Ancestors

Martha Jane Young

Martha Jane Young was born in Franklin County, Illinois, on 23 December 1822, by her obituary. The 1850 census gave her birthplace as Tennessee, and the 1860 census as Illinois. Her parents are not named in any known record. A Franklin County birth in 1822 means they were living in the county by then.

She married Isaac Ward at Benton, in Franklin County, on 24 December 1840. It was the day after her eighteenth birthday. The clerk who wrote the return set the groom down as Isaac Word, though he wrote the bride's name correctly.

At twenty she joined the Baptist Missionary Church. The Baptists of that region had split in the 1830s over missions and Sunday schools. The Missionary Baptists supported them, and the Primitive Baptists held against them.

She bore at least eight children in Franklin County. Sarah, the eldest, was born on 3 March 1843. Alfred B. followed about 1844, William P. about 1847, Samuel about 1853, John L. about 1855 and Ester E. about 1858. The 1860 census found all six at home in Benton Township with their parents. Two more daughters and a son, Ed, are known from her obituary. Ester may be one of those two daughters.

Her husband was sheriff of Franklin County from 1864 to 1866. Later in life the family moved west. They were in Butler County, Kansas, by 1880. By July 1895 she and Isaac were living at Shawnee, in Oklahoma Territory. That month the Tecumseh Leader reported: "Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Ward, late of Cross, now residing at Shawnee, spent the front end of the week in our city the guests of their son, Deputy County Treasurer Ed Ward." Tecumseh, the county seat, lies a few miles south of Shawnee. Her eldest daughter Sarah died in January 1896, and Isaac died in 1900.

She died on Friday, 30 October 1908, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. C. R. Furnas, 725 North Louisa, Shawnee. The Shawnee Daily Herald called her a "highly respected old lady" and gave her age as seventy-eight, though her own birth date makes her eighty-five. The funeral was held at two o'clock on the Sunday afternoon at the First Baptist church, and she was buried in Mission Cemetery. A Find a Grave memorial places her in Tecumseh Cemetery instead.

Her obituary lists the children who survived her and where each was living in 1908. Alfred B. and Sam Ward were at Pratt, New Mexico. William P. Ward was at Richmond, Oklahoma, and John L. Ward at Chanute, Kansas. A daughter, Mrs. C. T. Freeman, was at Riverside, California. Another daughter, Mrs. C. R. Furnas, was at Shawnee, and Ed Ward was at Tecumseh.

If Martha Jane Young is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Martha Jane Young (1822-1908)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/martha-jane-young-1822-1908-e3e118.