John Skinner (1820 - 1891)

Born 28 Feb 1820 in Ticehurst, Sussex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Ann (Rogers) Skinner — married 29 Nov 1844 in Ticehurst, Sussex, England

Descendants

Died 26 Dec 1891 at age 71 in Eckford Township, Calhoun County, Michigan

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Roger Peterson [send private message]

Biography

This profile is part of the Skinner Name Study.

John was born at Gibbs-Read Place, Ticehurst, Sussex, in 1820, fourth of eight children of Robert and Sophia (Woodgate) Skinner. From age 9 he worked as a gardener. In 1844 he married Mary Ann Rogers in Ticehurst. They lived in a cottage of his employer's at Tolhurst Place near Ticehurst and had four children there, 1845-1851. Following Mary Ann's brother John Rogers, they moved to North America in May 1853, living first near Victor, New York, and (again following John Rogers) by the following November in Eckford Township, Calhoun County, Michigan, where he farmed. They had four children in Eckford, 1856-1864. He was active in the West Eckford Methodist Church, first as a builder and then as choirmaster, class leader, steward, trustee, and groundskeeper. "Brother Skinner was industrious, thrifty and kind." Mary Ann died in 1866. In 1869 he married Mrs. Fannie (Chapman) Overy, and they had a daughter, Carrie Susanna Skinner, who did not marry and cared for her parents in their old age. John died in 1891 and was buried with Mary Ann in West Eckford Church Cemetery .

Notes

by Mercy Skinner Powell, John's daughter, written for John's 70th birthday in 1890; excerpts:

"He grew up a sober, quiet young man; his sisters say he was too strict, not much given to play, or entering into childish sports."

"Among my earliest recollections is the sight of Father as leader in the gallery of the little chapel with his bass viol."

"On November 29th, 1844 he was married to Mary Ann Rogers, a daughter of a farmer in the neighborhood. At this time he went to work for Mr. William Smith of Tolhurst Place, a mile and a half north-west of the village [Ticehurst], and the young couple went to live in a cottage on the place. Here their first four children were born." "Here [Tolhurst Place] he served eight or nine years. At this time our Uncle John Rogers returned from a four years' stay in America, and Father decided to return with him the following April 1853. His friends were much opposed, but after much prayerful consideration, he received that answer of peace which none but the child of God knows...the sad days of parting came at length...and on March 31st, 1853 a company of eleven were ready to set sail for America. These were John Skinner, his wife Mary Rogers Skinner, their four children, Mercy aged 7, Albert 5, Elizabeth 3, and Fannie 1 year old; Mary's brother John Rogers and his bride, Emily Coleman Rogers; his brother aged 18 (Samuel) and a Mr. and Mrs. Noakes. (Their relatives felt they would never see them again, and Mercy and Fannie were the only ones they ever did.)

"Father stayed at Victor until the next November, when our family followed Uncle John. We came by train to Albion, Michigan. ...The next few days were spent in looking for a small farm for Father to buy. He purchased of James Rickner twenty acres with a two-roomed log cabin upon it, the site of his home for the rest of his life. ...Afterwards Father bought 40 acres of the school section bordering the first twenty on the north-east; later 40 acres across the road of Parker Bickford." "When Mother went into the little log cabin she looked about, and said in dismay, 'Is this all, John?' (perhaps she was thinking of her girlhood home in England). After a time a second bedroom and pantry were added, much to her convenience. But here we began our American life, and here she lived for 13 years. Father said she was always hopeful and courageous." ...

"They had the experience of all pioneers in a new country. Many mosquitos; fever and ague was hard on them. Emma came home from school with a fever which proved to be scarlet fever. All the children at home had it, and Elizabeth, twelve and a half years old, died. Father was very much broken up over it. The following October, Alice was born."

"In that next winter, 1866, a terrible illness came over us. Emma came down first with a fever, then early in January, Mother, then Robert, and little Alice, then Fannie...Mother died January 26, 1866. Then Father came down, and the next week I was taken. Then the neighbors took us all away from our home. ...Father lay ill in Uncle John's front bedroom for five weeks, Aunt Emily and Uncle John taking care of him. As Father was getting about, Uncle John was taken. His illness was short; he died March 27. ...On March 5th, little Robert had died."

by Agnes Powell, John's granddaughter, typed in 1952: "After his wife's death, John Skinner got on as best he could with his daughters keeping house. Fannie was 17, Emma and Louisa only little girls. Mercy was married in the fall of 1866. In May of 1869 he married Mrs. Fannie Chapman Overy, who brought with her into the home two daughters and two sons, Fannie and Mary, George and Will Overy. Later another daughter Carrie was born. As time went on all left the home except Carrie who remained to care for her father and her mother in their last years. John died in 1891, twenty-five years after his first wife Mary Rogers. On his seventieth birthday all his children and grandchildren gathered at his home in his honor and presented him with a gold-headed cane."

Footnote

John and Mary Ann's children: Mercy Ann (Skinner) Powell (1845 - 1934), Albert Skinner (1846-1925), Frances Sophia (Skinner) Shipp-4153 (1849 - 1901), Elizabeth Ann Skinner (1851 - 1864), Emily Ellen "Emma" (Skinner) McDonald (1856 - 1917), Louisa Victoria (Skinner) (Ball) Mills (1858-1920), Robert James Skinner (1861 - 1866), Alice Mary (Skinner) Fisher (1864-1935),

John and Fannie's child: Carrie Susanna Skinner (1870-1953).

After his death John Skinner's farm continued to be held by Fannie's Overy relatives at least into the 1990s.

Sources

England and Wales Census, 1841, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7SV-HS4

England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2D8L-28Q

United States Census, Michigan, Calhoun County, Eckford Township, 1860, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWDN-1DD [errs on birthplace of Elizabeth, born in Ticehurst]

U.S. Census, Michigan, Calhoun County, Eckford Township, 1870, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHH6-WW5 (has "Tammy" for Fanny Skinner.)

U.S. Census, Michigan, Calhoun County, Eckford Township, 1880, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MW91-9M8

Michigan Deaths and Burials, 1800-1995, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHZ5-NVM

Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=78302703 (includes a newspaper obituary)

Obituary, photocopy, pp. 86-87. The pages are headed "Annual Meeting, 1892," and "Memorial Report--Calhoun County," but the citation has been misplaced. (R.S.P. Dec. 2017.)

Agnes Powell, 1925. Skinner Family, 1775-1926. 16 pages. [Agnes Powell was John's granddaughter.]

Notes

Michigan Births and Christenings, 1775-1995, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHMF-B8H (birth in 1870 of Carrie Skinner, daughter by second marriage)

Acknowledgments

Profile begun in 2017 by Roger S. Peterson-2111.