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Introduction
Gratiot County, Michigan, has special significance for all of us that are descendants of Edson and Eunice Cornell Packard. The Cornells and the Packards landed in Mass. from England 2 years apart-- the cornells in 1636 and the Packards in 1638. Five generations later both families became pioneers in this Michigan County--the Packards coming from Ohio in 1854 and the Woods from New York in 1855. as soon as enough clearing was made, a school was built. Edson Packard was one of the directors of this school and Eunice Cornell Wood became the teacher. Her professional career was ended on August 31, 1858, four years after he had come from Ohio and three years after she had come from New york. They lived in the vicinity until the spring of 1875 when, because of Edson's health they went to Maryland, near Linkwood. In the fall of 1884, they returned to Michigan, this time settling in Benzonia, the place which to many of us is still home.
Our life history now begins...
Supposedly the Packards in America are decscended from a common ancestor, Samuel Packard. With his wife and daughter, both named Elizabeth, Samuel came from Wymondham near Hingman, England, in 1638. They sailed from Gravesend in the ship "Diligent of Ipswich,133 passengers, John Martin master," on April 26,1638, and landed in Hingham, Mass. August 10. There they settled and there their sons Samuel, Zacheus, and Thomas were probably born.
After a few years they removed to Weymouth in the same colony, and this the birthplace of John and Nathaniel, our ancestors.(my line) Bridgewater, the first interior settlement in the colony, became their permanant home. Born here were thier daughters Mary, Hanna, Jael, Deborah, and Deliverance and their son Isreal. The year of their settling in Bridgwater is not know but in 1664 Samuel Packard was licenced as a constable, and in 1667 he was one of a jury "named by the court to be empanelled to lay out all the ways requiste in the town of Bridgewater." In 1671 he was licenced as an innkeeper, and in 1672 as a surveyor of highways.
Bridgewater originally was a plantation or township bought in 1649 of the Indian Massasoit, by Miles Standish,Samuel Nash, and constant Southworth, "in behalf of all townsmen of Duxbury, to them and their heirs forever." The "townsmen of Duxbury" were those early settlers that "lived on their lots on the other side of the bay" from Plymouth, and who applied to the court for an extension to the westward. According to the deed given by Cheif Massasoit, the price paid for the township was "seven coats a yard and a half in a coat, nine hatchets, eights hoes, twenty knives, four Moose skins, and ten yards and half of cotton."
Of the fifty-four original proprietors, about one third became inhabitants of the new plantation: the rest from time to time conveyed their shares to their sons or sold them to others who became residents. Many families came from adjoining townships other than Duxbury, and among them was that of Samuel Packard. In 1682, he and his sons Samuel, Zacheus, John, and Nathaniel, are named among the proprietors of the town.
Bridgewater later became separated into four towns: South Bridgewater (later known as Bridgewater),East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, and North Bridgewater(now the city of Brockton). Samuel's homestead was in the present West Bridgewater on the north bank of the Town River and a short distance from Central square.
Samuel died November 7, 1684 and was the buried in the first burial place in Bridgewater and within fifty rods of his old homestead. Today a small monument marks the location of this old burial ground and the first church building. Elizabeth's maden name is not known; neither are the exact dates of her birth or death. She and Samuel married about 1634. In 1685 she married John Washburn who died in South Bridgewater the following year.
That Samuel prospered during the years is evidenced by his will which is of sufficient interest to quote as given in an abstract published in "Mayflower Descendants", Vol. 15. The names of the twelve children and their husbands and wives will help to better understand the will. Elizabeth married Thomas
Alger, Samuel m. Elizabeth Lathrop, Zacheus m. Sarah Howard. Thomas married but there is no record of his wife's name; he had one son, joseph. john m. Judith Willis. nathaniel m. Lydia Smith. mary m. Richard Phillips. Hanna m. thomas Randall. Isreal, a trooper, did not marry. Jael m. John Smith. Deborah m. Samuel Washburn. Deliverance m. Thomas Washburn.
