Person:Mary Vorhis (4)

born in Ohio according to dau. Harriet in 1880

Mary's identity as VORHIS and her parents are based on unproven and undocumented family tradition. Her date of birth, Aug. 31, 1796, was included in the family records I inherited. Just one day different from this, LDS IGI has a Mariam VOORHEES baptized Aug. 30, 1796, New Brunswick, Middlesex Co., NJ, dau. of John VOORHEES and Mary MOUNT (Patron Sheets, Batch 7823603, sheet 47, Film 1126374).

An article in the Somerset County Historical Quarterly, v.4 (1915) reveals pre-revolutionary migration of families from Bergen and Somerset counties, NJ, to Conewago, PA (as transcribed on FTM's GenealogyLibrary.com), p.266: "The Conewago Colony -- Baptisms 1769-1793," by A. Van Doren Honeyman, Plainfield, NJ. "In 1817 only five Dutch families remained, all others going to Kentucky and 'the Lake country.' (See Corwin's Manual, 4th ed., p.956)." Known Conewago Families According to Male Parents, p.268: VOORHEES, Abram, Cornelius, Garret, Jacob, Peter, Roelof. Conewago, PA, Baptisms, p.270: 1772. May 31. VOORHEES, Cornelius and Johanna LANGSTRATE -- Jacobus.

Paraphrasing History of Hamilton Co., OH (1881), p.365: Robert Caldwell and his sons James and Samuel, Robert Griffin, brothers DANIEL and JACOB VORHIS, James McCashen, and Daniel Seward were among the earliest settlers around Griffin's Station. Their main station building was on the present Hamilton, Springfield, and Carthage Turnpike where it crosses Mill Creek southwest of Hartwell. The cabins of the Griffin and VORHIS brothers and of Robert Caldwell were on the south side of the stream, while those of Daniel Seward and James McCashen were on the north. [According to the Van Voorhees Association, Jacob did not have a brother or a half-brother or an uncle named Daniel. Jacob's oldest son was named Daniel, but he died at age 9.]

Block-Houses, or Fortified Stations . . . A considerable number of these stations, more or less strongly fortified, are known to have existed within the present limits of the county during the period of Indian warfare: and it is quite possible that the memory of others has disappeared. So far as known, they were as follows: 1. COVALT's Station, at Round Bottom, twelve miles up the Little Miami, below the present site of Milford. This was erected in 1789. . . . 11. VOORHEES' station, in the south part of section thirty-three, Sycamore township, on the west bank of Mill creek, built early in 1794. --History of Hamilton Co., OH (1881), pp.58-59

Fortified Stations. . . . VOORHEES' station was situated upon section thirty-three, near the present towns of Lockland and Reading. It was not a block-house, or even stockade, but a large, strong log cabin, which answered for both residence and defence, and was frequently mentioned in the early times, in speech and print, as VOORHEES' station. This cabin is said by Mr. Olden to have been situated on the west side of the East fork of Mill creek, several hundred yards east of Mr. Breck's residence in Lockland. He further says: "This old house was torn away in 1817 by Thomas Shepherd, who then owned the place, and the logs sold to Adrian Hugeman, who used a portion of them in the erection of a house on lot No. 49, next south of where the new Catholic church stands in Reading. This house is still standing; it was weatherboarded many years ago, and is now occupied by John O'Neal, the constable.

