on these ancestors. And if there are errors, please do let me know, via calewis at telus dot net, or in the Comments below. I appreciate the opportunity to correct any issues in my family trees.

Blogger - or my computer - is still not letting me "reply" to your comments, for some unknown reason. If I don't reply to your Comment, please know that I'm totally thrilled you came to read my post and commented!  You truly make my day.

52 ANCESTORS in 52 WEEKS, #18 : Freelove MITCHELL, b.1755, Rhode Island

Following the challenge of writing 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, issued by Amy Johnson Crow, here is my 19th installment, for Freelove MITCHELL (1755-1834), my ex-husband's 4th great-grandmother on his mother's line.

I am fascinated by the various names given to children in the 1700s, and here is another one:  Freelove MITCHELL. How does someone name a beautiful little baby girl "Freelove"?  Apparently, it was a relatively common name in this time. Who knew?

I have lots of research still to do on this particular Freelove. I meant to do it earlier, but here we are, and I'm diving in with what I have found to date.  The Olin Family Society has 'webcards' for families of the Olin line, online, apparently linking to various sources. However until I can get at the sources, these cards can only be considered as clues requiring further research on my part.

Freelove MITCHELL was born 21 Nov 1755, on Block Island, Rhode Island. Mitchell is a familiar name on Block Island, and various Mitchell men were made Freemen in the late 1600s and early 1700s.  

A number of men's names are mentioned, but not details of their families, in a book titled "A History of Block Island: from it's discovery, in 1514, to the present time, 1876"  by Rev. Samuel Truesdale Livermore, published 1877; p.336.

On 15 Jan 1775, Freelove married Caleb OLIN, and they moved to Shaftsbury, Vermont fairly soon afterwards. All of their 11 children were born in Vermont. About 1814, the parents moved with their youngest son, Soloman, to the Canton area of New York state, where both parents died within a few years of each other. (Caleb is one of the sons of Henry Olin whom I wrote about as #16 in this series, by the way.)

Children of Caleb & Freelove:

1.   Naomi, b. 15 Sep 1777 Shaftsbury VT; d. 12 Aug 1864 Addison VT; m. Daniel Smith
2.   Thomas Dickens, b. 25 Apr 1779 Shaftsbury VT; d. 20 Aug 1860 Canton NY; m. Experience Miller Conkey
3.   Rebecca, b. 9 Jul 1782 Addison VT; d. 8 May 1862 Canton NY; m. Jonathan Day
4.   Joseph* [direct line], b. Mar 1784 Addison VT; d. 27 Jan 1873 Nicholville NY; m. Huldah B. Smith, 9 children
5.   Benjamin, b. 29 May 1786 Addison VT; d. 5 Dec 1853 Canton NY; m. Sarah Egbert/Edgebert
6.   Justin, b. 11 Apr 1788 Shaftsbury VT; d. 18 Nov 1864 Dartford WI; m. Polly Tower
7.   Caleb [Jr.], b. 30 Oct 1789 Shaftsbury VT; m. Polly Moore
8.   Henry, b. 3 Sep 1793 Shaftsbury VT; d. 8 Dec 1874 Birmingham MI; m. Polly Stewart/Stuart
9.   David, b. 16 Jan 1795 Addison VT; d. 8 Aug 1860 DeWitt MI; m. Anna Edgebert
10.   (Dr.) Soloman, b. 5 Mar 1798 Panton VT; d. 5 Apr 1865 South Sodus NY; m. Hannah Moore
11.   Sarah, b. 16 Jun 1800 Shaftsbury VT; d. 30 Apr 1884; m. Harvey Healey

There may be a few clues in these names which might assist in researching and identifying Freelove's correct parents.  The "Dickens" as middle name of Thomas, their first boy, may relate to either parents' mother's maiden name, for example, a working assumption that needs further research.

Note that parents married just towards the end of the Revolutionary War, and there are several military records indicating that (as one example of a son in the war).  Caleb served  in Shaftsbury VT with Capt Cyprian Downey's company.

Freelove died several years before her husband, in July 1834, in Canton, New York.  She was 79 years of age.

If you have information about Freelove Mitchell and her family, please do not hesitate to contact me via email calewis at telus dot net, or in comments below.