Olive (Downing) Rosencrans (abt. 1778 - 1867)

Born about 1778 in Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut, United States [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of Matthew Jackson — married about 1799 (to about 1801) in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States [uncertain]

Wife of John Rosencrans — married 22 May 1802 in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Descendants

Died 18 Jan 1867 at about age 89 in Newport Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

Daughter of Daniel and Hannah '"Adams Downing, whose family removed to Luzerne County from Connecticut from an early day. Her father was an ensign involved in the 1778 Wyoming Massacre.

A birth record for an Olive Downing appears in Canterbury dated 10 Apr 1768; however, the time of her marriage, the birthyears of her children, and the 1860 Census all seem to suggest a younger birth likely in the late 1770s. It was common practice at the time, particularly among New England families, to reuse forenames in the event of a child dying young, as was already the case in the Downing family, with two Hannahs being born to Daniel and Hannah Downing in Canterbury records, one recorded 1761 and one '63. It is likely that the Olive Downing who was born 1768 died young and thus the name was reused for this Olive, the passing of the earlier Olive and the birth of the later Olive simply never recorded.

Olive is said to have had one son, John, by a Matthew Jackson circa 1801, before marrying John Rosencrans shortly after; contemporary records for Jackson are nearly nonexistent, but the Jackson and Rosencrans families were associated with one another in family reunions more than a century later.

She was enumerated in 1860, Slocum Township, to the home of son-in-law Jacob Kester. She probably lived for a short while before her passing on the north side of the Susquehanna, being buried in 1867 at Sweet Valley, Ross Township, also where son John Jackson was buried eight years later.

Source

• 1860 U.S. census. P.O. Wilkes-Barre, Slocum Township, Luzerne County, PA. Taken on 28 Jul 1860 with a reference date of 1 Jun 1860. Page 238, dwelling 1825 and family 1705, lines 1–4. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GBSH-KZC

• Marker inscription of Olive Rosencrans, Sweet Valley Cemetery, Sweet Valley (Ross Township), PA: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70076720/olive-rosencrans