Benjamin Britton Winans

The information on this page is provided by cousins Glen Richard Winans, and Jay D. Winans, who are descendants of the subject's brother John B. Winans. A lot of what you see here is still speculative. Your comments are welcome.

Benjamin Britton Winans is a great-great-grandson of our common Winans ancestor, via the following line:

• Jan (John) Winans (ca. 1640-ca. 1694) and Susannah Melyn
• John Winans II (1673-1734) and Remember Baldwin
• Lewis Winans (ca. 1716-?) and Lydia Kelsey
• Benjamin Winans (1740?-1842) and Mary Sutton

Birth. On page 12 of her book, Alice Winans Egy Woolley gives Benjamin Britton Winans' birth date as 1775. Orin Winans gives a 1780 birth date for Benjamin B., based on information received from his descendants. Based on available census information, I agree with the 1780 date. The only census record I could find for Benjamin B. gives his birthplace as New Jersey.

Migration to Ohio. Around the beginning of the 19th century, B. B. Winans came to Ohio, along with his father and other Winans families. He acquired 160 acres along with David Carey on the NE corner of section 2, Spring Creek township, Miami county, 15 Feb 1815. This property adjoins that of his father on the SE corner.

The 1820 census lists Benjamin Winans jr. in Brown township, Miami county:

Marriage(s). According to Mrs. Egy's book, Benjamin married Sarah Jane Ross. The 1820 census would place her birth, like Benjamin's, roughly, between 1775 and 1795. It looks as though Ben was also married a second and third time, to judge from the entries we found in the Indiana Marriages through 1850 data base:

This data base was created by transcribing very old, handwritten records. Could the last marriage have been to Anna Kinsey? And is it coincidental, or a typographical error, that both marriages occurred on the 17th day of September?

Children. The 1820 census credits Benjamin and wife with seven children. His daughter-in-law's biography says fourteen children and Mrs. Egy says fifteen, but lists only nine, whom she says aren't necessarily in the right order. It's likely all the children were born in Miami county, Ohio. We list them here in the order given by Mrs. Egy:

• Joseph Ross Winans, born 15 Feb 1817, died 10 Apr 1878. If Joseph is actually the firstborn child, this implies that Benjamin never married until after his service in the War of 1812. But if that is true, who are the seven children listed in his household in 1820?
• Lydia Winans, born 25 Oct ????, died 9 May 1886 in Indiana.
• Samuel Winans, died 9 Jul 1892 in Parsons, Kansas.
• Benjamin Winans.
• Richard Hugh Winans, born about 1823,¹ died 5 Oct 1886 in Decatur Indiana, with whose family B. B. Winans, a 79-year-old farm laborer, born in New Jersey, is listed in the 1860 census for St. Marys township, IN.
• Lewis Winans.
• Elizabeth Winans.
• Jovene or Jane Winans.
• Martha Winans.

Migration to Indiana. The biography of Benjamin's daughter-in-law, Hester (Heaviline) Winans, describes the move of Benjamin and family to Adams county, Indiana:

Benjamin B. Winans came from Miami County, Ohio, to St. Mary's Township in the fall of 1836, bringing a load of goods and entering his land. He left two sons, one daughter and one son-in-law in the new home, then returned to Ohio. In February, the following year, he returned to his home in Indiana, bringing his movable goods, the remainder of his family and his stock...

Although the biography speaks of "fourteen children", by the time the 1840 census was taken in St. Marys township, only six children were listed in the household:

Perhaps, by 1840, the older children had moved out and were recorded elsewhere. Age categories are now more precisely defined on the census form. If Benjamin were indeed born in the latter part of 1780, he would still be in the 50-59-year-old range, while Mrs. Winans' birth year is now established as being in the 1790s, or if she was the same Mrs. Winans as was enumerated in 1820, in the 1790-1795 time span. Interestingly, there are Ross families two and four lines below Benjamin's line, and another Winans on the next page who appears to be B. B.'s son, all of whom we've included in the table above.

In 1850, we couldn't find any trace of Benjamin B. Winans in St. Marys township, although both Rosses were still there, plus a number of Winans households which could include many of B. B.'s children and grandchildren.

Death. Mrs. Egy gives Benjamin Britton Winans' date of death as 20 Dec 1868.