Samuel Thomas Ausman (1834 - 1915)

Born Oct 1834 in Wallace, South Algonquin, Nipissing, Ontario, Canada

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 27 Aug 1915 at age 80 in Leeds, Woodbury, Iowa, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Van Landry [send private message] and John Ausman [send private message]

Biography

Samuel was born in 1834. He passed away in 1914. ^[1]

Samuel was born in 1836. He was the son of Phillip Ausman and Evelina Foster. He passed away in 1912. ^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Personal recollection of events witnessed by Van Landry as remembered 15 Nov 2019.
2. ↑ Unsourced family tree handed down to John Ausman.

• From gathered information on census and death records

From Find a grave:

Brief History of the Ausman Family

The first Ausman ancestor that we have record of is of Philip Ausman, born in 1745 in Warrentown, Herkimer County, New York. He first appears in the 1790 census of that location, then called German Flatts. He was the headmaster of the first school in Warrentown, a German school. Warrentown was settled by several German families before the Revolutionary War, many of them Palatine Germans. Philip may be a Palatine descendant or he may have been a Hessian mercenary during the Revolution who switched sides rather than be shipped back to Germany.

Philip's son Conrad moved to Ontario, Canada in 1804. Conrad's second son Phillip Ausman, (Samuel's father), was born in New York before Conrad moved to Canada. Phillip would have been about one year old. No motive for the move is known, but possibilities include Loyalist sympathy for the Crown (especially there really was Hessian background) or desire for new or better land. Most Loyalists had left the USA for Canada during later stages of the Revolutionary War or soon after the Peace treaty of 1783, however a few (known as "late Loyalists" left only after trying to overcome the prejudices of Patriots. Land hunger might have occurred if Philip's farm was too small, or if another son was to inherit it. Soon after the start of the 19th century, free land in Upper Canada (now Ontario) was offered to pioneers from the USA, which would have been a draw.

Conrad sold 100 acres of his farm in Tecumseth, Simcoe County to Philip in 1828 (north half of Lot 18, Concession V; Land records, Ontario Archives). Samuel would have been born there in 1836. In 1840, Philip sold it and bought a new farm about 3 kms west in the same township (Lot 13, Con V), where Samuel would have grown up. In 1856, Philip bought a full 200 acre lot in Wallace Township, Perth County (Lot 10, Con III). Samuel Ausman married Jane Bayne, whose parents were Scots, in 1856 in Wallace. Philip only moved from Tecumseth to Wallace in 1865.

Samuel and Jane moved to the American Midwest in 1873. It is somewhat curious that Samuel left Canada because he was the oldest son and would have inherited his fathers property. In 1873, the U.S. was still was trying to tame the wild West and that was when Samuel left Canada with his wife and eight children and returned to the United States. They landed in Delaware County, Iowa first. In 1876, Ella Mae Ausman was born in Delaware County. They moved in the late 1870s to homestead in Knox County, Nebraska situated in the Northeast corner of the state on the border with South Dakota. My great grandfather William Edwin Ausman, the youngest child of Samuel and Jane Ausman, was born on the homestead. The Ausman family remained there until the 1890s, when the family settled in Sioux City, Iowa.

By 1910, five of the ten Ausman siblings were dead. Samuel passed away in 1912 from typhoid fever in Sioux City, Iowa. Jane followed in 1921. Their youngest son, William Edwin Ausman, my great grandfather, worked for the railroad and fought in War World I. His son was Colonel Neal E. Ausman, my grandfather, was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War.

The following story was posted on a Knox County, Nebraska Genealogical Website on William's sister, Evaline, who died in Knox County in 1881.

Olcott Cemetery History in Knox County, Nebraska

Contributed by Judy Carlson, 2000

Does a cemetery just pop up out of nowhere? That seems to be what happened as I have heard several comments like; "I didnt even know a cemetery was there!" They are referring to the Olcott Cemetery located six miles west of Creighton at the hwy 14-59 junction. Due to the generous volunteer help of a few concerned citizens, the cemetery is now exposed for all to see.

For years the cemetery lay hidden under overgrown lilac bushes, once planted to commemorate the graves of loved ones. The tall cedar trees stood guard over the burial ground that held only 22 graves, many of them children. The last time anyone was interred in the Olcott Cemetery was in 1920.

In 1880 Samuel and Jane Ausman came to Knox County and applied for a homestead of 160 acres in Section 20 of Miller township. In April 1881, they lost their daughter Evaline at the age of 18 years and 3 months. They picked a spot in the lower corner of their homestead and buried their daughter. By 1890 four more families were to lay five children next to Evaline Ausman.

Samuel and Jane gave up on their life here in Nebraska and opted to return to Iowa. They left behind their beloved Evaline. It was also about this time that Rev. D.T. Olcott, Pastor of the Methodist Church in Creighton desired to see a church built west of Creighton. Anxious to see that his childs final resting place was properly cared for, Samuel willingly deeded one acre for a cemetery and one acre for a church. This became the Olcott Church and cemetery.

This is a prime example of how a cemetery began. A single grave in the corner of the farm, then adding a few neighbors loved ones, then finally becoming a public cemetery. Usually building a church preceded the platting of a cemetery, but in this case it was the reverse. Standing there, looking down at the tombstones, I think of the Ausmans as they must have once stood in this same spot, choosing this special piece of ground for Evaline.

(from FamilySearch.org - Family Tree) Contributed By MAdams20 · 2014-08-25