( samuel's will is alredy printed on this forum so I will not repeat it unless it is requested)
My own line comes through Nathaniel, sixth child of Samuel and Elizabeth. (there are other family lines mentioned in the telling of this story)
Nathaniel married Lydia Smith of Tauton, mass. about 1682. the daughter of John and Lydia Eliot Smith. Lydia was born at Dedham, Mass. April 10, 1660. her mother was a neice of Rev. John eliot, apostle to the indians of Massachusetts Bay. Her father's second wife was Jael Packard, samuel's 10th child, to whom he willed her share of his estate "for her comfort", stating that it "should not be delivered to the John smith." Lydia and Nathaniel both died in West Bridgewater, she before November 15,1710 and he on May 15, 1721. Since in 1682, Nathaniel is mentioned as one of the propreiters of the town it seems likely that most of his life was spent there.
In 1701, Nathaniel is said to have built for his own home part of Dunbarton, the present(1932) home of Miss Martha Mason at west Elm st. West Bridgewater. Dunbarton has housed seven generation of Packards. The second story was added and the house named by Dr. Simeon Dunbar, whose first wife was Abigail Packard, daughter of Rev. Elijah Packard. From the attic of this house came the ladder-back chair believed to have been Nathaniel's which came into my possession in 1944 when Marion Packard moved from her old home in Flushing, Michigan to California. Marion's line is through Nathaniels son Zachariah.
Nathaniel and Lydia had four sons and nine daughters, all of whom were remembered in Nathaniel's will of April 24, 1720 which follows. (already on Packard forum). As compared with Samuel's, Nathaniels will is brief, largely because his land seems to have been disposed of earlier. (recap of his childrens name as listed in will) Samuel, Zachariah, George, Fearnstl. Margarett, Sarah, Faithful, Hanna, Lydiah, Deliverance, Elisebeth, Mary, Deborah the youngest.
George was the name of the head of our line for the third and fourth generations. George Sr, the third son of Nathaniel and Lydia Smith, was born about 1692 in West Bridgewater. On July 4, 1728, he married Mary Edson, Daughter of Samuel and Mary Dean Edson. she too was born in West Bridgewater, her birth date being March 9, 1712.
It is considerable interest to us that the name Edson, our fathers given name, appears so early in the Packard history. George's wife, Mary Edson was the great-grandaughter of Samuel Edson and Susanna Orcutt Edson who came from England in 1639, the next year after Samuel and Elizabeth Packard. In the first generation after their coming to America, Samuel Edson's daughter Elizabeth married Samuel Edson's son Samuel. There were several other intermarriages, the next in our own line coming two generations later when our Phillip Packard married Martha Howard Edson. the Edson's were a family of considerable means, as shown by their wills which extend back to the 15th century.
Five children wer born to Gerge Sr. and Mary Edson Packard; George Jr., Jonathan, Lydia, Rebecca, and Ichabod. following george's death, Mary married jonathan Mehurin by whom she had one son, Ephriam.
George Jr. was babtized in west Bridgewater, June 13,1736, and was married to abigail Esty. she died May 14,1765, at the age if 29, leaving two sons, both born ib west Bridgewater--Amasa on august 18, 1761, and Phillip on April 24. 1763. george Jr. than married Abigail Packard, daughter of John and grandaughtewr of Zacheus, and to them born were George, Zadoch, and Zebedee.
In the fifth generation, Phillip, son of George Jr. and abigail esty Packard, represented our line in the Revolutionary War. For this service he was accorded an annual pension of $96.00, according to the "History of Plainfield" by C.N. dyer. his brother Amasa served in the armytoo, but little is known of this amasa aside from his war record.
Phillip's enlistments were all from Bridgewater or Plymouth county, as follows: as a private to serve until Jan.1, 1779: as a private Feb.3, 1779, in capt. Abner Crane's company with guards in Boston; from Bridgewater for the Continental Army in 1779 (at that time he was listed as 17 years old, stature five feet, six inches, light complexion); July 22,1780, as a private in Captain David Packard's company, Col. Eliphalet Cary's regiment, for service in Rhode Island; Sept. 3,1781, as a private in Captain Luke Bicknell's compamy, Lt. Col. Enoch Putman's regiment, for service at West Point. this company was raised in Plymouth county.
Shortly after Phillip's marriage to Martha (Polly) Edson, daughter of William and Matha Howard Edson on March 2,1786, they moved to Hamphire County, mass. the births of their children; Amasa, Phillip Jr., Patty and George--were recorded in plainsfield in 1778, 1790, 1794 and 1805 repectively. Phillip's second marriage occured april 26, 1809, his wife being Lucinda Stetson Lazelle, daughter of Levi stetson and widow of John Lazelle, born at Abington, Mass, October 25, 1769. Phillip died about 1840, probably at Plainfield.
