Ancestor Birthday - February 4th - Priscilla Whipple 1759-??

Priscilla Whipple's page on my website has even less information than Reuben's did from yesterday. Priscilla is almost a mystery woman. There are quite a large number of family trees posted on-line which include her, but the majority have no sources except other family trees. I am thankful that in 1909 my 2nd great-grand aunt, Sybil (Hayes) Windom wrote some of her memories for Oregon Historical Society and I was able to get a copy. She named her father's parents: Pliny Hayes and Priscilla Whipple. So you see Priscilla is my 4th great-grandmother.

I believe she was born in Groton, Connecticut to Daniel Whipple and Ann Hough. She was the youngest child, born 4 Feb 1759. Her father went to Brattleboro, Vermont, around 1770. Since she would have been a young teenager, maybe she went there also. Somewhere along the line she married Pliny Hayes, who was a Revolutionary War soldier. I have not found any marriage record for them, but their oldest child, Hannah, was said to have been born around 1776 in New York. Pliny and Priscilla had at least four more children, maybe more before Pliny left her for another woman between 1790 and 1800, running off into the "wilds of Pennsylvania." Then it appears Priscilla married Libeus Herrick, who may have been married before. Did they have any children? Maybe.

Since the early census records only give the name of the head of household, I can guess which ones may have Priscilla as one of the females.

• 1790 Pleny Hayes Stephentown, Albany County, New York
• 1800 Not found
• 1810 Lebeus Herick Petersburg, Renssalaer County, New York
• 1820 Lebbius Herrick Burton, Geauga County, Ohio

It was soon after the 1810 census that two of her children who had moved to Geauga County went east and brought her back.

Libbeus Herrick has a tombstone in Memorial Cemetery in Burton, Geauga County, Ohio showing a death date of Oct 1821. So it would appear that Priscilla then became a widow at about age 62. Where did she go or who did she stay with? I don't know.

Many on-line family trees give a death date for her of 26 Aug 1838 and they show the place as Burton, Geauga County, Ohio or Rochester, Monroe County, New York or Pottstown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania or Pottstown, Chester County, Pennsylvania. So with all these differences I don't trust the date either. So it is still a part of the mystery.