Sarah (Griffin) Corwin (abt. 1772 - 1853)

Born about 1772 in Washington County, Pennsylvania Colony

Ancestors

Wife of Ichabod Case Corwin — married 20 Jan 1789 in Bourbon County, Kentucky, United States

Descendants

Died 3 May 1853 at about age 81 in Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, United States

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Biography

Sarah Griffin was born in 1772 in Pennsylvania, Colonial America. Her father was killed by Native Americans and her mother died soon after, never recovering from the loss of Sarah's father.

About 1787, Sarah and her elder brothers relocated to Kentucky, where she met and married Ichabod Case Corwin.

In March 1796, Ichabod, Sarah, and their three eldest children relocated and made their home in Turtlecreek Township, Lebanon, Ohio.^[1]

Sarah passed away in 1853 at the residence of her son [[ |Robert Griffin Corwin]] in Warren County, Ohio.

Marriage and Children

Sarah married Ichabod Case Corwin in 1789 and together they had 13 children.

Their children:

Born in Bourbon County, Kentucky:

• Moses Bledso Corwin
• William Corwin
• Mary (Corwin) Hart

Born in Warren County, Ohio:

• Eliza (Corwin) Newman
• Jesse B Corwin
• Lucinda (Corwin) Dunlevy
• James Harvey Corwin
• Elvira (Corwin) Bryant
• Ichabod Corwin
• Julia Ann (Corwin) Price
• Sarah Catherine (Corwin) Jones
• Robert Griffin Corwin
• Matthias Corwin

Obituary and Burial

Obituary^[2][3]

"DEATH OF MRS. SARAH CORWIN.

This venerable lady, the wife of the late Ichabod Corwin, Sen., died at the residence of her son, R. G. Corwin, Esq., on Tuesday morning last, the 3d inst., at four o’clock. We are indebted to a friend for the following interesting facts in relation to her life and character.

Mrs. Corwin was born in the year 1772, and was consequently 81 years old. When but 8 years of age, her father was killed by the Indians near the place now called Brownsville, Pa. Her mother soon after followed – the shock from the massacre of her husband being too great for her then enfeebled condition. The deceased removed about 1787 with her elder brothers to Kentucky, where in 1789, she was united to Ichabod Corwin, long and favorably known in this community, and who died from the kick of a horse in 1834.

Mrs. Corwin removed with her husband and three children, to the farm on which they both died, adjoining and then including the present site of Lebanon, in May, 1796, soon after which their fourth child was born, and who was the first white child born within the limits of this county. On this farm, and during most of that entire period in the same house, Mrs. Corwin lived upwards of 57 years, forty of which were spent with her husband. They here raised a family of 13 children, 7 sons and 6 daughters, 9 of whom are still living, and were present at her funeral.

Mrs. Corwin possessed great energy of character and a strong mind, retaining her memory and intellect to the last. She could ever adapt herself to the necessities of providential circumstances; and therefore endured the hardships and dangers of a pioneer life with great fortitude. To show the readiness with which she accommodated herself to the necessities of the times, it may be mentioned as one instance which will show something of the condition of pioneer life in her youth, that the evening on which they landed their goods at a new cabin just erected on their farm, and which had not yet had doors cut out, she at once assisted her husband in cutting a door, by working one end of the cross cut saw; and while others were engaged in necessary arrangements for the preservation of the cattle, she took a puncheon prepared for a floor to their cabin, and out of it with axe and auger prepared a table on which the family ate their first meal in their new home. To show the condition of this country at that time, it may be also stated that the first season of their residence here, the Indians stole all of Mr. Corwin’s horses, and almost deprived him of raising a crop. He, however, went back to Kentucky and procured a yoke of oxen, with which he made out to raise corn to supply his family.

Mrs. Corwin at an early age made a profession of Religion, and became a member of the Regular Baptist Church as early, it is believed, as 1794. She was a member of the first Baptist Church in this county, constituted in 1797 – at Clearcreek – a branch of which was organized in 1798, and a meeting house built on the Ministerial Section, a half mile east of Lebanon. In this connexion she remained during life, and consequently had been a member of the church for upwards of 60 years.

During all the changes around her – sometimes among the members of her own church – and especially during the great revival of 1800, which for a time seemed to carry all before it, and though productive of much genuine piety, was too often accompanied by extravagant and fanatical opinions, and exercises, Mrs. Corwin remained the same. In truth, she was emphatically a Bible Christian. It was to the Bible she looked, especially the new Testament; and her fellowship for Christians was measured by their conformity in views and practice to the law of Christ as recorded in the New Testament. Always zealous in the cause of her Redeemer, his Church on earth was the subject of her chief concern – the burden of her conversation, and the object of her solicitude. The house of Mr. and Mrs. Corwin was ever the welcome home of the wearied pioneer, and also of the early Baptist emigrants to all parts of the Miami Valley.

At the Primitive associational gatherings of the newly constituted Churches in this county, they often entertained more than one hundred person at one time, and all were welcome, and gladly received and entertained.

Mrs. Corwin lived to see her large family all settled in the world, and many of them members of the Church, which, with her, was the great event of their lives, and one which she looked and prayed for with the deepest solicitude. All of their thirteen children lived to have families, and at a semi-centennial anniversary of their first settlement in this place in 1846, there were 98 of her descendants present, and about 18 absent, making them in all about 116. Since that time there have been an increase, of course, but how many they would now number has not been ascertained, probably not less than 130."

Burial Details^[4]
Pioneer Cemetery
Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, USA
Plot is located in the Baptist Graveyard section.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikiwand - Lebanon, Ohio. (n.d.). Wikiwand. https://wikiwand.com/en/Lebanon, Ohio
2. ↑ https://warren.ohgenweb.org/Obits/corwin.html#IchabodCorwinSr
3. ↑ Published in The Western Star (Lebanon, Ohio), Fri, 6 May 1853
4. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7146973/sarah-corwin: accessed 18 February 2023), memorial page for Sarah Griffin Corwin (1772–1853), Find a Grave Memorial ID 7146973, citing Pioneer Cemetery, Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, USA; Maintained by MollyBailey (contributor 47187981).

• Michael Tepper, editor, Burke's American Families with British Ancestry (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1975), 2633.

• Edward Tanjore Corwin, The Corwin Genealogy in the United States (1872; reprint, Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books Inc., 2000), 96.

• Ellen Faye Van Houten Corwin Cousins 2 (1987): 2.

• Warren County Genealogical Society, editor, Warren County Cemetery Records, 7 (Lebanon, Ohio: Warren County Genealogical Society, 1984-1988), 7: 460.

• Bourbon County, Kentucky, Book 1: 3, Corwin-Griffin, 1789.