Amasa was the name of the head of our line for the sixth and seventh generations. The first of out two Amasa's , the oldest son of phillip and Martha, married Lucinda Ford, daughter of john, native of Bridgewater. She was born July 11, 1787, died january 5, 1814, and was buried in Plainfield. to Amasa and Lucinda were born therr children: William on July 23,1808, Martha on febuary 18, 1810, amd amasa Jr., our grandfather, on January 27,1812.
Following lucinda's death, Amasa married abigail Pettinggill, born August 8, 1781, by whom he had seven children. Five of these, josiah, lucinda, Jonathan (grandfather of Dr. R.M.Packard), Sarah, and Frances, came west with their parents and their half-brother Amasa Jr. to Chatam Township, medinah county, Ohio, in the fall of 1832. In company with several others from their locality, " they travelled to Troy, New York, thence via the Erie Canal to Buffalo, Lake Erie to Cleveland, and by slow wagons and stages into the interior settlement." Amasa and his family located in the fall of 1832 on 110 acres of wooded land situated one and one half miles south of Chatham Center. here Amasa Sr. lived 33 years, his death occuring August 30, 1865. abigail passed away two years earlier. i have visited the Chatham Cemetary and have a sketch of the stone that marks their resting place.
The "History of Medinah county, Ohio", published in 1881 by Perrim, Battle, and Godspeed, says of amasa Sr:
"He is one of the township's best citizens. He was for many years a member of the Congregational Church and Officiated as deacon in that body and, in fact, he and wife were among the first the first members at the time of its organization. Formely an old-time Whig but in after years became affiliated with Republican party; though not a partisan was a man of decided opion which he did not fail to express annually at the ballot box."
Medinah County was formed Febuarary 18, 1812. chatham Township was the eighteenth in the county to be formed and was organized December 5,1833. Elections and town meetings were held in the log school house which had been put up at the Center and which served as a Union meeting house. Northup's "History of Medinah County, Ohio," published in 1861, states the following: "At the first election there were only eleven votes, to wit: Gaylord C. Warner, Joel Lyon, Nebediah Cass, Moses Parsons, Barney Daniels, Amasa Packard, Ebenezer Shaw, Amos Utter, Iram Packard, harvey Edwards, and Thos. f. Palmer... The First Connngregational Church organized April 4, 1834, under the Union Plan and attached to the Presbetry. Members at its organization: Barney Daniels and wife, Ebenezer Shaw and wife, Joel Lyon an wife, Amasa Packard and wife, Gideon Gardener and wife,Iram Packard and wife, Orin Shaw and wife, George, Phillip, and Jacob and Sarah Packard, making a18 members."
The first country store was established in 1839, and the first post office in 1844.
Two other close relatives of Amasa are of special interest to us, followed him to Chatham. One was his brother George, youngest son of Phillip and Martha. George was the grandfather of the late Dr. Wales Packard of Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria, brother in law of Mrs. G.M Sprout of Benzonia. I learned a good deal about the Chatham Packards from Wales mother about 1911 and more from Wales in recent yeas. he was born there and made a real study of Packard family history. when I stopped in chatham in 1941, i had a pleasant chat with his cousin Milo, then 81 years of age.
The second one to come later to Chatham was William, Amasa's oldest son by his first wife Lucinda Ford. Uncle William, as father called him, married Mary F. Rude in Plainfield and later moved to Renssselaer County, New York, but in 1836 they followed his father and brother to Chatham. there he too cleared a farm and remained until 1859 when he moved to Allegan County, Michigan and later to Covert where he died Febuary 10' 1882. his second wife was Mary F. Rood and third was Josephine L. Seymour. He was survived by two sons and two daughters, William O., Alfred S., Mary, and Ruth Celesrta, all of whom some years ago were living in southern Michigan. Uncle William was a lumberman, prominent in business and politics, a Republican, and a Congregationalist. Father and mother were acquainted with him but we lost touch with his family after father's death.
Returning to our own line, Amasa Jr., the third child of Amasa and Lucinda, was twenty when he came with his father and step-mother and their children to Ohio in 1832. The next year he was married to Mercy Goodwin from near Chatham.
