Abraham Maple 1830-1907
2010
We came to know Abraham Maple during our quest to find the parentage of our ancestor Timothy Watrous. Timothy Watrous had two sons from his marriage to Mabel Rowley. They were Samuel and William. Timothy had one son from his marriage to Mabel’s sister Mary Rowley. He was our direct ancestor Jerome Timothy Watrous. Louisa Watrous was the daughter of Samuel Watrous and his wife Julia Ann Palmer. She married Abraham Maple in 1850. Abraham came to Illinois from Ohio with his parents at the age of two. He was the oldest of two siblings born to his parents.
Abraham and Louisa Watrous became the parents of six children. Two died as infants and four lived to adulthood. Those who lived have posterity to the present day. Abraham enlisted in the Union Army in 1865 and served for one year during the Civil War. He also lived many years in Missouri but moved back to Illinois after he lost his crops to grasshoppers and became discouraged. The town of Mapleton is named for him and is still occupied by many of his descendants. Abraham was a member of the Grand Old Republic (GAR), was a Mason for 50 years and a member of the Baptist Church for 60 years.
After Louisa Watrous Maple’s death in 1873 at her daughter’s home in Bates, Missouri, Abraham married Lydia Jane Batton. They married after 1873 and before 1879. She brought a son to the marriage and also became the mother of seven children with Abraham. For many years, Abraham owned and operated a grist mill in Mapleton, Peoria County, Illinois.
The migration of Abraham Maple
Ohio to Illinois to Missouri to Illinois