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Stephen Holcomb was the first-born child of: Zaphaniah Holcomb, b. Aug. 19, 1750 in Simsbury, Hartford County, CT. and d. Mar. 16, 1822 in Otsego County, NY. & Tryphena Niles, b. Aug. 19, 1750 in Chenango County, NY. and d. Apr. 1777 in Spencertown, Columbia County, NY.
Zaphaniah & Tryphena Holcomb's children were: 1. Steven Holcomb, b. Mar. 6, 1773 in Spencertown, Columbia county, NY. and d. 1857 in Van Buren county, IA. 2. John Vinton Holcomb, b. Jan. 14, 1775 in Spencertown, Columbia County, NY. and d. Oct. 6, 1853 in Van Buren County, IA. 3. (General)...
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Stephen Holcomb was the first-born child of: Zaphaniah Holcomb, b. Aug. 19, 1750 in Simsbury, Hartford County, CT. and d. Mar. 16, 1822 in Otsego County, NY. & Tryphena Niles, b. Aug. 19, 1750 in Chenango County, NY. and d. Apr. 1777 in Spencertown, Columbia County, NY.
Zaphaniah & Tryphena Holcomb's children were: 1. Steven Holcomb, b. Mar. 6, 1773 in Spencertown, Columbia county, NY. and d. 1857 in Van Buren county, IA. 2. John Vinton Holcomb, b. Jan. 14, 1775 in Spencertown, Columbia County, NY. and d. Oct. 6, 1853 in Van Buren County, IA. 3. (General) Samuel Robert Holcomb, b. Feb. 28, 1777 in Spencertown, Columbia county , NY. and d. Jan. 24, 1867 in Huntington Twp., Gallia county, IA. Samuel's mother, Tryphena, died when he was 2 months old.
On Jun. 25, 1796, Stephen Holcomb and Susannah Ewing were married in Bath County, VA., according to Virginia Compiled Marriages for 1660-1800.
Stephen & Susannah Holcomb's children were: 1. John Holcomb, b. Dec. 18, 1797 in VA. and d. Sep. 19, 1817 in Gallia county, OH. 2. Zaphaniah Holcomb, b. 1800 in Bath county, VA. and d. 1843 in Van Buren county, IA. Zaphaniah marr. Mary Collins. 3. Tryphena/Taphena Holcomb, b. 1803 in Bath county, VA. and d. sometime after 1860 in Village Twp, Van Buren, IA. 4. DeWitt Clinton Holcomb, b. 1807 in Gallia county, OH. 5. Samuel Robert Holcomb, b. May 1, 1808 and d. Nov. 6, 1848 6. Robert V. Holcomb, b. 1812 in Gallia county, OH. and d. Mar. 20, 1853 in IA. 7. Elizabeth Mary Ann Holcomb, b. Jul. 2, 1814 in Gallia county, OH. and d. Mar. 7, 1824 in Huntington, Gallia county, OH. She marr. Isaac Uptegraft. 8. Susannah/Sarah H. Holcomb, b. Jul. 18, 1815 in Vinton, Gallia County, OH. and d. Jan. 7, 1846 in Leando, Van Buren County, IA./or Iowa City, Wright county, IA. Susannah marr. John Friend/or John M. Musson. 9. Infant son Holcomb, b. 1816 in Huntington, Gallia county, OH. and d. abt. 1819 in Huntington Twp., Gallia county, OH. 10. John Vinton Holcomb, b. Jun. 24, 1819 in Jackson, Gallia County, OH. and d. Aug. 18, 1858 in Portland, Van Buren County, IA. John marr. Margaret Mahala Ross.
In the 1850 U. S. census, 78 yr. old Stephen Holcomb, a farmer, b. in NY., was living in Village Twp., Van Buren, IA. with his 74 yr. old wife, Susanah Holcomb, b. in VA. Living on one side of him was 38 yr. old Mary Holcomb and her family and on the other side, 35 yr. old John Holcomb and his family.