Goodwin was a well-known name in Medinah County. The first Goodwins to settle there was Nathaniel and David. Nathaniel A. Goodwin was born March 18, 1788, in Litchfield,Connecticut. In the winter of 1815-16 he came through from Cayuga County, New York, on ox sleds, and settled in Granger Township. With him was his wife, the former Lovira H. Low, a native of Ontario County, New York, and their children and also his brother David and his family. In 1817 their parents, Seth Goodwin (Captain in the Revolutionary War and Major in War of 1812) and his wife, Deborah Allen Goodwin, came from Ontario County, and joined them in granger Township and lived till Deborah's death in 1829 and Seth's in 1849. They had two other children besides Nathaniel and David. Nathaniel died Jan. 21, 1843 and Lovira, Feb. 5, 1868; they were survived by ten children. Presumably this is the family that our Gradfather Amasa married in 1833.
Edson, our father, was born in 1834, followed by Elmer in 1836, Lucinda in 1840 and Martha in 1849. Perlie (sister to me) says that father described the Chatham school of his boyhood as a one-room log building with benches next to the walls on two sides and with the stove in the center-- this was the building that served not only as a school
house but as a church and town hall. Edson helped his father on the farm and also he worked in Mansfield where an uncle was engaged in the leather business and where it is likely that his own family lived for some time. Like his father, Edson was rangy in build, tall and spare, with deep-set blue eyes and brown hair touched with auburn.
Edson attended near by- Oberlin College. in his second year there he suffered a sever attack of rheumatic fever from which he was many months in recovering and from which his heart was probably permantly weakened. As soon as he was able, he and a neighbor boy, Dan Price, went to gratiot County, michigan, where each took up a homestead in the woods at the place which was later called Forest Hill in Pine river township. This was in 1854 when Edson was twenty years old. His family soon came from Ohio to join him on the homestead and from then on Forest hill was their permanent home.
According to the "Potrait and Biographical Album of gratiot County, michigan," published in 1884, Pine river Township, in which the homes of the Packards and the Woods were located, was organized the winter of 1855 and originally embraced the township of Bethany. This was the year after Edson originally took up his homestead and the same year that the Woods came from New York. A postoffice was established in 1855, the mail being carried in the pocket of the postmaster. the first sawing mill in April, 1856. A list of township officers from the beginning gives Amasa Packard as supervisor in 1858, and Edson in 1873 and 1874. Quoting directly, " Pine River Township is a most excellent body of land and was from the first one of the most enterprising in the county, Pine River swayed the county in a political was, it being well settled with men who took a deep interest in such matters."
Both Edson and his father took an important part in community affairs. At the age of 16, Edson had joined the congregational Church, but in his new home there was no church of that denomination and he became affilitated with the Methodist Episcopal Church and was active in this church through the rest of his life. For many years he held what was known as a local preachers license. Both he and his father were charter members of the St. Louis Masonic Lodge which held it's first meeting August 31, 1865. edson was active also in the Grange. Unlike his father, uncles, and sons, Edson was Democrat.
Three years after coming to michigan, three of the children of amasa and Mercy were married in close succession. the first was their son elmer. In 1857 he was married to Mary Holmes, a local girl. and they too lived for some time in Pine River. My brothers and sisters knew them and their children. I do not remember Uncle Elmer; I have a letter which he wrote mother when father died and I that his own death occurred soon after father's and in much the same way. Mother and I visited Aunt Mary and cousin wesly in alma about 1909 and that was the second to the last time that I ever saw them after I was old enough to remember. None of the cousins--William, Ida, Daniel, Amine is living at this writing. Both will and amine had children so that it is possible that there are descendants of this branch of the family.
The second marriage was that of their daughter lucinda to John Wesley Doane, also of Pine River, which took place Dec. 18, 1857. Uncle Wesley was one year old when his parents, Erastus and Hester Stringham doane, moved from Ontario county, New York, to Livingston County, michigan, in 1834. As one of a family of five boys and three girls, he was accustomed to hard work and did it willingly and gladly. He and Lucinda had one daughter, Ida, who lived only two years and Lucinda passed away November 4, 1860.
