Lake County IN Archives History - Books .....Chapter III Memorial Sketches Of Early Settlers - New Hampshire Settlement 1904 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com November 21, 2006, 11:47 pm Book Title: Encyclopedia Of Genealogy And Biography Of Lake County, Indiana New Hampshire Settlement. JOSEPH A. LITTLE, son of Captain Thomas Little, was the seventh in descent from George Little who came from London to Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1640. The given names of his ancestors were, George, Moses, Tristam, Enoch, Jesse, Thomas. The names of sixty-five hundred descendants of George Little have been collected. The family of Thomas Little came into the then open and wild and beautiful center of Lake Prairie, and with the Gerrish, Ames, Peach, Plumer, and Morey families, formed what was known as the New Hampshire Settlement. The Wason family was soon added to the number. Joseph A. Little was born in Merrimack county, New Hampshire, May 24, 1830. In 1859 he was married to Miss Mary Gerrish. He became a successful farmer and large wool-grower, keeping large flocks of fine wool sheep. He represented Lake county in the Indiana Legislature in 1886 and 1887, secured excellent farms for his sons in the Kankakee lowlands, and was laid aside from a life of activity and usefulness by the messenger, death, February 19, 1892. In the records of the Association of Old Settlers his name is inerasibly written. He had three sons and three daughters. ABIEL GERRISH, one of those men of mature age who came from New Hampshire to Lake county, was also the seventh in descent from Captain William Gerrish, who settled in Newbury. Massachusetts, in 1639. The given names of the men in this line are: William, Moses, Joseph, who had thirteen children, and who was accustomed to swim across the Merrimack River near its mouth every year till he was over seventy years of age, Stephen, Henry, Henry, Jr., and Abiel, who came to Lake Prairie. He was born March 7, 1806; at Boscawen, New Hampshire. His mother was Mary Foster, daughter of Hon. Abiel Foster, of Canterbury, and her mother was Mary Rogers, daughter of Rev. Daniel Rogers, of Exeter, New Hampshire, who was the sixth in descent from John Rogers, of London, who was burned at Smithfield, February 14, 1555, the first martyr in the reign of the "bloody Queen Mary." The first was one of those "small children," as represented in that pictured group upon which so many New England children have looked, who on that dark day in England's history stood with their mother near the martyr's stake. The second was Rev. John Rogers, of Dedham, who died in 1639. The third was Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, who came to America in 1636. The fourth was John Rogers, President once of Harvard College. The fifth was Rev. John Rogers, of Ipswich. The sixth was Rev. Daniel Rogers, of Exeter. The seventh, in this line, was his daughter Mary Rogers. The eighth was Mary Gerrish, wife of Henry Gerrish, who had five daughters and two sons. And the ninth was the younger of these sons, Abiel Gerrish, who became a citizen of the county of Lake, a descendant of a noted martyr and also of a long line of worthy ancestors. His wife, a very devoted Christian woman, died in September, 1881, the two having celebrated in 1880 their golden wedding anniversary, and he died in June, 1884. They had one son and five daughters. One daughter became the wife of Hon. Joseph A. Little, and still lives in the prairie home. The head of another of these seven New Hampshire families was SAMUEL AMES. His descent is from Jacob Ames, of Canterbury, New Hampshire. His son was Samuel Ames, born in 1724. His oldest son was Joseph Ames, born in 1771. One of his six sons was Samuel Ames, who came to Lake Prairie, who was born July 14, 1813, in New Hampshire. He represented Lake county in the Legislature some years ago. His son, Edward P. Ames, lives in Hammond. He died a few years ago at Elkhart, where Mrs. Ames and his only daughter now reside. REV. H. WASON, who spent many active years in pastoral life in West Creek township, after retiring from the responsibilities of a pastor's duties, gave quite a little attention to farming along with his one son, and he too was chosen by the voters of the county to represent them at Indianapolis. It was certainly creditable to the majority of the citizens of the county that they sent three such thoroughly religious men, in the course of a few years, from the same not large neighborhood, men of New England birth and New England training, to represent them in the Legislature. Such men as citizens are everywhere valuable. The readers of these memorials must have noticed how many of the earlier settlers were of New England and so of English descent. WILLEY.—Another pioneer from the State of New York was GEORGE WILLEY. He was born in Connecticut, April 3, 1814, but when four years of age his home was removed to the State of New York. His father was Jeremiah Willey, of Connecticut, born in 1777, and his grandfather was David Willey, both bearing Bible names, as did so many of the children of New England. George Willey, brought up in the State of New York, receiving the training of the New York schools, well informed in regard to some of the higher institutions of learning in that State, was married in 1835 to Miss Cynthia Nash, and came with her and a party of settlers in 1838 to the western limit of Lake county. He made his home near the present Klassville, in what was West Creek township but is now in Hanover. George Almeron Willey, the one living son, has a home now in St. Louis. His oldest daughter, Mrs. John Fisher, resides in Crown Point. Two other daughters are living, but not in Indiana. The family removed from the farm many years ago, and Mr. Willey erected a spacious dwelling house near Crown Point, where his life closed April 5, 1884, while he was Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements for the Semi-Centennial celebration of the county. He was seventy years of age. He had taken a good interest in the jubilee celebration, and would have enjoyed it had he lived. JEREMIAH WIGGINS was an early settler where is now Merrillville, but the exact date of his settlement seems not to be known. He gave name to the woodland where he made his claim, which for some time was known as Wiggins' Point. Southwest from it, across the prairie, was Brown's Point, and at the south, across the prairie about five miles distant from Wiggins' Point, there grew up in the edge of the woodland, Crown Point. J. Wiggins probably came in 1836. In 1837 his claim passed into the hands of E. Saxton. He was with Mr. Saxton in 1838 and soon disappears from any of the county records. He seems to have been a lone man without much connection with any one, but that he was living in 1838 is abundantly certain. TAYLOR, EDGERTON, PALMER.