Stephen Winans,
his wives and their other husbands

This is my attempt to sort out some of the facts available to me on certain ancestors who lived in Ohio's Miami County in the early 19th Century. It may help clarify who was who, and who married whom and when...

My great great great grandfather, Stephen Winans, was born 26 Mar 1774 in New Jersey, probably in the area around Elizabeth, or as it was known then, Elizabeth Town. He was a descendant of John Winans, who immigrated to the New World from the Netherlands in about 1664. Stephen's parents, Samuel and Hannah (Woodruff) Winans, migrated to the Miami Valley about 1807, along with numerous members of the Winans and other related families. Hannah Woodruff was a member of a prominent New Jersey family whose roots have been traced back into English history for several generations prior to their arrival in America. I hope to present additional information on the Woodruffs in the near future.

First wife - Lottie. Stephen Winans was married 24 Mar 1799 in Rahway, NJ, to his second cousin, Charlotte (Lottie) Marsh, who was born 20 May 1781 in Rahway. See the end of this page for a list of Stephen and Lottie's children. I have no information as to when Lottie Winans died.

On 30 Jul 1829, Stephen married a woman who was listed in my files as Susan Kimball. Until recently, the only information I had on Susan was that she was "the daughter of Dr. Orbison Kimball". On 6 Sep 1847, Stephen was married a third time, to Hannah Freeman, who was born 6 Sep 1777 in New Jersey. According to my notes on her record in my PAF data base, "Hannah was married 1st to Anthony Winans, and 2nd to ..... Anderson." This information is repeated in Mrs. Egy's book, probably because she derived it from the same sources as I did.

Hannah died 18 Feb 1851 in Ohio, less than a year after Stephen, who passed on 11 Jun 1850, "near Troy, Ohio". Stephen lived barely long enough to be mentioned in the 1850 census which specified a "census day" of 1 June. His name was recorded 14 Aug 1850 in the household of his granddaughter Sarah (Scudder) and her husband James McMullen.

Up to this point, my story is based on information passed down to me through the Carey family, mostly through the research of Col. Warren E. Carey, my father's first cousin. Warren had available to him some correspondence which his father, Rev. George E. Carey, and my grandfather, Samuel Winans Carey, had carried on early in the Twentieth Century with Maj. Ira Winans, who was trying to compile a complete history of the Winans family in America. Marriage dates were taken from the Miami County marriage licenses on file at Troy, Ohio.

Uncle George was the pastor, from about 1914 to 1920, of the Raper Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, which is located on the north edge of Troy along the Troy-Piqua Pike. It was built about 1845 on land belonging to some of the Winans pioneers. Family tradition had it that some of George's Carey and Winans ancestors were buried there, but even during George's time as pastor, many of the gravestones were illegible and no records existed at the church of who had been buried in its graveyard. George was interested in his family's history and corresponded with Ira Winans in an effort to learn more about our ancestors. Raper Chapel was razed in 1937. When I visited the cemetery in 1993, most of the tombstones were too badly weathered for me to read. I could barely make out "Winans" on a few very old ones.

After connecting to the World Wide Web in 1997, I began to discover a wealth of additional information on my Ohio ancestors. Some was through data bases and indices which volunteers had copied and posted online. Other information was exchanged with people who turned out to be distant cousins of mine. I was also provided a list of tombstone inscriptions from the Raper Chapel cemetery by Kennie Moore, who lives about a mile from there. The list, which is now online, was compiled many years ago, when more inscriptions were legible than now. The following inscriptions are of interest here:

Winans, Stephen, d. 11 Jun 1850, age 76-2-15
Winans, Susanna, d.  3 Jul 1846, age 70-2-25

Second wife - Susan. Stephen's dates agree perfectly with what I already had. In fact, the information in my files may once have been read off his tombstone by Warren Carey. This Susanna would quite likely be the "Susan" whom I had listed as his second wife. At least the date of her death fit in, being a year before the date of Stephen's marriage to his third and last wife, Hannah.

