Amzi Doolittle (1803 - 1878)

Born 16 Jun 1803 in Nelson, Madison, New York

Ancestors

Husband of Phoebe (White) Doolittle — married 20 Jun 1824 in Sangamon County, Illinois, USA

Husband of Sarah Mirah (Welsh) Doolittle — married 15 Mar 1846 in Hancock County, Illinois, USA

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jillaine Smith [send private message]

Biography

"Amzi (Luther’s son) came to Illinois , Hancock County where he was actually quite the pioneer. He accumulated great wealth. He married Pheobe White. She passed away and he then married Sarah Welch... he had lots of children but most did not survive. He built the first house in Burlington, Iowa just across the river and slightly north of Hancock county. It was before Iowa was open for settlement however and he was run out by Jefferson Davis. Once the territory was open, Amzi had already established himself on the Illinois side and wanted to stay there. He ran a ferry across the river at Niota, Ill to Ft. Madison, IA.^[1]

From 1850, Amzi and his family lived in Hancock County, Illinois.

1850: Hancock Co., IL (living next door to a Luther Doolittle, 23-- probably his son).^[2]

• Amzi Doolittle, 48, ferryman, b. NY
• Sarah M., 35, b. Tenn?
• Milton, 20, engineer, b. IL
• Minerva, 15, b. IL [where is Oliver Perry this age?]
• Sarah, 13, b. IL
• Charles, 12, b. IL
• John P. 3, b. IL

1860:^[3]

• Amzi Doolittle, 57, farmer, b. NY
• Sarah, 44, b. TN
• Charles, 22, b. IL
• John, 12, b. IL
• Mary, 5, b. IL
• William, 1, b. IL

1870:^[4]

• Doolittle, Amzi, 67, farmer, b. NY
• Sarah, M. 54, b. Tenn
• Mary F., 15, b. IL
• William G., 11, b. IL

"at 18 he went prospecting to Sagamon Co., IL with father, farmed five years, rem. to Schuyler Co. for a year. In March 1826 he sett. as farmer on section 2 at Appanouse (Littletown) behind 2d white settler in Hancock Co., (and one of the first in that part of the U.S.), and res. till death at Ft. Madison, IA. There was not a house at Fort M. then and his, built 1832, was first at Burlington. It was burned by soldiers that fall, but here built next spring. He and bro-in-law Simpson White ran first ferry boats across the Mississippi at Burlington also from Appanoose to Ft. Madisonand Amzi sat on first jury in Hancock Co.... "He later became a large farmer and stock raiser. ... Amzi was in the Winnebago and Black Hawk wars. In the former, he hurried his family to a place of safety. They buried household goods in sand, strewed the ground above with corn and fed the hogs, thus obliterating the hiding place... He d. at home Oct. 8, 1878 after an illness of several months of cancer of the stomach, and was buried in Fruitland cem."^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Email from Brenda Brewer (brownbr AT netins.net) to Jillaine Smith, 16 September 2007
2. ↑ 1850 US Census, Hancock Co., Illinois...
3. ↑ 1860 US Census, Appanoose, Hancock Co., Illinois...
4. ↑ 1870 US Census, Appanoose, Hancock Co., IL
5. ↑ William Frederick Doolittle, Doolittle Family of America, Part IV, Cleveland, OH: Savers & Waite Printing, Co. (1904), p. 445-447 (#1103)

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Jillaine Smith for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Jillaine and others.