Mary Rowley Watrous Richardson 1785-1822
2010
Mary Rowley is our direct ancestor. She was the fifth child of six born to her parents Jesse Rowley and Bathsheba. Nothing is known about Mary’s childhood except that her father took his own life in 1810 and her younger sister Mabel died sometime before 1816. In about 1816, Mary Rowley married her deceased sister Mabel’s husband Timothy Watrous. She cared for his two sons William and Samuel who were her nephews and her step-sons in this arrangement. She migrated with Timothy, his children and many others including many members of the Richardson family from Connecticut to what would become Monroe Township, Muskingum County, Ohio. There, her husband bought land and prepared to make a home. By the next year of 1817, Mary was expecting a child.
In March of 1818, Timothy Watrous unexpectedly died. Two months later Mary gave birth to a son. Jerome Timothy Watrous is our direct ancestor. In 1820, Mary married a man with whom they had migrated. He was Rufus Richardson. Rufus and Mary cared for William, Samuel and Jerome Watrous and added to their family a daughter Olivia in 1820 and another daughter, Julia in 1822. It was upon the birth of Julia in 1822 that Mary Rowley Watrous Richardson died. She was buried on the Richardson Family Farm in a private graveyard. It is located in Monroe Township in Muskingum County, Ohio. William and Samuel Watrous were old enough to be on their own. Jerome was only eight. His step-father Rufus remarried. Her name was Jemima Gittings. She did not want to raise Jerome but we must assume that she and Rufus did raise his daughters Olivia and Julia. Olivia grew to adulthood but Julia died at the age of four and is buried in the same graveyard as her mother.
Our ancestor, Mary’s son Jerome was sent to live with Benjamin Gittings. His sister was the new wife of Rufus Richardson. His summary on this site provides interesting information about his life.
Things come full circle. With the passage of time, our ancestor grew to adulthood. When he was newly married, he and his step-father Rufus Richardson and his family with Jemima Gittings and Benjamin Gittings, Jemima’s brother along with his family, left Ohio for Illinois. They settled in towns in both Hancock and Henderson Counties which bordered each other. They were LaHarpe and Terre Haute. Eventually, Jerome Timothy Watrous’ daughter married a descendant of Benjamin Gittings.