During 1998, I heard from Anne Georges, who told me "I am a descendant of Isabella Kimble the daughter of Susannah Winans and _____ Kimble and am looking for more information on Isabella's parents. Isabella was born @ 1800 and Susannah about 1774..." This would seem to be the same person as John Winans' second wife. Anne speculated that "Winans may have been the name of her second husband. I was told that she is buried in Miami Co. at Raper Chapel. Another person working on this line of the family said Susannah might have come from PA and that she might have been married to an Arbusson, too..." After receiving this information from Anne, I searched the Miami Valley Genealogy Index and found the following entries:

.........NAME.......|Key|Year|Src |Book|Page|Relevant
--------------------+---+----+----+----+----+---------------
Kimble, Susannah    |M  |1817|Marr|    |WPA |Orbison, John
Orbison, Susan      |M  |1829|Marr|    |WPA |Winans, Stephen
Winans, Hannah      |M  |1847|Marr|    |WPA |Winans, Stephen
Orbison, John  s/Tom|D  |1827|Gene|501 |134 |near Troy OH

The first two entries almost certainly pertain to Stephen Winans' second wife and the next to his third wife. Susan, or Susanna, or Susannah, was married first to a Mr. Kimble, then in 1817 to John Orbison who died in 1827, then finally in 1829 to Stephen. Other information in the Index indicates that Orbison may have been born about 1750, although there were apparently several John Orbisons. So the "Dr. Orbison Kimball" in my notes was most likely a garble of Susannah's first two husbands' last names.

But what was Susan's maiden name? It wasn't until March 1999 that I found the answer to that question. At that time, I was contacted by Ginny Core, who informed me,

I am searching for the family of Samuel Clark and wife Rachel. One of their children, Susannah Clark married (1) Samuel Kimble (2) John Orbison (3) Stephen Winans...

Samuel Kimble died Miami OH. I have him born abt 1771 PA. (no sources for this except family bible) He married Susannah Clark Sept. 1, 1810 ... Susannah Clark born 1 Oct. 1774 in ?? Died 3 Jul. 1846 Miami OH Burial: Raper Chapel, Miami OH. Daughter of Samuel Clark and Rachel ?? Married: (1) Samuel Kimble, (2) John Orbison Jan 9 1817, ... (3) Stephen Winans June 30 1829 ... Susan Winans died July 3, 1846 and this source says she was born April 1776. Buried at Raper Chapel Cemetery... 1817, Jan 9: Susannah Kimble married John Orbison... 1829, June 30: Susan Orbison married Stephen Winans. The source for the above information is: Nancy B. Wall, 7255 W. Cox Rd., Pleasant Hill, OH 45359...

So, if the information provided by Ginny and Anne is accurate, our mysterious Susannah's first husband's name was Samuel Kimble. Although there were plenty of Kimbles and Kimballs, there's no mention of him anywhere in the Index, so she may have married Samuel elswhere and moved to Miami County to rejoin her parents or other relatives after his death, which may or may not have occurred in Ohio. And Susannah was actually a Clark. That figures! The Clarks were one of several families that migrated from the Elizabeth, NJ, area to the Miami Valley at about the same time. They were intermarried with the Winans, Careys and several other surnames that I have all over my family tree. At the moment, we don't have any information which would connect Susannah Clark, or her father, Samuel Clark, to any of the Clarks from NJ. Since Clark is such a common surname, and since Susannah seems to have had several children in PA, the Clark surname could be coincidental.

Ginny, who is descended from Dorothy Kimbel, lists the following offspring for Samuel and Susannah Kimble:

1. Anna Kimbel. She married Henry Dollinson 30 Dec 1824 in Miami Co., OH.
2. Martha Kimbel. She married William Collins 23 Sep 1830 in Miami Co., OH.
3. Chloe Kimbel, born 1789 in Miami Co., OH; died 28 Dec 1850 in Miami Co., OH. She married (1) Benjamin Hamlet. She married (2) Isaac Bogart Abt. 1836. Buried Raper chapel, Miami Co., OH.
4. Dorothy Kimbel, born 1794 in PA; died 1876.
5. Edward B. Kimbel, born 04 Nov 1797 in PA ?; died 04 Jan 1855 in Troy, Miami Co., OH.
6. Isabel Kimbel [Anne George's ancestor], born 03 Mar 1800; died 29 Jul 1858 in Clinton, OH. She married William H. McKenzie 21 May 1820 in Miami Co., OH.
7. Mary S. Kimbel. She married Henry Hurley 07 Aug 1817 in Miami Co., OH.