—In 1836 a quite large family connection commenced a settlement on the east side of the Red Cedar Lake where were then many cedar trees. The head of this family was OBADIAH TAYLOR, born in Massachusetts, who removed to New York, afterward to Pennsylvania, and came at last to Lake county, an aged man, where he died in 1839. A son, ADONIJAH TAYLOR, born in New York in 1792, was one of these early settlers; HORACE TAYLOR, another son, born in 1801, was also one of this group; HORACE EDGERTON, a son-in-law, having lived for some years in Pennsylvania, was a third of these men; each of these having several children, and all, with the family of Mrs. Miranda Stillson, a daughter of Obadiah Taylor, and the family of JAMES PALMER, a son-in-law, born in Connecticut, a soldier in the War of 1812, but coming later than the others into this county, forming the large Cedar Lake and then Creston community. These who have been named,, active and useful in their day, have passed away, and some of their children, as Albert Taylor, Obadiah Taylor, Amos Edgerton and Alfred Edgerton, have grown old in this county and followed their fathers into the unseen world. Also DeWitt Clinton Taylor, born in 1826, died some years ago, not very aged then. But there remain grandchildren and great-grandchildren, members sufficient in these lines to hand these names down to other generations. Those who have gone will be remembered by what they have done. Of New England stock, they were not idlers in the world's great workshop. Many family lines have been traced back for several generations by the inhabitants of this county. Among others is the line of WISE or WEISE. Before 1750, the date not known, the ancestors of the present Wise family came to Pennsylvania. John George Weise and his wife, Mrs. Eve Weise, were living in that State in Philadelphia county, where was born, December 23, 1751, a son, Adam Weise. For a given name his parents could go no further back in the world's history. The family were members of the Evangelical Lutheran church. Adam Weise was married February 2, 1772, to Margaret Elizabeth Wingard. February 1, 1799, he was commissioned by the Governor Justice of the Peace, one sentence in the rather lengthy and peculiar commission being "To have and to hold this Commission, and the Office hereby granted unto you the said Adam Wise so long as you shall behave yourself well." As "he remained in office," so the record says, "thirty-four years, or until his death in 1833," it is evident that he did behave himself well. It appears also that the Governor gave to his name at that time the English form which most of the family have since retained. Adam Wise was, when he died, October 5, 1833, in the eighty-second year of his age, and had eleven children, sixty-three grandchildren, and one hundred and thirty-three great-grandchildren, and it is claimed that his descendants are now in nearly every state of the Union. The Wise family is not one to become extinct. JACOB WISE., a grandson of this Adam Wise, a son of John George Wise, became a citizen of this county in 1849. His father, John George Wise, died at his home in Winfield township in 1859. John George was born in 1786. He had six sons. Jacob Wise, the Lake county settler, was born January 20, 1817. In his Winfield home he was a farmer, a brick-maker, a teacher of vocal music, a township Trustee, a very useful, upright, valuable citizen. He spent his last years as a retired farmer in Crown Point, he and his wife both interested in the Association of Old Settlers, in the meetings of the North Street Baptist church, near which church building was his home, and in the general good of society. He died November 9, 1895, about eighty years of age, and his wife died in March, 1904, a very kindly, noble woman. Many children and grandchildren are living. FULLER.—Another large family must have some mention here. JAMES FULLER, with more means than many of the early settlers had, came to the county about 1840. He had nine sons and one daughter, perhaps more than one. The daughter was married to Abram Nichols. Names of sons and number of their children:—Oliver Fuller, four sons four daughters. James Fuller, one son. Aaron Fuller, six children. Archibald Fuller, four sons and four daughters. Frank Fuller, two sons and seven daughters. Benjamin Fuller, one son and two daughters. Richard Fuller, five sons and six daughters. Woodbury Fuller, two sons. John M. Fuller, five sons and three daughters. In all fifty-six. Three of the nine sons named above are now living in the county. How many descendants there are now of James Fuller of 1840 has not been reckoned up. The great-grandchildren would make of themselves alone quite a group. Additional Comments: Extracted from: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Genealogy and Biography OF LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA, WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 1834—1904 A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. REV. T. H. BALL OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO NEW YORK THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1904 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/lake/history/1904/encyclop/chapteri164nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/infiles/ File size: 12.4 Kb