Powell Family History 4 2 5 2 0 I 15?
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Powell Family History 4 2 5 2 0 I 15? HISTORY OF THE ANDRE/.' POWELL FAMILY by Homer K. Powell Adrian, Michigan 1952 FORWARD This account of the Andrew Powell Family or Clan was undertaken by the writer at the suggestion of Othello D. Powell, as president at the reunion of 1950. Some families of the descendants are treated in more detail than others. This is because the location of some is such that knowledge of them is rather meager. Some of the latest newcomers by marriage and of children may lack mention. Also the writer naturally records events in more detail about the members of the family with whom he was brought up and has first hand knowledge of their common experiences. Aid and some quotations have been drawn from members of the family, Powell Memorial History by Rev. John Powell, Powell Family History by the Media Research Bureau of Washington D. C., and newspaper clippings covering some family events. fln'dlay Hancock County Public library Bndlay'OMo 88-6916 1 About three miles out from the city of Flndlay, Ohio, as you proceed southwest on the Dixie Highway or Lima road you come to a low brick residence of bungalow type, cloee to the left side of the road. Concerning the family for which this was tbeir home for many years this account is being written. ' Andrew Powell, son of Samuel and Sarah Raubenalt Powell, was born May 25, 1827 near Lithopolis, Fairfield County, Ohio, the second of a family of thirteen children, eight eons and five daughters, viz, George V., Andrew, Elizabeth, Mary, Soloman, Susanna, Teny, Catherine, David, Abraham, twins Samuel and Gideon, and Valentine. Ancestry and Early History The ancestors of Andrew Powell lived in South Wales. It is said that the ancient Welsh family was descended from a Norman knight who accompanied William the Conqueror in the conquest of Britain in 1066. This knight made his home in Wales. Five Powell brothers came to America about 1685 to Camden County, New Jersey. One of the brothers, William Powell, settled near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Andrew Powell Family is in his line, the line being as follows: William Powell; John Powell, who moved to Lancaster County, Pa. in 1736; Philip Powell, 17^3-1821, moved to Berks County, pa., then to Mifflin County, Pa., near McVeytown, about 1795. Peter Powell, I777-I863; Samuel Powell, I8OO-I868; Andrew Powell, l627-19l£. Peter Powell moved from Mifflin County, pa. to Fairfield County, Ohio in Samuel Powell moved from Fairfield Co. to Hancock County, Ohio, in 183^, when Andrew was seven years old, and brother Soloman was the youngest child, two years old. Later that year, Nov. 2nd, sister Susanna was born. She married. Andrew Sager. The Journey evidently was made in a Conestoga wagon with spacious box of curved bottom like a flat bottomed boat. Such a wagon box was still preserved on the home farm in the memory of the writer. Samuel Powell and wife with their brood of five children settled three miles southwest of Flndlay In the woods on the bank of a small stream and built a large log cabin of two stories, front facing the east toward the stream which later the family designated as The Bun or Creek. This house was fronted with a large open porch over which the house clapboard roof extended supported by logs extending from the house sides. The house was built from the surrounding woods, cut, hewn and split suitable for walls, puncheon floor and clapboard shingles. A large fireplace and chimney built of stone and brick occupied the middle of one end, and a rustic ladder led to the upstairs in the north-east corner of the one big room. Later after the old lop house ceased to be occupied an old tool cheat that had a strong musk scent remained on the first floor, and some of the children of Andrew Powell built little play houses In the upstairs story of brick from the chimney. Linwood lumbor from a house that had stood on a remote part of the farm was piled In the house. Near the house were other log buildings, a hen-house and corn crib near the stream, a sheep-shed east across from the stream, vith log poles laid over the clap- board shingles to keep wolves from getting into the sheepfold. These were evidently among the first buildings constructed. Other log buildings vere a large barn, a corn- crib and hen roost over pig pens, located back north of the house. A few rodB beyond these last mentioned buildings ran the road from Flndlay south-vest to LiTBH usually called the Lima road, now Boute No. 25. The Log House was