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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

FRANCIS ELLINGWOOD: NEW HAMPSHIRE TO INDIANA

In her letter to nephew Charles Fletcher, Return Ellenwood had mentioned
that four of her brother Joseph's sons had left him. I couldn't quite decipher
the name of where they had moved to but I think it must have been somewhere
in upstate New York because that's where I've found three of them on the Federal
Census. Francis, John, and Joshua Ellingwood had gone to settle in Gennesee
and Wyoming Counties. The two younger brothers stayed put, but it seems
Francis had bigger plans.

In 1820 Francis was in Genessee NY but by 1823 he'd followed his uncle Benjamin
Tuck Ellenwood out to Ohio. Apparently there wasn't enough land there for Francis
because on 10Apr 1823 francis Ellingwood of Marietta Ohio purchased 163.87
acres of land from the U.S. Government at Brookville, Indiana.



Nine years later he made two more purchases of 160 acres each at Township 17.




By now Francis was living in Fayetter County Indiana but he must have moved
because three years later 10Aug 1837 he again purchased 159.76 acres  in
Township 17. This might have eventually become Fall Creek Township where
Francis was enumerated on the Federal Censuses of  1840, 1850 and 1860. Or
the land might have become the town of Woodbury, Indiana which a Francis
Ellingwood is credited with laying out in 1857.  It's possible that it was his oldest
son, who was also named Francis, that did that.






I don't know yet when Francis Ellingwood died. As I said, he appears on the 1860
Census and at that time he would have been 74 years old. But by the time of his
passing Francis had owned more land on the plains of Indiana than he probably
ever would had back in tiny New Hampshire.

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