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Sunday, March 19, 2017

Ancestor Birthday - March 18th - William England 1802 - 1893


Today is the second day for a March 18th birthday. William England is today and yesterday I did John Bond. These two 3rd great-grandfathers of mine had descendants in common, since William's granddaughter, Mary Ann O'Neal, married John's grandson, John Howard Bond. They were my great-grandparents.

The two men had some other similarities. Both were born in Kentucky, although in different areas of the state, about 5 years apart. Both spent some time in Illinois and then went to Iowa to live. John left Iowa in 1853 to go to Oregon and William left Iowa in 1865 to go to California. But William didn't stay in California and moved north to Oregon about 1871, after John had died.

After William and his wife Mary (Walker) England had lived in Oregon for a little over a year, Mary died in February 1873 and William became a widower. He never remarried. He and his oldest son John purchased land in August 1873 east of current day Cottage Grove, Oregon. The deed records that they had 753.5 acres more or less. When the Dorena Dam was constructed in the late 1940s it was on a portion of their land. I really enjoy driving by the Dam and thinking that was land once owned by my ancestor. It was only after I began doing genealogical research in the mid 1980s that I realized that when I moved to Cottage Grove in 1961 it was to a place where an ancestor had been.

William lived a long life, being 91 when he died in 1893. The Eugene newspaper gave a brief account of his death: His demise was sudden, the old gentleman falling from his chair dead. William was buried in the Cogswell-Gay Cemetery northwest of Creswell, next to his wife. You have to go through private property to reach where the cemetery is located. A number of years ago I received permission and was able to visit it. I am thankful I was able to do that.

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