 It was a strong family which made this improvement --almost enough in itself to make an effective garrison.  ABRAHAM VOORHEES was the head and front of it; and with him were his sons-in-law, Thomas Higgins and John Rynearson, with their families, and his five sons, ABRAHAM, MINEY, GARRET, JOHN and JACOB.  They began their improvements in the spring of 1794, and in the fall of the same year moved their families to the station.  They were soon after joined by another and still larger family, nearly all of them adult persons.  The parents were Henry and Margaret Redinbo, of the Pennsylvania German stock, who removed froth Reading, in that State, in the spring of 1795; their eight sons were Solomon (drowned on the journey westward), Frederick, John, Phillip, Samuel, Aaredrew, Henry and Adam; and the daughters were Ann, Barbara and Margaret.  In August of the same year they obtained a deed from Judge Symmes of the south half of section twenty-seven, west of the VOORHEES tract, built a cabin and log barn on the property since owned by Dr. Thomas Wright, and there settled.  The parents both lived to the age of ninety-four years, and died in the same year, 1828 or 1829.
 The younger ABRAHAM VOORHEES was a blacksmith; and as soon as the progress of settlement, or the near prospect of it, would justify, he built a shop near his cabin, on the east side of the new road running from White's to Runyan's station.  Mr. Olden says this shop was "at a point where now stands the dwelling and storehouse of James Browne, on the northeast corner of Main and Columbia streets, in Reading.  There he carried on his business for several years, using a hickory stump as an anvil."  He also, in partnership with his brother MINEY, built and ran a pioneer saw-mill on the west bank of Mill creek, in what is now Conklin's addition to Lockland.  The elder VOORHEES laid out upon his land the adjacent village of Reading about 1798, and had it called at first VOORHEES-town, but allowed it afterward to be named Reading, at the suggestion of the senior Redinbo, from the latter's birthplace in the Keystone State.  --History of Hamilton Co., OH (1881), pp.390-91

Reading. This, by far the largest village in Sycamore, containing nearly one-third of its entire population, is situated just east of Lockland, on the east side of the East fork of Mill creek, and upon the Dayton Short Line railroad and the Lebanon turnpike, about one and a half miles from the south. It is one of the oldest villages in the county, having been laid out February 2, 1804, by ABRAM VOORHEES, one of the very earliest settlers in this part of the township. --History of Hamilton Co., OH (1881), p.393

Sycamore Township. . . . Harvey Voorhees, who lives on the same farm his father, GARRET VOORHEES, moved upon in 1794, was born on this place, near Reading, August 22, 1819. His grandfather, ABRAM VOORHEES, was born in Somerset county, New Jersey, September 16, 1733, and emigrated to Hamilton county about the year 1793. GARRET, his son, born June 9, 1763; moved from New Jersey to Hamilton county in 1791, coming down the river in a flat-boat, and landed at the fort in Columbia, and from there the family, after the war closed, settled upon section thirty-three, in a station-house--GARRET moving to where Harvey now lives in 1794. GARRET VOORHEES died December 14, 1861. The family experienced a series of hardships common to the settlers of Indian times. Harvey Voorhees was never married.

 Jacob Voorhees, the well-known justice of the peace in Reading, is a grandson of ABRAM VOORHEES, the early pioneer, who settled on section thirty-three, Sycamore township, about the year 1794.  JACOB VOORHEES, st., father of the subject of our sketch, was a public spirited citizen, and was a colonel at one time in the army.  His son, Jacob Voorhees, was born and reared in Cincinnati, where he learned and followed the trade of carriage-making until about the year 1855, when he came to Reading, and has since that time lived a public life, filling the various offices of assessor, justice of the peace, etc., for several years.  Mr. Voorhees is a prominent man and a highly esteemed citizen of his town and township.  --History of Hamilton Co., OH (1881), p.429

more pp.448-49, http://www.heritagepursuit.com/Hamilton/HamiltonChapXXXVI.htm

History of Reading, Ohio, http://www.readinghighschool.com/Other%20Web%20Pages/The%20History%20of/The-History-of.htm

1798 Tax List, Hamilton Co., OH, Cincinnati: VORHEIS, Garrard; VORHIS, Abraham, Cornelius, Jacob, Michael.

1799 Tax List, Hamilton Co., OH, Cincinnati: VOORHEIS, Abraham; VOORHIS, Cornelius, Garrat; VORHIS, Abraham, Cornelius, Daniel, Jacob.