........ James Ewing - Pioneer Volume II
By Nancy Hanks Ewing Compiled by Barbara Ewing Powell Children of "Indian John" (1747-1824) Stephen was born 6 March 1773, in Spencertown, Columbia County, New York, the first-born of Zaphaniah and Tryphena (NILES) HOLCOMB. Stephen grew up in Kinderhook, New York and was a classmate of Martin Van Buren. His next brother was John, born 14 January 1775, and then came Samuel Robert, born 28 February 1777. The youngest Samuel was only two months old when their mother died in April following his birth. He, and perhaps his brothers, went to live with their HOLCOMB grandparents, Return Ira and his wife Jerusha ADAMS, in Mamakating Hollow, New York. Susannah Ewing was in her teens when two young men arrived on the Greenbrier - brothers, Stephen HOLCOMB and Samuel Robert HOLCOMB; descendants of Revolutionary War soldier Zaphaniah HOLCOMB. Stephen and Samuel arrived on the Greenbrier with their uncle, Timothy HOLCOMB, and his family. Timothy remained in Pocahontas County after the others had left, and he has descendants there today. The HOLCOMBS were on the Greenbrier at least by 25 June, 1796, for that is the date of Stephen Holcomb and Susannah Ewing's wedding. They took out a marriage bond the 22 of June, John EWING giving consent and John Smith EWING witnessing that consent. Again, the cabin on Stony Creek was the setting for the ceremony, performed by Reverend Richard BIRD. Susannah was not quite 20 and Stephen had just turned 23 when they went into housekeeping for themselves. Eventually Stephen and Susannah made their way from Pocahontas County to the Ohio River, West Virginia side (now Mason County, but it was Kanawha County until 1804). they may have gone at the same time as Samuel HOLCOMB (he was in Gallipolis, across the river, by January, 1800) or it may have been with the Indian John exodus of 1801. They had two children by 1801, John and Zahaniah, and they were both recorded as born in Virginia, but that could mean either Pocahontas County or Mason County. The settlement that sprang up on the West Virginia side of the Ohio was at Mercer Bottom in today's Clendennin Township of Mason County, eight miles below the mouth of the Kanawha River at Point Pleasant, on Crab Creek which empties into the Ohio just below Gallipolis Ferry, near the town of Bealer. Other settlers there included, at a later date, Susannah's two sisters, Sarah, who married Stephen's brother, Samuel in 1802, and Jeanet who married Levi HOWELL in 1804. The sisters' parents, Indian John and Ann Smith EWING, lived across the river and up a bit from Point Pleasant. Stephen and Susannah were still on the Virginia side of the Ohio when Taphena was born about 1803. But by the time Clinton came along about 1807, they were in a new settlement that was beginning to open up in Gallia County, inland a few miles up Raccoon Creek. By that time Ohio had become a state and the county of Gallia had been created. Gallia County then included lands that eventually became all of Jackson and large portions of Lawrence, Meigs and Vinton Counties. The eastern half of Gallia as it is today lay within the lands of the Ohio Company, while the western portion was in the "Congress Lands," which meant they were available directly from the U.S. Government and not from a private land company or certain grant holders, therefore more desirable in the eyes of the HOLCOMBS and their friends. Samuel and Sarah moved there on 6 April 1805, which is probably when Stephen and Susannah went too. Their homesite was in Section 27, 2 miles southwest of where the village of Vinton would one day come into being, in Huntington Township. Huntington Township was formed from Raccoon Township on 5 June 1810, and the first meeting for election purposes was held the last Saturday in July, 1810. The meeting was held at Stephen and Susannah HOLCOMB's house, and Stephen cast the first vote. Seventeen other men, including Samuel HOLCOMB, also voted in that first election and most of them figure prominently in Ewing family history. Most also appear on a list still in existence today, 162 years later, which was in the possession of the late Beatrice CLARK of Portsmouth, Ohio. It was made in 1820 by Jonathan EWING, lister, and Matthew EDMISTON, appraiser, and shows "the true value of all the houses in Huntington that comes under the consideration of the law" - the taxable property of Huntington Township. The proprietors number 75 and few names are there on the list that do not enter into the JAMES EWING STORY somewhere along the line. The HOLCOMBS of 1820 Huntington were Enoch, John, Samuel R., Reuben and Stephen. Stephen is down as having a house worth $220, three horses and seven veal and cattle. It is recorded in Huntington annals that in 1819 Stephen and Samuel, who were skilled carpenters