Some of the birthplace information given above may not be correct, i.e. Chloe pretty definitely wasn't born in Miami County, which was still wilderness in 1789.

Later, in July 2004, just to complicate matters, we received an abstract of a will which researcher Sandi Evilsizer Kocsak looked up in the Miami county wills book. It throws into doubt the identity of Susannah as the widow of John Orbison:

Orbison, John
Pg 60 dated Nov 2, 1827 recorded Dec term 1827
Wife Elizabeth; farm in Rockbridge Co, Va to be sold; to William McCampbell; g. dau Eliza McCampbell; ch of my son Thomas Orbison, viz. Casandra Mansfield, late Casandra Orbison, Samuel, William, Elizabeth and Jane.
Exec; sons Thomas and Henry Orbison
Wit: Robert Young, Israel Rollin, Jacob Julin

Is this the John Orbison who we believe married Susan Kimble? His will date certainly matches the death date we had. We welcome any answers our fellow researchers might provide.

Third wife - Hannah. And what about Stephen Winans' third wife Hannah Freeman? Until March 2001, I wasn't sure who she was. Then I heard from a descendant of Henry Freeman, Stephen Freeman Moeser. Steve mentioned that Henry's younger sister, Hannah, had married an Anthony Winans "about 1800". I did some searching in my PAF data base and found an Anthony Winans who was Stephen's first cousin and whose wife's name was Hannah Freeman. I had two entries for Hannah in my files without ever knowing it! Hannah was listed in both places with the same birth dates, but one death date was given as 17 Feb 1851. Anthony was born 18 Oct 1771 and died 16 Apr 1843. He was the son of Samuel Winans' older brother James, and Elizabeth (Clawson) Winans. End of mystery!

According to Steve, "The 1850 Federal Census for Washington Township, Ohio lists a Hannah Winans, 73, born in New Jersey, living in the household of Henry Freeman, 76, born in New Jersey, and his wife, Elizabeth, 65, born in Pennsylvania."

And what about Hannah's "second husband", Mr. Anderson? Steve has solved that mystery, also. There wasn't any! Hannah's father, James Freeman, died before she was born. Hannah's mother, Catherine Brooks, married a John Anderson who helped Catherine raise her six children. John Anderson was the only father Hannah ever knew, hence she was known as Hannah Anderson while she was growing up. Anthony Winans was Hannah's first husband, and Stephen Winans was her second and last.

While preparing this page, I acquired Orin Clifford Winans' Winans Family Genealogy. The following sketch of Stephen Winans appeared on page 291:

Born March 28, 1774; died June 11, 1850, buried in Raper Chapel Cemetery, Miami County, Ohio; married (1st), on March 24, 1799, to Charlotte March [sic], a second cousin; married (2nd) to Susan Frazee; married (3rd) to Hannah Winans, widow of his cousin Anthony Winans. Data on family of Stephen is incomplete. Major Ira Winans relates that Stephen was father of 10 children, born May 2, 1800, and later. He names Stephen Jr. as the 6th child, and Frazee March as the 9th child. Samuel, father of Stephen, in his will, names as "children of my son Stephen", the following (order of birth and name of mother unknown):

Children of Stephen and _____ _____:

• SARAH Winans
• HANNAH Winans
• STEPHEN Winans
• FRAZEE Winans
• CHARLOTTE Winans

I don't know what evidence O. C. Winans had for his statement that the second wife's name was "Susan Frazee". In view of his own admission that his data on Stephen's family was "incomplete" and his lack of knowledge as to who was the mother of these children, we shouldn't place too much trust in the information just quoted.

