New Hampshire was first settled by Europeans in 1623. It was separated from Massachusetts in 1679.
Most Americans were farmers in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
The American Flag was adopted in 1777.
Abigail Davis Stephens was born on May 8, 1777 which was after her father’s death. She was born in Keene, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. She was the daughter of Captain Isaac Davis and his second wife, Elizabeth Powers Davis Griswold.
When she was 17, she married Robert Stephens (Stevens) on October 9, 1794. Robert was born the same year as the Boston Tea Party on March 5, 1773 in Massachusetts. His parents were Thomas and Prudence Stephens.
Abigail and Robert's children included:
Betsey Stephens Read (1796-1789, married Warren Read),
Thomas Stephens (1798-1869),
Anson Stephens (1800-1857),
Samuel Stephens (1802-1876),
Deborah Stephens Davis Lapham (1805),
Harriet Stephens Plumb (1808-1885, married Miles Plumb),
Armanilla Stephens Klumph (1812-1875, married Nelson Klumph),
Elbridge Whipple Stephens (1814-1894),
Harrison B. Stephens (1816-1869, married Laura V. Tanner), and
Isaac Griswold Stephens (1819-1869, married Fanny K. Sawyer)
In 1814 the Stephens family was living in Onondaga County, New York.
In 1830 they were in Wales, Erie County, New York. The household included a man and a woman between 50 and 59, a man between 20 and 29, a boy and a girl between 15 and 19, and two boys between 10 and 14.
They appeared (Robert Stevens) in the 1850 census in Wales, Erie County, New York. They were living with their son, Harrison, and his family.
Robert died on January 2, 1853.
In 1860, 83 year old Abigail was living in Wales with her son, Harrison, and his family.
Abigail died on August 9, 1863 in Wales, Erie County, New York. They are buried there in Goodleberg Cemetery with other family members.
Keene, Cheshire County, New Hampshire was settled after 1736 and was a fort protecting Massachusetts during the French and Indian Wars. It was called Upper Ashuelot. When New Hampshire separated from Massachusetts in 1741 it became Keene, New Hampshire.
During King George's War, the village was attacked and burned.
Women played an essential role in American society as mothers and homemakers.
In the War of 1812 (1812-1815) the United States declared war on England because of trade restrictions, impressment, and British support for Indian attacks. They signed the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814 after reaching a stalemate.
Robert Stevens and his wife, Abigail Davis, lived in Wales, Erie Co., N. Y. Their children (order uncertain) were: Betsy, Anson, Thomas, Samuel, Deborah, Harriet, Armavilla, Elbridge, Harrison. The six sons were all farmers.
Of the four daughters,
Betsy married Warren Read, about 1820; Deborah married Davis;
Harriet married Miles Plumb, Couneaut, Ohio, later moved to Michigan;
Armavilla, born 1811, married Nelson Klumph, in Detroit, and her daughter, Mrs. John Foster, gives us these facts. Mrs. Foster lives in Dearborn (Detroit). She is blind, but active and full of interesting memories. from Read Genealogies
from Read Genealogies
Warren Read, son of Israel (1), born Mar. 27th, 1799, in Herkimer Co., N. Y., died in Detroit, Dec. 24th or 26th, 1872. Buried there. He married, about 1820, Betsey Stephens, daughter of Robert Stephens and Abigail Davis. She died in Detroit. Mar., 1879, aged 84. We have little record of this family, but Betsey Stephens' niece, Mrs. Foster, gives from memory, the following: That they had eight children, seven of whom were born in Wales, N. Y., the last one in Detroit; that five of them died nearly at the same time of scarlet fever. Their names she does not recall, only that there was one pair of twins...
The loss of their children and other reasons led them to move to Detroit, about 1840, where he had a farm at "Spring Wells" then about five miles out, but now all in Detroit. For a few years they lived at Waterloo, Iowa, then came back to Detroit. After he was too old to work they lived by turns with their children. His last days, after her death, were with Angeline Lonyo, and he is buried in Detroit.
Warren Reed was intensely patriotic, and so anxious to serve his country that at the age of 63 he enlisted in Co. A, 37 Iowa Infantry, Nov. 15th, 1862, but was discharged with honor, for illness, May 20th, 1863. He could not stand the strain of a soldier's life. His grandson, Andrew Lonyo, has the discharge paper. His description was: Height, 5 feet 10 inches; light complexion; blue eyes; light hair; farmer.
Scarlet fever is a rash that is caused by strep infections.
Diseases have transformed history and the lives of our ancestors.