Abraham Van VOORHEES, b. Sept. 16, 1730, New Brunswick, Middlesex Co., NJ, d. 1812, Hamilton Co., OH; md. Maria (Mary) Van DOREN, ca. 1754, Somerset Co., NJ. . . Abraham Jr., . . Miney, . . Garret Van VOORHEES, b. June 9, 1763, Neshanic, Somerset Co., NJ, d. Dec. 14, 1861 or 1862, OH; md. Cornelia PARCELL, Jan. 15, 1790. . . John, . . Jacob Van VOORHEES, b. Oct. 4, 1777, Neshanic, Somerset Co., NJ, d. 1827, OH; md. Isabella PENDERY, April 5, 1810.

Daniel A. Van VOORHEES md. Maria TALLMAN . . Cornelius Van VOORHEES or VORHIS, b. May 29, 1767, Hamilton, Butler Co., OH; md. Margaret MONFORT. . . other children according to LDS, Catherine, Jeremiah, Helena, Petrus, Jacob, Marya, Johannis, Geesje, Daniel, Albert, Oliver

Michael, identity unknown

1806 Tax List, Hamilton Co., OH: VOORHIES, Abraham Sr., Abraham Jr., Menney.

1808 Tax List, Hamilton Co., OH: VOORHEESE, Abraham.

1809 Tax List, Hamilton Co., OH: VOORHEES, Abraham, Abraham Jr.

1810 Tax List, Hamilton Co., OH, Cincinnati: VOORHEIS, Abraham; VOORHIS, Cornelius; VOORHIS, Garrat; VORHEIS, Garrard; VORHIS, Abraham, Cornelius, Daniel, Jacob, Michael.

1810 Tax List, Hamilton Co., OH, Springfield: VOORHEESE, Abraham Sr., Abraham Jr.

The earlier family records I inherited had LYDIA JONES, b. June 11, 1802, as EVAN W.'s only sibling (the source for this name and date is not known). Joseph JONES' estate papers includes NANCY but not LYDIA, and his 1881 bio also includes Nancy but not Lydia. Finally in October 2004, a letter from EVAN's younger sister, MARY M. VORHIS in Davis Co., IA, dated Jan. 29, 1891, written to EVAN's granddaughter, Jane C. Love, identifies

Evan W. Jones was born September 9th 1794
Mary Jones was born August 31st 1796. his first Wife.
Harriet Jones was born September 16 1816. His Daughter.
Lydia Jones was born June 11th 1802. Second Wife. your Grandmother.

(Note that these names and dates are exactly the same as the records I inherited and the only difference being that Lydia was mistakenly identified as Evan's sister rather than as his 2nd wife.)

1891 March 24, Troy, Iowa. Writing for her grandmother, Mary Jones Vorhis, Ada Tharp wrote her cousin Jane Love: "Your Grandmother name was Lydia Rollins. They lived so far away that Grandma don't know much about her, they lived on Pickaway, Troy* Ohio. Grandma's Mothers name was Polly Cavault."

• Troy is the county seat of Miami Co., OH, where Evan and his family were enumerated in 1820. According to the U.S. Geological Survey website today, there is no place in Pickaway Co., OH, known as Troy, and conversely, there is no place in Miami Co., OH, known as Pickaway.

Correspondence from the family letters and papers of Jane Love and her cousin, Lillice Jones Harper, courtesy John, Danny, and Dave Harper in 2001 and 2004, transcribed by Brenda Boyer

See Historical Handbook of the Van Voorhees Family in the Netherlands and America (New Brunswick, NJ?: Van Voorhees Association, 1935); page images at Ancestry.com

1. ↑ JONES / WILKINSON family records compiled by my mother.

   MARY (unknown) was born August 31, 1796; source for this name and date is unknown

2. ↑ correspondence, 19th century
   letter from Mary M. Jones Vorhis, Davis Co., IA, dated Jan. 29, 1891.

   "Mary Jones was born August 31st 1796. his first Wife."