Thinking about the
topic Travel, many of my ancestors and relatives tended to move
fairly frequently. Of the 7 aunts and uncles on the birthday calendar
for this week Elizabeth (Frazier) Emry showed a fair amount of
traveling since she was born in one state, was married in another and
then died in yet another state. So she was the chosen one.
Elizabeth
& Travis Emry
Courtesy
of Stan Galloway
Elizabeth was my 3rd
great-grandaunt, the sister of my 3rd great-grandmother,
Sarah (Frazier) Hockett. Elizabeth was the child of Francis Frazier
and Elizabeth Stanley, born 15 May 1795 in Randolph County, North
Carolina. I have already written about her youngest brother, Francis
Henry Frazier, and posted it 15 Mar 2020 on my blog. He was born
after 1800 so does not appear on the 1800 census. But it is probable
that Elizabeth was one of the females under 10 in the household of
Francis Frazer in neighboring Guilford County, North Carolina.
It was in 1810 that
the Frazier family moved to Highland County, Ohio. Ohio does not have
a 1810 census available so we can't verify this by the census. But
the Quaker Fairfield Monthly Meeting recorded that the Fraziers were
received from the Center Monthly Meeting in North Carolina. It was in
December of 1812 when the Clear Creek Monthly Meeting in Clinton
County, Ohio, was set off from Fairfield Meeting.
Elizabeth with her
mother and sisters Ann & Susannah were received on certificate at
New Garden Monthly Meeting in Wayne County, Indiana on 22 Mar 1817
from Clear Creek Monthly Meeting.
Not only did
Elizabeth travel to different places, her name traveled also.
Naturally her name changed from Frazier to Adcock when she married
Travis Adcock 27 Aug 1818, at New Garden Meeting House. Travis had
been married previously. He had married 7 Dec 1814 to Susannah
Moorman, who died in childbirth 22 Jul 1816. It was 21 Sep 1816 when
Travis was received on request at the New Garden Monthly Meeting. His
land was in Randolph County near the border with Wayne County. He and
Elizabeth were listed on the 1820 census in Wayne Township, Randolph
County, with their oldest child, Susannah. The patent on 160 acres
was granted in June 1821, after their next child James was born in
February. Travis and Elizabeth were charter members of the Cherry
Grove Monthly Meeting in Randolph County, which had been set off from
New Garden in 1821.
Before the 1830
census 4 more children were born, Rachel, Sarah, Gideon and
Archelaus. Since the census shows only a total of 5 children it is
likely that Gideon, who was born in 1826, had died before the time of
the census. There were 3 more children born in the early 1830s,
Thomas, David and Rebecca. Then the 1834-35 session of the Indiana
Legislature made a change in Elizabeth's name. The Cherry Grove
minutes 8 Aug 1835 noted “the name of Travis Adcock & Elizabeth
his wife & their children Susanna, James, Rachel, Sarah,
Archeleus, Thomas Frazier, David & Rebecca all residence[sic] of
Randolph County be and they are hereby changed and the said Travis
and Elizabeth shall be known by the name of Travis and Elizabeth
Emery and their said children.” It was a little less than 3 years
later when Travis requested a transfer of membership for his family
to Vermillion Monthly Meeting in Illinois. This was actually the
method used by the group of Quakers who were moving from Indiana to
Iowa Territory. So it was the Travis Emery family, later changed to
Emry, who were charter members of Salem Monthly Meeting in Henry
County, the first Quaker Monthly Meeting west of the Mississippi
River. The land patent issued to Travis Emry for 243.26 acres of land
in Henry County was dated 1 Dec 1841. The map shows it was located
about half way between Mt. Pleasant and Salem.
The year before Iowa
became a state in 1846, Elizabeth and her family traveled again,
transferring from Salem Monthly Meeting to Pleasant Plain Monthly
Meeting in Jefferson County, Iowa. Travis received land patents in
Jefferson County: 40 acres in 1847, 80 acres and 40 acres in 1848,
for a total of 160 acres.
Elizabeth's
traveling days seem to be over after she arrived in Jefferson County.
She can be found on the 1850 census at age 55 in Penn township with
her husband (indexed by Ancestry.com as Fravais Emery) and the 4
younger children. Her son James was living next door with his family,
so she would have been able to visit those 4 grandchildren quite
frequently. By 1860 she and Travis are “empty-nesters” but their
youngest son David and his family are next door. Elizabeth was
widowed 31 Jan 1866 when Travis died and was buried at the Walnut
Creek Friends Cemetery in Penn Township there in Jefferson County. In
1870, at age 75, she was living with her son David and his wife and
8 children. It was the next year when Elizabeth died on 23 Jul 1871
and was buried in the same cemetery as her husband.
I have enjoyed
following the travels of Elizabeth and her family from North Carolina
to Ohio, then Indiana and finally to Iowa, with her name as Frazier,
then Adcock and ending as Emry
