Owen Todd (1762 - 1817)

Born 20 Apr 1762 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Smith) Todd — married 1782 in Pennsylvania, United States

Descendants

Died 6 Dec 1817 at age 55 in Vevay, Switzerland, Indiana, United States

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Biography

Owen was born in 1762. Owen was the child of David Todd and Hannah Owens.^[1]

Owen passed away in 1817.

Sources

1. ↑ Edwards, Georgie Hortense, "The Edwards and Todd Families and Their Descendants, 1523-1895', Springfield, IL: H.W. Rokker, 1894, Archive.org, p. 23

See also:

om "Todd Family," by Emily Todd Helm, Kittochtinney Magazine, published by G.O. Seilhamer, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, No. 1 (January 1905), pp. 90-91:

"OWEN TODD, (born in Providence twp., Montgomery Co., Pa., April 20, 1762 -- died Dec. 6, 1817), son of David and Hannah (Owen) Todd, was educated in such schools as his township afforded. According to family tradition he left home at the age of seventeen and took part in the storming of Stony Point, July 15, 1779, under Gen. Anthony Wayne, who was a neighbor and friend of his father. It is said that his conspicuous bravery on this occasion drew forth from Wayne the warmest praise, and would have gained him a commission but for his youth. It is probably that his presence with the Pennsylvania troops on the Hudson, in 1779, was without the knowledge of his parents, as in 1780-81, he was with his brother-in-law, Roger North, a member of Capt. Alexander Johnston's company of Volunteer Light Horse, of Chester county. In 1794, Owen Todd with his parents and the family of his brother-in-law, Elijah Smith, migrated to Kentucky, wither his three elder brothers, John, Robert and Levi, had gone before the revolution.

Land was bought on Cane Run, a branch of the North Fork of Elkhorn Creek, Fayette Co., at a point nine miles from the village of Lexington. Here the parents took up their residence and their children and relatives found homes in the vicinity. Like many of the adventurous and better educated young men of that day, who found their way to the west, Owen Todd had familiarized himself with the duties of a land surveyor. For this occupation his education, his physical consitution, and his tastes eminently fitted him. He had brought with him the implements of his profession, and his services were soon in requistion by the settlers on the rich soil of Kentucky, with each of whom his earliest wish was realized only when he had secured a home for himself and some friend left behind in the 'old country,' as they termed the place from which they had migrated. For several years he was thus employed in private and government surveying, at first in Kentucky and later on the waters of the Little Miami River in South-western Ohio, where a stream known as Todd's Fork of the Little Miami still bears his name. In 1786, then being a resident of Kentucky, he accoompanied the expedition of Gen. George Rogers Clarke against the Indian towns on the Wabash River, but in what capacity is not known, probably as a private. He was commissioned by Gov. Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, to take rank from Sept. 9, 1789. During the years following he was engaged in frequent expeditions against the Indians. In August, 1791, he commanded a company under Gen. James Wilkinson in the second expedition against the Indians on the Upper Wabash River, and Aug. 20, 1794, fifteen years after his boyish adventure at Stony Point, he again fought under General Wayne, commanding a company of Kentuckians in the brigade of his elder brother, Gen. Robert Todd, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, on the Maumee River, Ohio, generally known as 'Wayne's Victory.'

In 1797, Owen Todd moved to Hamilton County, Ohio, locating on the east bank of Little Miami River, on O'Bannon's Creek, one mile east of the present town of Loveland, whither his wife's family, the Paxtons, had preceded him two years before. When the county of Clermont was organized, Dec. 6th 1800, the Todd and Paxton families found themselves citizens of Clermont County, and indeed were the first actual settlers in that county. Owen Todd was presiding Judge of the first Court of General Quarter Sessions convened in the county, on the first Tuesday in February, 1801, at Williamsburgh, then the county seat, which position he held until December, 1803. During the occupancy of this home, a period of six or eight years, he did a great deal of private surveying. In much of this work he was associated with William Lytle, afterwards Major General of the Ohio Militia during the War of 1812, and later Surveyor General of the public lands of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, whom he had known from boyhood in Kentucky. In the meantime he had acquired considerable bodies of land on Todd's Creek, in the adjoining county of Warren, where his business of surveying frequently led him. One tract of two thousand acres lay not far from the present town of Clarkesville, Clinton Co., where he built a blockhouse for the protection of his surveying party. A few miles below this, on the left bank of the Little Miami River, in Warren Co., he had a smaller tract on which he lived for a short time when he purchased the well-know farm lying on the north east corner of the crossing of the Waynesville and Morrow, and the Lebanon and Fort Ancient pikes, one and half miles west of the last named place, and now occupied by Cephas Gutterry. Here he lived for many years and until his removal to Indiana. Judge Owen Todd was one of the notabilities of the 'Miami Country.' In person, he was five feet, ten inches in height, compact and muscular and weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds. His bodily activity and powers of endurance were remarkable, and incredible stories are told of his leaping and other athletic feats. His complexins was fair and his head, which was large, was covered with dark, brown hair that hung to his waist, but which he wore as a queue, put up in a silk or leather bag. The queue was cut off a short time before his death, and is now (1883) in possession of his grand-daughter, Miss Jane Todd, of Chattanooga, Tenn. . . .