On august 12, 1861, Uncle Wesley enlisted for the civil War in the Eighth Michigan Infantry. He was made a first lieutenant May 6, 1864, and that same day was wounded in his left knee in the Battle of the Wilderness. When honarbly discharged on Aug. 17, 1864, he had served 3 years and 5 days. the next year Uncle Wesley married Martha Packard, the fourth child of amasa and Mercy goodwin Packard, and the sister of his first wife. She was the mother of our cousins, Amasa, erasrus, and Edith May Doane. In 1880 Aunt Martha died and later Uncle Wesley married Minnie L. May. May whom many of us knew was the mother of cousin Otto. Uncle Wesley died in 1924 and Aunt Minnie somewhat later. the doane cemetary lots are in alma.
Uncle Wesley was one of the finest men i knew. he and father were good friends, and I like to think they were much alike--kindly,fun-loving,industrious, devoted to family, good citizens, Christian gentlemen.
The third marriage in amasa's family in that year 1857/58 was that of his older son edson Packard to Eunice Cornell Wood, August 31, 1858. As stated in the introduction, the school house was one of the first buildings which land was cleared, and in 1858 Eunice was the teacher. "As director, one of Edson's duties was to visit the school, a duty which the patrons claimed he never neglected.
Having reached the founding of my own home it is natural now to refer to Edson and Eunice and mother and father. They began their married life in wheeler Township, and it was here that Ellen, Perlie, and Thomas were born in 1860,1862,1865. Not knowing how the roads ran in those days, I hazard a guess that Wheeler was not more than 20 miles from bot Grandfather Wood and Grandfather Packard, and that the two grandfathers were about 5 miles apart. In 1865, our family moved even nearer to the granparents, to a farm three miles east of st. Louis in what had become Bethany township, originally a part of Pine River. here Jesse was born and here ther lived until after Grandfather Pacjkards death.
Perlie says that father's rheummatism kept bothering him and that while they were living in Bethany, he and mother spent several weeks in st. Louis so that he could benefit from the mineral baths. During this period, the children had their first experience being away from their parents, Perlie and tommy being left with Grandma Wood and Ellen and Jesse with Grandma Packard.
Grandfather Amasa Packard died at his home in Forest Hill on september 4, 1870 and was buried in St. Louis. of his death, Perlie writes:
"I attended Grandfather Packards funeral. We went from our home in bethany, three miles east of St. Louis , to grandma's house where we stayed the night. the next day we all drove to St. Louis in a lumber wagon with three spring seats and as many board seats as necessary. Our load included grandma, Uncle Elmer, Aunt Mary and two of their children, father (Edson), mother (Eunice), Perlie, Thomas and Jesse. Jesse sat in mothers lap for want of room rather than age. Wesley Packard, Uncle Elmers son about thomas's (Tommy) age, couldn't go because his new pants were not done and his best pair of old ones had patches. Grandma said she had a great mind to take him anyway and I for one wished she would for I felt sorry for him. Grandfather had a Masonic funeral, the first funeral that any of us chlidren had attended. No doubt Uncle Wesley Doanes folks went, and also Dan Packard, a young man whom Grandpa partly raised and who married one of our hired girls. It was at Dan's home that we four children stayed when Nellie was born--we had the whooping cough and had to see our sister through the window." (Story by Perli)
Following Grandfather's death, father moved the family to the home near Forest Hill, and here Nellie was born in 1872. grandma Packard lived another 20 years, making her home with our family and with Uncle Elmer, Uncle Wesley, and finally with her grandson, erastus doane. She too is buried in St. Louis.
I have two distinct memories of Grandmother Packard. the first was in benzonia, the spring before I was three, when she and i walked from the jones house to east Hall the morning the family moved, she was wearing a bonnet and shawl and I, my white terry-cloth coat and hood. She was short and plump and lame, and father said we made a good team as together we carried my favorite doll to our new home.
The second memory was at Uncle Elmers in Gratiot County the next Christmas season. After a cold ride in an ox-driven sleigh--only such ride I ever had so far as I remember--I opened a door. There sitting by the window was Grandma Packard (Mercy Goodwin)in her lace cap. Without getting up from her chair, she helped me off with my wraps; then she took from her pocket a little box and from this she took a ring with a tiny opal setting which she placed on my finger. these two memory snapshots, aletter or two, and a photograph are all that I know personally of grandma Packard, but I remember her with much affection.
Continued another day. This story was originally told by Eunice Packard born July 12, 1883. the youngest of child of Edson Packard and Eunice Cornell wood Packard.
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