52 Ancestors: #6 Abram Wolfington, 1810 - abt 1874

This week I am going to write about my 3rd Great Grandfather Abram Wolfington as part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge begun by Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small blog. I had started to write about him last week when I all of a sudden had some significant breakthroughs in the life of his wife, my 3rd Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Manley Bixler Wolfington Moore, and I wrote about her instead. I've not had as much luck with Abram.

According to the 1850  and 1870 Censuses, Abram was born in North Carolina in approximately 1810. I think his parents were Abraham and Esther Wolfington, and, if so, Abram, is likely one of the two males under ten enumerated in the 1820 Census as part of Abraham Wolfington's family in Orange County Indiana. He doesn't seem to be accounted for as part of Abraham's family in the 1830 Census but I've not found him on his own yet that year; he would've have been approximately twenty in 1830.

I know that he was probably married prior to marrying my 3rd great-grandmother as he brought several children to that union: William (bn abt 1837), James (1839-1918), Marinda (bn about 1842), Eliza J (bn abt 1845), and Valentine (bn abt 1848). I have found a marriage between "Abraham Wolfington" and Lucinda Rodman on May 29, 1836, which occurred in Harrison Indiana. However I'm not certain yet that it is my 3rd great grandfather she wed, even though the timing would be right for the birth of William, for three reasons: 1) I've not found any other mention of her yet anywhere; 2) I've not found any other document placing Abram in in Harrison Co. Indiana; 3) no where else does Abram use the name "Abraham" until after his (probable) father dies. I have more research to do obviously!

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In 1850, at the time the Census was done Abram was living in Paoli, Indiana with his children, William, James, Marinda, and Eliza, and a 70 year old woman named Lydia Jackson, who may have been helping to care for the children and keep house -- the census does not say. It does say that Abram is a wool carder. 

Hi father died that year. His (probable) mother Esther Wolfington is found, in the 1850 Census, living alone in French Lick In, which is in the same county as Paoli.

Abram was 41 when he married my 3rd Great-grandmother, Elizabeth Manley Bixler, a young woman of 22 years of age, on March 30, 1851, in Orange County Indiana.  Over the course of their marriage, they have 8 children: Martha Emily (1852-1915, my 2nd great grandmother), Clarence (bn abt 1854), Isabel (bn abt 1856), Alfred (bn abt 1858), Annie (bn abt 1863), Emma (bn about 1863), Charles CR (bn abt 1867) and Clifford (bn abt 1867).  In 1860, he is still a wool carder, but in 1870, he described himself as a Teamster.

We know that he died in or before 1874 as my 3rd great-grandmother remarried in 1874 to a childhood friend of her deceased husband. (Mr. Moore's Findagrave.com memorial states that he "married Mrs. E.M. Wolfington the widow of a comrade of his boyhood.") My great-grandmother's notes say that he died "on the road to Kansas" as the family was moving there, but I've not yet found anything which confirms this, nor which gives me a death date.  More research to do!

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 [Great-grandmother's notes; Federal Census for 1820, 1830, 1850, 1860 and 1870,   (for  Abraham Wolfington, Esther Wolfington , and Abram Wolfington,); Kansas Findagrave.com Memorials #16972829; Orange County, Indiana, Index to Marriage Records 1826-1920.]