located on rather high ground vith a steep slope to the lover flood ground of the stream. This small slope afforded a place for sled sliding In vinter. Along north of the house ran a ravine vith ditch ending in the main stream or creek. The land first cleared, of course, varfthat surrounding the house, leaving voods to the south, later to be gradually cut back by Andrew and sons till at the present only a small patch of timber Is left by the east bank of the creek next to an adjoining faxn to the south. Life of Andrew Powell Amid these surroundings the boyhood days of Andrew were passed with his numerous I brothers and sisters. Cf these youthful days very little of interest is known. Im- agination can picture the children at play about the house and by the stream, and roving to the woods; but George and Andrew soon were occupied in helping their father clear away the brush and woods and helping with the farm work. In these same sur- roundings, which came into possession of Andrew later, his family was raised, though somewhat changed as time passed, and became dear in memory of later years, just as the "Old Oaken Bucket" poem expresses it: "How dear to ray heart are the scenes of my childhood When fond recollection presents them to view; The orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wildwood And every loved spot which my infancy knew." Andrew was to some extent educated, being somewhat given to reading and possess- ing a fair sized library of books. He could speak Pennsylvania Dutch, handed down by ancestors from Pennnsylvania. He taught a term of country school one vinter. His Marriage and Children "Andrew Powell was married Dec. 21, 18U8 to Phebe Ann Yates, oldest daughter of William Yates. She was born in Richland County, Ohio, Nov. 1, 1830. Their children were: Emily, born Sept. 28, 181*9} Theodore, March 15, 1851; Franklin Pierce, Feb. 12, 1853; Priscilla Catherine, Oct. 26, 185U; Elijah, May 22, 1856, (died Dec. 3, 1870); Roger Sherman, Feb. Hi, 1858." Phebe Ann Powell died Sept. 15, 1859. Father Powell married his second wife, Caroline Dotson of Allen County, Ohio, March 15, i860. She was the daughter of Charles Dotson and was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, Dec. Hi, 1838. She had been living with the John Horn family in Findlay before marriage. Their children were: Sarah Ellen, born June 15, 1861; Ellsworth, Aug. 27, 1862; Charles Dotson, Nov. 27, 1863; Sullivan, March 21, 1865; Huntington, Oct. Ik; 1866; Jennie June, Dec. Hi, 1867; Homer K., Feb. 13, 1869. Caroline Powell died Sept. 1877. Father Fowell's comment on her, as given in Powell Memorial History, was that "She was a good, industrious woman, kind and affec- tionate to her family." His third marriage was to Sarah Ann Longbrake, a widow, March 5» 1878. She was the oldest daughter of Andrew Fellers, and was born Feb. 2U, 18U6 in Hancock County, Ohio. She had been living with her father's family in Wood County, Ohio since the death of her former husband, Harmon Longbrake. Her child- ren by her first husband were: Cora Silva, Minnie Etta and Curtis. The two daughters later joined the Powell family. The third set of children were: Inez May, born Dec. 27, 1878; James Qarfield, Oct. 21, 1881; later a son, still born. Father Powell as a Farmer Andrew Powell and first wife "went to housekeeping in the old log house his father built when he first came to the ceunty and farmed for his father." Here his first set of children were born. Meantime his father had built a two story house, partly log and partly framo, a few rods west and back from the old! log house. In . this house the children of his second wife were born. This was a large house suit- able for the large family of Samuel Powell and also later for Andrew's family, to whom it was willed in 1858, and into which he moved in the spring 6f 1859. The house waa a sort of double with a hallway from front to rear on the first floor be- tween the two parts; the smaller part built of logs boarded over on outside and on inside of first floor. It had a fireplace at one end of the large room which was used as a kitchen. The parents bod occupied a back corner, while several of the -3- younger children slept in a trundlebed which for the day was pushed under the parent's bed. The older children slept upstairs. The larger frame part of the house, entered from the hallway, had a garret or loft to which a stairway led from the second story. A cozy little room fronted the upstairs over the hallway below. The plastered walls of this little room later had many name signatures left by memento minded people.