Jesse Whitcomb Sr. (1773 - 1842)

Born 8 Apr 1773 in Chatham, CT [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Peck) Whitcomb — married 1792 in Steuben County, New York

Descendants

Died 8 Aug 1842 at age 69 in Spencer Township, Jennings County, Indiana

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Cheryl Kotecki [send private message]

Biography

Jesse Whitcomb was born on 8 April, 1873, recorded in both Colchester, New London County Connecticut and Chatham (now East Hampton), Middlesex, Connecticut. He was the son of Israel Whitcomb (1733-1811), a farmer, and Mary Rowley (1739-1825). Jesse was a shoemaker and a carpenter. Charlotte Whitcomb, in her book The Whitcomb Family in America published in 1904, documented "... in politics he was a democrat; in religion a Free Will Baptist and served many years as deacon in the Baptist church in New York and Indiana."

Family history says that he married Sarah Peck in 1792. Sarah was probably the daughter of Richard Peck (1753-1837) and Sarah Tennant (b. 1754), born on 13 November 1776 in Shelbourne, Massachusetts. (The sole source of this is page 102 of A Genealogical Account of the Descendants in the Male Line of William Peck, One of the Founders in 1638 of the Colony of New Haven, Conn. by Darius Peck, published in 1877). Jesse and Sarah lived in Windham, Green County New York by the time their first child was born in 1793. In 1810, they were in Reading, Steuben County New York. Some time after that, possibly by 1815, but more likely closer to 1820, Jesse and Sarah and their children made their way from New York to the Ohio River, floating on a raft down the river until they came to the mouth of the Wabash River. They poled their way up the Wabash to Vincennes, where they lived in a big log cabin with a bark thatched roof. (The 1815 date is from the family histories recorded by great-granddaughters, that three of the sons walked back to New York from Indiana to get work. One of these three was Hiram, and it was said that he was 11 years old at the time.)

The United States Federal Census for 1820 official enumeration date was August 7th. There is a Jesse Whitcomb on that Census living in Wayne, Steuben County New York; however, this family has only four members. More likely to be Jesse and Sarah’s family is Jessy Whicum living in Palmyra, Knox County, Indiana with a family of 10. One daughter had died at the age of two, and a son fell from a chestnut tree at the age of 14, although the precise date of this accident is not known. Three of the sons had returned to New York by this time for work. If another child or two was also living elsewhere, that could leave 10 that were counted with Jesse and Sarah in Knox County.

In 1830, Jessie Whitcomb was listed on the U.S. Federal Census in Knox County Indiana, with a family of 7. In addition to the sons who had gone back to New York, some of the children were living in Dearborn County at this time, and one daughter was married in Knox County in 1824, so she would have been enumerated in her husband’s household. Jesse and Sarah Whitcomb moved east from Knox County to Jennings sometime between the 1830 Census and 1834. Hiram Whitcomb was among the three sons who went back to Tyrone (then in Steuben County) New York and worked there for a time before marrying. Jesse Jr., the eldest, and Hiram both had children born in New York. Hiram and his family came back to Indiana in 1834, when his third child was about six months old. They moved near Jesse and Sarah who were then living in Six Mile, west of the Jennings County Seat at Vernon. It is believed Jesse Jr. and his wife moved back to Jennings County about the same time as Hiram.

Federal Land Office deeds show that members of Jesse’s family began purchasing land in Spencer Township by 1834.

Jesse died in 1842 and is buried in the Six Mile Cemetery in Hayden, Spencer Township, Jennings County.

Charlotte Whitcomb's book recorded:

"Jesse removed with his parents to Steuben County, N. Y., from Connecticut; was married in Steuben County to widow Sarah Peck ; he removed to Six Mile, now Hayden. Jennings County, Ind., about 1837, where he died August 8, 1842. Jesse Whitcomb was a shoemaker by trade; in politics he was a democrat; in religion a Free Will Baptist and served many years as deacon in the Baptist church in New York and Indiana."
CHILDREN:
JESSE
SALLY married Joseph Ewing of Dearborn, Ind.; died at Six Mile, Ind.
JOHN
NANCY; married Peter Justice, New York; went to Jennings County in 1837 and settled at Six Mile, Ind.
AMANDA
PHILO.
ORIN
HIRAM, born January 9, 1804, Windham, Greene Co., N. Y.
ANSON
LEWIS
LUCINDA married to ___ Lampher.
RICHARD died before he was twenty-one.
DAUGHTER
DAUGHTER"

According to family records, the two unnamed daughters were both named Mary - the second born just after the death of the first.

Jesse's parents come from the Chatham Vital Records, 1767-1854 index. His birth is on page 106 of 113 pages, and is indexed to Page 50 of the original volume.

NOTE: I did not find Jesse in the 1840 U.S. Federal Census where he should have been enumerated in Spencer Township, in Jennings County. A more thorough examination of his children's 1840 Census records may show Jesse and Sarah living with one of them.

Sources

• Scribble Books by Alice Jane Bruner Wohrer Multiple versions, these were written for her grandchildren. Cheryl Kotecki has digital images of these books.
• Whitcomb, Charlotte, "The Whitcomb family in America : a biographical genealogy with a chapter on our English forbears by the name of Whetcombe". Minneapolis, Minn.: 1904.
• Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: White, Lorraine Cook, ed. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records. Vol. 1-55. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994-2002.
• United States Federal Census Year: 1800; Census Place: Windham, Greene, New York; Series: M32; Roll: 22; Page: 1075; Image: 436; Family History Library Film: 193710
• United States Federal Census Year: 1810; Census Place: Reading, Steuben, New York; Roll: 37; Page: 396; Image: 00062; Family History Library Film: 0181391
• United States Federal Census 1820 U S Census; Census Place: Palmyra, Knox, Indiana; Page: 88; NARA Roll: M33_14; Image: 117
• United States Federal Census 1830; Census Place: Knox, Indiana; Series: M19; Roll: 31; Page: 272; Family History Library Film: 0007720
• New York, Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates, 1799-1804 Ancestry.com
• Find A Grave: Memorial #42403020