Children. The following are Stephen and Charlotte's children, according to Warren Carey's research, Anna Cora Enyart's 1911 letter, and further information I have located via the internet:

1. Samuel Winans, b 20 May 1800, Rahway, NJ, d 23 Apr 1879, Elkhart, IN. Married Mary A. Taylor. (Wife's last name supplied by Mrs. Egy.)
2. William Marsh Winans, b 4 Sep 1801, Elizabeth, NJ, d 10 Sep 1873, Columbus, IN. Married (1) ?, (2) Rebecca Chatman, (3) Lucinda Terwilliger.
3. Sarah Winans, b 3 Jan 1803,¹ NJ, d 15 Aug 1871. Married Cummings Scudder.
4. Mary Hannah Winans, my g-g-grandmother, b 7 May 1806, NJ, d 28 Jul 1882, Piqua, OH. Married Benjamin Clark Carey.
5. Stephen Winans, b 2 Aug 1810, NJ, d 14 May 1885, Sweetland, CA. Married Eliza Johnston.
6. Frazee Marsh Winans, b abt 1813,² NJ, d 8 Mar 1884, Monroe county, MI. Married Emeline _____.
7. Charlotte Winans, b 22 Jan 1816, Newark, NJ. Married (1) John Wylie, (2) Harvey Barnes Pierce.
8. Her twin, Susannah Winans, who married Enos Hathaway.
9. Catherine Winans, b 4 Oct 1819 in NJ, d 27 Mar 1903 in Defiance county, OH. Married (1) Hiram Acus. (2) John J. Russell.³
10. Margaret Winans. May have died in childhood.

All of the above children, except William and Margaret, were listed in their grandfather Samuel Winans' will, which was written in 1828.

Arrival in Ohio? I once thought Stephen and Lottie Winans had migrated to Ohio about 1807. I doubted whether all their children could have been born in New Jersey as was claimed in various sources. As I acquired more information on this family, I realized it's likely they didn't move to Ohio until several years after other Winans family members.

One complication in trying to identify any Winans in census records or other public documents is the repeated use of certain common first names such as Samuel, Stephen, Sarah, John, Mary, etc. If we've confused two such Winans with each other in this analysis, all bets are off!

Another factor which complicates our attempt to pin down their migration time is the lack of 1810 U. S. census data for either Ohio or New Jersey, or 1820 data for New Jersey. My inability to locate a Stephen Winans in Ohio in 1820 doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't there yet. As we often remind you in these pages, census information is helpful, but often incomplete or inaccurate. But there's no other legal record of Stephen being in Ohio until he was enumerated in Staunton township in 1827 in a local census. We'll examine some census records of Stephen and Lottie's children, in search of clues to when they moved West:

• Samuel. The 1860 census in Elkhart county, IN, gives Samuel's age as 60 and his state of birth as New Jersey. This isn't surprising!
• William. Nor is it surprising that William's 1860 Miami county entry lists him as 58 years old and born in NJ, also.
• Sarah. Her 1850 census record, from Miami county, gives her age as 47 and her birth state as NJ.
• Hannah. All four census records for my great-great-grandmother give her birth state as NJ and are consistent with an 1806 birth date. Her 15 Sep 1825 marriage to Ben Carey was recorded in Miami county, which establishes the latest possible date for this family's coming to Ohio.
• Stephen's 1850 Miami county census record gives his age as 40 and his birth state as NJ. This is contradicted by his 1860 record, also from Miami county, which gives 50-year-old Stephen's birth state as OH!
• Frazee is listed in the 1860 Monroe county, MI, census as 47 years old and born in NJ.
• Charlotte. I found a "Harvey B. Pierce" (56) and "Charlett" (45) in Bloomfield township, LaGrange county, IN, in 1860, along with 3 children, all born in OH. Two of the children may be Harvey's by an earlier marriage, while the information given on the third child agrees with Mrs. Egy's data. Charlett is said to be "In the Insane Asylum at Indianapolis". This woman's age is close enough to what we have for Charlotte Winans, and her husband and daughter seem to have the right names. The birth state listed would imply that the Winans family was already in Ohio by 1816, but if Charlotte was really away in an insane asylum, she may not have been answering the census taker's questions herself!
• Catherine's 1860 Defiance county, OH, census record gives her age as 38 and birth state as NJ; her 1880 census record from the same place gives her birthplace as NJ, but her age as 60, which is more consistent with the late 1819 birth date given for her at the Hinds site.

In view of the evidence presented above, it would appear that Stephen and Lottie Winans and their children didn't move from New Jersey until some time between Catherine's birth in late 1819 and Hannah's wedding in 1825.

I welcome additional information on Stephen Winans and his family and will update this page whenever it is received.