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Facts and Events
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 International Genealogical Index. ( The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, 1999-2008).
- Winifred Oldham, daughter of John Oldham and his wife, Anne Conway, was born Nov. 19, 1736 in Westmoreland county, Virginia. She was descended from John Oldham, who emigrated to the colony of Virginia in March, 1635. His son, Thomas Oldham, was the father of Colonel Daniel Oldham, who married Elizabeth Newton, and their son, John Oldham, was the father of the subject of this sketch. Winifred received a good education at the hands of private instructors and grew up, not only a handsome woman, but one of culture and bright of thought and manners. On the 24th of August, 1754, she married John Neville.
Prior to the Revolution they resided at Winchester, in Virginia, but when the war threatened and her husband, with his military command, took charge of Fort Pitt, she removed thither, and the remainder of her days was passed in Pennsylvania. Little need be said of the experience of a woman at a frontier post or town at this critical era of our country's history. It was a life full of care, deep anxiety, as well as self-sacrifice. Of determined spirit, she was equal to the emergency, and every demand upon her industry and philanthropy was cheerfully acquiesced in. She was a loyal woman at all times, more especially when to be loyal required a full measure of duty and devotion and patriotism. At the dawn of peace her cares were none the less, her hospitality was too frequently put to the severest tests. Her husband's prominence required this, even had she not that indwelling spirit which prompted it.
During the days of misrule, leading up to the so-called "Whiskey Insurrection", her trials and hardships were great, sympathizing so strongly with the dangers threatening her husband. Absent from home at the destruction of her dwelling, her spirits kept up, for she was always hopeful, even cheerful. To her life's close she was the center of attraction at every social gathering, and her narration of events of almost half a century, in which she or her husband were active participants, was listened to with the greatest interest. She died on Montour's Island, in 1797, and was buried in the First Presbyterian graveyard at Pittsburgh.
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