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An American Family History

Temperance Fox
Loudoun County is part of Northern Neck of Virginia. Settling of the Loudoun area began between 1725 and 1730 while it was owned by Lord Fairfax. Settlers came from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. For more than two centuries, agriculture, especially growing tobacco, was the dominant way of life in Loudoun County.
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Temperance Fox was born about 1769 in Pennsylvania according to the 1850 mortality index.

She married Bonham Fox before 1794. Their children and life together are described in the section on Bonham and Temperance Fox.

Her daughter, Mary Fox Green's obituary said that

on the way [to Ohio], her [Mary Fox's] father [Bonham] was taken sick and her mother [Temperance], unaided, managed the boat and took care of the young children and stock, landing below Cincinnati. In passing the site of that city, she was offered a hundred acres of land along the river, where the city is now built, for a barrel of whiskey, but declined the trade.

She became a widow when her husband died in September, 1825.  Temperance was the administratrix of her husband's estate.  According to the probate records she received the items in the lists below. Married women at that time could not own property in their own names.

Separate schedule of the property that is allowed  by law to the widow to wit       
2 bed and bedding  $20.00
All the yarn in possession 09.00 2
pots or kettles 02.00 6?
Sheep  06.00
His wear Apearel 02.00 2
wheels  02.00
One cow  10.00
One year provison 51.00
Two hoggs 04.50
One hefer for Beef 05.00
One seventy five busel of corn 09.37 3/1
[Total] 69.87 2/1


A Separate Schedule of the fifteen Dollars
allowed the widow by law to wit
                        
One pot $.50
One skillet 0.37 3/1
One teakittle 0.37 3/1
Cowherd Afoirs?? 2.00
One old axe  0.50
One smooing (sic) iron 0.25
One pair of sheepshears 0.25
One coffy pot 0.12 3/1
One tin bucket 0.12  3/1
Five chairs 0.37 2/1
One trunk 1.00
One table 2.00
Two barrels 0.50
One saddle 0.50
One trammel [A trammel is a shackle used to teach a horse to amble] 1.00
One shovel 0.25
One pair of gears 0.75
One tub 0.21
[total] $11.06 2/1
Samuel Johnson
John Walker Mark
John Y. Eckles

She was listed in the 1830 census in Rossville, St. Clair , Butler County. She was between 60 and 70. 

She was not listed as a head of household in the 1840 census.

She died in April, 1850 in St. Clair Township, Butler County, Ohio.
Children of Temperance
and Bonham Fox
  • Levi Fox, Sr.
  • Mary Fox Green
  • Christina Fox Riley
  • David Fox
  • Jonathan Fox
  • Isaac P. Fox

    • During the 17th and 18th centuries an adult unmarried woman was considered to have the legal status of feme sole, while a married woman had the status of feme covert. A feme sole could own property and sign contracts. A feme covert was not recognized as having legal rights and obligations distinct from those of her husband and could not own any property. When a woman became a widow she became a feme sole again.

     

    Temperance's maiden name may have been Dickerson. If Jonathan Fox were her son, William Reynolds' biography, indicates that she was a Dickerson.

    She was born in 1769 in Pennsylvania.

    John Dickerson, Joshua Dickerson, and Thomas Dickerson signed 1776 petitions in Washington County.

    In 1786 John Dickerson, Henry Dickerson, Ruth Dickerson, and Gideon Dickerson were in Amwell , Washington County.

    Temperance married about 1794 in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

    In 1800 Henry, Joseph, Joshua, Lydia, and Ruth Dickerson were in Morris, Washington, Pennsylvania.
    Washington County, Pennsylvania, was created from a portion of Westmoreland and Fayette County in 1781. Originally it was a part of Virginia. There were many boundary disputes among the early settlers until the firm boundary lines were established in 1794. Washington County split into Allegheny, Greene and Beaver Counties.
     

    Dickerson Families of Washington County, Pennsylvania

    from Historical Collections of Harrison County by Charles Augustus Hanna

    John Dickerson and Henry Dickerson settled in Amwell (now Franklin) township, Washington county, before 1780,

    John Dickerson apparently having come from Dunbar (now Tyrone) township, Fayette county, where his name appears on the tax-list in 1772, and where Joshua Dickerson (1740-1827) had settled about 1770; Joshua and John were doubtless brothers, and Henry may have been a third brother, although more probably the son of John.

    John Dickerson d. in Washington county in 1785 (before March), leaving a widow, Ruth (d. before December, 1807), and children, of whom the following were mentioned in his will, written more than seven years before his death:
    1. Susannah;
    2. Henry (may have been the Henry mentioned below);
    3. Gideon, d. unm. September November, 1789;
    4. Baruch;
    5. Asa, d. January. 1794; m. Lydia (had issue: i. John; ii. William, d. 1860; m. (1st) Sarah Jolly; m. (2d) Martha Clark);
    6. Drusilla

    Henry Dickerson, of Morris township. d. before Aug. 13. 1825; m. Ann; had issue:
    1. Joshua, b. in Washington county, May 3, 1781; d. April 30, 1853, m. (1st) Margaret McPherson; m. (2d) Cornelia Craig (had issue:
    i. Joshua D.;
    ii. Nancy;
    iii. Alexander;
    iv. John, b. April 13, 1810; d. April 10, 1865; m. [1st] Mary Adams, daughter of Robert; m. [2d] Mary Johnson;
    v. Jane, m. Samuel Walters; vi. Ruth, m. Lewis Barker;
    vii. Henry;
    viii. Lydia, m. Howard Trusell;
    ix. Margaret, m. William Hazlett;
    x. Matilda);
    2. George;
    3. Gideon Dickerson, m. Eliza Gunn, and removed to Ohio;
    4. Henry, m. Catharine Beck, and removed to Illinois;
    5. Leonard, m. Susan Wolf, and removed to Ohio;
    6. Asa;
    7. Margaret, m. :— McLaughlin;
    8. Ruth, m. Reynolds.

    Joshua Dickerson, b. 1740; d. in Fayette county, Penn., Oct. 10, 1827; came from New Jersey; settled on what is now called Dickerson's Run, in Dunbar township, near East Liberty, Fayette county, Penn., about 1770: here, in 1780, he built a grist-mill on the site of the mill now owned by the Oglevee brothers; from this settlement and its vicinity emigrated to Harrison county the families of Dunlap, Oglevee, Barricklow, Rankin, and others;

    Joshua Dickerson had six sons. Thomas, William, John, Joshua, Levi, and Eli, all of whom removed to Ohio near the beginning of the present century. Joshua Dickerson also had, among other daughters, one, Sarah, who m. Samuel Dunlap; of the sons
    Eli, b. 1768; d. in Harrison county, Nov. 24, 1834; m. Mary , b. 1776; d. April 28, 1831.
    Thomas Dickerson, b. May 19, 1764; d. Dec. 24, 1852:
    Joshua, b. in Fayette county, Penn.; d. April 12, 1850

    		  

     

         

    ©Roberta Tuller 2012
    tuller.roberta@gmail.com