He was a man of great courage; indeed, it may be said of him that he was utterly without fear. In his affections he was warm and demonstrative. To his wife and children and other near relatives, he was charmingly tender and gracious. Another of his children, Mrs. Madison, says of him that he never left home for the shortest time without kissing his wife farewell. He was confiding and generous to weakness. His willingness to serve his friends gave him much trouble in his later days, dissipating the ample earnings of a lifetime and bringin him almost to the verge of bankruptcy. Though a slave owner while living in Kentucky he was always an advocate of the abolition of slavery, and before leaving that state he gave freedom to all his slaves, about fifteen in number. Seven or eight of these refused to be left behind and were taken to Ohio, where their wants were well supplied, all the women receiving twenty acres of land on their marriage.

Though descended on the paternal side through a long line of Presbyterians he early attached himself to the Methodist Church, as did his wife, and died in that communion. Early in 1817, he followed some of his children to Vevay, Indiana, buying a farm two miles below the town on the banks of the Ohio River, and died the same year, at his town home, the site of which is now occupied by a Baptist Church edifice. He is buried in the Vevay Cemetery, where a stone with suitable inscription marks his grave. He was eloquent of speech, but was not ambitious of political distinction and never sought office, yet during his short life he filled many places of honor, and it is not known that he ever betrayed a public or private trust.

Judge Todd married (1) in 1782, his cousin, Elizabeth Smith, (died in 1783), and had issue:

1. Hannah Todd was born May 4, 1783 in Philadelphia, PA and died 1876 in Indianapolis, Marion Co, IN. She married (1) Mordecai Redd on February 26, 1800 in Fayette Co, KY (2) Nathaniel Cotton.

Judge Todd married (2), June 9, 1790, Maria Jane Paxton, (born April 22, 1771 -- died at Madison, Ind., in 1834), daughter of Col. Thomas Paxton, then living on the North Fork of Elkhorn Creek. Colonel Paxton removed from Bedford Co., Pa., to Fayette Co., Ky., in 1789. In 1776, he was a captain in the Bedford County Militia, and commanded a company in active service from Sept. 12 to Nov. 13, 1776. In 1794, he commanded the scouts in advance of the movements of Gen. Wayne's army that resulted in the battle of Fallen Timbers. Mrs. Todd was buried in the 'old graveyard' at Madison but the place of her sepulchure is unknown, her tombstone having disappeared. . . . Owen and Maria Jane (Paxton) Todd had issue:

1. Owen Kentucky Todd born October 23, 1791 in Cane Run, Fayette Co, KY and died June 1862 in Barry Co, MO.
2. Maria Jane Todd born June 28, 1793, married Channing Madison on July 21, 1814.
3. Paxton Warren Todd born April 1, 1795 in Cane Run, Fayette Co, KY. He married Martha Y. Felter.
4. Robert William Todd born April 28, 1797 in Cane Run, Fayette Co, KY. He married Catherine McCully on March 16, 1819 in Lawrenceburg, Dearborn Co, IN.
5. David Andrew Todd born October 27, 1799 in Hamilton Co, OH. He married Mary Ogle on July 1, 1822 in Vevay, Switzerland Co, IN.
6. John Hawkins Todd, born October 24, 1801 in Clermont Co, OH and died 1824 in Switzerland Co, IN.
7. Isabella Ramsey Todd born November 24, 1803 in Clermont Co, OH, married Abraham Dumont in 1820.
8. Nancy Smith Todd born October 22, 1805 in Warren Co, OH, married Simon S. Gillett.
9. Levi Wesley Todd born August 18, 1807 in Warren Co, OH. He married Demia Butler on February 26, 1829 in Vernon, Jennings Co, IN.
10. Eliza Jane Todd born November 12, 1809 in Warren Co, OH, married William Peyton Stevens in 1831 in Switzerland Co, IN.
11. Elijah Smith Todd born July 6, 1811 in Warren Co, OH and died June 1, 1864 in Wright Co, MO. He married Martha Hardin Boyd on May 31, 1832 in Washington Co, AR.