Thomas Dildine Edwards (1826 - 1894)

Born 31 Jul 1826 in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Barbara Ellen (Rinehart) Edwards — married 20 Jun 1847 (to 1883) in Mahaska, Iowa, United States

Descendants

Died 5 Oct 1894 at age 68 in Eugene, Lane County, Oregon, United States

Biography

Thomas Edwards was a pioneer settler in Oregon.

Thomas Edwards was involved in the westward expansion of the USA (Oregon Trail). See Trails and Wagon Trains.

Mar Thomas Dildine Edwards, son of Britton and Martha Edwards, and grandson of Webley and Mary (Cooke) Edwards was born July 31, 1826 in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Thomas had an older brother, Stephen Hopkins Edwards, born in 1824 and a younger sister, Sarah E. Edwards born in 1829 on Staten Island, New York. The Cooke and Hopkins families arrived in this country in 1620 on the Mayflower.

The family moved from New Jersey to New York, then to Ohio in 1836 for two years, then to Indiana where Thomas received most of his education. They moved farther west in 1843 to Iowa when that state was still an unbroken wilderness. Britton died two years later.

Thomas married Barbara (Barbery) E. Rinehart, daughter of Lewis and Elizabeth Rinehart, April 15, 1847 in Mahaska County, Iowa. With this union began the Edwards branch of the Rinehart family. Barbara was born November 28, 1828 in Tennessee, but the family moved to Illinois and finally to Iowa.

Thomas and Barbara made their home in Iowa until 1854 when they crossed the plains to Oregon with the Rinehart train, with her family and Thomas' mother Martha Dildine Edwards Phillips. Their fourth child Webley Edwards, was a six-month old infant at that time.

Thomas was one of the incorporators of a group of people in Lane County who hoped to construct a woolen mill there. Articles of Incorporation were filed on April 1, 1865 with the Secretary of State. However, nothing materialized except a carding machine which was put in a building used for a cabinet shop.

Thomas and Barbara did well in Oregon and had six more children after settling in the Springfield, Oregon area, making a total of ten children. Their oldest two, Henry Dildine and John Stephen, were out working and on their own by the time the two youngest were born.

Barbara died November 28, 1883 at the age of 55 and was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Eugene. Upon retiring, Thomas moved to Eugene where he died December 5, 1894 and was buried beside her. The only time all ten of the children were under the same roof at the same time was at his burial, at which time they had a picture taken of them together.

His brother Stephen Hopkins Edwards had gone to California in 1849, but returned to Oregon in 1856, where he had 840 acres of lane in Lane County, three miles east of Springfield. He and his brother Thomas Dildine, were both in love with Barbara Rinehart, but Thomas won and Stephen never married. Their sister Sarah E. Edwards married John Rinehart, oldest brother of Barbara Rinehart. When Stephen died he left considerable fortune to their children. He was buried on the other side of Barbara's grave.

Source: Lewis and Elizabeth Rinehart and Descendants; A Family History p. 90.

OBITUARY

Thomas D. Edwards died at his home on the corner of Twelfth and Ferry streets in this city last Friday night, Oct. 5, 1894, aged about 68 years. Death was due to bladder troubles, his late illness being of short duration. Mr. Edwards was one of the pioneers of Lane county. He was born in Monmouth county, New Jersey, in 1826. In 1847 he was married in Iowa to Barbara E. Rinehart, and in 1854 crossed the plains to Oregon, settling in Lane county, where he resided the remainder of his life. For the past few years he had resided in Eugene, removing here from his farm east of Springfield. He leaves a family of ten children.

Thus one by one the early pioneers are passing away and the number of those who settled here in '54 and earlier are fast decreasing. Hardly a week passes but we chronicle the death of one or more, and the on-coming generation of native sons should ever increase their respect for the hardy men who took Horace Greeley's advise 40 years ago.

Source: Oregon State Journal, October 1894

Thomas married Barbara Rinehart in 1847 and Sarah married Barbara's brother, John, the same year. The families later migrated west to Oregon on the Oregon Trail...From the Dildine Book by Winiford S. Bailey, and the Rinehart Family History Book by the Rinehart Family History Committee.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZ4N-82Z : 9 November 2014), Thomas Edwards, Mahaska county, part of, Mahaska, Iowa, United States; citing family 353, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MF8Y-VB5 : 17 October 2014), Thos Edwards, Oregon, United States; citing p. 57, family 62, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 552,785.

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNC2-1F4 : 14 July 2016), T D Edwards, Springfield, Lane, Oregon, United States; citing enumeration district ED 68, sheet 302C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 1082; FHL microfilm 1,255,082.

• Find A Grave, database and images (accessed 10 November 2019), memorial page for Thomas Dildine Edwards (31 Jul 1826–5 Oct 1894), Find A Grave: Memorial #30394338, citing Eugene Pioneer Cemetery, Eugene, Lane County, Oregon, USA ; Maintained by James Edwards (contributor 46884544).
• State of Oregon, State Archives, Early Oregonian Database - Edwards, Thomas Dildine