as well as farmers, erected the first sawmill at Vinton, Ohio. It was for John ADNEY and was located on the Raccoon Creek. Stephen was taxed on land in Section 27 in 1823 and again in 1827. When the War of 1812 came along, both Stephen and Samuel were involved. A HOLCOMB Genealogy records, "Stephen enlisted in the War of 1812 in command of General William Henry HARRISON. He was an officer, perhaps Captain, when he fought with HARRISON at the Battle of Tippecanoe and continued in the army through that war." Well, of course, the Battle of Tippecanoe took place 6 and 7 of November, 1811 and that was almost two years before Stephen's enlistment. And it was fought almost entirely by Indiana men, not Ohioans. Also, Stephen was not an officer and his length of service was 35 days. The real facts of Stephen's service are that he enlisted 1 August 1813, and served one month and four days, to 4 September. He was a private in Captain John ROADAMOUR'S company of Ohio Mounted Militia, Major WOMELDORFF'S Regiment of Volunteers. For his duty, he received $29.56 - $9.60 for his service, $14 for the hire of his horse, and $6.50 for forage and rations. Gallia County History records that WOMELDORFF went out under General Edward W. TUPPER, who had raised 1,000 men from what are now Gallia, Lawrence and Jackson Counties. They went on order of General WINCHESTER against British Indians at Maumee, where they engaged in a fierce battle, and then returned home. By 1819, Stephen and Susannah's family was complete with the birth of their 10th, John Vinton HOLCOMB II. In the meantime, their first born, John, had died. Descendants have it that a John was lost at an early age - Indians or drowned, no trace. But this one died age 19 years, 9 months, 1 days, on 19 September 1817, and is buried at Old Holcomb Cemetery, Vinton, Ohio. There is no record of another John born to Stephen and Susannah until John Vinton came along and he is well accounted for. Susannah's father, Indian John, came to Vinton to live in his declining years. It is said he lived with Sarah, but who knows, maybe it was Susannah. He died in 1824. That same year there was another death in the family when Elizabeth Mary Ann, Stephen and Susannah's eighth, died. She too is buried at Old Holcomb Cemetery in Vinton, Ohio. But there had been marriages through the years, too, and grandchildren, and things were getting crowded on Raccoon Creek. There was talk among the younger generation of moving on, definitely among the HOLCOMBS. Apparently there were two groups that departed from Vinton, Ohio with an immediate destination of Western Indiana. One left in the summer of 1830 and a second, with Stephen and Susannah aboard, left the following summer. Susannah's name is on a list of original members of the first Presbyterian Church of Huntington and Raccoon (established 3 January 1829) and there is written following her name the notation "Dismissed as traveling member, 7 September 1831." The two wagon trains included all of the children, and the families of the married ones, as well as Stephen's bother, John and his wife, Chloe, and several of their children. They settled on the banks of the Wabash in either Warren County (per a sketch on Zaphaniah HOLCOMB II) or Tippecanoe County (per the William Francis HOLCOMB SKETCH). Maybe the two counties were one and the same that early. The group remained there until about 1834, then moved on to Cook County (now Will), Illinois, near Joliet. Now Stephen and Susannah's grandchildren were growing up and it was in Joliet that there began to be marriages in that generation. When the group moved on, one granddaughter, Roxsena Jane HOLCOMB, (2-2-2) stayed behind, and Stephen and Susannah were never to see her again. Destination this time was Van Buren County, Territory of Iowa. There they (some or all) remained only a short time before moving on up the Mississippi to Jo Davies County, near Galena, Illinois. but that stay was short-lived also and by 1839 they were all back in Van Buren county. Most of them are found there in the census of 1840. The EWING-type HOLCOMBS were in Village Township, while the MUDGE-HOLCOMBS (John and his family) were in Chequest Township. The principal town of Village Township was Portland, now called Leando, across the Des Moines River from Dowd's Station. It was here that Stephen and Susannah settled, with their family close around them. In the 1840 census they were counted with Zaphaniah. In the special 1847 Iowa census they were alone, as they were in the 1850 Federal Census, Stephen 78 and Susannah 74. In 1846 they had marked 50 years of marriage. the year of their 59th wedding anniversary, 1855, Susannah died, age 79. She is buried in the Portland-Leando Cemetery, Van Buren County, Iowa, along with Stephen who died two years later, in 1857. |